Tatsuki woke up in a dark room, disoriented, dizzy, and utterly alone. Her head throbbed with fierce intensity, pain spiking through her skull with each heartbeat. Fear gripped her. There were no furnishings to decorate the dimly lit space, nor were there doors or any other type of exit. No doors meant no escape. This room was a prison.

Panic swelled inside of her and she swallowed hard, a hysteric scream clawing at the back of her throat. If there was one thing Tatsuki feared above all else, it was a cage. She beat back her terror and took a few deep breaths, trying to think with a calm mind. The first thing to address was how she had gotten here.

She couldn't remember anything.

She stood, blinking rapidly as she was overtaken by a sudden rush of dizziness. The floor was stone and cold beneath her feet. The walls were plain gray. She couldn't find the light source that allowed her to see.

There was absolutely no way out of the room. The walls were seamless with the floor and ceiling. She walked every inch of the stone beneath her, one foot in front of the other, with the hope that she might hit a switch that would allow her to leave. When that produced nothing, she did the same with her hands to the walls. Eventually admitting defeat, she slid to the floor, fighting back tears.

There was no way to tell time in her prison. Tatsuki didn't know how long she had been sitting in the corner, but it felt like forever. Hours passed by with no change, and she finally grew frustrated enough to pace. When that produced no satisfying result, she dropped to the floor to do her usual workout routine. It was different from usual, though. Her body somehow felt lighter.

The mental stimulation and pleasure that she gained from intensive exercise couldn't last forever, however, and she was eventually reduced to counting the seconds in her head, skipping a few along the way like a broken alarm clock.

The mysterious light never abated and she was forced to fall asleep in the lit room on the cold, hard floor.

The next morning presented itself with a whole new problem. She was hungry. Starving, in fact. After at least an hour of staring at the floor with no food magically appearing anywhere, she repeated the day before's routine of pace, exercise, count.

She repeated it once again when counting became too much.

Food still hadn't appeared when her eyelids began to grow heavy and, with an empty belly and heavy heart, she fell sleep.

The next morning arrived slowly. There was still no food and Tatsuki was beginning to grow desperate. If she didn't eat or drink something soon, she would die. Dying of dehydration or starvation was not how she had imagined herself going, and it wasn't something she particularly desired. If she died, she wanted to go out fighting.

An image rose, unbidden, in her mind of Inoue and she felt her throat constrict. How long had it been she had seen Orihime? It felt like forever. She wished that she could at least remember the last conversation with her. All she could remember was… her scream. But that made no sense.

Despite being plagued by vague memories and thoughts, Tatsuki went through her routine of pace, exercise, count before curling into a ball on the ground. Her stomach hurt. Her mouth felt like paper. Whoever had put her in this damn cell was a fucking idiot. What was the point of throwing her in a fucking room to die? Why not just kill her and get it over with?

Exhausted by the lack of nutrition and life-sustaining water, Tatsuki fell into a light slumber instead of repeating her routine. She was awoken by a hand suddenly covering her mouth, cutting out her oxygen supply, and something slippery and strong gripping her legs and arms together. She panicked, twisting and thrashing wildly, and tried to throw her attacker off of her. She was weak, however, and constrained, and it took very little effort on her captor's part to force her into submission.

She panted harshly, still trying to twist her arm free despite the obvious futility of it all.

"Stop it, you fool," a harsh voice ordered from behind her. Without meaning to she froze, shocked into silence by the realization that she recognized that voice. It was female yet low-pitched, threaded with hostility, annoyance, and contempt.

Tatsuki jerked her head around and looked up at the person currently pinning her to the ground, eyes wide. "You," she spat. Now she remembered. She had died protecting Inoue. This was the woman had approached saying she was on familiar terms with Ichigo. But after that Tatsuki remembered nothing. Did that mean…? No. There was no way that-

"You… you knocked me out. You bitch."

The woman said nothing and instead gave Tatsuki a look so chilling that it probably made most sane people run. It only made Tatsuki want to elbow her in the face really hard.

That train of thought was interrupted as Tatsuki was forced to her feet with a twist of her arm and shoved towards a doorway in the wall that hadn't been there before. She wanted so badly to make a move to escape out of the door, but she had a feeling that would not end well. The woman leading her emanated a degree of power similar to Ichigo's, and, despite the fact that every fiber of Tatsuki's being screamed for release, she wasn't that stupid. She would be crushed.

The door led to a long hallway. The small and surprisingly delicate hands trapping her arms did not let go or loosen at all. If anything, they tightened even more for every step Tatsuki took.

Soi Fon, or as Tatsuki had inwardly already begun affectionately dubbing her, "The Bitch," led her down two more corridors before shoving her through another door. This room was far from empty. Both sides were lined with people dressed like Soi Fon, and they felt just as powerful. Tatsuki guessed that these were the elite of Soul Society, just like Ichigo. The only problem was that Ichigo wasn't there. Where was he? What if, without him, they decided to hurt her?

She wanted to slap herself for even thinking like such a weakling. She didn't need Ichigo's help. Not now, not ever.

"Arisawa Tatsuki, childhood friend of captain Kurosaki Ichigo," a booming voice announced from the front of the group. It was an old man with a flowing white beard and a face covered with scars. He was bent over a cane, but that did not affect the aura of power that flowed through and around him, blanketing the room. It was suffocating. Tatsuki refused to let them see how much it was affecting her and settled for glaring at the floor.

"Do you know why you have been brought before us?" he asked, voice accusatory.

This, in turn, only served to make Tatsuki angry. "No, I don't!" she growled. "All I know is that she-" she gestured violently towards Soi Fon with her head-" told me that she knew Ichigo and that she was a part of Soul Society, and then bang- I wake up in a prison. I nearly starved to death!"

The old man looked unimpressed. Soi Fon's grip tightened painfully on Tatsuki's arm as she leaned forward to hiss, "Be respectful, you cur."

Cur? Really?

"Arisawa Tatsuki," the old man continued, unfazed. "You are charged with high treason against the entirety of Soul Society and the Human World."

Tatsuki ground her teeth together as Soi Fon forced her to her knees and prostrated her on the ground. "What treason?" she yelled, letting out a hiss of pain as Soi Fon kicked her in retaliation.

All around her, people traded glances of amusement as if what she had said was incredibly funny. Tatsuki didn't understand what was going on. She had died and came to Soul Society. What could she have possibly done to anger these people- these shinigami- to such an extent? Treason? How could she have possibly committed treason? They were falsely accusing her of a crime she didn't even know about. The thought only made her even angrier.

Soi Fon let out sound of contempt and said in a voice so low only Tatsuki could hear- "Pathetic. Shaking like a leaf from fear. I was wrong about you."

She was wrong. Tatsuki wasn't shaking out of fear. She was shaking out of indignant fury.

"I didn't do anything," Tatsuki grit out, teeth clenched. "I don't even know what I'm being accused of."

"You continue to lie?" the old man thundered.

"I'm not lying!" Tatsuki yelled in retaliation. Soi Fon gave her another sharp blow to the side.

"If I may speak, Soutaichou-" A man stepped forward, bowing in respect towards the old man. The soutaichou, Tatsuki thought, shock coursing through her. Ichigo had told her once about the leader of Soul Society. Ichigo hadn't said much because he hadn't known much, but there was one thing that he was adamant on. The soutaichou was one for making rash decisions. Not because he was a bad person, but because when the safety of Soul Society was threatened, his first reaction was to eradicate anything identified as a threat as soon as possible. He didn't care whether the person might be innocent or not, he would kill them.

Tatsuki anger was tempered by fear as she realized what that meant. None of her allies from Soul Society were at this meeting. She was alone at the mercy of this man who didn't care if she lived or died.

The captain who had stepped forward was the weirdest of the bunch- with a twisted headpiece, blue skin, and disgustingly long fingernails. The manic look in his eyes when he turned to stare made Tatsuki recoil as every sense in her body screamed that something was wrong. Something was off.

This man was insane.

The soutaichou nodded his approval. "Continue, Kurotsuchi-taichou."

The blue-skinned man smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile. "I have a new invention that I wish to test and I believe that Arisawa-san may be able to help." At this, he turned his feverish gaze on Tatsuki. "It may also allow us to force the information we want from her without extensive torture."

Tatsuki eyes widened in horror. She felt Soi Fon tense above her.

The old man paused, contemplating the option. "And what is this invention?"

"It's a simple mixture created to force her to spill all of her secrets, even the ones buried in the deepest part of her mind. An infallible truth serum. She will not be able to fight it," the man- Kurotsuchi- explained, his teeth bared.

Tatsuki couldn't speak as her gaze flitted from the insane captain to the head of Soul Society. She found herself praying. To what, she wasn't sure. It seemed redundant, considering that she was already technically in 'heaven.' But what else could she do? Certainly not beg for mercy. She would never. She had too much self-respect for that. And it wasn't like she had anything to tell them anyway- she had no clue what they were even talking about.

The soutaichou turned back to Tatsuki. "I will give you an option," he said, lifting and slamming his curled and wooden cane into the stone floor. "Tell us all you know now and you will be saved from this serum. Or, if you refuse, Kurotsuchi-taichou will use his serum and you will be forced to tell us more than just the information we seek."

"Great! Wonderful! You all are just so merciful! A choice-" Tatsuki tried to force down her panic with sarcasm. It wasn't working. "That's all fine and dandy but- um- I didn't do anything. Why won't you believe me?"

Kurotsuchi let out a shrill laugh. "Believe you? When you are so obviously guilty?" he strode forward, pulling a vial of some type of purple liquid out of the folds of his haori.

Tatsuki, without thought, began fighting against Soi Fon's hold in panic. Soi Fon didn't react as harshly as she had the past few times, though she didn't let go.

"Soutaichou- I don't agree with this." The protester was an older woman with a single braid that wrapped around the front of her neck. Her tone was motherly and firm, as if she was admonishing a child. "What if it's some type of poison?"

"Why would I want to kill the prisoner, Unohana-taichou? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of interrogation?" Kurotsuchi asked, voice pleasant and eyes wide.

"Even so," Unohana replied. "Every person has their secrets. This serum does not bode well in it's creation."

Then, to Tatsuki's utter shock and disbelief, the small and petite captain who had given her nothing but hell since she had woken up in that fucking prison spoke up from above her. "I agree. Something this powerful should be monitored and limited to only certain occasions. It could be easily used as a weapon against Soul Society."

Kurotsuchi let out an angry snort. "Nonsense. Only I can brew this potion and only I know the vital components. The mixing process itself is incredibly difficult. This is the only vial in existence."

"And yet you're so eager to use it?" Another captain asked with an easygoing smile on his face. He was dressed in a ridiculous pink haori. "I don't think you're being entirely truthful, Kurotsuchi-taichou."

"Just because it is difficult to make does not mean that I cannot remake it. I have complete confidence in my ability to mix another potion if needed," Kurotsuchi spat before spinning back to address the old man. "Soutaichou-sama, please. Let me test this serum. You can judge it's potency and use by watching it's affects. It's the safest way."

"Continue," Soutaichou ordered.

Soi Fon's grip tightened on her again, leaving Tatsuki helpless as the man who was most certainly the least qualified person in the room to be giving out untested materials crouched down beside her and unscrewed the the cork from the vial.

"Don't touch me, you sick fucking bastard," the purple-haired woman snarled, turning her face away.

Kurotsuchi giggled. "You're just making it harder for yourself. You will take this, voluntarily or not."

Tatsuki didn't respond. Like hell she would allow them to tear away her secrets without a fight.

Kurotsuchi smile grew bigger, and he shook his head before glancing up to Soi Fon, who was still perched on Tatsuki's back. Tatsuki let out a grunt as the woman grabbed the back of her head by her hair and forced her face upwards.

The blue-skinned man used a single hand to seize her jaw and force it open. In the blink of an eye, he tipped the liquid down her throat and closed her mouth. He dropped the vial and pinched her nose shut. She could only hold her breath for so long before she had to drink the vile-tasting liquid. It was only once she had swallowed that Kurotsuchi released her nose. She gasped for air, shooting a blood-curdling glare at Kurotsuchi's back as he walked away.

Soi Fon let go of Tatsuki's hair and let her fall forward once again.

"The potion will only take a minute to kick in, Soutaichou," Kurotsuchi spoke as he fell back into line with other captains. "When it does, she will tell us everything."

"Fuck you all," Tatsuki spat.

Inwardly, she was terrified. What would she say under the control of this serum? What would she reveal about herself? What secrets would these strangers hear?

She hadn't done anything to warrant arrest or execution. She hadn't done anything to deserve this.

Unwilling to let them see her expression or the emotion in it, Tatsuki hunched to the ground and pushed her face into the stone floor.

A second later and the world was spinning. Her head was buzzing and her heart pounding. She felt light-headed, fuzzy. It was… weird.

A familiar voice spoke from somewhere far away. "She is ready, Soutaichou."

"Good," another voice replied. Then- "Speak, Arisawa Tatsuki. Reveal the things you wish to keep hidden."

Tatsuki felt warm as if she was draped in a heated blanket. The dizzying feeling was worsening. The voices in the background blurred. The pressure on her back was growing unbearable. Unable to stop herself, she tipped over to hit the ground on her side.

She would remember nothing more the next time she awoke.

I'm going to be completely honest with you guys-

I didn't think I was going to be able to continue this one. Not because I didn't love the feedback because- god, it was wonderful. It didn't even really deserve it.

But now I've got something like a plot developed and maybe some romance and hopefully I won't let you down.

So please review. Tell me if you like or if you don't.

But if you don't then give me a good reason besides the fact that it's crack. And yuri. Because I would assume that was fairly obvious from the description and if you didn't like such things than you wouldn't have read it.

Till next time!