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Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. The song does not belong to me either.
*~Narrators Verse~*
"Remember, I don't know where you will end up in Hueco Mundo. It could be in the farthest dessert, or practically on Aizen's lap. What ever you do, be careful!" Urahara ushered the group off after their long wait.
"Ya, whatever, we'll be fine," Ichigo said cockily with a smug smiled before he passed fully through the garganta.
"See ya on the flipside!" Matsumoto called.
She, being the last one to go through, left the room in silence.
'Flipside?' Urahara thought. Then went to research (google), the expression and it's meaning.
He was typing away on his computer trying to find the definition when Yoruichi came in. She didn't even ask, she just shook her head at his antics then walked out laughing slightly to herself.
"What! I need to research to keep myself busy now that every one is gone!" Only then did he realize how true his words were.
"Brat, hurry up!"
"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!"
Gracie and Grimmjow rushed through the halls to the training area within the large dome.
Grace gave Grimmjow her 'scared-as-all-hell' look, and he just rolled his eyes at her. He thought at least he could give her a slight hint that something is up by not talking to her the whole day so far. Unfortunately for Grimmjow, he never really talks to her unless they ask each other questions anyway, so the hint went straight over Gracie's head.
"I can't believe that you told Aizen the truth, why couldn't you have let me fight like, Szayel or who ever the 9th espada is?"
He sighed, "just don't let him go hand to hand with you."
She gulped, she knew she was bad with hand to hand combat, but she thought she might have had even the slightest chance, "he's that good at it?"
"He mastered it," was Grimmjow's choice words.
He never would have comforted her by lying so the thought would have never crossed his mind, but he found no use to lie to her anyway; especially not about this upcoming fight.
When Gracie stepped into the training room, a few seconds after Grimmjow, the whole place went completely silent.
Unsure of what to do, Gracie stepped over to where Ulquiorra was waiting; in front of Aizen. The latter seems to have brought his throne from the meeting room into here, for it was set up on a higher platform to observe and analyze the upcoming battle.
"Now Grimmjow, you are absolutely certain that she is on par with Ulquiorra?"
Aizen asked the question as if he knew what Gracie and Grimmjow were talking about on there way in. Without Grimmjow noticing, Gracie looked at him in hopes of going back on his word. Unfortunately for Gracie, he did no such thing.
"Hai, Aizen-sama," he responded with.
"Very well then, you two," he motioned to the arrancar and shinigami standing next to him, "will begin."
Immediately, the two jumped away from each other and the tension in the room rose. Gracie, a powerful but rather inexperienced fighter was unsure of what to do next; or really, how to start.
After a few tense minutes, what felt like hours to the two ready to fight, Ulquiorra demanded, "fight me, trash."
Gracie knew she should oblige by his words, but made no such move. Finally, Ulquiorra made the first move; charging at her with his extremely fast sonído.
Not wanting to play the role of a coward, Gracie stood her ground to block. Their swords clashed and she held back his blade until she decided it would be time to strategize. When her arms began to feel the slightest amount of numbness, she transported away from him and quickly thought of something to do.
Ulquiorra, on the other hand, just observed her when she was thinking. He assaulted her with a series of attacks and watched the way she blocked, for her weaknesses and what side is her weaker one; where it would be best to attack. Gracie soon turned the tables and attacked him. She thought that she was getting some where but in reality, Ulquiorra lightened up so that he could observe her mannerisms. A whole five minutes was spent observing each other, Gracie was about to release her hollow powers, but Ulquiorra cut her off with a powerful green cero of his.
Seeing no other way out, Gracie had to transport herself away until the cero passed. By doing so, she showed them her hand over Ulquiorra. Sure, he has amazing speed but she can avoid any attack my dematerializing her body then popping up somewhere else.
Aizen looked impressed, but only for a mere second. Then his face took on the normal pleasant look, one he always wears when planning how someone can become even more useful to his plans.
Ulquiorra's eyes widened for a split second in realization of the advantage Gracie has over him and actually began to deem her worthy of his time, she is far too interesting for him not to end up seeing her as such anyway.
If it wasn't on Aizen's orders, then Ulquiorra would just be drawing his sword now. But now he looked to Aizen for confirmation to release his zanpakuto, with the slight nod of Aizen's head, Ulquiorra did as allowed.
"Enclose Murciélago," he announced stoically as usual. Of the espada that were watching, most gasped slightly. They didn't think that Aizen would allow an espada to release to merely result in the show of some of the powers that this girl, the elemental, has control of.
Gracie, now, just understood the severity of this fight. Aizen really wants to see all her powers. Of course, thanks to her cunningness, she never planned on showing him all of them. It was always good to withhold information from Aizen if one had the chance, then he might end up even the slightest amount unsure of how the pawn would be useful to him. In the end, that unsureness could become his downfall.
A wave of black, dense, spirit energy flew out from Ulquiorra. It then seemed to have dissipated and now is falling around him as a kind of green rain. Gracie didn't know what to make of it, sure she saw people harden their spiritual pressure until it was visible, but she never saw it falling around the owner like acid rain. It intimidated Gracie and, although she wouldn't ever admit it; scared her.
She wanted Aizen to know of as little of her powers as it would be possible, but no, she had to use them. As some sort of justification, or rather, letting herself know that she is really going to release her powers; she called out, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do."
Of the person who heard her, Aizen (who else would it be?), he raised an eye brow. Never had he heard such a saying, and pondered over what it could mean until Gracie released.
"Consume all, Burakkuhōru," the circular, galaxy shaped swirl of 'stars' on her sword began to spin until it turned completely circular and pitch black.
'Finally I get some fun, c'mon Gracie we got this,' Ella said ecstatically from Gracie's mind before Ella let her powers fully flow through Gracie's body and extend to her sword. Gracie felt the power surge when the transformation completed and her hollow bone took place on the back of her skull. Over the past few times that Gracie has trained, especially when using her hollow powers, things have been changing with how they manifest themselves.
For instance, Gracie's hollow remnants used to be a pure white, now, light blue dots trailed up the sides and directly in the middle lay a small black circle. From the circle smaller black dots seem to 'shoot' out from the center in opposite directions; almost like a black hole spitting out a star. Violent, yet beautifully mysterious.
For once, Gracie decided to let the tight hold she always has over her spiritual pressure go. Speaking of such, doesn't it figure that since no one can sense her reiatsu it would have been very easy to leave Las Noches?
Ignoring that thought, Gracie turned her full attention on the fight. During the times she trained with Ella in her inner realm, she would automatically go into her 'fight mode' once she released Ella's powers. Their shared theory was because of the new attack they started practicing.
For a seemingly endless amount of minutes; Ulquiorra and Gracie clashed swords over and over. They attacked from different angles, used different speeds and tricks, that each thought out to use against the other. To the crowd, really just Aizen, it appeared that they were not only evenly matched in strength, but in wits as well.
Although Aizen is no fool, he could tell the two of them have some sort of a pocket ace; the real battle now is who decides to use it first.
The both of them formed plans, each with the same objective; to make the other release the attacks that they are holding back. Each plan in itself has complicated and decisive in roots.
Ulquiorra took a rather uncharacteristic approach; seeing as he deemed Graciela as 'interesting'. Thanks to the information Aizen gave to him on Gracie for the fight, he learned that she is easy to make emotionally unstable. He also knows that she can read minds. Combining those two facts, he got his battle strategy. His ability to disintegrate his eye to show past events, also became a part of his plot.
When Gracie came close enough, he disintegrated his eye and the dust encircled her. Not expecting thoughts to be protruding from the particles, she took a small part of her mind off the fight to block the thoughts. During that small opening, Ulquiorra used his enhanced sonído to leave her field of vision. Quickly, Graciela turned around to track him again. Since Ulquiorra still flew around the room at a speed Gracie couldn't follow thanks to her minute loss in concentration; her attempt failed. As a way to quickly track down where he is, she searched for his mind. While he was avoiding her searching gaze, he kept a strong trace on her reiatsu. Thanks to said trace, when she entered his mind; he was well aware of the presence.
That's when he sprung his trap.
He called his eye back, and as it materialized back in its socket, the last 'thought', really memory, from it rang through his head and into Gracie's.
'Now, I understand that you were very upset the past few days.' 'Y-yes Aizen-sama... Grimmjow asked me a question, and I overreacted to the answer. I was unable to hide my feelings and everything from the past few weeks came crashing down on me then...'
Gracie, effected by the memory, let her guard slip as everything about Hitsugaya rushed into her head. Now, Ulquiorra took his plan into the final stage.
He generated and positioned multiple, thought it seemed like thousands, javelins surrounding Gracie's ignorant form. At the last possible second, Gracie's eyes snapped up to Ulquiorra's with vengeance, but by then the javelins were already piercing her skin.
Presumably.
This made Gracie's plan all the more easy to initiate. Now that she knows that Ulquiorra released his 'trump card', she can put hers into play.
Transporting herself out of the attack, then back into the same spot moments after the attacks effects stopped. All that was left is the debris from the crater Ulquiorra put in the ground. One that Gracie should be at the bottom of.
When the dust cleared, even Ulquiorra gasped. Aizen sat in his seat, smug as ever and Grimmjow looked pissed. Thought he has the right to be, she made him shit bricks for nothing.
"Oops, looks like you missed," Gracie teased Ulquiorra in a slightly aloof tone.
Elsewhere, a certain fox and his pink haired companion noticed eight foreign, to Hueco Mundo, spiritual pressures pass through into the last sector of security around all of Las Noches. The pressures showed up as dots, and as they got closer to the camera, where the censor first detected them, orange hair was detected, then white.
But by then Gin already went to report his, really Szayel's equipment's, finding.
"Let's go Ella," Gracie called out.
'On it chief,' she called back before materializing next to Gracie.
"Ready?" she called one she was palpable.
"As ever," and Gracie's trump card fell into play.
Gracie seemed to charge up a small black ball in the palm of her right hand. Ulquiorra, actually a little angered over the fact that she escaped his attack when it was so perfectly planned, attempted to attack Gracie while she was readying herself.
"Nice try," she said when he got within bounds of her gravity field. Not only did she increase the gravity along the edge of the small bubble tenfold, but she also supplied a small, on her standards, dose of electricity to surge through any unlucky soul who dared cross it.
Shocked, quite literally, Ulquiorra stepped back and tried to process the event that just happened. He didn't even see anything, only felt, he didn't even realize that the top of the horn from his hollow remnants was charred a little.
Where he stepped, fit perfectly into Gracie' calculations as well. It was right on the borderline of how far Ella could go away from Gracie's body. Noticing the window that just opened, Gracie shoved the black orb into Ella. In the exact place where Ulquiorra's hollow hole lay, between his clavicles.
Ella, dematerializing as she ran for the man along the border of her reach, stepped through Ulquiorra's body. Thought she left the little black orb behind her.
It lay, as some sort of plug, in Ulquiorra's hollow hole.
His eyes widened, never has anyone planned their assault using something he never knew himself to be a weakness. Said eyes flew into slits and he actually looked slightly angered. But the emotion disappeared moments after. Unfortunately for Gracie, he was now more hell bend on kill- defeating her, then ever.
Or is this turn of events really fortunate?
Ulquiorra charged up his cero oscuras. Though unknown to him, a small amount of the charge shot out through the back of his hollow hole. When it was charged up to full power, Gracie actually sat down, in the middle of a very serious battle.
"What are you doing. brat!" was heard from the sidelines.
'Watch!' she ushered back to her trusted friend.
Ulquiorra made a move to fire the massive cero, but it backfired on him, quite literally.
Out of the backside of his hollow hole, a steady stream of his black cero spewed out. The story read the same for the front of his body. The green outline, that was part of the massive charge but moments ago, spiraled outwards and in some passes, through his body*. Ulquiorra's eyes started closing, but he fought the unconsciousness consuming him. He blinked quickly, trying to hold his ground. That last struggle backfired horribly as the spiral of energy particles and the black cero started to return back into the center of his hollow hole. When the result of the backfired cero reached the center, he fell to his knees, then, for lack of a better term, faceplanted directly at Gracie's crossed feet.
Getting up, Gracie stood over her defeated opponent. Rather ironically, she stabbed her hand through Ulquiorra's hollow hole to retrieve the black sphere. As she walked back over to her former sitting position, the black hole disintegrated and was absorbed into Gracie's skin.
Almost simultaneously, the entire room felt a monumental increase in spiritual pressure from the girl in front of their eyes.
Lifting his head off of his hand, Aizen announced, "Graciela has defeated Ulquiorra."
The room, still stunned in silence, still said nothing after Aizen's final remark, "that was very hollow like of you Gracie."
'No crap, hollow powers are hollow like!' she added in her head for she is way to afraid to say anything along those lines outside of a minds boundaries.
The room stayed in silence a few more seconds. Until, that is, Gin came dashing in. Immediately Aizen picked up on the severe atmosphere around him and dismissed everyone from the training grounds, "leave. Now."
Small talk erupted and Inoue rushed over to heal Ulquiorra, but surprisingly, she found not a single wound on his body.
"Aizen-sama," Gin said, "they're here. Sector 10 just like you had said to look for."
"Very well then, you know what to do when they reach our outer fortresses walls, I will be on my way."
"Hai," and Aizen left the room.
"When do I confront them?" Momo asked.
"Give it time my love, then you will get a word with your childhood friend, and point him to the direction of our greatest asset," Aizen reassured his love.
They kissed and she lay back on the mattress in his arms, they will play no role in the shinigami's invasion until much later in the intrusion.
He knew that she shouldn't have, but he shouted out to her anyway. Now she thought he was worried about her, which he is, but more of the after math then the hurricane itself.
Halfway to her room, she realized that she never suppressed her reiatsu. Quickly, she pulled the door shut and kept a tight grip on her spiritual pressure. Grimmjow looked towards her, and she took it as queue to talk to him.
Stupid Grimmjow, talking with her now will only make it harder later.
"So how did you like the fight?" she knew just how to get him to talk, and fighting was something he could never shut up about once he started a rant on it.
And boy, did he want to point out how badly she handed Ulquiorra's ass to him. But no, he forced himself to keep relatively quiet.
"It was entertaining," but he ended it there.
Gracie's eye brows flew up in shock at his evasiveness, but did not question him on it. Over the past week and a half she learned his mannerisms well and knew when to talk, what about, and when to hold her mouth. It truly was amazing how quickly a friendship can bloom thanks to Aizen's orders.
A few feet from Gracie's door, Grimmjow stopped and grabbed something from his pocket. Just standing there, Gracie came back out of her room when she realized that someone was missing.
"C'mon Grimm!" she said while moving closer to him.
The remorse, regret, pain, everything was swirling around his insides at that moment. She sounded like she always does when she wants to talk with him. Playful, yet very mature and serious behind the tone.
Torn apart at the seams between the only person he could call his friend, and his masters orders; he sided with his master. If the orders were disobeyed then Grimmjow would be as good as dead, at least this way they can both live.
"Gracie," Grimmjow started low and very serious.
The prior moved closer to him in worry, her face scrunched up with concern. She placed a comforting hand on his arm and moved even closer so. But she just fell into his trap.
He leaned in closer to her, and bent down slightly to her level.
"I'm sorry," was all he whispered into her ear.
"Wha-?" was all she could make out.
He stabbed her through the gut with pantera.
On queue her eyes started to water, but she didn't let any fall yet.
"G-grimm... Grimm-jow... why?" she managed to choke out.
That's all she waned, an answer, but he couldn't even give that to her.
"I'm sorry," he repeated again.
Pulling the sword up, through her innards, her blood curdling scream echoed throughout the halls.
Grimmjow, as tough as he is, nearly puked; he felt so disgusted with himself.
The sword, pushed straight through the frail girl in his arms, was bound to come out at some time. To finish the job as Aizen ordered, he slowly twisted the sword in a clockwise motion.
Her scream came through even louder this time, and Grimmjow tasted bile on the back of his throat.
Her tears came flowing harder then they ever did for Hitsugaya, but he was but one of the many she was thinking of while she hung suspended in air by Grimmjow's blade.
Quickly, he pulled his sword from the girl. Screaming in pain and agony, distain and heart break, though mostly betrayal; she fell back onto him. He resisted the urge to throw up once more when she tipped her head back and looked into his eyes.
Oh god, her eyes. Everything was expressed in that single look. For a brief moment he could see into her soul, into her mind and the tables were turned. Although Gracie didn't want to admit it, she felt disgusted with herself for believing all the lies Grimmjow fed to her.
She screamed again, this time in hope of catching someones attention.
Unable to stand it any more, Grimmjow gagged slightly, then stepped away from Gracie.
Her pitiful form fell, crumpled, and nearly lifeless onto the cold white floors of Las Noches.
Her blood, the purest of red, the only color ever seen in Las Noches through all the pristine white.
Her sobs, that screamed to Grimmjow louder than her cries, echoed in his ears for hours, days, afterwards.
Her eyes, oh god her eyes.
'Your eyes
As we said our goodbyes
Can't get them out of my mind
And I find I can't hide
From your eyes.'
*Along the lines of: .
h t t p : / / w o p a t . u c h i c a g o . e d u / B l a c k h o l e . j p g just without the spaces.
**HOLY CRAP WAS THIS HARD FOR ME TO WRITE. I stared at the screen for a while fighting tears before I could type this down TT_TT
Saturday 3:25 am.