Chapter Ten – Small Results
There was nothing but the 'click' 'clack' of someone's shoes on the cold floor as they walked down the hallway. The hallway had nothing within it except several doorways that passed in a blur as he continued down the long, narrow, brightly lit hallway. His shoulders were hunched a little forward in anger as he earlier found out the news about the prisoner's plans and actions. He got to the end of the hallway seething with anger, he yanked open the door causing it to slam into the wall with a big 'bang' nearly ripping it off its hinges. He stomped into the room, and walked over to the cloaked girl that was sitting in a small chair surrounded by four Kraang by the conference table. He slammed his fists down hard onto the table causing the girl to flinch away from his clenching fists.
"What did you tell her!?" Gilgamesh asked her with clenched teeth while slamming down his fists again.
The girl just stared at one spot on the table complete ignoring his question. She slowly breathed in and let it out with a long yawn; she removed her hood and let it fall down gently onto her shoulders. She raised her gaze up towards Gilgamesh's face and stopped when she saw his eyes that were full with seething anger.
"I don't know what you're talking about…." The girl whispered calmly looking away from Gilgamesh.
"Yes, you do, stop stalling!" Gilgamesh yelled. "Your so called plan on trying to help Jasmine isn't going to provide anything for her or for yourself!"
Again, the girl just stared off into space completely ignoring him, but this time Gilgamesh lost his patience and reached across the table. He brought his hand back; open palmed, and smacked the girl across the face. This sudden action from him surprised the girl almost causing her to fall out of her chair. She sat there for a couple of seconds holding her cheek in disbelieve, she has never been struck like that from Gilgamesh even when he was raging with anger and hatred towards her. She slowly took her hand away from her now swollen cheek and set it back into her lap, she had to find a way to help Jasmine again without Gilgamesh finding out this time. She had to and from the looks of it; it has to be sometime soon.
"Now let me repeat my question, what did you tell her!?" Gilgamesh asked tensely as he leaned over the table.
She looked up back at Gilgamesh with a determined look and said, "Like I said before, I don't know what you're talking about, in fact it sounds like gibberish to me!"
She continued to look at him with that determined look but unfortunately he could see right through her little white lie. Gilgamesh just sighed and stood back up next to the table while keeping one of his hands on the table, completely flat against it. He looked past her and slightly nodded at one of the Kraang guards. All of the sudden one of the guards grabbed her by the arm and tried to get her to stand up but she stayed fought back and stayed put. This completely ticked off Gilgamesh causing him to rush around the table, grabbing her by the arm and with all of his strength he yanked her out of her chair. She yelped in pain as her arm almost popped out of its socket, several tears started to stream down the girls face leaving behind trails in the dirt that was caked on her face from lack of hygiene. Gilgamesh ignored her cries of pain and dragged her towards the door that is in the back of the room that was hidden by the shadows. Once the girl saw the door her eyes widened and she completely lost her determination, she tried to loosen his grip with kicking and screaming but it just made Gilgamesh's grasp to tighten even more.
"NO! Don't take me in there! I seriously don't know what you were talking about back there! Please, just don't take me in there with that—that—vile girl!" the girl yelled at him still trying to break free of his grasp.
Gilgamesh suddenly stopped in his tracks and stood there for a couple of minutes. He finally looked down at her with a serious look while loosening his grip a little bit and said, "So you finally see it my way, hmm?"
She nodded her head, slowly, agreeing with his comment. He started to smile but not with his usual smile, this time it gave off this sense of pure evil causing the girl to flinch away from his grasp once again. He dragged her back towards the chair where she was just sitting and made her pick up the chair and sit back in it. Once again she was surrounded by her 'body' guards as Gilgamesh sat on the edge of the table and calmly put his hands in his lap.
"Now, tell me what you know about her," Gilgamesh said calmly as he looked at the girl with a creepy stare.
The girl sat there for a couple of seconds trying to find out a way how she could tell him some information that wouldn't give too much away and that wouldn't send her back into that horrific room that held her worst fear. She sighed and slowly said, "Jasmine is something…special…."
"What do you mean…special!?" Gilgamesh asked with curiosity.
"I mean special by her loyalty and true heart….and most of all her spirit and her necklace," The girl said with confidence. "For her this world is going to be the hardest one she has ever faced, most people that have tried to find the last pendant end up losing their humanity, many hearts have been poisoned or broken, but for her there is still hope…."
Gilgamesh looked at the girl with curiosity but with confusion as well. He hopped off of the table and got eye to eye with her. Her eyes were glazed over as she stared off into space. Just as he thought, this is about the third time she had done that and for some reason it's whenever she started to talk to him about Jasmine; it's almost as if someone was speaking through her. He stood back up and started to walk towards the door completely giving up on the investigation for today but just as he was about a foot away from the door, the girl suddenly jumped out of her seat. The Kraang beside her readied their guns and pointed them at their victim.
"GILGAMESH!" the girl yelled.
He turned around and stared at the girl even from this distance he could tell that the young girl snapped out of her trance and is now speaking for herself.
"Let me tell you this…you're not going to get away with this—this—plan of yours because one day something will happen, something that you will deeply regret, something that you will blame yourself for, a painful emotion that even you will find it hard to escape, this something will be your downfall and it will be the thing that Jasmine needs in order to defeat you for good!" the girl said.
Gilgamesh chuckled at the girl's threatening comment and turned to walk out the door while saying, "In your dreams, Haleigh. In. Your. Dreams. And since you seem to be so confident right now why don't you spend a nice, little, quiet night in that room over there and then we will see in the morning how you truly feel about Jasmine's so called spirit." After hearing that comment, Haleigh's eyes got really big, one of the guards grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off towards the room with her screaming all the way there. As Gilgamesh walked out of the room and down the brightly light hallway again a small feeling started to creep into his body, he has never felt this feeling before especially after being threatened by a 16 year old girl. What is happening to him? He thought to himself.
Wind grabbed at Jasmine's coat as if it was trying to rip it right off of her body. She wrapped her coat even tighter around her waist while scooting closer to Leo trying to get warm within the cold, freezing night. They walked along the rooftops towards her apartment with the rest of the team following from behind. Since something happened before they could get to her apartment last time, they decided they would try a second time and maybe be more successful. After a couple of blocks, Carmen walked up by Jasmine and Leo while her sister stayed behind with the rest of the team. Once Carmen was close enough she could just barely make out the outline to what it looked like to her two hands locked together. Once she saw that she chuckled to herself and thought, I knew something was going on between those two. She walked up to Jasmine and started to walk beside her.
"So why are we going to your apartment again?" Carmen asked her still a little confused on the situation.
Jasmine looked at her and said, "Well, for one thing my cat is still there and is probably ransacking my room for food as we speak and I want to get a couple of things that are important to me. Do you get it now?"
"Yeah, thanks…anyways…" Carmen started to say but was immediately interrupted by a screaming Ruby as she ran away from Mikey who had another water balloon in his hand. This went on for a couple of seconds until Ruby somehow tripped over herself and fell to the ground next thing she knew she was drenched in water head to toe. She started to laugh until she couldn't breathe and happy tears were streaming down her face.
"It's hard to believe that literally a few hours ago Ruby was on the couch on the verge of death pretty much…." Jasmine said to no one in particular.
"Yeah, but I'm glad that she's alright, I don't know what I do without her sometimes…even though she can be a major pain in the butt," Carmen responded.
Carmen's last comment made Jasmine and Leo laugh a little, bringing smiles to their faces. They continued to talk about anything and everything until they were getting close to Jasmine's apartment. Jasmine suggested to the turtles they should probably enter through the door that connects to the balcony on her floor so they wouldn't cause a commotion. They agreed and Jasmine, Ruby, and Carmen walk down the fire escape and entered through the front door of the building as the turtles stayed on the roof until Jasmine let them in through her bedroom door. It took several minutes for the girls to get up to Jasmine's floor and to get into her apartment to let them in, as they entered the apartment Jasmine's cat greeted them with a small meow as if he knew that they were coming. Jasmine walked over to the balcony and opened the door; she yelled up to them so that they could come in, they jumped down onto the ledge and walked in.
"So this is what your apartment looks like!" Mikey said as he checked out the layout of her apartment.
"It's not that much Mikey…well, compared to some of the other apartments here in New York…." Jasmine explained to him.
As everybody checked out Jasmine's apartment Carmen decided to plop down onto the fluffy, soft couch that was facing the TV and said, "Phew…That sure was a long walk, huh?"
"For you, maybe…" Raph said with a hint of sarcasm while looking at some family pictures on one of the walls.
Carmen gave Raph a sour look and then sighed, "Ehh…Whatever…." She laid down and put her head on top of her arms and closed her eyes. Slowly her breathing turned to slow even breaths as her body, mind, and soul went to sleep.
"Wow! That didn't take her long…." Raph said while walking towards a door in the back of the living room. Jasmine turned around at the right moment and saw him walking towards her secret door.
"NO! Don't go in there!" Jasmine yelled just as Raph put his hand on the door handle. "Please…."
"Why!?" Raph asked taking his hand off the handle.
Jasmine walked over to him while the others stopped what they were doing and went to join Raph and Jasmine.
"B-Because…umm…let's just say there something very important in there and well…It's also very special to me…" Jasmine tried to explain while tapping two fingers together in embarrassment.
All of the sudden everybody was up and in her space asking her everything and anything about what's in there, she started to back up but bumped into the door. She was now surrounded by her curious friends; they kept pressuring her into opening until she finally gave in.
"Alright….I'll open it…." Jasmine sighed.
"Yay!" Mikey and Ruby screamed making Jasmine plug her ears with her hands.
"Ugh…do you guys have to be so loud!" Jasmine complained while turning around to face the door. She turned the door handle slowly and then opened the door backing up in the process so she could swing it all the way open.
Behind the door was a small closet that held several coats and jackets that were hung up neatly, a couple pair of shoes were on the floor not in any particular order. There were also, a few boxes that were shoved up on the ledge that was put in above the jackets and coats to provide more storage space.
"So this was what you were trying to hide?" Raph asked with a hint of sarcasm.
Jasmine just rolled her eyes at Raph's comment and reached up to one of the boxes that were stored up above the coats. She gently took it off, turned around and showed it to her friends that were anxious to find out what she was hiding. It was a small, square box that opened from the top and was decorated in small unknown characters that said something that only Jasmine knew what it meant, it also had a faded painting of a symbol on the top of the lid. Jasmine blew the dust off of it and went to go sit down on a chair that was next to the sleeping Carmen. The others did the same and waited for Jasmine to explain of what was in the box. As Donnie went to go get a seat he saw the symbol that was on top of the box that Jasmine was still trying to dust it off.
"hmm…hey, Jasmine, can I see that box for a minute?" Donnie asked while something tickled at the back of his mind.
"Yeah, I don't see why not," Jasmine replied.
Donnie took the box from Jasmine's hands and went to go sit down beside Mikey, while he sat there Jasmine started to explain where she got that box and what was within it.
"There's one memory that I haven't told you guys yet, in fact I haven't told anyone about it not even Carmen, whom I trust my life with…anyways, from what I can remember it was my mother that gave me that box-" Jasmine said.
"Wait…didn't you tell me and Carmen that you had a stepmother?" Ruby asked while interrupting her.
"Yeah, I do…but my real mother gave me that box, my memory is still little fuzzy but I distinctly remember getting that box from her and this necklace before she died…." Jasmine said answering Ruby's question. "Hey, Donnie, can I have it back, so that I can show you guys what it is."
"Huh?...oh, yeah sure," Donnie said while passing the box back to her. "For some reason I feel like I have seen that symbol somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it."
"Really!? Huh…well why you think about that…" Jasmine said opening the box. Everybody leaned in closer to her trying to see what the mystery item was. She put the lid onto the coffee table and took out the item; it was a very ancient golden harp. The harp had several lines and spirals etched into the metal all over the exterior of the instrument, the very top edges of it swirled until they couldn't swirl anymore, and at the very bottom of the base of the harp it has the same exact symbol that was on top of the box except you could see every detail of it.
"Whooaaa…." Everybody said at once.
"Can I touch it?" Mikey asked while raising a hand getting ready to take it from Jasmine's grasp.
"NO!" Raph yelled at Mikey swatting his hand away from the harp.
"Ah-ha!" Donnie yelled holding one finger in the air while startling everybody else in the room. "Now I remember where I saw that symbol before, it's the same one we saw on the tree the night when Jasmine had that weird trance!"
"What!? That's the same symbol?" Leo asked making sure Donnie had it right.
"Yeah, it's the same one alright; don't you see the lines that are designed on it? It's an exact replica of the one that was carved into the tree…." Donnie explained while pointing a finger at the symbol on the harp.
"Really!? Wow…that's really weird….I wonder if this has anything to do with my mother's side of the family…." Jasmine said to no in particular.
"Can you play it?" Ruby asked.
"Umm…no…but I have checked to see it if was tuned and the weird thing is whenever I would check its always been in tune even though I have had it for about ten years now and my necklace starts to glow too…." Jasmine replied while setting it onto the coffee table.
"Awww, I wanted you to play it…." Ruby complained. "Oh wells."
"So your necklace or I should say your pendants glow when you just strum the harp?" Donnie asked Jasmine.
"Yeah…the first time it did that, it freaked me out!" Jasmine said.
"Could you try strumming the harp, maybe your necklace will react again," Leo asked her.
"Yeah, sure," Jasmine replied while picking up the harp gently. She scooted forward onto the edge of her chair and got ready to strum the harp. She took in a slow breath and gently went from the left side to the right side of the harp making it do a scale from highest to lowest. As she did that her necklace gave off a small glow, just enough for everyone to see it. It got dead silent in the room except for Carmen's slow breathing as the necklace started to fade after Jasmine stopped playing the harp.
"Well, that answers my question," Leo said.
"Wow…I never have seen anything like this," Donnie said while stroking his chin. "Are you going to take it back to the lair?"
"Well, duh…I mean it's the one of the two things that I got from my real mom so, that's a definite yes…." Jasmine replied. "But that's not the only thing I want to take back."
"What else did you have in mind?" Leo asked her as she got up from her spot and walked over to the wall that held her family pictures.
"Well, I was thinking about taking this photo of my family," Jasmine said as she looked at the pictures trying to figure out which on she wanted to take with her. "Hmm…."
"How about this one?" Mikey said while taking one of them down from the wall. He handed over to Jasmine and she smiled as she looked at the picture.
"I remember this…" Jasmine chuckled. "It was when me, my father, and my stepmom went to Cedar Point. We pretty much rode all of the roller coaster there well…except for the Dragster, my dad got to scared and chickened out but I didn't blame him, after all, it was the tallest ride there…."
"How tall was it?" Raph asked while looking at the picture.
"I think it's about 420 feet tall," Jasmine replied holding her finger to her chin.
"Wow, that's really tall," Mikey said. "Let's go there!"
"I don't think so, Mikey," Jasmine chuckled. "It's not the cheapest thing in the world, in fact, the only way I could go if I accepted that was my only present for my birthday that year."
"Looks like you had a lot of fun," Leo said as he looked at the picture over her shoulder.
"Yeah, I did," Jasmine said. "I think I'm going to take this one….ohh crap, I forgot something in my room…." She walked over to her bedroom door and entered her room; there were a few noises as she looked around her room for the thing she wanted. "Ah-ha there it is!" She walked out of her bedroom carrying a small traveling bag, a sketch pad, drawing pencil kit, and a couple of other drawing things that she needed.
"I didn't know you could draw!?" Leo said surprisingly.
"Yeah, I do it for fun or when I'm stressed but I don't think I'm that good…." Jasmine said while putting her supplies in her bag.
"Umm…I wouldn't say that, Jasmine, you're not giving yourself enough credit," Ruby said while standing up. "If you want to see her drawings just look at this."
Ruby handed the framed picture to Leo and walked into the kitchen. Mikey and Raph came to look at the drawing that Leo was holding in his hand. It was a nature scene of the beach with some small sailboats in the background at sunset.
"Wow! This really good! Why would you say that you're a horrible artist?" Donnie asked.
"Well…" Jasmine said. "I don't know…I just think I could improve a lot more, and I mean a lot…."
"Well at least you're pursuing it, instead of slacking off like someone else I know that does that sometimes," Leo said while looking at Mikey that was standing behind him.
"What!?" Mikey complained.
Jasmine laughed as Ruby walked back into the living room and suggested, "don't you think we should probably heading out soon, the sun is coming up in a couple of hours."
"Yeah, we probably should but whose going to wake up sleeping beauty over there?" Raph said while pointing at Carmen.
Jasmine and Ruby looked at each other. "Nose goes!" Jasmine yelled while quickly putting her finger on her nose. Ruby immediately put her finger on the tip of her nose but she was too slow and Jasmine beat her by a tenth of a second. "Ha!" Jasmine taunted while pointing her finger at Ruby.
"Awww man!" Ruby complained. "Why me! The last time I did it she nearly ripped my head off."
"Snooze you lose!" Jasmine replied while picking up her bag. "I'm going downstairs I'll wait for you there, I don't want to be around when she wakes up…."
"What does she do?" Leo asked Ruby and Jasmine.
The two girls look at each other again and Jasmine replied, "Let's just say she's not the happiest person you've met when you have to wake her up…."
"Makes sense, she does have a small temper," Raph said.
"Yeah, well she's worse when you have to force her to wake up, trust me I have learned the hard way, unfortunately…." Jasmine said. "anyways, are you going to wake her up?"
"Yeah….hang on," Ruby said as she walked up to Carmen. "Hey! CARMEN! WAKE UP!" Carmen just laid there completely motionless except for the occasional rise and fall from her breathing.
"Wow, she's out cold," Mikey said while poking her in the side.
"Uhhh...I wouldn't do that if I were you…." Jasmine warned Mikey.
"Why?" Mikey said still poking Carmen in the side. Carmen suddenly twitched in her sleep and ended up kneeing Mikey in the stomach.
"That's why," Jasmine said.
"Good point…." Mikey said while holding his stomach and held up one finger in the air.
Everybody started to laugh at Mikey as Carmen started to stir in her sleep. She stretched her arms over her head and stood up to get the sleepiness out of her body.
"Hey, you're up!" Ruby said. "Now my head won't get kicked in!"
"Huh? What are you talking about, Ruby?" Carmen asked her while rubbing some of the sleepiness out of her eyes.
"Oh…nothing…." Ruby said. "Okay, Let's GO!"
The sun started to peak through the horizon as the group of teens walked along the rooftops again heading back towards the lair. In a couple of minutes they walked down a fire escape and walked back into an alley. They walked up to a manhole and opened it up, first Donnie, then Carmen, Ruby, Raph, and Mikey; lastly there was only Leo and Jasmine by the manhole. Jasmine was about to jump into the sewers when Leo grabbed her hand stopping her from doing it.
"Hey…" Leo whispered.
"Huh, yeah, what is it-" Jasmine asked softly but was immediately interrupted by Leo as he suddenly pushed his lips against hers completely taking her by surprise. She stood there for a couple of seconds, dazed and a little confused, but she didn't care, she leaned in a little closer to Leo and wrapped her arms around his head, she was a little surprised that his lips didn't feel like well…like…turtle lips they actually felt like normal human lips but she didn't care at that moment. To her it felt like her world was melting around her, she didn't want it to end but Leo slowly moved his head away from hers unlocking their kiss. He put his forehead onto hers and sighed, Jasmine laughed and smiled sweetly, she couldn't believe that just happened to her. They stood there for a couple of minutes both of them not wanting to move from that spot.
"That's what I have been wanting to tell you for a while now…." Leo said while stroking her cheek gently.
But unfortunately before Jasmine could say anything, a couple of seconds later, Mikey yelled up to them asking them if they were going to come down there. Leo and Jasmine laughed and pulled apart from each other, Jasmine smiled at Leo again and then disappeared into the sewers. Leo jumped in after her; neither of them is going to forget that evening as they walked together back to the lair secretly holding hands.
YAY! I'm done! :happybounce: I'm sry it took so long like I said in my journal I had a slight problem again ^^; but I got through once I had this amazing idea! XD to be honest I'm not sure if I wanted to do the last part but then I was like why not so I hopes you enjoy this chapter! ^/^