Chapter 25

I own nothing

It was later in the afternoon the next day when Heller, Ichigo, and Kenpachi decided to get back on archers trail. Heller and the group went a few blocks from the apartment while Heller shifted into riley. He dialed up rook on his phone and set it for face to face with the other 2 out of the shot.

Rooks answered overlooking the touch table in the middle of the base he was currently in.

"Rooks here."

Heller jumped to the point as he said in rielys voice "can you send me Dr. Archer's last known location?"

Rooks shook his head and rubbed his eyes with one hand as he said, "archers gone. She and her people disappeared after Heller and his band of freaks killed off Koenig's team. The last member of Archer's team to go missing was a Dr. Gutierrez. I'll send you his last known coordinates."

"Roger that."

Heller hung up as the coordinates came through and shifted back.

Ichigo walked up, having been out of hearing range, and said "well?"

Heller turned and began to lead the way as he said "Archer and her team went dark after we killed Koening's team, but we do have the location of the last member to go dark. It's a small park that's down town."

They got there in a few minutes and landed on top of a apartment complex. Heller said "spread out, look for anything out of the ordinary. If you spot something, just come find the rest of us."

Kenpachi snorted and said "who made you in charge? And this isn't what I was expecting when I came here."

Heller looked up with a gleam in his eyes as he growled "I'm in charge because I'm the one with experience when it comes to Blackwatch, the most stake in seeing them go down, and if you thought that you would just get to fight everyone in sight, then that's your own damn doing. Now do what I say or get your ass back home."

Kenpachi looked at Heller for a few seconds with a calculating look then grinned and said "you got balls Heller, I'll give you that." Then he turned and disappeared as he began to look from another roof top.

Ichigo looked at Heller with concern. He hadn't seen him lash out like that for a while now, and what Zangetsu said about a hollow forming inside Heller's mind came back to him.

"Are you okay Heller?" Ichigo asked. "It's not like you to lash out like that."

Heller sighed as his shoulders slumped slightly. Then he said "sorry, but that guy rubs me the wrong way, how he's always looking for a fight. Lately though, I just feel so angry or irritated at people."

Ichigo thought about that for a second. Seemed like the hollow was developing faster than he thought. He would have to tell Heller soon if he didn't want Heller taken over by whatever monster might be forming in his friend.

"I'll tell him soon. But it should be while the others are around to calm him down if he freaks out."

Ichigo put a hand on Heller's shoulder and gave him a little shake and said "Don't worry about it Heller. Just remember, we're all here if you need someone to talk to."

Heller took a deep breath and said "thanks Ichigo. Now come on, we have to find that snake Gutierrez."

Ichigo nodded and walked to the edge of the roof they were on. He looked over the busy intersection down below. As he watched, he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. He quickly turned his head and saw 3 Blackwatch soldiers standing side by side. One of them was looking right at him, and he thought he faintly heard a "oh crap," from him. Ichigo quickly stepped back until he could watch what happened without being seen. As Ichigo watched, the soldier that had spotted him seemed to look between the two besides him. He settled for the one on his right. As Ichigo watched, the soldier raised his right arm, pointed 2 fingers, and then jabbed them into the neck of the soldier next to him. He quickly took his finger out and walked away as Ichigo's eyes remained glued in horror and fascination as the soldier that had been jabbed began to groan and gurgled horribly as the other one said "Hey, what's wrong bro?"

But as Ichigo watched, the body of the solider exploded like a bomb, sending out tendrils and latching on to people, vehicles, and other things before sucking them into an explosion of blood and shrapnel. It reminded Ichigo of Heller's black hole attack and stunned him for 2 seconds before he quickly turned and yelled "HELLER!"

Heller quickly turned and saw Ichigo was panicked. He quickly flash stepped to the edge and looked down at the destruction. As he scanned the crowd he said "Where'd he go?"

Ichigo pointed and said "That way. We have to hurry and catch him before someone else gets hurt."

Heller sent out a hunter pulse and saw it rebound off somebody a few blocks down.

"Got him."

Heller and Ichigo flash stepped down a few blocks and appeared in front of the soldier. Said soldier quickly dropped his gun and shifted into his true form, with the typical ax blades coming out of his arms. He was a middle aged man, having blond hair and sunglasses while he sneered at them and said "well, well, look what the dog dragged in. heard a lot about you Heller, and your friends."

Heller shifted to his sealed blade arm as he said "then you know that you bastards haven't been much trouble against us."

The evolved chuckled as he said "maybe, but those were the generation one that mercer made. After seeing what you could do, he…"

The evolved vanished, catching Ichigo and Heller off guard as they heard something behind them, and then "…decided to help us evolve even more."

Ichigo and Heller quickly swung their swords as they turned just as the evolved swung his ax arms. The blades meet with a clang and stopped, the arms of everyone trembling slightly while the evolved simply smirked. They began to trade blows back and forth, the evolved managing to keep up with their speed and strength with little to no trouble. Ichigo and Heller jumped backwards after the evolved tried a scissors cut, both panting slightly as they bought some distance.

Ichigo said, "What the hell is going on here? That move he used resembled flash step. How the hell did mercer know how to replicate that move and that strength?"

Heller shook his head, never taking his eyes off the evolved, as he said, "I don't know, but we better step up our games if we're going to take this guy down."

Ichigo was about to respond when he heard the evolved shout "Is that all?! I excepted more from you two!"

Bu suddenly, Kenpachi appeared above the evolved, his sword out and about to swing downward just as the evolved looked up. He quickly managed to dodge the attack as Kenpachi caused a small shockwave as the blow hit the ground. He looked up at the evolved with his battle eyes as he said with that grin on his face "I think you mean three. Now it's my turn. ICHIGO, HELLER!"

Both watched as the evolved began circling with Kenpachi as he said "you two stay out of this, this guy's mine."

Heller quickly weighed the odds of talking Kenpachi out of this course of action, with the odds being too long to even exist, then said "fine, but don't kill him. I need to consume him to get his memories."

Kenpachi said "Feh, fine."

The evolved, overhearing said "Oh please, you think you can beat me?"

He vanished, then reappeared behind Kenpachi and slashed as he shouted "You couldn't beat me in a million years!"

Kenpachi quickly spun and blocked, the force behind the blow causing him to sink a few inches into the ground, but otherwise he seemed fine, as he grinned up at his opponent and said "Not a bad hit. NOW LET'S REALLY GET GOING!"

And then all hell broke loose. Kenpachi and the evolved began using their speed to the max, using speeds that would be too fast for the average person to see, while crossing blades several times, the blows causing ear ringing clangs and small shockwave where they met. It lasted for about 20 seconds before the two of them appeared again, the evolved panting heavily and having numerous cuts on him from that were healing faster than a regular evolved, while Kenpachi had several cuts on him while he simply looked at his opponent with his maniac grin before laughing and said "not bad, but nowhere near enough to give me a proper challenge."

The evolved growled before he charged Kenpachi with all the strength he had left. He appeared before Kenpachi and before he had a chance to react, slashed him deep and diagonally across the chest as blood went out like a geyser. Kenpachi looked down in surprise at his chest and then the evolved, who stood there with a maniac grin on his face, at least until Kenpachi raised his sword and swung twice, slicing off the evolved arms.

The evolved screamed in pain and fell to the ground as Ichigo and Heller flash stepped to the two. Ichigo immediately began healing Kenpachi while Heller grabbed the evolved with one hand and then jabbed him in the chest to consume him. But Heller instantly got the memories before he could consume the body.

The evolved was looking at Gutierrez who was handing him a letter, saying, "This is from archer and Koenig. You've taken precautions on this right?"

The evolved snorted as he took the letter and said, "You know where this heading harry, do you really think I'll risk pissing off Alex Mercer?"

Gutierrez nodded in satisfaction as he said "Deliver that to base Adams and don't waste any time.

Heller shook his head as he looked at the body of the bio bomber in his hand. Then he felt something shift in the body and looked to see several tendrils beginning to grow out of the body. He quickly threw it down a nearby alley just as it exploded, sending out tendrils just like it had with Blackwatch guard. Heller chuckled and said, "Damn, that'll be handy."

Then he turned in time to see Kenpachi healed as the green glow around Ichigo's hands died. Then Ichigo turned and opened his mouth, but Heller cut him off, anticipating the question.

"That wasn't him, but he was taking a message to someone at base Adams from archer. Let's go see if that 'someone's' Gutierrez, shall we?"

They arrived at the base in a few minutes, overlooking it from a nearby building. Heller sent out a pulse for it to rebound from inside the building. He pointed and said, "Archer's pen pal is in there. Any ideas on how to draw him out?"

Ichigo scratched his chin as he thought for a minute and looked over the setup of the base. Then as he was looking at the base commander, he got an idea. He smiled evilly as he pointed at the base commander and said "I think an exploding solider might do the trick, don't you think?"

Heller looked where Ichigo was pointing and immediately got what Ichigo was going for. He smirked and said "not a bad idea. You wait until I draw out the contact, then come in."

Kenpachi scoffed and said, "Want to have all the fun Heller?"

Heller simply shot Kenpachi a glare and said, "Just do it."

Then Heller shifted to a Blackwatch guard and flash stepped to the base entrance. He walked in and spotted the commander standing where he had been before, behind a row of 5 soldiers, all of their back to the commander. Heller began walking towards him.

Heller's P.O.V

I walked with purpose towards the commander from behind, being careful to keep an eye on the nearby soldiers, but they just ignored me as I walked past. I quickly walked to the commander, past him, and then grabbed him from behind in a head lock. Before he could cry out, I quickly gathered some bio mass to my index finger and jabbed him in the neck before releasing him and quickly walking away as he began to gurgle and convulse. He began to spit out blood and scream in pain as his body began to move like snakes were trapped under the skin. Naturally the nearby soldiers took notice of this and were pointing their guns at the commander as he fell to his knees, body writhing more violently before tendrils shot out, catching his five soldiers, a few wooden crates, and a gas tank and reeling them all in. the resulting explosion of blood and gore caught everyone's attention and sent the entire base into high alert, with guards pouring out of the base to cover the exits and entrances.

Heller smiled beneath his helmet and thought "Damn, that work better than I expected it too."

"That was a beautiful display of death."

Heller stopped in his thoughts for a minute. Where the hell did that come from? While he wanted to kill all these bastards, he had never… enjoyed this much death and gore. Then Heller felt like there was something else looking through his eyes for a minute, and if he could see his face, he would be freaked by the hint of black that had begun creeping across his eyes before it suddenly vanished. Heller shook his head and decided to deal with his thoughts later. And just as well as he suddenly heard several screams coming from the base.

Heller turned his head to see a evolved Blackwatch guard with his blade arms formed running out. The guard stopped for a brief second before his masked gaze locked onto Heller. Heller watched as the guard used flash step to appear before him and slice Heller. Heller instantly leaned back to dodge, then shifted his arms to claws and slashed in retaliation at the guard. He simply jumped back and began circling around Heller as the guard said "James Heller. You'll never find Dr. Archer. That search will end here with your death."

General P.O.V

Heller snarled at the guard, "then it's a good thing that I'm not alone."

Ichigo and Kenpachi appeared on either side of Heller, Ichigo holding his sword with both hands and a scowl on his face with Kenpachi held his with one hand and his smile.

Heller snapped his head as he heard a guard say "RED CROWN, COME IN, WE HAVE Heller AND HIS FRIENDS AT BASE ADAMS, ALONG WITH AN INFECTED HOSTILE! REQUESTING BACK UP, OVER!"

"Copy that. All units at base tango and base Charlie divert forces to base Adams, over."

Heller growled and said "Kenpachi you deal with the other guys, the evolved is mine and Ichigo's."

Kenpachi didn't object. In fact, he charged towards the crowd like a rabid dog let out of his cage, swinging his sword like there was no tomorrow while the guards tried to shoot him, only for the bullets to fail to pierce his skin.

Heller turned to the evolved and said "we're going to need to kick it up a notch is mercer's powered up the evolved."

Ichigo nodded and said "I couldn't agree more Heller. Let's go! BANKAI!"

While Ichigo was engulfed in his cloud to change, Heller shifted his right arm to his sword and shouted "REFLECT IN DESPAIR, SHADOW SHIFTER!"

And the resulting wind blasted through the courtyard of the base, sending tremors into the ground while the evolved got into a defensive stance, ready to make the first move as Heller's sword shifted to his Shikai and Ichigo came out in his Bankai.

Rather than waste words, Heller made the first move by charging up his spirit energy, swung his sword, and shouted "GETSUGA TENSHO!" the blast of energy was as big as Ichigo's Bankai attack, but the evolved simply used flash step to appear behind Heller and tried to slash him, but Ichigo interfered by blocking the attack and then began his own attacks with Heller using his own strikes beside Ichigo. But despite their power ups, the evolved managed to keep pace with them, even dealing them a few cuts and several places despite their reflexes. When they jumped back for breathing room, everyone was breathing hard but Ichigo and Heller had some moderate cuts while the evolved only had a few scratches on him.

Heller panted as he tried to think up a plan when all of a sudden the evolved appeared behind Ichigo and slammed the blunt side of his arm into his ribs, sending him flying into the wall and causing it to collapse on him.

"ICHIGO!" Heller yelled. Then he turned his attention the evolved but wasn't fast enough to block the cuts the evolved dealt to Heller's chest and limbs. When the evolved was done, Heller had a growing pool of blood from the cuts on his body not healing, him on his knees and barley able to keep his head raised as the evolved walked back to Heller. The evolved looked down and said "pathetic. THIS is the great James Heller I've been hearing so much about? You're a disgrace to everything we are. I don't know what mercer saw in you."

Heller couldn't keep his head up any more and it slumped down, the chin resting on his chest with his arms at his side, too tire and weak to move.

The evolved rose his arm and said "go join your worthless family in the next life." And swung his arm down to cleave Heller in half.

Heller's P.O.V

I felt pain all over from the cuts that bastard had made, but I didn't have enough strength to heal myself. Then I heard the bastard talking and looked up in his face as he said I was pathetic, a disgrace, but I couldn't move my mouth to retort to him. Finally I didn't have enough strength to keep my head raised and let it fall down onto my chest.

"Damn it, why the hell can't I move? It's like I'm being pressed down by something. Something's pressing down like a freaking lead blanket."

Then he heard it. The final words of the evolved as he raised his arm to deal the final blow.

"Go join your worthless family in the next life."

Heller felt a volcano of fury and anger erupt in him.

"NO! I WON'T LET THEM DOWN! I WILL KILL THAT BASTARD MERCER! IF IT'S THE LAST…THING…I…DOOOOOO!"

And that was the last thing Heller thought as a deep blackness overtook his mind

Ichigo's P.O.V

Ichigo groaned quietly as he shifted enough to let him enough of a view of what was happening, but he was too weak and disoriented from the blow to move any more. He saw and heard the whole thing, right up to the point the evolved said for Heller to go to the next life. And Ichigo could only watch helplessly as the evolved swung his arm to kill Heller.

At least until Heller all of a sudden raised his sword and blocked the attack, stopping the evolved arm instantly. The evolved said "What the…?" but stopped as something began happening to Heller. He was beginning to glow red and heal at a rapid pace as his spirit energy began to skyrocket and grow more dense and…malicious.

Ichigo felt the change in power and his eyes widened. He knew what this power was. And that power was one thing.

The power of a hollow.

"Oh no."

General P.O.V

Heller began to shake gently as he power kept rising, forming a type of shroud around him, swirling like smoke, as he quietly said, "You think I'll let that slide?"

Then Heller rose his head to show a mask forming on his face, his eyes like Ichigo's hollow eyes as Heller shouted in a savage voice "YOU THINK I'LL LET YOU LIVE AFTER THAT?!"

And then all hell broke loose. Heller suddenly vanished in a blur, causing the evolved to blink in shock before he felt and saw Heller's sword thrust out of his chest, bringing a spray of blood. The evolved cried out and clash stepped away, facing Heller as he panted and held his chest wound.

Heller looked like a demon as the power was enough to begin cracking the ground and the mask fragment that was slowly growing over his face looked like that of a wild cat, the eyes slanted like a cats with black rings and the mouth area jutting out slightly with fangs and razor teeth in the mouth, and on the sides black lines that looked like blood coming from the sides of it.. And it was growing to encompass more than half of Heller's face at an alarming rate.

Ichigo was looking at all this and thinking, "Crap! If this keeps up, he'll be taken over by the hollow!"

Ichigo quickly tried to stand, only to stop with a groan as he hunched over. He looked down to see that the spot where he had been hit was dark red with black in a few places. He gently touched it only to hiss and remove his hand from the spot.

"Feels like maybe 3 or 4 broken ribs. I'm lucky I'm not spitting up blood."

Ichigo quickly began using healing kido while he kept his eyes on the battle.

The evolved had healed and was looking over Heller with uncertainty. This wasn't something mercer had told them about. And this power was unbelievable, like a ocean above his head waiting to crash down. That mask was odd as well, but he didn't have much time to think about it as Heller suddenly went back on the offensive. He charged forward at Ichigo's Bankai speed, forcing the evolved on the defensive as he tried to block the wild and berserk swings from Heller's sword and his other hands claws, which had somehow changed to look more like a cats curved claws. And Heller wasn't holding back, striking for incredible agility and grace considering his rage. Within minutes, the evolved was panting and unable to lift his arms while several deep cuts that were slowly healing covered his body, Heller looking fine with the mask now covering 2/3rds of his face.

The evolved panted, "Mercer. Didn't say… you could do…this…"

Heller grinned with malice as he said "there's a lot of crap mercer doesn't know about me. Like the fact that I'm not…"

"GET OUT!"

All of a sudden Heller's left arm shifted back to his normal hand and that hand grabbed the edge that was still forming and began pulling at it, tearing the mask off. Heller's other hand shifted back and grabbed hold of it as Heller said "NO! STOP IT, YOU IDIOT! DON'T YOU SEE THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TOO…"

The hollow didn't get a chance t finish as the mask was ripped off in chunks, the hollow screaming its rage as Heller took back over. He panted for a minute as he got his bearings

"What the hell was that? It felt like there was something else in control, something that felt…familiar."

Then it hit him. That power that had been in control felt similar to what he had felt when Ichigo's hollow had been in control. Heller didn't know how the hell he had a hollow forming in him or when, but he resolved to get answers from Ichigo as soon as possible.

Speaking of Ichigo he had seen this entire thing and felt relived, both as he finished healing himself and the pain faded, and that Heller had managed to beat back his hollow. But he knew that something would have to be done about this later. In the meantime he unleashed enough spiritual pressure to free him and walked over to Heller as he stabbed the evolved in the chest and consumed him.

The evolved was looking right at Gutierrez as he asked "Dr. Gutierrez, are you sure this effect will propagate?"

Said doctor nodded as he said "even a small sample introduced into a large specimen will cause the conversion process. Archer just needs the exact process."

The contact still sounded dubious as he said "and it'll really do this thing that you described?"

The doctor laughed as he handed him a flash drive of some sort and said "rest assured, once he makes the connection, Alex Mercer will control every last drop of white light in existence, down to the molecular level."

Heller shook his head. This wasn't good. If mercer could control whitelight, and the whitelight could mutate at his will, who knew what evil he might unleash on this city. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and spun around to see Ichigo, looking concerned as he said "are you okay Heller?"

Heller laughed bitterly as he said "Oh just peachy Ichigo, I just found out mercer may be able to control whitelight at will, said whitelight can mutate into anything he wants it to, and to top it all off, I have a damn monster in my head. You knew didn't you?" he finished in an accusing tone.

Ichigo hesitated for a minute too long, proving Heller right and causing his rage to sky rocket as he began shouting "IF YOU KNEW THEN WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME? HUH? DID YOU THINK I COULDN'T TAKE IT? THAT I WAS TOO WEAK TO FIGHT IT? OR DID YOU JUST THINK IT DIDN'T MATTER?"

Ichigo could see that his friend was filled with a huge amount of rage and that his body was rippling like snakes as he brought out his claws, seemingly without noticing. Knowing he was skating on paper thin ice, he carefully said "yes, it's because I didn't think you were ready, but…" he said with emphasis, as Heller looked ready to cut off Ichigo's head right then and there. "…it's because I didn't know how far the hollow had developed. I planned to tell you when I knew for sure how strong it was and if it would try to take you over. I didn't want to add to your burden with everything else we've had to do in the time we had." Finally he lowered his eyes in shame as he said "I'm sorry."

Heller didn't know what to feel. He wanted to feel rage at Ichigo having kept him the dark like this, but Ichigo's reasons were sound and in the right place. Heller struggled with himself for a few more minutes before he finally decided to let it go. He shifted his arms back to normal and sighed, feeling his body was sore form his "guests" fight, despite the fact he had consumed the evolved. Then Heller looked at Ichigo and said "I understand why you didn't tell me Ichigo, but I wish you thought more about me. I may not be a Shinigami, but I'm still strong enough to fight my own battles."

Ichigo looked up and nodded as he said, "And I realize that now. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Heller nodded and said, "Thank you. Now let's get Kenpachi and track down that bastard Gutierrez "

But then they both realized something. It had been quite for a while now, with only the wind and the crackle of the flames from their battle to be heard. They quickly left the base to find that Kenpachi was standing with his back turned to them in the middle of several sliced bodies, craters, streams of blood, twisted pieces of metal, and over 12 tanks sliced like deli meat, all without a scratch on him, though his clothes were slightly torn.

Heller looked around and thought "thank god there's only one of him, otherwise nobody could stop him."

Kenpachi turned and looked at them with a bored expression as he said "took you long enough, I've been done for 5 minutes. What're we doing now?"

Heller said, "Heading back, we need to track down Gutierrez and get some rest. We're all wiped"

Kenpachi snorted and said "maybe you two weaklings, not me. But fine let's go."

And with that they blurred and vanished as they headed back.

And that's a wrap. I'm sorry if this chapter was too long, but I had a train of thought and wanted to go with it before I lost it. In any case, hope you enjoyed it and please review."