Remember. [TMNT 2012]

Chapter 25; Elizabetta

Song: Paranoid - I Prevail

The four turtles and I are on the roof of the building Karai held me in. The wind is strong and chilly; a shiver passes down my spine. I rub my arms furiously to retain body heat.

I catch Leonardo looking at me. "What?" I ask him. I have to admit that it feels nice to be friendly towards him again. Our problems have been pushed aside to deal with a bigger one. I hope the peace will last for a long time to come.

"We're going to have to travel across the rooftops," Leonardo tells me, a sympathetic look on his face.

I suddenly feel uneasy. I've been avoiding peeking over the side of the building to prevent myself from nausea. There's no way I can do that while jumping from roofs. But I'm not about to admit any of that, no siree.

"Why is that a big deal?" Raphael asks. He looks puzzled.

Leonardo glances at me before he answers. "She's afraid of heights."

Michelangelo speaks up from beside me. "Lizzy can ride on my back!" he suggests in his usual, happy voice.

"You're limping," Donatello scoldd him in a protective kind of way. "There's no way you're carrying anything other than your nunchucks."

Michelangelo gives his brother a puppy-pout face, but Raphael interrupts before he can complain.

"I'll carry her," The red-clad turtle volunteers. "I'm the least injured," he adds as Leonardo opens his mouth to protest. "And you all are going to need your strength when we get to TCRI."

There's a short pause. I don't like the idea of taking a piggyback ride on a mutant turtle, especially the one who has hated me since the beginning. He seems like the kind who would pretend to drop me just for laughs.

"He's right, you know," Donatello finally breaks the silence.

Leonardo studies Raphael for a moment, and then he nods. "Go ahead."

The red-clad turtle bends down in front of me. I climb onto the back of his shell nervously, trying to disguise the shaking of my hands. I wrap my arms loosely around his neck to hold on.

Leonardo leads the way across the rooftops. I clutch onto Raphael for dear life as the ground becomes too far out of reach. I end up closing my eyes, thinking it will calm my pounding heart. It doesn't.

"So, Donnie," I try to be social, though I'm mostly just keeping my mind away from the thought of an inevitable death. "What exactly did the Kraang do to my mind?"

"Oh, right!" I can practically see a light bulb appear above Donatello's head. "I only have a theory, but it's a strong one. I feel that the information in your brain that Shredder wants is going to be used as a weapon. He obtained a critical part of your memories and now he is getting the Kraang to synthesis it into something powerful. The problem is, I don't know what he's using it for or how he's making it. That's why we need to get to the Kraang's headquarters. They must have some kind of data stored there."

"Wait," Leonardo stops him before he can go on. "So you're saying that the Shredder could be plotting to use her own memories against her?"

I blink. It sounded a lot less terrifying when Donatello explained it. However, it also seems ridiculous. Use my own experiences against me? How is that even possible?

"It's a long shot, I know," Donatello replies. "But it's the only thing that makes sense. Why else would he target the 'fear' section of your brain?"

"My fears?" I feel my muscles tense up at the thought of the Shredder finding out what I'm afraid of. Actually, it makes me uncomfortable for anyone to know my weaknesses. "Why my fears? Why me?"