The turtles had only recently started going back on their nightly patrols, and although they knew it was only a matter of time before they ran into the Foot Clan they didn't think it'd be this soon. But that night, just as they were finishing up their patrol, they found Fishface on a rooftop.
"You!" Raph growled, whipping out his Sais without a second thought. "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face!" He shouted, his anger boiling.
"Easy turtles" Fishface responded before tossing an object their way. Leo caught the object and turned it over in his hands, discovering that it was a phone. "Karai has been very cooperative since coming to stay with us, I believe she has earned a message from home." He said and for a moment all four turtles look over in complete shock at his actions. "Do not make me regret this! And say nothing that would force me to hand the recording over to Shredder!" He threatened.
The only reason Casey was up so early was because he couldn't sleep. Justin slept, but then again Justin usually sleeps. He's still sleeping now, since it is only six in the morning. But Casey's up, he's dressed, and he had all of Justin's things gathered into an old sports bag that was on his back. The only thing left to do is grab his son without waking him, and walk to the nearest police station. He wasn't sure where exactly you're supposed to bring a kid when giving them up, and the Internet wasn't very helpful. But he does know that it's legal to leave a baby at a police station and that's good enough for Casey.
Being extremely careful not to wake Justin, Casey lifted him out of the playpen and for just a moment held the little boy against his chest.
"I'm sorry" he murmured and with that he exited his room with every intention on slipping out of the apartment unnoticed, but he forgot how early Angel wakes up for her cartoons.
"Where ya going?" His sister's voice nearly scared him half to death, as he failed to notice her sitting on the couch.
He turned around very apprehensively, his sister seeming not to notice the fear on his face one bit. She sat there with an inquisitive glare directed at him, their father's over-sized t-shirt hanging loosely off her small body; indicating that her laundry needs to be done. It was moments like this, where Casey is reminded that she's his LITTLE sister; he can't lie to her.
"I'm uh… I'm dropping Justin off with someone else." He confessed but Angel's confusion only seemed to grow.
"When's he coming back?" She questioned and Casey felt his heart plummet. Of course she would ask that, she wouldn't ask who he was leaving Justin with, she would ask when he'll be returning.
"He's, he's not Angel" Casey admitted and the heartbroken look of betrayal on his sister's face was enough to make Casey question his actions.
"What?" Angel finally questioned, tears beginning to pool in her brown eyes.
"Oh don't give me that Angel, look I know you think having a baby around is all fun and games but guess what? It isn't!" He exclaimed, effectively waking Justin. Casey rolled his eyes and groaned at the sight of his son awake, but figured at least he wasn't crying yet and frankly it was his own stupid fault for raising his voice.
He was waiting for Angel to argue, or cry, or both. He was prepared to tell her she was wrong, prepared to tell her to shut up, the she doesn't understand. Each and every one of those defenses would have worked against her next comment, but Casey was too taken back by it to even think of saying anything.
Angel looked up at her brother with watery eyes as she allowed her anger to overtake her.
"You're just like mom!" She shouted before getting up and stomping off to her room.
Xever came with her breakfast, a stale chocolate chip muffin. But with it he left her a phone and Karai couldn't help but look curiously at him.
"Don't even think about calling for help, those features have been disabled." He spat at her.
"So what's it for?" Karai asked, more confused than ever.
"There's a recording for you" Xever responded before exiting the room.
Confused Karai neglected her breakfast for the time being and began searching through the phone; it didn't take her long to find the only video recorded on it. At first she just stared skeptically at it, the still frame it was paused on was an image of Leo. Tapping the play button Karai watched the video with interest, curious as to what Shredder had done to her brother's that he so desperately needed her to see.
"Uh, hi Karai" Leo began awkwardly, "so I don't know if you're actually going to get this or not but we miss you" he continued before the phone was stolen by Mikey.
"We miss you SO MUCH sis! Master Splinter does too, and Raph even though he won't admit it." The youngest turtle continued which made Karai giggle, especially when Raph appeared on the screen behind Mikey and knocked his little brother on the back of the head.
"Hope you're holding up alright Karai" the red banded turtle said as if he didn't really care if she was or not, but Karai knew that he cared. Just then Donnie took the phone, and fumbled it in his hands for a minute or two, before his face came into focus.
"Sorry we don't have Justin with us, we didn't exactly get advanced notice on this. Casey's trying to get him walking but he's had some sort of mental block, he really misses you." The genius turtles said before handing the phone back to Leo.
"I hope you get this Karai and I hope you're ok, we all miss you, bye." The leader said solemnly and with that the recording ended.
Karai was never one to get emotional, and she didn't plan on starting now. But this small recording from her family, she didn't know how much such a thing could mean to her and yet she found herself feeling something she didn't think she ever would, she found herself hopeful. She would never break her deal with Shredder, not so long as he held up his end of the bargain. But still, she found herself truly believing that someday, somehow, she would go home with her brothers and she would see her son again.
Angel was in her room pouting, it just isn't right! Casey is the one who held her when their mom left, the one who cursed the woman's name every time it was spoken in his presence. But here he was, abandoning his own son!
Just then her door cracked open, and in slipped Casey.
"You leave Justin on the side of the road yet?" Angel spat at him, watching him with a death glare as he closed her door behind him and entered the room.
"Relax, he's with dad," he said, taking a seat beside his little sister on the edge of her bed.
"No!" Angel protested, shoving her brother off the bed. "I don't want you near me!" She exclaimed, Casey got off the floor with a frown and stood before his sister.
"Angel I can't take care of Justin" he tried to explain but she wouldn't hear of it.
"Yes you can!" She shouted, "You take care of me, you can take care of him!" She exclaimed
"That's different and you know it!" Casey retorted "you could take care of yourself if you needed to, Justin's still a baby! Besides I'm your brother, but to Justin I'm supposed to be his dad and guess what? I don't know how to do that!" Casey screamed; he was tired of this. Tired of pretending that he knew what he was doing, tired of acting like he can do this. Bottom line is he can't. He's always exceeded in failing, always has preformed below average, despite what his over confidence might suggest. His whole life he's barely met any sort of extremely low expectations of him, how in the hell is he supposed to raise a kid? Something even kids his age that have everything else going right struggle to do.
Angel sniffled and wiped her tears with her wrist "but you always told me that mom's a coward" she whimpered and with a huff Casey dared to sit beside his sister again, surprisingly she let him.
"Yeah well, I was mad" he admitted. "I always thought that mom left because you and me weren't what she wanted, I mean she'd ask me to do something and half the time I'd just stare at her cause I didn't understand the words. Then you came along and she was all excited that she had a little girl" he began and Angel smiled evilly.
"But she got a little devil!" She said with a slight laugh. Casey knew that it hurt Angel, their mother always had this perfect image of what her daughter would be and Angel was the exact opposite; but to an extent she did take pride in that. Knowing that at least part of her pride was genuine Casey smiled and ruffled his sister's hair, not wanting to delve into deeper matters at the moment.
"Right, anyway Justin's got me thinking; maybe there's more to mom leaving than we know about. Maybe she actually had a reason." Casey suggested but Angel didn't look convinced.
"When mom left daddy told me that he understood why but when I asked him he said that it doesn't matter, because when your kids are born you make a choice; one you should never take back no matter what." She said, her eyes pleading with Casey to listen to their father's advice.
Jen knew this was a bad idea. She should've gone to the police, or at least informed Anthony on what she'd found. But no, instead she decided for some god-forsaken reason that she was going to track down and confront Oroku Saki herself. Finding him wasn't that hard and before Jen knew it she was knocking on the front doors of an old church.
It was only a few minutes, but it was one agonizingly slow few minutes. When the door finally opened Jen found herself looking up at a tall man wearing a business suit, half his face scared and one of his eyes glazed over.
"May I help you?" The man asked in a cold voice.
Jen gulped down her fear, "Um Mr. Oroku is it?" She asked, ok so maybe she didn't gulp down all of her fear.
"Yes" the man responded in his grave voice.
"I'm here about a recently reopened case involving you back in Japan, I understand that you have a daughter?" She asked, believing herself to sound more confident than she did previously.
"What about your 'case' concerns my daughter?" Mr. Oroku demanded coldly, sending a chill up Jennifer's spine.
"It's just that some investigator's found it suspicious that you were charged in the murder of a baby girl seventeen years ago when the body was never found and your own daughter is listed as being only four days younger than the baby." She said and when she did the eyes of the man before her narrowed and seemed to pierce through her very soul.
"Who sent you?" He demanded and if Jen didn't know any better she'd think that Mr. Oroku was imagining his rather large hand gripping her neck like a vice until the air had completely left her body.
"Someone with the safety of that girl in mind" she said with every ounce of courage she had in her body.
Oroku Saki glared daggers down at the woman before him before finally exhaling his breath and answering her question.
"As I told the investigators seventeen years ago, I was walking through the forest in order to clear my head at the time of the fire and was too late to save Tang Shen or her daughter" and with that said he slammed the door in Jennifer's face.
It was too soon to be supper, and that door slam was much too loud to be Xever. Karai snapped up her head as Shredder stormed into the dungeon looking furious. Without hesitation he swung open the door to her cell and slammed it shut behind him.
"Hey, what's going-?" But that was all the very confused teenager had time to say before her former master grabbed her by her shirt collar and yanked her up to his height.
"I thought you knew better than to break a deal with me Karai," he growled as she struggled against him.
"What are you-?" She started but again he cut her off, this time by throwing her back against the wall.
"Now, who have you been talking to?" The armored man demanded as he gave his knuckles a sinister crack.
"I haven't been talking to anyone" Karai spat as she pulled herself to her feet.
"Have it your way" Shredder declared, then he struck.
He swung his gauntlet for the side of her face, but Karai dodged the attack. She knew better than to fight against Shredder, especially when they were confined to the limited space of a cage. She decided it be best if she just dodged all his attacks, but turns out that action only made him angrier. He roared in anger, and Karai took slight pride in her ability to generate such a reaction from the Shredder. However the joy was short lived because right at that moment Shredder landed a hit into her shoulder, which sent the teen flying back into the wall for a second time, only this time she lost something. Xever's phone, the phone he had given her with the turtle's message on it, fell from her pocket.
Karai registered the clattering of the phone hitting the stone floor, she also knew that she quite possibly could die if she didn't hurry up and grab the phone before Shredder laid eyes on it. But it was too late. By the time she picked up her head and before she could even think of reaching out for the phone Shredder was looming over her, the small black object in his hand.
For a moment he just stared down at it, he didn't bother to turn it on but just looked at it. Karai watched him with baited breath; her eyes wide with terror of what he would do. But she wouldn't rat out Xever, he was kind to her and had made her time her in the dungeon bearable; she wouldn't thank him by selling him out. Finally Shredder curled his hand into a fist around the phone, but didn't once glance at Karai.
"You will watch that child die," he said coldly.