Hello, everyone. I'm back from vacation and already we've had a reviewer. Thank you so much, "Bigfan" for the kind words and we hope you enjoy this new chapter. As previously stated (at least I hope Ravyne stated since I haven't gotten around to looking over the chapters she's posted in my absence) I will be posting a new chapter every Sunday from here on out. That's it.

Enjoy and let us know your feedback. All advice is welcome.

-Katt B.

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN TMNT**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Strike of the Dragon

PART 2

4

3-2.2: "Raph"

Ryu opens her heavy eyelids, each one feeling like a ton of lead, and blinks. The room is odd, nothing like her own with its bamboo blinds and red rugs over the dark stained wood floors. This one if filled with pale yellow, frilly curtains and a pink comforter laid out over the length of her body.

Her eyes widen, confused. Sitting up, Ryu looks around the room in wonder. Where the heck is she?! This isn't her room. This isn't even the living room where she fell asleep last night. Beside her on the small nightstand is a bowl with water in it, while a rag hangs out over the side.

The water is swirling red, the end of the rag dyed crimson.

Scrambling frantically, Ryu hurries to throw the blankets off of her and get out of the room, but her legs give out the second she tries to put weight on them and her knees slam into the floor loudly. A sharp, terrible pain, shoots across her chest and Ryu instinctually curls in on herself, folding her arms over her chest to protect herself.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down!"

Someone comes into the room and takes her by the shoulders gently and she looks up into Donnie's face. He smiles down at her as he helps her sit up slowly off her knees and back against the frame of the bed. The floor is cold through the cotton pants she usually sleeps in and that's when she notices Donnie pulling away the shoulder of her shirt from her neck. She's about to slap his face for being such a pervert, but then her eyes stop dead on her chest.

Her whole shoulder and chest are wrapped up in bandages but one main spot on her upper chest, in the hallow between her collar bone and shoulder, is padded down with a lot of gauze.

"Holy cheese, what'd I do?" Ryu whispers, reaching up to touch the bandages there, head whirling for some sort of answers.

"Nothing major," Donnie grins sheepishly, "Just got short by an arrow."

Ryu pulls her eyes up, "Beg your pardon?"

"Let's talk about it later when everybody gets back. First off, we've got to get some food into you; you're looking pale. Do you think you can stand?"

Ryu lets him go to her good side and wrap one arm around her back and his other hand under her good arm before lifting her up as if she practically weighs nothing. They wait for a second, half expecting Ryu to get lightheaded again and fall back to the floor, but when nothing happens, she smiles.

"Excellent," Donnie grins, "Now comes the big test. Do you think you can make it downstairs?"

Ryu stretches her legs, bending her knees. The weakness she'd felt there before is gone with the wind—no pun intended—so she nods again, "Yeah, I think I can."

Donnie keeps his hands where they are and together they creep down the stairs at a slow pace. Down at the bottom, Leo comes hobbling out of the living room on his crutch with a smile. "Hey, I thought I heard someone dying up there. How're you doing?"

Ryu grins, "Good, I guess. Still alive, so I can't really complain. We're going to have to share that crutch now though."

He laughs as they all head slowly into the kitchen, unaware of Raph who watches them from the doorway to the living room. Donnie helps her to sit down at the table before standing up and going to raid the cabinets, "So what would you like for breakfast?"

"It's morning?" Ryu asks, glancing out the window at the sun lit yard outside.

"Yeah, you've been out most of the night," Leo informs her. "Raph-."

Something flies into the room and pops Leo on the back of the head, making him growl under his breath.

"I mean we all took turns watching you last night."

Ryu's eyes shift briefly to the doorway to the kitchen before moving back to his. He nods with a knowing smile and Ryu lowers her gaze to the table. Lifting her good arm, she rests her elbow on the table top and rubs her forehead, "Donnie, I think I'll just go for some chocolate if you have any. I got a feeling that today I'm going to need the caffeine."

"Not too sure about the chocolate, but we do have this," Donnie sets down a box of cereal in front of her and Ryu all but swoons.

"Count Chocula!" She squeals excitedly as Donnie grabs her a bowl and spoon before fishing the milk out of the fridge. She digs into the cereal, so glad that her right arm wasn't injured, and talks around mouthfuls of her favorite food in the world, "So where is everybody?"

"April is outside cutting wood, Mikey and Venus are catching up on some chores around here, and Casey went with Venn to the store to restock the kitchen," Leo says as Donnie sits down at the other end of the table opposite him.

Ryu nearly spits up, "Venus and Mikey? Doing chores? Around here?"

Leo raises an eyebrow at her response, "Not something she does?"

She scoffs around another mouthful of deliciousness, "This is Venus we're talking about here. All she does besides training is lounge about and eat candy most of the day. Work really isn't her thing. Now, throw Mikey in on that mix. What do you think you get?"

Donnie's face turns to worry, "Two people with too much time on their hands."

"Trouble," Leo adds.

Donnie is up in a flash and zips out the side door of the kitchen before either of them can say anything. Ryu quickly swallows the last bit of milk in her bowl before stretching to her feet and going to wash it out in the sink, "I'd better go help him look for them. Venus doesn't really take to authority too well."

"And she survived your teachers?" Leo chuckles.

"It's still a mystery to all of us how she remained alive long enough to pass her trial with that mouth of hers," Ryu grins over her shoulder.

"Hey," Leo lowers his voice before standing up and taking a few limps towards her. Ryu turns to face him. "I just wanted to make sure that you know…we all understand why you left. Venn and Venus explained it to us."

Ryu sighs in relief before finding her smile within her again, "T-thanks, but I understand why any of you would be mad. I know you, Mikey, and Raph heard what I said the Splinter. It was wrong and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left the way I did."

"But we understand why you did. Donnie explained that to us too," Leo smiles wider and grabs her good shoulder gently. "You're still a part of our family whether you like it or not."

Those simple words are all she's needed to hear since she left. That simple reacceptance into their lives again. Ryu lets out a relieved laugh before hugging Leo gently around the neck with her good arm.

"Thank you!" She whispers. When she lets him go, she throws a thumb over her shoulder and starts to back away towards the door, "I better go find Venus."

Leo nods and heads out of the opposite end of the room, no doubt back to the living room where he'd been originally. Ryu smiles up at the sky as she steps out the side door and takes in a deep breath of air, a huge weight lifted off her shoulders finally. Now all that's left is the final weight; a weight heavier than the first two had been.

A weight that's going to be a bit more stubborn than the last ones.

Not spotting Venus or Mikey at the back side of the house, she heads back around the way she came and spots Donnie talking to April who is splitting wood a few paces past the side door to the kitchen, opposite of her direction. How had she missed them, she'll never know, but now that she has seen them she's going to take this opportunity to spy.

Ryu ducks behind a bush, as close to the door as she can dare, and turns to keep her ear to them while still able to keep the bush from poking at her bad arm. Just faintly she can pick up the last few words spoken between them.

"…I'm just…a mutant," Donnie sighs in defeat.

April digs the toe of her shoe into the dirt before smiling up at him, "You're not just a mutant, Donnie. You're my mutant." She steps up onto her tip toes and kisses Donnie square on the lips, Ryu's jaw practically falling to the ground. April turns from him with a smile and returns to the house through the side door, missing Ryu completely. When the door slams shut, she sneaks in too while Donnie is stuck in laa-laa land, his eyes virtually spinning with confusion.

Ryu slips right past April who is busy at the sink and then right into the living room where she breaks into a grin and drops herself onto the couch. Raph and Leo blink at her in surprise as she props her feet up on the coffee table with a big goofy smile.

"I win," she tells the boys triumphantly.

"Win…what?" Leo asks.

"Yeah, win what?" Venus repeats his question as she comes into the room wiping a towel along the backside of her neck. Ryu can hear familiar steps falter behind her as Venus turns to the approach-ee, "You okay, Donnie?"

"Uh…"

Ryu grins wider the second she hears the poor turtle's blank response, obviously still dazed from what happened. She picks up the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, leans right back into the couch, and pops a handful into her mouth, "So how was your first kiss, Don?"

"WHAT?"

Ryu snorts around a mouthful of popcorn as everyone jumps up to dash to Donnie's side and hammer him with questions. She turns around on the couch to prop her good arm over the back of the couch to watch them with a smile.

When Casey and Venn walk through the front door, Mikey runs off to tell them and Donnie tackles him to the ground before he can open his mouth, finally coming alive out of his daze to threaten him angrily.

Ryu turns back to the TV where a video game is paused and she props her feet back up as Leo and Raph retake their seats on either side of her. She's surprised at this considering she hasn't really gotten around to apologizing to Raph yet and here he is sitting down next to her as if she's no longer a disease. Leo leans to eye his brother in shock as well but picks up his controller to continue the video game.

Ryu watches them play for a while, glancing at their hands to figure out how they're playing, and eventually becomes too curious for her own good, "So…how do you play this?"

"It doesn't matter," Venus answers, "You don't play video games."

"So?" Ryu catches the controller that Leo hands to her and he explains what each button does and then Raph presses the play button. Within seconds he demolishes her character and the screen blinks 'LOSER'. Ryu drops her controller into her lap, glaring at the TV, "Well, that's discouraging."

"Loser," Venus mocks around a mouthful of lollipop as she opens up a magazine and sits back in the chair next to the couch.

April sets the bowl of scrambled eggs down on the table so that people can start serving themselves but as she pops the spoon down next to it, she notices that someone is missing. "Hey, where's Ryu?" she asks.

Venn shrugs and turns to Venus who has her nose in another magazine and blowing a grape gum bubble out of her lips. It pops as she looks up, "Why do you always look at me?"

"Because you're a girl," he responds.

She lowers her eyes into a glare, "So you're sexist."

"No, girls talk to each other."

Venus scoffs and flips the page of the magazine, "Not these two girls. We hate each other remember?" She pops another bubble.

Venn groans and pull out his radio, holding the button down, "Testing, testing. Calling-."

"Calling Earth Worm!" Venus cuts him off.

"Would you-?!"

"That is not funny," Ryu's voice comes in through the radio, cutting off Venn's lecture. "What do you want?"

"Where are you? Breakfast is ready," April calls across the table.

There's a static noise and then, "I grabbed an apple before leaving for my run. Sorry! I left a note on the front door."

Venus chokes on her gum, "That was a note?"

Everyone at the table groans.

"My bad, I thought it was trash so I threw it away," she smiles guiltily.

"Trash?" Venn glares at her.

"It was on the floor!"

"Moving on!" Ryu cuts them off, "I'll be back in an hour."

"Well, we're going to be training outside."

"Fine," she answers Venn.

Raph catches this and swallows his food in a few gulps. Leo eyes him curiously, "Uh, Raph, you okay?"

"Yeah, just want to start training," he responds. "I'm going to take Mikey and Donnie out for some more forest training."

"Again?" Donnie whines.

"Nooo!" Mikey smacks his head on the table.

"No complaining," Raph growls as he stands up from the table and heads out the door. Mikey and Donnie take a last few bites of their breakfast and then slug their way out after him. "Same as before, I'm giving you ten minutes to find a place to hide. If you can stay hidden for an hour, then you don't have to clean out the chicken coop."

Donnie and Mikey obey with groans and mumbled complaints as they jog half-heartedly out into the woods. Raph starts pacing, his patience running lower and lower with each step; this is the first chance he's had since Bigfoot left and he's not about to pass it up. Just as he's about to take off, the front door to the house opens and everyone comes out for training.

Raph grumbles under his breath, rushes towards the tree line, and vanishes before anyone can see him. Finally in the forest's solid embrace, he keeps running until he spots any signs of anyone else in the woods besides him and his brother.

He stops by a tree when something catches his eye: a broken limb on the ground. He leans down to examine it and sure enough, a trail of boot prints travel off into the woods. He knows these footprints.

Ryu sits down on the boulder buried into the side of the steep incline of the hill and looks out over the tree tops around her. This far up, she can tell the slight change in the air; living in the mountains will give you a sensitivity to stuff like that.

The wind stirs quietly, playing with her hair that she pulls loose from her hair band to run her fingers through, and she breathes it in appreciatively. She's always loved these times to herself, always looking forward to going on her morning jogs, and it's these times that she's able to really meditate and clear her mind.

She crosses her legs indian-style and closes her eyes. The world around her, the birds with their songs and the trees with their whispers, sings to her softly as she slips into her meditative state. Her breathing levels out and her heartbeat slows to a tranquil state as time passes around her. All her worries fall away to the side to be sorted out later and the weight on her shoulders eases a bit, her neck feeling less like it's going to snap at any second.

If only this could last past meditation, she thinks. Constantly being able to remain in a meditation state would be way better on my blood pressure.

Something moves behind her. A snap of a twig, a shift across the dirt.

Her eyebrow twitches as her hearing perks up to figure out the source. Everything goes quiet again. I wonder if there are mountain lions out here, Ryu wonders.

She focuses on her power deep inside her, feeling it come to life in her veins and flow through her body. Ryu pushes it down her spine, through the boulder, and into the ground, feeling it pulse out around her through the dirt. The waves beat through each blade of grass, every pebble, all the creatures and insects hiding around her, and deep down into the core of the hill under her.

Her lips pull to the side a little, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth.

The feet move closer towards her but the earth doesn't sing out a warning, finding no ill intent in the heart beat of the other. Ryu's hands are held in a circle in her lap, her fingers laid across each other while her thumb tips meet above them, and she patiently starts tapping her bottom fingers against the knuckles of her others. When the person is right behind her…

"Don't even think about it," she warns, not bothering to open her eyes to acknowledge him.

Raph drops his arms back by his sides and rolls his eyes, "How'd you know it was me?"

Ryu raises an eyebrow over her closed eyes, "You step harder on your left foot than you do on your right, you always take a breath every two steps, and your heartbeat is always racing when you're about to try and scare someone. Also-."

"Alright, I get it," he grunts as he sits down on the rock with his back to hers.

The silence that comes afterwards starts off nice at first but thickens into tension as the seconds go by. Ryu's not really sure how to take it. He's talking to her sure, but is it a good thing?

"So…" Ryu starts, "Are we…talking now?"

Raph leans his elbows on his knees and stares down at the small patch of grass poking out from under the boulder between his feet. The wind blows through it, the tall blades of grass dancing to the song. "Yeah. We are," He answers, "Donnie told me what you said; about why you left. I understand."

"Why?"

He blinks at her quick response, "Donnie told me. He said you went home to clear your head. You've spent your whole life trying to get revenge on this guy and then he was gone. I can't even begin to imagine what you were going through."

"No," Ryu drops her head into her hands, "No, no, no. You're not supposed to understand. You're supposed to be mad. I didn't blame you for being mad because of the way I left. I know you, and Mikey, and Leo all heard what I said to master Splinter. You should all be mad at me. I ran off like a coward, I said all those cruel things to sensei just because I got mad. I don't deserve your understanding! You need to yell at me!"

Her voice begins to take on a high not of panic at the end of her rant and, fearing that she is going to break, Raph jumps up and goes to her side. As he kneels down in front of her, Ryu quickly pulls her knees up to her chest to escape his sight. She just wants to disappear; she doesn't deserve his forgiveness. She never will.

"Stop it," Raph orders, "You were on a different path then, Splinter told us. But that's why you left, right? You wanted to move on from all that."

Ryu squeezes her eyes shut, burying her face in her knees, but finds it in her to nod.

"Right?"

Again, she nods, "Y-yeah, I feel like I have."

"So…if you see him again…"

She lifts her head a bit. Ryu already knows what he wants to say without even having to have him finish his sentence. Deep down, she's not really sure what she'd do, but she wants to believe that she's found it in her heart to… No, she stops her thoughts, I can't ever forgive him for what he did.

Ryu shakes her head, "I…don't know what I'd do if I saw him again, but…I feel like I have moved on…wait…" She suddenly catches up with her own thoughts and glances up at him suspiciously, "Don't you mean 'if I ever saw him again…?"

Raph presses his lips together into a tight line and stands up quickly to scratch the back of his head nervously.

"Raph?"

He turns away and she jumps to her feet to turn him back.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Raph drops his hand and tries to meet her gaze but when he can't he quickly lets his eyes fall to the ground, "Depends…"

"On…?" Ryu presses, suspiciously.

"What you want to hear."

She grabs the front of his shell and jerks him forward until their foreheads meet. "The truth," Ryu growls out through her teeth.

Raph grins sheepishly, "Well…um…Tigerclaw…isn't exactly….gone."

She lets go of his shell and collapses back onto the boulder again, her knees quickly giving out to her weight. Her breath hitches in her throat as she tries to find her words, "I…Okay…that's…okay. Yeah."

"You sure?"

Ryu shakes her head, "I won't…I won't know until I see him again. If I see him again. We'll just have to wait and see."

The wind picks up suddenly and whips crazily around them, spinning Ryu's hair wildly about her face. She growls in frustration and stands up as she combs it back with her fingers and tries to get it back under her control.

"Seriously, the news said nothing about freak wind storms today!" she complains.

Raph can just stare at her, watching her hair swirl in the wind madly. For so long he's seen her always wear it in a braid, so it's never really caught his attention, but now with it free from the red band that usually binds it now he suddenly has the urge to-.

"What are you…?"

Raph blinks pulling his hand back from her hair quickly, "Nothing. Come on, let's go."

Ryu watches him turn around and head back the way he'd come, studying the hand that had reached up out of nowhere to stroke through her hair the way he had. She'd been caught off guard by the look in his eyes, soft and so full of wonder. She's never imagined he'd ever have eyes like that. They've always been so bright and full of fire, but never a sign of having a gentle side.

A smile pulls at the corner of her mouth as Ryu jogs to catch up with him and wraps her arm through his, "You know."

"What?"

"You really are a nice guy," She grins, "No matter how much you deny it."

Raph spins a glare on her and Ryu takes off to escape his wrath.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody!"

"Shut up!" He growls, only making Ryu laugh that much harder.

Author's Note:

Also just a friendly note for readers. I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of new "affects" (as I like to call them) in the text itself. I did this on purpose for the sole purpose of driving everyone mad, but also because it is vital to the storyline. Here's a layout of what each "affect" means:

Italics-any words in this affect are personal Thoughts or Sounds.

Bold-any words in this affect are Computer Messages/Text Messages.

"Bold"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Computer Voices.

"Italics"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Past words/Emphasizing.

"Bold/Italics"-any words in this dual affect inside quotation marks are Past Computer Messages/Past Text Messages.

Bold/Italics-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Earth.

Italics/Underlined-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Spirit Guides.

Bold Underlined-any words in this dual affect are an Unknown Voice.

Hope this is confusing enough. See how many you can spot in the future chapters to come. :)

-Katt B.