Chapter 8

« And you seeeeee, this is how I managed to salvage enough electricity to light planet Earth for at least three centuries."

When Krang had invited April, she hadn't realized she was in for a full tour and description on how to salvage energy from burned up batteries.

The little bubblegum like creature that was Krang, had screechingly told her anything from the most basic to the most complicated parts. If anything was sure for her, it was that a headache would soon wreck her brain.

As Krang turned his "body" to her, showing off one of his crazy smiles and agitating his little tentacles inside his cubicle, something came to her mind.

"Oh! But if we have enough energy, perhaps we can lend on a planet! It would give us better chances of survival. Perhaps we can even meet some native and they will help us find a way back home!"

The smile of Krang seemed to expand in the strangest way. His mouth bigger than ever, giving her the feeling he was about to split in two separate parts.

"What are you saying, Miss April? I don't quite understand."

April was taken aback, first by how his smile could be so gross, second by the fact he didn't understand her. Her sentence had been simple enough, how could that alien miss her point?

"Well, you know, we could go on a planet. It would be better for us…" April stopped there, not really knowing what to say else but noticing his tentacles were moving more and more.

"Oh, he didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?" She said in a small voice, not liking where things seemed to be going.

"Miss Appprriiiilll, we are on a planet since the very beginning."

She felt her blood drain from her face and her legs seemed to turn in jelly. Did Shredder lie to her from the beginning? He never really told her they were in space but he surely never said otherwise.

She wished her face wasn't showing her feelings but from the little cackle Krang made, she was very obvious.

"I'm sorry Krang, I have to go."

"Yes, yes Miss April. Of course. I understand."

She quickly turned and tried not to run to the exit even though her mind was shouting for revenge. She hated the feeling that was now going through her whole body. At some point, somewhere between the clothes he lent her and the cake she gave him she somehow thought they were friends. But friends do not lie to each other or at least, not her friends.

April was so engrossed with her angry thoughts, she surprised herself when she realized she was already in front of the control room's door. It didn't stop though, as nothing such as a door ever stopped her.

When she got in, she saw Shredder jump from is seat to face her as some papers flew on the floor.

"You son of a bitch!" She shouted walking to him and pointing him accusingly.

"What is happening to you?" He said in a low voice, rising from his seat in a fighting stance which, she had to admit, lowered a bit her angry demeanour.

"You lied to me!"

At those words, Shredder seemed to relax a bit. April didn't know if it was a good sign or not.

"What is that new nonsense, Miss O'Neil." He accentuated the vowels in her name on purpose.

"Nonsense? What nonsense? I never did anything …" Her first plan had been to say she had never done anything wrong to him but at the last moment, she changed her mind as she remembered how it had all began. "Since we are on this fucking shit I never lied to you. Never. I thought we had a thing going on. I thought we could trust each other. But it's obviously not the case as you lied to me. Making me believe we were in space when in fact we were on a planet! What crossed your mind!"

"Oh yes, what crossed my mind not telling you? Perhaps the fact I know very well you would be out the very moment you knew about this." Shredder had not flinched at any of her shouts. On the very opposite, he looked quite confident looking at her from his full height with his hands on his hips.

"Of course, I would go out! It's our best chance to get back to New-York!"

"Even if saving yourself meant you would kill the rest of us?"

April cooled down at those words. Whatever could happen in her life, the last thing she wanted was to kill people.

Shredder went on: "Krang is searched after in the whole dimension X. If one of us gets out and find natives, they will come back here and kill him. We are not ready to fight back with the Technodrome in this state."

April's fiery spirit definitely cooled down at those words even though she was still beyond annoyed.

"So, you are telling me that because of him we are not going out? That we are perhaps missing some good life-saving opportunities out there so that thing can stay alive?"

"I don't know why, but I thought you would understand how it is to have a friend who needs to stay hidden from … authority."

April winced at that comment. She wasn't convinced that her situation could be related to his. The Turtles were a lot more "positive" than Krang was.

"I'm not leaving him." He said in a whisper. In his eyes, she saw again the man more than the persona. It wasn't Shredder speaking, it was Oroku Saki.

"Shredder, can you promise that you can save us? That you will get us all back to New-York? Because I like you all in some ways. So, I don't want to harm you, but still. I don't want to die here either."

"I promise you we'll be back In New-York soon enough."

She looked at him, trying to decipher his face but he was now unreadable again. The man had put on his Shredder mask again. Finally, she scrutinized his eyes, trying to decipher whatever she could see in those brown nearly black eyes as if some unknown truth could be hiding there.

"Okay, I believe you. But no more lies."

O O O

That night, as April was waiting for something to amuse her while Shredder was taking a shower. They did go to the dojo and even though they exercise by themselves, it had been fun, but she was still missing films, books, magazines, her work, anything that could fire up her life a bit.

Anything that could make her forget that they were in this "trip" for more than a month. And the fact that her last fight had worsened again her relationship with Shredder. Their relationship had always been difficult but she really needed him now, she couldn't stand the idea they were back again to square one.

Shredder got out, fully dressed and April felt disappointment rise within her. He definitely wouldn't fire up her night.

"What's that big sigh? Am I already bothering you?" He said in a nasty voice.

"Come on Shredder, everything happening in my life isn't about you. I'm just bored."

He gave her a look half of distrust half confused. At first, April thought that he was more lunatic than anything else, but as time went by, she understood that the man had a very real self-confidence problem.

She got up and walked to him.

"Here, let make a handshake."

"What?"

"Or whatever you normally do to swear something."

He looked at her not moving which gave her the feeling he wasn't even understanding what she just said. "I'm going to swear to you I will not make fun of you anymore. So, you can relax. Here, give me your pinky."

She rose her own hand, showing her pinky and he slowly did the same. She grasped his finger and shook it while saying. "I solemnly swear to you that I won't make fun of you more than necessary. Let's be friends from now on."

"I thought you said you would stop altogether." He said in a voice half-amused half-serious.

"Well, life wouldn't be fun if I have to stop making fun of your spiky helmet when we get back home." She said with a smirk while she gave a thug on his pinky, trying to reinforce her point.

"Well, it's not as bad as your yellow suit."

"Oh, come on! My yellow jumpsuit is perfect. And, I have a lot of audience with it."

Shredder let go of her hand and laid down on the bed but April chose to stay up, walking right and left as she listened to him speaking.

"I'm pretty sure you have a high audience because you have shots of me kicking the Turtles' ass."

"I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. People know you thanks to me!"

"April, two months ago I destroyed four whole blocks with the Technodrome."

She stopped in her track. First, because he used her first name, which he only did when he was feeling quite close to her, second because well, he had a strong point there.

"Okay, you might have a point there. But I'm pretty sure we have some kind of cohesion going on. And, oh! This gives me an idea!" she said, suddenly turning to face him.

Shredder didn't answer but gave her a questioning look.

"I could make an interview with you! That would be perfect!"

"An interview? Why would you do that? We never do that."

"I never do it with you! But I did it a lot of times on TV. I interviewed that guy that won the car race."

"Oh, yeah. And that other guy who bought car pieces and made a car out of it." He said in a teasing voice.

"Oh, shut up, I have some good interviews too." She answered while sitting on the opposite side of the bed, trying her luck.

"I have nothing interesting to tell. You can make an interview with me when I'll have taken over New-York."

He turned his back to her, trying to cut off the conversation but April wasn't about to stop there. She got up and turned around the bed, kneeling next to him.

"Come on, that interview could be the best I ever made! Just, imagine it. I could say that while we were stuck in space you made me interview you as a premise to your future plan of taking over New-York! I could, you know, add some things here or there, saying how bad and impressive you are."

"So that's how it works in America? Reporters are just saying whatever they want to have big titles and a bigger audience?" he deadpanned.

"That's not saying whatever I want, it's emphasizing important details. And, well, I never went to Japan but I'm pretty sure it's the same there."

He stayed silent for a minute or so but April knew she had won.

"Okay, but when? I'm already working all day to find a way out."

"We'll just do it at night. After training, that way your muscles will be even bigger. It'll be perfect."

He rolled his eyes but she saw a small smile appear on his lips. This was surely going to be fun.

"Okay, I'll start thinking about questions." She added.

"Yes, Miss O'Neil. Do that."

She went back on her floor, fed up of sleeping there but happy she would soon be doing one what she believed would be the best interview of the year.

Yes, this chapter is a bit small but if i added the next chapter to it it would have been gigantic. So I guess you are stuck with a small chapter compared to the last ones ;p
And, yes, I took a lot of time. To tell the whole truth I had a rough semester. I thought I would have time to write but in fact no.
Well, it doesn't change the fact I have the feeling this story should really end soon. As you saw, I added a few chapters before the "end". But what you don't know yet is that I already wrote a rough guideline. Which means I don't have to make up the story anymore, I just have to write it down which is a lot quicker.
I hope this time I'll be able to be a lot quicker than before! Thanks a lot for everyone who believed in me and your nice comments :)
Special shout-out to CinemaNerd who sent me a nice comment the day after I started writing again! Wow! What a timing!