She's drifting, spinning, falling. The world spills out around in an endless dark wave, and only the chain keeps her grounded. April blinks, fingers trembling as they pick fruitlessly at stout metal links.
"Hey, O'Neil."
There's a pair of boots standing directly in front of her face all of a sudden. April follows them up, up, up to the girl looming over her, peering down with a maniacal grin. Her green eyes seem to be taking half her face.
"So, how do you like the new digs?" Karai drops down beside her, close enough that April can see the razor sharp points of her teeth. They shine so bright it almost hurts.
"Wha..." She rubs her eyes, blinking. "Where--"
"Hush." Karai's finger rests on her lips. "Don't you worry your pretty little head." She giggles for seemingly no reason, the sound making April's ears ring.
She clutches her head with a groan, or tries to, blinking stupidly as the chain still wrapped around her wrist. Her thoughts are sluggish and dazed, folding in on each other in a confusing tangle.
"The drugs will wear off soon," Karai continues amiably, dragging a feather-light finger down April's throat and over her collarbone. "Daddy just wanted me to top you off a little, so you couldn't go all magical girl and mess my plans up."
Mess Karai's plans up? Is that what she's supposed to be doing? Karai looks so beautiful right now, so elegant and in command, that April can't imagine being able to mess anything up for her even if she wanted to.
Still, she shakes her head. "'m forgetting something."
Karai's finger brushes over her shirt. "Relax, sweet cheeks. Your boys are all locked up nice and tight in some deluxe cells." She giggles again, and again April can't tell why. "If you're a very good little girl, maybe I'll let you come wave bye-bye at the end."
"Bye...bye?"
The finger presses against her breast, nail scratching against cloth as Karai slowly drags it down. "Yes, you silly little goose. Bye-bye. Daddy's gonna be the king, and I'm gonna be his queen, and it's off to the guillotines for everybody in our way."
"Princess," April says.
"What?" Karai cocks her head.
"Princess." For some reason, that's what sticks in April's head while the stuff about guillotines just slips right out. She doesn't know why, but for some reason Princess seems to fit this situation better than Queen. There are so many things wrapped up in Queen, dark things April can't pull herself together enough to name. Because a Queen is the King's wife, and--and--
Karai's hand slips into her pants and April stops breathing.
"I'm the queen," Karai whispers firmly, her eyes like fractured glass. "And I get to rule. That's what Daddy says."
Focus, April tells herself. Breath. Focus. Think. She's...she's got powers, right? And skill, from all her training. She should be able to have someone, a mantra from Master Splinter's lessons, a burst of that power which only comes when she needs it most, something.
But there's nothing. The drugs and confusion and the terrible, perfect weight of Karai's body. April's still spinning in the dark, only now instead of the chain it's Karai's endless green eyes keeping her from falling completely apart.
When she tries to reach outside of her own head, Karai's all she feels. Karai's desire, Karai's glee, Karai's victory, Karai's glee...Karai's--something, buried at the back of her head under everything else, slipping out of April's hands like a fish.
She doesn't dare push too far; she's drowning enough in Karai as it is. It feels like they are the only two beings alive in the whole universe, and a traitorous part of April tells her that might not be too bad.
"You look like such a dope now, O'Neil." Karai whispers, scales rippling over her skin. "Makes me wanna eat you up."
She lurches forward, and for a second April thinks she's not joking, maybe she is about to be eaten up. But then Karai's kissing her instead, hard and bruising, fingers skittering over her skin as they twist into wet tongues. The one in her pants laps at April's cunt and she sucks in a desperate breath through her nose.
Karai pulls away, drags her mouth over April's cheek to press against her ear. "I can hear him," she whispers. "I can hear Daddy in my head." She pulls back and points to her temple, fingers pointed like a gun. "He wants me to tear you apart."
She chuckles. "It's so funny, having Daddy with me all the time. So funny I could just die." She mimes pulling the trigger, head snapping to the side like her neck is this close to breaking. Something broken and terrified flickers behind her eyes, but is gone in the next heartbeat.
"No," April shakes her head. "No, this....this...." Isn't you. Isn't me.
"It's what Daddy wants," Karai says firmly. "It's what will be." She smiles. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I won't poison you--it's no fun to fuck a corpse."
"Karai," April rasps. There should be so much more to stay, so many words to explain why Karai can't do this, why April doesn't want her to do this. But she just. can't. think, and all she can do is repeat herself hopelessly, brokenly. "Karai."
"That's my name, don't wear it out," Karai whispers. "I want you to scream it for me, lover girl."
And then--it's a bit like she's falling, crashing down on April in a tidal wave of white scales. It's a bit like April's falling, swallowed up in an ivory-colored ocean as cold and hungry as a blizzard. It's a bit like they're falling together, tumbling down and down a million rabbit holes with no chance at a landing, no way back to earth.
Karai's pushing up under her clothes, dragging her many tongues over April's skin. She's bare now, her armor disappeared, and every time their skin touches it burns like electricity.
She rocks their hips together with a low groan, her breasts rubbing up against April's face for a heartbeat before moving back down. Her fangs tangle in April's hair, lift her head up so they can kiss again and again, until both of them are lightheaded with lack of oxygen.
After that, April's memory breaks down. She remembers her legs being wrenched apart with bruising force, remembers Karai moaning about how warm she is as fingers slip inside. She remembers Karai smearing something sweet and thick in her mouth, something that tastes unmistakably of pleasure although she can't quite tell who it's supposed to come from.
She remembers tears. Her own, dripping down her face to mingle with the drool as Karai sticks icy fingers in her mouth, rolling them along her tongue. And--and other tears, dripping down from above to blossom across her skin.
But most of all, everything she thinks and feels and knows is Karai. Karai slips through all the cracks in April's inhuman brain, filling her open with every kiss and scratch and filthy word whispered in her ear.
April is Karai, right now. Is Karai's lust, tinged with contempt and fury. Is Karai's hands sliding over her own skin, manipulating the body underneath her like the stupid little doll it is. Is the endless buzz inside Karai's head, the voice that drives her on and on, the voice that offers her a single drop of praise for every mountain of corpses.
They are together, and then they are both nothing. Crushed down into pure steel and flesh, a single entity that cannot stop eating itself. The pleasure-pain comes again and again and again, in time with their heartbeats and the distant cries of the turtle boys whose names neither of them can remember right now.
When she finally emerges from the depths, April is alone. She lies curled up in a ball, the chain still tight around her wrist, drawing in trembling breaths. She's bruised and aching all over, blood spotting between her legs.
Karai's nowhere in sight, but April can still hear her voice in her echoing ears, muttering to itself. The sound sends her heart twisting with rage, and loss, and pain, and a hungry little flame of want she doesn't dare examine too closely.
She'd cry, but she has no tears left to shed. So instead she lies there, and breathes, and waits for the pain to recede. Waits for her body to remember how to move, to pull itself together and fight.