Chapter 6
The creature had given up any pretense at research or study. Or, rather, the creature no longer seemed interested in learning about Leo from the point of view of a wildlife researcher, but seemed more interested in learning how much Leo was actually capable of. It monitored his speed and strength, the toughness of his shell, the duration of his endurance. It continued to have Leo fight different alien wildlife - Leo suspected it had picked up some new specimens while on tour in the last solar system - but at least he wasn't forced to kill any more prisoners. At this point, though, Leo was pretty sure he was the only one. All the other creatures in the menagerie hall seemed to be just captured wildlife.
His captor continued experimenting with the rage drug. After the fight that had killed his fellow prisoner, Leo had figured out that ampoules of the drug were embedded in his collar and could be injected remotely, and he passed his days in constant dread of being drugged again. The creature didn't use the drug on him often, but at unpredictable intervals Leo would feel the sting in his neck and watch the world turn red, then wake hours later on the lab table, covered in the blood of whatever creature he'd killed, while the creature tracked his vitals and monitored his recovery. It didn't say so, but he thought it was modifying the drug after each use. His head ached for days after each time he was drugged, the pain radiating down his spine and making his movements stiff and combat harder.
One morning the creature brought Leo straight to the lab instead of taking him to train. Leo sat on the edge of the table and tensed when the creature stood in front of him and extended a sterile swab. "What are you doing?" he asked sharply.
"It will kindly sit still," was all the answer he got.
Leo sat rigidly as the creature very delicately rubbed the damp swab on the shell over his chest, then on the skin of his left forearm. It didn't hurt, but the way the creature was looking at him made him anxious. The creature stepped away and returned with a needle in its hand. Leo automatically flinched away and received a shock in return. Glaring and gritting his teeth, he remained motionless as the creature leaned forward a second time. It lightly scraped the needle over the dried liquid on his shell, leaving a faint scratch but doing no real damage, not enough for him to feel. Leo watched warily as the creature curled its hand under his forearm, suppressing a shudder at the cool touch of the seven twiglike fingers. The creature held out the needle a second time and made a hair-thin scratch in the surface of his skin.
Pain blasted him, immediate and intense, and Leo bit back a cry as he wrenched his arm away. "What the shell was that?" he gritted out. The scratch was barely enough to draw blood, but the burning only worsened and he could see his arm starting to swell around the cut. He bent over his arm and cradled it tightly against his body, vision blurring with involuntary tears of pain. "What is that?" he gasped. "What did you do?"
"It is as we suspected," the creature said. "It experiences pain on injection only. Excellent. Scourgetail venom is too corrosive, but the venom from a specimen of its own planet will suffice."
Leo lifted his head in confusion and, bewilderingly, saw an image of a platypus on one of the monitors. "Suffice for what?" he forced out. The creature was busy at one of its workstations and didn't acknowledge that he had spoken. The callous way it ignored him while he once again shuddered in pain made something in him break, and he curled forward around his burning arm again. "Just stop this," he pleaded, voice shaking. "Why are you doing this? Please. Stop torturing me and take me home."
The creature glanced over its shoulder at him. "Can it tell us where to find more of its kind?"
"No," Leo choked out, squeezing his eyes shut. "There are no others." He was waiting for the initial flare of pain to fade, but it didn't. If the creature expected him to fight now, he doubted he'd be able to win. But after just a short time in its lab, it decided it was done with him for the day. Leo shuffled after it, still gripping his arm. As it walked away from his cell, he called after it, "You know it's wrong, keeping me here!" It didn't turn around.
Leo stood at the edge of his pond, debating whether or not he should submerge his arm. He finally knelt and gingerly eased his limb below the water. He choked on a growl of pain at the touch of the cool water but forced himself to keep his arm submerged. After a few minutes he jerked it back, unable to bear the pain. He slumped back to sit on the grass, trying to regulate his breathing. Droplets of water trickled down his arm and eventually dried. Still the venom burned.
Leo closed his eyes and shut out everything around him. He'd avoided meditating before, unwilling to risk even the slight delay it would give him if his captor approached, but now he no longer cared. The burn in his arm made it hard to focus but he was no stranger to persevering through pain, and in a short while his senses turned inward and he sank down into himself - away from his cell, away from his captor, away from the pain.
He let his spirit drift without direction in the darkness, without paying attention to the passage of time. But after a while, he became aware of another presence, a soft flicker of light like a candle flame, and even before he'd decided to focus on it, the glow had surrounded him, and a familiar, warm presence wrapped around his own.
My son.
Father!
Exchanging words wasn't possible there in that astral space, but Leo felt the force of his father's emotions as if he were there in the room. Joy, You are alive; heartache, Where are you; fierce determination, We will find you; love, Have courage. But all Leonardo felt was despair - This won't last; desolation, I'm so lost; aching loneliness, How can you ever find me; hopelessness, I'm going to die out here.
Do not give up.
Dad, don't leave!
Splinter's presence didn't fade but Leo felt himself drifting away. The more he tried to stay, the harder it was to hold on to the tranquil center that let him remain, until he found himself opening his eyes, alone in his cell. His arm still burned unrelentingly, but the ache in his heart was unbearable. His breath came in shallow gasps as he fought to keep from breaking into sobs. He bowed his head and sat in silence as tears trickled down his face.
Leo had been missing for nearly four months. Raph scowled as he dusted the immaculate weapon racks in Leo's room. They'd had to tell Shadow he was missing after a week. She'd been quiet and looked worried, and asked, "Was it the bad ninjas?"
"Nah, kiddo, not this time," Raph had told her. "We - we think someone kidnapped him but we don't know who."
She'd gripped Casey's hand a little tighter. "But you'll find him, right?"
Raph had sighed and tried to smile. "We're sure as shell gonna try." She'd smiled back and looked hopeful, but every time they visited and Leo wasn't there, it hurt to see the disappointment in her eyes.
There had been a brief glimmer of hope when Leatherhead had finally managed to contact his Utrom family. The aliens had promised to keep an eye out for Leo, but with little information and no direction to look, they were looking for a needle in a giant haystack of a galaxy, and as weeks passed with no word, discouragement set in once more.
"Raph?" He turned to see Mikey standing in the doorway. Mikey smiled a little and stepped into the room. "You've been in here a while, dude."
Raph gave a lopsided shrug. "Guess I wasn't paying attention."
"Don's making mac and cheese. You hungry?"
"Not really."
Mikey sighed and moved to stand alongside him. Raph draped his arm around Mikey's neck. "I hate this," he said quietly.
"Yeah." Mikey leaned into him. "Come on, just come eat. The last thing we need is Hangry Raphie."
"I'm not hangry," Raph grumbled, an automatic response that at least got a soft laugh out of his brother. He turned without letting go of Mikey and started heading for the kitchen.
Angel had been helping Don by getting bowls out of the cabinet, and now she was bent over rummaging in the refrigerator. "You guys got any ketchup?"
"Ketchup? For macaroni and cheese?" Don threw a skeptical glance over his shoulder.
"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it."
"I'll pass, thanks," came the dry reply.
"Aw c'mon, Donny, ketchup on mac and cheese is far from the weirdest thing we've eaten," Mikey teased. He reached over Angel's shoulder and produced the plastic condiment bottle with a flourish.
Don smirked as he started dishing up the food. "That's true, and yet it doesn't help your case."
Mikey wasn't deterred. "Raphie will try it."
Raph looked up. "Raphie will what, now?"
Angel rolled her eyes. "You put hot sauce on everything, how is ketchup any different?"
"I don't put it on everything."
Don turned around with an amused look on his face, but it fell away as his gaze lifted past his brothers, out of the kitchen. "Sensei, what is it?"
Raph stiffened and turned, frowning as he saw their father approaching. His eyes were wet, and tears had left dark trails through the fur on his cheeks. "What's wrong?" he asked gruffly.
"Your brother is alive," Splinter said hoarsely. "Our spirits connected just now while I was meditating."
Mikey stood straighter, expression a mixture of worry and hope. "Leo's okay?" Don spoke at the same moment, asking, "Do you know where he is?"
Splinter shook his head. "I do not know where he is. But he is…very far from here."
"How do you know that?" Don asked.
"He believes he is very far," Splinter replied. "We could not speak to each other, but I could feel what he was feeling, and - " His voice grew thin and he had to stop, clearing his throat before he was able to continue. "He is feeling lost. And afraid. And very far from home. But he is alive."
Raph clenched his fists and glared at the floor. "So how the shell does this help us?" he said, words catching like gravel in his throat. "He's alive, but we don't know if he's okay - he's scared, but we can't help him - he's lost, but we can't find him. How - " He could hear himself getting louder and he abruptly cut himself off. Nobody said anything and the silence was smothering him. "I'm takin' a walk," he muttered.
He only heard Don's soft, "Raph…" as he walked away, and he gave a backhanded wave of acknowledgement before he stalked out the door. Fury built in his chest but he had no outlet for it, and he slammed the side of his fist into the wall and stood there breathing heavily through gritted teeth. In his teenage years, he would have taken off on a rooftop sprint until the wee hours of the morning. But he knew that leaving his family like that right now would hurt them more than it would help him, so he simply stopped. He stopped just inside the tunnel entrance to the lair and slid down to sit against the wall, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his forehead on his knees.
Splinter's feet made no sound as he approached but Raph knew when he drew near. Without lifting his head, he said quietly, "I'm sorry."
"You do not need to apologize, my son. I understand what you are feeling."
In spite of everything, peace began settling over the turmoil in Raph's heart, because he knew Splinter was telling the truth. His brothers understood him well now even if they hadn't always understood him as they were growing up, but Splinter always had. So when Splinter sat beside him and rested a hand on his head, he leaned into the touch and relaxed into his father's reassuring presence. "How are we ever going to get him back?" he whispered, letting his heartache show in a way that he'd tried to keep to himself ever since Leo had disappeared.
Splinter nuzzled the top of his head the way he'd often done when he was a child, but only did rarely now. "I do not know," he answered softly. "But I have no doubt that we will."
"How can you be sure?" he asked, voice breaking.
Splinter touched his cheek, lifting his head to look at him. "Because my sons have never failed to do the impossible. And because I - " His voice faltered and he blinked rapidly to keep fresh tears from falling. "Because I cannot allow myself to believe anything else. We must not lose hope, Raphael. Right now, hope is all we have. Will you keep hoping? For me, for your brothers?"
"Yes, Sensei." Raph didn't know how, but he'd never said no to his father before, and he wasn't going to start now. "I promise."
Leo sat with his head bowed and his hands folded in his lap. The conversation from the crowd of tourists filing past his cell registered as only a dull roar on his awareness. The creature's ship had arrived in a new solar system four days ago, and every day when the last tourists filed out, Leo had been made to fight. His only opponents had been more alien wildlife, not other prisoners, but he knew better than to think it would never happen again.
He folded his hands together more tightly as a series of tremors ran down his arms. The creature hadn't used the rage drug for any of his fights, but there was a subtle, tingling ache running the length of his spine that had lingered after the last time he'd been drugged. His hands had started to shake intermittently. Not enough to be obvious or to affect the strength of his grip on his katanas, but enough for him to notice. The pain from the needle scratch had subsided after a few days, but that was only a small comfort.
He hadn't been able to make contact with Splinter again. He'd managed to meditate most days, but he'd just been drifting alone. He knew his father made a habit of meditating every day, but Leo had no way of knowing when Splinter would do it, and no way of knowing what time it was on Earth, and he knew that the fact they'd even connected with each other in the first place was random chance. During his worst moments, he found himself wishing that the connection had never happened at all; the ache of feeling his father's presence and then losing it was almost worse than the loneliness had been. In the back of his mind he knew he shouldn't think like that, but it was becoming harder and harder to remember.
Another tremor shook his hands and he shut his eyes against the pang of fear it caused. The drug was damaging him somehow, he could tell, and he didn't know why his captor didn't seem to care.
He was so lost in the mire of his sorrow and worry that it took three repetitions of a nearby voice hissing Donatello! before it registered on his ears. A thrill of startled alarm coursed through him and he jerked his head up, looking around with wide eyes, half-certain he'd imagined it. But there on the other side of the forcefield was a tall, strong-looking woman with blue skin and an expression of mingled shock and disbelief on her face.
It took a few frantic seconds for Leo to shake off his surprise. Jhanna!? He sprang to his feet, stumbling a little as his limbs quivered with the pain of old bruises and a fresh flare of pain down his spine, and moved as quickly as he could to the edge of his cell.
Jhanna leaned in closer, looking at him intently. "Donatello, is that you?" she asked in a low voice. Leo shook his head, but the pleading expression on his face let her know that she wasn't far wrong. "But you are one of his brothers, yes?" He nodded, relief at being recognized making him breathless. "Forgive me, I cannot remember all of your names. Which one are you?"
Leo shook his head helplessly, gesturing at the softly humming collar around his neck.
The sight of it registered with Jhanna for the first time, and she let out a startled hiss. She took a step back, glancing around briefly to look at the forcefield walls of his cell. "You are not here willingly," she said in a low voice. Leo's shoulders slumped and he shook his head again. The determined scowl on Jhanna's face was almost reassuring. "Listen," she said intently, "I am here alone and I cannot do anything today. Can you be safe?"
Leo hesitated, face going blank as he shook his head again and shrugged, uncertain.
"Yes, I see," she replied, looking dissatisfied. "Well. Well. The Collector is not unknown to my people but until now we had no evidence of any wrongdoing, although occasional rumors have arisen at times over the years. Unfortunately we are not in my people's territory and any action I can take will need to wait, but you have my word I will not let this stand." She waited until she saw him nod before withdrawing.
Leo watched her go, swallowing against the combination of hope at his discovery and fear at being left behind once again. He forced himself to avert his eyes so as not to stare after her, and calm his breathing. Against all odds, he'd been seen by one of the few people out in the galaxy who would recognize him and want to help.
When the creature came to get him that evening, Leo was feeling more hopeful than he had been for weeks, in spite of knowing what was coming. He stood motionless in the white room, once again ignoring the boisterous crowd ringing the room overhead, gripping his katanas while watching the far door. His heart sank, though, as he saw the alien that stepped through. They stood six feet tall, broad shouldered, with purple skin and gripping a spiked club in each hand.
Leo could feel his captor watching him but he didn't look up, choosing instead to dart forward at an angle to lure his opponent out and forward. They bared fangs at him and charged. They were faster than Leo expected but not faster than him. He ducked fluidly under the first club, deflected the second with his blade, and kicked the alien back to buy space. They snarled in frustration and lunged forward, ramming their shoulder into his shell.
He hit the wall with a thud hard enough to rattle him. Leo rode the momentum, blocking another strike from the club, but the second broke through his guard and slammed into his upper arm with bruising force. He clenched his jaw in the effort to remain silent, swallowing the reflexive cry of pain. Blood spattered the white floor as the club's short spikes pierced his skin, and the crowd let out an enthusiastic cheer. Leo kicked off the alien's stomach and chest, kicking off in a backflip to land a few feet away.
The alien didn't pause in their assault. Before Leo had even landed, they were charging forward, taking a powerful swing at his leg. Only a lifetime of honing his reflexes and absorbing the energy from blows saved Leo from having his knee shattered. The spikes on the club left lacerations on the outside of his leg but the joint wasn't damaged. Leo crouched and sprang forward, striking down at the muscle at the top of the alien's shoulder with the hilt of his sword. Their left arm sagged and one club clattered to the ground.
They were too experienced a fighter to let it leave them defenseless - they swiveled to keep their weak side out of reach and lunged at him again, but Leo had the measure of them now. He vaulted up and over the swing, dropping both his blades in midair, and his hands flashed down to strike at pressure points on either side of the alien's neck. The alien crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut and Leo landed lightly on the ground behind them, smoothly picking up his swords. He retreated a few steps, panting as blood dripped from his shoulder and leg.
The bloodthirsty cheering from the observation ring echoed off the domed ceiling. Leo took another few steps back, cautiously relaxing as he realized the alien wasn't going to get up anytime soon.
But the collar around his neck hummed and he felt the hot sting of the rage drug in his neck. He gasped and looked up at the needle-sharp grin of his captor, and without thinking he cried out, "No don't - !"
Electricity coursed through him and he was unconscious before he hit the ground.
When he woke, it was quiet except for the too-familiar hum of lab equipment. He wasn't restrained, but he was cold and his whole body ached. He let out an involuntary groan and immediately tensed, anticipating another shock, but his collar had been deactivated and was simply an inert weight around his neck. Leo pushed himself to a sitting position on shaking limbs. His head was splitting, and fire lanced down his spine, radiating out along the nerves down his legs and out to his fingertips. The skin on his hands and arms was raw and sore but he didn't know what he'd done to cause it.
"It was very foolish," the creature said archly, voice drifting over from the far side of the room. "It knew that it must remain silent and it spoke anyway. And then it kept trying to get through the forcefield. There was no need for it to burn itself."
"What?" Leo rasped. When he looked up he saw that he was in a small forcefield cage in the creature's lab. He winced as he looked down at his hands again, picturing himself slamming against the energy walls in a frenzy until the rage drug wore off. How long had it taken? Memory returned, then, and anger came with it. "You tried to have me murder that person!"
"It was a fight," came the impatient reply.
"A fight that I had already won! There was no need to kill them!"
"It is not about need," the creature said, striding into view. "We do not expect it to understand."
"What I don't understand is why you are slowly killing me!" Leo said, voice shaking with anger and pain. He lifted his unsteady hands. "This drug, what you're doing to me, I can't - It's hurting me, surely you can see that."
"But what does it matter?" Four eyes blinked at him as the creature tilted its head. "We have observed its planet. How many of its cycles has it been alive?"
"I - twenty-seven," Leo replied, caught off-guard by the question.
The creature waved a twig-fingered hand. "We have been alive for dozens of its lifetimes and will live for dozens and dozens more. Will it live that long?"
Leo felt cold dread sink into his bones. "No," he said quietly.
"It is short-lived. It is not Significant. We are not 'killing it'. It will live as long as it lives, and we will continue to learn from it."
"But what will you learn if I die?"
The creature made a dismissive gesture and turned away. "We learn what is useful to us."
Leo sank back to the floor. Streaks of dried blood still painted his shoulder and leg from the club's spikes. He wondered what had become of the alien he'd fought. For several minutes he just sat in silence, the quiet hum of the ship's engines a faint noise on the edge of his awareness. But then sudden cold alarm shot through him, and he looked up to see the star-studded black of open space outside the windows once more. The ship had left the solar system while he was unconscious, and whatever Jhanna had planned to do, Leo realized with a wave of despair, he was out of her reach.
Jhanna took a deep breath and only just kept from grinding her teeth. The bored-looking clerk puffed on her hookah and continued to look at her unblinkingly. "You understand what I am saying, yes?" Jhanna said with deliberate patience. "I am trying to report an illegal entry. A shellbacked alien, roughly this height - " she held out her hand. "Green skin, green and gold shell, still young - he is being held against his will."
The clerk blew a cloud of purple, sweet-smelling smoke out of her six slitted nostrils. "Listen, -," she drawled. Jhanna's translator glitched on whatever the clerk called her, and she scowled, unsure if it was an insult or an honorific. "There have never been any illegal entrants in the Frenzy."
She flattened her hands on the counter. "Is it legal to force slaves to fight?"
The clerk's expression remained blank. "We have no record of any slaves ever being entered in the Frenzy. All entrants are volunteers."
Jhanna's eyes narrowed at the clerk's sardonic tone. "If I can prove it?"
The clerk shrugged. "You have a name?"
"No," Jhanna bit out. "I met him only once, years ago. I cannot remember it."
"You know what planet he's from?"
"No!" she said in frustration. "I have been there only one time, by mistake. I do not remember its name or where it is located."
"His planetary council will vouch for him?" The clerk was clearly running through a standard list of questions, speaking around the hookah in her mouth, but her attention was already drifting and she was simply waiting for Jhanna to give up and leave her alone.
"There is no planetary council," Jhanna admitted reluctantly.
The clerk gave her a flat look. "All entrants in the Frenzy are volunteers. If you do not have legitimate business here, management requests that you vacate the premises." She closed the window to her booth and disappeared behind another cloud of purple smoke.
Jhanna snarled and slammed her fists against the laser-proof glass. The echo bounced sharply off the walls of the surrounding buildings, causing several passersby to turn their heads or eyestalks or sensory proboscises in her direction. She stalked away in disgust, anger rapidly being swallowed up by worry. She hadn't had much in the way of backup plans when the Collector's ship had departed, and her limited options were rapidly narrowing.
A deep voice broke into her thoughts. "Excuse me. I overheard your discussion with the entry clerk."
Jhanna glanced suspiciously behind her, stiffening slightly as she looked up at the towering form of a triceraton. His face was obscured behind a breathing mask - the atmosphere on Kryos 8 had too little nitrogen and sulfur for the saurian species - but as far as she could tell, his expression didn't look hostile. Still, if she'd managed to annoy the clerk enough for her to send security after her… "What of it?" she asked warily.
"The alien you described." The triceraton held his hand out, five feet above the ground. "Short, green skin, shell-backed…"
"Yes."
"You say he is a prisoner?" At her nod, he asked, "Who has captured him?"
"Xe is just known as the Collector," Jhanna answered, relaxing and letting her hand drift away from where it had been hovering near her fighting staff. "I don't know how he came to be captured. He was wearing a collar that wouldn't let him speak. But I saw him when the Collector's museum ship stopped at Fortra. I don't know where xe is going next, but xe has said the alien will be an entrant in the Frenzy." She made a sour face. "I had hoped if I got here first, I could alert the authorities and have him released, but clearly I was mistaken."
The triceraton let out a snort. "The reason the Frenzy is held on Kryos 8 is because words like 'illegal' are ignored if they are inconvenient."
"I do not see how it matters, though," Jhanna said. "I don't know his name or where he is from. There is no greater planetary authority to intimidate the officials. Even if the clerk would listen to me, I could not return him to where he belongs."
The triceraton tilted his head. "How do you know him, then?"
"Many years ago my ship was sabotaged in a duel for leadership of my people. It crashed on his homeworld. He and his brothers helped me. I remember the name of one - Donatello - but that is all I remember."
At the name of the alien's brother, the triceraton stood straighter and looked determined. "This name is not unknown to me," he rumbled. "My name is Traximus. I was once a slave myself, a gladiator in the Prime Leader's fighting pits. The four shellback brothers were prisoners as well. I owe them my freedom."
Jhanna began to look hopeful. "Traximus. I am Jhanna. Will you help me try to free him, then? I was hoping to use my governing influence but my authority won't be acknowledged here and I have no right to bring soldiers into this system. And I need help if I'm going to try to take him from the tournament or liberate him from the ship."
"I will be glad to help," Traximus answered. "That is part of the reason why I am here. I come to Kryos 8 when there are large tournaments to try and extract entrants who may have been…less than enthusiastic about volunteering. What can you tell me about this Collector and xyr ship?"
Jhanna gave him a brief description of what she'd seen during her tour of the ship. "The collar worries me, though," she added. "I do not know how it keeps him silenced, or how we would go about removing it. If it even can be removed without harming him."
Traximus gave a rumbling Hmmm. "Yes, that does present a challenge." He thought for a moment. "There are few laws that are enforced here, but interference in the Frenzy will lead to repercussions if we are caught. What we need is a small team that can move quickly and without detection, and someone who will be able to neutralize security systems and tech."
Jhanna folded her arms loosely across her chest. "I could not bring such reinforcements without risking a galactic diplomatic incident. But I sense that you already have such a team in mind?"
Behind his mask, Traximus grinned. "I do."