Sorry for taking so much time to write this.
!warning for not too graphic description of gore!
The closer they moved towards the main dome of Las Noches, the heavier Aizen's reiatsu seemed to get. It was a very specific kind of spiritual pressure, melancholic and warm, but not the kind of warm that emanated from a loving hug or friendly smile. It was a dry, choking warmth one could feel when they entered an abandoned hut in the middle of the desert, full of ragged linen, remnants of furniture and memories of a family that once lived there; a low hum of abandonment and decay. It was the first time Orihime actually felt it as opposed to her previous audience with the Lord, when his power was suddenly unleashed onto her without a warning and then withdrawn just as fast. Now when she was given time to get used to it, she could feel little details that made his reiatsu very unique.
She trotted behind Ulquoirra without uttering a word, still shaken by his previous attack, it scared her enough to make her keep any questions and remarks to herself this time. The arm he had gripped her by still throbbed with dull pain, and it made her worry that the bone might actually be fractured. It would be best for her to check up on it before going to sleep, in case it would need healing.
First however, she would have to kick out their substitute nurse. The girls are sleeping alone with that Arrancar right now, and the thought of the skinny Hollow made her blood boil. To think her captors would be able to do something like that! It was unfathomable for her that Aizen would let his soldiers use force on his own children, or maybe that Narrquez was lying? But would Ulquiorra let him lie about something like this? Maybe it's actually a good thing that the Lord of Las Noches had summoned her… maybe he wants her to teach these Arrancar how to take care of small children… ? Who is she kidding? Of course he doesn't need her to do something like that, it's all about the Hogyoku! Everything is happening so much because of it, she wouldn't be surprised if he cared more about the orb than his kids, he didn't even bother with providing them with basic stuff, like toys or protection from hostile reiatsu.
Orihime's face heated up, she was getting more and more agitated from thinking about Aizen's poor parenting skills, or complete lack of thereof. It's not like she had any, but the fact that she's more concerned about the kids' living conditions than than their father was very telling!
For a brief moment she got so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice when Ulquiorra halted, and almost walked straight into him. Fortunately, he didn't seem very bothered with her tendency to drift off for a while.
They stood in front of a slim door without a handle and the Arrancar had knocked on it softly, and announced their arrival. To her dismay, the door did not swing open to the side, but were lifted up, like the ones she saw in science fiction movies. Now, that was weird. Why was here a different type of door than everywhere else she's been so far?
Her warden stepped in and Orihime had followed the suit, quietly keeping close to him.
They entered a dimly lit room, not overly spacious, but not small either; a lone, tall window which was facing the northern wing of the stronghold was now covered with a long curtain that blocked the moonlight from entering the place. The floor was covered with polished tiles and the walls were dark and naked, there were a few shelves stacked with books and, Orihime guessed, notebooks, next to them stood a desk covered with more notebooks and loose sheets of paper by which the Lord of Las Noches sat. He didn't seem to notice them at first, so focused on his work he was, and she started wondering if Ulquoirra shouldn't, by any chance, be bringing his master's attention to them. She wanted to be done and over with this as soon as possible, and come back to the girls. The memory of that Arrancar pushing his spiritual pressure on one of them was still fresh on her mind and it was causing her to worry.
All of sudden the scribbling noise had stopped and Aizen stood up from his desk, as he turned towards them his gaze settled on Orihime. He twisted his lips into a subtle frown and looked at Ulquiorra, clearly disappointed.
"She was resisting." The Espada answered the unspoken question that was clearly showing on their Lord's face, and it puzzled Orihime. Wasn't he expecting her to come here? Why was he looking at her like there is something wrong?
"Don't go this far again." Aizen said and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, which confused her even further. He shot Ulquiorra another short glace and ordered him out.
The door shut silently behind her warden's back and the room fell silent. Without hesitation he had closed the distance between himself and his prisoner and brought a hand up to her face. Startled by sudden display of intimacy between them Orihime held her breath and tried not to look into his eyes. There was something about them, something hypnotic and sad, she had noticed it when she was first brought to the fortress and presented in front of the throne.
A chill ran down her spine when Aizen had lifted the handkerchief to her face and slowly wiped her nose with it and handed it to her after he was done. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw blood stains on the white fabric.
"So you haven't even noticed yet?" He said nonchalantly, sounding more like he was talking to himself and not to his guest. "Understandable, you're still shaken." He noted while his hand now ventured towards her head and he appeared to be smoothing her hair back into place. Apparently they got a little disarrayed after Ulquiorra had thrown her out of the room.
That's right! The kids! The Arrancar are mishandling the twins! She has to tell him, get him to do something.
"Uh… why am I here?" She asked, unable to put the thoughts that were scattered around her mind into a coherent sentence. Disappointing. This conversation wasn't supposed to look like this.
He stood silent at first, scanning her from the top of her head downwards and back up, and then the corners of his mouth had lifted slightly. "There's something I'd like you to fix." Aizen replied and in that moment the doors, to what appeared to be his study, had lifted up again and a table was pushed in by one of the staff members. There was something on it although she could not tell what was it supposed to be, because the item in question was covered with a long, black sheet. A sense of dread went through Orihime when the smell of death coming from the mysterious object had reached her. Wide-eyed she frantically turned her head in Aizen's direction but her bewildered expression did not seem to have any impact on him.
Without taking Orihime's reaction into account, he gestured to the servant to unveil the remains which were laid out on the metallic surface. The sight made his prisoner gasp in horror and hide her face in the blood stained handkerchief he had handed her a few minutes ago.
By the smell she had expected to see something very unpleasant but expectations alone were not enough to prepare her for something like this, especially not in such a short amount of time.
It sure was a corpse, but it was incomplete. She'd seen a lot of gruesome injuries and missing limbs but right there, in front of her laid just a lower part of a person. It was still relatively fresh and the only reason the blood wasn't leaking out of it was because the edges seemed to be scorched. It looked like the upper half was just blasted off and the stench of blood and burnt flesh made her turn away entirely. She closed her eyes and shook her head as the sudden wave of nausea took over her body and she felt like she was about to collapse, but before her knees gave out Aizen's wrapped his arm around her upper torso and pulled her closer into a semi-embrace.
"Fix her. Bring her back to her previous state." He pressed his face against the side of her head and whispered the command directly into hea ear.
"Ugh… I-I'm not sure if I can… " She stuttered against his shoulder and leant more into him while the world around her began to spin and all muscles in her body went numb. The sudden avalanche of stress combined with shock from her previous dealings with Ulquiorra was now starting to take a massive toll on her and Orihime felt a migraine building up rapidly at her temples.
"Of course you can. I know you can." Aizen started to slowly turn her back towards the gruesome remains and placed both hands on her shoulder. "I'll be with you." His voice rang from behind her, now reassuring and low. He had pushed her closer to the table and squeezed her shoulders lightly to signal to her that it's time to begin.
His pretense had encouraged her enough to lift one hand and call forward the pair of faerie who were responsible for handling the rejection process, but still, she kept pressing the handkerchief over her nose and mouth with the other.
"Good." He praised and pressed his chest against her back, his own hands were slowly sliding down her forearms and back up to her shoulders. "The sooner you will finish, the faster you will be allowed to go back."
Within few minutes the remains of an Arrancar slowly started to come together, piece by piece small parts of flesh were aligning next to each other and gradually erasing the burnt edges on the skin. Orihime felt as Aizen leaned forward and the side of his face nearly touched hers. When she gave in to the temptation to look at him, it struck her how happy he looked. He was focused on the sight in front of them, his eyes glimmered with excitement and his lips were slightly parted. She decided that studying his appearance for a while was a far better option than staring at the corpse in front of them. He was indeed very pleasant to look at, long and dark eyelashes, brown eyes and hair, he was freshly shaven and smelled of soap and clean laundry. I was such a shame that he was her enemy. Someone blessed with such intelligence and power could do so much good for the world.
After admiring him for a while she turned her attention back to the table, to check the progress she was making. A big part of the dead person's missing half had already been brought back, the only things that were still missing were the head, and an arm but when she was about to focus on them she felt as a wave of fever washed over her entire body. In that moment Aizen tore his gaze away from the subject she was working on and pressed Orihime firmer against himself to stop her from collapsing. She had nearly blacked out while she heard him mutter "might be worth a try" and take a hold on her wrists.
"Orihime, can you hear me?"
She nodded slightly but did not reply.
"Good." He said. "Take a deep breath and try not to fall unconscious. This is going to make you feel like you're underwater. Don't resist."
Orihime took in the instruction without fully comprehending them, she ran out of stamina and the stress had amplified her need to slip out of sync with reality. Aizen slowly lifted up her arms, after a few seconds she felt the warmth starting to emanate from his palms infiltrating her hands. For a moment she thought that her tired mind was playing tricks on her but then her headache and the feeling of numbness were gone in an instant and her body started to feel unusually light. Ayame and Shun-o's golden shell began to glow brighter than ever.
"Oh look. It actually works. I should have done it at the beginning." He stated with no real emotion in his voice and the body in front of them had been completed before she in a blink of an eye.
She stared at the cadaver in front of her, wide-eyed and at loss of words. Had he just synchronised his own reiatsu with her? She never thought that something like this was even possible.
An Arrancar soldier with short, blond hair was lying her back, her muscles twitching here and there before she opened her eyes and sat up while frantically running her hands around her chest and head. She then started turning around, disoriented and scared as if she was looking for an escape route until she had spotted her master standing in front of her.
"A-A-A-Aizen sama!" The soldier jumped from the table and knelt in front of him while her body was still shaking. "Grimmjow was-!?"
"Stop yelling at me." He interjected with a clearly displeased expression and pushed Orihime between himself and his bewildered subordinate. "You should be thankful to our guest for aiding me in bringing you back."
"I- But-" The Arrancar struggled to gather her words at the sight of a short auburn-haired, human girl, which made Aizen's scoff deepen slightly. At the sight of her master's disdain, the soldier quickly bowed her head so low to the ground that her forehead was brushing over the perfectly polished tiles. "I Menoly, am eternally grateful to you, for… for saving me from death!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.
"Uh, it's ok." Orihime blushed and outstretched her hand to encourage Menoly to get up, but the panicked Arrancar turned her questioning gaze towards her Lord once again. She was scared to touch someone who seemed to be held up in such high regards by the man who could incinerate the Espada with his spiritual pressure alone.
Aizen in turn, looked back at the table and the servant who brought it into his study. The frail staff member was standing there completely still through the whole ordeal, patiently waiting for new orders to come. Then again he brought his attention towards Menoli. "How are you feeling?"
"Very good, Sir!"
"Go back to your quarters then. If you notice something is out of place, report it to me immediately." The Lord ordered and nodded at the servant to take the table away.
The soldier sprang up to her feet and then bowed again with her fists clenched at her sides. She seemed to be unnerved by something, but before Orihime had a chance to offer her some support Menoli straightened her back and strode out of the room, followed by the servant who quietly pushed the heavy looking table behind her.
"Um, did I offend her?"
"There's no need to concern yourself with her opinion. Have you brought anyone back to life before?" Aizen asked and placed his palm slightly under her cheek. His eyes bore into hers and he started to slowly stroke the side of her mouth with his thumb.
The study became very quiet as she was struggling to tear her eyes away from his alluring gaze. She never felt so vulnerable in front of anyone up until now, not even Kurosaki-kun could make such a mess out of her just by staring at her… until she noticed how similar his facial features are to his children. They looked like mini copies of him. This observation seemed to wake her from her enamoured state; she managed to compose herself and noticed that he was waiting for an answer to his question.
"I haven't done something like this! Ever!" The girl shook her head which prompted her Lord and captor to withdraw his hand. In that moment she stiffened and her eyes began to widen as she slowly came to realization of the magnitude of her deed. She just brought someone back from the dead…
"You did a splendid job, then. Also, know that your ability to withstand and host my reiatsu makes you more useful to me than anyone else in this stronghold." He praised her with a satisfied smile on his face but she couldn't tell if his words of approval held any truth to them.
"T-thank you." Orihime stuttered and watched warily as Aizen made his way towards the desk and poured himself a cup of tea. "I never thought I could become a necromancer."
She saw him stiffen with the cup almost touching his lips. "... Necromancer?" He muttered and set down his tea. For a moment she was afraid that she had said something wrong but then he huffed a few times and ran a hand down his face.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude-"
"It's fine." He broke her off and took his teacup again. "I'm glad you've come to me Orihime. Before we part, would you like some tea? I think you deserve a prize." The Lord smiled one more and was about to call a servant but she had stopped him.
"No, thank you. I think it would be better if I just came back to the girls, who knows what that Arrancar will do to them if they wake up-..." It just occurred to her that now is her chance to question the father of the twins! There was so many things that she wanted to know, needed to know, even!
"If they wake up, what then?" He bent his elegant neck slightly to the right, prompting her to finish the sentence.
"If they wake up, they will start crying and the Arrancar who watches over them will silence them by force… "
"If you're talking about using reiatsu on them I can assure you that it does not bring them any harm. I don't want them to attract attention of the hollows who live here." Aizen said without much interest in his voice and took a sip of tea.
"But it does harm them! You can't force them to repress their feelings like that, what if they will get sick?" Orihime flailed her hands in the air in anger. "How are they supposed to grow up healthy if you're limiting them at such a young age?"
Her sudden outburst managed to agitate him and in an instant the mood in the room had changed as he closed the gap between them, shutting her mouth by pressing the rim of his cup against the bottom of her jaw, which also prompted her to look directly up at his face again.
"You dare to question me?" He whispered dangerously and it made her breath hitch. She could feel goosebumps rising on her skin and a sudden need to escape entered her mind. They stood like that for a while until he finally lowered his cup and took a step back. "If this is of any consolation to you, they will soon be free from this place and then they'll get to cry as much as they want." He sighed and walked away. "You're dismissed."
At those words she turned towards the door and ran out with tears in her eyes, barely spotting Ulquiorra who had been already waiting for her by the entrance to Aizen's study. He didn't say anything and merely walked in front of her to lead her back to the washtower.