Rene – Yeah, Venus is Mary Sueish, but she's always been a bit like that (and some TMNT fans will insist that she is a Mary Sue even though I feel that she's a bit too thick in the head to be one). In the second episode she did manage to defeat all four of the boys and hang them by their feet from the ceiling, and later on she single-handedly destroyed the Shredder. So if she was that powerful to start off with, then I can only predict that later on she would surpass the boys' talents completely. But don't worry, I plan to tone her down as the fic progresses.

Chapter Two: Gluttony.

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat – Socrates.

"My arm's really killing me," Michelangelo whispered his discomfort to Donatello. The turtles turned around to see if Eve had heard that last comment or whether she was upset about it, but she seemed to be keeping her distance from them.

"Don't worry. We're almost home," Donatello said, though he directed the comment to both Eve and Mikey. The orange-wearing turtle nodded in response, and tried to subtly compress his bleeding wound with his spare hand. Naturally he was annoyed, though he blamed himself for not blocking her strike more than blaming Eve herself. The girl intrigued him in ways that he couldn't exactly explain, but then again he was always interested in a female's company.

"Venus!" Donatello called out for his brother's aid as soon as he stepped off the ladder that led down into the lair. When he heard no reply, he instantly remembered that the female turtle was in a bad mood. "Venus, I need your help. Mikey's injured," Don tried to coax her out again. A couple of seconds later, Venus warily slid open her bedroom door. Blood slipped through Mikey's fingers and tumbled drop by drop onto the concrete floor of the lair. Observing that Don's rumour was indeed true, Venus immediately set to work and walked over to inspect Mike's wound. By that time Leonardo and Raphael had noticed the newcomer.

"Who's this?" Raphael incredulously asked while he firmly strolled over to the small bale of turtles. Leonardo followed in his brother's footsteps, although he was less intimidating to the guest.

"Eve, this is Raphael and Leonardo. Leo and Raph, this is Eve," Don quickly introduced. "I've got some bandages in my room," the turtle said to Venus and Mike, swiftly changing his point of focus.

"Might need stitches," Venus commented as she stared at Mike's wound. She hissed at the sight of the ripped flesh, as though she was experiencing Mike's pain.

"It's not that bad… Is it?" Mike started to get worried. Without further ado, Donatello and Venus tugged Mike into Don's bedroom, making the place serve as a temporary infirmary. Raphael stood with his feet slightly apart and with his arms crossed, forming a closed yet threatening body position. In silence, Eve lowered her gaze and stared at the floor while tracing out imaginary patterns with her furry toe. Noticing the submissive body movements, Leo lightly tapped one of Raph's shoulders as a signal for him to seem more welcoming. With a slight grunt of reluctant acknowledgment, Raph finally untangled his arms in an attempt to look friendlier.

"So what's your story?" Raphael tried to ask calmly, though he still came across as being rather critical.

"My story?" Eve questioned in confusion.

"Yeah, your origin story," Raphael repeated, wording the question to sound like he was referring to a comic book character. Eve clasped and rubbed her palms together, still rather nervous and confused about what the turtle was asking her.

"He wants to know how you came to be; how you can walk upright like us," Leonardo reworded the question again.

"Well, I used to be a lab mouse-" Eve apprehensively started telling her story but stopped when she saw another creature enter the main living room of the lair. Her nose twitched in intrigue while the mutant rat stopped in his tracks while he inspected her from afar.

"Leonardo, would you like to introduce me to our new guest?" Splinter hinted to the turtle.

"Master Splinter, this is Eve. Eve, this is Master Splinter. He's the one who has taken care of us since we were hatchlings," Leonardo said, fondly adding some additional information. Beneath the scraggly fur and the small chipped claws, Splinter could tell that this girl was really young. He continued to stare at her, as though he was hypnotised. To him, Eve represented the unlikely prospect of happiness. There was a certain innocence about her; one that was luring him away from his own untainted life of solitude. If she was Eve, then Splinter wanted to be Adam; he wanted to be tempted by this figure of beauty, and if it was a sin to pursue such an idealised version of happiness, then so be it. Yet Eve simply didn't see Splinter in the same light, and while she mused that he seemed rather interesting, her thoughts never progressed further than that.

Before Splinter had the chance to say something to Eve, Donatello's train carriage door slid open once again. "All done!" Don exclaimed while gesturing towards Mike's new bandage.

"I'm sorry for scratching you. I didn't mean it," Eve started to apologise again, but Mike simply shook his head and waved his hand as though he was brushing away a fly.

"Oh, it was nothing. It just looked worse than what it actually was. I only needed to get it disinfected and bandaged. It barely hurt at all," Mike said, trying to boast and be humble at the same time. Raphael simply scoffed at his attempt at trying to act macho, while the others rolled their eyes.

"That's not what you said ten minutes ago," Don commented.

"I thought you were going to faint," Venus said.

"Faint? No way! I had the situation completely under my control," Mike denied their version of the story with a brash grin. Eve giggled at Michelangelo's antics; an action that caused Mike's smile to stretch even further across his face.

"If you don't mind me asking, are you a rat or a mouse?" Don questioned out of curiosity.

"I'm a mouse," Eve said.

"And how old are you?" Don asked. While Eve might have thought he was being slightly intrusive, the others knew that Don was simply trying to make conversation.

"I'm three months old," Eve answered.

"Three months! But you look as though you're in your early teens," Mike said, quite flabbergasted.

"In human time I'm three months old, though in mouse years I'm a lot older… If that makes any sense at all," Eve muttered the last part of her sentence.

"Eh?" Michelangelo was obviously confused.

"It's like what happens with dogs. You have to multiply each year by seven since they age a lot faster than we do," Donatello explained.

"So how old are you guys?" Eve wondered.

"Twenty-three," Leo said.

"We age at the same rate as humans," Donatello concluded.

"But if Splinter raised you since you were little, then how old is he?" Eve asked, getting increasingly curious.

"Good question! How old are ya, pops?" Mike asked with a cheeky smirk on his face. Curious as well, all the other turtles looked towards Splinter. Although his torn ear twitched slightly in response to hearing Eve say his name with her alluring voice, he still frowned at Michelangelo's sudden arrogance and disrespect.

"Older than you," Splinter answered honestly. Mike pouted, knowing that he'll never know the age of his mysterious father. "It's getting close to midday. Venus, would you please start preparing lunch? Sandwiches will do fine," Splinter calmly commanded. He probably didn't mean anything behind his words, or Venus was getting paranoid about Splinter's sexist views, but either way the female turtle refused to move.

"Mike's usually the one to make lunch," Venus said, not wanting to be reduced to doing domestic duties.

"Michelangelo has a sore arm. I would like you to do it," Splinter justified his decision. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to change Splinter's reasoning, and not wanting to break into an argument in front of their new guest, Venus let out an angry breath and slowly made her way to the kitchen area. The male turtles could easily sense the newly developed tension between Venus and their Master, but Eve seemed to be oblivious.

"Did you say that you came from a lab?" Leonardo eventually carried on the conversation in an attempt to break the awkward silence that was starting to form.

"Yeah…" Eve said.

"What kind of lab?" Donatello suddenly became interested once again.

"A science lab." Mike couldn't help but giggle at Eve's simple answer while Don sighed in frustration.

"No, I mean, what did they study? Cloning? Hybridisation? Transgenic mutations?" Don tried again.

"Stem cell research," Eve said.

"From cord blood?" Don pondered out loud.

"No. Embryonic stem cells." There was a long silence.

"But how is that possible? It's currently illegal," Donatello explained while he rubbed his bald head with a hand.

"It was Government funded, so they originally used cord blood. Then they started to experiment with mice stem cells and discovered massive improvements. When they managed to get hold of an aborted embryo, they illegally started to implant human stem cells into mice and other rodents. A lot of the time the cells weren't accepted, but by accident they created me in the process," Eve explained more fully this time.

"But they couldn't claim you, otherwise you'd be all over the news headlines right now," Donatello quickly caught on.

"That's right. But they were still going to keep me under observation. Then one day they let their guard down, and the rest, I guess, is history," Eve broadly summed it up. All were quiet for a few moments while they let the information they had just heard sink in. To make things fair, the turtles started to tell Eve about their origins; about the ooze, why they started to learn ninjitsu, and when Venus first entered their lives at the age of seventeen. By the time they had finished telling her their tales, which were repeatedly interrupted by Michelangelo's witty remarks like always, Venus finally announced that lunch was ready.

Eve's beady eyes hungrily stared at the large pile of sandwiches situated neatly in the middle of the dining table. Each bread slice was cut into quarters, forming small, almost bite-size pieces containing various combinations of spreads, cheese, lettuce and beetroot. Not allowing another second to pass, Eve filled her plate with whatever she could grab. "Just take what you want. Don't let us hold you back," Raphael muttered under his breath. Leo simply raised an eye-ridge at her eating habits while he gently sipped his cup of tea.

"You like food, huh?" Mike asked as a friendly and childlike smile played and swept across his lips. Eve could only nod her answer since her mouth was completely stuffed with food. "Seen any movies recently?" Mike tried to make small talk. Once again Eve could only shake her head in response. "Have you ever seen The Matrix?" Eve shook her head. "Donnie Darko? Blade Runner?" Mike tried. "They're good movies," Mike said when Eve negatively shook her head to all of his suggestions. Donatello rolled his eyes.

"You didn't even understand those movies! You only liked them because I told you they were good!" Don pointed out while he took a bite out of his own sandwich. Leonardo couldn't help but smile, knowing that what Don said was true.

"I understood every minute of them," Mike defended himself.

"Then tell me. What is the Matrix?" Don asked with a smirk on his face.

"It cannot be explained, only seen," Mike replied cheekily. When Eve was able to swallow, she let out a hearty laugh at Mike's answer, even though she had no idea what the turtles were talking about. Michelangelo grinned widely, as her giggles were like music to his ears. He always enjoyed making people laugh, and so far Eve was easy to please… at least more compliant than the rest of his family at any rate.

Already Splinter could sense a connection between Mike and Eve, and although the father-side of his personality should have felt delighted that his light-hearted son was making a new friend so quickly, he couldn't deny the pangs of jealousy that lay deep down in his soul. He knew what Michelangelo was like with women. He knew that Mike could easily fall in and out of love. But a relationship between a mouse and a turtle made no sense to him, especially when the female member of his own species was still single. It would be inevitably pointless, as Splinter had already realised that Eve would, on average, have only three years to live, which was pitiful when compared to Mike's suspected life span. As a parent, Splinter never wanted to deny his children the right to anything, but now he seriously started to consider as to whether he should draw the line when it came to Eve. After all, a mouse and a rat had a lot more in common.

"I haven't seen any movies," Eve admitted when her laughter started to die down. "They sound like fun".

"None at all?" Mike gasped in shock. Eve grinned and nodded.

"All I know about is stem cell research," Eve said. Michelangelo comically dropped open his jaw.

"Wow, you need to get out more. I'll have to teach you a lot of new things for you to be as cool as me," Mike boasted while he gave her a wink. Eve giggled once again, causing Raphael to seriously wonder what the mouse saw in the ignoramus.

When the last sandwich was eaten and there were no more crumbs on their plates, Splinter looked towards Venus once again. "I s'pose you want me to clean up as well?" Venus callously asked when she noticed her Master's gaze.

"We must keep things tidy for our guest." Once again, Splinter didn't answer her question directly, though his underlying intentions still seeped through. Annoyed, Venus roughly collected everyone's plates, allowing them to be excused from the table. At first Eve left with Mikey, but she returned a few minutes later when she had some spare time; obviously wanting to ask the female turtle something.

"So which one's your boyfriend?" Eve quietly wondered as she watched Venus hand-wash the dishes. The female turtle knew that her question was innocent and that the mouse was simply curious, but the topic still grated her nerves.

"I haven't got one," Venus answered as calmly as possible. Battle-scarred hands dipped in and out of the soapy water as she cleaned and rinsed one of the cheap plastic plates before laying them aside to drip-dry for the time being.

"Well, what one do you like the best?" Eve rephrased her question, though what she really wanted to know was whether Mike was available or not. This time Venus didn't answer at all, but it wasn't because she didn't know the answer, but rather because she didn't want to admit it. "Surely you prefer one of them by now. The others told me you've been here for six years," Eve said matter-of-factly as she started to feel more comfortable around the lair. Venus knew that the girl was starting to come out of her shell more, though she wished the mouse picked a better topic to break the ice with.

"I do like them," Venus partly admitted, not giving Eve a straight answer. "But right now I don't want to get into a relationship," Venus honestly said. The turtle unplugged the drain and allowed the water to fall through. She then tenderly grabbed a small towel so she could start to work on drying the dishes completely.

"Why?" Eve asked, not understanding Venus' logic. They came from different worlds. Venus was brought up to learn about honour and respect, while Eve's relatives were treated like guinea pigs; allowing themselves to be manipulated in the name of science. Eve's own mother had given birth to twelve litters from ten different partners, and as a result Eve had been raised with a shallow view of the world.

"Because I didn't come all the way from China just to be bred like a rabbit! I came here to avenge my Master's death!" Venus angrily said as she shoved a dry plate back into a cupboard. She sighed when she realised that she had unleashed her emotions in front of Eve, who simply didn't deserve such a furious response. "I'm sorry. I'm just having a bad day, that's all," Venus apologised when she had calmed down. Eve remained silent, as though she was expecting a better explanation. Venus sighed, wondering if the girl was too curious for her own good. In the end, Eve, like herself, was female, and so Venus finally decided that she might be worth confiding in. "Earlier today, Master Splinter basically told me to stop fighting. He wants me to settle down; start a family," Venus said.

"Why not? Babies are cute." Upon hearing Eve's response, Venus knew that the mouse was too young to understand the complexities of life. Eve's words didn't contain much thought behind them. For Venus, babies were like parasites that sucked away personal freedom and financial wealth while only leaving behind piles of responsibility. The turtle sighed and returned to drying the last remaining dish. She really wished and hoped that Eve would understand her point of view, but after speaking with her, it only made it clearer that she was truly alone in the battle against her destined future.

To be continued…