Alrighty all, anyone who is still reading this fic or has just recently read it, LOL, yes I am still writing and have been sitting on the final chapters for like...years, mostly because I got sidetracked and have finally gotten around to revisiting this fic and after some re-writing and tweaking, am finally posting them! Hooray.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy and thank you for all the support you guys have given me!

Chapter 18

Leonardo had never felt so terrified in his entire life -and considering he had believed he and his family were going to die at the Shredder's hands- this said something about the lung crushing, gut twisting, heart pounding fear that coursed through his veins and slid across his flesh like the frigid touch of Death.

He had watched in disbelieving horror, as Nightmare summoned up and angel and a devil; a circumstance that had shaken what he had accepted as fact and reality to his very core.

During the act, Nightmare had dragged enough magic through his brother to have him screaming in agony, while she had remained silent, giving lie to her assurance that she would be experiencing just as much pain as his brother...

…his fanged, blood sucking, demon brother….

If these occurrences were not enough to frighten him like none of Michelangelo's horror movies had ever been able to do, watching as Nightmare seduced an angel right before his eyes, caused him to realize that whatever Nightmare was, and whatever plan she had going on within her devious, duplicitous mind, she was dangerous beyond all imaginings and had to be stopped –no matter the cost.

He had never trusted her –no more consideration given to the fact that the other Donatello trusted and loved her- because he believed with every fibre of his being that the other Donatello was under the complete and utter control of Nightmare.

The other Donatello had always claimed that he had freely chosen to become Nightmare's plaything, but watching as every man around her fell and bent to her will, he knew that this was a lie.

Like a siren that called sailors to their deaths, tempting and seducing them to willingly die just to hear the sweet lulling chords of their beautiful songs, Nightmare's eyes, her kiss, her very touch was enough to sway men's hearts and have them believe they were acting of their own free will, when in truth, it was nothing more than a spell; an illusion created so that she could manipulate and control those around her to get her way and further her plans.

And although she seemed genuinely distraught over the other Donatello's loss, he couldn't allow himself to be swayed by this small show of attachment.

Resolute in his determination to perform the task he had been unable to do in the lair, he studied his surroundings and waited for the moment to strike.

They were no longer in the graveyard they had previously occupied. This graveyard was silent -unnaturally so. There was no wind, no birdsong, or any signs of life. The twilight air was crisp, and a fine layer of frost coated the ground around them.

Of the angel there was no sign, just Nightmare standing beside Raphael, her eyes searching the grounds that lay before her.

"So after seducing the angel and making him believe he loves you, I see you have gotten rid of him," Leonardo found himself sneering angrily.

Nightmare seemed unconcerned with his words as she rotated in a circle as if to gain her bearings. "Like Azazel, Gabriel needs to create mortal body to inhabit while on earth. He was real and tangible, but only because the circle I created allowed it. Once we moved from that circle, Gabriel was returned to Heaven. As for the Gabriel of this world loving me, he does not, nor does he love Katherine, but he could." Nightmare began to walk upon unsteady legs away from where they stood.

"He feels a pull towards me that he cannot explain." She smiled then. "And he was affected by my kiss because he is an angel and has never kissed anyone before. I suspect it was a rather singular experience." Nightmare paused in her step as she wavered, Raphael by her side, catching her.

Looking back at Donatello and Michelangelo, both wearing grim expressions, they followed Nightmare as she gently shook off Raphael's aid and continued her progress.

"I love my Gabriel and upon another parallel world, a different version of me loves her Gabriel as well." Nightmare paused for a moment before she continued. "There is a world among many that serves as the beginning, a focal point, an origin, if you will, where events occur that are so important, that they travel in great waves across the universes and cause events to unfold in a similar way wherever this wave flows. As with all waves, those closest to the source are more greatly affected than those farther away. I am guessing that this world is quite distant from the source of origin, which would explain why the events of this world greatly differ from others." Nightmare looked over at him, but Leonardo avoided her gaze. "Everyone upon this world felt that soft wave brush against them, but it was so gentle, so light, that it had no effect. But Gabriel, being confronted by my presence, would have suddenly felt that wave, greatly amplified by my presence, which acted as a focal point, allowing the wave to strengthen and gain momentum again."

"How many worlds have you visited?" Donatello asked curiously just as Nightmare stopped in front of an empty plot.

"Too many," was Nightmare's soft reply. "I am looking for something."

Donatello's next question was cut off when Nightmare fell to her knees, her hands digging through the frost crusted grass to the loam below. "A place aptly chosen," she murmured to herself. "In this world, this grave lies empty, but in others, it is not."

"W-whose?" Michelangelo stammered. "Whose grave is it?"

"Katherine's," Nightmare answered. Raphael gasped and fell to his knees in pain. "I'm sorry, Raphael. There is a powerful barrier and I need to break it," Nightmare apologized before she began chanting something low under her breath.

Watching with bitter resentment as Raphael attempted to bear the agony Nightmare was putting him through, his brother's stifled screams breaking his heart, Leonardo knew that he needed to act before it was too late.

Nightmare gaining control of her body was something he needed to prevent. If she was as powerful as she was in the body she had stolen, he shuddered to think how powerful, how much pain, suffering, and destruction she could cause when she attained her own body.

He didn't believe one word of affection she supposedly had for any of her loves, Donatello included. He knew that they were nothing more than tools Nightmare used to further her own agendas.

Leonardo leapt forward, and drew his sword so swiftly, that no one noticed its emergence until it was too late.

Four things happened simultaneously after this murderous act was instigated: Leonardo's beloved katana blade pierced the soft, delicate flesh of Nightmare's chest; the spell surrounding the empty grave broke; the sky was torn asunder by a brutal force, exposing a hellish world; and Leonardo's eyes met Katherine's.

Donatello's eyes shot open as his hands automatically went to the grievous wounds inflicted upon him by the Shredder, but he found that his arms were bound tightly against his body. Wherever he was, it was black as pitch, but he could hear voices raised in shock and horror, the tang of Katherine's blood in the air, and the distinctive acrid scent of hellfire and brimstone.

Tearing free of his fabric prison, his body reacted to the surge of power that shot through him, healing him, as his eyes focusing upon the chaos that surrounded him.

Getting to his feet, Donatello quickly assessed the situation, and leapt at Raphael, whose eyes had shifted to blood-red and was intent on murdering Leonardo, his katana blade plunged through Katherine's chest, his eyes staring into Katherine's with a look of shocked awe.

Pinning Raphael to the ground, Donatello's keen hearing was able to pick up Leonardo's heart skip a beat before beating in time with Katherine's faltering heart and within the next moment, their breaths were aligned as well.

Feeling his heart drop into the pit of his stomach, he watched as Leonardo wrenched the bloodied sword from Katherine's body, throwing it heedlessly away and gently lowering her to the ground where he tried to staunch the mortal wound he had inflicted while repeating, "No!" and "I'm so sorry!" over and over again in a broken, desperate voice.

"R-Raphael," Katherine's voice was soft and hampered by the blood the welled up within her mouth to trickle from between her lips.

Raphael froze, his every sense trained upon the dying woman he suddenly needed to get to.

Donatello let Raphael go, the young demon scrambling to Katherine's side, all thoughts of retribution against Leonardo apparently vanishing as he fell to his knees beside her, watching the woman he loved die right in front of him.

"I…I relea-" Katherine, with her dying words, was attempting to release Raphael from his Covenant, so that her death did not kill Raphael as well, but it was a futile effort; Raphael's heart would cease the moment Katherine's did.

Heart clenching in agony at the tableau spread out in front of him, he felt as if he was reliving the worst moment of his life all over again.

He had not witnessed his Katherine's death, she had died before they had managed to find her, her body so badly mangled that Darkness, Nightmare's counterpart from another world, had not allowed him or his brothers to view her body.

Donatello's doppelganger rushed to Katherine's side, pushing his older siblings out of the way in an attempt to stop Katherine's precious lifeblood from spilling forth.

Anger coursing through his body, he stalked over to the figures kneeling around Katherine's fallen body and snarled at Leonardo, "You stupid idiot!"

With nearly comical horror, Michelangelo whimpered in panic. "Y-you w-were…" Michelangelo stammered fearfully.

"Dead," Donatello quickly agreed. "I know. But as Nightmare has been restored, I seem to have been revived."

Leonardo fell forward, grabbing his chest, struggling for breath.

"Leo!" Michelangelo and Donatello shouted as Michelangelo rushed forward, but Leonardo ignored his baby brother.

Leonardo's dark-brown eyes burned with unfathomable grief-stricken fury, tears trailing down his pale cheeks as he stared at Katherine's pale hand clutched in his own.

"I don't understand what's going on," Michelangelo whimpered.

"He's Soul Rung," Donatello explained as he removed the swords from Donatello's back, strapping them to his own carapace as his eyes scanned the inhuman creatures that had begun to crawl out from the gate that had been opened, revealing a hellish orange sky at their backs.

"S-Soul Rung?" Michelangelo asked unsteadily.

"Nightmare told you that your Raph was Soul Called, meaning Katherine's soul calls for Raphael's and his answers. Well, Leo's apparently Soul Rung. His soul is ringing at the same frequency as Katherine's," he informed them. "The eyes truly are windows into the soul, and Katherine and Leonardo's souls recognized each other the moment their eyes met. Now, their hearts beat as one and each breath they take, they take together," he explained.

Donatello shook his head, wondering at the speed of connection that had formed between Leonardo and Katherine. When his Raphael had met Katherine, Raphael had been instantly drawn to her, but their love had not been instantaneous and it had taken time for Raphael's body to attune with Katherine's. He could only theorize that it was perhaps because Leonardo had struck a mortal blow against Katherine; their hearts and souls reeling with shock and horror causing them to instantly align.

Shaking away these thoughts, he stated grimly, "And because Leo decided to be a paranoid, head-strong moron, he's killed himself, Katherine, and Raph, all with one blow."

"NO!" Michelangelo cried out in horror.

"T-There has…there has to be a way to save them," his doppelganger refuted as he desperately tried to keep Katherine alive.

"If she dies, Leo's heart stops, and if you can get his heart beating again, he'll go insane with grief. As for Raph, the Covenant will kill him," Donatello pronounced bleakly.

Casting a quick glance at the sky, observing the Hell demons who hovered, waiting and watching, Donatello squatted down and looked at Katherine, whose face was so beloved to him, that even though he knew that she wasn't his Katherine, he couldn't help wanting to save her, because he still loved her more than anything.

"My Katherine's soul rang in tune with my Raph's," he explained to Katherine. "On another world, her soul called out to Leo. On this world, your soul rings with Leo and calls to Raph." Donatello gave a sad smile. "It's always Leo or Raph, never me," he told her softly, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice as he acknowledged that the Universe always picked one or the other of his older siblings for Katherine to love the most. Though on this world, she had been given both.

Donatello gently stroked Katherine's cheek. "Nightmare wanted to spare you her fate," he offered softly before he stood, stepping away and placing his trust in Nightmare; hoping that she would be able to somehow save them all.

Katherine did not reply; she couldn't. She was struggling to get air into her lungs as she slowly drowned in her own blood, his doppelganger still valiantly trying to figure out how to save her with no instruments to do so.

Power beyond imagining suddenly bust forth from the empty plot Katherine lay upon, a creature suddenly rising from the earth without disturbing it or Katherine.

"Nightmare is…" Leonardo gasped as he stared at Nightmare. "She's…the white haired demon…!" Leonardo's gaze swung to his own. "She's the Devil!" he shouted accusingly.

Leonardo was right…

The very Devil herself had emerged from the consecrated plot of land beneath Katherine's prone body and the look of shocked, devastated frustration upon Leonardo's face would have been comical if the situation had not been so dire.

Turning his attention back to Nightmare, Donatello watched her solidify as she ran a hand through her curling waves of alabaster hair, which contained two wide streaks of crimson draped elegantly around curling, steel-grey ram horns and large, white, lynx-like cat ears perched upon the top of her head.

Skin of the finest white marble gleamed in the unnatural orange light, casting ochre shades upon obsidian feathered wings tipped in crimson which were suddenly thrown wide, her black, serpentine tail languidly swaying back and forth.

Rich robes of deepest blood-red swirled around her body, her current aspect that of the Lady Morning Star, Queen of Hell.

Brilliant, moss-coloured eyes swept over them and she shook her head in grim annoyance. Donatello ran to his Mistress' side, his body shifting, growing and lengthening, until the form he occupied was no longer his own, but that of a giant purple dragon.

Nightmare needed him at his most intimidating if she was to face the threat that currently stood before her.

His Mistress brushed a negligent hand across his giant scaled head as he curled around her protectively. Gathering a deep breath, he opened his great mouth, filled with huge, razor-sharp teeth and let out a mighty roar that shook the very ground he lay upon.

Donatello's heart gave a twinge of sorrow at the knowledge that his other 'brothers' now knew the truth about him.

He was a demon and not only that, he was the demonic purple dragon who guarded his brothers who had been sealed away by Nightmare.

Donatello pressed down on Katherine's wound, her blood spilling forth from between his fingers no matter how hard he pressed.

He still had no idea what was going on, only a vague notion that the world he had suddenly found himself waking in had been thrown into insanity.

Acknowledging that he was out of his depth and that there was something very wrong with him, he tried to ignore the hunger within him that Katherine's blood inspired, and his slightly heightened senses in favour of more important concerns.

The horrifying knowledge that if he lifted his hands from Katherine's chest it would somehow -unbelievably- result in the death of both of his older brothers pounded through his mind.

Though his attention was firmly fixed upon doing the impossible, mainly saving the life of the innocent woman who had been caught up in all of this mess, he found that a startled gasp from Michelangelo coupled with Leonardo's hushed words, had the effect of drawing his attention away.

Standing beside the woman who could only be Nightmare, was his counterpart, somehow transformed into a dragon of such magnificent proportions, that he was amazed the very ground beneath its feet had not cracked.

The roar that was projected from the dragon's throat momentarily deafened him and for the first time in his life, Donatello felt himself completely out of his depth.

Growing up, he had always uneasily accepted that he was brilliant, and as such, would always grasp far more than his brothers ever could, but at this moment, his mind was completely stymied.

Things that should not happen, could not happen, were unfolding right before his eyes and if not for the fact that he was trying his very best to formulate a scientific explanation for everything that was going on before him, he would be hyperventilating in panicked fear; much like Michelangelo was.

"Hello, Lucifer," the woman Leonardo had called 'the Devil' mused lightly as a figure emerged from the sweltering heat of the wound torn between what Donatello had to believe was their world, and Hell itself.

The man was beautiful, with short dark hair parted on the left, piercing grey eyes set beneath thick, raven's wing brows, set in a face sporting a swarthy complexion, and a square, stubble dotted jaw.

Dressed in an elegant black suit with a crimson shirt and black silk tie, Lucifer presented an easy air of interested pleasantness that set Donatello's teeth on edge.

Raphael was standing against this new threat, his eyes blazing crimson-gold, teeth pulled back in a feral snarl and ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

Donatello almost wished his mind was so accepting of the impossible, but he supposed that upon another world, it was.

His doppelganger had just turned into a dragon and was growling with threatening ferocity at the man Nightmare called Lucifer.

"You appear to have me at a disadvantage," Lucifer offered in an even voice thick with courtesy, which only thinly veiled the danger it promised.

Nightmare sighed dramatically. "Lucifer, as much as I detest you, and I do hold you in the most abhorrent of regards, I will refrain from my natural inclination to terminate your very existence if you would just go away and leave me alone."

Lucifer let out a full throated laugh at Nightmare's blatant threat. "I will admit that I was only slightly interested in the mortal who Samael claimed had been able to summon him from the very depths of Hell, but it appears she is laying upon the ground dying." Pausing for a moment, Lucifer studied Katherine. "Yet, I still find her somehow fascinating." Seeming to shake himself, Lucifer turned his attention back to Nightmare. "But at the moment, I am more interested in what it is she summoned."

"The mortal," Nightmare began, her smile all teeth, "as you say, did not summon Azazel, I did. I was borrowing her body for a little while."

Lucifer mused, "You have Samael's True Name as well as my full and undivided attention."

Casting a quick glance at the demonic dragon that had been Donatello's doppelganger, Lucifer straightened his cuffs before continuing. "Although I have no doubt that you are powerful, I believe that the power you possess-"

"-Is enough to take over Heaven. Blah, blah," Nightmare interrupted. "Listen, I've heard it all before. God's, I've been used that way before, and trust me when I say, it didn't go well for you. Well…a parallel version of you anyway."

Lucifer's face darkened with fury, his eyes flashing white as a black swirling wave of power rode around him. Opening his mouth to refute Nightmare's claims, he stiffened as the hole rent in what had to be the very fabric of their reality suddenly closed, leaving the night dark once again; the burnished light of Hell vanishing completely.

"I am the Lady Morning Star," Nightmare's clear voice rang out. "I am the Queen of Hell, my Hell, and closing a Hell Gate is an easy task. I killed my universe's version of you and stole his crown. I fear not Hell's horrors or its demons, because a ruler of Hell is not all that I am!"

Around Nightmare, power -much like Lucifer's- began to swirl around her, whipping up her hair, her wings and her clothing, causing the very air to crackle as power filled the cemetery.

Squinting against the harsh wind, Donatello watched as Lucifer glanced over his shoulder and viewed the dozen or so demons that remained trapped within this reality.

"You are nothing to me and my-" Lucifer began, his tone furious and disdainful but was abruptly cut off when dragon Donatello roared.

"Pathetic demons," Nightmare snarled as she took a dangerous step forward. "I don't fear the demons and their acidic blood. I feast upon in and revel in the very destruction of their souls as I consume them and snuff out their dark light. I have already killed a version of you and I- There you are!" Nightmare exclaimed with a pleased grin, her hand moving so fast, Donatello hadn't been able to see as she suddenly grabbed at the empty air beside her.

Instead of grasping at nothing, within her gauntlet encased, silver clawed grip, Nightmare held a beautiful woman with honey blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, a radiant complexion, and a pair of large, black rimmed glasses that gave her an air of sober intelligence. She wore a black, high-waist pencil skirt coupled with a white blouse and black pumps with a red sole.

In her hands, the woman held a pencil and a clipboard, her blue eyes flashing with fire as she glared at Nightmare.

"Hello, Fate," Nightmare purred pleasantly to the woman who struggled in her grasp.

"Fate!?" Lucifer gasped incredulously. "That's… No one, be they gods, mortals, or deities, can actually see, let alone touch Fate. It's impossible."

"Are you still here?" Nightmare wondered, only bothering to flick a look of annoyance Lucifer's way before turning her whole attention back to Fate. "Your presence is no longer required."

"I-" Lucifer began.

"Donatello, I am rather busy at the moment, Fate and I have much to discuss and having Lucifer here is irritating me. Show him why you have been dubbed by allies and enemies alike as King of Demons."

Donatello started in surprise at hearing his name until he realized that Nightmare was not talking to him. Dragon Donatello uncurled his sinuous body and smiled a toothy, serpentine grin before reverting back to his mutant turtle form.

He unsheathed two swords from his carapace. One had a pitch black blade surrounded by a ghastly red aura, while the other had a silver blade with a bright blue aura that suddenly crackled with black lightning.

"I suggest you bow down to me, or I will kill you," Demon Donatello warned.

The demons, grotesque creatures pulled from the very depths of the most depraved nightmare, dove towards Demon Donatello.

A moment later, without Demon Donatello seeming to have moved, the demons that had remained fell to the ground in bloody pieces before collapsing into ash, his counterpart's blades dripping with crimson gore.

This development did not seem to perturb Lucifer, only enraging him to greater bounds.

Charging forward, Lucifer's face a mask of fury, his form shifted into a creature with straight, waist length, obsidian locks that were held back behind long pointed ears while dark brown horns arched back from his forehead. Clothed in silver armour that reminded Donatello of a Roman Centurion, Lucifer's obsidian, membranous wings spread wide while his dark, serpentine tail whipped about in anger as a wave of what could only be Hellfire rolled towards them in an avalanche of white-hot death.

Lucifer launched himself at Nightmare, a silver broadsword drawn and aimed at her heart.

Demonic Donatello didn't move as Nightmare raised her free hand and flicked her wrist in an offhanded gesture. Instantaneously, the Hellfire was completely snuffed out and Lucifer went flying back as if he was repelled by some invisible blow.

Lucifer recovered; managing to land on his feet.

Glaring at Nightmare, Lucifer wiped away the blood that trickled from his split lip. "How can you smell of the fire and brimstone of Hell and the very essence of life at the same time?" Lucifer wondered in confusion. "What are you?" he asked with a growl. "Have you done what I have only dreamed of for millennia?"

"I am many things," Nightmare replied mysteriously, "but I have not been motivated to conquer Heaven as I have never coveted that particular throne. My time has been more usefully engaged," Nightmare stated.

"So even you are not powerful enough to take Heaven, which means you are useless to me," Lucifer sneered.

Nightmare laughed; the sound full of joyous amusement that somehow managed to contain the faint tinkle of bells and Donatello's nostrils were suddenly filled with the fresh scent of the forest just after a rain.

Nightmare let go of Fate, who fell to the ground, a shimmer of blue circling around her form, trapping her within a magic circle.

Approaching Lucifer, Nightmare mused, "Your ambitions are so small-minded."

"There is no greater power than the throne of Heaven," Lucifer stated unequivocally.

"True," Nightmare agreed. "But I don't want it," Nightmare stated as she stood easily in front of Lucifer. "I have no interest in the power of Heaven, or even Hell, because on my world, I am destined to be a World Destroyer."

Donatello felt a wave of horror strike him at Nightmare's easily delivered words.

"The oracles whispered to the gods that I was destined to destroy the world, and after the gods attempted to kill me, I decided that they were right." Nightmare's voice lowered into a dangerous purr as she continued to speak. "I will rip the tree of life from its very roots and dispel it from my world causing Heaven and Hell to crash together obliterating everything. Earth, Heaven, Hell -mortals and gods alike- will all be destroyed."

Lucifer stared at Nightmare, completely nonplussed, a horrified look crossing his face as if Nightmare's words were something that would give even the King of Hell nightmares.

"If you destroy everything, you will cease to exist," Lucifer said in a shaky voice.

"Everything will return to darkness, even me," Nightmare explained with a self-depreciating smile.

"That is insanity," Lucifer shot back. "There is no point! Destroying everything will gain you nothing!"

"No, it will gain me everything," Nightmare refuted steadily and Donatello felt sick to his stomach.

When faced with two versions of the Devil, it was hard to imagine that Lucifer was the one who was the lesser o two evils.

Lucifer gave a sneer. "You possess the power to jump worlds," Lucifer began slowly. "You plan to destroy your own world and move to another." Lucifer's grip on his sword tightened. "If you are here, it means that this world will be your next target, and I will stop you."

Donatello felt his mouth fall open in shock. His mind rebelled at the very idea of Nightmare, the woman his doppelganger trusted and so obviously loved, being a monstrous evil, while his world's Devil was the good guy.

Nightmare laughed, the smile crossing her face genuine. "Is this why Darkness loves you, because you make her laugh?" she asked, ignoring Lucifer's threat as she reached out and touched Lucifer's lip with her clawed finger, brushing away fresh blood as the Devil stood and stared at her in shock. "On my world I hated you and took your very life and soul." Nightmare pondered as she looked at Katherine. "I wonder, what shall you be for her? Nothing? Something?"

Donatello looked down at Katherine, her breathing so shallow he could barely see the rise and fall of her chest, her pale skin taking on an almost blue tinge.

Katherine didn't have much time left.

Nightmare licked the blood from her claw. "You taste…sweet," she murmured thoughtfully as Donatello's attention remained firmly fixed on Katherine.

He wished there was something he could do for her; she couldn't die. He refused to give up on her, but his mind could not come up with a solution. He knew it was hopeless but…

He had to save her.

When he looked into her face, all he could see was the woman who had screamed in anguish when his counterpart had been slain; who had been devastated when Raphael had been killed.

Even though he knew it had been Nightmare in control of Katherine's body, she was nothing more than an innocent in all of this, the mortal wound inflicted by his own brother.

Donatello squeezed his eyes shut. He had never been one to beg faceless entities for help or salvation; he had never really believed they existed. The altar of science is where he had gone to worship, but right now, he knew with absolute certainty that they existed, and although his mind reeled at this knowledge, decided that he was going to pray.

Nightmare was terrifying and had admitted that she was both the Devil and a World Destroyer, but all of her actions had been nothing but selfless. She did not have to bring Raphael back. She did not have to save Michelangelo's life. Both acts gained her nothing and placed her life at risk.

Faced with choosing the Devil he knew and the one he didn't, Donatello found himself sending out a prayer and offering a deal.

Nightmare, whatever you are, whatever price I have to pay, please save Katherine, he begged in his mind, not even focusing upon the fact that her life was somehow connected with his older brothers'. His only thought was in protecting the woman who had tried to release Raphael before blood had filled her mouth and robbed her of speech; a woman whose doppelganger had existed on another world and been loved by his doppelganger.

"Put Mort Morosis through Katherine's heart," Nightmare suddenly commanded.

Demon Donatello flicked a quick glance at the silver sword in his hand and Donatello felt his spine stiffen as his blood froze in his veins.

Demon Donatello's gaze settled upon Katherine, and Donatello read the intent in his doppelganger's eyes. Demon Donatello was going to plunge the sword through Katherine's heart without hesitation.

Katherine was dying, and he knew that she could not be saved, but he didn't think about this, only wanting to save her, even at the cost of his own life. Donatello threw himself over Katherine's body, protecting her from the blade about to pierce her already faltering heart.

The moment before the blade pierced his carapace, Donatello's eyes met Katherine's wide, pain-filled gaze and he resolved in his mind to trust both Nightmare and his other self, because he knew himself, and he couldn't believe that there was a world in which he existed that he would ever allow himself to be seduced by darkness and perpetrate atrocities in his or any one else's name.

At this thought, he felt the sharp blade strike his carapace, only experiencing a moment of pain before his world went alarmingly black.