The knock woke all three. Grimmjow sat up sharply on the couch. Yuzu drew away from her brother who had fallen asleep still holding her.
"Just you two," Hashwald pointed to the Kurosakis.
"What about Grimmjow?" Ichigo asked.
"I'm tired of his interruptions. The two of you come with me. I want to explain the plan in full to you. Grimmjow can wait here today."
"Why can't you just explain it to us all, right here?"
"Because I want to show you, Ichigo, and to do that, we're going to have to leave the hospital. I don't foresee that going well if I take all three of you outside these walls."
Grimmjow shot Ichigo a look—one warning him not to argue. Ichigo understood. They had agreed that if there was any chance for escape with Yuzu, they would take it.
"Fine." He rose and turned to Grimmjow. "We'll see you later."
Grimmjow nodded. It very well might be their last goodbye. "Be careful."
"Of course."
Yuzu gave Grimmjow's hand a squeeze before departing.
They were taken down several flights of stairs, back through the main lobby and out into the eerie streets of Karakura. It was as if they were in an eternal twilight—the blue glow just bright enough for them to see the city around them as they walked.
"Where are we going?" Ichigo asked. They walked behind Hashwald and his team of scientists and muscle men who stopped at the end of the Hospital parking lot.
"I'm not going with you," Hashwald said.
"What? You just said you have a lot to explain."
"I also have a lot of final preparations. The scientists are taking you to Urahara's shop. They will explain to you exactly how all of this is going to work."
Ichigo glanced at the scientists. One of them was the one who still had spiritual pressure. There would be no way to outrun her.
"When you come back, I will answer any further questions you may have."
Ichigo nodded slowly. He wasn't sure what to believe but he did want to go to the shop. He wanted to see just what Hashwald was up to. "Fine."
"Good. Enjoy your walk. If you wish, you may visit your home."
He felt Yuzu tense up at this. Of course they had both wanted to do this since coming here, but there was also something unsettling about the thought of seeing the last place where their family had been whole—Isshin, Karin—they would never be able to return here.
"Alright…" he said softly, "But the shop first." He would worry about revisiting the past after.
"Then I'll leave you to it."
Hashwald returned toward the hospital. Ichigo and Yuzu walked in silence behind their guards and the scientists. They joined hands, looking in old shops, eateries, the movie theaters. They saw all the places which had been part of their lives in a time and place they'd thought lost forever. If there was a way to get it back, wouldn't it be worth anything?
They came upon the shop after more than an hour. It was far from the hospital but close to their house which was another few minutes from here. Ichigo wanted to step inside and see the old shopkeeper sitting at his tea table, stroking a black cat while two children ran around in the background. But he'd never see that again, so he stopped on the front steps.
"Come around back," the lead scientist beckoned. They followed her around the outside and found the back lot converted into a tapestry of intricate spell work that had been cut deep into the ground all over. "This is what we've been working on for so long, combining the ancient spells of all the races."
"I've never seen anything like this…" Ichigo knew of the kido spells the soul reapers used but he'd never seen anything as elaborate as this.
"No one ever has. We designed it based on the old knowledge Urahara stored, and what we knew ourselves."
"What will it do?"
"When activated, it will force a connection to all three worlds at once. Imagine a doorway that opens to all worlds simultaneously. One has never existed. There was the Senkaimon and the Garganta. This puts the two together."
"So once all the worlds are connected, what will that accomplish?"
"Then we will feed them each the energy of a soul in order to rekindle their existence."
"But what does that mean?"
"We're going to expand the protective barrier. The worlds have shrunk to the same size as this energy field. If we expand it, they should also expand, but it will take spiritual energy for that to happen."
"You can't possibly think one hollow, one soul reaper and me will be enough for that?"
"We do. We believe that because Grimmjow was an espada, his soul will have amalgamated the energy of all the thousands of souls he devoured as a hollow. He alone should possess enough energy to spark that growth."
"What? Enough to cover the whole world?"
"Yes—enough to match the growth of the field, which will cover this realm. Relatively speaking, the world of the living was the smallest of the three dimensions."
"I guess, but it still sounds insane."
"That's the power of a soul, Kurosaki. Did you not once stop the Sokyoku from cutting in half your friend? Your one soul stopped something with the power of a thousand souls. What I am proposing is more possible than that should have been."
He had no answer but shook his head, still finding it hard to believe.
"Trust me. For years we have done the calculations. We understand much better than you how the universe works."
"I guess... But what about Soul Society? Where will its energy come from?"
"The volunteers, and myself."
"So you were a soul reaper, and not a quincy?"
"Yes. My name is Kara Arubashi. I was part of the thirteenth division. I happened to be here at the moment the balance was lost."
"And you trust Hashwald?"
"He was the enemy, but after the Clash, he realized the quincy king was wrong. He wishes to have an afterlife just as much as the rest of us. That I do trust."
"Fine. And me, how does that part work?"
"You will open the gates to all the worlds using this spell. Only you can do it."
"But I don't know how."
"You don't have to. You only have to place your hand here." She pointed to the center of the yard, where all the twisting lines met at a short stone pedestal that had been built there. "Your connection to all three worlds will be enough to trigger it. The other volunteers, including myself and Jaggerjaques will also be with you, touching the pedestal. It has all be arranged so there will be nothing to do but hold on."
So they only had to touch it. That meant they could in fact be forced to do it against their will. Then why was Hashwald delaying and pretending they had a choice? Why did he shoot Karin?
"If everything is in place, why not just do it now?" he asked.
"Because a final test is needed."
"The tests I did yesterday weren't enough?"
"It's not a test for you." Ichigo glanced back at Yuzu but realized it was not her the soul reaper meant.
Hashwald hadn't kept Grimmjow behind just so they wouldn't run away.
Grimmjow had been waiting for them. He'd watched from the window as Hashwald turned back in the parking lot. He'd known then why they'd really been separated.
They came at him all at once—Hashwald's guards. He gave them Hell but couldn't win. They dragged him down corridors, up stairs and into a bright, white room.
"What is this?" he demanded if Hashwald when they came to a stop.
"Take your shirt off."
"Fuck you."
The curse earned him a strike to the back. It floored him and the men wrestled his shirt over his shoulders.
"Fuck off!" he screamed again but got a boot to the gut. He choked for air against the ground and they hauled him up.
"Put him on the gurney."
He wondered why they didn't sedate him like they had yesterday. He fought them every inch but being outnumbered he just couldn't get free. They slammed him back onto the gurney in the center of the room and began wrestling leather straps around his wrists and ankles.
"No…" he remembered waking up like this at Cino's. He drew his head up and smashed it into someone else's. They screamed in pain and fell back. But his wrist was already trapped and a hand now slammed into his neck.
"Stop, Jaggerjaques." Hashwald kept him pinned with one hand as he drew a strap across his neck. He felt panic then, at being completely immobilized.
"You gonna kill me?" he hissed, arms and legs straining futility against the straps.
"Yes," Hashwald answered bluntly and withdrew. Someone else stepped in and began sticking cathodes onto his chest. He watched a monitor spring to life, showing his rapid heartbeat.
"And the Kurosakis? Did you take them away to be killed too?"
"Not yet."
"YOU FUCK!"
"Shut up, Jaggerjaques." He came back into view, wheeling a trolley over to him. Grimmjow eyed the machine. It had two coiling cords and flat paddles with handles. Hashwald flipped a switch and the machine hummed to life. Grimmjow couldn't fathom what it was, but since it would only take a scalpel to the neck to end him, he figured torture would come before death.
"So it was all a lie?" he asked. "All this was just some way for you to get revenge or something?"
"Not at all, espada. Everything I said was the truth—everything except the part where you get to survive all this."
The machine beeped. Hashwaled grabbed hold of the two paddles and squirted a gel over them.
"What is that?"
"Just lay still."
"WHAT IS IT?"
He rubbed the two paddles against one another. Everyone around the table drew back a step.
"See you on the other side, Jaggerjaques. CLEAR!"
Cold metal slammed down against his skin. Grimmjow's whole body jolted, and then it went still.
"What is this?" Grimmjow pressed his hands againt white tile. He'd somehow fallen from the gurney onto the floor, despite all the restraints. His vision was off. There was severe pain in his chest. He winced as he tried sitting up.
Everyone was still in the room. They were all watching him intensely. He heard a high pitched noise and looked up. The monitor next to the bed showed only a straight green line now, instead of the frantic spikes that had shown his fast heartbeat earlier.
Now he felt nothing beating in his chest, just pain.
"Shit."
He turned around and saw Hashwald. He was still standing at the gurney, just now setting the paddles down. Grimmjow blinked in confusion, because he saw a body on the bed, still strapped down and the body looked a lot like him.
"What is happening?"
"He's still human," someone said. "He's not an espada."
"It's to be expected," another chimed in.
"Just take the readings!" Hashewald screamed at them. They went to work at once, scanning the air around them, while Hashwald approached Grimmjow.
Grimmjow tried to push him away but he was disoriented. He couldn't escape the hands that clamped around his arms and pulled him up. Hashwald steadied him with one hand and reached to his chest with the other.
"AHH!" Grimmjow screamed in agony as it felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. He fell against Hashwald and stared down, seeing a pale hand wrapped around the chain attached to his chest.
"Come here." Hashwald instructed someone holding a device. "What is it? What does it say?"
"It's unclear."
"Take the reading from here." His hand tightened on the chain again. Grimmjow tried to grab Hashwald's wrist, make him stop, but Hashwald pulled harder. Grimmjow screamed again and lost the ability to stand. Hashwald lowered him to the floor and pinned him there. "Keep scanning," he said above him and pulled again on Grimmjow's soul chain.
He saw black and white and red. He screamed until his lungs lost all air. Hashwald was relentless, tearing at that gap in Grimmjow's chest until the scientist next to him started babbling something excitedly.
The agony ended. He was left gasping on his back, still coming to grips with the fact he was in his soul form—human soul form.
"It's there!" The person was saying. "It's inside of him. He still has it, he still has hollow energy."
"Is it enough?"
"Yes. It's just like you predicted. A thousand souls forged into one. He'll able to restart Hueco Mundo."
"Excellent."
"That is, if you start his heart again."
"Of course."
Grimmjow couldn't move from the floor. He just watched as Hashwald moved back over to the table and picked up the paddles again.
Grimmjow watched metal meet his chest, and then the white room disappeared.
Getting pretty close...a few chapters left the next couple might be shorter than normal, I'm not sure how to break my chapters up for the ending so they might not be as long as normal. We'll see! Thanks for the reviews and sticking with this story!
Riza