PART 1,

Captor

[Day 7 Inside Las Noches]

Seiko felt Chad fighting...his spiritual pressure had risen again a while ago, like it had when she had first begun to sense her friends in Hueco Mundo, and Uryu, Ichigo, and Chad's, Rukia's, and Renji's spiritual pressures rose-they had already encountered and started fighting hollows. They rose and fell as time went on, and she knew they were getting closer and closer.

She sensed Chad had come out of the battle triumpant, but then...only minutes later, she sensed another, much more powerful pressure appear next to Chad's. And then, Chad's spritual pressure suddenly dropped-dangerously low, like a dim, flickering light. She knew he was still alive, but he was now, so suddenly badly injured. That other spirutal pressure, crushing and intense, like that of the Espada, was immensely stronger than Chad could possibly have gone up against...many times more powerful.

No...It was frightening, deeply, to know how easily Chad had been defeated. Chad was so strong...Yet in one blow, he was struck down, again. These arrancars...were too dangerous! Why had her friends come here?

She sensed that other, very powerful spiritual pressure vanish from the viscinity around Chad's. The enemy had abandoned him, leaving him for dead.

But Seiko knew Chad, and how determined he was. She knew he had the will to live as strong as Ichigo's, and that Chad was one of the most stubborn people she knew. All of her friends were...And she regretted that deeply, now. She was worried-that they would all die here, trying to rescue her.

She continued to keep part of her concentration on Chad's dim -yet still alive- spiritual pressure, while dividing the other parts to her friends, sensing Ichigo's, Rukia's, Renji's, and Uryu's spiritual pressures, all far away and spread out. They were all ok, right now.

She stood in the moonlight beaming on the spot below the barred window of the far wall of this prison. It had become a consistant habit for her to do so, now one of the only things she had a choice to do.

Seiko's weary, and deeply perterbed mood took a sharp turn, when she heard Ulquiorra's voice outside of the door, as she stared in a sad, meloncholy manner up into the blak sky outside of the barred shaft above, wondering what it looked like outside, in the desert of Hueco Mundo, for she hadn't once seen the bare land outside of Las Noches.

She turned and watched as the door to her room opened and Ulquiorra walked in slowly, looking at her face, and reading her expression with ease. Her heart beat with the relief of seeing the Espada again, making her feel at the same time, terrible.

"Yes, obviously you're aware of what happened." Her heart settled into the pool of dread and deep fear as his voice seemed to her to fill the silent room, and his green eyes and pallid face, her sight. She swallowed, but still didn't leave his icy gaze.

She knew Ulquiorra was talking about Chad's sudden, utter defeat.

"That fool Nnoitora got impatient." Ulquiorra halted in the center of the room, before her, his hands in his pockets, and his tone so casual and stoic. "He was under standing orders to remain in his place." He said.

It was obvious that this Nnoitora had disobeyed Aizen and went to confront Chad, and attacked him, and so easily defeated him. But Ulquiorra purposely made it sound as if Chad was dead, but that was not true. He hadn't been killed. She knew that..that Nnoitora person Ulquiorra spoke of that'd attacked Chad hadn't finished Chad off. He was still alive, though seriously wounded, and incapacitated. He was unable to fight, his wounds too seriosu for him to even remain conscious. He was in critical condition...but still, not dead.

"I could sense what happened with Chad. He isn't dead..." Seiko said, again reaching out to sense Chad's faint spiritual pressure, to confirm her words. And he wouldn't die- he couldn't. Seiko couldn't bear the thought of any of her friends getting killed here in Hueco Mundo, by the arrancars, because they'd come to try to save her.

Ulquiorra looked away, to the left wall, upon her response. Yes, it was true, what she had just said. Nnoitora hadn't even finished the intruder off-he'd left him still alive, but helpless due to his serious injuries. He would soon die.

"He's still alive." Seiko said.

After a short moment, Ulquiorra slid his gaze back over to Seiko. He knew the girl was sharp. It would be foolish to think that she could be fooled into believing her friend was dead when she could sense for herself his spiritual pressure was still existent, even if barely.

Seiko tensed as Ulquiorra gazed back at her, observing her indifferently for a few moments. Her dangerous, lethal attachment to...him..was becoming harder, and harder to even try to fight. She couldn't deny it. The way he made her feel...was deep, and gutting. She couldn't run away from the horrifying reality-that she had fallen for her captor...It was so hard to keep pushing away and supressing-sooner or later, it would surely overtake her, and she would break. But that couldn't happen. She couldn't afford to let it...

Seiko turned her face slowly to watch Ulquiorra. He didn't say anything to her after her objection to his statement. He simply stared at her, coldly for an instant, then looked away, turning completely to the side. He spoke to the arrancar that Seiko had seen standing in the doorway but only just registered hsi presense consciously.

"Go ahead. Come in." He said. The teal-suited arrancar with a mask that covered his face, rolled in a cart of food, and set a yellow-golden-colored pitcher and cup and the covered silver platter from the cart down on the table, that had only recently been placed inside her room. The arrancar bowed subtly to Ulquiorra, and left.

Seiko looked at Ulquiorra, his eyes shutting.

"Your meal is ready." He said. "Now eat it."

Seiko stared at Ulquiorra, pshing down those feelings that rose up and threatened ruthlessly to choke her and drown her in the darkness of betrayal and impossibility.

"...I'm not hungry." She said, defiant, contradicting her pitifully empty stomach that she tortured by choice.

Ulquoirra looked back at her again over his shoulder.

"I understand your defiance. But until Lord Aizen tells me otherwise, staying alive is one of your duties." He said.

A distant wave of antagonism arose in her at the mention of Lord Aizen. Ulquiorra turned even further to look back at her severly.

"So eat." He commanded. Seiko's gaze hardened, accompanied by the unreleated pang of her heart at Ulquiorra's intense, demanding gaze. She turned away from him, wishing she could face him, but refusing to obey the orders to eat the food he had brought in.

"Would you prefer to have me force the food down your throat?"

Ulquiorra turned completely to face her back. "-Or would you rather be strapped down and retrieve the nutrients intraveniously?"

Seiko's heart turned violently inside of her chest at his threats. Why was she being forced to do all this? Why was she so important? Chad was nearly killed, and her friends very well could be on the way, because they had all come to save her.

She looked dolefully back at Ulquiorra. No...this time, she was not willing to submit. She turned away, a hand at her side clenching loosely into a fist.

She didnt seem inclined to obey this time, even after his threats, Ulquiorra observed stoicly. Perhaps she needed a fresh dose of reality to push her into submission.

"The fact...That your friend is still alive, right now-doesn't matter one way or the other. I don't even understand why you care so much-whether or not he's alive. Before this battle is over, all of your friends will be dead anyway. That's the truth."

Seiko was taken aback by Ulquiorra's words-and she tried to ignore the harsh words, that tore her heart up. She couldn't believe him. It was the cold, emotionless voice that he spoke with, so casually dismissing the lives of her friends, like they were all trash, that tore her heart up.

"So what does it matter, if one is killed a bit sooner than the other? They should've realized that this was going to happen from the start."

Seiko stared disfocused at the collar of Ulquiorra's uniform, trying to shut out the painful possibilty that her friends could die, trying to save her. And that he, nor anyone else in Las Noches, or Hueco Mundo, would care. She would be all alone in her frief, and completely helpless, trapped in Aizen's cluthes until she eventually died-[or was killed].

"If they didn't realize it, then they are fools, and they deserve to die for their arrogance." He spoke dully, and unfeeling as ever.

"Either way, you should dismiss them from your mind. It's not worth the effort to remember them."

How could he say that? It's not true...No...She couldn't let herself be lieve the lies that Ulquiorra was feeding her. There was only bitter hoplessness, and despair in his voice. It was only one side of the other possibilites...That had to be considered.

How did she love such a heartless...[her thoughts trailed off, as she had again just admitted in her mind, that she had feelings for Ulquiorra, as he insulted her friends so ruthlessly.]

Seiko knew that her friends had the determination to beat impossibly odds, despite what anyone else around them said. She had lost that in herself when she'd given up her hope of escaping Hueco Mundo. But-then, she'd been told her friends...had somehow come after her, and that spriit had been revived inside of her, a tiny flicker of hope, that her fate could change...

But it had been brutally assaulted, when she'd felt something inside of her; feelings for Ulquiorra that she had, a hollow, an Espada under Aizen's control. But she still held that hope, though it faltered and flickered constantly inside of her, as it did now.

"If I were you," Ulquiorra said, "I'd be angry that they were all foolish enough to sneak into Hueco Mundo in the first place...Like lambs to a slaughter. "

Seiko's fist tightened at his agonizing words, until she felt her fingernailes digging painfully into her palms. She longed for him to understand what it was like, to care about someone's life. She wish she could show him-but he had no heart.

She had been angry...but not that her friends had blindly rushed into Hueco Mundo in a so-called suicide mission to save her-But that they had chosen to risk their lives for hers,-when she'd already sacrificed herself to save them, so Aizen would spare them.

Ulquiorra undestimated her friends-or that's what she deeply hoped and believed.

But what if... he was right? No... She had faith in her friends. It was small, and minute, but she belivieved in them-how could they let themselves be defeated without accomplishing their goal? Ulquoirra's words hadn't done anything to quell the turmoil and angst over her friends [she never expected them to...], but they had, just a little, increased her resolve, to believe that her friends would somehow prove Ulquiorra wrong, while at the same time, poisoning that resolve with seeds of doubt and despair.

She looked at him, hurt by his cold, cruel words, but choosing not to accept them. She couldn't... He stared into her eyes indifferently, boring unfeelingly into her mind, his gaze piercing her heart. She tried to control the pain she felt suddenly, welling up inside of her like a flood.

He seemed-disatisfied with her reaction. He was...provoking her?

Seiko tried to keep Ulquiorra's gaze, but she was forced by her own delicate nerves to look away. She wondered how he could be so cruel. Seiko didn't know what to believe, or what was the truth. She had to hope that Ulquiorra was wrong-and that her friends would be able to rescue her, and get out of here alive.

Ulquiorra's gaze then slid over to the food set in the room behind her. He turned, and walked away from her, slowly heading out.

"I will come back here again in one hour." He stopped before walking out of the door, his head turned over his shoulder, looking right [back] at her severly.

"If you havn't eaten any of your nutrients by then, I'll tie you down and force the food down your throat." His gaze intensified yet. "Keep that in mind." Ulquiorra said, as he walked out, Seiko watching him go. The door shut closed in Ulquiorra's wake. He was gone,...leaving Seiko alone. She was much too tense to wish he had not gone. But she found that she wanted him to return, even after all that he had just said about her friends. She couldn't shake off the dreading, sinking feeling that fell upon her as she watched Ulquiorra leaving...The feeling of wrong, despairing...love. It didn't matter what he said to her, she still couldn't make these feelings go away.

It was like...Ulquiorra had crushed her heart in his hand, and then kept it trapped inside of his strong, pallid palm, leaving her hopless of escape. He was her captor...in more ways than one. The weight that had been suspended above her head now fell and crushed her, breaking her down, seconds after he had left. How could she feel this way?

Seiko looked up into the blak sky through the metal bars above her, ignoring the food inside of her room, not willing to eat it. A hot tear fell down her cheek silently, rolling down her soft skin.

*Ulquiorra stood outside the door, then stopped for a moment, contemplating that firm defiance that burned inside the girl's eyes, still. He'd thought that had already been extinguished...but it was obvious that it had not. He did not understand why the girl held on to such foolish hopes of being saved, why she had not given up long ago...Why she refused to submit, despite her own eventual doom.

Somehting inside of him, as he wondered about this mystery, gave the faintest twinge, the question sinking down somewhere deep inside of his hollow soul, reacting with the emptiness, and something being planted inside the depths. He then walked away, down the hall, dismissing this thought. He was an arrancar; he had no business with the foolish emotions and feelings of humans.

But that twinge, something unacknowledged by his conscious mind, was a small speck of humanity, remaining inside the Fourth Espada, something that was usually not there, but somehow was. He did not recognize it, and thus walked on, nothing inside of him rising to identify with the meaning of the feeling. But nevertheless, the thing inside of him growing like a tiny plant, making something inside of him faintly, just the tiniest bit, more human, more feeling, and aware of the girl's strange emotions, unnoticed by the outward, cold, empty exterior.

Something inside of him changed...

The conscious Ulquiorra had already dismissed the girl's song from his mind, not knowing what to make of it. In an hour, he woudl go back, and be sure that Seiko had eaten. But he suspected that she would fuse despite his threats, and so prepared to then force feed her when he returned and her nutrients were indeed left untouched.

Seiko sank onto the couch, wanting to scream into its cushions, or sufficate herself in them, to stop this madness. She knew in her heart already she would not give in to Ulquiorra's threat. She was full of enough determination to defy him, despite the warning he gave her, and despite how she felt towards him. She could, and would, face the punishment...

"These fears come rushing in when I enter here
Another layer on my back
A blazing fire where our glances meet
The largest feeling towering over me."

Seiko could not bring herself to eat the food that her Espada caretaker had brought her and ordered her to consume. She would not submit to Ulquiorra's orders...Refusal to obey. She could not.

She would suffer for it. But this time, she'd rather suffer than obey Ulquiorra, after all that she had done. So she laid facedown on the teal oversized sofa, in the darkness, waiting for Ulquiorra to return, and give her her punishment. She wouldn't regret it.

Seiko would show Ulquiorra that she was not truly one of them, and she was determined to show it. It was the only thing that she could do, now. She was helpless, except to refuse to cooporate with Aizen's orders.

Seiko hugged a pillow to her head tightly, staring off at the far wall with sorrow and fear deep in her eyes. She was afraid, that Ulquiorra had spoken the truth, and not lies-that her friends would die. That he was right...

But she couldn't ever bring herself to accept or believe it. Everything-she was so sad, lonely, and lost. But she refused to give in to the darkness that threatened to consume her heart. The despair and hoplessness that Ulquiorra's words had placed inside her heart, pillars of tragedy that she could never bear to happen.

No...She would't eat. And she would't believe that her friends would meaninglessly sacrifice their lives over her-they would fight, and they would win. They had to. Because if they didn't, everything would be lost. Her hopes, her life, and most importantly, them. She couldn't bear to loose them.

And she couldn't bear not to resist her captor, any longer. She could not submit to her feelings...even though they had already taken over her...she had to fight. She fefused to allow herself to be ordered around by...atleast, Aizen. She could not resist Ulquiorra directly anymore. It took too much of her-she didn't have the strenght to fight him any longer. But as for Aizen...she was more than willing to, aside from the fact that he might punish her by taking his wrath out on her friends. But considering the situation they were now in, it wasn't a concern anymore.

She had nothing to loose any more.

An hour later...

*Ulquiorra entered Seiko's room to find the girl lying motionless on the couch, presumable asleep.-

Seiko tensed as she heard Ulquiorra enter, lifting her head to look up at him as he slowly walked into the room.

*Ulquiorra's gaze went to the table of food-it remained completely untouched, obvious to see.

"So you have still refused to eat?" Ulquiorra asked, a twinge of hostility in his voice.

Seiko stood up and stood before Ulquiorra, looking at the floor, and bracing for the upcoming torture, feeling small fear, and dread inside of her. But she was [had been] resolved and determined not to give in.

"...Yes." She said, firmly.

"...Very well." Ulquiorra said, standing before the girl with his hands in his pockets, preparing to force the food down her throat. Seiko waited defiantly for Ulquiorra to make his move on her. Then, before she could even respond, Ulquiorra shoved her against the back wall, pinned against it harshly, in the blink of an eye. She made a gasp of startlement and slight pain at the impact, unable to move her arms or legs when she tried.

"Mph-!"

"I warned you of what the consequences would be if you refused to eat willingly. You have chosen to defy orders. It's your own fault." Ulquiorra said, as he grabbed her jaw brutally and forced her mouth open. Seiko's heart pounded at the feeling of Ulquiorra's strong, cold hand clamping her jaw open roughly, his unbreakably strong grip impossibly to escape. But she still strained her head to the side reflexively, trying to get away from him.

Ulquiorra held her jaw firmly in place, too strong for her to even move her head, and forced a peice of meat down her throat. Seiko made a choking sound, bringing her hands up to grasp Ulquiorra's reflexively. She gasped and choked several more times as he continued shoving the food down her throat, peice by peice. She tensed, as her throat started to hurt, swallowing several chunks of meat whole. Seiko again struggled against his solid grip, trying to get Ulquiorra to loosen up, but he only pressed her harder against the wall.

"gh-" Her back grated painfully against the wall under the force of Ulquiorra's constraint. Seiko gripped his wrist harder with her hands.

"Stop struggling." Ulquiorra commanded.

Seiko eventually obligued, and gave up the pointless struggle, her arms becoming tired of gripping his wrist so hard. She soon dropped them to her sides, giving in to his grip. Ulquiorra then fed her the rice and herbs that were also on the platter, not stopping until she had finished every last bite.

Ulquiorra brought the cup set on the table, filled with sweatened tea, to her lips.

"Drink." He ordered her, when Seiko didn't open her mouth. Seiko parted her lips reluctantly and let the cool liquid slid down her through, gulping it down painfully. Her throat was sore with the strain of being so brutally force fed by the Espada.

When she finished, Ulquiorra lowered the cup, and released her. He set the cup down on the empty platter, then turned back to face Seiko, his hands back in his pockets, looking at her with a gaze that could melt the sun.

"Do not make me do this again, girl. Your insubbordination will not be tolerated any longer. Either you do what you're told from now on, or you will face Lord Aizen himself." He turned his back on her, still looking back on her severly.

"Is that clear?" He asked.

"-Y-yes." Seiko answered, nearly letting him see the wince of pain in her throat that speaking caused. She was sweating, and her legs felt like they would collapse.

Ulquiorra turned and walked out. The same arrancar that was there before came in and cleared out the empty platter, pitcher and cup back onto the cart, before wheeling it out silently, as Seiko just stood there, in shock, her heart aching, that the Espada had left so soon.

She remembered the feeling of Ulquiorra's strong, pale hand clamping her jaw, almost like it were still there, he pinning her against the wall harshly. Why? She thought, unable to think of anything else.

She could no longer defy him. If she resisted-she would have Lord Aizen to face. And who knew what he would do to her, or what kind of punishment he would come up with. She knew she couldn't afford it.

Now, her only hope to be saved was her friends.

Ulquiorra knew now that the only thing that would break the girl was the final extermination of her friends, here in Las Noches, rushing to her rescue.

Her will was remarkably strong, and stubborn. Refusing to submit even when her life was at the complete mercy of Lord Aizen. It was...admirable, perhaps. But could not be tolerated.

He would have to go report this incident to Lord Aizen later.

"When faith alone is not enough
To keep our hands barely above
We look for reason and come up empty-handed

How could we justify anything now?

As long as I blindly obey
And do exactly what they say
I've no one to blame but myself now.."