Hello all! I hope you enjoy my new work, Collapse! It's based from the Blood-war arc and relates to the actual storyline of Bleach (more-or-less after chapter 635), but goes back to the disappearance of our favorite Espadas from the Arrancar arc. Let me know what you think, I worked hard on it :)

We all felt it . . . The moment Ulquiorra died.

Sketched out among the sands as a mangled figure drawing, a wracked form laid punished by the position death had left him in.

For how long the dunes cradled his scarred corpse was void.

The skirmish between Nnoitora than that demonic Shinigami ended hours ago. Starrk stole the girl, the enemy stealing off in an attempt to stop Aizen. He'd been left in the past with Nnoitora's rancid bones.

A burning swell and upturn of power made his undead eyes blare open. Fizzling out, the sensation was alien, staining the cosmos which made up Las Noches. Ash rested among their world, drifting into nothingness. The ethereal lust was like a god falling.

The realization for more power . . . the unleashed potential . . . that was the most painful part.

A mutilated howl escaped somewhere within the sands, slipping in and out.

Silhouettes vaporized before him, then disappeared. His lashes shut out the world, weakness devouring him.

It was half a memory, hardly a dream.

Aizen never returned.

It wasn't as if Hueco Mundo would collapse without Aizen's guidance. It was almost as if he never appeared in the first place. His place never mattered to me.

Not until the Quincies showed up.

Faded turquoise eyes beheld three creatures, two shaking uncontrollably as they held onto one another before the Sexta, the child in front like a protective shield, looking down at him solemnly. She knew he was dying.

"M-Master Nel—!"

"Please, you can't!"

Wise beyond her years Nel spoke softly. "It's what Itsugo would do."

Bleach (c) TK!