Legacy Mutation (Book Eight)

Chapter 49: No Rest For The Hurt

Sleep comes easily to none that night.

Donatello stays up for most of the night operating on Dean, trying to piece his shattered limbs and wings back together. Sarina attempts to help him, but with her arm that proves to be difficult. She takes to patching up Dakota, laying her in her bed and hooking her up to a battery in an attempt to help her.

The Hamatos' friends were all questioned by the police, every officer wondering why they had disappeared for a couple of hours and then shown up again outside the destroyed rubble of a building. Their parents were worried sick, and each teen told the same story.

"We were kidnapped," Elisabeth whispered.

"It was the man known as Oroku Saki...but he's dead now," Lukas added solemnly.

"There was an accident. The supports of the building were too old...they fell," Tiki continued. "Kelly was caught in the crossfire."

"Do you know who saved you?" the police asked.

Casey and April both shook their heads.

"No. They were mere shadows. They unlocked the cages and told us to run. We did," Casey said.

"If it wasn't for them...well, I don't want to know," April added, forcing a weak smile.

Blake only nodded in agreement, not trusting himself enough to talk.

Outside the laboratory, everyone sits in a heavy silence, the air thick with grief. Leonardo stares at the blank TV, his face twisted with sorrow. He keeps his arms around Destiny, who simply waits for the news of whether or not her son is going to survive or not. Venus had gone to her bedroom the moment they got home, wanting to cry on her own.

Raphael sits near the couple, Taylor and Copeland playing their guitars halfheartedly beside him. The only songs that seem to come from the instruments are sad and dreary, the two musicians finding it impossible to play anything happy.

Michelangelo doesn't smile, his eyes reddened from crying as he fiddles with one of his old action figures. Annalise sits on a beanbag chair near him, hugging a pillow to her chest. Mitch just looks at the ceiling, tears trickling down his cheeks in a seemingly endless waterfall.

Asher works in the laboratory next to his parents. He can hardly bear to watch his father working on Dean so intently, the wolf-raven boy's chest hardly rising with his minimal breaths. If he didn't know any better, the violet-masked turtle would think that his cousin was already gone. The ache in his chest from losing Kelly is still there, and what pains him even more is knowing that his sister doesn't know that her best friend is gone. When she wakes up, she'll have to be told the truth, and that thought alone sends him reeling further into despair.

"Mom, how's the arm?" he asks softly, moving to the cyborg's side.

She shakes her head, staring at the useless limb. She focuses on it, trying to get her fingers to move or her elbow to bend, but nothing happens.

"It's never going to heal," she whispers. "I'll have to amputate it."

Asher's eyes widen. "Mom, how will you-"

"I'll makes myself a new one," she answers with a weak twitch of her lips. "It won't ever shoot lasers or rockets again...but it'll do." She runs her working hand through her white hair. "Can you help me with the surgery?"

Her son gulps and nods. "Y-Yeah...I think I can."

Donnie wipes his forehead, gladly taking another cup of coffee from Metalhead. He sips it carefully, trying to figure out what else he can do. Both of Dean's legs are in heavy casts, his chest wounds stitched shut and bandaged along with his other lacerations. His wings, which Donnie found the hardest to do, are taped up and bandaged as well. The boy's face is still bruised, also covered in little white patches, his muscled arms in the same state. An IV drip is inserted into one of the veins, providing him with the needed hydration so that his body can attempt to heal all that was damaged. He's also hooked up to numerous life support machines, a slow beep emitting in the still room every time his heart manages to beat once more.