Chapter Three
Dolls' Origins
The room was dark and cool. That was the way he preferred it, of course. He didn't want things to disturb him. It had to be the ideal conditions for such an esteemed being as himself. He glanced at the calendar. The midsummer celebration would happen soon. He was growing weak these days, as always before the midsummer and midwinter sacrifice. He turned and picked up the paper with the picture of the orange haired boy he'd been grooming for this day the last five years. He was dearly looking forward to this celebration. His taste would no doubt be much better than any of the past sacrifices he'd taken. He always relished those that were fighters and resisted until the end. Very few were bright enough spirits to slake the thirst of a god…
"My lord!" a voice rang from the entrance to his chamber. "My lord Yhwach!"
Yhwach turned his dark haired head toward the opening where his high priest, first among his worshippers, stood with a face that reflected deep pain. Jugram Haschwalth deeply regretted the words he was about to speak to his god and master, and that was easy for Yhwach to read upon the tall blonde's face.
"My lord, terrible news. The Temple has been raided, and all seven of the candidates have been stolen away! They have all been taken, my lord!" he said, bowing deeply to him.
Yhwach turned to him. "Even my chosen?"
"Y-yes, my lord. The Chosen Child has been removed as well! We have lost one to these thieves in the night, the loyal and good Canadace Catnipp has been imprisoned by the vile creatures that have invaded your holy space, my lord," Jugram continued, not raising from the bent position.
"Gather the fold," Yhwach said, turning away. "Midsummer is in less than a month. I must have the Chosen Child to give me strength for the next half year. There is no other to slake the thirst of your god and master, my priest. I shall speak in person to the fold, and we shall retrieve what the heathens have stolen from us. To think, I deem to provide the lowly creatures with pleasures of the flesh, and they turn on me in their greed! Bring the Sternritter in, my priest. Bring them all. We will retrieve my bright one, and then we shall quit this vile country. This is how they repay the beautiful gifts of the god!" he said, disappearing into the dark depths of the luxurious canopied bed.
"Yes, my lord, yes," Jugram said, ducking and running from the chambers to summon the others.
His lord and god had spoken, and he listened.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Gin stood with his back to Szayel's doorframe as he heard Szayel in the room comforting a vomiting Illfordt. Szayel came out slowly. "They're all going through some degree of withdrawal. Ichigo and…" he paused to look up and see an unsteady looking Luppi standing beside Gin.
"Oh, sugar!" he exclaimed and ran up and hugged him tightly. "Oh sugar-baby, I was afraid we wouldn't see you again!"
Luppi smiled. "Well, I'm here. Gin came and got me from my new home," he said, smiling.
Szayel pushed him back and looked him over. "Who on earth dressed you, sugar?" he said with a wry grin.
Luppi was wearing a pair of patterned Hello Kitty pajama pants with a pair of boots and a short sundress of yellow and green stripes over it. He picked at the skirt. "Well, Wonderweiss, the person I'm staying with, he dressed me. He has an…interesting wardrobe."
Szayel shook his head and hugged him again. "Oh, baby, I'm glad you're okay. How's the withdrawal?" he said gently.
Luppi shook his head. "Rough few days, been…"
From the bathroom, there was the sound of Illfordt violently throwing up again and sobbing. Szayel sighed. "Yeah," Luppi said. "Lots of that."
There was a knock at the door and they looked up to see the white haired Dr. Ishida who was primary on the group. "Luppi, you were the last of the group in this Dollhouse? Can I get you to come to a room, just nearby, so we can run tests on you?"
Luppi looked to Szayel who nodded with a smile. "Oh, okay," he said and followed him, with Riruka following him. Gin turned to Szayel again.
"Would you come with me to check in on everyone? I need to send a report up the chain on them and the conditions they're in," Gin said with a nod.
"Illfordt, honey, will you be okay for a while?" he called into the bathroom.
"Um hum, go on sis," he muttered before throwing up again.
Szayel nodded and took Gin's hand, surprising the silver haired officer, but he didn't resist. "Let's see, I'm most worried about Ichigo, of course, but I think Ulquiorra is the most damaged besides him."
Gin opened the next door where the dark haired young man was sitting in the chair staring out the window with his pale hands knitted together in his lap. He turned and blinked vivid green eyes at the pair of them. Szayel came forward and sat down on the bed beside him.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" he said softly. "Have you met Gin Ichimaru?"
Ulquiorra looked at him and nodded. "Yes, he's with the shinigami. When will we leave here?" he asked, quietly and in a voice utterly devoid of emotion.
"Soon, soon. Can you tell me about yourself? If you feel up to it, of course," Gin said, flipping open his notebook and clicking the recorder in his pocket on.
Ulquiorra nodded. "My name is Ulquiorra Cifer. I am now seventeen years old. I was kidnapped in Belgium when I was fourteen. I was a street kid, orphan with no parents. It honestly wasn't that much different than the life I'd been used to. I've slowly declined the drugs the Matron offered over the last few years. I do not need them. I have no reason to fight with my situation. I am pleased it has changed, but it will not matter. I have no one, and I am no one." He paused and sipped the cup of water on the tray table. "I was named Coeur a la Crème. Ironic." He looked down at his hands and Gin saw the barest flicker of a tremor. "I'd like to be alone, now," he said and turned to face the window again.
Szayel nodded. "We'll let you rest, Ulquie."
As they stepped out Szayel took a breath. He closed the door and shook his head. "He's turned off his emotions. A couple years ago, he came to me and told me he quit 'feeling' anything at all, and it was better. Since then, he hasn't needed the drugs as often, and he hasn't shed a tear or felt anything, from what I can tell," he said, his golden eyes reflecting the sadness that it brought to his heart. "Here, next we have Ggio; he was one of the newer boys."
They opened the door gently to the next room and Gin knew that the boy in the bed was completely miserable. He was curled up on the bed with a blanket. If Gin didn't know better, he would have thought the boy had a bad case of the flu. He looked up as Szayel entered, though and sat up with teary eyes. He had longish brown hair cut around his face to frame it, and large eyes.
"Szayel, I feel bad," he moaned.
"Aw, sweetie, I know," he said and sat down beside him and hugged him against him. He ducked his head into Szayel's chest. "Just the drugs getting out of your system. They had you on a lot, sweetie. Almost as much as my Ichi-baby," he said, stroking Ggio's dark hair. "My friend Gin is talking to everyone to get information on how they got into this place. Do you feel like talking?"
Ggio nodded and looked up at Gin warily. Szayel reached over and handed him a tissue. "My name's Ggio Vega, and I was born in Spain. I'm seventeen, and they grabbed me last year. I was running away from home, my family is messed up, and I was hitchhiking, and this woman stopped a white van. I thought it was a football mom or something, you know. But the minute I got into the seat, she stabbed this needle in my neck, and I woke up…there," he said, and his eyes went wide for a moment.
Gin smiled. "You don't have to talk about that part yet. I'm just getting names and where everyone is from."
Ggio nodded. "Szayel? Can you stay?" he asked, looking up at him.
"Oh, sweetie, I'll be back. We're going to see Findorr next, okay? I've got to check on everyone," he said, patting Ggio's head gently.
Ggio nodded. "Okay, gonna take a nap then, Szay."
Szayel smiled and covered him up gently before stepping out of the room with Gin. He took a deep breath. "It's hard seeing them like this. I've become so close to all of them, you know."
Szayel knocked gently on the next door and a voice called to enter. "Fin?" he said softly as he went in.
"Szay," the blonde said as he turned around. He was tall with long blonde hair and a long, lean body. "How are you?"
"Findorr, I should ask you?" Szayel said, going over and hugging the robed young man. "Any symptoms?"
Findorr nodded. "Dizzy a lot, nauseous. You know."
"This is Gin Ichimaru, he's the one that got everyone out, and he's getting down information on everyone. Up to talking a bit?" he said with a smile.
He nodded and sat down on the bed slowly. "Yeah, Findorr Calius. I'm nineteen now, almost three years there, Crepe Suzette, sounds so exotic, doesn't it?" He smiled. "Yeah, I grew up in south Wales, actually. I was on a traveling trip through Europe, backpacking, when I got waylaid one night in Germany and woke up in hell. No one to look for me, my parents died a few years before, and I had been living with relatives. No one to bother with me."
Gin nodded and looked at Szayel. Szayel leaned over and kissed Findorr on the temple. "Oh, love, I'll be back. I'm taking Gin to check in on everyone. I want to know how you are, and he needs information. So you let me know if you need me, okay?" he said smiling at him.
"Yeah, thanks, Szay," he said quietly and lay back in his bed again as they left.
Szayel was finding this harder than he anticipated. He nodded to Gin and knocked on the next room and entered a moment later. "Tesla?" he called.
Immediately, Szayel let out an oomph sound and laughed lightly. "Oh, sweet, there, there, how are you?"
The young blonde haired man looked up with one teary eye. The other eye had a patch over it. "Szayel, oh is it true? I can't…I can't even think right now, I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream!"
"Sweet, shh, hey, it isn't a dream. We're all here, come, sit down," Szayel said, and led him to the bed and sat beside him. "I'm taking Gin around with me to see everyone, make sure you're not in too poor a state from the drug withdrawal. Illfordt is getting quite familiar with the toilet in our room."
Tesla smiled. "A little sick, and a lot fuzzy headed," he said, rubbing his head.
"Can you tell Gin here about yourself?" Szayel asked, stroking his short blonde hair.
"Yeah," he said, looking to Gin who smiled at him. "Tesla Lindocruz. I'm eighteen, I think, and been there about three years. I got the funny name, Brioche Perdu. They just called me Perdu most the time. Anyway, I was alone, a runaway on the streets of Portugal, where I grew up. I was on drugs and I don't think my parents even knew I was gone, they were both drug addicts. Then this night, I saw this woman and I woke up and I was far away. I thought it was a bad drug trip. It wasn't."
Szayel hugged him again. "Hey, don't worry, honey. It will be okay. I've got to go see about Luppi."
"Luppi's here?" he said, looking up.
"He is," Szayel said, standing. "I'll be back soon, you rest, okay? They said about two weeks for the withdrawal to be done."
Tesla nodded and snuggled into the covers as Szayel left with Gin. He looked to Gin. "We're more like a family, you know. We had to be. We had to take care of each other because they weren't going to take care of us," he said sadly as he knocked on Luppi's room.
Luppi was sitting in the middle of the bed, still in the pajama pants but with a hospital gown on. He looked up and smiled at them. "Szayel, hey. They just got done draining me of blood, I swear, how many tests do they run?"
Szayel sat down in the chair by the bed and smiled. "A terrible lot, love. I brought Gin by to talk to you a bit. Would you want to tell him about yourself?"
Luppi nodded. "Well, my name is Luppi Antenor. Last year, just after my sixteenth birthday, I left the orphanage I grew up in to look for work, up around Tokyo. I don't know who my family was, I was left on a church doorstep as a baby, don't know why, it wasn't like I looked different then, that didn't happen until puberty," he said, picking at the fuzzy pants.
Gin frowned and glanced at Szayel. "Luppi is intersexed. He has Klinefelter Syndrome, which means he didn't ever develop normally like a typical boy, hence his feminine features. He even has the cutest little breasts," Szayel said, reaching out and patting Luppi's chest gently. Luppi wrinkled his nose at him.
"You and your breast fixation. You just want them," he said with a smirk.
"But of course, love, I was supposed the get implants by now…" Szayel said, hugging Luppi against him affectionately and ruffling his dark hair. "Then I'd have my own breasts to play with."
Luppi blushed a bit. "You're terrible, you know that?"
"You love me anyway," Szayel said with a smile.
"Can I ask something?" Luppi said suddenly, looking up. "I…I just want to know if I should trust them, this Riruka, Wonderweiss, and Yukio, they seem so nice. Too nice."
"Sweets, there are people who are just nice and good people, you know," Szayel said with a sigh. "I hate to leave you, but I should check on Ichigo."
Luppi winced. "He's being weaned off the drugs too? How many people has he punched?"
Szayel smirked. "He's too sick right now to do much punching since his withdrawal kicked in. You know they had him doped up to the point he could barely move for the last few months."
"Go see to him, Szay. You're the only one he listens to when he comes down," Luppi said, patting his hand gently.
Szayel smiled and got up, and closed the door as Luppi snuggled down into the bed again. He took a deep breath and looked across at Ichigo's door. "May as well do this, now, put it off long enough," he said softly.
"You act like you're afraid of how he'll be this time, he calmed down directly for you before," Gin said, looking up at him.
"He's coming down still, he'll get worse. He was on such a high dose. He's going to be in misery for days…" Szayel said, opening the door to Ichigo's room.
Ichigo was flopping back and forth on the bed restlessly. He was covered in sweat and looked horrible. His already pale skin had taken on a lighter pallor even still.
"Ichi-baby," Szayel said and went to sit down beside him. "How are you honey?" he asked, stroking Ichigo's damp hair from his face.
"I feel like shit," he muttered, grabbing Szayel's hand and pressing it against his face. "I just want to sleep but I can't sleep, and when I close my eyes…the things I see…"
Szayel rubbed his face softly. "I brought Gin with me; he's getting information on everyone to find their families."
Ichigo glanced at him with a look that could have killed lesser beings. Gin flinched involuntarily. The boy had one hell of an intensity about him. "I don't know. It's been five years. I don't know what's anything anymore. I lived in Karakura Town. I was fourteen, and I just remember this man coming up to me on a playground…and then, it just all went black and I woke up and…" Ichigo shook his head. "I just know my last name is Kurosaki. I can't remember a lot from before the Dollhouse."
Gin nodded slowly. "That helps, I'll try and find your family, along with the others," he said, looking up with what he hoped was a hopeful smile.
Ichigo nodded. "I don't care about them, I just…I just want us to be together, you know, we're enough."
Szayel smiled. "I know, but honey, if we found out they were out there…"
"If I had anyone out there, why didn't they look for me?" Ichigo said, scowling and pulling the stuffed lion to his chest. "Kon's the only thing I have left. And I know my mother isn't out there. I know that. I don't remember why I know that, but I know it. No one else cared to look."
Gin sighed and nodded. He smiled. "I'll leave you two," he said and stepped out the door. He looked up as a new nurse came by with a tray and smiled at him. She was a cute thing, violet eyes and hair, and she had a pretty purple bow around her neck like a scarf with her scrubs. He thought that was strange and he was about to follow her when another nurse came up to talk to him. He didn't think much of it. Then he heard one of the boys scream, and looked up to see the new nurse walking quickly away. Gin wanted to follow her, but instead he took off toward the room where the scream came from, Tesla's room.
Tesla was crouched in the corner with his hands over his head and shaking violently muttering under his breath. Szayel came up behind Gin as he went into the room and knelt in front of the boy.
"Tesla, what happened?" he asked.
Tesla looked up with frightened eyes and shook his head. "It was the Watcher, she was the Watcher, she was here, and she came in and she was standing over my bed and smiling at me! She said…she said…god would come for his sacrifice soon enough and I screamed and she ran away!" he said, sobbing.
Szayel knelt down beside Gin and Tesla leapt into his arms. Szayel looked at Gin. "The Watcher, she was like the scout, the spy, she was the one they sent out to keep watch and guard outside when we were moving. She…she always smiled and I think she enjoyed watching us."
"She have purple hair?" Gin said, running a hand over his head. "Purple bow?"
Szayel frowned. "Yeah…how do you…"
"I saw a new nurse, I thought it was strange, the bow, you know, but Nurse Orihime came up to ask me a question…" Gin said, standing up. "We're going to have to find a more secure location."
"I might have a solution," came a new voice. Gin turned to see Riruka standing beside a young man with blonde hair. "I'm Yukio Hans Vorarlberna, and I own the Executor building. Perhaps we can work out something to protect these boys?" he said, tilting his head to the said and staring at Gin.
