TMNT: The Darkness Within Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Emotions


The turtles, their sister and Ember were training in the dojo. Leo was sparring with Mikey, Donnie with Raph and Ember with Jade. The two felines pulled out there Tessen and Naginata, looked into each other’s and positioned themselves before they ran towards each other to attack.

Jade swung her Naginata at Ember’s feet, but the lioness jumped before the weapon hit her and swung her Tessen in Jade’s direction. The brown-furred cat jumped up and did a back flip just before the weapon reached her. The Tessen hit the tree and stuck there. Ember ran swiftly towards the tree and quickly freed her Tessen. Jade tried to strike Ember with the blade of her weapon, but the mutant lioness moved too quickly and ended up kicking Jade in the stomach, making the brown-furred feline gasp and fall to her knees.

Raph saw this and decided to make a smirk comment while fighting Donnie. “Wow, Jade.” He said as he blocked his brother’s attacks, making the pink masked feline look up. “I can’t believe you just let Ember beat you. I mean, you’ve been training to be a kunoichi for over fifteen years now and Ember hasn’t even been with us for a year. Someone as pathetic as you should even be able to beat an inexperienced mutant.” Raphael’s words seemed to anger Jade, as she started to narrow her eyes and curl her lips into a snarl.

“But you can’t.” The red-clad ninja continued. “All because you’re to pathetic to be kicking a training dummy, let alone be a kunoichi.”

Jade had had it. True, she wasn’t the strongest of her siblings, but she was very agile and a pretty good fighter. All of a sudden, she let her anger and frustration take over her. She yelled in frustration, making everyone stop what they were doing and turn to Jade. The feline threw her weapon to the ground and ran to her room, slamming the door shut. Ember stared in shock as this progressed.

“Not again.” Leo sighed as he put away his Katanas; his brothers did the same with their weapons. This gained Ember’s attention.

“What do you mean by ‘again’?” The lioness asked as she put her Tessen back in her belt.

“Oh, this has been happening for years now.” Donnie explained. “Ever since we were little; probably around the time we were eight or nine. Anyways, whenever we were all training, whenever Jade got angry at us, she would drop her weapon and go to her room.”

“Wait a minute.” Ember said. “Do you mean that you’ve all been teasing Jade and she’s been doing this for years now?”

“Yeah.” Leo said. “Except before we turned eight, she took her anger out differently. Whenever she got angry at us, she would attack us, but never hurt us.”

“But she stopped when…the incident occurred.” Mikey added, remembering the day so many years ago.

“What incident?” Ember asked, clearly confused and curious.

Mikey looked at his girlfriend. “Well…It was when we were all eight.” He explained. “I was sparring with Jade and decided to tease her to get the upper hand in the fight. But when she got angry and attacked me, she accidently scratched my cheek and cut the tails off of my mask. I mean, why do you think my mask is the shortest?” He sighed before continuing. “Anyhow, ever since that day, she never attacked us when she got mad.”

Everyone expected Ember to be in shock, but instead her eyes were burning with anger. “So you’re telling me that Jade was the only one who learned a lesson for that incident, not the four of you?!” She asked, clearly trying to not yell in anger.

Raph stepped forward. “Why are you so angry all of a sudden?” He asked.

“She’s your sister!” Ember yelled, startling everyone else in the dojo. “After she scratched Mikey, don’t you think you guys would have learned not to tease her so much?! You should spend your time by being nice to her, not teasing her until she’s reached her limit!!” Everyone looked at the lioness in shock. They all thought she was just standing up for the other feline but the truth was, Ember was angry because she had lost her sisters in the fire before she got to spend some very valuable time with them, and she didn’t want the same to happen to Jade.

Splinter stood up. “Ember is right. We have spoken about this time and again, my sons. The more you continue to tease your sister, the more training she misses out on. I do not want to see any of you teasing her again! Training is dismissed.” The mutated rodent turned around and walked into his room, shutting the door.

Ember was the first to run out of the dojo. She sprinted towards Jade’s room. The door had a sign that said “Go away!” written on it. Ember knocked on the door. No response. The lioness tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside. “Jade?” Ember said. “Are you okay in there?”

“Go away, Ember!” Jade shouted from inside the room, startling the tan-furred mutant.

“Jade, please let me in.” Ember said. “I hate it when my friends are upset; I want to help you.”

“I just want to be alone, Ember!” Jade shouted again. Ember sighed.

“Okay, bye.” The lioness’ head drooped as she walked to the pit, which was where the turtles were watching TV.

Meanwhile, in Jade’s room, the light was turned off and the room was completely dark, except for a small candle on the table next to Jade’s bed. The brown furred feline was on her bed, stomach down and crying into her pillow as she squeezed it; tears of sadness, anger and frustration poured down her furry cheeks like a waterfall.

“Why must they do this?” Jade whispered hoarsely as she continued crying. “They’re nothing but a bunch of stupid freaks that deserve to be cut up!” She continued crying as she muttered angry, bad words about her brothers.

No matter how she rationalized it, darkness, sadness and anger seemed to take over her heart instantly.

All of a sudden, Jade felt a burning pain all over her body. She opened her tear filled eyes and looked at her body. It felt as if she were on fire on the inside! Suddenly, she noticed something. Her fur, it was fading to a much darker brown and the tails of her mask, which were drooping on the side of her shoulders, was turning from pink to black. Jade gasped and looked at the mirror on the table. Her eyes…They were…Red! Her chocolate-brown eye color had faded away into crimson red.

“What…What’s happening to me?!” Jade gasped. Suddenly, the burning pain sharpened and Jade screamed at the top of her lungs in pure agony and terror.


To be continued…