Alrighty people, new chapter is up and some questions are going to be answered. Enjoy. Please reveiw!

Chapter 23

They made their way slowly down the mountain, he held her hand, but he felt unsettled. Something at the back of his brain was bumping around trying to tell him something but he just couldn't figure out what.

Two hours later they arrived back at the lair. The sounds of metal hitting metal rang out as the bike roared past the two combatants. Donatello got off the bike and helped her off. She seemed weaker than when they had started out in the morning.

"Shhh Donatello." She said as he helped her off with her helmet. "I'm just tired. I didn't get enough rest last night." She shook her head as if to clear it.

Michelangelo walked up to them. "'Bout time you two got back. Those two have been at it for the last half hour and I'm sick of listening to them." Michelangelo said rolling his eyes.

Donatello walked with Michelangelo out of his workroom. Goddess stayed behind. He looked at Michelangelo. He thought about how he felt now that he knew she had been with all of them. He felt more irritated that Leonardo and Raphael were acting like such idiots. She had also told him that she loved him. He wanted to tell his brothers. Yell at them that she had chosen him, but somehow he knew that it wouldn't be true. He walked into the training room.

Raphael and Leonardo were panting hard. Sweat rolled off each of them, and they were obviously tired and exhausted, but neither was going to give ground. Anger radiated from both of them and the frivolity of it pushed Donatello over the edge.

He grabbed his bo from the wall and charged them both. He attacked both of them with anger and frustration.

"You stupid, hot-headed, selfish, bastards!" He yelled as he managed to disarm each one.

He panted, as his brothers looked at him in shock. It was Raphael who recovered first."What the hell Donny! You stay out of this. This is between me and Leo. You have no idea what's going on!" he shouted.

"Oh I know exactly what's going on, far better than you do." He said angrily. "She doesn't remember what happened last night you idiots."

Leonardo and Raphael looked at him in shock. "Well at least that got your attention. She was being ridden by her Blood Lust. She did what she did so she wouldn't kill all of you, and now you two idiots are fighting over her for what? Do you think that the winner gets her?" He threw down his bo. " She woke up with no memory of what had happened or how she made it into my bed last night. She now remembers bits and pieces of what happened, and I can't even begin to imagine what she is feeling right now. You two want to hash things out with her, she's in my workroom." He turned and strode away.

He could feel his brothers following him. Anger still radiating off of Leonardo and Raphael.

"How did she end up in your bed Donny? Wait, what do you mean all of us?" Raphael asked angrily.

"I took her there." Michelangelo said with a shrug. "Someone had to make sure that Donny got some blood. I was barely able to wake him up he had lost so much, he was a nice grey colour when I got her to give him some blood."

"Wait Mikey, you?..." Raphael asked angrily. Michelangelo just grinned and shrugged.

"So you too Donny?" Raphael asked furious.

"Yeah, me too Raph." Donatello said angrily. He wanted to shout at them, let them know that she had wanted to be with him without being ridden by the Blood Lust, but he kept silent.

She was leaning against his workbench deep in thought.

"Okay, I've had enough!" Raphael roared at her.

She looked at Raphael. Donatello walked over to her, stood behind her and pulled her against him. He glared at his brothers.

She pulled herself from Donatello's embrace. She walked over to Raphael reached out a hand and pulled the neckline of his shirt down. Raphael looked at her in surprise. She touched the spot over his heart. "What have I done to you Raphael?" She asked him. She looked as if she was seeing something that they couldn't. Raphael froze looking down at her with angry brown eyes. "I have bound him in a way, not an actually binding, but I've marked his heart and soul."

"Marked it with what?" Donatello asked.

"Love." She said softly as she backed away from Raphael.

"What do you mean you marked my heart and soul with love?" Raphael growled taking a few steps towards her.

She looked at him. "I love you Raphael." She said to him eyes full of sadness. "That is all it is, your love for me and mine for you, we are now linked and I can feel you through the link."

"Then if you love me, why, why not just be with me, choose me!" He grabbed her shoulders. "Forget about last night, fine, but..." She was shaking her head pulling away from him. She stepped back into Donatello and Michelangelo who grabbed her around the waist, they both hugged her between them.

"We can't make her choose Raph." Donatello said to him looking at both Raphael and Leonardo. Leonardo wore a shattered expression.

She held out her arms. "You need to know." She said softly. The white bladed sword appeared in the center of their circle. Donatello had never really gotten a good look at the sword, but it looked like a Scottish Claymore. It was as tall as she was, but the scabbard that held it wasn't that long, and when she had driven it through Raphael's heart it didn't seem that long either.

It was blade down and hovered about four inches from the ground. They all looked at the sword and suddenly Donatello found himself sitting in a gently worn wing chair that was placed in front of a massive marble fire place. He looked around him and realized he was in a library. But it was bigger than any library he had ever seen. It was two stories high, but looking down the length of it, he literally couldn't see the end. His brothers looked at him. Raphael was in the other wing chair placed in front of the roaring fire, while Michelangelo ended up on a chaise lounge chair, and Leonardo was sitting behind a massive carved desk. Each of them stood slowly taking in their surroundings.

"Where are we?" Michelangelo asked.

"More importantly where is Goddess?" Raphael asked. "And what's with you two!" Raphael yelled. Raphael was still furious but he began looking around. Of Goddess there was no sign. The library was eerily silent, the only noise being the cracking of the fire. "She is in love with me and you two are touching her! You two need to back off and leave my girl alone."

Michelangelo wandered over to a bookcase and idly pull a book from the shelf, or at least he tried to but it wouldn't move. He pulled harder and suddenly the book released. He fell to the floor. "Ouch." He said standing and rubbing his butt. "You don't get it do you Raph and Leo is just as lost as you."

"Then why don't you explain it to me Mikey" Raphael growled.

"It's not for me to explain Raph." Michelangelo said studying the book.

"Mikey maybe we shouldn't touch anything." Leonardo said looking around worriedly.

Michelangelo shrugged. "It's only a book Leo." He opened it.

"No!" His brother shouted.

Donatello looked around. The figure of Death loomed in front of them. At least that is who it had to be. The seven foot tall walking skeleton gave it away. Grey wings arched behind him almost blending in with his faded black robes.

Michelangelo screamed and looked at his hands but the book was gone. They all took a step back. Death was picking up an hour glass from a cabinet. He was inspecting it. They looked around them. They appeared to be in a long room with grey stone walls and black cabinets. Row upon row of black cabinets lined walls and ran down the center of the room.

You are not supposed to be here The voice of Death rang through his head like a cemetery bell.

Michelangelo squeaked and took a few steps backwards.

"Now is that your Rule or Theirs?" Goddess' voice answered from behind him.

Donatello and his brothers quickly turned and saw Goddess standing in the doorway. She was leaning against the door frame, arms and legs crossed. She was wearing her clothes, weapons and armour.

Death didn't answer but gently put the hour glass back. "Is that one mine?" She asked him

Death gently closed the cabinet door. No

She shrugged and pushed herself off of the door frame. "Are we going to do this or not? You are on my time now, no more working, that's why you have your little underlings." She said the last with a trace of disgust.

"Leo what's going on? They are acting like they can't see us." Michelangelo said as he got out of the way of Death who followed Goddess from the room.

"We're in one of Goddess' memories." Raphael said. "We must have landed in her Memory Room." Michelangelo looked at him in confusion. so Raphael explained to them what he knew about Memory Rooms and Soul rooms. "That book you opened obviously contained this memory."

"So what do we do now?" Michelangelo asked.

"Watch the memory to the end I guess." Raphael said with a shrug.

They walked from the room and gathered behind Goddess who was sitting in front of a chess board, Death sat directly across from her. She was lounging in the chair, one leg thrown over the arm her arm thrown over the back.

"White or black?" She asked.

Black Death answered.

She rolled her eyes. "Why do you always like playing black, I mean I get it, you're Death, but not everything has to be black." She looked around the room they were in. It looked like an English cottage with low wooden beams and grey stone walls, but everything was black. The beams, the chairs, the fireplace, the rugs, even the fire was black. "And don't say that the walls are grey because grey is really just a really light black. You could try some purple if still wanted to continue the whole gothic thing."

Purple? But why?

"Because. Just because you are Death does not mean you have to be confined to the stereotypical mould of what you are supposed to be. Anyway we have had this conversation so many times it is starting to bore me."

But I like the lives that reside within the black pieces. Death said to her.

She looked at him in shock and sat up straight. She really looked at him then and relaxed into her former negligent pose. "Very funny." She said with a smirk.

You say it was funny, but you do not laugh, I am trying to understand how you can say it is funny but not laugh.

She looked at the chess board and moved a pawn forward. "There are different kinds of humour. Some, is laugh out loud funny, some is more...subtle. Yours would be more a practical joke, where it is more funny to the person doing the humour than the person it is enacted upon. So you should find it funny that I thought you were serious about there being souls trapped in the chess pieces"

Death moved a pawn forward. Neither really seemed interested in the game, it was more like a pretence, or a habit. She moved a knight forward.

Haha

She smiled at him and laughed out loud. Her joy and happiness rang out and echoed through the room.

She gave Death that smile that was like the sun breaking through the clouds on a gloomy day. Death picked up another pawn but paused as he watched her.

I do not understand how that is funny

"You will, one day, you will." She beamed at him. "But that's is one reason I like you. I like the fact that you don't treat mortal lives like playthings." She said seriously.

Apparently Death was used to her whiplash change in conversation as well as emotions.

You like me? Death asked finally placing the piece on the board.

She seemed surprised by the question. "Of course I like you, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Just because I am stuck in your Domain for four months out of the year doesn't mean that I have to hang out with you."

You are in the company of the other gods, and you do not like them

"I have to be in the company of the other gods. For four months of the year I am stuck with them. I'm the one who has to settle the disputes over who stole whose worshippers, and who's cows grazed on who's sacred land. I have to settle disputes over cows!" She drew her clawed hands down her face. "I don't like hanging out with them. They just think that mortals are playthings only existing for their amusement. I don't like it. When I am done my duty with them I lock up the Castle and threaten that any god who steps foot into it will be eaten." Death looked at her with black fathomless eye sockets.

"Hey the Castle only ate two gods. It was their own fault really." She looked at him again. "Well it keeps the other gods away, and I managed to get them before the Castle completely digested them, they recovered...eventually."

You are the only one that has ever visited. Death said watching her move her knight again.

"That's because you never had a house to visit, now you do."

You suggested the house, but I still don't understand it. I do not sleep, I do not eat.

"I live in a Castle that devours people. I don't eat or sleep either. It is a place to be. A place where you can exist and not be what you were made to be, but be whatever you want to be. " She said to him.

I AM Death

"Yes but you can talk, think, react, it is not all that you are. You are not your Reapers."

You...dislike, my Reapers, why?

"They're creepy." She said sitting up and crossing her arms. Death looked at her silently, chess game forgotten. "They are nothing but shadows. They do not think, they cannot act, they just retrieve souls."

That is their role

"Yes but, a shadow is not comforting."

I am comforting?

"To me you were." She said softly. "To a dead soul, yes. I mean I suppose they would be upset that they were dead, but they know who you are. Imagine you just died and in the few moments when you retain your form and memories of your life, this shadow passes by and basically eats you. I would find that terrifying."

But they are dead, they will have no memory of being Collected by a Reaper.

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter, that's like saying that to someone who was murdered, it is okay that they were murdered because once they revert back to their essence they will not remember it. The fact remains that they were terrified when they died. It just seems redundant to be terrified when you die and then terrified by the shadow that eats you."

Death looked at her. You were not terrified

"A Reaper didn't collect me either."

You were special.

She laughed again. "Were? I still am." She said with a flirtatious smile.

"Is it just me or is she flirting with Death." Michelangelo whispered to Leonardo.

"Shut up Mikey." Leonardo whispered back.

Yes Was all Death said as he took her hand and lifted it from the table surface.