Turtlefreak121: Nearly a year after starting the first, I create the sequel. Problem: six or so months behind the ending of the last chapter of the first and with six or so fanfictions already in progress waiting for this spot - things will be getting interesting. Okay, okay, I don't know if the interest in my fanfic "The Dark Half" has already sizzled and burned out or not, but here's the sequel. There will be no third nor a prequel so this is it. This is IT - and lucky for you all, as the title originally suggests, this fanfiction will have only and EXACTLY thirteen chapters, so you'll know when the ending should be (Leo: with your fics probably chapter two for most readers) (glares) No... You're still just mad that I made the first (Leo: And getting madder now that you've made the SECOND!) Hey! At least you got rid of Yin for good! Okay, peeps! Here we go! Sequel to the Dark Half, coming up!

Thank you, Lunar-Ninja and Pi90katana for being the lovely beta readers ;)

Thanks to everyone that's reading :D Appreciate it!

The Dark Half II: Thirteen

Chapter One

By Turtlefreak121

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (c) to Mirage Studios and were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 (c) to 4Kids entertainment. The book/movie this was inspired from, "The Dark Half" (c) to Stephen King. "The Dark Half" and "The Dark Half II: Thirteen" fanfics as well as AU, Yin (only in "The Dark Half") (c) Turtlefreak121

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The Crow

Leonardo felt a cold shiver run down his arms as they reached over his warm covers and escaped into the chilling air. Sighing some at the temperature, he knew that - once more - the heat had stopped working in their home and that left Don yet again with the challenge of fixing it.

Not wishing to leave the warmth of his bed, Leo turned over and took a deep breath before the shivers took hold of him once more. The blue masked turtle pulled the covers up and closed his eyes half way as he stared at the bricks of his room's fourth wall. He couldn't go back to sleep.

"Come on..." he grumbled to himself as he attempted to close his eyes.

It didn't take long, however, for that face to appear in the forefront of his mind as he did. Opening his eyes quickly and jolting to a sitting position in bed, Leonardo took a deep breath and held as he waited for him to show up again.

Concentrating on taking deep breaths, Leonardo took a look around the room and sighed at the conformation that he was alone in his room. "Alright... This is becoming insane," he mumbled to himself. "You haven't done this in weeks..."

The turtle held the side of his head and shook in the cold. "Well, I'm not returning to sleep anytime soon..." he grumbled as he turned his body, kicked off the covers and placed his feet on the floor.

It was freezing in there! His feet were immediately tingling from the cold floor and every nerve was telling him to jump back into the bed and return to sleep. But Leo couldn't have done that if he had wanted to.

Grasping his arms he attempted to rub them to get some warmth back in his limbs. "Okay, Donny, time for you to wake up and fix the heat," Leo said to himself as he gritted his teeth.

Sighing, the turtle looked down only to see the vapor of his breath rise into the air slowly. As it climbed, the turtle watched it take form - a shape like some sort of bird with outstretched wings.

A red, glowing eye shined through the shimmering, vaporous breast of the bird and captivated Leo in horror as it stared him in the eyes.

Leo's jaw dropped as he looked in terror at this sight - it couldn't have been! Leo had gotten rid of him! How could it be him!?

There was an evil laugh over a screeching noise that filled the room and Leo immediately got up from his bed and tried to back away from the vapor, but it followed.

"Go away!" Leo hissed at the evil eye before he backed his shell into his weapons rack - nearly spilling over his decoration of swords.

There came a horrid laugh and the screeching noise increased, causing the turtle to cover his ears to try to get away from it.

TOGETHER...Leonardo...TOGETHER WE SHALL RULE THE WORLD...

"SHUT UP!!!" Leo yelled back at the voice as he tightly shut his eyes and covered his head with arms to block out the noise. He knew it was no use - the voice was inside of him!

The Dark is Rising - DO NOT RESIST!!!

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"Go away!" Leo gasped as he jolted to a sitting position in bed. He blinked and looked around as he attempted to stop taking short, quick breaths.

Shaking his head, Leonardo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and took a short glance around the room. Taking another look after that one, Leo sighed and threw the covers off of his legs.

The room was not cold like in the nightmare; it was actually quite comfortable for winter now that Don had built a second heater for the lair. Still, Leo found it hard to move out of his sitting position on the bed.

Glaring at his now bare legs, Leo couldn't stop thinking about the dream. Try as he might, it played over and over again in his brain like someone just couldn't get the VCR to play the tape past a certain part.

"Aku..." Leo said softly to himself. Aku - that sick, monstrous creature - that alien had burnt himself into Leonardo's mind and refused to leave. His brothers and father had helped Leo conquer his personal demon's manifested form, but there was nothing they could have done to stop the creature that had brought them to life.

It had been months now since Leo had last actually heard the monster in his mind, but then again, it had been quite some time since he last had a nightmare about Aku.

The fact that it was actually Aku in the dream disturbed Leo as well. He couldn't recall ever dreaming that it was Aku who had been in the dreams before - even if it was Aku who had created them to torture Leo. Usually it was Yin - that demon form of Leo's own darkness - that was in these dreams.

So why the sudden change? Why was Aku bothering him with this nightmare so long since the last?

Letting out a small grunt Leonardo placed his hands at the sides of his head and shook. "No - I don't care," he attempted to convince himself. "I'm not getting caught up in this stuff anymore!" he growled inwardly.

Getting fed up with his questioning mind; Leonardo pushed himself out of bed and headed over to the dresser. Unlike what had once been the norm, now the dresser's top was covered in random junk. Some books here, a mask there, scrolls on top of this, CDs on top of that.

Once before these things had all been neatly organized and placed into their individual drawers of the dresser, but now - ever since then - Leo could never get himself to remember to put things up.

Scooting some of the mess on top of another mess, Leo eventually found his wristbands and blue mask. He quickly slipped them over his body to their designated destinations and took a look in the mirror.

The turtle paused for a moment and looked into the it - his heart pausing its constant rhythm for a moment as he looked for his reflection and instead saw a black bird glaring at him from behind the glass. It cocked its head a bit and ruffled its feathers as it sat on the weapons rack. Looking at him, it opened its mouth.

Regaining control of his body's motion, Leo swung around quickly and looked at the weapons rack only to find no bird. He turned again to face the mirror, but the bird was gone.

"I'm losing it..." the turtle sighed as he rubbed his neck and shook his head. “This is... This is crazy..."

Shrugging this off, Leonardo continued his regular routine and put on his knee and elbow pads as well as his belt and then got his swords.

Not surprisingly, Leo found himself alone for the first three hours of his morning - Donny didn't usually get up to start working on his inventions until six. Donatello had at first tried to have conversation with Leo - mainly to figure out what he was doing awake so early in the morning - but found his brother intangible. Each time Don began trying to talk to Leo, the turtle attacked the practice dummy even harder.

Giving up, Don left.

Leo knew his brother was only attempting to help him, and he also knew that Don knew him well enough to guess that he had had a nightmare, but he couldn't. He just couldn't talk about it. Last time he did that he almost lost them - almost lost everything.

If he felt that anything had Aku's name on it, it was his duty and his alone to deal with it.

It took another three hours of Splinter and Don trying to get him to talk and urging him to eat something before everyone else in the house was completely up.

He gave everyone a good morning but that was all they were going to get out of him willingly before he went back to self training almost immediately afterwards. His stomach did growl every now and then, but he was used to it. He didn't need breakfast this morning nor would he be receiving it - even if Mikey 'tempted' him with scrambled eggs.

Leo began feeling his body moan at him. Six hours with little water, no food, and only three breaks at the end? What were you doing, Leonardo? We're not even at Splinter's practice yet!

As if that mattered. All Splinter had been doing to Leo is make sure he never came close to becoming frustrated, never getting hurt, and never slurring his words. Everyone thought that these were all indications of Leonardo's connection with Aku and his demon form. They also took this as a warning sign that Leo could snap under the pressure of his leadership and this 'impending doom' they thought of Aku as.

Perhaps they just didn't realize that by treating Leo like he could snap at any moment was actually making him more stressed out than before.

Sighing, the turtle lowered his katana and looked at the beaten practice dummy.

Apparently seeing he could get to Leo now, Raph quietly and supposedly casually approached his brother and gave a sly eye to the dummy. "Looks like ya took a chunk outta this guy," Raph said ever so coolly to his older brother.

Leo looked his ordinarily hotheaded brother over and wiped sweat off of his head again. "It's a dummy," Leo remarked rather snidely.

Raph gave Leo a look that yelled, 'Hey! I'm trying here!' before looking at the dummy again. "So...anything up?"

"What would be?" Leo questioned before sheathing his katana and heading towards the mats.

Raph saw what Leo was doing and quickly caught up with him before passing in front of him. "I dunno, any reason ya were beatin' on the dummy?"

Leo raised an eye ridge at his brother and folded his arms. "I might ask you the same thing," the turtle said stiffly. "Practice," he finally stated rather bluntly after receiving one of Raph's glares. "I was just practicing."

When Leonardo tried to press on, he found himself blocked yet again by Raph. "Why so early?" Raph questioned. "Usually even you have enough sense to not practice at five in the mornin'."

"Three," Leo corrected him before turning to head towards the pond - he didn't even care why he was heading there, he just wanted to be through with these questions.

However, once more, Leo found himself cut off by the forest green colored terrapin. "C'mon, Leo! Juss give me summtin' good to tell Master Splinter - ya know I'll get off yar back!" Raph sympathized. "Juss give me summtin' ta calm them down - I'll let ya work things out when ya feel like it."

Sighing, Leo nodded - Raph knew him well enough. They were very similar and Raph could understand why Leo would want to work these things out on his own.

Thinking, Leo walked over to the pond and looked into the water as if he could find his answers within its quiet waters. Raph began talking to him, but all was lost for Leo looked frightfully into the water and remembered he had not been to this spot since Aku had entangled himself into their home and drowned it in evil.

All was silent to Leo as he looked down into the pond's steady waters - the very waters Aku had used to escape with and yet to be seen again. All was stopped as shivers went down the turtle's shell and his eyes widened in a silent awe as his glance shifted to an area of the pond just left of his reflection's shoulder. There, beneath the ripples of water, stood a reddish eye glaring at him.

A black bird - the black bird - swooped down over his shoulder from what Leo could tell by his reflection. He felt a small prick on his shoulder as he watched the bird's reflection land on his reflection's left shoulder and block all view of the eye.

Remembering how the bird disappeared this morning, Leonardo did not dare look at it as he reached up to grab his katana and ever so slowly pull it out of his sheath.

"Leo?" Raph's voice finally came through clearly.

Leonardo turned around to his left and the prick on his shoulder vanished. He looked at Raph - a little stunned to find that he had been there the whole time until he recalled what had been happening before his 'vision'.

The red-clad turtle arched an eye ridge at Leo and then looked at how Leo still had a grasp of his katana. "What are ya doin'?" Raph questioned almost annoyed. "Were ya even listening ta me?"

Still in shock that what he had just seen was only a vision, Leo took his hand off his katana and began walking towards the stairs.

"Leo--!?" Raph growled angrily as he took a step to follow his brother, but Leo turned around and looked at Raph.

The sword bearing turtle slowly shook his head. "No... I... I don't know a single word of what you just said..." he admitted before studying Raph's response.

Raph was taken back by the response - not sure what to say to that. He took a step back and gave Leo a final glare before storming off towards the kitchen where everyone else was no doubt waiting on Raph to report on what he had found out about Leo.

Leo watched as Raph gave a solid punch to the practice dummy as he passed it and knocked the dummy and its stand into the opposing wall hard enough to separate them.

Sighing, Leo continued to his room. He needed to meditate on what was happening.

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Leonardo had no clue how long he had been in his room meditating. He had no visions the entire time he had been in his room. Because of this he thought the meditation helped and continued doing it.

Everything was surprisingly quiet in the room which was odd for Don was always hammering or drilling something, Raph was taking out his issues on his punching bag, and Mikey was always doing something loud and obnoxious. This was how things were - not even Aku had changed the normal rhythm of his brothers' lives - even if it changed his own.

With all being so peaceful, Leo wasn't too surprised at how easily it was for him to sense his master's presence climbing the stairs and walking across the hall to make his way into Leonardo's room.

Once the elderly rat had reached the doorway, Leo slowly opened his eyes and looked at his father and sensei.

Quietly standing up, Leo bowed to his father. "What do I owe the honor, Sensei?" Leo asked curiously. "I've meditated a long time and don't know the hour--"

"You have meditated long, my son," Splinter stated as he gave a smaller bow to Leonardo. "This is why I question you - you have meditated throughout the day. Surely you are hungry..."

It was true, Leo still had not had breakfast but the turtle shook his head all the same. "I don't usually eat lunch until after practice, Master Splinter," he replied softly.

"Then please go have your dinner," Splinter stated with an arch of his brows. "Your brothers are curious as to how you have managed to meditate so long - Michelangelo even suspects you were sleeping instead of this meditation."

Leonardo was shocked. "You... No one came to get me for practice?" Leo asked in horror.

"Donatello tells me you have been up much before five, Leonardo - and practicing for each minute since you have awaken," Splinter attempted to explain. "I feared, Leonardo, you would not have been in sync for your practice today since you have trained yourself much longer than what is the norm."

Leo looked down to his feet. There was a whole in his stomach - his practice? He missed his practice? How could they let him? How could he let himself? Surely they weren't telling the truth! He couldn't have possibly meditated for so long!

"Your brothers shall be leaving for a session on the roofs tonight," Splinter informed Leo, causing the turtle to look up once more. "They...hmm... They wish that you might instead spend some time with me and talk about what is happening with you Leonardo instead of going."

Leo glared back down to his feet. "You know..." he began but bit his tongue. “Yes, master..." Leonardo sighed before looking his master angrily in the eyes. "I will stay home if that's what they want - but there is nothing to talk about!" he almost raised his voice.

Splinter waited a moment before sighing and turning to leave. "As you wish, Leonardo..." Splinter stated softly once more before exiting.

Backing up a second, Leo found himself falling back onto his unmade bed. His arms outstretched and his breaths stiffened, the turtle shook his head before glaring at the ceiling.

Why was his family doing this to him? Treating him this way was making things WORSE! He wanted to be treated like everything was normal - even if he knew it wasn't.

"This isn't right..." Leo hissed at himself.

"Thirteen!"

The turtle immediately straightened up and found his heart pounding in his chest as he looked around for the source of the strange, miniature voice.

"What the shell?" Leo questioned before he suddenly felt a prick on his knee. Looking down he found himself gazing at a small black bird sitting on his knee. His eyes widened - it wasn't a reflection or an illusion this time! It was there! He was looking at it!

"What... What are you doing?" Leo asked in a quivering voice from his shaking.

The bird blinked and cocked its head at him. Was it even the source of the noise?

Suddenly, the bird opened its mouth and let out a strange call before repeating. "Thirteen!" it said in a feminine voice.

"Thirteen what?" Leo attempted to question - not daring to take his eyes off the bird.

It cocked its head in the opposite direction and blinked once more before opening its mouth again. "IT is near," it stated before ruffling its feathers.

"What's near!?" Leo asked angrily.

"Thirteen," the bird sighed as it shook his head before making eye contact again. "IT is near..."

"In what?" Leo asked again. "Thirteen days!? What's near? Thirteen what?"

The bird merely nodded before there was a call from the center of the lair.

"We're goin', Bro!" Mikey yelled from the center of the lair.

Leo looked up for only a moment as his brother called to him and then attempted to look back only to find the bird gone. He blinked and looked around the room again to find nothing.

"Thirteen... What's near?" he questioned the air around him.

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Turtlefreak121: Well, as we talk my head is exploding 'cause I'm getting my braces today and I have these overnight spacers in. "Quicker and easier - new faster spacers". Do you know what that really means? Normal spacers separate your teeth gradually over a week or so, right? Get you ready for braces, correct? Well, I'm such a genius I chose these new ones that do the same amount of work over ONE night! So I've got more teeth problems than I care to count for, but it's all good. I'm getting quicker braces, too, that knock off six months of me wearing them - which means I'll only need a mouth guard for one volleyball season! Yeah me!

Well, Please Review! I'm curious as to how many people read sequels.