Aspect Elemental: By Amanda Flowers

It was like a human Technodrome.

Michaelangelo muttered in awe; Leonardo glared in suspicion.

   "Don't be afraid," the Technodrome-creature assured them.

   "We want some answers!" Leo exclaimed.

   "Why did the Elementals have to die?" Donatello demanded.

   "Why any of this?" Raphael asked.

   "Answers will come, in time," the Elemental explained evenly. "I am called Talloc." He looked down at Shredder, and a kind of indescribable sadness filled that single eye. "It...is a pity." He put a hand on the Shredder's shoulder, and the human's breath became stronger. The burns on his skin began to heal.

   "What are you doing?" Leonardo protested.

Shredder's skin became smooth and whole, and the tyrant slept the sleep of a child. Talloc rose to his feet, towering above the turtles. "It is a hard story..."

   "No kidding, dude," Michaelangelo irreverently interjected.

   "It is not his fault," Talloc said, gesturing below him. "He, also, was tested. However, his test was much unlike yours. We knew he had..." Talloc's voice died a moment; "...great potential. But we were afraid that he would let greed overcome him. So we designed the test.

   "We allowed him just one chance, and he failed. I wanted to give him another try, but... Four possibilities; each time, the same result."

   "So we did all this just to train him?" Leonardo asked. "Four beings died so you could train him?!"

   "You mean he really killed them?" Michaelangelo cried.

Talloc held up his hand, silencing the turtles. "I can explain the test. Has it occurred to you why the Elements have not perished, though the Elementals have?"

   "Because we have the real power," Donatello stated, softly.

Talloc nodded. "When you were tested, their powers were transferred to you. You had to be tested in order to receive them, and tested again in order to be trusted with them."

The Elemental halted, looking steadily at Leonardo. "Do you have the item I made for Aquaria? I sense it on you."

Leonardo blinked. The item...?

The necklace! He had nearly forgotten! The silver chain must belong to the Metal Elemental. He pulled it from his belt, grateful that he had kept it with him, and handed it to Talloc.

Talloc nodded, taking the necklace away. He held a single dragon between his thumb and forefinger, and peeled it away from the other three as if it were melted into liquid. He handed the dragon, deceptively solid, to Leonardo. "Give it your power now."

Leonardo stared a moment at the silver creature, then concentrated on it. At first, he gave it only a little strength, as if he could heal it with his mind. But as he concentrated on the beast he felt huge amounts of power flowing into it, like water into a sponge. The trinket began to glow with a blue light, and grew cold to the touch. It started to expand, and, Leonardo, feeling completely drained, set it on the floor.

The metal dragon, bathed in blue light, continued to grow. The silver skin turned green; the creature rose up onto two legs; the body became female, and almost human. Blue eyes sparkled like pools, and the figure capped itself off finally with long dark hair as the glow died away.

Leonardo's eyes widened. "Aquaria?"

The Water Elemental smiled, her eyes sparkling. "Thank you," she answered softly, "for all that you've done."

Talloc peeled another dragon off the silver chain, handing it to Raphael.

   "I understand!" Leonardo declared, joyfully. "You gave us your powers, so you lived on...in us!"

Aquaria nodded as Talloc presented Michaelangelo and Donatello with dragons of their own. Each turtle gave all of his newfound powers to the small creature in his hands, and with flashes of purple and gold, the Earth and Wind Elementals appeared.

Michaelangelo wrapped his arms tight around Viento in a warm hug. Donatello blinked, then decided to simply shake hands.

Raphael smiled at his little dragon. "It's a Baby Helion!" Both reluctant and relieved, he concentrated all his fire into the creature, and watched it stretch into the Elemental of Fire.

   "Finally!" Helion muttered, hiding his pleasure at being returned to physical form.

Aquaria smiled at the others, grateful to be whole once again. "We wanted you to be our successors," she explained to the turtles. "There comes a time when power must be passed on."

   "But no mortal is pure enough in spirit to be trusted with that much power," Donatello inferred. "Shredder proved that."

   "Not so." Aquaria shook her head. "To assure that you are ready, we test you first."

   "And now we are Elementals?" Leonardo asked, awed.

Viento laughed. "Not yet, young one. That will be another day...another story."

   "Talloc," Donatello asked, "will you test another person to be your successor?"

The single-eyed face nodded. "I'm afraid so. Though Saki has much potential, he simply cannot be trusted with an Elemental's power."

   "But who?" Don questioned.

   "That I do not know."

The turtles were all too happy to suggest. "How about Master Splinter?" Leonardo wondered.

   "Or April?" suggested Raph.

The Elementals all seemed to find this funny; the turtles stood dumbly.

Aquaria caught a glance of the smile on Helion's face, and he quickly covered it. "Well...I suppose your turtles are not so bad after all."

Raphael felt a little pride at that statement.

But Aquaria now noticed a new look in Helion's eyes: one of disdain. Her spirits fell; she glanced quickly away. "I...should show you..." she muttered.

Without further warning, Aquaria's skin began to shimmer and her height increase. Her legs fused into one liquidy form, and her hair turned to pure water. Leonardo recognized the shape: the false Elemental he had destroyed in the Trial.

   "That...was you?" Leo stammered.

Aquaria became suddenly sad; her voice softened, but her eyes were that same, cool blue. "We have many forms, as Elementals." She sighed. "When I saw you face-to-face, I changed my reasoning."

Leonardo nodded, understanding, but still confused. The turtle form that she had chosen was one he was a bit more comfortable talking to, but why the subterfuge--why the change of heart? Was it because Aquaria was trying to lure him...?

Or something else?

   "Was the Rock Soldier you, as well?" Donatello asked Elterram.

   "No," answered the Elemental. "He is my ally, and personal guard."

Donatello accepted the explanation.

   "So," Leonardo concluded, changing the subject, "we didn't so much succeed in the second part of the Trial, but Shredder failed."

   "On the contrary!" supplied Elterram. He looked to Donatello. "You first passed your test when you accepted the weapon from me. You second passed your test when you questioned if mortals should be allowed to own such power."

   "The same goes for all of you," Aquaria added.

   "But, he is right," Viento concluded. "Mortals do not own this power. It must wait."

   "Then, someday we turn into Elementals, too, right?" Raphael asked.

   "Yeah, teach us how to do it!" Michaelangelo said, excited.

   "Not yet," Helion protested to the others. "They are still too headstrong. Too new."

   "Agreed," Aquaria muttered. One of the few times she had agreed with Fire...one of the only times she ever would.

She reached out to Talloc, taking the leftover pearl from the dragon necklace into her hand. She looked to Leonardo. "I am undine," she explained, softly. "Would that I were not, I..."

A look from Talloc's single, judgmental eye cut her off.

   "What? Undine?" Leonardo asked.

   "Nothing." She suddenly halted. "Sleep now. I'm afraid when you awaken, you'll remember none of this."

   "But..." Donatello began to protest, but he dropped down to his knees.

   "Wait...hold on! There's stuff I wanna remember from all this!" Michaelangelo complained, leaning himself against the wall as his strength ebbed away.

   "This is the way it was done with Elementals before us," Viento explained, apologetically. "The way it is always done."

   "Times...change..." Michaelangelo attempted to argue, but fell silent.

Five Elementals stood in the metal room, above five sleeping mortals.

Aquaria managed a smile. "Imagine...suggesting their allies to us. If only they knew..."

Talloc closed the great eye upon his face, resolving it again into a featureless shape, then into something silver and very vaguely human. "Yes. Coincidental." April O'Neil, whom one had mentioned, was currently favored by the Elemental of Light. "Darkness is testing that other woman," Talloc noted.

Aquaria nodded; she knew of the one whom Talloc meant. One her own charge remained attached to, but one that would cause her downfall in the blink of an eye...

Or the utterance of a word.

The Water Elemental bent down next to her successor-to-be. Her heart tore just to look at him. I am undine, her mind resolved, and an undine can never, ever, fall in... She didn't even finish the thought, lest Eternity be watching her, but placed the pearl--the jewel of her realm--into the limp fist of the young turtle. "Sleep now," she softly muttered. "And forget, though I cannot."

Morning.

Raphael forced his eyes open, reluctantly letting in the light. Then he rolled over, desperate for a few more minutes of sleep.

Donatello woke next. "Guys, I just had the weirdest dream!" he exclaimed. "There was this room, and..."

He stopped. What had that been about?

   "No, never mind...it's gone now."

His reward for the information came from Raph, in the form of a pillow thrown in his face.

Leonardo sat up, yawning once. "Good morning, everyone! Time to..."

He suddenly stopped, feeling strange.

   "What's up?" Michaelangelo asked, slipping out of sleep and looking over to Leo in puzzlement.

Leonardo looked down to his hand, and discovered he had his grip locked tight around something that had certainly not been there when he fell asleep. It was a large, white, flawless pearl.