So...I'm thankfully not blind or deaf or mute, so this chapter was super difficult to write from a deaf person's point-of-view. Please let me know what you think and if you see any mistakes.

Please review! All advice, suggestions, and critiques are welcome!

-Katt B.

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN TMNT**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Strike of the Dragon

PART 2

13

3-7: "Eyes of the Chimera"

Okay, Ryu had expected a wait, but this is ridiculous. She sits backwards in her chair, resting her arms crossed over the back of it and watches silently a little ways away from Donnie and April as he hooks her up to some machine that sits on her head. This isn't going anywhere fast so she gets up and pats Mikey on the shoulder as she leaves out the barn door. The bright sunlight makes her blink until her eyes adjust before she can locate everyone else out in the yard sparing.

Ryu smiles over at Casey who gets tripped up by Raph who has kicked his knees out from under him. Venn comes to her side a second later, nudging her out of her daydream.

"Hmm?"

"Stop staring at your boyfriend. Let's get to work," Venn rolls his eyes.

Ryu groans, "He's not my boyfriend. He's just…"

"I saw you two holding hands the other day when you two were coming in. You two are sooooo dating."

Ryu snaps her hand up and smushes his lips together to stop his voice, "Okay, one, don't ever say 'sooooo' again. Two, tell anyone what you saw and I'll bury you six feet in the ground."

Venn lifts his hands in surrender and she releases him, "Would you like to spar?"

"Sure, I need to clear my thoughts," Ryu replies.

"Clear them," Venn throws her a playful grin, glancing off at Raph, "Or distract them?"

She doesn't return it, her face going stern. Ryu twists her foot and watches him sink into the ground, burying him in dirt all the way up to his neck. Up on the porch, Venus bursts into hysteria slapping her thigh, stopping all action across the yard.

"Ryu, I was joking. Get me out of here," Venn coughs.

"What's the matter, Venn? Afraid of a few little fire ants?" Ryu teases as Venus comes up to lean an arm over the younger girl's shoulder.

"Wait, are there fire ants around here?" Venus asks seriously, pausing mid-hysteria to turn a curious look at Ryu.

"We're not going to do that."

"And you are no fun," Venus grumbles, matching her tone, "Come on, I need to get him back for that stunt he pulled on me last winter."

"Are you still sour about that? Geez, can't you take a joke?" Venn growls as he struggles against the hold of the earth.

"Can't you take a joke?" Venus lets out a high pitched whistle at the ground and the sound echoes through the air until it cracks against the ground, splitting the earth near his head. He jerks away from the attack.

"That was not a joke!" Venn snaps.

"Neither was locking me in the closet with Hitler!"

"H-Haku…" Ryu corrects hesitantly.

"His personality said otherwise," Venus growls back through her teeth. Ryu takes the hint in her tone and takes a step back. Everyone else has gathered around behind them, nearly making her step on Leo's toes as she backs up. Venus begins to circle Venn's head on the ground. "Alright, Ryu. Let him up."

Ryu chews on her lip, leaning back so that she can pass a silent word to Leo behind her, "Do you think April would miss her farm house if I moved it two miles to the north?"

"Probably…" he answers slowly with a worried look.

Ryu sighs heavily.

"Ryu, any day now," Venus calls over to her again impatiently.

"This is…going to…most likely end badly," Ryu twists her foot again and the earth kicks Venn straight up into the air, landing him steadily on his feet so that he can face Venus fully. Ryu then brings her hands to her sides and then pulls her fists up, bending her elbows at a ninety degree angle, and the earth under their group shifts. A second later, they're lifted nearly ten feet into the air, giving them a great look out on the battle about to happen below.

They all throw looks at Ryu and she smiles sheepishly with a shrug, "Better to be safe than sorry."

Venus makes the first move, racing forward and drawing out one of her three short blades. She swings at his torso but he vanishes in a blur appearing behind her long enough to get ahold of her arm and flip her over his shoulder, slamming her into the ground on her back. The ground cracks under the pressure.

Ryu winces at the pain that sings out from the earth and Raph touches her elbow from behind her. Venn gets a grab on Venus so many times from that point on, throwing her into the ground more than one can count, but Ryu knows that Venn is holding back more than anyone else would know. If he was going at full force, no one would be able to even see him.

Venus is about to back hand him as he appears in a flash behind her, but he ducks and kicks her feet out from under her. She drops to her backside again, leaving her open for him to press his boot to her stomach.

"Yield," he orders.

"Whatever!" Venus groans against the weight of his foot.

He lets her up and Ryu takes that as the signal that it's safe to let everyone off the rock, but the second she presses the earth back together…

"AGH!"

The hair on the back of her neck stands on end and every fiber of her being screams at her to duck. She falls to a knee, recognizing the electricity in the air, and covers her head. The shock wave hits literally a second later and Ryu is hit with a wall of psychic power; the earth screams around her and the sound is like a siren that could shatter glass. Her heart pounds in her ears cutting out all the sounds of the world around her until the siren cuts out even that. It builds and builds until Ryu fears that her mind is going to break under the pressure.

But then, not a few agonizing moments later, the siren starts to die down and her pounding heart doesn't thunder so loudly through her skull. There's a tap on her shoulder, but it turns urgent before Ryu can even look up.

Raph is shaking her shoulders, yelling at her obviously, with a deep worried expression on his face. Ryu's eyebrows draw together in confusion.

No words are coming out of his mouth.

Venn joins him at his side, waving a hand in front of her face and she shoves it away in irritation, but what happens next really shocks her. Ryu opens her mouth and snaps at him to bug off…but her voice is silent…non-existent. She tries to speak again. Once more, nothing.

Raph shakes her shoulder again and she shifts her gaze to his slowly. He's talking to her, his lips are moving. No words.

Oh, God, no!, Ryu reaches up, hands shaking in horror, and touches the sides of her head over her ears. She hears nothing. No wind, no birds, no breathing, no heart beat…no earth song…

She's deaf.

No, God, please no! Her eyes widen in terror, tears stinging the edges of her eyes.

Chaos breaks loose around her.

A great, silent, wind knocks them all over and Ryu can feel the mute earth beneath her tremble. She looks up in alarm at the great beast who has dropped into the yard; a mutant if ever she saw one.

Something slams into her side, knocking the wind out of her, and she's pressed into the ground. Immediately after, a great wind whips dangerously over her and she catches the end of the mutant's tail lashing out above her. It's a second later that she realizes that it was Raph who had knocked her to the ground; crouched over her protectively. He helps her sit up, the action bringing her close to his chest, and he wraps an arm around her shoulders. He's trying to say something to her but she still hears nothing. Her face falls in defeat and she shakes her head as she points to her ears. His expression becomes confused.

Someone touches her other shoulder—Venus. She moves her lips slowly; Ryu tries to decipher her silent speech.

Can you hear me?

Ryu's expression falls and she shakes her head no. Venus and Raph share looks of horror, but their moment is cut short when the mutant beast attacks again. It swings its tail again and Raph snatches Ryu up into his arms before it can break open their heads; the ground splits open as it bashes the ground where they had once been, spraying bits of rocks off in all directions. Ryu coughs, her chokes silent to her ears, and rolls onto her side. A warm hand brushes over the top of her head and she looks up. Raph is saying something to her but his lips are moving much too fast for her to keep up with.

He presses gently on her shoulder, a clear signal to keep down, and then he jumps up to join his brother's in the fight against the creature. Donnie and Mikey have appeared out of the barn, April stumbling to a stop near the porch next to Leo, and they rush to help out too.

Ryu watches on from her place on the ground, feeling more helpless than she has in a long time. She can feel her pulse in her temples, but she still can't hear it. Her knees are shaking as terribly as her arms. Her whole body, spirit, heart feel out of alignment. She threads her fingers into the grass, digging her fingernails into the soft dirt. Nothing calls out to her.

The song of the earth no longer beats in time with her own; an overwhelming sense of loneliness weighs down on her, thickening the quiet within her. There's a trembling below her body and she barely has time to sit up and discover why before the giant beast is swinging its tail again, the blow knocking her back and tearing her through the tree line. Branches and bushes crunch and snap under her weight, slashing at her exposed skin as she goes flying by, and then she slams into the ground with a few good rolls. When she finally comes to a stop, her whole body feels like she's been hit by a bus…or two.

Whole body as limp as a noodle, Ryu drops her head back against a tree root to rest until the vertigo can pass. A brief moment later, a terrible wind shoots through the trees, stirring her hair, and above she spots something big flying away above the tops of the trees. The giant oaks and pines rock as the wings beat a heavy wind down into their branches.

Ryu watches the trees sway in the gust, feeling like she's floating outside of her body. For a long moment, she just allows the new feeling of the eerie silence to swallow her whole as she tries to get her bearings. None of it seems real to her; it's like she's trapped inside herself, blocked off from the rest of the world around her. Ryu reaches out for the earth, the rocks, the pebbles, but finds nothing. She feels like she's literally been cut off from everything.

Her body is now her prison.

"So what are we going to do?" Venus snaps, "Venn is down, Ryu is missing and deaf, April is blind, and you're on a bum leg. Let's face it, your brothers are screwed."

"Venus, shut up," Venn barks from his place on the porch. He has an arm around his side, holding the bandages to his torso as Venus ties them in place. "I may be out of commission now, but I'll be back up in a matter of hours. From what I've seen of your brothers, they can handle themselves until then. For now, we need to find Ryu and regroup."

"We may not have that much time," April cuts in as she wraps her arms around her stomach. They all turn their attention to the blind girl as she continues, "I think I know why the Chimera took them…I feel…really hungry. Like…Mikey hungry."

Venus glances around blankly, "And that means?"

"That means, we have to leave now," Leo answers, "Venus, you stay here with Venn and see that he's taken care of. We'll go after my brothers."

"But what about Ryu?" Venn gaps.

"If I know Ryu, she's too stubborn to get into trouble in her state," April replies, rubbing her forehead.

Venus eyes the red head warily, catching the deeper tone in her voice. Things had become tense between her and Ryu lately. Too tense from Venus's point of view.

"You two go, I'll watch Venn and keep an eye out for Ryu. I can see if I can locate her spiritually. She couldn't have been knocked away that far," Venus ties off the bandages and hands Venn back his shirt so that he can pull it on. She stands up and waves them off, "Don't worry, I can handle things here."

"But Venus, Ryu is-."

"Shut it, Venn," she warns. "You'll reopen that wound if you keep wasting your breath."

"How does that have anything to do with-?"

"Shut. Up."

Leo glances worriedly at April before he grabs his wooden crutch and she helps him to stand. Together they walk across the yard and into the woods.

"Venus, you know we need to find Ryu first. We stand more of a chance together as a group than apart as you've just split us up as. Also, you just sent a guy with a bum leg off into the woods with a blind girl. How is that not a recipe for disaster?"

Venus turns and sits back down on the steps next to Venn, staring off thoughtfully after Leo and April, "This needs to happen. I have to push that guy."

Venn throws her a look that clearly says she's gone crazy, but then notices the change behind those light brown eyes. The tiny gold flakes scattered around those irises are dancing wildly and he instantly knows that she's planning something, no matter how blank her face is. "What are you planning?"

"I know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with his leg. It's all in his head. This is something he needs to do; maybe it will push him out of his comfort zone and finally help him to see that," Venus answers.

Venn stares at her for a long moment in thought, really surprised at how much she's grown in her short time here out in the country. He remembers watching her and Ryu grow up at the Dragon sanctuary in the mountains. She had quickly turned into a strong willed, out-spoken girl, shaving half her head and piercing her ears and eyebrow in a rush to show her independence. But no matter her rough exterior, he and Ryu had quickly figured out just how soft of a person she really is on the inside, showing so much care and worry for the others at the sanctuary. Many people thought of her "caring" nature as harsh and mean, but Venn knows that that is just her way of showing affection.

He smiles and wraps an arm around her shoulders to ruffle her hair. She fights to throw his heavy arm off of her, "Gaa, get off!"

"Get to work finding Ryu then," Venn chuckles, pinching at her cheeks and pulling them out until she threatens to bite him.

"I would if you'd get off!" she shoves him away and scoots up to the top step not only to distance herself from his annoying teasing, but so that she can cross her legs and close her eyes to concentrate. Almost instantly, her breathing slows and her body calms and Venn knows that she's off in her spirit somewhere.

It would be impossible for him to tease her now. All he can do now is wait. Venn turns and faces off into the woods, silently hoping that his other comrade is okay. Ryu has always been so grounded and spiritually connected to her power. So much so that even the Dragons were impressed with the connection that she gained so quickly.

I just hope she can find that connection once again, Venn thinks.

Stopping, Ryu sits down next to a tree and rests her head against its rough bark. What she wouldn't give to hear a sound, anything. A bird's song, a pinecone falling. Heck, even a snake hiss would be welcoming at this point. But there's just nothing.

Sighing once more and standing to her feet, Ryu keeps walking and looking around. Right about now, she's wishing that she had spent more time out here walking the woods and memorizing as much as she could. Now that she's out here and not able to hear anything to use as direction points, it's near impossible to navigate anything. A boulder appears in the next clearing and she climbs up to the top to see if the height would allow her any aid whatsoever. Just endless forest in all directions no matter where she turns; not a comforting notion to someone who can't hear any sound at all when they once relied on such a thing.

Ryu sighs and sits down on the top of the boulder to rest, sprawling her legs out and leaning back on her hands. This could be a problem, she thinks.

Something slams into the side of her hand and makes her jump three feet in the air, tripping off the boulder and falling face first into the dirt. Sitting up with a groan, Ryu spits out a mouthful of grass and gravel before rolling over onto her backside. Leo has his back to the boulder, trying desperately to keep April, who is weirdly trying to snap at his face, away from him.

She cocks her head to the side in confusion, raising an eyebrow, What the heck is going on?!

Ryu leaps to her feet and rushes to Leo's side, slipping an arm between their faces so that April's teeth clamp down on her instead. With a free grip on the possessed girl, she shoves her away and the red-head flies backwards and falls down on her backside.

OW!, Ryu grips her arm where April's teeth had bit into her skin, wincing at the sharp pain. The flesh isn't broken, keeping her precious blood in her system, but darn if it isn't welted up in red marks.

Leo grabs her shoulder and pulls her around so that he can see her arm too just as April stands back up. They both stiffen and eye her. The red-head raises her hands in surrender, saying something that Ryu still can't hear; she focuses on her mouth in an attempt to try and read her words. Leo ends up having to give her a thumbs up.

He says something to her slowly and it takes her a second, but Ryu pieces it together after a moment, Can you really not hear?

Ryu shakes her head and shrugs in defeat. Leo nods. He and April start up a conversation, leaving Ryu to watch on from the side lines to try and keep up. After a moment, April starts pacing and then spins to glare and point at a tree. She and Leo raise an eyebrow in confusion and he calls to the red-head to get her attention from the tree to him.

They say something else to each other and then nod with determined looks; Ryu's heart drops in her chest. The feeling of uselessness hits her again as she watches them from her place on the side lines. When Leo finally turns towards her, her eyes have dropped to the ground. He places his hands on her shoulders and talks slowly again.

This time, Ryu struggles a bit, We are going after the others. They need us. Will you help?

Ryu drops her eyes again, motioning towards her ears and then raising her hands with a shake from the wrists. She tries to speak again to tell him that she couldn't use her power, but she's not sure how it sounds. He raises an eyebrow and Ryu drops her eyes in defeat; obviously she sounds terrible.

Leo places a hand on her shoulder and she looks up; he smiles at her assuredly. Ryu goes against her better judgement and decides to tag along with whatever plan they have decided on…no matter how useless she would be. They all turn and head deeper into the woods, April and Ryu both helping Leo limp along. Not long afterwards, they arrive at the base of a mountain; it's not much of a mountain but it counts. Ryu's seen bigger.

April and Leo start arguing again, leaving Ryu to stand on the sidelines again, but they eventually finish with Leo pulling out his grappling hook and long rope attached to it.

Ryu eyes it thoughtfully, Guess we'll be climbing. Great.

Leo spins the rope for a second before tossing it up and letting the hook soar through the air until it lands with a clang on the rocks higher up. He gives the rope a sharp tug and it catches safely on an anchor out of their sight. It doesn't look too promising, but Ryu helps Leo and April up the rope before her. With one last deep breath, Ryu follows them up and they start their climb. They have a few slips, nearly loosing April once on the way up, but they help each other up the mountain side until they reach a ledge overlooking the forest below them. This high up, Ryu gets a closer look at the clouds above them and feels like she can almost reach up and touch them.

Someone taps her shoulder and Ryu turns to find Leo holding up his phone for her to see; there's something written out on the screen. She reads it quickly, The others were supposed to be here, but they aren't. Start searching.

Ryu nods and heads out, skirting carefully around the edge of the cliff in her exploration. There's suddenly another familiar, great force of wind that knocks her to her knees. Ryu glances up just in time to find to find the giant bird/beast mutant screeching silently in the air above her.

Holy…

The beast dives at the mountain side, but its targets are further back where she came from so she's sure that the others are in trouble. Her feet hit the mountain hard, legs pumping as she climbs back the way she had come as fast as she can. The rocks suddenly fall out from under her foot at the edge of a ledge as she rounds a corner and Ryu slides, free falling through the air down a steep, dark hole to her death.

Author's Note:

Here's a layout of the text affects again:

Italics-any words in this affect are personal Thoughts or Sounds.

Bold-any words in this affect are Computer Messages/Text Messages.

"Bold"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Computer Voices.

"Italics"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Past words/Emphasizing.

"Bold/Italics"-any words in this dual affect inside quotation marks are Past Computer Messages/Past Text Messages.

Bold/Italics-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Earth.

Italics/Underlined-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Spirit Guides.

Bold Underlined-any words in this dual affect are an Unknown Voice.

Again, all reviews, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

-Katt B.