That Which Prowls in the Dark of Night

Author's note:

Thanks for everyone reviewing and helping me out with this. I know sometimes my grammar and my spelling is a little off. In truth I don't have a beta reader, and I wish I did. After I'm done posting all the parts I'll probably go back and fix some stuff. If I don't start writing something else.

Disclaimer: The TMNT belongs to Mirage and other people not me.

Chapter 12: Guilt trip

Leonardo couldn't stand it. The moment Michelangelo was out of sight he whapped Raphael hard across the back of the head. Before Raphael could react, Leonardo said, "That was for Michelangelo." It was his icy cold tone that kept Raphael from retaliating. "Need I remind you that if it wasn't for Mickey and his nightmares you would have slid down that things throat three days ago? Before you even met Annie? And how about the fact that he was so worried about you that he dreamed traveled here on his own? He's not even supposed to know how to do that."

Raphael's face went from angry to now puzzled. "Wait, Mikey dreamed traveled? Like in Master Splinter's stories?"

"They're not stories," Leonardo continued. "I've done it, but it takes a lot of work. Mikey did it without even thinking about it. If Master Splinter hadn't been with him, he might have lost his way back to his body. This is going beyond his nightmares Raph. Right now Mikey is doing things he didn't even know were possible because of that monster, because he's been trying to help you!"

"Help me?" Raphael didn't notice Annie coming up the stairs, and putting the weapons aside. She folded her arms over her chest and waited to hear him out. "How did he help me, Leo? He not only warned Annie that I was trying to break this damn control spell she has on me but he helped her to hang onto it! I'm her slave, Leo, and she just made Mikey my jailor!"

"Do you want to know why?" Annie asked as she strode forward slowly. Her eyes flashed angrily, but she kept her voice deceptively low as she faced Raphael. "Do you want to know why he helped me? Do you have any idea what he's been seeing before he even knew who I was?"

That made Leonardo pause and think. "He said he recognized you from a dream, but he never told us anything about it before."

Annie nodded. "And dreams he doesn't reveal have a habit of coming back to haunt him, don't they?" She asked them. When Leonardo and Donatello nodded she started walking toward Raphael, still cross. "So how many times do you think he had the dream of me and you, Raph?" She asked sternly.

A frightened wild look crossed Raphael's face, and he backed away from Annie until he hit the wall. "Stop it, Annie!" He ordered.

"How many times do you think he needed to see us in that dream before he learned the lesson?" She asked still advancing toward him. "How many times did he wonder at who I was? This was months before the dekabor escaped. How many times did he help you in the dream only to find out that helping you destroyed you? How many times did he have to see you turn into the dekabor?"

"Annie, stop it!" Raphael said. He had his eyes closed but somehow the images he had seen in Michelangelo's mind at the moment the spells had stabilized and strengthened on him still assaulted him.

"And how many times did he see you kill him?" Annie asked, ignoring Raphael's pleas. "How many times do you think he saw those things? Four times? Six? You wanna try for ten?"

"Annie enough!" Raphael cried out panicked. Annie backed up enough to watch Raphael fall to his knees. "Enough." Raphael said in a whimper. "I didn't know he saw that ten times!"

"Yes you did," Annie said without a hint of sympathy. "If I knew it from him linking himself to the spell, you did too. Like you said, when I captured that part of your spirit it put you in two places at once. You were with us when I saw it."

Raphael was panting on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He looked up at his brothers neither one was giving him any sympathy either.

"I think you forgot how bad Mikey's nightmares used to get when we were kids." Donatello said evenly. " We were the two who would have to sit and calm him down. You would take off until he was sleeping again."

Raphael winced at the memory. All he had wanted back then was for Mikey to stop crying. He knew there was a likely chance that Michelangelo's dreams would come true, but he would never admit that to the others back then. For the first year of Michelangelo's condition, Raphael griped and complained about the extra attention Michelangelo would receive. When he realized that Michelangelo was really suffering because of the nightmares, Raphael had stopped complaining.

"And I made him a promise back then Raph," Leonardo said sternly. "I promised him I would do whatever I could do to help him. All Mikey wants to do is stop having the nightmares, so even if he offered I would have thought three times before taking him up on it! "

"Protect him, you mean." Raphael said. "You didn't wanna tell Mikey that he had started to have premonitions again, and you started sitting with him again when he's sleeping."

"At least Mikey isn't too proud to accept help when it's offered!" Leonardo insisted.

Raphael sighed. He knew they were right, but he wanted these invisible shackles off of him now! "Look I'm sorry I blew up at Mikey, but you don't know what I'm going through. Before I couldn't tell, but now I feel Annie's powers wrapped around me, and it's driving me crazy! If Mikey looks in the crystal ball, we'll be out of here in a half hour! It will take Annie three times that long to do it!"

Leonardo looked at Raphael sternly. "Only if Mikey wants to help, Raph. Goading him into it isn't going to make him feel any better."

"I'll go talk to him," Donatello offered. He slowly went up the stairs that Michelangelo had used before.

"After we're done looking for the dekabor," Leonardo said not dealing with the discussion on who would do the looking. "We'll use the Battle shell to track the thing down." He turned to Annie. "Can you send it back through the rift, and seal it?"

"You bet I can," Annie said, confidently.

Leonardo nodded. "Okay then, you're in. Raph, I know you don't like it, but Annie is probably the only one who can seal the rift back up. Now let's see what you've done to my katana's balance." He gave Annie a grin, and went to the table where she had set the blade down.

It was gone.

"Where is it?" Annie said as she came up behind Leonardo. "I left it right here!"

Leonardo counted the shurikin on the table as well. "Didn't Don give you five throwing stars?" He asked.

"Yeah," Annie counted the remaining stars. "There are only three now."

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 sensed 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!" Raphael suddenly noticed that one of his secret pockets was open. "Hey Annie, can Sam do that kinda cleansing magic you were doing earlier?"

Annoyed, Annie answered, "I think so, but do you have to know that right now?"

Raphael ignored her attitude. "So Sammy got Leo's katana, a couple of Donny's shurikin and she must have swiped my garrotte right out of my belt pocket."

Leonardo watched as Annie's annoyance faded and she nodded severely. "Something from all three of you," she said.

"Does that mean something?" Donatello asked.

Sidney answered. "If Samantha is with Michelangelo, he now has something that belongs to one of you three. He's taken a bit of you each with him to go fight the dekabor."

Leonardo understood, and he didn't like it. "Well let's get the rest of us over to him as soon as possible. Annie can you find him?"

Annie suddenly looked at Raphael with an evil grin. "I could try, but it will be easier for Raphael to do it."

Donatello leaned over to Sidney. "I smell a payback coming up," he whispered.

Raphael was confused. "Me?" He asked.

Annie nodded. "The way Michelangelo tied himself into the spell I created was to pull with me, but still independently. Kinda like a dog walker's leash but with me and him being the dogs controlling the leash." Annie drew imaginary lines on the table in explanation. "There is really nothing connecting me and Michelangelo, but Raph has a direct line to both Mikey and me."

"But how do we use it?" Raphael asked.

"By putting you through what you wanted to force Mikey to go through," Annie answered.

"Uh oh," Raphael muttered under his breath.

Annie explained. "It's going to be a very simple trance. All I have to do is coach you back through your mind to find the tie you have to him."

Raphael didn't look happy about this in the least. Leonardo couldn't resist. He said with a grin, "Need I remind you that this is exactly what you were going to have Mikey do, but at least your looking for him, and not a demon."

"All right! All right!" Raphael threw his hands up in defeat and moved forward to sit down in the chair that Annie indicated. "Anything to get this over with!"

Annie smiled as she took a chair Casey offered her and faced Raphael. "This isn't going to hurt at all," she said.

"Yeah that's what you always say," Raphael complained. Still he couldn't help flinching a little as Annie drew closer to trace a symbol on his forehead. Instantly his eyes fluttered shut, his chin dropped down onto his chest, and all the tension left his body.

"Annie?" Leonardo asked, wondering if this was such a good idea.

"He's all right," Annie assured them. She now traced in the air in front of him, and whispered to him in a language Leonardo didn't understand. When she was done, Raphael's head came back up, but his eyes remained closed and body was still relaxed.

"Okay, Raphael," Annie said gently, "Find the line in your mind to Michelangelo. It starts around the bindings to your spirit, and trail away from here. You know where I am. Now find him."

In a very quiet still voice Raphael answered her. "I see him," he said calmly. "He's with Samantha just like we thought. She got him out of the shop. She took him with her into the spirit world. They've gone off to hunt the dekabor."

"Can you find them?" Annie asked him. Slowly Raphael nodded his head. "Okay then," Annie said. "I'm going to bring you out of it, but you have to keep that connection to Mikey open so we can track him down. Can you do that?"

"Yeah," Raphael said calmly. Annie again traced symbols before Raphael and whispered something. Suddenly Raphael's eyes flew open, and a hand went to his head.

"Raph?" Casey asked worriedly.

It was Raphael who waved his friend's concern away. "I'm okay Case," he said then amended it with, "I think. Man that feels weird."

"What is it?" Leonardo asked.

Raphael was still rubbing his head trying to sort out what was in his mind. "It's like, part of me is here with you guys, and part of me is with Mikey."

"Part of you is with Mikey. He's still wearing the amulet." Annie explained. "Can you track him now?"

Raphael nodded absently. "Yeah, yeah I can."

Leonardo wasn't too sure of that. "The Battle Shell, Don?" Leonardo asked.

The remote control was in his hands, and the van was just driving up the street. "Already taken care of," Donatello said proudly.

Raphael slipped past Donatello, and into the driver's seat. "I'd better drive, Donnie. It'll be easier than explaining to you what I'm seeing in my head."

That made Leonardo worry. "Annie, can he do that?" He wasn't fooled for a second. Annie still had some kind of hold on his mind.

"He'll be fine," Annie whispered back. "What I left in him helps him deal with the double images he's getting. Raph is right. It's easier for him to drive than to verbalize."

"Okay then," Leonardo said.

Annie turned back around and gave Sidney a hug. "Take care of the shop cuz," she said.

"Will do, Annie," Sidney answered. "Be careful."

Leonardo helped Annie into the Battle shell and the five of them sped off into the growing darkness.

Coming Soon Chapter 13 Striking out alone

"You're a spirit?" Michelangelo asked, "like that dekabor thing?"

I am not like the dekabor, The voice answered a little sternly. I can exists within a realm of substance, and interact with it as a dekabor can not. The dekabor is a creature of darkness. My people are beings of light.

"Oh," Michelangelo answered absently. Suddenly he realized what he was doing and shook the tranquil feeling out of his head. "Wait a minute! You can talk?"

Samantha lifted her head and nodded once. I simply do not speak unless I have something to say, she said. She then looked back to the stairs. Your brother is a fool you know. Annie is young, but she tries very hard to work within her means. He should not fault you for helping her. You did what was necessary to keep the dekabor from his spirit.

Mentioning Raphael brought Michelangelo completely out of the tranquil sensation Samantha had cast over him. Leaning against a pile of pillows, and burying his hand in her silky soft fur Michelangelo answered, "Oh Raph wouldn't understand. Over a month ago I had a set of nightmares that didn't make sense until he and Annie were pulling against each other. I knew what would happen if Raph broke the spell, so I helped Annie." Michelangelo tugged at the turtle pendant around his neck with his free hand. "I just wish I knew what I should do now." He sighed heavily. "Raph is right. I can see for them so much easier than Annie, but I hate these nightmares, and all the stuff I've been doing. I don't want to do it."

The choice is yours. Samantha said purring and rubbing her head against him. Use your gift, or do not.