Sorry guys... really really sorry. So I'm going to go ahead and work on the next one while the internet is down. This chapter is and probably the one after if possible are going to be a digression of the currrent plot line. It is a look at Las Noches. A mini plot while I allow time to pass in Soul Society. For infection purposes lol. Onward.
Chapter 22...
Nel dropped onto the couch in her room. The further exploration had gone, the more they had realized was damaged. A lot of the lower floors had caved in, and of course, the 'Outside' area had been nearly obliterated. But Nel wasn't sure if all of the damage had happened during the war, or if some of it had been angry hollow. They'd had to flush out a fair amount of Menos class hollow. Of all three levels. After that, they'd begun work on reconstruction. If something happened and the Hybrids were flushed out of Soul Society, she wanted a place for them to be ready. And in the mean time, once most of it was in condition, it could even be used as a sort of resort/training area for the Shinigami. Kill all of the hollow you can- type deal. It kept the population of the hollow down, and the balance of Souls would remain even. Hopefully. With the increased presence of hollow in the physical world, a lot more souls were becoming hollow. The crys of new hollow was comparative to that of a single annoying cricket in your room. A near constant issue.
A knock on her door brings a sigh to her lips. She stands and opens the door. Of course it was one of the weaker hybrids. And of course, there had been another fight. "Any damages?" she asked. She had given explicit instruction that if there were a fight, there was to be no deaths, and no damage to the reconstructed areas. Nnoitra had laughed at that. She felt like she was the only one controlling the other hybrids. The hybrid led her to the scene of the fight. Luckily the two hadn't killed each other. That would have been great to explain to Orihime. And fortunately the fight had taken place in an area where they had been removing rubble. Unfortunately, the fighters were now in the hands of one Nnoitra. Nel fought the urge to sigh. She approached the group of people and gave Nnoitra her biggest no nonsense look. "Just put them down. Everyone take a break, and lets get this figured out." Nnoitra curled his lip and was about to open his mouth. She gave him a scathing look, "Don't even. What would Orihime-sama say if she knew you were causing trouble as much as you were preventing it?" she asked with a tilt of her head. Nnoitra glared, and dropped the trouble makers. The statement had to have hit a nerve. Every one of them knew they owed the human their lives. It bothered some of them, but if nothing else, these Hybrids were loyal. They had to be.
"She'd tell me some bullshit about being better than what everyone fucking expected of me," Nnoitra growled, surprising Nel. He was right of course, Orihime was big on self image. The Hybrids had a long way to go of changing Shinigami minds. But Nel hadn't expected Nnoitra to respond. Just get angry and stalk away. Of course he still did that, but he was changing, very slowly, into a less violent person. Looking at the two who had fought, she could see her statement had affected them. One hung their head, and the other just stubbornly looked away. Good, hopefully that thought would prevent others from fighting. Hopefully. The situation handled, and Nnoitra no longer present to supervise, Nel took over watching the rubble removal process. She sat down on the floor and gave direction. After all, the fight had interrupted the time she had allotted herself for sleep and relaxing.
Nnoitra slammed the door to his room. Damn that bitch for making him look fucking weak in front of all of those damn Hybrids. And damn himself for not fucking standing up to the bitch. And while he was cursing everything else, damn the bitch for making him feel so strange. He sat down on his couch stretching out. He would cool down and then return to working. Maybe he'd even use the extra arms Santa Teresa granted him to do some manual labor. After all, whenever he was angry he stopped being tired. He glared out the window that looked over the rest of Hueco Mundo. More annoying new hollow cries. He could go out and kill instead, but it was never any fun killing something weaker than you. After a while, he groans and returns to the worksite. Most of the rubble was cleared by this time, and some of the arrancar had focused on rebuilding. So much for helping. He drops to the ground beside Neliel, and observes the process. They'd learned early on that the more they fucking helped the more trouble the others got in. You had to watch them, all the fucking time. "Go the fuck away," he growled at Neliel. He wasn't fucking dumb, he knew the fight had kept her from sleeping. Bitch in question just raised an eyebrow at him, stood and walked away.
Tesla glanced over at Nnoitra from over the large rock he was carrying. His master had been acting oddly since Nel returned to her original form. It was like before. Before she had disappeared from Los Noches all those years ago. Was he still wrestling with the feelings he wasn't sure of? So long ago, he'd treated her with violence due to those feelings. Now, he just gave her these odd looks behind her back. It was certainly a different look from the average rage. Was it lust?
Nel could no longer sleep. She tried of course, but she was just too keyed up. Leaving her room, she decided to explore some of the less reachable areas. If it was just her, she shouldn't disturb anything too much, or cause any cave ins. She wandered around, and was startled to find herself in the labs. Where Szayel had done so many experiments. Her eyes narrowed as she heard movement. She crept forward, and glanced around a corner. She couldn't believe her eyes. "S-szayel?" she questioned cautiously. He turned to look at her in surprise. "But you're dead!" Nel exclaimed. The man laughs running a hand through his hair.
"No, I simply had to return to my quarters. I didn't have the equipment there to continually combat the poison in my system. As I do here. Without returning I would have died. And, upon my return I discovered some of my experiments missing. So I had to stay behind to take stock. Which is rather difficult with everything having collapsed through here." he said. Nel sighed, remembering how much he loved to hear himself talk. But this was huge. She should contact Orihime with the news. Maybe Soul Society too. She checked the signal on her soul pager. There was none. She glanced up in alarm. "I discovered that too. I had stolen a pager when I left, and apparently no one was the wiser for it. However, about 3.5 hours ago signal just completely went down. With my equipment all scattered about, I don't have a way of setting up a way of communication. And don't even bother with a garganta. There is something strange going on with that too. Someone wants to cut off the Soul Society." Szayel said ominously. He turned around to pick something up, and Nel dashed away. Being careful not to cave anything in, she returned to the repair site.
"Stop what you are all doing now!" she demands. "We are moving sites. We need to work our way to the labs and get them cleaned out and repaired." she adds. Nnoitra gives her a confused look. "There's something big going down, and you will never believe who I just found." Everyone follows her, and the work begins on digging out to the labs. After all, only one creepy hybrid would have sequestered themselves in a lab even though they could sense the others.
I know there was confusion about Szayel. So, instead of changing any chapters, here goes. She had restored him, he helped with her healing others, and wound up disappearing later on. Everyone had just assumed he was dead. Also I know this one is shorter, but I don't know what else to add to it. I've kind of been at a loss with writing lately. Huge blockage I guess. But I'm trying.