A/N: So I know there was an important plot point where Aizen merged with the Hōgyoku, but we're just going to ignore that for the sake of this Orihime power-fantasy fic, ok guys?

Captain Unohana is the one to suggest that Orihime and Uryuu stay behind for a time, after Ichigo travels to Karakura town.

"You both look like you need some rest," she says, not unkindly. The two know better to protest in any case – they have learnt over time to recognize even Unohana's sweetest orders.

Still, Orihime frets. They shouldn't stay here. What if…

"It's alright," say Chad, Rukia and Renji, all one after the other, all in different ways, "Ichigo will win."

Only Uryuu doesn't promise her victory. He was there with her, during Ichigo's last battle. He knows what it took him to win. He too has doubts.

All around them, members of squad four buzz about in a flurry of activity, tending to the wounded. Orihime offers to help (and even as she does, she feels a pang of guilt: my body belongs to Aizen-sama whispers a small, scared voice), but she is quickly denied.

"You must rest," the squad members insist, "you are not well enough to help."

Resentfully, she reminds them that Captain Zaraki was happy to have use of her skills, only a few hours ago.

"That was then," he calls from afar, "but they're right. You'd be of no help now. I can see it from the look on your face."

She turns to her namaka. "What does he mean?" she asks. No one answers.

Then, Uryuu says, "I take it to mean that you look like me."

Orihime doesn't understand him at first. He looks just as he did before everyone arrived. But by then, she had had time to grow used to the look on his face. His features had been haggard and haunted for a lifetime already, it seemed, before anyone arrived to find them.

I look like that?

She thinks about it. She remembers the blinding fear she felt throughout Ichigo and Ulquiorra's battle. She remembers the all-consuming dread she felt when Aizen announced his plans to destroy her home before that.

No, she thinks, I must look worse.

As they rest, Uryuu and Orihime are mostly forgotten. Uryuu recovers from his surgery, which Orihime notices, was not closed up too well. No doubt, she realises, this was on purpose. Soul Society doesn't want haggard humans fighting their battles now that things have gotten serious (never mind that they have been serious for months, as far as Orihime is concerned –as far is Uryuu is too).

Uryuu catches her glancing at his wound and rolls his eyes, wincing a second later. "I wish they'd let you fix it," he says, "your healing works much faster."

Suddenly, an idea comes to Orihime. It floats into her brain, like her eccentric recipe ideas used to, but once it lands, it takes a much stronger hold on her.

"Uryuu," she says, "I can heal you, but then I need you to take me somewhere."

He eyes her warily and she understands why; the last time she made this request, things went very badly, very quickly.

Still, he nods. "Where do you need to go?" he asks.

"Not far from here," replies Orihime in a whisper, "to where Aizen keeps the Hōgyoku."

Uryuu's eyes widen. He is both shocked by the daring of what his friend is proposing, and confused by it.

"You want to steal it?" he asks.

She shakes her head gently, "no," she says, "I want to destroy it."

Uryuu furrows his brow, "I thought it couldn't be destroyed," he says.

"There is a way," says Orihime determinedly, "but only I can do it."

As they travel through Huenco Mundo, a black dust flies off their faces, cleaned away by the wind. Curious, Orihime brushes a sample off her cheek and examines it. She gapes in horror upon realising that the substance isn't dust: it's ash.

Frantically, she tries to wipe it all off, causing such a fuss that Uryuu is forced to land his transporter so that she might recuperate.

Once they are moving again, he says, quietly, "he seemed to care for you, in the end."

Orihime smiles weakly. "That's not possible," she says, "Ulquiorra never cared for anyone."

Finally, they arrive at their destination. Uryuu dawdles, keeping an eye out for hidden arrancar or a Shinigami trail. Seeing neither, he joins Orihime as she marches steadily towards Aizen's chambers. Everything is as it was: the large couch is still pristine and there, in the middle of the room, is the column that contains the Hōgyoku.

"I'm surprised there's no one guarding it," says Uryuu.

Orihime nods, "me too."

Gingerly, she approaches the column. It opens for her, revealing layer upon layer until finally, there it is – the Hōgyoku.

No sooner does the gem reveal itself that a blast emerges from the column, threatening to kill them on the spot. Orihime is quick and shields them both from the blast, but it is unrelenting. No doubt Aizen invented this attack – a delayed cero, or perhaps a kido, destined to rage until any theif approaching the Hōgyoku disintegrates into ash. It reeks of his personal touch.

This thought gives Orihime an idea.

"I reject!" she cries, turning her shield into a weapon and sending it after the cero blast. Struggling to hold her ground, she throws all her energy into the attack. Slowly, the cero blast recedes into a smaller and smaller entity, until it is nothing but a small ball of light and then until it is nothing at all. It is as if the blast never existed.

"That was amazing," says Uryuu, "since when have you been able to do that?"

"Just now," she replies. Aizen told her that her power of rejection was limitless – that she could use it to rewrite time itself. She wasn't sure that was true until this moment.

She looks upon the Hōgyoku, fragile and unprotected. That Aizen would prepare such a meagre defense for his prized gem, a defense that she could easily get past can only mean one of two things. Either, he never believed his own speculation about Orihime's powers and that his esteem for them was just a ruse that turned out to be true; or, more likely, he never thought Orihime would make it anywhere near the Hōgyoku in the first place.

Orihime doesn't hesitate. She summons her Shun Shun Rika and what's left of her energy and calls out, clearly, "I REJECT!"

"I can't believe you did that," mutters Uryuu as they fly back. Orihime keeps quiet, but she stares at her hands in disbelief. The Hōgyoku is gone thanks to her powers –thanks to her. She should be happy, but all she feels is dread.

After a moment, she says. "I hope Ichigo is okay."

Uryuu's smile is tight, "yeah," he says, "me too."

They travel in silence a little while longer, both wrapped up in their own worries. Uryuu's face is grim, his mouth set in a terse line. Orihime bites her lip.

"What do you think he'll do to us," asks Uryuu after a long pause, "if Aizen finds out?"

"Kill us probably," says Orihime with a little laugh. It's quite unlike her regular laugh –dark, cynical, and inappropriate – a mad girl's laugh.

"Let's hope Ichigo wins, then," he says.

Orihime nods. She always hopes that Ichigo wins, but this is different. For the first time, she hopes that Ichigo kills Aizen, because if he doesn't…

Because if Aizen lives to learn what she has done, he will surely come for her.