Sorry about not updating last week. I felt lazy, and my kitten has been chewing on me like I'm a toy. Ryuu is four months old now, which means he is teething. Now, let's get this chapter started! :)


29

After Tenebris asked how they could defeat the Quincy king, no one came forward to answer. She met each of their eyes, seeing the confusion and worry within them. None of them knew how to defeat a man with the power of foresight.

Tenebris sighed while bowing her masked face. She shook her head while muttering, "I guess we'll just have to find the unavoidable future when we fight him." She scoffed. "Yeah, that's easier said than done."

Ichigo sighed too, agreeing dejectedly with his soul sister. "Not like we have a choice in the matter," he said before turning to Uryu. "Uryu, now that you know your plan is doomed to fail, will you come with us?"

Uryu stayed silent for a few beats before lifting his head to answer. "You're right. I still want to kill that man for what he's done, but I know I'll die before I get a chance to do it my way. So I'll come with you to Hueco Mundo."

Tenebris clapped her paws in joy. "Great! I'll open a Garganta for us."

"I'll come along too. I have an idea for how we can get the shinigami's bankai back," said Urahara.

"You know, I forgot all about that," admitted Tenebris as she finished opening a gate to the Hueco Mundo. "How did you know about it?"

"I keep in touch with the Soul Society now. So I heard about their bankai problem."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Of course you do. You like to know everything that's going on and have plans on top of plans for thousands of situations."

Urahara tilted his head. "Is that a bad thing?" he asked mockingly.

"No," said Tenebris, "it's not bad. It's a smart thing to do. I sometimes do that, but you are much worse than me."

"That means ya don't plan nearly as much as him, right?" asked Shiro, and Tenebris nodded.

"Let's get going," said Ichigo as he jumped out of his body. He, Tenebris, Shiro, Uryu, Chad, Urahara, and the two arrancar leap into the garganta, making a dash for Hueco Mundo.


Everyone fell out of the Garganta into the empty, white world from 20 feet above the ground.

"AHH! We're so high up!" Nel exclaimed, her olive eyes wide and threatening to fall out from her skull.

While holding the small Arrancar under his arm, Ichigo gave her a blank look. "You think this is high? You're lucky it wasn't Urahara that opened a gate, then. We would be falling from much higher up."

Tenebris turned to her soul sibling with a tilted head. "Ichi, did you forget the first time we came here? Urahara opened a gate in one of the underground bunkers."

"Hey, she's right!" stated Shiro. "We came out of a wall. We weren't in the air for more than a second."

"Not only that, but Urahara only sent us to two places. In other words, we can't say it is normal for him," Uryu added while pushing his glasses further up his nose.

Ichigo rolled his eyes while muttering under his breath. Urahara chuckled at the teenager's words, but he was the only one to hear them since he was falling next to him; Tenebris had a pretty good idea of what her soul brother said, causing her to chuckle too.

They landed on the soft, white sand in front of a destroyed white marble palace. Tenebris looked around, seeing no hollow or Arrancar in sight. All she could see were crystal trees, sand, and the remains of Las Noches.

Tenebris jumped at the sudden loud snore coming from somewhere behind her. She and the others spun around to find the source of the noise. They didn't see anything except rubble.

"Where is that coming from?" Ichigo questioned.

"And why is it so loud?" asked Shiro.

Tenebris ignored both of them and moved closer to the remains of the palace. She listened for the sound of snoring. It was closer now but not as loud as the first one. She tracked it near a ten-foot pile of rubble. The snoring was coming from within.

The hollow dragon began moving rocks out of the way. The more stones she moved, the louder the snores became. She reached a point where she spotted a gloved hand sticking out between two chunks of marble stone. She grabbed it and pulled the snoozing body out. As soon as the Arrancar came into view, she heard Nel call out the name Stark.

"Who is that?" Ichigo questioned Nel.

"Stark is the first Espada," answered Nel. "He is so powerful he split into two, and he can't get close to anyone with weak spirit energy without killing them."

Tenebris turned her gaze to Nel. "So he's like Aizen? All he has to do is stand close to someone for them to drop dead?" she asked.

"I'm not sure about Aizen, but yeah, that sounds about right," said Nel.

Tenebris nodded her head before returning to Stark. The man was still sleeping. 'This guy is powerful, no doubt about that, but it seems he's lazy,' she thought.

The dark dragon started patting Stark's face. "Oi, wake up!" Stark didn't move. "Stark, wake up! I need to talk to you about what happened here!" she shouted, but still Stark slept.

Tenebris scowled in annoyance, but her expression changed to an evil smirk a second later.

"Alright, you asked for it," she said, confusing everyone around her. Her jaws opened only to bite down, sinking her dagger-like fangs into the skin of the Arrancar, causing Ichigo and Shiro to cringe in sympathy. The man yelled in pain as blood filled her mouth, but since she got the reaction she wanted, she let the arm drop and spit out the blood. "Now that you're up, could you tell us what happened here?" she asked nicely, earning herself a tired glare from the man.

"Did you have to wake me up like that? You're worse than Lilynette," he said tiredly, rubbing his sore arm, "but yeah, I could tell you what happened here. Quincies showed up here and started to attack us. I saw they were taking away some of the weaker Arrancar and former Espada."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "The triple-digit Arrancar?" he asked.

"Those are the ones. Anyway, you'll find them down that way." He pointed toward his left, but like before, Tenebris only saw sand and dunes.

"Alright, thanks for the-" Tenebris cut herself off as she turned back to Stark, only to see that he had fallen asleep again. "Wow…that was fast," she muttered.

"I guess we should get moving," said Ichigo as he turned to follow the path pointed out by Stark.

Tenebris left the Arrancar and followed. "I agree." Ichigo, Tenebris, Shiro, Nel, Pesche, Urahara, Uryu, and Chad left Las Noches behind them, not noticing that a piece of rubble fell, revealing a large, masked head with a clown-like pattern. "Nel… Pesche. Come back…"

TBC


I didn't forget where Dondachaca was, but I did forget if I kept Lilynette alive or not. If I did, she's under the rubble with Stark. Anyway, we will see some action in the next chapter. I think I'll have Tenebris fight since I hate the guy coming up.

Shiro: Why not have me fight him?

Enj/Dark: For two reasons, the main one is that you already fought, and the second is that it allows me to beat the guy up, myself.

Ichi: That makes sense. Also, I'm not sure if I should pity Quincy or not. :(

Enj/Dark: Don't. He doesn't deserve it. Shiro!

Shiro: Please review!