Best read as a companion for chapter 353- The Ashes.
Disclaimer- Bleach does not belong to me. This was written purely as a fan-piece and I am in no way profiting from it.
All signs of battle dissipating from his body in an instant. The orange-haired youth stirred.
High speed regeneration, the espada observed. He should have seen that coming. Ulquiorra's strength is gone; he is no longer worthy of standing up to the newly-healed human boy. The fight is over. The arrancar's re-forming limbs are nothing but a front. His internal organs are damaged beyond repair.
It was… It was Despair, the espada rationalized. Once again…
The battle has come full circle. One of them was to die that night. Originally, Ulquiorra did not believe for a second that it could be him. Yet as he fought against the man full of misguided determination, and later when he faced a monster he himself could not fully comprehend, Ulquiorra realized there would only be one outcome. No matter. Enough is enough.
"You sure are a stubborn one…"
"…Ulquiorra…" Ichigo Kurosaki spun around, dazed and confused. The boy has absolutely no idea what just transpired here, the espada rationalized. He grasped the hilt of the shinigami's zanpakto and pulled it from the fallen quincy's torso. The cool metal burned Ulquiorra's palm in defiance as he stabbed it into the ground at his executioner's feet.
"Take it. Let's finish this."
"Did I attack Ishida?" The boy muttered clumsily. The Espada narrowed his eyes. He is… in shock?
"You tell me."
"Am I the one who cut off your arm and leg?" Ichigo Kurosaki formed his words in another act of imprudent bravado, "Then cut off my arm and leg too!"
The boy doesn't understand.
"That wasn't me fighting you. That was my hollow form. I had no control over it."
He doesn't get it. He just doesn't…
"If you want to settle this, it won't be fair unless we're in the same condition!"
Ridiculous. Ulquiorra sighed inwardly at his opponent's miserable attempt at piecing together the situation, trying to rationalize it. The arrancar had little strength to argue the logistics of his encroaching demise. If it's a fight he wants… then to die by a stroke of mercy, or to perish in the heat of battle- What difference does it make, after all?
"Alright… if that's what you want," the espada forced all his energy into regenerating one last time. His eyes widened in shock as his efforts failed. The wing he attempted to restore burst into a cloud of ash before his eyes. Bewildered, the substitute shinigami in front of him stood in shock. The unexpected turn of events only served to solidify the arrancar's increasing suspicions. There was little time left for him and he had little choice but to admit it, "I guess that's it for me."
But not without one last request.
"Kill me."
The boy stared, uncomprehending.
"Hurry up. I don't even have the strength left to walk," Ulquiorra calmly explained. Act mature. Do the proper thing. Just kill me. Grant me an honorable death. Can you at least do that? "If you don't kill me now, it will never be over."
This feeling of hopelessness will never be over…
This Despair will never be over…
"I won't do it."
"What?" the espada gaped in disbelief. He understood how pathetic he was by begging for the end from an enemy he himself showed no compassion for. But right now he had no choice-
"I said no!"
Ulquiorra was asking for mercy. He was asking for forgiveness. And this boy could not see that.
"THIS ISN'T THE WAY I WANTED TO WIN!" Ichigo cried out in desperate fury.
The force of the statement shook the espada to the core. That ignorant, foolish boy… It was enough to almost bring Ulquiorra to his knees. He freed the child from his inner demon. He even protected his companions from the monster's brash unconscious actions. In return he receives only misunderstanding. No compassion. No thought. No feeling. The arrancar continued fading as the shinigami cried out at his imperfect victory.
"Even in the end," Ulquiorra breathed. This wasn't how he wanted to die. But once again, he was powerless, "you never do what I want."
No matter, the broken figure reflected, there was nothing left to do now but face his fate. The wind blew past, tacking another piece of his being with it. He wasn't dying. He was disappearing. A cold and painful numbness spread throughout his body. His spirit was slowly returning to the vast barren desert sands below. As he slipped further into oblivion, he unconsciously reached out one last time in a silent plea for redemption.
He saw a small pale hand reaching back at the edge of his blurring vision, and then, nothing. Ashes to ashes, he faded away…
Depressing, I know. But Ulquiorra's heartbreaking facial expressions in ch. 353 are inspiring. Fatalistic, but inspiring.