Moonlight Mutation (A TMNT Fanfic)

Chapter 43: Safe. Don't Worry

Leonardo watches from the rooftops, his sapphire eyes searching for any sign of a certain wolf girl. He keeps looking, even though there's been no sign of her for such a long time.

He pulls out his t-phone, where there's only one message sent from her side of the conversation. How she got her phone back, he doesn't know.

D: I'm safe. Don't worry about me. I'm so sorry.

Someone drops down beside him. He knows who it is without seeing them. "Hey Raph," he says, putting his phone away.

"Still looking?" Raphael asks, crossing his arms over his plastron.

The blue-masked turtle nods slowly. "She has to come back sometime...right?"

"She has her reasons. She'll come back when she's ready." He pauses, seeing his brother's heartbroken expression. "It's been a couple weeks. She's gonna come back, and then...then we'll all be a family again. But right now, you've got to keep your head on your shoulders. We need to keep protecting New York."

Leonardo sighs and stands up, his mask tails rustling with the wind. "I just thought that she'd be back by now, you know?"

Raphael places an arm around his shoulders, squeezing lightly. "I miss Destiny too, man. Probably not as much as you, but I miss her."

A small smile flickers across the first brother's lips. "I thought you were scared of her."

The second scoffs. "Okay, maybe I was. She chomped my arm and everything, but now that it's healed..." He shakes his head a little as he thinks. "I don't know...the lair isn't the same without her. I want her to come home."

"You and me both."

Leonardo's gaze shifts down to Raphael's arm, where there's the barely noticeable arc of a bite mark. It's healed fine, but Leonardo can't help but feel sad whenever he sees the scars. He gets that same feeling whenever he sees the faint marks on his own arms or the barely noticeable scratches that Casey now has on his torso. Donatello only just stopped limping and Michelangelo says his shell doesn't hurt anymore.

Distracting himself with the world around him hasn't done much either, although certain events in the last while, like Donatello's discovery of retro-mutagen and their Kirby O'Neil hunt, have served as minuscule distractions. Just when he thinks he's about to forget, he walks past the guest room in the lair and sees the absence of Destiny's belongings, her bedsheets smooth and free of the signs that anyone ever slept there, and all at once he's missing her again.

"Hey guys!" Donatello calls. Raphael and Leonardo pivot around to see their brother running towards them with his phone in hand, Michelangelo practically skipping along behind him. "I just got a reading on Des!"

"You did?" Leonardo asks, his face brightening. "Where is she? Can we get to her?"

Donatello's smile falls. "Well...that's the thing," he says. "She's somewhere in Ontario, right near the border of Manitoba, and she's still moving."

"That's in Canada," Michelangelo cuts in, flashing a proud smile. "Donnie said so."

"What the shell is she doing in Canada?" Raphael asks.

"I don't know, but—" There's a faint beeping sound from the phone that makes Donatello groan. "And...gone again." He sighs and puts the phone away. "Sorry guys, but we aren't going to be able to find her anytime soon. It's better to just let her be."

"Can you strengthen the signal?" Leonardo asks. "You know, just to make sure that she can text or call if she needs us."

"I'll work on the roaming, but it won't be easy," Donatello replies.

The blue-masked turtle frowns, looking towards the horizon. Michelangelo bounces over and hooks his arm over his forlorn brother's shoulders, jostling him.

"Hey, come on, dude. Desti-bear is just having an adventure! She can use those quarters of hers to buy Canadian food!" he says. "Just think of the stories she'll be able to tell us when she comes back!"

"Canadian food is pretty much the same as American food, Mikey," Donatello says. His hand rests on his chin as he thinks. "Although, they do have a few food items that are strictly Canadian, but I assume they wouldn't taste any different..."

"Alright, you've made your point," Raphael says with a light smirk. He noogies Donatello's head as he walks past him. "I'm getting hungry, maybe we should call it a night."

"Woah, Raph," Leonardo says, his smile also getting wider. "You wanting to get back to the lair? I never thought I'd see the day."

"It's like we've entered the Twilight Zone," Donatello muses.

"Oooooooo!" Michelangelo cries, waving his arms around to maximize the spooky sound as he dances around Raphael in a little circle.

Raphael rolls his eyes, but laughs with everyone else anyways. They take off for home, the sounds of their joy ringing in the starlit sky.

----------

Destiny leans against the wall of the train car, staring out at the world passing by. Her Space Heroes backpack leans against her leg, one strap looped around her ankle so that it doesn't go flying.

Destiny lifts her eyes to the moon, the bright orb reflecting in her wild eyes. She clutches her t-phone a little tighter in her hand, forcing herself not to open it and send any message. She finds comfort in knowing that no matter where she is, Leonardo is staring up at the same moon.

Destiny looks down at the phone, tracing her thumb along the crescent moon on the back. Saskatchewan, that's where Karai said Diaval had gone, and hopefully this train will take her most of the way. She's wasted enough time already, having to switch tracks and trying to hop another boxcar is not in her list of ideal events.

A splitting headache spirals through her skull, causing her to shut her eyes and let out a low hiss. An image of the Shredder flickers behind her closed lids. She grits her fanged teeth and loops her fingers through her hair as the headache subsides. She opens her eyes again, tears brimming from the sheer agony of it all. Weeks of not only missing her family, but she can barely sleep because of the nightmares.

A sense of determination flows through her and she wipes her eyes. Diaval is the one who controlled her, he's the one who can stop the visions and cure her. He's the one who can explain what happened to her that night, and he's in Saskatchewan right now.

The train lets out a long whistle that carries out over the prairie like a song as they chug past a sign that reads "Welcome to Manitoba". Destiny smiles a little bit. She's only one province away, then she just has to track down where Diaval is.

She opens her backpack and digs through the clothes, the spare hygiene products, and the picture frame she snagged out of Donatello's lab until she finds the sealed plastic bag with a ragged piece of red cloth in it; a bit of Diaval's clothing. It's yet another thing that Karai helped her with.

"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because he's my friend and I want him to come home. Now get out before I change my mind."

Destiny doesn't dare open the bag, lest the scent be lost before she reaches her destination. She gives it a long hard look, reminding herself of why she's doing this before she tucks it away again. She tugs her jacket closer to her body, closing her eyes and focusing on the cool prairie wind blowing past her scarred face.

"I'll be home soon, guys," she promises. "I'm sorry."