//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Escape Plans 
// Story: Hunters and Hollows 
// by thatguyvex 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 9: Escape Plans


Not long after X was returned to his cell, Tempest went in search of the Storm King. If she was to shift the plan from recruitment to alliance, she needed to sell the idea to her liege as soon as possible. She was well aware it wouldn’t be easy. For all the time she’d known him, no one harbored a greater hatred of the Espada than the Storm King, nor quite the same level of fear of them, especially Tirek himself. For decades since their fateful meeting Tempest had patiently supported the formation of the Storm King’s army, aided in his conquests of far flung territories in Hueco Mundo that had been held by other Privaron Espada, those unfortunate enough to earn Tirek’s ire and be banished from Las Noches, or were independent enough to strike out on their own regardless of what the ruler of Las Noches thought.

While the desire to dethrone Tirek and bring him low burned brightly in Tempest Shadow’s heart as well, a part of her did understand the Storm King’s fears. The Espada did not hold their positions of power for no reason. They were exceedingly deadly foes. Even at her best, Tempest knew she was not an even match for Tirek, possibly not even the two Espada directly below him. That was why working with the Storm King and building up their army was so essential. It was partly why she’d been so keen on recruiting X and his unusual team. Their power could have made all the difference in a direct assault on Las Noches.

...But so, too, could an alliance with Di Roy, Gaw, and Roka’s mysterious Espada benefactor, Adagio Dazzle. If an Espada inside Tirek’s court sought to overthrow him, that could lead to numerous possibilities. She’d just have to convince Storm King of the value of the prospect over his fears and distaste of either location, the broad and cavernous throne room as empty as his far less extravagant but disturbingly messy and disorderly quarters. How a man who styled himself a ‘King’ was capable of living in a room that looked like a disaster area was an affront to Tempest’s otherwise strict sense of military neatness, but she allowed her liege his flaws. 

Deciding to forgo more physical searching, she instead closed her eyes and took a moment to stretch her spiritual senses out across the fortress. It was easy to sense the couple of dozen Hollows and Arrancar who remained in the fortress premises either on guard duty, maintenance and cleaning, or organizing the archives. So too was it easy to feel the steady mass of reiatsu that was the bulk of the army, either relaxing in the town, drilling in the fields, or working the orchards. Narrowing her focus, she sought the Storm King’s own distinct reiatsu, the strongest one present in the canyon even with him actively suppressing it so that if the Espada did send agents to scout the region they couldn’t stumble upon this place easily.

She found his spiritual pressure down by the fortress’ entrance, and strangely, she sensed another with him. Patros.

Tempest breathed out a hissing sigh. What was that man up to, now? She had always figured that, given enough time, Patros might settle down and stop giving her such a hard time at every turn, but he sure had a consistent burr up his butt about taking orders from a Soul Reaper. Admittedly Patros was probably the second strongest Arrancar in the army, although still a long ways behind the Storm King and Tempest, but he still commanded some respect among some of the other troops and was probably used to being the top dog. Tempest understood Hollows well enough to know being knocked down the totem pole had bruised some egos. Not uncommon among a lot of her troops once they joined the ranks, often after their territory got conquered. Most learned fast what the new paradigm was, and often came to appreciate Tempest’s way of doing things. 

A rare few like Patros weren’t as fast on the uptake.

Not wasting any time, Tempest headed for the nearest balcony overhang, hopping right off the fortress rather than bother with anything silly like stairs. One gust of Flash Step and the former Soul Reaper Captain found herself before the large archway that lead into the fortress proper. Storm King was standing with his hands clasped behind his back and a grumpy frown plastered on his face while Patros, whose back was turned to Tempest, was speaking in a pointed tone.

“-far too lenient with those prisoners, my king. I mean, cooked meat? Fresh from the human world? Preposterously lax security measures, I say! Far be it for me to question your choices, my king, but is this not giving the Soul Reaper too much leeway to endanger us by treating these prisoners like honored guests instead of like dangerous enemies?”

Tempest cleared her throat loudly and approached with bold strides, “Because it doesn’t gain us anything to antagonize them further, Patros. Especially because I brought them here in hopes of convincing them to join our cause.”

Patros turned halfway towards her, hand resting on the hilt of his Zanpaktou as he looked at her shrewdly with his one unmasked eye, which half-closed in distaste.

“Yes, you do have this habit of trying to take in every stray, Captain. It’s fair enough when those strays are fellow liberated Hollows, untainted by Las Noches or the Espada. These prisoners have already admitted to serving an Espada. What reason would we possibly have to trust them, hm?”

“Not playing favorites,” said the Storm King, pointing a beefy finger at Patros, “But Mustache here has a point, and it’s bending my ear not just a little, Tempest. Now I’m trying to be a nice guy and indulge your recruitment fetish, but any of the Espada would love to point us out to the Jolly Red Giant Asshole to earn brownie points. Still not sure why I should be letting these spies take up space in my fortress, eating my food, when I could be eating them instead.”

“Sir, as I explained, them being here is costing us nothing. X and his compatriots have been nothing if not cooperative, thus far,” she said, choosing her words carefully. She had to watch how she handled this, because the Storm King did have something of a temper and a tendency towards overreaction, “That being said, recruitment isn’t going to be possible, I’ve discovered.”

“HA!” Patros exclaimed, “See what I mean? You waste the Storm King’s time! No doubt these spies are just eager for a chance to escape so they can report back to-”

“Patros, shut up,” said the Storm King, his eyes locking onto Tempest with a piercing quality that reminded her that for all his joking nature, for as long as she may have known him, he wasn’t someone to trifle with or take lightly. “Tempest, explain yourself. Make it a good one, because just the other day you were telling me you could pull this off, now you’re telling me it’s a no-go. That does not make for a happy Storm King.”

“I understand, sir. It’s not complicated. Turns out the team’s leader, X, has more... intimate ties to his previous employer than I anticipated. Means that there’s nothing we can offer him that would convince him to break ties. That said, there’s a different opportunity here that I firmly believe we should take advantage of. Of the seven we captured, X and the three other non-Hollows serve a different master outside Hueco Mundo, but were stuck making a temp deal with an Espada named Adagio Dazzle. The three Arrancar we captured with X’s team work for her. According to X, she’s a recent addition to the Espada’s ranks, and isn’t specifically loyal to them, or to Tirek. In fact X explained the entire reason they were sent to look for Privaron Espada was to seek allies for an insurgency in Las Noches, and eventual overthrow of Tirek’s rule.”

“Hogwash,” Patros said, unable to help himself despite the Storm King’s warning look, “W-well, it is, my king! What Espada would be crazy enough to try and rebel against Tirek? O-other than you, of course. This is clearly a made up story to try and buy their own lives. I wouldn’t believe a word of it!”

“It makes more sense than if they came looking for us specifically,” Tempest said, “Our base at Forlorn Ridge was expertly hidden. If an Espada suspected us of being there, why send a small group? Why not just come and crush us with full force? Why use outsiders who aren’t even Hollows in the first place? As wild as their story is, it makes more sense than the alternative of them being spies loyal to Tirek.”

“You don’t know Tirek like I do,” the Storm King said, “Nothing that guy does would surprise me. He’s been after me for centuries, and the only thing keeping me safe is staying waaaaay out of sight, until I amass enough power to kick his smug skull in. We’re getting there, Tempest, but we’re not there yet. Now you’re asking me to put the whole shebang at risk, and for what, exactly? Some upstart Espada rebel who might not even be on the level?”

“Sir, this might actually be our best chance to even the playing field!” Tempest said back in a fierce tone, stepping closer, and all but ignoring Patros’ squawk of annoyance as she brushed past him to meet the Storm King’s gaze up close, “Like you said, we’re getting there in terms of the army’s size and power, but we’re not there yet. But what if we had someone on the inside of Las Noches? An Espada who isn’t loyal to Tirek. One who can help us get inside whenever we’re ready to make our attack. No matter how much power we gain, we’re going to need every advantage to take Tirek down, and you know it. It’s risky to trust this idea, I know, but I think it’s worth the risk. I’m just asking you to trust me on this one. If you still have doubts, talk to X yourself. You be the judge if he’s lying or not.”

Normally she was pretty good at getting a ready on the Storm King’s thoughts, but this time his gleaming blue eyes were as inscrutable as two sheets of ice. He didn’t respond for a long minute or so, one bony hand stroking his chin. Patros tried to speak, but was silenced by a simple gesture from the Storm King, who eventually blew out a grumbling sigh and looked at Tempest flatly.

“I’ll think about it. But hear me loud and clear, Tempest. If I decide this is done with, I don’t want to hear any more argument out of you. Comprende?”

Her jaw clenched, but she nodded, “Comprende, sir.”

But in her heart, she was already preparing herself for the worst, and what she might have to do if it came down to it. 

----------

Telling time in a place without a sun could certainly be problematic, but with cyborgs like Gigan and Megalon having their own accurate internal clocks, the group knew it wasn’t long past noon when the time came for their “gross biological stuff” break as Gigan coined it.

“You do know that your skin gets dirty too, right?” Di Roy pointed out, “Like, being 90% machine doesn’t keep you automatically clean.”

“91.8% machine, and while it doesn’t keep me clean, my body doesn’t produce the same odors you meat-body types do,” Gigan replied in a clipped tone, pausing only briefly before frowning behind his shades, “And why do spirit beings need baths anyway? You shouldn’t even have... you know what, never mind. I don’t need the headache of trying to figure that out.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault my body produces a natural musk,” Grubber said, watching as the pair of prisoners were let out of their cell by Yin and Yang, who both were tense as Gigan and Di Roy joined them in the hallway. Yin, in particular, eyed Gigan closely, keenly remembering getting trounced in their scuffle back at Forlorn Ridge, but the cyborg didn’t even give her a second glance.

X had given his orders for everyone to be on their best behavior, so far as Gigan was concerned, unless someone started something, there was no reason to even act like their captors were there unless he had to. Granted a part of him still thought that playing any amount of ball with these folk was a questionable tactical choice, but he trusted X’s judgment. If X said to take this slow and play nice, Gigan could play the role. Besides, this was as good a chance as any to gather intel on their surroundings and hence boost the chances that a later escape attempt would succeed. And... he did need to clean himself a bit. He might not sweat like biologicals did, but even his skin needed a good scrubbing every now and again, and the hair he had in this humanoid form had gotten pretty matted and dusty, too.

“Musk is one way to put it. Reek might be another term,” Irys muttered, she and Roka having been let out before Gigan and Di Roy had, and Grubber just crossed his arms and grinned at the girl.

“Maybe you just got a sensitive nose? Yin, Yang, I’m not that bad, am I?”

The twins exchanged clandestine looks before Yin carefully offered, “It might not be a bad idea if you take this chance to clean up a bit yourself, sir.”

“Augh, you delicate feminine types, I swear. Once a week is fine. You all need to stop having such high standards. The Captain never complains about my natural odor.”

“Not to your face...” Yang muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, sir.”

Megalon and Gaw had also been let out by this point, and Gaw tested the air with her own nose, and gave a bare little shrug, “Smells fine.”

“See, at least someone here isn’t so judgmen-”

“Smells like old, rotted kill, but still good for eating,” Gaw clarified, in such a manner that suggested she didn’t think the scent was all that bad. Grubber’s face blanched and he hung his head in defeat.

“Whatever. Let’s get Mr. Moody out of his cell so you all can get yourselves cleaned up, use the lieu, whatever else that needs doing.”

A Grubber went to the final cell area and removed his ward pass to deactivate the barrier, Gigan made special note of where on Grubber’s uniform the short statured Arrancar tucked the piece of wood. It was easy enough to do so with the scanners in his eyes, hidden behind his red shades. He even tried to get a scan on the energy signature the ward pass put out, although as was so far the consistent case with spirit energy, Gigan’s mechanical systems had difficulty making sense of the garbled signals they received. 

X emerged with his usual air of calm and control, looking over each of his team and his three Arrancar compatriots in turn to visually confirm their condition. Everyone knew the plan. Play it cool, be cooperative, be alert for any chance to gather information, and let Gigan handle the process of swiping the ward pass. Combat was only to be initiated if, for whatever reason, they came under attack. Everyone, even Irys, who still had a tense look on her face, shared an understanding of what needed to happen here.

“Alright, so we’ve got shower facilities set up by the river,” Grubber told X, “One for the men, and one for the ladies. Ain’t going to be hot water, but none of you look like strangers to cold showers. If any of you got a need for a number one or two, we’re not exactly rigged for plumbing out here, but never met anyone too good for an old fashioned outhouse. Long as everyone’s nice and cordial about this, and stays more or less in sight, minus the bathing portion obviously, then everything will be cool and we might even have a halfway decent lunch ready by the end of it. We all clear on this?”

“We are,” X said, knowing he could trust his answer counted for the entire group, even the Arrancar. He’d only known Di Roy, Roka, and Gaw a short time, but their competency had been proven and blood had been shed together in common cause. That was about all X needed to feel a certain level of trust towards the trio Adagio had saddled his team with. Grubber gave them all a brief look, then nodded to himself.

“Well alright then! Let’s get this show on the road.”

Grubber took the lead, with Yin and Yang forming up behind so that the three had the prisoners sandwiched between them. Trust or not, it was a sensible and natural tactical precaution that X couldn’t fault them for. He and Tempest had established a rapport, and from what he’d heard, the rest of his team had gotten to know their captors to a degree, but their relationship was still that of prisoners and captors. No matter how cordial things were, that fact hung over proceedings like an overcast sky. 

Once out of the underground prison, Grubber led them across the pathway between the two pyramid towers of the fortress, upon which X found himself raising an eyebrow as he spotted another Arrancar standing just out of their path, as if waiting for them. It was Patros, and he was standing rather rigidly, carrying what looked like a stack of white towels underneath a basket filled with... soap and hair products? 

The mustached Arrancar’s face bore a livid look of barely constrained, indignant rage as he looked at Grubber. Grubber, for his part, openly grinned like a cat toying with a canary. 

“Ah, Patros, ol’ buddy ol’ pal! Glad to see you brought what I asked.”

X tilted his head in a questioning look, but said nothing, although he did note that Yin and Yang both looked just as confused as he felt. Apparently the twins had no idea what this was about, either.

Patros, for his part, spoke through clenched teeth in a grating whisper, “I trust this humiliation sufficiently amuses you, Grubber? It was not easy acquiring these items, I’ll have you know. That town is lousy with Soul Reapers.”

“I know, I know, but I’m a man of such particular tastes, and I want nothing but the best for our guests!” Grubber said, coming up to Patros, who held out the towels and basket of assorted bath products. Grubber looked at them and held up a hand, “Oh, I think you can carry those. In fact, why don’t you come along and help keep an eye on our ‘dangerous prisoners’. That’s what you called them, right? Well, who better to help little ol’ helpless me keep an eye on them while they bath, eh? Why, they might try to escape, and they might hurt someone. Wouldn’t want that, would you?”

X was no medical expert, but he was fairly certain that many veins shouldn’t exist in a human forehead. Maybe it was an Arrancar thing. Either way, Patros’ face was beat red as he harshly said, “You are taking this joke of yours way too far.”

Grubber shrugged at him and then leaned closer to Patros, whispering something that X couldn’t hear, but it only caused a look on the other Arrancar’s face that suggested a strong mix of fear, outrage, and irritated acceptance.

“Fine,” Patros said, and proceeded to turn and start marching down a path leading off to the right, “Have it your way! But I swear there will be payback for this, ‘buddy’.”

Grubber, satisfaction rolling off his face in waves, sighed and motioned for the group to follow Patros, “Man I love getting under that guy’s skin.”

X ventured to ask, “Just what was that about?”

In a conspiratorial low tone, Grubber hid his mouth with one hand and said, “Nothing big. I just got a bit of dirt on Patros. Dude’s been sneaking out of the canyon on occasion to fraternize with Hollows in some other Privaron Espada territories. I don’t know what the dude’s up to, and don’t really care, but it’s against the Storm King’s rules. Now, doesn’t bother me none, personally, but it’s fun to hang over Patros’ head so I can make him do dumb yet highly amusing stuff like this.”

X couldn’t claim to understand Grubber’s motivations, but he supposed it ultimately didn’t matter, as long as it did not’ lead to unneeded conflict. However if the rough chuckle from Di Roy, who was close enough to overhear the conversation, and the fain motion of Gigan’s brows that suggested an eye roll, some of X’s companions had their own thoughts on the matter. 

Their procession down the pathway did lead them past the town, and some of the local Hollows watched them go with obvious curiosity. With X’s earlier excursion out with Tempest Shadow, there had to be quite a number of rumors flying around about what the deal with these odd prisoners were. None accosted the group, however, the Hollows keeping a fair distance as the group continued on along a side path that ran along the edge of the forest and orchards and took them towards one of the rivers that flowed towards the center of the canyon. X had yet to see where these river’s emptied out, but the water seemed fast flowing.

“So seriously, I know your Captain said it was a secret, but where did you guys get so much water from, anyway?” asked Di Roy, showing his own interested in the uncharacteristic rivers that, to put it mildly, were apparently scarce in Hueco Mundo.

“Curious cat, aren’t you?” replied Grubber, “Not that I blame you. It’s pretty damn sweet, having regular access to fresh water, even if we don’t need it to survive. Captain likes to be coy sometimes, but it’s not actually that big a secret. Hueco Mundo does have natural water sources, just turns out they’re all deep underground. Whole reason we built our home here was because it sits on top of one of those reservoirs. Now, eventually that’d run out, but Storm King’s got a clever mind. Cagey as a cracked out raccoon, but clever. See, he set up Garganta portals to redirect the water up from the reservoir into those natural caves in the canyon walls. Then set up a couple more in the human word, right on top of some mountain rivers in the middle of nowhere. With his abilities, he made the portals permanent, so now we’ve got regular, fresh water that doesn’t run out.”

“Top that off with the Storm King using his power to enrich the land so we can grow food, and we don’t even have to hunt for human souls anymore,” Yang said, “Captain Tempest really did bring me and my sister to a good place, with a decent ruler. Way better than that bastard Tirek, who lets monsters like Grogar do whatever the hell he wants.”

“You know, the three of you who’re working for that Espada might convince her to switch to our side,” Yin said, “With enough strong Arrancar, we could form our own Espada! Turn this whole place into something bigger and better than Las Noches could ever be.”

“Nice enough pitch, you’d have to let us go so we could even bring that offer to our boss,” Di Roy said, and gave a brief look towards Roka, who shrugged at him. X did recall that Roka didn’t directly serve Adagio, but was instead the adopted daughter of a different Espada, but since she hadn’t volunteer that information to their captors he felt it wasn’t his place to say anything. 

“Guess we’ll see what the Captain and the King work out,” Grubber said, then gestured with his hands in a wide, grand manner, “Aaaaand ta-da! Here we are, you’re bathing facilities. Patented by Grubco Construction Inc.”

Gigan looked at what was in front of them and deadpanned, “You’re really proud of what amounts to several large pieces of plywood held to together by what looks like a combination of duct tape and... is that gum?” 

“I got hungry while I worked,” Grubber said, holding out a small, wrapped piece of gum to the cyborg, “Want some, it’s grape.”

“Pass,” Gigan said. X merely shrugged. He didn’t think the bathing area looked all that bad. Compared to a hole in an asteroid, it was downright pleasantly quaint. 

It was made of plywood, yes, but Grubber did appear to use actual nails (in combination with duct tape and the occasional bit of gum) to hammer together what was essentially two wide, square shaped structures that were about twenty feet wide and deep apiece. They were situated right along the river bank, with about two thirds of their area actually overlapping the water. They didn’t have actual roofs, but they did have simple doorways leading inside on the beach end, and several holes in the other end to help the river water flow in and out. Essentially they were a pair of square barriers so people who went inside could bath in the river with some level of privacy. There were pegs on the interior for hanging clothes, and buckets gathered nearby which were likely meant for assisting in washing off. 

Patros, having arrived a bit ahead of them, had already deposited towels and soap within both bathing areas and was now standing between the buildings, arms crossed, face stormy, as he glared at Grubber. 

“For once I agree with our prisoners. Your construction skills are less than ideal for making more than a latrine pit.”

“What’s that Patros? You don’t like our latrines? Maybe you’d want to build us some better one’s then?”

“Ugh, let’s just get this over with.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” muttered Gigan, who began to remove his clothes with swift, mechanical precision. 

“W-w-what are you doing!?” blurted Yin at the sight of the rapidly de-clothing cyborg.

“Y-you’re supposed to do that inside the walls!” Yang shouted, face blazing as she pointed at the bathing area on the left, which bore a sign done up in black sharpie marker that red ‘MEN’, “There! That one’s for the guys. G-get your pants back on!”

“What?” Gigan said, gathering up his clothes with little concern for the twin’s distress, “If you don’t want to see it, then don’t look.”

Megalon looked about halfway to removing his own clothes as well, but at a glance from X the other cyborg held off until he followed Gigan to the interior of the bathing shed. Grubber followed them in, while the still red faced Yin and Yang proceeded to lead Irys, Gaw, and Roka inside the other shed. Patros was left outside, palm all but glued to his face. 

“Am I supposed to just stand out here, wasting my time?” Patros called, and Grubber shouted back.

“You’re our backup guard. Just stand there and look pretty, although I know that’s a challenge for you.”

Patros’ return growl could be heard clearly through the plywood of the shed, and Grubber chuckled in rumbling satisfaction as he leaned against the wall, only keeping half an eye on things while X, Di Roy, Megalon, and Gigan finished divesting themselves of clothes and waded into the shallow water. The water was cold, although not at freezing temperatures, and X had to admit that it actually was pleasant to actually be able to clean the grit and grime of the past few days off. Normally such hygiene wasn’t a concern in his true form, but human bodies had this whole ‘sweating’ thing that tended to accumulate stink at a remarkable rate. As he went about the slow, systematic process of cleaning, he kept Gigan in partial view. It was up to the Nebulan cyborg to acquire the ward pass from Grubber, but they hadn’t worked out exactly how he’d accomplish that. While a few ideas had been floated during their planning session earlier, Gigan had said to not worry about it and just let him handle things, and to act naturally with whatever Gigan did.

Meanwhile Di Roy and Megalon both appeared to be enjoying themselves, treating the situation more like a trip to the pool than a guarded bathing session. 

“Hey Di Roy, if you try to float, will that hole in your chest cause you to sink?” Megalon asked, and Di Roy scratched his head.

“You know I’ve never even thought of that. Let’s find out!”

He proceeded to flop onto his back and attempted to float, only for the hole to start bubbling up with water. “Holy crap, I do sink! And here I was giving Gaw crap for not being able to swim.”

“She can’t swim? Oh, we should teach her then when we get back.”

“Nah, she threatened to do unspeakable things to my internal organs if I ever threw her in the water again,” Di Roy said, laughing fondly, then stroking his chin, “Wonder how she’s doing over there?”

Over at the other shed, Irys and Roka had already gotten into the water, but Gaw had her feet planted at the shoreline, squatted down and glaring at the river as if accusing it’s very existence of being guilty of being water. Yin and Yang were both looking at each other with shrugging expressions.

“It’s not skin off our backs if you don’t want to go in, but you’re not much better off than Grubber in the smell department,” Yang said bluntly, to which Gaw snorted.

“So? Nothing wrong with smell.”

Roka offered up a patient and encouraging smile, “The water isn’t deep. You won’t drown. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Gaw set her teeth in a barred snarl, “Not scared of water. Just... don’t like it.”

Irys was already immersed up to her head, but she could understand Gaw’s sentiments. She wasn’t all that fond of the water either, a long shared trait of the Gyaos species, but she liked being covered in her own sweat and blood even less, so she was going to get clean as fast as she could. Seeing Gaw’s distress, she raised her head a bit and said, “If she doesn’t want to, leave her be. I can give her a sonic scrubbing later.”

“Sonic scrubbing?” Gaw asked, tilting her head curiously.

“It’s how I keep clean back home,” Irys said, “Little sound vibrations. Knocks most grime right off.” 

“You know, with those abilities, you’d make an incredible masseuse,” Roka said in a musing tone. “Still, I think it’d be healthy for Gaw to get more comfortable with the water. It’s shallow here, and we’re all here to ensure she doesn’t drown.”

“Not little hatchling,” Gaw muttered, experimentally dipping one of her clawed feet into the water, flinching at it, “Grr, it cold, too.”

“You all want me to heat it up?” Yang asked, tapping at the hilt of her Zanpaktou, which was in the sheath attached to the unusually shaped fragment of bone and skull attached to her head. At everyone’s curious look, Yang withdrew the blade and activated its flames, dipping them into the water, “Check it out. One hot tub, coming up.”

After a minute or two the near freezing water became soothingly warm, which seemed to help encourage Gaw to go a bit deeper, although no more than up to her knees, which she huddled down and and began splashing water onto herself in a haphazard attempt at cleaning. Roka moved to help her, grabbing some soap and shampoo, which Gaw sniffed at with distrust as Roka tried to show her how to use the cleaning products. 

Irys, despite her best efforts to want to remain grumpy at the twins, couldn’t help but rather enjoy the relaxing warmth of the water now that Yang had heated it up, and she found herself looking at the pair of Arrancar with a curious stare. Yang stared back with an almost challenging look. 

“What?”

One of Irys’s slim, pale hands rose from the water and pointed at the Arrancar’s shoulder. Both Yang and her sister had identical black markings in the shape of the Storm King’s symbol upon their right shoulders. Irys hadn’t quite realized it until then, but she’d seen that symbol on all of the Hollows in the fortress so far. 

“Do all of you have to get those markings when you serve this Storm King person?” Irys asked.

Yang self-consciously touched the marking while Yin came over and knelt down by the water’s edge.

“It’s a brand,” Yin said, “And yes, everyone who swears service to the Storm King gets one. He places it on himself in a ceremony for those joining our ranks.”

Irys couldn’t explain why, but she got an unpleasant feeling in her gut when she looked at the markings, which was what had drawn her attention to them in the first place. They looked like innocuous, black tattoos, yet something about them set her on edge. Playing off her discomfort, she joked, “What, does he forget who serves him so easily that he needs the mark to remind him?”

“Hey,” Yang said, pulling her fire sword from the water and sheathing it in her hair clip once more, “Watch it. We’re trying to be nice here, but the Storm King has helped every Hollow here by providing us with safety and a purpose.”

“If I may be so bold as to note, your loyalty really seems to be more with Tempest Shadow,” Roka said, and both twins glanced at each other.

Yin, offering a half-hearted shrug, said, “So what? We owe the Captain a lot, and of course we’re loyal to her. And she’s loyal to the Storm King, so we’re loyal to him too. Not that complicated. Isn’t it the same with you?”

“What do you mean?” Irys asked.

“You’re loyal to that X guy, right? And because he’s loyal to someone else, you’re loyal to them, but only because X is,” Yin, “Far as I can tell, you’re not that different than us when it comes to loyalties. We both got masters we serve because someone we respect serves them, too.”

Gaw, who’d been silently pawing at the water for awhile, grumbled, “You all think too much. Serve one tribe, one alpha. If alpha has bigger alpha, doesn’t matter. Still serve just one alpha.”

“Yes, well, you’re a simple soul, Gaw,” Roka said, not unkindly, but in a rather frank manner.

Meanwhile in the other bathing shack, Di Roy and Megalon’s horseplay had slowed down a bit, but only because X insisted the pair actually do what they were there for and start cleaning themselves. Gigan, requiring less of such external scrubbing, had exited the water already and wrapped a towel around himself while leaning on the shack wall next to Grubber while waiting for the others to finish. Or rather that was what he was appearing to do to casual observation. He didn’t appear to actually look at Grubber, although he started to speak in a casual, if quiet tone.

“So just to be clear, we both know this isn’t going to end well.”

 Grubber flicked his eyes towards Gigan briefly, but then just looked on past the shack at seemingly nothing, yawning slightly but otherwise not seeming to be bothered by the cyborg’s words.

“Eh, probably not. Captain’s way too much of an optimist, and if I ain’t mistaking your own ‘captain’, he’s isn’t too far off from the same. Damn shame. He’d have been good for her, too. She could use someone to loosen her up a bit, but also still respect and understand her vibes.”

Gigan wasn’t going to touch that one. Relationships were not his thing. 

“Don’t know, don’t care. This situation is a blender waiting for someone, namely your Storm King, to hit the start button.”

“You got a point in this morbid little talk, Shades?”

“Could be that I’m just venting. I don’t do conversations, typically. X wants us playing nice for now, so consider this my attempt at small talk.”

Grubber almost cracked a smile, “I could always go for a round of bitching about our circumstances. Just ask the twins, I’m a champ at complaining.”

There was a slight tilt to Gigan’s head, not enough to confirm he was looking at Grubber past his shades, but enough to indicate a shift in the cyborg’s focus. “You don’t want us here anymore than we want to be stuck here.”

“Can’t deny that. I thought bringing you all here was a terrible idea, right up there with the Storm King’s attempt at having a ‘casual clothes Friday’ every week. Half of us don’t even own more than one set of duds.”

“Okay, I have to ask, is this Storm King guy some kind of idiot, and if so, why do any of you follow him?” Gigan asked flatly, and Grubber threw his arms up in a helpless shrug.

“Eh, Storm King’s a weird one, but long as he keeps the food coming and the water flowing, I can deal. Beats the alternatives of being a desert hobo, getting hunted down by Soul Reapers or Quincy, or falling in line with one of the Espada who don’t exactly have a track record of giving a crap about their subordinates.”

“Fair enough,” Gigan replied, not really in any position to criticize the stubby Arrancar’s logic. The master of Zenith provided Gigan with easy access to repair facilities for his true body, which wasn’t too different of an arrangement these Hollows had with their leader. If there was any hostility in Gigan towards their captors, it was based solely upon the practical fact that they were obstacles in the way of the team completing their mission, rather than anything personal. He could sit here and chat with Grubber easily enough. He could also just as easily cut the Arrancar down, if he thought it’d accomplish anything valuable for getting the team out of this mess. But X, as was increasingly common, had the right idea to handle things in a more delicate manner, for the moment at least. 

Gigan hadn’t been talking to Grubber without purpose, even if the conversation appeared to meander. The entire time he’d been analyzing Grubber, using his scanners to calculate balance, volume, weight, and determine where the ward pass was precisely located. He’d very casually adjusted his stance several times to make it look as if he was just being bored and a tad antsy, when in reality he’d positioned his left hand down and to the left, not quite behind Grubber but close to Arrancar’s expansive waistline, where a pocket on his right side held the item Gigan was after.

He didn’t make his move just then, however. He wanted a distraction. Fortunately his mental communication’s link with Megalon was still active, so it wasn’t hard to ask his brother for a hand without verbally saying a word. 

Splashing around with Di Roy, Megalon paused and flashed a mischievous wink before ducking under the water. Gigan had a second to wonder just what Megalon might consider a ‘distraction’, before Megalon came rocketing out of the water like a particularly hyperactive dolphin. It was often easy to forget that the younger Nebulan cyborg had... well not flight per se, but a rather impressive jumping capacity. He used that capacity now to clear about thirty feet of vertical height straight up. At the apex of his jump he gleefully tucked himself into a ball, and shouted, “Beachball!”

“I don’t think that’s the correct term Meg-” Di Roy began to say before Megalon impacted all of two feet in front of his face.

A miniature tidal wave splashed the interior of the shack, soaking all. Grubber in particular acted like most cats would when abruptly soaked.

“Nooo, water! Cleansing water! Get it off! My natural muuuuusk!”

Amid quite a bit of hopping around and attempts to dry off, Gigan made a slight, yet incredibly swift and precise sets of motions. As a man mostly made of metal components, even simple things like his fingernails were remarkably sharp, like miniature knives. A single cut with an index finger was more than enough to open a small hole in Grubber’s trousers while the Arrancar was fixated on the business of drying off, primarily by shaking like a dog. The shaking proved fortuitous for Gigan, who didn’t even need to try that hard to slip the wooden token that was the ward pass out of Grubber’s pocket.

Before Grubber was even done shaking himself halfway dry, Gigan had quietly tucked the ward pass away inside a compartment that slide open on his left leg, just one of several such hidden areas he could use to store items. Now, he was aware there was a chance that Grubber might discover the ward pass was missing if it was him who tried to open their cells upon returning from this little hygienic outing, but even if the team was strip searched, they wouldn’t find the missing item. 

Luckily it turned out that scenario didn’t play out. Once everyone was finished cleaning up, the return trip to the cell bunker was surprisingly light hearted, save for Patros giving Grubber a parting, murderous glare while muttering something concerning payback, to which Grubber just laughed under his breath.

“You really like antagonizing that guy,” Gigan noted.

“Some people in life are just destined to rub each other the wrong way,” Grubber said, “So I figure, might as well learn to get some fun out of it.”

Once more, Gigan found he couldn’t entirely fault the Arrancar’s logic, such as it was.

There was something almost like idle chatter among prisoners and captors upon the walk back. Tension did still remain, but it was less the tension of people intending immediate harm upon one another and simply not having the means to do so, and more the tension or two groups that knew they were still at odds with each other but weren’t filled with true animosity any longer. Yin actually started using her own ward pass to open the cells before Grubber could, her expression vaguely melancholy as she did so.

“Don’t really know when the next time we’re going to be able to let you guys out is. Depends on what the Captain and Storm King decide,” she said, face brushed with a faint hint of perturbed thoughts. 

“Don’t concern yourself with it,” X replied simply, “Follow your Captain, if she has truly earned your loyalty.”

“She has,” Yin confirmed, and Yang grabbed her sister by the shoulder.

“Come on sis, chat time’s over. Captain should be here soon and we got to put our work faces back on.”

Within a few minutes the group was split back into pairs, with the exception of X, and were resealed within the featureless yet somehow still dry and dusty cell blocks. Once that was done, X was able to confirm with Gigan via Roka’s threads and Irys’ sound control that the cyborg had acquired the ward pass. Between that and the information gained concerning the tunnels connected to the canyon’s river supply, it seemed like the group had the main component’s needed to enact an escape attempt. There were still issues to be worked out, such as what they’d do once they got into the tunnels. Megalon volunteered the possibility of using his drills to tunnel to the surface, which seemed plausible enough to X.

Once they were in the open desert, however, there was something of an issue of how to get back to Las Noches. Their vehicle was destroyed, and as Di Roy had pointed out, without knowledge of their exact position in the plane, using a Garganta portal was risky. There was also the question of how to evade pursuit, if there was any. X’s gut told him that Tempest Shadow wouldn't send pursuers after them. Not after their last conversation, at any rate. 

When to escape was also in question. With no obvious night or day cycle, there might not be a point in time where the fortress was on ‘lights out’ and would have only minimal guards on watch. Still, it seemed prudent to wait until a time that was as close to ‘night’ as they could before making their move. 

That was a far as they got with their planning when X sensed a familiar presence outside his cell. He wasn’t certain how he felt her, but he could tell that Tempest Shadow had arrived before she even opened the wall of his cell. Perhaps the nature of this spiritual plane was starting to affect him and his comrades more pointedly the longer they were here? Whatever the reason, he was already standing and looking in Tempest’s direction when the cell wall slid open. She seemed faintly surprised, but the look passed quickly as she entered the cell, showing no tension in being close to him now. It seemed her own gut instincts said she could trust X now, too.

“I heard things went well at the river,” she said in a conversational manner, and X nodded ever so slightly.

“They did. My thanks for allowing it.”

“I’ve spoken with the Storm King concerning this Adagio Dazzle person,” Tempest said, and X could already hear the frustration in her tone, but he asked anyway.

“And his response?”

“It... could have been worse,” she admitted, “He doesn’t trust any of you. Doesn’t help that I think Patros is feeding his paranoia. He didn’t order your immediate execution, so, you know, there’s that. He intends to think it over for a day, then tell me his decision tomorrow.”

“That’s not very encouraging,” X pointed out, and Tempest raised a hand to her forehead, rubbing it as she let out a rough sigh.

“I know. I wish I had better news to bring, especially considering you seem ready to get your escape going.”

X tensed, but kept the surprise from his face as he let out a noncommittal, “Oh?”

She smiled at him in a manner that was uncomfortably close to how Aria smirked on the occasions she landed a hit on him during their sparring matches. “You can tell your friend with the threads that she’s damn good at keeping them hidden, but she’s still got a ways to go before she can fool a Captain of the Gotei 13, former or otherwise. Don’t worry, nobody else has noticed them. I’m also not going to say anything, either. If this goes south, you guys escaping is preferable to the alternative.”

“I see,” X said, “Then there’s no reason for us wait, either.”

“Well, before you kick anything off, how about this?” Tempest said, “Wait just one more day. Storm King will give me his answer by then, and if he actually does agree to an alliance with Adagio Dazzle, then there’s no need for any escape plans at all, is there? But, if he doesn’t, and he ends up putting me in a position I can’t abide, by my honor I swear I’ll ensure you and your team can escape safely. I can arrange for the sentries to be redeployed at a precise time, giving you guys a window to slip out of here without causing a fight.”

“That... is beyond what I could have expected,” X said, a hint of concern briefly crossing his face, “It would also cause you trouble with your master, wouldn’t it? He’d know why the guard was changed at the precise time we escape, especially given how much you’ve voiced objections to our execution.”

“You let me worry about that,” Tempest said, “You just focus on your own people’s safety. I gave you my word that I wouldn’t let harm come to you or yours if you cooperated. You’ve held up your end of that bargain. I’ll hold up mine, whatever it takes.”

----------

Even many hours later, X was still troubled by Tempest Shadow’s words. For one who had begun as an enemy, he found himself disquiet over the notion of what consequences she might face for aiding in the group’s escape. Ultimately there was nothing to be done for it. She was right about the need for him to focus on the safe removal of his team from this dangerous situation. Even the completion of their mission for Adagio Dazzle was a far off, secondary concern compared to the need to enact a safe escape. Adagio would just have to settle for the intel gathered on the Storm King himself, and his forces. 

Having agreed to Tempest’s terms, all there was to do was wait until they heard whether the Storm King would accept the proposed alliance with Adagio, or if they had to effect their escape. If the Storm King ordered their deaths, Tempest had explained that she could delay the order long enough to move the sentries from the west cliff, river area, and orchards, providing a clear path through which the team could escape with minimal chance of encountering the Storm King’s troops. The tunnels had a bunker entrance not unlike the prison bunker itself about five hundred yards further downstream from where the group had bathed, and from there, the tunnels would take them into the underground tunnel network beyond the canyon itself.

As the hours ticked by, X focused on his own meditations. Whatever happened, he intended to be ready for it in both mind, body, and spirit. 

When Tempest Shadow opened his cell once again, X immediately sensed a lighter air about the Soul Reaper, and by her eased expression something must have gone right. Or at least, right from her perspective. X would hold off on his own judgment until he knew more. He’d been floating in the center of a gravity bubble, meditating, but now stood to face Tempest as she crossed her arms and said, “Well, the good news is that the Storm King hasn’t decided to order your deaths.”

“If that’s the good news, I hesitate to inquire if there’s bad news,” X said, and Tempest quickly held up a placating hand.

“Relax, there isn’t any bad news. The Storm King informed me that he wants to talk to all of you himself and has requested I escort you to the throne room.”

“Did he say why he wanted to speak with us?” X asked, not at all certain himself what to make of this. Normally it’d seem to him to be a tactical error for an enemy leader to want to have potentially hostile prisoners, especially one’s who’s motives he was paranoid towards, brought into that leader’s presence. 

“No,” Tempest replied, “But this is the best shot you’ve got to convince him to go for this alliance with Adagio Dazzle. He must be considering it, otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering to meet you in person. X, this is our best chance at resolving this peacefully. If it doesn’t work, the escape plan is still on, but if this works out, we both get what we want.”

“Hm,” X glanced away briefly, although there truly wasn’t that much to think about. Tempest was right in this instance. There was nothing to lose by speaking with this Storm King, and if he was being honest, X was rather curious about this individual who’d earned Tempest Shadow’s loyalty. 

“Very well,” he said, “You said he wished to meet all of us?”

“Yes. You, your team, and the three Arrancar loyal to Adagio.”

“Then let us waste no time,” X said.

In very little time the other cells were opened and the situation explained to the others. Yin, Yang, and Grubber were waiting just outside the cell block to join the escort, they themselves seemingly more relaxed than before as well. The group was taken into the fortress proper, led up into the pyramid structure on the right side through a yawning entryway who’s vaulted room was over a dozen meters high. The interior of the fortress gave X further impressions of the temple from Zenith, although all was made of brighter shades of sandstone and marble compared to the dark construction of his master’s home. 

The fortress lacked the grandeur of either Zenith’s temple, or even the incredibly vast and otherworldly nature of Las Noches. To X, it felt like someone’s attempt at imitating such grand design, without the same focus or purpose. Indeed while they passed many open rooms while following various hallways and staircases leading up the pyramid, X wasn’t certain what much of any of it was for. 

Tempest seemed to notice his gaze and said quietly, “Most the important stuff is either on the top floors, or the basement sub-levels. Everything in between is basically holding places for when we expand our forces and need the space.”

X didn’t comment on that, just accepted it with a nod. 

Towards what he estimated to be near the top of the pyramid, a vast white staircase that they’d been climbing tapered out into a wide hall that ended in a pair of wide double doors of carved stone. Black banners hung from the walls on either side of the door, bearing the Storm King’s distinct sigil. A pair of burly looking Hollows with vaguely ape-like appearances, bodies bristling with white fur and yellow eyes peering beyond simian skull masks stood guard at the doors. The Hollows thumped their meaty fists to their armor clad chests in salute to Tempest as she approached, and without prompting proceeded to open the doors, which squeaked upon large iron hinges. 

“Time to meet the big cheese,” Gigan muttered, glancing at X, “Plan?”

“Play it out calmly,” X replied, “See how it goes.”

Beyond the doors was a grand chamber, rectangular in shape, with the longer ends spread to the left and right and ending in sloped walls that were clearly the ends of the pyramid. The way the roof also peaked upwards suggested to X that they were in the center of the pyramid’s apex. The walls to either side had alcoves in which braziers burned, making this chamber warmer than many of the others X had seen. The floor was bare stone, much like the rest of the fortress, but unlike the bare, smooth surfaces elsewhere, this floor was tiled with interlocking sections of black and white stone. 

Directly opposite the doors on the far wall a set of steps led up to a raised section where a stone obelisk reached towards the ceiling. Broken swords were nailed to the obelisk, several dozen at least, by X’s count. The blades and hilts, both shattered sections, were hammered in with what looked like iron spikes. At the base of the obelisk was the throne, a large stone chair carved with a high back that ended in the shape of the twin horn sigil of the Storm King. 

Lounging in said chair was the man X assumed to be the Storm King himself. Although the man had a slouching position, with one leg slung over the left arm of the throne, X could still tell he was a tall and fit individual, probably topping even Tempest’s height. His attire was similar to those of his soldiers, if slightly more ornate. His face was what drew X’s attention the most. It had a large browed, wide chinned, simian cast to it that didn’t look entirely human, but mostly it was the eyes that caught X’s attention. The Storm King was wearing a wide grin at their approach, but his eyes were smooth and blue as ice; unreadable save for the cold.

It set X on immediate guard, even as the Storm King gave them an almost comically casual wave with one hand. His other hand held what X figured was his Zanpaktou, a large staff with two fork-like blades at the end, surrounding an unusual blue crystal. 

“Patros...” X heard Tempest say under her breath, and noted that in fact Patros was here, having been standing off to the side of the entry doors in an at-attention stance. 

“Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and anyone in between,” the Storm King said in a voice that somehow reminded X of a stand up comedian mixed with a bored despot. “I’d say take a seat, but there’s only one in the house. Hope you don’t mind standing.”

“Standing is fine,” X said, halting a respectful distance away from the throne as Tempest also stopped. His companions lined up on either side of X. His team were wary, but he sensed their readiness. Adagio’s people were a more mixed bag, with Di Roy looking like he was trying to case the room for the best egress point, Gaw scratching herself while hiding her muscles tensing for possible violence, and Roka standing as placidly still as a mirror.

“Man of few words and complaints. I like that,” the Storm King said, turning his gaze to Tempest, “Alright, so now that you’ve got them here, I’ll make this short, Tempest. I’m willing to hear these guys out, just like you wanted.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m glad you’re willing to give them a chance, despite...” she flicked her eyes toward Patros, “...other opinions.”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Storm King said, slowly bouncing the butt end of his Zanpaktou off the other arm of his throne, “It’s up to them to convince me, but I’ll get the truth straight from the horse’s mouth. Or is it pony’s? Hell, Patros, how’s that saying go again?”

“Don’t ask me, sir, I am not familiar with such turns of phrase.”

“Well whatever, let’s get to this,” the Storm King said, giving a wave of his hand as if to officially commence proceedings as he turned his full attention towards those in front of him, fixating in particular upon X. In turn, X met the stare with an unflinching gaze of his own.

“Tempest tells me you guys claim to work for an Espada who’s got the idea to look for allies to help her bump off Tirek. I think I got plenty of reason to be skeptical about that, but I’ll hear the details from you and see if I like the cut of your jib. So let’s hear it, the whole story, no redactions.” 

There was a fine line regarding what information X was willing to share, especially in regards to his and his team’s origins, but he had little reason to hold back the details concerning the way the mission to Hueco Mundo initially went. In regards to Adagio Dazzle and the details of the task she’d roped them into, X explained things in a straightforward manner, leaving out only details he imagined weren’t pertinent to the topic. Ultimately if an alliance could be secured between the Storm King and Adagio, that would be the most beneficial outcome for all involved. While Adagio had not specifically tasked them as diplomats, merely as scouts, this still technically fulfilled their end of the bargain.

 X was keenly aware that they only had so much time to return to Las Noches anyway, although he didn’t think his master would abandon him and his team if they missed the deadline for the portal. More realistically their missing that portal would cause the master to send another scouting group to find them, which would lead to complications, especially if the master sent a scouting party in force directly to Las Noches’ doorstep. 

Returning as fast as possible was paramount, either by stealthy escape, or successful negotiations. While not trained or skilled in such matters as diplomacy, X leaned on his personal experiences to be so unerringly blunt and straightforward that only a fool would think he was trying to be duplicitous. 

The Storm King listened intently, leaning his chin upon the knuckles of one hand that in turn rested upon the arm of his throne. Upon X concluding the summation of events and intentions, the Storm King’s icy eyes slipped towards the trio of Di Roy, Gaw, and Roka. 

“Alright, so let’s say I buy what I’m being told by this guy. What makes this Adagio Dazzle think she’s got a shot against Tirek, even with help? Hasn’t she noticed the jolly red jackass is just a teeny bit on the holy balls overpowered end of the spectrum?”

“Ain’t really my place to question the boss lady’s long term plans,” Di Roy replied flatly, “But she does plan for the long game. She’s not going to challenge Tirek without being damn sure she’s got all she needs to cinch a win, and one of the steps on that is getting allies like you in her corner. Beyond that, you’d have to ask her, but let me tell you something buddy, Adagio Dazzle is someone I’d follow straight into Hell. Not because of loyalty, although that’s there too, but because I know she wouldn’t walk into Hell unless she had a plan and a purpose. You hate Tirek? You want to take him down? Then you can’t ask for a better ally than my boss.” 

Silence hung in the throne room as the Storm King appeared to deliberate with himself, slowly stroking his chin. 

“So the four of you aren’t sticking around once your job is done?” he said, turning calculating eyes towards the Dark Hunters. X wasn’t certain but there appeared for just a moment to be a gleam in those dark blue eyes that very much like hunger. 

“Once our task for Adagio is complete, we will be returning to where we originated from,” X told him with no attempt at deception, “Our sole purpose in coming to Hueco Mundo in the first place was reconnaissance.” 

“With no intentions to come back for more ‘reconnaissance’?”

“I can’t claim to know what my master will or will not intend for the future,” X replied, “But what I can tell you is that it would be much more beneficial to you for my master to view you favorably than otherwise. Also, if you truly seek to dethrone the one known as Tirek, then Adagio Dazzle would make a far better ally than enemy. Our release buys you the former with minimal cost to yourself.”

“Whereas if I decided to ice you all right here and now, as potential spies, I might lose out big time, that it?” the Storm King said, his expression darkening, “But maybe that’s what I ought to do, since the risk is the same, either way.”

The room’s temperature dropped and an aura like that of a thick, black cloud emanated from the Storm King’s body, causing the chamber itself to darken. The ground vibrated with an unnatural tremor as the Storm King rose from his throne. X tensed, ready to move, and sensed his team all doing the same. Even without sharp spiritual senses, X could feel a near physical push of the Storm King’s aura, not unlike what he’d felt during the fight with Tempest. It was an oppressive, cold aura, like touching a tornado laced with ice and oil. If it was to be a fight, he’d throw everything he had at the enemy to buy his team time to escape.

“Sir-” Tempest began, steeping forward, but in that same moment the Storm King’s aura vanished like the flicking of a light switch. The man burst out laughing, causing confused glances from most present, and Tempest herself to cock her head, “Uh...sir?”

“Bwhwaha! Relax, Tempest! Man, the looks on all of your faces. Too easy, I swear. Tempest, seriously, if I’d intended to kill these guys I wouldn’t have let them into the throne room. Come on, I’d already decided to take them up on this whole ‘alliance’ business before the doors even opened. I just wanted to draw things out a bit and have some fun with them first! Hey, don’t give me that look.”

“What look, sir?” Tempest asked, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. “The look that says you have bad taste in humor? That the look you’re talking about?”

“Yeeash, nevermind. I get it, it was a bad joke, lay off the laser eyes,” the Storm King chortled, hopping off his throne and striding right down to X and just slightly invading the other man’s personal space. X stiffened slightly, but otherwise kept an even look on his face. He was still charged and ready for a fight, and much like Tempest, didn’t much appreciate the Storm King’s sense of ‘humor’. He took a slow breath to try and relax, but he still met the Storm King’s gaze with a hard stare.

“So here’s the deal. I let you bunch go on back to this Adagio lady, and you all arrange a meeting,” the Storm King said. 

“The details should be worked out between yourself and her vassals,” X replied, nodding towards Di Roy, “Since my team and I will be departing soon after returning to Las Noches. Assuming you are serious? You’ll allow us to go?”

“What you need a big pat on the back for reassurance?” the Storm King asked, chuckling still, “Look buddy, it’ll take a bit of time to arrange, but give it until morning and I can have a Garganta cracked open that’ll get you close to Las Noches, save you the walk back. I just want your personal word that you’ll arrange things with Adagio yourself to meet with me. At Forlorn Ridge.”

“Why there?” Gigan asked, speaking up for the first time. 

The Storm King gave the cyborg a look, then shrugged, “It’s as close to a nice, neutral bit of ground for talks as we’ve got. I don’t think she’ll want to come all the way here, and I’m not sure I’m up to giving her my fortress’ location quite yet. It’s just the first date, you savvy? Fortress reveals are kind of a third date thing.”

Gigan said nothing to that, but X noted his companion didn’t cease giving the Storm King a suspicious, side-long look. 

X, considering, said, “If you can guarantee our return to Las Noches tomorrow morning, without any delays, then I’ll deliver your message to Adagio Dazzle. What she does with it form there will be up to her.”

All things considered, a portal directly back to Las Noches in the morning would still provide several days of leeway before their master opened the portal back to Zenith. Strictly speaking this was the ideal conclusion to this situation that X had hoped for, but he remained tense. Even without Gigan’s suspicions, something in X would have felt uneasy anyway. A gut instinct that told him something was amiss. 

“Sir, thank you for listening to them and seeing reason,” Tempest said, striding up and bowing slightly to the Storm King, her own relief all but a palpable aura stemming from her in a cool wave, “I assure you that you won’t regret this. With more allies we’ll be that much closer to realizing our goals.”

“Oh I know, that’s why I decided to give this a shot. The only thing better than increasing my own power base is taking away from Tirek’s,” the Storm King said with a tooth filled half-grin, “If this Adagio Dazzle shows, that’ll be one less Espada on Tirek’s side.”

“Indeed, and if she really does pull through as an ally, we’ll have a way to infiltrate our forces directly into Las Noches,” Tempest said, “This could be the game changer we’ve been needing, sir.”

“It’ll change things alright, but I think we’ve yammered on enough. Why don’t you take these folks back to their cells for now?” the Storm King said, glancing sideways sat X, “We don’t really got anyplace else to put you for now, but I can have anything you need brought to make the stay a bit more comfy.”

“That won’t be necessary,” X replied, hiding his rising suspicions behind a polite and monotone mask. The initial gut instinct he had that something was off was only getting stronger, but there was no reason to confront the Storm King openly here in the throne room. “Will the cells still be locked?”

“Nothing personal,” the Storm King confirmed, “But until we’ve got you back to Las Noches, I’d prefer not to take any chances. Smart looking guy like you gets what I mean, right?”

“...Yes, I think I do,” X replied, not stating his further thought that this entire situation was starting to smell quite prominently of a trap. 

“Great! Well, I got to make arrangements. Tempest, why don’t you take our guests back to their ce...er, rooms and then, I don’t know, take the rest of the day off or something.”

Tempest Shadow raised an eyebrow but inclined her head in another, small bow, “As you wish, sir. Yin, Yang, Grubber, let’s go. X, everyone, if you’ll follow us?”

Leaving the way they came, X couldn’t help but notice that not only had Patros been quiet for most of the conversation with the Storm King, but for a guy who appeared to be getting his own ideas concerning the prisoners shot down, he didn’t look nearly as angry or upset as he had before when dealing with the prisoners. If anything the man looked as if he was forcing himself to be stoic and neutral. One might interpret that to be him suppressing his disappointment at the turn of events, but X wasn’t so sure.

Once outside of the throne room Di Roy let out a huge sigh, “Holy jumping ulcers, I thought for a second that harry bastard was going to try and waste us right then and there.”

“Ahem!” Tempest said, “Harry bastard?”

“Well, I mean, he’s kinda got some fuzz going on, doesn’t he?” Di Roy said, then at Tempest’s look he just held up his hands, “You know, I’m just gonna shut up now.”

“He was weird,” Irys said, a deep frown on her porcelain features, “Didn’t act like any leader I’ve ever known.”

“How many have you known?” asked Yang, and Irys shrugged.

“X, and the master. Both good leaders. The master is incredibly powerful, but fair. X is smart and diligent. That man just seemed erratic and loud,” Irys said.

“You guys are awfully complainy for a bunch that are getting what they want,” Yin pointed out.

“A fair point,” Roka said, “All things considered, and poor jokes aside, that could have gone much worse.”

“So, we’re all going home now, right?” asked Megalon, “It’s over, and we’re not prisoners anymore?”

“I do believe this officially ends your prisoner status,” Tempest said, “Although the Storm King does seem to want you to stay in the cells, at least for this final night. I suppose, even if he’s agreeing to letting you go, he’s still a tad wary and paranoid of a trick.”

“Hmph,” Gigan made a small scoffing noise, but didn’t say anything, although X could tell his friend did have something to say. Gigan was a man of few words, but when he did have words to say, he didn’t hold onto them for long. This was proven by the fact that, when they finally did return to the prison bunker, Gigan rounded upon Tempest with surprising speed.

Even if she was technically faster, Tempest didn’t expect it and didn’t react to the cyborgs sudden blurring motion as he turned and grabbed her by the collar of her Soul Reaper robes. Yin and Yang both shouted and reached for their weapons, but Tempest Shadow held up a hand to stall them. She looked at Gigan’s glaring shades.

“Is there something you wish to say?” she asked, not trying to remove his hand from her collar.

“Yeah, I do. Are you blind?” Gigan asked, “Do you actually think your ‘king’ is playing straight with you?”

“What are you talking about?” came Tempest’s genuinely puzzled question, “He’s letting all of you go. Why the suspicion now?”

Gigan used his other hand to remove his red shades. Beneath them his eyes were mechanical, with shutter-like structures around shining red iris’. “You might not have enhanced machined vision like I got, but even you can’t be this blind. This is a setup, plain as day.”

“A setup? For what?” said Yang, but found her arm grabbed by Grubber, who shook his head at the young Arrancar.

“Let him talk, and let the Captain hear...” Grubber said quietly, “I’ve got a bad feeling about all this, myself.”

Tempest was frowning at Gigan, while X and the others watched. She still didn’t make any motion to remove the cyborg’s hand from her, and kept her expression cool and her back straight as she faced him, even leaning into his grip a bit as if daring him to tighten it. X was again reminded of Aria, both some of the fierce pride, and the stubbornness. 

“Let me get this straight,” she said, “You believe the Storm King is plotting some sort of double-cross?”

“I’d bet my parts on it,” Gigan said, dead serious, “Let me tell you a few things. I might be mostly metal, but I know meat. Voice patterns. Body language. Eye motions. Flesh and blood beings have a thousand-thousand ways of communicating things without any words, and half the time, especially with people, they don’t even know what they’re projecting. Self-awareness is a rare talent, and that Storm King doesn’t have it. The entire time we were in there I was scanning that asshole you call a leader, and everything I saw and heard told me he was spouting BS from start to finish.”

X didn’t have the advanced scientific sensors that his friend did, and was hardly an expert on behavioral psychology (and he wasn’t entirely sure Gigan was either, but he wasn’t about to bring that point up), but he did feel the same way Gigan did on the matter. It was simply that X had gotten the same impression as a result of a deep rooted instinct built up over many years of experience that told him when someone meant him lethal harm. The Storm King’s ‘joke’ in the throne room about annihilating all of them had not been entirely in jest. 

“He speaks truly,” X said, “I don’t know the full extent of what your liege intends, but I sensed it doesn’t involve what he says.”

There was a clear resistance on Tempest’s face as she tried to digest what they were saying and was obviously finding the notion hard to chew. Perhaps X understood why that was. Having seen the two interact, he’d sensed the long forged dynamic between the pair. He couldn’t speak to the Storm King’s thoughts towards Tempest, but it was plain enough Tempest trusted him even as she found elements of his personality exasperating. It wouldn’t be easy for her to see her liege as one who’d betray her trust, and that was reflected in the stubborn light in her eyes.

“There’s many things about the Storm King that can aggravate me, but he’s never betrayed his word to me,” she said, “He’s never flat out lied to my face. If he says he wants to form an alliance with Adagio Dazzle, I have to believe he’s telling the truth.”

“Then you’re fooling yourself,” Gigan said in a flat tone, taking his hand off Tempest’s collar, slipping his shades back on as he fixed her with one last stare, “Just remember, loyalty might be a virtue, but blind loyalty is a fast ticket to a knife in the back.”

A strange, almost startled look came over Tempest’s face at that moment as Gigan strode away from her and headed down into the bunker without another word. Megalon followed close behind, while Irys lingered, watching to see what X would do. For his part, X took a step towards Tempest, his own voice a bit less harsh than Gigan’s had been, “I don’t know for certain if your Storm King intends betrayal, but I did feel he was plotting something. Are you absolutely certain that he might not try something? Perhaps he intends to use this as an opportunity to lure Adagio, one of the Espada you yourself had told me he hates, to a place he can take her by surprise?”

“That...” Tempest shook her head as if trying to clear a fog, “He wouldn’t do something like that without telling me.”

“Then why do I see so much doubt on your face?” X asked plainly, and Tempest flinched.

“It’s just that your friend there said something that was very similar to what my former Lieutenant told me, back when I was still a Captain,” Tempest replied, “Just before the disastrous mission to Hueco Mundo, in fact. He didn’t use your friend’s precise words, but the meaning was similar; ‘We must be true to our duty, but that is meaningless if we are not first true to ourselves’.”

X found himself giving her a curious look at that, to which Tempest returned her own troubled, yet thoughtful gaze, adding, “I think Lieutenant Hurricane was trying to tell me that blind loyalty to duty isn’t much use if I lose sight of who I am in the process. I think your friend just said the same thing, just more bluntly.”

“He’s good at that,” X confirmed. “So my question to you now is what do you intend to do?”

Tempest paused, then turned her attention to her subordinates. “Yin, Yang, I want you both to take the down-time watch shift in the village.”

“What!? Why!?” blurted Yang, and Yin didn’t look any more pleased.

“Captain, what are you planning? Whatever it is, you can count on us to help!”

Tempest’s expression hardened even as her eyes softened, her tone a firm one of command, “I know I can count on both of you, which is precisely why I’d like you both to stay in the village tonight. Keep watch on things there. Grubber will handle guard duty on the prison. Do you understand?”

Clenched fists and tense expressions suggested the twins didn’t fully understand, but they trusted Tempest, and both gave stiff salutes, saying simultaneously, “Yes, Captain.”

“Good, then you’d better get going,” Tempest said, and while both twins looked hesitant, they finally nodded and departed, leaving Tempest to look towards Grubber. He had his arms crossed over his barrel chest, his mouth curved in a heavy, tense smile.

“What’s our play, Captain?”

“I don’t believe the Storm King is planning anything behind my back, but... just in case, once our guests are tucked away safely, we’re going to make a few changes to the patrol and watch schedules. Just enough so that, say, there’s a gap of about ten minutes in the shift change at the north canal,” Tempest said, glancing back at X, “I trust you’ve already figured out how to get out of your cells?”

X didn’t say anything, but gave a slight nod, and Tempest smiled at him, “Good. Then here’s the deal. I’ll observe the Storm King for anything unusual tonight. If I can find anything that suggests he’s planning betrayal, I’ll send Grubber to warn you, and you can affect your escape. If I find nothing to indicate he’s going to go back on his word, then I ask that you stay here until tomorrow when we can portal you back to Las Noches. You can inform Adagio Dazzle of your concerns, and then it’s up to her if she wants to trust the Storm King or not. Sound fair?”

For a moment X considered the situation. While he didn’t trust the Storm King at all, he couldn’t deny that it was possible the man might be truthfully interested in an alliance. It was possible that his instincts and Gigan’s observations were off simply because the Storm King was an ancient Arrancar with an eccentric personality, who might be giving off false signals. Tempest had worked with the Storm King for quite some time, so perhaps her trust in him was the result of experience rather than ‘blind’ loyalty as Gigan suggested. A part of X hoped that was the case. Not only because it’d make things easier on him and his team and mean they could go home no further trouble, but he didn’t like the idea of Tempest’s faith being betrayed. 

By this point she’d ceased being an enemy in his mind, and if she wasn’t strictly speaking an ‘ally’ she was certainly someone he’d come to respect as a fellow soldier and leader. 

“Your plan is acceptable,” he said, and after a moment extended his hand, “And for what it’s worth, I truly hope you’re right.”

She smiled, and gripped his hand, “So do I.”

----------

With Grubber on “guard duty” the prison was left essentially without a watcher, but Tempest wasn’t concerned. She felt she could trust X to keep his word and wait until he heard from her, one way or another. She sincerely hoped that his and Gigan’s assessment of the situation was wrong, but she couldn’t shake the twinging prick of uncertainty that their words had lodged in her heart. Could the Storm King really be intending to betray them, despite everything? 

She couldn’t deny her opinion on the matter might be biased.

Even centuries after the fact she could still freshly remember her despair that day. The scar on her chest burned with the memory of being left beaten, bleeding out, and all but dead amid a field of her own slain comrades. She still, to this day, didn’t know if Tirek intentionally left her for dead or simply hadn’t realized the Soul Reaper Captain he’d bested had survived his final strike. 

It still rankled her how thoroughly she’d lost to the Primera Espada, even if she’d expected the result, to a degree. By the time she and him came to physical blows it was all a desperate last ditch effort anyway, an attempt to keep him busy while Lieutenant Hurricane organized the retreat for the surviving members of her Division. And once they were safely away through the Senkaimon Gate, Tempest had remained to guard them up until the last possible second. 

She hadn’t expected to survive, but her body and spirit were stubborn things, unwilling to pass on into the cycle of reincarnation quite that easily.

But she would have likely perished from her wounds anyway if the Storm King had not found her and tended to her. 

Why would he not trust her, after all these years? Paranoia aside, he had to believe in her counsel to some degree. To plan something behind her back...

Well, wait until there’s proof before you get too worked up over it, she told herself. She and Grubber had alternated between keeping watch on the Storm King and on Patros, being careful to ensure that in doing so they didn’t arouse suspicion. That wasn’t too hard as they both had duties that could keep them around the fortress interior, and neither Patros or the Storm King were going out of their way to be out of sight. 

For many hours, the day seemed to progress normally, with nothing out of the ordinary occurring. Tempest was starting to think that perhaps she was letting a bit of the Storm King’s own paranoia infect her. Yet the burr of doubt remained, and she stayed diligent until the ‘night’ hours settled in. The fortress enclave simulated a twenty four hour day, even with no sun to mark the passage of night or day. Clocks from the human world helped keep the time, and the Hollows drilled, guarded, worked the orchards, or relaxed and rested on three eight hour shifts.

Tempest had taken the time while Grubber was left to keep an eye on things in the fortress to go make arrangements for the change in the guard schedule to give X and his team their opening. It was easy to explain away the changes as an experiment in adjusting the guard rotations, and her orders weren’t questioned.

Hmph, she scoffed to herself, here I am doubting the Storm King, when I’m the one doing things behind his back. X is a smoother talker than I think even he realizes.

Not that that was a poor quality in a man. She smirked to herself, thinking it’d be interesting to meet whoever the woman was that had nabbed one like X. There must have been quite a story behind that match up. Humoring herself with imagining how that must have gone, Tempest returned to the fortress to look for Grubber. Not finding him where she’d last seen him in one of the upper floor records rooms, she had to probe around with her spiritual senses to get a bead on his reiatsu. 

Frowning, she realized he wasn’t far from the Storm King’s personal chambers. What was more, she sensed both the Storm King and Patros there, too. 

Keeping her expectations in check, she quickly made her way in that direction, even flickering with a few Flash Steps to speed the journey through the pyramid’s many stairs and corridors. On a gut hunch, she did what she could to suppress her own spiritual pressure. Stealth was not her strong suit, but one didn’t become a Captain in the Gotei 13 without knowing the fundamentals of almost every skill a Soul Reaper used. With her speed it took no time at all to reach the second to last of the top floors of the pyramid, just beneath the throne room itself. Here, the narrower corridor was more luxuriously furnished with carpet and warm electrical lighting. The doors to the Storm King’s chambers were still metal, but much smaller compared to the vast doors to the throne room.

Normally there would be guards here, but Tempest didn’t see any as she arrived, and instead saw Grubber hunched up against the side of one of the doors. The door was just slightly opened a crack, and the short Arrancar was peeking through.

Tempest approached quietly upon the intent Grubber, and not wanting to startle him, she slowly moved into his peripheral vision so he’d notice her without her having to make any noise.

Upon seeing her, Grubber grimaced and motioned her closer. She did so, kneeling down on one knee next to him.

“Where are the guards?” she asked in a whisper.

“Sent them on lunch,” Grubber whispered back, cracking a grin, “Hungry Hollows don’t question things, especially to the Captain’s right hand man.”

“When did you give yourself that title?” she quipped.

Grubber snorted, “C’mon, you know you’re helpless without my sage assistance. Now listen, Patros is in there, chatting up SK. I, uh, don’t think you’re gonna like the topic of conversation.”

Tempest felt a wave of apprehension fly through her, but she wasn’t about to back down from the truth, whether it was a truth she liked or not. Leaning towards the minuscule crack in the open doors, she tilted her ear to listen. There was no way to see anything beyond the crack, but it was more than enough to hear the faint but clear voices of Patros and the Storm King talking.

“-ing to hear the end of it from her.”

“My lord, she’ll get over it, and if she doesn’t, then replace her.”

“Oh, yeah, like I’m just going to find another Soul Reaper Captain growing on a freakin’ tree. She’s worth ten times more to me than you are, Patros, so don’t go growing a big head over me siding with you on this scheme of yours. Now, the real question is, how to keep her busy and out of the way while we take out this Adagio chick?”

“If I may, my lord, I suggest the simple solution of telling her that the enclave must remain guarded while you handle the ‘negotiations’ at Forlorn Ridge. It’s a basic enough explanation that there won’t be much to question in it.”

“Oooooh, I like it. That way I can make up any story I want when I get back, too. Say that this Adagio Dazzle sprung the ambush on me rather than the other way around. Perfect! We’ll go with that. Man, how do I come up with these plans?”

“My lord, I was the one who-”

“I’m a genius, that’s what it is. This is going to be great. I get to kill an Espada, piss of Tirek, and if those four weirdos show up at the negotiations, I can go ahead and eat them while I’m at it.”

At this point Tempest’s blood was well and truly boiling. With every word she listened to she heard Gigan’s words echo in her ears once again, combined with the sickening feeling that all the years of trust she’d built up with the Storm King were being tossed out a window and left to hang. There was no hiding her spiritual pressure now as it rose up form inside her like an angry gale, and Grubber gulped as Tempest stood, her body wreathed in a flowing aura of white spirit energy.

“Oh boy, here we go...” Grubber said under his breath as Tempest kicked the doors wide open into the Storm King’s chambers with enough force to knock the large metal structures off their hinges, catapulting one into the opposite wall with enough force to embed the door into the solid stone. 

“What the crapbaskets!?” the Storm King shouted, wheeling towards the entryway, only to blink in understanding as he saw Tempest Shadow. “Oh. ...You could have just knocked.”

“Why?” Tempest said in a growl that practically vibrated through the air.

“So I don’t have to go through the trouble of fixing my freakin’ doors-”

“No,” said Tempest, stomping towards him, and unconsciously mimicking Gigan’s earlier gesture by grabbing the Storm King by the collar with her left hand, “I mean why? Why betray my trust this way?”

He looked at her hand on the collar of his armor for a moment, then actually rolled his eyes at her, which only infuriated her more.

“Because you wouldn’t do what needed doing, Tempest. Simple as that. Thought it’d be easier on your conscience if we did it this way instead.”

“By lying to me? By tarnishing my honor? By going behind my back!?”

The Storm King’s own hand came up, deceptively fast, and gripped her wrist. He didn’t squeeze tightly, but he squeezed enough to remind her that in terms of power, his did eclipse her own. A shimmer in the air around the two started to form from the clash of rising reiatsu between them.

“By sparring you the need to get your own hands dirty,” he said flatly, “It’s obvious you stopped thinking straight when it comes to these people. I let you have your fun, play it your way for a bit, see if you could get them to join our side. You failed. So, rather than upset your precious sense of honor, I figured I’d clean house and kill a damned Espada while, yes, keeping you out of the loop for your own good.”

“I can’t believe you’d go this far, just to kill an Espada.”

“Urrdurr, Tempest, I hate the Espada. I thought that was at least one point you and I actually agreed on! Since when did you get all lovey dovey about them!?”

“I’m not,” she said, her anger broiling her voice to a heated hiss, “But I’m not so blinded by my feelings towards the Espada that I can’t see the opportunity in allying with one, or let that color my judgment in regards to X and the others. If nothing else, they’re only guilty of being dragged into our conflict by bad luck and circumstance.”

“Assuming even one word of what they’ve said is the truth, which I don’t really buy, and ultimately don’t actually care!” the Storm King said, letting Tempest’s wrist go, but remaining looming in front of her. She met his glare back with her own, but at the same time she glanced back at Grubber.

“Grubber, go. I’ll deal with this.”

What she was really telling him to do was to go warn the prisoners, to which Grubber nodded swiftly. 

“No need to tell me twice,” he said, turning and hurrying away.

Patros, having silently been watching the exchanged, narrowed his eyes at the departing Grubber, having sensed there being something off. Looking to the Storm King, he said, “If you have no further need of me, my lord, I’ll leave you and ‘Captain’ Tempest to your... discussion.”

“Yeah, you do that,” the Storm King replied, not even looking in Patros’ direction.

With the subordinates out of the way, Tempest and the Storm King silently stared at one another for a few moments. Eventually Tempest said, “I can’t let you go through with it, sir. Not this.”

“Oh?” he said, inclining his head to glare down his nose at her, “You’ve never defied my like this before, Tempest. You being pissed I get, and even expected, but what in the whole of this screwed up universe makes you care about that bunch so damned much?”

In many ways that was a good question. She’d known X and the others for only a matter of days, and had first met them as enemies, even coming close to killing Irys in their battle. Yet even that hadn’t been done in rancor or hate, merely the unfortunate result of the sudden circumstances both parties had found themselves in. From the moment she’d chosen to take that group prisoner and bring them here, she’d known that it would cause friction with the Storm King. She’d just believed it could be resolved, one way or another, without the need for another tragic battle.

But why go through all this in the first place? She could try to rationalize it a dozen different ways, but when it came down to it her reasons weren’t complicated.

“Because I like them, and they deserve to be treated fairly,” she said, “It’s as simple as that. So I’m asking you, one last time, to reconsider your intentions.”

He just kept starring at her, then his expression darkened like the gathering of clouds on the horizon.

----------

Grubber tried not to look like he was in too much of a rush getting down to the bottom level of the fortress, but he didn’t try that hard. He had a bad feeling in his gut, like a night after an heavy burrito binge-fest, that things were about to go south in a big way.

His suspicions were confirmed when upon reaching the large archway out of the fortress, Patros suddenly appeared in the way with a flash of Sonido. The tall, gaunt Arrancar’s hand was already on the hilt of his straight edged Zanpaktou.

“Going somewhere?” Patros asked.

“Yeah, to the corner of None of Your Business Street and Piss Off Avenue,” Grubber shot back, gripping his own shorter, but wider bladed Zanpaktou, “How about you get out of my way, Patty, before you break a fingernail?”

“Charming retorts. We both know I’m stronger than you. How about you just... stay here, while the Storm King and your precious ‘Captain’ finish their talk?” Patros said, stepping forward menacingly, “Whatever you’re intending to do, I’m sure it can wait.”

“Yeah, it really can’t,” Grubber said, slightly adjusting his stance, one foot forward, the other tensing as it prepared to propel him forward. He felt the violent static in the air that stemmed from Patros’ aggressive spiritual pressure. There was no doubt in Grubber’s mind that Patros knew what Grubber was up to, and couldn’t be talked down. He also was well aware, as Patros said, that their was a power gap between them. Not a huge one, but enough that Grubber knew he had to play this smart.

Patros’ eyes flashed with narrow understanding of Grubber’s intent, sensing the slight tension in the other Arrancar’s stance a moment before Grubber acted. Patros’ Zanpaktou was whipped out in a blurring motion, but Grubber was also moving in the same instant, his own blade snapping free of its sheath.

Grubber dashed forward, Patros ready to receive his attack, but Grubber aimed his palm at the ground between them and crackles of red energy burst around his palm. With a whoop of static noise, Grubber fired a Bala at the ground. The bullet of hardened Hollow spirit energy exploded into the stone floor and shot up a shower of dust and rock shards at Patros. 

Patros instinctively shielded his eyes with his left forearm, sharp chunks of rock ricocheting off his hardened Arrancar skin. He saw a flitting motion to his left, Grubber running on the wall and zipping towards the fortress exit. Patros spun with the same motion he’d used to draw his Zanpaktou, a wreath of yellow spirit energy around his blade that he’d intended to fling at Grubber head on, but now turned and fired blind towards the other Arrancar’s blurring form.

A small wave of yellow light fired from Patros’ blade, cutting into the fortress wall, but missing Grubber by a hair. Patros cursed as he sheathed his sword and rushed after Grubber.

Outside the fortress, Grubber moved in a series of swift blinks of motion using Sonido. He knew Patros would be right behind him, so he moved in a zig-zagging pattern to try to throw up Patros’ next attack. He was familiar with the properties of Patros’ sword and specific Hollow ability. Gathering Hollow reishi around his sheathed sword, Patros would unleash increasingly strong and fast energy waves. Probably one of the worst scenarios for dealing with a skilled ranged fighter like Patros was having to cross a wide, open space while running from him, but Grubber didn’t have a lot of options.

He swung his Zanpaktou at the ground as he dodged about, still trying to move towards the prison bunker. Each swing kicked up a shower of rock and dirt, and he hoped that might obscure him enough to get to the prison in time.

Above him, Patros had leaped up into the air in a high arc, his eyes carefully scanning the ground to hone in on Grubber. With a satisfied smirk, Patros took an extra second to aim, and then started rapidly unsheathing and resheathing his sword. Each time, a progressively larger crescent of yellow energy was unleashed at the ground, each one also getting closer to striking Grubber until, right at the entrance to the prison bunker one of the blasts caught Grubber’s side.

The wave of energy didn’t hit him dead on, but it still tore a wound in his side and sprayed blood upon the wall of the prison bunker’s entrance as Grubber stumbled into it, smacking into the wall hard and leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the stone.

“Grugh! Oh that smarts!” Grubber grunted, throwing himself down the incline heading down into the bunker. However Patros was right behind him, bursting onto the ramp with Sonido.

“I never liked you, Grubber,” Patros spat, “But even I expected a bit more fight out of you than this.”

There was no room to dodge in the narrow passage, so Grubber had no choice but to turn around and try to block Patros’ next attack with his Zanpaktou. He barely got it up in time to receive the next crest of intense energy that Patros fired from his unsheathing blade. The blast hit hard enough to send Grubber flying, unbalanced, down the ramp and smash into the ground, skidding the last twenty or so feet to the bottom. 

Gritting his teeth against the pain in his wounded side he forced himself up to one knee and fired a few Bala bullets up the ramp towards Patros, but the other Arrancar was much better at bending and twisting around the shots as he flashed down the ramp. Patros kicked out and struck Grubber straight in his wounded side, pinning the shorter Arrancar against the wall next to X’s cell. Grubber let out a strangled cry as pain blasted through him as Patros’ heel dug into his open side, but he still had enough fortitude to raise his Zanpaktou and thrust it at Patros’ chest. 

Patros caught the blade with his hand, sparks flying from his Hierro hardened skin. His face registered a grimace as Grubber’s sword cut into his palm, causing a trickle of blood down the length of the steel, but he still ignored the pain and used the leverage of his leg still pinning Grubber to tear the Zanpaktou out of Grubber’s weakened grip and throw the weapon behind him.

“This is your own fault for choosing loyalty to a Soul Reaper over your own kind,” Patros scoffed, pulling back a fist and smashing it into Grubber’s face with a blow powerful enough to smack Grubber’s head back into the wall and crack the stone. In quick succession Patros unleashed a rain of blows, Grubber trying to get his arms up to block, but Patros just dug his foot harder into the profusely bleeding side wound. Soon enough Grubber couldn’t even properly defend himself and Patros let the man slump to the ground.

“Hmph, I’d say it’s a shame it came to this, but honestly this is a little cathartic,” Patros said, preparing to draw his own sword again to finish off Grubber with a point blank energy wave.

Only just before he could draw his sword, a flash of red light filled the hallway and a laser beam struck Patros, knocking him off of Grubber and smashing him into the opposite wall.

Down the hallway, his cell door wide open and the ward pass he’d stolen in his hand, Gigan’s eyes were still flashing red behind his shades as he said, “You’re right. That was cathartic.”

His body smoking, Patros groaned and started to stand, but Gigan didn’t give him a moment to recover. With speed born of alien technology never seen in Hueco Mundo, Gigan was across the hallway in a breath. His arm blades snapped out, flashing down at Patros. The Arrancar was just fast enough to roll onto his back and cross his arms to take the blows, although the advanced alien alloys were sharp enough to still cut even Hierro hardened flesh. Not deep enough to get bone, but deep enough to hurt.

Patros cried out, then kicked with his legs at Gigan’s knee. Gigan quick stepped back to avoid the kick and slashed down with one of his arm blades, cutting Patros’ leg. 

“Gah! Dirty, filthy mortal!” Patros shouted, pushing off the wall and managing a blazing quick fast draw, even at close range. Gigan’s scanners read the energy build up in the sheathed sword and he wisely ducked aside as the yellow crescent of energy tore down the hall.

“Whoa!” Di Roy, who’d come out of the cell as well, had to throw himself back to avoid getting hit, then came rushing out, his own sword drawn.

Patros, now realizing his was outnumbered, immediately changed his plans and ducked up the ramp in a flicker of Sonido. Gigan tracked his motion and fired another laser burst from his eyes, but only scored a glancing blow on Patros’ shoulder as the Arrancar continued to rush up the ramp.

“Shit!” Gigan swore, and gave chase, Di Roy behind him, but pausing to check on Grubber.

Gigan relied more on his scanners than his vision to track Patros up the ramp and burst out of the prison bunker, trying one last time to tag the fleeing Arrancar with a laser beam. Patros spun and unsheathed his sword, sending an arc of energy to slam into the laser and causing an explosion as the two energies collided. By the time the dust cleared, Patros was gone, having pushed up the speed on his Sonido to the point that even Gigan lost track of him amid the various other conflicting signals and interference from the fortress enclave.

Swearing again under his breath Gigan ran back down the ramp and paused by Di Roy, who was looking over Grubber.

“How is he?” asked the cyborg.

“Unconscious and battered to all hell and back, but I think he’ll live,” Di Roy replied, “The heck was that about? Why are our captors trying to kill each other?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Captain Blinders probably figured out the truth, sent this guy to warn us, and the mustachioed asshole tried to stop him. Which means it's time for us to vacate, now.”

He didn’t waste a second, moving even as he spoke to use the ward pass to open up the remaining cells. In very short order everyone was gathered in the hallway, standing near Grubber’s unconscious form. Roka gave the fallen Arrancar a brief look, kneeling next to him. Her threads reached out to start sticking up his wound, but Gigan placed hand on her shoulder.

“We don’t have time for that.”

“There’s always time for this,” Roka replied firmly.

“What happened?” Irys asked, already in a tense, fighting stance and eyeing the prison’s entrance as if expecting a horde of enemies to come swarming down.

“It’s the signal Tempest Shadow agreed to send us,” X said, surmising the situation at a glance, “Gigan, did you take care of whoever did this?”

Gigan gave a frustrated shake of his head as he pulled back from Roka, “He got away, which means we don’t have a lot of time before the alarm goes up. Which is why we need to go.”

“I just need a minute to close his wound-” Roka began to argue, but Di Roy touched her arm gently.

“He’s a tough guy, and the wound isn't that deep. He'll live, Roka. We won’t if we get swarmed by a fortress that still thinks we’re enemies.”

“Di Roy right,” Gaw said, sniffing Grubber, “This one not dying. If enemies coming, we must go.”

Roka hesitated, then with a reluctance withdrew her threads and stood, nodding solemnly, “Y-yes, you’re right. Let us go then, quickly.”

As the group quickly ran up the ramp to reach the surface once more, they turned towards the north, following the route that would take them past the hopefully altered guard shifts and reach the river. Less than a minute into their rush, Irys asked, “So how long do you think before the alarm is-”

A loud, brass sounding gong echoed in the distance, followed by several more, until the valley was filled with the ringing noise. Irys blanched, “...sounded?”

At the head of the group, X poured on the speed. There was nothing for it now. The escape was on.