My hand slipped and I don't really know what to say about this chapter now. Oh well.
Overjoyed
She's taken to perching upon the old turnstiles that mark the entrance to the lair. Whether she's hunched over like a gargoyle, or leaning against them casually as possible, or sitting on it sideways, legs braced on the next turnstile over, she's there at some point during the day. They all know why she's there. She wants out. She wants her freedom back.
(What little of it she had, anyway.)
Karai has never been one for passiveness, anyway. April's tried to distract her with training and "girl time"; it works, for about an hour or so, and then Karai becomes distracted again. Donnie's given Karai an open invitation to hang out in his lab to vent or just distract herself, and she'll go there once or twice a week for the isolation. Mikey has introduced her to video games, and while Karai loves them – especially the violent ones where you go around shooting people for no purpose whatsoever – they've begun to lose their touch.
It won't be long before Karai leaves, and attempts to take out the threat. And no one wants to be there for the fallout when it finally comes to pass (because sooner or later, it will happen).
Talking seems to be the best way to distract Karai, or deter her, or get her to calm down and rethink what she's doing.
Splinter's words, as always, are the ones with the most effect on her though.
One evening, while his sons gather to watch one of their TV shows on the couch, he spies Karai at her perch, casting glances back at the turtles. She is torn, he notes, between trying to bolt and take her revenge, or joining her foster brothers in their childlike joy – something which was limited growing up with Oroku Saki.
"Karai." He still aches to call her Miwa, but he will not push her, and the fact that she's accepted her true family name is enough to bring joy to his heart. "May I have a word with you?"
She looks up at him, and he can't help but notice how similar her eyes are to his own, though the hair that dusts over them – which has grown out a few inches now – is much more like Tang Shen's. "Of course."
She follows him to the dojo, the boys oblivious to anything but their show. Splinter sighs internally at the sight; he'll have to remember that, and test their awareness skills one of these days. As they enter, Karai instinctively sits cross-legged by the tree, and Splinter kneels in front of her. (He cannot sit properly, not anymore; his legs have taken on too many rat-like qualities, and any attempts to sit cross-legged on the floor are met with protesting bones.)
"Karai, you are becoming ever more distant. Tell me, my daughter, what it is that troubles you so."
She instantly begins to rant, a storm of words falling from her mouth with barely any filter. "It's Shredder! I can't stand the thought of him still out there, hunting me – hunting us. I want to go up and have that chance of a somewhat normal life I didn't have before, and even now he's still keeping it from me! He needs to go down, and it needs to happen soon, because I'm going to go stir-crazy if I can't get out soon and–!"
"Karai." Just her name, simple as that, is enough to stop her cold. "Karai, listen to me. I understand that you yearn for freedom, and trust me, I wish I could give it to you. I want to see you happy, but I also want to make sure you are safe." His ears flick back slightly at his next thought. "I cannot lose you again, daughter."
Karai bites her lip, unsure of how to respond. "I… Father, I don't want you to have to uproot everything you have here just for me. Even if we do leave and go to another city, what's to stop Shredder from finding us again? And where will we live? I doubt many other sewers have places as nice as this."
She's back to her old sarcastic bite, which is, in some strange way, comforting.
"Daughter," he says, as he puts his hands on her shoulders and she looks him in the eye. She's lost and hurting, still, and neither of them quite know how to go about this whole mess. "You are you. Do whatever you want, be whoever you wish to be. Do not let me, or Shredder, stop you from following your path. Try to leave the anger and frustration behind, because they are merely diversions in your life. Do whatever you need to do – so long as you come home safely."
She smiles, just barely, but it's enough for now.
She's got a new identity, now. She's not the person she once was.
But he is still in her way.
She will listen to her father, of course. But she still must follow her own path, whatever it takes.
Oh I feel overjoyed when you listen to my words. I see them sinking in, I see them crawling underneath your skin. … You lean towards despair; any given opportunity you're there, but what is there to gain when you're always falling off the fence that way? Words are all we have…we'll be talking. And I hear you calling in the dead of night.