"Well, I have a little tidbit of information that might be useful, that I learned when I escaped," she says, "The guy who keeps coming after me, his name is George and when I got away, he shouted something like 'the Master will not like this,' how much you wanna bet his master is the same one that was in my dream?"
Mike laughs, "We're fighting a guy named GEORGE?"
Diana grins at Mikey and Raph gives him a look.
"That does seem pretty likely," Leo mutters.
Raph asks, "How did you get away from those gorillas anyway?"
"Yeah, you don't seem the 'let me go and I'll give you a kiss' type," Mike says and puckers up.
Don grins and retorts, "YOU are though."
Mike pouts, "Never works for me, though, prob'ly would for Diana!"
Raph and Leo both shoot looks at Mike and Don.
Diana chuckles, "I didn't do that, I'm not quite sure of what exactly happened," a look of puzzlement passes over her face.
"I woke up on George's shoulders and when I reached for my sword, my hand brushed against one of the stones and I was off his shoulders and in an alley," she sees the weird looks the guys are giving her, and says, "Hey, let me finish my story before you send me to the loony bin."
There's a little laugher, and she goes on, "Uhm, anyway, I stayed under the cover of the shadows and I heard, in my head, someone say 'George is such an idiot.' Somehow I knew that George was the big guy who keeps coming after me.
He ordered the group to look for me. They gave up after a few minutes and I came back here," she finishes.
"Can we send you to the loony bin now?" Mike asks after a moment of silence.
"Ha, ha," Raph sarcastically mutters and the right corner of Diana's mouth twitches in a half smile.
"Ho Kay," Leo says, getting them back on track, "we have some new information, and, it would appear, a new way to get that information," he looks at Diana and her sword.
The Dark Master rubs at his chest where Diana slashed it in the dream. He isn't physically injured, but when Diana had cut him, he felt pain, a lot of it, and pain isn't something he's used to feeling.
At first, he was furious, but after he'd beaten a few of his servants, his fury subsided and now he's trying to think of a way to get her.
Then he realizes something that hasn't clicked with him before.
Her sword actually caused me pain! Would it actually be able to hurt me?
He knows a great deal about this blade, but there's a still far more that remains a mystery.
He shakes his head and brings his mind back to trying to figure out how to get Diana.
Usually fear works. When he needs to get healers and guards and such for his dwelling, that's what he usually uses. Fear is a very powerful tool.
Another tool he's used is greed.
Perhaps that will work on her!
He grins, and leans back into his throne, formulating a plan for that night.
Diana sits on her knees with her sword across her lap, meditating with Splinter and Leo, trying to find out more about the sword.
They're getting nowhere, and they're all getting annoyed at the sword's proverbial hard headedness.
At first, the sword would tell them what they wanted to know, but then it would stop and force them out of trance, and they would have to start all over again, the sword telling them the same things and stopping at the same point.
After the seventh time this happens, about four hours after they'd started, Diana sighs in agitation and looks at her companions.
"You know, I think that we've gotten as far as we're going to get," she comments.
Splinter nods and Leo answeres, "Yeah, the sword doesn't seem to want us to get any farther."
"We can see if we can learn any more tomorrow," Splinter says, taking note of the tiered look on Diana's face, "as for now, I believe we can all use a little sleep."
Diana and Leo both nod, bow to Splinter and stand.
As they're walking out of the meditation room, Diana sees Raph, Don and Mikey sitting on the couch, and watching television.
She grins at them, and gingerly settles into a chair by the couch, since there isn't any room for her.
Raph looks over at her, smiles and reaches an arm over to give her a gentle one armed hug.
"How's yer back feel?" he asks.
She sighs, "Still hurts," then she grins, "but you guys all help me feel better." Then she smiles at each of them in turn, and they smile back. Leo and Splinter had joined them by now.
When she looks at Raph, she gets lost in his eyes for a moment. She blushes and looks away.
Splinter sees this and chuckles softly. He also sees the weariness in Diana's eyes.
"Perhaps we should let you sleep," he suggests.
Diana shakes her head and says, "Oh, I'm not that tired," not wanting to deprive them of their show; it's their home, after all.
Despite her words, she's asleep within a few minutes.
Again she's wearing the long white dress, but the neckline isn't as low as before.
Oh, great, not again.
She looks around and sees that she's in a meadow full of long soft grass and wildflowers. Her hair isn't in its customary pony tail, but falls in loose curls around her face.
Suddenly she sees a young man coming toward her.
Whoa, he's cute!
Then she feels the wrongness about him.
Bummer, all the cute ones are either gay, taken or evil.
Then he speaks in one of the most soothing sweet voices she'd ever heard in her life, "You look so beautiful...but you're hurt."
Wow, I still AM hurt in this dream. She winces at the pain of her injuries.
He then gracefully moves just in front of her and looks deeply into her eyes, catching and holding her gaze.
What she sees, she doesn't like. Again she senses the evil.
She can't move as he reaches a hand to her injured shoulder and gently caresses it.
She feels an intense tingling, concentrating first on her shoulder and then running throughout her body.
She cadn't help it, she shudders.
Wow, intense...
Then he does one of the last things she wants him to.
He pulls her to him and kisses her.
"Mmmph!" she tries objecting, but can't pull back until the kiss is over.
He grins at her. She almost cringes at the evil she sees and senses in him.
"You can have that power if you join with me, you know," the man says.
Healing, wow, I HAVE always wanted to be able to heal people. The thing is, I'd have to join this loser.
He's holding her hands and he looks like he was going to try something, but before he can do anything more, she pulls away.
He glowers at her and starts to grow and darken, she's ready to draw her sword when he disappears.
It's then that she feels herself being shaken awake.
Chapter Ten
Chapter Twelve
Realities Index