The Quincy Miscalculation

Dozens of souls wandered aimlessly within the blindingly white lab. None of them seemed to notice the silver capsules filled with the blue hue of manifested spiritual energy. Each capsule, twelve in total and as tall as an average human, pulsated the radiant light. It added a level of difficulty to determining the boundaries of the lab. Not a single shadow lurked along the corners. Jeiss, the lead scientist, always said, "It is better for the souls. Helps to keep them 'disconnected.' A blue space warped itself onto the left wall. From it stepped two men wearing all white lab coats. The taller one was Jeiss. He always had a silver cross dangling from a chain connected to a ring on his right hand. Behind him was Riegs, shielding his eyes from the sudden assault of light.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," Riegs complained. "I hate this room."

"Then leave," Jeiss said. He never joked. "Send someone who isn't so easily discouraged by something such as it being too bright." He flicked his hand up to wave his new assistant off. "I Don't have time for such foolishness."

"Man," Riegs raised an eyebrow as he followed. "They weren't kidding."

"Let me guess," Jeiss interrupted. His voice became deep and mocking; irritated and exaggerated. "That Jeiss, not a funny bone in his body, ha ha ha."

"Quit joking around, Jeiss," the assistant joked. "Can we focus here?" He watched as his superior take a deep breath to calm his frustration. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

Jeiss observed the wandering souls. He couldn't admit it now, but it was actually quite difficult to make out the already fading faces. "As you know, with the Soul Reapers all but gone, and the increase in hollow activity, balance between the realms is quite chaotic. It was a slower process than anticipated, but that worked in our favor up until now."

Like every Quincy, Riegs knew the history. 'The Last Exorcise' is what the event came to be known as. Soul Reapers flooded the World of the Living to hunt down a rogue Quincy faction that betrayed a battalion in the midst of an all out attack on a growing Hueco Mundo. They were met with an unexpected force. One Soul Reaper tried to escape, but the Quincy had other plans. They had become powerful in numbers over the centuries and those numbers invaded Soul Society. Few Reapers survived. Riegs followed up with, "We've only been able to mitigate the imbalance, not restore it."

"Correct," Jeiss replied. "Now, without the ability of a Soul Reapers Zanpakto to perform a sending, The realms are racing to destruction."

"So we need to find a way to purify a soul." Riegs waved a hand lazily. "And I'm assuming you've found a way to do that."

Jeiss shot his assistant a look that said "How dare you question my abilities."

"Riegs backed off slightly. "Hey, man. It's only my third day." After a moment, "Soo uhhh, how are you gonna do that?"

Jeiss pressed a button on one of the Capsules, which released the pulsating light. "You have learned nothing in those three days. The chain, Riegs. We manipulate the chain."

"With spiritual energy?"

"And an overabundance of it." Jeiss seemed to become excited. He would be the Scientist who fixed the worlds. "The light coming from the capsules is free spiritual energy. Once the chains are engulfed fully in that light, I will push this button here. That will begin the rapid purification process, which is ripping the essence from the chains and trapping them randomly in the capsules to mix with each other and the free energy. Then its all released again. At that point,the souls will be confused and will choose any chain to reconnect. Then we rip them off again to randomly mix with others and more free energy. This will go on until the chains encroachment process completes and there is nothing left; chain or human nonsense. I am essentially resetting the soul to factory settings, if there ever was such a thing. If I am correct, those souls should go directly to Soul Society to repopulate."

Riegs followed the explanation quite well, but was concerned about one thing. "What happens if this all fails."

Jeiss raised his finger to the button and hoped for the best while saying, "This can't fail."