The Enemy

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Chapter nine - Confirmation

Michaelangelo:

I could sense how worried and concerned Leo was for Karena, and their unborn child. He had good reason to feel far more then what I sensed from him at the moment, he knew what Yukio was capable of and I knew his imagination must be ready to run wild with possibilities alone.

Aiden was trying to comfort Kali who was quite sure her mother would be returned all beaten up in the same way we ourselves had been beaten.

Leo scowled darkly and he started to move with skilled determination, the guards raised their weapons locking them on him, for a moment I had to wonder if Leo was going push his luck and try to escape anyways, but after a second or two he gave up on his Harry Houdini trick. Leo had probably realized that even if he had broken free he wouldn't be able to prevent the danger or trouble that Yukio had planned for Karena, that plus the fact that the children really didn't need to see their father cut down in front of them was enough of a deterrant.

Somewhere in this despicable place Don and Raph were being beaten and tortured, I was pretty sure that Leo and I would soon have our turn too. In fact I figured Karena being taken from here was the start of her torture and Leo's.

It wasn't that I was in all that big of a hurry to go off and be tortured but it at least added some change of pace to just sitting in shackles and waiting as the minutes ticked ever so agonizingly by.

I was hungry, and thirsty. Not to mention the fact that I was so bored right now I would gladly do a two hour practice over doing nothing in this cell. I shifted a bit trying to get comfortable and the guards turned their attention towards me, they relaxed soon as they realized I wasn't trying to break out.

I knew an hour and half had probably passed by the time Ramiela returned with Karena, I could sense Rama's anger and Karena's fear. I watched in shocked horror as Rama removed her sai to threaten Karena.

I had thought for sure that Rama would not harm her, ever, no matter what the situation. She loved Karena cherished her above every thing and to see her suddenly act in such a fashion was enough to make me wonder how much chance I really had of getting through to Rama.

It was hard at times to think of Rama as any thing other then that sweet loveable child that I had known, sure I knew she had grown up and changed but to see her act in such a hard callous, indifferent fashion spoke volumes of where she was at in her teens and where she was heading.

I sat numbed with the change and pondering over the fact that my brother's could very well be right, whatever Rama had once been had to be dead and gone. She would never help us escape.

At the same time I still, didn't want to let it go, and just give up because I felt I had to try and reach her one last time. Besides there was a riptide of misery waiting to drag me down and pull me away from what I hoped for, I knew it would pull me under if I let it.

I forced my thoughts away from all the negative thoughts my mind was now contemplating and instead focused on Leo's and Karena's reunion, of sorts at least.

Karena didn't look like she had been injured physically in any fashion at any rate, I mean other then the scratch that Rama had just provided her. But her emotions were distraught, full of anger, bitterness, hatred, fear and a wild jumble of sheer pain that could not be put down to regular female hormones during pregnancy.

" Karena what happened? What did Yukio do to you Karena?" Leo pleaded his concern for his wife coming through clearly. I could sense he was trying to comfort her mentally.

Karena huddled up and she shook her head as she cried, " Forget it Leo. Don't…" she moaned.

" Karena if Yukio has hurt you in some way…" Leo didn't finish he knew even the emotional distress and the sheer tension could cause Karena to lose the unborn child.

" He didn't hurt me. Not like that Leo, not the way you are thinking" she declared quickly she shot a sympathetic pained look my way.

I realized then, that Karena didn't want to tell him because somehow it might hurt me. Karena was not one to go hurting other people's feelings, not if she could help it.

" He just disturbed me more then any thing Leo" She choked out sniffing a bit.

Aiden and Kali sat down near her.

" You sure mom?" Kali asked softly.

" I'll be all right" Karena assured them with a shaky smile.

" Karena, love…" Leo spoke softly trying to appeal to her with gentle words and reassurances. It wasn't that Leo was in a big hurry to find out what Yukio had done to his wife, it was just that whatever had happened might give us all a clue concerning if Karena and the children's lives might be in more danger then we first thought. Such information could cause Leo to act sooner even if it meant some of us might die. Right now to protect all of us and keep us alive he was willing to be a prisoner, but there could easily come a time when Leo decided to act instead of wait.

I gave a weak grin " It is all right Karena we can handle this" I assured her.

Karena shook her head " He hardly even laid a hand on me" she took a deep breath and gave me a pained look " Oh gods, Mike I am so sorry. It is just Don was right about Rama she has been brainwashed by him. He is rather proud of that achievement." Karena snapped the last bit.

I swallowed hard somehow, Yukio had confirmed to Karena Don's worst theory and suddenly I wasn't so sure that I wanted to hear the rest of this news. Then again I wanted to hear what had happened for it might help me know what the odds were against me, it would clear up some of the mystery of Rama's disappearance and how she could act towards us the way she did. There was no possible way I could block it out I had to know.

" Go ahead and tell us, as you are ready Karena I can handle it." I told her, hoping that I could.

Karena shook all over and she bent over suddenly retching she spewed over the floor and then with a disgusted look moved uneasily to a different area of the cell. Where she sat sniffing and taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

" She took me to Yukio's room. Yukio ordered her to leave us alone. Soon as she left he turned to me and asked what I thought about his daughter, especially as I had meant so much to her as a child," Karena shook her head, " He informed me that Rama fought him longer then he had expected from a young child, she was very resistant but it made him admire her spirit all the more causing him to decide to break her one way or another." She chocked up and placed a hand in front of her face rubbing at her brow and whimpering " he told me that she gave up on Don, Leo then Raph but she almost refused to stop calling for her 'daddy and precious Karena' he felt he might have to kill her."

I winced at those words at one time Karena had loved Rama and the feelings had been mutual.

" That wasn't the worst of it though, Yukio said he taped every session he had of trying to break her and he showed me one. I didn't want to watch it but there was no way I could turn away, every scream pierced through me, she was so terrified and kept begging for help and I …" Karena sobbed and Aiden gave his mom a one arm hug.

" It is okay mom."

Karena hid her face as she cried while the children did their best to comfort their mother though they weren't sure how to go about it because the recent events was far beyond their abilities to understand or respond to.

" Yukio wanted you to see how she was tortured" Leo muttered grimly, he knew that Karena would hate to see any child so abused, but even worse was if Karena had seen even some of what Yukio had done to Rama at the age of seven, now she could worry that her children could also suffer a similar fate or something worse at his hands.

" I don't think I'll ever get those screams out of my head. She was hurt bleeding and crying begging for us to come help her, she kept saying she was sorry for breaking the rules and that she would be a very good girl if we only got her away from the bad ninja." Karena continued in a shaky voice, " She believed we would help her and come for her. We failed her Leo."

" We didn't know Karena we thought Rama had died in the sewers. We never found any thing you know that" Leo insisted, " You also know if we had found any proof of her being alive somewhere we would have gone for her. She was family then."

" Yukio had his voice disguised as he kept repeating that her name was Kirra, and that her daddy and Karena didn't love her. She was to obey him and become his kunoichi and every time he spoke she would just scream in terror and he would attack her with some weapon." Karena murmured through her sobs, " She knew he was a bad ninja then. Yukio turned off the tape and let her back in. That was when Yuko asked me to stay with him and he would let you go free."

" Like hell he would" I snorted in disbelief.

Leo gave a small smile, as he looked over at Karena " I have a feeling that you didn't quite jump at his gracious offer." He remarked wryly.

" Of course not. He has got to be the lowest, most despicable thing that has ever been given the right to breathe air" Karena responded a bit sharply, as she tried to get her emotions back under control " I kneed him in the jewels and that is when Ramiela decided to kill me."

Leo turned his head away " He wanted you to know exactly what he did and how, wanted you to see the proof for yourself but he also wanted you to tell us. He wants us to know that she will do anything that Yukio asks her to." Leo clenched his hands into fists, " In fact the offer might have been a sham. If he knew how much you meant to Rama at one point then he was probably doing it in hopes you would react and have Rama hate you."

Karena gasped as if the thought hadn't occurred to her " You mean he was just testing her obedience to him? And I walked into it!" Karena demanded.

" Possibly, he wanted you and the rest of us to know that Ramiela is truly his servant and nothing more. He was proving that she would do as he wants her to, and there is no way we can get to her." Leo answered.

Karena shook her head " Do you know how disconcerting it is to know a person you once loved and cared for so much, could look you straight in the eye and threaten to kill you?" She shot out, " And to think she does this for the S.O.B who tortured and hurt her in the first place."

I leaned my head against the cool concrete wall 'oh gods Rama, if we had only found you. If we had only known we would have come for you. We would have kept the faith you once had in us.'

I had a heavy sinking feeling in the pit of my belly, like I had just swallowed some large rocks or some other item that set heavy inside of me.

Maybe it was all true, especially as Don's theories seemed to be correct. Maybe she had been gone too long and there was no way she would ever come to help us escape because she had promised her life and her soul to the devil when she was a child, and he was not about to let her go.

She had willingly accepted all the demon had offered her in exchange for her own life, taking his initial programming calling him father, willing to obey his every order and whim while she turned her back on her flesh and blood family, which she had probably felt had let her down, in the first place.

What other choice had Rama been given?

None, whatsoever, her choice had been life or death, Acceptance or denial it was that simple.

Did Rama know back then how close she was to dying herself, when she accepted Yukio's words as truth instead of lies? Did she realize the only way she could live was to accept his words? Or was it a simple matter of she hurt a great deal and accepted Yukio's words to stop the pain she was being made to endure?

It didn't really matter how it had come about, the end result was the same Rama had accepted his words and pledged herself to him, because we had indeed failed Rama, the one time she needed us the most, we had failed to come.

Now would she ever be able to believe or trust in us again, in any way?

I felt a sob wrench free from the depth of my chest and everything my daughter had to face at Yukio's hands, I knew that it was because of him that my daughter might be forever lost to me.

I tried to block off my pain and I understood then rather bitterly, I might add, that this might be all the torture we received for today.

Leo had his torture in his fear of what Yukio could have been doing to his wife. Karena had been tortured in being forced to see and hear only a small portion of what Rama had suffered when she had first fallen into Yukio's hands.

My torture was in knowing how my daughter had taken her first step down the only path left to her, a path into a life full of torture and pain.

TBC

Reinbeauchaser: It isn't easy writing Rama/Kirra this way for I never truly saw Rama as evil or capable of doing the sort of things I have her doing in this fiction. Still after living under Yukio's influence for so long some part of that had to play a part in the drastic change. But yes, she is also still very tortured in her own rights and the memories that are slowly making themselves known play a big part in showing how tortured she is and has been. Finding the perfect balance isn't easy for I did want readers to hate or dislike what Rama has become while at the same time feel a bit sympathetic for all she has been put through. Not easy to do. A gratitude for your insight.