I do not own Bleach, Mr. Tite Kubo does- this applies to the rest of the chapters as well. If I did own Bleach, Ulquiorra would have been brought back by now. (Seriously, when is this gonna happen?) Haha, I hope you enjoy. Feedback is wonderful and much appreciated.

Introduction

Soul Society had managed to seal Aizen and his minions in Hueco Mundo shortly after the Winter War. Aizen returned to Las Noches defeated but not deterred. He had been planning his next attack for a while now. Ulquiorra took the time every now and then to ponder upon the events that took place after Aizen returned…

Originally, he had been ordered to take care of Orihime when she had first arrived in Las Noches. When Aizen left for Karakura Town with Tosen and Ichimaru, he had been put in charge of Las Noches. He and Ichigo had been in the middle of their fight, when a battle-torn Aizen returned with his remaining arrancars. Aizen, in a pure blind rage, killed every single one of the orange-haired girl's friends. It was an action taken so swiftly by Aizen, that even the green-eyed Espada was shocked.

Orihime did not actually witness all of her friends' deaths, but she felt every single one of their flickering souls disappear in a flash. Worst of all, the only friend's death she did witness, happened to be the one man she had sworn to love for five lifetimes. Her grey eyes widened with shock and everything around her seemed frozen for a moment. It was as if her mind stopped to take a mental picture of that horrifying moment. It was a picture she would forever kept in her mind, and revisit often when she was feeling particularly down and dark with the heavy weight of guilt.

Ulquiorra remembered the woman's reaction when her beloved prince had been slaughtered by Aizen. He had been determined to kill Ichigo himself, but the fact that Aizen took that pleasure away from him did not faze him in the least. All the resolve he felt to end the shinigami's life disappeared immediately the moment Aizen killed Ichigo- instead, the only thing he could see was Orihime.

She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Her legs became rubber, and she fell to her knees… and then completely onto the floor. Slowly, she pulled herself up into a crouching position. She stared at her love's dead body. Her body began to shake… violently like the body of a hypothermia victim's would.

Orihime finally let out a growling screech of emotion. Ulquiorra had no other description for it. Even he had never heard a hollow make such a sound. Suddenly, she got up and began to run, running towards…well, Ulquiorra hadn't been quite sure what her intentions had been. Perhaps she was running toward her dead prince's body, but Ulquiorra had been sure at the time that she was probably in such a state of foolish emotion that she might have even been trying to attack Aizen.

Before Orihime could even take three steps, Ulquiorra had used his sonido to stop her. He held her back from getting to Ichigo, but also from putting herself in further harm. Aizen had already spared her amongst all her friends.

Orihime had screamed her love's name in-between her sobs over and over again. Her eyes were watering, with what Ulquiorra supposed were tears (as humans called them), except there was so much coming out of her eyes at once that he wondered if it were some other human physical phenomenon. She didn't stop screaming his name. Easily, Ulquiorra picked her up and used his sonido to take her back to her room.

He left her a crying ball in the middle of her room on the rug and immediately took a few steps back from her, as if he were afraid of her. She was shaking, crying, screaming, and Ulquiorra could only stand and watch. His face was emotionless, his hands in his pockets. He had watched her cry until it seemed she was having difficulty breathing. He did not say anything.

Eventually he left her there. Luckily, the walls and door of her room had been restored to their original state, and Ulquiorra left locking the door behind him.

Ulquiorra returned quickly using his sonido to where Aizen had slain Ichigo. The only person left was Gin Ichimaru, who stood over Ichigo's body examining it with his hands crossed and resting inside his sleeves.

"I wouldn't bother Aizen right now if I were you," Gin said slowly with a slow smile.

Ulquiorra gave no response.

"Things didn't go exactly as planned," Gin explained as if Ulquiorra had inquired as to what had happened. Gin gave a deep sigh.

"My, my, my…what a mess. You guys sure tore this place up. Looks like it was a lot of fun. I'm sorry we interrupted you." Gin commented as he wandered around the room, surveying the damage. Ulquiorra frowned slighting, his green eyes darting across the room looking for something. Where was that damn orange-haired shinigami?

"Oh, crazy ol' Szayel took him," Gin said grinning. There was a long silence. Ulquiorra had decided he didn't need to be conversing with this irritating man. His mind was on other…things.

"I guess we'll have to clean this all up, huh?" Gin continued as if he and Ulquiorra were carrying on a steady conversation. His voice contained a sing-songy tone that made his comments sound light and meaningless, as if they were discussing the weather. Gin looked over to the fourth Espada to examine his reaction. Well, no reaction- as usual. What a poker face, Gin thought.

"If that is what Aizen-sama wants me to do, I will do it. I exist only to serve Aizen-sama." Ulquiorra responded.

"You're using your serious face! I don't like it when you look at me like that!" Gin teased, "…Anyways, I suspect there's someone else you now serve instead…"

Ulquiorra's reaction is so subtle, if you didn't know to look for it you wouldn't have seen his lips purse for split second. Before Gin could say anything else, the fourth Espada was gone.

"We really did miss all the fun…" Gin said to himself with a deep sigh.