The Arrest [Gage]

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"Ah!" she said, surprised as he emerged from under the car. Yup, there he was. He seemed to be a little taken aback, and for whatever reason, he seemed to have forgotten about their arrangement. Or perhaps he was trying to play things off as being all cool after the last time they'd met. He apologised for not calling and Nessa merely smiled looking down at him a little smugly.

"Oh what must a girl do to get a decent man who'll at least call, these days." she said sardonically, before planting her firm butt down on one of the stools in the workshop. She idly played with some of the toys, fidgeting. She had a casual glance around, and couldn't see it anywhere. Probably Gage was keeping it safe for her, somewhere. Something about his demeanour seemed different, like he was nervous about something.

"So, how you been? Get any more bits of yourself blown off by arrancar recently? I learned some healing kido. We can see if we can fix your arm." she said. She'd not heard much more about the arrancar that had attacked Gage but she had a worried feeling that she had joined forces with the Wandenreich.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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He humoured her banter, emerging fully now and removing the greasy mechanics' clothes. She could hardly understand how a person could have as much power as Gage and yet live in this way amongst these humans. Did he not get bored? Did the fact that, if he wanted to, he could probably level the entire city, probably emerge as a god amongst these people not make fixing up cars a little droll? Nessa figured she could never understand that, not in a million lifetimes. There was a voice at the back of her mind, however, that she could, and had understood. human!Ness wouldn't have wanted the power Vanessa had right now- hell, even she didn't really want it. The feeling of being a shittier person than one's own self was taxing, and she tried to avoid it.

She whistled at the sound of his rattling. That arrancar had really done a number on him. A big chunk of him was machine now. That was a big restoration job, probably out of her depth. Maybe a hand... A forearm. If you had the attached part. She figured Mayuri probably grew spares in his lab. Not that she had access to that or any of the other trappings of the twelfth squad as she'd had previously.

"Oh you've heard, have you? And you are? I wonder if part of that preparation has involved producing my product." his skittishness seemed to acquire some context now. Was he afraid that Nessa was here recruiting with the Shinigami? Surely she must have made it pretty clear last time that she was well-ostracised. How had he heard. From whom? "And which little birdie told you that, then?" she asked him, a biting tang of aggressive curiosity in her voice.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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So... Gage was with the soul reapers now. And in fact, he was a soul reaper. She caught the badge with some difficulty; no depth perception, and examined it. Yeah that'd do it. She turned it over in her gauntletted fingers as she examined it, frowning slightly as Gage spoke. So it was true, they were inviting people back. Vanessa wanted to return to Soul Society more than anything. She wanted to return as a friend, to re-join the Kido Corps, or the 13 Court Guard Squads, and the prospect gripped at her heart. Her insides welled up with joy at the thought that she could go home, finally. She tried not to let it show on her face. human!Ness inside her was performing somersaults of happiness and yet... What if it were a trap? Of course, hollowfication hadn't exactly been Vanessa's fault, it was her Soshi that had been the one to blame in reality. What if Blodeuwen was throwing her under the bus? She didn't think the Soshi would do that but... Who knew. Anything was possible. But it was when Gage continued that it was sold to her.

Emilia had been invited back? The old second squad defector who had, as it turns out, been behind the Olympus movement that had completely been destroyed. Nessa found it somewhat peculiar that of the three visored she knew on a personal face-to-face level, all of them were former second squad members. Sui Feng must have been a shitty captain, she mused to herself, a small smile spreading out on her face. Not that she was a captain any more. She was Commander Feng of the Onmitsukido now.

"They're the ones who destroyed that power plant and wrecked central downtown a few months ago." Nessa mused. Arashi was with them... Did that mean he'd returned to Soul Society too? Had Emilia found out that he was a worm? She would probably be pretty pissed off. Not that Nessa knew anything else about her, just that she'd also be pissed off if she found out someone had been double-crossing her. He was some kind of triple agent or whatever now.

"And what if I say no?" she asked, with a kind of glowering smile upon her face. Unintentionally, her already chaotic reiatsu would kick up a notch as she said this, the dark ooze surrounding her giving her an even more menacing visage.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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She sighed. Of course, she would come in without a fight. Fighting arrest was just going to get her labelled an actual traitor as well as just some unfortunate clod who gained hollow powers. Gage went to get some clothes and Nessa realized that she was going to be wearing shihakusho again soon. In the maggot's nest, or as a free soldier. But Gage seemed pretty convinced that she would be fine. She was a little taken aback when he effectively told her they had bigger fish to fry. Did he really know that? Had he ever seen her power? She supposed not. human!Ness inside her, however, laughed at the concept of Nessa getting arrogant about her strength, and the 'have you seen my power?' cliché tumbled through her head. She wanted to get angry at herself, for mocking herself, but she soon realized that that was not only incredibly stupid, but that human!Ness was totally correct.

"Zanpa-" of course. Their initial arrangement had been for her to fetch him an arrancar's zanpakutou. She had considered pinching the arrancar Gwen's, if she could, just to fuck with him but Nessa was about as stealthy as a moose, so that was out of the question. She had a vague memory of 'bargaining' it down to merely a healed arm but hell, he was so banged up now that that was probably also out of the picture. If he was with the Gotei 13, and they hadn't fixed it, Nessa probably had no hope. She sighed, and dropped her own gauntlets to the floor with a heavy 'KLANG'. "Well, you can have this one for now I guess, since you are arresting me." she joked, with a smile. "Do you want to open the senkaimon, or shall I?" she asked him, sweetly.

heavy is the Hole in my heart