"I'm surprised you came so soon, Emily."

"Donnie thought it was necessary."

"Ah, Donatello." He walks to the far corner of the room. "He is a very smart man."

"You mean turtle," comes a high voice. Behind the man stands Annabel. "Hello Emily. Are you warm enough?"

Emily nods.

Annabel's gaze shifts downwards, towards the floor. She focuses on the boot that Emily wears on her leg: the plastic and the straps. "How's your leg? I told Master he needn't make you walk, I would have gone and fetched you myself."

"She still would've had to walk, Annabel." He turns and looks over his shoulder at Emily, who's standing, not sure as to what she should be doing. "How is your leg, though? You did seem to make it all right."

"It's fine," she says slowly. "Donnie thinks I sprained my knee and bruised everything else, but he's sure it's nothing too serious."

He nods, seemingly satisfied. "Now." He sits on the hard ground. "Down to business." He addresses Emily, "You can sit, or you can stand. Makes no difference to me. We're using this building just for the moment, so I'm afraid there are no proper furnishings."

Seeing Annabel already on the ground, cross legged next to her master, she slowly lowers herself to the floor.

"First things first: Did Donatello administer the drug to Leonardo?"

"Yes," Emily runs a hand through her hair. "But he hasn't woken up."

"It was strong," the child says, looking slightly abashed. "The sleep I put him under. He won't wake up unless I'm there to do it."

"That's what we thought."

Annabel's about to reply when the man cuts across her. "So i suppose you're wondering what it is that I want with you."

"Something like that."

"Well, it's rather simple really."

Much to Emily's annoyance, he doesn't comment further, so she asks, "And why is that?"

He smiles a wiry smile. "Because we want the same thing."

Emily raises an eyebrow. "Than what is it that I want?"

"Revenge." He says it so matter of fact, as if discussing what it was she wanted for Christmas.

Her brow constricts to one hard line. "I don't think so." she says. "I've already had someone suggest the possibility of that, and it's not an option."

Now it's the man's turn to raise an eyebrow. "And why is that?" He seems amused again.

"It's weak. An action born from anger and vengeance." She ran a hand through her hair again. "Yes, the Dream Sequence Project put me through a lot of pain. I would love nothing more than to rip them limb from limb for what they did to David and Rebecca."

"But?" the young man probes, laughter dancing in his eyes, making them glow.

"But it would cause more hurt than it would solve," she says, evenly. Defiantly. "There are too many people to think about."

The man looks impressed. "It seems I've underestimated you." He stands, and while rubbing his chin, begins to pace. "Than if it is not revenge that drives you, as it is with me, how about help? Just plain, simple help. Assistance, really. No strings attached."

Emily draws a blank expression on her face. "And why would you want help from me?"

"Because you possess the exact thing I need."

"What could that possibly be?"

He stops pacing. "There are things you have yet to discover." He looks at her closely, calculating. Slowly he sits back down. "I was admitted into the project only a couple of months before you. When Rebecca sprung you free, as I'm sure you already know, she went back."

"She got you out too?"

He nods. For the fist time in Emily's memory, he looks sad, almost remorseful. "She did save me."

A cold draft passes through the building. Emily pulls her coat tighter against her. "Aren't you cold?" she asks. She wants to change the subject; the look on his face unnerves her.

The man shakes his head. "No, no. I'm perfectly all right." He's wearing his usual outfit of black shorts and a bare chest.

"Now, where was I?" He looks up at the ceiling, as if the answer was painted there. "Ah, yes. As I've said before, I wasn't quite as lucky as you. What the doctors had done became permanent. Even if it hadn't, I wasn't willing to take the risk.

"Once I was out, Rebecca still didn't leave. It turned out to be a big mistake."

"He found out. The creator."

He nods. "Except it wasn't -" He stops talking abruptly.

Annabel picks up on something. "Master?" she asks, getting to her feet.

Her master pinches the bridge of his nose. "How could I have been so stupid?" he says barely audible. "Annabel, would you kindly take Emily home?" He looks at the girl, and she nods solemnly. "I'm so sorry, Emily, but it seems time is never on our side. Annabel will go with you and tell you everything you'd like to know. Now don't give me that look - she's very well informed."

He stands now, and offers a hand to the young girl still sitting on the hard ground.

"We'll meet again," he says, now shaking the hand he still grasps. "Don't you worry about that."

Just as Emily opens her mouth to say something, possibly a farewell, or a thank you, she hears the door creak open, and sees Annabel waving her over.

"Goodbye, Master," the child says, her gray eyes meeting those of the man's.

He nods. "Keep safe."

She offers on last desperate look to the man before her. She closes the door and than disappears into the night.

The man draws a breath. Let's it loose.

"Keep safe."

~*~

They're walking swiftly through the crisp air. They haven't been walking long. Mere minutes, perhaps. Annabel has insisted on taking an indirect route back to the lair.

"Master told me to lead you home," she had said. "That's what I intend to do." She wouldn't let Emily go to the sewers, or on the rooftops. So they walked the streets, seemingly taking their time getting home.

"Are you going to tell me everything I want to know?" Emily asks finally.

"That would depend on if you ask the right questions."

"And if I don't?"

"Well, than I can't tell you everything, now can I?" she snaps. Her manor has changed. Where is the cheer, the ever-present optimism, Emily thought. Who is this girl before me?

What she said was, "Than how about you just tell me everything you know period, so I don't make that mistake."

The girl stops walking. She had been leading at a brisk pace, but now she pauses. She bows her head in defeat.

"And what do you want to know? You'll still have to ask questions, you silly girl." Her voice is higher than usual, and she still doesn't turn around.

"What happened to Rebecca? What really happened?"

"They found out what she had done." She sighs. "Instead of putting her through what we went through, she was just put under L-M10. She was told to find you. It took awhile."

"Yeah it did." She walks up to the girl and puts her arm around her. Annabel looks up into Emily's soft blue eyes. At Emily's persistence, they continue walking.

"It was him," Annabel says after a dozen steps. "It was Master who saved you that night."

This time Emily stops. "What?"

"Remember the broken window and the person who had broken it? The night Rebecca came. Don't you remember? He saved you from her." She says it all very fast. Her face is pleading.

"I remember," Emily says quietly.

"David died, he told me, begging him to take care of you. You were out cold, but -"

"Stop." Emily's voice was quiet, but it had a certain strength behind it. "Please, just stop."

"Master called Helen," the child said after a slight pause. "Told her everything. She came home, called the police. Made up a story about a robbery. She was a very strong lady. Master liked that."

She looks down. As if on instinct, she wraps her arms around Emily's waist and buries her face in her stomach. "Helen contacted him when she sent you here." says her somewhat muffled voice. "She had this feeling that somebody was following you. She was afraid the people from the project had come back, so she sent you to Casey Jones. Master followed." She withdraws herself. "He really did like your mother. She was so strong. So smart.

Emily brushes the girl's hair out of her face. "She was." She turned to look at the sky. She couldn't see the stars. She couldn't see the moon. "You have a lot to tell me. But for right now, let's go home."

The child nods. Her white-blond hair glows in the dark. Who needs the moon when they had that? "Let's go wake up Leonardo."

~*~