Point of View: Oroku "Shredder" Saki
The rain keeps falling, each drop ringing in my head like a hammer, pounding the memory of my betrayal.
The water seems to want to erase what I've become, to wash away the pain, but it will do nothing.
It will only remind me that nothing I've lost will return.
Nothing can fix the injustice that was done to me.
He stole everything I had, everything I built for us both.
Absolutely everything.
And he still hides, behind a mask of respectability, in some dark corner of this rotten world.
He took my place, my future, my honor.
It wasn't just about power.
No, he took everything I was supposed to become.
We were supposed to rule together.
We were brothers, allies in the pursuit of power, partners.
And he shattered all of that.
Hamato Yoshi.
That name haunts me.
A name I chase in my thoughts every night.
A name that refuses to leave me alone, like a ghost.
He took my place, he took my honor, and a man who does that can never expect to get away unscathed.
He must pay, not just for what he took from me, but for what he made me become.
I didn't do it just for power.
If I wanted that, I could've gotten it in other ways.
No, I took control of the Hand because it's the network, and this network will allow me to find him.
The Hand is the weapon I'll use to destroy Yoshi.
Controlling this empire gives me the means to track him down, to follow every trace of that man, that rat who stole everything from me, who ruined everything.
I know he's hiding somewhere in the shadows, where he thinks no light will reach him.
He's hidden under another name, thinking he's safe.
But I know his weakness.
I know that a man like him, a man who hides, can never escape those who know how to hunt him.
And I have everything it takes.
I will find him, and I will make him understand what he's done to me.
He took my place, he took my honor, and a man who does that can never expect to get away unscathed.
He must pay, not just for what he took from me, but for what he made me become.
But I didn't just take the Hand to find this traitor.
I took the Hand for power, for domination.
This is my chance to eradicate everything he wanted to build.
I will erase every trace of his existence, crush his legacy, and everything he represents.
The Hand gives me access to what I've always wanted: total control.
I will use this organization to rule the world, to erase the marks of the past and build my future.
A future that will be my legacy, and that of Hitori, my son.
Hitori.
I look at him, and I see everything I should've been.
He is the only heir, the only one who will finish what I've started.
What he must learn, what he must understand from a young age, is that vengeance is not a luxurious whim.
No, vengeance is a necessity. A necessity to restore order, to rebuild what was destroyed.
That's why I train him, forge him in the shadows.
He cannot be a mere man.
He must become a weapon, an extension of my will.
And if I cannot finish what I've started, he will.
I will raise him in darkness, far from the comforts of ordinary life, because there's no room for compassion, for light.
He must understand that the world is not a place to find allies.
The world is a battlefield, a place where solitude is strength.
By learning to be alone, he will become a predator, like I am.
And one day, when he is ready, he too will hunt Hamato Yoshi, and he will destroy him.
He will have no hesitation in doing so. Because this traitor, this fugitive, deserves no mercy.
He must be annihilated, and Hitori will do it. That's his destiny.
And when that day comes, I will be there, by his side.
I will watch him complete what I had to start.
He will reign.
Not only over the Hand, but over the world.
And when this world is finally his, he will no longer have to hide, to run.
He will be the shadow of the father who shaped him, the one who forged his destiny in the steel of vengeance.
Hamato Yoshi… you've hidden too long.
But I will find you, and everything you took from me, I will reclaim it.
And Hitori will do the rest.
What I couldn't finish, he will.
Because everything I do, everything I pass on, is so that one day he will reign, and your shadow will no longer hang over the world.
Point of View: Madame Gao
I never believed in loyalty.
That naïve idea where you give your heart and soul to another, hoping that they'll do the same in return.
No, loyalty is a weakness.
An invisible chain that men forge, thinking it binds them to another.
But I pull the strings.
I'm the one who leads, even when others think they're in charge.
Shredder may consider me an ally, but he's wrong.
He thinks I'm here to help him carry out his revenge, that he needs me to build his empire, to destroy those who took his honor.
But in reality, he knows nothing of my true intentions.
I will use him, just like I've used others before him.
And when he's on the ground, I will be there, ready to seize what's left of his carcass, ready to take the power that slips through his fingers.
But what interests me most, isn't Shredder. It's the child.
Hitori.
He is much more than just an heir to this madman. He is my instrument.
The only one who can give me what Shredder never understood: total mastery.
Shredder thinks he's making him a weapon.
A warrior destined to avenge a lost honor.
He believes that solitude and pain will turn this boy into a relentless predator, a vengeful force driven by rage.
But he's mistaken.
It's not pain he needs. It's discipline.
Control. Hitori will be the instrument of my vision, not his father's.
I will raise him differently.
Not to be a killing machine, but to become a master of shadows.
Shredder thinks violence and suffering will strengthen him.
I know that it's the mind and submission that will truly make him powerful.
I will make him a master, someone who understands the subtleties of power, who knows how to manipulate others, to play with their will.
Shredder wants Hitori to be a weapon.
But he doesn't realize it's me who will shape him in my image.
A loyal instrument, yes, but he'll barely know it.
He'll come to understand, eventually, that true power doesn't lie in brutality, but in the art of manipulating others, in the art of control.
He will become my heir, the one who continues my quest.
Not his father's.
I will be his mistress, and he will realize that when the time is right.
He will learn that he must serve me, not his father. I will guide him.
I have no patience for Shredder's fallen dreams.
He dreams of avenging his honor, of regaining lost glory.
I seek something greater. I want immortality.
The perfect balance of Chi, the complete mastery of the invisible forces that govern this world.
Shredder doesn't understand this.
He's too busy hating, losing himself in his quest for revenge.
But Hitori, if he survives the painful training his father imposes, if he understands what I will teach him, will be the instrument of this quest. The quest for immortality.
Immortality won't come through war or battle.
No, it will come through the mastery of Chi, through the perfect alignment of energies.
It will be Hitori, not his father, who will allow me to transcend death.
He will be the one to give me the means to rule forever, to escape what still binds me to the mortal world.
Shredder thinks I'm on his side, that he can count on me to strengthen his empire.
But I have no loyalty to him.
I've used him. I've always used him. And I will use him again.
He's just a pawn in a much bigger game.
One day, he will fall.
And I will rise.
Hitori will be my heir.
He doesn't know it yet, but he will be.
He will obey me, not out of fear, but because, at some point, he will realize I'm the only one who can offer him true power.
He will learn to submit.
He will learn that voluntary submission is the key to everything.
One day, he will reign, but it won't be Shredder who gets him there.
It will be me.
And he will understand, because there will be no other choice for him.
Shredder, in his madness, believes he can control his son, but he is too blind to see the truth.
When Hitori joins me, when he takes my place, he will be so much more than his father ever dreamed of.
He will be a master of shadows, a being of infinite power and wisdom, and Shredder will be nothing but a distant memory.
A memory in the shadow of my own greatness.