Living With Turtles (TMNT 2012 Fanfic)

Chapter 37: Explanations

As soon as they escaped underground, Raphael took his hand away from Dalilah's mouth and grabbed her arm to prevent her from running away.

"Let me go!" Dalilah shouted, trying to yank her arm away from the red-masked turtle. He just returned her feeble attempt at escaping with an eye roll.

"Just as I hypothesized," Donatello observed. "She's scared of us."

"Am not!" she argued hotly. "What do you want from me? Are you gonna kill me? Or take me to Hamato Yoshi so he can?"

Leonardo and Raphael exchanged glances. Leonardo replied, "We were actually trying to rescue you from Shredder."

"Shredder's the good guy," Dalilah protested with a glare.

"Actually, no, he's not. He, ah..." Abby began casting Leonardo a fleeting glance. She didn't think she should be the one to explain what Shredder had done to their father.

Understanding the message, the eldest turtle finished her sentence. "He killed our father's wife, and almost his child too."

Dalilah looked shocked, but then her expression hardened. "You're lying," she spat.

Raphael glared at her. "We are not. Shredder burned down Splinter's home and took his family down with it! And then he took Splinter's daughter, who was assumed to be dead, and raised her as his child."

"I'll bet Shredder told you what he told Karai: Splinter is the killer," Donatello concluded.

Dalilah eyed the turtles warily, when she noticed there was a human amidst their group.

"Who're you?" she asked curiously. The other human shifted uncomfortably, looking up at Dalilah and revealing her yellow eyes. Dalilah soon saw the ears on the other girl's head and the tail behind her.

"Uh, I'm Samantha," the girl introduced.

Dalilah growled at Raphael. "I bet you turtles put that tail on her, didn't you?"

"No, they didn't!" Samantha hurriedly answered. "The Kraang mutated me."

"You were captured by them too?" Dalilah asked, frowning as memories of her childhood in TCRI resurfaced.

"Yeah," Samantha mumbled. "These turtles are my friends the Kraang are their enemy, and Shredder works with them."

"They've tried to take over the world more than once," Abby added.

"And the Kraang have been experimenting with new types of mutagen," Donatello explained.

"Mutagen?"

"The green goop that makes things like us, Rhazaar, and Sam," Abby quickly summarized. Dalilah didn't know who Sam was, but she assumed it was the fox-girl.

"Right. They have been inventing new ways to mutate people and animals. The original mutagen just turned people into a mutant version of the last living thing they touched," Donatello told Dalilah, waving an arm at his brothers. "Now, they've created Mutagemia, which includes the DNA of someone. When this mutagen is injected into the person who owns the DNA, that person will be under the control of the injector. That's what they gave to our friends."

"They also made a mutagen that only mutates specific areas," Abby pointed out, gesturing to Samantha. "You met Kayla, right?"

Dalilah nodded hesitantly, and she thought she saw sorrow flicker the the female turtle's eyes for a moment.

"Well, she's one of my best friends, and the Shredder used the Kraang's Mutagemia to control her."

Dalilah scoffed. All of what the turtles were saying seemed sincere, but Shredder hadn't shown any signs of evil that Dalilah noticed. The mutants in front of her could be lying, and they kidnapped her! Though, the mind-control seemed to explain why Kayla had been so blank during training...