Well...That Wasn't Supposed to Happen

"One last drop..." The scientist brushed his bright pink hair out of his way, pushing up his glasses as he watched the last droplet of a shiny silver liquid slide into the beaker he was holding in his gloved hand, "ah, that should do it," He smiled manically as he watched his new potion turn as bright a pink as his hair, "perfect," He poured the new pink liquid into a small glass bottle and plugged the top with a cork, "Aizen-sama will be happy."

He slipped the small bottle into his sleeve under his glove and, happily humming some Jason Mraz to himself, skipped down the hall towards Aizen's throne room. These meetings are always so precarious, the scientist thought to himself as he passed fellow Espada in the tall, white-walled hallways of Las Noches, Aizen-sama is always so intense...especially when he smiles. That smile is scarier than my smile, because it's not only manic, but suspicious, he sighed, someone has a scarier smile than I. I need to remedy this soon. That will be my next project...

He had made it to the throne room, whose entrance was marked by a set of large black doors, taller than even Nnoitra. Szayel smiled to himself, imagining himself riding on Nnoitra's back, trying to reach the top of the double doors. My fantasies will be achieved soon enough, he thought merrily, pushing with some force to open the doors, with my latest invention...

"Yes, he shall arrive presently." Pieces of a conversation floated across the room to Szayel as he entered the room. Aizen sat, sipping tea out of white bone china cups, across the room from the doorway, talking to Gin and Tousen, "oh, there he is, right on time, just as I had planned."

"Good afternoon, Aizen-sama," Szayel bowed gentlemanly, his white-framed glasses sliding down his nose, "I have finished the experimental mixture we discussed earlier."

"Very good," Aizen nodded towards an empty seat next to Ichimaru Gin, "please, take a seat, my lovely Espada."

"Ah, yes," his arms folded behind his body, he gracefully trotted across the room and took his seat, "well, I've tested it on my Fraccion, with moderate success. Now, this batch I've recently made, I assume it will work for Arrancar."

"Have you tested it?" Aizen asked.

"Naturally, no," Szayel said, bowing his head, "I haven't been able to capture anyone to become my test subject."

"What does this concoction do?" Tousen, from his spot on the other side of Gin, asked, "what are we discussing?"

"God, Tousen," Gin sighed, "it's the mind-controlling potion we were just talking about. I mean, I know your eyes don't work, but you're hearing's fine, right?"

"Gin," Aizen said flatly, "yes, this is an elixir I asked Szayel to make for me. With one drop of this potion on your opponent's skin, and you can control their every movement, almost as if you control their mind."

"Isn't there a zanpakuto that does that?" Gin ask, his nose scrunched up, though his smile never faded.

"This was a simple formula to make," Szayel said, "if you coat your blade with it, battles will end with the first slash. Though, to use the elixir to control your opponent's movements, you will need to have taken a swig beforehand."

"Are you certain it works, Szayel?" Aizen asked, folding his hands in front of him, tilting his head to the side to get the bitch curl out of his eyes. Szayel tried not to grimace; certainty was not in the scientist's dictionary. If anything were one hundred percent, he'd be out of his job.

"Yes, all I need is a test subject," Szayel said, "I can be the one to control the subject's mind, but I need to know this will work on all Arrancar, even the Espada. Next, we'll capture a lowly Shinigami and test them, as well, but first let's work on the Arrancar."

"Absolutely," Aizen nodded, "the next person to walk through those doors will be your test subject. This way, it is all up to fate."

The four men turned towards the door, or rather, three turned towards the door, and one turned in its general direction. Nothing happened for a while, and the scene nearly turned awkward.

"So, uh," Gin started slowly, "Kaname, does your hair grow like that, or do ya do somethin' to it?"

"Aizen-sama!" a tall, white-robed figure burst through the door, "Ulquiorra keeps stealing my shampoo! I know it's him! Look at how glossy his hair is! Look at it! Look at it and tell me he didn't steal my shampoo!" Nnoitra Jiruga cried, an empty bottle of 'Pantene Pro-v' in his flailing hand, "it's empty now and I just had Tesla buy me a new one!"

"Ah, Nnoitra," Aizen said, his voice smooth like chocolate, "you always make such an entrance." Gin snickered next to Szayel as Aizen smiled mysteriously. Nnoitra's angry face fell and was replaced by confusion.

"What did I do?" he asked, "why is pinky here, anyways? Oh, were you guys in a meeting?"

"He's going to be my test subject?" Szayel whined, his amber eyes dull with disgust, "I'm not sure if this amount of potion will work on him, given he's such a giant."

"Yo, what are we talking about?" Nnoitra sneered in Szayel's general direction, "I'm not a giant, you're just fucking short. Not as short as Ulquiorra though," he laughed, "ha, fucking shorty..."

"Nnoitra, please," Aizen got to his feet, "I'm sorry about your shampoo, I'll make sure it's replaced. Ulquiorra's hair was looking rather luxurious lately," he looked down at Szayel, then back to the Espada who stood at in the doorway, "you will accompany Szayel back to his lab for an experiment."

"Uh, experiment?" Nnoitra's lips curled in distaste, "I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Do you dare disobey me?" Aizen asked, his voice never rising, his head cocked to the side, challenging Nnoitra's defiance, "Nnoitra?"

"Ah," Nnoitra's face drained of all colour, and he started to sweat profusely, "n-no, Aizen-sama," he glared at Szayel, "are we going, or what?"

"Yes," Szayel got to his feet, "thank you, Aizen-sama."

"Come back to me with the results." Aizen said. He floated back to his seat, making no noise with his footfalls, and sat down, casually taking a sip of tea. The two Espada stood in their spots, staring at him, almost dazed, until Gin tilted his head, and with an eerie smile, waved.

"bye-bye." he smiled. Szayel nodded, and left the room, Nnoitra in tow.

Once they had made it to the hallway, heading to Szayel's lab once more, Nnoitra started to complain.

"Why is it always me?" He whined, "wasn't it me that had to be poked with those poisoned needles to see if I'd go numb or not?"

"Yes," Szayel said, "hm, I don't recall if those worked or not."

"No, they didn't." Nnoitra said, "and you electrified me, once."

"Yes, I remember that. You went numb, that time. Aizen-sama picked you for these experiments, not me. Except for the hierro-strengthening drug, which did not work, apparently..."

"Fuck you," Nnoitra stuck his hands in the pockets of his Espada uniform, "what are you doing to me this time?"

"This," Szayel pulled the little corked bottle of pink liquid out of his sleeve, "I have not a name for it as of yet, but what it can do is amazing."

"...But what can it do?"

"It seems that, whoever drinks the potion, once their opponent comes into contact with it, will be able to control their opponent's body and mind."

"So you're going to drink it and then throw it on me and see if you can control my limbs and stuff?" Nnoitra asked, his one eyebrow furrowing against his eye patch. Szayel smiled and nodded sweetly.

"Yes," he said, "and possibly your mind too! Oh, I am excited, because the changes I make to your mind can be long term, or permanent."

"Ah! What do you mean?"

"Well, for instance," the look of a mad scientist came over him; it wasn't very different than his normal look, "when I tested this on my Fraccion, this one who never used to like blueberries, once I entered his mind, I changed what he liked and what he didn't like. I made it so he loved blueberries. When I came out of his mind, he did, indeed, love blueberries," he smiled smugly, "I was quiet proud of myself."

"You better not change any of my habits," Nnoitra cried, "I still want to hate Ulquiorra, and Tesla will still be my bitch, okay? Because my upper-hand is slight with that crazed hooligan. One instant that I don't stomp on him, and he'll start thinking for himself! I can't have that happen! Just think, he gets a little freedom, and he might start getting interested in girls!"

"Hm, alright," Szayel rolled his eyes, "I won't touch your preferences, alright? I just want to make sure it works," he looked up, "ah, here we are." They had arrived back at his laboratory; a large, round room with very tall, black walls with white panels running up them like a giant ribcage. Various sizes of Fraccion milled around work benches that were pressed up against the walls, covered in papers, flasks, and burning Bunsen Burners. Nnoitra shuddered at the sight of the walls; so many bad memories in this room.

"Home sweet home," Szayel sighed sweetly, "ready to start, Nnoitra?"

"Huh," Nnoitra shuffled across the room and sat on one of the workbenches, knocking aside a stack of chart paper with his behind, "yeah, sure, whatever. I don't care what happens to my body or anything."

"I don't think it'll hurt." Szayel said, "well, to be honest I'm not sure."

"...just do it."

"Yes," Szayel eyed the pink liquid as he stirred it in it's bottle, "well, I am supposed to ingest it, while only contact with skin should do it for you. This is merely for convenience; I wonder if the effects would be stronger if you ingested it as well."

"I'm not drinking out of a bottle you've drunken out of..."

"Fine then," Szayel walked over to a table, producing a flask, "I'll pour some into a cup for you, then," He uncorked the bottle, and poured some of the substance into the flask.

"Yeah," Nnoitra took the flask of pink liquid from Szayel, "bottoms up, eh?" he knocked back the flask as if it contained whiskey.

"What?" Szayel peered over his own bottle, having just downed the liquid too, "you didn't just drink it did you?"

"...Uh, yeah?"

"I didn't tell you too!" Szayel cried, his eyebrow twitching with irritation, "you're suppose to come into contact with the substance after I have!"

"Well, you said I had to drink it!" Nnoitra looked irate as well, but that was because he suddenly wasn't feeling too hot, "I think we drank it at the same time!"

"At the same time?" Szayel scoffed, bringing his hand to his forehead and leaning heavily against the workbench; he wasn't feel very well suddenly, either, "this...is not good."

"What the fuck did you do to me?" Nnoitra cried, pointing an absurdly long, accusatory finger towards Szayel, "you poisoned it didn't you?"

"No,no..." Szayel said, finding it harder and harder to stay upright, "why would I poison my favourite test subject? Though, this sickness has never happened before..."

"Oh, so you're feeling it too?" Nnoitra groaned, his face gray, "you fucking poisoned us, you freak!"

"If anyone here is a freak, it's you," Szayel said, quietly deciding sitting on the floor was a more attractive option than standing, "you look like your mother was a spider."

"Praying Mantis," Nnoitra said, through gasped, "at least I don't...look like a chick..."

"I beg to differ." Szayel said. It was the last thing he said before it happened. It had happened so fast, he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been so...tall.