Author's notes: First of all, I want to thank everyone who has written reviews and encouraged me to continue during the long hiatus. The reviews were constant reminders that there were readers waiting for updates and that was finally what pushed me to wrap up this chapter. The next chapter will still take a while to get out, but hopefully not as long as this one.

I'm sure you can tell I'm rusty and that I've been sitting on parts of this chapter for a while, but I hope it's not too disappointing. Thanks to Polaris and Soldier for beta-ing this chapter. Check out their fics if you haven't yet.

Chapter 8: Ask and You Shall Receive

For a few minutes, Yoruichi had been flash stepping in relative conspicuousness, although with her speed, she was certain no one could make out that she was carrying another shinigami. She had every intention of taking the girl to the Soutaichou so they could decide what to do with her. She had even made a mental note to make sure that the impostor paid dearly for taking Soifon from her.

That's when it hit her. What if she really was Soifon from the future? Or more likely, what if the girl was Soifon of the present and she somehow just got stronger? What if she wasn't the spy?

Yoruichi didn't really have concrete proof that Soifon, if this was her, was the spy. As far as she could tell, she had snuck out to train, and maybe that's how she had gotten stronger. She knew that Kisuke achieved bankai in three days so accelerated training was possible, even remotely so. It baffled her why Soifon would make up a story about coming from the future when the truth might have been that much simpler, but maybe she had gained her strength doing something Yoruichi would not approve of. In any case, just the thought that the girl might be her actual bodyguard, and innocent at that, made Yoruichi stop and take cover in the shadow of the nearest building.

If she brought the girl to the Soutaichou, Central 46 would know about her, and all the other captains would be involved. In the end, she would lose her hold on the matter. Normally, she wouldn't care.

'But if this is Soifon…'

Making her decision, the Gundanchou started to double back, sacrificing speed for stealth, then she turned to retrace her steps from early that morning towards the Shihouin estate. A little longer than it had taken her to get to the Fifth Division from the cave, she found herself in the vicinity of her home. Yoruichi shifted the load on her shoulder, deftly pinching critical pressure points and reapplying the restraining kidou. Once she was certain that that the girl was still unconscious, she veered left, and followed what might have been a path ages ago. If it was, it had not been used in recent times, overgrown with vegetation and showing no signs of wear, but the plants were slightly younger in that narrow strip that ran shallowly slanting away from the main estate. Only one who was knowledgeable in natural sciences and knew to look would be able to tell, though Yoruichi didn't so much as pause as she followed it to a mossy seven-foot boulder, clean on one side from where it appeared to have been broken after the moss had built up; the remnants of the other half had been thrown in a circle around the boulder's new face.

Yoruichi said the kidou chant to reveal the hidden entrance through the boulder's clean face in hushed tones. The rock faded into a gray fog which lifted to reveal steps that led to Yoruichi's ultimate destination: the old Shihouin dungeons—dusty from disuse, remnants of a time when the Onmitsukidou was little more than the Shihouins' personal army of guards and mercenaries. Shoving off the dirty sheet that covered a restraining chair, the current head of the clan and the institutionalized Onmitsukidou thought it appropriate that she had brought 'Soifon' to the place where the Fons began their rise to prominence.

When the girl was finally restrained on the chair, Yoruichi knew she could start the interrogation; she simply had to wake the girl up. And she would have, except that she began eying the various sharp and shiny implements on the tray beside her, as well as in her hand, and visualizing all the gruesome things they were used for. She wasn't new to torture and interrogation, but the blade felt much too heavy in her hand and much too sinister to touch even the likeness of Soifon's skin. It took a few more moments before Yoruichi reluctantly conceded that she was going to need help, hesistant as she was to bring anyone else into the situation. It was time to pay a visit to her good friend, Kisuke.

"Yoruichi-samaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The blood-curdling scream pierced the silence in which Kisuke stood, idly fingering the implement he just used on Soifon as he placed it on the tray along with the pliers to pull out nails, the blades and shears to chop off tiny appendages, and the Pear of Anguish, meant to enter, expand and tear bodily orifices, whatever they may be.

The scream was the most pained sound Yoruichi had ever heard from one of her toughest bodyguards. She so wanted to believe that that meant this was an impostor, rather than Soifon experiencing something that made her react the way she never did in the face of the most horrific situations they went through together. But not knowing for certain that that was the case, hearing utter anguish in the exact timbre of Soifon's voice had made her get up from where she had been observing quietly. It was all she could do not to run to the girl's side and set her free.

She looked back and forth between the girl and the man who seemed unperturbed save for the grim expression that had been on his face since he injected the girl. "Kisuke! What the hell is going on?"

This was certainly not what she had in mind when she came to seek Kisuke's help, so she combed her memories of their conversation for any indication that the drug was going to inflict so much pain.

Skirting past the wide double doors that opened into a network of labs, Yoruichi found the more traditionally designed barracks and hopped onto the window sill that she knew led to Kisuke's study.

"KISUKE!" she boomed, causing the slumbering man to shoot up comically from his desk, clutching his currently non-functional head.

"Ooh, wh-wha-what? Yoruichi-san, is that you?" he squinted his tired eyes painfully.

"Kisuke, get me some of that new drug you've been working on," she ordered, ignoring his struggle to wake up completely.

"I don't-"

"And don't you dare lie to me and tell me it doesn't exist!"

"What a disagreeable woman." he concluded. "What do you need it for? Second division already has a whole slew of torture devices,"

"If she is who she says she is, then I…," Yoruichi started resolutely but fumbled for her reason as she kept her hand up, pointing to the bound body she had set on the floor by the window before she woke Kisuke up. She had considered and decided against leaving the girl unguarded and had ended up lugging her prisoner all the way to the Twelfth Division.

"SOIFON-SAN?" Kisuke shouted before Yoruichi clamped a hand over his mouth. "Stop making a fuss, Kisuke. This girl knows bankai. I don't know if she is 'Soifon-san', but that's why I need that drug." Slowly, she released the man from the headlock.

"I see. And you came to me so you can figure out what to do if she actually was Soifon, without the interference of those old fogies at Central 46, is that it?" Kisuke said in a low voice, suddenly serious.

Yoruichi thought about it; he wasn't completely correct about the situation, but he was close enough. He usually was. "And you call me the disagreeable one."

Looking back, Yoruichi realized that she wanted so much to find a less damaging method of interrogating the girl that she simply decided this was it without actually making sure it was. She was irritated that Kisuke hadn't explained the dangers, given how she made it clear she was concerned that the girl might really be Soifon, but then she couldn't really blame him considering how she implied knowing everything about the drug.

She turned to look at Kisuke squarely, though in her mind's eye, she could still see Soifon to her side, tears flowing uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes despite being squeezed shut. The girl was still unconscious, but she jerked so violently in her chair that the manacles dug into her, blood slowly making its way down her wrists. The vision fed her voice with an unwanted desperation. "I thought this drug was a truth serum for interrogation! Why is she-"

"A truth serum?" Kisuke raised an eyebrow. "I don't know where you got your intelligence, Yoruichi-san, but this drug is no truth serum, even though you are right about its utility for interrogations." He shook his head, just now realizing how and why Yoruichi had been so willing to subject someone who could be her protégé with the drug.

"What? Then what does it do?" Yoruichi asked frantically, shooting a concerned look at her prisoner.

"It…" Kisuke stalled, not wanting to distress Yoruichi any further but also not having a choice. "It messes with the chemicals in people's brains and makes them re-live the darkest moments of their lives." He paused, trying to gauge Yoruichi's reaction, even as Soifon began sobbing loudly. "The idea is to put the prisoner in such a state of despair and weakness that they become extremely vulnerable to the following interrogation, where further physical torture may or may not be necessary. The information we gather from their ramblings while the drug is in full force is merely a bonus; either they coincidentally have to do with the information we need, or they can be used as leverage during the interrogation proper."

"Soifon's… darkest moments? But… she screamed my name." Yoruichi furrowed her brows. "I assumed it was because she was asking me to stop this..."

"Yes, well, that scream does tell us that she's someone who refers to you as Yoruichi-sama," Kisuke offered. " How many people-"

"Wake her up," his former commander interrupted, worry and the vestiges of her annoyance, both for her behavior and for his, evident in her voice. "The sooner we start, the sooner we can finish."

Soifon twitched uncomfortably as cold water splashed onto her face. Groaning, she opened her eyes to see Kisuke holding a bowl of ice water, wearing a genial smile she just wanted to rip off and stomp on.

"Sorry, Yoruichi-san asked me to wake you up for the interrogation, and I didn't think you would appreciate any physical contact if you really were Soifon-san."

Interrogation?

"Interrogation?"

Belatedly, Soifon realized that she had once again woken up sitting in a chair, this time with all of her limbs tied down by reiatsu-resistant manacles. She might have wondered why she always seemed to wake up sitting down in this timeline, if not for her swimming head and the pervading sense of grief and hopelessness.

Having regained her composure, Yoruichi entered the room shortly, wearing her most intimidating expression. "What is your real name, impostor?"

Soifon gave her an almost hurt look before nodding in resignation. She had no desire to hold back information, after all. She just wanted to tell her mentor what was going on, and the feeling that resistance would be futile had almost nothing to do with it. "You want my real name, but you probably won't recognize it."

"Say it anyway," Yoruichi ordered, her voice so cold you would never have known she was frantic just moments ago.

"I am Shaolin Fon of the Fon clan which serves the princess of the Tenshi Heisouban, the Shihouin Clan…" Soifon obliged. "You know me as Soifon," she decided to add for clarity. Kisuke glanced questioningly at Yoruichi, who simply went on with her interrogation, recognizing the clan, but not the name Soifon had abandoned to be in her service, just as Soifon expected.

"Of course we know you as Soifon. You are impersonating her, are you not? Your clanswoman-" Yoruichi asked, an impatient edge creeping into her cold voice.

"No! I-"

"How did you get so strong? How did you achieve bankai?" Yoruichi interrupted, her voice low.

"I… I'm strong because…" Soifon started, but as she thought of the answer, she realized it was information that she did not want to impart.

"I'm strong because…" The answer would damn her, and yet she couldn't find the strength to lie or even twist the facts into harmlessness.

"I…"

I don't want to tell you. I won't! But I-

"Answer the question!" Yoruichi ordered again, threateningly stepping towards the tray whose contents gleamed menacingly. She didn't want to hurt the girl, and yet in the end, she would do what she had to do for the greater good. She would get her answers and she would eliminate any traitors.

The threat was unnoticed, and really, unnecessary. Kisuke was nothing if not a genius and his drug was breaking down even the strongest of Soifon's mental barriers.

Lie. Lie. I have to lie! But how can I? What would I say? I was stupid enough to get captured and I'm too stupid to come up with anything that would fool them. I'm weak! I'm too weak to resist interrogation. So weak that she didn't think I could handle the truth all those years ago. So weak that she left me behind. It's because I'm useless. It's useless. It's useless to resist…

The two captains, one puzzled and the other impassive, watched Soifon as her unfocused eyes began to cloud with tears and her face twisted in despair. Yoruichi was about to speak again—to threaten, to interrogate, or to inquire if Soifon was okay, no one would ever know, for the drug had won.

"I'm sorry Yoruichi-sama!" Soifon began her confession with a loud, desperate, and tearful apology. "I trained for decades with the goal of surpassing you, that I may capture you with my own two hands. That… that is why I achieved bankai."

Yoruichi's eyes darkened and her heart clenched when she finally accepted that before her was an enemy. "You will tell us what your mission is and who you work for. Answer quickly, completely and truthfully, or your life will be forfeit. Know that this is not an idle threat."

It was then that Soifon realized that the two captains had injected her with the drug which, in the future, she had designated for use only with the most difficult criminals. Not only did it force one to tell the truth, but it slowly disintegrated mental inhibitions, preventing the prisoner from holding back information. It seemed perfect, but the reason it wasn't commonly used was because it was essentially a neuroproteolytic poison, and the longer the interrogation, the more damaging the effects on the brain. There was only a small window in which the serum could be used without truly harming the prisoner. Cooperative prisoners were given the antidote before being sent for detention. But if the prisoner was deemed truly dangerous and powerful enough to hold back against the potent substance within that small window, then they were simply interrogated until they were reduced to mindless husks and died.

"You… you used serum SL-v3 on me. That's… I can't… " Soifon continued to whine unintelligibly about the hopelessness of her situation while Kisuke gaped at the girl, surprised that she knew of the exact code of substance they had used even if she was a version too advanced. Again, SL-v2 had done its job; she was incriminating herself, and equally importantly, she had begun volunteering the extent of her knowledge to them.

"You will tell us the information I asked for NOW!" Yoruichi roared, thoroughly disturbed by even that small piece of knowledge, coupled with the claim of training to apprehend her.

Unfortunately, the difference between the first and succeeding versions of the drug was strength and speed of efficacy. Soifon was now more absorbed in her self-pity and self-recrimination than the interrogation. "S-Soifon, Captain of the Second Division, Commander of Onmitukidou, Leader of the Keigun First Brigade," she enumerated her positions with disgust. "What does that even matter if I'm stupid, weak and useless? I don't deserve those titles. I don't. Yoruichi-sama should never have left us, and I should have just stayed as nothing but a bodyguard."

Yoruichi schooled her expression, but Kisuke caught the look of disbelief and confusion that crossed her face. And still, Soifon rambled on, less and less aware of her surroundings, "The gods should have picked someone else to go back in time. Maybe Yoruichi-sama herself. She would know what to do. Not like me. So useless and weak. Not even any good as a bodyguard. How am I supposed to stop Aizen from destroying the world? And Urahara? That moron, he…"

Unwilling to hear more, Kisuke hurriedly pulled Yoruichi aside and spoke to her in hushed tones, "Yoruichi-san, it looks like this may well be Soifon-san, even if there's a lot that we still don't know and understand about her. But the drug… it's acting too quickly. If we keep going like this, she'll…"

"I know," Yoruichi responded, betraying nothing of the fear and confusion Soifon's words and condition triggered within her. "Give her the antidote and secure her while think of what to do next."