Good evening all! Yes, this is the final chapter, just a short little epilogue :) Woot!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story and who has reviewed! XD It means so very much to me!

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Epilogue

Donatello winced as he landed in a tangle of limbs and bodies, the familiar sight of the lair coming into focus.

"Ouch," Michelangelo complained from the floor, sitting up as Donatello's brothers groaned and levered themselves off the floor.

"Is everyone okay?" Leonardo asked as Donatello noticed that he and his brothers had not travelled from the cemetery alone.

Legs slightly splayed under her, Katherine sat with her head bowed, hands clenched on her knees.

Raphael stood, offering his hand to Katherine to help her up off the ground, but either she didn't notice the gesture, or she was ignoring it.

"Katherine?" Donatello asked softly, her brilliant moss-green eyes tinged with a ring of blue, met his own, a heartbeat later, she was in his arms, head buried in his neck as he crushed her to him as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and he supposed it was.

She sobbed brokenly, her body shaking slightly causing him to tighten his grip upon her delicate frame.

Burrowing his beak into her throat, he felt his own tears slide down his cold cheeks as the horrors of what had happened to them finally had a chance to wash over him.

He had been trapped in his own mind for over a month; possessed and unable to act of his own accord.

Knowing that his doppelganger had not intentionally done this to him helped, but it did not mitigate the act. He and Katherine had been traumatized; their souls damaged by what had happened.

When they had been struck by the sword, it had only been moments for everyone else, but to Katherine and himself, it had felt like years.

They had existed in two places. Sometimes, they were in his lab, others, they were on a hill, overlooking a grove of trees pulled from Katherine's memory.

Katherine would sit beside him on the hill and sketch important events in her life, talk about her family, her schooling, and her dreams. When she appeared in his lab, he showed her everything he had invented, talked of his life, his family, his trials, and his enemies. He had never discussed his dreams with anyone because he found he had never allowed himself to have any. He understood his role in this world, and though it did not make him unhappy, it was a depressing thought.

Katherine encouraged him to dream, to imagine what his life could be, and so he did and he found that although he didn't dream big, the world he painted for himself of his future was one that made him happy.

As long as Katherine remained at his side.

There were soft touches and heated kisses, and their souls, already bound together, slowly healed.

Waking and finding that the world had only shifted forward in time mere minutes was a jarring experience, one that plucked at his heart and made it ache.

Gazing into Katherine's eyes, he could see she felt the same way, and he knew that from this moment on, he would have to be content with a piece of her heart and a sliver of her time.

He could hear Raphael's low growl of possessive annoyance, but he ignored his red-masked brother.

"Your soul is still weak," Katherine whispered in his ear.

He knew that his soul was in a fragile state, as was hers. "I know," he replied as she continued to cling to him even though she appeared to finally get herself under control.

"Do you want me to….?" her soft voice trailed off, but he knew what she was asking.

Swallowing roughly, he choked out, "Yes."

"Okay," she breathed out.

Closing his eyes, he placed his forehead against hers. He wasn't sure of the exact words, or if there were any, but he knew the sentiment and he hoped it would be good enough. "I swear to protect you and obey you for as long as I live," he whispered, and he could feel the soft hum of what had to be magic thrumming through the air.

It wasn't as strong as Nightmare's, but it was there.

"What is going on?" his father's voice, raised in panic, echoed around the living room.

He ignored his father because this was more important. Nightmare had said he was still himself, and he believed that deep down he was, but he had also watched his doppelganger, and knew what he would be capable of if he was not restrained.

"I swear, I will release you if you ever ask," she promised, binding them together, so that she would be able to control the demon he now was.

A whisper of power hung in the air, but there was something wrong; the prickle of pins and needles riding across his skin set his teeth on edge.

Katherine was looking at him in confusion, wincing as the heady whip of untethered magic swirled around them.

Hunger, deep and voracious, rolled through him, and instinctively, he knew what he had to do.

Katherine's attention shifted to Leonardo, who gently took her hand.

Donatello reluctantly released her.

Hesitantly, she stood upon shaking legs as she gripped his older brother's hand tightly, trying to figure out what was wrong with the binding spell they were trying to perform.

Jealous possessiveness rose within him, the temptation to drag her back down and claim her as his own crashed over him and he fought against the urge.

He slowly stood, standing as close to Katherine as he could, Raphael pressed close to Katherine's other side, Leonardo holding tightly to her hand.

"Father," Leonardo offered as Donatello's heightened senses picked up the faint swirl of energy surrounding the aged rat.

"Do you see that?" he quietly asked Raphael.

"Yeah, I see it," he answered glancing over at him. "See yours too," he murmured, his eyes flashing golden-red, Donatello feeling a responding surge of power flow through him.

"This is gonna get messy," Raphael growled, turning his attention back to their father whose fur was standing up on end, no doubt due to the demonic energies he and Raphael were giving off, though Donatello strongly suspected that Raphael's words were not referring to trying to explain what had happened to them to their father, but rather the fact that all of them were bound in some way to Katherine, and they all wanted her for themselves.

Nightmare's warning was still fresh in Donatello's mind, but the thought of having to share the woman, who was his soulmate, with his brothers made the possessiveness he had been able to push away a few moments before, flare to life again.

"Donatello," Katherine hissed, his focus darting to her. "Calm down, you're…" her eyes widened, and her head snapped around to stare at him.

"I know what is missing," he said as he yanked her against his plastron, ignoring Leonardo and Raphael's protestations. Her words didn't carry any weight, and having watched as Raphael was unable to go against a direct order from Nightmare, he knew that there was something that the demonic part of him needed in order to be truly bound, the scent of which caused his mouth to water and his teeth to tingle.

Leaning down, burying his beak in her neck, he bit her, his teeth easily piercing the delicate flesh right above her frantically beating pulse.

He should have been repulsed by his actions, and there was a part of him that was, but that small voice had been roughly silenced as the need to finish what they had started filled him.

The moment her blood touched his tongue, he felt power whisper across his skin before being pulled tight, almost as if invisible ropes now encircled his body.

Something within him was pulled tight.

"Let go," Katherine ordered and promptly Donatello released her, his panicked, furious brothers' voices permeating his sated mind.

Leonardo's blade was at his throat.

"I'm a demon, Leo," he growled. "I needed her to bind me."

"Y-you…" Leonardo's blade fell.

Licking his lips free of Katherine's spilled blood, she glared at him before her eyes widened in understanding.

"I can feel you now…. I can feel both you and Raphael," she whispered in surprise. "I…I was never this powerful before. I…I think she left some of her power behind."

"Maybe she thought you'd need it," Raphael murmured, his eyes glowing red, hungry with bloodlust and desire. "The devil, an angel, and even Death know about you."

"My, sons…." Master Splinter was shaking slightly, his face a mask of horror. "What has happened to you?"

Leonardo' his gave his two demonic brothers a murderous glance before turning his attention to their father. His expression indicating that they all needed to have a very lengthy discussion, turned and gently took Katherine's hand in his own.

"Father, this is Katherine."

"Um," Katherine nervously shifted from foot to foot trying not to stare at the giant rat. "It-it's nice to meet you."

"Leonardo," their father's voice was tight with fear and disapproval.

"There is…um… Lots of things happened and maybe it would be best if we all sat down and… Do you have any tea?" Katherine asked. "Tea is good."

"You are not the one who was here before," Master Splinter observed with narrowed eyes. "But you have much power."

"Uh…no, I'm not," Katherine agreed.

"I'll make the tea!" Michelangelo volunteered with a wide grin.

Donatello frowned at his pleased baby brother and he wondered what had caused Michelangelo to be in such an exuberant mood.

"Mikey, what the hell are you so happy about?" Raphael snapped, his eyes returning to their normal honey-gold colour.

"We won!" Michelangelo said with a brilliant smile. "The Shredder's dead, and we're all alive, and Katherine's here! Why wouldn't I be happy?"

"Mikey," Leonardo began patiently, "you're right, and that's great and all, but things are-"

"Don' you get it?" Michelangelo interrupted. "Sure, Raph and Donny are demons and Katherine is like, a super powerful witch, and things are complicated and weird, but…" his face fell into serious lines. "Nightmare and other Donny are fighting Fate, like actual Fate, so that they can be together with the other versions of us and we have what they are trying so hard to get." He shook his head. "I don't know if I could be that strong. I don't think I could do what other Donny has had to live with, has had to do, just to get his brothers back. I mean, Nightmare said she's going to destroy the world to get them back and somehow save everyone, and I believe she will and that everything's going to be okay for them.

For us, it's a lot. I get that. But I think everything will work out." His voice gentled. "We don't have to be alone anymore. I get to be with someone who I know I will love and who will love me back, and yeah, maybe it's not what we would have wanted or expected, but even I can feel that it's the way it's supposed to be."

Donatello shared an incredulous look with his brothers before his shook his head, wishing that he was able to just blindly accept everything so easily.

"This situation is…" Katherine began uncertainly. "I don't even know what I'm going to tell my family. I'm pretty sure they think I went insane," she muttered as she reached out a hand towards Michelangelo, who eagerly took it. "But, I think you're right, Michelangelo." She gave a brilliant smile.

"I will go make tea," Master Splinter said with a heavy sigh. "I believe this recitation will require a very strong brew, and copious amounts of it."

The End