Author's Note:

Here's chapter 2! Read and enjoy! All advice and comments are welcome.

-Ravyne

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN TMNT!**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Strike of the Dragon

PART 2

2

3-1.2: "Ryu"

As expected, Ryu hadn't slept at all. Instead, an hour before dawn, she sits up off her bedding and pulls on her day clothes and boots in the living room before creeping silently to the kitchen. A bowl of fruit sits in the middle of the dinner table and she snatches up an apple before slipping out the front door. A morning mist fills the air around the farm, making the woods look almost nonexistent, and the sky above is just beginning to turn shades of lighter blue as the sun starts rising. Ryu takes in a deep breath of the early morning air, so crisp and fresh out here in the country that it's a bit overwhelming, and then nods as she takes off into the woods for her jog.

Unknown to her is the pair of sharp green eyes watching her from the second story window. He watches her small frame disappear into the tree line and his eyes narrow angrily. Against his will, he'd taken notice of things when he'd first seen her, like how her silver-white hair had grown longer by a few centimeters, or how her right eye had seemed almost a brighter amber than the last time he'd seen her, or how he must've grown a little because she seemed a bit shorter than he'd remembered.

Raph sighs, reaching up to rub his forehead as he crosses his arm over his chess and leans back against the wall. Why, with so much anger in his system, does he still notice her? Why, even though he wants nothing more than to forget her, does he still get flustered whenever he sees her?

He's not sure how long he stands there, but the next thing he knows Leo is shaking his shoulder with a worried look, "You okay, Raph?"

Raph turns his head to look outside. The sun has brightened the yard, chasing away the mist, and the chickens have moved out to start pecking at the ground. It must've been longer than he thought, "Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Just thinking."

"Well, come on. I want to talk to everyone."

Raph watches his brother head down the stairs, limping his way with the crutched they'd made for him, and then takes one last look out into the yard as the morning sun turns it into another world right before his eyes. With that in his mind, Raph leaps down the stairs and heads into the kitchen to take a place at the dinner table. April comes in a second later to start making breakfast with Mikey and then Donnie follows a second later with his laptop under his arm.

Leo bumps fists with Casey who comes in last and sits down too. The front door opens then and Raph shifts his form to give the doorway his profile. But it's not who he expected.

"When did you guys get up?" Leo asks with a smile as Venn and Venus step into the kitchen.

"A while ago," Venn answers going to pull a water bottle out of the refrigerator, "We were getting in some stretches outside for a bit."

Venus goes to open the freezer for something but then yelps and jumps back, "What the heck is that?!"

"Ice cream kitty!" Mikey sticks his head in the freeze and rubs noses with the strange mutant before closing it and turning to point a finger in Venus's face with a stern look, "Do not eat her."

Venus opens the freezer door again, much slower this time, and the mutant cat hisses at her, "So that's what she was talkin' about."

The front door opens again and Raph flinches against his will. "Morning!" Ryu calls as she takes off upstairs.

"Wait, Ryu!" Leo shouts after her.

"I'll be back, give me a second!" she shuts the bathroom door upstairs and they all listen as a minute later the bath turns on.

April shifts her eyes nervously and then quickly turns to go back to making eggs, "Well, at least she's in a better mood."

Donnie nods in agreement beside her as he leans against the counter. Venn and Venus share a look privately before eyeing Raph warily, both worried that today is going to be even worse than last night. Thirty seconds later, the bath turns off and they all look at the ceiling.

"Wow, she's fast," April breathes.

"We've been taught to conserve water 'cause we never got very long hot baths back home," Venn explains.

"Yeah, too many of the spoiled kids liked to waste all of it and leave none for the rest of us," Venus grins down at her water bottle sarcastically at some memory she's focused on in her mind, her hands tightening around the bottle until it starts to crush in on itself, "Rich, pig-headed, son of a-."

Venn quickly wraps his arm around her shoulders and covers her mouth, "Kids are reading this!"

When Ryu gets to the kitchen, her hair is full down, drawn up in soft, wet curls around her shoulders, and a soft cotton shirt on with a pair of jeans. Towel in hand, she leans against the doorframe leading into the kitchen and starts rubbing her hair dry, "Sorry, I smelled like sweat. I had to get that off."

Leo nods, "Alright, I'm sure we all know why I called this meeting…"

Everyone lowers their eyes to the floor, waiting for the fireworks to blow up the house.

Leo glances from Ryu's curiously oblivious stare to Raph's glowering profile and clears his throat nervously, "Well, most of us do. Anyway, I wanted to make it clear that…"

He trails off. How should he say it? 'Thanks Ryu for bringing us extra help'? Or 'We all are a team'?

He takes another breath to steady himself and tries to think like Splinter, "We're all going to be going against the same enemy here, so I think it only right that we combine our strengths and weaknesses to get the city back. I don't care how much we don't get along, we're all going to have to learn to work together. With that said-."

"Wait, what?!"

Everyone but Ryu groans under their breath, dropping their heads.

Raph stands up, outraged, and his chair is pushed back a few loud inches, "You expect us to-?!"

"Yes, Raph, I do," Leo cuts him off. "We've all got a common enemy here and I'm not going to turn away any help what so ever. Keep your anger, I don't care, but as of right now we are a team and I suggest everyone act like it. Understood?"

Raph angrily drops back into his chair, turning more towards the side door than before so that he's facing away from the group, and crosses his arms. Ryu lowers her gaze, not going to argue with Leo. Briefly she's caught off guard by how grown up he suddenly sounded, but mostly she was surprised that Raph didn't argue more than he did.

He must have a lot more respect for his brother, she thinks. Whatever happened to Leo must've done something to all of them.

Out of nowhere, Venn's, Venus's, and Ryu's phones ping at the same time with a familiar sound and they all pull them out. The screens blink with a new message. Ryu tucks hers back into her pocket and turns away from the door, "Venn you answer that. I've got to go get some stuff from the van."

"But-!" Venn tries to argue, but she's already out the front door. Lately, even since Ryu had gone to New York, he's noticed that she's become less and less mission driven. She's loosened up, smiled more. He glances at Raph's stiff form in the chair near him. How could someone like her fall for someone like him? "Go help her," he tells Venus who's started up a game of solitaire on her phone as she pops a butterscotch lollypop in her mouth.

She looks up at him as if he's gone insane and he reaches for his gun already strapped to his thigh. Venus quickly tucks her phone away and rushes out of the room.

"What is it about those guns that they hate so much?" April asks, catching the exchange.

Venn grins, pulls one out, and opens the freezer door to expose ice cream kitty to the air. The cat hisses angrily but he simply lifts his hand, palm out, and waits. Ice cream kitty sniffs his hand before purring and rubbing up against his fingers lovingly. He then sticks the barrel of his gun inside for the cat to lick before shutting the door. As he holds up the gun, the simple weapon starts changing right before their eyes. The barrel shortens, becoming almost square in his hands, and the color goes from cool gray to a white, pink, and then brown gradient of the colors across the metal.

He takes aim at a nearby glass on the table and fires.

Everyone rushes to the table to see, awe filling their faces. The glass has frosted over with ice and filled up to the top with scoop after scoop of of Neapolitan ice cream. They all turn to glance at him.

"I want a weapon like that!" Mikey whines, "I could shoot out endless supplies of pizza!"

"Trust me, it's not the greatest weapon in the world. The guns absorb the power of the thing that touches it and creates a bullet to match it, but I can only use it once; it won't absorb the same power twice. And on top of that, I only get a number of bullets depending on how strong the power is that it absorbs," Venn explains as he watches his gun shift back to normal and then slips it back into the holster on his thigh.

"What do you mean?" Donnie asks.

"I mean your ice cream cat is pretty strong because usually something that small wouldn't give these guns a single bullet. Now if it absorbed power from Venus or Ryu for example, I'd probably get two or three bullets tops."

They all glance warily at the guns on his sides and he grins.

"That's why."

After everyone eats breakfast, all except Ryu who claimed she grabbed an apple before taking her run that morning, they all head outside to the yard to train. Leo sits down on the steps when Ryu asks Venus to take a look at his leg and the olive skinned girl kneels down to do so. She lets her hands hover over his injured knee as she closes her eyes and takes deep centering breathes to concentrate.

"So what are her powers?" April asks, whispering to Ryu who stands next to her on the porch to watch Venus work.

"Well, we all have to take a lesson on energies and spiritual stuff, but Venus really got into it. She pretty much mastered it at a young age which surprised a lot of people. She's just a natural with these kinds of things. But that isn't her power," Ryu tells her.

"So she didn't go through that trial thing yet?"

"Oh, no, she did and she passed it. Her powers though are more of a defensive power instead of offensive like Venn's. It's her voice."

April throws her a confused look and Ryu chuckles.

"Let's just say that if she ever starts yelling, take cover and protect your ears."

"Wow," April gasps, "Is anyone allowed to become a student where you live?"

Ryu shrugs, "You can go and ask for a test. They'll assess your skills and decide if you've got what it takes."

"So they don't like a challenge? They only pick people they know they can train into them?"

"No, it's more of a…" Ryu trails off, rubbing her chin in thought, "It's more of an inner thing; a trait that people have. Some people just aren't meant to be protectors. Some people would use that kind of power for bad, you know."

"Oh," April nods in understanding.

After a few long minutes, Venus opens her eyes and stands up, "It's worn out and still weak, so you're doing right by staying off it."

Leo's expression falls a bit but he thanks her before hobbling off to join his brothers. April follows after him to join in on the training across the yard. Venus goes up the porch steps to stand next to Ryu and they both stare out after Leo.

"There's nothing wrong with it."

"What?" Ryu looks up at her in confusion.

Venus doesn't meet her eyes. Instead, she follows Leo with her eyes with a look of suspicion, "There's nothing wrong with his leg. All the energy points are healed and look really well. They're all telling me that the muscles are still a bit shocked, but nothing is wrong with his leg."

"Then what's wrong with it?"

Venus smacks her arm, frustrated, "There's nothing wrong with it, moron. There's something wrong with your friend. Why don't you ask him?"

She leaves Ryu on the porch, vanishing back into the house, and closes the door behind her. Ryu lifts her eyes to watch the training across the yard; Leo watches on with a smile but she can tell that there is longing to join them behind those eyes. Her expression becomes worried. If Leo's leg is fine, then…why is he still having pain?

After training, Ryu enters into the kitchen where Donnie is typing away on his laptop at the table. Chewing her lip, she debates whether she should interrupt him or not, but in the end she steps into the room and sits down in the chair beside him.

"Hey," She smiles.

"Hi," Donnie turns to her curiously.

"Um…" Ryu lowers her gaze. Just how can she say this?

"Don't worry."

She looks up in surprise.

Donnie smiles at her with that gentle smile that she's come to know so well, "I forgive you." Her eyes widen and he chuckles stiffly as he closes the lid on his computer and leans back in the chair, "Look, Ryu, I can't say that I'm happy with the way you left, but I can guess that you did it for a good reason."

She sighs, sitting back in her own chair and trails her fingers over the top of the table, tracing each grain in the old wood. "I didn't want to leave. I didn't. It's just..." she pauses for a second, choosing her words carefully, "Donnie, I've lived the last ten years of my life hunting down the killer who murdered my family, but then he just…he's just suddenly…gone. I lived my life for that one purpose and then I suddenly just didn't know what to do. I hadn't gotten my revenge; I wasn't the one to kill him. So all those years of hunting just up and crashed down on me. I was confused and lost. I needed to clear my head, to get myself back on track and to try to move on. I wasn't in my right mind and I didn't want to impose all of that on you. And on top of that, I know you all heard about what I said to Splinter in that last battle."

Ryu stops and draws her knees up to her chest with a sigh, "I just didn't know how to face him. So, yeah, Raph's right. In the end, I did run away."

Donnie listens to her and then sits silently to let it all soak in. He hadn't known about her need for revenge or about her family, so he's not sure how to tell her the truth. Splinter had warned them all that she walked a dark path, but to just now find out what it was that she was hunting for most of her life is a bit nerve racking. Especially knowing what he knows.

"Ryu, have you…gotten over your need for revenge?" Donnie asks her.

She raises her head to look at him, studying her emotions for a moment, "I…feel that I am. I feel I can move on now."

"Good…good."

"Why?"

Donnie bites his bottom lip, "Well…well, um…I'm just glad that you are. A path like that really is a bad one. Splinter would be proud of you."

Ryu catches the words the second they leave his mouth, "Would be?"

Donnie lowers his head in defeat, opening his mouth to answer, but someone else does before he can.

"Shredder beat him."

She and Donnie look up at the kitchen entrance. Raph stands there with his arms crossed and a death glare on his face. Mikey and April are behind him, heads also bowed from some heavy memory that they all share.

Ryu stands up in disbelief, "What? He couldn't have…no."

"We saw it happen, Ryu," Donnie says behind her.

Ryu turns her eyes to the floor, her thoughts swirling chaotically in her head until she feels like she's about to fall over. Splinter couldn't have lost; it's impossible! He was too strong, too skilled. Ryu slams her fist into the table, heart hammering so fast that her whole body starts to heat up under her skin, "No!"

"Ryu-."

"No, he's not gone," Ryu cuts April off as she heads past the out of the kitchen, "And I'm going to make sure of it."

"How?" Mikey calls as she storms by and tears out the front door.

"Just wait there," Ryu slams the door behind her, the action shaking the house and getting everyone's attention. They all come into the area with curious looks but all anyone can do is shrug. A few moments later, the door rips open again and Ryu returns with the ipad-sized transparent screen she'd used to map out their location before, "Sorry, Donnie, hope you don't mind, but I updated Metalhead."

"What?" all the turtles gasp.

Behind her, the very familiar little robot stomps in loudly as it looks around at everyone. When it finally spots Donnie, Metalhead raises a hand and throws him a thumbs up and a robotic voice exits its mouth, "Hello, Donnie."

Donnie's jaw drops as Ryu sits at the end of the table and plugs her small handheld screen into the port on the side of Metalhead's head. "Yeah, I gave him a speech box and put in a basic scanner, but that's it. I figured you'd want to give him what you wanted him to have, so I left everything else alone. You can take the scanner out if you want."

"What kind of scanner?" Donnie asks as he takes her previous seat so that he can get a better look at the rebuilt Metalhead and everyone comes closer to join him. Venus and Venn hang back to get them something to eat from the fridge while the rest of the group gawks like fish.

"Just a minor one I designed a year ago, it's nothing fancy I can promise you that," Ryu explains as she finishes setting everything up. She turns to Metalhead and sets a determined look on her face, "Alright Metalhead, I need you to perform another scan for me."

"Confirmed," the bot responds, tilting its head back to look at her with those glowing eye sockets, "Select target area."

"New York City," Ryu replies.

Metalhead makes a few whirling sounds, "Confirmed. Select target."

"Splinter. Alternate name: Hamato Yoshi."

Again, Metalhead whirls and clicks, "Confirmed. Select target status."

"Mutant," Ryu says.

"Confirmed. Scanning target area," Metalhead's eyes turn from blue to yellow suddenly and the whirls and clicks continue for a moment longer than before.

"Is he really going to find master Splinter," Mikey whispers to Leo a few steps away.

"I don't know," Leo answers.

Ryu grabs her handheld screen off the table and through the transparent screen they all watch her press a few buttons on the pad and bring up the glowing outline of a map.

Metalhead stops processing, eyes returning to normal blue, and looks up, "Scan complete. Target found."

Everyone sucks in a breath in hope as Ryu continues with a bright smile breaking out across her face, "Can you do a scan for vitals please and bring it up on the screen?"

Metalhead's eyes go yellow again, "Scanning…"

A moment later, Ryu's handheld starts beeping, a red dot appearing the blue and green outlines of the map and everyone rushes to gather around her and Metalhead to see. She holds the screen flat so that everyone can see.

"Scan complete," Metalhead confirms, looking up at her again, "Vitals positive."

In response the red dot on the screen starts blinking like a heartbeat and April hugs Donnie excitedly and Mikey cheers, "He's alive!"

Leo laughs in relief. Ryu looks up and stares across from her into Raph's face; his eyes glues to the screen and his expression pained but relieved. She reaches over to take his hand and sets the screen in his hands so that he can look down at it with his brothers.

He lifts his head and their eyes meet for a moment, but it's long enough. She smiles softly at him and he drops his eyes down again. That may not have been forgiveness, but Ryu can feel some of his anger towards her lessen a small amount.

That's all I deserve, she thinks.

"Wait, can you look for anyone?" Leo asks.

Ryu blinks out of her thoughts and sits down again, "Metalhead, do another scan for me."

The robot whirls and clicks in response, "Select target area."

"New York City."

"Confirmed. Select target."

Ryu looks up at Leo and he leans down to speak, "Karai." He glances at Ryu and she nods before he continues, "Alternate name: Hamato Miwa."

Ryu soaks in the name, it's going on her permanent memory. The Dragons had told her who Karai really was, although she had already known from Splinter that she was his daughter. It's her real name that Ryu's never heard before until now.

"Confirmed. Select target status."

"Mutant."

Ryu coughs on her breath and she looks up in alarm. They all nod at her, confirming the statement. It's Leo who explains, "She was…accidentally mutated into a snake when Shredder tried to use her as bait for us. I tried to save her but…" He sighs in defeat, "Things went bad."

Before Ryu can reply, Metalhead's voice interrupts them, "Scan complete. Target not found."

April gasps in horror, "No way. We know she's still in the city. She couldn't be-."

"Repeat scan," Ryu demands.

"Confirmed. Scanning target area…" Metalheads eyes turn yellow again. The moments pass by agonizingly slowly, taunting them all. "Scan complete. Target not found."

"Repeat scan," Ryu says again, voice becoming stern.

"Confirmed. Scanning target area…"

Ryu reaches out and takes the screen from Raph and zooms the map out to look over it. The scan Metalhead makes blinks over all the buildings in turn and she follows it with her eyes. Something blinks and she swears it's a dot, so she zooms in on the area. There's nothing there except the blinking dot signaling Splinter's location.

Don't do this to me, Ryu thinks, this is going to ruin everything. Come on, Karai, where are you?

"Scan complete."

A faint dot appears a few blocks from Splinter's location and her eyes widen in hope.

"Target found."

"And there she is," Ryu breathes, "Scan for vitals."

Metalhead obeys and then, "Scan complete. Vitals unknown."

"Unknown?" Venn repeats.

"What the heck does that mean?" Venus gripes from her seat on the counter, chewing around a bite of sandwich.

"It means that it can't find them. That doesn't mean she doesn't have them though," Ryu explains, taking Leo's shoulder and shaking his defeated expression away, "Look at her dot. It's really faint compared to Splinter's. She's got to be too far underground for the scan to pick up. I told you it was a basic scanner. I can update it to something stronger if I need to."

"Do that," Leo says with a nod.

"I'm on it," she answers.

"Hey, do a scan for me," Venus calls over everyone's head. "Find out where Moon Grace is."

"Why don't you ask?" Ryu growls through her teeth at the girls lack of manners.

"Why don't you just do it or I will," Venus glares.

"Why don't you both shut up," Venn cuts them off. "Ryu, please can you do a scan for Moon Grace…and Haritos if you can."

Ryu throws a thumb over her shoulder out the window as she sits up quickly, "I just saw Haritos outside."

Venn pushes himself off the counter, dropping his plate on the counter, and vanishes out the door before anyone can even look up. Everyone throws her a questioning look.

"Venn's familiar," Ryu explains. "Metalhead, can you set up another scan for me?"

"Confirmed."

Ryu sets the scan and they wait for the location.

"Scan complete. Target found."

Venus hops down off the counter, sandwich in hand and takes the screen from Ryu with a jerk. She checks the location on the screen and smiles, "Aw. Good girl. She's staying right where I asked her to. Where'd you tell Gigi to stay? That is, if he even listens to you."

Ryu glares up at her and snatches her screen back, "Go away."

Venus smirks at her and goes to sit at the opposite end of the table just to spite her.

"Metalhead, one more scan," Ryu requests.

"Confirmed. Select target area."

"New York City."

"Confirmed. Select target."

"Gigi."

"Confirmed. Select target status."

"Animal."

"Confirmed. Scanning target area…" Metalhead begins the scan and Ryu throws a mocking smile over the table at Venus. "Scan complete. Target not found."

Everyone goes still, even Venus. She leans forward over the table, "You did leave him in the city, right?"

"Yeah," Ryu stares down at the screen in confusion. "Repeat scan, but change the target area to local."

"Confirmed. Scanning target area…" Again Metalhead goes silent for a few moments. "Scan complete. Target not found."

Again everyone goes silent, glancing at each other worriedly. Ryu continues to stare at the blank screen.

"You think he left the city to avoid the invasion?" Venus asks.

Ryu's eyes widen a bit, a thought entering her head that she doesn't want. It freezes her blood and sends goosebumps across her skin. "Repeat scan," Ryu says, her voice dying in her throat, "Change target area to New York City. Change status…to…mutant."

Venus drops her sandwich and stands up, walking over to the group and pushing between April and Donnie. "Ryu…"

She ignores the girl, refusing to answer as she waits on edge for the scan to complete. Her heartrate speeds up painfully in her ears, cutting out all the sound around her.

Please no…please…no…don't find him…please…, Ryu chants to herself.

"Scan complete," Metalhead confirms. "Target found."

"Oh, God…" Venus chokes.

Ryu's mouth dries out, her mind going blank. Across the screen, the map returns, a red dot blinking above a familiar building that chills her skin: the TCRI building.

"Ryu…" Venus reaches out to touch her shoulder but Ryu suddenly stands up and heads for the door. It opens just as she reaches it and Venn steps through it.

"Hey, you-," Venn stops when Ryu goes right past him as if he's not even there and disappears outside. He follows her with his eyes for as long as he can see her but then spins on his toe and blurs across the short distance into the kitchen. He snares Raph by his neck and lifts him easily into the air with a growl, his pale blue eyes starting to glow slightly. "What the hell did you do?!"

Venus wraps her grip around his arm and hangs there a few centimeters off the ground, "Venn, calm down! It wasn't him!"

His glowing eye leave Raph's face and turn to her, boring his glare into her threateningly.

Venus swallows uneasily, "It's Gigi."

Venn releases Raph in an instant, Venus letting go of him, and the turtle falls to the floor coughing up a storm, "What about-?"

"He's been mutated."

"What?" He gasps, "How? He's a familiar."

"Doesn't mean anything. We don't know the full power of this alien goo. It could do anything for all we know."

Venn grinds his teeth and rubs his forehead, "I'm going after her."

"Don't."

He stops at the door and turns on her.

Venus shakes her head, "It's not that I care, but we both know how she is. She needs to get through the initial shock before you start baby-ing her." She goes to Venn's side and pats his shoulder, "Just wait, go work on your patients."

Venn sighs, glancing out the window where Ryu disappeared, and then nods in defeat.

She nudges him off towards the living room before turning her eyes out the window as well, "It's going to be a long night for all of us."

Author's Note:

Chapter 3 is up next! Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Can't wait to hear from you.

-Ravyne