Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach; Tite Kubo does. I do, however, own this story.

Torn

Chapter 22: Blackheart

Soi Fon did not usually feel emotion during battle; the years of grueling SMC training had all but ground that potential weakness out of her. As she traded blows with a brainwashed Grimmjow, however, the Soul Reaper felt her strikes alternately stiffen and slacken as apprehension and desperation ripped her normally steely resolve to pieces.

"Damn it, Grimmjow!" she cursed as another hard attack crashed against her zanpakuto. "I don't want to have to break your arms, but if you don't stop this I'll have no other choice!"

"You will have to break every bone in his body if you want the onslaught to cease," Zommari taunted. "I do not care what condition his body is in; if it can strike, I will make it strike."

"Shut up!" The Captain growled, trying to force the puppet-master Espada from her head and focus on the battle at hand. As Jaegerjaques' blade bit deep into her shoulder, Soi Fon realized that she was going to have to go on the offensive or face the possibility of being worn down and killed outright.

"Shunko!"

She didn't want to risk killing Grimmjow with Suzumebachi, so Soi Fon would have to settle for the blunt force trauma of shunko. Hopefully, Yoruichi-sama's signature attack would succeed in knocking the former Espada out cold without killing him.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to unleash one of your abilities," Leroux's even voice floated over again. "Very well; allow me to even the score."

Grimmjow's hand jerked up and rested on his zanpakuto, which began to glow blue as he focused and spoke.

"Grind…"

Before Jaegerjaques could finish the words, Soi Fon struck out instinctively and bruised the blue-eyed Arrancar's windpipe; this rendered him temporarily mute, but despite the necessity of the attack regret shone deeply in her expression.

"Ah, so I see you are not without ingenuity," The Sixth Espada commented with a sliver of a compliment in his voice. "Still, there are other weapons this feral possesses that do not require his voice. Allow me to demonstrate, Soul Reaper."

A condensed, swift and lethal sphere of red energy screamed towards Soi Fon's head as Grimmjow shot off a single bala. She rolled quickly to the side and dodged it, only to find herself face-to-face with her opponent when she rose back up to her feet. Making sure not to put her full strength behind her punches and kicks, Soi Fon used the explosive power of her shunko to drive Grimmjow backwards without wounding him fatally.

Unfortunately, her opponent was not fighting with such restraint in mind. Jaegerjaques moved with a surprising amount of ferocity considering the nature of his attacks, and each strike carried his full strength behind it. Soi Fon bit back a curse as she came to terms with what had to be done, knowing that she had to incapacitate Grimmjow entirely if she wanted to be able to focus on fighting the Espada instead and ending this sick, twisted battle for good.

Reaching out and intercepting the blue-eyed Arrancar's latest punch, Soi Fon poured the chaotic energy of shunko into Grimmjow's arm and let it do the rest, completely shattering the bone with force that would have blown the arm itself to kingdom come if the Captain hadn't been holding back. The only sign that Grimmjow felt anything was a slight narrowing of his eyes for a brief moment; a lack of emotion that made Soi Fon's anger spike even higher. Letting wrath at the domineering, multi-eyed Espada fuel her attacks, the warrior made short work of her opponent's three remaining limbs. After sparing a short, sorrowful glance down at Jaegerjaques' prone, broken body, Soi Fon turned her smoldering onyx gaze on a smiling Zommari.

"I did not think you could be so ruthless towards someone willing to so selflessly sacrifice himself for your protection, Captain," the Sixth Espada taunted. "Clearly, your reputation as a frigid blackheart is not wrongfully earned."

The words stung Soi Fon deeply, but rather than let her rage make her careless, the Captain used it to focus herself even more sharply. The wild, crackling energy of the shunko surrounding her condensed further and further until it covered her arms and legs like armor forged from terrifyingly potent and barely-restrained white lightning. Vanishing with a flash-step so fast it created a localized sonic boom in her wake, Soi Fon called out her shikai without the command and slammed the point of Suzumebachi into Leroux's back. She smirked with satisfaction as a black homonka spread over his skin at the point of impact, but before she could complete her technique with a second jab the Espada disappeared with a buzz.

Feeling his reiatsu emerge behind her, Soi Fon struck out with her leg. The fluid movement sent a bolt of raw kido energy hurling towards the Arrancar and disrupted his attack, allowing the Captain to remain on the offensive. She made sure to move constantly and erratically in order to minimize the threat of Zommari's many eyes, but always kept her focus trained on the spot specified by the black butterfly marking that contrasted sharply against white flesh. Just as she was about to erase this bastard once and for all, though, Leroux delivered a vicious backhand slap right to her face and sent Soi Fon tumbling through the air. Righting herself sharply in mid-flight, the Captain threw her hands out in front of her and spoke harshly.

"Bakudo number 30: Shitotsu Sansen!"

The three beams of energy lanced forward with a shriek and slammed into their hapless, now-panicking prey.

"What is this devilry?" the Arrancar snarled as he was pinned into a nearby wall and held there, thrashing in his bindings for a few moments in vain before Soi Fon flashed in front of him, intent on ending this infuriating brawl once and for all.

"The last thing you'll ever see, you bastard," she hissed, jabbing the point of her shikai viciously into her opponent's chest. Suzumebachi didn't strike the same superficial point twice, but that didn't matter: as the zanpakuto made contact with the same part of Zommari's lung that her initial attack had wounded, the Espada vanished into thin air with a disgraceful scream. After Soi Fon had spat a stream of dark blood onto the spot her enemy had occupied in a show of blatant disrespect for the departed, she turned keenly anxious eyes to face Grimmjow as his sprawled-out form was dragged back to consciousness. After a few moments, he lifted his head up as high as he could in his face-down position and gave Soi Fon a surprisingly even stare.

"What happened to me, Shaolin?" he half-rasped though his still-healing windpipe, and the Captain was suddenly seized with the impulse to laugh with childish glee as she realized that Grimmjow was all right. He was free from that lunatic's control, he wasn't dead and after a few days of rest, he would be as good as new.

"Trust me, Grimmjow," she said as seriously as she could through the crushing waves of relief, "you don't want to know."

"I can't feel my—anything, Shaolin. Really, what happened?"

The Captain scooped up her weakened comrade into her arms and told him what had transpired during the battle as she flash-stepped towards Urahara's Shop. By the time she had finished her tale, Jaegerjaques' expression was a particularly pathetic combination of petulant, wounded and that twinge that always seemed to cross an alpha male's face when their ego was bruised.

"Hey, you can't say I didn't warn you," Soi Fon tried to console him, but if anything that made the look on Grimmjow's face even more glowering.

"That's not how it works, woman," he snapped weakly with what strength he could muster from his sapped body. "I protect you, not the other way around."

Shaolin's concerned gaze turned wrathful on a dime, her onyx eyes smoldering.

"If you're insinuating that I'm incapable of taking care of myself, you bastard," she hissed, "I'll just drop you right here and let you crawl your way to Urahara's. Is that what you want?"

When the Captain turned her gaze back down to glare at the man in her arms, though, she saw that he had passed out and was breathing softly, a surprisingly peaceful look on his face as he slumbered. Suddenly it felt to Soi Fon like she had gotten sucker-punched by Captain Komamura in the back of the head as the world around her faded into blackness and was supplanted, once again, by a memory.

He looked so calm lying on his cot that she hated herself for waking him up. But the overlord of their orphanage, Mr. Shiya, had demanded that the two of them enter his office immediately and that was that, even if it was midnight or one in the morning. Shaking him gently, Shaolin looked down into hazily blinking blue eyes and spoke softly but urgently.

"Grimmjow, get up!"

"Whu—Shaolin?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes once before rolling over halfway and beginning to settle back to sleep. "If you'd wanted to have some fun, you should'a woken me up earlier…" he trailed off, and his friend's eyes narrowed in annoyance as her right hand slipped under his covers, crawled its way down his body and jabbed at the sensitive spot right under his ribcage on the side of his chest.

Grimmjow bolted up awake like he'd been bitten in the ass by a pitbull, gasping for breath while his companion couldn't completely fight back a chuckle at the sight.

"Yeah, yeah; laugh it up, you little wasp," Jaegerjaques groused, focusing himself with a mighty effort and sighing. "So what is it now?"

All traces of humor left the young woman's face in an instant as she replied.

"Shiya wants to see us," she answered tersely, and Grimmjow's expression clouded over as well.

"God damn it," he cursed as the blue-haired young man swung over the side of the bed and rose swiftly, not even bothering to put on a shirt and causing Shaolin to wonder if the temperature in the room had just spiked by five degrees as her skin flushed rapidly.

"C'mon," Grimmjow grunted disdainfully, "let's just get this over with."

As it turned out the overlord of the orphanage had grown tired of the pair of malcontents, convinced by now that no one was ever going to adopt the young adults who were already in their late teens and wondering why he had kept two extra mouths around to feed for such an unnecessarily long time anyway. And so, just as rain began to pour in buckets from the dark thunderclouds overhead and the clock chimed twice in the dark of night, Grimmjow and Shaolin found themselves standing out in front of the building that had seen as a prison for most of their lives.

Shocked at finally being set free as their minds raced with possibilities and their blood sang with joy, the pair got over their euphoria long enough to dash under the cover of a nearby awning before Shaolin leapt into Grimmjow's arms, wrapped her legs tightly around his waist and kissed him with all of her might.

They were still together despite all of the rocky times the orphanage had thrown at them over the years, and now they were free. As they broke apart and caught their breath, the onyx-eyed young woman seemed troubled by her thoughts. Wordlessly nudging her with a gaze, Jaegerjaques coaxed the slightly trembling words from his best friend.

"What are we going to do, Grimmjow?" she asked. "Where are we going to stay?"

"I don't know about that first question, kid," he answered confidently as ever, his eyes sliding over for a moment to take in the interior of the building they were right next to, "but right here looks like a good place to stay for now. You okay with that?"

"Of course I am, you idiot," Shaolin shot back, her dark eyes flaring with strength once again as she smirked and punched her companion on the arm.

"I trust you."

Soi Fon shot out of the memory with a startled blink as a voice called out to her, shaking her head sharply and realizing that she had flashed all the way to the Urahara Shop while blacked out. Allowing herself a small, self-satisfied smirk at the feat, the Captain soon found herself face-to-face with the concrete pillar of a man who was none other than Tessai Tsukabishi.

"Please, Captain Soi Fon," he asked with the air of someone who was repeating himself, "give the Arrancar to me, and I will begin working on him right away."

"He has a name," the onyx-eyed Soul Reaper said with subtle venom as she reluctantly handed over her comrade while trying to force down the unexpected wave of anxiety that threatened to crush her. "His name is Grimmjow."

The former Kido Corps Captain gave Soi Fon an odd look from behind his glasses but said nothing, turning and walking swiftly back towards the Shop carrying Jaegerjaques. The Second Division Captain stood alone out in the small clearing, puzzling over what she had just seen and experienced. She had been seeing memories in her dreams and sometimes when awake for days now, but that had been the most vivid one yet.

How deeply had they been bonded in this past life that the memories showed to her one piece at a time? More importantly, what had been strong enough to drive them apart?

A/N: I'm not dead! Sorry that took so long, ladies and gentlemen, but schoolwork and a heinous, soul-crushing case of writer's block stymied even my most valiant efforts to get this story back up off the ground until now.

Who jolted me out of this deepest of funks, you ask? It was none other than my incredible beta, MatsuMama, who's the sort of person writers dream about having around to help them through tough spots like this one. Major kudos to you, my friend, and I can't put the magnitude of my thanks into words for fear sounding like a squeeling, pre-pubescent fanboy. You rock.

The updates should be coming faster now (I can't promise daily, because I have work to do, but it shouldn't be two weeks-plus like this one was. Again, apologies).

And for anyone who cares to know, the next chapter will be predominantly Hichigo and Orihime focused, as we explore the rapport (or lack thereof) that is developing (or not) between them. Hope to see you there, and as always, please review!