Work Text:
Characters: Tier Harribel, Aizen Sosuke, Gin Ichimaru
Tier touched the grazed forehead, feeling the thickness of blood beneath her fingertips. Her other hand felt the soft locks that trailed down on the ground, seemingly like torn olive silk. She wanted to scream in agony and anguish as she held the broken form of the girls she has considered her children.
They were alive, but barely breathing. She could almost feel the pain of each labored breath they took. She could see Apacci grimace as she took her breath, perhaps her little prankster had a broken rib. She could barely hear Sung-sun's shallow breath, the poor girl must have endured a hit on the stomach. And Mila-Rose, brave Mila-Rose was bleeding. The shirt she had used to bandage the wound on the woman's arm was soaked through.
"Tier."
She looked up, she hadn't even noticed someone walk up to them. "Aizen," she acknowledged. Her eyes widened. The man held a gun, a gun that was pointed at her. "What-"
BANG!
He pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through her shoulder. "You're not strong enough," he sighed. "You're not strong enough to fight for me, Tier." He turned around as she clutched her wounded shoulder. "You can finish her, Gin."
Tier bit her lip as she felt blood ooze out of the bullet wound, glaring defiantly at the man she thought was a leader deserving of their trust. She stared at them defiantly. She should have known better. A man who would turn away from his own comrades wouldn't hesitate treat his subordinates as mere pawns. She should have realized sooner.
The silver-haired man looked at her as Aizen walked away. "Ain't it such a shame to kill ya. Yer too pretty," the man smiled. Was that pity on his eyes? She growled. She didn't need his pity. "Ya should have fared betta if ya were a whore, Hari-girl," he murmured, whispereing, low enough that she could barely hear. She looked at him in surprise. "But, ah don't wanna destroy your pretty face," he smiled, as he pulled away guffawing in glee as he took aim at her chest.
BANG!
She felt the bullet pierce her skin and nothing more. She wasn't sure whether it was shock, or perhaps her weariness, or her sorrow, or perhaps Death's clutch, but Haribel was sure it didn't hurt as much as the other things in her life, as she descended to oblivion.
"He's dead, I see," she murmured as she stood watching the streets in an abandoned building. The blonde woman touched the scar on her chest, the wound that should have killed her but didn't. The bullet had pierced her, true, but instead of hitting her heart, which should have killed her immediately, or her lungs which would have killed her eventually, it bit one of her ribs, lodging itself within. Although removing the bullet had hurt, she survived.
She was sure it wasn't luck. Ichimaru Gin was too good of a marksman to miss. What she wondered however, she thought as the she looked at the sky, was why he didn't kill her. What did he intend? She shook her head. The man was dead and there was no debt of gratitude she must pay. She sighed as she looked at the three who had woken up and started to bicker. Life goes on.