Rating: T for occasional language and body horror.
Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.
Summary: "Has anyone seen April?" The Kraang are defeated, New York is safe and all is finally well. Or so everyone thought. When Kirby bursts into the lair looking for April, the Turtles quickly discover otherwise and the nightmare begins anew. Set after S3E13. 2k12 Canon divergence.
A/N: This story is for Sampsonknight who came to me years ago with the idea that birthed this story. She was talking about how she wanted to try to get someone to write it and my mind pounced on it and ran with it, getting inspired pretty much immediately. In fact, I wrote the condensed form/plot of it within a few days but because I was caught up with other stories, never got around to fleshing it out. Until now.
I know I'm still caught up in multiple other stories (more than you see me putting out, in fact) but this one is long overdue and I needed to write it properly and hey, at least it will be shorter than my others XD
I don't know if Sampsonknight will still be interested in it after so long but I said I would do it and here it is at last XD
What it Means (to be Human)
Prologue
Left behind again!
She couldn't believe it! She was just as capable as them and this was as much her fight as theirs! More, actually, she scowled; she'd been a part of this fight her whole damn life. Hell, her family had been part of it for generations. Even if she'd never realised before the fateful night the Kraang kidnapped her and her father off the streets of New York City just two short years ago!
April fumed silently as she angrily stalked through their makeshift home and base - the pizzeria Mikey favoured so much – grateful that Casey wisely kept his distance.
It had been bad enough when the turtles first left that evening, Leonardo insisting it a mission just for experienced ninja and Splinter silently agreeing. They'd returned a scant hour or so later, the Mutanimals and an injured Jack Kurtzman in tow. She didn't begrudge the older man his injuries - he'd been doing what she should've been doing, fighting for their city – but it didn't take three of them to care for him. In fact, Splinter didn't even need help. Still, she'd assured everyone that they'd look after him and keep him safe while they saved the city and all the mutated humans without her.
"Gah!" she cried softly in frustration, mindful enough of the fact that they were technically fugitives in a city lost to invasion and despite her brothers and their allies taking the fight to the Kraang, that there were still Kraang patrols out on the hunt, searching the streets and buildings for any human holdouts and for them specifically.
Sure, she knew she didn't have their experience or even Casey's instinct and penchant for violence but she'd been training too and she could help!
She'd been training her butt off as a kunoichi for nearly a year and a half now and had come a long way, she mused bitterly as she wandered into Donatello's makeshift laboratory, turning her back on Casey and Master Splinter as she sought a place of comfort to get her roiling thoughts and emotions under control. She'd been on numerous missions before, been in plenty of fights and battles with her adoptive brothers, long since before Casey ever became involved in their world. In fact, she'd been involved and a part of it since before she'd begun training. They all, (barely) survived the invasion together and spent months recuperating and training together to take back their city and rescue all the victims, her father included, she thought, her fists clenched tightly at her sides. She felt sick with fear and worry for a moment but pushed the feeling aside, instead latching back onto her anger of being left behind again.
So why, when they'd all trained together for this, had they left her behind?
She had powers, dammit!
Yeah, sure... powers she barely controlled or understood...
April swallowed painfully.
Was that the real problem? They couldn't trust her since she was still trying to control her powers at will?
Or... did it go deeper than that?
Was there... Was there a part of her extended family that didn't quite fully trust her because she was part Kraang? A human-Kraang mutant hybrid?
She swallowed again, this time fearfully, as she glanced towards the doors leading out to the diner where Casey waited and Splinter meditated beside Jack Kurtzman's recuperating form.
They'd never actually told Casey the full truth about her alien D.N.A.
It wasn't that she didn't trust him because she really did! It was just that... she couldn't bring herself to tell him.
Couldn't stand thinking of how he'd react if he knew the truth...
How he might shun her...
No!
She shook her head wildly, ponytail whipping against the sides of her neck. It wasn't that she was afraid of his reaction. She just couldn't bear to think about it and what it all meant for her and her family.
Her mother... what she must have gone through as the Kraang so cruelly experimented on her...
April let out a small sob and reached up a shaking hand to wipe the faint wetness from her eyes.
She'd never even told her father what Donnie discovered about her so long ago now...
Only the turtles, their sensei and Jack Kurtzman knew the truth.
And then...
Taking a deep, shuddery breath, April stood tall, staring longingly towards the diner door once more.
Maybe... maybe she should talk to them both. Casey deserved to know the truth about the 'human' girl he kept trying to win. Maybe that would make him finally back off and give her space to deal with everything going on or maybe... it simply wouldn't matter to him and she'd know he was for real rather than just thinking of her as some sort of prize to win.
As for Splinter, well, she could tell him about what happened at the farm with her 'mother'. He knew the bones of it, of course, but she'd welcome the chance to really talk about it all.
It could even be cathartic.
Taking a deep breath and feeling far calmer than she had since being told she was being left behind again, she turned on her heels and promptly slipped, slamming into the ground with a soft, pained cry.
Grateful to her kunoichi training, she managed to roll, saving herself from real injury against the heavy kitchen equipment surrounding her.
"Are you alright, Red?" a concerned voice called warily from the other room, obviously hesitating at the door, knowing how much of a mood she was in.
"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine, Casey," she called back wearily. "I'll be out in a minute." Closing her eyes momentarily, just completely done with this horrible day, April placed a single hand on the ground to push herself up with and grimaced in disgust as she touched something wet, slimy and more than a little sticky. "Ugh... Why can't boys learn to clean up after themselves?" she muttered, wiping her hand absentmindedly on her leggings before bounding to her feet. Then, her eyes widened as a sudden fire shot from her hand and into her bloodstream to race through her entire body.
Suddenly, the pain intensified a thousand-fold, far beyond anything she'd ever thought possible and she opened her mouth to scream.
For what felt like forever, unending agony rippled through her over and over again in ever-worsening waves and she quickly lost the ability to even breathe. No longer able to even gasp from the incredible agony coursing through her, her instincts screamed that her flesh was melting, her bones breaking and reforming into something she no longer had the awareness to recognise.
Gathering all her desperation, she tried, for a moment, to call for help but to no avail. She could no longer utter a sound and then she lost the ability to even think through the all-encompassing pain.
And then, mercifully, everything went dark.
-:-
Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.
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