Chapter 8

Chapter Song: In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin

Miranda stood in the large shower, hot water running all over her as all the dirt, rocks, blood and mud trickled down her body.

Miranda had seemingly done the impossible and escaped death's clutches. She had broken out of the coffin the Wutang Clan buried her in and dug her way out of the ground. She didn't expect Charles Hughes, the president and owner of Color Hughes Advertising and also a mole leaking information about the Wutang Clan to her, to be there as he helped pull her out of her grave as he took her into his limo and brought her to his apartment to help her. She didn't really protest, her muscles were sore, she was tired and very dirty.

She placed her head in the stream of water as she heard rocks land on the floor below. She parted the hair from her vision as she looked around the shower. For a rich guy, his shower wasn't as highly advanced as most rich people would have, it didn't have five openings where water would spray at you from all sides, the shower head itself gave out this nice stream of water that was enough to cover her body. She saw that a small shelf that held, neatly, a wash rag, a small bottle of shampoo, a bar of soap with the paper around it. The walls of the shower were white in front of her and on her right side, behind her and to her left were glass walls that distorted the view from inside and out.

Miranda took the soap and began to use it to clean out any spot the water couldn't clean of dirt, she needed this shower like you wouldn't believe, considering the day she had. She then realized she had no idea how long she had been in that coffin, she made a note to ask Mr. Hughes once she got out. She applied the soap to her face as the face paint she applied was already covered from the dirt, both of which ran down her body along with the suds. She took the shampoo bottle and gave her hair a deep cleaning, she didn't really care if her hair got dirty or not, she use to lie in tall grass and let bugs run up her head and not care, at least until her mother freaked out and forced her to wash out her hair and wear a hat from then on whenever she went out.

Miranda let all these thoughts and suds wash down the drain as she then lowered her head to the wall, letting the hot water run down her backside as her mind thought back to being in the presence of the Rizza and she could have headbutted him or used her teeth to grab his nose, literally anything to make him bleed. She then realized that wouldn't have happened if she would have looked at the drugged cigarette Wesley gave her instead of dwelling on other matters. It made her angry that she punched the wall, causing her to yell in pain as she quickly grabbed her hand as she slid down to the floor. She finally opened her eyes from the pain as she looked at how raw her knuckles were, the skin had been peeled and her flesh looked damaged. Even back in Tokyo when Shredder had her punching wood for training, her hand never looked this raw.

This was the kind of injury that showed she was fighting for her life.

"Is everything all right in there?" She heard Charles' voice from outside the bathroom call in. She looked up as she finally stood up, taking the soap in her other hand to clean out her other areas of dirt.

"Y-Yeah. Where's th' first aid?" Miranda called back.

"Behind the mirror over the sink. You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, it's nothin' I can't handle."

"All right. Do you want some green tea?" Charles called through the door, Miranda was never one for Green tea, but after the time she had, green tea sounded amazing to her right now.

"Yeah, yeah that sounds good Mr. Hughes." Miranda called back as she heard him walking away. She may have been showering, but she kept her other senses open trying to hear in case he may have been trying to peak on her.

Eventually, Miranda turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, near the door was a shelf of clean white towels and a few bathrobes. She took the towel first as she dried her body off, being careful around her hand, as she dried off her hair, walking over to the mirror and opened it up looking for medical gauze strips and medical tape to hold the gauze on her injury. Once she did that, she put everything back and closed the mirror, looking the mirror itself, Miranda had finally noticed how thin she looked. She had meat on those bones, don't get her wrong, but she really didn't look that great, she looked tired and she felt like shit. She had the body that any girl would kill for, but Miranda knew first hand that consequences of "killing for" a body like this, looking at her hand as proof.

Miranda eventually wrapped the towel around her hair as she took the bath robe and covered her naked body with it. Looking around the bathroom, it too was really boring. Light blue paint, tile flooring, one medium size portrait of the ocean, geez, there was practically no life to this bathroom. It felt as though he had hired someone to decorate this room but he added nothing to it that said anything about himself, apart from shaving creams and cologne. Miranda looked down at the floor and noticed she just threw her muddy clothing right there, along with her undergarments which she was surprised to also get soaked in mud and dirt. She bundled them up and looked around for some hamper or a place to place them so Charles wouldn't touch them. Just as she was looking around, she heard another knock at the door.

"Yes?" Miranda responded.

"Your tea is ready Miranda." Charles said through the door.

"Thank you Mr. Hughes…" Miranda said, she looked down at her clothing, no way she was going to wear this dirty thing or the bath robe with him. She still wasn't exactly going to trust him after what she went through; it was his own bodyguard that betrayed her to the Wutang Clan, even though he insisted he had nothing to do with that kidnapping, she couldn't afford to be too careful, but she felt the need to ask, "Um, Mr Hughes, ya wouldn't happen t' have anything clean I can wear would ya?"

"I might have a pair of pajamas that may fit your size, it's conservative wear so it won't be anything too revealing." He said behind the door. "You see the white handle connected to a shelf?" Miranda looked around until she found one close to where she had original thrown her dirty clothes at.

"Yeah."

"Just pull it out and place your clothing there, the building's laundry team will have it clean by the morning." he said calmly through the door. Miranda pulled out the shelf, she first checked her pockets to ensure there was anything of value in them to be kept. She found none so she placed it in this laundry shelf as she pushed it back into the wall and heard her clothing going down a tube.

"Okay, open th' door a crack and pass the pajamas to me." Miranda said, Charles did as she asked, never so much as even looking in the direction of the door opening, Miranda took the pajamas as he closed the door behind him and walked away, Miranda removed the bath robe and tried on these pajamas.

Charles placed the tray with a tea kettle and glass cups on the glass coffee table in front of a luxurious couch that that also bent to a 90 degree angle. Charles' penthouse was nothing to brag about. it was big, sure and he spared no expense to make it look classy, but it didn't exactly say anything about him, minus several statues that resembled chess pieces, even on his coffee table, there was a checkerboard with chess pieces on each side, looking ready and willing to play.

The rest of his penthouse, was just as you would expect, large windows that showed the glamor of New York City's night life, glass chandeliers, a porch and a swimming pool, but the reality of it was that this was all for show, Charles never really used much of this stuff, he just didn't have the time. It was a saturation of light blue colors for the walls that really showed him as a dull, dull uninteresting person that he wanted you to think of him as.

Miranda eventually came out of the bathroom, a towel still on her head with the dark blue pajamas on her body. They were a little big for her, but at least they were large enough to hide her naked body.

"The tea is right here, Miranda, please have a seat." Charles said calmly, Miranda noticed he had removed his business jacket and had rolled his collared shirt sleeves up to his elbows. His hair didn't seem to want to stay slicked back so he used his finger to push it to the side instead of up his head. These details weren't really that important, but very rarely had she ever seen Charles look like this out in his office or in the streets.

"Thank you…" Miranda said as she walked over to the couch and sat behind one side of the coffee table that housed a side of white chess pieces. Charles took the kettle and poured green tea into one of the cup and calmly handed it to Miranda. She gently took it and sipped down, tea was never her favorite drink, but right now, she needed anything. She saw a blanket near her as she gently took it and wrapped it over her shoulders, Charles didn't seem to protest about this. "How…how long was I…?"

"The Wutang Clan held you in their captivity for two days, you were underground for almost 27 hours…" Charles said softly, Miranda was shocked to hear she had survived for that long, guess her luck was better than she thought it was.

"Are you hungry at all?" Charles said calmly. This was definitely different, Charles was mostly reserved and seemed to not care at all, but now he seemed actually worried. Perhaps this stemmed from guilt knowing it was his own manservant that had her betrayed or that she had passed out in his limousine on the way to his penthouse, the guesses were ongoing.

"Yeah actually I am…" Miranda said, Charles nodded as he made his way to the kitchen. Miranda looked around this penthouse suite and noticed the only things that stood out as looking like it had actually been chosen were all the Chess related art. She sat there silently, drinking her tea and watching the rain pour outside the windows as something she had nearly forgotten popped into her mind while sitting here looking at the chess pieces, almost like the pieces finally clicked in her head from last week when Donatello was searching for Charles' personal history. Charles returned to the couch with a plate of sandwiches, from the looks of it, turkey sandwiches, but each one cut at a 45 degree angle.

"Here, hope you're not a vegetarian." Charles said as Miranda took one of the sandwiches and bit off the end, a little too much mustard, but otherwise, not bad.

"Thank you…Harold." Miranda said, Charles seemed to freeze as he reached for his cup of tea before slowly grabbing it in his hand and lifting it towards him.

"You're welcome, but I've never once been named 'Harold' before." Charles said, Miranda could tell he was lying, time to press him.

"I know who ya really are, Harold Lundegaard, yer missing child report said ya were an avid fan of chess, th' chess memorabilia gave ya away." Charles didn't really respond to this, but he just gave a sort of bemused smirk as he sipped his tea.

"All right, I'm game, if I am who you say I am, then how would you know about this passion for chess when that missing child report went missing years ago?" Charles said, Miranda calmly sipped her tea.

"Let's say yer sources may be good, but mine are better. Ya may have deleted th' report, but you forgot t' remove th' Minnesota newspaper clippings from th' records." Miranda said, she stared at him, trying to get a reaction to see if her theory was correct. Charles just stared at her before finally cracking his straight face into a grin as he shook his head and chuckled.

"Gotta hand it to ya Miranda, you're far smarter than I took you for." Charles said, but his flat tone was dropped, in fact, it was clear she had broken his ruse, his Minnesota roots clearly leaking out through his accent as the sing-song tone of Northern Minnesota was clearly indicating his origins, Miranda smiled at her victory as she took another bite of her sandwich, she was starting to realize how hungry she was.

"So, you went from a th' son of a middle-class farm hand worker t' running one of th' biggest advertising agencies in th' country, how did ya pull that off, I gotta ask." Miranda said as Charles finished his tea.

"Ooh, well, when I ran away from home, I made my way south, taking on small jobs to pay for food and what have ya. Eventually I made my way to a prep school and managed to meld with all the other students by copying some cripple kid's identification." Charles said, laying back against the couch, a sort of smile on his face to be able to be open like this to someone and not have to pretend to be someone he's not.

"Hmm, so how'd ya get th' name Charles Hughes, Mr. Lundegaard?" Miranda asked, finishing her sandwich and reaching for another one.

"I took the names of the most successful businessmen I looked up to when I was in the prep school; Charles Foster Kane and Howard Hughes. I knew that if everyone knew I was born of humble roots, I wouldn't be taken as seriously, so as I built my reputation and my wealth, I made careful steps to make sure my past couldn't be dug up." Charles said.

"Well, ya definitely took clever steps t' hide it, fer th' most part." Miranda said before taking another bite of her sandwich, "but why did ya run away from home?" Charles smile slowly faded as he looked down to his tea cup.

"Around the time, my mother had died, leaving me, my two brothers and my younger sister with my father. Mind you, I had no ill-qualms against my father, he never laid a hand on any of us, though God knows we had it comin', he never drank, he never gambled, but things were really hard after my mother died. He had to work longer hours to support all of us." Charles grew silent for a moment as Miranda silently ate her sandwich to listen to him. "He lost his job on my 13th birthday after an on sight accident. Dad wanted to sue but he couldn't afford a lawyer. It was a really miserable birthday, first of many for me. I made the decision that it would be easier for my dad if there was one less mouth to feed, so at night, I ran away, my sister Lindsey caught me so I told her I was going job-searching to help dad and she believed me…that was the last actual conversation I had with her…"

"When was th' last time you saw yer sister?" Miranda questioned.

"May 2007, my father had died and I came to pay my respects as well as to pay for his funeral, but my brothers and sister didn't even recognize me and they shooed me away…that was the last time I saw my family…" Charles then looked back to Miranda, "of course I still paid for the funeral by sending them money through fake names to make them think they had a lot of people who had sympathy for their loss…but still…I just couldn't bear to tell them I was their long-lost brother…there was so much pain from dad's death that I couldn't let focus their anger on me…" Miranda put down her half-eaten sandwich as she moved a bit closer to Charles and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever pain you caused yer family in th' past, they would have been more than happy t' know their brother wasn' dead an that he was doing really well fer himself." Miranda said calmly. He looked like he was ready to cry, but he never allowed himself to, he was allowing himself to be himself but he still imposed control for himself.

"Sigh* I dunno…just something in the way Lindsey looked at me when I came to Dad's funeral…" Charles turned his head to look at Miranda, "was practically the same look on your face when I offered my hand to pull you out of the grave…" Finally, something clicked in Miranda's head as the pieces fell together.

"Do I…remind you of yer sister?" Miranda asked, Charles looked at her for a moment before finally nodding. "Thought so, no one as heartless as ya act like would be this nice t' someone ya barely know- outside of background search…" Miranda quickly added before Charles could say so.

"Lindsey was a very tenacious person, very outspoken and stern, but could also be gentle and soft when the situation called for it. So yeah, you aren't wrong when you remind me of my sister." Miranda wasn't sure what to say to this, so she said the only thing that came to her mind as her eyes turned to the chess pieces on the table.

"Want t' play a game?"

Light shining through the windows woke Miranda from the best sleep she had for a good long time as she slowly stirred and sat up in this huge bed soft bed. At first, she initially panicked thinking she was tricked into having sex, but she looked under the covers to find her pajamas were still on. She looked around and found she was all alone, but on the table in the corner of the room, Miranda saw her clothes, clean, folded and neatly wrapped with a cleaning service insignia on it, but only only that, Miranda's eyes widened as she pulled back the covers and walked over to the table as she saw her prized jacket laying there along with her cleaned clothes. She grabbed the jacket as she hugged it close to her body. This was her father's jacket, she thought she had lost it when the Wutang Clan had kidnapped her. She looked down and saw most of her things that the Wutang Clan took from her when she was captured was here, all except for her katana blade.

She then noticed a note near all her things as she picked it up and read it, a $100 dollar bill slipping out as she looked at the note.

"Managed to get all this back from the Wutang Clan for you, Gizza refused to give up your sword.

I had to get to work early, breakfast is in the kitchen under a platter for you.

Here's $100 for cab fare, I suggest you stay low for a while.

Don't worry about your day life, I called your boss and notified them you've caught a bug and you're at home recovering.

- Harold

P.S. Tell anyone my real identity and I'll do worse than beat you 5 times at Chess."

Miranda gave a grin as she tore the note and began to take off the pajamas, it then came to her that the Wutang Clan were planning to destroy America's financial chain so they could introduce mass genocide to the country. She had to stop them, but she knew after the last time, she couldn't go in unprepared and without backup. She clenched her hand into a fist when she realized there was only one person who could help her stand a chance with the Wutang Clan…

"Miranda?! Oh my God, is that you? Where have you been? It's been nearly three days!" Leonardo said as Miranda stormed her way past Donatello and Leonardo without saying anything, but she had determination set on her mind.

"I was buried alive by th' Wutang Clan but I dug myself out, now please, excuse me." Miranda said as she walked past them, Raphael had turned a corner when he turned and saw Miranda, a look of surprise on his face.

"M-Miranda? Miranda, whatever I said-" Raphael began before Miranda slowed down and put her hands on the edges of his shell and looked him in the eye.

"Raph, right now, whatever we said t' one another means jack shit after all I've been through and what's gonna happen if I don't talk t' yer master, now please, where's Splinter?" Miranda said, Raphael was surprised that Miranda's first thing to say after returning was where Splinter was, but he recognized that look in her eye and he knew that whatever he had to say, it was going to have to wait.

"He's meditating in his room…" Raphael said pointing her int he right direction as she made her way to Splinter's room, opening the door and closing it behind her as she kicked off her boots before slowly approaching Splinter who say calmly in the middle of the room meditating.

"Well, I never expected you to come back here. The boys were genuinely worried about you, why then do you feel the need to bother me?" Splinter said without even looking at Miranda. Miranda said nothing but she dropped down to her knees and bowed her head low to Splinter.

"Please…I need yer help…." Miranda's voice cracked, it pained her pride to ask this rodent for help, but she didn't have a choice. Splinter broke his mediation as he slowly turned his body around and faced her bowing towards him.

"Well, this is new. Tell me, what brought you to stoop so low as to ask a 'rodent' to help you?" Splinter said, clearly still bitter about her comments from before.

"I…th Wutang Clan caught me off guard…they tortured me…an' they buried me alive…" Miranda said, trying to hold back tears from all she had been through, this was rather humiliating to her to have to kiss up to Splinter after all they had said between each other. Even though her head was down, she heard a small gasp escape from Splinter's mouth when she said she had been buried alive.

"B…buried you alive?" Miranda nodded.

"Yes…I only managed t' escape 'cause…'cause I didn't want t' die…" Miranda said.

"Not for revenge against the Wutang Clan or for your honor?" Splinter said, trying to see if this was just a ruse to humiliate him.

"Th' only thing that kept me punching at the coffin lid and digging to the top through th' dirt was to see my friends an' family again…including yer sons…" Miranda confessed.

"Then tell me…why did you come back here instead of your family and friends?" Splinter said.

"Splinter…I beseech you…teach me everything ya know about Shaolin and Wutang…cause if I can't stop them, then they'll destroy any resistance in their way t' mass genocide across th' country…please…I beg of you…Hamato Yoshi…" Miranda added before bowing her forehead to the ground wither hands forward. There was silence for a moment before Splinter got up and walk over to Miranda where he took his hand and lifted her head off the ground, tears already beginning to leak from her eyes.

"Know this…I know very little about Wutang fighting style and my Shaolin is incredibly rusty…but I can show you a way to use your enemies' abilities against each other…" Splinter said, Miranda straighted herself as she wiped her tears with her sleeve.

"Thank you…master…" Miranda replied to Splinter.