Hey everyone! So I'm going on another vacation this week (Rocky Mountains here I come!) So unfortunately I wont be able to post another chapter for a week (sad face...) but don't worry, as soon as I come home I will post as soon as I can (and that is a promise!)

I don't own the turtles! (I'm pretty sure no one on this site does but I'm specifying that I defiantly don't own them - duh! I mean come on! If I owned them I would be out partying and whatnot!)

Anyways, enjoy...

Chapter 14: Anna's Story

Leonardo pushed himself off of Donatello slowly trying to calm his pounding head. Raphael and the large foot ninja were still bantering back and forth. Leo tried to concentrate on their voices but found it more difficult than it should be. The voices became garbled and distorted before his vision started to darken.

No no no please, not now, not now! I already had one tonight! Oh God...

He felt hands clasp around him a second before breathed in the familiar scent of Donatello who had grabbed him as his legs gave out.

Leonardo's vision swam around in a dark abyss before it was gone completely. He knew what was happening, it's had happened at least five times in the month since he came home. Though, when he was in the dark jungle he had many more of these flashbacks.

He was all too familiar with the back that clouded his mind and filled his body. His world dissolved into darkness as Leonardo was plunged into another flashback...he lost himself once more inside his warring mind.

Two days, two days and no food or water. Two days of no interrogation or torturer. Two days of just sitting and waiting.

Leo's stomach grumbled loudly but he did his best to ignore it. Beside him Grace's small stomach gave a hearty growl, "I'm so hungry Leo and I'm so thirsty my mouth feels like sand paper" she whispered in a cracked voice as she curled into his plastron trying to make herself more comfortable.

"I'm so sorry guys," rasped Anna licking her dry lips, "I'm so dehydrated I don't even have enough energy to pull any water." She was in a ball on the other side of Grace huddling close for comfort and warmth. Leo shifted slightly trying to make himself more comfortable. His shell made a sickening sound as it slid a crossed the damp cement floor.

"It's ok Anna." He whispered eyes half closed, "they won't let us die. They'll give us food and water soon... They have to."

"At least they haven't taken us away yet." Anna croaked.

"It's only been two days. They'll come again to question us soon." Leo whispered bringing Grace closer to himself. Anna in turn scooted closer to the two tiredly swinging her arm around to touch Leo's plastron and encase Grace between the two of them.

The child whimpered, tears forming in her deep blue eyes. She was just so thirsty it hurt. "I don't understand what they want with us. Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt someone? They never tell me anything when they hurt me..." A tear trickled down her cheek and she sniffed.

Leo sat up with more effort than it should have taken feeling the nasty pull of his muscles the whole way. He was feeling the effects of no water in two days and his last torture. It made his thoughts foggy and muscles sluggish. Leo hadn't had a seizure in a week, that's the longest he's gone since getting captured but, the blue turtle knew it was only a matter of time until a fit hit him. It was always only a matter of time.

With great effort Leo pulled Grace into his lap and put his chin on her forehead burying her face into his chest, the child continued to cry. Anna, feeling the loss of warmth sat up only to scoot closer to the two.

"Shhh Gracie," Leo said trying to calm Grace the same way he did Mikey after a nightmare.

Mikey... No! Stop, you can't think about your brothers right now Grace needs you and so does Anna. Right now you have to be strong for them… and be strong for yourself.

In his arms the child wailed loudly, her stomach growling and throat burning. Tears streamed down Anna's eyes as she watched helplessly.

"Shh Grace its okay, its okay. No, you didn't do anything wrong. Look at me sweetie." Leo forced her small face up to look at him. Her eyes looked like blue lagoons shining in dim moonlight. "Nothing about this is your fault, do you understand me? You did nothing wrong and you've never hurt anyone no matter what those bastards say. You are the innocent one. It's these men who are evil."

"Bishop." Anna whispered a curse more to herself than to the other two.

Leo's head shot her way, his blood went cold. "Bishop? What about Bishop? How do you know that name?" He asked beyond surprised that this girl knew the name of one of his families most hated enemies.

Anna didn't look at him, she only stared at the floor mesmerized by the damp cement. "John Bishop is the one who made us what we are. He experimented on us for years until we acquired our gifts. He had me for almost five years until I managed to escape..." She trailed off not really realizing what she was saying.

"Escaped? Experimented? What are you talking about Anna?" Leo knew of the girls abilities of course but, he had just assumed they were born with them. After everything he's seen in his young life as a Ninja Turtle it wouldn't have surprised him. The world is, after all, greater than one can imagine.

Anna smiled sadly, "You didn't think our abilities were natural did you?" she asked pulled her long hair behind her ear, "There's no such thing as magic Leonardo." she said with a small un-amused laugh.

Leo nodded to her, I beg to differ, he thought.

She laughed again brining her knees up to her chin. She still didn't look at Leo; she was too lost in thought. "We weren't always like this. I wasn't born with the ability to move water and Grace hasn't always been able to listen to peoples thoughts. I was born to working class family; I had a mother and a father and an older brother named Theodore but, we called him Theo because he hated his full name, he said it makes him feel too important."

"I know the feeling." Interrupted Leo thinking aloud. Anna smiled and continued on.

"I remember one day when I was ten years old I stayed home from school because I was sick. Three men came to our door with guns... They attacked my mom and dad, my brother was at school. After they beat my parents they pointed they're guns at me and said that if I didn't come with them they would shoot my parents then they would shoot me. What was I supposed to do? I was ten years old and they had guns. I've always wondered what kind of horrible people would threaten to shoot a child...

"Those guys were Bishops goons and come to find out later my dad owed Bishop a lot of money and the only way he would collect payment was by taking me. My dad screamed at the men when they took me saying that he and Bishop had agreed on cash payment and not a people- payment. That's when one of them took a barrel of his gun and smashed it into my dad's face before they took me away.

"They took me someplace, somewhere; I still don't know where exactly I was... I was experimented on or at least that's what it felt like. They injected me with things that I-I don't even... I can't even tell you how much they hurt. They... They burned my insides and attacked every cell in my body." Anna paused wiping a tear that escaped her eyes. Leo could feel Grace's deep even breathing against his plastron. She was asleep.

Anna sniffed, "I think it took two years until I was finally able to move water. It was an accident really, I tried to fight away one of the guards and ended up slicing his face with a drop of water from the sweat on his brow." At that Anna smiled remembering how nice it felt to fight back. Then she founded again remembering the rest of her story. "That was the first time I ever met John Bishop personally. He's a cruel man who will do anything to get what he needs or wants. He wanted to make super soldiers for the military or something horrible like that. His bright idea was to steal kids to experiment on. He said something like, 'if you can turn the children you can turn the adult' or some shit like that.

"So, I wasn't the only one he took but, I was the first. There were ten of us children total who he caught and experimented on," Anna brought up her fingers to count though she didn't really need to. She would remember the names of those other nine children until the day she died. "There was Me, Jacob, Curtis, Jason, Haley, Chris, Josh, Lacy, Kara, and Grace was last. They got her when she was three or four, a year or less before I escaped. They had to kill Grace's mom and dad and older sister to get her.

"Anyways, all of our cells were in a line down a long hallway and every time they took one of us away all the others could see. We talked to each other through the prison bars even though we couldn't see one another. For two years I didn't even know what Kara looked like until they drug her past my cell after one of her tests." Anna paused, thinking of her those children and teenagers. "Jacob and Josh were killed when they injected them with mutagen trying to create an advanced hybrid human. Josh survived the first round of experimentation but it was the second that got him. He was turned into something that resembled a wolf. He was hairy with long fangs and paws where his hands should've been. A werewolf is really the only think I can think of to compare him to when I saw him while they were dragging back to his cell. His cell was next to mine so I reached through the bars trying to comfort him. The only thing I could reach was his arm so I touched it and felt his skin peel off in layers. He screamed for two hours in the cell next to mine until all his skin fell off and he died... They put Jacob in a large tank filled with tainted water trying to create a form of gills so he could breathe under the water and in polluted areas. He ended up drowning after about five minutes. The idiots who dosed him with the mutagen didn't use enough... Jacob was fifteen and Josh was fourteen.

"Chris and Curtis were twin brothers so Bishop just had a field day with them. He would test one and use the other as a control. It was Curtis that they used as the test subject most of the time. He lasted three years before they finally killed him during an electric experiment right in front of his brother. Chris was so upset he... he just couldn't take it anymore. He watched his brother die Leo! Chris he… he committed suicide a day later using the bed sheets in his cell. Lacy begged him to hold on and stay strong but he was just-just too far gone... The rest of us could hear him choking in his cell for three minutes before he succeeded in hanging himself...they were both twelve years old." Anna took a deep breath.

"You don't have to say anymore if you don't want to." Leo told her in a whisper.

"No I'll continue," She said clearing her throat. "That way if I die here they can still be remembered in you and you can tell your brothers and your friends about them so they wont be forgotten…" She trailed off.

"You're not going to die here. I won't let that happen." Leo told her sternly. Anna gave him a small smile.

"Kara and Lacy were killed on the same day. Bishop had dosed them with a serum that was supposed to make their bones indestructible. It worked, as it seemed to do a lot with us. They're bones were five times harder than a normal person. The scientists tested that out by taking a sledge hammer to Kara's arm… Sometimes when it's quiet I can still hear her scream as it shattered into pieces. They weren't supposed to break, so Bishop told them to dose them again but, with more serum. The two of them screamed for ten minutes before the serum disintegrated most of their bones. It was too powerful, you see and it burned them… from the inside out. Kara was eighteen and Lacy was sixteen.

"Jason and Haley were brother and sister. They were held in the cell opposite of mine so I saw them every day for four and a half years; I considered them my brother and sister. Jason was really big and strong with broad shoulders and a warm smile. He always tried to make me laugh or cheer me up even when they dragged me back to my cell half dead from an experiment. They gave Jason a large dose of something, I don't know what exactly it was but it made his muscles bigger and stronger. He could life heavy stuff like cars or trucks. He told me that they tested his strength as being able to hold up to 700 pounds in each hand. They placed special bracelets on his hands whenever he was put back into his cell to counteract his ability so he couldn't pry the bars apart and escape.

" Haley was younger with long brown hair. She had the same smile as Jason only more pretty. Her eyes were a crisp brown and black; they were beautiful. The scientists injected Haley with something to enhance her eyes. They tried to give her a form of X-ray and Long-way vision. Again, the first time they injected her it worked. She could see though thin walls and far distances but Bishop wanted more. They wanted to make her better, enhance her further. Just like with all of us Bishop wanted to make his perfect 'super soldiers'. So, they injected her with more. The first time she came back to their cell she complained that her eyes just hurt. The second time she said everything looked dim. It was the third time they injected her with serum that she went blind.

"The day they drug Haley back into their cell blind as a bat was the day Jason vowed to escape from that horrible place. That day we hatched a plan together of getting out. We planned to escape in three months because that would have given us enough time to smuggle and steal enough supplies and help Haley figure out how to move around in a dark world. It was a day before we planned to have our prison break that they took Haley away again and...She never came back," at the Anna started crying.

"Jason went half crazy when they didn't return her within a few hours. Two days later a guard told him she was 'disposed of' because being blind was of no use to them... They killed her Leo and then didn't even have the decency to bring her body back for her brother to mourn over! Jason went crazy then. I told him not to be stupid, I told him that I still needed him but he didn't listen! He went insane... He broke both of his wrists trying to get the metal brackets off. He slammed his arms and shoulders against the walls and begged for me to use my ability to get just one of his bracelets off so he could use his strength to pry the other one off. His wrists were a bloody mess by the time he managed to tear the metal and to rip the bracelets. He then tore open the metal bars. After that I begged for him to stop because I knew they would kill him. He just kept screaming her name 'Haley! Haley! Haley!' He wanted to see her, touch her, tell her he loved her, anything." Anna paused as a sob racked her chest and she coughed.

"He screamed at the guards calling them murderers and bastards. He killed four of them with his bare hands before he finally went down... they shot him six times in the chest. He cursed them all to hell and damned them as he died. Before he died he looked at me. He looked right into my eyes and whispered to me that... that..." Anna voice caught inside of her throat. Leo stayed silent. "He said, 'I can see her Annalisa. I can see Haley and... and she can see me... she's so beautiful..." Anna buried her face in her hands and sobbed for a few minutes. After some time she sat back up wiping her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"I... I still have nightmares of his blood on the prison walls... Jason was nineteen and Haley was thirteen... I think about those two every day. Every day I think that if I was just a bit stronger I could have saved them, all of them. Every time I fall asleep I see them. I see their faces and hear their screams…" Anna shivered,

"It was a week later that I escaped from that horrible place. Leo, did you know you have water inside of you? Inside of your blood? Ask me how I found out that you have water inside of you. Ask me how I learned I could control the guards Leonardo. Go ahead; ask me," Anna had a crazy glint in her eye.

"How?" Leo whispered almost afraid.

"I sneezed and the guard moved!" She practically yelled. "I realized that if I tensed my fingers I could tense the guards. I could break them in half... Which I did, thirteen of them until I just ran. I ran from that place as hard as I could and I killed anyone who stood in my way. I had been in there for five years..." Anna shook her head and wiped her eyes. She looked down to Grace who still slept against Leonardo. "I'm not sure what happened to Grace though. I know she was there when I left but I didn't see her until I was caught again and put the same cell as her here in Central America. I had found my parents and brother after I escaped and I stayed with them for a year until Bishop and his men found me again. I put up a good fight. I used the abilities they gave me to my advantage but they got me anyway... This time they killed my mother and father. Theo wasn't there because he was away in college so I think he's still alive but I have no idea." Anna took a deep breath running her dry tongue around her dryer lips. She was exhausted from talking so long.

Leo scooted closer to Anna before gently prying Grace from his chest. He lightly pushed Anna to the ground, "Sleep" he whispered tucking a slumbering Grace next to the older girl.

"Leo?" Asked Anna eyes half closed. Leo hummed in response. "I've killed thirteen people in my entire life. I killed them so they wouldn't kill me... am I a bad person? Am I a murderer like those scientists and Bishop?"

Leo didn't even have to think, "In my years of being a giant turtle practicing ninjutsu I've killed a lot of Purple Dragons and Foot Ninja. I also took down my most hated enemy the Shredder… and not a day goes by I don't think about each and every one of them. I killed them so they couldn't kill my brothers or me. I never killed meaninglessly, only when I was attack and I had to defend myself. I never fought unless someone else swung first, that's apart of my honor code. I don't take pride in what I had to do but I know deep down I had to do it. And that's the way you should feel. You did what you had to do Annalisa." With that Leo crawled next to Grace and closed his eyes exhausted and thirsty.

"Thank you Leonardo." Whispered Anna before she fell asleep.

"...hear me? Leo can you hear me? Bro, come on look at me. Leonardo!" A garbled but familiar voice echoed through Leo's ears as he came back into himself

Bishop... Why didn't I remember it was him who captured me?... How did I forget that…? They made me forget. Leo winced remembering the many drugs and needles they had injected him with. One of those must've made him forget about his conversation with Anna about Bishop. Covering up their tracks, Leo thought bitterly.

The flashback had been fuzzy but it felt real. The blue turtle felt thirsty...

"Come on bro answer me!" Called an urgent but hushed voice next to his head. He looked up to see Donatello holding him up. Raph was still talking to the foot ninja. Mikey looked at Leo from a few feet away horror in his eyes.

"What happened?" Leo whispered regaining his footing and taking his weight from Don.

"I don't know you just spaced out for a few minutes. Are you okay?"

A few minutes ... That was only a few minutes. It felt like hours.

Leo took a step forward advancing towards Raphael and the enemy. He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He looked back at Don, his brainy brothers eyes were pleading.

"Maybe you should stay back and let us take this fight. You might want to sit this one out." Don whispered so neither the foot nor Mikey could hear him.

Leo ripped his shoulder out of Dons grasp roughly, "You don't have to defend me. I can take care of myself." And besides, I'm not really worth defending... He thought the last part angrily to himself. Don hates me and even if he doesn't hate me then he should…

Don looked hurt, "If you don't have us then who do you have watching your back?" He asked trying his hardest not to sound hostel. Leo didn't answer back he only stared forward and puffed his shoulders.

Donatello recognized the signs even before Leonardo stepped forward. It had been two years since he witnessed this side of Leonardo. He saw the way his brothers muscles tensed and his jaw set like iron. He squared his shoulders and took a deep meaningful breath. His eyes hardened into that of a weathered and battle hardened soldier who has seen all, heard all and done all.

Leonardo was in full out, full fledged, badass Leader Mode.

Enemies be damned when Leonardo squared his shoulders in defiance and tensed his muscles in Leader Mode.

Let the battle begin.

Thoughts? Now we're learning more about Anna and Grace...hmmmm those poor other kids!

WOW! 100 REVIEWS AND BEYOND! This...is...wonderful! I can't even thank you guys enough! Keep 'em coming y'all I love hearing your thoughts on my first little story!

Speaking of first stories I'm starting to think taking on a project this long and detailed wasn't the best idea for my first story... maybe I should've started with a shorter story but...oh well! I have to admit I'm having soooo much fun writing this and every time I get an email (even if its at 1 in the morning - which lets be honest, is WONDERFUL AND I LOVE IT (I'm being serious, waking up to an email from this site makes me very very happy lol)) is great! Thanks so much guys (especially to you people who leave funny reviews- I laugh out loud then read them to my little Pomeranian puppy)

Anyways, see y'all in a week!

Have a good day fellow readers! :)