*Disclaimer: I do not own the characters Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Splinter, April O'Neil, or Casey Jones. They all belong to Mirage Studios and I am only borrowing them for the entertainment of the few who read this. The rest of the characters are mine; please don't borrow them without permission. Thanks!
I've realized as I'm writing this why it is that I've been struggling with this story. It's really just a long prologue/introduction to the story that will follow it. So I hope that you're enjoying it, but the real action and drama are still to come!
Chapter 14Panaceia:
I gave Splinter his 3rd injection of the day. Despite my best efforts and all of Donatello's help, he was continuing to deteriorate. Athena had only been gone 24 hours, but I could feel the pressure. It was nice to have someone else here to lean on and help out. At least Rhea had agreed to let me stay; I couldn't imagine how they would be doing without either of us. I felt the burden of caring for all of them and dealing with their worry. It was not something I enjoyed; I hoped Athena would finish her work and get back here soon.
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Athena:
As soon as that bimbo left, I was taking my shot. I was tired of sitting out on that ledge having to listen to the two of them. Disgusting.
If I'd had a gun, I could have shot him from where I was sitting, but I didn't and that wasn't my style anyway. We weren't trained to use weapons like guns. Technically we were all trained to kill with our bare hands, but for the most part it had never appealed to me as much as the sword. Nemesis was the same way, but for her own reasons. There was just something about having a sword in my hands; I couldn't explain it, it was something you understood or you didn't. My other three sisters didn't, but I had a feeling the boys probably would. I laughed at myself again for calling them boys. I had to keep reminding myself that they were older than I was. I wasn't sure that exactly qualified them as men though…
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Donatello:
I watched her from the doorway as she finished up the latest round of treatment. From the look on her face, I knew I wasn't the only one that noticed we were no longer making any real progress.
"Panaceia?"
"Hi Donatello."
I took a few more steps into the room. She was gathering up her things.
"Look, I'm glad I'm getting the opportunity to help while Athena's gone, just sitting back was driving me crazy. The thing is, I'm not blind."
I stuck my arm out to stop her as she was walking to the other side of the room. She looked at my arm, and then looked at me.
"I need to know the truth, Panaceia."
"The truth?"
"I know that you know more about his condition than you're saying. Don't try to protect me, I can handle whatever it is as long as it's the truth."
She let out a long breath and didn't speak for a minute. I could tell she was trying to decide how to answer me. I could see how tired she looked; I didn't think she'd slept since Athena left.
"It's not good, Donatello."
"Be more specific."
"I can't really; I don't even know for sure what we're dealing with. I've got a call in to home and we're waiting for Rhea to respond. Until then, I just don't know."
"What do you need Rhea to tell you?"
"I don't know for sure what's infecting him and I need to know if Rhea has seen it before."
"Why would Rhea know?"
"It's complicated, Donatello, and I just can't go into that right now."
"You can't or you won't?"
"Please don't."
"You know, we haven't had much choice since the moment we woke up but to trust you. I don't want to find out that trust is misplaced."
"It's not."
"Prove it."
She hung her head. I felt bad for pushing at her when she obviously wasn't prepared for it.
"Fine, meet me back in here with your brothers in 10 minutes. I'll tell you everything."
"Thank you."
"Yeah, you'd better appreciate it because it's my ass on the line for telling you."
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Athena:
Finally! I was starting to think he wasn't ever going to be done with her. I moved to the other side of the window to get a better view now that the show was over. She had excused herself to the ladies' room. I considered waiting until she left altogether, but something in the back of my head was telling me to finish this up and get back to the guys. Well, there was no time like the present.
I watched the piece of shit lying there smoking his cigarette. I wasn't going to have to try too hard to get this one done. I opened the window and entered the room without a sound. Hell, I probably could have made a sound and he wouldn't have noticed. Stupid fuck. He took another puff from his cigarette. My blade was at his throat before he could exhale.
His eyes grew wide, but he didn't make a sound. Nice of him to make things so easy for me. I tilted the blade to lie against the farther side of his neck, applying just enough pressure to draw blood. He made a low whimper sound. I'm sure it hurt. I wanted it to.
I moved my face down lower to his and whispered in his ear. "This will never make up for your crimes, but it's the best I can do."
I backed off to see the expression on his face. Classic. With a flick of my wrist, I finished the cut from ear to ear.
I wiped the blood from my blade onto his sheets. What did he care anyway?
I turned to see the bimbo enter the room. She looked from me to him, and before she could start to scream I was at her side, one hand grasped firmly around her neck.
"I didn't come here for you. Stay quiet and you'll live. One sound and I'll slice you wide open like your stupid ass boyfriend."
Her eyes were wide with fear. She wouldn't make a sound. I stepped directly in front of her, grabbing her neck so that she couldn't turn her head away from me. I held her eyes with my own as I took hold of her mind.
Moments later, her eyelids closed and she went limp in my hand. I set her down to the floor, confident that she would wake without remembering a thing. Not that it really mattered; it wasn't like anyone on this planet hand any hope of catching up with one of us anyway. Still, we preferred to keep a low profile. It had always been done that way.
I was out the window and back up to the roof in a heartbeat. There was somewhere else I needed to be.
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Panaceia:
Leonardo was the last to enter the room. He had been really good about staying in bed since Athena had spoken with him. She was talented that way.
"Well, we're all here—what is it?" Raphael was already impatient.
I took a deep breath before beginning. I hoped Athena wouldn't kill me for this when she got back here.
"Remember how we told you that we're human, but just a more evolved form?" They nodded their heads.
"Well, the reason that we are the way we are is because our DNA is different. We look like humans, and for lack of a better term we are, but genetically we're not the same. That difference is what allows us to do the things that we can do with our minds and bodies. The core of our DNA is the same as a human, but there's more to ours. There are genes in our DNA that don't exist in humans right now."
I paused, making sure that everyone was still with me.
"When we all arrived here, I performed a number of tests on your sensei to determine what the problem was and what the best treatment would be for him. I had never seen anything quite like what he has, so I did further tests. I thought it was perhaps his own unique form that had caused the infection itself to take on a different form. I ran a sample I had taken from him through our DNA scanner. What I found was…unexpected, to say the least."
I paused again, but knew there was no turning back now.
"Splinter has a genetic code that, aside from a few obvious differences, is quite similar to that of mine and my sisters'. It has a lot of the "extra" genetic codes that we have, although it doesn't have all of them. You told me that your sensei is very wise, and that he often seemed to know what you were thinking. This would explain why that was the case."
Donatello started to ask me a question.
"Before you speak, there's more. I was surprised by what I found, and I couldn't explain it. Then I thought maybe it had to do with his mutation, and if that were true…then it would stand to reason that all of you would be carrying the same genetic coding. I ran the blood samples that Athena took from each of you. You don't have the same DNA as Splinter, obviously, but it's not the usual stuff either. You actually have more coding than Splinter, but most of it is different. I really haven't had the chance to sit down and go over it the way that I need to, but I know it's at least partially responsible for your above average strength and speed, and the fact that many times you don't even have to speak a word to communicate with each other."
"We're ninja; that's how we were trained."
"I know that's what you think, Michaelangelo, but what I'm saying is that a human could have been raised in an identical environment as yours and still not be able to do what you can do."
"I don't understand how our mutation would cause us to have similar DNA to yours."
"I don't really understand it either, Donatello, and I've been hoping Rhea will be able to provide some answers."
Athena:
I heard Panaceia's voice coming from Splinter's room and I walked down the hall. I knew without actually hearing the words what she was telling them. I hoped she knew what she was doing; telling them was a gamble, especially without having heard from Rhea. Panaceia wasn't usually a risk-taker like that.
As I walked toward the room, a feeling of panic started to grow. Something was wrong. I stepped into the room and immediately knew why I'd had such an urge to get back here.