A/N: Just to clear up a few things. Yes, I exaggerated on Raph a bit in the first chapter and they're talking kind of England English cause that' s how the movie goes. I'm following it close and Turtlily possible. Besides, I kind like putting an English twist on them. It makes them kind like poetry now.

Christmas Present

Raphael woke up wrestling with the blanket on his bed. "What da shell?" The young turtle asked himself. He wasn't asking because he found himself back in bed, but that he had a bed. It was a king size, four posted, curtained bed with rings holding it on.

Where did it come from? How did it fit into his closet sized room? Course, once he moved the curtains to one side, he found out that his room wasn't quite so small. Somehow his room became so huge it was suffocating and it confused him. In all logical senses a small room should be the one that made him feel smothered, not a large one.

Not being able to take the fact that he couldn't breath any longer and because his room frightened him so much, Raphael left to escape.

"Oh, hello there." A giant voice said.

"Holy…" Raphael's legs buckled and he fell right on his rear. "I don't believe dis." He was a little un-nerved by the fact that two giant eyes were looking right at him.

"Sorry dude, didn't mean to scare ya." The eyes pulled back to show a large green turtle-face.

"Scare me…?" Raphael gulped. "Nah, ya didn't…scare me." He rolled onto his knees and crawled as close to the edge of the second level as he dared so that he could have a better look at the giant that sat before him.

It was giant child-like Michelangelo sitting in the center of the lair. He wore a silky dark green king's robe with a faux fur rim and a crown of holly on his head. Raphael figured that if the orange clad turtle was tall enough to look at him on the second level while sitting, he must be tall enough to touch the ceiling with his head if he stood up.

Once he got over the shock of seeing a giant version of his youngest brother, Raphael suddenly smell something, or rather some things, delicious coming from the level below. He looked down at the floor; of course one would actually have to find the floor in order to see it.

Food of ever shape, size, and desire surrounded the giant turtle. There were huge golden turkeys, large honey cooked hams, ribs that looked like they could drop off the bone, mountains of mash potatoes with gravy. There was food from every culture; Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican.

"Yo, ya want some?" The giant asked the bewildered turtle. "I got plenty." He held up a large slice of pepperoni pizza that was dipping of cheese and glistening oil.

"S…speak." Raphael managed to choke out. "Tell me who ya are."

"You know those who were before me." The spirit answered, before taking a bite of the pizza he held. "For you see, I have many older brothers." He continued between chews. "And perhaps you'll meet the one to come."

"Yer a spirit?" Raphael questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"But I am." The Mike-like spirit whined. "I'm the spirit of Christmas Present."

"Wait, Christmas Present?" Raphael said with surprise. "Den it must be Christmas Day."

"Exactly." Christmas Present said while finishing off the slice of pizza he was chewing on.

"Why do ya look so young?" Raphael asked.

"Because the day is just beginning." Christmas Present explained. "See, my life is as long as the day is. Thus of the day of being Christmas Present."

"Ya only live as long as da day?" Raphael questioned with surprise. "Dat's got ta be bad."

"Why do you say that?" Christmas Present asked while taking up a large silver cup that was next to him.

"Don't chya fear death comin' fer ya so soon?" Raphael asked back. "Don't chya worry about not being able ta live a full life."

"But I do live a full life." Christmas Present replied. "And I enjoy ever minute of it. When I pass on, I have no regret and I know that I will always remembered." With a groan, the young spirit stood up. "Now let's get going, I have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it."

Raphael stared in wonderment at the Mike-like spirit and was amazed that he didn't hit his head upon the ceiling. "How…how will we travel spirit? Surely yer too big ta fit through da front door.

"Size never matters to a spirit." Christmas Present replied. "I mean, nobody can really see me. But I suppose that I am pretty intimidating." With a deep sigh, the spirit shrank down to normal size. "Well, enough fooling around. I have rounds to make." He floated up to where Raph stood, still flabbergasted. "Touch my robe and we'll be on our way."

"Ok." Raphael reached out a shaky hand and laid it upon the spirit's shoulder.

Things became burry to the young turtle for a small moment. When all was clear, Raphael recognized the place to be Central Park. There were people rushing all about the park, going to or coming from some place.

A man rushed by with a large ham in arms. The Mike-like spirit, now looking the age of a teenager, reached into his silver cup and sprinkled water upon the ham. Next a bag woman, pushing a cart full of recyclables, went by. Seeing that she had no food, the spirit sprinkled water from his silver cup upon her head.

"Tell me spirit, what is dat ya doin'." Raphael inquired.

"I am spreading a Christmas blessing." Christmas Present explained. "No matter their status, ethnicity, or health, everyone gets a blessing."

"How about whether dey been bad or good?" Raphael asked.

"Everyone gets a blessing." Christmas Present stated firmly. "But come, I have some very special people who are desperate need of being blessed."

"Do I know dem?" Raphael inquired.

"Of course." Christmas Present replied and with a nod of his head, they were back in the lair.

All the food was gone, there was not trace of it being there. Instead, the lair floor was covered with shredded wrapping paper and gifts stewed all over the place. Wandering around with a large garbage bag, cleaning up the large mess, was Splinter. The Mike-like spirit, who aged enough to look like a young adult, walked up the rat master and sprinkled water upon him.

"What's sensei doin' down here all by himself?" Raphael asked the spirit. "Why isn't he up at April's with the others fer der party?"

"He's waiting for you." Christmas Present replied. "Do you not remember what usually happens between you and Splinter every Christmas?"

Raphael thought for a moment. "Dis is usually da time me and Splinter have our time tagether." He answered. "I help him clean up da lair after Mikey tears it up and we talk."

"Your master always cherished those talks." Christmas Present pointed out. "It was one of the few times you'd actually open up to anyone and he was glad it was always him."

"I never knew." Raphael said with slight shake of his head. Upon closer look, the young turtle realized something he didn't notice before. "Master Splinter looks…so…old. Why?"

"The years are catching up with him, I suppose." Christmas Present answered.

"Nah, it can't be dat." Raphael replied. "I always knew he was old, but he never looked it…until now."

"Then maybe it's your attitude." Christmas Present suggested. "The decline to spend as much time as you can with your family, your constant anger with the world, your fear of there being no future generations when you die. That is the part which you shut inside of yourself and it is that that is take quite a toll on him."

Raphael grabbed the Mike-like spirit's arm. "Tell me, what will happen ta my master?"

A grim glazed looked came over Christmas Present's face. "I see…a vacant armchair in front of some televisions. A walking stick without its owner, well preserved, sits upon it."

"Are ya tellin' me dat Splinter will die?" Raphael asked with shock and fear in his voice.

"What do you care?" Christmas Present asked coldly. "Better to die and do it quickly so as to decrease the surplus of the population."

"Ya mock me with my own words?" Raphael asked rhetorically. "When I said dat, I didn't mean…"

"What do it matter who or what you mean? The fact that you said it was bad enough." Christmas Present snapped. "But no to make such demands when you do now know what the surplus is. Low is the fat beetle the cries above his hungry brothers. It would better that you should died so that millions like him could live another day."

"Spirit you speak such cruelty ta me." Raphael said with shock.

"As I should." Christmas Present replied. "Because if things do not change, I do not see him living to see another Christmas."

Raphael fell to his knees. "No!" He cried.

The Mike-like spirit let the young turtle sit like that for a couple of minutes before reaching down to pick him up. "Come on. We have more people to see and bless." He pulled Raph to his feet and whisked him away.

Dusk was setting in when the two appeared on the fire escape of April's building. Raphael looked at the Mike-like spirit to see that he was even older. Middle-aged with many wrinkles upon his face. Knowing that the spirit would die when the day ended, the young turtle feared what would happen when that time came.

Noticing that Raph was looking at him, Christmas Present pointed towards the apartment window. "Don't worry about me. Look at why I brought you here." Obediently, the young turtle did as he was told.

April was sitting on her couch while Don and Leo sat cross-legged on the floor. Nobody was talking; everyone was just kind of staring at each other. The apartment was meagerly decorated. There was a small tabletop artificial Christmas tree in the corner, decorated with a few antique glass ornaments and strands of tinsel. A weak little mistletoe at the top of the door, above a withering reef of light green holy leaves. In another corner of the room was the box of decorations that Splinter had brought up the day before.

"Why didn't dey use da stuff sensei brought?" Raphael asked. "Why doesn't da apartment look more festive?"

"Maybe you aren't the only one to be feeling lousy about the holiday's." Christmas Present answered. "Maybe with your attitude about things has brought everyone else down."

"Can't be." Raphael said while waving a hand at the spirit. "Der is no way Mikey would let dat happen."

As though he knew that he was being talked about, Michelangelo bounce into the room with a plate full of decorated cookies. "Hey guys, cheer up." He ordered happily. "We all can't be like Raph on this day." He set the cookies down on the kitchen table, next to all the other food that was there. "Speaking of Raph, can you believe what he said about Christmas?"

"What did he say about it?" April asked as she got off the couch.

"What?" Michelangelo looked at her bewildered. "Didn't we tell you what he said?" The young woman shook her head. "He said that Christmas was a humbug." The orange clad turtle said with a laugh.

"He said that." April said with shock. "How Ebenezer Scrooge of him."

"That's what I said." Michelangelo told the young woman. "But Raph can call Christmas whatever he likes, it really doesn't matter. So long as he's my brother, I will always leave the door open for him to join us on this day whenever he likes."

"That's a very nice thing to say." April said with a smile.

"Raph's right, you do watch too many Christmas specials." Leonardo commented as he joined the two at the table.

"You know, it sometimes hard to believe how we're ever related to him." Donatello stated matter-of-factly. "Out of all of us, he's the only one who likes to dwell in the dark matter of things."

"I admit that he tends to put fear in your heart when he comes and a bad taste in your eyes when he leaves, but that's the way he is." Leonardo commented.

"Gee, I don't know what ta feel." Raphael said with a frump. "Sick ta my stomach or insulted."

"But you can't blame Raphael for feeling the way he does." Leonardo pointed out. "I mean, it seems that he had a bad luck running with the holidays. Take him missing Johnny when he left."

"Yeah…" Michelangelo put a hand behind his head. "I still feel kind of bad about that one. I don't know what I was thinking when I let that secret out."

"Then there was Nisha." Donatello pointed out.

"Who was Nisha?" April asked.

"His girlfriend." Michelangelo answered teasingly, then he made kissing sounds afterwards.

Raphael was shocked. "Dey knew about her?"

"The question really is, who in your family didn't know about her?" Christmas Present replied.

"You mean, even Master Splinter knew?" Raphael asked with shock.

"Yes." Christmas Present nodded. "But let us continue listening in"

"Well…losing Nisha was something he kind of did on his own." Leonardo countered. "But now we have to add Casey to the list. Out of all of us, Raph was the closest to him. They both acted the same, had the same likes, and could share the same feeling."

"It must be so hard for him." April commented.

"Tell me spirit, what happen ta Casey?" Raphael begged. "How bad was his death dat it made me fer get dat he was gone?"

"I can tell you as much of that which was before my time as I could of that that will be after it." Christmas Present answered.

"Why can't ya just give me a straight forward answer fer once?" Raphael snapped. "Why do all ya spirits talk in such riddles."

"You should have accepted the invitation to the party." Christmas Present told the young turtle.

"What?" Raphael questioned.

"For your master's sake." Christmas Present replied.

"I should." Raphael sighed.

Christmas Present dipped his hand into his silver cup and threw water at the window. The water went through the glass and landed on the people in the apartment. "Come, my time is growing short and I still have a few things to show you."

Out of nowhere, a carol 'Noel' came to Raphael's ears as he and the Mike-like spirit flew away from the fire escape. With the spirit guiding them, they went all over the world. While they flew, Christmas Present poured the crystal clear water from his silver cup onto the people below them. He took special care to linger over those who were locked in prison, stuck in shelters, and away from those they loved to fight for what they believed in.

"Why do ya lag over those people?" Raphael asked curiously.

"Because they are the ones who needs the blessing most." Christmas Present replied while he landed them back in Central Park.

"Spirit! Yer so old now!" Raphael exclaimed when he looked the Mike-like spirit over.

It was true. Christmas Present's face had many wrings, his skin was withered like a green prune, and his eyes dropped from becoming so tired. "The day is nearly done, as is my time." He wheezed.

At first the thought of the Mike-like spirit dying made Raphael feel sad, but then he saw something. "Spirit I see sumpthin' strange beneath yer robe that does not look like it belongs ta ya. Is dat a foot or is it a…claw?"

Christmas Present opened his robe up to show two starved, sunken eyed, filthy children. They hissed as they made a jump at the young turtle. The Mike-like spirit put a hand on each child's shoulder to keep them by his side. "The girl is Want and the boy is 'Ignorance'." He told the young turtle. "Beware of them both, but most of all beware of the boy. For written upon his forehead is doom for all. If nothing is erased, if you flounder with those that surround him, if you acknowledge him and do nothing about it, then doom will engulf you all."

"Is der nuthin' dat can be done fer dem?" Raphael asked apprehensively. "Is der not charities? Is der welfare?"

"Is there no prisons?" Christmas Present grasped cruelly. "Is there no shelters?"

Before Raphael could answer the spirit, a bell tolled. This caught the young turtle off-guard, because he did not know of any clock towers in New York. He looked around to find out where the bong sounds were coming from. When he couldn't find the source of the noise, he turned back to the Mike-like spirit. But the spirit and the children were no longer there.

"Spirit?" Raphael cried. "Spirit where are ya?" He started to run up alleys and down streets. "Spirit, please come back." The young turtle looked in every direction. "Do not leave me out here alone." But no answer came to the distraught turtle. "If Christmas is over, den what is left to show me?" Raph asked as he looked up at the sky. "Who is da last spirit?"

In reply to the young turtle's question, an icy cold hand that smelt like death landed on the on his shoulder and griped it tightly.

A/N2: And thus we end Christmas. We know who the last spirit is to come, but who will play him and what will he have to show? Can Raph truly change things for the better or will he be driven even deeper into despair?