Chapter 15

The Letter and the Link

To Roo, Pacphys and Midnight Heir who kindly beta'd my characters and pointed out some things that I hadn't really thought through enough or sometimes just plain hadn't occured to me , thanks!

It was late evening by the time they reached a small village about four or five miles outside Alexandria, Leo on the edge of murdering the perpetually complaining Raph. Don had made sure he wasn't relegated to the back by being indispensable with the map and Leo was not going back in there, so poor Raph had been bouncing around inside the tin can for quite a while, his yelps and mutters getting both ruder and louder. Leo, with uncharacteristic bloody-mindedness was at the stage where he wasn't trying in the least to avoid potholes any more which may also help to explain the Wrath of the Raph that exploded out of the van like a small nuclear warhead as the van chugged to a halt just inside of the roadsign marking the borders of Alexandria. The green force of nature stopped abruptly as battered legs went on strike and the two in the front heard a yelp and a crash from outside. Leo rolled his eyes, feeling slightly guilty, while Don busied himself with that ancient Eastern art of being able to refold roadmaps correctly.

"LEO!? Where the hell did you learn to drive, ya moron?" came the howl from the ground. His legs may have been refusing orders but voice box was more then making up for it.

"Same place you did, Raph." Leo decided he better make some sort of peace-offering. It had been a long journey and…they were all stressed. "Come on, have some food and then we'll go in search of this place. We'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to talk to this dude." Raph accepted the peace-offering with bad grace, looking like he wanted to protest any delay in finding Robert Aylward and beating the truth out of him if necessary.

They took to the rooves of Alexandria soon after dusk. They weren't entirely sure what they were looking for, but this place was new and knowing a basic layout even might be useful if a sudden escape had to be made. Raph had taken the suburbs to explore, rather unusually for him. He preferred to be in the thick of action and the quiet path didn't hold much appeal most of the time. A dark shadow over the gable window of a pretty, detached house suddenly vanished as it's owner made a silent leap into the well-kept garden below. A red bandanna flickered in the breeze as he slipped through the shadows towards the letterbox at the gate, the hedges at the boundaries blurring his silhouette and making him almost impossible to see. The letterbox was simple brown wood and newly-painted letters read AYLWARD. He looked around at the garden, seeing again what had attracted him to the house. The halfbrick which had obviously struck the garage door with enough force to leave that dent- and the remain of several candles, one in the grass and several more in the driveway. The grass hadn't been cut in a few weeks by the look of it but the flowerbeds had obviously been planned out and bloomed in riotous colour- or would in the morning. He nodded to himself, taking stock of his location and bounded upwards again, landing on the roof like a cat and moving at speed towards the town again.

"It would be for your own good to help us, Michelangelo." This scientist bore no clipboard. He was an older man with a rounded face and an easy smile. He had been trying to get information from Mikey as to his background and family as well as about the rest of his team. Mikey stared up at the ceiling repeating nothing but the information he had given at the start. Name, rank and serial number. The psychiatrist (this guess being Mikey's private certainty) must have been getting frustrated but showed no outward signs, seeming to get only more fatherly and friendly. Mikey really wanted to bite him if at all possible but had the nasty feeling that it would only serve to confirm these people's previous estimation of his animal status. He had no inclination to be vivisected! He belatedly realised that the psychiatrist had asked him something else that he hadn't heard. Ah, what the hell, it probably hadn't been important anyway. None of the rest of it had been.

"If you don't co-operate, they will go back to their previous plan and kill you and your team," repeated the man rather desperately, his frustration and inability to deal with the situation coming through. Mikey ignored that comment as well. Hey, hadn't he died already once tod…er…probably this week? And if the choices were between remaining here for the rest of his natural existence or having to give them the opportunity to look at his insides after all, well, the afterlife hadn't been that bad. He ignored the menace to his team as well although the cold-hearted threat to them made his stomach clench. Damn these evil people with their questions and complete lack of humanity. He realised he was half-asleep again, still exhausted at the traumatic events of the past week and was dreaming before he could think another coherent sentence.

Leonardo knocked on the door, feeling suddenly strange. This was a weird situation he thought, glancing around at his brothers. Don looked a bit nervous, after all wasn't this the sort of thing that they had been brought up never to do? A lifetime of avoiding humans made this a very uncomfortable moment. He glanced at Raph as well. His younger brother was bouncing almost, and his eyes in the shadow looked dangerous.

"Raph. We don't know if this guy's our enemy. And remember that he's just lost his wife, wouldya?" Raph glared at him.

"We just lost our brother!" he hissed, but any further words were cut off by the door cracking open.

"Mr. Aylward?" tried Leo. The man's eyes widened at he clicked the porch light on and saw his visitors.

"You? Are you…who are you?" he asked.

"We're…our brother was…Hamato Michelangelo, part of the mutant team training in the military base…" Robert nodded, feeling this to be all somewhat surreal.

"We got a message from someone who said she was…your wife, telling us to come find you…"

"Sayin' that you had something to do with what happened to our brother!" growled Raph. Don put a hand on his arm warningly and Raph subsided.

"My…my wife? My wife is dead," he spoke with gut-wrenching sorrow and loss in his voice as well as complete certainty.

"People around here don't seem to think so. Is she a…I don't know, a ghost then? Something spoke to me and told me who you are and where to find you." He didn't need to continue. Robert had taken the chain off the door.

"Come in. You…you'd better come in. I will tell you what I can."

Half an hour later the complicated story had been described to the three brothers. How they had gotten involved through his sister with a mutant group that were keeping an eye on the team, ostensibly a benign one but how they had all been played.

"My sister…and Chrysta's friend…Mirage, she, she knew what was happening and she betrayed us…and them. And Oracle…she knew what would happen. And she let it happen. My wife, she felt such guilt that what we had done had led to the deaths of those kids that… She had a very powerful gift. Death wasn't a barrier to her, her healing powers were so strong. So myself and Mirage stole the bodies back at the funeral and brought them here. She…I didn't want her to do this, I was afraid for her, but she did it. She brought all five back from death." He spoke with an almost fierce pride as he described his wife's greatest triumph. "But…she was punished for it. She, I don't fully know what she is but when she came back she was changed. Oracle said she was something called Shee?"

"Sidhe…a sort of ghost or spirit. Faerie of Gaelic culture. Bansidhe is the most famous one…" Don trailed off as Robert looked at him, pain in his eyes.

"Yes…she was no longer living nor was she dead. She left me and…she left…" He trailed off and Leo could see he wasn't going to get much more out of him.

"I'm sorry for your loss…" he murmured, a bit unsure as to what to say. Part of him was rejoicing wildly. His brother was alive! He blinked as it really settled in and a smile spread across his face as it sank in. His brother was alive! Glancing at his brothers he could see the same message settling in there as well.

"Wait…Oracle, Oracle was killed when your brother was taken- the day after we revived them. She, she told them where they were but…please, don't blame her. She left me a letter- and one for you as well. She knew you would come. I…let me get it." He stood and moved out of the room slowly, seeming older then his thirty or so years.

Raph looked triumphant and Dan's eyes were shining. Leo felt a ridiculous grin take over his own face and he pulled out his shell-cell. This needed to get back to Master Splinter. But before he could Robert was back, holding a sealed envelope which he pushed into Don's hands before collapsing onto the sofa. His eyes had filled again, talking about his wife's last act and Leo sensed it was time to leave.

"Thankyou, Mr. Aylward." he said quietly as they prepared to leave. Robert's head came up again before they could and he spoke in a cracking voice.

"Please…when you find them…tell them we're sorry. I'm sorry for what we were responsible for…"

Leo spoke gently. He had been furious with these people for what they had put them through, whatever about his words to Raph. But now, having seen the terrible price paid by three of the four members of this peculiar group, his heart had softened.

"Your wife saved our brother and I'm sorry for what happened to her. And Oracle warned us. There's no blame."

They left the house, Leo holding the precious letter until the reached the van where he carefully slit the seal and opened the letter. It was a single sheet covered with small, beautifully-formed handwriting.

If you're reading this then everything has happened as it was meant to. Please don't blame Robert or Chrysta. By now you know nearly everything. Your brother and his team were murdered by a group called Mutant Liberation who are trying to force all out war between the mutant population of America and the human population. They believe they can win. Robert's sister was part of that and introduced us. They had us watching Michelangelo's team, although both Chrysta and Robert believed it was innocent. They believed that they were helping them. Mirage, Robert's sister, knew better. You know how they were killed and revived by now. So why, if I knew did I not stop it? And even more to the point, why did I allow, arrange their capture by human militants, especially when I knew my own death was unavoidable by this plan?

All four of us had very powerful mutations, Chrysta's is perhaps the most unique but mine is not far behind. I See not only the future that will happen but all others that can happen as well. I saw disasters in the future so great that they could easily be described as the end of the world. I saw a war that started in America and spread like a plague to Europe, to Africa, to the entire earth- a war that took three devastating years to end and left the planet a barren wasteland for the most part. The mutant team has an extremely important role to play in avoiding this future and this complicated plan was the only one which led to this horrific course being averted. They had to die and drop out of public consciousness. And I'm afraid they had to be captured- and rescued. Unfortunately, I cannot help them now. My death was also Seen- whichever way this goes, I shall not be around to see it. I have put us on this course, the only one in which there is a chance of the world surviving the next few years. Now it is up to you to keep it there."

Oracle

The letter finished with another address and a final instruction for the team to be in Washington on a certain date- a week from now. Raph flung himself out of the back of the van and into the drivers seat.

"What are we waiting for?" he growled furiously. "Let's get to this base an' rescue Mikey!" Equally revved up, although naturally more cautious, Leo and Don agreed and the van fired, starting the turtles on the next leg of their journey.

Mikey woke up again to darkness, but his time he could feel the bond in his mind, linking him to the others. He carefully followed it and established a two way link with Electrode this time. He had just completed it when Siren joined them, followed by Steel. It was much easier this time.

I'm…glad you're all still alive. I thought…I thought…we were dead, weren't we? What's happened to us? Why are we alive? And who has us? Glacier spoke, moving from the almost shy tones to professional detachment. There was silence for a few moments.

I really don't know why we're alive. But as far as I can remember, we died, back there in the restaurant. Someone…shot us?

Then nothing worse can happen to us for the rest of the week. 'said' Mikey briskly. They needed to be focussed. Now we need to concentrate on our current situation. Everything else can wait. Has anyone got any useful information from the scientists?

Almost half an hour later a tight hiss from Siren informed the others that someone had come into the darkened room that she occupied. Her 'voice' fell silent and suddenly the others could no longer feel her presence within the 'link'. They continued to talk -and worry- collating the information and forming it into a workable theory of why they'd been taken and hopefully from this they could work out a possible escape.

I figured a relatively short update was still better then none at all so here ya go, guys!