Theia

Ch 1- Collision Course

Four and a half billion years ago, Theia and Gaia were forced together. Creating a ball of liquid fire we have named earth. I am Theia.

"Anyone can be a super hero. You don't have to be a rich company CEO with a playboy reputation to have a mask, a suit, and alter-ego nightlife." I grunted and jabbed the air with my fist.

"Please, Thay, live a little. There's more to life than beating the shit out of every rude-ass punk and no-good pick-pocketer on the streets of Brooklyn."

"Aw yeah? What else is there?"

Gaia rolled her eyes at me. "Maybe if you're lucky enough to live that long, you'll find out for yourself."

I scoffed.

"Luck's got nothing to do it with big-sis. I got this whole life thing down!"

Her bell-like laughter echoed off the wood-paneled walls of my nearly closet-sized Brooklyn room. I smiled too, foolishly allowing my focus to drop. Gaiga, like the annoyingly-perfect-at-everything sister that she is, blindsided me. I grimaced as she laughed again, knowing that I was expertly pinned to the floor.

"Get off of me, college brat. Freshman fifteen already setting in, I see."

"Why you little-!" she growled and tugged at my hair.

Chuckling evilly, I retaliated and we began to roll across the tight space. Luckily Mom and Dad had gone for the day and there was no one around to spoil our fun.

"Take it back!"

"What if I won't?" I smiled.

"Then I'll make you take it back."

"Good luck with that."

"Luck's got nothing to do with it."

"That's my line!"

"Too bad." We ended up in the corner, and she wrapped me in a headlock.

I huffed and hung my head in defeat. Gaia kept me in the hold a few moments longer. "Look, I'm not trying to tell you that you have to go to college because it's going to make you into something. Mom and Dad do that enough. I just—wanted to tell you," she grabbed my hands and looked me in the eyes, "It's a big world out there. Don't ignore the possibilities. They really are endless."

"Okay, okay, you done preaching now? Geez."

"I just want you to think about it. There's more out there than sports and fighting criminals all the time. Promise me you will never lose sight of that."

"I don't see any reason why I should."

"Promise me or I'll tell Mom and Dad that you aren't planning to go to college."

I glared. "They'll lecture me for hours on the values of higher education."

"You know I'll do it."

"Shit." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I promise."

"There's no rush, either. No major life decisions for a couple more years, anyway, eh, lil' sis?" She ruffled my hair.

I blew it out of my face and glowered at her.

"It's only one year and ten months till I graduate, two years makes it sound so long."

"Be patient. It will go faster than you think." She smiled. Her phone buzzed and she looked down. "Speaking of fast, you better grab your stuff and run to school or you'll be late."

"Aw, c'mon, who do you think you are? Mom?"

Gaia frowned.

"Besides, with all the alien activity most kids haven't been going to school anyways. They say it isn't safe."

"Who?"

"People."

She threw a pillow at my head. "Get to school, numbnut!"

"Fine, dweeb, I will. Least it gets me further away from you and your lecture crap." I grumbled.

Beaming, she faked a gasp. "Oh but Thay, you know you love me!"

I grabbed my backpack off the floor and threw the pillow back in her face. "Dork."

"Have a nice day at school, sweetie!" Gaia shouted after me in her best 'mom' voice.

I stuck my tongue out at her and left, closing the door behind me. I grabbed a banana off the counter and paused to look out the window at the gray sky.

All kidding aside, there really had been an increasing amount of alien activity in the city lately. Lots of kids hadn't been coming to school, and neither had the teachers. A few of the substitutes were a little…strange. Their vocabulary was unusual, to say the least.

I went over the hall window and out onto the fire escape. It's the quickest way down, putting me on the most direct route to school. I hadn't even gone a block when it happened.

A flash of light momentarily blinded me, followed by a thunderous boom and a rending crash. My feet acted of their own free will, carrying my weightless body back the way I had come. My heart had plummeted to my toes. It already knew what my eyes only now perceived.

My building—my home—was in flames, a smoldering hole left in one wall by some kind of projectile. A split second was all it took. I sprang into action. Time blurred as I re-ascended the fire escape, rushing through a wall of smoke and flames, with one intent and goal. Load-bearing beams from the ceiling had collapsed and were burning brightly. The smoke in my lungs was weakening my muscles, my panicked breathing forcing more of the toxic cocktail into my lungs. I dropped to my hands and knees, breathing low to the ground every few seconds. As I crawled under the burning beam, the rafters groaned. I cried out in anguish tears rushing down my face. "Gaia! Gaia, I'm coming to get you! I'll save you! I promise!"

There was no answer.

Pieces of the rafters came crashing down around me, one striking me on the head, and my world flickered before my eyes. Suddenly, I was aware of hands tugging at my arms, trying to lift me away. I recoiled violently, gasping in horror at the wall of fire that had engulfed my tiny room, beams and bits of the rafters blocking the door. "Gaia!" I screamed, not caring about the smoke in my lungs or the crack in my voice.

The hands tugged more insistently. The owner of the hands spoke, "We gotta get out of here."

I fought them even harder, but their grip was strong. "No! She's my sister! She's my sister!"

Another load bearing beam collapsed against the door of my little room.

The arms loosened slightly at my broken pleas, but I was scooped up and whisked away, shouting and pounding at the hard-surfaced back of my rescuer. "NO! GAIA! GAIA!"

What little was left of the ceiling began to creak. He took us out onto the fire escape, coughing from the smoke. The building groaned once again. All I can remember is watching my home collapse before my eyes. It crumbled to the ground, taking with it my best friend in the entire world. Fresh tears stained my face.

I was deposited safely on the roof of the building opposite the pile of rubble that once been home. I don't know how we got there. We could have flown, we could have climbed ten flights of stairs, I have no clue. All I knew was that my sister was gone. His voice brought a stinging sense of reality.

"I'm sorry." He murmured, so lowly it might have been the wind.

"W-why?" I sobbed.

He began to walk away and I turned on him, all my strength replenished by the aggression that was settling into my soul.

"I asked you Why!" I yelled.

He turned and looked slightly up into my eyes. I suddenly realized what he was: a turtle. I invaded his personal space, at this point too deeply traumatized to care that he was a man-sized turtle. Anger and tears mixed in my eyes.

"Why did you save me? Why didn't you save her?"

His lips pressed into a thin line. "Who lives and who dies was not my choice to make."

"But it was."

He hesitated, biting his lip, like he was debating upon his next words. "She was dead already. I checked."

More hot tears fell down my face and I shook my head in disbelief. He tried to reach out for me, but I tore from his grasp.

"She was my sister!" The horrified anguish of my words affected him in a bizarre way.

His fists trembled, the knuckles turning white as he clenched and unclenched his hands.

I looked down. "You should have let me die."

"I couldn't do that."

"I don't want to live in a world without my sister" I sobbed.

He put a hand on my shoulder.

"Wouldn't she want you to?"

I remembered her words: There's more out there than sports and fighting criminals all the time. Promise me you will never lose sight of that.

Maybe there is more than that out there. But I had just lost my sister and right then and there, I decided that someone was going to pay.

"Who did this?" I growled.

The turtle's face clouded. I grabbed the edge of his shell and tried to pull him towards me. He attempted a counter, but all of my pain was replaced with anger and I struck him violently, pulling my switchblade out of my pocket and holding it to his throat.

"I'm getting a little tired of repeating myself, Greenie." I warned.

He grunted, and gave in. "Aliens."

"Like you?"

"I'm not an alien. I'm a mutant. The blast that demolished the building was made by a group of aliens called the Kraang. They have plans to invade and take over the city."

"The ones from the news?"

"Yes."

I held my knife dangerously close to his throat. His eyes narrowed. "Tell me why they were shooting these 'blasts'."

"Why should I?"

"Because I think you had something to do with it." I growled.

He sighed, bowing his head in defeat. He stammered. "I was…trying to stop them from destroying the city. W—I defeated their leader, but when he fell, missiles show out of his body…into the city. I-I'm so sorry…"

"Sorry? Sorry?! My sister is dead because of you!" The point of my knife drew a little blood as it pressed even further against his neck. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you right here, right now."

"Le-oooooo?! Leo, you up there?"

I saw a flash of panic in his eyes and the turn of his head in response to the call. I could hear several people clambering up the fire escape on the other side of the building. I yanked the turtle up and snarled. "This isn't over, Leo. You'll pay for this."

I threw him back down on the roof and ducked into the stairwell, vanishing in the shadows. Even so, I think he knew I was still there.

Three more turtles joined him on the roof. One with an orange mask rushed up to him.

"Leo! We're so glad you're okay, bro!"

Brothers? He has brothers?

I nearly exploded with rage. He, the one responsible for my sister's death, still had all of his siblings intact. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. I had to make it fair. I had to avenge my lost sibling. It felt like the only way that things could ever be right.

Now, here I stand. Looking down at one of Leo's brothers. The one in a red mask. There's something different about this one. He's by far the most likely of the four turtles to be seen above ground alone.

It's been months. Almost ten. I'm about to graduate my junior year of high school. But I can't…I just can't rest until the ones responsible for my sister's death feel the pain that I now feel every day. It won't be fair until one of them pays.

My life has gone to shit. My parents were never the same after Gaia's death. Within a couple of months they became part of 16% of parents in the US who divorce after the death of a child. I ended up with my mom. I miss my dad. It's real quiet without his jokes and his boisterous laughter. He moved out to a farm in Connecticut. I haven't seen him in three months.

This is all that turtle's fault.

I raised my tranq gun and fired. The dart went into the red-masked turtle's shoulder and he felt it, pulling it out with his hand, I frowned as I saw him reach into his belt and pull out some kind of cell phone and pressed a button. I was about to intervene when the tranq took full effect and he slumped, the phone falling from his hand and clattering on the rooftop. I jumped down, taking a moment to glance at the caller id. Leo. I growled.

Leo's voice on the other end sounded…frantic. That made me grin.

"Raph? Raph are you there? Raph, is everything okay?"

I held the phone to my mouth. "Sorry, but Raph can't make it to the phone right now."

"Who is this? What do you want?" he sounded furious.

"If you want to see your brother alive again, you'll do exactly as I say. Come to the empty warehouse on Bleaker and Ninth. Alone. You bring anyone and he's dead."

There was a short silence. "I'll be there."

I had Raph chained up by the time Leo knocked. I had cracked open the door. As soon as Leo set foot inside, he saw his brother bound up on the opposite wall and gasped, rushing towards his sibling. I shot him with my tranq gun and he soon fell to the floor.

When he came to, he was chained up opposite his brother. He tried tugging on his restraints.

"Won't work." I said.

He glared at me. "Why are you doing this?"

I stepped into the light, and saw the flicker of recognition in his eyes, followed swiftly by fear.

"What do you want from me?"

"Exactly what I said ten months ago: Retribution." I turned to Raph and smiled

His eyes darkened as he began piecing together what I meant to do. His face paled.

"No."

"You were responsible for my sister."

"Yes. I was, but please. Please. Leave him out of this."

"Why should I? I didn't get to choose whether my sister or I lived. Why should you have any say?"

"No! Please!" He jerked against the chains desperately. "He's my little brother, please! I'll do anything! Please, please don't hurt him." There were barely noticeable tears in his eyes.

I remained stoic. I pulled out my knife, turning toward the unconscious Raphael. Raising my knife, I was on the verge of striking the final blow when…

"RAPH!"

His cry stayed my hand. It was an echo of my cry on that day. A different name…but the same cry: a desperate, hopeless, helpless plea for mercy. My steely heart turned to mush. I came out of my anger-filled haze and recognized the being in front of me for what it was: a bright and vibrant life. I couldn't…I couldn't take something so precious. A sibling's life…I couldn't do it. I couldn't hurt someone else's heart the way mine was hurt. What would be the point? I…I couldn't do anything. I was frozen.

I whirled round with the knife and sliced Leo's chains. He fell to his knees and stared up at me in confusion, his wet cheeks and red eyes gleaming.

"Get out." I whispered.

He stared at me.

"Take your brother and get out, before I change my mind."

"What?" He gawked.

I shook my head. "All this time…I've blamed you. I'm…I'm sorry. I just—I couldn't accept that she was…"

Leo removed his cuffs and chains and looked at me, apparently astonished by my actions.

"But this…I can't do it. It won't solve anything. If I killed him, my pain would still be here, but I'd be a murderer. She…she wouldn't have wanted that. She'd be ashamed. I don't know what I was—"

I jumped as a firm grip landed on my shoulder.

"I can't even begin to imagine the pain of your loss." His eyes lifted to where his unconscious brother was still restrained. He went over and removed Raph's chains. "My brothers…are everything that I fight for. If I ever lost any of them…I suspect that I would lose my mind."

I watched how carefully he pulled his sibling's limp body into his arms and onto his shoulders.

"We didn't want anyone to get hurt. We were trying to prevent the Kraang from destroying the city by taking Kraang Prime out as quickly as possible, but we miscalculated…and people—your sister—"

"Gaia. Her name was Gaia."

He nodded, his eyes never leaving mine. "—were hurt…and killed. It was our fault. You can and should hold us responsible for what happened. I—"

I raised an eyebrow.

Lowering his voice, Leo drew closer to me, still carrying his brother on his shoulders. "I have not stopped reliving those moments since that day. In my sleep, I hear your screams. I remember the way you fought me as I pulled you out of that burning building. Sometimes, I'm the one screaming, and my brothers are the ones..."

I stared. "Why tell me all this?"

His dark eyes were like bottomless blue lagoons. I felt like they were sucking me in.

"Because you spared his life tonight. You could have killed him and had your revenge, but you didn't. I couldn't be more grateful. I'm not sure that, under the same circumstances, I would have been able to stop myself." He whispered, then turned to leave.

"Leo." I called softly. He turned back towards me. "Thank you."

He canted his head.

"Thank you for saving me from myself."

To be continued…