Hello all, well the last chapter was a little rough, and this one basically deals with the fallout. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Thank you so much to forgottenforever, I love Athrun and rinpup14 for your awesome reviews! I love getting reveiws!

Chapter 32

Katherine looked at the man who stood at the end of her bed. His was still indistinct, as if his features still had not fully formed yet, but they were getting close. "There has to be a way to protect them." She said to the man in a voice that nearly broke with restrained emotion. She tried to pull herself together. She didn't have time to be wasting it on tears, she had work that needed to be done. She looked at the man even though knew she would not receive an answer.

She was running out of time. She didn't know how she knew but she did. But she had promised that she would fight. She closed her hand into a fist.

She wanted them to leave, she wanted them to get out of the house and go back to the lair, but she knew they wouldn't leave, so she had to find some way to make them all safe.

She closed her eyes tightly. She imagined the room where she had locked all of the memories of her past lives. She unlocked the door and walked into the massive library. "Kaethryn." She called. The young teenager appeared before her. "It all began with you." She said looking at her. "But why? What makes you so special?" She said as she walked around the figure of the girl. "Kaethryn do you know why this is happening?" She asked the figure.

Kaethryn looked at her and shook her head. Katherine frowned. Kaethryn was a Pictish princess, she had a small amount of Talent, she would call it. But all that meant was that she was very intuitive, and had an affinity for healing herbs. She was very good with mixing medicines and diagnosing illnesses. She frowned. She was very in tune with the earth and worshipped a pagan goddess.

"Kathlynn." She called as the girl appeared beside Kaethryn. She pondered the other girl. She had been accused of being a witch, but she had the same Talents as Kaethryn, except she was able to see the reverend for what he really was. And unlike Kaethryn, Kathlynn had been a Puritan. Well that wasn't any help. She thought to herself.

So why was she different than these two? For one she was a lot older, and a lot more powerful. She was more intuitive as was proven by the case of Knowing Donatello had been shot. She had healed Donatello, as opposed to using healing medicine to do it. She had also exorcized an angel, which had had hurt like hell. It had felt as if she was burning from the inside out, but she had been determined to push the bastard out, even if it killed her. Luckily for her it hadn't, but she knew she had done something, broken something, but she wasn't sure what.

"But why angels and demons?" She asked. It made no sense. She could see one or the other, but both? What was she that both Heaven and Hell wanted her dead? And why, if they kept killing her, did they have to keep killing her? Why was she reborn over and over again into a never ending cycle of birth only to be hunted down and killed?

"So either of you know how to protect against having angels or demons possess the men I love?" She asked them.

Kathlynn shook her head, Kaethryn paused in thought. "There is always a price for using power." She said softly.

"Fine, what is the price?" She asked.

"There are different prices for the amount of power needed. Your own power, blood, your life, your soul." Kaethryn said to her. "A magic circle will protect those you love."

Katherine frowned. She needed to get outside. She would have to draw a circle around the entire house. She walked out of the library, closed and locked the door.

She opened her eyes and looked at the man. "Do you think between us we will have enough power?" She asked him. He of course remained silent.

She heard Leonardo begin to scream then. She closed her eyes as she tried to stamp down the images and feelings. She had caused this. It was her fault Leonardo's mind and body had been violated. He was as much a victim as she was. She was just thankful that the angel hadn't succeeded in what he had set out to accomplish. She was sore, she was bruised, but other than that, physically, she was fine. Mentally, she wouldn't be fine until Leonardo was fine. She listened until Leonardo stopped screaming.

She slid painfully off the bed. She walked to the bathroom and started the shower. She looked at herself in the mirror. The cut on her face needed stitches. She pulled off Michelangelo's shirt and painfully removed the remains of her dress. The cut on her belly was thankfully shallow.

She stepped into the shower and washed away the scent of the angel. She covered the tears on her face with the water that ran down her cheeks from the shower. She shook away her misery and tried to clear her thoughts.

She knew they were all hurting right now, but she had things to do first before she could face them again, especially Leonardo.

She got out of the shower and dried herself off. She dressed warmly and pulled on Leonardo's trench coat which was sitting in her closet. She really needed more of a winter coat but she didn't want to risk running into anyone.

She walked back into her bathroom, pushed open the hidden door and walked into the passage that would lead her to the center of the house.

She looked down at the grass at her feet. The illusion of the house was beginning to fade. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

When she had begun to wonder at why she was really here, she had dug into her family tree and encountered no Great Uncle Carin Ráth. She had googled the names separately and come up with Carin and Ráth or Rath, as being the same thing. Which was basically a faerie mound, a place of magic where the descendants of the Tuatha de Danann, the Sidhe, retreated to sing, to dance and to gather.

This meant of course that her house was not actually a house. She wasn't really sure what it was, just as the man was not really a man. She didn't know what he really was.

Sometimes it felt as if the house were a giant tree, sometimes a sacred grove and at other times she felt as if she were buried beneath the earth. But was it really all of the above or none of the above? She wasn't sure. Sometimes she would glimpse what was really there, a flicker of an image out of the corner of her eye.

She walked down the darkened passageway. Of course it wasn't dark to her. To her the passage was lit with mushrooms and toadstools that illuminated the path in bright greens, pinks and purples.

She entered the center of the house and looked around. There was a circle of trees in the middle of a darkened moonlit meadow. A white hart lifted his head and looked at her. The moon glinted off his horns, his ears flicking as he acknowledged her presence and resumed grazing. She looked to the center of the trees where a flattened stone was positioned. A dagger lay on the stone.

Her lips quirked grimly. "I refuse to kill the hart." She said to the man who stood behind her. The hart was not real, he didn't exist, he was a symbol of magic, of sacrifice. "Kill the hart, spill his innocent blood, make him pay the price to give me more power." She said softly shaking her head. "I refuse to take the life of one of the men I love to protect myself. I will pay the price to save all of those I love, no matter the cost." She said with determination as she walked up to the stone. She picked up the double edged, silver dagger by its dark red, wooden handle.

She took off Leonardo's trench coat and pulled up her sleeve. She cut through the flesh on her arm. She watched as the blood dripped onto the flat grey surface of the stone only to disappear. She wiped the blade of the dagger through the blood on her arm coating the blade. She walked to the far wall of the room that appeared to be a room again. She lifted a tapestry of with the image of a unicorn enclosed within a golden circular pen.

She opened the door and emerged outside. The wind whipped through her. She looked at the house which flickered and glowed in the moonlight. She knelt down and dug the blade into the snow striking the frozen earth below. The snow around the blade began to melt as she drew a circle around the house. She used her blood, having to constantly smear more blood on the blade, and shoved power into the circle as she went. Power burned through her as blood began to drip from her nose ears and from between her lips.

Donatello looked at Raphael, April and Casey. Grimly he stood up. "I need to check on her April. The cut on her cheek at least needs to be stitched up." He said as he strode to the door. His flesh was beginning to crawl again. Something wasn't right.

"Donny." April said to him.

"She can hate me later April, she needs to be looked at. We've given her time, and she can have all the time she needs after I make sure she is okay." Donatello said over his shoulder.

Raphael stood and followed him. "Raph..." He began.

"Don't worry Donny, I ain't comin' in. I'll just wait in the hall, maybe check on Leo, see if Mikey needs anything." Raphael said to him softly.

Donatello nodded as he ran up the stairs and knocked gently on Katherine's door. He wasn't expecting an answer so he slowly opened the door. He peered into the darkened room. The bed was empty.

He flung open the door and looked around the room. He looked in the bathroom which was also empty, her shredded dress laying on the floor. "Damn it!" He yelled.

Raphael ran into the room. 'Donny what's...?" He looked around the empty room. "Donny where is she?" Raphael asked panic in his voice.

"She's probably in the center of the damn house, but we can't get there unless the house wants us to find her." Donatello said with frustration.

Raphael looked at him in confusion.

Donatello remembered then that Raphael didn't know about the man who followed Katherine around and was, but wasn't, the house. He filled Raphael in as he pushed the hidden door open.

They entered the dark passageway together. "Hey Donny, why does it feel like I'm walking on grass?" He asked.

Donatello cursed wishing he had brought a light of some sort. "Probably because you are." He grumbled as he felt his way down the passage. His hand hit air. He felt with his foot and felt the first step of a grass covered stair. "Here Raph, there is a staircase that leads down. Be careful." He said as he slowly made his way to the bottom of the steps. He felt around for the door and opened it. The room was dark. He stumbled over to where he knew the couch to be. He cursed as his shin hit the wood table next to the couch. He felt around the table and found the box of matches. He found the lamp, removed the glass top and lit the wick. He replaced the glass and looked around the empty room. His eyes fell upon Leonardo's trench coat.

"She was here." He said as he picked the coat up.

"So where did she go?" Raphael asked.

Wind whipped through the room. Donatello's skin ceased to crawl as he looked to where he knew Katherine to be. Katherine was standing by the far wall. She was blue with cold, her face was bloody and her arm was bleeding. She held a bloody dagger in her hand. She looked at him with dull eyes.

Donatello swallowed. "Katherine," He said gently. "It's just us, put the dagger down." He said slowly.

She fell. The dagger skittered across the floor as he ran to her side, but Raphael was faster.

"She's frozen Donny. Her hair is literally frozen." Raphael said in panic. "What the hell was she doing outside, and whose blood is on the dagger?" He asked, voice shaking.

Donatello picked up the dagger and looked at her arm. "I think it is hers." He said softly. "We need to get her warm." He said. Raphael handed Katherine to him and stood. He grabbed the lamp and threw it into the fireplace. The hearth blazed to life. Raphael strode to the couch and grabbed a blanket gently wrapping it around her.

Donatello frowned at the blanket. He was sure it hadn't been there when they had walked into the room.

"Okay where the hell did she just come from. How did she go from being in the house to outside, and back again?" Raphael asked as he walked over to the wall. A unicorn tapestry hung on the wall. Raphael lifted the tapestry revealing nothing but dark wood panelled walls. "I don't understand any of this Donny." Raphael said in frustration.

Donatello looked down in the woman in his arms. He looked at the bloody dagger. He didn't understand it either.

They sat in silence until Katherine's hair had thawed and she had returned to a more normal colour.

They took her back to her room. Donatello cleaned and stitched up her cheek as well as her arm. It was all he could do for now. He stood and motioned for Raphael to follow him. As much as he wanted to stay and look after her, he knew they needed to leave. He looked at the dagger sitting on the night table. Raphael had cleaned her blood off, but they had decided to leave it. He wouldn't blame her if she felt as if she needed protection against them now. He closed his eyes in dread and sorrow. He didn't know how to fix what had happened, didn't know if there was a way to fix it.

He closed the door gently behind him, and walked to Leonardo's room.

Leonardo was awake. He was pale and looked ill. He had large dark circles under his eyes.

Michelangelo looked at them gratefully. Leonardo looked at them and he curled into a ball closing his eyes tightly. Donatello sat down gently on the bed. Leonardo moved as far away from him as he could get.

"Leo." Donatello said gently. Leonardo flinched at the sound of his name and pulled himself in tighter.

"Leo, it isn't your fault." He said gently.

A sob escaped Leonardo's lips. Donatello looked at Michelangelo who was looking lost and close to tears. "Hey Mikey do you think you could maybe go check on Casey and April?" He asked his baby brother.

Michelangelo gave a worried nod and left the room. Donatello could see Raphael standing by the end of the bed, arms crossed, no emotion on his face.

"Leo." He said gently as he reached out and touched his brother's shoulder. Leonardo flinched violently away from his touch.

Donatello wasn't sure how long he sat on the edge of the bed, looking at his wrecked brother, but there was nothing he could say, nothing he could do to make it right. He looked at Raphael who gave a slight shake of his head. He stood. "If you need anything Leo, we're here." He said softly.

He walked from the room gently closing the door behind him. "We need to get some sleep Raph. It's nearly morning."

"Shouldn't someone stay with him?" Raphael asked softly.

Donatello looked at the door. "I don't think there is anything that we can do Raph, and I think our presence is making him worse. He thinks he betrayed her, and by extension, us."

Raphael sighed and slid to the floor in front of his brother's door. "What's he going to do Donny? Is he going to try to leave?" He asked.

"I'm not sure Raph. Leo's never been a coward. I can't see him just sneaking out, it would hurt his idea of honour too much."

"You don't think he'd..." Raphael asked.

Donatello frowned as he looked at the door. "His swords are still in the library, but we'd better make sure he doesn't have access to anything he could hurt himself with." He said wretchedly.

Raphael frowned at the door. "It would be just like that idiot to think that the only way to atone for this would be with his life." Raphael growled crossing his arms in frustration.

Michelangelo looked around the kitchen. It was getting close to dinner and everyone had been plunged into a deep gloom. Katherine had locked herself in her room all day, not answering their repeated knocks or questions or opening the door, and Leonardo was still a mess. He felt lost and alone and he didn't know what to do to fix what had happened.

He looked at April who was holding a cup of hot tea in her hands. Raphael and Casey were in the training room blowing off some steam, while Donatello was sitting in the hallway waiting for either Katherine to let him in, or for Leonardo to talk to them.

Michelangelo closed his eyes and put his head down on the table. "How do we fix this April?" He whispered to her.

"You can't Mikey." She answered softly. "They will have to fix it." She said as he lifted his head from the table and looked at her.

"Daddy Mikey, are mommy and daddy going to be okay?" Starbright asked him.

Michelangelo looked at her in shock. She was sitting in the chair right beside him and judging from April's expression she hadn't seen her come in and sit down either.

He looked at her in agony. How do you answer a question like that to a child? He wondered. Starbright crawled off her chair and into his lap. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. He clutched her close. He was hard pressed to stop the tears that were welling in his eyes from falling. "I don't know sweetheart." He choked out.

She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. She grabbed his face in her hands. She looked at him solemnly. "Mommy's trying too hard." She said quietly.

Michelangelo looked at her in confusion. Donatello, who was holding Starlight's hand, walked into the Kitchen.

"What is she doing Starbright?" Donatello asked her in worry.

Starlight shrugged. "Protecting everyone."

"How is she protecting everyone?" Donatello asked her.

They shrugged again. "We don't know. We're hungry." They said in unison. Donatello closed his eyes in frustration.

Michelangelo put Starbight down and grabbed two bowls to pour them some cereal.

Michelangelo put a hand on Donatello's shoulder. "Donny, I know it's frustrating, but they are only 5." He said to his brother."That makes them what, in kindergarten, if that."

"I know." Donatello said deflating.

"What's going on Donny?" Raphael asked walking into the room with Casey.

Donatello shrugged. "Starlight, what do you and your sister know about angels and demons?" Donatello asked them.

They frowned together as if they were thinking really hard about the question.

"Angels live in Heaven and demons live in Hell." They said together.

"Yes, but what else do you know about them? Can we stop them?" Donatello asked desperately.

They looked at each other. "We've never met any angels or demons. Auntie Mon doesn't like demons, she always calls Uncle Azzy Demon, but he isn't one. And mommy doesn't seem to like angels very much." Starlight said with a frown.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Raphael mumbled softly.

"Anything else? You said it takes more power to exorcize an angel than a demon." Donatello said desperately.

Starbright nodded. "That's cause angels aren't supposed to possess people. Uncle Lucy says that demons are easy to get rid of because the demons that possess people are weak, lower class demons who can't create a mortal body. But an angel is already powerful enough to create a mortal body to walk on the mortal plain with, so they are harder to get rid of because they are just more powerful." Starbright paused in thought. "Mommy didn't kill the angel, she just sent him back to Heaven. So he could try to come back after he recovers from being exorcized."

"So how do we stop him from tryin again? How do we stop from being possessed by angels or demons?" Raphael asked.

Starlight and Starbright frowned. "Can't you feel it? Mommy's already made sure the angels and demons can't get in."

"When you said she was protecting everyone, that is what you meant?" Donatello said in shock.

They nodded in unison. "It's okay Daddy Donny. Mommy always protects everyone." Starlight said with a smile.

Donatello slowly walked back upstairs, Raphael followed behind him.

"I don't like this Donny. I don't like this one bit." Raphael growled. "We are supposed to be the ones protecting her, how come she is the one protecting us? And how the hell is she doing it, and how do the girls know about it?"

Donatello sighed. "Raph if we had more than just a small amount of spiritual ability at all, we might be able to help, but this is beyond our area of expertise. As for how she is doing it, even the girls don't know what she is doing, they just...I think they can sense power. They knew that Leo wasn't Leo." Donatello finished softly as he entered Leonardo's room.

His older brother was still curled up in a ball in the middle of the bed. They sat with him for a while. Told him he didn't have to worry about the angel anymore, but he was unresponsive. He finally stood up to leave.

"My fault." Leonardo whispered.

"Leo, an angel possessed you, how is that your fault?" Raphael growled. Raphael had been silent so long Donatello had almost forgotten he was there.

"I let him in." Leonardo said wretchedly.

"What do you mean you let him in?" Donatello asked softly.

"Don't you see, I wanted her all for myself, I couldn't share, didn't want to share and he knew it. I was jealous, so jealous I couldn't stand it. I was jealous every time one of you held her, kissed her, whispered in her ear. But worst of all, I was jealous of how happy you all were. You were all okay with sharing her and you were happy. How could you be happy knowing you weren't the only one in her heart, knowing that she hadn't chosen yet?" Leonardo asked miserably.

"Leo, stop being an idiot. So you felt like that, doesn't mean you let the angel in." Raphael growled.

"Then why did he choose me?" Leonardo choked out. "And because of that...I...I...she's never going to be able to even look at me again, let alone forgive me for what I did." He said miserably."Tell her that I just need to get my things and then I'll leave." Leonardo said as he sat up.

"Leo, you did not ask for this!" Raphael yelled at him. "So you felt like any other red blooded male out there! So what! And as for leaving, you are not going anywhere!" Raphael roared at him. "Katherine is..." Leonardo looked at him desperately, as if he needed to know how she was, but couldn't bring himself to ask. Raphael stopped and looked at him as if not sure what to say.

"Katherine won't see any of us Leo. She's locked in her room right now." He said softly.

"No, she can't." Leonardo said with a stricken look on his face. "She can't hate all of you, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Leo, I can't speak for her. I have no idea what she is feeling, we'll just have to wait until she decides she wants to see us." Donatello said quietly. He stood. "You need to rest Leo, get some sleep and we will see how things stand in the morning."

Leonardo lay miserably back down in his bed.

Some questions answered, probably some new questions as well..hmmm...=)