"So, what does Grimmjow think?"

Grimmjow made a strange face as he swallowed the ice cream Nel had given him. Orhime and Rukia had gone for supplies and returned with a tub of the chocolate, cold smooth substance he was now consuming. The other two women watched as well, curious to see what an espada would think of one of earth's common, yet wonderful delights.

"Not bad." He finally said, Nel's face lighting up. "But odd." Sweet and cold were two things he was not used to eating. There weren't really any foods that needed to be kept in a freezer in Hueco Mundo, nor anything that had been flavoured so deliciously. He could probably get used to eating this way if human food held any sustenance for hollow souls.

"Nel's turn!" She had a giant spoon which she stabbed into the tub and brought out with a massive scoop that she somehow managed to fit in her mouth.

"You're going to get an ice cream headache." Orihime warned. "And don't eat it all, I want to take some up to Ichigo." She got a bowl and began scooping some out. "Oh, and Grimmjow, Ichigo asked me to get those for you."

She nodded to a bag on the floor. He pulled it open and found a pack of white t-shirts and several pairs of black pants. Ichigo must have noticed how he always went for those two colours when pilfering from his closet, even if the espada hadn't realized himself that he couldn't quite escape his old uniform.

Halibel too, seemed to have followed the same trend in her choice of a black tank and white jacket and shorts. She often still wore the jacket zipped high around her face, however, hiding her bone mask and breastplate.

"Thanks." He watched the girls for a moment, his thoughts from the other night returning to him, and he took the bowl of ice cream from Orihime. "I'll take it up to him." his tone was clear, he wanted to speak to Ichigo alone.

The teen was on his bed, staring out the window. There was no doubting his thoughts.

"You weren't wrong to try to stop the Dawn."

Ichigo turned, not having heard him come in. He looked exhausted even though he'd slept through the night. His wounds must really be taking a toll on him.

"You called me an idiot yesterday."

"You were. You should have found me, we would have had a better chance together."

"I don't like where this is going."

"They are at their peak, the King isn't going to waste them in Hueco Mundo any longer, and once they get to Soul Society they'll be out of our reach."

"I know."

"So you know what I'm going to say."

"If I didn't stand a chance on my own, why do you think you will?"

"Because they don't know I have this." He put his hand on the hilt of Pantera.

"You can't even use Resurrection!"

"I destroyed the Midnight, Ichigo. I didn't need Resurrection."

"Like you said, Midnight was nothing compared to the Dawn. You need backup."

"My backup is on his bed with a broken leg and Missy downstairs can't heal you. I'll find the others when I cross back, I won't go it alone unless I have to."

"You aren't supposed to go back for two more days, you'll screw up the rotation. What if someone comes for Orihime again?"

Dammit. Ichigo had him there. But they had to make a choice, risk Orihime or risk all of Soul Society. Grimmjow didn't know if the teen realized which he was choosing.

"I'll get Nel to spit on your leg, you'll be fine here without me."

"So you're going to leave us, leave Nel, and probably get yourself killed."

"Then why did Urahara leave?"

"He had to."

"Why?"

Halibel didn't check in last rotation. She's two days overdue."

"What? And just when were you going to tell me?" He rose, knocking over the Ichigo's desk chair.

"When I knew you wouldn't go running off and leave Nel and Orhime unprotected here."

"You son of a bitch, you should have told me."

"You're going to go, aren't you?"

"Has Urahara sent word back?" Ichigo shook his head no. "Dammit! So he could be gone too!"

"It's possible."

"Is anybody else unaccounted for?"

"No. Renji and Chad are supposed to be back tomorrow, my dad a two more days."

"Shit." Grimmjow cursed again, seething with anger but not yet dashing out the door to open a Garganta so Ichigo continued.

"There is someone else, though, who is missing."

"What, who?"

"Uryu's father. He's been gone for four weeks as far as we can tell from asking around. But there's no way to tell if he was taken or if he left on his own."

"You think he'd join them?"
"I don't know the man very well, I don't like him, but he did help Uryu get his powers back once. Maybe he crossed over to try to save him."

"Then why not come to us?"

"I don't know. But it means the Vandenreich probably have both of them now."

"What's so special about them?"

"Their style, or something. One of the soldiers I fought talked about the way Uryu fought being archaic and all but forgotten. They must know something or have some power the Vandenreich need."

"And now they might have Halibel again. And Urahara."

"We don't know that for sure."

"We have to know what's going on. I'll be quick, just try to reach them-"
"Grimmjow, if you leave, you leave it on Rukia alone to protect us right now. Do you really think she could have dropped the Commander of Midnight like you just did yesterday?" Ichigo didn't mean to diminish Rukia's contribution in this war, or make her sound helpless, but Grimmjow was not only an espada- more than equivalent to captain level- his renewed powers had something about them, something the dark shadows of raiti-eating energy of the Vandenreich couldn't touch. His power to protect them was greater than Rukia's, and with Urahara gone and Ichigo injured, that responsibility fell to him.

"She'll have to." He said darkly, jumping on the bed and ignoring the shot of pain the movement caused Ichigo. He pulled open the window and prepared to jump out.

"You're pissed that I didn't tell you about Halibel, that's why you're really doing this."

"I'm not that pathetic, Ichigo." And he jumped from the window. Ichigo pulled himself up enough to look after him and saw him standing in the street. He knew the other was still thinking about it, that he was angry at Ichigo and was not one hundred percent in his decision. He watched fists shove into pockets and shoulder hunch tensely.

"Shit." He heard the curse roll out in the quiet evening as Grimmjow turned back to the house, never looking up at Ichigo's window. A second later he heard the bang of the door to the kitchen and sighed in relief. He hated being helpless, but he wouldn't be able to do anything if they were attacked right now.

"Shouldn't we at least wait until Renji and Chad are back before we start making plans?"

"No, Rukia, Grimmjow's right, what if they don't come back either, we need to have a strategy."

"And that's to attack the Dawn Squadron?" She crossed her arms, Ichigo was propped on the couch, she and the rest made a semi circle around it on the floor, their maps of Hueco Mundo spread out between them.

"We have to." Ichigo insisted. We gather everyone and we attack together instead of the way it's been, going in rotations, working in small groups or on our own."

"But we do that, for a reason, Ichigo. Anything could happen while we're not in Hueco Mundo to hear about it. Think of all we've learned and what we could have missed if even for a single hour we hadn't maintained a presence there."

"I'm starting to think it's all a waste." Ichigo shot back. "Maybe we should have been attacking as one from the start, maybe we would have stopped the Twilight before the caught Uryu."

"You're thinking with your emotions Ichigo. You're not trained in military strategy."

"Grimmjow is and he agrees."

Grimmjow finally spoke for himself. "I think the Dawn will depart soon and we'll lose our chance."

"Grimmjow thinks they will go to Soul Society?" Nel piped up from where she sat.

"Yeah, he does." He absently put his hand on her shoulders.

"But Nel thought Soul Society was closed off."

"It is, Nel. But the Vandenreich can get there through their world."

"Oh." She pondered this for a bit. "And Grimmjow doesn't know how to get to the Vandenreich world?"

"No, we don't. If we could, we might actually be able to stop all of this." He turned back to Rukia. "So, long and the short of it, we need to make a move and I don't want to wait. I don't care if I have to carry Ichigo in there, if you guys are worried you'll get attacked I'll just take you with me when I go but I don't want to wait on this any longer."

"Nel is confused," Nel interrupted again.

"It's okay." Orhime said, "we'll explain when everything is sorted out."

"But everything is sorted out, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Grimmjow said he wants to go the Vandenreich world but doesn't know how."

"Yes."

"And then Grimmjow said he knows the Dawn are going to the Vandenreich world soon."

Grimmjow's eyes widened and he looked to the child as the realization finally struck him and all of them. She stared back at him flatly as if she was the adult explaining this to a small child. "So then why doesn't Grimmjow just follow the Dawn to the Vandenreich world?"

"I can't believe it." Rukia breathed. "How did we not see it?"

"Because soul reapers are stupid." Nel boasted.

"Good work, kid." Grimmjow smiled from ear to ear and put a hand atop her head, "What did I ever do without you?"

"Nel wonders that too."

"Okay kids," he looked back to the others not losing a millimetre of that smile, "who's ready for a field trip?"

"It's settled then." They were back at the shop, Ichigo propped up on crutches and still drying out from all the spit Nel had drenched his leg in. For a normal human, the break would have taken weeks to recover, but Ichigo's spirit energy mixed with Nel's concentrated healing on his leg, allowed them to take his cast off so he could bend his knew. The leg was still thickly bound, no where near fully healed, but he could move on his own now, at least, enough to survive. "As soon as we've regrouped with at least Chad and Renji, two of us will infiltrate the Dawn and wait for them to cross over."
"But I don't think it should be you." Rukia said to Grimmjow. "You're too recognizable."

"They know all of us by now, it will be a risk regardless."

"I know but their bound to know you right away with your blue hair and if they caught a glimpse of your six-"

"Fine, then who?"

"I think Tessai should go. He has great knowledge of inter-dimensional travel and the laws of the universe. He would have the best chances of understanding what they did to cross over."

"Okay, we'll find him and bring him back." Grimmjow conceded. "But who do you think should be the second." He asked as if he already knew.

"Me."

"Rukia!" Ichigo protested.

"No, Ichigo, it makes sense. For one thing, I do not have any physical traits that stand out quite as much as any of you. I believe I could easily look like a Vandenreich. And secondly, because you know I am not as valuable here. If something happened to me then-"

"Don't." Everyone was surprised it was Grimmjow who interrupted her. "Do not chose to go on a mission because you think you're expendable. That means you already think it's going to fail. You go on a mission because you think you have what it takes to make it succeed and we need this to succeed more than anything."

He was right, there was no denying it. Rukia looked to Ichigo, he nodded. "Okay." She said. "Then I will succeed. I can do this."

"Good."

"Alright." Orihime put her hands together. "Then maybe I should fix us something to eat while we wait for-"

None of them saw it coming. One instant they were standing together in the front room of the shop, the next thing walls were turned to splinters, glass to shattered crystals, and gravity reduced back to mere theory. Their bodies rose up, before falling sideways against one end of the room and crashing to the floor.

"I'm surprised you actually countered me Grimmjow."

Rukia heard the dry voice roll over them all, and pulled her head above the debris around her to see the dreded lieutenant of the Dawn Squadron.

"Lieutenant Yvo." Grimmjow growled the name on his knees, every muscle in his body quivering to keep the blade of pure blue energy from touching him. At the lieutenant's back were six more soldiers- all of them had cut their teeth in the Dawn and were ranking officers of the squadron. Seven officers- they had sent seven officers to the human world.

The war had been brought to Karakura.

A bit of an abrupt ending but otherwise the chapter would have been way to long, so hint hint, big action sequence in the next one! As I edit and post the Dawn Breakers I realize it's a fair bit shorter than Day Break, still lots to come but just warning you. I will have to start writing Part III soon though, lol. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and thanks for the reviews!

Riza.