Sayonara
I don't own TMNT. Wish I did...but hey any one at Nick need a new writer for the show?
She had been a fool. All her life she had believed the Shredder…the man she had *believed* to be her father. Believed his lies about how Hamato Yoshi could not accept that Tang Shen…her mother had chosen her father. How he came to their home one night and murdered her mother, killing her because she would never be his. And if he could not have her…then no one would.
Had the Shredder ever been a father to her…she couldn't member. He was a strict parent, yes. When he was around that is. She didn't recall him hugging her, playing with her, reading to her, or even holding her when she has been a child. He never cared for her when she was sick, or showed any sort of interest in her. It seemed the only time he did spend with her was during evening meals whenever he was home or when he was training her to be a Kunoichi. The rest of the time she was left alone in their expansive estate. She never attended school, or made any friends. Her father hired private tutors to supplement her education. Majority if the time when he was seen with her it was going on trips to visit other branches of the Foot Clan.
She recalled one of the few times she had been out in public with him as a small child. As they passed a toy store she saw a stuffed toy cat in the window. It had fluffy white fur, large bright blue eyes, and the cutest smile sown on his face.
"Daddy! Daddy!" She called to him. "This cat is so cute! I want it!"
Oroku Saki looked at the stuffed cat she was pointing to and a sneer crossed his scared face.
"You have no need of such infantile things!" He growled and looked away. "You have more to concern yourself with."
"Daddy…" Karai started to protest.
"You are to call me 'Father'!" Oroku Saki snarled. "As my daughter and student, I don't want any such familiarity or childishness from you again! Is that clear?"
Karai's eyes teared up but she stubbornly refused to let them fall. When her father was cross with her, he would lock her in one of the storage sheds for the night. She hated it when he did this, it was lonely, and there wasn't any source of light. So when night fell, the entire room would be flooded in darkness. During the summer it was bitterly hot, there were times she almost felt like she would die of heat stroke before the night finally fell. And during the winter it was freezing cold, and the nights were even colder. She wouldn't dishonor her father by childishly shedding tears.
As she had grown older, she was given more freedom and allowed her to roam the streets of Tokyo by herself. He had given her a credit card to let her buy what she wished within reason, and he didn't care how long she was out, where she went, and what she did. Karai got to see the grit and danger of the streets of Tokyo, smelled the sweaty rotten stink of it, and loved every moment. She had her ears pierced, her eye lids tattooed. Make up that would make her seem intimidating, showing her pride as the daughter of the Shredder.
Her father never showed any care or regard for what she did just so long it didn't dishonor him in any way. When she was with him she was expected to be poised and silent. Observing anything that could be a potential threat to him, and eliminate it, or make sure the client was not short changing him in any fashion. Other times he would rant and rave at her about how Hamato Yoshi needed to be found and eliminated. While she did agree Hamato Yoshi should pay for what he has done…she wished her father would open his eyes and realize she was there…she was his family. Shouldn't he appreciate the fact she lived and cared for him. Couldn't he see that she craved his love and attention, she'd be his soldier if that was what he wanted. But she also wanted to be with him as his daughter…not his weapon.
She had just turned thirteen when the Shredder had told her that as a Kunoichi, her body was both a trap and a tool. She had trouble understanding what he meant until one day he had told her to get information from a person known as Takanori Kazuo, and he didn't care what she had to do to get it.
Karai obediently located the target, a large, heavy set man who looked as though his face had been hit with a shovel. He was hideous to look at, but she knew her father needed this information. Disguising herself in a short leather skirt, a skin tight halter top and a dark leather jacket. Deceptively seducing Takanori into following her into a back ally, she let him touch and explore her face and neck with his lips and tongue for a small moment. When she felt she had his attention she withheld herself from him until she got the information she wanted, which Takanori eagerly complied. The feeling of this ugly man touching her made her skin crawl but she told herself, she was doing this for her father.
She hadn't expected things to go as far as it did. She had assumed that once she had the information he needed he would just continue to kiss her and then leave feeling he had received adequate payment. However instead he continued to move south, his hands cupping her breasts as his mouth explored her cleavage.
"I have given you your payment, thank you for your time." Karai insisted as she started to try to move a way
"No, I haven't received my payment yet." Takanori said as one of his fat meaty paws going to her thigh and straight to her undergarments. His voice a lust filled slur.
"The information you gave me doesn't warrant this." She said defensively.
"No, it warrant's this." In swift motion, Takanori threw her so that her chest and upper body was pitched forward into the dumpster. The nauseating smell of rotting fish entrails and other refuse meeting her nostrils causing her to feel like vomiting. The rim of the dumpster was digging into her stomach, while the lid of the dumpster pinned her lower back. She felt her panties roughly being pulled down as the ugly man's mouth and tongue ran along the inner folds of her body's entrance, probing further inside her. She tried to rock her body out of the dumpster, but the rough meaty hands held her firmly in place. She could do nothing as the man continued to savor the taste of her womanhood, and the feel of her body responding to it disgusted her even more.
"I never thought a girl like you would be a virgin." Takanori answered licking his lips with a loud disgusting smack. "Let me know when you need more information, it might warrant me making a woman out of you."
Karai hoisted herself out of the dumpster. Her hair disheveled and face grimey with fish guts as vengeance burned in her orange brown eyes. Didn't this man know who she was? Who her father was? She was the daughter of Oroku Saki! She didn't realize she had reached for the tanto blade tucked into the inner pocket of her jacket before it was embedded in Takanori's throat. The man clutched at the blade his voice a dying blood filled gurgle as he dropped to the ground gasping his final breaths. Karai felt no remorse for this man, no pity. Scum like him deserved death.
When she had returned she gave her father the information he needed.
"Good work, Karai." Her father answered, his tone cold and business like. The only warmth he had ever given her as her father.
"The informant however is dead…" Karai started to say.
"WHAT?!" Shredder roared with anger. "Takanori was a valuable informant! Find his killer and end their lives."
"I don't need to." Karai said evenly. "I'm the one who killed him." Shredder backhanded her across the face.
"You, my daughter?!" He snarled. "How dare you dishonor me in this way?!
"It was Takanori who dishonored you," Karai explained. "He touched me -your daughter- in places that should only be touched on my marriage bed."
"You are a kunoichi!" Shredder said as though that answer explained the fallacy of the situation.
"Don't you even fucking care that I was practically raped?!" Karai screamed back. How could her father not acknowledge that man had violated her most private areas? She had killed the man to protect her honor.
"As I have told you before…my she-snake of a daughter." He growled. "Your body is a trap and weapon against your foes, but it is also your currency. It is your job to distract and seduce your enemies, and your bodies' virtue may need to be sacrificed to achieve your goals." Turning from her he started to leave the room, but addressed a Foot Soldier as he exited. "Take her to the out buildings; she is to remain there until I feel she should be brought out."
Karai sighed in emotional defeat as she now resided dangled over the vat of mutagen in a coffin shaped cage. She had sacrificed much for the Shredder. She had let men (and some woman) touch her, ravage her,…hurt her all for the sake of pleasing her father…avenging her mother. Would Splinter have allowed that? Would Splinter have cared about what happened to her? The O'Neil girl's virtue seemed intact and she had two caring friends both in that human boy Casey Jones and that turtle Donatello watching for her. The way they would fiercely protect her and defended her, Karai was even surprised by the gall that purple masked Turtle had to not only show up alone, but to believe he even had a hope of saving April from her. Determined to give his life to protect April and prepared to kill Karai if it came to that. Back then Karai would have won either way, the death of either girl would have spread discord among the Turtles. But back then she had been jealous. She hated their unity, despised the fact that they loyally served the man who killed her mother. Throughout her life she was taught that respect must be earned, perfection and usefulness was to be rewarded, failure was to be punished and eliminated. Anyone and everyone was a tool and once all usefulness was gone, they were to be destroyed.
But with the short time she had lived with the Turtles, she realized the Shredder had been wrong. They were together because they were all they had. Everyone had their place and respected one another for what they had to offer. And while they did squabble, they all mattered to one another. Leonardo was their leader, their guiding light, Raphael their muscle, their protector; Donatello was the brains of the team, the mediator, the only one who carried a defensive weapon. The type of weapon the Shredder would have sneered at said such weapons were as useless as the fighter it chose. And little Michelangelo, the one who radiated light and hope for all the team. The one who saw things in people that others failed to…
If the four of them had been raised by the Shredder, Michelangelo would have been executed as an incompetent. Donatello would have been punished as a weaker fighter, constantly told that he was a failure. And with his gentle personality he would not have lasted long in the Foot Clan…it would have destroyed him emotionally, mentally, and physically. Only Leonardo and Raphael would have garnered the Shredder's favor and the two would constantly be at each other's throats as they vied for their master's approval.
How she wished she could return to that lair in the sewers. Spend time getting to know them all as her brothers, to know April as a friend and not a rival. To learn more about her true father and learn to experience what it felt like to have someone truly love and care about her as a person.
Perhaps the Shredder had never loved or cared about her at all. Perhaps he hated her because every time he saw her he saw her mother, but he also saw Splinter in her features. Now the Shredder was using her as bait, intending to trap the turtles and mutating them into mindless snakes so they would kill and devour her father.
Tiger Claw and the Shredder…her false father we're talking below her. Suddenly Tiger Claw looks up towards the ceiling, and fires a flair illuminating Splinter momentarily on one of the girders. Seconds before her father and his adopted sons dropped down, Raphael landing on Baxter Stockman. All of them poised and ready for a fight. They were here…they were here for her. Her heart thumped in elation, but also in trepidation. Her family…they were in danger. She wanted to warn them, tell them to leave and forget about her. She wasn't worth it…she didn't deserve it. But the duct tape Tiger Claw had slapped on her mouth prevented her from calling out to them.
"Welcome, my old friend." Shredder greeted with cool malice.
"Let my daughter go!" Splinter demanded fiercely.
"You are welcome to rescue her…if you can…" Shredder gloatingly said, Karai could imagine the twisted sneer that probably resided under the mask. He believed he held all the winning cards and he was looking forward to putting them into play.
Several Foot Bots crawled out from crates and boxes they were hiding behind. It was almost like something from a zombie film, but this was real…all too real.
Shredder and Splinter fought each other fiercely while the turtles battled their way through the Foot Bots. But the Foot Bots weren't fighting the brothers so much as they were driving them towards the cages that lay open on the ground. The first cage snapping shut over Donatello, with Raph and Mikey following after. Several Foot Boots tossed out ropes which lashed around Splinter's waist, arms, and neck restraining him.
Leonardo was knocked into the final cage, but prevented it from slamming over him with his katana blade enabling him to break free. He rushed to a chain that could take him up where Karai was suspended, however Shredder also noticed this.
"Watch as I take your family from you…once again." Shredder said as he jumped into the air intending to knock the blue masked turtle into the mutagen.
"Hang on, Karai." Leo said as he carefully pulled the duct tape from her mouth.
"Thanks." Karai said smiling up at him from where he was perched on her cage. But her eyes widened in horror as she saw the Shredder leaping towards him.
"LEONARDO!" Splinter yelled in warning. Leo saw the approaching danger just in time, unfortunately the Shredder's blow broke the chain suspending Karai's cage. Karai could only scream in horror as she plunged into the mutagen below.
"KARAI NO!" The Shredder bellowed.
"MIWA!" Splinter also cried out. For Karai however the voices of both her fathers were muffled by the intense pain she was feeling. Was this what birthing pains felt like? Her body burned as though it was on fire, every nerve, muscle, and bone in her body bubbled and changed. Her mind was becoming a foggy, and more feral with each moment. Glancing out of the vat she could make out Leonardo from where he had landed on the ground next to the cage that housed Donatello. Leo's eyes were saucer large in shock. Painfully she reached out a hand and touched the glass.
"Sayonara …" Was the last thought she remembered as the fog over took her consciousness, then all she knew was darkness.
