Hello all, so a big giant thank you as always to Amonraphoenix! for Beta reading this chapter and for letting me pick her brain and bounce ideas off of her, and for her own great ideas. Also a big thank you to Dondena for taking the time and beta reading this chapter as well, greatly appreciated:)

A big thank you to Chibiwolf33, I love Kittens too, and Diana Fay for your lovely review, and for mela989898 who tried to review but fanfic would not let her...

and now on with the show:)

Chapter 3

Leonardo lay his head wearily down on his pillow and reviewed what had happened this evening.

He had been shocked that his brother would keep him in the dark for so long about someone impersonating Katherine, though he supposed he shouldn't be overly surprised. Donatello had always worried about his delicate mental state since Katherine's death, the accident, and his subsequent brain damage. However, it had been many, many years since he had lost control of his emotions. Ten years in fact. He thought to himself in shame.

After Katherine's death, he had been inconsolable. The only thing that had allowed him to go on day after day when he had finally healed from his devastating injuries had been their children. Raphael had -by this time- already left, hell bent on finding Katherine alive, or seeking revenge for her death. At the time, Leonardo had no idea what was going on with his hot-headed brother. All he knew was that Raphael had abandoned their family in their time of need.

Leonardo looked at Donatello in shock. "How long were you going to keep this from me, Donny? Leonardo had whispered.

"I was protecting you!" Donatello defended himself angrily. "Dealing with the gangs is bad enough without having to deal with more rumours and... and someone impersonating... And someone impersonating Katherine."

Mention of Her name still had the ability to send shooting pains straight through his heart, and crush his lungs so tightly that he could barely breathe. He had been unable to protect the woman he loved, and because of that, she had been killed; another failure to add to his of growing failures that cost a most precious life.

Leonardo's gaze had flown to Raphael's in silent, agonizing question.

"No, I don't think it's her, Leo." Raphael had answered sadly. "She's dead, and I accepted that a long time ago." Raphael seemed to take a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing. "I am more curious who it is, and why they are suddenly pretending to be the Wraith. Is it a prank, a warning? I'm not sure. But there were rumours filtering up from the underworld, and then a sighting of the Wraith made the news. That's when I decided that it was time to come home."Raphael finished softly. He had looked at Leonardo, as anguish rolled around in his amber eye.

Leonardo had wavered on his feet a little before steadying himself. A brief flash of hope, that somehow Katherine had still been alive, was quickly extinguished. He knew that Katherine was dead. He had felt her die, and yet somehow, he still foolishly clung to the blind hope that somehow she was alive. After all, they had never found her body; or the bodies of Barry and Deon either. But it was most likely that they had been disposed of, very neatly somewhere, where their bodies would not be easily discovered, if at all.

Leonardo briefly thought about going to Karai for information, but rejected the idea as too dangerous. Karai was dying after a long battle with cancer, and had enough problems on her plate. Unlike most of the criminal organizations of the city, Karai was the only one who knew that they had all managed to survive the blast. Though, with their children going out on patrol at night, and breaking up various muggings and robberies, it would not be long before the rest of the criminal element of the city would connect the dots, and figure out that they were very much alive.

Raphael had continued to talk. His brother wanted to track the Wraith down and find out who he or she was, and what the hell they were up too. Leonardo was not opposed to the idea, but Donatello was firmly set against it. He saw no reason to stir up trouble; especially with the city perched precariously on the brink of a possible gang war.

Leonardo knew that Donatello did not wish for the children to get involved; and both Raphael and he had agreed that their children would not be involved at all. This meant that for the time being, all patrols and forays topside would be curtailed until the Wraith and gang situation sorted itself out.

They had discussed and come up with a plan. Tomorrow night they would scour the city, looking for any signs of the 'Wraith'. They would also be able to judge the tension and probability for violence that may erupt between the gangs.

Shooting pain suddenly shot through Leonardo's left forearm as the muscle spasmed. He clutched it in pain and struggled to sit up; his bad leg stiffening from being immobile for so long. He massaged his arm hoping that the painful spasm would stop soon.

Leonardo sighed in resignation, knowing that he had overdone it in his training today. There was always a fine line between overdoing it, and strengthening his weakened muscles. It was a difficult balance that he had not been able to master; even after fourteen years.

Leonardo opened and closed his hand a few times as the spasms finally dissipated. He slowly stood up from his bed and walked into the hallway. He had begun sleeping in their meditation room many years ago, when the children had all required their own space; at least as much as could be given.

Toshiro still had his room from when he was a baby, Ryu and Sage shared Raphael's old room, and Ren slept in Donatello's old room. Donatello preferred sleeping in his lab, and Michelangelo was the only one who still slept in his old room on the upper level.

Leonardo made his way to his children's bedrooms, intent on making sure that everyone was in bed and sleeping as they should be. He passed by the shrine that had been set up for their deceased loved ones, and he stopped in front of it. He looked towards the living room, knowing that Raphael would be sleeping fitfully on the couch by now.

Leonardo had heard his brother cry out in the middle of the night, waking up from some nightmare that plagued his soul. They were probably the same nightmares that woke Leonardo up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, his body shaking with the exertions of trying to save the woman he loved from an unknown fate; and failing miserably.

Leonardo knelt down in front of the markers and apologized to Katherine for what felt like the millionth time. He stared at the silver letters of her name and wondered what she would think of him now. He wondered if she was looking out for, and over them; and if she had wept when he had nearly killed Raphael ten years ago.

He closed his eyes as shame clawed its way through his body and buried itself deep into his heart. He was thankful that Raphael was alive. He knew he hadn't treated Raphael fairly in the past, or the present, but his brother's current presence bothered him, for exactly the reason Raphael had pointed out; because his brother made him feel guilty.

If Leonardo had been able to take the honourable way out, he would have. But he had promised Katherine that he would never assuage his honour by taking his own life again, and it was the one promise to her that he intended to keep.

"What would you do?" He asked her softly, even though he already knew her answer. She would run out, heedless of the danger and try to discover who was impersonating her, because that was who she was. She was curious by nature, a trait that most likely contributed to her untimely death. However, the question had a double meaning. He wondered what she would do in regards to Raphael, and his decision to tell the children of his and Leonardo's very complicated relationship with their mother.

He could almost hear her angry voice now, her green eyes narrowed into angry slits of fury for what he had done to Raphael. Besides nearly killing him and driving him from their home, he had taken away Raphael's children as well.

Leonardo burned with regrets. He had too many of those on his shoulders, and yet somehow knew that Katherine would tell him to 'make it right'. The problem was that Leonardo didn't know how to fix what he had broken so long ago. Telling the children that Raphael was also their father was tantamount to telling them that their entire lives had been one massive lie. It would rip their family to shreds and drive them apart. He did not want his children looking at him with hurt, betrayal and mistrust in their eyes.

He sighed as he stood, catching his breath in a quick intake of breath as his bad leg threatened to give out under him. He massaged the stiff muscle and cursed softly under his breath.

"She ever answer you, Leo?" Raphael's voice gruffly asked from over his shoulder.

Leonardo let go of his leg, but did not turn to face his brother. "No." He answered wretchedly. "I always thought it was my punishment for killing you. Maybe it's my punishment for nearly killing you and taking everything away from you." He muttered softly.

Raphael suddenly placed his hand on Leonardo's shoulder, spinning him around so that he would have no choice but to look Raphael straight in the eye.

"I almost did the exact same thing to you, Leo, remember?" He growled softly. "My sai sliced open your neck, so I think we are even. As for taking away everything, I blame whoever shot that missile into that warehouse. You were right; I did abandon this family and my kids, right when they needed me the most. And even though I don't think it was right, and even though I know I still hate you for doing it, I know you had the best interests of the kids at heart." Raphael said fiercely, surprising Leonardo.

Raphael sighed heavily and continued "Leo, I could hold a grudge against you for the rest of my life. But if there is one thing I've learned the hard way, it's that life's too damn short, and that family is everything. Kitten tried to teach me that a long time ago. It took a while, but I think it finally managed to sink in." Raphael gave Leonardo's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I could never really hate you, Leo, and believe me… I tried. But you're my brother, and I love you."

Leonardo felt tears fill his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Raph, for everything." He managed to choke out, quickly dashing the tears from his eyes.

Raphael sighed, which came out as more of a deep throated growl, and pulled Leonardo into a musky, leather scented hug.

"She's never answered me either." Raphael spoke softly. "I always thought she was pissed at me for walking away, or trying to get revenge. Heh, maybe she's pissed at both of us." Raphael observed as he pulled away, shoving his hands deeply into his trench coat pockets.

Leonardo shifted slightly and gave a half grin of agreement. "Maybe." He acknowledged, his mind shifting to another problem. "But if you're going to be staying, we need to find you someplace to sleep. We can't have you crashing on the couch forever. Mikey's already upset that he can't watch all of his sci-fi and horror movies. You've been ruining his B-movie nights. Ren, Ryu and Mikey love watching them together."

Raphael gave a faint smirk. "Ren I can see, but Ryu?"

"Don't let her cute exterior fool you, she's bloodthirsty." Leonardo said of their youngest daughter."I think she gets it from you." Leonardo grumbled under his breath.

Raphael just let out a snort, but somehow looked pleased. "Night, Leo, I'll catch you in the morning." Raphael said as he made his way back into the living room and onto the couch.

Leonardo took one last look at Katherine's marker and made his way to the upper level. He looked in on Ryu and Sage, both who were sound asleep. Next he checked on Ren, who was sleeping soundly as well. Leonardo decided that Ren would have to move all of his stuff in with Toshiro. The two boys could share a room, which was going to be a nightmare. Ren and Toshiro loved each other, but were like oil and water when together. Toshiro like his own space, and was neurotically organized and tidy, Ren was a slob; an organized slob, but a slob none the less. Though if asked, Ren would probably rather move into the lab.

Lastly, Leonardo checked on Toshiro. He was lying on his bed sleeping with his table lamp on. Leonardo walked into his eldest son's room to turn off the light.

Leonardo wondered then how old they were when Master Splinter had stopped checking in on them when they went to bed for the night. He believed that their father had probably checked on them every night up until the day he had died. The thought was a comforting one that made him smile slightly in fond remembrance. He wished, not for the first time, that their father had lived long enough to see his family grow up and have children of their own.

Leonardo looked at Toshiro's walls, covered in posters of rock bands, cars, motorcycles and women wearing skimpy clothing. He sighed slightly and shook his head. His eyes caught sight of a piece of a painted flower peeking out from beneath a poster that had lost a piece of tape in the corner; curling up slightly, and exposing part of the painted nursery wall underneath.

Leonardo walked to the wall, and pulled up the poster, exposing the entire painted flower beneath. Leonardo's heart constricted in grief at the thought of another who he wished could have seen their children grow up. He knelt down and ran his fingers lovingly over the signature Katherine had written on the bottom of the wall, and the date she had painted it; hidden within the petals of the flower. Her signature was nothing more than an elaborate 'K' and a wisp of what looked like faint smoke; but was actually, representative of her last name, Wraith.

The pieces of artwork that still hung in the Natural History Museum were signed in exactly the same way. Katherine had signed the museum pieces with her legal last name of Wraith because of her uncle Carin. The Milton family and the Wraith family had given the museum the two pieces of artwork they had in their possession. The other paintings for the Neanderthal exhibit were in the hands of private collectors, who were not selling the pieces which were worth a substantial amount of money.

Leonardo stood, letting go of the corner of the poster so that it fell back into place. He took one last look at his son's room, turned off the table lamp, and walked out, closing the door gently behind him.

Toshiro opened his eyes slightly, watching his father leave his room and close the door behind him. He had been sleeping until he had sensed a presence enter his room, jolting him into awareness. Seeing that it was just his father -probably coming in to turn out the light and to see if he was awake- Toshiro had pretended to be asleep. He had not wanted to listen to a lecture on how he was not supposed to go out by himself late at night. And he could just imagine the trouble he was going to get into if his father found out Sage had followed him topside.

He fully opened his eyes as soon as the door closed. He slid silently out of bed and walked to his door, listening intently to the sound of his father's unique, limping gait as it got further and further away from his door.

He walked back to his desk and turned on the lamp. He would never admit to anyone that he hated the dark, but turning his light back on now served another purpose. He walked to the wall and knelt down before it -exactly as his father had done- pulling the poster up and studying the flower that lay beneath. He ran his fingers over the white signature that was hidden within the folds of the pale yellow flower petals.

Toshiro had always believed that his painted nursery walls had something to do with his mother, and now he knew that she had in fact painted the mural that adorned his walls. The 'K' stood for Katherine, he knew that much, though he was confused at the wisp of smoke that circled around the letter like a light and airy shroud.

He stood and walked back to his bed, gently lying back down and rolling over so that he was facing the wall opposite the flower.

Thoughts of his mother disturbed him too much. But Toshiro supposed that he had to believe that a woman who would so lovingly paint a baby's room in such beautiful detail, would not abandon her children willingly. Still, the thought of his mother's death was painful to bear; if only because he had never had a chance to meet the woman his father had loved so much.

Kismet looked over the rooftop at the six men who were milling around in the darkened alley below her. The moon was hidden behind the dark clouds that lazily rolled across the city's bright skyline. A single bulb located above the warehouse door being the only light illuminating the men below. All were armed with high powered laser or plasma rifles. A few were even carrying old fashioned guns loaded with lead bullets. Not that it mattered; any of the guns were perfectly capable of killing you, no matter which gun you were shot with.

"Ready to fly, Darlin'?" Hermes asked in his deep southern drawl from beside her.

She flicked a quick glance at Hermes, but kept most of her attention fixed on the gang members milling below her.

"Aren't you getting bored with this?" She asked him as she watched a gang member light up a cigarette before turning her full attention to the man on her right.

Hermes wore a slight grin, his longish, dark blonde hair tousled and streaked liberally with white, making him appear far older than his thirty odd years. Her own hair colour also belied her age, which was mid twenties. She and her two companions were part of a military experiment gone horribly wrong. At least, she thought of it as having gone wrong since she had no recollection of her past other than what was in her file. To the military, their experiment was a brilliant success. Kismet and her team were imbued with a tactical advantage that had nothing to do with training or weaponry, although these definitely helped.

"I never get bored, Darlin'." Hermes said with a flirtatious grin.

Kismet rolled her eyes and looked to her left, where another man had been watching her interplay with Hermes with a large, white toothed grin on his face. "What about you, Shai?"

"I'm with Hermes, I never get bored either. I mean, what's boring about this gig?" He asked her. Kismet studied her other companion. He was crouched down at the moment, but when he stood up, he was well over six feet tall, built like a linebacker and his skin was like black coffee with a touch of cream. His short cropped, dark hair was streaked liberally with white as well, an apparent 'side effect' of the experiment.

Kismet brushed a silver curl out of her face and turned her attention back to the gang members below.

"I just feel like we are searching for a needle in a haystack." She grumbled.

"Well, we may be," Hermes agreed, "but on the bright side, we get to mess with the gangs until we actually complete our assignment." Hermes' lopsided grin became wider.

Kismet let out a reluctant sigh. "I suppose so." She grumbled. She and her two companions were part of a top secret government team, whose mission it was to disrupt the supply chain of weapons that were being moved in and out of the city. This however was not their primary objective. Their prime objective was finding the location and any information that they could on a top secret underworld project code named Aether. So far they had only had luck with destroying illegal weapons shipments, drug shipments, and human trafficking organizations. Which was good, she wasn't upset with those things, but she was getting frustrated with not finding out what Project Aether actually was.

"Alright." Kismet said as she stood. Her silver and white streaked curls fell over her shoulders. She pushed them out of the way as she pulled the black mask down over her eyes and partially covering her cheeks. "Let's do this." She said as she pulled out two ice picks, usually used by hikers to climb up icy mountains. She adjusted the bow and quiver across her back, and took two steps back.

"Good Luck." Hermes quipped.

Kismet rolled her eyes. It was the same thing every night, though Hermes did not seem to be getting bored with saying it to her... yet. Besides that was the signal for their coms to go silent.

Of course, 'good luck' was the irony of their situation. She had Luck. She had luck in spades. After all, that was the success of the experiment, imbuing a person with copious amounts of Luck with a capital 'L'. By being able to tap into the intangible concept of luck, they had the ability to have more luck than the average person should theoretically and statistically have. Of course, this good luck that they were imbued with meant that the more good luck they used for themselves, the more bad luck adversely affected the people around them. Which considering their situation, was not a bad thing.

She ran, launching herself off the side of the building, the ice picks outstretched in front of her. She knew her black combat suit would only give her a certain amount of cover before she hit the wall of the building opposite their position, alerting their target below.

Her ice picks drove themselves into the brickwork of the wall of the warehouse. The gang members' attention quickly turned up to her crouched fifteen feet above the ground, and hanging from the wall.

There was a frightened shout of 'Shit, it's the Wraith', before their gun's opened fire. Bullets, beams and pulses were fired at her as she pushed off the wall with her feet, pulling her ice picks out at the same time, and launching herself across to the wall of the building she had originally been perched on, and slamming her ice picks into the concrete wall.

A large piece of the warehouse's brick wall fell, pinning three of the men underneath its cumbersome weight.

Kismet pulled her ice picks from the building and landed on the ground with a light thud. Three shots rang out through the night, as electrically charged pulses hit the remaining gang members in the chest, knocking them unconscious.

Hermes and Shai landed beside her, their electric pulse rifles at the ready as panicked voices behind the thick metal door of the warehouse alerted them to the fact that they were about to get more company.

Hermes motioned for Shai to circle round to the front of the warehouse to make sure none of the gang members attempted to move anything through the large bay doors opposite the back door where they were currently located.

Hermes pointed up and Kismet gave a nod. She ran, and using her ice picks, began to scale the warehouse wall, moving towards the hole she had made in the side of the building.

She would slip inside while Hermes stood at the back door, and dealt with the gang members who stumbled out of that particular entrance.

The back door suddenly swung open, bullets and beams hitting the opposite wall before the gang members could even see who they were shooting at.

The narrow doorway provided the perfect siphoning corridor for Hermes to easily start shooting each gang member as they emerged one by one; stumbling over each other in their haste to eliminate the enemy threat.

Kismet slipped inside and watched the chaos happening below her. She balanced on the broken wall fifteen feet above the chaos below, completely unobserved. Her eyes scanned the wooden crates lining the small warehouse floor. She looked for a crate or something in particular that stood out as different from the rest.

Nothing struck her as out of the ordinary, but she would know for sure once she found the manifest. Not that she was expecting any documentation regarding Project Aether, but she would know when there was something listed that was out of place.

She scanned the building and found the small 'office' located slightly to her right. She smiled. The 'office' consisted of a table, a chair and a stack of papers.

The chair was currently occupied by a large, tattooed man, shouting orders at his men as he shoved a stack of papers into a messenger bag.

Kismet liked it when the criminal element remained old-school. Criminals found that it was much easier to burn papers than it was to find a computer program that would actually keep a determined hacker out. No matter how many encryptions you placed on your files, they could always be cracked.

The sound of a large engine turning over caught her attention. She could just barely make out the noise over the gunfire and shouting, but she caught the flash of headlights turning towards the large bay doors which were in the process of opening.

Kismet balanced herself on the wall and pulled her bow from her back. Her bow looked like an ordinary wooden stick until she pushed the small button which expanded the weapon, automatically stringing it. She pulled out four arrows intent on shooting the tires of the truck.

It was at that moment that everything went to hell in a hand basket. Shouting began filtering back from the front as twenty men, armed with guns, pipes, chains and bats charged in through the now open bay doors.

Kismet blinked in surprise at the new group of men, who began attacking the men currently occupying the warehouse.

The new group of men bore the tattoos of the Purple Dragons, while the men of the warehouse bore the triangular tattoos of the Triple Triad.

Kismet knew when a mission was going south and this one had. Kismet slung her bow over her shoulder, and placed the arrows back in her quiver before she pulled herself through to the outside of the wall.

She looked down and observed that Hermes had managed to stem the Triple Triad tide by closing the door, and shoving a dumpster in the way, blocking it from being re-opened.

She gave a nod to Hermes and climbed the five feet to the rooftop, knowing that Hermes and Shai had felt the same hair raising, stomach churning, warning that she felt buzzing through her body.

It was time to go before they got themselves killed.

She met Shai on the rooftop as she put her ice picks through her belt. "What happened?" She asked Shai, who stood like a statue, gun trained and ready, eyes searching and alert.

"Purple Dragons lost their leader last week, they blamed it on the Triple Triads. 'Lost' as in he went missing and hasn't been found. Looks like the Triads are going in for a bit of revenge." Shai observed letting go of his rifle so it hung by the strap. Hermes' head peaked over the edge of the rooftop, and Shai walked over to help him the rest of the way up.

"Well, that was a waste of time." Hermes grumbled, the sounds of gunfire coming from below their feet.

"Well, we could always just wait until the ruckus dies down and then see what's in the truck." Shai suggested.

Hermes looked to Kismet for her opinion. She thought about it for a moment. "I have a better idea." She said thoughtfully. "Hermes, grab my boots." She said as she walked to the edge of the rooftop. She got down on her belly, Hermes grabbing her boots, and lowering her over the side of the building back to the hole she had made 5 feet below. She was exactly five feet tall so this manoeuvre worked perfectly. She pulled her bow from her back and shot four specially tipped arrows in rapid succession into the chaos consuming the warehouse.

On contact the arrows exploded. The four crates she hit must have contained explosives of some sort because the warehouse was suddenly filled with shrapnel, fire and billowing smoke.

Hermes pulled her up and she motioned for them to follow her as she ran across the roof to the opposite side of the warehouse.

A mass exodus of both sets of gang members streamed through the bay doors, followed by the semi.

Kismet launched herself off the rooftop, hitting the trailer of the semi dead center. Hermes and Shai quickly followed, landing beside her. She pulled out her ice picks and slammed them through the metal of the trailer as the semi swerved, causing them to lose their balance.

Hermes slid off the side, but Shai quickly grabbed his hand and hers at the same moment. Shai pulled Hermes back onto the top of the trailer and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was close." Hermes said nodding to Shai in thanks, as the truck drove erratically through the streets, trying to escape the carnage of the warehouse behind them.

Shai pulled a small explosive device from his belt, and placed it on the metal surface of the trailer. They all backed away as far as they could, covering their faces with their arms as the small device blew a hole in the roof of the trailer.

The semi slammed on its brakes as Hermes jumped inside of the large compartment. "It's full of Gem." Hermes shouted, indicating that it was a shipment of highly addictive, very expensive drugs that had been trying to hit the market and garner a foothold as The new drug of choice.

The door to the cab of the truck was suddenly thrust opened. Shai easily took out both the driver and his partner with his electric pulse riffle, knocking both men unconscious.

"Light it up." Kismet shouted as she helped Hermes crawl out of the trailer.

"Already on it." Hermes said with a smile, as he threw down a flare, just as he was lifted from within the trailer.

Gem also happened to be highly flammable.

Kismet, Hermes and Shai leapt from the trailer as the drugs caught fire. They dragged the two unconscious Triple Triads a safe distance away, and watched as the trailer burned.

"Well, that was almost a waste of time." Kismet said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Hermes put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "Well, we didn't find what we were looking for..."

"But we got to blow shit up." Shai finished giving Hermes a high five, both grinning like kids in a candy store.

Kismet rolled her eyes and chuckled slightly.

"Who do you suppose the Wraith is?" Hermes questioned suddenly.

Kismet shrugged. "No idea." She replied truthfully. She had been called the Wraith on a few occasions now, but she had no idea who the Wraith was supposed to be, or why she was being mistaken for her. "But I have a feeling that whoever she is, we shouldn't go asking Command about her."

Hermes and Shai nodded. Her 'feelings', 'hunches' and 'intuitions' were the strongest of the team. So if she 'felt' a certain way about something, Hermes and Shai never questioned her.

"So for now, we pretend she doesn't exist." She said thoughtfully.

"And in reality?" Shai questioned, catching her double meaning slightly faster than Hermes.

"We find out who or what the Wraith is." She said with determination. "Very quietly and discreetly."

Thoughts and opinions are always welcome:)