The next few days were difficult, to say the least. Days turned into weeks and it was not long before I had forgotten what day it was. I spent most of my days in a cell in the basement of Hun's building. He didn't bother me much. His cronies, however, had made it a sport to taunt me and tease me until I broke. Whether that be physically or emotionally they didn't care. I quickly learned to fear everyone with the purple dragon insignia on their person, for they held no mercy for me or my case. They didn't care that I was starving or that I was hurt. They didn't care about me at all. But no matter.
My cell wasn't that bad. Sure, the cold was biting during the night and there were enough rats and such to fill a school, but after knowing Splinter so well I was able to get along with them well enough to keep my peace for the most part. And when they did feed me they fed me pretty well. Well enough to stay alive, anyway.
"Hey, bird-girl," yelled one of the guards watching over my cell. I winced out of habit, instinctively tensing in case of an attack. She was a small woman, about my size, but she was vicious. She had beaten me senseless the first night I had gotten here. I had hated her ever sense, but had had no way to retaliate. So instead I had taken my blows as they had come and as the weeks passed on I grew numb to them. I had to if I wanted to survive.
"I said, hey brid-girl!" the woman yelled again, hitting the butt of her rifle against the bars of my cage. I flinched again, but didn't say anything, sitting down against the wall and pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them in a feeble attempt to block the world out.
"Waddya say we play a little game, tweety-bird? Let's see if you can stay awake for a full 72 hours, savvy? Not a wink of sleep for you, no sir-ee. You know what? I like that idea! Let's keep you awake." She cackled, turning to the other guards on duty and immediately jumping into discussions about how they were going to carry out their plan.
I wanted to cry, but dared not do so where she could see me. I hadn't slept at all in the past 24 hours and to add a full three days onto that streak… I couldn't do it. I hated this place. I wanted to go home. I didn't know how long it had been since I had seen the turtles. Undoubtedly they were back in the city by now. Knowing they were so tantalizingly close was torture, especially when I knew they likelihood of them actually finding me was next to nothing. We were both in the city, yet in two different worlds. Maybe mere miles apart, yet separated by galaxies.
"Too bad the plan didn't work on your other friends," said the woman suddenly, turning back to me. I lifted my head warily, my interest peaked.
"You know, the human and the rat." She clarified. "Hun had ordered their demise a few days before we picked you up but the bomb didn't go off properly. As far as I know they are still alive. They weren't supposed to actually survive the explosion"
The Purple Dragons were the reason why April and Splinter were hurt? But why?!
"It was my idea really," She bragged. "I knew those freaks were close to her and the rat so I said to myself 'why not take them both out and really shake them before we get the real prize?' That was gonna be the plan, see. To shake them to their core with the death of two of their closest friends and family members and then go in for the final kill: you.
"I couldn't be sure it would work, of course. Maybe it would serve just the opposite effect and make them stronger, more resilient to hurt. But I didn't think so. Nope. Not for one minute. I know human nature, see, and I know that a serious blow like that would take months, if not years, to recover from. And I wasn't going to give them that. I gave them a few weeks. A matter of days, really, before I convinced Hun to go and get you. That's when I found out the girl and the rat were still alive.
"I was troubled, of course, but nowhere near beaten. 'Actually,' I thought, 'this might work to my advantage.' And it did. Oh, it did! See, when they had just gotten their hopes up that life would be okay, that their family would be healthy and whole once again, that's when we struck. That's when we sent in the assassin to go and kill you. But now… here you are. 'Why keep the little bird locked up in a cage instead of just killing her like we had planned?' I asked. Hun told me it was because he had a plan. He had tried to destroy the Turtles once and they got up and walked it off like it was nothing. But not this time. No, not this time. Now, with you in our custody, we'll be able to hurt them so hard they won't be able to walk it off. None of them."
The woman laughed viciously, the wicked sound bouncing off the cold walls and echoing up to the higher levels. Hun, sitting at his desk, heard the faint echoes and allowed a small smile to play at the corners of his lips. He shifted his bulk around until he was more comfortably situated in his chair and leaned back, looking at the door to his office but not really seeing it. He loved to hear his employees get so excited before a kill.
