Chapter Twenty-Eight
If only…
Back at the Foot Headquarters, the real Kemeko had been taken by the Venomous Five to a bedroom that had been allocated to her in the residential part of the Headquarters.
They had left the throne room and had walked through many different hallways, all decorated in the same manner at the Throne room, all filled with Japanese style ornaments and large plants as well as paintings, and many Foot Symbols adorned the walls amongst many paintings and hangings.
Kemeko remembered it all from when she and Pandora and infiltrated the building those two years ago to free her family, but now she was a prisoner.
Komodo Dragon carried her in his giant paw as she had struggled against him, but the large lizard had held her tightly, there was no way she was able to escape him.
She kicked out and screamed, but she couldn't get herself free.
Eventually she tired herself out and slumped in Komodo's paw and began to cry.
"Started to wonder when you'd shut up!" Cobra taunted as she walked alongside Komodo Dragon, yet the Asian girl didn't answer her, she was too broken to argue or fight.
"Here's the room Shredder assigned for our 'guest'!" Gila Monster said as he came to a door in the hallway "Nicely made up and high up too!" he cackled.
He opened the door and Komodo Dragon reached in through the door and dropped Kemeko inside, and Black Mamba threw in the rucksack she had carried.
Kemeko fell on her knees then turned to the door.
"Hope you like your new quarters kid!" Komodo Dragon hissed "Because you're gonna be here a while!" he then slammed the door, and as Kemeko ran to the door and try and pull it open, a click was heard as the key was turned in the lock.
"No!" No!" she cried and started to bang on the door "Let me out! Let me out! You can't keep me in here!"
She slammed her fists as well as kicked her feet at the door, crying and sobbing.
"You freaks! You bastards! You fucking bastards!" she screamed "You can't keep me here forever! My family will see through that clone! They'll see through her and stop her before the Foot soldiers get down there! They're always prepared!"
On the other side of the door, Black Mamba and Cobra grimaced.
"Jeez! Will that brat stop screaming? It's giving me a headache!" Black Mamba growled.
"Oh, she'll run out of puff soon!" Nile Monitor said, "She'll tire out eventually!"
"She'd better!" Cobra hissed clenching her fist "Or else I'll go in there and shut her up!"
"You will do no such thing!" Komodo Dragon snapped "Master Shredder has ordered that she will not be harmed!"
"One scratch or mark on her, and we're dead meat!" Nile Monitor agreed.
"So now what?" Black Mamba moaned.
"We stand guard!" Komodo Dragon said.
'What!?" Cobra shrieked "First we're cleaners, and now we're babysitters?! Like that's not what we do!"
"Shut up Cobra!" Komodo Dragon snapped "You may not like it, but it's the Master's orders!"
Black Mamba grumbled and rolled her eyes.
"Since when did we get demoted to being cleaners and babysitters?"
"You! Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth!" Komodo Dragon snarled "We will get our chance again in the field, and I assure you, we will, we just need to keep the master's happy, and our first job is to guard the brat!"
He pointed at the door then glanced at the snakes.
"And you two are first to watch her!"
"WHAT!?" the snakes gasped in unison "No way!"
"You heard him!" Gila Monster smirked.
"Just sit on your bums and guard the door! And should the brat want feeding or watering, call for the servants!" Komodo Dragon ordered.
"What, do we have to?" Cobra whinged.
Komodo Dragon glowered at the golden snake mutant threateningly.
Cobra hissed but she then sighed in defeat and she and Black Mamba nodded grudgingly.
"Fine!" Black Mamba snarled "And I'll make sure Goldie here doesn't screw up!"
Cobra hissed at Black Mamba in defiance.
Komodo Dragon then turned to the other lizards.
"Come on boys, let's check in with the masters."
"Right behind you!" Nile Monitor agreed then walked with Komodo Dragon with Gila Monster behind him.
"See you in a few hours." Gila Monster chuckled as he walked away from the snakes who glared after him.
"Great(!)" Black Mamba snapped throwing her arms up in the air then slumping against the wall.
"Stuck on guard duty to a reluctant little insect!" she gestured her thumb to the door.
"This isn't much fun for me either!" Cobra retorted sticking her forked tongue out at Black Mamba "Why is it always us who gets the short straw?"
"Fanged if I know, which I don't, and I'm sure as hell you don't either spitter!" Black Mamba replied to which Cobra again hissed defiantly.
Back in the bedroom, as Nile Monitor had predicted, Kemeko had run out of energy and had slid to the floor resting against the door sobbing in defeat and exhaustion.
As she sat on the floor, she looked around the room she had been locked in.
It was large, almost three times the size of her room back in the lair.
There was a low Japanese style double bed with white cotton sheets along with a dressing table, a wardrobe within the walls, and a large mirror, and the walls were painted red with black fans covered with red flowers or shields with the Foot Symbol adorning them.
There were a few plants in large pots the room as well as a couple of large vases with Japanese styles on them.
A large window with willow stick blinds covered one side of the room which showed the City of New York against the night sky.
There was also a door which led to a bathroom, from which Kemeko saw had a toilet, bath, and shower.
Getting up and walking away from the door, Kemeko decided to explore her new quarters, wondering if there was another way out of the room or if by chance, she could get access to the vents like she and Pandora did before.
She ran to the window and looked out into the city wondering if there was a way she could climb out, but to her dismay, it was miles high and the gap between the buildings even if she did make it out the window, it was too wide for her to jump, and she had no rope to assist her to get across.
With that option gone, Kemeko looked around the room, but she saw no vents in the walls, and even in the bathroom she couldn't see anything that could assist or even provide a way out.
She was truly trapped!
Kemeko shook her head defeated, and walked over to the bed, picking up her backpack and sitting down.
She opened her backpack and pulled out the few possessions she had taken with her, including the photo albums she had that Karai had left for her, as well as one that Leonardo had put together of their time together since she was a baby until she turned thirteen.
When Shredder saw them, he had been furious.
Flashback
Shredder sat at the table and looked at the possessions Kemeko had in her backpack.
He had seen her clothes and toiletries, and he had also found the semi-precious stone bracelets she had purchased at the market.
But then he discovered her photo albums, and he looked angry.
"So, I get to see how your life was from the day you were born hmm?" he asked.
Kemeko paled as she saw him analysing the albums.
Part of her was worried he would destroy the albums in a rage, and she was ready to beg him not to, but to her relief, he opened them and looked at the photos.
"Such a cute baby." Shredder growled "If I had been given the opportunity, it would have been a blessing to hold a baby girl in my arms."
Kemeko swallowed hard.
"You mother looks so happy." Shredder continued "Yet I see the sadness in her eyes as she no longer has your father, but your adopted one, Leonardo is by her side, thus I can see why you imprinted on him!"
As he snapped, Kemeko flinched slightly.
"I was only a baby…" she stammered yet Shredder didn't answer her.
Shredder finished looking at Karai's album and placed it on the table, then he looked at the other album, the one of Kemeko and Leonardo's photos together.
Shredder glared as he looked at each one, from Leonardo caring and holding baby Kemeko, photos of him feeding her, teaching her to walk, playing with her, training with her and other leisure photos whether it be at the lair, Mutopia or at Casey's Farmhouse.
"That turtle stole you from me!" he growled "He took what was rightfully mine!"
"I was never yours!" Kemeko said defiantly yet she felt terrified as the Shredder looked down at her with a glare.
"You are mine Kemeko, you cannot deny it, just as Karai was mine until she betrayed me! But I will make sure you do not betray me!"
"I will never join you!" Kemeko said "I won't! I refuse!"
"You cannot deny your heritage!" Shredder snarled "You were never part of the Hamato Clan, never one of the turtles! You are Oruko! You always have been Oruko!"
Kemeko shook her head as tears fell.
"No…No!" she wept.
Shredder glared but before he could say anything else, the doors to his throne room opened and the off-duty Ninja ran inside….
End Flashback
Kemeko opened the photo album that showed Leonardo and herself during the different times of her life, all were sweet, happy, and funny pictures, and Kemeko's heart broke when she realised that she would never get that chance again now she was Shredder's prisoner and if the clone succeeded in its quest, then the Foot Ninja would storm the lair and bring her family to the Shredder and then….
She lowered her head and started to rock back and forth on the bed sobbing unable to comprehend the fate that would await them.
More than likely they would be tortured and finally executed, and knowing Dr Arden, he would use her aunt and her cousin in his horrific experiments!
"No…No!" she wept "This is all my fault! Pandora managed to escape, but it was planned as a clone released her, and she's taken a mole into the lair! If it succeeds, my family are doomed! Oh, if only there was a way to warn them!"
She couldn't warn them via her shell-cell as she had left it behind at the lair, and her other phone had been given to the clone along with her weapons.
It was hopeless.
"If only I hadn't left the lair, how could I have been so stupid? How could I have been so dumb? I should have stayed within the sewers! I shouldn't have done what I did! If only there was a way I could get through to my family! If only! If only!"
Poor Kemeko! Locked in a bedroom in the Residental part of the Foot Headquarters, still a bedroom is better than the dungeons, so she's got a comfortable place.
But the the poor child feels so helpless and scared!
Meanwhile, the Venomous Five, or rather the snakes aren't too happy with their Guard Duty jobs at the moment! lol!