A Son for a Daughter - Ch 15

Chapter 15

She scrambled backwards on her bottom and using the bricks for support, climbed to her feet as he came storming towards her. His teeth were bared and his eyes were narrowed into a scowling white fury. He said nothing more. He didn't need to. She got the message loud and clear. He blamed her for what had happened to Leo. He wasn't here to talk like Donatello or to come to any sort of mutual understanding as Michelangelo did the other day. He followed her here for one reason. He came to make her pay for what was done to his brother. He meant hurt her. Possibly kill her.

Her jaw was throbbing and sending shooting spikes of pain up into the side of her temple from the first blow that had connected. She couldn't risk another strike from the powerful mutant hitting home. Her head swung right and down as his fists came at her. She heard the impact as it smashed against the bricks behind her head. Heart in her throat, she scrambled to one side, jumping back to avoid the ax kick he followed up with. He spun and threw a back kick, following that up with a hook that she caught against her left forearm with a shout of pain as she blocked it. Fast and faster, aimed with precision and deadly intention, his kicks and jabs came at her.

She pivoted and shuffled her feet through the dusty tunnel, forced into defensive blocking and posturing. He wasn't giving her an opportunity to attack. She barely kept up with blocking his blows. Even if given the opportunity, however, she didn't want to fight him.

Raphael was a force to reckon with and the few times she had engaged him in a fight, it had ended swiftly with her retreat. He was all rocky muscle and bulk; sheer strength. She was no match for him. Another punch and she'd be out; at his mercy, and she knew there'd be none for her. Not from Raphael. She could see it in his eyes. His fury and disgust. Burning like something akin to lust. Lust for her blood.

He blamed her for Leonardo's torture and rape, despite the fact that she was trapped here in his very home. Ridiculous as it was, Raphael held onto that assignment of blame. He hated her for something she had no control over, for something she had no role in. But she didn't claim innocence. Far from it. She was part of the clan that had tried to hunt down and kill his brothers and father. A small part of her mind accepted this as her fate. Deciding that maybe she deserved this after all. Deserved his hatred, his spite. This retribution. For ultimately, wasn't this the way she always knew she'd go down? Hadn't her father trained her for this day? To kill or be killed? Hadn't she trapped them, tricked them, and tried to hurt and humiliate them time and again? Maybe this was justice after all.

Karai's heart sank. The last few days of betrayal, abandonment and fear had worn down her usual reservoir of spunk and defiance. Her heart raced and her mind was a blur of fear and desperation as her arms and legs grew battered and weary from exertion and pain. She could try and run, but she'd need to get around him first. He was giving her no opening to even try. Her right foot slipped and lucky for her it did, for his heel just missed her nose.

Again and again, his right fist, left foot, left fist, right elbow came at her in a blurred pattern. The only sound above her pained gasps was the sound of his rumbling growl. It rolled and reverberated over the bricks and echoed down the tunnel. Her arms rose up and knocked away the strikes aimed for her face and throat. She groaned as her back hit the wall behind her. She twisted as another blow glanced off her hip and thigh. She turned and managed to just dodge his round house kick. A second of opportunity opened and she twisted, bringing her leg up. She hit him with a push kick, square in the center of his chest; sending him back a mere few inches. But it gave her the chance to catch her breath. She fell back against the wall, bracing herself with it. Her legs quivered and her fingers clawed at the bricks.

"Stop!" she shouted breathlessly. She used both wrists to swing up and out, knocking his grasping hands away as he aimed for her throat.

She threw a snap kick as he came in close again and clipped his jaw. He backed up a little, only to shift his hips to send a side kick aimed at her head. It hit her arm as her body twisted to deflect it. Her feet shuffled to one side. She ducked low as his opposite leg swept over her and came up and in a spin with a back kick that he deflected like swatting at a gnat. She fell to one side but clambered to right herself. Not wanting to give him a second of an advantage. She circled around him as his body turned with her.

"I don't want to fight you!"

"Shut the fuck up, bitch!"

With that he feigned a lunge forward. Karai's heels dug into the ground as she bobbed and flinched. A wicked smirk spread across his face that turned her blood cold. He made an abrupt motion and she jumped back again. A dark chuckle filled the tunnel.

"Scared?" he asked as they slowly circled one another. With the back of his hand he wiped at his chin. A trickle of blood colored it from the earlier snap kick. He glanced at the blood on his hand and his eyes rose up to meet hers. "Good."

She brought her hands up in a surrendering motion and lowered her shoulders as she stopped moving. With a shake of her head, she swallowed, "I had nothing to do with what happened to Leo."

His lip curled. He jabbed a thick finger in her direction. "Don't. Don't even say his name. You don't get to say his name. You Foot soldier bitch."

"That's right. You're pissed. And . . . And you want to make someone pay. I get that. It doesn't change the truth." Her voice rose and she hated herself for the slight pleaded note that laced her words. A flash of anger swept through her and a number of insults were dancing along the tip of her tongue, but a more rational part of her mind reasoned that goading a furious, much stronger than her mutant was not a very smart idea. Especially when she was cornered and alone with him.

"Gonna try 'n talk your way outta this? Think you can brain wash me like you did my little brother," he said and shook his head. He pulled his sais from his belt. The pointed ends gleamed as he spun them in a slow arching twirl between his fingers. Karai eyed the wicked weapons and trembled. She took in a long slow inhale and held it.

"Ain't gonna happen. Not with me." He pointed one tip of the sai to his chest, "'Cuz I know what . . . the Shredder," he pointed one end of the handle at her, his hand trembled, "your fuckin' sorry excuse of a father 'n leader did to h-him." He clenched his jaw and spoke through gritted teeth. "He took him and used 'em like that . . . my brother," he spat and panted, chest heaving, eyes fluttering closed. He was overcome and Karai took the opportunity to try and reason with him.

"That wasn't my fault," she squeaked and swallowed. More steadily she said, "None of this . . . was my fault," her face was throbbing and suddenly she just wished she had gone back to her room instead of running away. "Not my choice. I was thrown aside, too."

His expression pinched as his frown deepened, eyes still closed he growled, "Shut up."

"I never wanted this to happen. Any of this. Not to me . . ."

"Shut up. Shut. Up."

"Or to Leonardo-"

As soon as the name fell from her lips, Raphael roared. He lunged at her. She fell back as he leaped upon her, driving his weapons down and back and down again, meaning to tear her to shreds. It was all she could to do to block and protect her face as the tips of the sais jabbed at her. The side prongs sliced through and grazed her forearms, cutting through the fabric in a neat line, slashing through her skin. Blood streamed down her arms. The bite of steel was a sharp burn across her cheek and into her ear. She yelped and writhed.

Her left hand grabbed his left wrist as her right forearm blocked his right sai coming down at her. She shook her head and screamed, thrashing and bucking, and moving him not an inch. She twisted and brought her mouth to his left arm, just below the wraps on his wrist and bit into the flesh. Raphael hissed and dropped his sai. He pulled back his bitten arm and shook off the pain before bringing his fist down.

She blocked but the force of the blow along slammed her against the ground. Her head swam and her body ached. She turned her head to the side and groaned, but never releasing her grip on his right hand holding the remaining weapon pointed at her throat. He tried pounding her head, but her left elbow was not allowing him. Tears were blinding her as she wrestled with him until she dug the nails of her thumbs into the softer flesh of the underside of his wrist. With a sharp cry, the sai in his right hand was dropped to one side. She braced the heels of her hands against his chin and shoved at his face.

His hands came around and he gripped her by the hair at her temples, he raised her head up awkwardly off the ground and slammed it down, making her hands fall away. He did it again as her fingers clawed at him and her legs kicked; knees hammering uselessly against the back of his carapace, bruising them in the process. Her pained grunts mixed with the sound of his snarling and cursing. Blood and sweat mixed to paint their faces in ghastly streaks of black and crimson. His hands released her hair and migrated to the front of her throat. She arched her back and grasped at his wrists as he tightened his hold.

"No! No! Please!"

Mikey met Donatello in the living room as he emerged from the laundry room, the sound of someone shouting brought them to the center of the lair. They paused, each on an opposite side of the sofa. They exchanged a concerned and questioning look and then raced to Master Splinter's bedroom door as Leonardo's voice, though it sounded like someone else's, screamed out words that had never before been uttered within the Hamato home. Words that they'd never dream of hearing from their eldest brother. Especially not directed to their Sensei, their father. Donatello's eyes welled as his throat tightened. Just as they reached the door, only to hesitate a fraction of a second before reaching out to open it, it slid wide, making them fall back.

Leonardo stood before them, trembling and head bowed between pinched shoulders. Despite his face being lowered, both brothers could tell he'd been crying. He made no sound other than the soft hitching of his breathing. Don and Mikey shot each other terrified expressions. Leonardo hadn't cried since they were little. Years and years ago. At once, they crowded towards him, hands held out to touch him. Before they could, Master Splinter appeared behind him.

"Give your brother some space, my sons."

Without a word, they fell back and parted as Leonardo crept past them. Mikey gave a soft cry of distress and followed behind his shell close as a shadow. Donatello snapped his gaze to his master. He balled his hands into fists.

"What happened?" he demanded. "What did you say to him?"

Splinter's distracted expression as he watched the back of Leonardo's shell crossing the room to his bedroom was replaced with a severe look which he directed at Donatello.

"Do not use such an accusatory tone with me, Donatello," he snapped.

Instead of being cowed by Splinter's rebuke, Donatello snarled, "I knew this was going to happen!"

"Donatello," Splinter warned.

"You bullied him! Raph was right! I heard what you said back there. In the Shredder's chambers, how it was his fault. His fault! You know that isn't true. This, if anything," he went on as his voice rose hysterically, "is all because of your poor planning. How could you ever think they'd treat him as anything other than a prize to torment and destroy?!"

Splinter approached Donatello and leveled a glare at him. "That is enough."

A hand on Donatello's shoulder had him jumping and wheeling around. He opened his mouth to yell at Michelangelo, but his breath caught in his throat as he faced Leonardo. His brother's face was puffy, his eyes rimmed in red, but they were steady and firm if not sad. Holding all the sadness of the world in his eyes, it seemed to Donatello. His heart pinched and his throat formed a lump that choked him.

"Do not disrespect our father," he said calmly in a soft voice.

Donatello shook his head. He reached up and grabbed Leonardo's hand with both of his and held it against his heart.

He spoke around the tightness in his throat, "This is not your fault, Leo. Do you hear me? None of this was your doing." Donatello's eyes pleaded him to understand this truth.

Leonardo held Don's gaze for an instant then dropped his eyes away to the floor. He dropped his head and shifted his severed arm. Michelangelo crept up behind him, his face a mask of worry.

Splinter's voice seemed overly loud as he responded to the room in general, "Leonardo knows we do not blame him."

Donatello's fury rose up at Splinter's words, sure that his master had upset Leonardo and had, in his denial of the truth, made his brother believe that had he been better or more careful none of what had happened to him would have occurred. He moved to turn to face him when Leonardo's fingers opened and pressed against his chest, just over his heart. Donatello's eyes snapped to Leo's. Leonardo shook his head slightly. Donatello gave him a desperate look.

"It doesn't matter," Leo whispered and Donatello's heart sank.

He knew what his brother, his amazing, courageous brother was doing. And he wouldn't stand for it. It wasn't fair. He couldn't let Leonardo be the one to pull the family from the brink of destruction. Not after everything he'd suffered. Just so Splinter could regain his daughter. A daughter that so far refused to accept the truth. No! How could Leo just decide to move forward? Donatello couldn't stand for this. Leonardo couldn't do this. Not without some kind of acknowledgement of what this messed up, poorly thought out plan had cost him. He deserved at the very least, that. Donatello clenched his jaw. How could Splinter stand back and allow Leonardo to absorb all of this pain and not do everything in his power to try and make things better? How could he allow Leonardo to simply be the sacrificial lamb without giving something in return? He couldn't just let Leonardo take this on and then leave it to him to get over what happened and make things go back to the way they were before. Not without Splinter at least acknowledging what he'd done was a terrible mistake, one that would affect each of them for years to come. And if that was forgiveness in his brother's eyes, Don would not accept it. No. The injustice of forgiveness at this moment was too much for Donatello to deal with. First and foremost, Splinter needed to apologize to Leonardo. He needed his father to say it out loud. Donatello needed to hear it himself.

"It does matter," he responded breathlessly, "What happened to you matters. Splinter . . . he needs to say it to you. He needs to say it out loud, at the very least. Admit what happened to you. He's gotta accept it and stop denying what they did to you! What the Shredder did to you!"

Panic raced over Leonardo's paling face. His mouth hung open, but no words came out. Michelangelo's eyes darted between Donatello's face and Master Splinter standing just behind him. Leo's wide eyes darted to his father then back to Don then his head swung around as he searched the room for something or someone. Donatello spun around as Leo removed his hand and clutched at his injured arm, looking around frantically.

Donatello pointed at Splinter, "You have to apologize to him. You have to say out loud what happened to Leonardo was not his fault! That it wasn't his fault that they beat him and took him and . . . and-"

"Don't!" Leo suddenly cried out, still looking around. His panicked expression was deepening as he stepped back and away from Mikey's outstretched arms. "Wh-Where's Karai?" he asked desperately as his face darted about. "I don't . . . I don't want her . . . to . . ."

He looked again to Donatello. He mouthed the word 'please'. Donatello, lost in his righteous fury, had no idea what Leonardo was trying to ask him. Then Leo raised his shaking hand and closed his eyes, catching his breath. Donatello glanced at Michelangelo who looked equally as perplexed. Splinter strode forward past Donatello and Leonardo backed away from him. Quivering and one hand up defensively in front of him as he turned his head away, staring at the floor. Almost as though afraid of Splinter touching him. Donatello's fury drove itself deeper. He stomped around Splinter and stood between them.

"It's okay. I-I . . ." he panted. Donatello looked at him with growing incredulity. "I don't need anything. I don't need to hear anything. I understand. I understand everything. Please, Donnie. It doesn't matter, it doesn't." His voice rose as he pleaded brokenly, "And . . . but . . . She can't . . . I don't want her to hear . . . I don't want her to know . . . She wouldn't . . . I mean . . . I . . ." he choked and his words trailed off.

Donatello's hand rose up and covered his mouth, realizing now with sinking dread, what he'd nearly done. If Karai was anywhere in the vicinity then she would have heard him nearly command Splinter to acknowledge the beating and raping of his brother was not his fault. He very nearly shamed the one person he'd only meant to protect and bring justice to. His stomach shrank and curled. If Leonardo had feelings for Karai and he was certain he did, then the last thing he'd want is for her to know what had been done to him. Even if she knew, which Donatello was sure she did, Leonardo did not know this. He was probably terrified of what she would think of him if she found out.

He thought of April and while he knew that she'd be understanding and compassionate if he were in Leonardo's situation, he also knew that he would be just as afraid that she would never look at him the same again. That she would see him as less than strong and more like something broken. Damaged. Even that soft, subtle light of pity, if she looked at him with that in her expression, it would kill him. It was a matter of sparing what shreds of dignity remained within his brother's battered soul. Donatello pressed his hand against his mouth and closed his eyes, as he calculated the emotional devastation his outburst may have just caused. He felt like he was going to be sick.

From under his palm he said, "Oh no. No. I'm sorry, Leo. I didn't mean to . . . to say anything you didn't want, uh, revealed."

"I don't think she's here," Mikey called and everyone turned to see the youngest trotting between rooms, peeking his head inside, only to pop back out with a mixed expression of relief and worry. He chuckled nervously. "She didn't hear anything, Leo. 'Cuz . . . 'cuz . . . she isn't . . . here." He gulped.

Splinter spun around. "What?"

Donatello straightened up. "I just saw her in the laundry room."

They turned in unison towards the laundry room. They moved at once towards the hallway and stood, glancing between the empty room and the hallway leading to the back exit.

"She left?" Leonardo asked. His voice sounded small and lost. Hurt. Mikey was next to him in an instant. He placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and then moved to stand next to Donnie.

Donatello pushed past Splinter. He adjusted his strap over his shoulder. "I'll bring her back."

Mikey piped up, "I'm coming, too."

Splinter followed, with Leonardo shuffling behind in his shadow. Splinter turned. "Leonardo. Stay here."

He shook his head.

"You must rest. You will stay here."

Leonardo held his gaze, "No."

But then Donatello stopped abruptly and Mikey slammed into his shell, as he was watching Splinter and Leonardo's tense exchange over one shoulder, biting his lip.

"Uff! Yeouch, I bit my tongue."

"Wait a minute." Donatello looked to one side as if listening for something. His eyes rose up to Splinter's gaze as his stomach sank.

Splinter asked the question on Donatello's troubled mind, "Where is Raphael?"

Eyes wide and wild with rage, Raphael stared down at her. The adrenaline raced through him, feeding his fury, stoking the flames of revenge. His pulse was a thundering roar in his ears. She had to pay. This was all her fault. She was one of them. One of the ones responsible for what was done to his brother. If his master hadn't been so obsessed with bringing her into their home, none of this would have happened. Leonardo would be safe. He'd be whole. The image of his clever, quick, brave brother laying splayed and defeated, covered in blood and body fluids on the Shredder's bed blotted out all other thoughts. Foam sprayed from between his gritted teeth as he snarled with renewed fury.

She struggled to free herself. Her body bucked and her legs kicked. But it was like fighting a boulder that had crushed her beneath its terrible weight. She rolled her hips and shook her head.

It would be so easy to snap her neck, so frail and small between his large palms. But something held him back. Even now, he hesitated. Even in the heat of spiked adrenaline and fury, he just couldn't bring himself to break her neck. In the back of his head, he understood that she meant something to Splinter . . . and she meant something else to Leonardo. Foolish as that was.

He swore between gritted teeth. Maybe he couldn't kill her, but . . . he had to do something to make her pay. A sudden awareness of her beneath him crept through the rage. Her small writhing body between his legs, along with the strange softness of her curves against the hard planes of his body stirred something dark and lustful within him. He needed to do something to her. Right now. Revenge for what was done to Leonardo!

The Shredder had done the unforgiveable when he raped his brother. She had to pay in kind. He wanted to make her hurt the way they had hurt Leo. Because it wasn't fair what had happened to him. It wasn't fair! His racing mind split in two. One side instantly rejecting the very thought as it took shape. Knowing it was wrong. Knowing that fighting her now, even, had been a mistake. A terrible mistake. One he would come to regret. The core of him, the heart of him, understood this, but the black rage within him was so great it devoured reason. The rage insisted it was only right. To make her suffer the way his brother had. His rage needed to do something to make things balance out. His rage needed to avenge his brother.

Before he realized what was happening, his hands were tearing at the front of her shirt; pulling it down and away from the front of her bruised throat. The material ripped with an oddly satisfying sound.

They raced down the tunnels.

"Miwa!?" Splinter called. "Raphael! Karai!?" His voice was swallowed by the claustrophobic bricks and muffled by the dry grit beneath their feet, but his sons could hear the panic and fear lacing the tone.

Mikey hung back with Leonardo, bracing his brother with one arm around his shoulders. Splinter had ordered Leonardo to stay in the lair, that he was not strong enough for this exertion, but Leonardo would not be kept from searching for Karai. He limped and did his best to keep up. Mikey, sensing more than Splinter and Donatello could ever notice, muttered quietly over and over into his brother's ear, "It's okay, Leo. We'll find her. She wouldn't leave. Not without you." Each time he repeated the last phrase, Leonardo trembled and closed his eyes as if in pain. Mikey was sure he was.

Donatello darted ahead, bo out, clutched in his sweating palms. Panic making the balls of his feet fly along the ground. His mind focused and on repeat. Replaying the same phrase over and over.

Don't do anything stupid, Raph! Don't do anything stupid!

She hissed in her breath and wheezed, choking and struggling to get air back into her lungs now that he'd released her throat. Karai's hands weakly clawed at him and struck and slapped at him in the face and arms. She was only vaguely aware that his attention had turned to something ugly and primal.

His pupils grew small as his focus intensified, jaw locked stiffly. His hips pinned her bucking torso securely to the ground. She couldn't do more than squirm against him and the motion filled him with an overwhelming sense of furious heat, as though a blaze had just been ignited within him. He snorted like a bull and drove his weight down on top of her. He had to do this. He had to make her pay. He had to do to her what was done to Leo.

"What are you . . . stop!" Karai croaked as her own awareness of the shift in his body language blazed to life. What was he doing? He wasn't trying to . . . to . . . He wouldn't! She was in trouble. "Don't do this!" she cried. "Raphael!"

Ignoring her pleas, his hands worked faster as they tore at the fabric, revealing a black bra beneath the thin material. He froze and stared at her heaving chest, glistening with sweat. Desire erupted through his middle, traveled down between his legs and left him shuddering. Intense and electrifying, the force of it stunned him.

Karai's bloodied hands were braced against his shoulders, pushing at him, in a last ditch effort to get him off her. She moaned and growled at him. He brought his left hand up and braced it roughly over her face, holding her head back and down. She shook her head, but he held it securely in place. His breath hitched and his mouth went dry. His heartbeat was pounding in his head. Retribution and revenge faded back and were replaced with something akin to awe.

Slowly, his right hand moved up from her ribcage, up over the mound of her flesh, impossibly soft for all her brittle words and hard fighting. She quaked and fell to trembling beneath his touch. He marveled at the beauty before him and brought his thumb up and around the inner curve of her partially exposed breast. He blinked in wonder at the delicate texture of her flesh, the fragileness of her. Then he suddenly became aware of her tears, wet against the palm of his left hand. He raised his hand off her face as if it had burned him.

"Please," she whispered, "Raphael."

His eyes snapped to meet hers, green on green; bouncing between them, throat working as she stared up at him with a mix of fear and fury. He quickly dropped his gaze away. His anger shriveled and turned to ash. He licked his lips. As his thumb absentmindedly traveled up the ridge of her bra, his eyes fell to one side and his face flushed with intense embarrassment and regret. This was wrong. He couldn't . . . he couldn't do this. He wouldn't. Not to her, not to anyone. He shook the fever that had gripped him away, blinking to clear the haze that had fallen over his eyes. How could he ever have let his rage carry him this far? He was an animal. Shame and remorse filled up the hollow space that the rage had carved within him.

"I . . . I . . ." he choked and stammered unable to form the correct amount of an apology to make up for what he had just nearly done.

Pulling the material up to cover her exposed flesh, something sharp caught and jabbed him; cutting into the thick flesh of his thumb. The momentary prick of pain was like a flash of illumination in the dark. He froze and stared at the line of blood that rose up and dribbled down the meaty flesh of his thumb. Carefully he turned the torn fabric up and over, revealing a piece of metal, broken in half from when he tore the material. Various tiny lights were flashing despite the device having been snapped in two. He frowned.

"What is that?"

Karai, panting, glared up at him, then down onto her chest. She frowned as well and blinked. Her body bucked and he rolled off her onto one thigh. She sat up and quickly fumbled with her shirt until she managed to pry the device, little more than an inch square from her body. She stared down at the blinking pieces laying in her palm, running her fingertip over the smooth underside, the side that was in contact with her body. She never even knew it was there.

"Is that what I think it is?" Raphael asked, his face darkening.

Karai's eyes rose up, wild with panic, red rimmed and swollen from her battle with him and her furious tears. "Run. Right now! Raphael, run!"

He crouched as Karai stood up and stomped her heel into the device, grinding it into the ground. She raised her foot and found the lights had stopped.

"It was a trap. All along." Raphael straightened up. "I knew it. Fuck! I knew you couldn't be trusted!"

Karai ran her hands through her mussed hair. "Are you that stupid!?" She shook her hands out in front of her. "I had no idea this was planted on me!"

"The fuck you didn't," he spat and with his words, blood and spittle sprayed from his mouth.

Karai growled in frustration, "You asshole! Stop wasting time!"

There was a tinkle, a sound of metal falling against brick and the rough grating noise of something rolling over uneven ground. From down the long dim passageway, a small canister bounded and bounced, rolled and stopped just between them. They both stared at it then at each other as it erupted into a small explosion of dark purple smoke. From every shadowed corner emerged soldiers clad in the black uniform of the Foot. The insignia crimson and glowing in the darkness. They flooded the tunnel.

"Dammit!" Raphael screamed, as he ducked and grabbed his sai. Karai's hands were on his shell.

"Get out of here while you still can! I'll hold them off!"

He twisted around to face her. Hold them off? "What?!"

She pulled him close and he was too stunned to do anything but allow himself to be dragged into her embrace. She crossed her arms at the wrists and pressed the side of his sweat soaked head close to her. "Get back to the lair and protect him," she whispered furiously into his ear. She pulled back a little. Looked him in the eye. His eyes bounced between hers. Comprehension along with intense regret speared him painfully. Leonardo. She wanted him safe. She had nothing to do with any of this. He was a fool and an asshole. "Don't let him get captured again."

He pressed his lips into a tight line and gave her a single nod. "Karai . . . I-I'm . . . I'm-"

She shook her head and pressed her fingers to his mouth, shushing him. "You weren't wrong. I would've wanted blood, too."

He gave her one last look, hoping she got how badly he regretting hurting her and trying to do something so awful. One day he hoped he'd get the chance to make it up to her.

She rolled her shoulders back and narrowed her eyes as she braced herself into a fighting stance. Her bloodied fists came up. Not looking at him she hissed, "Go."

He turned to run as she turned to face the hordes of ninja blocking the opposite direction. Raphael lunged forward but was halted by the sound of laughter bouncing and echoing down around them. Rich and thick, masculine and full of mirth it rang all around the tunnel. Distantly, he thought he heard his father calling for Karai. Heard the rapid pattering of multiple footsteps hurrying towards them.

"No," he breathed. "Go back," he hissed to himself. "Go back!"

"Karai!?"

He jumped as his father emerged from between a group of men. They parted easily for him. As though they were expected guests. Splinter dashed forward, his amber eyes darting between Raphael and the blood covering his face and body to Karai, her shirt torn and her arms coated in blood and dirt. Face tear stained and filthy. He fell to one knee before Karai and grasped her forearms.

"Daughter, are you . . . are you alright?"

Donatello burst forward into the alcove and just behind him Raphael saw Mikey and his heart sank as he saw his little brother was supporting a pale-looking, exhausted Leonardo. Donatello stumbled to a halt. He glanced around, confused and instantly alert.

"Foot soldiers!?"

"Get out of here! It's a trap!" Raphael screamed.

Karai shook her head. In a hopeless voice she asked Splinter, still kneeling on one knee before her, "What are you doing here?"

The laughter came again and all turned in the direction it was coming from. Splinter remained where he was, one hand still holding Karai's right arm, as if afraid to let her go. The men parted as from the far end of the tunnel, one by one they bowed as their master entered. Clad in full armor, spikes gleaming with wicked anticipation of battle, eyes glittering from behind his burnished metal mask, stepped the Shredder.