Well, this chapter is probably going to be very much like chapter two in my other SAINW story, but there were just some things I couldn't part with while writing this... and I added an extra interaction between Amy and Chris. Hopefully this'll help to show their close sibling bond.
Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT or any of the characters. Chris Nova belongs to Solaris Prime.
Michelangelo led the four of us out of the park and into the city, once again staying in the shadows. It never ceased to amaze me how Chris had been able to do that, even in his sightless state. It wasn't long before we came to an old run-down building that looked as thought it would fall apart at any minute. I glanced at Mike, but he only walked forward and into the building. The rest of us followed after him. Once inside, I could see a woman with very short, graying hair staring down at a table with all kinds of spreadsheets on it. This woman looked familiar and I soon recognized her as April O'Neil. She seemed to have a different kind of strength from the last I'd seen her.
"Yo, rebel leader," Michelangelo called and she turned to face us. "Look what the cat dragged in." April walked towards us, surprise clearly on her features.
"April," Donatello exclaimed.
"Donatello," she said, her voice carrying a tone I hadn't heard since I was fourteen. "You came back… and you even brought Amy and Chris with you. Splinter always said you'd be back. Casey too." She threw her arms around Don's shoulders, only to pull away a moment later.
"Where is Case, that big bonehead?" Silence fell across the room. Casey had died long ago, in one of our earlier fights with the Shredder. That loss had torn up Raph on the inside. The two of them were best friends. Casey was an honorary turtle. From our silence, Donatello could quickly guess what had happened.
"Well, well, well, Donatello," an all-too familiar voice said as a wheelchair could be heard. I scowled deeply at the owner of the voice, as did Chris. Both of us had a deep-seated hate for Stockman. Don quickly pulled out his bo, ready to attack if necessary. "Looking younger than ever. And how do we look?" Stockman's brain had been placed in a jar and attached to the paraplegic body that belonged to Hun. Neither of them were good for much, with the exception of Stockman's intellect. I supposed a twisted side of me enjoyed seeing them in such torture after all they'd pained my family through the years. "Just another one of Shredder's punishments. Don't be impolite, Hun. Say hello."
"Greetings, Donatello," the once muscle-bound man said in a tone that reflected his hate for my family.
"Relax, Donny," April said and he lowered his bo staff. "They're on our side. We saved them from being executed about five years back."
"This life is worse. I wish I'd been put out of my misery."
"And I wish you had been put out of my misery, you miserable misanthrope!" Stockman yelled.
"You both should have been put down!" Chris and I yelled in unison.
"Now shut up," I finished with a growl. Don walked over to the picture of Casey that hung on the wall.
"April," he said. "There's got to be a way to end all this. Can you get Leonardo and Raphael to meet me?" He had the determined tone in his voice that I'd always remembered and found comforting when we were kids.
"I can try," the rebel leader answered.
Only hours later, my two eldest brothers were in the same building. Leo came first, wearing his black trench coat and those black goggles over his eyes. They covered what could no longer see since years ago. He was covered in battle scars. Raphael dropped to the ground only seconds later, right behind Leo. He wore a brown jacket and the left eye hole in his mask had been sewn shut. He didn't need it anymore. It was plain to see this wouldn't end well.
"What the shell are you doin' here?" Raph demanded.
"Raph?" Leo asked. "April's guys didn't say anything about you being here." I heard Chris sigh quietly beside me.
"Oh, whatssa matta, Leo? I remind ya how ya made us abandon Masta Splinter when he needed us most?!" Raph shoved Leo's shoulder, pushing him a step back. Leo pushed his hand away.
"It's what he wanted, Raph, to save us! If we had gone back there, we would have all been destroyed!"
My hand clenched into a fist at Leo's words. He was right, but it was the fact that made me so angry. Master Splinter was lost the night Shredder attacked our home. We couldn't have saved him, because if we tried, we'd all have died.
"We coulda saved him!" Raph yelled.
"You know we couldn't! He was gone!"
"No!" This time, Raph shoved Leo harder.
"Alright, Raph! I'm through talking. Let's settle this once and for all!" Leo yelled.
A scowl crossed my features and I dropped down from the ceiling, kicking Raph in the chest. This sent him falling onto his back. At the same moment, Don knocked Leo down with his bo staff. Chris landed beside me, keeping extra distance between the two eldest. Leo and Raph both growled before realizing what had just happened.
"What?" Raph asked in complete disbelief. I couldn't blame him.
"Leo, Raph, we need to talk," Donatello ordered. He helped Leo stand while I pulled Raph up by his hand.
"Donny!" Raph exclaimed, hugging the younger turtle. "No way!" He then grabbed Chris and me, ruffling our hair.
"Donatello! You're back! I don't believe it," Leo said.
"Believe it," Mike said as he and April walked into the hallway. "And brainiac here wants to go up against the Shredder."
"We've tried it already, Donny. How do you think we lost Casey?" My eyes averted to the floor and I heard Raph growl for what seemed like the hundredth time in less than five minutes.
"Shredder's place is surrounded by an army of Foot police," he added.
"And Utrominators."
"And Karai legions."
"We can't even get inside to fight."
"And if you could, you couldn't beat him," Stockman added as he came down the hallway with Hun. "The Shredder's new exo-suit is stronger than ever. I should know. I designed it."
"And mad scientist over there didn't make any noticeable weaknesses," I muttered.
"It's impossible," Leo stated.
"Can't be done, Donny," Raph added. Ironically, the one time the agreed on something, it was on the end of the world as we once knew it.
"I don't know what happened to you guys, but the brothers and sister I knew believed that nothing was ever hopeless!" Don yelled. "Please, we can do this!"
"I believe you, Don," Chris said, standing beside our genius brother. I smiled and stood with him.
"So do I." I knew we didn't have much else to lose. After Don had disappeared and Master Splinter died, I'd just about given up hope. Now, by some miracle, Don had come back to us. Maybe would could get another miracle. Leo and Raph shook hands, showing they were willing to work together again as well. They were willing to believe just one last time.
"Alright, we'll do it one more time, but please, tell me we have a fighting chance," Leo answered.
"I've been working on a plan. Do we have any hardware? Exo-suits? Anything?" Don asked.
"Well, we captured a Karai legion-bot that Dr. Stockman has been modifying," April answered.
"Good. That's a start, and there's something we'll need from the lair."
"The lair?" Raph asked. "It got wasted years ago."
"Not all of it."
As Don, April and I worked on the machines for Don's plan, it was almost completely silent. Chris was standing on the other side of the room, preoccupying himself by sharpening the blades of his knives. Sometimes, it amazed me how he could do that without the use of his eyes. I then noticed Don glancing my way and realized I'd tucked my hair behind my ears, an old habit from when I was a teenager. I couldn't meet his eyes.
"Amy, what happened?" he asked, his voice soft. Chris' head moved up, as if to glance if he'd been able to see. He was obviously paying close attention to our conversation now. I grimaced at the idea of Chris learning of my scars. I'd never wanted him to know. I shook my head and continued with what I was working on.
"Ame, are you hurt?" Chris asked, taking note of my silence.
"I'm fine," I growled.
"He doesn't know?" April whispered, obviously forgetting Chris' enhanced hearing ever since his eyesight left him.
"Know what?" he asked. Chris put his blades back where they rested on his belt and walked over to where I was standing, careful not to walk into anything. "Ame, what haven't you told me?" I sighed and took Chris' hand, resting his fingers against my right cheek, where the scars were. His eyes snapped open in pure shock.
"It was one of our fights with the Shredder, when he destroyed the lair," I whispered. "We tried to fight him off, but it was just too much. He ended up getting me, though just barely. I didn't want you to know, Chris. I thought it'd be better if you didn't." I then turned to face Donatello. "As you can see, Don, I've kept my sight, but these scars are so deep that I've lost most of the movement on the right side of my face. I can't even smile anymore, if there was anything to smile about. Let me tell you, Don, I'd be pretty close to one right now. You've come back and somehow managed to get Leo and Raph back. I have my family again, at least most of it." I hugged my genius brother tightly, a tear rolling down my cheek. I quickly swiped at it before turning to my work.
"Then you got off with the least of the injuries?" Don asked.
"Chris wasn't in the lair at the time, thank God. So, of those fighting, yeah, I got the least of it. And it only cost Mike's arm, Raph's left eye, Leo's eyesight and our father's life. I should have died." My voice turned bitter as I finished.
"Don't say that," Chris said sternly.
"It's true. They tried to protect me. I've always been the weakest. I'm not built like them and I'm not nearly as skilled as you, Chris. It was only a matter of time before I became a major hindrance. As I said, I should have died that day. If I had, maybe our family wouldn't be so broken."
"That's not true. They'd probably be worse without you," Donatello told me.
"Maybe. Guess we'll never know, now will we?"
"So, where'd you get the sais?" he asked after a moment of silence, trying to change the subject. I smirked as best I could.
"They're Raph's. He stopped using them a while back. When he decided to leave, he only told me and Chris. He gave me his sais, saying I'd be able to protect myself better with them than with any gun. He was right about that one. I stopped using my tessen a while back too. It just stopped being effective on our enemies, but I still carry it." Don nodded and silence enveloped the room again. Chris continued to stand right behind me. Every time I glanced at him, I could see the anger on his features.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, finally breaking the silence.
"It wouldn't have mattered," I answered, not looking up from where I worked. I knew he could tell, as my voice wasn't directed at him.
"Like hell it wouldn't have!" That's when I turned to look at Chris.
"What would you have done if you knew, Chris? Gone in there and tried to face Shredder by yourself? Get yourself killed for the sake of a face you can't see?! There was no point in telling you because you would never have known if it hadn't been brought up today! Just let it go." I could feel tears brimming in my eyes once more and cursed them. I hated crying, almost as much as I hated arguing with my brother.
"Don't you think I deserved to know?"
"Probably, but I didn't think you'd want to." My voice broke and I didn't say anything more. I was sure if I did, I'd start crying. Of course, Chris took notice of the change in my voice. The frown left his lips and his expression visibly softened. He pulled me into a tight hug to try and calm me down.
"I don't care about the scars. Like you said, I'll never see them. I'm mad because you were hurt and you never told me," he explained.
"I know, but I didn't want you to worry about me. You've had enough to worry about," I answered and pulled away, turning back to my work once more.
Once the machines were done, Don, Chris and I walked into the room where the rest of our brothers were. Surprisingly, Raph and Leo weren't arguing, though that may have been attributed to the fact they were on opposite sides of the room. Well, it was a start. Leo was leaning against one of the walls while Raph was staring outside through a shattered window. Michelangelo was on the couch in the middle of the room, right in the middle of them both. Leonardo was the first to move, taking a step forward. I walked over to him and he placed a hand on my left cheek.
"You're as beautiful as ever, Amy," he told me with a small smile and I wrapped my arms around his neck.
It had been years since I'd seen Leo and even longer since he'd seen me. His sight was taken from him just minutes before I was attacked. He only saw me as the beautiful young woman I once was. Either that, or he saw what I really was, beneath the surface. Whichever way you look at it, he didn't see my repulsive scar.
"You can say that again," Chris answered with a smile. After a minute, I walked away from Leo and to Raphael. He had the faintest of smiles on his lips as well.
"Good t' see ya, Ame," he said.
"You too, Raph," I answered.
"Ya takin' care of my sais?" I pulled one of them out from the belt I kept them on and twirled it in my fingers a few times. It was as sharp as it had always been.
"Of course." This was the kind of conversation Raph was good at, and the kind I was used to. He'd always had difficulty expressing his emotions, unless it was anger. Then again, almost everything seemed like anger with Raph. Of course, I knew how he was and could read him as easily as I could read Chris' facial expressions. Raphael wanted to make sure I was safe. Asking about the sais was his way of doing so. Finally, I just threw my arms around him. "I've missed you, Raphie," I whispered, using my childhood nickname for him, and he gently rubbed my back a couple times.
"Yeah… me too," he answered as I pulled away.
I just couldn't part with her interactions with Leo and Raph... and I just had to show that whole thing between her and Chris because I felt it showed how close they were. Hopefully that worked. Please R&R.
