"It's over." Bambietta panted, sheathing her swords when Ichigo dropped to his knees. Water drenched him. Ice covered one ankle. A hundred microscopic cuts coated him in blood. Next to him, Uryu kept his arms wrapped around Rukia, but he was no better, horrible long gashes from Renji's stolen bankai opened up his leg.
"For all the time you two spent with your so called friends, you couldn't even defeat their power."
She scooped up Zangetsu from where he'd fallen. At her back the other Stern Ritter moved to ring the three.
"It really is quite pathetic."
"Enough." A cold voice stopped her mocking. She and the other parted for the figure who moved from darkness. "So this is her son."
His mutilated face repulsed Ichigo, but he couldn't look away from the cold eye that beheld him now.
"Ichigo Kurosaki. Son of Masaki Kurosaki—one of the last great quincies."
"Wh-what?" he stammered.
"No way," Uryu breathed.
"Yes, your father was very close to her." He looked sideways at Uryu. "In fact, you never knew your mother did you?"
"No...you can't-"
"Think about it." Bach interrupted Ichigo. "Your father is a soul reaper, after all. Mikami had a human life, before he got involved—and a human lover."
"Shut up!" But Uryu's quick mind was already doing the calculations between his and Ichigo's birthdays...where they fell in the calendar year... "Dammit!" he cursed when he put it together.
"What?" Ichigo looked to him, desperate for a straight answer. "Uryu, what?!"
"There's more than nine months between us Ichigo..."
"You don't mean-"
"Meet your brother." Bach interjected.
"No..."
"Yes. He is pure quincy, not tainted by the blood of soul reaper and hollow such as yourself. He was what I needed—but you, you are what I desire. An abomination but a quincy at your core. I didn't realize who you were at first, until I had you and that pathetic Soul Reaper captured in Hueco Mundo." He looked to Rukia. "I will strip you of your other powers, and we will see what remains of you. If I find nothing of worth—I will simply strip you of your soul."
His hand clenched around Zangetsu. Ichigo lurched forward, trying to get back to his feet.
"Screw you."
"It is pointless." Bach nodded. Two of the Stern Ritter grabbed the teen and hauled him up before their leader. Bach trailed the tip of Zangetsu over his chest. "I will cut from your soul every part of you that rebels, and then you will be mine." He withdrew the sword but gripped the blade in his bare hand.
And he consumed Zangetsu in Quincy flames.
Ichigo's scream lit up the atmosphere. Lightening broke the horizon again and again. Those endless clouds swelled and heaved and threatened to break. But the King did not relent—not until another voice cried out to him.
"Let him go."
Grimmjow dropped from the wind torn desert above to the open space where the quincies ensnared the three. Bach let up and Ichigo went limp in his captors' grasp, gasping.
"You should not have been able to escape."
"You seem to think I'm incapable of alot of things." Grimmjow brandished Pantera and stepped away from the three women at his back. Orihime was conscious but shake. She held Nel in her arms, and Halibel kept them protected—for the moment. She was hardly going to let Grimmjow take on this battle alone.
"I think it's time to end this."
"Oh, your arrogance is unmatched, espada." Bach walked toward him, Zangetsu still in his hold. "You are nothing, nobody."
"You're the one who looks like nothing, from where I'm standing." Grimmjow eyed his charred body, injuries from his fight with Yamamoto crippled him. The King stopped, as if reminded of his wounds.
"Oh, these?" He looked himself over, and the sky was split again by yellow light. "I almost forgot."
Grimmjow felt the pull of power but as before, he was unaffected. Everyone else, however, staggered, even the vandenreich soldiers. But Bach wasn't drawing from them—he was taking from everything around him. He broke down the reichi of this world and made it his own, and when his eyes lifted to Grimmjow again, he was whole. He read the curse in Grimmjow's eyes.
"That's right, espada, do you realize how foolish you have been?"
But Grimmjow smiled and took a firmer grip of his sword with both hands now. "You're not the only one who has the power to heal." His eyes darted back to Orihime. "And you're not the only one, who brought back-up."
The King turned at these words and saw the first strike fall. Soifon landed from shunko, her back aflame with the energy she too was able to glean from their environment. A quincy soldier lay unmoving at her feet, and behind her, the other rescued Soul Reapers spread out.
"I made a pit stop, before coming here." Grimmjow continued, drawing the King's attention back to him.
"I have their bankais."
"Yeah, and if anyone knows how to defeat them, it will be their rightful owners." Someone gave a cry—the battle was on. Soul reapers met Stern Ritter. Orihime ran to Ichigo when he was dropped. Uryu covered Rukia to protect her from a nearby flame of energy.
And Grimmjow collided with he Vandenreich King.
"He's in shock." Uryu reasoned when Orihime lowered her light that had healed himself and Rukia but apparently done nothing for Ichigo. The little soul reaper was still coming to terms with the fact Orihime had restored her powers in mere seconds. Ichigo, however, was still trembling where he sat between them, in the middle of the battle that raged around them.
"I don't know what he did to me." He clutched at his chest.
"He was tearing you apart from the inside out." Uryu said.
"Uryu..." Ichigo looked to him. "What he said-"
"Now is really not the time." But he stood and got a hand on Ichigo's wrist and pulled him to his feet. "We have to get your sword back, and then we have to get you out of here."
"What? I'm not leaving in the middle of the fight."
"Sorry, but you're dead weight. Rukia, Orihime, can I leave him with you?"
"Why, where are you going?" Rukia questioned.
"To find my father."
She accepted this, but shook her head. "I will go. You are the only one who knows a way out of this world."
He watched her. "He's my father."
"And I'm your friend. I give you my word I will find him, I will save him."
"That won't be necessary." The voice made them all jump.
"Dad." Ichigo said when he saw Isshin, blood coating one side, but most of it dripping from the man he held.
"Father." Uryu moved to take Ryuken's weight at once. "Orihime."
"Of course." She raised her shield but the elder Ishida protested.
"There isn't time."
"What?"
"This is the Vale of Eden." Isshin took over the explanation and looked to the sky that was being split buy lightening again and again. "It was only ever mean to be a realm where lost souls were returned to where they belong. The Vandenreich put up spells that allowed them to live here—Ryuken and I just undid them."
"WHAT?" Ichigo exclaimed.
"This world will collapse in minutes if not sooner. We have to get out now!"
"What about the others?" Ichigo protested.
"I'll tell them." Rukia was gone before he could stop her.
"Come on, Son, it's time to go home, and let the balance take care of these bastards for us."
Isshin got his arm and propelled Ichigo forward just as the first earthquake shook the world.
"Shit." Grimmjow spat on his knees, hand to his side. "What the hell was that?"
The King was engaged with Halibel but looked to the sky.
They heard thunder.
"Those idiots."
"The world is collapsing." Soifon warned. She had also put her digs into the Vandenreich King after she'd stolen back her bankai. She still held onto the medallion that contained it, but for now, she was satisfied to have it back in her hands—as were most the captains.
"We have to go!" Rukia landed next to her. "I've told all the others."
"How?" Soifon questioned.
"Uryu and Ryuken can get us out. We have to go now."
"Fools." Bach slammed Halibel back. She landed not far from Orihime and Nel. "We'll just follow you back and destroy you in your own world."
Soifon's eyes narrowed, knowing he was right, but Grimmjow came up again and slashed out with Pantera, catching the King's sword arm. Zangetsu hit the ground.
"Girl!" He kicked the blade back in the direction of Orihime. "RUN!"
Nel hopped free of her embrace so Orihime could pick up Zangetsu. But her eyes widened when she lifted them back up.
"GRIMMJOW!"
"You should not have turned your back on me."
He lurched when Bach's swords cut into his back and tore through bone and muscle until it was on his other side.
"Damn it." Halibel whirled back to Orihime. "RUN!" Then she raised Tiburon and dove at Bach.
"Pathetic." He met her attack with a bow of blue light. She fell when an arrow pierced her thigh.
"Bastard." She pulled the glowing blue shaft from her leg, fire in her eyes. He raised his bow again.
"Stop!" Rukia raised her blade.
"You will die together then!" But before he could release, Soifon struck at him sideways. They tumbled before breaking apart. She staggered and Rukia saw the blood on her stomach. Bach smiled.
"As if a woman could defeat me."
"Then how about a child?" None of them had been paying attention to Nel.
None of them but Grimmjow had watched her transform from girl to woman and the battle torn ground. The swell of power had been masked in the breaking of the world, so not even Juha Bach had been prepared when she raised the long crescent moon handled katana to his throat.
"You gave up this form—this power." Bach argued against what his eyes saw. "To save him." He looked to Grimmjow, still on his knees.
"I am his soul." She said. "And he is mine. I will always exist to protect him, as he has protected me."
She swung.
"The girl...Orihime..." Halibel said from the ground where she gripped her own renewed blade. "She must have given Nel back her strength as well."
The earth trembled even more violently. "We have to go." Soifon said. "The King will perish here."
"Grimmjow." But Halibel could hardly stand on her wounded leg. Rukia helped take her weight but looked to Soifon.
"Please help him, Captain, he's been our ally for weeks now."
"Fine." She consented to Rukia's request. "Now go!" Rukia did, taking Halibel with her. Nel and Bach were still engaged, Soifon moved to the fallen espada. She took hold of the sword in his chest.
He screamed when it came free and fell forward into her.
"Time to go, espada." But his hand came up to her arm and held it tight,
"No."
"What?"
"Nel...she'll hold him here, until the end." "Most likely."
"Then I can't go."
"You'll only die with them."
"It's my choice." A crack formed int he earth. A sonic boom of thunder cracked the air and rain began to fall.
"It's starting. This world is breaking."
"Then go."
"No." Soifon stood. "It is my duty to make sure Bach falls here."
"If you don't go," Grimmjow argued, "the others will hold the doorway open, waiting for you, for us. You have to go, make them close it."
She considered him for a long moment, then held out her hand to him. He took it, and with her help rose. "I never would have thought I would be putting my trust in an espada."
"Just go." He grunted, hand tight over the wound in his chest. "And do me a favour."
"What?"
"Tell Halibel I'm sorry. But this was how it had to be."
She nodded. "Good bye, espda."
She was gone. Grimmjow picked up Pantera.
"Nel." He spoke low but she heard and disengaged from Bach. "We do it together."
"You cannot defeat me." The King argued.
"We don't have to defeat you." Grimmjow took hold of Pantera with both hands. "We just have to hold you."
The King barked out a response but it was lost in another defeaning snap of thunder. The amphitheatre was ruptured, the false structures of this world were falling to pieces.
And Grimmjow and Nel moved as one.
Blue light lashed at his face, Grimmjow lost sight for a moment but Nel never stopped. She pulled the King's attention to one side and it was enough. Pantera slid through the back of one shoulder, Nel's through the front of another, and Bach was pinned by their blades—two zanpakutos connected like no others. Grimmjow looked into her eyes past the body of their enemy who struggled to get free—but no matter what strength of King or quincy or man—he would never be able to pull apart two souls so closely bound.
And so he was trapped in his dead and dying world, as it crumpled all around him.
And then the world collapsed.
"No..." Hablibel breathed when Soifon came through to Hueco Mundo alone. "NO!" She screamed when a short nod from the captain was enough to tell Ryuken to end it. The connection closed before the Third espada could reach that gap in space. She stood on her wounded leg in the empty grey sands, and stared at where the hole had been.
"He told me to tell you there was no other way, and that he was sorry." Soifon said to her. Orihime was with Ichigo, her hands came up to her mouth, his fingers tightened over her shoulders.
"They're both gone?" He finally spoke.
"They stayed to hold back Bach."
"Dammit." He cursed and pulled Orihime against him when the first tears fell down his cheeks, but his eyes remained fixed on Halibel's back as she stood staring forward at the vacant, hollow desert.
Only the epilogue remains, I will post it soon! Glad that there are some people still following this and I am glad I can finally give you all a conclusion!
Riza