Disclaimer: I don't own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, her Token, and the stroy line to this fic.

XIV

Leonardo and Donatello met up with Raphael and Michelangelo outside Macy's. Michelangelo was laden with heavy shopping bags guaranteeing lots of great gifts. Raphael, on the other hand, held only two or three small plastic bags. His face was not exactly beaming with Christmas cheer.

"You know, I'm starting to agree with the monkey-girl that humans are stupid. I mean, Christmas is one of the dumbest holidays ever created," Raph grumbled as Leo and Donnie walked up.

"Oh, come on Raph," Mikey said. "Where's your holiday spirit?"

"You got a double portion when they were handing it out, Mike," Raph snapped. "Someone had to go without."

"You're such a Martyr," Leo answered, rolling his eyes. "You guys done for now? Good. Let's head back. Splinter will start to worry."

They began the trek back to their underground home. On the way, Mikey reached into one of his bags and pulled out a small box. "I thought we oughta get something for Sasha," he said. "I mean, it is Christmas, and who else would give her a present? So I got her this. You guys can put your names on the card too, if you want."

He handed the box over to Leo who opened it. Inside was a necklace with a silver angel on it. "Why'd you get her this, Mikey?" he asked, showing the necklace to Don and Raph.

"Well, I thought it might look good with her Token. You know, they're both silver, they'd go together. Also, she's really pretty, kind of like an angel, you know? I thought it'd be a good present for her."

Donnie gave his younger brother a pat on the head. "How cute. Mikey has a crush."

"I do not Dude!"

Donnie grinned. "Then why did you sleep on her bed the other night?"

"Huh? Oh, I just fell asleep there. It's not like we did anything."

"Sure you didn't."

Mikey blushed and said nothing else.

"It's cool, Mikey," Leo said with a smile, putting his arm over Mikey's shoulders. "It's a good gift. I'm sure she'll like it."

They had come to the door to the lair. Donnie placed his hand on the doorknob, only to have the door yanked open by someone on the other side.

To the turtles' surprise, Sasha was standing at the door, holding a newspaper in her hand.

"Geez, give a guy a heart attack," Donatello said, walking in past Sasha.

"What, you missed us so much you waited by the door all evening?" Raph sneered as he came in.

Sasha threw him a dirty look and held up the newspaper to his face. It had been folded to a story on the inside. The picture that went along with the story was of some sort of large satchel or duffel bag. The headline read "Bag Found Along Public Beach". Raph skimmed the article. Apparently the bag had washed up on to the a public beach in a NYC police precinct, and was found to contain cloths, a large metal cylinder with strange writing on it, and a saber.

"What the hell is a saber?" Raph snorted as Leo took the paper from Sasha and read it.

"It's a type of sword," Donatello told him.

"Ah." Raph turned back to Sasha. "And we care about this because...?"

"Because it's mine," Sasha answered.

Leo looked up from the article. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. And I need it."

"How can you be sure?"

Sasha rolled her eyes. "Hello? Where have you been the past few days? I fight with a saber, and the writing on the cylinder probably matches my Token."

"Are you positive it's yours?" Leo pressed, a frown coming over his face.

"Yes! I might not have a memory, but I can recognize something that belongs to me."

"Cool!" Mikey grinned at Sasha. "You're starting to remember that you own stuff."

Sasha humored him with a grin, and then turned to Leo. "So, where's the precinct so we can go get it?"

"Go get it?" Leo repeated. "Did you call the police station and tell them you wanted to claim it?"

"Are you kidding?" Sasha said with a laugh. "There's no way they'd let anyone claim it. Didn't you read the article? They've confiscated it. Something about an unregistered weapon, and the writing on the cylinder matching the writing on some stolen artifact..."

"Then how are we supposed to get it?" Leo asked.

"Simple," Sasha said with a shrug. "We sneak in, get it, and sneak out. No one'll be the wiser."

"No," came Leo's short and determined response. "We are not stealing from the police."

"It's not stealing," Sasha replied. "It's just recovering what I've lost."

"No."

Sasha scowled. "Fine then, I'll find go get it myself."

"No." A dangerous tone had come to Leo's voice. He couldn't believe this! She was acting so much like Raphael. What she was suggesting was too big of a risk.

"Why not?" Sasha asked. She couldn't believe this! He was acting like her parent. What he didn't understand was that the bag was hers.

"Sasha, listen to me," Leo said calmly, but still with the dangerous edge to his voice. "I know you want your duffel bag, I know you want your belongings," Leo said quietly. "But the Foot is after you. If you go out there, they might find you and then who knows what they'd do to you. And if you were caught breaking into the police station, what do you think the humans would do with you? They'd probably lock you up, if not shoot you on sight. And if the humans got you...well, look at yourself. You're not human! They'd lock you up on the soul reason that you're different!"

Sasha's eyes flared red. "You can't keep me from going," she hissed, taking a step towards Leo.

"I can, and I will. We'll take turns guarding the door tonight, making sure you don't get out. And even if you do get out, you'll trip just about every alarm we have down here in the tunnels. You can be mad at me if you want, but that's the way things have to be. You have to realize that this is for your own good."

Sasha narrowed her eyes, but said nothing else. The argument was over, and for the time being Leo had won. He turned and left the room, followed by Donnie. When he was gone, Sasha's eyes snapped back to blue and she sank to the floor with a defeated look on her face. She stared down at the article in her hands, silently praying that she'd find a way to get her things back.

Raph looked down at her. "Listen, kid, I'm gonna make something plain to you. I might get in fights with Leo a lot, but that don't mean I ain't loyal. You get in his face again, and I'm going to have to do something about it." He squatted down beside the girl and dropped his voice. "But you know, I do agree with you on one point. It is yours, and you should be allowed to get it back."

Sasha looked up at him. "Yeah, but how am I supposed to get it if you guys are guarding my every move?" she asked.

Raph smirked. "Just cause I'm loyal to Leo doesn't mean I follow his every command."

Sasha raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"Don't worry 'bout it kid." He looked up to see Donnie coming in the room. "What's up, Don?"

"Well, I got a reply to that post I put online about Sasha's necklace. I think it might be pretty accurate. Do you want to come take a look at it Sasha?" Donatello held out an inviting hand.

Sasha nodded and stood up, casting another questioning look to Raph.

"Go on, kid," Raph told her. "I've got everything covered. Don't worry 'bout it."

"Does any of what Professor Gotee said make sense to you Sasha?" Donatello asked Sasha after giving her a few minutes to read the e-mail.

A small smile was playing at the corners of her mouth. "Maybe humans aren't totally stupid," she murmured. She taped the screen over the word "Sashitaka". "That's the name humans call me most of the time...He calls the language Seraphimian? Seraphim are a type of angels, so it makes sense. But I'm not sure about the "releaser of many souls" part. I know how to fight, but I don't think I've ever killed anybody."

"You sure seem able to, though," Leonardo said.

She shrugged. "Just cause I'm able to doesn't mean I do it"

"I hope you follow your own philosophy tonight," Leonardo replied, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I'm not going to sneak out," Sasha snapped. "I'm not stupid enough to risk being kicked out of here. I might need my stuff, but it can wait...I guess."