Chapter 6

A Vision?

Screams of agony echoed throughout the torture chamber as Jennifer, chained to the wall, was stung by the torturer's electrical cattle prod. Her clothes were torn and cut and blood stained what remained of them. Her body was bruised and had several freshly cut wounds that bled. She had dark rings under her eyes, from the lack of sleep, and they were red from countless tears felled by pain and sorrow.

"Still don't want to talk?" said the scarred doctor, Arden. "Impressive, but you won't last much longer. You will tell me what I want to know. Granted, I could simply use my truth serum, but this is much more satisfying."

Jennifer breathing was shallow and strained as she got a short moment to speak. Her throat was sore from all the screaming, so she could barely speak at all. She wanted to cry, but it was as if she had no more tears to fell.

"...p-please… s-stop..." she said faintly, coughing up some blood.

"There is a very easy way to make it stop, my dear. All you need to do, is tell me what we want to know, such as how your brother received his powers."

Jennifer hung her head, but didn't speak, much to Arden's frustration. He took the prod from the ninja and jabbed it into Jennifer's stomach.

"AAAHH!… Mu...topia..."

"Mutopia? What is that? Tell me!"

Jennifer continued to scream as Arden kept torturing her, but she refused to give up anything more, she had already said too much.

"Very well," said Arden. "if you intend to keep playing tough, maybe your mother can persuade you."

"…no… please don't..."

Tyroth awoke with a jolt, sweat running down his forehead and with his heart in his throat. Wiping away the sweat with a shaky hand, he looked at Sephie, who still lay sleeping peacefully next to him.

'Just a nightmare,' he thought. 'just like the past few days. At least, I hope that it was nothing but a nightmare.'

He had every reason to be worried, after Splinter taught him meditation, he had had visions of the demons' invasion. He wasn't sure if they had been visions of the future, or part of a warning or prophecy left by the dragons in his inherited memories. Likewise, he wasn't sure if what he had just had was a dream or a vision. Either way, at midnight this night, Tyroth would face off with this champion that Arashi spoke of.

After getting dressed, he left the guest room and walked to the kitchen to get something to drink and go over his plan for tonight.

The previous nights, he had gone jogging through the sewers at around midnight, claiming it was to collect his thoughts, when in reality, he had scouted the area where he would fight. Having been away for a couple of hours at a time, he hoped that they wouldn't suspect anything tonight. They had seemingly bought his story about Jennifer, though Tyroth hadn't told Splinter, the wise old rat would instantly know that it wasn't the whole truth if Tyroth told him himself, but because it was Sephie that told Splinter, the secret was safe, for now.

Talking a sip from his glass of milk, Tyroth went over his plan. About twenty minutes to midnight, he'd leave for a jog and head to the old building, once there, he would defeat his foe and try to extract information about his family, then go to the Foot Headquarters and trade some of his blood for his family.

He had no doubt that he'd be able to take down this champion, but he was no fool, he knew just how dishonourable the Foot was and that he had to be careful. Also, Arashi's promise was about as big a bluff as they come, no way that he'd let them leave. Even if he, by some remote chance, would honour his word, the Foot would still possess Tyroth's blood after this. Tyroth shuddered when he thought about those clones Arden made with his dragon DNA, not to mention the crossbreeds that he created by combining it with Monalisa's DNA. That was the part that he hadn't worked out yet, just how would he save his family and keep his blood from the Foot?

Not being able to find a solution, he figured that he simply had to cross that bridge when he came to it and see what he had to work with. He prayed that after the bloodbath he had left them with last time, they would think twice before trying to attack him.

Emptying his glass, Tyroth noticed that there were sounds outside the kitchen. Evidently, he had been sitting in the kitchen for so long that the others had started to wake up. Putting on a brave, Tyroth hoped that he could keep the façade long enough.

'Only a few more hours,' he thought. 'then I'll save them. I swear, Arashi, if you've hurt them, the burning inferno of Hell itself, will be cold as ice compared to my flames!'

Tyroth sure has a lot to think about now, even without the nightmare, or was it a vision?

Sorry that this chapter was so short, but some of them will be just that, short. Still, I hope that you will look forward to the rest of the story.