How much time had passed? There was a heaviness bearing down on his chest, making it difficult to breathe. His fingers felt numb with cold. Was he really dying? Had Szayel finally given up on his experiment and decided to poison him through the water feeder suspended on his translucent wall. No...that wasn't it. It felt like the air was getting heavier, somehow, crushing him. He couldn't think of a single poison that worked like that.
His skin was wet, but it was impossible to tell if he was sweating with fever; his perception of heat had faded long ago; still, his movements were slurred, his head dizzy -- he accidentally knocked his glasses from his face, a testament to his lacking coordination.
"You aren't feeling well, are you? This is what they call withdrawal -- your heart is skipping beats, blood pressure soaring. Your skin is hypersensitive, your motor control is failing. Your father's a doctor, isn't he? So you know that the state you are in, you might die at any time. Soon you will be unable to move, and the experiment will be over."
Where was Szayel now? Uryuu couldn't see him in the spinning blurs and splotches that now made up his vision. Even the voice seemed distorted, and the scratching of lead on paper seemed dreadfully loud, as though Szayel were grating his nails against his skull.
"Stop this..." his voice was slurred; his tongue refused to work as it was supposed to. Was this how he was supposed to die? He had pledged to do so much good -- to protect people from Hollows because the Shinigami could not. He was going to die here; an experiment in a box, tachycardic and trembling from cold with a scientist leaning over him, taking notes on his demise with a self-satisfied smile and a fucking pencil!
There was a loud beep that echoed around in his head and turned into a bright orange splotch on the back of his eyes, and Szayel's feet rang out like the sound of an elephant stampede in a supermarket, roaring in echoing, booming reverb over the speaker-system.
"It seems as though I'm needed," he sounded disappointed. "Such a dreadful shame; I would have thoroughly enjoyed the show. However, my cameras will collect all the information I need, and I will be able to watch it as often as I like once Aizen-sama's plan is complete. Don't be too disappointed, Quincy; you are the last of your kind, after all -- it's not even as though I can use what I've learned in the future. But it has been fun, hasn't it?"
Uryuu heard his own ragged whimper, hating himself the moment it had fallen out of his mouth, and as Szayel's laughter echoed to nothingness, was stung by his own desperation. There was no pride in dying this way, not even in dying as a Quincy, as an Ishida. He was alone; alone in a dark laboratory, and Kurosaki had not come to save him.
Alone. Bitter thoughts chewed at his burning skin. Had he pushed everyone away? Did anyone know the real him, underneath the proud surface that he wore? No...not even his father. He didn't leave behind any friends, only acquaintances who had flinched away from the cold hard surface of the Quincy archer, letting him fight with them only until he was too weak to fight any more. Where was the pride in being remembered only as a plastic man who had died in battle, where nobody remembered the frightened boy who had fought valiantly for his friends, for his life.
It was all gone, every opportunity he'd ever had to become someone. He had thrown it all away for the sake of pride, and only his sensei had known. He wanted to shake Kurosaki by the shoulders, to ask him to be friends, to hug and comfort Orihime. He was delirious now, he knew; it must be a fever. He felt so wretchedly cold, inside and out, and he could hear his heartbeat thundering brokenly in his ears, the thready untidy beat of a horse with three legs trying to run from the pursuing black shadow of death. He was dying...dying, and his last thoughts were about the things he would never do. How he would never get to kiss...
"This is magnificent! My my..."
Who...who had come to interrupt his final moments now? It must be an Arrancar. Uryuu didn't bother opening his eyes, even though he felt he should recognise the voice. Even if he did he was sure he wouldn't be able to see. He turned his head away from the sound. Just a few seconds more and he would be dead, and then he didn't care what they did to him. Just a few seconds...
"Hmm? And what do we have here?"
"Mayuri-sama!"
"Eh...what is it, Nemu?"
Those names... Could it be that the Shinigami had finally come? Was this just one more of Szayel's cruel tricks to tear away his last vestige of hope. He forced his eyes open, though it probably took every ounce of energy he had to do even that.
"Quincy-san..." Was Nemu the black blur standing above him? She seemed to be coming closer, and then all of a sudden she screamed and jumped back. Why? A flush of warmth plunged down over him like a blanket, seeping into his skin, and Uryuu caught his breath, eyelashes fluttering. The voices above him were clearer now, and he recognised them distinctly; Mayuri and Nemu Kurotsuchi. This couldn't be a trick!
"Idiot girl! Can't you see he's in a state of spirit particle deprivation? This box must be some kind of barrier...how fascinating..." There was movement, and then something large fell toward his face, vanishing before it touched him. Sheer, brilliant warmth plunged over him, like being thrown into a bath full of hot water; but it was too hot! He screamed as it scolded him, not only his skin but deep into his body. What had that crazy Shinigami done to him?!
There was movement, and then everything began to fade; his vision turning black, his breathing becoming more laboured. Anaesthetic... He let it swallow him up, grateful, even if it meant that he would simply die painlessly. The blackness poured in around him like a Hueco Mundo night, and he surrendered to it.
-------
"Wake up, Quincy."
He didn't want to. Couldn't Szayel just leave him to die in peace? But that wasn't Szayel's voice, was it? Gradually, Uryuu opened his eyes, and instantly wished he'd kept them closed as his last few memories of the waking world began to creep back to him. He'd been rescued...
"Aren't you pleased to see me? Perhaps you'd have preferred that I leave you to die in Hueco Mundo?"
His head was pounding. Left him to die in Hueco Mundo? Uryuu opened his eyes again and forced himself gradually upright. He hadn't been seeing things; it was the Shinigami Captain Mayuri that looked in at him from outside the box. The colours in his face blurred together, but it would be hard not to recognise him, even without his glasses on. He remembered his voice booming from outside the glass box...and pain.
"You must have lots of questions, but I am a very busy man. Since you are indeed still alive, I'll be getting back to work."
"Wait!" Uryuu croaked, moving toward the glass wall, but Mayuri was already moving away. "Wait!" he yelled, his throat aching when he raised his voice so high. "I'm not one of your experiments! Let me out!"
He sank back down, pulling his knees up to his chest. Wait! he thought, desperately. How had he got here? Why was he still in this box? When could he go home? He slumped against the glass, lifting a hand up to push against his acheing forehead. How long had it been? How long had he been in Szayel's box, and how long had he been here? His head felt like he had slept too long, but perhaps that was just the side effect of whatever cure it was that Mayuri had given him.
He let his head rest against the wall of the cage until he was sure he was most definitely alive. It wouldn't do much good to be making such a fuss if he was dead, would it? But no...his muscles all responded - albeit slowly - when he urged them to; his eyesight settled into the familiar short-sightedness that was comfortable to him; and eventually his brain even seemed to be working a little faster. He lifted his hands and stared at them for a moment, then pushed his palms tightly together and began touching his fingertips together, cycling back and forth. His control was back, his mind was working again - the simple exercise was even now a little clumsy, but if he had tried it in Hueco Mundo, he knew he would probably have been unable to even put his hands together.
Uryuu let his eyes drift to the laboratory around him. It was difficult to make out anything, regardless of his eyesight; the room was dark, and only the monitors shone a stark white that hurt his eyes when he looked straight at them. If there were Shinigami here he would probably have difficulty seeing them...except... Something moved over the front of a monitor, casting a black silhouette for a moment.
The dark figure came closer -- Uryuu listened to the footsteps; a woman's footsteps, and leant forward slightly.
"Nemu, wasn't it?"
There wasn't a sound, but he was sure he'd got it right.
"Please," he said, "When can I go home?"
Still no answer, but finally Nemu finished whatever she was doing and knelt down, so that Uryuu could just about make out her features as she swam into his field of vision. "You can't go home yet, Quincy-san. You can't leave this box. If you did..." she seemed meek, hesitating to look around the laboratory as though frightened. "If you did then you'd die."
"Nemu!"
Uryuu felt himself jump, but the Shinigami couldn't seem to get far enough away from him when Mayuri called her name. "Coming, Mayuri-sama!"
-------
"Catch."
He almost didn't see it but he certainly felt it. Mayuri had thrown an apple through the barrier, but before it could reach his outstretched hands, it turned into glittering silver spirit particles and then vanished. Moments later he felt the warmness spreading across his skin like a summer breeze; could feel the energy buzzing in his fingers. It wasn't enough, and the feeling quickly faded, leaving emptiness behind.
"Do you understand now, Quincy? You are a danger to Seireitei, and it is my responsibility as a Captain of the Gotei 13 to protect this place from you. And in the meantime..."
A danger...he'd drank away all the spirit particles of that apple before he could even catch it. He'd done that before...gorging himself on the free energy that made up the whole of Seireitei itself. But those had been exceptional circumstances. As a Quincy he was capable of absorbing natural spirit particles in the air, but breaking apart things into their constituent parts and then absorbing them... Wait... "In the meantime?! I'm not some experiment for you to prod and poke at!"
He could feel the panic settling in; a kind of claustrophobia that was drowning him. Trapped inside this box, unable to leave. At the mercy of this...this monster! Mayuri had persecuted the Quincy, tortured them physically and mentally, maimed and murdered them! His grandfather; his sensei -- and now him, unable to resist, coveted by one mad scientist after another one. Even if Mayuri could let him out he wouldn't; he could see that now. "I'm not going to stay here and let you do this to me," he cried, aware that his voice was very ragged, that he was losing what little calm he had left after his ordeal with Szayel.
"A thirsty man should drink slowly; if he throws himself into the ocean he will drown. Seireitei is the ocean, Quincy. You would destroy yourself long before you destroyed us. Part of me would like to see what would happen..."
Uryuu looked up, sharply. Yes...of course he would. Quincy were just curious experiments to this man. His hands were shaking, his shoulders rising and falling with every gasping breath. Monster...this man was a monster! "I won't let you experiment on me!"
"Let me? Let me? You're stupider than I thought, Quincy. Let me? The only way for you to ever leave that box is to let me play with you." Mayuri was undeniably serene, even when he was pleased with himself, but his eyes danced with delight at his mad genius.
"I..." he wasn't sure what to say. Mayuri would let him leave the box? No, it had to be a trick. He snapped his jaw shut, steeling his resolve. "Like I'd believe that," he hissed.
Mayuri turned away, clearly bored with the way the conversation was turning. As he did, another question occurred to Ishida. "Wait! Did we beat Aizen?"
"Did we beat Aizen? Do you ever bother to use that pitiful brain of yours? You wouldn't be here if we'd lost."
"A-and...Orihime? Kurosaki?"
"Your friends survived." Uryuu opened his mouth to interrupt, but Mayuri was ignoring him - he could tell clearly enough that it was the back of the Shinigami's head that he was looking at now, at least. "They know where you are but they haven't visited yet."
Hadn't visited...perhaps they were just busy? Yes...that had to be it... He sank down, frowning at his knees as he thought about it. If they knew that he was ill like this then why hadn't they come? Were they injured too? Yes -- that had to be the reason. It couldn't possibly be that they didn't want to. After all, he had risked his life to try and save Orihime... They'd come. They had to.
