I don't own the turtles or Splinter/Yoshi, but I did create most of the rest of the characters seen here.

Rin ran up the ladder to the surface. She popped the lid off the manhole and tossed it away. There was no reason to be quiet while trailing blood. She glanced around at what had to be the emptiest alleyway in New York City. Bricks and asphalt, she couldn't stop to pry apart to make into weapons, were all she saw at a glance.

She looked to the manhole cover. She lifted with her legs. The injured one could keep her from being quick and strong enough to use it effectively.

She turned and ran down the alley and up a fire escape. Her pursuer's head emerged from the manhole below as she ascended. She ran across several rooftops picking out the shortest jumps. Some were more like large steps. She left a clear trail even if she managed to be out of eyesight at times. Gordy's long, uninjured legs caught up.

Rin felt her shoulder grabbed. Her body was spun around. Her fist lashed out. Her arm was grabbed. He shoved it aside before the hand holding her shoulder moved to her throat.

Panic began to claw up from her stomach to her brain. She stared into a grinning if dirty face. Clear, cold eyes cut into hers. "Give it up, Rin. Take it like an Association-student!"

She gazed back and began to melt in his grip.

. . .

"Are you proud of me?" She sat slumped at the bar in a room high above the streets. Several groups of smiling, chatting people stood silhouetted before wall to ceiling windows overlooking the city. Everyone within those gleaming buildings outside had reason to be terrified of every person in the room. If anyone decided they wanted anyone outside of this room gone permanently and would pay enough for it to be made so anyone in this room could make it happen. That was their code. Most there were proud of it.

Despite knowing that, and feeling so cold at the knowledge, she longed to shiver, Rin also longed deep in her gut to have the approval of the woman sitting next. She knew, though, the woman might be the worst of them all. Just now, that woman nodded down the bar. "Look over there, my student."

Rin did so with just her eyes. The Association's American sensei and student sat several stools down heads close together talking and laughing loudly. They might have had too much to defend themselves well. However, they had several, sober, security guards standing in strategic places around the room like statues and a practical army waiting back in their own country ready to avenge them if they fell because someone here decided to try to get their territory. Even members of the Association only wanted to invite so much trouble. The American sensei seemed to have found a way to be safe and have fun too.

The old man, overweight with greying hair beneath a big, cream hat laughed aloud so you could see where his tongue was attached in his mouth. He was doing so at the joke the younger, taller, and certainly fitter man wearing a black hat had told him leaning over nearly double to do so. Rin's eyes brightened at the sight.

Her mistress sniffed. "He spoils his student. The young boy thinks himself his family."

Rin lifted her glass and took a sip of the liquid inside. She tried to keep her face neutral. She gave up not only having her question answered, but having it acknowledged. Her mistress went on. "He will be weak if he has to put his spoiled student down."

A mumbled reply came from Rin's mouth before she registered it. She must have drunk too much. "He's too good to be put down …"

Alarm shot through her brain clearing the fog. She gulped. Oh no, she had said that out loud … Why? She shut her eyes, clenched her teeth, and bowed her head. But her sensei's voice sounded smooth and almost musical in reply.

"And what if he goes feral? Hmmm?"

Rin turned a slight glance upon the woman beside her. She was not to be punished? And that was what her sensei had meant?

The woman gave her a cold smile in response to the questioning expression. "I think the American student's temperament far more likely to produce a feral response to this business than yours. Whatever else the others around us can say about you, they cannot say you are not skilled or that you show signs of being 'feral.' I can control you and you execute my orders with excellence. You know your place and show no signs of taking things into your own hands ever."

Rin stared into her sensei's face. Did she just give her a compliment? This was her answer to her question earlier. Rin wasn't sure how she felt about it.

Her mistress continued. "I chose you, Rin, for your intelligence, athleticism, and strength. That man …" She nodded toward the American in the white hat. The older woman's eyes narrowed, "Partially choose his, it seems likely, because he thinks the man makes a good drinking buddy. His liking him will make him blind to other flaws the boy has."

She then looked back to Rin and grinned. She finished sharing her thoughts with her student while wearing a cold smile that gave the illusion of sharp teeth. "I am proud of myself."

Cold went down Rin's back. An inner instinct asked her to shiver. She gave her neutral expression back to her sensei instead and kept still and lax instead. Then she looked back at the Americans and took a small sip from her glass. She'd gladly trade places with either of them.

. . .

Rin wilted slightly at the memory. She tried to find a reason to fight for herself. She struggled against the oxygen deprived panic filling her mind to process memories and information properly now.

Her family … had missed her so long ... it'd be cruel to go back … They'd all moved on. Why should she go back to them?

Her mistress … was dead. She would have run as far away as she could have from her otherwise. She didn't even want to think of her in her last moments.

Saki … was a monster.

Yoshi … still hated her …

The turtle babies … would hate her, when they grew up and heard and understood their father's story about her.

Mrs. Winters … would hate her if she knew the truth about her as would the woman's husband.

Instead of sobbing at the realization she had nothing to fight for, Rin froze up. She would not be weak. Her mistress had taught her, when she was at her most distressed to become cold, hard, and brittle. Show no softness no panic. You are not a damsel in distress. You are a warrior. If you fail, you will not flinch at the consequences rightly given to you then.

Her eyes focused on Gordy's face curious about his reaction to her lack of one. Would she see respect? Would she see confusion or amazement?

His face was flush, eyes bright, almost feverish looking as they stared lidless into hers. The corners of his mouth had curled up. HIs lips were peeled open showing his teeth. He looked like a shark … like …

Rin saw her sensei watching her win against other students, cutting down with words (if not blades) her competition for most effective sensei when they were alone. Her sensei had warned or dismissed or hissed about the others failures when she sent her to take care of another sensei's wayward student … Her sensei had been addicted to power, competition, and winning if not killing itself … She was .. had been ... feral ... in that way.

But the man before her now … Rin narrowed her eyes up at the man who was grinning back at her. She wheezed, "You've … gone … feral ..."

Gordy's eyes narrowed. His grip tightened. He pushed her back against a wall. The blow stung her head. Rage flashed through her.

Did his sensei know about this? He had to suspect, didn't he? If he did …

Rin froze again. She had always defeated him at the meetings of their sensei where his long legs meant less fighting in a ring or circle of sand rather than running through New York City. One assassin student was sent after another within the association if their victory was certain over the target … or … because their sensei wanted to get rid of them without doing it themselves … because they doubted their student or themselves or both.

Rin's fingernails dug into Gordy's skin. His face changed above hers. His mouth dropped open. His eyes widened. She dug more deeply into and peeled his fingers away with hers. Then she thrust him back from her.

When he was dislodged, she took a deep breath. Rin watched him stare back at her while processing this turn of events. He must also be thinking of how to work within the new parameters of his injured hands.

Rin took in another deep breath. Then she gave a literally still strangled shout through the bruising to her throat "You had everything!"

Rin swept blood-tipped nails at Gordy's face. He pulled away from every swipe, but she scored a few streaks to his cheeks. Getting tired of his evasion, she kicked out. "Everything!"

He dodged again and stared back at her a moment. Then his face went red. He rushed her.

She jumped away and over the side of the building landing on the fire escape she'd seen was there. She'd done so automatically. Then she remembered she didn't want to run away from him. She was furious with him. But it was too late.

She now had her back facing his direction ... up. He could drop onto her. She slid under the handrail and hung down from the walkway with her blood-stained hands. She felt him land heavily on the same walkway. She looked upward.

He rushed to the handrail above her. The adrenaline either made him forget his hands' injuries or rendered their pain moot. He reached out to grasp the handrail with them both. At the force of his momentum, the bar gave way.

He flew right over her head. His own arced down so he more dove than fell past her. She heard a dumpster rattle and then something crack against pavement …

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes