19 Hours remaining

For all her strength and fury, Halibel could not resist the darkness that crept over her vision, stealing her consciousness. She felt the flare of Nel's power, but even combined, the two female espada couldn't get free of the King's hold. He wasn't interested in them, he wanted to see what would happen between his two reborn soldiers.

"What did you do to him?" the questioned hissed out of the darkness and Halibel managed to hold on to consciousness. "His soul...you can't have found a way to restore Grimmjow's soul." His anger engulfed her like a physical force and when he let her go there was nothing to stop her from falling to the floor. She struck hard, her bone mask making a harsh clank as it met stone tile. She felt Nel fall next to her, also caught up in the king's rage. He remained standing above them, his dark energy washing over them relentlessly, not giving Halibel a second to escape his hold even if the physical restraint was gone. And so she watched with him, as Yammy picked up Grimmjow again.

"Grimmjow, fight back..." Halibel managed and even though he was being lifted off his feet by his opponent, his blue eyes tracked her voice and he saw them both at the monster's feet. He saw the creature that had done this to him and now to Yammy and he saw Nel quaking on the floor, Halibel barely conscious. He didn't feel the anger that normally would fuel him, he couldn't feel anything clearly in the jumbled confusion of his broken mind and soul. But enough of him registered her words and his arms flew up to pry Yammy's hand from his throat. He stumbled back, but Yammy was already on him. They locked together, the first time Grimmjow was ever able to counter him in such a direct manner. He took in Yammy's wasted form, his ruined, soulless aura.

"What will you do, Grimmjow?" The king taunted. It was all a game to him. He'd taken what he wanted from both men already, now he just wanted to see what would happen. "You know you can win this fight if you really want to. But he's your ally, will you kill him?"

"Yammy, stop fighting me." Grimmjow ordered. But there was no effect.

"I've been bathing him in my power since I started, Grimmjow. It's no use, his loyalty is mine now."

"He did this to you!" Grimmjow insisted, straining against Yammy.

"You gave up what he offered, Grimmjow." The other countered.

"I remembered what he did to me." Grimmjow yanked back and grabbed Yammy's wrist. He held out his arm to show those awful wounds. "This is what he did to you!"

"He liberated me."

An elbow caught Grimmjow in the jaw. His grip slipped from all the blood on Yammy's arm and another strike had him fall into the table. Yammy grabbed a leg and swung him up onto the crimson surface, rolling with him and ending up on top, hands around Grimmjow's neck. There was so much blood beneath him and on the hand he tried to forced from his neck, that Grimmjow could get no purchase in flesh or table to free himself.

"Why did you do it?" Yammy demanded as he squeezed his life away. "What made you betray our Lord?"

"...Nel." he manged to squeeze out past the pressure on his throat, "and Hali-" His voice was cut off, Yammy lifted him up enough to slam him back, but his hands released his throat. Grimmjow gasped out, sucking in air past his bruised trachea and struggling to remain conscious.

"That doesn't make sense!"

"I remembered the moment... he took... my soul from me."
Hands were on him again, he stared up into the shrunken face, the bone jawline not entirely unlike his own hollow mask.

"I remembered the desert," he choked out, "Halibel's house... Nel, you, Dog..."

He slammed back again, white light popped before his eyes.

"I feel nothing for any of you, it isn't possible." Yammy growled out.

"Neither did I..." Grimmjow whispered, his eyes falling past Yammy to the Vandenreich king. "and I knew why...I knew who had taken feeling from me...and left me with...the pain of emptiness."

The king watched on, his powers dangerously uncontrolled, swelling in the room as he watched Grimmjow corrupt what he intended to be an incorruptible soldier. But still, he did not interfere, he had to know what would happen.

"I was liberated!" The fist pounded down, but not on Grimmjow, had it actually struck him, it probably would have killed him; not all of Yammy's massive strength was gone. He pounded down again and again against that long table where they had all sat, the Espada, proud and strong. Yet now that fixture of their fellowship was the birthplace of a new race of ruined beings. And it splintered, it cracked, and it broke. And with it broke the last of that pride and glory, the last of that kinship and allegiance.

Grimmjow lay in the splinters, Yammy howled next to him, in agony only the two of them could understand. That face so often full of arrogance, disdain, disinterest- was now only one of pleading, of pain. Eyes hid nothing of the reality he was enduring.

"It's gone." Came Yammy's tortured breath. "I don't even remember it, but its loss is all I know."

As injured as he was, Grimmjow pulled himself up to his knees before his old ally. "I know."

"Grimmjow, I can't...can't live like this...please..." He clutched Grimmjow's arm with red-painted fingers, "help me...make it end."

"Okay." Grimmjow reached out his hands and held Yammy's face between them. "I should have saved you." He whispered.

"Do it." Yammy begged.

"I'm sorry."

Grimmjow's muscles bunched, his arms went taut and jerked harshly. The crunch and snap of vertebrae scraping past one another in a direction they were not meant to go was heard in the silence, and the most powerful of the Espada dropped dead in the splintered remains of their shattered legacy.

Grimmjow lowered his arms and remained as he sat even when he felt the presence behind him, heard the scrape of wood on stone as the Vandenreich King made his way through the destruction toward him. He bent just enough to grab Grimmjow's chin and pull his face toward him.

Nothing in the man resisted, but the king felt the wet on his fingers before he saw it. "Remarkable," he breathed, seeing the tears that fell out of cerulean depths.

"...that...was the death of an espada."

"What, who?" Ichigo demanded Urahara over the soul pager.

"Yammy is dead. The king has the others. Get Rukia."

"Wait, what? We're not going to do anything?"

Urahara watched Grimmjow fall limp after a light touch to his temple from the king. He saw an inscrutable frown settle over his features and then white soldiers were filing in to collect all three. Then he tore his gaze away to see the faces of Ichigo and Renji looking right into a camera as they waited for him to answer.

"I am afraid we made a mistake."

"You said we had no choice!" Ichigo demanded. "And Rukia-"

"I know." The shopkeeper interrupted. "But this was all intentional. They already attacked you at your home and now-" His quick eyes picked up the movements on the screens. "Ichigo, they're closing in on you."

"I know, I feel it."

"Move. I'm coming to you."

With the Espada down, Urahara was the only one capable of opening a Garganta. He would have to reach them swiftly if they had any hope of escaping. But as he already knew, this room had not been left open by accident. The old shopkeeper unsheathed his zanpakuto just as the door to the control room banged open.

10 hours remaining

Nel woke again. She'd been in an out over the past few hours and every time she came to, she reached back to grip the strong arms wrapped around her. She could feel him shaking, and as much as she never wanted to leave the safety of his arms, she wiggled free to see what was going on.

"Grimmjow?" He was as he had been since they'd first woken in the cell. Halibel, though legs chained behind her and wrists weighed by even more restraints, held him, his shoulder resting in her lap, his head on her knee, staring out at the blank wall. She quietly ran her hand through his hair in a gesture of comfort, but in vain. His body shook all over, he'd been sick. He was inconsolable, and the cruel king had quickly figured out that he was much worse in their presence, hence he'd locked them all in here together.

Grimmjow had beaten him. He had somehow managed to get some piece of his soul back and then to corrupt Yammy, who had no hope of ever regaining his zanpakuto. The dark lord didn't have time now, to deal with him properly, but he could leave him and the three to suffer until he could return to them.

There was no way to tell which pain was strongest inside of Grimmjow. The memories of his own torture plagued him once more, the moment of separation from his soul. But he had killed Yammy. He had seen him endure the same pain as him, with no hope of ever escaping it. He may not have liked the other Espada, but he had been one of them. They had built their life, their routine, their little family, for lack of a better word, and when he'd escaped, he had left him behind. And because of it, Yammy had been destroyed, and Grimmjow had been forced to kill what was left of him.

"Does Grimmjow need to be healed again?" Nel asked, reaching for her mouth. She had done what she could for his neck and the back of his skull where Yammy had nearly killed him, but Halibel shook her head.

"Nel, I don't know how much you understand, but I need you to help me do something."

"Nel doesn't know how to grow up on her own." She said, guessing the request but Halibel had something else in mind.

"It's not that, Nel. They have them all, I felt it hours ago. Ichigo, the Quincy and the other humans. Even the soul reapers were captured. None of them escaped, we failed."

Nel gasped, Halibel had withheld the information so as not to have to deal with her hysterics but she pushed on now, not giving the child a chance to break out into tears. "You were once as powerful as me. I don't need you to grow up, but I do need that power. I watched one ally die today, and I won't let it happen to another."

"Whaaa, Grimmjow is dying?" The girl jumped forward to grab Grimmjow's arm. "GRIMMJOW don't die!"

"Child!" Halibel tried to reach her with her other hand but the chain pulled taught. Regardless, Nel was startled by her sharp yell and looked back to her. "You contain Pantera, whether you understand that or not. I don't believe Grimmjow can handle what has happened without Pantera any longer. We need to bring him back."

"But don't we need Ichigo?"

"Ichigo would help, but the part of Grimmjow's soul that may have rubbed off on him in battle is old, is feral, it is not the soul that became interlaced with your own. What he needs is in your spirit."

"But Nel doesn't know what to do!"

"Just don't leave him." There was an edge to Halibel's voice and even the child caught it. She knew their time was short. "You can do that, Nel." The door opened, white soldiers entered, she had felt them coming.

"The king wants him," a lieutenant ordered and the men moved forward to grab Grimmjow. They undid the chain on his leg and picked him up from Halibel's hold. Nel was the only one unrestrained and jumped at once after the men.

"Don't hurt Grimmjow!"

"He also expressed interest in that one," the lieutenant said, and someone easily caught Nel. She glanced back at Halibel but this is what she'd been told to do. Just stay with him. And that was something Nel could do.

"Uryu. Uryu, are you awake?" The teen stirred in the dark of the cell. Chains rattled next to him and he pushed himself up a bit before wincing and sliding back to the ground.

"Renji?"

"Yeah, it's me." He felt a hand rest on his back, the other reading his pain even if he couldn't see him very clearly. "How bad is it?"

"I..." he coughed, tasting copper. "Bad. They think I'll join them."

"What?"

"Because I'm Quicny...Renji I don't get it, I thought the Quincies were gone. But these guys..."

"It's like Halibel said. They're a mix, must have been recruited or maybe this king guy found out how to control Quincy power."

"Only a Quincy could do that."

"Well then maybe..." he let it hang. They didn't even know the man's name, but the king seemed to wield power without effort. He had a sword, possibly a zanpakuto, but yet there was something more to him. "Maybe he's a soul reaper and a Quincy."

He got silence from the teen.

"Uryu? Are you still with me?"

"Yeah, just...Renji is it possible? I mean, if I died, and crossed to Soul Society would I remain a Quincy or would my spiritual pressure develop in the form of a soul reaper?"
"Honestly, I don't know, but I would think you'd become a soul reaper, because only living humans can be Quincies, right? Maybe he's somehow both."

"That would mean he's both alive and dead."

"Well, think about Ichigo."

Even in the dark the red haired lieutenant caught that flash of dull light on Uryu's glasses that almost always accompanied an idea. "Renji," he breathed, "Ichigo is the son of a soul reaper and a human. So perhaps, this man..."

"Is the child of a soul reaper and a Quincy."

The implications struck and they suddenly thought of the entire army, all of them hybrid-like. Grimmjow was the first of the reborn soldiers- converted but not made into anything more. He didn't come out of the process with new powers whereas other beings they had encountered seemed to be arrancar but also Quincy.

"His whole army, they are hybrid children." Renji concluded.

"Or they became hybrids by consuming the powers of another. He collected all that spirit from Yammy and Halibel. Maybe it wasn't all for making new arrancar, maybe he was feeding that power to other types of souls. In that case...oh no.."

"What? Uryu what is it?"

"They keep asking about Bankai. They tried to take Ichigo's Bankai. Maybe the king wasn't born that way, maybe he's a Quincy who consumed someone's Bankai."

"Shit. Is that possible?"

"I don't know Renji, it's all just speculation, but whatever he is, I think we can say for certain that my father and I are not the last of the Quincies."

"A human-soul reaper hybrid, how interesting. Or a 'Fullbringer'? Which is it? They were an interesting bunch, those Fullbringers who survived their encounter with you. They weren't so lucky with me, however." The king smiled darkly and Ichigo pulled against his restraints all the harder.

He didn't know where he was, it looked like a lab and he remember Renji and Uryu's accounts of their battle in such a place. He was on a table, his wounds bound together roughly to keep him alive. He had nearly died in their fight. His own powers were more than a match for the average Vandenreich soldiers, but they'd played on his weakness: Orihme. Chad had dropped first, defending her from a blue shimmering spear that had gone through his shoulder. Then, when Orihime had turned to heal him, someone had appeared out of no where and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her away from him and throwing her roughly into a wall. Renji and Uryu had been separated from them and he was terribly outnumbered. They kept attacking Orihime and he had ignored the threats to himself in order to reach her. By the time he had, she was unconscious, and he was bleeding from several wounds and a strike from behind had been enough to put him out.

Now he was here, under the scrutinizing gaze of this man. He caught a glimpse of Urahara as he was dragged through the room to somewhere else, a large stain of blood in his blonde hair. And not far, Rukia, Chad and Orihime were restrained just as he was. The humans were unconscious, Rukia barely awake; she'd taken a bad beating. It was to her the king moved next, looking at the air around her more than the girl herself.

"Yes, it is interesting how your spirits are tied together, like Grimmjow and the arrancar-child." Next he turned to Orihime and Chad. "And because of your own overwhelming spiritual pressure constantly bombarding these two humans, they also changed. A boy with a hollow arm and a girl with abilities unlike anything I have ever seen. No wonder Aizen took interest in her. But back to my question. Why is this weakling soul reaper's aura so similar to your own?"

Ichigo didn't think it could hurt to be honest. If it was just himself in this room, he would have remained silent, but the king might turn his attention to his friends so he decided to engage him for now.

"She gave me her powers once. It's how I became a soul reaper."

"No, you have your own power, you are a hybrid."

"But I could not access them until Rukia gave me hers."

"Hmmm," he thought this over, "so it is a completely different reason than Grimmjow's, but perhaps it is why I cannot take your Bankai."
"What does that mean? How could you take someone's Bankai?"

"That doesn't concern you."
He looked at him as if bored now and turned to Rukia. "I wonder, if I destroyed her soul, would she be able to regain it through you? Is that where I've been going wrong? Is it that I have to destroy both your souls in order to truly make you obedient?" He mused to himself, Ichigo did not like where this was going but suddenly the king broke out of his thoughts and called for the nearby soldiers.

"Get them. Grimmjow and the arrancar-child. I need to answer a question."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Ichigo tugged against his restraints again, feeling a swell of anxiety for the pair.

"Rest while you can, Ichigo. If this answers my question, you and your little soul reaper friend are next."

Thanks for all the reviews guys and gals!

Riza