While tyrants close the doors.

[theedgeofreason]

The past few weeks had, for Aizen at least, been somewhat trying.

The publicity he had been expected to deal with following the fall of Midgar had been an inevitable chore. Due to his position in the Gotei 13, pledges had to be made to help Bancour during its time of crisis. Wholesale destruction could quite easily breed scores of Hollows and it was Aizen's sworn duty, and that of his men, to eradicate them whenever they reared their bone-masked heads. Bancour was far, far out of his jurisdiction that was true, but there was no harm in proving that the Gotei 13 recognised no borders when it came to its collective dedication to its work. At the same time, he had been obligated to sit in on meetings with Archadian political giants concerning the delicate state of peace in the aftermath. To nobody's great surprise, and certainly not to Aizen's, The Archadian Empire had been the first to come under suspicion. Accusations, both the plausible and the far-fetched, had come thick and fast in the wake of the collapse. Even weeks after the incident some tempers were still running high, but nothing could be proved until Midgar was safe to examine.

Aizen's privileged position gave him access to Midgar's status reports and, while Bancouri officials had lobbied to keep them out of Archadian hands, Aizen's insistence that he have them when he was to be sending in his own men in to a potential Necrohol to aid Captain Komamura's already thinly stretched forces eventually resulted in the necessary papers crossing his desk. That all lands in the vicinity of the inner-city were considered too heavily poisoned by high concentrations of leaked Mako was certainly encouraging.

All in all, it had been an interesting change from the curious state of limbo that had reigned ever since Nabudis had accidentally been reduced to a blasted ruin and the Greenlands around it, now known as the Deadlands, to a smoking wasteland. Even so, dealing with manpower allocation and sitting on a council made of members trying by turns to and not to affix the word 'war' to the fore of it had taken their toll. After many packed days and what felt like even more sleepless nights, Aizen had been obvious about growing weary of it all and openly yielded to exhaustion. At the first opportunity, he had taken a few days leave and bid his Lieutenant deal with his duties in his stead. With no rest for the wicked, a phrase that had turned out to be truer than he had thought possible, Aizen clandestinely returned to the Desert Palace of Clan Khamja to deal with unfinished matters there.

The atmosphere in the Palace was much as it had been when he had left. Some things remained unchanged others ... well, they were quite different. Zexion, the Ryoka Alchemist, had made a full recovery where his exhaustion was concerned, but Aizen had been informed that the boy had not said a single word since waking and had spent most of his time holed up in his quarters. He had dealt with very few matters across phonelines, but he had sent word to ensure that Zexion was not to be informed of the new faces on the side of their enemies ahead of his return. He had made it clear that any Arrancar found breaking this order would find themselves dealing with the consequences. Nnoitra had, from what he had been told, kept himself well out of the way. Aizen was glad of this -- it minimised the chances of one of his more unruly Arrancar coming face to face with the subordinates of the man he had helped murder. Grimmjow and Neliel were doing as well as could be expected, her more than him. Luppi, to nobody's great surprise, was slow to recover from the injuries he had sustained at the hands of the Ryoka Berserker. He was considered to be out of danger, but he was still currently immobile and his moments of conscious lucidity were few and brief.

What had really nettled Aizen upon his return were whispers, whispers all too soon confirmed, that another of his Arrancar had struck out at a full-member of the Clan. He would have expected such of the rash, hot-headed members of his mismatched band of underlings, people like Nnoitra, who had already proved he could, Grimmjow who had as well, the Fracción Apache who was, as far as he was concerned, only biding her time. Even Szayel, albeit in a fashion less ... traditional than those, was not above suspicion. The name he had been given was a surprise to him. It shouldn't have been, especially not given past behaviour or the current state of affairs, but it had nonetheless given him pause.

Ulquiorra had attacked L and, from what he had been told, the preceding argument had taken place entirely in Old Rozarrian -- a language none of the witnesses could profess to speak. L had recovered, for a given value of recovery, and was up and about contrary to recommendation. He maintained that the altercation was one that concerned only blood, not the Clan, and Aizen had not been brought before Illua to answer for the crimes of his subordinate. In the end, Aizen only found himself disappointed that Ulquiorra had shown mercy. He, like Nnoitra, had been unsurprisingly absent following the incident.

Aizen resolved to speak to him on the matter, but it would have to wait until more pressing affairs had been attended to. The meeting, the debriefing put off following the mission itself, was still to be conducted. All of his Arrancar were expected to attend, even those in disgrace, though Luppi was to be the notable exception. L would undoubtedly be there regardless of the inevitable friction between him and his nephew, the presence of Zexion was assured and Gin Ichimaru had said, with his characteristic smile, that he wouldn't miss it for the world. He had even gone so far as to suggest that Marluxia, one of Khamja's older Ryoka recruits, also be present. The unknowns allied with the Berserker could easily be Ryoka, Gin had pointed out. Some of the files L had recovered from Midgar had certainly suggested such. With Zexion having been deliberately kept in the dark and Marluxia not yet up to date with the situation, they were unlikely to both be able to stifle reactions as to conceal a truth, should they attempt to do so. There was wisdom in the suggestion, and so Aizen had consented to it.

With the attendees decided, orders in the guise of invites had been sent out.

Comments

[tozasemurcielago]

Since his fight with L, Ulquiorra had remained sequestered away in his room. He hadn't come out much, partly because of a desire to stay out of the way of gossips such as Szayel, who would inevitably press him with questions that Ulquiorra did not wish to answer, and partly to avoid running into L again. Ulquiorra did not wish to have another altercation with him right now.

His Hollow, Murciélago, had given him enough to occupy his time, regardless. The Hollow had requested his attention, over and over, until Ulquiorra had finally given it, and then it had mocked and needled at him. Ulquiorra was used to that, just as he was used to the Hollow knowing things Ulquiorra wished it didn't, and it had asked questions he had not wished to answer until it had finally got answers and then....

And then.

Ulquiorra trusted Murciélago less than he trusted Gin, less than he trusted L any more, and when it had offered something new, Ulquiorra had been wary. An offer, it had said, nothing more, a taster, temporary, the next time Ulquiorra faced something alone it would let him try it, and Ulquiorra, wary of the Hollow's tricks, more familiar with Murciélago's ways than anyone else on the whole of Spira, had agreed.

And then it had given him something else, for now. A token of faith. Something that could be useful; something he didn't have to be released to use. Ulquiorra could not trust other's words, couldn't trust the things he felt, but, the Hollow promised, he would always be able to trust the things he could see with his own eyes.

Then, because nothing Murciélago ever gave came without a trick, it had asked, in the privacy of Ulquiorra's own head, in the loneliness of his own room, if he trusted Aizen, and Ulquiorra had decided that he did not, with this.

The Hollow had laughed, because Ulquiorra was completely alone again now, in a way he hadn't been for a while. Just the two of them, it had said, for the rest of Ulquiorra's life.

When the summons to the debriefing had arrived, Ulquiorra was where he had been for most of his time since; sat in his room, reading a book he'd read before, quiet and unobtrusive. There'd be questions, he knew, about his behaviour. He'd be forced to explain, at least to Aizen-sama, but his altercation with L was not something he had any reason to hide.

He was one of the first to arrive in the parlour selected for the meeting, though that wasn't much of a surprise, and hands in his pockets, he quickly scanned the room, and then chose a spot to stand in, away from the centre of the room, and, he hoped, away from the centre of attention.

[lilinette]

Lilinette had been the first to arrive. The very first, and had chosen a spot, draped over the back of one of the chairs, balancing on her midriff so that her feet didn't touch the floor, and holding her balance so that she didn't have to hold herself up on her arms either.

She could feel Ulquiorra's presence before he'd got to the room, but she ignored him at first, watching him scan the room while she tried to hold her balance, and then slipping back to put her feet on the floor and watch him while he went to hide.

That's what he was doing. She knew it, and she folded her hands behind her back and strolled towards him, clambering onto one of the chairs nearer to him, and perching herself on the back of that one, looking at him.

"Why are you hiding over here?" She asked. "Worried about getting in trouble?"

[declaregamuza]

Nel had recovered from the fight with the Ryoka. She'd fared better than anyone that wasn't Ulquiorra in it and had recovered about as well. Still, she might have recovered, but things weren't the same. Midgar had left its imprint on the mood of everyone, and some of them had been worse affected than others.

Had Aizen made a mistake taking Ulquiorra with them? Would he have been able to keep his temper in the face of whatever the argument with L had been if he hadn't witnessed that so soon before?

She could guess what the argument had been about, but she hadn't asked. She'd only understood Ulquiorra's parting comment, his answer to L's final question, and L's question itself. But that was all she'd needed to hear to be able to guess at the subject matter of the rest of the argument.

L was lucky to be alive. According to Szayel, who had delighted in telling everyone exactly how badly beaten L had been, he was lucky to be alive. Szayel had wanted L to stay in the infirmary after he'd come to, and L had been forced to for the first day since he couldn't stand up without keeling right back over, but after one night he'd left, against advice, and gone and holed up in his own quarters. It had been another week before anyone had seen him, although Nel had delivered the potions and painkillers Szayel had prescribed every night for that first week.

Even now, L wasn't fit, his arm in a sling to stop him aggravating the broken collarbone while it healed, and the bruises, so many bruises, were fading but still present. He was still under very strict instructions not to work, and still flouted those instructions, as far as Nel could make out, but he wasn't permanently fixed to his computer like he had been.

Then there was Zexion, the young Ryoka boy who'd been held to commit Midgar with the rest of them. He hadn't spoken; not one word, although Nel had tried talking to him a couple of times, and she knew Szayel had pressed him in his own inimitable way. Zexion hadn't relented; he'd maintained his silence, and Nel had quietly told him that they hadn't all agreed with what they'd been told to do, and that, when he was ready to talk to someone again, there'd always be someone there. Then she'd backed off, and let him get on with it, and had smacked Szayel around the ear and told him to stop pestering the boy the next time she'd caught him wittering incessantly at the poor lad.

The mood in the Palace had changed; sadness permeated it. Even Grimmjow and Yylfordt, and their little group, were feeling the absence of Kadaj, and the aftermath of his altercation with Orochimaru.

Gods she hoped this mood passed soon.

"Lilinette," she said, from her chair, and without looking up from the magazine, "leave him alone. And get off the furniture."

[prayingmantis]

It was the first time Nnoitra had really left his room after what had happened with his uncle. For him, at least, the past three weeks had crawled by. He had avoided Aizen's ire by not being present in the hall following his return and he hadn't seen him yet, either. He'd stayed out of the way of Grimmjow because he'd hate to get into trouble for breaking his face for starting shit because of Tayuya, he'd avoided Szayel because he didn't want to be held accountable for what he'd do to that little freak the moment he opened his mouth out of turn and he'd made a point to thoroughly ignore Neliel. He was in no mood for fielding whatever sympathy she might think he was due. The order to attend the meeting had come from Stark and the higher-ranked Arrancar had been sure to inform him that, yes, it was an order and not a suggestion.

Unenthusiastic though he was -- he had been passed over for the mission itself -- he sauntered down from his room and to the parlour that Aizen had commandeered for the purpose of the debriefing in a timely fashion. He had heard nothing about what had gone on during the mission, nor had he heard about Ulquiorra's little spat with L. He had felt the flare of Ulquiorra's reiatsu, but he thought little of it then and certainly didn't care now.

He pushed the door of the meeting room open and scanned those already present. Nel, Lilinette and Ulquiorra. It could be worse, he thought, and he didn't say a word as he crossed the floor and took a seat.

[theschemer]

Zexion had not wanted to attend the meeting.

When he had first woken in the infirmary he'd been mired in a sort of haze. Every time he closed his eyes he could see the souls of those he'd been forced to ... to ... it wasn't even murder. They weren't even dead and that made it worse, made him feel so much more empty. He told himself that it wasn't his fault, that he'd been given no choice, but it still sickened him and he'd withdrawn to hide from the reality of it. He'd had to force himself to accept it, to accept what he'd done, what he'd been made to do. Slowly, he'd crawled out of the miserable rut he'd found himself in and, while he was sure he'd probably never come to terms with having done what he did, he had to get on with things. He'd done it once, and he'd made it through that. He could do it again. Even with a heart, he could do it again. This time, at least, not that it softened the pain, he hadn't destroyed a world. Just a city. Just a city. That he could think of it in those terms was almost laughable.

He was no longer running on auto-pilot and the things that had happened after he'd woken were starting to return to him. He had a vague recollection of people trying to talk to him in the early days of his recovery but the memories were distant and dreamlike. Things were growing clearer now. The fog was lifting. He had to carry on. He didn't have much of a choice.

He'd accepted the call to join them and, when the time of the meeting neared, he put in his appearance like everyone else.

[lilinette]

Lilinette threw Nel a sour glance, complete with pout, and sank down to perch on the chair in much the same way that L usually sat. She wrapped her arms around her knees, and, when Nel wasn't looking, stuck her tongue out at Nel, pushing the tip of her nose up with one finger.

Then she proceeded to ignore her, watching the two new entrants to the room with interest.

Nnoitra had been hiding too, for even longer than Ulquiorra had, but Zexion was still an unknown quantity to Lilinette. Their paths hadn't crossed much, so she hadn't had a chance to weigh him up.

She watched him intently.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel sashayed in some way behind Nnoitra, looking like a shark that had smelled blood in the water. Ulquiorra was here, Nnoitra was here, the Ryoka boy was here and Szayel knew what information was going to come up and wanted to see if that got a reaction where nothing else had, as yet.

This promised to be an interesting meeting, and Szayel didn't plan on missing it for all the world.

He kept his eyes, and his attention, for the moment, subtly focused on Ulquiorra. Szayel knew who was on his way, and he wanted to witness the reaction when it happened.

"How nice to see you're still alive," he commented, as he passed near Nnoitra on his way to a seat. "Anyone would think you'd been hiding," he said, airily.

[palehornedprince]

The group collectively known as 'the brats', although they called themselves Clan Skite, and were currently minus one in their usual number, were in the sunhouse. Yylfordt knew that they were expected at a meeting, but he also figured that he was the only one getting even slightly itchy about it. Grimmjow didn't give half a shit about making Aizen wait, and possibly even enjoyed the idea, if he remembered about it in the first place.

Yylfordt had a healthier respect for his own neck, where Aizen was concerned, but also knew that Grimmjow was viewed as the ringleader, which was true, and that with Grimmjow having been so badly injured by the Ryoka last time, they could probably get away with pushing it on those grounds.

Believable excuses. Yylfordt was all for those.

So he refrained from looking too worried, out in the sunhouse. The conversation had taken those odd turns conversations do, and somehow progressed from the mundane to the ridiculous and was now firmly in the land of cartoonish fuckery as Tayuya tried to decide which she'd screw or marry out of Gin and Kuja after throwing Aizen off a cliff.

"All right, bro," Yylfordt conceded, "you don't have to sleep with them after the wedding night if you marry them, but you do have to live with them." She'd insisted it was unfair to ask who she'd sleep with just once, and who she'd sleep with multiple times and have to live with like she was married out of Gin and Kuja. Yylfordt wrinkled his nose. "I don't think 'cliff, shag, legally cohabitate' has the same ring, does it? So you gotta sleep with the husband at least once."

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya had had a rough few weeks, but things had started to settle down again, and although Grimmjow had been badly beaten, and still had to put up with Szayel where the broken bones were concerned, he was doing a lot better. Things had flared up again, briefly, when Ulquiorra of all people had gone for L, but Tayuya had no investment in either of them and had been glad for the distraction.

Now there was a meeting which she was barred from, although she knew the Ryoka they had were attending, and to avoid getting Grimmjow into trouble, she'd kept her own silence on the subject of the fight that had happened after Midgar.

Which wasn't the same as saying she hadn't asked. She'd asked a lot, and got near enough all the details Skite knew. They might have had instructions not to tell people, but Tayuya viewed orders like that with disdain and some swearing.

She leaned back against the cushions, screwing her face up as she tried to answer with the revised explanation of what each would mean.

"Shag Gin," she answered, with her upper lip curled, "he's probably fun, but I wouldn't want to see his face every day, and marry Kuja and insist on hers and hers bathrooms so I don't have to fucking wait every day."

[jawmask]

"Yours is the 'his', right?" He asked, insulting Kuja rather than Tayuya.

For Grimmjow, the fight on the way back from Midgar would have already been filed away as a bad experience to be learned from and forgotten in equal measure were it not for the fact that the meeting they were supposed to attend promised to bring it all back. Well, that and the cast on his wrist kept it fresh in his mind.

His ribs still ached whenever he drew a sharp or deep breath, but he was recovering rapidly all the same. He was also pretty sure that his recovery was being aided by half defying most of Szayel's advice about keeping still and bored. Breaking the rules always made him feel better, no matter what level they came from. Stalling and keeping Aizen waiting was really the icing on the cake, if he'd turned up already. Even so, he didn't intend to keep him waiting too long. Waltzing in late would only mean a reprimand in front of all the other Arrancar and he didn't really want that so much. It would be him that got the brunt of it, too, on account of him being the little ringleader.

He grinned at Tayuya, all the same. "All right, your turn." He said, amused.

[cierva]

Apache snorted at Tayuya's comment. Kuja was definitely a weird one, as far as she was concerned, and she wasn't going to deny having mistaken him for a woman the first time she saw him. She didn't know many people in the Palace outside of the Arrancar and those who grouped themselves with them, but not even any of the girls she knew were as effeminate as Kuja and that included Aizen's prissy schoolgirl daughter. The subject of Kuja didn't stop her crinkling her nose a little bit at the idea of sleeping with Gin though. Even once was too much to consider.

Eurgh.

Where the meeting was concerned, Apache was largely unworried. She answered to Yylfordt, and whether Yylfordt admitted it or not, he answered to Grimmjow. Them turning up late wasn't going to be on her head, or even Yylfordt's, and she knew that Grimmjow wasn't likely to care about punctuality, so she didn't bother to remind either of them of it. She knew a little bit about the battle that had happened, anyway. Skite had few major secrets from each other, and the subject had been discussed behind closed doors, despite it being banned by orders from above.

She looked between the members of the group, curiously small now it was short Kadaj, and waited to see who Tayuya would put three options to.

[theedgeofreason]

Aizen was not a man that believed in arriving 'fashionably late' for the purpose of making an impact, but he did so nonetheless, purely because he knew all too well that some of his subordinates could play fast and loose when it came to timing. He had no desire to be waiting for them to grace the meeting with their presence, so he endeavoured to arrive last and succeeded in doing so.

He pushed the door open just as Grimmjow went to open his mouth to respond to Yylfordt's complaint and cut him off before he voiced whatever it was that he had intended to say. He watched as Apache seated herself in the chair that the Al Bhed had evidently just vacated and quickly took note of who was there. All of the Arrancar with the sole exception of Luppi, who was in no position to attend, were there, as was Gin, L and the two invited Ryoka. Good.

L looked rather worse for wear, that was obvious enough, and Zexion seemed rather distant, even at first glance. Ulquiorra looked very much as though he was trying to remain as stiff as usual and was managing rather well, all things considered. Marluxia looked somewhat wary of being invited -- an understandable reaction. Gin, as ever, was giving nothing away. The rest of them seemed between casual about the whole affair, or as though they wanted it to be over already.

"My apologies for being late," he said, his tone not betraying his insincerity.

He closed the door behind him and pulled a small, rectangular piece of paper from his pocket. With a flick of the wrist and a brief, blurred hand gesture, the tag adhered itself to the gap between the door and the frame and the rest of the crack glowed brightly, if only for a moment.

Aizen had no intention of having his meeting overheard.

[declaregamuza]

When Aizen entered, the mood shifted, and the horseplay and banter ended. Nel looked towards Aizen as he sealed the doorway behind himself, sensing the air of seriousness wash over the room. A couple of them stood, or sat, a little straighter, a few others of them didn't move.

L glanced round, she noticed, before settling back into the chair, looking every inch as if being here was taking its toll. Yylfordt stood a little straighter, and switched into what she considered his On Duty mode, which was where he actually behaved himself, for the most part.

Szayel continued to grump and look sulky while Lilinette watched Aizen with bright eyes, ignoring Szayel. Sometimes, Nel wondered if that kid took in more than she let on.

Ulquiorra didn't move, nor did Halibel, but they'd both been in their own On Duty modes since they'd entered the room.

Nel shifted her own gears, now, sitting up a fraction while she waited for Aizen to take the lead and say his bit.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia was warier than most about being in that room, and he had good reason to be. He was the only one out of place, but curiosity had won out.

He watched Aizen seal the doorway with a tag, but didn't look as if he was uncomfortable. Aizen was a touch late, but Marluxia suspected part of that had been due to making sure all the minions arrived so that Aizen didn't get shown up, and they didn't have an excuse to make a scene; an opportunity some of them would most certainly take, by Marluxia's judgement.

This was going to prove to be interesting. Especially since the meeting was now private, which meant that whatever Marluxia was about to hear and see was otherwise confidential, at least until they all left the room, anyway.

[theedgeofreason]

With everyone present and the door sealed, Aizen moved to the front of the room. Calm and serious, he had no intention of making the briefing anything even resembling brief. He, at least, had time to spare and the matters that he intended to address were not to be rushed.

"Thank you all for coming," he said gently, though the smile that turned the corners of his lips up did not touch his eyes. That the vast majority of the attendees were there by order and not by choice remained unsaid.

He looked at them each in turn. The Ryoka, involved and not; the Arrancar, both Espada and Fracción; L, who had aided the mission behind the scenes; and Gin, who had been instrumental in information brokering on both sides after the fact. While he felt a flutter of satisfaction at the sorry state L was in, he didn't outwardly react.

"The mission, as most of you are aware," he paused, his eyes lingering on Marluxia as he did, "was a success." He had no intention of going into mission details. That was done and they had achieved what they had set out to do. Marluxia didn't need to know what had gone on during it, or what they had achieved by succeeding. "I thank all those involved for their cooperation and participation."

[theschemer]

Zexion watched Aizen as he addressed them all, his eyes dull and lacklustre. The empty thanks left him feeling as hollow as he had since the operation itself.

Marluxia's presence puzzled him. He was there for a reason, but had little insight into what the mission itself had achieved, or even been about. The only information that the rest of Khamja had been given was that the destruction of Midgar was down to them and, even then, it was only really the members who had been present at the Palace during the mission's timeline or were otherwise absent but of high standing that had been informed of that much.

He sensed an ulterior motive in his invitation, but remained silent as he looked on.

[shoottokill]

Gin stood slightly aside from those assembled, but remained a part of that group during Aizen's address, as opposed to by his side, as was his accustomed position in such a situation. He looked over the faces of those in attendance, his smile never wavering, not even for a second.

He watched them all, watching to see what their expressions would give away, and made sure that his own would not betray him like theirs inevitably would.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra ignored the complaints, exclamations, and shudders that ran around the room. He could regenerate everything but internal organs; plucking out an eye affected him no more than cutting off an arm or a leg. It was a minor inconvenience at worst.

“See for yourselves,” he said, calmly, before crushing the eyeball in his hand. It shattered into dust, which spread around the room and formed images.

There were three of them; the berserker with blue hair and a scarred face, forming a weapon from the spirit particles in the air. There was an exchange, between him and Grimmjow, but no sound came with Ulquiorra's replay for anyone to hear what was said, and then the berserker made an attack, and Grimmjow defended himself.

The other two watched, but didn't join the fray immediately. A girl in a pink dress, with big brown boots, carrying a staff, brown hair and green eyes, who cast obvious supportive magic, took the background compared to the other one. Spiky red hair, bright green eyes, with a touch of mako infused glow to them, who held two chakrams either side of himself before they lit up with flames.

Ulquiorra stepped forward, neatly avoiding the first strikes, and responding with a bala blast. Nearby, Luppi made to cero the girl, who looked horrified before using a powerful Holy spell on Luppi. Grimmjow and the berserker concentrated on each other, with the berserker striking his weapon on the ground to create a shockwave, while Nel cured Luppi's injuries. Then Ulquiorra's view was cut off as his red haired opponent threw one weapon into the air. When it landed, fire fanned out in all directions, swallowing Ulquiorra and his opponent and then cutting off the others from view as a wall of fire leapt up around them both.

Ulquiorra and his opponent exchanged blows a few times, Ulquiorra successfully landing a hard kick before his opponent dived back out through the flames and used a hit and run technique instead. He was clearly skilled, and used to fighting from a distance. When the man ducked behind the flames and a whirling chakram came flying through the wall, Ulquiorra fired a cero in its direction, the green blast extinguishing a part of the wall, leaving it smouldering. Grimmjow could be seen, wielding the berserker's weapon, and doing some considerable damage to the berserker with it, but then Ulquiorra's opponent came hurtling back into the scenery, wielding sharp chakrams and flames, and singed Ulquiorra's clothing. Ulquiorra responded with a bare handed strike to the sternum, but his opponent pulled back just before it connected, white hot fire flaring in all directions as he went.

The berserker, fighting Grimmjow, changed, transforming into a blue furred beast, with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth and claws, and at exactly the wrong moment, with the worst luck in the world, Luppi ran past, and was caught up and slammed back down. The beast bounced him off the floor repeatedly, like a toy, until Luppi was as limp and broken as a ragdoll, and then threw him at Grimmjow.

Nel used her own resureccion as Ulquiorra and his opponent continued to fight things out, with the other man managing a couple of hits against Ulquiorra that not only made contact, but drew blood. Nel charged against the berserker, holding him off while Ulquiorra snapped his fingers, dispelling every buff that the girl had used on him.

The red haired man backed off, putting distance between himself and Ulquiorra, shouting something that made the berserker tear away from his scrap with Nel, and then a black rain fell over the battlefield, extinguishing the last flames and hitting everybody, bringing Nel to her knees while the berserker shielded the girl with them.

Grimmjow released while Nel cured, and Ulquiorra responded to the attack with more bala blasts, which his opponent dodged with surprising efficacy. Then Nel threw her lance at the red haired man, which he tried to hold against. He was floored when he failed, and that was when the berserker, already embroiled in his continuing fight with Grimmjow in his released state, swung a blue flamed chakra attack at Nel.

But it was the girl whose reaction was interesting. After a shout, she stopped, clasping her hands in prayer and sinking to her knees. Rain washed over the battlefield again, but this time it seemed to have the opposite effect, and the red head stood up, while Nel stared, and Grimmjow and the berserker continued tearing at each other.

Both the berserker and Ulquiorra's opponent appeared to be in better condition, and when Ulquiorra took the opening created by his opponent's obvious distraction, he found his strike, which would normally punch right through a man, had no effect.

That was when Nel called them away from the fight, and although the berserker seemed reluctant to leave it, he had no choice when Grimmjow left him. The Arrancar stepped through a Garganta, and Ulquiorra's last view of the charred and smoking battleground was of the three of them, the berserker still in his transformed state, appearing to be in perfect health despite the brutal fight they'd participated in.

[theschemer]

Zexion looked on with hollow eyes as Ulquiorra took his place at the head of the room. He sat, unmoved, as the Arrancar plucked out his eye without hesitation. Some distant part of him knew that he should share the disgust of the others, but he couldn't find it in himself to even cringe. He wondered what such an unusual display of self-mutilation was supposed to achieve, having expected him to simply explain what had happened.

His questions were answered when he crushed the eye. Zexion had imagined it popping in his grasp, the outer membrane splitting under the pressure until the ichor within oozed through his peculiarly grey fingers. Instead, and to his surprise, it shattered like glass.

He watched the crystalline dust swirl and flow before the effect took hold. It was curious, Zexion thought. It felt like a memory, or the illusion of one. It took a second to become clear that it was a memory, and a perfect replication of it, at that. It felt strange, seeing the beginnings of something that he had never experienced and feeling what the one who did had at the time. It was almost like a forgotten dream reclaimed, though it wasn't his dream.

All the same, the wonder of the technique itself sparkled brightly in Zexion's thoughts for only a brief second before the content of the images took precedence. For one terrible moment, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Saix. His scarred face and tell-tale pale blue hair gave him away even before he used the weapon-fabrication technique that he himself had pioneered. The girl was a stranger to him. The third was not. The mere sight of him made Zexion feel numb and caused his breath to catch in his throat. Lanky, wild red hair, bright green eyes that were perhaps a little too green...

Axel.

At first he thought that he must be mistaken, that it was a coincidental likeness. There was no way that he could be there. Here. On Spira. He had been left behind, already branded a traitor long before the Organization fell. He was gone. He wasn't present when the laboratory accident had taken place. He couldn't have been dragged through to Spira with them, he just couldn't.

"That can't be..." he whispered into the silence, the first words he had spoken since Midgar's fall.

And yet... And yet...

The body language, the weaponry, the fire techniques. It was all the same. There was no way to fabricate all of that, no way that the footage could have been faked. Not even Aizen, for all of his power and influence, had access to the kind of information that could so perfectly render the one person that Zexion never wished to see again. And why would he anyway? What would he have to gain by torturing him more than he already had?

By the time the memory had run its course, Zexion was wide-eyed and trembling in anger and disbelief, his lips pressed into a thin line. Confusion and dismay were written all over his face and he made no attempt to cover it up.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia watched Ulquiorra's display with no more than a raised eyebrow. Some of the Arrancar were excessively loyal, he knew, and Ulquiorra was more loyal even than most of those, so seeing the boy pop his eye out of his own head was discomfiting and yet not overly surprising, somehow.

He didn't expect the visuals, when they came, and he didn't expect what he saw, either.

Saix, forming a weapon out of nothing, just as they all used to do. He wondered where he'd learned, and if Zexion knew about that little ability. He'd kept it quiet from Marluxia if so.

That fell by the wayside when Axel's presence came to prominence. The fighting style, the attitude, the flames, even some of his signature moves, that was most certainly Axel. Though how in all the worlds Axel had come to be on Spira, Marluxia couldn't guess.

If Axel was with Saix, then Xigbar would know about him, and if Xigbar didn't know about him, then Saix and Axel were up to old tricks.

Zexion may have left the Order's presence at just the right time.

Saix's transformation came as a surprise, too. He certainly couldn't do that before, though Marluxia had to admit, the form certainly fit.

He wasn't familiar with the girl, or whatever technique she used, though it seemed like an extremely useful one to possess. A worrying one, too, should anyone else come up against Saix and Axel when backed up by her. It was little wonder they'd done so much damage to the Arrancar. Marluxia knew the Arrancar were powerful, but grant Saix and Axel, working together, with something that imbued apparently impenetrable defences, and the Arrancar were lucky to have walked away.

When the display was over, Marluxia sat in thoughtful silence, looking directly at Aizen first, and then over towards Zexion. Zexion, from the look on his face, clearly hadn't expected to see Axel any more than Marluxia had. His presence was a new development, then, unless Saix really was keeping more secrets.

Locked in a room with all but one of the Arrancar, Aizen, Gin, and L, Marluxia knew that he'd struggle to hide anything if he had cause to. Fortunately, with this at least, there wasn't much reason not to at least admit that he knew who Axel was. That was, without doubt, the reason he'd been invited.

"I'm not familiar with the girl," he admitted, after a pause, "but the one that caught your attention is named Axel." Marluxia laced his fingers together, relaxing slightly in his chair.

[theedgeofreason]

Aizen waited patiently for everyone to file out.

Much had been cleared up during the course of the meeting and he could now count Marluxia as an ally, for what that was worth. He didn't trust him. He would never trust him. He was a Ryoka, for a start, and he had little to gain by telling him everything and the potential to lose, so he didn't doubt he would seek something in return. Still, for the moment, he could be useful.

Now it was time for the girl's curious ability to take centre stage. He closed the door after Gin made his exit and re-applied the seal. When that was done, he turned to those that remained with a calm-yet-serious expression on his face. It gave no hint of his feelings on any of the matters that had already been discussed, or those that were about to be.

"So," he said, stepping away from the door and into the room proper. "She's a Cetra."

[declaregamuza]

Nel nodded at Aizen's opening statement. "Gamuza is sure of it," she said. Gamuza had been a Cetra, long ago, and on this subject, Nel was willing to trust the Hollow's judgement. "That was definitely Great Gospel. She prayed to activate it, it rained on them, the fire elemental was fully healed from being nearly dead, and then Ulquiorra landed a strike that did nothing; it's not just something that looks similar."

Something that looked similar would have been a possibility, perhaps, although looking similar made little difference in real terms if the effect was the same. The good thing about Great Gospel when you were the one to wield it, and the bad thing when your enemy did, was that the restorative effects were embellished by invincibility, which wouldn't last forever but certainly lasted long enough.

"She's a Geomancer, too," she added. "Ulquiorra was encircled in the flames at the time, but she drew on those flames to attack Luppi with them." On its own, being a Geomancer meant little, but it did indicate an affinity for the natural world that most didn't bother with. Simply learning black mage spells was more reliable, but this girl was young and an accomplished Geomancer. It added that extra little weight to the theory. This girl seemed to be well centred in nature.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel seemed thoughtful as he listened. "It's possible she's a throwback with Cetra heritage being expressed," he said, pushing his glasses up. "Though I will say that her usage of that limit ability suggests a very strong heritage. I could be more certain of her purity and overall abilities with some study, but it would require a sample."

Experimenting on a Cetra. The very notion gave Szayel all sorts of tingles and fuzzy feelings. His toes curled just thinking about it. Being female was even better; it opened the possibility of breeding from her to see what traits could be passed on.

[lawlietschiffer]

L listened to the other two, and for the moment, kept quiet. He bit his thumb, thoughtfully.

He believed the girl was the former experiment referenced in Shinra's files, but he hadn't gone back far enough to read what the experiments on her were yet. The information he'd found so far was more recent; she'd escaped, and they'd hunted her for a while, but then Hojo had... ceased his employment with Shinra, and the girl and experiments related to her had been put on a back burner and largely forgotten about.

They knew she was still in Midgar the last time they'd checked. They'd not bothered to check up on her much since, and as time had gone on, there'd been less and less interest.

Her mother had escaped, too. The girl had been just a girl, at the time, but the mother had not survived their escape. That had been established relatively quickly. The girl herself had taken longer to find, and by the time they did, Shinra's focus had shifted somewhat, so she was no longer a priority.

All L could be sure of at the moment, however, was that the details appeared to fit. The description and relatives ages matched up, the chakra element appeared to fit....

There was more information to be found, further back in the archives. L just hadn't got to it, yet.

[theedgeofreason]

Aizen listened to Neliel, taking everything she said on the subject seriously. Gamuza had alerted her host to the possibility of the girl being a Cetra even before she had returned following the battle itself. The use of Great Gospel was certainly telling, but the fact that the girl showed that she was almost certainly a Geomancer definitely backed up the assumption. Ulquiorra's view of the battle had been limited, but Nel had seen what had gone on outside of the circle and that new information interested him. Few opted for the Geomancer Class. All of the abilities associated with it were highly dependant on the surroundings of the user. It was known for being both an extremely complex Class that makes Mist Manipulation a necessity, but also being nigh-usless against indigenous monsters of any given location. As such, it never gained much popularity.

"Both sets of abilities would back up the theory that she is a Cetra," he agreed, his voice quiet. When Szayel spoke, he simply said "indeed" and allowed him to continue talking about samples and scientific matters almost certain to annoy Nel.

The possibility of her being abilities being a mere throwback to Cetra heritage wasn't a bad theory, though. The Cetra, an old race that had dwindled steadily in semi-recent history, were said to have mingled with stationary Hyur and interbred, losing the abilities that they were famed for. Other accounts said that they had lost their connection to the planet by settling themselves, much like how the Viera who dared leave their forests lost the ability to hear The Green Word. Some believed that Humes, a Hyur race who appeared similar in appearance and colouration to the Cetra, were the descendants of those that had chosen to settle in one spot. None of it was for certain, however, for they left few accounts of their history, preferring instead to tell other stories in their ancient tomes.

Even so, if any of those theories were true, it was not impossible that an individual would be able to manifest the abilities of the Cetra they were descended from. Chakra Alignments had been known to skip many generations before surfacing again. The alternative was even more interesting.

"Any degree of purity would suggest that the Cetra were still in existence until fairly recently," Aizen said, looking at Szayel thoughtfully. "For that to be possible, they would need to have stayed below the radar and continued their existence quietly and away from the eyes of the world at large for hundreds of years." It seemed unlikely, but it wasn't out of the question, either. Certain travel routes had re-opened within the past century or so, after all.

Szayel was right, though. She would require further study. Nobody had been able to get hold of a living Cetra in years due to presumed extinction, so it would be difficult to compare her to others of her type, should she be one. Even without another test subject, differences could certainly be established. He kept quiet on that subject, though. He would discuss it with Szayel alone, at a later date.