Continued from: Return From a Most Interesting Meeting
From the other side of the door, a lonely chest ached. It burned. It hurt. But it did not beat. For many reasons it did not, but never before had it wished it could. The heart was a fickle thing and not to be trusted. Ulquiorra knew of this. A wall separated him from his ultimate handy work. Kita. It was a name he never said out of anger. Of hate. Of contempt. Merely disappointment. What had she done? Where did he go wrong? This was something he, and only he, could correct, even if it meant following through with her childish whims. He would win her back slowly.
He pushed the door open to Orihime’s seeing Kita and Orihime in the dim room. Kita rose from where she was sitting and looked over her shoulder. She was so lost in her thoughts she did not realize her master was so closely by. With a warm and welcoming smile Kita kneeled to one knee bowing her head she felt tears sting at her eyes,
"Master," her reply was shaken.
Even in the darkness she was beautiful. It almost hurt Ulquiorra to look at her, let alone hear her voice shake saying that one word. The word that separated kings from commoners. The bound and the free. It was a foul word on Kita's lips, but it was beautiful when she said it. If only she was there... If only it was her and not the growing shade of disappointment that greeted him that one day.
"You are better."
Ulquiorra found it hard to tear his eyes from her bowed head. Behind his fraction was the woman. Even the unwanted wind seemed to hold its breath when she breathed, though her heart filled the silence. Kita looked up, her smile still warm as she looked at him,
"Yes, thanks to Orihime." She stood to her feet as she looked over her shoulder at the sleeping girl. "She has an amazing power. I can understand why Aizen would want her," Kita shook her head, "but she don't belong here."
"Many things do not belong here Kita, but they are not kept here prisoner by external means. It is their mind that keeps them trapped." Ulquiorra's words tapered off as he allowed his mind a rare luxury of wandering. "Do you not want to be here? You speak of the woman as if you can answer for her, but in the end we are all accountable for our own actions. What is your understanding of being here?"
Kita looked away from Orihime to her master, "I am like everyone else here in Las Noches. Held here to be used as a pawn in this game of Aizen's. I do not stay here for Aizen. I do not stay here for my own gain. I stay here for only one reason and that reason stands before me now." Kita lowered her head as she spoke, "I stay here... for you, master."
Ulquiorra watched the words fall from Kita's mouth, yet his mind still could not comprehend it.
"You say things that you do not know the depth of Kita."
He stepped further into the room, hardly registering the shadows that followed him. They always followed him, never distinguishing between the terrors of the night or the grievances of the day. To Ulquiorra there was only two things he could be certain of: Eternal shadows and Kita. The latter of which he was slowly losing hold of. When did she learn to look at him with such pity?
"Had I been another, would you still have said these words?"
Kita shook her head, "I can not answer that question. It was ordained that you be my master; for whatever reason. What I feel inside," Kita lifted her hand to her chest, "though my heart is gone. What I hold there is for you, and though I do not understand it. It is unchanging and undying. So no matter who I am. You will always be my master."
She lowered her head again, but it was not from pity for her master alone. It was pity she felt for them all. For she knew the road they traveled and where it would lead, and still she was willing to stand next to her master through it all. Silence fell between the master and his fraction. While none other then Aizen stood outside the room. Neither of the arrancar the wiser of his presents as he concealed it away. Stepping into the room seeing Kita with her head lowered and Ulquiorra with his back to him he spoke.
"Such a quaint moment between a Master and his Fraction,” Aizen looked to Kita as her head quickly lifted her eyes wide and Ulquiorra turning quickly to his lord’s voice.
“However, I must interject.” He smirked walking toward Kita, “I have plans for you and they can no longer be put on hold.”
Aizen went to reach for Kita expecting her retaliation; however, he got a bigger surprise instead. Nnoitra walked quickly in the room with them.
"Lord Aizen! Your presents are needed! Lord Gin has pressing news."
Nnoitra look at the other two in the room. His eyes unflinching as he led Aizen astray. Aizen turned from Kita hearing Nnoitra’s voice. He watched as Nnoitra examined Ulquiorra and Kita in the room. Turning back to the two he looked to Ulquiorra.
“Twenty-four hours and she had better be present in my throne room.” Aizen ordered Ulquiorra.
He turned walking toward Nnoitra. However, unbeknown to them all Gin had returned to Las Noches and he did have pressing new for Aizen. The shadows writhed and pressed around Ulquiorra's peripheries, daring him to show a sign of weakness. Beside him, Kita stirred and looked up at him through hooded eyes. How could two people standing side by side be so vastly different? Both standing in the same room. Both suffering in their own hell. Both tied together by the same factor. The crushing dependency of fate.
Nnoitra stood erect as Aizen brushed past him. He looked to Kita and then Ulquiorra once more. The fact lingered in the silences of the room, Aizen was trying to destroy this master fraction connection, but the weighing question on Nnoitra’s mind was, ‘How far before Ulquiorra finally says enough is enough?’
Nnoitra turned and followed Aizen off.
After the room cleared leaving only the remaining three, Kita looked to Ulquiorra, "Master," again her voice shaky.
A whispered word from his left drew Ulquiorra's attention. He looked into the upturned face of his fraction and answered with a practiced calm.
"Yes."
"I..." fear was written on her face. She started shaking her head, "please Master not again."
The raw emotion scattered on her face was painful to look at. Such hope and sadness written into one expression, how could one survive on such fickle emotions? He paused before answering and dropped his gaze to his hands. They were a work of destruction and immense beauty, crafted by the unseen gods of mankind. In these hands, Ulquiorra possessed the one quality he had yet to smother: mercy. But its time would come too.
Without a moment's hesitation, he passed a final act of mercy and sealed her away in a caja negacion where she became blind to the fiendish acts of her master. What power that was once used to pass punishment onto their subordinates was now being used as a safe heaven to protect. There. Ulquiorra would keep his fraction until he no longer could.
Continued To: Never a Tear
