So here Zack sat, upon the great white wall of Las noches, he lay down with his body pressing against the cold marble wall as his eyes darted from side to side as he counted the stars. Very few seemed to be present, giving the sky the usual sense of emptiness that Zack despised. His hands lay between his head and the wall, the fingers interlocking to support his head as he lay still. Why was he up here you may ask? Simple, he was hiding. He had a feeling Yukio-Sama wanted him to either do some form of training or a job for him, and at the moment Zack was simply not up to the task. Not because he was tired, simply because he was lazy. With that he slowly begun to drift between the two worlds. The real world and the world of dreams, he had to admit…The world of dreams was far better than this hellish existence. He guessed it could be worse, he could be a mindless slave to hunger, just like the hollows in the desert…At least he had his sanity.

With that the roar of a creature reached his ears, with a sudden burst of life he shot up into the sitting position. His legs hanging lifelessly over the edge of the wall as he looked out into the desert to where the sound had come from. For a moment he dis-missed the yell of pain, it was most likely the hollows fighting among one enough again. The fools, if they banded together they would in fact be a powerful unit. Shame their hunger pushed them to insanity. With that he started to lay himself back down, his back lightly touching the cool stone work before he felt. A sudden build up of reiatsu, with that he halted mid0way between sitting up and lying down. For a moment he allowed the energy to swell around him as he begun to register it, within a few seconds it became obvious that this was no common reiatsu. Nor did it belong to someone under Aizen, so it was an opponent.

With a sigh Zack slowly leaned forwards and pushed himself off of the wall, allowing gravity to grip him tightly and pull him down. The wind rushing past him as he begun to approach the sands beneath, he didn’t want to hit the ground at this speed. Zack quite liked the idea of staying a solid, becoming slush was never on his to do list. With that he pressed his feet and hands against the wall and allowed his reiatsu to trickle out, gripping at the wall and eventually slowing him down enough to let him hit the floor with little force. Not even enough to kick up a cloud of dust.

With that he looked towards the intruder, he couldn’t make him out, not even a faint figure. Yet his energy made it obvious where he was, so with that Zack begun to walk forwards. His feet pressing down on the sands as he drew closer, then without warning he darted across the deserts invoking a slowed version of Shunpo. He had no reason to go to fast, he would make himself seem weaker than he was. With that he appeared about fifth-teen foot or so before the robed man, he appeared about two inches above the sand and slowly feel to the desert. His feet causing a small cloud of sound to jump up at his entry.

With that his eyes darted around the man, it took no less than four seconds to take in the main traits of his clothing, and to get a faint idea of his fighting style. The first thing that caught his eye was the sword weapons hanging from his left hip, a faint smile spread across the face of Zack. ‘Dual weild, no wonder he had an impressive reiatsu.’ He thought to himself fondly, perhaps he was a fool for taking this man on alone…then again…perhaps Yukio would appear, that would be interesting. The next thing that caught his eye was the white haori he wore. It seemed he was a captain, yet one Zack did not know…Which was un-expected. He must have been before Zack’s time, meaning…he has had many years to train. Perhaps he was a commander… ‘Crap.’

With that his left hand ran through his hair slowly, knocking the bits of hair out of his eye as he faced the man. Meeting his eyes, then he begun to speak. A few light words fluttered from his mouth, he would try to pull the veil over this man’s eyes. Then that would make the best time to attack, then if Zack was able to defeat this commander the Arrancar would see him for his real skill.

“So commander, what brings you out here…Would it not be best if you remained at base with the others while we scouted the area.”

He said as his hands fell loosely to his side, his thumbs knitting their way into his pockets as he leaned back lightly. Showing no fear or any real caution, he wanted to seem totally relaxed. Even if his heart beat was close to its peak he did not show it, acting was one of his little skills after all. The small grin ever present on his face as he spoke to the commander. Now he waited silently for the man to reply, would he call Zack on his bluff? Or would he not be able to see through it, after all it was not the perfect guise, yet it had no major faults in it…to his knowledge at least.

With that his eyes caught the sleeve, which seemed to be a great deal longer. Hiding all of the arm from his sight, and with just that numerous questions begun to shoot through his mind. The one that was at the forefront of his mind however was, ‘what is he hiding?’

"Well that's quite the relief."

With those words the man leaned in slightly, his attention had been caught by the words of the man. Was this of some interest to him? Perhaps Zack had missed something here? It had been just other five hundred years since he had worn his vice-captain badge with pride after all, many of his memories had simply faded into the sand around him to forever be hidden. With that the man before him spoke once more, his words quickly reaching the ears of Zack. Causing a light shiver to run down his spine for a moment.

"Here I thought you were another hollow. And the sixth? How have you survived here?"

Zack raised a brow at that, had the man forgotten already? Or did Zack not state he was with a patrol unit, no…He had most certainly spoken about how he had been scouting out the area. That was when he tried to get the captain before him to leave, yet it was a failed attempt. Never the less he replied to the man’s words with a light shrug.

“I am here with a scouting unit, I have been on the surface world for the past five-hundred years with you and everyone else.”

He said with a slight mocking tone, it was obvious the man was not going to fall for this little act. So he may as well take the time to goad him into combat or at least mock him. It obviously was not the best insult in the world, Zack was never to good at insults to be honest. He always spoke better with his blade than with his lips. Hopefully the man before him would come to realise that. Zack had a number of things on his side while the man before him did not, Zack had the numbers, many within the fortress would come help if they knew that the man Zack was against in fact a commander. Zack also knew the area, which may seem little to be proud of seeing as to the naked eye it was a desolate desert. Yet beneath them was a forest, a forest of menos and creatures that would seek harm to the man before Zack. The great thing was, Zack knew how to enter the forest with little trouble.

As his hand fell slowly to his weapon his eyes quickly caught the movement of his foe, it seemed the fray would soon unfold. Zack had only fought against a few dual wield opponents in his life, to be honest he found them harder opponents to defeat. Yet, they were not without their faults. One of the largest faults was the weakness of grip, having one hand on a weapon made it a great deal easier to disarm. That would be the main goal, to disarm and strike. An interesting thing was how the man did not grip the handle, he only seemed to rest it in his hand. As if wondering if to attack or not…

"You realize, I was a former Captain of the Sixth division."

Zack broke a smile at that, he knew all the first four captains before his own. Senkai, Kensei, Jera and Belag…He knew some information about each other them, he used to know a great deal more. Their tactics, their abilities, but as the years followed past him the memories of these people were lost. Yet, the chances were likely he was one of the four. In the end, there were not many captain of the sixth division, due to how long each lived for. The man however had made the fight a little easier for Zack, knowing it or not. Zack knew a lot about the 6^th division, he was after all the vice captain before he left on his mission. With that the rest of the words flowed out from the man, carrying a much colder tone than before now.

"Such an action. Maybe the sixth division changed when I left it, but such an action would never be acceptable towards one of higher rank."

Hearing the words of the man Zack nodded lightly, his heart beat now beginning to slow. A wide smile upon his face, with that he spoke out as he drew his weapon slightly from the sheath, showing a mere inch of the weapon. “Perhaps when you were my higher rank, yet out here on the desolate sands…the chances are I am your superior.” He said as his right foot moved slightly forwards, spreading his footing. With that the foot twisted and steadied his stance even more, a wide grin upon his face as he watched the man with keen eyes. He had never faced a commander before, so that would be interesting. If this man was in fact a commander that is. With that his eyes caught the tension building in the man’s legs, ‘so attack already.’ He thought to himself as the grin stayed placed upon his face.

With that the sand was kicked up around the man, he thought that would help him? Zack used that trick even before he was the tenth seat. A simple trick like that would not help him unless used correctly, and in Zack’s eyes it was not used correctly. The sand seemed to surround both of them, perhaps pushed up into the air by using his own spiritual pressure? That was not a bad idea, yet. If the sand could be pushed up by spiritual pressure then it could easily be pushed down again. With that he caught the movement of the man, the cloud of sand made it hard to watch the figures movement, yet far from impossible. Then he watched as the man begun to close the gap, his weapon ready for the strike. Now Zack’s leg slowly moved in, and quickly he moved onto the balls of his feet. His first approach was to overpower the man, seeing as Zack’s brute strength was far greater than the average person’s.

As the man drew close he watched as the sword swung out violently for his lower right side, a simple slash would not be enough to catch this man out. Not yet at least. With that Zack quickly jumped above the blade, his hand tightening around his weapons handle as he cleared his opponent’s slash. As he reached the peak of his jump, only about three foot or so high, his eyes caught the emblem on the man’s back. So he was indeed of the 6^th, or he had simply taken the haori from a past captain. Surely one of them would have died in the war, if not before. Now the man was slightly open, not enough to exploit fully, but enough to take advantage of.

By taking the first strike he had allowed Zack to measure his opponent’s skill, even if still very inaccurately. With that his left hand pressed against the lower part of his sheath as he drew his weapon with a clean and fluid motion. It was obvious he had been doing this for centuries now, after all Iaidô was one of Zack’s favoured styles. The slash was aimed for the opponent’s neck, a simple beheading move was what Zack aimed for. Not only that, on the return fall he was aiming to land standing upon his opponent’s first blade. Pressing it against the sands if possible, be careful to smother his feet in reiatsu to avoid being cut. Now, he would like to see how a commander would avoid his attacks. The wicked smile still spread across his face.

"Fare-well."

He muttered under his breath lightly, yet he did not see this as the end. If this killed his foe, then it was obvious he was not a commander.

Then Zack jumped into the air and felt the unbuttoned jacket flutter lightly in the wind he could not help but feel like he had made a mistake. Which he quickly realised, being in the air made it hard to move and dodge. Luckily, shinigami had a little trick to get out of situations like this. As the man’s attacked missed he watched as the momentum of the strike carried him forwards and allowed him to pivot, ‘cheesy bastard.’ He thought to himself as he watched the man with ever growing concern, what would happen next? Would he simply be cut in half by this foe? No! That was not the way Zack would die, once he sees the body of Aizen before him he will die…not before.

With that he watched as the man drew his second blade, this was the moment he was dreading. Facing against two swords, but he would not let the fear swallow him. He would relish in this moment, being able to experience the skill of a dual wielder at his level was a gift. Most over two weapon fighters will seem like simple opponents once Zack survives this man, which he intends on. He intends on stealing the heart from the man’s chest and showing it to him, though perhaps malicious he was sure his opponent would appreciate such a way to die.

With that Zack slashed out, he would not simply be struck down so early in a fight, he would not allow such an action to take place upon these sands. The blade sliced through the air and drew close to his opponent quickly, yet it seemed it was not quick enough. Sadly, his opponent seemed to be able to react quickly, parrying the blade away with a splutter of sparks as the two weapons met. So close, yet so far it seemed. However, now was not the time to be caught up in what could have been.

As it seemed the man was carrying out a counter, aiming to strike Zack dead in the mid-section.

It seemed he was too slow to slam his feet into the weapon, yet not all was lost. Far from it, there was still more to be learnt from his little encounter. As soon as his eyes caught the glint of the blade the reiatsu begun to build up under his feet at an alarming rate. It was not enough to stop his decent but it was enough to give him a platform to act from, which was all he needed. As the blade drew closer he kicked off as hard as he could to his left, dodging the attack just. Feeling the blade rip through his clothing and nick at the skin of his right ribs, a small splash of blood trailing away from the faint scratch as he struck the white sands. Quickly rolling back up onto his feet and turning to face his foe, his weapon raised for the defence.

The distance between the two was not very much, a few feet if anything. So quickly he kicked off backwards, adding about five more foot to the gap between them. A small smile upon his face as his sight sieved through the sand around them, with that the grin fell as he lifted his left hand and brought it down in a sudden motion. His spiritual pressure building up slightly, causing the sand to floor again. Clearing the air once more.

“What a relief.”

He said with a light tone, his eyes glinting with a dark intent as his left hand rose once more. His palm facing out to his foe, within a splinter of time words rushed out of his mouth once more. A much more serious tone surrounded them now, he would take this fight a little more seriously now. It seemed simply swinging his sword at the foe would not work out to well. If he wanted to wound him he would need a little more power.

“Hadô, number 58. Tenran.”

With that there was a sudden build up of energy in the hand of Zack, the energy fluttering violently as it built up. Within three seconds it was ready, his eyes ever fixed on the man. His hand pointing in his direction as best as he could, as the energy was soon was at its peak it lashed out from the palm of Zack. The swirling colour of black and red seemed to engulf much before Zack, the tornado like strike going for a good forty foot before dying away.

With that his hand gripped his weapon once more, both hands holding it tightly as he stood his ground. His sense waiting to pick up anything to alert him of his opponent’s position. He was sure there was much more of this fight to be had.

As the energy from the attack blasted out he watched as his foe created his makeshift defence. With a sign of anger on his face he watched as one of his power powerful kido attacks was simply nullified by the cascading sands. Which he must admit, was a great annoyance to watch. Yet at least he knew his foe was not invincible, he had to throw up a defence. Shinigami like the man before him did not have the small trait that Arrancar had, Hierro. A natural armour, some of the higher ranks may have been able to stand that blast due to the simple fact that they had Hierro. Yet this man was not, Zack was treating him as an Arrancar opponent. Which was not what he was, he had areas that could be exploited that the Arrancar did not. However, this in turn meant he had areas of strength that the Arrancar did not. Such as his Ban-kai.

With that the man smashed his way through the sand, his energy still lingering in the air a little. His eyes watched as the man ran towards Zack, his weapons positioned into a scissor like position. Excellent, this was good in Zack’s eyes. With the two weapons like this it would be much easier to block the weapons with his single blade. Then there was the speed of the man, and with speed came momentum. A law of physics that no one, from what Zack has seen, has been able to overcome. With that he lifted his weapon slightly higher as he begun to estimate with the weapons would slice, his stance now beginning to weaken a little. Not because he was tired, not at all. It was to help him carry out the plan he had running around in his head. With that Kensei smashed into him, Zack’s weapon slamming into the middle of the swords pushing them back slightly. The sparks flying wild as the forces opposed, yet, in less than a second Zack was knocked back.

With one hand on his weapon’s handle and the other on the end of the blade he kept the opponent’s blades at a fair distance away, his arms out stretched as far as possible. Using the momentum of the man he begun to roll backwards, as soon as his back begun to make contact with the floor his left leg quickly shot up aiming to kick the man in the stomach while rolling him over his head. The move had a name, it was Tomoe Nage. A move Zack had used many times before in numerous spars and fights, normally it worked out well. If it did then he would quickly roll to the wide and spring up onto his feet, his weapon raised for the defence.

Yet, if the move did not work and his foe did not fly over the top then he would quickly carry something else out. If he was too slow the chances would be he would get impaled by his foe, rolling to the side he attempt to avoid any strikes the man made while Zack was on the floor. His energy however building up once more, this time it was much quicker than before. As he rolled out of the way his left hand darted out and pointed towards the chest of his foe and a few simple words leaked from his move.

“Hadô 4. Byakurai.”

He spoke as the energy shot forth from his finger tips, the electricity snaking in the air for a moment or two. The two of them were close, meaning the chances of dodging this attack was slim. Yet he had to remember his opponent was a commander, so it should not be beyond him to dodge a move of this level. He only hoped he could wound him sound and tip the scales in his favour slightly. After all, he didn’t like the idea of using his Shikai and Bankai was even less likely to use. So he would just have to hope his opponent didn’t released his weapon to any degree. If the strike missed or not it did not matter, once the attack was finished he would quickly roll to the side and get to a standing position before raising his weapon into defence.

Either way it didn’t matter, they both came with him in the same position. Once carried out he would quickly kick off of the ground, the sand around him being kicked up into a thin dust as he covered the distance between him and his foe. His body was kept low and his eyes were locked on his foe, he had covered just over half the distance he would vanish. Invoking shunpo he would aim to appear behind his foe, slashing downwards violently. Aiming to slice the man down his back.

Zack watched as his weapon was swung outwards to his foe, clanging against the blade of his weapon. It seemed the man was not going to put up much of a defence, nor try to parry him in attempt to open Zack up. That was an error on his part, with the release of his blade Zack’s defence and offensive power raised a great amount. The main difference between his weapon and others if that it could think and act on its own, there would be no delay for when Zack would attack or defend. The weapon could do that without having to wait for Zack. Making him that much faster.

With that second attack the man simply used the force of Zack’s own attack to push himself back, so be it. If he wanted to create distance that could be his own choice, creating the distance in a fight was not always a good idea. A lot of the time staying close and forcing an opponent back would win you the fight. The opponent would eventually be over powered, miss-step or something with a negative effect and the deciding blow would be dealt. With that Zack watched as the mist seemed to settle around him, with gritted teeth he kicked off backwards and landed about ten or so foot back. Skidding lightly against the sand for a moment or two, pulling himself out from the cloud.

He didn’t know what this mist did, but he was sure that if it appeared due to him releasing his weapon then it must have a use. Most likely offensive in Zack’s eyes, if it was primarily defensive then it would have remained around the man, instead of surrounding Zack also. With that he slowly spun the weapon in his left hand and raised his right, a small light glistened in his hand and slowly he moved it before him is a wave pattern. With that he slowly vanished, not only with sight but also his spiritual pressure to a degree. It did not vanish completely, it was only toned down. The commander would have to be very skilled to detect him, for Zack had been around Arrancar for five-hundred years and had made it crucial to learn how to avoid pesquisa. To his knowledge shinigami had nothing as accurate as the pesquisa, then again...Five hundred years is a long time.

Now he stood invisible, his feet being held just above the sand by a low concentration of his spiritual energy. Removing the foot prints from the sand beneath him, with that he darted forwards at the man. His feet treading firmly into the ground, and hence foot prints showing. Yet this is what he wanted, deceit. As he drew within five foot of his foe he dived forwards, and quickly invoked Shunpo once more. Now appearing above the man, his momentum pushing him over his foe. His weapon stabbed down in a violent motion, aiming to strike the back of the man’s skull. There was no longer any coating of spiritual energy around the weapon, it was obvious from how the man blocked his weapon with ease that even with it enhanced it seemed to cause little trouble. So he would initiate another power, as he lunged forwards the energy built up. Then when it reached its maximum range the energy was released in the form of lightening.

The area spread of the attack was large, the large of Zack’s attacks. However, for this reason it was also one of his weakest. The electricity would crackle out of the weapon, if the blade had struck his foe it would surge through his body. If he had missed, it would form a somewhat circular cage, albeit without any physical presence. Covering a fifty foot radius, he was confident it would hit the man. Even if he didn’t hopefully the opponent would realise that he was not too simple of an opponent. With that the momentum of the run up would carry him over his foe and eventually he would land a good five foot away from the man. His weapon spinning to face wherever his opponent was. If he had managed to escape unarmed.

With that the electricity would vanish and so would any signs of his position, with light steps he would then begin to move slowly around his foe. His feet held lightly above the sand once more, avoiding any of the sand.