"Oh shit…" Teeth clenched and muscles went rigid. Ichigo held Grimmjow's shoulder with his free hand as he worked by the light of their fire.

"You okay?"

Grimmjow was awake for the first time since Valkin's man had dropped them off well outside the city. Fire crackled beside them. Ichigo had already set Grimmjow's arm while he was sleeping and now he was inspecting a black and purple bruise on Grimmjow's hip.

"Grimmjow? Have the drugs worn off?"

"I think so."

"How do you feel?"

"Like shit."

"Grimmjow are you going to be able to walk?" He was pretty concerned at the sight of the bruising. "Try lifting your leg."

Grimmjow had not taken stock of his wounds in the pit—he hadn't wanted to know how bad it was. Now though, he was forced to face reality. He obeyed Ichigo's instruction and tried lifting his right leg. He swallowed hard but made no noise betraying the extent of pain it caused. Ichigo's face tightened but he didn't say anything: they both knew there was no stopping, no matter what discomforts.

"Here." Ichigo had a flask of strong liquor Valkin had given him. He let Grimmjow tilt back as much as he wanted. "Okay, I think I got the worst of it."

"Good."

"Grimmjow…"

"What?"

"I shouldn't have let you go to Junction on your own."

"I shoulda been more careful. Now we're losing time. You shouldn't have come back for me."

"You wish I hadn't?"

Grimmjow had no answer.

"The car ride made up for it. I just wish we could have gotten further."

The highway had become choked with wrecked and long dead vehicles. Keiran's man had taken them some distance from the main route to give them safe cover for the night. They were still in the open air, but far enough from anything important to be at too much risk of being attacked.

"I'm glad he's dead," Grimmjow said to the sky.

"I would have killed him, you know."

"I know. But you would have regretted it. And trust me kid, I don't."

Ichigo didn't really want to talk about it. As much as he understood Grimmjow's desire for revenge, it was still hard to accept that look of pure satisfaction that had been on his face when he'd pulled the trigger. No hesitation. No guilt.

But then again, he might have looked the same had it been him.

"I have some spare clothes." Ichigo retrieved what he had from the bag. They fought to get the sleeve over the make-shift splint around Grimmjow's arm and this was enough to have Grimmjow gasping in pain. He was suffering, he just didn't want to say how badly. When they were finished, Grimmjow was still barefoot but at least his torso was covered. He sat panting, shaking from the cold and the lingering effects of what drugs they'd given him.

"I'm going to slow you down," he muttered.

"Grimmjow I think our chances are better together. We'll manage."

"Where are we even going now? I didn't find anything out about Yuzu in the city."

"I did."

"What?"

"They passed through a day earlier, Keiran told me. Apparently they had a vehicle but it broke down."

"What?"

"They were looking for another one. Cino wasn't interested in selling. They moved on."

"…I can't believe it."

"Well believe it."

Ichigo's face was set. He of course, would be suffering from the knowledge of how close they'd been to his sister. Grimmjow just nodded and let the subject drop. After a moment, Ichigo spoke again.

"So you thought you saw me? You thought I told you I was going to leave?"

"…yeah. Guess it was a hallucination."

"Well we're a team Grimmjow. We're going to get her back together. So I need you to go to sleep. I need you to be able to walk as far as we can tomorrow, and then get up and do it again."

"I will."

"Then don't argue with me."

"I'm not arguing with you."

"Not yet you aren't." He moved around Grimmjow and sat close to him. Grimmjow eyed him.

"What?"

"You're freezing and we don't have enough clothes."

"You're shittin' me."

"I asked you not to argue. Just lay down."

"Ugh." He lay back when Ichigo did. He huffed out an annoyed breath but there was no denying that having Ichigo so close on one side and the fire on the other made a difference.

He let himself relax and soon his eyelids began to droop. His last words before sleep came out slurred.

"Kid."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming back for me."

"You're welcome Grimmjow."

Their fire was embers but Grimmjow knew it should be dead by now. That meant Ichigo had been up the whole night stoking it and keeping watch. The last grey light of dawn was leaving. They should get moving. Ichigo had been generous enough to let him sleep this long.

"Yo Kid!" He called, not seeing him but the quick response let him know Ichigo had only disappeared to do his morning business. Grimmjow sat a few moments longer before testing the strength of his legs.

Everything hurt. His ribs, his hip, his knees, his arm. Even his neck gave a lough crack. But he was on his feet, he was alive, and he had fulfilled his promise of killing that fat bastard. He bent and got the liquor from Ichigo's pack. He knew it was bad to dehydrate himself like this, but just a few gulps and he felt the warmth spread through him, the aches faded ever so slightly. He replaced the bottle just before Ichigo came back.

"You need to clean up or anything?" It was his polite way of asking if he needed to take a shit.

"I haven't eaten for two days," Grimmjow responded bluntly.

"Oh. Well I have some stuff from Valkin." He hauled out some food and passed it to Grimmjow so he could eat as they walked. They set out.

The food helped settle the ache in his stomach. The rest of the pain he just swallowed were quiet. Grimmjow was occupied with his physical pain and Ichigo was occupied with pain of his own.

One day, Ichigo thought over and over again. They'd missed her by just one day. Maybe if they'd taken fewer breaks or walked through more nights they would have made it on time. Now he and Grimmjow was committed to chasing her all the way to Tokyo if they didn't catch up to them before then. And for all he knew they'd taken a different route—Junction City was the meeting of the two major expressways from Tokyo, after all. They'd had to choose one, but it had been a fifty-fifty gamble. For all he knew, he wouldn't catch up to them until they were in the city—and he'd be that much farther from Karin.

And at the end of all this, when he did get Yuzu back, they wouldn't even know if Karin was still alive until they journeyed back North.

"What's the plan?" Grimmjow broke the hours of silence that had lasted almost the whole day when evening began to set in. They had seen nothing of significance all day, sticking to the long stretch of sandy, dead terrain next to the road. It gave them just a bit more distance in case they needed it.

Ichigo slowed, knowing they only had two choices—keep moving all night or find good cover until day.

"What if we're close?" he voiced his predicament aloud.

"And what if they went the other way? There's no point walking ourselves to death."

He considered Grimmjow: his stance, the lines of stress in his face he was trying not to show. He was barely still moving, and he was right, there was no way to know where they were.

"Alright. Let's make camp."

'Camp' consisted of their packs as their pillows and each of them huddled together. There was no wood in the area to start a fire so they had little choice. Grimmjow was still resistant, but the cold got the better of him and eventually he rolled close enough they could feel each other's body heat and stave off the worst of the cold.

Grimmjow was once again the last to rise in the morning. Ichigo must have had an upset stomach because he was gone for at least half an hour, giving Grimmjow time to drink more liquor and get himself mentally prepared for another long day of walking. He stared down at his bare feet. They were doing pretty poorly if he didn't even have shoes to his name.

He sighed. Not long ago he'd been rich and famous. How quickly the tides could turn.

"Hey, look what I found." Ichigo's voice brought him back to the present.

"What?" But his question was answered when Ichigo held up a bundle that included boots and a warmer shirt.

"Did you get these off a body?" Grimmjow asked as Ichigo helped him put the boots on: with one arm in his make-shift sling he couldn't even tie his own shoes.

"Uh..."

"Shit, don't tell me." Grimmjow wasn't above robbing corpses, but it still wasn't a very comfortable feeling.

"They were in a bag…not, um…on him…"

"How far? Why was he out there?"

"Don't know. He's just over that hill. I couldn't tell how he died."

Grimmjow didn't like the sounds of that. He urged Ichigo to get a move on. The young man did then gave Grimmjow a hand up. When the former espada stumbled Ichigo caught his shoulders and frowned.

"You've got to be honest about how bad you're hurting."

"Sure, I'll be as honest as you are about how desperate you are to catch up to Yuzu."

Ichigo glared but Grimmjow had effectively ended the conversation. They soldiered on toward the dusty horizon.

They ran into some trouble when their path forced them back onto the road. Ichigo took care of it. By nightfall Grimmjow was slowing. They once again abandoned the road for the seclusion of the desert. The moment they stopped, Grimmjow sank to the ground. Ichigo wasn't doing much better. There was no possibility either of them were going to stay away on watch tonight. Without discussing it, they huddled together under the dim moonlight, no fire and unprotected from the wind. It didn't matter, though, they were both asleep within seconds.

Grimmjow was the first to wake. Dawn had barely crept over the horizon but he was surprised to find Ichigo still completely under.

Well, maybe he shouldn't be surprised. The kid had been supporting them for two days. He was pale as a ghost, his breathing deep, for once not even the nightmares could disturb him.

Shit, Grimmjow thought. He was slowing them down. He looked at his arm in the sling. Really, it wasn't his biggest problem unless they got in a fight. It was his hip. He peeled down his pants and examined the bruise. It was healing. He had no idea what damage had been done to the bone but this was it, he had to fucking man up before he dragged them down. No more letting the kid carry his weight, he promised himself as he struggled up to his feet and went a few paces to take a piss.

He stopped short when he saw the body.

"Another one?" he muttered to himself, looking around but seeing no sign of any danger on the horizon. He moved closer to see what had caused the man's demise but stopped when he saw the amount of decay. With no obvious sword holes in him, there would be no way to tell now.

"What were you doing out here?" he asked the corpse as he proceeded to take his leak. "I mean, it's just sand and rock for miles."

He couldn't help keep his eyes on the horizon the whole time he relieved himself. Even after Ichigo woke up and they moved out, he found himself on edge.

It took him two days to figure it out. Two very, very long days in which he and Ichigo found little to fill the silence. Grimmjow found himself improving while Ichigo's exhaustion had clearly caught up with him.

It was while they were stopped on the crest of a long, gently sloping hill and Ichigo was tightening his sling that Grimmjow spotted the dark smudge in the distance.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked when he finished and followed his gaze.

"It's a piece of Las noches…no, it's an outpost."

"What? Really?" Ichigo squinted, but his eyesight would never match Grimmjow's. "It's pretty far."

"No more than half hour."

Ichigo looked between the building and the road. "We can't waste time."

"It's not wasted. There might be supplies there, information, who knows."

Ichigo continued to think it over, uncertain.

"Kid," Grimmjow pressed, "it's worth it, let's go."

Ichigo said nothing, but when Grimmjow started out, he followed. They left their path that matched the highway and headed straight out into the open sand. So much of this area was covered in the dull, grey sands that if there weren't mountains in the distance and a sun in the sky they could have convinced themselves they really were back in Hueco Mundo.

The sun was low in the sky when they reached the building—just a small station plunked in the sand, no bigger than a house, but rounded like a miniature version of the pillars of Las Noches.

"How do you get in?" Ichigo asked, seeing no visible entrance. It looked like others had tried as well, some of the stone was dented or cut from blades and even a few gunshot holes marred the surface.

"You have to have the magic touch."

Ichigo watched him run a hand over a nondescript piece of stone. A low groan came from below the sand and then, after a few clunks, a slab of stone slid inward. It stopped about three inches in. Grimmjow swore and threw his shoulder into it. The added push was enough and it continued into the wall until the opening was large enough for them to pass.

Grimmjow stepped in but Ichigo lingered in the desert. He was agitated, looking around as if he suspected some sort of trap.

"Yo, Kurosaki, are you okay?"

Ichigo rubbed his neck almost nervously. "We're losing time."

"Jeeze, kid, we're here now, just get inside. Maybe we'll find something to help us."

Ichigo did step in after another moment. It was dark.

"Is there power?" he asked.

"Should be…" He couldn't see what Grimmjow did but after a moment dim lights grew on the ceiling. The door shut again and the further in the brighter the lights became.

"I bet no one's been in here since the Clash," Grimmjow commented, running a hand over dusty panels that flickered to life.

"So what is this place?"

"An outpost. I think Ichimaru's the one who set them up. They helped monitor the desert."

"For what?"

"Intruders, you know, every once in a while a dumbass teenager and his friends might pop by."

"Hey, that dumbass kicked your ass, remember?"

Grimmjow made a frustrated noise. "Don't remind me." But his face lit up when he saw one monitor in particular.

"What is it?"

"Well, we also used the outposts when we were training. They were a good way to restock and check in with the Palace."

"You mean...back to Las Noches."

"Yeah." He began to fiddle with the panel. Nothing happened at first. He frowned and began dialing different knobs. Ichigo waited, stomach knotting. He desperately wanted to know Karin's fate, but at the same time, so long as he didn't know, he could have hope…

"Shit I don't know how this works," Grimmjow muttered, kicking a panel. But the moment his foot connected with metal light sprung up before his eyes, a shimmering image far from its original clarity.

"What is it?" Ichigo moved at once to his side. The image on the screen was definitely not communication but instead looked like a map.

"It's showing Las Noches." Grimmjow pointed to the largest cluster of red points. Since the palace had broken up, the dots were spread around but concentrating on the mountain.

"Can you connect to the soul reapers?"

Grimmjow touched the screen where the North Pillar would be but nothing happened.

"I think this is all we'll get out of it," he sighed. "Look, here we are, and there's a few more outposts…huh" he squinted, trying to place them. Some were in the ocean, others on other continents and the image was too unclear to pinpoint them, but there was one more point of interest in Japan where the screen was focussed. Ichigo had already seen it. He pointed his finger at a pulsing blue light.

"Grimmjow…is that…Karakura?"

Grimmjow swiped a hand over the screen and zoomed in on Japan. When they traced the outline of the land and pinpointed where Tokyo must be, it was easy to see that the blue point was clearly on Karakura.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked frantically, seeing Grimmjow's expression change. "Grimmjow…if red means parts of Las Noches what does blue mean?"

"It's…not possible." He shook his head but Ichigo gripped his arm.

"Grimmjow tell me."

"Blue is…it's supposed to show any significant sources of…spiritual pressure."

Ichigo's hand slipped from his arm and he sank back against the console. "What are you saying?"

"It's broken," Grimmjow reasoned. "It's just busted that's all."

"But… then why there? Why Karakura?"

Grimmjow had no answer. Ichigo shoved off the console and gripped his head. "But I was there. It's…nothing. Sand. It's just sand!"

"Calm down, kid."

"I am calm," he said as he paced back and forth. "But I—Grimmjow what's does this mean? Is it possible there's something I missed? Is there something…some way to undo all this?"

"No," Grimmjow argued at once. "The world ended that day. We all know that."

"Then what is this?!"

"A glitch!"

"GRIMMJOW!"

"Fuck off, Kurosaki! How could there be anything there? How could no one have seen it?"

"I don't know. But we'll find out when we get there."

Grimmjow watched him stomp up the few steps toward the dark hallway they'd taken to get inside.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Ichigo paused on the top step. "I know that's where's they're taking her. It has to be. There is something in Karakura, something that could change everything, and somehow, Yuzu is important."

"Fine. But it's nightfall."

"We can't wait."

"Don't be stupid. We're safe here for now, we need to rest."

"What's the matter, Grimmjow? Are you afraid of what you'll find there?"

"Fuck you, Kurosaki, I'm just trying to keep us from getting killed!"

His shout rang off the walls. Ichigo turned back to him, but his eyes were hard, and Grimmjow knew his mind was set.

"Maybe you should stay." His gaze swept pointedly over his arm in the sling, his still sore hip. "You saying I'm slowing you down, Kurosaki? What happened to us having better chances together?"

"I don't know, you tell me. We just got the biggest lead we've had in four fucking years, we gotta move."

Grimmjow's fist balled. He strode forward and met Ichigo at the foot of the stairs. "And you gotta figure out which you care about more: getting your sister, or getting Karakura back."

The espada hit the floor with a resounding thud from Ichigo's punch. The echo of his scream when his broken arm hit the floor rebounded half a dozen times before silence overtook them both. Neither moved in the aftermath, both in the wrong, both at their wits end.

"Then this is it." Ichigo spoke from the stairs. "I know you think I'm being reckless Grimmjow, but don't you for a second doubt why I'm doing this. There are only two reasons I've kept breathing in this Hell. One of them might be gone for all I know. The other is barely still within my reach. I can't let Yuzu get any farther away from me, no matter how tired or how hurt. I know where they're taking her now. I have to go. And if I have to go alone, so be it."

"And you brought me with you because you knew your judgement was shot." Grimmjow pushed himself up, trembling from the pain in his arm. "But you don't want the voice of reason anymore, do you? You don't want to hear how stupid you're being."

"I can't wait, Grimmjow. How can you? You said you want to save her but look at you! You're going to sit there and do nothing!"

"Kurosaki you're not right. You're not thinking. If we sleep here tonight no one has to take watch, we can rest, restock, move twice as fast tomorrow!"

"No. I'm leaving here, right now."

"No, you ain't." He stood up. Ichigo stared him down.

"You won't stop me."

"I know." But he still tried to grab Ichigo and the young man still sent him flat a second time. By the time Girmmjow righted himself again, the door had opened and shut.

Ichigo was gone.

"You son of a bitch."

Next time Grimmjow discovers what's been leaving bodies in the desert and the cause of Ichigo's sudden irrationality.

TemariFire: Sorry for the late response but as for the maps I actually used Google maps and Google street view a lot when writing this story. I learned a lot while writing this story though I of course also took many artistic liberties. For one thing, many of the expressways have high barriers on the sides (as I understand it, I could be wrong) but this didn't really work well for the idea of the boys walking on and off the road so much so I imagined highways more like the ones I know. Anyway, if you want to check out "Junction City" copy paste these coordinates into google maps: 37.466181, 140.357294 its the junction between Tohoku expressway and Ban-estu espressway close to Koriyama. You can also look at Mount Iwarki on google Earth. Unfortunately I don't have a map of where Hueco Mundo's sand or parts of the rukongai are now situated but I hope this helps!

Thanks for the reviews!

Riza