Orihime followed behind Ulquiorra as he took her to where Ichigo lay. She was very aware of his hand on hers and though she desperately wanted to get to Ichigo (Chad and Rukia too) and heal him, in a way she also hoped that this trek through the palace would never end. "Where is everybody?" she whispered to him as she noticed a lack of arrancar on the grounds.
"Aizen ordered everyone to wait in their rooms for further instructions. It looks like they all obeyed for the most part. We still need to hurry though. You never know when someone could get it in their head to come out looking for some 'fun'."
At last they were in the hallway where Ichigo lay dying on the floor. Ulquiorra let go of her hand and then went to the head of the hallway to see if anyone was around. At the sight of Ichigo and the gaping hole in his chest, her tears started flowing again. "Don't worry, Kurosaki-kun. I'll fix you up." she whispered to him in between her sobs. She placed her shield on him and then stole a glance to Ulquiorra. His back was still turned to her so she quietly took Ichigo's hand in her own and whispered to him, "Just hang on." It took longer than she expected because the wound Ulquiorra gave Ichigo was bound up with a huge reiatsu. When it was finally rejected, Ichigo opened his eyes and looked up at her.
"Inoue? What are you doing here?" he asked her faintly.
She heard Ulquiorra step up behind her and say, "She doesn't have time to explain."
"You!" Ichigo spat at the arrancar already getting to his feet.
"No! Wait!" Orihime said while pulling Ichigo back towards her. "He wants you to take me home! Let's go get Chad and Rukia!"
Ichigo looked incredulously from Orihime to Ulquiorra and back.
"If I were you I wouldn't stand around and wait for the next Espada who decides to show up here and test his strength against you." Ulquiorra told Ichigo and then started back down the hall.
"Ulquiorra!" Orihime yelled rushing after him. "Where are you going?"
"I already told you. I'm going to buy you time to get out of here. Don't waste it."
"But...but...what does that mean?" she asked him, afraid.
"It means if I am lucky, one of my deepest desires will finally be realized. Now don't follow, Orihime. Just get out of here." And with that he left her.
Orihime almost started after him anyway, though to do what she had no idea. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and was face to face with Ichigo.
"Let him go, Inoue. Let's get Rukia and the others! We're getting the hell out of here while we still can!" Ichigo said and then pulled her along the hallway to where Rukia's reiatsu was last felt. At first she followed him reluctantly stealing glances behind her at Ulquiorra's retreating back and then when she could no longer see him she turned around and she and Ichigo ran side by side to their friend.
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Ulquiorra strode to Aizen's throne room with purpose in his step, though his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. He wasn't quite sure what exactly he was going to do, but he thought whatever he did would be enough. He could already feel the intruders' reiatsu coming together. He knew the others could feel it too, but he had a feeling they wouldn't quite know what was going on until it was too late. He hoped that they weren't idiotic enough to heal their friends on the premises, but instead would just carry them out. He looked up and realized that he had reached the throne room. Before he could even open the door though Gin and Tousen stepped up behind him. He reached for his zanpaktou but before he could grab it they clapped a double bracelet onto his wrists and he was suddenly cut off from his own reiatsu.
"Well, well, well." Aizen's voice came through the door a moment before he did. "You are probably wondering what made me suspect you. And you are right, at this point it is just suspicion, but it won't be for long."
At that Aizen reached out and pain flared as Aizen grabbed his left eye and pulled it from his socket. He bounced it in his palm a moment grinning at Ulquiorra and then he crushed it in his hand and then everyone could see Ulquiorra telling the girl to come with him and heal Ichigo and then her kissing him and then them leaving and then...
"That's all I need to see." Aizen said waving his hand in the air to dissipate the remaining images. "You disappoint me, Ulquiorra. I had thought I had given you all that you desired and yet you threw it all away for this human. And for what? She doesn't love you back and she will soon be in our custody again. You have failed and miscalculated at every junction of your little rescue plan. It's not like you. I would blame human emotion if I could, but I know you don't feel that. So why?"
Ulquiorra just stood and said nothing. Still he didn't think Aizen quite had the truth of it. He thought that maybe, just maybe Orihime did love him back and just hadn't realized it yet. And for that he was immensely glad. He had a feeling if she had realized she loved him, then he wouldn't have been able to get her to leave at all. It was funny, he was starting to understand emotion better after all this time. He had Orihime to thank for that. He...and then his thoughts were cut off by a searing pain in his other eye and then the world went dark.
"Speak to me when I speak to you." he heard Aizen's deadly calm voice just ahead of him.
Ulquiorra had nothing to say to him so he just stood his ground. Then he heard Aizen call out, "Szayel, come here. He is all yours to do with what you will, but I want him dead soon. I won't suffer his presence any more."
Ulquiorra could hear the pink-haired Espada giggle wickedly at that and then he spoke close to Ulquiorra. "So your greatest fear is death, huh? Yes, yes. Aizen told me all about it. Well I think by the time I am through with you, I think you will fear it no more. I'm going to make you scream real pretty for that little girl to hear where ever she may be."
Ulquiorra just stood silently and thought that if he held Orihime's face in his mind he would be alright and soon he would get his wish. Once his soul was destroyed he would never have to feel anything ever again. Though that thought wasn't as satisfying as it once was. Suddenly the pain began.
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Orihime was folllowing Ichigo closely who was carrying Rukia on his back. Renji was carrying Chad and Ishida ran next to her, worriedly glancing in her direction every once in a while. They ran fast, Orihime thought that only a few minutes had past since they had last seen Ulquiorra. Just as the tunnel that let out of Las Noches came into view they were stopped by two arrancar. Ichigo and Renji laid their respective burdens down and joined Ishida who was already running towards the hollows.
Ichigo called back over his shoulder, "Just wait there next to them, Inoue. These guys are small potatoes! We'll cut through them in no time!"
Ishida had already taken one out with his bow and called back to Ichigo, "Why are you even wasting your time helping me when you could be getting Inoue and the others out of here. You know that I am quite capable of handling these two on my own."
"Why should I let you have all the fun?!" Ichigo teased while delivering the final blow to the other that Renji had already started on.
Orihime smiled at them, realizing that she had forgotten just how much she had missed her friends and their antics. Then Ichigo was back next to her and picking up Rukia. "Next stop home!" he smiled at Orihime. Then suddenly the palace was filled with echoing screams. Ichigo and Ishida looked at each other and Orihime's blood turned to ice. She suddenly stood up and started to run back down the corridor. "What are you doing, Inoue?" Ichigo called grabbing her sleeve. "We have to get out of here!"
"I can't! I can't!" Orihime screamed and sobbed as she tore from his grasp. She started to run down the hall again, but this time Ishida (who wasn't burdened with a weakened comrade) grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder.
"Let's go Ichigo!" he said and they all stepped into the tunnel.
Orihime beat at Ishida's back gasping and screaming, "I can't! I can't leave him! You don't understand! I never got to tell him! I never got to...tell...him!" Ishida, who was worried she was going to hurt herself, almost dropped her and then Ichigo grabbed Orihime's hands.
"You can't go back! They'll catch you again and then his sacrifice will have been in vain! You don't want that do you?!" he begged her.
"I can't leave him! I can't! He doesn't know that I love him too!" she sobbed brokenly. And then the screams were brutally cut off and all was silent again. Orihime fainted dead away.
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Orihime sat in her apartment and stared out her window. She knew that there were people in the apartment with her. She could hear them mumbling quietly amongst themselves and every once in awhile they tried to give her tea or something to eat that she just waved away. None of that seemed to matter to her though. It was hard of late to find anything that mattered. Then she heard one of them mention Ulquiorra's name and her ears pricked up.
"...a horrible thing. To make hollows with the ability to feel human emotion again. What a curse."
Orihime wasn't sure who said that so she just looked out at all of them and whispered, "I don't think it is a curse and I think, though he might have argued otherwise, that Ulquiorra didn't think it was either. Not even at the very end." She thought back to his determined stride to what he must have known was certain doom and then said so quietly that only she heard it, "See...those emotions you so hated, they made you strong, not weak." And then she could feel the tears silently trickle down her cheeks and tried not to think about how they mirrored his own.
The End