I woke up inside my head, so in reality I probably wasn't actually awake. But my inner world was complete chaos. There was a swirling storm, my world was torn apart by what looked like a tornado. Everything was dying. I was absolutely horrified by the looks of it. And I also heard two different screams that came from behind me. It was Yoso and hollow me.

And they were being forced to fuse.

They were fighting it, but I could tell they were losing. And I realized I was being pulled towards them. Slowly, but I couldn't fight it. I couldn't really move much.

"Fight it." One of them shouted at me, though I couldn't tell who. Their voices sounded blended.

"How?"

"Just resist it!" They yelled, still trying to pull apart from each other.

I didn't know how. My muscles weren't responding to me. I tried to fight but nothing was happening.

Pain wrenched me clear out of my inner world. I noticed there was blood on the ground, and it was dried. I coughed up blood? When? I didn't know, but pain exploded all over my body, so I didn't have the focus to think about it. I accidently let out another scream of pain and jerked against the chains. But that wasn't me that did that. My body did that on its own. No. No! Then it did it again. I fought the urge to start struggling back. Because none of that was me. I wasn't sure where any of that was coming from. But I had to fight to hold my body still, it wasn't obeying me much. I made a noise that scared me half to death, because it sounded half hollow and I didn't know what kind of noise it was.

"Stop. Stop. STOP!" I shouted at myself.

Then I coughed up more blood, which hurt insanely bad. It felt like someone shoved razors down my throat all the way into my chest. The feeling just kept getting worse and I started dry heaving, because it felt like something was lodged in my stomach and lungs, so I was coughing and dry heaving. Just perfect. I couldn't stop it.

"Fighting it is useless." It was Ulquiorra. I didn't look at him. "You're going to change no matter how hard you try to resist."

"Screw you." I spat at him.

"You'll be on my side soon enough." He left the room shortly after that. I snarled then clenched my teeth when I realized that wasn't me again.

I passed out again.

I spent the next several days like that. Passing out, waking up in a ton of pain and fighting the urge to try to escape. Different urges were starting to arise too that scared the daylights out of me that I had a harder time fighting, and several times I ended up complaining about being hungry, which scared the other three. At some point, I just stopped fighting and let whatever happen, which as it turns out I go all savage so I definitely had to keep a handle on it.

Then I started coughing a lot harder, as if something was really stuck in my lungs and I couldn't breathe. This was on the fifth or sixth day, I couldn't remember. But I couldn't get whatever it was out of my lungs. And it made breathing harder and harder. While I was coughing, pain shot down my spine and I couldn't even hold myself up. I was most certain what was lodged inside my lungs. And I wanted to fight it from coming up. I would rather choke to death on it then let it come up. But I couldn't; my body wouldn't let me. It was mostly blood coming up at the moment, but I knew it would be over soon if I didn't figure out how to make this stop.

The pain in my chest flared up, to the point where I couldn't stop screaming, even if I tried. I just couldn't make myself stop. But then it was cut off with a gurgle and suddenly—hollow skin. It started covering my face, but I started resisting so hard it slowed down, then practically stopped. So far, it only covered the top portion of my face, going over my right eye and partially onto my nose, and the hole in my chest had started opening up which allowed the skin to come out from there, covering my right arm, which make the chain get ripped off. This gave me an idea, though I found it difficult to move without triggering the further movement of the hollow skin, but I was able to manage it after a few minutes.

I cut myself free of the chains, but coughed up more blood and hollow skin before I could get to my feet. The hole in my chest opened up further, more skin pouring out, and I screamed. It sounded more hollow than human and I knew I needed to do something, fast. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was suddenly over at Ichigo's cell, and I let him out, which set off some sort of alarm.

"Help…them…" I growled at him, putting my hand over my chest I winced, noticing the hole was almost done opening up. "I gotta find…." I couldn't finish without spitting up more blood so I then turned around, nearly smacking Ichigo with the tail I didn't even realize was there.

"Saru you're in no condition to fight." He said, but didn't approach me.

"I'll figure it out." I growled at him. I realized I stopped the hollowfication process even further. I didn't know how long it would stay but I felt stronger now.

Which was good because Ulquiorra had appeared.

"How interesting." He seemed determined to keep his temper in check. "You've halted the process. How?" He tilted his head.

I probably looked so messed up. The skin was patchy, and the hole was only half open in my chest, I had my tail and wings, but that was it on my back. My right arm and left leg were completely covered, and my right foot, and part of my torso, but that was it.

In my head I heard a whisper. "We're holding it off so you can fight, but you only have a few minutes." Their voices were still mashed together.

I glared Ulquiorra down and without knowing it, I appeared right behind him and hit him across the room, straight into Ichigo's cell and nearly hit Ichigo in the process. I went to charge him but he slammed into me, sending me flying backwards. I slammed straight through the wall and ended up outside. I lay on the ground, panting and coughing.

"You should not be fighting me. You are much too weak for that." Ulquiorra approached me. "The transformation has begun, and you are only slowing it down by resisting it, you can't stop it."

I only growled in response and got up, only to get a backhand to the face, which knocked me dizzy and I stumbled backwards, barely able to keep my balance. I had to keep fighting, I had to stop the hollow skin from spreading any further. I stood there to catch my breath, then charged him again, only to get knocked backwards again. How had I managed to hit him before? I didn't know. Ulquiorra slowly approached me, drawing his sword. I hissed at him, narrowing my eyes, before I even realized what I was doing, I charged a dark, almost purple, blue cero and fired it at him. He blocked it with his arm, but it was a bloody mess when it dissipated. And also, Ichigo charged him from behind and Ulquiorra very narrowly dodged it. I tried to attack Ulquiorra again, but he grabbed me by the throat, and hurled me away from him. I hit the ground a few yards away, and slid a few more. I just laid there for a moment, in too much pain to move. I needed to get up, but when I tried, my arms gave out and I was forced to just lay there. And then the pain in my chest exploded again and I screamed and flailed about uselessly, trying to get up but not succeeding.

I heard footsteps coming near me, and instinctively acted and hit whoever it was away from me with my tail. I couldn't distinguish who was my friend and who was my enemy anymore. I didn't know what to do, other than try to get up and run away. I had to get away so I could get myself all sorted out. I forced myself to my feet and struggled to get away, but instead of running away, I turned and watched the fight instead. I couldn't make myself run away, though I knew I needed to. Ulquiorra was holding his ground and he had released to his final form and I hadn't even noticed.

Ichigo noticed me staring. "Get out of here!" He shouted at me.

I looked at him and sudden confusion swept over me. Was he a friend? Ulquiorra was terribly outnumbered, but was he my enemy? I couldn't think straight. And I still couldn't move.

"Get away from here!" Ichigo yelled at me, his hollow mask on.

I didn't budge. It looked like they needed help. And anger surged through me at what Ulquiorra did to me. I may not know whose side I was actually on, but it was his fault I was so confused. So instead of listening to Ichigo and leaving…

I charged.