Throne Room

"Oh yay...Field trip." Vale picked up what Aizen had tossed at his feet. He frowned as he looked at the slips of paper. "What the hell? You want me to deliver all  of these?" Vale dropped the bundle and frowned. "That's a fucking lot. And, how do expect me to get there, hm? They want my ass dead. I'm sure they know what my pretty mug looks like."

"No we would not." replied Vale. He picked the bundle back up and counted the notes. Twelve in total, all but one for the lieutenants. "The Captain Commander's signature. Very nice." He glanced over the first note. "Lieutenant Hinamori?" He glanced up at Aizen. "If this doesn't work and I get caught?"

"Gone!" Vale turned quickly, disappearing from the throne room. 

Moved

"Weight":

The god, Alister, appeared in the Throne Room to find Vale sitting in front of the throne with Kyōka Suigetsu in his hand. "So, you have moved passed maiming your subordinates to sulking. You are a strange man, Vale Tervaden."

Vale held up Suigetsu with both hands, examining it's hilt and broken edge. "I am not sulking." He raised an eyebrow as he lowered the blade. "What is it about Sousuke Aizen, that would bring the gods against him?" he asked, leaning against the cold marble throne.

"Apart from him likening himself a god?" replied Alister. "Oh, I don't know. How about his desire to destroy anything that stood against him? Or, his desire to turn an already imbalanced world in his favor?"

Vale pointed Suigetsu at the god. "An already imbalanced world, thanks to you gods. You all oversee the creation of all things, yes?" Alister nodded. "So, you knew upon the creation of Sousuke Aizen that there would be an imbalance."

The god raised his hand to Vale. "A balance we corrected with Kisuke Urahara."

A smile formed on Vale's lips. "Urahara? No, you merely attempted to make the weight on both sides equal for a time."

"Balance."

"No." said Vale, pointing Suigetsu again. "You said it yourself. An already imbalanced world. You added to that imbalance with Aizen, did you not?" Vale raised his hand to the god, cutting his words off before they could be said. "Then you added Kisuke Urahara, widening the gap! You gods didn't correct the balance. You can't!" Vale looked to Alister, who stood with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw. "And, then...as if it needed to happen, one of your own began to intervene."

"Enough!" shouted the god. "I don't need a mortal reviewing the failings of my people."

"Then perhaps, you shouldn't be in a position for it to happen!"

"Listen to me, King, I can take your life quite easily."

"By all means, do it." Vale grinned as he rose to his feet. "But, then again, there is that thing about balance. Isn't there?" Alister stood there saying nothing. "So, here's the deal. I ask. You give. Simple."

Alister appeared before Vale and grabbed him by the neck. He lifted Vale from the floor and threw him through the marble throne and into the marble wall behind it. "What do you think you will gain from making demands of me, Vale?"

Vale struggled to breathe under the grasp of the god. "For...as long...as that god...resides in the human...I am owed!"

Alister pushed Vale further into the marble wall. "Owed what?! What do I owe you? If anything, you owe me. I could have completely disregarded the Soul Kings order and let you rot in that cell!"

"But, you didn't!" Vale pushed against the god, but he did not budge. "You want to speak about balance! This imbalance is Sumi's fault. So, until she is dealt with...I need you on my side. Call it weight."

Alister released Vale and watched as he fell to the floor. "What do you want from me? I will not bow to you."

"I don't want you to bow for me." Vale rubbed his neck, Alister's hand burned into his neck. He pointed to Kyoka Suigetsu on the floor. "Suspend it over the seat of the throne. If anyone but Sousuke Aizen touches it, they die."

"Sousuke Aizen is dead, Tervaden." He walked over to the shattered blade and its shards next to it.

"You are a god, Alister. And, I am far more intelligent than I lead on." Vale watched as the god picked up the shards and placed in the seat of the throne and held the broken blade above them. Alister released the blade and let it hover over the shards. "I told you, I am a placeholder."

The god looked to Vale with narrowed eyes. "You will not demand anything from me. You will ask. And, if I believe it to be worth the trouble associated with it and you, I will give you what you ask. But, you will not demand anything of me. Ever. Again."

Vale sat on the cold marble floor and watched as Alister disappeared from the throne room. "Well...That was fun..."


"Old Friends Reunited":

The violet in her tainted eyes flashed as Yumiko glared at the espada who had once again snatched her away from her friends, back to this place. “What do you want?” she snapped. “And quit speaking in riddles. I am not a queen here. Aizen - who is dead - tossed me away. It was never love between us.”

She clenched her hands, speaking the words she had gathered around herself while in the care of Ukitake and Kotetsu. “I don’t belong here. I never did. It was an illusion - that was all. Everything that I kept me here before is an illusion,” she stated firmly, tossing her arm out wide.

Yes, there were parts that seemed to have replaced the darkness in her mind, and like some kind of spell, they remained. She would get past them. She just needed time to find the answers to conquer them - at home.

“It’s not even a dream,” the noble continued in a calmer tone. “It’s a mirage. Less than a reflection.” She lowered her arm, waiting for his reply.

Yumiko drew Mizue no Kagami. “I don’t believe you,” she whispered, keeping the steel between them, hoping the feel of her sword would keep his words from getting inside her head. Again. “You said after helping Vale I would be an enemy to Soul Society. That didn’t happen.”  It didn't matter that it had happened as he had predicted in two other instances.  Like Vale had said he was not infallible.  Her eyes narrowed. “Your predictions can be wrong, Koga.”