Another update to this story, God I'm doing great. Except that its taken 4 long years for me to produce these past several chapters. I'm so pathetic. I hope you enjoy this one. Things are all starting to come together.

"Idle Iron is the Devil's Playground." -House

Blood, spilling everywhere, so much blood...

Air, barely filling his lungs like the thickest mud,

Pain, unbearable like boiling liquid metal

Then falling snow, softer on his cheek then sakura petal

It felt so relieving, finally something was taking him away from eternity's hell,

His world dropped out beneath him, Maybe he'd once been an angel before he fell,

His heart, his organs, they began to die, withering, slithering, crippling his torturous high,

The white white blanket falling over him, the tainted emerald retreating under heavy lids,

His honor, pride, loyalty and life, he betrayed, all for the pursuit to make her his...

000000

She stared at the horror before her frozen in her silent agony. The ground around her was littered with fur and blood, and unrecognizable pieces of flesh. She knew they must belong to Ulquiorra because he had no left arm or leg. and pieces of his side were missing. One step, then the other, she approached his crippled form. She'd never seen him like this. He was a horror torn straight from the center of satan's dungeons.

His shoulders and back were covered in hair, blacker then night itself. Two glorious chiroptera wings must have once adorned his back, because now there was only one, bloody and torn up. His lower half would have been naked, except there was blood matted ebony black fur starting from his lower torso and traveling down to what was left of his legs. He had a very long lion-like tail that ended, curled up near his vicious clawed foot.

She brought her gaze away from his grievous injuries, and looked upon his face instead. She could see blood gurgling from his dark lips, and his once beautiful liquid green eyes were now closed. A beautiful bone white horn sprouted from the left side of his head, but the one on the right was broken off, its fragments were probably among the rest of the carnage in the area.

"Oh, Ulquiorra. why did you do this?" Her whispers were choked, and she had to put forth a phenomenal effort to keep herself from crying. "So..." She fought back a sob. "S-s-soten Kisshun... I reject."

Her powers responded to her order immediately. The flowers enveloped Ulquiorra in their golden light, and bringing with them the possibility of hope. She fell to her knees beside him, the white fabric of her clothes absorbing the blood off the ground. Her head bent forward as if she were penitent, and her hands hovering above him, as she tried to pour more energy into her healing. She felt the tremors of Las Noches crumbling, but she didn't care. Even if it meant her death, she wasn't going to leave him.

"Ori-or-ah!" The monster beside her opened his eyes, and spit out several mouthfuls of blood.

"You don't have to say anything." She whispered, placing a finger on his lips. She felt lost in his demonic eyes. The slit pupils barely focusing on her form. She'd never seen his eyes like this, she'd never seen him like this at all. Never once had it crossed her mind that he kept this... this monstrosity hidden away within. "I will save you."

"I... I-I s-s-saw you," Blood continued to dribble down his chin as he spoke. "Y-y-you wer-rr-re in-the... Li-ight, and I-I-I f-f-ollow'd you."

"Please, Ulquiorra. Stop talking and let me heal you." She tried again to get him to calm down and relax, his movements kept stimulating his blood loss.

"Ther-rr-re isss no... r-r-re-demp-t-t-ion ffor me. I f-f-fell a l-long ti.. time ago..." He tried to lift his one good hand to touch her face, but his strength was not there, and it fell against her hand instead. "Or-r-rihime... why isss the s-s-snow all r-red?"

"There isn't any snow Ulquiorra, we're still in Las Noches." She touched his fur-covered hand and that's when she realized his arm was broken. It must have been a considerable amount of pain to move it, unless he was in so much pain already that he hardly felt a broken arm.

"No.. wommmm-man. It-s-s-s snowing. Thaaa-t-t-s why itss so w-w-white, and... s-s-s-so c-c-cold." His eyes were so very far away as he said that. He wasn't even seeing what she was anymore. He wasn't even making any sense.

"Shhh, just rest please." She stroked the black marks running from the hueco in his chest down across his abdomen.

"I-I-I never t-t-told you, I-" He was cut off as her fingers covered his mouth. She gave him a determined look and kept them there.

"I told you I would save you. Now let me do my job. Whatever you have to say can be said when you are healthy enough to be talking." the entire time she scolded him, she was fighting to keep back sobs. She wasn't entirely positive she could heal him. And if she failed, then these would be his last words, and she would never hear them.

00000

"Rukia!" Ichigo's voice screamed at her limp form. He noticed right away that she was missing a leg, and that her mid-section was halfway from being severed in two. "Who did this to you?!"

"Who the fuck does he think he is!?" Swore Grimmjow, he plodded across the ground and stood next to Ichigo. He glowered down at the girl, the girl that was now cradled in his rival's arms. "He can't just burst in on the scene and start flinging orders around. He's not my fucking boss."

"Will you just shut up for a minute! Rukia is dying. Help me fix her, and I promise we can fight each other for a month straight."

"Promise?" Grimmjow's eyes became alight with pure delight. His grin spread across his face threatening to tear into his skull.

"Just help me fix her." Ichigo replied calmly. "I won't fight you like this. I won't fight you if it means I let her die."

"What do you want me to do? I don't know any first-aid." Grimmjow looked around trying to calm himself down enough to think rationally. who do I know that can heal serious injuries?

"That's it! Hot Damn!" the 6th espada danced gleefully around in response to his idea. "I'll go get the little princess. She can heal anything, especially this! I'll be right back, Soul Reaper."

Kurosaki watched as his rival espada vanished and felt his spirit pressure reappear farther off inside Las Noches. "Rukia, who did this to you?" Ichigo choked and buried his face against her chest. "I should have never let you out of my sight."

"Well well well, who have we here?" Sousoke Aizen sat reclined in his throne, even while his fabled fortress crumbled around him. His sardonic gaze fixed on the green-haired arrancar that had just broken into his chamber.

"Well isn't this a bit anticlimactic." Grumbled Arturo in response. "Here all this time I was under the impression that I might recognize you as a powerful reaper from Soul Society. I was foolishly mistaken, you are nothing more then some pathetic child, raging out against the world because he can't have what he wants. The Arrancar are foolish for bending knee to you." Using his damaged sleeve, he wiped the blood off his chin and cheek. Even half blind, Arturo was determined to evict Aizen from that throne and obliterate him from all existence.

"You boast large words for someone I've only read about in forbidden text." Aizen seemed unphased by the intruding arrancar's presence, and even proceeded to rest his head against his hand.

"Oh," grinned Arturo. "so you've heard of me? This'll make the victory ever so sweeter." His words were followed by the cracking of his knuckles. And even with his wounds from his previous brawl with the 4th espada, Arturo was itching for blood once more.

"Master Aizen," A voice as slick as slime cut into there conversation. "Ulquiorra has been defeated, and Grimmjow has turned tail. Coyote Stark has also fled the complex. Shall I cover our retreat M'lord?" Gin had entered the room not far from where Arturo stood, and whether he foolishly failed to notice the arrancar, or he just didn't feel the intruder was a threat, Arturo would never know.

Before Gin could even react, the accented enemy was upon his, digging one hand into the ex-reaper's thigh, fingers piercing the flesh and tearing into muscle. His other hand seized Gin's neck and shoulder, also ripping into flesh. With but a flex of his strength and power, he ripped the reaper into two halves, blood and guts spilling all over the floor. And that signature grin would never grace those fox-like features again.

Arturo purposefully ignored Aizen and instead began consuming Gin's flesh. He pulled pieces of muscle and ligament and dropped them into his mouth, then proceeded to use his teeth and take mouthfuls of flesh from the ripped up body. With the consumption of the soul reaper's flesh, Arturo's powers began increasing even more. Most hollow's only gained power from eating organisms that were more powerful then themselves. However, Arturo had a unique ability to absorb energy from what he consumed and add it to his own. Even if they were weaker then him they only added fuel to the fire that was his soul.

The wounds he recieved from the previous engagement with the dark bat-like arrancar stopped bleeding and even began healing on their own. His blinded eye even started to stitch the laceration back together. When he'd consumed enough of the soul reaper's power and flesh, Arturo dropped the remains of the floor, and wiped the excess blood from his face.

"Now then, Shall we proceed?"

Aizen's expression was still smiling, but it never reached his eyes. Deep within the soulless orbs were the traces of ever growing fear. "I suppose we shall." came his hesitant response.

If you've been missing the romance, then have no fear, there will be romantic encounters as the story proceeds.

I've been making updates to the older chapters of this fic. Trying to improve and make better upon them. If any of you do happen to go back and read them, it'd be much appreciated if you told me how you feel about the changes. I'm going to continue with this fic, and hopefully there will be an ending in sight. farewell for now, your humble author, Saij-Spellhart.