Undiscovered Power
~
The sky was now a beautiful clear dark blue, but there were few stars. The air was cold, and nothing moved.
The turtles remained still like statues, as though waiting for Prida to get back up. All of them refused to believe that their friend was dead, again.
A lone Foot soldier did not see them as he passed on the opposite side of the street behind them because they were so silent and still. The black-clothed ninja disappeared to search elsewhere for some noise that might lead him to his enemy.
Then, movement came alive in their alleyway as Donny took a slow extensive step, and crouch down next to Prida's head. Her face was lined with strands of her hair, but Donny pressed his finger to his throat, and when feeling no life, looked up at Mikey who was stood two meters away to his left.
"No pulse," he said quietly, and watched as his brother just stared. There were no tears, no emotional expression; Mikey just stared at the floor at Donny's feet. Don took his hand away and blinked.
Raph, who was still clinging to Leo for support, murmured something, and they looked at him. He muttered it again, and again until it became clear.
"It's you fault . . . it's you fault," he said in a quiet tone, which got louder until his teeth gritted painfully tight, and he suddenly wrenched his arm from around his brother's shoulder, and to Leo's shock, started to try and beat the lights out of him. "It's YOUR fault, Leo!" Raph shouted, using what little strength he had to punch his brother's torso. "You Let her – you didn't stop her! – You – !"
But Leo grabbed his brother's wrists and held them back, a hurt expression on his face. His brother was blaming him for a death.
Raph was too weak to pull away or continue punching, and just gasped for breath, glaring at the small space of pavement between them. He didn't want to look at Leo.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" He yelled into his brother's face after he lifted his head. The bottom lid of his eyes curved, showing the tormented pain, but as with the others there were no tears. His hard expression softened to something never before shown on Raph's face, and he suddenly looked lost and confused.
Leo, who had not said anything, forcefully pulled his brother into a hug, and tightened his arms around his brother's carapace. Raph did the same, and Donny glanced down from them, and then looked at a still blank-faced Mikey.
Mikey's eyes wandered down, but after hearing Donny cough they looked back at his brother. Wait . . . his brother hadn't coughed . . .
Prida gasped sharply and then turned her head to look at the wide-eyed Donny. She smiled.
"Am I dead?" She asked in a whisper, because she sure felt like it. She was aware her hair was a mess behind her, and couldn't held thinking how painful that was going to be to brush it. She would rather destroy another artifact than try and get the brush through that.
"You – you were," Donny said in a slightly high-pitched voice. Raph let go of Leo with one arm and looked down at her. Leo and Mikey stared.
Prida's smiled widened, which reflected onto Donny's. The turtle helped her to her feet, and held her loosely at bent-arms length, checking her over just to make sure the mysterious lack of metal shards didn't blow holes though her from the explosion. In fact, he glanced at the floor and noticed all the shards and broken pieces were no longer flecked about the dark pavement.
"I guess I'm just . . ." Prida grinned at Donny pausing for the next words, " . . . really lucky."
He uttered a breathed laugh. "I think you have people in high places looking down on you." His eyes rose to the sky before they looked back down. He grinned.
Prida glanced at Mikey and then at Leo and Raph. She smiled and stuck her tongue out in a very light joke at Raph, then wiggled her eyebrows. To all of their surprise, Raph let go of Leo and before she knew it, Prida was secured tightly in Raph's hug, feet an inch or two from the floor. Her grin softened.
"Let's," Leo said warmly, glancing at everyone, "go home."
"I totally second that notion," Mikey said, sounding tired.
()()()()
Splinter was extremely relieved to see all four sons return home, descending the ladder at ten O'clock, with their friend. A hug was exchanged between father and one son, before he was taken into his room and put to bed, where he fell asleep instantly. They were all tired, but they remained awake to recount their rescue to Splinter, who made them cups of herbal tea. Prida had to stop herself staring at him.
After they had all chipped in their own detail, silence enveloped them while they drank their tea, which made them all sleepier.
"I am very glad that this night ended well: You are all here, you are alive, and I am happy," Splinter said, his whiskers moved with his smile. "I want you all to rest now, there will be no practice or work at all tomorrow, I would like you to take that time for yourselves."
Prida, who had let her gaze wander to the walls and ceiling, looked back down when the Master stopped speaking. The turtles bowed their heads respectfully, and finished their drinks. Prida had gulped hers down long ago. Scorching or not, she was thirsty.
Mikey's eyelids were drooping low, but he kept blinking furiously to keep them open. He saw his Sensei give him a side-ways look, one that told Mikey to go to bed; he did not have to stay awake any longer.
"Michelangelo, go to bed, my son," Splinter said softly. It was a firm, but gentle order, given by a caring father.
Mikey nodded groggily and stood up. "G – G'nigh', guys."
"Good night, Mikey," Prida smiled.
Leo and Donny smiled fondly as they watched their brother stumble, half asleep, into his and Raph's room. He didn't even shut the car door behind him, but they could hear the bedsprings groaning as the turtle collapsed into them. He hadn't even taken his belt or pads off; one job Leo would do for him tonight.
Prida tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. The two remaining turtles and Splinter looked at her.
"Prida, you can have my bunk," Leo said. "I'll kip on the couch."
"Oh – I don't mind, I'll sleep on the couch," she said. She hated to throw Leo out of his own bed.
"Too late, I've already got dibs onnit," he smiled, sitting back in the couch. The argument was extinguished before it began.
Donny suddenly glanced at his left arm, where lie the wound inflicted by Leo's sword. The tissue around the crimson gnash was inflamed and sore. "Oh, great, infected."
Leo sat up and frowned. "Did I do that?"
Donny looked at him. "No, Leo, Shredder did." And he walked into his lab to clean his wound. Most of his equipment and things were in Prida's basement, but he always had more than one medic kit. He realized with a "damn" that Raph's treatment was also not coming home for him tonight. It had been Donny to lay Raph in bed, and he noticed with a grimace that his brother's recovery had just been flattened by his flu flaring up again.
Don cleaned his wound with stinging antiseptic cream, taped a gauze bandage over it, and fumbled though his cabinet for antibiotic pills that would kill the infection. His supply of these was small, as he had not needed them much in the past months, but he knew April was always happy to get the things they needed. Of course, the money was given to her; they didn't expect her to pay for their things, even if she did do quite a lot of times. The turtle replaced his things, and then walked back into the lair as Splinter was walking to his room.
"Goodnight, Donatello," He bid his son. The rat disappeared into his own car after pulling his door closed.
Leo, who was sat on the edge of the couch looking a little more alert than everyone else, turned to Prida after noting Donny's entrance.
"That's mine and Donny's car," he said pointing to the one next to Mikey's, and one away from Splinter's.
"You can have the bottom bunk if you don't want Leo's top," Donny suggested kindly.
Prida got up from one of the two armchairs. "Oh, I don't mind top bunk," she said as she walked over to the open door and looked in. It was only a square room, and it had obviously been tidied up from having been a proper train car. She looked back at them with a smile.
"Thanks guys," she said truly.
"Hey, housing Raph for three or four days must have been hell, so we OWE you one," Leo smiled sleepily.
She smiled back at the two. "G'night." She stared a second longer before she turned, closed the door half way, and climbed onto Leo's bunk.
Donny walked to the end of the couch and picked up a folded blanket that had been left there since Leo, Raph and Casey returned home from the night they stole the artifact. He opened it up and lay the end on the chair arm Leo would have his feet near. Donny looked at his brothers: His face was masked with guilty pensiveness. Donny somehow knew what he was thinking.
"It wasn't your fault, Leo," he spoke softly, and Leo shook his head and turned to his brother. "It wasn't."
Leo sighed. "What if she hadn't woken back up, though?" He asked, not really wanting an answer. "It was my fault I let her try . . . I just keep thinking that she could have died . . . and I could have done something."
"Leo, Raph was hysterical when he was accusing you," Donny assured his bro. "He would never have blamed something like that one you in his right mind. Leo, his fever is flaring back up again, there's no doubt it was talking; don't let it get to you."
Leo knew he was right. He smiled at Donny. "Thanks, you're right." He swung his legs onto the couch and grabbed the front hem of the thickish sheet as Donny walked to the lighting switch on the wall near the TV. "'Night, Don," Leo said as he laid down on the seat cushions.
Donny clicked the lights off and walked to his car door. "'Night Leo, see ya tomorrow." He closed his door behind him and crawled into his own bed. From the slow breathing of Prida she was already asleep under the covers. Don lay back his head and closed his eyes. The extreme comfort from the soft mattress and covers was caressing to his aching body, and he was glad that this time, after facing the Shredder again in four months, they got to see the next day with everyone alive.
()()()()
"So Shredder's still alive, we're back to playing Hide And Seek, and now Prida's house isn't really safe," Mikey said over a small breakfast the next morning, sat on the couch with Leo, both holding a warm drink. Donny was in the kitchen making his own drink and buttering a stack of toast. He brought it and his mug through to the lair and set the plate of toast on the small table. Mikey grabbed a slice as soon as it was set down.
"That's gonna cause difficulty," Donny said, seating himself in the spare armchair. Splinter, who had woken before everyone else as usual, was sat in his own chair. "Might be a bit hard to explain to her sister that she can't live up there, and will be living in the sewers with four ninja turtles and a ninja Master rat."
Leo leant forward and picked up a slice of toast and paused, casting his eyes upwards, as the main lights flickered.
"I guess a subway does that from time to time," Prida spoke, emerging from the car and looking up.
"Well they shouldn't," Donny frowned. He didn't like faults in his work.
Leo chewed his toast as Prida sat down on the couch next to him. He picked up the plate and offered it to her.
"It's the average breakfast down here," he said.
Prida took a slice slowly. Suddenly she felt like a stranger down here – well, she was – but even in the company of her friends. It felt like they had just taken her off the streets, and hadn't even explained their story, leaving her to wonder things. Probably the reason she felt like this was because it was still difficult to believe that these awesome guys actually had to live under the streets in secret, and now that she was down here, tasting a sample of their lifestyle, it seemed even more . . . different to what she had imagined. But she felt really special to be down here, sharing a morning with them in their own habitat.
"Until I can get some more food and create a proper breakfast," Mikey said, scoffing the last bit of his bread.
Prida smiled at him as she took a bite, but her eyes wandered over to her left, at the rat in the chair. Stop staring, Prida! She told herself. She quickly looked away and at the blank TV. A second later it switched on, and Prida glanced around for whoever had the remote. It was on top of the TV.
"Electrical appliances," Leo sighed, and got up to turn it off. He sat back down again.
They moved into discussion about last night, and Prida's current location problem.
"They know where I live, would they try and kidnap me again?" She asked. She didn't know the Foot Clan that well, and she didn't know how they preferred to solve a problem such as trying to get the artifact back – which was a dead effort anyway, but like they knew that.
"I don't think the Shredder would send his Foot clan back, because he'd think that you would leave that place," Leo answered. "But he would keep an eye on your house, no doubt about that."
Prida sighed. "Great," she said in an undertone. "I could have used that artifact to wipe my house address from their minds."
Donny hesitated for a second before he said, "Why don't you just wish for it," he suggested.
Prida gave him a sidelong look. "What good would that do?"
"Why don't you call the police and inform 'em about your kidnapping," Mikey said. "Maybe they might keep an eye on your place, and force the Foot away."
"She would be questioned no end about why she was kidnapped, and who she was taken by, and how she escaped," Donny cut across. "They'd need proof and a good story to go with it, and a lot of it I don't think they would believe."
"Man, I really wish Shredder had died the first time we killed him," Mikey said.
They all fell into silence as thoughts invaded their minds, even Splinter's as his eye wandered down to the floor.
"My sister's probably called or left a message," Prida broke the silence. "I'm not gonna be kept outta my house. There's no way I'm explaining it to Mai, either, but I wanna go back if I can."
No one spoke for a second, and it was Splinter who did. "The Shredder may already know what you have done to the artifact, and his intentions will be, not to seek it, but to seek and kill the four of you, directly, including Miss Valantine."
Reassuring words, Prida thought, but then, glancing at the turtles, they seem to respect what Splinter had said, and Prida realized these guys didn't kneed a soft approach to seriousness, they wanted a straight forward one that would allow them to deal with it without messing around. Prida so admired these guys.
Leo stood up. "Let's take Prida back topside so she can check any calls and stuff, and she can call the police and report a break-in."
Don and Mike looked at Splinter, searching for approval. Splinter only lowered his head slightly, keeping his eyes on his sons. Leo went to get his and his brothers coat, leaving the others to wonder why he had suggested they go to Prida's when the Foot would most likely be around.
~
Hey – guess what? Yeah, she DIDN'T die. *points at you all* how could you think I'd kill one of my own characters?! I admit it was fun to kill her, but it's even more fun surprising you =D , lol, how would she be able to hook up with Ra – no, evil Lenni thought, that will never happen, I was just kiddin' there. I thought I shud get this up quickly, and voici. Arigatou for your reviews, Ciao.