"Concentrate." Szayel stood over her, arms crossed weakly in front of him. This was probably the hundredth time he'd said this. Allina had apparently generated enough reiatsu for him to want to actually work with her strictly on that. He'd even called off Other Pinkie and forced him to back away. She was supposed to form a ball of energy in the palm of her hand, and since she hadn't been successful in that yet, she now wore a special glove to help her. Apparently, it would work like training wheels, aiding in the concentration and shaping of Reiryoku. Her spirit power, in other words.

Behind him sat Grimmjow. Still on the other side of the glass, though Szayel had simply stepped through it to her. As usual, Grimmy was looking at her the way a cat eyed a mouse. Like dinner. Also as usual, it didn't bother her very much. Al just smiled at him before averting her eyes. The I-feel-awkward-and-don't-know-what-to-do smile. Though, it was better than shivering or cowering away from his gaze, as she instinctively desired to do.

With a sigh, she shut her eyes again. Felt inside her body, trying to pull at the power that coursed through her. Power nearly the equivalent of a sixth-seat Shinigami's, according to Master Giggles. She gripped at it mentally, pulling, but it was kinda like trying to pull on water. It slid around her and stayed where it was. If she successfully got a grip on it, she could only get it to come so far before it snapped back like a rubber band. She'd actually felt some form of force flowing out of her body then, which was reiatsu, or spiritual pressure, according to Szayel. He'd snapped at her more than once and said to stop playing with it. Allina couldn't help it though, seeing as how she couldn't seem to figure out anything else to grab on to. This time, instead of trying to grip the first bits of power within herself that she could feel and pull those, she reached into it. To a core point, imagining a ball of intense light surrounded by darkness and dust particles that it gave off in her mind. She then imagined herself falling into that light, surrounding herself with it, gripping it and pulling it around her. Absorbing, claiming it as hers…

She heard Szayel step back, felt the ground fall away from her even though nothing had lifted her. She opened her eyes, and the room was bathed in a strange golden light. Szayel had a funny look on his face, and Grimmjow had lifted his head a little, still staring at her. Though, his expression wasn't the same one. It was more or less…surprise?

She held up her hand, saw that it was covered in something. Allina realized that she could actually feel and control that something like it was a mere extension of who she was. On command as she raised her arm out, it formed a sickle. She bent and drew the tip against the ground, and saw that it was actually cutting the hard stone.

Interesting.

She drew in a breath, raising the gloved hand that for whatever reason her power would not flow over, willing the amounts of reiryoku that covered her body to flow onto her right hand. Felt it running like water over her, pooling along that arm as it pulled across her back, bared the skin of her left arm to direct air again. A few moments later, her feet once again touched the ground. She forced that power up into the glove, commanding it to form a ball in the palm of her hand, and it sank into the underlying material, coursing quickly along before doing as ordered. The ball was large, too large, so she slowly started closing her fingers over it. Reducing the amount of area it took up, making it more compact, denser…she didn't stop until it looked like a solid orb of light.

Al held it up, and heard clapping. Only then did she let out the breath she was holding, or realize that sweat had beaded on her forehead, dripped down her neck…her hair was plastered to her head, and after that first breath was released, she started panting and collapsed to the ground. Her concentration broke, and the ball exploded.

When she woke up, she was back to training, without the glove now. Only this time, the clone was using an assortment of tricks. He would throw balas at Allie, fire short ceros at her. A few times, it did that irritating trick where the clone disappeared and reappeared somewhere else, though she was slowly starting to realize she could track his movements if she watched carefully. She had an easier time summoning her own powers now, and right now was actually flying. Flying!

She'd managed that little bit of awesome by making wings form, protruding from her back and helping her lift into the air. She beat them rarely, mainly concentrated on gliding about. From above, she would form whips of reiryoku from her fingertips and slap at the clone with them, or hurl spears. She now had her Chain of Fate wrapped around her neck, since last time she'd let it hang free that bastard had grabbed onto it to pull her down. And when he yanked, her body exploded with pain, wings disappearing immediately as she lost control of her power again.

As Allina stared down at Pseudo-Szayel, she formed a sword in one hand, held as far out of view as she could manage. She then folded her wings behind her back, nose-diving for him. It wasn't until seconds before contact that she spread her wings to slow her descent, swinging out her sword. The clone's head rolled on the floor a second later, body falling to its knees before slamming forward.

Oops.

She landed and glanced anxiously towards the glass, awaiting some form of punishment. Surely, Allie would get in trouble for destroying Blank Pinkie. Grimmjow had gotten up and started walking to the glass, hands in his pockets, but Szayel put out an arm to stop him, laughing. "Well, I believe it's time to Hollowify you."

Allie dismissed her powers, walking to the glass and sitting in a criss-cross position. She wasn't really sure when she'd become a willing, active participant in this…experiment, but she was more curious than reluctant to obey. Perhaps she'd been willing from the beginning?

Grimmjow finished walking to the glass, then sat in criss-cross in front of her. Behind him, she saw the dark figure of Szayel-Apporo walking to a computer. Leaning over, hitting a few keys. Touching the screen. As her view of them slowly began to diminish, Al realized the glass was beginning to tint, and frowned. It was never any fun if she couldn't see who she was speaking to. "The speediest Encroachment I know of was seventy two hours long. Even that was with assistance. Though, yours will be too. I will be…recording this. We'll see if you Hollowify under twice the assistance, or if your soul burns out first."

Burns out? Dread curled in her stomach again. Especially considering the fact that Encroachment was one of the painful-sounding things that Szayel had mentioned while bringing her here. Remembering her warning about the fact that it was the Chain eating itself up, and that it would eat anything that touched it, her hand snapped up and she quickly unwound the chain from her neck.

Good thing, too, because next thing she knew the bottom links had come alive. They started eating each other, themselves…and as the links chomped, pain radiated through Allina, and she threw herself onto her side, watching the links. "Are you afraid now?" Ulquiorra's voice. But when had he gotten here? She tried to lift her head, but that intensified the pain, so she simply gritted her teeth and shook it slowly. Even that hurt her. It felt like her entire body was sore, all the muscles spasming against her will, inflicting maximum pain, and then spazzing more as she flinched away from the pain too. The more she moved, the more she hurt, and the more she hurt, the more she tried not to move. But move she did, in spite of that.

"You're about to lose your humanity. Your heart." Confusion filled the man's voice. "Does that truly not scare you?" The voice was so much closer…she could've sworn he was speaking directly into her ear. And maybe he was. She didn't open her eyes to check, though.

"In order to be scared, I'd have to give a damn first." Her voice was pained, but still calm enough. Steady. Al was relieved that she at least sounded stronger than she felt. Stronger than she probably looked… Her heart? Ha! She'd have to find it before she could lose it here, anyway. Stupid Arrancar…

"Back off, Ulquiorra." Grimmjow's voice was practically a growl. "Otherwise, I'm going to smash your head into the floor and use whatever's left of your mask as a bowl for my dinner."

Aside from a few chuckles, courtesy of Granz, there was no response. After a few beats of silence aside from the munching of Allie's chains, she heard footsteps. Opened her eyes, but black still greeted her for the most part. She could only see a blur of blue, white, and black…a sudden light as she heard a door creaking open, a lone form standing in the middle. Ulquiorra's voice: "Come, Yammy. We're leaving." The door shutting, cutting out the blinding light behind it. Her head was spinning, so she shut her eyes again.

Allina wasn't sure when she'd fallen asleep, but two pokes to her cheek were waking her up suddenly. Her faded grey eyes snapped open, and the silver-haired fox-faced kid was crouched beside her, smiling down. Always smiling, this guy. Eyes always closed, too, or at the very least, slitted so much she couldn't even see the whites of them. "Hi, remember me? Gin Ichimaru?"

She sat up, frowned at him. "I've just been calling you Smilies." Or fox-face. That worked too, quite well if she was honest. Described him perfectly. She watched him grab the end of her suddenly short chain, and she realized it wasn't eating itself anymore. Odd…she should have realized that though when she was able to sit up without immense pain, or when she couldn't hear its chomping. Perhaps she'd just assumed she'd grown accustomed to the sound.

"I'm told you're already expected to go into the final Encroachment." That voice…friendly, but somehow empty, cold. It sent shivers down her spine, but she knew instantly who it was.

"Hello, Aizen." She met his falsely kind gaze, only noticing out of the corner of her eye that Gin had pulled a plate of some kind around in front of her. Unlike the others, she wasn't able to get used to this guy. Didn't like him, didn't want him nearby. The others were okay, even if only barely. He was off on his own little level of creepy as all shit.

"You should eat." Gin. She looked down at the plate. Plucked the most edible-looking thing off, bit. Her gaze immediately returned to Aizen as she nodded her thanks to Gin. Allie would watch this guy until he left. Though, since he was standing right at the edge of the glass…she inched backwards, away from him. Only slightly, but enough to add a little distance. She could have sworn she'd seen the guy lean slightly forward, and it made her mad. Did he not understand that no halfway sane person wanted to be anywhere near a guy like him?

"I can see you aren't happy with my presence. Gin, Tosen." The brown-haired man turned and began walking away. She glanced at Ichimaru, who was actually frowning at her, before he rose and walked through the glass to fall into place behind Aizen, beside Tosen, who she hadn't even realized was there. She kept eating, resisting the sudden urge to actually call an apology out to Gin.

Al picked up the plate and started walking in the opposite direction, eating as quickly as she could. She wasn't really sure how much time she had before this horrible encroachment began again, and she wasn't going to waste any time. She wanted to train a little more before this continued. So, when she was full, she set the plate aside and started summoning her powers. Whips snapped from her fingertips as she tried to concentrate on lengthening them. Making them thinner, making them stronger. Wings grew from her back on command, and she attempted to force them to take on a more angelic appearance, make a specific form. Perhaps even take on a more real appearance, instead of being made of light. Not that she minded that look, it just…wasn't as nice as perhaps having them look real would have been.

She hadn't noticed when Arrancars started trickling into the lab room that gave them a perfect view of her, hadn't noticed when something about the composition of the room changed, reishi - or spirit particles - somehow morphing. She did, however, notice when the Encroachment started again. When pain lanced her body, the sounds of munching beginning again. When black lace webbed across her vision again, and she fell. Oblivion claimed her before she hit the floor, and Allina knew no more.