This story happens after the events in Vengeance is Mine. The song lyrics are from Sisters of the Moon by Fleetwood Mac. This story came about from a challenge set by Novus Ordo Seclorum over at Stealthy Stories. Because Fleetwood Mac are the ultimate TMNT muse :) This is my first attempt at a songfic, so I hope it works.
Where are you going, Raphael?
Leo leaned on the edge of the roof and watched his brother in the alleyway below. Raphael stumbled out of the shadows, shaking his head as if he was dizzy. He hadn't been the same since they had failed to rescue Karai. Leo steeled himself against the stab of pain at the memory of Karai falling, the mutagen closing over her head. The deadly silver serpent who had spat venom into Raphael's face before fleeing into the night.
In the days afterward, Raphael had been so distant, so buried in his thoughts, not like his angry brother at all. Leo didn't fool himself that Raphael was upset about Karai. His feelings for their sister had always been clear.
Tonight Raphael had left the lair, drifted through the city with Leo on his heels. What was his destination? What called to him in the night? And now here they were in an old neighbourhood, frozen halfway between abandonment and redevelopment, the walls a kaleidoscope of tagger's marks, the ground littered with broken glass.
Raphael slid through a break in the wall and disappeared. Leo dropped lightly to the ground and followed him.
Intense silence
As she walked in the room
Her black robes trailing
Sister of the moon
Inside the ruined building, a break in the floor led to the sewers. Leo followed the splash of his brother's footsteps into the darkness. The floor beneath his feet sloped down, the texture changing from concrete to stone. Pale greenish light shone through a break in the wall ahead. Leo stepped through the break, into an old, old room. Stone walls curved into a roof overhead. At the far end of the room a set of stairs led down. There was no sign of his brother. Leo listened, but heard only the distant drip of water.
"Hello, Leonardo."
Leo drew his swords in one smooth motion. He knew that voice. "Karai?
She stepped out into the light and he gasped. Long black robes cloaked her body. Her human body.
"Karai! You're human again." He stared at her face, the one that haunted his dreams, the one he thought he might never see again. Hope leaped in his chest and he stepped forward. "How-"
Her laughter echoed off the dripping walls. Her tongue flicked out, serpentine, between long fangs, and then he noticed her eyes, the slit pupils, the green iris. "Not so human, Leo."
Hatred rose again for the Shredder, for what he had done to her, to her beauty. "I don't understand." He took a step toward her.
"When did you ever understand?" Her voice echoed around the room. She raised her hands, the robes sliding down her arms, her normal, human arms, bare of armour, beautiful in the night. "When did you ever see anything true in me? You painted me in your mind as you would wish me to be. Not as I am."
And a black widow spider makes
More sound than she
And black moons in those eyes of hers
Made more sense to me
Her body shuddered, twisted under the robes. Bile rose in his throat at the sight of the pale skin melting, muscles writhing beneath the skin. The robe fell from her shoulders to pool on the floor. And then she was the serpent, slender, agile, deadly.
She laughed at him. "Surprised, Leo?" The voice, hissing, so Karai and yet not. "I have joined you in the darkness. Another mutant freak to prey on this city of the damned."
He gripped his sword, swallowed. This was Karai, mutated. How twisted she had become. "Let me help you."
"Help yourself, first." She slid towards him, lightning fast. He slashed at her instinctively. She twisted away, opened her mouth and spat green venom at him. He put his hand up to shield his face. The venom coated his skin, sickly sweet, scent filling his nostrils. Idiot. He should have expected that. They circled, the hiss of her scales on stone, the pad of his feet. His skin tingled where the venom had touched it. He needed to hurry.
"Where is Raphael?"
Heavy persuasion
It was hard to breathe
She was dark at the top of the stairs
And she called to me
"You want your brother?" She slid off into the darkness. "Come to me." Her laughter floated down the stairs.
He spat the taste of her from his mouth, wiped at lips going numb. He must find his brother. Images filled his head, tugged at the core of him. Karai. On the roof with her. Fighting beside her. Fighting against her. Was this what had happened to Raphael? Had the venom curled into his soul like this? Leo shook it off. He must fight it, must work through it for Raphael's sake. His brother. How he would hate to be consumed like this, not in control of his thoughts. How could she do this to him?
And so I followed
As friends often do
I cared not for love nor money
And I think she knew
At the top of the stairs, moonlight shone through a crack in the stone, illuminating a long room. He shifted his grip on his katana. He felt good, light. Floating. He could do anything. He would bring them home. Save them both. His brother, and Karai. At the far end of the room shallow steps led up to a platform. Someone had torn the stone from the walls and fashioned a rough chair. No, not a chair. A throne. Like the Shredder's throne.
Leo's breath caught in his throat. Raphael lay slumped at the base of the throne.
Well, the people, they love her
And still they are the most cruel
She asked them, be my sister
Sister, sister of the moon
Figures crept out of the shadows, wrapped in black robes, the cloth whispering on the rough floor as they surrounded him. So many. He raised his swords, circling. But these weren't fighters. The faces under the hoods were just people, vacant eyed, men and women of the city.
"Here's your brother, Leo." Karai undulated out of the shadows near the throne. She raised her arms, shuddered, her body twisting back into her human shape.
The moonlight kissed her naked form, softened the hard muscles, hinted at curves that he had only dreamed about. Why was his heartbeat racing? He tried to gather his thoughts through the surge of desire and want that threatened to overwhelm him. The scent of her venom drowned him. He took a step toward her. To touch her. To feel her skin…
No. He shook his head, gripped his swords tighter. What was he doing? Raphael hadn't moved. Was he dead? "What have you done to him?"
Karai prodded Raphael with her toe. "I have conquered the beast." She laughed.
Raphael moaned, but didn't stir. He was alive, anyway. He was alive, and Leo would bring him home. Would bring them both home. The euphoria he felt was ebbing away, the energy, the fight, draining from his limbs.
Some call her sister of the moon
Some say, illusions are her game
They like to wrap her in velvet
Does anyone know her name?
The cloaked figures came up beside Karai, draped her naked form in robes of black velvet. She sat in the throne, rested her feet on Raphael's back.
"Come to me. You have always wanted this."
The whisper seemed to come from a long way away. He was on his knees. No. What was he doing? Raphael. He tried to lift his swords, but they were too heavy. The clang of them as they hit the floor was the tolling of bells, calling the devout home.
The figures around him parted, bowing. His vision blurred. A silver form slid toward him, scales rasping across the stone. The weight of her coils fell across his back, pushing the air from his lungs. And then her hands were upon him, the tiny snakes sinking their fangs into his flesh, the spurt of venom under his skin, burning sweet.
The touch of her breath on his cheek. "First your brothers, Leonardo." A shift of weight, then her breath on his neck. "Then our father. Then I will have my revenge on Oroku Saki." He tried to say no, tried to move, but his body would not respond.
"We will take this city together, Leonardo. And you will love me for what I am."
"Yes," he whispered. Yes. He could say yes, would say yes to her forever. The pain faded away. Pleasure surged down his spine. A reward. To follow her was right.
The weight of her on his back was gone. "Then stand up, my warrior."
His body hurried to obey. He rose, unsteady, his mind full of her silver beauty, his blood full of her venom, her taste, her love.
She smiled, reached out to to him with her silver serpent hands. The tiny heads brushed his cheek in a deadly caress.
"You have always wanted this."