Author's Note

All right, new story! This is the one my nice friend AoNoBleachShoujo told me I should expand on, so here it is. Enjoy!

"Are you gonna tell us why you dragged our asses to England yet, Geta-boshi, or do I hafta beat it out of you?" an irritated Ichigo Kurosaki asks.

"As much as I hate to agree with Kurosaki, his question does have merit. Why have you brought us to England?" Uryu asks as he pushes up his glasses.

"You didn't ask when I brought you two along." Urahara states, ignoring the question.

"You woke us up in the middle of the night and dragged us off while we were still half asleep!" Ichigo explodes.

"I don't even think I packed my own bag." Uryu mutters.

"Oh, look! It's Hirako-san!" Urahara cries out, pointing to where Shinji is leaning against a wall under a sign pointing to the baggage claim. His distraction works as the two younger men turn to see that the captain of squad 5 is indeed there.

"Yo!" Shinji waves as they approach, pushing off the wall and closing the distance. "I'm surprised you actually got them to come along, Kisuke. What'd ya bribe 'em with?" he asks as his signature grin spreads a little farther across his face.

"He didn't bribe us with jack shit! He dragged our asses out of bed and onto a plane in the middle of the night! We were barely even conscious!" Ichigo rants. Shinji just smiles, chuckling a bit at the idea.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Urahara drugged us just to make us come." Uryu states.

"I got your fathers' permission to take you with us on this trip, so there's no need to be worried."

"Our fathers didn't do anything to stop us from going to fight in a war. Twice." Uryu points out.

"So, did ya drug 'em?" Shinji asks. He was rather curious and wondered if he could get some to use on Hiyori the next time he sees her.

"Actually, I did drug those two so they'd come along quietly. It was a tricky little thing to make. I couldn't have it setting off any airport security, so I had to develop it to sedate them using their souls instead of their physical bodies, which is rather tricky when you take into account how resistant powerful souls like theirs are to damage and effects. The drug works by suppressing a person's reiatsu to such a low point that the body figures it needs to rest to regain that energy. I had to be careful that I didn't push it too low to cause a near death state or leave it too high, causing them to just be very hungry and a little sleepy. Then, of course, there was getting the proper dosage for Kurosaki-san. I almost didn't get enough in his first dose, he has so much reiatsu." Urahara merrily explains. The difficulty of this feat of science had left him feeling quite proud of himself. Mayuri certainly couldn't have made such a fine drug in only two days.

"What the hell, Geta-boshi? Seriously. What. The. Hell." Ichigo asks while Uryu drags his hand down his face.

"I would shoot you right now, but then I'd probably get arrested." Uryu states with a huff. Stupid police and their policies against causing bodily harm to mad scientists who drug people and drag them halfway around the world.

Shinji just chuckles at the boys' annoyance with Urahara as they pull their suitcases off the conveyor belt. Once all the bags are retrieved, they head outside into the settling twilight and hail a cab. They piled in and Urahara gave the man the address.

"So are you two going to finally tell us why we're in London, England?" Uryu impatiently asks, still speaking Japanese so that the cab driver can't understand the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get yer panties in a wad, your four-eyed majesty." Shinji replies with a small mock bow, causing Uryu to fume at the mockery of his position. "We brought ya here 'cause Kisuke an' me owe a British guy a small debt from about thirty years ago and he decided ta finally call it in. Said somethin' 'bout being bodyguards or something like that for some kid he's watchin' over."

"So you dragged us halfway around the damn world to help you babysit?" Ichigo asks in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, to be perfectly fair, Potter-san is 15, so we figured since you two are closer to his age, he'd be less suspicious of hanging around you two." Urahara chimes in.

"So you intend to make us bodyguards to someone who apparently doesn't want one?" Uryu asks.

"Yep. Surprised ya figured out he didn' want 'em. Guess you're as smart as those glasses make ya look." Shinji says, smiling as he notices the twitch in Uryu's eye at the glasses comment. Ichigo has to struggle a bit to not let any laughs out at Shinji's joke.

"Why does this Potter boy even need bodyguards? And why can't they supply them themselves?" Uryu continues to question.

"Ah, that would be because they're not a very combative society compared to us and are currently facing a 'secret' " Urahara makes actual air quotations as he says secret, "resurgence of a 'dark lord' that wants to kill him. Dumbledore-san, who we owe a debt to, has asked for our assistance since we are combat specialists in protecting Potter-san."

"I suppose we can't really make ya help us, but it seemed like somethin' the two of ya would be willin' ta do an' we needed some younger lookin' faces ta help us." Shinji honestly states. "Guess I coulda used Momo-chan, but then my squad wouldn' have anyone to run it." He adds as an afterthought.

Ichigo sighs. "Fine, I'll help. It just would have been nice to be informed of what the hell we were doing instead of being freaking kidnapped."

Uryu pushes his glasses up. "I'll also help, but ask first next time. Otherwise, I'll turn you two into pincushions." he threatens.

The rest of the cab ride is silent as the occupants are left to their own thoughts. They watch the city flash by as the cab comes into a rundown area where the houses were unwelcoming.

" 'Ere we are, Grimmauld Place." the cab driver announces. Shinji, Ichigo, and Uryu get out and start pulling their bags out of the back while Urahara pays the driver. Once they are clear of the cab, he speeds off.

"Alrighty then, off we go!" Urahara says in a voice that both Ichigo and Uryu find much too cheerful for their current location. They pick up their bags and follow him anyways. They walk down the street past rundown homes with broken windows. Loud music can be heard thumping from one of the houses. The small group comes to a stop at number 11. After they've just stood there for a minute, Ichigo loses his patience.

"What the hell are we standing around here for, Geta-boshi?"

"We were instructed to come to this location and that one of Dumbledore-san's people would take us to their base of operations from here. Ooh, maybe that's them now!" Urahara bounces a little bit as he points out two men walking toward their location. One was older with a grizzled mane of gray hair and heavily mismatched eyes, one beady and dark, the other large and electric blue. He walked with a slight limp. The other man was younger with black, shoulder length hair and a hooked nose. His black cloak made him seem almost bat-like and both Ichigo and Uryu shuddered a bit as memories of the last "bat-like" person they had met ran through their heads. The two men come up to the group of four and the older man's blue eye whizzes around in its socket, looking them over. They can now see that the older man is covered in scars and a chunk of his nose is missing.

"I suppose you four are the group from Japan?" the older of the two asks in a gruff voice, speaking English.

"Indeed, we are." Urahara jovially replies. "You must be Dumbledore-san's men. I'm Kisuke Urahara and these are Shinji Hirako, Uryu Ishida, and Ichigo Kurosaki." he introduces, pointing to each of the others in turn.

"Alastor Moody and this is Severus Snape." Moody introduces them. "Snape will be checking you lot to make sure you're not a bunch of Death Eaters. Wouldn't do to lead a small pack of them to our headquarters."

"And how will he do that? We could have forcibly gotten the required information to pass this test if we were fakes." Uryu calmly points out.

"You may be able to lie with words and appearances, but there are very few who know how to lie within the confines of their own mind." Snape dryly points out.

"[Would that sort of thing be safe for him? Me and Shinji have got hollows in our minds.]" Ichigo asks Urahara.

"What'd he say?" Moody barks out.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san was just expressing his concerns over the safety of your friend entering our minds. We are somewhat past human because of the skills we've acquired and wouldn't want him hurting himself by coming across data he can't readily comprehend." Urahara explains.

"[More like eaten.]" Shinji comments, snickering at his own joke. Moody gives him a hard stare and Uryu hits him over the back of the head.

"[You've lived for over a century, so quit acting like a child.]" Uryu scolds Shinji, who only gives him an unrepentant grin.

"If you don't mind," Moody says meaningfully, "we should get started with the tests. Shouldn't spend too long standing around out here." They all nod their heads and line up, Uryu in the front, then Urahara, Shinji, and lastly Ichigo. Snape walks forward to stand before Uryu, takes a deep breath, and dives into the Quincy's mind.

When Snape opens his eyes, he does not find a memory playing around him as he expected. Instead he finds himself in a large library filled with bookshelves that reach for the ceiling laden with scrolls and books.

"I'd always wondered what my inner world would look like." Snape spins around to find the mind's owner calmly walking through the shelves, browsing their contents. "I suppose a library makes sense considering that as Yhwach's heir I have access to all the memories and knowledge of those who have passed and those who would currently allow me access." He tugs a book off one of the shelves and leafs through it before returning it to its spot.

Snape carefully eyes the young man before him, trying to make sense of his words. He made it sound like it was common for a mindscape that wasn't memories or just plain thoughts to exist. More than that, his mind was supposedly connected to others, including the deceased.

"What are you?" Snape asks, his tone defensive with a slight hint of fear in it.

Uryu looks up from the tome he was skimming. "I'm Ishida Uryu, leader of the Quincy people, heir of Yhwach, and his downfall." he says in a proud tone, looking almost regal. "I'm also a distant cousin of Kurosaki." He offhandedly adds on, going back to skimming the contents of the tome in his hand.

Snape still can't make much sense of what Uryu has told him, so he cautiously reaches out and removes one of the scrolls from the shelf and opens it. He immediately snaps it back shut as the image of some monster about to wrap its large jaws around his body flashes over him. Panting he places the scroll back into its stack.

Snape withdraws his consciousness from Uryu's mind.

They blink at each other before Snape steps back. "He's not a Death Eater." He calmly declares, hiding his inner turmoil over the strangeness of the boy's mind. I'm not sure what exactly he is. Snape then moves down the line to Urahara and dives into the inventor's mind.

Once more, Snape is disoriented by the lack of memory playing before him. This time he finds himself in what appears to be a laboratory, if the mass of beakers, burners, and jars on the tables are anything to go by. He also spots several boxes scattered about the room that contain an ungodly number of folding fans and duplicates of the striped bucket hat the man had been wearing.

"Well. Well. What do we have here?" a smooth feminine voice purrs from behind Snape. He whirls around to see a regal looking woman dressed in layers of a red kimono held in place by a golden sash and holding one of the fans before her lower face walking towards him, wooden geta clacking on the tile floors of the lab. Her ruby red hair is pinned up with clinking golden ornaments and her purple eyes gleam with intelligence far beyond that of most men. "I must admit, this is the first time someone else has reached this lab and little Kisuke's been trying for decades to figure out how to semi-physically infiltrate another's mind. How did you do it, little wizard?"

Snape becomes nervous as the woman stalking towards him takes on a predatory air, looking upon him as if he is some interesting specimen laid out before her. He moves back and starts when his back hits one of the tables, knocking a few beakers to the floor.

"Why don't we find out if the injuries you sustain here are transferred to your body outside? I know it works for shinigami when they spar with zanpakuto, but will it work on invaders, I wonder?" she croons, a frightening smile on her lips.

Snape is panicking now, unsure how to stop the woman's advances when he is unarmed. His fear increases when she draws a blade out of nowhere, leveling it at him. He scrabbles at the contents on the table behind him, trying to grab something to throw at the mad woman before him in hopes of deterring her. She brings the blade up and swings so fast Snape catches little more than a red blur. He clenches his eyes shut, knowing that he cannot defend against her and waits for the pain of the blow.

It never comes.

He slowly opens his eyes and finds the blade tip resting lightly against his shoulder, a pale hand gripping the wrist of his attacker.

"Maa~ That was a close one!" Urahara cheerily says. "A moment later and your shoulder would have been cut open.

"Must you run my experiment, Kisuke? I never ruin your experiments." the woman pouts, withdrawing her arm and the blade.

"Now, now, Benihime-chan. We're here to convince this man we're not his enemies. Cutting people open with swords doesn't help, now does it?" he chides his zanpakuto spirit.

"You never let me have any fun." she sniffs, turning away from her partner and folding her arms across her chest. "You barely use me anymore. The most you've done has been within the past four years! In over a century! You've only gone bankai three times since you've learned it!" she tirades, stomping her feet and acting like a brat in Snape's opinion. "Don't you care about me, Kisuke?" she sobs, slumping to her knees and letting her legs splay beneath her.

"Of course, Benihime-chan!" Urahara quickly reassures her, bending down to place his hands on her shoulders. "Of course I care. But we were in hiding for a long time, releasing you could have got us caught and killed. And you know bankai is a last resort move, so doesn't that mean we're strong if we so rarely need to use it?" his placations slowly lessen the sobs from Benihime until it's just small sniffles. "Now why don't you go play with the soda and Mentos. That's fun, right?" she nods as she picks herself up. Benihime straightens her robes, dusting them off, and regaining her regal air before stalking off through the lab, the clacking of her geta slowly fading.

"She's always such a handful." Urahara wistfully sighs, a smile on his face as he watches her retreating form. "Sorry for the mess, Snape-san. It's usually just me and Benihime-chan in here." he says as he pulls a pair of stools out from under a table, taking a seat in one and gesturing Snape to the other. He carefully takes the seat, perching on the edge of it, ready to run if the mind's owner turns out just as crazy as the second personality he just met. "I'd offer you something to drink, but I'm afraid nothing in here is likely edible. Or if it is, it probably isn't good for you." he says with a shrug.

"I think I'll be leaving now." Snape says, feeling rather eager to get out of the laboratory and away from its two crazy occupants. Urahara just smiles and waves good-bye.

Snape blinks and shakes his head a bit upon returning to the real world. Urahara gives him an unrepentant grin. "He's not a Death Eater either." Though he seems quite mad. He steps back and moves down the line, feeling some trepidation about venturing into the minds of the two remaining men. This feeling is not helped by the smug looking grin plastered across Shinji's face.

Taking a steadying breath and praying that there's nothing like Benihime in the blonde's mind, he dives in.

This time, Snape is barely fazed by the lack of memory playing before him. Shinji's mind appears to be an old stone city filled with maze-like streets. Over the roof tops, he can see what looks like some sort of temple in what appears to be the center of the city. Looking around and finding no one in sight, Snape decides to head for the temple as there's no other land markers available.

It feels like a long process, winding through the streets, cutting through switch backs, and generally trying to navigate the place. Snape finally reaches the temple to find Shinji waiting on the steps. With his closer view, Snape now notices some oddities about the temple. It has no windows or openings, the walls are scored with deep scratches, making Snape wonder at what could leave such marks, and the most disturbing thing to Snape is the doorway. In the center of the double doors is what appears to be a mask made of bone that brings to mind an Egyptian pharaoh. Snape can't shake the feeling that the blank eye holes in the mask are watching him, waiting for him to come close enough to attack.

Shinji notices how Snape stares at the mask in the doorway. " 'S not a nice fellow. That's why I got 'im sealed up nice 'n tight here." Shinji says as he descends the stairs to stand beside Snape. "Was a helluva fight ta make him submit so I could seal 'im. Ya can still see the some o' the damage we did in that tussle." He points out the gouges in the rock of the temple.

"What is it?" Snape asks, his voice quiet as if he fears speaking too loud will bring the monster upon them. Snape has always considered himself a brave man, one has to be brave to face down the Dark Lord and lie to his face, but whatever it is that Shinji has sealed in this temple is much more terrifying on a more basic level than Tom Riddle could ever be. Whatever is in there can cause a fear that sits in his bones, screaming to put as much distance as possible between them.

"That's my inner hollow." Shinji quietly replies. "They're pretty nasty things. Try and take you over from the inside, get you to kill anything around you. Nothing but instincts and violence." Snape shivers at the description, barely noting the lack of accent as Shinji speaks.

"We're fighters. That's what your boss asked for. We are violent people when provoked. This is just most of the violence I've got compressed into one place." Shinji casually states, placing his hand on Snape's shoulder. "But don't worry, I've got this bastard under control." He grins as he gives Snape's shoulder a squeeze before letting go and wandering off into the maze of streets, whistling a light tune.

Snape shudders a bit as he comes back to his senses, adjusting to the warm late summer air as opposed to the chill of malice around the temple in Shinji's mindscape. "Not a Death Eater." But still a monster, or at least a monster's master.

Snape turns to look at the last of the foreign group. He wears a scowl under his vibrantly orange hair and gives off a rather punkish air with the way he holds himself. Last one. Snape mentally braces himself and dives into Ichigo's mind.

Snape had been expecting another one of those "inner worlds" as Ishida had called it, but this one was completely disorienting. He could see a city of skyscrapers raised up around him, all colored blue and filled with glass windows. There wasn't anything too bad about that, Shinji's had been a city too, if of a very different fashion. No what was disorienting about this world was that everything was sideways. He stood on the side of one of the great skyscrapers, with the ground far to his left and the open sky to his right. A mild warm breeze swirled around him. Snape turned to look behind him and stopped.

At his throat rested the tip of a large, obsidian blade shaped rather similarly to a kitchen knife with a hole along the back side of it. The blade was really enough reason to stop, but what made a cold sweat break out over him was the blade's wielder.

Holding the blade was a white duplicate of Kurosaki. His hair was white spikes. His skin was a solid white, no color visible from the veins underneath. Even his clothes were white, though they did have some black trimming. The abuse of the color white Snape could handle, it was the doppelganger's eyes that put fear in him. Its eyes were gold in a sea of black. Cunning and lit with an animalistic ruthlessness that made Snape want to hide away in a hole and hope he wasn't found.

A cruel smile spread across the thing's face. "Well what'd ya know? Aibou was right. Ya can get inta inner worlds." it muses, bringing the blade a little closer to his throat causing Snape to take a step back. The creature's voice is distorted, as though it's speaking underwater, and Snape notices that its tongue is blue. It laughs in deranged amusement at Snape's fear and reaction.

"That is enough." a deep baritone commands. "There is no need to torture the man as he does his job." Snape peers over the shoulder of the creature before him to see a tall, gaunt faced middle-aged man with a mess of deep brown, almost black, hair with a stubble and a tan visor in a ragged black coat.

"I don't have ta listen to ya, ossan!" it shouts back, annoyance obvious in tis tone.

"And before you two start fighting, let's call this a draw." Ichigo calmly interjects, advancing towards the little group. "Zangetsu put your sword away. If he actually tries to cause trouble, then you can stab him."

"Tch. You ain't no fun, Aibou." Zangetsu says as he swings the large blade around to rest on his right shoulder. Snape pales a bit at the casual discussion of his impalement.

"Sorry about him. Zangetsu is more of a stab first, ask questions later kind of guy. So, um, how does this mental test thingy work?" Ichigo asks.

"We're already done." Snape replies, withdrawing from Ichigo's mind before he can get a reply. He doesn't want to spend any longer in the company of Zangetsu than he must.

Snape steps back from Ichigo and turns around, throwing out "Not a Death Eater." as he walks back to stand beside Moody.

"Alright. Seems the four of you are in the clear. Come 'ere and read this." He motions for them to come forward while pulling a slip of parchment out of his breast pocket. The four gather around him and read the message written in narrow handwriting: The headquarters if the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

"Ano, what's the Or– "

"Shhhh!" Moody hisses, cutting Uryu off. "Not out here boy! Wait 'til we get inside."

"But there's no freaking number Twelve!" Ichigo hisses back.

"Focus on what you've read, boy." Snape says in a derisive tone.

Ichigo gets ready to snap a comeback when he notices the materializing form of number twelve.

"Come on, hurry!" Moody snaps. "We haven't got all night." He impatiently gestures to the house and the four grab their bags and quickly file in after him while Snape brings up the rear.

They found themselves in a decrepit entry way lit by old gas lamps. There was a tall old man with half-moon spectacles and a long silvery-white beard in midnight robes standing before them.

"Thank you for coming and welcome to the Order of the Phoenix."

Please comment/review to tell me how I did.