Hello, hello, hello! I am sorry that I was not able to update sooner. I tried to update, but I was unable to get the story to load on to . My utorrent was going and interfered with the process. But here we are anyway. We're going to introduce more characters in this chapter as well as explain some of what Lord Aizen's true plan is! So let's get crackin'........

Chapter 4: The Illusion of Time

Hueco Mundo, Outside Las Noches

Ichigo looked up at the night sky of Hueco Mundo. They had been running toward the large structure they saw in the distance ever since emerging from the underground passage where Uryu and Chad had defeated the arrancars, Iceringer and Demora. Ichigo remembered how impressed he was at the improvement his comrades had shown in the use of their powers and fighting ability. "Hey Uryu," he said with an inquisitive tone "how exactly did you get your powers back? I thought that once you used the Quincy final form, your powers as a Quincy would be gone forever."

"My father.", said Uryu with a slight degree of disgust in his voice. "He trained me and restored my Quincy powers on one condition: That I never associate myself with another soul reaper again."

"Oh hoh! So you LIED to your father to get your powers back....", Ichigo said with sarcastic ridicule dripping from the words.

"I most certainly did not LIE! How dare you!", defended Uryu more than a little indignantly.

"If your not supposed to have anything to do with soul reapers, what do you call coming with me to Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime. I AM a soul reaper in case you forgot.", responded Ichigo.

"No your not.", stated the Quincy matter-of-factually.

"HELLO! Zanpaktou, shihakusho, seal of approval badge! What the hell do you think I am then?", exclaimed Ichigo.

"YOU are a SUBSTITUTE SHINIGAMI. And further more you are here without the consent of the Soul Society. You have been abandoned by them so I'm not breaking my word at all.", Uryu stated in a confident manner as if he had just played the winning move.

"That's a fuckin' weak excuse.", said the substitute shinigami, adding in a smiling tone. "Saved by a loophole. I never thought you would stoop that low, Uryu."

"Ah, shut up....", began Uryu when both he and Ichigo noticed that Chad was looking at something in the distance. "What is it, Chad?", said Ichigo, his hand already reaching for his sword. The look on his friends face gave Ichigo great cause for concern.

"Guys, look.", said Chad in his usual reserved tone.

Ichigo and Uryu began to stare in to the distance where their friend was pointing. Uryu couldn't make anything out. His eyes were blocked by the gusts of sand that shrouded the object like a cloak, making distinguishing details from a distance very difficult. He did see what looked like a cross, however, with something upon it. He saw Ichigo's eyes widen and then he saw why. It looked like a woman was on the cross. Uryu could barely make it out but it was definitely a woman. Ichigo took off running. Uryu felt his heart sink too. Were they too late? Was she....was Orihime.....

Uryu tried to banish these thoughts from his mind as he joined Ichigo and Chad in running toward the crucifix. As they reach their destination, Uryu is almost too scared to look up, silently repeating in his head that they couldn't be too late. Ichigo could do nothing but stare at the woman. The gusts of wind were blowing her long green hair all over the place as well as the tattered brown skirt and top she wore. Her wrists and ankles were bound to the cross with rope and where the rope contacted her skin, deep cuts could be seen, dripping blood on the coarse restraints. As the three friends stared at the corpse, each of them expressed a silent prayer of gratitude that it was not Orihime, that they were not too late. Then as his two friends continued their silent inspection of the body, Chad decided to untie her feet.

"Hey Chad, what are you doing?", asked Ichigo.

"No one should be just left here like this. We should take a moment to bury her properly. Out of respect for the dead.", said Chad calmly.

"You're right, Chad.", stated Uryu agreeing with his friend. As Chad untied the feet, Uryu shot two arrows simultaneously grazing past her wrists to cut the rope from around them, and Ichigo moved up to catch the body as she fell. Her decent was slow and graceful eventually ending in the strong arms of the substitute shinigami. Ichigo's face reflected a look of pity for the beautiful arrancar as he stared at her lifeless body. "She's a hollow.", stated Ichigo with some surprise. "But she looks just like a human."

"Kisuke did say that only the most powerful hollows will take on a humanoid form 100% of the time and that the more powerful the hollow the more human they look.", stated Uryu in his normally cold tone.

At that moment the woman's eyes opened and her body convulsed violently. Her mouth opened and a clear liquid emerged covering her entire body. "Ewwww! Gross!", said Ichigo dropping the female instantly and using shunpo to get away in a hurry.

"Wait. Oh my god! Is she still alive?", question Uryu to no one in particular.

"I don't know.", said Ichigo. The liquid seemed to be slightly healing the cuts and bruises all over her body. The three friends watched with baited breath as the liquid faded from her body. All of them began to move closer to her body. Her eyes, while still open, looked like the eyes of a doll. There was nothing behind them. Ichigo knelt down and cradled the females limp body in his arms. "Chad," he said, "start digging a grave...."

The lifeless eyes suddenly blinked and were filled with life. The battered female looked up at the man holding her. She could see a look of happiness on his face, a look that was thankful that she was alive and not dead. She concluded that there must be only one reason for this. That as a hollow he must get much more pleasure out of live prey than dead. She decided to plea for any small measure of mercy that she could get. "Please......don't.....rape...Nel....again. Nel...has...never seen you...before. You must.....be new to the...espada. Nel would be happy....to die. But....Nel doesn't have...the strength...to take anymore...torture.", Nelliel stated in a very weak voice. Ichigo was taken aback by her words. She saw the hurt in his eyes. She did not want to anger the young man, so she tried to play on the emotion she hoped she saw earlier. "So...please...You can hurt Nel as much as you wish...but please...after your...done with...my body....please kill me. Nel can see...that you....aren't like other....espada. Your eyes...show pity for Nel...so if you are able...please kill Nel...end my....pain.", she added softly touching Ichigo's cheek as she did so, her hazel eyes like pools of sorrow.

"I'm not an espada. I'm a soul reaper and.....", Ichigo began. But before he could reassure her that he was not going to harm her in any way, she began to cry and buried herself into his chest.

"Oh, thank god. Nel thought that you were going to rape and torture her before killing her. But you are a soul reaper. You will only kill Nel. This makes Nel so happy! You....have no idea....", stated the arrancar with true joy in her voice. She was as happy as a kid on Christmas morning. Uryu didn't know which was sadder: the fact that she believed them to be murderous espada sent to torture her or the fact that whatever she had endured up to that point made death without being tormented and raped the absolute best situation she could hope for.

"No. Wait. We aren't going to kill you. I'm not....I can't.....", Ichigo said looking into Nel's still tear filled eyes. In her kind face he saw Orihime's reflection. He instantly felt as though she needed his protection. Nel looked puzzled. "If you don't want Nel's body and you are not here to kill Nel, then why...."

"We saw you on the cross and could not leave you like that.", stated Uryu with a caring tone. "Excuse me miss, I don't mean to be rude but, are you an arrancar?" Nell began to nod her head. "Well then might I ask another question. What happened to you and why were you crucified like that?"

Nel's eyes grew nostalgic. "Nel was....once one of the espada in Las Noches....", she began. Visible shock once again graced the faces of Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu. Sitting upright, she continued, "back when Lord Aizen had just become king of Hueco Mundo...."

Hueco Mundo, Inside Las Noches, Orihime's Bedroom

Orihime was backed into a corner. Her shoulders hit the wall behind her and she realized she had no more room to run. Her eyes widened as the two female arrancars approached her with malice in each calculated step. Orihime was scared. A fear she had not felt since the day she faced down El Cidd. She had the feeling she was going to die, or at the very least, get hurt very badly. She stared, eyes wide in fear, at the dark haired arrancar as she spoke.

"Yeah, your really something special. Why, Lord Aizen doesn't even visit us at night anymore right, Menolly.", Loly said in a highly sarcastic tone. "Yeah your so beautiful....you have him all to yourself, don't you. Oh and look, all your friends came to rescue you too. Yeah they just couldn't live without their princess!" She grabbed the back of Orihime's head and pulled her down so that her knees had no choice but to buckle and go down to the ground. Orihime let out a slight yelp as she was forced to her knees.

"I-If.....you don't have anything you need from me, then please....leave.", Orihime said shakily but with iron in her voice. But this act of what Loly considered blatant defiance, only enraged the female arrancar further. "Oh! You think you are so hot don't you? That your queen of the world! HUH?", Loly shouted at Orihime as she slammed her head into the ground. Orihime's vision went blurry from the blow and the next thing that she could see clearly was Loly's boot about to stomp her in the face. Orihime knew she could fight back. She could so easily grab the sword and fight the two arrancars, though she was convinced she would probably lose. It was then that emihirO spoke to her.

"Why are you allowing this to happen? Why are you not crushing these two insects like the insignificant specks of dirt that they are? Your power, our power, is so much greater than theirs. You could kill them with one wave of your hand. And you know this! So tell me why, why I have to sit here and endure this humiliation. These filthy, disgusting vermin placing their hands on me! As though they were my equal in any way!", emihirO exclaimed seething with venom.

"We can't. I don't know how to control the power of the sword yet. If we use it on them, they could die.", Orihime said to emihirO in her mind.

"I don't care! I've had enough of this! ", shouted emihirO with righteous indignation. Then suddenly calmer, "You don't know how to use this power? Allow me to show you. This is how its done!"

Orihime suddenly found herself alone inside her inner world. She began to look around frantically for her other self. "emihirO. emihirO, where....did....you go?", Orihime said with concern. She flew around from pillar to pillar over the sea of blood but was unable to find her. Then she looked up at the sky and behind the clouds she could see Loly and Menoly kicking. It was as though behind the clouds, she could see a movie of what was happening.

Loly picked her up by the hair again. "Stay the fuck away from Lord Aizen, you got that bitch! We were all sharing in his company before you came along and now all of a sudden all he cares about is his little princess here! Well I've had enough..." Loly was unable to finish her warning. Orihime grabbed the wrist of the hand that was holding her hair. Instantly Loly broke her grip on the young girl. She was completely shocked to see any kind of fight come from her at all. Loly recovered momentarily and prepared to fire a bala blast at Orihime. Orihime rose from the floor slowly, keeping her head down the whole time. As soon as Loly fired her bala, Orihime, faster than can be perceived, called her sword to her hand from the corner of the room by simply stretching her arm in the direction of the blade and blocked her blast. The smoke obscured Orihime from view and Loly began to smirk in victory. But as the smoke cleared the figure of Orihime, still standing with the jet black blade raised inversely in front of her body so as to block her attack, appeared. She slowly raised her head. Her face was battered and bruised. But Menoly could tell, this was not the same girl they were just attacking. Her eyes had completely changed, now they had a cold look of superiority to them. Her face seemed to be stuck in a permanent scowl and her attitude had changed as well. She was no longer afraid, at all. As a matter of fact she seemed quite intent on killing them. Both of the female arrancars watched with frightened curiosity as the sclera in her eyes went from white to black, and the irises glowed white. Then suddenly Orihime's spiritual pressure increased sharply, making a high pitched whine as the aura of energy enveloped her body. Both female arrancars noted the increase in spiritual energy and pressure, but believed that it was an instinctual response to her being attacked by Loly. Then her spiritual pressure increased again, making it so the arrancars would have to increase their own reiatsu just to be able to move.

"Ahhhhh! What the hell....is she some kind of monster?", exclaimed Menoly overwhelmed in the face of Orihime's paralyzing reiatsu.

"I don't know but this is coming to an end.....right now.", Loly said as she charged up her cero blast. No human can take a blast from a cero and live, she thought. I'll just tell Lord Aizen that she was escaping and betraying us with her friends. Then I'll be a hero for stopping her and Aizen will want to be with me again...... She was unable to finish her thought because she saw movement from Orihime. Without changing the position of her outstretched arm she pointed the sword at Loly. Then Loly saw at the end of the sword point a sight that gave her cause for concern and outrage at the same time: Orihime was charging a cero! The black and blue ball was about twice the size of the one Loly had. Menoly could tell it was more condensed too. Loly could not hold back her anger any more.

"HOW DARE YOU! THAT IS OUR ATTACK! FILTHY HUMAN, CAN'T FIRE A CERO!", she screamed at the top of her lungs, her face twisted in rage. Loly then proceeded to pump as much reiryoku in to her cero as possible. Orihime just stood still charging her cero. Menoly could tell that Orihime was pumping more energy into the cero, but the size was staying the same. She knew that the pressure her spiritual energy was under must be enormous, on par with the espada. Menoly dismissed this thought from her mind; no human could have that much power. Deciding that Orihime must be bluffing or pulling some kind of trick, Menoly jumped to the side of Loly and began to charge her cero. Giving Loly a knowing look she said, "Well you can't have all the fun."

Loly smiled at Menoly, she smiled back, and they both turned their attention back to Orihime who was staring at them with her cold eyes. "Haaaaaaaaaaaah!", they chorused as they fired their ceros in unison. Orihime condensed the cero down another level and fired. The motion she made with her hand was like she was turning an ignition and her sword was the key. The two ceros of the arrancar girls were blown away by the sheer concussive force of Orihime's cero. The amount of spiritual energy contained in the cero was far more than either of them had considered it to be. The last thing that Menoly saw was Loly pushing her out of the way of the cero right before impact and then seeing that same friend washed away as wave after wave of black spiritual energy smashed into her body, leaving nothing but the lower part of her legs still standing. Menoly was in shock seeing that her friend had just perished before her eyes. Her eyes shaking as though on the verge of tears, she cried out, "LOLLLYYY!" She had failed to notice Orihime sonido to her location. Her eyes widened as she noticed the presence behind her. Slowly turning her head back around to look at Orihime, she saw a cold look of death on the young girl's face. Orihime raised the sword as though she was about to thrust it through her opponent. Menoly braced herself for death, but for some reason that she could not fathom the girl began to argue with the air at the moment of final victory.

"NO! I was about to kill them and end all this. Then no one will ever question us again. JUST LET ME KILL THEM! NOOOOOO!"

Inside her mind Orihime answered, "I will not have you using our powers to kill again! You may know how to use our abilities better than me, but I know that I can stop you! This is my body and you may not have control over it anymore!" Closing her eyes, Orihime called emihirO's spirit back into the inner world and traded places with her, leaving her screaming inside the sea of blood. Orihime's eyes then reverted back to white as she looked at the devastation caused by the ceros. She could see clear through the back of the tower now. Menoly gazed upon Orihime in absolute terror. Orihime noticed this and was greatly saddened by the fear she saw on her face. Orihime knelt down to heal Menoly but as she did so the arrancar girl flinched and groaned, as she was certain that Orihime was going to finish her off now. But to her surprise she was bathed in an orange light. She could feel herself being healed. Orihime now looked at Loly's still standing legs. I did this, she thought. I killed her. But maybe I can bring her back.

While Orihime was healing Menoly the two stayed in complete silence. Once she was done she turned her attention to Loly. Menoly watched helplessly as Orihime tried to save the life of her fellow arrancar. Menoly's eyes widened in amazement as her body was restored to working order, just as if nothing had happened to her. As soon as she was able Loly sat up. Realizing she was bathed in the orange glow of Orihime's shun shun rikka shields, she began to look around for her. Orihime was sitting on Loly's right side. Suddenly and without warning she hit Orihime saying, "I was dead. Why am I back here? I was dead. You ARE some kind of monster! You killed me and then you bring me back! Why? Stop it! Stop whatever your doing, you monster that raises the dead!" She continued to hit Orihime until the orange light faded. When she was totally healed, she and Menoly backed slowly out the door, all the while never taking their eyes off of Orihime, who was just kneeling on the floor not moving. She really did not care that they were leaving, nor did she care if they stayed. She had lost control again. And she had killed again. It did not matter that her life was in danger. It did not matter that they were the ones who provoked the attack. This was a wholly different situation from the last time with El Cidd and yet that did not matter. To Orihime, it was all the same. It didn't matter that she saved the arrancar's life. To her the fact that she killed anyone at all was proof she was turning into a monster. The last time she could lie to herself and pretend that she had killed El Cidd under the guise of protecting the world, but this time she was only protecting her own worthless life. That, Orihime deemed, was an unworthy reason. No matter what, she decided, she was going to find a way to contain these powers. She stood up and placed her sword on the floor. Then she rethought about it, and placed the sword next to her on the bed. She did not want it to be out of reach in case Loly or Menoly tried to attack her in her sleep. Orihime was suddenly drained of energy. She could not keep her eyes open nor could she make any move and get ready for bed. Her eyes closed as soon as her head met the mattress and within seconds she was deep in slumber. The walls around her were crumbling and her cero had sent up an alert over all of Las Noches. No sooner was she asleep then she was awakened by the presence of Ulquiorra entering her room.

"What is the meaning of this?", stated the espada in a nonchalant fashion.

Opening her eyes, Orihime thought carefully before she replied. She did not want to get the two female arrancars into trouble and she knew that she could not lie to Ulquiorra either. "I was unable to control my power. Ulquiorra, I need you to take me to see Aizen." There was a look of determination on her face. She knew that the only one that may be able to help her control her powers was him and she decided that she was going to talk to him and find out how, no matter what.

Ulquiorra would have dismissed the request out of hand if it were from anyone else. But for some reason he felt compelled to do what she asked. It wasn't as though he could not say no, but he felt like there was a force pushing him gently towards helping her, slightly altering his desires to match hers. Ulquiorra decided to make a note of it, but do nothing about it, at this time. "I will convey your request to Lord Aizen and I will send someone to fix 'this' as soon as possible.", he said pointing to the mess that was her room. She looked around at the rubble and thought did I do that.

"Thank you, Ulquiorra-san", she said with gratitude in her voice. She laid back down on the bed as Ulquiorra left, feeling a bit of relief. She would soon see Aizen and he would be able to help her control her power, she just knew it. Her thoughts turned toward her friends. It had been at least 2 or 3 days since she had felt her friends breaking in to Las Noches, but she had not heard anything else about them. The first night she had felt Uryu's and Chad's spiritual pressures in battle with two arrancars that she did not know. She remembered the relief she had felt when she sensed they had defeated their opponents. She then recalled that she felt their spiritual pressures in distress, like they were frantic about something, and after that they were outside of Las Noches. Once they had exited, however, it felt like they barely moved, like they were standing still. She decided to check on their progress once again. Closing her eyes she concentrated on Ichigo and any reiatsu close to him. She was able to find Ichigo quickly and one....two....three other spiritual pressures around him. "Three?", she thought. Who was this other one? It did not feel like a soul reaper or a human. It felt like an arrancar, but she was so close to Ichigo that Orihime had trouble distinguishing the two energy signatures. Orihime noticed that they had moved but not that far from the last time she checked they're position. "Ichigo, did you really come here just to save me?", she wondered, hope filling her heart. Even though she felt guilt for causing her friends to worry and she knew that they may get hurt trying to rescue her, she had to admit to herself she was glad that they had come to save her. She smiled as she thought of one day soon being reunited with her friends at school, and with her comrades she fought along side. Chad, Uryu, Rukia, Renji, Ichigo......Her face practically beamed as she thought of her love. "I will show you how I feel this time, Ichigo. I promise.", she said aloud in whisper to herself. She hugged her pillow as though it were him and drifted off to sleep with pleasant thoughts of her life in Karakura town in her mind.

Hueco Mundo, Inside Las Noches

"How is the experiment coming?", Aizen asked of Szayel.

"The time dilation field is currently at a ratio of 1 to 7. For every day that passes outside the fortress, inside 7 days pass, Lord Aizen.", he responds with feigned reverence.

"Excellent.", Lord Aizen responds with a smile.

"Why are we doing this?", exclaims an excited Grimmjow, "We should just crush those little bastards right now! Give me the word and they are as good as gone."

"Grimmjow, there is nothing to worry about. As long as you follow my instructions everything will be fine.", says Aizen calmly.

"The time dilation field gives us an incredible advantage. If you were to stop and think for a moment, you would see that from this vantage point we are in an impregnable position.", Ulquiorra stated.

"I know that! I don't need you to tell me anything, Ulquiorra. Anyone coming to attack us will be spotted and destroyed long before they can do anything. From in here it seems as if the outside world is standing still. But those little bugs are hardly worth waiting for.", said Grimmjow

"Aizen-sama has already explained you and I will confront the boy when the time is right. The others are of no consequence. We simply need to be ready when they get here. I understand that they have made contact with Nelliel.", stated Ulquiorra.

"Yes it's all going just as planned. The top three espada shall accompany me to Karakura town to attend to affairs there, after we settle things here.", Aizen said calmly with a smile.

"Aizen-sama what about the girl, Orihime? You have addicted her to your spiritual pressure and you have brought out her hidden hollow and ability. When are you planning on utilizing her to stabilize the Hogyoku?", said Szayel Aporro Granz.

"Oh, I don't need her for that. I merely told her about the Hogyoku to get her to understand the true nature of her abilities. I should have quite some time with her before they are able to get to here and 'rescue' her. To control existence, I need her to fight against....him.", said Aizen pointing into the distance.

They all felt the fear in the room as he pointed out into the desert beyond the fortress. The strongest being in all three worlds lay out in the desert of Hueco Mundo, leagues away from Las Noches. His power released created Hueco Mundo eons ago. Without looking the espada turned and left the room, leaving Aizen alone.

"We shall all relish in victory soon, my dear espada.", said Aizen bidding the espada farewell.

I had a hell of a time getting this done cause the next chapter is more of the same elements so I did want to do it all in this chapter so I figured splitting the information between the two chapters would be best. Let me know what you think. Lataz.