Chapter 11 Everybody Together now.

Leonardo ran out to the front of the shop, and out the front door. Raphael was barreling down the street with both sai out, and murder in his eyes. Leonardo didn't wait a second longer. He drew his katana, and blocked a blow from Raphael's sai.

"Stop it Raph!" Leonardo ordered. Not that he expected Raphael to obey, but he wanted to get Raphael thinking past his temper.

"You're here?" Raphael said shocked. "You and Mikey? What were you in cahoots with that witch the whole time or something?"

Leonardo continued to block the blows from his brother as he argued back. "I never met her before today, Raph. Mikey and I were doing what you SHOULD have been doing! If you wanted that spell off of you that badly, you would have helped her!"

Raphael growled in anger and frustration. "You don't know! You have no idea what I'm going through! And you have the gall to want to HELP HER? "

Leonardo wasn't sure how long he could keep simply blocking Raphael. Being constantly on defense without taking an offensive blow was more difficult than being constantly on offense. Just as he was contemplating trying to disarm Raphael, his brother jerked backwards, and fell to the ground. "No!" He cried out.

"Raph?" At first worried that Raphael had hurt himself, Leonardo sheathed his katana, and took a step closer. Raphael wasn't hurt or anything, he was just fighting with something inside of him. He was on his hands and knees at Leonardo's feet with his eyes closed, shaking as he struggled with some unseen force within.

"That's how he was before," Donatello said, now coming forward with Casey. "When Casey started talking about some witch or something at first Raph didn't know what he was talking about, then something happened, and he got like this."

"He's fighting it again," Leonardo said with a sad shake of his head.

"Not exactly, Leo," Michelangelo said from behind them. Leonardo turned to see Michelangelo standing in the doorway of the shop. Annie and Sidney were behind him. Michelangelo didn't look well. He looked as if he had been in a major fight himself. He was supporting himself by leaning on the door. He was slightly pale, and the red turtle pendant that Annie had been wearing was around his neck.

"No," Raphael said in a whisper. He lifted his head and gazed at the pendant resting on Michelangelo's plastron. "No no no!" He said fearfully. His eyes widened and he shivered as if he had just gotten the worst scare of his life.

"All I did was pull on his leash a little so he'd stop fighting you." Michelangelo finished. He smiled mischievously as he tugged at the chain around his neck.

"No!" Raphael shouted again, but he did not get up. Instead he looked at Annie behind Michelangelo and said rapidly. "Annie, no! I'll do whatever you say, whatever you want! I'll fight the Dekabor for you, but please, please take the pendant back from Mikey!"

Leonardo tried very hard to keep a serious face, but the look of total terror on Raphael's face was too much for him to handle. His face screwed up into a smirk and a tiny bit of laughter escaped.

That at least got Raphael looking more angry than frightened. "This isn't funny Leo!" He shouted.

"Sorry," Leonardo said, still trying to keep from completely bursting into laughter. "But when you saw Mikey..." It was no use Leonardo doubled over in laughter.

"Raphael moved into a sitting position on the floor and glared at Leonardo. "Oh Shaddup!" He ordered.

Annie came forward, and gestured for them all to come inside. "Lets finish this conversation inside. Right now I couldn't magic up an illusion right now to hide you four."

Leonardo got himself under control, and gestured to the others to enter the shop again. Sidney went first, and ran into the back room. By the time the others were there, the rose crystal ball they had been using had been covered again.

Leonardo nodded his thanks and approval. It wouldn't do any good for Raph to see what that crystal did to Michelangelo.

Annie, and Sidney turned two of the chairs from the oak table around so that they faced the group. Casey plopped himself down on the Roman couch. Raphael stood behind the couch keeping Casey between him and Annie. Michelangelo folded himself not at Annie's feet but Sidney's. Leonardo and Donatello looked at each other, and sat on the ground between the two hostile groups.

"Now will someone please tell me what's going on?" Donatello asked. "Raph, how did you know how to find this place, and why were you so mad about finding Leo and Mikey here?"

Before Raphael could say anything, Leonardo decided to tell Donatello Annie's side of the story.

"Don, I'd like to introduce you to Annie, Sidney's cousin."

"So you're the reason I'm in this mess now," Raphael said still annoyed. He had his arms folded over his plastron, and he was scowling.

"It's more like she's the reason your not dead, and your lifeless husk isn't trying to make your brothers equally dead." Annie said defensively. My grandfather and I started looking for Sydney a month after she disappeared. Once The Shredder's men had changed her we knew she wouldn't come back, so together with other members of our order we cast a spell of circumstance that would help her get home. The only problem with using such a powerful spell is that it usually has a price. My grandfather was hit by a drunk driver about two weeks before Sidney came home."

Sympathetically Leonardo said, "we're sorry."

Annie nodded, and continued her story. "Every day after the spell was first cast either my grandad or I would check to see how Sidney was doing. Eventually we saw you four in the crystal. You majorly helped out Sidney, so we decided to keep an eye on you. Sydney never told me anything."

"Obviously I didn't have too," Sydney said with a grin.

"So when this dekabor escaped you knew enough about us to know you had to put protections on Raphael," Leonardo asked. Annie nodded agreeably.

"Unfortunately I'm not even half trained," she said. My granddad could have put a protection spell on you that you would have never noticed. The only way I know how to protect anyone is to fill them with my power, but in order to do that, -

"In order to do that you had to stuff part of me into that pendant Mikey is wearing," Raphael said accusingly. "

"It was either that or let the dekabor have you." Annie shot back. "The fact that both your brothers agreed with me should tell you I'm right."

"I understand why you did what you did," Leonardo said suddenly. "That doesn't mean I agree with it. Mikey and I knew that under his own violation Raphael wouldn't help you, so we were going to offer our services to get rid of that demon."

"Now that I don't get," Raphael said. How did you and Mikey find out what was going on? And what was Mikey doing here last night?"

"I wanna know how he got in last night too! My granddad said nothing could get though those shields". Annie said puzzled.

"I didn't go though the shields," Michelangelo said with a grin. He still seemed tired leaning against Sidney's chair, but his eyes were bright and mischievous. "I went under them. Your basement grate wasn't shielded so I got in that way."

"Wait a minute!" Donatello said trying to follow the conversation. "Mikey was in bed all last night. How could he have been here?"

"Mikey dream traveled here, Don," Leonardo explained. "He was worried enough about Raph that somehow without any preparation whatsoever he separated mind and body and came here. I was with him when he came out of it. When he told me what he learned here Master Splinter and I decided that we should come over and help Annie out."

"So," Casey asked. "What now?"

Leonardo looked up at Annie and then Raphael. "How can we destroy the dekabor?"

Annie shook her head sadly. "You can't destroy it. It's a spirit. All we can do is try to send it back where it belongs."

"So how do we do that?" Donatello asked.

"I have to find the rift that the dekabor came through. Then I have to corner it, heard it back into the rift, and seal it, so that it can't come back."

"But how do we corner and heard something we can't even touch." Michelangelo asked.

"We can't touch it," Raphael said, "but my sai can hurt it. Annie did something to this one, and now it hurts that thing.

"All I did was purify the blade." Annie said sheepishly. "The dekabor is an evil spirit, so now it recognizes it. It can hurt the dekabor, but you can't kill a spirit."

"I see," Leonardo said evenly. He pulled one of his katana's from it's sheath. "Can you do that to my katana?"

"Let me see," Annie said. Leonardo offered her his right katana. Annie looked at the blade as if she had been a master sword smith. She tested its balance, looked down the edge of the blade, and tested its sharpness. "Good metal, and good energies," she said finally. "I think it will take the spell even better than Raph's sai did."

"What about our weapons?" Donatello asked as he held up his bo.

Annie shook her head. "Sorry the spell only works with blades or metal weapons. This particular cleansing won't work on organic materials."

"Hmmmm," Donatello thought a moment then stuck his hand into his belt, and pulled out five shuriukin. "What about these? Can you cleanse these?"

Annie reached out and took the offered shurikin from Donatello. "Hmmm they are metal, and they have an edge. I could try. I'll be back in five minutes." With that she took the katana, and the five shurikin and went downstairs into her basement.

As soon as Annie was gone Leonardo said, "So all we have to do is find that thing, and move it to where Annie can deal with it.

"Easier said than done, Leo," Donatello said cautiously. "You and I can't even see that thing. How are we going to find that thing, much less find an interdimensional rift?"

"I'm thinking Annie can take care of that," Leonardo said. He looked over towards Sidney. "Can your cousin use that crystal ball of hers to find it for us?"

Michelangelo sat up at that point looking very confused, but said nothing as Sydney answered. "Yeah. It will take her a bit of time to do it, but she can. She probably will too. She'll also probably want to go with you to fight the dekabor."

"No way!" Raphael said, making an X with his arms. "We're going to have enough problems with that thing without having to protect her!"

"Yeah, like we'd have to," Casey said rubbing his neck. "I think your forgetting that Annie took us both down that night. She might not be her grandfather, but she's got some spells up her sleeve that come in pretty handy."

That made Raphael look at his best friend quizzically. "How do you know her anyway, Case?"

Casey grinned. "My grandma, and her granddad were good friends. They were in the same bridge club or something. I don't even know when he managed to nail me with that protection spell. He must have done it when I was a kid.

Michelangelo grinned and giggled. "If you ask me Raph doesn't want Annie along cuz he's still afraid of her!"

Raphael scowled. "Look who's talking," he said. "You're gonna sit there on your shell, and let her spend two hours trying to do something it takes you less than five minutes to do!"

Leonardo, and Michelangelo snapped around, and stared at Raphael in shock. How did he know what happened here earlier?

"What are you talking about Raph?" Donatello asked puzzled.

"Annie figured out how to get into Mikey's head and pull out the stuff that makes him have those dreams." Raphael explained. "She even said it herself. By using her crystal ball Mikey did in a couple of seconds what it would take her hours to do by herself."

"You didn't even know we were here!" Leonardo said. "How did you know what he was doing?"

Raphael smirked then and pointed at the turtle pendant that still hung from Michelangelo's neck. "Because fearless leader, once I shook the part of Annie's spell that kept me from saying anything that thing became a two way street. Annie might have been able to spy on me with it, but after I remembered, I could hear everything that went on in here. So I know that Annie found some way to harness those dreams of Mikey's. He found me for you, not her, and now he's going to sit there and let Annie do all the work cuz he's afraid of dreaming again!"

"That's not fair Raph!" Michelangelo said. "Leo didn't even ask me - "

"That's right," Raphael said sneering again. "He didn't ask you. He wasn't even going to, because we all gotta protect poor little scared Mikey from his big bad nightmares!"

Michelangelo looked at Raphael as if he had been struck. Donatello rose to his feet and glared at Raphael. "That's enough Raph," Donatello said harshly.

"See!" Raphael said stepping back from the group. "I'm the one with a control spell on me, and you two are tiptoeing around Mikey and his dreams. I was sick of it when we were kids and I'm sick of it now. I say it's time Mikey started acting like an adult and not a baby who's afraid to sleep by himself because his nightmares!"

Now Michelangelo was mad. "Ohhh so you're the big expert on acting like an adult huh? Well maybe then I should deal with things the way you do!" He got to his feet and stormed up the stairs in the back of the room. The shape shifting spirit cat took one look at Raphael growled, then followed Michelangelo up the stairs.

Coming Soon Chapter 12

At that moment Donatello came running down the stairs. "Leo, we've got a problem!" He said worriedly. "Mikey's gone!"

"He couldn't have just left!" Annie said. "I have the whole top floor shielded. I would have sense him leaving through a window or something."

"I got a bad feeling about this, Leo," Donatello said. "Remember what he said at Casey's place. He said nobody was safe until he sent it back to where it belongs. "

Leonardo and Raphael looked at each other in horror. "Oh shell," Raphael muttered. "You don't think,"

"Wait," Leonardo said trying to think this thing out. "Even if Mikey got out, how could he have sneaked back down here and swiped my katana with the three of us standing right here! Mikey's good but not that good!"

Sidney frowned at her cousin. "The same way he got out of the top floor without Annie sensing him."

Suddenly Annie and Sidney had an identical look of horror on their faces. A second later Raphael did as well.

"Samantha!" The three of them cried in unison and they all began calling for the cat.

"Samantha!"

"Sammy, come on! This isn't funny!"

"Here kitty kitty kitty! If you took Mikey out of here I'm gonna turn you into spirit cat sushi!"