Rene – I think it probably would be the Bronx Zoo, as I wrote in 'The Glass Prison' that where they were held was where they used to fight Dragon Lord and the Rank, and on TNM show that was the Bronx Zoo… But still, the zoo in this fanfic isn't based off any zoo in real life, nor should people believe that the zoos in New York are particularly evil! I also have nothing against zoos… I do volunteer work for one! Although zoos I this story might come across as being bad, it's mainly because it's being told through the eyes of the turtles.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mike, Leo, Don, Venus, Bonesteel, Silver and Raphael. Haven't done this in a while… This fic is rated for mild swearing (have I sworn yet?), adult and supernatural themes, and character death.
Chapter 15: The Haunting Past.
Leonardo rubbed his eyes as the room's lights slowly began to glow in increasing intensity. Raphael and Diana hadn't moved from their positions beside him. Yawning, Leo gazed through the glass. Nothing much had really changed over the years. The metal control panel was still there, along with the four other glass cells. Looking closer within his own room, the adult curiously noticed the new trap door located in the ceiling. What was odd though, was the hatch was covered with thick, chunky wire, meaning that nothing could crawl both in or out of the cell. The sliding food tray was still there, along with the toilet.
Leo's eyes furrowed, wondering why on earth there was a flushing toilet. Maybe the scientists had studied their lair and adapted the cell accordingly before they were woken up that first time years ago. Maybe Bonesteel had tipped them off? But somehow Leo really doubted the latter thought. Still, the scientists knew from past experience that they were fully capable of using the toilet, so it would be pointless to remove it either way.
Leonardo looked in the direction of the glass prison cell opposite. Raphael had been correct in saying that Mike and Venus had been placed together. The two turtles were simply chatting to each other, though Venus quickly noticed her husband's gaze. Leo gave her a small smile and a wave, which Venus immediately returned, knowing how much he and the children were missing her already. The female then mouthed 'I love you,' while Mike joined in the silent conversations by mouthing 'don't worry'. Leo nodded his head, showing that he understood what they had intended to say. Remembering how hard it was to communicate, Leo sighed realising that it was going to be a very long day.
Removing his gaze from the pair, Leo stared at the prison attached to the very end of the room. He almost didn't recognise the talking primate inside. Silver had changed drastically, yet seemingly not for the better. His silver fur was shaggy and matted; long gone were his luxurious banana skinned coloured suits, being instead bare naked, though his silvery pelt was so long that nothing obtrusive could be seen. As Leo studied the ape's aging face, Silver locked eyes with him. There was so much coldness in his gaze that it chilled the turtle to the bone. His scruffy appearance only made him seem all the more wild and unpredictable. He looked insane…
Leonardo remembered the day he heard of Silver's surprise capture. Yet that was years ago. Silver had been in solitary confinement for that whole amount of time. Leo knew that just after a week both Venus and Raphael started to become mentally weak under the same conditions. What scared the turtle more was the thought as to why the primate was being held in the same area as they were. He was no longer the regal and sophisticated ape Leo used to know.
Leonardo broke off the continuous eye lock, not having the strength to look at Silver directly, yet all the same he couldn't look away. For the second time, Silver won the stare down. Not wanting to make eye contact with the intimidating beast again, Leonardo curiously searched for the red dot he had seen during the night. He found it in a matter of seconds. The red power light belonged to a security camera situated near the 'staff only' metallic doors. Leo's heart skipped a beat when he realised that his every movement was being taped.
Raphael finally began to stir from his long sleep, though when he subconsciously shifted his body, Diana ended up waking up too. The two children were both silent for a couple of minutes while they curiously looked around at their surroundings. Diana stared at the silver ape that she had seen the night before. She tugged on her father's arm. "Daddy… who, who is he?" she asked, innocently pointing to the furry creature at the end of the room. Raphael knew the answer, however he also didn't know too much about the intelligent ape.
"His name is Silver," Leo answered simply while looking at his daughter, preferring not to stare at Silver again. "He used to be an old enemy of ours," Leo added.
"How did he become an enemy?" Raphael asked curiously, always loving the old battle stories the adults would tell.
"Well… we first met Silver when your Mum, Mike and I were seventeen. See, back then, there was this unbelievable crime wave where one group of thugs would steal hundreds of dollars from banks and then cleverly use the sewers as their getaway route. Of course, the leader of this gang was Silver himself. Anyway, Donatello managed to calculate what two banks would be hit next, so we decided to stop them in the act. Their next target however, was a hidden American gold depository. Donatello figured out that Silver and his gang would have to run through our lair for their escape route to work, and obviously the police and FBI would follow them. So we decided to sneak into the targeted area first and prevent the robbery altogether," Leo summarised.
"So what happened?" Raphael questioned, wanting to know more.
"Well, it didn't go so well. Silver captured your mother and held her hostage by locking her in the vault with a bomb. Luckily, Donatello was good a cracking codes and managed to free her in time before the bomb exploded. Meanwhile, the rest of us chased Silver's gang and gave them a beating!" Leo said with a smile, remembering the good times. He chuckled to himself when he reminisced back to the second encounter with the anthropomorphic ape.
"What's so funny?" Raphael asked, wanting to be clued in.
"Just thinking of the next time we fought Silver," Leo said with a smile.
"Tell," Raph demanded. Diana also looked to her father, wanting to hear another tale although she was too young to understand some of the details.
"Well, Silver managed to steal the winning lottery ticket off an old man, yet somehow the ticket got separated from him and ended up in the sewers. Mike then found it and we started to think about what we could do with the money-"
"How much was it?" Raphael interrupted.
"One hundred and twelve million," Leo answered coolly.
"…Woah," Raphael blurted out, trying to comprehend it.
"Is that a lot?" Diana asked with wonder.
"Yes," Leo answered simply. "Anyway, before we could do much, Silver managed to steal it back from us…" the turtle continued, conveniently leaving out the details of the embarrassing fight where Michelangelo got defeated by four guys wearing their underwear, and where he himself was degraded by the simplistic yet derogatory name of 'Greeny'. "…But we managed to sneak into his lair and steal it back, in the course of which Silver got both of his legs broken accidentally by one of his henchmen. He became really bitter about it… yet at the same time, it was quite funny," Leo finished, smiling at the memory of Silver having both of his legs cast in plaster and having to be wheeled around by his unintelligent goons.
"So what happened to the money?" Raphael asked.
"We realised that we could never claim it, so Michelangelo returned the lottery ticket back to it's rightful owner," Leo sighed. He looked over towards Silver once more before looking back to the two children. "Silver was a different enemy though; he didn't let his life revolve around us. He just continued to steal things and we just continued to foil his plans for the benefit of society," Leo analysed.
The room was quiet for a couple of minutes. Leonardo watched on as Mike and Venus held their own conversation. "Dad… Why aren't Mum and Uncle Mike here with us?" Raphael asked when he followed Leo's gaze to the cell opposite. The turtle didn't really know how to answer the question.
"The scientists… They want your mother and Mike to be… alone…" Leo sighed as he explained in an inexplicit way, trying his best not to show how upset he really was. Yet Raphael managed to see through his emotional disguise, though he didn't really understand why he was so uneasy.
"You miss Mum, don't you?" Raphael asked timidly. Leonardo looked him straight in the eyes and nodded.
"Of course I do. I miss Mikey as well. I wish we were all here together," Leo admitted softly.
"I want Mummy here, 'cause, 'cause I want, I want to speak to her, and then we can go 'cause we're all here," Diana explained as best she could, showing her dislike of the glass prison by wanting to leave already. Leo gave her a small smile before picking her up and giving her a cuddle while she sat on his lap.
All of a sudden, Raphael figured out what Leo meant when he said that the scientists wanted Mike and Venus to be alone. "Is Mum gonna have another baby?" Raphael asked quietly. He knew enough about how babies were made from when Venus was pregnant with Diana, though some parts were still unclear. Raphael's response was only a fearful look.
"I… I really don't know," Leo whispered while staring across the room at the pair through his tearful eyes.
*****
Silence filled the glass cell as Mike tried to think of something to talk about. Over the past four hours the two turtles had chewed over mindless topics such as celebrity gossip, cooking recipes, silly scenarios involving cartoon super heroes and even the morbid topic of what is the best way to commit suicide. Now it seemed that awkwardness had started to settle in the room, choking and drying up the conversation.
Having nothing better to do, Venus sat in a half lotus position and began to meditate. Being socially cut off, Mike's eyes mindlessly wandered around the room. It wasn't long till he realised that this was the cell that Raphael had spent solitary confinement in. An eerie shudder traveled down his spine when he tried to think of what it must have been like. Slowly letting the fact get to him, Mike began to stare at the place where Raphael died; right beside the metallic control panel. His gaze didn't waver when the air started to feel denser as if another presence entered his subconscious mind. Mike was completely hypnotised by the death site of his deceased brother as though an unknown force compelled to keep staring.
Michelangelo jumped in shock and yelped out loud when he saw him. The apparition only lasted a split second, but Mike could have sworn he saw Raph, his brother, standing there beside the control panel. His green skin, his brown eyes, his bullet hole wound… It seemed so real. Too real. Shuddering with a complete mixture of emotions, Mike continued to stare at the place hoping that he would reappear, wondering if it was just a figment of the imagination. But Raphael never did return.
"Mike?… Are you okay?" Venus asked worriedly after being disturbed from her meditation from Mike's uncontrollable yelp. The male turtle looked at her as though he'd just been snapped out of a trance. Venus simply stared back, wondering if and when he was going to answer. Mike looked to where he saw Raph before locking his eyes with Venus' again.
"…Venus… Do you believe in ghosts?" Mike asked slowly, still slightly shuddering. Venus gazed at him for a few moments to see if he was just fooling around, but Mike seemed too freaked out and nervous.
"Not really," she finally answered. Mike's eyes furrowed with confusion.
"But… I thought that out of all of us… you'd be the one to believe. You usually understand the supernatural. You used to lecture Donatello about it…" Mike wondered, still in disbelief about everything that had just happened a minute ago.
"I believe in many things like the enlightenment of one's soul and the inner strength found in every living animal, yet… I've never really found something stable to believe in when it came to the afterlife," Venus explained.
"So… what do you think happens to us when we die?" Mike questioned, becoming curious and starting to doubt what he'd seen a minute ago. Venus smiled at him; quite pleasantly surprised that she would be having this conversation with Mike, as she usually talked about spirituality with Leonardo only.
"…I don't really know… I've always wondered though. At first I believed in karma and reincarnation, as that is what my Master Chung I believed in; using meditation to attain a higher plain. But when I grew older, I just became confused, as I could never figure out where I stood. Is this form the result of good or bad karma?… I still don't know… I then changed beliefs… tried Christianity…" Venus started to explain slowly and thoughtfully.
"What happened?" Mike questioned softly.
"I actually liked Christianity. I liked its simplicity of morals, yet at the same time it was so complex. So much meaning could be found behind every word of The Bible, that it was easy to see how there can be so many interpretations. I agreed with most of the religion, after all, most of it reflected the basic laws of society, but… when I read that heaven was a place for humans, I found myself losing faith. The whole point of believing in God is to gain a place in heaven… It just seems that there is no place on this earth or the next for our species…" Venus summarised sadly.
"I remember years back that Leo tried to be a Christian. Though, he found it ironic that with the Ten Commandments, he'd broken the one about not committing murder, yet he'd never lied and he always honoured his parents… Of course, he couldn't keep it up for long. Ninjitsu and Christianity don't really mix, especially when you've been raised your whole life to seek revenge," Mike said, telling Venus something about Leo she'd never heard before. "So… what do you believe in now?" Mike finally asked.
"Well… I found some inner peace through controlling my chi energy and through following the code of Bushido. It's the only thing I really can believe in strongly…"
Mike nodded to her response. "I just take every day as it comes. Live life to the fullest," he analysed. Venus smiled.
"I can tell," she said.
"Venus… do you think Raphael ever found true happiness?" Mike asked carefully. Venus was silent for a long time, thinking about the last moments she spent with him. That smile he produced before he slipped away…
"…He never stopped searching… Maybe he did…" Venus said softly, trying her best not to cry. Mike couldn't help himself and found a tear slowly emerging from the corner of his eye.
"…Have you ever gotten the feeling, that Raph's still watching over us?" Mike asked timidly, desperately wanting someone to believe and reconfirm what he'd seen. Once again Venus was silent. She knew what he meant. Sometimes she'd feel Raphael's presence, only a glimpse, before the feeling would disappear entirely, causing her to wonder if it was just a figment of her imagination.
"Mike… Sometimes the eyes see what the mind wants to see…" she finally answered. Mike nodded slowly, still thinking about what she had said. He gave her a smile and started to wipe away the tears that were about to fall. Both deep in thought over what they had discussed, silence crept back into the glass cell. A few minutes later, the awkward tension filled the air once more as another topic of conversation couldn't be produced.