They reached the lair soon, where Kim was laid on the couch and Donnie started examining her in an instant. "It seems the poison paralyzed her body, but it isn't fatal", he said after a while and drew back his equipment, "she should be fine in a few hours, I think."
Then he turned back to her. "Try to get some sleep, since you, uh..." A sheepish grin spread across his face as he continued, "...since you kinda... can't do anything else. I'll get you a blanket."
Kim blinked to signal she understood. While Donnie went to look for a spare blanket, Leo stood up and looked at his brothers, grimacing at what was about to come. "I'll go and tell Master Splinter. And... ask if she could stay. For now."
And with that he headed to the Dojo where their father supposedly was. "Good luck, Bro!", Mikey yelled after him before a big yawn took over.
"I think all of you could use some sleep now, huh?", Donnie chuckled as he returned and covered Kim with the blanket he found. "Here, now you're warm. Good night, guys!"
Instead of going to bed the purple-masked turtle dropped down on the couch beside the girl and took out a book.
"You're not going to bed, Donnie?", Raph asked with a raised eyebrow. His brother just waved his hand. "Nah, I'm not tired. I recently found this really interesting book on Robotics I want to finish. Also this way someone can have an eye on her until she recovers."
"Yeah, makes sense. So...Night." Raph shrugged and walked away, leaving only his brother and the paralyzed girl in silence.
xxx
"How is she?"
A few hours passed and everyone returned to the living room after catching some rest. Donnie was coming out of the kitchen with some water as the question was asked.
He shrugged. "The poison has worn off since she's able to move again. But she stood up without a word and now she seems to be blowing off some steam."
His brothers blinked. "What do you mean?" Their brother sighed and gestured for them to follow him to the Dojo. They opened the door just enough to see what was going on there.
Kim seemed to have fully recovered from the poison, though you couldn't say that for her pride. She was beating one of Raphael's sand bags senseless.
Judging from the sweat that covered her forehead and the bloody knuckles she has been at it for quite a while.
"Shouldn't we stop her?", Mikey whispered quietly, intimidated by the force the girl was putting in each of her punches.
Nobody answered that for a while, but then Raph shook his head. "If she needs this, we should let her." If anyone knew that, it would be him. He had massacred this bags countless times and it was just what he had needed to calm down his senses.
"Wasn't Sensei in there?", Donatello suddenly asked, scanning the dojo for Splinter, "where is he?"
Leo pointed to a corner on the opposite side of the sand sacks. "There. He's watching her."
xxx
Kimiko coughed, giving the bag a few final blows before she sank down from exhaustion. She gasped for air as she was wiping the sweat from her face with her sleeves. She didn't remember the last time her body was so tired, but stopping punching had been no option until now. "Damn it..."
"Are you finished wearing out your body now?", a voice suddenly appeared right behind her. She whirled around as her eyes widened at the giant rat in a kimono which stood in front of her. "Who-?"
"My name is Splinter. And the four who took you in are my sons. And my students", he stated calmly, watching her with worry in his eyes.
The girl still gaped, but managed to close her mouth and regained her posture on her knees. A gigantic rat, the father of four mutant turtles. Made totally sense.
"May you tell me just what caused this amount of disturbance within your soul, my child?" It was a question softly asked, but still it made her flinch. "I-...I..."
She tore her gaze away from him to face the ground, face reddening.
"I'm just so angry at myself!", she finally burst out, hiding her face in her hands. "All my life and training have always been about self-control! I always had the upper hand in a fight because I didn't let emotions blur my mind. And now I let my rage take over and I totally blacked out! This little dipshit who murdered my father almost had me killed, too! With my own poison!" She began to sob. "I'm so ashamed of myself..."
Her forehead touched the floor as she hugged herself tightly and bend over, now sobbing uncontrollably.
Splinter remained still for a while, as did his sons who were still at the door watching the whole scene with sad eyes.
"It is right that you got yourself in a dangerous situation because of your anger, dear", he then said, softly putting his hand on her shoulder, "but it is only natural for us to err sometimes, and our mistakes always wield a valuable lesson for us to learn."
The calmness of his voice did have an effect on her, as the sobbing and shaking ceased after some time and she sat up straight, taking some deep breaths. "You are a wise one, aren't you", she whispered as a smile crept up her face, though she still looked hurtful.
Splinter chuckled at that, stroking his whiskers. "I have been called that by some, yes. It is the many years of experiencing life that speak out of me, which are still for you and my sons to come."
Kim stood and bowed deep before the Master. "Thank you for letting me stay in your house", she stated, "and you are very right about what you said. It will take me a while to overcome my emotions and learn from them, I believe, but I will try."
A crooked smile came across her face. "Can I meditate somewhere?"
xxx
Two hours later the turtles had come together for lunch.
"Kim still in the Dojo?", Mikey asked before shoving a whole slice of pizza in his mouth. Leo also had his mouth full, so he just nodded. Master Splinter had left the girl alone at the dojo where she could be undisturbed while meditating. She had been there ever since.
After Leo had swallowed, he spoke: "Master said training's off for today. He believes she will be there for quite a while due to... 'anger management' he called it."
Donnie laughed out loud at this statement, giving Raph a shove. "Maybe you should join her, Dude!"
That earned him laughs from his brothers as well, except for Raph, who growled at him. But before he could jump at his brother, Splinter appeared and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Raphael, I want you to come with me", he stated with a blank face, then turned around and gestured for his son to follow. The turtle shot an irritated gaze at his brothers, but eventually followed.
His confusion grew even more when he noticed they were heading towards the dojo. The rat motioned for him to enter.
The moment Raphael opened the door the urge to slam it shut again overcame him.
What the hell was that? Every cell in his body screamed for him to go away, get as far away as possible from this room. But his father shove him in and closed the door behind them so there was no escape.
"Master, what...?"
Splinter gestured at the tree. Or rather at the small figure which sat before it.
"It's her aura", he explained calmly to his son, who couldn't tear his gaze from Kim the moment he realized she was the cause to this terrifying atmosphere.
"There is much more anger raging inside her now than you can imagine, my son. She was blinded by it and it almost killed her if it were not for you and your brothers. And now she is fighting to overcome it."
Raph shuddered. This feeling as if something dark was coming over him in waves, drowning him... it was unbearable. He couldn't believe it was Kimiko's anger that radiated from her like a fount of despair.
"I believe you know why I brought you here, my son?", his master asked quietly. Did his Whiskers just tremble? The turtle blinked. Then he looked at the meditating girl again, and hung his head. "Yes, sensei..."
"Stay. Observe. And learn."
And with that the rat exited the dojo, leaving his son alone.
He looked around nervously and fumbled with his mask, unsure what to do. Should he sit here, or come closer...?
He definitely didn't want to. The thought alone made him shiver. So he sat down where he was, eyes glued to Kimiko who didn't seem to have noticed anything in her trance. Or didn't care.
Well, time to sit through this...
xxx
His brothers had long finished eating and were now watching an episode of Space Heroes when Raph finally returned.
"Dude, where were you?", Mikey shouted, waving at him furiously. Leo eyed him suspiciously. "Yeah, you were gone for like an hour!"
The green eyed turtle scratched his head, not sure how to answer this. "I... I was in the dojo", he sighed after a while, "you could call it a lesson from Master Splinter."
Donnies ears perked up at this. "The dojo? How's Kim?", he asked, making Raph furrow his brows.
"Bad. But she'll manage, I think. I don't know." His voice made it pretty clear he wanted to shut the topic, so the others left him be. Even Mikey seemed to grasp the situation, so everyone focused back to tv.
Author's note:
Sorry for the late update, I was away for a week. That was all I had pre-written so far, so the next chapters will take much longer to upload.
Hope you enjoyed it so far, please R&R!