UNBREAKABLE

Part III of the Day Break Trilogy

The darkness swam around them, fluid, thick, denying gravity its pull and lifting their bodies along in its cool, swift current.

Grimmjow couldn't see the others, he could see or hear nothing save the little form in his arms, shivering against him. He tried kicking out in the weightlessness but his own motion seemed to have no influence on his momentum.

Something brushed past him and he grabbed on to the tickle of fabric that almost slipped through his fingers. There was a tug and then hands reached out to find him, holding back tight. By the size and slenderness he knew it was Rukia, but even when he pulled her against him he couldn't hear her, nor did a sound come out when he tried to call her name. This place was without sound. Without sight.

Long minutes passed in the darkness before they could see the pinprick of light that must be their destination. It grew steadily, a blue-grey light that converge in a pure white light too brilliant to look at without squinting. As they got closer, enough light was cast on them that Grimmjow could see Nel's face scrunched in worry, even Rukia stiffened in anticipation of what would happen when they hit that light. He thought he could just make out the form of Ichigo to their left but then the light swept up on them and he was blind again.

The light was nothing like the soft touch of shadows, it was jarring, a heat was building around them and then a violent force, heavier and blunter than a wind but just as untouchable, ripped at them. The first noise Grimmjow heard was Rukia's shriek, she jerked from his side and their fingers just barely interlocked in time to keep her from blowing away but another wave of power and she was nearly dislodged. Nel remained safe against him but something was very clearly trying to pull the soul reaper from him. He thought he heard Ichigo's cry behind them but he didn't look away from the dark eyes locked on him. If they got separated, Rukia would be alone in this world without any sort of power.

"Hold on." He grunted out the obvious not knowing what else to say, to do. But a final burst hit then and she slid free. "Rukia!"

She was lost in seconds, now nothing but white visible to him, too harsh for his eyes and he tucked his face against the top of Nel's head.

"Nel's scared." He heard her whimper into him.

"I won't let go of you."
The light turned white hot, the air to thunder and and all was lost to sight and sound.

"So this is it, the home world of the Vandenreich."

"SHUT-UP!" Urahara fell to his knees when he was struck, no mercy given by the soldier holding the chain that looped around his neck and he found himself momentarily strangled.

"Enough."

The tension released and he dropped ungraciously to the ground. A shackled hand rose to rub the raw flesh at his neck before making an attempt at getting back up. He made it to his knees but when he saw they had reached their destination he didn't bother rising further.

"Kisuke Urahara."

The voice came from the darkness at one end of the perfectly rounded stone court in which he now knelt. It was almost in the style of an old Greek amphitheatre, no ceiling covered the rising rows of stones seats nor the throne that rose up at one end. Their ceiling was instead the perpetual thunderstorm that roiled above their heads, though the intermittent flashes that came from the low hanging cumulonimbus clouds made no thunder that he could tell. Beyond the amphitheatre rose up a stone castle nestled on a barren landscape of dry orange dust and spotted with dead grey wood.

"You are mistaken." The voice continued from the darkness that even his sharp eyes could not penetrate. Still, there was no doubt he was being addressed by the King. "For we are humans, and our home world will always be the world of the living. This realm, is one we have claimed for our own. A forgotten place between Hueco Mundo and Soul Society, a pocket of time and space in which we were able to forge a liveable environment. And with all the spirit energy that gathers here from the overspill of two neighbouring spiritual worlds, it truly is a land where the Quincy can thrive."

"The Vale of Eden." Urahara whispered out. "The realm of balance, where lost souls are said to be converted back to energy. Is that where we are?"

"That is Soul Reaper mythology, based on your maniacal obsession with the balance of souls. But for all intents and purposes, yes, I believe this is the realm you would refer to as the Vale."

"It looks nothing like I imagined."

"We have sculpted it, to our needs."

"I've noticed. So that's how you have cut us off. From this point you could even interfere with the passage of souls between Soul Society and the World of the Living."

"You are correct."

"Well King of the Vandenreich, as a man of science, you have impressed me."

"And what about the rest of you, not devoted to science?"

"You disgust me, of course. You found perhaps the one pure realm in all the universe, untouched by the tampering of conscious life, existing only to help maintain the balance, and you turned it into an abhorrence. I am guessing the sky was not always storming?"

"What of it?"

"Your presence, your will and desire have twisted even the sky. Does that tell you nothing?"

"It tells me you are not the man I read about since our last encounter. You are not the calculating, logical scientist I wouldn't mind joining my ranks. You are emotional. How disappointing."

"Huh, emotional." Urahara considered, thought about how he felt when he'd fallen, lost. When he'd been wrapped in chains and drug back through the dark void to this place, his own blood painting once radiant robes. He thought about the friends he'd left behind in the sands of Hueco Mundo and their questionable fate. He thought about the day Uryu was taken. Yes. He was emotional. "How odd, I never would have described myself that way, but now that you say it, I must agree."

"The Great Urahara was not so great, in the end, it seems. Go, await your fate with those you call friends, it is a final courtesy I deign fit to show you."

The chains drew taught once more and Kisuke was drug to his feet. They exited the bowl of the amphitheatre and then crossed a small courtyard before going down, through a heavy door and down a deep and wending tunnel that would give claustrophobia even to a mole. At the end was a single door and there was no surprise after seeing the rest of the stone buildings when it opened upon a dungeon.

"Get in."

"Of course." Urahara stepped inside and the clank of the door sounded immediately at his back. His shackles had not been removed and the chain at his neck drug along behind him but the many pains in his body that flared as he walked down the stone steps were forgotten. For he did not see the friends he expected.

He approached the one nearest him, thin arms held straight above his head by heavy iron laced with fine blue lines of Quincy spells. Dirt and dry blood crusted his hair and muted its brilliance and the down-turned face was equally lost in the streaks of grime that coated it. Very gently, Urahara reached out and put a hand under that chin to guide the face up, afraid when he felt just how still he was there would be no life in him. But that fear was dashed when the midnight fire of his aqua eyes struck him.

"What a sad way to meet again, but here we are, Toshiro Hitsugaya."

The dark King watched his soldiers hustle Urahara from the amphitheatre and then he turned back to the one standing on the far side of the court. "Now, I would like to meet our next guest. Tell Ryuken to bring her to me."

"Yes sir."

The soldier hurried out along the stone path in the desert. The king waited but heard a startled cry and then shouts for help. He rose.

"Sir." The soldier had returned, his white uniform stained dark red in the front, but he was uninjured. "Ryuken Ishida is badly wounded. Other soldiers are taking him to the healers."

"Where is she? Where is the girl and Isshin Kurosaki?"

"They were not with him."

"WHAT?" the king began marching forward, out of the shadow that kept his features hidden. Now, though, in the eery storm-lit landscape of this world, his whole body was revealed, the sleeve that hung limp and empty at his side, the dark ruined skin at his neck that crept up his chin and distorted one whole side of his his face, the flesh still raw, a terrible mix between red and black and the form of his cheekbone and eye socket all too clear. The horrible burns extended over his nose and up his forehead, engulfing one eye entirely and just barely missing the other. He truly was a horrific sight and the soldier struggled to stand his ground and look his leader straight on. But the huffing breath of another soldier running in behind him drew his sight and the king's back behind him.

"Sir! The Dawn Sir, reports are coming in, I...Hueco Mundo., it's..."

"What?" The king saw the sweat on his face, the terror in his eyes. "Speak!"

"S-sir, Hueco Mundo has been lost. The Dawn...Lothure, Ishida, they were defeated, the palace destroyed and the Calvary...they were attacked, something about the sixth espada and the hollows turning on their masters. The survivors have retreated."

The atmosphere crackled with a build of energy. The sky darkened even further, and, if possible, the very air around the King darkened, perhaps by the same trick as the shadow cape at his back. In this realm so rich in reishi, it seemed that his very anger became a black energy around him. The two soldiers stood transfixed, awaiting their deaths, knowing that his uncontrolled wrath was literally lethal. But instead of striking out at them, the very heaven broke, thunder that had gone unheard for centuries boomed over the lands, shaking dry earth and bouncing back off sculpted rock. When the lightening struck it was raw energy, flashing down in a wiry chain on the horizon and the King's one hand clenched in furry.

"Grimmjow Jaggerjaques. I will destroy you."

Here it is, the beginning of the end! This is the final part in the trilogy, I have tried to include some of the new information we have learned about the Vandenreich in the canon, but since I started writing this before I knew certain things, there will definitely been alot of discrepencies, which I hope you don't mind. I'll be sticking with what I envisioned from the beginning and hope to bring this story to a satisfactory conclusion.

Riza