Here's chapter ten for everyone! I know that the...'emotional' part of Ryu and Raph's relationship hasn't really developed, but that's something Katt B. and I decided to do on purpose. Simply for story length purposes only. We didn't want them to evolve too quickly, so this part of the series is basically them really breaking through that awkward stage. The next part of the series is going to have WAAAY more development between them, I assure you...

And I'm going to shut up before I give too much away...surprise! There's going to be "Part 3"!

Please review! All advice, suggestions, and critiques are welcome!

-Ravyne

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN TMNT**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Strike of the Dragon

PART 2

10

3-5.2: "Ryu"

Ryu blinks open her eyes and looks around, afraid to move. She spots the turtles across the room, still closed in their shells, but the Beavers are nowhere in sight. So then what happened?

That's when she feels the heaviness across her shoulders. Like, five pounds more weight. Ryu looks down curiously only to find plated steel fused across her chest, chain links connecting the chest plate to the shoulder guards over her arms. Her eyes widen in awe.

What the heck is all this?

Nearby whooping cheers catch her attention and she looks up to see the turtles laughing. "It actually worked! This is awesome!" Leo shouts.

"It's like a video game!" Mikey adds.

"Do you dorks think this is some kind of game? You're lives are at stake here!" Ryu yells at them. Another burst of light explodes, forcing her to cover her eyes again to block it out. When is vanishes, Ryu finds a long, flashy sword held in her hand; the blade gleams threateningly from some unknown inner light deep within the steel.

The Beavers reappear but take a cautious step back.

She twists the blade in her hand, watching the light reflect off the sharp edges, and her reflection flashes back at her. Her image has changed, once again back to her old self, and Ryu can feel a smile pull at her lips. These are the eyes she knows, this is the nose she recognizes. As she looks up, she finds Raph staring at her from across the room—this was his doing.

She mouths a thank you at him and then turns back to the Beavers circling her threateningly, spinning the blade in her hand and grinning.

"Alright," Ryu flashes a smile, "Let's do this!"

The first Beaver rushes at her and Ryu spins towards him to swing the blade in a wide arch. He vanishes quickly in a puff of smoke to avoid the swords sharp edge before Ryu corrects her path, twisting her ankle, and flipping the blade in her hand to strike at the next Beave behind her. The red Beaver ducks and slashes at her feet with his long claws, forcing Ryu to leap up into the air to dodge the attack. She touches the ground just long enough to bring her feet underneath her and then jumps up again and flips over the red Beaver so that she can escape the circle they have formed around her again.

The purple Beaver appears in front of her and Ryu drops to her side to skid under his legs and continue on towards the turtles, who have started to struggle lose from the invisible bonds that still hold them captive. As if released from some kind of spell, the turtles jump to their feet and take a stance next to Ryu as she lifts her sword and faces the Beavers.

"So…anyone have a plan?" she asks, glancing expectantly towards Leo.

He blinks in surprise, "Uh…"

"Oh no," Ryu groans, the tip of her sword sagging a bit in defeat.

"I got this, bros!" Mikey steps up in front of all them and starts swinging his nun chucks around.

Ryu drops her sword completely, "God, help me."

"Come on, Ryu," Donnie nudges her, "Like you said, this is our dream—we can do this."

Ryu rolls her eyes and brings her sword back up, "Positive people; so annoying."

"Look, boys," the red Beaver chuckles, "They're preparing for battle."

"A battle they cannot win," the purple one adds with a grin.

"Let's eat them all quickly. I'm starving," the last one licks his huge front teeth.

Ryu tightens her grip on the hilt of her sword and shifts her foot across the cement floor, "Bring it, you overgrown fur balls."

The Beavers lunge all at once, the turtles raise their weapons and race forward, Ryu follows close behind them. The space between the two armies vanishes by the second; they almost clash—

FLASH!

"What the heck?!"

"What's going on?"

"Mikey, what'd you touch?!"

"Why is it always me?!"

Her head is pounding, a pain filling in behind her eyeballs until they feel like they're swelling out of her skull. Whatever that light had been, it certainly did a number on her. Strange thing is, she doesn't remember anything happening to her. Well, not exactly.

With a groan, Ryu sits up and pops her neck a couple of times before blinking her eyes open against the bright white light of the…

Where the…heck…am I?, Ryu glances around. She's not sure if she's in a room or a whole wide world of nothing but white light. Oh, dear Lord, please tell me I'm not dead.

A few familiar groans catch her attention and she peeks back over her shoulder. A smile of relief breaks out across her face. Donnie, Mikey, Leo, and Raph are all there too, sitting up and stretching off the floor. But that's not the only thing here with them.

"What…is that?" She asks.

The turtles follow her line of sight and find a swirling vortex of blue and yellow lights spiraling to a pin point in the center. Beyond it, there are murmurs that whisper out from beyond the unknown.

"Do you guys here that, or am I going insane?" Ryu climbs slowly to her feet.

"Well, we are in a room of…whatever this is…" Leo eyes the misty glow of the white world around them worriedly.

Ryu shoots him a glare, "I'm talking about…that."

"What?" Mikey shrugs.

"That! Those voices," she points at the vortex as she steps up closer to it. The vortex is creating a vacuum around it, the pull lifting a few strands loose from her hair tie and swirling them through the air towards it. She tilts her head closer to the vortex so that she can hear better and sure enough there's a response…

"Why'd you do that?"

"You've doomed us all!"

"Casey, are you nuts?!"

Ryu pulls away, raising an eyebrow, Casey? These are voices that she knows. Venus, April. But one voice sounds weird, unknown. Like some old, crabby guy who lives in one of those creaky houses with barred windows and a door that barely hangs on its hinges.

"Is that April?" Donnie gasps.

"They sound like they're in trouble," Leo glares.

Ryu suddenly comes to recognition, "Wait, you don't think…?"

They all share a look and at the same time, "THE BEAVERS!"

"Do you think they got out?"

"They couldn't have," Ryu shakes her head.

"That could've been what that bright light was," Donnie suggests.

"So they've been released," she drops her head into her palm.

"They must've gotten out through here," Donnie continues, reaching out to touch the swirling lights, "So this could be our way out too."

"Emphasis on 'could be'," Ryu groans.

"Well, if the shoe fits," Mikey shoves through the group and leaps through the vortex.

"MIKEY!"

Leo jumps through after his little brother, getting yelled at by the others, "LEO!"

"Am I the only one left with a brain?!" Donnie cries before leaping in too.

"Obviously not!" Ryu yells.

"Come on!" Raph grabs her hand and starts to pull her forward after them.

Ryu jerks him back, "Are you nuts?! We don't know where that could lead! For all we know we could be spit out into space and die of-!"

"Would you shut up," Raph turns on her. Ryu blinks in surprise as he grabs her by the shoulders and gives her a gentle shake. "Sometimes you just have to jump."

"And die," Ryu glares at him. "And who's to say that I can jump through there anyway? I'm not physically here. This is your consciences. Not mine. I don't even know if I leave the same way as I came."

Raph glances at the vortex behind him, a dark look flashing over his eyes so quickly that Ryu can't be sure that it's real. She smiles and touches his shoulder this time.

"Raph, go. I'll be okay. I'll get out."

"But-!"

"Shut up," she laughs, "I'll be okay. I'll see you guys on the other side."

Raph stares at her for a second more and then nods, turning towards the vortex. Ryu sighs and turns back to the world of white to figure out how she is supposed to leave now, when—

"Ryu."

"Yea-?"

Her breath stops with her heart as he pulls her towards him and kisses her on the cheek. Ryu's whole body freezes up like a block of ice, unable to move from straight up shock. Her brain shuts down. She can't come up with a single thought at all.

What the-? Wh-! Jus-! He-? Wai-! HUH!?

The second he pulls away, he jumps through the vortex and away from her in the span of a second. Ryu can only stand there and blink like a complete moron at the center of the vortex where he had disappeared to.

"MINA!"

The shriek quakes through her like a blazing hot knife and Ryu spins around in a flash against the attack. Behind her, a small portion of the white world is beginning to distort and turn black and gray. The distortion blurs, shifts, and almost turns solid into something like a door; a brief flash of an image shimmers across the surface. Her eyes widen in alarm.

The image is of a person, slamming their fists on the other side of the see-through 'door' as if they're trying to escape from the inside, but it's too blurry to make out any features of the person. All that Ryu can make out is the sound of that shrieking voice dying off again as the 'door' begins to fade back into the white background.

"M…i…..St….RUN!"

Run?, Ryu thinks, narrowing her eyes in confusion, Run from what?

Another bright light swamps her from behind and invisible hands seem to latch onto her shoulders and waist and jerk her back, knocking the wind right out of her.

"Donnie! Guys, you're okay!" April exclaims with tears brimming in her eyes as she smiles down at the turtle slowly waking up in her arms. His big brown eyes blink up at her a little out of focus, but then he grins back up at her.

"H-hi," Donnie replies.

"Glad to see you guys awake, now why isn't she?" Venn demands.

Raph jerks up straight in the chair he sits in, body stiff as a board as if he's been sitting there for years, and his eyes search to find Ryu immediately. His thoughts instantly drift back to what he had done and his face burns under his red mask.

Ryu lay motionless on the floor not far from where Donnie has his head in April's lap. Venus kneels next to her, hand outstretched over the shorter girl's chest where it hovers maybe six inches in the air. Her palm is glowing bright, a neon pink-purple that almost seems to glitter as the power radiates from Venus's hand. Everyone moves to circle around them, studying the event worriedly. Venn more than anyone.

"Why isn't she waking up?" April asks quietly, glancing between Venus and Ryu's still body. The sleeping girl looks almost pale; too pale. "Venus?"

Venus's brows are furrowed fiercely in tight concentration, as if she's fighting some internal battle of tug-of-war. The center of her black pupils are alight with a pink-purple pin-sized dot glow that gets brighter and brighter with each second of intense focus.

"Venus, what's going on? Why isn't she coming back?" Venn asks, kneeling down to touch her stiff shoulder.

Venus opens her mouth, voice sounding stiff and shaken all at the same time, "I…I don't…know. S-something's…blocking her…I can't find her anymore…she's…"

"What do you mean you can't find her?!" Raph shouts.

"Let her concentrate," Venn warns.

"I…just had her…and then she just…slipped…away…I-I can't find her…" Venus continues to mumble to herself as a drop of sweat falls from her forehead.

Raph tightens his hands into fists, chest constricting until he can't catch his breath. He shouldn't have left her; he should've made her come back with him. He should've-.

"Wait!" Venus gasps, eyes widening with a start, "Got her!"

Ryu's body convulses, sucking in a gasping breath as if she'd been drowning, and breaks down into a coughing fit.

"Ryu!" everyone exclaims with relief as the girl sits up shakily. She starts to fall back but Raph drops to his knees behind her to catch her. She's trembling terribly, as if from some internal earthquake within her, catching Raph off guard. His hands tighten anxiously around her shoulders.

"Ryu, calm down," Venus chants to the heaving girl shaking before her, "What the heck is wrong with you?! You look like you've seen a ghost."

Ryu tries her hardest to catch her breath, but nothing works. Her heart is hammering too loud, her lungs are burning, her blood is cold. What had that been? Who had been behind the door? What warning were they trying to pass on to the physical world?

And most importantly, why was she able to hear it?

Another wave of coughs hits her again.

"Hold her or she'll hurt herself!" Venus demands.

Raph wraps his arms around Ryu's shoulders, pinning her gently to his chest so that she can still breathe and fight off her coughs. Once it passes, she collapses back against him and tries to get her breathing under control; her lungs burn like white hot fire.

"She needs to rest," Venn suggests, "Let's take her upstairs."

Ryu can't place the words; their voices are beginning to blur together in a haze. Her eyes start to drift shut against the pounding in her head. She feels like she's floating outside of her body, hovering just outside of reach of her body. The only link she can feel is Raph's arms around her; a strong tie holding her to the physical world.

As darkness overcomes her, Raph's body moves around her, lifting her further into his arms and up off the floor. His words brush over her like a vanishing breeze.

"I've got her."

He's got me…he'll take care of me…he's got me… Ryu smiles despite her sudden exhaustion. He takes the stairs as carefully as he can, wary not to shake her, and shifts her so that her face is nestled protectively against his neck.

Her thoughts drift back to the dream world they had been stuck in just minutes ago, drifting back to the kiss he had placed on her cheek…

Her dry lips part, the remaining sound she can pull from her chest comes out in a raspy whisper, "You pervert."

Author's Note:

Here's a layout of the text affects again:

Italics-any words in this affect are personal Thoughts or Sounds.

Bold-any words in this affect are Computer Messages/Text Messages.

"Bold"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Computer Voices.

"Italics"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Past words/Emphasizing.

"Bold/Italics"-any words in this dual affect inside quotation marks are Past Computer Messages/Past Text Messages.

Bold/Italics-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Earth.

Italics/Underlined-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Spirit Guides.

Bold Underlined-any words in this dual affect are an Unknown Voice.

Please let me know what y'all think so far. Mission "Snotty Nose Pics" was an utter failure...sorry! Lol

-Ravyne