Because of the lack of on screen interaction between Karai and other members of the Foot Clan in the episodes of the show I have taken a bit of creative freedom in writing what I believe their relationships are like. I can promise you that I will keep them in character, but should further episodes of the show start to strongly contradict with the relationships that I decide write here, I may have to turn this into a slightly AU fic. I hope that this doesn't discourage anyone from reading any chapters from this collection and I'd be more than willing to answer any questions that you might have just send me a PM or leave them in a review. Also thank you to both lovely readers who reviewed chapter one. My author's notes will not normally be so long, but I felt that this should be explained. And so without anything further, I give you Fight to the Death Part 2.

-DemonYodaVoice

Disclaimer: I still do not own Ninja Turtles, that right belongs to someone else.


Sunlight hit her straight in the face as Karai found herself slowly blinking open her eyes only to close them again under the bright glare. Stretching silently her feet hit the end of the sofa as her mind worked to remember what it was she had been doing. Slowly it all came back to her; the mission, their failures, her father's generous deal, her battle with Stockman, and… The last items snapped back to her mind abruptly and she practically flew to her feet; she had better not have missed them! Eyes snapping around her eyes almost completely missed the clock, managed to snag on its hands within seconds. All the panic seemed to fade from her eyes and she collapsed back onto the couch as she realized that it had only been thirty minutes.

So it had just been a short nap, she couldn't have missed them after all. Leaning back her head once again met the arm rest as she sighed; she just hopped at her father would leave them in a good enough condition to where she could talk to them, the Shredder wasn't always known for being gentle in dishing out his punishments. Before her mind could drift off again she heard the slamming of another door further down the hall. Letting her body go limp she steadied out her breath as the sounds of footsteps echoed down the hall, and by the sounds of it there were several pairs of them.

Concentrating she listened intently as the footsteps paused right outside of the door. Smirking slightly to herself she let her body relax further as her ears caught the voices that echoed just outside in the hallway. Except there were none. Frowning she sat up and caught sight of a pair of black figures that continued down the hall silently; so it had only been a pair of her father's foot ninjas. How disappointing.

Flipping over onto her stomach she found herself staring off into space at the wall, seeing as the building was an old church this room had once been used for some sort of children's class, the images and outlines of rainbows and birds outlined the walls and she always found them interesting to stare at when she was bored. Except that today her mind couldn't seem to concentrate, instead it kept taking her back to the mission. They had just been following her orders, she was the one that had made the mistake in her plan, Leonardo had seen through her, and now her team mates were being punished for her mistake. Mentally she wanted to slap herself in the face.

Wait, did she just call them her team!? Snorting she shoved the thought out of her mind; she was beginning to sound like Leo.

Instead her thoughts took her back to the last round of fighting; it was obvious that he had gone easy on her. That stupid fish had clearly disobeyed her order even after he had agreed to fight fair. Of course she shouldn't have expected anything less, they were all villains in a sense of the word, but that didn't stop her from wondering why it was that he had done it. For what reason did he think it would be better to let her win and take the punishment when he could have gotten off himself. She should have been in there with them, and instead it was like they were all taking it for her. And she hated them all for it.

Her mind returned to reality as another group of footsteps were heard traveling down the hall, this time they seemed to echo in different ways and the sound of voices accompanied them down the hall. "I think I'm going to fall apart."

"Oh would you just let it go already!" The first voice was easily recognizable as Stockman's and followed by Bradford's. Quickly and silently she returned to her position on the couch; this would be the real challenge of how convincing she could be, and also the moment to learn their thoughts on the situation.

She relaxed not a moment too soon as the door was shoved open and hit the wall with a loud thud as the arguing continued. "Actually I think it would be rather interesting to see him break apart into pieces."

Bradford let out a sigh following Xever's comment and through slits in her closed eyes Karai could make out their shapes in the doorway. Bradford's bulk was blocking most of the space, with Xever and Baxter already having entered the room before him, but still not far from the doorway. "I would agree with you, but I still don't want him to hear him continue to whine about it."

Stockman spun around on his heels to give the much taller mutant a glare, but once again he didn't come off as threatening as he meant for it to. "I am not whiney! You would not believe the beating that I just took."

Bradford let out a low growl and shoved past him into the room, throwing the scientist off balance and leaving him staggering and frantically grabbing for something to hold onto. "Don't you start that again, either one of us has taken way more beatings than you just took regularly. You're just lucky Master Shredder didn't think to take out his katanas."

Growling he moved further into the room with Stockman glaring at him, the scientist once again opened his mouth, only to suddenly freeze up as he looked over in her direction. "How long has she been in here!?" Spinning around both Bradford and Xever looked in the direction he was pointing in and Karai didn't move a muscle, knowing full well any sort of movement would give away her position.

Her breathing remained calm as she felt Bradford take a step towards her and watch her with those red eyes. Finally he turned away with a simple shrug, "No problems she's asleep, which brings me to another point." Turning abruptly he left himself in a position where his face was only inches away and looking down onto Xever's. "Why did you go easy on her? Or did you think that nobody would notice? Because we did."

"He went easy on her?" Both of the mutants sighed as they turned around to face Baxter, who was looking confused as he stared at Xever.

Bradford aimed a weakly willed swat at his head which the man easily dodged. "Well most of us picked up on us; some of us are just oblivious to things."

Sensing that he had been insulted Stockman straightened up and shook his fist at the dog once again, "I am not oblivious! I am more perceptive than anyone else in this world I will have you know."

"Oh really, could have fooled me." Bradford stalked off to the other side of the room, Stockman following him, intent on continue the argument, meanwhile a certain mutant started to follow them before pausing and instead returning his gaze to where Karai was lying. This was the moment that she had really been waiting for, while Bradford's senses had been heightened with his mutation he was not as used to looking for the smaller signs in dealing with whether a person was awake or not, but due to his occupation of choice and the types of jobs her father typically sent him on Xever had spent considerably more time on this sort of subject, and judging from his expression he wasn't buying it.

Her fears were confirmed moments later when he turned back towards the others, "I don't believe she is as unconscious as you believe her to be."

As the three of them turned back around Karai assumed a position where she was leaning up against the arm rest of the couch, her head propped up with her arm and her legs tucked up closer to her body. At the sight of them she waved smoothly before pausing as she noticed the condition they were in. Although they moved as though nothing was wrong Karai could clearly see the slash marks and bruises that covered their bodies. As the grin faded from her face and changed into a slightly frown both Bradford and Stockman turned away sheepishly as though trying to hide their current condition from her, but Xever remained standing where he was and fixed her with his own golden eyed stare. "See."

Leaning back she erased the concerned expression from her face and instead looked on up at the top of the wall, trying to appear uninterested. "Good afternoon gentlemen."

"Karai." Xever spoke her name but said nothing else and an uneasy awkward silence filled the room and continued on for several minutes before she finally broke the silence.

"You went easy on me." She let her eyes drop to look down towards the couch as she crossed her arms over her chest, out of the corner of her eye she saw Xever flinch but say nothing.

"Indeed, that would be something that we would all like to know." Bradford's voice followed along after her own, but the moment she lifted up her eyes to look at him he quickly looked away. Silence filled the room again as she looked away and the three of them once again turned to look at Xever, but the fish still said nothing and continued to stare towards the ground.

"Xever." Her voice carried a warning tone with it and finally the mutant slid his eyes to where they were looking at her feet, but not at her face.

"Very well." Turning away so that his back was towards them he seemed to stare at the wall for several minutes before speaking, "You wish to know why I did it? Then I suppose I shall tell you." Turning around he still refused to meet their eyes, "I did what I did because I had to." Finishing his sentence his eyes snapped up and Karai was surprised to see the level of determination in his eyes. "You know as well as I do what would have happened if she'd stayed in there. If one of us had won instead it would have been that much worse for the others, considering Karai is his daughter she would have gotten off easier. And the next time we failed him, well that person would be the center of his wrath." There was a brief silence as he turned around, only glancing back over his shoulder as he started speaking again, "It is better this way. There were consequences yes, but in the end it is better this way."

"You speak as though you expect another defeat, do you believe us incapable?" Bradford growled as he took a step forward but Xever just narrowed his eyes and shook his head as he looked back over his shoulder.

"Idiota, defeat is inevitable when dealing with the turtles." He returned to staring at the wall, "Even if we are to wish otherwise."

"But the plan was mine." Karai changed the direction of the conversation with her words, and this time as the others turned to look in her direction it was her eyes that refused to rise from the ground.

"Your plan was fine; it was our fault for not being able to adapt it when the turtles arrived earlier than expected." Bradford sighed in irritation as he stomped his foot violently, "It was our fault for failing both you and Master Shredder. We deserved to be punished."

"So I think we can agree that we're all at fault here." Surprised at the sudden sound of Stockman's voice the three turned to look at the scientist. He stood a few paces back, suddenly nervous about being the center of attention, but after taking a breath to steady himself he continued speaking. "I mean we failed yes, but there's always next time. You know?"

Silently Karai looked from Baxter and over at the other two, Xever and Bradford were wearing the same speechless expression that she knew she had on herself and she couldn't help but crack a smile. "Yes." She couldn't believe what she planned to say next, but the words came out before she allowed herself to think enough to stop them. "Stockman's right." Even the scientist seemed surprised at her words, but now that she had started she wasn't about to stop. "We might have been defeated, but they aren't rid of us yet. There's always next time."

"Next time." Xever repeated her words and his signature smirk returned to his face, his teeth flashing in the light. "I like the sound of that." Looking over she noticed that even Bradford was nodding along with the idea, a slight smile on his face.

"So we're good then? No hard feelings?" As she spoke she stood up and while putting one hand on her waist stuck the other out towards the other.

"For now. Although in the future I might suggest that your plans not involve such painful distractions?" He rubbed his arm for a moment before laying his hand on top of hers.

Baxter was only moments behind with his own hand, flinching as he raised his arm up past a flat outstretch position, "Motion seconded."

Grinning Karai looked between both of them, "I suppose I can try to come up with something." There was a moment of silence before the three of them turned to look at Bradford, the canine mutant stood back and stared at them nervously as though unsure of how to react to the situation. "Chris?"

Flinching at the sound of his first name the ninja slowly took a step forward, "I suppose we could try it just one more time."

His large hand enveloped the other three and for the first time all day Karai actually felt a sense of relief. Working for the Foot Clan was serious business, the jobs were dangerous, there was always the potential of being killed, and her father certainly wasn't the most forgiving man in the world by far, but... But somewhere under all of that danger and stress there was also a sense of unity. It wasn't always evident even to them, and the turtles certainly couldn't see it, she knew that for sure; but deep down she knew that these people were her team. Her family. And no matter how dysfunctional they were, no matter how many times normal conversations turned into full out fighting matches or they threatened to kill each other out of anger she knew that these were her people and that was the end of it. Thinking about it maybe Leo wasn't so far off with all those thoughts about teamwork and family; not that she'd ever admit it to his face, or even anyone else. But just maybe... maybe there actually was something there.