White. The first thing I saw when I woke was white. Meaning I wasn't dead.
"What… Where..?" I asked aloud, attempting to sit up before gritting my teeth in agony. Looking down at myself, I saw that I had been bandaged up. Was I in a hospital?
Looking around, I could only see the white walls of the room I was in and a wide open window. I tried to sit up again, and saw a table next to me. On it rested my clothes and…
The white spike.
"What's this doing here?" I asked myself, reaching over and picking it up. Looking over it, I had noticed a few changes to it. Now it had a proper grip of sorts. The middle was bound by red leather and held in place by fat copper bands.
I heard the door creak open as a brown haired woman entered the room. She was quite tall, dressed in a white nurse's gown. What was strange about her was that the top half her face was covered in a white mask similar to that of the monsters he'd seen.
"Please put that down. You're hardly in any shape to be moving, let alone fighting." The nurse said in a detached voice.
I reluctantly set my weapon down as the nurse set about her business. When she left, I lay back down and stared at the ceiling. It was all I could do.
"Hey. You." said a voice to my side. Rolling over, I saw another one of those half-masked people standing beside my bed. This one had blonde hair, and some kind of weird sword with a big hollow circle in the middle of the blade strapped to his waist.
"Who are you?" I croaked
"Tesra Lindocruz. What I want to know is what a lowly human like you is doing here."
"What? You're implying that you're not human?" I asked
"No. I am not what you would call 'human'. I am an Arrancar. One of the strongest types of hollow. Those monsters that have been trying to eat you." He said in a detached voice.
"Those monsters… are called hollows? And you're…" I coughed "You're one of them?"
"Do not liken me to such lowly creatures. Arrancars are far superior to lesser hollows in every way. It also seems that one such aspect is pity." He said, prodding one of my arms, causing pain to shoot up to my shoulder
"So that's the only reason I'm still alive?"
"Barely, but yes." Tesla snorted
"Hey! Tesla! Where the hell are ya?!" shouted a new voice from the corridors
"Master Nnoritora!" saluted Tesla as a huge thin man with long black hair waltzed in, holding some kind of huge weapon over his shoulder
"Where have you been? I told you to make my dinner an hour ago!"
"I apologize Master, but I have been busy interrogating this human." He said, pointing to me. The huge man looked over to me and grinned. Grabbing my forehead, he yanked me off the bed and dangled me in the air by my head.
"Why the hell are you here, you little shit? Humans don't belong here. Here, humans are food."
The tall man looked at me with his one eye in contempt
"Well Tesla, I don't think you need to make me dinner after all." He grinned
"Nnoitra." said a new, calm voice "Put him down."
The tall man turned to look at the new arrival, as did I, but I couldn't really see her
"Why the hell should I listen to you?" the tall man growled
"Because Tesra has already prepared your meal. If you don't eat it, Aaroniero is."
"What? Ah crap! That'll be the third time this week! Come on Tesra!" shouted Nnoitra, dropping me back onto the bed. After the door slammed shut, I finally saw who had saved me.
A woman, most of her face concealed by her blindingly white jacket, stepped over to my bed. She glanced over me with jade like eyes and brushed an errant strand of blonde hair out of her face
"Are you alright?"
"I think so." I groaned
"Good." She said, looking over to the door "I suppose you are confused as to what that was all about."
I nodded, wondering what the freaky tall man would have done to me if she hadn't rescued me
"Nnoitra is as aggressive as they come around here. You'll adjust."
"I guess he sure won't." I joked
"You may not find Las Noches to be hospitable." she said, ignoring my comment "But it is safer for you to be here than out in the rest of Hueco Mundo."
"Las Noches? Is that where we are?" I asked
"Yes. Here I will keep you. You may not like it, but it is a better existence than what is waiting for you out there."
I shifted my head and looked out the window, seeing the grey sand and starless sky. It never moved like a normal desert. It just stayed there, like a painting.
The woman began leave, but as she got to the door I asked her "Wait, who are you?"
The woman turned around and spoke very clearly, as if she wanted me to remember every word. "I am Tier Harribell. The third Espada, and your mistress."