Arron was supposed to be dead, but he wasn't.

He was sure of it: he had felt his life, or unlike, or whatever it was, slip away from him like a wet rag drying in the sun. He thought his ice could kill Aizen, but his spiritual pressure was too strong, and it shattered like glass, flung in every direction like shrapnel, his aloof grin and empty, careless eyes showing mild disappointment.

A shame. You had so much potential.

And Aizen's sword pierced his hollow hole.

He should have known that acting out of anger would be a stupid idea: he was supposed to be undercover after all. But he just couldn't. When Aizen had vivisected Harribel with his blade, something inside of him began to burn, a rage he hadn't felt before. It wasn't betrayal, he never trusted Aizen in the first place. It was despair, what little was left of his heart after he had become hollow. His sister was his last connection to his previous life, his reason for living, so to speak. She was what kept him from being devoured by the other vicious beasts in Hueco Mundo. It was the Centerpoint of his hunger, and his unique connection to his sister is what must have piqued Aizen's interest. A hollow with a heart, or at least the remains of one. It was probably what made him and his sister so powerful in the first place, anyway.

When he lost her, he lost what was left of his heart, and Aizen felt that. For a short period of time, Arron had nothing to lose, which made him a very dangerous man. He had even out-fought Aizen for a short period of time, inflicting real wounds on him, and resisted his complete hypnosis by hijacking his spiritual pressure to home in on his real location. For the first time ever, Arron saw fear, real, genuine fear in Aizen's eyes. The fear of losing control of a dangerous animal. Aizen had lost his advantage, and it showed. Arron remembered slicing off his arm and gutting him like a fish, before encasing him in a coffin of ice, which rapidly compressed and became colder as it did so. But Aizen revealed his Trump card: his final form. As powerful as Arron was, he was no match for Aizen's newfound power.

And thus he had been slain. He saw a look in the old bastard Head Captain's eyes as he fell to the ground, a look of surprise, and what looked like sympathy. It was hard to be mad at anyone but Aizen at the moment, so he hoped the old man won. Maybe Aizen's arrogance would cost him the battle. He could only hope.

Coughing up blood on the rubble of a ruined corner shop. He took his last breath and stilled as his life had been ripped from him.

That was all he remembered. How was he still alive? Was there another world after death? God, he hoped not. He was so damn tired of all the fighting. He just wanted something besides that. He just wanted to sleep. Sleep forever. The eternal blackness that so many people ascribed to death sounded like heaven right now.

It was warm, so that was a start. His eyes were closed, but he felt light beating down on him, natural light. The air was fresh, smelling of dew, berries and grass. Not so bad.

So he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry for a moment, but he got over that quickly. He was underneath a treetop, with large green leaves that looked like maple swishing lightly in the wind. Sitting up, he noticed a small outline of a town past the treeline in the distance, but it wasn't Kakura town, it was far too small and rural. A small brook ran along a crevice in the ground where the earth split. He scooted over and dipped his hand into the water, feeling the cool liquid rish past his fingers. But he saw his reflection, and he wasn't amused.

He wasn't an arrancar anymore. He didn't know why he hadn't noticed it, but he didnt feel human anymore, either. He was so small, the size of a large dog, but he wasn't a dog. He resembled some mix between a Fox and a bear, with a bleached white body, but a narrow face with large eyes and whiskers. Definitely more bear than fox. When he breathed, the river gained a frosty sheen for a split second before evaporating into the water. Breathing onto his paw, he didn't feel any cold breath, it felt warm. Odd.

His limbs and body were covered in the same bony material that had covered part of his forehead when he had been an arrancar, but it felt like an exoskeleton. Tightly packed around his body and hard like steel, but he could feel through it, similar to how he could feel when he touched something, but more like when something touched his hair. The hair didn't feel, but what it was connected to was fine tuned to feel any movement. The wind licked his body, and the temperature drop was felt as well. It reminded him of Nnoitora's appendages when he was in his resurreccion, as ifbhe was wearing armor. A thick mane of blonde fur erupted from his spine, and his kneecaps had small tufts of fur sprouting from them.

After becoming somewhat more familiar with his new body, he decided to look around and see if he was alone. He had heard Ulqiorra died from Aizen, and of course his sister died. He saw Starrk fall from the sky, he couldn't be counted out.

But why would they be in this world? He was a damn animal for God's sake. There could be an infinite number of worlds, and he was just alone. He didn't know if he liked that or not. He decided not to dwell on it. He didn't want to think about his sister, it was too painful, and he had more important things to worry about.

He took a few steps before he felt his leg buckle and his chest flare in pain. Blood dripped onto the ground, and he remembered that he had been stabbed through the chest with a sword. So wounds didn't heal when he died? Whatever. He powered through it and began to march down to the small town with a vengeance. He spotted people down there, a few dozen or so, but some odd creatures accompanied some of them. One looked like a bird, a huge, brown bird that resembled an emu of sorts, with spiky feathers. But that wasn't it's most interesting feature. It had three heads, each of them operating independently, sometimes even pecking or pruning each other. Another was a large... creature, that's the best way Arron could describe it. Vines whipped from its back, and a small tree grew from its shell. They all seemed to be coexisting, so the animals certainly weren't wild, but it still irked him to see a creature that looked like a massive dinosaur made from steel lumber beside a girl who couldn't have been older than ten.

Arron wondered if he was hallucinating.

He hid inside the treeline and behind a few bushes and kept watch, observing the people and their creatures. Not only were they coexisting, but they seemed quite happy. Happier than the world he was familiar with, with all of the rushed workers and crowded streets. This world seemed like the world that Politicians described when running for office: clean air, beautiful buildings, maintained roads and bridges, clear rivers in the middle of urban areas, practically no cars and kids playing in the streets. It was serene, impossible even, but Arron saw it with his own two eyes.

Rustling and voices behind him disturbed him from his people-watching, and he hid inside of the bush, thorns scraping across his exoskeleton. Peering through the leaves, he saw two children, both no older than thirteen, stumble through the thicket with no coordination whatsoever. Both had shaggy black hair, backpacks, thick jeans and t-shirts. The first had a tall collar and darker skin that reminded him of barragan's, but unlike barragan he had a bright, goofy smile on his face. The other had lighter skin and a baseball cap on backwards, and what seemed to be a large yellow rat on his shoulder. The rat had a jagged tail resembling a thunderbolt, two yellow spots on it's cheeks and big whiskers. It sniffed the air, possibly giving away his Arron's location. He realized that if he was found, he might have to kill these two kids and their pets to keep his anonymity, no witnesses.

He shook his head in disgust with himself. Arron had to be better than that. He might be more or less heartless, but he didn't kill kids, he had standards. Besides, they were young, their parents probably wouldn't believe them or they possibly wouldn't even care, considering the sheer biodiversity of this world. He seemed boring in comparison to a massive metal dinosaur.

But the kids never noticed him, the one boy with the hat handed an apple to his pet rat, who devoured it heartily. Both of the boys giggled and continued on.

"Come on, Goh, we have to find the Silcoons. We might even see them evolve into beautiflies. That'd be so awesome!"

"Yeah ash, they're sure to hatch today! We can see the migration."

Arron watched curiously as the two kids kept trudging deeper into the woods, using some sort of navigation app on their high tech phones. A small rabbit-like creature with what looked like a bandana around its face. It looked back into the bush, and spotted Arron's eyes and stared for a moment before turning around and following its master. Arron breathed a sigh of relief and settled down in the bush to continue people-watching.

Arron was used to boredom.

Hueco Mundo was a simple place: you killed, you devoured, and you rose up the food chain. Once you reached the top, there wasn't much else to do. So you just… existed. It's a terrible existence that Arron wouldn't wish upon anyone.

He liked this better.

The night life of the city was quite peaceful. There were no parties or drinking or raves or anything loud. Just a few fancy restaurants with open patio seating. Arron had decided to come closer under the blanket of the night, his boney, slender body reflecting the moonlight like a mirror. He shied away from the roads and paths and kept to the brambles and thickets between them and the countryside. The people were still awake, even as the night grew heavy, some rolling out blankets and lighting candles and lanterns. One couple shared a bottle of wine. Nobody saw him, he made sure of it, but he had a few close calls. It seems when you die for the second time you get a bit rusty.

He found himself struggling to use his sonido, much less anything actually damaging beyond the occasional Bala. That was concerning, as if he was knocked back down to square one again. He felt significantly weaker than when he was in Karakura town, as weak as a Gillian, weaker, even. His chest had stopped bleeding, but it still flared up. Yet exploring beats sitting around and waiting for something to try and eat him.

Arron soon discovered a very new and unusual problem for him: he was bombarded with a cavalcade of new sensations. When he was a Hollow, and even as an Arrancar, he didn't really need to breathe, or at least breathe heavily. He never really faced a situation where he ran out of breath, except when he sparred with his sister or Ulqiorra. Now, even after short bursts of activity, he became winded. And now it wasn't just a need for oxygen: his lungs burned like he had inhaled water after a while. He also now possessed a heightened sense of smell, and he didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, he could sense everything around him, including people. It had helped him stay out of people's paths even if he didn't see them. On the other hand, it made is next problem even worse than it already was; he felt hunger.

That was a big deal. Hollows didn't get hungry, they were trapped in an endless cycle of voracious binge eating. Furthermore, you didn't feel hunger, it wasn't something you felt. You just knew, always, that you were hungry, and you had to eat. And all there was to eat were your fellow hollows. Very simple.

In this new form, his hunger grew more distracting as time went on. It wasn't so much instinct as it was the pit of his stomach feeling like it was coated with a thin sheen of ice. He also began to salivate, which he wasn't proud of, and eyed some of the picnickers to see if they had anything edible. He probably looked like an absolute savage, but was a bear-dog, so that was par for the course at this point.

He spotted one lovely couple. A young man and a young woman somewhere in their twenties, sharing a bottle of champagne and a few slices of what looked like cake. Upon closer inspection, they also had sandwiches and other things inside their wicker basket. He smelled something like turkey, something that he hadn't smelled in a long time. Something he really liked. And it was roasted. He began to lick his chops.

That was it, he was robbing them. Subtlety and stealth could go to hell.

He crouched one to the ground on all fours, like lions in those nature documentaries playing in the pet store when he was undercover in Karakura. So far, they hadn't noticed him, but he didn't care at this point, they were alone and unarmed. He could rip their throats out if he wanted too.

He pounced onto the picnic blanket, startling both of them. The young man stood up and protected the girl, but he looked like he was about to pass himself. Arron didn't blame him. Arron gave off a vicious growl, wild eyes and everything, to let him know he meant business, but he didn't back down. Arron approached, but the young man reached into his pocket, and Arron feared he might have a gun.

That was a silly fear, for sure. Arron had survived the energy equivalent of a davy crockett at point blank range before and came out unscathed. A pistol shouldn't even faze him. Yet he wasn't even a fraction of what he used to be, a gun could actually kill him… again. So he wasn't eager to be loaded with hot lead before he even got any cake. That'd be a shame.

But to his surprise, the young man didn't pull out a gun, but rather a smooth, red and white ball out from a small satchel under his coat. At first Arron thought it was a grenade, but the young man threw it at his feet, and out came a large chimp with a flash of light. But it wasn't an ordinary chimp, it looked like the simian equivalent to a Mexican wrestler. Large crests of gold adorned every part of its body. Its fur was rust red, but the most alarming feature was that it had a full head of hair that was on fire. It beat its fists against it's chest and howled before staring at him with a vengeance.

And then it spoke to him.

I was taking a nap. "Master woke me up. Now you're going to pay."

Arron grinned for the first time in days. "Don't worry, I can put you back to sleep. But we have a serious problem: your head seems to be in your shoulders, let me fix that for you."

The fire monkey gave him a toothy grin of his own, massive canines protruding from it's crooked mouth.

The young man pointed at Arron. "Infernape, use a flame wheel!"

The money, apparently named Infernape, began to spin its arms, creating a wheel of fire. It coated itself with the flames and spun itself towards Arron. Arron didn't back down however, deciding to use a Bala. He focused his spiritual pressure, creating a cone of whitish-blue energy on the bony plate covering his forehead before ramming unto the Infernape, stopping it in its tracks. It growled irritatedly, pushing back with both of its paws, its feet digging into the dirt.

"Infernape, use mach punch!"

The Infernape growled and its right paw lit up with a white energy. Arron formed another cone of energy on his forehead, and Infernape struck it directly, causing an explosion in Infernape's general direction, as if he set off a shaped charge. Black, acrid smoke covered the field they were fighting in. The heat licked off of his carapace, but he had a wild grin on his maw. He felt an energy build up in his chest, like when he fired off a gran rey cero, but he let it continue inflating like a balloon as the smoke dissipated, revealing a stunned Infernape. Arron released the pent up energy by opening his maw and unleashing a monstrous blast of energy, almost like a blizzard, but instead of snow it was made up of ice crystals as sharp as shards of glass.

Infernape braced itself, but it was no use. Swarms of ice sliced it's skin and left gaping wounds all over. But it didn't back down. It growled angrily before charging again, this time with both fists charged with energy. Arron released another torrent of ice shards to slow it down before dodging into the air and forming another cone of energy. The Infernape's fists slammed into the ground and became trapped as Arron fell from the sky, releasing the energy as a Bala onto its back, causing another burst of smoke and energy.

When the dust settled, Infernape was unconscious, and the young man pressed a button on the red and white ball to return it. Both he and his date took off running towards the town, and that's when Arron truly realized his mistake.

A couple of kids seeing him was no big deal. A wild animal attacking a couple minding their own business, that wouldn't end well. He'd better eat quickly.

So Arron inhaled his reward, and for the first time in ages, he felt satisfied.

Raboot was having a good day.

She saved a group of zigzagoons and a Lombre from going hungry, got to see a beautifly migration, and even got her master to appreciate her a little more. All in all, she considered that to be a successful day, even if her master saw her smile and his head got a little bigger, she'd let that slide. But good days always had a bad ending for her, always. Something would go wrong to dampen her spirits or to make sure she didn't get too optimistic, as if the world was saying you're not allowed happiness on my watch.

So when one of the local police officers came to talk to her master and his friend, she knew it wouldn't be about something fun, exciting or happy. She never had good memories of police officers anyway.

"The train is going to be delayed for at least a day. The conductor was attacked last night and his Infernape is in the pokemon center with some bad wounds, so stick to the town and stay safe."

"What do you mean he was attacked? Who would attack a train conductor?"

The officer sighed. "I'm not sure, officer Jenny talked to him earlier and he said he was attacked by some very vicious pokemon, but none of the suspect sketches make any sense to the local expert. Apparently, they don't recognize what he's describing and he's insistent on the sketches produced being valid, so until he either fesses up to it being a lie or it can be confirmed, he's staying in the town, and imposing a curfew."

So they spent the day preparing to look for the pokemon, of course. Raboot swore that his master's friend had no sense of self preservation. Raboot knew for a fact that while most pokemon could be reasoned with, some couldn't. Some you just needed to avoid. And this sounded like a good time to not mess with a wild, vicious pokemon.

She gave her master a questionable look, and he scowled back at her. "Oh, don't give me that look, Raboot. You used to steal from people."

She wished she could speak their language so she could point out that she had only ever chucked pebbles onto people's heads, not put their pokemon in the pokemon center with bad wounds. But she couldn't, so all she could do was stamp her feet in frustration and cross her arms as usual.

Ash was packing lunch for the both of them as well as Pikachu and Raboot while Goh was looking through hisbphone to see if there was any news about the attack to no avail.

"So you really think this is a good idea, ash? It beat up an Infernape."

Ash turned to Goh and smiled. "Goh, we're research assistants for professor Cerise. This sounds like a great opportunity to do some field work and maybe even discover a new pokemon!"

"Yeah, but shouldn't we leave this to the professionals? We could get really hurt."

"We'll be fine as long as we do our research first, Goh. We should go ask the conductor about what happened and see if we can gather any clues. Maybe he can tell us more."

"Yeah… okay. If it's for science then I guess we can do it."

Ash practically jumped for joy. "Yeah, Goh, that's the spirit. This Is for the sake of scientific progress!"

Goh chuckled. "Look at you ash, using big words."

"Oh, be quiet, Goh. Il not stupid, I'm just quirky."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that."

Ash sternly took off his hat and began to hit Goh with it, who was laughing hysterically and blocking Ash's vicious attack with outstretched arms. "Okay, okay I'm sorry, you're a genius, just stop."

After a bit of horsing around that ended in ash bumping his head on the floor, the two partners in crime calmed down and got their gear ready to take notes and gather evidence. Pikachu hopped onto Ash's shoulders and Raboot followed the pair closely as they walked down the hall and out the doors of the hotel. The streets were a lot less crowded than usual, with everyone at home today. A light sprinkle blanketed the city with the help of a thin veil of fog, setting the mood for a peaceful but strained day. For the first Saturday in a while, many restaurants were below max capacity as people took heed of the warnings given by the police officers, maybe even a little too seriously.

After asking around, they were lead to the Conductor's home by a nice old man with houndoom as his service pokemon. Raboot thought he talked too much, but whatever. Goh and Ash chatted with the old man as he led them through the curved streets by memory, swerving past pedestrians and their pokemon without losing focus. He told them about the town and it's history, being an old construction worker who helped build the town from the ground up.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a tiny house in a suburb. There was a small car in the driveway and sprinklers were spewing cool water onto the lawn.

"Alright, this is where he stays when he stops here. You two have a wonderful day."

"Thank you, sir, you have a good day as well.", said Goh as the old man walked back down the sidewalk with his houndoom.

"Now, Goh, let's get some evidence."

Ash knocked on the door. And after a few moments, a young woman in her twenties opened the door. She had long brown hair, green eyes and a long white sleeveless dress. She had bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept, and her hands were shaking.

"Umm… how can I help you two."

Goh cleared his throat and gestured ash to pull out his notepad. The young woman sighed and rubbed her temples.

"If you two are with the paper, I already told the asteroid reporters that we didn't want to make a statement. This was just an unpleasant accident."

"Oh, no ma'am, we're not with any of the newspapers in town, we're actually research assistants with the Cerise laboratory in Kanto, we wanted to know anything we could about the wild pokemon you encountered last night to spearhead some field research."

"I swear, does everyone know about that? I asked Officer Jenny to keep that quiet."

Ash piped up. "Well, when the police go around saying there's a curfew and when rail travel is suspended for a day or two, people start to ask questions, and the police don't want people ignoring their orders, or at least that's what I assume."

"I guess you're right. But do I really have to answer any questions? Me and my fiance already gave a full police report, and he even helped a sketch artist develop a profile. They didn't believe us, and Professor Aspen didn't believe us either."

"Well, we're looking for answers and there's no reason for either of you to lie. We just want a description of the creature that attacked you, and how it acted."

The young lady sighed again. "Well, alright. If you two are just students, then I'll tell everything I can." She let out a shake breath before continuing. "It was about ten thirty, and all the stars were out. My fiance, Jeremy, had just finished his route and was staying for the night. We went out into the countryside near the railroad to have a picnic and stargaze, and we were having a great time and drinking a bit of wine when this… dog pokemon jumped out from the bushes next to the tracks. It was nothing like I'd ever seen, slender and muscular with a big mane of blonde fur hanging from it's back like that of a mightyena. But it was covered in some sort of bone across it's entire body, only it's paws and part of it's face weren't covered with bone."

Ash was scribbling down the details as fast as possible so he didn't miss anything. Goh looked through his pokedex to see if anything matched the description, but none did so far.

"Was there any other distinguishing features? Any markings, any protrusions?"

"We'll, not much else, it had small tufts of fur sticking out of it's kneecaps, and it's teeth were like razor blades. But it was acting really feral, more feral than most pokemon. Growling, practically foaming at the mouth. It was eying our picnic basket, but Jeremy didn't want to hand it over so he sent sent his Infernape. The creature was an ice type, it breathed a frozen fog, even when it wasn't battling. But his Infernape couldn't even lay a finger on it, it had a powerful tackle, like I'd never seen. And when it used it's ice beam, it wasn't a burst of energy, more like a spray of shrapnel. Poor Infernape was peppered with holes."

Both Goh and Ash were a bit surprised. "Wait, and ice type move did that much damage? To an Infernape? It must be really strong."

"Yes, It was terrifying. Infernape had always been enough to keep Jeremy and I safe, so we were quite shaken. Once it knocked poor Infernape out, we were just so startled that we left the food there and took off. Luckily it was too distracted by our sandwiches to follow us, but Infernape was in really bad shape, and Jeremy was practically sobbing, he was so worried. We got to the Pokemon center just in time, but Infernape had lost a lot of blood."

Ash and Goh's enthusiasm died with the woman's pained expression. "We're really sorry about your situation ma'am, we don't mean to be insensitive. We hope Infernape makes a full recovery."

"Thank you, boys, both of you. The police didn't care about poor Infernape, only about who attacked us, and they don't believe us."

The young woman wiped a tear from her eye and shook both of their hands. "My name is Beatrice, Jeremy is at the Pokemon Center with Infernape. He won't be back until tonight, since Infernape is getting tested for any diseases or infections he might have contracted from the battle, but please come tomorrow, we might have more information then. Besides, it's rainy and I don't want to keep you out here any longer than I have too."

Goh nodded. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Beatrice. We'll put this information to good use, I assure you."

They shared their goodbyes and Ash and Goh descended the steps to the sidewalk. Ash and Goh went over the notes they had collected with a much more mellow attitude than before.

"Maybe we really shouldn't go after this pokemon… all we have is Pikachu, Riolu, Dragonite and Raboot."

"Well, they did only have an Infernape." Ash said, reassuringly.

"An experienced Infernape with at least one type advantage. Ash, research is one thing, but this is another hill to climb. This pokemon is dangerous, and I know you are an incredibly brave person, but sometimes I wonder if you have any sense of caution."

"I get it Goh, I really do. But we've handled bigger things before, and I don't know about you, but I don't think we've done much actual research until now. This is our chance to actually contribute something meaningful to the Cerise Lab besides just catching pokemon and running around on Professor Cerise's dime."

"I… well… yeah, when you put it that way that makes this seem a little more appealing. But we should at least wait until tomorrow so we can gather more information. I have a feeling that there's more to learn about this pokemon."

"Okay, well talk to them tomorrow, but we should search the pokedex to see what we can find."

Goh shrugged. "I was skimming through it while you were writing down the details. I couldn't find a Pokemon that matched the description. This could really be a breakthrough."

Raboot was silent for the whole event, her heart sinking into her stomach. She had seen that pokemon, in the woods while they were searching for the Silcoons. She had seen its eyes, its bony face plates and its tail swishing in the brush. Ash and Goh had been so close to being mauled by a vicious pokemon and Raboot hadn't even known.

And now they want to look for it? Were they insane? Raboot loved Goh, she really did, but she wouldn't let him get himself killed by a powerful pokemon. Some things just weren't worth pursuing.

Can you believe this, Pikachu? They want to go looking for this creature. They'll get themselves killed.

Pikachu hopped from Ash's shoulder to talk with Raboot.

They'll be fine. There's at least four of us and one of them, and were just as tough. We can handle it, Raboot

This only made Raboot more enraged. Weren't you listening, you nutcase? It crushed a fully grown Infernape with a type advantage. None of us are even as close to as powerful as that. I don't want to risk the lives of our trainers over some stupid quest for the laboratory.

What, are you scared? The big brave Raboot is scared. Get over yourself, we can handle this, we have handled worse. Besides, they aren't stupid, they aren't just rushing into the woods. They're going to find out as much asbthey can so we can formulate a plan.

Raboot growled, but eventually just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. You know what? Fine. Let's do this. But if this goes wrong, I'm tossing you into that creature's jaws to distract it while I finish it off. I wonder if it has a taste for Pikachu?

Pikachu stammered. You wouldn't

Pikachu scowled back at Raboot before running up Ash's leg and hopping into his backpack to nap. Raboot sighed and followed Ash and Goh down the cul-de-sac and back onto the main road towards the hotel.