Chapter 42

The bracelet still worked. Urahara said he couldn't detect Ulquiorra's spiritual pressure. As soon as he was out of the gigai, Ulquiorra did several laps around the bunker, his wings snapping as he took flight.

He had gotten the information from Urahara, studying the image of Tsukishima diligently until he had it memorized. Then he memorized the map of the Soul Society. Urahara told him everything he needed to know. Tsukishima was a prisoner of Mayuri Kurotsuchi, captain of the twelfth division. The man was a madder scientist than Urahara. Finally, and if at all possible, Ulquiorra had to evade capture.

Yoruichi was going with him.

Ulquiorra used Descorrer. The Garganta opened. It was cold when he stepped foot inside. The dark-skinned woman kept up with him.

"Where are you going in?"

Snap. Snap. Snap.

His wings sliced through the reishi surrounding him. "Inside the Seireitei."

"How do you-"

"I watched Orihime right before I kidnapped her. I stopped her in the Dangai. I studied her as she trained with Rukia Kuchiki," Ulquiorra stated. "I've already been inside the thirteenth division's area."

When they emerged from the Garganta, Ulquiorra made sure they were in a cluster of trees. He could hear shouting in the distance. The former Shinigami was already nodding her head. "This way."

The two took off, using Sonido and Shunpo to get through the trees and away from the voices. "You know your way around, right?" Ulquiorra asked.

"Not a lot has changed in the past hundred or so years. Of course, the last time I was here, Yhwach had rearranged it." Yoruichi flashed him a smile.

It didn't take long for them to come across a huge building. "What is this?" Ulquiorra asked.

"You're looking at the twelfth division. This has their barracks, mess hall and everything else inside of it," Yoruichi said.

Ulquiorra had been expecting a female standing beside him. He wasn't prepared for the cat that leapt onto his shoulder. "What the-"

"Easier this way. Less detection. I'll go see where this Fullbringer is and then come get you."

He raised an eyebrow and found a dark spot to hunker down in. All he had to do was wait. The weather didn't bother him. The noises from the soul reapers' daily lives didn't bother him. In spite of the danger he had put himself in, Ulquiorra found his eyes getting heavy, and he nodded off.

He immediately woke up when he felt claws dig into his chest. "Ouch!"

"Wake up," the black cat said.

"Did you-"

"Third level of the lab. He's down there with another Fullbringer, Kugo Ginjo. They're confined to a room." Yoruichi licked her paw and then stared at him.

"So blow some Ceros and grab him?"

"And bring the entire Gotei 13 down on our heads? Are you even thinking?"

Ulquiorra sighed. When he came up with this plan, he hadn't been thinking. Even now he didn't have a solid plan. "What do we do?"

Yoruichi huffed. "We wait until nightfall and then we go in."

It was dark in the halls of the building. Ulquiorra's wings were starting to feel cramped; he had to keep them close to his body, and had been doing so for most of the day. He didn't even notice the pain when he was inside of the gigai. Then again, his gigai seemed to have enough room for his released form.

Nothing seemed amiss.

Nothing seemed off.

When Yoruichi stopped in front of a door and flicked her tail at it, Ulquiorra stopped. "What?" he asked in a whisper.

"Scents," the cat said, lifting her nose up to sniff.

No. It wasn't a scent. It was vibrations. Ulquiorra could feel it. He put one finger to the ground. There were several captain class soul reapers nearby. "Six," he said.

"This is unfortunate!" came a weird voice. "You were supposed to wait until the trap was sprung to figure it out."

"That's Mayuri's voice," the cat growled. Her head whipped around just in time to see Ulquiorra fall to his knees.

"Dammit!" the arrancar said through gritted teeth. Something was pressing on him. It wasn't spiritual pressure. Even Aizen couldn't make him cower with that.

"Did you know that bats are sensitive to sounds? The lower or higher the frequency, the more easily a sound can ground them. What are you?"

Ulquiorra's breathing was becoming labored as he tried to speak. He fumbled with the piece of jewelry around his wrist. "Yoruichi. Take the bracelet. Go back to Orihime. Tell her...Tell her I'm coming back."

The dim light of the corridor went out and the cat had to listen to hear the sharp clang of metal before she was gone.

Orihime was in bed. She had tried to go about her daily activities, but couldn't help but worry about her boyfriend. She had taken it out on the kids to a degree, setting them on task after task, nitpicking a bit, micromanaging to ensure that everything was done up to Ulquiorra's expectations. She wanted him to be pleased when he got back. She hoped to god he would soon.

After Kazui and Eri were in bed, she got under the covers and took out her notebooks and the journals that Ulquiorra had read through. She didn't know why she waited until now, but she felt like she should be doing something, anything, to try to assist the former Espada in his quest to restore her memories. She cracked open the oldest one first and began to read.

Her eyes watered and her hand trembled. She felt sick to her stomach. This one was about her feelings of jealousy towards Rukia. It made note of her feelings of leaving Karakura for Hueco Mundo. It did not reference Uqluiorra by name or describe him, though. It ended with the phrase, Goodbye, halcyon days.

She closed her eyes and calmed down before reaching for the next journal. This one was from when she had returned after the winter war. She was frustrated as she went through the pages. The first several were all about how brave Ichigo had been and how sad it was that he was in a coma. The pages went on and on about how he wasn't waking up and how he was losing his spiritual pressure. Nothing about anyone or anything else.

It was kind of pathetic.

She was ready to just give up and pack all of the journals back when she saw it.

It was a doodle. An eye with a vertical slit for a pupil. Underneath the doodle was his name. Her eyes darted from side to side until they rolled back under her lids and she lost consciousness.

Pain coursed through Ulquiorra's body. For some reason, he felt lighter. His spiritual pressure was growing.

"What the hell did you do, Nemu? I told you to touch him once with the experimental Hogyoku!" Mayuri screamed.

"I did that, sir."

"It's supposed to drain his powers, not make him more powerful! But I must say, this arrancar looks so much better like this. AKON! Do we have images of what he looked like before?"

The third seat nodded and rushed over to Mayuri with a small stack. "Hmmm, yes. The hair. The eyes. The wings. Look, even his feet transformed. We need to test that stuff coming from his head and tail."

Ulquiorra's head rolled to the side. He felt drugged, almost. He felt incapacitated. This wasn't good. He was supposed to be stealing a Fullbringer to bring back to Orihime. He saw a flash of white as he flexed his hand.

What?

His hands were not white in his second released form. They had always been black and covered with fur. When his head dropped forward, he saw white clawed feet. What the hell happened to him?

"Let me go," he muttered.

The Shinigami captain sneered for a moment. "Nemu, it's talking. Zap it again."

His eyes followed the machine that held a little ball, surrounded by a small field of spiritual pressure. Ulquiorra knew what that was; the small swirling ball of color was just like Aizen's. "No."

"You don't have a choice in the matter. You invaded my laboratory and thought you could get away with it, didn't you?" Mayuri asked.

As soon as the small orb came into contact with his hollow hole, Ulquiorra screeched in pain. Again, he felt his powers growing. He was only vaguely aware of what had happened. There was a bright light. He was swirling his way up. Feathers floated down to the ground.

"Sound the alarm! He's loose!"

Bells rang out. There was more shouting. His hands came together and a spear of green light formed. Ulquiorra didn't know how or why but he sent it hurtling towards the building he was floating over.

"Kugo, grab his arm. Tsukishima, grab the other one."

That was Yoruichi's voice.

"I don't see-"

"Would you like to continue to be Mayuri's little experimental mice, or do you want to go back to the world of the living?" The voice didn't sound nearly as gravelly so she wasn't a cat, if Ulquiorra had to guess. "Hold up the end of your bargain, and Urahara will give you gigais."

His eyes opened and he saw white hair hanging in front of his face. "What-"

"No time to chat, Ulq. We're going up and I need you to rip open that Garganta," Yoruichi stated.

"What happened?"

"Besides the fact that you obliterated the twelfth division's building? Nothing, but I need you to put the bracelet back on. I'm gonna get us through the Garganta. I need you to open it. Right now your spiritual pressure is intense and it's fluctuating. Kisuke can help stabilize it once we're back."

As he felt that cool metal on his wrist, Ulquiorra felt calmer. He felt like things were going to be okay. He was tired though.

"You've gotta stay awake, Ulq. C'mon. We're in the sky," Yoruichi said.

He could barely do it. He could barely use Descorrer. He was afraid as they shot through the opening and he closed it, leaving them in darkness. The reishi still swirled around him.

"Kazui! Call Grandpa! There's something wrong with Mom!" Eriko screamed. She had heard the redhead cry out and for some reason got out of bed. She had just gone along with her gut feeling, knowing something was off. It was a good thing, too. It looked like Orihime was having a seizure or something.

Kazui flew down the stairs to the kitchen where the landline sat, and dialed Isshin. Eriko heard him frantically explain that something was wrong with his mother, then paused. "What's happening?!" he shouted up the stairs.

"She's shaking! Her eyes are like, huge… I don't know! Mom!?" Eriko said to the woman.

Kazui explained as quickly as possible as he ran up the stairs and then stopped, nearly dropping the phone when he saw Orihime convulse on the bed. "Grandpa, it's serious," he said in a low, trembling voice.

"I'll be there in less than a minute," Isshin said on the other end of the line before hanging up.

In less than a minute, the older Shinigami arrived at the Cifer residence, knocking at the front door. "Kazui! Eriko!" he shouted, not worrying about waking the neighbors; without his gigai no one else would hear him anyway.

Kazui jumped down the stairs again and threw the door open. "Upstairs!" he shouted, then saw just a flash of black.

Isshin opened the door and saw Eriko first. "When did this start, Eri-chan?" he asked carefully.

"I dunno, Grandpa. I heard her call out and then I came in here. She's been shaking like this and there's these books all over," Eriko said. She looked at the older man and then at her adopted mom.

Isshin looked at one of the books and huffed. She should not have done this alone. "Step back, Eriko. I need to do some Kido to calm her down," Isshin explained, mumbling an incantation after the girl had backed up. Slowly, Orihime's body calmed down and she appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Isshin sighed and took a seat. He wasn't sure how long the effects would last or if Orihime would need more spells.

"What's wrong with her?" Eriko asked from the doorway. "Is she going to be okay? Have you heard from Dad?"

Isshin frowned. "No. I expect they should be back soon. Please find Orihime's phone; I will send a message to Kisuke. I don't want a butterfly tracked."

Eriko did as the older man asked and found Orihime's phone in her purse. The girl brought it back upstairs and handed it to him. "A butterfly?"

"Yeah, it's how Shinigami communicate long distance," Isshin muttered in a distracted voice as he readied a text to Urahara. "There," he announced after it was sent. "He'll let us know as soon as your father is back."

How long did it take to get to Soul Society and back? What if something happened to her dad? "What are we going to do?"

"We wait. You two should go back to bed. I'll keep your mother safe and comfortable," Isshin said, with no room for argument.

"But—" the girl saw the look on the man's face and nodded. This was one time she should just go with what the adult said. "Goodnight Grandpa."

"Goodnight, Eri-chan," he answered with a tight grin. "Goodnight, "Kazui," he said as his eyes moved over to the boy near the door.

"Goodnight," Kazui said, grabbing Eriko's wrist as she came out the door.

The girl with green eyes was scared. She looked at her best friend. "What?" she asked.

Kazui's eyes were equally afraid. "Do you want to stay downstairs on the couch with me? I don't think I can sleep. We can watch TV quietly. I don't think Grandpa will mind," he said. He didn't want to be alone right now.

"Yes," she answered and followed Kazui. When they were on the couch Eriko laid her head on his shoulder. "Dad needs to come back."

Kazui nodded. "Yeah," he said quietly, not saying what he was thinking, and that was that at this moment, he was more worried about him than he was about his mother.

"How far have we fallen?" Yoruichi asked.

"A couple meters, maybe more," the greasy-looking man said.

Carting around a half-dead arrancar wasn't ideal when going through something like this. Ulquiorra looked drained, though. He looked half out of it. He still had that little ball inside of his hollow hole. Those weird green flames still licked at his head and tail. The green streaks down his body pulsed with a weird neon green light.

"Ulquiorra, are we getting close?"

The arrancar lifted his head. It still weighed heavy. It didn't seem like he was ever going to recover from this. "Huh? Look… for… the light."

Great, this guy was heading towards the light. Yoruichi didn't think that Orihime would appreciate it if her boyfriend died while on this crazy mission. "C'mon Ulquiorra. You need to guide us. We'll keep the platform up, you get us out of here."

It took him longer than necessary to find their way out of the Garganta. The four of them stumbled onto the dusty ground of Urahara's bunker. Immediately a kido barrier went around Tsukishima.

"What did you bring back?" Urahara asked as Ulquiorra fell to the ground.

"One modified arrancar and two fullbringers."

Urahara raised an eyebrow. One modified arrancar? That didn't even look like Cifer. "Uh, what happened?"

"Mayuri," Yoruichi said as if that explained everything.

It was horrifying. Memories of Tsukishima in the dangai; memories of Tsukishima in Las Noches, memories of being beaten bloody by Menoly and Loly. These were horrific, but what was worse was the memories of her and Ishida rising on a surface of blue reishi, only to be met by her late husband's lifeless body and a winged monster with no face.

The monster spoke to her but had no voice and no words. She felt no fear of this monster. She felt the fear of losing her late husband, of losing Kazui.

Her memories pushed her forward. The faceless monster kept speaking to her but she could not hear its words. She still could not see its face. She still was unafraid.

But then… her memories turned darker still. An onslaught of power. A chilling screech. The shadow of a much more terrifying beast came to life in her memories. She could see white bone and flashes of red hair and horns. She could not see its face. She only knew that it had been Ichigo.

She saw the monsters engage in battle. It was merciless. The smaller beast was fast, but the larger one was ridiculously overpowered. Overpowered and careless. She recalled her own body being flung so fast that she lost consciousness for a moment. Ishida had caught her, that time.

Then the large beast focused his attack on Ishida. A red light appeared between the beast's horns. She was in the line of fire.

The faceless creature, although cut in two, had stopped it. The black figure had spared both her and Ishida.

It was too late for the black creature. She recalled it reaching to her.

"I'm not. I'm not afraid," she had told it. She had reached back.

She was not afraid.

She was devastated.

As Tessai worked over the Arrancar, Urahara noticed the Hogyoku first. "Mayuri, tsk tsk tsk. Jinta! Bring me some tongs!"

It was only moments later that some metal tool came flying at him from above. "Thank you!"

That wasn't a real hogyoku. It couldn't be. There was only one in existence, and Urahara had it hidden under many layers of security. "I think Cifer is being poisoned."

"How can you tell?"

"That's Mayuri's calling card. He poisons people. Plus with all this kido you're putting into him, he's not getting better. I'm going to extract the thing in his chest and analyze it."

That metal was carefully inserted into the hollow hole. As soon as this hogyoku was clear of the hole, Urahara could see how that it was indeed leeching poison. A purplish substance dripped from the orb along with the swirling spirits inside of it.

"Urahara-san… Look."

Urahara looked from the ball to Tessai to Ulquiorra. The bone white arrancar took several shuddering breaths and then stopped. "Shit."

He fell to his knees and started checking for a pulse. How did one tell if an arrancar was alive or not? Oh. The greenish flames around his head were starting to dim. Ulquiorra's skin started to look dry. Hadn't Kurosaki said that Ulquiorra had turned to ash and dust? "I need it. I need the Hogyoku. The actual one."

Yoruichi was the one who used Shunpo to go over to one protrusion of rock and pressed her thumb against a small depression. Once the door of rock opened, Urahara could hear Yoruichi using Shunpo to go down the stairs. He could only hope that this would work.

Ulquiorra remembered breaking out of the Caja Negacion. He remembered having words with Orihime, and Ichigo Kurosaki showing up, followed by Loly, Menoly, Yammy and the Quincy prick. The hole he blew in the dome of Las Noches came into view and the destruction of the towers that followed. He released Murcielago again and killed the boy. He had told Orihime it was futile to try and bring him back.

He had listened to her anguished cries as he dealt with Ishida. It had been enough time for her to somehow revive him, but Kurosaki had turned into a mindless monster who was faster than him. The Vasto Lorde had more power than him. The only thing he could do was protect Orihime.

In his memories, he watched as his hand stretched out to her. All he wanted was a piece of her heart. He had given his heart to her. He felt the same way when he was turning to ash.

Oh.

That was it.

He was dying again.

Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes.

Eriko. Kazui. Shinzo. Orihime.

If he died again, he would never get to see his children grow up. He'd never get to see Orihime's face light up with a smile as he walked into the house. He'd never get to hold his woman again.

The mere thought of that made a sob erupt from his mouth. He couldn't do this to her. He couldn't put her through losing another lover. His strength was fading, though.

He was fading.

Urahara had to deal with the pain of grabbing the Hogyoku with bare hands. He didn't have time to deal with the intricate tools to extract the thing from it's prismatic prison. He shoved the thing into the hole in Ulquiorra's chest and sat back to wait.

"Do you want me to take Tsukishima to Orihime?" Yoruichi asked.

The blond man nodded.

A/N: The next chapter is the last one! Let us know what you think of this one, and thanks for reading!