I don't own TMNT or UY.

Xxxxx

Damn was this place dark! I mean I know electricity wasn't invented yet or whatever, but couldn't they light a few more candles or invent a better lantern or something? This was crazy. I could barely make out the dark outlines of Leo and the rabbit in front of me as we made our way as quickly and quietly through the hallway as we could. For some weird reason we hadn't run into any-one yet but I decided not to mention this in case it invited bad luck or something.

"I expected to see more activity once we got inside." Usagi said. I swore to myself silently.

"Guess we just got lucky." Leo said.

"Or Unlucky." Usagi went on, looking around us as we marched further down the passage. "We still have to find some-one who we can ask some questions."

"Hey, I'm sure we'll find some-body if we keep lookin'" I said. "But if we can avoid the guards then I don't mind lookin' around a little longer for a maid or whatever it is we're lookin' for."

"I dunno about that." Leo said. He'd sped up to a slight trot, forcing me and Usagi to speed up as well. "We wanna get in and out as fast as we can."

"So you wanna beat the heads in of some guards instead?" I said irritably.

"I'd rather we just find some-one, ask some questions, and get out before any guards even know we're here" Leo said.

"And what if she screams or somethin'" I said, gritting my teeth slightly.

"Then we deal with it as it comes" Leo said, obviously trying to end the argument before it got started.

"Right." I grumbled. Now was not the time to get into it with him. I gotta tell ya though, my tolerance for Leo's insane ideas was very quickly running out.

Somewhere deep inside me I was starting to wonder whether I shouldn't start taking matters into my own hands. I know everything Leo's been doing lately, what with going to see this witch woman and trying to get some answers in this castle was him trying to do what he could to help us get home, but somehow I was starting to wonder if that was really the case. That's a horrible thing to say about the guy who's suppose to be our leader let alone my older brother but you gotta see it from my point of view. Usagi says he wants to trek across the country in the middle of a miniature ice age and Leo follows him. Usagi says we should go see a witch in the middle of the woods and Leo agrees. Usagi says we should break into a highly guarded palace and Leo can't say 'Yes' fast enough. Do you really blame me for starting to feel annoyed by this? I dunno what kind of luck's been following us so far but I almost couldn't believe nothing's gone wrong yet. It couldn't go on. If you add up the numbers something's gonna go wrong eventually if we keep pushing it like this.

Somewhere inside me, I felt a voice telling me I had to step in if things kept going this way. If Leo's being reckless and putting the rest of us in danger, I'm gonna have to ask Mikey and Don to listen to me for a while instead. I dunno if they would. They might turn their backs on me, opting to follow my oh-so talented big brother instead. It wouldn't be that surprising really. Donny and Mikey would follow me anywhere if I asked them to no problem. But if it came to picking between me and Leo? Leo always seemed to win. I dunno whether to say that's unfair or not. I felt it was but... I couldn't really blame them. Leo's always been better than me.

But not this time. Not if this is how he's acting. Not if these are the choices he's making. Something's gotta give.

"Hold up!" Leo hissed suddenly, shooting out an arm to halt me and Usagi. He backed up with a quick step, pressing himself more against the wall, his outstretched arm signalling for us to do the same.

I pressed my shell against the dark wood of the wall, listening to try and hear what'd caused him to duck for cover.

I could hear Usagi breathing next to me as I faced away from him, turning to look at the corner of the hallway as it turned sharply to the left in front of us. The light from the lamp against the far wall made a golden-yellow pool of light. It shone against the edges of Leo's face as I stared at the back of his head. Around the corner I could hear footsteps coming towards us. The were loud and keeping a steady pace. Whoever was coming this way wasn't trying to sneak around, nor were they charging towards us. They didn't know we were here yet.

I turned my head, facing Usagi instead as I looked past him to the hallway behind us. It was a long, straight tunnel with no turns, no doorways and no dark corners. There was nowhere to hide or disappear. Just a long corridor. We could run down it, but all it would be is a long, straight run, probably right into more people and then we'd be trapped.

I turned back to the corner in front of us. The footsteps were louder now. I felt more than saw Leo's hand rise very very slowly, taking careful hold of one of his swords before pulling it out of its sheath. The long metallic sound it made as the blade came free was silent but it felt like it was cutting through the air almost physically. The person around the corner came closer as I put both my hands around the handles of my sai.

A silhouette appeared in front of us against the wall we were facing as the person came within range of the nearest lantern. I could see the clear outline of a man, a proud topknot on his head, silken robes hanging from his shoulders and the sideways, straight shadow of his sword-hilt.

The shadow turned but, for some reason, did so before the guy had come around the corner. There was the sound of wood against wood and suddenly the wall in front of us was flooded by even more light as the door he'd opened caused a lamp to shine out into the hall.

"Tsunematsu-san wants to see you." The man's voice said to some-one out of sight.

"M-Me? What for?" A voice replied. It sounded completely opposite to the man's bark of an order.

"You can ask him yourself." The man's voice said as the shadow against the wall shifted and we tensed ourselves again.

There was the soft patter of light footsteps and a smaller shadow appeared beside the man's, clutching at a long robe so it could walk faster. It turned and trotted briskly in the opposite direction than us. The man's shadow watched it go before turning and following after it meaningfully.

All three of us breathed out loudly and sank against our wall.

"And that." I said, pushing away from it after a few moments. "Is what we call 'Kick startin' a heart attack'."

"Indeed." Usagi nodded. He patted his chest with a hand lightly as he moved away from the wall too, indicating his heart pounding. "I though our cover was blown before we even began."

"What d'you think that was about?" Leo asked in a hushed voice, peering around the corner to see into the hallway beyond it.

"Dunno. Don't care." I said, moving to stand beside him. He hadn't put his sword away yet. I wasn't gonna tell him to. "If some girl and some guy have a little fling while the Lord's back is turned it ain't really our business."

Leo pulled a face at me for a moment before turning to look back at the hallway, taking a few cautious steps into it. "D'you really think it's something innocent like that?"

"Is that kind of behaviour what you would refer to as 'innocent'?" Usagi asked with a frown, moving to follow him.

Leo shook his head hurriedly. "No no. I just mean... you don't think Mikey and Don ran into some trouble do you?"

"Yeah I do." I said, moving to push past him. He spun to give me a stare. "I think they got their paws on Mikey and Don and ta deal with the threat of two armed ninja in a Lord's palace they decided ta get their scariest maid ta give them a firm lecture about it."

"That's not funny Raph." Leo's voice said rather loudly as I walked past him to take the lead.

"Yeah well try and use yer head before ya make stupid comment like that." I said, not bothering to look at him.

I turned to look inside the room the maid had just come out of instead. The door had been made to look like part of the wall, but behind it was a sizeable room. There was a chest against one side of it with a rather expensive looking vase on top of it. Next to it lay a strange looking wooden thing with strings running across the top of it. Kinda looking like a cross between a guitar and a table.

"You really wanna make every part of this trip as stressful and unpleasant as you can don't you Raph?" Leo said, walking closer so he could stand beside me to give me his little leader-speech properly.

"Nope." I said, turning away from the empty room so I could meet his gaze, my eyes narrowing. "I'm merely tryin' ta counter the massive amount of crazy pills you've been takin' lately."

"What's that suppose to even mean?" Leo hissed, getting angry.

"You know exactly what it means." I said, clenching my teeth slightly, turning to face him full-on. "Ya wanna worry about Don and Mikey bein' ok then fine. Go ahead. I encourage it. But what kinda insanity have ya grown that ya put 'em in danger yerself and then worry about 'em because of it? Decide what ya wanna do Leo! Worry about 'em bein' safe or put 'em in danger, cuz doin' things the way ya have is really sendin' me mixed signals as ta what the hell you're thinkin'!"

"Are you saying." Leo hissed with a dangerous tone of voice. "That I want to put my family in danger?"

"Actions speak louder than words bro." I said, my fingers digging into the palm of my hand as I clenched my fist.

"Would both of you be so kind as to please Shut. Up." Usagi's voice snapped.

We both turned our heads to him sharply. He was walking towards us briskly, a deep frown on his face as he looked back and forth between us.

"If I have to listen to one more juvenile quarrel between the two of you while we are in this building I am leaving the both of you for the guards who will undoubtedly hear you if you keep this up. Now please keep your bickering in check until we are out of here or I am going to lose my temper."

He gave us each a sharp look as he physically pushed us aside to lead the way down the corridor. Leo and I stood speechless in the lamp-light, staring after him. I slowly turned to Leo. He blinked at me, looking just as dumb-struck as I was. I pulled a face and gave a small shrug. Leo frowned lightly, turning and trotting after our friend, me following close behind him.

"You ok Usagi?" Leo asked, keeping his voice low, probably to stop the guy from snapping at us again.

"I am tired." Usagi said bluntly. "I am tired of listening to both of you argue simply for the sake of arguing. If we could please just do what we came to do without sabotaging ourselves and get back to the inn I would be very happy."

Leo said nothing, turning his head to give me another look but I had nothing to offer him. I gave another small shrug at him. He stared at me for a moment before turning back to Usagi.

"Ok. Do you have any ideas of what we should do?"

"If that room we just passed is any indication to go by, then there must be more like it along this hallway. And if there is one maid who is straightening rooms up I am hoping there will be more. I am trying to find another door." Usagi said, his shoulders untensing ever so slightly as he turned to look at the wall on his left.

"Good plan." I said, speeding up to walk beside him. "But what about the guy with the sword? Ya think there's more of 'em around too?"

"Undoubtedly." Usagi said. He seemed to have calmed down, enough not to bite me or Leo's head off at least. "We will just have to try and avoid them."

"And how do we do that?" I asked with a frown.

"We try and stay away from them." Usagi said simply. "Or, if worse comes to worst, we silence them before they can raise the alarm. But if it comes to that we must make our escape quickly. A killed guard will buy us time to get out, but once it is found every man on the premises will be looking for us."

"Not to mention Mikey and Don." Leo said, more to himself than to either me or the rabbit.

I turned to look over the expression on his face. He had that slight frown. That classic Leo frown which meant one or more of our little team were out of his reach and possibly in trouble. He was doing the worry thing he'd gotten so good at through years of practice.

I gave a soft huff of a breath. "I'm sure they're fine Leo." I grumbled, feeling a little self-conscious. "They're smart enough ta high-tail it if they hear trouble. Donny's smart and Mikey's fast. They'll be ok."

Leo said nothing for a moment before he gave a small nod. I wasn't so stupid as to expect it made him feel better but I took it as him accepting my apology for earlier. Sometimes, when he wants to, Leo could translate what I wanted to say from what I actually said pretty good. Not always, but every now and then he got it right.

"Let us hope they will not need to make a quick escape."Usagi said, turning to look over his shoulder at me.

"Then let's keep our voices down and do this thing." Leo said, speeding up his walk slightly as he lowered his shoulders, giving the walls on either side of him quick glances as he went. I nodded, keeping myself alert as I followed him.

Usagi kept close, a light frown as he tried to pick out the doors from the walls on either side of us. I gave him a quick glance for a moment, giving him a once over as I matched his and Leo's step. Usagi wasn't a snappy guy. He had his moments but he could swallow it back pretty good. Were Leo and me really arguing that much more than usual? I dunno. I decided to try and keep a better check on my temper, or as much as I could any way. I didn't feel like pissing Usagi off as well as my brother.

It was a good thing I was thinking about the guy, otherwise I would've crashed into him when he came to a sudden stop right in front of me. I swayed on my toes slightly before stumbling into a side-step to stop myself from bumping into both him and Leo.

"Don't do that!" I snapped, rather loudly.

"Did you hear that?" Usagi said, rooted to the spot as if he was almost too scared to move.

"Hear what?" Leo said, looking concerned.

"I heard a scream." Usagi said. I noticed the lack of a 'I thought I heard' at the beginning of that statement.

The three of us held out breaths as we each listened intently to the silence around us. A deep frown cut across my face.

"I don't hear a scream." I said, reaching out and taking the nearest person to me's arm, tugging on it to follow me back the way we'd come. "But I do hear footsteps and they ain't waitin' around!"

"Duck back into that room!" Leo ordered sharply, turning around and running down the hallway.

I didn't need telling twice. The phantom footsteps chased us as we ran back to the spot where the light from the empty room still poured from its open door into the hallway.

"Who screamed?" Leo asked as we ran.

"I could not tell!" Usagi's reply came.

I clenched my jaw, turning into the doorway and quickly sliding the wall shut behind my brother and Usagi as we took cover. I backed away from it once I'd done so, staring at it as I raised my hands carefully to hover over the grips of my sai, waiting for armed guards to burst into the room. My fingers twitched slightly with the tension.

The seconds ticked by and the door remained defiantly shut. I had to force myself out of my ready stance as I stood straight again, breathing fast.

The three of us stood like stone in the middle of the room as we strained our ears. Trying to hear anything.

The footsteps sounded further away now, running somewhere deep within the halls of the palace away from us but other than that I couldn't hear anything.

'Who screamed?' I asked myself frantically as if I'd have an answer.

Xxxxx

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