The Mourning Star

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Bleach or Sailor Moon.

She wouldn't say his face tormented her but Minako found a certain yearning run through her at Ulquiorra's memory. It was like a beautiful disaster or a smell so strange you couldn't stop sniffing. Thinking of him, of his eyes, of his demeanor, caused a painful ecstasy to run through her like a poisoned aphrodisiac. At first she would be riddled with dopamine, overcome with an amorous affliction before it was doused with a stabbing pang.

At night when she lay in her bed, Minako would torture herself with this internal affliction. It was like painful sex, fighting through some raw discomfort just for the hope of a pleasurable ending.

It hadn't been that long since her kidnapping, maybe a week, but Minako couldn't deny the uncomfortable knowledge that Vesper still resided within her. It was like a writhing, impatient passenger was glued to her soul and the blonde's peace of mind felt cramped.

She knew she didn't play it off as well she thought but the other Senshi were mindful enough not to pry. She returned to them after that night, dressed in her normal clothes, but a listless dullness had seeped into her eyes. They'd rushed to her, worried and fretting but Minako had assured them that she was fine. She didn't tell them exactly what had happened but she fed them enough to make them stop harping on the issue.

They played it off well, trying not to bother her too much, but every so often Minako would catch Rei's calculating stare or Ami's continual glances. She knew they were curious but their thirst for answers was not to be quenched.

"Minako?"

The blonde nearly jumped, her tired eyes wide with embarrassed confusion as they darted throughout the room. All of its inhabitants were staring at her with a genuine worry cloaked in expectancy.

"I'm sorry," she said with a strained smile, "my mind was wandering. What's up?"

Usagi, knowing that Minako didn't like worry, tried to put on a happy mask of nonchalance. "Oh you know, typical girl's night questions," she said with a giggle. "Any boy updates?"

Bright green eyes flashed through her mind. "Nah," she said with a wave, "unfortunately the pickings are slender."

Makoto didn't have the heart to correct her but Usagi pointed to her face with unequivocal glee.

"Whoa, how did your tongue get so blue?!"

Slowly Minako's eyes strayed to the blue lollypop that was in her hand and then slid with disbelief to her princess. Minako knew she was just trying to make conversation now that they'd grabbed her attention but Usagi's efforts were less than valiant.

"I sucked off a smurf," Minako answered sassily.

Makoto's jaw immediately dropped as Rei turned to her with outraged and astonished eyes. Usagi covered her mouth with her hands as her cheeks erupted in a red blush. Much to the group's surprise it was Ami that burst into uncharted laughter, snorts of unadulterated mirth clenching her body at Minako's hilarity.

Tears prickled at the bluenette's eyes as she doubled over and clenched at her stomach. When her laughter refused to subside Minako couldn't stop the bubbling peal of giggles from overtaking her chest. At first she tried to repress it, her laughter coming out like a deep, fake chuckle—which in turn caused Makoto to snicker. Usagi had clearly started cackling behind her hand and Rei rolled her eyes but couldn't contain the giant smile from blooming on her face.

When Ami let loose a particularly swinish snort, the room burst into harmonious hoots of laughter. Usagi rolled on the ground as the others clenched their stomachs in various chairs around the room.

It was the first time Minako had laughed since she'd returned, it was the first time that things had felt normal since she'd shared her body with a celestial goddess. They laughed and they laughed and they laughed and Minako wished nothing would change. She wished that they could stay in this moment of unambiguous happiness for the rest of their days, just caught in a loop of undeniable jollity.

But alas, as if some otherworldly creator sensed too much complacency, a churning discomfort grew in Minako's stomach. At first she thought nothing of it, determining it to be a side effect of her rib clenching laughter, but then her stomach began to burn.

Minako gasped, trying to catch her breath as her laughter subsided and was replaced with an undeniable pain. Her hand moved to clench her chest as her friends' laughter fell away. At first they thought she was just breathing heavily, as they all were, but when the ache came through her eyes Makoto leapt from her chair.

"Minako?" she asked breathily, falling to her knees and grabbing the blonde's arm. The happiness was sucked out of the room and replaced with apprehension as Minako's disposition grew into one of agony.

"Gah!" she cried, clenching at Makoto's arm as her friends surrounded her in worry. Her eyes squeezed shut as she bared her teeth, doing everything in her power to relieve herself of the growing pain.

Usagi grabbed her free hand. "Minako?" she cried. "Minako! What's happening?"

Ami leaned over and pressed a hand to Minako's forehead and almost pulled away in pain. "She's burning up!" the bluenette cried as an orange light began to emit through her fingers.

Rei placed a hand to her best friend's knee. "Minako, please," she said calmly but the worry was evident in her eyes. "What's going on, what can we do to help?"

But Minako was so riddled with anguish that she couldn't answer. She let loose a squeal of torture as a searing heat bloomed within her. She couldn't formulate words, she couldn't breathe.

Minako tried to open her eyes but what she saw when she did was so addling that she let them remained closed. It was as if Makoto's apartment had opened. Her kitchen had been removed and an open desert stretched past the three walls.

She heard Makoto gasp a socked obscenity as she assumed they saw the same image she did. It was as if the apartment had been transplanted and mutated. No roof hung over their heads but her living room was well in tact. White sand flopped over the carpet as Makoto's overhead lights were replaced with a black sky and a sinister crescent moon.

An explosion sounded off in the distance, too close for comfort.

Minako's eyes burst open and she sprung from the chair, tearing out from her friends' worried grips.

"Minako!" they cried, standing and darting after the blonde onto the cool, white sand.

The Senshi of Venus sprinted as fast as she could, quite aware of her trailing friends but even more aware of the overwhelming heat emanating from her forehead. She knew it was Vesper, she could feel her very essence running through her veins and fitting into her like a bodysuit.

Her feet took her without hesitation to the decimated battleground. The sand was riddled with debris as those who partook in the fight took a brief moment to converse.

Minako could hear her friends calling for her but she pushed on, closer and closer to the winged creature that loomed before her.

"Then cut off my limbs as well," Ichigo Kurosaki demanded, ignoring Orihime's incredulity as she yelled out his name. As Ulquiorra stared back at him blankly, the orange haired teen prepared to launch into a righteous spiel about equality when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

It was upon them before he could utter another word, a streak of blonde tearing past him.

"Usagi!" he heard yelled as he and his comrades turned with wide eyes towards four more encroaching girls. A blonde one with pigtails was on the ground, pounding at the air as if she'd been pushed back by an invisible blockade.

"Minako!" she screamed as she banged at the air like a glass door. A brunette girl tried to shoulder her way through the nothingness, rebuffed by an un-seeable force field. Two others hit their hands against a resistant invisibility.

Then Ichigo became alarmed. The blonde woman was running straight for Ulquiorra.

"Stop!" he cried, fearing for her imminent death as a lance of green light appeared in the demon's hand. Using shunpo he appeared behind her, wrapping his arm around her to prevent the woman from reaching the dangerous Espada.

But his hands went right through her.

Ichigo's eyes widened in astonishment as she phased through his arms like a ghost. Orihime watched with wide eyes and a shocked and hurting Ishida witnessed the strange event with rising interest.

Ichigo reached out a wordless arm, not sure what to say or do as the mysteriously beautiful girl ran to her imminent death. He could hear the other four apparitions screaming her name as step by step she ran closer and closer to the frightening creature.

Ulquiorra watched with a growing curiosity as the blonde was nearly upon him. Her presence was not lost on the Cuatro Espada. Vesper's words echoed in his mind as he felt a tingle run through his body.

"You will lose your final moment to him," she had said. "You will die, and in those final breaths he shall take advantage of your weakness."

Ulquiorra was weak, he knew that. His internal organs had been decimated and the rouse he'd postured to get Ichigo Kurosaki to fight him had been for naught. His left leg was regenerating, as was his left arm, but they would not reach their full robustness. His left wing would not even begin to grow anew.

Ulquiorra was going to die.

He could see her face as she drew nearer to him, a saddened desperation taking over her blue eyes. Tears welled within them as she slipped through Kurosaki's fingers and ran to him. She approached him with no fear, as if he was not a horned, winged, nihilistic demon.

Ulquiorra felt the tingle grow stronger, trickling out from the black hole that dominated his chest, and knew that his final moment was already lost. Physically his body had been taken over but true to his vindictive fashion, Lucifer had left Ulquiorra's mind in tact…for now.

He eyed the orange haired Shinigami and said sternly, "Goodbye, Kurosaki." She was finally upon him. His adversary's eyes widened at Ulquiorra's finality.

The remaining Sailor Senshi watched with astonishment as Minako threw her arms around his neck. Team Karakura held back none of their surprise as Ulquiorra did nothing to stop her. All of their mouths hung open at what happened next.

Minako crushed her lips to his, pink and black melding with a bruising ferocity. Ulquiorra felt his single clawed hand move of its own accord as it thirstily delved into her thick, blonde locks. It was an uncomfortably furious kiss as Lucifer pulled her to him with frenzied need. In the midst of their throes the tip of his wing burst into ash and their wild passion simmered.

Minako could feel Vesper's hazardous need as she kissed him again, loving him with what she could as his final minute ticked by. His wing disintegrated slowly as he tried to take all of her into him.

Ulquiorra could feel the dangerous demand for her lips swelter within him. The ash flowed behind him in a beautiful whirlwind of black, dissipating into the air and he knew he'd lost control of his body for the rest of his short-lived existence.

Minako pulled her lips from his but her face did not move far. His hand remained tangled in her tresses, keeping her face inches from his. Her arms stayed wound around his neck as Minako felt Vesper's unyielding love for Lucifer emanate through her entire body.

"I can feel it," he said.

The caring was lost in his monotonousness but that didn't prevent the tears from falling from Minako's eyes. They were matched in dramatic reverence; the black lines flowed thickly from his eyes to his chin as her crystalline drops mimicked them.

"I don't understand it," he continued, "but it hurts more than any blow." Without hesitation he added, "You humans are fools, humans and gods alike. Why subject yourself to such a sensation."

"Does it matter anymore?" Minako whispered, arms clinging to him.

"Tch," Ulquiorra uttered, not able to pull his hand from her hair. "No."

Ichigo could not believe what he was seeing. He briefly wondered if this was some trick of Las Noches. Had they been caught in some spectacularly strange Resurrección? He watched Ulquiorra crumble away in the wind, caught up in some silent conversation with the anomalous blonde.

They were stark contrasts; he was the personification of shadows, of darkness and evil. She radiated with a golden internal light and Ichigo could not wrap his head around the predicament. His disappointment at the way he'd defeated the enduring Espada was washed away in confusion at the soft scene before him. Ulquiorra had yet to tear his eyes from the girl in front of him as they spoke lowly to one another. Not knowing what to do, Ichigo merely watched.

"And now one hundred more," Vesper said through Minako.

"I will find you again." Ulquiorra knew the words had come out of his mouth but they had not been his.

And suddenly the celestial grip on them was gone.

It was like Minako was snapping to from a daydream. Aware of their compromising position she gasped and pulled her arms from around his neck. But Ulquiorra's grip only tightened, keeping the blonde directly where she was.

"Minako Aino," he said monotonously, "Sailor Venus and Senshi of Love and Beauty." By now his wing was almost completely gone. The back of his body began to disappear in the wind along with it.

"Yes?" Minako asked. He stared down at her with the emptiest eyes she'd ever come across. The menacing bat-like appearance that now took over his chiseled form did not frighten her and she was surprised by it. Minako had figured that without Vesper's unwavering love within her that she would be petrified by the powerful demon.

But alas, she was not.

The hand he used to cradle her head had lost its ferocity and though Minako knew it was simply because of his dying weakness she couldn't help but feel gently supported by him. His hand moved and he pressed his palm to the top of her breast, just above her heart.

Minako blushed as he stared imploringly at the area despite the fact that she knew his head swarmed with no lewdness. His shoulder began to fade away and Minako's look softened. She placed her hand above his.

Ulquiorra felt the mild beat beneath her clothes and her skin. It was not quick or erratic but rather it pumped rhythmically and strongly. She was not afraid of him. His torso began to disappear and his head began to fade. His moment was almost gone, his body was almost gone. He saw his arm almost reduced to a sliver.

"Thank you."

The last thing Ulquiorra felt was a slight jump in the rhythm beneath her chest. The last thing he saw was her gentle and caring smile. She opened her mouth to respond but a glowing orange suddenly blinded them both.

So that's a heart, Ulquiorra thought.

And then…nothing.

They cared little that they'd suddenly arrived in Makoto's apartment. They did not notice that all four walls were in tact or that the ceiling had been reinstated. They did not care that the light that highlighted their features shone from the ceiling and not a bold crescent moon.

"Minako!" Ami cried, grabbing the blonde's shoulders. "Minako, are you ok?"

They couldn't believe what they'd witnessed. The Senshi of Venus had been sparse in her description of her kidnapping but the Senshi were respectful enough not to pry. Ami knew that Minako could handle herself but the image of the astoundingly powerful demon had given her fright.

Minako sat before her, sad eyes staring out at nothing before she seemed to come to. She shook her head gently as the feeling of Ami's hands on her shoulders brought her back.

"Mina-chan…" Usagi said, scooting into Ami's position. Minako's eyes followed her, lifting from their sadness. Their watery depths were replaced with warmth as Usagi reached up and brushed the fading tears from her cheeks. "Will you be okay?" Usagi had been through enough heartache and hardship to know not to pry too much too quickly.

Minako's mouth twitched before it became a smile. She felt lighter, like some grandiose weight had been lifted from her shoulders, like some shadow from her past had suddenly been erased. Minako felt better than she had in a very, very long time.

"I'll be fine, Usagi-chan," she said and felt her heart warm at her princess's relieved smile.

"Mina…"

The blonde looked up expectantly to Rei, who was standing with her arms crossed. "What was that?"

Minako looked down to her hands. Their creamy softness had just held his cold, grey skin. Their interaction had been so brief that he almost seemed like a dream. "Lucifer and Vesper," was her only answer.

"What was…his name?" Makoto asked, testing the waters gently. She didn't want to push so hard that Minako closed up. But the blonde seemed calm and comfortable as she watched them all with a smile.

"Ulquiorra Cifer, Cuatro Espada."

Usagi's nose scrunched. "What does that mean?"

Minako couldn't tell if it was sadness or glee that suddenly clenched at her heart…but she laughed heartily and truthfully nonetheless.

"I have no idea!"

Daww, ok, cool. Well this is done! Thank you so much to all of you who read and reviewed and didn't think that this premise was too ridiculous. And don't forget, if you ever want me to write a story or a one-shot don't hesitate to PM me! After all, that's how this awesome premise got started. Thanks again to dragonofhellsflame.

angelic aquarian: Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! She's definitely more than a ditz. I love writing her more serious side, even if it's not always as extended as I've made it. Thank you so much for your compliments, I really appreciate it. Thank you for the review!

Yami Nocturna: Yeah, I just didn't want anyone harping on the literal stem of his name—which I knew was the designer. I still think there's room to interpret his name based off of his resurreccion and especially his segunda etapa so I'm glad you feel the same. I'm so glad you liked it! This ending was just a little tid bit. It wasn't meant to necessarily "tie things up" but I did want to get to Ulquiorra's death since I'd mentioned it in the first chapter. Thank you so much for your review!

JPandS: Ah, I'm so happy you liked my interpretation of Minako haha. I'm always nervous when I'm writing someone other than Makoto in depth. This was definitely a more serious Minako but that's also what I wanted to portray. We all know she can be fun, we all know she's kinda ditzy, but I kind of wanted to strip that away—especially with Vesper within her. The mythology was definitely fun to make up hahaha. I've always been really into it so coming up with my own was a trip lol. There was definitely NO way I was going to get them to hook up without there being something that literally forced Ulquiorra to participate. It simply had to be done that way. Tite Kubo made sure to emphasize Ulquiorra's confusion about and annoyance of the human heart and emotions so participating of his own volition was completely out of the question. But in this chapter I wanted to show some reverence from him. He found it in his last moment with Orihime in actuality so I didn't find it so unbelievable to happen with Minako. Their kissing was also super fun to write hehehe ;)

Ulquiorra was so hard to write. I purposely didn't put question marks after any of his questions because there's simply no inflection in his voice. I felt like putting a question mark would make him seem more imploring than I could imagine him. I'm glad you liked the funny parts too haha. I tried to add a little bit of that in this chapter as well; I hope I succeeded just as much. The part about his name! I just got to thinking and I was like…imagine if your mom or something was introduced to Ulquiorra and he just dropped the fact that he was the Cuatro Espada…she'd be like wtf does that mean? Hahaha, Minako is no different—I just couldn't let that slide!

Thank you so much for all of your compliments, I really can't express to you how much I love your long and thought out reviews. They literally make my day. I'm glad you took a chance on it, even though it centers around Minako. I'm actually pretty proud of this diddly, seeing as how I've yet to really focus on something majorly without Makoto. I was scared that no one would read it T_T;; but I'm so glad it worked out! Thank you so much for everything!

Pink Rabbit: Oh wow, thank you! Calling it beautiful is such an amazing compliment, that's so nice of you. Thank you so much for all of your kind words! :D Minako is definitely a tough character—I truly found that out writing this. I'm so glad you liked my characterization, thank you so, so much for your compliments and your review!

aquafina rain: I knowwww T_T I was petrified no one was going to read this just because the premise is so ridiculous. Ulquiorra literally has no emotion. He doesn't care about ish lol, and Kubo makes a point of noting that throughout the entire Arracar and Fake Karakura Town arcs. That's why I went down the path I did haha. I'm so glad you liked it! It really means a lot, especially coming from a Minako expert like yourself. She's so hard to write, I don't know how you do it all the time -_-;; it felt like serious work. HAHA Minako's steamy kisses—I may not be the best at writing her but I sure know how to write her getting it on! Lawls, she's the Senshi of Love and Beauty! She's gotta get the steamiest stuff. And Aizen! Frankly, he's one of my favorite enemies ever created in anything. Until his end, at least, when he got super cocky. But I just feel like he knows everything, like he could totally tell what was going on with Ulquiorra despite the fact that there was no possible way he could have known. Thank you so, so much for your review—hope you liked the little ending! Also, update somethinggggg, I'm dying, your stories are my favorite T_T;;;;