She woke to the sound of something dripping. Steady, like a sink had been left with the handle just barely turned. Drip, drip, drip.

She groaned. Her head was pounding and her body ached all over. Her eyes fluttered open. Darkness. She blinked a few times to adjust and found a woman kneeling over her. Tia.

The woman was working quickly to wrap Orihime's hands in bandages. She looked up when she heard Orihime gasp but quickly returned her gaze to her job. "You were out for just over an hour."

"Tia?" She coughed. "Where are we?"

The room was the same obsidian that the hogyoku had been in, but darker. As she cast her sight about, she saw the walls were cracked, the floors crumbling. From the damage, a faint green light crept, as if the stone was bleeding starlight.

"The ruins beneath the palace," she said.

"Ruins?"

Tia nodded. "The Vasto Lordes once had a sanctuary here. It had been abandoned for several centuries before the palace was built over it. This potion is only accessible through the room I found you in. The hogyoku's chambers."

Orihime groaned. "Aizen. He… he made me…"

She nodded. "The tattoo."

Orihime moved her head to the side to look at it. She only caught a slight glimpse but she let out a small sob at the sight.

"The damage is not undoable," Tia comforted her.

Orihime stared at the star burnt into her shoulder.

"It is unlikely he will be able to control you through that channel again. You still have use to him, your life is not in immediate danger. For the time being." She finished her bandaging with a neat tie. "Can you stand?"

"I don't know." She ground rumbled. Dust fell from the ceiling.

Tia grabbed Orihime by the elbows and hauled her to her feet. "Put your arm around me," she commanded. Orihime did as asked, letting Tia take her weight. They began forward.

"How did you find me?"

"My fraccion are guarding the exit. We must be quick."

"What's going on?"

"The humans are here."

She'd feared as much. "In the palace?"

"Yes."

"Shit."

"Do you intend to kill Aizen?"

Orihime blinked rapidly, blindsided by the question. "Wh– I."

"Do you?" Tia did not look at her.

"... Yes." She bit her lip. "Are you going to kill me?"

"You have power over time," Tia said. "That is the only way you could have restored the hogyoku. Do you know the outcome of this battle? Or is that beyond your scope?"

"I knew it," she admitted, quietly.

"Do my fraccion emerge victorious?"

"Tia…"

"Do they?"

Orihime knew it wasn't smart to admit to anything. She could set Tia loose on the timeline and fuck everything up even further. But she liked the woman. And she couldn't lie to her. "No. They don't."

"Then I will help you," Tia said. Like it was just that simple.

"I can't ask you to do that. I don't know that changing things will save them! And, Tia, I mean." She sucked in a breath, realizing she was winded just from walking, and she had most of her weight supported. "Damn it. I mean, how can you just trust me?"

"You have never lied to me," she said. "Aizen has."

"So you're willing to go against him? Just like that?"

"No," she said. "I will help you. But I won't raise my hand to Aizen. He'd strike me down without a thought, the moment I stopped being useful. I have seen him do it before. What can I do to help you?"

"I need to find the hogyoku. I know Aizen can't fuse with it until he goes to Karakura town." She winced. Something wasn't right. It wasn't just the burn in her shoulder. She felt… wrong. "I think I need to sit down."

"I will bring you to your rooms," Tia said. "I caution you against mirrors at the current moment."

Orihime felt her stomach swoop. "What do you mean?"

Tia pulled her along in silence.

Orihime grabbed the woman's robes. "Tia? What do you mean?"

"You have aged," she said.

Orihime reached blindly for her face. No wrinkles. She looked down at her hand, and then caught sight of something. A scar. A familiar one, from the time after the winter war… but that had yet to happen. It was a scar from the future. "Oh no."

"Come. We are almost there."

The fraccion were indeed waiting at the entrance, and Mila Rose ducked under Orihime's other arm as soon as they emerged. "What happened to you?" She gasped. "You look terrible."

Sun Sun said, "You truly have a way with words."

Apacci said, "She's not wrong though. Who tried to behead you?"

Orihime reached up to the thick line of scarring around her neck. "I… don't know."

"Make it quick, then," she heard herself whisper. "Grimmjow won't make it in time to save me. And I won't fight against you."

Ulquiorra stared down at her in horror, a crimson four burning its way through the chest of his uniform. "Fight," he commanded her.

She looked down at the hogyoku, clenched in her palm. How could she betray everyone like this? One man, for everything. "No."

"Orihime?"

She shook her head, looking back up at Tia. "I…"

The words failed her, and she hung her head, mind swimming. Mila Rose was saying something, and she realized she couldn't hear it clearly. Her ear. Hearing gone on one side again. How nice. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

They made it to her room without being seen. Tia's tres besties stayed outside, allowing for Tia to escort Orihime to the bed. Orihime sat on the edge roughly, head spinning, and looked up at Tia.

"What do I do?"

Tia looked down at her with a slight frown. "You cannot overcome Aizen alone."

She swallowed. Right, Aizen. Nevermind… this. Whatever it was. "Right." She thought, for a moment. "Grimmjow…"

Tia knelt before her. "Your most formidable ally is Ulquiorra. You must convince him to side with you. Grimmjow cannot focus his destruction."

"He's more capable than you might think," Orihime argued.

"You are Ulquiorra's fraccion. Surely there is a sense of closeness between the two of you. He has never had an ally before. Use him."

She shook her head. "But–"

"I must go." She stood. "I don't expect your help in keeping my fraccion alive. But for our sake, do not fail. I will be there for you when the time is right."

She nodded. "You were already there for me. Thank you, for finding me."

Tia inclined her head. "You are strong. Be so."

She was gone, then.

Orihime sat on the bed for a while, trying to catch her breath. Her strength was quickly returning, but she was loath to see the extent of the change to her body. Why had it happened? And how? She'd gotten so used to being her younger, unblemished self, and returning to a body that had seen horrors yet to come affected her more than she thought it would.

Be strong.

She rose from the bed and nervously padded into the bathroom, where she shed her clothes and stood anxiously in her undergarments. She knew she shouldn't look, but she couldn't help it. She had to know.

Twenty-seven-year-old Orihime stared out of the mirror.

Dark circles beneath the eyes. Longer hair. A burn scar on the corner of her chin, a larger one of her right hip. Scarring around her throat, claw marks on her shoulder. A cut beneath her clavicle, another along the swell of her breast. A large laceration on her side, just above her unburnt hip.

She tucked her pins into the side of her undershirt. "It's not so bad," she said. Her voice had changed a little. "Like the old you. Just a little more banged up. Nothing you can't… handle."

She heard the door open to the main rooms and hunched her shoulders defensively. She reached out with her senses and found Ulquiorra's spiritual pressure. Not now, she thought, venomously.

"Woman?"

He knew, after all. What she really was. And maybe she'd liked the way he looked at her. Touched her. But he'd known. Now it would exist within his eyes sight. That was all.

The door to the bedroom opened. "Orihime," he said.

She turned and slipped out of the bathroom, where she leaned against the doorframe. She crossed her arms and took in his astonished expression. His eyes were wide, body frozen mid-move.

"What's the matter, Ulquiorra?" She asked. "Don't you recognize me?"

He stared a moment longer.

Humorously, she laughed. "Pretty rough, huh?"

Instantly, he sobered and continued closer. He looked her up and down. "Then it has happened."

"What?"

"I had suspected for a time that this was not your first attempt at altering the timeline. I had wondered if the many versions of you might converge at some point. It is impossible to exist in so many places at once. How many times, then? Have you rewritten the events of the future to your satisfaction?"

She blinked. "You think… I've done this more than once?"

"When you first arrived in the timeline, how old were you?"

"Twenty-seven," she said. But then she paused. "No… I. I was twenty-three."

"What did you think before you jumped back?"

"I thought maybe Ich-I mean. My husband. I thought maybe he was cheating on me. But I didn't…" she staggered over to the bed. "I hadn't caught him. But that can't be right, I remember catching him. We had fights about it."

"In another timeline."

"I don't understand."

"If you were to fail, today, what would you do? You would want to go back to the way things were. Before. Before you jumped. However, if you had never failed, it stands to reason you wouldn't remember what had happened, eventually. Until the next time that feeling hit you, wishing you could go back and change it all again. Then you would start over again, re-altering the timeline. Coming back, though, you would have memories of the future. Several futures. They would begin to settle in the most natural way, slowly, so that you wouldn't notice. The erased version of the past, though, would be more… difficult." He looked her over again. "Your body, though, remembers. And with as much power as you must have used, it is likely much of you was destroyed. Your body has rebuilt itself as all timeline would suggest."

She shook her head. "I don't… you're saying my body got destroyed? But my clothes were fine."

"I am not saying that is exactly what happened. Only that the hogyoku has powers which we do not understand, just like you. The interaction would change you, I am sure."

"This didn't happen the first time."

"When did you start believing certain events had transpired that, in fact, had not in what you considered to be your timeline?"

"... Oh." She drew her knees up to her chin and sat holding herself. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be out killing Ichigo by now?"

"I felt your spiritual pressure drop. Besides which, I have already killed the boy."

Oh. Then. That would mean…

The door to the main room burst open. "Ulquiorra!"

Orihime stood hurriedly.

"I've got a fucking bone to pick with you!" The door to the bedroom went flying open. "And I'm kidnapping your girlfriend while I'm at it! You–" He saw Orihime, then, and paused. "Whoa. Rough night?"

"Grimmjow," she started.

Ulquiorra stood. "Take her and go," Ulquiorra said. "Your business is none of mine, and the woman may do as she pleases." He brushed past Grimmjow. "And for reference, sexta, these doors can be opened without kicking."

Orihime blinked.

Had that just happened?

Grimmjow must have been thinking about the same thing. "You sucked the soul right out of his dick. Amazing." He returned his gaze to her. "But for real what the fuck happened to you?"

"Surprise," she said, dryly. "I'm a pokemon. This is my final evolution."

"Does your evolution come with clothes or do I kidnap you naked? I mean I brought this sack but I didn't think you'd be healing from inside of it. I was going to do like, a kick-ass reveal where I throw you out of it, tied up and gagged and–"

"I can walk, thanks." She paused, then. "And who would the reveal be for? Ichigo is dead. He wouldn't see it!"

Grimmjow's smile fell. "Oh. Yeah."

Orihime quickly dressed, in a fresh uniform, and did her hair up. All the while, Grimmjow stood impatiently by the door, tapping his foot.

"This isn't a hobby, you know!" He called out to her. "It's my fucking job and I'm on a deadline."

"You're not supposed to heal the enemy, Grimmjow. This is the opposite of your job." Ready, she came to his side. "Let's go. And before you get any ideas about fighting him into your head, you need to know we're pushing that fight."

"Pushing?"

"You're not having it right now."

"What! Fuck you! Yes, I am!" He kept up with her as they flashed from one room to the next. "We may be friends but that doesn't mean you get to shelf my fucking death fight. That kid has it fucking coming. And I won't be–"

"I won't heal him if you don't wait to fight him. How about that?"

"I'll force you."

"How?"

"I'll kill you if you don't. How about that?"

"Kill me then." She stared him down. "Bitch. You won't."

"Bitch!? Bitch! I'm the one who calls people bitch! I'll kill you for your fucking insolence."

"You know the word insolence? I'm proud."

"YOU!"

Whatever else might have been said died the moment they arrived before Ichigo's body. Though she had seen it once before, and his corpse many times more, it was still horrible to look at. He had died with his eyes wide open, chest gaping, organ gone.

"Bastard," Grimmjow sighed. "That's Ulquiorra's signature."

"You tried to rip out Rukia's stomach," Orihime reminded him. She knelt gently before Ichigo. Oh, how young he looked. "I suppose it must be something psychological about hollows."

Grimmjow shrugged. "Like I care. Hurry up and bring him back."

Orihime frowned up at Ichigo's vacant expression. She reached out and pushed blood-crusted hair from his eyes. "I'm sorry," she told him. "You shouldn't have had to face all this. Maybe next time I'll go back and give your father a talking to, hmm?"

There was a small noise that caught her attention, then. She turned, and a few scant feet away there was a girl. Hair buzzed at the sides, in a flash step uniform the likes of which Soi Fon donned. Orihime's eyes widened.

"Tatsuki?"

Tatsuki took a trembling step forward. "Orihime?" Her eyes found Ichigo then, and instantly she began to cry. "Is he…?"

"Who's that?" Grimmjow grunted.

Orihime stood, deploying her fairies. They moved to shield Ichigo while she moved quickly to Tatsuki, taking the woman's hands in her own. "Tatsuki, what are you doing here?"

Tatsuki's eyes roved her form. "What happened to you?" She cried. "What did they do?"

"Well Ulquiorra did her real dirty, I can tell you that much," Grimmjow said.

Orihime reminded herself that she would probably need him alive later. "Nothing, nothing, I… this is just. What I look like." She smiled as best she could, feeling the burn scar on her face tighten with the gesture. "It might not be permanent."

"They told me you… you betrayed them," Tatsuki whispered. "That you came to fight for Aizen."

"How do you even know about all that?" Orihime asked. She brushed Tatsuki's bangs back. "You could use some healing yourself."

Tatsuki batted her hand away. "Why are you acting like everything's okay?! Orihime, Ichigo died!"

"It won't take," Grimmjow drawled. He moved to Orihime's side, slinging his arm over her shoulder. "Didn't you hear? Princessa here can heal more than just arms and legs and di–"

She elbowed him sharply in the side. "What Grimmjow means to say is that. I'll heal Ichigo. Don't worry."

Tatsuki just stared, lost. Her eyes drifted over to Grimmjow. "Is he…?"

"An espada." Orihime stated.

"You're the one who hurt Rukia," Tatsuki's voice trembled with anger. "And Ichigo!"

"Guilty." Grimmjow grinned wide. "Whatcha gonna do about it, eh?"

Tatsuki clenched her fists.

Orihime put her hand out, shrugging Grimmjow off of her at the same time. "Whatever powers you have, save them. I can't… Oh, Tatsuki, why did you come?"

"To save you," she said, quietly. "I knew you wouldn't have betrayed us. You couldn't."

Orihime smiled, sadly. "You've always been my best friend." She took in a breath. "I know it doesn't make sense, but fighting the espada is our last priority right now. Well. Most of the espada. Some. Okay, basically like, not Starrk, or Tia, or Ulquiorra, or Grimmjow. The others, eh."

"Ulquiorra?"

"Yeah," Grimmjow said. "The guy who tore our Kurosaki's chest. Black hair, depressing fucking face, looks like he's never seen the sun once in his life. Ringing any bells?"

She stumbled back from them. "I…"

A sharp gasp pierced the air. Orihime turned around and hurried to Ichigo's side, watching as the man came back. He sat up, eyes wide, and held a hand over his chest.

"Ichigo!" She smiled.

He didn't seem to notice her. "H… hold on. Wasn't there just a huge hole in my chest a minute ago?"

"Yeah that's right," Grimmjow crowed. "But you're alive now, punk. Thanks to Orihime."

Ichigo's eyes fell on her. "What… happened? You look…"

"You should know it's rude to comment on a woman's appearance, Ichigo," she said, softly. She removed her shields. "There's not a lot of time. You need to get everyone who you brought here and get out before it's too late."

"Too late? For what?" He shook his head. "Wait, no. Orihime, I came here to defeat Aizen. Stop this war before it starts."

"It's already begun," she corrected him. "But that's not the point."

"You left us," he said. "You're on their side!"

"No, not really, no." She shook her head. "You're sidetracking me. Listen. I know you think you know what's going on but you don't. And-don't look at me like that, mister boy hero. I know you want to charge in and get yourself killed, again, but we don't have the time and I came here to stop you from dying over and over because, really, it's not good for you. Or me! Did you ever think about that? That every time you charge into battle I'm the one who has to deal with the fallout?" She paused. "Okay, now I'm the one getting sidetracked."

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo muttered.

Grimmjow let out a hissing, laughing, sort of gasp. A sound Orihime had never heard from him. "Oh fuck! Fuck, oh fuck me! This is him, isn't it? This is the husband I fucked!"

Orihime whipped her head around to send him a death glare. "Not now."

"When else?" Grimmjow wheezed. "This is so rich, you porked this guy? Talk about night and day! I mean, come on, Ulquiorra is like the exact polar opposite. Was that what you were going for? Holy fuck!"

She stood up. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"You can bring people back from the dead! You said next time, you said future, it all makes sense!" He paused. "Is that why you didn't want to fuck me? Was it bad, in the future? Was I selfish? We're friends, now, I can do better."

"I never fucked you!" She yelled in his face.

She became aware of Tatsuki and Ichigo staring at her like she'd lost her mind.

And, well, she kind of had.

She dragged a hand down her face. "This is not how I wanted this to go."

Tatsuki crept forward. "You had... " she whispered, "Sex?" and, pink, looked up at Grimmjow. "With him?"

"No! Ew!"

"Hey!"

"No, with Ulquiorra," she said.

Ichigo and Tatsuki's looks of incredulity compounded.

Tatsuki choked out, "That's worse."

"Listen that really doesn't matter right now! You need to leave. Now! Ichigo," she snapped, drawing his attention. "If you don't go now Rukia might die. And the others, they'll be hurt, badly."

He put on his serious face again. "We knew the risks."

"Well, now you don't have to take them! I can destroy the hogyoku."

"Orihime, you're a healer."

"She's a timer," Grimmjow said.

"A what?"

"Like. Time controller. She can erase stuff. Look, my arm!"

"What about it?"

"It got blown off!"

Ichigo stared.

"Okay," Orihime said. "Clearly we're not all handling this the best way we can. Let's start over." She took in a deep breath. "Hi, Ichigo. Thank you for coming to kill Aizen. Hello, Tatsuki, I'm sad that you got dragged into this but thank you for coming to rescue me and not giving up hope, I really appreciate it. Hi! I look different, and yes, thank you everyone for reminding me, I look horrible. I am not defecting. I am here to kill Aizen myself. Please don't give me that look, if you didn't know me well enough to realize I wouldn't betray you, you don't get to think you know me well enough to estimate what I'm capable of. You're going to all leave so that I can finish up my very complicated, years in the making plan, without having to see any of you die. Again. And if you don't, I'm going to have Ulquiorra come down here and toss you all out of a garganta and back into the living world himself, where you can sit and think about your choices."

For a moment, they both seemed to absorb her speech.

"But you're friends with them?" Tatsuki asked, hesitantly.

"Yes. They were forced into working for an evil man. They are hollows. They are not bad people." She looked over at Grimmjow. "Most of the time."

"I mean, I never wanted to kill them at all," Ichigo said in a small voice. "Just Aizen."

"And you don't really want to kill him either," Orihime said. "Because you don't like killing."

Ichigo looked at the ground.

"You don't have to get your hands dirty. Mine already are. Okay? Please. I am begging you. Go home."

"I can't," Ichigo said, desperately. "Inoue, you have no idea how powerful Aizen, Gin, and Tousen are."

"I fought Tousen in soul society when you saved Rukia." She said. "And Gin is on my side."

He blinked.

"Well. His side and my side kind of line up."

"But how can we trust you?" Ichigo said. "You left. With Ulquiorra. And–"

"Grimmjow figured it out! Don't you get it? I'm from the future!"

"... What?"

"You pretend you like chocolate-covered strawberries because so many people give them to you, as a joke, but you actually hate them. You wanted to be a firefighter when you were little but then one died in your dad's clinic and you got scared and decided you wanted to do something different. Your mom was killed by Grand Fisher, the hollow, and you and Rukia killed him on the anniversary of your mom's death. You eat pickles when you're sad, and you'll never admit it but you watched all of BokuMado and you still check up on the fan forums. You have a scar behind your right knee from slipping on the bleaches as a kid. There, happy?"

His jaw dropped open.

Tatsuki said, "What about me?"

Orihime looked at her. "Tatsuki I already know everything about you, you're my best friend. But I know you're thinking of applying to the Lawson for the summer and I'm telling you now you will hate it. Oh, and Tamada is the one who has been stealing your jerky from the dojo lockers. You find out next year when you catch him red-handed."

"I'm sold," Tatsuki said. "It's only, what, the third weirdest thing to happen this year?"

"So you're leaving?" Orihime beamed.

"Hell no!" Tatsuki cried. "I told you I came here to rescue you. I'm not leaving until you're coming back with me."

Orihime's smile slipped, slowly, until she was staring at the two of them in despair. "I can't protect everyone," she said, quietly. "I just can't."

"Let me kill him, there's one less pesky friend to worry about, eh?" Grimmjow asked. His eyes gleamed with the thrill of a potential hunt.

The arguing began, then. Ichigo thought that he should kick Grimmjow's ass. Grimmjow wanted him to try. Tatsuki wanted them all to work together, Ichigo and Grimmjow wouldn't work together, but they were both going to help Orihime, so it would be over one's dead body, and wait, Tatsuki, you should go, you're not as powerful, but no, Tatsuki had to stick it out, and hey, wasn't Ichigo the leader here, and why did anyone else get a say when he was the one who was supposed to put his neck on the line and shut up Jagger-jack-ass, I'm the leader, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…

Ulquiorra looked up at her as she carded her hands slowly through his hair. He seemed pensive, almost as though he were studying her. She never felt uncomfortable with the way he looked at her; unblinking, steady like she was something to be read. She felt that he saw her as she was in entirety, and was constantly striving to understand each small part of her. She felt understood by him. Something she had not felt completely since Sora.

He rose up out of the sheets, settling closer to her. The blankets pooled around his waist, preserving his modesty somewhat. What was it he saw in her face? Was he committing each freckle to memory, the composition of each and every eyelash he saw? She looked back and saw so many things in him that she doubted he even saw himself. But had he ever looked inward? Stared at himself and really, truly, looked?

"You've decided something," he realized.

She nodded.

"Have you recovered more memories from your previous timeline?"

"Yes," she admitted, softly. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him, gently, before pulling back to look at him some more. He had such soft skin for a man who couldn't be cut by a blade. "I remember how it ended."

He tilted his head. "Do you intend to share the memory with me?"

She laughed a little, sad inside, but determined. "No. No, it's not important."

He blinked at her. "Then tell me, what is it that you have decided?"

She closed her eyes and kissed his forehead, feeling tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. "Oh, Ulquiorra," she cried gently. "I hope I remember you."

Again. It was happening again.

Orihime shook her head, numb, and stared down at her hands.

Years. Years, waiting for this moment. And it was all falling apart right in front of her eyes.

Not this time. No matter the personal cost.

"Grimmjow," she said, softly.

His head jerked up as though she'd whistled for him. "Eh?"

"You can have your fight. With both of them. But don't kill them."

Everyone stared at her, flabbergasted.

Orihime looked up, fire in her eyes. "Keep them from following me. No one gets into the castle, understand?"

Grimmjow's grin turned feral. "Now that, Princessa, I can do."

She turned away from the outraged cries of her two friends.

Whatever it takes, she decided and flash-stepped away.