When Raph and Donnie had first gone after the Heart of Miwa, it hadn't just been a decision they'd made on a whim. It had taken them many years to even find her. They followed a lot of leads and assumptions from any immortals that they came across. Most of them were dead ends, but they were both far too stubborn to just give up. With Raph's willingness to resort to questionable means to get what he wanted, and Donnie's deductive reasoning, they'd been able to find the Heart of Miwa.
This time, they couldn't quite rely on that method. For one thing, the gods didn't trust Raph and Donnie anymore. They wouldn't tell them just where they could find Miwa. For another thing they didn't exactly have the years that they'd had five hundred years ago.
While time and the gods weren't on their side, Raph knew that the ocean and the air definitely were. Like Mikey had told him, all of the elements of the earth were connected. If the land died, it would negatively affect the ocean, which would then in turn affect the air. The ocean and air had made it clear that they wanted to return the Heart of Miwa, so they were trusting the elements to guide them in a similar way that they had brought them to The Hidden City.
As the ocean carried their boat and the air guided them Raph took the time while they travelled to gather himself. He wanted to be ready to face Karai and give the others the chance to return the Heart to Miwa. Raph had no idea just when they'd get to the destination, so he had to be ready at any given moment.
Though he'd doubted Mikey's meditation strategy, it had actually worked a lot better than Raph thought it would. It hadn't been perfect, as Raph had only been able to transform successfully three out of four times, and on his own he could only transform into an animal that lived solely in the ocean. He couldn't transform into an animal that lived both in the sea and on the land, such as frogs and turtles, and without Donnie's help he couldn't turn into a water bird. Still, Raph felt far too relieved that he could transform at all to complain that it wasn't perfect.
Since Mikey's idea had worked better than anything Raph had tried to come up with, he decided to give it another try. While Leo handled the sails and Donnie supervised him, and Mikey talked quietly with Leatherhead, Raph sat at the edge of the small boat and hung his feet over the side. He had Donnie's staff at his side and his own sais on his lap. Raph didn't really do anything, he just sat there and took in the ocean and the wind for awhile.
When Raph began to get impatient he picked up his sais and twirled them around. He familiarized himself with just the feel of his sais again before he took a deep breath and tightened his grip on his weapons.
"I'm doing the best I can here," Raph muttered quietly. "But I don't think my best is good enough. I'm going to help you, but I need you to help me do that," The water warmed around his feet. It was as much of an answer as he would get. Raph took his sai and slashed it in the air. To Raph's relief he saw a streak of water rise up out of the sea and follow the motion of his sai. Finally, after five hundred years, the ocean wasn't ignoring him, and it wasn't just helping him out. The ocean was doing what he said. It was letting him control it.
Raph grinned to himself and made a raising motion with both of his sais, pulling the water out of the sea. He pushed his sais out sharply, pushing the water forward in a wave. "This is more like it," Raph lowered his arms. "...Thank you,"
Raph continued to work with the ocean and his powers for awhile before he decided to turn his attention to transformation. He took Donnie's staff and put it with his sai. He felt the rush of power immediately. Raph manifested his powers and, at the first try, he was able to transform into a skipjack tuna and jump into the water. He swam around for a bit, getting used to swimming again, before he decided to move onto another animal. Skipjack tuna were medium sized fish, so Raph decided to try another fish, a larger one. He harnessed his powers and turned into a large fish, a blue marlin.
Suddenly being in a larger, different body, it took Raph a minute to adjust. He swam around for a few minutes as a blue marlin before he got the hang of it. Once he felt confident as this type of fish, Raph turned back into a skipjack tuna. If he was going to be taking on Karai, he had to be able to transform and immediately get back into the fight. He couldn't afford an adjustment period. Once he was comfortable with switching between these two fish, Raph would add another animal into his cycle.
It took longer than Raph would have liked, but finally he was able to switch seamlessly between the two fish. To give himself more of a challenge, Raph decided to try something that wasn't a fish. He turned into a small squid. The transformation was disorienting, and Raph wasn't able to adjust immediately, but the adjustment period was a lot faster than before.
After switching between animals for awhile, Raph decided to try a sea animal that breathed air. It would be a step in the right direction if he could accomplish it. Raph swam up to the surface of the water, right near the boat, and just before he reached the surface he transformed into a dolphin and leapt out of the ocean. He heard ecstatic laughing from Donnie. Raph thought of another way to challenge himself, by turning into an animal that breathed air, lived in the ocean, but regularly came onto land. It was one of just a few animals that Raph considered to be part of the ocean, land, and air.
Focusing all of his energy, Raph tried to transform. At first, nothing happened. This wasn't the first time he hadn't been able to transform immediately though. Raph just tried again. It took a couple of attempts and more energy than his other transformations had needed, but Raph was able to transform into a sea lion.
Feeling drained, Raph poked his head out of the surface of the water near the boat. He was ready for a break. Raph drew back under the water just enough to have enough space to swim up and leap out of the water. Because he was tired though, he didn't get going as fast as he had planned, so he only partially jumped out of the water. Instead of jumping onto the boat, Raph just landed half on it and half in the water. Growling to himself, Raph pulled himself onto the boat and laid down on the deck.
Donnie smiled gently and sat down next to Raph. He put a hand on his head. "And here you thought that you wouldn't be able to access your powers," Donnie's words were teasing, but he sounded as relieved and thrilled as Raph felt. "Your jumping could use some work though,"
Raph grumbled and transformed back into a human. "Shut up, I'm tired,"
"Get some rest," Donnie said. "We need to be ready for when we get to Miwa."
"Speaking of being ready," Mikey spoke up. "What's the game plan?"
"Simple," Donnie said. "Me and Raph will take care of Karai if she's still in the area. Leo will bring the boat to Miwa's island, the two of you will return the Heart, and Leatherhead will have your back,"
"Is that really something we need to go over?" Raph grumbled. "I thought it was obvious,"
"It's still good to make sure we're all on the same page," Leo said as he adjusted his grip on the sail ropes. "If any of us had a different idea of what to do, even if the change was just little, everything could fall apart."
"Yeah, whatever," Raph crossed his arms and rested his head against them. He closed his eyes. "Wake me up when we're about to get killed by a lava snake goddess."
"Hopefully we'll see trouble coming before it gets that far," Donnie said. "But don't worry, I won't let you miss out on all the fun,"
"Tha's good," Raph muttered. He relaxed and began to doze off. He didn't know if he would be able to fall asleep, or if he should, but at least resting his eyes would really help.
Raph felt really calm and was just about to fall asleep before he felt cold water crash on top of him. Raph gasped and sat up quickly. He glared out at the ocean. "Really? I thought we were past this. What was that all about?"
"Raph," He felt Donnie poke his arm. Raph turned towards where his brother was indicating and his eyes widened at what he saw. "Wow...I guess we're here," The sky in front of them was dark, but not with storm clouds. That was smoke.
"Karai," Donnie's expression darkened. He was as determined as Raph was.
"This is happening," Mikey said breathlessly. He and Leo both looked overwhelmed and terrified. This was probably the first time either of them had been this close to a dangerous goddess. "This is really happening,"
"You guys stay here," Raph stood up. He grabbed his and Donnie's weapon, which was still in the form of a trident, and offered it to his brother. "Karai's probably in the middle of that mess. I'll distract her, Donnie can fly up and find a way for you to get through to find Miwa. Hopefully, you guys won't be anywhere near Kawai,"
"Once I help them get to Miwa, I'll come back and help you deal with Karai," Donnie promised as he put a hand on the staff. "Don't completely destroy her before I get there,"
"Wouldn't dream of it," Raph smirked. He and Donnie both accessed their powers, and each other's powers, and transformed. Donnie turned into an agile falcon and flew off while Raph turned into a sailfish and dove into the water. Even underwater, Raph knew where he would find Karai. He didn't need to see smoke to feel her power.
As Raph swam closer, he could feel the water heating up to an uncomfortable temperature. The lava goddess was definitely around. Raph continued swimming until the heat nearly became too much to bare. He swam closer to the surface and peeked above the surface. He didn't think that a goddess of lava would be hanging out underwater.
Though Raph barely came out of the water, he immediately had to duck down again to avoid being hit by a ball of fire being thrown his way. Raph growled in excitement and swam around in a circle before heading straight to where Karai's attack had come from. He was ready for this.
'I hope you're ready for this, Karai,' Raph swam forward until he found Karai's form and he immediately tackled her. He heard her shriek in pain. 'I'm going to make you regret ever messing with me,'
Raph transformed into a giant pacific octopus and wrapped his tentacles around Karai. Before she could so much as think about resisting, he pulled her down into the water. Raph began swimming down, keeping a tight grip around the struggling goddess, keeping her restrained. She was slippery and didn't give up easily, but the water helped Raph to hold Karai down.
A little later, much sooner than Raph had expected, a bird dove down quickly into the water near them. When the bird got about as deep as they were, it transformed into Donnie's normal human form. Donnie looked scared about something, which scared Raph. Something was wrong. Donnie gestured up to the surface before making his way up.
'Take care of her for a second,' Raph asked of the ocean before he transformed back himself. He kicked off of Karai and swam up to the surface. The second his head broke the surface, Donnie frantically started talking.
"She's gone," Donnie said.
"Who?" Raph asked. "What's going on?"
"Miwa," Donnie said. "Her island is here, but I don't feel any powerful energy from there," Gods gave off a powerful aura that they'd become attuned to. It was how Raph had known where to find Karai while he was underwater. Donnie should have been able to sense Miwa's presence. Neither of them had even considered the possibility that they wouldn't be able to feel her.
"She still might be sleeping," Raph said, though he didn't really believe it. "Maybe her power has dampened because we have her heart,"
"She was sleeping before, and we were still able to feel her," Donnie said desperately. "And even without her heart, she's still a goddess. I'm telling you, Raph, she's not here,"
"That doesn't make any sense," Raph frowned. "The ocean and air brought us here. Why would they do that if Miwa wasn't around?"
There was a vibrating scream from underwater that they could feel even from up here. Raph felt a change in the water. "Karai's coming," Without having to discuss it Raph and Donnie transformed into pelicans. They both took into the air immediately, wanting to get away from Karai and regroup so they could figure out what they were going to do next.
They began to fly off to where the others were, but Donnie was faster than Raph was. Before they could get out of range Karai jumped out of the surface of the water and suddenly a wall of lava came up between the two of them. Raph had to draw back sharply to avoid running into it. While he was distracted a fireball came flying right next to him. It didn't hit him directly, but it came close enough that it singed his feathers.
Raph yelped in pain, and then in alarm when he began to fall out of the sky. His damaged wings weren't able to keep him up. Raph instinctively tried to transform into a water animal, but the best he could do was return to his human form.
Raph hit the water and felt his breath get knocked out of him. He tried to swim to the surface, but then Karai came up to him and wrapped her tail around him. Even though she was supposably a fire goddess, Karai pulled Raph deeper into the water. She shrieked so harshly at Raph that it left his ears ringing. The water only made the vibrations even worse, though his lack of air certainly wasn't helping.
Raph may not be completely mortal, but he still needed to breathe. He could hold his breath for a lot longer than any humans he knew of, but that was a little hard to do when a serpentine goddess was trying to squeeze the air right out of his lungs.
Raph hit, pulled, and scratched at Karai's tail, but this only caused her to tighten her grip. She really wasn't going to let him go, and Raph didn't understand what her deal was. She wasn't even trying to look for the Heart of Miwa. She had to sense that he didn't have it, so she wasn't doing this because she wanted the heart, she just wanted to hurt him.
This wasn't about power, this was personal.
Raph grunted. He didn't get it. What had he ever done to her to get this kind of reaction? He'd only seen Karai once, and back then, she'd been the one to instigate a fight. He hadn't done a thing to her.
Raph glared at Karai and met her eyes. She was glaring at him in return, and Raph was shocked at the absolute fury in her eyes. This wasn't just anger, this was rage. Raph could tell, as he was very familiar with both of them. That look in Karai's eyes, it was terrifying for Raph to see, because it felt like he was looking at his own reflection.
All the times that Raph had been furious at the world because he'd been hurt by it, he was seeing that exact fury in Karai. She wasn't just mad because things weren't going her way, she was upset because she'd been hurt and this was just her reaction to that.
'What happened to you?' Raph found himself wondering. Almost like she knew his thoughts, Karai screamed, and this time Raph could hear the pain in her tone. A moment later Karai's face surged forward and she bit Raph's shoulder.
Despite the small amount of hair he had, Raph couldn't help but cry out in pain. He felt his shoulder go numb, and the feeling was spreading. Raph found his eyes growing heavy. He didn't know if it was because the lack of air was finally getting to him, or if this was an effect of the bite, but he had a hard time staying awake. Raph fought it as long as he could, but much sooner than he would ever want to admit Raph couldn't resist anymore. He stopped struggling against Karai and went limp in her crushing grip as he gave in to the darkness.
A/N: Okay, apparently while the beginning of this story was moving very slowly and focused on character development and setting things up, things are really rolling along now. I mean, not that there's no more character development, I'm just trying to not be too repetitive about it. I hope that it doesn't come off as rushing just because it's going at a different pace than before.
Or maybe everything is really consistent to you guys and I'm just being silly.