Alrighty, kindly read this next warning: THIS CHAPTER IS NOT FOR THOSE WHO SERIOUSLY HATE CLIFFHANGERS. SO IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THEM, I'D SUGGEST WAITING ANOTHER WEEK OR SO BEFORE READING THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS OR YOU WILL GO INSANE.

Thank you, now enjoy.

Chapter 35

Chaos

"What is –"

The honored guest that had arrived this morning with her son was shushed by almost a dozen indignant voices. Chuckling, the storyteller beckoned the woman and her son into the room and offered them a seat before continuing the story.

Casey Jones could not believe what he was hearing. The Shredder was going to kill the girls too?

What the hell had happened to saving them from the spell they were under? Was… was it possible that they were doing this of their own free will?

No! No, of course not!

And was it his imagination or had a large group of their warriors turned against each other? He could see men fighting each other. Maybe the gypsies were fighting to get to the girl Julietta before someone tried to kill her?

He turned back to his problem at hand – the stupid sand was still clinging to his mace. And it wasn't pulling either, it was just hanging on it – it weighed way more than it should – like a spoiled child. No matter how he tried to get it off, it refused to be thrown.

In an act of desperation, he dropped his weapon and made for the ring of people surrounding the Shredder. He was nearly knocked off his feet when the sand glomped onto him and refused to let go.

"OH COME ON!!!"

******************************

Gwen stood on the front steps of the castle, clutching Donny's bag in frozen arms. Had that Shredder just said what she thought he had just said?

"Gwen!!" Donny rushed over to her, face a sickly green instead of his normal olive green hue. "They've got Master Splinter! Give me the bag! I've gotta hurry!"

He tugged at the bag in her arms but she didn't let go of it. "You mean we've got to hurry."

"No." She had never seen Donny so serious. "Gwen, these things explode. I don't want you anywhere near them when they go off."

"What about you!"

He smiled weakly and rapped on his shell with his knuckles, "Built in armor, remember?"

"No, don't even think about it. If you're going, so am I.

"Please, Donny. I know you have to go, but let me come with you."

He drew the bag out of her arms and gently pushed her back. "Alright, but wait a few minutes. Let me get a couple of yards away before you follow."

She nodded and took her bow firmly in one hand. "Okay."

With a reassuring smile he turned to head over to the mass of people, before turning around and facing her quietly. His hand rose and caressed her cheek lightly, pressing his palm lightly to her skin. He looked at her seriously. "I still want an answer, you know… when I get back…"

Her smile felt as brittle as spring frost, but she held it bravely. "No… I already know my answer. Yes. I will marry you once all this is over."

"Really?"

She blinked at his incredulity. "Isn't that what you do when you love someone?"

His hand trembled a bit as he leaned forward a bit. "Are you sure?"

She leaned forward. "You're wasting time!"

There was a moment in which he looked rather disappointed, but after she leaned in and pressed her lips to his he looked a great deal happier. "Be safe."

He nodded once. Then turned and darted off into the darkness far faster than she could run.

Gwen hissed in shock; he knew she couldn't run that fast! She didn't bother waiting, choosing instead to leap down the steps and enter the pool of darkness that separated them from the main battleground and run haphazardly after the vague shadow she could only hope was Donny.

She panted as she ran. Oh that Donatello was seriously going to get it when she got her hands on him. Did he really think that she was going to let him get away with this just because she had said she would marry him?

BANG

An explosion tore through the darkness and the jeers of those surrounding the Shredder and Master Splinter. The people closer to the castle bolted as fire and earth flew in every direction.

In the ensuing chaos, Gwen realized that the invading army seemed to turn against itself, now fighting amongst themselves. And the strange thing was that some didn't seem to really have any sort of weapons. But… where was Donny?

Her heart began thumping very painfully against her ribcage. Where was he? He wasn't exactly hard to spot in a crowd… He wasn't there… Her breath came harder to her as she turned her eyes to the ground, searching for a terrapin body being trampled under the running feet of the enemy. No, she saw with relief, no body.

Well, not a human body.

BANG

Another explosion seared into the crowd on the other side and she smiled painfully. At least Donny was still alive and wreaking havoc, not that she wasn't going to kill him for leaving her behind the next time she saw him.

"Be safe," she muttered as her new mantra.

**************************************

Casey Jones was shocked by what was now hanging tenaciously onto him, weighing him down. Or rather who.

The sand had changed into a young woman just a few seconds before the first explosion. She was slender, with thick, dark red hair and large green eyes. Her face would have been very cute even without the dark scowl she was giving him as she hindered him. As it was, with the scowl she was absolutely freakin' adorable.

"Get out of here, you overgrown Neanderthal!" she snarled.

His already strange life had just gotten a lot stranger.

****************************************

Julietta stared at Raul in complete shock. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He sneered at her. "Here to get my wife." He grabbed her arm roughly. "Come along."

"Didn't we already discuss this?" she growled, slamming her free arm onto his elbow, forcing him to let her go and kicking him in the stomach. "I believe I told you to piss off.

"Now. Why don't you go play with your master?"

Raul had once been a very handsome gypsy, but now his nose was splattered against his cheek and one of his eyes was permanently half-closed (she hoped very much it had been her handiwork). Not the least bit attractive – especially not with that look he was giving her. "Gypsies have no masters."

"Coulda fooled me." With that, she gave him another lightning fast blow to the stomach and kicked him between the legs.

He screamed something highly inappropriate and fell to the ground, writhing.

Her enemy momentarily dealt with, Julietta darted into the stables and threw open the stable doors, letting the horses out. They streamed out, the thunder of their hooves muffling the sudden shout that raised a terrible cheer. It wasn't until she had left the stables did she find out what was going on.

"C'mon!" Raph shouted at her, grabbing her slender arms and shaking her desperately. "They've got Master Splinter! He's in trouble!"

Julietta unceremoniously kicked him in the knee. "Then what are we doing standing around here?!"

And the two of them sprinted across the meadow towards the crowd that surrounded what they could only assume was the fight between Master Splinter and the Shredder. Just as they were going to reach it when a huge explosion rocked the ground and lit up the surroundings. Julietta found herself lifted off her feet by the force of the blast and was saved only by Raph snatching her from the air and running with her the final few steps. Due to the wild stampeding of the adversary to get away from the destruction created by the blast, the two almost immediately had opponents to bring down.

She was just finishing off a ninja who looked better suited to being a lumberjack when the thunderbolt descended upon her. Flying through the air like a rag doll, the young gypsy came down with a crash on several people, all of whom were strangely willing to catch her and set her on her feet politely.

Still, it took her a moment to focus enough to identify the bastard who had struck her. It was the blond monstrosity of a man. She snatched up her blades and got ready to defend as he made to come at her again – before she was shoved backwards by the unmistakable form of Raphael.

"Hun," he snarled from between gritted teeth. "I thought I'd killed you already."

"You missed," the behemoth snarled, motioning to the huge chunk missing from his neck. "But you were young. There's plenty of time for me to teach you… a thing or two."

"I've gotta take care of this piece o'garbage," Raph hissed at her. "I'll meet up with you as soon as I can."

She reached out and squeezed his arm. "I'll kill you if you die."

He shot her a quick grin over his shoulder. "Ah, Julie, you gush."

And she ran off into the crowd, her blades flashing out, though she found herself looking over her shoulder to make sure Raph was still okay.

********************************

Angela had known Leo for almost two years. She had seen him happy, depressed, sick, excited, content, annoyed, and angry. But she had never seen him like this. His intense brown eyes were glowing. Really and truly glowing with fury.

Her friend was, as Julietta and Raph would say, really damned pissed off.

He hadn't allowed the woman Karai to retreat, instead viciously pushing her back harder and harder, his swords somehow managing to find all the little nonexistent gaps in her defense – unfortunately she was very well trained herself and wasn't letting his blades do anything more than giving her slender scratches everywhere on her body. Karai was bleeding freely but at this rate Leo was going to tire out before she did. He wasn't really paying attention to this enemy anyway, he was watching the Shredder approach his exhausted father.

She knew what she had to do.

*******************************

Leo was seeing red. There was just no other explanation for the sheer rage that was roaring through him and no matter what he did to calm himself, it wasn't helping. He knew being angry fighting this woman was going to get him killed but he just couldn't control himself.

Damn it. This was exactly why you didn't fight angry – the only people he had ever seen fight angry and get out alive and more or less unharmed were Julietta and Raph! His latest slash had slung a fraction of an inch too wide, but he knew that it would be an open invitation to a swordsman like the one he was facing.

Why the hell had he been so stupid? He demanded of himself even as the blade shot straight for his neck. He moved to parry, but he knew it would do no good.

Clang

What the?

For a second, Leo couldn't quite process what he was seeing. Then he recognized the saber that had snaked between him and Karai and thrown off a blow that should have killed him. And then he stumbled back in utter shock as Angela stepped between them and faced the other woman calmly. Thankfully, Karai seemed too shocked to do much other than stare.

"I believe your father requires your assistance, Prince Leonardo," the young noblewoman said in her coolest and calmest voice, the one she used only when she was about to freak out. Angela then turned her attention to the gaping Karai. "I think this is something that we can work out ourselves, don't you agree Lady Karai?"

At the sound of her name, the ninja warrior snarled and made to go around the blonde. "Get out of my way!"

Angela easily blocked her. "No."

Leo found himself staring into her silvery eyes. "Get a hold of yourself, Leonardo. Do you really think getting angry is going to help you at all?"

This brought him out of his anger haze as neatly and quickly as a bucket of ice water in the face.

She gave him her gentle smile. "Good luck, my friend."

He was about to say something to her, but Karai had gotten fed up of being ignored and made an impatient swipe at Angela's slender neck. His friend's attention completely usurped by this, he could only whisper a quick prayer to whatever god might be listening to keep her safe.

Then his eyes hardened. The Shredder wasn't going to get away with anything he had brought upon their home. He was going to pay with his life.

****************************

Zoey darted through the chaos of the battlefield, looking for Mikey. She was no longer interested in fighting the people rushing past her, eyes wide with panic. She needed to find Mikey.

What the hell had she been thinking? She was a coward!! A damn coward!!!

How the hell could she have let Mikey go off alone? He was a powerful fighter but… she had to be there with him. She had to make sure that he would be alright.

As she fought her way through the crowd, Zoey realized that the number of the fighters seemed to have doubled. But the newcomers did not seem to have any interest fighting her, in fact, they seemed more interested in fighting the invaders.

EEP! Her foot went into a hole and there was nasty pop. She gasped with pain and shock as she fell to make a face plant in the earth.

What?

A huge dark hand had closed around her arm and kept her from falling. She whipped around to see who had helped her and found herself face to face with a strange black man with clear grey eyes.

"Are you alright, Lady Zoey?" he asked, pulling her upright.

"Ummm… yes… Who are you?"

"I am a member of the Royal Guard," the man said. "They called me Silver. Where are the king and his sons?"

Zoey's head was seriously spinning. "What are you talking about?" She took a step back. "Leave me alone, I've gotta find Mikey!"

She forced herself to run as her ankle throbbed terribly.

What was going on?

*********************************

Gwen looked desperately around for the unmistakable figure of a giant turtle with a bag thrown over one shoulder and swinging his bo around like a farmer scything down his wheat. But there was nothing – the only sign that Donny was still alright were the continuing bangs around the ring of people around Master Splinter and the Shredder.

"Donny!" she screamed as she ran.

********************************

He couldn't believe this. This wasn't possible. No. No this wasn't happening. He was dreaming. This was a dream.

But Master Splinter in danger wasn't a dream. His brothers fighting for their lives wasn't a dream. Gwen screaming his name wasn't a dream.

And neither was the charging figure of the corrupted alchemist Baxter Stockman.

Donny didn't hesitate in hurling his entire bag filled with exploding balls – he seriously had to come up with a better name for these – into the man's face and diving to a safer distance. The blast nearly deafened him and threw him off his feet.

It was a long moment before he could pick himself up to face what was left of Stockman. It wasn't much. Half of his face was gone, revealing the white bone of his skull, one of his eyes was gone, one of his metal arms had been torn off and huge chunks were missing from his chest. His legs were practically useless, and dragged terribly on the ground. His one remaining arm however was whole and still very dangerous. Donny knew that that metal monstrosity could crush him like a bug if he let it catch him. And sadly, he had to get within grabbing distance to fight Stockman at all. His tools and inventions were gone in the explosion, and the only other way to deal with him would have been Gwen's bow and arrows. But he had tricked her into letting him get away.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. She would be out of danger and she wouldn't see what was about to –

No. He wasn't going to think about that until he absolutely had to.

But now that he couldn't see her – he was driving himself crazy wondering if she was alright. Why was she crying for him? Was she just worried for him or was she – gulp – in trouble? She hadn't trained as long as they had and it was quite possible that she had been caught by a more skilled opponent. But… she wouldn't have been able to keep yelling for help if she was in really bad trouble, right?

He had to think that or he wouldn't be able to focus enough to defeat this guy.

Taking a deep breath, he bolted forward to begin his fight with Dr. Stockman.

The one huge arm swung at him with eye-blurring speed but Donny was nothing if not clever. He darted to the side, out of the arm's reach, and leapt into the air, whirling his bo through the air to build up momentum and –

ARGH!!!

The metal arm caught him, but he still managed to land a blow into his enemy's chest. And lo and behold, a huge dent appeared in the chest plate. The hand tightened its grip, but Donny wasn't about to be deterred by a little pain. Gathering his remaining strength, he slammed the tip of his bo straight into the dent he had already created.

Nothing happened.

Stockman laughed hysterically. "Did you really think that was going to stop me, Donatello?"

"Did you forget that I made that?" Donny gasped. "I know its weak spot. Now it's just a matter of who falls first."

"What are you talking about?!"

***********************************

Julietta had positioned herself where she could easily see Raph fighting that huge caveman who called himself Hun. Not that the name didn't suit him.

But that wasn't important right now. What mattered now was the fact the world seemed to have gone to hell around her. The number of people seemed to have increased. The flames still twisted and lashed out over head and water froze under enemy feet, but the sand no longer pulled at the intruders' weapons and no wind buffeted them around. That couldn't be good. Where were Donny, Gwen, Mikey and Zoey?

She caught the flash of a nunchuk and took a moment to punch down a snarling villager to get a good look at the person in question. Mikey? Nope, just a bunch of those strange people who had suddenly shown up and started fighting the intruders.

There was no sign of the others anywhere.

And then there was the fact that just a few seconds ago she had seen Leo soar over about two dozen people's heads to distract the Shredder's attention from the prone figure of Master Splinter.

And of course there was the fact that the turtle she lo… um, liked… Hell, Raph was fighting a goddamned giant and she could do nothing to help. If she tried to step in she would just be in the way. Julietta knew that perfectly well, but she still wished there was something she could do. She settled for keeping the remaining invaders away from Raph's fight.

These thoughts came to an abrupt halt when a red-faced gypsy shoved himself in front of her. She resisted the urge to take off his head. "RAUL! Get it through your damn head! I am not going to marry you!"

The bloodshot eyes didn't so much as blink. "What makes you think I'd want to marry a demon?"

That took her by surprise. "What?"

"What other explanation is there for a woman who would prefer to stay with a demon like that than with a man like me?"

Hot fury burned through her veins. "Don't you dare call Raph a demon. He's more of a man than you ever were."

Raul screamed like a wild animal and jerked his long sword from its scabbard. "You'll pay for that!"

*******************************

He staggered through the masses, searching for the strange scent that he encountered earlier. He had been curious about it but the monster had forced him to attack the strange creature. It was a shame. He had wanted to speak to it. Not that it would have understood him in his present condition.

The creature had been with another creature with fine auburn hair and eyes like green gemstones. What were those called? He could not remember. There was much that he could not remember these days.

He knew he had once been human. But that had been long ago.

So long ago…

There! This was where the scent was coming from!

But… the creature he now faced was different. And the scent was slightly different. But it was the creature.

The eyes were the same.

Fury boiled up within him, unbidden. The monster had given him the order to kill these creatures and he must obey. So he roared and swung a taloned forearm at the creature. It dodged away with greater speed than he had seen it display before.

"Whoa!" the creature cried, holding up its hands. "It's okay, big guy! I don't want to fight you!"

I don't want to fight you either, he wanted to say, but all he was able to do was growl darkly and make another swipe at the creature's chest.l

"I know you don't want to do this! C'mon, dude! It's your body! Take control of it!"

Didn't this creature know he wanted to? Did it think he enjoyed being the slave to the monster they called the Shredder?

He roared again and made to lunge at the creature. He did not want this. He did not want to kill this creature. He did not want to kill the creature's pretty companion. But the monster had demanded it and he must obey.

But… it was his body, wasn't it? Perhaps not as it had once been, but it was still his body… His claws came to a halt and he stared at the slender creature.

A gravelly voice he didn't recognize spewed forth from his mouth. "Wh-who aaaaare y-you?"

The creature gave him a great smile that was reflected in his bright blue eyes. "The name's Mikey! What's your name?"

It took a long moment for him to sort out his tongue and his thoughts enough to croak out an answer. "MMMMMMMMmmy na-aaaaaaaame issssss L-leatherhead."

"Nice to meetcha!"

************************************

"Donny!" Gwen screamed as she watched the flames of the newest – and biggest – explosion disappear behind the cloud of dust.

"Look out, Gwen!"

She swung round to see a powerful hand close on the front of her gown and lift her clear off her feet.

A man with long black hair and dark blue eyes gazed at her wildly, in his other fist he held a struggling woman with dark red hair and green eyes who was practically tearing at his arm in her attempts to escape. "What the flippin' hell is goin' on here!"

It took her only a second to recognize him. It was the one who had come into the grounds over a month ago – the one who had nearly killed Donny and Raph! "YOU!"

Ah, the chaos of battle. Hope you enjoyed!

REVIEW and I'll give you another chapter by tomorrow night.