Author's Note: Just for reference, this story is based on the 2014 movie directed by Michael Bay. I pull details from that storyline, but I've tried to explain things as well as I can if you haven't seen the movie.

This prologue is basically a huge intro to Anne (my made up character, Karai's sister) and Karai. It also explains how Karai decided to leave the Foot Clan.

For future reference, I will mark chapters that contain sex or sexual situations with an "M" rating. You can just read those chapters if you like that kind of thing (I know I am...) or you can read the whole thing and skip those parts. The main love story is between Raphael and Anne, but there is slight Karai x Leonardo.

Prologue: Honorable Redemption

The first time that Raphael met Anne, she was five years old and lost. He recalled her innocent, sweet face and the scared expression she wore as she scurried through the streets, dodging tall men and women. It was late and darkness had already descended on the city. Anne had colorless eyes that occasionally looked pale green in the glow of the street lamps. Her hair was short, blonde, and fluffy. Raph was six and Master Splinter was already impressed with his second oldest son's ninja abilities.

Raph was sneaking about, gazing out of sewage grates so he could observe the outside world. Finally, he grew frustrated from the limited view and he crawled onto a dark and deserted street. He was the biggest turtle of his brothers at the time, but he was still as small as a human child.

She was crying, curled up in a ball down a narrow alleyway. He heard her tiny sobs and approached silently, keeping to the shadows just like Master Splinter taught him.

"Are you okay?"

Anne gasped in surprise, straining her eyes to see who had spoken. Raph had naturally better eyesight than a human and could make her face out easily. "Who are you?"

Raph, unthinking, told her his name. "What 'bout ya?"

"I call myself Anne." She whispered so lowly that Raph could barely hear. He didn't really think about the way she phrased that sentence—he didn't think about it until he was several years older.

"Why are ya alone, Anne?"

"My mommy left me."

"Where'd she go?"

"With a man. I don't know where. She hasn't come back." Raph didn't think he should leave a defenseless little girl alone in the dark, so he sat with her and talked with her for a while. She was small for a child, smaller than Raphael thought was normal.

A week later, Raphael revealed himself to Anne.

Her colorless eyes grew wide as saucers and her little mouth formed an 'O' of surprise. "You're a… a turtle!" Raphael thought she would be disgusted with him, with his inhuman form, but she was only fascinated. Master Splinter had always told Raphael and his brothers that humans would not be accepting of their appearances, even if they helped the humans.

Anne approached him and touched his shoulder, trailing her fingers down his arm. "Your skin is hard." She giggled and touched what would have been a human man's chest, but was his plastron. She knocked on it; the vibrations made Raphael shiver inside his shell.

"You're soft." Raphael observed, brushing his three fingers against her neck and the underside of her arm. This was the closest he'd ever been to a human. "Annie, your hair…" He'd never felt hair before. Although Anne's was dirty, Raphael noted that it was still smooth.

"Only three fingers." Anne whispered, taking his large hand in both of hers. Suddenly, Anne hugged Raph hard, squishing him against her. "Thank you for being my friend, Raph."

The next night, Anne told Raph that her mom's friend had come to take Anne away. "She is an acrobat trainer." Anne told Raph. They sat close to each other, arms pressed together. Anne rested her head on Raph's shoulder. "And she is going to take me to Japan to become a kunoichi from a great master."

"I'm gonna miss ya, Annie."

"Me too." That was the last time Raph ever saw Anne. He never told anyone about her, but he really did miss her after she was gone. Whenever he went to see Anne, he was able to talk to her easily. She was understanding and didn't make fun of him. Anne was his first crush even though they had both been so young (and different species). Eventually, his memory of Anne faded and he could hardly recall what she'd looked like. All he knew was that she'd had gray eyes and that she'd been sweet—and a good listener.

Anne had all of her mother's features. She didn't look half-Japanese except for her slight size. Her eyes weren't slanted, not even a bit. Her hair was pale blonde. She and Karai couldn't be more opposite in appearance. And, at first, they were very different in temperament. Eventually, Anne realized that she would have to harden herself to Shredder and Karai to survive. So she did.

Shedder, at a low point in his life, had briefly had an affair with an unnamed woman with pale blonde hair. Sometime after his horrific disfigurement, he'd decided that screwing the American woman would be acceptable. Anne was the product of his momentary lapse of judgement. He found out about her from an acquaintance (the same acrobat who found the mother and child on the streets in New York). Anne had a promising future in acrobatics, but Shredder found a different way for Anne to train.

When Shredder discovered the existence of his illicit child, he'd seized his opportunity. Karai now had a partner—someone to push Karai to become better and stronger. The two were fierce competition. They trained hard their entire lives. When Karai was sixteen and Anne was fifteen, Shredder sent his youngest on her first mission. He didn't dare risk Karai's precious life.

He hadn't expected her to come back alive. She was illicit and her existence shamed Shredder. No matter how he tried, Shredder couldn't get rid of Anne. It was almost as if she refused to die in spite of him. When Shredder trained Anne, he was brutal in his attacks and held nothing back. She trained to be hard, cruel, but didn't turn out that way. It was Karai who became Shredder's protégé, just as Shredder intended. She obeyed his every command and didn't blink an eye when Anne disappeared on her last mission for Shredder.

Anne grew up in an environment where she was not cared about or loved. She was merely a weapon that Shredder used whenever was necessary. When Anne ran away, she was nineteen.

That was also the year that the Shredder and Karai went to New York and encountered the turtles. While they battled Splinter, Anne was training with the mystic ninjas in the rural areas of Japan. They knew that Anne was not made to be a ninja. She was fast, skilled, and flexible, but she exceeded in the art of sneaking and spying. After two months, Anne went to London and was hired to steal information for a large company. She was well-paid and had discovered her calling.

Anne stole for the rich until she turned twenty. She obtained information as well as priceless artifacts—for a price. By that time, she'd made a name for herself. Karai noticed this. Karai dabbled in leading the Foot Clan, but her many encounters with Leonardo left her unsure of her path. Was is honorable? Was Karai a monster, just like her father?

Maybe Karai was lonely without her father, Anne thought, when Karai first contacted her sister. It was several months after Shredder had fallen off the Sachs building.

"You know what has happened by now." Karai said, pressing her cellphone harder against her cheek. Sachs was lounging on a couch. They were in hiding, but Karai was tired of his orders. She was tired of him and Shredder. His armor had protected him and he had survived the fall, but Shredder was still healing from the damage he'd sustained. "I can no longer follow our father."

"Why now? Why have you changed your mind?" It didn't surprise Anne that Shredder had mysteriously survived his incident.

Karai was silent for a long time. The ends of her hair weren't red anymore. "Someone has… changed my mind."

"Who? A man?" Karai doesn't have relationships… or flirtations…

"Something like that."

Karai disappeared the next night and went to Anne, who was currently working in Quebec. Anne forgave her sister for everything that had happened. Although they held no love for each other when they were growing up, Anne hoped that she and Karai could heal their sisterly bonds. "I have no honor, Anne. I'm not a true kunoichi. I've hurt people, innocent people… I…"

"Neither am I." Anne told Karai, "Tell me about your man." Karai was almost tempted to laugh. Anne was always able to spin and turn a conversation.

"His name is… Leonardo."

Anne's eyes widened. There was no way. No way, right? Karai didn't tell Anne that he was a mutant turtle; she didn't want her only friend to turn away from her. Anne didn't tell Karai why Leonardo's name sounded so familiar. It can't be. I imagined Raphael because I was a lonely little girl without any friends. He was never real and neither were the brothers he always told me about. Right?