Chapter One:
Bending Time and Other Extreme Sports
The girl sensed something on the horizon, far off in the distance. It was only a slight twinge, but it was enough to raise her attention.
It was a malicious reiatsu, much more powerful than her own. She listened a little longer, and noticed one thing: it was heading for her.
She knew better than to take her chances in the harsh world of Hueco Mundo. There was one law of the land: if it wasn't bigger than you, kill it.
That didn't bode well for her. And she sensed not just one, but two enormous powers traveling along. They were going fast. Very fast.
That's impossible. No hollow in all of Hueco Mundo could go that fast.
She shook her head. Well, all she had to do was step out of their way. That would be easy.
She pulled out her sword, Fuerda, and started chanting, counting up to six. Then, sh'chi: a great portal opened to the side of her, roaring like an empty hole. It showed more of the same barren landscape, but she knew it was a great distance away. Without a look behind her, she jumped through the portal.
When the girl walked out of her portal, she found that the two mysterious reiatsu had changed course- instead they were headed in her direction. What? She was certain that she had moved far enough away. Yet they had pursued her, and much faster than she had calculated.
That couldn't be. She had stepped through a portal. There was no smell to track, no footprints to find. It was like she had disappeared.
They shouldn't have been able to follow her. But they were.
Was it her reiatsu?
She did have a very distinctive one; it didn't blend in with the rest of Hueco Mundo, and she couldn't shield it very well; it was her weakness. That must have been the flaw. No amount of distance could keep that hidden forever. She summoned sh'chi and fled through space again.
The directional change could very well just have been a freak accident. A coincidence.
A second time, and she stepped out of the portal, only to find that not only had they changed course, they were moving faster.
They were gaining on her.
The girl shivered. Whoever these- things- were, they weren't taking no for an answer. No matter. She could flee again. She'd just go very far this time. She would go farther than they could run.
"Sh'chi!" The portal appeared, and it showed a spot almost a thousand miles away. She smiled. Let's see her pursuers try to get there!
They were. And to her terror, they were even closer this time.
Her heart started fluttering. She immediately summoned her portal again immediately and jumped through it without hesitation.
This wasn't going to be easy.
When she stepped through, she realized two things:
One. They were less than fifty miles away.
Two. She couldn't summon sh'chi again. The portal refused to open; she had already used it three times, and it sapped her energy dramatically. She stood there panting, crying out sh'chi over and over, to no avail.
So there was no other way out of this. She clenched her fists at her side and resolved to fight.
They had actually been chasing her for several hours. Plenty of time to escape, but all she had accomplished was exhausting herself. She shouldn't have underestimated her pursuer's speeds or resolve. That had been stupid of her.
She silently berated herself mentally. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She bit her lip and clenched her fists at her side. Crap, crap, crap. Hopefully they were stupid, at the very least.
A straw wind ruffled her hair, bringing with it a strange smell.
They were here.
Her pursuers both had zanpakutohs- a shinigami sword- at their hips and wore white robes and only remnants of masks on their faces.
Arrancars. The girl had heard rumors about them, hollows who had ripped their masks off to become some blend of shinigami and hollow.
One was a tall, lanky one, with a weird hood that made him look like a spoon. He had long black hair and a scythe on his back. That added to the spoon effect.
Ha. A spoon.
The other had a helmet-type mask on one side of his head with a horn adorning it; he wore a jacket on and long coattails, and a pair of baggy hakatama pants. He was pale, small in stature, and only a little taller than her. He had two cyan streaks running from his eyes down the upper half of his face, and ink black hair. It looked like he was crying.
She wondered if he fancied himself some kind of emo boy? Hmmm… interesting.
The wind mournfully whistled between her and the pair.
Green Eyes broke the silence.
"Hollow, we have come to request that you come with us." She blinked, surprised. She wasn't stupid; nobody asked people that if they intended to take no for an answer.
One thing was sure: she wasn't going without a fight.
"No!" She yelled. "Leave me alone."
"Awww, look, Ulquioos, she's gonna have to go the hard way. Hey honey, are you sure you want to do this?" Lanky crooned. His slimy, creepy voice chilled her spine.
"I'm not coming with you!" She declared.
"Very well. We'll just have to take you by force." Green Eyes said, and he reached for his sword.
Her challenge was a mistake. The girl knew she was probably no match for them alone; but there were two of them! Oh well. She hardened her resolve. When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
She pulled out her sword and summoned her powers. She couldn't reach sh'chi, knowing that reaching seven for the fourth time would entirely exhaust her. It would have left her defenseless, madness with such powerful opponents.
The way her sword, Fuerda, worked was with seven levels of powers:
One, ichi, earth. Then she could manipulate earth.
Two, nii, air. Now she could manipulate air.
Three, san, water. Next, she could manipulate water, and so on as she released.
Four, shi, fire.
Five, go, ice.
Six, roku, lightning.
And seven, sh'chi, was when she could bend time and space. Stage one was her weakest level, and seven her most powerful. But even at level six, she did not have very good offensive attacks.
Damn.
"Roku, shi, go!" She shot lightning and fire and ice furiously, but her attacks were blocked, dodged, or neutralized. She hit Green Eyes once, with a lightning strike, and Lanky twice with ice. That was it.
She spun around, and ducked to the side to dodge a cero aimed at her side. She plunged into the sand, rising like a waterfall around her.
She shot out lightning in quick succession, three times. They both dodged, the emo one not even blinking.
She panted as the sand swirled furiously around her. This was insane! There was no way they could have thwarted her that easily! She gritted her teeth.
Totally outmatched, a shower of ceros and attacks fell over her. As much as she dodged, her opponents were always two steps ahead of her. A stray cero hit her shoulder, and she dropped to the ground to dodge another one. She cried out as Lanky appeared in front of her with his scythe. She dived out of the way. Then- BANG- she was slammed in the lower back before she could even look behind her. She rolled down the hill of sand. She could taste blood in her mouth, and watched it drip off her chin. Sh'chi. That was her only way out!
She pulled Fuerda out. It was, crazy but she had to try!- "Sh-"
Fuerda was knocked out of her hands by a cero from Green Eyes. She looked at her smoking arm, then at Green Eyes. The shock was written over her face.
Still she refused to surrender! Not until she absolutely couldn't do anything. The girl turned around and raced away.
She got about a hundred meters before Lanky suddenly appeared in front of her, and caught her around her stomach as she was running.
"Where're you going, pet? We just got to meet you!"
The wind knocked out of her, the girl still tried to struggle, but it was in vain. She'd been beaten, and everyone there knew it.
Cocky bastards.
She bit Lanky, right on the arm.
"ACK! BITCH!" He shrieked. As he yelled, he dropped her. Taking her chance, she ran for it.
Only to come face to face with Green Eyes.
She looked in his eyes, and he looked in hers. Her knees started shaking and almost collapsed in on themselves. Her heart fluttered wildly, like a swallow trapped in a cage. She could tell he was even stronger than Lanky.
"You should stop this," was all he said.
"Are you going to give me a choice?" Her voice came out shrill, but wavered wildly. She raised her hands, fully prepared to try a cero of her own-
And then the world went black. She collapsed on the sands of Hueco Mundo.
When she came to a little while later, she felt the distinct motion of moving. The ups and downs soothed her frantic heart, and her wounds had stopped burning a little. The girl didn't want to wake up. She wanted to go back to the cool, soothing darkness of the world behind her eyelids- no, she should wake up.
And then she looked up into a pair of green eyes.
Shrieking, she started. She tried to punch him; hopefully he would drop her!
No such luck. Green Eyes only warned, "Don't try anything."
Her lips had formed to utter a sharp retort, but again, her heart starting beating frantically against her ribcage. Whenever she was around this guy, she felt like a bird trapped in a cage. And she had the feeling that she wouldn't be able to get out of it.
She looked to the ground. She discovered the source of her captors' speed, anyways- they were doing a kind of flash step like a shinigami. It was incredibly fast and smooth. She looked at the ground below her, and began to feel a little sick, and scared.
For a second she almost tried to cling to Green Eyes, but then decided against it, for obvious reasons. He was damn creepy! But there was no point in fighting, no need to create conflict. As much as she hated Green Eyes and was terrified of him, she felt that she could trust him- or at least more than Lanky. After all, she had bitten him. Lanky was probably still pissed about that.
So, she'd gotten herself captured, after all. She lamented the fact.
Damn.
She sighed. These weird- half shinigami, half hollow-type things- had miraculously tracked her down and caught her.
Of course she'd been no match. Between the green-eyed hollow and the tall, lanky (rather creepy) guy, she'd been cornered. Not even her roku had gotten her out of this one. She was incredibly weak at physical and offensive attacks anyways. Not even very good at defense, apparently; her abilities were enough to keep her alive out in the hollow wilds, but not enough to keep her safe.
Damn.
She had one good ability, maybe- but that one was more of a third party-type, and hadn't helped her anyways. Plus she'd been zapped by Green Eyes before she could release her ability. It wasn't her fault- it just took forever to get to sh'chi to make her escape. And the second one, tall and lanky, seemed even creepier that Green Eyes.
More importantly, why had they been following her? She looked at her two male escorts, wondering if that would give her any hint- they were Arrancar, and much more powerful that she; what would they want with her? Maybe… maybe, they had discovered her secret? It was the thing that made her stay hidden in the wilds, silently, by herself. She was the only one left of her kind; she had been born with a unique ability that separated her from everyone else:
She could bend time and space.
She was still being carried by Green Eyes, up and down. Geez, where were they taking her? Seriously. Wherever it was, it was very far away.
The girl took this time to study her 'escorts.' Personally, kidnappers fit better, but apparently Green Eyes insisted that they were just 'escorting' her to go see that Aizen guy. She'd heard about him. The hollows who had seen him said he was a madman with a strange power that could erase the line separating hollow from shinigami, and create a strange hybrid of both.
The idea terrified her. She knew there were things that shouldn't be messed with. Your power was one of them. That Aizen guy was screwing with the powers that be…
As if sensing she was looking at him, Green Eyes glanced below to her.
She looked to the ground immediately. Oh yes, the dirt was definitely what she had been looking at. Not the slightly psychotic 'escort' who just might rip her throat out. She bet he could, easily. He'd already completely derailed her attacks as easily as a horse swats a fly.
And for the other one… he was running behind her and Green Eyes. She had a feeling he was staring at her behind. He had an entirely creeper-esque aura around him, and she would bet sh'chi he was a pervert; she could just tell. Well, one thing was sure. Green Eyes had her sword, but if Lanky didn't stop looking at her butt like she all but knew he was, she was going to take Fuerda and shove it right up his-
"Wait." Green Eyes said. "We're here."
The girl looked up. Her breath caught.
A tremendous, ivory fortress of purest white dominated the landscape, controlling everything; it emanated power and terror. Tall spiraling towers, and a center complex with a curved ceiling decorated the castle's battlements. It was a stark glare against the black sky and pale sands of the hollow world. She could almost hear it roaring against the landscape.
Damn.
Green Eyes set her down on the ground. She staggered a little, unsteady on her still weak feet. Green Eyes caught her back, ever so lightly. Her heart throbbed again, surprised.
"Don't fall." He started walking.
"C'mon, let's go, honey," snickered Lanky. He was back to his annoying, insinuating, creepy self, she noted.
"I'll be fine. I'm not that weak," she muttered under her breath. She turned and followed Green Eyes and Lanky into the white fortress.
"-And we have a guest. Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, you may come out now," beckoned a rather kind-sounding voice from within.
They were standing outside a room, in one of the wings. She guessed it was some kind of meeting room, and she could hear voices from inside. She'd heard at least five different ones, and some snoring, she could almost be sure. Well, if someone was sleeping, surely it couldn't be so bad?
Before she could protest, Lanky pushed her out into the room. Almost tripping ungracefully, she stumbled into the room.
She looked up. There was a single bright light, and the rest of the room was in black shadow; it cast its occupants into hard edged shadow and giving them a dark cast. There was a long table in the middle of the room that everyone was seated around. She couldn't see very much. It was like being on stage under the stage lights; you couldn't see the audience well. She was wrong about six people: there were 12. 8 Arrancar, excluding Green Eyes and Lanky- rather, Uluiorra and Nnoitra- and three shinigami in white robes. The middle one had a kind-looking face, with slicked back brown hair. She guessed he was Aizen, as he was at the head of the table.
"Aizen-sama," Ulquiorra and Nnoitra greeted.
"I see you brought our guest. Thank you." He turned to me. "Hello," he said, smiling. Well, at least he was friendly.
"Um…-" She started-
"What the hell?" Yelled a loud voice from further down the table.
Almost everyone in the room sighed collectively at the rude person. She looked down and saw who it was- a rather tall man with blue hair and rogue, rather yank look.
"What's this about?" He continued to be rude.
"Grimmjow-" started the head shinigami-
"I don't know, you tell me!" Before she realized it, the words had come out of her throat. Damn.
"Huh? The thing speaks?" Blue Hair said loudly. She growled and her eyebrow twitched. Blue Hair had better shut up or he could join Lanky in the line of people about to get Fuerda shoved up their-
"How rude!" Aizen said. "Apologize, Grimmjow. I told you she was our guest!"
"What? Did you miss her sass-"
"APOLOGIZE." A stifling aura descended on Blue Hair. He grunted as it hit him, full force.
She realized what he was doing. The Aizen guy was concentrating his reiatsu on Blue Hair. It was such a force- she wasn't even part of it, and she could feel it from where she was. It made the hairs on her skin rise, and her heart fluttered a little.
"I… I'm sorry," Blue Hair struggled.
"Good."
Aizen stopped, and Blue Hair straightened up again.
"Now, as we were saying before Grimmjow interrupted us…" He turned back to her again. "What's your name?"
Normally she would have put up a fight, but again, she probably shouldn't mess with him- or rather, any of these people, for that matter.
"Seren."
"How pretty." Again, that gentlemanly smile. Somehow it chilled her to the bone despite its seeming harmlessness. Something- everything- about him told Seren she shouldn't trust him. "I'm glad you came. Oh dear, it appears you had a bit of a scuffle on the way here," he said, observing her ragged appearance.
"Yeah." Understatement of the century.
"Hmmm… Ah yes, why you are here. I would like to observe your power." He stated it simply, even though it was a rude if not awkward request.
"What?" She blurted. She blinked rapidly, half regretting her words and she got nervous again. "You mean… you know?"
"Of course. Why do you think Ulquiorra and Nnoitra," he gestured towards them, "spent so much time and energy pursuing you?"
"Dunno. Grudge?"
Aizen smiled. "Very funny. Why don't you tell us all what you can do?"
"She looks really weak to me," blurted Blue Hair at the end of the table.
God, Seren really wanted to hurt him right now. "I'm weak with physical attacks, yes," she explained.
"And-?"
Seren felt that she would sound arrogant for sure. What was she supposed to do, blurt her meager power to the powerful entities here, who could crush her as easily as a fly? She wound sound arrogant AND an idiot. She didn't want that.
"I.. can manipulate time and space to some degree…"
It sounded flat. Oh well, at least nobody was laughing- oh, whoops. She took that back.
It was Blue Hair, of course.
Her eyebrow twitched. She should take him back in time to the Stone Age and leave him there. He'd fit right in.
"Could you demonstrate?" Aizen asked.
"Huh? For the whole room?"
"Is it too much?"
Thinking of Blue Hair, Seren pronounced, "Definitely not." She looked around. "But I'll need my sword." She grabbed Fuerda from Lanky.
"Now I have to warn you," Aizen said, "don't try anything funny." He smiled cruelly, twistedly. Seren decided not to.
"All right." She grasped Fuerda and held it by the hilt, and left the tip of the long, thin sword hovering above the ground. She muttered something, and summoned a circle. She extended it to surround everyone in the room. Then she started counting.
"Ichi," One. The earth below the floor shook once.
"Nii." Two. The wind outside whistled twice.
"San." Three. The water in Aizen's tea splashed three times.
"Shi." Four.
"Go." Five.
"Roku." Seren almost stopped; trying to get up to sh'chi five times in one day was starting to hurt-
"Sh'chi." She struck her sword into the ground. Everything seemed to shudder. Time slowed to a breathtaking stop; the clocks stopped. The floor started to ripple, and the air itself seemed to undulate and wave. There was a strange atmosphere, like having one's ears clogged by cotton balls; light and free, yet also somehow stuffed and full. Seren panted, and held onto Fuerda for support. The colors in the room dulled to black and white, like an old photo.
She had stopped time.
"Amazing!" Aizen exclaimed, clearly pleased.
"What the hell?" Shouted Blue Hair.
"Well, well, pretty can actually do something interesting!" Jeered Lanky.
Green Eyes simply stood, hands in his pockets and observed.
"Where…. Do you wish… to go?" Seren asked. Her breathing was labored; sh'chi took a lot once or twice. This was her limit.
"Hmm… sometime in the past, right?"
"Hang on… no!" Seren suddenly gasped and sank to her knees. "Shit! We're in limbo!" She pulled Fuerda out of the floor.
"Sh'chi, roku, go, shi, san, nii, ichi!" She counted rapidly. Like snapping out of hypnosis, the spell broke. The floor stopped rippling. The color came back. The stuffy, empty feeling left. The clocks started running again. The air flowed back into normal.
"What happened?" Aizen seemed disappointed.
"I- I couldn't keep the portal open. If we were left in limbo, that would be bad…" Seren was hanging onto her sword. It was the only thing keeping her up.
"Well that's disappointing. Why couldn't you?"
"I… already… did that four times today…"
"Is that so?" Aizen turned to Green Eyes.
"Ulquiorra, why didn't you tell me this?"
"I didn't know it exhausted her so much." Ulquiorra replied curtly.
"Very well then, that's enough for today. Perhaps when she is recovered, Seren will show us all her power?"
Seren knew it wasn't a request. She nodded. She despised that she looked so weak in front of all of the Arrancar, especially Blue Hair, but she didn't know what would have happened if she had lost the strength to control sh'chi. If you lost the portal, you would simply be thrown somewhere random in time. Her knees were knocking against each other, and there was no strength in her spine.
"Well then. I entrust Seren to Halibel's care," Aizen said. "Halibel?"
The only woman there, with olive skin and blonde hair nodded curtly.
"Very well then," Aizen said. "That's it for today. You are dismissed."
The Arrancar stood up and filed out of the room. Blue Hair all but ran out of the room. Lanky left after him, and everyone followed suit. Green Eyes lagged; he turned around once.
Their eyes met. Seren's heart felt trapped again and started throbbing. His gaze was purely demonic.
Then the connection snapped, and he turned around and left. Seren hoped that she never saw him again. That was not fun, she decided. Now if I could just try to get out of here-
She turned around and found herself staring at a pair of crossed arms and very large- well. She looked up. It was the Halibel lady. She had on a two-piece outfit, a pair of hakatama pants and a belly shirt that barely covered her chest. The collar to her jacket covered up most of her face, leaving only her light green eyes to be seen. She was several inches taller than Seren. Needless to say, she was very intimidating.
"Um… am I supposed to follow you?" Seren asked.
Halibel merely nodded in response, and then turned on her heel and followed the rest of the Arrancar out the door.
"H-hang on!" Seren gripped Fuerda and stumbled after Halibel.
Halibel sighed and turned around. "You're too slow," was all she said. Without warning, she picked Seren up easily in her arms.
Seren lurched forward and squeaked. Wow, she couldn't believe that someone- especially a woman- could pick her up so easily. She hadn't thought she was that light. Then again, she was one of those Arrancar, and she had definitely learned one thing: they were powerful. So she shouldn't be surprised.
"Whoa, you're not gonna do that weird flash step thing are you?" Seren thought of Green Eyes- rather, Ulquiorra- and she felt sick to her stomach again.
"Sonido." Was all Halibel said. Then she launched into speed and flashed along the white hallways.
The walls and doorways flicked by and the hallways, all white, blended together because of their velocity. Seren eventually stopped watching. It gave her a headache.
It was only after about a minute of this incessant sonido that Seren realized exactly how big the castle was.
"What is this place?" She wondered aloud.
"Las Noches." Halibel said.
"Oh." Seren hadn't expected an answer.
Another minute or two of speeding, and then Halibel stopped abruptly. Seren lurched forward and almost fell. "Here we are," was all her captor- well, guardian maybe?- said. It was a blank white door, blending into the rest of the endless hallway.
"Ah. Home sweet home." Seren said wryly.