The Earth, free from the Triceratons and their plan to eradicate the planet Earth, is at ease; celebrations are being thrown around every corner of the world, hugs and cheers are being shared, actions one wouldn't dare do before are now being acted on- everyone is thrilled and is taking their lives to a new level of appreciation. They all want to do more for themselves and won't mind the obstacles that will stand in their way along the journey. They want to make the next step.

Once again cornered in a dark alley by Shredder's henchmen, Karai hisses, frantically trying to find a way out. Her mind is almost rid of, and she can barely think or speak normally anymore. The Shredder's plan to make a miserable life for the one who fell in the vat of the mutagen that fateful day proves itself to be a success every waking moment for the used-to-be kunoichi. With what remaining functionality of thought that remained, she thought to herself, "I need to get out of here."

On high alert for her, Leonardo passed rooftops frantically, his curiosity piquing about the whereabouts of Karai moments after their success of saving the planet Earth. She was a top priority now; he wouldn't let her be captured by the one who damaged her in the first place ever again. He was determined to give her a better life. Even with the comments made by his loved ones that he should give himself a break before resuming his search, he couldn't just sit around and wait. He had to take action now.

Having to be careful as the people of New York were at wake, even days after the Earth being spared, he stopped as he heard a hiss from a distance. He waited to hear it again, wanting to ensure his mind wasn't giving him false hope. Once he heard the hiss again, along with threatening coos, he rushed to the spot. He couldn't let it happen again. Swiftly jumping down in front of her, Leo slid his katanas out from his clothed sheaths, raising them up immediately.

"Lookey whose come to join the party!" Bebop snickered.

"Only one turtle scum? Is easy peasy for us to bash into ground," Rocksteady replied, hot air rising from his nostrils.

Leo chuckled lowly, throwing the two off guard. "Yeah, it will be." With no warning, Leo leaped and struck Bebop, sending him to the ground. He planted his foot firmly down on the warthog's chest, turning his glare to the rhino. His alarming smile made Rocksteady's blood feel like it was curdling. "For me."

Karai watched the creature taking down the two who threatened to capture her, or end her- she wasn't sure what was happening anymore- all the while trying to grt away. But with the swift and frantic actions of the creature, she couldn't slip through without being hurt. She would have to wait until he stopped to either slip away or await for what the creature would try to do to her. After some minutes, the two scurried away, shouting something that was most likely negative, while the creature barely moved an inch. He didn't turn to see if she was there or anything.

He only spoke three words. "You still there?"

Karai pondered on whether to respond; this was a stranger with intentions she knew nothing of. She hissed softly anyways, staying frozen as the creature turned around to face her. He stepped a bit closer, but there was still a long distance between them. She didn't sense any negative intentions from the creature, so she relaxed her stance, but just by a bit. Seeing this, Leo took another step forward. Noticing that she hadn't tensed, he kept walking towards her until she hissed, then stopped. He was still in the shadows, as he must be, but a dimmed street lamp had shone some light on the creature, making out his leaf green skin color.

"Are you hurt?"

Not responding, Leo asked again, but a bit slower. Karai hissed, but in a way that indicated she was saying 'yes.' Leo nodded, a relief filling him. He knew just standing there wasn't going to progress anything, so he had to think quickly. He drew in a breath, murmuring something incoherent to the mutant. He stepped out more into the dim light slowly, so as not to alarm her. Showing his full self, he raised his head up, his eyes gazing at her.

"Do you?"

She didn't respond and gave him a confused look.

"Do you recognize me? Or remember me?" He asked softly, the harshness and edge in his voice from before nonexistent. He took one step closer, his hands on his plastron. "You're losing yourself, aren't you?" Karai only made a low sound, not knowing how to respond to these meaningless questions the creature was asking. He sighed softly, his hands going down at his sides. "You probably won't understand a word I'm saying, but if there's still some part of you in there, please, hear me out." Leo extended his arm out, his palm open and his fingers curled. Karai, her guard up, let one of her snake hands rest in his hand, not knowing what else to do.

Leo let out a soft exhale, a small smile tugged at a corner of his lips. "You're probably really confused right now, and frightened. I want you to know that I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure that Shredder will never get near you again." Something inside of Karai felt like it was being pinched hard, and she hissed at the foul name. Leo didn't flinch, just waited for her to calm down. "I want you to have a better chance in life. I'm not going to take you back to the lair; it's probably not what you want. I'll let you go, but I'm going to watch over you." He laughed a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not to make it sound weird or anything... anyways... I'm hoping Donnie, Mikey and April find the retromutagen to change you back. I won't stop until I have to. I promise."

His tender eyes piercing into hers, Leo let her hand go, a warm smile on his face. Something about this creature was faintly familiar; Karai had it at the tip of her tongue. Her eyes widened a bit with recognition, and she inched just a bit towards the terrapin. "Le...Leonardo..."

Leo's eyes widened a bit, and his small smile went wide. "Karai?"

She was about to respond to this when she saw a striped face with a patch over one eye watching her from a distance. Its lip snarled, knowing it was now or never to try to capture her. She hissed loudly and slithered past Leo, disappearing around a corner in a manner of seconds. Leo turned sharply, running to the end of the alley, his arm extended out in her direction. "Karai!" He shouted, utterly puzzled as to what made her run. He turned around and heard a growl, and he instantly went into action.

"Move aside, turtle," Tiger Claw growled loudly. "I have no time to play your games."

"You're not getting near her," Leo snapped, already starting an attack lunge, taking his katanas out to play.

"She is not your cub, nor your concern," Tiger Claw responded, fighting back as he tried to reach for his gun. "What importance is she to you?"

"What importance is she to you?" Leo retorted back, knocking the plasma gun out of Tiger Claw's hands.

"She is a cub of Shredder, and he will see to it that his cub is returned to him, like a true-"

"What? Father? He's not her father; he's been deceiving her ever since he took her away from her true family! Shredder knows nothing of honor; he's lost all shreds of it! If you're so honor bound, why do you kneel to him? Why do you work for someone who doesn't even have his morals in line? All he cares about is victory!"

Tiger Claw kicked the terrapin away, growling lowly. Leo only stopped as he crashed into a wall, moaning in pain. As Tiger Claw went to retrieve his weapon, Leo mumbled loudly to him, "You know I'm right." Leo tried catching his breath, but it felt like forever with the wind knocked out of him. "He has no honor."

With his back turned to him, Tiger Claw started to part his ways from the battered turtle. "I will not allow myself to be a toy of your games."

With Tiger Claw out of sight, and no energy left inside of him to make him get back up and stall the tiger any longer, Leo lamely crawled further into a nearby alley, curling himself in a corner full of dark shadow. No one really came to the particular alley anyways, so Leo allowed himself to close his eyes and let his unconsciousness start to settle in. He didn't care about the scolding he would face at home; he was sure he had stalled Tiger Claw long enough for Karai to get away, and that's all that mattered at that moment.

Hearing rugged breathing nearby, and seeing the indention of a body crashed onto the wall, Karai slithered her way into the alley carefully, trying to figure out where the terrapin was. Recognizing the foot of the turtle sticking out just a bit behind a trash bag, Karai made her way to the shadowed corner, knocking the trash nearby away. Using an arm to carefully pull the terrapin out of the shadow and into her hold, she used the way down the sewers she had used to avoid the Foot for so long and found her way to where the lair should be. She followed the tunnels that led to the underground subway and followed the tracks until a brighter light had shown in the tunnel. She rushed her way over to it and stopped where the wall ended.

She took a peek from the corner of it and saw that no one was in the common area. She carefully slithered into the lair, gently placing the turtle down on the ground. He made a soft yet pained sound as she set him down, then went back to being quiet. The only way that the others would take notice of him now being back home, Karai- hesitant to do so but knew she had to- pressed down hard on a tender spot on Leonardo, quickly retreating as his body writhed and his face contorted into a pained expression. A loud scream of pain came out of the terrapin, and- just as she had hoped- hurried footsteps went towards the turtle. Taking one last glance at the family, she disappeared once again, holding onto the thought of them all as long as her mind would allow her to before it would all be forgotten and wiped from her memory.