^.^ Before I start the chapter, I'd like to thank Bladre MKT, Divine Wind Storm, X-Whitemagic58-X, Sakura Otome, Inuyoshie and HanakoAnimeaddict for their continued support. *strikes a pose* I will try not to fail you all~!
Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo, meaning it does not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Bleach storyline (such as Aporro [in character, not name] and Vicenta Acere) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
Vaida chewed on her white bone fingernail claw, watching the flat stretch of sand that stretched over the underground complex that the Arrancar lived in. She didn't want to get too close in case she was seen, but she had excellent eyesight.
The young Vasto Lorde had perched herself on top of a sand dune some three miles away, but saw every detail of where the compound was hidden as if she weren't thirty feet away.
Pausing in her nail/claw biting, Vaida scratched the bone gauntlets that ran along the backs of her arms up to her elbows out of nervous habit, the bone against bone making a slightly annoying yet oddly comforting sound.
At each rasp that grated on her nerves, though, the wings on her back twitched. Like a bat's wing, hers had individual digits, and even hooked little thumbs. The patagium, though, the thin skin membrane that was supposed to exist between the digits and allow flight, was missing, leaving the bony fingers of the wings to clack together like wooden wind chimes.
The young Vasto Lorde wasn't sure what exactly she was waiting for, but she felt like she had to do something…
Something other than flit around Gillo's territory, that was.
Vaida pouted, "Stupid, stubborn old jerk…"
Much as she didn't want to admit it (and wouldn't, not even to herself) what Gillo had said about her annoying him with her presence had… hurt…
Vaida was, by the standards of Hollows, young. She was also extremely weak for her level; she didn't have any followers, let alone her own territory. Because of this, most of her time in her earliest days as a Vasto Lorde had been spent darting from one Vasto Lorde's territory to the next, picking off food where she could find it and fleeing before she was caught and had the tar kicked out of her.
…It had been in the territory of another Vasto Lorde named Marccia Bones that she'd screwed up.
Marccia had let her get away alive, but not before screwing her body over royally and leaving Vaida grievously injured…
Vaida had then stumbled into the territory next to Marccia's; Gillo's territory.
And Gillo… he'd… he'd saved her…
…After that, Vaida had stuck to living in his territory. And Gillo, apparently, had never really minded.
…She guessed that was why it had made her chest sting so much when he'd said what he had.
She'd had to get out of his territory and find something else to do, and now she was here…
Vaida stopped scratching at her bone gauntlets (like Gillo always snapped at her to do whenever she'd been around him and had slipped into the tic) and rubbed her bare feet over one another, chewing at her lip.
She wasn't getting any reiatsu readings, but she was almost one hundred percent positive that the area three miles in front of her was where the Broken One's hideout was; she could feel traces of their reiryoku in the sand and if she smelled long and deep she could even scent out old traces of their mutant blood…
And since all of the other Vasto Lordes were working together, if she could prove her use to them then maybe, maybe Gillo would see how valuable she really was.
If she could get Daramos to praise her, then…
Vaida grinned, rubbing her hands together and cackling to herself, "That'll show that rude old bastard…!!"
Silence.
Settling down and stilling, Vaida shuddered slightly when a passing whirl of wind made goose bumps raise on her legs and back, a fine pelting of sand making her skin feel itchy.
The young Vasto Lorde hugged herself and glared at the spot far in front of her stubbornly.
She would not move… she would not move until she saw something worth reporting.
Then she'd rub it in Gillo's face.
Against her cheek, the small but deep cut his fluctuating reiatsu had made stung smartly.
"Tesla…" Vicenta growled, glaring at her 'parole officer' and clenching her hands at her sides so tightly she nearly broke her handheld, "Get. The fuck. Out of my way."
The former Fraccion sighed heavily but stayed in place, blatantly but silently refusing to acquiesce.
Vicenta's left eye twitched, her hand moving to finger Gavilan Pintado only to twitch and freeze when she remembered her father had confiscated it from her for a week as part of his punishment.
Tesla quirked a brow just as she made the revelation, his own palm stroking the hilt of Verruga. The former Fraccion sighed when, beside Vicenta, Grimmjow chuckled.
"Tesla, please." Vicenta sighed, looking up at him pleadingly, "Without PAPA to act as a router, I have to access each and every one of the camera pods separately in order to reconfigure their flight patterns, and I can't even do that from Meryl. I have to do it from my handheld, which means I need to get outside."
Quite frankly, Tesla found himself not caring too terribly much. The thought of the former Octava being pissed at him was far more terrifying than this girl's whining was endearing, and the thought of punishment aside, Tesla had never failed a mission.
He wasn't about to start purposely failing so Vicenta could check up on some mumbo jumbo technological experiment of hers that he could hardly comprehend the purpose of, much less the internal workings.
Besides, from what he'd seen of the girl's more notorious projects, she was hardy in control of the simpler aspects, and for something as large scale as she was suggesting…
Hell no. Tesla didn't trust her experiments any more than he did her father's.
And from what he'd seen on the screen, her experiment had gone and ticked off some very powerful beings… He wasn't about to let her go topside.
However…
"Pwease, Teswa?" Vicenta whimpered, clasping her hands in front of her face and looking up at him with wide, amber eyes, "Pwetty pwetty pwease wif a Giwwian on top and shinigami in da middle? I pwomise it won't take more than two seconds and I won't go out furder than five feet. And you and Gwimmy will be wif me da whole time! I couldn't be safer!"
Tesla took half a shocked step back and held his hands up as if to shield himself from the cute, his eyes wide and his expression showing he was at a complete and utter loss.
Clearly, he hadn't expected her to resort to such underhanded, human-like tactics…
He didn't know Vicenta very well, Grimmjow thought with a smirk. Which Vicenta may act like a 'lady' and a prude a majority of the time, when it came to her work she wasn't 'above' anything. If she absolutely had to, she'd probably kill for her work.
And compared to that, putting on this little show and pleading was nothing.
"…F-Fine." Tesla muttered, looking away as a dark flush painted his cheekbones, "But you only have two seconds."
Grimmjow's smirk widened as Vicenta squealed and threw herself at Tesla, hugging the prudish former Fraccion. She'd gotten him to cave.
Following as Vicenta took Tesla's hands and pulled him up the stairs and out the protective, multilayered doors that blocked El Sanctuario from the rest of the world outside, Grimmjow watched as his mate continued to weave her deceptive magic and lured the usually adamant blonde Arrancar into breaking and going against the carefully planned out and thoroughly worded rules that Szayel had laid out.
Fuck, she was such a conniving bitch… She'd gotten her drive from her mother, but her subtlety from her father.
Clearly, Szayel and Aporro were a match made in Hell.
And fuckin' a, was the magic that resulted from that match hot.
Vicenta smirked at Grimmjow and Tesla as they set foot on the sand, making Grimmjow give her a feral grin and Tesla flush lightly.
Tesla crossed his arms tightly over his chest as the young female Arrancar turned away from them, grumbling to Grimmjow, "I've been had by your mate, haven't I?"
Grimmjow smirked sharply, crossing his arms over his toned chest and snickering, "She's quite the manipulative brat…"
Tesla sighed, lowering his head and pinching the bridge of his nose, then stiffened, looking up as a gust of wind passed and scenting the air.
The former Sexta quirked a brow at him, then tensed when he caught wind of what Tesla apparently had, as well.
Vicenta followed and jerked more visibly, her head snapping up and towards where Tesla and Grimmjow's eyes had focused.
"Grimmjow… is that…" Vicenta muttered.
"Yeah." Grimmjow growled, his lip curling up into a sneer as he stormed forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her back towards the entrance of The Sanctuary, "Vasto Lorde…"
If they were hoping a quick exit would save their asses, they were dead wrong.
Vaida leaned forward on one knee, bending her other leg and bracing all of her weight on the front of her foot. She wiggled her fingers and stretched her hands out in front of her, her hands burrowing into the sand.
Glowing golden eyes narrowed until the slit pupils were almost nonexistent, and Vaida watched as the three Arrancar fled back inside of their little rat hole.
This was it, this was it, this was it!!
She had a completely confirmed location of the Broken One's front door, and she knew which bitch was controlling the giant black balls!
This information was sure to get Daramos to praise her, and then Gillo would have to acknowledge that she was more than just a burden!
Ha!
This was going to be fantastic!!
Now… if she could only—
"Vaida, what the fuck are you doing?"
The young Vasto Lorde tensed, then slowly looked over her shoulder and up at Gillo, unconsciously swallowing hard.
Gillo stood over her in all of his hulking tall yet lithe glory, grey skin darker than usual at the angle she was looking up at him in and a thick cloth draped heavily around his waist with quite a bit of extra material dragging on the ground.
Vaida swallowed again when she saw the flagella-like growths on his back were whipping irately and that his teeth had extended well past his lower and upper lips, the skin on his face tight and giving him a terrifying visage.
Still, she had to remind herself that it wasn't his business what she was doing. Not at all…
"Watching the wretches." Vaida grumbled, turning back and facing where she'd seen the Arrancar again, "Why?"
"It's dangerous out here." Gillo growled, his footsteps beneath the thick cloth around his waist heavy as he moved closer, "If they see you, you'll be killed. Get your scrawny ass where it's safe."
"What do you care?!" Vaida bit out, glaring in front of her bitterly, "You're the one who told me to leave!"
Behind her, she heard Gillo's heavy footsteps freeze before he sighed heavily and groaned.
"Son of a bitch, Vaida, is that what this is about? Quit being so damned childish and get back to my territory now; this stupid stakeout isn't safe."
"No!" Vaida stood and spun on her heel, stomping her bare feet and glaring up at him, "What I do is none of your business! Daramos wants us to keep an eye on the Broken Ones and I'm bordering finding out some very useful information. Since you're so much more powerful than I am, why don't you leave?! You being here is way more likely to get me caught than me just sitting here and watching!"
Gillo stared down at her, one eyelid twitching slightly and a deep scowl settling on his face.
When the young slip of a Vasto Lorde huffed and turned away, crouching back down and thinking that she had won, he narrowed his eyes and glared down at her.
Fuck. No.
He was too old to deal with this bullshit.
Gillo had not saved this scrawny whelp's ass from the vicious and borderline crippling damage done to her by that bloodthirsty witch Marccia Bones just for her to get herself caught by Arrancar and probably end up getting her ass tied down and poked and prodded at by that pink-headed fucker…
Szayel Aporro Grantz, if he was thinking of the right bastard…
Fuck no was Gillo about to let Vaida's stupidity get her strapped down to that man's dissection table.
Vaida was just starting to relax again, thinking that Gillo was getting ready to leave, when an arm grabbed her by the strip of her mask that went across her back (connected to the part that went over her chest, like a brassier) and hefted her up.
The young Vasto Lorde squeaked and flailed as Gillo threw her over his shoulder, banging her bone-gauntlet fists against his back and beating her bony wings against his head.
"Gillo?! Gillo!! PUT ME DOWN NOW!!"
"Don't think so." The considerably older Vasto Lorde mumbled, jostling his shoulder and manhandling her a bit, "You're being irrational and this plan is doomed to fail. Entertaining as it would be, I can't, in all good conscience, let you make a reason for Daramos to kill you." He flashed back to his territory and threw Vaida down on the ground, watching dispassionately as she flailed around in the sand on her stomach.
Just as Vaida was about to push herself back to her hands and knees, there was a loud grunt beside her and she was pressed harshly back down onto her stomach, Gillo's heavy feet settling on her back and using her like a footstool while holding her in place.
"Gillo, let me up this instant!" Vaida yowled, flailing and trying to free her poor, delicate wings, which were pressed so uncomfortably against her shoulders.
Gillo, though, ignored her and laid his arms out by his side, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. The older Vasto Lorde's elongated and sharpened teeth slid back into their resting places, and the twitching and whipping whisker-like appendages growing out of his back settled and calmed, one flopping across the back of Vaida's neck.
She shuddered as it did, falling still as she felt Gillo's reiryoku stir in the tendril and work to blend her into the sand like it was him, shielding both of them from immediate view and reiatsu sensing techniques.
Though the scratch on her cheek still stung, the burn in her chest that had come after his rejection dulled considerably and she managed to relax, crossing her arms in front of her head and burying her face in them.
Fine.
The old man could win for now…
But as soon as he had his back turned, she was heading back to her post.
After all, she'd hardly proved anything to him just yet.
Fun in The Sanctuary~!
Resurreccion…?!
Ichigo watches with widened eyes as Pantera meets Gavilan Pintado, claws grating down the thin blade in a shower of hot white sparks, a sharp-edged, aquiline body bending back over itself with a whipping fan of blue mane at the same time as a lithe, smooth body clad in white, black hair spinning and forming a halo.
Paws meet a white mat at one end and booted feet at the other, only for the two bodies to throw themselves at one another again, clashing, twirling and weaving in an endless dance.
While the young shinigami will admit that his kind do have a certain rhythm, a technical grace to the way they fight, it can't be compared to the animalistic fluidity the Arrancar fight with.
…Of course, he'll never tell Grimmjow that, the haughty bastard.
Ichigo is just about to start cheering for Vicenta (just to piss Grimmjow off) when a presence flaring a rather large and irate reiatsu settles down beside him. He looks, tensing slightly when he sees the Arrancar Aporro sitting next to him, her spine erect, her arms and legs crossed tightly, and her eyes narrowed dangerously.
Just as Ichigo goes to scoot away, the woman growls without even looking at him, making the now rather nervous shinigami settle back down.
"…So…" Ichigo begins slowly after a moment, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly when the woman's narrowed eye slides over to him, "I hear you're… holding out on the Octava?" He forces a grin, "Nice."
The woman's skin tightens against the remains of her mask lining her jaw and she looks back at the practice, not answering.
Ichigo turns back to the practice, as well, then freezes, his eye twitching.
On the other side of the arena is said Octava, only he's completely released his Resurreccion and he's glaring at his mate angrily, his face flushed and his back hunched as he pants.
Beside the young shinigami, the female Arrancar starts panting, as well.
"Yo, Kurosaki, we're gonna want ta get out of here now."
Ichigo jumps and glances over, blinking when he sees the two young, still released Arrancar watching the two older Arrancar anxiously.
"…Why?"
"Easy." Grimmjow growls, reaching out and grabbing the shinigami's wrist with his still-clawed hand, "This room is about to get steamy."
As the three flee, Aporro and Szayel launch themselves at one another, colliding above the training mats and rolling around, tearing at one another's clothes.
Taking advantage of his Resurreccion strength, Szayel pins Aporro to the mats and tears the front of her shirt off, biting at her collarbone.
Aporro's hand flies to the hilt of her zanpakuto and she draws it partway, growling, "Tear the—" The second Szayel's mouth crashes onto hers, cutting her off, she rolls them over and pins him on his back, hissing down at him and hiking his dress up over his slender, shapely legs, "Fine. But I'm on top."
"…Fine. But you gave in first."
…Szayel would return to his couch with more than just a bruise to his ego that evening.