Destructions Malice.

Rukia awoke smiling; her hand still resting on the man’s rippling chest. He was both her master, and her lover and she would have it no other way. Opening her eyes she found the Arrancar gazing down at her, a somber expression on his face she had never seen before. She lightly blinked the sleep from her eyes and gave the man a small happy smile, which he returned. Again she was awestruck, he had smiled! It wasn’t his normal devilish grin, or even his half hearted smirk she had known so well, no this was a true smile. It was amazing how it changed him, his entire being seemed to change with that warm smiled. He instantly seemed so…normal, the rage and power, the pride and honor all seemed to vanish leaving only a man.

“Good morning girly…” he started in a quiet tone almost unlike him.

“Morning master…” she said with a small smile and light blush quickly washing over her face.

The man smiled at her in a way that made her feel very cute and very loved simultaneously, then laid a gentle kiss upon her brow before sliding out of bed. She sat up on her elbows and watched him stand, the image of the man naked something she had forgotten about. His form was intoxicating and she wished only to gaze upon it for as long as she could.

She stood as he moved across the room, not bothering to cover up as she followed. She briefly looked out the window realizing it was still dark outside; they must not have slept all the way through the night…which she found slightly odd seeing as she remembered being quite exhausted after their session. She frowned and continued following the man deciding that her emotions at seeing him again were probably to blame.

She followed her master carefully across the room, not sure what he was doing or what he had planned…but curious nonetheless. She stopped abruptly as he did, and gazed at him as he simply…stood there seemingly staring at the wall. Rukia took a ginger step forward, still not sure if he was playing some new devious game.

“Ma…ster?” she asked, a worried tone slipping into her question as she carefully reached out toward his shoulder.

The man spun faster then she could have thought possible, it was almost as if he had been looking at her the entire time as apposed to actually turning. His hand shot out and took hold of her wrist so roughly that if not for his other hand clutching her throat she would have been brought to her knees. She couldn’t even speak with how painfully hard he was clenching his fist around her windpipe.

“Bas…tard…” he spoke almost as if he were in pain or struggling to even speak. Her eyes widened as a thin trickle of blood fell from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. She grimaced as she suddenly began to feel like something was crushing her, like the all the air around her had suddenly turned to lead. Her vision began to darken; the entire world began to vibrate in front of her eyes and suddenly her brain understood.

~~~

She awoke from her dream already struggling violently against the boot pressed painfully into her chest, though with the immense spiritual pressure weighing on her it was impressive that she was able to do anything at all. She turned her head to her love and all at once she felt like her entire body had been set aflame with a mixture of rage and fear. He laid on his back, her brothers Zanpukto was lodged in the center of his chest far enough to be through the bed they laid on. The Arrancar was holding the blade in pain; his hands were bleeding where he had caught it, though with his strength so limited he hadn’t been able to stop it in time.

Grimmjow was grimacing in a way she had only seen one other time, and he had nearly died in that battle.

“Nii-Sama!” she creamed frantically, “STOP IT!” her voice so frantic and loud that it crackled. She clawed at her brother’s leg wildly trying anything to get him off of her so she could help.

“Silence.” His voice was composed as always but his eyes portrayed an anger she had never seen in him.

Rukia realized she was helpless and turned to Grimmjow, tears already streaming down her cheeks. But she found the man focused on his attacker, his own eyes equally full of rage.

“I warned you Espada…” started Byakuya while he slowly forced his blade further through Grimmjow.

Grimmjow groaned weakly but managed to slow the swords descent, though fresh streams of blood poured from the palms of his hands.

Rukia dropped her gaze as something caught her attention, and her eyes widened at what she saw. The number on the collar blinked briefly at one hundred percent then rapidly fell through the seventies…forties…teens…zero. The collar suddenly smoked and a brief electrical discharge later the display screen cracked and the number disappeared entirely. Her gaze rose again and she fell speechless…he was grinning widely.

The Arrancar raised his hand to the Captain above him, blood still trickling down his forearm, “”Gran…Rey…Cero…” his words were soft but full of malice and all at once the world lit on fire.

Rukia slowly regained composure, her eyes refocusing and consciousness kicking in once again. Her ears rang loudly and her head throbbed as if she had been knocked unconscious. She groaned and pushed some of the shattered wood and clay that had once been the roof of her brother’s estate off of her. Standing she nursed the arm that had been closest to the Espada and was relieved to see it had only been lightly injured between the heat and collapse of the structure. Looking around she was astounded at the destruction he had wrought with a single attack. The estate was all but gone; all that remained was a crater and a few of the buildings outside of the blast radius.

She stumbled forward, trying to find some sign of either of the men. She halted in her tracks, eyes wide as a small Cherry Blossom Petal fluttered by her. She spun and managed to leap out of the way as the wave of her brothers Shikai flooded past her before funneling upward.

“Panzy ass ability!” roared Grimmjow as a second blood red Cero exploded from his palm toward the mass of Blades chasing him.

This only scattered them for the briefest of moments before they cascaded at him from all directions. She watched in horror as they seemed to envelop him, only to see him appear some distance away in a burst of static. The mass of blades was almost instantly on the man, but they refrained from attacking. Instead they fluttered in a loose tangle in a massive tangled sphere around him.

Byakuya appeared suddenly in the air across from the Arrancar using Shunpo, his hand already out to match the Espada’s blistering speed. “Its over Arrancar…” his tone was calm and controlled as usual despite the blood coating the arm that hung at his side, likely injured in the point blank Cero he had fired initially.

Grimmjow only laughed as he reached forward into the air, hand open wide as if asking for a handout. The Arrancar grinned devilishly, something that was impressive seeing as he still had what would have surely been a mortal injury from the Captains blade in his chest.

Byakuya winced, something Rukia would see as annoyance and clenched his fist tightly. All at once the mass of blades surrounding the Arrancar flooded inward. Grimmjow remained still, and for a moment Rukia was sure he had run out of steam from his injury and was giving in. But as the blades made it harder and harder to see him his Zanpukto suddenly materialized in his outstretched hand and he drew it to his side.

~~~

Underground at the twelfth division headquarters chaos had erupted. Captain Kurotsuchi had appeared only a moment after the newest alarm had begun blaring loudly. Most of the screens in the room were trained on a single event at the Kuchiki manor.

“Captain! The restriction device has failed!” cried the third seat Akon as he rapidly input information into one of the computers.

The captain seemed un-phased and made a shooing gesture at the man, “Hardly…” He sighed in annoyance, “I simply installed a failsafe in case of mortal injury.”

The entire room stopped and turned to the captain almost as if they didn’t believe what he had just said.

“Kurotsuchi looked at them and sighed, “The specimen is to important to risk with such foolish devices…get back to work fools!”

The room hesitated only a moment before returning to their work.

Hiyosu shouted the next set of incoming data in rapid succession, “Spiritual strength higher then expected…Speed and durability also increasing in accordance with discontinued restriction…Strange spirit particle’s amassing…”

The Captain leaned in and smiled widely, “As expected! His Zanpukto is linked to his spiritual energy! Now that his power is restored he can restore his Zanpukto!” his voice was practically seething excitement, “Re-align all sensors on the specimen!” he roared.

The room echoed with the sounds of rapid input into many devices simultaneously, and many screens suddenly lit and began streaming dozens of different pictures and numbers.

“Re-alignment complete!” called Rin as the final inputs were placed.

Only a moment later the main screen faltered to static and several devices around the room suddenly sputtered and sparked as they were overloaded and set fire. Dozens of screen at various stations flashed red as new alarms sounded as sensors shut down and were destroyed.

Kurotsuchi’s eyes widened in surprise and he briefly thought that maybe his feeding mechanism had been a bit too effective.

~~~

“No! Grimmjow!” cried Rukia as the petals enveloped him, fresh tears welling up in her eyes even as she ran toward him.

“Grind…Pantera…”

The explosion of her brother Shikai came suddenly thousands of the petals lightly aflame and fluttering down toward the ground. Rukia slid to a stop and gazed up at the creature that had taken Grimmjow’s place. As the smoke cleared the Espada brought his eyes to meet the Captains and for the first time in Rukia’s life she saw true surprise in her brother’s face.

The beast reared up and let out a massive roar which instantly brought Rukai to her knees clutching her ears in pain. The sound wave the roar created exploded outward crushing several surrounding structures as if they were made of paper. She was showered in shards of wood and stone that had been scattered in all directions but was lucky enough to avoid any large chunks that landed with small thuds around her.

As the last pieces of debris hit the ground Rukia raised her head again to the brewing battle above. She noted instantly that her brother had recalled his Shikai and his Zanpukto had been resealed into its normal shape.

She suddenly realized what he meant to do, “Nii-Sama no!” she cried as loud as her body would allow her.

But she went unheard as he flipped his blade so that the blade aimed downward and dropped it, “Ban…”

The burst of static was powerful enough to actually blow her brothers hair back, she had never seen anyone move such a great distance without using multiple Shunpo. Grimmjow laughed and casually kicked the blade away as it fell and in one fluid motion spun again, his shin crashing into the Captains head violently. Rukia watched her brother rag doll through the air and crash through one of the few remaining structures in the estate before hitting the ground beyond it.

The second impact happened before Rukia could even register it had happened at all, and her brother came tumbling out of the large dust cloud of his first impact. He managed to right himself rather quickly and quickly shot out two fingers toward the direction he had come from.

“Hado number sixty-three, Raikoho!” Called Byakuya, his voice calm as ever.

The resulting yellow tinged blast was surprising and the large explosion at the center of the dust cloud even more so. Rukia had never seen him cast such a high level Hado spell, let alone do it without the incantation and it still be so powerful.

Grimmjow suddenly appeared behind the man, not a scratch on him, “Bastard!” he roared loudly.

“Bakudo number sixty-one, Rikujokoro.” Was the low reply the Arrancar received, the Captains other hand pointed behind him and hidden beneath his captains Haori in the same fashion as the first.

All at once six golden pillars crashed into the Espada and effectively halted his attack. Rukia was awestruck at her brother’s skill, and how easily he had predicted the man’s moves. Byakuya quickly leapt backward and landed at his Zanpukto, this time wasting no energy raising it into position and dropping it downward.

“Bankai.” His blade vanished into the ground.

Grimmjow roared in anger and to Rukia’s amazement several of the pillars cracked against his strength. He growled and strained against the Kido spell and with a gargantuan effort one of the pillars shattered and Grimmjwos arm was free. He quickly took hold of another pillar and this time pulled it apart with relative ease.

Even as the Arrancar shattered the last pillars holding him in place dozens off massive blades rose around them, “Senbonzakura…Kageyoshi.” The massive swords disintegrated into billions of tiny blades which instantly clouded the skies around the Arrancar as the final pillar burst under his strength.

“Grimmjow!” cried Rukia into the swirling sphere of blades that had now entombed him inside.

The swirling mass of Byakuya’s Bankai surged inward toward the Espada and again Rukia found herself gaping in awe and fear. The mass swirled voraciously and images of Grimmjow being shredded ran through her mind. Only to be interrupted as her brother suddenly appeared in front of her via Shunpo and in an easy motion took her into his arms and again using Shunpo moved away. It turned out for good reason, for only a moment after they landed the mass of petals imploded completely leveling any of the estate that still stood.

“Grimmjow!” Shouted Rukia fearfully even as her brother held her back.

“Rukia.” Byakuya’s voice was powerful and commanding, “There’s no point…he is gone.”

Rukia turned her gaze to the man, eyes filled with sorrow, “N…no…” her lip quivered weakly, “NO!” she smashed her fist into her brother’s chest, “He’s not! You are lying!” she hit him weakly again and again.

“I’m not lying…he is gone Rukia…” his voice was still that same calm holier then you drabble it always was and for the first time in her life she hated him for it.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as her emotionally exhausted attack fell into simply clutching him weakly, the man wrapped his arms around her, the closest thing to comforting she could expect from him.

Byakuya suddenly tensed and quickly spun about, tossing Rukia away and drawing his Zanpukto once again. She looked up just in time to see the small green objects connect with her Brothers blade as he deflected them, one, two, three, and four bounced randomly but he wasn’t quick enough. A fifth hit him in the shoulder causing him to literally slide several feet backward from the impact. Rukia gazed up at his back and could see the pointed tip of the green dart like object sticking out of the back of his shoulder. She winced as blood began pooling on his Haori.

“You seem pretty confident asshole…”

Rukia leaned to the side and peered around her brother eyes wide to find Grimmjow standing a short distance away. The surprise wasn’t exactly that he was standing there, but that despite being engulfed by her brothers Bankai he was mostly unharmed. She could see only two notable injuries, one on the outside of his right thigh and another on the back side of his rib cage on the left side. Outside of these injuries he was pretty roughed up, easily a dozen or more gashes across his body and as many bruises to match.

“Impressive…Arrancar…” was all the response he got from the now notably injured Byakuya.

“Not to shabby yourself…Captain…” he practically spat the mans title at him, “Aren’t to many who can take a hit from one of these and stand after…” he lifted his elbow and revealed the point of a small dart protruding out of it.

Rukia instantly saw the resemblance to the object protruding out of her brother’s shoulder and winced at the thought of how much pain it must have inflicted. Of course Byakuya showed signs of neither pain nor exhaustion

“You overestimate your strength…” again with that calm tone.

“Or you overestimate yours…” Grimmjow smirked lightly at the man, “Your Zanpuktos strength is in its releases…and we both know you can only keep up with me if you control it with your hands…”

Byakuya flinched as the man so easily pointed out a detail about his weapon.

“And it looks like your left arm is pretty fucked after my Cero…and your right can’t be doing to good after my dart….” His logic was flawless and Rukia suddenly realized that his battle prowess wasn’t reliant on power alone.

Byakuya made no move, nor did he respond to the Arrancar.

“Your Bankai may work if you can catch me in it…two or three more times…” He gazed at his opponent calm and composed, he would have to thank that freak Kurotsuchi for all the power later.

“What are you proposing?”

Rukia was stunned; she had never seen her brother at a point where he was willing to negotiate, not on the losing side of any battle.

Grimmjow spoke plainly, and gestured casually to the fresh wound in his chest. It had mostly healed through his Resurreccion but would likely leave a lasting scar, “I think you got your payback for any wrongs I have done toward you, counting the fact that the only reason you even have a sister anymore is because of me I think that makes us even.”

Rukia couldn’t recall ever telling him that Byakuya was her brother, though she supposed Matsumoto may have been responsible.

“If that is the case you will leave Rukia be…”

“No…” was the only reply the Captain received.

“What was that?” asked Byakuya in his endlessly regal tone.

“No.”

“You overstep your bounds Arrancar…” Byakuya replied and tightened his grip on his Zanpukto.

The two glared at each other momentarily and suddenly it seemed as though the battle would resume.

“Bakudo number 63, Sajo Sabaku…” Came a new voice from behind Rukia.

Grimmjow was suddenly wrapped in a glowing length of rope, though compared to his earlier reaction he remained rather calm…though clearly annoyed at being bound again.

Rukia turned and let out a light gasp as she saw both Captain Ukitake and Captain Kyoraku. Ukitake held out his hand to aid in maintaining his binding spell, but Grimmjow had already allowed his Resurrection to dissipate, which left him looking considerably more exhausted then he had only moments before.

“Byakuya-San...” Began Shunsui in a friendly tone, “Your place is all ruined…” he elt out a sad sigh, “I always liked it…it’s sad.”

Ukitake spoke next, he was also friendly but showed a bit more forcefulness in his words tone, “You will both stop this now, before any more damage is done.”

“Ya…Byakuya…lets get those injuries looked at and then have a drink on me.” Shunsui spoke warmly and lightly placed his hand on the man’s shoulder.

Byakuya closed his eyes, a well known sign of annoyance and abruptly turned around. Lightly flipping his fellow Captains hand away, “I do not need assistance…Come Rukia.”

Ukitake spoke up quickly, “She has work to do for me today Captain Kuchiki, I would appreciate it if she came with me instead.”

Byakuya frowned, “Hm.” And was gone with a shunpo.

“So serious all the time…I kinda liked him better when he was hot headed…” commented Shunsui with his normal content smile and friendly tone.

“Are you okay Rukia?” asked Captain Ukitaki taking a knee next to the girl and lightly draping his Haori over her still naked form with a warm smile.

Rukia nodded lightly and watched as the second man walked over to the Arrancar, slightly worried about what the Espada might do…though with how tired he looked she had a feeling he was done for the time being.

“You two sure got into it huh?” Shunsui asked casually, “Ah the things women get us into…” he smiled absent mindedly, something Rukia instantly noticed causing her to wonder if he had personal experience.

Grimmjow smirked and let out a short laugh that calmed Rukia completely, his laugh widened Shunsui’s smiled and soon the two men were chuckling with each other as if they were old friends. Rukai sighed and shook her head, she could already see the two of them lounging the day away and drinking Sake.

“Shunsui!” called Ukitaki after nodding to himself, content with Rukia’s condition. “Will you be okay with him?”

The second Captain turned to the Arrancar, “Your done fighting now right?” his tone was almost worrisome, “Fighting is so tiresome…I’m to far behind on my work to spend any energy on something like that today…” his words were sincere, Rukia knew very well how little the two captains with her enjoyed actual combat.

“Only if you have some Sake…” replied Grimmjow with a tired but playful smile.

The Captain clapped him on the shoulder lightly and chuckled, “Yea we’ll be fine, go take care of Rukia-chan.”

Ukitaki nodded and gave the girl a light smile, “All this excitement is tiring me out, how about we get you some clothes?”

Rukia looked to Grimmjow who only gave her a small smile, then turned and nodded to her Captain. They were gone in a flash of Shunpo and Grimmjow fell loose of his bindings as they vanished with the caster. His knees buckled slightly and Shunsui lightly steadied him.

“Can’t be wobbly already...” he contemplated something for a moment then shook his head and chuckled, “Forgive me but I’ve forgotten your name…”

The Arrancar managed to steady himself and smirked lightly, “Grimmjow…Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.”

Shunsui laughed and clapped him on the back, eliciting a short groan of pain from the Arrancar, “You can call me Kyoraku! Lets go get that drink!”

They began moving and Grimmjow stumbled and fell to one knee, “Ah…” began the Captain, “Maybe the fourth division first huh?”

The two men chuckled, and after a moment they were both laughing heartily again.

~~~

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