Battle scars

Donatello jerked upright as his head once again began to tilt involuntarily down to his chest. He had way too much going on to fall asleep right now. He was holding down the fort despite his own weariness. He'd sent everyone else off to bed hours ago. They all needed rest after this evenings trials and he needed the quiet to concentrate.

He rubbed his eyes lightly, removing the last of the earlier tear marks, as he pushed away the latest test results and got up from his chair in the lab. He stretched, giving his stiff muscles a moment to adjust. It was time to check on his patient anyway. As he headed for the infirmary, he wondered again why he had allowed his brothers to build it so far from the lab. It seemed as if most of his time lately had been spent walking back and forth between the two locations.

He yawned again, sighed quietly to himself and decided to detour into the kitchen for another cup of coffee.

Caffeine acquired, Donnie headed through the living area. It was dark, but he didn't bother turning on the lights. He'd walked this path so many times, he could do it blindfolded. Besides, he didn't need the light to wake anyone. They might leap to the conclusion that something was wrong.

He paused by the couch noting that Luna had finally crashed. He grabbed up the old quilt from the back of the recliner and draped it gently over her, nodding to Sol and Fina as he did so.

"Didn't she ask you two stay with them?" He whispered to the two little flames.

Sol dimmed slightly, as if caught doing something it shouldn't and shot off towards Leo's room. Fina flared a bit defiantly and stayed where it was.

"Suit yourself." Don shrugged, and headed on to the infirmary.

He still hadn't figured out how pieces of a person's, or in this case goddess', soul could become personified and act independently, or even contrarily, to the original persons wishes. He made a mental note to discuss that with Luna after the current crisis was resolved. If they were going to find the rest of her soul, it would help to understand what the remaining pieces might be thinking.

As he rounded the last corner of his route, he stopped abruptly. Someone was in there. A soft light flowed out through the door, even though Don knew he hadn't left any on during his previous visit.

It wasn't Leo or Raph, both of them were out cold in their rooms. Neither could calm down once they were home, and Luna had finally ordered them into their beds and knocked them out mentally. It looked kind of like Luna's moon-glow, but it couldn't be, since he'd just seen her in the living room.

Don flattened himself against the wall and peered every so cautiously around the door jam.

Michelangelo was still laid out on the stainless table in the middle of the room, a light sheet pulled up to his chest, just as Don had left him. Standing on the other side of the table was someone, or something, Don didn't know.

His skin tingled ever so slightly.

Don's heart pounded as adrenaline hit his system, and he began to ease himself back towards the living area and Luna. That glowing form was definitely an immortal and Don had no intention of facing one of those alone.

A quiet, respectful call stopped him in his tracks.

"Hamato Donatello"

It came from the immortal. How the heck did it know his name? Don quickly looked toward the living room where Luna lay, judging the distance. She could be here almost immediately if he shouted.

"Please… don't wake her. She needs to rest. Come in and speak with me." It called again, a soft echo of power tinting it's tone.

Against his better judgement, Don reversed his earlier decision and went to see what it wanted.

Leonardo was topside, stalking through the darkness of the night. He was angry, near to boiling, but he didn't know why. Something was missing, but he couldn't really remember what it was he was looking for. He just had to keep going until he found it.

He slipped silently down the street, kept to the shadows, and peered carefully into each alley as he passed. He stopped and narrowed his eyes toward the back of the next one. Out of the darkness, a pair of glowing red eyes appeared. It was the punk Leo and his brothers had fought.

Didn't Donnie say his name was Charon? Some underling from the Greek underworld.

Charon laughed evilly and loomed over the tiny, pale figure of a woman with long red hair who shook from head to toe. She looked familiar. Had he saved her before? He shook his head. It didn't matter. Whoever she was, she needed his help now.

Leo drew his katanas and ran stealthily towards them, but Raphael stopped him before he was even halfway there. Grabbing his arm, Raph swung Leo around with an intense glare.

"Let me go Raph! That girl needs help!" Leo hissed quietly.

"What are ya' doing up here?" Raph interrupted harshly. "Haven't ya' done enough damage Leo? Just stay away from her!"

"What are you talking about?" Leo said, confused.

"Ya' killed them Leo. Ya' murdered all those people. A loving, caring girl like Luna won't want yer kind of help!" Raph practically yelled.

Luna! How could he have forgotten? Was that her down there in the alley?

His heart skipped a beat, then began to pound. He needed to get to her, but Raph wouldn't let him go. Leo had the skill to easily break Raph's hold, but something kept him from doing so. It seemed more important somehow to convince his brother he'd done the right thing. At least the right thing for Luna and her recovery.

"Those bastards raped her Raph! They beat her senseless and when she finally escaped, fell and was helpless, they threw garbage down on her until she died! I never thought I'd have to explain that to you!" Leo defended his actions. "They didn't deserve to go on breathing the same air as her. She might be able to sleep now, and get on with her new life."

Raph just shook his head.

"I can't let ya' near her now. Ya' know d'at, right?" Raph said, "What if ya' snap an' hurt her too?"

"I'd never hurt her!" Leo objected.

"A minute ago ya' didn't even remember her name!" Raph yelled.

True. And very puzzling.

Something hot and wet touched Leo's hands, distracting him from the fight. He shifted his gaze to them, even though he knew it was a bad idea to take his eyes off of Raph when he was in one of his moods.

Blood?

It was dripping off his katana and coursing down over the handles. Blood that glowed softly like the moon.

"No!" Leo threw the swords violently from him as Raph shrieked, "Leo! What have you done?"

A scream echoed up the alleyway, and the brothers turned as one. Luna was no longer alone. She sat on the ground, sobbing brokenly over the body of their little brother. Mikey and Luna were both covered in cuts and slices. Mikey wasn't moving and Luna sat in a pool of his blood while her's ran down her arms and mixed with it causing the pool to glow softly.

She turned towards them, an orange mask in one fist. She held it to her lips to stifle her crying as tears pooled in her startlingly blue eyes and streamed down her face.

"I tried to save him." She whispered. "But he just won't wake up!"

Charon laughed, and waved them over.

"You may reclaim your brothers corpse. I already have his soul!" The guardian of the dead cackled.

"This is all your fault!" Raph screamed, turning back to Leo and drawing his sai, "Ya' left her alone with Mikey. For what? To pursue your vengeance? Our brother's dead Leo, and your incompetence is killing my mate!"

Leo shrank back against the wall, horrified.

leo! be calm.

The voice echoed through his panicked mind.

"Sol?" he cried out, "I didn't do it! I didn't strike them!"

"Leo they're covered in sword cuts!" Raph exclaimed.

this fear is only in your mind. a dream.

"But," He gestured wildly down the alley where Luna had collapsed over Mikey's chest, sobbing as if her heart was broken.

"Luna is hurt and Mikey won't wake up..." he moaned, "Raph's right, this is all my fault!"

hush now. luna sleeps.

The image of the alleyway shattered like a broken mirror, the pieces falling away, as Sol projected a new picture behind Leo's eyes.

It was the living room of their home. Quiet. Dark, but for the small pulsing red glow that was Fina. In that glow, Leo could see Luna was whole, uninjured, and asleep. She looked completely spent, curled up sideways on the couch.

Eerily, she had one hand wrapped in the remains of Mikey's orange mask, just like in his dream, but it was tucked up gently to her cheek. And her chest silently rose and fell with her breathing.

Donnie stood nearby, gently covering her with an old blanket.

Leo felt himself relax. Luna was ok. Donatello was on guard. He trusted Donnie.

all will be well.

Then a blue fog overwhelmed Leo's mind and he drifted into a dreamless darkness.

Raphael awoke with a start. Something was very wrong. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he just had this feeling that he couldn't shake. Using all his training in stealth, he loaded up his weapons and quickly left his room.

Checking the hall for signs of life, he slunk past Donnie's room with barely a glance inside. Don, of course, wasn't there. He'd either be in the lab or the infirmary. Donnie would never take time off to rest, even as he insisted his brothers do.

Raph decided to bypass the stairs, to maintain the element of surprise, and lept silently over the railing easily sticking the landing after the fifteen foot drop. A quick look towards the infirmary showed it was dark and silent. Don must be in the lab then.

Raph couldn't bear the thought of looking in on Mikey's still form, so he slipped passed the infirmary door and moved on into the living had told him earlier that Luna had fallen asleep on the couch, so he padded across the dark floor silently to check on her. Leaning over the back, he felt his breath catch in his throat.

She wasn't there.

Don't panic, tough guy. This happened before. She could be in the bathroom, or maybe she needed a drink, or she might even… be with Leo.

He didn't really want to think about that but it had to be considered. Any of those would be preferable to his own wild imaginings. His feeling of foreboding only increased, however, when he checked the kitchen and bathroom with no results.

He'd climbed the stairs to the second level on the other side of the living room and was about to bust through Leo's bedroom door, no matter what he might see, when he heard a quiet thunk from downstairs and a soft female moan. It didn't take more than a moment for Raphael's mood to go from extremely worried, tense, and possibly jealous, to enraged.

Luna was the only female in the house, and that moan hadn't come from behind Leo's door.

Besides, he recognized that quiet thunk from far too many battles. It was the sound of something heavy connecting with someone's skull. Luna was under attack in their very home! With a roar he couldn't contain, Raph vaulted down the stairs and turned to the one room he hadn't already searched.

The dojo.

Raphael flung himself through the door without a second thought but came to an abrupt halt, panting, as he took in the scene in front of him.

Luna lay flat on the tatami mats they trained on, unconscious and groaning softly. Charon with his red flashing eyes, knelt across her waist. His knees pinned her wrists to the floor. He held a long tanto knife from their wall of weapons in his grasp, the sharp edge of the blade pressed tight against her throat. A small trickle of glowing blood was seeping down her neck.

"I wondered which of her 'mates' would come running" Charon cackled. "Though I am a bit surprised that you are not all here, since you are so connected." He snorted. "How could she want you mortal monsters as family?"

Raph's eyes flared as they flicked back and forth between Luna's face and the knife, but he didn't rise to the bait of being called a monster. Luna was too important to lose. He would not let his temper to get in the way of rescuing her.

Raph was too far away, at the moment, to use any of his hostage counters, but maybe he could distract this bastard with words.

"I don't know tall, dark, and ugly. Maybe because we love her and don't go around trying to kill her for her bits of soul?" he said.

"LOVE? How could any of you claim to love her," Charon said. "yet still leave her alone in the dark?"

"I sent Fina to make sure she had light!" Raph snapped, annoyed despite himself.

"Ah, you mean the little burning one? Thank you for that. It was easy to take down." Charon raised his other hand and shook a new crystal orb, filled with red.

"Fina!" Raph raged. "Let them go you freak!"

Charon ignored him.

"Little good it did her though. Without the other one, she couldn't see it anyway. But at least you know she fears the dark." He laughed without any real humor. "But do you know why?"

"Yeah, yer punks trapped her in the dark." Raph answered, easing his way toward them.

"Wrong!" Charon exclaimed. "She is the heir to sunlight and moonglow. As a goddess, both answered her call. Her temper flared like the sun and her healing love glowed soft as the moon." Charon sighed dramatically.

"Yeah? And what would ya' know of either?" Raph spat, creeping closer by the moment.

Charon didn't seem to realize Raph was moving. Geez. What was it about villains and monologues? Their mouths started moving and their brains switched off. Not that he was complainin'.

"Darkness is her antithesis, her opposite, her enemy. When she is in the dark, she is at her most vulnerable. Especially now that neither flame nor glow will answer when she calls."

Ah, well Charon obviously didn't know Luna had been reconnected to her celestial strength. Raph wasn't going to enlighten him.

"Of course one that truly knew her, as a mate should know her, would have figured that out." Charon snarled, pressing the knife more firmly against Luna's throat.

She whimpered, and Raph froze. He really needed to distract this guy with somethin'. In a sudden flash of insight, Raph thought he had the answer.

"Ya' wanted Luna, didn't ya'? And she rejected ya." He tsk'd lightly. "Well, I'm happy to tell ya', d'is certainly won't change her mind."

"It's too late for that now anyway." Charon said with a snarl. He looked up, directly into Raphael's eyes, and drew the blade firmly across Luna's throat. Fina's red light in the orb flickered and went out.

"NO!" Raph screamed and his whole world erupted in flames.

Raphael flung a hand toward Charon and a solid stream of fire shot from his palm straight into Charon's chest. Charon collapsed over Luna with a crackling, burning gurgle. His body slumped down and the mats began to ignite.

Raphael was in agony. His ploy had backfired horrendously. He waded through the fire and kicked Charon's burning body off Luna's limp form. He collapsed beside her, heedless of the flames and pulled her close, cradling her in his lap.

He closed his eyes and howled his anguish as fiery red tears traced a path down his face adding even more flame to their pyre.

raph! the bed is on fire!

"What?" he opened confused eyes. Why should he worry about a bed? He looked around. Their whole home was on fire, and he couldn't care less. His soul mate was gone…

raph! stop! do you wanna kill everyone?

The voice was extremely upset, but Raphael ignored it, beckoning the flames even higher.

"RAPH!"

Now that was a voice he knew.

Donatello.

He couldn't burn everything. Donnie and Leo were still here, and they didn't deserve to die that way. Raph regained his feet, still clutching Luna to him and concentrated. Slowly, he was able to call the fire to him. It stuttered and rolled back until it was only around his legs. Then he forced it out.

Something cold and very wet hit him in the face.

Raph sat up abruptly and looked around. He wasn't in the dojo, he was in his room, in his bed.

His now sopping wet, ash covered, and slightly smoldering bed.

Raph looked up. Donatello stood there, his eyes huge. He was holding a large, blue bucket they used for mopping up when Leo thought the kitchen looked a bit too dingy.

Raph stared at Don as if he couldn't imagine how he'd gotten there, or what he was doing.

"Raph?" Don snapped his fingers in front of Raph's face. "RAPH! ...You with me now?"

"Yeah, I… What happened?" Raph stuttered.

Don shrugged. "Dunno. Fina flew into the infirmary screaming that you were on fire. Thus…"
He held up the large blue container as if that was enough of an explanation.

"Was I on fire?" Raph asked confused.

He looked around, trying to come to some understanding of his destroyed bed and the general mess.

"You, the bed, part of the wall..." Don replied tiredly. "But most of it seemed to be smothering itself just as I came in. It was weird. I've never seen fire behave like that. I threw the water, just to be safe."

raphael did that.

Fina's little voice was cold.

"I didn't do nutin'!" Raph growled.

you had a nightmare, wouldn't listen to me, and practically burned the whole place down.

"How did he do that if he was asleep?" Don asked reasonably.

He was only half paying attention to the little soul. He was more intent on grabbing each of Raph's arms in turn and examining him for burns. Besides, after everything else that happened today, arguing with a little red flame, didn't seem so strange. Although Fina was a lot more talkative than Sol ever had been. Maybe even a little bit snippy.

he's a firestarter. every time he's angry or upset, we'll get flamed. luna's going have to train this one real quick, or we're going to have a huge problem.

At the mention of Luna's name, Raph's nightmare came back to him full force. Just the memory of Luna's dream death had his hands flaring up.

see what i mean?

"I can't take anymore surprises tonight." Don sighed. "Fina, can't you control it?"

does it look like i can control it? it's his freakin' power.

"I guess we'll be waking Luna then." Don said.