Grimmjow directed Ichigo to pull the car onto the road, leaving the other rental car cocked to the side near the shoulder. For a few moments no one spoke except Grimmjow, punctuating his commands to simply follow the road with jabs of the gun barrel against Ichigo's shoulder.
Rukia sat speechless beside the agent, her face stark white when he occasionally turned the gun in her direction. Ahead of them the mountains bordering on Germany could be seen, a few of the peaks rising ominously closer above the broadleaf trees to the east.
"Turn here," Grimmjow said as a secondary dirt road opened to the side.
Ichigo turned the car onto the less traveled road that sunk into a more heavily treed region that eclipsed the view of the mountains. After another mile of silence a field of low cropped wheat opened to the left, a little used two track for farm equipment serving as an entry.
"Make a turn here," Grimmjow said, nudging the gun into the back of Ichigo's head.
In the opening squatted an early model black Huey helicopter, minimally equipped and without armaments, its black paint peeling in spots. Above it the blades whirred on low, inside the middle-aged, infrequently deployed D5 pilot sat in the cockpit, waiting.
Ichigo bristled at the sight of the aircraft, four years of his past catching up with him. "Damn. What the hell's going on?"
"Park here and cut the engine," Grimmjow said, his hand closing vice-like around Rukia's arm until she yelped in pain. "Throw the keys out the window."
Ichigo scowled and stopped the car and shut off the engine, tossing the keys onto the ground outside the open window. "What the --"
Grimmjow cuffed the back of his head with the butt of the gun and opened the back door. He got out and yanked Rukia with him, angling the gun at Ichigo. "Out now!"
A moment later Rukia found herself manhandled across the field and shoved into the wide open loading door of the helicopter, the strap of her purse over her shoulder and neck, the purse itself clutched in her shaking hands as she stumbled into the waist high cargo area. She fell to her knees inside and Grimmjow pushed her brusquely in farther and nodded to Ichigo.
"You, too!" he yelled over the noise of the blades.
Ichigo climbed into the helicopter, noting the bay area and sides stripped of any equipment and standard insulation. He looked to Grimmjow with new interest before glancing at the pilot, whose heavy earphones were what he knew to be standard military issue, the man's eyes shielded by sunglasses, but on Grimmjow.
Grimmjow made a circular motion to the pilot, and the noise of the blades increased voluminously, lifting the Huey from the field in a cloud of dust and loose grain.
"What the hell do you people want?!" Ichigo demanded as Grimmjow looked between him and Rukia. He reached to pull her small form closer, but the agent knocked his arm away from her, making her cringe to the side, her hand braced against the vibrating metal.
"I'll ask the questions!" Grimmjow called over the noise, gun at his side but pointing to Ichigo. "Who's got the rocks?"
Ichigo's hand tightened on the static line rail overhead as the aircraft made a sudden rise to clear the trees below. "That's what this is about?"
Grimmjow turned the gun on Rukia, cocking it, the click making her press her back to the shaking side of the Huey. "You got them?"
"I do!" Ichigo told him, hand reaching for her trembling one at her purse.
Grimmjow lowered the gun a little. "Then we don't need her."
In a flash he put a hand to Rukia's shoulder and shoved her out the loading door.
She screamed, arms flailing as she tumbled out, her hip bouncing off the floor edge, her hands clasping at the skid. She clung to it desperately, arms hitching her up for a better hold as the purse twisted wildly to her side in the wind.
Ichigo made a lunge for her as she was pushed out, but Grimmjow stuck the gun to his head.
"Pull her in!" Ichigo shouted above the noise of the blades and Rukia's scream that had turned into a gasping sound.
"I'm not here for her." Grimmjow took a step closer to the door and pointed the gun at Rukia's wide-eyed face. Ichigo tackled him, forcing the larger man into the back of the passenger seat behind him, the arm with the gun over his head, a shot erupting in the small aircraft.
The pilot made a lurching movement as the bullet entered his skull behind his ear, flopping onto the controls. The Huey made a skewed lean, sending it nose down and angled toward the mountains ahead, forcing a louder scream from Rukia as her hold loosened on the skid. Her eyes were on the countryside far below, her arms locked around the landing gear in an aching hold.
Ichigo twisted Grimmjow's arm over his head, shoving his other elbow up into the man's throat before feeling a large fist slammed below his ribcage and another across his mouth. Ichigo grunted at the impact, but returned a punch of his own just below Grimmjow's sternum, followed by another.
The agent doubled over, giving Ichigo the opportunity to win the gun. Ichigo stepped back as the other man folded, but remained on his feet. He held the gun a foot from Grimmjow's face and eased to the door, eyes flicking to Rukia's loosening hold on the skid.
He knelt at the opening, back braced against the side edge, hand reaching for hers. "Come on, Rukia! Reach up!" He looked back to Grimmjow. "Don't move, you bastard!"
Grimmjow glared back at him, movements stilling.
Rukia pried one hand from the skid and lifted it to Ichigo, the wind flinging her words and cries away as she tried to utter them. His hand gripped her wrist tightly and he pulled her up in one quick movement.
She scrambled into the cargo area, clawing to the side of the craft, huddling against the metal, panting as her arms closed over her stomach, eyes wide on the men.
"Are you all right?" Ichigo asked over the noise.
"No!"
Grimmjow made a lunge at the controls as the pilot's body fell to one side against them, sending the Huey into a sudden swerve that put them on line with the approaching mountain side ahead. Ichigo grabbed the back of the agent's jacket and threw him the opposite wall, the gun to his forehead.
"Who are you with?!"
Grimmjow's eyes narrowed on him. "Go to hell!"
Ichigo spared a glance to the windshield to see the mountain nearing ahead of them. He looked around at the floor of the small craft, spying two bundles of parachutes strapped to the floorboard. He stepped closer to one and kicked it looser from its anchor bolt.
"Rukia, put that 'chute on." He looked back to Grimmjow. "One more time! Who do you work for?"
Rukia reached hesitantly for the parachute bundle, pulling it completely free of its snaffle. She turned it over a few times, shaking her head in confusion and ignorance.
Grimmjow cocked his head to one side as Ichigo pressed the gun barrel to his forehead harder. Ichigo gripped the agent's jacket collar and flipped it over to expose a D5 badge pinned beneath.
He frowned in growing recognition. "Division Five," he mumbled, his voice lost in the propeller noise.
"I can't use this, Ichigo," Rukia said from his side.
"Put it on!" Ichigo's glare turned back to Grimmjow. "You're all a bunch of lousy bastards," he said loud enough to be heard. "Every single one of you."
Grimmjow stood to his full height. "You're going down, Kurosaki."
Ichigo looked to the mountain before the Huey and stepped away from the agent. He pulled Rukia to her unsteady feet and made her grip the gun. "Hold this on him and don't be afraid of shooting!"
Rukia aimed the gun shakily at Grimmjow as Ichigo expertly strapped the parachute to her back, anchoring the purse beneath the waist straps and making quick work of the straddle straps below her skirt.
"You'll have to jump," he said close to her ear, his hands snugging the spring buckles across her chest. "Keep your feet and knees together. Let your knees take the landing."
"What?! I don't know how to do this!" The gun trembled violently in her hand, making Grimmjow take a step back at her aim.
"You'll have to!" Ichigo hooked the static line from the parachute to the overhead pull rail. He took the gun from her. "Jump!"
"No!"
Grimmjow dodged to the cockpit, pulling the pilot's body away, eyes darting over the controls.
Ichigo turned the gun on Grimmjow as the agent made a desperate pull at the controls as a mountain loomed ahead of them. He looked back to her. "Jump, Rukia!"
She shook her head, illegible words stammering out as he pushed her to the loading door edge. "No!"
He shoved her out, her scream dying on her lips. He sidestepped the static line as it slapped around the open doorway. A second later it tightened and he watched Rukia's small form lurch to a stop midair, her parachute pulling, blooming out behind her as she was lifted back up twenty feet.
He turned back to see Grimmjow pulling at the steering column, and then grabbed the remaining parachute from its anchor bolt on the floor.
* * *
Rukia's screams met dead air on the way down, her lungs wasting her gasps and curses in soundless efforts that left her nearly choking on oxygen-spent exertion. The static line pulled above her from the helicopter before snapping loose, jolting her back up as the parachute opened above her.
Below her she watched the swirling grain fields bounce away from her as her body was pulled up again, only to have the fields enlarge once again as she descended more slowly into a treed area. This time the drop was more serene, the noise of the helicopter fading, her speed retarded by the parachute. For a few brief moments it was surreally silent.
But then the treetops came up fast, too fast, growing in large green shapes until she crashed into them, all of Ichigo's instruction on how to land lost as she made a tangled, clumsy entry into branches, leaves, and snapping twigs.
Scratches ran up her arms as she plummeted into the tree, leaves crossing angrily at her cheeks until her arms flung up over her face out of self-preservation. Suddenly she came to a stop, the straddle straps between her legs making her ripped skirt bunch up in a painful halt that knocked out what little breath she had left, startling birds in the limbs around her.
For a stunned moment she tried to force herself into breathing again, dangling in the late afternoon sun by the parachute cords like an absurd puppet, swinging for a moment before flailing aimlessly to free herself.
"Ichigo!" she screamed, looking up at the encompassing canopy of treetops overhead, her tone incensed with the last of her strength. "Ichigo! Damn you!"
She fought the cords for a while, succeeding only in tiring herself and becoming more tangled among the branches and leaves.
A shocking roar of collision suddenly ripped through the air as the helicopter smashed into the mountain side, scaring every bird and insect into screeches that hadn't already left the trees at Rukia's entry.
She looked in the direction of the sound of the terrible noise, hands stilling on straps at her shoulders. "Oh, no ... Ichigo..."
A billow of white and gray smoke bubbled into her limited view among the treetops, the smell of fire growing with the wind. She looked back to the shoulder straps, trying to unfasten the clasps, her fingers numb and her vision growing bleary as tears lent her eyes. She sniffed, casting her gaze skyward again.
"Ichigo..."
* * *
Two miles down the road, in two different directions, two rental cars came to screeching stops a mile from the mountain crash. In one Esparo was gawking at the smoke coming from the side of the mountain halfway up the slope.
"Damn," he said, pulling the car to the side of the road at a crop field lined with trees. He looked down at his handheld radio as Aizen's tone came over it.
"Grimmjow! Grimmjow!" Aizen's voice was livid.
Esparo picked up his own radio, eyes going back to the mountain. "Damn, did you see that, Aizen?"
"I saw it," Aizen responded.
"There was a parachute before impact," Esparo said, watching the smoke being carried away by a higher draft.
A moment of dead air, and then Aizen said: "I don't think it was Grimmjow. Get me a ground crew from the nearest source and a medic unit. Now we've got our grounds, Esparo. Meet you at the collision site."
Esparo nodded. "Will do."