Author's Note: And the third chapter!! Warning: major cliffy at the end, as usual!! X3
Special thanks to my wonderful friend and editor, Stephanie. You rock, dudette!!
"There."
Navaki finished rewrapping Raph's leg and stepped back. The red-clad turtle sighed and pushed himself to his feet.
"Can I go now? There's a lot of work to do," he muttered.
"You'll go when I say you can go," the healer shot back. "Now has your cold gotten any better?"
"Cold!?" Crystal echoed, her ears perking up.
"Navaki!" Raph groaned.
"Raphael, you didn't tell me you were sick!" Crystal was at his side in an instant, both worried and annoyed. "You should be resting!"
"Crys, I'm fine..."
Crystal continued, oblivious to his protest. "You need to start worrying about your own health and stop pushing yourself so hard! What did you-"
Raph sighed, then suddenly leaned in and kissed the mutant cat on the lips, effectively silencing her. After a few moments, he pulled back, though his hands were still around her waist.
"I'm fine, ok?" He murmured, his gaze soft.
Crystal smiled, though there was still a hint of concern in her eyes. "Ok..." She agreed quietly, nuzzling him.
"Aww!" Mike cooed.
The two turned to find the others watching them. Leo and Don both had smirks on their faces, while Mikey was attempting to muffle his giggles. Kage had moved to the other side of the cave and was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the ground. Crystal smiled, blushing slightly, while Raph only rolled his eyes. Navaki was observing the scene with a rather bored expression.
"If you two lovebirds are finished," Navaki began, earning a snicker from Mike, "I think you owe your brothers an explanation, Shadow."
Raph's smile faded and he gave a slight nod. Crystal took a seat on the stone bench, tugging the red-clad turtle down beside her. She held his hand, offering what comfort she could.
Leo hesitated for a moment, but he couldn't keep himself from asking any longer. "Why does everyone call you Shadow?"
"I'll get to that," Raph muttered. "You might want to sit down. It's a long story..."
Leo, Don, and Mike exchanged glances before they all sat down on the ground, looking expectantly up at their brother. Raph was silent for a long time, a frown on his face as he thought of where to start.
"Well...13 years ago I was pulled through the portal like you guys were." Raph stared down at the hard floor of the cave, unwilling to meet anyone's gaze. "Kage was there to save you, but when I came there was no group of rebels. This whole world was enslaved, and they caught me, too. Before, this world was a beautiful place, or so I've been told. But when Xekon came and discovered all of its mystical creatures, he decided to take it over. He was greedy and ruthless, and killed anyone that stood in his way. Eventually he had a castle built, and most of his troops came from New York City. It only took a year or two before his kingdom was finished and more than a hundred thousand men had joined him. He captured every single creature he could and made them work. It wasn't long before he got bored with that..." He paused, leaning back against the wall behind him. "Xekon was a scientist before he came here, and he had always dreamed of creating new species of his own. So he took DNA samples from some of the animals he could find back on Earth and started to mix them with the creatures here. He even used some of his own men as experiments. His results were just what he wanted. He created a bunch of different species combinations, torturing them for pleasure and making many of them his servants. He's had this world under his control for more than forty years, and by the time he managed to capture me all of the creatures here had lost hope of escaping. They call me a hero now..." He slowly looked up at his brothers, not surprised to see their shocked expressions. "...Because I'm the one who gave them the spirit to fight back again."
Silence followed, and Raph looked back down at the ground. He didn't feel like a hero - he never had - but everyone else seemed to think so. He knew he should be happy, but he wasn't.
"What happened?"
His thoughts were interrupted by Leo's voice, and his gaze flicked to his eldest brother. Leo was watching him, a hint of pride in his dark brown eyes.
"I didn't do much, really," Raph muttered. "At first I was the only was who caused much trouble." He couldn't help but smirk slightly. "I always annoyed the guards, and picked a fight every chance I got. I also tried to round up some of the other prisoners..." The smirk vanished. "But...nothing good really came out of it back then...most of them were killed because of me...and I was...tortured..." He glanced down at the symbol on his right shoulder. "That's how I got this. All of the troublemakers get Xekon's mark so the guards knew who to keep a closer eye on. I gave them all a lot more trouble than they expected, though, because one night I escaped, and I took a few other prisoners with me. That's how I met Crystal." He smiled a bit at the memory. "She was brave enough to tag along, along with Zyphion. He's the oldest creature in the camp, and everyone always goes to him for advice." He turned serious again. "Then we found this place. We started to gather up more and more prisoners."
"You were always the one to go back and get them out of the dungeons." Crystal squeezed his hand gently. "It always worried me when you were gone for more than a day."
"Yeah...but I always came back, didn't I?" Raph couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face as Crystal laid her head on his shoulder, a purr rumbling in her throat.
"Then we had Kage...and Hikari three years later," she added. "What an experience that was."
Raph chuckled. "They were always getting into trouble. Xekon almost caught Kage a couple times." He gave him son a meaningful glance. Kage didn't even look up, so Raph turned his attention back to his brothers. "I suppose you're wondering why he doesn't talk, huh?"
"Yeah, really!" Mike piped up.
Raph sighed. "Kage was mute from birth," he explained quietly. "He finds ways to communicate when he needs to, but he's always been more of a loner." Kage shot a glare at Mike when he saw the orange-clad turtle staring at him. Mike quickly looked away, shuffling nervously. "Anyways...well, that's pretty much it, I guess. Since we got out eleven years ago we've just been trying to fend off Xekon and find a way to overthrow him."
"It hasn't been easy," Navaki spoke finally. "I've had many people die in my care, and numerous others have been wounded."
"Speaking of the wounded...what happened to your leg?" Don asked curiously.
"I broke it. It never healed right."
"In battle?"
Raph paused, avoiding his brother's gaze. "No...it was one of my punishments..."
Don's eyes widened a bit. "They deliberately broke your leg!?"
"That's not nearly the worst they've done," Raph muttered. "They've tormented some of the creatures until they begged to be killed, then they put them back in the dungeons and left them there to die slowly and painfully."
"Did they do that to you?" Mike whispered, almost afraid of the answer.
Raph didn't reply for a long moment, unconsciously tracing the scar on his left arm. "Yeah..." He answered quietly. His brothers stared at him, disbelief in their eyes. "I didn't beg for mercy, though. I would never give Xekon that satisfaction. After a while I guess they had better things to do, so they just threw me back in my cell." He slumped back against the wall, arms crossed. "I'm just glad Crystal and Navaki shared the cell with me. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have ever got out of there..."
"Raph..." He looked up to meet Leo's horrified gaze. "D-did they really...?" Raph just nodded. He hated telling this story. Leo clenched his teeth, anger pushing its way into his voice. "Xekon won't get away with this..."
"Hold it, Leo." Raph looked sternly at his blue-masked sibling. "You're not going to just go busting in there to pick a fight with Xekon. That's stupid! If we're going to win this war, we need a pretty darn good plan. This isn't the Shredder - even that big thing with Winters wasn't as dangerous as this is! I swear, if I catch you trying to sneak into that castle, I'll kick your ass myself!" Leo stared at him, stunned. "...What?"
"Dude, do you know how much you sounded like Leo just now!?" Mike exclaimed, both amused and surprised.
Raph paused, confused for a moment, the realized what his brother was talking about. "Things have changed, Mikey...including me."
Mike frowned, but nodded nevertheless. Everyone was quiet for a while, not sure what to say.
"Raph..." Don broke the silence. "You said that Xekon mixed everyone's DNA up with another species...what did they do to you?"
Raph's gaze dropped to the ground once more. He slowly stood up, his expression unreadable. Finally, he spoke.
"I'll show you..."
What happened next left his brothers in complete astonishment.
Light engulfed Raph and his whole form changed. The glow only lasted for a heartbeat before it flickered out. When it was gone, there was a completely different creature in the spot Raph had been standing a second before.
The wolf's fur was mainly black, with crimson-colored markings on its tail-tip, muzzle, paws, and the tips of its ears, and its eyes were blood-red. It had the same scars as Raph, though they were mostly hidden by its fur. The chain was around its right ankle, along with the bandages on its left leg. Xekon's symbol was a red mark on its right shoulder.
"You wanted to know why they called me Shadow..." Raph's voice came from the wolf. "Here's your answer."
Author's Note: Told ya there'd be a cliffhanger. -nodnod- btw, if ya wanna see what Shadow (aka wolfie Raph) looks like, go to my DeviantArt account. There's a link on my profile. Raph (in his normal form), Crystal, Kage, and Hikari are all there, too. I'm gonna try to draw all of my other OCs, too, but that'll take a while. XP
