If you need an explanation

[soundfivebitch]

Things had been fucking weird since Orochimaru's death. The Palace had been a weird place to be; Tayuya answered to Kuja now, and that was weird enough. Kuja had always been the damned prettyboy she didn't have much to do with, except for mocking Kadaj for taking after him. Now she had to report to him, take instruction from him...

They'd had to clear out Orochimaru's labs, too. That had been really fucking weird. There'd been a few samples to terminate and dispose of, and lots of research notes to either move, or destroy. L had claimed some, Kuja had, of course, been given everything relevant to the Sound Five....

There'd been some stuff on the Arrancar. Orochimaru had kept some data records from his encounters with some, like Ulquiorra, and Nel, and lots of data on Wonderweiss. Tayuya hadn't told Kuja about that, she knew what politics in Khamja could be like. She'd considered destroying it, at first, but then.... There was only one person that really should have data on the Arrancar, and she knew that most of it probably wouldn't be new, but some of the stuff on Wonderweiss at least, and the procedure he'd been put through might be helpful.

She'd taken it to Aizen, quietly, and somewhat sullenly, telling him that she wouldn't want it to get into the wrong hands. Kuja wouldn't have any use for it anyway, not that she'd asked him, but whoever was taking over the labs, and it clearly wasn't Szayel because he'd bitched loudly about that fact when he'd found out, might have, and they probably shouldn't have it.

She wondered if it had influenced the later decision to allow her, Grimmjow, and Yylfordt out together. Kadaj's absence in their little party was still being felt, at least by her. It was odd just hanging about the Palace. The rest of the Sound Five, Four now, since Kimimaro had taken the peaceful out offered to him, had got over their anger with her for being friends with the Arrancar. It wasn't her fault Nnoitra had got involved, and anyway, it wasn't like she was friends with Nnoitra. Sleeping with him once didn't make them fucking buddies.

Yylfordt had used the excuse of wanting to stop by Rush Valley and pick up some supplies. It was as good an excuse as any, and clearing it with Kuja was easy enough for her once Grimmjow and Yylfordt had been given the okay. Apache wasn't allowed, though; maybe it was because she wasn't actually part of Skite, or maybe Aizen just didn't want too many of the hotheads going out together. Tayuya was hotheaded too, but Aizen hadn't seemed to make much grumble about her joining them. Of course, she was part of Skite, and wasn't under Aizen's control, but maybe handing over that data had got her in Aizen's good books for a couple of days.

She'd asked Kuja if she could get out of the Palace for a while. He probably knew, or at least suspected, that part of her reason for wanting to get out was to see if they could get in touch with Kadaj, even if he wasn't prepared to come back home yet, but she wasn't about to admit that to Kuja. Still, monkeyboy wasn't dumb.

Yylfordt had done his shopping in Rush Valley, and then they'd moved on to the desert around, killing time before heading back, and picking on some of the local wildlife. Tayuya, at least, was finally feeling a bit better, especially after she'd called on Ifrit to murder some really unfortunate things. Working with her Aeons made her feel better in general, and Ifrit was her first, so he was always special.

Killing things helped too.

She'd dismissed Ifrit and was wearing a wicked grin when the absence of the Aeon's reiatsu allowed another one to creep across her senses.

"You have gotta be fucking shitting me," she said, turning towards where it was coming from. She couldn't see anyone there yet, but she could feel it there. They weren't trying to hide their presence, so they were probably on a hunt, or doing the same as them and letting off steam by murdering things that didn't deserve it.

She'd felt the Ryoka berserker's reiatsu enough times to know it by now.

Comments

[gotitmemorised]

Axel shot up a hand to brush Saix's assault aside, half grinning despite everything. It could have been worse. They'd suffered more in that fight than before, but it had still been a hard one. Aeons weren't something he'd seen before and they were dangerous, especially in the hands of an experienced and tactically minded Summoner, apparently. Still, if they'd come up against the party from last time and performed this badly, they'd be screwed.

"We wouldn't have gotten into this mess if you hadn't run into your friend again," he pointed out, pointing at Saix. "You need give your rivalry a rest, got it memorised? Hug it out or something."

He shook his head at Aerith's apology, though. It wasn't her fault she'd fallen under the bard's spell.

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya nodded, casting one last vicious glance back at their enemies, who were themselves regrouping to retreat, far enough back to be of no immediate concern.

"Good idea," she said, still sounding bitter. "If Kadaj had been here," she started, quietly, and then stopped. There were a lot of ifs, and they were all lessons for next time. If Kadaj had been here, he could have taken out the mage, or if she'd opened with genjutsu and fucked Red up while Yylfordt took her down, or this, or that.

There were a lot of buts, too. But she'd needed to silence the mage before doing anything else, but Yylfordt wouldn't have been able to keep Red's attention if they could see someone going for the girl, but they have no way of knowing how close to her limit the girl is already and her inflicting that kind of harm on Red could have been enough....

"Next time," she muttered, like it was a curse, or a promise.

"We need to get you both seen to," she said, eyeing the burn across Grimmjow's chest unhappily. That had to be hurting, even though Grimmjow was too much of a tough guy to let on that it did, at least right now.

She tucked herself in to Grimmjow's arm. She could move fast, all ninja could, but Sonido was a whole other ballgame; she'd never catch up to that.

[innatelunacy]

"I don't do hugs," Saix said, flatly, throwing Axel his usual, unimpressed expression. After a pause he continued, "and I doubt he's the type to be reasoned with; he hits first, and I've never waited to find out if he intends on asking questions later."

Saix looked at Aerith, ignoring her apology, much like Axel did. When they got back to civilisation, they could get her an accessory that would help prevent this situation arising again.

They were, at least, all largely unharmed. A little the worse for wear, but no one was bleeding, no one required medical attention.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith smiled, sweetly, and hemmed with amusement. "Sounds like someone else we know," she said, her voice lilting and teasing as she stole a look at Lea.

"I think," she said, changing the subject before Saix had the time to catch on, and rebut the comment, "we should try for that mark a little later." She smiled, softly. "You two need some rest."

[jawmask]

If Kadaj had been there... things might have gone differently. Hell, it might have if they'd had even Apache. She wasn't an Espada, but she was an Arrancar, and dangerous. Impulsive, though. Enough to have made or broken the team. A wildcard.

He nodded.

"Next time," he agreed, concentrating his chakra enough to take them away from their rivals with nothing more than a low buzz of static.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel snorted at Aerith's comment about Saix and nodded his agreement at her statement about rest. He hurt. His health felt fair to middling, but his Chakra had suffered from coming up against its rival element and his injury from the steel tines of Bismarck's spiked mantle still smarted.

"You're right," he said. "It shouldn't be hard to find, anyway. It's a massive Chocobo Eater. Just how many people are going to be crazy enough to take that thing on?"