XII

Proofing the Proof

I suppose I cried until I collapsed or something, because I woke up lying in my bed drilling a hole in the ceiling. I felt like the ice cream tub after all the creamy goodness was scooped out, empty, useless, and thrown away, AKA pretty awful.

I shook my head and yanked myself into a sitting position. Ulquiorra had even pulled up my covers. Did he feel sorry for me or something? That would be strange for him. Playing around with the sewn edge, I surveyed the nothing that was my little piece of the world.

Something crackled. I looked down at the tiny piece of hierro lying on my covers. I picked it up and carefully set it puzzle piece-like back onto my hand. The stuff was just falling off now. Huh, it didn't feel like my hand anymore. Poking at this strange appendix, another tiny piece fell to the bed.

Okay so maybe I wasn't an Arrancar...what was I? I mused as I calmly peeled more hierro off like dried up paint. My breakdown surely tipped off Ulquiorra that I knew his little secret, or technically, my little secret. No wonder nobody liked me.

I stripped more off, revealing my near-human hand. Now what? What was I supposed to do now? Live on? Pretend I didn't know anything? I didn't want all this stupid drama, my old life was fine, thank you for the offer. I sighed and dragged myself from the bed. My feet took me away and I let the rest of my old life fall behind me.

Doors. I still hated them. The déjà vu was practically dying of laughter in my face. Last time, Ulquiorra called me here because I changed up his tea. This time, I came on my own. I stood in front of the same door, stuck like gum, unable to decide whether to pass or enter. Of course, the door wasn't going to tell me. It happened to be an inanimate object. Inanimate objects weren't commonly known to talk. I scowled at the door, but it didn't give in.

Using my new pink hand, I pushed open his door. The room was empty. I didn't know if I wanted the Espada to be there or not. Sighing, I wandered in anyways. I paused at Ulquiorra Schiffer's desk; another folder was just sitting there.

I knew, reading it was a no-no. If I had learned anything in the past day and a half it was that stuff on paper was bad. Did I ever think about that little detail called common sense? No. I stopped to read. The folder turned out nothing but brainless blabber. A sad little disappointment. Ah well, add it to the list.

"Lookie who's snooping," I dropped the paper back to the table, I knew that annoying voice. Nothing within a mile of the certain Espada was good, healthy, or sanitary.

"What do you want now, Spoonhead?" I jabbed. Using his nickname could end me, but I didn't care, the self-destruct button had malfunctioned once already.

Nnoitra smiled banana size, "I am under orders from Lord Aizen to find you and bring you to him. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

My face was a Picasso mess of despair and dread. Great, Schiffer told him about my little slip up.

My black-haired shepherd hung himself farther in the door way, "It'll even better now, I can tell Lord Aizen that you've snooped around in the Quatro's files. That'll bust his top, he's already mad."

Fear rocked out on a drum set in my brain, but this time I hid it. I couldn't run, he would just chop me up into little pieces, box it up, wrap it, plop a ribbon on top and deliver that to Aizen.

"Okay," I commented. I trailed my fingers over the file, there was nothing more I could do. No paper was going to tell me anything that I didn't know.

I exited the room and I stood in front of the looming Espada, "Anything you want written in your will, little fracción?"

"Nah, just make sure that no real fatty Arrancar gets my bed. It'll break," Nnoitra's hand clamped around my shoulder and marched me down the white halls. I never did like the color white, it made me think of nothingness.

It was starting to eerily remind me of myself.

Nnoitra knocked on the door as I gawked around at this new place. I knew I had never been in this hall, not that I could usually tell since they were all the same. This time I was sure. We had taken a turning staircase and the paint on the sides did something strange. It crackled slowly from white to gray as we traveled down and now with this door, to black. A black door and hall, that was striking in a place all of white.

Feeling Lord Aizen's glacier-like spiritual pressure, I knew that he was beyond the door. It was suppressed; he didn't want to kill me by forcing me to walk into the same room as him, I supposed. Not that it mattered or anything.

"Please, enter," a voice called. Nnoitra shot a grin and opened the door. My breath ran into my lungs as I saw what was beyond the door.

"Ladies first," I obeyed, my hate for Nnoirta melt away with the wonder of these new surroundings.

Lord Aizen sat in a chair in the middle of a circular room. He held a cup of tea, the steam lazily spiraling up the five story high ceiling. Rows and rows of swords spiraled up the tubular wall, looking like bleached bones against the black walls as the moon tumbled down from the open ceiling. I checked, each sword was different. These were the swords of the Arrancar.

"Welcome Sola," Lord Aizen smiled, "Welcome to the room that I call Proof of Existence."

Thanks to amaya-tsuki-chan, Rose202 & Nizuna Fujieda for reviewing! Also, thank to Chocolate Ham Patties & DemonColours for favoriting Strike Down the Ibis (That's an honor!)

Thanks to the super-duper-awesome Rose202 for betaing this.

Note: I will not have the usual thanks at the end of the next chapter (I'll add all that in chapter XV). Actually, there won't be much of anything, including A/N or the disclaimer. No, it's not because I don't have thoughts on this story's climax, trust me, I have plenty, but I want the next chapter to stand on it's own without interruption.

Oh boy, here we go, Aizen, Sola and Ulquiorra all in the same room. Heads are going to roll! I am sad to see that this story is starting to swing into the homestretch. I love seeing everybody's reactions as this story builds up and runs through it's twists and turns. Please keep faith in me through this next chapter, I know what I'm doing! Hopefully!

This is such a short chapter, ah well, as Rose told me "quality over quantity". She has helped so much with making these chapters clearer and to the point. I tend to ramble a bit and get tangled in my own words. She will probably digitally strangle me soon if I don't send her the next chapter to beta/read soon. :)

-Quin

Please review,

Bleach, Ulquiorra and co. do not belong to me but to the awesome Tite Kubo. Sola is my own creation, therefore copyrighted to me (she disproves of this). This applies to the next chapter as well: "Upgrade to White"