Disclaimer:…. I obviously do not own Ninja Turtles. Peter Lair and Kevin Eastman do.
"Seek and you will find they say, but I've been looking everyday,
for a way past this wall that's in front of my face, I'm on hands and knees searching for my faith.
I know there's so much at stake, but I don't know if I can take another pat on my back saying I'll be okay,
Can't you see that my life is in disarray?"
"Desperate" by Fireflight
"Hiiisshhh! Quit that!" Moth growled and snapped her teeth at Karai in an attempt to sink her canines into the womans flesh. Unfortunately, she could just not twist her head all the way behind her, and her arms being securely chained behind her back with maximum security padlocked handcuffs didn't make it any easier, neither did the sedatives currently running through her veins that made her movements weak and sluggish, like he thoughts.
"Enough whining Jade, if you had not let your hair become an unruly hornets nest than perhaps it would not hurt so much. How a pretty girl such as yourself could let your hair become so wild…." Karai muttered from behind her and continued to struggle to run the brush through Moth's wild dusky-brown hair.
"I am not Jade!" Moth groaned for the millionth time; when would Karai get it? Karai had gone completely mad, she has officially lost her marbles if she thought Moth was her dead daughter….
"Tell me then darling, what day is your birthday?" Karai asked.
Moth though "July fifteenth." She replied in a growl "Why does that matter?"
Karai squealed seemingly in contempt "July fifteenth was the day Jade was born….. And you look just like Jade…. A mother knows, my precious Jade; you are my daughter, I could tell the moment I saw your face."
"But…. Jade has green eyes and dark hair." Moth argued.
Karai sighed "No, I remember vividly; dark brown hair, like you have. And amber eyes, like Lyle's." Lyle, Lyle Chaplin? Oh right, the scientists Karai had been married to before he died in an accident.
Moth frowned; but Jade visited her dreams… She saw her…
"You are not my mother…." Moth mumbled, sounding defeated, her shoulders slumped "My only parent is my father; my father is Hamato Michaelangelo!"
Karai let out a snort of anger "I will have that bastards shell on a platter for stealing you!"
Moth bit back a angry retort as she looked down to the floor as Karai continued at her attempt to tame her wild hair. Moth had been trapped by Karai for the past twenty-four hours, and was currently being held captive in a room in the Oroku mansion. Rather than ask questions or stuff like that, Karai instead ecstatically opted to try to force Moth to 'clean up'. When Moth had been sedated, Karai had taken off all of her Foot Ninja gear, and put her instead into bright green kimono. And now she was working on her hair, god if Kair got make-up anywhere near her face….
Moth tensed up when she felt Karai's slender hand run down the scar that scored down the side of her face "What a terrible scar…. How did you get this?" Karai asked softly, she sounded concerned.
'None of your business.' Moth wanted to say, but she surprised herself "Bear attack." She responded.
"My poor little girl….. " Karai whispered, Moth felt small comforting circles being rubbed onto her back (which was still hurting from the shuriken, but it had been treated while she was out).
"M'not your…." Moth drawled out sleepily, then fell asleep.
She was on the Astral Plain.
"Jade! Jade where are you! ?" Moth called frantically. She sighed in relief seeing her friend envelope from the mist.
"Yes?" Jade asked quietly.
"Karai has gone nuts!" Moth told her "She thinks I'm her daughter!"
"She is not wrong." Jade replied simply.
Moth looked at Jade; no, no, no, no! It couldn't be true! It couldn't be true!
"But you're Jade!" Moth argued.
"Am I, or do you believe I am…?" 'Jade' replied, and them put her hand on Moth's head, her thumb pressed against Moth's forehead.
A vision presented itself to Moth.
-Blast from the past-
16 years ago…..
A young Moth was wandering around the astral plain. The little girl was excited to see this new, vast space; oh yes, she had succeeded in meditation! Her daddy would be so proud!
Moth sat down and giggled as she toyed with the mist; the mist would bend at her will into whatever shapes she wanted. She made the mist twist into a cat and mouse that would chase each other, and an otter that would 'swim' in the air around her head.
Moth's wide amber eyes fixed into the distant mist where a small, dark shape was coming towards her. It looked like a human… A little girl like her "Oh, hello!" Moth chirped; she looked up to see another girl her age; only she was very pale and skinny, with dark hair and pretty green eyes. The little girl sat across from her and fixed her own eyes on Moth. "What's your name?" Moth asked.
"What do you think it is?" The other little girl asked, her voice a cool like ice.
Moth thought for a moment; she looked like the woman her daddy talked bad about; black hair and green eyes. She had a daughter who was her age… "Jade?" She asked.
The little girl smiled a little, and Moth assumed she had been right.
-Return to the present-
"From then on, Moth, you convinced yourself I was Jade." 'Jade' told her friend.
Moth sank onto her knees, starring into the mist with eyes beginning to tear up "No… No… It can't be… I can't be Jade…I can't be…"
"You can be, and are." 'Jade' said.
Moth looked up at her traitorous best friend "You lied to me…" She accused bitterly.
"I never told you I was Jade." The ghost-girl replied coolly.
"You never said you weren't either!" Moth yelled, she charged at Jade and threw a rough punch, Jade moved out of the way. "Who are you?" Moth demnded.
"I am who I always was; your friend." Jade said with a smile and nodded, she turned away into the mist.
"Wait!" Moth called and tried to chase her; but 'Jade's' dark shape continued to grow smaller and smaller as the distance between them grew.
"Goodbye my friend; thank you for giving me a chance of growing up in a way…" 'Jade's' voice was suddenly much more high and childish, and a light was surrounding her dark shape now "This may be the last time we meet in your life. Remember Moth, there is no night without day."
There was a bright flash.
Moth's amber eyes snapped open, she found she was still in the sitting position and her hair was still being played with; though it was not brushed his time. "Wha….?" Moth mumbled.
"You took a little nap, my dear." Karai said from behind her "I imagine it must be the sedatives still in your blood, but do not worry, you will not need sedatives once I am sure I can trust you…."
Moth was silent; she felt relief when Karai finally stopped messing with her hair, but grunted in complaint when she felt Karai stand up and grab her by the shoulders to make her stand up. Moth did not get up, not until Karai forced her to by grabbing her by the handcuffs and pulling her onto her feet.
Moth was lead to the other side of the room, and Karai presented her in front of a large mirror "There my dear, don't you look much better now?"
Moth stared into the mirror in disbelief; her hair was clean and even for the first time in her life, her bangs were on the scarred side of her face (which was clean, also for the first time), and Karai had even made her hair into a braid behind her with a green bow tied onto the top of it on the back of her head. And to see herself in the kimono as well….
She never though she was able to look like a woman….
"I uh….." Was all Moth could manage to sputter out.
Karai gave a small laugh "Come along, Jade; you must be hungry right now…. I do not imagine Michaelangelo feeding you aside from throwing you a few scraps every now and then, you are much too skinny….."
"Shut up! You don't know jack shit about my father! You married an evil, dishonorable turtle who needs to be put to sleep!" Moth angrily reported. Then she realized something truly horrible…. If what she would not accept was true (which she would not accept), than that meant Kai was her half-brother…..
"Leonardo is not evil! You will take back those words, Jade!" Karai commanded.
"Make me!" Moth rebuked.
Moth gave a cry of pain as she was shoved roughly to the floor.
"I did not want to do this." Karai stated and flicked off all of the lights of the room "But for such disrespectful words to your father-in-law, I will leave you alone in this dark room, for you to think about what you have said."
Moth groaned; Leonardo father-in-law? This was too unreal….
The door closed and she heard locks being placed; the room was thick with darkness, the windows were all covered, so not a single ray of light shined into the room.
So she was unable to use her arms in a small, dark, room that she was completely unfamiliar with; looks like she was getting claustrophobia tonight….
"Aaahh!" Venus suddenly gripped her head.
Michaelangelo turned to her "Is there something wrong sis?" He asked in concern.
"Moth is attempting to contact me…." Venus told him, then moaned in pain "Did you have to train your daughter to be so aggressive in every aspect? Spiritual connection should not be so rough!"
Michaelangelo rolled his eyes and sat down in lotus; he focused in on the connection Venus DeMilo had and rode in on it.
'Moth? What is going on?'
'Father! I've been found out! Karai has gone mad! HELP ME!'
'Whoa, whoa! Moth, what is going on?'
'I betrayed the Foot because the mysterious girl that has been helping us was actually my friend Quinn whom they were trying to kill, and when I tried to escape Karai found me and we fought. She knocked my mask off, and when she saw my face she became convinced I was Jade! She's holding me captive in the Oroku Manor. You have to help me, I'm sedated and hand-cuffed with maximum security industrial padlocks!'
'I'm on my way.' Michaelangelo quickly replied and suddenly cut off the connection between all of them. "Do you hear all of that?" He asked Venus.
"Yes." She nodded.
"Oh god, I prayed – prayed – Venus, that this day would not happen!" He said and squished his hand against his face. "Karai is not a woman that will let Moth go easily…."
"That is a hideous understatement. After twenty-one years, it is likely that if Moth leaves Karai's sight again, that woman will sniff us all out and have our shells." Venus said, then set her eyes angrily on her brother "Mikey, why the hell did you have to adopt Oroku Jade anyways, and convince her she was dead? It never made any sense you take her away, and adopt her five years later to raise her to be dead-set on the idea of killing her own mother!"
"Venus, we've talked about this! I took her away from her family…. I only felt it was right to give her another one!" Michaelangelo then turned to leave "I'm going to track Moth's chi and bring her back, we'll have a game plan in the morning."
As her brother continued to leave, Venus called back "Even if you kill Karai and Kai, then the curse will only pass onto Moth!"
"I've been wrestling that for years!" Michaelangelo called back.
"Well, well, beast..." A new voice and light filled the room; Moth snapped out of meditation and glared at the doorway, where all-too-well known figure stood.
"What do you want, Leonardo?" She spat, quite literally actually; but her spittle didn't get far enough to actually hit him. Leonardo gave an evil chuckle and approached her, stepping over the spot in the floor where the spit did hit.
"I never would have thought a pale, skinny human such as yourself could have been that savage sttack-trained 'mutant' that has been terrorizing my clan..." His eyes suddenly narrowed and his fist shot right at her, knocking her square in the face and making her fall onto her back.
"I hate you." She told him with blood running out of her mouth and nose "My father will make you suffer for all of the suffering you have caused our family."
Leonardo started laughing "You think Michaelangelo actually cares about you? Do you honestly think he gives two shits about you?"
"I know he does! My father loves me as if I was his own!" Moth barked back agressively and bared her teeth like one of her coyotes would.
Leonardo laughed again and leered over her evilly "Could you say that with a straight face if you knew you are nothing but a replacement for his real daughter?"
A confused look eteched itself onto Moth's angry face "What are you talking about? ! He never -!"
"OROKU LEONARDO!" A new voice roared; Moth and Leonardo turned, and Moth felt an assuring grin form her lips.
Master Michaelangelo was here.
And he looked pretty damn angry... Like he mano-a-mano with the bear again.
Man, the story actually a few chapters from being over...