Author Note: Still bothered by the lack of reviews but am willing to continue the story anyway.

Disclaimer: Bleach and its characters belong to Tite Kubo.

Chapter 4: An Unwanted Meeting

Past:

Las Noches was a strange and daunting sight to behold among the dunes of white sand and overall empty landscape of Hueco Mundo. There were so many corridors and passageways that I feared losing my beloved in the maze. We were led to a certain room and told to wait. We stood in silence but the silence was quickly broken by a loud voice.

"What a pain." A man with neon blue hair groaned as he entered the room.

Many others entered behind him. Their hollow masks and zanpakuto revealed that each of them was an arrancar, which I had heard several adjuchas talk about before. They all stared at us while the blue-haired one glared. They all turned and faced the door as our new "leader" returned with a strange object in his hand. The object was a shiny orb in a clear glass case.

He directed one of us to stand in the center of the room and explained what he was about to do. My protective instincts kicked in and I stepped forward to go first but my beloved charge was faster.

Aizen approached him with the orb, hogyoku, and pressed it against his head. I forced myself to stand nervously to the side and watch as my beloved was engulfed in light. The room was filled with the sound of bones crumbling and cracking. The light eventually faded and I was met with a shocking but still breathtaking sight.

My beloved's overall figure did not change at all, though his wings were now missing, and his skin was just as pale as before. Only half of his helmet remained though and the horn wasn't as long as it used to be. He now had shaggy black hair and green streaks that ran down from beneath his eyes to the edge of his face. His hollow hole remained in the same place and really stood out against such pale skin. A large cloak was quickly given to him so he could wrap it around his naked form.

"Tell me, new comrade…what is your name?" Aizen asked.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer." My now named beloved responded.

I couldn't help but think that the name suited him perfectly. Ulquiorra stood up on slightly unsteady legs and made way for me to take his place in the center of the room. I was still a little wary, as I had no idea how the transformation would feel but made no move to avoid the orb that Aizen pressed against my head.

The best way I could describe how it felt was that there was suddenly something seeping into the tiny space between my skin and bone armor and filling it. Suddenly all at once whatever was beneath my armor flexed upward and grew, causing my armor to crack and crumble off my form, leaving only a band of it across my forehead.

I felt so exposed without my armor and was surprisingly smaller physically. I wasn't standing yet but I could already tell that I was now shorter than several of the arrancars in the room when I was once taller than most of them. My body was also slimmer with what humans would call flattering curves and decent sized breasts. Long brown strands of hair fell into my eyes as I moved to cover myself with a different cloak.

I jumped slightly as the blue-haired arrancar suddenly yelled before Aizen could ask me my name.

"It's a chick?!"

I looked up into his shocked face but decided not to respond. Aizen ignored him and waited for me to introduce myself.

A name came to my mind that I knew I could easily accept as my own, though I also felt it was not my true name; I couldn't remember my true name though. My attempts at speech were unsteady at first as it was my first time speaking but I quickly gained confidence and managed to speak my name clearly and proudly in the end.

"Gloria Kavaliro."

Present:

There was a heavy silence as everyone waited for some kind of response from me. I felt glares from the espada after several minutes of what they probably saw as a disrespectful silence. Aizen continued to smile though and gave no indication that he was offended. He continued speaking as calmly and "politely" as before.

"You don't seem surprised or worried about where you are, Ms…." He paused, waiting for me to introduce myself.

"Akira Yukimura." I reluctantly supplied. He gave a false smile as he continued.

"Ms. Yukimura. I take it that means you know where you are and who I am."

"That's correct." I responded, my words laced with an icy indifference. The glares intensified.

"Might I ask how you do? I don't recall anyone like you being associated with the Soul Society and you don't appear to be one of Ichigo Kurosaki's friends either though your spiritual pressure is similar to one of them."

I resisted the urge to tense at that last comment. I had to really contain my panic as Aizen went on to explain what he meant regarding my spiritual pressure.

"You're spiritual pressure is human but also has faint trances of hollow as well."

It seems the bracelet didn't mask my spiritual pressure enough…I guess that's not that surprising that it didn't fool Aizen, I thought with a mental sigh.

His eyes bored into me as he waited for some kind of response. He gave a faint sigh when he got none.

"I would like an answer to my question if you don't mind." His voice was now slightly more insistent, though he still ventured to appear calm and unaffected. I realized it was pointless to drag it out any longer so I quickly wove a tale to tell him.

"Kisuke Urahara was the one that told me about the war between you and the Soul Society." Aizen leaned back in his throne with a look of interest.

"Interesting. Do you know why he would share such information with you when you have no place in the war?"

"No…he never told me his reasons." I replied, intentionally allowing some irritation to seep into my words. Aizen picked up on the irritation and gave a faint smirk.

"You don't seem to be particularly fond of Kisuke Urahara."

"I find him to be quite annoying and I don't like how he puts on such an innocent act when clearly he has some ulterior motives in involving me in this war." Aizen's smirk widened before he adopted an air of sympathy and regret.

"I'm sorry that you were pulled unnecessarily into this war and I regret to inform you that you'll have to remain here until the war is over." I narrowed my eyes at him though I was smirking triumphantly inside.

"I want no part in this war so why should I be kept imprisoned like I'm some sort of threat to you when we both know I'm clearly not?"

"I assure you I have my reasons. I promise you will be well looked after and treated respectfully." I kept my glare even as I "reluctantly" gave in.

"I leave her in your care Ulquiorra." Aizen suddenly said.

"Yes, Lord Aizen."

Ulquiorra stepped forward and gave a bow. Once again I was torn between two emotions: panic and joy. I was eager to spend time with this Ulquiorra but was also afraid that I might reveal something to him in a moment of weakness, which was more likely to happen with him than any of the other espada. I followed him out of the room nonetheless, glancing at the familiar faces of the other espada as I passed.

Ironically, I was led to the room in which Orihime spent her captivity. I stared up at the familiar moon through the bars of the window and felt a wave of peace at being "home" again. I knew I would now be spending a long time there but that was fine as I no longer needed to worry about traveling to Hueco Mundo in time to save Ulquiorra.

Now I just have to wait, I thought with a small smile.

Author Note: I gave Akira the name of Gloria Kavaliro. I tried to use the same languages used for the names of the espada and I came up with this. It translates to glorious knight. I also used the name Gloria in honor of a friend of mine.

Aizen used his own hogyoku to make the arrancar though it is not as powerful as the original in Akira's timeline. I don't remember if that is what happened in canon or not.

I don't really know exactly when Aizen managed to create the arrancars in canon but in Akira's timeline Aizen had the hogyoku for a long time before he made any real move against the soul society. Remember Akira's time is AU.

I know that Ulquiorra's last name is now technically spelled Cifer but I prefer this spelling and it is the one I'm used to.

Akira's hollow mask looks like a simple tiara band that rests across her forehead. If you don't know what that looks like type in "tiara band" in google images. What Akira has is slightly thicker though.

I thought it somewhat amusing that Grimmjow thought Akira was male at first. She definitely didn't look female as a hollow though; she had the appearance of a tall, somewhat bulky suit of armor.

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