Aizen looked at Haribel "Now that that little problem is sorted, it is time to make the king's key. Haribel, for this I will need your assistance. While I make some preparations for our little entrance into the royal palace, destroy the final pillar so the real Karakura town will reappear

"Yes my Lord," Haribel replied.

Suddenly three huge explosions appeared where Aizen and Haribel had just been. Three shadows appeared and landed on the pillar, which was covered in smoke from the nearby explosions

"Wow, I thought this was meant to be a Karakura town copy, but this place is just some ruin. Those tech guys from division 12 did a pretty crappy job," said one of the shadows

"You idiot!" exclaimed another, hitting the first shadow. "This is Karakura town, but Aizen and his thugs mucked it up."

"Oh that makes sense," replied the first shadow sheepishly.

"Ssshh you two, save the lovers' quarrel for later" Replied the third shadow.

"WE ARE NOT LOVERS!" shouted the second shadow.

"Oh really..." the third shadow said as finally the smoke disappeared, and the shadows turned out to be: Urahara, Yoruichi and Unohana

"My my, how interesting," a voice said from out of the 3 explosions with a hint of amusement. "It seems some more insects have crawled from their hideouts."

Aizen and the 3rd Espada Haribel were untouched, and showed no signs of injury from the explosions.

"I'm honoured that you consider us to be so amazing Aizen-san," Urahara replied, his eyes shadowed by his hat for anyone to see. "But I am merely a lowly shopkeeper, so please don't expect too much from me."

"Don't play stupid with me, Urahara Kisuke," frowned Aizen.

"Now I think it's time we started the party, wouldn't you agree, Yoruichi-chan, Unohana-chan? " Urahara stated with his signature grin.

"Yeah," said Yoruichi.

"I'll attend to our friends down there," Unohana said, pointing down at where the shinigami and visoreds lay. She then disappeared in a flash, and a few seconds later was down by Yamamoto.

"Yoruichi-chan, could you take care of that woman next to Aizen?"

"Sure, she doesn't look too tough," Yoruichi grinned, and also disappeared.

Haribel watched as Yoruichi flash-stepped towards her, then briefly glanced at Aizen, who was still staring at Kisuke.

"My lord," Haribel said. "Allow me to handle this minor issue. I will be back as soon as I can, by which time the woman coming towards me currently will be dead and the final pillar holding the fake Karakura here destroyed." She then disappeared.

"I am glad to hear it," Aizen said with a smile etched across his face.

"So am I," said Urahara, who suddenly appeared behind Aizen and slashed at him. Aizen drew his blade, and blocked the attack almost seemingly effortlessly. From their exchange, a blast of wind rocketed out. Out of it, Aizen and Urahara both jumped opposite ways, and waited for the smoke to settle down.

"Oh? Why are you so pleased?" questioned Aizen, curiously.

"First, it means that no-one will get in the way of this," said Urahara, adjusting his hat. "Second, I can get rid of this annoying façade." As the smoke disappeared, Aizen's eyes widened in shock.

"Impossible... he can't be..."

Across Karakura, there was a line of buildings that had been ripped to bits by Gin when he was fighting the three captains. In the middle of them lay Ichigo, conscious but unable to move. While he lay there, suddenly he felt a strange spiritual pressure

"What is this spiritual pressure? I can't seem to find where it's located, and at first it seemed weak, but for a second there it gave off such a power...it's impossible, I must have been imagining things. Either way I have a very bad feeling about this."

"Kurosaki-san, are you alright?" Unohana had suddenly appeared behind him.

"Ummm, well I can't move and everywhere hurts but just patch me up and I'll go kick Aizen's ass," Ichigo replied.

"Well in that case I'll patch up as most of your wounds you have and give you some painkillers and you should be in fighting condition."

"How long will that take?"

"About 1 hour."

"1 hour! I gotta get out there and help Urahara-san beat Aizen now!" exclaimed Ichigo as he struggled to get up, but fell back down.

"You are in no condition to fight yet," Unohana said. "So stay down like a good boy," as she said this her eyes flashed dangerously.

"I-I-I understand Unohana-taichou," Ichigo quavered, and laid back down.

"Hurry, Renji!" Rukia exclaimed as she rushed down the steps.

"Calm down Rukia... I-I'm sure the battle has finished already and Aizen has been defeated! Don't you agree, Sado-kun?" Renji panted.

"Maybe," was Chad's only answer.

These three individuals were at that point running down a great staircase which according to Kurotsuchi Mayuri was a special teleportation device he found when browsing through the 8th Espada's secret collection of special items. Apparently it would take you wherever you desired to go, on the condition that the staircase you went down was as long as the distance you were from the destination you wanted to reach. The staircase was cut off from any sort of foundation, and all around Rukia, Renji and Chad was a pitch black, yet tangible mist which surrounded both them and the staircase. There was nothing specially significant about the staircase, it looked like a normal brown staircase. The only thing that stood out about it was a strange logo that was embroidered across each corner of the staircase. The logo was simply a green circle with the initials S.M.D.P.

"Impossible... you can't be...," was all that came from Aizen's lips before he instinctively moved to the left as a sword drove straight through the spot his heart had been less than a second ago. He felt a burning pain across his side has he realised he hadn't fully dodged it. Before he could say anything the sword turned in midair and swung right for his neck. Aizen brought down his sword and parried the blow away, before moving to slash at the figure holding the sword, but the figure had already disappeared. All of a sudden, he felt the same presence behind him as he ducked yet another potentially fatal blow that would have sliced his head clean in two.

"A demonic angel..." Was all Aizen thought before the figure lifted his sword up in air, and a giant beam of green energy, 3 times as large as the figure itself, surrounded the sword and suddenly exploded out when the figure pointed his sword at Aizen.