Chapter 8: Compromised

It had been seven months since the shinigami joined forces with the British and Americans, and the war against Voldemort in Britain was beginning to heat up. They had acted first, raiding several of the Death Eater bases. This had caused Riddle to cease operations in Asia and focus his attention on removing the threats to his power in Britain. Previously, the Dark Lord had viewed the resistance group as a mere nuisance, even when the Americans joined. But now, they had gained some now, powerful allies, and Lord Voldemort was determined to root out this infestation of pests before continuing his plans to take over the world. In return, the forward operating base had been reinforced, with Vice-Captains Abarai Renji and Nanao Ise joining the force.

"Team one in position," the microphone on Ichigo's headset crackled.

"Team two in position."

"Team three in position."

"Roger that," the orange haired Captain acknowledged. "Commence operation."

The moon shone brightly down at the heavily warded warehouse that was the location of a major Death Eater hideout. Three teams of resistance fighters were poised to strike in various predetermined hiding places, waiting for the signal. The second Ichigo, the leader of this operation, gave it, Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, clapped his hands together, smacking the ground.

With a crackle of alchemical energy, the ground surrounding the warehouse arched upward, disrupting the defensive wards that the Death Eaters had placed. Although the standard protective wards prevented physical damage to the buildings they protected, by completely changing the shape of the ground they could be completely broken. In this way the resistance had a huge advantage over the Death Eaters, since the dark wizards were incapable of breaking the powerful wards over the resistance camp, while the alchemists in the resistance could easily break the wards with a clap of their hands and a crackle of lightning.

"Team one moving to strike the warehouse," Ichigo whispered as he and his team of shinigami specializing in melee combat approached the main entrance of the warehouse. "Team two, you are authorized to breach."

"Roger that," Seamus Finnegan radioed. The leader of the mid-ranged support team, the Irishman cast a powerful blasting curse at the door, blowing it to splinters along with a large part of the wall around it.

Startled shouts could be heard from inside the warehouse, and the quiet snap of suppressed gunfire rang out in the night. "High-priority target, identified as Thorfinn Rowle, is down," Lieutenant Hawkeye reported. "Team three is ready for long-range support. You're clear to engage, team one."

"Roger that," Ichigo radioed. "Going in." He signaled, and his team of fifteen shinigami rushed into the warehouse, zanpakutou out and ready, gleaming in the clear, moonlit night.

Ichigo silently dispatched a Death Eater with a quick horizontal slice across the throat, turning to look around the interior of the dark warehouse. It was mostly nondescript, with basic living quarters, an area apparently designated to be a library, and a number of sinister-looking devices.

A shuffling sound reached the Captain's ears, and he spun, sword at the ready, to find himself face-to-face with another Death Eater. Dodging the clumsily executed dagger strike, he slashed, lopping off the man's right arm. Screaming in pain and shock, the Death Eater clutched his bleeding stump in horror before another quiet crack rang out. The Death Eater pitched forward face-first, lying still on the floor of the warehouse, the back of his head a bloody mess, blood, bone fragments, and brain fluid leaking from the gunshot wound.

"Good shot," Ichigo quietly radioed to the 'Hawk's Eye', perched in the window of a building overlooking the warehouse over eight hundred meters away. "No prisoners. Kill them all."

Soft crackles of the radio confirmed that the strike team members had heard the command, and Ichigo moved on, his blade flashing again and again as he cut through Death Eaters like a scythe through wheat. Ten minutes later, the operation was finished.

Flicking blood from his sword, Ichigo surveyed the inside of the warehouse in distaste. "Twenty-three confirmed Death Eaters KIA," he reported. "What are our casualties?"

"Nagase took a cutting curse to the arm," Kawamura Tomoe, the second-in-command of team one, reported, "and Kite got knocked unconscious. None of team two or team three were injured."

"Good," Ichigo said in satisfaction. Minimal casualties were optimal in operations like this. Granted, they weren't always possible, but Ichigo always tried to return to base with all of his subordinates alive. "Clean up the evidence and we'll go back to base."

"Captain Kurosaki!" Hawkeye's voice crackled through the radio. "Contact, fifty meters south of the warehouse! Force of approximately fifty Death Eaters incoming!" An explosion rumbled through the street, and the radio fizzled before the Lieutenant's breathless voice came through. "Team three forced to relocate, several injuries sustained in explosion. They're coming, Captain!"

Ichigo cursed. Of all the times for something to go wrong, it had to be under his command. "Roger that, team three. Stay safe." He turned to shout at his troops who were disposing of the bodies. "No time for that! We've got a force of about fifty incoming. Leave the bodies and set up a defensive perimeter. Prepare for imminent breach. I want melee fighters at the front, defending the wizards. Now!" he commanded, and his soldiers jumped to comply. In seconds, the formation was complete and Ichigo couldn't help but be impressed at the training and discipline his subordinates had.

"Ten meters from the door," Hawkeye radioed. "Team three has relocated. Working on taking out high-priority targets now." Silenced gunshots rang out, and three Death Eaters fell before they retaliated at the snipers, forcing them to move again. "They're right outside the warehouse, Captain," the Hawk's Eye reported while dodging spells. "Team three relocating again. Corporal Sherman is down. Repeat, Corporal Sherman is down."

"Dammit," Ichigo swore. But there was no time to worry about the dead sniper. An explosion rocked the warehouse again, and black-cloaked figures began pouring through the entrance. "Team one, engaging," Ichigo radioed, and he and his shinigami sprinted into battle, blades flashing, supported by the wizards, who cast spells with precision.

Swiping his blade across the lead Death Eater's throat with unerring precision, Ichigo flicked the blood from his blade and looked around at the battle. Ice ran through his veins when he saw a number of his own people lying on the ground. Whether they were alive or dead he didn't know, but either way they had sustained casualties. The ice was replaced by anger, and Ichigo made a split-second decision. "Team one, you are authorized to go to level two."

"Yes, sir!" the shinigami chorused, and activated shikai, Ichigo leading the way with the deadly and elegant cleaver that was his own. Although he was limited to basic swordsmanship, since his Getsuga Tenshou would cause far too much damage, going into shikai gave him and the rest of the shinigami a significant advantage. Not only did they gain increased strength, speed, and stamina, there was always the intimidation factor involved. The sight of a giant sword flashing through the air, deflecting spells with ease and removing limbs just as easily, was usually enough to make the average person piss themselves in fear. The Death Eaters were made of sterner stuff, unfortunately, but it still made them hesistate to face him, and Ichigo would take whatever advantage he got.

A few minutes later, it was over. Ichigo stood panting, blood dripping down his face from a gash he had sustained when he was nicked by a cutting curse. "Report!" He barked, sealing his blade and sheathing it on his back again. "Team one! How many casualties?"

Kawamura Tomoe limped up to him, clutching her arm. "Captain," she said, saluting her superior. "Team one sustained six casualties, two KIA. The other four are moderately injured, but the medics are performing first aid and they'll survive."

"Team two, reporting," Seamus said, coughing, his face stained with soot and smoke. "Five injured, none too seriously, and no KIA."

"Team three, reporting," the voice of the Hawk's Eye echoed in the devastated warehouse as she and the three other snipers appeared in the entrance. "One KIA, no other injured."

Ichigo sighed. Three KIA out of his force of thirty-five, with nine injured. It wasn't the worst that could have happened, but it could also have been a hell of a lot better. "And the enemies?" he asked.

"Nineteen Death Eaters KIA," a shinigami reported from where he was kneeling over a body. "Which leaves forty-six unaccounted for."

"Dammit!" Ichigo cursed, slamming his fist into a wall, causing the entire warehouse to shake and creak. He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Alright," he continued a few seconds later. "Pack up, we're leaving. The entire place is structurally unsound, and we don't know how quickly those escaped Death Eaters will be able to report to their leader. Burn this place and let's get out of here."

"Roger!" his subordinates replied. Gasoline was poured, splashing liberally over the pile of Death Eater bodies, and as the thirty-two members of the strike force departed, Seamus threw an Incendio into the bowels of the gutted building, sending it up in flames.

"We had a leak," Ichigo reported to Toushiro, Harry, and Mustang half an hour later. "The raid went without a hitch, but then a force of Death Eaters arrived on sight. None of our troops are unaccounted for, but there may be an informant. I'm not suggesting," he said placatingly before any of the other leaders could get angry, "that any one of the troops would betray us. But the fact remains that we lost three men today because they somehow knew when and where we were going to strike. This time we got lucky. They outnumbered us, and if I hadn't authorized shikai, we would probably have sustained a lot more KIA. This can't happen again. We need to find this leak and fix it before we lose a crucial battle."

"The camps warded against all types of external surveillance," Harry said. "There's absolutely no way they could see or hear what we're saying now. But I'll have somebody renew the wards. They might be losing strength."

"I'll have Lieutenant Breda and Warrant Officer Falman conduct a personnel check," Mustang said. "I don't think that there's a traitor, but we have to check anyways. The men won't mind, they know what's necessary."

"If it isn't external surveillance or a rat in our own forces, how could the Death Eaters have known of the attack?" Toushiro asked. "The outpost we attacked was fairly isolated from the rest of Riddle's forces. Reinforcements of that size shouldn't have been anywhere near the area."

Ichigo made a frustrated noise. "Lieutenant Hawkeye said that they even knew where the sniper team would be hiding. If team three had been able to remain on station and provide support, our losses would be less severe. We need to get rid of this information leak now."

Kawamura suddenly burst into the command tent, interrupting the meeting. "Captain!" she panted. "We have a situation! Vice-Captain Abarai's gone missing!"

"Renji?" Ichigo asked, incredulous. "Has he just gone to take a piss or something?"

"Negative. The wards detected his departure from the camp ten minutes ago. The other men reported that he was walking stiffly, and didn't acknowledge any of them."

"Damn," Ichigo muttered. "I know Renji. He wouldn't betray us. There's something going on here."

"Did the men say anything about his behavior, apart from the stiff walking?" Harry asked Kawamura.

"One of them tried to stop him and ask where he was going," Kawamura reported. "Vice-Captain Abarai didn't acknowledge him, and the man told me that the Vice-Captain's eyes were strangely glassy and unfocused."

"Imperius Curse," Harry said immediately, a grim look on his face. "I recognize the symptoms. Probably on that last mission he went on that went wrong. I think we just found our leak."

"We need to find him immediately," Toushiro said. "If he goes to the Death Eaters, they'll get too much information out of him. Even if he's loyal, under the Imperius Curse he can't resist at all."

"Is there any way to remove the curse?" Mustang inquired. "Apart from resistance from Abarai himself. Can it be removed externally?"

"Not that we know of," Harry said. "I'll have Hermione conduct some research, but our priority is finding him again and neutralizing the threat."

"Bullshit!" Ichigo shouted, slamming his hands down on the table. "Are you suggesting we kill-"

"Calm down," Toushiro ordered. "Harry said 'threat', meaning the information leak. "Although there is a slight possibility of what you mentioned being necessary, we will try our hardest to secure the Vice-Captain without significant injury. We'll put him in stasis until we can figure out a solution."

"Fine," Ichigo growled, standing. "Permission to lead a team to find him."

After a moment of discussion, Mustang faced the agitated young Captain. "Granted," the Colonel said. "Pick out your men and get going, we need to solve this as soon as possible."

Ichigo turned and, without a word, exited the command tent. Toushiro sighed in irritation, pinching the bridge of his nose. "As much as I dislike this whole situation," the white haired Captain muttered, "I agree with Ichigo. When you have lived as long as we shinigami have, the bonds you form with your comrades is especially strong. Ichigo, despite being our youngest members due to his unique situation, has taken the meaning of the word 'bond' to the extreme. We shinigami dealt with loss every day, but it doesn't mean that we aren't affected by the loss of someone close to us. It's a feeling that we're all too acquainted with, unfortunately."

"So you've lost someone close to you?" Harry asked softly, thinking of his parents, Dumbledore, and Sirius.

Toushiro stiffened momentarily, then relaxed again. It had been more than four years since it had happened, after all. Although the loss still hurt, he had had plenty of time to deal with it. Right?

"Yeah," the young Captain muttered. "My Vice-Captain. I never knew my parents, due to the random nature of being sent to the Soul Society. Hinamori and her grandmother adopted me when they found me a few days after I arrived. She was the one who found me in the Rukongai, slowly killing granny with the strength of my spiritual pressure, and convinced me to join the academy and become a shinigami. I was what the academy called a prodigy, graduating out of a six-year curriculum in less than two. I quickly became Captain of the Tenth Division and she served as my subordinate for over fifty years. She fell during the invasion of Soul Society, defending the Rukongai. Her name was Matsumoto Rangiku."

"What was she like?"

Toushiro sighed heavily, remembering his most faithful subordinate. "She was the most irritating Vice-Captain anyone could ask for. She almost never did the paperwork she was assigned to. Constantly drinking in the office and passing out on my couch, skipping out to go drinking with some of the other Vice-Captains. As a subordinate, she was the worst you could get. But as a friend…" Toushiro trailed off, the ache in his chest that had started when he started talking intensifying to the point that he couldn't speak. He hadn't talked about Matsumoto since the day he, Hinamori, and Rina had drunk a toast to the Vice-Captain, and apparently the raw pain of lass was still present.

"I'm sorry," Mustang murmured, and the others present added their own condolences. "We all know what loss feels like. We understand how you feel."

Toushiro could only nod stiffly, his throat closed tightly, unable to let out a single word. Standing up, he exited the command tent.

"Don't go after him," Mustang warned as Harry made to follow Toushiro. "He'll need to talk about it sometime, but he needs to blow off steam more than anything right now. You can talk with him later. You know just as well as the rest of us how he's feeling right now, even if it happened a few years ago. You're feeling it too, aren't you?"

Harry nodded resignedly, his shoulders sagging. Mustang was right. The pain of Sirius's death still weighed heavily on his heart. "Yeah," he muttered, sitting back down with a thump on his chair.

Ichigo sprinted through the woods, a squad of ten shinigami desperately struggling to keep up with the backbreaking pace he set. A fire burned in his eyes, one of determination and desperation. Too many had already died at the hands of Voldemort, and hell if he was going to let the bastard take the life of one of his best friends!

A soft whoosh and flare of reiatsu alerted Ichigo of a new presence, and the orange-haired Captain turned his head to see Toushiro easily keeping pace, a determined look on his face. "I dismissed the squad you put together," the shorter shinigami said. "That way, we can go even faster without them dragging us down."

"Thanks," Ichigo acknowledged gruffly, and the two Captains exploded forward, tearing through the trees and bushes at a mad pace. Before too long, they were able to catch the missing Vice-Captain's trail.

"Renji!" Ichigo roared, catching sight of the spikey red hair of the Fifth Division Vice-Captain. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Wait," Toushiro cautioned, holding out a hand when Ichigo made to start forward when Renji didn't respond. "Look at his movements."

Sure enough, each step was jerky and forced, and Renji's body was trembling, as if from the effort to resist the Imperius Curse. It took a moment for Ichigo to realize that he too was trembling from the tension of watching his friend struggle against the controlling influence of the Unforgivable Curse.

"Come on," Ichigo muttered, and Toushiro found himself mentally repeating the words, even as a shaking Renji took a step away from the two Captains. "You can do it, you pineapple bastard."

Caught in the tension of the moment, neither Ichigo nor Toushiro saw what was coming next. With the same jerkiness that he had been moving with, Renji suddenly spun around to face them, his eyes empty and unfocused. Pulling his sword from its sheath on his waist, he lunged at the two Captains. Although his swordsmanship was stiff and uncoordinated, the strength and speed of the strike was just as strong as they were when the Vice-Captain was in command of his body.

Ichigo cursed, dodging the clumsy swipe. "Renji!" he yelled, backpedaling away from the red-haired shinigami. "Stop! Snap out of it!"

The words had no effect, and the attacks continued. Neither Captain drew their own blades, reluctant to do so, as it would have meant fighting a loyal subordinate whose actions were not his own.

With a flash, Renji's blade shifted into shikai, the serrated whip-like falchion blade slashing through the air, cutting through trees and branches, crashing into the ground, with Ichigo and Toushiro leaping into the air, barely avoiding the strikes.

"Finite Incantatem!" a new voice roared as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mustang, Edward, and Hawkeye crashed into the newly created clearing. Everyone watched breathlessly as Renji jerked, coming to a halt. His shoulders slumped, the sword falling from his limp fingers, burying itself into the soft forest dirt with a muffled thump. Swaying slightly, Renji's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell unconscious to the ground.

"Thank goodness we made it on time," Hermione panted in relief, sweat dripping from her brow. "The advance team came back and told us where you were, and we came looking."

"That doesn't matter now," Ichigo said impatiently. "Is he alright?" He had dashed to his friend's side as soon as the Imperiused Vice-Captain had crumpled and was now performing a quick diagnosis. "He's breathing and his pulse is slightly elevated, but steady," the orange-haired Captain reported, relaxing slightly. "But what sort of magical damage could the curse do to his mind?"

"We don't know," Hermione said, biting her lip. "It varies from person to person. If the victim resisted a lot for a long time, there may be brain damage from the exertion. How long was he under?"

"That's the problem," Toushiro said with a small frown. "We don't know exactly when this happened."

In all the commotion over the unconscious body of the incapacitated shinigami, nobody noticed the small flame-like rune that was engraved on the blade of the zanpakutou, now resealed and stuck in the ground. A spark ran along the edge of the blade, tracing the rune with energy. With a low roar, black flames burst from the rune, quickly engulfing the zanpakutou and the ground it was in, spreading in the blink of an eye to the surrounding trees.

Ichigo yelled out in shock as flames splattered onto his coat. Ripping it off before it did any serious damage to his skin, he flung it away from him. "What's going on?" he shouted over the roar of flames.

"There was a fire rune carved into his sword!" Harry yelled back as water poured from the tip of his wand in an attempt to suppress the flames that had consumed the clearing. "The Death Eaters probably put it there to make sure that if Abarai was compromised, he couldn't give up any information! Strong-willed Imperius victims can sometimes retain the memories of what they did while under its influence. They probably didn't want to leave any loose ends!"

The rest of the wizards had joined him in pouring water on the blaze. Edward clapped his hands, slapping them on the ground, transmuting the earth into sand, trying to smother the flames. "It's not working!" the young alchemist called as the sand itself caught fire.

"The fire's cursed!" Hermione shouted. "It's not Fiendfyre, but it's almost just as bad! I don't think it can be put out with conventional means!" The black flames licked higher and higher, and soon everyone was frantically dodging the flickering tongues of fire.

"Ichigo!" Toushiro yelled as fire ate though a huge English oak, the ancient tree crashing into the ground with a tremendous crack. "I'm going to use my shikai to try and suppress the flames!"

"Do it!" Ichigo shouted back, helpless to do anything.

In an instant, Toushiro reached over his back and bared his zanpakutou in a swift motion. "Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!" Ice burst from his blade, sweeping through the entire clearing, washing over the black flames.

The two forces of nature battled against each other, the flames striving to overcome the cold ice that threatened their existence, but eventually the ice won out. The group stood, sweating dripping from their bodies, in a winter landscape, white-blue ice contrasting starkly with the charred black stumps of the trees that had been consumed by the blaze.

Ichigo winced as he passed a hand gingerly over the angry red burns that now covered his back. "Nice job, Toushiro," he said to the white-haired Captain, who simply nodded and sheathed his sword back on his back. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pulled on the remains of his tattered black shirt, ignoring the chafing as cloth rubbed against raw skin. "Is Renji okay?"

"He's fine," Hawkeye reported from beside the unconscious Vice-Captain's body. "A bit bruised and battered, and he's got burns over much of his upper body, but they aren't bad. I estimate most of them are second-degree."

"He might not be physically hurt too bad," Harry cautioned, "but we don't know what damage his mind could have suffered. Before we do anything, let's bring him back to base and reinforce the wards. They might have been weakened when he left."

They gathered up the unconscious Vice-Captain's body, laying his now-sealed and rune-less zanpakutou across Renji's chest. Together, they walked back towards their base camp, each with their own thoughts running through their heads.

So a really short chapter this time. My chapter lengths are so inconsistent haha. Hope you enjoy!

~fokker333