A Million Miles Apart

A/N: I seem to have found a nice time on every Wednesday to write. Very good time during the day, since I have such long school hours. Still, these chapters are always nice, with just the character interactions.

I hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 38, Late Nights On Filione

If you think climbing a rope ladder is hard, you should try climbing a rope ladder in complete darkness, with your only light source being moonlight shining through the thick canopy above you. Trust me, that's a whole lot harder than it sounds. Especially if you are, like me, extremely tired after a whole day of craziness. It was extraordinarily hard to either know where to put your feet or where to grab at. But, fortunately, the Professor was climbing in the lead and his eyes worked as flashlights, which made things easier for all of us as the rest of us climbed up. Once he had gotten up, he stood and looked down towards the ground, illuminating our climb. But when I looked down to see if the others were doing well, I noticed that Starlee was distracted and climbing very slowly at the back of the line. And Jhanna didn't seem to either notice or care.

I sighed and tried to climb faster after the Professor. There were times when I cursed myself (or when my brothers teased me) for having such a big heart and caring so much about others. I felt bad for Starlee. She had just had her entire world and view of her family shattered, and understandably wasn't taking it very well. It felt so wrong to see such an optimistic and happy girl so sad, her eyes so hollow instead of crinkling at the edges with her smile and sparkling with curiosity. But, at the same time, I knew it had been necessary to tell her the truth, and I couldn't really blame Jhanna for finally losing her patience with her sister and telling her like it is. Still, Jhanna wasn't a very sensitive or thoughtful person, and seemed to be a big supporter of the tough love approach to familial relationships. But, the way I saw it, she didn't seem to know the line between being cruel in order to be kind and just being cruel.

"Wait, do you still think you have a shot with her?"

"W-well, I-I mean, I-"

"Wow. That is so adorable! And sad. It's sadorable."

"If you want to impress April, better leave me out of it."

I growled under my breath heaved myself over the edge of the porch. 'Stupid Raph', I thought to myself. Why did he always have be such a jerk? Did it seriously hurt him to even try to be a little nicer? Or was it in his DNA to be a jerk? I clenched my hands and leaned back against the wall of the hut, waiting for the others to get up. I had to take a deep breath. Jhanna was only a few seconds after me, then came Traximus up the other ladder, and then Starlee. Jhanna stretched her arms over her head and yawned.

"I'm exhausted. Why did they have to build their houses up in thousand-foot-tall trees?" She sounded much crankier and frustrated when she was tired- I had learned as much after being imprisoned with and living in the same space as her for the last few days. The best thing to do was try to ignore it and talk to her like normal, or to just ignore her altogether and let her be cranky. Besides, it wasn't like I couldn't see her point. The whole idea of building their houses up in trees this tall was pretty weird. Traximus sighed heavily and stretched his back.

"Hm, yes. It is very testing for your muscles, but at least they get some exercise every day. And maybe there are dangerous animals down on the ground at night. Mew did say that it was dangerous here at night." Jhanna nodded and brushed her fingers through her bangs tiredly. I rubbed my hands over my face and started to walk into the hut, with the Professor, Traximus and Jhanna behind me.

The inside of the hut was nothing special. A couple of thin beds made out of something that looked very much like heather plants and moss with matching pillows- very similar to the one I had seen inside the Chief's tent. But that was it. Jhanna sat down on one of them and started to undo her ponytails. Her eyes seemed almost hollow and she looked both bored and annoyed at the same time. The same kind of hollowness you get in your eyes when you're too tired to emote or think of anything besides getting into bed.

"So, what do you guys think of what the Chief said? You know, about Zerij and the Wendigo and all that?" The Professor shrugged and shook his head.

"I don't really know. I don't know if I'd say that he's lying or making it up, but I have never heard of demons draining the life out of planets- or demons at all, for that matter. I just don't know what to make of it." Jhanna sneered and brushed through her hair with her fingers before she pulled off her boots and took off her belt, placing it beside the bed.

"Well, I, for one, don't think it's true. I mean, the inhabitants of Zerij becoming obsessed with technology and not caring about their world as much as they should, leading to it becoming destroyed and mostly dead? I can buy that- that has happened before. Different species have destroyed their home worlds due to shortsightedness and arrogance. But a supernatural being stalking them and causing them to kill, spreading death over an entire planet? I don't think so. It's probably just a ghost story these guys tell their kids." Traximus sat down on his own bed, the planks creaking slightly under his weight, and started to remove his own gear.

"I don't know, it did not seem like he was making things up. He seemed almost scared when he told the story. I don't think it's made up." Jhanna rolled her eyes and lied down on the bed with a soft groan.

"Ugh, come on, Trax! These guys believe in the Aeons! It just can't be real." There it was again. The Aeons. What were they? And what was this whole thing about believing in them? Were they real beings or what?

"What are the Aeons?" Everyone turned to look at me with wide eyes. Except for Jhanna, who just looked unimpressed.

"Nothing. Just stories and make-believe beings naive and stupid people believe in. Fairytales." The Professor glanced at her with eyes that just screamed 'I'm so done right now', and then looked at me with normal eyes.

"The Aeons are told to be the first race in the galaxy to evolve. They lived on their own planet a long, long, long time ago: Xaava-Dal. They dedicated their lives to help other species of aliens throughout the galaxy, and were described as kind, selfless and intelligent. But when their planet was destroyed by another race out of spite, evil and jealousy, they were granted great power and the task to protect and look over all life in the universe." Traximus nodded and smiled at me.

"They are told to exist in everything alive: trees, flowers, animals, and even various kinds of aliens. They look over and protect everyone. They're there for everyone that needs them." He frowned and looked down again. "But it's said that their powers have grown weaker over the centuries, as fewer aliens are believing in them these days." Jhanna rolled her eyes and sat up again, glaring softly at him. She was too tired to even give a proper glare right now.

"Yeah, or they don't exist and that's why life has gotten so much worse over those centuries. People are waking up and realizing that they're not real and are taking things into their own hands. You can't deny that live has gotten worse for a lot of different species, Traximus." Her words made me remember something. The Chief had told me that reptiles had a hard time getting by these days and could barely get a good job or have a home. What did she think of reptiles? Her words from that first day entered my brain.

"Nice try, you dirty little freak! But I'm not stupid, and I've dealt with your kind before!"

"Oh, you want a piece of me? Well, why don't you come and get it, you little freak!"

Maybe she hadn't gone after me just because I was a thief. Maybe she had thought I was a thieving reptile? I bit my lip, thinking about whether I should say something or just let it go. Jhanna obviously didn't have a problem with me now and seemed to think of me as her friend. So what did it matter now? Still, there was this itching curiosity I couldn't ignore. I was about to ask her when I saw that Starlee had still not come inside. I walked out of the door, looked out, and saw that she was sitting on a branch that was so thick she could sit there with her knees drawn up to her chest and arms folded on top of them and still not worry about falling down. Even though she was hiding most of her face by covering half of it with her arms, I could see she was crying. I could tell by the fact that she was shaking due to her sobbing.

I felt so bad for her, but what could I do? Starlee and I had only known each other for a few days. I was still just barely more than a stranger to her. So I turned to Jhanna, who was lying down on the bed again and trying to sleep. I bit my lip, thought for a second, then walked over to her and sat down beside her.

"Uh, Jhanna? I think Starlee's pretty upset over what you said at dinner. Maybe you should talk to her." She looked up at me, clearly too tired to care about anything I had to say at the moment, and glared.

"Why should I? I've done nothing wrong. The Federation is a terrible group of people, and she needs to face that. It's the truth, and she needs to learn to deal with it." She tried to lie down again, but I grabbed her shoulder and yanked her up again. She was starting to tick me off a little.

"But she's your sister! And she really needs someone to lean on right now. You told her that it was your job to look out for her-" She glared, annoyed, at me, shook my hand off of her shoulder and snapped as quietly as she could at me, since Traximus and The Professor had either fallen asleep or gone into standby, respectively.

"Well, why don't you go and talk to her, then? Since you care so much." I opened my mouth to object, but she raised her hand in a 'stop' motion and talked in a slightly condescending tone. "Look, I've tried to talk to her for years. I tried to warn her about our father and about what he did to Moriah, and she has never listened. She's too nice and caring to think of anyone as bad, or that anyone can be evil. She needs to grow up and realize that the world isn't like her perfect little utopia. Now, let me sleep!" She almost slammed herself down on the bed and closed her eyes. I shook my head at her and felt annoyance with her bubbling up in my gut. Her sister was upset and needed support, and she wasn't there to give it, and was all too eager to hand that responsibility over to someone who barely knew her. From how Jhanna had talked at the fire, and now about Starlee, it seemed like she had some sort of resentment towards her sister and how she had been raised. As if it was Starlee's fault for being sheltered and manipulated by her father. Besides, she was just a kid. She was incredibly intelligent, but she had very little experience with people or with the world in general, so of course she didn't see the world the same way Jhanna did. There was no need to be so hard on her.

I sighed, made up my mind, and walked out. Starlee hadn't moved an inch from where she was sitting, but she seemed to have stopped crying. Or, at least she'd stopped sobbing- it looked like she had a few tears running down her cheeks. I climbed the fence around the porch and walked over to her, sitting down beside her.

"Hey." She looked up at me, jumping in surprise at my sudden appearance, then sighed and looked down again.

"Hey." I was about to place my hand on her back or wrap an arm around her shoulder, but decided against it and just shuffled a little closer to her.

"How're you doing, Star?" She sighed again and wiped her eyes against her knees.

"I'm fine." She spoke in a weak, slightly raspy and cracked voice, which in and of itself spoke loudly of the fact that she had been crying. I shook my head and gently pushed some hair out of her face, formerly plastered to her flesh by residual tears.

"No, you're not fine. You're obviously upset. Now, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I hope you know that I'm your friend and I want to help you." She looked up at me with half-closed eyes and a slightly raised eyebrow. But there was something bitter in her eyes that slowly made its way into her facial expression as well.

"You mean like how Jhanna wanted to 'help' me by telling me the truth back there? Or how Moriah 'helped' by not wanting to tell me anything she knew? Or how my father wanted to 'help' me by keeping me in the dark for all these years?" I narrowed my eyes at her and leaned away from her a little. She sounded so bitter and angry, and it was so uncommon for her that it felt like I was talking to a completely different person. And even she seemed to realize that, as her facial expression softened and she sighed. She turned away, moved her knees away from her chest and sat with her feet dangling over the edge of the branch, resting her face in her hands and elbows on her knees.

"Sorry." She muttered, staring straight off into the woods. I bit my lip, wracking my brain for something good to say. On the one hand I wanted to comfort her, but I didn't want to lie to her. I mean, I couldn't say Jhanna didn't mean to be so unkind, 'cause it seemed like she did. What would Mikey do? He was so much better at comforting and reading others on an emotional level. Even Leo had his big brother instincts- he always knew just what to say in order to help us feel better when we were kids. And that still remained to this day. Well, at least for the others. I frowned to myself, then turned back to Starlee as she stared glumly off into space. I took a deep breath.

"Look, Starlee." She looked up at me. "I-I know this is probably really hard, what you're going through right now. And I can't even imagine what it must be like to have your world thrown off-balance like that. But don't let that break you. You have a choice; you don't have to go back if you don't want to. You can do what you want now- your father and Moriah aren't here to tell you what to do anymore." She sighed and glanced up at me.

"Like what? I'm a minor; I can't just land on a planet without someone with me. And it's not like I can get a job anywhere. Sure, I'm smart, but who's gonna hire a girl with no social skills or experience about how anything works? And oh, that's right, I'm part of the Federation! And it seems that the entire galaxy hates us." I bit the inside of my lower lip, thinking for a second, and swallowed before talking.

"Well, yeah, but Jhanna is here, right? She can help you start over." She glared at me, unimpressed. She lifted her head from her hands and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Jhanna? She hates me. She thinks I'm nothing but a stupid kid and keeps talking to me like I don't understand anything. She acts like she knows better, just because she grew up 'the rough way', as she puts it. She never listens, she doesn't take me seriously and she treats me like a baby. She-" the energy she had put into her little tirade suddenly vanished and she sighed heavily, putting her chin back in her hands. "She just doesn't understand."

Deja vu, am I right? I recognized this all too well. This was how Mikey talked to us a lot of the time. Like the time he got, um, 'shellacne', and he talked about how we didn't take him seriously. I also recognized it from the times I would be stuck with fixing the toaster or a video game instead of working on the really important stuff or the things I wanted to do. Only for Starlee, it seemed a little worse than for both me and Mikey combined. Just imagine having all that intelligence she seemed to have but no one who wanted to take her seriously or let her do things. Not even trust her with the truth of her own people. Talk about feeling useless and unimportant. Or at least, so I assume. Even my brothers and father hadn't been that nasty or cruel to me.

I gently and hesitantly placed my hand on her back. "Starlee, I get it. It's hard to not have people listen to you or take you seriously. I know, believe me, I do. But you have your sister, and she cares for you. Yes, she's a little rough around the edges and doesn't seem to read emotions very well, but she does care about you. And you can't throw that love and care away because you had it rough over one fight. It might seem bad now, but it'll get better. I promise." She glanced up at me with slight annoyance on her face.

"Easy for you to say, Donnie. You have three amazing, wonderful, loving brothers and a father that took care of all four of you even though he had no earthly reason to do that. They love you and they show it through how much they're willing to do for you. How could you possibly understand how it feels to have no one that really cares about you?" I was so thrown off I almost felt myself slipping backwards and off the branch. My brothers, caring and loving? I almost felt like laughing. And Master Splinter had practically ignored me for months whenever I tried to get help from him.

In fact, the more I thought about it, I hadn't really missed my family as much as I thought I did, or I had at first. I mean, I missed my brothers, yes, but whenever I tried to think of my brothers or something we had done together, it would only last for a few minutes before I would remember how they had treated me and I would become bitter and resentful for a short while, before I started thinking about something else. Even towards my father, though not as much. They had wronged me and even though they had felt bad about it, it still didn't excuse how they had treated me.

I sighed and moved my hand from Starlee's back to her shoulders. It felt a little weird when I saw that my hand covered both of her shoulders, no problem. I gently placed my fingers around her right shoulder.

"Um, not really. In fact, they've not been very brotherly or shown that much love for me the last few months back home." Her face went from gloomy and a little bitter to surprised and confused.

"What? B-but you said..." I sighed heavily. It felt bad to say bad things about my brothers behind their backs. But they had done so much worse to me, so what would it matter? Besides, it's not like they could hear me. And I felt I needed to vent a little.

"It's true. The last few months before I was transported to D'hoonib, the only thing we really did was fight. My brothers would take me for granted, insult me, tease me, ignore me completely or- when I tried to stand up for myself- they would just shoot me down. And when I talked to my father about it, he would tell me that I had to handle it myself." I lifted my finger and put on my best Master Splinter impression- if having Japanese as a first language was good for anything right now, it was that I could imitate my father's accent rather flawlessly.

"Donatello, if you have problems with your communication with your brothers, then you need to take it up with them. If they do not know how you feel, how can you expect them to understand? And if they do not listen to you or try to be nasty when you are trying to talk to them, do not expect me to come and help you with your malicious brothers. That is all on you, my beloved son." I let out a disgusted 'Urgh' at that and just folded my arms over my chest. Okay, I may have exaggerated a little, but still. He had thrown me off into the deep end of the pool and expected me to be able to swim without any help or instructions.

I woke up from my anger when I felt Starlee's hand on my arm. "So, you didn't have a good relationship? You didn't get along?" Now, I know what you're gonna say; that I should say that yes, we fought and argued and got on each others' nerves all the time, but we still loved each other. That I still cared for them no matter how badly they treated me. But I was sick of always having to stick up for them. I was sick of always talking well about them. Now that I had started, I didn't want to stop.

"No, we don't. I gave them all I could with everything I had. I fixed the things they broke, I made weapons and gadgets to help on our missions to save our city and planet. I tended to their injuries, healed their wounds and how did they thank me? They didn't! They just gave me more to do- no sympathy, no second thoughts, and no thought for the fact that I might have needed or wanted something for myself. Like, oh, I don't know, rest! They..." I stopped and searched for the right word. Then another sentence filled my head.

'No Turtle Left Behind, That's our Rule!'

I growled and hit my clenched fist against the branch we were sitting on. "They betrayed me!" I wasn't usually one to get angry, but now when anger was burning in my chest, it was hard to calm down. I felt my hand hurt after hitting it against the tree, but my brain couldn't process it. I was burning with anger, and for a second I had almost forgotten about Starlee by my side. But then I felt something soft on my shoulder and arm, and when I looked down I saw Starlee. She had leaned her head against my shoulder and wrapped her arms around my arm, gently nuzzling my shoulder with her cheek.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled into my arm and hugged me a little tighter.

It was a very sudden and unexpected move on her part, but I still appreciated it. I leaned my head against her head and my cheek landed in her soft hair. It was pretty comforting to have someone to talk to who didn't judge out loud or say anything at all. Someone who just offered an open ear. I placed my arm around Starlee and hugged her a little awkwardly, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Thanks, Starlee." She smiled and looked up at me.

"Do you feel better?" I nodded.

"Yeah. And you?" She nodded too and gently let go of my arm, but still leaned into my embrace. We sat there for a while and it looked like Starlee was getting more and more tired. She almost slept on my arm and shoulder. I smiled and shook my head at her, gathering her up in my arms.

"Come on, Star. Let's go to bed." She yawned and leaned her head against my chest. But when I had climbed over the fence of the porch and started to walk towards the door to the hut, she had woken up enough to walk on her own feet. Before she walked into the hut, she looked up at me, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Donnie?" I hmm'ed in response and gently kept an arm around her shoulder, in case she fell asleep on her feet and fell to the floor. She looked at me, but was so tired she actually rested most of her weight on my chest. "I know we haven't known each other very long and all, but..." She stopped for a second to yawn. "But I wish you were my big brother." My eyes widened and I had no idea how to respond. I chose to just smile and lead her inside.

"You're just talking in your sleep, Starlee. You don't know what you're saying." She didn't protest or say anything, just yawned, close to nodding off. I walked her up to the bed beside Jhanna and helped her lie down on. She still had her goggles on, so I gently removed them so she would be comfortable. But when I looked at her gear and her boots, I decided to leave them on. The thought of taking off any articles of clothing was enough to make me blush, so I left it all on. Besides, she didn't seem to be bothered by it, so why bother?

I walked over to the bed closest to the window, lied down and rested my head on the surprisingly soft pillows and closed my eyes. Sleep came pretty easily afterwards.

A/N: Aw, sweet and caring moments between the characters. Always nice to read and/or write. I for one am pretty glad with how I have written Starlee and Jhanna, that they have a conflict between each other like sisters since they have grown up very differently. It's so nice for good interactions between the two. And to have Donnie be supportive yet also be supported. Really sweet.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!