Numbers Don't Lie
Rated K+
Disclaimer: I never said that they were mine. But I can dream can't I?
Author's note: This is the second Don story I have written in about twenty four hours. I swear Don is sending out vicious plot bunnies after me and he best lay off. Anyway this is based off the original Mirage comics and a discrepancy I found concerning the story Splinter tells his sons about the origin story. If you haven't read the original comic it can be found at the official TMNT website for reading. Ramica.
Donatello sat at a desk in his room, working out some figures on a pad of paper. The numbers didn't add up, no matter how he tried to juggle it , or work things out so it would reach the logical conclusion, it refused to work or submit. Quite simply something was missing from this equation and it frustrated him.
Sure, he could totally ignore one part of the equation, and it all fit together so nicely, the way numbers should. It fit like interlocking puzzle pieces the right part matching just one other part so that when it was complete, one was provided with something on a grander scale then what one had been working on to that point.
Yet Don could not ignore that one art of the equation, that little bit that threw everything else out the window. Besides to disregard it would be almost impossible, considering what their own father, who had raised and trained them for so many years, had asked them to do on this night. The numbers and their Master's request was connected and the lives of he and his brothers were on the line, so it was necessary to Don, that these numbers add up. He didn't want to possible throw his life away on an error.
The numbers could not be neglected.
Yet using the numbers they had been given, well they just didn't work.
Splinter had told them that for thirteen years he had trained them, and Don was aware that they had been training for many years, he couldn't recall exactly when it started but he knew he and his brothers had been training a better part of their lives. Splinter had also said that the story started Twenty years ago in Japan, when his Master and Shen were forced to flee upon the death of Oroku Nagi. He had informed them on a night nearly fifteen years ago Saki, Nagi's brother made his move and killed Shen and Yoshi, leaving Splinter to fend for himself.
Splinter had found them in the ooze and in a year they had grown to their current size, when they started talking and walking upright he began to train them and gave them names.
Don had no problem with that. That was the part of the equation that worked, five years after fleeing Japan Saki got revenge. A little after one year of their mutating they began training and had done so for thirteen years. It all added up it made sense, the way numbers should.
But there was the other part of the story where Splinter had said Saki had been but seven years old, and then at the age of eighteen had been sent to the United States to head the New York branch of the Foot, he waited a year before attacking, so Saki would have been nineteen when he killed Yoshi and Shen. If Saki had been seven then he waited twelve years to kill Yoshi. Twelve off of twenty left a matter of eight years for Splinter to find the turtles seven years for training and that meant they ought to be younger.
Somewhere, somehow the numbers they had been given were wrong. Perhaps, Splinter had made a mistake in the years, had forgotten something or had just guessed at Saki's age when Nagi died. Don figured there had to be a reason for this mix up, and this was something that was bothering him to the point he could not excuse it, or push it to one side.
If it wasn't for the fact that tonight they were supposed to do the one thing, that Splinter had requested of them when he had told them the story Don would not allow this one error to get under his shell as it had. But Don knew what Splinter had asked them could change not only his life, but the life of his brothers and it could change their lives for years to come, therefore it was of utmost importance that he and his brothers knew the facts, all of the facts, to insure they would truly be doing what was honourable.
Don stood up and picked up his bo staff, securing his weapon on his back as he left his room in search of his father.
He found the aged rat, sitting quietly in meditation in the dojo.
Donatello shifted uneasily, he had no real desire to disturb his Master, and yet at the same time, he knew that he had no real choice, for his own peace of mind he had to. Though he wasn't quite sure what he was going say so he hesitated.
Splinter opened his eyes and glanced toward the turtle who stood in the door way " You wish to speak with me Donatello."
It was more of a statement then question.
" Hai Sensei," Don acknowledged bowing before entering the dojo, then bowing even lower to the Ninja Master before sitting down in a lotus position across from Splinter, " I was wondering about the events that transpired before our origin, based on what you told us about Yoshi, Shen and Saki," Don paused, " I was curious on the fact of how you knew what Oroku Saki was doing back in Japan, when you were all ready here with Yoshi and Shen."
Don felt that by bringing things up this way, it would not be an out right accusation.
Splinter nodded, he had expected Donatello to have some questions, the boy was the most inquisitive of the four. " Nagi often spoke of his younger brother. How much Saki admired him and longed to be so like his older brother. It is understandable that the boy would be devastated upon knowing his brother had been killed. The Foot Clan knew about the rivalry and when they found Nagi dead and no sign of Shen or Yoshi, then they knew that Yoshi had dishonoured the clan by killing Nagi," Splinter explained patiently. He bowed his head and his voice was full of sorrow, as if the words he spoke, as well as the memory they evicted still pained him greatly.
" Years later when Shen and Yoshi were murdered. I had no real knowledge of who did it or why, but I did recognize the moves he used. I often dwelt on that the following days as I tried to ease my grief while struggling to survive. I learned that the Foot Clan existed here too, and that I heard tell of the leader of the Foot, called Oroku Saki, who had been leading the Foot clan to greater heights with each crime they participated in, and that Saki had all ready been leading the clan for a year before he killed those I loved." Splinter declared.
Don scowled, his brow furrowed in concentration.
Splinter glanced up into his son's eyes " Something troubles you yet my son," Splinter looked deep into Don's eyes.
" Yes Master, are you saying that Saki was nineteen when you found us?"
" Yes, my son he was. He had been molded into a force to be reckoned with, though young he had obviously proven himself to become the leader of the clan here" Splinter stated in a matter of fact way.
" Which means now he should be thirty three years old." Don said.
" Exactly so my son, and most of his life Saki was consumed by his drive and desire to get back at Yoshi for murdering Nagi, when all Yoshi had done, was protect Shen from Nagi's rage." Splinter confirmed.
" But you said this story started twenty years ago and that Saki was seven when Nagi died." Don blurted out doing his best to keep any accusation from his tone.
" It did my Son," Splinter insisted firmly, " Those were good years in Japan." Splinter sighed and his whiskers twitched slightly.
"But there is a problem in there with those numbers, you must have made an..." Don paused, he didn't want to say his father wasn't totally perfect. Don was old enough, and wise enough to know everyone made mistakes but to just out and say his father wrong just didn't seem right to him either, " A slight error." He continued.
" There is no error Donatello, I was there, I remember those years well, they are etched clearly in my mind. " Splinter smiled, and his dark eyes shone, " I may be old my son, but I have not lost my memory as of yet. There are some things, good or bad that one can never totally forget" Splinter assured him with a great deal of conviction, " They stay with you. Just as those yeas in Japan, Yoshi's death and finding you, with your brothers, have stayed with me."
Don nodded and bowed " I understand now Master, I guess that is why you asked us to do this deed?" Don pressed.
Splinter nodded, " I might not have the right to ask it my son, but I do wish that honour be restored to Yoshi."
" You know we are honoured to do it, and we wish to honour Yoshi and Shen as well." Don vowed as he stood up, " Thank you Sensei, you have helped clear that up."
"I am here for you my son, and I am glad that I was able to help you with this," Splinter answered solemnly.
Don returned to his room and stared at the numbers scribbled on the pad of paper. Numbers in his experience didn't lie.
He did not believe that his father was lying either, at least not intentionally, and yet his Master had been most insistent about the time frame.
Yes, age could play tricks on the mind. But it was not the only thing that could deceive. Anger and hatred had their own way of twisting things. Take for example two people one who is angry and say or do something around that person and they might perceive it as an attack on their well being. Yet say or do the exact same thing to a person who was calm and they would respond in a totally different way.
Splinter's words 'Some things you never forget. Some things stay with you' . Echoed in Don's mind.
He was sure that these events had happened pretty much as Splinter had said, it was just the time frame that confused him, and yet in questioning his father about the possible error in numbers the aged rodent had slipped up in something else. Those words were a key to something else.
Saki might have been devastated on losing his brother, just as Splinter himself had been crushed on the night Yoshi and Shen were killed. The Foot had taken Saki turning him into a force to be reckoned with, and sent this young boy out to lead the Foot in a foreign country. But the United States was a large country how had Saki known that he would find Yoshi and Shen there? Did it take Saki that one year to use all available resources into finding where Yoshi lived?
Then there was Master Splinter, now without the family he knew finding and adopting them, and training his four sons into weapons, to defend themselves...or had he always planned on using them to be used against Saki.
'And where will this end?' Don asked himself.
There were too many parallels, between Splinter's and Saki's own life to be mere coincidence. The numbers Splinter had given them were all wrong, numbers didn't lie. This was a conundrum of epic proportion.
Don was afraid of the outcome, and he wanted to tell his brothers of what he had learned but he knew without a doubt how each would react. Mike would shrug and say, " What's the big deal?" Raph knew a fight was coming, and as long as he got a good one he'd be happy. While Leo did his best to follow in Splinter's foot steps to emulate their Master, and he had taken very strongly to the code of honour, of what was right. Leo had assured Splinter that this was a small deed to do for him.
No, Leo would not see, or ever accept that Splinter might have asked them to do this for the wrong reasons.
Splinter might want honour and justice brought to Saki, it might even bring a sense of closure over Yoshi's death, and Saki sounded like the sort of person who did need to be stopped, any of those were the right reasons. But Don feared their mentor had asked them to do this deed for reasons of anger and revenge alone.
Splinter's hatred of his bitter foe, had festered for years, and in that time things could have become a bit distorted in Splinter's mind, changing certain things in the passing of time that the rat might view as the truth so giving him all the conviction and sincerity that was needed, and all that time thinking of how to get vengeance against the one who had hurt him the most.
Don knew in his heart, that was the real reason they were going to fight this night, they would be their father's weapon, feeling that they had every right to act in this fashion, and in doing so they might be starting some thing that they could never finish; even if Saki were to die this very night, the repercussions could go on for years to come.
There was a knock at his door "Don it's time to go."
Don bowed his head, he wished for once he could have ignored the numbers for then he could believe as his brothers did, that he was doing this for the right reasons. Instead now because of that niggling feeling that something wasn't right in those numbers he knew a cold and bitter truth that he'd rather reject, because it didn't really seem to have a part in the being he knew as his father. But the numbers he had heard didn't make sense and he knew it right away, and he hoped by putting it on paper he could see that he was wrong.
"Don?" Leo persisted from the other side of the door.
"Coming" Don replied with a heavy sigh.
His Sensei wasn't perfect, he was only human and this truth was as cold as the bitter doubts and uncertainties that filled him as he stepped out side of his bedroom to join his brothers. No, his Master wasn't infallible anymore then those columns of numbers could make sense. Don followed after his brothers moving silently, not because it was required of him. Simply because he was lost in his own thoughts as he traipsed off to face his destiny.
He alone among his brothers knew, that this was not just to fight Saki- the Shredder- this was a battle, that win or lose, would solve nothing in the grand scheme of things for this was a fight no one could really win. For only a battle for revenge.
The End