The last thing Ulquiorra Cifer saw was Orihime reaching out to him as he disintegrated. The next thing he knew, he was in what he could only describe as a void. There was no light, no darkness, no color what-so-ever, and no feeling. There was no smell, no taste, no sound; he couldn't even hear himself think. He stayed there for God-only-knows how long, but eventually, a blinding light came from all around him, and a hand bathed in gold reached for him.
He instinctually took it, and he found himself in a clearing with three others.
Barragan Louisenbairn had thrown Gran Caida at Aizen and saw it shatter before it reached him. It was unbelievable that it was his own power that destroyed him. When everything disappeared, he found himself in a void and stayed there for a very long time. When he took the hand bathed in gold, he had given up hope of getting out of this void a very long time ago. He opened his eyes and found himself in a clearing with three others.
As Gin Ichimaru lay dying, he opened his eyes and saw Ichigo appear with chains running up his arm. He's here, now I can die in peace. He closed his eyes again and stayed in the void that greeted him. He couldn't see, feel or hear anything. He stayed there, content with his efforts and knowing that Ichigo would destroy Aizen. After quite a while, merely staying in the darkness, a hand bathed in gold reached out to him from a bright source of light. Without even realizing, he took it, and found himself in a clearing with three others.
Jushiro Ukitake remembered the pain of having the right arm of the Reio torn from his body. When it was gone, he fell to the ground and felt like he was being submerged in darkness. He died. He found himself in a void and hoped everything in Soul Society would be alright. He didn't know how long he stayed in that emptiness, but eventually, a hand bathed in gold reached out for him, and he took it. When he did, one thing was conveyed: Ichigo won the War. He opened his eyes and found himself in a field with three others.
The four of them just, kind of, stood there, waiting for someone to break the silence. A few minutes of looking back and forth between each other, Ulquiorra decided to speak.
"It appears we are all equally confused, so I will start. Does anyone know where we are?"
"I'm afraid not," Jushiro replied. "The last thing I remember is Mimihagi leaving me, and waking up in a vast emptiness."
"So you saw that too?" Gin asked.
"Did anyone else see a golden hand?" Barragan interjected. Everyone nodded.
Jushiro put a hand to his chin. "So we all ended up here by the same means. What do you remember before arriving in that dark place?" he asked the group.
Ulquiorra, once again, started. "I was fighting Ichigo Kurosaki above the canopy of Las Noches. I killed him, but something within him awakened and killed me. The last thing I remember is finally being able to grasp the 'heart'." His hand fell to his chest, where his hollow hole resided. "I feel as if, I am now complete, like it has stayed with me."
Barragan went next. "I threw Gran Caida at Aizen as Respira was destroying me. Unfortunately I couldn't kill the Bastard." Ulquiorra glanced at him with a side-glare.
"I tried to kill Aizen as well," Gin stated. "I nearly pulled it off too, but the Hogyoku prevented it, the cursed thing."
"You two attacked Lord Aizen?" Ulquiorra stepped forward, hand on Murcielago.
"Wait just a minute." Jushiro got in between the three others. "Just so we're clear, Aizen was soundly defeated by Ichigo Kurosaki and imprisoned. Besides, now that we're here, wherever here is, and Aizen has been beaten, we no longer have any quarrel with one another. Everyone calm down."
"I suppose you're right." Ulquiorra released Murcielago. "My apologies, I acted without thinking."
"That's terribly unlike you," Gin responded.
Ulquiorra's eyes widened slightly. He did feel off, so what if this new place had done something to him that made him act so strange? "I'm going to remove my shirt." He unbuttoned his jacket and pulled the shirt over his head, making him, and everyone else, now realize that his helmet was gone. He looked down at his chest, and his hollow hole had also vanished, no, had been filled in. "Barragan," he said, his voice shaky.
The former ruler of Hueco Mundo took the hint and did the same. His bone crown was gone and his hole had too, been filled in. Now that he thought about it, his desire for ruling over others, felt dampened, or even, satiated.
"What are those behind you, Ulquiorra?" Gin asked. This caused everyone to look in the former espada's direction and they saw claws attached to an extra set of arms. Ulquiorra took notice too and flexed them, extending a pair of black bat-wings twelve feet across. Gin flicked his tongue at the sight of it.
"Well, that's certainly interesting," the bat stated.
"Indeed," Jushiro replied. "Does anyone else have any, animal extremities?"
Barragan examined his body, finding none. Jushiro and Gin did the same, also with no luck.
"I believe Gin is unaware of his," Ulquiorra said. Gin's tongue flicked again, but everyone was looking at Ulquiorra. "Look between his lips." Barragan and Jushiro did as they were told, and saw Gin's snake tongue flick in and out a couple times.
Barragan let out bellowing laughter. "I always knew you were a snake, I just never thought you had the tongue too." This was followed by more laughter.
"I think everyone got that impression," Gin retorted. "On a different note, can anyone sense that?"
Barragan stopped laughing as he reached out his Pesquisa. Ulquiorra did the same, and found it to be extremely limited, which it was not before. Perhaps the time spent in that in-between place? But even with the range being greatly reduced, he still sensed a being of darkness, but at the very edge of his reach, there was the faintest hint of another presence, this one leaking a different feeling entirely.
"It seems we're not alone here." Ulquiorra drew Murcielago, and everyone else drew their weapons as well. That's when they noticed feeling considerably weaker then they had before, which was saying something because they were dying the last time they felt anything. They turned to look behind where Ulquiorra was standing, and after a few tense seconds, a black beast in the form of a very misshapen bear crept from the underbrush, followed by several other creatures that looked to be werewolves.
"Assume these new creatures are threats," Jushiro ordered. "Be cautious, we don't know what they are or what they can do yet."
"Understood," Ulquiorra replied. He took a step forward, trying to Sonido his way behind them and slash them all at once, but he didn't move, and in that split second of shock, they were on top of him. He ducked as the bear sailed over him, getting knocked out of the air by Barragan. Unfortunately, the bone plating on the strange creature nullified most of the damage.
Ulquiorra stood just in time for one of the werewolves to appear in front of him. His sword was too far out of the way, so he punched it, expecting something to happen, but then he confirmed that his strength was indeed gone. In the next instance, he tried to form a Bala, but that didn't work either, and it slashed him across the chest, leaving five deep lacerations down the entire length of his torso. He fell to the ground.
Barragan was currently fending off the bear, while trying and failing to use his time-slowing abilities. Being considerably weaker, physically speaking, then he was used to being was also making it more difficult. The bear was currently on top of him and he had the haft of Arrogante in between it's teeth, doing his damndest just to keep it off of him.
Gin and Jushiro were having a bit more luck with the werewolves, even while being outnumbered. Jushiro, having been sick most of his life, was used to being weaker then he would like, but this was just a whole new level of, fatigue. Gin however, was doing much worse. While Jushiro had taken three of them, leaving Gin with two, it was still too many. He had slashed them a couple times and had tried releasing his zanpakuto, but it hadn't worked any better then Ulquiorra had tried using Sonido. Jushiro had actually managed to dismember one, and it was still trying to eat him.
Ulquiorra was still on the ground in shock. Never had his Hierro been penetrated so easily, even when the monster inside Ichigo had woken up, it had still taken much more force then that to nearly cut him in half. His vision was going dark and he felt his heart slowing. Not again. But then his blood began to seep back into his body and he felt invigorated. He stood up, the range of his Pesquisa increasing the higher he stood.
The other source he had sensed earlier was coming closer, at an alarming rate. He decided to ignore it for now and moved to help Barragan, slashing the bear across the back, severing many bone spikes and shattering a number of the plates. He was stronger, not nearly as much as he had been before they got here, but it certainly worked.
The bear roared as it reared up, giving Barragan enough of an opening to knock it to the ground and he brought Arrogante down through it's head. The bone mask shattered and it disintegrated.
"These things are like Hollows," Barragan bellowed. "Go for the head and strike as hard as you can!"
Jushiro ducked under one of the werewolves as it lept at him, and stabbed it through the torso, slicing it down one of it's legs. It howled as the other attacked as well. Jushiro ran it through the eye and Barragan threw Arrogante at the one coming up behind him. Ulquiorra skewered the one on the ground, down through the top of it's head and out the jaw.
Gin had taken one of the werewolf's legs off, but it only seemed irritated and wouldn't leave him alone. "I could use a little help here." Ulquiorra rushed forward and slashed one of the two hollow-like creatures across it's torso, bisecting it completely, as Gin rammed his sword down the second's gullet. Within seconds, the monsters vanished all at once.
"It seems we have a visitor," Ulquiorra said. As if on cue, a man appeared in a nearby tree. He had swept-back hair, a gray coat and a red cape, with a giant sword in one hand. It looked to be about the same size as Ichigo's Shikai now that he thought of it. "And who might you be?"
The man jumped from the tree and landed about ten feet from their group. "The name's Qrow. Who are you?"
Ulquiorra was about to answer when Jushiro grabbed his shoulder. "If you could give us one moment? We need to discuss if we can trust you since we don't know you yet."
Qrow sighed. "Fair enough."
They got in a huddle, and spoke so that Qrow couldn't hear them. Jushiro started. "Before we say anything to this man, we need to get our story straight. Any ideas?"
"We could say we're a group of brothers or friends travelling together," Gin recommended.
"But where will we be travelling to and from?" Ulquiorra questioned.
"It's simple," Barragan answered. "We say we're from a small town he never would've heard of or have any reason to go to and we've heard stories of the big city and want to go there. Our relation to each other can be figured out later."
"I find that agreeable," Ulquiorra replied. "What of you two?"
"I don't see a problem with it, so long as we keep things vague and don't try to go into any details," Gin added. "We could even say the town was destroyed by these creatures, whatever they are."
"I don't like lying to complete strangers," Jushiro expressed, "but it seems we have no choice. We'll also use it as an excuse for our ignorance. Let me do the talking." Both Ulquiorra and Gin were expecting Barragan to protest this, but were surprised when he didn't. "We have decided to trust you," Jushiro said as he turned back to Qrow. "My name is Jushiro Ukitake. This is Ulquiorra Cifer, Gin Ichimaru and Barragan Louisenbairn."
"Pretty strange names. Where did you guys come from anyway? We're way out in the middle of nowhere."
"We're from a town that you never would've heard of. It's called Seireitei, a mountain village. We always heard stories of the Big City and wanted to see it for ourselves. Alas we have no idea where we are or which direction to head. We ended up getting terribly lost on our way there. Would you mind pointing us in the right direction?"
"I'm headin' back there myself, so you guys can come along. You'll probably slow me down, but I'd feel better makin' sure you kids got there safely." Qrow turned to walk away.
"Excuse me, but how old do we look to you?" Jushiro was slightly confused.
"14-16 I'd wager," Qrow said as he turned to look at him. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason," Jushiro smiled strangely. "But I must say, your perception is incredible. We're all sixteen."
Ulquiorra looked between their little group. If he had to guess, this Qrow character looked to be around his thirties or forties. Now that he actually took the time to look, Barragan was considerably younger then he had been previously. His hair was black and the wrinkles covering his face were gone, even his missing eye had been returned. Gin was also shorter then he had been, and his trademark smile was gone. This was all very peculiar.
"Ulquiorra," Jushiro called to him. "Let's go." Ulquiorra realized he had been lost in thought. The rest of them were already leaving. How very peculiar.