Paradise comes at a price that I am not prepared to pay

[declaregamuza]

Whenever Aizen was out of the Palace maintaining his appearance as an upstanding figure in Archadian society, and a trusted Captain in the Gotei 13, it fell to his upper ranked Arrancar to keep the peace in his absence.

If you wanted to get really technical about it, it fell to Nel. Stark was the highest ranked Arrancar, but he preferred to nap instead of trying to keep the likes of Szayel from getting himself killed by Ryoka. Halibel was the second highest, and had all the natural tact and diplomacy of her Hollow.

So it fell to Nel, the nice, motherly one that cared about this bunch of suicidal idiots no matter how little they deserved it. Stark and Halibel would back her up, should she need it, but ultimately she was left to it.

That was probably why it was her that Ulquiorra called.

Ulquiorra had two roles for Aizen. He was his Espada, blindly following every instruction, fourth ranked among them all in terms of strength, and first in terms of loyalty, and he was his third seat in Squad Five. One step below Vice-Captain Hinamori. It had been Ulquiorra's dream when he was young, although he'd never admitted as much.

Ulquiorra was living that dream on this excursion. It was easy enough for Aizen to make Ulquiorra's absences disappear within the Division, as easy as it was for him to erase his own from existence. But although he wasn't there as much as he was supposed to be, Ulquiorra still served as a seated member of the squad.

She was in the kitchen idly flipping pages in a gossip rag when her phone started to ring. It was relatively early in the Palace. Szayel had been in, obtained his morning coffee, and gone, doubtless to return so he could annoy people. Hojo had done the same, although Nel got the impression, with that one, that his was more of a late night coffee run than a morning supply. Nnoitra was up and about, as was Halibel. She had yet to see Yylfordt, but he ventured to life sometime in the afternoons.

Ulquiorra's name coming up on the screen was rare, but not wholly unheard of. He called when he was passing on a message from Aizen, usually about expected return dates. She suspected Ienzo got some of those messages before she did, especially now he was officially working for the Schiffer estate.

She pressed to answer the call before lifting the phone up to her ear. "Hello?"

Ulquiorra's voice was low and heavy on the other end. "Make sure you are not overheard."

Nel frowned. It wasn't the normal routine of these conversations, and a ripple of concern ran down her spine. "What's happened?" she asked, her eyes darting for a split second to Nnoitra before she got up and abandoned her magazine to make her way out onto the patio. The reception was stronger there in any case; whatever strange magic and machina was at work to give them sky underground having the added benefit of bringing in signal along with the weather, depending upon the setting they had it on. She left the kitchen behind, because it was prone to being walked in on.

"Aizen-sama has been arrested," he said, once Nel had lapsed into silence and come to a halt outside.

"What?" It sounded like a joke, but Ulquiorra didn't have a sense of humour.

"By Galbadian forces," Ulquiorra continued, as if she hadn't interrupted. "Hinamori said they cited trespass as their reasoning, but Gotei membership grants diplomatic immunity. Aizen-sama instructed her to return and alert Commander Yamamoto."

If Nel hadn't been feeling her heart pound in her chest, she'd have been smirking down her phone at the dripping disdain in Ulquiorra's voice when he talked about his Vice Captain. Momo was a sweet girl with an obvious and rather adorable crush on Aizen, and Nel had only seen her from a distance, and heard about her from Ulquiorra, and Aizen. For whatever reason, Ulquiorra positively loathed the girl.

"So he let himself be arrested," she said, quietly. Aizen could have refused to come quietly, and no one would have stood a chance, but with Momo in tow, he wouldn't have wanted to put on that show. "He'll probably be out, soon." He did, after all, have diplomatic immunity.

"He should not have been arrested at all," Ulquiorra replied. "The status of the Gotei Divisions is well known, they would not have attempted it on such a flimsy basis unless that was a ruse. If they state Aizen-sama is being arrested for a charge all present know will not stick and Aizen-sama resists, it would raise the question of why, when he knows he will walk free within hours."

Nel looked down at the grass below her feet. Sometimes you could see the family resemblance in the Schiffer clan. "So why bother unless they just want to make him go somewhere and metaphorically tie his hands into complying?"

"Yes."

Nel inhaled, mulling that possbility over. "You've got a scary mind sometimes," she said. Ulquiorra gave no reply, not even a huff of breath down the phone. "How long has it been?"

"Hinamori has just returned. They have had Aizen-sama for over an hour."

Nel nodded, even though Ulquiorra wouldn't be able to see it. "All right, if he comes back, let me know. If I don't hear from you in another hour, I'll send someone out to pull Refia and Arc in."

Ulquiorra gave a murmur of agreement, and then the line went dead. Nel blinked and then looked at her phone. "You really need to work on your phone manner," she said to it. Then she turned, and headed back to the kitchen. She'd need to alert all of the Arrancar, but quietly. It might turn out to be nothing, yet, but if it wasn't, they'd have to be ready, and they didn't need others in Khamja finding out about Aizen's predicament unnecessarily in case they saw it as weakness.

She made her way back to the kitchen, phone still in her hand, and a frown on her face.

Comments

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra had been idly reading the paper when Nel's phone had gone off. He usually did that in the morning, or at least he did when there was one lying around, and his one hadn't even had the crossword touched. It was almost enough to warm even the cockles of his miserable little heart.

He glanced up as she answered it, just to be nosy, and noticed the brief look and heard the worry in her voice at the question she asked. He didn't see anything else, not after she abandoned her magazine and went out to conduct the rest of the conversation alone, or at least away from him.

He picked up his mug to sip at his coffee and carried on reading, half distracted by her weird behaviour. When she returned, he could see by her face that something was very wrong.

"... what?" He asked, with all the tact he could muster.

[declaregamuza]

Nnoitra was not the ideal first person in the Palace to tell. In an ideal world, Nel would be able to slip off to rouse Stark, and inform Halibel before those lower down the hierarchy had to be concerned. But it had only been an hour; Stark wouldn't get out of bed for that news, and Halibel would be calm about Aizen being arrested too, at least until they knew it was more serious.

Nel's gut was telling her something was very badly wrong, and it sounded like Ulquiorra's was telling him the same, but that didn't mean anyone else had to lend it credence.

What happened to them all if something happened to Aizen? What did they do?

She concentrated for a moment, feeling for any traces of anyone lurking near the kitchen. It wasn't foolproof, not with Lumi around, but going and peeking around doors would look really suspicious.

When she was sure the coast was clear, she answered Nnoitra: "Aizen's been taken into custody by Galbadia." Her voice was soft, only slightly above a whisper.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra narrowed his eye, thin eyebrows furrowing, one hidden by the strap of the patch, the other doing twice the work of looking confused. He too glanced at the door, and leaned in slightly.

"...Galbadia?" He asked, keeping his voice quiet, as Nel did.

Aizen being taken into custody by any authority was Bad News. He was a Gotei 13 Captain, that was supposed to afford him immunity to that sort of thing save for really serious crimes, like murder. More importantly, it was bad news for them should it get out.

"What for? Why Galbadia..?" He scowled, wrapping his long fingers around his mug.

Had he been there? His jurisdiction didn't cover that country. He lived and worked in Archades, the main seat of the Empire's power. Sure, the Archadian Empire had been not-quite-at-war with Galbadia in a low-key manner for the better part of twenty five years or more, but even if war had broken out, what the hell were they doing arresting Aizen?

[declaregamuza]

Nel wished she had the answers to Nnoitra's questions, not least because they were her own questions.

"The information's second-hand," she said, softly. "He was out with his Vice Captain," which was an interesting enough fact in itself. They may well have been on the tail of a Hollow. Captains only personally attended the real nasties, short of squad member shortages. A Captain out with his Vice Captain was almost certainly on something like that.

Something he couldn't just send Ulquiorra after. Though not necessarily because Ulquiorra couldn't actually handle it so much as that he couldn't handle it on paper.

Chasing something like that might take them across borders, but that kind of thing was exactly why the Gotei Divisions had immunity.

It was all supposition, though. How much terrain could Hinamori cross in an hour? Where was Ulquiorra? Had they crossed the border, or had Galbadia sent people in just to get Aizen?

Were they really from Galbadia? Aizen probably wouldn't have capitulated if they weren't. Unless he was curious, anyway. Nel wouldn't put it past Aizen to go along with something like this to find out who was behind it.

"She's come back without him," she said, "saying he's been arrested for trespassing."

[prayingmantis]

"He can't trespass," Nnoitra pointed out, letting go of his mug to lean back and fold his arms. "He's a Captain. Besides, Galbadia isn't known for being weird about that shit, not like the crazies in Bevelle, or the upper levels of Archades."

He fixed Nel with a dull, grey-eyed look.

"It's a cover," he said, as if that wasn't obvious.

A spurious arrest of a Gotei 13 Captain was obviously a cover, but ... a cover for what? What could Aizen possibly have done that would piss people in Galbadia off? Short of his involvement with Archadian politics, anyway.

[declaregamuza]

Nel nodded. She agreed with Nnoitra, but that wasn't exactly making the prospect any better, or less confusing.

"Yeah," she agreed, "but what for?"

What did they have, or think they had, that warranted arresting him under Galbadian law? What had he done?

Okay, Aizen had done plenty, but what had he done that they might know about?

She sighed, and leaned on the back of one of the dining chairs. "Ulquiorra's going to get back in touch if it all turns out to be a misunderstanding," she said, looking down at the chair under her hands as if it might yield some help. "The news will break soon, if not, but I don't want any Arrancar getting caught unaware." She raked her teeth over her bottom lip before she added, "I don't want any Arrancar having any accidents while our owner is indisposed."

She disliked calling Aizen their owner, but in the eyes of the clan, that was precisely what he was. And without him, unless someone else took them on, they were all up for being destroyed like spare puppies in a pound.

[prayingmantis]

"Fuck knows," Nnoitra said, with his usual lack of politeness but twice as much reservation. "Galbadia's weird at the best time of times. They're not long out of a civil war, I'm surprised they have the resources to be backing up with fucking about with Archadian Officials."

The Archadian Empire was, for all intents and purposes, Ivalice's biggest power. The little sort-of-union of other countries, their little an-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend schtick, wasn't anywhere near as big or unified as the Empire itself. They'd probably hold their own, but any one country seen to be disrupting the peace was going to be on very thin ice.

[declaregamuza]

Nel gave an unhappy murmur of thought. It was horrible feeling this useless and uninformed.

"There must be something making it worth their while," she said. She dreaded to think what it might be. Maybe Aizen was just a pawn in some political game; for all he was a Gotei Captain, he was also a highly visible member of the Archadian upper classes. He had clout, and allies.

And enemies.

"I dread to think what, or who."

Nel released the chair from what was rapidly becoming a death grip and stood up straight. "I'm going to tell the others." She flashed Nnoitra an unhappy look, "We're going to have to stick together and keep our heads down until we know what's happening and where we stand, so if Szayel starts, mangle him, but don't kill him, please?"

[prayingmantis]

"Might be worth tying that prick to a chair for the duration," he sneered, showing his teeth.

Szayel was a dickhead at the best of times. Nnoitra wasn't sure he'd improve much at the worst. He wasn't known for having a particularly well-developed sense of self preservation, but that, Nnoitra suspected, was half to gauge a potential enemy's reiatsu when they were annoyed and half because he didn't really have anything to worry about.

Aizen being detained could have real impact on their projected lifespans in Khamja, especially if it was for any great length of time.

[declaregamuza]

Nel had to give the suggestion serious thought. Szayel was dangerous. He was a trouble causer at the best of times, picking the worst people to do the worst things with and to in order to get a rise out of as many people as he could.

Give him a situation like this, and he could be a very real problem.

"He might enjoy that," she answered.

It might be worth getting him out of the Palace until things settled down, though. At least if he was with Yylfordt, he'd probably survive the trip.

[jawmask]

Grimmjow was bored.

After the semi-regular bouts of freedom that he and his friends were afforded for good behaviour, or to do favours for other Clan members and their hangers-on, being stuck in the palace was often a slog wrapped in tedium. Hours seemed to drag on, days more so, and while it was good to occasionally go and get some training done, there was only so much of that you could do before you were just killing time instead of doing anything productive.

He sat lounged in one of the chairs in the sunhouse. The day outside was pleasant, but looked slightly chilly. Sun, weak sun, streamed in through the glass roof, but it didn't bring any warmth with it. Even going outside had no draw.

[declaregamuza]

Nel had left Nnoitra, holding the knowledge of what had befallen their boss close to his chest, and with the request to make any wandering Arrancar that crossed his path stay put. She, meanwhile, went to tell first Stark, and then Halibel.

It wouldn't do to look like they were having a meeting, so she assured Stark that he could stay out of it if he wanted. He wouldn't be required to come and attend any gathering of the Arrancar, or it would look highly suspicious to the Khamja residents. Command wasn't his favourite role to take up anyway.

Halibel was a little better, and agreed with Nel and Nnoitra's summary of the stated charges to be a cover. A weak one. She also agreed with sending Szayel, and Grimmjow's crew, out of the Palace, although she was more interested in that than in retrieving Aizen's children.

After their brief discussion, Halibel went to the training grounds. Nel, meanwhile, went to track down Grimmjow and his merry band of reprobates. Grimmjow was not unlike most cats accustomed to the outdoors, and tended to want to be outside again the moment he'd come in, eaten his fill, and had a sleep, so she didn't expect he'd resist.

So long as she left Szayel's name out of it until the last minute, anyway.

Yylfordt and Apache were similar; any chance to stretch their wings was taken up enthusiastically.

She found them in the sunhouse, plus Tayuya but minus Kadaj on this occasion. Nel wasn't sure how to feel about Tayuya's presence, at least for this conversation. She was another Khamja member's underling, and would be pressed to report any goings on, should Kuja get wind of them.

Kadaj, well... She liked Kadaj, but he had strange choice in bedfellows, and while he'd shaken Orochimaru's hold on him, Kuja still seemed to have a pretty sturdy collar on the boy.

She looked at Tayuya, and decided to risk it. Grimmjow would want to take her with them, in any case, although asking permission for her to go might be tricky.

It was one swift step inside the sunhouse, and then Nel turned, closing the door behind herself; a sure sign that something was afoot.

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya barely paid any attention to Nel when she first entered the sunhouse. Life inside the Palace was easier without Orochimaru, but on the same note, it was more boring, too. He'd always had jobs for them to do in his labs, and time spent with Grimmjow and the others had been enjoyable shirking of work.

Kuja didn't run his own laboratory, and short of clothes shopping, she couldn't think of anything he might do regularly that he'd really need minions for. They made handy bag holders, but otherwise, she didn't have much to do unless she went out of the Palace.

There was only so much training someone could do, and only so many dumb magazines you could read before you were just flicking through them for the sake of it.

She'd been practicing her flute and music pieces, but even that got painfully repetitive eventually. It was that bad, she'd resorted to reading an actual book from the actual library to alleviate the boredom.

At least it had some good fights in it, and she was pretty sure this male character was a girl in disguise.

She looked up when Nel closed the door.

[jawmask]

Grimmjow, being a good boyfriend, and not possessing the patented Granz lack of self preservation instinct, had opted not to disturb Tayuya while she was reading. She didn't fancy being beaten senseless with it -- it was a hardback. So he'd sat there while she read, staring out of the window, until the door opened.

He didn't look up to begin with. It would either be Kadaj, or Apache. He didn't even look up when the door closed. He did, however, look over when he caught a glimpse of green hair reflected in the windows.

"Can we help you?" He asked, his voice edged with all-consuming boredom.

[declaregamuza]

Definitely a sullen cat locked up indoors, Nel thought, from his tone.

She glanced again at Tayuya who was giving her a look that was waiting for Nel to spit it out, and then over at Yylfordt, who looked like he was working on automail limb designs.

"I've got a job for you," she said, turning back to Grimmjow. "How quickly can you be ready to leave?"

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt finally looked up from his component sketches at the mention of a job and leaving.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

Leaving was cool by him. He was looking for an excuse to head out to Rush Valley and Home sometime soon anyway. He could do with some replacement parts, and spare automail components now he had to maintain Ienzo's arm. It wouldn't be much good if he couldn't rig him up with a working arm on the fly if something happened, after all.

[jawmask]

"Right now," Grimmjow said, sitting up a bit straighter.

He wanted nothing more than to leave. Nel wasn't usually one to stop them going out, but she was never really somebody who waved them off tearfully from the Airship Hangar, either. Maybe they made her life more interesting. Maybe she liked having extra people to feed. Or maybe, she just didn't like the idea of them going out, doing something fucking stupid, and cutting the number of Arrancar available by three.

"What's the job?"

[declaregamuza]

If nothing else, Grimmjow's enthusiasm for getting the hell out was useful. Nel couldn't bring herself to smile, though. The situation was too serious for that, even if Grimmjow was about to benefit from it.

"I need you to locate and retrieve Arc and Refia," she said. They'd done this dance before, and then it had been an all hands call with every spare Arrancar heading out to track the wayward Aizen children down. This time, she could only afford to send Grimmjow and crew. "You need to go as soon as you can."

[jawmask]

That ... wasn't what Grimmjow had expected to hear. He blinked, raising an eyebrow. The last time they'd been forced to go out and try and find the little shits was when they'd taken it upon themselves to do a bit of unsupervised gallivanting. They wouldn't be dumb enough to do it again, would they? Well, yes, they were teenagers, and Refia in particular had a certain disregard for rules.

"What for this time?" He asked, already getting out of the chair.

The lure of freedom was too great for little things like Reasons to come between him and the great outdoors.

[declaregamuza]

Time to spill the beans. Nel kept her serious frown as she looked from Grimmjow to Yylfordt, and then back again. Even Yylfordt was wearing his best 'what did the little shits do now' look.

A quick check on the local reiatsu signatures suggested the coast was probably clear, but she kept her voice quiet anyway. "Aizen's been captured."

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt looked taken aback, visibly leaning back with an expression of confusion and disbelief on his face. "What?" he asked.

How does Aizen get captured? Who could capture him and not end up a gibbering smear on the floor, mindfucked to oblivion and then easily pasted into the surrounding scenery?

[soundfivebitch]

"Fuck off," Tayuya replied, the moment Nel had finished speaking. "By who?"

Aizen didn't even have any enemies, or at least, not any that would capture him rather than outright killing him. What would be the point in catching Aizen? You'd just be asking to get murdered by him, or by Arrancar, the second your back was turned.

[jawmask]

"You've got to be kidding me," Grimmjow said, in a tone that was best used to carry the words 'pull the other one, it's got bells on it'.

Who the hell could capture Aizen? He was a captain-level Fighter, higher in terms of sheer ability, and besides which, he was a cheating bastard. There was no way that anybody could have grabbed him without him battering them, either mentally or physically, whichever.

[declaregamuza]

"I wish I was," Nel said, looking at Grimmjow. "He's been arrested by Galbadian forces. We haven't got many details, but the story we got sounds like a cover."

And since they didn't know what Galbadia wanted, or what they might be up to, or what unseen hands might be at work, they needed to batten down the hatches and prepare for a storm. "I want you to get the kids and make sure nothing happens to them. If someone's after Aizen, or trying to get him to give them something, or do something, the less ammunition they've got access to, the better."

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya scowled. Aizen had been captured. By Galbadia. But he was not only a Captain, he was a terrifying badass into the bargain.

"Why the fuck would Galbadia want him unless they're declaring war on the Empire?" she asked, her upper lip curling in her confusion.

That was all Aizen would be good to them for, surely?