Agito returned to Las Noches whole. But changed.

Everyone could feel it.

Or, not feel it. Before she had left to train in isolation, everyone could feel la Reina's presence from anywhere within the castle. It was warm. Not like a blanket or a hug since most hollows didn't know the comfort of such things but it was like humidity. It was warm.

But now, the humidity was gone. Not just gone but being sucked away. La Reina Agito took one step back into Las Noches and immediately the air went cold, all warmth sucked out. Like a shadow passing over the entire sky. They could not feel her, and they were afraid.

Later on, Ulquiorra would go to her rooms in which she presided and would take in everything that he noticed.

Agito Diabolos still wore her white suit, unchanged. Her hair was cut and styled, unchanged. Her physical form was not wounded or baring marks, unchanged. But her eyes, presence, and zanpakuto ... those were changed.

Her eyes like that of a hawks were different. They held no anger, no bloodlust, no fear. They were pure and whole full of ... purpose. Like something divine had blessed her. It was an unfamiliar look to him because Agito always stood firm in her belief of no such thing as destiny. So whatever happened to make her look like that must have been something greater than she could possibly explain.

Her reiatsu, no one could feel. No one but the very most powerful could feel. Even Ulquiorra had trouble sensing her. The moment he tried, it was like his concentration would slip away. It took him another moment to guess what it was. She was absorbing. How she could manage to do this while already full of her own power was anyone's guess but it became clear that Agito was absorbing all the reishi in the surrounding area. It was a skill he had never witnessed before because the reishi leading towards her ... fell away into a black hole. He couldn't sense the end of it. Agito was warm from all the power she held in her very breath but no one would be able to sense it.

Her zanpakuto had changed. It was longer, a bit thinner and instead of tying it at her hip as she normally did, it was tied to her back. From her shoulder down to her knee, Agito's zanpakuto sat sheathed but if he focused just on the blade, he could almost hear the war cries echoing and screaming within. It disturbed him. The sheathe was still a blood red, the handle was still maroon, the hand-guard was still molten metal, but it was like there was a different spirit inside the blade.

"Ulquiorra," she greeted and even her voice changed. It echoed weirdly, as if they were both in an ancient cathedral. A sacred place.

"Aizen has called for you," he said. She hummed and the sound vibrated in her throat. His hollow instincts screamed for him to get away, get closer, to run as far away as he could and to stare at the deep abyss of nothing that called for him.

"Let's go," she said and she led the way out to where Aizen had asked for her. Midway, she shoulders trembled and every shred of whatever presence Ulquiorra could feel completely disappeared. It was like sensing a dead corpse. Except she wasn't dead. She kept breathing as if nothing was wrong and the hollow's voice inside him screamed, 'Danger, caution, you are in the presence of something worse than what you can dream.'

Agito opened the doors of the 'Awakening Room' where all the Arrancar were born into their Shinigami abilities. Only half of the Espada were present and those that were were on the lower half of the tier. Aizen was on the ground floor standing before a translucent cage where a hollow knelt, bound with bandages meant to contain the explosive power of transmutation. Though the surrounding Espada shivered at the sudden lack of warmth, the absorption of reishi Agito didn't stop, Aizen smiled to see his Reina looking much more better than when she left.

"Ah, my Queen," said Aizen, "We were waiting for you."

Agito looked down to those around her. Everyone could see that she was different. Very much so. Some could not pinpoint the changes all too clearly and other's knew exactly what was going on. It was surprising though how settled their Reina looked now as if she was finally n her seat of power comfortable within her skin unlike in the past where she burned for more. She moved off to the side, removed from everyone and silent. Ulquiorra stepped forward and asked, "What is the status of the Hougyoku awakening?"

"Fifty percent," he said, "It's right on schedule as far as Soul Society is concerned. Of course, those who haven't held it right in the palm of their hands wouldn't understand. Even perhaps Urahara Kisuke, who developed the Hougyoku and immediately sealed it without even once releasing it from its prison, is probably unaware of the fact that when someone higher than Captain class reiatsu temporarily unites with the unsealed, sleeping Hougyoku, for a brief instant it displays a power equal to that of the Hougyoku in its awakened state."

Aizen's reiatsu united with that of the small gem and his power reached up to phenomenal heights. For a brief instant, Aizen touched the power of the gods and loved it. Agito saw this and immediately scorned him for it.

What is any mortal man, even of one in power, to believe he may be god? How dare he touch the divine with his arrogance?

Aizen took all of his power and touched upon the translucent coffin holding the trapped hollow. His smile spread wider was his will was carried out, the transmutation swift and near painless for the hollow within. There was a great big flash of light and shattering of glass. When the light disappeared and everyone turned to look, there was a new Arrancar sitting there naked, reborn.

"Would you tell us your name, new comrade?" Aizen asked.

"Wonderweiss," the hollow said, "Wonderweiss Margera." The Arrancar was not anything impressive. Nothing that Aizen was impressed with anyways. He turned away from his new soldier to his most loyal.

"Do you remember the directive I spoke to you a month ago, Ulquiorra?"

"Yes sir," the Espada said, remembering word for word the plan Aizen had in mind.

"Put it into motion," he ordered, "I leave the details to your discretion. You may take whomever you like."

"Understood, sir," he said knowing exactly who he wanted to cause the big distraction from the main focus of his mission.

Aizen looked around and his smile widened, a bit of mischief curling at the edge of his heart because he knew how this would go. "Wouldn't you like to go along too, Grimmjow?"

Agito glanced over to where Grimmjow was sitting at the far side of the room, the Arrancar tensed and nearly boiling over in suppressed fury. The missing arm made him to be a sorry sight and no wonder why Aizen wanted him to cause a big distraction. Grimmjow would be most effective stirring up trouble with Ichigo Kurosaki, not stewing here in his poisonous rage with no outlet.

"Yeah," he agreed, "I'll go."

Ulquiorra left with the people he had chosen, Grimmjow trailing behind. The man couldn't even look at Agito he was so enraged. Not that she minded at the moment. She had other things to think about such as why Aizen got that glitter in his eyes now, which usually meant he had a plan that no one would want to suffer under.

"Agito," Aizen called, pulling the attention of the remaining Espada who haven't left yet, "Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Mm," she answered, the noise like a purr that rumbled in her rib cage, "Productive."

"I see the time away has done you wonders."

"If that is all," she said, ready to turn on her heel, "I'll take my leave."

"Forgive me, Agito," Aizen said, "You are not dismissed from here." Agito didn't even waver from Aizen's sudden change of plan.

"Tell me," he asked, "Should I make you a ... Vizard as they would call it?"

"Vizard?" she asked, the name rolling off her tongue with a weird tremble.

"A Shinigami-Hollow," Aizen explained, "You would feel no pain."

"Pain is no issue," Agito said, regal and sure, "Nonetheless, I will not have you turn me into a Vizard."

"Oh?" Aizen said, lifting an eyebrow. That single movement spoke volumes against her decision. To all those witnessing, he was demeaning her opinion, her consent. If the King of Las Noches did not respect the decision of la Reina, did he fear nothing? Her eyes, seemingly so cold and so powerful narrowed knowing what he had just done.

"," she growled and the fraccion standing around dropped to their knees, whimpering at the echoing resonance in her throat. That weird humming sound was happening again and no hollow could explain why it sounded so horrible, so unlike them and so much like something they would instinctively run from. Even Nnorita had trouble controlling his instincts.

"Share?" Aizen asked, his playful games finally stopping after noticing the change of players.

"I am mine own," Agito said, "You will not make me share it."

It was clear who had won this round. Spoken so forcefully, so reassured with the ownership of her own soul, the Espada favored her argument the winning one, despite the fact that she was fighting against their supreme ruler, Aizen who was unshakable and undefeatable.

He was not smiling.

"Bakutou 78," Aizen said without any incantation for the high level kido spell. With a twitch of a finger, the reishi around them formed into white bandages and wrapped around Agito. She did not move or struggle, knowing that it would prove fruitless.

"What are you doing, Aizen?" she questioned and something wormed its way inside him. Loathing. Hatred that this woman, the one he wanted obedient, pliant, and a good soldier had proven that it would never be. How dare she look down upon him, as if she were god instead of him. No, he was god!

"Don't worry, my Reina," he said, "I'm following your wishes. Bakutou 79." More layers wrapped around her entire body, covering her face now. The bindings lifted her into the air, pulling her at an awkward angle. The Espada around them shuffled and murmured at the sight because what the hell was happening? Only one man knew.

Aizen took out the Hougyoku from it's closed case and smiled. The god creating jewel was only half awakened, for what he wanted, the jewel could easily grant.

"Don't worry," Aizen said to those who were listening, "You'll survive."

He lowered the jewel onto Agito's right hip and the bindings split apart as the jewel made contact with her skin.

Agito, bound and immobile, howled. This was no human-like screaming or Shinigami's reishi shout they sometimes do to be heard on the battle ground. This wasn't even like a hollow's howl. The scream echoed, resonated, mounted up, layer by layer, until it was the most horrible sounding scream the Arrancar have ever heard before and they were made out of the souls of thousands of echoing screams.

Her howl demanded that they run, but the pressure that escaped her bindings forced them into stillness. The walls were shaking, the ground trembled, the very air didn't seem stable enough to breath.

Even Aizen had trouble.

A bright white light emanated from the contact point and the Hougyoku was rejected outwards. The explosion cause the kido spells to collapse and the bandages tore free from Agito's form. She had stopped screaming but in her throat was a growl that told the hollows, 'Beware, beware, danger is near.'

"What have you done?" demanded Agito, her controlled character twisting into anger. No one faulted her for it. She undid her suit jacket and pulled out her white shirt to expose the hip the Hougyoku had touched. There glowing with golden light was a sigil. An unrecognizable sigil. A wheel within a wheel with a snake entering the sun.

Her vibrating growl went deeper and everyone could see the golden glow turned red. Agito started twitching and groaning. Something was happening and no one could guess. Aizen smiled, knowing that whatever she was doing, she couldn't take it back.

"I wanted some insurance," Aizen said and she glared at him with madness in her eyes. "Never fret, you may tug at the edge of your leash. I'm not so cruel as to take that away from you."

Something deep inside Agito was screaming but not in pain. It was roaring in fury. It demanded blood.

the Darkness ordered, '

'What has he done?' questioned Agito wanting very much to do exactly what Nothing had said.

'We do not know,' said Michael as immovable as a mountain, 'We have dealt as much of it as we can.'

"What do you say, Agito," asked Aizen, rubbing it in her face how much she had lost this round of power play. He wanted her to thank him for it.

The snarl in her lip, and escaped growl was not imagined. It surprised Aizen of the dropped facade. For years she played the game and only now did she break.

"Mind your tongue, Aizen Sosuke," she threatened, "Before I rip it out."

"Oh?" he teased, testing the full extent of her anger, "Is la Reina not feeling well?" It was a jab at her station, her constitution. It would serve him well to remind him of her place.

"I am Queen of Las Noches," she said, "They will not blink if I were to eat you alive."

Never had he felt this way before. That sinking pit feeling. He chalked it up to realization that she would undoubtedly eat him if given the chance. She had no inhibitions to cannibalism and it shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. She looked the part. In fact, Agito looked like she was salivating at the thought of eating him alive. He spiked his reiatsu in warning and though it affected all the Espada around him, Agito didn't flinch.

She twisted on her heel and strolled out the doors.

"I did not dismissed you," Aizen said putting all of his control into those words, daring for her to disobey.

"Treat me like that again," she growled, "And I will not stop the greater powers from consuming you." Her voice changed in that last sentence and no one recognized it.

A voice from deep within, no deeper than that. It came out of her throat but surely it did not come from her. Whoever possessed her for that single moment was angry. Beyond angry, beyond all fury. Color leached out of everyone's eyes. Time slowed, had no meaning. The end would not come.

Before the jaws of whatever entity graced their presence decided to swallow them all, Agito turned and strode away leaving them all gasping from the brush of some unnamed force. The hollows could not understand it. They never had the thought of this much power and conscious existing.

But Aizen has. It scared him. To him, gods were a vague idea, one of ungraspable imagination. But since he was more power than anyone he has ever met, he had always assumed that he was the closest to reaching the title of all-powerful being. He had found a way to become god. He thought he would rule not only this earth but the heavens as well.

He thought that with the Hougyoku, the gods above would be nothing compared to him.

But this was worse. Much worse.

He didn't know how she did it. He didn't know when she even started looking for that power. How did she find them? Why did they show themselves to her? What is so special with Agito Diabolos?

It infuriated him. He couldn't figure it out. No, he is god, he can figure it out. He remembered every single little thing he knew about her and then he remembered-

Michael the Archangel.

A Judaeo-Christian supernatural monster. Arguably the first conscious being Yahweh ever created. Was this the thing that spoke? Was this the thing that is transforming Agito? He could only make that his conclusion.

He didn't know that something else was making residence in Agito's soul.

Believing he had it all figured out, he let himself smile.

She was full of surprises.

...

Agito stormed back to her rooms, furious with what had just transpired. It didn't help that something else was just as furious as her and was raving about feasting on her enemy's flesh. She stormed over to the mirror she kept tucked away and studied the reflection of the sigil on her hip.

Yep, a circle within a circle with a snake entering the sun. Did Agito know what it was? Did she recognize it? No.

'What is this?' Agito wondered, knowing that her gods would listen.

'It is no sigil that I recognize,' Michael admitted. 'The serpent eating the sun however is symbolic to the Egyptian belief of Armageddon. Apophes, god of chaos, is believed to rise up and overtake the sun god, Ra and that would be the beginning of the end of days.'

That ... actually sounded something that she recognized. Agito tried to focus on the darker being who was still seething in an ancient language she should not hear with mortal ears.

'Apophes?' she asked in the quiet of her mind, not daring to utter the name out loud.

the Entity said,

'Should I gave you a name? As you are not Diabolos?'

' the Entity hissed, '

'Give it no name,' said Michael, 'A name has power. A name contains a spirit. No name is it, for it had lost the ability to a name before there were names to give.'

'Alright,' Agito agreed, sitting down and closing her eyes as if she were resting, 'So what did Aizen do?'

'We don't know.' She stiffened.

'You. Don't. Know.'

said the Entity finally jumping into the discussion,

'Whatever he did to you is inactive,' Michael said and Agito could feel her hip burning as he tested the sigil, 'When, how, or why it would awaken is unknown.'

'So he planted a ticking time bomb.'

'Yes.' Agito rubbed her temples to ease the tension. For a month she had trained in isolation and believed her metamorphosis has completed itself with her zanpakuto and gods. But it would seem she had one more change to undergo.