Thank you to forgottenforever for your awesome review, and I hope everyone enjoys the angstyness(probably not a word) of this next chapter
Chapter 3
Raphael sat on the couch and felt the sharp tip of his sai. He twirled his weapon around using different grips. It felt nice to have it back in his hand again, like an old friend coming home. Even though he couldn't see anymore, he could still imagine what his weapon looked like in his hand.
But at the moment he was trying not to imagine what his brother's were going to come home to find. He knew Michelangelo would be hurt the most; Leonardo would feel betrayed since he was about to do what he had told his older brother not to; And Donatello, he didn't know how Donatello would feel, probably confused and helpless. Donatello would try to understand why? He knew his counterpart had trained and lived, so that when he did die he would be ready to seek revenge against Michael, and when that didn't pan out, revenge against the gods who had supposedly Destroyed Goddess' soul. But for him, he didn't seek revenge, he didn't seek release. He didn't have a great master plan. He knew that it wasn't all going to end. All the grief and the regret and the guilt and the sorrow would still be there, but he knew that there was oblivion out there somewhere.
His sightless eyes looked upon his sai. He was tired of pretending. He was so very tired. He had given an Oscar worthy performance for nearly 5 years and he was done. At first he had thought to follow Katherine the moment they had arrived back in the lair, but death was too easy. He knew she wasn't going to be waiting for him on the other side. She was gone. Forever gone. It was then he remembered his counterpart and how he had lived for 5 years after Goddess' death. That had been his benchmark. He figured he deserved to suffer, to be punished. This was his living Hell for having failed her. For leaving her to be tortured in Hell because when they ran, he didn't protect her. Because he promised her to protect her from every nasty bad thing that was out to get her; swore to himself that he would bring her home alive, or die trying, and failed. He had needed to pay for his failure.
He had fought to stay alive after he had nearly been beaten to death because he knew he still had to suffer, that it wasn't time yet. His blindness and broken body had only added to his punishment. But he had to put on an act for his brothers so they wouldn't figure out what his plan was. He had ranted and raged, acted angry, acted hopeless all the while knowing that eventually the day would come when he would cease to suffer. His self imposed punishment would finally end.
He now would do the honourable thing. He had never understood Leonardo's idea of honour, but now he did. He was taking a page from Leonardo's book. He was going to pay with his life for not protecting Her, and he was going to ease his brother's burden. They should have to deal with looking after him for the rest of their lives. They wouldn't be able to move on if they constantly had to watch out and look after their broken, useless brother.
He placed the tip of his sai above his plastron. He knew he would have to strike straight down to reach his heart. His shaking hands attempted to steady his weapon.
"And to think I would never have pegged you for the suicidal type." A husky voice said to him.
She looked at Death who stood in front of her. She frowned. She did not, in general interact with Death. Their paths just did not cross, so his presence here confused her. She sat up from where she had been lounging on her dark wooden, living throne.
"Can I help you?" She asked him. It wasn't as if she didn't know who Death was, she was quite familiar with Death, but this wasn't the Death that she had always known. She supposed they were the same, yet different. From this version of Death she got the feeling that he was waiting for something.
Death pulled a life glass from beneath his robes. The glass was nearly empty, not that she cared for such things. Time was a mortal construct. She knew Time existed and knew that it even acted upon her, but it was not something she thought about. She was a timeless being, she would remain infinite. Even when she ceased to enact any influence over the world, she would still exist, even if she was just a voice that whispered tales into the ears of mortals.
Presently however, she had existed within her present form for over 2 thousand years. She was one of the most powerful gods on this world, and intended to keep growing in power.
She ruffled her wings as she looked upon the Life Glass offered up by Death. She frowned as she read the name. She stood and took the glass. Death let her take it. She paused slightly as she wondered why Death was not only letting her take the glass, but why he had offered it in the first place.
She shifted into the mortal realm. She had not been present on the mortal plain for over 2 thousand years, but time did not move at the same rate where she had been. It had been moving rather slowly if the creature in front of her was still alive. Or rather, her eyes studied the glass, would be alive at least for a few more moments.
"And to think I would never have pegged you for the suicidal type." Her husky voice said to him. She frowned. She hadn't even realized she had intended to speak until she had. She knew this creature and yet she didn't. He was a double of one of Darkness' Consorts, but she knew nothing about him, so where had her observation come from?
The creature smiled at her. He turned his head in the direction of her voice, but didn't seem to be able to see her. Not that this surprised her. She stared at his sightless eyes. She tipped her head to the side in thought.
"I won't listen to you you know." He said softly. "But I suppose it is nice to hear your voice again, even though I know it's just in my head." He whispered softly."It's funny, because I can even smell your scent. It took me a long time, but I finally found out what the smell was. You always smelled like heather, white heather." He continued.
She frowned and smelled herself. She didn't smell like heather, she smelled like Evening Star which only bloomed at night. She paused and smelled herself. Her normal scent was definitely being subverted by another flowery smell.
She bared her fangs in a grimace as she flicked her tail in irritation.
"I'm not suicidal." The creature continued. "I am finally paying the price for my failure, there's a difference." He said in a shaky voice. He closed his eyes in anguish. "I am so sorry. I miss you so much it hurts. I feel like I am drowning and I can't breathe." He choked out. "I failed you in ways I can't even…I shouldn't have let you go. I shouldn't have been such a coward. I should have told you I loved you the day after Halloween, but I didn't. If I had told you then I know things would have been different. I know you would have stayed. The moment you went to that house your Fate was sealed." He shook his head.
"You could only have changed the events that happened. You could not have changed the final outcome." She whispered softly. She clamped her mouth shut after her words. She looked at the glass. A few minutes that was all that was left, at the most.
"Don't you think I don't know that?" He said angrily. "I know. I know I couldn't protect you from the angels and the demons, from Satan himself, but I should have died trying. You were always saving us, we should have been able to save you, just once." He choked out. "I don't even know what the demons did to you. I don't know how they tortured you, and I don't even know how long you managed to survive your torture before you finally died. Was it minutes, hours, days, weeks?" He asked. "I know time is all messed up there."
She looked at the marks that covered her body. She had never really thought about how all of the scars had gotten there, she had just accepted that they were there. She had never really cared. She was just glad she had a body at all. She closed her hand that was encased within a clawed silver gauntlet. But someone was interfering. This would not do.
"What of your brothers?" She found herself asking.
He seemed to hesitate. "Leo will understand. He won't like it, but he will understand. Mikey and Donny will be pissed, but, they will survive without me. I made sure that Leo and Mikey are okay. They still suffer, will probably suffer your loss for the rest of their lives, but they might even be able to move on one day. That is my hope for them, that they will find someone, not to replace you, but to at least fill the hole in their hearts. But Donny," He shook his head. "Donny is in the same boat as I am. He knows what it feels like to be connected to someone, in body, heart and soul, and he will never be able to fill that hole." He said sadly. "But Donny has his hobbies, he'll manage without me. He may even benefit from me being gone. He won't have the damn constant echo of my unending grief constantly flowing over him." The creature tightened his grip on his weapon that was placed above his heart. She looked at the angle. He wouldn't die instantly, but he would bleed to death.
"No." She said to him.
"Goodbye Katherine." He said to her. "I love you, and...I'm sorry." He said with regret.
"No!" She shouted, but he plunged his weapon through his flesh into his heart.
His hands fell from his weapon as he slumped to the floor. She knelt down and rolled him onto his back as she watched him begin to bleed out. She looked at the Life Glass as the last little bits of sand began funnelling their way to the bottom. She needed to save him. No, why? She asked herself.
She looked at the door that burst open, the creature's siblings piling into the room. She slowly stood and looked at them. She could have vanished, could have made it so that they could not see her, and yet she didn't. She nearly let a growl of frustration leave her lips, but she didn't.
The blue one's eyes slid from her to his fallen brother. "Raph." He managed to choke out. "Who the hell are you, get away from him!" He yelled as she stepped out of the way. Her cape was pulled tightly around her, her hood obscuring her face and hair.
She looked at the fallen creature as his siblings crowded around trying to figure out a way to save him. Didn't they see he was dying and there wasn't anything that they could do?
"He's dying." She said softly. "You need to let me..." But she looked at the life glass which was now empty, he was dead. Her heart stopped. It literally stopped. Her eyes widened in shock. Her heart began to beat again, but her heart felt sore, not physically sore, but emotionally sore.
A thought came to her then. She looked at the fallen creature.
"He's dead." Her muffled voice came from within her hood. She pulled out the Life Glass and showed them.
"So you are this Earth's Death?" The blue one asked as he held his limp brother's body. "Why can I see you?" He managed to choke out.
"I am not Death." She heard herself say. She looked at the dead creature and wondered where Death was, and if not Death himself, then at least a Reaper.
She gave herself a mental shrug. It worked better for her this way, she had a little bit of time.
"If you wish, I can save him." She told him gently.
The orange one looked at her numbly, tears streaming silently down his cheeks, his shoulders sagging in defeat. Her heart clenched.
"You can't save him." The purple one said as he felt for a pulse and found nothing.
She smiled slightly. "Well I can't save him per-say. But I can bring him back, for a price." She said warningly. The blue one looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Of course this is a limited time offer. I would estimate you have about 8 minutes left to decide before it is even out of my hands."
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The blue one growled.
She looked at him from beneath her hood. "I have so many names." She said seriously. "But is who or what I am really important?" She tapped her wrist. "Tick, tock."
The blue one clenched his teeth together in anger as hope warred with suspicion.
"Do it." The orange one said.
Blue and purple looked at him in shock. "Mikey?" The blue one asked him.
"We didn't know Leo." He said softly. "We should have known, but we didn't know that Raph was…was to this point. That this was his plan all along." He said voice breaking with emotion. "I miss her so much sometimes that it hurts, but…what has Raph suffered? Donny knows a little, but we thought we were all suffering the same. She's gone Leo, and Raph blames himself. We all blame ourselves, but if he has a second chance, maybe he'll see, understand that Katherine wouldn't have wanted him to go out this way. She wouldn't want him to just exist, she would have wanted him to live every single day for her, because of her."
The blue one looked at her. "What is the price?" He growled out to her.
"Nothing too terribly important." She said as she shrugged negligently. "There is always a price for everything. In this case, I want the darkness that resides within his eyes." She said pointing to the fallen creature.
"You want what?" He asked in confusion.
"You heard correctly." She said. "I believe we are down to 3 minutes."
The blue one hesitated. Not that she blamed him. She would not make any deal where she did not know the full consequences of her actions. Of course she was used to dealing with gods and spirits, and they tended to be tricky and underhanded at times.
"What is your brother's life worth to you?" She asked.
Blue glared at her. "I would give my own life for his."
"Hmm tempting, but I have so many servants and have no use for a mortal life." She said with regret.
"Fine." The purple one ground out. "His life for…the darkness that resides within his eyes."
She smiled as she pulled a sword from its sheath. It pulsed in her hands. She twirled the blade. "I would move if I were you." She said as Blue watched her suspiciously. Purple pulled blue away from the bloody corpse of their fallen brother.
"It is amusing." She said suddenly as she plunged the blue tinged sword through the body of the creature, pinning his soul to his body. She knelt down and looked at the beauty of the spilt blood. Her teeth tingled. But the blood was cold and dead. She liked her blood warm and alive. She pulled his weapon from his heart and placed it gently on the ground. "I believe that someone once told you never to make a deal with a creature such as myself, because it never ends well." She said as she pulled off her gauntlets. She had to pay a price as well. She grabbed the exposed part of the blade cutting herself deeply. She then placed her pale hands on the creature's chest. Out of the corner of her eye she could see them pale. She began gently healing his broken body.
"S…Satan." The purple one said in horror.
She felt herself chuckle. "I prefer The Devil." She said as she pushed power into the body of the creature. She could hear weapons being drawn. "I call you back Raphael." She took a deep breath. "Resurrection!" She yelled as she bound his soul back to his body bringing him back to life.
The creature on the floor gasped. His sightless eyes flying open in shock. Whatever the creatures had planned, all thoughts of following through with those actions left them as they raced to help the creature on the ground. She deftly pulled the sword from his body and stood back.
The creature groaned. His teeth clenched tightly together as he adjusted to breathing and living again. She tipped her head to the side as she watched the blue one clutch at the fallen one.
"Raphael!" The blue one yelled at him.
His brother did not answer him back.
"It will take him a while to adjust to living again." She said softly. It had been hard binding his soul back into his body. His soul had felt...incomplete, she supposed the right word would be. Even though it was completely whole there was something wrong with it, and it hadn't wanted to go back.
"Now." She tipped her head to the side and smiled, not that they could see the smile. "I believe we had a deal." She purred.
The purple and orange ones stood in front of their brother protectively. "We aren't going to let you hurt him." The orange one said angrily.
"Who said it would hurt?" She asked. "And believe it or not, I actually believe this will work out better for you." SHe said with a smile, she then became serious. "He has something I need, and a deal is a deal. If you break the deal, I will kill him." She said viciously. Her gauntlets appeared back on her hands. "Now please step aside." She ordered. She could see their obvious reluctance.
She moved faster than any of them could see. She knelt in front of him and began to pull the darkness from his eyes. He began to whimper. It took a moment for his brothers to realize that she had already moved and was now taking her payment.
"You're hurting him!" Purple yelled.
"You said it wouldn't hurt." Orange accused.
"I said no such thing. But it didn't. However, it was not a comfortable feeling. " She said as she took what she needed and stood.
He finally stopped whimpering. She had turned her back to them but found herself frowning as her heart clenched in worry. She shook herself and looked at the ball of darkness in her hand. Darkness resided everywhere, but his eyes had glimpsed actual Darkness, and they remembered Her.
She squashed the ball flat and pulled it. She made it bigger, wider and flatter. She made it wide enough for her to walk through, like an oval mirror. She walked through the darkness.
Thoughts opinions, is everyone enjoying?