Dimensional Adventure
"Move Mikey!!" Raph yelled, and ran into his brother, giving him a hard shove.
"RAPH!" Kida screamed.
Raph looked up and rolled in between the bear's legs, just as it swiped down at him with enormous claws. Raph looked at the bear's back, thoughts whizzing through his head. I can kill it now, he thought as the bear landed on all fours, I can kill it now! But something was holding him back - the thought of killing an animal wasn't the solution to him, and even his brothers knew that, otherwise they would encourage him. He turned to look at Kida.
"Get rid of it!!" he hissed, just like Theo had. "Get rid of it!"
Kida knew that clicking her fingers wouldn't work. They wouldn't work anyway. She was frozen to the spot - she needed something. She needed something to trap it.
"Think of anything, Kida!" Donnie yelled, blocking the bear with his Bo. "Think of anything! A trap! Anything!" Tiran rushed over to help Donnie, threatening the bear with his own claws.
Kida shakily clicked her fingers, at the time thinking of a massive hole in the ground, but nothing worked. The bear took up most of her power - so she couldn't conjure up anything big - it had to be little . . . Little - but effective.
"Get out of the way!!" Leo shouted, running into the side of Kida as the bear fell into the tree behind her. She landed with a thud on her injured shoulder, and let out a gasp as blood started to soak through her t-shirt. Theo was opposite her, holding a Bo in his hands, though how he got it she didn't know.
"Kida! Move!"
Mikey's shell and bandanna loomed over her, and his hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her to her feet. He grabbed her shoulders, slightly harder than he intended. She gasped again, and Mikey saw her blood on his hand.
"Are you ok? Are you ok?" he asked quickly, pulling her aside.
"Give me your Nunchucks!" Kida said sharply, and Mikey gave them to her.
She tied one nunchuck to the other, and pulled at each end to make sure they were tightly secure. She looked up frantically, and saw the bear heading towards Theo. Donnie was in front, trying to protect his new friend, and Raph and Leo were at the side, forming a protective triangle.
Kida spun Mikey's Nunchucks over her head, ignoring the bleeding in her shoulder, and let them go. They flew together in the air, and wrapped themselves around the bear's feet. It let out a roar, and fell forwards, just landing a metre in front of Leo, Donnie and Raph.
"YES!" Mikey shouted.
Something let out a loud 'snap!' and Mikey looked up.
The bear was slowly getting to its feet; Mikey's nunchucks were snapped on the floor. Mikey let out a quiet, "it can't be . . ." in one breath and Kida looked up also. Raph and his brothers were slowly edging backwards, all their shells touching each other's. Theo stood beside them, looking up in fear - his green eyes wide. At the moment Tiran was nowhere to be seen, and Kida didn't have time to look for him.
A gun! She thought suddenly. I need a tranquilliser gun!
It was a small thing, easy to conjure up, and wouldn't even harm the bear. She didn't know where one was, but then again she didn't even know she could create a bear. Even with bul - Kida stopped suddenly.
She heard a circle of 'bang!' and saw the 3 turtles dodging bullets.
"WHOA!" Raph yelled. "They actually came out of its mouth!"
"Everyone spilt!" Leo yelled, and they all went in opposite directions, trying to confuse the bear. Mikey ran from Kida's side to help, and she quickly scanned the trees for Tiran. She just glimpsed his fur, running in between Raph and Theo.
Kida clicked her fingers, quickly thinking, 'GUN!' at the same time.
Something smooth touched her arm, and she looked down to see a farmer's gun resting in her hand. No! She thought in fear. I can't use a real gun on this thing! It's not right! It isn't right! But she didn't have time to click up another one, so with shaking hands she lifted the gun up. It let out a loud 'click!' as she prepared to fire.
The bear suddenly stopped, and looked up.
Kida felt her heart stop in her chest as it looked at her, and then looked at the gun in her hand, pointing right at it. The roar it let out was unbelievably loud, and it came charging at Kida. A small bullet escaped from its mouth, and grazed the side of Kida's waist.
"NO!" Mikey yelled, as Kida screamed and dropped to her knees.
KILL IT! A voice in Kida's head hissed. You created the monster!
Kida leaned on the gun to pull herself back up. She was now bleeding in more places than one; her green t-shirt was now stained red.
Kida looked up, her eyes blazing.
Another bullet came out of the bear's mouth, and headed for Kida's chest.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Mikey's shouts echoed in her ears, and everyone was slowly running towards her, their frightened voices catching. Kida's eyes closed and opened, and she looked down at her chest. She expected to see bright, while light, or at least a pool of blood gushing out of her. But the next thing she knew Tiran's black and white fur jumped out in front of her, and he roared as the bullet hit him. He fell to the ground, right at Kida's feet.
Everything stopped, everything except the bear.
Mikey felt the tears prick his eyes, and he blinked them back. Leo stopped running, and let out a quiet, 'no . . .' as his new friend lay on the ground. Donnie and Raph looked at each other, their expression unreadable. Theo broke the silence, as he shouted, "NO!" at Tiran.
Kida looked down, her vision blurred by tears. "No . . . No . . ." she whispered.
The gun still laid in her hand, and a surged of anger rushed through her heart. She lifted it up, and aimed it at the bear still charging towards her. "You killed him!!" she screamed. "You killed him!!" Without another word, she pulled the trigger.
The bear stopped, and slumped forward. It looked at Kida, and she looked back into its eyes. It let out a saddened, quiet roar, as if it was trying to tell her that it had done nothing wrong, and she was a murderer.
Kida dropped the gun, and looked away as the bear fell to the floor.
"I killed him . . ." she choked. "I killed him . . . I killed them both . . ."
She looked at her shoulder, and then her waist. The pain was numbed, as reality hit her and she realised it was her fault. The bear didn't kill Tiran . . . she did . . . and she killed a live animal - no - two live animals . . . it was all her fault . . .
"Kida", Leo said softly, coming up next to her.
"Tiran, I'm so sorry!!" she suddenly yelled, falling next to him and grabbing his fur. She buried her face in the softness of his neck. "I'm so, so sorry . . . Tiran please . . ."
Mikey felt a tear fall down each of his cheeks as he listened to Kida's sobs. He knew she was asking for Tiran's forgiveness, but now that he was gone he couldn't answer her, he couldn't tell her - and Mikey knew that more guilt was on Kida's shoulders. This wasn't how he had expected to find Splinter; he didn't know that they'd lose a friend . . .
Donnie put a hand on Mikey's shoulder, and wiped his brother's cheeks.
Theo walked over to Kida, and rested a hand on her arm.
"We have to go", he said softly, as the clouds clapped together above them. The rain pelted down on them all, followed by a clap of thunder.
Kida ignored him. She let her tears fall down Tiran's fur.
"Tiran . . . I didn't mean . . . I - I didn't - I'm sorry . . ."
Raph felt the rain soak his bandanna, and he looked at Leo.
Leo looked back, his eye ridges tilted up in sadness. Raph could see his brother's eyes glistening with tears, taking in the fact that his new friend was dead. Raph looked away, taking in the dead body of the bear, rather than watching his brothers' cry. So many thoughts went through his head, most of them feeling saddened for Kida.
"Kida, please", Theo said, guilt piercing him like a knife. He wished so much that he could let Kida have time alone with Tiran, but they had to leave. "We -" he gulped, his voice cracking with tears, "we have to carry on . . . we can't stay here . . . please Kida . . . please . . ."
If it wasn't for the pleading in Theo's voice, Kida would have stayed, but something told her he was right. She slowly let go of Tiran's fur.
Theo seized that chance to grabbed Kida's arm, pulling her to her feet.
Mikey let out a sniff and went over to help. He grabbed Kida's other arm, and put it around his shoulders, helping her walk away from Tiran's body.
As they slowly started to walk away, Leo looked down at Tiran's face. He kneeled down and stroked Tiran's fur, thinking about how his friend had help him in the past day. If it weren't for him, Leo would have never found his brothers. A tear escaped Leo's eyes and dropped on Tiran, mixing in with the rain dripping down him.
Raph watched Donnie, Mikey, Theo and Kida slowly walk away, and he walked over to Leo, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"C'mon Leo", Raph said firmly, but softly. "Leo . . ."
Leo wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and stood up. He turned to Raph.
Raph nodded. "Let's go . . . we have to go . . ."
Leo took one last glance at Tiran, and walked away from him. Raph put his hand around Leo's shoulders, bringing him in a short hug before following the others.
Behind them another roar of thunder hit the sky. A lightning bolt came down moments later, separating like tree branches and hitting the two dead bodies on the ground. The flash lasted 2 seconds, and when it was gone, so were they, the only thing left on the ground were Mikey's broken Nunchucks, and the animals' blood . . .
()()()()()()()()
"He wasn't meant to die", Kida whispered, as Donnie cleaned her wounds.
Donnie looked up at her and sighed. He grabbed a bandage and remained on his knees, gently pressing a cotton wool ball to Kida's side. Theo had managed to find them a tree to rest in for an hour, since they only had one day and a half to find Splinter. Kida was led to an empty bedroom at the back, followed by Donnie. This was the first time she had spoken since being drawn away from Tiran's body.
His death had caused many emotions, from all of them.
Kida looked down at her waist and at Donnie's hand. She couldn't feel the pain coming from her wounds - she couldn't even feel Donnie touching her skin beneath her t-shirt. She could only feel her guilt and loss.
Donnie grabbed Kida's hand and gave it a squeeze.
"It'll be all right", he said softly.
"No . . ." Kida replied quietly, the pain in her voice as clear as day. "It won't . . ."
()()()()()()()()
"If we had known that someone was going to get hurt we would have never asked for Kida's help", Leo said to Theo, while Kida and Donnie were in the other room.
Raph was sat in a chair opposite them, quietly watching, and Mikey was asleep on the mattress that rested in the corner of the room. Leo was talking to Theo, trying to figure out what to do now. Leo was saying that they should go alone from here, but Theo refused, saying that they needed Kida to lead the way. If they had more days, they could find Splinter alone, but their time was limited, and Theo insisted helping them to the end.
"Kida won't leave you either", Theo said. "She wants to help".
"All I'm saying is that no one should get hurt anymore", Leo said. "It's because of us that Kida has got injured, in more ways than one. I don't want her to feel more guilty than she already does".
"Guilt has nothing to do with it", Theo said gently. "We go through this thing together, and Kida will say the same thing. Her guilt isn't because of you. No one is to blame - no one. We won't leave one another - if we got in this thing together, than we'll get out together. Tiran wouldn't have wanted it any other way".
Leo felt a lump rise to his throat at the thought of Tiran, but he just nodded.
"So when do we start again?" Raph asked.
Theo turned to him. "We leave in half an hour. Let your brother sleep", Theo nodded to Mikey, "and then we'll leave. Kida should be ok to walk - but we have to be careful from now on. If we run into anymore trouble, then more problems will occur".
Raph nodded and looked at Mikey.
"We won't run into anymore problems", Leo said firmly. "We've already lost one friend. We won't lose another".
Theo nodded. "Tiran will be watching over us - that's all we need to help us on our way. Once we find your Master, you can go home, and no more troubles will come to you".
()()()()()()()()
When Kida and Donnie emerged from the back room, everyone was quiet. Mikey had woken up and was sitting next to Raph, having his own conversation until they came in. Theo and Leo were still stood in the middle of the room, but they both stopped talking and looked at Kida when she walked in. She had put a clean, dark green t-shirt on and had put another pair of black jeans on. Her shoulder was wrapped up, and everyone could see the bandage just coming out of the sleeve of her t-shirt, and there was a fresh bandage on her hand. Her eyes were red, where she had been crying.
"Hey Kida", Mikey said softly. "You ok?"
She looked at him and nodded.
"Maybe", Leo said quietly, "maybe you should stay here".
"What?" she whispered, looking up at Leo, "You can't expect me to stay here, surely? I got you into this mess and I'll get you out. I'm sorry I created the bear, all right? I'm sorry . . . I know I'm to blame . . ."
"I'm not blaming you Kida", Leo said. "Not at all. I just think it would be safer if you stay here. It might be -"
"It won't be better!" she yelled. "I'll feel so useless! End of discussion, Leo! I'm coming and that's that. It's not as though I'll murder all of you lot!"
Theo stepped forward. "Leo never said you'll do anything to hurt us", he said. "He's worried that something might hurt you - like that bear did. Your not a murderer, Kida, you did what all of us would have done".
"I'm sure you would have created a bear with bullets shooting out of its gob!" she screamed in his face.
"No! But I would have shot the damn thing if it had hurt you and I was holding the gun!" Theo yelled. Everyone looked at him in slight shock, knowing he wasn't the type to shout - but they had all been through a lot.
Kida shook her head. "But it wasn't me! I wish it were! Because Tiran's DEAD now, Theo! He's dead! And he's not coming back! He didn't just 'get hurt'! He died! And do you know why he died? Because he was saving me! And do you know why he was saving me? Because of the bear! And why was the bear there in the first place? Because I created the stupid thing!! I wished Tiran was never my protector!"
"Tiran didn't save you because he was your protector, Kida", Theo said, trying not to yell at her. "He saved you because he loved you. You two had a friendship that lasted so many years - and always will".
"I ended it . . ." Kida said sadly. She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He's gone now, so it just doesn't matter. Let's get going, ok?"
She avoided Theo's eyes as she walked out of the tree.
Leo put a hand on Theo's shoulder. "She'll be fine . . . we just have to stick together".
Raph stood up and walked out of the tree, followed by Donnie. Mikey walked over to Theo and gave a sad smile.
"Kida can't walk fully on her own, so I'll help her, ok?" he said, quite sadly.
Theo nodded. "She'll be too mad at me to except my help, so go ahead". Mikey nodded and walked out the tree. Theo followed him and Leo followed after. They could see Mikey running to catch up with Kida. She was limping a bit and said something to Mikey. He nodded in an understanding way and walked beside her. Leo looked at Theo and he looked back - thinking the same thing. Kida wasn't going to accept anyone's help now.
()()()()()()()()
Two hours of walking and Kida remained limping; Mikey frowning softly at her side. She kept giving him brief smiles, as if secretly saying, "I deserve it and you know it!"
Mikey was about to offer to help her for the hundredth time, when -
"Hey guys!" she shouted, receiving everyone's attention.
They realised they were all standing on top of a mountain top, their thoughts overtaking their eyes as they were walking. Everyone looked down in slow motion.
There, just a tiny dot ahead of them, was the outlines of a small castle (well it did look small from where they were standing), hidden among all the trees. Four of its points stuck out, with one main point built smack in the middle. The castle looked tricky to get to, but yet very possible.
Kida smiled slightly at them.
"There", she said, "is Splinter's location".
They all smiled back, relieved.
Kida nodded for no apparent reason, but in her head she was thinking, "yes, he's in there - not far at all - you can go home, safe, and back to normal", but allowed she said, "Your Master is barely a day away".
"Move Mikey!!" Raph yelled, and ran into his brother, giving him a hard shove.
"RAPH!" Kida screamed.
Raph looked up and rolled in between the bear's legs, just as it swiped down at him with enormous claws. Raph looked at the bear's back, thoughts whizzing through his head. I can kill it now, he thought as the bear landed on all fours, I can kill it now! But something was holding him back - the thought of killing an animal wasn't the solution to him, and even his brothers knew that, otherwise they would encourage him. He turned to look at Kida.
"Get rid of it!!" he hissed, just like Theo had. "Get rid of it!"
Kida knew that clicking her fingers wouldn't work. They wouldn't work anyway. She was frozen to the spot - she needed something. She needed something to trap it.
"Think of anything, Kida!" Donnie yelled, blocking the bear with his Bo. "Think of anything! A trap! Anything!" Tiran rushed over to help Donnie, threatening the bear with his own claws.
Kida shakily clicked her fingers, at the time thinking of a massive hole in the ground, but nothing worked. The bear took up most of her power - so she couldn't conjure up anything big - it had to be little . . . Little - but effective.
"Get out of the way!!" Leo shouted, running into the side of Kida as the bear fell into the tree behind her. She landed with a thud on her injured shoulder, and let out a gasp as blood started to soak through her t-shirt. Theo was opposite her, holding a Bo in his hands, though how he got it she didn't know.
"Kida! Move!"
Mikey's shell and bandanna loomed over her, and his hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her to her feet. He grabbed her shoulders, slightly harder than he intended. She gasped again, and Mikey saw her blood on his hand.
"Are you ok? Are you ok?" he asked quickly, pulling her aside.
"Give me your Nunchucks!" Kida said sharply, and Mikey gave them to her.
She tied one nunchuck to the other, and pulled at each end to make sure they were tightly secure. She looked up frantically, and saw the bear heading towards Theo. Donnie was in front, trying to protect his new friend, and Raph and Leo were at the side, forming a protective triangle.
Kida spun Mikey's Nunchucks over her head, ignoring the bleeding in her shoulder, and let them go. They flew together in the air, and wrapped themselves around the bear's feet. It let out a roar, and fell forwards, just landing a metre in front of Leo, Donnie and Raph.
"YES!" Mikey shouted.
Something let out a loud 'snap!' and Mikey looked up.
The bear was slowly getting to its feet; Mikey's nunchucks were snapped on the floor. Mikey let out a quiet, "it can't be . . ." in one breath and Kida looked up also. Raph and his brothers were slowly edging backwards, all their shells touching each other's. Theo stood beside them, looking up in fear - his green eyes wide. At the moment Tiran was nowhere to be seen, and Kida didn't have time to look for him.
A gun! She thought suddenly. I need a tranquilliser gun!
It was a small thing, easy to conjure up, and wouldn't even harm the bear. She didn't know where one was, but then again she didn't even know she could create a bear. Even with bul - Kida stopped suddenly.
She heard a circle of 'bang!' and saw the 3 turtles dodging bullets.
"WHOA!" Raph yelled. "They actually came out of its mouth!"
"Everyone spilt!" Leo yelled, and they all went in opposite directions, trying to confuse the bear. Mikey ran from Kida's side to help, and she quickly scanned the trees for Tiran. She just glimpsed his fur, running in between Raph and Theo.
Kida clicked her fingers, quickly thinking, 'GUN!' at the same time.
Something smooth touched her arm, and she looked down to see a farmer's gun resting in her hand. No! She thought in fear. I can't use a real gun on this thing! It's not right! It isn't right! But she didn't have time to click up another one, so with shaking hands she lifted the gun up. It let out a loud 'click!' as she prepared to fire.
The bear suddenly stopped, and looked up.
Kida felt her heart stop in her chest as it looked at her, and then looked at the gun in her hand, pointing right at it. The roar it let out was unbelievably loud, and it came charging at Kida. A small bullet escaped from its mouth, and grazed the side of Kida's waist.
"NO!" Mikey yelled, as Kida screamed and dropped to her knees.
KILL IT! A voice in Kida's head hissed. You created the monster!
Kida leaned on the gun to pull herself back up. She was now bleeding in more places than one; her green t-shirt was now stained red.
Kida looked up, her eyes blazing.
Another bullet came out of the bear's mouth, and headed for Kida's chest.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Mikey's shouts echoed in her ears, and everyone was slowly running towards her, their frightened voices catching. Kida's eyes closed and opened, and she looked down at her chest. She expected to see bright, while light, or at least a pool of blood gushing out of her. But the next thing she knew Tiran's black and white fur jumped out in front of her, and he roared as the bullet hit him. He fell to the ground, right at Kida's feet.
Everything stopped, everything except the bear.
Mikey felt the tears prick his eyes, and he blinked them back. Leo stopped running, and let out a quiet, 'no . . .' as his new friend lay on the ground. Donnie and Raph looked at each other, their expression unreadable. Theo broke the silence, as he shouted, "NO!" at Tiran.
Kida looked down, her vision blurred by tears. "No . . . No . . ." she whispered.
The gun still laid in her hand, and a surged of anger rushed through her heart. She lifted it up, and aimed it at the bear still charging towards her. "You killed him!!" she screamed. "You killed him!!" Without another word, she pulled the trigger.
The bear stopped, and slumped forward. It looked at Kida, and she looked back into its eyes. It let out a saddened, quiet roar, as if it was trying to tell her that it had done nothing wrong, and she was a murderer.
Kida dropped the gun, and looked away as the bear fell to the floor.
"I killed him . . ." she choked. "I killed him . . . I killed them both . . ."
She looked at her shoulder, and then her waist. The pain was numbed, as reality hit her and she realised it was her fault. The bear didn't kill Tiran . . . she did . . . and she killed a live animal - no - two live animals . . . it was all her fault . . .
"Kida", Leo said softly, coming up next to her.
"Tiran, I'm so sorry!!" she suddenly yelled, falling next to him and grabbing his fur. She buried her face in the softness of his neck. "I'm so, so sorry . . . Tiran please . . ."
Mikey felt a tear fall down each of his cheeks as he listened to Kida's sobs. He knew she was asking for Tiran's forgiveness, but now that he was gone he couldn't answer her, he couldn't tell her - and Mikey knew that more guilt was on Kida's shoulders. This wasn't how he had expected to find Splinter; he didn't know that they'd lose a friend . . .
Donnie put a hand on Mikey's shoulder, and wiped his brother's cheeks.
Theo walked over to Kida, and rested a hand on her arm.
"We have to go", he said softly, as the clouds clapped together above them. The rain pelted down on them all, followed by a clap of thunder.
Kida ignored him. She let her tears fall down Tiran's fur.
"Tiran . . . I didn't mean . . . I - I didn't - I'm sorry . . ."
Raph felt the rain soak his bandanna, and he looked at Leo.
Leo looked back, his eye ridges tilted up in sadness. Raph could see his brother's eyes glistening with tears, taking in the fact that his new friend was dead. Raph looked away, taking in the dead body of the bear, rather than watching his brothers' cry. So many thoughts went through his head, most of them feeling saddened for Kida.
"Kida, please", Theo said, guilt piercing him like a knife. He wished so much that he could let Kida have time alone with Tiran, but they had to leave. "We -" he gulped, his voice cracking with tears, "we have to carry on . . . we can't stay here . . . please Kida . . . please . . ."
If it wasn't for the pleading in Theo's voice, Kida would have stayed, but something told her he was right. She slowly let go of Tiran's fur.
Theo seized that chance to grabbed Kida's arm, pulling her to her feet.
Mikey let out a sniff and went over to help. He grabbed Kida's other arm, and put it around his shoulders, helping her walk away from Tiran's body.
As they slowly started to walk away, Leo looked down at Tiran's face. He kneeled down and stroked Tiran's fur, thinking about how his friend had help him in the past day. If it weren't for him, Leo would have never found his brothers. A tear escaped Leo's eyes and dropped on Tiran, mixing in with the rain dripping down him.
Raph watched Donnie, Mikey, Theo and Kida slowly walk away, and he walked over to Leo, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"C'mon Leo", Raph said firmly, but softly. "Leo . . ."
Leo wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and stood up. He turned to Raph.
Raph nodded. "Let's go . . . we have to go . . ."
Leo took one last glance at Tiran, and walked away from him. Raph put his hand around Leo's shoulders, bringing him in a short hug before following the others.
Behind them another roar of thunder hit the sky. A lightning bolt came down moments later, separating like tree branches and hitting the two dead bodies on the ground. The flash lasted 2 seconds, and when it was gone, so were they, the only thing left on the ground were Mikey's broken Nunchucks, and the animals' blood . . .
()()()()()()()()
"He wasn't meant to die", Kida whispered, as Donnie cleaned her wounds.
Donnie looked up at her and sighed. He grabbed a bandage and remained on his knees, gently pressing a cotton wool ball to Kida's side. Theo had managed to find them a tree to rest in for an hour, since they only had one day and a half to find Splinter. Kida was led to an empty bedroom at the back, followed by Donnie. This was the first time she had spoken since being drawn away from Tiran's body.
His death had caused many emotions, from all of them.
Kida looked down at her waist and at Donnie's hand. She couldn't feel the pain coming from her wounds - she couldn't even feel Donnie touching her skin beneath her t-shirt. She could only feel her guilt and loss.
Donnie grabbed Kida's hand and gave it a squeeze.
"It'll be all right", he said softly.
"No . . ." Kida replied quietly, the pain in her voice as clear as day. "It won't . . ."
()()()()()()()()
"If we had known that someone was going to get hurt we would have never asked for Kida's help", Leo said to Theo, while Kida and Donnie were in the other room.
Raph was sat in a chair opposite them, quietly watching, and Mikey was asleep on the mattress that rested in the corner of the room. Leo was talking to Theo, trying to figure out what to do now. Leo was saying that they should go alone from here, but Theo refused, saying that they needed Kida to lead the way. If they had more days, they could find Splinter alone, but their time was limited, and Theo insisted helping them to the end.
"Kida won't leave you either", Theo said. "She wants to help".
"All I'm saying is that no one should get hurt anymore", Leo said. "It's because of us that Kida has got injured, in more ways than one. I don't want her to feel more guilty than she already does".
"Guilt has nothing to do with it", Theo said gently. "We go through this thing together, and Kida will say the same thing. Her guilt isn't because of you. No one is to blame - no one. We won't leave one another - if we got in this thing together, than we'll get out together. Tiran wouldn't have wanted it any other way".
Leo felt a lump rise to his throat at the thought of Tiran, but he just nodded.
"So when do we start again?" Raph asked.
Theo turned to him. "We leave in half an hour. Let your brother sleep", Theo nodded to Mikey, "and then we'll leave. Kida should be ok to walk - but we have to be careful from now on. If we run into anymore trouble, then more problems will occur".
Raph nodded and looked at Mikey.
"We won't run into anymore problems", Leo said firmly. "We've already lost one friend. We won't lose another".
Theo nodded. "Tiran will be watching over us - that's all we need to help us on our way. Once we find your Master, you can go home, and no more troubles will come to you".
()()()()()()()()
When Kida and Donnie emerged from the back room, everyone was quiet. Mikey had woken up and was sitting next to Raph, having his own conversation until they came in. Theo and Leo were still stood in the middle of the room, but they both stopped talking and looked at Kida when she walked in. She had put a clean, dark green t-shirt on and had put another pair of black jeans on. Her shoulder was wrapped up, and everyone could see the bandage just coming out of the sleeve of her t-shirt, and there was a fresh bandage on her hand. Her eyes were red, where she had been crying.
"Hey Kida", Mikey said softly. "You ok?"
She looked at him and nodded.
"Maybe", Leo said quietly, "maybe you should stay here".
"What?" she whispered, looking up at Leo, "You can't expect me to stay here, surely? I got you into this mess and I'll get you out. I'm sorry I created the bear, all right? I'm sorry . . . I know I'm to blame . . ."
"I'm not blaming you Kida", Leo said. "Not at all. I just think it would be safer if you stay here. It might be -"
"It won't be better!" she yelled. "I'll feel so useless! End of discussion, Leo! I'm coming and that's that. It's not as though I'll murder all of you lot!"
Theo stepped forward. "Leo never said you'll do anything to hurt us", he said. "He's worried that something might hurt you - like that bear did. Your not a murderer, Kida, you did what all of us would have done".
"I'm sure you would have created a bear with bullets shooting out of its gob!" she screamed in his face.
"No! But I would have shot the damn thing if it had hurt you and I was holding the gun!" Theo yelled. Everyone looked at him in slight shock, knowing he wasn't the type to shout - but they had all been through a lot.
Kida shook her head. "But it wasn't me! I wish it were! Because Tiran's DEAD now, Theo! He's dead! And he's not coming back! He didn't just 'get hurt'! He died! And do you know why he died? Because he was saving me! And do you know why he was saving me? Because of the bear! And why was the bear there in the first place? Because I created the stupid thing!! I wished Tiran was never my protector!"
"Tiran didn't save you because he was your protector, Kida", Theo said, trying not to yell at her. "He saved you because he loved you. You two had a friendship that lasted so many years - and always will".
"I ended it . . ." Kida said sadly. She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He's gone now, so it just doesn't matter. Let's get going, ok?"
She avoided Theo's eyes as she walked out of the tree.
Leo put a hand on Theo's shoulder. "She'll be fine . . . we just have to stick together".
Raph stood up and walked out of the tree, followed by Donnie. Mikey walked over to Theo and gave a sad smile.
"Kida can't walk fully on her own, so I'll help her, ok?" he said, quite sadly.
Theo nodded. "She'll be too mad at me to except my help, so go ahead". Mikey nodded and walked out the tree. Theo followed him and Leo followed after. They could see Mikey running to catch up with Kida. She was limping a bit and said something to Mikey. He nodded in an understanding way and walked beside her. Leo looked at Theo and he looked back - thinking the same thing. Kida wasn't going to accept anyone's help now.
()()()()()()()()
Two hours of walking and Kida remained limping; Mikey frowning softly at her side. She kept giving him brief smiles, as if secretly saying, "I deserve it and you know it!"
Mikey was about to offer to help her for the hundredth time, when -
"Hey guys!" she shouted, receiving everyone's attention.
They realised they were all standing on top of a mountain top, their thoughts overtaking their eyes as they were walking. Everyone looked down in slow motion.
There, just a tiny dot ahead of them, was the outlines of a small castle (well it did look small from where they were standing), hidden among all the trees. Four of its points stuck out, with one main point built smack in the middle. The castle looked tricky to get to, but yet very possible.
Kida smiled slightly at them.
"There", she said, "is Splinter's location".
They all smiled back, relieved.
Kida nodded for no apparent reason, but in her head she was thinking, "yes, he's in there - not far at all - you can go home, safe, and back to normal", but allowed she said, "Your Master is barely a day away".
