Tomorrow Will Not Be Kinder
"So at what point did we not stop to try and figure out how we were going to find this thing?" Raphael asked in exasperation.
Donatello sighed as he flipped through the book he had taken from Splinter's collection the previous night.
"Actually," he stated matter-of-factly, "I did try to figure out how to find the thing. I just don't know if it will work."
"Fantastic!" Raphael snapped as he threw his hands up in the air which, to Donnie's amusement, caused him to hiss in pain. Not much, but enough to smart and take his mind off of riding Donnie's ass for a few minutes.
"Listen, this should work," Donnie said confidently, waving around a canister of red spray paint. "We summon her here, she's gotta come, right?"
"To what end?" Raphael asked as he straightened himself. "Just drag her over here with some magic mojo and say 'Hey, what's up?'"
Donnie frowned and got ready to protest, until he thought about it. "Yeah, pretty much," he replied as he began to draw out the pentagram. "That's the gist of it."
Raphael sighed, creeping up behind his brother to nose his way into the setup.
"So when did you start buying into this magic crap anyway?" Raphael asked, eager to change the topic from summoning a murderous demon to their currently occupied rooftop. "You were always Bill Nye the science dweeb, what changed?"
Donatello chuckled as he shook the can to get more liquid.
"Well…I guess the same key component that changes us all."
Raphael blinked, clueless.
"Desperation, Raph."
"Ugh," his brother moaned.
Donnie glared as his brother leaned against a nearby storage unit, carefully eyeing him as he worked.
"You know…what happened ain't your fault, Donnie."
"I know."
"Why are you struggling so hard to figure this out? Mikey isn't coming back."
In an instant the mood around the two changed. Donnie was on his feet, rounding on Raphael in an unforeseen fit of anger. "You don't know that!" Donnie shot up from a three-quarter finished pentagram. "No one knows that! We have to try!"
"Whoa, whoa!" Raph raised his hands in defense, "okay!"
"No!" Donnie covered the distance between him and Raphael in a heartbeat, "no this is not okay! Do you think if it were any one of us Michelangelo would have given up!?"
It took the other turtle a moment to think about it, but when he thought about it he knew his answer to be true.
"Honestly?" Raphael asked, his voice quaking somewhat. "Yeah…I do." Donnie's expression changed wordlessly from rage to confusion, giving him a little bit of time to explain. "Look Donnie, Mikey may have had some excessive energy spurts and a wild imagination, but between the four of us I honestly think he was the most…well-adjusted. I think he would have easily mourned and moved on like a healthy minded person, and he probably would have found a way for us all to do so together…"
Donatello's confusion contorted into a frown, but whatever had been on his mind vanished in the wake of his brother's words. Instead of arguing Raphael's point he opted to return to his work, leaving his brother to watch him in nervous consideration. Minutes passed before anything else was said.
New York was strangely silent, which gave each of them a nervous chill that neither was willing to admit to – though that was likely in part due to their current task at hand.
Neither of the turtles had informed Leo of their intent for the night, meaning that whatever happened here was going to stay here. In truth, that was how they had wanted it. In fact, they had both planned on and executed an ingenious ruse of a fight, wrapping up the act by storming off to their own respective corners of the lair in an effort to make Leo think that they would likely remain that way for the rest of the night and giving him no need to suspect anything might be amiss. Even Donatello had commented how amazingly they'd pulled the instance off, and that he couldn't have imagined it going any better.
However, as he finalized the points of their ritual for the night he couldn't help but get the feeling that this was a bad idea. Maybe it was in part due to Raphael's words – that maybe all of his efforts of bringing back Michelangelo would be wasted because there was no Michelangelo to bring back at all. Somewhere though, amidst all the self doubt, self hate, and scientific know how that told him it was impossible, there was a part of the old Donatello that he could not ignore…that he knew his brother was alive. He had been there to see him go – and he knew how badly Mikey didn't want to. He owed it to his little brother to do everything he could to bring him back; knowing that the reason he was there was because he wished to save his brothers from the possibility of an equally gruesome fate.
Still, the nagging persisted.
What if there was no surviving hell? What if Michelangelo had truly made the ultimate sacrifice to save his family? Why had that possibility, that probability, been so hard for Donnie to accept?
He sighed audibly, drawing Raphael's silent attention.
"You're right."
Raphael was silent for a moment longer, leading Donatello to believe he hadn't heard him – at least not completely, so he repeated himself, this time louder.
"You're right, you know. About Michelangelo."
"About what exactly with Michelangelo?" Raphael asked, his voice somber and low.
"He would have moved on," Donnie laughed sadly as he placed some small lit candles at the points of the star. "He would have known what to do for all of us. He wouldn't have let us linger in our self pity for so long."
Raphael chuckled softly, stepping forward and taking a few of the candles in his hands for Donnie to light.
"Yeah," Raph agreed. "He'd have had all of this figured out by now. He was amazingly practical when we needed him to be."
Donatello nodded in agreement, eyeing their setup with critical eyes.
"Now look at us, me doing magic and you talking sense?"
Both laughed this time. It was a steady, easing sound that helped dispel their nerves in the wake of what was to come.
"Mikey would never believe this."
Donnie put his hands on his hips, looking everything over and then reaching for another book he'd hidden away in his satchel.
"You're right," he agreed, flipping through the pages and casting Raphael a devious grin. "He won't."
Raphael put on his best 'I see what you did there' face and stepped away from the circle to move to Donnie's side.
"Ready?" he asked
"As ready as I'll ever be." Raphael rested his hands on his sais, ready to face this creature down once again. He hoped that this would be it, and if this didn't work they could forget this useless endeavor and go home.
It hadn't taken long after Donatello had started the ritual for the effects to be prevalent.
Raphael hadn't expected this to work, not in the least. Magic was…well…magic. It existed in fairy tales and in Michelangelo's old video games, not in the real world. The only thing they had ever really known was science and nature – both of which had been the primary components in their own creation. Raphael may not have understood them, but like everything else at least those elements followed rules, and that was something he could respect.
Supposedly magic followed its own set of rules, Donnie had told him as they had finalized the setup, but none of them made sense to Raphael. Granted, not much made sense to Raphael. He'd be the first person to admit that he was never the brains of the operation – and truth be told, he was okay with that. Being the muscle was more than enough, and that was something he was good at. The leading, that was Leo's gig. The smarts: Donnie, and the imaginative and creative side of things had always been for Mikey.
So when Donatello had told him how these things were supposed to work, Raphael had just gone along with it. None of it made sense anyway, and what was the probability of it even working?
When the pentagram and the surrounding Aramaic symbols began to glow red during Donnie's chanting, Raphael realized all too late that they had made a huge mistake. He reached to shake his brother's shoulder, jarring him out of the trance the ritual had pulled him into – but Donnie was too ensconced in the matter at hand. Raphael, not knowing what else to do, drew his sais and waited – for what, he wasn't sure, but the least he could do was make sure nothing came swooping down and took out his brother as the rest of the ritual unfolded.
Time seemed to slow down as the turtle's anticipation grew, but even as Donnie's chanting stopped and the glowing dimmed and later vanished completely, nothing happened. The brothers exchanged glances, let their eyes dance around, and then returned to staring at one another in confusion.
"Anything happen?" Donnie asked, as if he'd only stepped outside for a moment, now returned to catch up on the conversation.
"Nothing," Raphael replied flippantly. He hated to say it, but he was partially relieved.
Donatello frowned and, picking the book back up, started to flip through the pages again.
"Maybe I did something wrong," he muttered, getting lost in the scripts as Raphael kept an eye pinned to their surroundings. "I was so sure I had everything!
"Look, it's okay," Raphael sighed, his relief growing in the wake of the uneventfulness. "Maybe Splinter's book wasn't as accurate as you thought? Or maybe whatever that thing is, isn't even a demon after all? Maybe it's some sort of weird mutation."
"Raphael we've seen almost every kind of mutation there is to know about that modern science can provide, have you ever seen anything like that?"
Just as he was about to protest, a sharp laugh permeated the air around them. Raphael's sais were back out and at the ready, while Donatello only peered out with a blank expression.
"Who's there?!" they asked in unison.
Silence at first, but soon the scratching of claws and heaved breathing could be heard from behind a storage unit to their side. As the brothers turned they were met with bright red eyes staring down at them from its roof. The face was the same, but also different.
"You're not the same demon!" Donatello accused loudly. "The other one had a different face!"
The creature cocked its head. Matted and tangled hair made for a maddened, lion like face on the creature's countenance.
"Am I not?" she hissed through her dripping fangs. "Perhaps I'm just wearing a new face?"
Raphael felt his blood run cold.
"You can move between humans? Or do you spread like a virus?"
The demon laughed, dropping down to the ground to meet them at eye level. She stood not fully erect, hunched almost as if ready to pounce if need be.
"Let's cut to the chase," she hissed, circling around the brothers slowly. "Neither of those questions are the answers you seek."
Raphael spat on the ground. He'd already had enough of this creature, and wanted nothing more than to gut her for what she'd done – and more frighteningly – what she could do.
"You're right," Donnie replied, closing the book and letting it fall to the ground. He stepped closer, despite Raphael's silent protests. "I'm allowed three questions, am I not?"
The creature nodded.
Raphael frowned, eyeing his brother curiously. He hadn't known there was a ritual to the inquiry process as well. He had simply assumed they were going to beat the answers out of the thing and then kill it, now they were adhering to rules and propriety?
"Question one, are you a demon?"
The creature smiled, baring her sharp fangs once more. Raphael could smell something awful on her breath and on the vapors that slithered from her mouth. Decay, and…sulfur?
"Yes."
Donnie inhaled sharply, careful not to make himself sound fearful. Raphael wasn't sure it had worked.
"Where did you come from?"
This time, her smile dropped and she shuddered, as if recalling a distant, unpleasant memory. Her eyes closed, before opening again to lull about lazily in her head.
"The same place we all come from."
Donnie inhaled again, stepping closer to the demon. Raphael swore under his breath and inched closer as well, ready to leap should this thing take a swing at his brother.
He knew that look in Donnie's eyes, and it was the one look he hadn't wanted to see tonight: Excitement.
Whenever Donatello got excited, whenever he was on the precipice of getting where he wanted – he lost all sense of caution and reared headlong into whatever course of action it would take to get him there. His brother was no longer concerned for his own safety, and as such was readily throwing himself into this creature's destructive path, giving Raphael little room to maneuver should the worst happen.
"How did you get here?"
Suddenly the demon stood up, fully erect and terrifying, albeit horrendously grotesque. Her figure was undoubtedly human, but there was more to it still. The muscles were contorted, on top of elongated fingers and teeth that made for deadly claws and fangs. Her face was pulled back in a wrinkled sneer, and her fowl stench made her nearly unapproachable. Her features morphed into a smile – hideous - and she began to speak as she circled again.
"That's a story, my love. See…this has been something in the works since before you were a spec in your mother's - mother's - mother's eye. We're coming back, slowly, and we'll take this world for our own. It's ripe for the picking, all the sin? The evil? The treachery? Yes…this world will be ours. We're leaking out now in tears here and there…but soon we'll be out in droves." She cracked her neck – a sickening noise – and stepped closer to Donatello who did not back down. "But that's not what you care about…you're looking for someone. You're looking for him, the one like you that has been in our realm for millennia."
"It hasn't been millennia," Donnie corrected. The creature laughed.
"Not by your calendars, dear," she spat, inching even closer. Far too close for Raphael's comfort. He stepped closer, not caring about the stench or this monster's vial appearance. Something was going to happen, and he needed to be ready. Their encounter with this creature tonight wasn't going to end with tea and cookies for sure. "Time passes differently where I come from. Months here equates to decades to us, and that kind of time spent there…well….it changes you."
Now Raphael's interest was piqued. Both turtles knew exactly who she was talking about, and this information – if it was true – changed a lot of things for all of them. So Michelangelo was alive? But was he still Michelangelo? This had not been a question any of them had asked themselves in the time that has passed since his disappearance – however, realizing now that his brother was still alive left the turtle with something of a thrill in his heart. He had been wrong, they had all been wrong except for Donatello.
He wanted to cry, but not now. This was not the time. Later. First they had to survive the nights encounter so they could use this information later.
"He will come," the creature reassured Donatello with his unasked questions. "But he will be like us. He will not come back to you the absurd child that he was. Oh no, lovely, he will be one of us, and he will act and think as we do."
"I don't believe you!" Donnie hissed, the first words he had spoken since this creature had confirmed his suspicions.
It happened so quickly that Raphael didn't have time to process the action. The woman was upon Donatello, her one clawed hand wrapped around his neck and jaw so tightly that Raph was sure he was able to hear the bones creak against themselves .His brother squirmed in agony and protest, but made no noise. Raphael was quick to pounce, but the creature grabbed his arm and twisted – not enough to break it – but enough to make sure that she had their attention.
"It was you who started this, you know? The portal that opened up so long ago? Where you threw the dark one and the mutant in? He was your brother, wasn't he?"
Donnie squirmed again, but she only squeezed harder.
"Such sacrifice, but in the end he became far worse than what death would have made of him. You will see soon enough!" She wrenched Raphael from her hands, sending him flying. Donatello she was not as kind to. His head met the concrete hard enough to knock him out completely, but even then she was not done. Helpless, Raphael watched as her clawed fingers slowly dug deep into his brother's side. The squelching noise of blood and ripped flesh made its way to his ears, but even as she did so the creature still spoke, making Raphael ill.
"You will see the terrors wrought of monsters you could never imagine in your wildest dreams! You will see your brother and the dark one among them and you will weep! And you will know as you die slowly and painfully that this fault lies on you and your family! He will come for you! The dark one will come for you! And you will know suffering as they have known suffering! No one will save you!"
At that moment the creature screamed in pain. Her clawed hand ripped from Donatello's side – who remained limp – and fled across the rooftops, gone again.
Raphael looked up in time to see Leonardo emerge from the shadows, his expression a mixture of rage and pain the likes he had not seen in some time. Both of their eyes cast down to Donatello who lay motionless on the cold floor.
"We need to get home," was all Leo said. Raphael said nothing, but obliged his big brother's demand.
