Okay, now I'm sadder than ever that my story is so far away from canon, because mutant Karai is about the sweetest plot twist ever! I mean, I expected that they were going to mutate her into Venus or something (and I wasn't crazy about that), but this is so. way. awesome. I say bravo to the writers for not only keeping the tension going, but raising it even higher! Good thing Donnie can make the retro-mutagen, amirite? (Of course I'd love the plot twist of a mutant Karai. I mean, look at what I've done to Donnie and April and Mei and all of them. I'm a terrible person.)
Also, I'm sad that I've deviated from canon because the new light shed on Splinter and Shredder is even cooler than my little backstory that I've come up with. I am so impressed with the writers...boo-ya-ka-SHA!
I am going to finish up this story according to my original plans, though, so I hope that you'll all enjoy!
Leo drew a deep breath through his nose, then exhaled slowly through his mouth. His instincts told him that they were doing this too soon—while all of them were still emotionally compromised. But he also knew that they couldn't delay on something as crucial as finding a cure for Donnie.
"Are you sure this is going to work, Leo?" Raph said in a low hiss.
"It has to," whispered Leo. He turned to look at Aunt Mei. Her face was twisted in a look discomfort. "Do you think you can do this, Obasan?"
"I don't think this is right," she replied. "If we tell her up front, she won't believe us and then won't help. If we tell her afterward, she will think that she's been played, and her hate for us will only be solidified."
"Shh, I think she's here," whispered Mikey.
The four of them were in the dim recording room of the old radio station, looking out through the fractured glass window that separated them from Casey Jones. The shadows and recording equipment provided excellent cover, and the cracks in the once sound-proof glass allowed them to hear everything perfectly.
"Jones better not mess this up," Raphael growled lowly.
A shadowy figure slipped into the room where Casey sat picking at his fingernails. "I'm here," Karai said. "Now, what do you want?"
Casey looked up. "I have some friends who need your help. If you help them, I can get you a one-on-one private conversation with Satou Atsuko."
Karai smiled a little. "That's not what I was expecting you to want, Jones. So what's the deal—do your friends need some illegal substances or something?"
The cruelty in her voice made Leo cringe. Shredder had definitely taught her well.
Casey visibly flinched. "I don't have to help you, you know."
"Come on, Casey," Mikey whispered.
"Relax, I was just joking," Karai said. She folded her arms across her chest. "So who are these friends of yours?"
"I warned you that you weren't going to like it," Casey said. "Just remember that."
Karai frowned. "Will you just tell me what you want?"
"That's our cue," Leo whispered. Silently, he, Raph, and Mikey slipped out of the recording room and crept through the shadows until they emerged into the light right behind Casey.
Karai immediately whipped out her tanto, anger lighting up her face. "You tricked me," she hissed.
"Karai, listen to me," Leo said. Everything he said now would determine the outcome of this whole thing, whether Karai would help them freely or under coercion. Leo hated to think about forcing Karai to help them against her will, but he was desperate. "Atsuko is our friend now. If you help us, we'll let you talk to her as long as you want to."
Confusion became infused with the anger in Karai's face. "No. You're lying. I saw that woman club April O'Neil on the head with the blunt end of a sai."
"She was confused at the time. But she's still April's friend. Our ally. So do you still want to talk to her?"
Karai's eyes reflected the dilemma that was welling up inside of her. "You're lying!" She launched herself straight at the three turtles; Leo readied his katanas to deflect the blow.
In a flash, Aunt Mei interposed. She caught Karai's blade in her sai, and with a quick twist, wrenched the tanto straight out of Karai's hand. "They aren't lying."
Karai was too shocked to move. She stared at the Satou woman in horror and disbelief. If Satou was an ally of the turtles—of Splinter—any of the distant dream memories would have been from a time in her life before Splinter betrayed her father. This woman, if she was on Splinter's side...
But no. Her father never forgot his vendettas, no matter what. He didn't remember a woman named Satou.
"Karai," Satou said, "I know this must be hard for you to accept. I can see that you weren't expecting me to be allied with your enemies. But I'm not your enemy. I don't know why you wanted to know more about me, but I'm willing to answer any questions you have."
"If I help the turtles," Karai snapped. Fury welled up inside of her. "Help them do what, exactly, finish what their disgusting master tried to start all those years ago? The same master you are allied with? How can you say you're not my enemy?"
"Actually, none of this has anything to do with the Shredder," Leo said. "It has nothing to do with the Foot at all. We need access to Kraang technology."
"So you can use that to kill my father?" Karai yelled. "So you can use that to double-cross me?"
"No," Leo said, so firmly and honestly that it startled her.
"What for, then?"
Leo opened his mouth as if to say something, then was silent and stared at the floor. Raphael and Michelangelo gripped their weapons a little less tightly.
That was when she noticed it. All three of them were visibly exhausted. Dark circles were under their eyes, and their body language seemed to exude raw emotional pain. Satou shared the same haunted exhaustion as they did.
A further revelation struck her. "Where's the tall one with the bo-staff?"
"His name is Donatello!" snarled Raphael, as he retightened his grip on his sai. "The question is, are you going to help us willingly or not?"
"Raph," Leo hissed.
"Willingly?" Karai felt her bile rising. "So you were just going to force me to help you anyway?"
"Well, no—kind of, but not really," Michelangelo said.
Leo slapped himself on the forehead. "Listen to me. You noticed that Donnie's not here. That's why we need access to Kraang tech. Or a Kraang scientist, or whatever it is they call them. Because Donnie is—gone."
Karai was disarmed by the pain in Leo's voice. She was even more startled by the surge of loss that welled up inside her own heart. She thought back to the time she had tried to kill April O'Neil; Donatello's bo-staff and skills had thwarted her then, even before the other turtles arrived to assist. He was an exceedingly competent fighter, if not as advanced as Leo. She thought back to the multiple occasions that she had watched the four turtles fight as a seamless unit and wondered how it was even possible that she hadn't noticed Donatello's absence sooner.
He was an indispensible part of their team. An indispensible part of her enemy's team. So why did she feel his loss so acutely?
Why did the pain in Leo's face make her want to weep with him instead of gloat over him?
No one spoke for a moment.
"I can't help you," Karai said, the gentleness of her own voice startling her. She shook her head, and when she spoke again, her voice was bitter. "The Foot and the Kraang aren't on the best of terms anymore. And besides, the Kraang can't bring people back from the dead."
"He's not dead," Leo said. "Just...gone. He made this retro-mutagen stuff..."
"That thing he hit Xever with?" She had been impressed that the turtles managed to make Xever slightly less disgusting; that they had left him naked on the rooftop, not so much. Afterwards, she had considered pouring bleach directly into her eyes.
"Yeah, he was testing it out. He made it for April's dad."
"What about it?"
Leo hung his head again.
Not dead. Just gone. Karai raised her eyebrows. "Are you telling me...he's just a regular stupid turtle?"
Fire leapt into the turtles' eyes; Raphael snarled and started to charge, but Satou held him back.
"My brother is not stupid," Leo said, visibly seething.
"I just meant—"
"I know what you meant," Satou said, her voice tinged with sadness. "And yes. He is a regular turtle."
"Wait, what?" Casey Jones said. "You guys didn't say—"
"Shut up, Jones," Raphael said. "I mean it."
Satou didn't need to answer the question; the turtles' reactions had done as much. Half of Karai wanted to laugh; she imagined going back to Shredder and telling him this. She imagined the two of them gloating over Splinter's pain and suffering, being delighted that their enemy's forces had been weakened. By all rights, she should have been delighted. She should have been satisfied that Leo—that back-stabbing double-crosser—was in so much pain.
The other half of her remembered Shredder's coldness and her own loneliness. Better to have someone to hate than no one to love.
That half wanted to mourn.
Karai felt as though she was being drawn and quartered by conflicting emotions, and looming over all of it was a deep, childlike need to know who Satou Atsuko was. "What exactly is it that you want me to do?" She could hardly believe that she was asking at all. Why hadn't she already just killed them all while they were tired and vulnerable? She could take their shells back to Shredder as a trophy, and in exchange, she might even get one of her father's rare smiles.
"We need to find a way to re-mutate him, somehow," Leo said.
"Sorry; we lost all of our mutagen in that shipment you hijacked." She felt a surge of resentment at the memory.
"It's not that simple. The mutagen doesn't work the same way twice, I guess. We need the help of the Kraang to figure out how to reproduce the same mutation."
Karai bit her lip. "And if I refuse, you're just going to force me to help anyway?"
Raphael drew a breath to speak, but Satou slapped her hand over his mouth.
"No," Leonardo said. "We'd discussed the possibility, but we absolutely will not force you against your will."
"We won't?" snarled Raphael from behind Satou's hand.
"No, we won't!" Leo said. He narrowed his eyes at Karai before turning to face his brothers. "If we force her to help us, we aren't doing anything different than she did to Casey. That is not who we are, guys. Donnie wouldn't want us to sacrifice our honor that way."
Raphael deflated. Michelangelo nodded. Something like pride filled Satou's face.
Leonardo turned back to Karai. "If you won't help us, then we're done wasting your time." He sheathed his katanas and bowed to her. "Come on, everyone. We're leaving."
Raphael gruffly pushed past Leonardo, grabbed Casey's wrist and stormed toward the exit. Leonardo closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and followed after them. Satou looked at Karai for a moment with an unplumbable expression before taking Michelangelo by the hand and leading him toward the door.
Karai stood frozen to the spot, hardly able to process all of the competing emotions that raged inside of her. Why wasn't she chasing them, engaging them in combat? Why was she just standing here like an idiot while they all walked out the front door?
She turned to watch them leave; Leonardo stood by the door, waiting to take the rear of their vaguely funereal procession. Silently, she begged his blue eyes to look up at her, but they remained focused on the floor.
At the last minute, Michelangelo stopped at the doorway. He turned around and looked at Karai with the most tortured expression she'd ever seen. It was absolutely foreign to him. Wasn't this the goofy one who was always shouting nonsense like 'booyakasha?'
He shook his head at her, tears spilling from his eyes.
Protectively, Leo put his hand on Michelangelo's shoulder and steered him back toward the exit. Michelangleo left.
Now the only member of the funeral procession left, Leonardo finally raised his eyes to meet her gaze.
A dam inside of Karai broke. It was as though a total stranger spoke through her mouth.
"I'll help you."