Hi everybody. I've got writers block on my other stories soooooo I don't want to be completely useless. Hence new story. R&R enjoy.
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Disclaimer: Don't own the TMNT or this song.
Don's POV
I'm a logical type of person. Think Vulcan that'll help, but I have emotions and I show them. Man can I show them. Take today for example. I was working really, really hard on a project and Mikey came in, make a long story short it is now in pieces on my floor. Got mad chased Mike around, who got Raph mad, who in turn got Leo mad, and then we all got splinter mad.
Well he sent me out to "blow off some steam" and here I am. On a roof that overlooks the whole city, staring into the vastness of space. In other words, I'm stargazing. I hear noises and take a glance down. It looks like a gang or something is tearing up someone's house.
I climb down for a closer look and notice that they have hostages. Great this day keeps getting better and better. I follow them to a warehouse and sneak inside. I can still hear them shouting and their hostages screaming.
The whole place is spray-painted. With symbols. Symbols like The Blood Drop, Odin's Rune, Death's Head, The Iron Cross, Lightning Bolts, The Iron Eagle, The Life Rune, and The Swastika. It was a hate group. A Christian hate group.
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
The group had ransacked Christian's homes and taken them here, but why?
With all my strength
The gang didn't care who they took. Just that they were Christians. I could see women and children. As old as eighty and as young as two months.
With all I am
This didn't make any sense.
I will seek to honor His commands
What were they planning on doing to them?
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
I hopped up to the rafters so I wouldn't be spotted and just waited. I was one person I had to be careful. If your hunting with one bullet, wait for a clear shot. I told myself.
They carried alot of weapons. I was beginning to think that this would not turn out pretty. The apparent leader of the gang spoke to one of his men and that man went and retrieved a Christian from one of the cages that they had been put into. It was a young woman and in her hand she clutched a Bible.
They snatched the Bible from her, tied her to a stake in the middle of the room, began piling wood around her, and then soaking her in gasoline. They wouldn't really. Would they?
The leader was handed the Bible. He took it and moved towards her, a lighter in his hand.
"You Christians think your so much better than everyone else." He spat at her.
"Have to go around trying to "save" us. Well I'm giving you a chance Christian. Renounce your God and you live."
My breath caught in my throat. She looked scared. She'd probably say yes and renounce him. Whoever her God was. After all nobody wants to die. I still wanted to jump right in there and save everyone.
It was more her answer than what he did that surprised me.
While he was standing there waving a lighter in her face she looked at him. Stared him right in the face. Spat on him and said to him...
"Putting me in this situation will not change my answer. If it is my time then it is my time. I will not renounce him. If I did I would never be able to live with it." She said. Her voice not wavering once. She showed no fear. Instead it was strong and sure of the decision that had been made.
"Well then, I hope your God was worth it." He lit the lighter.
"Even though I walk through he Vally of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me." She said as he threw the lighter onto the wood. But before it touched she was able to utter one last thing.
"Your will be done." She said with tears in her eyes. "I enter now into your golden halls." Then the lighter struck and ignited her and the wood. Her screams tore through my mind.
I didn't know what to do. If I go down there now I could kill them all.
I have heard how Christians long ago
Were brought before a tyrant's throne
They were told that he would spare their lives
If they would renounce the name of Christ
But one by one they chose to die
The Son of God they would not deny
Like a great angelic choir sings
I can almost hear their voices ring.
I fell down covering my ears and shutting my eyes. What happened? Why did she do that?
I pledge allegiance to the lamb
Tears were streaming down my face.
With all my strength
"I don't understand." I whispered to myself.
With all I am
One thing was for sure, this guy meant it.
I will seek to honor His commands
I had to think of some sort of plan.
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
I have no Idea what this building was before, but it certainly wasn't a warehouse like I thought it was. Because warehouses don't have chandeliers. Then it hit me. This was a church. Did that gang know that this was a church? If so, why bring them here?
This was really frying my brain. I swear you could hear the fuses blowing and the gears snapping and rolling down my neck. If I can drop that chandelier right in the middle of that little christian hate organization. Perhaps I can cause enough panic and they'll run, leaving the Christians behind.
Of course it could backfire and instead they run and try and kill all the Christians. Another snag is that in order to aim it right I'd have to be on the chandelier when it fell. Great. I could do that no problem. More fuses, more gears. Oh man.
"Well I'm not gonna get anything done by sitting around." I whispered to no one in particular.
"Lets go."
I slowly made my way towards the big death trap in the middle of the ceiling. Below Mr hate himself was giving a little speech on how they could all either go home. or be executed one at a time like the other woman. I spared a glance downwards.
Big mistake. The woman's remains still hung on the pole. The pole was was made of metal and she was tied with chains so those remained and so did what was left of her. It still looked like her. Charred and blackened, but you could still see her face. Twisted in a mirror image of agony. I remembered her screams. They still hung in the room. Still hung in my mind.
I couldn't spare one more second. Suddenly an idea sprang into my mind. A horrible idea but hey those guys deserved it. It didn't look like he would be finishing his speech anytime soon so I quietly went around the church gathering small items. Small enough to fit onto the chandelier. The last thing I grabbed was the woman's Bible and then headed back up towards the chandelier.
I tied each individual statuette or necklace or charm in a different spot, but a spot where each would stand out and be noticed. I saved the best spot for the Bible. I stepped back a bit and stole a quick look of admeration for this work of art. Fitting that the chandelier should be covered in crosses and little Jesus statues.
I climbed atop the chandelier and struck the top with my bo-staff. The sound rang through the entire church causeing the whole crowd below to look around, searching for the source of the noise. I struck it again and again untill finally it came loose.
They all were looking up at the time that it fell and I think that they all had noticed that it was moving. Aiming itself towards Mr hate. He dove out of the way in the nick of time. In fact at the same time I jumped off the chandelier and onto one of the cages.
They all looked up at me and just stared.
"Shhh." I told them.
Still staring. Well better than screaming I'll admit. They were handling this a whole lot better than the gang. They had all turned their tails and ran. Well except for one person. You guessed it. The leader. The one that I had been aiming for in the first place. He above all had noticed how I had "decorated" The chandelier.
I instinctively froze. He kept staring and staring at it. Then he ran towards the gasoline tanks and dumped them over. Then looking straight at the Christians he said...
"Don't think you've won. This was just a freak accident. There is no God." With that said he threw his lighter onto the gasoline and bolted. But with that last bolt he dropped a pair of keys. Keys, that I guessed, would unlock the cages. I jumped off and ran towards them. I looked around and saw that because of how old and dry the wood was in here the fire had already spread and was out of control.
I scooped up the keys and ran back towards the cages. The smoke from the blaze burning my eyes and choking me. I reached the cages and unlocked the first.
"Go." I rasped. "Keep down low and find a way out if not shout and I'll find you."
Then I turned and unlocked the second. I told them the same thing. Then third, then the fourth. All receiving the same orders. By now my vision was hazy. I fought against the blackness that was creeping into the corners of my eyes. But to no avail. I collapsed unable to move and unable to save myself. The last thing I heard was a scream, footsteps, and voices. Then the darkness enveloped me.
Now the years have come and the years have gone
But the cause of Jesus still goes on
And now our time has come to count the cost
To reject this world to embrace the cross
And one by one let us live our lives
For the One who died to give us life
Till the trumpet sounds on the final day
Let us proudly stand and boldly say
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor his commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
I could hear voices. Lots of voices. I couldn't breath without coughing. Learned that the hard way. I kept coughing and coughing. I couldn't get much air in my system.
"Whoa! Whoa! Hey calm down. Breath slowly."
"Is he awake?"
He. whoever it was has said he. Not it or that thing. He. Finally I was able to see and breath without coughing every half second. I looked around to see that every single one of the Christians that had been in the cages was huddled around me. I had never been surrounded by so many humans, that weren't enemies, without a disguise or something on.
I think I was about as stunned as they were.
"Hey, was it you who pulled that stunt with the chandelier?" A man asked. He was scruffy but well built and strong in every way.
I nodded.
"Well then. I guess we owe you our lives. We can't thank you enough..." He gestured towards me.
"Donatello." I rasped.
"Donatello. Well thank you Donatello."
I almost couldn't believe it. They, humans, had saved me. A mutant freak.
"You okay?" This time it was a woman. Looked fifteen or sixteen.
"Yeah. It's just that most people would be wailing on me with clubs or heavy objects that's all."
She laughed. Laughed. I fact they all laughed.
"Well that's not us now is it Donatello."
"You can call me Don. I know Donnatello can get really annoying to say."
"Oh thank you Don."
Then a small girl, maybe five or six wandered towards me. She stopped and looked at me.
"Thak you for saving us Mr Don." She said and hugged me. This was getting weird. This coming from a five foot tall turtle. Then she got back up an ran towards who, I guessed, was her Mother.
"That was my little sister. Lucinda. My name's Anastasia. Ana for short." The girl said to me. The same one who had talked with me earlier.
By now I had stood up. Still with one question plaguing my thoughts.
"Why?" Was the simple question.
"Why what?" Ana said to me.
"Why did you come back for me?"
"You saved us."
"I save alot of people."
Well as I said before Mr Don-a-tello. We're not those people." By now it was just Ana, her sister, and her Mother.
"Still, and why did...did that woman..."
"It's called faith."
"looked more like stupidity to me."
"It probably looked that way to alot of people. But what it really was, was faith. Faith and trust. She knew that if she renounced Jesus she would never be happy and she would never receive his promise of eternal life."
That got me to thinking. I had never heard this side of it before.
"You see God sent his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us, and something like that is one of the most painful deaths I can imagine. He was nailed to that cross through his hands and feet then hung there until he died."
That didn't sound nice. In fact that's horrible.
"But where's the hope in that?"
"If that's where the story ended there'd be no hope. But it's not. Sure He put on trail, yes they beat him till he was no longer recognizable as a man, yes they still hung him from that cross till he died, and yes he truly was dead. But it's still not the end. They buried him in a tomb and three days later on Easter Sunday He rose again. While he was dead it is said that he fought with Lucifer over the keys to Hell and won. So he know controls the gateway to Hell and Heaven. While he was on that cross he, a perfect human being, took all of our sins. Past and future."
"Hold on if he's God or God's Son how can he be human. How many of these guys are there?"
"In order, no one knows He was God made into flesh, and three. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. They are three seperate being yet at the same time all the same person."
She said this while looking right at me. She then handed me a small Bible.
"Read it." She said. "Then decide for yourself whether the story is true, but remember what you saw tonight and hopefully that'll help you to make the right decision." And with that she and her family turned and walked away.
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I did take it home and yes I did read it. I read it over .nd over and over. Again and again. Analyzing every bit. It was one thing that could not be explained through logic. She was right. It was faith. Pure faith, hope, and trust.
I did beleive it. It's pretty silly but what the heck. I'll shout it form the rooftops. I BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE!! There I said it. I have no idea how my family will take this. I'll probably get alot of teasing but I guess I'll just have to deal.
Ever since I started beleiving it I've felt so great. Almost as if a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders. Huh, what am I saying, that is what happened!
I've kept in touch with Ana. She's really great.
I just hope you'll believe the story too. You have to listen to me. Please listen. Then do more than listen, learn. Do more than learn, believe. Do more than believe, share. If so then I'll see you in Heaven.
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
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Well there you go. I know it probably sounded corny to non-Christians and probably to Christians too. But the point is Ana's story is true. It all depends on whether you believe it or not. Christian hate groups, Jewish hate groups, or just hate groups in particular really do do stuff like that. Hope you enjoyed. Chow.