Phoenix Call
Chapter 11: The Flight
Amber couldn't believe it. My boys can't be gone. Karai had left the bandana on a table where Amber could see it, silently torturing her with every flutter it made as the air conditioning kicked on and off. She closed her eyes as her spirit finally burned out, exhausted from the weeks of trying to stay strong and blocking Raphael's attempts to locate her. She had felt a rush of his energy when Karai had brought his bandana in, but she figured he'd had it so long that it was similar to her prayer beads. It simply retained a small amount of his personal energy. She couldn't feel it now, but it was a good 10 feet away and she just wasn't up to the task of stretching her energy that far to check it. The door opened, and Karai entered with a fresh knife. Cut after cut was carved into Amber's body, but she no longer screamed. She simply looked blankly ahead, too broken and uncaring to react.
She had failed to protect her family and she felt so lost.
OoO
"I still think you just dreamed this, Raph."
"You'll see, and I tell ya what - If I'm wrong, and I know I'm not, I'll clean the dojo for the next week."
Leo smiled ever so slightly. "You're on."
The group ran a little farther until Raph signaled for them to stop. "That's the place."
Donnie flipped his glasses down. "Scanning...Well, it IS a Foot building at least guys. Looks like the labs are on the 5th floor."
Leo's eyes narrowed. "What's the easiest way in, Donnie?"
OoO
"Karai, I hate to interrupt, but we have trouble on the second floor. It's them!"
Karai looked at her subordinate and nodded before ramming the knife she had been using deep into Amber's shoulder. Amber reacted with a small yelp that made Karai smile.
"Let's leave then. We've taken enough samples from her to study. Grab them and set her on fire. I must return to my father."
Amber closed her eyes as the ninja doused her in some sort of fluid. So this was how it was going to end, she mused. A small piece of her found it ironic that she would be set aflame like the phoenix she adored. But there'd be no glorious flight for her, only death and the eternal quiet afterward. As the ninja neared her with a small blowtorch, she thought she could hear the sounds of battle coming down the hall towards them. Then the flames engulfed her.
"NOOOO!"
OoO
The turtles hustled up the stairs. Leo had let Raph take the lead, he knew his younger brother needed this as an outlet for his pent-up anger. He really wasn't leaving much for them to fight, so Leo, Donnie, and Mikey stuck to watching Raph's back. When they finally reached the 5th floor, Raph surveyed the dozen or so Foot before him with deadly intent before jumping at them with a war cry. Leo came up with him, swords flashing through their enemy with effeciency. Donnie and Mikey dealt with the ninja that had made their way up after them on the stairwell, and the sounds of the fight echoed down the hall. Raphael had started ripping open doors and looking as he raced by, intent on finding his mother. Leo followed at a more sedate pace, dispatching any threats that emerged from the doors his brother opened.
"NOOOO!"
The brothers all looked up at Raph's heart-wrenching cry. His look of shock turned to pure rage, and he leapt into the lab he had just opened. He fell upon the Foot ninja there with a furious snarl that made his brothers shudder. Cautiously, they peeked in. Leo gasped as he caught sight of a lab table on fire, but what disturbed him was the human shape of it and the familiar soft green scarf fluttering from it. It couldn't be..
"Mom...We failed, guys. We were too late." Raph slammed his fists on the floor as he cried openly in front of his brothers. Leonardo knelt quietly beside his brother, lending him his strength.
OoO
The heat of the flames covered Amber completely, but the roar of the fire was punctuated by a snarling and the sound of flesh being torn open. Amber wondered vaguely if it was her own skin splitting open, like a weenie in the microwave. She figured it didn't really matter before darkness engulfed her again.
Amber seemed to float gently, without any real sense of direction. She opened her eyes, mildly surprised to find herself in the middle of a sunny lake. The temperature was perfect for a day in the water, and on the bank she could make out a picnic table under a big shade tree with a basket on it. Curious, she swam over lazily, enjoying the feeling of the cool water rushing over her. As she approached the shore and sloshed through the shallow water, she noticed a figure walking steadily her way. A figure she hadn't seen in two decades.
Her mother.
OoO
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The turtles took turns keeping watch over a badly burned, middle-aged woman in the medical wing of Donnie's lab. Mikey had found a mop bucket full of water to put out the fire on Amber before it consumed her, but she had blacked out already. She hadn't woke up in a week, even her normally speedy healing seemed to be taking it's time. Eric had been rescued with her, and Mikey and Leo had dropped him off in front of a hospital while Raph and Donnie made a mad dash back to the lair with their mom.
Splinter had tried his best to soothe his sons, saying she needed to recover both physically and spiritually from her ordeal. He didn't, however, mention that she was on the fence and could go either way.
A/N: Hmmmmm, will Amber choose the safety of her mother from the past or the love of her sons in the future?