Um, hi? I have no clue. It's been what feels like forever huh? Sorry bout that. I honestly didn't even really realize how long it's been since I've updated anything. Life you know? I moved across country after my last updates and hadn't really had time for it and then couldn't really get back into it once I settled in but I'm finding that I have quite a bit of free time now and this will definitely eat some of that up.

So anyway, here's your chapter. This is probably the second to last chapter in this story. Just the epilogue after this to wrap up things. Might (and by that I really do mean MIGHT) give our two fave captains a cameo appearance in the final battle. Maybe. If I can be convinced.

I own nothing. Clearly not any motivation to work on this for the longest time. Enjoy.

Ichigo scowled where he sat next to Toshiro in the stands facing the hedge maze, waiting for the Third Task to start. "I got a bad feeling about this."

Toshiro glanced at his partner and didn't dismiss the statement like he might have fifteen years ago, he'd learned that Ichigo's instincts could be spot on sometimes and could be the difference between life and death. "What is it? Do you sense something?"

The frown on the taller's face just deepened even more, "No, I just have the feeling something bad's going to happen. This whole competition has been messed up, I think it's about to get worse."

"If something happens we'll deal with it, I'm sure whatever comes up we can handle, we do have the experience after all."

Ichigo grinned wryly at that and shrugged, still looking around at those in the stands and in front of the maze, "Yeah you're right, let's go talk to Harry, make sure he isn't getting too nervous."

Toshiro nodded and they made their way down the stands and to the edge of the maze where Harry was gripping his wand tighter than strictly necessary.

"Yo Harry, you alright? Not getting any last minute nerves are ya?"

He turned relieved eyes on the pair of transfers, grateful for the assuring faces, "Just a bit nervous. The tasks haven't exactly been easy after all, who knows what the finale will be like?"

"You'll be fine Harry, we're sure you can handle whatever happens. Just stay alert and be careful, we don't want you to get hurt after all."

"Thanks Toshiro." Harry shook himself once and relaxed his grip on his wand, glancing at the crowd anxiously, "Looks like it's going to start soon."

Ichigo squeezed his shoulder comfortingly and offered a small smile, "you'll be fine Harry, and me and Tosh'll be here if something happens like in the First Task, so don't worry."

Harry smiled back and nodded before he jogged over to where the Champions were gathering for the instructions for the Task. The soul reapers moved back to their seats, listening to what the announcer was saying and watching the Champions each enter the maze.

The last champion hadn't even been in the maze for two minutes before Toshiro's soul phone went off. Toshiro pulled the device out and grimaced at the reading, "half a dozen of them, all near the maze, I'm surprised we haven't heard them yet."

Ichigo grimaced as just when Toshiro finished talking the high pitched howl of a Hollow echoed out from the maze, making the spectators chatter nervously. He saw Dumbledore and a few other teachers looking at them out of the corner of his eye and sighed, "I really I hate it when I'm right."

"So how do you want to deal with this?" Toshiro had his mod soul pill already ready and was pinpointing the locations of each of the hollows using his reiatsu.

Ichigo glanced around, his eyes finally falling on where the three headmasters and officials sat with the Hogwarts teachers; the reiatsu of one man in particular was bothering him. "You take care of them; I'll wait in case more of them show up nearby. Give me a call if you pick up any more." He nodded to his partner and caught the gigai as Toshiro left it, hiding it under the bleacher seats where no one would see it and freak out.

Ichigo sent what he hoped was a reassuring look at the headmasters as Toshiro flashed away, the hollows didn't feel strong enough to warrant much concern but if there were a large number of them it could prove to be a problem especially if they released their reiatsu with the humans nearby. Slipping under the bleacher he sat on Ichigo separated from his gigai, hiding the false body next to Toshiro's, he wanted to be ready in case his partner needed help.

He had just regained his seat, moving as little as possible to attract as little attention as he could and therefore avoid anyone noticing his change in clothing, when his soul phone went off. Thanking the 12th for making soul phones that couldn't be heard by mortals he picked up the small device and glanced at the screen. What he saw made him curse quietly and quickly punch in Toshiro's number.

"Yes?"

"Hey, it's me, several hollows just popped up in the middle of the maze; I need to take them out before they go after any of the kids."

"Damn it, we couldn't just have a quiet night could we?"

"You know we couldn't be that lucky."

"Alright, I'm about done here so I'll get back to keep watch on the crowd in case anything else happens."

"Got it, I'm heading off."

Slipping his phone into his shihakusho Ichigo flash stepped away without even rising to his feet, appearing to have simply disappeared from his seat to any of the students who may have been looking. He spread his reiatsu senses as he entered the maze, standing in the air above the hedges once he was far enough in not to be seen by humans. He was just deciding which direction to head in when the screaming cry of a hollow echoed loudly, one was close. He hastened his steps when he heard a feminine scream, drawing Zangetsu with a rasp of sharp metal. The huge form of the hollow was only in view for a split second before it was bisected cleanly, Zangetsu sliding back into his sheath before the monstrous creature even knew what was going on.

Brown eyes met the pale blue of Fleur Delacour for a moment before the girl's rolled up into the back of her head and she fell backwards in a faint. Ichigo was about to reach for her to return to the crowd when the hedges reached out and wrapped around her, pulling her into the living walls. Figuring that was what was supposed to happen, Ichigo moved on with purifying the rest of the hollows in the contest grounds.

He was just watching the last hollow dissolve into spirit particles when his soul phone went off. Thinking it was another alert to hollows nearby he glanced at the screen, trying to ignore the feeling that something was wrong.

He blinked at the screen of his phone that flashed 'Hitsugaya Toshiro' at him with a phone icon next to it. "Toshiro?"

"Ichigo where are you?"

He took in his surroundings quickly, "I'm on the side of the maze opposite of the crowd, why?" Something had to be wrong for Toshiro to not know where he was, they could easily track each other through their reiatsu, even with it suppressed and sealed. Toshiro was better than Ichigo at reiatsu sensing in the first place, something must have happened to take his attention away from such a routine search.

Toshiro's voice was tense as he responded, setting off immediate warning bells in Ichigo' mind, "It's Harry, his reiatsu disappeared from the maze along with the Diggory boy. I'm trying to find him right now but I suspect it was a Portkey that was planted in the maze. I doubt wherever it took the boys is anywhere good."

Ichigo immediately sent out his own senses, using his greater power to increase his range as he searched for his young friend. Harry was an okay kid, definitely burdened by his society but a good kid none the less. Ichigo could feel for him after what he went through when he was young and he was certainly going to miss him a bit when he left.

Almost as if summoned by the thoughts about him Ichigo froze, locking on to the location he spoke quickly into his phone which he had kept running, "Toshiro I found him. He's a ways away but I should be able to get there in a couple minutes with flash step."

Toshiro blew out a relieved breath, "good, go ahead and get him. Hopefully he's alright."

"Got it." Ichigo hung up and burst into a flash step, even at a high speed it would take a while to get there, Harry was really far away. Portkeys really can move a person a long ways in no time at all. Be safe Harry, I'm coming.

He nearly stumbled when he felt the reiatsu of the Diggory boy extinguish but merely straightened and pushed more reiatsu into his legs, trying to get as much speed as he could with his power sealed. He could always release his shikai but he was only dealing with mortals, mortals with magic but mortals none the less.

Ichigo had finally closed in on Harry's location when he felt it and another wicked feeling reiatsu spike in a clash. So he is fighting someone, pretty impressive for a human. He paused now that he was in view of the graveyard where the fight was when he felt the reiatsu of the Diggory boy and two other reiatsus flare up and join with Harry's against the dark force. He didn't know who the older man and woman were but they both bore slight resemblance to Harry. Whoever they were they were rushing at the snake like man with Diggory's spirit, pushing him back long enough for Harry to grab hold of Diggory's body and summon over the goblet laying several feet away.

Ichigo inwardly cheered at how Harry dealt with the situation while he watched the snake man fume loudly at his apparent failure at killing Harry. It wasn't until he heard one of the masked figures call the snake man "my Lord" that he understood who he was looking at. The so called Lord Voldemort hardly looked human and if not for how clearly human his reiatsu was -despite how revolting it felt- Ichigo would have suspected he was something else. He decided to interfere some when he saw Voldemort turn his frustrations on his followers.

"Now that's not very nice, turning on your own followers."

He snickered at the panicked looks on the humans' faces as they spun around trying to spot the source of the voice. "Up here morons, seriously no wonder you just lost against a teenage boy if you can't even follow a voice. This is why people get killed in horror movies you know, no one ever looks up."

He grinned at the wide eyes as they took him in, apparently standing in mid air in unfamiliar clothing with a sword at his side. Snickering as a few of the black garbed people retreated a few steps he relaxed the reiatsu solidifying the spiritual particles under his feet. Without the energy holding him up he dropped to the ground shockingly fast. He didn't blink as he made contact with the ground, adjusting his position to absorb the impact, the accumulated energy from his near forty feet fall made a small crater in the ground and kicked up dust obscuring him from view.

The humans were clearly expecting him to have died from the fall so he knew their eyes were bugging out when the dust settle to show him completely unharmed. Man humans are so easy to surprise, you'd think they'd be used to seeing things they don't understand considering the stuff that goes on in the Wizarding world. But seriously, seeing someone drop four stories and being fine is enough to drop their jaws? Pathetic.

Pulling his attention away from the group of black garbed cultists he turned to the spirit of the Diggory boy, who was staring back at him with naked shock. Ichigo eyed the chain dangling from the boy's chest quickly before he drew Zangetsu. He ignored the flinches and shouts of alarm and confusion coming from the Death Eaters and just focused on the boy in front of him who was watching the sharp blade cautiously. He had the satisfaction of seeing the surprise in the boy's face when he matched gazes calmly with him.

"You can see me?"

Having been used to this conversation since he was young Ichigo knew just what to do, though this time he had the new experience of having known the spirit when they were alive, "Yes."

The boy's eyes widened even further as he took Ichigo in, trailing longer than necessary on the drawn sword, "How? Why? I mean I knew Harry could see me but I don't know how and those men can't so why can you?"

Knowing it was better for spirits if they were calm Ichigo set to his task, "You are a spirit now Diggory, I don't know why Harry was able to see you but I assume it was because he was tapping into some of his spiritual awareness when he was fighting Voldemort. As for me I've always been able to see spirits, it runs in my family. As for those fools over there they're weak spiritual wise so they can't see spirits, almost no one can, it is just more common where I come from."

"I see…" Cedric didn't know much about the foreign students, he knew they were intimidating characters and didn't care for what others' thought, acting as they pleased. He knew they were good friends of Harry though, which he felt somewhat bad about, since the Tournament had turned so many away from the poor boy, he could use what friends he could get. He never knew they were able to see spirits though! That was just strange. Of course he could see the ghosts at Hogwarts, but it was only at Hogwarts, never anywhere else. He also didn't know they used swords, where had he even been hiding it? Surely those couldn't be allowed in a school. But he had never seen them with weapons before now. A better question would be why is a sword being drawn at me?

"So why are you pointing your sword at me?"

Ichigo chuckled to himself; that was always a common question, especially since he was on a different continent, where shinigami weren't as widely known. "It's how I send you on, to the circle of reincarnation. That is where you want to go isn't it? I suppose you could always go to Avalon but I doubt it'd be much fun."

Circle of reincarnation? Avalon? What on earth was he talking about? "Reincarnation? Avalon?"

"It's where souls go after they die, one of three things happen to them, they're either reincarnated to enter the circle of life once again, they go to Avalon which I suppose could be considered the Good afterlife, or they go to Hell. Hell is only for souls who have committed grievous sins so I doubt that's where you'll go. Avalon is this region's afterlife; in my country it's called Sereitei. I'm pretty sure you will just be reincarnated right away, something to do with how magical souls are made. It's not a bad thing, it doesn't even hurt, you'll be fine."

And when the taller teenager smiled at him Cedric couldn't help but feel that he looked so much older than seventeen, that he could trust this person, and so he nodded his head and held still as the orange haired teen pressed the pommel of his sword to Cedric's forehead.

Feeling his body go numb he opened his eyes one last time to smile at the taller boy, "Thank you Ichigo, take care of yourself will you?"

"I'll do my best. Go ahead and be reborn as another kind wizard, and don't die so young this time, you have too much to live for."

Ichigo's half smile was the last thing Cedric saw before there was a flash of white light and he was gone.

With the Diggory boy's soul safely passed on Ichigo turned to the gathered Death Eaters, fully aware that they had not been able to hear what he had said to the spirit and had only seen him raise his sword and move the end into the air in front of him. He knew they were even more confused because they had not seen Diggory which didn't really surprise him, magical humans couldn't see spirits of any kind, the only reason that he and Toshiro could be seen was because something about their power seals made them visible to humans with slightly more spiritually awareness. Of course they had nowhere near the amount of awareness as he had when he was human but he was far from normal in any way.

Focusing on the pale skinned form of Voldemort almost made him want to laugh, the man had such a look of confusion and barely controlled rage on his face it was hilarious. He obviously had no idea who Ichigo was or what he did and it clearly pissed him off not knowing what was going on. The man really did seem ridiculous to Ichigo, he had faced so many more dangerous and frightening things that a Dark Lord was way below his level, he probably couldn't even take out a Gillian! Pathetic really.

He gave the most feared man in magical Britain a wholly unimpressed look and smirked internally at the rage bubbling to the surface on his face. "So you're the famous Voldemort. Not sure I see what all the fuss is about. You're only a human."

"How dare you child! I am Lord Voldemort! Heir of the Noble House of Slytherin!"

Ichigo scoffed at him, he thought he was so special, "So what? You think that means anything to me? I've only been at Hogwarts for less than a year, even if I am in Slytherin. Doesn't make you my lord or anything. You're still only mortal just like anyone else, so you've got some fancy schmancy bloodline, big whoop. It doesn't make you some hot shot, I could wipe the floor with you without even trying."

"You dare think yourself a match for me when you are only a first year? How impudent! I shall have to show you your place, foolish child." Great, he was starting to cocky, just what he needed.

"I'm not a first year moron, I'm in fourth. I'm a foreign exchange student and I know enough to kick your ass into the next century. You can die just as easily as any other human, I'm sure Hell would be perfectly happy to have you, you'd fit right in with the rest of the Togabito. Not sure you'd get very far from the Kushanada though, not that it's really a bad thing, getting killed a few hundred times would do you some good I think."

Voldemort's hairless eyebrows came together in a frown at what the apparent foreigner was saying, not understanding the meaning of the words he was saying but understanding that it seemed as if the ginger teenager had actually been to Hell. "What are you saying of Hell? It does not exist, just as Heaven does not exist, you are speaking nonsense child."

The teen actually had the gall to laugh at him, "Of course Hell exists, I've seen it and while it doesn't have any devils with spears it isn't a very nice place, the perfect place for souls that have committed crimes. Heaven exists too, though it doesn't exactly live up to all the hype either, but you won't ever see it because I can assure you you'll be spending the rest of your afterlife in Hell, it's perfect for a sinner like you."

The smirk on the teenager's face was disturbing, especially as he spoke of Hell and the apparent eternal torment that very much existed, but one of his Death Eaters spoke up before he could dwell on what was said.

"Silence brat! How dare you speak to the Dark Lord like that! He will never die and will rid the world of the filthy muggle scum!"

Voldemort easily recognized the manic voice of Bellatrix Lestrange and smiled at the teen, knowing that his followers would not listen to the folly words of a mere child.

So the frightening glare on the tall teenager's face was unexpected. Hard brown eyes trained perfectly on the Death Eater who had spoken with uncanny precision. How had he known who had spoken when he could not see her face? It made no sense.

Catching movement the Dark Lord focused back on the foreigner only to see him raising his left hand, fingers tensed into a claw like gesture. "You all seem to like your masks. Even with them being identical it's still easy to tell which of you speaks so they don't seem to be doing much for you, you might as well have different ones. I have a mask of my own, would you like to see it?"

And without waiting for a reply of any kind, he swept his clawed hand down over his face, only for a red rimmed black glow to follow, settling in over his face for a moment before disappearing, leaving a sight that made several of the Death Eaters retreat a step.

There on the ginger foreigner's face, where it hadn't been before, was a mask. One very much different than the ones worn by the Dark wizards in the graveyard. It seemed to be made out of bone, and seemed to be staying on his face with no external aid, it only had slits for the eyes and the rest of his face was covered. the decoration on the mask was simple but terrifying, a line of sharp teeth going from one side of the mouth to the other, almost taking up the entire bottom half of the mask, with dark red stripes going vertically down through the eye holes and to the base of the mask. It gave off a terrifying feeling, one that should not have been caused by a simple object, a fear inducing feeling like that of prey in the presence of a great predator. Shudders swept through the group of dark clothed Death Eaters as they viewed the mask, and dozens of steps were taken back when the eyes behind the mask opened.

They were unnatural, poisonous yellow irises in a sea of black where the white should be. They were vicious, dark, unhuman.

Voldemort did not know who or what this student was, but he was not normal, and he was not to be underestimated.

He opened his mouth to question the boy when the eyes fixed on him and an echoing, shiver-inducing, double layered voice broke the silence in the graveyard, "You would do well to stay away from me human, for if you managed to anger me past what I am capable of restraint, I highly doubt you would survive the experience. I am no ordinary student, nor am I an ordinary human; you could say I'm not human at all. So do the smart thing and listen to what your instincts are telling you, do not attempt to engage me, for it would certainly not end well, for you that is. I am under certain restrictions while in Britain but I will act if I see it is necessary and I am much, much more than anything you have ever faced. You could try to hide your soul from me but I assure you, I would find you and I would make sure you rot in hell for the rest of your existence."

With one last fear-inducing glare into the Dark Lord's eyes the tall teenager vanished out of sight without a trace.

Voldemort figured just this once he would heed the warning of another. He knew one had to be cautious when facing a creature that was not human, and when to avoid one all together, he wouldn't risk being hunted by something that could apparently enter Hell and Heaven and could track one's very soul. He had his own devices to see through, and they did not involve a mask-wearing-demon-eyed-teenager.

Toshiro didn't startle when his tall companion suddenly appeared beside him, though he repressed the shudder that ran down his spine at the chilling feel of Ichigo's Hollow reiatsu caused by the presence of his mask. He turned and took in the tensed shoulders and cold look in Ichigo's yellow and black eyes quickly before motioned towards his own face, letting his partner know he still had his mask on. With a dark glow the mask disappeared into nothing and Ichigo's face smoothed into calm before he stood to retrieve his gigai.

"What did I miss?"

"Harry brought back the cup and the Diggory boy's body, saying that Voldemort is back." Toshiro spoke slowly, watching his companion for his reactions and was rewarded with a furrowed brow to match his scowl.

"The Cup was an altered portkey. Don't know who did it but it took Harry to some old graveyard where Voldemort and a dozen or so Death Eaters were waiting. Diggory must have been unfortunate and was taken along for the ride. Voldemort or one of the Death Eaters killed him and then was fighting Harry for some reason before Harry grabbed Diggory and the cup and got the hell out of there. I sent Diggory on and gave the Dark Lord a little future warning just in case before I left."

Toshiro nodded at the report, completely agreeing with the contempt with which Ichigo said the evil wizard's name. He didn't know how the magical community could be so terrified of the mad man, how they could be so defeated by their fear of him alone. He had grown up with the fear of Hollows and how terrible they could be but he learned to battle them and rise above his fear. Aizen was a much greater threat and he was not so afraid of him, and the traitor had the power to level cities, Voldemort couldn't dream of having close to that amount of power.

He shook himself out of his musings to see Ichigo watching him with understanding, probably knowing what it was that he had been thinking about. "Where is Harry anyway? I don't see him. I would have thought that he'd be with Dumbledore to get the story but Dumbledore is over with the rest of the teachers. Except…. Where's Moody? I don't feel that creepy reiatsu of his either."

Toshiro looked over where the teachers were talking and also noticed the lack of the man and his dark reiatsu, Snape and McGonagall were looking particularly harried though, as was Dumbledore. He turned back to see if Ichigo noticed when he saw the adults leave the field in his peripheral vision, but then he saw the dark look on his boyfriend's face as he stared after the retreating teachers. "Ichigo? Something wrong?"

Ichigo's usual frown deepened dramatically as his eyes darkened a shade in anger, "I just recalled something. The dark reiatsu we've been feeling around Moody and faintly around Snape and Karkaroff is exactly the kind of reiatsu I felt around the Death Eaters."

Toshiro's teal eyes widened as the realization of what that meant immediately connected and was moving stride for stride alongside Ichigo in a split second, racing towards where they could feel Harry's small reiatsu spike.

When they arrived at Moody's office they would have taken the door off its hinges had it not already been open. Scanning the room in seconds they split and raced to their destinations, Toshiro to make sure Harry was alright and Ichigo to slam his fist into the imposter's torso.

The snap of bone startled the rest of the room into motion, Snape and McGonagall to pull Ichigo back away from the imposter and Dumbledore to hold his wand on the Death Eater gasping in pain, looking infinitely less confident than he had before the transfers had entered.

Ichigo shrugged off the teachers, ignoring the man he had easily capacitated in favor of checking on how Harry was doing by the open chest. he didn't seem to notice everyone staring at him as he checked over Harry for injury, deemed him alright enough to wait for treatment, and peered over the side of the chest. Seeing what was inside he motioned with his hand to move aside and jumped into the chest.

Toshiro watched the room calmly, having decided Harry was well enough and enjoying how his boyfriend's spontaneous actions had affected everyone. Harry was in shock, understandably. McGonagall seemed extremely startled and was attempting to understand what had happened. Snape seemed to be terribly confused and irritated at the fact. And Dumbledore seemed to be taken off guard for once and was attempting to reestablish his usual demeanor. The imposter was attempting to get enough air into his lungs with several broken and cracked ribs and was focusing solely on that since otherwise the pain would have been enough for him to not breathe at all.

He didn't move when Ichigo's head emerged from the chest, the rest of him following with another person over his shoulder. Ichigo set the real Moody down so he could lean against the chest that had been his prison for the year and checked him over like he had Harry. Deeming him fit enough Ichigo stood and glanced around to check that he didn't miss anything of importance, nodding to himself he strode out the room with Toshiro following behind, only a quick, "glad you're alright Harry" before he was gone.

Leaving the room awkwardly quiet, no one knowing what exactly just happened.

So. There. To be honest, almost all of that was already written back when I was still updating, I just adjusted it a bit. Kind of hard getting back into a story I haven't worked on in a while, especially one that's almost finished. I'll be working on New Power as well tomorrow most likely, that story still has a bit to go. Really looking forward to writing the interaction between Ichigo and Umbridge cuz I hate the bitch and that version of Ichigo isn't gonna be shy about expressing that. And he kind of kicks ass.

Review if there are things you want to see before this story ends and I may include them if they work with what I have planned. Promise it won't take me this long again. Chao