A/N: Votes for post as I go. Thanks to BubblyShell22 for religiously reviewing. I mean seriously girl, you don't miss a single chapter! Thanks a bunch. And to the rest of you, take a hint, review!

Chapter 10

Nexus; the control center of the mind. The one place where the soul interacts with the mind to convey commands to the body in order to accomplish a task. The one place where an intruder aims to take over. Control the mind, and you control the person. This is where April, Jay and Kape found themselves, where they found the Hyper.

They passed through the sliding door into the Kraang-like tower and found themselves surrounded by screens that were made of shadows but still managed to show images in full colour and in high quality. There were rows of pulsing pink lights that glowed and sent out and received flashes to the transcribers. There was a main control post in the center of it all, a raised dais where the one in control stood surrounded by flashing lights and panels to manually control the operation of the body.

Standing on this dais was where the group found the Hyper. It was tapping away at the controls, sending various flashes of pink lights skirting out of the tower to do God knows what, but not seeming to have any luck. The Hyper was not in control at this point, but it was trying to break through.

At their entrance, the Hyper stopped its motions before slowly turning around. It was just as April remembered it. A dark, shifting silhouette with smile darker than black.

"So this is the Hyper," Kape drolled out as her strings coalesced beside her companions and swirled together as one mass. "I've got to say, with all the things I've seen in my day, and believe me I've seen a lot, I can honestly say that I've never once come across anything quite like you."

"Well, there was that one time in the Dargatchuan System," Jay pointed out.

"That was totally different," Kape retorted. "That one didn't live solely on the Mental Plane, nor was it able to take me by surprise and steal a fragment of my essence."

"Wasn't too hard," the Hyper boasted, its form blurring as it moved. "You were all caught up in finding a life form that was 'compatible', whatever that's supposed to mean."

"So you were trying to merge!" Jay scolded and Kape seemed to shy away from her angry Guardian.

"Really? Now?!" April said.

"This is not finished," Jay muttered to Kape who chuckled a bit.

"We just want Donnie's Soul Key," April demanded, stepping forward.

"Aw, that's cute," the Hyper said. "Going to save the boy who plays hero."

"Give it back," April repeated.

"Or what?" The Hyper snarled. "You can't touch me in here. You saw what happened when Donnie-chan tried. Physical attacks don't work on the Mental Plane."

"She may not be able to touch you," Kape hummed as she swirled a little closer to the raised dais, "but I am well versed in battling on the Mental Plane."

The Hyper seemed to hesitate for a moment before regaining composure. "You're nothing more than hot air. I know what kind of powers you have. In case you forgot, I have them too. I stole them, from you."

From within the Hyper's shifting form, a dull yellow glow surfaced, and the yellow tendrils snaked out and wiggled around.

Kape seemed to stiffen at this, if strings of light can so that.

"You think you know the extent of my power?" Kape said quietly. "I have been around longer than anything you can dream of. I have lived through millennia, gaining power and knowledge the likes of which you could never comprehend. And you have the nerve to not only question the limits of my abilities, but take them on like their yours!"

The mass of strings started to break up and flit around the control room, but Kape wasn't done. "Well, let me tell you something, sister. You don't know jack."

By now, Kape's strings filled the room, saturating the area with it's now pulsing yellow energy.

"I now give you a chance," Kape's voice came from everywhere. Each string producing its own voice. "Give up now, and return all that you've stolen and you'll get off easy."

"And then what!?" the Hyper demanded. "Then I go back to being trapped in the mind of a teenager! I don't think so!"

With a yell, the Hyper attacked. It's own yellow tendrils snaked out and tried to bring down the masses of strings. April lost sight of what was going on in the chaos of yellow strings and tendrils as they seemed to clash, fade and pulse all at once. It got so bright, that April had to shield her eyes.

The clash didn't last long, the Hyper was no match for Kape, and when the strings gathered together once again, April saw the shadowy substance of the Hyper and it's few tendrils trapped in a cage of yellow light. It banged against the strings that swirled around, exclaiming profanities and demanding to be released.

In front, stood Kape. Her strings merged together into the form of the golden girl that had hovered over the Shard in the Physical Plane. She stood at full height and looked exactly like Jay, if Jay were a girl. Her long hair cascaded freely down her back, and she held an expression of contemplation on her face as she watched the Hyper with what looked like pity.

After a few tense moments of silence . . . or what could be called silence, since the Hyper was still ranting, Kape sighed and turned to look at Jay.

"Oh no." Jay sighed and rubbed his face, knowing Kape's expression and knowing that it'll only lead to complications. "This just got complicated, didn't it?"

"This is so wrong," Kape whispered. At her words, the Hyper cut off mid-rant.

"What's wrong?" April asked, confused. She glanced at Jay who looked weary. "What happened?"

"Hyper isn't who you think she is," Kape answered.

"The hell do you know about me?" Hyper demanded and pounded on the cage.

"I saw into your soul just now," Kape said, looking at the ground. "Or what's left of it."

". . . You what?" Hyper stuttered.

"I saw you. I saw years of being trapped behind someone's walls, the loneliness of having to watch someone else live, of not being able to live your own life."

"What the hell would you know!" Hyper screamed again. "You don't know anything about me!"

"Then enlighten me," Kape said firmly.

Hyper bristled and fumed before exploding all the pent up frustration housed in her shifting form. "I am the product of a Kraang experiment. It's because of me that O'Neil has her precious psychic powers. I been locked in here for years, being drained so she could hear things. I don't want to hear about you knowing anything at all! You don't know what you're talking about!"

"What are you exactly?" Kape asked.

"A soul," Hyper answered bitterly. "I am a soul, or I was at one point. The Kraang thought it would be fun to stuff me into another body and see what bloody well happened."

"And what did happen?"

"She got her precious psychic powers," Hyper replied. "And everyone loves her. But no one knows about me and I'm the source of her powers. I may have been a soul at one point, but I am something else entirely now. It's my turn to play and nothing will stop me."

"What are you trying to do?"

"Take over, destroy, vent my anger! Take your pick. But it's going to happen. I am dark. It's my nature, and I will not stop."

There was a moment of silence as Kape gathered her thoughts. She peered through the golden yellow strings and into the featureless face of the Hyper, searching for the right words to calm this aching soul. Jay knew what was coming and braced himself for the coming speech, having heard it numerous times in the past whenever someone brings up the nature of what is Dark.

"Just because something is Dark, doesn't make it evil," Kape finally said.

"What?" Hyper faltered.

"The sun's light can blind just as easily as the night's darkness."

"The hell are you trying to say?"

"Why is it that people are scared of the dark, when the light can burn easier than the dark can freeze? Why do you think that, just because you are Dark, you must be evil? There is no evil in a colour. Black is just as innocent as white. There is no good in warmth or bad in cold. They just are. Someone born with the Dark element can be good, just as someone born of the Light can be bad. Trust me, I've seen both." Kape paused in her speech and silence encompassed the room. "You've been here a long time right?"

Hyper growled and clenched her fists. "It's all I've ever known."

"Then you are as much a part of April O'Neil as her own soul. You've watched her live, grow and learn, you've been with her all this time. Hell, you've been giving her your power these last few years and she didn't even know it.

"But I guess that being trapped in the Mental Plane for so long can wear away at just about anyone. You may not be the soul you once started out as, but you're not a thing. You're not an 'it'. Not the result of some alien experiment, or an object of power that can be used, then locked away. You are a part of April O'Neil, and you are needed."

"What do you know? What the hell do you know?! You're just some stupid rock that's been buried in the ground for who knows how long!

"I'm not a part of anything! I'm a parasite! Sucking off her memories and happiness to get a stupid high that never lasts long enough. Then I'm just back in this god forsaken place . . . alone.

"Well I'm sick of it! I deserve a chance to live as much as she does! To walk down the street and feel the sun, to eat a slice of pizza with grease dripping down my face, to knock the crap out of a Foot ninja . . ." Hyper trailed off on her rant before continuing in a small, subdued voice. "Why am I forced to watch someone else live the life that I wasn't allowed to have?"

The silence that followed was deafening. April felt a dread rip through her being. All this was going on in her own mind, and she never knew about it. This being, this person, Hyper . . . she'd been suffering all this time and she never knew. How could she not have known?

"But it wasn't all bad, was it?" Kape urged in a gentle voice.

". . . No. I guess it wasn't," Hyper sighed and slumped against the bars of the cage. "Whenever she used my power, when our souls joined together . . . It just felt right. It felt whole."

"Like I'd connected with something that was missing for so long," April spoke up, with glistening eyes. She stepped up to the cage and grasped onto the strings that made the bars while Hyper stared back at her with clenched teeth. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"An apology isn't going to fix this," Hyper growled.

"Then how about an understanding. I want to understand that part of me that I never even knew existed before now. I want us to be whole again. Please . . ."

"You don't mean that," Hyper's voice quivered in denial, at the insinuations that came with April's words.

"You know I do," April said with conviction.

"How?"

"Because you are me. We're the same."

"No. No, we're not! I can't," Hyper tried to back away, but found herself pressed up against the cage.

"Yes, you can," April reached through the strings of light and grabbed hold of Hyper's hands. Instead of fazing through her body like what happened in the past, they connected. Hyper seemed to flinch at the contact and tried to pull away, but April kept a steady grip.

"Let me show you," April whispered.

Kape nodded in approval and released her cage. The strings of light dissipated and joined together with Kape's body as she stepped away to give them space.

Hyper stumbled when the cage's support suddenly disappeared, but April's grip steadied them both as Kape retreated to Jay's side, who watched the whole proceeding in silence.
April closed her eyes and brought Hyper's hands close to her chest.

"What are you doing?" Hyper asked in a nervous voice on the edge of panic and tried to pull away again. But she stopped struggling when she felt it. A sense of wholeness that she felt whenever her and April connected spread through her, stronger than anything she'd ever felt in the past.

Jay watched as Hyper's wispy form seemed to destabilize, the mist that made up her body wavering. Then all at once, she dissolved into a black cloud of ash and swirled around April, who's eyes remained closed as they both basked in the other's presence. A soft pink glow glinted off the ashes making them look like a flurry of black snow flakes. April held still as Hyper's particles danced around and reveled in their newfound connection.

"What are they doing?" Jay whispered to Kape as the black snow fall continued to dance and swirl.

"Connecting," Kape answered. "They are learning every aspect of each other, and understanding the other on every level."

"But that's impossible," Jay countered. "You know that."

"Not if they were originally one soul."

"You mean . . ."

"A fragment of April's soul was separated from the rest for such a long time that it developed a conscious of its own. This conscious was twisted by the Kraang's experimentation and being trapped on the Mental Plane for so long. This is just the soul's way of repairing itself, trying to bring the missing fragment back to where it belongs."

"So they'll join together back into one soul?"

"No, the damage is to extensive for that," Kape sighed. "They have grown apart and can never fully merge into what they once were. The best they can do now is share the life that they both have claim to. And now, they both know that. I think this will work out alright."

"Are you worried this'll happen to you?"

Kape hesitated at the question. "Light will one day be whole. The Shard's will be re-united and balance will be restored. You know that. This won't happen to me. I'm different, remember?"

Jay rolled his eyes and watched as Hyper's form started to stabilize again, the ashes coalescing back into a shadowy humanoid form. They held eachothers hands close and rested their foreheads together. The two parts of the single soul stayed that way for a moment longer, finally together again.

"Two parts have joined and become whole," Kape breathed.

"One day, you will too." Jay reassured her. "I'll make sure of that."

"I know you will," Kape hummed and bumped his shoulder and started breaking up into strings of light again. "What else is a Guardian good for?"

"Keeping you out of trouble," Jay smiled as her strings swirled and one flicked him in the face. "Speaking of which," he said, brushing Kape's strings away. He stepped forward as April and Hyper broke apart. "Now that you're whole, I don't think you really need that anymore."

Hyper looked down at herself and watched as the dull yellow glow still swirled inside of her shifting body. She hesitated a little before nodding. "Sorry to be so much trouble," she muttered as she held out her hand. The yellow tendrils that ran through her misty body condensed into her palm and materialized in a squirming ball of light.

"Well, it's a step in the right direction," Kape said light-heartedly as her strings swarmed around the squirming ball. All at once, the ball released and more glowing, yellow strings erupted and flickered about the room. The only thing left in Hyper's hand was a single, docile string of white light that lazily swam in a circle.

"Oh, how I've missed you," Kape cooed as the white string leisurely wrapped around a yellow one.

"I still can't believe you lost it in the first place," Jay scoffed.

"What is that?" April asked. "It's different from the other lights."

"It's the Index," Jay replied. "A data bank that has stored every single scrap of knowledge that Light has collected over the years it's existed, which is pretty much forever."

"Go on," Kape prodded, ignoring his comment. "Ask me something."

Jay rolled his eyes. "How about we finish up in here so we can get back and deal with the problems on the Physical Plane."

"Which means there's just one more thing that needs to be done in here," Kape finished.

"Donnie's Soul Key," Hyper turned to April once more and they joined hands again. "Do you think he's mad?"

"I think he'll understand," April said. "Probably spaz out, but you know him as well as I do."

"Just . . . make sure he gets back," Hyper said. There was once more a glow from within Hyper's shifting form and this time, a purple light traveled down Hyper's arms and into April.

"Aren't you coming with us?" April asked, confused.

"Only one soul can occupy a body at any one time," Kape interrupted. "Only one of you can go back. The other has to stay here on the Mental Plane."

"We can't just leave her!" April exclaimed. "You said so yourself, it's dangerous to be here for too long."

"I've overcome that," Hyper reassured her. "The Mental Plane doesn't affect me the way it used to. I'll be fine, just go and save our boy hero."

April looked conflicted for a moment before the determination returned to her face. She nodded before turning back to the others. With a nod, they turned and started to leave.

"I'll be watching," Hyper shouted as the door closed behind them.

Oo-oO

April approached Donnie's strong metal gates and, like with her own, she extended her hand and pushed. She felt the pulse, saw the flash and the lock clicked open. Almost too slowly, the gates silently swung open and Donnie was stumbling out before they could even open all the way, the string of light keeping him company swirling around him. He looked alright, a little shaken, but he seemed relieved to finally be out of there. The only thing marring him was the dark hole in his chest, but that was about to be fixed.

"Donnie!" April cried out and ran forward to hug him. They pulled away from each other and April took Donnie's hands in hers, earning a slight blush at the contact. He stuttered a little but watched in amazement as a purple glow traveled down April's arms and up his own as she returned his Soul Key. The purple glow settled in his chest, and the gaping hole where the Soul Key was once ripped out was filled, leaving no sign of any blemish that once marred his chest.

"I'd say this mission was successful," Kape hummed as she split her strings between the three people in their little party with a few scouting the path ahead. "Let's get out of here."

Kape led the way skirting forward for the safe path and April took the time to glance back at the gates to their minds. She took in Donnie's tall, strong gates and her own small rickety fence. Then a thought struck her. Something was missing.

"Hey Jay," April called out. "I know you said that Kape doesn't have one . . . but where's your gate?"

Jay smirked and Kape seemed to chuckle.

"I do have a gate, if that's what your asking," he replied, turning his back to her and looking forward. "But when with experience comes knowledge, and walls aren't the only defence that can protect your mind. After all, it's hard to break a wall you can't find."

"You can hide your walls?" Donnie asked incredulously.

"Pretty much," Jay said, with his back still turned. April and Donnie searched around the area, looking for the so-called hidden gates, but coming up with nothing.

"Don't fall behind now," Kape hummed. April and Donnie looked back and realized that Jay was walking away without them.

"Hey! Wait up!" April ran after him with Donnie close on her heels.

Oo-oO

April stirred as visions from the Mental Plane faded and she found herself once again inside the Shell Razor. She blinked, clearing away the yellow tinge from her vision as Donnie moaned and sat up. They smiled at each other as Jay cradled the Shard in his arms. The journey back to the Physical Plane was a success.

April watched as Donnie looked around, taking in their surroundings. But then his face fell and panic seemed to set in.

Confused, April turned to see what caught him off guard and gasped at what she saw. The Shell Razor was a wreck. The display screens were cracked and blasted static, various pieces of equipment were smoking and broken, the smell of burnt rubber permeated the air. But most of all, something—or rather a couple of someones—were missing.

Something had gone terribly wrong while they were on the Mental Plane and string of fear shot through April.

"Where are the others?"

A/N: Troll, cliffy! Want to know what happens faster? Maybe some reviews will set the imagination to work.