I knew Aizen's plan would unfold in two week's time. I knew this because that was the time Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends had to save Rukia. I had expected to wait in these dark cold halls for at least a few days before moving on. But Central 46 was dead. Central 46 being a congress of judges that act as the law makers of Seireitei. If Shinigami were soldiers in a military, they would be the government. But with their death Aizen controlled the time flow of his plan now [Which still admittingly is genius]. Usually Death Sentences were exacted months after the sentencing but Aiden managed to shorten the time frame to two weeks.

When I heard of his plan in the residency houses of Central 46 I thought I would only remain there for a couple of days before returning to Las Noches where my soldiers await my command.

Plans change.

Time and Aizen's secretive plans led me to remain in the darkness for a week before I went stir crazy. Luckily there was something I could do to both test my current skills and to drive away this mad blood that boils in my veins.

I stripped myself of my gown and put on a black suit not unlike what members of the Second Company would wear. Just when I was about to cover my face with a mask, Gin arrived. Lately he's been visiting me every night. It changes for how long he lingers and tonight I had hoped he'd be late. Today he's early.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked with that same smile he's always had.

"I need to get something," I answered, pulling my hood over my head.

"And what would that be?"

"You'll know when I get back."

"Aizen-sama-"

"Aizen-sama is foolish to believe I would follow his every order," I interrupted him, "Besides, once he sees exactly what I fetched, I believe he'd forgive me."

"Aizen-sama is not so weak to have mercy," he reasoned but that was the closest I've ever heard him come to snapping at me, I had to stop moving.

"You're right," I admitted, "There is no such thing as forgiveness in him. But he's not here to stop me. And you surely can't stop me. What can you do about it?"

"Just be careful," he said uncharacteristically. I studied him for a moment, taking in what his real hidden message was. Whatever it is, I couldn't understand, so I didn't bother asking.

"I'm always careful." I would hate to say that Gin allowed me to leave but it's the truth. He could have raised a hell of a fight to get me to follow orders and yet he didn't. I'm not sure if that's his unspoken support or a trap leading to me being punished by Aizen. Whatever it was. It didn't matter to me for long.

I had to get back what was once mine.

Let it be said that breaking into the First Company headquarters is just about as hard as it could get. The halls were grand, built to intimidate those few who didn't know the layout. There were random security checks and even more random hallways that started and ended nowhere. It was built for confusion. Only those with purpose can find there way. Or those who spent their early years as a First Company Shinigami.

It was easy for me to navigate through the quiet halls, avoiding known hotspots for traffic and wandering eyes. What wasn't easy was entering the sublevel basement, where all the goodies were kept. And when I say goodies, I mean some of the most powerful objects warded and locked away to be kept from the hands of evil men. Including my hands.

But I had a way in. Like I said before, I wasn't in the human realm wasting time. There's a lot of things you can learn from humans. Or Youtube.

So when I was finally in front of the doors which kept the most dangerous of things, I took out an acquired lock pick and started my work. It was a little difficult, seeing as how a heavy key was supposed to unlock a heavy lock and I had nothing but a few weak sticks and tiny hooks but I managed to get it. When the door was unlocked, I went in and shut the door behind me. It would be much easier to get out than it would be to get in.

I looked around the sub-basement and nearly wept with awe. There were glass boxes lined up in nice and neat rows and columns. I wouldn't be able to tell you how many boxes for the sub-basement went so long, I could not see the end in sight. The boxes were heavily warded. Some were even warded with the strongest of kido, which was very impressive. Some still glowed of power in their box, nearly bursting at the seams with their power. But I wasn't looking for just any object. I was looking for mine.

So I closed my eyes and started meditating. The world calmed around me. My heartbeat and breathing became one.

'Where are you?' I asked into the infinite.

'Over here,' came the answer. I walked among the boxes. Trusting myself to find what was needed.

'Where?'

'This way.'

'I'm coming for you.'

'Down that way.' I broke out in a run. I ran faster and faster, nearly shunpo-ing across the expanse of the room to get where I needed.

'I'm close.'

'I'm here.' I stopped running and looked at the boxes around me.

'Where?'

'Behind you.' I turned around and there it was. The box was different. There was the standard amount of warding but then there were kido charms to freeze the box in a cube of frosted ice. But the ice was melting. I watched as water dribbling down the sides, the paper ward's ink smearing from the liquid. I approached carefully, my heart leaping inside my chest. I was excited.

The closer I got, the brighter the box became and the more water flowed off the ice. I placed a hand to the cold and raised my reiatsu up in a calling.

'Come,' I said. Whatever was inside the box exploded outward in a spray of glass and ice. My hand naturally gripped the object and I raised it in the air for the heavens to see.

I got my zanpakuto back.

I know I said I didn't need it for bankia, which is true. And I did have another copy of my zanpakuto back in the Central 46 headquarters. But the first manifestation of my zanpakuto was special, as it was with everyone else's blade. With this blade, I can be more powerful than I was before. I reached into the mess that was my zanpakuto's jail cell and grabbed my sheathe and tied it at my waist. Finally, I was able to sheathe my blade and it hummed, finally content at my side.

"Welcome back, Michael," I whispered. Michael glowed in the dim moonlight, shining like a muted candle and heating up against my hip. I placed a hand upon his handle and ran my thumb on the rough texture. Michael was finally home in once piece.

"Stop as you are, intruder," said a voice I did not want to ever hear again in these circumstances. I froze accordingly. It wouldn't do to show my face to someone who would run me through without a single moment of hesitation.

"Turn around," he ordered. I felt out towards this person's reiatsu and was horrified to know exactly who was behind me.

No, not him.

It wouldn't help to hide my presence away. He was smart and could figure it out before I have time to introduce myself. So I turned around and had the pleasure to see his eye widened in the slightest of ways. He was a couple yards away from me wearing his taichou's haiori and oh well that shouldn't be surprising. Old man Gramps is dead.

"Agito Diabolos," Byakuya Kuchiki said. Before this whole mess, he would have questioned my name. Now, he was much too changed and callous. My face my be hidden but hiding from him would be impossible.

"Byakuya Kuchiki." His reiatsu soured at the sound of my voice.

"In regarded to crimes committed against the state and resistance to fulfilling your sentence, I hereby arrested you."

"You have to catch me first," I challenged. He was there in front of me within the next instant, a rough hand gripping my wrist to stop my escape.

"As I said, I'm arresting you."

"No, you're not," I said before pressing a hand against his chest. He looked down at my hand, disgusted at the intimacy of it. But it wasn't for intimacy. I whispered, "Bakudo san-juu-san, pale fire crash."

A red light burst out of my palm and hit Byakuya's chest at point blank range. He was thrown back and released me. I instantly took this as my chance to get away, shupo-ing out of there as fast as possible.

I had barely made it out of the First Company's headquarters before I felt his oncoming approach. Shit! I need to lose him. I stopped in an open pavilion for only a second before calling Diabolos and Michael in front of me. Diabolos came in a flurry of shadow. Michael did not.

"Where's Michael?" I asked.

"He's home." I wanted to hit myself. Of course Michael wouldn't want to leave home for a while once his whole form was back together again.

"I need you to stall Byakuya. Use the shadows," I told Diabolos before shunpo-ing away. I waited for two seconds before I felt Byakuya arrived at my distraction. When I felt that his attention was diverted, I lowered my reiatsu signature to near invisible before making my way back to enemy headquarters.

Diabolos' diversion didn't last long. The farther away I ran, the harder it was for him to be physical. Within moments, I felt his presence snap back into myself. Good, I was farther away and lost to him.

When I arrived back at Central 46, I had expected only Gin to act as my welcoming party. That was not the case.

"Late night walk?" asked Aizen appearing out of the shadows. I nearly flinch at his sudden presence but I managed to keep in that telling response.

"Something like that," I said. I wanted to throttle him. Across the table was Tosen who sat as calm as a statue. Gin was nowhere to be found. "The moon offered the most perfect lighting, I couldn't resist."

"But you could have," Aizen said, his hand wrapping around my throat. Obviously, my answer did not please him. He stood before me, so close if he were to sigh we'd touch full body. But the only skin contact we had was the hand that caressed my neck. "If you were wise, you'd stay in here away from prying eyes."

"I'm back and there's no one at the doorstep asking for blood."

"And yet Kuchiki-taichou followed you halfway here." He lifted up my hand in his and looked thoughtfully at my wrist. "Did he touch you?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" I challenged.

"No one touches you but me," he demanded, the hand around my throat tightening as a threat. I grew angry. Of course I grew angry. How dare a man take liberties from me?

"I may be your Queen," I spat at him, making sure a lobe of spit landed on his face, "but I'm not yours." Aizen released my throat to wipe away the spit.

"You will be mine if you still insist on endangering my plan," he said. I unsheathed Michael and pressed him against mine enemy's throat. Michael was so happy to be back in my hands, by my side, in use, that the blade began to heat up and redden Aizen's skin.

"Aizen-sama," called out Tosen who was already standing with his zanpakuto out ready to run me through. With a wave of his hand, Aizen called off his defense.

"So that's what you left for," he pondered and I said nothing. He stepped back away from me and I resheathed Michael, much to his displeasure. He turned away to leave the cave with Tosen at his heels but of course he had to have a last say.

"The next time Byakuya Kuchiki touches you. I'll feed him to a hollow. And if he becomes the hollow, I'll be sure to make him an Arrancar. It is his death and your torture, I look forward to."

He left. And I never felt so hopeless.

...

To those who have suffered an instantaneous heartbreak, felt their world be ripped to pieces, their whole life turned upside down, you can relate to the thought of, "I never saw that coming."

And you wished you did cause maybe would your heart be prepared for the trembling of your limbs, cold blood, and grief. Oh the grief. And you might wonder what the instigator of said chaos might have felt upon the upcoming moments of your existential doom.

As current accomplice of chaos instigator, I know the feeling. Anticipation. Once you get a taste of violence may you understand the calm that over takes you at the mention of future war. I might be forced to work on the side of evil, but remember that I also have a gift for darkness. Causing this amount of chaos satisfies something deep inside me.

And today was the day.

I stood ready in a darkened corner waiting for my orders to arrive. It came with an unexpected voice that echoed throughout the endless halls.

"This is the Seijoutou-Kyorin, the residential district for the 46 Chamber..." said what was seemingly a young woman. Very young. Probably as young as Ichigo and isn't that a sad thought. "Why did you bring me here Captain Ichimaru?"

"Have you ever been here, Hinamori-chan?" Whatever Gin or even Aiden has planned, it would not be pleasant for the young girl. Gin appeared at the door first, his snake-like smile even more sinister.

"No way. Isn't this place off limits to everyone? This is the first time I've ever seen it." I had the briefest of thoughts that this Hinamori would act as a small tool for Aiden to use but no. She is much too useless.

"There's someone who wants to meet you."

"Someone wants to meet me?" Hinamori appeared at the door and why would she trust Gin of all people?

"That's right," said Gin. He looked right into mine eyes before his sinister grin turned downright evil. Absolutely twisted. Whatever was about to happen, it would bring him most satisfaction in his sadistic qualities. "Go on look behind you."

"Behind me...?" Hinamori turned around and I knew what was going to happen. I saw her expression when she witnessed the "resurrection" of Aizen. It was in her hope. So much hope for one so young but that was to be expected.

"Cap-Captain...Aizen?"

"It's been awhile Hinamori-kun," Aizen greeted. He looked so kindly at her. So very kindly that I would believe a young girl to fall so willingly into his trap.

"Is it really you? Captain Aizen? I thought you were dead..."

"It's okay you see I'm alive."

"Aizen-taichou. Aizen-taichou I ... taichou." She was in a state of shock, disbelief, and a soul crushing amount of hope. She stumbled forward and grasped the front of his coat for proof of tangibility.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Hinamori-kun," Aiden said as he wrapped his arms around her to an embrace. "You look even more frail than before I'm sorry for making you suffer this much but I hope you can understand there was something I had to do. It had to be without you. That's why I had to hide myself from you. That's why I had to take my death. You-"

"Its okay. It's already enough ... Taichou is still alive. That's enough already." Strangely, this reunion seemed more like lovers instead of subordinate and mentor. Throughout this whole ordeal, Gin Ichimaru came closer and closer to my side until now our shoulders are barely brushing.

"Jealous?" he whispered.

"There is no love lost in dead things," I answered him.

"Good bye," Aiden uttered. When I turned my attention back to the main scene Aizen had already stabbed his subordinate through the chest ending all thoughts of lovers, jealousy, and hope.

"Did it have to be her?" I asked, "There are more people with more connections to people's sentiment to warrant an outraged response."

Hinamori turned her head to look at me, the unfamiliar voice in the darkness. Her eyes, so choked up with shock and disbelief at her Captain's betrayal, widened even more in horror of my presence. I must have looked horrendous. An infamous murderess born from shadow, dressed in the brilliance of white and black, crowned like a Queen and made to be a warrior.

"This can't be..." She uttered before falling to the floor. She lay still, too much in shock to even twitch a muscle. But she was conscious and could hear everything we say.

"Her purpose is not finished," Aiden regarded me before raising his hand in a 'generous' offer.

"Come, mine Queen, Gin." It was all a play. One in which I must act. Hinamori will return and report her side of the story and she wouldn't dare leave out the details of Aiden acquiring myself as Queen.

I take his hand because I must and step over her body, blood staining the hem of my gown. Oh well.

"Her purpose..." I mumbled because I couldn't think of any other reason why she would have to die. I didn't have to wonder for long because when I stepped out of the house I once resided in we had a new guest. One that pulled my heart in pity and understanding.

Hinamori was a targeted victim but she wasn't the main goal. It was Hitsugaya-taichou of the Tenth Company who stood before us now his eyes panicked over the unknown.

"Ichimaru and..." he gasped over his shock.

"Yo, Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen greeted.

"Aizen?!" Toushiro cried out in shock. His entirely attention was drawn to the man of the hour, leaving me out of his regard. If I had any say, I would never appear before him as I do now. It would only break his heart. "What's going on? You...are you really Aizen?"

"Of course. What you're seeing is very real. Although..." at this moment, Aizen turned his attention to Gin, "Hitsugaya-taichou came back earlier and in better shape than I expected."

"Sorry. I overestimated the effectiveness of Izuru's distraction."

"What are you guys talking about?" Toushiro was clearly confused. Aizen and Gin speaking around him as if he wasn't there was not helping.

"Us? Just analyzing our strategies. The most basic strategy is spreading out the enemy's forces, don't you think?"

"Did you say enemy?" Toushiro gasped because wasn't that a statement of intention. But his like of thoughts seemed to be disrupted by a singular thought. "Where's Hinamori?"

"Where indeed," Aizen said carelessly. Toushiro was beyond angered at these turn of events but his fury turned to panic when he felt exactly where and how weak his Hinamori was. Within a single leap of Shunpo he was behind us baring witness to Hinamori's dying body and growing pool of blood. "How unfortunate! You found her. Pardon me, it wasn't my intention to traumatize you. Before you could have noticed, I should have chopped her in unrecognizable pieces."

Aizen meant either me or Gin could have chopped her up. Acts of desecration to a corpse is not below him but if he really wanted to wound Toushiro as he was doing now, either me or Gin could have driven the finishing blow to his sanity.

"What is the meaning of this? Aizen ... Ichimaru ... since when did you two become comrades?" A deadly calm filled the air. I knew what he was doing. He had already registered us as his enemies.

"From the beginning," Aizen answered.

"Before you faked you death, Aizen?" The air was turning colder. I placed my hand up in my zanpakuto, getting ready for anything.

"You're slow," Aizen remarked, "I said, 'very beginning'. Since I became taichou there wasn't a single moment that I thought of anybody but him as my fukutaichou."