Before: A TMNT Fan-Fiction (Part One- Edited Edition)

Prologue

She never meant to be a disappointment.

As the flames grew higher into the night sky, their orange and red tendrils scraping the beautiful starlight away like scratches on an old window, the last thing on her mind was that someday the man she loved would leave her. Her and her unborn child.

Her arms cradled a soot-covered infant that wasn't her own, though the woman loved the little girl as if their flesh and blood were one in the same, and frightened tears slid down the mother's cheeks in waves. The tears never hit the Japanese ground; the heat from the fire devouring their home wouldn't allow it.

"Saki!" She screamed in terror. Her eyes never left the mountain of flames and little baby Karai kept her tiny fingers gripped on the fabric of the woman's shirt. Though normal children would've been sobbing in fear at the horrific sight before them, the little girl put her terrified energy into holding onto the only source of protection she had left- her mother.

"Saki!" The woman shouted again at the top of her lungs. The only reply she received was the sound of the roof caving in on itself, with her family still inside. Like a rock tossed into the ocean, her heart sank as the realization drowned whatever hope she had left: she was never going to see her husband again, or her son who had been sleeping in his nursery when the chaos ensued. She fell to her knees on the ash-covered grass and held Karai closer to her chest.

"Ki!"

Her terror subsided only when the charred front door was thrown from it flaming hinges so hard that she had to roll to the side for fear of being crushed on impact. A man burst from within the crippled structure, his clothing burned and tattered, his face and scalp wrapped in fresh boils and blisters that trailed all the way down his neck.

"Amanda..." The injured man groaned weakly. He stumbled forward on bare feet and his words were slurred as he collapsed to the ground, his hands pressed against his injured skin. She could hear the sound of his flesh still sizzling and smell the rancid scent of cooked human meat, but neither factor made her run away in disgust. Not when it was her husband, Oroku Saki.

Amanda ran to his side, still holding a now-sobbing Karai in her arms.

"Saki," She gasped and placed a hand on his shoulder. He let out a pained yelp and Amanda immediately recoiled for fear of hurting him and his burned body. Though she was happy that he was still breathing, there was one thing she noticed that made her hesitate. "Saki, where is Shang?"

The burnt man couldn't speak; he could barely even breathe. But she refused to stop asking, not until she got an answer. Amanda gently stroked Karai's head in hopes of calming the infant down, but her eyes never left Saki's exhausted form.

"Saki, where is he?"

All the man could do was shake his head sadly and glance back at the destroyed building that had once been their home.

"I will avenge you, Shang," the broken man coughed out in a low tone his wife had never heard before, a tone that bordered pure hatred and obsession. The red and blue flames danced in the infuriated reflection of his eyes.

Little did Amanda know that this was only the beginning of what would become the most intense downward-spiral of their lives. In a matter of months, Oroku Saki's anger would fester and grow like a disease, spread like the plague and infect others to his vengeful cause. In a matter of years, he will have brought both of his remaining children into the mess he'd made on his own, working his hardest to turn them into killers like himself by the time they reached their teenage years.

No, Amanda never meant to be a disappointment, especially not to the man she thought she loved with all her heart. But when their love died, she refused to let her last child die as well. When it came to choosing between the well-being of her decimated marriage and her baby's future, there was no competition. As soon as the chance appeared, she grabbed her kid's hand and ran.

Amanda never meant to be a disappointment, but at least she and her child would live longer than they would have had she decided to side with a psychotic killer.