The Enemy

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

Chapter Eighteen - Returning Home

Kirra:

I gave up on the interrogation with Mike, if it was too hard to know if he was lying or telling the truth. I was confused and mixed up enough as it was, even with him saying a few things that I could relate to such as chucking me out of my shell.

What was true though?

This is what I didn't know and what I desperately needed to know.

I recalled Michaelangelo saying he had pictures of me as a child. That was funny, because as far as I knew my own father didn't have any pictures of me. Still Michaelangelo's story ought to be easy enough to confirm one way or another.

All I had to do was to go to the turtle's home and search, if I meant something to him then I ought to be able to find the proof of the matter. If I couldn't find any pictures, or anything else to back up the turtle's words then it must mean that he was lying.

There was one thing I had to do before returning to the turtle's sewer home. I was anxious to get started for I could maybe solve the mystery and lay matters to rest. After all once I knew the truth I could come back home and get some much needed rest.

…

Not even an hour later I entered the turtle's home the smell of blood and the early bit of decay were enough to cause my muzzle to wrinkle with disgust, our own dead had been removed, but the dead members of the turtle clan lay where they had fallen.

I noticed the woman and her child, that had been in the living room area, when we had first invaded I ignored them for now and followed the smell to the playground area where most of the dead were. I checked the area and nodded pleased with what I found.

I then returned to the woman's and child's corpses, what had Raph called them again? Sara and Kei or something like that I think? Ah well, it didn't really matter. I moved their corpses in with the others then set up a bomb near the entrance of the playground.

This bomb was one of my specialties, home made of course, and designed to bring down a certain area of the playground to make an effective mass burial, but not cause too much structural damage above, so those topside would not be alerted to any problems.

Once I was sure the bomb had done its job and I was safe, I searched the living room, kitchen and dojo area for candles and incense to light, and rid the lingering offensive odour from the home.

There was something eerie about being in the turtles home, I had the oddest feeling that I was being watched and followed around, that perhaps there was some form of guardian spirit that dwelt here and didn't want me around.

I reached out with my senses trying to pick up on what it might be, but I detected nothing out of the ordinary.

Suddenly something hit into my shoulders hard, I acted quickly reaching up and grabbing hold of whatever was there, and felt a solid mass of fur, it felt much too large to be a sewer rat.

I tossed the thing from me toward the ground and saw a black blur twist about to land on four feet.

It was nothing more then a black cat with a crooked tail it gave me a rather offended look.

" Mrrrow!" It complained loudly.

" Baka?" I asked uncertainly, as I stooped down with fingers outstretched towards the cat.

The animal came towards me bunting and rubbing his head against my hand as it started to purr. The deep rumble increased in tempo as I scooped the feline into my arms to cuddle it closer.

" A Baka without a purr is a terrible thing" I murmured knowing I had heard that phrase before in my life at sometime, though I wasn't sure when, " Are you hungry Baka?"

I returned to where the kitchen was and set about searching the cupboards for food that might appeal to the cat.

I knew my father would never allow me to keep the cat at Foot headquarters, but I also knew that this cat belonged to me at one time, it had been my pet for many years.

I set out a large dish of dry food and an equally large bowl of water, a small thing of milk and a can of tuna. After all I had no idea when I would next be able to return, and I wanted to make sure that Baka would have the food he needed, if not the companionship he was used to.

The cat dived into the tuna taking large bites and gulping it down. I smiled at him before turning back to my search of the lair.

I had found the bedrooms but so far had found nothing that looked like it was Mike's personal room, I was almost ready to give up when I entered a room that had but a single bed and no toys with in, most of the rooms had double beds for the adults or bunk beds with toys meaning children's rooms.

This room was a simple affair the cement walls of the pipe painted in a bright sky blue, there was a nightstand and a four drawer dresser.

The turtles didn't wear much for clothes, so I found the dresser rather out of place. Naturally it was the first place that I began to look, to see if I could confirm what I had been told earlier.

In the top drawer was a photo album, the cover had black marker written on the front declaring it simply as Rama and at age six.

The first two drawers of the dresser held photo albums with marker on the front giving the name and the time frame the pictures had been taken. I packed a couple of the photo albums over to the bed and sat down to look over it.

Inside were Polaroid pictures of a tiny turtle humanoid child with dark hair, each picture held a date and a year sometimes there was a little note under the picture that gave a bit more description or information, regarding the photographs.

There was a picture of a woman that was labelled simply Shay. The name Shay meant nothing to me.

I saw pictures of the child standing in front of a farm house, hands outstretched palms up red berry juice staining the hands and face, testament to how many berriesshe must have filled herself with. Pictures of birthdays, Christmases, pictures of a young turtle holding baby turtle humanoids, and ones of ninja lessons in a crude sewer dojo with Leonardo at the child's side, or Raphael playing with the youth; many of the photos I could easily match to the visions and images that had been bothering me recently.

I put the albums away where I had found them and as I did so I noticed a small book marked as Rama's baby book.

I flipped through the pages seeing first time to crawl three days old, first words daddy, first walked and all of it filled out in neat handwriting.

There was a place in the book listed for identification and that held ten tiny fingerprints but also photographs of a carapace the upper shell design and colours clearly and carefully depicted along with a written description of it.

I knew my own carapace design, I also was fully aware that no other turtle ought to have the markings that I had, and yet those markings, Rama's carapace design were a twin to my own.

I had to be. I was almost certain now what was true, though it seemed so hard to believe or accept.

I checked the last two drawers of the dresser and was surprised to see bits of artwork marked daddy, or cards made with lots of glitter, bright colours and glue. It looked to me, as if Michaelangelo had saved every item his daughter had ever made.

Someone who could not even let go of the smallest scrap of paper with scrawly writing, would not give up on a child. I was sure of that much. He had never given up on Rama.

I felt tears suddenly filling my eyes and trickling down my cheeks.

There was no need to deny it any longer I was Rama. I was Michaelangelo's long lost daughter, I once had been a part of the turtle's family. Somehow at some time I had been separated from them and ended up in a lab where my father had found me, freed me and started training me, for his revenge against the turtle clan calling me Kirra.

Father couldn't possibly have known that I was his enemy, if he had known he would have killed me for sure.

Why hadn't Michaelangelo and the others found me back then?

I owed so much to my father now, that I couldn't turn against him, even with the recent knowledge I had just gained.

How would life have been different for me if I had been raised by my true family?

I would still be a kunoichi, and well trained but I would have grown up in a family that had loved me.

I collapsed on the bed sobbing as I realized the depth of the truth in recent events. Baka came strolling in and jumped on the bed bunting my arm and making tiny noises of concern. I reached out and pulled the cat into my arms cuddling him close stroking his fur as I cried myself out.

When it was over, and I had regained some sort of control all I could do was sigh miserably, what did it matter now?

I couldn't change the past. Nor could anyone else, and in the end I had to play the hand I now held. I knew for a fact that the turtle family would never accept me into their clan now.

I had helped kill their family, my unknown cousins and aunts were dead, in part because of me, I had taken the others captive and had tortured and beaten them, enjoyed doing it too. I had threatened to kill Karena and Kaliann.

The weight of these crimes weighed heavily onto my shoulders in that moment and I trembled, finding my insides tying them selves into large knots. I knew I had gone too far, there was just no way that I would ever be accepted as part of their family again. Those ties had been severed once and for all.

What have I done? Better yet, what am I supposed to do now? I asked myself.

The turtle clan must know, as I did, that I was no longer a part of them and that they would be after me for the betrayal of their family. It was far too late for that now, if I went to help them they probably wouldn't accept it, and it wouldn't cleanse me of the crime I had committed against them. I would throw everything away.

If I helped them I would be banned from their clan and considered a lone ninja with no honour. My father and the Foot would also be after my blood, for betraying the clan I was meant to serve. I would be a ninja with no honour. So I would be hunted by two clans not one, and survival would be next to impossible.

I scratched Baka with one hand and took a couple of deep calming breaths, and sniffed a few times dejectedly.

I realized, that, it was far better to stay a member of the Foot Clan. I had a future with them, I would be leader one day and it really wasn't worth incurring father's wrath to gain me nothing, in the end, anyways.

Helping the turtles would get me nowhere.

' You must put your past behind you and move on with your life now,' I told myself, ' Besides in the end you know you owe your father and the Foot Clan far more then the turtles.'

I got up and Baka followed after me, I picked the cat up cuddling him close " You can't come with me Baka, my father won't allow it, and I don't want you getting hurt too. I will come back when I can to care for you." I vowed.

Baka was the only part of my past that I wanted or needed to hold to.

I had to accept the fact of what I once was, but it didn't really change who I was now.

TBC

Lunar Ninja: Yes Mike torture, what else is poor Rama/Kirra supposed to do for entertainment? She just can't help herself it is the way Yukio has taught her. I promise nothing about Yukio dying in his sleep what will be will be. A gratitude for your insight.

Reinbeauchaser: Kirra does have ways of making people talk whether they want to or not. Right now Kirra has a great deal to think about so betraying Mike is probably the furthest thing from her mind, good thing for the turtle family that she is so preoccupied. A gratitude for your insight.