A sense of Family.
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.
Rated: T
Author's Note: This story is the sequel to my M rated story, The Enemy, for those readers who may not have read that story, the prologue should fill in enough gaps so that you can relate to what is going on now, in this story. Also very special thanks to Mikaela's Spade for beta reading this story for me. Ramica.
Prologue - What has been
Michaelangelo:
It had been around eight months since our home had been infiltrated by the Foot, most of our family, my sister in laws, young nieces and nephews had been killed in the battle that followed, in fact the only ones to survive the massacre other then us four boys, was Karena, Leo's wife, who was in early stages of pregnancy, and her first born children, twins, Aiden and Kaliann.
For a little over a week, we were held captive by Yukio's Foot clan, leadership of the Foot had fallen to Yukio when Shredder had died, he was cruel, sadistic man. Typically he enjoyed beating, torturing and starving us, often allowing certain select members to have some fun, at our expense, eventually he would execute us, but first he had to take his pound of flesh and blood from all of us.
Among the Foot Clan members was someone I had never expected to see.
Long ago I had my own little girl, I named her Ramiela, though I called her Rama, she was full of mischief and laughter, but she had disappeared before her seventh birthday. Though we scoured the city and searched everywhere possible we had never found her, over time my brothers figured Ramiela had to be dead.
I kept believing and hoping that she wasn't dead, even though I knew the odds of me finding her again were astronomical. Even though I wanted to think of her being alive, I don't think I would have accepted hearing that she was alive but had become one of our enemies.
She hated and despised us.
We learned during our captivity that she had been kidnapped, taken away, beaten, tortured and slowly brainwashed to accept whatever lies, her adopted father, Yukio told her.
Yukio called her Kirra and boasted of his daughter's skill and training, how obedient she was to him, once even providing a chilling demonstration to us of how well she would obey him.
Course, with us locked up, Kirra began to remember the truth that she was really my daughter, and the memories created conflict, because she now had to decide whether to continue obeying Yukio, or to help us.
She tortured me often, seeming to delight in my pain, but somehow in between the torture sessions, she also came to accept me on some level, I'm sure the return of her memories helped in forming that early bond.
Don figured that Yukio wanted to drive Rama insane, and then possibly kill her around the time that we were executed.
Rama learned that Yukio had a son, and her role as the future heir to the Foot might not be as secure as she thought, as well as realizing that Yukio had lied to her about many things, when she was told that she would have the, dubious honor of killing me, she felt that she wouldn't be able to do it. If she failed to obey Yukio, he would not take it well, so instead, in some way, Rama managed to gather the strength and courage to help us to escape.
It wasn't an easy choice for her by any stretch of the imagination, also her years of training and brainwashing made her so obedient to Yukio that betraying him was far more then an act of outright defiance. In her own way she loved him, but it was a love born of fear and uncertainty, not one that was truly what love was meant to be.
She knew by turning traitor the Foot Clan would banish her and kill her, she also knew that if she managed to escape with her life, that she would be hunted- a ronin who had no honor and whose life would be constantly in jeopardy.
She also knew enough to realize that our clan had a right to claim a debt of honor, killing her in exchange for all those the Foot had murdered in our own family when they had attacked.
During our escape she wavered- but it was due to, and because of her help, that were able to break free.
Rama, who was all ready mentally unstable due to the conflict she was facing, ended up accidentally killing Yukio with a throwing dagger. She had saved Leo's life by tossing the dagger to distract the two of them while they were locked in combat, it was mere fluke the knife she had tossed, ended up killing Yukio mere seconds later.
Leo had decided to give Rama a chance to try and get back into our family, though the odds of her ever being able to really become a family member was pretty slim.
Rama had a very volatile nature and a deep hatred towards the family, partly due to her specialized training, but Leo felt it might be better for everyone involved for her to remain in separate living quarters, at least until she had time to adjust.
I opted to stay with Rama, because she needed somebody with her, especially as she was grieving and more then a few fries short of her happy meal. Hell, come to think of it she was a long way off from that happy meal, but at first I was the only one she trusted enough to let me help her through the difficult period.
There had been a few times she had tried to commit seppuku, one time I found her holding a katana tip to her throat, another time I found her bleeding badly from slashed wrists, at that time she begged me to just let her die.
In practice Rama would switch from natural sparring to all out attack with a murderous intent.
We had to be careful not to speak ill of Yukio in any way, for it was a sure sign of setting her off and having her go for blood, course she never came after me in that way. Don had been jumped a couple of times by Rama but by now the two of them had found some common ground, which was just as well as Ramiela needed Don's help if she was going to recover. Raphael and Leo however earned a great deal of her attacks, by one way or another.
Raph didn't trust Rama, he was sure that her Foot training was too ingrained, ' a leopard couldn't change their spots, and she was still very much a threat to our family'. He didn't bother keeping these thoughts to himself, but voiced them loud and long, and often called Rama by her Foot name ' Kirra', or worse yet- 'psycho.'
Of course Raph had never been one to give his trust easily, and he did care for his family, so he was just as likely to bear a grudge against Rama until she proved to him that she was no longer a threat to him or those he cared about.
As for Leo, he believed Rama's problems with him stemmed from the fact that he hadn't prevented Yukio's death, and she held him responsible for the death of Yukio. Rama also seemed to have quite the problem with Leo ordering her around, she despised the fact that Leo tried to use any authority over her.
She had a great deal of problems, which Don was trying to help her with, but it wasn't easy for him as this was totally out of Don's usual medical experience, so he had to do what he could. A lot of Rama's problems were just starting to show themselves. So there was no doubt in any one's mind that we had a long road to go before we could even begin to make her a member of the family again.
I spent a great deal of my time playing mediator between Rama and the rest of the family, she would listen to me eventually; at least she had so far. So it was up to me, whenever Rama went off the deep end, to pull her back. I had to calm her down, get her to back off, and hopefully do it without her inflicting further injury on whomever she might be attempting to attack.
It wasn't that easy to do, and often she would then turn on me for siding with them but I believed that she wouldn't hurt me, and so far that theory seemed to be proving correct. I was the only member of the family that could even touch Rama, in a friendly reassuring way.
Due to the fact Rama and I lived together we spent a great deal of our time talking with one another in the evenings, often conversing in Japanese.
I knew from the way Rama talked about Japan and the gardens of the Ryu she had been trained in, that she considered Japan her home. She liked to go to Central Park to soak up the peace and tranquility but even there she had to be on her guard and stay hidden, not alerting others to the fact she was a giant turtle.
I had approached Don at one point explaining to him about Rama's love for Japan and the gardens.
Shortly after Don had made plans to convert an unused area of the sewer, next to our home, into a meditation garden for Rama. He had made a large rock area with a small pond in the centre of the rocks with a fountain to provide the sound of running water, flowers and various leafy green plants were placed among the rocks and the pond. Special lighting Don rigged over the garden provided essential nutrients for the plants; along one side of the rock wall he had placed a glass aquarium with fancy goldfish. He had found and fixed up a bamboo cage and bought two tiny finches to provide birdsong within the sanctuary.
After the plants and general scenery was set up Don placed a couple of benches and a small round table with chairs within the garden, so Rama could come in and sit, or have tea within the garden, and be relaxed.
I think Don's hard work at providing her such a peaceful setting went a long way, for it was then that Rama had come to accept and trust him.
Our home also had other Japanese touches like simple ink drawings and kanji writing with simple phrases of peace and prosperity or the like were placed strategically through out our home, candles and incense were often burned, to provide light or keep the place smelling, well better then a sewer.
Of course all these things helped Rama feel a little more at home.
Baka, Rama's senior cat, also lived with us and he got immense pleasure out of watching the fish and the birds in the garden, as if we had provided them strictly for his amusement.
Karena had given birth to a healthy baby girl just a few months ago, which was cause for enjoyment in itself, especially considering all the stress we'd been under when we had been captured. The family had never been too sure how it would affect the unborn child.
Leo and Karena named her Heiwa, which was Japanese for peace.
We were hoping that against all the odds the family would indeed come together and find peace with each other some time in the future.
TBC