Author's notes: Thank you for the continued support! Reviews are always welcome, especially since I didn't get beta-ed on this one.

Chapter 10: Good Captain, Bad Captain

Soifon sat with her head tilted against the back of the chair, idly playing with a frayed, untucked edge of the brown fabric that covered the armrest. The chair looked to be fairly new—no stains or visible damages except for that small problem with the upholstering. The bed was also decent, also new, probably brought in with the chair just for her. If it weren't for the disturbingly damaged walls, she might have thought she was simply in the less appointed quarters in the barracks.

She didn't know how long she had been out—days perhaps? She realized that she had been injected with the antidote and the solution was slowly reconstructing her mental barriers. It was still hard to separate the old memories from the new ones or to make sound decisions, but she had at least pieced together that Yoruichi and Urahara had interrogated her fairly carelessly and were now detaining her. Soifon sighed. When she decided to take down Aizen in this timeline, she always knew that she could end up imprisoned, dead, or anything in between, but she also always expected that Aizen would be responsible for it.

Suddenly, she heard the locks release. When the portal opened, Yoruichi found Soifon on the edge of her bed already watching her. They stared at each other for a moment, Yoruichi taken aback by the familiar face that was much more difficult to doubt when it was right in front of her, and Soifon unsure of what her mentor thought of the situation.

"Yoruichi-sama—"

"Don't call me that! It's Shihouin-taichou." Yoruichi commanded imperiously.

"Of course," Soifon whispered dejectedly. "Shihouin-taichou." Her head was bowed and her hands were clasped on her lap.

"I'm giving you another chance to answer our questions," Yoruichi declared as she secured the portal behind her.

"Thank you, Yoru— I mean, Shihoin-taichou," Soifon humbly kept her position.

"You insist that you are Soifon," Yoruichi watched her prisoner's reactions. "What proof do you have?"

Soifon had known that such questioning was inevitable so during her recovery, she had already thought of a few experiences that she and her commander had shared. She chose one that had happened a while ago, long enough that Yoruichi would not question the Soifon of that time. She just hoped that Yoruichi had not forgotten. I know I never did, and I tried very hard for more than a century.

"Do you remember, Shihouin-taichou, when we went on the hollow-hunting expedition in the woods in the Rukongai? I was new to your personal guard and you were just beginning to take an interest in my training. I killed a hollow, but I carelessly let my guard down so another hollowed grabbed me. I thought for sure I was going to get eaten, but you were there and you rescued me…"

Yoruichi scoffed. "That has happened to most of my men. You'll have to do better than that."

Soifon continued unfazed, "I made a fuss, apologizing for being weak and I was supposed to be the one to protect you. But all you said was, 'Is that all? Don't worry about it.'"

Yoruichi frowned, uncertainty creeping in. "There are ten Keigun members out on each hunt. Even if they weren't close by, someone could have seen and overheard. Any spy worth their salt would have found out something like this if they really tried."

"I suppose," Soifon acknowledged with a small smile, but her eyes became distant and her expression oddly wistful. Yoruichi wondered if the serum was still messing with her mind.

"I couldn't believe how kind you were for telling me not to worry. But at the same time I couldn't accept my weakness," Soifon said. Yoruichi seemed to know where she was going next since she couldn't stop her eyes from suddenly widening.

"I trained that night, deep in the sakura groves. My form was awful," Soifon let out a tiny laugh. "Of course, you caught me and tried to show me the right way, but I was too engrossed in my insufficiency. You said then… You said that I reminded you of yourself… and that you sometimes thought of me like a sister."

By the time Soifon finished, Yoruichi found that she couldn't breathe. Soifon gazed her, vision finally focused and she almost flinched. "Maybe you were watching us from the trees!" Yoruichi backed away step.

Soifon frowned. "You would have known if you were being watched, Shihouin-taichou. You never would have dozed and let your guard down like that."

Yoruichi shook her head rapidly as she backed away all the way to the door. "No you couldn't… You…" She let out a sigh and stared at Soifon. "If it's you, Soifon, then how is it that you know bankai?"

"The bankai…," Soifon began, puzzled at Yoruichi's actions. "I trained for a long time, pushed myself to the limits to get it, and it's not even complete yet."

"That's a lie! You stole Urahara's accelerated training method, didn't you?" Yoruichi accused.

What accelerated training? "No, I—"

"All that time travel crap is a joke, isn't it?" Soifon was surprised to see Yoruichi getting upset.

"No, it's all true—"

"How could you say that I left?!" Yoruichi finally yelled. She seemed to have been taken aback by her own outburst, so she froze and the room fell silent. "That night at the sakura grove…," she turned away and continued much more weakly. "I promised that I…, " she found it difficult to finish aloud. I promised that I would let you stay beside me forever.

Another silence took over and when she turned back, Soifon had already bowed her head, tears threatening to fall and hands clutching tightly at the upholstery. "I know you did…," she said, her voice soft and tight. "And that's why it hurt so much." I thought I was over this! Why can't I…

Yoruichi stood speechless before she hurriedly turned and released the locks. By the time Soifon had collected herself and fought off what she convinced herself was the lingering influence of the drug, Yoruichi was gone and the door was back in place.

"I don't believe her," Yoruichi huffed and crossed her arms stubbornly as she sat on her throne, having sent away her guards.

"You don't think it's Soifon after all?" Kisuke probed, leaning on the nearby wall. "I thought what happened when she first woke up was pretty convincing."

"Actually, I do believe that she is Soifon. I just…," Yoruichi hesitated.

"Then you don't think that Aizen-fukutaichou is going to destroy the world?" the blonde man tried.

"That's not even the issue here," the dark-skinned woman pointed out.

Kisuke raised both eyebrows questioningly.

"Time travel is ridiculous. You're a scientist, right? You would know."

"Well—"

"And I wouldn't betray the Gotei 13," she mumbled resolutely. Her friend's eyebrows shot up in realization. After a moment, he spoke reassuringly. "She didn't say you betrayed the Gotei 13. She said you left. That can mean any number of things."

"But she said she took my positions, Kisuke. If it's time travel… If that's the future… A loyal Soifon would never to do that unless I was dead or a traitor. So apparently, I left my post—abandoned my men. That can't be true! I wouldn't do that!" she trailed off. "No, she has to be lying about that, and why would she unless she was doing something she wasn't supposed to?"

Kisuke hummed thoughtfully. "We don't even know her whole story yet. And what was it she said again? 'Urahara, you're back? Everyone thought you were gone for good!'" he repeated in a shrill and girly voice.

"She does not sound like that," Yoruichi muttered, her frown more annoyed that troubled. The blond man smiled at successfully breaking the tension.

"In any case, it's not like she's singling you out as the only one who left, Yoruichi-san," Kisuke explained. "She's safely detained in a high-security reiatsu resistant cell right now, so we can find out more later and you have time to think about things," he continued.

"Why do you have one of those in the Twelfth Division anyway?" Yoruichi tilted her head curiously, distracted for the moment.

"Oh, you know, experiments and such," Kisuke laughed. "Anyway, I'll go see Soifon-san in a bit and I'll let you know what I find out."

"How are you, Soifon-san?" Urahara asked as he sat on the chair.

The young prisoner refused to answer.

"You know, I'm a pretty ambitious scientist so I know very well how to stretch the limits or reality—"

Soifon scoffed.

"—but time travel is a bit hard to swallow. Maybe you can tell us how it happened or something else that will convince us of what you're claiming."

Soifon squeezed her eyes shut, breathing in deeply and letting the air out in an audible rush. Her earlier encounter with Yoruichi was still bearing down on her, "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, really. When I talked to Yoruichi-san earlier, she was still having trouble wrapping her head around all this, but truthfully, your reaction earlier convinced me that there was more to your story. I thought I'd come and here you out."

"I see," Soifon was only slightly embarrassed by the mention of her behavior when she had woken up for the first time after the interrogation.

"So time travel… I'd really love to know how that happened," Urahara smiled at his friend's protégé.

"There's not much to tell about how I got here," Soifon shook her head. "One minute I was in a battle against Aizen and the next minute I was waking up in the past in my old body. That was…," she scowled at the memory. "That was a while ago, when you saw me in the streets."

"Ah," the embarassed blush dulled the scowl's impact and informed Urahara which encounter that was. "So that was already you. Yoruichi won't be too happy that you've been fooling us all this time."

Soifon rubbed her forehead. "I didn't have a choice. I don't know how I am here, but I thought I might as well do something about Aizen and his troop of modified hollows. I can't do that if everyone knew about me."

Eyes to the ground and still hidden behind her hand, Soifon missed the fact that Urahara perked at the mention of modified hollows. "What exactly did Aizen do?"

"It's complicated, but he led those beasts to war against Soul Society and we were losing badly," the time traveler explained, dropping her hand.

"Really?" the scientist in Urahara was enthralled and had seemingly forgotten to question the premise of time travel.

"Long before that, he did something terrible to some captains to turn them into hollows. Your lieutenant and Kyouraku-taichou's lieutenant too. It was… unforgivable… for so many reasons." Soifon clenched her fists. "Aizen is a menace and I can't let him do all that again."

Urahara's face darkened as he rubbed his chin. "Modified hollows and hollowification. My, my, my, Aizen has been busy, hasn't he?"

Suddenly, Urahara stood up from the bed and smiled widely, "Well, I have to go but thank you so much for telling me about all of this, Soifon-san. Just keep it to yourself for now. I'll soften Yoruichi up before I let her know."

Soifon was confused by the abrupt departure but she didn't mind the man's parting words. "I'd appreciate that," she said.

"We'll talk again later!" he sang excitedly as he left through the portal.

At the back of her mind Soifon wondered about her good fortune in being able to convince the man who had her captain's ear so easily. You would think that my mentor would recognize me better and that the former master of the Maggot's nest would be more wary.