TMNT - Worlds Change

Thirty -Two

Iris POV

I took a deep breath. In. Out. I glanced at Raph, laying on a bed on my left. Bellona laid to my right.

"Are you sure about this, young one?" Master Splinter watched as I prepared myself to become the conduit between Raph and Bellona's consciousness. I don't know where the gifts I had come from. But I knew I could use them for good.

"Yes. I'm ready." I looked over to Raph. "I'll need you to concentrate. Your mind will go into a meditative state that will allow you to connect with the version of yourself that is in her dream. Your thoughts will be your own, but you will also have his version of events."

"Iris, how do you know this? You haven't done this before." Leo stood watching to the side. Before I could respond, Raph looked up to me.

"I trust you, Iris. Let's do this."

I rested my fingertips along their foreheads, mirrored on either side. Closing my eyes, I felt every breath in the room cease. The world grew dark to me.

Raph POV

I paused, mid motion. All my thoughts jumbled for a moment until they clicked into place. I glanced around to see Leo as he walked into the room.

"Raph. You... you have a visitor." I watched him puzzled. But, if this was her mental narrative, I needed to play along. I followed him to the living room to see Donnie kneeling by a little boy. His hair was a deep red, and his eyes a piercing gray. A gray I had only seen in one other place.

"He asked for you, Raph. By name." I glanced down at this little boy, and a thought fluttered through my mind. There was no way this could be... could it? A knot tightened in my chest, but I knelt in front of him.

"Hey, Kiddo. What's your name?" I said softly. His eyes watched mine intently. "My name is Raphael. Can you tell me why you came loo-"
"Mama's in trouble." His eyes got big all of a sudden. He pulled his bag from his shoulders and pulled out a picture of a woman, with a younger boy I assumed was him. She had a small smile, tired eyes. Eyes that pulled the knot in my chest apart, leaving an open wound. Deep red hair, Gray eyes.

"Bellona..."

Leo POV

I watched with slight awe at this version of my brother. He looked like him, and sounded like him, but was so unlike anything I had seen in him. Maybe it was Bellona's thoughts that skewed the way he was acting. It was everything I could do to tear my eyes away from the screen when Venus came in.

"Anything?" She whispered, her eyes transfixed as mine were, just one screen over.

"Well, if what I have gathered is right. Bellona is in a weird version of Fight Club, while Raph struggles with this first thought of fatherhood. And somehow Bellona is human." Venus stood without speaking.

"Fatherhood?" The word sounded just as foreign from her lips as it felt on mine.

"Yeah. Strange they would be the first to think of it. Having a child." I looked over at Venus beside me, and I thought I saw the faintest blush on her cheeks. I didn't say anything, and didn't have to, as she leaned softly against my shoulder.

"I guess it could slip one's mind. You know, with all the not dying we have been focused on recently." She sighed beside me. I slowly put my arm around her.

"We will get there. One day. No more chasing aliens or Utrom, no more mutagen creations. And maybe one day, we will even walk the surface of Earth." I smiled, a memory of Cody coming to mind. That book on the shelf must have had some pretty interesting stuff to tell after all.

"What are you smiling about?" I looked into Venus' eyes, smiling.

"Seeing the sun rise. Without being afraid of getting caught."

Raph POV

"Where did they take her, do you know?" I glanced up at this little boy, who without a doubt in my mind belonged to Bellona. At the least, this was Bellona's child. He pulled out a map.

"I followed her one night. She told me not to, but I wanted to see her fight. She's really good. I stayed real hidden, they didn't even know I was in the rafters." He showed me the map and the little lines he had drawn. A flyer was attached to the top. I gingerly took them from his hands. I set them down and placed both my hands on his shoulders, so he looked right at me.
"Listen, Kiddo-"

"Kazuo. My name is Kazuo." As he said this, my brain shifted gears. I knew what I needed to do.

"Kazuo, I will get your Mama back. She's... a really good friend of mine. And I promise we will take care of you. You have no reason to be afraid of us." I watched as Mikee came over with Iris. "Mikee and Iris are gonna get you some food, ok?" He nodded and hugged me for a second. My heart flipped in my chest. Could he really be...Focus, Raph. Get her back, figure out the emotions later. As Kazuo followed the two of them, I rose from my knees.

"Leo?"

"Already ahead of you." He handed me my psi and Donnie brought three metal arm bands.

"Finally got another version of it. Good cover story, and we can always use Casey and April's van." I took the band and prepared for the hardest thing I might ever do in my life.  Let her fight her own battle, alone.