This is a part two of my fanfiction, Never the same again. I recommend reading the first one to understand this story a little better, but it's alright not to. I will write a short summary of my first fanfic at the end of this prologue. Enjoy!
Raph's eyes flutter slowly, waking up from a wonderful dream, though he doesn't remember any of it. He was not even sure it was a good dream, but it certainly felt like it from the happy, tingling feeling in his stomach.
As he stretches his arms above his head and opens his eyes, he finds himself lying on a couch, but not just any couch, it was in Jaylene's apartment living room. He spins around to take in all the details of her home despite his presence at this place multiples of times.
A light, cold breeze blows the back of his neck and he turns in the direction of the balcony, his emerald green orbs finally settling on a sight for sore eyes. Jaylene. The brunette stands facing the sun, with her arms wrapped around her shoulders, head held high, with the soft patches of sunlight shining on her face.
Could she have looked more angelic? And the red banded turtle answers that question with an image appearing in his mind. It was shortly after she attended Darryl's party, and he spotted her sitting with her legs hanging off the edge of the building of their secret place. Her light blue dress reflected the moonlight, creating an angelic glow to her appearance, and it erased all negative thoughts in his mind. It was the happiest moment he had ever shared with someone that night, though it happened almost a year ago.
He walks towards her cautiously, and he did not know the reason why he moved ever so carefully. His arms wrap around her upper arms and he rests his hands on her stomach, with his plastron pressed against her back and his chin rested on the place between her neck and shoulder. He hears a soft sigh escape from her lips before she speaks, her voice like music to his ears.
"Good morning Raphael", she begins with, her eyes fixed blankly on the scenery below her. Raph smiles softly at her in return, knowing she didn't expect a reply because his presence was enough for her. "Hope you slept well…and what did you think of the movie we watched last night?" she asks with a sleepy tone, and the turtle furrows his brows at her question.
He doesn't recall watching a movie the night before, let alone remember at least a small bit of the dream he had last night. Ignoring what she had asked, he abruptly asks a question that had been on his mind for three months. It may have been too sudden, but he needed answers, straight from her.
"Why did you leave?" he bursts out, and strangely, Jaylene remained calm, not moving or flinching from his slightly prying tone, which shocked him. The brunette sighs and replies, "I had to. You, your brothers, and Splinter mean everything to me. I love you so much; I needed to find a way to keep you safe away from the enemy."
Raph sighs much like she did just before as he squeezes her petite body and turns her around to face him. "I miss you, Y'know."
Jaylene nods calmly and says, "I know", as she gazes into his eyes, her steel blue orbs shining with truth. The turtle leans in to place a tender, loving kiss on her lips, but when his lips are about to come in contact with hers, she disappears. His hands are no longer gripping her upper arms, and he is only holding onto the air where her body was supposed to be. He whirls around, eyes darting to spot a glimpse of her and she is nowhere in sight. A deep voice yells out, "Yame!" before the pain in his lower abdomen hits and his back slams into the wall, hard.
Raph blinks several times and finds himself in the dojo, with Leo kneeling in front of him, mouthing something. The high pitched ringing in his ears quietens down, and is replaced with a voice talking to him. Leo's voice. The voice soon matches with the movement of his brother's lips and he is asking him something. "Raph? Raph, are you alright?" the blue banded turtle worriedly asks his brother as he grabs his biceps and shakes him, though he knew how much Raph hated it when he did that.
"Huh? I'm fine. What happened?" Raph wonders while rubbing his aching shell and Donnie pipes up. "You and Leo were getting ready to spar, but you looked like your mind was somewhere else…now I know it is."
Leo nods and says, "Look, I'm sorry Raph. I thought you were ready." It was unlike Raph to be unprepared for a spar…especially when it's with me…, the words appear in his mind.
He picks up his brother's sais sprawled on the ground and hands it to the turtle sitting on the ground, who was still a little dazed, but the red banded turtle's expression changes drastically from his words of apology as he snatches his sais from Leo's hands.
"Are you saying I can't take a hit?" Raph snaps back at his elder brother and abruptly stands up, his eyes fixed on Splinter. "Sorry sensei, but I can't do this. Not now", before stalking out the dojo, and tossing his sais at the wall beside him because it seemed like an appropriate time.
Raph stands in front of the pinball machine, aimlessly pressing the buttons like a robot. "What's wrong with me?" he asks himself and continues to press the buttons and stare blankly at the game.
"That dream just felt so…real. Like she was really there. Like she was with me." A robotic sound disturbs his thoughts and he turns to find that he had lost his game in pinball; nowhere near his brothers' high scores, but the results didn't bother him.
"Never mind, my head isn't in the game anyway. Maybe I could clear my thoughts outside", he decides, abandoning the game and hopping over a turnstile with one hand and heading down the path of the tunnel.
He played back the daydream in his mind as he strolled on the rooftops and from time to time, punching the brick wall when it stood beside him.
Listening to her reply in why she left them didn't satisfy him. He was sure that Jaylene knew his feelings for her, but did she keep it in mind when she made the decision to sacrifice herself? She may have been missing for three months already, but she always haunted him in his dreams and every time, he tried to bring himself to ask for her reasons in why she left, but chose to remain silent and only enjoy the moments he had with her.
His mind still distracted, he stumbles over a crack on the ground and falls to his knees, hands landing on the edge of the building to steady himself, but glancing down at the alleyway below him, he sees…her. Her flawless skin and silky, short blonde hair flowed with the wind as she ran deeper into the dead end. The girl was beautiful.
As he tilts his head to the other end of the alleyway, he spots her backing away from something, or, someone. A skull-masked, black-hooded man was walking towards her like she was his prey, and in his hands, was a hockey stick. Not a deadly weapon, but it could injure the girl.
Raph's view of the scene was not the best as he only sees the back of the teen, but he can clearly see the front appearance of the man approaching her, and he was definitely not friendly. The turtle prepares to jump down and help her; reaching for his sais to realize he had left them at the dojo. At the moment, he possesses his back up weapons and nothing else.
I chose a bad time to leave my sais back at the lair, he growls irritated and pauses to choose whether saving her without a proper weapon was a good idea. "Oh well, she needs a hero", he finally decides, getting ready to jump off the roof, but below him, the girl suddenly pulls out a red whip and lashes it at the man.
The end of the whip wraps around the man's neck and she yanks her end of the weapon, pulling the man closer to her.
Raph stood silently, mouth agape at the sight as the girl spins and slams the man against the side of a green dumpster bin, the whip strangling him. Fortunately, the girl turns where he catches a front view of her and his jaw drops even lower than before.
She appears to be a ninja, kunoichi perhaps as a white mask covers the bottom half of her face and reaches halfway up her nose while she is wearing a white spandex suit with a red belt hanging around her waist and white high-heeled boots. The girl has shining green eyes, full of fire and passion and her hair drapes slightly past her shoulders.
Raph stares in awe at how she was defeating the man and as he leaps down to have a closer look, his eyes widen at the symbol on her shoulder. A foot clan symbol. Processing this new clue, the red banded turtle realizes the masked man isn't the bad guy and she isn't the victim. It is in fact, the opposite.
Knowing whose side to join, the turtle jumps in and kicks the girl in the back, feeling a little guilt for his action. She releases the grip of the whip she had around the man's neck and stumbles to the ground, taken aback from the impact and all at once, the masked man untangles the whip and throws it behind him, staring at the turtle next to him, with the girl wearing the same stunned expression.
"You-You're a giant turtle", he says and Raph rolls his eyes. "Wow, thanks for telling me something I have known for fifteen years", he replies, sarcasm thick in his voice before he turns his attention to the girl a few feet away.
"Who are you? Are you with the Foot?" He asks, though he knew the answer to the second question and it was quite pointless in asking it. The girl no longer wearing the shocked expression when he spoke, changes her facial appearance to a confused, yet reminiscent look.
He sees a ghost of a sly smile appear on her lips before she pulls something from behind her. Smoke bombs. His mind was quick to think when he saw the small objects she held in her hands, but his reactions were too slow.
He lunges at her a second after she slams the smoke bombs on the ground and he instead crashes into the wall with a loud thump. "Nice one Raph. Second time today", he says to himself, referring to how many times he had crashed into the wall as he rubs his head from the pain, and deep in thought.
The mysterious girl is gone, but who is she? He had never seen her before in his life, but the look of remembrance on her face conveyed that she had seen him once. Maybe she spies on you like Karai spied on Leo a year ago, his mind suggested, and he settled with that thought as he moved away from the wall he crashed into earlier.
A shuffling sound behind him catches his attention and he slowly turns to face the masked man. "Do you know her?" he asks and the man shakes his head.
"No dude. I was beating up some guys who were cornering a shop keeper and she suddenly jumped in and kicked me in the face. I think she was on their side, but she didn't look like one of them. I chased her, and the next thing I knew, I was being strangled by her whip and a giant mutant turtle saves me."
Raph nods in response and his thoughts ponder on the man's story as he scratches his head in slight confusion. No suggestions appear in his mind, so he begins to walk away, but a large glove placed on his shoulder stops him. "But…thanks dude", the man says, adding onto his explanation, and from the tone in his voice, the red banded turtle knew this man was not the type to show gratitude often.
Raph smirks and replies, "No problem", and outstretches his hand in greeting. "Names Raph", he chooses to introduce himself with, as this was not a formal meeting.
The man lifts his hood and takes his skull-like mask off, revealing he was no older than eighteen years old with brown eyes, raven black hair and had missing two front teeth. He too smirks and grasps Raph's hand tightly before replying, "Jones. Casey Jones."
Fin
I had an urge to post the prologue so badly, so I did, though the chapters may come a while later. I have already sorted out most of the details for the story, and just need to add some stuff for the middle chapters. Surprising how I came up with the prologue before I'm going to post the next chapters, but this part was quite easy to write up. Please review for your opinion on what you think about this intro!
Short Summary of Never the same again (Based after season 1):
The turtles find an unconscious girl in the sewers who was accidentally shot by one of the kraang droids they were battling against, and discover she had slipped into a coma. Feeling responsible for her condition, the turtles take her back to the lair where she is under Donnie's care for several months. When she wakes up all of a sudden, she attacks the turtles and tries to escape, showing skill in some forms of ninjutsu, but they are able to defeat her in the end. She then introduces herself as Jaylene O'Denlly, a fourteen year old whose parents are extremely wealthy, but divorced, so she lives in an apartment of her own in the city.
They decide to welcome her into their family - Splinter happily agreeing - as she is somewhat alone from not going to public school and having a tutor instead. When Jaylene goes on patrol for the first time with the turtles, they unexpectedly encounter Karai. After the battle, Jaylene informs the turtles that Karai her friend from when she lived in Japan a couple of years ago.
Karai soon remembers who Jaylene is, and tries to convince her to join her side with the Shredder, as she believes that Splinter is evil because he killed her mother Tang-Shen (Karai not knowing the truth that Splinter is her father).
As weeks turn into months, Raph has fallen for Jaylene and finally has the feelings returned after Jaylene has a bad night, while also encountering Karai. Raph is the only one able to make her feel better, and deeply cares for her, which allows Jaylene to realize her feelings for him too. Karai has many attempts in persuading Jaylene to join her; even capturing Donnie as hostage and 'bait'. Jaylene sees that Karai is going too far, and devises a plan to return Donnie home safely. However, the other part of the plan unknown to the turtles, included Jaylene handing herself over to the enemy as she wishes to keep the turtles safe; since Karai will be satisfied she has joined the enemy side.
Donnie lets everyone know of Jaylene's sacrifice when he returns, and this crushes Raph the most who vows to find her and save her with the help of his brothers.
Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT 2012