Big apologies to everyone. I am extremely lazy and forgetful, so while this chapter has been finished since before Christmas I'm posting it just now.
Orihime had been watching in silent horror as each of her allies were taken down by Ulquiorra one by one. After Roder had been sealed away, it had just kept getting worse and worse with each passing moment. Now only Emelia-chan stood in his way, and Orihime knew that she couldn't possibly last against him. She gripped her head as she fell further and further into despair.
'What should I do? What can I do?'
Emelia cried out as she was launched back. Her staff had been snapped in half, leaving her with a stick and a mace. Orihime tried to form a shield to protect her, but Ulquiorra calmly shattered it with a swing of his tail.
'Kurosaki-kun, help me, please!'
Emelia tried to get up and out of the way, but Ulquiorra's tail whipped around, knocking her through the air and forcing her out of her Resurreccion. She ragdolled against the ground and remained motionless as Ulquiorra stepped over her, towards Orihime.
"Help me, Kurosaki-kun!"
A sudden downpour of violent reiatsu appeared. Orihime looked behind her a saw a monstrous being with white skin, black stripes, sharp teeth, and horns.
"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime said quietly.
Ulquiorra looked over at the new presence. "Impossible."
"Is that…the Substitute Shinigami?" Emelia said while wincing in pain. "What the hell?"
"Not possible. A human cannot simply become a Hollow."
He heard a laugh and looked over to see Kagome barely lifting her head.
"Just…where the hell did we all come from then? He was a human. Human's go to one of three places when they die."
Ulquiorra ignored her. That was not how these things worked. He slowly walked forward and faced the new being.
"Who are you?"
The thing didn't respond.
"Did you not hear me? I said who are you?"
Suddenly the creature telepathically pulled Kurosaki's sword to it and swiped downwards, causing sand to fly away in one direction and a screaming Orihime to fly into the other. Emelia sonidoed behind her and caught her before she got hurt.
The Hollow creature screeched into the air, a sound of pure and unbridled rage. Ulquiorra was preparing himself to destroy it when suddenly a crack in reality appeared and started growing. A fist broke through, followed by the attached arm and a masked face. Another battle-cry resounded from Roder as he fully broke free from his imprisonment. Emelia couldn't recall ever seeing him as angry as he was at that moment.
"Goddamn it all, Cifer! That was about as low as you-" He stopped and looked at the Hollow creature. "Who are you?"
"He will not answer."
"Be quiet, I'm still mad at you! Now who are you, Vasto Lorde?"
The creature did not respond with words, it simply dashed forward and swung its blade with another rage-filled cry. Roder blocked with his tonfa, barely pulling it out in time. The creature did not miss a beat as it sped by him and swung at Ulquiorra, who dodged. Ulquiorra jumped backwards and aimed his cero oscuras. The Hollow responded by forming a cero of its own between its horns and firing it. The resulting explosion caused several unconscious peoples to be forcibly relocated further away and created a pillar of fire even greater than the one before. Ulquiorra flew up and out of the inferno and stared in disbelief at what had just happened.
"Damn," Roder said as he floated up to and next to Ulquiorra. "Just who the hell is that?"
"Some kind of Hollow that has seemingly taken over Ichigo Kurosaki's body."
"How in the hell did- Look out!"
Too late the Hollow had grabbed Ulquiorra's arm and sliced it right off. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the power of the creature became apparent. Real time was brought back by the Hollow using Ulquiorra's severed arm as a bat and Ulquiorra himself as a ball. The Cuatro hit the Sexta and both fell down to the ground. The beast screamed out again as though claiming some kind of victory.
Ulquiorra took a second to catch his breath, and then his arm grew back.
"Thank goodness for high-speed regeneration, heh?"
Ulquiorra merely grimaced and looked back at their opponent, who was standing still. He put his hands together and summoned a green energy weapon.
"Lanza del Relampago." He twirled it and aimed. "Do not move. Stay right where you are. If possible, I'd rather this not go off close to me." He threw it. It sped through the air and went right by the Hollow's head, close enough to make its hair wave out a little. The energy spear kept going until it landed a fair distance away, and exploded, dwarfing Los Noches with its size. The shockwaves could be felt by everyone still conscious on the dome.
"You missed," Roder pointed out as though it wasn't obvious.
"It's difficult to control its trajectory." He summoned another one.
The Hollow disappeared and reappeared behind Ulquiorra and swung his sword. Ulquiorra barely blocked in time and was sent backwards by the force as stone and sand was sent flying. Roder leapt out of the way and struck forward, but was blocked by the Hollow. Roder began punching in rapid succession, but each blow was blocked or parried. The Hollow reared back its sword and swung forward, and Roder barely got his arms up in time to block the slash. Roder began charging a cero and the Hollow responded by doing the same. Roder sonidoed right behind the Hollow just before he fired, hitting the creature at point blank.
"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime yelled.
Roder looked over to her. "It's all right. I'll beat out whatever the hell took over him, and then you can just patch him up, okay?"
Before she could respond, a red light shone and then the Hollow's cero slammed into him. The Hollow cried out again before Ulquiorra appeared behind him and stabbed forward with his lanza. The Hollow turned and caught it in his bare hands and then crushed it, causing it to disperse. Before Ulquiorra could recover or move, the Hollow slashed him from shoulder to hip, leaving a deep gash and severing part of his horn. The Cuatro fell back and grunted in pain.
"Damn it all. I never thought it was possible…to be defeated by a hollowfied human. It's completely…ludicrous."
The Hollow stamped down on Ulquiorra's head and began chagrining a cero aimed right for his fallen body.
"I should've known…there'd be no mercy. So typical of a Hollow. Go ahead. I lost to you. My life no longer has any meaning. Do it."
As the Cero began firing, a fist collided with the Hollow's face, turning its head and making the cero fire off into the distance. The Hollow looked at its attacker as it stumbled off of Ulquiorra. Roder growled inhumanely at him.
"You're really starting to piss me off!" The hollow growled in response and the two charged each other.
Ulquiorra lay on the ground, seething at himself. 'Damnit. If only my organs he cut would heal. I can't regrow them, but…if I could just…repair them.' Something glinted in the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see Kagome's jewel glowing faintly. Suddenly, he felt his organs healing, as well as the gash he had received.
'The jewel's power. Is it activated simply by the bearer's will? Fascinting.' He stood up and observed the orb more closely. 'I think there's more to this thing than simple empowerment. Still, now that I understand how it works…" He looked to where Roder and the Hollow were battling. "…this should work."
Roder tried to clamp down his jaws on the Hollow's sword, but it punched his face, forcing him away.
"Damnit, why is this so difficult?" The Hollow kicked his chest then roared at him. 'I can't release any more power. If I do that I could bring down the entirety of Los Noches and risk killing way too many people. This thing has to have a weakness. I just need to find it.'
The Hollow charged him again and slashed at him. He blocked then decided to pull a risky move. He let his tonfa go and grabbed onto the creature's wrist. He quickly reached with his other hand and grabbed a hold on its other wrist.
"Got you now!" The Hollow head-butted him, but he didn't loosen his grip. He tightened his hold and the creature roared in anger before chomping down onto his shoulder. Roder yelled in pain then clamped his teeth around its horn and started trying to pry the Hollow's teeth from him. As the teeth finally loosened, Roder saw Ulquiorra appear with his fist reared back and glowing pink. Wait, pink? He swung his fist forward.
'Not me. Not me!'
It collided with the Hollow's face, shattering the mask and launching it away. Ulquiorra's arm ruptured up to the elbow and fell apart in pieces. The Hollow/Ichigo landed on the ground and Orihime ran over to him with tears.
'Whew, not me!' "Damn, that was hard. What happened while I was away?"
"I am unsure. One of your Fraccion had a theory, but it's absolutely absurd."
"Ah, okay." Roder brushed off his shoulder and sheathed his tonfa. "You weren't planning to keep Kagome's jewel were ya? It's part of her, so it'll return to her when she leaves Resrruccion."
"I'm done with it now." His arm regrew. "However, I believe you have proven that you are far stronger than me. I won't help you against Aizen, but I won't try to stop you either. It would be pointless."
"That's fair, I guess." Roder observed the carnage around him. "I'll need to modify my plans a little. For one, I'm leaving Orihime here for now and for express purpose of fixing up all the guys you wrecked."
Ulquiorra said nothing, then both looked over when something started happening to Kurosaki's body. The material that had made up his mask and covered his skin was now swirling around. The material flowed into the hole on his chest and suddenly he was healed. The boy started gasping and feeling his chest like he expected it to have a hole there.
"That…"
"Did the Hollow just use whatever was left of it to bring him back to life? Does this have something to do with that mask power of his?"
Ulquiorra blinked a few times then left his Resureccion. Ichigo looked over at him once he was back in base form.
"Hey, you're not going to fight me?" the teenager asked.
"There is no longer a point. I will simply wait here and guard Orihime until either Aizen or Roder returns."
Roder looked at him with a smirk. "Orihime? Don't you mean 'woman'?"
Ulquiorra glared at him. "There are many women present. I would not get people confused about which woman I meant."
"Sure. All right, Ichigo, are you ready to go?"
"Eh, yeah, but what about everyone else?"
"I'm afraid they're a little too under the weather at the moment."
"I'm fine, Tyranus-sama."
They looked over to see Yggdra walking towards them. She was singed in some places on her armor, but overall perfectly fine.
"You're sure?"
"Yes. When Ulquiorra knocked me out, it gave me time to take a nap and regain my energy," she lied.
"Uh huh? Well then, I think that's all I can really count on at the moment. The top three shouldn't stand in our way too much. Stark is a friend of mine, so he'll hopefully just step back. Barragan hates Aizen's guts, so I'm practically counting on him. The only one I'm really afraid of getting in our way at this point is Harribel. But if I can match whatever Ulquiorra was doing...,"
"Segunda Etapa," the Cuatro supplied.
"Yeah, that. Well, she should be a cakewalk even if I don't release. Ichigo, you'll be keeping off any Fracciones. Yggdra, same."
"Right."
"Good." He opened up a Garganta. "Let's go kill 'em!" He leapt in.
Everything is about to be flipped around. At this point, I've learned not to even thin about guessing when I might next update. Just know that I will. Eventually!
Next time, Aizen gets punched, a lot.
Barragan gets shafted.
The Shinigami get confused.
And far away, Xcution basically sit around doing nothing.
Also, I have two other fanfictions cooking up. Would people prefer to see
A. Argonian Dragonborn in Mass Effect (Some mods included)
B. Another "instead of Saito..." FoZ story