6. The Ibis
It didn't take long for Leo to show up at Ardyn's apartment. Had she not been in the middle of an existential crisis, she would've been prepared for his silhouette in the window.
But she was in one, and she wasn't prepared.
Frost coated the floor of her apartment as she whirled around. The looming figure flinched from the ice that immediately solidified on the window like a shield. Ardyn took a few shaky breaths when she heard his calming voice come through the pane.
"Whoa, hey, it's just me. I didn't mean to scare you."
She dropped the phone to the couch as she passed it, trying to calm her breathing. The window wasn't as solidly frozen as it looked, fortunately. It pulled open, bits of ice cracking free and falling to the floor to melt.
"Sorry," she stepped aside to let him in.
"I heard you took off without a word," his eyes fell on her gently, but full of worry.
"I just..." she breathed. "I just needed some air."
"You're lying again," he scolded softly.
Her body tensed. The anxiety she was able to suppress was forcing its way to the surface in the form of tears. She met his gaze with eyes so crystalline from unshed tears that he reached for her.
They began to spill over as she collapsed into his embrace, "He's free again...oh, god, what are we gonna - I'm just so scared..."
"Shh, I know you're scared. It's all my fault," Leo spoke onto the top of her head. "We're going to do everything we can to find him."
"It won't be enough," she hiccuped into his chest. "He'll find me before you ever find him. I know he will."
"No he won't. We will - I will protect you. I won't let anything happen to you."
"I had to do something," Ardyn began. She pulled her tear stained face from his chest and stepped from his embrace. "I need you to trust me."
His concerned expression hardened slightly, "What did you do?"
She turned her back to him, hugging herself and wiping her tears away. "I need to disappear for a little while. I've made arrangements."
"Ardyn, you - "
"You won't hear from me. Not until this is all over," she continued. "Not until I know it's safe-"
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, "There is nowhere you can go that's safer than-"
"Leo, I called her."
He stopped.
Ardyn's formerly crystalline eyes had hardened. Her tears had drained and her expression had darkened. She was closing herself off, resolute and immovable.
"You.."
"She's coming tonight," Ardyn raised her chin, strengthening her resolve. "And she is not going to know anything about the five of you."
His jaw clapped shut. He knew that look. She wasn't going to be swayed, not now. It had been a war for her to make that call. But she had made her bed, and damn it all of she wasn't going to lie in it.
"Fine," he said firmly, though it hardly sounded like he was giving in. "Go wherever you think you'll be safest. Do whatever you need to do, but I need to know your safe. I don't care if you use a pay phone and say one word or send a carrier pigeon. I need you to tell me. Deal?"
There was the smallest fracture in her mask. The tiniest hint that the hurt and fear were still boiling in her, about to break free and curl up in his arms. But as quick as it came it was gone.
"I can't do that."
"Why not?"
Her voice fell to a desperate whisper, "She can't know about you."
His stern expression fell. She wasn't cutting him off to protect herself from Shredder. She was doing it to protect him from the hunter.
That's how Ardyn had described her one night. Leo had asked just what made Ardyn fear her so much, why she would be so terrified of someone that had been so close to her.
"She's a hunter," Ardyn had replied. "It's like she can't live her life without taking someone else's."
Now he understood. She was going to face the second biggest fear she had to protect herself from the first.
"When will she be here?"
Ardyn swallowed, her eyes falling to the floor. "Thirty minutes."
Leo nodded.
"You should go."
...
Ardyn didn't have any cuticles left.
She wasn't a nail biter. No, that was never her speed. A cuticle peeler, though...that she was. Before tests in school, during her first trans-Atlantic flight... at least six of her fingers had been subject to the tearing and the bondage of cheap bandages.
Now she had used up all ten, and was starting to consider biting.
The knock she had been fearfully anticipating finally came. She could barely bring herself to look through the peephole, the face she saw was almost as terrifying as the one she had watched disappear on a screen a few hours before.
She turned the lock and pulled the chain, taking a deep breath to steady herself. The front door of her apartment had never felt so damn heavy.
Boots crossed the threshold, heavy footsteps on the lineoleum floors of Ardyn's apartment.
"Thanks for getting here so fast," Ardyn said lowly, closing the door.
"I would've driven all night for you, Ardy, you know that," a rough voice answered casually.
"There's no easy way to tell you this, Ibis."
Ardyn's half-sister was terrifying in her own right. She stood over six feet, the boots only aiding her impressive stature. Her dark auburn hair was pulled into a messy knot at the back of her head, with several shorter strands falling in the same wild waves as Ardyn's around her face. Though her face itself wasn't remotely Ardyn's. It was squarer, for one. All at once sultry and terrifying in the eyes, which in the light were a deep crimson. Her skin was darker than Ardyn's as well, as if she had lived in the sun since her birth. Her smile was lulling until it was absolutely feral. Presently, she looked as relaxed as a jaguar stalking through the brush.
She turned to face her, "I didn't figure you called me for dinner."
Ardyn didn't respond to Ibis's full lips pulling into a smile. "Shredder's free."
Ibis's smile fell instantly. The dark, feral look crossed her features, "How?"
"He was broken out of the truck that was supposed to transfer him to a prison upstate a few hours ago,"
"How do you know?"
"I saw it with my own two eyes," Ardyn answered.
Ibis turned, walking further into the apartment, "Son of a bitch."
"I need you to find him before he finds me," Ardyn finished.
Ibis turned her head back to look at her sister a moment, then her body followed, "Why would he be looking for you?"
"I had a run-in with his second-in-command a few days ago," Ardyn answered. "She recognized me."
Ibis drew her dark brows together, as if she was deciphering Ardyn's words. "How would she recognize you if the last time we were in any danger of them was when you were a baby?"
"She saw my name on my license."
"Why did she have your license?" Ibis pressed, nearing Ardyn's personal space dangerously.
Ardyn's palms were beginning to sweat, but she held her resolve. "She picked it up."
Ibis crossed her arms. "You're a good liar, when people don't know you. But I can hear your heartbeat from here. So why don't you tell me what actually happened."
Ardyn didn't budge. "My wallet came out of my pocket. She grabbed it and saw my name."
Ibis dropped her arms, pointing one at Ardyn's chest, "You may not be lying, but you sure as fuck aren't telling me the whole story. So why don't I just fill in the blanks?"
She was backing Ardyn into the kitchen now.
"You were somewhere you shouldn't have been," Ibis held Ardyn's cold stare with a fiery red gaze. "You got caught, and your wallet was taken from you."
Ardyn's back hit the refrigerator.
"Then that bitch gave you that pretty new scar on your side," Ibis pointed to the lump of a bandage on Ardyn's torso.
"How am I doing so far?" she growled.
Ardyn was about to respond when something moved in the darkness of the apartment behind Ibis.
In an instant, Ibis drew the pistol from the back of her belt and spun to point it on the silhouette in the living room. Everything seemed to hold its breath as her burning eyes zeroed in.
"Covers blown. If you want to keep the number of bullets in your body right where it is, I suggest you step out slowly with your hands where I can see them."
If Ardyn wasn't so on-edge, she would've been furious.
The shadow obeyed, large arms raising three-fingered hands into the air.
"That's it, steady," Ibis kept the handheld canon aimed at his head.
"Ibis," Ardyn forced out when she finally found her voice.
Ibis turned her head to point her ear back at Ardyn without taking her eyes off of the intruder.
"It's okay, he's not going to hurt us," Ardyn said skakily.
Ibis didn't lower her weapon, "No?"
Ardyn shook her head, not trusting her voice.
Ibis didn't move her head, but her eyes darted around. "What about his friends?"
Ardyn's wide eyes darted from the back of Ibis's head to the shadow with a fearful expression.
"Two down the hall," Ibis stepped further into the living room, "and one behind the couch."
Ardyn grit her teeth.
"Out, all of you," Ibis ordered. "Nice and easy."
Two shadows emerged from the hall, like Ibis had said. And the largest stood from behind the couch.
"Line up," Ibis ordered. "Next to your buddy here."
"Ibis," Ardyn began.
"Friends of yours?" Ibis turned and thew her words over her shoulder.
"Yes," Ardyn admitted. "They're not going to hurt us."
Ibis didn't seem convinced.
"If you shoot them, you'll just make them mad," Ardyn nearly hissed.
Ibis's mouth twisted, almost unnoticably, into a scowl. The gun dropped, "Fine. Why were you hiding, then?"
Ardyn watched as Ibis tucked the pistol back into her jeans.
"They were supposed to be somewhere else," Ardyn hissed at them.
Their arms dropped guiltily.
"You mean to tell me that, not just one, but four," Ibis stripped her jacket off, "giant, looming figures managed, not only to get inside, but to do so while you were home, without you noticing?"
Her black tee was stretched tight over her shoulders and chest, a sleeve of tribal ink consuming her right arm. She was fit, undoubtedly from a lifestyle of fighting. The boys sized her up from their places in the shadows apprehensively.
Ardyn looked to the countertop.
"I taught you better than that," she dropped the jacket to the kitchen island.
Ardyn raised her chin, "I didn't call you for an assessment."
"I know," Ibis answered, amused. "You called me because for once in your life, you can't handle the situation yourself."
"She called you for help," one of the shadows spoke up. "You don't need to scold her."
Ibis turned a red stare back on them, "Look, bud, I'm sure y'all are real close, but this really isn't your place."
"Ibis, don't."
She turned back to Ardyn, "Oh, your right. How rude of me." She guestured an arm to the four shadows watching tensely, "Care to introduce me to your friends? Or are you only tolerating me enough to employ my talents?"
Ardyn grit her teeth, "Stop it."
"Me?" she pointed to herself. "Tsk tsk, sweet pea. Don't be shy. Tell me all about them."
She flipped the switch without turning around. The kitchen light illuminated the four anxious faces of the boys. Ibis turned around to face them, "Well, well, well. What do they put in the water out here in the Big Apple?" She whipped her head back to Ardyn, "Mutagen?"
Ardyn locked her jaw.
Ibis held her hand out.
Ardyn looked down at it reluctantly
"Don't be shy, sweet pea," Ibis purred dangerously.
Ardyn met her eyes again, managing a glare.
In a smooth motion, Ibis drew her arm behind her and whipped it forward. Instinctively, Ardyn drew her arm up, blocked Ibis's arm, and slammed it on the countertop, encasing it in ice.
Her eyes looked down to Ibis's empty hand, and she tensed. Ibis would never hurt her, she knew that. Ibis also knew how much Ardyn still feared her. It had been a test.
And she had failed.
Leo and Donnie shifted nervously, Mikey and Raphael just stared in disbelief.
Ibis didn't look remotely bothered by the ice. In fact, she looked disappointed. Her red gaze remained on Ardyn's as she twisted her arm and broke free of the sharp ice crystals. Steam arose from her skin where bits of ice melted and evaporated. "I knew it."
"Ibis, it's not-"
"Not what I think?" Ibis interrupted. "Gee, I'm a pretty good guesser. How about I take a crack at it?"
Mikey and Donnie looked to Leo nervousy. He remained stoic.
"More in common with you than regular people," Ibis turned to stand in front of the boys. It was rare for someone to make her feel small, but the one on the end sure did. She bore into his burning green stare as she spoke, arms crossed and stance wide. "What a goddamn shame. I thought I'd be happy to find out you were such a fucking hypocrite."
"What're ya talkin' about?" Raphael snapped.
Mikey and Donnie looked to him, all kinds of alarms going off in their minds. Leo remained stoic.
Ibis met his stare directly, challenging. "You mean you don't know?" Over her shoulder, "Shocker."
Ardyn seethed with embarrassment and anger.
Ibis looked back at the boys, "I always said we should stick together, but that didn't suit her. She wanted to be normal."
"Ibis, stop."
"No, no," Ibis brushed off her sisters venom as if it was a blown raspberry, turning back to her. "I understand. You don't answer my texts, my calls... Hell, I didn't even know you were back in the states." She put a hand on the island and one on her hip, "Tell me, sweet pea. How was Paris?"
"Ibis please," Ardyn begged through clenched teeth.
"Now, you're not only back, but you're hanging out with mutants," she spat the word.
Raphael, reaching his limit with Ibis's antics, stepped forward. Leo grabbed his arm to hold him in place. This was not his fight, no matter how hard it was to watch.
"You have no idea-"
"What the fuck makes them so goddamn special?" Ibis hissed into her sister's face, standing before her.
Ardyn was toe-to-toe with Ibis now, having met her limit of tolerance. "They're not like you!"
Ibis towered over Ardyn, hands balled into tight fists. "Oh, no?"
"No!"
"How?!"
"They're not monsters like you!" Ardyn growled back.
The boys looked to one another, unsure. The tension hung thick in the air, as if all it would take was a single word to spark an boys held their breath, anxious to see how Ibis would retaliate.
Ibis let a puff of air through her nose, leaning out of Ardyn's face and relaxing her hands. She threw a pained smile somewhere to the side scoffed as she turned back to the island. Her jacket's many zippers scraped the counter as she roughly pulled it to her.
"Stay with your mutant friends," she shouldered past Ardyn and twisted the handle. "I'll call you when it's safe for you to run again."
The door slammed behind her.