A/N: This is a sequel to my fanfic The Darkness Within. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend doing so, otherwise this story won't make too much sense.
I know the title isn't that great... if I can come up with something better, I'll change it!
This is AU, like The Darkness Within, so some things will be different than the show. One thing you should know is that neither the turtles nor Karai know that Karai is actually Miwa, Splinter's daughter. Also, Karai is not mutated.
*This chapter takes place during Chapter 14 of The Darkness Within, but from a different POV.
I don't own TMNT.
Karai was sprawled on her comfy bed. Her blanket and pillow were soft and fuzzy. The comforting bed, as well as the peaceful, quiet atmosphere, should have put her to sleep and given her sweet dreams. But it only seemed to prevent that.
She was still breathing heavily, her eyes still wide open, as she tried to convince herself that she just had a nightmare. It wasn't real.
But it had felt too real.
The images were still in her head...
She couldn't move. She could only watch as Splinter pushed the Shredder, her father, off the edge of the cliff...
She couldn't move. She could only hear his screams, his screams that were too loud for her to bear...
She couldn't move. She could only look in panic as Splinter turned to her, his brown eyes filled with anger and vengeance...
She couldn't move. She could only feel the terror as the sword came right at her, right at her throat, its purpose to kill...
Karai shook her head to clear the images and thoughts out of her mind. No. The turtles' mutant rat father hadn't killed her dad, or herself. Instead, her father had killed him in revenge.
She knew the story: Back in Japan, Splinter - then Yoshi - leader of the Hamato clan; and her father, Saki, leader of the Foot clan; had been such good friends. Almost brothers.
When they became older, Saki met a women named Tang Shen. She was beautiful, with long, jet black hair and sweet dark brown eyes. It wasn't long till her fell in love with her and married her.
All would have been good, expect Yoshi had fallen for Shen, too. He hid his anger that Saki had Shen, not him, till Karai had been born. By then the anger had consumed him like a demon, turning his heart black and poisoning his mind with hatred. Only one thing was on his mind: revenge.
And so he started a fight between himself and Saki in Saki's house. They brutally lashed out at each other for hours, fighting and fighting.
In the fight, a candle tipped over, setting the house on fire. Shen tried to intervene and stop the fight, but Saki told her to flee. She tried to, but the fire consumed her.
By the time Saki and Yoshi found out, it had been too late.
Tang Shen was dead.
Yoshi fled, too scared and grieved to fight his "brother," while Saki mourned over the loss of his wife, holding her in his hands, giving her one last kiss.
The house was burning even more. Saki had no choice but to leave Shen and grab Karai, who had been crying the whole time. Karai had been stuck in a corner, and the flames were nearing her. Saki bravely grabbed her, whisking her away from the fire and out of the house. He had badly burnt his face in the scars were still there today.
Wanting to escape his past, Saki moved to America, where he was now, running the Foot clan like before. He renamed himself the "Shredder" and was almost never seen without his mask, armor, and gauntlets.
He had trained his daughter, Karai, to be the strong kunoichi she was now.
Karai sighed sadly as the story came to an end. She couldn't remember her mother at all. All she had was a black-and-white picture of Tang Shen holding her as a baby. Her father had also been in the picture, but Splinter had ripped it off, according to Saki.
She fumbled in her pocket to get the picture that she always carried around with her. She carefully unfolded it, taking it in. Looking at the small baby wrapped up in a blanket - that's me. Looking at the beautiful lady, her mom, with her jet black hair and dark but twinkling eyes. Karai slowly traced her finger around Shen's figure. My mother.
She felt grief overcome her, wrapping her tight. The mother she never knew, the mother she never had a chance to know, was gone, and would never be back.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
Never had she felt so lonely before.
Yes, Karai had a father. She knew he loved her.
But Saki never embraced her, never said that he loved her, never listened to her.
She was only allowed to do what her father permitted, or else she'd be punished. She'd received innumerable scars that way. Scars she hid from everyone else, but she knew were still there.
It was through these scars that Karai had developed a fear of the Shredder.
Yes, he was her father... but weren't fathers supposed to hug you when you needed it? Or at least say that they loved you? Or, at the bare minimum, listen to you when you needed to talk?
She needed to talk. Right now.
She needed to talk about her grief, her loneliness, her desire for a true, loving family.
But she had no one to talk to.
And suddenly the tears gushed out, dripping down her cheeks, landing on the soft bed beneath her.
Never had she felt so lonely before.
After crying for a few minutes, after writing down everything in her diary because she had no one to talk to, after letting it all out, Karai got up and went to the kitchen to fix herself some jasmine tea. It had a sweet smell and a unique flavor that always calmed her down.
As the tea was brewing, she looked at the monitor in the kitchen out of habit. All the rooms in the Foot Headquarters had security monitors to ensure that no trespassers were about.
Two big, red words were flashing across the screen: SECURITY ALERT.
Probably just another rat, Karai thought. A lot of rats and mice had been intruding the lair lately, setting off the security alarms.
The kunoichi looked at the details of the security alert. Trap #43 has been set off.
Karai frowned. That was one of the booby traps near the Shredder's room.
She clicked on the button to view the surveillance cameras near the area, but a message popped up: Error 108: Camera not detected. Please make sure that the camera is undamaged and connected to the security system, then click 'retry.'
Karai's frown deepened. This had only happened a couple times before, months ago, due to the turtles...
They weren't back from wherever they'd gone... were they?
There had been no trace of the turtles since they'd fled NYC, but they could be back now...
Karai's eyes widened in worry as she realized what they could be back for: finishing her father, in revenge of Splinter's death.
Without wasting a second, she ran to her father's room, ignoring the fact that he was probably okay. After all, he'd finished off Splinter, and Splinter was a better ninja master than all the turtles combined.
But still, a security alarm had gone off, and she wasn't going to let that go by unnoticed.
She reached the hallway leading to Saki's room. It was dark and slightly creepy, but she knew her way around.
"Father?" she breathlessly called into the darkness.
She was met with silence.
"Forgive me, father," she whispered as she went into his room without permission, something she was never supposed to do. But this was an emergency, and rules could be broken in emergencies, right?
A quick glance told her the room was empty. She looked around for clues, but the only one she received was that the security cameras weren't working on her dad's monitor, either.
Karai backed out of the room, her eyes searching for Saki. Where could he be?
She checked every hallway, every corner, all the dead ends. She was met with nothing.
Not willing to give up, but needing a break, she leaned against a wall. She let out a smalls scream as the wall fell back, revealing a hidden room.
"What the...?"
Karai carefully ventured into the room, hands on her swords, waiting for something to come out and attack her. When nothing happened, she continued to search.
Something gleamed in the far right corner caught her eye, and she slowly, stealthily made her way to it.
What she saw stopped her in her tracks.
Her father, the Shredder, was lying in a bloody heap on the ground. He wasn't wearing his armor or gauntlets, revealing his scarred face and body, now bloodied and bruised. Bright, crimson blood was still oozing out from his chest, which had three holes: a puncture from a sai.
"Noooo, father!"
Her hands traveled up to his neck to find a pulse. She held her breath, trying to find one.
She felt nothing.
"NOOOOOO! FATHER!"
She screamed out of agony and grief, tears freely dripping down her face and splattering onto Saki's corpse.
She only stopped when she felt something fall out of her pocket. She grabbed it, then realized it was the picture of her and her mother.
She looked at it through her tears... but it only made her cry harder.
Her father had always been gone from the picture...
...but now he was truly gone.
She had no family.
She was truly alone.
