They landed in a darkened part of the city, in front of a house, with Mikey behind them.
"Alright, you be the lookout. I'll go get Barry Draxum." Splinter made a portal leaving the two by themselves.
"Uhhh what's going on?" Kara asked in confusion, turning to the tense Mikey standing in a frozen salute.
"I was having the most wonderful time with my dad's when Splinter let Draxum get taken away-woah, Kara, you look amazing!" His eyes sparkled at her outfit. Despite the disheveled look, slight sweat from all the running, and a few strands of hair out of place here and there, she was gorgeous.
She blushed at his words, before letting out a heavy groan and dropped to the ground. "Thank you, Michelangelo." She said softly, "At least I know I'm safe with you and Mister Splinter."
"You..you really mean that?" He asked quietly, sitting down next to her, hugging his knees.
"With the day I've had, letting Mister Splinter take care of the problem while we sit back and watch sounds safe to me...Can..can I borrow your shirt?" She asked, rubbing her arms, not only feeling cold but the thought of her back being exposed still unnerved her.
Noticing this he nodded, taking it off and handed it to her. "Thank you." She said while putting it on, letting out a sigh of relief. "So..you were having fun with Draxum? He's not the fun type from what I remember." She scratched her cheek remembering the stone cold, serious scientist with one goal in mind.
"Well, the day he started living with the humans he's changed."
"Wait, wait, wait. He's living on the surface with people?"
"Yeah! Has a job, too! He's a lunch lady."
She ran her hand through her hair, disbelief written on her face, "This. This is a lot to take in. He's..you really did what I couldn't." She stared at him with respect, a soft smile on her face, "You're amazing, Mikey. Better than anything I could do. I'm still..somewhat afraid of him. I'm also angry, angry at the fact that I can't get my revenge on him for what he had done to me. For not listening to me. For hurting me. For taking me to her! But I'm more angry at myself because I don't want to anymore because despite the hurt he caused me..he.." Flashbacks of when he took care of her from the time she was that one crazy actor's prisoner to standing up to Big Mama for her and the time when it had snowed. He had changed her life for the better. She buried her head in her hands, groaning, when she started to cry again. When is this day gonna be over? "How can you forgive so easily? How do you ignore the doubt, the hesitation, the fear that he might go back to his old ways? How can you trust him?" Her voice dropped with each question til her voice was but a whisper.
"Weeellll...he's had a rocky start. We had an incident where your mother was involved but he came to his own. He showed us that he's trying to change and that's all you have to do; give him a chance."
"Give him a chance-wait, my mother?!" She shrieked while jumping to her feet but Mikey had suddenly remembered his mission and his eyes suddenly became focused, sweat sliding down his head at the mistake he made, acting oblivious. "The lookout is looking out and not seeing anything." She sighed and turned around when she heard screaming and saw laser lights inside the house. "That's not good." She let out a yell when Draxum burst through the stone wall carrying Splinter under his arm, "We got to go!" He yelled when a searchlight was suddenly flashed on them.
"Stop right there, Barry Draxum!" The officer shouted in his police air balloon.
"THAT'S not good." Mikey agreed, all of them fleeing the scene.
Finding refuge in a dumpster, it took all of Kara's willpower not to puke everywhere from the horrid stench, having to use her upper hands to cover her nose.
"Oh, great work, alchemist. Now I have to come up with a plan to get us out of your mess." Splinter said, peeking through one of the holes on look out. She moved closer to him trying to breathe in the air outside.
"I'll come up with the plan." Draxum said.
"Oh, no, no, no. I'LL come up with the plan."
"I'M a master planner. I'LL get us out of here."
Kara turned to try and find a comfortable way to sit when she noticed Mikey huddled in the background staring at the two adults. Her brows lifted in worry flashbacks of herself listening to her mom and aunt argue over the phone about her mom never visiting or checking in. She crawled over to Mikey and gently placed her arm around him, pulling him to her side. He blinked when he saw the same expression as his causing him to lean his head on her shoulder.
"Maybe I ruined your day, but you ruined my life!" Splinter raised his voice, pointing at Draxum. Kara slowly lifted her head, staring at the two.
"What life?" Draxum chuckled darkly. "When I found you, you were a husk of a man. You had lost your taste for fighting. You had no purpose." Draxum stared him down.
"But I'm-"
"What about me?"
Both adults gasped, looking right at Kara.
"What about me? What did I do to have my being, my LIFE, changed without my permission? I-I showed you kindness. When you were injured and alone I took care of you! Those days you were training me you called me nothing but weak and helpless!" At this point angry tears were running down her face, glaring at Draxum. "Is that what you do? Take those you deem pathetic and worthless and change them into your definition of perfect?!" At this point her hands were clenched tight, having let go of Mikey.
Draxum stared at Kara for the longest time, his brows slowly lifting before lowering his head and looking away from her.
"If you hadn't interfered, I could have had a normal life!" Kara shouted, squeezing her eyes shut, her shoulders slowly sagging when going back to her talks with Mikey and Leo, "But...without you...I wouldn't feel..alive. I would have just gone to school, had a job, and..be alone. You've caused me great pain but..you've also given me a reason to live." She looked over at Mikey and gave him a gentle smile then looked over to Draxum and Splinter, "Heck..you two have been more of a father than my own." She jokingly said, trying to lighten the mood.
When she said that Draxum's eyes widened, his mind showing images of her training with him, he smirking at her improvement and her witty banter with him. How he felt when she was hurt and scared.
Splinter was having his own flashbacks of his first hours of mutation with the turtles and holding them in the cold rain, alone in a soggy box in an alley. Feeling Mikey's hand grasp his, he looked at his youngest with love.
"She's right. I wouldn't change my life and what I have with my boys for anything. I never thought I would say this but thank you for turning me into..me." Splinter placed his hand on his youngest's cheek, giving it a soft rub, the two smiling at each other, then over to Draxum with apologetic yet thankful eyes.
She nodded to Splinter and Mikey, going back to Draxum. "Same here. You changed me for the better. Thank you."
Mikey's eyes were sparkling, not just at his dad's closure but Kara's as well.
"Kara, having spent time with the humans and the turtles and speaking with your mother I've realized the way I treated you..it was wrong of me. You're not just someone I created to morph into what I want but you're a person with their own thoughts and wants...and I'm sorry." He reached out to her, she flinching, making him flinch as well, but when she didn't move away, he gently placed his hand on top of her head and gave it a rub.
She blushed softly, his eyes sparkling in awe to hear not only an apology, but that he was wrong.
Draxum groaned while turning to Splinter, "And you..you're also right. I'm sorry for, you know, trying to turn you into a weapon and a bunch of other stuff." Draxum looked away, starting to sweat when Mikey hugged him, "My wish came true!" Now hugging both, Kara felt a little left out and decided to join in, being in the middle by hugging Mikey with her arms around the two dads. Feeling her arm around him Draxum stared down at her, slowly moving his arm up and around her, giving her a gentle squeeze before closing his eyes and accepting the embrace.
If dramatic music was playing it would get cut off with a record scratch when Kara's eyes suddenly snapped open, pulling away from them, "YOU'VE BEEN TALKING TO MY MOM?!" She shrieked once more, staring at Draxum.
Hearing her, the police were instantly right outside the dumpster.
"They're in this dumpster. And based on my readings they're hugging."
"Oh, they're goood."
"Exit the dumpster. You're all under arrest." One of the officers said through the megaphone.
Splinter was scoping the opposition when Draxum placed his hand on his shoulder, "You get our kids out of here." Before Splinter could say anything Draxum pushed his finger on his lips, "Shh. This is my moment."
Kara placed her hand on his, "Be careful, Barry." She gave him an awkward smile making him chuckle.
The top of the dumpster exploded off, landing hard behind the officers, Draxum slowly revealing himself. Standing in front of the officers he shouted, looking as intimidating as possible, "You'll never take the great Baron Drax-" Unable to finish his sentence due to the many bolts of electricity coursing through his body, he dropped to the ground, spazzing, while the three of them fled the scene inside a box and managed to escape without being seen.
They stopped running where they had all gathered in the beginning trying to catch their breaths.
"Wha-What do we do?" Kara gasped out, hunched over and supporting her weight on her thighs. She reaallllly wanted today to be over.
"Oh, I know! But we'll need a wedding cake, fake mustaches, and fancy suits! Follow me!" Mikey shouted while running off. Splinter shouted, following after him.
Kara groaned when she saw more running and turned to follow them but froze up when she felt an unseen hand on her back. Quickly turning around, distressed, she blinked in surprise to see Brilliance with Jason, in his frog form, on her shoulder.
Upon seeing her discomfort, she immediately withdrew her hand, "Kara, what are you doing back here? I thought I said to stay in Witchtown."
Releasing the breath she was holding, Kara began to drop to the floor but Brilliance quickly caught her, "What's wrong? What happened?" She led her to a place to sit down and gave her a moment to collect her thoughts.
"Ok, this is what happened."
After Jason parted from them, Brilliance practically dragged Kara behind her with how long and fast her strides were towards the resort. Seeing it's bright light Kara tensed up but paused when Brilliance gave her hand a squeeze. "I'll protect you, but you must heed my words." She stopped and turned to face her while bending down to her level, "Once we're face to face with Petros and Lithos you MUST keep your eyes closed; no matter what you hear. They're strong alone, but when they use their powers together..there's a reason why they're on Big Mama's good side."
Kara nodded, growing nervous at how serious she was but calmed herself down, "I trust you."
Hearing that caused Brilliance to smile, a warm feeling overcoming her before she stood up and went back to the mission at hand, but this time, Kara was walking side by side.
Entering the resort, they marched right past the reception desk and to the elevator, pushing the button for the top floor. Brilliance narrowing her eyes when she saw the receptionist talking on the phone in a panic. "They'll be expecting us. Good."
The elevator made a ding sound when the doors opened and they calmly walked towards the office doors. "Ok, Kara, clo-" She looked over to Kara to see she already had her eyes closed, one of her hands grasping her shirt. She smiled more as they reached the doors and calmly pulled them, the large doors swinging wide open.
Stepping inside Brilliance, Kara now behind her, saw them at their desk, Petros staring at his computer screen a small smirk on his face. "Two celebrities in one day?"
"Must be our lucky day." Lithos cooed as they raised up from their sitting position, slowly slithering around the desk to face them, leaning against it with their weight on their arms.
"You tried to harm not just my friend, but someone the Council of Head's has their eyes and protection on. She no longer works for or with Big Mama." Brilliance kept her narrowed eyes on them, the skin around her eyes changing an icy pale with scales forming.
Hearing this, Lithos flinched slightly but Petros kept his cool, his eyes glowing slightly as a challenge to her. "My dear, Brilliance, it was a clear misunderstanding. We were only marveling at her beauty." He said while grabbing something off his desk and slithering around them.
"We were giving her the rest she clearly deserved." Lithos added, his voice low and soft; almost soothing.
"After all, we know what she's been through." Petros whispered in Kara's ear, having moved behind them and clicked a small remote, the screen off to the side playing a video.
Kara froze hearing her own voice screaming and the sparks of electricity.
Brilliance's eyes widen and she swiped at them but they easily evaded her attack. "Turn that off!" She demanded but they only paused it.
Petros laughed, his and half the eyes of their snake hair glowing right at Brilliance but she quickly covered her eyes with her arm. She let out a gasp when they used this opportunity to wrap her up in their tail and threw her out the window, she crashing through the glass and out of sight.
"Brilliance?!" Kara yelled, hearing the glass shatter but no words or sounds from her, she began to panic, it only worsening when she felt their hands on her shoulders, her body trembling and breathing becoming uneven.
"What happened to you..it's not something you deserved." Lithos whispered with sympathy in his voice.
"All we wanted was to give you a way to be free of it all." Petros added in as they slowly wrapped themselves around her.
"For yokai kind to see you as we do."
"Truly beautiful." They said in unison.
Lithos took one of her upper hands and placed it to his cheek. "No more pain."
"No more sorrow." Petros took her other hand to his cheek.
"Just look into our eyes." They chanted, both their eyes and the snakes glowing.
They smirked when they felt her thumb stroking their cheek til they hissed in pain when her thumbs were shoved into one of their eyes, they unable to grab her due to her lower arms grabbing their arms. She gritted her teeth when she was tossed to the ground as they flailed from the pain, covering their eyes, "You will pay for that, you wretched insect!" Petros yelled, grabbing her arms and slamming her into a wall causing her to scream in pain.
"We were giving you a chance to be adored! To be loved!" Lithos shouted.
"You think anyone would want to be around you after what you've done? At what you can do? They'll only see you as a disgusting killing machine, forever alone!"
She struggled against their grip trying to fight them and the tears stinging her eyes that she was keeping in when her antennas began to twitch, hearing the flap of wings, and began to struggle harder, "I've paid for a lot of things, but this is not one! I won't run anymore because I'm no longer alone!" She yelled, slamming her head into Petros causing him to yell and loosen his grip then jumped up while they still had a hold of her arms and kicked her feet into their stomach sending them flying backwards into the grip of Brilliance.
They gasped as their body began to involuntarily tremble, not just from the strength they felt from the grip on their heads but the temperature in the room had dropped immensely, able to see their breath as they shook. Petros' eyes widened when she tilted their heads backwards to look right at her, she in her half drago form, glaring darkly at them, "Wrong move, serpent." She growled. Lithos opened his eyes to use their stare but when nothing happened, their brows lifted in fright. "Let's see you use your power without your second head." Brilliance gripped Lithos' neck, squeezing hard causing Petros to panic and try and save his brother, their tail wiggling and writhing to get free.
Hearing their cries and pain, Kara squeezed her ears to cover the noise, a sickening feeling churning her gut. She stood to her feet wanting this to stop but wasn't sure how to get to them til she let out a gasp when she felt the vibration of the brother's tail on the floor, able to see blurry figures and began to follow it. She reached her hands out and placed them over someone's arm and recognized the cold touch as Brilliance. "Stop. That's enough." She said in a steady voice.
Brilliance and Petros stared at her in shock.
"You already accomplished what you wanted, you scared them. They won't hurt or come after me...I don't want anymore bloodshed. Please." She slowly opened her eyes, looking at the two.
Lithos opened his eyes when his brother closed his, staring at her perplexed. He watched as she walked over to the desk where they had her belongings and picked them up. All he could think of was when they first laid eyes on her, how graceful and elegant she moved when fighting in the arena. It was after one of her longest battles, the crowd was roaring at another victory for her when she looked up towards the VIP where they were and their eyes met, her blue and purple and his gold and green. He felt his heart skip when she smiled their way before leaving. "You can go." His voice was low yet clear.
Petros turned to his brother to say something but stopped when he felt sadness overcome him. Petros hissed and crossed their arms, turning his head from them all. "Whatever."
Brilliance had let go at this point and sighed. "Fine. We have other things to take care of anyways."
Kara was the first to leave, walking out with her head high but Brilliance had stopped at the door, "Winx no longer exists. She's becoming something better and much stronger."
The brothers moved to the window, Lithos watching the two run off in a hurry and sighed while closing his eyes, Petros opening his and yelling out, "SOMEONE GET THE HEATER ON. IT'S STILL FREEZING!"
Arriving at the HCPD Brilliance burst through and pointed at the chimera officer, "You, there! Take us to the evidence room! Orders from the Council of Heads!"
When the doors were opened for them, Kara gasped to see Alastair covered in goo, "Dragan!" She ran to her, dropping to her knees and went to pick her up, "Wait, don't touch me, thay threw something on me that I'm not sure what it will do." Kara nodded and looked around for something to clean her off and began to clean her off when she did, "I'm so glad to have you back and you're safe." She hugged Alastair before standing up, "We don't have much time. Baron was arrested and we need to rescue him." She noticed Raph's weapons beside her and grabbed those as well.
"Wait, what?" Noticing her determined expression she stayed silent and decided to wait for explanations.
"Ok, punks, your lawyers are here." They heard the gorilla officer say then suddenly heard Splinter's and Mikey's voice imitating a southern accent. Brilliance smacked her forehead at not only the ridiculous plan, but their acting. "At least they're not in as serious trouble as I thought." Kara said with a sigh.
When the cop left after leaving the large cake with the obvious sword stuck inside it, Kara couldn't believe they were all in jail! She would have started laughing if not for Raph shoving them all out of the way to get to her, "Kara, you're alright! I was so worried you were a goner!" He practically cried as he hugged her. She gave him a gentle squeeze knowing how they parted was quite traumatic, "Honestly, Raph, I've never felt better. Thanks to you all." She looked at each and every one of them and when her eyes landed on Donnie, they softened, before taking a step back. "We're heading back to Jason's for my wings. I would like all of you to be there since you got this covered." She gave them a wink before turning around and letting them be. Brilliance followed after her hearing the portal activate.
"Are you ready for this?" Brilliance asked gently.
Taking in a deep breath, she let it out slowly, "Ready as I'll ever be."
~~~~~Extra~~~~~~~
Somehow managing to escape, the Mud Dogz narrowly missed the search light that was on them.
"Man, I can't believe we're back to being on the run. No thanks to that fake!" Loathsome Leonard grumbled, slamming his fist on to the wall they were pressed against.
"At least we managed to snag some loot on our way out." Dastardly Danny mentioned, his back to the alley they were in, holding on to the small, jingly bag with a smirk on his face though his eyes saddened at the thought of his first crush betraying him.
Malicious Mickey said nothing, keeping his head down in sadness while standing at the mouth of the alley.
Above them a lone figure cloaked in shadows smirked down at them, "Jackpot." They giggled before jumping down, landing on their long, heavy tail right in the middle of them, kicking out their large marsupial feet sending Leonard and Mickey flying. Hopping to their feet, "Target acquired." A feminine voice wearing a dark blue hoodie muttered and pushed herself towards Danny.
Narrowing his eyes, he brought out his knife, slicing upward, but she leaned backwards at the last second, the hood that was covering her face dropping off her head. Long, large, and black pierced pointy ears popped out from the hood with a 'boing' sound. She stumbled backwards and touched her face to make sure she wasn't bleeding and when she saw no blood her lavender eyes narrowed at him before bawling her fists up and getting into a fighting stance, "Good. Didn't want this to be too easy."
Dastardly Danny's eyes widened, his cheeks glowing a soft pink at the spunky kangaroo in front of him, her bangs bouncing between her eyes with her movements "Beautiful." He muttered in awe, this causing her to slip slightly and look at him in confusion. "Wha-" Her ears twitched when she heard yelling behind her and jumped up high, flipping over the blue one as he charged and kicked him towards the purple one.
They yelled out as they collided with each other, the money bag flying in the air, and landed right in her arms. "Thanks for the gift. Catch ya later, cutie." She winked at the purple one and hopped away.
"GRRR AFTER HER!" Leonard shouted, they chasing after the thief.
Mickey watched his older brother as they ran, smiling to himself to see the same spark he had with Winx. "We should recruit her."
Leonard let out another yell when he heard her laughing.