She's starting to have second thoughts.
It's been for a little while now, ever since those wormholes had invaded New York and her last battle with the turtles. She's been having doubts lately, regarding the truth about her past.
"Splinter," Leo had said, his eyes desperate and pleading. "He's your father. Your true father."
She hadn't wanted to believe it then. She didn't before. She believed it was just a ruse to bide them time for an escape from her wrath.
"Miwa..."
She thinks more about that night, when Hamato Yoshi had stormed in and assaulted her father, a death match between the two. He called her Miwa.
But why?
"Miwa," she says aloud, in the comfort of her own bedroom. She lies on the bed, an arm slung over her head, her brows creasing. "Miwa."
She says it slowly, carefully pronouncing each syllable, searching for a recollection of the name before Yoshi's reappearance. She's never heard of the name before he showed up, but now she wonders.
What was stranger was that Hamato Yoshi didn't act like the man her father described. Shredder had described the man vile as a rat, coincidentally enough, and cruel. But Yoshi didn't act like that; his eyes held warmth and horror when they locked eyes months ago. His voice was deep with a baritone quality to it; he didn't appear as the man her father had described.
She growls when she starts to feel the achingly familiar headache bloom across her skull. It feels like there's a fist in her head, pounding against her skull like it was trying to crack it open. It happens every time she thinks about the troubling thoughts.
Was Hamato Yoshi her father?
She swallows, her brows creasing, wrinkling her forehead as she gingerly rubs her head. "Well, Karai, you've found yourself in quite a pickle, huh?" she mutters under her breath. Her eyes widen in horror. "Oh god," she whispers. "I'm talking to myself. I have become insane and delusional as my father."
She throws the covers off herself, swinging her legs on the edge of her bed. She cracks her neck, straightening her spine with a slight crack, groaning in pleasure at the brief relief it gives her. Welp, there's only one thing to do.
Grabbing her tanto from her bedside table, she slides open the window, hops off, and sprints across the familiar rooftops in New York city.
She knew someone who she could vent her frustrations out.
"Hey, you know what to do. I'm not gonna be an asshole and tell you," comes the immediate reply of Jewel's voicemail, laced with the annoyingly familiar monotone and deadpan that rivals the Kraang. Leo sighs for the umpteenth time that night; it's been a rough week, ever since the Newtralizer threat, and then the next day comes the Pizza Face threat Mikey unleashed.
He lets out a dejected sigh, pulling the phone off his ear. It was...awkward, to be blunt. Jewel hasn't come to the lair unless it was to visit Donnie, for her weekly checkups on her mentality. They didn't talk or anything. Not about the breakup.
Not really about anything.
Eyes narrowing, he puts the phone back on and leaves her a message.
"Hey, it's Leo," he says, wincing at how lame he sounds. "I haven't really seen you since the whole Newtralizer thing. I know you're not really interested in stopping the Kraang, but...I don't know. I miss you. Call me back." He hangs up, hanging his head down. He cringes. "I miss you?" he repeats, scoffing and shaking his head. "I'm an idiot."
"I can attest to that!"
In whiplash speed, he jumps to his feet and blocks what would've been a clean slice to his head with Katana blade, his arm trembling as Karai applies more pressure.
Teeth gritted, he manages to give her a flat look. "This is getting old, Karai," he drones.
Karai grins. "That's the point! Hyah!" She flips back and purposely collides her foot against his mouth. Leo staggers back, a hand flying to his mouth. His teeth still intact, though his patience thins.
"I thought we had a truce."
"You thought wrong."
With a shout, Karai lunges and strikes at his chest, but Leo easily dodges the sharp blade, leaping back. Metal sings in the air as they combat against one another, a furious blows of spinning back kicks and punches. Leo ducks down low, slides underneath Karai, and grabs her ankle. He pulls her down when he's no longer under her, gaining an advantage. She flips herself back up and charges once again.
And their fight continues, but he notes how when she has the opportunity, she seemingly waits for him to escape and the cycle repeats itself.
"I don't understand you!" he finally cries, the stress of being an older brother, leader, and teenage boy finally snapping him in half. His ears ring when the steel of their blades slam into one another, but he ignores the ache. "One minute we're drinking disgusting tea on a rooftop, then the next thing we're battling to the death!"
Karai growls, gritting her teeth. "So?" she challenges.
"So which is it? Are we allies or enemies?"
"Shut up, Leo!" Karai glowers, evading the question. "I'm trying to kill you!"
He scoffs, rolling his eyes skyward. "Sure you are," he says, the sarcasm dripping in his tone.
"I am!" she insists with a snarl. "Stop moving!"
"Karai, you've had, like, dozens of opportunity to end it all, but here we are."
Amber eyes light up in murder, and she snarls deep in her throat. "I'm a kunoichi," she says smoothly, deceptively calmer than she appears. "This is what we do."
"Then do it."
"What?"
"Do it," Leo repeats, his voice strong and steady. His arms hang loosely at his sides, his Katana sword in one hand, standing perfectly straight with his chin raised, as if he was challenging her. "You really wanna kill me that badly? Then go ahead." His voice lowers. "I dare you."
Karai is startled; he was joking. He was clearly joking. Leonardo never backed down in their fights before. He returned the violence with gusto. He was joking.
But whatever. She would do what it takes to make her father proud.
"Okay," she says, eyes narrowing. She tightens her grasp on the hilt of her blade, glaring at him. Leo cocks his head slightly, lifting an eye ridge.
"I'm waiting."
"Shut up!" she snaps, scowling sourly. "I'm...trying to find the perfect position I want to put your corpse in."
Again with the look, why the look? She hates that look. There's a smugness in his eyes and doubt in his raised brow. It's fucking annoying.
"Stop giving me that look," she spits, lips pursing into a deep frown. "I'm about to kill you."
A scoff. "Yeah, and Shredder's your father."
Oh, that does it.
Karai charges at him with murderous intent, but he sidesteps away from and slams his foot on her back. She loses her footing and trips, slamming hard onto the concrete. Her knee burns with pain, feeling a warm liquid trickle, and she turns her. She punches the ground when she finds that he's gone.
"Dammit," she hisses.
Her father was not a kind man.
He killed people for a living, struck them in their most vulnerable moments. His punishments were severe if the Elites and Soldiers were out of line. Gave no encouragement and had no filter when he bluntly told them they were horrible in the art of ninjitsu.
Akio King was not a kind man, when he was alive.
But he was a good father.
Jewel thinks more about her father now, ever since the reminders of her old life returned. She thinks about the first time she ever went on a mission with him. How cold it had been in Tokyo at the time, how her lungs burned when she struggled to keep up with him, and how warm and smelly the blood of her slain enemy was.
She thinks about how she didn't have a choice in the matter.
She wonders if he truly regrets his decision, raising a young blasian girl. Marrying an African American woman. Or if he hated seeing how she looked more black than she did Japanese. She doesn't know. She doesn't want to.
Ignorance is truly bliss.
She sits across from the building, cross-legged, slurping on Pepsi she had bought from a Taco Bell. It's a really nice apartment, too. A clean neighborhood, fancy looking cars. It screams rich people.
They had a similar lifestyle, before the accident.
The room inside is basked in orange, maybe from the lamp, or a chandelier. It's hard to see much through the curtains. But it looks so warm inside; she can smell the fresh aroma of food. She hears somebody laughing, a silhouette moving, maybe placing plates on a table.
Jewel smiles softly from where she sits across her aunt's building; she's tempted to knock on the window, but she doesn't want to disturb the family time they were having. She knows her aunt would be overjoyed if Jewel wished to join, but Jewel wasn't family. Not where it really mattered, truly. They hardly knew each other, and while she wanted to know more about her mother, she didn't want to drag the poor woman into her world of assassins and mutants.
She made it clear the night Leo broke up with her. Told her to stay away, to stop helping Kurtzman with Kraang related issues, to stay from away from her.
She saw disappointment in the woman's dark eyes, but she had nodded, though she looked almost devastated.
The guilt consumed her and she trapped herself in the trance of alcohol and lines of coke, and it sated the feeling eating away from her.
"It's for the best," she says aloud, because it is. It really is. Annabel was safe this way. No one else would have to die because they shared a connection to her.
Especially an innocent.
Which brings her back to her father; because her father was not the only one who was responsible for her existence. Her mother, Faline. A dark-skinned beauty with curly hair, all natural. Slim figure and intelligent dark eyes. Jewel wonders what she used to be like, if she would have inherited her mother's qualities. Of course her father was often elusive at the subject of her, so Jewel learned to stop asking.
But sometimes he would tell her things.
"She liked dogs," he'd told her after training. "Really small dogs, like Yorkshire terriers. The only big dogs she liked were German Shepherds."
And Jewel had smiled, because of her stuffed dog, Dolly, whose species was a German Shepherd.
And now she's an actual dog...who poops out stuffing.
"Hey."
She lifts her head, turning to see Gwen sit beside her, mirroring her cross-legged pose. Jewel pulls her hood down, offering the faintest of nods, going back to watching her aunt interact with her family. "How'd you find me?" she asks without looking away.
"I figured you'd be up here," Gwen says, brushing back a strand of shiny blonde hair. "How long have you been here?"
"About an hour, give or take," Jewel guesses, shrugging one shoulder. "I keep trying to leave, but I don't wanna really wanna go back to my apartment."
"Clara driving you crazy?"
"Never move in with a cat burglar with a fetish for shiny things."
Gwen snorts with laughter, and Jewel joins in, too. They chuckle together. "Did you steal anything shiny?"
"A buyer from Russia rewarded me with some diamonds, yes."
"Wow," Gwen raises her brows, "what'd you do?"
"Eh, one of his followers tried to leave; he needed to be taught a lesson."
"Ah."
The conversation stops there; the 'ah' is Gwen's cue she doesn't want to know all the explicit details. Jewel has Clara to share those with. Gwen was...indifferent that part of her life. The part where she doesn't mind beheading a man for a few hundreds and grands. It's complicated, and clearly illegal, and the main reason why her relationship deteriorated and was ultimately terminated.
It was nice while it lasted.
"So how's Mikey?" Jewel asks after a long moment of silence stretches across them. "I heard about the Pizza Face thing. Did he really the whole mutant?"
"Not even a lick of sauce was spared," Gwen breathes, amusement glittering in her eyes. "But he's okay. Raph says he thinks he dreamt it all. The guys decided to pretend none of it happened."
Jewel snorts. "They pretended the Squirrelanoid thing never happened," she remarks dryly, with a hint of amusement.
"I guess they'd only do it for Mikey." There's a softness when Gwen says, and Jewel feels her own eyes melt into something much less harder; a fondness for the orange clad turtle. He was an obnoxious loud mouth, yes, but he was always such a positive turtle, always trying to bring light into a tough situation.
Guilt pegs at her when she realizes she hasn't talked much to the guys ever since that night.
"Are they mad at me?" she asks, averting her guilty eyes to the ground, gnawing on her lip. "After...y'know."
"Raph is...Raph," Gwen says, struggling for the right answer. "And you know Mikey will always forgive you. I can't speak for Donnie; you might have to ask April, and Leo..." she sighs heavily. "I think he feels guilty."
"For what?"
"For breaking up with you."
Jewel rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Oh please," she dismisses. "That guy would feel guilty if some random dude shot himself in the head."
"Don't be mean," Gwen chides. "I just think he feels bad about hurting you. Just because you aren't together, doesn't mean he doesn't care about you."
In response, she shrugs. "I guess I can't blame him," she mumbles, looking anywhere but at Gwen. "I haven't been around. I haven't really...helped him with his problems. He was struggling and I wasn't there, and I kept blowing him off. I'm fine, really. It's no big deal."
"Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?"
"Push people away," Gwen elaborates, frowning deeply. "When you have your guard down and you let people get close to you, you immediately shut your doors and avoid them like the plague. You did it with Leo, you did it with me, and now you're doing it to your aunt."
"Yeah, for her own safety," Jewel defends, her voice taking on a bite to it. "I'm trying to protect her."
"And Leo?"
She tightens her jaw, looking away from her best friend. "It's complicated."
"Well," Gwen stands slowly, brushing off her skirt, "whatever it is, I hope you figure it out." She walks away without another word, but she stops, and turns her head halfway. "You deserve to be happy, Julie. Things don't have to be complicated."
If she only knew.
Meanwhile, down in the East part of the city, Clara leaps across the buildings, a stash full of jewels, trinkets and cash in her hand. She grins with wicked glee when she hears the sirens of police cars, fading further and further away as she sprints across the buildings. Sometimes she got lazy on these twists just for the fun of it; it was spontaneous and she needed a break from the same, monotonous routine.
Moving with instinctive grace, she springs high off the ground and flips over a water tower, adrenaline pumping.
Tonight was successful; she had managed to grab all the fancy trinkets that old lady no longer used, along with some diamond jewels and crests she had found in her jewelry box, and she was going to make a fortune off of those trinkets down in the pawn shop.
It's a good night.
Just as she's about to make another jump for the rooftop across from her, something grabs her by her collar and flings into the wall. She yowls in pain, hand flying to the back of her, feeling a warm liquid drip between her fingers. She looks down at her hand, wincing when she sees the dark crimson blood.
Snapping her head up, her eyes widen in surprise. "Tiger Claw?"
Sure enough, the large tiger mutant towers over her. In his hand was the sack of valuable items she had dropped when she was thrown across the rooftop. "What the...? How the hell are you here?" she gawks, face twisting in disbelief. "You were swallowed by a giant worm! How'd you escape?!"
A deep growl rolls from the base of his throat, sending chills down her spine as he bares his dagger-sharp teeth. "How I managed to survive the worm is none of your concern, young cub," he says, deceptively calm. "All that matters is that I am back, and I have a thirst for vengeance at the fools who did this to me."
"You are insane," she spits, venom in her eyes. It's just then when she really gets a good look at him, and she smiles coldly. "So not only do you not have a tail, you don't have an eye?" she sneers with a grin. "Man, am I glad not to be in your paws."
He glowers. "Do not mock me, child," he snaps, eyes glowing with rage. "I wouldn't be making jokes in your position."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"You will help me find the turtles lair, and you will take me there to finish them all and bring Hamato Yoshi to Master Shredder."
The cold, snide smile is gone and Clara blinks hard in surprise. Shredder? She glares fiercely. "And why the hell would I do that?" she demands, arching an eyebrow.
He grins, a wicked gleam in his amber eye, and a sinister chuckle rumbles from his lips, dark and cruel. "Because I know what you hold dear, Clara Kyle," he gloats, taking a step forward. "And I know that once of those comes in the name of a young Brittney."
Her eyes widen in horror, before she lashes out and pulls out her whip, flogging it out. He roars and ducks away, grabbing his gun. While she was more agile and sneakier, he was stronger and faster, and he easily avoids her attacks and twists her arm behind her back.
"If you want to keep the girl alive, then I suggest you listen to me," he threatens, pressing down on her leg for emphasis. "Do we have a deal?"
Clara bits her lip hard at the flare of pain, suppressing a grunt. She squeezes her eyes shut, and nods after a long moment, casting her eyes to the ground.
It's not a good night anymore.
"Hey," Jewel mumbles when Clara comes up behind her; she's sitting on the ledge of a new building. She's sanding her nails with a nail filer, blowing off some dust. They're black with lion and tiger designs, a symbolic gesture that she really likes wild felines.
"Hey," Clara mirrors her sitting position, her stomach tightening into knots. "You got your nails done?"
"Half hour ago," Jewel says, uninvested in this conversation. "I got bored and they didn't charge me anything once they recognized me from that weird vogue magazine."
"Cool."
They sit in comfortable silence, Jewel examining her freshly done nails and Clara stewing in guilt and contemplation. Jewel had always been there for Clara, always. She helped her through the rough times when her mother disappeared and gave her refuge when authorities managed to find her. And in return, Clara often aided Jewel in old missions, back when she was in the Foot Clan and now.
They helped each other because they owed each other.
"So," Clara starts, and Jewel turns her head, giving her her full attention. "Rough night?"
"No."
"Whatever happened to that guy?"
"The one from the other night? It was a pretty easy kill. I just ran him over nine times with a car."
"Did he cry?"
Jewel smiles, a wicked gleam in her eyes. "He put a hungry baby to shame."
Clara snorts at that, shaking her head fondly. She makes a face when Jewel shushes somebody and her scrunches into a glare.
"Oh, quiet you," she mutters under her breath, flicking her forehead. "I don't wanna hear anymore of it."
"Jewel?"
"Yeah?"
"...who are you talking to?"
Jewel frowns. "Nobody."
Clara stares at her for a full minute.
"Okay," she drawls, dragging on the word before trailing off, deciding to ignore it; she's used to her odd quirks after years of friendship. Strangely enough, this was not the weirdest Jewel acted. Once she got into an argument with herself about how a possum could not reproduce with a raccoon.
She looks away again, tapping her fingers on her thighs, gnawing her lower lip. Jewel isn't looking at her anymore. She can't see the conflict running in her eyes as she stews and stews.
Fuck it all.
"Wanna go to the la—"
"You know, I really don't think I'm gonna miss Leonardo, he was a bit of a prick," Jewel says so suddenly, standing on her feet in a flash, literally speaking. She folds her arms and begins pacing across the rooftop, tapping her chin. "I mean, he was just so...stoic, and stony, and kind of cold. If he was human and you saw him sitting in the bus, you would think that he's a statue. I mean, what the hell, dude? What, because you're leader, you think you're some big, strong man now? Fuck him. Fuck that smug, arrogant asshole."
Clara withholds a sigh, standing as she listens to her friend's tirade. She's almost tempted to just lead Tiger Claw into the turtles' lair herself, but it had been months since the last time she'd been there, and the sewer tunnels in New York seemingly went on forever. She didn't have the patience for it.
Maybe Jewel won't be too pissed, she thinks to herself. After all, she's super pissed at Leo right now. Maybe she'll thank me.
Of course, she wasn't angry with the other turtles.
"It's bubble tea! Who doesn't like bubble tea?" Jewel whirls around, looking Clara directly in the eye. She nearly jumps out of her skin when the kunoichi is standing directly in front of her, grabbing her shoulders and digging her painted nails into them. "Clara, what is wrong with bubble tea?" she asks, and under normal circumstances, Clara would have laughed at how serious she looks right now.
Unfortunately she was distracted with doubt and guilt.
"Nothing," she shrugs, shaking her head. "You're right. You're so right. There is nothing wrong with bubble tea. Why don't we discuss this more in the la—?"
"I know, right!" Jewel throws her hands up, stepping back and returning to her pacing. "I mean, is it so wrong of him to indulge in a little sweetness? The guy eats pizza, for crying out loud!"
"I didn't think you'd be this upset—"
"Upset?" Jewel snaps her head, arching a brow. "Who says I'm upset? Because I'm not upset. Lies. All lies. Who told you all these lies about me?"
"Jewel—"
"—Tell me right now, Clara. I need to know who's been telling all these lies about me. And once I find them, I'm going to rip out their tongues, wrap it around their necks and squeeze until their head rolls off."
Oh, for fucks sake.
"Why don't we cool off in the lair?"
"Why the hell would I wanna go to the lair?" Jewel snaps, glaring at Clara with incredulity. "That's the last place I wanna go. Well, that and the Foot's headquarters. Actually, no, an encounter with Oroku Saki is much more pleasant than an encounter with Lame-o-nardo."
"I mean," Clara stammers, wishing her mother had trained her in the art of manipulation and lying, but she wasn't trained to be a kunoichi like Jewel. "It's where you cool off most of the time. You don't...spiral...there."
"I spiral," Jewel defends, eyeing her warily. "I spiral there all the time. Just last month I spiraled around Raph so much he vomited for three hours straight."
"That's not what I mean."
"Then what the hell do you mean, Clara?" Jewel demands, folding her arms across her chest. "And why the sudden interest in going to the lair? You hate going there, remember? You said the smell gave you food poisoning just from the air last time."
"Uh..."
Her squint, as if gauging for a reaction of some sort; fuck, she was suspicious now. And Clara had seen that look before. It was the look that deciphered true intentions and it had been amusing before.
But now she was on the receiving end.
"Clara." Crap. Her tone rings with authority and her eyes demand answers. She winces at how her chin is grabbed between fingers and Jewel forcefully pulls her in close, narrowed eyes boring deep into hers. "Why do you want to go to the lair?"
"I told you, to let off some steam—"
"You're lying. Tell me the truth."
"I'm not lying."
"Your left nostril is twitching."
"What?"
"You have never shown any interest in wanting to go to the lair, and now all of a sudden you want to let off some steam there instead of a bank. Why?"
"People change, Jewel—"
"Bull," Jewel cuts her off, lifting an eyebrow. "Just an hour ago you texted me a selfie of yourself holding a big-ass diamond ring with chains of priceless necklaces around you."
Clara doesn't respond, stubbornly staying silent; she can't fail this mission, she just can't. She cares about Brittney deeply too much, and Jewel being angry was a better alternative since at least Clara could fix that.
She can't fix death.
Jewel is still staring at her with those dark, calculating eyes, when Clara blurts out, "Tiger Claw is back."
That must have not been what she expected because her brows pull together in confusion. "What?"
"I don't know how, but he somehow escaped from that alien worm thing," Clara explains, almost sighing in relief when Jewel yanks her fingers off her chin. She rubs her sore chin gingerly. "He took Brittney hostage, Jewel, and if I don't bring him to the lair, he's gonna—"
Abruptly, Jewel raises her hand in a stop gesture. "You were trying to trick me into letting the enemy into my friend's home?" she asks, a dark edge to her tone, eyes narrowing.
Clara hangs her head in shame, closing her eyes. "Yes," she says, almost wincing when she hears Jewel take a sharp intake of breath. "But you gotta understand, Brittney—"
"How the fuck could you?"
"Jewel, I..." she trails off, shaking her head as she shrugs helplessly. "I had to."
"I took you into my home, I patched you up when you almost bled out on my doorstep," Jewel's eyes glow orange, steam rising off her. "I was a friend to you, and this is how you repay me?"
"I-I didn't think you would say no," Clara defends, shrugging again. "I mean, you just said you hated Leonardo's guts and that you wanna see him burn."
"That doesn't mean I want the rest of them to burn!" Jewel roars, flames cracking in her fists, eyes dark and glowing with fury. "Just because I'm mad at Leo doesn't mean I'm mad at the rest of the turtles and Splinter!"
"What the hell was I supposed to do, Jewel, huh? Let Shredder off my friend without batting an eye?" Clara snaps back, her features twisting into a scowl. "I'm sorry, okay? But my friend is in trouble and I need to save her."
"I don't care," Jewel says coldly. "Let her burn at the stake or whatever. I'm not gonna help you lead the enemy into my friend's territory. So figure it out for yourself." She turns on her heels, marching away, the smoke following her.
Clara stands there, staring stupidly at Jewel's retreating back, before her eyes narrow, and her temper spikes.
"Then I guess I'll have to take him there myself!" she spits, venom in her eyes. "With or without you!"
Jewel turns and laughs humorlessly. "Good fucking luck!" her tone drips with acid, her eyes ruthless and her eyes bitter. "You don't even remember where it is! I can just tell Donnie to make a cloaking device and you'll never find it!"
She growls in response. One minute she's standing ten feet away from Jewel, then in the blink of an eye she's right in front of her, tackling her as they teleport to another rooftop. Jewel grunts and her eyes widen in shock, before they narrow.
They tumble across the pavement, rolling onto their feet, crouched low in a ready stance. Jewel pulls her hood up, glaring fiercely behind the mask, while Clara has her long whip out, mirroring her snarl. Neither of the two had ever fought against each other; they sparred sometimes and roughoused when they were young, but never out of rage and betrayal.
Neither ever used their powers.
"I don't wanna hurt you, Jewel," Clara says, her grip tightening around her weapon. "But for Brittney I will."
"Good luck landing a hit," Jewel says, and without warning she's a blur speeding towards her. Clara nearly jumps but reverts to her shadow form, the girl running through her like she was air. Jewel growls and whips around, eyes darting back and forth as she tries to spot for her friend.
"You might as well come out, Clara," Jewel mocks with a sneer. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," she coos with a sickeningly sweet voice. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
Whoosh.
Jewel flips to the side when hears the crack of a whip flying towards her. It leaves a crack in the concrete, and Clara appears, her hands clawed and shadowy. Her scarf conceals the bottom half of her mouth, but Jewel doesn't need to see past it to know her lips are curled into a snarl.
She raises an unimpressed brow. "Wowwwww," she drawls in a deadpan. "How amaaaaazing."
"I have claws," Clara smoothly retorts, before slashing at Jewel, who easily dodges. She raises her arms and saves herself from scars across her face, slamming her knee into her gut. Her hands return to normal and holds her stomach, before Jewel throws her elbow back and slams it into her nose.
A hand flies to her nose, and when she pulls it off, her eyes narrow when she sees the blood. She growls again and attacks Jewel with a flurry of punches and kicks. Their fight travels across rooftops and soon Clara leaps high in the air and kicks Jewel down into a luxurious building apartment.
A family of four scream when glass shards fly off, a random figure in black crashing into the room. Jewel bounces off above the fireplace and onto their hardwood floor, glass shards scattered around her. She blinks, briefly disoriented, snapping her head up when she hears Clara jump into the room.
Both pause, turning their heads as they say in unison, "Ciro Auman?"
The family scream and they take their children with them, their pounding footsteps fading away.
Jewel looks back at Clara, eyes hardening once more. "That all you got?" she mocks snidely.
Clara scowls and lunges forward. Jewel shoots up to her feet and backflips away from the oncoming fist. She side-steps when Clara thrusts her leg, grabbing it. She yanks it forward, head-butting her hard. Clara yowls before lashing out her whip. Jewel barely jumps up in time to avoid the weapon, before throat punching her hard with the heel of her hand.
Clara reverts back into her shadow form, and Jewel looks around wildly when she sees the shadow running across the walls. "I hate it when she does that," she hisses under her breath, looking around wildly for the shadow.
CRACK!
Jewel yelps when she feels a sharp, stinging sensation across her back, spinning around to find a smug Clara, her whip held loosely in her hand.
"Stings, doesn't it?"
"Protected you in Japan, now I'm gonna kick your little ass."
"Ooh." Clara shudders mockingly.
Jewel's body turns into a blur of swinging fists and spinning backkicks, hardly giving Clara enough time to dodge a blow. Clara evades several fireballs and lashes her whip out, ducking when Jewel kicks her leg at her neck. She flips back and grunts when she's body tackled by the kunoichi.
The two girls crash into another window and are flying in the air, evading punches and their own respective powers. Down below in Times Square, a woman shrieks when they plummet into the road, creating a hole in the ground. Onlookers watch with wide eyes as a fire breaks out across the road, creating lava cracks. They scream and run in a panic, sirens ringing.
Jewel glares darkly with glowing orange eyes, straddling Clara. "I thought we were friends," she seethes, fists ablaze. "After everything we've been through together, I thought I could trust you, but I guess I should know better than to trust a cold blooded mercenary."
Clara stares at her with hard eyes, jaw tight. "Guess that makes two of us," she says calmly, blinking up at the other girl. Jewel visibly bristles, hurt flashing in her enraged glare. She cocks her fist back, the flames cracking, and Clara purses her lips, bracing herself.
She closes her eyes, feeling the hot heat of the flame inches away from her vulnerable skin.
"Fuck," Jewel hisses, uncurling her hand, letting it hand limply by her side. She tears her eyes away from the shadow girl, closing her eyes with creased brows. "Not today."
She jumps off and speeds away in a black blur. Clara cracks her eye open, sitting up as her brows crease in confusion. She sighs, hanging her head.
She didn't want to lose a friend in any of this, but now she fears she lost two.
Down in Murakamis, the four turtles have taken a break from their nightly patrol for some downtime. The chef had greeted them with a warm smile and plates of pizza gyozas.
So of course, with Mikey being Mikey, it was turned into a game.
While his brothers compete for the last gyoza, Leo sits on stool, stirring mint tea with a small wooden spoon. He thinks back to his last encounter with Karai, which of course started out with a fight to the death and ended with her leaving, swearing vengeance.
And she was the one running away.
Splinter was her true father; he had tried convincing her, but the girl's thick head refused to listen and give him a chance. How could Karai choose to stay with the Shredder? He knows there is good in her, deep down. And deep down the mask of indifference and rebellion, there was a kind, gentle girl. Who likes throwing blades at him.
He hears Mikey and Raph's yelling, and withholding a sigh, Leo unsheathes in swords and deftly catches the last gyoza, which had been seconds away from his youngest brother's mouth. With wide, disbelieving eyes, the three young turtles watch as the oldest happily popped the gyoza into his mouth. Straight-faced, Leo chews slowly, savoring the annoyed eyes and the delicious, heavenly taste.
Raph scowls sourly. "What happened to Mr. 'I'm too broody for this game?'"
Leo ignores the question, mouth full of gyoza. "Mmm, these things are really good."
Murakami smiles kindly, stacking dirty bowls on top of another, the porcelain clinking. "My restaurant was never that popular until I invented these for you," he informs them while Leo retreats to the window, the brief victory fading away into the void of conflict. He folds his arms across his chest, staring at the starry night sky. His mind escapes the reality of aliens and ninjas, treading into the memories.
Karai is complicated. Their friendship was odd, complicated, and downright weird. Some days she would approach him from a rooftop and offer a bag of fast food. Then the next night she attacks him with murderous intent. Strangely enough, she always threatens to kill him the next time, but she never strikes the fatal blow when she had the opportunity.
It was almost as if she cared.
Unbeknownst to him, Donnie catches him staring alone. His brows crease with worry, and he nudges Raph. "He's still brooding," he whispers.
Raph turns his head and he frowns. "He's thinking about her. About Karai."
Leo picks his head up at the mention of Karai. "Master Splinter is her father. How could she still want to be with the Shredder?" he asks, because really, he needs an answer to this mind-boggling question. Because he turns and turns endlessly in his bed mulling it over. The results are sleepless nights, sometimes banging his head against the wall to keep him awake. The pain helped with staying aware and awake. He knows it's unhealthy, but it was a familiar coping method of his.
Mikey doesn't seem to understand the extent of his inner turmoil, standing up tall and proud on the table.
And through a mouthful of gyozas: "You have to have faith, Leo. Her entire life was shown to be a lie. This is a challenge to everything she knows. The truth will set her free. Just give her the time she needs to accept who she is."
They all stare.
Donnie's the first to recover. "Right," he drawls, turning away to look at Leo. "Look, Leo, she'll come around.
Raph doesn't seem to share the sentiment. "Yeah, well, personally, I hope she doesn't," he says, folding his arms across his chest. "I don't trust her, not for one second."
Leo frowns, casting his eyes away, almost bitterly. Yeah, and he didn't end up trusting Jewel and look at what happened.
Donnie arches an eyebrow, sharing similar thoughts. "You're right, Raph. You shouldn't trust anyone," he says, the sarcasm dripping from his tone.
Leo blows air through his nose, staring holes at the ground.
He doesn't know what he'll do if Raph ends up being right. He hopes Karai will finally see the truth.
Her and Tang Shen share the same eyes.
Karai sits on the armrest of father's throne, staring down at the photo of her beloved mother. Her smile is soft when stares at it, an empty sense of nostalgia filled in her chest. It's the pressure of loss that hurts the most. She knows she'll never learn if she and her mother are alike in other ways. Knows that physical appearance is all she has for a comparison.
Did she like bending the rules for her own benefit? Did she like sneaking out to run across Tokyo with her weird witch friend? Would she have been proud of Karai for accomplishing the title of kunoichi?
Would she be proud of her?
She doesn't know; she never will. All because of that vile—
"Karai, don't do this," Leo had pleaded with desperate blue eyes. "Splinter...he's your father. Your true father. Hamato Yoshi."
Hamato Yoshi.
She almost startles when she hears the silent footsteps of her father, the flash of metal against the moon giving his presence away.
"What is it that troubles you, Karai?" he asks, and she hopes it's out of genuine concern.
Karai tears her eyes away from Tang Shen and looks up at her father, clenching her jaw.
"I want to know the truth," she practically demands, eyes harder than steel. "The truth about my mother. And Splinter." She adds it with more firmness to it, because her father was crafty and he easily evaded questions he didn't want to answer, mostly regarding his past with her mother and Hamato.
Through the mask, she sees his eyes narrow slightly. "You know the truth, my daughter. Hamato Yoshi took your mother away."
Her frown deepens; she wants to press for more answers, probe more. Because sometimes the story changed over the years when she had asked about her mother, and father's answers remained the same, but the story changed. Little by little. Now she's not so sure. He described Hamato Yoshi as a vile monster Tang Shen was repulsed by. But the man she saw was not the man father described.
Father had wanted to kill his enemy while he was down, even if it defied the honor of the Foot.
She opens her mouth at the same time the door opens.
What the fuck—
"I have returned," announces an eerily familiar voice. Karai snaps her head and her eyes widen
Her father is the first to greet him, not surprised, but even he seemed to be interested in the sudden presence of the vile cat. "Tigerclaw."
Karai gawks in disbelief. "How?" she demands, harsher than she intended. "You were eaten by a giant alien worm."
And I was kinda hoping you were dead.
Tiger Claw seems unfazed, giving her a flat glare. "And you believed such a thing could contain my hate?" he says with a scowl, closing his one eye, brows creasing, as if his mind weaved through the memory. "My hate is what kept me going. As I tore my way out of the belly of the Kraathatrogon. As I battled through the armies of the Kraang Across alien worlds that would drive lesser men mad. And finally, back here, back to my enemies. I would have my revenge against Splinter, against his hideous reptiles, and against those who trapped me in that wretched worm's belly."
Karai stares, arching an unimpressed brow. Yeah, as if her father would take such failure lightly—
"I will grant you this wish."
Karai blinks hard in surprise and sharply looks up at her father. "What?" she barks, ignoring his glaring eyes. "It's because of him that Splinter and the Turtles are still alive in the first place."
Father frowns at her in disapproval and indifference to her protests, hands clasped behind his back. "Karai, you will go with Tigerclaw. Destroy Splinter and the Turtles at any cost." His tone grows dark at the end and he swiftly turns, his cape billowing behind him.
Karai scowls, eyes narrowing darkly when Tiger Claw grins smugly at her.
I hope Leo sticks his Katanas up your ass.
It's the nicest thought she has all day.
I decided to cut this into two parts because it was getting too long, lmao. Anyways, looks like things are starting to heat up pretty soon, pun intended. I'm already working on part 2 so be on the lookout.
Reveiws are writer's chow!
