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The dreams of Aizen start when she's pregnant. They're just that – dreams- at first, but once her son is born they seem to become more sinister, until they descend fully into the territory of nightmares.
He appears not as an image, but as a menace, always after she has attempted to reject the Hōgyoku. Sometimes he merely smirks from afar; others, his face is inches away from hers. A few times, his fingers grip her face, like he did that day in Soul Society, and when she wakes up she swears she can still feel them leaving marks.
In every dream, he always says: "did you really think I wouldn't find out?"
Perhaps it is conjecture, but when Orihime is roused in the middle of the night by one of these nightmares, only to hear Kazui crying in the distance, she is struck by a terrifying thought, that, once it hits her, she cannot shake off.
"It's Kazui," she tells Ichigo, who was already up, tending to their son, "when Aizen says he wouldn't find out, he means Kazui. He knows, Ichigo. He knows about our son."
Ichigo has fought Aizen enough to know that is one of the things he does best – twisting the minds of his victims so that his mere shadow looms large and threatening. He's seen it in his wife for years now, no matter how much she tries to hide it. Even with all his power, he finds that he cannot chase away this fear. He can only comfort her the best he can.
"Come here," he says outstretching his free arm, balancing Kazui in the other. - holding his crying family close.
Orihime travels to Soul Society. She can tell from the look Ichigo gives her as she leaves that he doesn't agree with what she intends to do, but he doesn't try to stop her.
Shunsui is happy to see her at first, until she explains why she's come.
"You do understand that what you're asking goes against every rule, every protocol, every law I can possibly think of?" he asks, his gaze weary.
"You did it once," retorts Orihime, her tone more accusatory than she intended. She cannot help it – she needs Shunsui to agree.
"That was for the good of Soul Society," says the Captain Commander, fanning himself, "what you're asking for is far more…" He doesn't say the word selfish but it lingers in the room all the same.
"Please," begs Orihime, "for my son's sake," this last plea is half a lie. She needs this for Kazui, yes, but she also very selfishly needs this for herself, too.
"Well," he begins, "Soul Society does owe you a debt," he says, "for destroying the Hōgyoku."
He could have just as easily as said, for not coming after you of for thinking that you had gone willingly. From the look on Shunsui's face, he knows this, but Orihime doesn't mention it. He has not yet granted her request and she does not want him to change his mind.
Finally, he says, "consider this a repayment of our debt to you," and Orihime thanks him sincerely, "there is one condition though," he interjects, "I will come with you."
The cell is dark, buried deep underground. It is made of a stone that suppresses spiritual pressure. Orihime can feel her own powers fighting against the oppressive blocks. She cannot imagine living in such conditions.
"Orihime Inoue," says the smug, comfortable voice she's come to dread, "I knew I would see you again."
"Aizen," she says, deliberately.
He smiles at this, then says, "Congratulations are in order," he says, "you have a child."
Orihime feels sick. It is a feeling a hundred times worse than the suppression of the stones.
"A son," she says reflexively, before adding, furisouly panicked, "how did you know?"
"Isn't that why you've come to visit me," he mocks, "to beg me to leave your darling child alone?"
Orihime bristles against his words. She hasn't come to beg.
"I could," she stumbles, "I could reject you." She's guessing, but then, it was Aizen himself who theorised that her power was limitless, that it trespassed on the realm of the gods. Staring down Aizen right now, imagining his hands on Kazui, she would like very much to be a god.
From behind, Shunsui places a hand on her shoulder. It is a gentle touch, but the message is firm. Not on my watch.
"It wouldn't do you any good," says Aizen, "to destroy me."
She stares back at him, startled.
"Your son will always be a target," he continues, "with you for a mother and Ichigo for a father," –Orihime nearly jumps when he mentions her husband's name, and even Shunsui seems surpised- "his spiritual pressure will attract all sorts of assailants. He will never be safe from it all –not truly."
Orihime nods. It feels as if she knew this already.
"To protect your son," continues Aizen, "it isn't me you need to conquer."
"It's your fear of him," finishes Shunsui.
Orihime nods again; their words ring true in a way that few do. It is as if she has always known exactly this, but she has been too scared to face it.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asks, standing less rigidly straight. Shunsui's grip on her shoulder lessens as well, though he by no means lets go.
Aizen smiles, "mainly so you don't try to kill me," he says sardonically, "and I have been starved for conversation recently," he adds.
Then, before either Shunsui or Orihime can interrupt him, he says, "Do you remember when I showed you the Hōgyoku?"
"Y-yes," stutters Orihime.
"Did you ever wonder why I showed it to you?" he continues. "I'll tell you," he says, and Orihime notes that he seems genuinely pleased to converse. She feels a wave of gratification, realising that even the mighty Aizen chafes under the yoke of imprisonment. "When your friends arrived in Hueco Mundo to rescue you, I thought it might be wise to give you incentive to stay put."
Orihime casts a nervous glance at the Captain Commander. She has a sense of where this is going, and she is unsure of how he'll react. How will he judge her for not running to her rescuers?
"You're a clever girl," continues Aizen, "and I knew that if I showed you where I kept the Hōgyoku, you would put two and two together and realise that you were the only one who could hope to destroy it."
"That seems like a quite the risk," interjects Shunsui.
"It was a gamble," concedes Aizen, his tone lighter, his smug smile playing at his lips. Then, turning to her, he says "did you ever wonder, why no one came after you, when you were taken from your cell?"
Orihime has wondered. More than once, the thought has crept up on her as she lies awake in bed, unable to sleep.
"You were playing with me," she says.
Aizen smirks, approvingly. "Such a clever girl," he says. "I knew where you were from the moment you left your cell. And I found it suited my purposes for you to spend some time there, in the vast expanse of Hueco Mundo, watching Ichigo fight, powerless to help".
Orihime bites her lip. She remembers watching those fights, feeling as though there would never be an end to the watching, to the worry.
"But that was just part of the plan I'd devised," says Aizen. "Yes, devised. I gave you the keys to my destruction, Orihime – I meant to ensure that you would never use them."
"Oh," she says. "Is that why you made me swear those things?"
He nods. "I made you a comrade to your enemies. And I did more. Menoly and Loly, Nnorita, Grimmjow – I pulled the strings that brought them to terrorize you."
Orihime vividly remembers the fear the arrancar caused her. To learn that Aizen was pulling the strings all along is…disconcerting.
Still, a rebellious thought plays at her lips. "But I still destroyed it," she says, "the Hōgyoku."
"That's the point!" Aizen's voice rises slightly, enough to surprise her. Even Shunsui is taken aback enough to stumble a bit. "None of it worked. I meant for you to be so scared that you would not have it in you to go near the Hōgyoku. I taught you how to ruin me and then meant to break you before you could even try."
She remembers a battle on a dome. She remembers crying out.
Help me Kurosaki-kun,
It almost worked, she thinks.
But it wasn't Aizen who triggered that, she recalls.
"What about Ulquiorra?" she asks.
"Ulquiorra?" Aizen ponders aloud, "I assigned him to you so that you would come to distrust your greatest defense against me," he says, "your humanity."
"Oh," she says again. She remembers an outstretched hand, crumbling to ash.
Are you afraid?
I'm not afraid.
"The last one didn't work," she says.
"As I said before," says Aizen, "none of it did."
The journey back to the surface is quiet for the most part. It is only as they reach the end that Shunsui speaks up.
"It never sat well with Yama-Ji, that he waited so long to send troops after you," he says, "he was prideful, so he never came out and said it, but I think he regretted it. You were a human caught up in our war," he continues, "we should have intervened sooner."
Orihime notes the slip from he to we, but doesn't mention it. She nods, accepting the apology.
"Well then," says the Captain Commander, his tone warmer, more jovial, "that was quite a day. How about you stay for some tea –or perhaps some sake?"
Orihime politely declines. It has been quite a day, and she finds, as she steps into late afternoon light, that she is exhausted.
Exhausted, and desperate to get home to her family.