Dragon Without Eyes
by KC
Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT.
Other info: This was written for the turtlecest "hundred" contest.
He can't see more than a few feet through the rain. Storm clouds block the moon as water cascades over the rooftops and fills the air with an unending roar. Lightning flashes within the clouds and he knows that swords are a terrible liability on the rooftop.
No choice. He must take the risk.
Impossible to know why Karai chose this night to attack. He does not wonder if she knows about him and Raphael, does not wonder if she has watched their trysts within New York's shadows or if she knows that Raphael is more than a brother to him now. His focus tightens on Karai with her sword drawn and his unconscious brother at her feet.
She says something that he doesn't hear over the rain, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't care what she says. Only her eyes matter. Karai always telegraphs every move with her eyes, and all he cares about is edging close enough to strike before her sword swings down on Raphael.
The city's flickering neon signs are all he has to see her by. Bathed in garish red, she looks like a demon from hell with gleaming eyes and claws like swords. Her suit glimmers like wet scales. Every insult and accusation is a snake's hiss. Karai is poison and she stands poised to strike.
Leonardo refuses to move, standing like a statue. The second she moves he will rush forward, his own claws aimed at her chest. The second her eyes tell him that she will press her attack, he will advance like part of the storm and tear her to pieces. But until she does, he is stone, his breath still, his heart waiting for its next beat. All that moves are his thoughts, and they race like lightning.
Raphael's startled gasp cut short and the sound as he sank from Karai's first strike replay in his ears over and over several times. With a struggle, Leonardo pushes them from his mind. No recriminations, no self-doubt, not now. If he is not calm he could lose his brother forever. Tonight they will arrive home soaked and tending Raphael's headache while Leonardo holds his sibling with all the relief and fear that he would not let himself feel in this moment. But that is later to come. Calm, now he must be as calm as stone.
Images from his memories fill his mind, stories and riddles meant to illuminate swordplay. Carp swimming calm in a storm-swelled river and carp that turn into dragons. Disgraced dragons who turn into snakes and snakes crushed underfoot by dragons. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago a perfectly painted dragon came to life, breaking free of its stone wall and soaring into the clouds when the painter gave it eyes.
Leonardo stands as still as a painting, waiting for Karai to give him eyes.