Okay. So. Guess who got a new beta? Yes. Yes, it's me. Ami, you were great, darling. (haha, got in another compliment for her!) But now I will be thanking Nat for her awesome skills of editing. Though she did leave a mis-spelled word in this chapter. *narrows eyes* I'm watching you Nat. *bursts into laughter* Yeah, yeah, I get it. No one wants to read the author's note. :P On with the story!

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They worked fast.

The golden dome above Orihime was slowly knitting her back together, taking from Ulquiorra's own retsu since their usual wielder was unable to lend them her own.

It seemed that no sooner had she landed then there were sirens blaring in the distant, the sound of panicked students running outside to get to the fallen woman.

Ulquiorra knew that she couldn't be allowed to be tampered with. No normal human could see him or the golden shield healing Orihime, and so they would tamper with her.

One of the fairies looked back at him, sharing the thought. "We need to get rid of your gigai. And then you're going to have to move Orihime somewhere no one will try to mess with our healing."

He nodded. Using shunpo- movement known as the flash step to some, he grabbed the useless gigai, his features once more arranged. He made sure not to stray from the reach of Orihime's healers, not wanting to hurt the woman more than she already was.

He was worried. He moved the hair from the back of the body's neck, jabbing a finger up into the back of the skull, just as the odd shop keaper had shown him. The body turned transparent, quickly losing features, until it was a clear sheet much like plastic in the shape of a human. He folded the object up and put it into his pocket, and then flashed over to where Orihime lay.

He carefully, slowly, picked her up. He had to fight back despair when her head lolled to the side, lifeless, her whole body a dead weight.

"I am moving her now." He told her powers.

"Okay. We're ready."

He ran just as he caught the sight of people appearing around the side of the building, panicked, yelling into phones and what not.

He kept running, not really knowing where to go. He found himself following the usual route back to the apartments he and the onna lived in, and found that he thought it was a good place to go.

He didn't stop to unlock his apartment. He grabbed the handle and turned it sharply, breaking the lock, and pushed the door open while holding the woman in one arm, her feet touching the ground.

He turned and walked into the apartment, careful not to hit her head on the door, and ignored the trail of blood he was making on the floor.

His robes were quickly becoming soaked in the warm red liquid.

He closed the door, locking it with the deadbolt this time, and then hurried to the bedroom. Once again he shuffled through the door, and then he was in. He carefully laid her on the bed his apartment had come with, moving her hair from her face with a gentle hand.

"I can feel the chain of fait trying to push her soul out of her body. This isn't working as well as we had hoped. We're going to have to take more of your spiritual pressure."

He didn't need the fairy to tell him that it wasn't working. He could feel the unrest in her soul himself. "Take all the you need." He would give every last bit of it if it meant she would just open her eyes.

The fairy nodded.

Time seemed to crawl along. Slowly she stopped bleeding, all of her injuries healing. She was in perfect condition before long.

But the snap of a chain could be heard just as the last bit of skin was sewed back into place.

Ulquiorra and the Shun Shun Rika watched with wide eyes as a second Orihime came tumbling out of the body, clothed in a dress he thought he would never see her wearing again. She gasped, sitting up beside her own body.

Ulquiorra was dismayed.

Her head was framed by bone, the intricate pattern of skull making larger, white, versions of the hairpins she usually wore on her head.

"What…" Orihime looked down at herself, confused. "I don't…"

Ulquiorra couldn't talk.

Her eyes slowly widened in realization, as her hands crept up to the zipper of the jacket she wore over her dress. Anxiously, she slowly tugged the zipper down, looking at her chest for any signs of the hollow hole that would surely be there.

But it wasn't.

Looking horribly scarred over, in the same place Ulquiorra's own hollow hole was, there was flesh.

"I'm an arrancar… but not a hollow?" She was confused. "I don't understand. And I can remember anything…" She looked over at her body, lying still next to her. She looked back up at him. "Am I dead?"

"I do not know." His voice was horse, dry. He couldn't believe it.

She slowly moved her hand over to the hand of her human body. "I wonder…" She smiled happily, watching as her spirit's hand slipped easily into the hand of her body.

He watched as Orihime slipped back into her human body, amazed, still not believing that it had happened. She was dead… but she was alive?

With a small gasp, Orihime sat up in her human body. She coughed, spitting blood out onto her shirt, and then slowly breathed again.

"What happened?" She asked, looking down at her blood-soaked uniform. "I don't understand."

He was about to answer when his door was kicked in. He cursed, sensing the brash substitute shinigami's spiritual pressure raging at his door. Behind him was the presence of the small female shinigami, the Quincy, and the odd human with hollow-like powers.

It was a second later that Ulquiorra found himself held up on the wall by the front of his shirt, an angry fist gripping his hoari, as his feet dangled above the ground. He allowed this, knowing that making a fight would surely upset the already fragile Inoue.

"What the hell did you-"

"Kuroaski-kun!"

Everyone looked back at the bed, surprised. There Orihime was, fine and breathing, most defiantly alive.

"Put him down!" She commanded, her eyes wide.

Slowly Ulquiorra was lowered to the floor, and released, as the soul reaper looked at Orihime in bewilderment. "You're… you're alive?"

Rukia, Uryuu, and Chad were all standing in his doorway, openly staring at the woman. It was clear all of them thought her to be dead, as she had been only moments before.

"How?" Was the first thing Rukia asked.

"Ulquiorra saved me." Orihime said, brightly smiling. She winced a little as she swung her legs over the side of the bed, a hand fluttering over her side where ribs had punctured her flesh. She pushed away the pain, smiling again. "He gave some of his power to my Shun Shun Rika-" She lifted a hand to where the pins had used to be, knowing her fairies had returned, but froze. They were gone.

She felt a hitch rise in her throat. "Where are they?"

No one was able to answer.

"I don't understand…" She trailed off, looking up at Ulquiorra, and without realizing lifted a hand to her throat. A small cough escaped her throat. "And I'm

starting to feel weird."

Everyone was startled when Ulquiorra suddenly spoke, looking directly at Orihime. "You must leave."

She blinked. "But why?"

"You are not strong enough, yet, to stand the sunlight and noise."

"What are you-" More coughs rushed past her lips, sounding wet and painful, like she had a cold and strep at the same time. When she was done she looked

back up at the dark haired man in front of her, her eyes full of questions.

Everyone else in the room was looking at him the same way.

He took in a breath of air before letting the truth out into the air. "She had become an arrancar, just as you," He looked back at Ichigo, "are a soul reaper. The effects are more devastating than your own transformation was. She will need to come to Hueco Mundo."

"She can't go there!" Ichigo roared. "She'll be-"

"Ichigo!"

The orange haired teen looked back at the shinigami behind him.

"Listen. Look at her," Rukia pointed at Orihime, who was coughing again, starting to look like she had a fever. "And tell me that you think it's a good idea for her to stay here. We can work out the detail later, but right now we don't have time. She was dead a couple minutes ago!"

It was clear that he didn't like it. Not one bit.

He didn't really have much of a choice, though, did he?

He turned to Ulquiorra, eyes flaming with anger. "You take her there. And you protect her! If one single scratch- a bruise… anything! Anything at all and I'll kill you. And this time, I'll make sure you stay dead."

Ulquiorra showed no indication that he had heard. He had moved over to Orihime's side, holding a cold hand against her burning face, letting her hold it there.

Ichigo turned away from the sight. "Go. Hurry up, before she gets any worse."

"Maybe we should go with them," Uryuu spoke up. "It's not-"

"She is craving the souls of humans. You would only increase her pain until I am able to find her something that will pacify her hunger."

None of them liked it. But, again, no one really had a choice.

Rukia stepped forward, sighing. "At least… at least leave her body here. I have this," She brought a candy dispenser labeled 'Chappy' out of one of her pockets. "It will keep anyone from figuring out she's gone."

He nodded, letting Orihime grab his other hand and hold it against her throat. The cool touch of another hollow being ebbed her pain, though she still coughed and burned with fever.

Rukia gave Orihime one of the small green pills from the dispense, smiling kindly, hoping that she was making the right choice.

Orihime lifted the pill to her mouth, dropping the hand that she had been holding to her throat, forcing herself not to cough for a second.

Suddenly there was another voice, yelling, screaming even, in the apartment. "Where is she?! Where is she, you bastard!?"

Too late to stop it, the pill passed Orihime's lips, just as a red-eyed Tatsuki pushed through the mass of people in the doorway and into the room. She had tears still coming from her eyes, fresh, harsh. She was filled with anger and sorrow, as anyone could see.

Tatsuki was shocked to see a second Orihime pushed out of her friend's body. This Orihime looked at Tatsuki, eyes wide.

It took her a moment to take in the white dress and jacket, the jew-like bones shaped like flowers on the side of her friend's head. Slowly, Tatsuki's face relaxed, until she was just staring, confused.

Orihime took a tentative step forward, still wobbly with fever, coughing lightly into her hand. When she was done, she opened up her arms, tears already falling. "I'll be back soon, Tatsuki. Take care of my plant while I'm gone, please. It's just a baby plant, afterall…"

It took Tatsuki a second to unfreeze before she hurried to accept her friend's embrace. She held Orihime as the girl shook with sobs, not caring about all the people that watched. Tears ran down the Tomboy's face, passing a relieved smile.

"I don't care what's going on… I don't care if you're like him now… You're alive." She drew back, smiling, still linking arms with her best friend. She was much calmer than she expected, taking it all in stride, so very out of character for her. She was even speaking softly… it must have really been an emotionally tiring day for her. "You be careful. And don't be afraid to come get me if anyone messes with you, okay?" She smiled wider, more tears streaming down her face. "I'll tell the others you're recovering."

Orihime nodded, trying not to blubber through her tears. "B-bye."

Ulquiorra took this as his que, opening up a garganta. The rip in reality appeared on the wall, open, ready to let the two of them cross. "Come with me," He said, reaching out a hand to the awed Orihime, not noticing as Tatsuki withdrew from the human-turned-spirit. "Woman."

This time, instead of angry tears, they were just those of goodbye. Deep in her heart, for it somehow still beat within her chest, she could tell that it was the end of how things had been.

She reached out, taking his hand with a smile, forcing down another cough as her blood raged with fever. She looked back at her friends, waving, yelling goodbye to them.

They waved back, a little sadly, because everyone knew that it was the end of the way things had been. Everything was going to change, and Orihime- sweet, meak Orihime- was the cause.

The two beings robed in white stepped up into the rip, the garganta, standing on the black nothing for a moment.

Everything was happening so fast, everyone felt like they were still caught up in the shock. But Tatsuki managed to get one last word in before the two left.

"Hurt her and I'll kill you!" Tatsuki yelled at Ulquiorra. "You better take good care of her, you hear me?!"

Ulquiorra looked back over his shoulder, and for a moment Tatsuki was shocked to see that he looked… relieved. The second emotion she had ever seen, not even the strongest, but it was still very startling.

Quietly, just to the martial art's master, Ulquiorra spoke his last words before closing the rift. "I understand, human. I will."

Then the rip closed, leaving five very confused teenagers, a ruined house, and a Chappy Orihime, covered in blood.

"Be good to her… Ulquiorra." Tatsuki whispered, still waving. "Do that for her, because I know she's in love with you."

And somehow… it felt right.

Maybe not complete, and maybe not logical at all. But everything that had happened felt… right.

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So this is really short, again. :P I know, I know, it sucks. But I'm really, really, REALLY busy right now, and I'm actually secretly posting this as the one who makes trouble lurks... Anywho, I hope everyone enjoys this. I love reviews, in case you hadn't heard. Thank you all.