In the Arms of the Enemy (Raph x OC)

Chapter 23

Raph's POV

"I'll admit, I didn't expect you all to make an appearance so soon," Shredder stepped into the room, followed by Karai and a group of footbots. I noted how she looked away as soon as we made eye contact, and although the moment was brief I didn't miss the flash of guilt that made its way onto her face.

"Where's Esme?" I growled out, my eyes shifting to the man I was sure was responsible for her sudden disappearance. He cocked his head slightly in my direction, his attention now on me. Even though I couldn't see his mouth under the helmet, the smirk was obvious in his voice.

"Who do you think alerted me when you got here?" he questioned, as if the answer were blatantly obvious. That's when I heard a noise from above me.

A slight creaking in the rafters made us all look up to witness Esme come out of her hiding place, dropping down onto the floor, landing in a slight crouch.

"Esme," I breathed a sigh of relief. I quickly went forward, ignoring Leo's shout of warning. She's okay, she's....

Her fist suddenly connected with my jaw, sending me stumbling back into one of the lab tables so hard I dented it. This was nothing like the time she had punched me on accident. Had she always been this strong?

In my excitement I hadn't noticed the strangeness of her behavior, the way Shredder had been talking about her, or the warnings Leo had sent my way. But now it was all I could see. The last memory I had of her standing on the roof, waving goodbye to me with her familiar smile flashed through my mind. I gulped. This wasn't my Esme.

The cold, unfeeling look in her eyes was like another punch to the gut. Why was she looking at me like that? She shifted her body to face the Shredder and walked over to stand next to him. All I could do was watch, my voice caught in my throat.

"You put her under the mind control serum," Donnie suddenly said.

"I guess I'm not too surprised you figured it out. You are the smart one after all," Shredder replied, confirming what we were all thinking.

"Oh my god," Leo muttered, a horrified look on his face. All I felt, however, was rage. My hands shook as they gripped the table behind me.

"I don't wanna be Shredder anymore," Mikey mumbled as he took the bucket off his head.

I pushed myself away from the table, ripping my sais from their holsters.

"She's your daughter, why the fuck would you do this to her?" I growled out, wanting nothing more than to rip this bastard's head off. Shredder sighed, as if he were tired with the conversation.

"Esme has always been my first pick as heir. From the moment I brought her here she picked things up exceptionally fast. Whether it was fighting, negotiating, politics among gangs, she understood it all. But, there was always one thing that held her back. Empathy," he spat out the word.

"I tried starving her, isolation, physical pain, and eventually I thought I had gotten through to her. It's why I finally let her go on patrol with Karai. I'm sure you remember, it's when Esme gave him that," he pointed to the scar on Donnie's arm.

"Turns out I was mistaken. But now with the mind control serum I won't have to worry about her disobeying my orders ever again. Not the best case scenario, but at least her skills won't go to waste," he was so nonchalant as he spoke about taking away his daughter's ability to think for herself.

With every sentence I could feel my chest tightening, my whole body shaking at this point. Why hadn't she told me any of this? You never would have been able to guess by how she acted. She was almost always joking and smiling. How had I not noticed how much pain she was in? How much she had endured?