Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. All of the fans should know well enough not to sue and unless it's a certified rule on I'm only going to put the disclaimers in the first chapters. (sigh) Stupid disclaimers…

Well, sorry for not updating in a while. Right now I'm still trying to think of some things, vacation, and my computer was once on the fritz so I couldn't use the Internet on our family computer! (growls) Well it's fixed now, and here we go to Chapter 7, with more action and a lot more Casey/April fluff (heart). Enjoy!

Blackness…Blackness…Blackness as far as the eye can see, blackness with a feeling to suck you in at any moment and capture your earth-shattering scream, without any sort of structure of a floor or roof to help take in the surroundings. He just stood there in the darkness, barely able to see himself, which would be considered very lucky if he were an owl, but he was just a single man…or rather, a small, scared little boy.

"Hello? Can anybody here me?"

The young boy gasped as soon as he heard the sound of his voice, which to him seemed to be a lot higher pitched than usual. He gasped at what he could see of his small, child-like hands and could feel his heartbeat grow faster as he touched his small and soft boyhood face. To be so young once again for no apparent reason chilled his whole entire body.

"Wha…What's going on? What's happening to me?"

Then, he began to hear the sound of laughter. A laughter that had nothing to do with happiness, youth or fun, but a deep, diabolical laughter of insane pleasure only to be laughed by a blood-crazed maniac. The laughs were increasing in numbers, and were growing so loud that he had to cover his ears and shut his eyes tightly. When he opened them at last, he gasped at the sight of hot, wild lights dancing before him, howling in an ironic cold despair.

His home was on fire. This was the haunting image of his past, of what cruel things those fiends were capable of doing, all because his father refused to pay them protection money, and thanks to them, his father lost his life. He just stood there in a still shock as the images of Hun and the Purple Dragons cast looks of frozen daggers into his soul and the dark wisps of their breath from their laughter sucked the oxygen from his own. Then the darkness came back again, and the images of Hun, the Purple Dragons, and the burning building suddenly merged into one, and once the wicked merging was done, he soon saw himself staring into the eyes of a real violet coloured dragon, so huge that his neck hurt from lifting his neck so high. He didn't have to do that for long though, because as soon as he started to run faster than his legs could carry him, it chased after him at a speed faster than anything he'd seen before. The boy was running so fast he lost his footing quickly and landed hard on the ground, staring back into the eyes of the dragon as soon as he got his head back up. As he stared into the bloody red pools of the dragon's eyes, he could feel a cold dark breath devouring him as the dragon opened its mouth wide and rushed toward him. The boy screamed so loudly, but in the mouth of that dragon, the empty silence stabbed back at his own heart, and soon, there was nothing.

Casey screamed to the very top of his lungs as soon as he was able to awake from the horrifying nightmare he had witnessed in his mind. His whole body was covered in a chilled sweat, and his heart had barely managed to soften its beat as soon as he felt his strong, adult face again. But the peace didn't last long, since his scream had awoken the entire cabin.

"Whoa, Casey, are you alright, man?" Raph had asked him as soon as Casey's loud gasps quieted down.

Once Casey was calm enough to move, he saw his four terrapin friends, Master Splinter, Professor August, and Professor Cornelius staring at him in a mix of curiosity and worry.

"Yeah…" Casey breathed, "Yeah, I think I'm okay. Just a…a bad dream, that's all." He was able to breathe a little better now once Leonardo used his powers over water to create a cool mist to calm Casey's body.

"That should be able to help for a while," Leo told him.

"Remind me to give you a call when I need an alarm clock," Mikey joked.

"It takes getting used to, but I'm afraid I'll have to agree with the terrapin over there," Cornelius said, "You could've woken up the whole bloody village by now."

Casey chuckled with embarrassment. Then, as soon as his breathing was back to normal, he jumped out of his hammock and headed for the door. There was no way he could go back to sleep after a nightmare like that.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Raph asked in concern.

"I'm just gonna get some air, that's all," Casey told him, hoping Mikey wouldn't say anything when he said the word "air". "I won't be too long." He hoped those words were assuring enough, and with that, he headed out towards the beach near the village.

Casey was furiously splashing his face with water on the shore as he finally reached the beach, still trying to get the terrible dream out of his mind. The problem was that it was so terrifying that he could remember it so clearly. He just hoped he didn't make the others worry too much. He stared at the water in deep though for a minute, trying to clear his head, when he suddenly started to hear noises from the jungle. He turned his head to see what danger awaited him on the other side of those leaves, and sighed in relief as soon as the figure was revealed.

"April!" Casey called out to the figure.

"Casey?" April called back in surprise. She ran over to Casey as soon as she saw him clearly, and felt her face turn red again as she saw him in just a pair of shorts and slim boots, with his whole entire chest exposed.

Casey couldn't help but blush along with April once he saw her. "What the heck are you doing out here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," April responded, "Penny and I just heard a noise pass by our cabin and I though I'd check it out. Penny was too tired to come along with me."

"She was, was she?" He couldn't help but chuckle. "That's quite a surprise."

April chuckled alongside him, but afterwards, there was a thick, awkward silence between them, and they couldn't explain why. "So, why is it that you're out here so late anyway?" she asked.

Casey sighed. "I couldn't sleep. I just had a crazy dream, that's all. Nothing to be worked up over." He could tell though it wasn't working for her. He knew she could sense something bad in his eyes, and worry was all she was feeling right now as she looked at him. He knew she wanted to help.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

Casey thought about it for a while, wondering if it would be a good idea to talk about something so personal. Then finally, he nodded and sat right next to April on the shore, explaining the dream with such vivid detail that it made her skin crawl. It took them a while before they were ready to talk again.

"So you were almost eaten alive by a real purple dragon?" April asked him.

Casey nodded. "Yeah, I just couldn't believe it. It went so far into my past that…I just can't explain it, y'know? It's like something merged all of my fear and sadness from that day into one big Purple Dragon and tried to attack me. I just didn't know what to do."

April was completely speechless. She was so saddened by his words that she couldn't think of anything to say without thinking of a reason of why it would hurt him. So, she tried to talk to him the best she could. "I'm…I'm really sorry about your dad," she said, "It really must have hurt, all of the anger and pain you held, suddenly trying to hurt you again in the form of some terrifying monster. You really deserve a lot better than that."

Casey looked at her curiously. "Why did you say that?"

April gasped. "Oh, uh…no reason, really! Just forget I said anything, okay?" She pretended to laugh, but she knew it wasn't working. She had just felt so guilty since the incident with those village girls. So, hugging her legs in shame, she decided to confess her feelings to Casey. "Actually…do you still remember what happened earlier with those other girls?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I have to be really honest with you here. I guess…I was just really jealous of them."

"What for?" Casey asked.

"Well…I guess it's because they were trying to get so close to you, and I just wanted that closeness all to myself. I didn't care how they felt or how you felt, and I…I'm just so selfish!" She was just about to start crying when Casey wrapped a gentle arm around her.

"Hey, it's okay," he said in a cheerful tone to reassure her. "You don't have to turn on the waterworks about it! Look, forget about those girls, all right? They were just being a bunch of flirts; they probably do that with a whole bunch of other guys. And don't get worked up about what I think, okay? You know I'd never hurt like that because…you know…you mean a lot to me."

April felt a lot better again thanks to his kind words. "Thanks, Casey."

"Hey, no problem, April. I mean, what kind of girl out there doesn't wanna get a piece of Casey Jones?"

Casey then felt a sudden punch on his arm, which April gave him for being so cocky. He lightly punched her back to get her to knock it off, but now she wanted competition, so she punched him harder on the arm, and they kept punching harder and harder. Then, Casey suddenly acted on impulse to get her to stop and splashed her with two hands full of water. He stopped right away as soon as he saw her dripping wet.

"April, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to go too far like that, I just..."

But once he saw April's face, he stopped. Although she was extremely shocked, she didn't burst out in a shrill scream, but rather, she began to smile really slyly.

"You are so dead, Casey Jones!" And in seconds, April continuously splashed him with handfuls of water until he finally splashed right back at her.

The water fight between Casey and April lasted for quite a while, both of their lunges hurting from the continuous laughter. They were having such a fun time that Casey had eventually forgotten about his dream. Then, something unexpected happened. While they were still up on their feet splashing water at each other, Casey suddenly tripped on a shell, took April into his arms as he was falling, and landed right on top of her. Once the dust in the sand cleared and they stopped coughing from the impact, they suddenly became short of breath as they gazed at each other so closely together.

"April, I…Are you okay?" Casey asked quietly in a shaky breath.

All April could do was nod. She was caught in a quiet trance as she stared into Casey's sapphire blue eyes, eyes only someone as gentle as he was could have, glowing just like the moonlight on the water. As she brushed her hand over his face, he began to mimic her exactly, staring into the emerald eyes and brushing the soft cheek of a goddess. When this feeling became too much for them, they moved their faces closer together and locked lips with such passionate feeling. As the kiss became more and more passionate, April hugged Casey around his waist and Casey began to brush his fingers through her hair. Soon they began to roll around on the white sand with wild enthusiasm. When at last they were tired and short of breath, they awoke from their romantic trance and unlocked lips with a gasp of shock.

Casey's voice was quivering. "Did…Did we just—"

"Yes." April answered quickly. She moved her hand on Casey's cheek again, and from both that and the sudden kiss, she could feel his face grow very hot. As soon as he got off of her and once they sat up again, they looked away from each other in shyness. "I'm…I'm sure it was just a mistake. I mean neither us knew what we were thinking, right?" Finally, when she was brave enough, she took his hand and looked at him with gentle eyes. "Although I've gotta say…you have tremendously sweet lips."

Casey was red all over, but he was smiling. He then looked at the waves colliding with the shore, hoping the repetitive movement would calm him and let him say the right words. "April, listen. I know we really didn't get along well when we first met, and I know that our friendship has gotten a lot stronger as time passed, but…well…those feelings…for me anyway…keep getting stronger every time I see ya, and…well, there's something I gotta tell ya." He took her hands into his and gazed right into those same beautiful emerald eyes. "April, you mean more to me then you can ever know, and you've always gotta special place in here,"—Here he pointed to his heart—"And…the truth is…" He gulped as he prepared to say his special words to her while she waited patiently for him. "April…I…I…I lo—"

Suddenly, before he could finish, a loud explosion blasted right from the village with the impact reaching all the way to the beaches. Casey took April in his arms and ducked for cover, just in case the blast reached them. When everything turned into an eerie silence, Penny and Ukili suddenly came rushing out of the trees over to the two.

"Casey! Miss April!" Penny cried, "You've gotta help! This evil cloud started puffing out of the volcano, and these evil monsters started to appear from it, and the guys were trying to stop it, but they broke through and it went 'BOOM!' and now they'll all attacking the village!"

Casey and April gasped. Fearing for their friends, they got up from the beach, heading back through the jungle as fast as they could. Even the deadly predators of the night kept silent from fear.

As they ran, a thought suddenly came to April. "Hey, wait, I thought you said you were too tired to follow me," she said to Penny.

"I lied," Penny said with a grin on her face.

"Then what was the point of telling April you were too sleepy to come?" Casey asked.

"Oh, I thought it would be best to see what you two would be up to while giving you some alone time." She couldn't help but wink at them.

Both Casey and April blushed furiously, but kept on running with their hands linked for fear of not being able to reach their friends in time. Eventually, they forgot about their moment at the beach for the time being and were hoping to be able to come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, in the centre of the village, the turtles were busily fighting the shadow creatures they had fought on the plane that crashed them into the island. Yoona had explained that in order to lead them there, she had to take possession of those four and had given them specific scents so that the turtles knew which ones to attack while their powers were still sleeping inside them. Now that they were awaken, the shadows were under the control of the demon goddess again, and as long as they used their powers, there would be no need for specifics. Still it was hard since they sometimes ignored them and decided to go after the village women and girls, realizing that they must be hunting down human hosts.

Leonardo and Raphael had made it easier for them to fight by cloaking their weapons in their own elements, Leo's katana shielded with a bubble of water that wouldn't rust the metal, and Raph's sais drenched in flames that wouldn't melt them. One thrust of their weapons was all they needed to take the enemies down, but Leonardo realised that with Michelangelo's help by creating hard blasts of wind with his nunchaku, he could also freeze his enemies in ice. Since Donatello's staff was made of wood, it made it a lot easier for him to control his earth element, either by tangling his enemies in vines and then striking, or lifting large chunks of earth from the ground and hitting them like a baseball bat. He accompanied Raphael with this strike, his brother punching out large balls of fire at the enemies, though it was a little embarrassing since he was starting to become a huge pyromaniac. The shadows kept coming from the volcano in great numbers, but as long as they didn't waste too much energy with their powers and all of the villagers were safely away from them, the turtles would be able to manage until sunrise.

Suddenly, they heard a large scream coming the palace of the king, the four brothers rushing over there quickly to investigate. The king was sitting on the ground with Yoona at his side, both covered in blood from the shadows. The head guards were busy fighting to protect to king and the entrance to the palace, but to no avail. The king must have done something very crazy to be covered in so many wounds.

"Please, Your Majesty, you have to wait until your wounds are healed," Yoona cried, urging her king to sit still as she bandaged his wounds. "These creatures are doing a lot more damage in the village then they are within your palace. You must join your people in safety."

"You know I cannot do that," King Zohra argued, "You know this isn't about my palace! Those who are precious to me are trapped in there and I must rescue them!"

"What's going on?" Leo asked the king.

"Chosen Ones, you must help me!" the king pleaded. "My daughter, she was caught off guard, and those fiends are holding her captive. I fear she may be lost forever!"

"Princess Taliama is still in there?" Leo gasped.

"Yes, please, you have to help—"

But no sooner did the king confirm his question then Leonardo drew his katana and rushed into the entrance doors of the palace. His brothers gaped at how quickly he went off to help the princess without a plan to go along with and had no choice but to follow him inside.

"Tali? Tali!"

Leonardo kept calling the princess's name as he rushed through every area of the palace he could find, slaying off any shadow that came across his path and rescuing anyone left in hiding. He tried to communicate with her telepathically, but a strong aura of darkness seemed to block any mind waves that came from her. He decided that the stronger the darkness, the closer he would be to her. He headed farther down into the palace, where Yoona had shown them the warriors' training arena, and could feel the darkness growing even stronger. It made the air dense and very musty, but he didn't care. As soon as he reached the doorway, he hurled himself right in.

The entire arena was filled with a wide space of blood red, purple, and black fog, cloaking everything to the human eye. Leonardo wandered through this black space for a time, sensing no sign of life anywhere. He breathed heavily in deep concentration, trying to make sure his guard wasn't down. He'd have to expect anything out of this darkness.

"Leo, behind you!"

Although glad to hear her voice, Leonardo turned around at Taliama's warning and bent backwards into a limbo position to avoid a sudden horizontal slash. He back-flipped to dodge another attack to retain his stance and saw the creature had barely any form at all. No wonder he couldn't see it. Behind him, Taliama charged at the demon and began slashing it with a pair of elbow blades, an obviously better weapon for her short-distance fighting. She was surprisingly swift, an equal opponent to him and his brothers. When she backed away, he joined up with her.

"How were you able to see that thing?" Leo asked.

"I can't see physical forms like you do, but these shadow demons are pure aura, so I can see what no one else can." Taliama smiled at him. "Being blind really has a lot of advantages!"

Leo nodded. As the creature rose up from Taliama's beating, the turtle and princess prepared themselves, but before it made another attack, a wooden staff was beaten hard on its head, revealing the three other brothers as it collapsed.

"Do you think I should've shouted out 'timber', or would that just set an example of irony?" Don asked despite the tension in the air.

"I'm really glad you came to help, guys," Leo told his brothers.

"Yeah, but you still got a lot of explaining to do," Raph growled, "Just what the shell did you think you were doing by taking off like that? What kind of nitwit runs into action without a well thought-out plan?"

The rest of them just kept quiet while Michelangelo stifled a laugh at his hypocritical brother. Before he could punch him though, the creature began to rise again, altering its shape while they stood ready. It grew larger and larger now, almost filling up the entire room, shape shifting into a form with spikes and silver armour, its eyes glowing blood red. Then, as it turned around, the turtles gasped as they saw the dark figure that stood before them now: their old nemesis, the Shredder.

Taliama didn't understand just who this figure was, but whoever it was, it had the four of them in a shock that froze them in place, like its appearance was mesmerizing. Then, the Shredder began to take a slash at Michelangelo, who didn't seem to move at all. Taliama gasped, at with all her might, she pushed Michelangelo out of the way from where the shadow would be striking, and carried on to do the same with the others. When she saw it would be too late to save Leo in time, she stepped in front of him and blocked the attack with her elbow blades. Tossed aside by the Shredder, she screamed as she slammed into a wall, waking Leonardo up from his trance.

"Tali!"

Just dodging another attack he rushed to her side to aid her, worried she might be hurt. He feared the same for his brothers. As she slowly opened her eyes while lying in his arms, she shook off the pain and pulled him away from another attack.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked.

"I'm okay," she replied, "But you can't be side-tracked by the shadow figure we're fighting right now. It's only an illusion, a figment from your past trying to force you into submission. Just keep telling yourself it's fake and you'll be fine." She took her stance again with her elbow blades. "I can take this thing on. Go help your brothers!"

With a nod, Leonardo rushed to help the others while Taliama fought hard to keep it at bay. Startling all three awake, he told them about the illusion and they were quickly on their toes again. From what they could see though, the princess wasn't making any progress.

"It's no good," she said between heavy breaths, "Looks like we're going to have to take drastic measures."

"What should we do, oh fair princess?" Raph asked sarcastically.

"We've got to channel all of our elemental powers together and take it down with one blow. I'm the High Priestess's granddaughter, so I know what I'm doing. Just make a large circle surrounding it and get into a standing meditative position, then focus all of your elemental power until it reaches its peak. When I give the signal, direct it at the beast and give it everything you've got!"

Following her lead, the turtles dodged the Shredder shadow's attack as quickly as they could and the five made a perfect circle around it. Taliama then made some sort of signature in the air with her fingers and pointed them at the beast, causing it to stop moving. They guessed it was some sort of paralysis spell. When they were ready, they bowed their heads, closed their eyes, and formed their own individual hand signs as they began to focus their elemental power until it reached its limit. From their stances, they reflected their own element: Leonardo was calm and focused as he stood in meditation, but at the same time he looked ready to swiftly thrash at his opponent with the power of water; Donatello was very calm and still, grounded as if already becoming one with the power of earth; Michelangelo looked really relaxed, growing in anticipation to fly with the power of air; Raphael was restless and growing ever stronger, the power of fire ready to pounce and burn; Taliama, meanwhile, looked almost like a ghost, as she was the one who controlled the power of the spirits.

Glowing in an intense light of elemental colour, Leonardo a vivid blue, Donatello a grassy earth, Michelangelo a bright yellow, Raphael a deep red, and Taliama a shining white, their powers had reached their peak, just as the paralysis spell wore off and the shadow was free once again.

"Great spirits of my people," Taliama cried, "Grant me power to defeat this beast and aid the Great Spirit Gods of the Elements! Give us all of your strength so that the Chosen Ones may fulfill the prophecy! NOW!"

"WATER!" Leo cried.

"EARTH!" Don cried.

"AIR!" Mikey cried.

"FIRE!" Raph cried.

With five cries shaking the room at once, the beast was attacked with five great pillars of red, blue, yellow, green, and white light from the palms of the turtles' and the princess's hands. The Shredder began shrieking in agony and each moment it began to disappear, no longer able to stand in the light. As the last of the shadows finally vanished, so did the five pillars of light, and the five of them became totally exhausted. Taliama began to fall towards the ground, but Leonardo managed to catch her in time, supported by his brothers once his feet began to shake. Up ahead, they could see Master Splinter heading towards them, hoping to aid his sons at the first chance he got. They noticed more people entering the arena too, but their vision was growing a lot blurrier. Before they could embrace their sensei, the five of them collapsed.

Okay, this has gone on long enough. Like I said, sorry for the long wait, still trying to come with some ideas, but Chapter 8 will be up soon. See ya then!