The Price of Failure [Des]

Torches lit the cavernous stone chamber deep beneath the surface of Hueco Mundo. Ornate stone pieces lined the walls leading up to a rather severe looking throne. In the throne sat an equally severe looking Arrancar. To his side stood a small pale woman. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and her body was covered by a somewhat concealing leather armor that covered from her neck down.

Before the throne was another arrancar currently begging for his life. He says that it wasn't his fault. That he did everything he could. The Severe arrancar in the throne looked to his side at his right hand woman, Esmerelda Romassa. She gave a small shake of her head. He was lying and she knew it. She'd been spying on him and he'd run at the first sign of trouble.

The severe arrancar gestured with his hands and guards approached, rather bloodily dealing with the failure right there on the spot. Esmerelda watched for a moment before taking her leave, exiting through a passageway behind the throne.

Just had to do everything she could to make sure it was never her in front of that throne.

Des rubbed her head, she doesn't quite remember what happened but she knows for a fact that she wasn't where she is now mere minutes ago. Something weird happen, maybe that portal whore is messing around again. She would punch her so square in her clit if she's behind this.

Managing to shake off some of the cobwebs Des took in her surroundings, it seemed like she was in a castle or something. Perfect place to explore. Except she had this incredible nag in her head, it was like trying to remember something important the day before a test and your mind was in the process of burning everything not related. Slowly she crept towards where her mind was seemingly pointing her too. Not long after walking she came to a throne room.

Where the fuck am I

Des pondered to herself as she spied on the throne room. There seemed to be something serious going on, She spotted 3 arrancars in a situation that her past made her pretty familiar with. Someone fucked up big time. She watched quietly as one arrancar begged and plead about something. Another arrancar sat on top of the throne and seemed to be the one in charge. The arrancar that Des couldn't take her eyes off was the one to the side of throne, Esmerelda. She seen the espada before at the ball but that's as far as she knew. Her mind seemed to stop screaming at her whenever she laid eyes on the woman. Something seemed off, Des has seen the leader of the espada, that wasn't him on the throne. Did a coup happen? Why did no one in SS know about this then? Something wasn't clicking she needed more info.

While Des was trying to piece together the puzzle, one of the puzzle pieces was swiftly disposed and another walked off behind the throne. She needed to follow her but how, she's was most likely behind enemy lines and getting caught here would be beyond disastrous.

ACHOO!

"Welp, cover blown due to a sneeze. Awesome." Des mumbled to herself, there was no point in running if she was caught. Now all she could do was prepare some sort of peaceful words when the arrancars reacted. But they didn't, nobody even turned in the slightest. Was everybody deaf or were the espadas just not as dangerous as she was lead to believe. She sighed and walked into the throne room thinking maybe she can talk to them without something violent happening. "Uhhh, Hello?" The girl said quizzically as once again nobody responded.

"Well fuck this, something seriously stupid is happening here and I'm not sticking around here long enough for these idiots to realize something. " Des thought as she headed towards the passage to catch up to Esmeralda. Finally in hearing range the captain whispered, "Hey, Esmeralda right? Who the fuck is that guy. Where is this?"

DESDEMONA P.I.

Esmerelda's precise steps down the hallway came to a sudden pause. She thought... she'd heard something... a sneeze? She lifted a hand to adjust the narrow framed glasses she wore. They weren't really necessary except for extended reading, but she felt they gave her some air of professionalism. A moment later she heard shouting from the room and glanced over her shoulder, eyes widening with disbelief as a shinigami woman approached.

"Who?" She said quietly, before glancing down the hallway, making sure she was far enough away that nobody would hear her. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" She asked, before coming to her senses. Right. It was a shinigami, it hardly mattered. With a flick of her wrist, a dagger popped out of her sleeve and was immediately thrown at point blank range at the intruder's heart.

Des barely had time to throw her arms up to guard her vital from the dagger. Instead the dagger just passed through her harmlessly to the shock of Des. "whoa holy shit, that should've stabbed me. Seriously what in the fuck is going on here" Des said as stood bewildered.

Why... Was she not dead? Things were usually dead when she stabbed them. She opened her mouth to reply when another guard turned the corner. She looked at him in shock, prepared to justify what was going on, to explain she was TRYING to attack this shinigami when he just... nonchalantly nodded... and walked right through her.

Esmerelda gave here the weirdest look before... turning on one heel and walking away very swiftly. "I don't know, go away." She said with a frown, not interested in finding out what was going on here. She knew trouble when she saw it and she had no interest in trouble.

Des didn't know what to do at the moment, was she dead... well dead again? Do ghost even exist in this world? While Des was trying to get the light bulb to flicker on she noticed the only person who could see her begin to walk away. "Wait a minute, you're the only person that can see me and you think you're just gonna trot off." Des said as she powerwalked behind the woman.

"I will follow you for the rest of your life... I think. I don't know but you can't just fucking walk off I'm pretty sure of that cause I'll always be there to annoy you until WE figure out how to make me go away."

"You don't know that. Go bother everyone else on the planet. If none of them can see you, then come back to me." She said with a slight 'hmph'. Seriously, she did not need this kind of shit. She was busy coordinating intelligence efforts for this entire stupid... cult or ... whatever it was... Half of these arrancar were idiots who couldn't sneak if their life depended on it, which it frequently DID..

"Do you have any idea how busy I am, or how much trouble I could get into for talking to an invisible shinigami? Did you see what happened to that person back there? That was just for general incompetence. Now shoo before you get me killed."

"Blah Blah Blah, why would I waste time looking for someone else that can see me when I've found you and second you would put yourself into trouble by telling people that you're talking to an invisible shinigami." Des said with a frown.

"So once again, help me so I can get out of your hair."

She sighed, rubbing her temples, before turning down a hallway and walking into a spacious bedroom. Inside was a bed, neatly tucked in sheets. A work desk with an array of papers neatly stacked and filed into hanging folders, a locked trunk next to that, a standing mirror and then a closet.. also locked.

"Well at least in here if I talk to you nobody will think I'm insane or anything." She said, shutting the door once the ghost had entered. "So how do you propose I'm supposed to help you anyway, hm?"

Des followed the girl into what she presumed was her bedroom, a very boring bedroom. "See, that's the problem. I literally have no clues on how I ended up here. I can't tell if I died and you're suppose to figure out the mystery of my death or if I'm here to help you do something. I didn't guide to this whole thing ya'know?" Des said bluntly.

Esmerelda sat in her chair, arms crossed. "Hrm. No... If you were a ghost, it would only make sense that I killed you. I've killed plenty of people and never had a ghost follow me, nor did I kill anyone who looked like you. I would remember." She said, something of a tone over the last sentence. What was it then? Could it be some sort of shinigami spy nonsense? No... The person seemed... too dumb, honestly.

"What are the last things you can remember doing?" Maybe that would give some clues on how to make her go away.

"Before I ended up here, I was in the human world going to do paperwork at my musuem. Then next thing I know I'm here and I have this strange draw towards you. It's rather fucking annoying. When you get too far away I get like a buzz in the back of my head. So I'm connected to you in some magical way." Des said as she wandered over to the bed and plopped herself down.

"So, what do you do here?"

Ewww, she had a draw towards her? "What are you, some kind of pervert?" She asked with a scrunched up face. She supposed that wasn't what the woman meant though.... there was a magical tie keeping them together? What the hell... This had to be something about her personally then? Maybe it was one of the other servants of their lord trying to usurp her or get her killed. But she couldn't seem to actually hurt her....

"I do a ton of things. I'm... I guess you could call me the spymaster for the master. I root out enemies, coordinate subversion tactics, execute targets when need be." She shrugged. "You work in a museum or something?"

"That makes sense I guess, you look like the type to be a spy." Des said aloud as she looked the woman over. "And the whole library thing was of me taking revenge to a unhealthy level that resulted in me buying a library and expensive shit just to catch a thief. Not my proudest moment."

"Yes... I would hope so... I happen to be very good at my job, thank you." She said in clipped, huffy tones, her foot tapping in a way that was vaguely reminiscent of a cat swishing its tail. "Wait... Library? I thought you said museum. What are you even talking about? Why would you buy a library for revenge?" She furrowed her brow, particularly dumbfounded by what the shinigami was saying now.

Des waved the women casually, "Library, museum. Same thing. Both places with old stuff that I don't care about."

Esmerelda shook her head. "You are absolutely ridiculous. So why should I help you anyways? I don't see any reason to. If nobody else can see you and you can't cause trouble, then doesn't that mean I can just ignore you completely?" She stood up and walked over to the bathroom, walking through and locking the door. If she couldn't pass through walls, then Esmerelda could just ignore her till she disappeared.

Des frowned as the woman walked away, and slowly stood up with a sigh as she yelled, "Don't be fucking stubborn. If knives can go through me what makes you think I can't go through things?" Feeling rather confident Des held her arms out to the side in a T position as she walked through the door. "I HAVE COME TO SAVE YOUR SOOOOOUL."

Ugggh, well maybe doors worked differently than knives? She wasn't falling through the floor, right? But much to Esmerelda's chagrin, the woman came right through the door, saying something moronic. She growled and picked up a hand mirror flinging it at her. "Get OUT of here, you pervert!" The mirror inevitably hit the door behind Des, shattering on the floor.

"What kind of freak follows someone into the bathroom?"