Chapter Three: Justifications
Ulquiorra quickly set his hand to the console and opened the airlock. It slid open with a hiss, and he entered into a dimly lit room. Bodies were lying here or their environmental suits having been torn. As he stepped over them, huge humanoid hollows leaped over the bodies and leaped at him. Ulquiorra stepped aside from one and cleaved it in two, before firing a bala to burn through two more.
A fourth sent a wave of energy at him, but he stepped aside, grabbed it by the head, and ripped it off.
"So, you must be Ulquiorra," said Orihime. "Do you mind if I talk while you fight? Sorry, it's just that ever since the holding cells opened, I haven't had anyone to speak with. Neliel has been busy.
"Can I call you Ulquiorra-kun?"
Ulquiorra shot the speaker system.
The area here was dark, even for his eyes. Only red emergency lights allowed him to see, and many pipes were hot to the touch. More importantly, however, there were tendrils on the walls. They reached along it and seemed to be growing even now.
"I see. So Aureniero has taken control of the systems here," said Ulquiorra. He moved past the tendrils. Making his way through the halls, he soon came out into a wide-open area. It appeared to be scaffolding, with the ceiling unseen. Hollows rushed at him from all sides, but he weaved between them. He reduced them to bloodied carcasses in mere moments.
Looking around, he could see a way down, through a chain-link fence. But the energy was coursing through it, barring his path. Vague memories told him that there was a console where the officers worked. Turning, he saw the door, stuck tight.
Moving up to it, Ulquiorra slid Murcielago between the doors and pried them open. Sheathing it, he forced it the rest of the wave and move on. Several hollows snarled and rushed at him over their old bodies. Ulquiorra burned through them with ease, before scaling up a broad set of stairs. There he found the console, alongside windows that were covered by shutters.
Several of Aureniero's tendrils were coming down from the ventilation shafts above. Others were forming on the walls. Ulquiorra drew Murcielago and slashed them down. He then unleashed a cero at the shafts to burn everything within them to ash.
There was a howl, and Ulquiorra turned back to the system. Finding a corpse, the officer in command, he grabbed his hand. The officer was a man with a huge head and a strange body type for a human. Perhaps some other race?
Irrelevant.
He pressed one dead hand against the authorization pad, then let go as he gained access. Turning on the systems, the shutters slid away. Outside, Ulquiorra could see the crescent moon far above and the endless sands. It was oddly scenic, though the fact was irrelevant.
Quickly, Ulquiorra set to work checking the information. It seemed that Aureniero had set up his tendrils throughout the facility. Multiple areas, from the Resource Ops to the Dimensional Tower, were all infested. Obviously, Aureniero had put a great deal of effort into all this.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess you accidentally shot out the speakers while you were fighting," said Orihime. "Anyway, I guess we kind of got off on the wrong foot and all. But I think hollows really like killing eachother so-
Ulquiorra muted her on the console. From there, he checked the documentation and recent history. It appeared the expedition has been carried out as a means of utilizing prisoners. Unwanted entities Central Forty Six did not want to keep at large but wasn't willing to kill. Neither had they been ready to keep feeding the people they had arrested. So they created the Houco Mundo Colony as a means of execution.
They would perform a dangerous task no one wanted.
Recent history indicated that whoever was on this console held an interest in the Quincy. Judging by the records, they were looking for any sign of Quincies within this place.
Then Ulquiorra noticed a message that had played for the entire facility en masse. Perhaps two days ago? Curious, he activated it. A bespectacled young man with blue hair, wearing white, appeared. "Hello, Captain Kuroschutchi. My name is Uryu Ishida, and you may remember me. If you are hearing this, it means you will soon be dead.
"You have kidnapped and tortured innocent people for the sake of your experiments. Entire towns have been eradicated when you lured the hollows to them. And for what? So you people could cover up your actions? You have created life simply to torture it.
"Not that any of this matters in the slightest to Lord Barragan Luisenbarn, or any of his servants.
"But when I offered him an opportunity to kill all of you, he was only too happy to accept.
"As of this moment, all of the hollows you have been experimented on have been released. Even as I speak, portals are being opened in critical areas of this facility. From this point forward, this entire facility is on lockdown. No one will be able to move without circumventing the system meant to contain outbreaks.
"The hollows entering this dimension from the Menos Forest will have no impediment.
"Ironic. The very security measures you put in place to keep control of the situation will now be your own demise.
"Goodbye."
Then the message faded out. Ulquiorra remembered his original purpose and found the communications array for Nemu. It appeared that she was based within a facility that could only be accessed by a train system. She had the ability to record, access, and communicate data through the facility.
From the looks of things, someone had restricted her access.
Quickly he used his memories to re-engage her communications. "You have re-engaged my auxiliary power," said Nemu. "Master Mayuri had hoped to avoid you seeing these documents.""
"What kind of threat is posed by Uryu Ishida?" asked Ulquiorra.
"He is the last descendant of the Quincy Race. They were a subgroup of humans designated potential threats," said Nemu. "Their species was culled, and covert means were used to exterminate the survivors. Master Mayuri carried out that purge in exchange for the ability to experiment on them."
"Then you have gained their powers." surmised Ulquiorra.
There was a snarl, and hollows surged out of the ventilation system. Ulquiorra grabbed one by the skull, smashed it into the floor, and hurled it into the incoming crowd. From there, he unleashed a flurry of balas that consumed them.
"Humans do not gain strength from devouring eachother, as you Hollows do," said Nemu.
"It is irrelevant," said Ulquiorra. "What threat does he pose?"
"Uryu Ishida's abilities are quite considerable," said Nemu. "It is odd, however. In our last encounter with him, he offered Master Mayuri the opportunity to plead for his mercy. He also demonstrated sympathy toward me, even though I was his enemy.
"It is strange that he has taken such utilitarian means of destroying his enemies."
Odd.
This Uryu would have had to be highly competent to outmaneuver so many powerful beings. Yet he had, apparently, allowed an enemy a chance to survive. Perhaps to gloat? "It matters not. What is your current priority?"
"As you have observed," said Nemu, "the entity known as Aureniero is spreading. If he is able to gain access to our more sensitive research specimens, he may become a severe threat.
"As such, he must be culled.
"However, I am having difficulty locating the core of his being. I will need you to reactivate my sensor systems."
"So be it," said Ulquiorra, remembering where those were located.
Ulquiorra made his way out of the room and found that a trap door had opened up. Leaping down, he found hollows clambering in around him. Slashing through them with his hands, he leaped down onto the floor and moved onward. Several Hollows rushed at him, only to be blasted apart. Others ran for their lives and were blasted apart. One ran to hid behind some boxes and was blasted apart when Ulquiorra found him.
On he walked.
"Oh, you're back," said Orihime. "I'm kind of getting the feeling that you don't like hearing me talk. Sorry, I just like to chatter a lot. I figured that since you Hollows spend all your time killing, it might be nice to try talking for once.
"So um, is there anything you like to do for fun?
"I mean, I always used to like making dinner, but I haven't been able to do it in years. See, we mostly use premade stuff."
"You are speaking in familiar terms for one who has killed hundreds," noted Ulquiorra. He found her kind nature contradictory.
"Oh them," said Orihime, voice cracking. "Well, most of them were better off dead anyway. See, people who work in this area are the lowest-ranked, and they have to work nonstop on tough labor. But if they are obedient and work long enough, they might get the chance to go up in rank.
"But the higher-ranked you get, the more involved you are with experiments.
"I didn't get the chance to pick, though.
"What about you? You ever have to do something you don't want to do at all?"
"Desires are irrelevant," said Ulquiorra. "They have no bearing save insofar as they affect one's actions." He found a door, opened it, and moved in. Within, he found dozens of enemies who snarled and rushed at him.
Drawing his sword, he found these were more difficult.
Some scraped at him, and he had to keep moving to avoid them. Murcielago did not cut through them so easily. He had to hack one twice to cleave through the neck and lost an eye in the process. Drawing back while it healed, Ulquiorra fired a cero that obliterated one. But the others scattered out of the way and went at him.
Slashing through another, he ripped the heart out of a second. From there, he threw the organ into the face of another beast and blasted it. Then all was silent, and he moved onward. As he did, he found fewer and fewer normal hollows. The walls were covered in more and more tendrils. Aureniero was present everywhere.
"Wow, that's really deep," said Orihime. "So um, are you planning on killing Aureniero?"
"Obviously," said Ulquiorra, reflecting that he had not spoken this much in centuries. Humans enjoyed speaking, didn't they?
"Right, right, that's sort of what you Hollows do, isn't it?" guessed Orihime.
"Your basic perception serves you well," noted Ulquiorra. He came to a door that was bound shut by tendrils. Someone had melted the metal closed. Fortunately, whatever energy shield protected the rest wasn't here.
Ulquiorra raised a hand and began to fire a cero to burn through it.
"Right," said Orihime. "So, um, have you fought him before?"
"Aureniero is a highly adaptable entity who has a limitless ability to grow in power. In one cycle, he nearly consumed the entire Hollow Race," said Ulquiorra. He remembered the maws and tendrils. "It was... challenging to deal with him then.
"Since then, he is killed early in every cycle. The other hollows do not tolerate him growing too strong."
"Oh, wow, so this whole cycle thing is a game you play?" asked Orihime.
"Hardly a game," said Ulquiorra. "Houco Mundo flows in cycles. The same events happen again in different ways. The same entities appear. All the Hollows struggle and compete against one another in pursuit of their goals.
"Invariably, they fail.
"That is the nature of the universe."
"So what are your goals?" asked Orihime. "And why is Neliel so afraid of you?"
The door and tendrils were melting away now. But more of them were coming to try and stave him off. Obviously, Aureniero did not want him getting through. Both were now pouring energy against one another. However, Ulquiorra could do it faster.
The conversation was a welcome distraction. "I was born in darkness, and I was the only thing that was why. The others of my kind swarmed around me and sought to kill me. I killed them.
"Every Hollow in existence is a threat to every other Hollow. My desire is to prolong my existence for as long as possible. Thus they will die."
"Well, that seems like a sad way to live," said Orihime.
"You are in no position to pass judgment," noted Ulquiorra.
"I guess not," said Orihime sadly. "But I... I didn't want to, but you haven't seen what it was like! Everyone was afraid all the time. People would disappear and... they'd never be seen again. We had to work fourteen hours a week with no breaks. If you said anything that the watchers didn't as you disappeared.
"I saw what happened to them. I had to heal them. Kuroschutchi would... do things. And then I'd have to heal them, again and again, until they were begging me to let them die. But whenever I lost one, he'd... he'd..." She trailed off. "That's when I met Neliel. She said that people who were killed by Hollows would become Hollows. And at first, I thought it would be horrible, but then Kuroschutchi started... he started trying to turn people into them. They were in constant pain and... And I felt that they were suffering as much as we were and...
"And then I found out they wanted to expand operations.
"So I... I got in contact with Uryu using a private channel, and I found out about all kinds of awful things, and we... um..."
"You what?" asked Ulquiorra.
The door melted away, and the tendrils were drawn back with a howl.
"I gave him a complete technical readout of the facility and then let him sabotage the place," said Orihime. Ulquiorra walked through. "We had a plan where um, once he did the lockdown, I'd open all the cages. That actually took a lot of work, but um, well, Grimmjow helped.
A lot.
"He helped me a lot.
"I'm an awful person, aren't I?"
"I don't care," said Ulquiorra as he walked back, peering into the dark.
But Orihime's voice did not return. All around Ulquiorra, he saw the flesh of Aureniero on the walls, on the ceilings. There were eyes on every wall, and as he walked in, he saw many of the tentacles rise up around him.
"Your conversation with Orihime is at an end, Ulquiorra," said Aureniero, voice garbled from everywhere and nowhere.
"So it would seem," said Ulquiorra.
This would be troublesome.