It hurt to breathe but at least he was breathing. He was lucky that he had such thick muscles on his chest. The pain from the brutal attack caused him to go into shock. The loss of blood had made him weak. He didn’t think was going to be able to recover.
Although he didn’t believe that there was any internal damage, the wound was too deep and he was losing a lot of blood. He was alone and there was no way he was going to be able to tend to it. He could barely move. It needed more than time to stop bleeding.
Closing his eyes, Traximus was ready to give himself up to his fate. After all this time fate had decided that now was the time for his reckoning. He prayed that what he had done was enough to save his soul.
Though he was ready to accept his own fate, he couldn’t help but weep for Raphael.
He heard the sound of horses approaching and turned his head towards it. He heard a short conversation between the two riders but it was too dark for him to see them. Or was it that his vision was going? He couldn’t tell.
They dismounted their horses and walked over to him. He knew better than to think that he was going to be saved. Bandits would take the opportunity to steal all that he had and leave him to die. But then a hand pressed down on his wound. Traximus looked up to see a large red turtle looming over him.
The red turtle said something to his companion but Trax didn’t understand what was said. He wished he had learned more of Raphael’s language. It was just so complicated.
Whoever they were, it seemed that they were going to try to save him. Trax wasn’t sure if that was going to be possible. Traximus felt himself losing consciousness. He managed to place his hand over the red turtle’s. “Thank you for trying.”
The red turtle looked down at him. “Just hold on,” was the last words he heard as he slipped into darkness.
….
His fever dreams were full of strange images influenced by what was going on around him and mixed with the horrors of his past. The ground moved and bobbed around him and everyone around him spoke a strange language. There were times he woke up enough to know that he was in his cart. Blue sky. Starlit sky. He lost time of how many days had passed.
He vaguely recalled someone feeding him a bitter broth.
He was still alive but barely.
….
Their voices woke him. They were stopped somewhere and there was a heated conversation going on not too far away. It was all in the complicated language of the turtle tribes so Traximus had no idea what was being said.
Wanting to see what was happening Traximus forced himself to sit up. After the fever had broken, Traximus started to quickly recover. He was given broth with healing herbs that made him sleepy. He needed to heal and sleep was the best thing for it.
When he had recovered enough to get to know his saviors Traximus was shocked to discover that one of them was Slash from Raphael’s past. Like Trax, Slash was working to atone for all the wrongs in his life. It had to have been fate that had brought them together. So Trax gave himself to whatever fate had planned for them.
The red turtle who was traveling with Slash was aptly named Red and was from the painted turtle tribe. He was a long way from his home. He gladly left his home to travel with Slash out of love and devotion.
They had been traveling together for nearly a month and his wound was almost fully healed. They still gave Trax the herbs that made him sleepy so he spent the majority of the trip in the cart, sleeping or dozing.
He looked around to see that they were near a turtle tribe. Slash and Red were having a heated discussion with the turtles. Trax had no idea what they were discussing but the turtles looked as if they were trying to get them to go away.
Rubbing his woozy head, Traximus looked up to the sky to see if he could tell what time of day it was. That was when he noticed the dark billowing smoke. “Something’s on fire,” he said, standing up. “What’s in that direction?”
“The town,” one of the turtles answered. She looked fearful as she stepped forward, her eyes glued to the sky. “Donatello.”
“You think there’s trouble?” Trax asked her.
She nodded. “My mates and other members of tribe stood up to tyrant. They… in danger.” She shook her head. “No doubt.”
“Let’s see if we can help them,” Trax said to his two companions.
Red and Slash both nodded and made their way back to the horses. As he mounted his horse, Red said something to the gathered tribe in their native language. Trax could only assume it was words of encouragement and hope.
“Maybe you stay with cart, we go see what going on,” Slash suggested in his heavily accented dialect of the common language.
Trax chuckled, “Two turtles like you two will not be received well in a town. I will go in with you. I am well enough.”
“Your choice,” Slash shrugged.
When they reached the town they could hear the sounds of gunfire and men shouting. Trax grabbed his whip and hopped down from the cart. His arm was still stiff but he would be able to effectively use his whip.
The trio carefully made their way into town on foot. None of them had guns but they were all ready for a fight. Traximus had his whip in hand, Slash had his hatchet, and Red had a bow with an arrow notched. When the source of the noise came into view, Traximus saw Raphael standing with three other turtles and they were surrounded by an assortment of men. The source of the smoke was a building that was burning not too far away.
Shifting his view, Trax saw Oroku Saki. He was standing out of harm’s way like the coward he was. Saki was toying with them. From where they all were, he had the upper hand and he knew it. He could kill the four turtles in a heartbeat.
“We help them,” Slash said, looking eager to rush into the fight.
“Wait,” Traximus said, holding him back. “Someone else is coming.”
A human man rushed towards the confrontation. “What is going on here? Stop this at once.”
“These turtles are outlaws,” Saki stated, pointing at the four turtles standing together.
“Saki is criminal,” Raphael shouted back.
Saki spread out his hands, indicating his men. “I have witnesses.”
“Those men are under your employ,” one of the other turtles pointed out. “They will say whatever you tell them to say.” He then looked at the man. “Did Leatherhead come and talk to you?”
“Yes,” the man nodded. “He told me about his contract with Mr. Oroku.” The man turned to Saki. “I have some questions for you.”
“Oh no.” Saki’s voice was like silk but held an air of malice to it. “I will not lose today. This town is mine and what I say goes. My men will make sure the rest of the town falls in line. Everything that happens here today will be explained away.” He looked over at one of his men and nodded.
Before the other man could say anything in response, Saki’s man shot him. Saki brought his hand up to his mouth to feign sympathy. “Oh no, you got caught in the cross fire. The outlaw turtles will pay for your death.” He signaled to a few of his men. “Find the turtle hunter and kill him.” Three men nodded and broke off from the group to run down the road.
“I believe I’ve seen enough,” Red said to Trax. “If we do not step in, those four turtles will be killed.”
“Agreed.” Trax nodded.
…..
Donatello couldn’t believe what he had seen. Mr. O’Brian had been shot and was now lying in a pool of his own blood. And he feared that Saki planned on killing them next. Why wouldn’t he? Most of the town’s people have fled for cover and there weren’t many by way of witnesses. Saki would take care of any witnesses and put the blame of Mr. O’Brian’s death on either Leo or Mikey.
Before, he was ready to fight but now his heart sank. Saki was going to win. They were going to die. Saki would have control over the town and the lands of the tribe. His people were going to be nothing more than slaves.
Closing his eyes, Donatello prayed to his gods and readied himself for his fate. He wept for the fate that was left for his children.
A man cried out in pain, causing Donatello to open his eyes. He saw a man near Saki, holding his arm where he had been shot with an arrow. Another arrow followed, its target Saki, but Saki was able to move out of the way in time. The arrow instead struck a man who had been standing behind him, only he was not as lucky as the first. The arrow had struck him in the head.
“Who dares?” Saki yelled.
In answer to his demand, three large men barreled into Saki’s men. Donatello stared unbelieving. A triceratops, a snapper, and a painted turtle fought together against Saki and his men.
“Trax?” Raph gasped. “And Slash?”
“You know Slash?” Leo looked at Raph.
Without looking at Leo, Raph nodded his head. “His tribe enslave mine. I was his slave…. He rape me. Why is he with Trax?”
“We’ll find that out later,” Mikey interrupted. “For now, let’s get back in this fight.”
“Saki is our main goal,” Donny added as he made sure his riffle was loaded. “Take him out and his men will stop fighting.”
“Not Hun,” Mikey pointed out. “That man is loyal to the death.”
“Then I give him death,” Raph snarled. His whip cracked as he disarmed one of Saki’s men. Then the whip came back up and lashed the man in the face. The man fell to the ground, holding his face as blood seeped through his fingers.
Leonardo shot at another man, wounding him in the shoulder and causing him to drop his gun before he was able to shoot. Michelangelo wasn’t as good with his aim as the others were. Most of the time he missed his mark but he was close enough to cause Saki’s men to flinch. In that moment the snapper turtle would attack. The turtles might not have been aiming to kill but the snapper had no issues with it.
In the confusion of the fight, Donatello eventually lost sight of the others. His main concern at the moment was keeping himself alive and prayed that Saki’s men were as bad a shot as Michelangelo was. Over the din of the fight, the large triceratops yelled out, “Saki’s getting away!” Donatello looked over to see Saki and Hun running off.
“Hun!” Raph bellowed and broke away from the fight to give chase. Leo wasn’t far behind him. With two fewer fighters on their side, Donatello wasn’t sure they were going to be able to win. But, when he looked around for the next man to fight, he noticed that quite a few of them were either dead, tied, or wounded. Saki’s men were just no match for the larger fighters.
Donatello lowered his shotgun and looked around at the carnage. When his eyes fell on Mikey, his heart skipped a beat. Michelangelo was lying face down, unmoving. Rushing over in a panic, Donatello dropped to his knees next to his friend. “Mikey!?”
Gingerly, Donatello rolled Mikey over. He couldn’t see where Mikey had been hurt. “Mikey?” he whispered, shaking the smaller turtle. At least he was breathing. “Mikey!” Donatello shook him a little harder.
Mikey groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He was groggy as he looked around. “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Donny replied, relieved that Mikey didn’t appear to be hurt.
Mikey looked around and balked at the sight of the carnage around them. The color drained from his face. “I saw the snapper kill a man. There was so much blood and death.” He looked up at Donny, his eyes wide with shock. “I think I passed out.”
With a sigh of relief, Donny pulled Mikey into a tight hug. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Donny,” Mikey mumbled in response.
…..
There was no way Leonardo was going to let Saki get away. Not after all that he had done to the ones Leo loved. He was going to pay for his crimes. From the looks of it, Raphael felt the same way. They chased them down the road out of town and Hun fired back at them until he was out of bullets. The problem was that Leonardo was equally out of bullets.
Saki paused in the tall grass and glared at Hun. “Kill them with your fists if you have to.”
Hun turned to face them and Raph immediately started to lash out at him with his whip. Despite Raph’s attack, whenever Leo tried to get to Saki, Hun managed to get in his way. Leo had to admit that Hun was a dedicated servant and he had to admire that.
Disheveled from the run, Saki continued to walk backwards through the grass. “I should have killed you myself when I had the chance. I have spent way too much time and money on the two of you.”
“You will pay for what you have done,” Leo shouted back.
Saki started to laugh but then suddenly fell backwards. A cry of pain soon followed. “Get them off of me!” Hun rushed over to his master. Leonardo held Raph back as he watched Hun reach down and then quickly pull his hand back. Hun shook his hand as if something had just bitten him and then moved as if something had bitten his leg.
Leonardo looked around and saw a few large rocks not too far away. “We need to move.” He pulled on Raph’s arm as he rushed over to the rocks. The pair jumped up in time to avoid the snakes that rushed by. Judging by the markings, they were the same kind of snake that had bitten Old Hob. Leonardo looked up to see Hun lift Saki from the ground. There were several bite marks covering Saki’s hands and face.
Raphael and Leonardo did not move from their perch on the rocks. “Fate kept us from killing,” Raph stated flatly. “Saved us… and our children.”
Leo nodded as he continued to watch Hun carry Saki back towards the town. “There’s not much that can be done for him,” Leo said. “Those might have been babies but it looked like he had been bitten several times.”
“Tribe has cure,” Raph said, looking down at the ground. “Is safe. Let’s go.”
Leo let out a slight chuckle as he followed Raph back to the safety of the road back to town. Saki would never think of going to the tribe for help even if the town doctor told him that was the only way he would live. The best the town doctors could do was to make him comfortable as he succumbed to the venom.
Raph ran back to the town and it took all the strength Leo had to keep up. It took them longer than Leonardo thought it would have. They ran further from the town than he had realized.
Once they were back in town, Raph headed straight for the spot where the fighting had taken place. Leonardo knew why. Raphael’s traveling companion, Traximus was still alive. There would be no such luck for Leonardo. There was no way Usagi could still be alive after the injury he had sustained.
As soon a Raph saw him, he ran straight into the large triceratops’ arms. Leonardo made his way through the gathering of town’s people to where Red and Slash stood. Extending his hand to them, Leo asked, “It’s good to see you again, but why are you here?”
Red shook Leo’s hand and smiled. “Fate, it seems.”
Leo looked up at Slash, “It seems we are now even.”
“Yes,” Slash nodded. “But, my sins still great.”
“Yeah, they are,” Raph snapped, coming up behind them and then went off on a tangent in his own language.
Traximus held Raph back and did his best to soothe his friend. “Like me he has seen the error of his ways. He wished only to make amends.”
“I will not forgive him,” Raph spat out. “Never!”
“What are you going to do?” Leo asked Red. “Where will you go?”
“We will go where fate takes us,” Red replied. “I will aid Slash and Traximus on their journeys.”
“Wait.” Raph stopped glaring at Slash and looked up at Trax. “You are going to travel with them?” When Traximus nodded his head Raph shook his. “Why? You know what he did.”
“I do,” Trax soothed. “And, like me, he wants to spend the rest of his life repenting for what he has done in his past.”
“You… stay… here,” Raph pleaded through his tears. “Stay with me.”
“That is not my path,” Trax said, shaking his head. He cupped Raph’s face with both of his hands and thumbed away his tears. “I knew, when we met, that our time together was limited. You were meant to be here to make up for what you had done. You have more than made up for the few wrong choices you had made. Stay with your people. Help them be strong. Slash and I have many more sins to atone for.”
“There is another,” Leo said. “Someone, I believe would like to make amends for his past crimes. Someone I hate as much as Raphael hates Slash.”
“The hunter,” Raph said, following Leo’s thoughts. “He would be in the courthouse, if Saki’s men not kill him.”
“Yeah,” Leo nodded. “Him. Most of the people to really know of his crimes here are either dead or dying. The rest of us won’t say anything as long as he is willing to go with you.”
“Raph?” Michelangelo’s voice had them all turning. Donatello was supporting Mikey, who looked wan and in shock. Leonardo was glad to see that they were okay. Tears filled Michelangelo’s eyes as he took in the sight of Raph and Trax. There were also tears in Donatello’s eyes. He looked confused, scared, and sad all at the same time.
Raph looked up at Trax and then back down at Mikey and Don. Leonardo could see the struggle in his eyes. “Listen to your heart,” Trax whispered. “You know where you belong.”
Raph looked at the ground. “I do not want to say goodbye.”
“I cannot stay,” Trax said.
“I love it here.” Raph looked up at Trax. “I do not want to leave.”
“Then this is goodbye.” Trax smiled and pulled Raphael into a warm embrace. “We will come back this way one day. We will see each other again.”
The town was in a state of confusion for a while after that. Calhoun took control and sent a messenger to the county offices to inform them of what had happened. Raph and Trax said spent some quality time together as Leonardo and Donatello took Slash and Red to meet Leatherhead. It took some convincing, but Leatherhead agreed to travel with a snapper.
Saki and Hun died from the venom before night fell. Leonardo didn’t want to be the kind of person to take joy in another person’s death but he couldn’t help but feel glad that Saki was gone. The monster of a man had finally payed for the crimes he had committed. The next morning, the group of large travelers set off together. It was a bitter sweet moment for all of them. Leonardo held Donatello’s hand as they watched them leave. Michelangelo had his arms wrapped tight around Raphael’s waist as if he were afraid that if he let go Raph would go with them.
“What now?” Leo asked Don.
“I’ll see if I can rebuild,” Don answered and then sighed. “It’s not going to be easy.”
“You can come out to the farm with me,” Leo offered. “The four of us can be out there together.”
Donny shook his head. “I want my saloon, my store, my way of life, and my way of contributing to my tribe. I can’t do that out at your farm.” He looked at Leo. “I love you but I don’t want to give up my dream and live out on a farm….. I’m sorry.”
“I understand.” Leo forced a smile. “I wouldn’t be able to give up my farm to run the saloon with you, even though the thought of waking up next to you every morning makes it tempting.”
“We can still see each other,” Donny offered. “It’s not like you’re moving to the next county. And I’ll have Mikey.” Donny turned to look over at Mikey, who was still holding tightly to Raph. “Won’t I?”
Nodding his head, Mikey answered, “You will. I like the idea of working with you. As long as I know Raph is nearby, I’ll be happy.”
Raph pealed his eyes away from the horizon to address Donny. “Are we good?”
Donny’s gaze shifted to Raph. “Yeah, we’re good.”
“Good,” Raph said and Leo could see that he was relieved.
…..
A team of county officials came out to set the town right again. A new mayor and town council was appointed and all documents and deeds were reviewed. It was a tense few weeks for the turtles but in the end they were all granted their rightful lands.
It took some work, bartering and bargaining but Donatello got his new saloon and Leonardo got a new farmhouse before autumn hit. The tribe gave Leo seeds to plant in the spring and promised him a few chickens and goats, once they are bred and weaned. Leonardo and Raph will keep the horses and cart that they had taken from Leatherhead.
Leonardo had stayed with the tribe while the house was being built and took the opportunity to learn about his lost culture. He got to sit with Venus as she laid her eggs and then helped to carry them to the nesting grounds. When it was time, he sat with Donny and Raph during the hatching of a few. There were few things as miraculous as watching a baby being born.
He spent his days teaching Michelangelo how to pickle vegetables the way his mother used to. To his amazement, Mikey improved on the recipe a bit and managed to make them even better. Along with the preserved fruit, the vegetables didn’t stay long on the shelves and was Donny’s best seller.
Mikey’s cooking also became a draw for the saloon. Travelers who frequented the town would talk about it to others who in turn would add the town to their rout.
April had taken over Saki’s old saloon. She continued to offer the company of one of her girls but she treated them better than Saki ever did. If there were going to be whores in the town she was going to make sure they had a safe place to work.
The town continued to prosper and grow as did the turtle tribe. And, they continued to live together peacefully.
Leonardo’s heart raced as he stepped into his new home for the first time. The place was bare for now but he was already envisioning how he was going to decorate. It was exactly how he wanted it to be, how he remembered it used to be but with a few modifications. He couldn’t bring himself to build the master bedroom in the same place his parents had died. He had left that area for a small garden.
“I never live in home like this,” Raph said as he followed in after Leo.
Leo grinned in response. “Just wait until you get to sleep in a nice soft bed instead of a pallet on the floor. It will be heaven by comparison. Warmer too.”
“If I sleep next to you, will be nice,” Raph said with a slight chuckle.
Leo walked up to Raph and wrapped his arms around Raph’s waist. “That’s what I was hoping.”
Leaning down, Raph captured Leo’s lips and Leo’s couldn’t stop the smile that complicated the kiss. He was overjoyed with the way things had turned out.
