Uryu Ishida stood opposite the monstrous release form of the Octava Espada, Szayel Aporro Grantz, breathing through his teeth. The Arrancar almost reminded him of a parasitic worm, something he'd read on in passing at one point in time or another. 'A helminthe. Disgusting.' Ishida thought to himself, listening to the hollow go on and on about this and that. Not even Seele Schneider's Sprenger coupled with Abarai's Zabimaru and Kido explosion could bring him down for too long, though watching the hollow viciously devour his own Fraccion had made the young man's stomach churn a bit, as had the cries of that Verona Fraccion shouting the name 'Lumina! Lumina!!' over and over again, despairing. There was no doubt, he would destroy this monster.

And then...he would retrieve Orihime. He'd take her away from here, back to the Living World with him. Uryu Ishida wasn't a jealous man, but he wanted Orihime all for his own. That was a certainty, to Uryu at least.

At the moment, Szayel Aporro was finishing his transformation into his release form, his Resurreccion, as they called it. From the investigative powers the Espada had shown so far, their chances of victory were dimming with every single moment passing. Grantz's golden eyes rolled down to their human forms, smiling victoriously.

"At last, the beginning of the long-awaited second act." Szayel spoke robustly, before seeming to quiet and think upon that a moment. "...No, let's revise that a bit." He spoke, before beginning again with a slowly dropping smile. "Rather, at last, the second act..." He trailed off, losing any bits of amusement and staring right through Abarai and Ishida.

"Draws to a close."

At that moment, Szayel leaned forward and what appeared to be black ink exploded from his back, raining down upon them. Dondochakka was the first to be hit, and Uryu gaped as a doppelganger was created from the ink-like substance hitting him. "Dodge it! Don't let it touch-" Uryu shouted, before feeling something hot and thick landing on his shoulder. He stared down at it, feeling more of the hot and sticky fluid hitting him all over.

"Fu-"

Instantly, four or five doppelgangers rose from the ink splotches, and Uryu whirled around to see that Renji had four or five doppelgangers of his own, as did Pesche and Dondochakka. Szayel went on again, going on about how taking their doppelgangers lightly would invite death and all that. Their powers were released though, and Uryu was quickly busied with dodging a death-press from Dondochakka. They didn't have the time for this! All they were really doing was playing around with clones, and he knew this to be true as Pesche and Dondochakka began to waylay on Renji, and Szayel watched on in poorly disguised amusement at either their antics or their idiocy. Ishida would put his money on idiocy.

The distinctions between doppelgangers and originals was quickly explained away by the mad hollow doctor himself, and Ishida could have spat at the pure vanity of the Octava. Disgusting beast. They needed to hurry, Ishida was a man of urgency...he wanted to get this over with and get to Orihime. She was what he had aimed for ever since they arrived in this hellish place, she was his only reason for coming here. He had been the first to arrive at Ichigo's summons for a rescue mission, though the others would never know it. Ishida had arrived frist, yet he had spent a day in a hotel waiting for the others to show up and make themselves known before doing the same himself, to keep suspicion low.

Uryu Ishida had always held a burgeoning affection towards Orihime Inoue, though it would only very rarely become even the slightest bit noticeable. It had begun when she joined the sewing club and made herself acquainted with him. At very first, she seemed nice but a bit dim. Not quite dim, actually, but a bit...spacey. As if she had intelligence but it just wasn't showing through her natural silliness. Yes, in the days before Ichigo Kurosaki had afflicted his friends with spiritual powers and awareness of the afterlife, Orihime had been outwardly kind and happy, naive to a fault. She and Uryu had only been acquaintances, and though he couldn't say he didn't enjoy her presence, Ishida wasn't affectionate or any more friendly towards her than he was with anyone else.

That all began to change, however, when Rukia was taken and Ishida had decided to accompany Ichigo and company to Soul Society. He had told them that it was for vengeance against the shinigami that had defeated him in his earlier attempt to protect Rukia. Everyone else only thoughtthey knew the real reason he came, to save Rukia himself. But they were wrong, completely so.

Truth be told, Uryu had gone to protect Orihime. It wasn't love at that point in time, nothing close. Just a particular...fondness for her that he couldn't quite place. The ideas of affection were quickly dispelled, replaced with his self-assertions of nothing more than friendship. With Kurosaki he had a rival. With Rukia he had an acquaintance. Uryu and Sado Yasutora barely spoke, knew very little about one another. So his fondness for Orihime was written off as a true friendship and nothing more. And Uryu found that it was lucky that he had gone along with her, for the little altercation with that one that called himself the 'Sickle Weasel', or whatever absurd name he had gone on about. Then again, maybe she would never have met the 'Kamaitaichi' or something, if only he had not been there with her. Once again with the meeting between themselves and that psychopathic Captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Orihime, however, protected him from the living bombs at the beginning of the fight, however, and Uryu found himself in quiet amazement at her six little fairies. Their healing capabilities were highly impressive, and Inoue quickly became pivotal in their time within Seireitei.

What left a bad taste in his mouth, however, was her obvious love towards Kurosaki Ichigo. He had absolutely no knowledge of what was right in his face, and Ishida found himself, for the first time in his life, envious. He watched her grow more and more afflicted with this love for the substitute shinigami that had no interest in her, when Ishida himself was practically completely open to her attentions. After they left Soul Society, classes resumed and his powers were lost. It had been a slap to the face, really, as she ignored him and focused on Kurosaki, though Uryu had been left powerless and Kurosaki's powers only grew. Then again, if Orihime had come to pity him he wouldn't have had a bit of it, would've sent her away solely for his pride. That had been a major flaw in his feelings for Inoue, which had grown to something he couldn't ignore. His Quincy pride wasn't going to let him go down to a normal, humble place in asking for her attention through one way or another. No, he couldn't bear to humble himself like that. She would've had to come to him, and that was quite impossible with how enamored with Ichigo she was at the time.

So Uryu waited. And he waited too long.

As Abarai used his Bankai and destroyed the facility, as Szayel snapped him up in his wing-like appendages and made that tacky little voodoo doll, and as the Octava crushed his stomach, Uryu could only remember the morning he'd found that Orihime had been kidnapped. The world had taken on a surreal quality, and he had felt so detached from the world. Even more so when he had learned that there would be no effort to retrieve her from the clutches of Aizen and his cronies, who could be doing only god-knows-what with her at that very moment in time. And what did everyone else do, when they found out that she was gone?

Absolutely nothing.

Their golden group of close friends united through an invisible war had slowly broken apart. Ichigo left for Kyoto or somewhere like that, Tatsuki had gone to Tokyo, Yasutora remained in Karakura, Abarai and Rukia went back to Soul Society with the other shinigami, and Ishida found himself alone in the inability to forget Orihime. There were sufficient memory erasings for her classmates, her teachers, documents being altered, and only a lucky few escaped them. So when graduation happened, it happened without Orihime Inoue ever existing.

And all their reasons for not rescuing Orihime? For not even trying? Idiotic. Stupid! Of all the people there, Ishida would have thought Arisawa would've moved Heaven and Earth to save Orihime. Kurosaki shoud've at least done...done something! But no, no he didn't. He just ran off to a new life, all of them did. Ishida wanted to save her, even if he had to do it himself. Even if he knew it would've been a suicide mission. He even went to Kisuke Urahara to see if there was a way to go to Hueco Mundo and save her himself. But Urahara was under twenty-four/seven surveillance by shinigami, and didn't have the time needed to set up a Gargantua, as he called it. And he told Uryu, point-blank: "Even if I could, Ishida-san, I wouldn't. You're just a kid in love, you're not thinking straight. And besides,"he had told Uryu, shelling out a truth that Uryu would've given anything to not be reminded of, "You need Kurosaki to do it. Do it and live, anyway."

Of course they needed Ichigo. Because Ichigo was the wunderkind, the special case, Soul Society's virtual messiah. Ishida had his powers back, he was a full-fledged Quincy again. He even had a new weapon, the Seele Schneider! But no, they needed Kurosaki. He just wasn't enough. And that envy for Kurosaki had grown into something else much heavier, darker. It grew into a mixture of disappointment, anger, and flat-out blame for all that was happening. And Ishida, with nothing more to keep him within Karakura, left for medical school. He couldn't sit there and wait, couldn't put his life on hold to sit around and blame Kurosaki and Arisawa for not saving her when they had the chance. He had too many obligations, too many things he couldn't ignore or shove away.

So Uryu Ishida left, with a heavy heart and blame steadily growing into hate burning with a chemical flavor on his tongue. As if he'd gotten a mouthful of bleach. He threw himself into his studies, gave no other woman any chance in the wait for Orihime's rescue. He knew it would happen eventually, he just didn't know quite when. He knew it would be when Kurosaki showed his face again, and Ishida would just have to put up with his disdain for the shinigami for the time being, until he could save Orihime and tell her exactly how he felt. What he had been too proud to tell her beforehand. What he'd been too stupid to reveal to her, before she was snatched away from him.

Ichigo had called them all back, and he had waited in a hotel for around a day or so in waiting for the others to show before him. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of knowing that he was eager to save her. And when they'd gathered, Urahara had explained the Gargantua and sent them all through. Himself, Ichigo Kurosaki, Tatsuki Arisawa, Renji Abarai, Rukia Kuchiki, and Keigo Asano. Ichigo...he had been different. Something was wrong with him, Uryu could tell. Sure, he acted the same, but it was something that only Ishida seemed able to see. A certain glint in his eyes, a tremor in his voice that proved him lying through his teeth. Whether Ichigo was sincere in his wishes to save Orihime or not was none of Uryu's concern, and the Quincy had made himself scarce when it was needed, had kept his distance from Ichigo whenever possible. The dislike seemed mutual, as Ichigo only seemed slightly more willing to fight with Uryu when they had left Urahara's company and arrived in Hueco Mundo. He and Kuchiki were an item, it seemed, and it looked like they were having troubles.

Uryu didn't care. They were them, and they could handle their own problems. He came for a rescue, and it was going to happen.

But he never expected it to happen like this, as Szayel took his time in crushing some bones with those annoying little voodoo dolls, rending himself and Abarai severely weakened. It was never supposed to happen like this.

"I was given an order not to execute any intruders, though I must admit, that will prove to be a powerful temptation." Szayel murmured to himself in an odd sort of croon, watching Abarai stand and prepare to attack. Grantz cocked an apparently well-groomed pink eyebrow in watching him, looking more than a bit amused.

"Really, you have absolutely no chance of victory against me. Why don't you just lay down and let me decide what to do with you, hm?"

Renji lunged as Szayel Aporro pulled out a little plastic bone from Renji's voodoo doll that Uryu recognized as the tibia, snapping it between his freakish fingers. Renji shouted before collapsing, as Szayel quickly snapped both of his Achilles tendons to keep him down, looking quite distastefully at Renji as he swore loudly at the Espada.

"Down, boy. You lay quiet and hope I'm in a good mood, which I'm not." He glanced between the two, before Pesche and Dondochakka attempted their personal cero after Pesche pulled out his Zanpakuto in a rather...unorthodox manner. It happened to wound Grantz though, which proved both fortunate and humiliating to Uryu. Pulling out a Zanpakuto in a suggestive way would land hits on the Octava? Idiotic. But the cero itself, while impressive, proved futile. And soon afterwards, the two...ran off. They went to find Nel, leaving Ishida and Abarai to die at Szayel's hands.

'Lawless...untrustworthy...hollows!' Ishida growled mentally at their retreating figures, as Szayel gave them no more than a single, disinterested glance.

"They are quite worthless, and annoying as well. Absolutely not worth my time." Szayel mused, before looking back as Ishida moved to his feet in one smooth motion and used Ransotengai, the same technique he had used when fighting Kurotsuchi, animating his useless, crushed limbs to working. It was a last-ditch effort, he knew, but if nothing else, he would die fighting and he would die on his feet. So ordained the Quincy pride that had lost him his Orihime.

"Well, you're quite persistent, aren't you? Even when you can't move at all on your own and have to resort to parlor tricks to continue fighting, you won't give in. I find it quite amusing, actually." Szayel murmured, as Ishida fired upon his dramatic, hideous form. His sonido was very quick, speedy enough to avoid the shots and fast enough to outmanoeuvre the Quincy's own Hirenkyaku. A soft snapping got his attention and Ishida realized that his foot had been broken, a distraction lasting long enough for Szayel to get around behind him and wrap his wing appendages in a cage around the two of them, trapping Ishida in with him. Uryu's broken limbs proved painful and offered no resistance to Grantz as he held the Quincy still, laying his chin on Uryu's shoulder.

"You still fight me, even though you have nary a single chance. You remind me of Yylforte, actually. My dear elder brother, the useless one that your shinigami friend killed." Szayel murmured, squeezing tighter on Uryu's broken arms as Renji continued shouting to him from outside. Szayel tsked, scowling a bit at the noise before continuing to hold Uryu still as he shouted, cried out at the bone shards digging further into his flesh.

"You know, poor Quincy boy, I've gained an interest in you. I think it's that desperate look in your eyes that I adore the most, actually. You have something important you want, I can see it quite plainly. No, don't flinch like that, it's no secret to me, dear. But I can still see it, that you want something so badly that you can just taste it. And you already know that it's something you just can't have." Szayel crooned in his ear, having no inhibitions about flicking his tongue along Uryu's neck to see him chill, attempt to throw the Octava off. It was instantly that the wing cage opened and Grantz threw Uryu out into the sand, quickly retrieving a voodoo doll and picking a piece out of Renji's. With a quick crushing motion, Renji's voice became hoarse and he choked.

"Recurrent laryngeal nerve." Uryu murmured, moving around to see as Szayel produced an identical piece and held it up a bit. Uryu shot forward, only to find that his body simply wouldn't react with the high amount of pain he was in.

"Don't!!" He shouted, as Szayel ignored him and snapped the piece. Renji's voice, now hoarsely shouting out one last swear against Szayel, instantly went out. He looked like he was shocked at the complete loss of his voice, and Uryu knew that right now he was having difficulty breathing. Szayel looked more than content with the silence, smiling.

"Ah, sweet serenity. I would rather hear screams of pain than shouts of blasphemy, really. Now, I wouldn't want you running off, shinigami." He produced another piece and snapped it quickly, and instantly did Renji drop from all fours to his stomach, staring blankly and most terrifiedly at the sand. Uryu knew that he had snapped a vertebrae and most likely caused it to splinter into the spinal column, leaving Renji paralyzed from what seemed to be the neck down. Staring upwards at the Octava as he turned to face the Quincy now, Uryu realized in dull horror that Szayel was smiling cruelly down upon him, an absolutely sadistic smile on his lips as he moved forward and kneeled down, tipping Uryu's chin up with his forefinger.

"Don't worry, Uryu, I assume. I won't do that to you, because you're...well, I think you're my favorite."

The way he said it, an almost lustful look in his eyes as he spoke the words, chilled Uryu to the bone. Being the favorite was bad, so horribly bad, it would seem. He didn't get to think on it much, as a thin hand came down with pinpoint precision to slam right into the back of his head, launching Uryu into terrifying, smothering blackness.

Wasn't supposed to happen this way...

The thought echoed through Uryu's mind as he opened his eyes, finding himself laying on a stainless steel table.

"You're awake. That's very good, I was getting rather bored." Szayel's voice came from somewhere dangerously close, and Uryu attempted to shoot upwards. As he sat up, Szayel's hand curved around his neck and locked on his jaw, holding him in place as a strange thin pain shot through the young man's back. In an instant, Uryu found himself completely unable to move below the neck. He tried to shout, but his vocal cords were locked as well by what he slowly realized was a very well-place needle slid right into his spinal column. Szayel was leaning over him now, laying his cheek on Uryu's almost lovingly.

"My dear Quincy toy, I was waiting for you. Just counting the seconds until you came back alive for me." The Espada crooned, laying Uryu back down gently on a table with a hole cut in it precisely along his spine. This table was made exactly for this sort of torture, he realized. Szayel walked around the table slowly, smiling down on Uryu as he traced his fingers gently along his arms, his legs.

And Uryu realized, in total and complete horror, that he could feel everything.

"You look like you've noticed? Yes, I'm very good at acupuncture. Well...not in the sense that most think of, but yes. I've found that inserting needles into certain places along the spine allow me to shut down certain areas temporarily, or permanently, if I choose to do so." Szayel commented airily, smiling still. Though now, it was taking on a decidedly more sinister turn as he moved himself on the table, straddling Uryu's hips. He leaned forward, nose-to-nose with Ishida and his hands traveling under the shirt and along the Quincy's stomach and chest in phantom touches.

"Yes, you know what this means. I've had so much amusement with this table, in particular. Your shinigami friend is alive, if you're even concerned about him at all through your current predicament. He won't be moving around anytime soon, though. Pity." Szayel murmured it against Uryu's throat, smiling at the feeling of a warm body. Arrancar, hollows in general were cold and had no pulse. He would enjoy his time with this living one. Uryu, at that time, was having a full-out panic attack. He was unable to move, unable to make a sound and was completely at Szayel's mercy. Out of nowhere, Grantz dug his nails into Uryu's flesh and dragged them down as hard as he could, leaving long gashes down the young man's chest that began bleeding quickly. Uryu's mind was filled with pain, a loud and horrid scream echoing in his mind as his vocal cords refused to make noise.

"Humans and shinigami were always so warm." Szayel murmured, pulling off Uryu's shirt and running his tongue along the gashes as his fingers dipped in the wounds and twisted, pulled, tore, only to cause more agony to his victim. He looked up to see Uryu's eyes wide open, tears of pain collecting at their corners.

"Yes, we're going to have so much fun, my dear Uryu. I've been alone since Yylforte died, and it's just a shame. But now I get to spend all of my affections with you. I'm going to have my way with you, Quincy boy, and then I'm going to eat you allllll up."

He leaned foward, pulling his fingers free of Ishida's wounds and laying them on his cheeks, smearing the blood along Uryu's face and painting it to his pleasure.

"I know you want to scream, but not right now." Szayel spoke in a near-whisper, leaning to lay his forehead against Uryu's. Gently, he began to trace the Quincy's lips and paint them red with lovely, lovely red blood. Softly, he ran his tongue across Uryu's cheek and then pressed his own cheek to the victim's, smiling happily and almost lovingly, as Uryu screamed out in his mind.

'I have to save her!! I can't be...this isn't possible...this isn't possible!! Someone help me!!'

Szayel continued to lay with Uryu, speaking softly as he went on in speaking right into the Quincy's ear.

"Let's just enjoy the silence, Uryu."