Chapter 9

Revelations

Back in the lair, the turtles were engaged in a heated video-game battle, while the girls cheered on them. The current Brawl match had the turtles using random characters, resulting in Leonardo getting Ganondorf, Raphael Olimar, Donatello Ice Climbers and Michelangelo R.O.B. To make it even more challenging, they were playing on the Spear Pillar stage, one of the more infamous stages. Despite the random characters, the fight was quite even, that is until the hazard gimmick of the stage interfered. In the middle of the temple, Palkia, the legendary Pokémon of space, appeared and inverted the stage, causing the characters to move in the opposite directions.

The sudden change threw everyone off their game, but Leonardo and Donatello, who were the more disciplined and level headed respectively, quickly got their bearings and went for the other two while they still struggled. But neither of them would give up without a fight and forced themselves to step up their game. Eventually the stage returned to normal, but not before Michelangelo was launched out of the stage by Donatello and lost.

"Shell! I almost had them!"

"Better luck next time, Mikey." Sephie said comforting.

"Just the three of us left." said Leonardo.

"It's on!" said Raphael, determined not to loose.

Almost a minute passed and the stage once again shifted, this time turning itself upside down. At that time, thanks to the combined efforts of Donatello and Raphael, Leonardo was defeated.

"What? No! Unfair teaming up on me like that, guys."

"You know what they say, bro. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'." said Donatello.

"Yeah, and now that you're out of the picture, Don's next." said Raphael.

"Oh, that's what you think." Donatello responded.

"Don't get cocky, hun." said Monalisa.

Unfortunately, Monalisa's warning came a bit too late. Raphael's squad of wandering carrots wasn't enough to take on Donatello's hammer wielding duo. It also didn't help Raphael that there was a Bob-omb wandering around the stage, and that he was tossed into it.

"What the shell?! No!"

"Sorry, Raph, but it seems like I win this round."

"Gold medal to Donnie, silver to Raph and bronze to Leo, while poor Mikey is left in last." said Sephie.

"You did great, love." said Monalisa. "You all did."

"Okay, who's up for round two?" asked Donatello.

"You're on!" the other turtles said in unison.

As they were preparing the game, they heard the entrance to the lair open. Looking over to the entrance, they saw Tyroth enter, back from his jog in the sewers. Happy to see her mate, Sephie got up from the armchair and hurried over to meet him.

"Welcome back, honey. I was starting to get worried," she said. However, her mood shifted instantly when she saw the bloodstains on her lover's chest and face.

"Wait, is… is that blood? What happened?"

Sephie's questions caught the attention of the others, who worried hurried over to their friends. Tyroth mentally cursed himself for not remembering to wash it off before returning. He had to think fast to come up with an explanation.

"I… took a trip topside and ran into a bunch of Purple Dragons, up to no good as usual, so I took'em down. Not much of a fight though, but they scored a few lucky hits. I simply forgot about the wounds as they healed."

"You should have called us." said Leonardo. "We know that you're strong, but you still need to be careful."

"Yeah, you're right, and I'm sorry, but no harm done right? All I need it a shower and I'll be as good as new."

Said and done, Tyroth took a much needed shower and washed away all blood, sweat and gore. But while he did that, Sephie's suspicions got the better of her, and she pulled away Donatello for a private conversation.

"What's up, Sephie?" Donatello asked.

"It's about Tyroth, and… I hope that I'm wrong about this, but I think he's hiding something."

"Hmm, I don't know him as well as you do, but I've got the same feeling. He hasn't been himself for a couple of days now. But why talk to me about this? Why not master Splinter or Leo?"

"Because of what I'm going to ask you to help me with. We're going to spy on Tyroth."

"What?! Are you serious, Sephie?"

"I am, and trust me, I don't like this idea either, but I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't think that it would be necessary."

"I don't like invading on anyone's privacy, but I understand what you mean. There are a few things that I could check first."

"Thanks Donnie. I really hate to ask this of you, but I'm so worried about him."

"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this, trust me."

"I do trust you, all of you, but can we keep this between the two of us? At least for now?"

"You got it, Sephie."

Later, when Tyroth was finished with his shower and was drying himself with a towel, he saw his reflection in the steam covered mirror. Wiping off the mirror, he looked at himself. He looked tired, very tired, and he could almost see a dark aura around him, made by the lies and deceit. He wondered just how much longer he would be able to spin this dark web before it would collapse on top of him.

He couldn't continue like this for much longer, but with any luck, he wouldn't. As per the 'agreement', if the fight would be interrupted, they would continue the following night and the nights after that until only one was left standing. If Tyroth couldn't get the answers he sought the next night, the night after that, he would simply kill the ninja and be done with it.

Meanwhile, in the dungeon of the Foot headquarters, Richard and Erica sat in their cell, their eyes red from tears and a lack of proper sleep. For three days, they had been stuck in that cell, not knowing what would become of them, or what had happened to their daughter.

As the previous nights, the scar-faced doctor Arden came to check on them. At first, they were terrified of the hideous scar, and while they still couldn't look at it, they now had more fear for the doctor himself.

"And how does the two of you fare today?" Arden asked with clearly faked concern.

"What do you care?!" Erica snapped. "You have no interest in our well-being."

"How right you are, my dear. Personally, I couldn't care less whether you two live or die, but dead hostages make for poor bargaining chips, and thus I am tasked with keeping you alive."

"What do you hope to gain by all this?" Richard asked. "And where's our daughter?"

"He-he… Wouldn't you like to know." Arden snickered. "Our goals are beyond your understanding. As for your daughter, she has been well taken care of."

"What do you mean by that?" said Erica.

Before Arden could answer, if he even intended to, the door to the dungeon opened and the same ninja that had fought the dragon mutant entered and stood at attention.

"You return, and in one piece it seems, but without your target. Did he escape?"

The ninja nodded.

"A pity, but there is always tomorrow night."

"Hey! We asked you a question! What have you done to our daughter?!" Richard shouted, but Arden ignored it.

"You wanted to know what our goals were, and, like I said, you wouldn't understand, but perhaps we could show you a part of them."

Arden motioned to the ninja to turn around so he faced the cell. Then, Arden removed the mask. Richard and Erica's eyes widened in both shock and horror when they saw the ninja's face.

The left half was covered in green scales with red edges and was overall more reptilian than human. But it wasn't the reptile part that shocked the couple the most, but the human part. The ninja wasn't a man, it was a young woman, their own daughter, Jennifer.

"… No… Jennie… Jennie!"

But Jennifer didn't respond to her mother's voice, she simply stood there, looking at them with cold, soulless eyes.

"Wh-what… have you done to her? What the hell have you done to her!?" Richard yelled.

"She has been… augmented. I had a couple of sets of reptile DNA that I've used to modify her DNA. Quite impressive work, despite that I had to recreate the process from scratch after your son ruined my old lab and destroyed my other experiments. The only downside with the new procedures, aside from not being as effective as they originally were, is that the imprinting left her without a personality, but she is so loyal that she will kill anyone without question or hesitation if we command it, including herself."

"How could you do something like that to her?" Erica said, tears falling at the sight of her little girl, now more monster than human. "And what do you mean by imprinting?"

"Basically, it's a form of brainwashing, were we overwrite the subject's mind with whatever information we find more useful, altering the memory and personality in the process, leaving the subject a skilled and loyal soldier. It must however be implemented while the subject is being mutated, to avoid mental rejection or breakdown. But, since both the imprinting and mutation still are a bit flawed, your daughter is close to mindless, but not quite. The fighting skills we gave her, however, is sure to be enough to take down her brother."

"How can you be so cruel?! What kind of sick person are you?!" said Richard.

"He-he… It's been nice chatting with the two of you, but now I must take my leave. There are some… adjustments I want to make to miss Jennifer. But I will return, you can count on it."

Arden snickered as he left the dungeon with Jennifer in tow. The half reptile didn't even give her parents a glance as she closed the door behind her.

Erica and Richard were devastated, not only had they learned that their son, Raymond, was still alive, but now their daughter had been turned into a monster, a monster with orders to attack Raymond. Finding at least a little comfort in each others' arms, the couple couldn't but cry themselves to sleep in that hellish prison.

To all of you that thought that this story couldn't get much darker, you were wrong. Tyroth continues to lie to his friends, and won't put up with the Foot's games for much longer. But with Jennifer being his opponent, how will he proceed, not knowing that?