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She was close… so very close to her ultimate goal.
The reason why she had even allowed Aizen to get near her in the first place, back when they first met, when she had sought out the powerful renegade shinigami for both a meal and a prize… and now… at last… the hougyoku would finally become hers. Of course, ever since the golden arrancar had made the decision that the crystal would be hers someday, it was hers, as far as she was concerned. The wait? That had simply been unwanted delays to getting what was rightfully hers.
Locating the shrine-like room her target was kept in was easy enough, despite the never-trustworthy corridors of the building she and so many others called ‘home’, but getting in there without the self-styled ruler of Las Noches being nearby was the really tricky part. Now, however, as the tiny pillar rose from the floor and swivelled open to reveal her prize, a wide and immensely satisfied grin appeared on Marisol’s face. She took a moment to admire the dark gleaming jewel… to bathe in the sensation of long-awaited victory…
The years spent under that man’s thumb were about to come to an end.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Marisol grabbed it, stuffing it hastily down the front of her uniform where it was less likely to be searched for. The gryphon-like arrancar dashed out of the room, aiming for her own little corner of the enormous city-sized castle. Success was like a drug in her veins, and she had to fight from allowing her giddiness to show clearly on her face, but her elation wasn’t given the chance to last for very long.
Catching up to her, with ease, from down another corridor was none other than Aizen himself.
She growled lowly, pouring more energy into just getting out of there; away from the ‘crime scene’ and away from the one who had chained her into his service in the first place. After coming so far, after swallowing her pride for so long… she couldn’t fail… There was absolutely no way that she was going to let herself come out of things the loser this time! However, not matter how hard she tried, at every turn he was closer, until finally, she had to skid to a rushed halt just to avoid barrelling straight into him.
“Having fun?!” she snarled once her stance was properly balanced again. In response, the ex-Captain chuckled lowly, his own stance and expression remaining infuriatingly normal. Marisol crossed her arms, shifting her weight to lean on one leg and trying not to be caught up in yet another thing that just rubbed her the wrong way about the brown-eyed man standing before her… Expressions, or lack thereof when it came to any form of variety.
“Quite… but you took the words right out of my mouth, Marisol… Are you having fun?” the brunet smirked, narrowing his eyes in that peculiar way which meant that she couldn’t quite tell if he was irritated or pleased. Honestly, it infuriated her.
“Oh, definitely.” Marisol bit back, rising to the unspoken challenge and baring her teeth in a grin. “I just love being chased like that.”
Aizen’s eyes glinted, first with mischief –so he was enjoying himself, the arrogant bastard!– and then with power as he let loose some of his reiatsu on her. The force of it pushed heavily down on her body before she could mount any kind of defence using her own reiatsu, eventually forcing her to kneel before him. Her chest heaved as she fought to get back to her feet and breathe normally under the onslaught through her fierce snarl. Marisol had no intentions of staying on her knees, certainly not here, not now, not like this, but he didn’t show any signs of wanting to release her just yet. “I just thought you may want to tell me something…”
Fighting against gravity was something Marisol understood intimately every time she entered her resurrección state. It was something she was reminded of with every step she took through the air where her booted feet found purchase on platforms crafted out of reishi rather than solid matter. It was something she had done with ease so many times… yet she still couldn’t beat the artificial ‘gravity’ generated by Aizen’s own power. The blonde grit her teeth, her breath hissing past the pale barrier as she continued to just breathe. Each subtle shift of her upper torso made the hougyoku move slightly, and she found herself incredibly glad that it hadn’t yet slipped into her Hollow hole. That would be more than a little uncomfortable.
In front of her, Aizen tilted his head to the side slightly, his earlier smirk turning cold. “I’m not hearing anything other than your breathing, Marisol. Do speak up.”
It was clear the brunet wasn’t going to let up until she did what he wanted… no matter how difficult he made it for her to do so. Gold eyes narrowed into seething slits as the arrancar held back her desperate desire to attack him, finding the desire to breathe far more pressing to attend to.
“Hm… Perhaps you didn’t hear me?” Aizen stepped closer to her, making certain that the pressure his reiatsu exerted on her didn’t ease in the slightest. “What was it that you wanted to tell me? Or perhaps it was something that you wanted to give to me?” he chuckled quietly, but the sound seemed to echo through Marisol’s skull.
She gasped. “Ass…! Can’t… breathe… moron…!!” Granted, it wasn’t as bad as she had endured before –her abrasive and confident nature saw to that more times than she cared to count– but there was a point to make here.
“Oh? Is that all?” Once again, that damnable smirk filled her vision. “You really should have said so earlier.” Aizen continued, before lessening the output slightly.
Hissing curses between gulps of air, as well as internally, Marisol levered herself back to her feet using the wall for support. She had expected displeasure, but this was far more than she’d anticipated. A flicker of apprehension gnawed its way into her mind, and suddenly she doubted if this would actually end as her victory… or become one of his. “Got nothing to say…”
“Hm. That’s rather strange… given where you were just now…” he trailed off deliberately and levelled a knowing look at her. “You haven’t been hunting, have you?”
She froze, aside from her still-heavy breathing. The bastard knew. He definitely knew… There wasn’t even a word or phrase that encompassed her current position or thoughts more completely than ‘Oh fuck’, and even that may just have been an understatement… and watching every shift in her expression and demeanour was the one person she most wanted to keep in the dark.
Another of Aizen’s chuckles floated into her ears as he held out a hand with the palm facing up. “Well?”
Scrambling to salvage her dignity, Marisol huffed, batting his hand aside with a sneer. “Get that outta my face, or I bite next time.” To lend authenticity to her threat, she snapped her teeth together with a clearly-audible clack. Not moments later, however, a shrill whine forced its way out of her when he suddenly released his reiatsu on her once again… more potently than before.
“You have something of mine, and it’s only right that you return it to me.” Despite his narrowed eyes, Aizen chuckled again, his hand returning to hover in front of her. “To make it easy for you, I’ll even say something about what it looks like… It’s a crystal.”
She snorted, deciding that –for the moment– derision was more important than breathing, and glared back at him. “Don’t… have… any… on me…!”
He nodded, conceding her statement with a small smile. “Not visibly, no. But, there are plenty of places you could have stashed it to make your getaway, aren’t there?” Aizen’s eyes seemed to bore into her, sending a small shudder down the gryphon’s spine.
In fact, Marisol wasn’t even entirely sure whether the heat in her face was from the lack of air or from something el---… She shook her head. No! No, it was lack of air, definitely! A low growl rumbled in her chest before she could rationalise its uselessness and she glared at the shinigami all the harder. “Dunno what you’re getting at…!”
She watched with a degree of fascination, even momentarily dropping her glare, as Aizen’s face darkened. Losing all traces of playfulness, he pulled back slightly. “The hougyoku, Marisol. What other reason would you have for being where you were?”
In truth, the blonde had never had much luck admitting any form of defeat, and so she scowled and quipped at him. “I dunno, the solitude, perhaps?” A few moments later and Marisol grudgingly admitted her loss. She’d just have to try again, and if she was destroyed here and now, then that chance would never come around…
Reaching a hand down the front of her top, she fished out the indigo sphere while keeping her glare trained on his face. The pressure against her body didn’t ease in the slightest, however, and she forced out a groan before slapping the jewel into his waiting hand. “Happy?!”
“Almost. You still have something to say to me.” Aizen replied, still using the same cold tone.
The arrancar snarled; there was only one thing she really had to say to him, but she settled on a midway point that wasn’t quite as likely to result in her untimely demise. “Fuck…”
What she got in response from the shinigami was a chuckle. “No, not that.”
“Sorry, Lord Aizen…” she bit out, scowling darkly. Marisol stubbornly held back everything else that practically begged to be released from her mouth, but she really shouldn’t have been surprised when the man she detested didn’t make any move to change things, drawing a sharp hiss from her. “Fine!! My apologies, Lord Aizen, I don’t know what came over me, and it won’t happen again.” Marisol sneered… Yes, she wouldn’t try this approach again… In fact, she wouldn’t try to take her prize at all… not until she was sure that she could actually get away with it.
Aizen smirked, waiting a full minute for anything else to come out of her before nodding and reining in his power once more. “Good… However, you must understand that you now need to earn back my trust, after something like this.” Idly, the ruler of Las Noches waved the hougyoku in front of her face once she regained her typical posture.
At this point, all Marisol wanted was to walk away, but past experience had taught her –and several others– not to be the one who turns away first, not that she wanted to bare her back to him in the first place. Regardless of that desire, she couldn’t help offering him a snarl and a hiss. “Yeah, yeah…” she muttered. The brunet didn’t reply, giving another of his infuriating smirks and walking away instead, hougyoku in hand.
She twitched, glaring daggers as his retreating back. After all that… after depriving her of the ability to breathe freely more than once, and he was just walking away?! Nothing about how he expected her to ‘earn back his trust’, not that she really cared about that… Nothing about any further actions he was going to take to punish her for this hunt… Nothing at all… Marisol released a burst of her own reiatsu with a wordless shout; she could just see his smirk spread wider, just hear his quiet chuckle…
Suddenly, she didn’t want to be standing in that corridor anymore. Every piece of the walls, ceiling, and even of the floor seemed to be leering at her, mocking her failure. Even the air itself felt derisive… her own domain was laughing at her.
Aizen had stolen it away from her.
Still breathing harshly and trembling –stop it, stop it, stop it!– Marisol spun on her heel and stalked away. The holes through her ankles ached… One day… one day, she would be free of the shackles that man had forced on her… One day, she’d be back in the sky with the air obeying her, and only her…