//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Heart 
// by Akatsuki God 
//------------------------------//

{???}

It was dark out in the middle of a seemingly never ending desert that had surrounded an enormous stone building with a somewhat ominous crescent moon situated high in the night sky and very few clouds which were dark a loosely dispersed. On the center of the giant stone mass, were five huge pillars which were all destroyed except for one. A man with short spiked orange hair who was wearing torn black clothing to the point that his abdominal region along with his left arm and most of his left leg were bare stared in shock at another man which was taller and slender with pale skin, long black hair, black fur that covered everything below his waste and most of his arms, two horns that perturbed from the sides of his head, large black wings that resembled that of a bat, and a large hole in his chest which, at a glance, seemed to have a black substance seeping down out of the circular hole along with his eyes which were yellow with the whites of them being green and his pupils resembling that of a cat's. He was injured with a long, deep cut extending from his left shoulder to his right hip and he was missing most of his left arm and leg, half of his left horn was missing, and his entire left wing.

The tall man was close to a girl with long straight orange hair in white clothing which had tears around her neck and upper body and leaving her shoulders bare. He was also standing next to and stared blankly at another man with black hair that extended to the bottom of his cheeks on either side of his face who wore glasses and white long sleeved clothing which had tares all over and was missing half of its left sleeve and had a long, thin black sword stabbed through his chest and narrowly missing his heart.

The orange haired man stared at the man with the sword in his chest in disbelief. "Uryu..." He said aloud to himself, silently hoping he was okay.

In response, the man he was looking at made an effort to smile as he looked back at him. "I see you finally...snapped out of it." He said, using up much of his dwindling strength.

The orange haired man was now in greater shock. "Am I the one...responsible for that wound?" He asked in worry as he continued stare wide eyed at the man with the sword in his chest.

"You're a hard guy to kill." Said the taller man in a calm and dark voice, causing the orange haired guy to turn to meet his gaze and with his focus now fixed on him, he only stared, painfully taking in the aftermath of what he had done while he was apparently unconscious.

"Ulquiorra..." Was the only thing he could bring himself to say at the moment, receiving his cold stare.

Ulquiorra then seemed to disappear before instantly re-appearing in front of Uryu, who had the sword go through his chest, which startled him. He grabbed the sword before quickly and forcefully tugging on it, dislodging it from his chest and causing him to cringe and yelp for a short moment from the sudden jolt of pain as he turned to throw the sword, causing it to land in front fo the orange haired man with the narrow blade now loosely stuck in the ground with the handle pointed slightly away from him.

"Pick it up." The man he called Ulquiorra demanded calmly to him right after tossing it into the ground, and for a moment, things were silent. "Let's finish this battle now." He continued as he held his arm in the same bent position after tossing the sword.

"The one who stabbed Uryu...was it me?" The orange haired man then asked.

Ulquiorra turned completely to the side, making only the left side of his body visible to him while not taking his gaze off of him. "What difference does it make?" He questioned as he visibly brought up his right forearm with his palm open as a light green fire appeared in it before forming a long and narrow rod which was now sharp on both ends and without loosing its color or luminosity.

"Am I also the one responsible for...cutting off your left arm and leg?" The orange haired man continued to question without taking his eyes off him as his expression became even more serious. "If that's what happened then you should cut off my left arm and leg." He then suggested without confusion or hesitation.

This gesture caught everyone else by surprise with all of them reacting in their own way, the girl's expression became grim and her eyes widened. "What are you talking about!?" She demanded.

Ulquiorra's eyes also widened but only slightly as he dispersed to rod that he formed in his and before turning his body a little in the direction of the orange haired man and the orange haired man continued to speak in a serious tone. "The entity fighting you earlier was a hollowfied being with no consciousness, it was not really me. If were going to settle this fight, I have to be in the same condition as you or we won't be evenly matched." He then explained.

Upon hearing his explanation, Uryu's eyes widened as his irises shrunk. "Hold on Ichigo!" He pleaded. "Are you crazy!?" He then asked. "You can't be serious about this; it's suisidal!" He then suggested to him.

The taller man stared in surprise, still caught off guard by Ichigo's request. He regained his composure shortly after to his normal expression as he turned again, this time almost fully, to have his body face Ichigo, showing no emotion as he did so. "I'm fine with that, if that is what you want, that is what you will get." He agreed, showing no remorse. He then raised his wing as he repaired to engage and fulfill Ichigo's request. 

After raising his wing however, it started to deteriorate into ash, catching him and everyone else by surprise as he froze, looking back to his wing as the surprise had disappeared from his face. "Agh, so this is how it ends." He then stated before turning back to Ichigo. "Kill me, Ichigo." He said blankly, receiving stunned and confused looks from everyone around. "You don't have much time left. I won't resist you; I no longer have the strength to even walk. If you don't take this opportunity now, our duel will remain unsettled forever." The taller man explained in urgency without raising his voice.

Ichigo stood still as he began to look to word the ground with a beat of sweat forming just above his left cheek.  "I can't do it..." He replied.

Ulquiorra stared in disappointment. "What are you saying?" He asked.

At this Ichigo gritted his teeth. "I don't want to; not like this." He replied. "It's...wrong..." He then stated. "This is not the way I want to defeat you!" He yelled at the top of his longs before breathing heavily to catch his breath.

The taller man widened his eye as the color in them began to shift, the irises from yellow to a light green and the area around from green to white. He then closed them as he lowered his head to the side as he continued to slowly deteriorate. "To the very end...you just won't do what I want." He then concluded softly in defeat before reopening them a moment later to look at the girl. "...And just when I was finally becoming...a little bit intrigued with the way you people behave."

(Flash back)
The girl was standing in a white room with several columns lining the sides and she was with the man who was taller than her friends. But he was in a completely different form which was slightly shorter than her as he wore white clothing and instead of long horns on either side of his head, he had what appeared to be a partially broken off helmet on covering the left side of his head. He stood with his hands in his pocket as he kept his attention on her. "Are you afraid?" He ask her. "It's over. You will die here. You will die all by yourself with no one to witness it." He then said without getting a reaction from her even as he stared her down with his green and white eyes. "So I want to know. How frightened are you?" He then asked her.

"I am not...at all." She said in a calm and collected manner. "You see...now I know that my friends came to rescue me...so right now...my heart...my heart is with them." She then explained.

"What nonsense." He replied. "You're not scared because you're friends have come for you?" He questioned without him losing his composure. "You can't be serious. You really think they can save you?" He then asked.

Her eyes relaxed. "Absolutely." Was her only response.

"Tell me. What is a heart?

(Present)

Ulquiorra's hand reached out at the girl in a moderate pace. A gesture he had already done once toward her.

(Flash back)

Ulquiorra's hand now reached to the girl. "If I tore a hole in your chest, would I see it?" He asked as he brought his right hand out, reaching at her chest just above her breasts before raising it to her forehead. "If I split open your skull, would it be there?" Then asked, causing her to gasp as he then began to move it down to her upper abdomen. "Or would it be further down?"

(End of flash back)

"Let me ask again." He then requested. "Are you afraid of me?" He said as his arm was fully extended with his hand only casually reaching out before opening fully and using the last of his strength.

The girl held both of her hands in her chest. "No I'm not afraid." she responded calmly as before but this time with tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Really...I'm not..."

He stared at her with his hand still reaching out to her. "I understand." He then said as he began to slowly pull his arm back to his body when all of a sudden, the girl reached out in an attempt to grab his hand, only to have it turn to dust and continue to disintegrate up his arm rapidly. I see now...in the palm of my hand... his vision became dark as he had finally completely vanished from their sight.

i...is a heart.

________________________________________

For Ulquiorra, quite some time had passed as he continued to think to himself in without the presents of light, sound, or any sense of feeling, giving him a perfect sense of nothingness. Is this happiness? he thought to himself. Is this where my heart belongs? It...so bleak and probably would be described as boring. he then thought. His thoughts then halted, probably in an attempt to listen carefully for any audible sound. as I thought...there is no sound here in this world nothingness, even my thoughts produce no sound. I'm all alone, for any human...I doubt that even that Ichigo could stand it here, but I wonder. Is his heart strong enough to overpower the dread that I've come to accept as my home? he then thought as he began to ponder the self asked question. Eventually however, he began to hear a faint sound. ...what is that sound? he asked leading him to listen carefully to figure out what it may be and after a few seconds, he had noticed that the sounds were repeating and constant. It sounds like a trotting horse...but why am I hearing this? confusion began to set in as he began to feel a cool breeze on him as the hoof steps came to a stop. The hooves have stopped, but I can now feel wind. What world is this? I can't see anything nor can I feel or hear my body, yet I am able to feel a breeze and hear the sound of a horse." He then thought. He had also noted the sound a wings that flapped making him think it was a bird he was hearing but after remembering how faint the sounds were he realized that it was probably coming from an animal that is larger than any birds in the world Ichigo had come from. He know nothing of it but he didn't intend to complain because although the faint sounds and the cool breeze had him confused, he actually preferred the feeling and hearing something. After some time, the flapping had stopped and the hoof steps resumed. The flapping stopped...and the hooves come again. This sounds like what a human would call a pegasus, but that couldn't be it, they do not exist, even an arroncar can't resemble one, so what else could it be? his mind continued to wonder as he began to hear voices. When he tried to listen to them however, he realized that they were to faint for him to make out what they were saying but he could tell that there was more than on source that the voices were coming from' which came at him from all directions. and now there are even more hooves in the mix, yet I can hear talking, just like in the world of the living. he then thought as he noticed his curiosity reach its peek while at the same time, his senses began to fully come back to him until he finally opened his eyes. He then looked down at his pail hands, closing them once and reopening them to be sure they were his and sure enough, they were. "I'm still alive? But how?" He asked himself before taking a look around him, taking in his immediate surroundings and he saw that he lie in a bed with white sheets, a white blanket, and a white pillow. He also saw that he was surrounded by two ponies, one having white fur with a pink mane and tale and wore what appeared to be a nurse cap on her head and the other with navy blue fur and a dark blue mane and tale with a star pattern on it that resembled the night sky and was flowing even though there was no air flow but the real difference was that this one, to his surprise, had not only the wings of a pegasus, but also the horn of a unicorn. They both stared at him as he blinked, looking toward his chest after doing so to notice that his wounds were completely gone. "Why have you healed me?" He asked "Who are you?"