Laila immediately woke up from the nightmare that she was currently having. She panted as she realized she didn't hear any fighting or weapons being drawn. She noticed it was four in the morning, around the same time she always woke up. The red-headed female turtle decided to go out to get away from it all. She was almost out when-
"where do you think you're going?"
'Crap.' "I'm going out, and you're not gonna stop me"Leo walked over, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from the door and standing in front of it.
"Splinter ordered us to stay here."
"Let her go, Leonardo." Laila noticed their dad right there as Leo stepped aside so Laila can go.
"Laila, be back by morning." She nodded before exiting the lair, making sure the door was securely shut.
"Master splinter, you sure about this?"
"Yes,my son, Laila needs to be alone after her experience." Leo, curious on what that experience was decided to go meditate anyways.
Laila ran through the sewers and headed up towards topside. The shop across the street looked familiar, so Laila climbed up to the roof and kept going. She finally reached that place. The same spot she witnessed Leo and Raph almost kill each other. She decided to head to April's before she went crazy from all the flashbacks.
"Don't push it Leo. You can't leave home and expect us to go back in line again, like your little soldiers."
The flashback quickly came back as soon as she reached April's. Typing in the combination lock, Laila opened the window to notice April on the couch, drinking tea and a peppermint caramel mocha latte sitting on the coffee table, freshly brewed and steaming.
"Thanks, April."
"Anytime girl." Laila sat down quietly on the couch as the news was on. All the reporter was talking about was the fact that crime was increasing in the city of New York.
"Coming up: Nightwatcher strikes again.
The blades collided, both of their owners with angry looks on their faces. They weren't holding back. Neither was going home until they won.
"Laila!" The flashback quickly left as April was waving her hand in front of her face.
"I-I'm okay." April put a hand on Laila's shoulder, causing her to jump.
"Geez, you're jumpy. You still having nightmares about that?"
"H-How do you know it's about that?"
"Sister instinct." Laila rolled her eyes as April shut the TV off, and went into the kitchen.
"Hey, Laila-"
"April's in the kitchen."
"Damn, you're good." Casey went into the kitchen and April walked back out and tossed her the syringe with her anxiety medicine in it.
"I got you more of your medicine."
"H-How-?"
"You're always carrying the syringe around, since your flashbacks are happening more often."
"Yeah.." Laila noticed the time and it was 5:00 in the morning, she got up off the couch.
"I better get going, Splinter would kill me if I'm not back in an hour."
"Laila, you want me to go with you? You know to prevent the flashbacks." Laila shrugged, and Casey knowing that meant 'I don't care' grabbed his mask as the two made their way to the sewers. They arrived at the lair, and Casey left without a word. The turtle pulled the pipe that opened the door, and walked in to the aroma of Mikey's cooking. Acting casual, Laila walked into the kitchen and grabbed herself something cold. She considered stealing one of Raph's beers. He'd kill her though. After settling on just a water, she leaned against the wall and drank.
"So why you up so early, Lai-Lai?"
"I had to get out and I just got back."
"Get out from what?"
"You are so smug, you know that? You really think we couldn't survive with the mighty and powerful Leonardo to guide us through our problems, huh?"
"Hey Laila you never answered me." Laila shook her head to get the flashback out of her head, her red hair getting in her face.
"Mikey, if I tell you, it has to be kept in absolute secret."
"How absolute?"
"More that the chance of Raph and Leo fighting.."
"Alright, deal."
"You know about that rooftop fight Leo and Raph had about a month ago?" Mikey nodded and shut off the stove, waiting for her to continue. Laila made sure they wasn't anyone around before finishing her sentence.
"I was there."
"Wait, you saw the whole thing?" Laila nodded before glaring at Mikey.
"Tell anyone and I'll tell them that you're still sleeping with your Dora nightlight." Mikey nodded immediately before setting the table, with what else, but breakfast pizza. Laila didn't even know if it was a good idea to tell Mikey of all people but she normally went to Raph with this stuff, but he'd be probably pissed that she didn't leave when he told her to.
"Laila, go." Raph ordered, pulling out his sais.
"But-"
"Go! We'll meet you back at the lair." Laila nodded and ran, but really she just went to hide.
"Good Morning." Laila noticed her geek brother walk in, surprisingly refreshed.
"Morning, Donnie-nii-san." Don had a smile on his face before getting his coffee. He had no idea why Laila still called them "nii-san" since she called them that when they were little, but nobody minded.
"Hey, Don, where's Leo and Raph?"
"Well, I got news for you, we got along just fine without you"
"Hey, Laila, you okay?" She snapped back into reality quickly when she noticed Don gazing at her, concern in his eyes.
"Yeah, I just zoned out, it's fine."
"Hey look, it's Mr. Always-breaks-the-toaster!" Leo rolled his eyes, raising an eyebrow at Mikey who was finishing up with the pizza. He sat down at the table, watching Mikey set the pizza down, and how quick Laila grabbed her slice.
"Hey! I wasn't done with the ceremonial pizza process" Laila licked the cheese off her lips before smirking at Mikey.
"You were gonna eat it all when you were done, number one, and number two consider it revenge for eating all my cheesecake." Laila grabbed the pizza, got her share, and tossed it over Mikey to the others. "Get your share, now's best if you want some." After breakfast, they all headed into the dojo. Master Splinter was there, waiting.
"Leonardo and Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, Laila, you'll spar with me." Laila nodded before getting into the a defensive stance.
"Hajimae!" While the other four were sparring, Laila and Splinter were constantly blocking and countering each other's moves.
Dressing up like it's Halloween every night, risking the safety of our family, come on, what were you thinking?"
"LAILA!" Laila snapped just in time to block Splinter's attack and dodge the shuriken that flew towards her. She noticed that Splinter had a giant katana now.
'Great' Splinter charged at her and the blade hit Laila's wrist, breaking on contact. Laila quickly countered with a spinning kick and...
"Hey, Laila, think fast!" Laila charged at Splinter after her fists were surrounded by a blue aura from her energy and spun and jumped like an olympic skater to dodge Mikey's nunchuck chain causing her energy to go to her fist as Laila punched the floor, sending massive amounts of energy at Splinter.
"Okay, training's done for the day." They all put their weapons away and started to leave.
"Laila, I need to talk to you."
"Make it quick, sensei, I still have to beat Laila in Diablo 3." Mikey walked out and Splinter sighed.
"Laila, what's been bothering you, my daughter?" Laila sighed. She knew she couldn't hide it.
"Nothing. Just been too stressed out lately." Laila walked out of the dojo, leaving it at that. She walked into the living room to notice the return to checkpoint screen on the Tv.
"Laila, how the shell did you beat this guy?" Mikey asked, noticing her in the room.
"I'm just that good." Laila grabbed the controller, hit yes, and killed Azmodan in five minutes.
"H-How?" Laila didn't reply, she just handed Mikey the controller and went to her room.
"Trust me when I tell you, you don't want to do this."
Laila closed her door, securely locking it with a combination lock, and laid on her bed, looking at the ceiling.
The nightwatcher and Leo were hitting each other with close-combat blows, only getting a few hits in, the rest were easily blocked.
Laila sat up when she heard a knock on her door.
"Yeah?"
"Time for patrol." She knew it was Leo, and she sighed.
"I'll be right out." Laila grabbed her black mask, opened the door and headed downstairs to notice them still waiting for Mikey.
"Okay, ready." Laila rolled her eyes as they all headed topside.
"Shhh, Laila might hear us." Laila did hear them and snuck out of her brothers' sights to overhear them.
"Funny thing about anger, let it consume you..."
"I know an easy way to get her. Get her to a certain spot then nab her."
"And kill her."
"The boss wants her unharmed." Laila decided to go shell-kicking, so she grabbed one of their necks and snapped it before stabbing another one with their own sword. The third backed against the alleyway cautiously. Laila appeared behind him and held a sai to his neck.
"...And soon enough, you lose sight of everything"
"You tell me where Karai is, I might let you live."
"S-she's by the docks, she goes there every night at midnight, her soldiers are currently working for the Shredder." Laila closed her eyes and after seeing green for a millisecond she let him go. The ninja ran off and Laila was back on the roof. A loud explosion rocked the building she was on. Luckily for her, she was able to keep her balance. She looked at the source and noticed her brothers panting and fighting the shredder. Laila focused all her energy on her fist and charged at him.
"Raph?" Leo paused as he watched his brother dressed as the nightwatcher stand up. "What?"
Laila snapped out of it and countered all of shredders moves without trying.
Raph growled and kicked Leo into the post, breaking it, with blood dripping down his beak.
"Face it, Laila. You can't beat us."
"Too bad,if I'm gonna die trying, that's fine by me."
They both panted and growled as they circled each other, weapons connected until finally...
The female turtle actually grabbed her sai, and charged it through Shredder's neck.
"Snap." Leo's katanas broke before Raph kicked him down and held his sai inches from Leo's face.
A robot foot-ninja was about to stab Laila in the back when it quickly got destroyed by Karai.
Raph and Leo were constantly blocking each other's blade. Laila knew there wasn't Splinter to break them up. There was only her, and she was terrified.
Laila defeated the foot ninja with ease before her eyes cloaked a sharp red with rage. She charged at the Shredder one last time
"And whoever said I wanted to be led? I'm better off calling my own shots now, get used to it."
Her hand with all her energy stopped right before his neck. Laila was panting, growling before finally finishing him off.
"Laila, you traitor." Karai charged at Laila, sword drawn.
"You aren't ready. You're impatient, and hot-tempered, and more importantly, I'm better than you."
The turtle dodged the sword before focusing energy on it, breaking it. Karai threw a smoke bomb and disappeared.
"Hahahaha, you know something, big brother? I'd have to disagree with you on that one."
"Man, Laila, that was awesome." Mikey ran over and wrapped an arm around her neck.
"Well, let's get home you guys." They headed on the roof when Leo noticed a foot soldier mask.
"Here's their mask, but no trace of them." Donnie mumbled looking around.
"So what's the plan, fearless leader?"
"We'll split up-"
Raph charged at him when…
"There's no need to Leo, they're by Mikey's favorite pizza place." They headed towards towards Mikey's favorite pizza place to notice the foot ninja there, as Laila said.
"Woah-how did you know that Laila?"
"It was just a feeling." Laila could, if she focused, easily track the movements of the Foot. After all, she was blood-related to Karai. After a few minutes of fighting, they started to retreat.
"They're getting away."
"Laila, where next?" She closed her eyes and opened them again three seconds later..
"Towards Winters Corp-where we fought those general statutes."
Raph stepped back-pulling out his sais. Leo looked at him, shaking his head before pulling out his katanas.
"Let's move then."
"Geez, Laila, seriously. How did you know all that?"
"Like I said, it's just a feeling." Laila replied after her and her brothers took down most of the foot, with the exception of Karai and her best men. They left to head back home before dawn. At the lair, it was empty. Laila heard the alarm go off and she shut it off, just as she dodged a kick.
"It's us, Case." The lights turned back on as Casey revealed himself.
"Hey guys." Laila, getting suspicious, sensed something about him relating to the foot and attacked him.
"Where's the real Casey?" The female turtle growled, as Casey turned into a foot ninja.
"Goongola!" Laila dodged a hockey puck as Casey skated in, and hit the foot ninja in the face with another puck. "Two minutes for high sticking." Laila rolled her eyes.
"This qualifies as just fine?"
"I'm going to bed. See ya guys." Laila went upstairs even though it was only 7:30pm.
"I was training. Training to be a better leader,for you,why do you hate me for that?"
Laila sighed as she laid on her bed.
Raph, panting and wide-eyed finally got off of Leo.
"It's been a month; why am I still having these flashbacks?" Laila rubbed her eyes, as she looked in the mirror. All she could see was her own reflection, but with black hair, red eyes and fang-like teeth.
"Laila. Splinter wants to see you." Laila walked into Splinter's dojo.
"Laila, Michelangelo told me." Laila growled at the fact that he told him.
"I will not tell your brothers, but it is best that you stay at April's for a while, until you recover. I have already contacted April so she knows. However, I have not told your brothers, but I will tonight. After dinner, head straight to April's without notice, I will tell them after their nightly training." Laila nodded and went to go get her sword and her pet skunk, Reckler.
Without a word, the hot-head in his nightwatcher suit, ran off.
"Hey, Reckler, we're heading to April's tonight." The skunk purred in response as Laila sat on her bed. The female turtle noticed the picture on the nightstand and picked it up. It was a picture of her, Leo and Raph as kids. The rest of them were in the scrapbooks that she had. Bored, she pulled out her sketchbook and decided to draw. She was originally going to draw just the photo of them as kids, but Laila drew on. She drew everything of her brothers she could think of, hell, she even drew Leo in his "ghost" cloak as Laila calls it to tease her big brother. After finishing one last drawing of all of them, she added her usual signature, a drop of blood. She put the book away into her bag, and brought the bag downstairs and set it down before grabbing some early dinner. Mikey was cooking pizza as usual so Laila, with her bag over her shoulders, grabbed a piece and headed out. Mikey didn't even notice, but Splinter was watching from the door of the kitchen.
Leo got shot with a poison dart and when he looked around, it was those statues Winters wanted.
"Dinner's ready." The others came out, except Laila.
"Hey, where's Laimershoa?" Mikey loved calling Laila by her real name to get her angry, and with her hearing, she would've kicked the door down, but not a word.
"Do not bother with her, my son."
"What the shell do you mean by that?" Raph growled.
"She is merely at April and Casey's, after her experience, it's best." That got Leo especially curious. He decided to head over to make sure that Laila was there. After successfully slipping through the alleyways, and the rooftops, he arrived at April and Casey's. Before he could knock, the window was unlocked as he slipped in and closed it.
"What are you doing here, Nii-san?" Laila mumbled, tilting her head to look at him curiously.
"Splinter said you were here-"
"And you came to find out why, to tell you the truth, I was expecting Raph to show up and demand an answer."
"Since you figured that out, why are you here?" Laila sighed, she was screwed. She knew Leo could tell when she was lying. She knew he was waiting for an answer, so she looked at him directly in the eye.
"I saw that fight on the roof between you and Raph."