Author's Note;
Heyyyyy long time no see guys! I have been long gone for awhile and revently binged the Rottmnt series and movie. Now it lives rent free in my head along with this story.
So, I am not a slow burn type of writer. I can't bring it in me to fill up space with extra fluff sometimes. So if you notice this starts off super fast, you're right. But if you have read the Grey Wolves series then you know all about how the bonds between mates work.
Aside from tiny pieces of lore pulled from there I also have bits and pieces of lore from Hazbin Hotel and Diablo sprinkled within here. Don't worry I'm going to make a Glossary to help with terms and creatures abd all that. The main OC is loosely based off of Charlie Morningstar...and by that Inean really tge only thing they have in common is that they are the daughter of Lucifer. Lol.
Anywho, this story takes place eight years after the events of the movie. So if canon ages were correct with putting Leo at sixteen as well as Donnie, and Raphael at seventeen and Mikey at fifteen then our boys are now as follows;
Leo - twenty four
Donnie - twenty four
Raphael - twenty five
Michelangelo - twenty three
Oh and April would be twenty five as well.
TW include a lot of violence, depictions of death or injury, cussing, nudity, abuse, sexual abuse hinted at, physical abuse depicted, torture, sex (smut guys no kids allowed here), and if there are more I'm missing along the way please let me know!
Alright. here it goes!
Listening Material for this chapter;;
Lux's Intro - The Fruits by Paris Paloma
Turtles Intro Finding Lux - Black Dog by Led Zeppelin
Donnie Lux - Sweet Dreams by Marylin Manson
You can play The Summoning by Sleep Token when Donnie and April listen to it.
Donnie - Ascensionism by Sleep Token
๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐ : ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐ข๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ช
It is often written, the story of a once beloved son being cast down to a fiery pit of despair and deprivation. His light would have blinded those that deemed him unworthy.
His light brought to him many things in his long existence.
But none more precious than the daughter born from misguided love.
A heart jaded by cruelty she stands at his side.
An act of retribution that sent her spiralling into a darkness that not even her father could fathom.
A heart that stopped beating the moment she entered her father's realm.
Her mortal soul suspended in time that simultaneously moved beyond them.
"Lux." Green eyes opened to gaze out at the opulent yet dismal landscape before her bedroom window that was currently open wide letting the stagnant hot breeze in. Trees of black bark and dark green foliage bearing sinister looking fruit of a blood red color with sharp spines dotted the courtyard. If one was brave enough to climb the slick bark they could pluck one and cut it open to enjoy the sublime sweetness within of the snow white flesh.
Gray blades of long whispy grass blew in the bone dry breeze, warmed by the endless fire that raged down below.
The sky shown limitless and black, with more stars than a mortal could comprehend, two suns were situated in the western portion of the cloudless sky, blazing brightly, one a bright orange the other a white hot blue, they would soon set and the enormous red moon would take their place. But not many could see this part of Hell.
It was the Pride ring. And it was for hell born, even though she was technically born in the mortal relam, she resided there with her father.
"Lux?" She turned her gaze over her shoulder.
The woman behind her was taller than she, with dark chocolate brown skin that glistened with a golden glittery glow, as if she had been kissed by the mortal realms shining sun. Her eyes were the same golden color, bright and dazzling. The black fitted leggings and dark orange fitted cropped tank top she wore hugged her curvaceous figure underneath black steel armor. A skirt of chainmail draped over her hips with black steel sectional tassets that appeared more like armored scales, black straps criss crossed her exposed midsection and each secured a smaller curved sabre on each hip. Black steel scalemail adorned her shoulders under black shoulder guards that were sharp and spiked, more chains hung loosely over her bust along with a silver talisman of some long forgotten symbol. Black steel bracers covered her forearms overtop black gloves with silver claws at the fingertips.
The more striking parts of her were her large black membranous dragon wings that were folded behind her as well as her long black scaled dragon tail. Under her armor and clothing, down her spine, were small black ridges that became spines when they reached her tail. The end normally sported no additional defense but as of now it was equipped with an eight pronged sharp spiked piece of armor.
Her long black hair, streaked in white and braided, was pulled up into a large bun, though not every piece remained confined. And her black tall spiralized kudu horns on her head were painted with silver war paint along with her face.
Draconia was her second in command. Her right hand. Her best friend.
A mortal soul like herself but born in hell to her demon mother.
"Drake?" Lux responded as she padded softly past her to the large open armoire where she began pulling items from it down and began the long process of arming herself.
"I have received word from Shaydrim. The guards that were sent here have moved to the mortal realm. They are.." Draconia trailed off not entirely sure how to explain to her commander that angels were killing mortals as they spoke.
"They are what?" Lux said softly.
"Killing. Mercilessly. Mortals..."
Rage flared to life in the dark emerald green of her eyes.
"What?!" She looked up at the ebony skinned demon before her.
"We need to stop them..." Draconia's tail lashed in frustration.
Funny how demons were about to try and stop angels from killing innocent lives on Earth. Lives they took in retribution for her father allowing her to join him in Hell. Her mother was no doubt pushing all of this.
Lux snarled to herself, her own tail lashing.
She preferred to do things like putting on her armor by hand, the manual task giving her mind something to focus on. But there was little time for that now.
"This is likely a trap." Lux growled.
"We know." Draconia said resolutely.
With a wave of her hand, a black mist fizzled to life around them and rushed to gather the remaining armor and secure it to her body.
Draconia watched as the once blazing silver armor, now tinged coppery orange with blood, a more formidable sight now, floated on the black glittering mist to adorn her commander's body.
Lux was petite and curvy, much like her mother apparently, with pale alabaster skin that had an irridescent quality to it, like her father, and dark red hair with black undertones. She was dressed in a black loin cloth that was emblazoned with a golden sigil of her father's, a black cropped cap sleeve shirt under draping silver chains that hung down her bust and exposed midriff, silvery orange scalemail was strapped in an upsidedown triangle over her chest and down her sternum, protecting her heart along with a strap of leather connecting two massive shoulder guards adorned in a similar fashion to Draconia's. The scalemail draped over her shoulders under the heavy guards and silver chains extended from the leather straps that held it all in place to a black leather choker around her throat from which a large O ring hung with a golden talisman of her own in the shape of a large elongated eight point star.
Silver scale like bracers and shin guards covered black gloves with golden claws and black steel toed boots which she found practical and not overly clunky.
Strapped to her back was a long black scabbard with a sword hilt sticking out out of it, ornately decorated in skulls, the blade engraved with flames and wolves. The second weapon appeared to be a long black staff with a skull at the top covered in flowers and vines extending down the staff.
Her wings were not out at the moment but her two long dragon tails were, the scales a burnish copper color, the spines black and the spiked armor piece at each end a mix of gold and silver like her armor. Her black curled ram horns were draped in chains and sigils her pale face not adorned with any war paint.
"Gather Shay and Gem. We will go ourselves and stop these... malicious angelic guards. We can't leave them to tear up the mortal realm." Lux snarled, her canine teeth elongated into fangs.
Draconia grinned darkly and nodded before she strode to the large open picture window that Lux had been gazing out of and leapt from it, her wings catching on the stagnant breeze and carrying her over the open expanse of twisted trees and gray grass.
Lux strode from her bedchamber and down a long corridor that would lead to a side door out of the palace. And that was indeed what it was. A palace. Lucifer had had it made when she had joined him. Not wanting his daughter to inhabit some dark hovel while he remained on his throne...ever present...ever dutiful in his desire to punish the evils of the world. The evil he had unintentionally loosed.
She pushed open the side door and stepped out into the openness of the courtyard. A strange sensation prickled over her skin. The urge to move quickly. To go to the mortal realm as fast as possible, weighed on her soul.
Odd. She knew eventually she should have returned to the mortal realm since the half of her lineage from her mother's genes dictated that eventually she would find what amounted to a soul mate for her. But she had not felt any urge to go there in years. Seven mortal realm years...two hundred years in Hell time.
"No time like the present then." She huffed in annoyance.
The whoosh of displaced air caught her attention from above and she looked up to see Drake.
"Shay and Gem are at the Rift." She told Lux.
"Good. Let's get a move on. I'd like to be home for dinner." She quipped as her own wings unfurled behind her. Where her father's wings were white and luminous her's were as black as night. A set of six wings just the same though. She lifted herself into the air and followed her Beta through the open expanse of sky towards a glowing golden sliver of light that looked as if it was tearing two worlds in half. The Rift was where one could enter the mortal realm from Hell, but only demons could do so as well as Lux who inherited the ability from her father.
Drake would be able to pull Shaydrim and Gemino through even though they were not Hell born but rather mortal souls whose bodies were reanimated by Lux and given demonic qualities.
Both of which were currently waiting on the ground near the glowing golden light source. Tentacles of light reached and flared from the Rift as it rippled and pulsed with its own energy.
Shaydrim was a fierce tall and lean warrioress. She was covered from head to toe in bronze armor, her smaller four point stag horns of black stood in stark contrast within her platinum blonde tresses that hung loose and long and wildly whipping around her shoulders. Her pale complexion was also a great contrast to the black war paint on her face and her pink albino eyes glowed faintly, surrounded by the inky black makeup around them.
Gemino was shorter in stature but just as lean with an almost equally pale complexion that was spattered in copper colored freckles on her face and shoulders and neck. Her eyes blazed a brilliant blue like the mortal realm sky and her long copper red locks curled wildly around her like a lion's mane. Her impala horns of white nearly glowing themselves. She was also covered in armor, her's was silver. Each girl had the same eight pointed star that Lux wore around her neck, emblazoned on the breast plates of their armor.
"Do we have any idea how many survived and are there now?" Lux asked them as her and Drake landed.
"Approximately seven but that's just an educated guess. We managed to kill all but one of the Nephilium that they brought. But that leaves what we thought were ten guards. But we just found three of them before we got here ...each missing their heads." Shaydrim had answered and with her last words she gazed over to Draconia who grinned wickedly.
"You're welcome." She purred, her golden eyes glowing.
Shaydrim rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.
"Let's get it goin then." Gem huffed as she held out her hand to Drake who grasped her's and Shaydrim's as they turned to the enormous golden slit in the air in front of them.
Lux sucked in a deep breath and held her hands out as if she was going to pull the air apart before her.
She stepped towards the Rift and began to do exactly that, pulling the two sides apart to widen it so they could pass through. White flames licked her body as she manipulated the portal enough for Draconia to pull herself and the other two girl's through. Then Lux herself followed.
The mortal realm seemed to weigh heavier on her skin as the Rift fizzled around them when they moved through. When they made it Lux turned to the golden light and pushed it closed as if it were simply a sliding door.
She turned and looked around them.
"This is where they came through at? New York City?" She furrowed her brow. Drake looked down and made a disgusted face as she side stepped what appeared to be a dead rat on the cement of the alley they had appeared in.
A loud thunderous boom echoed in the sky above them and they all turned towards the mouth of the alley to see the sky lit up with lightning as if a storm was surging above the city. But what rained down were winged creatures as they descended upon the hapless citizens.
"Ohhh Lux they stealin' your thunder." Gem taunted.
Lux smiled darkly. "Lightning is my thing." She unfurled her black wings and launched herself into the sky.
In her wake lightning crackled along her wings, red and angry. She reached behind her and grasped the hilt of the sword that was sheathed there and pulled it free. The decorated blade sung as it was released and clanged loudly as it connected with the spear of an angel.
"Is it supposed to rain?" Michelangelo glanced out of the Turtle Tank's windshield at the sky that had suddenly filled with thunderheads and was flashing with white and red light. As if in answer thunder rumbled, so intensely it shook the tank.
"It wasn't supposed to, no. Maybe a front moved in." He turned his attention to his older brother who was sitting in another chair currently looking at his phone screen as he texted their long time best friend, April as well as played some sort of game.
Mikey looked back up at the sky and noticed something within the clouds and flashing lightning.
"Is lightning usually red?" He asked suddenly. That seemed to draw his brother's attention away from his phone and he looked over to the orange masked turtle with a confused expression.
"Not typically in a thunderstorm it would usually be white or blue. But the occasional thunderstorm within a snowstorm can happen and lightning has been known to appear pink or green when viewed within a snowstorm."
"Well it's not snowing and I'm seeing white and red." Mikey was staring in awe up at the now very active light show above them.
Donatello leaned forward in his seat to look up as well and his eyes widened.
"Thaaaaat's not normal. But neither are those." He pointed to two winged figures seemingly locked in battle in the sky.
One of them swung a massive sword, the red lightning sizzled along the blade, cascading off of it as it swung in a wide semi circle and struck it's mark, slicing the head clean off the opponent.
"Holy shit!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Oh gross! Now there's a head rolling around somewhere!" Donnie groaned.
"Where are Leo and Raph at? We should check this out." Mikey urged.
"Check it out? Uh, nay nay my dear sweet Angelo. We are perfectly safe sequestered in here. Annnddd...I don't want to." Don gave his baby brother a deadpan expression which was promptly ignored so he answered his brother's question instead and caved in anyway. So what jf he was a sucker for Mikey? They all were.
"They went to grab the pizza. I could just forward them our location when we get closer." Don started the tank, the engine rumbling to life.
"Sounds great! Go!" Don exclaimed liudly as Mikey stepped aroundchim to smash the gas pedal down causing them to lurch forward at a break neck speed.
Don shoved him out of the way back into his seat anx glared at him before initiating the auto pilot after locking on to a high power frequency reading in that general direction.
"Never do that again." He pointed his finger at Mikey who was watching out the windshield intently. He picked his phone back up and continued his game with his legs propped up on the dash.
"There's more! That one that cut the other's head off is out numbered!" Mikey shouted, smacking Don's phone out of his hand.
"Michelangelo! I swear if you don't atop-"
Donatello's threat was cut off as more violent thunder shook the tank as they got closer and the lightning became so intense it was nearly blinding.
"Where'd they go?!" Mikey shouted as he frantically looked upward.
"I can't see anything. It's too bright. Let me adjust the tint on the windshield and then maybe we can-"
A winged body suddenly landed hard on the asphalt in front of them and Don had to slam on the breaks and swerve to avoid hitting whatever or whoever had just fallen from the sky.
"Ohmigosh it's that one that cut the head off that other one!" Mikey squeaked.
"Did it seriously make...a crater..in the road? How big is this thing?" Don was standing on his tip toes to look as far out the windshield as he could. "We should probably wait here for Raph and Leo."
He turned and noticed Mikey was not in the tank and the floor hatch was wide open.
"Or just run outside in the middle of chaos because that always works well for us." He deadpanned to the empty tank.
He grumbled as he grabbed his bo and hopped out of the floor hatch as well. He moved slowly and stealthily out from under the tank and over to the massive crater in the ground. Mikey was no where to be seen and he had to assume he was already in the steaming crater.
Sure enough when Don peeked over the edge he could see his baby brother's shell turned to him as he crouched over something that had massive wings that were feathered, black, and looked horribly mangled from the landing it had taken.
Mikey turned as he slid down the side of the crater.
"Donnie.. she's hurt bad." Mikey turned his blue puppy dog eyes on him and he sighed and moved around him.
He wasn't entirely sure he was seeing what he was seeing so he blinked rapidly and even flipped his goggles down. Mystic energy radiated off the woman laying crumbled before him. A lot of it. It slicked over her body like a black fire, licking at pale opalescent skin that glimmered in the flashing light of the otherworldly lightning.
She had armor on but not a lot of it, though upon further assessment it appeared the wounds she sustained were inflicted from her fall more than any blades. Bruises marred the alabaster color of her flesh and made the refracted light a sickly greenish color instead of shinmering rainbows of blue, pink, and orange. Small cuts and abrasions leaked a metallic golden substance and that same substance was smeared all over her.
He noticed her wings were actually three sets of black feathered wings instead of one huge set and yet even still they were large enough to probably encircle Raphael and then some. The black curled ram horns protruding from her head were definitely unexpected as well as the twin copper scaled dragon tails.
"What is she?" Mikey asked quietly. Don crouched beside him and reached gingerly for the woman's wrist and felt for a pulse. He felt nothing at first and momentarily he felt as if his own soul reared back in agony of the mere thought of her being dead.
"I ...I think she's dead, Mikey." He said as he still felt nothing.
Mikey frowned and looked back down at the strange woman.
But then a slow fluttering skip beat under his fingertips had him breathing out a quiet sigh of relief. She had a pulse. A slow and very weak one.
"I...I got a pulse! But it's incredibly slow. Whatever she is she needs help." Don said as he stood up and looked above them as chaos reigned in the skies above. The lightning never seened to cease. It shook the ground with its thunder and lit up the city around them as if it were daylight instead of late at night.
"Well I don't think a hospital is a good idea...on account of .. I don't think any of this is a costume." Mikey added as he lifted a feather from a wing.
"She has mystic energy readings off the charts. We will just have to help her." Donnie said as he started typing something into his wrist gauntlet. "April is on her way to the Lair. I figure she can help. And I texted Raph-"
A bright blue portal opened at the top of the crater and Leo and Raph stepped out with a couple of boxes of pizza in Raph's arms.
"Excellent timing." Don quipped as Leo slid down the crater.
"Whooaa. Why is there a freaky hot chick laying in a crater and why the hell is this lightning so cray?" Leo looked up and shielded his face from the bright white lightning.
"Honestly I think it's to cover up the battle up there. We just watched this lady decapitate some other winged thing and then suddenly she fell from the sky and landed here." Don explained as they both looked back down at the woman.
"Huh. You don't see that everyday. What is she? A yokai?" Leo crouched to poke at her boot. Don smacked his hand away with his bo.
"Knock it off. She's hurt. Bad. And she can't go to the hospital." He looked up at Raphael who sighed and nodded.
"Leo come get these and I'll carry the freaky chick with the huge wings."
"I got it." Don was already moving to her side and crouching down beside her. The mere thought of Leonardo touching her made his skin itch. He didn't acknowledge the looks of confusion and blatant pity from his brothers as they watched him approach the winged woman.
"Don...we love you...so no offense but...you can barely pick me up." Leo waved one of his swords in Donnie's direction and all he got was a glare from his purple masked brother.
"Four years ago, Nardo. I can't pick Raph up but I sure as hell can drop kick you into next week? Wanna give it a try?"
"Alright alright." Leo shrugged and sheathed his swords.
Don looked back down at the woman who looked battered and bruised and...her blood...was golden that was what the substance was all over her..and yet she looked at peace. She also looked so small compared to her wings. Not tiny really but petite. She was also curvaceous and from the visible areas of her body she appeared toned. Don crouched and brushed a lock of hair so dark red it looked black in the dim light in-between lightning flashes, away from her closed eyes. Her skin felt smooth and soft under his calloused fingertips. He wondered what color her eyes were as he gazed down at her closed lids, clearly framed by dark thick lashes. She was unnaturally beautiful, even with the curling black ram horns protruding from out of the waves of wine red hair. He slid his arms under her back and legs and lifted her up effortlessly.
He blinked in shock.
"She's light...like... ridiculously light." He glanced at Michelangelo who gave him a thumbs up and a big grin.
"Mikey, Leo, at least lift up the bigger wings so they don't drag." Mikey delicately lifted one of the largest wings in his arms, his face a mask of horror as the fragile bones stuck out from the feathers in places.
Leo blinked in shock but followed his little brother's lead after he made a portal to the top of the crater for them.
"Raph, get the tank door open." Don said urgently as they moved into the shadow of the tank. The cover of shadows gave them comfort even if it was the middle of the night. The flashes of bright white lightning were enough light to expose them to humans.
The red masked snapping turtle pressed the outside button for the large bay door that opened slowly on it's hydraulics.
Once it was down Don carried the winged woman inside and laid her gently on the floor.
"The war paint on her face makes her extra creepy looking." Leo commented as they stared down at her.
"You're not wrong." Mikey crouched down near her head and seemed to be inspecting the paint, his eyes moved over the golden metallic sigils painted over her eyes that bled down her cheeks and then they moved to the various cuts on her body where an identical golden liquid oozed from them.
"Uh...I don't think it's paint." Mikey looked up at his brothers.
Don sighed and nodded at his brother's observation.
"Ichor. The blood of the gods in Greek mythology was said to be golden and they called it ichor. It was also said to be toxic to humans. Whether that was just ingesting it or even just touching it I'm not sure. I didn't care too much for myths."
"So...her warpaint is...blood?" Leo made a disgusted face along with Donatello.
"Badass." Raph grinned which earned him three looks of equal parts horror and disgust.
"Do you think... she's a god? Er..or I mean..a goddess?" Mikey asked in awe. Don and Leo glanced at each other and then back to the woman. Don crouched down again and lifted her wriat again, looking for her pulse.
๐ป๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ศ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
He jumped back with a yelp when he heard the disembodied voice. Leo blinked at him in ahock while Raph and Mikey furrowed their brow ridges at him.
"Uhhhh. You okay there Donald?" Leo raised one eye ridge.
"Y-y-yea. Must have been some...uh..static...that shocked me. That's all. Heh." He said, moving to turn back to the tank controls so they could go home.
A loud crash thudded against the tank and they all startled and spun to look out the windshield.
Another winged creature was staring through the thick glass. Its face was obscured by a white half mask with red sigils painted on it. It was clothed in white robes under blazing golden armor and it's wings were so bright white they were painful to look at. But it's smile was feral and bloodcurdling. Pale blue tinged lips pulled away slowly from blackened rotting teeth. A rasping laugh slipped from those cracked lips.
"Give us the Evening Star and we will let you live." Its voice was terrible, cold and multilayered. It swt shivers down Donatello's spine even under the protection of his real shell and his battle shell that was strapped to his shoulders.
"Well since you asked so nicely." Leo smiled.
Mikey slapped him upside the head and glared at his older brother and then at the creature that bobbed impatiently outside the windowpane.
"We ain't givin you nothin. Get us outta here Donnie!"
"On it!" Don was already moving towards the controls which earned him a hiss from the creature as it slammed its fist through the windshield causing all four turtles to yell in terror. Ichor sprayed from its split knuckles.
"Get it off!" Don yelled as he put the tank in reverse and spun it around.
"Leon's got it!" Leo grinned as he portaled out of the tank and onto the roof where he threw one of his katanas at the winged thing. It sunk into its shoulder deeply, cutting through muscle and sinew with sickening ease. He smiled in victory, adjusting his grip on his other sword, its twin portaled back to him bringing the creature to him where he yanked his sword free and delivered a round house kick to its chin sending it flying backwards off the tank.
"Oh yea! Did you see that?!" Leo cheered as he portaled back inside the tank.
"Yes! As it so happens all that did was make it angry!" Don yelled as he smashed the gas pedal down and dodged parked cars as they barrelled down the street away from the creature that was now flying after them. An ear piercing screech echoing through the streets as it shrieked in anger.
"We gotta lose it!" Raph yelled.
"Shoot it down! I armed this thing for a reason and not with just bowling balls anymore!" Don swerved around another vehicle.
"Oh yea!" Raph smiled as he hopped up into his chair and brought down a transparent screen, bringing the weapons system online and taking aim at the creature that roared its anger at the fleeing tank, shining white wings flapping madly to pursue its query.
"Say bye bye birdie!" Raph pressed his thumb down on a large red button on the controls and a green blast shot out of a gun situated on the top of the tank. The blast hit the creature and it screamed in agony as it seemed to dissolve the feathers of its wings and electrocute the thing in a flash of green light, leaving it a smoking battered heap in the street behind them.
"Whoa ...what was that and when did you upgrade us from semi lethal to full on burn it to the ground, Donnie?" Leo was looking out a back window until he could no longer see the smoking creature.
"Plasma cannon. And about a year ago now. We just haven't needed to use it. Our villains are kind of lacking these days with Shredder defeated and the Krang gone. I don't think we need to use a plasma cannon on Hypno ...Meat Sweats...Repo Mantis ...That worm guy whose name I will never remember." The purple masked terrapin pushed the auto pilot button and sat back in his seat to scroll his phone again in indifference.
"Okay but then ...why install it?" Mikey asked.
"Oh...I was bored." Don shrugged.
Leo, Raph and Mikey all stared at their brother who ignored them completely as he scrolled his social and the tank auto piloted back to the lair.
As the tank rolled to a stop in the lair's garage April opened the hatch from the outside and hopped in.
"Where's the freaky winged- ohhh wow..you weren't kidding." She looked downward at the woman who was still unresponsive.
"We need to get her into the med bay. Her heart beat was incredibly slow when I checked last." Don strode past his brothers and crouched to lift her up again, he made a face of pain as he noticed her leg was twisted in a way it shouldn't be and her left shoulder hung limp.
"I didn't notice before the extent of her injuries." He muttered as he lifted her nearly weightless body. He had been distracted by the way her skin felt under his fingertips and how beautiful she looked under flashing lightning strikes. As he did so the six wings that protruded from her back dissolved into a fine glittery black mist leaving nothing but smooth pale skin aside from the small black ridges that would turn into spines as they ran down her spine to her tails.
"Wh-where'd her wings go?" Mikey waved his hands where the black wings had been, feeling nothing.
"They just disappeared...maybe if they sustain too much damage they do that." Don reasoned aloud as they watched as her tails also disappeared into black mist as well as the curled ram horns and her armor leaving her in just the black crop cap sleeve top that was torn in a few places and the black loin cloth that draped around her waist by a silver chain, and her black steel toed boots. She looked nearly human now aside from the strange way her skin reflected light in a myriad of colors much like an opal and the otherworldly beauty that gave her away as far too flawless to be human.
"C'mon. Let's see if we can reset her shoulder and leg before she comes to." April tugged on Don's shoulder, forcing him to tear his gaze away from the unconscious woman's face and follow the other girl.
"Can we help?" Mikey asked.
April turned and looked briefly at Donnie who was still transfixed by the woman he was currently carrying in his arms and then his three brothers who were all looking worriedly at the woman and their brother.
"I think me and D got this. But we will yell if we need you guys okay?" April smiled which gained a smile back from Raph as well as Leo but Mikey still looked worried.
She turned and continued up to the upper level of the lair and to the circular doorway that led to the room they used as a medical area.
Don laid the woman down on the gurney he had...found...a while ago. He noticed one other item of her clothing that had remained was the black leather choker with the elongated silver and gold eight pointed star hanging from a large silver O ring.
"One of the things she was fighting attacked us. It called her the Evening Star." He commented offhandedly to April who was busy preparing an I.V.
"The Evening Star? That's a new one. You think this chick is good or bad?" She asked. Don frowned as he looked up at April.
"Does it matter right now?" He asked. April gave him a considering look. He seemed strained. Like he was barely holding himself together. She noticed the subtle shaking of his hands and the way he clenched and unclenched his jaw.
"Donnie? You good?" She asked, thinking maybe he was just overstimulated.
"I will be once we help her." He said looking back down at the woman before joining April in preparing what they needed to reset the woman's leg and shoulder.
Don was focusing on preparing a morphine drip when April gasped.
He looked up quickly to see she was staring at him.
"What?" He asked.
"You're focusing really hard D. You've tapped into your mystic powers." She pointed. Don looked down at his hands which he had not noticed where overshadowed in a purple glowing light. He furrowed his brow in confusion.
When he looked up he noticed a strange light emanating from the woman. It licked the air like fire but it was a strange black color. "Donnie maybe move away from her.." April coaxed when she noticed her friend staring as if he was in a trance at the black fire like light that glowed from the woman.
Don watched, transfixed, as blood red sigils appeared on the exposed skin of the woman and she lifted slowly off the gurney. He moved to reach out to her and pull her back down but April had moved around to his side and pulled him back.
"Donnie I don't know about this."
"Relax. I think I can help her..." Donnie said as he extracted his arm from April's grasp and reached out to grasp the woman's hand.
A flash of white light erupted from their clasped hands sending April flying back to crash into the wall of the room.
The light pulsed from the joined hands of Donatello and the woman, a low ringing sounded with every pulse until it was all he could hear and all he could see.
The room suddenly disappeared and he was left floating in an endless blackness that was littered with stars. Donatello looked around in awe and then back down to the hand he was holding. It was delicate and pale with long black stiletto nails like claws. He looked up into her face and nearly gasped aloud.
Blood red eyes gazed back at him from the familiar pale opalescent face of the woman. Her wings had returned and they flapped slowly, the tiny lights from the stars catching the black fathers and displaying that they too shined with purples and blues in light, like a raven's wings. Her dragon like tails with their copper scales and black spines had returned, lashing and coiling in her mounting agitation and her horns had also returned, black and draped in silver chains with sigils dangling from them like charms. The chains created a headdress which glittered with diamonds, the largest of which dipped low and rested just between her eyebrows.
"Who are you?" When she spoke her voice was multilayered like that other creature's had been but her voice was honey sweet and would have driven him to his knees had he not been floating in what looked like space.
"I should ask you the same." He commented back dryly.
Her head tilted to the side and he felt as though he was being watched by a hungry cat and he was the canary.
"I know your name but I do not know you." She said. Don gave her a confused look.
"You know my name?"
"You are Hamato Donatello. Son of Hamato Yoshi. Descendents of Hamato Karai and Oroku Saki. You wield immense power but have yet to truly tap into its full potential." Her head tilted the other way.
His mouth hung open and he blinked rapidly at her.
"How did you know that? I don't know you?" He phrased the last part as a question and then they both looked down at their joined hands.
He let go of her hand and when he did so he noticed a glowing silver light wrapped around his wrist and extended to wrap around her own.
"You do not know me. But...our souls are connected. The Great Luna has touched your spirit and the Fates have decided our destinies are intertwined." Her blood red eyes locked with his dark brown ones and he couldn't look away as he watched green flecks appear within the red and blossom until the green overtook the crimson color entirely and he was left in awe of the emerald eyes that glowed faintly, boring into his with an intensity that he had never before witnessed.
Her words finally seemed to register to him and he floated backwards a bit.
"Our souls are connected? But why? How?" He looked down at the luminous silver thread that wrapped around his wrist and tethered him to her.
"I am not clairvoyant. I do not pretend to know how the Fates operate and what their motives are. The how is simple. This thread connects us. It is incomplete but still difficult to break." She gestured to the thread. Donatello tugged on it experimentally.
"But it can be broken?" He asked her.
She tilted her head again and her twin tails curled and uncurled like a cat's tail would.
"I have the power to break it, yes." She said finally after a long pause.
Donatello stared at her and then a small realization dawned on him.
"You...you don't want to break it? But you... don't even know me."
"Do you want me to break it, Donatello?" She asked him.
Donatello blinked back at her as if he hadn't heard her. He gazed at her as if he were finally seeing her.
She was not human.
"What are you?" He asked instead. She didn't seem to be bothered by his questioning so he figured he would run with that.
"I am the Evening Star. But you may call me Luciana. Which, a rare few have the privilege of. Or Lux. If you so desire." She shrugged.
"That thing called you the Evening Star too. But that doesn't answer my question." He crossed his arms over his plastron, the silver thread shifting with him.
"Ah. You were looking for a more technical answer. My bad. I am a hybrid of werewolf and Fallen. And that is, Fallen Angel." She said smoothly.
"Werewolves and angels? That's what I'm working with here?" He quipped. "More mystic stuff." He grumbled.
Her small bubble of laughter caught him off guard and he looked back over to her.
She smiled at him serenely. "Bipedal turtles?" She countered.
He couldn't help but smirk back at her, her mirth seemingly contagious.
"Toucheรฉ."
"What you encountered...the being that called me the Evening Star. Was an angel. I am a fallen angel. There is a difference." She said suddenly, all mirth dying from her eyes.
"Fallen...like..." His eyes widened. "Like I'm linked to a being from Hell?" He scrambled backwards, the silver tether lengthening with him but never stopping him nor breaking.
"Yes." She said simply. "All that you think you know, is not as it seems." She told him.
"That thing attacked us. It...it didn't feel...it didn't look...sound...good. But you said it was an angel?"
"Yes." She nodded.
Donatello frowned and looked down at the glowing thread wrapped around his wrist.
"Do you want me to break the bond, Donatello?" She asked him again. He didn't answer her at first he just looked downward.
Nothing about her seemed...evil. But she was a Fallen Angel. Didn't that mean she was evil? She didn't feel evil. And he could think that because he could feel her. Her consciousness, it brushed his own, he could literally sense her. It had to be this...bond.
"No." He answered looking up at her in what appeared to be shock at his own words.
She nodded. "Then I will not. Not until you tell me to...I will...if you ever wish to be free of me from your life. I will break the bond for you." She told him, he could feel the resolution and sorrow within her words and it puzzled him to no end. Why was she sad. He felt very little from her, sorrow, lonliness, those were at the forefront...he could feel an ever present burning rage...it simmered just below the other emotions. But that was it. And he thought he had issues with...feelings.
"I will return you to your body now. And...you may want to find a trash can. You may get sick." She told him before he felt an intense pulling sensation within his gut and then the rest of his body as he was yanked backwards through the darkness, the stars blurring into streaks of colors as they whizzed past him and then he slammed back into his body, the momentum sending him stumbling backwards only to feel arms catch him under his own and keep him from falling.
"Donnie? Are you back with us? Are you okay?" He could make out April's blurred face in front of him and he knew it was Raphael that had caught him now as his sense of touch came back first.
"Donnie?" He turned his blurry gaze towards Leo's voice and could make out his fuzzy looking face too.
"I'm...fine..." He managed to croak, his throat feeling immensely dry.
And then he felt the nausea hit him like a pillowcase full of bricks.
"Ohhh no..." He shook his head back and forth.
"Here." April and Leo spun around to see the woman standing behind them, her leg mysteriously not twisted and her shoulder in its socket, not a single cut marred her opalescent skin, she was holding out a waste basket. April took it quickly and thrust it into Donatello's hands almost too late as he hurled the contents of his stomach into it.
"What did you do to him?!" Leo rounded on the woman who held her hands up in surrender.
"A spirit journey into my subconscious isn't normal for him. The trip back to his body was quicker than his mind could comprehend. It has been known to cause intense nausea." She shrugged, unphased by the sound of Donatello losing his lunch into the waste basket.
April scowled but turned back to Donnie as Raph let him sit on the ground. He set the waste basket aside, his hands shaking profusely.
"Under... statement." He muttered.
"I did warn you." Lux said.
"I know." Donnie scowled up at her.
"Where'd your wings go? And those tails? And horns? And how are you healed?" Mikey side stepped out from behind Raphael and Lux regarded him with a soft green gaze.
"I retracted them. I can, at will, make myself appear more...human. Though I am not human."
"Noooo really?" Leo rolled his eyes.
Lux turned her gaze to him, the green orbs beginning to shift to red.
"Leo... don't piss her off." Donnie said from his place on the floor.
Leo turned to him and frowned. Don gave him a hard glare which was rare for him and Leo shrugged.
"Fine. I won't piss off the freaky winged lady."
"Donatello healed me." Lux said to Mikey who had shrunk back behind Raphael again. He peeked out and saw her eyes returning to green.
"How?" Don and Mikey asked simultaneously.
"I...did not mean for it to happen..but I believe when you touched me while focusing your power my own power latched onto yours and pulled energy from you to heal. It was not intentional. But it would explain why you feel weak." She told Don who sighed and allowed Raphael to help him stand up. His vision was finally clear again and he didn't feel the need to say hello to anything else inside his stomach but she was right. He felt like he had been hit by a truck.
"What happened to the angel that attacked you?" Lux asked.
"We shot it." Mikey told her. Leo nodded.
"With a bullet?" Lux tilted her head.
"Plasma cannon." Don offered.
Lux blinked at him and tilted her head to the other side and after a moment she nodded.
"It is not dead but you probably managed to destroy its shell. Angels are beings of pure light. They need to create mortal shells to walk the mortal realm. If it is not here I assume it was stopped by your...plasma cannon."
"Its wings dissolved and it was smoking like a barbeque." Raphael told her. She nodded.
"It will return." She sighed.
"To get us?" Mikey squeaked.
"No. Me. It's me they are toying with. But nonetheless I will offer you protection." She stepped towards Donatello who stepped back once. He barely registered the look of hurt that passed in her eyes before it was gone and replaced with a steady unwavering determination.
She moved past him and Raphael and out of the med bay. Standing at the edge of the upper walkway of the lair sbe gazed downward into their home and then upward before she began to drag her hands through the air around her.
Black smoke that glittered swirled around her fingertips as she drew sigils in the air and pushed them out into the lair where they floated all around, imbedding themselves into the walls...the floor...the ceiling. They dissolved into the air of doorways and when she was done she turned to them. As she did so her tails rematerialized and so did her ram horns.
"I have warded your home. Nothing will pass within that will do you harm." She said, her tails swept the floor around her.
"Luciana." She looked over to Donatello who had moved around his brothers.
"Yes?" She tilted her head. She seemed to do that a lot and it reminded him of a puppy hearing a noise it wasn't used to.
"Are you...a demon?" He furrowed his brow at the word.
She gave him a small smile and he felt her immediate sense of merriment.
"No. As I told you. I am half werewolf. Half Fallen, the fallen are not technically demons." She smiled more when she picked up on his thoughts. "You will find no text about me. I was born here in the mortal realm twenty one years ago, mortal time. Humans have never known me. They, however, know my father." She said cryptically.
Donatello immediately caught on to what she had implied and stumbled back into his oldest brother who caught him again.
"Donnie?" Raph questioned.
"She...you .. you're..." He stumbled over his words.
"The Devil's daughter?" She offered.
"What like...the devil? Like Satan?" Leonardo gaped at her.
"He prefers Lucifer." Lux growled lowly.
"Oh my bad. I don't know him very well so let me just give a shit about what name the DEVIL would prefer." Leo snapped.
Lux's tails lashed in irritation.
"Leo. What did I say about pissing her off?" Donatello rubbed at the spot between his eyes in annoyance.
"She's the fuckin' Devil's daughter, Donnie! Excuse me if I don't really care all that much!" Leo rolled his eyes.
"Here." Lux stepped forward purposefully ignoring Leonardo who glared at her outstretched hand and the object she held out to Donatello.
"You have a card? How professional." Don quipped as he plucked it from her fingers and turned it over to read it.
"Luciana Morningstar. The Evening Star. Summon by knocking three times on any surface and speaking any stanza from..." Donatello smirked and raised his gaze up to meet hers. She smirked back at him. "The Summoning by Sleep Token?" He finished reading the instructions.
"I don't even know that song or that band." He told her.
She shrugged. "Looks like you have a song to memorize." She grinned, her canine teeth glinting in the light, long and white and menacing.
Donatello felt a small thrill of excitement at her bold response. He grinned back coyly and pulled out his wallet, tucking the card within.
"Apparently." He wasn't prepared for her to step closer to him enough that she had to look up at him though.
"Pay close attention to the seventh and eighth stanzas. I hope eventually those two would be the only ones I hear from you in particular, Donatello." He gulped at her usage of his full name with what sounded like a slight accent in her voice but not enough for him to place it.
She stepped back, satisfied with the intense blush on his face and the confused expressions of his brothers. She noted the human looked shocked and amused though. Smart girl.
She raised her hands upward and from them black fire sprang to life and engulfed her body before she moved her hands as if to pull apart something.
A tearing sound could be heard as the mortal realm literally tore apart for her in a flash of golden light and she stepped through, the tear closing as if something was zipping it up and fizzling away.
Mikey slapped Donatello upside the head when the portal had disappeared.
"Ow! Why?!" Don rubbed the back of his head and glared at his younger brother.
"Dude! We do not flirt with the literal daughter of Lucifer! Get your mind right!" Mikey shouted.
"Whhaa? What? I wasn't flirting!" Don stammered.
"Oh puh-leeaassee the tension was so thick right there I probably could've cut it with my swords. Get it together Donnie. She's literally the spawn of Satan."
Donatello narrowed his eyes at Leo and huffed indignantly.
"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and spun around to walk down the walkway and into his lab.
"I'm serious Donnie! No summoning any devils! Not in this lair!" Leo yelled after him.
"Who died and made you my dad?" Don yelled back as he flung himself into his gaming chair.
"D?" He looked up when April came in and sighed.
"What? More warnings not to flirt with demons? No summoning hell spawn?" He leaned an elbow on one of the armrests and rested his cheek in his hand.
"Actually I was gonna say don't listen to them. None of us are kids anymore. You are twenty four years old. Sure you still have obligations to this clan but... you're an adult and Leo can't tell you what to do. Also I looked up that song and ooooooooo boy!" April fanned herself and gave him a devious grin.
"Ooo boy and fanning yourself? Do tell." He smiled and spun around to his computer to type the song into a search bar.
"Seventh stanzaaa...ah...oh...wow..." He blinked rapidly.
"Mmmmhm. She was hardcore flirting with you D. Eighth stanza too." She winked at him and he looked back at the lyrics and swallowed past the new nausea that had surfaced from nervousness.
"Well...I am the best looking turtle." He quipped half to himself.
"She kind of looked at you like you'd taste the best too." April teased even though he gave her a horrified look. "Oh relax. I don't think she plans to eat you."
"How do you know? Meat Sweats doesn't usually LOOK like he plans to eat us. But that's the goal nonetheless. I don't want to be eaten." He clicked on the YouTube link to the video for the song and let it play while he turned back to April.
"Not even a little bite. Nope. No eating."
"You might like it if she bit you." April teased again and he scoffed at her.
"Uh, scoff, I am not into biting. I have class, thank you."
"Donnie you've never been in a relationship. How would you know?"
"Do people actually bite each other?" He grimaced and April laughed.
"Not in the way you are thinking." She giggled.
"Oh...there are other ways?" He glanced at the computer screen to his left as the ad ended and the song started.
"Oh goodie. Metal." He commented dryly.
"Oh nuh uh this is good. Do not hate on this. This guy can sing." April was nodding along with the beat while Don regarded the screen with a bored look which turned to horror when the screaming started and then intrigued when the entire tone of the song shifted as it progressed into a long lapse of ethereal sounding piano notes ended by a symbol note and then into the two stanzas that Lux had told him she wanted to hear from him.
"Ohhh shit! That's hot as hell! Hah! Get it?! Hot as hell?!" April exclaimed while he just gaped at the screen.
"These sound like two different songs! One is metal the other is funkalicious and I can't help but enjoy it." He drug a hand down his face.
"Oh that's more than just funkalicious. That's what we call baby making music. That's sexy. She likes you." April laughed loudly at his shocked and then fearful expression.
"D, you could do far worse than an insanely hot fallen angel werewolf chick."
"Our souls are bound..." He said, clicking on a different song just because he felt like filling the silence.
It was April's turn to gape at him in shock.
"When I touched her hand she pulled my...spirit I guess...into her subconscious mind. I could see it. There's this glowy silver rope that ties us together. She said she has the power to break it." He looked back at the screen and the haunting images of Vessel from the video he selected.
"You told her no didn't you?" April asked quietly.
"My logical mind was telling me to. Screaming that tethering myself..my soul...to incidentally the literal devil's daughter was a stupid idea. But...I couldn't. Another part of me... apparently a stronger part... wouldn't let me." He shook his head.
"Is it stupid? Should I tell her to break it?" He looked up at his friend who seemed to be considering it for a moment.
"I don't know D. Does that make you guys...like...soul mates?" She furrowed her brow.
"I assume so." He shrugged.
"Ok. Imma come at this from a different angle then. How many chances do you guys have to find someone who accepts you for exactly who you are...turtleness and all." She placed her enclosed fists on her hips.
"Uhhhh well...as it turns out I have gone down that rabbit hole. Humans? There's a 0.001% probability of finding someone...for each of us...that accepts us in that way. Obviously it's more possible to find platonic friendship since you are here but romantically? Yea the odds suck for us. Yokai? Way higher percentage. In fact I'm almost certain Leo was seeing one a year ago but I realized that following my brother to see what he was up to when he would leave by himself was not exactly... appropriate." He shrugged.
April sighed. "Okay. So yokai are easier. Humans. Not so much. But we didn't know about other beings until literally today so that should bump up the odds right? Now factor in finding a literal soul mate. D, I could be wrong and I'm almost never wrong, but, I think this is a good thing." She smiled down at him and he leaned back in his chair seeming to contemplate what she was saying.
"So you think I should totally ignore Leo and do what I want? Oh I've been doing that for years." He grinned.
"Exactly. Okay D. I gotta go take care of Mayhem. We still cool for pizza tomorrow?" She had turned to leave his lab but looked at him over her shoulder.
"Oh course." He smiled at her.
"Cool. Later!" She waved.
Don sighed and clicked out of the Google tab and lifted himself out of his chair to walk out of his lab and down to the lower part of the lair to his room and in turn his bed. He pressed a small button on the shoulder pad of the current protective tech shell he had on and it lifted off of him and flew automatically to its place on the wall of other tech shells and machines back up in his lab. He pulled out his phone and searched the band Sleep Token again and clicked a playlist and tossed his phone onto his bed while he pulled off his elbow and kneepads and tossed them aside and then pulled off his mask which he hung on a hook by his bed.
He wasn't sure what the song was called that was playing but the lyrics were poetic in nature and he found that even if it was metal music he was enjoying the haunting lyrics nonetheless.
"No wonder she likes it." He muttered as he crawled into his bed and pulled his phone back over to him so he could see what song was playing.
"The Offering. Also fitting. I'm just glad I don't have to sacrifice a goat or something to summon her. That would not be cool."
He skipped to the next song, Ascensionism, and laid the phone down, turning on his side and closing his eyes while the piano opening played. It sounded sorrowful, like the kind of sorrow he had felt from her.
"Well, I know what you want from me
You want someone to be
Your reflection, your bitter deception
Setting you free
So you take what you want and leave."
He frowned, feeling that those lyrics were almost too close to how he felt himself. Suddenly being thrust into a whole different realm of creatures, mysticism, and a soul bond with a fallen angel-werewolf hybrid that was terrifying and yet probably the most hauntingly beautiful girl he had ever met. Though ..he hadn't met that many anyway.
And then she had just...left.
"Who made you like this?
Who encrypted your dark gospel in body language?
Synapses snap back in blissful anguish
Tell me you met me in past lives, past life
Past what might be eating me from the inside, darling
Half algorithm, half deity
Glitches in the code or gaps in a strange dream
Tell me you guessed my future and it mapped onto your fantasy
Turn me into your mannequin and I'll turn you into my puppet queen"
His eyes snapped open and he picked the phone up to read the title of the song again. Somehow he had a feeling she knew he would appreciate the lyric style of this particular band. The bond...did she have some sort of insight into his mind? She had pulled him into hers.
"Won't you come and dance in the dark with me?
Show me what you are, I am desperate to know
Nobody better than the perfect enemy
Digital demons make the night feel heavenly
Make it real
'Cause anything's better than the way I feel right now
I can offer you a blacklit paradise
Diamonds in the trees, pentagrams in the night sky"
Now that sounded like her. He read the words that popped up in the lyric video and sighed. She was already making him feel...confused...he did not enjoy that feeling.
"Lipstick, chemtrails, red flags, pink nails
With one eye on the door, other eye on a rail
Other, other eye following a scarlet trail
And the last few drops from the Holy Grail, now
Rose gold chains, ripped lace, cut glass
Blood stains on the collar, please, just don't ask
Be the first to the feast, let's choke on the past
And take to the broken skies at last"
He paused the song and closed out the app. It was just too much of a coincidence for the song to map out exactly how he was viewing this weird situation and not only that but how he imagined she was feeling as well even though right now all he felt was the same from her. Sorrow. Loneliness. The rage he had felt from her earlier seemed to have dissipated, being replaced by...hope perhaps?
Hope for what? What was she hopeful for?
He turned over to his other side and squeezed his eyes shut. If he just focused hard enough on falling asleep maybe it would happen.
He was sure hours had passed when suddenly he opened his eyes to the endless starlit blackness around him again as he floated along.
The silver thread was still wrapped around his wrist and he followed it along, floating in the sea of inky darkness and little pin pricks of colors and light until he came to a stop at what looked like a piece of earth floating in space. It was dark with rich soil and had long gray grass on top along with one lonely tree with glossy black bark and dark green leaves and a strange spiked red fruit growing on it.
When he looked at the base of the tree she was there with a book propped delicately in her pale fingers tipped with long black glossy nails. Her wings were not present, just her horns and tails and she wore what looked like pajamas made of a shimmery, gossamer fabric the color of the sky at sunrise. Lilac and pink and the lightest blue, a thinly strapped tank top and what he had at first thought were shorts but really were long flowy pants but she had one leg bent so the pant leg had fallen down to expose most of her leg, which he noticed had a large serpent tattoo on the side of her thigh in colors of dark green, burgundy and burnt orange that disappeared under her clothing. How he hadn't noticed that before he wasn't sure. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and as she read she occasionally bit at her full light pink bottom lip and she looked...adorable yet still like she could kill without much effort.
"Luciana?"
Green eyes looked up at him in shock and then confusion.
"Donatello?" Her head tilted. "How did you get here?" She asked him.
"I...thought you pulled me here again?" He asked.
She furrowed her brow and he had an overwhelming urge to brush his thumb over it in hopes of alleviating her confusion.
"I... didn't intend to? But I don't know if I did?"
"Do you think I did it?" He asked.
"That would require great power...were you focusing your power again?" She asked him.
"Uh...no. I was trying to go to sleep...but I guess...I was...thinking of..." He trailed off and looked up at the weird fruit in the tree above her.
"Me?" She asked him quietly.
He sighed and ran a hand down his face which he realized was maskless. He had appeared to her exactly as he slept. Completely exposed. Soft shell and all.
"Your appearance doesn't bother me if that's what you are worrying about. I think you are rather attractive actually." So she could read his thoughts.
"How does this bond work? I feel things sometimes that I know aren't me. So they must be you. You can apparently read my mind-"
"It is more than reading a mind. We have a telepathic link. You could just as easily read my own thoughts but you have been choosing not to subconsciously." She closed her book and laid it gently on the ground as she looked up at him.
"You would let me read your mind?" He asked, incredulous.
"Yes? I have nothing to hide from you. Though I would advise you to proceed with caution. I have experienced things that could be traumatic to you." She regarded him with that same expressionless gaze and he found it unnerving and irritating.
Her eyes widened slightly. "I have angered you?" She asked him.
He huffed in frustration and crossed his arms over his plastron.
"No...I'm not angry. I'm irritated. But i believe I may be experiencing what my brothers experience with me. You always look like...you feel nothing. You are hard to read, even if I'm not the best at deciphering emotions as I myself am not great with them, I should at least be able to read you a little. But there is nothing." He frowned.
Luciana blinked and stood up, her flowy gauzy clothing shifting colors from lilac to pink to blue as she moved towards bim, the light from the silver thread around her wrist, tethering them together, causing the fabric to shimmer. She approached him slowly, as if she might spook him. She was much shorter than him, he and his brothers had definitely not anticipated the growth spurt that had them standing at about six and a half feet tall...aside from Raph who was already about seven feet tall, she had to tilt her head up to look at him.
"I...have been apart from the mortal realm for a very long time. I believe I forgot...how..to feel..I suppose. Until now. But...I believe I have what most people call today a...resting bitch face?"
That got him. He doubled over in laughter and she smiled brightly at him when he looked back up at her. His breath caught in his throat and he nearly choked on his own laughter.
"Yes. I guess you do have an RBF." He finally managed to speak after having been caught off guard by the way her eyes seemed to sparkle when she had smiled at him.
He righted himself and looked down at her as the smile slipped from her face.
Don frowned. "Your...smile. It's beautiful." He stumbled over his words but his nervousness seemed to go unnoticed by her as she smiled again at him and he couldn't help but return it.
"Thank you for not saying what most men say. 'You should smile more.' It gets old but even in Hell it happens."
"I mean... I'd like to see it more." He told her. She frowned.
"You would? Even though you are afraid of me?"
"I'm not-"
"I can read your thoughts and emotions Donatello." She cut him off and crossed her arms over her chest which coincidentally pulled his gaze downward but he hastily brought it back up to her eyes hoping he wasn't blushing too obviously.
"I'm...not afraid OF YOU. I'm afraid of..."
"Beach balls. Feelings. Touch. Me." She ticked each off on a finger and he scowled at her.
"Dammit, do you always have to have the last word?" Her eyes widened at the frustation evident in his voice and she blinked.
"I apologize. Continue." She waved her hand at him and his frustration evaporated instantly with her apology.
"I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid of what you represent. You represent a very real possibility that I have not once...okay maybe once...thought about. I don't understand love beyond a familial bond because that's all I have ever known. I love my brothers. I love April, she's like a sister to us, I, we, would do so much for her. But I'm terrified of the things I could...that I would willingly do for you, even already. Because of this bond." He raised his wrist and the silver rope wriggled with the movement.
She tilted her head to the side and he squirmed under her scrutiny.
"I would never ask you to do anything you were not comfortable with Donatello. I hope to never put you in a position where you would have to do anything for me that you were uncomfortable doing." She sighed and rested her hand on the glowing silver thread, it flickered and then disappeared from sight but he knew not to ask if it was gone. He knew it wasn't. He could feel her own inner turmoil at the moment.
"What you should be afraid of are the things I would do for you." She turned her gaze back up to him and he watched the green irises there flood with blood red so dark it was difficult to see a pupil but then he realized it was because they had shrunk to thin slits like a cat or a serpent.
"What would you do for me?" He had apparently lost his internal filter because he had not meant to say that out loud.
"Anything you asked." She shrugged. "I have no qualms about killing for you. I'd destroy anyone that brought you harm. As is my right." He shivered at the snarl in her voice.
"I believe there is a particular demon that requires such a punishment through digging through your memories. Ch'rell." Her tails lashed the air behind her.
"Who?" He raised an eye brow.
"Ch'rell is the demon that possessed the armor of Oroku Saki and corrupted him. He was of course redeemed by you and your brothers. And you destroyed Ch'rell's body. But he lives. In Hell of course." She waved her fingers in the air around her as if to indicate where they were but he knew she meant where she was.
"That thing is alive?" Don grimaced.
"He is. But not for long." She growled.
"What are you going to do?" Don reached for her shoulders and made her look at him. She did and the red dissipated from her eyes and her pupils returned to normal.
"Destroy him." She said simply.
"But hes..powerful...really powerful...how?"
"Simple. I will tear him apart and pull out his soul and crush it." She shrugged and he gaped at her.
"What?" She asked.
"You...can just...do that. Just tear a demon apart and destroy its soul? Just like that?" He snapped his fingers.
"Yes?" She furrowed her brow.
"Wow...pretty and mean...you really are my type." He was unprepared for her laughter and it made his stomach do a silly flip flop that was uncomfortable because of how nervous she made him.
"I prefer ruthless. Malicious. Malevolent-"
"Are you trying to seduce me with your obviously large vocabulary?... Because it's working." He smirked down at her and she laughed again. He could feel the joy from her radiating through the bond and it made him feel all warm inside.
"...I haven't...laughed like that...in a long time." She said between breaths, her radiant smile lighting up her face. She turned and moved back to the tree and her book and he found himself following her there where he watched her sit back down and take another deep breath. He sat down next to her, not close enough to touch her but still close.
"How long have you been away from the mortal realm?" He asked her.
She let out the deep breath and clicked her nails over the hard cover of the book.
"Hell time moves faster than time in the mortal realm. For the first sixteen years of my life I lived in the mortal realm with my mother...after that I chose to come here with my father...I have lived in Hell for two hundred years. But only four in mortal realm time." She looked up at him.
"That'll explain the loneliness I always feel from you." He said softly. She nodded and looked back down at ber hands as they rested on the book in her lap.
"Why don't you look...over two hundred years old?" She looked up with a wry smile at him.
"My heart stops beating when I am in Hell." She said simply. "I basically am frozen in time."
"So it beats in the mortal realm..interesting." he muttered to himself.
"Very slowly but yes." She nodded.
"So...you weren't close to death when we found you?" He asked her.
"Oh no. I was definitely unconscious but not near death. That angel got a lucky shot in and weakened me with her blade. You did still heal me far faster than I would have healed...and it would have been excruciating too. So thank you." He blinked at her and then shook his head with a sigh.
"Something troubles you still?" She asked.
"When you smile I feel all...weird...like I'm gonna throw up or pass out..." He gave her a deadpan look and a small bubble of laughter escaped her causing him to frown.
"I'm so not good with all this...emotional stuff." He grumbled.
"I'm not either." She added.
"You listen to some very poetic music for someone with a slim grasp on emotion." He countered.
"Music is expressive. I like it. Drake says it's how she can tell what mood I am in." She smiled fondly. He decided not to get into whoever Drake was at the moment and instead he raised one brow ridge at her.
"So you use music to express how you are feeling?" He asked her. She blinked at him and then nodded.
"Okay. That's easier. I can feel your emotions but sometimes they are difficult to process...and I get overstimulated easily..."
"If you are ever confused by me I can simply use a song to express my current emotional state. And vice versa." She offered.
He smiled at her and nodded. "Yes."
"Excellent." Her head tilted to the side and she sighed in annoyance.
"What?" He asked.
"My house keeper is trying to wake me up." She grumbled.
"You come here when you sleep?" He asked her.
"I don't dream in Hell." She told him honestly.
"Oh .. that's... different." He couldn't think of a good word to describe it besides the word sad but he felt that would be rude.
"At least you know where to find me." She shrugged and he grinned at her.
"I guess so."
"You should probably wake up now. And remember to find a trash can incase you get sick coming back to your body. You'll get used to it the more you spirit journey here." She told him.
He groaned in annoyance. "Fuck...I didn't want to do that again." He could already feel the tugging sensation in his gut and he barely heard her answering giggle before he whizzed backwards and slammed into his body with a jolt that had him falling off his bed onto the floor.
"Shit! Fuck! Ow!" He rubbed at his head where it had smacked into the floor and then gasped at the wave of intense nausea that flooded over him causing him to scramble to the waste basket by his gaming set up, heaving whatever had been left in his stomach into it.
"Sonofabitch." He slurred as dizziness caused another wave of nausea that had him dry heaving into the waste basket.
"Oh i hate it. That's terrible." He pushed the waste basket away from him and rubbed at his temples.
"Trouble sleeping?" He groaned at Leo's voice from behind him and turned to see his brother still in his blue pajamas sipping a cup of steaming coffee.
"Look just because you only need a very minimal amount of sleep on a daily basis doesn't mean the rest of us don't need a solid eight hours. I am of that subcategory of people. And I did not get my eight hours. So you can just take your sassy attitude and shove it." Don stood up and glared at his brother who just glared back.
"Were you in that devil lady's mind again?" He demanded.
"You know what? Yes! Yes I was! I am twenty four Leo! Twenty fuckin four! I can do what I want!"
"Not if it risks our family." Leo narrowed his eyes.
"What risk?! She didn't threaten any of you. In fact she just told me shes going to destroy the demon that possessed Oroku Saki simply because A. She can. And B. He tried to kill us. She's going to Destroy him. For us. Is that evil? I don't think so."
"It's still alive?" Leo's eyes had widened and Don immediately felt bad for bringing it up. Leo was one of the more emotional of the four of them next to Mikey and he still had nightmares about the Shredder...and the Krang... especially the Krang.
"Not for long. Not if Luciana has anything to say about it." Donatello moved towards his brother and rested a hand on his shoulder, he could feel the tremors that were shaking his body.
"He will never harm anyone again after she's done with him."
"He's one of her people isn't he?" Leo glared.
"I don't think that is how it works. But...I don't know much about it." Donatello shrugged.
"Why would she destroy one of her own?'
"Leo...are you not listening to me?" Don flicked his brother in the forehead.
"Ow!"
"I said I don't think that is how it works. She's not a demon. She's a fallen angel. There's a difference."
"Not in my book." Leo grumbled.
"You don't read books so your book doesn't count." Donatello snarked as he turned around and groggily moved back to his bed where he threw himself.
"I don't like it." Leo said from the doorway.
"I don't care." Don said, his voice muffled by his pillow that he was face down on.
"We are the good guys D! We fight evil! She's part of that evil!" Leo continued.
"If you say another word about her being evil I will hit you. With something very large and very heavy." Donatello had turned his head so his voice was clear.
"Donnie-"
"No!" He sat up and glared at Leo. "I said it's enough. She isn't evil. I'm bound to her soul. I can literally feel it. She. Isn't. Evil. Now fuck off so I can sleep." He dropped back into his bed and turned away from the doorway of the room. He barely heard Leonardo leave as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.