Yes, you're worth the price

Leonardo was blinded by the light for a few vital seconds, and the thug twisted out of his hold. Darkness fell back over the alley, and Leo surveyed it intently. Charon had completely vanished in the confusion.

All the supernatural entities had disappeared. The creepy moving shadows included.

They should be going too. The police were probably on their way after that light show. It might be a few more minutes before someone was brave enough to phone it in, but they couldn't count on it.

Leo regarded the carnage in the alley around him impassively. He expected to feel guilty about these people. Instead, all he felt was a sort of grim relief that they could no longer harm his mate.

Never again.

He noted that a few of them had been taken out with blunt force trauma and not damage from his blades. He wasn't alone in his vengeance. Shaking his head, Leo closed his eyes and forced himself through some calming exercises. His bloodlust was slowly replaced with a more immediate concern for his family.

He moved toward his brothers. They were coming around; testing their muscles and climbing to their feet. He checked Donnie over carefully, but his wounds seemed superficial; mostly cuts and bruises.

He gave Raph a visual once over from a few feet away, knowing his brother well enough that he wouldn't approach until the battle rush wore off.

"Geez Leo," Raph said, still shaking his head to clear it. "How come d'at immortal creep didn't drop ya' like it did us?" His voice deepened with anger and scorn.

Leo ignored his tone. Losing made Raph angry and even after all these years, Raph hated looking weaker than Leo. Leo sighed. Some things would never change, no matter how close they got.

"Luna." Leonardo answered quietly, watching jealousy flare in Raph's eyes.

Raphael quickly suppressed the emotion. Luna was not his. She deserved Leo. He was sure Leo knew how he felt; he also knew Leo forgave him for it. Constantly. It was in his nature.

Leo continued with his explanation, choosing his words very carefully. There was no reason to hurt his brother further.

"The other night, when she… stepped in to stop my nightmares... she wove me a" Leo paused looking for the correct term. "shield."

Leonardo was about to explain further when Don interrupted.

"Uh guys," he was moving toward the back of the alley into the dead end. There was a small flickering pulse of light that looked very familiar. Raph and Leo moved closer to check it out.

"Sol?" Don asked, surprised, as Leo's eyes widened.

But this wasn't Sol. Leo had never seen Sol change color. Even when it was enraged at Luna's 'condition' in the Fall, it was still blue.

Leo shuddered, shying away from that memory, unable to acknowledge the fact she had died. She was still recovering and it hurt to even think about. He forced himself to focus on the here and now, dismissing those thoughts. She was safe at home with Michelangelo standing guard.

This fire creature was definitely red. But it looked just the same. Could it be one of the missing pieces?

"It must have been the red that we saw in the crystal." Donatello said keeping his voice low. He remembered how skittish Sol was when it first encountered them. "I wonder... does he already have the others?"

He and Raph exchanged a quick glance and fell back as one when Leo approached. After all, the first piece had bonded to him immediately. They didn't want to impede this one.

Leonardo made his way slowly over to where the little red flame was hovering near the back of the alley. He smoothed his voice to be as gentle as possible.

"Hello, little one. Are you injured? Were you trapped in that crystal?"

Leo waited for some kind of response. It flinched back when he first started speaking and now looked like it was trying to flatten itself against the brick wall behind it.

"Don't be afraid." Leo tried again quietly. "I have a friend like you named Sol. What's your name?"

Silence.

Leo exchanged a wary glance with Don. They couldn't stay in this alley much longer, the police might be here any minute.

Leo turned back to address the little red flame, but it had moved. It was floating slowly and cautiously away from him and toward... Raphael?

Raph backed up a step and it stopped. He looked at Leo confused. Leo gave him a nod that said, "You try, we've got to get out of here!"

Raph glared at him and mumbled "Are ya' kiddin'?" under his breath, but Leo just gave a little hurry up motion.

"Uh... 'Ey little flame thing." Raphael said awkwardly. "What's ya' name?"

Great, he thought. Ya' sound real intelligent there, tough guy.

fina.

It was a very quiet, hesitant projection, not at all like Sol's bright little tone. Raph froze in mid tirade. It had answered him.

"Fina, huh. Well I, uh... know ya' goddess. D'at is, if ya' are a part of a goddess' soul."

He trailed off self consciously, rubbing the back of his neck. How the heck was he supposed to talk to this thing?

"Ya' wanna come an' meet her? I mean, we're goin' ta her now, if ya' wanna come." he ended lamely.

luna?

Raph wished Mikey were here. That quiet question made him want to shout 'alright!' and slap a high three, but he was too self conscious to try it with Don.

Despite the carnage and disappointments of the evening, this was definitely a piece of Luna's soul. And for some strange reason, it only wanted to talk to him. He cracked a cocky smile.

"Yeah, Luna. She's been looking everywhere for ya'. So let's not keep her waitin', 'K?"

That sounded a little better. More confident.

Raph headed up the nearest fire escape. Fina, bobbing alongside, kept even with his fast bounding movements. Leo and Don were right behind him. They moved over the rooftops to put some distance between them and the battle but it wasn't long before Leo called a halt to talk with Fina.

He hadn't even formed a question, just turned in Raph's direction, when he was abruptly interrupted by a bright blue light that streaked across the sky and smacked into his head.

Sol began frantically shoving visions in front of his eyes. Very clearly upset about something.

"Sol," Leo said out loud, trying to hold on to his calm, "Slow down, I can't understand!"

The visions repeated in sequence, a little slower.

The sense of eating while chatting with
an amused Mikey in the infirmary.

An armchair in Donnie's lab, and sunlight
warm on his face, eyes closed, serene.

Darkness, amazing starlight, open spaces
and an internal but visible soft glow.

Then a concerned Mikey surrounded by whirling,
twisting shadows, just like Leo'd seen tonight in the alley.

A chill went down his spine as suddenly the vision went third person again, like a camera, and there was sound. Leo knew that meant Sol had separated from Luna. Why would he leave her?

The next projection enraged him all over again.

Luna's tiny pale form, huddled in Mikey's arms.
They were hiding in the shadows on a rooftop,
her eyes were white, and her voice was full of fear:

"Sol! Leave me now. Go directly to Leo!
Don't stop and don't get close to the wraiths!"

Mikey seemed to look directly at him, his eyes as large as saucers.

"I've got her Sol, you go!" he whispered

Followed by the most blood curdling, banshee wail Leonardo had ever heard.

Don and Raph had been waiting patiently as a minute passed, then two. Leo had that blank look on his face that said Sol was showing him something.

Suddenly, Leo's head snapped up, his eyes were feral, and his hands clenched into fists.

"They're under attack!" Leonardo growled.

"In the lair?" Raph barked amazed.

"On the rooftops."

No one delayed to ask for an explanation.

Leonardo took off toward the only place he thought Mikey might take her to stargaze. The abandoned tenement building just past April's apartment. The one where Don had rigged the elevator.

His heart pounded in his throat, and he struggled to push past his anger that she was under attack.

Again.

And he wasn't there.

Again.

He had to focus, had to think. He could not fail her.

"Your problem bro, is that ya try to cover every contingency ya'self and don't trust your brothers to help ya."

Raph's words from that fateful night came back to him. They were a team, and besides his mate, a member of that team was under attack. He needed them all to sort this out. Leaping to the next building, Leo caught Donatello's eye.

"What do you know about wraiths?" he called.

"Wraiths?" Don asked, as they continued to sprint across town.

"Hmm, the word itself is from a Scottish dialect and means 'ghost' or 'spirit'. It was originally used to mean a ghostlike image of someone seen shortly before or after their death. Kinda like a bad oman."

There was a pause while they crossed a particularly large gap. Don wondered if they were headed towards April's place. Would Mikey have taken Luna there? He got back to his explanation.

"It has also been used to describe a much more powerful type of spirit called a 'soul eater'. Fantasy writers have been using the term to refer to all kinds of monsters in literature for years. It's been used for everything from banshees to the grim reaper himself..." Don continued.

"I don't know if I've ever heard it associated with Greek mythology specifically. Maybe Sol knows?"

"Sol?" Leo said aloud, "Do you know what a wraith is?"

bad.

"Can you tell everyone what you know?"

Sol left Leo's head and coalesced to orbit around it in an agitated manner. It projected the answer to all of them, and a very startled Leonardo just about fell off the next building.

The projection came in Luna's voice. Sol was obviously repeating something Luna said earlier, but it was weird to hear her voice coming out of thin air.

"They're a hybrid being. A cross between phantasms and demons, and they are eternally hungry. When they feed, they drain power from unwitting mortals; and immortals if they can catch them. They are slaves to whoever summons them and are usually sent to hunt down a specific victim and drag their soul to Tartarus."

"Demons?" Raph exclaimed in disbelief, he looked to Don for clarification.

"Well, demons are considered malevolent spirits or fallen angels that have to be summoned" Don began. "And phantasms are mental figments, usually attributed to a disordered mind. So if it is a hybrid we may not be able to touch it physically."

"Tha' means Mikey ain't gonna be able to do nothin' to protect 'er!" Raph said his own anger rising.

"And most likely, neither are we…" Don began when Leonardo stopped dead in the middle of a rooftop.

fear….. Fear…...FEAR! Terror…..Desperation…. AGONY!

Emotions were pummeling his mind, from inside his shields.

"LUNA!" Leo screamed. Her grief and anguish, flowing through their bond, made Leo clutch his head and fall to his knees. Don and Raph ran to his side, uncertain how to help.

stop!

Sol flared brightly, its little voice echoing across the night. Leo's pain ceased abruptly as Sol cut off the flow.

The brothers stared up as Fina and Sol shot toward each other, like two bullets of light. They spun together, shooting upwards, and leaving glowing trails like a firework. They combined, forming a bright mass that pulsed briefly then floated back down towards them.

we have a solution.

It was Sol and Fina voices, but their tones were blended. Stronger, with a faint hint of the godly were much more powerful together than separately.

our powers activate and enhance your own.

Leo and Raph exchanged a confused look and both turned to Don for a translation. He shrugged.

"Leo's new powers might be turned against them?" Donnie suggested, intrigued.

we strengthen you, you reinforce her.

"So Sol will boast my powers, and I can somehow feed them to Luna? Will that be enough to fight off the wraiths?" Leo asked.

sol cannot do it alone. fina must be bonded.

"No problem." Leo turned to his brothers.

"If I pass out, wake me however you can. Mikey and Luna are running out of time." he said.

He took a firm stance and braced himself for the powerful experience he remembered from Sol. He beckoned to the glow, "Anytime you're ready Fina."

no. Fina's voice said softly.

"NO?" Leo's gaze darkened.

leo is strong. Sol's voice said gently, almost sadly. but leo is mortal. his soul is already full.

"How is that the answer than!" Raph said angrily.

it can be done with a sacrifice.

"Anything!" Leo practically begged.

Donatello was more cautious. He put a hand on Leo's shoulder.

"It's dangerous to agree blindly to a sacrifice when dealing with gods, Leo. What if that sacrifice is you? Or one of us?" Don faced the large glow. "What is the nature of this forfeit?"

leo must concede.

"I'll submit to anything you want!" Leo's voice cracked.

even to sharing your mate?

"What?" All three mouths fell open.

red is acceptable. fina can offer a bond.

only if leo agrees. Sol added quietly.