It was the night following the incident with The Creep; since none of them actually slept the night it happened. But now that The Creep was in a jar and Raph was back to normal everyone could sleep peacefully again, which is somewhat disturbing that they're able to get over such an event so easily. It wasn't the memories of The Creep that was keeping Karai up tonight; it's not even the memories of her son being trapped by that monster. Instead it's Leo. She would never tell anybody, not even Casey, but the fact that Leo was so obviously against her relationship with Casey was killing her. April couldn't hear her, she made sure not to make a sound, but as she lay curled up in her bed there were silent tears streaming down her red face. Leo is her best friend, he saw good in her before he even knew the truth. Then once he learned who she really was he made sure she found out and convinced the guys to save her from Shredder. He was there for her when Justin first came into their family. He listened to her when she talked to him about her dilemma over giving Justin up and he helped make sure that whatever she decided, she decided it for the right reasons. He's always been there for her, and now, now he won't even talk to her!
"It's ok," she mouthed to herself, she wouldn't dare make a sound and risk waking April. "It's ok," she mouthed again before biting her fist in order to keep the noise in.
As the days passed the tension between Karai, Leo, and Casey did not get much better. Every time the three of them were in the same room both Karai and Casey could feel the judgmental glances Leo was giving over his shoulder. The others would occasionally say something, but asking three of the most bull headed people in the house why they're in some kind of cold war never really works. Things only got worse when, on the one day they realized they couldn't put off cleaning the house anymore, the group found a Kraang base in the basement. Even more surprising they found April's mother inside and while the red head was busy trying to make her mother comfortable in the living room and Mikey was in the kitchen making tea Karai made a break for the back door.
"Where are you going?" Leo's voice demanded from behind her
"Outside," she replied through gritted teeth.
"Look I know you don't care much about how your actions effect other people but-" Leo, though even he knew he was being unfair, tried to lecture her but he stopped when she turned on her heel and stared at him with a death glare.
"I'm sorry, would you rather I stay in here and ruin everything?" She demanded, her voice cold as ice.
"This means a lot to April," Leo tried to tell her
"All the more reason I should get lost." She said matter-of-factly
"Why? Because you're upset that your mom didn't come back?" It didn't surprise her that he said it, what surprised her was how cold and mean his voice was. "Look around Karai, none of us have a mom!" He shouted but she just glared at him again
"Then congratulations, you're better at handling yourself than I am." She said before turning away and leaving out the back.
Casey waited until Mrs. O'Neil finished her story; he figured his girlfriend probably needed some alone time anyway. Once the story was done, however, he brought Justin outside where they found Karai aggressively beating the punching bag that had been hung from a low branch of a tree.
"Alright buddy, let's hope we don't get hurt." He muttered to the child in his arms as they approached Karai. "Hey," he called to her.
"What do you want Jones?" She demanded as she delivered another kick to the punching bag.
"I want you to lay down," he said and she stopped beating the poor training tool just long enough to turn around and look at him, totally confused.
"What?" She asked.
"Look I know about all the crap Leo's been putting in your head-" he began to say,
"I don't listen to any of that." Karai interrupted.
"Good then you know I'm not trying anything, so would you please just lay down?" He asked again and again Karai looked totally confused but this time she obliged.
"Ok…" she drawled out as she lowered herself to the ground and lay on her back. "There," she said.
"Good," Casey smirked as he moved to stand over her. He then turned to Justin with a playful smile, one that made Karai wonder what was going on even more. "Alright Justin, you ready? Are you ready?" He asked the baby who giggled; Casey took that as a yes. "Alright, go get her!" He said playfully before he practically dropped the baby onto his mother's stomach.
The instant he landed Justin leaned over and began happily feeling his hands around Karai's mouth until she smiled then laughed as she sat up, hugging Justin tightly against her. Casey smirked as Karai's laughter mixed with Justin's while she held him tight and quickly pivoted from left to right, making Justin laugh even more. Then Karai let go of the baby fell back to the ground with a thud, only for Justin to follow her example and drop himself forward. Karai laughed as the baby's head landed on her chest, despite all the air being knocked out of her.
"You're getting too big for this," she said in a playful voice, though she did mean it. Justin probably wasn't going to be able to sit on her stomach for much longer if he was going to be squirming around.
Justin simply giggled before burying his face in her chest and Karai laughed in response before again wrapping her arms around him and shaking him from side to side. Once she was done Justin looked up with a smile, and then put his face down again. This repeated about five or six times before Justin finally just rolled off his mother and onto the ground, then began crying when he landed harder than anticipated.
"That's what you get for just throwing yourself onto the ground." Casey remarked as Karai stood up and took Justin in her arms. It took awhile to calm him and even once he stopped crying he still clung to Karai with no intentions of letting go.
"So what was the point of this?" She asked Casey
"It was the fastest way I know to get you to smile" he responded and for a moment Karai was at a loss for words, NO ONE had ever bothered trying to make her smile before. "So why'd you leave anyway? I asked Leo but I don't think he told me the truth." Casey asked
"Do I even want to know what he told you?" Karai questioned, much as she hates to think about it, Leo's been kind of a jerk to her lately.
"Probably not," Casey agreed and Karai sighed, "I hate how he's been." Casey growled.
"I know, he's acting like… well like Raph the morning I woke up. Only he's not getting over it." Karai grumbled
"Yeah, he's treating us like scum," Casey agreed
"At least he's nice to Justin." Karai pointed out but Casey huffed
"I guess." He grumbled and the two were quiet for a minute.
"He had a point this morning though" Karai mumbled and Casey just looked at her in concern, because with Leo's record lately any 'point' he had could not be a good one. "I don't know what he said to you but he basically told me that I shouldn't be upset April's mom came back when mine didn't." She admitted and Casey's face went from one of concern to one of total sympathy.
"What? Karai that's nuts, you have every right to be a little jealous of April." He assured her
"I am not jealous," she all but snapped but the way Casey was looking at her, telling her that he didn't believe her for a second, forced her to drop her defensive manner. "Ok, maybe a little," she admitted while hiking Justin up in her arms. "But I still shouldn't be. I'm not the only one here whose mom didn't come back." She said and Casey gave her a small smile.
"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret Karai, we're all a little jealous that April's mom turned out to be frozen in the basement." He said and he couldn't help but chuckle at his own words. "If you need to handle it by coming outside then Leo should get that." He said but Karai still just sighed as she gently rocked Justin back and forth.
"If you don't mind me asking, why don't you ever talk about your mom?" She questioned, prompting Casey to put his hands in his pockets as he let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Karai began but her boyfriend cut her off.
"No, it's ok. My mom left three years ago. She and dad had been fighting and I was wondering if maybe this time they were really getting divorced, they threatened it enough. But one morning Angel and I woke up to screaming, mom and dad were fighting again. We went into the living room and mom had a suitcase in her hand, she was standing in the doorway. Angel started crying, and she tried to run to mom, but I held her back. She kept squirming, and I kept holding her, mom looked right at me. Then she walked out, didn't even say goodbye."
Angel had just finished her training for the day, and was back in her quarters when Tiger Claw entered Shredder's throne room.
"Master Shredder, that girl is a danger to us." He said, getting right to the point of his intrusion. "Should the Hamato Clan ever return it won't take long for them to convince her to join their side, she will choose blood!" He continued
"SILENCE!" The Shredder bellowed at his hench-mutant, he stood up from his throne and made his way down to the tiger. "That child is a valuable asset. Should she choose to stay she will be a skilled fighter. Should she betray us, it will not occur to her until after she has led her pathetic brother to us. In the meantime we must find Hamato Yoshi." Shredder growled but Tier Claw only snarled, he was getting fed up with his Master's bull-headedness.
"Master Shredder, if what the girl says is true then killing Hamato Yoshi would only put him out of his misery. A far too merciful fate!" He snapped
"QUIET!" Shredder snapped back, "Don't you think I know that?" He asked, rhetorically of course. "We will have Baxter Stockman fix his mind, then I will get my daughter back." Shredder said and a small part of Tiger Claw wanted to strangle the man; he has got to give up on getting Karai back on their side.
"And how do you propose to do that Master?" He asked instead
"Before Karai last escaped I promised her that her child would die before her eyes. But if given the chance, Tiger Claw, whom do you think she would save given the choice? The rat? Or the Kraang experiment?" He asked and a wicked grin spread across Tiger Claw's face, now he remembers why he joined The Foot.
Little did the two know, Xever was standing behind the main door listening the entire time; and he thought he had a dilemma when Karai was a prisoner.
"I know this is your room too, but could you please leave me alone right now?" April asked, she didn't know what time it was; she just knew that she should've gone to sleep hours ago.
But how could she after today?
Today her mom had come back to her; only it wasn't her mom. It was an alien, a duplicate; another failed Kraang experiment.
Karai looked up at the girl on the top bunk with pity, and a huge lump of guilt forming in her throat. A part of her, perhaps some trace of childhood that was somehow never beaten out of her, believed that maybe if she had just not been jealous then things really would've been as good as they seemed. Such thoughts were nonsense, of course, that creature was a monster regardless of the kunoichi's personal feelings earlier today. Instead of leaving like April asked Karai made her way up the ladder and sat down on the bed, then she wrapped April in a hug.
Karai at first was hesitant, unsure of where her boundaries lie in this situation. But the instant she had her arms around her, April buried her face in her shoulder and continued the crying she had so clearly been doing before her friend entered.
A couple weeks passed since that incident, and in those weeks there were plenty more incidents. These incidents included Mikey running away and joining a clan of mutant frogs, four evil dream beavers attacking the guys in their sleep while the humans were forced to save them with the help of a man who despite not having slept in forty years is for some reason allowed possession of a chainsaw, and Casey's precious truck that he finally fixed being destroyed in the fight against a mutant car. In fact the mutant car fiasco had only been last night, but that didn't stop another disaster from beginning bright and early in the morning.
Mikey, Donnie, Raph, Casey, and Karai all landed with a thud as what Donnie insisted was a Chimera dropped them into its nest high up on, of course, a mountain peak.
"Phew, that was close. Maybe it'll leave us alone now," Mikey hopefully suggested, as he stepped on the skeletal remains of what was once a person.
"Uh Karai?" Donnie said, his voice indicating that he dreaded saying whatever was about to come out of his mouth.
"Yeah?" She asked, while surveying the area.
"Uh ok so when Mikey and I stormed outside to help you guys I kind of left April in charge of Justin in the barn" He began, just before the attack Karai had been helping Raph and Casey in trying to rehabilitate Leo. The blue turtle seemed to have very few reservations over hurting the two humans recently. Therefor they had left their son in the care of Donnie and Mikey in the barn.
"Good, then he's safe." Karai said but Donnie just grinned sheepishly
"Well safer than he would be here," The genius gulped
"What?" Casey demanded
"Donnie what happened?" Karai snapped and Donnie forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat before speaking.
"Something may have gone wrong with the Nero-transmitter and April might have sort of gone blind." He sheepishly admitted. The purple-banded turtle cringed and shrunk back in fear, but when no one yelled he dared to open his eyes.
Casey and Karai were both standing before him, their faces set in complete disbelief, but not saying anything.
"Well you're not dead yet," Raph remarked.
"Hang on, let me get this straight." Casey said, finally recovering. "You two," he accused, pointing to Donnie and Mikey. "Left a baby with a girl who can't see?" He asked and Donnie nodded.
"And with all of us up here the only other person around that house is an injured turtle who can barely walk ten feet?" Karai demanded and Mikey chuckled.
"Unless he's moving to punch one of us, then he could probably make it twenty feet." Casey added and although Karai glared at him she knew he wasn't wrong.
"Uh guys!?" Raph said urgently, "We need to move!" He exclaimed; the Chimera was coming back.
"This is a disaster," Leo stated flatly as he and April moved through the forest.
They had given up already on using Karai's sling for Justin, since apparently he doesn't like it and kept wrestling his way out. They'd have to ask Karai how she keeps him in that thing. So now Leo was leading April along by one arm while she used her other arm to keep ahold on Justin. Not to mention his knee kept giving out.
"Sorry, but he keeps squirming." April reminded, Leo only growled.
"We should've just left him at the house." The turtle grumbled
"Oh yeah leave a baby alone in a house, that's a great idea." The red head sarcastically said.
"What's going to happen?!" Leo snapped, apparently he was serious. "We could've just let him in his crib. He can't climb out, no one's around for miles to kidnap him, and it'd be less dangerous!" He exclaimed
"Not to mention he'd be terrified!" April shouted back.
"He's one! He'd forget about it in less than a day!" Leo shouted back before his knee cramped up again and he went down.
"Leo, do you even hear yourself?" April demanded
"Seething in pain? Yeah it was kind of hard to miss!" The turtle snapped back. Despite being blind and her eyes being completely white April still somehow managed to glare at him disapprovingly.
"I mean about Justin. You're standing here, telling me that we should've left a baby, your own nephew, home alone." She spelled out for him, "Karai and Casey would kill you." She added and Leo snorted in response. "What's been with you guys lately anyway?" April questioned but before Leo could respond Justin began wailing like a siren.
"GAH!" April shouted in surprise, without her eyes she hadn't noticed Justin's face scrunching up until it was too late.
"What's wrong with him?!" Leo exclaimed and April gagged as she identified the problem.
"Uh, we didn't grab any diapers when we left the house did we?" She asked, Leo just face palmed.
"You guys alright down there?" Raph asked after their group fell in a crevasse and Mikey and Donnie fell a little further than the others.
"Serves them right," Karai commented as Raph hoisted the two up on his grappling hook.
"That water is boiling at two-hundred degrees Fahrenheit, we're in some kind of geiser. It must erupt all the time, that's why these rocks are so smooth." Donnie explained as he and Mikey rejoined the group on the higher ledge.
"So how long we got, an hour?" Raph questioned
"Less, when this thing goes off we're turtle soup." Donnie confessed.
"So how do we get out?" Casey questioned, his voice starting to panic.
"No problem, we'll tie all our grappling hooks together." Raph announced
"One problem," Mikey contradicted, "I forgot my grappling hook" he admitted and judging by the way Donnie started squirming it's a pretty safe bet that he forgot his too.
"Some ninja's," Raph scoffed and Casey nodded in agreement before cracking.
"How was I supposed to know we'd get attacked by a giant mutant?" The hockey player demanded.
"Have you met us? What are the chances we wouldn't?!" Raph demanded in return.
"Ok" Karai sternly interrupted, "we've got your grappling hook and we've got mine. I don't suppose two is enough to get us out of here?" She asked her brother who frowned.
"We can try but doubt it." He conceded, meanwhile Casey just stared at his girlfriend, completely baffled.
"What?" She questioned him
"Where do you even keep that?" He exclaimed; Karai wears sneakers, dark jeans, and a blue zip up sweatshirt with pockets nowhere near deep enough to hold a grappling hook.
"Well normally I keep it on the back of Justin's sling or attached to my belt-" she began but Casey interrupted her.
"Nu-uh! I never see it on your belt!" He exclaimed
"I put it on before we leave the house. Otherwise I just make sure it's near me, I had it on the lawn and grabbed it as we were dragged away." She explained to him, "and on a side note, why do you know off the top of your head what usually is or is not around my waist?" She asked
"Oh come on Karai we've been dating for four months, like you don't know I stare at your-"
"Finish that sentence Jones and I promise I'll throw you headfirst into that boiling water right now!" Raph threatened.
Fifteen minutes later, after Casey wisely shut his mouth, they had managed to combine the two grappling hooks with Mikey's Kusarigama to make a chain just long enough to get them out. Climbing up, however, put them close enough to the opening for the Chimera to cut their rope in its attempt to eat them.
"Guys the waters rising, we're running out of time." Donnie announced after they all landed back on their ledge.
"This could be a problem," Leo noted as he and April reached the mountainside. Justin, though nothing had been done about his diaper, had long since stopped crying. But now they faced the issue of the three of them getting up the steep and rocky terrain. "We can use a rope for me to lead you, but how are you going to climb with him?" Leo questioned, the results found Leo doing exactly as he said with Justin on his back and clinging very tightly to the edge of his shell.
"We made it, but I don't see the fish-bird-worm thing." Leo announced when they finally reached the top.
"I see clouds, I'm flying through them. Can you see the hole?" April asked as Leo looked around.
"Yeah over here!" He exclaimed when he finally spotted the crevasse. "Guys! Guys do you hear me? Are you alright?" He called down
"Leo! Yes we're all right! But we're running out of time!" Raph's voice came echoing back up.
"Mama! Dada!" Justin called over Leo's shoulder; the leader once again couldn't help but face palm.
"You brought Justin?!" Karai's angry voice came calling to him and Leo gritted his teeth, couldn't she see that they have bigger problems?
"It was that or leave him alone!" The turtle called back.
"Leo! I'm right on top of us!" April suddenly shouted and the next thing the two teenagers knew they were too late to dive out of the way and were in the air.
Suddenly Leo once again found himself wishing they had left Justin at the house because the baby was screaming in his ear while clinging to his shell so tight the leader thought it might crack. Instinctively he reached one arm back to hold Justin in place while completely ignoring the pain in his knee.
"Watch your head Justin," he instructed as he used his other hand to draw one of his katana blades. "Hang on!" He again instructed the baby before he cut free from the monster's hold and then used his grappling hook to land on it's back.
"April, are you ok?" He called down to his friend, while trying to ignore the wailing baby in his ears.
"I'm fine, I think I'm getting the hang of this!" She called back and the next thing Leo knew she appeared on the creature's head after catching her tessen mid-air.
The mutant trashed about in the air and although it was risky Leo managed to maneuver Justin so that he could hold him with one hand against chest where it was easier to protect him.
But then the monster dove into the water.
Leo's eyes went wide, he told April to hold her breath and he tried instructing Justin to do the same, but the crying baby was too upset to notice.
"April, yank its head up!" Leo ordered before the creature managed to hit the lake and when April did as he asked he all but stabbed it, resulting in it pulling up.
That was close, the leader thought to himself as the creature flew through the trees, getting again closer to the mountain.
"Leo I remember something. When Raph and Casey kicked it in the head it lost balance!" She exclaimed and so they gave that a try, which had some mixed results.
The creature flew headfirst into the hole, resulting in Leo and April being forced to jump off.
"We made it!" April exclaimed as Leo handed Justin over to her.
"Good now let's get them and go home so he'll shut up." Leo didn't mean to be so cold, but the wailing baby was really starting to get on his nerves.
He pushed the now unconscious creature aside just enough for his family to climb out, Karai was the last out.
"Thanks," she said but Leo only frowned at her.
"For what? Saving your lives or looking after your kid?" He spat at her and she frowned, but before she could say anything Raph reminded everyone that the mountain was close to exploding.
They all made it out alive, and they all made it back home; but to say they were all ok would be taking things too far. Casey discovered this when he went to go tell his girlfriend it was time for dinner and he found her lying on her bed, doing nothing but staring at the mattress above her.
"You know he's right, he didn't have a choice." He said from the doorway,
"I know I just wish he wouldn't hate me." She replied and with a sigh Casey closed the door behind him.
"Karai I don't know what his deal is," He groaned
"I wish I could just forget about him," She admitted and Casey nodded, sometimes he felt the same way.
"Hey," Karai said grabbing his attention as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed. "You only know about the scars on my stomach because Justin grabbed my shirt," she began and Casey couldn't help but look completely confused at her.
"Look if you're still mad about when I showed Leo-" he began but she cut him off.
"No, but… you were right earlier. We've been dating for four months and I've already learned that you're never going to see me as weak." She explained, the amount of times Casey's seen her cry and yet never underestimated her afterwards had proved to her that in his eyes even after she broke she was still strong.
"Karai I could never think you're weak," he told her seriously and she nodded, clearly but as far as Casey was concerned inexplicably nervous.
"I know, and my scars rarely hurt me but even so Leo or Raph can't always help but be over protective. Can you just promise not to tell them about this?" She questioned and finally Casey understood. Her stomach was just the beginning, she had scars everywhere she wore armor, which was basically her entire body.
"I promise," he swore and he meant it, Karai's not stupid. She can decide for herself when she can or can't do something and a few marks wasn't going to affect her.
Then, for the first time, she unzipped her sweatshirt and allowed it to slide off her arms, revealing the long trails of red that covered them. She kicked off her shoes, though her feet were almost unharmed save for a few small scars on the sides and one particularly nasty one. Casey almost turned away when she slid down her pants, which she noticed of course.
"Don't worry, this is as far as it's going." She smirked before standing up straight again, allowing Casey to see the long red trails that ran along her skin. "I'm just rolling it up," she assured him as she began pulling at her shirt, then she turned around to reveal the worst part of her body.
Much like every other part of her body that she normally kept covered her skin was rough and hard, but the scarring was the worst. Her shirt was still covering half of it but on the center of her back was a big pink circularish mark from where the electricity entered her body.
"Please don't tell," she said again as she put her shirt down and turned back to Casey.
"I won't, you know me better than that. Now put your pants back on so we can go to dinner." He chuckled.
Unbeknownst to those two, however, the rest of their family grew impatient waiting for them and Leo went to get them himself. He was standing outside the door, about to knock, when he heard.
"Please don't tell,"
"I won't, you know me better than that. Now put your pants back on so we can go to dinner."
Author's Note: Hey guys! So first off i just want to say thanks again for the reviews, i love reading them! Second in addition to being busy with school another reason these last few updates have been a bit later is because i'm trying to make the chapters longer. I just want to know if you guys like the longer chapters, even if it means waiting a few extra days for an update. Obviously i'm trying to get them up as soon as possible but longer chapters take longer to write. With the shorter chapters i think i was usually updating every other day, and the longer ones looks like it would be every four or five days. Just can you guys please tell me which you prefer? Thanks!