The walk to Szayel's didn't take long after that minor inconvenience. Silently, she pushed open the door, peering in to try and find the pink haired espada. When she did not find him, she began to become impatient. Not only was the area around her hollow hole throbbing, her head was now beginning to develop a dull throb as well. Cursing to herself, she called out to him.

"Szayel!! Szayel Apporo Grantz!" she called, using his full name as an indicating that she was not in the mood for games.

A thud could be heard from a door o her right, and she turned her head towards the door. A few moments later the door opened and a pink head emerged, followed by a body. Sabraiel had begun lightly tapping her foot, a habit she had of doing when someone was taking too long. Szayel looked at her and sneered.

"Back again, Rai? You're visiting quite often now, are you sure you don't come here to oggle at me?" Szayel teased while he nodded his head towards a familiar door to the left of the room. As the two started towards the door, Sabraiel contered,

"You wish that were the case, but as we both know, I would definitely pick your brother over you any day."

"Keep talking like that, and you won't have anyone taking a look at your problems."

"Oh? Like what you see?" She answered, sitting on the examination table and ignoring the slight pricks of the needles and other devices that Szayel started putting on and into her. The conversation was dropped and silence reigned, only to be disturbed the Szayel's "hmms" and "ahhs". Getting bored, Sabraiel decided to lay down. Szayel didn't seem to mind much, eyes glued to the monitors and mind wandering somewhere else. Closing her eyes, she almost immediately fell into one of her more vivid dreams. Voices were everywhere and faces of people she didn't know.

-ai… please… needed here…..How is she…won't make it…..shouldn't have done it….our fault……

Only two figures stood out in the faces of those surrounding her at the moment. One was a young blue haired boy, shock written all over his features. The other one was a young girl with pink hair, almost reminding her of Szayel's, who appeared to be crawling over to her, tears streaking down her eyes. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out. Sabraiel herself was lying on the ground and much to her surprise, she was covered in blood. The dream started to fade, familiar voices were now calling out her name. She took one more quick glance around and found three more familiar faces. One with darkened skin, one with a sinister grin and a fox like face, and one with a smile that held nothing but secrets and lies…

-iel

-abriel

"Sabriel!" a man's voice said, more of a command than a yell. Sabraiel's eyes shot open. She was in her own bed, in her own room. In her own darkened room with a single window and a barren desk. She'd have to do something about that soon. A whine a her feet caught her attention first as she looked down, spotting her only true comrade at the side of her bed. The sides of her lips twitched upwards and she stroked the head of her wolf companion, Vaina. Vaina, sheath - her protector, her companion. Vaina continued to whimper, moving her head towards the foot of the bed. Quickly, Sabraiel looked up, only to find herself caught in the eyes of her master, Aizen. She tried struggling out of the bed, much to Vaina's dismay, but a hand on her shoulder quickly stopped her. Looking up again, she quickly bowed her head.

"I apologize Aizen-sama. I had only meant to take a quick nap, ask Szayel what was wrong with me, and leave." she said softly. There was no answer as the hand left her shoulder. Confused, she turned towards him, but was once again stopped by a hand, this time hovering directly over her hollow hole. There was a sharp, sudden pain around the hole and she quickly shut her eyes. Once she reopened them, she was now standing with Aizen-sama on her left and Vaina on her right. Looking eyes, she had to squint her eyes. She was not used to this much sunlight, for sunlight never did read Las Noches. A figure moved swiftly past her. A quick glimpse confirmed that the figure was a young girl around nineteen, face obscured, with bright red hair. Sabraiel unconsciously touched the strand of red hair that was misplaced upon her own head. She was starting to get dizzy. Her vision started to fail. There was an inhuman scream and people were now rushing past, and through, her.

Confused, she turned her head in the direction that the people were running, and saw Aizen-sama disappear into flock of people. Quickly, she followed, Vaina at her side. She walked through countless people, but couldn't find Aizen-sama although the fruitless search did send her to the front of the crowd. As she looked down, her eyes widened considerably. It was the little boy and the young girl from her dreams. The boy was hovering over a figure, but his body obscured the woman's, for she had breasts, face for now. The little girl was sobbing uncontrollably, trying to crawl over to the barely moving figure. The boy suddenly moved, and all doubts were erased from her mind. It was a girl who passed her just moments ago. As the girl turned her head away from the boy, her eyes were glazed over. It was obvious the girl would die soon. Yet that was not why Sabraiel was upset. The girl on the ground looked too much like her for her own good., although even near death, her features were much kinder than Sabraiel's ever was.

'Could that be…me?' Sabraiel though, as anger bubbled up her chest. As she stared down at the dying girl who looked so much like her, she saw the girls eyes widen. Just a little, but the look of realization sparkled in those almost lifeless eyes. Turning slowly, this would be the final proof of whether or not this was her, if she was once the dying girl, if this was truly her dream. Turning, she scanned the crowd in front of her and lo and behold, there stood three familiar faces. The same familiar faces from her dream, from her reality. She turned away, and Veina looked up at her in understanding. The scene started to fade and she once again found herself in her bed. If she had kept her eyes on those three figures a little longer, she might have noticed he fourth figure lurking behind them, a mirror image of the man with the smile, except this man's hair was slicked back, no longer wore glasses, and instead of a smile, a smirk played upon his lips.

Sabraiel sat on her bed, staring blankly at the wall to her left, her right hand deftly searching for her comrades soft head. Vaina lept on the bed and sank down next to Sabraiel. Sabraiel knew Aizen-sama was still in the room, she could feel his reiatsu but she didn't know how to respond.

"…Master Aizen, what was that?" she finally asked, finding her voice. For some reason, it was dryer now than the first time she tried to speak, when she was first created. When she supposedly first met her master.

"Your previous death" he said, almost nonchalantly. Her eyes whipped to his direction.

"Excuse me?"

"It's best that you know, you've been remembering a lot. And quickly as well." Aizen said. "You were a soul reaper. Granddaughter of the current leader of the Gotei 13. Wielder or a blade even more powerful than his."

Her master's eyes traveled towards the sword lying on the table next to her bed. The eyes then turned to Vaina.

"And your "pet" is a physical manifestation of the zanpaktou that lived inside you blade." Rai turned her eyes towards Vaina. This was all too much information.

"How…how did I die?" she asked solemly. Aizen smirked.

"My, you've been showing a lot of emotions recently, I may have to send you to Szayel even more frequently." Sabraiel resisted the urge to growl.

"I hate it there" she said

"Then fix it"

Rai turned her head towards her master. She understood what he meant. Fix this herself, or he would once again favor Ulquierra before Sabraiel. She couldn't, no. Wouldn't. Let that happen.

"…Yes sir." she mumbled. Aizen nodded and turned to leave.

"Master Aizen, you didn't answer my question." Sabraiel said to his retreating back. He paused, on hand on the door handle.

"You wanted to protect two children from an unexpected blast. Or so they say. No one really knows what happen. Not even the two children, the only other two who were there at the scene when it happened."

"So…I was weak"

"In a way, yes. You left feelings get in your way."

"They took away my life…" Rai spat. She couldn't remember clearly, but life in the Seretei couldn't have been that bad. She was the granddaughter of the leader of the Gotei 13, wasn't she? She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she barely registered what her master had said.

"But you gave them back theirs" he had said, before walking out the door. Sabraiel sighed and flopped back unto her bed. This was too much. She just wanted to sleep.

Outside her door, Aizen stood, the beginnings of a smirk forming upon her face.

"You may have saved them a future captain and vice captain, but in the end, I got you. The most powerful force in Seretei.