11. The Weight of My Failure

Ibis awoke to a cold light. Her body complained, but she sat up.

"Whoa, hey, take it easy."

She turned, seeing a very concerned turtle in glasses reaching out to steady her.

"You passed out," he said gently, "do you know where you are?"

Ibis looked around. She was certain she had never been here before, so she pinched her brows and shook her head.

"Do you remember your name? The date?" He asked.

She nodded. She was Ibis Rheys, daughter of a woman she never got to know and a father she loved way too much. She had two siblings, Ashton and-

"Ardyn!"

It came back in a rush. She had gone to Ardyn's apartment that morning to make sure all was well and say her final goodbyes. But when she went to knock on Ardyn's door, it had been kicked in.

She hadn't felt a fear that deep in years.

"You're awake," Leo entered the room, cold and emotionless. All business. At any other time, she would've made a jab at him.

"Ardyn's gone," Ibis gripped the edge of the table. "I went to see her, but someone had kicked open the door. Her stuff was everywhere. We have to do something!"

"Take a deep breath, or you'll pass out again," Leo ordered.

Ibis glared and slid off the table. Her legs wobbled but she crossed the room anyway. "Don't tell me to breathe. Do you have any idea what they'll do to her? Do you?"

"We have everything under control, Donnie traced her location. We know exactly where she is. The sun goes down in an hour-"

"An hour?" Ibis growled. "I left her place this morning! She's been gone all day, we could be too late already!"

She shoved past him to look at the screen, "Is this her? Where is she?"

"TCRI," Donnie answered. "April is there now."

"Who's April?"

"A friend," Leo answered.

"Is she trained if shit hits the fan?" Ibis snapped.

"She's looking for evidence of-"

"Evidence?!" Ibis nearly screamed. "They're about to drain every last drop of blood from her body, and you have a friend looking for evidence?!"

Leo grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, "How do you know that?"

"That's what he wants," she shoved his arm off. "I don't have time for this!"

She pushed past him, exiting the lab and finding familiar territory in the main room.

"What do you think you're going to do?" Leo called. "Take on the entire Foot Clan by yourself? You just passed out from running too fast!"

"I already failed her once, I can't just sit around and wait," she growled over her shoulder.

Leo didn't stop her as she stormed out of the lair. She was much too weak to fight, but it would only wear her down more to argue with her. He and his brothers had no power over her, he was constantly reminded. But he knew letting her walk out of the lair now meant it would be the last time he saw her alive.

Raphael scoffed as he passed, shaking his head. "For someone that cares about shorty, ya sure are easy with waitin'."

Leo grit his teeth, "We have orders. We don't go out in daylight. You know that."

Raphael turned and squared up to him, "Now it ain't jus' shorty that's gonna get it, it's her sister too!"

"What was I supposed to do, tie her to a chair?" Leo snapped. "She made her own choice."

"Oh, what, yer scared to butt in ta someone else's life for once?"

"Ibis is not our responsibility." Leo pointed at Raphael's chest, "You of all people should know about staying out of people's business. Your orders are to stand by until the sun goes down. Think you can handle that?"

Raphael's jaw muscles worked as he glared into the unwavering stare of his brother. Leo wasn't budging on this, but neither was he. It was wrong. They protected people, especially from Shredder. Now they were going to let a few hours of daylight cost Ardyn and Ibis their lives. He scowled and shouldered roughly by.

"You may be fine with blood on yer hands, but I sure ain't."

"Ibis has the bloodiest hands in all of the eastern states, her adding her own to the mixture isn't our concern," Leo snapped. "And I won't let her add ours to it, either."

...

Ardyn had arguably been scared her entire life. She should have been accustomed to the paralyzing feeling that froze in her veins and pulled the air from her lungs. But she wasn't. She was more scared and helpless now than she had ever been. Frost fell from her skin and ice coated the gag in her mouth.

She'd been in this room for god knows how long, tied up and stripped of all but her clothes. There were too many soldiers to fight off, and her abilities weren't practiced enough to be considered a weapon. All she could do was create a fog of cold around her.

The door of the dim room opened and something large was tossed inside. The door shut harshly immediately after.

Ardyn held her breath. Whatever it was wasn't moving. It was warm, deflecting the frost that fell from her skin. She stretched her foot out and nudged it.

Oh god, it was a body.

Whoever it was had received a thorough beating. She had an eye that was swollen shut, lips that were so bloody they were starting to scab together... her hair was barely held back by a long braid, and she had been stripped of most of her belongings. Her gray tank top was stretched and bloodstained, and her shoes had been removed.

The eye that wasn't swollen cracked open to look at her, the iris red as a velvet rose petal. A rock dropped in Ardyn's gut as those bloody lips ripped apart to smile.

"Hey, sweet pea."

Her lid fluttered closed, unconscious. Ardyn screamed.

...

Ibis remained unmoving, slow breaths warming the cold of the room. It seemed like an eternity of her lying there. Tears had frozen to Ardyn's clothes. If Ibis was here, in this state, it meant she hadn't been successful. Shredder was still alive, and she was still in very real danger. There was no window in the room, and she had no idea how long it would be until sundown. If the turtles knew where to look for her, it could be hours until they found her.

She'd been stripped of her cell phone right away. It was somewhere in the mess of her apartment, along with any hope of Donnie zeroing in on her location.

The door was yanked open then, allowing two figures to step in. They didn't look anything like the soldiers Shredder usually employed to do his bidding. One was short and stocky, with a purple mohawk and shades that were probably hell to see through. The other was large, with red hair and a leather vest. They bickered unintelligently amongst themselves.

"Which one you want, Rock? The col' one or the messy one?" purple mohawk asked.

"Aw, come on, Beebs," leather vest responded, "who would do that to a lil girl?"

"You go askin' things like that 'n Shredder'll be doin' it to you," purple mohawk walked over to Ardyn.

She leaned away, shaking her head and mumbling incoherently around the gag in her mouth.

"Nah, don't be like that," he hefted her up onto his shoulder, paying no mind to her kicking her bound legs. "This'll be a lot easier if you be good."

Ardyn watched as leather vest picked up Ibis's limp body as gently as an oaf like him could. Her head lolled as he tossed her over his shoulder. A string of red fell from her lips, leaving a trail as they moved.

They came into a lab moments later, surrounded by equipment Ardyn couldn't begin to name. They were set on the floor, leaning up against one of the machines. She was set down none-too-gently, probably do to her kicking and wriggling around. Ibis was sat next to her, her head lolling heavily to the side. Leather Vest patted her cheek a little roughly, trying to stir her.

"Enough."

Ardyn bit down on the cloth that gagged her, the pounding of her heart thudding in her ears. That voice sent a cold icicle straight down her spine. It was him. The man she'd spent her entire life running from. The man Ibis had said she was going to end.

"Well, well," Shredder stalked closer as the other two backed away. He had his hands behind his back, looking down at them with an emotionless, scarred face. "Ardyn and Ibis Rheys. But where is the third?"

Ardyn kicked at him with her bound legs, desperately trying to keep him as far away from her as possible. In a swift motion, he pinned her legs down with his boot, and leaned down into her face. "Where is Ashton Rheys?"

"He's dead," a hoarse voice came from beside her, causing Shredder to whip his head to the side. "Check Chicago Med if you don't believe me."

Ibis had her unswollen eye trained on him. Though she was completely limp from the neck down, she glared through that eye as if she could tear him to pieces with her fingers.

"Well, then," he replied, turning his head back to Ardyn. "Two will suffice."

"You lay a finger on her," Ibis rasped, "you won't live long enough to regret it."

Shredder looked back at her, almost amused.

A beeping interrupted him, and he stood to turn back to a man in a white lab coat.

"Sweet pea."

Ardyn moved only her eyes to look at Ibis's beaten face.

"When I tell you," she swallowed, "go through that window."

Ardyn glanced back as subtly as her panic would allow. She tried to protest beneath the gag.

"If you want to make it out of here," Ibis interrupted, her voice weak, "just do it. Or you'll burn to death with the rest of them."

Now Ardyn understood. Ibis was going to burn the place down with everyone inside. It was the only chance she had, now that she was so badly beaten. Ardyn would have to fall god knows how many stories with her hands and legs bound, so she didn't incinerate with the rest of them.

"Now all we need are test subjects."

Ardyn's attention snapped back to where Shredder was standing with a man in a lab coat. He was loading purple darts into a silver dart gun, eying her sideways. Her heart raced as he started walking near her.

"All that's missing from my army, what has always been missing, is the perfect soldiers," he aimed the gun at her. "It's time to finish what your father started all those years ago."

Panic froze in Ardyn's viens.

Ibis took labored breaths and parted her lips. Bloody teeth bared as she spoke the warning, "You pull that trigger, I'll burn this motherfucker to the ground."

He turned his head to look her in the eye.

"I took it all from you back then," she glared, unwavering despite the pain she was in. "What makes you think I won't do it again?"

It was enough to give him pause.

"A little girl setting fire to papers in an old warehouse isn't going to stop me. It didn't then, and it won't now."

He pulled the trigger.

Ardyn screamed behind the gag as the dart stuck itself into her skin and drained the contents. Ibis shut her eye, a single tear slipping from it.

The mutagen reacted quickly, changing Ardyn's physical structure. Her bones ached and her muscles pulled with the shift. Her bounds broke as she seized with the pain of it. Her body fell forward onto the linoleum floor harshly. Ibis heard everything, but couldn't bring herself to open her eye and see it.

When the convulsions stopped, Ardyn opened her eyes and tried to catch her breath. The hand near her face was horrible: four digits, three clawed fingers and a thumb. They scratched into the flooring beside her head and jerked away as she rose. Oh, god. They were hers.

Her body had changed drastically. She was bigger, for one. Her right arm was glass-clear ice, transparent all the way down to the bone. Rage filled her, ice-cold as she turned her gaze on the man she was once certain she couldn't hate more.

"What have you done!" she screamed.

Ibis finally opened her eye as the creature launched itself at Shredder. The fight was short. Shredder was a trained fighter. His opponent, though obviously larger and stronger, was uncontrolled. It was as if the limbs were too heavy, too long, to be coordinated. Claws slashed at him haphazardly, but with conviction. They clashed with his blades and rang through the lab in a shrill tone. He kicked his opponent down, knocking them clear to the wall of windows on the other side of the lab. They landed facing Ibis.

Her gut sank.

"Ardy..."

Failure. It sunk into her soul. Those eyes were full of such fear, too large like the rest of her body. She had been mutated. She had been forced to become what she had feared her whole life. The one thing Ibis had promised would never happen had happened right in front of her beaten, broken body. It sparked a rage in her, and she turned her eye on the dark figure that was nearing her with the gun.

"You son of a bitch," she nearly whimpered. Tears gathered in her eyes, escaping from one side. Her skin was heating up, burning the floor beneath her. "You motherfucker!"

She launched herself at him, colliding and shoving him back and over some nearby equipment. She blindly tore at him, receiving cuts and stabs for her effort.

She was grabbed by two large sets of hands and thrown back. She flew through the lab clumsily, taking out hanging wires and machinery and landing beside Ardyn. Shredder was nearing them now, weapons drawn. It wasn't often he was attacked to the point of leaving injury, and it infuriated him that this insignificant bitch had succeeded in it. He was on a warpath now. Damn the plan, one of them would be enough.

Ibis had to act quickly. She grabbed Ardyn and threw them both at the glass. It shattered, sending them both falling into a dark alley nearly 20 stories below.