Blood and sand. His whole world had been blood and sand for five years. The scintillating taste of fresh blood on his tongue had been his only salvation of sanity in this endless desert. His tail whipped behind him as his mind reeled in confusion over the alien thoughts and feelings that swept through him when he saw those people and the word he said to the old man. Bankai.

He sniffed the air as he sensed a change in the world he'd been hunting in. Suddenly his senses were alert and he began gathering his power for the attack that would surely come. He sat poised for what seemed an eternity, but nothing came. The sense of danger had not passed, but he decided not waste time waiting on something that may not happen. As he looked down at his claws he noticed a small crack on his wrists, and frowned thoughtfully. What could have injured him? The most powerful hollow in Hueco Mundo feared nothing. Thoughts… useless things… dangerous things. They might lead "him" to wake up again. That hadn't happened in almost 4 years. He'd been the king for 4 years and loved every second of it… but he couldn't really remember anything before that. All he knew was that if "he" woke up again, that annoying voice in his head that cried and screamed, he would take control, and he wouldn't be king of Hueco Mundo or even his own body.

The creature walked aimlessly around Hueco Mundo allowing these dangerous thoughts to pass through his mind, and never once silencing them, or noticing the damage he was causing to himself with them. A trail of white hollow armor flakes were left behind him as he walked and thought. The deterioration was slow and almost unnoticeable if he wasn't looking for it, and he was too busy "thinking" to notice anything.

Rukia and Renji sat in the lotus garden of the Kuchiki manor, each of them trying to come up with any plan at all that could get them into Hueco Mundo to find Ichigo, when the answer fell into their laps. Literally. A small child, with teal hair landed in Rukia's lap after she fell out of a tree right above her.

"Nel?!? What are you doing here?" Rukia asked with obvious confusion showing in her violet eyes. Nel looked up at Rukia with tears starting to fall out of her eyes.

"Itsygo!!! He's falling apart… his body is falling apart and Nel can't do anything to stop it. Nel needed help so she came here to find his friends and get them to fix Itsygo." She sobbed into Rukia's chest.

"Oi, take us to the strawberry then. We'll fix him up." The redhead said in his normal annoyed tone, as if he hadn't been trying to figure out how to do just that.

Nel sniffed and wiped her tears off with her sleeve and nodded. "Nel will take Ruki and Pinapple-chan to where Itsygo is." She squirmed out of Rukia's lap and opened a garganta to Hueco Mundo, and the three of them set off in search of Ichigo. Unseen by them, the watcher who was sent to make sure they stayed safe slipped into the garganta before it closed off Sereitei from that barren wasteland.