Chapter 2: Split Personality

Ichigo stepped aside and watched as his friends tried to fight the 10th Espada, but that's when he noticed. "Oi, Renji, why is his number 0?"

Renji was sweating by now, and answered Ichigo without taking his eyes off of the battle, "apparently the ranks of the Espada aren't arranged from one to ten!"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow and scowled, obviously confused.

"It ranges from zero to nine." Chad finished for Renji.

Ichigo's eyes widened and he looked at the Espada. If he was so strong, then why did he let Ulquiorra hit him during one of their first encounters?

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Uryu's eyes widened in fear as the bodies of all of the Espada that they'd worked so hard to kill were brought back to life.

"Good, Eden," Aizen said massaging her shoulders lightly.

"No, Inoue, stop!" Uryu yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping she would snap out of whatever spell she was put under.

"Orihime," Ayame said looking down at 'Orihime' as she was healing the Espada, "Are you sure you want to be doing this?"

Eden growled in annoyance. They were all fools. Calling her names that were not her own. 'My name is Eden.'

"Silence," Eden hissed, "You are my power now. You listen to my orders. Got that?"

Uryu was shocked, she was so different from the Orihime that he knew and… He wouldn't say loved; just liked, a lot. "Please… Don't do this."

"Silence," Eden growled slashing her hand in his direction letting out a pink and purple swirl of power slashing in his direction, which he barely dodged a direct hit.

At first the scar that was left on his leg felt like a normal cero, but then it started to burn, it felt like acid. He couldn't help himself from letting out a loud scream of pain.

Hearing his scream, Eden hunched over and clutched at her head.

'Why has this happened twice in a short period of time?' Aizen wondered.

"Sōten Kisshun," Orihime struggled to shout, "I reject!"

Aizen pulled Orihime away and knocked her unconscious before she could completely heal him. "Sorry to leave so abruptly, but we've got some business to attend to."

"Did you hear that, Ichigo?" Rukia asked before jumping from Yami's left to his right quickly to avoid his powerful yet slow blows.

Ichigo nodded, "It was Ishida…"

"Go," Chad said, "Ichigo."

Ichigo nodded hesitantly and took off in the direction he heard the scream.

With a moan of pain, Orihime stirred, and found that she was laying on a table with all kinds of eyes staring down at her. All she saw were blurs of black and loud annoyed voices before she closed her eyes once again.

Orihime opened her eyes once, again, this time to darkness…

"Hahaha…" She heard a low laugh.

"W-Who's there?" Orihime gulped, stepping back, hearing the sound of water as she moved. "What's going on?"

What was the place? It was black, sewer-like… Thankfully, it didn't reek, but she disliked and feared the place regardless. 'Am I in a swamp? How did I get here?'

"I'm taking over from here," The same voice continued to laugh. "You will remain here for the rest of your life."

Orihime shivered, 'that voice'… She continued taking steps back, not caring if she were to step in a hole or get eaten by a crocodile… After six tiny steps, she was forced to a halt because a wall was in her way. The tears streamed down her face as she sensed the voice coming closer to her. Her body trembled as she hugged her body and went down to her knees and began rocking.

Nnoitra snorted, "What the fuck? That was a waste of time."

"She's a fucking human!" Grimmjow scowled at Aizen.

Aizen just smirked from his high throne, Tousen and Gin, loyally by his side. His head was leaned against his hand when he responded, "Patience, Grimmjow."

"Pf, fuck that!" Grimmjow yelled, yanking the woman up by her shirt and shaking her awake.

With a loud feral snarl, her eyes snapped wide open and before Grimmjow could react he was thrown across the room with a very angry, hollow looking Orihime jumping over him and clawing at him.

"Eden," Aizen called, stopping her ravenous swiping.

"Lord Aizen," she nodded, stepping off of her new team mate who was still in temporary shock.

"As you can see, Eden is the new addition to our family." Aizen said softly, "Eden, would you like to fight an Espada to get a rank?"

Grimmjow blinked, finally getting over her speed and reached a hand to feel the blood that he knew was oozing from his chest and face, 'Damn wench.'

Ulquiorra looked away, uninterested. A human was still a human, "Trash."

Jerking her head towards Ulquiorra, she growled. Not taking her eyes away from him, she continued to speak to her new leader. "Who do I get to tear apart?"

"Any of them you think you can beat." Aizen said, narrowing his eyes at her. Eager to find out what and how her abilities could benefit him.

Ichigo continuously called for Ishida and Inoue, but there was never a response.

"Where could they be," Ichigo asked himself, starting to get annoyed.

"Ichigo, over here," he heard Ishida's voice call out weakly.

"Ishida," Ichigo hollered, running to the Quincy's side, "What happened?!" He turned his head frantically, "Where's Inoue?!"

"M-My potion," Ishida said, gesturing at the vile that fell away from his body.

Ichigo scowled the whole time as he put the vile to Uryu's lips. Once he finished, he threw the vile carelessly to the side. "Now tell me what happened!"

"Inoue… That mask started to grow rapidly right after getting out of the tunnel." Ishida swallowed, "And she turned into… A hollow… But it was strange. It was like she had a split personality. When she hurt me, she'd revert back to herself, and heal me."

Ichigo gulped, a worried look plagued his face.

"And Ichigo," Ishida said after a while, just remembering every detail, his chest feeling a heavy burden, "She… Well, her hollow form, known as 'Eden', somehow brought back to life all of the Espada."

Ichigo's face paled, and his voice hitched. After all of that work everyone went through to kill them… And they were all back. Did her powers increase to that extent that she could bring back the dead, or was it the power of the hollow?

Eden scowled at her new master, "I can beat any of these fuckers!"

Ulquiorra inwardly sighed, another bad-mouthed addition to their group.

"Watch it, bitch," Grimmjow scoffed, and then grinned when she tilted her head to look at him with an icy glare. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Oi, Aizen," Eden flat-toned, "How about I fight this jackass?"

Aizen rested his chin in his palm, his fingers covering his smirk, "Only if you think you can handle him."

"Oh, I'll do more than 'handle' him alright!" Eden smirked, pounding her fist into her other hand mockingly.

Aizen grinned, bringing his hand up slowly, he snapped his fingers. The ground shook, shocking everyone, and the ground stretched out and turned into an arena. "Begin."

"I'll put that bitch in her god damn place," Grimmjow muttered.

"Good luck with that, Grimmy-kun," Eden teased with a smirk that was seductive without her even trying.

Grimmjow smirked, showing his fanglike teeth, "Just so you know just because you're a girl doesn't mean I'll go easy on ya!"

"And I won't go easy because you're stupid," Eden purred, now standing behind him with clawed fingers running down his back. Grimmjow's eyes widened, he hadn't even noticed a movement. Her speed was unreal.

He whipped around, only to find her gone again, 'Dammit all!'

This time she sent him flying with a kick to his lower back. "I'm sorry, just when did you plan on putting me in my place?"

He scowled and finally drew his Zanpaktou, "Fine, I admit. You're pretty good. But I can still whip ya!"

"Bring it," Eden said drawing her own, which appeared to just be a baton.

Upon seeing her weapon, he burst out laughing, "What the fuck is that!? You gonna hit me with a stick!?"

Eden blinked, "'well it is pretty pathetic looking compared to his.'

Aizen closed his eyes, his lips still not losing his smile, 'yes, even though she has the strength and speed of a hollow now, she still needs lots of training. She doesn't even know how to use her Zanpaktou…'

"Whatever," Eden hissed, putting the Zanpaktou away, "I don't even need it to beat your dumb ass."

"You'll regret that in a second." He laughed, charging at her. 'All I need is one good hit, and her speed will be useless.'

Eden blocked all of his violent slashes with her shield as she swiped at him with her claws and tried blasting him with a cero. He feigned an attack with his Zanpaktou, and when he saw that her shield was focused on that spot, he sent a powerful kick to her gut, making her shield shatter.

Eden gasped in pain, tumbling down the floor. Pushing herself up from the floor, she whispered, "Sōten Kisshun."

Grimmjow would occasionally land a hit on her, and she continued to heal herself. Though the battle seemed to be on par, Grimmjow's grin never faded.

She jumped up in the air and kicked at his muscular build in many different angles but her strength was wearing down, and her blows didn't seem to have the same effect as they did in the beginning of the battle. 'Why am I suddenly so tired?'

Distracted by her own thoughts, and too tired to dodge, Grimmjow was able to land a direct round-house kick to her back, sending her rolling across the arena floor.

Eden groaned, her eyes failing to open.

"Face it," Grimmjow roared sadistically, roughly stepping on her stomach and twisting his foot, "Human blood, human stamina."

'No…' Eden thought, feeling faint.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ugh, what's going on?" Eden asked herself, opening her eyes to see that Grimmjow—nobody was there.

"Eden," A soft voice called out to her and she turned her head to the voice and saw Orihime.

"You… What… Is going on?" Eden asked, confused.

"I was finally able to get you here," Orihime answered, "When we heal ourselves… It uses way more energy than when we heal others. But I don't know how long Aizen will let this battle go on. And I don't know if he will let us die. So I'll tell you. I've noticed that when I use Tsubaki-kun right after healing myself, the energy returns."

"Tsubaki-kun?" Eden asked.

"Yes, he is our offensive power."

"Really, is he good?" Eden smirked. "Is he our Zanpaktou or something?"

Orihime bit her bottom lip, trying to think of a way to explain, "He is good, but not our Zanpaktou. His power depends on my… well, our killing intent. I never had a Zanpaktou, so I can't help you there."

Eden's smirk grew, scaring Orihime. She had never seen a face so scary, so murderous… let alone her own face. Only Ichigo's hollow had ever scared her so much. Right now, she didn't even know which scared her more. "Really, how perfect, because I have an intent to kill."

Orihime gulped, 'did I do the right thing? If I didn't tell her, I would have died… but now… Kurosaki-kun…'

"How do I use him?" Eden asked, reaching for Orihime's white dress and pulling her closer.

"Koten Zanshun," Orihime choked, "Just… Be careful with him, okay?"

Eden raised an eyebrow, "He is a weapon, and he can get hurt?"

Orihime nodded; her eyes glimmering with hope and determination.

Eden rolled her eyes, "For helping me, I will keep this promise."

Orihime smiled, "You better get back to the battle. Good luck."

"Wait," Eden said, "One more thing."

Orihime blinked, "Yes?"

"Why are you helping me if you supposedly don't want people dead?" Eden smirked.

"I don't want us to die either," Orihime answered, looking down, "I know it's selfish of me, but I'm not ready to die yet." Orihime's eyes then darkened and her eyebrows furrowed, "And I will stop you if you try to kill anyone who I think will not kill us.

Eden scowled and rolled her eyes, "whatever, as if you have the power to."

"Shouldn't you end the fight?" Gin asked Aizen.

"This battle is not over." Aizen answered, keeping his focus on the battle.

Raising his foot, Grimmjow snorted, "I told you, you have no idea who you're dealing with!" he roared, throwing his foot down upon her once again.

Before his foot landed on her being, Eden's eyes snapped open and she rolled away from the attack. The ground beneath his foot cracked and made a small crater. Before he could react, she grabbed his other leg and threw him to the other side of the arena. She was still weak and tired, so her assault barely made him do a back flip.

"So you still have fight in you?" Grimmjow smirked, "Good, cause that would have been a great disappointment!"

Eden kept her ground, panting, waiting for him to make his move.

"You're not going to attack?!" He barked, "Then I will!" He lunged forward, his Zanpaktou positioned to slice through her.

"Koten Zanshun!" Eden roared, watching as a tiny fairy flew out from her pins, with a large power surrounding him.

Grimmjow didn't even flinch. He saw this attack from Ulquiorra's experience, it would be painless—in fact, it wouldn't even tickle. As the fairy came in contact with him, he felt the fairy tear at his skin, so he jumped away just in time. His run became a slow walk, to no movement at all. He felt pain…great pain. He coughed and saw the blood on his hand. 'But how—this attack is nothing like Ulquiorra and Yammy claimed!'

'Orihime was right. I have a lot more energy now.' Eden thought while watching the wounded Grimmjow fall to his knees.

"Heh, you think you got me, but you haven't seen anything yet." Grimmjow whispered, growling deeply, beginning to transform. But before he did, a clapping noise interrupted him.

"Good, I have seen enough." Aizen said, now on the outside of the arena where the other Arrancar watched the battle, shocked and disbelieving.

"What?!" both Eden and Grimmjow growled.

"Are you going to question me?" Aizen asked in a tone that was meant to warn them otherwise.

They both shook their heads, turning away from each other.

"Eden," Aizen said, "I would like you to undergo training with some of the Espada. You have serious potential."

"Yes, Aizen-sama," Eden bowed.

"Ulquiorra, show her to her room." Aizen ordered, taking his own leave.

Supressing a sigh, Ulquiorra closed his eyes, "Come with me, woman."

"Fuck you! I'll go when I'm damn ready!" Eden snarled, but followed anyway.

"I implore you to change your vocabulary," Ulquiorra glared at her, 'She is ruining the memories I have of the real Orihime. I would kill her for doing so, but if I were to kill this… Eden, I would be killing Orihime as well.'

"And I implore you to get a life and butt out of mine," Eden snapped.

"Trash," Ulquiorra sighed before opening the door to a room, "This is your room now, you will not be locked up anymore, but I would suggest never leaving the room until you are strong enough to fend for yourself."

'Locked up anymore… Hm, so Orihime was a prisoner…' Eden thought while taking a seat on the long couch, "Hey, how come you're not locking us in here this time?"

"Aizen-sama believes that he can trust you," He answered, shoving his hands in his pockets, "And he wants you to feel like one of us—not a prisoner."

"I see…" Eden said before a thought struck her, "What makes him so sure that Orihime won't gain consciousness or whatever you call it and make her escape?"

Ulquiorra stared into her eyes with a blank emotionless expression on his face. Without answering her question with even a slight gesture, he turned and left the room.

"What an ass." Eden said out loud, to no one in particular.