The Vasto Lorde watching the dissolution of Coyote Starrk had various reactions.

"…I know what I'm going to do when I'm ready to die." Vandular was awed by the display. Nngato grunted an agreement while Terra hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. He had a few questions about the state of his soul and he wasn't sure he wanted them to be answered.

"Fuck that!" The demon had absolutely no doubts and wasn't about to volunteer. "Shit, I wanted to eat th – mrph!" The sea monster had quite firmly put a hand over his mouth.

"You fool. Those shinigami can hear us." He hissed into the demon's ear and didn't let go until he got a nod. "Good." Fortunately, Juushiro and Shunsui were too lost in their grief to notice the hollows. Everyone else was still getting over the shock and also not paying too much attention to them.

"…I do have to say. That was wonderful, what you did moving the Red Queen." Vandular said. He was willing to give credit where credit was due and the demon had earned it. "It was your idea, too. Good job."

"Thanks! You did great too, fucking that asshole up. We all did great!" The demon said approvingly and the minotaur laughed.

"A rare moment of camaraderie. Cherish it." He said and there were several chuckles. Then the demon looked around thoughtfully, scratching his chin.

"Okay, but I am really fucking hungry. Hey Nngato! Mind if I eat that human of yours?" He asked and the sea monster eyed him like a particularly unsavory beast. Vandular face palmed.

"Must you?" He asked and the demon suddenly flared up.

"Stop judging me you fucking prick!" That caught the attention of several of the Visored. The minotaur sighed.

"And it's gone." He said mournfully before his daughter spoke.

"Eat my brother! Please." She said sincerely before he shoved her. She shoved him back and things were about to degenerate before the minotaur called them back into line. The demon ignored that. He knew better than to try to touch one of the minotaur's children, right in front of him.

"No, but seriously, can I have that guy? Or one of the others?" The demons hungry eyes fell on Cynnbel and Natwa. She hissed at him, although that was mostly bravado. She would have no chance against him. Cynnbel immediately started looking for some form of escape. Chad just stared, wondering if Nngato would really give them up to the other vasto lorde.

"I don't care. Do what you will." He said indifferently and Sado swallowed, wondering what to do. Then fate intervened, in the form of two young vasto lorde.

"Not the human! We like him a lot. Right Amargo?" Dulce said, stamping a hoof. Her sister nodded.

"Right. Protect him for us papi!" She demanded and Vandular considered it for a moment before glancing at the young man. He didn't like his daughters mating to a human, but…

"Fine. He's under my protection. The others, I don't care." He said firmly. He was not interested in policing the demons feeding habits. Natwa decided to seek a convenient port in the storm.

"I will give you a litter if you sssave me." She said to the minotaur, who tilted his head as he considered her offer. Cynnbel tried to appeal to the minotaur's daughter, but she flicked her tail disdainfully at the thought. She knew his penchant for leaving females to raise their litters alone. That hadn't stopped her from playing with him, but she considered his life not worth saving.

"Accepted." The minotaur said and that left just one target. Cynnbel yelped in pure terror before taking off in the fastest sonido he could, a laughing monster close behind. He immediately aimed himself for something that felt both hollow and powerful, hoping for the best.

"PLEASE! I'll mate you, I'll be your slave, I'll let you Claim me, ANYTHING! Just don't LET HIM EAT ME!" Cynnbel appealed desperately to Hirako Shinji, who had a 'what the hell?' look on his face. The Visored might have preferred to stay out of the confrontation but the young Vasto Lorde tried to hide behind Shinji and the demon wasn't exactly sane.

Vandular watched the rather impressive explosion and decided he would much rather be somewhere else. Nngato and Terra were already leaving, uninterested in this place and eager to return home.

"Come on girls, let's go find your step-mother." He said, turning away. "Is the human coming?" He asked, glancing at Chad consideringly. He hesitated a moment, thinking.

"You are going to Soul Society?" He asked and the ancient hollow nodded. "I will go at least that far." He didn't know if he would go back to Hueco Mundo or not. He'd been gone from the human world for a long time and Sado had no illusions. There was no way he could fit back in easily.

Perhaps Soul Society or even Hueco Mundo were a better home for him now.

"This is working out surprisingly well." Juushiro murmured as he watched a small group of arrancar go by. They were chattering, completely unconcerned about the two 'pets' loitering nearby.

"People see what they want to see. And to be fair, our collection of talent leaves them quite outmatched." Shunsui said, taking a long swallow of his sake. They both understood exactly what he meant.

Because the battle against the Red Queen had happened over Karakura town, keeping the outcome a complete secret from the arrancar and shinigami had been feasible. After they'd driven off that lunatic hollow – that had been strange – they'd needed to get the Espada under control. As it turned out, Barragan's injuries were as illusory as Starrk's had been and he'd woken up extremely put out by the whole thing. His rant had been spectacular and the language involved had been quite admirable. The old King hadn't repeated himself at all, except for some adverbs.

When they got him calmed down, though, they'd made a deal with him. Barragan truly wanted only one thing… to be the King of Hueco Mundo. That was a very easy thing for them to grant, although they had the condition that he give up his two shinigami pets. The old skeleton had consented immediately and Juushiro had an idea that he'd long ago lost interest in his two Claims. He did have his entire fraccion, after all.

Halibel had been angry at them but practical. Her concern was for Shimonami and if Barragan was going to Hueco Mundo, she wanted to remain in Soul Society. As they were bargaining with her, Ulquiorra had finally escaped from his dimensional prison.

It had been hard to convince the Quatro that Aizen was dead, but Kisuke's camcorder had done the job. Another Barragan rant had filled the air as Ulquiorra was filled in on the details about the Red Queen. Juushiro wasn't sure how much he accepted of it, but the Quatro was like Halibel… he had a young son counting on him. Not to mention Orihime and his second, unborn child.

So they had managed to fake a triumphant battle against the Red Queen and also the Visored. There was some confusion with Szayel but they managed to convince him that Byakuya and Juushiro had been acting on behalf of Starrk, who needed them urgently. Hachi's illusion of Aizen was the very best illusory kido he had available and he got the man's manner perfectly. They had used that little sock puppet to reassure Szayel before taking it back to the palace.

In their new version of reality, Gin and Tosen had died valiantly in battle. Starrk and Yammy were still alive but under treatment at the Fourth. There were a pair of false bodies there, being tended to by Unohana. She was fully briefed on what they were doing and had given all the arrancar a single condition for her cooperation… as soon as they revealed what was happening to the general population, she wanted to challenge Nnoitra to a duel and kill him. The other Espada were surprisingly amenable to the idea. Barragan absolutely didn't care, Ulquiorra cared even less. Only Halibel had remotely cared and she had just said that as long as Nnoitra accepted, she was fine with it. Given that he was almost as bloodthirsty as Kenpachi had been, Juushiro had no doubt that the Espada would take the challenge.

It was lies on top of lies and exhausting to keep up, but the deception was giving them important breathing room. Ulquiorra and Barragan were briefing hand-picked minions and getting things in place to deal with the inevitable backlash when the news came out. And they were planning how to bring the news out with their own spin. Something they would need to do sooner rather than later. The longer they tried to keep this up, the more likely it became that something would go horribly wrong.

"Ah, Starrk." Shunsui murmured and Juushiro understood exactly what was going through his mind. The gigai under Unohana's care looked shockingly like him. They could almost pretend he was there, sleeping… but the reiatsu nets on their souls were gone. That power had been with them for so many years and losing it was almost like losing a part of themselves. "I miss him, and the children." He said with a sigh. Juushiro nodded.

"Me too." All the children had been quietly gathered and taken to the Soul King's realm. The only exception was Mariposa and they planned to bring her as soon as they brought Szayel in on the truth, which would be tomorrow. There were more half-hollow children now – some of the Numeros were reproducing naturally – but they couldn't get them all. Juushiro hoped they would be safe when chaos descended.

It would only be a matter of time.

Ichigo scowled as he tried to sort out what to do.

The Red Queen was the most pressing problem, but far from the only one. Years of neglect had left the entire fabric of reality in complete disarray. To his dismay, he saw that the Soul King performed a very vital function… he kept things running smoothly. The three worlds were like a slightly out of tune machine, always requiring a bit of spiritual greasing and tweaking to function properly. Right now they were barely getting by, the gears sticking together badly and mostly turning through inertia.

Of course, that was only a metaphor. The reality was hard to put into words. But the Red Queen was the most pressing issue and he needed to act now, not later. The first thing he did was force the presence out of the Three Worlds. But that wasn't much of a solution at this point. Ichigo could sense that too much of substance had been devoured. Too many powerful souls, too much spiritual energy had been taken. If he sealed the Red Queen away there would be a painful void in the Three Worlds and Hueco Mundo, in particular, would be tilting dangerously towards oblivion. Too many adjuchas had been lost. The arrancar could make up for it somewhat, if he could convince all of them to suddenly go back home, but that would still leave too much spiritual vacancy.

So Ichigo began the very dangerous but necessary process of reintegrating the Red Queen into the fabric of reality. It was only possible because the walls were thin. He was dealing with a living entity, though, that had developed a kind of consciousness. It did not want to be forced apart into its various pieces. Ichigo kept at it, though, gradually chipping away at the monstrosity that had been building for time uncounted. The weakness of the barriers worked against the Red Queen now… it had no way to avoid his attentions.

Ichigo had no idea how long it actually took, but it felt like forever before he'd finally cleansed those cast off bits of reality. It was particularly exhausting, making sure the souls within were sent to their proper places. Most to Hueco Mundo but some of them went to Hell. Ichigo completely missed the fact that Aizen was in there, but fortunately, he did find his proper place. Juushiro would not have to worry about the universe having mercy on him.

With that done, Ichigo mended the barriers a bit before turning his attention to the rest of the three worlds. He couldn't make it perfect. It had never been perfect and years of neglect had caused too much to build up. All he could do was make things a bit better, get the machine running just a touch smoother. If he did this all the time, eventually it would be back to normal, or as normal as it ever got. Ichigo didn't think he would ever apply the word 'normal' to what he was seeing.

Finally surfacing from his trance, Ichigo blinked and looked around the room. Grimmjow was sleeping on the floor not far away, in a sleeping bag? His father was nowhere to be seen.

"Grimmjow?" Ichigo said before standing up and going to the Espada, gently touching his shoulder. Grimmjow woke up immediately and yawned, his fangs flashing in the light of the candles someone had lit.

"Ichigo?" He sounded a bit groggy but blinked, quickly coming to full awareness. "Shit, took you long enough! You've been out for a goddamned week!"

"I, wait, what?" Ichigo stared at the arrancar, appalled by the revelation. "It took that long…?" Although actually, he could believe it. That had been one hell of a mess to clean up. "What's been happening?"

"Oh, geez, you would ask that." Grimmjow ran a hand over his face for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Okay, this really sucks but… fuck. We took too long. Starrk's dead." Ichigo stiffened for a moment, feeling a deep stab of grief, followed closely by guilt. "Aizen fucked the poor bastard over. But the Red Queen got him before he could destroy his soul… Juushiro gave him konso. So, I don't know, maybe we'll see him again someday." Grimmjow didn't sound too hopeful. Ichigo swallowed and nodded, feeling sick.

"Yeah." He said hoarsely. That… was a bitter pill to swallow. They'd triumphed, but at a high cost. "How about everything else?" Things couldn't possibly have gone smoothly. Grimmjow laughed.

"Nothing's happened yet." He said cheerfully and Ichigo stared at him. Nothing? "See, we've got everyone believing Aizen's still alive. We've got gigai's of Starrk and Yammy in the Fourth. As far as everyone knows, we had a big stunning victory and shit."

"…That can't last long." Ichigo said apprehensively. Grimmjow shrugged, then nodded.

"Yeah, we know. We're getting ready for it. We've got most of the Espada helping and Ulquiorra's working with Soi Fon and Yoruichi. We're hoping to clamp down on the riots when they happen. One thing that's gonna get interesting is Retsu. She's gonna rip Nnoitra's balls off." Grimmjow predicted and Ichigo nodded. That was no surprise, really. "No one gives a shit as long as she challenges him and you know him… he'll say yes for damned sure. She's only a woman, after all." Grimmjow sounded very sarcastic. But he didn't in the least bit share in Nnoitra's misogyny.

"Good." Ichigo growled, remembering poor little Nel. "I hope it's painful. Where are the children?" Although he could just use his new senses to find them… He did that before Grimmjow could speak. "Oh, they're here!" All of them. He smiled at the mental vision of Tigre sleeping in a bed, little Tabitha asleep in a playpen she was sharing with Guadalupe and Toshiro… even little Mariposa, held in Nemu's arms as they both slept on a large bed. "Dad?" He looked for his father and found him in Soul Society. He was asleep though. It was nighttime and it seemed that everyone was in bed. "I… uh, should probably get some sleep." Fatigue was starting to hit him hard. Grimmjow nodded.

"Yeah, you come to bed. You can love up the kids tomorrow." He said and Ichigo smiled at the thought, stumbling a bit as he left the throne. All of a sudden he was feeling very, very tired.

He could talk to everyone about this tomorrow.

"Silence!" Barragan's old voice thundered over the crowd in the square, without the aid of enhancing kido. Shunsui was suddenly irresistibly reminded of Yama-jii in a foul mood, but minus the burning reiatsu. Although the feeling of dust and the creeping aura of death the Segunda carried were hardly much better. The arrancar and shinigami in the square quickly sorted themselves out, the murmurs vanishing. The old Espada grunted. "It seems I must make a speech for you worms."

"Oh dear." Juushiro muttered as Shunsui scratched his hair with a sigh. Halibel and Ulquiorra had both said that Barragan would be the best candidate to deliver the bad news. He could actually do a rather stirring speech when he cared to, apparently. It seemed that now was not one of those times.

Still, it didn't go too badly. Barragan delivered the truth in a straightforward fashion, helped with images taken from Kisuke's camera. That thing was really coming in handy… seeing was believing, as they always said. There was a great deal of chatter at that and Barragan had to sweep his annoyed reiatsu over the crowd twice more to get silence. When he was done with the story, though…

"Kyoraku taichou will explain what this means for the future." He finished before giving the stage to him. Shunsui smiled at the old Espada before looking over the faces in front of him. Many of them were almost terrified. But then, why wouldn't they be? Their whole comfortable world had just been knocked upside down. Likely the presence of the Espada was all that was keeping them from rioting.

"Please remain calm. We are not going to launch a war against you." He said calmly. That was not for the arrancar, of course. It was because if they did try to wage such a campaign, the damage would be horrific. The Espada would fight against them but that was actually the least of the problem. The truly insurmountable difficulty was the arrancar and their Claims. Fellow shinigami, including all the powerful ones, would be turned against the free taichou and the Visored. And there were some very powerful fukutaichou in the ranks, even a few budding ones that would likely have bankai, eventually. The carnage would be dreadful. "We know that there is no way to forcibly break a Claim, short of death." For them, that was true. Aizen could have done it with the Hogyoku but only at the risk of destroying the arrancar's soul. "So we have come to an agreement with the Espada." Mentally, he prayed the Claimed shinigami would forgive them. There would no doubt be a great deal of bitterness over this decision… but they wouldn't want to die fighting for their arrancar masters, either.

"We have a list of names. I will read them off to you." It wasn't really a long list. "All of you on this list must relinquish your pets immediately on pain of death and are banished to Hueco Mundo." Unohana kept medical records and these arrancar had been particularly brutal. Nnoitra was on top of the list, although he was not present to this meeting. Unohana was currently challenging him to that duel. There was some stirring in the audience as he read off the names but the arrancar didn't dare protest. "Our second list is those who must release their pets, but may remain in Soul Society or return to Hueco Mundo as you choose." They were the ones that had really done nothing wrong by arrancar standards but had still been rather hard on their pets. They had shown up in the Fourth for injuries on several occasions. There were some protests as he read out the second list but more of Barragan's reiatsu, this time joined with Ulquiorra and Halibel, took care of that. "The rest of you may keep your pets and stay in Soul Society, if you wish. If you wish to return to Hueco Mundo you must release your pets." That was only good sense. There would be nothing for them to eat and drink there. There was shifting in the crowd and Shunsui could almost feel the dismay and sense of betrayal rising from the shinigami in the audience.

"You are leaving us to these monsters?" Someone shouted, which was rather daring considering the 'monster' in question was probably standing right beside that shinigami. Although maybe it was one of the ones who had to give up his pets. Shunsui sighed before tackling the question directly.

"It's either that or fight them to the death. And by extension, all of you." He said firmly and heard murmuring, felt the mood of the crowd darkening. "However, future Claims will not be tolerated. Any arrancar who wish to remain will have to abide by the laws of Soul Society. Ulquiorra will explain to you further." As head of the arrancar enforcement arm, he could put it to them in ways they would understand. And they weren't bothering with any esoteric laws. No, just the basics would do.

When the explanations were finally over, there was a lot for everyone to digest. Brochures with all the information had been printed and were disseminated into the crowd by Ulquiorra's minions. Under the watchful eyes of both loyal arrancar and shinigami, the crowd began to disperse. Shunsui had no real illusions. There would be trouble, likely sooner than later. But they had everything in place to contain it when it erupted and hopefully the damage would be minimal. Which reminded him…

"Is there any word on the outcome between Unohana's and Nnoitra's duel?" He asked an arrancar, one of Ulquiorra's best men. There was a non-descript, older shinigami man with him and Shunsui wondered if the arrancar would maintain the Claim now. Ulquiorra's insistence on his minions issuing Claims as he chose had created some odd pairings. The arrancar saluted him, giving him more respect than he would have as Starrk's 'pet'.

"Yes. Nnoitra is purified and Unohana Retsu has reclaimed her fukutaichou." The arrancar reported, seemingly uncaring about Nnoitra's demise. For a brief moment, Shunsui blessed arrancar selfishness. No one was going to give a damn about Nnoitra, particularly when his death was clearly the result of a personal grudge. "Tesra-fraccion was badly injured but has been transported to the Fourth."

"Ah, good." Vaguely, he wondered what would happen to that fraccion. He had no Claims and everyone said he was a decent person. He was decently powered, though, so surely he would find a place. "How I wish Starrk was here." He would have known just what to do. Shunsui blinked as an arm went around his waist.

"I wish he was here too." Juushiro said comfortingly and Shunsui smiled, allowing himself to be held. It was wonderful how they didn't have to hide it anymore. "But maybe he'll be back. We just need to keep an eye out for him."

"Mmm, yes." It would still be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but Starrk's obscene reiatsu at least made it possible. And his potential as a Living man had been vast. Surely they would find him and Lilinette. "Well, we should probably get back to work." There was so much to do and so little time to do it in. Juushiro nodded, giving him another squeeze before letting go.

They left together, intent on keeping the peace between the races.