Chapter 8

Earlier...

Jayden had woken up from a nap and was almost immediately surrounded by the spicy scent of his mother's cooking. He made his way out of his room and down the stairs inhaling the scent of chili as he descended. The smell made his mouth water. "Smells great, Mom."

Jenna turned to her son and smiled. "Thank you, you can have some in a bit, but first can you give your uncle his food?" she pointed to a bowl sitting on a tray. "I put a bit of rice in there for him this time. Hopefully he can keep it down." since the incident, Raph hasn't been able to eat anything solid and sometimes he just refuses to eat at all. Because of this he's gotten smaller from the lack of any real nutrition.

"Alright, I'll be right back." Jayden grabbed the tray and headed for Raph's room. He opened the door all the way and stepped inside the dark room. "Uncle Raph?" he spoke softly. Raph was in the same position he was always in, curled up in a ball, under the blanket facing away from the door. "It's time to eat." he spoke up. Jayden moved closer to him and could hear soft crying.

His movements became a little quicker as he moved to the other side of the bed and placed the tray on the night stand. He then knelt down near him and turned the bedside lamp on. Raph's face was twisted in a look of anguish. His brow furrowed, his breathing was labored and he was covered in sweat. Jayden sighed as he realized that his uncle was having another nightmare. Normally his father would be the one handling something like this, but he wasn't here right now. He placed a hand on his shoulder and began to gently shake him, hopefully to coax him out of his restless sleep.

"No..." Raph moaned. "leave them."

"Uncle Raph, you gotta wake up." Jayden spoke gently to keep from scaring him.

"Let them go." he mumbled.

Just from those three words alone, Jayden knew what he was dreaming about. "Uncle Raph, nothing's wrong. Nothing's happening."

Raph wasn't hearing any of it. He began thrashing, getting tangled in his sheets, still locked in what ever nightmare he was having. Jayden sat at the edge of the bed and continued to try and rouse him. "Uncle, it's okay. You-" Jayden was suddenly cut off when he felt a sharp pain across his cheek. The force of what hit him was enough to knock him off the bed, to the floor. At first Jayden wasn't sure what happened until he looked up at his Uncle. He was wide awake, sitting up in bed and staring down at his hand with a pained expression on his face. Both of them knew at that point, Raph had struck him.

"J-Jayden, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean- I just..."

"Uncle Raph, it's okay." Jayden stood up, holding his cheek. "I'm fine."

Raph had a glazed look in his eye again, just like a week ago. Jayden noticed right away that Raph didn't hear a word he said. "... I d-didn't mean it." he continued mumbling to himself, dazed.

"I know you didn't and it's okay. I'm okay."

Raph shook his head furiously, got up out of bed and suddenly ran off.

"Wait!" Jayden called and followed him out the bedroom. "Come back." when he got to the door, Raph was already gone.

Kayla and Jenna both stood at the front door, looking out at the rain coming down. "What happened, Jayden?" Kayla turned to her older brother. "And what happened to your face?"

Jayden instinctively brought a hand up to his cheek. It was probably starting to bruise at this point. He sighed, knowing that his mother was going to freak once he explained what happened. "I tried waking Uncle Raph, so he could eat. He was having a nightmare so when he woke up, he lashed out and hit me."

"What?" Jenna snapped looking slightly confused and angry at the same time.

"It's not a big deal. I'm fine. Anyway, when he realized that he hit me, he freaked out and ran off." Jayden finished. "We have to go after him."

"You're not going anywhere." Jenna scolded. Raph was in a very fragile state right now and she didn't want him lashing out at Jayden again. "I'll call your father." she pulled her phone out of her pocket and called her husband. She was disappointed when he didn't pick up. "No answer."

"Wait..." Jayden said, taking out his own phone. "What about Warren? He could still be with Dad."

"Worth a shot."

Jayden found the name he was looking for in his contact list and waited patiently for an answer. "Hello."

"Warren, you're still with Dad, right?"

"Yeah, I am. Listen Jayden..."

"Uncle Raph is gone." Jayden blurted out cutting him off.

"Wait, what?" Warren asked. "What do you mean he's gone?"

"As in he ran off." Jayden explained quickly. " Look, I need you to put Dad on the phone. I need to tell him what's happening."

"Alright, hang on. But J, I'm letting you know now that you need to get out of the house." he said before handing the phone off, leaving Jayden slightly confused.

"Jayden?" he heard a new voice.

"Dad, Uncle Raph ran off." he explained. "If we hurry we can still find him."

Leo was silent for a second before giving an audible, frustrated sigh. "No Jayden, I'll find him. You need to get to the lair." Jayden didn't know, but he was trying to remain as calm as possible. "You remember where that is, don't you?"

"Well... yeah." Jayden stated confused. He wasn't sure what was going on, on their end, but if he had to go to the lair then it must've been an emergency. "But what about..."

"Don't worry about your Uncle. I need you to take your mother and your sister and get underground. Now." he demanded.

"But Uncle Raph is..."

"I said NOW, Jayden." Leo snapped.

Jayden flinched at the sudden change in tone and he didn't dare question his father once his voice went from calm and soothing to sharp and authoritative. "Okay Dad, we're on our way." he quickly hung up the phone and turned to his mother. "We need to get to the lair."

Jenna's eyes widened "Did he say why?"

"No, but he said we gotta go now."

"Alright, you two. Move quickly to the alleyway." Both kids quickly moved out of the house. The rain was not letting up and immediately soaked all of them once they stepped out. All Jayden could do was worry about Raph's condition. Once underground, they began to make their short trek toward the lair. "Quickly now, kids."

"Mom, do you think Dad and our uncles will be okay up there?" Jayden asked nervously.

"They'll be fine, they've been doing this for a long time." of course back then they also had Raph to fight along side them.

"What exactly is happening? And why do we have to go underground?" Kayla continued asking questions, since she didn't really remember anything that happened back then.

"I'll explain everything when we're safe." Jenna said "Now keep moving."

...

A group of foot ninjas stood on a rooftop, awaiting orders. One of the ninja in the middle spoke up. "I need everyone to split up and search. Half of you search downtown, the rest of you head for the east side. If you see any of them, take them out." The group split up, leaving only two behind. They stood silently for a long time before the one giving the orders suddenly took off across the rooftops and the other quickly followed behind.

"Where are we going?" the second one asked when he caught up.

"Gonna make a quick stop." the first responded.

The second didn't say anything as he continued following. When they landed on the roof of a familiar home, that's when more questions started. "What are we doing here, Aiden?"

"We are going to do our job." Aiden answered coldly.

"But-"

"But nothing, Jonah." Aiden stopped him. "We have a job to do and we're going to do it." he climbed down onto the fire escape and took a peek through the window. It was pitch black inside. He tried opening one of the windows. When it didn't budge, he decided to go with a less stealthy approach. Jonah flinched when Aiden kicked it in and shattered glass fell to the ground. Both of them carefully climbed into the darkened room, hands on the hilt of their swords as they readied themselves for a possible attack. They slowly moved across the bedroom to a light switch and flicked it on. The room stayed dark. "Oh... great."

"Hang on" Jonah reached in the inner part of his uniform and pulled out a small flashlight. Aiden eyed him and he just shrugged. "I gotta be prepared for anything." he moved the light over the room, everything seemed neat and was in the right place, but it was all covered in dust. Jonah ran a finger over a dresser, leaving a long mark in the dust. "Jeez, it looks like no one has been here in ages."

Aiden didn't speak as he left to go check the other rooms of the house. In every other room it was the same thing. Everything was neat and put together, but covered in dust. When they got to the living room, however, it was a different story. The furniture was still covered in a layer of dust, but everything was a wreck. Furniture was flipped over, shards of glass nearly covered the entire carpet from the the once whole coffee table, the TV was knocked over and the screen was cracked right down the middle.

"Welcome home, Jonah." Aiden said with malice in his voice.

"What the hell happened?" Jonah knelt down and examined the shattered coffee table. "Did a tornado roll through here?"

"Who knows?" Aiden shrugged and headed for the door, making sure no one was outside. The rain was starting to die down making it much easier to see. "Who cares?" he moved to the window to take a quick glance just as he saw a shadow stumble by in the alleyway. "What the-" he quickly opened the window and followed quietly behind the shadow.

"Aiden?" he hurried to follow after his brother, but stopped when something caught his eye. There, near the destroyed TV set was a bottle, an empty bottle. Jonah picked it up and read the label. His eyes widened at what he saw. "What?" near the bottle were little capsules. "Who was taking this?" Jonah hid the bottle in the hidden pocket inside his uniform along with the flashlight before taking another look around his home. "Mom, Dad, what happened to you guys?" he sighed before leaving to follow after his brother.

XXX

I think this is a good place to end it, so I'll leave it at that.