Friday was Remembrance day.
It fell on a bad time this year (every time was bad as of late). The Krang were advancing on the West side, the Foot were attempting to take a rebel camp near the ocean, and Karai was stretched thin as it was. If she was being realistic, there was no time for remembrance day this year. There was a civil war to deal with, an alien invasion, a dystopia of a city to try to manage. If she was being logical, it would be best to cancel. Remembrance day could wait another week.
Karai had never been logical when it came to matters of family.
She stood in the small room in the back of the compound, taking care to light the candles that sat on the corner of the shrine. Using matches was wasteful, she knew that, but this seemed important enough to let her concerns of rationing aside. The shrine was small, built out of concrete blocks and planks of wood. It wasn't a great display, God it was outright pathetic, but with their limited supplies, it was all they could do. The wood was well shined, reflecting the bases of the drawings it held.
Karai lit the first candle and lifted it up. She could remember when the picture frames on the shrine used to hold actual pictures. Good ones, too. Ones taken when her brothers were most happy. There had been one of Mikey napping on the fresh grass at the farm, there'd been another of Donnie holding up an online degree with a huge grin on her face. The ones with Raph and Leo had been taken the same day, the first of Raph holding up a freshly knitted blue sweater with a smug expression, the second of Leo wearing that exact same sweater. She used to adore those photos, for all the pain they brought her. They reminded her that, for at least a little while, her brother's were happy.
Then the Shredder had found their base. He'd burnt the thing to the ground, photos included. Karai had never hated her adoptive father more.
That was two years ago. In the place of the photos were drawings, recreations of each of her brothers done by April's were nice and accurate, almost like photos, but they lacked the same emotion the previous displays had.
She snapped out of her trance by the light sensation of pain on her fingers. She looked down to find the hot wax had dripped right over her knuckles. She was gripping the candle far too hard. Karai loosened her grip and went back to work lighting each of the candles. Soon enough all of them were lit, tiny specks of flame illuminating each of the drawings of her younger siblings.
"Sorry we're late." The door opened with a slam that Casey Jones likely had trademarked. All four of the candles blew out at once from the sudden brush of air, including the one in Karai's hand.
"Jones," she said, voice low. Casey hadn't even noticed his mistake yet. The now 20 year old dressed almost the same as he used to, hockey mask and all. The only difference was that his clothes were now made of kevlar. The hockey mask was hanging off his belt, along with the white domino that he usually wore underneath it.
"Look there were some guys on 5th and…" he cut off noticing the scene in front of him. "Oh shit. Oh man."
"You need to be more careful, Casey," April said, pushing her way past him. She was dressed in her kunoich clothes, which were almost identical to Karai's except for the orange face mask. Said mask was pulled down now, resting around April's neck, along with April's yellow domino mask. April walked up to the shrine and closed her eyes for a second. After a second, flame bloomed on each of the wicks, coming back to life with a small pop. April opened her eyes and smiled at the display.
"I didn't know you could do that," Karai said. April just shrugged.
"It's a work in progress. Sometimes it just causes a bunch of sparks to go flying." She sat down on the floor next to Karai and gestured to Casey to join her. Soon enough they were all seated in front of the shrine. April put her hand on Karai's shoulder.
"I talked to Splinter. He's not coming. I'm sorry."
Karai tried to ignore the twang of disappointment. Her father had never shown up for a Remembrance day ever since Karai started them. He refused to mourn sons who weren't dead, was his explanation. Karai had tried to convince him otherwise, but she'd never had any success.
Karai didn't want to believe her brother's were dead. But they had been missing for three years now. Vanished in the middle of the night with no trace to track (Not that they didn't try looking anyway) If she was wrong, and they were alive, she would beg for their forgiveness on the day they came back to her. Apologize that she ever thought them lost. But if she was right…
Well, the dead shouldn't be forgotten. Especially in times like these.
"It's fine." It wasn't. "Let's do this."
Remembrance day was a very literal title for the event. For the next hour that followed, they talked, talked to the pictures on the mantel about old times and new. Talked to them like they were actually there. They made sure to talk about each of the brothers both together and apart. Karai thanked Raph's picture for teaching her to knit despite that fact she was an irate student. Casey told a story about Mikey being the best skater he'd ever seen. April recalled a time where Leo and her played Skyrim for over 4 hours straight and fell asleep on the floor. Karai asked Don to forgive himself for taking longer than he would have liked to cure her; he'd done it and that was all that mattered to Karai.
At the end of the hour, they were all emotionally drained. April and Casey helped her put out the candles, taking care to not drip wax on the alter. They left shortly after, hiding their tears under masks and anger. They had patrol to go on, evil to fight. Karai did to. But she had something else to say first.
She got into a bow in front of the altar and closed her eyes. It was easy to picture her mother, after so many years of staring at her photo. She felt her eyes prick with another fresh batch of tears but ignored them.
"Mother," she whispered. "Take care of them for me. And for father."
She kept still for a few more seconds before getting back up. She wiped the tears from her eyes easily enough and then reached into her pocket for her black mask. It had been the first gift her brother's had given her, after the cure.
"We're family!" Mikey had said, holding the mask out with barely contained excitement. "You should match!"
She'd treasured it ever since.
She placed the mask over her eyes and tied it in a firm knot. It smelled like smoke after all these years, no trace of the lair she used to call home. She reached for her own face mask and pulled that up as well.
Her brothers were gone. But the Hamato clan would endure. They had to.
With that thought, she left the room, leaving the altar behind her.