The Las Noches dome was quite literally the size of a small city and almost two miles high at its peak, built to resemble Earth's sky during the daylight hours-a god-like act used by Aizen to demonstrate his mind and power, bringing sunlight where only the moon rules and letting only special chosen admire it. Here, the white sand almost shined and was warm to the touch on the surface even though it was no different from the cooler expanse that lay outside the walls, stretching into oblivion. Erin was enjoying the tingle in her toes as Ulquiorra led her into the center, far from all the constructs and halls and walkways that lined the outer edges, readying to test her basic capabilities in a controlled manner that doesn't involve compromising his personal safety.

But Erin was hungry and a little fruity in her loop and she tried to explain, but for some reason her Espada partner was being even more of a jerk than he had been, blatantly ignoring her in favor of his own thoughts. The only thing he said to her after they left his room was, "Stay here," when they reached his preferred training area while he walked a little ways further before facing her.

The Adjucha was pondering reasons for his relapse and thought it maybe had to do with his nightmare and the following discussion, but he wouldn't answer any of her questions so she couldn't say for certain and with only his back as a clue, she couldn't watch his face for those little indicating flickers she sometimes caught with her sharp gaze. "So what first, chief?" she called, hoping to get something from him.

"Basic combat," he answered her immediately; Erin's tail tip swished in the sand contently. "We will begin with the most basic of Hollow offensive capabilities. Show me your cerro."

Erin hesitated. "M-my cerro?"

"Yes," he said loudly, his patience already growing thin; today was not one of his better days. "I will judge your power by how much damage it does to me. Now use it."

"I," she drawled, turning her head away and wrapping her tail around her feet, "uh... I don't have a cerro... at least not my own cerro..."

This he doubted highly. "What do you mean, Adjucha?"

Embarrassed at her shortcoming, Erin hunched up, tail wound around her ankles like a belt, her tone pouty. "If I knew why, I would tell you. But in all my fighting and internal exploring, I've discovered that I have no basic Hollow techniques except heirro and pesquisa. I don't have a normal cerro or a bala. There's cerro mas which you've felt first hand, and my other powers, but nothing like what you can do."

Surely she must be joking? "I do not appreciate being lied to, Adjucha."

"I swear I'm not lying!" she insisted, leaping into a half-fighting position as her temper flared. "I've tried and tried but I can only use reflexion techniques. You want a cerro you have to hit me with one first."

That had to be impossible. Every Hollow had the basic arsenal, and some developed certain abilities unique unto themselves yes, but he had never come across any that didn't have them. "You are Hollow," he stated, now more confused than ever before, which he did not like at all. "You should be able to."

"If I could I would, Ulquiorra. Believe me."

Well, there was one way to be sure. "Fine then. Spar with me and show me what you can do, Adjucha."

"My name is Erin, dammit," she barked just before he disappeared from view. "Fuck." Slow to respond, Erin's pesquisa network didn't have time to spread out from her basic level of awareness and so when she did find him, Ulquiorra was directly above her head, his index finger pointed straight at her as a green light built; she felt like she was staring down the barrel of a rifle.

The teal cerro fired point-blank and kicked up a large cloud of dust which covered his midair summersault before he landed some feet behind her and turned, waiting to see the result of his surpise attack.

Amid the dirty puff of sand, Erin stood frozen with adrenaline-induced panic, her wings stretched into an odd angle over her head, having been used to block the beam before it could hit the most vulnerable part of her whole body other than the circular spheres on her joints. Pissed, she turned, folding her wings back into place as an angry tune began to curl through her mind, getting her pumped as she found her partner just watching, analyzing. "You are a massive asshole, you know that?"

"It is not the first time I've been called that."

"Figured not." Crouching, she began to circle, her tail writhing spastically.

Ulquiorra noted this, knowing personally how handy and aggrivating an extra prehensile appendage can be, slowly turning to follow her. Her hierro was clearly very strong to have resisted such a close-range blast from his own cerro, and she was still only an Adjucha so she was evidently very sturdy.

Watching her was becoming a bad idea as her glistening skin was distracting him again, for some reason, but he knew it would be folly to take his eyes off of her for even a second. Suddenly, she feinted left and he followed just as she rebounded into the air, talons spread as she attempted to jump him, which, of course, would never work; he dodged backwards.

Just as she planned. Erin landed with a deceptively heavy thud before her long, flexible tail arched over her back and came straight for him, which he'd been expecting at some point. Using the reishi-floating technique to change direction midair, he just avoided what may have been a lethal shot, the boney, solid arrow of her tail punching into the sand deeply before retreated and shooting out again and again as he sonidoed around her, noting the devastating force behind the simple attack and wondering if she'd noticed it wasn't going to work as it was too slow to do anything to him.

As she wasn't stupid, Erin knew immediately her scorpion-like attack would only keep him bouncing around but she could unleash it instinctively while she focused on making a fun little treat for him. Ulquiorra was unaware of her plan until he noticed how she was perfectly still except for her tail, and having seen how frozen she became when planning something, he threw his pesquisa out and realized with a start that just below him on his left was a nasty little surprise; Erin felt the counter-proding in her own focus and released her hold on the boom bubble, feeling it connect as Cuatro leaped to the side, the violent tornado only serving to slash his clothes up on that side as she didn't make it as dense as before; she wasn't out to kill him.

While off-kilter from that little spook, Ulquiorra's focus wavered so that when his fraccion took her chance, he found himself plastered against her head as she rammed into him, barreling him into the sand; only his reflexes saved him, his forearm serving as a shield between his body and her hard head, their gazes locked-which he was only sure of by noting the familiar feeling of meeting another's eyes despite hers being ususually empty; another enigma.

"You lack hesitation. That is good," he remarked, feeling her weight baring down on him until his arm began to quiver while meeting that force.

"Thanks," she huffed, grinning even though he couldn't see it. "You've got good reflexes. I haven't met anyone as fast as me before."

"Nor I," Cuatro admitted, knowing it was due to her as it was true. He specialized in speed to deliver devastating attacks, usually so swiftly his opponents were unable to counteract him. Not Erin. The challenge was enticing.

Her tail slipped under her legs and coiled around his body by burrowing into the sand, binding his other arm to his side, which he was unable to do anything about while so focused on not being crushed. Squeezing tightly, she lept upward, her wings making a sharp crack in the air as she careened straight up, the sound sending a hard jolt through his body as he felt the weightless sensastion he-again, in his own way-missed. The sparkling was shaking his focus again and so he hesitated one second too long as she reached the peak of her climb and immediately arced downward, wings flattened into her sides, dragging him along behind as they plummeted even faster than they climbed, heading straight for the ground.

With a decisive twist, Erin rolled forward just as the ground was within range, which slammed her captive right into the sand while she beat her wings once and touched down, wondering if maybe that was too much. Ulquiorra was decked in a crater, unmoving, his bright eyes closed; she approached, not sensing anything from him and worried she may have killed him accidently.

Suddenly, as she sniffed him, his power spiked and his eyes flew open, his hand grabbing onto the little ridge of her nose and causing her to freeze without warning, pushing upward and twisting so that he essentially judo-threw her onto her back, hearing her cough as she was laid out similarly to how he was. "You crafty bastard, how'd you do that?" she gasped, her wind knocked out.

"As Grimmjow has so frequently said," he told her, wondering why he was making such a stupid remark and ignoring her question, "payback is a bitch."

Erin laughed.

Ulquiorra's mouth twitched open a bit. He wasn't used to laughter. Was he being funny?

Erin's anger had abated quickly, her moods as ever-changing as the wind, and turned to amusment and joy now that she had someone she could fight with on equal grounds. Someone she didn't want to eat, though food was sounding really good right then. None of the other Hollows she'd come across even remotely tested her, hardly made her do anything, and her only form of entertainment quickly became dull as her power continued to grow. Well, not any more. Since they weren't actually out to kill each other, she could actually have some fun with him.

Ulquiorra felt her reiatsu coalesce just beside his head and for a heartbeat, he thought she was making a dumb move trying to form one of her little balls of fun so obviously close to him, but the density didn't get anywhere near dangerous levels before it popped with a quiet poof sound, doing little more than ruffle his hair and cause a slight bit of an annoying sensation on his skin. He wanted to ask what she was doing when another formed with surprising speed right in front of his nose, propmting him to take and instinctive step backward before it went off; suddenly, they were being made and released in rapid succession at different points around him, although they were only really just harmless little bubbles that were annoying for their sheer numbers, not their power-which fluctuated between one and the next. A particularly dense one actually cut his cheek, but as he wiped the blood away it healed, leaving his skin as flawless as when they had begun.

Erin was able to make these little pockets with alarming speed, as they didn't require as much focus as the normal ones did. This she knew quite well, though not necessarily the function they were serving. They were mostly just entertaining to her since he was busy trying to get away from them, his movements becoming slower and slower, though he didn't seem tired.

Volitile was a good term for the nature of Erin's reiatsu, but it wasn't the only thing it was capable of. It had a naturally high spirit density to it and was in rather plain terms... sticky. The little bubbles were actually gluing her spirit pressure to his, creating an unfamiliar and intangible weight in his body that was becoming annoying and detrimental to his advantage. Speed was the key to his technique like devastating strength was to Yammy's and Grimmjow's; without it, he was the equivalent to a sitting duck. As much so as he can be.

Erin noticed this and wondered if it was another trick, but even if it was, she was prepared to get around it, laying her lower body into the sand and stretching both her neck and her wings out. With her focus switched, she couldn't make the bubbles anymore, but she'd moved him right into the line of fire, pulling her energy onto her head like she did before, forming the floating arrow that was her signature move. Not that she realized it, but her spread wings were also sparkling like the rest of her body, and holding them out for balance served to create a massive distraction, as the shining was amplified, immobilizing the unsuspecting Arrancar; this she noticed as she was expecting him to dodge or move around or even prepare himself for the attack, but he only stood there transfixed, as if he were lost in thoughts.

Her wings snapped back, dropping the distracting curtain just as she fired, restoring his senses just in time for his hand to come up and block the attack, losing yet another jacket to her onslaught, not that he really cared about that.

They both remained still, waiting to see if either were willing to continue; Ulquiorra lifted his arm; Erin braced, ready to charge forward; he held his hand up and said, "That is enough for now," and she stopped, flopping onto her haunches, head tilted.

"Already? I was having fun."

His brows drew together slightly while his arm lowered, the feeling returning as her reiatsu began to evaporate at last. "I grow tired of this," he lied, not wanting to accept his weakened ability to fight nor try to ignore it.

"Oh," she huffed, tail flopping into the sand. "Well... did I do well?"

"This was not a test," he said, pocketing his hands and clenching his fists; a habit he had when under duress. "But," Cuatro then went on, as it was not in his nature to belittle the worthy, "you are very strong. As I previously surmised. I've also analyzed your..."

Damn that sparkling.

"Ulqu, you're zoning on me again," Erin murmured, waving her tail in front of his face.

Coming out of it with a jolt, he turned from her so that the distracting shimmer wouldn't get him again. "My point," he grunted. "The sparkling on your body appears to be some kind of glamour that neutralizes your opponent's ability to think or comprehend their environment. Quite effective but massively detrimental to your allies."

"Well, it's not like I can turn it off," she countered, frowning at his mood (?) and coming up behind him to put her face over his shoulder. "Be lovely if I could, but I can't."

He grunted, glancing at her masked face-the only part of her that didn't shine like a discoball.

"By the way, I'm starving."

His lips pursed slightly.

"Don't look at me that way. Fighting makes me hungry." That was only half-true, but true nonetheless.

The odd duo were taking an exit to a shortcut nearby by cutting across the dome's walkways when a sudden blanket of spirit pressure stopped them both. Up above was Grimmjow, all patched up and looking pissed as hell. Ulquiorra tsked and commented, being careful not to put her in his sights, "Szayelaporro does his job well."

"Who?" Erin responded, leaking her pressure and creating a wall in front of them as Grimmjow took off at them like a bottle rocket, nonethewiser.

"Octavo," he answered, completely ignoring Sexta. "The one I warned you about."

"Oh."

"DON'T YOU FUCKING IGNORE ME!" Grimmjow hollered, reappearing just in front of them.

Then suddenly: crack.

The big, blue lummox collided headfirst with Erin's little wall and knocked himself cold, falling still on the walkway in front of them as they continued their casual conversation, mocking his brash behavior with it.

"Maybe you should run down the list and give me a heads up before I get involved with someone I shouldn't."

"Maybe I shall."

They walked around the Arrancar and continued their witty banter-if that's what you could call it-nearly halfway across when he came to and realized he'd been duped again. Now beyond enraged, he lept up, ignoring the massive headache he had, and screamed, his spirit pressure skyrocketing and hitting the pair with enough force for them to be concerned. Whirling, Grimmjow yanked his electric blue zanpakuto from its sheath and lay his hand on the flat side of it, fingers curled like claws as he shrieked, "I'M SICK OF BEING IGNORED BY YOU, YOU STUPID BITCH. STOP LOOKING DOWN ON ME. I AM NOT WEAK."

Thinking he'd have to step in again, Ulquiorra moved between them and touched the hilt of his own sword warningly, spekaing carefully, "Grimmjow, you know the Espada ranked fourth and higher cannot release their zanpakuto within the walls of Las Noches without due cause. Do not give me cause."

Grimmjow's eyes widened slightly. "Stay the fuck outta this, Cuatro! I told you I'm not interested at you, it's the lizard with wings I've got a beef with."

Erin bristled and stomped forward, pushing Ulquiorra back with her wings and lowering her head, snorting. "I will tell you only once," she commanded, her voice ringing with a strange amount of authority that seemed somehow to beat physically into Sexta with each word, her power leaking out. "I am not a lizard. I am a DRAGON!"

Then, with as much warning as a car crash, she twisted and knocked Ulquiorra's feet out from under him, rolling him onto her shoulders and diving from the walkway, feeling him instinctively buckle down, pressing himself against her neck as she looped upward and stationed herself midair over the bewildered Espada on the walkway below. Taking a deep breath, she opened her jaws a let loose an ear-shattering roar laced with her reiatsu that not only stunned Grimmjow, but it completely obliterated the walkway below him, sending him crashing into the ground far below.

Satisfied with her work, Erin zipped her pressure up and circled, her wings beating powerfully, cutting through the air like a knife. "Alright, there's an airborn exit around here, right? I don't feel like landing."

"Yes," Ulquiorra said, more than a little breathless. "Ahead."

"Sweet."

He stayed silent as they flew, oblivious to how ridiculous it must look for an Arrancar to be flying on a Hollow because he was so distracted-not by her sparkling for once-by the sensation of flying. Oh, how long had it been since he'd be able to stretch his own wings? Far too long. As he'd stated before, Espada's Uno, Dos, Tres and Cuatro were not allowed to release within Las Noches, and preferably not in the dome either, as their dense spirit pressures could very easily destroy the fortress in its entirety. He also didn't have the ability to release while on missions, as everyone would know about his habit, since that information would be privvy to all those present at the time; time for himself, while abundant, usually restricted him to the fortress, and the intervals when Aizen was gone were a thing of the past now that his cover had been blown, so escaping for those short times would happen probably never.

He would have to enjoy this half-flying while it lasted.

And he did.

The rest of the day was spent on the hunt with Ulquiorra maintaining a specific vantage point that allowed him to track her by her spirit pressure only, as he was no longer terribly interested in tailing her like a shadow when he could use the time to mull over her strangeness and the effect it was having on his own being. Setting his senses on the back burner, he turned inward, running through his observations in rapid succession, trying to solve the enigma that was Erin-an act that proved more difficult than it should have been.

Once her belly was full yet again, Erin trotted back toward where she could see her Espada, content as a kitten in a window sill. Then, quite suddenly, her body buckled under the weight of a massive surge of power that was right on the verge of painful; a surge that actually almost knocked Ulquiorra out of the sky when he registered it. Without hesitation, he appeared next to Erin as the surge faded, watching her pick herself up from the ground and noting how she seemed to be laggy and exhausted.

"Adjucha," he started, wondering what that could have been, "what's wrong with you?"

"I," Erin panted, legs quivering; she felt nauseous, "I don't... know... Ulqu, I don't feel well..."

"Hollows do not get sick."

She screamed, "Well I feel sick!" before lowering her head, confused. "Ah... sorry... I don't... know where that... come from... ugh..." She dropped to her knees.

He knelt, laying his hand on her nose because it always seemed to clam her down. "The Hollow you devoured, did it have any unusual abilities?"

She thought a second. "Come to think of it... it did use corrosive acid."

"Then that is why. The acid is making you ill. Now get up."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you."