Chapter 14

"….Fine… serious…eye."

Quiet mumbles flit through the air when I finally fight past the pain that threatens to keep me under. As everything comes into focus, so does the pain as everything hurts. So much so that I keep slipping back under so that the voice comes in and out, what words I manage to catch making little sense as I fight to open my eyes.

"Trixy."

His voice is deep, rich and smooth for all its blankness as he calls me to him. It's like he beckons me almost so that I can finally shake off the last of the unconsciousness and wretch my eyes open.

Though I close them almost immediately as all I'm met with is blinding white. The curses that spill past my lips are mumbles, unintelligible, more of weak sounds of protest than actual words as I slam the heels of palms into my eyes in a horrible attempt to ease the pain of light bright enough to sting.

"She'll live," someone says then and I recognize the voice of that of Szayel. When I can finally squint my eyes open again, it's to catch him pocketing a small flashlight. The very same light he flashed into my eyes seconds after waking up.

"I wanna go home,' I mumble then, as the aches of being crushed under hundreds of pounds of spiritual pressure make themselves known with a vengeance. I don't have to stand to know that standing up will be next to impossible. Never mind that my head throbs once again, a headache well and truly on its way even though I've just woken up.

So the world, when I finally focus in again, is a blurry mess. Though if that's as much from the headache as it is from the tears that quickly gather as the world, sans Szayel's flashlight, still turns out to be too bright for me to handle.

But it doesn't take long for the tears to fall and the world to stop spinning as I finally wake up enough to realize I'm not sprawled across the floor where I last remember falling. Instead, I'm in a pair of arms. A pair that's cool enough to bring with some measure of relief as the coolness bleeds into aching muscles.

I know who the pair of arms holding me belong to without having to look. Even if it's only been a day since I've arrived here, spirited away from my world through means unknown, I know the arms holding me better than those of the man who (unsuccessfully attempted to) raise me.

"Ulquiorra," I call, voice soft and more than a little dazed as I look up, resting my head on his equally cold shoulder to soak up as much of the coolness as I can. When I finally find his eyes past the blurriness, they're locked on me, watching as always. "I should have bought some Tylenol."

Though I don't think they sell pain pills strong enough to help this level of pain, any kind of relief would be more than appreciated at this point. I can't believe I didn't think to steal any kind of medication considering I've picked up a dangerous knack of getting severely injured.

I don't know at what point I've closed my eyes, but when I open them again it's because my head has slump forward and off of Ulquiorra's shoulder. Thanks to that the world is once again spinning when I open them again, the edges of my vision blurred by more than tears this time.

The blackness of unconsciousness beckons me with promises of sweet relief, but I ignore it. I push it back, blinking my eyes rapidly to dispel it as I try to take to shake off the dizziness that plagues me from such quick movement.

"What is Tylenol?" Ulquiorra asks then, voice low as he dips his head to all but whispers it in my ear. My hair flutters with his breath and to my immense relief, I find it as cold as the rest of him when it brushes against the shell of my ear.

"Each of you are to return to your chambers and behave normally," Aizen says before I can answers, bringing the world more into focus as he does. It's only then, as his voice sounds far closer than it has any right to that I realize just where I am. "Do not get haughty."

I'm currently held in Ulquiorra's arms, seated on his lap, at Aizen's immediate left. And when I finally find him in my still blurred world, it's to find that insufferable smug look pointed directly at me.

"Do not get impatient," he says and I guess if there were ever a guaranteed way to get an audience with the King, deranged or not, it would be now. When the King's attention is focused solely on you. "Just sit and wait for the enemy.

"Do not fear," he tells the room as a whole even though his gaze never shifts off of me so it feels like he's talking to me specifically when he says, "even if something should happen, as long as you walk with me, there will be no enemies in our way."

Now, this is not good at all.

"You are dismissed."

It's still far too soon for my liking, but it's now or never. As Ulquiorra goes to stand, I slip from his as from his arms as easily as I can Which turns out to be far more easily than I would have thought.

"A word, Aizen," I ask, even as my knees tremble. It's only by sheer force of will that I keep them from buckling out from under me. Especially when the movement of standing is more than enough to tug the scratches on my ribs open again.

There's a long silence then. As the others pause in their way out of the room, all turning to look at us as they do, Aizen does nothing more than take me in. His size me up as the smug look never leaves his face. If anything it deepens when my hand comes up to press the fabric of my shirt hard over my once again sluggishly bleeding wound.

I don't realize I've made a mistake until Aizen raises a hand, the corner of his lips pulling up as his eyes finally shift away from me. They move behind me, locking onto Ulquiorra and I don't have to look to know Aizen has stopped him from doing something to me because it should have been 'Lord Aizen'.

"I will hear you," Aizen says then even as he waves his hand. Though it's only when I heard the sound of fading footsteps that I realize he's shooing the others away. Ulquiorra lingers though, I don't have to look behind me to know. As my appointed guard, only a direct order from Aizen will send him away.

"Speak with Orihime," Aizen orders him then, clearly dismissing him as he has all the rest then. "Inform her of her friends' arrival. I will have…Grimmjow escort Trixy to as soon as we are done here."

"Yes, Lord Aizen."

Ulquiorra doesn't linger after that. He makes his way out of the room as soon as he is done talking. I watch him go, only until his path leads me to Grimmjow who apparently has yet to leave. Who doesn't seem to have any intentions of moving from where he kneels, wide, shocked eyes locked firmly onto the ground in front of him where a pool of blood lays.

Where my blood lays, staining the white floors rust red as it dries.

"Grimmjow," Aizen calls, voice deceptively calm even as his Reiatsu flares for the briefest second. It's there and gone in an instant but it's more than enough to have me crashing back into Ulquiorra's chair, the last of my forced strength taken in an instant.

And it's more than enough to have Grimmjow rising, the shocked look on his face melting back into his regular look of anger. The transition from shock to anger is slow, so that when Grimmjow finally gets to his feet that the anger looks deeper than I ever remember seeing.

Vicious and dangerously enraged.

"Yes, Sir?"

But the words that come out of his mouth are low, calm. The anger is carefully concealed in his voice for all that it's deeply etched into every corner of his face, deep and promising more pain than can be considered reasonably considering who it's aimed at. All Aizen had to do to see it is turn, but he doesn't.

"Wait outside," he orders, never once glancing Grimmjow's way. Instead, his eyes stay locked on me, watching as I huff, the air around me still too heavy for me to choke down even as his Reiatsu is long gone from the air.

The air still feels heavy, threatening almost even though he does nothing but wait, patiently until I can get enough air to do more than pant pathetically in front of him. I'd be more worried about his patience if Grimmjow wasn't still in the room, lingering in his anger, because what I have to say can't be said in front of anyone but Aizen.

And he knows this.

Of course, he does. So he says nothing as Grimmjow turns and storms out of the room, his anger evident in the way he all but stomps out of the room. Nor does say anything when I still stay quiet, my blurry gaze turning to find both Gin and Tōsen still standing behind him, eager to hear what I have to say.

"Leave us," Aizen says then, waving them both away with a soft flick of his hand. They don't fight his order even though I can see their reluctance to leave. It only takes a beat more of silence, though, for Tōsen to leave.

While Gin stays long enough to catch my gaze again. His red eyes open enough to convey one final warning before he's gone too. I watch him leave, eyes locked onto his lithe frame in what I'm sure is something dangerously close to grief because, well, his ending won't be a good one, and Rangiku's pain of that is too similar to mine to be any sort of comfort.

"Speak."

"They're all going to die," I tell him, the half-lie sliding off my tongue easily enough that it sounds like a bitter truth as I straight in my seat, Breath finally caught, I sit up, ready and willing to face the arrogance I can see on his face.

"You have already informed me of such," he says, leaning back in his seat as he does to effectively display his disinterest in our conversation. To show me that he really, truly doesn't care. Never has for all that most of them are bitterly loyal to him.

That Ulquiorra is utterly Loyal to him.

"You don't get it, though," I tell him as something in me burn. As it sparks, hot and vicious even though I have no way to release it. Even though there's nothing I can do but sit here and beg. Beg him to have some mercy for beings that would willingly lay down their life for him. "You're going to lose."

And it burns all the more when he laughs, soft but no less mocking.

"Would it truly be a loss though?" He asks then, resting his chin on his hand as he does so that he looks even more unbothered. Uncaring of anything I have to say so that what comes out of my mouth is more of a taunt than the truth.

"If your goal is to be the most powerful being in the world, then yes," I snap out, wishing I had the strength to rise to my feet and just…throw something. That I had a way to vent my frustration as Aizen just continues to watch me with that calm gaze. "You are going to fail. Horribly."

"And you would see me to victory?" he asks then, his voice skeptical for more than just my loyalty. I have no abilities, no powers, no strength. Just limited knowledge of the world and it's almost like he knows exactly how limited that knowledge is.

"If your victory means their continued existence, I just might," I tell him even though I know that's a father shot then trying to keep them alive on my own. And he knows this because of course, he does.

He's Aizen God Damned Sousuke.

Smart, cruel, and dangerously manipulative, Aizen who cares for nothing, for no one. Not even for the subordinates who would lay down with a simple command. Who will lose their lives for him, even if he doesn't care for them one bit.

"You poor girl," he says then, his voice soft so it almost seems like he cares. Like he can't bear to disappoint me, and I can suddenly see it. As his eyes go soft, his smug smirk melting until only the corners of his lips a pulled up in a small smile, I can suddenly see how he deceive Momo. How he got that sweet, innocent girl to love a monster like him. "You actually think you're going to survive this."

Manipulate bastard.

"Not for one second do I believe I will come out of this alive," I tell him because, if nothing else, this is a truth I know in the pit of my stomach. There is no plan, no scheme, no possible way that I will survive a full-blown war when I'm me. "Especially when I'm useless enough to be disposed of at a moment's notice."

I'm a human.

Weak with no abilities. No strengths. No way to keep myself alive when Aizen finally revokes his protection and sicks his men on me. I am alive right now by his grace alone and I'm not foolish enough to believe it will stay that way for long.

"Then why are you here, little one?" he asks, that false care disappearing as he realizes it will have no affect on me. The soft look on his face leaves too, melting away until all that's left is once again that cold arrogance. "Why do you seek an audience with me when you know just how easily I could have you killed."

"Because you won't," I teel him and just like my unlikeliness to survive this whole war, I know with a certainty that my death won't come by Aizen's hand. Whether indirectly or not, he won't have me killed. Weak human of not.

"And why wouldn't I?" He asks, something dangerous in his voice that promises I might just turn out to be wrong if I don't choose my words carefully. But it doesn't scare me. It can't. Not when I know his motives behind this whole crazy war.

When I know this is all because he's lonely.

"Because I'm not afraid," I tell him and if nothing else, this is the only thing I don't have to lie about because it's true.

I am not afraid.

Of pain.

Of suffering.

Of death.

Of him.

For all that he can kill me in the blink of an eye, I am not afraid. I haven't been afraid, not even when I was thrown at his feet, lost and confused after my arrival here. Not even when I was bruised and bloodied, and at the mercy of all his men's cruelness.

Never once have I looked at him in fear.

"Because I didn't bow to you," I tell him like he doesn't know. Like it can somehow escape his notice when it's the very reason he's kept me alive. "Because I've never called you 'lord' and that's what you want, isn't it?"

His eyes narrow then, the arrogance in his gaze turning into a dangerous warning. One I don't head even as the pressure in the room grows, his Reiatsu growing with his annoyance so that the air is suddenly almost too thick to properly breathe.

"You want to have some on your level," I say anyway, ignoring the warning in the air because, even now, I'm not afraid. "And here I am, a weak, defenseless human who has had the audacity to place themselves at your level. Who has stood before you and refused to be cowed. And someone as brazen as me is just too interesting to dispose of, aren't I, Aizen. "

"Leave."

His reply is sudden, cold as everything on his face melts away, leaving behind only blank disinterest. The abrupt shift is so unexpected, so inconsistent with any reply I was expecting from him that I can't help from flinching back in shock.

"Wait," I tell him, scrambling onto unsteady knees when he doesn't wait for me to actually leave the room and instead raises to his own feet. He doesn't stop as I call after him though. He just continues to make his way from the room "I'm not done, I haven't told you—

"Whatever you have to say, I care not to hear it," he tells me, voice still that cold monotone. I chase after him, ignoring the wobbliness of every step in my desperation to have him stay long enough to actually tell him what I meant to say.

"But—

"My choices have been made," he says then, pausing long enough to throw one last blank look my way. It's enough to still me in my mad scramble after him because it's enough for me to know. "Whatever outcome you are attempting to warn me of, rest assured, I have known of them from the start. Now leave me."

Nothing I can say will be enough to stop him.