"What aren't you telling me?" Agito asked. She, Aizen, Gin, and Tousen were lounging in Aizen's anteroom where the more delicate plans were constructed. Before this, Agito tended to avoid joining their secret plans that would undoubtedly be about the future rule of all worlds, finding distaste with the delusions of a madman with power. But now there was no running away.

"Be more specific, mi Reina," Aizen said standing off to the side and swirling a sip of whiskey in a glass cup, "There is much I am not telling you. Can you be any less-"

"Don't-" Agito said, openly wincing, "Don't call me Reina here. Out there, you can call me whatever you like but why should we lie to ourselves in front of nobody?"

"You're right," Aizen said, pouring Agito a sip of whiskey, "What do you want me to tell you?"

"Why is Orihime here?" she asked, taking the cup of whiskey and swirling it around to let it breathe. "Her abilities would prove useful for us if she set her mind and heart to wanting to awaken the Hougyoku but the girl is not stupid. She would take any chance and erase the existence of the Hougyoku. So really, we have a wasted advantage on our side."

"She is a waste," Aizen admitted, "I am pleased that you were able to figure that out. She won't help our side of the war because of her 'upstanding morals' or whatever human derivative is in that naive head. But, as you said, she is a wasted advantage. If she were on the Shinigami's side of the war, she would prove to be an advantage for them. So I simply took away their toy and have left Urahara to feel the true consequences of her capture."

"Hmmm." Agito took a sip of her whiskey, letting the liquor slip down her throat leaving a burning sensation.

"Unless you can twist the princess's loyalty with a few of your cunning words," Aizen suggested.

"Twisted cunning words isn't really my forte," Agito said, "That would be Gin. And I don't believe he would go very far in convincing the girl that we are the better side of the war to be on. She still believes in there being a 'good' and 'bad' side."

"Such a typical princess in her high tower," Gin teased. Agito winced at the choice of wording.

"Please don't refer to the human as a princess outside of this room," she advised.

"Why not?" asked Gin, "Her name literally has the term -hime in it. It's a fitting nickname, no?"

"Fitting, but unwelcomed," Agito said, lounging in her chair, "The Arrancar worship Aizen because of his power. They allowed me my title because of my own. Orihime is weak and can't possibility prove herself strong enough to be called princess even as a tease. Call her princess out of these rooms and she will be dead before you go to bed at night."

"They are animals," Tousen said, "Filthy animals with no morality, no structure. If it weren't for the wisdom of Aizen-sama-"

"Animals," she cut off sharply, "Know a few structures. Predator and prey. Strong and weak. Alpha and omega. We are the top of the food chain. We as murderers, Shinigami, and warriors are respected in terms of predator, alpha, and strong to the hollows. Orihime? She is food. If we dare suggest that food is above them in this hierarchy of beasts, they will eat her to prove her weakness."

"Yes," Aizen agreed, "Don't refer to Orihime as princess, Gin. But really, all this talk of hierarchy is useless. After the war, all thoughts of hollow politics would be pointless."

"What are you talking about?" asked Agito who had a niggling thought of what he really meant. "When you rise in power, the Espada will be there to act as your iron fist."

"You think too little, Agito," Aizen said, "Whoever said I wanted hollows around in my perfect world?"

Agito was shocked into silence. She didn't dare to react harshly to this revelation but it was a near thing.

"What?" she asked as calmly as possible, "Forgive me of my ignorance but hollows, even as disgusting as they are, are a needed species. Three interlocking worlds with a clear ecosystem of predator, prey, and decay cannot be broken without severe consequences."

"That's what you believe, Agito," Aizen said, "But the truth of the matter is, there are only two worlds.

"The living and the dead. Hollows and Shinigami, two sides of the same coin. The World of the Living feeds both worlds with new souls everyday and they run themselves as well as any small minded society can with less than a hundred years of life expectancy. But Hollows and Shinigami are two separate worlds. Why? Because of the notion of good and evil? That is an archaic belief built by humans to give blame to catastrophe. There is no such thing as good and evil. There doesn't have to be.

"I am going to merge the two worlds, Hueco Mundo and Soul Society, into one. There will be no separation. No hollows. No Shinigami. Only souls. And they will dwell together in my new world and never have strife, no conflict. For the two polar opposites have now become one. Peace shall be known."

Aizen said more but Agito didn't listen. When she left, it was without finishing her whiskey.

She walked as calmly down the halls of Hueco Mundo as she could, her hands clenched and shaking in her pockets.

Aizen had lost his fucking mind. She was convinced now. Call her conservative but the three worlds were perfect just as they were. People needed that archaic line of good and evil because most people are weak. Most people can't stand the thought of grey morality. Most people have to think that people who do evil things are evil, that justice is not fluid. She wouldn't necessarily call them weak. They're just holding onto a hope that the system humans have built actually works.

Yes, what Aizen said is true but such drastic measures would help no one. People are people. Hollows and souls would merge and there would be no peace because they would find themselves striving for other things. People naturally sought out chaos. If they cannot find it, they would make it. His plan to wipe away the distance between Shinigami and Hollow would only create chaos and Aizen would be the one to blame. They would not worship him as their god. They will curse him as the one true evil.

The Espada would die. To Aizen, they were only cannon fodder to stop the Shinigami. A distraction from his true goal. He never had faith that they would last. He only raised an army was a time consuming hobby. Not even that. He only made the Espada because he was conducting experiments to see if Hollows can take on Shinigami traits. When they asked to be an army, he probably shrugged and agreed.

In actuality, the man didn't need an army. He didn't even need to announce his plans of world domination. He could have slipped on by in the shadows of the world. There would be strange occurances of Shinigami turning into hollows and hollows turning into Shinigami. An entire town would be wiped off the face of the earth and no one would be the wiser to his plans for total world domination.

But Aizen had a weakness. Arrogance. It was subtle but there. He wanted to flaunt his power, his intelligence, and charisma. His arrogance would probably not be the reason of his failure. He was much too careful to fall in that sort of trap.

Agito would have to plan carefully. Not only that, but she would have to plan around the survival of her Espada. She had already planned to do so but now Aizen had made this her top priority. He was going to kill them all.

Her Espada: Starrk, Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Lilynette. Hell, let's include the other Espada she had considered saving: Harrible, Nel, even Szayel. And Gin. Of course she also wanted to save Gin. He was never cruel to her. Mean, yes, but never cruel. And despite everything he had ever done, she would trust him at her back in a battle. So that made nine people she wanted to save. She had her work cut out for her.

By the time she neared the halls of the Queen's Court, Agito was nearly woozy from nausea. There was just so much going on and so much to do that she couldn't focus on the fact that there was a shadow in hiding and as she passed by, there was a growl.

She heard the growl.

In the next instant, a hand clasped around her throat and her head slammed into the opposing wall, making her ears ring.

"What do you want," she said, her voice hoarse from violent abuse, "Grimmjow?"

~~~

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