Reaching for the Sky
Disclaimer: BLEACH and assorted characters belong to Kubo Tite.
published 07-06-2015
by C.S.Y. Shadows
Not beta-ed
Ch. 2: And Life Faded [Deep-set Purgatory]
Small silver-blue glass shards tinkled as they hit the floor, glittering like tears in the artificial light of the throne room. The scream echoed through the stark white hall, amplified by the invisible force of reiatsu pouring from her soul as the manifestation of her powers broke.
She didn't even notice herself collapsing before nothingness swallowed the world.
...
It's dark.
What happened?
...
I can feel Him...
...
Soothed, unconsciousness claimed her again.
Her dreams were green and black and golden.
It lingered on Orihime's mind as she slowly drifted upwards from the comforting darkness wrapped around her like a security blanket.
(Sora-nii hadn't been able to afford an extra one for her when she was small. That was okay. She had only needed him.)
[Then he died.]
Grey eyes blinked up at a white ceiling. And narrowed in a frown.
This wasn't the ceiling of her cell. (She should know - she spent quite some time there without much to do.)
Wait... What was that beeping sound?
She scrunched her nose and wiggled her pinkie in her ear. Maybe she'd been abducted by aliens with Death-Rays and lasers and they had sedated her with their uber-advanced dream-technology? Or- or maybe she'd been locked into a virtual reality by killer-robot-fairies taking over the world! Orihime paused. That would actually be pretty cool.
No! Silly girl. Focus!
She was just the tiniest bit disappointed when she looked around and recognized the straight white walls of Aizen's stronghold.
Even if… There was something…
Orihime sat up with a gasp.
Where- where was it? Where were they?
Her hands frantically patted her hair and then her arms and her chest and the pillow.
Her mind dived deep and tried to touch the connection, the warm bond, the thread linking her to the spirits of her power.
She was close to hyperventilating when she realised she could find nothing.
where are you?
(come back...)
Dizziness set in.
In her panic, she hadn't noticed the Arrancar approaching her, called by the frantic sounds of the monitoring equipment. She only felt herself slipping back into unconsciousness.
Her heart was crying.
(please, come back...)
The emptiness followed into her sleep
This was a dream. It had to be. Orihime had never dreamed much (if she did, she didn't [want to] remember) and Las Noches... didn't lend itself to sleep much, anyway. But she must have drifted off and the usually blurry nightmares must have found a way inside her head again. They just couldn't be gone.
Surely...
(where are you?)
She awakened to the feeling of eyes drilling into her skin.
Slowly, strangely she let the feel of (black/green/gold) Hollow reiatsu calm her until she simply turned her head and there he was. It felt...
Normal.
Reassuring.
Her warden - her could-have-been-friend, her what-if - sat motionless at her bedside.
Only his eyes slid to the side to focus on her
Unthinkingly she reached up to- What? She didn't know what she intended to do but her hand halted mid-motion. Her arm felt... off, all stiff and heavy and numb and cold.
(It felt like that place inside that she didn't think about because it must have been a dream, must have been a nightmare, and she would check and everything would be alright. She would check. Soon. They must be there. Surely.)
(where are you?)
She turned away from him to study her fingers, her palm, her wrist. They were covered in light grey swirling patterns, chalk-like/dust-like/ash-like, and she hastily let her hand fall again to turn back to him instead.
He hadn't moved.
Green eyes slid away from her. His lips parted.
"Szayel."
The man that stepped out of the shadows (bright pink hair and glasses - seen from a distance but never met and she was suddenly glad for it) had a smile like glinting knife-shards.
She flinched away from the hunger that was very hollow-like and in a way not at all and was all the more frightening for it.
(This was where Inoue Orihime thought - oddly clear and oddly heavy - that she wasn't like Kurosaki-kun or Tatsuki-chan and she'd known it because she couldn't stay strong and steadfast against this fear and strive to 'protect'... She was 'that which should be protected' and it was almost habit now, even if it wasn't mean schoolyard bullies sticking gum in her hair anymore but killers and monsters and nightmares.)
[sometimes she almost resented them but that betraying thought was locked firmly in the dark where she didn't have to look so closely]
The shattered-knife-smile widened. The voice behind it was oddly soft, almost crooning.
"Well, well. It's simply fascinating. I would really like to do some more... tests." Inflection shifted with unsettling abruptness, its sudden hardness like the broken metal in the man's mouth and eyes and soul.
"If you would just leave for an hour...!"
"Aizen-sama has ordered her unharmed." His voice held no inflection at all. The silence between them seemed to cower like a scared animal.
"Hmph." A gloved hand flipped back that strange bright hair (it clashed so horribly with the empty whiteness, she nearly wanted to giggle and it was nearly strange that she couldn't). "He has also ordered me to find results. I will have to examine that weak mortal girl regardless." Another shift in intonation, mercurial as the madness glittering in eyes that she, up close now, could determine to be sulphurous, poisonous yellow. So close…
They were focused on her, drilling into her own gaze. And it was-
Burning. It was burning and cold and numb and- (it felt just like that place inside her, that should be warm and thrumming with energy and feelings and them-)
(but it wasn't)
It hurt.
(She needed to call for them (wheRe are yOU?) but they had to be right there, didn't they? They had to. She just had to look. Just had to fall asleep and they'd be there.
Right there...)
Orihime lost her focus to the beautiful [lie] and slipped from the grasp of consciousness again.
The only thing left was the memory of shattering crystal.
A/N: So I'm a useless lout that can't even update once a fucking year. Good to know. Well, since the trouble came exclusively from trying to write a good end for the chapter, feel free to drop a line.