Soul society is potentially in the worst possible situation they could be in, one of the two people they have that could hope to defeat Aizen has now been kidnapped and none of them know it. With Rukia's abduction by Ulquiorra, Ichigo's human allies are left with one option, get to soul society. Without a soul reaper to guide them through the Dangai they will have to make a run for it. Thankfully the entities known as cleaners ignore people who have soul tickets but that doesn't mean they want to spend another minute inside this strange dimension. "We need to get there fast, god knows what Aizen has planned for her so we need to move." Uryu declares before the group of three empowered humans sprint through the strange precipice world between life and death. What the group isn't aware of, is that time in this world runs slower than that of the real world. A single hour on the outside is nearly three months in this realm, the moment that Rukia stepped out of the dimension time for her would stop relative to Uryu, Orihime and Sado. The time they spend sprinting through the precipice world may feel like hours to them but to the outside a single millisecond hasn't passed since they entered the void and when they exit. The three spill out of the exit gate of the senkaimon, tripping over the slightly raised edge of the circular portal. As they do, they pile up in a heap at Ichigo's feet, a brief distance behind him is Captain Ukitake and Captain Kuchiki expectantly waiting for their arrival and Rukia's return.

"Yo, what's got you all in a rush?" Ichigo asks as the group collect themselves from the floor, though a brief moment later he doesn't sense Rukia's spiritual pressure. His friends immediately feel a shift in his normally warm reishi, turning cold, sickly and anxious. "Where's Rukia?" He says, still half expecting her to walk through the still open senkaimon.

"We were ambushed." Uryu confirms Ichigo's worst thoughts. "An Espada appeared while we were traveling through the dimension, he said his name was Ulquiorra Cifer and that Aizen wanted Rukia." The anxious feeling of Ichigo's reishi gets colder and is replaced with fear.

"Why didn't you stop him?!" Ichigo yells, grabbing Uryu by the collar of his quincy garb and jerking him upwards off the ground.

"He was going to kill us!" Sado declares raising his voice to stress the severity of the situation. He pushes himself between Uryu and Ichigo stopping the orange haired man from doing anything drastic. "He said that if she didn't go with him, Aizen said for him to kill us to force her to come."

"N-no no, she wouldn't go willingly. She's smarter than that and she wouldn't let herself get pulled into a trap so easily." Ichigo tries denying the situation exists but when Byakuya lays a solemn hand on his shoulder his fears are realized.

"Aizen wants her to get you to come to him. Rukia is the bait for the trap he set for you. He wants you to go to Hueco Mundo. Either to defeat you there or launch his attack on the human world while the only two people who can defeat him are not in that dimension." Byakuya says as he pulls Ichigo to look at him. "Rukia knows that this is a trap and she's too valuable to Aizen for him to just kill her as he needs her to get to you. You are not strong enough to defeat Aizen as you are, don't fall into this trap when it's this obvious." Ichigo's breathing begins to quicken, his heart begins pounding out of his chest as the reality of the situation begins to set in.

"Kurosaki. You need to remain calm, Rukia is more powerful than any of us except Kenpachi and the head captain. It's likely that she's doing this to buy you some time to get stronger so that you two can take down Aizen." Ukitake says trying to continue to reassure Ichigo, but the substitute lieutenant falls to his knees clasping a hand over his chest as he hyperventilates.

"Ichigo! Snap out of it!" Uryu declares before smacking the orange haired substitute across the face. "This is exactly what Aizen wants. He wants to lose control of your powers and come running right into his hands. Rukia will be safe and we can use this time for you to train, you've already trained with your hollow and shinigami powers but you need to use your mother's powers if you want to take down Aizen."

"I-I can't... I came so far to keep her safe and the first moment I'm not with her she's dragged back into danger." Ichigo mutters to himself, his breathing has slowed back to normal but the others can sense he's on the precipice of hollowfication.

"If the situation was reversed, what would Rukia do?" Byakuya asks, crouching down beside his soon to be brother in law. "You're not the only ones affected by this, this violates my promise to Hisana and to you to keep her safe, but ask yourself what would she do if you were in her position." Ichigo remains silent for a moment thinking of an answer.

"She..." He starts but trails off again pausing for a brief moment to collect his thoughts. "She'd come up with a plan." He finally says.

"And what would that plan include?" Ukitake asks, trying to get him to continue this thought process.

"She'd gather allies, get stronger then invade Hueco Mundo just like I did with soul society." Ichigo says, "She'd bring Bya-Captain Kuchiki, Renji, and probably Grimmjow since he knows what we would be walking into." He corrects himself as he goes to say Byakuya's name, the training and manners that the head captain had burned into him taking the forefront.

"The espada may need some convincing, but yes that's what she would do. Now, I ask that before you decide to go head long into this trap that you train. A week, ten days at the longest. That will give me enough time to convince or distract the head captain long enough for your rescue team to get to Hueco Mundo. We might end up getting a court martial for this but at the end of the day if Aizen is defeated and she is safe then it'd be worth the punishment." Ukitake explains as he offers a hand for the teen to stand back up. "Remember, we're a military and she is a seated officer, it's her duty to try to escape."

"Right. You all are in on helping me rescue her right?" Ichigo asks, turning to look at his friends and future brother-in-law.

"Yes, but we need to bide our time to get the opportunity to spring the trap and rescue her. For now, I will inform the head captain of what happened." Byakuya suggests.

"For now, you need to train with Ishida. Captain Shiba had told us, and you now that your mother was a quincy. You should be able to tap into those powers just like your own shinigami powers. You all are welcome to stay at my division when not training with Lieutenant Kurosaki. For now, try to decompress after the journey and what happened. I'll show you around." Ukitake says, ushering them away from the senkaimon gate and towards the thirteenth division.

Las Noches.

Rukia weighs the options of stabbing Ulquiorra in the back as she's escorted through the halls of the palace of Las Noches. The vasto lorde managed to condense the journey in the garganta to a few steps before he opened the exit to the capital of Hueco Mundo. Though, if she's going to go along with her inner hollow's plans then she needs to bide her time and then make a move on Aizen himself. Knowing how hollows work, if she kills Aizen it's likely the espada and arrancar would serve her after their leader was defeated. That wouldn't stop Gin or Tousen from attacking or even intervening in her assassination attempt on Aizen. She'd have to wait until she was alone with Aizen, or at the very least until a weaker arrancar was present in the same room with Aizen and her. Nearing a set of large doors, likely heading to the throne room Rukia guesses, two guards with identical full helm masks guard the door. While their appearance is mostly human, their mask is like a horse/human skill hybrid without a lower jaw but there are no human appearances that the arrancar all share aside from the bipedal humanoid form. "Ulquiorra-sama. Lord Aizen is expecting you." The two speak in perfect unison, almost sounding like one voice.

"Flank her from behind, make sure she doesn't escape." Ulquiorra says emotionlessly, prompting the two guards of Aizen's Exequias (The Funeral Attack Force) to obey the espada's commands. Both walk in perfect unison taking places behind Rukia before drawing their blades and leveling them towards her. "Follow me, Kuchiki Rukia." Ulquiorra orders. The espada begins walking forwards, still with his hands in his pockets. The doors ahead of them open on their own revealing a large table surrounded by occupied chairs expectantly waiting for Ulquiorra's arrival.

"Welcome, Kuchiki Rukia." Aizen's voice bellows through the room as she is led in. "I hope the journey was pleasant." She could tell that there was a dark satisfaction in his voice behind his words. "Welcome to Las Noches." As the doors close behind her, two more of the exequias arrancar step out before stepping in front of her now flanking her on all sides leaving Ulquiorra in front of her. "I see that the mission was successful, did you allow the others to go to soul society?"

"Yes lord Aizen." Ulquiorra says with a bow to his master before walking away from the formation and taking a seat in one of the two unoccupied positions at the large table. The remaining seat is at the head, with the number zero embolden on the back of the chair.

"My espada, I would like to welcome the newest member of the espada to our ranks. Espada Cero, Kuchiki Rukia." Raising a hand, Aizen pulls the empty chair out for Rukia to be seated but she doesn't move from her spot. "Of the espada, and even shinigami, you are the only one to have injured me. You also killed my previous cero espada Yammy Llargo. I believe you have earned your place in my army."

"I will not fight for you." Rukia says but a sudden poke at her back ushers her to walk forwards. "What makes you think for a second that I'd willingly join your forces against everyone I've loved, and betray everything I care for."

"I don't believe that at all, you won't be joining my espada Kuchiki Rukia. Your other half will be." Aizen says as he motions for her to take a seat. "The other espada behind you were exposed to the hogyoku for a matter of minutes, and in some cases as much as an hour. You had constant exposure to Kisuke's Hogyoku for several months. The barrier between your soul reaper abilities and hollow powers is as thin as a bride's veil. I intend to use the perfected hogyoku to eliminate that barrier entirely. Your inner hollow and you will be one in the same."

"That's adorable, and here I thought my strawberry was naive." Hoakita's voice echoes in Rukia's mind. "Even if the queen and I become the same person, there's nothing stopping us from killing you." The hollow's voice escapes Rukia's lips before she could stop her inner hollow from mouthing off.

"Oh, but I think there is." Aizen responds as he turns his back on her purposefully egging her on to try to attack him. Though it's merely a gesture of dominance as the decision would end in failure since Aizen himself is flanked by Gin and Tousen. "You may have made yourself immune to my Zanpakuto by touching it... but that immunity can be reset if I were to release it again. Though I don't need to do that, as there's a much more effective means to get you to serve me. Once you're an arrancar, you'll have no other choice to do so, there's no going back after that." When he turns around, he's holding up a white robe with black trim on the edges.

"You're free to make it look however you want Kuchiki Rukia, but I have to ask that you hand me your Shinigami blade. You won't be needing it from now on." Tousen says as he walks up to Rukia, he extends a hand expectantly for her to hand over the weapon.

"I might be your hostage, but I will not betray Soul Society." Rukia says as she undoes the bindings for both of her swords. She grabs the scabbard of Sode no Shirayuki before undoing the wrap for Sode no Chimamire Fuyu. She turns over both weapons making sure to place the crimson blade down first in Tousen's hands before her own zanpakuto. Aizen then approaches her offering her to take the attire of an arrancar.

"All in do time Kuch-" Aizen begins again but Rukia snaps at him, interrupting the lord of Las Noches.

"My name is Kurosaki Rukia." She responds before yanking the white robes out of Aizen's hands. "And I will be giving Ichigo your head on a spike as my wedding gift to him." She glares at him through the entire statement causing Aizen to chuckle to himself.

"You will not threaten lord Aizen!" the voice of the only other female espada rings out through the air. Rukia turns to glare at the woman who had spoken, the tan skinned buxom and beautiful espada was glaring at her through a high collar that rose above her mouth. "You're lucky he doesn't kill you were you stand."

"I will do no such thing." Aizen interrupts, "Espada Tres, Hallibel Tier. She can speak what she thinks, in time she will know her place among you. Even with the fullest extent of your power, all of your powers combined even. You couldn't defeat her. Espada Cero Kurosaki Rukia is the Caballero Encima. The lord of Vasto Lordes." The remaining espada tense at the mention of this title, though it does nothing to dull the tension in the room. "Kurosaki Rukia, would you kindly put on your new robes, and choose a spot where you can be branded with your rank. It will be painless."

"Fine." Rukia growls before inspecting the robes she was given. "But i'm doing this privately." She says, returning her death glare back to Aizen.

"You may, there is a changing room you may use." Aizen says, pointing to a small room off the side of his throne room. "Return to your seat quickly, Kurosaki Rukia, we have much to discuss."

It doesn't take long for her to put on the white robes she was given, though she might take up Gin's offer to adjust them how she likes. The fabric is softer than her shinigami attire, and slightly thinner as well. The robes didn't need padding as the arrancar had iron skin or a hierro that would protect them from most sword strikes. She cuts away part of the shoulders on the robes so that hers would be exposed. Strangely the robes change along with the modifications, lining the area she had cut with black trim. She cut the sleeves short so that the would fall to just under her elbows in length and she shortened the top of the robes so that the lower half opened up and covered her legs like pauldrons of armor. She didn't change the pants of the uniform as they're nearly identical to hers on her shinigami robes, just white. The inside of the robes was black, the color she felt most comfortable in and part of her is thankful that she still has that color in contact with her skin. Swallowing a well of anxiety that bubbled up in her stomach, she opens the door and returns to the table. Aizen grins seeing her in the arrancar robes, before gesturing for her to have a seat. The exequias that had flanked her have returned to their positions at the doors leaving her alone. She takes a deep breath and takes a seat in front of Aizen ad the head of the table, still trying to kill him with her stare. Aizen grins seeing each seat in his espada filled once again.

"Now that everyone is here. Let's begin." Aizen says as he takes a seat in his throne with a wide smile splitting his face.