Chapter Twenty-Five: A Hostage Situation
Raphael and Karai were scuffling in the entranceway, ensuring that neither one of them would have the upper-hand. Not one of them was giving an inch, as if each one had something to lose. Karai yielded both of her blades as she attempted to push Raphael back out of the mansion, but he refused to allow that.
"I don't have time for this," growled the turtle as he swept her feet from under her and turned to pin her arms to the floor with his sai. It was pure luck that he was able to get one of his Sai to hold her left wrist to the floor by plunging it down into the wood. He pinned her legs in between his own and used all the strength he had to hold her down so that she would have to listen to him.
"This is enough! I don't care why you are doing this, but I don't have time to deal with you! I have to get to my brothers."
Karai didn't struggle; she only stared up at Raphael. Her expression was almost lost and a lump formed in her throat.
"So if you had to choose…would you choose your brothers over that girl?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Because it's not an easy choice to make," continued Karai. "Luckily for me though, that girl is a stranger. If I have to trade her for what I want, then so be it, but can you do the same?"
"I don't understand what you're talking about, but I don't have to choose anything," replied Raphael adamantly.
"That's what you think, but I don't intend to go back on what I chose now. I made my decision."
Raphael didn't have a chance to respond before the floor beneath them began to shake. He lost his focus on Karai and didn't notice her arms quick shift to mutant form. Her snake-like limbs slithered fast from his grip and twisted her body to get out from beneath him.
"I wasted too much time on you," she hissed.
As Raphael scrambled to his feet, Karai was already rushing down the long hallway towards the stairwell. Raphael cursed under his breath and dashed after her. Now they were both running towards the same thing, but for very different reasons. For whatever the reason, Karai was aiming to let Eve die and Raphael wasn't about to allow that. The mansion was trembling beneath their feet while they both desperately tried to reach their goal faster than the other.
The source of the fissure was still swirling around Leonardo and Evelyn, forcing Mikey and Donatello back up against the monitors that were secured to the walls of the lab. The pressure caused by the small whirlwind was more than they could take. It was almost too difficult to breath, but each brother was still struggling to the middle of the room in order to get Leonardo and Evelyn out from inside of the small whirlwind. Though it appeared to be only wind, they could hear anguished screams along the gusts that pressed them to the walls of the room.
In the eye of the storm, Evelyn had only just awoken. Leonardo had disregarded the wind for the moment in order to help Eve sit up. In truth, the wind no longer bothered his lungs; his focus had shifted to Evelyn's left eye that was still pitch black and protruding a thick smoke that evaporated in an instant. It wasn't until he got her to sit up that he noticed the petrified look on her face.
"Make it stop," Evelyn gasped out, bringing her hand to her blackened eye and covering with her palm. "Make it stop! I can hear them all! They're screaming! They won't stop screaming!"
Leonardo wasn't sure what she was talking about. He couldn't hear any screaming, but Evelyn looked desperate and shaken. Tears flowed from her right eye as she swung her feet over the edge of the hospital bed to stand on her own. Once she was no longer in bed, it was gathered up by the wind and tossed away like nothing.
Leonardo watched it blow away and the reality of the situation started to seep in. Until now, his mind seemed almost fogged over. It was as if his mind had been constricted to thought of simply keeping Evelyn safe and that narrow focus was putting others in danger at this very moment. Were his brothers in this storm as well? He looked around in a panic, but there didn't seem to be a way out of this storm. Besides; from the look of it all, Evelyn was the center. He stepped in front of Eve and tried to steal focus from her panic.
"Evelyn! There is no screaming! You need to look at me!"
The raven haired young woman was unsteady on her feet, covering her left eye and unable to hear anything over the sounds of the tormented cries in her head. The hate and sorrow of the other girls fragmented souls were being set loose inside of her and she could hear them all now. They were scratching and clawing at her mind, desperately, angrily trying to escape and take over. Each one wanted control for revenge or perhaps for a little piece of life once more. Evelyn was struggling to keep her own mind while others tried to take it from her. She kept her hand over her blackened eye in a small attempt to keep the darkness inside of herself somehow while she barely stayed on her staggering feet.
"EVE!" Leonardo shouted far above the screams before he wrapped his right arm around her shoulders and pulled her into an embrace. He knew how Raphael would shock Evelyn back to reality, but he couldn't kiss her. Not just for shock value. It wouldn't have been fair. He knew how Evelyn felt; at least he could guess. He didn't want to give her false hope. Still, he wanted to help her. She seemed to be in so much pain. He closed his eyes tight and held her close, hoping he could think of a way to bring her back from whatever hell she was seeing.
"L-leo…?" Evelyn's voice came out in a meek whisper.
"It's me. Don't listen to anything else, Eve. There are no screams. The others are waiting for us, we have to go." He spoke as clear and even as he possibly could. He wasn't sure what was happening, but one of them had to remain calm. It was like he just knew what she needed from him. Like a brother comforting his sister. He pulled back a little so that he could see her face. She was crying. Tears streaked from her right eye and she slowly brought down her hand to reveal her blackened eye while she looked back at Leonardo.
"I-I…I can hear them all…" she whimpered, "…they won't stop. Please…make them stop…"
Leonardo could hear the pain and desperation in her voice. He kept his gaze even as he looked at her now. If they were going to get out of this, he knew that he had to get Eve's mind set right. "I'm here with you Eve, but I can't hear what you hear. Only you can make it stop. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere, so you need to pull yourself together and we'll go back to everyone together."
His voice was clear and he seemed unafraid of what was happening around them. In a way; it was comforting. As if he was the rock she could cling to in the middle of this raging river. His bright blue eyes were so calming for her. Was it because Michelle remembered her brother's eyes when his mind was still there? Or was it because his eyes were the first thing she saw when she woke in the sewers? Either way, it was something to focus on. Evelyn looked into his eyes and silently reminded herself of whom she was. Her name was Evelyn. The turtles were here to help her, but she couldn't just lay back and be saved. She had to try and save herself.
As Evelyn did her best to focus and silence the screams in her head, the wind slowly began to die down. She gripped her head and closed her eyes. "I'm Evelyn," she shouted desperately. "I'm Evelyn!"
Leonardo kept an arm around Eve as she shouted and struggled. He knew he couldn't really help her do this. It was something she had to do on her own, but he wasn't about to abandon her while she fought. Still, he wished there was something he could do to make it easier.
Neither Raphael nor Karai were sure what they would find when they reached their goal, but they didn't expect to see a whirlwind in the middle of the room. When they had burst open the metal doors, both were pushed back by the pressure of the wind. Karai's snake-like reflexes helped in times such as these. Her mutated arm latched onto the door with its teeth and prevented her from being blown back into the hallway. Raphael was quick as well. He only had a moment, but he was able to ram his Sai blades into the frame of the door. The wind was strong and he could see that it had both Mikey and Donnie pinned to the walls, but he couldn't see Leo or Evelyn. He struggled to keep his eyes open in order to scan the room, but they were nowhere to be found. It didn't take long for him to surmise where they were however.
There was no way for him to reach the middle of the room through this wind. Not even if he used his Sai to climb along the walls. He looked to his side to see that Karai was still hanging onto the door and he was sure that she was also trying to think of a way through.
"EVE! LEO!" Raphael shouted over the wind with all he had. He wasn't sure if they could hear him, but he wasn't about to give up on reaching either of them. Karai told him that he would have to choose, but that was not something he was about to do. He would get them both out of this mansion.
Leonardo and Evelyn both flinched slightly when they heard Raphael's voice. For the both of them, it rang so clearly over the wind and the screams. Evelyn's eyes snapped open and all at once, the screaming in her head was silenced.
"Raphael?" she said aloud.
The moment she said his name, the wind died in an instant. Her blackened eye vanished and everything being blown up by the wind smashed to the floor around them. Mikey and Donnie each took a deep breath as they slid down towards the floor, catching their breath.
Evelyn and Leonardo stood in the middle of the room, a little confused and bewildered. It all ended just as quickly as it began, but neither of them were entirely sure why. Still, they didn't have a lot of time to wonder why since Karai slithered fast towards the two of them. Raphael lunged forward and grabbed Karai's tail, holding her back and giving Leonardo enough time to place himself in front of Evelyn defensively.
"Karai?! What are you doing back here?" asked Leonardo in surprise.
"Get away from her, Leo!" Was all Karai said in reply as she struggled to pull her tail from Raphael's grip.
Leonardo pulled out his Katana and stood his ground. "I can't do that, Karai," he stated evenly.
Evelyn wasn't sure why Karai was after her now, but there was a lot to process in a short amount of time. She had control over her body for the moment and while she had that control she had to find Christopher and end this. Michelle couldn't be free if he was allowed to continue on like this. She scanned the room as quickly as she could, but didn't see him, only rubble and debris caused by the wind. Mikey and Donatello were still catching their breath, but they seemed fine, so at least she could take a little solace in that.
"That's enough!"
Everyone froze when they heard Carling shout. All eyes shot towards the doorway where they saw Carling and Christopher standing there. Carling was cloaked in black once again and her face was covered by shadow. Christopher was holding an unconscious April over his shoulder like a large sack. Evelyn and the turtles flinched slightly at the sight of their friend being held by the enemy and Eve especially didn't like the sight of it since she knew exactly what Chris did with young women.
"Let her go!" Evelyn demanded, lunging forward to get to April, but Leonardo put his arm out to hold her back.
"A—April...!" Donatello tried to get to his feet, but his lungs had not yet caught up with him. He cursed his luck that he was not able to rush to her right away.
"What do you mean, 'that's enough?!'" Karai repeated angrily. "What about our deal? What about—"
"I haven't forgotten our deal," interrupted Carling, "but there is no point in going any further tonight. The sun will be rising soon. You can leave…and I'll show our guests to the door."
Karai looked as if she were running the options over in her mind and it almost seemed as though she wasn't going to listen, but after an angry huff, Karai vanished in a puff of purple smoke.
Raphael scoffed angrily, pointing a Sai at Carling, but not stepping forward in case they did something to April as a result.
"Show us to the door?" he repeated sardonically, "Are you kidding me? You think after all this we are just gonna go home and forget about it?"
"Yes," began Carling, "and you'll leave Lady Michelle behind as well. Or this girl will be forfeit."
"You can't do that!" Evelyn demanded, still being held back by Leonardo. "Michelle doesn't want you to do this anymore!"
Christopher flinched just a bit and he took in a sharp breath. "What do you mean?" he commanded.
Evelyn leaned over Leonardo's arm as he struggled to keep her from squirming away.
"Michelle told me! She's here! She doesn't want any of this! She never did. Please! If you really loved your sister, you would let her go!"
Christopher opened his mouth to shout back, but Carling pulled back her hood and startled him into silence. Her expression was wildly amused and horrifyingly curious as she stared at Evelyn and Leonardo. Without saying another word, Carling burst out in shrill laughter. Everyone stared at her in curious caution. Her laugh was frightening, but almost childlike and not one of them knew what it meant.
"Y—you drank it! You drank it didn't you?" Carling asked Leonardo through bursts of laughter. Leonardo didn't move or speak, but his silence was more than enough for Carling. She grinned from ear to ear and her wild expression became all the more manic as she laughed again. "That's hilarious! It's as if—Hah!-History is repeating itself! It's just like back then!"
Evelyn had stopped struggling to get free of Leonardo at this point. She glanced up at him now with curiosity and concern.
"You…drank the dark liquid?" she asked knowingly.
Leonardo looked a little uncomfortable now, as if he really didn't want to admit it.
"I wanted to help you guys and…we all saw it cure you before," he answered finally.
Suddenly; Evelyn was reminded of what Michelle had said about a connection between herself and Leonardo. Was this it? Was it because he now had the same thing in his body as she did hers? Perhaps she should have been alarmed by this. She still didn't really know what the black ooze was or what it might really do to Leonardo, but it actually comforted her a little. As if she wasn't alone. Despite the atmosphere, she found herself smiling a little.
"Isn't it touching, sir?" Carling began again as she caught her breath from laughter, "Another brother and sister pair."
Raphael and the others were a little confused by Carling's sudden change in mood. None were quite sure what she was going to do next. Both Carling and Chris seemed so unstable in their actions and no one really knew what their actual goal was.
"I like the red ribbon, do you like it?" asked Christopher with a furious expression.
Leonardo and Raphael both panicked internally when Chris asked that question. They had witnessed those words shut Evelyn down before and sure enough, they turned their attention to her just in time to watch her body go limp. Leonardo leaned in quickly to make sure she didn't fall to the ground, but now they had another problem to deal with while trying to escape.
"Don't touch her!" Chris shouted in a frantic rage, dropping April's body to the ground with little regard to the damage it might cause. The turtles all flinched and Donatello's expression changed quickly from concern to rage. He wasn't about to let April be treated like a rag doll.
They didn't have a lot of time to think anymore. Leonardo could see that Donnie's patience had peeked, Evelyn was out of commission for the moment, and April was at the mercy of a very unstable man. He had to think of a way out of this. At the very least, get Eve and April out of this mansion and put them somewhere safe. His gaze darted from Evelyn to April, frantically trying to come up with something. In the midst of his internal panic, something caught his eye. April opened her eye just a little. She was clearly in pain and appeared to be a little weak, but she seemed determined to keep her consciousness a secret. She moved her head ever so slightly to signal Leonardo in a way and he understood. The wheels turned in his head and now he actually had a little hope that they could get everyone out of here.
A/N: Sorry! I know a lot wasn't solved in this chapter, but I had to cut it off or it would run on too long. Again, leave me reviews, please! They really motivate me to write the chapters faster! Also, I'm thinking about doing Extra short stories about Eve and the turtles. Let me know if you would like that or not. See you all next Chapter! Love you all!
The holidays are over and I think I can finally get my life back to normal. Hurray!
Oh! Happy New Year, everyone!