Ulquiorra saw him at the bottom of the steps. The boy turned up to look at him, disbelief clear in his eyes and Ulquiorra slowly stepped down.
"U...Ulquiorra." he stammered out.
"I don't remember telling you my name." Ulquiorra calmly intoned, now in front of Ichigo. "You have now lost two of your companions. It was folly for you to come here to rescue Orihime."
"What do you mean, two?" Ichigo asked him skeptically.
"Rukia Kuchiki has now died." Ulquiorra informed him tonelessly.
"That's bullshit! There is no way you could know that!" the boy angrily spat at him and then started off down the hall in the direction of her dying reiatsu anyway.
"Where are you going?" Ulquiorra asked him.
"To get Rukia." the boy answered back.
"Are you sure it is wise for you to go on without killing me?" Ulquiorra asked, trying to goad the boy into attacking him.
"You haven't done anything to my friends as far as I know, so yeah, I'm just going to leave you there." Ichigo called back almost all the way down the hall now.
"What if I told you I was the one that kidnapped Orihime?"
"You bastard!" Ichigo cried and ran back pulling Zangetsu from his back as he did so. "It's YOUR fault that Orihime is considered a traitor to the Soul Society!" He swung out and Ulquiorra calmly blocked it with his hand.
"You suspected that Orihime was a traitor? Though that was the impression I had hoped to make, I would have thought her friends knew her better. I've only known her for a month and I already know she would die before betraying you."
"I'll fight you, but now I am in a hurry so I am going all out first thing!" Ichigo yelled.
Ulquiorra thought he was going to just hit him with his bankai and so was caught off guard when Ichigo donned some sort of mask and hit him with a huge energy wave. Ulquiorra put out both hands to block it, but it still knocked him back with it's force. When he finally came to a halt, he just determinedly walk towards Ichigo again.
"So that is the limit of what you can do? Disappointing. I really don't know why she has so much trust in you to save her." Ulquiorra told a shocked Ichigo and then Ulquiorra let his spiritual energy build up in him until it felt like his whole body was on fire with it and then shot it all out at Ichigo. He then walked up to the boy that was now laying on the ground many yards away . As he looked down at him he said, "Surrender."
"I'm...not...going...to...surrender." the boy panted out struggling to his feet. "I'm going to save Orihime!"
As soon as the boy was on his feet and reaching again for his zanpaktou, Ulquiorra thrust out his hand and plunged it deep into the space where his breastbone met. "You will fail at that." Ulquiorra told him tonelessly and then let the boy drop. He fell to the ground without a sound and Ulquiorra watched as his bankai form dissipated, his body trying to conserve all of it's energy just to stay alive. Ulquiorra just stood watching him for awhile confused as to why the satisfaction he thought he would feel at the boy's destruction wouldn't come. It's not that he felt bad for the piece of trash that he had just eliminated, but his thoughts kept returning to Orihime and what she would think. "Why do I care what she thinks?" he quietly asked himself and this time he knew the answer. "Because I love her." Is this what love felt like? Thinking of another's feelings even before your own? Ulquiorra didn't like it, he had enough trouble dealing with his own half remembered emotions. "Well at least I won't have to feel them much longer." he told himself, suddenly realizing what he had to do to put his heart at ease. He walked back to his rooms to clean up.
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Orihime just lay quietly on her bed, trying not to feel or think at all. She just intently concentrated on what was left of Ichigo's reiatsu trying to will it to stay. "Please don't die, Kurosaki-kun...please don't die..." she whispered over and over to herself. When she heard the door to her cell open she didn't even turn towards it.
"Orihime, come with me." she heard Ulquiorra's voice command her from the door.
"I'm not going anywhere with you ever again. I don't even want to think of you ever again." she said quietly turning on her side away from him.
She heard his footsteps as he approached her bed and at that her tears spilled over and she furiously whispered, "How could you!? I know it was you!"
"It was. Orihime, do you want to heal him?" she heard him quietly asking her and she slowly, slowly turned to face him.
"Why would you want me to do that?" she asked him in disbelief.
"So he can get you out of here." She just stared at him incredulously and he went on. "I know the moment he is healed he will stupidly run off to gather those other two, and I am not going to be able to stop him. Yet I think I can buy you all enough time to get out of the palace. At least I am going to try."
At that Orihime finally understood what he was telling her and she shook her head at first unable to speak.
"Orihime. I don't understand. I thought that is what you wanted." he said to her.
"Ul...Ulquiorra..." was all she could get out and then fresh tears fell from her eyes.
"Don't cry, Orihime. I don't like the way it makes me feel inside." Ulquiorra softly said and then sat down on the bed next to her. She buried her head against his chest and weeped and he carefully put his arms around her and held her close. He again stroked her hair and knowing that it would be for the last time, he tried to memorize what it felt like.
"C...come...with us...please..." she brokenly sobbed against his chest.
"I can't, Orihime. I can't live in the human world." he said running his fingers through her hair. He knew she would understand why. She then pulled away from his chest and wiped her eyes with her hand (though it didn't do much good he noticed since new tears quickly replaced what ones she had removed) and then she gently took his face into her hands and did something that made the hug seem like a handshake. She closed her eyes and placed her lips against his. He closed his eyes too and pressed his lips back against hers. She ran her hand through his hair on one side and placed the other on his hollow mask. Then she opened her mouth, trying to kiss him more deeply, and he responded with his own. She tasted like tears and sweetness and warmth and...then he noticed that with every slight breath he took inward he could taste her very soul and feel it trembling at is moorings deep inside her. He quickly broke off and said, "I can't kiss you, Orihime."
"Hollows weren't made to be kissed, huh?" she laughed and cried at the same time. Then she laid against him one last time and whispered, "Thank you."
And then Ulquiorra who had spent a lot of time thinking and analyzing just what it was that he felt towards her, responded, "I love you, Orihime." Then he pulled her away and said, "Let me take you to him now." And then he took her hand (it was so warm) and led her out of her cell.