A/N: I must profusely thank a reviewer of this story for assisting me. I was struggling with a way to quantify the guys powers into a necessary hierarchy in order to move the plot forward. They mentioned that they already read the turtles as muses and that very solid idea was the solution. THANK YOU Katstories (from Archive of our own). Now on with the show...

Moves and Countermoves

Complete bliss. That's what Donatello would be in, if not for his missing sibling. Not only had he spent the morning rapturously in his true love's arms, but his long awaited gift was unlocked and Medes had blessed him with infinite knowledge.

It was all a little overwhelming. Scratch that, incredibly overwhelming.

He glanced up from his bank of computer monitors to see his Luna padding out of the little kitchenette with a plate of steaming eggs and a huge mug of coffee prepared exactly the way he liked it. She slid a bunch of his equipment and his keyboard aside with a little mental push, as both her hands were full, and set the food in front of him. He smiled.

"Aren't I supposed to be spoiling you on the honeymoon?" Donnie asked.

Luna laughed, her bell like voice echoed off the stone walls and filled not only the house but the entire city, reminding him once again she wasn't human. Stronger now than ever before, she practically glowed as she moved around the place, looking far more immortal than mortal.

Three of her souls had come home.

He turned away from her, briefly dazzled by her glory, and Luna frowned.

"Eat, Donnie! I know you feel fantastic and full of energy from the new bond, but you still need to fuel your body," she said, reaching out to stroke his cheek.

He sighed happily, closed his eyes and leaned into her palm for a moment before turning to his plate and picking up his fork. Per usual, the moment he went to do something for himself an alarm sounded from his computer. This one from the second bank of networked machines across the room.

Luna turned an irritated glare on the offending machine and the sound cut off abruptly with a funny little hiccup and one last bleep. Don raised a brow at her.

"Eat!" she commanded pointing at his plate before she glided over to read the reason for the alarm.

He watched her go, his eyes tracking her movements and tracing the lines of her as she walked away. The curve of her back, her hips, her legs; she looked so damn sexy in nothing but a tee and panties. Her hair was mussed from their early morning activities and she was so enticing he almost left his breakfast to scoop her up and head back to bed.

Until he noticed her face.

He'd missed the concern at first because she was leaning over; causing her shirt to ride up and expose even more of her tempting attributes, but as she examined the screen her expression became solemn and less than a second later her intense worry stabbed at him through the bond.

He snapped to his feet and was instantly at her side, reaching for a weapon on his back which wasn't there, and then suddenly was. The transformation happened so fast, that he didn't even register the fact a moment ago he was bare except for his mask and now he was geared up, ready for a fight.

"What is it?"

She mutely turned the monitor to face him. The computer had located Michelangelo and was displaying his coordinates. The little flashing dot was on an island off the coast of Greece. Don frowned, as he replaced his bo, concerned.

"Serra?"

"I should have guessed," Luna said, disgust coloring her tone. "I hate to cut our time here short, Donnie, but we need to get back to the others. We need a plan to get Mikey out of there."

He could feel her worry building. A great mass of tension, like a major storm flickering on the horizon. If he could feel it, his brothers could too. They were probably trying to call right now, to see what caused her anxiety.

Don sheepishly examined the mess on the balcony which had, a few hours before, been his phone. They weren't going to get through.

"Yeah, I guess we'll have to do it in person."

Luna saw him staring at the pieces and furrowed her brow, turning to him in confusion.

"Just fix it. We'll call and let them know we're on our way back."

He stared at her blankly and turned again to the mess.

Fix it? There isn't anything left of it.

Thousands of tiny components littered the stone floor, most of them broken beyond repair and he didn't have any tools.

Luna touched his surface thoughts and sighed. When Donnie didn't force it, his talent functioned perfectly; forming whatever he wished out of any matter around him. Dust, dirt, stone, air, water; He understood them instinctively on a molecular level. He commanded a change and they would obey. Unfortunately, his conscious mind hadn't grasped it yet.

Maybe if she took him through it step by step. She wrapped her arms around his neck from behind in an intimate embrace, pressing her body against his shell as she insinuated herself into his thoughts. He shivered at the feel of her both inside and out as she latched on to his gift.

This way...

With a thought, she lifted the tiny pieces from the floor en masse, coating them in violet power, and brought them back to float in front of Don. His eyes flicked from piece to piece as they coiled through the air.

Donnie, you know exactly what these were, where they fit, how they functioned. Tell them to be that way again. Order it and enforce it with your will.

He concentrated, remembering the first time he assembled one of their special phones. How everything connected. This went here and that went there. He mentally fast forwarded through the updates and upgrades until he had a blueprint of the final product in his mind. He focused his will.

Be whole again.

As he held the picture of the complex phone together, a strange surge passed through him. He experienced the fast head rush and wavered on his feet, but Luna kept him upright. A moment later, he held a perfectly assembled phone in his hand.

It was ringing.

Luna!

Leonardo threw the thought at her as hard as he could, forming her name into the mental equivalent of a spun shuriken. His panic forced it beyond all her barriers, even past the blocks she erected to keep them from intruding on each other's private moments.

Ten minutes had passed since he and Raphael felt matching surges of concern, and Donnie wasn't answering his phone. Both had rushed to the meditation room and were trying their best to contact her mind with little success. So far, her emotions hadn't escalated into full blown panic, but something was definitely wrong and they didn't know the location of Donnie's hiding place to come to her aid.

A moment, my love. Keep calling.

The instant her calm mental voice reached out to him, Leo slumped forward from his stiff pose in profound relief. Her gentle contact communicated so much more than simply her words; overpowering love and soothing warmth permeated his being as she re-established a full emotional connection with him. Leo opened shinning blue-grey eyes to tell Raph everything was alright, but saw him lying on the floor with a silly smile on his face.

So. Raph had reached her too.

It didn't surprise Leo, for his beloved was not only safe and uninjured but more powerful now than before. As when Raph had joined with them, Don's addition boosted her celestial energy exponentially. Leo was more prepared this time for the incursion of power and awe, though it would still take him some time to adjust. He wondered what his brother made of the sensation.

Leo met Raph's eyes. They were more than a little glazed as he tried to absorb the impact of power. Their golden color was extremely pronounced and the amber flecks practically glowed. Raph grinned weakly at his sibling from the floor.

"Was it like this last time?" Raph asked.

"Remember how I was a drooling idiot you had to drag to Luna's side?" Leo said, "Yes. It's a pretty powerful punch when she reconnects after a new bond."

"She explain what the problem was?"

"No," Leo said reaching again for his phone, "but she said to 'keep calling.'"

He lifted the receiver to his ear, and to his surprise, this time Don picked up on the second ring.

"Don here."

Unlike their previous call, mere hours before, Don sounded whole and in control though a little awestruck. His voice was competent and intelligent, but there was something else there as well. Something Leo hadn't realized was missing from his brother's life.

Joy. Donatello was happier and more content than Leo had ever heard him.

"Don, uh, sorry to interrupt. Um... Is Luna ok? It's just that we, uh... felt a lot of concern from her."

Leo blushed as he couldn't seem to make a complete sentence come out the way he wanted it to. Raph growled without real threat and rolled across the floor to snag the phone from his hand. A wave of bubbling energy Leo knew was the goddess laughing tingled through his core and he gave up the handset without a fight, blushing even more furiously.

"Don, put Luna on the phone," Raph demanded.

Her musical chiming laughter came through the speaker loud and clear, and Leo realized they were both grinning like idiots at the sound.

"Raph, everything's ok. We got an alert from the computer on Mikey's location, is all," Don said. "He's in Greece, so we're heading back to the lair to talk plans. We'll be there soon, a half hour max."

"Why didn't ya pick up the first time?" Raph demanded.

Leo's eyes narrowed and he lost his smile. Did Raph really want Don to answer that? Leo had no illusions about what his brother had been up to in the hours since his bonding, but he preferred not to think about it or he'd go insane with jealousy.

Don's voice came back with no hesitation.

"I dropped the phone. It smashed but Luna showed me how to fix it."

"Ya needed a goddess to help ya fix a phone Donnie? You're slippin'."

Donatello was too euphoric to take offense at the mild jab.

"You guys, this is so awesome. I can't wait to show you. It won't matter what breaks anymore, I can make anything better than new."

Raph smiled again, this time more gently at the excited tone of his younger brother's voice.

"Ya always did, Donnie. Ya always did."

Charon smacked a hand up against the transparent wall of power holding him in Serra's private receiving room, distracting the elder god who shared the space from the projection in front of him. Zeus sent him a quelling stare before turning away.

He had been watching Serra assault the youngest member of the Hamato family for the better part of an hour and normally, Charon enjoyed such shows, but he hated being imprisoned like some lesser creature.

Besides, Serra's technique was about as subtle as being hit in the face with a sledge hammer. He had nothing new to learn from her. In fact, he could show her a thing or two.

"She's taking too long, my lord," Charon said, letting his tone insinuate Serra was either incompetent or dragging this out on purpose. Of course he suspected the latter was true. Serra always did have a thing for the unusual.

Zeus turned again to gaze at the Guardian of the Dead.

"If you hadn't thrown a tantrum, Charon, you could be in there helping," Zeus said. The elder god's face showed no emotion. "It was unwise of you to attempt the destruction of the soul."

"I was merely... overcome in the moment," Charon said, "It won't happen again, my lord."

Zeus considered the immortal for a long moment before he waved a hand and the walls holding him disintegrated. Charon approached the king cautiously, aware he was on dangerous ground. He dropped to one knee in submission.

"May I ask the reason this particular piece of soul is important? You had no qualms about me damaging the soul of knowledge," Charon said.

Zeus regarded him steadily for a moment.

"Your 'master plan' is but a small part of my own, godling."

Charon started and gazed warily up at the king from his kneeling position. What did Zeus know of his plan?

"You wish to obtain ultimate control over a goddess of Olympus. Did you believe this could be accomplished without my blessing?"

"N-No, my lord," Charon stuttered. It was the only sane answer to give the king but inside his mind was racing. Zeus had been aware of his plan all along?

"She was too well fortified on Olympus," Zeus said, "Surrounded and protected by those who would support her simply for a chance to claim a boon against the Heliades name and her future power. To bring her low required subtlety and an intimate knowledge of her motivations, neither of which you possess."

Charon realized he was gaping at the king, closed his mouth, and stared at the floor. The silence stretched for a time before Charon ventured a small probe of his own.

"I didn't realize you required her removal from Olympus, my lord."

The king did not reply for some time. Finally, he raised a hand and a vision of Luna, as she was now- partially mortal, partially immortal- formed in front of them.

"Do you consider yourself astute, godling? Tell me what you see."

Charon risked a glance at the king from the corner of his eye before turning to stare fully at the projection, seeking some clue to this test. Luna appeared different. Though still confined to a mortal shell, power constantly surrounded her.

The hue of her eyes changed from moment to moment. First the pure blue of the sky on a cloudless day, then amber- rich like jewels from the Earth, and finally a deep violet not found in mortals at all and seldom seen in nature. Her hair shifted as well from palest blond through fiery red to light lilac. One moment long and straight, the next curly.

Her form was ever shifting with her mercurial moods. Sometimes she was a combination of these. Red hair and blue eyes, or pale blond with violet. And when her eyes narrowed in anger her whole body burst into flames.

Charon was confused. Before her exile the goddess manifested in silver or gold, depending on the side of her heritage she was calling upon. Now it seemed her powers were being influenced by outside forces and the gold was no longer apparent at all.

Zeus eyed him when he did not respond and gestured again. Three of the four turtles appeared at her side. The leader in blue; solid, dependable, confident- a healer and an empath made of light. The warrior in red; forceful, full of passion and fire. The inventor in violet; open minded, benevolent, compassionate and wise. All arrayed next to a goddess now coated in silver from the heavens.

Charon gasped.

Muses. Luna was creating Muses.

Light of Healing, Fire of Passion, Knowledge of Creation. They embodied her own hierarchy of power, and bound as they were to her, each would magnify her own strength exponentially. She had divided the plentiful gifts of heaven and earth and given a fourth she would personify...

"An Incarnation." Zeus said, finishing Charon's thought.

The Incarnation of Universal Power? The one prophesied to bring Olympus down and usurp their position for the next generation of gods? Charon thought Incarnations figments of godly mythos. Legends for the legends, so to speak.

Luna was strong and sensual, sensitive and powerful but the ultimate expression of this galaxy's unconscious will? He didn't think that likely, despite the evidence in front of him.

Some of this uncertainty must have shown on his face.

"You need further proof?" Zeus asked, becoming annoyed. "Consider her history. She is the daughter of the Sun and Moon, the granddaughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and the adopted child of my brother, one of the three Elders of Olympus.

She was a third child and thus held no inheritance so she should have been ignored, yet she became beloved by most Olympians before she turned 6 years of age and, unlike any other, has roamed freely amongst the three kingdoms and the Overworld all her life."

Charon considered. The girl's history was comparable to the gods themselves; one of constant change. The young overtaking the old. The Titans, her grandparents, stole power from the heavenly bodies of creation just as the Olympians, her parents, wrested control from them.

Charon himself was contemplating revolution. Given the opportunity he would overthrow the king, his time was long past. Luna's power would help him, but he could not accomplish his desires if Luna's resistance could not be overcome.

"But my lord," Charon said, probing further, "her powers are limited. The violet one is dead and without Knowledge of Creation she can surely be diverted."

Zeus turned dark eyes on the obsessed immortal.

"My fool of a brother, Hades, interfered at her request. With your creature's death the monster not only lived it was reborn."

Charon cursed, spewing vitriol at his master, Luna, and everyone else involved, then blanched as the king raised a brow.

"My apologies, lord. My plan to remove at least one of her guardians should have succeeded."

"Therein lies the difficulty," the elder god admitted. "I have been 'diverting her' as you say, her entire existence, but something intervened at every turn. As a child, I cultivated her, kept her close to the throne. However, her inclusion into the realms of the Elders merely provided an education more complete than I could condone. And an opportunity for my brother to grow... close to her."

Charon grimaced. This would certainly be easier if Luna didn't have the support of an elder god. Especially his own master, the Lord of the Underworld. But her knowledge of Hades weaknesses would be an asset when it came time to take him down.

"I removed her brother, Phaeton," Zeus said, "so she would inherit the Sun; hoping such a divergence in paths would change her fate. But it merely strengthened her support on Olympus and earned me the hatred of the Heliades family."

Charon frowned, not liking in the least knowing the king had been manipulating the object of his obsession her whole life. If he had left well enough alone, she might have welcomed his suit. Might have accepted him without the need for such grand schemes.

But he didn't want Zeus to stop his explanation. Perhaps, if he knew what was coming, Charon could still claim Luna as his bride.

"Every move I made was countered, but not by any direct action on her part. So I had no reason to exile or remove her without raising an outcry among my subjects." Zeus continued, seemingly oblivious to Charon's plotting. "Thus, this conflict with my monster of a daughter was carefully contrived and I shattered Luna's soul into thousands of shards, impossible to locate."

"But they assembled into entities with personalities of their own," Charon said.

"Despite that, Luna was made mortal and the battle ended with her death and defilement at your hands."

"And yet she rose," Charon whispered in awe.

"It appears the universe will not allow Luna to be destroyed." Zeus shook his head in a very human expression of frustration. "So my plan by needs must change."

Zeus turned to the guardian, and for one moment Charon saw actual fear on the face of the king. No one knew what the true strength of an Incarnation would be, but the dread Zeus displayed made Charon anxious. What if Luna did become all powerful?

Zeus did not miss the spasm of doubt on the immortal's face. He dismissed the images of Luna and her three chosen ones with another wave of his hand.

"You are now a player in this game, Charon, whether you will or no. But you must understand your role. Like the King on the chessboard, your movements are limited, yet you remain powerful. I shall have you withdraw and not engage 'till the last."

"I will do as you bid, my lord," Charon replied standing and giving a bow. "What is this new plan? If I may be so bold."

The eyes of Zeus, King of Olympus, bored into Charon's, his thoughts pushing past the outer barriers of the immortal's mind and penetrating deep inside, seeking his desires. The dark demon lurking within Charon shrank away from the elder god, but Zeus offered it something irresistible. A small portion of Luna's essence stolen from her at the moment of her change to mortality. The demon drank deeply from this cup of obsession, feeding to the point where Charon would do anything Zeus commanded, if only for another chance at the goddess.

Since I cannot destroy her, I will bring the girl to her knees and you will keep her there for all eternity. You shall have Luna as your reward and your punishment, for she will require your full attention and all your strength to contain. Never can your vigilance flag for the universe will quite happily steal her away from you again and again.

Charon blinked, wondering what happened as Zeus extracted himself and blanked the directive from the godling's conscious thoughts, for now.

"And the monster, my lord?" Charon gestured at the tied form of the turtle shaped being in the projection. "Should I take it with me? Shall we not keep it separate from the soul?"

Zeus' eyes flicked from the turtle to the glowing orb in the corner and back, so quickly Charon almost missed it. He smiled.

"No, godling, for that would change the nature of the bait."

Charon regarded the god with some confusion, so he clarified, returning to his chess analogy.

"Sometimes you must sacrifice a Knight, to capture a Queen."