Rayse tried to make himself appear courageous, but I saw fear there. I saw his legs shake and heard his voice break.

Blackness. Not unconsciousness. Blackness.

Stephen...

The voices spoke again.

Stephen, you must awake.

He sighed. "I...I am dead."

You are not.

"Leave me!"

Another voice tsked. He does not care. I told you he does not!

When will you stop!

Quiet! We should let her.

"Get away from me!" he cried at the blackness. "All of you!"

An explosion of light happened before his eyes. Everything took shape again as he was staring at the sun. He lay there for a while until he realized what it was. The frozen lake below him almost broke and he got back on his feet. He continued to run through over it, not daring to turn around.

"Stephen!"

That voice was the only thing that made him turn back. She smiled at him, laying down her hand on the lake. "It's alright. Stephen, it's me."

A second time. Maybe it was... No! Just a lunatic's hallucination.

"Stephen!" she raised her hands. "Stephen, please, it's me!"

"Donna is dead." he said. "She died. You cannot be her."

One of those voices rumbled beneath the ice again. He is not listening to her!

Wait, Námo. We must wait!

Wait? This is torture for her soul!

"No!" The hallucination looked at the ice. "No, I will stay. I will stay for him."

The protesting voice sighed. Donna, we are like him if we do this...

"You are not - I chose this." She smiled at whatever was below her. "It's okay." Then the hallucination looked at Stephen. It looked like her, sounded like her, felt like her. "Stephen..."

"This is a nightmare!" He turned away. "Leave me!"

She started crying. "Stephen. Stephen please..."

"Stop it!" He pressed his ears. It sounded just like her all those years ago. "Stop it!" He looked up at the sky. "Leave me!"

She reached out with her hand. "Stephen..."

"Stop!" He pushed the thing as much as he could, turning to run. "Leave me, leave me, leave me!" "Stephen..." She did not scream, but said that in a quiet voice, barely able to hear her, and yet the ice that broke below her was horrible - even more than the first time. Stephen screamed, only now realizing what he had done. He returned, not caring about ice that broke behind him. He prayed and begged like the most devout and believing man for something his mind knew was nothing but a hallucination and a dream...and yet, his heart could not live through this again. Cold water almost made his hand freeze as he reached out for her fingers. Even when he did not find her, he could still hear her voice. "Stephen!" it whispered. Only a single second of doubt passed through his mind before he jumped into the lake.

He was twitching in bed as Kaladin tried to lay a hand on him.

"Careful!" Mikey said so suddenly it was hard not to flinch a bit. "You might..."

"I know what I am doing." He tried to lay a hand on him again. Stephen jerked so strongly he almost slapped Kaladin. The Radiant stood up from bed. "It's better we leave him to rest."

"Rest?" Raph looked at Stephen's, at the moment, still body. "Whatever happened in that storm left him crazy, not resting. We must wake him up?"

"Can't you do something?" Leo looked at Dalinar. "I assure you that you do not want him to die."

"Of course I don't." said Dalinar. "But Kaladin is right - we should let your friend stay like this for a while."

Donnie crouched beside Stephen's bed, Shallan and Adolin standing behind him. Raph glanced at Dalinar. "It is your spren buddy who hit him in the storm, just so you know!"

Dalinar's eyes widened. "Stormfather?"

Kaladin dismissed. "Untrue. I have little love for Stormfather, but he was trying to send her away. Raph, this Maleficent was the one who struck Stephen, not Stormfather. He was trying to help us."

Raph waved away. "Whatever you say, mister. If it wasn't for him, this wouldn't have happened."

Dalinar did not show frustration or object to Raph's words. He raised his hand in a calming gesture. "I understand what you mean, friend. But trust me - I have tried to control the Stormfather or talk to him before. He simply doesn't listen to anyone, not even me. He hates orders." He sighed. "Storms, what am I saying! Now, he hates asking anything of him. You don't even need to order or demand, he will get angry."

"What kind of bond is that where he never listens to anything?" Raph clasped his hands. "Damn it, you guys have a useless bond with spren."

Dalinar looked up, as if hearing something. "Well, you see Raphael, now I am barely convincing him to be calm despite what you are saying about him. He does listen that much."

"Oh really? Well that's cool, he picks the right timing!" Raph rushed to window and yelled at the sky. "You must be the biggest asshole I've ever met, just so you know!"

Miles and miles away from Urithiru, a thunder struck and rumbled. Leo sighed and pulled his brother away from the window. "Can't you keep quiet for a little?"

"Okay, I take it back. You are just the second."

"Shut up!"

Dalinar made a step towards them. Raph and Leo both stopped their argument for now. "Your friend will be alright - I am certain. There is no need to worry. But...there is something else we need to talk about."

Mikey swallowed, remembering her laughter. "Do we really have to?"

"This Maleficent..." Dalinar started. "You know her. She's from...a fairy tale of your world, if I understand correctly."

"They say so." said Donnie. "Guys, are you completely certain it was Maleficent?"

"Dude!" Mikey said. "It sure as shell was! She had everything - the cloak, the staff, the look, the voice..." That pleasant, yet haunting voice. "Everything! It was her!"

"Plus, the green mist." Raph added. "It almost killed us!" Thunder muttered in the distance, and it sort of sounded like a chuckle. Raph gnashed his teeth. "Fine! I guess your Stormguy saved us...from his own mess."

"Then...it's not as dangerous as we assumed." Donnie looked at Dalinar. "She caught your Radiants and Stephen by surprise. But I think if we get to her, with maybe some more Radiants, we will be able to get her. But to capture her we will need Stephen."

Dalinar nodded, then turned to Bridge Four, who had Teft at the front. "Brightlord, if you give us another chance, we will be able to track her. She can't have gone everywhere."

"Are you sure? She has defeated you..."

"Brightlord, we know we can defeat her. Her magic is nothing compared to Surgebinding. Maybe she was able to defeat three of us, but when the others appeared she ran. If we take others we will have the last laugh."

"We will see." Dalinar walked to the other end of the room, standing beside the window. "We will wait for Strange to wake up. Then we will focus everything we have on her again. Let's get rid of this as soon as we can - we do not have eternity. No offense, my friends."

Leo smiled. "None taken." Raph's scoff said otherwise.

"Father," Adolin spoke. "I don't think it will be that easy."

"Why?"

"Some of our spies have returned." Adolin said. "They said the Fused are prepared to launch another attack. Not on Urithiru itself, but close to us."

"Then we better pray he wakes up soon." Dalinar said. "We cannot fight Odium and this sorceress at the same time."

Leo did not like that. What if they do not get to Maleficent in time? What if she escapes again? Dalinar and Kaladin both helped them already, but they could not expect them to fight for them. These people had their own war to wage. He wished he could help them, but it was better to leave as soon as possible.

"Jasnah will want to see me soon, then." Dalinar said. "I will need you Adolin."

The son obeyed and left the room before saying farewell to his wife and the Turtles. Both Adolin and Dalinar patted Kaladin on the shoulder and then left. Bridge Four members, Rlain, Rock, Teft, Lopen and Sigzil, were the only ones to stay here, along with Shallan.

"Thank you, guys." Leo said. "We owe you. Maybe we will return the favor before we leave."

"I doubt it. But it doesn't matter - we failed now. Until we take her in, nothing is settled." Kaladin looked at Stephen. "He is the only one who can do it?"

"Unless you guys have a way to capture her with your own magic." Donnie said. "Which, I suppose you do. But Stephen's magic is...quicker, I'd say."

Shallan tilted her head. "It seems not quick enough to save him though."

Raph sneered at her. "If your teacher hadn't taken his Cloak..."

"Raph..."

"Stop being a control freak, Leo!" Raph said. "This is the worst we've had it! A queen that doesn't care about anything beyond her own nose, a storm god that is reckless and careless, an asshole...you guys don't want to cooperate!"

Kaladin looked down. "I told you, I believe you..."

"Not want to cooperate?" Shallan repeated curious. "Oh. Do you have that impression, Donnie?"

Donnie raised his hands. "Shallan, please. Raph is always like that and we can't..."

"Well, I will." she looked down at him. "Well, my dear friend, as I see at least, the five of you appeared out of nowhere. You five appeared while we are fighting a war for everything we love, everything we care about, everything that is ours. This war is, to us, more immediate than anything you are doing out there? Yet here is what we did - we believed you on your words. We gave our best men to your help," she pointed at Bridge Four. "and I am personally spending time on, instead of my research, helping your brother. Now, I admit, maybe I can't complain on the last one, since I actually enjoy it." She smiled, though it seemed there was a bit of frustration in her eyes. "However, we have done everything we could to help you, make you all feel more comfortable and, despite precisely your refusal to understand us, we are considerate of your own differences, since it seems our cultures and worlds are very different...and we did that all while asking you for very little. So, it is just my personal opinion Raphael, but I think you should be more grateful for what we have done for the five of you already and keep your mouth shut for a while."

He gnashed his teeth before uttering just one thing. "Everything depends on what we are doing..."

"Perfect! That means it is worth some patience." She looked at Donnie. "You will stay?"

"Yes. We can't leave him. Sorry..."

"Don't be. I understand." She then left the room and an angry Raph behind.

Kaladin sat down and shrugged at him. "She can be too...straight. In fact, most of the time she is like that."

"Well..." Leo rubbed his neck. "Splinter liked to say honest people are the best." That was a lie made to better the situation. What Splinter actually liked to say was: "An honest person speaks only the truth, a wise person speaks the truth only sometimes."

"We need to leave." Kaladin said, turning to his men. Then he looked back at Turtles. "I know this is a bad moment, but we can't let Urithiru without guard."

"Fine, man." Mikey said. "But we have to stay."

"Of course." Kaladin said. "If we see her again, we'll send a messenger to tell you."

"Thanks, Kal." said Donnie. "You're a good man."

Syl flew above Stephen, glancing at him. "He's fine. He will wake up soon." She smiled at Raph. "Don't worry, Raphael."

Raph scoffed. "Ha! I am not worrying. He's just a colleague, after all." His eyes widened when Stephen twitched again and he reached out to calm him. "Are you sure he's right!"

"Yes." Syl said. "Just dreaming." She sat on Raph's shoulder now. "You know, I'll speak to my father to calm a bit, if it will mean anything. He does listen to me. Sometimes."

Raph rolled his eyes. "Yeah, cool."

She flew back to Kaladin and then disappeared. "Let's go."

Lopen slapped Mikey on the shoulder before leaving. "Take good cheer, gancho."

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Thanks, dude." And the Five of them were left alone.

Chill and water covered him as he swam through water. His hands searched for her, without a single hope he will find her. It was just the gut feeling overcoming him. I was not long before he had forgotten what he was actually doing.

Where are you? He thought, since words could not come out of his mouth. He remembered, then forgot, then remembered again. Thoughts changed in mere seconds, faster than he thought it possible. He now remembered all people he met during his life and people that he saw died. Donna always died after each one again, but he also saw his father and mother, all his patients, and all the Avengers who passed with Thanos' snap, and he saw Stark die. He saw all those people and heard their last words, looking as life faded from their eyes. And Donna was the last one he saw. Now he was back in the water, but even the bubbles soon disappeared when the blackness returned. As if everything in existence was wiped clean and his eyes were able to glance at the residue of it all. Only one thing was present in the void. A single voice.

At least that is how he comprehended it. To call it a voice seemed not wrong, but not correct either. There was something in it that was different. It was greater than anything Stephen had ever felt, processed or imagined, greater than every word uttered by human words. He could not understand it clearly, not until he let go of the idea of understanding it itself.

"Why did it happen like this?" Stephen asked the darkness. Then, in a passage of time that he was not sure if it was a moment or eternity, a sharp light appeared, standing above him. The most terrifying, yet also the most beautiful thing Stephen had ever seen, enough to make him cry.

Was this...him? Was this God?

"Why did she have to die?"

The voice sighed, thinking of something. Stephen could feel it thought something, that, whoever this Being was, they were not hiding anything from him. Stephen could not comprehend it, yes, but it was in plain sight before him. He knew it was not one of those voices he heard before in the Portal.

"Why did they all have to die?" If he was to die himself, he will at least get the answer before he does. "Why does all of this happen?" There is no utopia in any universe or world that exists. To a man or a woman who lives in Middle Ages, to people of Roshar or of a ruined wasteland, Stephen's world would be a paradise. And yet, he knew its flaws all too well. As for the worlds and centuries that would look down on his as barbaric and primitive, he realized none of it perfect. Perfection was impossible to be performed by human hands, or of any creature similar to humans. Death, violence, confusion, lies, suffering...all that evil existed everywhere, in the same amount. Different shapes and forms it took, but evil existed everywhere.

"Why? Why do we need to go through all of that? Please. Tell me." The Light was pure. Too pure, full of everything beautiful Stephen could imagine. It was love, compassion, mercy and the desire to set all things right. It was the warmth of every hug and the joy of all those who loved each other. It was the hope of a sailor who reached air after a shipwreck. It was the relief of a patient after his life is saved. It was the healing of all those who were hurt, either in body or spirit. It was the hope of the lost, the strength of the weak, the sight of the blind. It was Goodness itself, too bright and beautiful for Stephen to comprehend it - he could only cry silently. "If it was not you...then what or who did this to us?"

The Light gathered around him, taking the chill away. He felt as if something held him and hugged him, comforting. The chill disappeared and his breath returned to his body. Blackness returned once again, except a single dot of that Light that retreated from him. He reached out for it, but it just travelled further and further away. There was just one moment of complete darkness, but the Voice still remained, great and powerful. The Voice said the only thing, the only word Stephen heard clearly during this entire encounter, though he did not understand what it meant.

MORGOTH.

"So...how does it work now, Donnie?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you worked with Shallan." Leo said. "And she said the stone works better now."

"Yeah." Donnie said. "It was able to show Roshar and some other planets in the Cosmere. I think one was...Scadrial? Maybe Sel? A weird universe, I'll admit..."

"Show them?" Mikey said. "Dude, what do you mean by that?" At least someone was excited now.

"Like browsing planets on the Internet, Mikey."

"Oh..."

Donnie blinked. "Oh? I know how it sounds like, but since that things is not a phone, it is the biggest thing you can imagine!"

"Well, I do guess it's better than my T-phone." Leo looked at it. "Geez, it says we are in a city from Montenegro." He narrowed his eyes. "P...Pleje...what the..."

"Plevlja." Donnie said.

"Whatever." Leo said. "Same place."

"Geez." Raph said. "Why does it always show that when it doesn't work? Mine showed Sarajevo last time."

"Uh..." Donnie coughed. "Raph, Sarajevo is in Bosnia."

"As if I care!" He snarled. "It's like that Belgrade place."

Donnie tried to keep it in, but... "Belgrade is Serbia."

Raph snarled again, though he kept himself from slapping Donnie. Leo patted him on the shoulder and then looked at Donnie. "Seriously, you're nit-picky! It's basically the same country, Donnie!"

"Oh, if you told them that, they'd get really angry."

"They can go to shell!" Leo pointed at Stephen. "Focus on him, not freaking Balkans, Donnie."

Donnie held back another comment, only because Leo finally said something correct. Mikey once said Serbia and Bosnia are in Africa. "Alright. But I don't think he's in any danger."

"Really?" Raph said. "So we're just gonna sit here with thumbs up our shells and do nothing?"

Mikey scratched his shell. "Well, maybe we could take better care of our hygiene."

"You heard Syl." Donnie said. "She's a spren, no? She probably knows it better than we do."

Leo looked at Donnie, then at his goggles that were beside Stephen's bed. "You of all people say that?"

Donnie smiled weakly. "Yeah...I know."

Raph took his sai, moving it from hand to hand. When Stephen snapped out of his dream he almost pricked his finger on the tip. Stephen breathed heavily, his face covered in cold sweat. Leo and Mikey held him by his arms. "Woah, woah, dude!" Mikey said. "It's alright. You just had a magic punch, basically."

"I..." Stephen stuttered. "I saw her."

Leo narrowed his eyes. "Her?"

"Donna." he said. "Donna...my sister. She was there."

Leo sighed. Wong told them about her. Ever since then, Leo watched his words around Stephen a bit more. So he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you wanna sleep a bit more, buddy?"

Stephen stared at his own hands, then made a small circle on his right hand, going with the left over it. It was not a spell of any kind, just a mere movement of his hands. "Stephen?" Nothing. He continued his move. Stephen shook his shoulder a bit. "Stephen?"

Stephen blinked, as if he had awakened only now. "What?"

"I said would you want to sleep more?"

"Sleep. Sleep..." He shook his head. "No! Not again." He stood up, weakly pushing them away. He almost stumbled, but leaned beside the wall. "Not again."

Raph smiled. "You know, I was about to say: 'It was about time for you to wake up, Sleeping Beauty!'" Then he rubbed his chin. "Then I realized it's too on the nose, probably."

Whatever was on Stephen's mind now, what Raph said took him out of it. He nodded and started striding across the room. "The witch we saw there. The one that hit me with her magic. She..." Stephen's eyes widened. "Damn me to hell! It was her."

"Yup! As real as my jokes." Mikey said, smiling, but then he shook again when he remembered that chuckle. "Dude, help me."

Leo shrugged. "We can't really complain no. I bet we're a movie in someone's universe too."

"If that is Maleficent," Raph said. "I mean...you can definitely beat her, right Stephen?"

"Yeah." He said. "Sure I can. It's just...Ah, nothing."

He looked over to the window. The uneasy silence between them lasted a few moments. Turtles never saw Stephen being silent even for five minutes. Donnie cleared his throat. "So...the stone, Stephen, you know? It works. A bit. It was able to show us Roshar and other planets in the Cosmere. I think it can be used to help us eventually."

"Good job, Donnie." Stephen replied without looking back at her.

"It's not just me. Shallan helped a lot. She's really great, I think you would like talking to her."

"Yeah, Donnie likes a redhead." Raph smiled. "After all, she probably reminds you of April, doesn't she?"

Donnie raised his hand. "Alright, that's too far. She's married, Raph."

"Oh, please don't kid me. Don't tell me you don't..."

"Raph, he's right." Leo said. "Don't go too far with your words. That is what alwaysvgets us in trouble, not Mikey."

Mikey blinked. "I am not certain if I should feel offended or complimented."

"A bit of both."

Mikey narrowed his eyes. Leo completely expected a comeback. "Meh. I can live with that."

Raph scoffed. Again. "You guys are so prissy! Seriously! You are scared of those like some little kittens."

Mikey rubbed his chin. "Really? Hmm...and why is so? Maybe you haven't seen how big they are?"

"I'm not going to lie," Donnie said. "Prince Renarin is younger than all of us, yet that guy is taller almost a head than me. Everyone is tall here. I feel so...small around them."

Leo facepalmed. "Are the two of you kidding me? It's about gratitude, Raph! These people have helped when they had no honest reason to trust us."

"No reason? The entire..."

"We had no proof for that!" Leo insisted. "But they helped us. We can't keep arguing with them. You always like doing that, but we can't."

"Like?" Raph pointed at him. "You're provoking again, huh? That is something you like! Don't make me come over there and..."

Leo pushed his hand so suddenly it almost hurt him. Raph wanted to snarl and yell again, but... "We can't. Splinter would hate that!"

Raph closed his mouth, looking down and then humphed, going back to his corner. Leo was not willing to berate him or chastise him now. There was no room for that. "It's better we go. You okay Stephen."

He looked at them, slowly nodding. "I...yes. yes, I'm fine." He lightly slapped his chest to get some air. "Let's go. I need to go out." Turtles were not very willing to have him go, but they would not protest. Stephen made himself appear as good as he could, but all he saw and heard in his mind was Donna in the lake.

In this chapter, you got a peek at the essence of all of this - not just this small quest, but the entire story. Things are getting a bit more clear, and I am happy I can share the answers with you very soon.

See you until then!:)