I'm Not Dead?

You'll Learn a Thing Or Two

I waited patiently for the turtles to get back. They'd been gone for hours and I had resorted to popsicles from the freezer. Did you know there's a cat in there? There is a cat made of ice cream in the freezer, how cool is that?

I was watching old Korean movies with subtitles. Splinter didn't understand what they were saying because he was Japanese (I'm Korean). He wasn't a fan of the TV so much as the dojo.

He'd spent most of his time in there and would peek his head out to check on me. I expected him to be very interested in me after my crying fest. I wonder what he'd do if his sons taught me ninja moves.

"Eleanor!"

I looked behind me and suddenly, a bomb went off. I covered my head and I felt someone grab me. I was pulled in a direction, left maybe? I heard cracking and looked up, a piece of the ceiling fell. That could have crushed me.

"Thank you, can I stay with you?"

I asked. He didn't answer but I knew he wasn't going to say no. He adjusted me to a more comfortable position and took me to the dojo. "It seems that bomb was right on top of us." He muttered and stood up. I wrapped my fists around the cloth of his robes. I didn't much mind him holding me, it wasn't the first time I'd been held. In honesty, I was allowed to be my mature self here. I wasn't a teenager that held herself on dirty jokes and insulting pet names. I was a child and everyone here assumed I had the mindset of one, I understood my place. I was not one to look at this the wrong way. More so, I hadn't wanted to.

Memories of the world I used to live in were growing fuzzier as the years past, but I do remember forcing myself to find attention under the rule of dirty-minded teenagers and horny boys. I wanted nothing more than to be accepted. Be popular without the loss of my virginity or dignity.

I wanted nothing more and nothing less. Even though I wasn't happy with where I was. I remember convincing myself that no matter what happened, this was better than being treated like scum on Earth. Forgotten in school and left looking for scraps of courage to use as an adult. I realize now that I was wrong.

I was an outcast with the cool kids in school.

I was conditionally loved at home.

And no one liked me for what I was or what I'd hoped to be.

_____

Splinter wasn't one to care for a child in a touch full manner. He preferred care in a 'congratulations and discipline' manner. That was excluding one of the few times he had touched his sons. Even more, his sons weren't fond of touching others too much... excluding Michelangelo, who was more than happy to hug people and grab people's hands.

Splinter had to take what he knew from raising his sons and the few memories he had caring for his daughter before that... best not to dwell. Eleanor was a child. Seven years old, she was clueless and oblivious to her current predicament.

One thing was for sure, it was scary and he knew it was going to leave major aftermath. She gripped his robes tightly causing her knuckles to turn white, she was clearly shaking but she didn't seem to notice, and her face was buried in his robes. Her breathing was uneven and she looked vulnerable.

He wrapped his lower arm around her torso (minding the wings) and placed his other hand on her hair slowly rubbing his hand against her tufts of hair. She leaned into him and started weeping. He slowly rocked her back and forth.

"I almost died again."

He looked down and raised an eyebrow. By her tone of voice, he was not meant to hear that. Died again?

"I'm sorry."

He heard that one but quieter. Was she saying sorry to him? For crying?

He held her closer and sighed. Reincarnation was not a highly thought of thing in Japan though there is a book the promotes it and contradicts it. Even so, he believed in it. 'Again' was a dead giveaway but he wasn't sure how old this child was when she died the first time. Maybe she was seven in that timeline too? She wasn't saying sorry to him, it was for someone else. She was grieving. Someone died with her he assumed, she was grieving for them. She understood death but emotional understandability was not something she understood. So she must have died a child, a child wouldn't understand such emotional trauma.

She didn't tell his sons, she was keeping this a secret and he'd think it best he do the same. Some part of him made him worry about the future problems it could cause, especially with her being hunted.

"We're-"

"Shut up Mikey."

Splinter looked up as he felt Eleanor slump and lean against him having fallen asleep.

He adjusted her in his arms and closed the door not caring to take a peek outside. That was until he heard-

"Get Raph on the couch and her in the lab."

His ears twitched and he slightly slid the rice paper doors open. Leonardo was holding Raph, who was conscious but barely, and Donatello was carrying an older woman that was concerningly pale. Blood smeared across her skin and stained her clothes.

She looked to be in her thirties, her skin fair and holding smeared red lipstick. She wore an once white blouse with an untied silk bow, a black dust-stained skirt, and a pair of black flats with a small diamond flower on the front. Her hair was black with dark brown streaks and there were a few white hairs. Her hands were covered in blood, assumingly to put pressure on the wound, where ever it was.

Splinter looked over at Raph as he shifted Eleanor in her sleep so she didn't see in case she woke up.

Raph wasn't bleeding but his foot looked broken and his leg was severely bruised. His eyes were shut tightly and he gritted his teeth. He groaned as Leonardo sat him down.

"Sensei."

Splinter looked up at his eldest with mouth a gap and his eyes crossed with concern and confusion. He was at a loss of how to put what he wanted to say in words nor did he know what to ask first. When he heard Eleanor shift and make a noise in his arms he took a breather and took her to Leonardo's room where it was quiet.

"I wonder why they want you so badly. Your wings can't possibly be causing this much destruction."

He laid her down, covered her, and left.

"Sensei, we found Eleanor's mother." Leonardo started wrapping Raph's major bruises. "Donnie thought she was dead and-"

"Where was her father? Wouldn't he be with Eleanor and her mother?" Splinter interrupted. Leo turned his head and slumped his shoulders. "We saw him, he was unconscious and bleeding. They threw him in a van. We wanted to save him but he yelled at us to leave with his wife when he came to before passing out again. We already had Raph hurt so we ran." Leo didn't sound happy with himself. Splinter patted his shoulder and said, "You did what you could, you got Raph and Eleanor's mother before it got worse. I'm proud of you."

Donnie poked his head out of his lab and smiled. "We got a heartbeat!"

_____

"Professor Hugo Fitts. A man too smart for his own good. The man who experimented with Mutagen."

Hugo was chained to a wall within his cell. A man wearing a metal mask and modernized Samurai armor approached him. Hugo wasn't sure who this man was but he could see a blind eye of this man. He sounded so familiar. Hugo had been patched up on his way here, he was needed alive.

The metal man knelt down in front of this man. "You know," he started, "I'm impressed you hid your daughter from us for so long. Eight years, and your wife, a very caring woman. Such a shame."

Hugo didn't speak, he knew anything he said could be used against him, or his tone of voice could say something. He kept his head low, his eyes never moving. He was pretending to be in shock.

"There's something about your daughter that has come to my attention, and someone else's. Those little wings of hers, her altered DNA, and her brain. They seem very interested in her brain."

Hugo tilted his head up slowly and spit on the floor next to this man's metal shoe. He licked his lips and, very unimpressed, said-

"Go to hell."