A.N.: Alright. So last time I updated this was at the end of 2015, and I've literally had the first part of this chapter in my files since then. Just hadn't found the motivation to finish it. I have not abandoned this fic, don't worry. I'm literally already writing chapter 7 as we speak. Thank you for staying on board.

It was not as if she did not realize what her part in the mission would entail. By all means she understood why he was so completely adverse to the very idea—there was obviously a reason why he had avoided her kind all these years—but of the both of them there was no arguing she would be doing the more difficult job.

"You being the male, you would only have to impregnate me," she had said, watching carefully as his scowling face colored. "You have no obligation to the offspring after that. Realistically, it would only take a few minutes to get it over with."

"Is that all?" he asked, gaze moving toward the spear still on the ground. "We fuck, and nine months later you pop out a mini us?"

She tried not to flinch at his way of putting it. Rarely had she ever been exposed to such language, and considering how much time he had spent alone and surrounded only by children, she had to wonder if he even bothered censoring himself around them, or how he knew the words and their meaning in the first place. "That is the gist of it, yes."

"So, what's gonna happen to us?" he asked, snatching the spear up but holding it harmlessly at his side.

"Us?" It had not occurred to her that he would want to maintain a relationship with her.

"Us," he reiterated, nodding back at the trees.

"You and the children," she caught on, relieved. "You will no longer be bothered. Once you fulfill your part of the mission, you may go on living peacefully."

"No more patrols out here."

"No more."

"I want access to the ocean."

"You already have it. We are not stopping you from—"

"Cut the shit. I want you to promise me we'll be safe from you freaks."

Her brow furrowed. "If it comforts you, I will personally see to it you are all protected from...my kind."

"Alright." He swung the spear onto his shoulder, slid his wrist along the top to balance it. He leaned his weight on one leg, and it made her eyes follow the line of his body; there was no arguing he was, at least physically, a fine specimen. "We doing this?"

"Now?" Her eyes snapped back to his, made out the darkening of his cheeks.

"What, you waiting for the stars to align or somethin'? Why not now?"

"How impatient," she commented, stooping to pick her blade from the ground and slide it back into place. "I have to report back first before I take any action."

"Then get to it," he sighed. "And don't go assuming shit, I'm not in any hurry to jump your bones here. Just wanna get this over with."

"You do not want the children to see you with me," she said, ignoring his sputtering retort. "I understand that. But I do not plan on doing this during the day, either. I have other duties to attend to, I would rather prioritize those."

"Then tomorrow night."

"If I get confirmation by then, yes."

"And if you don't?"

"I will return either way."

"We just won't be fucking."

She was grateful she had her back to him; she did not want him to see her grimace. "Whatever happens, get some rest. Even if it is not tomorrow, you need to be in the best condition—"

"I'm healthier than you, guaranteed," he interrupted, turning on his heel to stride back toward his trees. "Live and eat off the ground, so to speak."

"Do you eat enough meat?" she asked, somewhat insulted.

"Considering the pickings, yeah."

"Do you drink enough water?"

"All there is to drink, really."

"Do you—"

"You said this 'commander' of yours called me a fine specimen, right? You ain't gonna believe 'em?"

She frowned. "It may have been an exaggeration. Just make sure you get eight hours of sleep tonight. I will be back come night fall with any news."

"Don't you feel like you're getting' the short end of the stick here? You have to carry around a kid inside ya for nine months."

"I am aware of that," she said slowly, unsure of where he was taking this.

"I mean. I only have to deal with you for one night, really. You're gonna be reminded of me every single minute of every single day." He gestured toward her abdomen with the spear. "My kid's gonna be keeping you up all night, my kid's gonna be fucking with your body—"

"I know that," she cut him off. "And I agreed to it."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"It seems to be bothering you much more," she said, and his mouth snapped shut. "How do you know so much about this? You were only a child when you abandoned your village."

"I was twelve, and I was the oldest kid." He shrugged flippantly. "I remember a lot of shit. Remember when some of these kids were still in their mom and I remember hearing about how it all went down. Used to get pulled aside by a lot of grown-ups tellin' me about grown up shit, and it wasn't like there was all that much privacy then. Saw a lot of shit, too."

"You know how it works," she said. "I will not have to teach you anything."

He eyed her. "I was twelve, didn't get the chance to do anything myself and I sure as hell haven't tried anything with these kids. Ain't planning on it, either, so. I've got no experience."

"Unsurprisingly. We will set up some ground rules tomorrow, if need be. For now—"

"Rest. Yeah. Got it."

As she walked back to the base, she pressed her palm over her abdomen and tried not to let his words sink in too deeply.

She would seek out the Commander immediately to obtain her next orders.

.x.

Sleep did not come easily that night, the heat lifted in through the floor boards and sewed itself into the crevices of his flesh so tight he thought it'd never part from him. He kicked the blanket free from his legs. A sheen of sweat soaked through and he slithered out of his shorts as well. An owl spoke for the first time that evening from a far off treetop, spotting its prey. Grimmjow listened, wiping at his hairline, for the fine swoop of its wings spread wide.

There was only so much time before the sun rose, already he could feel the night creatures shuttering back up into their burrows. He pinched the bridge of his nose, rolled onto his side, and decided he'd be getting no rest tonight.

There was too much to think about. Grimmjow stewed in a pot of mixed feelings, a hundred things toiling at the pit of his stomach. Flipping themselves over and over until all at once, nausea rose from the base of his throat and he had to clench his teeth to keep from throwing up all over his floor. He couldn't wrap his head around it, and again he wished he could wake from what must be a terrible nightmare.

He wiped at his mouth with the back of his arm and rose to his feet, finding his discarded shorts and whipping the sheet from his doorway to step out into the waking morning. He moved toward the edge to pull at the ropes drawn above him until a woven basket of fruit found him. He plucked a few from the bundle and returned the basket. The kids would not wake for another hour, if he let them. And today, he decided to let them.

How could he make sense of last night? How could he believe a word out of that freak's mouth? Six years he had spent, reliving that wretched night. Watching his people be erased from reality, a cloud of dust swallowed by the earth. He had retraced his steps a dozen times, the color leeched from the trees, the roots softened under his feet. Nothing looked the same, but his old home still stood. So covered in vines and leaves and roots he could hardly recognize it, but there it was. The same windows, the same doorways, the same flattened space where they'd first landed.

Grimmjow perched atop the trees, searching along the horizon first toward the mountains, and then toward the sea. He couldn't make out the beach, where long ago as a child they'd taken him to catch squirming, shimmering fish in their nets. He couldn't make out their ships, but he knew they were there. Where else could they be? Enormous as they were there was nowhere else to keep them. He wet his lips, and took a bite out of an apple.

That Sky Freak, already her name escaped him. Appearing out of the shadows like some dreamed image, a ghostly white at the edges. He had never seen any up close, and she'd been close enough to touch. Large, lively eyes. A shapely mouth. A heart-shaped face framed with long, thick, tumbling locks of hair. Grimmjow didn't want to think her attractive, but he couldn't stop staring. Couldn't help being broken down by awe.

How could they look so much like themselves?

Nothing made sense. If the Sky Freaks had no intentions of harming them, why had they slaughtered his entire village? What purpose could it have served them?

He flung the pit toward the sea, and didn't watch it plummet toward the ground long before it ever reached it.

He didn't know if he could go through with it. But he did know that he couldn't let this one slip away, he couldn't let the opportunity to dissect their motives escape his grasp.

What did they want here? Why had they left him and the children to their devices for this long? What could they have gained from it?

There was so much at stake, so many things he was burning to know.

Grimmjow finished the second apple, wiped his mouth, and rose from his perch.

.x.

"Excellent news, Lieutenant," the Commander praised. "I had had no doubt in you from the start."

It was early in the morning, sleep had swallowed her whole as soon as she had shut herself within her cabin. She had awakened with a jolt, eyes crusted and mouth dry. Surprised to find herself one of the first to wake, Nelliel scoured the ship until she found the Commander, discussing some sort of blueprint in some out of the way part of the ship she was not privy to. The blueprints were ushered away, the Commander's attention set full upon her with a quick, sharp smile.

She cleared her throat, trailing after the Commander as that attention was at once transferred elsewhere.

"I…have some doubts myself, Commander," she confessed, recalling last night's events. "He had seemed quite…obstinate. He seemed to have a few misconceptions as a result of his sheltered upbringing."

"I should think so," the Commander said, pausing at a panel to activate its screen. It came alive immediately, and under a few taps it opened up a file for them to see. "In never making contact with him we had undoubtedly allowed him to form his own opinions of us. We are strange, unknowable things to him. Young as he was when he first arrived, he must have woven countless, fanciful theories about us. Young minds are wrought with creativity, are they not?"

Nelliel grew silent, watching the images on screen. The photos captured him, growing over the years. A little boy with an unkempt tuft of hair atop his head, smudged and sunken cheeks, and a ribcage stark and prominent underneath his brown skin. Some of them captured a few of the children, on the periphery, much smaller than he. Tiny things, growing round and fat while he grew thin. The older he became, the better he seemed to become at correcting this. The more adept at hunting, at providing. He grew lankier, sturdier, more carved into by survival. At the age she presumed to be fifteen, he had begun to misshapen into adulthood. Shoulders broadening, face speckled, muscle forming as it should. The last photo, he sat on the edge of some home built into the treetops butchering some poor beast with a stone. His hair, sheared to the scalp, his figure shrouded with much more fabric than she'd found him in last night. It was a colder season, the blood smeared his hands and snot collected underneath his nose.

Nelliel turned her gaze to the Commander, who was watching her carefully.

"Where did he come from?" she asked, and the Commander turned away at last. "Why was he made to endure?"

"He lost his home," the Commander finally said, switching off the panel. "He could rescue only the children. Admirable, is it not?"

Nelliel did not answer.

"Now, I gather you would like to discuss your next course of actions. Informing him of his role was the right thing to do. We must prepare you, and make certain the fetus will take. It has been years since we have procreated, naturally, and as you can imagine we did not bring with us the proper equipment to do as we have come to. We must…make do."

"What am I to do?"

"We have collected a few files on ancient medications and remedies used to ease the process, as well as conferred with the fisherman village as to what techniques suit them best. You are the only female participant on our side. We cannot afford to lose you in the process, just as we cannot afford to lose the child that may come about."

.x.

A.N.: So uh, I'm gonna try and make the chapters a little longer.

Thanks for reading, I'll update when I can.