Sing To Me Your Darkest Secrets
Chapter Twelve:
I Don't Dream Since I Quit Sleeping

Like I said, I'll never understand. It doesn't help that I never got a real explanation for what happened with Leo and Joey. I was worried about Raph. I'm still worried about Raph. I don't like being in here not knowing what's going on out there with my friends. They could be dead for all I know. Why won't you tell me if they're alive or not?

Mikey said he heard it in a dream...you know, since Shiki made us all sleep. He even gave Don something to help him rest as he didn't sleep so good after that whole club thing...

Leo was sure he was seeing things. No, no...he knewhe was seeing things as nothing so far had been normal. From the swirling colors to the sudden onslaught of light, he was pretty sure things weren't as real as he knew them to be. In particular, however, for a moment it appeared as if Joey had a raccoon tail and soft puffy ears sticking out from the top of her head. He stared, mouth agape and eyes a little wide, as he tried to make sense of the nonsensical. She looked like she was dress in a Halloween costume; very real but almost cartoonish in their impossibility. They faded, however, and her clothes shifted on her body, morphing to the likings of the environment around them. It was, to say the least, bizarre. The Silver Path under his feet seemed to be stretching out on nothing for miles straight in front of him and directly behind him. It hovered in a three dimensional existence, like walking on glass that had nothing but vast space surrounding in all directions. It looked like someone dropped dozens of paint cans of varying color all around. It was hardly silver as its name would suggest as the colors were left to mix together randomly and then fade back to the bright silver for it's namesake. It caused the 'sky' and vacant space below the path to appear in a bright series of swirls. It made Leo's head hurt for how many colors appeared, some he couldn't even put a name to. He was struck then by Joey's talk of explaining red - he could explain these colors no more than he could red or blue. He could only experience them.

There was no light source, no sun and no bulbs, but the place was bright in an unnatural way that Leo's eyes had a hard time processing. Everything, in fact, seemed to be lit up with such intensity, it defied the norms. Leo couldn't tell if it was supposed to resemble inside or outside or something different all together. He thought his head would explode from the pressure of his confusion and the oddly thin air around him. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach caused his body to shake some. He, however, never let go of the ordinary stone Joey had given him. Instead, he felt the grooves dig into the thick part of his palm, reminding him he was as real as the rock was. The rest of it...he couldn't be so sure.

"Take my hand." Joey's voice floated into his brain, though she'd already gathered his in hers before he could respond to her request. Her lips moved after she 'said' it and as they moved nothing came out, like there was a delay in the very space around them. It, however, felt good, for a moment - comfortable and familiar holding Joey's hand. Joey was the only thing in this place that remotely made sense. Where he couldn't place definitions to colors and smells, sounds and tastes, he could define Joey exactly as she was. He could feel her and she felt right, easing his soul of his surprise and panic. "Everything -" she'd started to say to him, but he heard a whisper off the Path. Just to his left was what appeared to be the circle archway into the sewer. He knew it all too well, having walked the pipes more times than he could count. It was Raph's voice that wafted against its walls, hitting the pipes and bouncing off to reach Leo's ears in an echo. "Leo..." Raph choked - almost cried - out for his brother, "Help me..."Leo's feet and mind set on the voice, his determination rose and he took his first step in his brother's direction. He had no qualms about doing just that. The opening to the sewer was very real to Leo, enough that he momentarily forgot about Joey or the rock or anything that would remind him he wasn't actually home anymore.

"LEONARDO!"

Leo pulled back when he felt Joey roughly jerk him away from the archway. "But Raph needs me! I have to help him!" He snapped around, angrily at whoever dare stop him from getting to his sick brother. He focused in on Joey and pointed back behind him, where he'd heard the first cry for help. His eyes were ablaze with conviction and determination - he'd be damned if the smaller woman would stand in his way right then. She was staring at him in confusion, both eyebrows arched on her forehead. "No Leo...no - the Dreaming is a predator and you its very willing prey. It's trying to lure you off the Path so you'll be lost to it forever. If you go, you're doing exactly what it wants you to do. There's nothing there. Remember, your subconscious is here too along with everyone else's. It knows how to find you and what will lead you astray - what will lead you to temptation to leave safety. Everything is out to get you here, at all costs. You must stay with me, remember? You must not leave the Path. There's nothing there," She said it again, giving a pointed nod towards where Leo had been walking off to a moment later. "Look."

Leo blinked hard, confused by her words. "No...I heard him..." Leo looked over his shoulder sharply, but the familiar sewer pipe line was gone. Nothing but strange swirly backdrop lie beyond. His feet were dangerously close to the edge - he could see, as he looked down, the thin line that separated the nothingness with the narrow Path they occupied. Instead of the sewer, there were now some floating, vicious looking trees a few feet off the path. A neon pink fish 'swam' through the air in front of his face, hauntingly confusing for its absurdity. Dreams weren't meant to make sense, not in the traditional way - they were uninhibited by belief and, therefore, could be anything and everything that could quite literally be 'dreamed up'. Leo was momentarily shocked by what he had seen, so certain he had heard Raph's voice despite it being gone now. He set his eyes on Joey, frightened by how easily it had begun to lure him. When she had warned him, he had not been prepared for the possibility of what the Dreaming would us as bait. His hand squeezed firmly in hers, determined to focus and - like she had told him he must - trust her words. "What are we looking for here?" He asked, his voice oddly calm despite his insides shaking.

"I'll know when I find it." She answered nonchalantly.

"Well, that's not ominous or anything. We'll get far with that one." Leo responded simply, merely used to the backwards logic Joey had spouted in the last twenty-four hours. He had come to the conclusion that none of this was going to make sense - it was, after all, the end goal he was after. That was to find out what the ascot said in order to save Raph. Though it was as if his comment, and knowing he had no knowledge of this place, were directed at someone like Don and one of his highly scientific explanations. In that very second, before he could ask more questions, he heard baring music surrounded them. It seemed to be echoing off nothing, there were no walls for it to bounce from, but it rattled the Path beneath them for its intense volume. First, it was something terrible and poppy sounding - bubbly in its tune. "Do hear that!" It took all of Leo's concentration to keep from being distracted and lured away to discover its source, and end it, but he had focus that perhaps no one else on the planet could wrangle.

"YES!" Joey exclaimed, almost excitedly. It certainly didn't fit with the part of Leo that was mostly confused and worried by the suddenness of everything that happened in this crazed place.

"And you think that's good?" Leo wished his hands were free so he could clap them to the side of his head. Instead, he squinted his eyes some. He couldn't explain why, but the intense sound waves hurt even his eyeballs for how it seemed like he had his face pressed up against the speaker of some wild concert. They had to be hearing different things if she could be excited by it. It was then, as everything in this place just seemed to appear as sporadically as a dream could be, that a door appeared before them, right in the middle of the Path.

"It's great!" She threw the door open with one hand, still holding tight to Leo.

"No! Joey!" Leo hissed, certainly she was pulling them off the path in a similar way he had almost done a moment before. He didn't realize that the door, on the Path, was safe.

"Trust me!" She answered his skepticism, and jerked Leo through it before he could argue more. It was shocking for Leo as they passed through, the transformation was so very real he was easily pulled into it. The music was different beyond the door; less painful and hard to listen to, but still loud and echoing. It was something he couldn't understand and didn't have time to try. It was dark, as if they'd passed into a venue meant to house such sounds. There were hundreds of people crammed on the floor in a large crowd, all facing in one direction towards a platform. None of them, all human - little Asian women mostly - seemed to care that there was a bi-pedal turtle pushing through the crowded floor. They were, instead, completely mesmerized by the stage. Their hands moved the same in some bizarre dance and they jumped in harmony as the music blared. It appeared to be a concert of some sort, though Leo was too disoriented to actually figure out where the music was coming from.

"WHAT ARE WE DOING?" He shouted at Joey over the live music blaring. His only tether to her right then was her hand as he couldn't fully see her even with the flashing stage lights.

"JUST COME ON - if I took the time to explain..." she was cut off, however, as the crowd pushed forward. Joey and Leo were crushed against the front bar of the floor, only a small space separating them from the stage, as they'd waded their way through the whole crowd. Five, Leo noted. There were five men on stage, all absorbed in the rock song they were playing out on their various instruments. He knew the language wasn't his own primary one, yet he could understand it easily without translating it, as he would be able to under normal circumstances. No, right then it was as if it was his only language. It was as if he and Mikey were five again, playing pretend. Mikey insisted they were in Russia because he'd just learned where that place was on the map. And his babble was meant to be Russian and at the time, Leo had pretended back that he understood Mikey. They had yapped at each other in words that might be gibberish to those listening, but they believed they were truly speaking the language. Therefore, both he and Mikey did speak it as the rules of pretend didn't apply to reality. Those that believed in pretend - in magic - would have heard Russian coming from their lips. This rule seemed to be existent in the square of subconscious they were in now as Leo applied the Japanese as his only language.

It was as his eyes swept over the stage that he started to piece parts of this illusion together. It wasn't part of his subconscious...it was Joey's. The five Asian men on the stage were all unfamiliar to him save one. His hand left Joey's to reach for his single Katana, the other left in the field of grass, but the woman caught his wrist. "NO!" She hissed to him, jerking his arm so that his fingers slipped against the katana's handle grip.

Leo's eyes were fiercely set on Yuki, behind the drum set; unconcerned and beating his instrument with skill and wild expertise. A laugh escaped him as he twirled his drum stick and went back to pouring his life into it. He was frustrated by Joey's stopping him - Yuki was a danger, a threat, and Leo's brain instantly jumped to the man he knew, the vampire. Not the man he had been told about.

Joey's hand slipped from Leo's and, unlike anything that would be possible at any real show, she hauled herself over the guard rail and pulled herself up on stage. Leo hadn't the chance to even stop her - her adrenaline and random act was too much for him in this place that often felt like he was moving through molasses. But he did lean over the edge, reaching for her as he watched with wide eyes. "YUKI!" She seemed momentarily caught up in the dream of it and Leo was left unblinking, horrified of being left in the sea of tiny Asian fan girls alone. He didn't want to be separated from Joey. She was the only thing real here, he would surely be lured by this scary place without her. Nightmares were very real, he was realizing that much. And this could easily become a nightmare.

The second she was on stage, the performers all seemed to notice it and Yuki's sticks fell to the floor. "Joa-hee-chan!" His mouth moved, but Leo couldn't hear his words. The little Asian man stumbled from the spot behind all those cymbals and drums. He met her with all his force and they seemed to crash together instantly. Their lips fastened immediately and their arms tangled around each other. As it happened, the stage began to fall away, as if it crumbled around them. He was certain that they were going to disappear with it and he scrambled some. The bar that had been holding him up disappeared and he felt forward, landing on his knees with a sudden force that rocked his entire body. The weight of him against the 'glass' like surface of the path - as it was back once more - sent a crack through it that resembled a spider web.

"No!" Leo hissed, scared that it too would fall away beneath him and he would 'step' off into the abyss has Joey had warned. He was by himself right then, terrified by what was happening. Leo jerked around in his spot, climbing gracefully to his feet as he prepared himself for whatever came next. Like little bubbles, made from the laughter and sun filled summer days of children and their soap covered wands complete with a hole on the end, the crowd popped out of existence; one-by-one in rapid succession. The noise was deafening to Leo as he heard a dull ring follow the nothingness, the lack of music and screaming fans.

The scenery built back up around as quickly as it broke away. The path faded way into a tatame floor beneath Leo's feet, which was familiar. There were sheer screens held in the wooden architecture that he found soothing too as this type of decoration was comfortable for Leo. On the wall of the simply furnished room, he immediately spotted a picture of Joey on Yuki's back. He had his arms hooked under her knees and she had her hands over her head with two peace sings shooting out from each hand and Yuki's face in a wild laugh. This must have been their home, he deduced. It was comfortable, quiet and serene in a way that Leo could truly appreciate. He too found peace in such a home, clearly Japanese in nature. Had he shoes on his feet, he would have been compelled to take them off to honor such deeply important Japanese customs.

He could hear the laugh from down the hallway. He had been told, by Joey herself, that Yuki laughed...a lot. He followed the sound, his hand closing harder around the stone. His only real reminder. "For Raph." He whispered to himself, gathering all of his conviction. He padded across the soft floor, his feet barely making sound for his grace. He pushed one of the screens aside, letting it slide easily as it was meant to open. Joey was seated across from Yuki on the floor at a low table, her clothing having faded into a simply tied kimono. In fact, Leo felt slightly out of place for his guards and face mask - he felt as if he too should be wearing a kimono on his massive shelled body, just to offer his respect to them and their home. There were three place settings, with an empty spot awaiting him, and a small plate of sushi sat in the middle of table. Yuki looked up to him from where he too knelt at the table.

"Kame." He greeted with a bright smile, unbothered by the fact that Leo was a turtle. Of all the weird things Leo had witnessed thus far, he was hardly phased by Yuki's acceptance - particularly in a dream. "We've been waiting for you." It was highly unnerving for Leo to watch him speak so softly, so kindly and hospitable. The man he knew, the one he'd seen, was vile and evil. This one, with peach skin and eyes that were clearly alive troubled the leader. He couldn't seem to fully differentiate yet he couldn't correlate them either. It made a bubble of guilt grow in his chest - if this was what Yuki once was, the spirit that was housed underneath the monster he appeared to be, Leo felt remorse of having taken his life. It was Joey's words before that calmed him some. She had said the man he killed had long ago been dead - all he did was take the body. It only eased Leo some, however, as he was still struck by what had once been for the man's life he took. No matter how evil he turned, the fact that he was once a good man was stuck in Leo's head. This place was twisting his mind into misshapen knots and impossible ties. He could feel it and that too made him uneasy. "You are a friend of my Joa-hee-chan, ne?" He asked in soft Japanese, though it sounded like English to Leo when he heard it, or perhaps the English sounded like Japanese - he couldn't be sure. Again, it was the magic distorting any normal thought processes he was having. As he knew both languages, he couldn't tell which was being spoken - it was simply that he knew what words Yuki was making.

"Hai." Joey answered before Leo could. She looked up to him. A bright smile crossed her face too, one unlike Leo had ever seen her wear in the whole of the time he'd known her. She looked happy - it was as if the pure magic of this place, the Dreaming, was fueling her spirit. And, Leo figured, maybe it was - he might not understand all the theory and philosophy behind what she was, but he could see the effects of it. A pang of regret passed through him and, for a second, he almost wished he could make her smile like that. Like Yuki appeared to. She had created this dream because it was what was inside her, while Leo wished for a moment that he held that importance in her life. It was entirely irrational and later he would blame it on the Dreaming itself for the wave of feeling that washed over him. "He is my friend, Yuki-sama." Joey inched over on her knees and reach out to Leo with her hand. He looked at her exposed palm for a moment, considering her words. He, in turn, reached back and placed his hand comfortably in hers. Her eyes danced as she smiled up to him, pleased with his silent agreement. She had called him a friend - it felt as warm as her hand in his cold-blooded one.

Leo so rarely had a friend like this - he had his brothers, he was tied to them by a bond that was near impossible to recreate. But when it was boiled down to its basics, he would always have them - Leo was, in a way, stuck to his brothers. He didn't get to choose to have them in his life, though he didn't mind it. The same with Master Splinter. Casey and April were friends, but he didn't feel connected to them in the way he did Joey. She felt like a real friend to him, someone he picked to be around and in turn, was picked by her. Casey had picked Raph and April mostly looked to help and be helped. Joey...she was just a friend and Leo felt good to be able to say, for once in his life, he had a friend that was all his.

He refrained from saying 'Really? I'm your friend?' but the words crossed his mind as he folded his legs under himself at their table. He didn't want to question it; he would much rather just go with the confession. The food looked delicious and when he freed his hand (not holding the stone) from Joey's grip, he lifted the chopsticks next to his plate. Joey nodded, encouragingly. It was the most delicious piece of food he'd ever put in his mouth - ever. He didn't bother wondering if he'd fabricated the taste because he knew whatever he wanted to believe could happen here or if it was because it actually was the most delectable bit of sushi he'd ever experienced. It didn't matter; it felt real and he was once more consumed with the idea that this was...in its own way...a real place. A place that was as real as he wanted it to be. That was how the Dreaming captured people; it was so real that it felt like life already, so why return?

He too was distracted by the surroundings and the polite conversation to let the itching reminder of their mission take his focus away. He was surprised to find that Yuki, as a human, was very likable. He found it almost his duty to learn more of this man, to respect and understand who he was underneath, as he had taken away his only chance at living once more. He was just a man, a mundane as she called them - no special magical connection, no different than Casey or April. He was into video games when he wasn't practicing his drums and liked to eat anything and everything he could get his hands on. And coffee...he loved coffee. Leo even forgot that there was a magical tattoo looped around his wrist that, though Leo couldn't read it in the real world, saw it said 'Elisabeth Penn' rather than the obscure, archaic language he didn't understand. He was full of life, but mostly stupid laughter that was influenced by almost everything said. The swatch of blond hair across his forehead shook every time he laughed and sometimes it made Leo laugh too.

It was free here. Where dreams dwell, everything felt good and perfect. Leo could see why people craved a good dream, why it would be so appealing to just step off the path and stay here. Forever. Leo himself felt accepted, publically.

"Yuki-sama." Joey finally said, setting her chopsticks down carefully on her empty plate. "We can't stay much longer. Leo can't handle this place and well...as much as I am gleaning from it, I can't stay forever. But I did want to find you. I need your help - we need it." Leo had a moment of regret as Joey brought the conversation back to their mission. He'd, among the meeting and casual conversation, forgotten Raph entirely. It was perhaps his deepest desire to, for one moment of his life, feel the burden of being a leader fall from his shoulders. Where he could just be comfortable in his own skin, enjoying a moment of absolute serenity. He was, in that moment, swept back to Japan and the warm feelings he got from it - the peace. It was, partly, he was sure, this place which was playing tricks on his mind.

It was then, in that instant, that Leo had a dawning realization. Joey could stay here. This place was giving her magic, as she said, and filling her up with what the world beyond lacked and often destroyed about her. She could remain, forever in the life she was robbed of. However, he knew she wouldn't - she had said she couldn't stay. She meant to return with him, to help Raph and his family. His eyes lingered on her for a minute. That sacrifice spoke to his soul in a way no one else had before. He could appreciate her desire to help, innately and so easily, because he had that same passion burning in his chest. She was, no matter how disagreeable she pretended to be, a hero in her own way. He was left inspired, in momentary awe, of her selflessness. For a moment, his world and life wasn't all that different from hers. He protected people too, it was just that Joey was protecting them - he and his family - in a way he hadn't noticed fully until then. His subconscious mind, in the Dreamland, connected with his sensible logic driven one and he was stunned to find that the admired her it. She had, on many occasions infuriated him, she certainly tested his patience, but he admired that too. Once more a pang of unfair jealous shot through him for how softly she treated Yuki.

He couldn't help but remember the things that Yuki had said in the club - the fact that he had literally thrown her to the hungry, mad wolves to be devoured like a pack of meat. He seemed like a good man, he certainly was before being turned...just not good enough for Joey.

"Anything Joa-hee-shi, anything." He told her, leaning across the table and taking her hand. Joey recoiled a little and Leo was confused for a moment by the action. He had assumed, because of the way the dream had swept Joey up earlier, that she was smitten with seeing Yuki once more. But it seemed to be the opposite as Joey was overly cautious. Leo was grateful for it.

"I need you to read this." She reached in the sleeve of her kimono and pulled out the ascot, slipping it onto the clean table top.

Yuki's head drew back on his neck and he flinched. "No no...don't." She spoke quickly. Yuki's spirit, the thing that Joey had explained to Leo returned to the Dreaming, was the one before them. This was a manifestation of him, what he'd been and not what he was upon his death and then undead life. His fear and hesitation came from the dark nature of the ascot, the clear indication that something was amiss as there was dried blood on it. Joey reached out and caught his wrist. "The Yuki I know, the one here and now, would want to help people. Leo, our friend, his brother is dying. And this has the answer. Absolve yourself of the monster you were and tell us, please, what this says." She smoothed out the fabric. "Bits of your spirit, who you were, remained in the real world until you were finally abolished. You can live in peace here. Forever, but first - please, help us Yuki-sama." Joey pleaded. "You can read it, I know you can. Save Leo's brother. Please."

Yuki was clearly grappling with something internally as he looked from Leo to Joey and back to the blood covered cloth. "I would be in your debt." Leo bowed his head to Yuki.

"Very well." Yuki finally sighed, shifting in his spot to better situate himself at the table. "Your payment shall be caring for Joa-hee-shi in my absence. Please...make her laugh and smile more." Yuki charged Leo with his task and Joey offered Leo a sideways smirk. He was already keen on fulfilling the request and then some. He had long ago decided, without his own knowledge until now, that his hope was to just make her happy, whatever avenue that would might take him.

"Oh he's got that down, slick. No need to worry. Now get to telling us what this says - we haven't got much time left before he overdoses on more magic than he can handle." She tapped the table. Leo's eyes flickered over to her, concerned by the idea that he might get truly sick from the magic his body was absorbing. He didn't have time or the mindset to ask questions of it, mostly because he figured that might speed things up. If he began to question magic, as it poured into it, perhaps that would only cause the contradictions to clash and explode - literally and figuratively - inside of his body.

Yuki leaned over the fabric. He studied it for a few moments, tracing the bloody lines with his finger. He turned up to the both of them, eyes grave and filled with sorrow. "It's a curse, ancient in nature. Elisabeth, Elisa...it says she must die and her blood used to heal the wound of the one pierced, if you hope for the victim to survive that is. Otherwise, the curse will just keep eating him away. Eating him alive until he can breathe no longer and you'll lose your brother." Yuki's gaze shifted back down to the cloth, studying the dried blood further. He nodded a moment later, as if affirming that was the case. "She must die."

All the color drained from Joey's face. "Kill a vampire? That old? Really? Like we haven't been trying to do that for years." Leo frowned at that - it didn't seem so impossible. He himself had killed a vampire - he had enough confidence in their ability and strength to believe they could do it. In fact, he would have already if he knew this was the solution to Raph's illness. He would have done it that night. What Leo didn't know, or perhaps any of them, was that Elisa hadn't turned Raph - either into a vampire or a blood doll - because it required giving her blood back to him. She had merely bitten him on the roof top, giving him a taste of the pleasure that came with a vampire bite, but refrained from exchanging any of her own. If she had, it would have only served their purpose to reverse parts of the curse. She knew this and that's was why she kept from sharing parts of herself with the turtle - it was why he wasn't her doll already.

Yuki nodded a single time. "It is her away of offering an impossible challenge. He will die before you'll be able to kill her and take her blood to heal the wound."

"How?" Leo didn't seem worried by the possibility of Raph dying first. In fact, he was intent on making sure that much didn't happen. He would do everything and anything to ensure that Raph survived this and Elisa died, even if it was at the hands of his two katana. "How do we heal the wound with her blood?" Leo was determined and wanted the facts. The second he knew the hows, he could jump forward with action and make this all go away as he had promise Raph he would.

Yuki shrugged. "Magic? I don't know. That's just what it says. I know nothing of medicine. Magical or regular."

"Well fortunately I have two people back home that do. They can figure it out. Shiki will only be able to stave off Raph's slow progressing death for so long. We gotta get back there and help them, now. Before its too late. Who knows how long we've been gone by now. We have to find her." She told Leo sharply, full of conviction and now direction.

He offered her a firm nod. Joey reached out and took his hand again, squeezing it. "We'll save him Leo." She then turned back to Yuki. She leaned across the table and pressed her lips light to his cheek. "Thank you, Yuki-sama. For making sense of that which we couldn't. I'll miss you. This is...goodbye." She told him and Leo watched her spill a single tear. A final one - one of closure.

Mere seconds after she said it, the room once more melted away and the two of them were left sitting alone on the Silver Path. The ascot sat between the two of them, lightweight on the path's surface. "How is it that he could read it?" Leo asked softly, reaching out and touching the cloth as he gathered it in his free hand. He looked up to Joey who shook her head swiftly. She reached over and placed an index finger against his lips to silence him.

"Don't do that." She instructed before she trailed her hand down to touch where his fist still clutched the rock. "It just is...don't start questioning it now. We needed someone to understand it, to make sense of it for us...and he could. Simple as that, Leo. Does it matter how? Just that we know now...we can save Raph. We can save your brother." She enclosed her hand around his fist and sighed some, closing her eyes for a moment. Leo watched her, unsure of what she was doing. He was focused, instead, on her face and how soft she looked - everything, in fact, seemed so calm now as even the air around the path was still.

"You called him slick?" Leo asked quietly, curious and anxious for her answer. It had been plaguing him since she first started speaking, as they ate. It was such a particular name she had for him, one of clear endearment as she never really called him Yuki without it being serious.

"Yeah. I call you hot shot. So?" She shrugged.

Leo dipped his head down some, partly out of embarrassment for pointing out something that might mean nothing. It, however, felt like something to him. "It just seems..."

Joey hesitated too as Leo drew out his words in the form of a question. Leo watched a reddish color spot her cheeks, like little pink pillows. She said something she hadn't meant to, as if given something a way - a secret code of sorts and now it dawned on her, as it did him in the same instant. He knew, in that instant of silence, that - as he had been the only one she continuously referred to by a nickname of her own creation and by her reaction - that it was actually significant. He wasn't just Leo to her, just as Yuki wasn't just Yuki. He was, instead, endeared to her as 'hot shot' instead. He assumed that he too had earned her respect as she had for him that day.

"Right. Let get back to Raph." She said with a clearing of her throat, trying her best to skate by the momentary lapse of silence that ebbed between them awkwardly.

Leo nodded in agreement. It was as they were standing, though he wasn't too sure how getting out of this place would work, that something dawned on him. He then caught her by the arm, stopping her from moving all together. "Wait." He hissed, frowning some. "Can we...communicate with them? Here. It'll take a day to get back, they'll worry. It might even take longer depending on what hour it is now. I can't travel in the city easily during daylight hours. Can we talk to them in their dreams? You said everyone's consciousness exists here, does that include my brother's? If this place is where their dreams live, can't we warn them and tell them we have the answers? That we are coming soon with them?"

In an instant, a grin sprouted across Joey's face. "You're a genius!" Joey commended, patting his forearm in congratulations. "Who dreams the most - the biggest?"

'Leo's in my head, dudes!'

Not New York, that's for sure - I remember thinking. Mikey's head, not New York. Mikey had screamed to wake us all up. He was like a kid at Christmas, wanting to see what Santa brought. Just as annoying. Even the big black bird perched on the back of the couch, watching over Raph's sickly form, bustled in the sudden noise.

'He's in my head, dudes! I was having this crazy dream and then suddenly Leo was there! He says we have to kill that vampire chick to save Raph. Joey was there too, said I had to trust what I was hearing. Its not just a dream, she said! Its REAL. Guys! She said to get ready, they're coming back and we'll get her! And then Raph'll be back to his peachy keen self, with rainbows and sunshine coming outta his you know where. YES! See, I told you...Leo'd figure it out. I told you, didn't I Don? He was in my head, for real. Good thing he came in after that dream about the girl and whipped cream...'

Mikey was excited. Very excited. Even for Mike. Don said we should get all the rest we could then and Payton went to check on Ash. It was sort of hard to believe and trust Mikey, mostly because it could just be a dream for him. But Payton had insisted that we listen him, that Joey must have taken Leo into the Dreaming for whatever reason. Hell if I knew what that meant, but if it was the only answer we had, I figured I shouldn't question it. I didn't have anything better to do to help Raph. Splinter was petting the bird's head, asking for his assistance after the battle was over. I was pretty sure Shiki couldn't understand him in that birdy body, but he did keep cocking his head all over the place as Splinter spoke.

Me...I knew what I was going to do. If Leo said she had to die, for Raph to live, then she'd die. Too bad he left out the details...

::Author's Note::

One more chapter to go!