Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

A/N: Sorry about things being a little confusing or poorly-written; I wasn't feeling too well at the time with writing this chapter.


"What in the world is this place?"

Kaname Tousen turned his eyes up towards the illuminating moon that hung in the dark sky above their heads. It glowed with an eerie, greenish-white light; this definitely wasn't the same moon he was so accustomed to seeing many times in his life before. It looked like it might fall at any moment upon them, mercilessly crushing them underneath its massive weight. Tousen gulped. Just like all of the others, he had no idea what was going on. The last thing he could remember doing was trying to figure out how to properly react to meeting Chrisalis' bizarre-looking father. Maybe it was a good thing this had happened, after all.

"...This is a desert, isn't it? Why...why...why are we in a desert?" Aizen's twin brother stammered in utter disbelief, his face pale and his hands quivering. Ever since he was a child, he had been a little emotionally frail (much to Aizen's annoyance), so this sudden and shocking turn of events had been a little too much for him to take in right away. His heart was pounding against the inside of his chest so strongly that it seemed like it could burst out at any moment. Of course, that was completely understandable considering the situation.

Gin and Matsumoto were too busy staring at the sibling of Aizen to say anything. It didn't take long before the bespectacled young man took notice of this. Kira was too busy curled up on the floor in fetal position to notice what any of the others were doing.

"I-Is something the matter?"

"Who are you?"

"Oh! I've never gotten a chance to introduce myself to my brother's friends! My name...it's Sasuke! It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for being friends with an emotionally difficult man like my brother." Sasuke took off his glasses and bowed his head before the couple.

'WHO is the emotionally difficult man here...? And can't you refer to me as something a bit less embarrassing?' Aizen scowled as he glared at the three of them from over his shoulder.

Matsumoto giggled. "You act just like Aizen used to back when we first started dating in high school; so innocent and naive...just the way I like them," The strawberry-blonde licked her lips in a lustful manner.

"Eh?" Sasuke and Gin replied together in perfect unison.

"Just kidding!"

"Oh."

Chrisalis, who had so far shown himself to be a rather laid-back individual (with some bipolar tendencies), was actually more concerned than anyone else about the current events taking place. "This is no time to be joking around, you know?" he exclaimed, his charcoal-black eyes bulging wide, "What are we doing in a desert all of the sudden? Why is the moon up there in the sky when it was only midday back when we were at the farmhouse? Where is everyone else from the reunion? This is really serious!"

"If anything, I think we were knocked out by some sort of strong, odorless gas during the reunion, taken away in groups, and then dumped out here in this remote area...but I can't begin to fathom why that would happen..." Tousen was trying his best to come up with a logical explanation for all of this, although even he was doubtful of his own claims.

Suddenly, Chrisalis gasped, as if something very shocking had dawned upon him at that moment. "Maybe it was the FBI! Those sons of bitches have been on my tail for a while now!" he proclaimed.

"The FBI is part of the U.S. government, you know...and I don't think they would do something as nonsensical as abandon a bunch of people in the middle of a desert, you know?" At least, Tousen hooped that they didn't.

Chrisalis slapped his forehead in a comical manner. "Oh, yeah, that's right. Silly me!"

"Why is the FBI after you, anyway?"

"It's a long story. I don't feel like talking about it."

"Then don't even bother bringing it up; you're just gonna make me too curious about it to even be able to think straight!"

"I want my mommy...I want my daddy...I want my limited-edition Nappa action figure...!" Kira sobbed loudly into his palms as he continued to roll around in a small mound of white sand.

Unable to stand around and listen to their inane jabbering any longer, Aizen turned to face the group. He was about to tell them all off, most likely through the combined use of both unnecessarily harsh words and nitpicking extensively at their personal faults, but our mullet-haired anti-hero found himself unable to do so.

His eyes were immediately drawn towards the large, swirling cloud of dust that was forming about a mile away. It seemed to be gradually moving closer and closer to their position. Something was rising out from underneath the sand. It definitely didn't seem like it wanted to come over and just say 'hello'. Aizen spun around on the tip of his heels and started running as fast as his legs could carry him. The immense terror had left him without a voice to warn the others of the oncoming danger. Either that, or he really just didn't care what happened to them.

"Where the hell is he going?" Chrisalis asked aloud. Suddenly, he felt something slimy wrap around his right ankle, and he was violently pulled underneath the sand against his own will. Gin cursed very, very loudly. Something akin to an explosion soon followed, sending a massive spray of sand into the air, and knocking back everyone who was standing close by. A bizarre-looking monster, like nothing that had ever been seen before, arose from the sandy depths. It had the body of a turtle, the head of an elephant, and three lengthy noses that resembled boa constrictors. Its face was hidden behind a skull mask covered with intricate, red stripes. It was about as tall as an average-sized house, and as wide as one too.

Almost immediately, Tousen buried his face into his palms. "What the hell is this?" He had never seen anything more ridiculous in his entire life.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha! It looks so stupid! It's hilarious!" Gin was clutching his sides in pain as he laughed madly at the top of his lungs. For some reason, they weren't taking the situation very seriously, despite the fact that they had just witnessed Chrisalis be pulled under by this monstrosity. Even Matsumoto was having a hard time keeping herself from chuckling. Aizen was still running, although he tripped every now and then, as he wasn't used to the bumps and curves of the sand.

The strange creature growled indignantly, and raised one of its clawed hooves to strike down its next meal...but suddenly it froze in mid-action. Gin and the others stopped and watched in curiosity of what would happen next. The monster was overcome with a brief but violent trembling all over its scaly body before it rolled over onto its side, dead. Chrisalis crawled out of its gaping maw a few minutes later.

"Phew!" Chrisalis wiped away the blood and saliva clinging to his face, "It was a good thing I tore out its heart from the inside!" He held up a small, dark-gray sphere and carelessly tossed it off to the side. For some reason, he was the only one not impressed or surprised by his own success at killing a giant monster from the inside that had just swallowed him whole seconds ago.

"YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT A NORMAL PERSON, ARE YOU?" Everyone else shouted back at him.

"Huh?"


Aizen wasn't sure how long he had been running, but by this point the others were so far back behind that he could hardly see them anymore. As he continued to run, he started to ponder to himself on whether his choice of action during a time of conflict had really been an appropriate one or not.

'Hmm...I don't hear any bitter screams of agony and pain...does that mean no one was killed by that thing? I guess I shouldn't have run away like that, huh? Damn, there's no way I can go back now though; everyone saw me dash off, and they, especially Gin, would never let me leave it down for abandoning them and acting like a pansy. They'll probably tug on my mullet while laughing at the salty tears pouring down my cheeks. Since when have I been so descriptive? There's got to be something I can do!'

Suddenly, as if to answer his questions, the ground underneath Aizen's feet gave way, and he tumbled into the darkness below. What he saw completely shocked him: trees. Thousands of tall, silvery trees all around.

'What the - is that a forest? How the fuck is there a forest underneath a desert? What the hell? How-'

Aizen smashed face-first against the floor before he could even think another word.