spira_rp | And I don’t wanna say I told you so...

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And I don’t wanna say I told you so...

Gin Ichimaru's footsteps were light on the Desert Palace's ancient stone floor. They were soft enough to barely echo off the walls except for the scuff of a toe or heel.

He liked the Palace at night. It was more peaceful, like any populated place tended to be when most of the inhabitants were in bed and, for the most part, quiet. Even the air seemed to move more quietly when the hum of conversation and the distant sparks and flares of spiritual pressure were felt from the training centre, where the wards applied didn't keep it back if the door was left open.

Peaceful as it was, he rarely slept there. He had somewhere else for that, somewhere within his jurisdiction as a Gotei captain. He retained a room though, and it was from there that he was walking, heading in the direction of the quiet kitchen, while the borrowed sky outside the window was dark and the air was cool and filled with the smells of night time.

Nobody seemed to be up. He was sure that some of the denizens would still be awake, doing whatever they felt like in their rooms, but nobody was up and about. It was too late for the night owls and too early for the morning people. He smiled to himself as he reached the top of the stairs down to the main hall, but the expression fell away abruptly when the sound of an alarm split the silence.

The noise set every nerve in Gin's teeth on edge. Halfway between a scream and a siren, it was a magically amplified and erratic, half-undulating sound that had obviously been designed not to be ignored under any of the circumstances it might be set off to. It was hideous, organic and ear-splittingly loud, akin to the sound of a thousand babies crying and just as many tomcats yowling, foxes screaming and nails being drawn down a chalk board and it rose and fell in tone enough that it was impossible to get used to. For a moment, even Gin stood frozen at the top of the stairs, eyes briefly wide, the hair on the back of his neck on end.

"That's new," he said to himself, his soft voice drowned by the screechy baying of the siren.

He headed down to the hall, feet quick on the stairs. From beyond the front door, and the hall that separated the door to the Zertinan Caverns from the palace proper, he heard a low roar, angry and bellowing, even with the siren's wail doing its best to block everything else out.

"Oh," he said. "Look's like one of Kuja's little pets has slipped its leash." He smiled to himself, directing his gaze up the stairs, anticipating appearances from other members of the Clan. "This should be fun."

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Szayel sauntered into the hallway wearing a bathrobe knotted at the waist. Anyone that dared to look would be able to see that if he was wearing anything underneath it, he wasn't wearing very much. He ran his fingers through his hair as he looked around at the assembled crowd, noting that Ulquiorra had, like a satellite drawn into a planet's orbit, come to rest near Ienzo. Grimmjow's little cabal had gathered, too.

He made a delighted noise, looking everyone over. There seemed to be a number of them that slept naked, or half naked, and that included Ienzo, and Marluxia, and Lumi.

"I didn't realise it was Warsend morning," he said, happily.

"You have a funny way of celebrating it," Even's voice said, coming from the hallway that lead to his laboratory with almost as much screechy impatience piled into it as the alarm had.

He was fully dressed, if a little rumpled. He had obviously not been to bed, though he had obviously been working late, for his hair had been dragged into a blonde ponytail at the nape of his neck, his tie had been removed and a few buttons of his shirt had been left undone.

He looked unhappy. The noise was aggravating and didn't seem to be letting up.

The alarm hadn't gone off.

That, Stark figured, probably meant that it required his attention. Probably. He dragged himself out of bed, hoping that it stopped before he got dressed and went to see what was going on, but it didn't. Whatever was making the noise was urgent, and annoyingly so.

He dragged his fingers through his tangled hair and went out into the hall, sword in hand.

He wasn't in the mood for this, and when he saw everybody else in the hallway, he wished he hadn't bothered. Gin was there. He was sure that Gin could handle anything that he might be required for. Sighing, he looked at everybody.

"Someone make that racket stop," he said, grumpily.

Apache heard the usual stream of Al Bhed bullshit flow from Yylfordt's mouth before she turned to see him. When she did see him, he was staring. She folded her arms and looked at him flatly.

"What? Shouldn't I have turned up?" She asked, wondering if Fraccion didn't need to.

Gin stood, narrowed eyes on the door.

He could feel what was beyond it. A dragon of some sort, he thought, the power and anger emanating from it seemed to suggest something old, old and mean. It was also clever, more so than most animals, and most monsters, because although it could get our, escape through the tunnels, it wanted revenge on whatever had bound it, and it knew that such a thing probably resided beyond the door.

That, at least, narrowed down the possibilities of what it could be. It also meant it was no ordinary enemy and that not many present could hope of taking it down without sustaining injuries, perhaps even losses.

Marluxia was unarmed, Lumi injured. Stark was lazy as he always was, and Halibel hadn't deigned to join them. The others were all lower level, though he suspected otherwise of the Ryoka scientist, the mysterious and missing Vexen, or Even, whichever he went by now.

"Go ahead," he said, indicating for Kadaj to do it with a limp-wristed sweep of his hand.

Kadaj gave a short nod at Gin's instruction and took a small step back before quickly forming the hand signs to silence the alarm. They'd have to reset it once the thing was dealt with, but that wasn't an urgent concern right now.

Silence settled over the room like relief. It only lasted a moment, because without the alarm screeching its warning at them all, they could hear the monster beyond the gate more clearly. Grimmjow was right, it sounded pissed off.

And being right outside presented a problem, because it was going to have them in a bottleneck as they tried to get to it.

Yylfordt, not particularly coherent on first waking as it was, was spectacularly incoherent right now.

Which was why his answer to Apache consisted of, "Uh," followed by, "I," and then he gestured to her attire, or lack thereof.

"Are you cold?"

Szayel raised an eyebrow and pushed his glasses back up his nose. He took the time to admire the view in Ulquiorra and Ienzo's direction, the two of them pale, and shirtless. Ulquiorra was as skinny as Ienzo, but he didn't have a spare gram of fat on his tiny frame, from the look of him. He'd actually developed more defined musculature since he'd joined the Arrancar.

Then there was Lumi, and Marluxia, and Szayel gave a sigh as he looked at those two. Oh, he'd seen Lumi half naked before, in the infirmary, but that wasn't quite the same.

"You're letting the side down, you know," he said, conversationally, to Even as he looked him over. "The rest of the Ryoka had the good grace to bring the eye candy."

Halibel put in an appearance behind Stark. She'd taken the time to get dressed, unlike most, although she hadn't spent time on her appearance other than to make herself battle ready.

She caught Nel's eye and gave her a brief nod, looking at the members of Khamja. No Aizen meant they turned to Gin for instruction, or, failing that, herself and Stark, and Nel.

"You must have mistaken me for somebody else," Even snapped, turning towards the door as another roar rumbled outside, a hallway away. "What is that thing?"

Wonderweiss awoke to the alarm, like everybody else had. He scowled into the darkness, sitting up. It shrilled and squealed, cutting through everything else, and he sat there, unsure whether to move or stay.

If it was to signify some sort of attack, he didn't know whether he'd be more in the way if he went, or whether he'd be expected to, as an Arrancar.

"What is it?" He asked of the dark.

I don't know, said a female voice, low and soothing, but with a ragged edge. Two burning red lights appeared before him, at the foot of his bed, floating in the blackness.

"Find out," Wonderweiss said in reply. "Please."

He felt the weight at the end of his bed shift and then something darker than a shadow slipped out, phasing into the darkness and out of the room.

Wonderweiss sat there, frowning, his heart pounding. While he waited, the alarm died, leaving the room deathly silent save for own breathing, as he waited for the hellhound to return. Barghest was usually swift and tonight was no different. She re-appeared in his room as silently as a ghost, the curved horn on her face glowing as brightly and as redly as her eyes.

There's a creature at the door, she said, teeth shining in the light emanating from her horn. Old, angry. There are others waiting to face it, but they do not know its nature, her voice sounded serious, and nervous.

It was the nervousness that got to Wonderweiss the most. "I should go," he said, pushing back the bedclothes and getting up. "They might need help."

It's too much for you, Barghest said, worry evident in her voice.

"They can fight it," Wonderweiss said, putting a hand on the hellhound's head to stroke her coarse, black fur. "I can find out its weaknesses. I'm good at that."

Silence rang for a moment until the low, unhappy whistling of a dog's whine cut into it. Barghest lowered her head to Wonderweiss's knee, though she was careful with her long fangs. Take Forvalaka, she said, at last.

Wonderweiss took that advice. He picked up his sword, Fury, and called out for the second of his Sirei. It was with him, a large, heavy-maned Torama, that he entered the hall.

"Is it still outside?" He asked, looking at the assembled Khamja members and Arrancar, Nel in particular.

"Do you see it in here?" Nnoitra asked, his voice not as sharp as it could have been. "It ain't breached the outer door, but the way it keeps pounding on it, it won't be long until it does."

He hefted his weapon to rest on his shoulder, scowling one-eyed at the door as the booming roar came again. He took a moment to glance at the thing standing with Wonderweiss. He'd heard he'd got himself a new pet, but he hadn't seen it yet. It was bigger than he'd expected.

"We ain't all from deserts," Apache said, somewhat distractedly, staring at the appearance of Wonderweiss, a member of the Arrancar she'd expected to stay out of the hall, and his ... ... ... cat.

Nel smiled at Wonderweiss as he made his appearance, her eyebrow quirking at the presence of the Torama beside him. She'd got used to the Hellhound, but it was still odd to see him with one of his subjugated creatures. The noise from beyond the door was answer enough, but she nodded anyway. "For now," she said.

Halibel had come ready, although she only needed one look at Stark to know he didn't want to get into a fight right now, even though he was almost certainly strong enough.

"We can handle it," she told him, her voice reassuring.

Ulquiorra watched Wonderweiss enter, noting that he was ready for a potential fight, too. Lower ranked though Wonderweiss was, Ulquiorra didn't dislike him. He was better than the others that shared his strength tier, and being young, he had potential to improve beyond them.

He was, in short, one of the few Arrancar Ulquiorra didn't consider to be trash. He'd also managed to ascertain what was going on before he'd arrived. If Ulquiorra was prone to shifts in his expression, he'd look approving.

"Everyone likely to attend is here," he said, his deep voice carrying through the room. "We should make our move."

Yylfordt didn't even notice Wonderweiss, because he was still too busy staring at Apache.

He struggled to find any words, managing only to mumble incoherently and then run his hand through his hair.

Tayuya watched Yylfordt fail spectacularly at everything and rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. She wasn't sure how Apache could miss it, either, but she had to be forgiving at Fuck This in the morning.

She didn't know what time it actually was, but she had been asleep, which meant it was way too early to be up.

She nudged Grimmjow with her elbow and nodded towards Wonderweiss. "His is bigger than yours," she said.

Grimmjow stared at the massive form of Wonderweiss's Torama. It was bigger than most Coeurls, and maned. He looked at Tayuya with a bland expression, eyebrow raised.

"Shut up," he said.

"I agree with Ulquiorra," Lumi said, voice soft in the quiet. "Before it has chance to further damage the door."

He lowered his voice again, looking sideways at Marluxia.

"I doubt I'll have much to contribute," he told him, voice low enough so as not to carry to anybody else. His stance and bearing didn't betray him, though his voice took on an apologetic edge. "I don't yet have a full range of movement."

"This should be fun," Gin said, smiling broadly.

He only had a rough idea of what was behind the door, but the reiatsu and anger it was projecting suggested it might be difficult. It was a shame he specialised primarily in Hollows, not monsters. This creature was no Hollow.

"Who volunteers to open the door?" He asked, cocking his head to one side.

The Torama, Forvalaka, shifted uneasily, his massive paws noiseless on the marble floor. His tail twitched back and forth, displeased or restless, it wasn't entirely clear.

Don't take it lightly, he said, voice deeper and lower than any human's might be. Barghest was right. That creature is older and meaner than you might think.

Wonderweiss nodded, burying his fingers in the thick, greenish-blue fur of his mane. He could feel its reiatsu, old and deep and vast, leaking in through the gaps in the door, seeping through stone, infiltrating everything. Its displeasure was just as palpable.

"Let's get on with it," Nnoitra said, stepping forward as a volunteer for the vanguard.

As he did so, Ienzo stepped back, putting some distance between himself and the door. It didn't surprise Nnoitra. He wasn't a fighter, not like some of the others were.

Marluxia quirked an eyebrow at Lumi's confession and glanced at him out of the corner of one eye. His smile was amused, and his chest jumped with a huffed breath that came through his nose.

"I think there are enough Arrancar to deal with this," he said, his voice soft, and very quiet. "Let them do what they're good at."

Lumi, conversely, was a little more important than someone else's underlings. Marluxia no more planned on getting him involved in the fight than he did on taking up the vanguard position himself.

Nel looked at Nnoitra, and at Gin, who, it had to be said, might be capable of taking this monster down, and who, quite clearly, had no intention of doing so right now.

She looked over at Stark, and released her mask fragment. "You should be waiting for it with a cero," she said, glancing at Halibel as well. "The moment that door opens it's going to attack, we need to make it back off."

Stark was the fastest, and most powerful with a cero, which, as much as she knew he was going to dislike her volunteering him for the fight, made him the best placed to be involved in the fight.

Ulquiorra, without any apparent communication with Ienzo on the matter, took a half step to place himself in front of him, and very firmly between him and the door.

He didn't unsheathe Murcielago, however. He could feel the power, and age, and unpleasantness of the thing they were facing, and Ulquiorra of all of them was well used to that kind of feeling from something. It was big, and old, and powerful, and likely would take a combined effort from the Arrancar to defeat, which meant that for now, Nel was right, and projectiles would get them further than swords would.

It would be waiting.

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