A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Okay... I just watched the TMNT season finale for season 3, and, well, just when I thought that they couldn't out do the season 2 finale, they just... Well, you'll have to check it out for yourself, but all I can say is... OH... MY... GOD! If you haven't seen it, see it! It's up on the Internet right now, you can find it on Kisscartoon's website! It's awesome, and you won't regret it!

Now, that that's been said... update time! And in this chapter, I will try to give Jhanna a bit more character than in the last chapter. Hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 7, Meet Jhanna

The sun would rise in a few hours, and I felt my eyelids getting heavier and heavier. I hadn't slept in almost a day, and I was also starting to get hungry. The Professor and I had been sneaking around across the town to get to someplace safe without any soldiers spotting us , but that hadn't been easy. Everywhere we turned there was a new group of soldiers, so we had to run in a different direction before they could spot us. At the moment we were hiding in an alley, in the shadows, and trying to come up with a plan.

"Okay, you've lived here longer than I have, obviously, so do you have any idea on how to get off this planet? Can we sneak aboard a space ship or something? Or maybe steal one?" The Professor hummed in thought, tapped his finger against his metal cheek and then looked down at me.

"Well, I'd have to say the best way to get off the planet would be to hide on board a ship or, as some say these day, catch a ride with off-worlders. And to do that, we'd have to find smugglers; thankfully those are not hard to find on this planet. The question, though, is where to look first." I yawned and felt my jawbone crack ever so slightly. I had to shake my head a little to wake myself up, but it didn't help so much. I sat down on the cold pavement and leaned back against the wall of the building behind me. I just had to rest a little. I felt a cold hand on my shoulder, and looked up at the robot, who looked as concerned as he could, you know, with him being a robot. He crouched down beside me, his hand still on my shoulder.

"Are you alright, Donatello? You look a little pale and worn out." I took a deep breath and leaned my head back against the wall. I was so low on energy I was almost sleeping where I sat right now, and I had to pinch myself over and over to keep from nodding off. I looked up at the Professor and rubbed my hand over my eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, Professor, I'm just really, really tired." I had barely finished that sentence before I heard my stomach growl loudly and hungrily at me, telling me that it wanted me to eat something too. I groaned tiredly and placed my hand over my belly, feeling now just how hungry I really was. I looked up at the robot again, who still looked concerned, and smiled sheepishly.

"Okay, I guess I'm a bit hungry, too. I haven't eaten anything since..." I trailed off. Only now did I realize that I hadn't eaten anything at all since before we went on that patrol to the Kraang portal down in the sewers! That was almost three days ago now! How the heck could I not notice how hungry I was earlier? The Professor didn't eat, for obvious reasons, and I guess I had been in such a state of shock that I hadn't remembered that I needed to eat. Kinda like how I was back at home when I was working on something in my lab. But then my brothers always came in and either brought me food or forced me out of my lab and to the kitchen to eat. But since no one was here to remind me, I just hadn't thought about food. And right now, I was starving! The Professor walked up to the street and peaked out of the alley, looked around a little and then sneaking back to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder again.

"There are no soldiers on the streets at the moment, so we can move up the street to the next alley. We are close to a market place, we might be able to get some food from one of the stands." I nodded, but my head was pounding from of lack of sleep and food. I stood, but them immediately leaned back against the wall as a dizzy spell hit me and I was close to fainting. I took a few breaths, waited a few seconds for the dizziness to fade away, and then we started to run up the streets, staying close to the shadows and then diving into another alley. We stayed as close to the street as possible and spied on the few food stands we could see. There was nothing that I recognized in any of the stands, but that wasn't exactly a surprise. I was on a different planet, after all, so everything was bound to be different, even the food. And I was so hungry I could eat anything, so who cared if it looked different?

"Okay, so all I have to do is sneak over to one of the food stands and get some food? Shouldn't be so hard." I mumbled to myself, but I guess the Professor could still hear me, 'cause I saw him nod at me from the corner of my eye. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, someone grabbed me from behind, shoved me to the ground and placed their foot on my chest, keeping me down very easily since I was so weakened. I looked up and tried to see who it was who had attacked me, but the person was standing with their back against the sun that had started to rise over the buildings, so I couldn't see very much of him or her. But I heard that it was a girl when she started to talk, a rather young girl, in fact.

"Hold it right there, you thief! You won't be stealing anything from anyone, you hear me? I'm armed, just so you know!" I squinted a little and tried to see the attacker a bit better. She looked like one of those Federation Soldiers- in other words, like a human- had two long pigtails in a Japanese schoolgirl style, had a sword in her hand and some sort of scarf over her mouth, but that was about all I could see. I tried to push myself up from the ground and raised my hands to show that I surrendered.

"Whoa, whoa! Look Miss, I don't mean any trouble! But I haven't had anything to eat in days, and I really need something to eat or I'll starve! So, please, please could you overlook this theft, just this once?" The girl eyed me up and down, and then pushed me harder onto the ground and placed the tip of her sword inches away from my throat.

"Nice try, you dirty little freak! But I'm not stupid, and I've dealt with your kind before! I know that you'll just keep on stealing no matter what you say, that's the oldest trick in the book! I guess I'll just have to teach you what happens to those who steal." I guess I should be scared, or just nervous, but instead I got angry. No, not just angry. I was furious. So far I had been transported to another planet and hadn't been able to catch a break for the past few days. This one girl, who tried to deny me of getting something to eat, was the last straw for me. I raised my leg and kicked her off me with all the strength that I had and stood up again. I'd had enough, and that was easy to hear and see.

"Do you have any idea of what I've been put through? I've been transported to a different planet, light years away from my home and my family, been chased around by soldiers all day, been thrown into the midst of some kinda war on this planet and have had little to no sleep or food in almost three days! You might wanna step aside, cause I'm not gonna go easy on you if you don't!" The girl had stumbled away from me, had her hands over her chest, where I had kicked her, pulled down the scarf that covered her mouth and glared at me, without noticing that she had stepped into the light.

Now I could see her a lot better. She looked a little younger than Moriah, maybe around fifteen or sixteen years old, had blue skin and pointy ears, just like Moriah had, long and thick blue hair that reached down to her waist and was tied into those two high pigtails. She had slanted green eyes that looked very similar to the color of Moriah's eyes. She was dressed in a black tank top, a brown vest, tight black pants, and tall brown boots with a small, wide heel on them (I began to see a pattern with the colors and the way most people on this planet were dressed). But what was kind of unsettling about her was a long scar that ran across her face, from her left eyebrow and down to her right cheek, looking like it had come from a knife or a sword. She was very pretty and if she hadn't attacked me, I probably would have thought she was much more beautiful, but right now I was angry at her for calling me a thief. She gripped the sword tighter in her hand and narrowed her eyes at me.

"Oh, you want a piece of me? Well, why don't you come and get it, you little freak!" I pulled out my bo staff and got into a defensive position, ready to fight. But before either of us could attack the other, the Professor interfered.

"Jhanna, stand down! He is a friend of mine! He means no harm!" The girl, apparently named Jhanna, looked over at the Professor in shock and surprise; I guess she hadn't seen him before. She lowered her sword, placed it in the strap on her back and walked up to him.

"Professor? What the... What are you doing with this alien? I thought you were trying to hide from my father's soldiers." Father? You mean that this girl is related to Moriah, the daughter of their leader? Oh great, a new girl that had roots to their leader! The Professor walked over to me, placed his arm around my shoulders and brought me into the light as well, so she could see me better.

"This is Donatello, from the planet Earth, far away from our world. He was transported here through an accident with an alien portal on his own planet. He and I made a deal, he has promised to help me off this planet and protect me from your father's soldiers and I will help him get to his own planet in exchange. He has a good heart and means no harm, and I can guarantee that he's not a thief." Jhanna eyed me from head to toe with a critical eye.

"Wait a second..." She mumbled to herself, leaned in closer to me and examined every detail of my face and body. She then moved away from my face, placed her hand over her mouth, looking thoughtful. "I've seen you before." She said and then walked around me in a circle, examining me carefully.

"Yes, yes! Your picture is all over the planet. You and the Professor's. You're his so called 'bodyguard' and hunted just as much as the Professor is." Wait, what? I was a hunted 'criminal' on the planet? Oh, great! Now, as soon as somebody saw me I would be seen as a threat and I would have the military after me in less than a minute! Oh, that's just terrific!

"Ugh, sewer apples!" I muttered to myself and hit my thigh with a clenched fist. Both Jhanna and the Professor looked at me strangely, but I didn't care. Forget that I was hungry and tired; we had to get off this planet, ASAP!

"Professor, we have to get off this planet, now! We need to come up with a plan!" The Professor nodded, but Jhanna perked up immediately after I spoke, grabbed me by the strap over my chest and pulled me close to her face.

"Wait, you're gonna leave the planet?" I nodded slowly and tried to pull my face away from hers, but it wasn't exactly easy, since she held me so close to her own face and she had a strong grip, and also because I had a shell that hindered me from moving my face so far away from hers.

"Uh, yeah... Especially now that our pictures are all over the planet. We'll be hunted both night and day! We'll have to get away from here." Jhanna bit her lip and looked like she was thinking hard over what I had said. I tried to pull her hand away from my strap, but she had strong hands and just tightened her grip on me. After a while, she let go of me and looked at the Professor and me.

"I can help you! I know a place where we can find some smugglers that could help us get off the planet. And it's not too far away from here! We'll be miles away from here by the end of the day!" I raised my eyebrow at her doubtfully and then looked at the robot beside me. He looked down on me and placed his hand on Jhanna's shoulder.

"Jhanna is a good girl. I have known her for a long time, and she has been against her father and his ideas. We can trust her, I know it. You don't have to worry about her being against us." I eyed the girl up and down and I couldn't help but feel doubtful about her. She had attacked me, threatened to severely hurt me and now suddenly wanted to help us. She noticed my look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Look, I don't care much for you and if you survive or not, but if you want to protect The Professor and keep him away from my father, then we're on the same side. He's been my friend since I was a little girl, and I will protect him from being used against his will, even if it means leaving my home behind! And, if you let me help you, I could overlook the fact that you were going to steal and help you get some food. So, what do you say? Deal?" She reached out a hand to me, just like I had done when I asked the Professor if he wanted my help in exchange for helping me get back home, and I thought it over.

A part of me wanted to decline her help and figure this out on my own, but a bigger part of me said that I would never be able to figure everything out on my own, even with the Professor's help, and I needed somebody who knew this part of the galaxy better than I did. I didn't like this girl, but she knew more about this world than I did, and might be able to help. So I swallowed my pride, grabbed her hand and shook it, rather unenthusiastically and with a heavy sigh.

"Ugh, alright fine. Let's work together. So what's the plan- uh, Jhanna, right?" She nodded and turned to the Professor instead of me.

"Okay, we'll go to this tavern a few blocks away from here, it's a place where many smugglers tend to get some rest, food and whatever they need before they leave again. And there we can find someone who might be able to get us off the planet, one way or another." She said the last part as she hit her fist into her hand with a smirk, which reminded me so very much of something Raph would do. I felt my heart clench for a second and a sting of homesickness and longing for my brother hit me for the hundredth time since I got here, but I took a deep breath to get rid of the feeling and walked over to the sidewalk and pointed up the street.

"Well then, what are we waiting around for, let's get moving!" Jhanna and the Professor nodded and we started to sneak up the street.

A/N: And there, it's done! In the next chapter I hope I can get some more action into it, as well as some moments with the turtles and Splinter as well. And I will also try to give some screen-time to April and Casey and not just the turtles and Splinter. Though, just so you know, I won't have the turtles, Splinter and the others in every chapter, since I want to focus on the big story, but I will cut back to them every now and then, just to give you a chance to check in on them and see how they're doing with Donnie gone.

Hope you liked the chapter and please review, favorite and follow!