Chapter 23

Water

Moving hurt. Breathing hurt. Screaming hurt. Thinking hurt.

Everything Alex did sent waves of pain threw her body. She knew she had to move, but she couldn't make herself get up from her spot on the cellar floor. She tried. She really tried, but her body refused to listen to her mind.

She knew she had to get out of there. If she didn't, who knew what else they were going to do it her. She had barely pushed through the pain from the electricity. She could feel the burns on her wrists, the cuffs digging into the raw skin. Her stomach was severely bruised, almost to the point where she feared internal bleeding, but she would have already died from that if it was the case,

And no matter how hard she thought and looked around her cell, she couldn't figure a way out. There were no windows. There were no vents or ducts. There was just the one door where a guard was standing with his back to her. And she couldn't possibly take him. She could barely roll over, let alone knock the guy out to escape.

Before the redhead had the chance to think of anything else, the door opened and Hun walked back in. He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder and made his way back out of the room, turning quickly so Alex hit her head off of the doorframe.

"Where are you taking me?" she groaned, her bruised stomach pressed into his shoulder.

"Master doesn't want a Guardian around," he stated. "He's ordered me to dispose of you myself."

Dispose? Alex asked herself. He's going to kill me, she thought frantically. She started to thrash, desperately trying to get away from him. But it didn't do much good. Her feet were bound, as were her hands. Even if she did manage to get him to drop her, she wouldn't have been able to run away.

"I hear you have a fear of water," Hun chuckled darkly. "We just so happen to have a large dunking booth is a lid. Why don't you try it out?"

No, no, no, she thought, shaking her head. "Let go!" she screamed. "Let me go!"

Hun came to a stop and pulled Alex in front of him, holding her by her arms over the tank. "You will tell me what you took," he told her.

He's going to drown me, Alex thought. He's going to do it no matter what, so why should I tell him? Why should I give away the Guardians? She spat in his face. "No."

Hun grumbled, flipping up the metal top to the tank. He dropped Alex and she felt her stomach drop even further. The cold water felt like hitting an ice wall. The water instantly seeped into her clothes, chilling her to the bone. Before Alex could push herself up from the bottom to go to the surface for air, hun grabbed her head, holding it under the water.

Alex thrashed, trying to get out of his hold, but doing so only made her need to breathe even more. Her hands were tied behind her back, so there was no possible chance she could try clawing at his hands. Water flooded into Alex's mouth and nose.

Hun pulled her up and out by her hair. Alex coughed, gasping for air for what little time she knew she had above the surface. "Go fuck yourself!" she yelled.

Hun dunked her under again, holding her down longer this time due to her resistance and rude comment. Alex tried to use her feet to push off of the side of the container to get away from his hold, but his fingers were tangled in her hair. She cried out underwater, more water pooling into her mouth and down her throat.

As he yanked her back out by her hair a force pulled him to the side, Kerry had slammed her frame into his side with all her might, causing both of them to tumble to the side and for Hun to release his grasp on Alex. However, when Hun released Alex, she was dropped into the tank. And when he fell, he hit the metal top, closing the only exit available to Alex.

Alex heard and felt the container shut and knew something bad was about to go down. Her stomach flipped, and not in a good way whatsoever. She pushed off of the bottom of the tank and rammed the top of the container with her shoulder, but it didn't budge. She was trapped in the water.

Alex sank back down to the bottom, unable to go anywhere else but up by pushing off of the bottom. She couldn't swim and there was no point in even trying, since the area inside the tank was so small. She pulled her legs up to her chest before stretching them out until they made contact with one side of the tank. Her back hit the other a moment later. She pushed ,trying to break the transparent container, but they had reinforced it. No matter how hard she pushed she couldn't break it.

Above the hatch wasn't any calmer. Kerry got throw into Leo as he and his brothers ran over to help. The two groaned and hurried to separate, as Mikey distracted Hun. Rapheal for once had no mind on the fight as he looked over at the tank, seeing the hatch closed at the top and Alex struggling against it. He went pale as he remembered her drunken confession at New Years. Alex couldn't swim. He ran over and hit the side with his shoulder as well but it wouldn't budge.

"Al-Alex! Stay calm!" he yelled, hoping he could hear her. "Panicking will make your oxygen be used up!" he said as he frantically searched for a way to open the tank. "DON! Donnie I need you over here! Now!"

Alex could feel the tank jerk. She turned her head, seeing the blurred outline of a redhead on the outside. Raph? she asked herself, her head beating extremely quickly from her panic. What is he doing here? He can't be here! He has to go! It's not safe.

Alex shook her head violently, mouthing the word 'go' to him. He needed to get to safety. Hun was too strong. He needed to get away!

"Fucking dumbass!" Raph hissed to her. "Don! Pause getting your ass kicked and get it over here!"

Don ran over as quickly as he could. He stood next to Raph, looking at the container for a moment in shock. He had no idea that Alex had been trapped in there. "Gotcha," he told him, jumping up to the top to try and turn the handle. It wasn't budging. "Raph, give me a hand!" he groaned as he tried again.

Raph was up by him in a second as he swung himself up onto the platform. He grasped the handle with his brother. "1,2,3!" He counted and the two brothers pulled as hard as they could. "Don, it's not budging!"

Alex rammed the top of the container again, becoming extremely desperate. She had seen Raph and Don go above her, but they had been gone longer than they should have. The top would have opened if there wasn't a problem already. So there was a problem. She knew she was really stuck.

I'm gonna drown, she thought, panicking. She pushed the sides of the container again. I can't drown! I'm gonna drown. Oh God, I'm gonna die! She kicked as hard as she could, but her back wasn't against the other side, so when she pushed and was sent into the wall, knocking air out of her lungs from the hard impact. I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

"Don, Alex can't swim! And she's been down to long! She's going to fucking drown!" Raph hissed as he hit the hatch with the butt of his sai.

"Okay, okay," Don muttered to himself. He examined the container for a moment before yelling, "Got it! Right here." he placed his hand next to one of the bolts. "This is the weakest point of the container. Give me your sai!"

"What?" Raph asked desperately but listened to his brothers instruction.

"I've gotta put pressure here!" he told hand, holding out his hand taking the sai. "Once that goes, the whole thing with giveaway."

Alex's lungs were screaming at her. Her chest tried to make her breathe in, but she fought it as hard as she could. She couldn't get anymore water in her than there already was. But as each second went on, the burning increased and Alex was having an impossible time trying to focus on holding her breathe. She was panicking and panicking was never good for focus.

The redhead couldn't take it anymore. Her mouth opened, and water flooded into her mouth and nose, going into her lungs. She choked, her eyes going wide as she felt even more enclosed than she already was.

Leaning over the side to check on her as Don worked, Raph grew panicked. "Donnie! She's fucking drowning, hurry the fuck up!"

Alex saw Raph looking looking down at her, and her eyes tried to stay focused on him. But it was starting to get all dark and blurry. She was losing consciousness. "I'm sorry," she mouthed to him.

"Alex! Don't you fuckng dare!" Raph screamed at her.

Alex couldn't hear exactly what Raph was yelling. Everything was muffled underwater. But she figured he wasn't happy. He didn't want her to drown and she knew she had to keep fighting. But what else was there for her to do. She was tied up. She had no air left. She was going to drown to death.

"I love you," she mouthed, more water spilling in before her vision finally went completely.

The girl floated in the water, unmoving. The water stilled inside from her lack of movement. The only sound in the place was the sound of the fight going on between their group and Hun.

Don finally managed to open the top. He reached in and pulled the limp girl out of the water. He laid her on the ground next to the tank and put his ear to her chest, then her mouth to listen for any breath or a heartbreak. "Shit," he muttered, getting over her to start CPR. "Come on, Alex. Breathe!"

"Donnie, is she?" Raph asked crawling over quickly to them.

"Come on, come on, come on," he muttered, doing the compressions. "Don't do this to us, Alex."

Hun growled, throwing Kerry into Mikey and Leo. While they were down, he turned and ran out of the room. By the time they got back up, Hun had already made it to the exit. it was a lost causing going after him on their own, so instead of doing so, they turned and ran over to where Raph and Don were with Alex.

"Alex!" Kerry cried as she ran up the steps and knelt down beside Raph, across from Don. She angled the girls head up to clear her airways and leaned down plugging Alex's nose. Kerry breathed into her chest as Don paused in compressions. "Switch?" Kerry asked absentmindedly and Don didn't even have to nod as they switch. Kerry started her 30 compressions as Don kept her head angled.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Mikey asked, collapsing onto the ground next to Raph. He was tired and scared.

"W-We have to believe she will, Mikey," Leo panted, hand on his brother's shoulder. Kerry stopped her compressions and felt for a pulse. She swore under the breath and let Don breath into her before they switched for a third round of compressions.

"S-She's blue," Mikey muttered.

"S-She wasn't under for long." Kerry muttered as she cleared her ex-best friend's airway. "It shouldn't be taking this long to revive!" she swore a bit before she gave Alex another breath of air.

"There was added trauma," Don said as he continued the compressions.

"She couldn't swim," Raph muttered, starting at the girl, his eyes landing on the necklace he had given her for her birthday. She still had it on?

"B-but still," Kerry muttered. "Fucking dumbass," she swore, giving another breath to Alex before she switched with Don again.

Out of nowhere, Alex choked, the some of the water that was in her lungs came out. She rolled to the side, coughing out even more of the water. Kerry instantly leaned back over and pulled her up so none of the water flowed into her nose.

"Oh, thank god." Raph muttered quietly, hand going over his mouth.

Alex continued to cough out the water. She wasn't conscious for long though. Once she was gone, the girl slumped and passed out.

"Let's get her back into recovery position and find a way to get her out of here," Kerry mumbled, rubbing blood from her forehead.

If Alex wasn't so in so much discomfort from all of her injuries, she would have thought that whatever bed she was sleeping in was comfortable. She didn't want to wake up. All Alex wanted to do was go back to sleep where she wasn't in pain.

But the pain was keeping her from falling back asleep. She sighed softly in defeat, slowly opening her eyes. She closed them again, due to how bright the room seemed, but then opened them again. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust and clear up, but once they had, her green eyes landed on a redhead resting their head against the mattress next to her hand. His own hand was holding onto hers tightly.

Raph was staring at her hand, fiddling with her fingers. She could tell he was lost in thought, obviously having far too much on his mid.

"I don't," Alex tried to say. her throat was so hoarse that she barely sounded like herself. She cleared it, before continuing. "Think you're stupid," she stated.

Raph looked up in shock at her voice. "Y-You're awake?" he blinked. "Y-You're awake!" he said quickly and hugged her.

"Mmm," Alex hummed, feeling the warmth from his hug. She was still extremely cold. The chill from the water following her. "You went to get me?" she asked, looking up at him. "But how did you know?"

"Your brother came to our house last night," Raph mumbled, pulling away but rubbing her arms to provide more warmth. "He asked if we saw you and Master Splinter told us you joined the Guardians and told you to stay away from us..."Raph trailed off. "Anyway Mortu called your brother and we all came here to get answers. Kerry, my brothers, and I formed an emergency team for extraction," he mumbled.

"I-I'm sorry," she muttered. "I never wanted you guys to get involved in this. I just, I just wanted you safe."

"You are a dumbass, you need to get your name legally changed to 'I'm a fucking dumbass who doesn't think'. I mean shouldn't it be our choice? You can't make decisions like that for us." Raph glared. "It's our life, stop trying to run it."

"You would have done the same thing and you know it," Alex said, looking away from Raph. She knew she was stupid, but she had to protect them. She wasn't trying to run their lives. She just wanted to make sure they actually had lives to live.

"Maybe, maybe not, but wouldn't you do the exact same thing we did?" Raph countered. "You'd be just as pissed off as we were."

Alex nodded. "Yeah," she admitted. "I'm sorry, Raph. Really, I just," she sighed. "I'm just sorry. I don't know how I'll ever make it up to you. And I'd understand if you didn't want anything to do with me anymore."

"..Like you said, I understood where you were coming from." Raph mumbled and picked up her hand to hold it in between his. "and I want you back in my life. I can't promise it will be like before, but we can try." he mumbled softly.

"Really?" Alex asked hopefully. "I mean, after what I said? I was a total bitch for saying those things. You know I didn't mean them, right?"

"Yeah, I mean like i said, it might take time for all of us to get over it and...Kerry is...might...she might be tougher." Raph muttered quietly. "But I'm willing to accept you back. So are my brothers."

"I don't deserve you," Alex muttered, placing her hand on his cheek. She caressed it with her thumb tenderly. "I don't deserve your forgiveness. But I appreciate it far more than you could believe."

"People don't deserve a lot of things. Isn't that the point of forgiveness?" Raph muttered quietly.

"I love you," Alex told him. "I never told you that enough."

"I love you too," Raph murmured in return, as if reflex, as if nothing had changed.

"So, uh," Alex muttered, holding his hand tightly. "Since you guys know about the Guardians now, what are you going to do? I mean, Master Splinter didn't want you guys involved in it. But now you kind of are. Are you gonna join or just go back to how things were before?"

"I-I never really thought about it. I mean, none of us really want to upset Master. But he said himself that it seems our destinies were to help protect people. I might give being a Guardian a shot."

Alex smirked. "It's be cool to have you guys," she said. "I mean, the only people I got to talk about the Guardians were Emma and Usa-Oh my God, Emma and Usagi, are they okay? Did they get away?"

"They're fine." Raph chuckled. "Banged up for sure, but away and moving. Well, Emma's getting a bit of help from Leo."

Alex blinked. "Emma and Leo?" she gaped. "Well, uh, never really expected that, but good for them!"

"Just chill your horses, they just met." Raph chuckled a bit.

"Nope," she giggled. "Now that Korny is a thing, Emmeo has to too. We need a new project."

"My god, really?" Raph chuckled a bit.

"Mhm," she hummed, she sat up slightly, adjusting the bed. "We need something to work on. you know, to help get things toward the right tracks to normal. That, and maybe if I help Leo with this, he'll forgive me a little. I mean," she sighed, rubbing her burnt wrists, "he told me he'd never forgive me for any of this."

"Even Leo says things he doesn't mean." Raph murmured. "Every one of us will come around...eventually."

Alex sighed. "I never meant for you guys to get hurt, when I started all this," she admitted. "I mean, I was working for the Guardians for about two months before Master Splinter found out."

"Yeah, he told us that, but I mean shouldn't that have told you he was worrying to much? Two months and we were fine. Besides, we already had run in with Hun to begin with."

"Yeah, but, Master Splinter's like a father to me. And he's one of the founding members of the Guardians. I had to respect his wishes," Alex said. "And as much as I didn't want to leave you guys, I had to honor my parents."

"I know, how about we just, forget about it? We're not going to move past it if we are so focused on the details to something that's already happened."

Alex sighed, nodding her head. She took in a deep breath before smiling up at him. "You're right," she said, squeezing his hand. "Generally you're always right."

"It's part of being a Hamato," Raph grinned kissing her forehead.

Alex laughed. "God, I've missed you," she said.

"We missed you too, mostly me though." he grinned. "Be sure to thank Mikey, by the way, he never gave up on you."

"Really?" she asked. "That knucklehead. He doesn't know when to give up, does he? Well, thank heavens for that."

"Nope, his best and worst quality." Raph chuckled.

"I'm glad he didn't though," Alex admitted. "It's nice to know someone still believed in me when I had no right."

"I think deep down we all did." Raph murmured. "We just let emotions get in the way."

"Well, we're all just human," Alex said.

Hey guys, I have some bad news. This story will be moving over to AdorkablyUncensored, an account StillDoll13 and I share (since we wrote this together). And it'll be starting over. I posted up through here because I wanted you to see Alex make up with Raph and the others first, because it'll be a while before this stpry gets back to this point. I'm sorry, guys.