Hey Guys...It was kind of difficult to write this chapter, it's very flashback heavy so lot's of italics also, let it be known I'm not in anyway religious but over the past couple of months I've come to respect religion for what it has done for Humanity and one of the many themes of this story is that sometimes faith as the 'opium of the masses' is in fact sometimes needed even if it not objectivly true Basacaly the same conclusion Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep came to so it's not like I'm treading any new ground here
Cyrus at that point stopped talking and curled up so tightly indicating he didn't wish to speak anymore.
"I can give you the full story." Ellen said sleepily, her eyes were closed but she was clearly awake and lucid.
"What happened Ellen?" Ichabod asked as he put adjusted the pillow beneath her head
"The four of us had all been staying in the fallout shelter of a Human named Mr. Plinket...After three days we were going stir crazy eating canned beans and SPAM and having to deal with Mr. Plinket's bimbo fiancee...Then Renet came to us...She appeared in the shelter one day...She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she could barely talk, but she handed us the ransom note...
Flashback
Ellen passed the note to Sahara who passed it to Crickwing who passed it to Cyrus, each Humanimal's face turned to an expression of overwhelming dread
"Well."Ellen said "There is clearly only one way to go...We must go with Renet."
"You Cockamany Feline!" Cyrus hissed the serpent aspect of his voice had become stronger because of the sheer terror "We can't sacrifice ourselves for this Vally Girl Wench! Think of our beloved Queen suppose she needs us but we can't help because we're dead, worse then dead, sacrificed to the Evil One and our souls lay in his dark belly!"
"We have no choice!" Ellen snapped, her ears flatted, and her tail puffed up and swishing back and forth "If they sacrifice the Time Lords and if this act destroys the entire Multiverse then it will make no difference to the Queen for she will be in the Evil One's belly with the rest of us!"
Cyrus had no rebuttel for that so he had to concede but while all four of the Humanimals were filled with deep dread Cyrus felt the most terror, like a child with the knowaldge he is about to die.
They followed Renet to the Time Boundry, the Boundry the Hatemongers had set up to prevent anyone from interfering with the war they were waging with the people of that time.
"You bring the Humanimals." Said the one Hatemonger who was there to collect, The Hatemonger was like a Giant Pitch Black Pincushion at least that's what you could get the gist of from how much you could look, you could only glance one glance before your eyes would start hurt and you would be forced to either close your eyes or avert your gaze.
The Hatemonger waved his hand and in an instant Ellen, Cyrus, Sahara, and Crickwing were all wearing metalic muzzles keeping them silent
"You will be tortured before the Sacrifice..." Said the Hatemonger "...Let's see you sing a pretty song after that."
The Hatemonger materlized leashed attached to the muzzles and started to lead the four Humanimals into the Time Wall
"Wait!" Renet exclaimed "What about...The Time Lords?"
The Hatemonger turned, and Renet felt a sharp pain "Hatemongers NEVER keep their promises, Humanimals know that."
Ellen turned to Renet, she couldn't speak, but she was able to wink and gave her the V for Victory sign.
End Flashback
"Geez." Raph said "Shredder, Bishop, Drako...The Demon Shredder...None of them can hold a candle to these guys!"
"Indeed." Don said gulping nervously "We've never encountered anyone so utterly evil and so effortlessly powerful...And you say they are powered by feelings of hatred?"
"Yes." Ellen said "The reason they were so large and able to create so effortlessly was because these Hatemongers must have been feeding on a lot of hatred!"
Everyone shuddered
"But..." Ellen said her voice was steadily growing stronger "There was a reason they muzzled us...Hatemongers have a secret weakness...Something that if everyone in the entre multiverse knew about it we could destroy everyone of them in all creation! We Humanimals are born with this knowaldge but unfortunatly we Humanimals live in only one universe."
"What is it?!" Mikey asked standing on his toes
"Music." Said Ellen simply
Everyone who was not a Humanimal almost did one of those Anime face falls
"Seriously?!" Raph said "Music kills them?"
"What were you expecting?" Ellen asked "A mystical golden sword that burns with sacred flames? Hatemongers are beings of pure evil who are fed by feelings and actions of hatred you attack with fists or feet or blades or phasers, you won't deal any damage you will make them stronger...But music, be it singing or by musical instrument, be it a song that is happy or sad or heck, even a song about hatred and anger it will pop their heads open like so many zits! That is why they muzzled us! They knew we knew they're weakness, they hoped they could make us too weak to sing if they tortured us before the sacrific but not too weak to scream."
"How...How did they torture you?" Leo asked remembering his own not-to-long-ago torture
"They need no other weapon but their own bodies." Ellen said "Any touch from a Hatemonger feels like the worst pain imaginable we got bruised and bloodied but we all held fast, then when it was time for the Sacrifice, they removed our muzzles, they were going to sacrifice us and the four Time Lords together.
Flashback
"Today we sacrifice four Time Lords and four Humanimals." Said the Hatemonger leading the ceremony
The normal people of this world cowered in fear, they had been fighting the Hatemongers for what seemed like forever, they had no way of measuring the exact amount of time for they had been using time as a weapon, and at this point of time of this world...The Universe was in shambles, there was no rhyme or reason any more Planets floated abound with enormouse pieces taken out of them living creatures floated in the vaccuum of space with no ill effects if Discord could see he would concede the madness he inflicted on Equestria had more rhyme and reason then this place now a trash heap of time space for Discord was an artist of chaos Hatemongers were out for destruction pure and simple
In a burst of black flames, rose a vertical alter, like a gigantic pitch black rose stem with no blossom at the end the four Humanimals and the four Time Lords were tied and bound, the black thorns causing them much pain.
"Soon this entire universe will caese to exist!" Said the Hatemonger "Sacrified to our..."
Just then four voices started singing
"I eat my rage.
I swallow my grief.
There's no relief
From pain or age."
The Hatemongers all clutched their heads, they screamed and flailed but they were powerless tostop the singing once it had begun
Ellen, Crickwing, Sahara and Cyrus kept on singing They're voices were hoarse but that only led to the power of their song for this was the ancient song the Humanimals sang as they slaved away long before the Revolution
"Our time comes.
I work my life.
I breathe my breath.
I face my death
Without a wife.
Our time comes!"
Already the Hatemongers heads were starting to swell up and bubbles, the Hatemongers were straining to keep their heads together and the Four Humanimals sang even louder
"We Humanimals
Shove, crush and crash.
There'll be a clash
And thunder when
Our time comes."
And that was it...A hundred Hatemonger heads exploded spraying black goo everywhere the remaining Hatemongers were already fleeing beyond earshot, the vertical alter vanished and the Humanimals and Time Lords fell and were caught by the remaining Humans, Extra-Terrestrials like Triceratons and Mutant Animals.
"Sing to them!" Ellen coughed "Hatemongers can only be killed by music! If you sing to them their heads will explode!"
All the peoples of this Universe looked at each other on every face was an expression of 'Oh if only I knew this sooner!' And the warriors chased after the fleeing Hatemongers seeing all the songs they knew.
End Flashback
"The people of this world left us alone on a barren hunk of rock..." Ellen said "...And that's when..."
"That's when what?" Mikey was dancing in place this was by far the most epic story he had ever heard in his life
"That's when HE appeared." Ellen clasped her hands together as if in prayer
"Who?" Mikey asked
"The Shining One!" Ellen said "The Greatest Human who ever lived...Saint Francis of Assisi!"
She took a deep breath and seemed to go in a trance like state, "He appeared! The Saint Appeared to all four of us! He was...Shining like the sun! The four of us we all clasped each other...He looked at us...He was smiling and weeping at the same time and he said "Well Done Sister Cat, Well Done Brother Cockroach, Well Done Brother and Sister Snakes, You Four have saved this World from a fate worse then death itself! I will return you to your Queen, she must know of this!"
"Then he opened a portal and here we are." Ellen finsished her story breathlessly
"Couldn't he have brought you here without dropping you onto a nettle bush?" April asked
"It is what it is." Said Ellen said
Ellen looked around the room and saw Donatello was wearing an expression of skeptism
"You don't believe me?" She asked she didn't seem angry in fact she seemed to be completely neutral
"I believe most of it...But the part with the Saint Francis." Don said hestiantly
"Why don't you believe that part?" Asked Ellen
"Well..." Don felt like the worst guy ever for even saying this but she put him on the spot "...It's a well known fact that trauma like what you went through can cause hallucenations after an ordeal like yours People often see what they want to see."
"Donny!" Leo snapped "How dare you?!"
Leo stomped straight over to his brother, this wasn't his normal bouts of calling out things Leo seemed downright incensed by Don's skeptisism
"How in the shell can you be skeptical of their story when in our own battle with the Demon Shredder it was the Ghost of Hamato Yoshi that destroyed the Tengu Shredder for us?" Leo's voice was low and dangerous "If the Ghost of Hamato Yoshi could save our shells then how could the Ghost of the Long Dead Saint not do the same?"
Don quickly realized just how arbtrary his skepticism had been
"I concede your point Leo." Don said "I'm in no postion to judge."
"Ellen." Leo turned to the Cat Woman "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"You can help us set up these hammer stretcher beds." Kong said "It's not much but it will be a better sleeping place then this itchy rug!"
The song that the Four Humanimals sang was 'The Undepeople's Song' from the short story Under Old Earth by Cordwainer Smith the only change I made was the changing Undermen to Humanimals