Hell hath no fury

Raphael's head whipped up in alarm. His left hand curled protectively about the little silver light; pulling it to his chest. His right hand held a flaming sai; the drawing of it and the release of his power an action he completed without thinking.

The man, that had startled him so, did not move. He wore a cloak of shifting shadows that made Raph's eyes hurt and he was extremely hard to focus on in the darkness. Even the flickering light from Raphael's weapon seemed not to touch him. It was almost, Raph thought, like those shades Luna had freed on the rooftop.

It was only in that moment, when he thought her name, that Raph realised he didn't know where Luna was; he'd been so caught up in the light. He looked around frantically sending his red flame higher to drive back the darkness.

Luna was seated on the stainless treatment table in the center of the room in a position of mediation. Her eyes were closed, her head bowed, and her hands laid lightly in her lap. With neither of her souls present, her hair had returned to a shade so pale it was almost white. Her skin had lost all it's color. She was so still she could have been a beautiful statue cast in marble.

She did not move when Raphael called her name. Only the sound of her steady heartbeat, ever present in the silence of the room, kept him from complete panic. As soon as he located her, he lunged to position himself between her and the dark shadowy form that lurked in the corner.

"Release her!" the figure said again menacingly. "I will not ask again. No one shall hold her against her will."

As he spoke his eyes began to glow a vivid yellow in the darkness and a powerful energy began to focus around him. He was incredibly strong. To Raph, he felt even stronger than Luna's father.

Who was this guy?

Raphael threw up his strongest shield. It wouldn't last long, but maybe it would be enough to convince this being to back off.

"I ain't holding 'er," Raph snapped. "Against 'er will or otherwise. I'm protectin' 'er. And I sure as hell ain't lettin' ya' anywhere near 'er,"

The man blinked in surprise, clearly used to having his every command cringingly obeyed. His eyes narrowed and he directed a sharp look at Raph that raked him from head to toe. One that seemed to assess more than just the physical.

What he saw puzzled him, and the man tilted his head to one side. The power that was poised to break over Raphael eased a little.

"I have not encountered a creature like you before," the glow in the man's eyes faded to brown as he spoke. "But as powerful as you appear, you seem ignorant of what you hold."

The man nodded to the silver light Raph still clutched protectively against his chest.

There must be something wrong with me, Raphael thought.

He couldn't force himself to release it; not even to check on his beloved Luna.

"If you were not marked as hers so thoroughly," the man said seriously raising a brow, "I would destroy you for merely touching her in that manner."

"Marked?" Raph growled, confused by this guys insistence that he was in contact with Luna. "I ain't marked."

"Oh, but you are. Your entire existence is there, mortal; written on your skin for anyone with the power to see," the man raised a hand and Raph braced for an attack, but all he did was flick his fingers in Raph's direction.

Light flared across Raph's body and red glyphs appeared. They ran all over his arms, down his legs, and across his shell.

"This one," the man pointed a finger and the glyph on Raph's left bicep glowed more brilliantly for a moment, "says you belong to the family clan Hamato."

Raphael's eyes widened. There was no way this guy could have just picked his family name out of thin air.

"This one," one that ran down his right forearm flared, "says you have an immunity to fire; and so on. But the ones that are important here and now are these."

Three figures across the center of Raph's chest ignited, this time in silver flame. The small light in his palm brightened in response.

"The left says the Hamato clan has been joined to the Heliades line. That alone would grant you respect and protection in most Olympian circles, though not necessarily in mine."

The man pointed to the other one.

"The one on the right says you have willingly given yourself to her; mind, body and soul," He raised his brow again in surprise. "and been accepted. You should know that acceptance is rare and will incite jealousy, or anger, as many godlings have longed to be her lover."

The glyph in the center, over Raph's heart, flared even brighter for a moment. It was larger than the others and much more complex.

"But this is the one that stays my hand," the man said.

"Why?" Raph spat, disconcerted that all this was written out where any immortal could see. "What's it mean?"

"There is no real equivalent in your tongue. Simply stated it means 'beloved'. But that seriously belittles the meaning of the mark. A closer translation is more like 'thou art bound unto my being for all of eternity, as am I to thee'," The man said. "It is so intertwined with the symbol for the goddess, Luna Heliades, that there is no longer a point of separation."

He closed his fist and all the glyphs disappeared.

"I have never seen it's like. To harm you would be to harm her, and that I cannot do. However," the man continued with a pained look, "I would still ask you to release her. You hold her immortal spark and consciousness. I do not like to see her so confined."

"Why do ya' care so much about 'er anyways?" Raph demanded. "Who are you?"

"I am Hades, Ruler of the Underworld," the man said quietly, "and I owe your young goddess a debt I can never repay."

With Medes assistance, the program for the crystal energy shield was being completed at a rapid rate. It helped that Medes was already fluent in the language needed to control the energy; being made of said energy itself.

Donatello was amazed at the knowledge the little thing contained. He had to constantly remind himself that all his other questions on planer energy transcendence, and everything else, could wait until the shield was complete and Luna's safety had been assured.

But mere mortals had to take breaks and Don was taking his; sipping on coffee while Medes proceeded with the program. He watched transfixed as line after line of violet text appeared on the screen. Most of it he understood but every once in a while he had to stop it and have it explain certain portions of it's writing.

Right now though, Don was thinking about the way Medes looked. Why had this soul piece taken the form of a human child and not hovered around like a flame as the others had done?

It can't have thought that Don would find that form more approachable, because it had only appeared when he was out of the room or asleep.

Perhaps it was because of it's intelligence. Descartes 'Cogito ergo sum' or 'I think therefore I am' sprang to his mind. Medes form could be dictated by it's own self-awareness. The more Don considered, the more convinced he became. 'Medes' after all came from the Greek word 'medomai' meaning 'to think, or be mindful of'.

Don was still considering this when the text ceased and the first of the cascade of firewalls that protected his network sounded an alert. Someone was attempting to hack his system and amazingly they were powering through his standard defenses at an incredible rate. But what angered him most was the single violet word now flashing in the middle of his monitor.

HELP

Medes was afraid.

Whoever these idiots were, they didn't know who they were dealing with. They had chosen to engage Don on his own turf.

Not a good idea. His brain kicked into high gear and his fingers fairly flew across the keyboard; enabling virtual counter attacks and quarantining the most sensitive data onto un-networked drives.

He cut off the hacker at every turn. Blocking them from the key terminal where Medes had taken refuge. Don didn't know if they were after Medes or if they were just trying to destroy the shield before it could be enacted. It didn't matter.

They were going down.