spira_rp | If he wants a fight, well now he's got one

The Palace felt quiet. A number of the Arrancar were out on a mission with Aizen; only the weak, or the unpredictable, had been made to stay behind, but that number had not, apparently, included Grimmjow. Kadaj and Tayuya had been left to their own devices without him and Yylfordt around.

Three days ago, they'd had a quiet conversation. Kadaj hadn't done much talking, just nodded, and then later in the day had crept into the laboratories down the wing of the Palace that Orochimaru had made his own. Kadaj used to go down there a lot, three years ago. He'd stopped just after the Arrancar arrived. He'd fallen out with Orochimaru once and for all shortly after that.

He emerged from the labs a couple of hours later, showered, and then went into the underground training facility. He didn't come up again for a couple of days, although there weren't really people around to notice, except Tayuya, who went down to check on him a few times.

He'd slept when he came back up, and then went to look for Nnoitra, one of the Arrancar who had been judged too unpredictable to head off to a freshly made Necrohol. He found him in the kitchen.

Kadaj made his way over; an unusual intent certainty in his expression, and spoke quietly. "Want to let off some steam?" His manner was all wrong to be an invitation to spar, but that was what it sounded like, at first.

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Nnoitra was still annoyed at being left behind. The mission itself ... he didn't care. They could do whatever they wanted, good or bad, to any city in the world and he wouldn't ever find it in himself to give even half a toss about it. He just hated being told to hang back. To be told that he wasn't the Arrancar for the job when other, lesser members were taken. It made his blood boil.

He couldn't help but feel like he was missing out on something by being at the palace when almost everyone else of note was out there, doing their job and probably getting some action in the field. Denied the opportunity to go along on the first real mission they'd undertaken, he had taken to lurking around the kitchen more than usual. Nevertheless, he was steadily coming to terms with his current fate, even if he wasn't accepting it.

He looked up when Kadaj entered the room. The whole palace had been quiet since the majority of Aizen's subordinates had left and it was something of note whenever anybody walked in. Kadaj ... wasn't that interesting. The two had little between them. They rarely communicated and, when they did, it was edged with a certain amount of latent antagonism thanks to outside factors.

He did not expect to be addressed.

He fixed Kadaj with his single eye when he spoke, gauging the seriousness of his question. It did sound like an invitation to spar, but there was something off about the question, even aside from the fact that he had never approached him in that capacity before nor shown any interest whatsoever in sparring with him in the past. It was something about the tone and the clandestinely quiet way in which he made the offer that made him suspicious. Nnoitra, contrary to popular belief, was not stupid. He didn't miss the subtle lack of Kadaj's trademark brattish arrogance.

All the same, he was feeling somewhat ... caged. "Yeah," he said abrasively, his half-covered brow creased halfway between a question and a scowl.

Kadaj was wary of saying too much to anyone. Gods knew if any of the other clan members got wind of what Kadaj was planning they'd put a stop to it, with one possible exception that was not a sure enough thing for Kadaj to want to risk it. Still, Nnoitra was another matter, because where this was concerned, he and Nnoitra had common ground.

"There's gonna be a fight," Kadaj said, and bared his teeth in disgust as he admitted, "but I won't be able to win on my own." That stung to admit. Kadaj's strength had grown considerably in the past few years, but he was still nowhere near the level he needed to be for this.

"It's a fight you won't want to miss," he promised, with a trace of unhinged sadism, "so I'm making an offer."

"So," Nnoitra began, his tone uncharacteristically thoughtful. He wasn't quite able to resist savouring the moment that a full member of the Clan needed him to win a fight. "You need my help."

The smile that resulted from that little revelation displayed a lot of eerily perfect teeth. He tilted his chin up and inclined his head, the movement positively oozing egotism. He didn't take his eye off him, hardly having to look up even though he was sitting and Kadaj was not.

He was right, though. It was a fight he didn't want to miss. He didn't even know who it was against and he didn't want to miss it. That was just who Nnoitra was.

"Who're we fighting?" 'We', not 'you'. He'd already decided his answer, even if he hadn't said it directly. Not that there was ever any doubt as to what it would be.

The 'we' was reassuring, but Nnoitra wasn't a complicated person, especially where fights were concerned, and it wasn't hard to find the right buttons if you wanted him to fight someone.

"Orochimaru," Kadaj answered, his voice soft and his pupils thin slits, gauging the reaction.

There were so, so many reasons to have this fight, and a couple of really important ones for having it now instead of waiting. Kadaj wasn't sure how many of those reasons he'd have to explain, if any at all.

Orochimaru.

Nnoitra's eye went wide when he said that name. At the same time, the grin abruptly dropped from his face.

He sat frozen for a moment, staring at him in shock. He tried to work out whether he had actually heard what he thought he had and gauge the likelihood of Kadaj winding him up.

No. He was too quiet and calculating for that. This was serious. His hand clenched into a fist on the table in front of him. Aizen wasn't here. The vast majority of the other Arrancar were out of the Palace. Not only that, but a good number of the resident members of Khamja were also away for their own reasons. There was no better time. Kadaj had been planning this. He'd picked his moment well.

Nnoitra, for the first time since the Midgar mission had been announced, stopped being angry about being left behind.

His teeth became visible again, but it wasn't in amusement this time. He raised one side of his upper lip in a silent snarl as he narrowed his eye back to its characteristic slit.

"Now?" His voice was low. It sounded rougher than usual -- his throat had gone dry. He'd waited so long for this chance and he wasn't about to let it get away from him.

"Yeah," Kadaj answered, sounding like he was looking forward to it himself, for so, so many reasons. "We need to get him alone, and now's our best chance. Are you up for it?"

Of course he was. Kadaj was as ready as Nnoitra, and not just because time was running short.

Nnoitra stood up without another word. He looked down at Kadaj, half-visible eyebrow cocked and his expression almost unchanged.

"I've waited a long time for the chance to get even with that bastard," he growled, his voice like a saw. "Like hell am I gonna miss this."

Kadaj smirked a little, and nodded just the once to acknowledge what Nnoitra said. He knew the feeling all too well, and was a little relieved that he didn't have to tell Nnoitra any details.

Nnoitra didn't seem to need them.

"I'm going to bring him to the training facility in the basement," Kadaj said. "You can wait there, or come down after. It's up to you."

They'd need the space to fight, and starting a fight against Orochimaru in his own labs was a bad idea, not least because Kimimaro pretty much lived there, and no matter how sick that guy was, he'd almost certainly drag his sorry corpse in waiting off the table to fight for Orochimaru. Kadaj didn't want to face off against Kimimaro as well, and he didn't want to fight Orochimaru on his home turf, where the environment was his own. The training facility was more neutral.

It would also be much, much more difficult for anyone else still hovering in the palace to notice anything going on, and they could do without the interruptions. Even if the interruptions weren't members of the Sound Five.

He didn't want Tayuya to have any idea of what he was going to do. He hadn't told her about this part of his plan. He'd only told her he was going to leave for a while, soon.

It'd take her a long time to forgive him for this, no matter how things turned out.

Nnoitra nodded. The training facility was ideal. Neither side had the home advantage and noise was expected from there. It wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, even if someone heard the sound of fighting. Bouts, even just sparring, rarely got an audience. They should go undisturbed.

Even so, he knew which option he was going with. "He sees me in there when he walks in and he'll know it's an ambush." Orochimaru wasn't stupid. "Get him there. I'll follow."

Nnoitra didn't care about the Sound Five. He had no personal ties to them. He didn't even think about Kadaj's relationship with Tayuya. He wouldn't feel a shred of guilt about what they hoped to achieve.

If he wants a fight, well now he's got one

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