Chapter 10

Three days later Raphael still burned with rage. He hadn't felt so much rage since he had first taken up Bloody Rage. He had been thrown into the arena fight and he fought. He fought like a berserker warrior. No injury was too great for him to keep fighting. He won and won and won. He was close, so close to attaining his freedom he could almost taste it. His patroness' box was empty, but he could feel her power coursing through him. It was getting so strong that at times he could barely breathe, but he didn't care. All he wanted was to finally break his shackles and attempt to destroy the most powerful something the godly plain had ever seen.

Raphael listened to the screams that echoed through the night. He still wore all of his armour and a purple mask. He was obsessively sharpening his Kopsis sword. He was going to find a pair of sai as soon as he gained his freedom, because he was going to kill his patroness with his weapons, or die trying, probably the latter, but at least he would no longer have to feel the absolute depth of despair he felt at the moment.

His body was thrown against the wall, arms and legs spread eagle. He had dropped his sword to the ground in shock.

His patroness stood directly in front of him. He recovered from the shock of having the object of his wrath standing in front of him. He shouted at her, he ranted and raved, he called her every horrible thing in the book. His rage burned.

He watched as frost began to form beneath the feet of the goddess. Her face remained impassive, but the temperature of his cell began to drop. "Well what do you know, you actually can feel something, you unfeeling, cold hearted...grk."

Raphael looked around him. He was kneeling in the center of the arena. The sand was cold beneath his knees. He looked at his patroness who was standing a little ways away from him. She was staring straight ahead, not even looking at him. He slowly stood. She still didn't look his way. She reached behind her and pulled two bladed weapons from her back, bells chimed throughout the arena. He had never seen anything like what she held. They looked almost like cicada wing blades, but weren't. The weapons were about 3 feet long with a triangular blade on each end, the grip being in the center of the slightly curved weapon. The curve of the weapon was towards the wielder. Pointed away from the wielder on the opposite side of the razor sharp blade on each end was a hooked piece of metal. Blue and purple ribbons swirled from the grips of the weapons, the bells attached at the bottom of each ribbon.

It was ridiculous, why put bells on a weapon? It was the point of a weapon to be silent and deadly. Having the bells meant your opponent would always know where the weapon was.

She accurately threw the weapon at him. He caught it, bells chiming like a death knell. His death was being chimed. He gave the weapon a practice twirl and charged her. She looked vaguely in his direction, but not really. Raphael realized then that she really was blind. Completely and absolutely blind. The blade rang as he sliced towards her head. Still she did not move. Finally she stepped back just out of reach of the blade. Blood ran down her cheek. Raphael looked at her face in shock. His blade hadn't connected which meant that just the wind from the blade had sliced through her flesh.

She didn't seem bothered by the cut, but it did not heal. Raphael looked at her in confusion. She should be listening to him. Being blind she should be trying to find out where he was. Hells, the bells alone should have warned her as to where the blade was. But her ears were covered by that damn headdress...just like her eyes. She couldn't hear. She was blind and deaf.

"Blind and deaf huh? Well you might just be the biggest bad ever, but I will bring you down to your knees. Do you understand! You Destroyed my brother's soul! You had no right!" He screamed as his rage flared and burned brightly. He may just have a chance against a blind and deaf goddess. He charged her again, but this time her blade met his. He strained against her strength. She pushed him back and he gave ground. He fell to the ground forcing her to stumble forward. He put his leg on her breast plate and pushed kicking her over his head. She flipped in midair landing gracefully a few feet away. She ran at him. Raphael rolled to the side as her blade came down embedding itself into the sand where his head had been. Raphael rolled to his feet as she pulled her weapon from the dirt. She turned towards him and charged. She brought her arm back, her blade arcing towards him. The strength of her blow sent his weapon spinning away to land in the dirt several feet away. She slammed the hooked part of her blade hard into his chest knocking him to the ground. The hook luckily missed his body, but he was looking up as her blade came down, he heard the sound of the blade slicing through the air, felt the blade just cut into his neck and smelled the scent of white heather washing over him.

He looked at the blade, as the goddess removed it from his neck She bared a set of fangs. She straightened, all expression removed from her face. She tipped her head to the side as if thinking of something. He wiped the blood from his throat. Had he just imagined the scent of flowers in the wind? All he could smell now was the scent of, wind, and cold.

Nausea washed through him as he found himself in a low beamed room. A black low beamed room with grey stone walls . He was on his knees again. He defiantly stood. He had been here before, not actually, but he remembered this room from Goddess' memories. He was in Death's house. His patroness strode away from him, bells ringing from both of her weapons which were strapped to her back. "I'm not done with you yet!" He screamed at her. He looked around the room for some sort of weapon and found none.

Fine, he would just rip the damn blade from her back and stab her with it if he had to. He ran after her following the sound of bells which was very convenient for him. He saw the edge of a cape disappear through a doorway. He followed her into what looked like a bedroom. Blues, purples and blacks dominated the room but Raphael only had eyes for the figure that lay in the bed. His patroness stood by the door but he walked past her.

"He's not...but you...I." Raphael fell to his knees screaming in utter agony as she ripped his heart from his body. At least that is what it felt like she did. No, it hurt worse. She hadn't even touched him, but he looked at the glowing white three dimensional star hovering on her open palm. Her Mark was gone. He had never noticed its presence, but that was obviously a lie because he could feel its absence. It was as if the world somehow was a little less...warm.

"What did you...?" Raphael managed to choke out through clenched teeth.

She walked over to the bed and pulled back the covers. She positioned her hand over Leonardo's heart and removed her hand. The star floated above Leonardo's chest and slowly sank through his shell. He could see the light from the Mark blaze through his uniform. Leonardo's soul stopped flickering.

Mon ran into the room. She looked in shock at the bed, at Raphael, then dove out of the way of his patroness who strode from the room, bells softly ringing.

"Raphael, what..? I thought she had Destroyed him?" Mon managed to get to her feet, and helped him to his. He looked at the bed in shock as his brother opened his eye.

Raphael took two steps to the bed, dropped to his knees and tried to grab his brother's hand, but his hand passed right through.

Leonardo opened his eye. His head felt fuzzy. He looked up into his brother's face. "Donny?" He asked. He closed his eye. "Why are you wearing your mask? We haven't worn our masks in twelve years." He said as he absently rubbed the scar tissue on the left side of his face. He opened his eye again because Donatello's face had been a little fuzzy, it had almost looked like Raphael, but of course the only place he saw Raphael now was in his dreams.

Donatello touched his mask then ripped it off. "Leo, it's me...Raph."

He closed his eye again. "Must be dreaming then. Dreaming about Raph again. Why were you wearing Donny's mask Raph?" His gaze shifted to the girl who was kneeling beside his brother. "And a Japanese school girl?" He groaned and sat up.

"He doesn't realize he's dead. How doesn't he realize he's dead?" Raphael asked the girl. He seemed confused.

The girl looked at him. "Sometimes when someone dies they die so quickly, they don't even realize they have died. The Reaper that collected him must have got him fast, before he had a chance to look at his body. It happens sometimes."

"I'm not dead Raph, you are though." Leonardo said quietly. "If I hadn't forced you to see us that night, you might have lived." It was a conversation he had had with Raphael in his dreams, and at his grave many a time. Of course all he had ever gotten as a reply had been silence.

Raphael looked at him with concern, then turned his attention to the girl. "But what about that little waiver I had to sign? The little spiel you Reapers give to welcome the dead to the Afterlife?"

"That's the problem Raphael. Your brother wasn't being escorted by a Reaper, at least none we could find. He should still be in processing for at least a few more months. We don't know how he got into The Ways." She said quietly.

Raphael looked at her in shock, then looked back at him. Leonardo reached out to touch Raphael to tell him everything was okay and stopped as he realized that he was completely blue. "Leo, listen to me..." Raphael was looking at him, agony written across his face.

"You were killed Leo. The Patheons got you." He looked desperately at the girl. She shrugged.

"No I..." Leonardo paused. He tried to remember. He and Michelangelo had been deployed in a space chopper. They were heading out to the front. They had almost reached their destination when...something happened. He didn't remember the rest. He looked down at his hands again. "Raph?" Leonardo looked at him, face full of shock.

"Yeah it's me bro, welcome to the Afterlife." He said tears forming in Raphael's eyes.

Leonardo looked at him in shock and leaned towards him to give him a hug. Tears were forming in Leonardo's eye. "Raph." He choked out. He wanted to hug his brother, but Raphael pulled away. He looked at his brother in shock as he grabbed the girl's hand.

"You can touch him, is he really alright?" Raphael asked, misery lacing his words. He let go of the girl's hand.

The girl poked and prodded him then gave a nod of approval.

"Why can she touch me, but I can't touch you?" Leonardo asked his brow furrowing in hurt and confusion .

"It's a long story bro." Raphael whispered.

And then Raphael began talking. His brother told him everything he knew about the Afterlife. Sometime while Raphael was talking the girl left. Leonardo sat in the four pollster bed with black satin sheets and listened. He inserted a question or comment here and there, but otherwise just listened.

Leonardo was overwhelmed. It was so much to take in and understand. But something bothered him."What I still don't understand is why you became Exo-Ouroboros Raph. It makes no sense. Why did you want a body so badly that you had to become some sort of gladiator to attain it? Why not just..." Leonardo paused. Raphael had avoided mentioning anything to do with...Her. Leonardo's eye widened. "It has something to do with Her doesn't it?" Leonardo asked carefully. "Did you find Her Raph?"

He looked at his brother's face and felt renewed grief roll through him at the look of absolute misery on Raphael's face."I wanted revenge Leo. Revenge against the gods that Destroyed Her soul. Becoming Exo-Ouroboros was the only way I could stay out of my place of rest." And so Raphael explained to him Her supposed Destruction at the hands of the gods, and her actual sacrifice. Leonardo felt oddly empty. Actually he didn't really feel much of anything at all.

"So she is gone, forever gone, and you are Exo-Ouroboros for all eternity." Leonardo said carefully.

"Yeah." Raphael said to him.

"And this patroness of yours ripped Her Mark out of you, and slammed it into me so that I would still exist." Leonardo said slowly as he began to unbutton his uniform.

Her Mark blazed lightly over his heart. "I guess so. Keep that Mark secret Leo. It shouldn't exist." Leonardo touched the Mark, grief plainly shown on Raphael's face.

"It's warm." He whispered.

"It is finally where it belongs Leo."

Leonardo's eye widened in shock. "Raph..."

Raphael smiled. "It's okay Leo, losing Her Mark was worth the price for your soul." He stood up as the girl entered the room again.

"Can you take him Mon? I don't think I could trust him with anyone else." Raphael asked her. Mon bit her lip.

"Sure...um...can I talk to you for a second?" She asked as she pulled Raphael from the bedroom.

Leonardo felt sorrow drift like a mist through him. He was so used to feeling the heartache of loss, he wasn't sure if he would know how to exist without it. He was so she Raphael would find Her. But there was nothing left to find. He looked at the empty doorway and leapt out of the bed.

Mon led Raphael down the hall into the room he had entered when he landed here. Death stood by the fireplace that blazed with black flame. Wrapped in Death's arms was The Destroyer. Death looked at him and Raphael started in surprise. Death's grey wings were wrapped protectively around her. He lifted her up into his arms and deposited her into a chair. She sat straight and stilled.

"Mon, why are you here?" He asked as Death walked from the room.

"I've been Death's personal assistant for two years now. The pay, much better, the danger, much less, except for..." She nodded her head towards the still figure of his patroness. "Still scares the Hells out of me. But she doesn't seem to notice me so it hasn't been that bad. I just have to make sure I stay out of her way when she is moving around."

She looked at him with concern. "For a while now we have been noticing some...anomalies in our accounting system, but we haven't really been able to find a pattern or a reason, for the anomalies, and truthfully I don't think we would have figured it out except for the fact that your brother was found in The Ways. He wasn't supposed to be there."

"Yeah that's what you said before. Wait, when you say accounting, you mean souls?" She nodded. "So what does it mean?"

"Well I decided to do some checking around, run through some numbers, and I have found that there are 236 souls unaccounted for that should still be in processing, in Limbo Level 1, but are missing." She said grimly.

"Okay, and you are telling me this because...?" Raphael said impatiently.

"Your other two brothers are missing." She said grimly.

Raphael froze and his heart dropped. "We don't even know how long this has been going on. It is only as of right now that we have this many souls missing. There could be thousands that have gone unaccounted for!"

Mon looked over at Death as he entered the room. "I thought that you should know, and we are going to try to find them, along with the other lost souls." She said to him.

"I'm going to help." Raphael growled. "No one takes my brothers and gets away with it."

"Raphael you can't help. You are a gladiator, you are bound to The Pit. There is nothing you can do."

He motioned to his patroness. "She dragged me out, she can keep me out."

Mon shook her head. "Do you know what would happen if the other gods found out she is powerful enough to get through their wards. She is breaking the Rules, for you."

"I won't sit back and..."

"How do I get a body?" Leonardo interrupted him.

Raphael cringed at his brother's voice. "Leo listen to me, you aren't getting a solid body here, you hear me. I messed up. I messed up real bad and I am not going to let you make the same mistakes I did." Raphael said facing his brother.

"I am not going to stand here and..." Leonardo started.

"I can't even do anything Leo. It took me seven years of fighting to get as solid as I am, the only way you can become solid instantly is to..." Raphael stopped talking. "Mon is going to take you through The Ways, you are going to have a nice Afterlife where you are not in danger of being ripped apart, tortured, raped, or being some gods play thing, you hear me Leo!" Raphael yelled, but sometime during the yelling he heard his voice break as he pleaded with his brother to understand. To understand that as much as it ripped his heart out at the thought of never seeing his brother again, he knew it was better than knowing what he could suffer at the hands of someone, for all eternity.

His brother looked at him steadily. "They are my family Raph. I am not going to go have a nice Afterlife knowing that Donny and Mikey are out there somewhere..."

"A slave." Mon said to Leonardo. Leonardo stopped and looked at Mon. "The only way you can get a body instantly is to become a slave. But Raphael is right. You will be sold in The Arena to the highest bidder. That is not a power thing, just a money thing, and there are gods out there that despise you, and that have enough money to buy you."

Leonardo looked at Raphael. "What are the chances that your Patroness will buy me?" Leonardo asked. Raphael felt himself pale.

"Slim to none. Course I would have placed those odds on Marwolaeth Yn Annwyl actually choosing to become Raphael's patron." Mon put in helpfully.

"Why are we talking as if your patroness isn't in the room?" Leonardo asked.

She isn't Death's voice floated through Raphael's head.

Raphael looked at Death in shock. He had forgotten that he was in the room.

"What do you mean she isn't in the room, she is right there" He said motioning to The Destroyer who was sitting perfectly still in the chair where Death had deposited her.

So she is Death said cryptically

"Can you talk to her, I need to find my brothers." Leonardo asked Death.

"No Leo, absolutely not! I will not have my brother take the chance of becoming a slave. All eternity Leo, that is how long you will be a slave for!" Bells rang and Raphael found himself falling to his knees. He looked at the cold stone floor of his cell.

"NOOOOOO!" He screamed into the dark as nausea and panic rolled through him.