Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Negative Space ❯ Let's Make a Deal ( Chapter 13 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

It hadn't taken me long to find suitable clothing in the massive closet that I maintained. I tried to keep the outfit simple with a pair of skin tight leggings made of a durable blue material, a shirt that lacked any sleeves and was tight enough that it had to stretch to cover my body, and a pair of black ankle high boots. At Raacharg's insistence I added a jacket that was far too heavy for Hueco Mundo's heat, but I could only assume it was to keep my zanpakuto's sheath from chaffing and his claws from piercing my skin as I ran. To finish off the look I had put my hair up into an elegant braid that brought my hair over my shoulder in a long rope-like tail. The outfit as a whole felt right, but I had the lingering impression that I was missing something. I just couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"Do you know where you're going?" Raacharg asked. He had been asking me questions since we had left my rock that didn't make any sense. I had dismissed most of his questions when I had been unable to come up with answers, but he was relentless. He kept asking, kept prying, and kept getting better at forcing me to think through his words. It was annoying, but it felt like he had a purpose so I didn't tell him to stop. If my sense for bonds was accurate, he was my only child. There was probably a reason he was being this annoying, or I would have killed him a long time ago.

"Yes," I answered easily as I ran through the sky towards Los Noches. The white walls were blindingly bright in the sunlight, but it made me almost want to smile. It looked enough like Aether's palace that I felt a sense of peace coming over me as we approached. There were no pillars nore sculptures of the gods that the living believed us to be, but he was here. We were just close enough that I could sense him outside of his beckoning call.

"Why were we so far from home?" I asked him as I descended enough so that I was running at the same height as the top of the walls that surrounded Los Noches. "It shouldn't take us this long to get to back to Los Noches."

"We have lived out there for several years, Isa." The way he said my ridiculous nickname gave me the impression that he was worried.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I asked as I darted over the wall of Los Noches and turned, allowing my feet to touch down on the surface so I could run along it. "My name has been many things, but never that."

"It's the name you told me to call you when I found you," he explained as his claws flexed into my shoulder.

"When you found me?" My voice was slow with thought as I spoke. Something about what he said seemed to strike deeper than the rest of his words. "When you found me… where?"

"Trapped in Los Noches' dungeon."

My steps faltered and I came to an abrupt stop before a tower. I glanced back at Raacharg, meeting his gaze with a look of wonder. The thing I had been missing seemed to click into place as I stared at him, and slowly a grin crooked the corner of my mouth.

"I like your way of knocking sense into me better than Grimmjow's," I finally said after a moment.

His eyes lit up with relief and his claws relaxed on my shoulders. "You're back."

"I've been back. I've just been… well, I don't know. I don't remember the last time I was acting like my old self and Grimmjow ordered me back, but I remember everything from my rock till now. It was weird."

"You're finding a balance?"

"No, not really," I murmured as I turned my attention back to the large door that stood closed before us. "More like I was startled out of a dream, but I still couldn't seem to wake and was left sleepwalking."

"We were in your memories for the better part of two days."

"Was it that long?" I asked as I thought back. "I thought I had only given you a few moments of time."

"I saw everything from the time you were found by the God Maker, till you were confronting Arnau."

I frowned but didn't let it linger long as one memory in particular came to mind. "Did you see what he looked like? The God Maker?"

"No, his face was blurry even to me." Raacharg shifted anxiously on my back and I released my arms from under him. He jumped down, his claws clacking on the ground and walked around until he stood before me. "There are some things that stood out even to me though."

"Like?"

"I could hear your thoughts like they were my own, and feel what you felt. Do you remember everything that happened even now?"

I didn't like where he was going with his questions, so instead of using words I just nodded.

"Do you still have his feather-"

"Yes," I answered before he could say it. The God Maker's feather, the one I had stored my bond with him in, was still buried deep within my chest where no one could take it from me. I realized in that moment that I had been the only one to know what I had done with it until I had shown that memory to Raacharg. It was an uncomfortable sense of being exposed, even knowing that I had wanted to trust him with such knowledge.

"Do you remember your thoughts in that moment?"

He didn't say it, but I knew what he was referring to. I had forgotten those thoughts until I had walked him through the memories. The thought that one day I might find the God Maker again.

"It was just a desperate dream, nothing more," I said stiffly as I averted my gaze from him to look across the endless sand outside Los Noches.

"Was it though?"

"Yes." I clenched my fists and sucked in a hard breath. "Grimmjow is nothing but a man child. If I was going to find the God Maker again it would have been hundreds of years ago, not now. It was nothing more than the desperate hope of someone who had lost everything and wanted desperately to feel something again."

"A man child, eh?"

My eye twitched at the sound of Grimmjow's voice. Now that I was aware of him I could feel him standing beside Raacharg. He must have come to find us when we had stopped so close, but didn't come in. Hopefully my words had been out of context enough that he wouldn't understand what I had been saying, but he seemed to listen far to well for a typical man.

"Yeah, I believe the definition is looking like a man but acting like a child. I think it fits you perfectly." My words were their typical smart assed reply, but for some reason they held a bit more bite than they normally did.

"And here I thought my being your master would have changed your opinion of me."

"Nope, you're still the same Espada who was going to try and kick me out of my territory. Being bound to you isn't going to change that." I let out a sigh and turned to face him, crossing my arms over my chest in a display of irritation. My words must have amused him because there was a spark of laughter in his azure eyes.

"You're awfully awnry this morning," he mused.

"Get used to it," I glowered. I was grumpy suddenly, but it couldn't have been his fault. When I had been absorbed by the thought of going to him it had been easy to ignore how tired I was. Being in my memories hadn't been the same as sleeping. It had been like binge watching several seasons of a TV show all night and still going to work the next morning. I was sure it was to blame for my grumpy disposition.

Letting out a rough sigh I dropped my arms and assumed a less defensive posture with one arm hanging and my other hand resting on my cocked out hip. "You called, so what do you want?"

He didn't seem to like the way I was talking to him, but he hid it well behind narrowing eyes. "I need some help with a project in the World of the Living."

"You need me to go with you to the World of the Living?" I asked. "Why me? Wouldn't one of your other Fracciones be a better choice?"

"No," he answered as he glanced back at the tower. "They'll just get in the way."

"And I won't?" I asked as a grin quirked the corner of my mouth. "We haven't learned how to work with one another yet. The last time we did something together it was to retrieve Raacharg from the World of the Living. That didn't go so well, so what makes you think that this go around will be any better?"

He didn't bother hiding his frown. "You think I act like a man child, but you haven't actually had to deal with my Fracciones yet. They're dysfunctional. Yoruichi spends more time harassing them than she does ignoring them, and Kisuke constantly tries to trick them into some experimental gigai. It's frustrating."

"And you think that I will be any better?"

"Yes," he answered before he let out a huff and ran a hand through his hair. He was clearly frustrated, but I didn't understand why. "They might actually get along with you, or at the very least not be distracted by you."

I thought about his words for a long moment as I tried to figure out what he was actually saying. I didn't know the people he was referencing, but they were in the World of the Living. If that wasn't enough of an indication that they weren't Espada, then their names were. Those were the types of names that the living had. Or Soul Reapers.

"You want just me to go with you?" I asked as my gaze dropped to meet Raacharg's yellow eyes.

"Yes."

"I won't leave Raacharg here alone," I said firmly as I lifted my gaze in an almost defiant gesture. I hadn't flat out said no, but it was close enough.

"My Fracciones will watch after him," Grimmjow said as those azure eyes of his steadily met mine. His hand was still in his hair, holding it back from his face. It was an attractive look for him, exposing more of him in a way that pleased something deep within me. He normally only had a few pieces hanging down, so it shouldn't have been such a striking change but I wanted to stare at him in… awe? I didn't know what the sensation was, but seeing Raacharg's curiously tilting head in my peripheral vision reminded me where I was, and I stomped down the urge to stare. I didn't think Grimmjow was intentionally trying to distract me, but it sure as hell was working.

"You'll trust your Fracciones with my Adjuchas, but you won't take them with you? I don't think so." I said shaking my head.

He let out a sigh and dropped his hand, letting his hair fall back over his forehead.

That was far more disappointing than it should have been...

"There's a lot more to it than trust," he said slowly. When he didn't continue speaking it felt like the silence was hanging awkwardly in the air. He was intentionally keeping his request vague. I didn't like it, but I couldn't blame him. I may have been bound to him but I was still an unknown element, and Raacharg even more so. If he had secrets he was trying to keep, I'd have to pry them out of him.

My lopsided grin slowly morphed into a sly smile as a thought came to mind. I wasn't usually very good at coming up with conversational genius, but I had a damned good idea. One that Grimmjow would be hard pressed to refuse if I had my way.

"Fine then, let's make a deal. You want me to go with you to the World of the Living, and I won't leave Raacharg alone. I'm assuming taking him with isn't an option, so if you really want this to happen, then I want you to bind one of your Fracciones to you. That's the only way I will be okay with leaving him under their protection."

Grimmjow visibly stiffened with my words. It made it hard to keep my smile from growing.

"I thought you didn't want me to do that yet," he said in an almost steady voice. Yep, I'd surprised him. Go me.

"That was before I met all of your Fracciones," I said, shrugging. "Tesra is an acceptable second."

"Tesra, really?" He raised a skeptical brow.

"Yep."

He was silent for a long moment, a look of confusion on his face. He seemed frozen, like he couldn't seem to comprehend my reasoning. I kinda felt bad when he seemed to be stuck, so I decided to explain.

"Tesra isn't as hot headed as the other two you have. I could tell that just by the way he reacted to me. He won't force you to use the bond to control him. He'll be the easiest to mind, taking less effort than controlling Luien or Loly would."

Grimmjow blinked slowly, and like an old computer that was rebooting his face slowly shifted into a mild scowl. "You don't think him to be the second in power, but rather the easiest one to deal with."

For some reason, his words really ticked me off. I was feeling grumpy with how tired I was, but I couldn't seem to keep my rising irritation in check. He knew what I was. Normally I could have brushed it off and taken this as another opportunity to explain something in a calm and understandable conversation, but I really didn't have the patience for that. I didn't know why, but figuring out my sudden burst of anger seemed like too much work, so instead I let my mouth run.

"You really think my horrible senses can tell which one is stronger? I'm bad at gauging the level of someone's power in a fight where I am the most intune with my own abilities. What in the hell gave you the impression that I could even begin to read people's level of power or skill outside of combat? And while I still completely off balance? There's no freaking way. I'm not one of you fakes, gifted with the perfect everything and stronger than the old gods. I'm a goddamn Privaron Espada."

A muscle in his jaw twitched, probably in irritation, but I was on a roll and not stopping.

"And what is with this 'deal with them' bullshit? You've got a piss poor attitude for a master. It's one thing to not feel any affection towards them. I felt that way for that majority of my long ass life, but to be reluctant in interacting with them is freaking stupid. You're their master, even if you haven't bound them yet. You need to treat them like the children they are, even if they're snot nosed brats, or all you'll ever get out of them is hostility and resentment."

"They aren't children-"

"Yes they are!" I snapped. "It doesn't matter how old they are, they are still our children, our ward. If they were-"

I caught myself then, stopping my words mid sentence. My ranting went against everything that I was and knew. I was yelling at him. No, not just yelling. I was scolding him, talking down to him like he was still just that ignorant Espada I had met a few weeks ago. But, he wasn't the same person to me. He was my master, and I was… Well, I was talking down to my master.

With a frustrated growl I turned away to hide my snarling face from his view. My entire body was rigid with anger, and I couldn't seem to get it under control. Gods, I normally didn't get this hot and bothered. Even when he had come into my territory to evict me I hadn't been this angry. My words, although sharp and hot, had been purely mine. This was like an unquenchable rage that I couldn't control.

…It was him.

Holy gopher tits, Batman. It was him. It was his emotions pushing through the bond. Goddamn, was he really this angry? Did he feel this way all the time? He was destruction, but gods… To be angry like this all the time would have driven me mad. How was he controlling himself? He appeared to only be getting irritated with my smart mouth. How the hell did he handle this? I sure as hell couldn't.

"Grimmjow," I said in the softest voice I could manage. My voice shook with the rage that I was fighting to keep back and I managed to ask through clenched teeth, "are you angry right now?"

It took him a moment to answer which made me grind my teeth with my impatience.

"Yes."

So it was his emotions affecting me. That was just freaking great.

"Can you please shut down the bond? Your rage is leaking into me, and I don't know how to handle such a powerful emotion."

There was a pause, like time had taken in a breath, then the anger I had been so overwhelmed with was gone. It was such a sudden sensation that my entire body wanted to go limp, but I managed to catch myself and stumbled forward a few steps. I felt winded and had to bend over, one hand resting on my thigh while my other hand went to my chest to give me some sense of being steady. It didn't help much, and I closed my eyes in a small attempt to focus on calming my body. My heart was racing, my entire body was shaking and my skin had ran cold with the loss of that hot anger. Jesus…

"Isa?" Raacharg's worried voice came from beside me, drawing my attention to his clacking claws as he walked to me.

"I'm alright," I breathed out. I didn't bother trying to stand up straight, instead choosing to remain bent over. I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, and even though I knew it had to belong to Grimmjow, I flinched. I felt another sensation beginning to seep into me from my bond with him, and I moved to step away even though I knew a lack of touch would do nothing to stop him.

"Don't help me," I said between heavy breaths.

"Why not?" he asked. I was so distracted by my own body that I couldn't tell what sort of tone he had used, but I had the impression that he sounded offended.

"I need to figure out, how to deal with this, on my own." Bent over as I was, I would have expected my body to be recovering from the shock of such shifting emotions, but it didn't seem to be getting any better. Like, at all. "If you help me, I'll be dependant on you, until I figure it out. If I figure this out."

"Without the bond you wouldn't be dealing with this right now," he reasoned as his grip on my shoulder eased.

I expected him to remove his hand like I wanted him to, but instead it slid across my back and to my waist. He coaxed me to stand up straight, drawing an almost panicked gasp from me as the world wavered with the movement. He pulled me back and I stumbled as my legs refused to listen to me and I fell back into his chest. His arms enveloped me in a crushing embrace, but instead of the suffocating feeling I was expecting, I was warmed to my toes by the sensation of being secure in his arms. The feeling that had been seeping through the bond rushed over me like the first warm breeze after the sun rose, numbing my mind to most thought and stealing my words.

"Whether you like it or not, you are dependant on me. At least, until I figure out how not to affect you like that."

The only response I could make was a soft moan as my thoughts were washed away, leaving me basking in the glow of whatever he was making me feel. My one free hand rose to cover his hand where he gripped my waist. I needed to hold onto something, and he was the only thing I could reach. As my hand covered his he shifted, twining his fingers with mine. It satisfied something within me, and I relaxed into him. My heart that had been pounding slowed to a steady rhythm. The shaking that had plagued my entire body lessened until only a very fine tremor ran through me.

As my body relaxed further I guided my head back until it rested on his shoulder. I blinked up at the cloudless sky several times before I let my head roll bonelessly to the side. He lifted his head as if in response, allowing me press my nose to the tender skin just below his jaw. A deep growl rumbled through his chest, but I didn't seem to have the mental capacity to know if it was a warning growl or some sort of other growl. What I was doing felt right, so I nuzzled closer until my forehead was pressed against his neck. Taking in the earthy scent of him, a slow but happy sigh slipped from my lips.

"That happened so quickly and was gone so suddenly that I don't understand it," I murmured. "Do you feel that way all the time?"

"No," he answered as I felt his grip around me begin to relax out of the crushing hold. I nodded, using the gesture as an excuse to settle more comfortably against him.

"May I ask why you are so angry then?"

"It's not at you. You probably think you irritate me, but I usually find you rather amusing."

"That's not surprising," I commented, smiling to myself only because I knew he couldn't see me do it. "But, that's also not an answer."

"We can talk about it later," he said dismissively.

"Raacharg won't blab your secrets," I said softly. I knew my Adjuchas was still close by even if I couldn't see him. "The only reason he told you about me was because you had become my master, and you needed to know more than I was capable to sharing with you."

I must have struck gold because he seemed to pause for a moment before easing his grip around me even further. He was just gently holding me now, and even though I knew he would let me pull away, I didn't even try. Instead I took the opportunity to secure my hold on his hand better, inexplicably enjoying the sensation of his fingers twined with mine far more than should have been allowed.

Silence reigned between us. It was a comfortable silence, one that if I hadn't been standing, I could have fallen asleep in. He needed some sort of push to keep talking.

"Seeing as how I'm not steaming with anger now, I should inform you that you really don't need to hold me every time you want to push some sort of emotion or feeling through the bond."

"I... don't?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"No. Emotions, the sense of ease, whatever this feeling is, are all things you can do from a distance. The skin contact just makes it more potent." This was probably the first concept he hadn't grasped from my little explanations. Or maybe he had been using it as an excuse to hold me?

Nah, that was just my Human body's wishful thinking.

"What does require physical contact?" He asked almost hesitantly.

I chewed on my bottom lip for moment, contemplating his question. "I suppose the best way to describe it is you need to have physical contact to share something that is exclusively yours. Sharing my healing always requires contact, or sharing my memories. I can… share my Negative Space as well, in the right circumstances. But that requires contact to."

"You can share your resurreccion?"

"In a sense," I said softly. "If you ever get to that point, I'll explain it."

"If I ever get to that point?" His words were almost teasing as he brought his head back down, nudging me to turn my head. I complied and rolled my head to the side. Being the predator he was I had expected he wanted me to expose my neck, so when I felt his lips brush over the sensitive tip of my ear before running down the edge to my ear lobe in a delicate caress, I couldn't stop the surprised shudder that ran through my body. My stupid Human body really liked the way he was teasing me. Stupid, stupid body…

"What is this feeling you're pushing into me?" I asked, completely avoiding his probing question.

"What do you think it is?" he murmured.

"I have no clue. It's something I can't remember ever feeling before."

"As old are you are, you've never felt at peace?"

"No," I answered softly. Peace… huh. "I lied a bit when I told you my aspect. I told you loss, but in reality I am what comes after loss. I am nothingness, an absence of all. Amechania, I, do not feel things on my own. I do have a personality on my own, but most if it is derived from my experience. Anger, mostly driven by the sense of hubris I gained when becoming an Espada. Lust, from the Human body I possess. Loyalty, from being a master and even more so from Aurellia's influence over me. Anything outside of that is something I gain through the bond."

"Isa," Raacharg said, reminding me that he wasn't just present, but able to hear what we were saying. Grimmjow stiffened, telling me that he too had been absorbed in the moment. "We aren't going to be alone for much longer."

"Who's coming?" I asked in a soft voice. I couldn't seem to make myself speak any louder right now. It just didn't seem… appropriate.

"I've never met them before," he answered.

"It's Rudbornn." Grimmjow nuzzled my cheek with his nose and I turned to him, searching for his mouth with my own. But I never found it because he stood straight, leaving me to stare up at the underside of his jaw as his gaze found something to focus on in the distance. Disappointment flashed through me, but I quashed it as soon as I recognized what it was. What had I just been thinking? Gods, I was an idiot. I needed to reign in this body of mine.

Grimmjow's arms around me eased away and with it, the peaceful sensations he had been pushing onto me lessened. Unlike every other time he had been using the bond to influence me, he actually eased off the gas instead of dropping me like a pancake on the counter. It was a nice change, but it still left me longing for more.

So much more…

Grimmjow didn't seem to notice my inner turmoil. Even as I turned so my back was no longer to him, he was gazing off into the distance, his eyes tracking something that I couldn't feel or see.

"I've been tasked with getting us an army, and the only way to do that is to make a deal with the devil, if you will," he said, his voice sounding just as distant as his gaze.

"Are the people you were referencing earlier your metaphorical devil?" I asked.

"In a sense, yes," he answered. His gaze slid back to me so he was looking at me from the corner of his eye. "Can you heal a broken mask?"

"I can mend my own, but it takes me days," I said, shaking my head. "I've never tried to fix someone else's, I just… put them out of their misery."

"Do you think you could if you tried?"

"I doubt it," I said as my hand went to my forehead to run over the beads of bone that lined my hairline. "I've only actually broken my mask once, but healing it was a sort of passive thing. It just happened while I slept, and I didn't even realize it was actually repairing until after I woke to find my mantel in one piece again."

Grimmjow hummed a note of understanding before his gaze returned to the distance. That must have been where Rudbornn was coming from, but I couldn't sense him.

"These people in the World of the Living, are they Human?"

"They're former Soul Reapers," Grimmjow answered.

"Former?"

"With as much time as you spend in the World of the Living, I'm surprised you haven't ran into them," he said, his brow quirked as he seemed to finally be satisfied with whatever he saw and turned his attention fully to me. "Have you ever seen the Urahara Shop?

My mouth opened, but no words came out for a long moment. I blinked a few times, then closed my mouth to swallow hard. "Them, huh? I thought they were all freakishly gifted members of the living. It was the only rational I could come up with when I realized Soul Reapers and other beings with high spiritual pressures went and visited them."

"Some of them are just Human, but Kisuke and Yoruichi were Soul Reaper Captains, and Tessai was the Kido Commander for the Soul Society at one time."

"That explains a lot," I mumbled. I trailed my hand back, running my touch over my ear where his lips had teased down it. I needed to get rid of the sensation. My stomach was doing funny things, and it wasn't because I feeling ill. I needed to distract myself better, and knowing that I would intentionally ruin any hope of fulfilling my wanton desires, I dragged our conversation back to where it had started.

"I get why you don't want to take your Fracciones, but I'm still not leaving Raacharg here without someone who is bound to you."

"He will be safe with them."

I shook my head. "Luien tried to fry us out of spite a few days ago. No level of reassurance outside of having someone bound to you to look after him will convince me that it's safe to leave him here. He needs to hunt if I'm gone, and I will only trust someone who is under orders to ensure his safety."

He took in a deep breath that made his entire chest expand before he let it out in one long, resigned sigh. "Fine."

"Really? Just like that? I thought I was going to have to pull teeth to get you to agree."

"I agreed to it when I let you be the one in charge first," he said slowly. "You've proven your loyalty by not trying to turn the situation against me. I trust the intent of your advice, but you don't know my people like I do."

"Luien is not a good idea," I quickly said.

"No, he's not."

"If you agree, then why are you so surprised that I suggested Tesra?"

"Because, Tesra isn't the smartest person in the world. You're right, he would be obedient, but I don't need a dog. I need an army."

The massive door leading into the tower gave a deep groan just before it slid open, drawing my gaze to it over Grimmjow's shoulder.

"I don't understand what you mean by that. Sure, Tesra may feel like a dog but how is any other person going to give you an army?"

"Rudbornn is an army," Grimmjow explained as he stepped to the side slightly, allowing me a clear view of the massive doorway and the man who stood in its opening. For a moment I wondered if Grimmjow had magically planned this entrance, but the expression on the man's face was less than pleased. Or, what I could see of his face. I suddenly understood why Grimmjow had been asking about my ability to heal masks, because this man's was broken in several places.

Overall his mask looked like it was once the skeleton of a bull, but the upper jaw was broken off leaving a very displeased scowl to turn his lips. All the way up his left cheek his mask was ragged with a nasty break. Even the left horn that should have risen from his forehead was nothing but a rigid stub. The only piece of his mask that appear unbroken was the bottom jaw that framed his face like a beard.

He was wearing a shihakusho that looked almost exactly like Luien's. Full and composed of all the standard uniform items. The only thing that didn't resemble the standard uniform was the odd gloves that he wore and the high collar that covered every inch of flesh. Except of course, what wasn't covered by his broken mask.

"If you don't have the time to talk to me when you've summoned me, then don't bother doing it again." Rudbornn's voice was loud enough that it would have echoed if Los Noche's wasn't so big.

"I was waiting for Isabellia to arrive so I could introduce you," Grimmjow said, his eyes meeting mine for a brief moment before he turned to Rudbornn and began walking his way. "She's one of the Privaron Espada."

"I know who she is," Rudbornn interrupted. I couldn't see his eyes behind his mask, but I had the distinct impression that he was glaring at me. "Did you dig her out of the dungeons yourself, or was she already out and about?"

I stiffened with his words and caught myself before my hand could rest on my zanpakuto's hilt. No need to be trigger happy Isa. He knew me and I didn't know him. I didn't like that one little bit, but it wasn't exactly surprising. I had been trapped in the dungeons while the fakes were running around doing whatever they wanted. He probably found me while I was drowning myself in memories.

"I found her, just like I found you after your mask was broken," that last word came out in a growl.

"She's more broken than I am and you took her in?" Rudbornn's expression didn't change despite his words. It was like that mouth of his was ironed into a permanent scowl.

Grimmjow didn't miss a step in the conversation, easily flowing into an answer that I wouldn't have expected. "I'm the only one that will have you, Rudbornn. And lucky for you, I've found a way to bring back your Calaveras."

Rudbornn's scowl cracked and he turned his face so he was directly looking at Grimmjow. "You can fix my mask?"

"No, but just like Kisuke did for Nelliel, he will do for you," Grimmjow reached out with one hand and lightly touched the broken edge of Rudbornn's mask. The shorter Numeros pulled away like it was on instinct, turning his head so the broken edges wouldn't be as visible to Grimmjow. I couldn't blame him. The broken bits probably hurt like hell, even if it had happened years ago.

"What you offer is too great to come without a cost," Rudbornn quickly said. It was obvious that the man was unsteady with Grimmjow's clearly shocking offer.

"You're right, but it's mine to pay. All I want from you is your loyalty as my Fracciones."

I'll admit, my mouth fell open just a bit with his words. To me, being bound to him was a cost, but clearly it was the other way around for the people that served him. I didn't understand how, but I wasn't one of the fakes. Maybe this was the norm? It would explain why I seemed to be so resented, and why that Numeros had tried to eliminate me down in Menos Forest.

"If what you say is true, then I have no objections," Rudbornn said, ducking his head as if to informally bow.

"I am going to retrieve from Kisuke the band that will restore your power, but as a sign of my intentions, I will make you one of my Fracciones now."

"But, I am useless to you now," Rudborrn said in an almost panicked tone. "I can't make more than a dozen Exequias at a time. My power is not worthy of serving you in such a capacity."

"It will be, and that's all that matters right now."

Rudbornn didn't even hesitate to drop to one knee before Grimmjow. It was like he was entranced by the concept of becoming one of Grimmjow's lackies. It made absolutely no sense to me, but clearly my opinion didn't matter because Rudbornn was already pulling his top from his belt, working to pull his arm from the sleeve. It was like he knew what Grimmjow was going to do. Maybe he did know?

Grimmjow appeared to take Rudbornn's actions as acceptance and drew his zanpakuto from its sheath. I watched him almost in wonder as he held his zanpakuto up and pressed his nails to the metal. It was the exact same gesture he had made in my Negative Space and when he bound me to him. He was calling his true form, a thing I hadn't seem more than a bare glimpse of before. Anticipation welled within me at the realization that I was going to finally see him for what he was, the predator hiding behind the man.

"Grind, Pantera," he growled as his nails slid down the metal. A burst of power rocked through the bond just before I felt his spiritual pressure roll over me. My entire body bristled with the sensation, but I refused to take my eyes off him. I wanted to see his true form.

A dense, cloudy fog seemed to roll off him as my ears popped with a shift in pressure, masking his body as he shifted. This hadn't happened when he had changed to bind me, but we had been in a very different environment at the time. It made sense, but it only served to spike my anxiety.

The first thing I spotted as the fog shifted with the breeze was his now long hair that cascaded down his back like a feral mane that glowed like blue fire in the harsh sun. Fur covered ears shaped like a lynx's held the mane back from his face. The fur wasn't just azure like the rest of his hair, but rather shades of a deeper blue with hues of green that ran along the crests of his ears. That same deep color of green ran across his temples to meet the corner of his eyes, where the luscious fur continued to line under both eyes. Outside of his released state his eyes had been beautiful to look at, but now the color of them seemed to pop even more. His lashes had thickened with his change, making it look like he was wearing eyeliner and mascara, but instead of going feminine in appearance he had become far more alluring.

The mask that had covered his entire right cheek was gone, startling me with the display of smooth skin that had been hidden underneath it. His new appearance was so shocking that it took me several moments to notice the crown of bone that crossed over his forehead. The band covered his entire forehead in a shaped mantel that spiked back into his hair. The spikes looked like the prongs of a crown, missing only the refinement that a ruler would have normally wore. Was his true form the reason he called himself a king, or was he really the King of Hueco Mundo?

"Wow," Raacharg mumbled beside me.

"Yeah, you said it," I agreed with a slow nod.

Grimmjow reached out with those same clawed black hands I had seen when he bound me. He took hold of Rudbornn's arm and pulled the man closer to him, lifting him to an uncomfortable height. Rudbornn made no sound, his gaze locked on Grimmjow as his mouth opened to reveal sharp teeth that were made for tearing through flesh.

In one quick movement, Grimmjow lashed out, his teeth sinking into Rubbornn's arm. The motion drew my eyes down Grimmjow's body to the powerfully built form he had. Maybe he had always been as defined as he was now, but seeing him without his uniform on to hide his form, it was like he was almost in a different body. From his neck down he was covered in a white bone armor that wrapped him almost like the muscles underneath. He had bulked up with the release of his true form, but it mostly showed in his legs where the muscle was so defined that I couldn't help but to stare.

Okay, I was staring mostly at his butt, but it wasn't just because it was solid muscle. A tail that was as long as his body was tall extended from the end of his raised spine. It moved like it was alive, curling around his feet in a lazy arch while the tip of it twitched and flicked in a happy sort of manner. He was a predator indeed, a large feline meant to hunt and devour for all eternity.

While I was a bit lost in the sight of his delicious body, I felt the pull of the bond as Grimmjow thrust his power into Rudbornn. If it hadn't been such a sharp sensation I would have ignored it, but having just been in Rudbornn's position, I couldn't let him drown in Grimmjow's power like I had.

Stepping quickly but quietly, I moved up to Grimmjow's side and softly placed my hand on his back. I couldn't help but to take the opportunity to run my hand down his spine, entranced by the way it stood out from his back just like mine did in my true form. "You don't need to beat him into submission. He's not fighting you like I did."

Still latched on Rudbornn's arm, he tilted his head just enough so I could meet one of his azure eyes. He was listening even if he couldn't say anything with his mouth full of Rudbornn's flesh. That was good.

"Ease your power into him, like blowing up a balloon. All you need to do is make the space for your power inside him."

Blood was dripping from his mouth in small lines that ran down his chin and down Rudbornn's arm. If I wasn't what I was, the sight might have grossed me out. But, I was me. I had rolled in plenty of blood stained battlefields in my life, and knowing that somehow made me feel worthy of this man as his jaw tensed and his teeth closed together in Rudbornn's flesh. Through the bond, I felt him do as I had asked and his power dulled until it was a steady flow instead of the crashing waves he had started with. He was a quick learner, and that thought eased the note of worry that had been in my chest.

Knowing that Grimmjow understood me I stepped back, giving them the room they had started with. Looking down to Raacharg who was beside me once more, I met his curious yellow gaze.

"Is it just me, or did a lot of things just happen in the last thirty minutes?" I asked him.

His mouth opened and he showed me a very dog like smile as his tail began to wag. "It's not just you."