Under the cover of the dust, the five of us hurried into the sewers before anybody could catch sight of us. Leo took the lead and began navigating the tunnels, trying to return to their sensei as fast as he could.
Wait.
"Wait!" I yelled, stopping suddenly and making Raphael swear behind me. "The mutagen is in the helicopter back on the Sacks Tower roof." Leo, Donnie and Mikey spun to face me incredulously.
"I thought Shredder had it when he fell," Donnie said.
"He did, but I filled a syringe with some and threw it in the passenger seat of the copter before getting thrown off the tower." My phone was there too, but it was hardly important.
"For Sensei?" Mikey asked hopefully.
I nodded. "I need to go back and get it before somebody else does."
Leo exchanged a look with Donnie.
"Raiya, you're injured pretty bad..." Donnie pointed out.
"Yeah I know, but so is Splinter," I protested, crossing my arms and lifting an expectant eyebrow at the leader.
"What if someone sees you?" Leo added. "They're not just gonna let you fly off with a helicopter. And where do you plan on landing it, anyway?"
I bit my lip, dreading what I had to ask from them. "My uncle's?" I asked, my hopeful voice quiet and staring with begging eyes at Leo.
Leo sighed through his nose and clenched his jaw. "You can't do that without telling him about us. You know that."
"Well I already need to explain to him how the car I borrowed ended up at the Sacks Estate covered in bullet holes and with a smashed windshield," I said pointedly, knowing I finally had him cornered.
Leo opened his mouth to argue the case, but found that he couldn't and instead clenched his teeth together and fired another questioning glance at Donnie, who just shrugged in a she has a point kinda way.
"You Splinter won't last without mutagen. And I don't know any of your guys' blood types so we couldn't do a blood transfusion even if we wanted to," I insisted, staring harder at Leo and trying to convey to him that I wasn't asking this of them because I wanted to keep the helicopter and I wanted to tell uncle Tom of their existence. All I wanted was to save Splinter, just as he and his brothers did. "This is the only way and you know it," I continued. "If I go now, I can get out of there faster using the helicopter than the elevator."
Mikey glanced desperately between me and Leonardo, his hopeful, shining eyes practically begging his older brother to let me save their father, even if it meant revealing their secret to another human. Leonardo lifted his gaze from me to the turtles behind me, a silent conversation occurring between them before he did the same with Donnie. Finally, he turned back to me.
"Your uncle better be trustworthy," he said. "And try to hurry, or else this'll be for nothing."
I nodded. "I will. Thank you."
Leonardo waved his hand, motioning for his brothers to follow him before taking off down the sewer tunnel. I moved aside for Raphael, but he lingered for a moment, his eyes locking with mine and seeming to tell me to be careful, don't get hurt, please hurry.
I smiled and sent my own message back. Softie.
That made him smile.
••• 影の秘密 •••
The brothers were clustered tightly around Splinter, who still laid on the table in his room within the ruined lair.
I rushed over, tripping occasionally on debris and hoping I wasn't too late.
"Donnie," I called, hopping over a pile of concrete and rebar.
The turtles spun instantly at my voice. Donnie hurried forward, taking the syringe from my outstretched hand with a murmured "thank you" before rushing back to Splinter, shooing his brothers out of his way. I stumbled over another stray block of concrete in my hurry to reach the unconscious rat's bedside. Raphael watched me with an amused smirk.
"How'd he take it?" Leo asked when I neared them.
"I didn't tell him yet," I said, glancing down at Splinter as Donnie uncapped the syringe and flicked it twice. "I didn't wanna waste any time so I just told him I'd explain everything later." My gaze flicked to Leo. "Will Splinter be mad?"
The turtle sighed. "I dunno."
"We could just come up with a really shitty excuse to tell uncle Tom," I offered, watching as Donnie carefully injected the contents of the syringe into Splinter's arm.
"Okay," he announced. "The mutagen is now entering his bloodstream." The brothers fell silent and crowded in closer around their sensei. I took a step back, not wanting to intrude on their family reunion of sorts.
Mikey leaned over the rat, peering down at him hopefully. "Master Splinter?"
"Nothing's happening," Raph pointed out.
Mikey seemed marginally annoyed. "Why isn't it working yet?" He asked impatiently, glancing momentarily at Donnie. The genius didn't reply and instead watched Splinter as his breathing evened out and he turned his head toward the youngest turtle, who hovered above him like a worried child.
"Mikey," Splinter breathed, his eyes fluttering half-open.
"Huh?" He responded.
"Mikey come closer," Splinter requested, his voice quiet. The turtle leaned close to his master, turning his head to bring his ear closer as the rat whispered something to him. Mikey's lips formed an 'oh' and he lifted his head, instantly being bombarded by his brothers.
"What'd he say? What'd he say?" Leo demanded impatiently.
Mikey looked at him with wide, light blue eyes. "He said 'please get your knee off my chest.'"
I had to bite my lip to contain my laughter. In unison, the turtles leaned back, laughing in relief and Mikey removed his knee from Splinter's chest, as requested.
Leonardo couldn't be more relieved. "Sensei!" He cried, a grin spreading across his face, though I couldn't help but notice how quickly it disappeared.
"Y–You're alive!" Mikey said as if he couldn't believe it.
"I–It worked," Raph breathed.
"I'm sorry," Leo said quietly, causing the others to turn solemn. "This was all my fault." He looked down, unable to meet his master's gaze.
"You were right," Raphael added, looking sadly at Splinter. "We weren't ready."
But Splinter wouldn't accept their apologies. "No," he argued gently, looking to each of his sons. "It was I who wasn't ready to let you go. All you needed was to discover that your true power lies in believing in one another." The brothers looked between each other, smiles growing on their lips.
With an expression of wonder, Mikey lifted his hands to his temples and flared his fingers while making a "pkow" noise in a 'mind blown' gesture. They grinned amongst themselves, revelling in their success and praise.
Sensei spoke again, his voice already returned to its former strength. "Where is Raiya, my sons? Is she alright?"
Taking this as my cue, I stepped forward, poking my head in between Raph and Mikey's shoulders with a huge grin. "Right here," I announced brightly. "I'm alright."
Splinter sat up and lifted a finger, pointing to my face. "You're bleeding," he argued.
"Oh," I lifted a hand to my cheek with a grimace, the open cuts from Shredder's armoured fist stinging at the contact. I winced and removed my fingers. "Yeah, Shredder punched me. They stopped bleeding, though."
Softly, fingers touched my chin and jaw, gently turning my face to the side. My gaze fell on Raphael as he inspected my injury, jaw clenched, as if just noticing it.
"I'm fine," I murmured, hoping I sounded reassuring. His hand fell away from my face with a quiet sigh and his eyes met mine with an intense mixture of anger and sadness and regret.
"I'll check them out," Donnie spoke up. "I might be able to keep them from scarring."
I looked away first to smile gratefully at the mutant. "Thanks, Donnie." He nodded and focused on Splinter again, making sure he was alright before wheeling a low, swivel stool out and ushering me over. I walked around to the other side of Splinter's makeshift bed and took a seat on the offered stool, using my foot to spin myself side-to-side with a childish grin. Donnie kneeled on the concrete, grabbing the required supplies from the first aid kit and getting to work on my injuries.
••• 影の秘密 •••
"How's it looking, Doctor Don?" Mikey asked, plopping down cross-legged on a pillow.
"Good," he replied, more focused on wrapping a bandage carefully around my wrist.
"You gonna have any badass scars?" Mikey asked me, sounding almost excited.
I laughed. "Yeah. I'm gonna have one on my wrist and maybe the ones on my cheek." My shoulder wound was a fairly shallow cut from the kunai the Foot soldier had thrown sloppily at me when they attacked the lair, the quartet of thin impalations on my face from Shredder's knuckle spikes were deep, but luckily didn't go through my cheek, and the one on my wrist was the deepest and Donnie spent most of his time cleaning and dressing that one. He insisted that he could ensure none of them would scar, but part of me wanted to keep a few of them, at least. So I told him to leave the one on my wrist, and to treat the ones on my cheek for now, as I hadn't yet decided if I wanted to keep those or not.
"Cool," he nodded appreciatively at my decision to keep at least one. "You should get a tatt next."
I grinned, thinking of how Raphael would react if I were to ask him for one. "Maybe."
"Okay," Donnie lifted his hands away, surveying his work. "That'll do for now."
"You're done?" I confirmed. He nodded and I sighed in relief. Finally. "Thanks, Donnie. I have to get home now, Olivia is probably worried to death."
"Oh yeah," Mike chuckled. "Forgot you had a sister. What're you gonna tell her happened to your face?"
I groaned at the reminder and rubbed my face, careful not to touch the fresh bandages. "I have no idea."
Donnie smiled crookedly. "We can help with that."
••• 影の秘密 •••
The turtles, Splinter and I actually managed to conjure a pretty good cover-up story. I'd woken up early this morning to make it to my shift at the zoo. But I forgot to charge my phone last night so it died before I even got to the zoo. While I was there, I saw Raphael (the fake, human version, obviously). He offered to take me out after I got off work at noon, so we went for a walk in central park. I challenged him to see who could climb a tree faster. I slipped while climbing and hurt myself, hence my wounds and ruined hoodie. He took me to his house, which happened to be nearby, and took care of my injuries before he walked me back to my apartment. I then told him to go home so he wouldn't have to deal with Olivia's wrath.
Everything about the cover story save for the whole tree-injury-thing seemed pretty foolproof. Unless Liv happened to wake up earlier than normal, stopped by the zoo, or actually seen me running around with the turtles. I did ask uncle Tom when I dropped off the helicopter if Liv had spoken with him at all today, and he said no, so that meant we didn't have to mention borrowing uncle Tom's car in my fake story, which made things a whole lot easier.
After everyone had agreed upon my cover story to tell Liv, we discussed what we'd tell uncle Tom. Splinter insisted that him and the turtles would stop by his place after sunset to tell him their story and everything that had happened today. I would text uncle Tom beforehand to let him know, and, if Liv was asleep, FaceTime him to be present while they briefed him.
Raphael then escorted me via the sewers to my apartment and wished me luck with Olivia. There were a lot of things I wanted to tell him but decided it wasn't a good time, and instead went aboveground and confronted my sister with my cover story. She totally bought it and insisted she check my bandages just to be sure, then proceeded to rant about how stupid and irresponsible I was, then hugged me for a solid five minutes.
I managed to FaceTime uncle Tom that night while Liv was fast asleep, and stayed up late to make sure I was there the whole time, plus a few minutes after the mutants left. Uncle Tom was pretty freaked out at first, despite me telling him what they looked like. Mikey kept trying to talk to me through my uncle's phone while Splinter was talking, and wandered off a lot to marvel at all the vehicles in the hangar. Leo spent most of his time making sure he didn't touch anything and stayed quiet. After Splinter explained everything to uncle Tom, he still seemed dazed, but reassured us he was fine and that he was totally cool with keeping their secret. The turtles and Splinter left, and I stayed on FaceTime a while longer to talk with him, double checking that he knew what was going on and that he knew he wasn't dreaming.
Somehow, everything had managed to work out.
Somehow, everyone had survived, and with minimal injuries.
Somehow, we managed to defeat the Shredder and his Footclan and saving New York City all in one day.
Somehow, in the last two weeks, I'd befriended the five most incredible people. And I knew that I'd never let them go. No matter what might happen to us, I would never let myself forget about the family I'd become a part of.
Besides, life would be boring without them in it.
AN: YOU GUYS. THIS IS THE LAST FREAKING CHAPTER OF TSS.
HA SIKE!
There's another one coming lol. But it's gonna be kinda short, but it's also gonna be rly fuckin cute sooo ya. Hope y'all are prepared. It's gonna take place ONE MONTH LATER.
Anyways, hope you guys liked this pretty long chapter! It was super fun to write! Lemme know what you guys thought of it :D
