"Wake up, love birds."

Fae stirred, her arms seemingly pinned to her sides, her side still aching, multiple points in her body pounding. But she was happier than she'd been in a long while. She was greeted by the sight of Raph glowering at her.

"Get a room, why don't cha?" he mumbled with a smug smirk, his eyes flicking to something — no, someone — next to her. She realized her arms were being pressed against a smooth plastron.

Leo blinked his eyes open, not registering Raphael above him and grinning at Fae. "Morning."

Before she could intervene, his lips were pressed against hers in a morning salutation, filling her up with enough euphoria to last a lifetime.

"Eww, gross!" another voice cried, making Leo jolt back and turn his head to scowl at Mikey. "When did they start kissing?" The youngest brother asked, wrinkling his nose like the thought of PDA was impure.

Leo had fallen asleep beside her on the laboratory cot, she remembered. She smiled faintly, glancing over at her flustered — boyfriend? Yes, boyfriend now, she supposed, her heart fluttering at the notion that they were together in a more-than-friends sense.

"Some privacy would've been nice guys," Leo grumbled, sitting up and carefully uncurling his arms from around her to arrange the pillows in a comfortable half-sitting position for her.

"Technically, you're invading my privacy," Donnie corrected, eyes flicking over one of the monitors on his desk, "This is my lab, you know."

"Yeah, dudes," Mikey chimed in with a cheeky grin, "Your smooching needs to be taken elsewhere! You think Donnie wants to see acts of love right now?"

It was meant to be a joke, but everyone in the room visibly stiffened. Donnie didn't look up, but his eyes weren't darting across the screen anymore. They were distant, unfocused... depressed.

"Thank you for that gracious reminder, Mikey," he said so deadpan one might've thought his brain had been replaced with robotic circuiting.

"Oh, dude, I didn't... I mean, I wasn't... I shouldn't have..." Michelangelo hung his head, his hands clasped behind his back now in contrition.

The silence was nearly unbearable. Donatello was the one who finally broke it. "I don't need my personal life projected out here for all of you to see. So wisecracks are unappreciated. And anyway, we have this prophecy to decipher."

'Prophecy' caught Faline's attention. She blinked over at the genius. "Come again?"

Donnie stood and walked over, a manila folder clutched in one hand, the brass cylinder from the docks in his other. He set the scroll in her lap without a second glance, more interested in the contents of the papers than the prophecy it seemed. "Care to do the honors?"

She knew she didn't need the oxygen mask any longer, but suddenly Fae was wishing she had assistance in her inhalations were sharp, uneven with apprehension. This prophecy that Karai had been willing to be kidnapped for, that Shredder had been willing to kill for, and that the one boy she cared the most about could've died for, was resting in its brass holder on her lap.

Lives had been risked to retrieve this. Was is possible the scroll would determine the fates of those lives? Was this prophecy going to spell out a legacy she couldn't possibly be responsible for? Faline gulped, wishing she wasn't the one the words inside had been written for. Here she was, escaping a life that had been spelled out for her as ongoing misery, as a slave to someone she should've loved. And now she was facing this prophecy, about to give her another itinerary to live by. Who was to say this wouldn't be as dreary and depressing a prediction as her previous live had been?

"This doesn't define you."

Faline turned, catching Leo's gaze.

"You know that," he continued, his eyes unwavering, comforting. A stronghold in this sea of chaos.

And then she was calm. Faline breathed deeply, scooping up the container, weighing it in her hands for a moment.

This doesn't define me.

She unscrewed the cap, delicately extracting the rolled up parchment within, yellowed with age, edges wrinkled and torn.

Fae cradled it carefully, feeling it would crumble to dust if she handled it too harshly. Delicately, she unwound the tight roll, the words on the paper black as night against their powdery background. Asian, she realized, recognizing the kanjis and reading aloud:

"When dire is the fate of the pure clan's lives,

Four souls rise up to bring Saki's demise,

The soul of the leopard, with eyes of sky blue,

Searching for hope, with one dream to pursue,

The soul of the owl, hair dark as night,

Without chains, not free, about to take flight,

The soul of the fox, with heritage vile,

Overcomes the past, or is overcome by the wild,

The soul of the wolf, heart and mind ice cold

Loves the unlikely, who softens her world."

"Dude," Mikey mumbled, the only word he seemed to think up to convey his massive intrigue.

"What does it mean?" Raph asked.

"It's a prophecy, not a playbook on the future," Fae quipped rather shortly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raph asked, tone warning.

"Prophecies aren't meant to give people a play-by-play. They just tell you how things turn out, and give you clues about what will happen," she met the four turtles' eyes individually, "and if I've learned anything from the myths I've read over the years, these things can't be changed either. If you try to change them, you make things worse. For everyone."

"Well, we know the leopard stanza is centered around you," Donnie pointed out, "You've got blue eyes, you want to see the world — that's your dream — and—"

"I was searching for hope for a while," she finished for him, not needing to look at Leo to know he was grinning subtly, "and I found it."

"...Okay," Raph drawled, hasty to get to the point, "So what are these other lines about?"

"If the leopard defines what form Fae shaped into, I'm guessing the animals each identify the next Freeformer." Donnie trailed off, becoming engrossed in thought and then searching the papers in his hand.

"Freeformer?" Faline questioned.

"Oh yeah, you weren't there, were you?" Mikey realized, "That's what Karai called you, when she warned us about what was gonna happen with your powers. Pretty good name. I mean, I would've called you a Super Rad Transforming Cat Girl, but Freeformer is a close second."

Fae chuckled, her eyes pulled back to Donnie when he mumbled out, "Is there any name mentioned on there?"

"Umm," Fae checked over the page, "Got it! Looks like it's Ōkami Yamada."

D nodded to himself. "All these papers seem like... entries. From a journal, or a diary of some sort," he reflected, "They keep mentioning Ōkami Yamada. A... fox witch? My Japanese is a little rusty."

"Mine is good," she offered, "Pass them to me."

Faline scooped up the hackneyed bunch of writings, shuffling through them, the elegant Asian scrawl a comforting reminder of when she'd learned the language.

Mom was right. I missed a lot of the good stuff, shutting everything out.

"Whoever it is, they're confessing," she determined after a while, "Some guy — a leader of a clan, it says here — he had a son. No, two sons. He adopted one. Wait, he had a daughter too. Oh... oh." Faline glanced up, eyes glimmering with juicy gossip. "He had an affair."

"Oh snap," Mikey whispered, eyes wide like a child being handed candy, "Tell us more!"

Fae giggled, her own laughter earning a small chuckle from Leo as she continued. "He had a daughter with a... a sorceress, or a magician. Some woman educated in mystical arts."

Donatello snorted at that, the idea of mystical magic mumbo jumbo making him scoff.

"Anyway, this daughter... Ōkami," Fae mumbled, flipping through the pages hastily, "She fell in love with the adopted brother, who wasn't actually related to her, but she didn't know that, but it was still unlawful, and he was in love with... I can't make out the name. Something 'Shen', and the handwriting is too scribbly for me to make out."

The brothers tensed, and Leo's head whipped to look at her.

"Shen? Like Tang Shen?" he croaked.

"Erm...yeah, actually. Tang Shen, that's it!"

"Hang on a sec," Raph asked, "So... if Tang Shen was the woman the adopted brother fell for—"

"Then the adopted brother is Shredder!" Donnie continued, his face paling, "Which means the biological son was—"

"Master Splinter!" Mikey cried, holding his head in his hands, "So that means that if Splinter's dad canoodled with a fox witch dudette—"

"Do not refer to relations between a witch and our Hamato Yutan, one of the greatest masters of all-time, as 'canoodling'. Please, it gives me the creeps," Leo groaned, rubbing his temples.

"But if Yutan had an affair," Fae said quietly, "Then that would make Ōkami..."

"Sensei has a sister?" Mikey breathed.

"Faline Derrickson."

"Who...who are you? How do you know my name? Where am I?"

"Calm down, child. I've entered your dream realm in order to communicate."

"Why are you glowing? How are you talking? Your lips aren't moving."

"So many questions. I understand. In time they will all be answered. I am the one called Ōkami."

"You?! You're the one who wrote the prophecy! You... you made me this way."

"Are you accusing me of effecting your life negatively with my gift of your feline transformations?"

"I... no. But this all very—"

"Confusing, I know. For now I need you to listen. Find Vienna Bardi. She is the next addition to the team."

"Vienna? She's gonna be the next one? The next Freeformer?"

"Yes... and if Donatello was the one to find her, that would be optimal."

"Donnie? Why would Donnie need to—"

"He needs a friend."

"...could she be more than a—"

"You jump to conclusions too much."

"Hey, I'm not the one who's written a prophecy."

Faline jolted awake, her side stinging painfully. Leonardo started, setting down his book to grab hold of her arm and steady her. "Fae? What happened?"

She sat up uncomfortably, processing what had just happened. "Get the guys. We need to talk."