Leo's eyelids fluttered. The dream he was in had suddenly stopped, and he could now hear a slow beeping. It reminded him of a hospital, of the heart rate monitors they hooked up to people. He could also hear anxious breathing, and the presence of someone standing over him.

Opening his eyes, he saw a silver-haired child with deep, grey eyes standing over him. She blinked. A smile was creeping onto her face. "Welcome back," she whispered.

"Annabel," he said without thinking. That was the child's name, wasn't it? Annabel?

"Leonardo," said a voice from the doorway. Turning, he saw Splinter, looking even happier than the girl.

"Father," Leo said in acknowledgement. Master Splinter walked over and hugged his son. Leo's eyes wander over the crowded room and come to rest on Donatello. Though he looked better than he had the night Leo was recovered, he was still littered with nasty bruising. "I'm sorry Donnie," Leo whispers. "I didn't mean to cause so much damage."

Donnie looks surprised. For a moment, he doesn't say anything, but Leo looks so remorseful, so apologetic. "Don't worry about it, bro. I've been through worse."

Annabel had taken a few steps back to get out of Splinter's way. Raph reaches over and puts his hand on her head. "Thanks, kid," he says. She looks up at him and nods. Her job completed, she inches out of the room.

The only one looking uncomfortable is Mikey. "Uhm, Donnie?" he whispers loudly. "What's wrong with Leo?"

Donnie looks at his younger brother. "What do you mean?"

"Well," he shuffles awkwardly. "it's just…" He trails off, looking at Donnie helplessly. His eyes dart to Leo, who looks confused.

"I get it," says Raph, when Donnie still doesn't understand. "It's the eyes, Donnie. Leo's eyes are the wrong color."

Everyone turned to look at Leo. "Oh," Donnie rubs the back of his neck, smiling as he does so. "Is that all it is?"

Mikey is incredulous. "'Is that all'?" He stares unbelieving at his brothers. Donnie is still smiling, and Raph just rolls his eyes. "It's weird."

"What's wrong with my eyes?" Leo asks.

Donnie looks around his lab, looking for a hand mirror. He finds one amidst the clutter, and hands it to his brother.

Leo's eye ridge rises as he studies his reflection. "You can still see, right?" Mikey asks. He's persistent. "I mean, you're not color blind?"

Leo's still staring into the mirror. "No, I can see just fine," he reassures him. "I have to admit, it is quite alarming though." His eyes had once been a creamy, chocolate color. Now, they were void of all color, just a tasteless grey.

"I expected it, honestly," says Donnie quietly. "It does make sense, when you think about it." Raph nods his agreement. "The girl – Annabel – her eyes are that exact shade of grey. I would bet anything the man's eyes look like that, too."

Mikey shook his head. "It's weird."

Raph smacks him on the back of his head. "Just be grateful he's awake."

"Does this mean the program was experimenting on Leonardo?" asks Splinter quietly.

"No, I don't think it does," Donnie was looking at his father thoughtfully. "If that were the case, Emily would surely have grey eyes too, but she doesn't. Her eyes are blue." He looks at his brother, who is still lying down, and says, "I think it only means that Annabel and her master were given L-M10, as Leo was."

Leo frowned. "It's not a very pleasant experience."

Donnie smiled sadly. "No, I don't expect it is." he walks over to his brother and disconnects him from all the monitors. "I'd suggest you get some rest, but I think you've had enough of that to last for awhile."

Leo smiles too, finally home.

~*~

Annabel came into the living room to see Emily and Casey talking quietly together. Curious, she walks out sits down on the floor in front of the couch. Emily was doing most of the talking. Casey just looked surprised.

"I didn't mean to deceive you, honestly, I didn't," her face is flushed, and she kept brushing her curly hair out of her face. "its just, I didn't really think it was such a big deal, since I was adopted. And, well, I didn't expect any of this to happen, so I thought that it wouldn't be a problem if I never told you." Emily says all of this very quickly, obviously worried about how Casey would take all this.

After a short pause (which probably didn't do a thing for Emily's nerves) Casey says, "So your birth mother is alive?" She nods. "Is there a chance she'll want you back?"

Emily blinks. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not." Was he telling her he didn't want her?

The man frowns. "Hmm." He leans back into the couch, thinking.

"Casey?" She asks, looking worried.

He looks over at her, and smiles. "Hey, Em, don't look so worried. I'm not gonna send you away." He puts his arm around her shoulder. "David loved you. That's good enough for me."

Emily sinks into him. "Yeah," she whispers. She should have known better for worrying.

"I just want to make sure this mother of yours is nicer than Helen."

Emily smiles. "Helen was nice. She just didn't like you."

"Right, well let's hope Isabel does."

"I wouldn't count on that." They both jump. Mikey had come out as well, and was now standing next to Annabel.

"What do you mean?" asks Emily.

Mikey sighs, and looks back to where his brothers and father were. "Well, Leo has news." He looked carefully at Emily. "Bad news."

"Oh."

"He wants to tell you personally." Mikey now looks at the girl beside him. "And he needs Annabel to explain the things he doesn't understand."

Casey nods. "We'll be right there." He and Emily stand up and follow Mikey into the lab.

Annabel bounces up beside them. "I'm sorry, Mr. Jones," she says finally able to apologize for the trouble she had caused. "It's just that you were in the way."

"Annabel," Emily scolds.

"What? He was."

The corner of Casey's mouth twitch. "It's alright, kid. I forgive you. And call me Casey," he adds as an afterthought.

She nods, and leads the way into the lab.

"Leo," Emily smiles the minute she sees him. She runs over and gives him a big hug. "It's good to see you're finally awake."

"And it's good to see you're alright," he smiles too, relieved. "I'm sorry about scaring you." He looks down. "I'm sorry about David's headstone, too."

Not expecting an apology quite like that, Emily shrugs. "It's fine, Leo. Don't worry about it." A thought comes to her suddenly. "Wait – you remember breaking the headstone?"

Leo nods. "I remember everything. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." He grows business-like, wanting to waste no time. "I've already told some of it to my brothers. I figured you should hear it too.

"Of course," said Emily, breathless.

"You might as well start with the night you were taken," says Raph from the corner. "No point confusing us too soon."

Leo nods. "As you know, I went looking for you, to bring you back after you left when you found out about the doctor's death. We all knew where you would go, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find you.

"I made it to the graveyard gates when I could feel a presence behind me. I turned, and while I couldn't see clearly, I could make out a silhouette.

I opened my mouth, to say what, I'm not sure, when I felt someone else behind me." Here Leo pauses. "I'm not sure what happened next," he said hesitantly. "All I know is someone jabbed me from behind, and I was on the ground, conscience, but paralyzed."

"Was it a drug?" Casey asked. "Maybe it was a shot."

"It probably wasn't," Emily interrupts, "I mean, it was the Dream Sequence who took him. It was probably a power someone had."

Leo nods. "Exactly. The two stood over me for a moment, when one of them told the other to take me back to the base."

"The base?" says Emily. "You mean the hospital?"

Leo shrugs. "Were they took me sure didn't look like a hospital to me. But anyway, he told the first unknown to take me away, while he would get you."

Emily nods. So she was the intended target that night. Like that was a surprise.

"As you can imagine, I got a little worried. We're supposed to keep you safe, after all. But from the corner of my eye, I saw yellow eyes glaring at us in the darkness. They grew closer, and I could make out a cat. I recognized him as the one that had caused you so much trouble, Emily."

"You mean Master?" asks Annabel, stunned. "I didn't know he was there that night."

Leo nods. "He came out of nowhere and turned into a dog. It was a Doberman, I believe. Real mean, too. Attacked whomever it was that was giving the orders. Sure gave me a shock." He closes his eyes, remembering. "The dog attacked, and the man fell down. He wasn't too happy, but he wasn't very surprised, either. He yelled to the other guy that was there to take me away."

"So he did," says Emily softly.

"So he did," agrees Leo. "He reached out and placed his hand on my chest. I felt a warm sensation, like he had just poured hot water on me. Before I knew it, we were inside a building. That's when I saw that the person standing over me was really a woman. She had straight red hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and a long nose. Her eyes were gray and vacant."

"That was Ashley," Annabel says quietly. "She can teleport."

"As soon as she got me there, she let go and disappeared. A moment later, she reappeared, but with a man. He wasn't very tall, had a buzz cut, and he didn't look happy. His leg was bleeding. When he looked at me, I saw he had green eyes."

"And that's Jackson," Annabel says. "They're a team, sort of."

"How come he didn't have grey eyes, too?" asks Donnie looking from Annabel to Leo.

"Because he didn't need to be controlled," said the child quickly. "He was always willing to follow any orders given, even though he would much rather be the one giving them."

Leo nods. "He told the women – Ashley, you said? – to take me to the boss. He said that even if that renegade punk had stopped them from getting to Emily, they could at least give me to the boss, to make up for it.

"When she didn't move, he yelled at her to go get her."

"Wait," said Emily. "You said the boss was a women?"

"Yeah," said Leo. "When she came back, with the boss right behind her, I got a good look at her face when she leaned down to inspect me."

Emily suddenly had a very ominous feeling. "And who was it?"

"It was your mother, Isabel."

~*~