(This story takes place during the events of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien and before the Arrancar Saga began.)
It was completely true that Ben Tennyson had lived a strange life, but unlike his counterparts, he never complained about it.
Chaos followed him, and he enjoyed every second of it.
Finding the Omnitrix wasn't some accident to him, it was destiny. Unlocking alien after alien, gaining power beyond imagination… That was just the beginning. Saving the universe? That was something the "hero version" of him cared about.
Bad Ben? He only cared about one thing, power. And power was something he had in abundance.
From the Omnitrix to the Ultimatrix, from unknown kid to a name feared across worlds, Ben had already proven that no one stood above him. Being called a hero, a savior, even a celebrity, it all felt meaningless. Praise was boring. Fear, however… that was far more satisfying.
But even for someone like him, this situation was… interesting.
One moment, he was enjoying his life, doing threesome with his cousin and his girlfriend, without any consequences. The next, he found himself standing in an endless white desert, the sky black, the air heavy, and the silence almost suffocating. Hueco Mundo.
A dead world. And yet… it wasn't empty.
Ben smirked as he looked around. "Heh… this place feels right."
Now he stood inside Las Noches, a massive structure rising like a kingdom in the middle of nothingness. The only real sign of civilization in this broken world. But what caught his attention wasn't the place, it was the man sitting at the top of it all.
Aizen. Calm. Composed. Smiling like he already controlled everything.
Ben didn't like that.
Still… he listened. Because unlike fools, he knew when something was worth his time.
A deal was offered, help Aizen in his war, and in return, he would be sent back home. For a normal person, that would be the goal.
And Ben also agreed with it, since till now, he didn't find anything interesting here. But when he found it, he didn't care about going back.
Shortly after Ben agreed to help Aizen, he was introduced to everyone else.
The silver haired man went by the name of Gin Ichimaru.
The African man went by the name of Kaname Tosen.
After them, Ben was introduced to the other ten people. As Ben predicted, they were the Espada that Dordonii had told him about.
According to Aizen, they were ranked from 1 to 10. The lower the number, the stronger that person was. The Espada introduced themselves from 10 to 1.
The first one, Ben was already familiar with. The massive one called Yammy. He stared at Ben with the desire to rip the teenager to shreds for humiliating him after Ben had given him a pounding as Ultimate Humungousaur. The look on Yammy's face clearly said that he and Ben still had a score to settle. What interested Ben was the fact that Yammy was number 10 of the Espada.
That meant he was the weakest? This didn't go well with Ben. He had to go Ultimate in order to even land a blow on him. Just how much stronger were the others?
The next Espada to greet Ben was tall and had a white mask with eight holes over his face. His uniform was more of a dress garb and his jacket was rather frilly.
"Greetings, Ben Tennyson," the being said in a guttural voice. "We are Espada number nine. Call us Aaroniero. It will be interesting to work with you."
Ben's eyes widened. As Aaroniero said his name, his voice had become high and squeaky. Ben first felt like laughing, but changed his mind when Aaroniero said it would be nice to work with him. Was it his imagination or did Aaroniero sound hungry when he said that? And what did he mean by "we?" Did Aaroniero have split personalities?
But he gives a smirk, while thinking, it's time to tell who will eat whom.
The next person walked forward. His uniform was far plainer, wearing a long shirt that covered his entire body and even up to his neck. His pink hair and glasses caused Ben to remember that this guy was the one who volunteered to experiment on him. Naturally Ben took a step back.
"Don't be afraid of me, Ben Tennyson," the man said with a smile. "I'm the Eight Espada, Szayel Aporro Granz. Forgive me for my brash attitude earlier. I had no idea that a human could be so interesting."
"Don't worry, it is normal, I also love doing experiments, and I also want to see how interesting you are," Ben shook Szayel's outstretched hand, while saying that.
Hearing this, this time Szayel felt a chill around him, while he calmed down himself. "Intresting."
The next man was big and muscular, but not even close to Yammy. The way he wore his clothes made Ben think of martial arts robes. The man had a necklace made of what looked like claws or fangs, and he had a Mohawk made out of bones on his bald head. He had yellowish eyes and black markings on his face.
"I am the Seventh Espada, Zommari Leroux," the man said in a calm voice. "Be honored, Ben Tennyson, that you have the privilege of being helpful to Aizen-sama."
Ben nodded his head, as Zommari did not offer his hand out like Szayel's hand.
His attention was drawn to the next person who introduced himself. He gives him the same feeling as Vilgax. But Ben didn't care about it, since he has defeated Vilgax many times.
He had wild blue hair and teeth that were like fangs. He had something that looked like the fragment of some kind of jawbone on the right side of his face. For some reason, the words "street punk" came to mind.
"Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez," the blue haired man said. "The Sixth Espada. Hope you got some better moves, cause anybody can beat Yammy." And without waiting for Ben to say anything, Grimmjow walked back to his seat.
The next one was the one called Nnoitra. His uniform had a bizarre hood that had a spoon like appearance and he had boots that curled at ends.
Ben noticed the massive scythe-like thing that Nnoitra was carrying.
"Nnoitra Jiruga," Nnoitra said with a sneer. "The 5th Espada. So, Ben. Anything in that crap on your wrist that's a challenge?"
Ben's eyes narrowed. So this guy was mocking him?
"Plenty of them," He said, Nnoitra's sneer merely widened in pleasure.
"Good," Nnoitra said. "Looks like you and I are gonna be spending a lot of time together."
Ben snarled as Nnoitra took his seat. Trying to keep his anger under control, Ben turned to see who was next.
Once he looked he did a double take to make sure he wasn't seeing things. This next guy was pure white! Like somebody had crafted a living person out of chalk.
He had messy black hair, a black upper lip, and green eyes that had similarities to the eyes of a cat. Black lines like tears went down from the bottom of his eye lids to the bottom of his face. He had a helmet like head wear on the left side of his head.
"I am Ulquiorra Cifer," the man said in a pure emotionless voice. "I am the Fourth Espada."
Ben didn't know what to think of Ulquiorra. Due to his lack of emotions, it was hard for Ben to figure out what Ulquiorra thought of him.