Kicking myself over how long it took to post this, literally no excuse. Well, here it is, the last chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Thirteen

Certainty

Using her Santen Kesshun to float back up the shaft in the tree Orihime made her way back to the point where she had separated from her companions. Once she got there, she wasn't sure what to do. She could sense Ulquiorra's spirit energy, but she couldn't help him fight Shinigami. She would be more willing to help Lilynette at the colony, but her weaker spirit energy was harder to pinpoint and Orihime wasn't sure what she would actually be doing beyond warning them about the attack, and that would be done by now. It seemed the only thing left for her to do was hurry up and wait. She settled down at the point where the tree's trunk met the sand to do just that, hoping her healing abilities wouldn't be needed when they got back.

She wasn't sure how long it had been when she felt Lilynette's spirit energy approaching, along with two others. She stood and moved around the tree to greet them. Lilynette ducked though the branches, then froze when she saw Orihime.

"What are you still doing here?"

"So, you knew…?"

"That you had a chance to get out of here? Yeah. I've come here with Ulquiorra and Stark before. They stuck me in those caves to keep me out of trouble. I've done enough exploring to know you could get home through them. I figured that was the plan."

"I didn't want you two to get in trouble for letting me get away."

An Arrancar woman emerged though the branches before Lilynette could say anything else. Her eyes widened when she saw Orihime and she folded her arms protectively over her stomach. "You're not an Arrancar! Who are you?"

Lilynette sighed, "This is Orihime," she glanced back at the woman, "Don't worry she's nice, stupid sometimes, but nice."

Orihime let the stupid comment slide, it probably was stupid of her to come back when she had a chance to get away. "Hi, nice to meet you…?"

"Narcissa," Lilynette supplied.

"Nice to meet you, Narcissa." The woman nodded warily. "So, where's your other friend?" Orihime looked around, expecting a third Arrancar to show up. Then she put it together. Both the unfamiliar spirit energies emanated from where Narcissa was standing, hands still resting on her lower stomach. "Oh! You're pregnant? I'm sorry, I didn't realize Hollows could have kids!"

"You weren't supposed to know. Even Aizen-sama doesn't, he just assumes we all used to be human. And you better not tell him—or anybody else!" Lilynette said fiercely.

"Of course not! I can see why you wouldn't want Shinigami to find out!" she didn't even want to think about what they would do with that information.

"Can we really trust her?" Narcissa asked.

"Yeah, at least I can't see her doing anything to hurt a kid. She knows the Shinigami aren't above that."

Orihime refrained from arguing that not all the Shinigami would go along with something like that, she was certain Ichigo, Rukia and Renji wouldn't at least. Probably more than that. "Well, congratulations!"

"Thank you," Narcissa seemed confused that a human would celebrate a new Hollow coming into the world.

"Anyway, that's why we're here instead of helping the others fight." Lilynette said.

"They're all fighting the Shinigami?"

"A few decided to run, or stay in the colony, at least until the Shinigami actually got there, but yeah most of them went to fight."

"Oh," Orihime looked down, not sure what else to say.

"Look, I know you've got Shinigami friends, but we're defending our home."

Orihime nodded, "I know, I just wish the fighting wasn't happening."

"Hey, they didn't have to come here. Even most of the ones that did start as humans don't go back to the Transient World once they get here. If they would just leave us alone, we wouldn't bother them. Well, most of us wouldn't anyway." Orihime had to take Lilynette's word for that, but she had no reason not to believe her. She could only imagine what her home would be like if most of the Hollows didn't stay in Hueco Mundo. If only the Shinigami had realized that, maybe Aizen wouldn't have been able to raise his army. For the first time she wondered if she was really on the right side. Not that she thought Aizen was the good guy, but the Shinigami were guilty too.

Eventually the fighting in the distance ended. Ulquiorra returned, supporting another Arrancar. "Magnus!" Narcissa cried running to the injured man. Ulquiorra set him, sitting up, against the trunk of the tree and Narcissa knelt next to him.

Orihime made her way over to them, "Excuse me, I can help."

"Why would you help a Hollow?" Narcissa asked.

"I'd just hate for that baby not to know his or her daddy." She called out her Shun Shun Rikka and got started healing him. She was aware that Ulquiorra was watching her, but he said nothing, so she just concentrated on what she was doing. Once she finished, she stepped out of the area the tree covered to give the couple some privacy.

"Did you even go to the cave?" she wasn't surprised Ulquiorra had followed her, of course he had questions.

"Yes, and Caleb did try to show me the way home. I came back instead. I didn't like the idea of you getting in trouble because of me."

He shook his head, "I shouldn't be surprised, but worrying about others is going to be the death of you."

"Maybe, but if it is, at least I'll die trying to do the right thing."

He looked back at the tree, "I take it you know about the child."

"Yes. Lilynette was born here too, wasn't she?"

"Yes. You understand why we don't want outsiders to know."

"I think so. The Shinigami would just see more Hollows. They wouldn't think anything of killing them too." Most wouldn't anyway, not when they had orders to. "You don't have to worry about me telling."

"You realize we are going back to Los Noches."

"I know. I can handle it." She meant it. For the first time since she got here, she was sure. The war wasn't over yet, but she had friends on both sides, and she would do whatever she could to keep them all safe. Maybe that wouldn't be possible, but she would try.

So the idea is for things from here to go pretty much the way they do in the anime. If I need something different I'll specify that in the story it applies to. As for Aizen "not knowing" about hollows having kids, he probably does and just lets them think they managed to keep it from him. Anyway, I've got several ideas in mind for stories to use this as the backstory, so I guess we'll just see how many of them I actually get done. Not quite sure which I'll be doing next, I might catch up on the manga first.

Thanks, and prayers,

RAHbooks