Master Splinter
*Master Splinter's POV*
'No' walked back to her corner and my sons have settled down to sleep. I think about my troubles deeply. 'No' has been troubled with the pain of vivisection many times, and I have dealt with it once. When I was only a rat, my master was gone about a week and asked a child next door to take care of me while he was away. Both the child and his father were very dark people, and the child brought me to his father and cried, "Daddy, daddy! Take apart this rat; I wanna see how he's alive!" The father took me, and I saw a malevolent glint in his eye.
"Now now, son, if I take it apart so we can see how it works you must tell nobody. Understood?" Even before the child began to nod the father had begun to take out his tools of torture. Finally they had cut me open, destroyed me. There was nothing to numb the pain, and their laughs still haunt my nightmares. Luckily, I healed physically afterward, but they made me distrust many, and made me try to be the best father I could. What really worries me though is not the pain it could cause, but how it could affect my sons. 'No' is probably not born mute, but has gone mute by choice. And the empty look in her eyes, as if she has rid herself of a soul so she could hurt no more… I couldn't let it happen to my sons. I know firsthand the terror it brings, and if that were to be given to any of my beloved sons… No. I cannot let that happen. I know we cannot escape from here alive, without being vivisected. Maybe it is best if my sons do not live to go through that hell. How she acts about vivisections, as if they are nothing to worry about, nothing out of the ordinary, troubles me. If that were to happen to my sons, if they were to become empty bodies that simply do anyone's bidding… I must do what I can to stop that from happening. Maybe it would be best if I ended their lives, so they could not feel that pain. Maybe I should find a way to take their lives quickly and painlessly, rather than have them suffer through this hell. I am interrupted from my thoughts with a tap on my shoulder. I whip around, ready to fight, but calm when I see it is only 'No'.
"What is it child?" I ask quietly, and she settles down and looks me in the eyes. There's a faint light in here, I don't know where it comes from, but it makes her eyes twinkle a little, like she's been crying. I ask a question that's been on my mind a little while. "Are you mute?" Her shadow gives the 'sort of' hand signal, and I fix my question. "Are you mute by choice?" She nods vigorously. "Okay then. What is it that's wrong?" She looks at me again, dead in the eyes, points to my sons, then looks back at me and draws her finger across her throat, as if she had read my mind. She then shakes her head violently, and the message is clear to me. Don't kill them. "How did you…?" I ask her in wonder, surprised she had seemingly known my thoughts. She gives a smile and taps her head, saying I'm no idiot. I think too. She then looks for something and mimes pulling the papers out of her pocket earlier. In understanding, I pull out the slip of paper she had given me, and she takes, it, looks into my eyes, and points at it again. Hope. She's telling me to hope. I nod in understanding, and am surprised to be given a hug. It's like she's reminding me one last time, wanting me to promise I won't give up hope. She breaks the hug and gives me an expectant look. She is looking for that promise. "I will always hope." I say to her. This calms whatever fears she had, and she quickly mimes sleep and goes back to her corner.
I lay down again as well. I should hope, for I have now made a promise to always hope. Feeling like a weight as been lifted, I finally let sleep engulf me.
*Leo's POV*
I wake to someone poking me on the arm. I whip up, ready to kill, but see that, rather than some enemy, it is only 'No'. "Hey No," I mumble. She smiles in the dark and goes on to wake my brothers and father with the same poke.
"What is it?" Mikey asks tiredly, and she pretends to shield her eyes from a blinding light, then counts down on her fingers from five. At zero the light in the room comes on, and we all quickly mimic her in hiding our eyes from the bright light. We all adjust to the brightness and she points at the door. We hear footsteps, and a flap we didn't notice earlier opens up and brings us some breakfast. 'No' Promises it's edible by taking a few bites and nodding, and soon we all calm and eat quietly. Mikey starts to joke around and gets us all laughing, including 'No', who has a light laugh. Eventually Donny enters the little world inside his head, no doubt trying to figure a way out of this hell. Raph's already looking like he's ready to murder Mikey for any reason he's given, but we all know –even Raph does- that we can't fight right now, we need to try to stay together. The day does on rather blandly, but I guess we're very lucky, for when a dinner comes 'No' is quite surprised. We all relax and begin to tell her what we've done, and with her eyes wide as saucers through our stories, it's a great change from the usual. After we tell finish telling her about our first meeting with the Shredder, there's the beep and she counts down again, counting away the seconds to darkness.
How few there seem to be of those nowadays.