Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape, and/or form, own Bleach. Otherwise this wouldn't be a fan-fiction. However, the random human fans/audiences are mine [basically character additions to highlight the story].

Author's Note: Wow, I really miss typing up my stories. I wish I had more time to get back into my gear, but unfortunately college and my advanced classes have a huge grasp on me and aren't letting go anytime soon. Including blasted drama and the thought that "I NEED A JOB" never releasing it's tight hold, either. I also have a club of my own to keep together and it's starting to fall apart form my constant absences due to drama club. Man, I'm SO sorry guys! When I'm in college I'll make a schedule to allow time for myself to write, okay? ^^

11/19/12: I had my friend Emily go through this prologue and chapter one as a beta-reader for me since she's so smart (she's so nice to do this for me considering she hates anime xD and the only thing she asked for was if there was sex, though I don't think she'd enjoy homosexual intercourse being a pure straight girl such as herself. She's a Fifty Shades of Grey fan, so it's to be expected…)

A Change in Atmospheres

Prologue

Choice

Dulled, emerald green orbs moved to stare into panicked brown ones. Oh, how confused he was as to why his enemy was helping him. Well, she was supposed to serve them now, but was originally on the other team from the get-go. So why she was now helping him when her savior had already saved her was against him. "What are you doing, girl? Aren't you going to run off with the Ryouka boy now and destroy Aizen-sama?"

A drop of sweat streamed down the girl's face; she was already expecting the interrogation. "Ichigo has already taken his leave and I have decided to heal you for my own sake, because I can't stand the thought of letting somebody die. This is my choice, so deal with it. oh, and if you try to attack me, I have plenty of friends to back me up."

He stared at her for a while longer then shut his eyes and turned his head the other way. "...I see...it amazes me, yet again, how you managed to bring me back from the dust I was…"

"Heh, if I can bring Ichigo back from the dead, it doesn't surprise me that I can do the same for you." She smiled weakly and dimmed her eyes a bit, almost starting to regret her decision.

"Hey Inoue! Can you hurry it up?! I kind of want to watch Ichigo beat up that fucktard Aizen!" Renji bellowed somewhere beyond the two.

"Yeah, just a minute! Can you handle it on your own now?" She looked back down at Ulquiorra after replying to the crazy red pineapple head.

"Yes; I have regeneration too, you know..." He opened his eyes and turned his head to look back at her again. His thoughts immediately went to Grimmjow and his welfare. He focused on pinpointing his reiatsu, but only managed to pick up weak snippets of it. He's probably beyond help by now, so I might as well not even bother to ask the girl to help him, Ulquiorra thought dreadfully, wanting badly to sob into a pillow like pathetic human. He had found it quite relieving from past "misunderstanding" quarrels he had with Grimmjow. Grimmjow...what am I to do without you...

"Well, I'll be leaving now." The orange, transparent oval cracked and burst into tiny shards around him as Orihime stood up to take her leave. "Maybe I'll see you in the near future. Goodbye for now, Ulquiorra Schiffer." And she left on that note, running full speed ahead to catch up to her rookie friends.

Ulquiorra slowly forced his ass up–even though it pained him very much to do so–and looked all around him at the rubble among the vast desert. What am I to do now? Help Aizen-sama, or continue on in this dump? In all honesty, he didn't really want to help the traitorous asshole. He had used the arrancar as if they were merely his own pawns in a human's game of chess and didn't seem to care one bit when one passed away. Tools of destruction that Aizen knew all-too-well would fight on to their own demise. Why should he continue to serve the bastard? Grimmjow was right all along; betrayal would've been much kinder to them. Now he might as well go off to find purpose in human life, as a human in a gigai. He didn't really know how to do that what with his only gigai source defeated, but he had a good idea. Kisuke Urahara's shop that Aizen had once brought up when referring to the ever-so-amazing hogyoku that this Urahara had created. Yes, that sounded like a good plan, a good plan indeed. But first, he had to un-release his sword.

/

A little girl with jet black hair pulled up into twin tails–much like Loly had–and a really sad expression peered out at the scary emo man before her and ran back to get Kisuke before he caused havoc, which she strongly disapproved of. "Urahara-senpai! I think there's an arrancar in front of the stop! Please deal with him before Jinta finds out!" Her feet, bare, glided across the hardwood floor with ease, running quietly to avoid rousing the violent boy from his slumber.

"Really now? Could you somehow take care of him on your own? I have Soul Society matters to deal with since I sealed Aizen's powers." Kisuke Urahara suddenly appeared and called out, but froze when his eyes met the emotionless green orbs that suddenly appeared before his desk. "Oh, it's you. Never mind then, Ururu–I'll have to deal with this one myself. Go run along and find Jinta–this could get messy."

"O-okay, Urahara-senpai..." She nodded timidly and ran past Ulquiorra, back into the outside world to find the young rascal.

Ulquiorra kept his green eyes on Kisuke, not bothering to watch the youngster's motives. "There is no need for such precautions, Soul Reaper, I am simply here to request a favor."

"Oh?~ Pray tell." Kisuke picked up a fan, pulled out a chair and sat down, fanning his face to his heart's content while awaiting the ex-Espada's story. Soul Society could wait.

"I plan to make this as brief as possible, seeing as you are quite busy at the moment."

"Oh no, go on, I never cared for the Society's crazy politics, anyhow. That's why I left; to freely invent cool gadgets as I please." Kisuke smiled creepily behind the black and gold swirls paper fan, bemused.

"Have it your way, then." Ulquiorra relaxed a tiny bit, preparing for his monologue. "After I was shamefully defeated by the Ryouka boy, I had re-awoken to the Hime-girl's face looking sodden as she had taken on the burden of actually bringing me back from the dust I had become. At first, I wanted to run off to Aizen-sama's side and help him, but thought better of it. Why help the guy that knew your fate before you even did and played you like it was the opposite of what your fate really was? So I thought about what to do with my restored life and decided to find the purpose in human life. Since I was created to represent "emptiness" by Aizen-sama, I want to prove it wrong by actually finding a purpose. So I come to you in hopes that you will aid me in my journey since our scientist is currently deceased. Of course, I do plan to eventually repay you for your kindness and promise to not harm a single hair on any human being. If I ever disprove my loyalty, you can call upon your Soul Society friends and have me executed for the disgrace. Thank you for hearing me out, Mr. Urahara." He bowed to him then stood straight once again, paying no mind to the peeping toms just outside the shop's entrance.

"Please, call me Kisuke. Well–how should I respond to this–this actually sounds quite appealing. I'd be more than happy to help you, seeing as you are so diligent about this–and don't worry about the payment, I usually do deals free of charge for friends, anyways. You must've been Aizen's favorite–I can just tell from your undying loyalty. Come along now," he rose from his chair and motioned for Ulquiorra to follow, "I'll go prepare a permanent gigai for you and we can discuss how we will situate you in the human world in the back. And of course there is a way to exit the gigai, it's just harder than most and kind of painful."

"There is no need for you to figure out how I will be situated; I already had my death certificate revoked through a means of small threats." He walked around the counter and followed Urahara into the back room.

"Ohohoho, how interesting~" Kisuke giggled and fanned himself some more.

6

Grimmjow snapped awake with a start from his horrid nightmare. Upon awakening, his many wounds started giving him pain all at once. "Ah, fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck fuck! Heal already, damn it!" he cursed relentlessly to himself while holding his right arm and rocking back and forth. He finally stopped after the pain had let up some and took a stand, studying his surroundings. That same red cylinder was still there in front of him albeit the rubble around it from other buildings. Where is everyone? The only spiritual pressure I feel is some shinigami's, but he's pretty distant from me. He turned to his right and could feel a very faint spiritual pressure. Who is...only one way to find out, suppose. He sonídoed over to the pressure and looked down at the bloody heap with pity. And you called me weak! Well guess who's still standing, asshole! He kicked the seemingly lifeless body that was Nnoitra and only laughed when the small reiatsu wavered weakly. He nudged it on its back and bent down to peer at its face. "Still wanna live, chump?" No response. "Well, I'm a go see about that other weak reiatsu and get back to you later. That is, if you're still living by then." He laughed darkly and stood up, heading back toward the main headquarters to the other reiatsu–he had a good feeling that it was that pink-haired freak, though. Nonetheless, he had to go confirm his suspicions.

He sonídoed somewhere outside Szayelapporos Grantz's laboratory and blinked at the stiff scientist just standing with his arm outstretched like an idiot in the middle of the desert. "The fuck? Cat got your tongue or something, pink freak?" He walked over to stand in front of the forever-shocked scientist.

"I-is that you, Grimmjow? P-please, p-put m-m-me out of my m-my misery, I-I b-beg of you..." His lips didn't even move; mouth frozen agape.

"What fucker did this to you? It looks like your petrified from the waist-up." Grimmjow furrowed his brows in confusion at the strange case, unbeknownst to the cause just a few miles distant from him.

"Another scientist, now please—end me from this t-torment."

Grimmjow contemplated his choices. "Nah, I think I'm gonna have you healed; I just received a genius idea and could use you for it." He snatched up the scientist and threw him to hang over his shoulder. "I gotta hurry back to Nnoitra now before the big baby dies on me, heh heh." Filled with renewed ambition, Grimmjow raced back over to where Nnoitra still lied and threw him onto his other shoulder. He tore open a gargantua, stepped into it, and awaited the world of the living once more. As he looked over the vast desert, he tried again to feel for Ulquiorra's reiatsu, but there was no hope: the reiatsu was completely gone, almost as if he had vanished. Ulquiorra...I am so sorry, my love...

/

Grimmjow's cerulean eyes cautiously took in the surroundings of the little shop before him, his mind remembering of how the bastard once went on about this place. "Tch, doesn't look like it's much of a shop at all," he growled and shifted the dead weights on his shoulders, a little tired of carrying the two. He snapped his head to his left when he felt a small reiatsu approaching. Alert, he dashed inside the shop to avoid a battle, no matter how weak the person was, he was in no shape for that at the moment.

"Where're you going, chicken?" came a small, male voice at the entrance of the shop.

"Oh shut up, kid, I'm not here to pick a fight so calm down." He snarled inside the shop and looked around for the exuberant shop owner.

"I'm back from the meeting~" the crazy shop owner appeared right on time behind the little boy. Grimmjow turned around and almost dropped his jaw at what the fool wore. "Oh? Well, well, well what do we have here? I must be quite the popular guy to receive such visitors yet again!" Grimmjow narrowed his eyes and tried to ignore the weirdo's tone. "Now before you go on, lemme take a guess at what you want because I already have a good idea: you want me to help your two friends there and also to situate you in the human world and in return you won't hurt any humans, correct?"

"Che, you a fortune teller or something?"

"You could say that. Now follow me into the back so I can examine your two friends, though I can't say I can do much for them seeing as they are in pretty bad shape." He walked up to Grimmjow and motioned for him to follow. He walked around the desk and into a back room. He pointed to a clean table for Grimmjow to lay one of the bodies on and made to clear off another one for the other.

Grimmjow laid down Szayelapporos, who needed the more immediate help, and then walked over to the now-clear table to get rid of the second dead weight.

"Well," Kisuke started after he took one good look at Szayelapporos, "I believe I might need Miss Inoue's assistance because I'd rather not call over Ms. Unohana."

"That Hime bitch? Lovely, because I need to see her and fucking Kurosaki again," Grimmjow growled rather menacingly.

Kisuke turned from Szayelapporos' body and gave Grimmjow a look of pity. "If you don't want to be exterminated by Soul Society, then you really have no choice."

"Tch." Grimmjow looked at the ground, his eyes flashing with pure hatred. He clenched his fists in anger. "Alright, send them over. Just make sure that I don't have to see them, capeace?" He stood up and looked for a place to hide while cloaking his reiatsu best he could.

"Not to be rude, but you're in pretty bad shape yourself, arrancar. You could die from blood-loss at any moment." He said in his most serious tone.

"Che, fuck it; I'd rather not die. Just tell her that it's private and to come alone at least. I'd rather not see Kurosaki." He killed Ulquiorra, fucking prick. Well I suppose it's somewhat my fault, but still...He watched Kisuke exit the room to make the dreaded call with a deep scowl on his face. He wouldn't cry. Not here and not now, at least. Maybe later...when he was alone.

"She's on her way now!" Kisuke had once again entered the room and walked up to Grimmjow, who now looked even paler than before. "Hmmm, your condition seems to be getting worse; let me go get some bandages." He walked over to a large closet, opened it, and retrieved what appeared to be a large first aid kit.

Grimmjow was too lost in his memories of the times he spent with Ulquiorra to notice—much less care about—Kisuke wrapping bandages around his worst wounds.

"U-um excuse me, Mr. Urahara, but I-I'm here now," came a timid voice just beyond the room they were in.

Grimmjow snapped out of his reverie the second he heard it and growled menacingly. Great; she's here.

"We're back here, Miss Inoue~" Kisuke called back to the voice merrily and Grimmjow instantly pictured him waving a fan in his face like a creeper. He looks like he'd do something like that constantly.

"G-Grimmjow?!" Orihime gasped and covered her mouth the second she walked back there. "Wh-what...well that explains why you wanted me alone, but why?"

Grimmjow snorted at how dense she was. "To be healed, obviously! Nnoitra and Szayelapporos are in such a bad state that we absolutely had to resort to you."

"...Oh," she finally said after taking in Grimmjow's irritated shouts.

"Oh-hohohohoho, don't worry about him, just go ahead and focus on the other two please, Orihime~" Kisuke gave her a reassuring smile. Or at least what he thought was one, but it looked more like a creeper smile to Grimmjow.

"U-um, may I ask why you're helping arrancars out, Mr. Urahara?" Though it was not like she hadn't done so herself; she had saved her captor from near-death, after all.

"Ah~ Funny you should ask when I know that you helped one out yourself, considering the guy visited me earlier. He liked to talk."

Though unfortunately for Grimmjow, he had fainted from too much blood loss before he could hear Kisuke's response.

"Oh, poo~ the poor baby fainted."

Orihime gasped upon hearing this, a little worried for his sake. "Ayame!" she called out and the little guy made the orange, transparent barrier much larger.

"So," Kisuke whispered into Orihime's ear, having snuck up behind her, "why'd you help out the guy who kidnapped you, eh?"

Chills instantly went down Orihime's spine and she gulped.

/

When Grimmjow awoke again, he found himself lying in a small hospital-like bed and a pink-haired guy glaring over at him from a chair nearby. "What the, Szayel...?"

"So you're finally awake? Good then I'll cut right to the chase–why didn't you just kill me like I asked? Do you know how fucking painful that was? Ah, it gives me chills just thinking of that torment I went through now!" Szayelapporos hugged himself in psychological pain and glared back at Grimmjow again. "Besides, I'll never be able to return to my lab again, so what do you expect me to accomplish in this dump?"

"Well, if you were listening to me when I picked you up, you'd know that I said I had a good idea," Grimmjow growled, a little irritated because he bothered to save this asshole.

"So what does this genius idea of yours entail, eh?" Nnoitra leered around the corner and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well," Grimmjow started, "I was thinking..." ■

Author's E/N: Chapter One is coming up real soon, so don't fret readers! I'm almost done~! Expect it to appear either today or tomorrow, actually, woot woot~!