The sky had darkened and was raining for some time. Things were a little quieter than usual in the canyon-town of Omairi which was built into the walls of the crevice. Being the home of the Kikyōmon Clan, its geography helped to keep its residents relatively secluded from the general view of the other clans, though the somewhat shanty-like appearance of the built structures didn't contribute to greatness. It may as well have been the edge of a sewer canal to the casual unwary eye.

In a small meeting room seated deep within the canyon wall, three of the Kikyōmon – the purple-masked turtle, orange-masked turtle, and the black-haired woman – were gathered there. A pair of sliding doors which served as the entrance opened up to reveal the red-masked turtle and blue-masked turtle, whose name was apparently Leo, walking in.

"Raph, how is she?" the orange-masked turtle asked his red-masked comrade who was sitting down on a nearby crate, apparently inquiring about the red-haired girl.

"Still sleeping," the red-masked turtle called Raph responded.

Leo stood next to the black-haired woman, who lowered her head in slight bewilderment. Lifting her hand up to her line of sight, she examined the ring on her finger. "She didn't have a Tag Ring," she remarked, rotating her hand to look at her own ring. "Who could she be?"

"We shouldn't be thinking about the girl right now," the purple-masked turtle interjected. "Whatever happened after the battle is unclear. Anyway, what are these markings?" He looked at everyone in the room, prompting them all to look at the new tattoo-like insignias imprinted on their skin. The purple-masked turtle had a marking on his left lower leg. The black-haired woman had one on her chest. The orange-masked turtle also had one, just on his upper right leg. The red-masked turtle known as Raph looked down to the marking on his right forearm that he held against his hip. Finally, there was the blue-masked Leo who had the marking on his left cheek. The purple-masked turtle continued speaking, "Our priority is to clarify and assess the situation."

Raph, who was leaning on his back against the wall, looked disquieted. But he looked up to face his purple-masked cohort. "I'll go to the Scale Tail Clan."

"To the Scale Tail Clan's territory?" asked the orange-masked turtle.

"Yeah, I will," Raph replied, "they might have an answer for us."

Leo stepped forward, turning his eyes to Raph. "I'll go with Raph," he announced, "and we'll need one more for the trip. The rest will stay and guard the base."

There was a brief moment of silence as the others contemplated who will make the next decision. Then, the black-haired woman spoke up, "I will go. I also want an explanation."

Leo nodded in affirmation as he got his two companions together. "Then we'll be off. Let's make the preparations." Both nodded in return and went to leave the room. Only Leo and his purple and orange-masked mates were left in the room. Leo went to the strategy table where his purple-masked companion was standing to discuss a plan of action. "Donnie," Leo told him, "since we're going into enemy territory, I understand that you know the consequences better than anyone in the Kikyōmon. What will we need to look out for?" The purple-masked turtle, or Donnie as he was called, had a look of deep thought for a moment, but then faced Leo.

"The Scale Tail Clan always prioritizes protection of their borders," he reasoned, "so you'll need to expect a number of guards. You'll have to move quickly and quietly."

Leo squinted one of his eyes slightly. "But we are going to their territory to exchange information. They have to respect our intentions of a ceasefire based on that."

Donnie shook his head, however. "That may well be, but we can't afford to let our guard down, no matter the circumstance." He looked back down to the strategy table. "Who knows if they're planning to do the same as you?" Leo somehow was not assured. He turned to leave Donnie, but he was interrupted by Donnie last parting remark, "Just don't concern yourself with the girl. Our only concern should be reaching Tengoku." Leo stood for a moment after hearing Donnie tell him that, but soon walked away, leaving Donnie to his own thinking.

"Yes, Tengoku," Leo thought to himself. Leo's clan, the Kikyōmon, was one out of six clans that fought each other for as long as he could remember, or at least all of his conscious life. What they were fighting for was the right to enter Tengoku. From what he understood, Tengoku was the end goal of his people – a place, or state of being, or whatever it was – where no more fighting was required and life would be different, but even Leo only knew so much, and however much he knew wasn't enough. But first, the Kikyōmon was required to conquer and rule over the other clans first. Only then would his clan be allowed into Tengoku.

Finding the orange-masked turtle still sitting on the same crate, Leo walked over to start another interaction. "Mikey," he addressed the sitting turtle. The orange-masked turtle, known as Mikey, turned to look up towards Leo and gave him a sign of acknowledgment. "Do you have anything to add on the matter?"

Mikey, hearing the question, paused briefly to think about the question, and then he slowly began to frown. He turned to look back down at the floor with a sense of discomforting doubt. "That girl…" he pondered, "it's just…I feel like I've met her before." Leo knelt down to look more closely at Mikey. Mikey looked back up to look Leo in the eye. "I know Karai feels that way too."

Leo stood up straight again and turned to leave the room. Going down the metal-plated hallways that seemed balanced between spacious and narrow, he went down the short set of stairs that separated the hallways from the meeting room door. Taking a left turn towards another door, the door opened to allow him inside a simple bedroom. This room was just one of many others serving as a sleeping quarters for the other members of the Kikyōmon living in Omairi. On the other end of the room in one corner was a bed, and lying on it under a blanket was the red-haired human girl. She laid there with her eyes closed, her head resting on a pillow, remaining just as asleep as she was when she was first discovered. Leo stared at her for a little while, wondering just why he had that feeling of familiarity when he was in her presence. Knowing that compelled him to leave the room and back into the main hallways where he proceeded down them until he reached the outside.

Crossing a small bridge connecting the front opening of the hallway to the natural canyon edge, one of several edges jutting out to form the natural formations of the crevices composing Omairi, Leo made his way up to a slightly higher surface of the cliff. He ran into one passing Kikyōmon soldier who happened to spot and approach him. When he did, he bowed slightly towards the blue-masked terrapin leader.

"Everything's in order, sir," he told Leo. Leo nodded slightly in acknowledgement, knowing that this person, along with every other one comprising the Kikyōmon had not faltered in their duties.

"Good work," Leo said. "Carry on." He turned to leave, but found that same Kikyōmon soldier interrupting him.

"Wait," he exclaimed. Leo stopped to face the young member again to find him wearing an expression that he hadn't seen before. "Who is that person you brought here?" he asked his leader, an action and behavior that said leader did not expect. "I've never seen that hair color before."

"No?" Leo inquired.

"No," the soldier responded. "I've seen the colors of hair on your subordinate and a few of our clan members and even members of the other clans from Misogi and Imi, and even some of them have the same color. But…that girl…she's the only one with that color. Do you know who she is, sir?"

Again, Leo thought back to the feeling of familiarity he had when looking at the red-haired girl earlier, but he did not have an answer. "No," Leo replied, "but I'm going to find out. Just focus on your duties for the time being."

The young Kikyōmon soldier bowed again after hearing this and turned away from Leo. He walked off resuming whatever he had been doing up until his interaction with his leader.

Leo continued across the platform and found himself meeting up with Raph and the black-haired woman, who was known by his cohorts as Karai. Raph was preoccupied with talking to some other Kikyōmon member, so Leo decided to talk to Karai first.

"Leo," Karai greeted Leo when she saw him.

"Karai," Leo greeted her back. "Are you in full condition to leave yet?"

Karai nodded her head, though she did not seem to appear completely committed from the look on her face. "I'm just not sure about my own condition though," she confided to Leo. "Ever since that battle with Imperius Reptilicus and his soldiers…I haven't felt well since we returned…" She continued to appear being deep within herself.

Leo found her response very unusual. In fact, it almost caused something to stir within him, as though it compelled him to want to find out more about why Karai was like this. It was though he was drawn to trying to alleviate whatever problem she was having. But he remembered the mission at hand, so he left her to her thoughts. On his way to talk to Raph, Leo couldn't help but have a few thoughts of his own. "Everyone's been acting strangely after being touched by those lights." He brought a hand up to his left cheek where the brand imprinted on his skin was. "Just what is this strange mark?"

Seeing that Raph was finished talking to the other Kikyōmon, he made his way to the red-masked turtle. Raph turned to see Leo coming towards him, so he redirected his attention to his leader.

"Leo," Raph greeted, saying it in the same manner as the others Leo had spoken to so far. "I was just telling the others to get to their posts." He turned his head to observe the Kikyōmon soldiers making their way to strategic positions around Omairi.

"Are you in full condition to leave?" Leo asked Raph the same question he did for Karai. Raph gave Leo an affirming nod. Leo then made a further inquiry, "You're the one who proposed going to the Scale Tail Clan for information. What made you decide that?"

"I just know that Imperius Reptilicus is still alive," Raph said. "He was there when the girl appeared, so he might know something about her." Leo nodded as he understood Raph's reasoning, though he still looked over to the other Kikyōmon walking by, thinking about an order to give them. But Raph caught that look. He reassured Leo, "Let them keep watch. We just need to confirm information."

Leo looked into Raph's eyes for a short moment. Then, he relaxed himself and beckoned Raph and Karai to follow him. All three of them were walking along the paths slanting up the canyon, having no problem since they were carved out as Omairi's designated walkways, since they were part of what made up the canyon town.

As they made their way up the sloped walkways and sets of stairs, they discussed the possibilities of their changing situation further. "We can only guess that the Scale Tail Clan's gone through the same things we have," Raph opened, "so there might not be as much hostility when they see us, since both sides saw each other that time."

"Well, they have no reason to be hostile," Karai chimed in. "Otherwise, we're compromising ourselves and our tribe if we make a mistake. We might risk provoking an attack from them on Omairi."

"What makes you think they'll choose to attack our sector if things go wrong?" Leo asked Karai after hearing her make her hypothesis.

"It could happen, since they're bigger than us," Karai reasoned to him. "In fact, we'll have to expect it, being the smallest of all the clans. The same is true for Omairi, being Kikyōmon territory and the smallest sector in the Nexus."

Leo kept in mind that what Karai said was true. Compared to all the other main areas of the Nexus, which was the name of the world he, his people, and everyone else lived in, his clan's territory was by far the smallest, being situated only in an open sliver in the ground that is the canyon in which the entire town was built on its walls. Omairi was the only place that didn't have the dignity of being a settlement built on an open surface with its own walls. If one walked around the Nexus, Omairi would be the only place that couldn't be spotted at first sight, let alone on the horizon.

"Probably doesn't help that it's also sandwiched between the Scale Tail Clan's and Salamandrians' sectors," Raph commented in a slightly low tone similar to a mutter. By then, the three had made it to the top of the canyon leading out into the open which held the rest of the lands that made up the Nexus.

Another member of the Kikyōmon was standing guard nearby when he noticed the three getting ready to leave the area. "It looks like you're heading out to Temizu," he commented in observation. Leo acknowledged his fellow clan member's statement as true. He kept in mind that Temizu, the Scale Tail Clan's territory, was to the east of Omairi. West of Omairi was Harae, home of the Salamandrian Clan. Beyond those territories were the sectors Misogi, Imi, and Shubatsu, along with Kagura which stood in the center of the Nexus surrounded by the other six areas. Leo began to head out with Karai, Raph, and a few other Kikyōmon soldiers when the guard gave one more statement, "the Scale Tail Clan is at an advantage. Be careful, sir."

Leo acknowledged the guard with a nod, and turned to continue heading out into the lands of the Nexus to Temizu.

Note:

Kikyōmon - means "Bellflower Seal"; based off the kikyō (Japanese Bell Flower); used as a crest by some Japanese clans; said to look like a turtle

Tengoku - means "heaven"

Omairi - the act of visiting a shrine

Temizu - a hand and mouth washing procedure required of every shrine visitor before entering; usually done when a hand washing basin is provided

Harae - the rite of ritual purification, usually done daily at a shrine; a ceremony of offerings and prayers of several forms

Misogi - the water purification ritual; one may perform it under a waterfall or in a river while reciting prayers to demonstrate dedication

Imi - a cleanliness ritual performed by means of abstinence; a taboo is placed upon certain persons or acts

Shubatsu - a cleansing ritual performed by sprinkling salt

Kagura - the ancient Shinto ritual dance; name said to be the contracted form of the term "kami no kura" (seat of the kami/gods)

*On another note, I named the Nexus, the main setting, after the "Battle Nexus," a location from the 2003 cartoon series-version of TMNT