Sage of the Next Generation – Shiitake
By Red Turtle
A/N: I think I said this somewhere else, but just so you all know, Shiitake's name is from the type of Mushroom and has nothing to do with Iraq. The names of all four quadruplets were Shiitake, Miitake, Rainbow and Acorn, and they lived with their mother in China, only seeing the rest of the family at the funeral, when they were six, and never having seen their father in person.
The story continues…
I have now completely traded one family for another.
I remember some of them from our fathers' funeral. I remember my eldest half-brothers, twins like all of us, except with dragons you get two sets of twins. One had seen the murder, the other hadn't. And the foxes I remember. There was a boy fox, a cousin about our age who was the only one to talk to us. It wasn't personal, the others were all so sad, they hardly noticed us, or my mother and she is a giant flying dragon.
Was a giant flying dragon.
I don't remember this Uncle Michelangelo. I don't remember this dragon-horse brother. I sort of remember Simon, but only that he seemed the saddest of everyone at the funeral. Maybe he was a lover.
Uncle Michelangelo dismounts Endrame, still carrying me. I don't think I can move yet, and when I try to turn my neck to see all of us standing here it stings. The physical pain keeps me immobilized, but there is something else to. I am scared. Uncle Michelangelo's heartbeat is very comforting right now, and I can't bear to leave it.
"Who is that?" one with the black bandana asks. I don't remember if he was at the funeral. The other family is so big.
"This is Shiitake. He's one of Don's kids…and this is Endrame, he's uh…he's like Don's stepson."
"And what about him?" another asks, this one wearing a red bandana. This one looks like one of my other uncles, but he must be a son because he is much too young.
"Oh", Uncle Mike exclaims, "Geez, this is Simon. He's been our friend for, like, ages, but…I guess it was after this time here…"
"Its good to see you again, Donatello", Simon tells one of the others (I guess he's speaking to my half brother who is named after our father, but he seems to be directing his greeting to another young turtle guy standing next to them, wearing a purple mask.)
"Uh, its nice to see you too", the other responds.
So maybe our Dad had even more kids, and maybe more than one was named after him. This could get confusing.
"Simon, you know he's not exactly the same-", Uncle Michelangelo starts to say.
"Its still nice to see him again", Simon responds rather sharply.
There was a pause then. I pick up a sense of discomfort. It suddenly occurs to me that whatever attacked me in China probably attacked everyone else. They probably all just lost their mothers. They're all certainly sad enough, even more so than at my fathers funeral. This makes me feel a little different; that my mother and siblings death might not have been the worst thing to happen here, and in fact no one was even talking about it.
"How did you get here?" someone asks. I didn't see whom; I had closed my eyes and hugged uncle Michelangelo tighter. I hope that nothing happens to him.
"My father is a Nexus Spirit, and granted me some ability to travel across time and space. I was able to rescue these family members and this seemed like the most natural place to bring them. Perhaps from here we can think of how to stop this enemy", Endrame explained.
For a minute I open my eyes to confirm that actually, I am not anywhere near my home. I hadn't realized it. I thought I had been asleep and we had traveled to a city, but if I put my mind to it I can see the sun and sky is very different, and…the smell. I can't believe I didn't notice it before, but there is nothing that smells like this in China, and in fact it does smell like the part of America where the funeral was.
So, if Endrame took us that far across space…did he take us across time as well?
"Wait a minute…you time travel? Well, ssshhhiiiiitttt, why don't you just go stop Saber Khan from killing Donatello in the first place! In fact, just take us all to him right before he does it, and we'll fucking kick the-"
"Dear relatives, I cared for Donatello very much, and if I could do that I would have done so immediately after it had happened", Endrame replies, "And I would also wish to save my own mother. But navigating time does not work in such a simple fashion. I can bring us back to our time stream, but it will be a point after the slaying of our families."
"Besides, even in time travel we still move in a continuous motion", one of my twin brothers says, "We can't undo what happened to us, it will still have happened to us. The simplest way to explain it is to look at a string and place all the quantum-"
The brother abruptly stopped talking after a glare from a red-masked turtle. The black-masked cousin slid to the ground, looking very lost and sad.
"We have a time-traveling horse and we can't do anything good with it?", He asked dejectedly. The blue-masked turtle tried to comfort him.
Endrame snorted.
"I can take us to a nexus point with Saber Khan, and as you know our entrance will be a surprise. This point will be a few months in the future from where you last were, which will create a gap in your overall lives, but…it is doable and I believe your best option."
"Even with all of us here, and with the element of surprise…I don't believe we can defeat Saber Khan's army. I'm sorry, Grandfather Splinter, but I don't think honor is enough either", the fox said, "He has many human ninjas, and he has those tigers…"
As she said this she wearily felt her forehead. I then started to look at them all more closely, and saw the many scars of battle on my cousins and brothers. They had been through what I had been through. My injury seems mild in comparison.
As if to contradict that remark my neck flares up in pain again. I curl against Uncle Michelangelo for support.
And then I think…grandfather? Is she talking about the rat? I don't remember anything about a rat in the family, and I don't remember him being at the funeral. But I do remember Uncle Leonardo's eulogy, and that he mentioned the name Splinter a lot.
"We need to think of a plan", the blue masked turtle announces, "Endrame, do we have…the time to strategize?"
"From this point we can all stay here for weeks with out disrupting anything. It would only depend on how quickly we want to be done with this once and for all, and to proceed with our normal lives. I for one, cannot begin to grieve for my mother and half-siblings while their vengeance is so imminent. And, I imagine that this poses a…strange burden on those of you from this time stream."
"Good", the blue-clad turtle affirmed, he was the only one looking optimistic in this whole thing, "Our biggest disadvantage right now is that we don't know each other. Even all of you from the same time don't know each other. If we don't know our strengths and weaknesses, we won't be able to make a plan that will work. That, and, we need to take the time to heal some of you. It won't do any good to lead you into battle if you can't fight."
"How long do you think that will take", the slightly-older red masked turtle asked wearily.
"I forget, you're Raphael's' son, right?", the blue turtle replied sort of sarcastically.
Both red-masked turtles narrowed their eyes in response.
Everyone began moving around. The orange-turtle laid out some medical supplies, basic things like cloth and herbs. Someone was able to quickly procure water, and we all gathered around in a sort of circle, with those needing the most help with their wounds lying down. The fox was covered in a lot of blood, but that easily came off , and she mainly seemed to be okay. I wanted to ask her where the little boy fox was, but I could not talk because of the pain. I noticed that my twin brothers already were bandaged, they must have arrived earlier.
Uncle Michelangelo came up to them.
"Can you guys hold him? I want to help take care of the others", he asked.
I immediately clung to him, because I didn't want to be let go of, even for the seconds it would take for one of them to take me.
"Hey", he cooed at me, "Little dude, you're okay. These are your brothers. Don't you remember them?"
I did remember them, but I did not want to be held by them. Besides, I barely knew them, I had only met them at the funeral, and one didn't talk to us at all, the other hugged us, thanked us, and left. Uncle Michelangelo had already done more than that in the brief time I had known him.
"Can I hold him", another voice asked shyly.
I looked up to see the other turtle, the one that was also Donatello, and before I knew it I had been transferred from Uncle Michelangelo to him. He held me firmly, and I laid my head so I could hear his heartbeat. A wave of missing-my-mom washed over me in a shudder. He hugged me a little tighter.
"This is kind of weird", Uncle Michelangelo told him
"I'm sorry about what happened to me", he replied.
"You're just making this weirder, dude", Uncle Michelangelo sighed.
The one holding me shrugged, which I felt.
Uncle Michelangelo moved on to help with the injuries. The one holding me carefully looked under the towel at my neck.
"So you're name is Shiitake", he said, "I'm sort of your father, you know."
No, I did not know that. My father is dead. I stared at him.
"I don't think he knows he went back in time", one of the twins said.
"Yeah, Shiitake, we're way back in time. And this is our Father from a long time ago."
"Before he was our father."
"So he's not really our father, but-"
They both look over at him.
"but he kind of is", they say together.
I look back up at him. So that was why he was called Donatello, not because he's a son. And that's why there are two red-clad turtles, ones a cousin and ones a sort-of uncle. The rat is our grandfather who must have been dead by the time of the funeral, and all the relatives I don't recognize are probably from this past instead of my time. I don't know about the two bird things though, but I don't have a way to ask. Throat hurts too much.
I hug my sort-of father. He seems like a nice guy, he's a very good holder. He has me in one arm and runs the other hand over one of my wings.
"How come you guys don't have wings?", he asks the other two.
"We have different mothers", one replies, "Our mother is human, and his mother is a dragon."
Was a dragon, I correct silently, blinking back tears.
"Wow. I had two wives", he said, obviously impressed.
"Actually, you didn't marry his mother", one says, "You were already married at that time."
"I cheated on your mother?", he exclaimed, "Man, I am so sorry."
I looked over at the twins, one of whom was rolling his eyes while the other attempted to explain more of the family relationships, which I did not know. I remembered we had a picture of some of them somewhere, and had sent them a picture of us, but Mom had never told me anything else. Dragon families don't usually have fathers living with them, so I never thought it was odd.
"No, you cheated on Chicken and Pie's mother…", a twin corrected.
"Actually, you cheated on our Mom too, you just didn't have any kids that time."
"And then there's Tatiana, that was your last wife."
"I don't think you cheated on her."
"Well, you didn't have much of a chance. You had only just married her…"
They dropped silent. I curled back into fathers embrace and he petted me gently on the arm.
"So how many kids did I have?", he asked, "I mean, not me, because I wouldn't…well, how many are there?"
"Ten. But to be fair, we're all twins, or quadruplets like him."
"He was a quadruplet?", he sighed, holding me a little tighter.
"Yeah."
"Poor kid", they said together, and I feel more hands petting me on the back.
"At least we didn't lose each other", one murmured.
"I mean I'll miss Chicken and Pie-"
"And Anna and Marie-"
"But…you know, we're closer to each other than we were to…"
They fell silent again.
Sort-of father shifted me in his arms.
"I can't change what already happened, but I'll do everything I can to make this right", he said, I think to all of us.
To be continued…