One Day Remaining
The clock chimed softly on the wall. Everyone gathered in the living room knew the implications. Four days exactly since the declaration made by the Vandereich in the First Division. This meant they had only 24 hours until the attack on Soul Society began. Looking out on the slowly warming sky, it seemed an impossible task to make any sort of difference now.
But everyone looked up when Orihime entered, Halibel at her back. The third espada was now fully healed, it was all they had needed.
"I still think this is reckless," Rukia murmured, straightening her zanpakuto on her hip.
"It is." Urahara agreed. "But Halibel is going back to do what she can, and I for one, think it is our best chance of preventing more lost lives."
Ichigo did not jump on this opportunity to tell Rukia and Renji he'd been right. Instead he looked at them both very seriously.
"You don't have to come, you know. I mean, maybe you should be with your squads."
"Of course we should be, idiot. But if there is even the slightest chance we could stop the attack we have to go." Renji barked.
"That's not what you were saying earlier."
"That's because we didn't have her." He nodded to Halibel. As suspicious as he was, she seemed sincere in her hatred of the Vandenreich and she had incredibly valuable insight into Las Noches and the enemy's operations. If they let her go on her own now, they would lose the one advantage they had found.
"Ready yourselves," Halibel instructed.
The Soul Reapers nodded.
"Ichigo..." Orihime caught his arm. "I want to go with you."
"I need you to look after Grimmjow and Nel for me. Uryu and Chad are going to stay with you as well."
"What?"
"It's not safe," Uryu explained, "we don't know that the Vandenreich won't return for Grimmjow, or that he won't lose it and attack you."
"Oh..." She still looked like she wanted to protest but didn't because looking at the group, she knew she would slow them down.
"It will be alright, Orihime. I will come back, I promise."
"Okay, Ichigo."
Renji stepped forward, putting a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, "we have to go."
"Right." The soul reapers followed Halibel outside. Orihime ran up to Ichigo's bedroom to watch them vanish but was startled to find Grimmjow sitting bolt upright, Nel clenched against his chest unconsciously and his eyes fixed on something in the night sky.
"Dammit!" Uryu swore running up to the window and seeing the Vandenreich hovering in the darkness. The Soul Reapers spotted him and a brief fight ensued, but the soldier vanished quickly.
"A Scout..." Grimmjow spoke in the darkness and Nel gasped, gripping tight to his arm.
"What do you mean?" Orihme asked.
Nel looked back at her. "More are coming."
"The count down was to an attack on Soul Society- not the human world." Urahara reasoned, back in the house. "No doubt they plan to take over this city in the next twenty four hours and then travel into the Soul Society. They must know the properties of this city, they plan to use it's power against the Soul Reapers. Dammit, if we'd left-"
"We didn't." Rukia intoned. "But that Scout...why would he let himself be seen like that?"
"To divide your forces." Halibel answered quickly. "You will send more over here, and weaken the defences on Soul Society."
"How do you know?" Renji asked.
"It's what Aizen did."
They all fell silent at this. That is, except for one hollow voice.
"He doesn't want this world, only the few beings with power in it." They were all startled to hear Grimmjow's voice. His spiritual pressure had become something so foreign it hardly registered with them and they had no warning of his arrival. He stood on the stairs, Nel next to him, her hand wrapped in his pant leg.
"How do you know this?" Urahara questioned.
"You are all looking at this emotionally. I don't have to worry about that. This is the most rational conclusion."
"Grimmjow..." Halibel looked him over, "I don't think we can trust you. The way you are now, you could be easily swayed by the enemy into acting on his behalf."
"No, Halibel." Grimmjow protested. "I told you, I remember our allegiance."
"But you have no motivation to uphold it- no sense of loyalty or honour any more."
"The Vandenreich took half of me the last time I was with them. It does not make any sense to return to them."
"Well, let's assume he's right," Urahara said, "perhaps they simply don't want any lose ends when they start their war- no surprises. Getting rid of every person in this house would ensure that."
"My dad..." Ichigo said, "he took the girls away for Karin's soccer tournament."
"I will have Tessai send him a warning." Urahara assured. "but the rest of us must prepare now, they may come for us at any time."
"Nel is scared." the arrancar child whispered up to Grimmjow. "Hold her."
They watched him obey. He may speak logic and reason but he was still so empty inside that he followed their every command. It was a concern that the Vandenreich would control him again, even if he denied it.
"Grimmjow was his first reborn soldier," Halibel said, "he was watching him closely and will probably want him back. And when he discovers that Inoue was able to partition the trauma that made him an unstable soldier, he will no doubt desire her as well."
"And you, Halibel," Grimmjow added. "He wants your power."
"I think we all understand," Renji said, unsheathing his sword, "We have to stand firm, together."
"Grimmjow, come over here." Halibel commanded him. "I don't want to let you out of my sight." Child in arms, he moved next to her.
"Halibel," he said when he was at her side, his voice suddenly seeming to fill with an awareness of that emptiness inside him again, "don't let him do this to you."
She looked him over, they all noticed the change in him between pure rational to desperate and pain-filled.
"It's okay," Ichigo assured, stepping forward and putting a hand on his shoulder, "we're all going to fight, we'll protect each other."
But the former espada jerked back from his touch and they all felt the flare in his spiritual pressure.
"Grimmjow?" Nel asked in his arms, feeling them tighten about her and seeing the change in his features.
When he didn't respond Halibel looked between her ally and the teen Soul Reaper. Her intelligent eyes seamed to search him for something and then her hand darted to her side. She gripped the handle of her zanpakuto and her eyes narrowed as if she had just come to some conclusion.
"Is it possible?" she asked herself, stepping forward to Grimmjow and releasing a concentrated burst of her own spiritual pressure.
"Stop it." he tried to move away from her but she swooped forward catching him by one shoulder.
"Come here." She commanded of Ichigo and he cautiously stepped forward, not sure what was going on.
"Halibel stop!" Grimmjow cried out, his arms letting go of Nel and shooting up to push Halibel back. The child slid to the ground at his feet but even with both hands on Halibel's arm he could not dislodge her.
"So...it's not just the child." Halibel spoke with confidence while Grimmjow seemed to be experiencing some sort of panic attack. It was the most emotion he'd shown since Halibel had gone to see him and the same conclusion that must have struck her was now donning on them all.
"What's happening to him?" Ichigo asked, seeing Grimmjow shaking now, his attempts to escaped Halibel's hold weakening. The Third looked sideways at him and shot out her free hand to grab him as well.
"Grimmjow," She drew him against her while still holding onto Ichigo.
"I can't do this Halibel..." Grimmjow's resistance faded completely and now he leaned against her like his own legs wouldn't hold him. "this feeling-" She let more of her spirit pour out and he nearly dropped, her arm around him was the only thing that kept him from falling. His own hands shot around her for support and they all heard him gasp out in utter suffering, his face hidden against her shoulder but the sound of near sobbing clear.
"Stop it!" Ichigo protested. "What are you doing to him?"
"Yeah, leave Grimmjow alone!" Nel seconded, but those who were standing back, who could read their auras, were simply transfixed by what was happening before them.
"Grimmjow, stay with me." Halibel said. "I have a question for you."
He didn't respond, it didn't look like he was capable and she eased up on the flow of her power and everyone listened to hear what she was going to say.
"Grimmjow, tell me, what do you look like?"
He stiffened in her grasp and slowly withdrew from her enough to see her face. She looked down into startled eyes.
"Tell me the colour of your eyes."
"...blue."
23 hours remaining
"Nel is still the anchor of his soul- without her there wouldn't be enough to build on- but it seems he has left enough impression on Ichigo from their intense battles and on Halibel through their kinship that they now also serve as a way for him to access that part of himself. Given enough time in their presence, he may regain Pantera, though it appears, it will be an emotionally painful process."
Kisuke concluded to those gathered in the living room. They still sat on guard, awaiting the Vandenreich, but what had just happened could not be ignored. After Halibel had established all of this, she had let Grimmjow go and backed away, nearly collapsing herself. Ichigo too, felt inexplicably emotional and realized that because of his attachment to Grimmjow's soul, he must be glimpsing the horror Grimmjow was feeling now, broken as he was. He had no questions now, as to why Halibel seemed so caring for him when close to him yet fairly detached when not in his presence.
"How long would it take?" Rukia asked.
"It is impossible to know." Urahara answered gravely. Maybe years, maybe a day. All we know for sure is that if Grimmjow has any hope of ever recovering, Nel, Ichigo and Halibel must remain alive and uncaptured."
"Well let's try to keep it that way for everyone, okay?" Renji said from where he watched out the window.
"Yes, good idea." Urahara replied. "Have you heard anything from the Soul Society?"
"They agree." Renji spoke into the window. "It is most likely a tactic to divide our forces or perhaps to get us to open a Senkeimon, therefore, no passage between our worlds is permitted."
"Then I am sorry," the old shopkeeper said, "that you and Rukia have gotten trapped here."
"No." the lieutenant of the sixth responded, finally glancing back at them, "we're needed here."
"Yes," Rukia agreed, "we must fight for our friends."
"When are the shadow-men coming?" Nel asked from her perch in Grimmjow's lap. He had reverted to silence once Halibel and Ichigo had backed off and sat on the stairs away from the others. "Nel is sleepy."
"We don't know." Ichigo said, more to the others though, "should we really just wait here? Could we at least move away from my home?"
"We could take the fight to them, in Hueco Mundo." Halibel suggested.
"I considered that myself," Urahara nodded, "but there is a chance there is something more than us in this world they seek and if we were to leave we would leave it virtually undefended."
"Then the shop?" Renji asked.
"Yes, it's as good a place as any to wait, I think." Kisuke agreed standing up. "And remember, stay close to one another."
Ichigo took Orihime, Renji grabbed Chad's arm to carry him through flash step and Halibel took Grimmjow's hand, not sure if he was able to use sodino anymore. The rest moved close together toward the shop.
It had been the moment the Vandenreich were waiting for.
Their first mistake had been letting all three espada travel together. The first strike hit them hardest. Halibel did her best to deflect the shock of power that hit them- cero or quincy manifestation she couldn't tell. She dropped her hold on Grimmjow to counter a second enemy. Behind her Grimmjow stood defenceless, Nel in his arms, making no moves to run or help Halibel.
"Damn." Ichigo saw what was happening but Renji and Chad dropped out right next to them and he saw why a moment later. Both soul reapers had to act to protect the humans in their charge, the enemy moving much faster than either human could track. Blue light flew all around them, they couldn't see much beyond their personal battle but from the weight of spiritual pressure all around, they knew their group was out numbered.
Nel held tight to Grimmjow's arms around her, flinching from the waves of spiritual pressure that struck them from Halibel's battle. But suddenly she saw nothing but white before her, and looking up she cried out, seeing the arm stretched above her and the hand clenched around Grimmjow's throat.
"Grimmjow," the soldier growled out, this one distinctly the leader of the group, a lieutenat, "our Lord is very displeased with you." Without warning he let out a burst of power that sent shock of electric power through Nel via Grimmjow and she fell with a cry to the ground but Grimmjow fell much harder several feet back, a dark burn around his neck where he'd been held. The lieutenant shot over to where he was struggling back to his feet but he didn't show the pain, or any sign of anger.
"Pft," He snorted, taking hold of Grimmjow's arm and hauling him up again, "You are the perfect soldier, aren't you? No pain, no feelings, you don't even defend yourself without being ordered to, do you?"
He backhanded Grimmjow, hard, sending him back to the ground, but once again, the ex-espada just rose, showing no reactions, physical or emotional. The soldier chuckled. "Man, I was pissed when I was told I had to haul your ass back, personally, I would have liked to handle the bitch, but now I think this could be interesting."
"Don't hurt Grimmjow!" Nel whimpered, the initial shock of power had not directly struck Nel but unlike her hero, she was not numb and did feel the pain of it. The soldier ignored her as she limped forward, and struck Grimmjow again."Stop it!" She screeched, watching the man strike out again and again but Grimmjow never doing anything to stop him. The small girl clutched her chest, feeling a swell of power in her body, feeling anger for this creature that would touch her Grimmjow. But still, she was ignored.
"Alright," the lieutenant said, finally bored, and glancing around to see that the Vandenreich were not overtaking their other opponents as easily as planned, "Let's go." He reached to the ground to collect his prey but this time Grimmjow did flinch back.
"I'm not going with you."
"I thought you were brain dead." He pulled Grimmjow up but the other shook out of his grasp.
"I know what the Vandenreich King did to me."
"Oh, so you don't care about these wounds but you do feel the loss of your soul." The soldier mused, considering the beat up man before him. "I'll have to report that back. But now it really is time for us to leave."
"Don't touch him." His hand met a blade and the soldier suddenly fell back clutching the limb. Halibel was hurting, her left leg gushing blood and severe bruising on her back. She'd taken on several of the Vandenreich but after what she'd endured at their hands last time, she would not be easily taken again. However, when four more Vandenreich appeared around them, their chances were not good.
"Give up, witch." The lieutenant, his hand now bleeding profusely, glared down at her. She glanced back and Grimmjow, seeing his wounds, her green eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Coward." She bit out at the soldier and aimed her attack for him. But he didn't have to move a muscle. The four that had appeared all raised their hands as one and blue bangs of light shot out from each of them, wrapping around her body. She screamed. It was hard to tell what was happening to her but they hadn't just immobilized her, they were causing her great pain.
"Now, Grimmjow, be good, and come with me." He extended his good hand, a blue light flaring to life in the palm, no mistaking the threat.
But there was an unexpected burst of power and the girl that had been forgotten lunged.
The lieutenant smiled.
"Oh yes," he causally reached out and caught the girl mid-air around the throat. "I was warned about you." Her body had been on the verge of transforming but now, struggling to breath that enormous power shrivelled, washing over them before dissipating and the child hung dying in his death grip.
"Let them go." The voice was low, but the menace dripping from it was heard by all. Blue eyes were livid as both female espada suffered before him. The air thick with their powers and their pain, something deep inside him stirred, and though it brought with it his own agony, this time it also brought his primal feeling—anger.
The lieutenant regarded him, but he just smiled and clenched his fist tighter around Nel's throat. "They are nothing to you, anymore, Grimmjow, I thought you understood that."
Halibel screamed again. Nel's grip on her captor's hands fell and her body sagged. And the fury of the man who's soul had been torn from its vessel, exploded from his brutalized body, hitting the atmosphere like thunder, and just as blinding as lightening.
"This is me." Grimmjow threw his thumb back, pointing at his chest. And then he was moving, not flash step, just fluid, logical, calculated motions, and it only took three powerful strikes before he had Nel dislodged and in his arms again. "And this is my soul."
With her so close his fury seemed to grow exponentially, the darkness swirling around him spreading out—that hollowness inside him paralysing the enemy as they felt it themselves. His gaze turned to Halibel and the four restraining her. "And so is she."
One hand still holding Nel, he swept through them like a master teaching his student's lessons. Even in her pain, past the blue glow, Halibel saw his flawless technique and heard him repeating words she'd spoken to him many times.
"You leave your left side open." he informed a Vandenreich as he took him down with a punch to the ribs. He caught the man's blade as he stumbled and without stopping swung it back to finish him.
One band of blue light was gone. The next soldier shot forward.
"You act on emotion." Grimmjow rolled away from the blow meant to kill him with such calmness and ease it looked like a dance and his stolen sword passed through his opponent with hardly a sound. Another band of light disappeared. The next one challenged Grimmjow with a glowing bow.
"You show your fear." He hoisted his sword high, and threw it like a javelin before even a single arrow could be released. Only one band of blue light remained holding her in place now and without even looking at the last of the soldiers, Grimmjow raised his now empty hand and let the cero build. "And you should have run while you had the chance."
The red light shot out and engulfed the last man. Halibel was free but they had sapped her strength and she fell. She did not, however, hit the ground. Instead a hand still hot from cero caught her and held her up against his body.
"And your mistake," Halibel jolted at Grimmjow's voice and realized the lieutenant was still alive. He had his sword raised between bloodied fingers and was staring at them wide-eyed, "Was underestimating your enemy."
The Vandenreich soldier charged them with a cry. Grimmjow stood there, completely calm, watching him rush them. Halibel tensed, thinking maybe he had reverted and was not going to defend himself or them, but the soldier lurched, blood arced through the air at his back and a billow of white robes landed behind him. Urahara flicked the fallen creature's blood from Benehime, the others landing beside him, their own battles now done.
No one seemed to want to break the spell, wanting to see what Grimmjow would do or say, but Halibel slumped further against him and Nel was barely conscious. Ichigo moved forward first but they instantly saw Grimmjow falter. He'd been able to handle the consciousness of his soul from two sources, but a third threatened to push him from barely functional to immobilizing despair. Urahara drew Ichigo back and hurried forward to catch Halibel before she fell completely from his grip and Orihime drew Nel away with her. The spiritual pressure of both female arrancar was weak now and, no longer holding either of them, all fury and feeling left Grimmjow and he just stood there, back to feeling nothing but emptiness.
"Come here," Renji instructed Grimmjow and he moved obediently toward him, Uryu and Chad. They sat him down, taking stock of his wounds, "aren't you in pain?" Renji asked incredulously, especially seeing the raised red skin on his throat but no sign that Grimmjow felt any of it.
"Yes," He answered in that dead voice, "But it's nothing compared to the loss of Pantera."
Uryu's eyes widened. "Pantera. You've always just said your soul. Do you remember him?" He glanced back to make sure the others were not close enough to be influencing him, but Nel and Halibel were both under Orihime's glow now. "Is he getting better?" He asked.
Renji frowned, trying to interpret the dark swirl that was Grimmjow's mutilated aura but couldn't tell if it had changed. "I don't know, Rukia, what do you..." he turned to his side where he expected her to be and just now started to realized what he'd missed after the heat of his own battle. She'd been there, she was fine, their own battles had been rather simple compared to the attack on the espada, and yet, she was not there.
"Rukia?"
Ichigo looked up. He too had been guilty of concentrating on his human friends. He glanced around their group, panicked, seeing the shocked look in Uryu's eyes, the guilt in Renji's and worst, the understanding dawning on Urahara as he felt out with his spiritual pressure.
"They've taken her." He stated betraying his own sense of failure.
"No!" Ichigo stood up. "They were after them," he gestured at the arrancars, "why would they do that?"
"I was the first experiment." Grimmjow answered him. "They plan to do it to the soul reapers. They'll test it on her."
"What?" It was hard to tell who's voice it was, Renji adn Ichigo were both scrambling to strap their swords back in place and look to Urahara.
"We must go now." The old shop keeper didn't hesitate. "Before they..." he glanced over at Grimmjow and found blue eyes shockingly full of pain and fright. The broken espada leaped up, rushing over to Ichigo.
"You can't let them do it." He had him by the shoulders, a look so desperate in his eyes Ichigo almost thought the espada wanted Rukia back more than himself. But it wasn't about her, it was about what the Vandenreich were going to do, about what he was feeling now. "We have to stop them." He stepped back and reached out into the air to open a Garganta. No one moved forward, they all knew that by stepping through they might be doing exactly what the Vandenreich wanted.
"There is less than a day until the attack on Soul Society," Uryu thought aloud, "they can't turn her before that."
"They want us to go through," Urahara concluded. "They want us out of the way before the attack."
"But we have to go!" Renji urged. "I am. It doesn't matter if it's their plan."
"I agree." Ichigo seconded.
"Ichigo..." Orihime looked between him and Renji and then her eyes rested on Grimmjow. He was still beat up, Halibel and Nel were just barely healed under her glow, but he too, was ready to rush in and save her. "I'm coming too." She finished.
With that, the agreement seemed to be made. Halibel rose and moved out of the teen's glow.
"Grimmjow, close that." She instructed. "If we're doing this, we're doing it right."
That's right, even broken, Grimmjow can still be badass! Hope you liked it!
Riza