"Oh thank god," Kirby exclaimed over the phone. "Where are you? Do you need me to come get you?"
"I'm fine, Dad," April said reassuringly. "I'm with the Turtle's right, now…"
"It's kind of late to be with your friends," Kirby stated. "And I'm sure you have homework that needs doing."
"Dad, it's the weekend!" April said sharply. "The Turtles have just spent the worst twenty-four hours of their lives. I need to be with them."
"I'm glad your friends are safe," Kirby replied. "But they should be with their family and…"
"I know you want me home, but I feel I need to be with the Turtles right now," April explained. "And I am one of the few people they do consider family which makes it all the more important that I am with them. I'll be back home Sunday night at the latest, I promise."
"I uh I don't know, April." Kirby sighed noncommittally. "I'm not so sure…"
"I'll be fine, Dad. Please take care of yourself…be safe." With a sigh, she hung up her T-Phone. While she didn't exactly lie to her father, she knew she couldn't tell him the whole truth. There would be no way he would approve of her assisting in the rescue of the Turtles. Ever since her mother had been taken from them, he had been protective of her. Sometimes this was good as he accompanied her on every school field trip as well as weekend outings and spent time with him at his office during summers.
But sometimes his need to protect her would be almost neurotic at times which made it hard to make friends with other girls at school growing up. Every friend she made he would meet with them and evaluate them as though trying to see if they were any sort of threat. This unfortunately made any potential friend feel so uncomfortable that friendships were short lived. With the exception of Irma (who turned out to be Kraang Subprime) Casey and the Turtles were the only people she could truly call friends. But with both Casey and Donnie that brought in a whole new set of issues, her father's views on her possibly dating. Ever since she had introduced Casey to her father, he had been suspicious of the lanky boy's intentions and had implied that he disapproved of his presence in her life. Donnie on the other hand, Kirby had liked both as a fellow intellectual, and he was grateful to all the Turtles and Splinter for looking after her while he had been imprisoned. However anything beyond just friendship…particularly with how overly protective he had become following his abduction by the Kraang. She didn't want to see Donnie hurt not by her father, not by anyone.
Putting her t-phone back into her pocket she saw Casey climb out of the cab in the front of the party wagon. His molten chocolate brown eyes focused on where the Turtles and their master were gathered around their wounded family members. Most of Donnie's body was obscured from April's sight by Splinter's frame and it was a matter of time the red-haired girl saw for herself what had been done to him.
"Splinter needs us to get some water, blankets, and other items from the lair." Casey casually said.
"Alright," April said. She knew the Splinter's request for her to contact her father and this was to spare her from seeing the worst of Donnie's injuries. She remembered Slash arriving carrying a seriously battered Donnie in his arms. His mahogany brown eyes dulled by pain and exhaustion until they caught sight of Michelangelo. It was then that Donnie squirmed and nearly fell to the pavement as he clambered out of the gigantic turtle's arms and into the van as he tried to get to his baby brother's side. Each breath he took coming in and out in rapid hyperventilated gasps.
She had for the briefest of moments seen long red welts on his face and body, but before she could fully register the injuries, Raph had gathered his agitated brother into his arms.
"Calm down, Don." Raph coached as he ran one of his hands in slow calming circles. "Just take deep breaths." Donnie, unfortunately, didn't seem to calm down, if anything Raph's restraining embrace was making the Purple-Masked Turtle all the more agitated. Everything around her in the overly crowded van was chaotic. The overwhelming smell of blood and worse the sour scent of infection was upon them. Everyone around her was fatigued, angry, and experiencing several different flavors of pain. The fact that these were her friends…her pseudo-brothers...her surrogate family made this all the more distressing. The Turtles had been treated like animals…no worse than animals. They had been treated like they were beasts. She would never forgive the Shredder or anyone from the Foot Clan…not after this. They were the real monsters.
Splinter's eyes roved over his third eldest son's injuries. The injuries of his two youngest sons were the worst he had seen. Michelangelo's hands and face would heal, though there would be quite a bit of scarring. The healing hands could be employed to help the healing process, and Rockwell had suggested Skin graphs from each of Michelangelo's older brothers. Raphael and Leonardo had openly agreed that would be something they would gladly offer to help their baby brother.
Donatello's injuries, however, appeared rather excessive. The long red welts cross-hatched Donatello's flesh and carved long grooves into his plastron. Long dark marks ran down both of his arms where he had been electrocuted by steel cables. The skin had severely chaffed and burnt. Blisters had formed, popped, and reformed in some of the more severely burned areas, while other areas looked cracked and bloodied. Some these injuries had a thin layer of scabbing, but others were open sores. There was a particularly nasty injury on Donatello's left arm. The wound was two deep gashes that nearly bisected the limb. A whitish film of puss had formed in this much older wound. Three long slashes also tore down the arm cleaving though this older injury causing the growing infection to ooze its way into the newer wounds. Fortunately, it hadn't reached the point of sepsis, but the blood loss that may have resulted from such an injury was more of a concern. Large and unsightly bruises also peppered Donnie's body and face; the worst ones encircled both of the young turtle's ankles. His wrists also had ligature marks in the shape of human hands. Hands that had clamped down hard enough to darken the green flesh several shades where it wasn't quite black, but not the same gentle olive tone of his intellectual son's flesh.
Raphael had taken Donatello's mask off and placed it next to Michelangelo's, his green eyes softened as he gently caressed his immediate younger brother's face taking note of the rising heat of a fever. One of Donnie's eyes looked swollen, possibly on the verge of blackening and drying blood trickled out of Donnie's right nostril. Nose bleeds were a clear indication of high stress, and the growing fever was not helping matters. Every mark on Donatello's flesh from the tiniest scratch to the deepest score made Raphael more and more angry. He hated the Foot Clan, he already hated every single one of those bastards for the inhuman things done to Mikey. But to willfully hurt Donnie like this, Raph couldn't decide whose face he wanted to punch in first.
Splinter didn't need to ask Raphael for the first aid kit as the red masked turtle handed it to the wizened rat without prompting. Taking out the bottle of hydrogen peroxide, Splinter immediately doused the worst of Donnie's wounds with it. Despite being unconscious, Donnie did give a hiss of pain as the clear anti-septic liquid seared the infected flesh.
"Donnie!" April exclaimed as she and Casey returned with the supplies needed. Dropping the blankets she was carrying she knelt beside her closest and dearest friend. Her eyes moistened with tears as her eyes took in the full extent of what had been done to him. It seemed unimaginable that such callousness could be inflicted upon someone so kind and gentle. It just wasn't fair.
"Here's the water you needed, Splinter," Casey said as he thrust an old saki gourd that was used as a water bottle towards the Ninja Master.
"Domo Arigato," Splinter said patiently as he took the gourd from the human boy. Raph at one helped support Donnie so that his head was tipped back enough for Splinter to dribble some of the liquid into his third son's mouth, before massaging Donnie's throat to help him swallow the fluid. The same thing was done to Michelangelo before the water gourd was tossed to Leonardo with the instruction that both he and Raph were to drink some of it as well, but not too much. Donatello was placed flat on his shell a folded blanket placed under his head as a pillow. Raph and Casey helped move Michelangelo to where Leo was sitting before settling themselves. A blanket was draped over Michelangelo, and others were handed to Leo and Raph. April quietly climbed into the cab of the van and settled on the leather seating, she sniffed softly but didn't fall asleep, however. A few tears slipped from her eyes and dropping into the pillow as her friends murmured to one another in the back of the van.
"Get what sleep you can," Splinter instructed as the water gourd was returned to him. "Daylight will soon be upon us." Picking up a washing cloth he wet it with some of the remaining water and placed it over Donatello's eyes before he also draped a quilt over his body.
"Will Mikey and Donnie, be alright?" Casey asked.
"It hangs in the balance." Splinter sighed. "Both are likely to survive his injuries…but there are some injuries that they will carry throughout the rest of their lives. And others that will never truly heal at all."
Leo sighed through his nose as his eyes focused on both his injured younger brothers knowing all too well the feeling that he would never recover. Going day by day struggling to hone his body back into what it had once been, only to be set back by his injured leg or feel severely weakened by a body that just refused to heal. Much of this was psychological and only resided in his mind, but telling himself that was one thing, believing it was another.
"What I don't get is, why Donnie and Mikey look like shit," Casey commented. "But you two are barely injured."
"It's just another way to hurt us," Raph said as he ground his hand into his palm. "Letting us hear our brothers get tortured knowing that we couldn't do anything about it. At least they didn't torture them in front of us...I swear I'd lose it if they did."
"Donnie was tortured in front of me," Leo said as he closed his eyes fighting back the tears that threatened to bloom in his eyes. "And because of me..."
"What?" Casey and Raph said in unison.
"Early on…when I regained consciousness, I had tried to break through the Shredder's control to Karai…" Leo explained.
"Why am I not surprised…" Raph interrupted with a scoff. "Seriously man, she's beyond all hope."
"Nothing is beyond all hope, Raphael!" Splinter barked. "Karai's mind is not her own, but that does not make her beyond redemption. Now, Leonardo…please continue…"
"As I said, I tried reaching through the mind control that the Shredder forced upon her." Leo continued finding it easier to talk while he looked at the floor. "Shredder must have heard what I had been saying to Karai, because five minutes after she stops talking to me, the Shredder arrived in the cell where Donnie was kept and starts telling Donnie how he's the weakest of the four of us, and that was possibly why the bo staff chose him. He then forced Donnie into a fight with him, during which Shredder tauntingly said that Donnie was not even worthy of calling himself a ninja and that if he was part of the Foot he would have been made Ashigaru-sha just so he could be used as target practice."
It was Splinter's turn to growl as he reached out and lightly ran the back of his hand along Donatello's forehead as he felt the fever that burned in his intelligent son's flesh. "The belief that strength comes only from physical power has always been one of Oroku Saki's greatest flaws." Leo nodded in agreement; he paused momentarily as though to gather his thoughts before he continued. The four of them never told Splinter about their encounter with Renet which had led them into the past save their sensei's life so that he would journey to New York and acquire the four of them. What was there to truly say, that they had wanted to prevent Tang Shen's death and Karai's abduction. Their Sensei would have understood that things would be vastly different if Tang Shen and Miwa had been spared their fates. But he also would have been saddened to know that his wife and child could have possibly been saved, even at the cost of the sons he had now.
"The way the Foot Clan had our cells set up was so we had one way audio between them. So anything that happened in Donnie's cell, I would hear it. And apparently, Donnie could hear Raph, because he told me that Raph was suffering from food poisoning. I also had suspected that the food given to us wasn't edible so that confirmed it for me and instead tried to get in contact with you. That's when Karai entered Donnie's cell and begins taunting Donnie. One such thing she had said was "…I do owe Leonardo some pay back for defeating me last we met. However, he would take any sort of physical pain and call it being noble…I call it being stupid." She had clearly chosen Donnie because she knew I would be listening, much like how she chose Mikey knowing word of it would be passed between Raph and Donnie before it got to me. Karai continues to gloat and taunt Donnie. Donnie at first tunes her out at least when she's telling him about how pathetic his feelings for April are. However instead of screaming or getting defensive…he tells her he's sorry for her. Karai also wasn't expecting this and wanted to know what he meant. And D just responds by saying "I'm sorry this is the sort of person the Shredder made you into."
"Man, how can anyone feel sorry for that bitch?" Casey growled.
"Karai is Splinter's daughter…" Leo reminded the human boy.
"I'm sorta with Casey on this one, Leo," Raph said. "She may be part of our family, but she was raised by the Shredder himself and all the insanity that comes with it. She had her chance to be with us, to be with what you consider her family, and she chose to go out for vengeance. And where did that get her? And there no way I will ever see her as a member of this family…not after what she did to Don and Mikey."
"She isn't evil..." Leo protested. "I know you don't like her Raph, but she is a victim in all this just as much as we are. "
"She's tainted Leo," Raph snarled back. "Even if she has a million of those brain worms crawling in her head, she has been taught to think and act the same as the shredder."
"That is one of the ways Donatello shows his strength, Raphael!" Splinter firmly said. "To show compassion to an opponent may not seem effective, but can leave an impact that can hurt as much as any punch. Your brother understands that Karai's mind is not her own. That is why he had been determined to help her despite what feelings he may harbor for her otherwise."
A tear trickled down Leo's face as he painfully recalled what happened next. "Tiger Claw came into the room and whipped Donnie, and not long after that was over Rahzar then entered the room and told Donnie the Shredder had chosen him for some purpose and he was taken way though not without a struggle. Rocksteady and Bebop then escorted me to see both Mikey, and Raph. When I was allowed to see Donnie, he looked more dead than alive. That was before they administered one of the mind worms."
"Whoa…" Raph exclaimed with horror. "Donnie was also brainwashed like I was."
"Yeah," Leo said as he grit his teeth. "And the only purpose for it was to put him in a death match against me. A match they didn't intend for him to survive."
"This event must have been troubling for you." Splinter stated sorrowfully. He had remembered the last time the worms had been inflicted upon his family; Raphael still had nightmares of having to fight his own brother.
"Troubling doesn't even begin to cover it," Leo said as sob rasping in his voice. "The fact they did that to him…just so…just so he could be forced to die by my hand."
"Let us speak no more of this, my son." Splinter said. "Get some sleep and prepare for the recovery ahead." Leo and Raph obeyed as they curled down to get the brief snatches of sleep that were available to them.
"Man! This is all beyond messed up!" Casey grumbled as he lay on his back gazing up at the roof of the Party Wagon. No one responded to his statement, however, because the sentiment was echoed by everyone around him.
