One Moment
Chapter 6: A 'God' on the Stands

Characters/Pairings: Lots and lots of characters, but mainly: Grimmjow, Nel/Neliel, Ichigo, Starrk, Shunsui. Grimmjow/Neliel, implied Aizen/Starrk, not-quite Shunsui/Starrk.
Rating: PG-13
Words: ~5700
Summary: Aizen's trial. Starrk is not a coward. (Also: Ichigo will never get Hollows. Never.)
Warning: Aizen is creepy, but you all know that already.

The air in Hueco Mundo was always heavy, thick with reishi particles that could sustain any Hollow as long as they had no wish to evolve. (Though he could never understand that particular urge: stagnation was little better than death.) There was always the smell of bone and death; the scent of the countless creatures who had died to create the air itself. Aside from those scents, there was nothing else: emptiness as pure as the sands themselves.

Soul Society stank. Too little reishi particles, too many smells. Grimmjow gritted his teeth; he couldn't wait to get out of here, and there were plenty of Shinigami around who wanted him out as well. But no, he was here for Nel's treatment, and her mask knitting back together, bit by bit, with every new day and treatment. Grimmjow wasn't sure what it was that the woman Captain with the weird hair had done, but Nel's eyes were looking more and more like they used to, and she was starting to remember better.

Grimmjow could tolerate the shitty air of Soul Society. He could even tolerate the goddamned Shinigami if it meant that he would have his Neliel back. Or, hell, to be Neliel's again, whichever way that worked. They never really figured it out because of Nnoitra and Szayel, those bastards.

He remembered the very time he met her: him, one of the biggest newbies to Aizen's army, already known for running his mouth off, and her, one of the first who broke her mask and gained a sword.

She had been in her released form the first time they met. He looked at her as she came towards him and his pack, her hooves kicking up sand with every step, her shoulders rolling gracefully with barely-suppressed strength. The wind had whipped through her green hair, trailing from her face, and the mark under her eyes was as red as freshly-spilled blood.

In that moment, crouched there in the sand, Neliel had been the most beautiful creature Grimmjow had ever seen.

Right then, he made a stupid remark about how panthers ate antelopes for lunch. She had stopped right in front of him, simply staring at his face for a long moment.

Even until now, Grimmjow had absolutely no idea what happened next. He was just crouched there, on the sand… then he was on his back, her hoof right above his face, threatening to shatter his skull. At the moment, looking at her impassive eyes, he was angry; then she had reached out and pulled him to his feet by the scuff of his neck. She looked at him and smiled, teeth hidden in the corner, and he decided then that he would have her as his mate, no matter what.

Neliel had strength without arrogance, kindness without condescension… not to mention a body that any woman would kill for. The first time she had swallowed his Cero, mouth wide open, he had thought, dizzily, that he would love to see those lips wrapped around his cock. He would even endure the risk of castration just to feel that just once.

Not that he had been thinking about her mouth recently: given how tiny she was right now, it was just wrong. Unlike that fucker Nnoitra, he did have some personal rules. He wouldn't call it honour – sword or not, he was no dumb Shinigami – but it was something.

Grimmjow sometimes still wished he managed to kill Nnoitra and Szayel. Actually, he wished he killed Aizen too; no one else would have been able to hide the fact that Neliel was still alive from him. He was courting her for months, and she was this close to giving in right before she was reported dead. He couldn't find her no matter how hard he tried, and that bastard Aizen had only smiled at him, so smugly patient, with every failed attempt. Nnoitra laughed in his face, and the rest of them didn't seem to care.

All of them were assholes. If he could go back in time and kill every single annoying person in Las Noches, then it would be great.

"Grimmjow?"

Jerking his head, Grimmjow came right back to the present to the sight of the one person he would've given his damned fangs to not see. His face twisted immediately into a scowl.

"Grimmjow, you're alive!"

God, Kurosaki sounded so fucking stupid. He looked so fucking stupid.

"No shit," he snorted, looking away.

"What are you doing here?" Kurosaki asked, taking a step forward. Why the hell was the Shinigami coming closer? Grimmjow's eyes flickered towards the door where Nel was receiving her treatment before he stepped in front of it, using his body as shield between Kurosaki and Nel.

"Fuck off, Kurosaki," he growled.

"Wait, wait, I don't want a fight!" Kurosaki waved his hands. "If we fight here then the Captain will scold us and Unohana-san is really scary!" His hands flapped some more. Grimmjow's eye twitched.

"Look, I just wanted to know if you're—" Grimmjow stopped listening at the moment, before the door behind him was opening. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a small green blob heading right towards him.

"Grimm!" Nel chirped happily. "Grimm, Grimm, know what?"

"What?" Grimmjow asked automatically. He kept his eyes focused on Kurosaki, who was looking between him and Nel with wide eyes.

"Nel's trick lasts longer this time—ITSYGO!" Nel cried out suddenly, flailing towards the Shinigami. Grimmjow stared at her, mouth falling open. She was trying to wriggle out of his arms to go to Grimmjow's mortal enemy, what the hell? Granted, she probably didn't know that he hates Kurosaki, but… what the hell?

"Nel, no, that's an enemy!" He said, pointing towards Kurosaki. "He's a Shinigami! He's an enemy!"

Nel shook her head hard. "Itsygo is nice! He's nice like Grimm is nice!" Grimmjow couldn't help but growl at the comparison. No way. "Nel wants to hug Itsygo, Grimm! Let Nel go!"

"Like hell," Grimmjow said, scowling even harder. "I'm not letting you go to him of all people."

Slowly, Nel turned to look at him. There was an odd, calculating look in her eyes right before she grinned.

Then there was a sudden loud poof of smoke.

Before Grimmjow could even register the sudden disappearance of Nel's weight from his arms, he found himself grabbed by the back of his collar and tossed right out of the nearest window. Dirt immediately went up his nose as a second figure landed right next to him. Grimmjow coughed, rubbing his nose hard. His body had automatically landed in a crouch, and he tried to jump up in that position.

Only to smash the top of his head against someone's chin, and his elbow into someone else's ribs.

"Ow!"

"Ow…"

Grimmjow tried to separate the two voices. One was Kurosaki – hah, the guy was such a wimp! – while the other… There was only one person annoying enough to make pain sound so utterly boring. Grimmjow stood up, scowling even harder than before.

"What are you doing here, Starrk?"

Starrk blinked at him. "Walking," he said, shrugging. "What are you doing, being flung out of windows?"

At the reminder, Grimmjow turned away from the ex-Primera. Just in time to see Neliel, in her full adult glory, jump out of the window. Her bare feet slapped the dirt ground, and she tossed her hair behind the shoulder. Grimmjow had, of course, seen this before – Nel liked to show off her 'trick' to him, but he couldn't help the instinct, immediate dryness of his mouth.

He swallowed.

She looked at him. Then she tipped her head towards Kurosaki, keeping her eyes on him, as if asking, What are you going to do about that?

So was that why he was thrown through glass?

Grimmjow smiled. Then he started to laugh, loud and wild. Looking down at Kurosaki, he kicked hard at the Shinigami's side.

"Get up!" he roared, reaching out to grip Kurosaki's collar with one hand. He kept one eye still on Neliel even as he continued to laugh. "Get up and fight me!

""I'll erase you entirely from her mind. I'll kill you and make her mine!"

Still standing, Starrk dropped his head onto a hand. He yawned.

Kurosaki was looking angrier by the second, while Grimmjow's grin was growing to the extent that it might eat his entire face. The cause of the conflict, Neliel, was standing by the side, arms crossed, eyes narrowed as she watched the two men start to fight.

It was all rather hilarious, because Starrk knew for a fact that Neliel and Grimmjow were working on a set of assumptions that Kurosaki clearly had no idea about. Ah, Adjuchas… they were almost adorable with the sheer rabidity of their instincts. Starrk didn't remember what it was like to be one very well, but he remembered enough to pick up the implications of Grimmjow's words.

Speaking of the blue-haired ex-Sexta, he was grabbing his sword now, and Kurosaki had evidently given up on yelling 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about' and 'What the hell is going on' and was going for his own blade as well.

Not good. Starrk knew that if a fight broke out, the Shinigami would blame Grimmjow entirely instead of Kurosaki. Then whatever favourable impressions the Arrancar had made with them would go straight down the drain.

Standing up, he grabbed Kurosaki by the collar, pulling him back and taking him off-balance. Before the boy could react, Starrk clapped both hands on his shoulders and whirled him around to face Neliel.

"Listen up, you two," he called towards the Arrancar before he shook Kurosaki a little.

"Kurosaki, right? Look ahead. What do you see?"

"Eh?" Kurosaki sounded confused, irritated, and angry all at once. Starrk couldn't help but be amused at the sheer variety of emotions he could insert into one sound.

"Answer the question."

"I see Nel! Neliel! What do you want me to say!? Let go of me!"

Starrk ignored most of it. He suspected that Kurosaki was smarter than he was acting – with the boy's power, there was no way Starrk could hold onto him if he was really trying to escape.

"What do you see? Her face? Her breasts? Do you want to touch her?" Starrk threw the questions out, more than a little amused at how Grimmjow's growling increased in volume with every word. "Do you want to claim her, take her, make her yours?"

"What? No!" Kurosaki finally stopped struggling, his mouth gaping wide open. His skin was turning red; Starrk wondered what that particular reaction meant. He had never known anyone to react like that. "No, no, no! Why would you- that's- no!"

"Tell him," Starrk jerked his head towards Grimmjow, who now looked more shocked than angry. "Tell her too. They both thought you wanted to."

"No! Nel is-" Kurosaki's eyes flickered over to the green-haired woman, and he seemed to be even more flustered than usual. "She's like my little sister, okay? She's little! She's a kid!"

Grimmjow stalked forward. Starrk instantly relinquished his grip on Kurosaki, stepping back just as Grimmjow grabbed the boy by the collar. "She's not little now," he pointed out, snarls distorting his words.

Kurosaki's eyebrow twitched. Starrk watched, far too amused, as his hand shot upwards to clip Grimmjow right on the jaw.

"I said that I am not interested already!" he yelled, face entirely red. "Ugh! I don't even understand what you're talking about!"

Neliel chose that moment to step forward. She reached out and put a hand right on top of Kurosaki's head before ruffling it hard. "Now who is the kid?" she said. Her voice sounded odd – childish and high, a sharp contrast to her very sensual adult body and that smile, full of implications.

Her grin widened even further. "If you want some answers, ask your Hollow."

"Why would he know something I don't?" Kurosaki asked, sounding as if he was sulking.

The two Arrancar exchanged a look. Grimmjow sneered, turning away.

"Because knowledge like this is instinctive," Neliel said after a long moment. "It's within every Hollow's head the moment they were made, even if they won't know how to articulate it until they become an Adjuchas."

She shrugged. "Sorry, Itsygo," she said, and Starrk had a distinct idea that her child-form's misspeaking of Kurosaki's name had now become a nickname. "I thought you knew."

Kurosaki sighed heavily. "I don't know, alright?" he grumbled, dragging a hand through his hair. Then his eyes flickered over to Starrk.

"Hey, you are…" Starrk waited. Kurosaki had been there when the old man with the fire in his sword had said his name plenty of times; he wondered if the boy would remember.

"Sorry, I don't—"

"He's Coyote Starrk," Grimmjow introduced gruffly. "Primera Espada, when those numbers still mattered." He crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes.

"What are you doing here, Kurosaki?"

"Oh, hey," Kurosaki greeted him hurriedly. Starrk almost smiled. "Anyway, I, uh… I was supposed to help Byakuya escort Ichimaru to the courtroom for the trial."

Any mirth, any amusement, Starrk might have felt instantly died. The reminder was like a sudden slap in the face, and he turned away.

"Why you?" Grimmjow asked, sounding irritated.

"Don't know," Kurosaid said carelessly. "I didn't ask. Hey, do you all have to be there too?"

"We do," Neliel nodded. "That's why they were trying so hard to heal me, so that I can remember enough. Though now…" her brows furrowed. "I might not last long enough."

Starrk cocked his head. He could almost feel the reiatsu spilling out from the crack in her mask, though it was much less than it had been when he first brought her back here.

"I can give you the power you need to last until you give your testimony, at the very least," he offered. "I don't mind."

Neliel blinked. "Why?" she asked. "I don't even know you."

"And aren't you pissed at me?" Grimmjow narrowed his eyes.

Kurosaki was looking between the three of them, mouth opening and closing periodically. He looked somewhat like a fish.

Starrk shook his head, "I'm not angry."

Then he turned fully to the shadows hidden in between the Fourth Division buildings. "Can I, taichou-san?"

Kyouraku chuckled before stepping out into the sunlight. "When did you realise?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

The tension in the air suddenly increased; the two Arrancar probably were immediately on their guard when they realised that there was someone else with great power there that they hadn't realised. Even Kurosaki's jaw was clenched, barely relaxing when he recognised the man. Honestly, he didn't know if this said more about the boy or the Captain… probably the latter.

"You're not being very subtle," Starrk pointed out. Not to him. "But can I?"

"I don't see why it would hurt," Kyouraku shrugged. "But why are you asking me permission for such a thing?"

He rolled his eyes. "Because I know that if I didn't, you'll barge in right when I was about to try, saying something inane just to make a dramatic entrance."

The Captain stared at him for a moment before bursting out into laughter. "Starrk-san," he said. "You really are something, aren't you?"

Grimmjow was staring at the two of them, his eyebrows rising. Ignoring him, Starrk walked towards Neliel. Slowly, he raised his hand to the level of her face, letting power collect on his fingertips. Blue orbs of light began to grow – like tiny little Ceros, but without any heat. They were simply pure, condensed reiatsu.

Neliel was looking at him, still obviously curious. But Starrk was tired of explaining himself, and he didn't know if she would understand anyway, given that she knew nothing of him.

All he was simply fulfilling a selfish wish: he just wished that his power, which had always harmed, could be used to help someone else, even if it was just once.

Her lips parted, and Starrk flicked the little balls right into her mouth. The moment they left him, Starrk felt tired, almost drained, for the briefest moment before the power kept back by the restraints rushed in to fill in the gap left behind.

She absorbed them, swallowing before she gave him a small smile.

"Thank you."

He shrugged, shoving his hands to his pockets. "Don't mention it."

"Kurosaki Ichigo," a voice suddenly called from behind them. "Are you quite finished?"

"Eh?" Kurosaki whirled around. "Oh, hey, Byakuya! I didn't see you there!" The boy bounded over to the Shinigami's side. He turned and waved towards Grimmjow and Neliel. "I'll see you two later, Grimmjow, Nel! And nice to meet you, Starrk-san."

"We're not here for a tea party, Kurosaki Ichigo," the other man intoned.

"Huh? Of course we're not. There isn't any tea around."

Starrk looked after their retreating backs for a moment before he turned towards Kyouraku. He knew the Shinigami was here to pick him up, and he had no reason not to follow.

"Wait," Grimmjow's voice stopped him.

"What is it?"

"You should be angry," the other Arrancar said, and he sounded frustrated. "You should be angry at me for what I said. You punched me. I knew you were pissed, bastard. So why are you helping Neliel, eh?"

Starrk didn't resist as he was spun around by his collar. Behind and beside him, Kyouraku's hand was twitching for his swords, but Starrk only stayed completely still and relaxed.

"What the hell are you playing at, Primera?"

"Nothing," Starrk said evenly. "I helped because I wanted to. And I'm not now angry because I'm not."

Grimmjow growled, shoving his face right up against Starrk's, shaking him a little. "Why?"

He shrugged in reply, looking away. "What's the point?" he asked rhetorically. "Like you said, I punched you. What more can I do?"

"You can fight me."

Despite the fangs bared right in his face, Starrk didn't move an inch. "I don't like fighting."

"You're a Hollow," the other Arrancar hissed. "You should like fighting."

"I don't."

Fighting only led to pain, to death, and Starrk had enough of both without having to even lift a finger. Why would he want more?

Grimmjow stared at him for a moment more before letting go, making a sound of complete disgust. "Ugh," he let go. "You fucking piss me off just by existing."

Starrk straightened, sighing. "I'll just stay out of your way then."

Before Grimmjow could reply, he was already off in sonido, heading towards the woods near the Thirteenth Division. The courtroom was in the First, and he wasn't going near that place until he had to. He still had some time.

Somehow, when Kyouraku flash-stepped right next to him, he wasn't surprised.

"He's quite a firebrand, isn't he?" the Captain commented. "Grimmjow-san, I mean."

"If you mean that he's angry all the time, then yes," Starrk replied. He glanced over to the Captain for a moment.

"Are you required to follow me at every moment?" he asked, not bothering to curb the irritation in his tone. "I didn't realise I was a prisoner, taichou-san."

The Seireitei might be large, but it seemed to be more like a gilded prison day by day, with every single Shinigami who looked at him with suspicions the guards of his cell, and the man now beside him the head warden.

"You're not," the man said quietly. "I'm sorry for intruding, Starrk-san, but I was worried."

Starrk gave him a sceptical look. "When you came looking for me the first time, or when you followed me?"

"You were gone when I went to my Division this morning," Kyouraku answered, his hands folding into his sleeves.

"I told fukutaichou-san where I was going," Starrk pointed out, because he knew there was no use telling Kyouraku that he wasn't answering his question.

"You told Nanao-chan that you were going for a walk," Kyouraku corrected gently. "Not where you were going. Not even Lilynette-chan knew."

Starrk shrugged.

"And with what will happen today…" Kyouraku hesitated.

"You mean Aizen's trial?" Starrk raised an eyebrow. "You can say his name around me, you know."

Kyouraku gave him a solemn, searching glance. "I'm not sure if I can," he said.

Starrk stopped walking. He turned around, facing the Shinigami for a moment before he sighed. His shoulders sagged downwards, hitting a tree, and he let himself slide down until he was sitting at the base.

The Captain really didn't know how to give up. He sat down next to Starrk immediately. Those grey eyes were still fixed upon him.

"What do you know about me, taichou-san?" Starrk asked tiredly.

"Nothing beyond what you told me."

Stupid question to ask a man who played tricks with words. Starrk almost laughed, but he swallowed the bitter sound. "Let me rephrase," he said. "What guesses have you made about me?"

Kyouraku didn't reply immediately. Starrk leaned back on the tree, staring up to the skies, as he waited.

"You don't trust me," Kyouraku began finally. "You don't trust me because you think that I don't trust you and your power. You can't trust me, because you trusted Aizen, and he used you so badly that you're afraid of trusting anyone again."

Slowly, Starrk's hands started to clench.

"You want so desperately to fill the loneliness inside, but you're afraid to reach out. You are so afraid that you don't even use my name, because you think that I will eventually turn my back on you."

Kyouraku was peeling him apart, stripping him of his meagre defences, exposing raw nerves to the cold air.

Starrk wished, helplessly, for his hierro to be less strong than it truly was. He wanted to feel the pain of his nails cutting through his skin, if only so it could stop the pounding ache in his ache, the searing heat in his chest.

"Starrk-san, I guessed a lot of things. But I don't know if I'm right."

Turning to the Shinigami, Starrk refused to meet his eyes. Instead he stared somewhere above Kyouraku's left shoulder.

"You are."

Kyouraku's hand reached towards him. Starrk found himself following it, uncomprehending, as the hand dropped onto his shoulder. He had seen that gesture made a few times, and he knew what it meant – a casual touch between friends, meant somehow to give comfort. But it didn't ease the ache within him, because he knew it was false.

After all, they weren't friends.

"Will you at least let me try to gain your trust?" Kyouraku asked. "If only because you're not a coward."

"Do you know that, or you're guessing?" Starrk asked. There was wryness to his own voice that surprised himself. He hadn't thought himself capable of such a thing right now.

"I know," Kyouraku stated simply. "If you are a coward, then you wouldn't be going to the trial today."

"Didn't I just run away from the very mention of it?"

Kyouraku chuckled. "You could've opened a Garganta into Hueco Mundo in the morning, and no one would be wiser," he said, lips quirking to the side. "The restraints still allow you enough power to do so. You could've just taken Lilynette-chan and ran.

"You could've done that, and though Ukitake and I would've noticed immediately, we couldn't have found you within a day. Hueco Mundo is a vast place, and neither of us know it well."

It was unsettling just how well Kyouraku could read him. Those very thoughts had run through Starrk's mind before he discarded them, because he couldn't even imagine himself doing such a thing.

"But you didn't," the Captain continued. "That's why I said you are not a coward, Starrk-san."

Starrk shook his head. "You say that I'm afraid and that I'm not a coward in nearly the same breath," he pointed out. "Aren't you contradicting yourself?"

"Not at all!" Kyouraku laughed. "Courage is looking your fear right in the eye and not turning away from it. The true coward is a man who had never been afraid."

Eyes widening, Starrk stared at him. His lips parted, but no words escaped.

"Do you know why Barragan and all those below you follow me, Starrk?

"It's because I'm the most courageous man they had ever met. I am afraid of nothing.

"Courage, Starrk, is fearlessness. Can you be fearless for me?"

"Will you be fearless enough to kill for my sake?"

Perhaps he had never managed to learn that lesson because it was wrong, and he had always known it to be wrong. Gradually, without his mind's bidding, his lips curled up into a smile.

"You really are quite something, taichou-san," he said.

"Oh, come on now!" Kyouraku exclaimed, nearly pouting. "Why won't you call me by my name?"

Starrk dropped his head onto a hand, his smile fading. "If I ever know to trust you," if he ever did, "I'll call you by your name."

Kyouraku looked at him for a moment before he grinned. "I look forward to that," he said. "On that day, you should call me Shunsui."

"You're so sure I will?"

"Of course," he flung a hand into the air. "I have full confidence in my own charm."

The display was so overly dramatic that Starrk couldn't stop the soft chuckle from escaping.

Smile softening at the edges, Kyouraku stood. He held out a hand. "Shall we get moving, then?"

He still didn't want to. In fact, the last thing he wanted to do was to face Aizen again, to even see his face. But, as Kyouraku said, he wasn't a coward.

Reaching out, he took the offered hand, pulling himself up. There was warmth he could feel – Kyouraku's power was strong enough to cut through his hierro like it was nothing – and Starrk looked towards the distance of the First Division.

The silence sat between them for a long moment. It was almost comfortable.

Starrk sighed.

"Let's go."

He found Lilynette at the doors of the courthouse. She was chatting with a small, pink-haired girl who was standing right next to an abnormally tall man with an even more abnormally large reiatsu. The man's face was vaguely familiar, but Starrk couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

The moment Lilynette noticed him, she came to his side, her hand gripping onto his sash.

"Where were you?" she asked belligerently.

"Taking a walk," he shrugged. Putting a hand on her head, he nodded towards the odd pair. "Did you make a friend?"

"Kind of?" Lilynette chewed on her lip. "She's weird, and she gave me this thing called candy that tasted good." She shrugged. "She said her name is Yachiru."

So Lilynette had made her first friend, then. Starrk couldn't help but smile – he had always thought that she would befriend someone far faster than he did. Because she was more outgoing, and also…

Aizen, for all his cruelties, had never touched Lilynette. Perhaps he knew that doing so would alienate Starrk from him forever.

The thought of that man made him edgy again, and he remained tense even as he took his seat amongst the stands. Kyouraku sat to his left, Lilynette to his right, and Ukitake sat down on her other side the moment he came in.

"So I see that you found Starrk-san, Kyouraku," the white-haired Captain greeted.

Starrk's eye twitched. "I wasn't missing," he insisted. "I was taking a walk."

"Of course," Ukitake said easily. "My mistake."

Situated like this, Starrk and Lilynette were bracketed by the two Captains; they couldn't escape without having to go through either one of them. And, well, no one else could get to them either without having to go through the Captains. Starrk wasn't sure which option he preferred.

His thoughts were interrupted when Harribel walked through the doors. Her usual entourage was missing – she likely left her fraccion back in Hueco Mundo – and she was instead accompanied by the short female Captain and the even shorter white-haired Captain. Harribel caught his gaze and nodded before she took her seat opposite them, and the Captains exchanged a glance for a moment before moving to the other side of the courtroom, closer to the judge's pedestal.

Grimmjow and Neliel came next, followed by the Captain of the Fourth Division. Her name was… Unohana, was it? She smiled at the two of them, which Grimmjow returned with a scowl and Neliel a smiling nod, before she left them to head towards the row of seats right beside the judge's seat as well.

... Starrk was starting to suspect that Kyouraku and Ukitake were sitting beside himself and Lilynette for their protection, to make some kind of statement. Though what kind of statement it was, he couldn't figure out.

He had to shelve those wandering thoughts when Ichimaru came in. The sound of chains clacking followed his every step, and his arms were held tightly by Kurosaki on one end and the stern-looking Captain with white sticks in his dark hair on the other. The two of them led him to the fenced-off accused bench, practically shoving him in before standing guard right outside.

Ichimaru's smile did not falter even once. Starrk wasn't even sure if it ever would.

A whole group of people strode in next. They wore clothes completely unlike the other Shinigami, and Starrk blinked. He recognised some of them – they were the ones with the Hollow masks – but not the blond man with the green striped hat or the woman with the orange shirt. The group of them sat together in a tight-knit group, scowling at everyone else in the room. Starrk watched curiously as the blond placed a small crystal on the railing in front of him.

Then he came in.

Aizen looked different from the last Starrk had seen him. The usual slicked-back hair was gone, replaced by limp, oily strands that fell around his face. He looked gaunter than he did before, and every single piece of white was gone, replaced by grey, shapeless cloth. Like Ichimaru, his forearms were encased in stone, and his ankles were similarly bound. However, unlike Ichimaru, the stone didn't feel like the reiatsu-suppressing ones. It felt like nothing more than mere stone.

The reason for that was clear: the usual weight of Aizen's presence was gone. The reiatsu that hovered around him, so incredibly oppressive that it had filled any room that he was in, had completely disappeared. The darkness that surrounded him had vanished as well, though… there was still that strange light on his chest.

But the Hogyoku's presence barely registered in Starrk's senses. It seemed entirely drained.

There was an old man by Aizen's side, his gnarled hand gripping tightly to Aizen's arm. Starrk barely looked at him.

"So many nostalgic faces," Aizen murmured, sounding perfectly calm. "Though some…" his gaze landed on Grimmjow and Neliel, "are unexpected."

Grimmjow growled, pulling forward. Neliel placed a hand on his arm, and he relaxed minutely, though the sound of his barely-restrained snarls still filled the air.

The old man pulled him forward, and Aizen went easily, his steps measured. His eyes continued to drift around the room.

"I'm so flattered that all of you are here for me."

He was standing barely inches away from Starrk now. Starrk pulled Lilynette closer, nearly crushing her to his chest, but she didn't protest; she held him just as tightly.

Slowly, Aizen's eyes turned on him. His lips curved into a smile, and he about-turned suddenly, crossing the inches between them in a single step and nearly dragging the old man with him. Starrk found himself standing automatically, and he watched, frozen, as Aizen's fingers trailed over his jaw.

"I was so disappointed when you turned against me, Starrk," he murmured, his face so close that Starrk could feel his breath drifting over his skin. No, it was just a ghost of a memory, because surely, surely…

"You were always the one closest to me, even more than Gin. Do you think any of them can understand you? Do you think they know how it feels to be completely alone, even in a room as crowded in this? I'm the only one who could ever understand the loneliness you feel.

"My loyal Primera."

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!"

Several things happened at the same time: three hands shoved Aizen in the chest and face, the old man pulled, and there were several people on their feet. He could hear Grimmjow's voice, Kyouraku's, Ukitake's, Lilynette's, Harribel's, and even Kurosaki… Kurosaki?

An arm – he couldn't tell whose – wrapped around his waist, shoving him down onto the bench. Lilynette's weight was suddenly on him, pinning him down. Starrk couldn't tear his eyes away from Aizen's face: the smug smile, the arrogant eyes, and suddenly, he knew.

"I'm not going to break you out of those chains," he heard himself saying, his lips forming words before his mind could even catch a single wisp of them.

"I'm not going to help you escape."

He wasn't sure if he was telling Aizen, or the people around him, or even himself. He was only sure of the absolute conviction of those words.

There was a flash of anger in Aizen's eyes that he barely caught before there was a fire-hot reiatsu in the room, thinning the air even further, and Starrk watched with inescapable fascination as Aizen stumbled and nearly fell to his knees.

"Move, infant," the old man said, his voice like thunder.

Aizen's lips were drawn back, and he was nearly snarling with rage when he glanced back at Starrk. Starrk could only stare at Aizen's back as he was literally shoved into the accused's bench, right beside Ichimaru.

In his mind, there was a loud crack. Like breaking glass.

Like the shattering of an illusion.

Note: As you might be able to tell, my opinion of Ichigo is very similar to Yoruichi's: this kid is so hilariously easy to make fun of, omg. I'm taking him seriously, I swear I am. /snickers.

Please tell me how I'm doing with Neliel and Grimmjow! I'm kind of nervous about them, to be honest, and any criticism or suggestion will be hugely appreciated.

Next chapter will be up, hopefully, by this week Friday latest. It's a monster in several different ways, and require a lot of editing.