Nightmare I - Tyn

It was only when working in the badlands in the middle of summer that one could truly come to understand and appreciate exactly why the area was called "the badlands." The July sun was relentless as it rained blazing heat down upon the researchers, and the misery of it all made even the most stoic among them began to complain.

It wasn't exactly the fabled Montana Badlands but rather a rough section of Utah known as the Cedar Mountain Formation, and many of the older, more-experienced researchers swore it was much, much hotter here than Montana had ever been, even in the worst seasons.

The young Doctor Tyler Nigel Tethis, though, had long since given up complaining about the heat. He removed his tan, weather-beaten digger's hat from his head and wiped the sweat from his dirty brow, taking a moment to run his hand through his dusty, greasy dark red hair before replacing the hat and opening his canteen.

No, it wasn't really the heat that bothered Dr. Ty N. anymore…

Twenty-three, and his first real dig as a paleontologist was turning out to be a massive letdown.

For years teams had been coming to this particular site because it was rich with fossils and while new discoveries here were fairly frequent, they were always, without fail, herbivores. This area was known for its wide variety of plant-eaters, most of them the slow, lumbering giants of the dinosaur world. There had to be carnivores out here somewhere and Tyn had hoped to be the one to finally find them.

That wasn't going so well.

The team he was working with had found the remains of a Tenontosaurus tilletti, which Tyn personally classified as an over-glorified eight-meter long two-ton cow.

Some of the others had accused him of slacking at the dig over the past few days but he ignored them; he was after the elusive meat-eaters, whatever had been the top of the food chain around here several million years ago. Let the others waste time playing in the dirt with the prey animals if they wanted, but he wanted to find the predators and tell their side of the story.

Sure, Tenontosaurs were a relatively 'new' species, having only been described some three years earlier in 1970, but that didn't make this find exciting in the least.

Not in his eyes, anyway, even though the rest of the team would disagree rather vehemently.

He understood something that they didn't; Mother Nature wasn't a friendly animal that was cuddly and pleasant to be around. Mother Nature was a bitch, pure and simple: it was all teeth and claws, blood and death, and survival of the fittest. He knew that and he wanted, no, he needed to find the predators around here to wake everyone up from their idyllic fantasy about gentle giants roaming the lands in peace and harmony as if this had been the fabled Garden of Eden.

"Hey, you going to help or not?" called one of the other researchers down in the pit and Tyn just rolled his eyes at the nuisance.

"Just a minute…" he lied. "I'll be right there."

His answer seemed to satisfy the other man as he went back to his excavating, with Tyn using the opportunity to escape, swiftly walking to the other side of the massive rock outcropping they were working at and heading away from the dig site, going further into the badlands.

Like hell I'm going to waste my time down there, he thought bitterly. They may have been willing to sit down and excavate the first group of fossils they found but he sure as hell wasn't. He'd never be able to make a name for himself in this field if all he did was mindlessly follow the stooges around who thought the stupid prey animals were the greatest thing ever.

Perhaps they were drawn to the prey animals because they had a similar mindset, he thought.

Likewise, he was drawn to the hunters because he was a predator at heart.

He wandered for a couple of hours, following the narrow trails that snaked through the barren wastes and keeping a sharp eye out for anything that might be of interest, no matter how small. There just had to be something worthwhile out here, something special waiting to be discovered, something waiting for him.

So far he'd found nothing but rocks, dust, and the occasional rattlesnake that didn't want to be disturbed.

Tyn scowled as he walked along a ridge, kicking a rock over the edge and watching it bounce and roll down the steep incline.

All he wanted recognition, to be the one to finally solve the riddle of where the carnivores were and what species they had been. So many others had essentially given up and assumed this particular area had been a paradise, but he wanted to be known as the one lone paleontologist who had seen the truth of it all. He wanted to be right where so many others had been wrong, but it seemed luck was not on his side.

Not for today, at least; perhaps tomorrow his fortune would be better.

For now, he reluctantly resigned himself to going back to the rest of the group and doing his part for the day to insure that he didn't get kicked off the team. He thrust his hands in his pockets and turned to head back for the dig, preparing to go into to the pit with the others and at least pretend to be excited about their stupid oversized cow. He'd only made it a couple of steps when he saw something odd out of the corner of his eye, further down the steep ridge.

Tyn knelt down and squinted his eyes to see better, raising a hand up to help block out the glare of the evening sun. Was that a tooth down there? Jesus, it looked pretty large and decidedly pointy.

"Bingo…" he whispered, a smile of victory slowly spreading across his face.

The safest course of action was to return to the dig and grab a couple of people to help him, a rope that he could anchor to a sturdy rock outcropping and use it to help him descend the sharply-angled ridge, and a camera to document everything.

Not practical, though; if he went back without some kind of proof right now, no one would believe him and he was dangerously close to being kicked off the team as it was for not working.

"But if I brought the tooth back with me…" he mused aloud, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. They wouldn't be able to ignore or deny him then and everyone would be forced to acknowledge that his find was far more significant than the stupid Tenontosaur they were currently excavating. Instead of being kicked off the team, he'd likely be placed in charge of it!

The ridge was steep and it would be dangerous going but by his reckoning, he could manage to climb down and retrieve the tooth just fine so long as he was extra careful and watched his footing.

No guts, no glory and all that.

Deciding that it was worth the risk, Tyn began to slowly climb down the rocky ridge, working his way down to his prize. He wondered what species it would be…a rex, maybe? He was sure he'd be able to identify it once he had it in his hand and he grinned tightly in anticipation.

Best expedition ever.

His momentary distraction nearly cost him as he lost his footing, the rock he'd set his foot on being nowhere near as stable as it looked. The stone went tumbling down the hillside and Tyn just barely managed to grab hold of a larger, sturdier rock with both hands, narrowly preventing himself from a fatal fall. He looked down and watched the smaller stone as it fell, noting just how high and steep the ridge really was.

Another screw up like that could cost him his life…

Then I'll just be more careful, he thought, undeterred by the danger. He still felt it was worth the risk and he was positive that he could do this just fine on his own; he didn't need the others for this or anything else. He worked better alone and hell, maybe he wouldn't tell anyone about this find and would simply keep coming back to dig it up solo, keeping all the credit to himself.

It took nearly fifteen minutes of careful climbing to reach his prize, but when he arrived Tyn made extra sure that his footing was stable and that he always had a good grip on the deeply-embedded rocks around him with one hand at all times. Left hand tightly gripping a rock anchored into the side of the ridge, he used his right to tug and pull at the exposed tooth. The earth held onto its prize tightly but not quite tightly enough and after a few minutes of prying, Tyn had his holy grail in his hand.

"Not a tooth…" he muttered as he examined it. It was a claw, a large, wickedly sickle-shaped claw. His first thought was Deinonychus antirrhopus, as they were known to have roamed this region of the continent, but none had ever been found in this area and definitely none so large; the claw was almost eight inches long, considerably larger than the average Deinonychus.

A new species?

That would be amazing, the feather in his cap to lord over all the others; not only had he found the elusive carnivores of the area, but they were a completely new species!

Something else caught his eye and he began to brush off the loose dirt and dust near where the claw had been found, revealing a partial skull embedded in the rock. An empty eye socket stared forlornly out of the reddish-brown stone and Tyn grinned again as he looked at it closely, noting the visible features.

Definitely a new species.

He couldn't wait to get back to the dig site and tell the others, to gloat about his find. There were veteran researchers who would probably eat their hats over this news, maybe even retire in shame.

Tyn couldn't extract the partial skull to take with him, but he had the claw and that by itself would be more than enough. He began to climb back up the hill, visions of museums displaying specimens named after himself dancing in his head when he heard an ominous rattling sound above him.

He glanced up and saw a rattlesnake perilously close to his left hand that was still grasping the rock face tightly and time seemed to slow as the deadly reptile lunged forward, mouth open and fangs already glistening with venom. Tyn jerked his hand away from the rock fast enough to save himself from a potentially fatal bite but the act cost him his delicate balance; his footing gave way and with a cry of fear he began to fall backwards and tumble down the unforgiving rocky hillside.

The claw forgotten, he dropped it as he scrambled to try and grab hold of something, anything stable and solid, but every rock he managed to grab hold of came loose and went bouncing down the ridge along with him. He slammed into one rock hard and felt a sharp pain in his chest and he knew he'd just shattered several ribs, but he'd barely had time to register that pain before his left knee struck another rock and shattered like glass under the impact.

Belatedly, he changed his mind and decided that this wasn't worth the risk.

He screamed for help as he continued his hellish descent down the ridge, but he knew he was too far from the dig site for anyone to possibly hear him. Even if they did, it would be far, far too late by the time anyone arrived.

Tyn's head slammed into another stone, coating the brown sandstone with a bright coat of red and dazing the young paleontologist for a moment. His vision had gone blurry with that shot and he could see a disturbing amount of red seeping into his eyes. The entire side of his skull felt wet and he didn't even want to imagine how bad the damage truly was.

He impacted against another rock and felt his jaw shatter and he knew he swallowed a few of his teeth in the process but it didn't matter anymore. This couldn't last for much longer, it would end soon, it had to end soon; the human body simply couldn't take this much punishment.

He felt his right arm twist and snap at the elbow, but that pain barely registered over the countless other injuries.

Please, just let it end… he prayed silently.

The universe, it seemed, was not without a sense of mercy as Tyn finally blacked out before hitting the bottom.

Tyn awoke with a gasp, sitting straight up and looking around at the rocks and sand that surrounded him.

"I'm alive…" he said slowly, not quite believing it. "I made it!"

He laughed at his good fortune as he got to his feet, amazed beyond words to not only be alive, but to be unhurt! Hell, he'd never felt better! His legs weren't broken, neither was his arm, his head wasn't smashed, his jaw was intact… Sure, he'd probably hit his head on the way down and then in a confused and delirious state, he'd probably just imagined the rest!

It was a miracle he'd survived! No, scratch that— it was luck! Tyn laughed at his good fortune, feeling like the luckiest bastard to ever grace God's green Earth; not only had he survived a supposedly-fatal fall but he had found the claw—

The claw!

He'd forgotten about it during the fall and had let it go but now that he knew he was fine, it was suddenly important once again. He had to find it; it was the only proof he had for his claims of carnivores and a new species.

Tyn looked down at the ground around him, desperately searching for it, and as he turned to look behind him, he felt the color drain from his face.

"No…" he said, falling to his knees, "That's not possible. It can't be! I'm alive, I know I am!"

But it didn't matter what he thought he knew; before him lay a battered and broken corpse, a very familiar corpse whose green eyes stared up at the blazing afternoon sun vacantly.

His legs were twisted at odd angles, as was his right arm. There was a noticeable depression in the chest cavity from the collision with the rock and his neck was twisted at such an impossible angle that Tyn knew it to be broke. His jaw was shattered and most of his teeth gone, and the left side of his skull was visibly fractured, with some of the scalp torn away to expose bloody bone.

Tyn fell back off his knees and onto his rear, covering his mouth with his hands and trying valiantly not to be ill.

As he moved his arms, he felt them brush against something on his chest and he heard a strange 'clanking' sound. Looking down, he noticed a broken chain hanging down from his torso, with one end firmly anchored where his heart should be.

The 'chain of fate…' he thought miserably, having heard the myths about it during a lecture back in college. Supposedly someone who was near-death but not beyond hope would have an intact chain linking their soul to their body and that meant that someone with a broken chain was…

"Dead," he finished aloud, still not wanting to believe it.

He sat beside his corpse, unsure of where to go or what to do. He knew that a spirit probably wasn't supposed to linger on Earth, but how was he supposed to know where he should be? Maybe if he stayed here until his body was recovered, that would allow his soul to find peace and cross-over to…wherever it was ghosts went.

Yes, that made perfect sense; his soul couldn't rest until his body was found and given a proper burial. His physical life had to have true closure before his afterlife could begin, after all. Surely it wouldn't be long; the others had to have noticed that he was missing by now and they would be looking for him, if for no other reason to yell at him and finally throw him off the dig team. It was only a matter of time and then this nightmare would all be over…

Tyn watched the vultures circle overhead and come down for a free meal every now and again, hoping to enjoy the bounty of fresh meat. The ghost swatted at them in irritation, only to find that his decidedly non-corporeal hand passed right through the birds harmlessly.

Still, they apparently sensed something unusual and would fly off, but it was only a temporary reprieve; they always came back for another try after a few short minutes.

The sun finally went down and the long day gave way to night and still no one came to find him. He never even heard anyone calling out for him.

Maybe they hadn't noticed he was gone.

Maybe they just didn't care.

He sighed and looked down at the chain in his chest, watching the links slowly devour each other to pass the time. It was a disturbing sight to be sure, but it was better than watching the insects and scavengers that were attracted by his body, most of whom weren't easily dissuaded by the swatting from his ghostly hand.

Tyn wondered what would happen when the chain devoured itself entirely; would he cease to exist? Would he cross over, regardless of whether or not his body had been found?

His observations of the chain had revealed another interesting tidbit of information; the more distressed he allowed himself to feel over what was happening to his body, or experience despair over feeling forgotten, the faster the chain ate itself. Negative emotions appeared to have an adverse effect on it, which forced him to re-examine the possibilities for what might happen when the chain finally encroached his heart.

It was a long, lonely night, followed by another long, lonely day.

The hot July sun continued to pound its heat waves into the ground mercilessly and while Tyn had no doubt that the others were at the dig again, still no one had come looking for him.

It was a cycle that repeated itself for two more days until Tyn could stand it no more, finally heading off into the desert and leaving his decaying body behind as he looked for something, anything, that might point him towards the afterlife. He had little choice left to him; the chain had grown even shorter thanks to his growing despair and loneliness and it wouldn't be long now before it was gone entirely, and then he would find out first hand the consequences of a lost fate-chain.

Tyn wondered if maybe he deserved this, if perhaps this was some cruel form of punishment for his earlier attitude towards his peers. He felt sorry for his refusal to help the others now, felt remorse for the arrogance he'd displayed, but it was too little too late and as he watched the chain grow closer and closer, he feared what the night would bring.

The moon was riding high in the desert sky when it finally happened and he fell to the ground clutching at his chest and screaming as the chain finished eating itself and began devouring his heart bite by agonizing bite. The searing pain was a thousand times worse than anything he could have ever imagined in his wildest nightmares, worse than even the memory of the fall down the ridge.

This is it, he thought morosely, this is the end of me.

He began to cough violently before vomiting up a thick, white mess that looked eerily like the plaster they used to make casts of fossils, but this plaster-like goop exploded outward before curving back towards his face and wrapping itself around his head. He reached his hands up in a desperate attempt to pull the goop off, but it held firm and quickly began to harden, suffocating him.

Tyn thrashed about on the ground, clawing the earth and trying to scream but no words would come out until the material finally solidified into a white boney mask that covered his face entirely. A mouth formed in the mask and Tyn's screams of pain and anguish now echoed across the empty desert, but the sounds were no longer human or anything close to it; they were dark and haunting, the cries of a newborn demon.

Black talons cut into the earth, leaving deep gouges as Tyn dragged his hands across the ground before pushing himself up to his feet slowly.

The pain was gone now, replaced by a burning hunger the likes of which he'd never known before. He tilted his head back and lifted his long mask-covered snout into the air and howled again, letting the world know of his ravenous appetite.

Wait, snout?

He stopped and looked at his hands, noting the claws on them before he slowly reached up and began to feel his mask-covered face. He felt his foot twitch and he looked down to see that they too were clawed, with the inner-most claws being large and sickle-shaped.

It was all very fascinating to the former-paleontologist but highly insignificant at the moment; the hunger was all that mattered anymore.

He sniffed the air, zeroing in on an unfamiliar yet strangely-delectable scent riding on the night winds. Instinctively, Tyn began to follow it across the badlands, letting his nose and the maddening emptiness in his stomach guide him to another body lying deeper in the desert. He nudged the human corpse with his clawed foot, cocking his head sideways as he looked down at it thoughtfully.

Someone got lost in the desert and got dehydrated, he surmised, but it wasn't the smell of the corpse that had attracted him. He sniffed again the air again and whirled to his right to face a large rock outcropping, narrowing his cold, amber-colored eyes as he peered into the darkness. After a moment, a human face timidly stuck its head out from behind the rock, staring at Tyn with undisguised fear in his eyes.

He knew it was a spirit, knew it was another lost and forgotten soul just like he was.

No, that's not right… Not like me…

Tyn's empty stomach growled louder and louder the longer he stared at the lost soul, the all-consuming hunger compelling him to think about the unthinkable. Involuntarily he began to tap the sickle claw on his right foot against the hard, baked earth as his new instincts waged a bitter war against his still-human morals.

And then the poor soul hiding behind the rock lost his last remaining ounce of courage and ran deeper into the desert, uselessly screaming for help that was nowhere to be found.

Tyn watched him run for a second, watched his retreating backside as the hunger continued to gnaw at him relentlessly, urging him along a dark path. As he took a single tentative step forward towards the running man, he could literally feel the last broken fragments of his own humanity falling away from his being and Tyn let one more bloodcurdling howl fill the night as he made his decision.

The hunger won.

The hunger would always win.

Tyn woke up with a sharp gasp for air, sitting up from his small pallet on the floor.

He wasn't lost in the desert of Utah anymore and neither was he the simple hollow he had been; he was home in his apartment, in Karakura, lying in his bedroom.

Tia had once referred to his bedroom as 'the Green Hell' because of how hot he kept it and because of all the greenery, ranging from the jungle-motif walls to the dozens of artificial ferns he had scattered about the room. He'd always kept it hot and humid in here because he found it comforting, but after the nightmare it was suddenly too hot, even for him.

He stood up, popping his neck as he turned off the humidifier in the corner and cracked open his window to let in some of the cooler night air from outside. He scowled angrily as his stomach began to rumble, sounding almost as empty as it had been on that first night so many years ago

Tyn opened the bedroom door and made his way to the kitchen, feeling the urge to kill something bubbling deep inside.

He hated that nightmare, that godforsaken memory. He hated the hunger that had been never-ending, had been growing steadily worse with the passage of time, and when Aizen had forcibly evolved him into an arrancar, Tyn had been so glad to finally feel the constant void in his stomach subside and return to something that was almost normal.

But any time he had that nightmare, the feeling of insatiable hunger came back in force.

Evolving had let him and the others choose between real food and souls, although souls had remained the diet of choice for most arrancars; they were, after all, far more fulfilling than any other meal could ever hope to be. No other food, however delicious, could ever compare to the taste of a genuine soul.

It had been a long time since he'd eaten another soul, be they human or otherwise, and current circumstances left him with the distinct impression that he would probably never eat another one, so he had to make do with the best he could; a sandwich piled high with literally every type of lunch meat the refrigerator had to offer, ranging from raw hamburger meat and bacon to sliced ham to a piece of leftover fried chicken.

He sat down at the bar in the kitchen and began to eat his sandwich slowly and deliberately, his keen sense of hearing telling him that in the other bedroom, Tia was thrashing about wildly, trapped in the throes of her own nightmares. He growled to himself when he heard her finally wake up with a sharp gasp, knowing that she would most likely be coming out of her room soon and Tyn was not anxious for any company right now, least of all his perpetually-bitchy roommate.

All he wanted was to eat his meal in peace and then go back to bed; was that so much to ask of the universe?

Apparently it was as Tia's door swung open and she stepped out into the living room. Their eyes locked onto each other from across the apartment, with a silent warning passing between them that they should each just keep to themselves and say naught a word.

Tyn watched the blonde cross the distance to the kitchen and carefully prepare a sandwich of her own and she paused momentarily to glare angrily at him, a glare that he responded to with a low, threatening growl in the back of his throat. She turned away from him hatefully and finished compiling her sandwich before taking a seat at the end of the bar, as far from Tyn as she could possibly sit.

To hell with her, anyway; she couldn't possibly understand what he'd been through.