STOP ME WHEN YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH

Man, Not Cool

The four captives get their own personal cells. To make it even better, they're all chained to the wall. Poor Yoruichi. Her feet barely touch the ground. Isshin almost looks worse, but that's only because his feelings got hurt. Boo hoo, Ichigo thinks.

Gin and Tousen show up together. Gin, the snake, sends Ichigo a grin before entering Kisuke's cell. Tousen first slips something to Aizen then follows Gin. Ichigo can feel the chill of the hogyoku from where he's standing. Tousen directs an empty look to Ichigo before entering Kisuke's cell behind Gin. The door closes. The ginger doesn't like that one bit. There's nothing he can do about it, unfortunately. His fracción doesn't like it either. Uryū watches his father through the barred window on the other side of the cell door with worry and sadness. Chad rests a hand of comfort on his shoulder.

"Follow me, my Espada. Time for us to have our meeting. Oh, and let's not have any interrupts this time, huh?" Aizen jokes, directing the comment at Ichigo.

Doesn't seem to matter because the lights abruptly shut off. The room is deathly still until the lights come back on red. God, Ichigo hates that so fucking much. It's more horrifying than enlightening, unlike most alarms. His fracción hasn't moved an inch, thankfully, and Aizen has a look of utter annoyance. He casts a silent kidō to dismiss the red emergency lights. Is that how he turned them off last time?

"Never mind. I wanted to talk strategy, but the Shinigami are already here."

Is that why everything felt wrong when they got back to Las Noches? That explains everything.

"It seems we're going to have to fall back to our back up plan after all," Aizen mutters both to himself and his Espada.

The oldest of the Espada grow grim. The newer ones, like Ichigo himself, are a little confused. Whatever the back up plan is, Ichigo is willing to bet it has something to do with those "preparations" Aizen wanted Loly and Menoly to take care of. Not knowing what's going on has Ichigo going crazy.

"Lord Aizen, what back up plan?" Ichigo asks.

"Oh, that's right. Half of you don't know," Aizen sighs. "Did you really have to kill off half of my Espada, Ichigo?"

Ichigo flushes. Tatsuki and Rukia snort at his reaction. "Well, you see, what happened was-"

"Oh, never mind that. They clearly weren't competent Espada. Our back up plan is to sacrifice the números to the larger group of Shinigami. The Espada are to take care of the captains, and their fracción, the lieutenants. Or the group of them murder whoever is in their way."

Ichigo and his fracción grow quiet. The números are the lower Arrancar. That's literally Aizen's entire army. The ginger sucks in a large breath before carefully thinking of his next words.

"I see. What are armies for, after all, if not for sacrifice?" He says with bittersweet wisdom.

"I understand how wrong it is, but we were not ready for the Gotei 13. That's why it's the back up plan," Aizen replies, putting a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. There's a layer of acting underneath all that sadness. It's taken Ichigo some practice, but he knows a liar when he sees one. Aizen doesn't care that he's killing off an entire fortress of people. They're all failed experiments as far as he's concerned.

"Where do you need us to go, Lord Aizen?" Ichigo asks.

Aizen proceeds to give everyone directions on who to kill and where - he tells everyone but Ichigo. The ginger waits for his dreaded assignment until it finally arrives.

"Ichigo, you're to stay with me. I need my secret weapon, after all."

That's as much of a lie as it is the truth. Aizen wants to keep an eye on him in case he decides to run back to the Gotei 13. Plus, Ichigo has grown quite powerful, and he has abilities no one person has. The lord's plan is a mockery to Ichigo and the Gotei 13. That's such a dick move.