Chapter 7

Michelangelo and Donatello returned bearing take-out Chinese food. Raphael has sat back down on the couch to process what the goddess had told him. Her body used to be that of a human woman, but it wasn't human anymore. But she hadn't said that it was she who had damaged the soul of the girl. It was too confusing.

He decided to sit down and tell his brothers her story. He talked with them over supper.

"It's like body snatching." Michelangelo said in his best scary movie voice.

"Raph this is very important. Do you remember her exact wording?" Donatello asked him. He shrugged.

"I guess so, which part?" He asked.

"The part where she said that she was resurrected into the body she is in now?"

Raphael nodded. "Resurrected, doesn't that mean she was dead?"

"That makes sense now." Donatello said poking at his food with his chopsticks. "Remember how she said that she was 4621 years old, but had memories going back another four to five thousand years. It probably means that something happened to her, maybe she was killed or injured badly enough that she was near death, and she was either brought back or was recovering and put into this girl's body, essentially resurrecting her into a mortal body. So she has inhabited her mortal body for 4621 years."

"She seemed sad about what happened to the girl." Raphael said.

"By her wording it sounds like she didn't want to be resurrected, but that events were set in motion that resulted in her being brought onto the mortal plain as she calls it." Donatello said.

"I still trust her Donny. I don't know what it is about her, but... I want to believe that she is...I don't know...real. I guess would be the best word I can used to describe her."

Donatello looked at him and nodded. "I know Raph."

They ate in silence for a little while. Finally Michelangelo asked. "Where do you suppose she goes?"

Raphael shrugged. "I'm not sure Mikey. I'm not sure it's any of our business."

"Maybe she's going out to eat." Michelangelo suggested.

"She would eat here if she needed to eat." Raphael said as he shifted himself off his chair and limped over to the couch.

"No she wouldn't Raph." Donatello said as he picked up the leftovers and jammed them into the fridge.

"Come on Donny our cooking isn't that bad." Raphael said defensively.

"She's a goddess Raph." Donatello said as if that explained everything. "Think about it, have you ever seen her use the bathroom, sleep, eat?"

'She takes showers." Raphael said to him.

"She takes showers because she's cold." Donatello said as he leaned against the counter.

"How do you know that Donny?" Raphael asked.

Donatello didn't meet his eyes. He shrugged and told him that they talked sometimes at night when he was working on his inventions. "She doesn't sleep, she's been helping me with the new shell cycle."

The news hit him somewhere in the region of his stomach. To think that Donatello was spending every night with her while he had been sleeping made him angry, and he wasn't sure why.

"She might be eating though." Michelangelo said in thought. Donatello and Raphael turned to him.

"She's a goddess, but don't forget, she's a blood sucking goddess." Michelangelo said as he made spooky oooo sounds and waggled his fingers.

"It's true, there are gods in many cultures that require blood to live, usually through sacrifices. Like the Aztec and Incan gods. Some Celtic gods required sacrifices too."

"Donny do you think she's..." He couldn't finish the sentence. Donatello looked concerned and then shrugged. "I suppose we could ask her, but I haven't seen a string of vampire-like killings or attacks on the news."

"But there is something I have to show you guys. Come check this out." He said motioning them to his computer. "She had told us the story of her sword the one with the blue glow, Morte Morosus. Well remember how she had said it was given to her by Persephone, well check this out." He said excitedly as he pulled up two images on his screen. "Her sword is a Kopis sword, used by the Spartans in Greece. And her other sword..."

"The creepy one?" Michelangelo asked.

"That one, Cuthach Fuilteach. The name is in Gaelic. And check out this Pictish sword. It's not quite the same, but obviously based on the same design. It means that what she told us about the swords is probably true."

"I thought you believed her story?" Raphael asked , anger lacing his words.

Donatello looked at him. "I do. This is for Leo." He said softly.

Michelangelo walked over to Leonardo's door and knocked. "Hey Leo!" He called. He tried a second time and when there was no answer he opened the door and peeked inside. Michelangelo looked confused. "He's gone."

The brothers looked at him in confusion.

Leonardo watched Michelangelo look into his room. He had listened to his brother's conversation. If she was out there feeding on people he had to stop her. He was suspicious of what it was she was doing when she left the lair. She always disappeared at mealtimes and it was time for him to find out what she was doing and expose her to his brothers.

He snuck out of the lair and followed her, hoping he hadn't left too late. He had paused when he heard his brother's conversation. He was angry. He was angry he couldn't protect his family from this woman who was obviously up to something. She had managed to integrate herself right into the middle of his family and his brothers couldn't even recognize the danger. He just couldn't figure out what it was that she wanted from them. He hoped that by following her he could find out.

He ran the night darkened rooftops of his city and finally spotted her in the air. She was circling buildings, getting as low to the street as she could without being seen. It looked like she was looking for something.

She landed in an alley, pulled up her hood and wrapped her wings around her body. She pulled her cloak in tight and exited the alley. She walked a few buildings down and stopped in front of a rundown psychic shop. She stopped outside the door and sniffed the air. She turned and began walking down the sidewalk again. Humans passed her and she didn't pause as she walked. There were a few times where a single human turned down an alley and she could have followed them but she didn't. She was still smelling the air as she walked. A few shops down she stopped again and looked at the sign on the door. It was a used book store. It didn't look like there was anyone inside except for the sales clerk, who was probably the owner. He was an old man who greeted her as she walked in. She pulled her hood back enough so that the man could see her face. She began talking to him and he led her to the back of the store.

Leonardo cursed as he lost sight of them. He debated if he should try to enter the shop or just wait. He didn't have time to decide as they both appeared again. He handed her something in a paper bag and she exited the shop giving the old man a friendly wave as she left. She began walking down the street again. Leonardo leapt down from his rooftop perch and looked in the window of the shop. The old man appeared to be unharmed. He remembered what Raphael and Donatello were like when she had fed off them and the old man showed no signs of being bitten.

He looked down the street and saw her duck into an alley. He followed her as she took to the rooftops and from there leapt off the building taking to the air again.

She flew a large circumference around the lair, never landing again until she landed on the roof of Belvedere Castle. She looked at the water that covered their lair. He stepped out of the shadows, her ears flicked showing him that she knew he was there.

"So what, you go for a nice little sight-seeing tour of the city when we eat." He said with a sneer.

"Why is it your scent?" She asked him, her attention focused on the lake leaning against the castle's ledge.

"What?" He asked caught off guard by the question.

She looked at him over her shoulder, eyes sultry. "Why is it you smell better to me than your brother's? You all smell good, but your scent for some reason is more intoxicating to me." She looked back at the lake. He remained silent as too many emotions warred with each other."I was patrolling, not sightseeing. I was looking for demons." She said turning towards him, crossing her arms and legs, and leaning back against the wall. "I found a few scents but I couldn't trace them."

"Was that why you stopped at the psychic shop and the book store." He asked curious of how she would react to finding that he had followed her.

She smiled, was silent a moment then pushed herself away from the wall. "The psychic had a little bit of Talent, I was curious how much, but she was not that powerful, her small amount of magic called to me." She shrugged then turned serious.

"The good and bad news is that the demons whose scents I could smell are non corporeal, which basically means they don't have a body, which means they are probably riding a human. If I could find one of these possessed humans I could get information from it, but all of the scents were old, which is the other good news. It basically means no one has come near the lair. The bad news is there were a lot of demon scents which means that a large number of demons are on the ground and I don't know whose side they are working for. I am going to have to track down one of these demons." She said in thought.

"And the book store." He said crossing his arms across his chest.

"Oh right I almost forgot." She pulled the paper bag from beneath her cloak and he had to stop his mind from wandering to where she had possibly put it. "I noticed that you liked reading. This is one of my favourites if not my favourite. I know it might seem a little girly, but it's a Classic. Even my brother..." She began, but furrowed her brow in confusion. She shook her head and handed him the bag. He looked at it in surprise and opened the bag. Inside was a only slightly worn paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

"You haven't read it have you?" She asked.

He shook his head from side to side. Then asked, "You never mentioned a family before, I didn't know you had a brother."

A stricken look passed over her face as her eyes began to trickle blue. "I don't." She said softly turning away from him.

"What happened?" He found himself asking.

She looked back over at the lake. "The one I was talking about, died I suppose, a long time ago." She said deep in thought. Her eyes were the shade of the sea during a storm. Then she tipped her head thinking. "Although I suppose that is not completely true. Where I stand in my world during my time, he is dead, here in this time and in this place, he yet lives, they all yet live." She said as if she wasn't sure what emotion she should feel as sadness warred with confusion.

He tried to process this then gave up. "So your family is alive right now?" He asked in confusion. "But where you are from they died a long time ago?"

Her brow furrowed in confusion again. "No, I have no family."

"That makes no sense at all!" He said in frustration. He then realized that he was beginning to feel sorry for her. She was starting to affect him like his brothers. "My brother was almost, no, was killed because of you. I almost lost him. Don't expect me to feel sorry for, you, or try to even understand what the Hell you are talking about!" As soon as the words left his lips he wished he could take them back. He didn't know what he expected, he had expected possibly rage. He had seen how quick to anger she was and he knew he had just crossed the line. He could work with rage. Her rage would make him be able to remember not to feel sorry for her, not to feel anything for her.

She closed her eyes and took a breath. When she opened her eyes they were still the colour of a stormy sea . "I suppose you are correct. It is my fault that Raphael has suffered as he has. A situation revolving around me coalesced to create the circumstances whereby your brother happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I will take that blame." She paused and then looked away from him.

"You don't know how lucky you are Leonardo." She said in a whisper. "Never forget how important your family is, because sometimes, they are gone too soon." She said as she seemed to gather herself from whatever thoughts she was contemplating. A tear escaped and trickled down her cheek leaving a pink tinged trail down her alabaster skin. She wiped at the tear and looked at it in confusion as if she wasn't sure why it was there. She made to walk past him. He found himself reaching out and stopping her. "Is that a threat?" He asked dangerously.

She looked startled. "Just a commentary on life from an ancient being Leonardo." She walked to the edge of the castle and leapt onto the ledge. "I hope you read the book Leonardo, it really is one of my favourites." She said with a shaky smile. She turned and leapt off the edge.

He walked to the ledge and watched her fly towards the lair. She was going back to help with Raphael, it was getting late and Raphael had probably already went to bed. This thought bothered him. He knew she was going back to the lair to help Raphael. So if he knew this, why did he still not want to trust her? Why did he still not want to believe her tears and even try to unravel the convoluted remarks she sometimes gave.

He turned and sunk down onto the cold stone. But even so her story didn't make any sense. How could an ancient goddess have family living now, but not in the past? He looked down at the book in his hands and felt a new stab of guilt. She had noticed that he enjoyed reading. And she had bought him a book. He opened the book and flipped it to the first page.

When Leonardo finally returned to the lair it was quiet, oddly still and quiet. He looked in on Raphael and reacted with horror to a blood splattered room. Gore marred the walls, of his brother's body there was no sign. He ran from the room and went in turn to each of his brothers rooms finding all in the same condition as Raphael's. Leonardo couldn't breathe. He felt dizzy, sick and his world was spinning. He heard laughter in the darkness. Swords drawn he approached the darkened corner of the Lair where a Syna was gnawing on the bones and flesh of his brothers. It was laughing at him in a deep throaty whisper. "You should not have killed her Leonardo. She was the only thing that stood between you and us." The Syna hissed. Hundreds of Shadow Glides peeled themselves from the shadows as he screamed in terror. Leonardo woke up with a start. The book she had given him fell to the ground. The cool night air brushed by him. He looked around shook himself off and headed home.

When he returned to the lair he found Raphael waiting up for him. He was seated at the table a glass of water in front of him. "So how did your little spying expedition go? Was she tearing out the throats of New Yorkers everywhere? Raining down death and destruction as she went?" He said angrily. "Is she here?" He asked instead. "She's here, with eyes the colour of a raging sea. What the hell did you say to her Leo!" He said getting angrily to his feet. "I screwed up, okay Raph!"He said hotly. "No you didn't Leonardo." The goddess said quietly. She smiled a soft smile at him. "I understand." And Leonardo knew she did, knew that she understood him. She smiled then. She then turned to Raphael and gave him a smile that lit up her face and eyes. It was the type of smile that made men move heaven and earth and go to war, just to make sure that that smile was given to him and only him. The blue of her eyes grew so bright and so intense, added with the green ring that surrounded her pupil, it was like looking into the depths of a glacial sea. But that smile wasn't for him, that smile was for Raphael. Raphael looked stunned. "There is a show I want you to watch with me Raphael, I think you are going to love it!" She grabbed him by the arm and began to lead him to the couch. "They match up all these warriors from different time periods, and they test out the lethality of their weapons, then they run a simulation to see who would win." She looked over her shoulder at him, tipped her head to the side. "Are you coming Leonardo?" She asked. Leonardo shook his head because he didn't think he would be able to speak. "Michelangelo, Donatello, come here you have to see this show!" She waved his brothers over, smile bright. His brothers smiled back. That smile was for all of his brothers, all except him.

Later that night the goddess confronted him as he was walking from the kitchen. Raphael's room had been silent and he didn't know where the goddess was until he quite literally walked into her. It was like walking into a brick wall. For someone so small there should have been some give, hell he should have knocked her down, instead he came to a sudden stop and almost fell himself. She reached out an hand and caught him before he could fall.

"I have been thinking Leonardo. I think that you and I should play a game." She said looking at him. He looked at her confused. A strange awareness of her presence rolled over him as he realized that she was alone with him.

"I would think there would be a warning in there somewhere about 'not playing games with the gods.'" He growled at her trying to stamp down whatever feeling was trying to take possession of him.

She laughed quietly and the laughter rolled down his skin like velvety chocolate. "Very good Leonardo, you are learning." She smiled flirtatiously at him. "But in this case you are perfectly safe from me. I propose a game of quotes."

"What?" He asked.

"You read a great deal. I have watched you, and you seem to be the only one of your brothers who reads extensively. And I don't count the magazines that Raphael reads or the comics that Michelangelo reads, or even the science articles that Donatello reads." Leonardo was silent. "So here is my proposition. We will trade quotes, I will give you a quote taken from your collection of books, and you will tell me the title and author of the book. If you get it right I will answer a question, if you get it wrong I ask you a question of my own, no lying of course. Then we will switch and you pick to quote, same rules apply. And there are also two conditions, no googling and no quotes like 'and she said to him' or something ridiculous. Do we have a game?" She asked holding out a hand.

Leonardo thought about her offer. He could finally get some straight answers out of her, but what could she possibly gain? He looked at her outstretched hand with misgiving. He took it anyway and shook it. Electricity ran down his arm as awareness of her coursed through him.

"Come, we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill and I cannot be responsible." She said to him."I shall seek your answer tomorrow night." With that she turned a left the kitchen walking towards Donatello's work room.

"Wait, how do you even know what books I own?" He asked. All of his books were in his room. The thought that she may have been snooping in his room made him angry.

"One night Michelangelo gave me a stack of books. He said they were from your room. He thought I might be bored at night. I thanked him and told him that I couldn't read your books without your permission. He put them back and I had thought to ask your permission, but you don't seem to like me very much and I did not think you would let me borrow them anyway, so I did not ask."

Shame burned through him that he was acting so inhospitable towards her, but he couldn't help it. He opened his mouth, but she was suddenly in front of him pressing a finger to his lips. "Do not offer what you do not wish to." She whispered to him, then she was gone like an alluring phantasm disappearing into the night.

He spent the next day looking at his books wondering which book she could have chosen the quote from. He had quite a few classics mixed in with some more modern fiction and a few mysteries thrown in for good measure. The wording sounded more classic, so he perused anything of a classical nature. She had given him enough clues, but trying to find one line in a novel was almost impossible.

She spent the day with Raphael stretching and working at gently moving his muscles. She said she had overestimated the amount of healing that had occurred and that he was banned from moving too fast, and even going near his heavy bag or any of the training tools or dummies they had set up. Raphael was furious. Leonardo could hear him screaming from his bedroom. He shook his head.

By dinner time he had given up and instead worked on finding a quote that she could not answer. He also realized that to be fair he would have to invite her into his bedroom to peruse his books.

"I've given up." He said to her after she returned to the lair from her nightly patrol. She looked at him in shock. "Also to be fair you can have a look at my books and borrow any you wish to read." She tipped her head to the side.

"Thank you Leonardo, you actually mean that." She said with a blazing smile.

He was staggered by her smile as he stepped back and she walked in front of him to his room.

As he walked behind her he decided this was a bad idea. There was something too intimate about having her in his room. His room seemed small and confined and he watched as she tucked her wings in tightly. She no longer wore her cape or any of her armour or swords. So his breath caught in his throat as she bent over looking at the lower shelves. Her tail was moving slowly from side to side. She picked out a book, stood, and began flipping through the pages. She turned the book to him and showed him the quote she had picked. It was Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. He braced himself for her question. He had a pretty good idea of the question she was going to ask so it shocked him to no end when she asked him, "Is your favourite colour really blue?"

"Yes?" He answered it as a question. "Really that's your question?"

"What, you were expecting a different question?" She asked him.

He looked at her in shock then said. "It is a matter of life and death, a road to either safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which on no account be neglected."

"The Art of War, by Sun Tzu." She said easily. "Come Leonardo you will have to do better than that." She said with a smile. "Favourite movie?"

He rolled his eyes. "You are going to know every quote I throw at you aren't you, then you are going to ask me stupid questions."

She tipped her head to the side assessing him. "No I do not know every book you have, but The Art of War, I am a warrior Leonardo, I know the book, I have read the original text. I also happen to know it is your favourite. It is so worn and battered it shows me that you have read it many more times than any other book you own. As for inane questions, I do not think that knowing you better is inane." She said with a smile. "I will give you a gimmie on that one. Find another quote for me."

Raphael slouched in the doorway arms crossed, barely contained anger radiating off of him. "Hey Leo, watcha doin'" He said menacingly.

She smiled at Raphael, his anger not bothering her one bit. "Hello Raphael, Leonardo was showing me his collection of books and we were playing a game involving book quotes."

"That better be all he was showing you." He growled.

"What else would he be showing me?" She asked innocently. She stood there waiting as Raphael's anger grew. It was then he realized he was waiting for his answer to her question.

"Hero" He said to her. She smiled at him.

"Good movie." She said as she took Raphael's arm and led him away. She looked back at him, face now unreadable.