"Let me back in!" I screamed, broiling anger fuelling me. I got sensation in my fingertips before chains slathered with dark flames coiled around me, squeezing tight.

I was forced to my knees, skin searing, driven deeper down. The fear that I was to be devoured again rose up, clawing at my throat and limbs until I was screaming and thrashing. The chains creaked and groaned, my own spiritual pressure flaring electric blue in my veins.

Through the tunnel of vision I was granted, Chiya shoved the Squad 11 man down a side-alley quickly and pressed his head down so he hunkered within the shadows. She peeked around the corner then reared her head back, melting into the shadows as a group of soul reapers sprinted past, swords free.

Then the ground fell out from beneath my knees and I went tumbling down. I crashed onto sand, the chains slithering off like startled snakes. My head spun but there wasn't anything in my stomach to throw up. An opaque sky stretched above and sand dunes rose in the distance. A few scraggly trees grew around the opening of a large cave.

"Remember this place?" Chiya crouched over me, lips peeled back in a snarl over her pointed teeth. Her blue plait hung over her shoulder, the scales of which had changed shape. They weren't smooth but spiked now. Even the scaly armour covering her body had changed. The scales were pointed and overlapping now, thicker in what would be deemed 'weak points'.

I sat up. She flicked me in the forehead with a talon and the force behind it knocked me back down.

"What the hell?" I scrambled to my feet and she stood gracefully, her face overcome with anger.

"Oh? You're asking me that. I should be asking you the same damn question. You have to be the most stupid soul reaper I've ever come across."

I pointed off into the distance in the direction we'd come – which was pretty useless cause we weren't even in the real world anymore. "We've left Uryu back there with a Captain!"

"And if we'd stayed, all that would be left are corpses."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dorangohato propped against the wall. If I beat Chiya again, I'd get out of here. I bolted for it.

"Seriously?" she said.

Two chains shot up from the ground and wrapped around my wrists. Before I could slow, the chains went taunt and retracted back into the ground, taking me with them. I tasted and smelt sand, choking on the grains. I reared my head back from the face-plant she'd caused and spat what was on my tongue back at her.

That was new. How long she'd been able to do that?

She snorted and shook her head, stepping over my crouched form and retrieving her sword. The blade glowed blue and I heard the hum it emitted while in her clawed hand. She stroked the blade lovingly then pointed it at my face.

"I'm not letting you have this again without a good reason."

The chains loosened enough so I could sit up. I wiped the sand from my face. Chiya removed the blade from my space and strapped it to her waist, no sheath. It hung down the side of her leg reflecting the ridged scales on the thigh and knee.

"We can beat him, Chiya! Just give me the sword and your powers and I promise you, I'll defeat him."

She slapped me, hard and fast. The pain stirred the rage pitted in my stomach. "Being in that Squad has been bad for your ego. That's a Captain of the Gotei Thirteen. I'm not sure about you but I know that makes them better, stronger and faster than you. Especially given your state. You're not fourth seat anymore, you're not even a soul reaper."

"Shut it, Hollow." She bristled and I shook the chains she held me with. "Just because you're afraid, doesn't mean I am."

"You've barely learned anything and I'm sick of trying to get through your self-righteous head. You might think I'm being cruel by not giving you my powers to wield and not giving you control of your own body, but you forget I'm here too. And I want to live. These days, you're more likely to get us killed instead of doing any of the killing."

Chains fastened around my ankles and a sand trap formed beneath me, slowly sucking me downwards. "Chiya, don't you dare do this!" I sank to my torso, my head reared back to keep it far away from the encroaching hole.

"Relax. I'm not killing you." She rolled her eyes. "You asked for my help in the beginning and now I'll lend it to you now." She closed her free hand into a fist; with a jolt, I was pulled under the sand. "Sleep," said her voice, a thousand miles away. There was no time to scream as the sand rushed overhead.

But funnily enough, it disappeared and I floated in darkness. It was comforting and warm, much like being beneath heavy covers on a bed. The chains relaxed and slipped away. There was no noise here, besides the ringing in my ears. The fatigue from the last few days caught up with me now and my eyelids fluttered.

No. I can't sleep. I have to stay awake to see what happens. I roused briefly, disorientated as I slowly spun, but nothing could keep my eyes open.

~

"You're Kera Senbonsai, aren't you?" he questioned.

Chiya hissed at him to shut up and his mouth clomped shut. Not even ten metres later and avoiding Chiya's razor sharp glare, he spoke again.

"I guess you have to be. You look exactly like her."

"You blithering idiot, sound travels in places like this so close your unhinged trap before I shut it."

His face paled and his steps faltered for a moment at the venom in Chiya's voice. I flinched and muttered an apology that would never reach his ears but I had the strangest feeling that I couldn't actually speak.

'I'm dreaming,' I thought, my words echoing around me. Chiya didn't notice. If this was a dream though, it was a very real one, mimicking our predicament.

"I'm – ah – Makizo Aramaki," he said in response.

"I don't care," Chiya responded. She cocked her head and our vision tilted. "This way." She pushed Makizo ahead of her. Orihime was still sleeping over his shoulder, head flopping around.

She was most likely going to have a very sore head and sore neck when we reached our destination... wherever that was.

The next few minutes was just Chiya and Makizo running and my mind wandered. I felt like I was splitting and floating in different directions. Images flashed around me like thunderstorms and I let them rain down on me, softly. Some were strange, some familiar; others completely far-fetched that they could have only been conjured in dreams.

And it seemed the weirdest was still to come. 

A faint voice called to me, one with a golden hue, and I found myself drawn to it. It vibrated in the air around me and I reached out with a hand to a glowing pocket of space. It blossomed open like an unfurling flower then the golden light curled over me. Teeth formed, glistening fangs as long as my forearm. A shudder ran through me, a spark of fear that lit an inferno of panic as the jaw of a snake hovered over me. I stared down the dark abyss of its throat. The serpent and I held our breath; time slowed. I sucked air in through my clenched teeth. The maw snapped shut with a crunch and shower of golden sparks.

I lurched awake, so violently that Chiya's hold over me broke and I thrust myself back into my body. We staggered forward and I gasped for air, hands on knees. The nightmare of the snake faded away but the terror I'd felt lingered.

"Kera?" Makizo had stopped running.

I leant against a wall, swiping my sweaty hair back from my face with a clammy hand.

'What was that?' Chiya questioned.

"A nightmare," I replied. "Whatever 'help' you were trying to give me did the opposite."

'That wasn't...' she trailed off. 'Nevermind, we are where I want to be. It's probably best that you're in control now.'

I shook myself free of the scare and stood tall. "Makizo, where are we?" I asked.

His eyes flashed with recognition. "Now you sound like Kera. Your other voice was cranky and blunt."

Chiya growled but I offered a smile. "Sorry about that." I offered no further explanation though and his prodding gaze left my face.

"We should be near the barracks."

I pushed off the wall and looked around. "Who's?" I asked, voice rising in pitch. I already knew the answer though.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" a small, child-like voice called out. My head whipped over Makizo's shoulder and to the young girl's silhouette in the light of the alley opening.

Tremors coursed through my hands and nothing could quell my shaking breaths. Hunched shoulders, my feet tripping over each other as I back-pedalled only to come to a standstill as two figures blocked where we'd come from. Ikkaku gave me a ghost of an apologetic smile; Yumichika's eyebrows quirked but otherwise he showed no emotion.

"Well, fuck."