I have published this fic on my AO3 profile as well.

She was confused and a little afraid perhaps, of an inevitable meeting that was about to take place. The cryptic words of Sosuke Aizen kept bouncing around her head like a rubber ball that was thrown a little too hard and now caused havoc wherever it hit. Lead her to them, hopefully they'll find each other entertaining enough to not cause trouble, he said to Ulquiorra when the Arrancar came to take her back to her confinement.

Who are they? Why would she find them entertaining and vice versa? As far as she knew Las Noches was occupied only by an army of Arrancar and the three traitor captains who fled Soul Society after causing chaos by orchestrating Rukia's execution. Maybe they were the ones she was supposed to keep company? She knew that Shinigami didn't get along with Hollows, perhaps they needed someone to entertain them?

Orihime hoped this was not the case. Being in presence of such powerful people made her feel sick and she had no way of defending herself.

Now she had noticed that they are leaving the main dome of Las Noches and entered one of the many small towers that surrounded it. The ceilings hung lower and the air felt less heavy with Arrancar reiatsu. It was quiet and the smell of fresh laundry was filling the corridor. It felt strangely like… home.

"Where are we?" She asked Ulquiorra who seemed to enjoy the illusion of peace that was surrounding them.

"Washtower 4.44." He replied without even sparing her a glance.

"Washtower?" Oddly enough, Orihime found the concept of Arrancars doing laundry quite funny, but it made a lot of sense, the entire army was draped in white uniforms. Obviously they needed a place to wash their clothes, white fabric gets dirty very fast, after all.

They walked ahead for some time, passing a few wide gates that were scattered at large distances on the both sides of the long corridor. Sometimes a muffled sound of a big washing machine could be heard from the other side. After a few minutes they had come at the end of the corridor and stood now in front of a small door and no sound could have been heard from behind them. She found herself holding her breath as Ulquiorra pushed down the handle and slowly entered the room. Reluctantly, she had followed right behind him, with her head bowed, preparing herself for the worst but as soon as she was inside, the heavy reiatsu of the two captains she was expecting to be waiting for them here was nowhere to be felt. There was something else here however, another set of souls which emitted a bit of reiatsu. It was weirdly familiar and yet very different. At that she had lifted her head and for a moment was standing in her spot dumbstruck. Of all the things she was expecting to see behind those doors, this was definitely not one of them.

"U-Ulqiorra-san… are these..?" Orihime stuttered, quite unable to believe what she was about to say.

"Yes." He replied without missing a beat, as he had found it quite obvious what she was asking about. "Don't add honorifics to my name." The Arrancar lectured her with a frown on his face. Only she didn't see him frowning because she was staring at the two toddlers who were sitting in the centre of a white room, and looking right back at her. Their eyes and hair were chocolate brown, and they both looked identical. She could tell they were not Arrancars because they were not sporting any weird pieces of mask anywhere near their faces, nor did they emitted any hollow reiatsu, besides, they really did resemble that person . She bend her neck to the right as if to look at them from another angle.

"Aizenlings…" She murmured.

An Arrancar nurse who had been watching them from the corner of the room snorted in amusement, which prompted Ulqiorra to look at him.

"She's going to replace you." The Espada announced, which clearly had been a good news for the nurse as he straightened up and saluted his general with a satisfied smile on his face, or at least the part of it that wasn't covered by a mask.