"No..." I whimpered, the tears springing to my eyes again.
Cris wasn't so quiet about it. "No! I won't let you!"
The fire god glared her down. Well, he tried to anyway. Cris just glared right back at him. "You have no say in the matter mortal." Kagu-tsuchi reminded her, a bit smugly if you ask me. "The agreement was made between the gods and the champions. Your input is of no concern to me."
"Why you pompous, arrogant, smug faced, cocky son of a bitch!" Nope, Cris wasn't mad at all. "I'm going to beat that damn smile off of your face!"
"Attempt to do so and it will be the last thing you do woman."
"Now wait just a god damn minute!" Raph roared as he struggled to his feet. Oh the irony in that statement. Can he damn himself? "You hurt one hair on her head and I'll-"
"You will do nothing but sit and rest!" The red dragon near him snapped as he pushed Raph back to the ground again with his tail. "I do not wish to see you revived twice in the span of less than an hour!" Then that red head turned to glare at Cris' target of anger. "And you will not harm the female. The fault is not hers that you wish to abruptly rip them away from their mates. She has a right to feel anger towards you."
"Do not forget your place Futsu!" Kagu-tsuchi sneered at him.
"I do not petty godling." Came the growling answer. "I follow Amaterasu's bidding, not your selfish whims. Test me god of fire." His tail slammed into the ground in his own anger. "Test me and see how much respect I have for you."
Kagu-tsuchi seemed to be willing to do just that when his hands flared up with fire. The dragon just snorted in disdain and he too erupted into flames, his face now snarling at the god. Kagu-tsuchi flinched at that display. Apparently the dragons carried their own weight around like a club and weren't afraid to use it. That had me wondering just how powerful these spirits actually were.
"Oh crap..." Mikey muttered as he watched. "We are about to be caught in the middle of a firework display here..."
"Enough!" Amaterasu placed herself in between the god and the furious dragon. "Has there not been enough strife this day?"
Futsu snorted again, but let his flames go out. "The god began the disagreement."
Mizuchi rolled his yellow eyes. Even as dire as the situation was I smiled up at the blue dragon and he winked in return.
"The fact remains however, it is time to have the champions depart." Watasumi spoke up. "It had been so agreed."
"But you don't even give us time to give our family a proper farewell!" Leo snapped at him. "Is that to much to ask for? Are you that heartless that you just tell us it's time to go and don't care that we'll never get a chance to see them again without at least giving us some time with them?" The blue clad god stared a him a moment, then looked away in shame.
"You have had a lifetime with them." Kagu-tsuchi snapped. "That is long enough."
Leo's eyes flashed in anger, but there wasn't anything he really could do about it. Not with me clinging to him.
Amaterasu sighed as she looked around. "I fear I must bend to their will on the matter. This is part of the agreement they hold. I am truly sorry."
"At least give us a few moments!" Mikey begged, tears in his eyes as he still held wife and daughter to him.
Kagu-tsuchi rolled his eyes, but nodded. "Hurry. I do not wish to be on this mortal plane longer than I must. This place disgusts me."
He got all kinds of glares from the turtle family for that remark.
I suppose we should have been telling Leo how much we loved him and how much we would miss him and how we would always think about him. But we couldn't. All we could do was cry all over him as he tried to hold us all close to him at the same time. Even the boys had a hard time keeping a dry eye and finally just gave up. He took the time to whisper a few words to each of the children, and tried to reassure them with a smile here and there. It didn't work. Lavi and Amy were crying even harder by the time he finally got around to me.
"I love you Vicky." His words quietly spoke into my ear. "Don't ever forget that. I may not be there, but I'll always love you."
I just sobbed harder as his arm tightened around me, his lips kissing my hair for the last time before he moved away. I couldn't even tell him I love him too because I just couldn't quit crying long enough to put the words together.
'I know you do dear one.'
I reached out my arms to him, so desperately wanting him to come back. But he kept moving away to join his brothers who were all now waiting next to Amaterasu. My knees were about to buckle out from under me and Ty and Dennis had to hold me up. I clung to both of them as the tears streamed down my face.
"Are you ready?" Amaterasu asked the turtles, who with a final sad look at their families nodded their agreement.
"Are the gods ready to bind them to the spirit world?"
"We are." Kagu-tsuchi replied. Cris flipped him off.
"Are the spirits ready to take them?"
"No." Mizuchi firmly disagreed. "We refuse."
Everyone blinked. Wasn't expecting that answer.
"What!" Kagu-tsuchi roared.
"Are you deaf as well as slow?" Futsu asked him. "Mizuchi speaks true. We refuse."
Even Amaterasu looked at her spirits in disbelief that they would break the pact. "You can not refuse. You are binded to the agreement as well as the rest of us."
"Forgive us Mistress, but you err." The light purple dragon hovering near Donnie told her. I stared at her through tear stained eyes, surprised through my grief to hear a female voice coming from it. I thought they were all males. Huh...
"How so Tschuchi?"
"When the pact was made, you asked the champions and the gods for their agreement on the matter. They agreed to the pact. We were not asked, therefor we did not agree to it. We are not bound to this aspect. The only thing we are bound to is that our powers be linked to them as long as life breaths in them."
"Pure sophistry!" An enraged fire god snapped at her.
"And yet," The orange dragon spoke, also in a female voice "a very important aspect. For without our agreement we refuse to take them into our world. And if we do not take them, you can not bind them to us there. So even if you decide to place them there yourselves, we can bring them back."
"Not without being summoned!"
"Again the gods err." The same dragon replied. "We must be summoned to come to this plane in full body, but our essence is free to travel wherever we wish them to go."
Futsu grinned at the stupefied expression on the faces of the outwitted gods. "Morokuma is correct. Rest assured knowing that if you remove them from this plane, we will find a way to return them."
I listened with wide eyes, hope filling me at what I was hearing. Amaterasu was also looking a little stunned over what was happening in front of her, then she smiled a sly smile that she quickly hid when Kagu-tsuchi spun angrily towards her.
"This can not be allowed! Can you not control your own pets?"
The look she gave him clearly informed everyone that she was not happy with his choice of words and tone. "Watch where you direct your anger. The fault is just as much yours as it is mine in this oversight. This should have been brought up before the pact was made, now it is too late to change it. This oversight is what will now allow them to stay."
Kagu-tsuchi was so mad I bet you could pop popcorn on his head. "Heed my words champions! If you so much as stray a single inch out of line with those powers, I will find a way to confine you! Do not seek to rise above yourselves in the ladder of power!"
This time Futsu rolled his eyes. "Oh, begone from this place. I tire of hearing your prattle. Next time you imbeciles should perhaps think all aspects of the matter through, and not just assume we are slaves that do whatever you wish us to do." Then he flicked his tail dismissively at the fuming god before turning to the turtles who were looking back at him with opened mouthed shock. "Well, go on. Return to your families. These walking pillars of stupidity will not take you from them."
Leo was back in my arms before the dragon even finished that statement, holding me in a death grip before he made room for our daughters in that huddle. And yes, we were all crying again, but this time for a completely different reason.
The dragons watched with a smile, Kagu-tsuchi looked like he was about to hop up and down in place. Kinda reminded me of a pissed off Elmer Fudd actually...or maybe a mad Wile E. Coyote... A toss up there between the two...
"Are you still here?" Futsu flatley looked at him. Amaterasu had to cover the smile on her face with her hand. "Was I not clear enough for you? Let me make it clearer. Go. Away."
I could have sworn I saw smoke coming out of the god's ears before he finally poofed out. Two of the others followed him, but one remained just a bit longer.
Watasumi looked on with a less angry expression, but still a concerned one as he looked at Leo. "You risk much to remain with your family."
"I will risk everything because they are worth it to me."
"Even if they are the ones at risk?"
"Are you threatening them?" The look he gave the god told him that he better not be.
"Not at all. I just do not understand why you chose to stay with them and make them possible targets in the future."
"Quite simple really. I love them, and it's that love that gives me the strength to keep going. And if they do become targets," Leo's eyes grew very hard as he kept the god in his sights "I'll make damn sure that whoever is putting the crosshairs on them will regret doing so." Those eyes narrowed. "God or not. I don't care. They are worth fighting for, and I will fight for them."
"I see it as a weakness."
"Then you are a fool." Ok, I flinched at that one. What was it with Leo wanting to bully gods? Did he want to get turned into a frog or something? "A fool who doesn't understand, but maybe you should."
Watasumi's eyes had grown hard and cold at that. "And what makes you think I do not?"
"Because if you did, you wouldn't have agreed to this in the first place because you would have understood how wrong ripping apart a family actually is. I don't care about power. I never have. Everything I ever want in life is right here next to me. Nothing you can offer me is more powerful than that."
Silence was the answer to that statement as the god lost some of his hostility, and oddly enough a bit of regret flashed across his features. "You will learn differently with time."
"I seriously doubt it. Hold your loved ones close enough to you, and you really don't need anything else. Don't hold them close enough and you lose everything."
This time Watasumi looked troubled as he watched us, then looked over at the other families who were busy comforting each other. Then he sighed slightly before he followed his fellow gods and faded out of sight.
"Be wary of them." Mizuchi said once Watasumi left. "And be careful with the gift you have been given. I am not so sure they will willingly come to your aid again."
"Again?" Futsu snorted. "They did not come willingly this time!"
"Um...excuse me..." I was a little hesitant to cut into the conversation after seeing Futsu's quick temper. "But can someone please explain to me why they had to do that...glowy thing in the first place?"
"It comes with the restrictions placed on them." Morokuma answered. "There were limits placed on how much of their power they can actually use. They had been given just enough to handle the heralds, it was not the intent of the gods for the dragons to attempt to take down the outworlder. In doing so they passed the limits of their restrictions, which in return drained their life force to almost nothing. When that happens the only thing that can restore them is the part of them stored inside the gems. And only the bonded god can unlock it again to revive them."
"So, if the god refuses," Mizuchi told us "then the champion will die."
I swallowed real hard at that and held onto Leo just a bit tighter. "Don't do that no more."
"Yes ma'am." He smiled at me before he suddenly collapsed to his knees, only now was I noticing how much he was actually tembeling.
Mizuchi curled around him to hold him steady. "And they will be weak for sometime still. They will recover, but must rest. Even now if they push themselves too far they will need another intervention."
Amaterasu nodded her agreement. "You must keep in mind the limits at all times. Do not push past them that far again unless it is needed."
Leo nodded his understanding, he was too tired to do anything else.
"Alright!" Ratchet boomed, reminding us all that he was there. "You heard them! You are all under bedrest orders until I say otherwise!"
"Um...Ratchet?" I turned in surprise. Tony was walking up with a grin on his face. Apparently all the NEST troops had gathered while we were busy. "We kind of don't have any beds to put them on bed rest with..."
Ratchet glared at him a moment. "Fine...smartaft. They are on groundrest then." He spun and glared at the turtles. "Lay down! All of you!"
Mikey just fell over backwards, but not because Ratchet told him too. He was laughing his weak ass off. "Groundrest! What the hell is groundrest!"
"It means I will knock you into the ground if you don't settle down right now."
Mikey immediately shut back up again.
"But he's already on the ground." Amy muttered to Dennis.
"Just leave it alone. Ratchet might to knock him a few times to see how deep he can get Mikey to go."
"Good point."
