Chapter 45

Grief

Having taken some time to further recover from his massive battle, Tyroth was able to make his way back to Mutopia together with Leonardo, Sephie, and the others. It was still at a slow pace, as his body still needed to heal, but at the very least the extreme heat he was radiating had started to fade.

His thoughts, on the other hand, had not cooled off in the slightest.

He had been aware that not everyone might come out of the battle alive, but he had held on to the slim chance that they would all be okay. Hearing that they had lost seven people, the Nordlings included, weighed heavily on both his mind and heart.

Seven dead, after fighting an army of a thousand. Many would call that everything from good results, to an efficient kill to death ratio. But that was looking at it as nothing but statistics, and that devalued the lives of all of those that had died. They were not mere numbers, they were friends and family, and they were no longer with them.

In his mind, Tyroth cursed the gnolls for all the death and destruction they bring to the world, he cursed their creator, Yeenoghu, for creating them, and he cursed himself for not being able to stop the splinter force from breaking off and heading to the village.
He cursed himself for not saving everyone.

As they returned to the village, going past all of the dead gnolls and their allies, Tyroth instantly felt that there were two different kinds of air in the area.

From the Mutopians originating from Earth, there were grief and sadness at the loss of Michelangelo, Sarah, and Moe. Some more than the others.

From the Nordlings, on the other hand, it was almost the complete opposite. They were cheerful at the victory they had achieved, despite their losses, but they saw death in a different way from the Mutopians, being a warrior culture that believed that death in battle would grant them a place in Valhalla.

Even though Harold had told Tyroth that Valhalla was truly real, the dragon did not find any comfort in that fact, as there was no proof that his friends would be granted that honour, with them not being of that faith. And even if they were, they were still lost to him and the others.

Walking through the village, he saw James, Dahila, Devina, and April working hard at treating the injuries of those not mutated by the well.

He saw the Nordlings comparing scars and sharing stories about their kills.

And he saw the corpses of their fallen friends lined up, with those that were closest to them being nearby, grieving the loss of them. He saw Pandora laying with her face buried in the chest of Michelangelo, crying her heart out at the death of her favourite uncle.

What surprised Tyroth was that he couldn't see Kate anywhere nearby. Given her close relationship with Michelangelo, he would have expected her to be by his side, so her absence both puzzled and worried the dragon.

Noticing movement in the corner of her tear filled eyes, Pandora looked up from Michelangelo's chest for a brief moment, and upon seeing Tyroth, she instantly ran over to him.

"Uncle T!" she cried as she threw her arms around him and wept. Luckily for her, while Tyroth was still radiating heat, it was not enough to burn the young hybrid.

"You've got to bring Uncle Mikey back! You've got to!" Pandora sobbed.

"I… I don't know if I can…"

"But you must! He means so much to me! And to Kate! You did it with Sephie! Why can't you do the same with Mikey?!" She began beating her fists on the dragon's chest. "Don't he mean enough to you?! Is that it?!"

"Pandora!" Raphael snapped and was about to go and pull away his daughter, but Tyroth raised his hand to signal that he would handle it.

Gently putting his arms around the upset hybrid, he pulled her into a soft hug and spoke softly.

"Everyone here means the world to me, Pandora…" he began. "To this day, I still don't know how I managed to revive Sephie, but if I did, I would bring everyone back in a heartbeat. As it is now, though, I just can't do it, and I am truly sorry about it.

But that doesn't mean I will give up. I will look for a way to bring our loved ones back to life."

"You will…?" Pandora asked with teary eyes. "You promise?"

"I will be honest with you, I can't promise you that it will work, but I do promise that I will try at the very least."

"Thank you…" Pandora sobbed and put her arms around Tyroth's neck. "Thank you…"

James inspected the deep wound that Richard had received when a gnoll had driven a crude bone sword into his stomach. Luckily, as far as James could tell, none of Richard's organs had been damage, something that he thanked Zaleria's healing magic for, but the wound still needed treatment.

He looked up and around, looking at the others that were injured. Original Mutopians like himself were all fully healed, thanks to the magical water, but the others did not have that luxury. Not Richard, or Casey, or Donatello, or Kala, or Velnak, or anyone else. Everyone else that were injured had to rely on their own ability to heal or other magical healing, like that of Devina.

While he certainly appreciated it for the aid it had provided, and could not deny that some were most likely only alive right now thanks to it, he did hold a deal of mistrust towards it, not truly trusting that it would always get the job done correctly.

Having inspected numerous wounds after the battle, several of which that would have been life threatening, he worried that the sudden healing might have trapped dirt and debris inside the now healed flesh, which could cause infections. With their very limited amount of medical resources, both tools and medicines, even attempting to treat such things carried its own risks.

Even if James' medical knowledge was of the modern era, he was all but forced to use practices that were straight out of the dark ages.

As his gaze swept over his patients, they briefly locked with those of Dahila, and he knew that she had the same worries as him.

Mentally, James sighed deeply. For all his distrust of magical healing, he still trusted the water of the well as much as he trusted his friends. It would heal anything physical, infections included, and even if some dirt would remain in a healed wound, the following infection would still be dealt with thanks to the enhanced healing ability the water granted.

The irony wasn't lost upon him. But he also knew that there was a heavy price to pay for the benefits the water offered, and he hated forcing that upon people, even if it was their only chance of survival.

He once again looked around. Not just at his patients, but everyone that lived in the new Mutopia. A big part of the price they had paid when they mutated was that they couldn't live among humans any longer, as the majority would fear or hate them for being so different.

But here, in this new world, the people that they had met so far were more or less indifferent to their mutant forms, effectively making that a moot point.

With only a few sips of the water, he could treat everyone.

But after Diablo, they had all become more reluctant in using the water on new people, and there was also the unknown risks of giving it to non-humans, such as the majority of the Hamato-clan, the elves, or the orcs, even humans of this world was an uncertainty.

Again, James sighed mentally. He feared that they might just have to do tests to learn just how these groups would be affected, and he dreaded the potential disasters that might come of that. A part of him was relieved that such a decision was not his to make, yet he hated himself for having to put that on the shoulders of Tyroth, whom already seemed to carry the weight of several worlds.

Forcing himself to push those thoughts aside for later, he returned to work, asking Cam and Barry to help transporting the wounded to his clinic for further treatment.

After hearing about Michelangelo's death, Kate had been lost in the darkest depths of her mind, completely unresponsive to the interactions from others. It was as if her very soul had been torn from her body, leaving it an empty shell. Those that looked into her eyes saw that there was a certain light missing, further implying that her soul was missing.

It was still there, though it had all but collapsed in on itself as her heart had shattered.

In an effort to help her, some of the Mutopians had led her to the village square, away from all the hustle after the battle. And there she remained under watch, sitting on the bench where she had been placed, absently staring into the distance with half closes eyes, not noticing anything around her.

Including Percy, as the grasshopper walked up and knelt in front of her. For all his jokes, pranks, and other ways he had tormented her over the years, he still cared for her as a friend, and while he had also been grief stricken by the news about Michelangelo, as he had been a very close friend to the grasshopper, he knew that Kate had it worse.

But it wasn't until he saw that vacant stare when she had been brought to James and the others, that he truly realised just how bad shape she was in.

After the troll had torn off his arm, Dahila had quickly reattached it before giving him some water, causing it to heal back in place. After the battle, he had gone back there to have his arm checked, as it felt a bit numb at times, but all that left his mind when he heard the news, and as he sat there, grieving for his lost friends, he later saw Kate.

James' prognosis for her didn't inspire any hope either, as when Percy had asked the chimpanzee to help her, James had said that there was nothing he could do, and unless Kate could find a way out of her darkness, her broken heart would be the death of her.

Not even the well could heal something like that.

Percy shook his head to rid himself of those words, looking at the catatonic viper. He wasn't going to let her die, she didn't deserve that, and Michelangelo would never forgive the grasshopper, so he had volunteered to look after her.

"Hey? Kate? You there?" he asked, gently shaking her by the shoulders, but there was no response.

"Come on, Whipper Viper, talk to me. It's me, Percy. You know, the grasshopper that always plays pranks on you."

He waved his hand in front of her face, but her eyes didn't so much as twitch.

"Please, say something. Speak to me, girl. Yell at me, if you prefer. Call me a vermin, a degenerate, anything… just… say something… please…"

Still no response. It was as if she was not even there. She just kept staring at nothing, her weak gaze going right through the grasshopper as if he was nothing but air.

Percy chewed his lips. He was going to do something he had sworn to himself never to do.

"Hey, listen. Remember way back, before our power couple showed up, when you discovered that your underwear drawer had been infested with hundreds of tiny spiders? I sure remember it, and how loud you shrieked." Percy chuckled a bit, then swallowed.

"Well… I, um, I found a spider's nest, complete with one of those egg sacks. So… I took that sack and hid it in your… well, you can probably put it all together. The eggs hatched about a week later, and the blame was never pinned on me.

But it was my fault, it was one of my pranks. Probably the only one I ever got away with. So, now you know."

Percy screwed his eyes shut and braced for the beating of a life time, but it never came. Opening his eyes, he saw no hint of any anger in Kate, not the slightest reaction to his confession.

He grunted in anger and grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her hard.

"Come on! Snap out of it! Shout at me! Insult me! Threaten me! Do anything, you bitch!"

Blinded by his frustration, Percy let go of Kate's shoulders, and slapped her hard across the face, leaving a red mark on her cheek. He paled when he realised what he had just done, his frustration being replaced by regret in an instant.

"Oh God! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I-"

While her head had jerked from the impact, that was the only response that Percy had gotten.

Kate remained as unresponsive as before.

Percy leaned in and pulled Kate into a hug, something he had thought he would never do.

"I'm sorry… I'm really sorry, Kate…" he sobbed. "Please come back to us… it's bad enough we lost Mikey and the others… we don't want to lose you too… please…"

Honestly, I don't have much to say at this point. A lot of people are grieving the loss of their loved ones, as one would imagine, and Kate is clearly the one worse off among them.