Chapter 8

"Where are they! What have you done! Tell me, damn it!" Leo screamed as he slammed the target of his rage against the base of a nearby statue. The terrified humanoid was dressed in green from the neck down. Her red-orange hair flopped against her face as a furious mutant turtle shook her mercilessly. Leo stopped shaking her just long enough for her to catch her breath and speak.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't meant for those children..."

"What the hell do you mean?" Leo growled as he slammed the woman to the ground by her neck. By now he had her begging for her life. "I'll consider it...once you tell me what the HELL YOU DID!"

By now Donatello, Venus, and Usagi had arrived at the scene. And what a terrible scene it was. Michelangelo was holding his sobbing daughter in his arms as the other children ran to their mother for comfort. Venus asked them what was wrong, but all of them were crying so hard their words sounded like nothing but vain babble. Leo had dragged the strange woman by her neck to the edge of the circle of runes. Venus gasped when she saw the butterfly clip and the amulet laying on the floor atop a pile of dust. She slowly knelt down to pick up the items and clutched them to her chest.

"Oh no. It's happened again...my babies. NOT MY BABIES!" When Venus began to sob and hyperventilate Donatello put his arms around her and tried to calm her. "Not my babies! What did you do to my babies?"

Leo sat on top of the terrified woman, eyes bloodshot and filled with rage as he slowly unsheathed one of his katana. He didn't know exactly what this person did. All he knew was that she was the cause of his family's suffering right now, and there was a possibility that she had done this to them once before.

"Now you listen to me," Leo hissed as he brought the blade closer to her throat. "You explain what happened here or you die. Your choice!" A nick of the blade against her chin was enough to get the woman talking again.

"They're not dead! At least not yet..."

"What?" Leonardo pressed the blade just a millimeter closer.

"Please listen! I just sent them away, but that gate wasn't meant for those children!" Leo pulled the blade away slightly.

"Keep talking."

"That is a trap gate I set by order of my master," she continued, her voice quivering with fear. "It leads to our world and ends on my master's land. He...he ordered me to find prime prey for his prized pet's h...hunting grounds. He used to use prisoners from our world for th...this but once we discovered the Battle Nexus he saw that it was r...ripe with food for his pet and entertainment for himself." The woman thought her pounding heart would explode out of her chest as Leo leaned in really close.

"How do we get them back?" he asked in a voice that was eerily calm.

"Y-you can't..."

"LIAR!" The clan leader squeezed her neck as she choked out her words.

"The only way they can escape is through the Red Gate! And it will only open with the right runes!"

"Do you know what the right runes are?" Leo hissed as he loosened his grip.

"Y-yes." When Leo grew quiet the woman visibly shuddered under the gaze of his cool blue eyes.

"What's your name?"

"K-Kala."

"Listen, Kala. You're going to show us how to get to these hunting grounds and show us the runes for this Red Gate you spoke of. You're also going to help us find our children. If you refuse I will not hesitate to kill you. Have I made myself clear?"

"V-very."

"Now...let's talk runes..."

She could smell grass and freshly overturned earth and felt a leaf tickling her nostrils. Her finger twitched as she slowly opened her heavy lids. Aphrodite looked around and could tell immediately that she was no longer in the Hall of Heroes. The problem was she had no idea where she was or how she got there. Sensing that something was off she closed her right eye and focused her left on her surroundings. When she observed the chi in the plant life it was off for some reason. Instead of flowing from the ground up and out through the pores of the leaves it undulated and went every which way.

"What is this place?" she asked herself. She flinched when she got an unexpected reply.

"I have no idea, and I got a feelin' I don't want to find out." Lovie immediately recognized that voice.

"Milan! How did you get here?" He simply shrugged in response as he went right to exploring. Not only was the flow of chi off in the alien environment, there were unrecognized smells and sounds coming from their surroundings. As the pair gingerly walked through the underbrush Lovie thought for sure she saw movement to their right accompanied by a tinkling sound. "Hey! Who's there," she called out bravely while clinging to Milan at the same time. That's when she saw a pair of luminous eyes peeking from beneath a nearby shrub. As a nervous turtle girl knelt down to get a closer look a fuzzy hand pushed the branches aside to reveal a hairy brown face. 'It's that girl!' Aphrodite thought as the person revealed herself completely. For a moment the three children stared at each other before the fuzzy one spoke.

"What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I wish I knew. It's good to see a familiar face, though. My name's Aphrodite, by the way. You can call me Lovie. And this is Milan."

"Oh...hello." As the furry girl slowly walked a circle around them Lovie noticed she had a cute, fluffy tail. She carried some kind of satchel over her shoulder that looked pretty full. Whatever she had in there was moving around. "My name is Rin. You know it's not good that you're here."

"It's not? Why not?" As if in answer to her question the ground began to shake with a rhythmic rumble.

"That's why. Follow me. Hurry!" The scared turtle children obeyed as the rumbling got louder. At one point the sound got so loud Milan had to shout to Rin so she could hear him.

"What is making all that noise?"

"Trust me, you don't want to find out! Now come with me!"

As they followed their furry guide a huge tree trunk came into view up ahead. The mutant children got an uneasy feeling as Rin headed strait for it. Lovie cried out for Rin to stop right before a gaping hole opened up in the trunk. All questions aside, Milan and Aphrodite grabbed each others' hand and went feet first into the hole just as the surrounding trees began to shake wildly. They took a moment to gather their wits after they landed at the top of a winding wooden staircase. They saw Rin a few feet below beckoning them to continue. Once they caught up with their little fuzzy savior Rin pulled out an orb made of a glassy material. It had something that looked like a cross between a glowing jellyfish and a butterfly floating within it. Lovie thought it was very pretty. After about five minutes of silence Aphrodite spoke up.

"Uh, Rin, where are we going?"

"To my home, no thanks to that lady in the light blue mask," Rin mumbled.

"Who?" Lovie wondered if she was talking about her mother.

"The one that was with the man in the purple mask. I don't know their names. You live with them so you should know."

"Sounds like you're describing my parents. My mami wears light blue and my daddy wears purple. Did something happen between you and them?" Lovie couldn't think of how that could be possible since she was the only one who could see Rin at the farmhouse.

"Yes!" Rin turned to face the genin with hurt in her eyes. "Your mama put those paper things in my path! I had to find another way back home because of her! It took me days to find my way around that barrier!" Rin sniffled as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Mama and Papa were so cross with me! It took me days to convince them that I was telling the truth."

Lovie and Milan felt kind of bad seeing Rin in distress.

"Hey, Rin-chan. We're really sorry that our mami caused you to get in trouble," Milan explained. "But our mami is a good person who would never hurt anybody on purpose. I'm sure she would have stopped if she knew she was causing harm." He put a hand on the fluffy girl's shoulder as she dried her tears.

"Oh well, you know your mama better than I do, so...I forgive her. C'mon. Let's get to my home so my mama can make us dinner. I worked hard gathering the main ingredient." Rin smiled as she patted her still squirming satchel.

"What's in there, anyway," Milan inquired.

"Millipedes! I managed to get the big, black, squirmy kind! They are the yummiest!" Milan and Aphrodite gave each other a grossed out look before following their now bubbly friend down the tunnel.

Soon the trio arrived as a thick wooden door. Rin pulled out a small, stone object and pressed it to the lock. The door opened with a hiss and Rin went traipsing in with a happy grin on her face. After the turtle siblings stepped inside Rin shut and locked the door behind them. The room they were in was quite spacious and appeared to be constructed from thousands of intertwining root systems. In spite of the dankness there was a sense of cheerful optimism permeating the place.

"Why don't you two have a seat while I take the food to the kitchen for Mama?"

The two genin made themselves comfortable as they looked over their new friend's home.

"I don't know about you, Lovie, but I kind of like this place. It's...cozy."

"Yeah, it's ok...but it's not home." That statement got both children wondering if their family had any idea where they were. Not much later the pair could hear Rin returning. She was talking to someone, her voice filled with excitement and expectation.

"Papa, please come meet my new friends! They are so nice, I know you will like them."

Rin came around the corner pulling a larger person behind her.

"Papa, this is Milan and Lovie. Friends, meet my Papa!"

The next thing that occurred left Rin very confused. Both genin jumped up for their seats, their eyes wide with surprise. When she looked up at her father she saw that his face bore the same shocked expression. Before she could ask a single question the two turtle children ran up to her father and bowed at his feet as Milan cried out.

"Splinter-jiisan! How can this be?"

Aphrodite looked up as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Moondoggie, either we're dreaming...or we must be dead!"

Next Chapter: Splinter has a lot of explaining to do. Also Kala is brought before the Daimyo.