Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Negative Space ❯ Happy Fun-Time ( Chapter 9 )

Emerging from my garganta in Hueco Mundo I stopped and turned to watch as Grimmjow emerged behind me with Raacharg still cradled in his arms. It was the only way I could describe the way he held my Adjuchas. He was on his back in Grimmjow's arms, his feet curled like he was sleeping while his head was tucked between Grimmjow's shoulder and his jacket's lapel. If the angry scar that ran down his side wasn't so visible, I would have thought he really was just sleeping.

Grimmjow's gaze went beyond me to scan across the dunes we were standing amongst. "Why did you stop?"

I licked my lips like I was nervous. "My bones are still in the heart of my rock. When we get there, you'll have to wait for me to retrieve them before he can go down there. My Negative Space calls to my kin when they are close. It shouldn't weaken him further, but I don't want to risk it."

"It won't be a problem, because we are going to Los Noches," he said smoothly as he turned and started walking away from me and towards where we both knew his tower resided.

"You want to bring him to your den, where your Fracciones is? The one who tried to roast me the other day?" My voice had risen in pitch with my disbelief as I followed closely, my eyes flicking from him and down to Raacharg with worry. "How in the hell is that a good idea?"

"I will be there," he said simply as he shifted his grip on Raacharg to lift him a bit higher in his arms. "Once they all know you're mine, the same as they are, you both will have nothing to worry about."

"How about we go to my rock, where I can defend the two of us just fine, and you go tell your people the good news," I suggested as I walked faster so I could get in front of him. When he kept walking instead of stopping, I stopped to force him to do the same. He met my eyes with a flat expression, and I took his silence as an opportunity. "I will make good on my word. It's my honor as an Espada to uphold my end of a deal, but taking Raacharg to the heart of your people is not going to end well. He will look like food, even if he is anything but."

"Do you trust me to mind my own people in my home?" He asked.

I wanted to tell him no, not after Luien had come after us, but I kept that from coming out. That would have started an entirely different argument, one that I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to start.

I let out a sigh and let my gaze fall on Raacharg's closed eyes. Fingerprints of dried blood marred the white perfection of his mask from me touching him, while the blood in his fur was still wet but starting to dry from the speed of our movement. His chest still wasn't rising and falling, but I knew he just looked dead. So long as I didn't leave him alone, he would be fine. I was sharing my spirit energy with him through our bond. He would be fine if I just stayed close, and even though I knew it, I was still trying to stop Grimmjow.

I was being stupid.

"I won't leave until he's capable of moving on his own," I finally said in warning.

The corner of his mouth turned up, giving me a small flash of his white teeth. "I won't let you leave until you've done whatever it is that you need to do to call yourself mine."

I frowned at him, his words instantly bringing the reminder of him forcing me to be still in that damned tree as Raacharg had been cut down. No matter how thankful I was that I had been able to use him to heal my Adjuchas, I wanted to yell at him for that. I had convinced myself that biting off his head wasn't the best course of action while we had been moving through the space between worlds, but hearing him say that? Yeah, no.

"I didnt much appreciate the way you restrained me earlier," I said slowly. I was trying to tell him what not to do without actually telling him that. He was going to be my master in truth soon. Ordering him around wasn't the smartest idea, but he would understand what he had done was not welcome. "You may be far stronger than me in this form, and maybe even my true form, but I would appreciate it if you didn't do that again."

That stupid grin of his grew. "Then how do you suggest I stop you when you're being an idiot?"

It took me a minute to come up with words as I struggled to keep my anger in check. Idiot? he was the one being a damned idiot. "If you're strong enough, you'll be able to stop me with a word. Obviously you can't do that now, but being restrained like that will either make me angrier, or panic."

"Panic, eh?" He asked, amused.

I held his amused expression with a glare for a long moment before I dropped his gaze to look at Raacharg. My eyes flicked back up to Grimmjow for a second before I stepped closer and rested a hand over Raacharg's mask. I took in a deep breath as I pushed just an extra breath of power down our bond and murmured, "breathe."

It was an order I had given him, and as the sign of life that breathing normally was, his chest expanded as he took in a slow but deep breath. It was a good sign that his body wasn't protesting enough to keep him from moving. He needed to breathe in the reishi in the air to help me keep him alive. If he was able to take in some sort of energy, then I could keep him from regressing into a gillian for far longer than just a few days. He could recover enough for me to remove my feather, but until then I could take in the energy from felled hollows to replenish my own spirit energy as I supported him.

"You really care for him, don't you?"

Grimmjow's words pulled me from my thoughts and I pulled back from him and Raacharg. My eyes stayed on my Adjuchas for a long moment before I moved my gaze up to glare at him.

"He is what makes me act Human, like a person instead of just Amchania. He is the reason that I am actually a sensible person instead of a soulless piece of darkness." With that said, I turned and slipped into my sonido, heading towards Las Noches. I felt him, or rather Raacharg's presence following behind me.

Thoughtlessly I guided myself towards Las Noches. Well, it wasn't so much as a thoughtless movement as it was a distracted one. My attention was on Raacharg, ensuring that he was actually behind, while my mind was running over Grimmjow's perception of me.

Grimmjow wasn't my master yet, but he didn't understand the difference between how we were and how… and how we would be. He didn't understand anything and trying to actually grasp that reality was difficult for me. It was easy to understand how an Adjuchas or Vasto Lorde could be so ignorant, but him? I knew it, but I couldn't understand it. Gods, I was really going to tie myself to a man-child? I never would have believed it if someone had told me this was going to happen. I would have laughed and dismissed it.

And now it was going to happen.

Was I nervous? Not exactly. It was more weary than anything. He knew nothing. Nothing! He needed to learn before he could be anyone else's master. He probably couldn't kill me by mistake, but even I had killed several of my ward before I had learned everything. His ward would all be Arrancar, but he could just as easily kill them if he was powerful enough. It had only been a taste of his power that I had felt. I didn't know if he was stronger than the God Maker, but he had to be at least as powerful.

As the white monstrosity that was Los Noches loomed closer, I steered myself towards the tower that I was pretty sure belonged to Grimmjow. There were four of them after all, and my only reassurance was the feeling of Raacharg's spiritual pressure following my movements. I refused to look back at him while I was thinking. It was one thing to think in privacy, and another to let someone know you were thinking. Thinking was dangerous, especially for me.

Or, that's what Raacharg would have said.

I felt Grimmjow pick up his pace to run beside me until I felt obligated to glance over at him. He waited until I actually met his eyes to say, "go to the main door where the wall meets the tower."

I nodded and turned a bit more before I wasted the energy to run through the air to reach the top of the wall. Even with Grimmjow hot of my heels I suppressed myself when I reached the top of the wall and followed it towards his tower. Approaching his tower without suppressing myself would have just been asking for Luien or one of this other problem children to confront me. Even with Grimmjow just behind me, I didn't feel like I'd actually be safe in his tower. I would have to make his people respect me, which didn't sound like a difficult task. They were all neglected children, or I was hoping it was as simple as that. I'd just show them how stupid they were and teach them the right way to do things.

When I got closer to the door Grimmjow had been referring to, I dropped from my sonido and kept a pace that some would call a brisk walk as I continued on. Grimmjow passed me to drop from his sonido several paces ahead of me. My first reaction was to pick up my pace and walk beside him, but I stopped myself before I could. Some of my previous masters would have taken offense to me placing myself at an equal position as themselves. I didn't know if Grimmjow would or not. Sure, I had lead the entire way here, but that was away from his people. Now that we were back, I didn't know how he would act.

Letting out a sigh I caught up to him, but instead of walking beside him I stayed back and to his right like a good little subordinate. It hurt my pride to do it, but I'd get over it. I wasn't an Espada any more. I was a scavenger who had been so far removed that no one in Las Noches knew I even existed until a few weeks ago.

"You don't need to hide behind me," Grimmjow said in a voice that was soft enough to have been meant only for me to hear. My eye twitched, but I didn't try to shift where I was walking.

"I know, and I'm pretty sure you know, that I could kill every single one of your Fraccion," I pointed out in my best not-bitter tone. "I'm not scared of them, but I am trying to make sure they don't get pissy while you are carrying my Adjuchas."

He let out a huff of a laugh. "You've only actually dealt with one of them."

"It doesn't matter," I said, my voice growing quiet as the door leading to the tower abruptly shifted and began to open. They'd noticed us. "If they were strong, they wouldn't be your lackies. You and the other fakes would have granted them a seat at your table rather than keeping them under thumb."

He didn't respond to me as a figure appeared in the still opening doorway. I recognized her as the pigtailed Arrancar that I had, uh, acquired my new mattress from. The thought made me grin, but I quickly forced it away as she crossed her arms unhappily over her chest and frowned at us.

"I want my bed back," she said sharply as she pointedly turned her glare on me.

Hmm, I had several options on how to reply to her. I opened my mouth to say one of them when Grimmjow spoke up, cutting me off.

"Unless you can take it back, it's hers, Loly."

I looked up at him with a raised brow. I hadn't expected him to answer like that. What I had expected was him to leave me to deal with his people. He just seemed like a type that would make me 'prove' myself to them. Maybe I had been wrong? Or maybe he was just mitigating violence for the time being.

Grimmjow turned his head just enough so he could look down at me with one incredibly blue eye, and for a moment I had to wonder if he'd felt an itch from the way I had been looking at him. His attention only lingered for a moment before he looked back to Loly as we came up to her. "Go tell the others to leave us alone. I'll come find them when I'm ready."

Loly's gaze narrowed, probably in suspicion. It was hard to tell with her one eye being a shade of pink that I found to be out of place on her pale face and her mask covering her other eye. Her arms dropped from where they had been crossed over her chest before she stated, "we don't need her, you know."

"I thought that at first as well," he said, not exactly telling her that she was wrong, but suggesting it.

Loly let out a huff and turned to head back through the doorway. Her steps were loud with her apparent anger, making it hard to understand the words she was grumbling under her breath. Grimmjow didn't seem to care that she hadn't liked his answer as he continued, but I dropped back just enough so he would have to actually turn around to look at me.

He had thought that he didn't need me at first. Something about that implied statement didn't sound right. Need me. He hadn't needed me at first, but now he did? I must have not been understanding something right. Raacharg would have picked up on it long before now if he had been conscious. That is, if there was anything to pick up on.

I was just being paranoid. Even if he did need me, he wouldn't have had me unless I gave in because he and I had made a deal. Maybe I was just too dumb to figure it out, but nothing that had happened to Raacharg had been his doing. That thing that had taken him over had felt wrong, so damned wrong, whereas Grimmjow's power flowing through me had been a thing of light and pure like clean water. The only thing that had even involved him in that mess had been me.

I shook my head and mentally kicked myself. My instincts were usually right. Why was I suddenly overthinking things? This was simple, and I needed to keep it that way until Raacharg was functioning again to do all this stupid problem solving and puzzling for me.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, trying to fill my mind with other thoughts to distract myself. We were walking down an oversized hallway that I had remembered Aizen asking for. Everything was to be big enough to allow for even the largest man to pass. We had obviously overdone his request when the other Espada at the time had been designing the layout and setting the foundations. We had wanted to impress Aizen, not just meet his standards.

A lot of good that had done us.

"The only private place in this tower," he answered as he turned and abruptly kicked open a door with his foot. I hadn't seen the door until he had done that, and I quickly realized that it wasn't so much of a door as it was a panel of wall that acted like one. I furrowed my brows, but followed him through the doorway. This must have been some sort of trick door that Aizen or his cronies had added after we built Los Noches.

"It'll close on it's own," he said just before I moved to do it myself. "It's some sort of kido nonsense Gin made."

I hesitated for a moment, but gave the door a quick glare before I continued on. I never liked Soul Reaper magic, and I liked Gin even less. That slanty-eyed reject was the one who had taken me down with a single blow from his super stretchy zanpakuto, resulting in my hellish prison.

"So this was supposed to be some sort of secret room?" I asked as I turned my attention to what I was walking into.

And stopped.

I was pretty sure it was the same room I had come crashing down into when I had come for my zanpakuto, but instead of an empty floor space with only vegetation to dress up the room there was furniture that turned the massive room into separate spaces. Everything was made of a lighter colored wood and white fabric and accents. It looked so much like something I would have seen in the World of the Living that I didn't know what to think. There was a living area with two couches and several chairs all surrounding a large table that only came up to knee height. Another area was off to the right, looking like a kitchen. Seeing it confused me, especially when I considered the lack of electricity, but I let it go as I spotted Grimmjow moving towards the other side of the room.

Navigating around the furniture between us, I caught up to him as he knelt before dark leather lounger and gently laid Raacharg down across it. As soon as he was settled he stood and stepped back, allowing me to take his place. I hesitated for only a moment before I pulled at my jacket and slipped it off. Grimmjow had already seen my number, but I was still embarrassed about allowing someone beside Raacharg to see it so freely.

"He says he isn't a dog, but he acts like one," I explained as covered him with my jacket. "I don't want him to wake without knowing that I'm here. He's never been hurt like this with me, and I don't know if he'll bother to check the bond before he considers doing something stupid."

"Check your bond?" Grimmjow asked.

"He can sense me better than I can him. If he's not thinking clearly, he might not bother feeling our proximity. My scent should ease him, if he awakens in terror."

"Is that how it's supposed to be?"

I ran a hand over Raacharg's mask and down his neck in what I would have intended to be a calming touch if he had been awake. He was breathing steadily, but was clearly still unconscious. He would wake on his own when he was ready. My order had only put him there, it wasn't to keep him out indefinitely. Hopefully, he would stay out for a while longer. Like Grimmjow had said, I wasn't going to leave until I was satisfied. Until I was bound to him. If Raacharg could sleep the time away, it would be best.

"No," I answered as I stood. "Even with the bond my senses are weak compared to what I'm told others feel. I can use it just as well as the God Maker could, but I can only use it within a certain distance."

"Has it always been that way?"

"I-I don't know," I answered honestly. I sucked in a breath and let it out in a loud sigh. He was starting to ask questions that were hard for me to answer. He was getting to know me better, and I didn't like it even if it was inevitable.

"The bond makes things different, depending on the master. With the God Maker, I was more than I have ever been since. When he died I-" I stopped myself before I could go down that path. I was certain that Grimmjow had noticed what I had stopped myself from saying, and I turned from Raacharg to wander over to one the plants to stare up at its foliage. "With Marciell, I gained power and the understanding of certain skills I didn't have before. Things that he knew, that I could only channel through our bond. Aurellia instilled in me the understanding of our ward being our literal children, needing to be raised into adulthood. That actually stayed with me after she was defeated by Lucas, and I became his."

"How many people have you served?" he asked, the surprise clear in his voice.

"Dozens," I answered automatically. I licked my lips as I thought over my next words. This was as good of a time as any to bring up what I wanted from him. Well, needed was a more accurate statement. "As I told you before, the bond between a master and their subordinate is needed if you wish to actually rule. If you really want me to be yours, then this is something I will need - not just between you and me, but you and the others that serve you as well."

He let out a short snort of a laugh and shook his head. "You can't be serious."

"What part of what I said do you find so ridiculous?" I asked as I turned to face him and lifted a brow quizzically.

"You're willing to give up your freedom, but for what? To be owned?" He asked.

"It's more than that," I quickly corrected him. "It's like being part of something. Its safety, security, comfort… like having a family."

Silence reigned around us and I turned my eyes to the ground. Raacharg could have explained what it was like for just two beings, but he didn't know what it was like to be part of a group and I wasn't good at describing things. I could show how to do something, teach from a perspective of my own, but to convey something so encompassing - I just wasn't good with words like that.

"What is the bond to you?" He asked out of the blue. His question surprised me a little, but it was no more difficult than his earlier ones.

I frowned at him and turned away, setting my gaze on a window that looked out across the moonlit sands of Hueco Mundo. I chewed on my lip for a moment as I let myself recall the last master I had been bound too. Master was really a vague term for her, since she wasn't strong enough to order me around in any way. The only master I had who could actually order me to do something was the God Maker. Everyone after that had been a mere shadow in comparison to his power.

I had to make him understand.

"Coming from one who has been both master and subordinate, bonding is becoming part of someone or something that is bigger than just one being," I said slowly. "Like you saw with Raacharg, a master is capable of sharing power with those who are bound to them. But those who are bound are also capable of sharing their own power with others. Of course this is only something that Arrancar are capable of doing, but it's also why I survived so long. I can share my healing with those who are bound through the same power if they are close enough."

I let out a long sigh and turned away from the window to look back at him. "Before Aizen, I was a terrifying individual. I was the 10th Espada in more than just the damned number Aizen branded us with. I was small and frail until my true form, Amechania manifested and I became an unholy terror."

I glanced over to Raacharg's sleeping form and quickly looked away as guilt hit me. It wasn't my fault that he ended up in that situation, but I was the one who had let myself be held back from saving him. Grimmjow had probably been right about that Captain, but I should have done more. I could have spared him from this suffering...

"Let's talk somewhere else," I said softly as I glanced around, searching for a doorway to exit through.

"Why?" He asked as he moved towards me.

"Raacharg doesn't know much about this part of me. I don't want him to wake to my admittance of a history he is unaware of."

I felt Grimmjow's eyes on me for a moment, but he turned after a long enough pause. I followed a short distance behind him as he passed through another doorway that had been hiding on the other side of a large palm tree like plant.

We ended up in a bedroom that probably was as wide as the center of my rock. The walls were tall, though not quite as looming as the main room because of the vines of green leaves that hung from the ceiling making the room feel smaller but softer too. It made me stop just so I could actually look up into the vegetation that had covered the ceiling in a wash of nature that spilled down like hands reaching for the earth. All the vines stopped a good fifteen feet above the ground, but each tendril appeared to be sporting budding flowers of one color or another. It made my mouth gape open in awe for a moment before I realized what I was doing and snapped it shut.

"How do you get things like this to grow in Hueco Mundo?" I asked as my gaze dropped and searched the rest of the room to explore the chunk of nature he had brought into his room. The vines were on every surface of the walls, but the floor was clear except for the plants that sat in pots everywhere. The air was thick with moisture, reminding me of the World of the Living, but the scent of the vegetation, of the moss that grew in the thick branches and trunks of the plants, made the thick air seem right.

"Time and boredom," he answered. I realized then that he had been watching my reactions, and I instantly refocused on him. I wanted to return my attention to the room, but there would be time for that later. I was about to be spending a lot of time here. New masters were always insecure in their power over a person.

"I didn't know things like these could grow here," I admitted. "I've seen Arrancar who could create and control plants as part of their resurreccion, but this is all natural, isn't it?"

He nodded. "The predator in me prefers it, so I put the extra effort in to create a place where I could really relax. Going years without a good fight put me on edge, and I needed to find an environment where the edge would just, go away."

"Being destruction must be frustrating when there is nothing to destroy." I guessed as I stepped toward him.

"It can be," he answered as he gazed down at me, the difference in our height an almost startling variance. I wasn't exactly short, but the top of my head barely came up to his chin. He was too tall for what I needed to do. I needed to be able to reach all of him without straining.

"You need to understand what it is like to be someone's subordinate before you take on the role of a master," I said confidently as I met his azure eyes.

"Then tell me."

I shook my head and glanced around the room. Finding a love seat that sat in the center of the room before a long wooden coffee table, I gestured to it. "You need to experience it, to know what you are doing to someone when you give them an order or share your power with them. With too much power you can kill someone, or make them do things you didn't intend. Without enough, your orders will go unheeded."

"You want me, to submit to you," he mused. Great, he thought it was funny.

"No, not submit. I want you to allow me to teach you the only way I know how." As I spoke, I lifted my hand and flattened it across the exposed skin of my chest before I reached out to him, pressing my palm to the same spot on his chest and over the scar that resided there. It was a gesture that I had used before, to give a visual of what was to come. Normally it was a boney Adjucha I did it too, so it felt a bit more personal to me than I wanted with my hand pressed to his warm skin, but it would have to do. "I won't be able order you around, you're too strong for that level of control, but I can show you what it feels like and how to use the bond between master and subordinate."

He held my gaze for what felt like several minutes, allowing me to see his thoughts running in his eyes. Of course I didn't know what he was thinking, but I could have guessed that he just didn't understand why I wanted this, and that he was probably debating if he should trust me with doing something so foreign to him. I couldn't blame him. He hadn't been brought into power by our ways. He'd been made by Aizen's toy, not by someone acting as the God Maker had for me.

Just when I was starting to think he would turn me down, he pulled away from my touch and turned, leaving me in suspense of what he was going to do. I thought for a moment he was going to just walk away, but his steps lead him the wrong way from the door. When he sat on the loveseat I had gestured to earlier, my shoulders dropped in relief. I really hadn't thought he would agree.

Those azure eyes of his were watching me in a half lidded stare as he leaned back, one arm draping across the back in a lackadaisical gesture. I didn't want to keep him waiting on me now that he seemed to be obliging with my request. Well, it was more of a demand rather than a request, but I'd look at it how I wanted to.

"Pacify, Amechania," I said as I pulled my zanpakuto from its sheath, extended it and slammed it into the ground to ignite my resurreccion, making my armor appear in a burst of power. I reached up and gently pulled my mantel from it's place, freeing my hair with a quick shake of my head so it could fall in waves around my face and cover my feathered ears to leave only the white tips extending from my golden locks. I rested the center of the mantel on the butt of my zanpakuto, balancing the curved metal like I had done hundreds of time before. I left it there as I moved around my zanpakuto and walked over to him. I stopped when the tip of my boots tapped his and gazed down at him. I needed to explain something before I started, or I was positive he would take it the wrong way.

"Bringing someone into a bond is different for everyone, but what I have done has always been with the intent of bringing an Adjuchas under my power. Not an Arrancar. I was a god granting a blessing upon a servant, not just a woman sharing herself with another." I leaned forward, shifting one leg so I could rest my knee on the edge of the couch. I dropped his gaze so I could watch my hand as it rested on his shoulder to help with my balance. "What I began doing thousands of years ago has never changed. All I ask is that you take what I do for what it is, and nothing more."

"What are you doing to do?" he asked, his expression shifting to show his suspicion.

"Grant you the blessing of Amechania," I said as I finished the motion I had started. I let my weight rest on his shoulder as I crawled onto his lap. Settling my knees on either side of his hips, I adjusted my position until I was confident I wouldn't slip off if he decided to push back against my power. It put me close enough that I could easily rise to my knees so I was able to be above him and do what I needed to do.

I slid one hand up his muscular neck while my other joined the motion until I was holding his head in my hands. His jaw like mask made it so I couldn't parallel the position of my hands, but I didn't try to adjust for it and let the bottom of my palm cover part of it. I had always assumed that the appearance of his mask was more ornamental than anything, but I could feel the sharp edge of the teeth against my skin. The feeling almost made me want to smile, but I kept it suppressed as I rose up, bringing my body to almost press against his. Like this, my face was easily above his, and my lips only inches from his forehead.

Grimmjow hadn't moved to touch me like I had thought he would. Instead, his one hand remained stretched out across the back of the couch while his other was absently cast out to the side, curiously avoiding my leg that was right where it would have been more comfortable to rest. I had asked him to not think more of this moment than it was intended to be, but I hadn't expected such restraint. It was surprising and rather flattering that he was taking me seriously.

I dismissed the thought after a moment and lifted my head towards the sky as I called on the power within me. I wasn't going to share my darkness with him, the part of me that made all beings equal. I was going to share with him the raw power that dwelled within me, the same power that had resided in dozens of others before him.

Thinking like that made a weariness I had blocked out for years creep into my thoughts. It made me second guess what I was doing, but I didn't let it linger long as I fought back with the thought that Grimmjow wouldn't be like the others. I wasn't going to take my power back from a corpse. He would be very much alive when I released him. Just like Gantenbainne and the very few others who had actually become Arrancar. He wouldn't be just another dead companion that I had failed.

Harnessing the power I had called into the surface of my skin, I focused it into one place on my body that would pass on the blessing. My lips. A kiss, to grant him the power and protection of a god. This exchange had been what I was worried about when I asked him to not take this the wrong way. Adjucha always had a mask that covered most, if not all of their face. Pressing a kiss to their mask was of no consequence, but for him it would have a far different… effect.

"Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez," I said in a soft but crisp tone as I drew my head back down to gaze upon his features. Those cool azure eyes of his gazed up at me almost in wonder, and I continued, "As powerful as you are, you are young and unaware of all that you do not know. I wish to share with you the knowledge that I possess as one who has experienced all that life has to offer. Will you accept what I have to give- the lessons of old that have been lost through time?"

"This was your requirement before you would serve me," he pointed out without actually answering the question I had posed.

"I will take that as a yes," I mumbled more to myself than him. The ritual I had made for the creation of a bond wasn't exactly set in stone, but I needed to stay on track or I'd lose my grasp on the power I had called forth. Manipulating my own power wasn't exactly a forte of mine. I could do it just fine, so long as I followed the steps.

"From now until the end, I give you a piece of my power. Call upon it as you will, and know that I am always with you." I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his forehead in a firm but still gentle touch. The power I had called lingered on his skin as I pulled away, but did nothing more as I knew it would. The power was waiting for the final piece to fall into place.

"I will be your shelter, your mentor and your guardian," I murmured as I shifted lower and I pressed a kiss to his left brow. I felt his eye lashes flutter against my skin, making me want to shudder with the flickering caress. I suppressed it, but the delicate impression was still on my skin as I pulled back just enough to allow me to shift to his right without bumping his nose.

"In return, you shall be my ward, my child and my people." I pressed a kiss to his brow, this time the angle being different as my chin ran into his mask, keeping his lashes from tickling my skin.

I lowered myself slightly as I urged him to raise his head just a fraction higher, adjusting the angle so that as my nose brushed his I knew I had easy access to his mouth. I closed my eyes and hesitated there, waiting for any indication that he had changed his mind. My lips were tingling with the power that thrummed through them, and somewhere deep down I wanted to actually kiss him. This wasn't a real kiss though, and I reminded myself of that for the very few breaths that I had paused before the final words slipped from my mouth.

"Take what I offer, and become mine so that I may become your god."

I pressed my lips to his in a chaste touch and pushed the power that had gathered there into him. Almost instantly I was met the wall that was his own spirit energy as he pushed back. My first instinct was to force him to submit, but I knew better than that. Raacharg, I could have easily forced to accept me. Forcing Grimmjow would most likely result in his spirit energy lashing out, turning this into a rather painful experience.

"Let me in," I murmured, my lips moving against his. "I cannot force you to accept me. You are too strong for me to take you if you fight."

"Can I trust you?" He asked in reply.

His question caught me by surprise and I pulled back so I could look down at him, losing the hold I had on my reiatsu. His azure eyes were open and steadily trained on my face, watching.

"Yes, of course," I said, not knowing how to explain myself or if I even needed to. When he didn't seem to accept that as enough I let myself drop back down until I was sitting on his legs once more, making it so I had to look up at him instead of down. My hands dropped to his shoulders and I held them there, resting atop his big muscles.

"I get that we are no more than acquaintances at this point in time," I started to say as I held his gaze without flinching. "But, that doesn't make my promise to you any less true. I will serve you like I had served the God Maker and all those who came after him. Because of you, I was able to save the person who means something to me, the person who freed me from the darkness that Aizen had imprisoned me in. Before I can repay your efforts with my submission, you need to understand what it means to have a person truly under your power. I can't let you have me until you know what it means - what it feels like, to have someone so tied to you."

When he didn't appear to change with my words, I continued. "The bond is the only way we can control our people. It is sacred, and the one constant before Aizen ever came to Hueco Mundo. Almost every Arrancar had learned the rules before they took the step up in power, and the ones that hadn't were pressured by the ruling body, the Espada, to either die or abide by them. Maybe I am just too old to change, but this is something that I need you to understand before I can give myself over to you. It was a promise, but it's more than that. I am trusting you with my life, my sanity."

Silence fell between us like a static charged blanket. I didn't know what else he would want to hear, but the apprehension that rested in my chest was bothersome. I didn't like feeling like this, like I wasn't saying enough. With Raacharg it was easy because I didn't have to explain myself, but with this man it felt like I needed to tell him everything or he wouldn't get it. He was clearly smarter than I was giving him credit for, but there was that urge to tell him more. Why couldn't I have Raacharg's silver tongue? Ugh.

Just as I started to open my mouth to keep talking, Grimmjow's hand covered my knee and slowly drew up my leg. My gaze shifted down to watch his movement as his hand continued, sliding higher until he was gripping the curve of my hip and his fingers were flirting with the hem of my shorts.

I started to ask him what he thought he was doing, but as I raised my head to speak my mouth was abruptly covered by his. I was so stunned by the suddenness that I sat there, unresponsive for a long moment. This wasn't anything like the kiss I had given him earlier. That had been no more than a press of lips, but this was more. It had a heat to it that I hadn't known in decades.

Clearly, my body knew what to do while my mind struggled to wrap around what was happening because I was kissing him back, leaning into his touch before I even realized it. He seemed to take my responsiveness for acceptance, and his hand slid behind me so he could pull me closer to him. When my greaves wouldn't allow me to slide any further forward, my body rose on its own so the front of me could grind against him.

It was the sensation of his hand sliding into my hair and brushing against my feathers that snapped me back into my own head enough to realize what I was doing. My first instinct was to push away from him, to distance myself from the growing sensations of him. I knew from experience that I couldn't handle too many emotions and feelings at once. I would get overwhelmed if I wasn't careful, and my reactions in such a state were never a good thing.

Despite my worry, I stopped myself from ruining the moment and asked myself, was this his way of letting me in? I had never been good at reading people. Yes, I had been in relationships before, but they had all understood what I was. They hadn't asked me to be all touchy feely and whatnot when I was in my true form. The God Maker had been the only one to ever push me to my limits. He had been there when I had become an Arrancar, seen me experience my first taste of emotions, understanding how overwhelming it was to a being like me. How could Grimmjow understand what this sort of interaction was to me? He was a child, I couldn't just deny him because he wanted to make it sexual. He just needed to learn, and I was the only one who could teach him.

Taking hold of that thought, I called forward the power that resided within me, pulling it to the surface like I had done earlier. It took me longer to do with the sensation of his lips greedily devouring mine and his hand playing across the exposed skin of my lower back where my spine was still missing. And his hand in my hair, teasing the feathers that brushed against his skin. And the way he tasted in my mouth, making me want to drink him down. And, and, and… If I wasn't careful, I was going to lose myself in the sensation of him. I already wanted to, despite knowing the consequences.

He was going to be such a troublemaker.

When I had finally called enough power, I slipped my fingers into his hair to stray from the strict process I had always conformed to, and gently pushed my power into him like I had done before. He clearly felt it because he stilled when I started, his body going tense and his grip on my hair and body tighter. He wasn't fighting me with his power, but he certainly didn't like what must have felt like an invasion to him.

"Relax," I murmured as I closed my fingers in his hair, holding him to me in a way that I was hoping would help convince him.

I didn't know if it was a growl or inaudible words that came from him, but it made his lips vibrate against mine. He didn't relax at all like I had said to, instead pulling me tighter against him and freezing in one tense hold. I took the opportunity that his stillness provided to slide my other hand over the mask the covered his cheek. I didn't want to encourage this bad behavior of his, but something inside me was very much enjoying being with him like this. It was the stupid woman in me, but also the goddess that craved his power. And him. I didn't know why, but I really liked the way his mask felt under my hand. It was so… different. Predatorial sharpness yet smooth like polished rock. Even as I absently ran my thumb over the sharp edge of his teeth and it cut into my skin, I found pleasure in the sensation of pain. It was such an Amechania thing to be feeling right now, but I couldn't help it.

I felt the power I had pushed into him settle, finding a place within him that was just for me. Now that he was letting me, it was easy and most likely a feeling of connection had settled in him. It was how I always felt when I bonded to a new master. A feeling of home and belonging that varied with the foreign power.

For me, it felt like an extension of myself. Just like I could feel Raacharg when he was near, I could feel the separate entity that was pressed so closely to me. He was mine, but he was his own as well. It made his touch seem that much more welcome and my body relax, knowing that he was part of me.

"Are you done?" He asked, his voice coming out in a deep growl against my lips.

"Yes," I said softly as I began to pull away from him. He didn't let me go far though, and I felt his body stiffen even more just before his arm tightened around me and I was taken sideways, my back landing roughly on the couch cushions. His mouth parted from mine with the movement, and I exhaled roughly with the impact. I had expected his lips to cover mine once more and his body to pin be down in a heated press, but to my surprise, he didn't.

I was almost disappointed that instead of smothering me with his hot and delicious body, he had held himself off me. Keeping the weight of his lower body on his knees while his hand rested beside my head to keep his chest from pressing to mine. His big hand was still in my hair, holding the back and top of my head. His other hand had landed beside my head, but I couldn't see it because he had pressed his left cheek to my right, allowing me to hear his labored breathing in my ear. Clearly, he had enjoyed that moment just as much as I had, though I would never admit it.

I gave him a moment to compose himself before I pressed my hands to his chest and gently pushed at him. He seemed to startle slightly before he raised himself higher, allowing him to gaze down at me. I wasn't sure what I had been expecting to see in his eyes, but the look of wonder wasn't it.

"Is this what it is supposed to feel like?" He asked as his hand in my hair shifted and he idly played with a feather between his fingers. I could feel the way he played with it like it was my fingers he was teasing. It made me want to slap his hand away, but only because it felt so good. My feathers were extraordinarily sensitive because of the purpose they fulfilled, but he didn't know that.

"I don't know," I answered. "I have never found nor been bonded to someone who has a power similar to my own. How does it feel to you?"

He seemed to need to think about it for a moment as his eyes lost focus. After a moment he moved, dropping his face to mine until his hot breath was caressing my cheek. I didn't have a choice to but to continue laying there, trapped by his hand stillin my hair and his mouth hovering dangerously close to mine.

"It feels like I need to bask in your presence," he murmured as he moved to kiss me again.

Yep, not happening. I'd had more than enough happy fun-time with him already.

"Get off."

I put enough power into those two words that any being weaker than myself would have had no choice but to obey. And apparently he didn't know how to fight back against an order because his hand was almost instantly gone from my hair and he was upright, moving off the couch. It was just as his foot hit the floor that he hesitated, probably realizing what I had done.

I didn't wait for him to turn on me. He was destruction, and I wasn't about to be caught on my back when his anger turned on me. Moving quickly I slid away from him and got to my feet, putting several feet between he and I with a quick burst of sonido.

"What was that?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous sounding.

"An order," I said simply. I didn't turn to look back at him, but instead wandered over to one of the plants in the room to observe a large blossoming flower that was growing up from the base. "I put enough power into those words that if you were weaker than me, you wouldn't have been able to resist."

"Then why did I obey the first place?" He asked. I felt him move toward me, but I didn't try to keep that distance between us. He didn't sound angry, and my zanpakuto was on the other side of the room anyway. It wasn't like I would have been able to do much to stop him even if I wanted to. His physical strength far surpassed my own.

"Most likely because you don't understand how to tell me no," I said as I idly reached out and touched the delicate petal of the flower, feeling how soft and smooth the plant was. "You were extremely receptive to me in that moment. If I tried to order you around again, it would most likely pass over you like a considered suggestion."

"Would you have been able to resist it?" He asked as he stopped beside me.

"Maybe. I still don't know how strong you are. If you are stronger than any of my previous masters, then it would be a matter of making myself understand your order in the way I want to. If you aren't, then I could decide if it was an order I wanted to obey or not. Orders that go against our nature are easier to dismiss, but if it's something we aren't incredibly opposed to then finding the resolve to not do it is difficult, to say the least."

"Show me."

His willingness was almost eerie, but I shrugged and tried to think nothing of it as I turned to him. His azure gaze met mine the instant I looked up at him and I was almost overwhelmed by the heat that I saw in him. I had expected it to be the heat of anger if anything, but this was the complete opposite. I saw desire in his eyes, a look at that screamed sex and need. It had to have been a result of the bond and his inexperience with such a connection.

Damn it.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to worry about this. I guess it was as good of a time as any to shut him down.

"What do you want right now?"

"Now?" he asked, turning to face me. "I think you can tell what I want right now."

He started toward me and I reacted to him by backing away. It was probably the wrong thing to do when I already knew he was a predator, but once I had started I couldn't stop until my back met the vines that covered the wall. The fragrance of the vegetation mingled with the heady scent of him that was still clinging to me, adding to the nervous excitement that was already running through me.

"Don't," I said, pushing power into that single word as his hand rested against the wall on either side of me. He barely even hesitated as he leaned down, putting his face on an equal level with my own. I wasn't sure if a growl actually came from his throat or if I imagined it, but it sent a thrill through my body that made me shudder.

"Don't what?" His words were like a promise as he came closer and his earthy breath brushed my skin.

I licked my lips in a nervous gesture before I could answer him. "Don't trap me like you are. I will lash out if you don't move."

"Do you not feel it too?" He asked as his eyes softened and the edge of desire fell from his gaze.

I hated to tell him no in that moment, but I had to tell him the truth. What he was feeling was what anyone else would have, so lying to him would only disarm him for what was going come.

"I feel it, but it's just the bond. To me, I feel you but there's no desire attached to the compulsion, just the need to be close in a sense." I lifted a hand and gently pushed against his chest, urging him to step back. He didn't move, but I kept my hand pressed to him just in case he decided to come closer. "The bond doesn't make me any more attracted to you than I am to Raacharg."

"So you don't feel it?" his voice pulled at things low in my body as he brought his face closer to mine so he cloud press his left cheek to my right and whisper in my ear, "the need?"

Oh gods, he was trying to seduce me and it was working. If I didn't get out of here soon I was going to give in. This Human body of mine was a horrible beast, and the scent of him - gods I wanted to lean into him. Even in my released state when Amechania's lack of emotion as running through me, it was such a horrible temptation. I could admit to myself that I wanted him, but it wasn't because of the bond. I didn't want him to associate making a bond with this sensation. I had to teach him right.

"You were supposed to have first been bonded as an Adjuchas or at the latest, a Vasto Lorde. To experience your first time as an Arrancar, the sensation must be an all consuming feeling." I pushed at him harder, this time forcing him to step back slightly. It put a few extra inches between us, allowing me to breath in air that wasn't saturated in that deliciously heady scent he gave off.

"So you do feel it," he stated as a grin turned the corner of his mouth, exposing his teeth.

"I feel you," I said to agree as much as I was willing to. "But the bond isn't about a physical connection. It's something else entirely. Through me you can feel Raacharg in the other room, right?"

His gaze remained on me as his attention went elsewhere and I let out a soft sigh of relief. This was the distraction I needed to get him to snap out of it, I just needed to keep him thinking with his head instead of his groin.

"He is just as bound to me as you are in this moment. My senses are horrible where yours are not, but without the bond between us I wouldn't be able to sense him without focusing. I'm sure with your skills you could feel him and I no matter the distance."

He barely nodded, and I had to wonder if it was a nod at all until his gaze seemed to refocus on me.

"I feel him, but that's not what I want right now."

He moved faster than I could react, capturing my arm in his grip and turning, spinning me around until I was on the other side of him facing the room and leaving him at my back. It was so far from what I had expected that I couldn't even think to stop him when his arms captured me and pulled me back against him. With one muscular arm wrapped around me from shoulder to shoulder and his other securing my arms at my sides, he leaned down and nuzzled his mask into my neck. I felt the sharp tips of the teeth scrape against my skin, but instead of hurting it only made a thrill of excitement shoot down to my toes. Stupid, stupid Human body.

"I hate that you have such control over me, but for just a moment I have to bask in the feeling of you or I will never be satisfied." The bass of his voice made me relax for some inexplicable reason. He must have felt it because his jaw moved against my neck as he nuzzled closer and took a deep breath that moved me with his expanding chest.

"I should take the piece of me I gave you back," I said, trying not to sound hesitant as I tried to turn in his arms. He held me still though, keeping me just as I was and pressed tightly to him. Those damned teeth on his mask scraped higher, drawing up my neck until I felt his breath on my ear. It tickled the feathers that extended from my ear, making me want to squirm with the sensation.

"It can wait," he growled. Like the vibration of his voice carried into me, a shudder ran through my body that I couldn't stop. It seemed to please him because he squeezed me tighter and returned to nuzzling his mask into my neck.

"Grimmjow," his name slipped from my mouth sounding like a plea rather than the warning I had intended it to be.

"Did you have to release your resurreccion to do this to me?" He asked.

"To you, yes," I said breathily. "If you had fought me then I wouldn't have been able to fight back, let alone protect myself. My resurreccion gives me more control with the boost in power. I don't have to do this for an Adjuchas, but I do it for a Vasto Lorde just in case."

"Do you think that I would need to for you?"

That suggestion made a pang of worry strike my chest. I had to pull myself back from him and break our bond before he did anything to me, but before that I needed to show him what else he could and couldn't do so he wouldn't kill someone.

"I will try not to fight you, but instinct can kick in. Creating a bond opens you, makes you vulnerable as you share yourself. So long as you aren't too-" his fingers dug deliciously into hip and I struggled for words as my thoughts seemed to leave me. I was pretty sure I felt a silent laugh shake his chest before I realized I had stopped mid sentence and quickly blurted out, "Forceful, so long as you aren't too forceful, I won't fight you."

I felt him nod as if in answer, and silence fell over us. At first it was a tense silence, filled with strain of two very different bodies being so close. But as my breathing eased and my pulse slowed, his body at my back seemed to relax. Over what was surely several minutes, his grip around me loosened and I pulled my hands free from my sides. My first thought had been coax him to release me, but as my hands gripped his arm that crossed over my chest, I found that I wasn't willing to force this to end just yet.

I would never admit it, but I rather liked being like this. I avoided any affectionate contact with Raacharg, or had up until today. He was an Adjuchas, a child that I was raising into power. Grimmjow wasn't like that. He was a presence, providing a closeness that I only remembered ever having. It had been so long since I had felt another body pressed to mine like this. So long...

"You said that the bond was our only cure to the loneliness of our existence," he murmured, letting his words trail off like he wanted me to respond.

"The only cure I've ever known," I answered after a moment.

He gave the barest of nods. "How do you share your power?"

My grip on his arm tensed for a moment but I quickly forced myself to relax. He must have calmed down to be wondering about this. I didn't want to get him worked up again, so I needed to keep myself from getting worked up too.

I lifted one hand up and called forth a ball of energy in my palm, the start of a cero to use as a visual for what I was about to say. I could tell he was watching by the way he seemed to still at my back. "Just like a cero, it's all about manipulating our spirit energy. A trickle of power keeps them bolstered, feeling your influence within and using it to fight harder."

The ball of unspent cero grew, tripling in size with the edges of it wavering intentionally with the example I was trying to set. "Too much and they won't be able to handle the rush of your energy and theirs together. This is what will kill them, giving them more than they can hold. It will fry them from the inside out if you give them too much, too fast."

"Have you ever killed someone like this before?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered in a soft voice. I closed my hand, forcing the cero to vanish in the same moment. "I didn't know how to share my healing with another being when I was a new Arrancar. I don't remember their name any more, but I killed them in my first desperate attempt to save them - overwhelming them with my power and breaking their mind even as their wounds closed."

"What were they?" he asked.

"An Adjuchas, one of the first ones that I took under my wing. I think," I added that last part without thinking and mentally kicked myself. Memories faded over time, and I had spent so long in that damned darkness that many of my memories were jumbled up and wrong. It made recalling certain events vague and more of a general knowledge than any sort of memory with substance. "This is what I was worried about doing to Raacharg. Killing him with my power, while healing his wound."

"Show me."

I glanced to the side to stare at his tropical blue hair like it was some sort of alien on my shoulder. He was actually willing? Asking me to do this? I didn't think he was bespelled now that he had a chance to calm down, but that sort of ask sure seemed out of character for him. I licked my lips nervously as I thought about what I was about to do. He was asking for this, but I didn't know if he actually wanted to feel it or if it was my apparent influence over him. I had to teach him one way or another, and with a hefty sigh I gave into his request.

Unlike how I had treated Raacharg, I pushed back against him until his grip around me changed from caging to supporting. I took hold of the bond between us in my mind, securing the connection before I called on my own power. I could only imagine that to him it must have felt like being plugged into a backup battery. I was only giving him a taste of the power that I could push into him, the same amount of power that I would have pushed into anyone fighting at my side to bolster their morale.

His breath eased out in a long sigh, probably brought on by the sensation of my power easily flowing into him. When I had been trying to make our bond, he had been able to resist me. Now, he was probably strong enough to refuse me, but lacked the knowledge of how to do so. If the bond had been the other way he could have put a lid on what I was sharing and thrown it back at me. Thankfully, he couldn't like this. Or, I didn't think he could.

"Is this what your healing feels like too?" He asked.

"No," I answered softly. "Are you injured at all?"

"No," he answered in an equally soft voice.

My gaze shifted towards my zanpakuto where I had buried the blade in the floor across the room. "If you aren't injured, you won't feel much difference in the power."

He hummed a note of understanding and I felt his arm around my waist lift. I stayed still as the sound of a blade being drawn hit my ears as he pulled his zanpakuto from it's sheath. The metal glinted in the light as he turned it up so he could comfortably hold it before me. In one swift movement he ran the blade down his palm and blood ran down his skin to drip on the floor. He had cut himself deep and hadn't even flinched. He was an idiot for trusting that I could heal him without having already experienced it.

I let out a soft sigh and shifted my energy, calling on my healing before I pushed it down the bond to him. He stiffened as it slid into him, but almost instantly relaxed as I watched his open hand and the wound that was beginning to knit back together. I reached out and took his hand in mine, lightly pinching his parted skin back together as it healed to help it go faster. Pulling the skin back together was the most painful part of healing a gash like that.

His hand closed over mine as the last traces of the wound vanished.

"It does feel different," he murmured.

"I've been told that my spirit energy normally feels like breathing in darkness if it had a substance, whereas my healing feels more like a flood of warmth," I said as I pulled lightly at my hand. He relaxed his grip and I pulled my hand back to me. "If there is nothing for my power to focus on, it just feels like Amechania."

"What did mine feel like?" He asked.

"It hurt," I said honestly. "My feathers allow me to do things outside of the normal capabilities of Hollows, like channeling someone's power who is not bonded to me. It is not like the bond in anyway. It hurts to do it, and I only have so many feathers to spare. If I wasn't going to be bound to you, then it would have been a feather I removed. They eventually grow back if I remove them, but it takes time."

He hummed in my ear and he turned his zanpakuto so I could see his reflection in the metal. Meeting his gaze made me feel awkward as I realized I was still pressed against him without the force of his grip around me to keep me in place. I liked it, and the understanding of that scared me. He must have seen it in my face because some unknown expression changed his face. I didn't know what to call it, but before I could analyze it further his other hand drew over the blade and his nails pressed to the metal.

"Grind, Pantera."

The words vibrated through him just before his spiritual pressure rolled over me in a consuming wave. I gasped, feeling him through our bond like a sun had exploded in my mind. I was so wrapped up in the feel of his spiritual pressure that I almost didn't notice his changing body behind me. Almost. What I could see has changed, his arms becoming coated in a white bone that would have looked like armor if it hadn't been so tightly bound to his skin. Black covered the skin of his hands, shifting his fingers into claws that threatened to break my skin as he secured his grip around me once more.

"There's one thing that all of my Fraccion have in common," he purred as his head dropped and his lips brushed the fleshy part of my shoulder. "I will bring you under my power the same way that I did them."

Fear made my skin run cold and I tried almost desperately to pull away from him, but his black clawed hands held me still.

"Grimmjow, no!"

My near panicked shout went unheard as his teeth abruptly sank into my flesh, tearing into the muscle that ran from my neck to my shoulder. The pain made my entire body flinch, but I could do nothing to stop him without hurting him. He had me trapped in his arms, leaving only one hand free that wasn't strong enough to remove his grip from around me. I couldn't reach my hair to end our bond before he made a new one and unknowingly wed them. Gods, I couldn't let him do it. I had to stop him, even if it meant hurting the man who I had promised to serve. He didn't know what he was doing, damn it!

I called a cero into my free palm, panting with pain as I turned it on him, aiming for something that would hurt enough to make him stop, even if it was only for a moment. Just as I was about to release it he moved, his hand capturing mine and squashing the power with a burst of his own. Goddamn it! I had told him I would panic if I felt trapped. He had no idea that what he was doing was so fucking wrong. He was forcing me into obedience, thinking he was doing the right thing. Dominating me.

His teeth sank deeper into the big muscle in my shoulder and I screamed in rage, in fear, in desperation. Then, his power slammed into me. Where I had coaxed mine into him, his hit me like falling tree. Pain roared through my head and body feeling like my nerves were disintegrating and rebuilding to do it again in waves. Words were beyond me, but I managed to cling to one thought. Break the bond. I had to break the bond before he did something that he couldn't take back.

In a desperate hail mary, I threw my head back and felt him through one of my feathers that was pressed to his neck. It wasn't the same feather I had used to channel his power earlier, but that didn't matter. I'd gladly use two feathers on this dick tart if it would keep us from being bound permanently.

I couldn't come up with the words that I needed to say in order to call Amechania's Blessing back, but I prayed my intentions were clear as I pulled at the piece of me within him. I didn't know if he was feeling what I was doing, but it felt as though he was as his teeth dug deeper. I called out, using every bit of my will that I could muster to pull it back to me before I felt his teeth close together in my flesh. I felt his power welling within me and I knew I couldn't stop it. He was able to force me just like I could force those who were weaker than myself.

For just a moment I hated myself for not having explained what he needed to do before he had tried. I should have explained everything before I had bound him to me. I should have guaranteed his understanding of the consequences and the benefits. But, I should have done a lot of things in my life. This was just another thing to throw in the pile.

My thoughts were stopped as his power slammed into me again, bringing with it a wave of emotions I hadn't felt in a thousand years. My eyes fluttered as my vision was overwhelmed with colors so vibrant they were blinding. It was him, his influence and the piece of him within me changing things.

Changing me.

Gods, he was the God Maker, or just like him. That thought came with a wave of confusion as I struggled to keep on my hold on the thought that it was Grimmjow doing this, not the God Maker. But they felt the same. The all consuming presence that warmed me from my chest to my toes. My eyes slid closed as my head lolled back and I stopped struggling against him. It felt so good - he felt so good, that my knees wanted to give out and I wanted to turn into him, to lose myself in him.

A fresh wave of his power crashed into me and I gasped as my body went rigid. It felt good, but following on the heels of the pleasure was a pain so great that I didn't even have a chance to voice it. I was just swallowed by darkness, drowning in it until I was released from the pain by unconsciousness.