Arcos, Aries, and Medusa had carried hundreds pounds of items underground when they were out reconstructing their lives. The immediate need, after water, was food, they decided, and then medicine. They needed a lot of water. They had to clean the rooms they were living in, they had to clean themselves, they had to clean their clothes, and they had to clean everything that they brought down to their new living space. The only base that their mother had for her medicines was water, so they needed it for washes and teas. They had brought down empty barrels to hold the water. They had brought plastic grocery bags filled with water, not an easy carry, to fill the barrels. They'd finally found buckets, and something so simple as a plastic bucket seemed to be the greatest invention ever. They could now carry 5 gallons of water at time in each bucket, and they didn't have to work to keep them balanced liked they did the grocery bags. It seemed that for days and days their lives were filled with the search for water.
After the water was taken care of, food became their main priority. Arcos was hungry. He constantly had a gnawing in his stomach. Searching for water had left space in his belly for food, which was in short supply. He was in no mood to rely on the luck of what they could find in others' garbage in order to eat.
With their mother not present at one of their outings, Arcos walked up to an apartment building and tore the front door off the hinges.
"What are you doing?" Aries had asked, putting down the lid of the garbage can he was about to rummage in.
"Going in the building," Arcos' voice had been impassive.
"You're going in the building?" Medusa had slunk over to him. "You're going to get stuff out of people's apartments?"
He looked at his sister stoically. "Yes," he had answered.
"You can't steal stuff out of people's apartments," she'd said.
"Why not?" Aries had walked over to them, "the people aren't going to need it. They're not even people any more."
Medusa had looked from one to the other of her brothers. "Mama isn't going to like this..." she had felt her resistance faltering.
"Then we don't tell her." Both Aries and Medusa looked at him uncomfortably at his matter-of-fact speaking.
The three had gone into the building and cleared out every fridge and pantry in the place.
They had continued to raid apartment buildings until they came across one which was still occupied. They had not been able to quell the screams of the residents inside, and had run to nearest manhole cover they could reach. After that, they stuck to dumpsters.
They avoided going out during the day, even if they were gone for more than a day. The Kraang seemed to congregate in of the city, which they tried to avoid once they discovered where they were. Their first encounter with them had scared the living daylights out of him.
They were walking along the road, not being particularly careful. It was their own fault. It was quiet, with no humans about, they'd let down their guard. They'd had an impressive shopping trip so far, their bags heavy. They turned a corner, and in front of them were a group of Kraangdroids. Without a word, they'd all retreated around the corner, and listened intently. Arcos had put his hand up to retrieve his hammer, his ears stretched to their limit. Nothing happened, and they returned the way they came, this time in the shadows.
His neck ached whenever they came back home, and his mother had placed a cool washcloth with dandelion root tea. "It isn't the most effective herb," she'd said, "but it is better than nothing." He could feel the tingly warmth of her magic as she laid hands on him. His neck was better in a little more than two weeks, and he was glad that during that time he'd not had to wield his sledgehammer.
Arcos had found a drawing pad and some pencils. He had busied himself with sketching things from memory, but that got him depressed to the point he wanted to cry. It had been a long, long time since he'd cried due an emotional hurt. He had to blink rapidly, and increase his breathing to get a hold of himself. He would feel his chest tighten, and then throat, and panic would rise from belly and squeeze through the tightness. He knew that if it got to his head, if it got passed his throat, that it would consume him, and he was afraid of what he would do. Like he did to Kraang with his sledgehammer, he squashed the feeling down to the bottom of his stomach, where he would tell it to stay. And it would stay there for a while. He began to stick with fantasy settings, drawing fairies, elves, dragons, and unicorns. He drew Aries, and Medusa. He drew his mother, and he drew the rat mutant. He missed his paints, and pastels at home. He missed his bed. He missed the smell of the warehouse, the smoky air in the winter, and the open windows in the summer. He missed the kitchen table, with its peeling chrome legs. He missed his mother's bed, which they all shared together in the winter to keep warm. He missed playing with his brother and sister and their friends. He missed what it was before...
He would sometimes be overcome with an anger that frightened him. He was angry at the Kraang for taking away him home. He was angry at Medusa for whining all the time. He was angry at Aries for being unreasonable too much of the time. He was angry at his mother, that she didn't help them more topside, that she kept down here with her 'patient'. He was angry at the rat mutant for taking his mother away, at a time when he desperately wanted her. If they'd not found him, then it would be just them, as it should be. Even if it was in the sewer, they'd be able to go topside together, the four of them, and not in pairs and in threes.
His mother's vehement insistence that the rat be brought to their new home bothered him. He wasn't sure why. He couldn't put a finger on it. Aries had told him flat out, they should have put the rat back in the sewer from where he'd obviously come. "She's wasting all of her time on a sewer rat," he'd said. He had to agree, but he didn't say it, he had only grunted noncommittally in reply. Arcos did feel that there was something more to it than his mother simply wasting their time on a sewer rat. There was something she wasn't telling them. That is what didn't set well with him. Secrets, she was keeping secrets. He hadn't known her keep secrets before, simply to not mention certain things. But then, how could he judge her for keeping secrets, when now, they were keeping secrets from her? If he thought about it too much, he was reminded of many of the things in his life which he simply hadn't mentioned, because he knew that she would disapprove.
"She isn't keeping secrets," Medusa had clicked her tongue at him when he'd mentioned it. "She's keeping her own counsel."
He wasn't sure he saw the difference anymore.
He had suspected for sometime that something..untoward...had happened when she'd been kidnapped by the Rat King. She hadn't told them anything about the experience, other than if something like it ever happened again, they were not come after her. She had lived her life, they were not to endanger theirs by fetching her, she'd said. Arcos had no idea how to ask what happened while she was his prisoner, much less how to ask if a violation had happened. "Excuse me, Mama," he would deride himself for thinking what he would say, "Did that creepy Freddy Krueger guy rape you when you were down there with him?" Or perhaps he'd done something more sinister to her, that she felt this need to help this stranger when they were in a position where they could barely help themselves. This man obviously had something to do with the Rat King, a fool would be able to tell that. Wha,t he could not figure out. Sometimes he thought his mother knew, and then other times it looked as if she didn't.
Medusa had reminded him of his mother's words, spoken so often. "It is important to be kind."
This seemed to be much more that. And he didn't like it.
"Are you alright, Mama?" he would ask, knowing the answer was no, and knowing what her reply would be.
"I'm fine, Teddy Bear," her voice was reassuring, it was the mother who took care of her family, who made all of the decisions.
Arcos had always been in charge when they'd gone out and fought. His mother deferred to him, rarely using her authority to overrule him in combat. But at home, he'd not had to command his siblings, he'd not had to make decisions based on what was best for everyone. She did that. That was her job, she was supposed to do that. And she did, when they were in their new home, or when she went topside with one of them to gather herbs. But more and more, Arcos and his siblings were going above ground without her, and staying away from their burrow for days at a time. She stayed down here, tending her patient, making medicines, washing clothes, sewing, and generally making the place more cozy.
"What if he wakes up?" Arcos had asked on their second day, before leaving to go topside.
"What if he does?" his mother asked in return.
"How can you be sure he won't hurt you?"
"Because he won't," she'd answered. Her voice was so sure, it frightened him. It was one of the times when he thought that she must have had some sort of encounter with this man during her kidnapping, but she had claimed that she'd never seen him in her life.
But with them being gone more and more, having to go farther afield to gather supplies, he was in charge. He had to make decisions on where to spend the day, what to carry and what to leave. He worried what he would come home to...
Then the first day he'd come back to his mother holding a picture of those turtles. "It fell out of his robe," she had said.
He'd growled. The rat was not only connected to the Rat King, but he was connected to those damned Turtles. So much so, he carried a photograph of them. The urge to grab the rat, as he lay there naked in front of his mother, was more overwhelming than any sensation he'd ever had in his life. This rat was part of the reason this was happening to them. The Turtles were with the Kraang, which mean this rat was with the Kraang, which meant the Rat King was with the Kraang. The Kraang were the reason they were homeless, living like fugitives underground.
Aries came forward, his feet clacking, saying he was going to throw the rat back in the water where they'd gotten him. Arcos was about to move to help him. Let the rat drown, he'd thought, like all the Kraang should.
But he hadn't got a chance to move.
His mother had thrown herself over the rat, like Pocahontas over John Smith.
So she tended him, and made them tend him when she was gone.
