Tides of Reality| Ninjago | Monkie Kid | ROTTMNT

Chapter 45 - Cat is Out of the Bag

She tried going back home. She really tried.

They think they burned through half of my stash of Travellers tea on attempts to go back.

After waking up in the turtles' lair and a violent freak-out, she started looking for a way back. Despite knowing that they're most probably in a whole 'nother world (Not the same as realm. See in one universe there are multiple worlds which contain multiple realms. They are like little flocks of realms.) they tried nonetheless.

And she discovered many new realms, and so many new New Yorks. After at least three different spiderman's, a few teams of mutant turtles, Hogwarts and a Jurassic Park she has officially lost hope.

Meanwhile the team she was stuck with was treating her like a little curiosity. It hurt to think that one day she will just. Disappear from their lives.

Raph will forever be feared by every single pet he encounters, Mikey will have to go back to picking his own colors and Donnie will never get the answers they are looking for.

That is until 16th of February. That's when her attempt at getting back to Ninjago, or even Megapolis, was met with a sight of New York she already saw. They have explored every single realm available.

They spent almost three hours trying to confirm that it wasn't true. That they haven't ran out of possibilities. Sadly they kept coming back to realms they already visited. They were stuck.

During the first days Donnie gave her a new collar. And that was for the best, because her old choker got a bit... destroyed. All it took was a quick spell of shifting for the collar not to break when Sky was changing shape and a charm of holding - for her to be able to carry everything in the pocket dimension.

And it came in handy. They almost ran away with a piece of the dark armor in it. Almost.

And so they had to help the turtles during the first faceoff with the Shredder in March.

It wasn't easy, considering the amount of sleep Sky's been getting because of her nightmares. At first it was pretty normal - a few times her family chasing her away, chanting "Yǔ is a halfblood", and one about Nadakhan.

But with time they started to morph into the ninja being brutally murdered by the CEO.

But if someone could make a portal between worlds it's got to be Donnie, right? They were the smart one. And they were the one to actually see that Mooncakes is not exactly a cat.

(Maybe get in something more if you remember)

So she was mostly peacefully living with the turtles. That is until March 27th.

It started off as any other normal day. Everyone was chilling in the living room, watching TV, skateboarding or sitting on their phones, when suddenly the cat, in the middle of her trot around the room, started coughing up blood.

Splatters of red liquid falling from her lungs, staining the carpet. The turtle's eyes quickly turned to her in fear and concern.

Their body ached so much, they didn't even realize when they transformed back into a human. Only upon seeing horrified and surprised looks on the turtles faces, she realized her situation.

"Fuck. Sorry, I'll go clean it up." She said, looking at the maroon stains on the rug. She stood up and wanted to go fetch a paper towel, since the rest was still frozen in shock.

Wanted.

They quickly felt something heavy hitting their back, the impact forcing them back to their knees.

She looked up, and, seeing as she was now trapped in a net, lifted her hands up in a surrendering gesture. "Fair." They could imagine how the turtles felt in this situation.

"Who are you?" Leo decided to ask first. And S̶e̶l̶e̶n̶e̶ Sky answered, calmly.

"I have many names, but the most fitting to answer your question would be Sky. Sky Walker. She/They." That earned a few suspicious glances. Not the pronouns, the name.

"Okay, 'Sky'. How were you able to turn into a cat?" Leo came forward again, making air quotes at Skys' name. But before she could respond, someone else offered an explanation.

"Shapeshifting..." Donnie's voice was low and sounded a bit unsure. S̶e̶l Sky was glad someone was able to recognize it.

"Tello back there is right." She pointed at them. "It is shapeshifting. My dragon genes are to be blamed for that. I am, however, not pureblooded, hence this whole human thing." Sky was trying to appear as calm and collected as they could, which was getting increasingly harder with every moment.

It was her work. She had gathered this information by themself, since no other human-dragon hybrid was ever documented before. It was all their research and they were quite proud of it.

"How does it work?" That one question from the purple turtle caused Sky to completely ignore Mikey's "Wait, you said dragon?" and start ranting.

"See, dragons are shapeshifters. They can physically replicate anything to some degree. They are mighty and powerful. Humans, on the other hand, are knowledgeable, power-seeking and quite fragile. If you combine the two, they won't mix, instead of one, combined DNA strand, they make two, completely different ones. And now the problem is I can only use one set of my genes at a time, and so I have to switch periodically.

It's like a plant with two leaves. One is always at the top, one at the bottom. If one leaf starts dying from lack of sunlight, so does the whole plant. Bloody cough and nosebleeds are signs that I'm dying and I have to switch.

Any questions?" Sky finished this, probably very long and excruciating to most, rant, only now taking notice of three, bored to death turtles. But Donatello, yet again, almost refusing to disappoint, when she saw they were taking notes on their wrist pad.

"Um, yes. How does shapeshifting work exactly? And why aren't the genes mixing?" Knowing Dee, Sky suspected they already had a few theories.

"Good question." They praised. "Shapeshifting is different for everyone, but-!" She made an effective pause here. "There are some basic steps. I, myself, first focus on whatever I want to change into and imagine my body twisting and morphing. Most mentors told me to clean my mind, but Wukong taught me this way, since 'empty mind' is a lie.

Next comes the in-between state. Wukong converts to golden smoke, MK becomes the light, Macaque has shadow, mine is water and so on. It usually reflects your powers. Lack of in-between state results in excruciating pain, since all the bones and organs are shifting inside of you. Skull changes shape, skin grows out fur and scales and such things. That's the main reason creatures like werewolves hate their transformations so much." Sky spread her arms like if proving a point.

"As for the DNA part, I have no idea but am eager to find out. Yes, that most probably means experiments." They finally finished, shooting an expecting look at Donnie, who was apparently recording this whole thing with their phone.

"Okay, listen." Raph spoke up. "Why were you pretending to be a cat? Our cat."

"Oh, I was in a battle and forgot to change back, and you were all so happy for a pet and-" She stopped. How much does she want to reveal to the turtles? Does she trust them?

Well, yes. And it's already not fair for her to know more about them than they know about her. "And I needed time to try to get back home." They sighed. They knew that this info will only unleash more questions. But so be it. They love answering questions.

"But this" She pulled her, once 2 gallon, supply of traveller's tea. "proved to not be able to break this barrier."

Oh, wait. The turtles don't know what traveller's tea even is, do they?

-

"You were travelling to other realms?!" They didn't know.

"Ohh... so that's why you've been disappearing from the radars."