With a surprisingly delicate motion, Ulquiorra caught Orihime's hand in his and held it in place.

She felt a quick flush of embarrassment - she'd moved her hand from his side almost by accident, and he must have known she was reaching towards the hole. She hadn't consciously meant to. Even though he had no heartbeat to listen to, as her head rested on his body that powerful absence radiated an intimate feeling all its own. It was present in her mind as well, forming the shape of her thoughts. Not exactly void or blank, but... still, like a pool of water. Around the edge was the knowledge that this couldn't last, that Kurosaki was coming for her, but all that was pushed aside to make way for a calm that didn't deserve to be broken. In his own thoughts, Ulquiorra felt exactly the same. He was usually calm, but for once it felt peaceful, rather than empty. They both stared straight ahead, his gaze looking up to the hallway's distant ceiling and hers at their frozen hands.

The outside world moved in slowly, as an aura of reiatsu. Kurosaki's presence. It was time to move. As they separated, got to their feet, and adjusted their clothes, the stillness was disturbed, replaced by a growing hole in her heart. She felt he could see it on her as he faced her again. The upper layer of her robe hung open, torn down the middle. Orihime realized with a sick feeling that it would require her power to quickly mend it, undoing the damage. It didn't seem right. As if coming to the same conclusion, Ulquiorra removed his jacket and held it in front of him. She put it over her own clothes and it fit terribly. She had to leave most of the neck open to just barely get it over her breasts. She looked down to struggle some more with it, until she heard the hard echo of his shoes on the floor.

"If you aren't afraid," he started, taking a step away from her, "don't cry over meaningless things. Your friend will attack Las Noches. I will defend it. That can't be changed. Not even by you."

Ulquiorra walked back and slowly touched his fingers to her chest.

"Accept it," he said.

She answered by reaching out her hand as well, her fingers gently tracing around the edge of his bare skin. This time he didn't stop her.

"I'm telling you it's useless!"

As the battle raged above, Ulquiorra's shout barely reached Orihime's ears through the opening in the sky. He truly was becoming more human, even though his reiatsu jumped to unearthly levels above her and Ishida, who carried her up to follow them. Even though, once she passed through the dome, she could see his form had changed to that of a demon, a beast. He looked at her over his shoulder.

"So you've come... onna." He wouldn't speak her name again, not here. Not now.

His clothing was tattered, his hair was flying loose, his body was framed by black wings, and his face was a sketch in thick charcoal. Orihime would have found it painfully beautiful, if she could have torn her eyes away from the blood-covered man held helpless before him.

"...Kuro... saki...?"

"You're just in time," Ulquiorra said, lifting a black claw. "Watch closely. This is the moment the man you've put your hope in will lose his life."

She screamed at him to stop, believing to the last moment that it had to work. If Kurosaki's power had failed him, then hers would have to fill in. But Orihime was not the only one with the power to move Ulquiorra. The hatred in his voice, the release of a power he'd kept secret from all others... it was Kurosaki Ichigo who had brought him to that. The Cero Obscura ripped through Kurosaki at point blank range, and his body dropped through the sky, lifeless.

Orihime cried. She'd trusted all along that Kurosaki would pull through no matter what, the same way he always did. That somehow he would make things work out for the best. But now she knelt over him and cried, not knowing what else she could do. She'd tried to take Ulquiorra's advice, if you could call it that, to heart... but she knew better than to have promised him anything. Ishida fell beside her, wounded but jumping right back into the fight, saying "you take care of Kurosaki." Was she hysterical? Delirious? Had the world gone backwards? How could she take care of Kurosaki when he was always the one who took care of her? When he was the one who stood by his friends while she betrayed them? When he was already dead and it was all her fault?

What should I do, Kurosaki?

Ulquiorra was walking towards her.

I don't know what to do.

She put a shield in his way, but it was flawed from the start, punctured by a gaping hole. Ulquiorra shattered it effortlessly and kept advancing.

I don't know what to do anymore Kurosaki, Kurosaki...

"HELP ME, KUROSAKI!" she shouted, and everything reversed again.

Kurosaki became the monster, attacking friend and foe alike. Ulquiorra became the martyr, pinned to the ground in a halo of broken stone. Ulquiorra became the hero, taking the brunt of the terrifying Cero and being torn apart but making one last stand, jumping with only one leg, striking with only one arm to break away Kurosaki's mask. He tried in vain to heal himself, but Ulquiorra saw it was still Kurosaki she cried for.

She'd never cried for him... but then he'd never wanted her to.

Kurosaki was back to normal, fully human and healthy again as if nothing had happened. High-speed regeneration... Ulquiorra wondered if that had been taken from him too. Kurosaki had even taken away the dignity of his brutal Hollow attack. He babbled like a fool, about what was him and what was fair. It was too late for that. There was no way to make it a fair fight, or to ever pay back what Kurosaki had truly done to him. Unless...

"Cut off my arm and leg too!" Kurosaki said.

I could do something far worse than that. Ulquiorra clawed at his own left eye, plucking it out with a violent tug. I could show you what I took from you first. He held it forward like he was aiming a Cero, rolling it ominously between his fingers. They itched to crush it to dust.

"Ulquiorra...?" He turned and saw Orihime looking at him in shock, not understanding. The eye remained intact, but the memory it held still played back in his mind. He had hurt her enough. There had to be better ways to spend his last moments.

"This isn't the way I wanted to win!" Kurosaki yelled. Ulquiorra ignored him. He limped on his barely-restored leg towards Orihime.

"Are you afraid?" he asked her, as he came close to her again.

"I'm not afraid."

"And your heart?"

"It's already..."

She reached out to him, and Ulquiorra placed the eye into her hand. It was the end of the line for him now. The internal damage was too much for him to repair. Some things couldn't be changed, not even by her.

"Accept it," he said, squeezing her fingers.

Orihime nodded. As he crumbled into dust and drifted away into the wind, she closed her hand around his heart.