Wedding Night Mishap

Starrk felt a full body shudder shake him and when he came out of it he noticed he was standing in a bare room with a beautiful flower mosaic in the center of the floor, with white around the rest of the floor. Glancing around the room further, he saw that both Byakuya and Lilynette were in the room as well; however, he saw no sign of Ichigo and when he felt for the bond between them, it was very faint.

"No...where is he? I can barely feel him."

Starrk turned at those words and faced Byakuya. Grabbing ahold of the raven-haired male's shoulders, Starrk gave him a little shake, ignoring Lilynette for now as she explored the bare room and kicked the walls.

"It matters not for now, mi pareja. I can still sense him, albiet very faintly, so it is positiva that you can as well. We know he is alive, so let us finish what we need to so we may rejoin neustro querido. Now, let us explore this room and figure out what it is that we need to do."

"What the hell!"

Starrk and Byakuya were shocked out of their discussion by Lilynette's yell. Looking over at her, the men were stunned to see her flat on her back on the floor.

"Lilynette, what ever is the matter?" Byakuya moved out from under Starrk's hands and went over to the child-like half of his Primero. Reaching her, Byakuya stretched a hand down to her, which she accepted and used to get back on her feet.

"I was just going to the otherside of the room, but when I stepped on the floor here, it slid out from under my foot!"

While Byukuya helped settle Lilynette, Starrk knelt on the floor and examined it. Placing his hands on the inlaid floor tile, Starrk was shocked when it slid under his hands. Bending down until his face was almost on the floor, Starrk then gently ran his hands over the mosiac. When his hands had moved foward about 10 cm, they dropped off the current plane they were on into a hollow. Feeling around more, Starrk was able to determine that the hollow was a square about 10 cm X 10 cm.

Lilynette had calmed down almost as soon as she had been lifted up by Byakuya and the two of them had watched in amazement as the tall, lanky ex-Espada first knelt, then almost laid down, on the floor. When Starrk moved back into a kneeling position, Byakuya could no longer contain his curiousity.

"Starrk, what is it you are doing?"

"The floor is made of individual sliding tiles. There is a depression here," Starrk patted the divet in the floor he had found. "It is muy dificil to notice, since the mosiac is continued in the depression. But if you look muy estrechamente the flowers do not quite match on any of the tile seams. This tile for instance," Starrk slid the tile under his hand, "The flower on the side nearest me is amarillo while the flower it lines up with on the next tile is color blanco. The other flower match on this tile is azul which lines up to a verde flower on the tile to the left."

Byakuya eyed the floor mosaic more carefully, taking into account what Starrk had said about the flowers, and had to agree with him. The flowers were almost all cut in half by the seams, with one color on one side and a second color on the other side.

Lilynette knelt on the floor, in front of Starrk but not actually on the mosiac, and lifted Starrk's hand off of the moving tile. Once the tile was free from his hand, Lilynette slid it all the way over into the corner. The three in the room were surprised when, once the tile was fully in position, it sank slightly and could no longer be moved.

"Hmmm...," Byakuya narrowed his eyes, then knelt on the floor with the others. "Starrk, it would be of great assistance to me if you would move off of the tiles. I have an idea I wish to attempt, but the position you are currently in is hindering the ability to put it into use."

Looking slightly bemused, Starrk did as he was asked. Starrk stood and moved to stand behind Byakuya, looking over his shoulder as the raven-haired nobleman bent foward at the waist and slid a different tile than they had been gathered over. Lilynette, seeing the look of satisfaction that overtook Byakuya's face, decided that she couldn't keep quiet and absolutely had to ask what he was doing.

Byakuya absentmindly answered as he kept slid one tile up, then slid another into the newly emptied position.

"The floor is a giant puzzle. It seems we must move the tiles into the proper position, then we shall see what occurs next. If you will both allow me, I have some experience in such puzzles. They were a favorite pastime of my late wife, as she was too ill to be allowed much strenous activity."

Lilynette moved to stand over beside Starrk after a while, noticing that Byakuya was no longer paying any attention to anyone or anything other than the floor puzzle. Starrk and Lilynette watched in fasination as Byakuya shifted and slid the beautiful tiles into different positions. He worked from the first tile outward and, after what seemed to be an hour, was sliding the last two tiles into their place. As all the tiles were slid into place, there was a slight clicking noise, followed by the tiles sinking, very slightly, into the floor. When Byakuya moved the last two tiles into position, the normal click was overwhelmed by a harsh grinding noise.

Byakuya stood up abruptly and quickly moved to stand with Starrk and Lilynette as the noise grew in volume. The three then stood, tense and with hands on either their zanpakutos or their katanas, as they watched a square pillar rise out of the open place in the center of the design that was left by the tiles being slid into their correct places. The pillar rose to almost waist high on Starrk before finally stopping. The grinding noise also ceased once the pillar was done rising.

"Now what?" Lilynette asked as she moved over to the pillar and gave it a kick. As soon as the pillar was touched, the floor fell out from under Lilynette's feet and she tumbled backwards, out of sight. Starrk and Byakuya shared a look of alarm, then rushed over to where she had dissappeared from. Looking down into the rather large opening, the men were surprised to see a staircase spiraling down futher than their eyes could make out, even with the helpful glow coming off of the white stone walls.

Starrk gave a low chuckle when he heard faint swearing echoing up the spiral. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Starrk turned to look at Byakuya, who was sporting a small smirk on his face.

"Well Coyote-san, shall we adjourn to the new chambers your charming other half has discovered and cleared for us?"

"De grueso, mi amigo. If you would do the honors, Kuchiki-sama?" Starrk returned with a smirk of his own and a hand gesture indicating that he wanted Byakuya to preceed him.

"It would indeed be an honor, Primero."

And with a graceful nod of acceptance, Byakuya Kuchiki glided down the stairs, Starrk following closely behind. After several revolutions, the two Alphas finally reached the bottom of the staircase and exited the tower it resided in via an opening in the white walls.

Looking around once he had left the stairs, Byakuya found himself unable to restrain a gasp of awe at the sight before him. The ceiling soared up and away, far higher than the few rotations of steps that they had come down, and was as blue as a spring sky in the living world, with slight, wispy clouds drifting across it. Stepping foward more, Byakuya was shaken out of his comtemplation of the ceiling by the sensation of walking on the softest, springiest floor he could ever recall. Glancing down finally, Byakuya was astonished to see flowers in every color imaginable that matched the mosiac above, spread out in every direction as far as his eyes could see, moving in a non-existant breeze. Narrowing his eyes when he realized what he just noticed about the flowers and breeze, Byakuya placed his hand on Senbonzakura and cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Starrk where is Lilynette? I have not heard her for some little while now and we have yet to see her since arriving here."

Starrk, straightening up from his examination of a purple blossom, placed a hand on his katana and scanned the immediate vincinity, looking for any trace of the child Arrancar. Seeing none, he began to moved foward, carefully easing his way through the thigh-high flowers, trusting Byakuya to guard his back. As he walked, Starrk was able to take note of places where the flowers were missing a petal or two, and other places where stems were broken. Starrk followed those faint traces of anothers presence until, after about twenty minutes of carefull tracking, he found himself in a large circular area that was cleared of the flowers and had only short, even grass underfoot. Staying at the edge of the clearing, Starrk was pleased to note that Lilynette was laying down in the center of the circle.

"Lilynette? Why did you not wait for us?"

Lilynette gave no response, not even a twitch to show that she had heard Starrk's words to her. Starting to become mildly alarmed at the lack of any response, Starrk took another step into the clearing, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder before he could do more than that. Looking back over his shoulder, Starrk wasn't all that surprised to see Byakuya shaking his head.

As soon as he noticed that he had his Primero's attention, Byakuya spoke up.

"I am quite sure that you are worried about her," he said quietly. "I would like to point out that we have no idea why she is in the state that she is in, or how she got there. I would suggest that we do not enter into the circle until we can do a more thourough investigation of it."

As soon as the words left Byakuya's mouth, they were surrounded by the sound of laughter. Taking the eyes off one another and moving them back to the circle where the noise was coming from, Starrk and Byakuya beheld an unknown woman standing over Lilynette.

She was extremely tall, being almost as tall as Starrk, and had dark violet hair that was pulled back into a braid that fell to her knees. Where her eyes would normally have been was instead a white cloth that wrapped around her head, hiding the sight of her eyes. She had a pair of whips, coiled up and held in place on each hip, and was dressed in tight fitting black clothing that covered every centimeter of her skin from the neck downwards to where it met up with the black knee-high boots that had six cm high, extremely pointed heels on them.

"Like what you see, boys?"

Starrk tensed slightly, before forcing himself to relax. He did not like that she was in position over Lilynette, but he could wait until she revealed what it was that she wanted. He was a master at sonido and was confident that he could pull Lilynette out if he needed to. Starrk sensed, more than felt, Byakuya move to stand beside him.

"Who are you and what do you need with us?"

The unknown female smiled and placed a hand on her chest.

"Me? I'm no one of importance. At least anymore. I was at one time a challenger for the kingship, but I failed and am now one of the nameless who are in charge of testing the many who have come after us." Her smile shifted; where it had been polite, it was now fierce. "You have passed the first test by gaining entrance to the room with the first challenge. The fact that you are now here before me, means that you have progressed to the first battle."

Starrk was shocked out of listening to her when he felt Byakuya stumble slightly into his side. Byakuya quickly regained his balance, but not before the stranger had taken note of his loss of balance. She smiled in a very nasty fashion, before resuming an air of innocence about her.

"Do you like my beautiful, delicate, colorfull flowers? They are extremely rare and unbelievably old. In fact, they have existed without altering themselves in any way for all of time. They are called vacuum flore and those that died off eons ago compressed and fossilized themselves into a rather interesting stone. It's called sekkiseki stone," she paused when she saw the looks of alarm on the faces of the two males before her. "I see you are both familar with it. The flowers feed off of reiatsu and continue to do so in their fossilized form. You simply have to defeat me and these pesky flowers will dissappear, allowing the three of you to proceed onto the next test. However, if you do not defeat me soon enough, my lovelies will drain you until you will simply lay down in the field and become a very satisfying meal for them."

Byakuya drew Senbonzakura as soon as she finished speaking, although he wasn't able to take her by surprise as he had wished. As soon as he had moved to draw his zanpakuto, she had dropped her hands to her hips and grabbed her whips. Byakuya found himself unable to move Senbonzakura because there was a whip wrapped around it. Glaring at the interferring female, and holding onto his zanpakuto as he felt her pull on it, Byakuya whispered.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

The female found herself taking a full step back as she over balanced with the lack of resistance from the sword that was no longer wrapped up in her whip, never noticing an odd static noise. She didn't waste anytime wondering what happened though, and quickly recovered. Pulling out her other whip, she stepped back foward, making sure to put the small Arrancar at her feet, trusting that the other two males would not charge her with the small hostage beneath her. She was confused though as she moved foward and felt no resistance at her feet. Risking an extremely brief glance downward, she was stunned to note that the smaller female was no longer in evidence.

"Looking for something, mujer?"

She snarled at the sight before her. Starrk had Lilynette safely in his arms, while a pink cloud now swirled around the clearing.

"Mi Segundo, if you would kindly finish this battle for us, it would be muy apreciado."

Byakuya merely nodded and the swirling mass of petals that was Senbonzakura instantly wrapped around the unknown female, veiling her from sight. Very shortly afterwards, the air around them seemed to shimmer, and fill with fog, the ground gave a heave, and after recovering their balance, Starrka and Byakuya were treated to the sight of the fog fading away, leaving a much smaller room behind.

Starrk laid Lilynette down on the stone floor, feeling regretful that he had nothing that would provide a softer surface for his long time companion to rest on, and hoping that she would soon come out of the faint that the loss of her reiatsu put her in. Standing up, Starrk finally was able to take a good look around the room, something that Byakuya was already doing.

As Starrk looked over the room, he saw a small table resting in the center of the square room. Moving closer to the table, he noticed that there was a piece of parchment resting on it. Starrk raised his eyebrows in surprise. It had been a long time since he had last seen anything written on parchment, but then he gave a shrug. If Mosqueda's stories were correct, and judging by the fact that he and Byakuya were currently in the midst of the challenge, the stories were, then parchment would be appropriate for the age.

Starrk could feel Byakuya come up behind him as he left off his examination of the blank white walls.

"I must say that the fight was rather less than I was expecting."

"Si, I must agree with you. However, I am muy contento that you were able to end it so quickly or I am sure that we would have joined Lilynette in her rest. I thank you for your handling of it."

Byakuya bowed his head briefly in acknowledgement.

"I do not feel that any other battles we might have will be as easy. It was almost like we were being tested for future reference. And unfortunately, whoever is testing us is now aware of your incredable speed and the fact that Senbonzakura can dissolve into an explosion of smaller blades."

Starrk looked down at the parchment when Byakuya was finished speaking, not saying anything, because there was nothing he felt that he could add to the observations his partner shared with him. Since the table and parchment were the only things in the room when they had arrived, Starrk knew that they were the key to exiting, he just had to figure out how. Starrk reached down and lifted the blank parchment up and as soon as he did, words bled onto the page. Starrk, distracted by this discovery before he could begin to read the words by Byakuya, who had stiffened and placed a hand on Starrk's arm. Looking up, Starrk was rewarded by the sight of seven doors, all in different colors and sizes, in the previously blank wall in front of them.

Starrk glanced back down at the writing, scanning it quickly. Seeing that it mentions doors, Starrk was pleased for the first time that Lilynette had been the one to be knocked out by the vacuum flore, and not Byakuya, since Byakuya could be trusted not to rashly jump into things, unlike his little campanion who would have immediately tried to open a door.

Starrk nudged Byakuya with his elbow to get the other man's attention. Once he had it he placed the parchment back down on the little table so both men could see it.

"Mi pareja, please read this over. I shalll as well, but the brief scan of it I did, indicated that it is involved with those puertas."

Looking down, Byakuya read:

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the opener back instead,

Two among our number hold only timeless sleep,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in the deep.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the sleeper tries to hide

You will always find some on the killer's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once entered, though different at first sight."

Byakuya started to speak up, but a sideways glance towards Starrk had him deciding to stay quiet for a while. The tall Alpha was mumbling softly to himself.

"This challenge is ingenious. Many have no head for thinking logically and this is an asombroso way of testing for such thought. From what I read, three doors will instantly kill those who enter them. Two doors will send those that use them into a permanente sleep, which will also equal death, for we will never be seen again. It sounds like one door will allow us to give up sin peligro and return back to the beginning. And the last door will let us proceed onwards. And staying here is not an option."

Starrk glanced back at the parchment and read it again, making sure that he had the words correct, then moved foward, until he was standing before the door that was to the farthest on the right. Once before the door, Byakuya could see that his lips were moving, but could not hear anything, indicating that Starrk was speaking to himself. Starrk began moving slowly back and forth before the doors, gesturing at them from time to time. Eventually, he ceased pacing and came back to the table where Byakuya was still standing quietly, not wanting to interfere in the other man's thought process.

Starrk set the riddle back on the table, then turned his storm grey eyes on Byakuya. Running the fingers of his left hand though his unruly dark brown hair, he finally spoke to his partner.

"I have figured out the correcto door. The tercera door, the third, from the right will take us foward. If we have chosen to leave the challenge, which I think I can safely assume we will not be doing, the last door on the left would be the one required."

"You have indeed assumed correctly. We would be without honor to abandon the mission the So-Taicho gave our Divisions. If we complete the challenge and win, Los Noches will indeed be secure, as well as letting the inhabitants choose a King to relieve the pressures off of the Soul King."

Starrk could see that Byakuya's lips were upturned at the corners, ever so slightly, and that was only because he had spent so much time with the normally very private man.

"Well then. If you would grab Lilynette, por favor, we can be on our way. Since I solved this riddle, I will lead this time."

Byakuya turned away from Starrk and the table, and moved back to where Starrk had laid Lilynette down upon the fog's dissapating that then revealed the room they were currently standing in.

Kneeling gracefully on the white stone of the floor, Byakuya then placed a fine-boned hand on Lilynette's shoulder and gave it a slight shake.

"Lilynette. It is time to be moving onwards. Lilynette?"

Lilynette moved under his hand by rolling onto her side, before she rolled back and her eyes opened a bit.

"Ooo...Did anyone get the name of that Vasto Lorde that ran me over? Why are you here? Where's the lazy bastard?" Lilynette opened her eyes more and looked around the room. "This is not where I was before. Are we done?"

Byakuya, well used to the highly irritable other half of Starrk, just let her ramble on until he was sure she was finished before replying.

"We are unfinished as far as we know. This is the room that appeared after defeating the female that attacked us in the field that was at the bottom of the stairs. The reason you feel so rundown is because the flowers in that field were feeding themselves off of your spiritual pressure. Now then, are you completely recovered? And I need an honest response, not a bluff."

Lilynette's mouth snapped shut at the last sentence and she scowled at the serious man before her.

"Fine. I still don't feel 100%, but I am fit to fight."

Byakuya simply nodded at her declaration, then slid his arms under her and stood, bringing her up with him and ignoring her sputtering.

"Oi! I said I'm fine and can fight! Let me down so I can walk! I'm not like that lazy bastard Starrk!"

Byakuya tightened his grip on her, causing her to squeak and stop yelling.

"It is good to hear that you can fight, but you said that you are not yet at your full ability; therefore, I shall not set you down. You shall take this opportunity to rest and further recover from the drain caused by those flowers."

Byakuya then walked back to Starrk and stood at his back with his noisy load.

"Why? If I'm here, that means that you two were in the same room as me and you two are moving around. So why can't I?"

"We were not knocked out by the loss of our spiritual powers. Now hush. We are about to leave this room and do not know what awaits us."

"So then. If we are ready, mis amigos?"

And with that, Starrk opened the door he had chosen and stepped through, followed immediately by Byakuya carrying Lilynette. As soon as Byakuya stepped through the doorway bearing his still grumbling burden, the door slammed itself shut, leaving them blind due to the utter absence of light that their eyes had become accustomed to in the previous rooms. Byakuya calmly waited in the darkness, standing completely still since he did not want to stumble into anything with his lack of sight, and having the utmost confidence in Starrk. He found himself rewarded, after waiting what seemed to be an eternity in the inky darkness, with the faint glow of light ahead.

"Come," was all Starrk said before Byakuya heard the faintest whisper of footsteps leading away from him.

The three of them cautiously made their way foward towards the source of illumination, although Lilynette had no say in the matter. When she tried to speak up to that effect, Byakuya just gripped her tighter, causing her to squeak and go back to grumbling under her breathe. As they slowly moved foward, the light gradually became bright enough for details in their environment to be made out.

It could now be seen that they were in a tunnel. The walls were not the expected smooth, featureless white walls they were all used to seeing in Los Noches, however. Instead, the walls were a dark stone that looked incrediably rough, like it had never known any touch but that of nature. The walls gradually arched until they joined together overhead. The ceiling was just as unworked as the walls and Byakuya found himself unsurprised to see stalactites hanging from it. The naturalness of the walls and ceiling made him wonder about the floor. It was remarkably smooth and quite easy to walk on, having yet to trip him up.

The mystery of the smooth floor was solved when they reached the end of the tunnel, where the light streaming in from the next room was the brightest. The floor could now be seen to be made up of the same dark stone of the rest of the tunnel, just worn smooth from the passage of time.

It was also quite apparent that the smoothness of the floor continued onwards, although when Byakuya tried to move foward to get a better view, Starrk shot out an arm and stopped him. Looking over at Starrk, Byakuya could see his Primero shaking his head. Starrk then gestured at himself, and prowled out into the other room, with his katana drawn and in hand.

Byakuya waited patiently in the tunnel, hiding in the shadows as best he could, until he saw Starrk straighten up and gesture for him to come foward. Just like earlier, as soon as Byakuya and Lilynette crossed over the threshold, the way behind them was shut. Instead of a door though, this time the entry way back into the tunnel just dissapeared, leaving the entrance looking like just another section of the giagantic cave they now found themselves in.

"Someone or something is obviamente keeping track of us, mis companeros. I think it is a safe assumption for our future on these challenges that it is known that there are three of us."

Starrk and Byakuya were startled to hear laughter immediately after Starrk's declaration. Starrk tried to spin around rapidly to see if he could spot the source of the laughter and found himself feeling as though he was fighting though gale force winds. As much as he wanted to spin quickly around and scan the room, Starrk was unable to fight against the force he found himself subjected to and decided to quit struggling against the extreme forces battling him. As soon as he had relaxed his tense, straining muscles, he found that he was no longer fighting against the forces holding him in place and that they let him move at a normal speed to complete his turn.

Starrk's struggles were not lost on Byakuya, but the main focus of his attention was the unknown male that walked out of the cave wall on the heels of the laughter. He was about the same height as Byakuya, but much bulkier in build, looking almost like a short body double of Kenpachi-Taicho. The male had pitch black hair, cut so it rose in a crest and the tips of the crest were a bright lime green color. His eyes, like the first female they had dealt with, were completely wrapped. His wrap color however was as black as his hair. His traditional clothing was all in black as well, which was extremely surprising to Byakuya and actually made his eyes widen slightly, and made him look like a Shinigami.

The man let out the same laugh as before as he took in the look of surprise on Byakuya's face, just at the same time as Starrk was finally able to complete the turn, letting him see the new male.

"You should not be so shocked to see one such as I here, young Reaper. You are hardly the first Shinigami to be involved with such a powerful one. And those who fail, stay here; regardless of who it is or who they serve. I think you all know that I am your next test, so I will spare you any taunting about it. You will either beat me and unblock the exit to the next area, or you won't. There is no time constraint like the first test. I do think that the tall one has discovered some of the handicap that you will be under battling against me though. I do love a fight and do not like it when it ends to soon."

As he finished speaking, he flashed a large grin in the threesome's direction and held out his left hand. There was a flash of blue light and when the glare cleared, a large staff could now be seen in his hand. The man grabbed the staff in the middle and began spinning it end over end, until it was a complete blur. Neither Starrk nor Byakuya were pleased that the man had a staff, and was obviously skilled in using it, because it would be much harder to beat him. The staff had the advantage of a much longer reach than Starrk's katana and Byakuya's zanpakuto.

The man moved foward at a comfortable pace, which was extremely surprising to Byakuya, who then tried flashstep behind the male. Byakuya was unable to move at any great speed, finding himself being battered at by unknown forces the faster he tried to move. Lilynette, still in his arms, felt nothing and choose to make known her displeasure at this perceived lack of skill.

"Oh, come on! Get that stick out of your backside and get a move on! Starrk shouldn't have to save your lily white, noble ass whenever you're feeling as lazy as him, so get a move on!" Lilynette waved over towards Starrk, who was now engaged in the fight.

"I can not move! The more I try to pick up speed, the more resistance I am forced to contend with," Byakuya forced out. The shock of being unable to move as he wished, made him forget his manners for a moment.

While Byakuya was trying, and failing, to move behind the male at any speed, Starrk had drawn his katana and was trying to hold him off. Which wasn't easy. The male was moving at normal speeds, but his staff-work was indescibable. Everytime Starrk went to thrust, his katana was almost knocked from his hands due to the force of the blows from the staff. When Starrk made to slash at what was currently an opening, the staff was immediately in position to block.

Starrk could already feel the sweat beginning to trickle down his back as he rapidily swung his katana, blocking the hits the other was attemping to land on him. Starrk found himself wishing that he could use his superior speed like he was used to doing as he failed to block a hard hit to his side. Letting out a grunt at the contact, Starrk was please to note that Byakuya had finally manovoered himself into position to attack from behind.

Byakuya gave up trying to flashstep once it became appearent that it wasn't working, instead he moved foward in a gliding manner at a normal walking tempo. He had had Lilynette clamber around onto his back after thinking, and discarding, the idea of setting her down on the floor. After her comment, he decided that she obviously didn't feel the same issues with speed that he, and he was pretty sure, Starrk, had felt. The only thing that was different amongst the three of them was the fact that Starrk and Byakuya had two feet firmly on the floor, and Lilynette had yet to grace the floor with her presence. So Byakuya decided that it might be a very smart idea to keep Lilynette on his back, even if that meant taking her into a fight. He was sure that he would be hearing about it from Starrk later.

As soon as he was in position behind the male, Byakuya unsheathed Senbonzakura and thrust him foward. Just when it looked like he was going to be succesfull, the moving blur that was the other's weapon came out of seemingly nowhere to block him.

Now that the male had oppenants on both sides, his skill became even more apparent. His staff was a constant blur that wrapped around his body, being everywhere it needed to be to block any thrust or slash. As the fight wore on, Byakuya was forced to toss Lilynette high overhead as the other male was thrusting his staff over Byakuya's shoulder and towards Lilynette's head. As he did so he called out to Starrk.

"Incoming! Catch her and do not let her touch the floor!"

The stranger, for the first time since battle began, laughed.

"Figured out my little trick did you? Clever. Don't see how that little girl can help you with it though."

Starrk had managed to catch Lilynette while the other spoke and was rewarded for his efforts by a growl in his ear. He was distracted a moment later by the back end of the staff crashing into his ribs, which he could feel crack under the force being applied. Starrk couldn't stop the little hiss of pain that left his mouth from the hit. It had been a long time since someone had landed such a hit on him; but then again, he had been expecting that the ones they were fighting against were going to be rather powerful, otherwise they wouldn't have been attemping the King's Challenge while they were still amoung the living.

Just before Starrk was getting his ribs cracked, Byakuya's shoulder was meeting the top half of the staff. Having missed striking Lilynette, the male pulled sharply down on his staff, causing it to beat against Byakuya's shoulder. Byakuya heard an ominous crack as soon as the staff hit and his arm lost some of the feeling in it. Fortunately it was his off hand and Byakuya just forced it to move enough that it was inside his shihakusho, where he cinched his obi tighter around the hand he shoved down into it to keep it out of the way.

The fight continued on. Both Starrk and Byakuya had numerous cracked or broken bones while the other male had blood flowing from the many thrusts and slashes that had been landed on him. Starrk was once again carrying Lilynette after having tossed her back and forth several times, attemping to prevent any harm coming to his other half. Byakuya had discovered that trying to scatter Senbonzakura didn't work. The petals seemed to have the same problems with resistance that both Starrk and Byakuya were affected by. Stepping back for a moment, Starrk left Byakuya to fight entirely on his own while he tried to gather his thoughts and formulate a plan.

As he got to thinking, he could hear Lilynette as she grumbled about no one ever taking her seriously. As she got to the part where she was wondering if anyone even remembered that she had a zanpukuto of her own, Starrk was hit by a brilliant idea. Reaching over his shoulder and getting a firm hold of the little Arrancar, Starrk spoke up.

"You wish to prove yourself, mi pequeno, now is your chance. Draw your zanpakuto as I throw you and attack as soon as you land. Te entiendo? NOW!" Starrk yelled the last bit as he flung the startled girl towards the male they had been battling against for what seemed to be hours.

The male, who was almost entirely focused on Byakuya now that Starrk had pulled back, had not been paying attention to what the two Arrancars were speaking about. He had just been focusing enough attention on the two of them, so that if they moved foward into an attack position again he would be prepared to defend himself and attack them in turn. He was therefore completely taken by surprise when he saw the girl the two men had been flinging back and forth coming straight towards him out of the corner of his eye. He was even more taken aback when he saw her sporting a large grin on her face. He was unable to concentrate on her any further, because the graceful, raven-haired male he was fighting against, suddenly stepped up the viciousness of his attacks and he was forced to pay the man more attention. He was completely startled when he felt the girl hit against him and wrapped her long legs around his torso, but he was so busy defending himself that he choose to ignore her, since he had yet to see her draw any weapons.

That was the only mistake he made in that fight. As soon his attention was fully on Byakuya, Lilynette reached up a small hand to her broken horn and pulled out her zanpakuto. She held the long, curved blade in her hand as though its weight was nothing and, with a gleeful expression on her face, swung it around until it came into contact with the male's neck.

As her sword moved foward, regardless of any resistance it encountered, the wall the man had come though before proceeding to fight them, began to shimmer, looking like it was a heat induced mirage. As the man's head fell from his shoulders, the wall stopped appearing as it was trapped behind a heat haze, and a dark portal in the face of the cavern was now readily apparent.

"Go. You have defeated me soundly. It has been long since I have had such a fight and it was obviously to my detrement as I forgot that all persons, regardless of what they look like, may be a viable threat."

Starrk and Byakuya grinned at each other wearily at the other's disembodied voice. Starrk then moved foward and set a hand carefully on Lilynette's head, in between her horns.

"Well done, mi pequeno. Well done indeed."

Lilynette smiled up at her other half, extremely pleased that she had proven that she was a valuable member of their odd little pack. She couldn't wait to get back to the Seireitei and tell Kenpachi and Yachiru about her part in the fight.

Starrk and Byakuya slowly made their way over to the opening in the cavern wall, while Lilynette skipped happily behind them. Sharing one last look, the two battered men then moved foward into the darkness, Lilynette right on their heels, not knowing what to expect next.

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vacuum flore= void flower (latin)

Hope this long chapter makes up for the previous chapter's shortness. Also hope my challenges are up to par.

Thanks as always to those who take the time to review. It really means a lot to a writer.