A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Another week, another chapter. And I am so happy to say that I'm only a few reviews away from 100 reviews. Thank you guys so much! You are so awesome for reading and following this story for as long as for you have! Thank you!

I hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 28: Depression and Moriah on the Chase

The day went by, and my mood didn't improve the tiniest bit. The feeling of misery transferred into a depression, and no matter what I did it wouldn't go away. I don't know how long I had stayed in my room before I finally decided to come out, only that when I did come out, the others had just finished eating lunch. And even though no one said anything to me directly, I could feel their looks on the back of my head. I also heard that Starlee and Jhanna had been talking behind my back after I had taken a shower and was on my way to the dining and entertainment room.

"Why do you think he's so depressed? He did so well in that fight, so it couldn't be because of that, could it?" Starlee's voice was so sweet and naive and she clearly sounded concerned, but also a little like she was scared of talking about this. Probably because we hadn't known each other for long and she might be scared of talking about things that weren't her business. Jhanna shrugged and shook her head.

"I don't know. I mean, I've seen how Donnie acts around people, and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to wear his heart on his sleeve. I've only seen him cry once, and even then it was justified. But then again, he's been through quite a bit the past few weeks and it is the first time he's off his home planet, so maybe all that's happened in the past is taking its toll on him." I pressed myself against the wall just beside the door and decided to listen, even though I knew I shouldn't. I wanted to know what these two thought of my attitude.

"What do you think we should do? Just ignore it and let him get through it on his own?" Hearing Starlee asking things like these was like listening to a girl version of Mikey, although a little smarter than him. She sounded so similar that it made my heart clench, and listening to Jhanna, the older sister trying to comfort her younger sister, made me think of Leo. She sighed and placed her arm around Starlee's shoulders.

"I don't know; maybe. I'm just not sure how we would do it, though. He seems pretty reserved about his past and his family. Maybe we should let him come to us, but then again, maybe that's not a good idea, either. Ugh! Why are you asking me this, Starlee? You're the sympathetic and compassionate one, not me!" Starlee pulled away from her sister, a little surprised at her outburst, and then relaxed a little. They sat there, quiet for a few minutes, until Starlee turned to Jhanna again.

"Who do you think those other creatures were? Those three that look like him and that strange furry one? Do you suppose they have something to do with it? You've known him longer than I have- has he ever mentioned something about other creatures like him?" Jhanna seemed to remember something, but before she could answer I walked away from the door. I didn't want to hear any more of that. I walked over to the stairs and sat down on the highest step, placed my head in my hands and rested my elbows on my knees, sighing heavily.

I was in a funk, and I had no idea how to get out of it. Nothing I tried to do seemed to help. Not training, not showering, not working at the computers and watching TV in the dining and entertainment room. And it didn't help that my friends were talking behind my back 'cause they didn't know if they should talk to me about it.

In a way I was thankful that they didn't come to me and try to, more or less, force me out of my bad mood or try to cheer me up with everything they had in store like my brothers would do back home. They gave me space, but were at least considerate enough to talk about whether that would be the tactic in order to help me. That felt pretty nice, especially considering I had only known them for a month at most or a few days at least. My brothers didn't always show that much consideration, and just tried whatever they could to get me to cheer up, and if it didn't succeed, they'd just leave to 'mope and dope' as long as I wanted to, as they said. At the very least these guys wanted to actually help me- they just didn't know how to do it.

"Donatello? Are you alright, my boy?" I looked up from the floor and saw the Professor look down on me. After spending some at the computers with him, I had started to figure out how to see what 'emotion' he had at the moment. His eyes would sometimes change to different kinds of pupils, like emojis, in a way. And right now, I could see he was concerned and a little curious.

"Uh… yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little out of sorts right now. I'll be fine, just give a day or so, and I'll be fine in no time." He didn't exactly look convinced and sat down beside me, placing his hand on my shoulder and smiling gently at me with his eyes. His mouth, not so much.

"Are you sure? It seems to me as though you're trying to suppress something. I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I hope you know that you can talk to me. I might be able to help you." I looked at him and tried to smile, though it felt pretty forced.

"Thank you, Professor, but I don't think that's necessary. I've had days like these before and they don't last very long. I'm fine. Really." The Professor nodded and removed his hand from my shoulder, but he didn't seem to be entirely convinced. But I was grateful that he at least knew when to back off, and didn't pester me to talk or think of something else, like Mikey and Raph and sometimes even Leo (though that was pretty rare) did.

Suddenly an alarm went off and the computers started to blink at us, indicating that something was wrong. The Professor and I flew up from the stairs and ran up to the main computers just as Starlee came running into the room with Jhanna right behind her. Through another door, Mona Lisa and Traximus came running as well.

"What's going on? Are we under attack?!" Mona Lisa asked, and I could see that she was scared. I took a second to look at her face and body language and realized that she looked like an animal, ready to defend herself but also ready to flee if she had to. I felt a twinge of sympathy hit me. She was probably afraid the Triceratons had caught up with us and would take her back to the prison.

The Professor searched through the computers and I looked over his shoulder to see what he was typing- he was scanning the area around us to try and see if any ships were close to us. And after a few minutes we could see a small black dot on the screen.

"There's a ship after us! It's a rather far distance away from us, but it's closing in! And it appears to be a Federation ship." The Federation? They were after us, too? Ugh, great! As if having the Triceratons after us wasn't bad enough, we also had the Federation and the crazy warrior princess after us, too. I growled in frustration, but before I could say anything, Jhanna groaned and slammed the back of her head against the wall.

"Oh, great! You know, for a second there I was scared this mission was gonna be too easy!" I turned to her, wide-eyed. I couldn't have said it better myself. She had taken the words straight out of my mouth there. I had been ready to say the exact same thing. I smirked at her and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What exactly are you saying over there, Bluebell? You're not up for the challenge?" I had started to understand that she hated being called 'princess', and it was kinda fun to tease her that way. But I thought that was something that could get old really fast, so when I tried to tease her, I wanted to be a little original. She glared at me for a second until she saw my smirk and smirked back at me, placed her hands on her sides and cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Oh, don't you worry about me, tough guy. You should worry about your own shell, or they might kick it into next month. So stop yakking and think of something, shell-brain." I rolled my eyes at her, chuckled lightly and turned back to the screen that showed how far away that ship was in relation to us. It was then that I realized that it was first time today that I'd laughed. Had I really been that depressed?

I shook my head to clear it and pressed on the small dot, and some information came up. I felt my blood freeze in my veins when I saw how close they actually were.

"Oh, man. They're way closer than I'd like them to be. If we don't go faster, or slow them down somehow, they'll catch up to us before we get to that wormhole." I leaned back in my seat and sighed heavily. Starlee came up to the computers and looked over the info we had, seemingly in deep thought- a look I recognized all too well, so I knew better than to disturb her right now.

"Well, we are only about a day away from the wormhole to Filione, and if we increase the speed from eleven to fifteen, then we should get there in less than fifteen hours. We'd probably be there before lunch tomorrow. And thankfully, you can't track a wormhole, so if we go through there, they'll hopefully lose us long enough for us to come up with a way to disguise our ship." The Professor hummed as he thought it over.

"Yes, that might work. But can't go too fast or we'll waste fuel. And we don't have money to buy any more, should we have to." I bit my lip and tried to come up with something myself, but then Mona Lisa came up to us with a tentative look on her face.

"Uh, excuse me? I- I have suggestion." We looked up at her, and she looked almost scared to say what she wanted to. And for a second I didn't see the bratty and disinterested Mona Lisa I had gotten to know over the past few days. Instead I saw that little Salamandarian girl I'd defended against those big, strong aliens. Scared, unsure and not very steady on her feet. I nodded, tried to look encouraging and gestured with my hand at her to keep talking. She took a deep breath, played a little with her long hair and looked down at the floor. "Well, my people aren't really a technological species. We've lived in the woods for as long as anyone can remember. But we have ships and we have fuel for when do need to leave our world- to go to different planets or something. I'm sure they'd be willing to give you some fuel as thanks for bringing me home. We're not the bravest, the strongest or the smartest, but we care for our people, and if one of us is in danger, we will help them. They'll be very grateful." Starlee smiled at her and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"That's great! Thanks, Mona!" Mona Lisa looked a little surprised at the enthusiasm in her voice, and she froze when she touched her shoulder, like she both didn't like it and didn't expect it. But when she saw how Starlee smiled at her, she tried to smile back- even if it looked forced and stiff, like she wasn't used to smiling. I nodded at her and looked over at the Professor and Starlee.

"Great. Now, you heard the Salamandarian. Let's make the changes and get as far away from the Federation as possible. Starlee, adjust the engines and try to turn off any traceable signal. We don't want to take any chances with them finding us." She nodded, her smile completely gone, and now looked completely serious as she started to work. I turned to the Professor.

"Professor, increase the speed to sixteen. If that's not enough, go to twenty. But not above that, the fuel wouldn't last long enough for the trip to Zerij." He nodded and started to work.

"Right-o, Captain!" I froze a little at the word 'captain' and considered saying that I wasn't the captain on this ship, but after some thinking I decided to ignore it and looked through the files to find any way to disguise our ship long enough for us to get to the wormhole without Moriah being able to spot us. And, as much as the situation was a problem right now, I was thankful for the distraction given to me. I could think of something else, something other than my family or anything else and it was the first time today I didn't feel depressed. But I also knew that the second the problem was solved and we could walk away from the control room, I would start thinking about it again, and would be just as depressed again. And that thought alone started to make me depressed.

I looked out over the vast black space outside of the big window with my hands on the metal railing, and shifted most of my weight onto the railing. The stars we passed by all seemed to blink at me, as if saying, 'you're pathetic, you're pathetic'. My thoughts raced at a thousand miles per light-second. My current situation was very serious and it was imperative for me to find the Fugitoid, that wretched reptile and my sisters as quickly as possible. If I couldn't do that, I could never go home again. And it would all be because of that stupid reptile. After everything I had done to become the warrior and leader I am today, my father was ready to banish me for things out of my control.

All my life I had trained, worked and studied everything my father told me I needed to know in order to become the leader of D'hoonib. And I had never questioned him, never disobeyed him and had never tried to fight him because I didn't understand or agree with him. I mean, Father knows best, after all. And this was what he did to thank me. Threaten to banish me because one stupid alien had decided to interfere with our plans.

I sighed, lowered my head and looked through the window. I had to find them, destroy the enemy and bring my sisters home again. And if I managed to bring the Fugitoid with me, Father had to be proud of me. He just had to. If that didn't make him start to appreciate me, then I didn't know what would.

"Um, Miss Moriah?" I turned around to watch as one of my soldiers walked in through the doors and up at me. I took a breath and turned away from the window, approaching the man.

"I hope you have some news that I can use. What did you find?" He looked away from me and down at his techno-notepad. He pressed on the surface a few times and a holographic image of the ship that Starlee had stolen appeared.

"This is the ship that your sister stole from our fleets. It's not one of our own ships, but the technology is similar enough for us to hack into." He gulped and looked down at the floor, as if scared or nervous. "U-unfortunately, someone or something managed to block the signal before we could gather very much information." What? He couldn't be serious right now. I smacked him across the face, grabbed him by the collar of his overalls and stared into his eyes.

"What?! You cannot seriously stand here and tell me that a little girl, more than half your age, managed to outsmart you! I told you, I do not support incompetence!" He shivered under my gaze and seemed to shrink. He transformed from a full-grown man into a small child.

"I- I don't think it was your sister. S-she is very intelligent, there is no doubt about that, but she is not smart enough to block the signal of an entire ship's computer system. That is something only the most brilliant of scientists can do." I grumbled under my breath, turned away from the soldier and stared down at the floor for a second.

"Honeycutt." I held back my growl of anger and then looked back at the soldier, who was still shivering in fear, and then let go of his collar. "Ugh, very well, then. What did you manage to find before the signal was blocked?" He took a breath and turned back to his was blocked?" He took a breath and turned back to his notepad.

"W-well, we found out that they are headed for a wormhole that, if the calculations are correct, will go to Filione, a planet where no technology has been allowed for hundreds and thousands of years. But it seems like they are truly headed for another planet; Zerij, a planet with very little intelligent life and little to no inhabitants." Zerij? They were headed for that hellhole? How could they be so stupid? Did they have a death wish?

"Zerij? Are you sure, soldier?" He nodded and I placed my hands on my sides, paced around in the room a little and then looked back up at him once more.

"Alright, then. Follow them, but stay as far away from them as you can without losing track of them. Let them fall into a false sense of security, and then, when they arrive at Zerij, we attack!" He saluted and left, and I walked back up to the window and looked out across space.

"Well, Terrapin. I don't know what goes on in your head to make you want to go to such a horrible, deadly and dangerous planet as Zerij, but if you truly want to stand face to face with the Wendigo, then who am I to stop you? Just know that the moment you fall dead upon that sour, unholy ground, it will be by my sword..."

A/N: Okay, something I should say, right off the bat, is that I am in love with some stories by Stephen King. Carrie, Pet Sematary, The Green Mile, The Shining as well as some others. And even though I haven't read all of the books, I was still inspired to use some of his ideas in my story. So if you are a fan and recognize some elements, just be assured, I am not trying to steal any of his ideas. I was just inspired by some of them. And some of the planets we are going to visit in the future will have either small or bigger ideas based on his stories. Just so you know.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!