The Last Turtle Yokai

Chapter 3

They went around, sharing their names and pronouns. [Author Note: I'm gonna stick to pronouns used in the show/movie for simplicity and clarity, but I'm a big lover of gender diverse tmnt]

"And I'm Leonardo; he/him. So what do we call you?"

"Maria.. she... they." She took a shallow breath between each word, obviously having trouble with the cracked ribs. The initial dose of morphine seemed to have worn off and the drip Donnie set was not strong enough.

"Nice! Haven't gotten pronouns wrong yet!" Leo praised himself with a theatric arm movement. "I was using they/them. Didn't want to make assumptions." he assured in a more considerate tone.

Donnie moved over and upped the medication dose, slapping Leo on the back of the head as he passed.

"I don't mean to... be picky... but could you prioritize... the she/her? I've spent most of my life... being called he, it, and they..." A shadow crossed her face.

"Transphobic family?" April placed a gentle hand on her arm, sympathetic expression on her face.

"Yes and no... I can... explain better... when it doesn't hurt... to breath. Broken plates... are a bitch on... lung capacity." Maria shifted slightly in the bed, wincing at the multiple points of pain she agitated.

"Sooo if your shell plates are like cartilage, doesn't that mean they can't repair themselves or fuse back together like bone? We have been assuming you have relatively the anatomy of a leatherback sea turtle." Donnie raised a markered eyebrow quizzically.

"Hypothetically... yes. But I'm not... interested in finding out." She squeezed her eyes shut before asking, "Did I still have my bag... when you found me?"

"Yeah, it's right here." Raph picked the duffle bag up from the floor where they had discarded it in the madness.

"Amazing." Maria gave a halfhearted smile. "Can you go in the side pocket... and pull out the little bottle of light blue liquid?"

"Got it!" Mikey searched the pocket as Raph held the bag out to him. "Here it is!"

He held up a faintly glowing vial. It was about four inches tall and two inches wide, with a dropper lid.

"Wait. What is that? And how can you know that your plates are broken but have never had them broken before?" Donnie asked.

"Oh, I've had them broken before. I just haven't had to let them heal naturally yet." she replied, steadily taking deeper breaths as the additional morphine kicked in. "Can you put three drops of that in my water?"

"Sure!" Mikey carefully added the three drops to the glass that they had offered earlier.

"What is that?" Casey asked as Mikey handed her the glass.

Maria held it carefully in her unbroken left hand and took a sip. "Elixir of Recovery. It shortens the length of recovery and magically heals injuries like they never happened. This dose will shorten the time it takes me to heal down to a week."

The family was speechless for a moment as she continued to drink.

"Oh! You might want to stop the blood transfusion and save the rest of that blood bag. My blood volume should be back to normal on its own in a couple minutes."

"That seems outrageously powerful." April commented in disbelief as Donnie moved to clip the tube administering blood.

"It doesn't come without a price. Creating it requires giving up all inhuman abilities for two weeks and the main base component you enchant is tears of agony, so that limits the volume you can make. Then the other ingredients are rare and hard to get. Plus it can only be used or administered by the person who made it, so it's useless to steal." She shrugged then winced at the pain doing so caused.

"Hold on. You're telling me that you somehow collected this whole bottle's worth of tears?" Mikey asked, looking slightly horrified, still holding the vial.

"Like it took me a while, but yes. And no, I didn't torture anyone for them."

"Oh, good." Mikey seemed relieved as he tucked it back into her bag.

"To be fair, the person I learned from did torture for the tears. A wild alchemist who my guardian sponsored and took care of me when I was small."

"Sounds like a great guy." Leo sarcastically commented.

"He had his moments." She smiled.

"Do you have family that needs to know you are safe?" Splinter asked with fatherly concern.

"NO!" she jolted forward with a panicked look, heart rate spiking on the monitor.

"Ooooookaaaaay..." Leo shared a look with Raph.

Maria groaned and leaned back. "Sorry. No. No one needs to know I'm here." She paused before admitting, "I kind of... ran away."

The family shared concerned looks between themselves as she sipped from her water. Maria stared into the glass, trying to calm themselves.

"Uuuuh, Maria? I realize this might be a touchy subject, but... Did you get these injuries before or after running away from home?" April's face mirrored the worry they were all feeling.

Maria didn't look up.

"Before."