"Zzzzzzzzz…"
Venus looked back to see her charge nearly asleep standing up, leaning against one of the walls. He was softly snoring and had lagged back far enough that he was nearly out of the range of the candle.
She wouldn't have normally been worried because most tunnels didn't have many active traps or any secondary tunnels leading to other places.
Click.
Apparently not this one though. She dropped her luggage and leaped back in top ninja speed to save the little guy from falling through what turned out to be a door leading to a pit of spikes.
Phew.
"Eh? Sorry Venus, I fell asleep again, didn't I?" he said as she carried him back to all of their stuff.
Leonardo looked like a guilty, kicked puppy the entire way, even after she put him down to gather everything.
She sighed, picking him back up and placing him on her shoulders, letting him sit on her backpack and rest against her head.
"Woah! …...Um….Venus?...Vee?"
She twitched at the sudden nickname. "You can rest if you want. We still have a long way to go. I'll wake up you when we get there."
It was relatively silent for a few minutes as they took twists and turns that she had memorized a long time ago.
Fidget, fidget.
Venus learned very quickly that Leo had a guilt complex the size of a continent, even for something as simple as letting himself be carried by someone older and stronger than him.
"But…. What about you?" he asked eventually.
"What about me?"
"Won't you get tired? I mean, you're carrying a big bag and a backpack and the candle and me. Should I get off?"
She wouldn't tell the kid this but she, too, felt like nodding off in the quietness and the warm glow of a candle flame. But to get tired from stuff as light as this?
"I've done worse Leonardo, I'll be fine."
She could practically see that he was completely unconvinced.
"Look, if I get tired, we'll stop and take a nap, alright?"
He was reluctantly placated by the deal and his breaths soon evened out into a restful sleep.
He woke up several times throughout the journey but never noticed when Venus didn't have the heart to wake him up at the end, settling down next to him for a long over-due rest.
Leo crept into the nursery, taking every precaution to stay quiet.
"Good morning, Raphie, Donnie," he whispered, smiling gently at the two sleeping brothers tangled in their blankets of red and purple..
The maids were perplexed as to why they refused to sleep unless they were together, chalking it up to simple brotherly attachment. Leo knew better, however. Something inside drew them together and it never felt right without them.
He constantly worried and could never keep them out of his mind whenever they were out of his sight too long.
He knew it was a stupid theory, but he liked to believe that his brothers felt the same. He would grow a smile as wide as the sun and his heart would flutter whenever he heard about a tantrum the 2 troublemakers threw while he was gone.
He loved watching Donnie crawl around. After his initial heart attack and a few hours to cool down after his lecture consisting of something along the lines of:
'No, bad Don. That's very dangerous and yes fire is bad and no you can't hold Raph's toys over it just because you wanted to know what would happen and yes things burn and yes it's pretty but no you can't keep doing it'
Donnie would only ever tip his head cutely to one side in confusion whenever he started ranting- I mean telling him off. Donnie obviously didn't understand what was going on but he would patiently wait out the storm of words and then reach over to pat his arm in a comforting manner.
Later, he would secretly admit to himself in private that he adored Donnie's curiosity and the bright spark of light in his eyes when he discovered how something worked.
You just couldn't be mad at him when he tried so, so hard and would look so proud about something and when he turned to you and presented whatever caught his interest, Leo just melted into a puddle of turtle mush on the ground.
Venus woke up long before Leonardo had, deciding to try meditate on the events of the night before.
"Venus."
A male voice rang clear in her mind. Inside her foggy mindscape, she turned to see a translucent figure.
"Commander, it is good to hear from you again." She couldn't help the hint of pride that leaked into her next words.
"I have Leonardo and we have escaped King Saki."
"That is a relief. Do be careful not to let him be seen. I need you to …-...?-..."
His voice distorted strangely, words mixed together and it was impossible understand what he was saying. His figure faded and solidified randomly, like static.
What? "Commander? Are you alright?"
The only explanation was that something was disrupting their communications line. Maybe he just lost focus?
"... I can't stay here long, I must leave immediately. I have hidden…..?-... Autumn and ?...-... Summer -..."
Red was beginning to fill her vision.
Mental communication meant reaching out and connecting to the other person. Because of this, I was possible to figure out their current state.
Red only ever meant injury or….
The line connecting them snapped.
Venus's eyes snapped open. Leonardo was wide awake and midway through shaking her arm.
"Venus?"
"Sorry, little Leonardo. I'm just… Trying to figure out our next moves."
Understatement of the year, right there. She was panicking internally like she was just set on fire.
First thing was to get the spirit to safety. She had originally planned to carry him to wherever the commander needed, but that idea was solidly out now.
What was she supposed to do?
"...Vee?"
Oh, what was the point in worrying. She moved to stand up, dusting herself off.
"Let's go. We need to get to the next town. We can figure out where to go from there."
Growllllll…..
Leo flushed brightly.
She sat back down, pulling open one of her bags.
"But I suppose eating is a good start too."
Leo stared at the back of his friend. She was walking tensely and seemed so tired ever since she woke up. Well, it wasn't too noticeable back in the tunnels but now that they were out in the bright winter sun, the dark rings stood out against her pale skin.
He had insisted on walking on his own two legs and now they were distancing themselves from the hidden passage exit in the mountains now overlooking them.
It was too quiet and awfully awkward, at least from his perspective. He concentrated on trying not to fidget and any attempts at a conversation died quickly.
It continued on for several minutes, the slowest minutes he ever experienced, as the trudged on top of a light layer of pure white snow.
As they walked, the snow grew thinner and thinner until they reached a thin, invisible line where there was just… nothing. No snow, vegetation, nothing. On the other side was an area of green trees, starting sparsely near the line and growing steadily larger and denser the further away it was.
"Woah! Is that…? I heard that it looks amazing but…. wow," he breathed, turning his head from side to side to see the line continue for as far he he could see, giving the illusion of it being infinite.
He caught a look at Venus with her lips tipped up slightly in a tired smile at his awed face.
"The border between Winter and Summer. Looks almost mystical, doesn't it?" she said tersely. "Let's continue, we're almost at the main road of Light that leads to the Capital. It should pass through a few small villages we can stay at."
He was nearly skipping forwards in a sudden burst of energy.
"Come on! I've never seen any towns before but I've been told that they are supposed to be really cozy and lively! I've also heard that festivals are held a lot in the Summer kingdom, right?" he exclaimed excitedly.
Parties were thrown in the palace a lot for special occasions, like his birthday, but being that the palace was built on a special, tiny bit of neutral piece of land that didn't belong to any kingdom and that the only residents allowed to live in that bit of land were the Royal family and their palace staff, it meant that there were no towns around or in the area and no cultures with special festivals to throw.
Leo lived fine with it, but he always did want to see what they were like, especially when Mother or Father (usually both) were called away and brought back trinkets and paintings for him.
He pulled Venus' hand in his haste. He didn't see much, or any actually, of the outside world. This was going to be fun!
He missed Venus' wide eyes as she was pulled forward, the genuine softness that melted into her face and the loosening and lightness on her shoulders. "Just wait until you see them. The capital's are spectacular."
She only saw a few when she was still little, but they were precious memories of her Master from back in the easy days of traveling around with their clan.
They had walked straight until they hit a river that they followed down to the outskirts of a bustling village by nightfall. It wasn't too big, nothing compared to the towns at major trading points, but there were enough people that small shops were everywhere and there was a sense of friendship among them, both the adults and all of the children running around and playing on the streets.
Leo wanted to just reach out and touch the warm atmosphere.
Venus wasn't too far behind him, frowning suspiciously.
"I don't have a good feeling about this…"
"I'll be careful Vee, the town is full of civilians. No one can see me anyway," Leo said, turning around to face her confidently.
Reluctantly, she agreed to allowing him to go exploring in the morning.
"Now be quiet. It will look strange if I start talking to mid-air."
It only took a few minutes of walking around to find a small, nondescript inn.
Leo stayed silent, trailing behind her obediently but looking around nonetheless. Venus calmed down a little but was still on edge, looking around for different reasons.
A quick flip of a few coins granted them a room with dual beds and a few strange looks.
The door was shut quickly and she released a breath she didn't know she had been holding.
"I'm exhausted," she proclaimed, flopping onto a bed. "We can't spend too long here. You get 1 hour and no more tomorrow."
Leo dove into the other bed, not very tired but willing to catch some sleep.
The lights were turned out and the curtains were drawn close.
It was nearly the dead of night when their door was kicked open by a tough-looking group of bandits. They managed to grab Venus before she swung them into the ground, knocking out some teeth and blood.
It was loud enough to attract an hulking man twice their size, swaggering into the room. He sported a red dragon tattoo running up and down his arms.
His interest was piqued when he caught sight of Leo. "What's an ugly thing like that hanging 'round here for?"
"Well, no matter. Just throw them in with the rest," he announced, getting bored, turning around to stalk out and swinging an arm up to signal a flood of his minions to enter.
Venus disappeared in a blur the moment his back was turned, appearing behind him and bringing her arm back in a punch.
The man immediately faced back and caught her neck in a choke hold, lifting her in the air. "Feisty one, aren't you? Shame too, that I gotta ruin that pretty face," he said as she struggled, flinging her effortlessly away in the direction of a wall. He carelessly turned away.
"NO!"
Leo leapt and nearly tripped, trying to catch her before she smacked into a wall.
'Too far….' he thought.
Everything from there was a blur. Looking back later, he would remember the world in a tunnel vision, racing and colliding into his target. He was sinking away into a new body and his vision faded into a new perspective.
He could remember slamming into something hard and solid. He could remember pain that he shouldn't have felt flaring up in soft skin that shouldn't have belonged to him.
He definitely remembered the screaming in a pitch he couldn't use.
'Argh, where am I?'
Mist was everywhere. What happened?
Floating in front of him was…..?
"VENUS!"
Her eyes were shut, but she was rousing from his shout.
"Wha? L...Leonardo?"
"Wait, Leonardo? What are you doing here?"
Suddenly, she was wide awake and panicking.
"Here? Where is here anyway?"
"My mind! This is my mind! How are you here?"
She was on a full-blown hysteric panic, mumbling strangely.
"Can't be…. I never learned how to…. But mother could…. It wouldn't be too strange….. Not for a clan of psychics… Not for spirit mediums..."
"What? What's going on Vee?"
"How is this happening! If I channeled a spirit into my body, I could discharge him, right?! How do I even begin to do that?"
Her high-pitched, very stressed voice was transferring emotions and even though he didn't understand what was going on, he still joined into her stress anyway.
If a spirit medium meant what he thought it meant, it wasn't good at all.
It meant that he just stole and was now occupying her body.
'This won't be awkward at all…'
Dredging up what little memory of childhood lessons she had learned, Venus started funneling information to Leo to avoid a complete breakdown by focusing on something else.
"I won't be able to talk to you while you are awake and in my body. Just when you meditate or sleep."
Once she started, she didn't stop or slow down at all. She just left a flood of words for Leo to try and remember.
"Spirits leave imprints on the medium, so that means that while you are there, some changes while happen to the body, like gender change, muscle changes here and there and some other stuff. Height won't change and neither will hair or clothes."
"Wait, what was that about-"
"You will not be able to use the body's spirit energy or any of the abilities I have as a De Milo. You will be responsible for the health of the body but of course, if the body dies, you will not."
"But hang on, could I use my spiri-"
Leo eventually gave up trying to talk and let Venus churn out line after line about random stuff she knew.
"You will still be able to feel the body's pain and such. This is essentially your body from now on. Any questions? Because I don't know the answers," she finally finished.
He tried to pay attention to all of it, he really did. There was a more pressing question ahead.
"So, now what?"
She smiled wryly.
"What else can we do? We probably got kidnapped. What's the natural answer to that?"
Escape.
AN: Sorry that this was so late! I just ran out of inspiration about a quarter of the way through. I have a rough plan of the events I want to happen and I was struggling with trying to work the Venus-spirit-medium thing into the story. I hope it works out!
I probably won't be able to keep up a regular schedule at this rate, so I'm going to throw it out and just do what I can. I've put up a progress tracker on my profile so you can check how much of the next chapter I've finished. I'm going to be quite busy until the 2nd week of May and with important exams in June, I'm not sure how much I can write. I want to write a second fic on top of this, so the little time I have might have to get split. Sorry if this is the case.
What do you think of Venus? Looks like I lied about the time skip, it'll happen in the next chapter or the one after. Reviews will feed my motivation!
tmntlover2013: Thank you for your review! You were the reason I managed to finally sit down and finish this chapter today. Sorry I took so long :(.