Chapter Fourteen:
Released
It was dark when they got out, and pale moonlight streamed through the windows as the two of them ran through the halls.
Seren picked at her nails as she followed Ulquiorra. Had Aizen known that she was keeping something from her? Is that why he had put her under surveillance by Ulquiorra? Halibel's rooms had actually almost begun to feel like home.
But, she guessed she didn't have one. Not now that she knew her past.
It made her ache. Seren now could only feel how hollow she felt now, because she had forgotten what it felt like to be whole.
She felt something wet falling from her eyes and rolling down her face. She wiped it away and looked at her hands.
It was a tear. Tears were falling down her face. She was crying.
Seren blinked at her hand, not believing.
She hadn't cried in over one hundred years, surely. She hadn't had something worth crying about in a hundred years.
But the shock of today was enough to spring leaks in her neat and tidy control.
She stopped, just feeling the tears roll down her face. It felt so strange and alien. Why was she doing this?
Emotions were useless. They only hurt in the end.
But she couldn't block them, not any longer. She leaned against the wall, sobbing quietly. She wished she could go back to her shinigami life. It was a powerful sense of nostalgia; she wanted to go home to her friends and family; she wanted to go back to her captain, her house, and just stay there forever. They were probably all dead, though. Her heart shook in her chest. Of course they were.
She was dead, a hollow. She had no home to return to.
A lost bird.
A lost swallow trying to be a hawk, fighting to get out of its cage, the only home it had, to go back to a home that no longer existed.
Wow. She felt sick. She sank to her knees, and stayed there, letting the tears fall.
Patter, patter. Seren looked up. She hadn't noticed the footsteps of Ulquiorra quietly approaching. She had, in fact, entirely forgotten about him.
"You're crying." His feet stopped about a foot away. His hands were in his pockets as he looked down at her.
"I noticed." She hated how she sounded, congested and shaky as she tried to suppress her hiccups. She punched her sternum, hoping it would make it stop.
Ulquiorra stayed there. It was making Seren nervous.
"Um… y-you can l-l-leave, you know. I kn-n-now where your room is." She stuttered in between gasps.
"I can't do that. I'm supposed to watch over you." He replied evenly.
"Well, you have a while." She retorted. She wanted him gone, just a moment to herself. Then she could compose herself. She knew what he was thinking. Weak, emotional, trash.
Screw that. It's not her fault her eyes weren't working right.
Dammit.
The footsteps came closer, until Ulquiorra was right next to her. "We need to go."
"Leave me alone." She muttered stubbornly.
There was a rustle of his jacket as he bent over, picked her up effortlessly, and sonido'ed away.
"Let me down," Seren grumped. He didn't.
She tried again to compose herself. She choked off her hiccups, and tensed her body's shivering. She wanted Ulquiorra to put her down. She wanted to argue with him, yet…
She was too tired to even try to protest. Her head leaned against Ulquiorra's chest, as his stride gently rocked her to dozing. Her eyelids fluttered. She didn't want to sleep, not just yet…
The moon was high in the sky by the time Ulquiorra got to his room. It was silent, cold, and empty as usual. But it didn't bother him at all; it fit him perfectly.
He'd considered leaving Seren in her room, but he knew that Aizen wanted him to put her under constant guard. Seren couldn't be trusted. She was too rebellious, unruly, and mysterious. Her story was shaky; she'd probably made it up.
But the past wasn't where her worth was. It was in the future.
Her powers of time and space traveling had never been seen before in Hueco Mundo. There had been one shinigami with such a power, but it had died with her. So Aizen had thought.
But there had been rumors of a hollow in the desert who could create portals and disappear at will; a strange power. Aizen had wanted to investigate it; if it were real, he would have perhaps the most powerful tool possible in his hands.
The past was a powerful thing, and Seren's abilities had gone beyond his own expectations: she could change the past, and affect the future. That alone, as the last one of her kind, made her irreplaceable.
Of course she was going to be guarded constantly. He would have to lock the door when he left tomorrow. Nnoitra had to be kept away from her.
He placed Seren carefully on the couch. She was already sound asleep, the tears still drying on her face.
What a curious thing. An hollow, crying.
Ridiculous. He despised it; emotions were outside an Arrancar's pattern. And she had been breaking rules since the moment he had met her. He disliked her for it.
Ulquiorra looked out the window. The full moon reigned in the black sky; not even a single star stood to rival it. The moonlight was soft as it cascaded in through the windows; it made the room seem even lonelier.
His eyes followed the light. It slid down the couch arm, to be reflected on Seren's pale face, illuminating her high cheekbones and tilted eyes. Her hair waved around her face loosely, out of its braid and scattered over the couch, smelling of sweet lavender.
Ulquiorra swept a stray strand of hair out of her face, surprised as her did so. He felt something strange stir inside him.
She was beautiful.
He disliked her for it.