What is this? Why can't I breathe? It hurts. My head is spinning. I can barely see. He would never do this to me. Why? Why did I come here? To die? He can't see me. He isn't human. He's not a shinigami. He is a monster.
But behind him. Those eyes. His eyes. They see everything. They see me. Were his the first? Is this the last time? I want to reach it. He's reaching for me. It's too late. The last color my eyes ever saw was green.
I see red. Not that coppery-ginger color or the red of a Bala or Kurosaki's Cero. I see the red of her blood. I wasn't quick enough. I couldn't get her out of the way. All I can do is just stand there holding my hand out, grasping at nothing.
My claws curl in anger and all I want to do it rip that Vasto Lorde's head from his shoulders. What has he done? Protect her?
As if.
Her eyes. Those dark depths are quickly fading. Her life is leaking onto the black blade. I reach out further with my hand, wanting nothing but that touch from her. I would even take her slapping me again.
That infinitesimal moment; the one between life and death. It stretches on and on. I see his eyes. I see his heart. It's breaking. He is breaking. I can do nothing. Reach! Why won't my hand move? Why won't my heart beat? The steel that has pierced by chest is nothing compared to this tortuous, paralytic pause. My breath finds a way out. My spirit goes with it.
I can see my body. It looks so small; a sack of flour hung on Kurosaki's blade, slumped and lifeless. That's not me. I'm over here. I look around.
I see him now. He's not the same.
The black sky paints a perfect picture of how I feel at the moment. The despair. The shock. The anger. I can hear the other human yelling but I block it out.
That creature doesn't understand what he has done. That creature with the flowing orange hair and the bone white, clawed feet deserves no mercy because he showed none.
All I see is the Woman's body. Her limp and motionless body with the blood dripping from the blade. I can hear the drops falling to the top of the white dome of Las Noches. It's soft but I can still detect it.
Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap.
She's dead. I know she's gone. There is no soul there anymore. Soon some Hollow would come along to devour her. I should be able to see her soul. I'm nothing more than a spiritual entity.
How can I go on now? How can I go back?
I've found emotion. I can no longer embrace the aspect of death I held. I am no longer empty. I am something.
I was nothing before I found her.
The human woman was my living, breathing crystal tree.
I can hear the screams. They meld together in a resonant, constant rumbling. They're hungry. They'll come for me. The space around me becomes fricative. It vibrates in a manner that should warn me. I should leave this place. I should have left immediately.
But I will do no such thing. He needs me.
He needs me.
He needs me.
I am there in an instant. He cannot sense me. It is strange; we are in a spirit realm. He should be able to. None of them can. What space do I occupy? Can he come here? Can I even stay? Am I already fading away?
The monster sees my body. Can he sense what remains of me? He raises his sword and slashes it toward the ground, my body sliding off of it in a sickening, wet, slicing sound. A soft thud as it hits the ground. A louder thud as he steps toward us.
I reach again. My hand obeys, and yet, I cannot touch him. It goes right through his Hierro as if it were just a fog.
Not only does he kill her but then he has the audacity to throw her body to the side and discard it as if it were trash! I want to snarl at Kurosaki. I want to scream at the Woman! I can't speak. The only thing I do is form that lance of light from the palms of my hands.
He killed the Woman.
The Shinigami would not win this war. I'm going to put an end to their savior for once and all.
I am the fog.
I can see what he's doing. That green light lance is glowing brighter in his hand. A moment ago, before Kurosaki ended me, I had felt the energy from this weapon overwhelm my body with his condensed spiritual pressure. Now, I feel nothing from this light. It's been completely silenced. That all-consuming power is nothing in this realm.
Something else is here, though. A pulse. Soft. This is the only thing I can feel. This growing warmth is laced with sorrow and rage, but it grows more and more prominent with each passing moment. This is not spiritual power… this is something more ancient. More pure. This I can touch. I reach out.
My hand does not move, but I envelop this pulse nonetheless; the only thing that tethers me to this place.
It is love.
It doesn't matter how far Laz de la Luna is thrown.
It still has the same destructive force. Las Noches will be gone. Every Arrancar and Hollow within a mile will be gone. The shinigami trying to defeat Rudbornn will die. Yammy who is growing stronger by the second will pass. This Vasto Lorde who dares to take away what is mine will cease to exist.
I feel the power grow in my hands.
This isn't mine.
My power is cold, like a snake, winding around my body.
This is warm.
This glows.
My chest is burning.
My hands are losing their fur and take on the color of my Hierro. The black claws turn white as my helmet and my horns. I can feel the black coat on my legs shed away.
A vicious wind blows sending bleached sand and midnight strands into the night sky.
What is happening to me?
I should feel fear. I am losing myself, but I am not afraid. This. This is what I've been reaching for. I dive into it, the aspect which defined me being melted away as I become we. The two are no more. We are one. The power is overwhelming. There is nothing and everything. The alpha and the omega. The maw of all dimensions has been pried open and all of what came before and what will come after flows through it. What have we done?
I regret nothing.
Feathered wings lift me up.
They're not the leathery ones I am used with claws on the tips. There is no demon anymore.
Hovering above the dome. My eyes take in the sight of Kurosaki building a Cero between those horns.
I still have that green power building inside of me and it's still burning. My chest is glowing with a bright neon green light. I can see the energy snaking across my upper torso and down my arms. Still, this is not just my power.
Woman.
This is the Woman.
Feathers.
An angel. She's here with me.
With all the force I can muster, I release that emerald lance of spiritual energy, then close my eyes.
A quiet hum, crescendoing in harmony until it reaches a singular high pitch, sustains, then fades quickly to silence. A flame, snuffed out. There is nothing. No darkness. No light. No pain. No fear. No hollows. No shinigami. In this stillness, there is only us. There is me. There is you. We are together. Is this the in-between? Will we recall this perfection?
I understand you. I hear my soul echoing in yours. We taste the same.
The lid lifts. The veil will soon be drawn. I want to remember you.
It's black.
It's warm.
It's nothing.
It's everything.
I wanted to tell you sooner than this. I wanted to touch your hand. I wanted to tell you.
Woman.
Woman, are you afraid?
"I'm not afraid."
I heard those words echoing and when I open my eyes, I'm staring at that white moon and the charcoal black sky. Las Noches is nothing but a scorched mark; a glassy lake where the explosion and the flames have turned the sand and stone into nothing but debris.
Inoue Orihime is gone.
I, Ulquiorra Cifer, still live with her heart in my hands.