"In my last defense

you tried to warn me.

I did not know you

you were a demon to me.

Your presence, it was a fear

that lived inside me.

It grew around me

then you would appear." –Out of the Darkness, Matthew and the Atlas

Chapter 16 – Compromise

Donatello kept his gaze steady and did not flinch at the outburst from the homicidal man before him. Did not move. Held his breath. Expecting more. Expecting to fight for his family's life, perhaps at the expense of his own.

All the while, his mind turned and worked at what was happening here. The reasons which brought this unlikely scenario together.

Karai was missing. Not in hiding, for where in the world could one go where this devil could not find? And yet, that was the very reason he was here threatening the love of his life and the rest of his family. He needed Leonardo's location because he knew, like the rest of them, that there was only one place the girl would be. With Leonardo.

Shredder did not need them to confirm or deny this fact. She was, after all, his daughter.

Could this be paternal concern for his child? Donatello nearly snorted, unable to fathom a man such as his might have familial bonds involving anything resembling love or concern.

And yet. Here they were.

The Shredder threatening them for Leo's location. This wasn't a man seeking revenge. Or was it? Doubt nagged him. There was something more at work here, something baffling, but Donatello had learned even the most preposterous situations were worth consideration. Take Karai's condition the last time he saw her.

Pregnant.

Impossible.

As implausible as my own existence, perhaps?

With that thought he blinked. Forcing himself to focus.

"Do not mistake me." The Shredder stared at them as the wild storm raging behind his eyes passed and something more calm took its place. Leaving the flat slate of his watching eyes, the depthless pools, alien and so familiar. He seemed to be collecting himself. Tapping the tips of his gauntlet lightly against the surface of the table. "Leonardo's whereabouts will lead me to Karai." His voice dropped lower, and Donatello found himself leaning in ever so slightly, head tilted in skepticism as well as fascination.

"My daughter. That is all I want. Nothing more."

If it were any other person there, the request would have seemed reasonable.

"Take April and Splinter out of here," Donatello repeated to his brother and Casey. His voice murmuring but level, betraying not the rapid staccato of his heart or the icy fear at the edge of his reason at the idea of being alone with this person, this monster, who so effortlessly disregarded their lives. Who had tortured his brother to near-death and sentenced him to a brutal execution for the naïve error of loving his daughter. The daughter he now wanted to locate. The woman who was carrying his brother's ill-fated unborn child.

Not likely.

It's true. All of it.

"I'll handle this."

"Donnie," April said as she reached a hand out to him. "What are you –"

He turned his eyes away from her, not wanting to chance that she spots the doubt. The very real fear.

"Please," he said to the floor, "just listen to me."

"What are you sayin'?" Raph now, still slurring, wobbly, throwing a worried look at Casey who stood by supporting most of Splinter's weight in his arms. "Ya can't be serious. Ya can't think we're gonna walk outta here without you with us. 'n leave you. With him."

Shredder's voice slithered over them. "Stay or go. I will get from one of you the information I require."

Donatello twisted and shouted, "Get home! Now!"

Raphael, April and Casey flinched back.

Firmly, "Splinter needs his meds." At that he remembered the disastrous results of Raphael and his medicine cabinet. He turned his attention to April, softening his tone, but only a little. "Find Mikey. He knows which ones."

April closed her mouth and gave him a firm nod. Her shaking fingers curled into fists.

He witnessed her pull herself together, steeling herself for him, digging into that courageous core of hers, and he loved her more in that moment than ever.

"Okay. Be home soon."

The foursome began to back slowly from the room.

Donatello closed his eyes, took a breath and nodded. When he faced the Shredder again, the man was easing back into his seat with a sigh.

"Even when confronted by reasonable requests," he said with something like a hint of humor in his eye, "you and your clan are determined to irk me."

"Let's not play games," Donatello started. "I could pretend that I don't know where Karai might be. That I don't think Karai is anywhere near Leo. I could act as though that entire . . . situation . . . has been long over with. I could stand here and lie to you about everything. But."

Donatello reached over and pulled the chair Casey had been sitting on out and he took a seat, glancing over one shoulder as the sound of April's back door closing told him he was, at last, alone.

"That would be a waste of time. Something neither of us can afford."

The Shredder glared at him silently, eyes hard flints.

"And you have intel. Obviously. But not enough."

"No," the Shredder snapped just at the end of his sentence. "What I have is a liability."

Donatello blinked at the callousness, thrown off momentarily at this admission.

The Shredder went on, "An entire organization dedicated to decimating the Foot Clan. One that will stop at nothing to destroy everything I have sacrificed to build."

"You're worried about the clan? I thought you wanted your daughter back."

The Shredder leaned forward, hands in fists under the gleaming gauntlets. His voice grew low and flecked with warning. "What I have is a dead . . . friend. One who was keeping my daughter, unwittingly within reach."

The pieces started to come together for Donatello. Karai was missing, but someone had been watching her for the Shredder, no doubt, reporting her every move. Then why . . .?

Dead friend. Oh. Leo. Oh no.

"I warned her. Many times," The Shredder said, sounding more as though he were speaking to himself rather than Donatello. "Her stubborn obsession with that freak would lead only to her end."

He fidgeted, fists tightening, untightening, chin dipping to his chest. A hiss of a breath escaped between his clenched teeth.

He looked up at Donatello. Their eyes met and there Donatello saw a hatred which knew no bounds, no limits. A vast sea of black rancor. Something innocent within the young mutant withered beneath the searing heat of that glacier of loathing.

"Your family," the word, a growled curse, "has been nothing but poison to the Oroku name."

His voice trembled with fury and the air around them grew taunt and warbling with tension. "Would I the power, I would cut you like a cancer from our midst."

As he said this he somehow moved from his chair, slithering unnoticed into the space separating them. Donatello jumped as the fingers closed around his throat, shattered from the mesmerism like a songbird startled to the snake coiling around its tiny form. He leaped back and away with a shout of terror, chair crashing back, bo swinging around in a wide arc of defense, knocking mugs, utensils and the vase with drooping daises to the floor – but never coming close to his target, who had managed to dodge without seeming to move at all. The cacophony of Donatello's actions faded back, leaving a buzzing silence.

"Stay back!" Donatello yelled, voice cracking, chest rapidly rising and falling.

The Shredder put up his hands in surrender. A smile slowly broke out over the face, transforming it into something chagrinned, a boy caught at doing something wrong, the mussed hair and sparkle in the madman's eyes replicating something like boyish charm.

Donatello tasted metal and realized he'd bitten his tongue. He swallowed dryly.

"A momentary lapse. Not to be repeated. I assure you." When he spoke, the words were silk around the venomous fangs. "Let's refocus." He dropped his hands to his sides, the impish grin melted away, but not entirely.

Donatello found himself sliding back a step, shaking unperceptively in his knees and elbows. He would not allow himself to be lulled like that again, however it had happened. Which, he wasn't exactly sure. He swallowed again, eyes roaming the room, searching for balance, seeking sanity in the bright yellow walls but falling on the shattered mess he'd made on the linoleum. His head spun.

"Doctor Tsuneo was my friend," The Shredder said, and brought one hand to his chest, covering his heart.

Donatello started, head snapping up, but remained in his defensive stance, unwilling to relent even a second against this dangerous and unpredictable man.

"He was keeping track of my daughter. Staying close. Then, something happened. He was murdered." The smile was completely gone now. Eyes hollow. Face greying. "He was," he struggled, "like a father to me."

The Shredder's face twisted and for an instant, Donatello registered raw, real pain. The first real emotion the mutant had ever seen come from this man other than hate. He felt his arms lower a bit. His shoulders relax.

"But more importantly, the message he was able to impart in his death was that Karai is in trouble. You see, where Tsuneo was, Karai should have been. But my men cannot find any trace of her. Only his mangled body in the middle of a jungle. There is no doubt. Venom is involved."

"I must find the men responsible. I must find my daughter."

Donatello's face dropped into a frown. Ice water flowed through his veins. It was as he suspected. If Tsuneo was close to Karai and he was murdered, then there was a very good chance that it wasn't only Karai who was in trouble. Terrible trouble.

If Venom had Karai . . . then they had Leo. There was no doubt in his mind. Leo.

Feeling sick, Donatello lowered his staff. "We haven't heard anything from Leo in weeks."

"You must know where he is. Some idea."

Donatello considered, standing with wobbling legs. He had to keep calm. He had to think this through. How were they going to find Leo? They'd need to get to Central America.

An idea took shape. A desperate one. But it was the only one he had. God, but if he was wrong. If he was wrong . . .

The decision was his. The responsibility on his shoulders. There was no way they could trust this maniac. It would be up to him to protect them all. He gripped his bo tightly. He nodded to himself.

Okay.

His eyes snapped up.

"I won't give you info on my brother."

The Shredder's face darkened.

"But," he held up one hand. "We can work together to find Karai. Rescue her. And my brother."

The Shredder said nothing. Waiting.

He swallowed. "If what you've told me is accurate, then Venom probably has them both. We're going to need transport. Fast. You have resources."

"I could take from you what I need." The statement was issued softly, a raven calling in the distance, the threat real as daybreak.

Instead of fear, Donatello felt something harden in him. Something irrevocable. Something true about his nature that was reflected, he knew, in each of his family members.

"Waste of time. There's nothing you could do to me to make me talk. Nothing."

The Shredder considered, gazes locked, measuring the mutant before him. Perhaps considering whether or not he wanted to test the boy's courageous declaration.

"One day, I may test that theory." Something relaxed in the air between them. "But Karai does not have time. What do you need?"

Stomach clenching, he took a breath. "First, we'll need to keep this stealthy."

"I'm no fool. The Foot has been compromised. It has been for some time, even before the incident with that freak," his eyes narrowed and Donatello had the courage not to look away. He held the man's piercing gaze. "No. I will not risk Karai's life for a traitor's opportunity."

Donatello felt light-headed with what was happening here. Second-guessing himself, he closed his eyes. Reeling.

Did he really have the authority to make this decision? Wasn't he the interim leader? Besides, what choice did he have? He was dealing with a lunatic. His brother's life, even his family's lives were in danger if he didn't work something out. The Shredder would never accept no for an answer.

There was only one choice. Find Leo. Rescue him and Karai before it was too late. If it wasn't already.

Feeling as if he were sleep-walking inside a surreal dream made something of nightmares and worst fears, he said, "S-So. W-We'll need a truce."

"Done."

The Shredder strode forward and offered his hand, making Donnie flinch before he extended his own, trembling, three-fingered hand in response. The man's grip was powerful, but Donatello gave as good as he got, earning him an approving look that only made him want to wash his hand with bleach when he got home.

He glanced down at his hand, clutching the Shredder's. He looked up to see the enemy of their clan, the man who'd threatened to kill them all, tortured his brother, and was without a doubt, insane, inches from him, staring at him with an unfathomable expression.

The moment stretched into an awkwardness that bordered on panic, until without a word, the Shredder dropped his hand and stepped back to retrieve his helmet. He placed it on his head and moved silently around Donatello, a phantom playing at being a man, calling out a meeting time and place over his shoulder as he exited.

Donatello felt himself rock gently to one side, the corners of his vision growing dark with surprising speed. He forced himself to breathe deeply, slowly. To push down the nauseous feeling rising in his core.

He stared down at his hand, still extended, throbbing slightly from the abuse it had just taken.

What have I done?