"You cannot win this battle, Grimmjow, even with your blade renewed. It's been a while since you clashed with any of our squadron, you don't know how strong we've become."
"What, by taming adhucahs? By consuming souls? You realize that you're acting more like hollows than Quincies." With enormous effort, Grimmjow stood up, no sound coming from the friction between their blades but the weight of it heavy against Pantera.
"We consume raiti."
"Oh no, I've seen you people, I've seen you eating hollows to gain their power in more raw, pure form. Don't pretend you're any better than the creatures you eat, lieutenant Yvo. What exactly did you do to gain your rank? Eat more hollows than the others? You digust me. And don't for a second, think I'm letting you bring this war here."
"Oh Grimmjow, you don't have much choice. But don't worry, we're not here to start war with the humans, this is our own world after all, we just want her." Yvo, who sported dark rimmed glasses, looked over them at the mess of plaster and shattered furniture where Orihime lay shaking, blood oozing from her mouth and one hand on Ichigo's arm. The teen soul reaper was in no better shape, coughing and trying to push himself up next to her. He smiled and turned back to Grimmjow.
"Though the King would also love to kill you in person, Grimmjow, and he was very curious to study those two soul reapers and the arrancar-child. So I guess I'll just take the whole lot of them back with me. But you, Grimmjow, you I think I will have to regretfully inform the King did not survive this encounter."
"Ha." Grimmjow finally pushed back and they broke apart, "this should be fun."
He should have seen their attack coming. It was the same move the Vandenreich had used on Halibel back then: the six surrounded him and in an instant blue bands of light wrapped around him, one from each soldier.
When it had happened before, they hadn't understood exactly what the Quincies were doing, just like they had not understood the dark shadow that always cloaked the King. But Quincies absorbed raiti. These blue bands were trying to suck every last molecule of spiritual energy from him just like that black cloak had become an actually physical manifestation of the King's spiritual pressure from all the raiti he'd consumed.
The blue light was wrapped around his neck with strangling force. Currents of electric power ripped out from it, sending shocks of pain through his body and making it impossible to breath. But they got no power from him; his spiritual energy had transformed, and this tactic would not work on one like him. With one swing, Pantera cut through the six bands, the soldiers stumbled back and Grimmjow fell choking to the floor, gasping in air.
Yvo's mouth tightened and he eyed Pantera. "So, he's going to cause trouble after all."
Grimmjow just barely got back to his feet in time to meet Yvo's strike. He hammered down furiously, strike after strike, all that Grimmjow could easily meet but the force that hit back reverberated through Pantera, shaking his very soul. The strikes were relentless and it started to become clear that Yvo was in fact not trying to hit Grimmjow, he wanted to hit Pantera.
"You're afraid, aren't you?" Yvo cackled over the oddly silent strikes: his blue beam of energy that he wielded as a sword did not make a sound as it met Pantera each time and all could hear Grimmjow's rapid breaths, his grunts of effort while Yvo remained as calm and composed as ever.
"Afraid of what?"
"You're afraid of something happening to Pantera again. You may have changed, Grimmjow, gained a power we have yet to decipher, but your fear will hold you back and let us crush you."
"Screw you!" Grimmjow swung, the blow was parried and he was pushed back. The next blow that came down drove Pantera back into him and he had to catch the flat of the blade and support it with both hands to protect himself from the ensuing rain of blows. They came in such fury and rapid succession he could not move, and with every strike he seemed to wince, to flinch, as if they were in fact hitting him and not his sword.
Rukia was struggling out from under a collapsed beam that trapped her leg, but she kept her eyes on the battle the whole time. The other officerrs could take them at any moment, but they too, seemed to want to see what would happen.
And Grimmjow proved Yvo right.
She watched the sweat blossom from his temples, the utter pain filling his face as strike after strike bounced off his sword, and then she saw that he was in fact feeling the pain of his soul. It happened so fast, but her dark eyes caught it all. And the most important detail was not that Grimmjow willingly pulled Pantera away from the next strike, knowingly allowed his body to take the blow instead. The most important thing was not that he fell back on the floor, a long half burn, half cut running all down his shoulder, left side and left leg.
No, the most important detail that no one but the soul reaper seemed to see was that before the blue blade ever bit into Grimmjow, a tendril of blood snaked out his nose and his bared canines gleamed red.
Grimmjow had said his connection with his soul was stronger than ever. But that bond, perhaps, was too deep.
The room was silent but for Grimmjow's heaving gasps where he lay, now coughing blood. Yvo smiled with satisfaction down on Grimmjow and stepped forward, pressing a boot down on Pantera.
"You actually let yourself take the hit. You proved my point, Grimmjow. You are so scarred by the pain of losing your soul that you are afraid it will happen again. You actually want to protect you weapon more than your own body. How pathetic."
"Get your foot off my sword." Grimmjow was hardly threatening as he breathed out thickly, barely moving on the shop floor.
"What are you going to do about it?"
Somehow, Grimmjow still smiled, the red stain on his teeth making it all the more feral. "You came here to take Nel. To take Ichigo and Orihime and Rukia. You came here to hurt the last people in the whole universe I give a damn about." He let go of Pantera, his hands flying behind his head and shoving hard against the ground. He kipped up, and, never stopping, used his momentum and head butted Yvo hard, smashing those glasses and sending blood erupting down the other's face. With a quick flick, Grimmjow caught a toe under Pantera and flipped his sword up into his hand. "And you want to know what I'm going to fucking do about it?"
He swung with his sword, but the move was a distraction while red energy built in his right hand. Yvo didn't realize this until he had defected and found that burning ball of energy right against his chest. "Well I'll tell you what I'm going to do," Grimmjow growled low, "I'm going to break the Dawn."
The room turned red, even those not int he direct path of the blast were thrown back. The remains of the ceiling crashing in around them. Rukia got her leg clear and threw herself toward the others, calling on her shikai just in time to let her ice shimmer up and around them, protecting them from any falling debris. Failing sunlight washed on them and cool air rushed into the room as the destruction ended.
"Just grab her and go!" Someone yelled.
Rukia got to her feet just in time to meet the spear that broke through her ice. Her defence was unexpected and she shoved the spear to one side while rolling along its shaft to spin back and drive her zanpakto through the enemy's stomach. Hot blood ran down her arm, she felt his body give and drew back her blade to let him fall to the ground.
In his absence she finally saw the true devastation of the shop. The whole front room was gone. Yvo was no where to be seen, Grimmjow was just pulling his blade out of someone else's chest but there were still four officers left and Rukia was pulled off her feet by the next attack.
Two went for her, two for Grimmjow. Her stature had her at a disadvantage when the man grabbed her around her throat and threw her into the wall. He pinned her there, her feet dangling but her blade running deep through his side. He spit blood in her face, she squirmed but the fist closed tighter and his companion, one of the arrancar hybrids, raised a hand at her head, his own cero building, much less powerful than Grimmjow's but at this range, a direct blow to her face would kill.
"Finish her." The other breathed.
She struggled violently, glimpsing Grimmjow fall back with a foot over his throat and knowing she wouldn't get any help there.
"Shit." The heat was already on her, at the last minute the one holding her let go and let her drop and she raised her head to face death like a warrior.
The blast erupted, the wash of heat and power closed the distance on her and yet the burning pain never came. Instead, she felt a small weight on her shoulders and a hand knotted in her hair.
"N-nel?" the small girl stood, mouth wide, taking in the pure energy of the blast like it was a bowl of ice cream. Both Vandernreich stood in shocked confusion as the tiny girl closed her mouth, completely untouched by the blast, her childish grin turning dark as she turned to them and opened her mouth again.
The blast that came out this time was at least twice as powerful as the one the girl had swallowed. Rukia now remembered Ichigo explaining this power in the child. The last remaining wall of the of the front room of the shop collapsed, the two soldiers lay burnt and unmoving in its wake.
"You got them." Rukia breathed out, barely able to speak past the damage to her windpipe.
They heard a mighty roar and turned just in time to see Grimmjow swing a leg up to dislodge the man pinning him. The officer flipped and fell down on him, they rolled over the room until there was a sickening snap and Grimmjow came up heaving. The body of the other soldier still had Pantera sticking from his neck.
This was war. War was messy.
Blue eyes frantically searched over the dirty rubble where Rukia and the others were, but finding them all still there and breathing, he relaxed.
Orihime had Ichigo propped against her, Rukia now took Nel in her arms and no one wanted to acknowledge the horrible destruction around them, the reality of such an open attack in the human world, and that ranking officers from the Dawn had been sent.
"Damn, I did not think we were gonna make it." Grimmjow breathed, finally staggering back up to retrieve Pantera. "I honestly wasn't sure we were going to stop Yvo."
"You didn't."
Grimmjow lurched. Blue energy shone out just over his pelvis. He slid back along the blade of energy and against the enemy who was drenched in blood and covered in black burns. "You, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, will never bring down the Dawn."
Yvo's hand was around Grimmjow's throat, holding him backward against him and he pulled the Quincy sword out of him and then let him drop. His foot came down hard, right over the wound in his lower back and the sword came to point just over the base of his neck to finish it. "You failed."
"Getsuga Tenshou!"
Black energy tore over Grimmjow, the weight on his wound lifted and he heard a thump behind him as the arc of power dissipated. He turned just enough to see half a corpse and knew it was over.
Zangetsu dropped to the floor as Ichigo lost his balance, Orihime reaching to steady him. Nel jumped from Rukia and ran straight for Grimmjow and after taking a moment to check all of the enemies were dead, Rukia also fell at his side.
"Damn." She was still breathing heavily from her own fight but sealed one hand over his back to try and stem the tide of blood. His unsteady breath hitched but he said nothing, his eyes half closed and his hand opening and closing against the floor board.
"Grimmjow don't die!" Nel screeched.
"Nel, can you find something to bind his wound up with?" Rukia asked.
The girl just dashed off. Orihime supported Ichigo and got him to their side.
"Let me try to help." Orihime whispered, holding out her hands.
"No, you're powers aren't recovered." Rukia argued.
"I still have to try." She shut her eyes, concentrating deeply, but sorrow overtook her features and she didn't even have to say it. "I can't..."
"Nel found some things!" The little girl was back at her side and Rukia took what she had gathered and began making a binding for the wound.
"They sent the Dawn." Ichigo was still half shocked, "we aren't safe here. When these six don't go back-"
"I know." Rukia pressed the bandage hard into Grimmjow's back, causing him to groan out in pain but she didn't relent, getting her hand under him and rolling him over, Ichigo helping to ease him onto his back and the soul reaper rapidly moved to staunch the tide of blood by tying off the bandage.
Grimmjow couldn't hide the pain. The long gash from his shoulder to his thigh seemed to have been cauterize by the blade's energy but that in no way gave him relief from the pain on top of the stab wound in his abdomen. "That will hold him for now but he needs kidou healing. I will do what I can but we should meet with Tessai."
"What about Renji and Chad?" Orihime asked. "They should be here by now."
The dark haired soul reaper raised her eyes to the girl. "They're overdo. We can't count on them, or anyone right now. We have to operate on the assumption that we are all that is left of the resistance in the world of the living."
This brought shocked looks to Ichigo and Orihime. Rukia softened her tone but remained serious. "Look, we don't know what's happened, they may be fine, but we cannot wait for them. We have to take control of this situation right now."
"The basement?" Ichigo suggested. "We could seal it off."
"But then we'd be sitting ducks." Rukia countered.
"At least it would be somewhere that won't hurt the outside world." he countered. "Rukia, if they send more, we probably won't make it, but we don't want that battle to spill over into Karakura. We need to contain this."
"Hueco Mundo." Grimmjow growled out from the floor.
"What?"
"We go back over. Stick with...the plan. Follow the Dawn...to their world...keep them out of..this one."
"At least we'd have a chance of finding the others." Orihime said hopefully.
"Or getting slaughtered by the Dawn as soon as we get there." Rukia said.
Ichigo remained silent, his eyes showing he considered this deeply.
"I think we should do it." he concluded. "It's easier to trace Orihime or any of us in a world of souls that don't have spiritual pressure. But there, we'll be just a handful among the thousands of beings who live in that desert. And like Orihime said, then at least we might find out what happened to the others."
Rukia sighed, clearly less confident in the idea. "Fine, I get your point, but what about Tessai?"
Ichigo's eyes fell to Grimmjow. "Like you said, we need to contact him."
"You mean to leave Grimmjow behind?"
"I saw it too, Rukia." her dark eyes narrowed. "His soul."
"Yes. The blows to Pantera hurt him. That should not be possible."
"Hey...I'm still here." Grimmjow barely whispered out.
"Sorry." Ichigo apologized, "But that wasn't good. You can't defend yourself like that. We don't even know what sort of damaged that is doing to you. Besides, you need to be healed."
"I will be. And you too...on the other side."
Ichigo looked to Rukia, she considered. "Well, it just depends on how Orihime's powers work, and nobody really fully understands them. But what I think Grimmjow is suggesting, is that like the rest of us, our powers are greater in a spiritual world. If Orihime's powers operate on the same principle, then she should be able to draw from her surroundings and use her abilities again. But it's no guarantee."
"I think it's our best choice." Orihime said. "I want to go."
Rukia was now the only one still hesitant, but seeing their resolve, she nodded. She took time only to retrieve Kon from Ichigo's house. He would take Ichigo's body and keep it safe as well as take a message to Tessai about what they had chosen to do. They could only hope the two would remain safe and be the last watchful eyes in Karakura. Then, they got Grimmjow up between her and Orihime to open the Garganta.
"Make sure you're sending us somewhere safe." Rukia warned. He was barely functioning as it was and just dragged his hand over the air, the dark cracks forming. Nel kept a tight hold of his leg and as one, they all moved through to the silver night.
Currently working on part III as I edit and post this one and it's going well. Also, very excited for Bleach 501- hoping to see our favourite blue haired espada at the other end of that blade!
Riza