"What the hell?" Lothure removed his hammer from the silver-white surface of the blade, seeing not a scratch in the surface from his many strikes and then looked back to the figure on the floor. Grimmjow had lurched at the last strike, sitting up again, but instead of screaming he just took a deep breath, gasping in the air that moments ago had struggled to reach his lungs.

"Grimmjow?" he had let go of Nel in that moment and his hand was back on his ruined shoulder but he looked to her with clear eyes.

"Did you do something?" he asked.

She shook her head. He looked up to Lothure who now in fury took up his hammer again adn swung it down on the blade. Grimmjow felt nothing.

"Pantera won't break." he said in understanding, and with effort, stood up to face his enemy.

"You were tricking me then?" Luthore asked but Grimmjow shook his head.

"No. Rukia said she thought we had evolved. I think she might have been right, only we weren't quite there yet. Pantera and I...we were both so afraid of being separated again that we were holding on so tight I could feel every blow to him. But he won't break, never again. I know that now. I guess I just needed some idiot with a hammer to try and fail to break him to make me realize that, and Pantera too. So now that we know, we won't cling so hard to one another that I feel his pain. I guess I should thank you, ex-commander of the Dawn."

"No." Lothure swung at him when he moved but Grimmjow dodged and took up his sword, his soul that would never break. He blocked the next strike free of that sensation and only had to worry about the shiver in his muscles. As much as his strength to wield his sword was renewed, the blow to his shoulder was crippling and it would take more than he had left to win this. But surely Halibel would be on her way soon, would feel their fight and help him end it.

He dodged and parried. He kept waiting for Lothure to aim for Nel but the other may have had the slightest bit of honour somewhere down deep because he never touched where she crouched in cover. So the fight remained a gruelling dual in which Grimmjow was very much on the defensive. Lothure was taking advantage of his weakened side, aiming blows to his right so Grimmjow would have to twist and turn to defend himself. He began to wield his hammer with just one hand now.

"You've slowed down." Lothure mocked when he hit Pantera and drove the tip down to the ground with a swing from his right. His left came up and caught Grimmjow around the throat. "But this will slow you down even more."

The strike only came with the power of one hand but it still did its damage. Grimmjow managed to get Pantera between his leg and the hammer but it was an odd angle for his left hand and he couldn't hold back the blow entirely. If the impact hadn't been dispersed over the flat of the blade before it connected with his leg he was sure his knee would have been popped, his leg shattered. As it was though, he felt the strain on the bone and knew his lower leg was fractured at best. A gurgle of pain escaped Grimmjow past the pressure on his throat that was now the only thing keeping him up.

"Let him go."

Finally. Her blonde hair was wild, spiked with water, her whole body soaked, she must have had to use her Resurrection and she wasn't without injury, but her green eyes were ablaze and her sword at the ready.

"Hmm." Lothure said lowly so only Grimmjow could hear and lifted his hammer up. "You may have an indestructible blade Grimmjow, but she doesn't."

He fell in a heap, trying to hold everything together. He made an attempt at putting pressure on his leg but it gave instantly.

"Nel, come over here." He instructed when he knew he couldn't move to her. Halibel's battles could get very messy when her water canon came out so he wanted to keep hold of Nel in case they suddenly found themselves in a flood. Turning back to the battle, he could already see the strain in Halibel as she held off the hammer. Lothure was trying to break her zanpakuto and by the look on her face he wasn't far off.

"Stay behind me." He instructed Nel and raised his good hand toward the pair, letting the cero build. Lothure had his back to him and when Halibel saw the point of light in his palm she rolled to the side. Black light struck the Stern Ritter square in the back. He flew forward into the wall. Halibel stood up and moved to Grimmjow's side.

"That won't be enough." the sixth warned but cried out when Halibel hauled him to his feet without mercy. When he started to fall she took his grip on Pantera and pointed it down so the blade's end hit the ground. It was an unsteady cane, but for now kept him up.

"You need to get out of here, I set the charges, I have the detonator." She pulled back her jacket and revealed a small device hooked into the fabric. "Once I feel you are clear I will set off the explosion and sodino out."

"Halibel, this guy is trying to break your Zanpakuto, I don't know if you can take him by yourself."

"I would rather risk that then try to carry you and the child with me through a collapsing building so go!"

He hesitated but the decision was taken from him when, with a might roar, Lothure emerged from where he had fallen and hurled the hammer at them with all his strength. Grimmjow knocked it back with Pantera but fell in the process and the next thing he heard Halibel gasp as she was slammed into the wall, Lothure's hand around her throat. But it wasn't the pressure on her trachea that was the problem- it was the glow of energy that rose from her body. Lothure was consuming her powers.

Pantera tore straight through his leg. It was enough to get him to let go but he had already taken enough of her strength to patch over his other wounds. She fell to her knees; Lothure swung and kicked Grimmjow in the stomach, shaking Pantera free.

"Bastard." Halibel came back to her feet shaking and raising her sword. It had only taken the Dawn's former commander seconds to steal so much from her. He smiled.

"It's over Bitch." His hammer came down on her sword fast and hard. She staggered back and took a second blow. A long split ran the length of the outer edge of Tiburon and she nearly fell again.

"One more hit and it breaks, honey,"

"Halibel." Grimmjow struggled to get up again, kneeling and trying to use his sword to stand. That horrible hammer was coming down on her and he saw her hesitation to defend herself. But then resolve passed over her and she met his strike face on.

Tiburon broke in two, the the last quarter of it's length snapped at an angle and flew somewhere behind them but Grimmjow didn't see where it landed because his eyes were fixed on her.

Because of the design of her blade- two edges joined at the tip with a hollow space between them- when it broke, the hilt was left with two jagged tips. And when the hammer hit, it drove those twin blades back into their master. Lothure continued to bare down on her, forcing the points deeper into her abdomen just below the bone on her chest. He leaned in close to hear the stain of her breath as she kept back the scream.

"HALIBEL!" Grimmjow got to his feet but he saw those green eyes meet his and he felt cold understanding spread through him.

"Grimmjow..." she let go of her blade and a hand reached to her jacket, bloody fingers closing over the trigger to their destruction. "Run."

She knew he had no choice. If it was just him, he would have stayed, would have fought through falling rubble, past the hulk of a man who was stabbing the life out of her, but he couldn't, because next to him was his whole reason for fighting, for living or dying. He could not let Nel go down with them. He had to run. He had to leave Halibel behind as their former home crashed down around them.

Because this was war. And war meant sacrifice and destruction.

"Dammit, Uryu, don't make me do this." The battle had been long, emotional, but Ichigo had come out on top. His spiritual pressure and Bankai had held him together despite the terrible wound in his stomach, once the power faded he wasn't sure how he would fare but at the moment he was standing and Uryu was not. Still, the brainwashed teen was struggling back to his feel, unable to hide the pain in his features from the cuts across his calves that were meant to immobilize him. One arm was hugged under weakened ribs, his wrist limp and swollen. But those maddened eyes wouldn't let up.

"Please stop, Uryu." Ichigo held out his sword in warning. Uryu may have been terrifyingly strong, but he did not have that same buffer from pain and mortality that Ichigo did in spiritual form. This was his one and only form and body, and it had taken a terrible toll.

"Never." he hissed. "I will stop you, no matter the cost."

Ichigo saw his meaning. He would kill himself to stop Ichigo, and by the look of the blue glow forming in his hand, he knew that was exactly his plan.

"Uryu, stop this. You'll snap out of this, I know it."

"Don't be so naive," Uryu mocked, "there is nothing to stop my father and I now."

"You're father?" Ichigo paused. "He's here?"

"Oh, so you didn't feel him just then?" A dark smile spread over his sweat soaked face. "When he took Orihime and your father back to the Vandenreich home world?"

"He what?" But no answer came as all hell broke lose on crimson soaked sands. Ichigo wasn't sure if Uryu was just as surprised or if he used the massive explosion distracting Ichigo as an advantage but he released whatever power had been building in his hand and Ichigo was forced to turn from the imploding palace, ignore the cracking thunder of churning stone and snapping rock, the fall of tons upon tons of prideful buildings and hallways, chambers and false skies. He had to forget the oncoming storm of dust and sand and face the lethal threat ripping through space toward him. He could stop it. But deflecting the blast back at it's master would come at a terrible cost.

No choice, Rukia still lay behind him, and if his father and Orihime really were taken, he may be the only one left to save them. So, raising his black blade, he uttered the words that he knew would protect himself, but did not know if Uryu could survive.

"Tensa Zangetsu."

Blue met black just before the rolling surf of sand hit their shore and all was lost from sight under that unwavering moon.

"Ichigo..." A pale and trembling hand came to rest on his shoulder half in comfort and half seeking support as Rukia struggled to crawl through the debris strewn landscape to her last remaining friend and ally. She couldn't see past his shaking shoulder until she hoisted herself higher to look over him and saw what she feared. Uryu lay pale and unmoving in his arms.

"Is he..?"

"I don't know." Two of Ichigo's fingers lay against Uryu's neck, a large gash was visible in the Quincy's shirt.

"Ichigo..." she glanced behind them at the gathering crowd of wild adhuchas and Vandenreich soldiers who had been held at bay by the battle but now moved in on them again. "The Dawn...we need to move."

But between her own lack of strength, Uryu's inert form and Ichigo's injuries she didn't think they had anywhere to run.

"My father and Orihime are gone."

"No..."

"Yes. The palace- Chad and Renji were inside, and as far as we know, Grimmjow, Nel and Halibel were."
If he had actually turned to face her, he would have seen the despair verifying his fears, but as it was, he felt her fingers tighten in the damp fabric of his uniform.

"Ichigo, don't let it end here."

Finally he turned and she found brown eyes filled and brimming over. Even though it was her who stood in the white robes symbolizing her loss of power, she reached out and took the side of his face, knowing she had to stay strong, "Stay with me, Ichigo. Renji, Chad, if they died, don't let it be in vain. If they did not, then let us save them. Please, after everything, get up, Ichigo."

"He has no pulse." He finally spoke and she turned to Uryu. The soldiers now had them completely surrounded, she sensed their disorder, hostility. There was little chance they would survive now. She let herself fall against him, let the simple contact of her weight against his arm be a comfort as their end neared.

"It's okay, Ichigo. You fought honourably."

"I killed my friend."

"Ichigo, you cannot blame yourself."

"I failed Orihime, Renji, Chad, my father. Even Urahara is gone."

"You did all that you could."

The hoard was now only a few feet back.

"Rukia...I'm sorry."

"Ichigo, you are the strongest man I ever met."

"Thank you."

Five feet now, they could feel the heat radiating off enraged, wild bodies. They hadn't even bothered to take in the devastation of the palace, ruins quickly falling under silver dust.

Three feet, Rukia couldn't held that she pressed closer to Ichigo and she could feel the pound of his heart.

"I can't do it." He whispered. "Stay close to me Rukia. When they make their move, we run."
Their chances were slim but the knowledge that Ichigo would go out fighting encouraged her to at least open her eyes.

But just before what was left of the broken squadron of the Dawn devoured them, a hailstone of fury tumbled from the the sky and skidded to a halt just next to them. When the grey dust settled everyone took in the sweat plastered warrior, one knee raised as if he was ready to launch into the next fight, the other leg clearly not able to take much weight but nothing about his stance suggesting he was giving in to anyone. Even his red soaked shoulder that was starkly deformed, crushed inward to his body and the arm unmoving did nothing to reduce the emission of utter rage that seethed from him body.

"...Grimmjow?"

The espada stood, uneven, but imposing nonetheless, never even glancing sideways at the soul reapers in the sand but looking out at what was left of the Dawn's Calvary.

"You forsaken bastards."

Ichigo noticed Nel drop to the sand at the maddened espada's feet, her eyes a mix of tears and fear.

"Back down." One of the soldiers warned but was only met with the fierce blue of his gaze.

"Adhuchas! Vastal Lorders! HOLLOWS!" the sound of Grimmjow's voice was a deep ripple that seemed to penetrate much deeper than audio stimulus. "Wake the fuck up!"

Grimmjow's hand flew faster than Ichigo could follow, pulling his sword out and flicking it into the sand with force beyond reason that left a ripple of power in its wake. "Remember who you are! We are hollows! We should be free in our world, but instead you've let yourselves be tamed."

Little more than a stirring was achieved by his words, one of the Quincies at the front smiled.

"You were once tamed, Grimmjow. So why shouldn't they be?"

"I woke up."

"There is no point."

Grimmjow eyed the soldier. "I'll snap them back. They just need remember their hunger."

The dark eyes of the Quincy narrowed but the next second he was hurled from his perch on the hollow's back and lay on his own back in the sand. Grimmjow knelt over him.

"What are you-"

"Hollows hunger for human souls, or did you forget?"

Nel screeched, Rukia flinched and she felt Ichigo tense next to her when Grimmjow's teeth closed over the twisted human's throat as if he were as beast-like as all the hollows around them. But the effect was what he desired, and at the potent scent of human blood, the act of taking strength from another's life source, consuming a very soul, all those mounted hollows were reminded of that one burning desire that gave them their name, that drove their every action.

They began to rip their masters apart.

And there in the sands beyond the rubble of Las Noches, the last of the Dawn Squadron was laid to ruin.

Grimmjow rose, wiping the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand, but long sticky stains still ran down his chin and chest. There was rage in those eyes that Ichigo recalled from long ago and even as the screams of Quincies, hybrids and hollows continued at his back it was the ruins behind them that held Grimmjow's attention.

He took Pantera back out of the sand but didn't move further after that. He looked like he was about to fall over.

"Ichigo."

"Grimmjow?"

"Is Uryu dead?"

"He has no pulse."

"Where's Orihime?"

"She and my father were taken. Probably Urahara too. Where are Renji and Chad?"

"The Vandenreich home world."

"And Halibel, where is she?"

"In there." Grimmjow dropped his eyes, Ichigo saw the total destruction and understood. She was gone. But then Grimmjow pushed Pantera through his belt and looked Ichigo dead on.

"Get up."

"What?"

"We are leaving. Nel." She moved obediently to his side.

"Where?"

"To the Vandenreich home world." He had turned to face the chaos; here and there they saw retreating soldiers disappearing. They had never seen the Quincies go through to their world, but now seeing swirls of blue light dot the landscape, there was no doubt that these were portals to the quincies' realm, and Grimmjow intended to follow them back.

"It's suicide." Rukia whispered, looking at them all. "Ichigo is wounded, I have no power, and you Grimmjow, I don't know what happened to you but you're going to fall over any second."

"It's your only chance of saving Uryu." He said flatly. "He's dead one way or the other here, but they want him, and they have Orihime, so if you come with us, maybe you can save him. Ichigo," some of the coldness left his voice now and they knew he was thinking of Halibel, "they've taken everything from us. Don't let them take one more person."

It was a struggle, but Ichigo held onto Uryu's thin form and stood up, Rukia following him.

"Okay."

"We'll probably die." Rukia said, slipping her hand around Ichigo's arm as he prepared for flashstep, "but I would rather fight to the end. Let's go."

They moved together over blood drenched ground to the nearest Vandenreich in the process of opening a portal. The soldier had no idea of their intention, and his back to them, he jumped through. The blue portal wavered in his absence, they had no time to hesitate so together they jumped into the void, prepared to meet whatever awaited on the other side. Even if this battle cost them their lives, they would fight to the bitter end for their friends, for each other, for the whole universe.

Because this was war.

END of PART II

Look for a preview for part III soon!

Hey all,

So here is the end of part II, and I am currently working on part III, but I haven't got a title yet. As I started going through Dawn/Day related names, I thought to myself that some of these sound kind of familiar and then it hit me that the whole Twilight series is named after parts of the day. I never read them but I was kind of sad when I figured that out and now I am having trouble not thinking about vampires every time I try to make a title. Oh well, I'll think of something, and hopefully finish up this story in the process! I will try tp put the preview out in a couple of weeks, and then I'll know better when I'm going to start publishing chapters of the final part. As always, reivews are appreciated.

Thanks,

Riza.

PS,

you totally called it Sheeshasan!