Note: Some parts in this chapter refer to the TMNT 2003 episode 'The Ancient One' as well as my Fanfic 'A Warrior's Journey'.
Also some readers might find parts here upsetting.
Chapter Eighteen
The Volcano Erupts
The next day went by, and it was still no different, Kemeko was as upset and as angry at the night before.
After she had finished training, she had showered and ate her lunch, and she had participated in her afternoon training with her family, yet Splinter and the other turtles, Monalisa and Pandora had seen that Kemeko was more focused than any of them and kept going even when Splinter said it was the end of the session.
Pandora realised things really were serious as the hybrid asked Kemeko as she was stretching if she wanted to play video games.
"No thanks." Kemeko had replied dismissively not lifting her head up as she touched her toes.
"Come on Kem!" Pandora wheedled "We can play all the games you want to play? I'll even let you win if we play Mortal Kombat?"
"I said NO!" Kemeko barked at Pandora who had jumped back in shock at her cousin's outburst.
Kemeko then looked up and glared at the Hybrid.
"Just… Just leave me alone Pandora!" she growled "I'm not in the mood!"
Pandora frowned.
For days she had been patient with Kemeko, keeping her distance and giving her space, but now her tolerance was only at so much and this was her boiling point.
The hybrid huffed and glared at the human Asian girl.
"Fine!" she snorted tossing her dark hair, "Be like that, be a miserable little cow forever!" She turned on her heels and stomped off from the dojo, but not before she saw her parents, and her uncles looking rather appalled.
"Pandora!" Monalisa gasped.
"Don't be so snappy at Kemeko!" Donatello scolded, wagging a finger.
"Oh, why not?" Pandora sniffed "She's been acting like a sulky madam for days and snapping at us, but you're just letting her get away with it!"
She then snarled.
"What a Hot-Head!"
She then heard a cough from her father and looking up she saw her, him, her mother, Donatello, and Michelangelo looking at her in amazement.
"Well, she is!" she said pointing at Kemeko.
Michelangelo bit his lip.
"She's got a point." He said with a shrug.
Leonardo sighed.
"I hate to say it, but she is right." He said "And I can see me in her, like that time I was so angry…"
The other turtles nodded in agreement as they remembered all too well.
Monalisa though hadn't been there, but she had been told, and she remembered the incident as well when Leonardo had was heartbroken and angered over losing her to Raphael when they both were in love with her, but she had chosen Raphael as her mate over Leonardo.
Pandora looked at Leonardo and her anger and frustrations turned to shame and remorse.
"I'm sorry Uncle Leo." She said "I just…"
"I know Geisha, I know!" Leonardo reassured his niece patting her shoulder in comfort "I understand, but Kemeko is in a very dark place, and I have to help her."
"But how?" Donatello asked.
The other turtles and Monalisa nodded in agreement.
"I don't know." Leonardo said, "But I have to try…" he sighed "I've mentioned Sephie to her, saying she can give her help on a somewhat professional level of counselling if she needs to talk, and I've said we're all here for her, but she's just shut herself away from us."
He looked over to Kemeko who had finished stretching and was heading to the bathroom to have a shower.
"I'll try and talk to her before dinner." He spoke.
"Good luck Leo." Raphael said patting his older brother's shell "And just remember we're here for you."
"Thanks Raph." Leonardo smiled weakly.
'We all are!" Monalisa rallied by her mate's side, and Michelangelo, Donatello and Pandora followed suite.
Leonardo smiled happily as well as comforted at the fact his family were there to support him, but he felt worried as he looked to where Kemeko had disappeared and wondered how he could get through to her.
A couple of hours later, Leonardo decided to approach Kemeko when she was in the Dojo aera practicing her sword play as well as throw her ninja knives, stars, and her bladed boomerang.
He stood at the side and watched her, he could see the focus in her eyes as well as the way she moved, and it almost scared him the way she reminded him of Karai when at her most angry and dangerous.
As the blue masked turtle continued to watch, he saw Kemeko throw her bladed boomerang and he flew towards him.
He quickly reached up and grabbed it before it hit him.
That caught the Asian's girl's attention, and she looked over to see Leonardo holding her weapon.
"Dad…" she said in a low voice.
"You're deeply troubled Lotus." Leonardo said as he walked over and handed the bladed boomerang back to his daughter who reached for it.
"No, you think?" Kemeko asked as she took the weapon, nodding to him in thanks before pulling it apart making it two bladed daggers.
"It's obvious Kemeko." Leonardo said, "You've been so upset and angry for days, it's worrying."
Kemeko glared.
"I have a right to be angry father!" she said as she got into a fighting position "And I have a right feel the way I feel!"
"That is correct." Leonardo answered then took out his katana swords as he could see his daughter didn't want to stop her training.
If he couldn't stop her from training with her blades, he might as well spar and talk.
"You have a right to feel the way you feel, but you must remember, your anger is affecting those around you."
Kemeko glared and she slashed her weapons at Leonardo who blocked her blows and pushed back.
"I can only understand how you feel Lotus." Leonardo spoke "I can see within you."
"You can?" Kemeko asked as she continued to strike and slash and each time she did, Leonardo counter attacked or blocked her.
"How can you possibly understand?" she demanded.
"I know a lot more than you think baby." Leonardo said, keeping his voice calm and soft "I understand a lot more."
Kemeko glowered and she roared as she started to attack at her father's katana hard and aggressively.
As that went on, the other mutants who had been trying to keep busy with their own activities couldn't help but go over and watch from afar.
Donatello had been watching TV with Michelangelo, Pandora had been in the playroom, Monalisa and Raphael had been in their bedroom and Splinter had come out of his quarters.
He had been trying to meditate but it was difficult to relax when he could hear so much noise in the lair, and many that were seriously disturbing.
They all stealthily walked over to observe, and they saw the sparring between Kemeko and Leonardo and Splinter felt concerned as he watched, and he only remembered too well when he and Leonardo had sparred before Leonardo did something he regretted.
Kemeko slashed and struck out at Leonardo with her blades.
"How can you possibly understand my feelings!?" she screamed "How can you feel the way I feel!?"
She struck at Leonardo again, her blades striking his katana blades making clangs that echoed around the lair and the mutants winced as they heard the sounds.
"This is getting serious." Monalisa said in a worried voice.
"We got to stop them!" Raphael said placing his hands on his sais.
"But how?" Michelangelo asked.
As the other mutants pondered this problem, they saw Kemeko do a few backflips away from Leonardo then sprung into the air.
"You don't know how I feel!" she screamed as she flew towards him, she clashed against the turtle's katana then flipped onto the ground before pulling out a kunai knife "You know NOTHING!" she screamed in blind rage then she turned and threw the knife towards the blue masked turtle!
Time seemed to slow down as that happened, Leonardo had turned around to face Kemeko and he saw the blade coming towards him!
He heard the gasps as well as cries of his family before the blade embedded his shoulder and shell on his left shoulder, the very same shoulder he had been stabbed by Karai those years ago!
As the blade hit his shoulder he gasped in shock and pain, and he stepped back a few paces, a few flashbacks of that incident filled his mind, he remembered the blade embedding his shoulder and how he had fallen, but not before seeing the look of shock on Karai's face before he hit the ground.
"LEO!"
"NO!"
"MY SON!"
The voices of his family filled his ears as Leonardo fell backwards onto the crash mats, and he felt the hands of Raphael and Donatello on his shell to stop him falling backwards as well as examine the wound.
At the same time, Kemeko realised what had happened at her heart leapt to her throat and her stomach dropped.
She stared with her mouth open as she saw what she had done.
"No…." she breathed "Daddy?"
'Kemeko!" she heard her cousin's voice and she turned to see Pandora glaring at her "What the shell is wrong with you?"
Kemeko looked at the hybrid then at her father who was surrounded by her uncles, grandfather, and aunt.
Her father was grasping his bleeding shoulder and Donatello was examining the weapon that was deep in the flesh.
"Get him to my medical room! Now!" he ordered to which Raphael and Michelangelo lifted him up and started to carry him off.
Kemeko felt tears come to her eyes and she turned away and ran to her room before anyone could stop her.
"No! No!" she sobbed "What have I done!?"
At the same time, Leonardo watched her go, he reached his hand towards her as tears filled his eyes.
"My daughter…" he murmured yet he was carried to Donatello's medical room to have his wound dressed.
Pandora started to go after Kemeko, but Monalisa and Splinter stopped her and shook their heads.
"Why?" she asked.
"I don't know honey." Monalisa replied "But that wasn't her…. that wasn't Kemeko…"
Oh dear...Kemeko seems to have done something she will regret! Very much like her Father did many years ago!