A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Hello, I'm late, but I'm back with a new chapter! And I am finally able to write a bit with Donnie and friends in this chapter! Yay, it's been, like, three chapters since I could do that!

And, as for how I'm writing Karai in this chapter, honestly I really don't like her all that much anymore, or at least not as much as I did in season 1 and part of season 2. So I decided to not to have her find out the truth, not mutate her and have her play a central part in the story (for now anyway) and have her not want to listen Leo. And I felt like this was the best thing I could do to have it established. And I also think that considering everything that's happened so far, I didn't think Leo would be as enthusiastic to let her know the truth.

Hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 26: A Stab in the Back from the Foot

The bright white metal that made up the ship's walls and floors blinded me for a moment as I woke up in my bedroom, yawning and stretching my arms and back to wake up my muscles. I didn't know what time it was, seeing as there were no clocks onboard, but after being used to waking up at 6AM every day of my entire life, I was able to use my internal clock to estimate- and it felt as though it was still pretty early, so I assumed that everybody else was still asleep. I sat up, rubbed my hands over my eyes and yawned again.

"Oh, jeez; I don't think I've had such a good night's rest since I was a kid. If ever, that is." I mumbled to myself and sloppily tied my mask over my face before slowly getting out of bed and stretching my limbs and torso to wake up entirely. I placed my hand against my forehead to try and check my temperature, and even though I couldn't tell if the fever was gone, I still felt better than I had two days ago. In fact, I felt so much better than I had yesterday or that day we escaped prison. It was only then that I realized that I had fallen asleep in my space suit last night. And even though it was made of a comfortable and flexible fabric, it had started to make me feel stiff and uncomfortable. I slowly unzipped the suit and started to take it off and fold it neatly before placing it on my bed. I turned around to walk out the door when I saw my old gear, folded neatly on the dresser, a small note on top of them.

Fixed and washed your stuff for it might be a good thank you. - Mona Lisa.

It was a very short message and I could practically hear Mona's cynical and disinterested voice as I read her words. She must've found the gear and sewn it back together where it was needed, fixing the slightly torn leather. It was also washed and if I hadn't known that I had been wearing it during my incarceration in the fiercest prison I'd ever seen, I wouldn't have been able to tell.

I sat down on the bed and put on my knee pads and elbow pads, then wrapped my feet and wrists with the wraps that were, surprisingly enough, still intact and not too tattered as they should be after days of being in a Triceraton prison. After I was done with that, I left my provisional bedroom and strolled down the hallway, towards the Food Replicator and the holographic training room.

I entered and noticed that the room was empty, making the rather easy deduction that no one else was awake yet and that I would be alone for a while until the next person woke up. That never happened at home- there was always somebody awake and in every room, either watching TV in the pit, eating something in the kitchen or training in the dojo. It was pretty hard to get any privacy in a family of five, and I couldn't always do what I wanted. Partly because the others also wanted to, for example, watch TV, and it would usually end in a fight over who would get to watch what he wanted, and partly because I had a problem saying what I wanted, and that usually led to the others walking all over me and doing what they wanted anyway. Now I could do whatever I wanted until the others woke up and nobody would say anything about it. The walls were made out of solid metal so thick that they were soundproof, meaning I wouldn't have to worry about being too loud.

"Hmm… If I'm going to wake up at this hour every day I'm here, and the others are gonna sleep in, then I'm really gonna enjoy these mornings." I usually tried not to talk loudly to myself, since at home it usually ended up in me getting teased by the others for being weird, but now I decided to do it; simply because I could.

I walked out of the room and came into the control room, where everything was controlled, calculated and decided. The weapons, the direction we were going in, the info that we needed... All in here. I sighed and shook my head in amazement. I had been onboard for less than three days, but my head was still rushing to take in all this new tech, this new world and the new allies I had made.

I approached the main computers to check how far we were from our goal for now; the wormhole that would take us to Filione. We were going pretty fast now, and I hoped we weren't wasting fuel by doing so. But, who knows, maybe the people on Filione would help us with what we needed and could give us food, fuel and other things we might need. Or they might be as self-preserved and cautious as Mona Lisa and wouldn't want to help us in the slightest.

"Okay, so we're about 3245 gazilacrons away from that wormhole. One gazilacron is about 1700 microseconds, so if I convert that to Earth hours, it would mean... we'd get there about two days from now if we consistently maintain this speed. Okay, that's good. I just hope the Triceratons and the Federation don't know about the wormhole, or we'd be in deep trouble." I stood and went to the other door at the other side of the control room to go and take a shower and then clean and change the bandage on my wound. It had started to close and heal itself pretty well, but it was still there and still hurt a bit. I had also figured that it was going to leave a bit of a scar, since it hadn't been treated as well as it should have the day that I got it.

After my shower I felt that I was getting hungry and went to what I am from now on going to call the dining and entertainment room, to get some breakfast from the Food Replicator. Out of instinct I was going to go for cereal with a glass of orange juice, but then it hit me. I could ask for whatever I wanted, no limits at all. No Mikey was here to try and create some new strange and disgusting food, making me have to settle for the cereal every morning. And no brothers here to hog all the good stuff before I could have some. Anything I wanted, exactly how I wanted it. So I started to think it over. What did I want to eat? After a few minutes of thinking I settled for pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and a glass of milk.

Pancakes and waffles were rare meals back home, since Master Splinter always wanted us to eat nutritious food as often as possible. Especially for breakfast, considering how much pizza we ate for lunch and dinner. That usually meant eggs, cereal, toast, milk and orange juice. And whenever April was kind enough to buy us some batter, or at least the ingredients for some, Mikey either hogged it to make some new and quote-unquote 'better' pancakes with it- such as a pizza made out of pancakes- which usually ended up tasting horrible, or, when we did have normal pancakes, a fight would break out over who would get the most of the delicious rarities. The scuffles almost always resulted in me getting one or two pancakes, if I was lucky, and I had always been too timid to say anything about it.

I sat down on the couch and started to eat, thinking over the last month. So far, everything had gone at rapid speed and I constantly had to adapt to new surroundings, new creatures, new allies, new everything. But now that I was aboard a ship with friendly aliens (save for one girl- I had no idea what her problem was) and everything had started to slow down to a more even pace, I had gotten more time to take it all in and swallow it, piece by piece. And, as weird as it is for me to say, I had gotten more or less used to being in space. I had come to the conclusion that this was where I was gonna spend the next few months, whether I liked it or not, and I had pretty much accepted it. And I had also started to accept my new mission: to save Earth from being sucked into a black hole, and to save millions upon millions of people from being destroyed.

Also, every time I had time to think over my mission and how it was essentially to save an entire planet and all the millions of people on it, I realized just how big it really was. And a small part of me- the smug, cocky braggart side of me- couldn't help but feel a bit complacent about it. That this was my mission, not me and my family's mission. Only mine.

I had thought it over almost every day now since I came on board the ship, and, as much I wanted to try and be serious and humble about it, I couldn't help but feel a bit smug about it. Out of all the creatures on my planet, Fate- or Destiny or whatever- had chosen me to save the planet from the Triceratons, and save the people of Earth from dying. It could've been all of my brothers and I, but it was only me. For whatever reason, I had been pulled into this mess and I was now on a mission to save the Earth from destruction- and only me. Well, okay, I had friends who were willing to help me, but still. It could've been all of my family and friends, but it was only me. And, I had to admit, that felt pretty good.

Still... I couldn't help but wish that my brothers were here. Even though I had friends around me, I still felt lonely and like I had no one to talk to about what had happened. At least, no one who would understand. But then again, it's not like I've ever had somebody to talk to who fully understood me. Everybody always assumed that, just because I was smart and sometimes used big words, I always talked like that; or they thought my problems always involved science, math or something else that they wouldn't understand, so they never bothered to try and listen. And that meant I couldn't really talk to anyone besides Splinter (sometimes) and that ultimately led to me dealing with my problems alone. That, or talking to April (who I couldn't always talk about my problems with, for obvious reasons) or with a frozen Timothy. Sufficient to say, I had felt pretty lonely for a big part of my life, even when I had my brothers there with me. And my father.

How were they coping without me? Had they moved on? Were they trying to forget about me, and just act like I had never existed? Did they... Did they miss me, at all? Or were they relieved I was gone? I mean, they had treated me like a doormat for years, so now that I was gone, was there really any difference from when I was there with them?

I shook my head and felt tempted to splash the milk in my face to stop myself from thinking like that. No. No, I couldn't think that way- of course my family missed me as much as I missed them. They probably thought I was dead; of course they'd be heartbroken and grief-stricken over that. We'd been living together as brothers for almost sixteen years, and we'd always taken care of each other and protected each other from harm, so it only made sense that they would miss me after my death- or disappearance, I should say. They loved me and they cared for me; they always had. I was sure that they still did- they couldn't be that coldhearted and uncaring about me. They had been there for me before, plenty of times, back when we were kids and up until present time. And they had each shown it in their own ways. So it wasn't like they hated me by any means. Far from it, actually, now that I thought about it.

Once, when we were about ten years old, I had been sick with the flu and it had gotten pretty bad. Okay, not to a point where anyone thought I would die or anything (save maybe Mikey), but still pretty bad as far fever and stomach bugs go. And Leo had been there the whole time, sitting beside me on my bed, ready to take care of me in every way he could, either by getting me water, feeding me soup, or giving me a tissue to blow my nose with… Or to just sit there and hold my hand or pat me on the back when I had to throw up or when I had a coughing fit and almost coughed up my lungs, even when I said that he didn't have to and he could go and do something else. He had just said that it was his job as the oldest brother to take care of me, Raph and Mikey when we needed it, and that he didn't mind doing it one bit.

One time, when we were thirteen and we got our skateboards, I had fallen and sprained my foot when Raph dared me to try an advanced move and I failed miserably. And the entire time when my foot was in a cast, Raph had let me lean on his shoulder as he helped me walk across whatever room I was attempting to navigate, even though Splinter had given me a crutch that would help me better than my bo staff would. When I asked Raph why he insisted on helping me, he had said it was because Splinter had told him to, but I had seen the guilt in his eyes and, well, I'm not stupid- I can put two and two together. He did it because he felt responsible for my injury, but I was smart enough to know that it wouldn't be a good idea to say that out loud, so I had chosen to let it go at the time. I had only said a simple 'thank you', and even though he shrugged it off like I hadn't said anything, he had still smiled and given me a noogie, which, at the time, was the closest thing Raph would come to a show of affection.

And once, when we were five, an hour after Raph had teased me about how bad I was at ninjutsu and said that he didn't understand why Splinter had kept me since I was so useless and that no one cared for me after a training session, Mikey had come into my room about and given me a picture of the two of us that he had drawn for me. It sort of looked like a get-well-soon card, only instead Mikey had written 'I kare 4 u' over the two turtles in the drawing. And I had been so touched and happy about the gesture that I hadn't bothered to correct him on his spelling. I had just hugged him and we sat down and played with Mikey's action figures in the living room until Sensei called us into the kitchen for lunch.

All of these gestures were relatively small, nothing to get too excited over, but they were still enough to show that my brothers cared about me. In fact, Mikey flat out said it with his little drawing, and those actions were enough to show me that even though they teased and ridiculed me at times, they still loved me. In fact, if I remembered correctly, I still had that picture in one of my desk drawers in my lab.

And even during the more recent days, even with how badly they had treated me, they still had found time to show that they still loved me. If they didn't, Raph wouldn't have ditched Slash like he did to go and look for me and the take care of my sprained arm after he had found me. Mikey wouldn't have spent so much time in my lab while I worked on the retro-mutagen or on some invention just to keep me company; that had given me someone to talk to, even though he did try to avoid my 'techno-babble' as much he could. And Leo wouldn't have come into my lab to check on me after our fight with Timothy, and then stayed there for an hour and a half, just letting me cry on his shoulder, helping me get to bed afterwards.

I sighed and looked down at my plate. There were still two pancakes left, but I suddenly didn't feel that hungry anymore. I took the plate and carried it over to the Food Replicator, pouring it back down into the machine so it could break it back down into molecules and energy and be used to make new food later. Then I poured the remaining milk in my glass as well. Training with Traximus would start soon, and I should probably get myself ready for it.

I was sitting on a rooftop and looking out over the city as the moon lit my view, watching the few people that were out on their way home or someplace else. We had been on patrol every day for about two weeks now. It was a bit easier than the first time we had gone on patrol. We had gone out each night to keep an eye on the invasion that Leatherhead had said could be coming any day now. Raph and Mikey had already gone home since nothing of interest had occurred during patrol. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen tonight. And besides, it still felt weird to be on patrol without Donnie, even if we had done it for a few weeks.

Our first mission hadn't really been too hard; it was actually pretty easy. All we'd had to do was break in, destroy the lock and then sneak back out again. And when I say 'sneak', I mean 'let Leatherhead lead the way, bash Kraang-bots and then break out of TCRI again'. But it still felt weird to go on a mission without Donnie, and even though I had learned how to pick a Kraang lock long ago, it still felt weird to do it myself rather than let Donnie do the stuff he was good at.

And here I was, all alone out in the big city, trying to wrap my head around being out on patrol again and getting back into training. Splinter had tried to train us again, but his head was clearly someplace else. He had practically let us spar the entire time, and every now and then he'd let us practice certain katas; but I guess that was better than nothing. And I had to admit that it felt good to train and be outside of the lair again. It felt great to get some fresh air and run around and jump from rooftop to rooftop again. But it still was painfully obvious that something was still missing. A crucial part; a part that could never be replaced.

"Donnie, why did you have to leave so soon? We need you so much right now. How can I lead our family to safety when there's an inevitable invasion coming up any day now, and without you there to help me? You would know what to do." I chuckled to myself. "Heh, I bet you would've come up with some cool invention to take down the Kraang. Something as useful as it was awesome. You always did combine the two so well." My smile faded away and I looked down at the ground, feeling an all-too-familiar heat rising behind my eyelids.

"Of course... chances are that if you had, I wouldn't have listened. Like I never have before." I wiped my hands across my eyes, wiping away any unwelcome tears and trying to collect myself by taking deep breaths.

"Well, sure didn't think that I'd see you out here tonight." I looked up from the street and saw Karai there, on top of a billboard with her usual cocky smirk. She looked at me as if I was a mouse and she was a cat, wanting to play with her food before eating it. I jumped up from my seat and Karai jumped down from the billboard- she landed in a crouching pose in front of me with her sword in her hand.

"Karai, I don't know what you're doing here or what you want from me, but trust me, I am really not in the mood for a fight. Leave now, or I swear you'll regret it." She smiled cockily at me, somewhat amused by my words, but I could still see that she was angry with me for some reason. She gripped the sword a little tighter in her hands, but dropped the fighting pose and walked up to me, still with her cocky smirk and her snake-like body movement.

"Heh, somebody doesn't want to play? That's too bad- I was so looking forward a good fight. Oh well, I guess I'll settle for the latter." She swung the sword at me. I drew one of my own katanas, blocking her attack at the last second. I know I usually wanted to help Karai know the truth about herself, but today, the only thing running through my mind was WHY CAN'T THIS GIRL EVER LEARN TO TAKE A HINT?

"Karai, I'm serious! Leave me alone! I really don't want to fight right now!" I pushed my sword against hers and pushed her away from me, making her stumble backwards and almost drop her weapon. But she nimbly regained her footing and swung at me again.

"I saw you earlier tonight. Just three of you. What happened to the fourth one? You know, that scrawny, weak and useless geek you call a brother?" I dodged her attack, her words making the blood boil in my veins. I had heard Raph and Mikey say it before, and there had been times when we would all look at Donnie as an inferior ninja- mostly due to him liking to be in his lab rather than training in the dojo. But now, hearing our words coming from somebody else's mouth… well, it just made my temper flare up like gasoline on a fire. And I refused to just stand there and listen to Karai as she insulted my dead brother. Without a second thought, I punched her directly in the face with my free hand, leaving a big bruise on her cheek. She spat out some blood as well.

"Don't you dare call him weak or useless! Never, ever again! And what's happened to him is none of your concern! Now leave me alone, Karai!" She coughed some more blood into her palm and looked up at me again, her stupid smirk still stuck on her face. Though it wasn't as stable as it had been earlier.

"Oh, I didn't mean to hit a nerve, Leo. I feel for you. No, really, I do." She talked with a fake sweet and sympathetic voice. She had her hands resting on her heart and a sickeningly convincing emotional expression on her face. I rolled my eyes at her and pushed her out of the way with my shoulder, just wanting to be away from that twisted excuse for a human being. I used to find her intriguing and pleasing to the eye- but right now her very existence was thoroughly revolting to me. "I mean, it must feel horrible to know that your brother's so incompetent and useless that you'll just have to- well, you know- get rid of him." I halted, feeling like I had just been punched in the stomach, and had sudden difficulty breathing. Did she just imply that we had... And then I felt the anger in me boil up again. I felt myself snap.

I grabbed both of my swords and swung them at Karai. She blocked the attack that she clearly had seen coming, but I didn't care. I just swung over and over, my anger and grief controlling my actions.

"You know nothing! Nothing about us, nothing about Donnie! You have no right to talk about him like that!" Karai smirked; I could tell that she wanted me to react this way. She was playing with me; a psychopathic cat with a hurting mouse. A mouse that was already injured and couldn't run away, and yet one she still insisted on torturing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Leo. I was just curious. You know, to see if the Kraang actually came through with their end of the deal: to destroy you with their portal. Oh, oops!" She placed her hand over her mouth like she hadn't meant to say that, but the tone of her voice told me that she had very much meant to. My body went cold and my arms dropped to my sides.

"What? What did you just say?" She shrugged, placed her hand on her hip and shifted her weight onto said hip. She smiled and looked pretty foxy, like she knew something I didn't.

"Well, I was hoping all of you would be sucked through, but I suppose one is good, too. The plan was meant to destroy you, but even if most of you survived, the loss of a loved one and a teammate will leave an impact on you all either way. So I'd call it a win, anyway." The world went quiet around me and the colors faded away. That had been planned? The Shredder had made the Kraang set up the portal, knowing we would show up and thus try to destroy us by sucking us through to another planet, galaxy or dimension? And they had succeeded with it; they had destroyed one of us. And that was all they needed to know. They knew us well enough to know we would be vulnerable without all of our teammates, and thus open for an attack.

The colors and sounds came back again and I swung at her again, catching her off-guard and making her drop her blade altogether, and I took full advantage of the moment. I grabbed her by the collar of her ninja garb and pulled her up so I could look her in the eyes.

"You knew? You knew we would try to stop the Kraang, and what would happen when we did? You knew that they would try to suck us through the portal, take us to Dimension X and kill us by doing so, didn't you? Didn't you?!" She was still caught off guard and didn't respond at first. But she eventually responded by smirking at me again and wiping the blood off of her chin with her thumb.

"Of course. What, did you think that Shredder wanted more to do with those disgusting worm-things? No, he wanted to destroy you. In fact, the whole thing was my idea- and I have to admit, I thought it worked. You know, since we didn't see you for so long? Pity, though- I'd been hoping you would all be gone, sucked into oblivion to die horrible deaths… But I guess getting rid of one of you will suffice for now." She glared as she spoke, looked me straight in the eyes and ripped away from my grasp, leaning in so close that her nose almost touched mine.

"Your rat master took my mother away from me, so I took away one of his dear, beloved children that he loves so much. An eye for an eye, Leo; that's how the world works." I growled at her and shoved her away from me. Tears were burning in my eyes, and I felt a pain in my chest that I recognized all too well: the agony of a broken heart.

"You're despicable, Karai, you know that? I don't understand why I defended you and called you good- you're just as bad as the Shredder. I don't really care if you're Splinter's daughter anymore or not; nobody of his blood would ever agree on something like that! What will destroying us do for you, anyway? Bring back your mother? 'Cause it won't, and you know that." Her gaze suddenly dropped to the ground, less cocky and more a mix of being nonchalant and a tad thoughtful. I knew she probably didn't care, but I had to say it.

"My brother is dead now. My little brother. He's never coming back again- because of you. And I will never forgive you for that. You are evil. I want you to know that. And I also want you to forget that I ever tried to reason with you or to help you change your ways. From now on, I'll do whatever I can to take you and your so-called 'father' down. Because that's what Donnie would've wanted. You run back to Shredder and tell him that from this night on, we are at war!" I leapt from the rooftop and lifted the nearest manhole to jump down into the sewers. But before I could, I heard Karai call something after me.

"You know you won't win this, right? You and your family are going to pay for what you've done to me and mine! We started with your brother, and we will finish you all! You hear me? We'll finish you all!" I bit my lip to keep myself from saying anything stupid and jumped down into the sewers. As quickly as possible, I ran back towards the lair. I felt tears burning behind my eyelids and it wasn't long before some of them managed to fall from my eyes and cascade down my cheeks.

I couldn't believe this; this was too much to take in. Karai, the girl I had once believed to have something good in her from the very first time I met her, had just revealed that the supposed 'freak accident' in that Kraang hideout had been planned- and it was meant to destroy us all. That Kraang bot hadn't fired at the portal to get Donnie or April- it was meant to make it go nuts and send us all through the portal to destroy us. And I know I had been really forgiving with Karai and had overlooked the bad things she had done in the past, but this time, her idea had k- I swallowed thickly. This time, her idea had killed one of my little brothers, and that's where I drew the line. If somebody- anybody at all- tried to hurt my younger brothers, they were my absolute enemies.

When I finally came back to the lair I saw Mikey sitting and talking with Raph, who was taking care of a small injury he had gotten when we fought the Kraang tonight. Leatherhead and Splinter were in deep discussion about something off to the side. But when I jumped over the turnstiles, everybody turned to me. Master Splinter, who had his eyes on Leatherhead the whole time, walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulder.

"Leonardo, what happened? Are you alright?" I took deep breaths, tried to keep my emotions in check and licked my lips, trying to think of something to say. After a while, I looked up at my father, felt the tears in my eyes threaten to fall and finally managed to speak.

"K-Karai is not part of this family! And she never will be!" After I had managed to get those words over my lips, I tore away from my father's hands and ran to my room, ripped the door open, ran inside and slammed it shut behind me. I threw myself onto my bed and buried my face into my pillow.

How could I have been so stupid? What had I seen in her that had made me believe that she was good, deep down and under the hate and evil that Shredder had raised her in? This was the same girl that had left us after she had created a mutant monster that attacked us, and had tried to kill us more than once. And she had been raised by the Shredder: the man who had lost his mind years ago and was determined to kill us and Master Splinter. And besides, even if she did learn the truth and eventually believed it, she was still the same girl who had tried to kill us several times. What had made me think that she would join us just because she learned the truth about herself? Raph was right, I had been delusional and had just believed what I'd wanted to believe- just like that time with Karai wanting to team up with us to stop the Kraang when she learned that the Kraang wanted to take over our planet. And this time, it had cost me one of my brothers. When would I learn?

I heard the door open, and somebody walked in and then closed the door behind him. I felt somebody place their hand on my back and rub my shell gently and comfortingly.

"Leo? Are you okay?" I looked up and saw Raph and Mikey standing there, looking concerned, Raph patting my shell. I sat up on my bed and leaned back against the wall, wrapping my arms around my knees and looking down on the mattress in shame.

"I'm lying on my bed, face buried in my pillow after saying something I thought I would never say out loud. What makes you think something's wrong?" I couldn't force myself to look into Raph's eyes. He had told me from day one that Karai was bad news; that she would never join us. And now I finally saw that he was right. She was too influenced by the Shredder to see the truth. If she even wanted to see the truth at all, which I was now starting to doubt. Mikey sat down beside me and patted my shoulder.

"Bro, talk to us. You're obviously upset, and we wanna know why. We don't need any more tension in this place than there already is." I sighed and looked up at Mikey, then at Raph for one second before looking down again.

"Okay. I'll tell you. But I think it would be better if I told everyone at the same time. I don't think I could say it more than once- at least for now." They both nodded and we exited into the living room. Raph had his arm around my shell and Mikey leaned his head against my arm. It wasn't much, but those small gestures made me feel a bit better. Master Splinter was standing beside Leatherhead, who was sitting on the steps to the lab, caring for his small wounds. But when Splinter saw us, he walked up to me and once again placed his hands on my shoulders.

"Leonardo, what troubles you? What happened out there to make you so upset?" I took a deep breath, slowly pulled away from my father's hands and sat down on the couch with my shell to my family. I couldn't bear to look at them right now.

"I... I ran into Karai earlier tonight." Raph sat down beside me, facing the same direction as me, and pulled one leg up to his chest, resting his arm on his knee.

"Yeah, we figured as much. What I don't understand is why you said what you said. I mean, before this whole thing with..." He trailed off for a second, taking a deep, shaky breath before he looked back at me. "... you know, with Donnie, you went on and on about how Karai was really good inside and that she had to know the truth so she and Splinter could be reunited. Why change that opinion now, and why so suddenly?" I couldn't look back at him. I was too ashamed to meet his eyes. I inhaled deeply and bit my lip. I had to say it, but how could I say it? How could I say that Karai, who was really Splinter's daughter, had killed one of his sons with her plans? I was still trying to process it myself. I took a deep breath.

"K-Karai told me that our fight with the Kraang had been planned by the Shredder. That the idea was for the Kraang to suck us into the portal and into Dimension X, hoping it would kill us. It wasn't the Kraang that planned to do something with those Kraathatro... Kraathra...Kraathromo... Ugh, those worms that they used to create mutagen! They were planning to destroy us- it was all planned!" I tried to talk as calmly as I could, but my voice kept breaking and I couldn't make myself look up to watch anyone's reaction. I could hear Splinter gasp and in the corner of my eye I saw Mikey throw his arms around Leatherhead's neck. I took a short breath and tried to fight back the tears that had returned with a vengeance.

"They only managed to get one of us, but that's all they needed. Karai had planned it to happen; it was her idea. She wanted to take one of us because she still thinks that Splinter killed her mother. So she thinks it's fair- he took someone from her so she has taken someone from us. She sees it as 'an eye for an eye', and is determined to make sure to destroy the rest of us as well." I had to calm down a little after I had stopped talking, since I didn't realize before how fast I had talked. I looked at Raph through the corner of my eye and saw that he had clenched his hands into fists, trying to hold back his infamous rage. His eyes were shut tightly, but after a while he opened them again and took a deep breath through his nose. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Splinter had lowered his head, obviously torn apart by this news; Mikey still hugged Leatherhead, who looked sympathetic but also a little confused, which was understandable. I looked at Raph with a slightly lowered head, and I felt a like puppy, waiting to be kicked by its cruel owner.

"Well, aren't you going to say it?" Raph seemed to be ejected from his anger and looked at me as if I had just dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over his head, or woken him from a deep trance. Newly awoken and widened green eyes, looking straight into mine.

"What do you mean? Say what?" I looked away again. I felt tears threaten to fall from my eyes, and I fought as hard as I could to hold them back.

"You know... 'I told you so'?" Raph sighed heavily and placed his arm around my shoulders and hugged me close in his usual Raph-manner. And I had to admit, that was not the reaction I had expected.

"Maybe I would, any other day. But now, seeing how upset you are, I won't. With everything going on right now, and everything that's happened, I think the last thing you need right now- the last thing any of us needs- is any harsh words from me." I looked up at my brother and couldn't help but smile- but it was a very weak smile.

"Thanks, Raph." Raph smiled back and patted me on the shoulder.

"But I hope you've learned something from this." I nodded and looked up at him, and then at the others.

"Yeah, Karai is too influenced by Shredder and his vendetta and lust for our deaths; she's too corrupted to save. I see that now. And I was an idiot for believing that she would change her mind- you can't just remove sixteen years of being raised into such a specific and coldhearted life. You can't just change your ways and your perception of reality because someone tells you that you that your life is a lie." Master Splinter's face was scrunched up in emotional pain and he was clearly having a bit of a hard time trying to accept that his daughter had essentially killed one of his sons without batting an eye over it. But he took a deep breath and gazed sadly at all of us while trying to remain composed.

"This... is a hard blow. For us all. But at the time, Karai no longer matters. In a matter days, perhaps even hours, the Kraang will invade; and it that will have to be our number one priority for now." He turned to look at me, Mikey and Raph.

"Gather up as many of our allies as you can, my sons. We will need all the help we can get, and we need to form a plan. A plan to stop the Kraang, once and for all."

A/N: Okay, the reason why Karai isn't a part of the major storyline may be a little weak, but I still wanted Leo to have a legit reason to not like Karai very much at this point in the story, and that was the best thing I could come up with. Also, I'm sorry if Leo's a little OOC here, but I wanted to do this, so... yeah. And from this chapter on, and about two or three chapters forward, I will focus on Donnie and Co., and then jump back to the Invasion. Time may be a little confusing, but whatever. It's so hard to write time in this story.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!