Raphael

The ringing continued. It felt like I was moving through water as someone tightened something heavy to my hands. Not very intelligent sounding, but I could barely put together my own thoughts to process that. Gravel dug into my right shoulder, and I knew I was propped onto my side. Bit by bit I found the will to open my eyes. The blurred doubles of everything I saw gave me motion sickness and made it nearly impossible to make anything out.

As the duplicates began to merge, a pair of dark feet stepped into my line of sight. Black, cloth covered feet wrapped generously met silver shin guards. My eyes strained to look up as much as they possibly could. My chin jutted forward. The tip of a narrow katana came to rest just beneath it as my gaze reached up to the face of the looming figure.

"Good, you're awake," Karai growled, smiling cruelly down at me. Her long face was surrounded by her long black hair drifting in the breeze. He slanted eyes were narrowed furiously down at me.

"Go fuck yourself, Karai," I had no love for the bitch, never did… even in the short time we had all worked together. I wasn't about to pretend like I had any respect for her, especially if I was about to die.

She turned slightly and drove her foot into my lower abdomen, hard. The air was knocked out of me. My body contracted, curling further on my side as I breathed through the pain. I would not cry out for her. The corners of her mouth pulled higher as she looked down at me. A shallow laugh escaped her, but to me it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

"Karai! Leave him be!" My attention shifted from the Foot ninja standing over me to about ten feet behind her. Bound by her own chains, Serena struggled on her knees, pulling at her constraints as much as possible. I could barely see her. The daylight that should have filled the sky by this point was heavily blocked by thick grey overcast. But from what I could see, she was far more alert than myself. The left side of her face was heavily darkened with blood. Most likely that's where the shuriken had cut her cheek. What was left of her hair was unevenly strewn over her forehead, and the look in her eyes was full of fury and desperation.

I still thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Oh little sister, don't worry. Dad has something bigger in mind for you and your new pet." She spat the word like it had a bitter taste. Karai turned towards Serena, her posture relaxed with the feeling that she had won already. It dawned on me, Karai had eyes on us the whole time. She had seen us kiss and talk and everything. "I've got to admit though; you are really starting to lower your standards."

Serena shook her head slowly, her eyes looked onto her sister, "Karai, don't do this. If you want revenge then just take it out on me now. Don't bring others into it. You used to be above that."

"You have no room to speak on who is above anything! You betrayed me, you betrayed our father, and our entire family. And for what? Do join the ranks of a monster not worth the dirt beneath my feet. You are a disgrace to this world." Karai squatted in front of Serena. Her back was turned to me so I couldn't see either of their faces. "But once upon a time you did have sense of honor and didn't take the cowards way out of staging your death. For that, I am going to grace you with the ability to privately say good bye with your monster before the big show happens."

When she stood, Serena's gaze fell back to meet my eyes. I tried to smile reassuringly, but the effort was too much. Karai strolled back over to me, re-sheathing her sword. She paused in front of my lying form, laughing cruelly. I watched in disbelief as she raised her foot and slammed it down into the side of my left knee. I choked on air from the pain, madly trying to suck in breaths. Serena struggled harder as black dots danced in my vision to the noise of her chains rattling. Karai began again, "By the way, did you ever think about what would happen to Aaron in this type of situation? You really are bad news for anyone who cares about you."

With her finally message, she crushed a smoke pellet at her feet and vanished. We were alone again, but I knew dozens of eyes were still clued to the scene. That didn't matter, because mine were on hers.

Serena

After the tactical grenade had gone off earlier, Raphael had been knocked out cold. I was still conscious when the Foot landed. They moved the two of us far to a whole other rooftop in another part of the city. I only obeyed because they kept Raphael at knife point the entire time while he was unconscious, threatening to kill him. Now we both were shackled to iron rings fixed to the rooftop beneath us, and I had been forced to watch him be beaten all over again. This time by my sister.

"Raphael," I called gently out to him, my voice barely there.

He stirred in his position on his side, "I'm alright, I'm here."

Where we were now was far out of the possible views of bystanders and on top of that, we were shadowed by the storm brewing above. There wouldn't be any help coming for us. My voice caught when I tried to speak, "I… I am so sorry Raphael. I should have been stronger, I should have left."

"No, don't say that. I've gone rounds with Karai and dealt with her plots long before you came into my life. We will find a way; just don't give up on me quite yet." He sounded weak, but I could also hear his inner strength fighting its way for me.

"I never could," a single tear ran down my cheek. Burning and mingling with the blood, I remembered my wound. It had been a clean cut before, but when I had fallen branched out slightly and gruesomely. The entire left side of my face stung and was caked in blood, but my focus only was for Raphael. I had been yanking at my bonds till my wrists began to bleed as well, desperate to be close enough to touch. Once more I pulled and tugged.

"Stop, you'll hurt yourself," he scolded, watching me carefully, "you won't break through. Just… just talk to me, okay? Keep talking."

"About what? I—I can't think of anything to say," I stuttered, feeling more hot tears forming.

"Tell me something no one else knows about you… I'll go first. I used to paint a lot when I was younger. Pretty good too, but I thought my brothers would tease me so I stopped."

"I don't know… I… I used to pretend to have imaginary friends to fit in with the other kids when I was little because I thought it was normal to have one." I stammered.

Raphael laughed as much as he could, " Whenever there is a thunderstorm, I can never fall asleep at night because when I was little, Mikey would make me stay up to make sure he stayed safe through the night. It became a habit even now."

"That's sweet," my head spun around when I heard the sound of shifting and running feet from behind.

"Hey, come on… tell me more. Come on, look at me, okay?" Raphael pleaded so I did. He was afraid too, and for some reason that made me less so. I began to accept this, which I knew was dangerous, but he was right there with me.

I smiled at him, wanting so desperately to just have our chains just a few feet closer, "The first time I ate sushi I vomited all over the restaurant I was in."

Behind me, I heard a very heavy sound of feet land followed by others. Raphael's jaw tightened and his eyes widened, but I refused to look away from him. Finally he spoke again. "I'm really good with birds. They relax me."

His presence was right behind me now. I felt him tower above me, staring at his next victim. The man had raised me from a small child, but now… now he hated me. I was no longer his. "The last thing I said to my family before they died was I asked my brother a question. I asked him why there were no stars that night. He told me the stars were sad that I shone so much brighter."

"Welcome back to the land of the living, child," the cruel monotonous voice of Oroku Saki swirled through the air. Raphael pushed himself up to his knees to keep our eyes locked. His were furious and protective, and I knew he was trying his best to stand his ground to the Shredder. I mirrored him as I turned my head over my shoulder. There, my master stood, dressed fully in his perfectly polished armor. Steel claws hovered at his waist.

Only his cold, unfeeling eyes were visible through his helmet. "Hello, father."

Sorry for a cliffhanger! BTW... the part about the imaginary friends is a true piece of my childhood. My sister had them and I just wanted to fit in :D