A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Hi guys.

Serious time again. So, yesterday I was asked to meet my father in the city, because we were gonna visit my aunt and my cousins. I thought it was weird, but went into the city anyway. I arrive, and I find out my grandpa's partner is dead. The day after my little sister died two years ago. It became a bit much for me, so I guess you could say I collapsed a little mentally yesterday. So, some parts of this chapter are probably not as good as they could have been, but I've been stuck trying to write this chapter for three weeks now and wanted to get it done, so please take this chapter with a pinch of salt.

Thanks in advance for understanding, and please review, favorite and follow.

Chapter 48, Deep in the Caves

Our troops landed on the west side of the planet and immediately lined up outside the ships, awaiting my orders. Or, more correctly, Zanramon's orders. How that little lump of fat had made it to Prime Leader was still beyond me. He had no strength or courage, so how had it happened? The only thing he cared about was finding the Kraang and destroying them for destroying our home. And, sure, it was the only intelligent thing he had thought of, but he never seemed to think of anything else, like what was best for our people or how to handle our other enemies or problems.

Not to say that physical strength is what makes a strong, capable leader, but if our leader barely reaches the average height of a Triceraton on top of needing to steal other ideas and claim them as his own in order to feel smart himself, then that leader is little more than a failure. The only thing he had going for him was his silver tongue. And even that had quite a few hiccups in his register.

I sighed and pushed those other thoughts aside, looking out over the troops in front of me. "Alright, men! You know your mission: find that fragment of the Heart of Darkness and bring it back to Prime Leader Zanramon. You know our Prime Leader does not accept failure. And neither do I. Find that fragment and destroy anyone that gets in your way! Is that understood?"

"Sir yessir!" The soldiers saluted me and I smirked at them.

"Good. Now, split up into teams and search through those caves, top to bottom. Lethal force is permitted." My soldiers saluted me again and split into five teams, heading off in separate directions. I grabbed my gun and axe and followed one of the teams into one of the tunnels, ready for anything to show up.

I don't know what was worse: sitting still and doing nothing or to sitting still and doing nothing and being worried. The Professor had made the decision for us to stay inside the ship, since being outside would be too dangerous, so were all sitting in control room- so we could see when the girls came back- and it was clear that we were all restless and worried. The Professor was sitting down on the steps that led to the door to the stealth ship and was toying with his fingers. Traximus was leaning against a wall and sharpening the blade of his axe. And I, well... I was trying to calm my nerves. Can't say I was doing a good job, though. I was pacing with my hands gripping each other behind my back, trying to breathe calmly and think positively. Again, can't say it was really working. It also didn't help that pain shot up my leg with every step I took, but I just couldn't bring myself to stop walking; though I couldn't help but whimper or grunt in pain under my breath with each step. After a good ten minutes The Professor looked up with concern.

"Donatello, please, sit down. You're only going to make your leg worse by walking around so much without your crutch. And it will take longer for the wound to heal."

I looked at him over my shoulder and grimaced angrily at him. "Ugh, bite me!" I snapped at him before I resumed my pacing. The Fugitoid winced a little, then sighed and left the room. Traximus sighed and put his axe aside, sitting down on another set of steps and patting the space beside him.

"Donatello, come. Sit down with me." I stopped walking, looked over at him for a while, then rolled my eyes and walked over at him, sitting down on the steps beside him, resting my arms in my lap and looking down at the floor. Traximus sighed and looked over at me. "Donatello, I understand that you are worried, but you have to calm down. If you keep this up, you'll only end up hurting yourself and your leg. The girls will be fine. Both Jhanna and Mona Lisa are more than capable of taking care of themselves and they'll be able to protect Starlee if they get into any sort of trouble." I let out a breath and threw my hands down into my lap.

"Yes, I know, but what if something goes wrong down there? I mean, who knows what could be down there that the computers didn't show us? Or what if the Triceratons find them and-" Traximus just shushed me, placed a hand on my shoulder and shook it lightly, but still ended up up shaking me more than I think he meant to.

"Oh hush now, Donatello- and don't forget to breathe. They will be fine; I have faith in those girls. Now you should go and try to relax a little. Just sit down for a bit, take a shower, get a cup of tea, read a book or do something else to get your thoughts off this. You have to try and think of something else for a bit." He patted me on the shoulder and smiled. "You'll feel a lot better afterwards." I sighed and leaned back a little.

"Yeah, I guess I need to relax a little bit." Traximus nodded and stood up and started to walk over to the dining and entertainment room to, I guess, train a little. But then, watching his hulking form retreat, I was suddenly reminded of what I had seen in the woods earlier and called out to Traximus.

"Hey, Traximus?" He turned around to look over at me. I nervously bit my lip and pressed my knees together. "Do you think the Wendigo is real?" Traximus looked at me with wide eyes then shook his head.

"I don't know. I don't know where the Wendigo could possibly come from, or how it's possible for a creature like that to exist. But, then again, this planet seems highly unnatural, so it could be possible." I drew my legs closer to my chest and shuddered, suddenly feeling a lot colder. I usually wasn't one to be scared by ghost stories, since I was always bothered by the fact that they didn't make sense scientifically. Which, by the way, had frustrated my brothers to no end when we were kids. Yeah, I hadn't been that fun to have around when my brothers wanted to tell ghost stories and freak each other out. I, on the other hand, had never been bothered by ghost stories or monsters and demons, since I knew they couldn't possibly be real. It wasn't until Sensei pulled me aside and told me that I had to understand that they were stories and meant to be enjoyed. And even if I didn't find them scary, I could just sit back and listen to the stories while my brothers scared themselves out of their shells. No need to ruin the fun for them, right? And I did listen, and started to enjoy them more and more as I grew older, but I never found the stories about monsters or demons to be scary or unsettling. But this particular story really made my skin crawl and made me feel a bit apprehensive. The Professor noticed this as he came out of the dining room and came up to me with a cup of hot chocolate in his hand.

"Don't worry, Donatello. The Wendigo is more than likely just a monster the Salamandarians came up with to scare their children with or to find a reason for what happened to this planet. And even if it does exist, which I highly doubt, I do not think it can come in here, or get down into the caves. There's nothing alive down there, so why would it go to the trouble? The girls will be fine." He gave me the cup and rested a comforting hand on my shoulder. I looked down and sipped on the hot chocolate and the worry started to dissolve in my stomach. It wasn't entirely gone, but I started to feel a little better. I smiled.

"Thank you. Both of you." Traximus smiled and left the room, and the Professor walked up to the computers to turn of some of the ship's functions so we could spare fuel; I stayed where I was on the steps and sipped on my chocolate. But even though I wasn't quite as worried anymore, I still looked out at the forest outside the window. Although it wasn't as strong anymore, my worry was still there and made think of the girls, down in those caves.

'I hope you're okay, girls. And please, be safe.'

I sighed and reached down into my belt, digging out my t-Phone and looking at the photo of my family that I had decided to use for a background. It had been taken the day we had defeated the Kraang in that first invasion and were partying in the dojo. The smiling faces and poses of my brothers and April gave me another pang of homesickness that hit me right in the heart. I could've been there right now. If it hadn't been for my own stupidity and thoughtlessness, none of this would have happened. I would be home with my brothers and we would go out and try to fight the Kraang and the Foot Clan to protect our city from danger. And I could've still had April to cheer me up with her mere presence whenever I felt down. But instead I was mixed up in saving an entire planet, and had to put my trust into the hands of aliens that were a little more than strangers. And right now we were on a planet of Death with some kind of demon possibly walking around. I sighed and rested my head in my hands.

"Oh man, what have I gotten myself into?"

The only sounds we could hear for the next twenty minutes were water dripping from the ceiling of the cave, the beeping of Donnie's little tracking-amulet-thing, and our own footsteps. The air was a little clearer down here than it had been up there, so we had all taken off our helmets, but the smell of rotten flesh was still mixed with the smell of cave water and moss. None of us felt like saying anything, or knew what to say. Jhanna was taking the lead and had a flashlight in one hand and her sword in the other. I was walking behind Mona and Jhanna and had a flashlight in my hand, and I couldn't help but look at the surroundings. It was just so cool to see a real cave, even if it was really scary at the same time. Mona was carrying a flashlight and Donnie's little tracker, and it seemed to tell us we were getting closer. The beeping had grown louder and faster as we got farther and farther into the caves. But I would be lying if I said it wasn't annoying to listen to that beeping for this long.

Jhanna seemed to think so too. After a few minutes, she groaned and glared down at the tracker in my hand. "Ugh, he just had to make that thing beep, didn't he? I swear, I can't concentrate on my thoughts anymore- all I hear is that beeping!" Mona rolled her eyes and looked to the side, mumbling 'what thoughts?' to herself, but Jhanna didn't seem to hear her. Then she sighed and placed one hand on her hip.

"Well, it wouldn't do much if it was just glowing, would it? I mean, at least the beeping's telling us that we're getting closer to what we're looking for, right?" Jhanna rolled her eyes and drew her fingers through her bangs.

"Yes, I realize that! But with the way that thing is beeping it's only a matter of time before someone else hears it. We might as well just yell at the Triceratons that we're here and send them coordinates." Mona lowered her flashlight and glared over at Jhanna.

"I didn't see you think of anything better when we were discussing tactics up at the ship. If you had any better ideas, why didn't you say anything?" Jhanna glared back and took a step towards her.

"Hey, watch your tone with me, Forest Girl. You know I can-" I rolled my eyes, placed a hand on their shoulders and pushed them apart, like Donnie had done with both of them back at the ship.

"Hey, stop it! We don't have time for this! The Triceratons are probably down on this planet, too. And even more likely is that they're around here looking for the device. And your yelling at each other is just gonna attract their attention. If they find out we're here, we're all gonna be in big trouble. So I suggest you girls take whatever issues you two have with each other, suck them up, and deal with it later. Now, come on!" I pushed myself past Jhanna, snatched the tracker from Mona's hand and took the lead, walking further down the cave and not waiting for any response. Jhanna grumbled a little and started to walk after me. But I could hear her mumble to herself:

"When did you suddenly grow a backbone?" I stopped short in my tracks, turned around and looked her straight in the eyes and tried my best to stare her down like Donnie had done. And this time it seemed to work, as she jerked back a little and her annoyed glare or sly smirk was long gone. But before she could say anything, I stomped my foot as hard as I could. I had had just about enough of her attitude.

"Okay, you listen up, Jhanna. I don't know what your problem is, and frankly I don't really care. But I decided to come along on this mission because I wanted to make sure the Triceratons stop terrorizing the galaxy and won't blow up our friend's home! I want to do something good for once, and not just be associated with a species that cause pain and death to others! And Donnie has trusted us with the fate of his whole planet! I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna break that trust. This mission is bigger than both of us. Billions of lives are at stake here, and guess what? You don't know as much as you think you do, and you don't know best just because of how you grew up! So I suggest that you zip it, 'cause no one here is interested in listening to your holier-than-thou attitude!" Jhanna looked at me with wide eyes and her mouth hung open. Even Mona stared at me, but she had more admiration in her eyes. Then Jhanna seemed to shake herself out of her daze and tried to look at me with the same indifference she usually had.

"What exactly are you trying to say here, Starlee?"

I barely let her finish that sentence and never once broke eye contact with her. "I'm saying that I'm not gonna put up with your crud anymore, Jhanna, and no one else on our team should be forced to, so why don't you just take your attitude and stuff it!" I gave her one last glare, then turned around and kept walking down the dark tunnel. I let out a breath and suddenly felt a little giddy. I had done it. I had finally had the guts to say what I wanted to Jhanna and didn't back down. Finally! Maybe now she would stop looking at me like I had no brains or like I was a stupid brat and she knew best about everything. Mona came running up to me with a small smile on her face and she lightly punched me on the shoulder.

"Nice, there, Star. I was starting to wonder how long it would take for you to stand up to her." I looked down at her and raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think I went too far, did you?" Mona smirked and shook her head lightly.

"Are you kidding? It was about time someone knocked her down a few pegs. Her ego needs it." I heard Jhanna growl behind us and she shoved her way through us and took the lead again. I caught a glimpse of her face and it was scrunched up in anger, but for a split second I could swear I saw a bit of hurt. But I only got a second to look at her before she was five feet ahead of me and both Mona and I had hurry a little so we wouldn't lose her. The next following minutes were just as silence, only this time it felt much more awkward. I looked up at Jhanna and suddenly she looked so lonely. She and Mona obviously didn't like each other that much, but now after I had blown up at her, she suddenly didn't look half as tough she always tried to look. I bit my lip and looked away from her. I didn't want to feel bad, but the feeling still managed to sneak its way through the walls I tried to build up to keep them out.

I started to look around the cave again to distract myself from my thoughts and feelings, but then something on the wall made me stop short in my tracks and stare at the marks I saw. My eyes widened a little and I took a few steps closer to get a better look. I hummed to myself and examined it, thinking over what the Professor and Donnie had said back on Filione and on the ship, then I turned to look at Mona and Jhanna, who had kept walking a bit further down the tunnel.

"Hey, guys? Didn't Donnie and the Professor say that there was nothing alive on this planet?" I heard Jhanna sigh lightly and then she turned to look at me over her shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, they did." I turned back to the wall and tilted my head.

"Then what the heck could have done this?" Both Mona and Jhanna stopped and looked back at me, looked at each other and then came running back to see what I had found. Not exactly a very comforting sight. In the cave wall were long, deep and crooked marks, running from the ceiling almost all the way down to the ground. And the tunnels weren't that high to begin with. What made it worse was that there were more than a few marks; there had to be at least ten pairs of scratches on either side on the tunnel. Mona leaned in close to the marks in the wall, examining them with a careful eye.

"Hm, claw marks," she muttered to herself and ran her fingers over them. Jhanna nodded and directed her flashlight at them.

"Yeah, huge claw marks." She ran her fingers against the edge of one of the scratches and then looked at her fingers, seeing a little dust on them. "Looks like they're fresh, too, but that's impossible. There's nothing down here." Mona retracted her hand from the wall and folded her arms over her chest.

"Nothing according to the computers, anyway." She was just stating the truth, but it was still an uncomfortable truth to face. Just because the computers said something, didn't necessarily make it true. And, who knew? It might the Wendigo himself down here. We fell into silence again, then Jhanna shook her head and gestured at us to keep going.

"Come on, we have to keep moving. If there really is something down here, we don't want it to figure out where we are. Or that we're here at all. Let's go." She placed an arm around me and led me down the tunnel and Mona came after us, if not a little tentatively, and we kept walking. Jhanna eventually removed her arm from me, but I kinda wished she had kept it there. Knowing there might be a monster down here, or maybe even the Wendigo himself, suddenly made me feel like this wasn't quite as exciting an adventure anymore.

The tunnel led downwards for a few miles. After a while I started to wonder how far down under the ground we were, but it just kept going and going. The ground became a bit steeper, so after awhile we started walk slower and more cautiously to make sure we wouldn't slip and hurt ourselves or slide all the way down to the bottom.

'Why would anyone willingly go down here, anyway? One wrong step and you could break your neck,' I thought to myself, and almost slipped when I stepped on a few small pebbles. But Donnie's amulet-thingy was going off like crazy and the beeping got louder and quicker the deeper we walked, which meant we were going the right way.

Finally, after walking down that steep slope for what felt like hours, the tunnel finally opened itself up and we walked out into a big cave with a small opening in the roof where moonlight shone through, lighting up the cave. Thankfully the ground was flat and felt a lot better to walk on. In the middle of the cave was a huge hole, which revealed one of those underground lakes that the Professor had told us about. I felt really thirsty, so I walked over to the lake, knelt down at the edge and scooped up some water in my hands and brought it up to my nose. It smelled alright. But... despite how thirsty I was and how raw and dry my throat felt after so much walking, I didn't want to take the risk of drinking the water. I mean, if the planet was consumed by Black Matter, then why would the water be any different?

I let the water slip through my fingers and watched as it rippled the surface, and looked down at the few luminescent fish that swam around down there. Most of them were light blue, but there were some purple and one or two yellow. But then something else caught my eyes. For a split second I thought I saw something else move down there. Now, there wasn't that much light down in this cave, and the light from the fish wasn't that strong, so I couldn't see what it was, if there was something. But I could swear that I saw something glowing down there- they looked like a pair of bright red eyes. But after just a second they were gone, so I just assumed my eyes had deceived me.

Mona sighed and relief and sat down on the ground, leaning back against the wall.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted. I need a break." Jhanna nodded and sat down close to her and wiped her sweaty forehead, but as I got back up on my feet, something on the other side of the lake caught my eye, and I looked over at the others with surprise.

"What, now? But we're so close to-" Jhanna glared up at me and brushed her hair from her eyes.

"Starlee, we've been walking for almost three hours now. We need to rest." I smiled slyly and pointed to my right.

"Really? You want to rest now, when we finally found what we were looking for?" Both Jhanna and Mona looked and then got to their feet when they saw what I was pointing at. A few feet away from the lake, in a slightly smaller cave, we saw something. It was made out of metal, shaped like an arc, and bigger than all three of us. But there was no denying what it was.

"The Black Hole Generator piece! I can't believe it, we found it!" Jhanna and I were about to run to the cave, but Mona quickly grabbed our arms and held us back.

"Wait! Doesn't this seem a little too easy? I mean, it's just lying there. This is a piece to the most dangerous weapon ever created, and it's open for anyone to take." Jhanna rolled her eyes and snatched her arm out of her grip.

"Who cares, Mona Lisa? We found it before the Triceratons did; now we have to grab it and get out of here before they get here! Come on!" She ran up to the device with me and Mona not too far behind. As we got closer, we saw how big the thing was and no doubt it was heavier than it looked. But we had found it, and right now that was all I cared about. Jhanna was about to walk up to it, but I stopped her.

"Wait, we should try to get rid of that Black Matter before we touch it. We'll see if Donnie's device works, just in case." I walked up to the device, still with Donnie's amulet in my hand, but was careful not to get too close or to let the substance touch me. The end was dripping with something, something black that looked like oil. I looked down at the device in my hand and then back at the machine.

"Okay, what do I do now?" I remembered the button that opened the thing and pressed it, hoping it would give some answers. The effect was immediate. The second after the amulet opened itself, the oil-like substance seemed to float out of the machine or up from the ground and flew through the air, flowing into the device, until every single drop of it was seemingly gone and the amulet slammed itself shut. It all happened under just a few seconds, but it still left us all surprised. I looked up at the girls and they looked up at me.

"Whoa..." We all said in perfect unison. I looked down at the device in my hand and then put it around my neck, so I could use both hands to lift the fragment. "Now, come on. Let's get this thing and get out." They nodded and we moved to lift the thing. It wasn't quite as heavy as I thought it was gonna be, but it was still really, really heavy. It took all of our combined strength to lift it three feet off the ground, and that was not much. And we were much slower now, since we couldn't exactly run with it in our carry. Mona grunted and her face turned a darker shade of green as she struggled to lift it.

"Ugh, I just hope Donnie's not expecting us to be back soon." None of us answered, but we all silently agreed with her. It took us three hours to get down here, and it would most likely take us twice as long to get back up there. At the very least. I strained my own muscles to help us much as I could, though it really wasn't much compared to Jhanna and Mona, who had been training and fighting all of their lives while I had been stuck inside a computer room or a classroom my whole life.

"Well, look on the bright side: at least the Triceratons aren't here." I'd barely let the words leave my mouth before a loud *BOOM* was heard at the other end of the cave and a bunch of big, bulky forms stormed in. When the dust finally settled we saw that they were Triceratons, about five or six of them, and they all had weapons in their hands. Their leader, Zog, had a bigger gun in his hand and I assumed he had used it to create the opening they came through. His eyes quickly fell on us.

"You again? What are YOU doing here?" Then his eyes fell on the big piece of machinery we tried to carry between us and pointed at us with his gun. "They have the Heart of Darkness! Stop them!"

Jhanna glared at me over her shoulder. "You just had to jinx it, didn't you?!" She rested the weight of the machine on her shoulder and grabbed the gun she kept in her belt, aiming it at the Triceratons, and Mona Lisa did the same thing, grabbing the knife she carried around with her. The Triceratons took aim as well and were about to fire at us. But Zog just smirked wickedly at us and rested his gun over his shoulder.

"Alright, girls, take it easy. Put down your weapons. We wouldn't anyone to get hurt, would we? Just hand over the Heart of Darkness, and we might consider letting you get out of here with your lives." Mona sneered at him and gripped her knife tighter.

"Yeah, right, Zog. As if you'd ever walk out on a chance to beat up kids who are smaller than you! We're not stupid, and you're not getting this piece!" Zog narrowed his eyes at us.

"Well then. I suppose I will just have to kill you, and then take the piece from you. How does that sound?" Jhanna and Mona just glared at him, ready to fight. But in the corner of my eye, I saw the red things in the lake come back and get closer to the surface. I narrowed my eyes at what I saw and my idea that they were eyes become stronger.

"Uh, Jhanna...?" Jhanna shook her head at me.

"Not now, Starlee. We have to get this piece out of here, ASAP."

"Yeah, but Jhanna, I really think that we should-" I didn't get that far before something came bursting out of the lake with a loud screech. A long, furry tentacle-looking arm with long sharp, crab-like claws came bursting through the water and swiped at the Triceratons, making them fly straight into the wall. Zog managed to jump out of the way and started to shoot at it. The monster screeched even louder and another arm came out of the lake and swiped at us before it started to attack Zog again, who just kept shooting at it. We got the Black Hole Generator piece over us, so it took a while for us to get back on our feet and pick up the device again. The monster had managed to scratch my arm with its claw, Mona had hit her face against the ground and had a few bruises on her cheek and around her eye, and Jhanna had scraped her leg on a sharp rock, but otherwise we were okay.

The monster had now shot up two other tentacles and tried to fight off the Triceratons, who were firing at it like madmen. Mona gaped at it with big eyes and I tried my best to hide behind the others.

"What is that thing?" Mona asked with fear in her voice. Jhanna looked over at the fight with the monster and the Triceratons, then up at the roof, then behind us at the tunnel came through, then gestured at us to move closer to the opening. When we had taken a few steps inside the tunnel again, she pointed her gun at the roof.

"A distraction." That was all she said before she fired and a couple of boulders fell from the roof, blocking the tunnel completely. We lit our flashlights again and started to pull the big device up the steep, slippery slope we had just finished walking down not ten minutes ago, but we still heard Zog's voice through all those big, heavy rocks.

"Stop them! Blow up those rocks if you have to! Do not let them get away!" Jhanna shoved me forward and gave me her flashlight.

"Starlee, you show the way with the light! Mona, help me carry this thing! We can't stop for a second. This won't stop them for long, we have to keep moving!" And so we started up the steep slope again, with me in the lead and doing my best to not walk too fast, since the girls would not be able to keep up. But it's not easy to walk up such a steep slope, knowing the enemy was right behind you and also knowing you couldn't go too fast because your friends couldn't walk as fast you.

You know, suddenly splitting up didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

A/N: Uh oh, trouble down in the caves! Well, here's to hoping they'll get out alright. I'm sorry if the monster came a bit out of nowhere, but don't worry, it will serve a bit of purpose the next following chapters and it's not just something I threw in because I had to come up with ideas on how they would escape the Triceratons. I wanted to have a monster down in the caves, so I made one up! Or is there more of them? Hmm...

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