Find story warnings and goodies here: ht"tps:"/sta."sh/0nil8smllov

Thank you everyone for your encouraging comments! I'm happy I'm still holding your interest. :)

xXVXx

Chapter Twenty-Five

Times Three

Once Fallachis and Raphael reached home, his legs finally gave away beneath him. He immediately crashed on the living room sofa to take the strain from them. His leg muscles were twitching and burning and his joints ached. At least it dulled the headache that was still persistently buzzing through his head, Raphael thought.

Fallachis had repeatedly offered to carry him on the way back but he refused every time, even violently when the woman lifted him against his will. Part of Raphael was regretting that decision now as he was lying down on his side and rubbing his hands up and down his pulsing thighs. He felt sorer than after a long mission in the turtle sub.

Dumb gravity…

Even lying down he could feel his heavier weight being pulled into the cushion and straining his bent, collared neck and shoulders.

"I really don't understand why you would strain yourself like this. Do you have a reputation to keep that involves walking everywhere?" Fallachis appeared from the kitchen and knelt down in front of the sofa with a dark glass bottle and jar in her lap.

Raphael frowned at her. "That's it," he muttered sarcastically.

"Here," she scooped a teaspoon – slightly bigger than a regular spoon – of a weird green paste from the jar and turned it toward his mouth.

"That looks disgusting!" Raph quickly twisted away and pulled himself upward.

"It's good for strengthening bones."

"I don't want it."

"Did you even hear what I just said?"

"I don't care what it's for. I'm not eating it!"

Falla sighed and lowered the spoon for a moment. She was very clearly growing tired of his defiance again. "You're really stubborn, you know?"

"And you're not?" he spat back. She wanted to make him feel like a problem child when the only problem was her!

"I'm trying to help you!"

"No, you're not!" None of this was about him. It was because she wanted it so. She wanted control over him and to pretend to be some kind of good motherly savior. "If you don't like backlashing slaves, buy yourself a doll, you creep!"

"Do you want me to turn you into one?"

"No!"

"Then act like it!" Falla forcefully yanked him closer to her by the wrist. Their faces were inches apart with Falla's still looming over his even as she knelt on the floor. Her comment wasn't just a quick sarcastic response, it was a threat. She could paralyze him whenever she wanted to and get everything done that way.

Her cold eyes bored down into him as she lifted the teaspoon again.

Raphael stared at it for an extended moment as if trying to figure out a trick behind it. There wasn't anything – just her suffocating persistence and his breaking ego. He wanted to scream and kick to release his frustration, but he swallowed the urge down and slowly lifted his free hand to take the offered cutlery.

Falla shook her head. She pulled that hand into her large grip, too, and lowered it. "Open up."

Raph's cheeks flushed and his eyes widened, pleading at the woman. When her eyebrows began to lower impatiently, he reluctantly opened his mouth to allow her to feed him the thick herbal mush.

He grimaced from the tart, bitter taste and quickly swallowed it down. "Ugh…"

"Now was that so bad, kitten?"

Raphael didn't respond. He quietly stared at his sprawled legs with a miserable look on his face. He felt hurt beyond embarrassment. This was worse demeaning torture than being captured by the Shredder, he was sure.

"I'm going to massage your legs with the oil now, okay? You should have mentioned something about the gravity. Most aliens grow used to it in a day or so, so I didn't even think whether you'd have problems with it or not." Falla pulled herself on the sofa and opened the bottle of essential oil.

Raphael quickly shied away from her and pulled his legs closer.

Her face immediately grew solemn. "Again?"

"I'm fine! I don't need anything!"

"Don't be silly." Falla moved forward and grabbed Raph's leg, pulling it down.

Raph trembled under the large hand pushing his thigh against the sofa. It felt too familiar. He panicked and kicked away. "Get off! Don't touch me!" His stomach twisted and his face turned red again from a different type of shame.

"Enough, El! We're doing this to avoid any nasty cramps."

Raphael felt completely cornered. Falla clearly had that candle or remote as a solution written across her features if he wouldn't stop. But he didn't want a massage from her. He didn't want her so close. He rarely allowed his brothers to massage his muscles after getting sorer than usual from a battle. "J-Just let me do it myself."

Fallachis' shoulders dropped and her face softened from hearing the frustrated, tight voice. She cupped Raphael's flushed face then pulled him into an embrace. "Oh sweetheart, what did they do to you?" She hid his trembling frame under her giant arms.

Raphael clawed and pushed at her stomach. "Let me go!"

And she did.

"Stop touching me!"

"You don't need to feel uncomfortable about something like this around me. – But here," she handed him the bottle, "do it yourself and I'll go focus on my arm."

The leafy bandage had long ago fallen off and Raphael could see the long violet scratch scabbing.

"Then I'll go start preparing dinner, and you can… you can do whatever you want, really. Just be careful if you go outside."

She rubbed the top of Raphael's head and got up. She smiled at him with that reassuring smile she always used, as if it would make Raph's nightmare of a situation any better, before turning around and leaving back through the arch leading into the kitchen area.

Raph stared after her, more than relieved she had left. He looked at the big bottle in his hands and lap with a doubtful frown before opening it and smelling the strong essence. Although Falla seemed capable of turning anything into an opportunity to torment him, she really wanted to be helpful in this particular case. Raph had had muscle cramps before. They're excruciating and very much not what he wanted to deal with on top of everything else.

He dribbled some of the oil over his thighs and set to work with the intention of also losing his mind in it. Even if just for a little while. He just needed to rest his thoughts, focus on something simple, and not think about every little detail that was turning against him, or about the new fate he was starting to take in with each second spent on this planet.

xXx

Raphael hummed as he stirred awake from an unexpected nap. He had dozed off after minutes of lying on the sofa, not really feeling like walking around yet. He slowly blinked his eyes open and rolled to his side only to come face to face with Fallachis inches from his snout.

"Aaah!" he jerked away into the cushions.

"Aaaw…"

Could he get no privacy at all!? He felt the warmth leave his shoulders once he sat up and the familiar chill air took hold of him again. Falla must have had covered him with a woolen blanket at some point in his sleep and he had practically wrapped himself in it.

"You are so-o-o-o adorable!" the alien commented on his confused pout and made Raph's brows furrow together even more.

She was observing him with the excitement of seeing baby animals at the zoo. Raphael didn't even want to know how long she had been kneeling there watching him sleep… Ugh!

Her expression, the longer he looked at it, didn't remind him of Falla, but that definitely was her…

"Falla?"

"Mmhmm?"

…

Her voice was slightly different. She sounded younger. On second thought she looked younger, too. Her sprouts seemed shorter and were twisted into a pointy, uneven hairdo. And her makeup and clothes didn't match the ones he last saw Fallachis in. There were sharper, bolder lines drawn on her pink face and she wore an unzipped, bright leather jacket over the familiar white and blue leotard.

Raphael's guard slowly went up and he scooted further away from her where she crouched on the floor and rested her elbows on the couch. "You're not Falla."

"I am," she grinned cockily.

In the very same second Fallachis stepped through the arched doorway and confirmed Raphael's assumption correct. He bolted off the sofa with a sudden urge to hide behind the woman's legs from the strange newcomer.

"…Though not the Falla you have in mind," the alien still crouching by the sofa concluded then got up. – "Isn't she cute?"

She? Raph made a face but didn't comment.

"A jumpy little one," Fallachis smiled at the boy who was warily watching the other girl from behind her legs. – "You do realize I'm also not Maika?"

Raph's eyes widened while he took a careful step in reverse. He noticed that alien was also dressed differently and wore her sprouts down over her entire back. …What is going on?

"Hey, El, you're up!"

Raphael screamed when he suddenly heard the third voice right behind him and felt the person immediately lift him from the floor.

"Whoa! Calm down," Falla laughed and bounced him on her hip. "It's just me."

"Who?!" Raph's voice cracked.

"Fallachis Maika – the one you know," she smiled down at him tucked against her side. "And I see you've already met my family."

Raph stared at the two other present with a wary, doubtful frown. They were all almost identical looking. Like freaky triplets. But the first one was shorter and younger. So just sisters?

"That's Hchee, my Third of First. She's an amazing teacher," Falla pointed at the older alien in a long sweater vest and patterned scarf.

"Maika, you're modest."

"And that's my First of Second, Vnukinya."

"Hi," the girl waved at Raph with a friendly smile.

The quick introduction didn't clear up anything for Raph. If anything, he was even more confused. Third of what? What does that mean? "Are you sisters?"

"That's not how it works." Falla turned around, still carrying him, and proceeded towards the dining room area.

"You woke up just in time for food. Or did Kinya wake you up? Well, you're up now. I had planned to have dinner earlier but you fell asleep on the couch, and then Hchee called a few showers later, saying that they'll arrive soon, so I just delayed everything. You must be hungry by now!"

She sat him down in his booster seat in front of a teacup saucer serving as his plate. Hchee sat down on her own seat across from him while Vnukinya followed Falla into the kitchen to help bring out the food.

The present alien silently stared at Raph, almost expectantly.

Great… Like one Fallachis wasn't enough. Now he had to deal with two more…

"What?" he grumbled when she didn't stop staring.

"Well, it's not exactly every day we get to see an alien," she smirked. "I don't even remember the last time I saw one of Maika's pets."

Raphael scowled back before looking away and ignoring her gaze. He didn't feel comfortable around her and was almost relieved when Falla and the youngest returned with an oven plate of what looked like baked potatoes and other vegetables and a smaller pot of cooked nettle.

They all received a portion with Raph's looking like a mountain of food. They could have easily given him a regular plate if they were going to stack so much on it.

…

"El, Hchee's a Govarian teacher," Falla addressed him after a few minutes of banter between the three, after even he dug into the food, no longer able to resist his hunger. "She could help you learn the language while they stay here! Wouldn't that be great?"

"No."

"Of course it would. You're just being stubborn again."

"It'd be nice to know how to read and write," Hchee agreed.

"I know how to read and write!"

"Maybe in your native tongue but what good does that do when you can't read anything here? Maika has an impressive library."

Falla smiled at that and nodded. "Rainy days could easily be boring for someone as restless as you."

"Why don't we take her to the history museum? So she could learn some basic stuff," Vnukinya proposed. "You arrived only a couple of days back, right? You must be a little confused."

"I'm a guy," Raph grumbled.

"You're what?"

"A guy."

"He means a male, Kinya," Falla explained. "With the 'he' pronouns."

"W-what?" Vnukinya suddenly laughed with a confused smile. "A male? Like an animal?"

Raphael stared at her wide-eyed and lost for words.

"Does that mean you also mate?"

His face paled. "What?"

"Of course he does, Vnukinya. That's what males and females do."

Heat crept to Raphael's face when the girl laughed again. Why was that so funny? What did she mean by "animal"?

"Vnukinya, stop making faces and eat your food," Hchee ordered. "You're making him uncomfortable."

"A-Are you not women? – Females?" Raph corrected himself when he saw the same confusion cross Kinya's face.

"Eeww… We're not!"

"Then what?"

"Well, nothing. Duh. Just olm. No she or he-olm."

"But you use the 'she' pronoun!"

"And?"

"El sweetie," Falla took Raph's attention off the girl. "Your translator is just using the pronoun that makes most sense to you. It doesn't mean anything really. Eat your food before it gets cold."

Raphael stayed silent for a minute and ate a few bites – the nettle was oddly good – before he turned up to ask again. "Falla?"

"Hmm?" All three looked up from their plates.

Okay, that was confusing. "Uhh…?"

"Just call me by my entity if we're all in the same room, and by the identity when it's just one of us."

"Umm…" What?

"Maika."

"Right. – How exactly are you related? If you're not girls or guys, you're also not sisters, or mother and daughter and granddaughter?" he looked them over uncertainly. He wasn't exactly sure of the age difference between Maika and Hchee, if there was any…

"We're clones," Hchee simply answered.

"Clones?"

"Not creepy, science lab clones," Vnukinya jumped in. "Natural ones."

Hchee elaborated further, "Birthed naturally but without the requirement of another's DNA, so we're exact replicas. I'm Maika's first generation clone and Kinya is her second generation clone because I gave birth to her. So I guess, kind of like 'parent – child – grandchild' in some alien cultures."

Raphael was having trouble following the confusing information. "So Kinya's your First?"

"She isn't exactly," Hchee shook her head. "The name is always applied to Maika. She's the Original. I'm the intermediate olm whose whole life is within the same identity. And Kinya's the final generation who's going to get her own original identity when she grows up so she'll become an Original like Maika and start her own family of clones."

"And that's the circle of life," Vnukinya concluded.

Raph didn't really follow the brief explanation. Their circle of life was weird! He was mostly weirded out by the fact that Falla was practically a grandmother. He didn't know she was old!

"Now eat," Falla called for his attention again. "You can learn some more later."

xXVXx