Therefore I Am

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult, or adolescent, transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Chapter Thirty Seven: Branded.

Catherine:

I waited pacing in the cage, often chewing on fingernails or fiddling with my hair, as I worried about what might be happening with Ramiela. My mind raced with all the terrible things that David and Keith could be subjecting her to, and I had to wonder what sort of effect would it have on her in the long run?

I had no doubt in my mind that they would torture her, do any number of unspeakable things to her. I knew David was breaking all kinds of rules, ignoring the findings of previous tests just so he could experiment on Rama. As for Keith, if he was, as Rama had said, one of the Foot, well, it was highly unlikely he'd be treating her very gently. Rama and her family couldn't go to the police for assistance. They could not lodge a formal complaint saying they were taken against their will, imprisoned and mistreated. They could not enter a court of law and expect justice to be served.

I could do those things, counter sue about how I had been treated when faced with the charges of stealing from the lab. But they probably wouldn't hurt me any. Marks or any sort of injury to me, might too easily point to assault or something similar. While if I wasn't hurt it would be a case of my word against theirs. I could hurt myself and say they did it. But they were most likely recording what happened in here, and David would get Keith to sign a paper stating that they had done nothing to injure me.

I sighed, David could get anyone to witness to it, while I had no witness to back me up. I couldn't even argue that Ramiela, the test subject I had removed from the lab was a sentient being, because that might attract too much attention to Rama and her family, something the turtle family probably preferred to avoid at all costs if they could.

So that meant that David was free to do whatever he wanted to with Rama.

"Damn it!" I cursed as that realization sunk in, I slammed my fist into the bars of the cage, only hurting my hand in doing so. I sort of welcomed the pain, in some way it made me feel more alive then my frustrated, hopeless feeling that I had.

I don't know how long I'd been waiting and fretting when Keith, returned to the room with David and a groggy bleeding Ramiela. There were numerous marks all over her arms and legs, like she had been cut, and whipped a little, there seemed no fight in her a the moment just a dejected air. Like she had given up. They shoved her in and quickly locked the door behind her, while she scrambled to a far corner where she dropped into a ball.

Rama was clearly trying to withdraw into her shell, she wrapped her arms around her legs, she was silent but raised her head enough I could see tears before she tucked her head down.

Seeing, her like this caused me to become very angry, a rage that boiled deep within and rose quickly upward. " How could you do this to her David? You know she is as intelligent as a human is. Rama is only thirteen and you are treating her like some adult prisoner of war. Subjecting her to things no one has the right to put another being through!" I declared. "The David I used to know would never stoop to break the law, or switch his scientific findings to suit his own needs and purposes. That all changed when you got a hold of her," I ranted. " Your perfect mutant specimen you were willing to do things you never would have considered before. Take a look David, no child can put up with that sort of treatment. You are killing her!" I snapped in conclusion.

David just laughed at my remarks, totally baffling me and proving to me just how much he had changed. "Don't worry I happen to know there are others who I can work with, including a new born infant," he gloated merrily, "In fact there is plenty more to take her place."

"Congratulations David!" I remarked coldly and with much sarcasm, " in all my years of studying animal behaviour , you were the one to prove that humans are the most sickening and degrading of all animals I have ever encountered or had to deal with." I paused and shot him the dirtiest look I could muster, "I'd love to see what Raphael would do with you!"

Keith smiled at my words, " Thank you for reminding us, they should be here shortly we best see to it that all preparations are in place."

They left quickly and I turned back to see Ramiela rocking back and forth in her huddled ball. I went over and sat beside her placing an arm around her shoulders, "Ramiela" I whispered.

She flinched ever so slightly, raised her head and her face crumpled, she threw her arms around my neck and began to bawl. I held her close as deep wracking sobs shook her whole body, finally her tears subsided, and she was left sniffing and taking deep ragged breaths of air.

" I betrayed them Catherine. I couldn't help it. I tried to stop it, to not say anything but I couldn't," she confessed mournfully.

" It wasn't your fault honey it was forced from you. You had no choice, the things they did to you was enough I'm sure to make even a grown person cave to such demands." I assured her.

" I guess, maybe" Rama said reluctantly, not sounding very much like she believed me. "They know about the other children and if they are taken prisoner for science experiments it will still be my fault," She insisted.

"Come on, I've seen your dad and uncles practice. I'm sure that won't come to pass," I remarked more in hopes of trying to get her spirits up. To tell the truth, I wasn't even sure what the odds were of her family getting us all out of this safe.

Rama sniffed and used her hands to wipe at her eyes "Yeah they are good," She allowed. "One thing going in our favour at the moment is that Keith is not working under clan sanction."

I still didn't know a great deal about clan life so her statement meant nothing to me, something I was willing to admit to. " I don't understand quite what that means Ramiela."

"It's simple Catherine, only the leader, the jonin of the clan, has the right to give assignments. Keith and some of his foot soldier friends are doing this on their own. They don't have the clan backing them up and if things get bad for them, the clan won't help them-because they probably have no idea what is going on. When Yukio finds out he won't be amused at his jenin's deception."

"Jenin?" I wondered.

"Us lowly ninja who take orders from the chunin- or second in command. In our clan Splinter is Jonin, Sensei is Chunin and the rest of us are jenin," Ramiela explained and sniffed a bit.

"Then he is going be in big trouble isn't he?" I stated. I couldn't help but hope for Keith's jonin to give him what for.

"Yes, he is especially if we escape. He might not be in big trouble if he brings back a prize. I mean he may be disciplined but not really punished then because he would have brought back something. Not to mention Keith knows where we live now, and can bargain because he knows how many turtles are in the family waiting for training or in training," Rama explained, "he's bound to keep that information for himself and use it as his get out of jail free card. To protect our clan he is going have to die. David might have to die too."

Rama took a deep shaky breath, "We don't like taking life unnecessarily. All life is important and has value. But sometimes we have to take the clans safety into consideration. We can't go to the public courts. But as Ninja we have our own courts and the ruling is final. David refuses to give up, his persistence might be his undoing. When we kill outside of self defense; we do it in such a way, as to make it look like an accident."

I listened to these words, wondering what she meant there was so much going on it was almost hard to grasp, and yet I think a part of me knew exactly what she was getting at. That part of me, that understood it wanted to deny it because it seemed wrong for the turtle family to do that, and yet I could also almost accept why they had to. I just wasn't fully sure I totally grasped the implications of it.

"It is funny hearing you say you'd like to see what Uncle Raphael would do to them. You might not see it, but you may hear about it on the news some accident, a suicide. Uncle Raphael has a title in our family, he's the executioner. He's the one who does the job when it needs to be done. He believes all life has value, but when some people can't take a hint then he steps in," Rama's voice became very low and soft, "He will kill in self defense or kill someone who is being a threat to those he loves and cares about."

I had a feeling she had seen it before, and that was how she knew. " You know this for a fact?" I inquired.

"Uncle Raphael killed my birth mom," She replied simply.

I gasped and drew back in shock. I wasn't quite sure I wanted to hear this, but a part of me knew that I had to.

"She came back around the time Uncle Raphael met Sara. Shay went against my family's warnings, she'd been told before you see after doing some other stuff, that she was to forget us and never come back. Because if she came back she would have proven herself a threat to us. The police believe that it was a murder suicide between her and her fiancé." Rama explained, in her quiet tone.

I had been right there had been more to the story then what Mike had told me. I recalled Mike saying 'it's not as bad as...' then quickly changing the subject.

"I just hope Keith doesn't escape" Rama muttered, and wiped at her face to remove the last of her tears.

I decided that learning more about Rama's mother might just have to wait. I don't know if she was up to telling me, and I had quite enough to dwell on with what she had revealed. Besides she was still hurt, so I busied myself by checking and trying to tend to her wounds. Most of the injuries didn't look too bad, but I noticed two deep puncture holes in the upper right arm, just down from the shoulder.

"Did they put something into your arm?" I asked.

" Yeah," She nodded her head, "two things a tracker device of some kind I think. I don't know what the other one was for." Ramiela answered, " Uncle Donatello can probably get them out so, I'm not really worried bout it. The mark on my other arm that, I don't think he can remove."

"Remove what?"

Ramiela wiped at some dried blood on her other arm, that had covered over what had once been a white bandaid, she pulled off the bandage to reveal a series of numbers and letters. A couple of the letters identified the lab, David's lab, there was also a few letters representing the year and from what I could tell David had back dated the year so that it would look like Rama had been with him for most of her life. Of course there was also A-23 her lab identification.

Rama had been branded, to look like she was the sole property of David, she was nothing more than his experiment and specimen and with that brand just about any scientist that saw it, would return her to him. The ink was pretty much dry but they had probably only placed the bandaid over it to prevent blood from smudging the letters on it when it was still fresh.

"They marked me like some kind of pet, a return to sender. I don't think Uncle Don can get rid of it," Rama moped, " I remember uncle Don teachin' me about world war two and how the Jews in the concentration camps all had to be marked. Something that would mark them forever. I don't want to be branded for life. I'm not a pet, or even a possession but suddenly I sure feel that way."

I shuddered, thinking of what I knew about the tattoo, like David lying about how long Rama had been part of his studies. what David would do to the others too, if he could get his hand on them. Though Rama, clearly knew the implications of the tattoo.

She didn't deserve to be treated like this, none of them did. I suddenly realized the desperate choice I had made that night to free her had been the right one. I had my doubts and misgivings since then. I had acted that evening on sheer impulse alone, acting without thinking. Now, all of that was truly gone and I accepted what I had known in my heart for some time.

I knew then that Ramiela and her family deserved the same rights as any other human.

I pulled her close hugging her, not knowing what to say to comfort her, only hoping that my silence spoke for itself.

TBC