The transport had been this new experience they had never experienced in all of their passed adventures. The hole that surrounded them was warped in strange neon colors, but they in actuality were never changed.

Looking at their expressions, she smirked. "I guess you never saw this before."

"We've seen some pretty neat things-" Don started.

"But they had nothing on this!" Mikey looked around excitedly, taking in all he could.

"Yes well," she looked in front, "Depending on the colors your seeing, each color has a significant meaning to them. To be more specific, each color is a unique universe."

"Your joking," Raph said sarcastically, "No way all these colors can be different places?"

"You have seen other planets beside your own, yes?"

"Yeah well-"

"Whoever told you that there was only such a thing as one, single, universe?"

He muttered something under his breath. "So you still can't see?"

"Shapes, blurry." she answered Mikey, intent on looking ahead. Her tail was flicking in and out in agitation, ears twitching every other second. He noticed this. Ever since the incident, Mikey was given a lot less credit than he deserved. He was now able to sense the tension just by looking at the person?s body language, or even how they felt or what they were hiding. Ame was tense, like some sort of dog waiting for a sign. He shrugged and stood back quietly. All this in a few seconds, when Ame finally dismissed the portal with her hand in a horizontal motion. "Can one of you please describe where we are?"

"You mean you don't know!"

"Calm down Raph."

"Leo's right though," he hissed, starting to get very angry and being told to shut up. "It's her fault. Those things that followed her, she knew that they were coming. And now we're bein' forced to go into some other unknown place and she has no idea where we are!"

Silence. Ame had her back turned to the group, trying to make out the scenario for herself. Being oblivious ticked him off more. "SHE'S NOT EVEN PAYING ATTENTION!"

"Get mad at me all you want," she glared back. Her eyes contracted to bare slits like before, but with a more fierce nature in them. Being on the other side of the rope felt a lot different than just observing for Raph. "It was not my choice!" she heavily hissed out that last word, "I am sorry that you are dragged into my war. Have I not begged for enough forgiveness to please you? I did not expect them to go so far as to send them after me!" Ame sighed, shaking her head and looking down to the side guiltily, fist shaking. "How many times must I say that I cannot control their actions? Even if they are my younger siblings..."

Purple and orange looked at each other. "Um, were on a dirt cliff," Mikey put an arm around the girl and hauled her off to the end of the cliff.

"If I were Mikey right now, I'd shove that girl off." the red-banded turtle watched with something close to loathing.

"That's enough," Splinter tapped his cane loudly on the ground. "She has done all she could for us. You should be thankful."

"Master Splinter. How can we be thankful when she's the cause of all this?" Raph insisted.

"She said she didn't know they would be coming."

"That doesn't mean anything, Don." Leo spoke up. "How many people abuse us for our generosity? What do we ever get out of it!"

"Their gratitude, and you should be thankful, Leonardo."

"It only lasts until we're out of their sight. After that, we're nothing more than a bare fragment of a memory."

"I have raised you two better than that," Splinter spoke with authority. "We help when we can. Even if they have done some wrong, we cannot judge them based on the fact they are deciding to do criminal things."

"But we're tired of this," Leonardo argued. "Not everyone's like the Shredder, I understand. That they can sometimes be controlled unwillingly by a higher force. But by right, we shouldn't have to do anything!"

"It's none of our business!" Raph joined.

From there, the debate went along more quietly, tension now more heavier than ever. Mikey looked back down with a sigh. Ame sat next to him quietly, kicking her legs over the edge. "I had no idea how often you guys were used."

"Yeah well," Mikey held his hands behind his heads, looking up. The sky was strange dust orange, looking more like sunset than anything else. Clouds of the same color but of a darker hue rolled past lazily."It's been like that ever since losing Karai. I mean,

it's not like she died or anything. I think Leo just feels guilty that he couldn't do anything to change her mind to join us. To be one of the good guys and help her."

"So. Your Leo feels guilty about losing the trust of someone he admired and thought of as a friend. And he feels like there was something more he could have done to help her, but she refused?"

"Heh heh," he grinned at her. "You catch on quick."

She shook her head. "He has yet to learn the lesson of acceptance."

"Is that some sort of code your people have?"

"It is something everyone has to understand." Ame looked up. He followed her gaze. The clouds were swirling abnormally in a circle. From the corner of his eyes, the turtle could see her using the tip of her finger to make the swirls. Her eyes were surrounded by a white aura that meant she was using her psy powers. The clouds formed a face, but as he tried to make sense of it, it disappeared and turned to another. She did it three times. Amethyst smiled sadly. "I have taught a few, or they learned through another about that lesson. But your brother is much older. I will have to use a different method."

"Good luck with that."

"Sacrifice requires acceptance. Acceptance requires sacrifice. That was what I was taught." she finally smiled.

"Did your parents teach you that?" He was curious to learn why she was always hunted. That, and she was probably the only one who he could actually talk to right now.

But her blank expression said that he crossed on forbidden territory. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "They were both murdered when I was small. No one bothered to take me in, so I raised myself, I guess." came out her quiet answer.

He didn't know quite how to respond to that. "So, you never had friends or anything?"

"I would not say that." It hurt to remember, but she went through it anyway smiling. "Friends, unbiological family. I never learned about my other relatives until I was fifteen and a half." Ame glanced at him, some color already returning to her eyes. "My life is complicated. I should go and scout ahead."

Mikey looked back to his family. "I don't think they're ready for you yet."

When he looked back at her, there was only an empty space. Panicking, he clung and looked over the edge. The ground was far below them, clouds of sand like a desert storm moving slowly across the land. Amethyst was barely seeable beneath that sand. Manipulating it by will, she cleared it. And spread her wings. She took off with a single flap, soon gaining enough wind under her to move freely across the harsh desert. She waved to him and flew off. He looked back to the group then to her worriedly. "How exactly am I gonna explain this?"

- - - -

They didn't notice at all. She hated to have to hide more things from them, but she didn't want to make it any worse than it was now. Ame found a spot along the cliff to land against. Clinging to it at a vertical angle, she "put away" her wings. The whole ordeal was a lot harder than it sounded. All she really did was shrink them so that they were small enough to not interfere or notice, but that was a strain on any angel. Turning something big to small in mass was a hard on the mind and body and required undivided attention. It was easier and a lot less painful to bring it out, summoning the wings was possible for any novice angel to do. That?s why a lot of the angels just preferred to leave them out instead of going through the hassle of all that pain. The girl twisted to look behind her back, "I wonder how I will explain the holes?"

Two tears in the cloth that covered her back. She sighed. "What I get for being so impatient."

She rock climbed the slope for a short period of time, due to the fact that she flew close to the ledge. On the last part up, she launched herself up using her footing. Mikey looked up at her, slightly annoyed. "Warn me before you launch yourself over the side of a cliff."

"Not like your brothers would care."

He looked up and down at her. "Yeah, their gonna start to wonder how you got dusty too." She had forgotten. Ame looked like she just came from the beach, covered in sand and some dirt too. The girl sighed. "Questions, questions. Sometimes science can not always explain the probable."

"Tell that to Don there."

She couldn't help but chuckle at the joke. A quick glance killed her mood though. The other four weren't not as happy, deception in the ranks, as they say. Splinter had long since given up in arguing and let them choose their own opinions of the situation. Don was slowly losing the argument a long time back and was solemn, sitting away from the group. Raph and Leo were needless to say unhappy, wandering around and investigating the plants.

Strangely, they were on a cliff, desert below them, but there was vegetation not 5 meters away. The plants were overgrown like weeds and strange blue and red flowers bloomed here and there. Leo was inspecting one carefully. She frowned. "Am I still blind, or is Leo inspecting that flower?"

He looked behind him. "Yeah...?"

In a flash, Ame knocked him down just as the flower shot out a row of poison glittering needles. The speed was so quick though, that you could only see the glitter right before you die. Leo, a bit embarrassed and angry, didn't see this though. "What the shell was that for!"

Mikey was about to open his mouth to explain when she held a finger to silence him. "Must have tripped." She looked him squarely in the eye. "It will not happen again."

"See that it doesn't." he growled warningly.

The girl bowed and walked back to her spot before on the cliff and sighed heavily. "You know, you didn't have to do that." the orange-banded turtle stood next to her. "I could've explained the whole thing to him instead of him hating you more."

"I could have. But I did not."

- - - -

By nightfall, the small team had some understanding of their surroundings. Ame had to explain that the flowers were poisonous, catching prey off-guard when the got too close. An evolutionary development, but she chose not to go into that. The bark of the trees were soft, unfit for any sort of weapons or equipment. The leaves and some of the roots contained a small sum of water, safe to drink unless the bugs were there first. Food was a bit more tricky. At certain times of the day, certain things opened up and could be accessed, but only for a brief period of time. She told them all she knew, making Raph a little ashamed at his outburst at her.

When they gathered what they could, they cut down leaves and gathered things to make a small camp, after being assured there were no hunters beside the plant.

"All this life and not one hunter?" Don couldn't help but frown. "But how can that be? Evolution provides food, there has to be something that consumes it, resulting in the food chain. If nothing is there to maintain the growth of this, wouldn't it get out of hand?"

"Don. Just leave it be." Mikey rolled his eyes, "Just be happy there's nothing coming after us for once."

"Yeah, but-"

"He is right, Michelangelo," Ame was hunched over, setting the little campfire ablaze. She shifted her gaze to the jungle. "This would be a paradise for any herbivore, and thus, any carnivore. Over the years, the humans come up with multiple theories about how life came to be, mainly if there are fish, bigger fishes can be found. This world is no exception."

"...I hate it when you get like that," Mikey muttered.

"Unless," her ears jerked slightly. "There is a slight possibility..."

"Please say no predators, please say no predators and let this end." Mikey prayed hopefully. Don was more interested. "You mean, if there was some sort of predator that only needed to feed at certain times, like when the vegetation is at it's highest peak. Question is-"

"Does it eat plants," Ame shivered with sudden adrenaline. "Or us?"

small little a/n: Sorry if I made mistakes or if the qualities poor. Dang computer crashed. I felt like a Michael Crichton wannabe writing all of Don's parts. I think I also made them slightly out of character, watching T.M.N.T. on 4Kids. I caught a glimpse of the hundereth episode and POOR DON! Looking at the brief summaries, Karai also made and appearance, as well as mutants and I got majorly confused watching the ep. Sooo, if anyone's willing or nice enough, can someone send me a note or something describing from what happened after Usagi Yojimbo came and visited to now? Sorry, but the ninjaturtles site's summaries aren't very descriptive...and please flame me. I need major criticism. And would you guys kill me if I had deaths (them and a few others) to get my OC's point across to Leo? Okay I lied, it's a BIG a/n. I feel so wierd writing this...