"Those who know despair, once knew hope. Those who know loss, once knew love." — Ulquiorra Cifer.
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[Hueco Mundo]
Aizen and his cohort, after being left upended by none other than Itachi Uchiha, were left stranded on the harrowing dunes of this pale realm.
All it had taken was one moment. One single moment for them to be blindsided by a single Captain from the Gotei and Las Noches was gone.
Although he didn't show it, Aizen was livid.
As it was beneath him to show such unsightly emotions, he let it stew within. But one thing became clear. One thing that Itachi made clinically clear. Aizen was not as much of a threat as he made himself to be.
The Captains of the Gotei were not to be trifled with.
Since there was now a clear distinction across the boards, all the key players were now able to make stronger moves. Truly, he was becoming the cause of his own undoing.
But this was nothing that couldn't be salvaged. Just as Itachi speculated, Las Noches was but an icon. If one fell, another could be raised, except that no icon he raised will be as strong as the image of Las Noches. Thankfully, he wasn't after such inane things.
"What do we do now, Lord Aizen?" Tōsen, ever the faithful hand, asked tentatively by his side.
Aizen glanced calmly at Tōsen for a brief moment, his true thoughts to himself. "A small setback. I am not so vain as not to admit when I have been taken advantage of, no matter how little it is."
He looked at the group of Espada that followed, thinking to himself that now more than ever he had to fill up their ranks.
His thoughts were interrupted by a clipped question, scathing as it came from one of his calmest Hollows.
"When are we going after Starrk and Lilynette?"
'How amusing.' He mused, very so intrigued.
"Unfortunately not anytime soon, if nothing changes that is." He replied evenly.
She seemed unsatisfied with that answer but didn't push it more than that. His words still remained law.
"You don't seem that perturbed considering our strongest Hollow just betrayed you." Szayelaporro sneered, fully aware how those words grated on Baraggan's nerves.
"Because I didn't force any of you into my cause. If any of you, at any time, becomes dissatisfied with being under my patronage, just like Starrk, you are free to leave." He wasn't surprised at how easily the lies flowed out of his mouth. His knowledge of its application was quite vast after all.
His eyes swept over all the Hollows gathered before him. Some were disgruntled, and honestly he preferred it that way as it made it easier to focus their attention on where he needed it. Their common enemy.
"All this posturing and you still haven't told us how long it will take for this brilliant 'scheme' of yours to finally kick into play." Baraggan's ghostly grim voice accused, hard eyes staring straight at Aizen. The former ruler of Hollows knew very well the budding of incompetence and how quickly to call it out.
Aizen's eyes reflected coldly but his voice remained calm and understanding.
"As you most likely already know, attacking the Shinigami right at this moment will be ill against us," Of course it would be, "and with the Visored allied with them, probably would soon be called back to the Gotei 13, the Shinigami have regained the strength that they had lost with our departure, maybe even more."
"Maybe if you didn't spend all this time waiting around then this wouldn't have happened."
Aizen sighed. This was the reason why, if he had the capabilities, he preferred to do his things alone. Still he knew that withholding the primal reason, especially at this fragile moment, will sow seeds of doubts in their hearts. 'Their hearts? How ironic.'
"The time for me to ascend, the requirements, the most important one, are not set in stone. Yet."
Tier Harribel slid into the conversation at that moment. "You said that the other part of the Hōgyoku was with a former Captain, Kisuke Urahara, right? If you are so sure that the exiled Captains will be called back to the Seireitei, won't that mean that the Hōgyoku will fall back into the hands of the Shinigami?"
Aizen wanted to smile at that moment. He didn't however, he played his art instead. Replying somberly, he said:
"True. And if my guess is right, Itachi Uchiha couldn't have brought along Starrk and Lilynette to the Gotei 13. He had to have dropped them off somewhere, and given that the Flash Goddess herself arrived with him in Hueco Mundo…"
"They sought shelter with the exiled Captains." A frigid glare bloomed beneath the clear aqua green.
"I know what you're thinking but I ask you to wait for a short while. If we attack the Visored or Kisuke Urahara now, the Seireitei will no doubt know what we are up to and immediately send aid to prevent Kisuke Urahara from losing his part of the Hōgyoku. Unless there's something that requires their immediate attention."
"And you can do that in such short time?" Tier questioned him.
If not that they were expendable pawns, Aizen would have never put up with this much insolence. Yet, the fact that they were blatantly questioning his plans showed just how much damage Itachi had done just by walking in and out, and destroying Las Noches as he left.
But it seemed as if one person was yet to be satisfied.
"You get the Hōgyoku back and then what? Do you still need to wait for it to be put to use? As a 'prerequisite', as you said." Out of all the Hollows under Aizen's patronage, Baraggan was the one that had the closest aligned goal to Aizen, and though he respected (extremely wary) the man's strength, he was not one for uncertainty and endless posturing.
They honed each other, like a whetstone against a flailing blade, ensuring that they remained keen and faithful to their aim, and while he saw Baraggan as inferior to him, he did listen to the elder Hollow's comments on occasion.
"So we go to the Human World and get the last piece of the Hōgyoku. We'll kill any puny Shinigami that stand in our way." Yammy, ever the muscle-brained brute, stomped on the ground, his Reiatsu stirring viciously.
With Baraggan all but telling him to quit the underhanded schemes and take to the stage for a change, Aizen reckoned to himself that maybe, just maybe, he should take a page out of Itachi's book and be extremely direct for a change.
"So when are we going?" Tier asked, rigidly piercing the thrumming atmosphere with her cold cut question. Her thoughts all too transparent for Aizen to see.
"A few days from now, after I ensure that the Shinigami are sufficiently distracted." He replied, then looked pointedly at Harribel and continued, his words specifically for her.
"We are not going after Starrk and Lilynette, at least not directly. They will get what is due to them for their betrayal if they align with the Shinigami and are set against us."
Honestly it amused him a good deal seeing his Hollows struggling with something as futile as endearing sentiments. Emotions were always such a fickle thing.
Harribel was at a loss due to her emotions being in turmoil after Starrk and Lilynette's abrupt desertion. She had been truly hurt by it. Even though she knew Starrk had no particular hatred towards the Shinigami, or anyone for that matter. The fact that he left without so much as a word or explanation, leaving her and Ulquiorra behind despite all the time they'd spent together as a close-knit cohort of sorts, hurt her deeply.
She didn't know what she was supposed to feel: anger, hate, sadness, understanding. All she wanted was something from him; a word, an answer, an explanation, an apology.
As for the Shinigami Captain, Itachi Uchiha, she knew exactly what she felt towards him. A scathing hate that churned and churned, broiling over with a torrential current, and like the terrifying calm of the sea, deceptively waiting to explode out like a calamitous wave the next time she saw him.
As for the thought of possibly crossing blades with Starrk, she was very reluctant and it showed.
She soon left the others after Aizen told them to get ready for the upcoming days. Since they already knew her to be a recluse, no one found her behaviour to be weird.
No sooner had she found a quiet and empty shelter, even going as far as to distance herself from her fracción, that someone joined her, comfortably taking his seat an arm's length from her.
The two of them spent a moment in silence, the thoughts in their heads foreign to the other.
An hour later, spent in relative silence, Harribel spoke.
"So you truly have nothing to say?"
Ulquiorra looked at her and stared down at his hands. "I… I don't know."
Harribel shook her head, a light of understanding in her eyes as they sat there in solidarity.
"I want to ask him why." Ulquiorra spoke after thinking hard on the uncomfortable sensation he was feeling. "Starrk never does anything without a strong enough reason. Even leaving his room, which he only does on two occasions: on a summons from Lord Aizen, or Lilynette dragging him out."
The more the young Hollow spoke, the more he seemed sure of himself, confidence flowing with his words.
"Even if he knew the Shinigami Captain from some time ago, he still allied with Lord Aizen, despite knowing he would one day have to fight against him. Him suddenly leaving with him sounds illogical." He nodded to himself, fully believing in his astute deduction.
He looked at Harribel, this time no longer looking confused and lost.
"We will have our chance to speak to him again and then I will ask him why."
Finished saying that, he stood up and left Harribel to herself, no longer bothering with figuring out the intricacies of Starrk's reasons and his actions. He simply had to ask, and like always, Starrk would answer him.
Watching Ulquiorra leave, Harribel couldn't help but let out a soft sigh. She couldn't be as pure-minded as Ulquiorra. More complex thoughts were swimming in her head.
She had always been a strong woman, holding herself to a standard she saw as the ideal of her being.
She protected those under her fiercely, always standing as their sole bastion, wielding her strength for the sole purpose of ensuring their safety – come high or hell water.
In one of those moments where her strength faltered, where she had acted rashly and had attacked Aizen due to being wary of him being a Shinigami and not willing to listen o any of his words, Starrk, Lilynette and Ulquiorra had been the ones to step in, inadvertently saving her if Aizen had decided to kill her then.
Since that moment, she found a deeper camaraderie between her and the misshapen trio.
He was a friend, a confidant – even finding a sense of security, a reassurance, whenever she and her fracción were in his presence – despite his utterly slothful habits.
So for the first time since gaining her sense of identity after becoming an Adjuchas, to Starrk's shocking defection, Harribel felt a slight feeling of being abandoned.
It was her first time feeling like this and she hated it.
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