A/N: The language gets a tad explicit here, so you've been forewarned.

Chapter 3: The Weather

"Orihime?" He had been so completely, totally absorbed with the destruction rendered upon the Soul Society that he had almost forgotten about the triviality that had begun this whole bloody war.

"Renji." Her face was taught, angled. She appeared worried. In a moment of frustration, Renji wished everyone could just leave him alone. Hadn't he dealt with enough as it was? Couldn't he be left alone to grieve for five whole fucking seconds?

"Shouldn't you be helping with the wounded?" he asked tersely. Inside his conscience berated him for being so cold, but he pushed it aside. "There are people dying out there. You're the one who started this, shouldn't you—" he stopped himself, bewildered. This wasn't like him. "I'm sorry, Orihime," he sighed. "I'm sorry."

But when he raised his head to meet her gaze onece more, she was neither offended nor angry. It was as if she hadn't heard a word of what he'd said. She stared at him with the same half-vapid gaze as before, lips drawn iin a tight line. "It's fine, Renji. Listen," she said, voice growing somewhat urgent (although still drawn with tension), "It's about Ichigo."

Ichigo! He almost face-palmed. That orange-haired runt. Where had he gotten off to? Renji had been so preoccupied with the battle, with taking care of the wounded that he had completely forgotten about one of his closest friends. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Ichigo in a while—not since Las Noches. "Have you seen him? Is he OK?"

"He's—" she paused, clearing her throat. "I don't know. The last time I saw him Ulquiorra had him. He was wounded, Renji—really badly. I—I don't know what they did with him."

"What—"

"We need to assemble a force," she interrupted, voice suddenly much harder. "If—"

"Renji?" Rangiku appeared a few feet away. In the back of his mind Renji rejoiced in the fact that she had been properly healed. "What's going on?" she asked.

He was about to answer, when Orihime said, quite objectively, as if she were commenting about the weather next Tuesday, "Ichigo has been captured."

I didn't think I could hold on any longer. I had been trying to hold back, to control myself, to keep silent in the face of absolute agony, but there was only so much a soul could endure. Only so much pain, suffering... Only so much torture...

They had started with my fingernails. Such a simple thing... They would rip one off, pause a second, then the next, then another pause, and then a third—each time waiting, if only for a few seconds—letting the each wound be felt at its fullest before gradually moving on to the next. They were in no hurry.

I was surprised at first. I had expected torture, of course. I had never actually been trained as a Shinigami before, but I was familiar with the process—I was familiar with Aizen—which is why when he sent two low-level lackeys in with knives and wrenches, I almost laughed aloud. Was he afraid? Afraid to witness what he had ordered his men to do? I doubted it. Deep in the recesses of my pain-wracked mind, I knew better than that. This was only the beginning. The bad parts would come later, once I had been broken, or cracked.

And the pain was starting to get to me, too. After they had tired of my fingernails, they had moved on to my fingers. Which was where they were now.

Snap. I just managed to hold back a cry of pain. I gasped for air like a fish out of water.

"Oops," one of them sniggered, "Guess that's your sword arm, isn't it? Too bad." Snap. Again, I forced myself not to cry out. It will get worse, I kept telling myself. This is nothing, it will get worse.

But then suddenly, without explanation, they stopped, stepping back hurriedly. I tilted my head in the direction of the door warily, expecting the worse. I blinked twice to get the sweat which had been running down my forehead out of my eyes. My shoulders tensed.

Standing in front of me, outlined by the rusted metal doorframe, adorned in white and black, was Grimmjow Jaggerjaques.

His eyes were dull, and I could tell he was still recovering from the wounds he had suffered in our earlier battle (really not so long ago) by the stiffness in his stature. The laymen to my sides seemed afraid, eyes a bit wider than normal. Nevertheless, they stood tall.

"Espada Jaggerjaques," one of them managed to squeeze out.

Grimmjow ignored them, choosing instead to turn his gaze upon me. I was tied to a chair in the middle of the cell I had found myself in the day before (I say day, but really have no notion of time in this God-forsaken place). I stared back unblinkingly, but couldn't help feel a bit uncomfortable underneath my expressionless mask, helpless as I was. Whatever they wanted, they could do to me. I would resist, of course, but honestly? There wasn't much hope at this point.

"Leave." Grimmjow's blunt command echoed in the room, and as the two men scurried out a deep and disturbing silence fell. He was the first to break it. I simply sat there, hands spread out on the table in front of me, waiting. "So," he said. "I guess you didn't have what it takes after all."

I didn't reply—I had nothing to say. I was exhausted from the hours of pain that had preceded his visit, and wanted nothing more than to just for God's sake rest a while... I closed my eyes. Grimmjow sighed.

"Broken already, Shinigami?" Silence. "Well, I'll tell you one thing: I'll be pretty impressed if you'll be able to sleep through this." That got my attention. In one step he was suddenly in front of me, standing before the table to which my hands had been secured. Unwillingly, almost, I opened my eyelids and stared defiantly up. I knew something was coming. The least I could do was meet it head on.

Grimmjow hesitated as he reached for my forearm, and I resisted the impulse to draw back in fear. I am not afraid. I am not afraid. Our eyes met—his teal ones with my brown, and slowly, almost apologetically, the sixth Espada said, "I'm under orders."

And then the world splintered, shattering into millions of tiny fragments that, bit by bit, tore into my mind and rendered me useless to this world.

TBC