author's note: normally i don't put author's notes at the start of the chapter, but this has been getting on my nerves lately. the lack of capitals is on purpose. i like the way it looks. my grammar is impeccable aside from the lack of capitals, so please stop saying my grammar is bad. it's not.
cassandra woke up with a start- and with two pudgy fingers pinching her nose closed. her eyes flew open but she didn't move, since her neck ached from leaning on the edge of the tub all night. two bright blue eyes met hers as she gasped awake. the turtle was startled, but didn't move.
"i need that to breathe, kiddo," she said nasally. the hand withdrew, but the freckled face stayed, staring at her curiously. she stuck her tongue out and touched her nose with it and then crossed her eyes, making the turtle- it was mikey, right?- laugh.
she moved to sit up, only to find splinter's head on her shoulder, and a wet spot on her jacket from his drool. lovely.
"hey," she said softly, nudging him with her shoulder. he snorted as he woke up, disorientated. once he realized he was leaning on cassandra's shoulder, he shot up, embarrassed. he was even more embarrassed to see the drool and tried to discreetly wipe off the drool still on his mouth.
he opened his mouth to apologize when cassandra turned around to sit on her knees facing the tub. she tapped his chest almost absentmindedly with the back of her hand.
"hey, look who's awake," she said softly. he turned around to see leonardo and michelangelo staring back at him. they were both wide awake and curious about their surroundings. he turned to look in the bin to see donatello and raphael awake as well, except they were...hiding. they had sunk down in the bin, so that their heads were above water level but couldn't be seen from where cassandra knelt.
"you're all awake," he breathed out, feeling lighter for the first time...well, for the first time since the power started going out. donnie and raph started to get up slowly, both staring at cassandra warily.
"um, sensei?" leonardo said, glancing at cassandra. "where are we? and...who's that?"
splinter and cassandra looked at each other. somehow, they'd overlooked the fact that the turtles would be waking up in a strange place with a stranger among them.
"i'm cassandra," she said turning back to the turtles. "and you're in my apartment."
"cassandra?" raphael said, confused.
"nova," splinter clarified. cassandra raised an eyebrow at this.
"you didn't tell them my name was cassandra?" she said. she had assumed he told his kids everything about her- especially considering donnie's fear of her.
"there were other things going on," he replied. making sure four young boys weren't getting into trouble was a full time job, and the phone call between him and cassandra had slipped from his mind.
"did you tell them about the pyrokinesis?" she asked, to which he shook his head.
"pyro-what?" mikey said, head in his hands as he sat with his elbows on the edge of the tub.
"i can create and control fire," cassandra answered, and she was almost tempted to show off, but remembered how frightened splinter was of her powers. "wait a minute! i'm still mad at you!"
splinter blinked, caught off guard by her outburst. the boys tensed, wondering what their father could have done to upset cassandra.
"why?" he asked, dread creeping in.
"you thought i was a demon!" she said, hoping that her tone and half smile conveyed the fact that she wasn't truly upset anymore.
it didn't.
"i'm sorry," splinter said looking down, his ears flattened. "it was incredibly rude of me to assume that. i didn't mean to hurt you."
he was bracing himself for cassandra to kick them out- she'd been hurt when they spoke over the phone, but...she'd forgotten about it, so hopefully she would forgive him.
"hey," cassandra said, concern written all over her face. "i was just teasing you. i'm not that mad anymore." she placed her hand on his shoulder, wishing she hadn't said anything at all.
"you called her a demon, sensei?" michelangelo asked incredulously.
"i-i did not exactly- i didn't mean," splinter said, trying to come up with a reason that would sound acceptable.
"to be fair," cassandra cut in, coming to his rescue. she leaned away from everyone as she continued, letting fire lace her words as she spoke, "it's understandable why one might think that."
everyone stopped and stared, the boys amazed by cassandra's fire breathing. splinter doesn't seem nearly as scared of it as she expected and she's relieved. after a few seconds of silence, mikey surged forward, hands braced on the tub as he leaned in close.
"you can breathe fire?!" he shouted, amazed. cassandra moved back out of instinct, banging her head against the wall behind her. splinter reached an arm out to keep michelangelo from falling over the side of the tub.
"ow!" cassandra cried out, rubbing the back of her head. wincing as she nodded, she replied, "yeah, i can."
"do it again!" he said, bouncing up and down, causing the water to splash.
cassandra shook her head. "maybe later. first, let's get you all dried up."
she looked to splinter for approval- she didn't want to overstep her bounds- and while he didn't seem to get the point of the look, he stood up to start help cleaning up the bathroom just the same.
"where are your towels?" he asked, looking around the bathroom.
"i don't have any," cassandra said simply as she took the plug out of the bathtub.
"you're joking," he deadpanned as he lifted donatello out of the bin. cassandra looked back at him and shrugged.
"i can dry anything with little more than a touch- why would i need towels?" cassandra said.
"because-!" splinter found he couldn't come up with a good reason.
"what if you have guests?" leonardo said. "like us."
"i dunno," cassandra said, shrugging again. "i've never had guests before."
splinter stopped at that, turning to look at her. "never?" he asked, slightly concerned.
cassandra nodded. "i...don't exactly have many friends on earth. much less ones that would stay overnight or need towels."
"'on earth?'' donatello said, walking up to her and looking at her up and down. "does that mean you have friends that aren't from earth?"
cassandra nodded. "not only do i have friends who aren't from earth, i'm not from earth myself."
"wait, you're an alien? aliens are real?" leonardo said, shocked by the revelation.
"you don't look like an alien," raph said suspiciously. "you look human."
"i look human enough from a distance," cassandra said with a shrug. "but if you start to look closer…"
she turned around to face raph, donnie, and splinter, and blinked. when she opened her eyes, there was a milky white film over them, startling the three of them.
"what's wrong with your eyes?!" raph nearly shouted.
"they're like a second set of eyelids," cassandra explained easily, and blinked again. when she opened her eyes this time, they were back to normal.
"why do you have two sets of eyelids?" raph asked, face scrunched up. "that's so gross!"
"i have 'em in case i lose the first pair," cassandra said, and then laughed at her own joke.
when she realized no one else was laughing, she sighed and said, "they're there to protect my eyes in case i need to see. like...goggles, i guess."
mikey and leo climbed out of the tub and walked around to look at cassandra.
"what was wrong with her eyes, sensei?" leo asked. splinter tore his eyes away from cassandra, coming out of the shocked daze that her eye trick had put him in.
"well, they were…" splinter started before mikey cut him off.
"do it again! i wanna see!" he said shouted.
cassandra raised her hands up in front of her and said, "okay, but you do need to be a bit quieter. we don't want anyone to know you guys are here, right?"
"oh, okay," mikey whispered loudly, in the way that children do. with that cassandra blinked, the milky film covering her eyes again.
"whoa…" leo said, caught between grossed out and impressed.
raph turned away, freaked out by cassandra's alien eyes. "that's so gross," he mumbled.
cassandra blinked again, returning her eyes to normal. though she kept a smile on her face, she was a little more than self conscious. she'd been trying to impress splinter's kids, not gross them out.
"raphael," splinter said quietly but firmly. "do not be rude."
nevertheless, he did agree with his son- cassandra's eyes were "gross."
"sorry," he mumbled, arms crossed. cassandra just shrugged and smiled.
"it's not a big deal," she said, tipping the bin over the side of the tub and pouring out the water. the turtles stood close to splinter, still soaking wet.
"sensei, you never told us why we're here," donnie said, looking up at his father. he looked to cassandra, and she gave him a look that said 'you're on your own with this one.' she already had a lot of explaining to do once the turtles started asking questions about her.
"well…" he started, unsure of how to tell his sons that he and cassandra had rushed them to her apartment, fearing for the turtles' lives. "it was very cold last night, and the power went out again. cassandra and i thought it would be best if we stayed with her until...well, for the evening."
"you can stay here as long as you need to," cassandra said. "and i can try to help fix your power problem. i'm not well versed in earth engineering and the like, but i was the one who did the repairs on my ship, so i should be able to help a little bit."
"wouldn't paola be the one to do the repairs?" splinter asked, confused. "assuming she came to earth with you- well, assuming she's not from earth at all."
cassandra laughed as she looked around her bathroom, water all over the floor from the turtles. "why, because she's a robot?"
suddenly, the temperature in the room- and particularly the temperature of the floor- skyrocketed. it went from comfortably warm to sweltering hot in just a few seconds. splinter looked at his sons, who looked at each other and him, to see if they had noticed the change in temperature as well.
cassandra snapped and shot a finger gun at splinter, an easy grin on her face. "told you i don't need towels."
all five of the hamato family gaped at the alien as they realized she was not only the cause of the change in temperature, but also that she had in fact dried off the floor and the turtles.
"how did you do that?" mikey asked, amazed.
"trade secret," cassandra said, winking. "now, who wants-"
cassandra was interrupted by the growling of someone's stomach. the entire bathroom feel silent, and each of them looked startled by it. then cassandra snorted and laughed, a loud and happy sound.
"well, i guess that answers that question!" she said, and gestured towards the door, which the five of them were blocking. "let's go eat breakfast."
"do you eat algae and worms too?" raph asked as they filed out of the room. they all crowded in the hallway, waiting for cassandra to take the lead. splinter was relieved that no one noticed that his stomach was the one to growl.
"no," she said as they followed her into kitchen. "but i do have cereal. i hope that's okay."
"that will be fine," splinter said, the last one to enter the kitchen. he caught sight of his reflection in a mirror in the hallway, freezing when he saw it. he tore his eyes away from him, pushing down the disgust and self hatred he felt bubble up. now was not the time to deal with that. besides, it wasn't like he hadn't seen his reflection before.
cassandra's apartment was messy but uncluttered. there was no set theme for her decor- the only common threads he could find was the abundance of sunflower and star imagery. the boys were sitting around tall table in the kitchen as cassandra pulled out six bowls- each with a different size, color, and design.
when splinter came to stand by his sons, both he and cassandra realized that there were only four chairs.
"shi-shoot, i don't have any more chairs," she said, looking mildly distressed. "um...i could-"
"it's alright, i don't mind standing," splinter said, cutting her off.
"are you sure?" she asked, looking around, as if a chair would materialize out of thin air.
"i am sure," he said, smiling faintly. "is there anything i can do to help?"
"nah, i've got this," cassandra said, box of cereal in one hand and a half gallon of milk in the other. as she started to make breakfast, the boys began asking questions.
"so you have a robot?" donnie asked.
"no," cassandra said, voice firm. "i don't 'have' a robot. paola is a robot, but she's not...she's not a thing. she's a thinking, living being."
"that's not possible," donnie said, eyes narrowing.
"yes it is," cassandra said.
"no, it's not!" donnie insisted.
"alright," she said, looking at him curiously. "why is it impossible for paola to be a living being?"
"because she's a robot, and there rules to defining something as alive. it has to be made of cells," donnie protested.
"yeah...except that definition only works on earth. there are tons of beings in the galaxy that aren't made of cells but are just as alive as you and me," cassandra countered.
"such as?" donnie asked, arms crossed. he had that air of superiority about him that made splinter want to jump in, but before he could, cassandra answered.
"well, for one, paola," cassandra said. "and then there's all the inhabitants of ioavis."
"ioavis?" donnie repeated.
"mm-hm," she said as she handed splinter a bowl of cereal. "they're biodigital organisms- some of them were created by ancient capellans, but some of them came into being on their own. and they're not made of cells, and they don't reproduce on their own, and they really don't grow or change. but they're still just as alive as you and me."
"but- but that doesn't make sense!" he exclaimed. "every living thing displays the characteristics of life-"
"yes," cassandra said, cutting him off. "on earth. the characteristics of life work on earth, with earth organisms. there's a lot of weird stuff out in space- you can't just apply earth's rules to the entire universe." donnie huffed, crossing his arms and sulking.
"what's a capellan?" mikey asked, curiously.
"huh?" cassandra asked, before remembering she'd mentioned the name. "i'm a capellan. from capella."
"that's a star though!" donnie butted in. "capella is the brightest star in the auriga constellation!"
cassandra shook her head. "nope. not the capella i'm talking about. there is a huge disconnect between what earth calls the stars and what...everyone else calls the stars. i mean, only in the last couple of decades has the word 'earthling' come into the galaxy's vocabulary. before that, earth was just lsb32x to the rest of the galaxy."
"lsb32x?" leo repeated.
"life sustaining body, number thirty two, and the 'x' means that it's incredibly hard to live on earth," cassandra explained.
"why is it hard to live on earth?" splinter asked.
cassandra blinked, not expecting them to ask. "because of it's climate, the atmosphere, the terrain...it'd take a lot of terraforming to transform earth into a place that other species can live on."
"really?" splinter asked, surprised.
"yeah," she said. "earth is what the rest of the universe calls a 'death planet.' it's extremely hard to live on for non native species. capella was a death planet too- except it was arguably even harder to live on."
there was a silence in the kitchen as it all sank in. it was a lot to take in all at once- cassandra was a capellan, the universe was full of life, and rules that humans had defined in order to make sense of their world seemed to be meaningless when looking at the rest of the universe. splinter was having trouble coming to terms with it all.
the more and more cassandra spoke about space the more he realized how little he actually knew. he already knew so little about the events that led to his mutation, and now cassandra was speaking so casually of things that he didn't know existed. that, perhaps, no human knew existed.
he wasn't even sure he wanted to know about all of this. while he thought the idea that ignorance is bliss was utter garbage, how was knowing about aliens going to help him? there were already so many unknowns in his life- he didn't need any more.
"do you have to work today?" mikey asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the kitchen. splinter looked up from the untouched bowl of cereal he was staring at.
cassandra blinked, spoon in her mouth. she shook her head as she chewed and swallowed. "nah, not until tomorrow at nine. then i'll be gone until tuesday at nine."
"what will we do then?" he asked.
cassandra shrugged. "stay here? like i said, you can stay here as long as you need. you can leave whenever you want, but i mean, i'd wait until it was night to leave," she said as she nodded at the kitchen window where sunlight streamed through the blinds.
"so...what are going to do all day?" raph said, looking around. "your home is a lot smaller than ours."
cassandra looked around and realized that he was right. for one person, her apartment was just fine. for two adults and four kids? yeah...it was kinda small. and she didn't have anything to entertain them with either- she really should have thought this through a bit more. not helping them, no, she'd never regret that...but she should have considered what they would do to pass the time.
"i suppose your training will have to be put on hold until we return home," splinter said, frowning. "whenever that may be."
"training?" cassandra echoed curiously. it occurred to splinter then that he had never told her about him being a ninja- to be fair, he'd never told her that many personal details. neither of them had.
"yeah!" raph said, chest puffing up with pride. "we're ninjas!"
"you are in training to become ninjas," splinter said somewhat sternly.
"oh! that's cool," cassandra said, with a blank look in her eyes that told him that she had no idea what they were talking about.
"a ninja is a master of stealth and combat," he explained after a few seconds of silence.
"oh. oooh! okay," cassandra said, finally understanding. "so that's how you jumped up to the fire escape last night!"
he nodded, thinking back to last night. it made sense that she would be amazed in retrospect- she had no idea that he was a ninja.
"cassandra," leo started, seeming unsure of himself. "why are you here?"
"in new york city, or on earth?" she asked.
"on earth," he replied.
cassandra let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair, looking up at the ceiling as she tried to figure out what to tell them.
"you know...you know how i can see the future?" she said. they all nodded. "well...that's not...it's not because i'm a capellan. i'm what's known as an augur- a being that can see the different paths of time. and being an augur isn't defined by what planet you come from or what species you are- any sentient species has the capability of producing an augur."
"even humans?" leo asked. cassandra nodded.
"i mean, there's already been one," she said.
"who is it?" mikey asked, excited.
"what happened to them?" donnie asked, curious.
"well, uh...her name was jeanne d'arc and...well, she was burned at the stake," cassandra said, rubbing the back of her neck.
"because she was an augur?" mikey asked in a quiet voice.
"well, no. that was one of the reasons, sure, but she didn't really know what she was. it was more because she was a woman, and because she was leading the french to liberate their country," cassandra explained.
"wait- how do you know for sure that joan of arc was an augur?" donnie pressed. "it's not like you were there, and no one on earth knew it, right?"
"true, i wasn't there. but thea- who teaches all the augurs who come find her- can see the futures of all augurs. she saw jeanne, and was saddened when she realized jeanne would never be able to reach her," cassandra explained.
"wait, can she see you too?" raph asked.
"yeah. she could see me centuries before i was born. she can see every augur long before they're born," cassandra said, the idea not nearly as unnerving as it used to be.
"that's so weird…" mikey said.
"wait, how does that work?" donnie demanded. "her powers seem totally different from yours!"
"yeah," cassandra said, shrugging. "each augur's clairvoyance manifests in different ways."
"but thea's seems...so much better than yours," raph said. "she can see a whole bunch of different people's futures and you can only see yours."
"i can see mine, yes, but i can see all of the different paths i could take. thea can see the future of many different people but she can only see the most likely flow of time," cassandra explained. "to be honest, it's much more preferable to be able to see more paths through fewer eyes than vice versa."
"okay...but what does this all have to do with being on earth?" donnie asked.
"every augur has what's known as an enduring vision. it's usually an augur's first vision, and one that comes to them in the form of a recurring dream. it's supposed to lead them to the place in the galaxy where they belong - where they can be the happiest. you don't have to follow your vision, but...i did. and it lead me here," cassandra said, shrugging.
"what was your vision of?" leo asked, curious.
"golden flowers. my vision was of a field of golden flowers, as far as the eye could see. it was warm and sunny and i could hear laughter in the distance," cassandra explained, her voice like honey and a dreamy look in her eyes. then she seemed to snap back to reality. "but...i had no idea what type of flowers they were, or where they were from, and everything time i tried to draw them or describe them...it was like sand slipping through my fingers. it was only two years ago that i found out what they were-"
"sunflowers!" splinter finished, putting all the pieces together. that's what she had meant last night- the reason she was here was because she'd had a vision of sunflowers!
cassandra looked surprised at his outburst, then smiled and nodded. "yeah, they were sunflowers."
"so you're on earth because you had a dream about sunflowers?" raph asked, arms crossed.
"yup," cassandra replied, before drinking the rest of the milk in her cereal bowl.
"that's your only reason for being here?" donnie asked incredulously. "because of your vision?"
cassandra nodded and placed the bowl in the sink. "yeah," she said simply. "now, why don't you all tell me a story?"
"huh?" they asked in unison.
"i may not have been on earth that long, but i'm fairly certain you guys aren't exactly...normal," she said, hesitating to use the word 'normal.'
they all turned to splinter as they realized what she was asking. mikey leaned over and pulled on his father's sleeve, eyes bright.
"tell her the story, master splinter!" he said excitedly. cassandra noted how mikey called his father by his name, and used the word 'master,' and stored that information away for later.
"well...back when i was still human," splinter started. how much should he tell her? should he tell her about his life before? or just the mutation?
"so you were human first," cassandra interrupted.
"o-of course i was human first!" splinter said, alarmed. she couldn't tell? she didn't know? he knew, realistically, that there was no way for anyone to know he had been human before, but to have his friend question it...it made anxiety bubble up in his chest. he was already clinging so hard to his humanity…
cassandra realized that she must have hit a sore spot, and moved closer to the table. "i...i'm sorry. i mean, i figured you were human first, but i just…didn't know for sure."
"no," splinter said, shaking his head. "no, there was no way you could have known."
leo and mikey looked at their father with concerned expressions, and donnie and raph glared at cassandra, giving her looks that said, 'look at what you did.' she didn't mean to upset him- not in the slightest. she just...didn't know.
"when i was human," he started again, voice more subdued this time. "i bought four baby turtles after work. as i was walking home, i bumped into a strange man. something just seemed...off about him. i decided to follow him into an alleyway where he spoke with...his twin? his clone? i still am unsure."
"are clones common in space?" mikey asked cassandra. she blinked.
"well, no. genetically designed beings are far more common," she said, then looked back to splinter. "so he was talking to his double and…"
"and i was bitten by a rat. they turned to me and spoke in strange patterns. 'go no further,'" splinter said, his voice taking on a scratchy, mechanical tone. "'this place is a place where you are not allowed to be in this place. we have been seen in this place by you, so this is not a place that will be left by you.'"
cassandra's eyebrows shot up, impressed by how he could distort his voice- presumably to mimic the voices of the strange men. a small smile grew on her face as she listened to him.
"they attacked me, and i fought back. one of them was carrying a cannister of a strange green substance- during the fight it flew through the air and it hit me, cracking like an egg and getting that ooze all over the turtles and myself," he said, ears twitching as he remembered the burning sensation of the ooze seeping into his skin. "it...mutated us all."
"so it...fused together your dna and then the dna of the rat that bit you," cassandra said, pointing to splinter, then moved on to gesture to all of the turtles. "and fused your dna with human dna?"
"it would appear that way," splinter said, nodding.
cassandra hummed thoughtfully, eyebrows furrowed as silence fell over the kitchen. she didn't seem surprised by their tale at all.
"cassandra...do you know anything about this?" splinter asked, dread creeping over him. did she know something he didn't?
"it just...seems so unpredictable? this substance seems to haphazardly mash the dna of two separate beings together with very little planning- that's...extremely dangerous," cassandra said, looking tired all of the sudden. "genetic modification of already living and grown beings isn't unheard of, but it's... a very delicate thing. the substance sounds about as delicate as baseball bat."
"how do you know about this stuff?" donnie asked. "genetic modification of living beings- did it happen to you?"
"not to me personally, but...there was a mass modification of capellan dna a few generations ago," cassandra said, the laid back smile that had been ever present since they woke up fading from her face. "...but i'd rather not get into capellan history right now."
splinter could tell that this was a sore subject for her- he remembered what she had told him last night, that capella had been destroyed during the capellan civil war. was this mass modification one of the things that had led up to the civil war? then it hit him- cassandra had not once mentioned capella's destruction to his sons. was she trying to protect them in some way?
"do you think they were from space?" mikey asked cassandra. "the guys with the goop?"
"probably," cassandra said, shrugging. "i'm fairly certain that earthlings don't have the science figured out for that kind of," she snapped, emphasizing her point, "instantaneous transformation."
"so...what were they?" splinter asked. "do you know?"
the fact that cassandra might know who those strange men had been sent a thrill through him. if they could find out more about them, and the strange substance that had mutated him...perhaps they could find a way to undo it. he could be human again. but then...where would that leave his sons? they had never been human, so there was no way they could reverse their mutation. and how would he care for them, if he was human and they were mutants. being human again...what did it really change?
cassandra shook her head. " 'fraid not. there aren't too many species that can pass for humans, and none of the ones i can think of have any interest in earth or genetics...it could be just a few of them, but we have no way of knowing for sure."
"oh," he said, ears drooping. "i see."
"and anyway, finding them again doesn't guarantee that we could undo your mutation," cassandra said. "adding shi- stuff to dna is easy. removing it? that's an entirely different story."
splinter paused. how did she know what he was thinking? had she looked ahead again? he caught her eye and she winked, a small smile returning to her face that told him, yes, she had done just that.
"do you understand what they're talking about?" mikey whispered to raph, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"no," he mumbled back. "not really."
both splinter and cassandra realized that their breakfast conversation had been going on for almost an hour now, and almost all of it was about things that would fly right over a six year old's head. cassandra brightened up, letting out a sheepish laugh.
"i guess this is a lot of stuff for one morning," she said, rubbing the back of her head.
the rest of the morning passed rather slowly. the boys mostly watched tv, with leo and donnie asking cassandra questions about space- cassandra had destroyed most of leo's ideas about space adventures by noon.
"so there's really no such thing as an anxiety ray?" he asked, pouting.
"nope. i mean, there are ways to induce anxiety in someone, but not with a ray gun," cassandra said.
"i'm bored," raph said loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "there's nothing to do."
splinter was about to scold him, and remind him that cassandra hadn't had time to prepare for them, and that she had been so very kind to simply allow them to stay with her- except cassandra spoke up first.
"well, what do you want to do?" she asked simply. raph shrugged, looking down.
"i dunno," he mumbled.
"well, i can't help you if you don't figure out what you want to do," she said.
raph stared at the ground, head resting in his hands. he seemed to think this over, and then looked up at cassandra.
"you- could you teach me to crochet? in person?" raph asked, almost shyly. cassandra smiled sympathetically.
"i'm sorry bud, but i left all my crocheting stuff at the fire station," she said. "and i really only have one hook anyway."
"well i have my stuff!" raph insisted, as if cassandra had forgotten. "it's just...back home."
"sensei...when can we go home?" mikey asked. "i miss home...i miss my bedroom and my comic books and edward…it feels like we've been gone forever."
"michelangelo," splinter said gently. "it's only been about five hours since you all woke up. i do not know how long it will be until cassandra and i fix the power in the lair, but we will have to wait until nightfall to go back to start fixing it. we will all just have to be patient."
"but there's nothing to do!" raph said loudly.
"well, i could back and get some stuff," cassandra offered. "if you want."
splinter stopped, brows furrowed. "you are...trusting us enough to leave us alone in your apartment?"
"sure," she said, shrugging. "i mean, you're trusting me to go to your home alone."
he hadn't thought of it that way. this day would certainly go smoother if his sons had some of their toys to play with. and if she was picking up things anyway…
"alright," he said, nodding.
"i hope i've got the right coloring book," cassandra said to herself absentmindedly as she wandered into the room with a tree in it. it almost looked like some sort of training room- there were weapons on the walls and the room was devoid of any furniture. perhaps this was where splinter and his boys did their ninja training.
she approached a shelf on the wall- he'd called it a shrine when describing it to her. there was a framed picture on it along with a glass bowl that had been meticulously pieced back together after shattering. she smiled at the little pink palm tree that stuck out of it.
the picture featured three people- a stern looking man, an emotionless woman, and a sleeping baby. was this his family before he was mutated? was the stern man- was that him? back when he was human? what had happened to the woman- was she his wife? was that his child? she remembered how he had panicked when she dropped off the care package- he'd said there had been a fire.
if the fire was bad enough to traumatize him like that then...well, cassandra hoped she was wrong.
and then the bowl- it was the bowl the turtles had come in, right? it had to be. damn. if this was the same bowl, that meant that he must have collected all the pieces after being mutated- after his life had been turned upside down- and then glued them all back together. why? did he feel a connection to the turtles even then, in the hours after mutation?
cassandra stared both objects in her hands, the symbolism of the moment not lost on her. here she stood, holding a piece of splinter's old life, and a piece of his new one. she placed the picture and the bowl inside of the duffel bag- ironically the same one she had put his care package in.
as she turned to leave, cassandra was struck by the way the training room looked, with sunlight streaming through the sewer grate. something about the sight- the room itself- filled cassandra with an indescribable feeling.
she'd felt it before, in the ruins of azeufield, in the library on new cappella, and, most recently, in a farmhouse in france. the only way she could begin to explain it was as the sanctity of common places. the life that existed within the walls of a building- the emotions that clung to the space.
cassandra could feel the echoes of love and patience strongly, with faded pangs of fear and despair. she felt her throat tighten with emotion as she took in this place that splinter had built- a home, where there should not be- and laughed hoarsely as she tore her eyes away. she wiped her eyes with the palm of her hands as she headed for the door.
she really wanted to get to know splinter better.
have you ever been somewhere and you could just feel the emotions of people who had been there before you? that's what cassandra's going through right now.
also i continue to make joan of arc relevant in my works, even in my sci fi tmnt fanfics. i hope that her being an augur seems believable? i think it works well.
this chapter was going to be so much longer- i had 2 major events left to cover, but i found a good place to stop and i had to. this is over fifteen pages long- i had to draw the line somewhere.
thank you for reading, and please comment!