Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any of its forms, but if I did, Rangikyu would stop prostituting herself and marry Gin (My reason Gin defected)

In the event that you are displeased with my level of skill, please, don't hesitate to send a Review. I will use the best of my skills to reply to each one, but in the event that things are getting repetitive, then I will make an area in my Authors note to comment on it.Please note that this is my first official FanFiction, so please go easy on me.

I give thanks to my first friend on this site, Pehpig, who helped me get things ready.

~Grimmjow~

Grimmjow walked into the blazing sky of the Soul Society. The sun wasn't real, just like the one Aizen had made in Las Noches, because vitamin D wasn't needed for Souls. The only purpose it made was to let the citizens see, only here, night also passed for Souls to sleep.

He felt a Shinigami's presence appear behind him. Instinctively, he whipped his body and moved to slash his zanpakuto through the unknown spirit.

"Calm down." A voice called behind him now. The soul must have shunpo-ed behind him before he could draw his sword. He then remembered that his zanpakuto had been confiscated.

"Don't worry, your usual senses will kick on soon enough, your body is just weak after the experimental surgery we gave you before you woke up." The man said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Furious, Grimmjow reached out and grabbed the man's collar, twisting it across his neck. "And pray tell, just WHAT did you do to me?"

The man simply scoffed as Grimmjow let go. He pulled out what looked like a weird cucumber with a red button on the end by his thumb. "Calm down punk." He pressed the button making Grimmjow feel like he was experiencing twenty ceros being fired in his skull followed by them bouncing around the confines of his brain.

When he finally got back up from the pain, the man had a cigarette in his mouth. "Tha...Tha..."

"That... was one of Captain Mayuri's more useful inventions. If the trial run works, trial run being you, then we may be able to rehabilitate Arrancars and transform them into powerful soldiers." He shoved the cucumber back into his pocket. "Now come along, we don't wanna keep Mayuri-San waiting."

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~

Grimmjow kicked a piece of broken stone as they walked. He was feeling more helpless than he was back in that court room.

He looked over and stared furiously into the Shinigami's face. Those blue eyes should be emitting a peaceful aura, but rather, they shown as dull as lead.

They were almost grey. It was as if he was hollow inside, no spark.

His hair was blond also, and with their first greeting, Grimmjow was sure that he was a Nazi in his human life. Grimmjow was already dead by the time Nazi Germany started WWII, but he had watched plenty during his Hollow days.

"You're burning a hole in my head, or so they say." He said, which took Grimmjow aback.

"Hmph, what do you mean, 'They Say'?" Grimmjow scoffed back, trying both to read him more, and get him to show some emotion.

"Well, I don't know what to say personally, I learned what to say by listening to others."

"So, what, you say, 'so they say' after every quote that you hear?"

"Correct."

"Don't you have anything to say that's original?"

"No. Sorry."

The conversation got quiet after that. Grimmjow felt confused about how he felt towards this guy. Compared to his earlier rage, Grimmjow felt more sympathy towards the Shinigami.

"We're here." The Shinigami nonchalantly commented. Grimmjow stared for a bit at the building in front of them. Apart from the small, renovations that decorated the outside, the only thing different about this building was the Kanji above the big doors. Grimmjow couldn't read Kanji, or Hiragana for that matter, but he figured that it must have been some kind of address that helped Shinigami find their way.

"What's your name anyway? I can't just call you Shinigami."

"If you must know, my name is Unkei. Now then, follow me, please."

As they entered the building, Grimmjow realized that they were in a Research & Development sector. It reminded him of a time when he had to deliver the body of a particular Arrancar to Szayel. He remembered getting chewed out for scratching the finger as he carried it down Las Noches's halls.

"Welcome Arrancar! Please, come this way and let me analyze (experiment on) your body." Grimmjow shuddered at the subtext as he turned to see what was creepier than Szayel on Happy Hour in Las Noches.

He saw a man whose face was completely covered in make-up (He remembered that this guy was the one who had led his interrogation). His hands were covered in a corpse's blood, and he could swear that there was more blood on him than what was left inside the corpse.

"Please, lay down in the operation bed. I want to see how well my little baby is doing in its new environment."

Grimmjow hesitated, but when Mayuri pulled out the weird cucumber, he reluctantly walked over and got on the raised bed. As he relaxed down, locks instantly formed around his neck, wrists, and ankles.

"Hey!" Grimmjow screamed, struggling to break free from the shackles.

"Relax idiot, god, you're as bad as Uryuu was back in Hueco Mundo. The surgery will bring some sudden incidents of pain, so I installed these cuffs to help keep you from interfering with my work." Mayuri groaned, reaching over and grabbed a set of long tweezers and a scalpel off a tray held by a young woman.

The woman had a vacant expression that seemed to show that she was used to such debacles. She had a nice rack, but her dull face reduced her attractiveness. At least by Grimmjow's standards.

"Hello brother, how has your day been?" the woman asked, giving a short bow in Unkei's direction, being careful not to disrupt the balance of the tray holding operating utensils.

Unkei gave a short bow in return, "Peaceful, sister Nemu, it has been full of breeze shooting, or so they say."

Nemu gave a soft giggle held in with her free hand over her mouth. "I believe you meant to say that you've been shooting the breeze all day. You must learn to phrase your quotes more correctly. Also, call me either Sister, or Nemu-chan. 'Sister' is only given as a title when one is a female member of a Catholic Monastery."

"Yes, and seeing as this isn't a church and Unkei isn't my son, neither of you should call each other sister or brother." Mayuri slapped a dirty scalpel on the tray and grabbed a little flashlight as he used his tweezers to open the incision into Grimmjow's skull. "Hmm, no signs of any physical deterioration, hopefully your brutish Spirit Pressure won't injure this little guy in the future."

"Little guy?" Grimmjow screamed, fury filling him, "Your 'little' guy just gave me the worst case of migraines ever! And why aren't I under by now!"

"Local anesthesia. Basically it means any pain that should be received due to the operation has been dulled." He reached over and stabbed a scalpel into the back of Grimmjow's hand, resulting in another scream of pain. "But, everywhere else still receives the same amount of pain as it always did."

~Nel~

"I...want...to...live!"

Nel woke up to the same dream like always. She had been having the same dream for the past few nights now. Always ending with the same five words.

She was growing worried. Not because of the dream itself, but because of the voice that followed it with those same five words. It was Nnoitora, she was sure of it.

The only problem was that she wasn't sure if she should pay it any mind. Not only had he caused so much pain in her life, but Pesche and Dondochakka were still angry for what he had done to her.

But she wasn't. Strange huh?

There was something about how self-destructive he was. Maybe she simply felt obliged to be there for him because she didn't want his death on her conscience. Was that why she was having these dreams? Was she guilty that she couldn't save him?

But what about her accident involving his attempt at her life? She almost died after what he did. She almost never returned to who she was. How can you forgive someone for doing that? Hmm?

She remembered a piece of romantic literature that she read once, "True love means unconditional forgiveness." Did she love Nnoitora?

She shoved a her fist into the sand as she recoiled from the thought. How could you love someone who had tried to take your life, anyway?

But the more she thought of him appearing from the shadows of the night, sitting down by the campfire and embracing her in his arms, the more she liked it.

But it was impossible. Nnoitora would sooner slash at her neck then give her a hug.

She looked over and saw Pesche and Dondochakka lying slumped over each other. Could she have simply dreamed it? But the idea only brought her sadness.

Then, out of nowhere, she felt it. Spirit pressure. It was faint, but also powerful. And she knew whose it was. Nnoitora.

But it was impossible! She had seen him die. She remembered the rock in her heart that she had felt, just after he had fallen down dead.

She ran out after it, with hope that he would be there and tell her everything would be alright.

But he wasn't there. All she saw was the same sand that surrounded her campfire. But as she walked, she could feel Nnoitora's spirit pressure envelop her.

She nearly fainted under the pressure and with something catching her ankle, she dropped backwards.

She clutched her ankle, feeling a long gash right above her Achilles tendon. Something had slashed at her foot. She bent over and started feeling the ground until she felt a curved blade protruding from the ground.

Anxious, she began digging around it. The blade began bending as she pulled. And with each pull, she became more and more sure of what it was.

When she finally pulled the weapon out of the sand, her heart raced with excitement. Holding the weapon upright, it rose high above her head. Nnoitora's Crescent Moon-bladed lance.

She embraced the pole, remembering all the battles she'd had against it. The blood from previous battles had dried by now, leaving a crusty black substance on the edges.

Setting the end against the ground, she searched the area around where she found the blade, hoping to find his body, but no such luck. It must have already passed on by now. But why leave his zanpakuto? Was this his way of saying that he was done fighting? Was his sole reason for fighting a means to get killed?

Then she remembered what a zanpakuto symbolized: Conviction. A spirit's strength of will is transferred into the strength of the blade. Nnoitora had left his will behind and kept it here for her.

"Hehe, you even know how to use that hunk of metal, sweet tits?"

Nel's head whipped over only to get kicked square in the side, getting thrown straight into a stone wall that must have been the remains of a building.

She tried to look up at her attacker, but he had already caught up to her, grabbing her by the throat. "Hehe, guess you're just a stupid bimbo huh? Mind spreading those thighs before I eat you?"

Nel groaned with disgust as the Arrancar's long, lizard-like tongue started licking her cheek. Nnoitora never talked that way, and if he'd ever, he wouldn't be so vulgar either.

She adjusted the position of Nnoitora's zanpakuto and used her heel to shove it straight through his tongue.

It was easy, and after she sliced his disgusting tongue off, let go. But she didn't stop there. She let the weight of the blade drop back, letting it land in both hands. Then, with a straight, downward stroke, she brought it down on his skull.

She had intended to slash down his torso, but she wasn't used to the length of the weapon.

The Arrancar lay dead as a doornail. Even Nnoitora admitted that a sword to the head would kill him. She had to use all her strength just to pry it free from his skull.

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~

"Where'd you go Master Nel?" Dondochakka cried as she returned from the darkness. The sun that Aizen had made never showed itself outside of Las Noches, so pretty much every Arrancar around had good night vision, but when you're near a campfire, you can't help but get adjusted.

"Is that what I think it is?" Pesche asked, gesturing towards Nnoitora's zanpakuto.

"Please don't, Pesche. I'm not in the mood."

"Alright, I just hope you know what you're doing."

"You don't trust me?"

"Nah. You've done enough right by me."

"Good! Now pass me some of that water if you're done with it."

But, invisible to Nel's eyes, Pesche gave a worried look. He had known the she had had feelings for Nnoitora back before he hand nearly killed her. He hadjust hoped that her feelings had subsided after that.

"Where do you think we should go now, Master Nel?"

Author's Note: Yeah, Sorry it took so long, my mom had confiscated my iPod and my Computer, so I couldn't work on the series. But here it is, back for more.