A Visit to Ireland

Part 6

Casey muttered profanities to himself while whacking away with his hockey stick. "Sure hope what he's doing is interesting. I've gotta pick up the monsters he ain't tacklin'."

Raph dodged under yet another tail whip but missed drawing blood again. "Hey, you got it easy. I've got Night on Bald Mountain to deal with." He leaped, and a cloven hoof slammed down where his head had been. "I feel like I'm playing Doom."

"Well, you must be doing all right," Casey said, smacking another kobold against the wall. "He's sure clammed up since you started."

Raph would have paused to muse that point if the demon hadn't lowered his head and tried to gore him with his horns. "Maybe he's gonna concentrate to attack?"

"Or maybe he's worried about something?"

Raph shook his head. "Nah. I mean, he's got a small army in here. What's to worry about?"

"Hold still, you little nuisance," the demon growled, and he lunged forward, lashing out with his horns again.

Raphael leaped up, narrowly avoiding the horns, and did a handstand on the demon's back for just a moment. A sizzling noise, like meat on a grill, came from under his hand, and when he flipped off again, he spotted a black mark shaped like his sai where it had touched the demon's skin. The demon howled and turned, screaming louder than the rest of his monsters.

I get it, Raph thought. Iron. My sais are made out of iron.

"Raph, what'd you do? I can see that mark all the way over here."

Raph grinned and flipped his sais up again. "I don't think he likes iron all that much."

Casey shook his head. "Then why not use Leo's swords? They're longer."

"The steel's processed different. Probably wouldn't have the same effect." He switched from defense to assault, and now the demon had to back up from his forward slashes. "Gonna have some cooked demon tonight!"

*

Leo stared at the computer for a moment more before being forced back into the fight. "Okay, Venus, now what? There's a dead wizard powering that thing. I don't think I can crash something like that."

Venus, tired of kneeling, sat down in her circle and thought. "Maybe the body is the interface."

"I am not touching that thing. Besides, I don't think pressing its eyes is gonna make it delete itself."

"Mm. Well, Donatello uses his hands on a keyboard. Maybe you need to use something different to connect into that computer."

"And then do what?"

"You're supposed to be so damn smart, quit asking me."

"I'm not the expert in magick."

"Neither am I."

"Hello? You're sitting next to one."

Venus blinked. "Oh, right. Heh. Riana?"

The human looked up from over Donatello's shoulder. "Yes? Are ye ready?"

"Not yet. Listen. They've found a small base under those ruins, and there's a demon inside with a huge computer, only there's no keyboard. Only a dead body inside."

Riana almost smiled. "Ah can guess who that was."

"Right. But if Leo can't access the computer--"

"--he can't crash it," Don finished. "Wait, that's a demon's computer? Don't let him touch it, I wanna study it. Can he describe it?"

"Later," Venus and Riana both said.

"Ah think Ah understand," Riana said. "Muh father would be both the conduit for that magick and the access key tae the lay lines. If ye wanted to interfere and reroute all that, ye'd need a different key. A spiritual one."

"What do you mean?"

"Something with a spirit inside it...Ah dinnae know how else tae describe it."

Deep in the fight, Leonardo smiled. "Then I have an idea."

"Leo?" Venus said. "You were listening?"

He backed away from the advancing red caps, nearly tripping over a dead troll, and turned to face the computer again. "It has to do with belief, I think."

She smiled as she understood. "And you're Shinto..."

"Exactly. Everything has a kami." He raised one sword.

"Especially if you name it and talk to it," she smirked. "So what's it's name?"

"This one?" He stabbed the sword right between the dead man's eyes. "Silence."

Light blasted up out of the computer and flooded the room, moving through the line until everybody could see the glare.

*

Mike woke up in front of the castle, propped up against the wall with a splitting headache. He groaned and looked around himself. Donatello and Riana lay on either side of him, both of them unconscious. The laptop had somehow fallen into the line itself, one of the programs blinking on the screen. April lay sprawled on the grass a few feet away, her eyes wide open and blinking several times. Stunned, probably.

When he looked face front, he breathed in hard. A line of white light stretched into the hills on his right, and into the forest on the left. He would have believed it was a solid wall if he hadn't seen his sister kneeling in the middle of the light, arms around herself as if she was freezing.

"Venus?" He moved onto his hands and knees, still too groggy to stand. "Venus, are you all right?"

She didn't answer. He wondered if she could even hear him.

Looking away from his sister, he crawled to April's side and felt for her pulse.

"I'm alive," she muttered, but she closed her eyes. "I just don't wanna get up yet, that's all. Is the world ending yet?"

"Nope, but Venus is really in a spotlight." He helped April sit up and see. "Any idea what's going on?"

"What about...?" She glanced over at Donatello and Riana. "Ah. 'Relax, April, I know what I'm doing'," she said, mimicking Donatello's voice.

"Think he's blown up the world?"

"I don't think it's in his hands anymore," April said. "It's in hers."

*

"Why's the light so cold?" Venus asked.

"I don't know," Leo said. He turned, expecting to see a horde of monsters bearing down on him. Instead goblins and red caps lined the floor, some of them burned black and others messes of internal organs, as if the sudden light had exploded them from the inside out. Farther away, Raphael and Casey pounded on the demon, now on its back with one horn broken off and Casey about to shove a hockey stick somewhere unpleasant. "And I can't move much."

"Me neither. Riana's out cold, so's Donatello, and I don't think you have any idea how to fix this."

"You're the one who said she could handle it." He reached up to his sword, still jammed into the computer, and drew back as it sparked. "Well, the spell's broken, but I think we've been caught up in its backwash."

"That or we aggravated the lines enough to make them react."

"So now what?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should redo the castle wards now?"

"With the amount of dead things on this side, I don't know if that's such a priority anymore. Besides, would it get us out?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe if we put enough energy into the wards, the lines will fade long enough to let us out."

"Does that mean all of your energy, too?" he asked.

"If we don't do anything soon, it won't matter," she said. "A few more minutes in such strong magick and we'll both dissolve back into the earth."

"You didn't answer my question."

"No. Not all of my energy. I should even get most of that back."

"Should?"

"It's been a very strange day, Leo. Please...trust me."

He took a deep breath and nodded. "All right. We'll do it your way."

"Just one problem."

"Now what--?"

"Relax, it's not that bad. It's just..." She hoped he didn't notice how her face heated up. "You weren't part of the plan before."

"Neither was a demon."

"I mean, if you're in the male line, I can't directly pull energy from it. You'll...you'll have to give it to me."

"Huh?" Leo glanced around the glowing light that surrounded him. It slid over his body like mist so that he couldn't grasp it, and he couldn't feel to force it around...he frowned. He could feel it, but only as it entered his body and streamed out again, unchanged but movable. But..."Oh geez, you're kidding me."

"I know it'll be...intimate," she said.

He looked around again just to be sure his brother couldn't hear them. "Nice choice of words...Mieh, this isn't just handing you magick, it..."

"Energy from you to me and out," she said. "Actually, it's very similar to the principles behind Tantric magick, except we'll be doing it the right way."

"Quit sounding like Donatello," he grumbled. "Besides, I thought that Tantrism was just a cheap way to get laid."

"You sound just like Raphael when you get pissed."

"Don't change the subject!"

She hid her giggle. "I'm simplifying it a lot, but Tantric is partly based on energy produced through sex. Humans just do it wrong by being overly physical about it."

"Wait, don't tell me." He sighed and closed his eyes. "The same thing on a higher plane?"

"Mm-hmm." She couldn't hide her smile. "Like divine sex. It'll move everything just right and maybe get us out of here to boot." She frowned as she heard his breathing quicken. "Leonardo? Are you okay?"

Still struggling to slow his breathing, he shook his head and clenched his fists. "I knew it, I knew it, I never should've agreed to let you do this. I should've just had Donatello rig up traps or something."

"Traps? Leonardo, stop hyperventilating." Venus lowered her voice and looked away. "Is the idea of it so awful? Am I so bad?"

"No, it's just..." He exhaled and shook his head. "I didn't want it to be like this. Rushed, imperfect."

"Look at it this way. It'll either be mind-blowing or earth-shattering. How much more perfect could it be?" She extended her hand. "Ready?"

He saw her move and nodded. "Yeah. Ready." Before he could think to stop himself, from miles away he took her hand.

The transfer was immediate, male energy streaming through his mind straight into hers, where it rose out again into the channel cut by Riana and Donatello. Both of them winced, unable to breathe in the high winds. Light coursed around the castle, first laying like a blanket around the walls and wrapping itself tight, pressing into the chinks and crevices.

Before the light could touch them, April and Michaelangelo scrambled away from the wall, but another beam of light cut a groove around the castle a foot away, and then another spreading like a dome a mile out on all sides.

Mike stopped and looked around. "I think we're trapped in here."

"At least until Venus finishes." She glanced at Riana and Donatello, still prone on the ground. "Mike, how is Venus going to get out of there?"

"I...I don't know." Thunder rumbled as storm clouds swirled over them, flickering with lightning. "I wonder how we're gonna get out of here."

Back in the burnt ruin, Raphael and Casey put the finishing gouges on the demon, who lay slumped under a pile of monsters and bloody chunks. Shadow peered around her father's legs at the creature in front of them, then stepped around and gave its nose a swift kick.

"Damn," Casey said. "Got quiet in here all of a sudden."

"Where's Leo?" Raph glanced around and spotted his brother caught in the bluish light, as if behind glass. "What the hell is that?"

Shadow shrugged. "I dunno. Last time I heard him, he mentioned something about getting laid."

They both stared at her, then shook their heads.

"No way," Raph said. "You must've heard it wrong."

"Look," Casey said, pointing. "He's saying something. Can you hear it?"

Raph shook his head. "No, it's like there's a wall between us."

The light along the lines grew brighter, going from blue to white again, and completely obscured the two caught inside. Wind rushed through the magick corridors, sounding like howls and thunder as they shivered. Battered by the strong winds, Venus forced herself to stand straight, sending her energy out in pulses. Each pulse diminished her strength, making the wind stronger.

"Venus," Leo yelled, fighting to be heard over the wind. "Stop! You're giving too much."

"I can't stop," she cried. She crossed her arms in front of herself and sent another pulse. "It hurts! The more I hold in, the more it hurts. I have to get rid of it."

He wondered if the amount of energy he gave her was what was hurting, but shook his head. "We were so stupid," he whispered. "Why didn't I think of it? Eastern magick isn't western magick. That's the real reason we're stuck in here. We're rocks in a river." He looked up at her. "Venus! Stop giving your energy to the castle. Concentrate it around yourself!"

"What?" She shook her head. "It'll crush me."

"Do it! It's our only chance."

"But--" Even as she spoke, she stopped sending her pulses out and let them gather around her body. A sky blue glow surrounded her skin, humming on a low frequency within the screaming winds.

"It has to be strong," Leo said. "As strong as you can make it."

"I..." Her eyes widened as the line around her wavered, leaving a clear gap. "I see it! I see..." She turned back to him. "Come on. We've got to do this together."

"We're too far apart--"

"I trusted you. Now trust me." She held her hand out again. "Come here."

He stared at her for a moment, then nodded and took a deep breath. Standing straight, he felt for his bit of willpower holding him in place against the wind, released it and went.

*thud*

"Oof!"

The next moment, they both lay on the grass outside the castle's main doors. Several yards away, the lines wavered and faded until they disappeared altogether, followed by the lights where the wards lay. The thunder stopped and the wind died down. When they didn't hear anything besides a last breeze over their skin, they sighed and relaxed.

"Ow," Venus said, rolling onto her back. "Geez, I didn't think you'd come so fast."

"Neither did I." He groaned and sat up. "Damn. Felt like a slingshot."

Footsteps ran closer and he looked up just in time to see Mike leap forward. "No Mike no--"

*thud* Venus and April laughed as Leo struggled out of Mike's hug.

"Michaelangelo, get off of me." He winced as his sibling put pressure on his cut arm. "Now. Off."

"Oh sorry," Mike said, sitting. "But I thought for sure you guys were dead and we didn't know how you were gonna get out 'cause Riana and Don are knocked out over there and Venus was asking weird questions about computers and then there was this big explosion and holy shit you're covered in blood--"

"Where's Shadow?" April asked, seeing the blood all over Leonardo. "Is she all right?"

"Oh yeah." Leo leaned forward and rubbed the back of his head. "They're probably still back at the ruin. I'm sure they're safe. All the monsters are dead, and I think the demon was, too. Raph and Casey had everything under control."

"Demon?" they both asked.

"Mike," Venus said. "Maybe you should take a couple horses out and pick them up."

"But what about you and Don an'--"

"Go!" Leo ordered, vaguely pointing to the left. "It's about a mile that way."

"Okay." Mike ran off towards the stables and disappeared. A moment later, they saw him chasing a half-saddled horse down the hill into the forest. "Hey, get back here!"

April, Leo and Venus all watched him follow the horse into the forest. With a muted laugh, April glanced at the turtles on the ground. "Are you two all right? You seem kinda...spent."

The two exchanged a look, and then Leo fell beside Venus as the two began to laugh uncontrollably. April watched them for a few seconds, then shook her head and turned away. "Fine, laugh it up. I'm gonna go wake up our two sleeping beauties."

"Could we...give 'em a shot?" Venus asked through her giggles.

"Or...dip Don in mercuroform?" Leo said. "Please?"

Not getting an answer, they tried to help each other up while still laughing and only fell back on the ground.

"Spent," Leo sighed.

Venus smiled. "That's a good way to describe it." She glanced at him again and shook her head. "Mike was right. You're absolutely covered in blood."

"There were a lot of things to kill."

She ran one finger down his arm and held it up, dripping with blood. "Didn't Riana say this stuff was poisonous?"

Tiny rain drops started falling, slow at first then faster and faster until they lay stretched out under a light storm. Blood streamed off of him into the grass and out of sight until all that was left was his own wound.

"Ouch," Venus said, looking at the gash. "Doesn't that hurt?"

He glanced sideways at her. "No."

"Still, I'd better bandage it."

"Better to let it air."

"Leo--"

"It's fine."

"It could be poisoned."

"Lay off."

"It needs--"

"Lay. Off."

"I'll tell Donatello."

"...you wouldn't."

Venus sat up and cupped her hand around her mouth. "Donatell--!"

"Cut that out," Leo hissed, dragging her backwards.

"Then you'd better let me take care of that before he does."

He glared at her, then sighed and stood up. "Fine, whatever."

"Hey, will you two quit playing and give me a hand here?" April called.

"Coming," Leo said. He walked over and grabbed one of Donatello's ankles, then proceeded to drag him across the ground.

"Leo," April said as Venus helped her pick up Riana. "Pick him up."

"He's heavy. And he's annoying." He dragged his sibling over the front step and into the castle. "He deserves this."

April shook her head as they watched him move through hall towards the grand staircase. "Damn, he can be vindictive when he wants to."

"Donatello should've had a backup plan," Venus said. "Something better than lay-on-the-ground-and-play-dead-while-Venus-does-all-the-work."

"Speaking of work," April said. "How'd Leo get here so fast?"

"I'll explain later," Venus said. "Dinner first. And a nap. And maybe a cigarette."

"What?"

Venus turned to hide her smile. "Oh nothing."

"--and then Daddy slammed his hockey stick on the demon's head," Shadow said, slamming down an imaginary stick in her hands. "And Uncle Raph started jumping up an' down on it and shouted stuff at it."

Gathered around the fireplace, the humans sat on one couch, Mike and Raph on another, and Leo, Venus and Donatello near the fire itself. Mike leaned forward and ruffled Shadow's hair.

"And what was Uncle Raph shouting at it?" he asked.

"Bad things," Shadow said. "I'd get grounded if I said 'em."

Her parents looked at Raph, who held his hands up defensively.

"Hey, I was killing a demon. Cut me some slack."

"So it was a demon?" Mike asked. "How'd that pop up here?"

Riana shrugged and shuffled her deck again. "Father probably conjured up something he could'nae control. That had to have been after he faked his death...mother always warned me never to summon spirits. Ye never know whut ye're going to get."

"But it had a computer?" Donatello asked, leaning forward. "What was it like?"

"No keyboard," Raph said, "just a dead body and one of Leo's swords sticking out of it. And there was this funny picture on the screen."

"Oh yeah, Don," Casey said. "Looked like that horse virus thing you showed me before."

"What?" Don sat back as he thought about that. "My laptop's fried. The moment it fell into all the magick in that lay line, the hard drive melted." He glanced at his brother and Venus, but they only shrugged.

"I wouldn't know," Venus said. "There was so much magick everywhere, I didn't notice anything."

"I guess it's possible," Don said. "Electricity is just another form of energy, and moving along a conduit linked to the demon's mainframe, assuming the files weren't corrupted or erased, and the systems were compatible, maybe my virus could've infected it. And using the sword as the interface...maybe..."

"Wouldn't a sword have crashed the computer though?" April asked.

"I think it crashed any spells it was using to access the lines," Don said. "Leo didn't get that much time to destroy it, after all. My virus probably finished off whatever was left."

"Speaking of those lines," Raph said. "Leo, how the hell'd you end up back here? I thought you were dead until we got back."

"Yeah," April said. "One minute Venus is stuck, the next you two are on the ground over here. What happened in there?"

Everyone expected a smug explanation or another "I have no idea" excuse from them. No one expected them to glance at each other and suddenly burst out laughing. Leo tried to fight his down, but Venus couldn't stop giggling.

"Um..." Mike glanced between the two. "Wanna let us in on the joke?"

"It's not that," Venus said. "Mmm...the two lines threw us out. We were using Eastern magicks, it was a Western magick. It was like a river tossing out rocks."

"But how'd Leo end up over here?" Shadow asked. "What happened in all that light?"

Venus's face was tinged with pink. "Well...there was some energy transfer so I could use the line I was in, the female one--"

"--and I was swept towards her pretty quick," Leo finished, careful not to look at her.

For a moment she was upset he'd interrupted, but then she realized he was keeping exactly what had happened under wraps. She smiled wryly and nodded. Let them try to figure it out. "Exactly. Like a river."

While everyone thought about rivers and lines, Riana put the terms male, female and transfer together, along with her knowledge of a certain Eastern school of Tantrism, and suddenly blushed bright pink as her eyes opened wide. Her Tarot cards spilled to the floor, distracting everyone as they helped her gather them up. As she sat up again, she caught Venus' look, smiled and winked.

And if she noticed their hands were brushing ever so slightly between them, she didn't say anything about it. After all, her castle was safe again, her father was dead for certain, and a little celebration was in order. "Well," she said, "now that we're safe once again, perhaps I can treat ye like real guests now. There's a small pub not too far from here, and they won't care whut ye look like. Ye up for a little party?"

"Pub?" Raph said.

"Party?" Mike said.

"Won't care?" Don said.

All three of them looked at Leo with big eyes, hoping he'd forgotten about the tea incident.

"They won't care at all?" he asked.

"Out here in the countryside, we're all used tae dealing with faeries and trolls and such. A few friendly turtles'll be nothing."

"Hey," Raph said, "maybe I will get Leo drunk."

"No." Leo held one hand dup before they started yelling at him. "You can go, no problem there. But I'm staying here."

"Me, too," Venus said, stifling a yawn. "After what we did, I'm exhausted."

"Cool..." Raph said. "Beer, a party, and best of all, no bossy big brother."

"Do you guys mind watching Shadow?" April asked.

"Aw, c'mon, lemme come..." Shadow broke off as she yawned. "I'm not tired at all."

"No problem," Venus said. "The way she's looking, she'll be asleep before she hits the pillow."

"I could say the same about you," Don said. "You two look dead tired. In fact...Leo, I wonder if that cut isn't--" He started to reach for Leo's hand and the cut one of the redcaps had given him.

"Touch it and die," Leo said, shying away from him. "I finally get through a fight without you 'fixing' anything and you're still dying to screw with it."

"I'm surprised it isn't still bleeding--" He caught Venus' glare and backed away. "Not that your bandaging isn't any good, it's just...I'd feel a lot better disinfecting it."

"I swear to God, you come near me with anything--"

Venus started to laugh again, but this time it wasn't from embarrassment. "Maybe you guys should head off for this pug--"

"--pub--" Raph said.

"--whatever it is...now before Leo hurts Donatello."

"It'd be purely in self-defense."

Though it took a little while to call Riana's private drivers and head off, soon enough Shadow was tucked into bed and Leonardo and Venus were all alone in the haunted castle. They sat on the floor of the hallway just outside her room, her bedroom door left slightly ajar so they could hear her breathing. Yawning again, Venus closed her eyes and leaned against Leo.

"They won't be back for hours, you know," she said.

"I know."

"Shadow'll be out until morning. She didn't sleep much at all last night."

"Mm-hmm."

"Technically, we've already gone all away."

"All the way."

"Mm. Well, we have."

Leo smiled softly. He had to remind himself of all the reasons why they could act, too much a creature of habit to allow himself otherwise. Shadow was fast asleep in the other bed, and the others wouldn't be back for hours. He and Venus were all alone for awhile. And Splinter was an ocean away. He gently brushed her cheek with his good hand.

"We shouldn't have to hide this," he whispered.

"I wish we didn't have to," she said. She lay her hand on his shoulder, careful not to twist her body too much. Every muscle was still sore.

Slowly they came closer, afraid that Shadow would wake up, or their siblings would return, or something else would happen. Only once they were both certain that they were alone and safe did they share their first kiss. Several seconds went by but they hardly noticed. Their hands pulled their bodies closer, deepening the embrace. A moment later, they drew back.

"You get the feeling the magick's already missing?" Leo asked. He winced as Venus mildly punched him. "Ow! Kidding, kidding."

"So what will we do when we go back?" she asked. "Tell Master Splinter that he can stop watching us, there's nothing we haven't already done? I don't think he'll like it."

"But we can't keep it a secret much longer." He laughed once. "Some secret, the only ones who don't know are Raph and Donatello, really."

"You think Splinter'll be angry?"

"I doubt it. He already knows there's something between us. I guess as long as we keep beating each other up in practice, he won't think we've been 'blinded by our affections'."

"Careful, you're starting to sound like Raphael."

"God forbid..." He shook his head and leaned against her. "I'm just tired."

"Same here. We shouldn't sleep on the floor, but I don't want to move."

"Yeah, me neither. Even if the wards are working, I don't wanna leave Shadow alone."

"I meant that I'm too tired to move."

"Oh." He closed his eyes, and his words started coming slower. "The carpet's thick. It's not that cold in here."

"Maybe we could move Shadow to the couches..." Venus' voice started to drift. "We could sleep by the fire."

"Fire's out for now," Leo said. "Maybe later..."

"Yeah...may...be..."

Fast asleep now, they nestled against each other in the dark hallway, oblivious to the occasional household haunt that flitted by them, the castle spirits making their nightly rounds. And that was how their brothers found them early the next morning as they staggered in, starting off their real vacation with the makings of severe hangovers.

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