The Shadow's Secret│TMNT

59 || Somehow

Under the cover of the dust, the five of us hurried into the sewers before anybody could catch sight of us. Leo took the lead and began navigating the tunnels, trying to return to their sensei as fast as he could.

Wait.

"Wait!" I yelled, stopping suddenly and making Raphael swear behind me. "The mutagen is in the helicopter back on the Sacks Tower roof." Leo, Donnie and Mikey spun to face me incredulously.

"I thought Shredder had it when he fell," Donnie said.

"He did, but I filled a syringe with some and threw it in the passenger seat of the copter before getting thrown off the tower." My phone was there too, but it was hardly important.

"For Sensei?" Mikey asked hopefully.

I nodded. "I need to go back and get it before somebody else does."

Leo exchanged a look with Donnie.

"Raiya, you're injured pretty bad..." Donnie pointed out.

"Yeah I know, but so is Splinter," I protested, crossing my arms and lifting an expectant eyebrow at the leader.

"What if someone sees you?" Leo added. "They're not just gonna let you fly off with a helicopter. And where do you plan on landing it, anyway?"

I bit my lip, dreading what I had to ask from them. "My uncle's?" I asked, my hopeful voice quiet and staring with begging eyes at Leo.

Leo sighed through his nose and clenched his jaw. "You can't do that without telling him about us. You know that."

"Well I already need to explain to him how the car I borrowed ended up at the Sacks Estate covered in bullet holes and with a smashed windshield," I said pointedly, knowing I finally had him cornered.

Leo opened his mouth to argue the case, but found that he couldn't and instead clenched his teeth together and fired another questioning glance at Donnie, who just shrugged in a she has a point  kinda way.

"You know Splinter won't last without mutagen. And I don't know any of your guys' blood types so we couldn't do a blood transfusion even if we wanted to," I insisted, staring harder at Leo and trying to convey to him that I wasn't asking this of them because I wanted to keep the helicopter and I wanted to tell uncle Tom of their existence. All I wanted was to save Splinter, just as he and his brothers did. "This is the only way and you know it," I continued. "If I go now, I can get out of there faster using the helicopter than the elevator."

Mikey glanced desperately between me and Leonardo, his hopeful, shining eyes practically begging his older brother to let me save their father, even if it meant revealing their secret to another human. Leonardo lifted his gaze from me to the turtles behind me, a silent conversation occurring between them before he did the same with Donnie. Finally, he turned back to me.

"Your uncle better be trustworthy," he said. "And try to hurry, or else this'll be for nothing."

I nodded. "I will. Thank you."

Leonardo waved his hand, motioning for his brothers to follow him before taking off down the sewer tunnel. I moved aside for Raphael, but he lingered for a moment, his eyes locking with mine and seeming to tell me to be careful, don't get hurt, please hurry.

I smiled and sent my own message back. Softie.

That made him smile.

••• 影の秘密 •••

The brothers were clustered tightly around Splinter, who still laid on the table in his room within the ruined lair.