I'm more or less done. The story is written out, I will be spending the next little while editing and reviewing. I will continue to post, hopefully one every day or two, depending on the time I have and whether I'm at my computer. I have some time off coming up, but that means I'll be without a computer for most of it. But rest assured, this story DOES have an ending, and you will get to see it, barring disaster. There are 32 chapters total to this story, plus an epilogue, provided I don't write an additional scene.

Chapter 21

Vellena woke to the unfamiliar feeling of something pinning her down. Something warm and heavy was draped across her chest, curling against one breast. Another heavy thing was strewn across her legs. She shifted just slightly, and opened her eyes as the things pinning her down moved slightly in return, gripping her breast briefly.

Unfamiliar room. Unfamiliar bed. Familiar reiatsu beside her. She turned her head in the darkness to face whatever was holding her down and saw Grimmjow's face, slack and relaxed in sleep. Remembered the night before, his command to stay. She had stayed.

Asleep, his fierce beauty was still striking. He looked so young, even though she was sure he was not. His face was smooth, perfect and unscarred, the skin around his eyes marked with bright blue smudges reminiscent of an oddly-coloured jungle cat. His wild blue hair framed him appealingly. Even the jawbone didn't seem out of place, merely an odd accessory. She noted with a little amusement that he was making a faint, but definite, purring sound. That purr got suddenly louder with his exhalation, then stopped abruptly as those blue eyes cracked open.

Sleep-dilated pupils readjusted, focusing on her. There was a subtle change in his expression. 'You stayed!' his eyes said. "Mornin,'" his mouth said. The hand on her chest got a little more deliberate in its groping. He yawned hugely and stretched, tendons creaking, muscles rippling. She felt an unexpected surge of attraction at the sight.

She pushed herself up to into a sit and absently ran a hand through her hair. Grimmjow sat up, brow twitching in frustration as he attempted to use the arm that was no longer there before remembering it was gone. She tried to ignore the sight of his bandaged stump, tried to suppress the wrenching feeling of wrongness missing left arm invoked. It's not like she hadn't seen someone missing limbs before.

…But those had been due to war wounds that the healers hadn't got to in time, not taken in some twisted form of punishment… Aizen had permitted that, maybe even sanctioned that.

Think of something else.

"You hungry?" he asked as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"Not yet." She replied.

"Me neither. I ate last night. I guess you did too." He gave her a leer. It seemed the raw edge of his inner pain, his self-pity, had been dulled. There were still traces of anger, loss, sadness and shame in him, which he was attempting to disguise with a nonchalant, smug demeanor. She accepted both the front and the underlying emotions – it seemed the worst was past and he could get over it. She was suddenly glad he'd said that single word last night, stopping her from going back to her own rooms.

"Hey, is that an actual smile?" he asked her in a teasing tone.

"I guess it is," she said lightly. He offered a smug grin before standing and walking towards his door. She watched his shapely buttocks as he walked. They looked good. The scar where the symbol of his rank had been did not look as good. Her eyes dropped for a moment.

"I'm going to get a shower. Feel free to join me," he said as he reached the door, looking over his shoulder back at her.

That sounded like fun.

***

Sometime later they were back in his room, freshly washed and towel dried. She dressed in silence, politely ignoring him while he cursed and tried to fumble into his clothing one-handed. She was sure if she acknowledged his one-handed status, or worse, attempted to help, he would be furious. And hurt. So she pretended like nothing was different. Eventually he got his clothes on and slid his sword through his sash.

"Alright, I guess it's time we got to training you." He said when he had finished.

"What?" she tilted her head at him. Had she heard right? "Training?"

"Yeah. Aizen thinks you can learn some of our abilities." He said. "I agree. I think you should at least learn sonido, and how to stay in the air. You could have used that last night, when that guy's Bankai got you."

Yeah, she could have used the ability to stand on air, last night, when that guy's… Bankai was it? When that guy's Bankai got her. Sonido, she gathered, was the fast movement technique. She'd like that, a lot. Her weakest point was her lack of range. Being able to pop around at high speed would do a lot to negate that.

"What was that, by the way? Was that even his sword?" she asked.

He looked a little surprised at her lack of knowledge. "Do you know what zanpakutō are?" he asked. When she shook her head, he rattled this hilt of his sword.

"This is my zanpakutō, Pantera. It holds a portion of my power; it's part of me. It's what makes me arrancar. When I release it, I get a lot stronger. Shinigami also have zanpakutō, though theirs are different. Theirs are almost separate entities, separate but still part of them. They release the power in their zanpakutō different from arrancar – their sword gets more powerful." He explained. When she nodded for him to continue, he went on. "They have three states. The first state, the unreleased state, it's just a weapon. The second state is called Shikai. It gets some new abilities, usually changes shape." He said. She recalled when her opponent's sword had changed into a sword-whip.

"Yeah," she said. "And the last is Bankai?"

"The last is Bankai. It's usually huge." He paused, as if considering something. "Usually, anyway. Not every shinigami has a Bankai. Usually it takes them years of training, and only the most powerful, those who are captain class have it. That guy, for him to have a Bankai, means he was one of the best." He said.

That thing had been… formidable. She supposed it was lucky that they were so rare.

"You're pretty good if you could face that. As good as one of the Espada, maybe. Definitely better than números." He said. "Let's go. I want to teach you how to use sonido at least today. Keep the armour off, though. You don't need that."

She shrugged. "I need to repair it before I wear it again. It got pretty beat up when that snake grabbed me." She admitted. He made a short bark of laughter and rapped the empty air, tapping open a garganta.

"We're not walking to the training room?" she asked as she stepped into the portal.

"Not today. We're going to the dome. We need space." They walked through the passageway, finally stepping out into an expanse of sand… and blue sky?

She gazed around. Something was wrong. There was sky, there were clouds… but none of them were moving. And she couldn't see a sun. "This is an illusion," she said.

"Yeah. Looks pretty real though. Aizen had it made, don't know why. Kind of a weird thing to put in the world of eternal night. Oh well." He shrugged. "There's lots of space here." He walked forward a few yards, then turned to face her. She went to draw her swords, and he made a dismissive gesture. "No weapons today. Just sonido."

"What is this sonido?" She asked, hands leaving the hilts.

"It's how we travel fast. Shinigami have something similar, but I don't know what they call it." It was as she'd thought. He changed the subject. "You're getting good at sensing reiatsu – can you show me your reiatsu again?" he asked.

She nodded briefly, then focused. It was easier, it seemed, the more she did it. Letting it flow felt similar to the way letting the residual power of runic magic build up felt. Except she didn't need to burn runes to do it. It came from within her. And where rune energy always felt so metallic, this felt… bloody. Dark. She chalked it up to being undead, and wondered what it would have felt like if she was still a priestess of Elune.

"Good." Grimmjow said, interrupting her thoughts. She looked at him. "Pull it in around you more, close to your body."

Pull it in while she was pushing it out? Well… ok… Her brows furrowed in concentration. The energy around her fluctuated, surging out then flickering, then surging again. She tried to get it under control and it vanished entirely. She heard him sigh.

"Ok, this is going to take a while. Try again." He said, sounding like the attempt at patience was an entirely new thing for him. It probably was.

She tried again.

By the end of the day, she had started to grasp the beginnings of sonido, but it would clearly take her longer than that to get it down. Grimmjow was alternately bored, frustrated, and exaggeratedly patient, perking up with interest whenever it seemed like she might be making progress. When he finally told her to call it for the day, she was a little relieved. This was more exhausting than she had anticipated.

"Let's go back. I'm hungry." He said.

"Yeah," she agreed. He raised his hand to tape open the garganta, and she shook her head. "I want to walk. I want to learn my way around."

He gave her an odd look. "Fine, whatever. Gin keeps changing the corridors though. And it's a long walk." He said with a shrug, stuffing his hand in his pocket and starting to walk. She followed.