Donatello's Dedication

Don dropped the bucket to the floor and rubbed a hand over his face for about the 500th time that night. He left Raph sitting in the sopping wet mess that was once his bed, while Fina scolded him nonstop.

I'm getting too old for this. He thought with a grim smile. Oh sure it was fine when they'd been in their teens and full of boundless energy. Now though...

Characters from Greek mythology, demons, near death experiences, firebirds, comas, gods and now the most uncontrollable and hot-headed of his brothers was a firestarter.

He shook his head. Pretty overwhelming for just one night. Was it too much to ask that it might be spread out just a little bit? Like, maybe over a few years instead?

With a sigh, Don put those thoughts aside and stopped in the infirmary, again, to check on Mikey before he went to wake Luna.

The poor girl really needed as much rest as she could get. And a small delay wouldn't hurt anything. Raph wasn't going back to bed any time soon. Now that he was awake, Fina could probably keep him in line.

Don stuck his head through the door and heaved a small sigh of relief at what he saw. Mikey was looking so much better than before. His skin was regaining it's more normal green tone and he was breathing in a soft regular rhythm. He no longer looked like a corpse laid out for a funeral.

Don even chuckled a bit as he heard a small mumble from Mikey's lips about a pizza.

It was a miraculous turn around, Don reflected. Mikey certainly wouldn't be recovering if it hadn't been for Selene. He let his thoughts drift back to his earlier conversation with the Goddess of the Moon.

Don had entered the infirmary to face this new being with a confident walk. He forced a calm exterior, but he was holding on to his coffee mug as if his life depended on it. He strode to Mikey's side, eyes never leaving the glowing form on the other side of the bed, and inclined his head respectfully.

"I am Hamato Donatello. But it seems you have the advantage of me." Don said.

The glowing form laughed, a chiming, peculiar sound, that seemed somehow familiar.

"Have we met before?" Don inquired.

Besides the very similar, though much brighter, glow she was petite like Luna. But she had a rounder face and rich black hair. It was long and piled up on her head in an elaborately intricate style. Her eyes were a deep, midnight blue that shone with tiny specks of light which Don could have sworn were stars.

Also, she was semi-transparent, much as Helios had been. From this he gathered that she was a full goddess, and not entirely in this plane, unlike Luna.

"I am Selene, Goddess of the Moon." She smiled softly, "And I am honored beyond words to welcome you and your clan into my family."

"Your family?" Don asked, confused.

"Did you think my daughter's claim a spurious one?" Selene laughed again. "I assure you Luna was quite serious. But even if she had not claimed you for her own, I would still be here. The sacrifices your family has made to protect my Luna have not escaped my notice."

She gestured to Michelangelo's ever so still form on the table. Don rested his palm on Mikey's forehead and sighed deeply.

"I don't know what's wrong with him." Don admitted. "His wounds have been healed but he just won't wake up. It's some kind of coma, but none of the tests I've run have yielded any results. His brain waves are normal, well... normal for a mutant turtle, and his body is fine. As far as the scans are concerned, Mikey is in perfect health."

Don didn't know why he was opening up to this being. After all, she could be lying about her identity. But she was here and listening, and he sensed that she truly wanted to help.

"I've formulated a few theories. Everything from mental shock to losing his soul, though I must admit I know very little about the latter, or even if we, as mutants, have one. I mean it's only just been proven, by Sol and Fina, that souls are a tangible thing that could be lost, broken, or captured and we must have something, or there wouldn't be this connection that Raph and Leo are experiencing…" He realized his brain was running off on a tangent and shut up.

Selene just smiled. "Your open mind and heart are a great gift Donatello. But then that could be inferred from your given name."

He was startled by her response to his rambling. He was used to others glaring at him and telling him to 'tone it down' or 'use English'. Well, everyone except Luna. And, he was surprised that she knew about his name. Few realized that Donatello meant gift, though his father clearly had some insight when choosing it.

Selene placed her hand on his.

"Your deep inner desire to give to others, the sharing of your knowledge, and your creative genius were not traits your father would have overlooked." She commented, making Don wonder if she was eavesdropping on his thoughts.

"And to answer your question, you and your brothers most definitely have souls. Some of the strongest and purest ones I've ever seen. A normal mortal soul would not have survived bonding with even a fragment of Luna's. It would have been absorbed wholly."

Don nodded knowingly, as if this information had not just shocked him to the core. While he processed, Selene raised her hand from his and positioned a glowing palm over Michelangelo.

"May I?" She asked.

Don nodded warily.

Selene traced her hand over Michelangelo in precisely the same manner that Luna had on the rooftop before she and Leo began their healing. Seeing this made Don feel somewhat better about letting this strange immortal near his brother.

Perhaps it was the equivalent of a godly scan. His curiosity flared and he began to observe her every move closely. Maybe, with Luna's help, he could modify this type of energy to produce a more sophisticated treatment apparatus. He blushed a bit as he felt his thoughts running away again.

Selene moved her hand gracefully from Michelangelo's head to his feet and back again. After a long silence, she paused with her hand over his heart.

"Ah" she announced softly. "Now I understand."

"Michelangelo and my daughter thought themselves lost. Luna's compassion led her to interrupt his soul's connection with his body." She continued, "My daughter absorbed his pain and the trauma of his injuries, but that left his consciousness disconnected from his mortal form. He does not know his body is healed. He has abandoned it."

Don felt his stomach clench. That explained Luna's haunted, and pain filled, gaze when they all returned home, but did that mean Mikey would never wake again?

Selene dropped her hand to actually touch Mikey, reaching up to stroke his forehead and face gently. Softly glowing tears began to form in her eyes, and as she raised her face to meet Don's amazed gaze they slowly spilled over her cheeks. A goddess was crying over his brother?

"He took such pains to care for my daughter." She said softly, "I watched him feed her, tend to her, befriend and distract her. He did his best to make her feel welcome and happy, a part of your family. Even in so short a time, he loved her."

Don's eyes had filled now. Michelangelo had always been their joy, and he had embraced Luna as family even before they had learned of Leo's bond. He was their hope when things looked darkest. What would they do without him?

"Luna's despair when she was losing him was so tangible even Zeus was affected. All of Olympus could feel her pain."

Don's hands shook as his mood went from amazed empathy with this goddess to anger. He clenched the mug he was holding so tightly that his grip went white.

"If you knew, why didn't you stop it?" Don practically yelled.

Donatello rarely lost his temper, but this was the last straw. Willful abandonment was responsible for not just Mikey's pain and coma, but for Luna's previous pain, violation, and death. Now he could add Leo's emotional pain as well. Raph would not have had to bond with Fina, if one of these gods had just stepped in!

"No parent wants their child to suffer pain and death." Selene said quietly, dropping her eyes. "While Luna's current situation is unique, her father and I would never willingly abandoned her. We would have flown to her aid but for Zeus. He forced us to stand by as they battled for their lives on that rooftop."

"But even Zeus is not heartless, nor Helios without influence. It took some time, but Zeus has been convinced that someone is interfering in his punishment." Selene stroked Mikey's cheek again. "So I have been permitted to assist in reviving this one."

Don took in a long, slow calming breath, forcing his anger to cool. This was more than he had hoped for, and he couldn't risk Selene leaving because of his temper.

"So, where is Mikey?" Don asked, uncertain about what came next.

"He has placed himself in purgatory, but he does not belong there. He must be called back." Selene replied.

"However, I am unknown to him. Michelangelo will not answer my call." The goddess stated sadly, "But he may come to you, Donatello. I will give you the strength you need to reach where he has fled, but you must convince him to come back with you."

Michelangelo was bored. Who would have thought death would be this dull? He didn't even get a chance to come back as a ghost or anything cool so he could continue to prank Raph.

He was alone in the dark.

Not that he wanted any of his bros or friends to be joining him anytime soon. He knew they had been really lucky so far, not to have lost anyone close to them.

But would it be so hard to just have, you know, a game system or something to keep occupied with until then? Heaven sure needed an overhaul.

Michelangelo tried to amuse himself.

He reviewed all the pranks he'd ever pulled on his brothers, retold all of the jokes he knew, and mentally recited his favorite recipes. He acted out his favorite cartoons, moved on to his favorite movie scenes of all time, and was even considering doing training katas as a last resort to keep the boredom at bay, when he thought he heard something.

"Mikey?" The call came again. "I know you're here somewhere. This is not the time to play hide and seek."

He knew that voice. It was Donatello!

"Donnie? Over here, dude! Argh! What happened?" Mikey asked, distraught, as Don came into view from the deeper blackness. "How are the guys and Luna gonna survive without you?"

"What?" Don snapped.

Don had been wandering around in this darkness for who knows how long, he didn't know if Selene was going to let him search much longer. Now that he'd found Mikey, he really didn't have time for hypothetical questions.

"We're dead dude… Thought you might have figured that out, with your big brains and all." Mikey replied sarcastically.

"OH, that." Don said with a shrug. "We're not dead Mikey."

Michelangelo deliberately swung his head left and right, making a show of staring into the nothingness.

"Could've fooled me!" he replied.

"God forbid I end up having to entertain you for eternity." Don grumbled, "But really Mikey, everything is ok. Leo and Luna were able to heal you in time. Your body's fine. It's just laying around like a lump taking up space in the infirmary."

"Uh-huh." Mikey said. "Nice try dude, but I think you're in denial. My poor sis was dead tired when I left, no more juice for anything. I know, I watched her try everything she could. And Leo's superpower is that emotion thing, not healing."

"Well it seems our fearless leader left out a few things when he was telling us the whole soulmate story." Don frowned, "He does indeed have a healing 'superpower' as you put it. And Luna got a bit of an upgrade when Fina bonded to Raph. She's a whole lot stronger now, and just a li-ttle bit scary."

"Luna? Scary? Don't make me laugh." Mikey grinned. "That babe is the sweetest sis a guy could have."

"An enraged sister, more like. You should've seen it Mikey. She was so ticked off her whole body caught on fire. She started making threats to whoever called those things and claimed we were all family and under her protection. Then she and Fina turned into this amazing firebird and pretty much burned those wraiths right out of existence." Don explained.

"Are you even hearing yourself right now? Where's Mr. Science gone?" Mikey asked. "Wait... who's Fina?"

Don sighed. This was not going the way he thought it would. Mikey was so sure they were both dead. What would convince him to come back?

"Another piece of Luna's soul. Looks like Sol, but red. I don't think it has quite the same powers that Sol does, but we only just met so who knows?"

Don replied absently, still trying to figure out how to change his brother's mind.

"We saved it from a Greek immortal from the underworld when we went to trap those punks. They had it caged in some sort of crystal sphere. Turns out, we needed it's power to beat the wraiths, but weirdly it only wanted to bond to Raph."

"IT BONDED TO RAPH?" Mikey yelled.

He skipped over the immortal underworld part and latched immediately on to the emotional issue as the most important factor. Leo and Raph already pushed each others buttons. How the hell were they going to handle this?

Mikey began to pace in the darkness.

"They'll drive poor Luna crazy." He muttered under his breath.

He turned decisively to Don. "So, how do we get back? Without us, they'll kill each other!"

Don just reached out, hugged his little brother, and smiled.

"Follow me to the light. I'll take you through." he said. Don didn't know the mechanics of it, he just knew Selene would bring them both back together.

Donatello finally opened his eyes and stretched out of the lotus position he'd been meditating in. It seemed like days had gone by there in the dark, but when he checked the clock next to Luna's old bed, it had only been about an hour.

Selene was gone. Don made his way over to Mikey and was encouraged by what he saw. There was actually expression in Michelangelo's face now, even though he was sleeping. Selene had said to let him rest until he woke up on his own, so that's what Don intended to do.