They ran silently across the rooftops. Leo still wasn't sure how he'd ended up alone with Karai but he pushed the thought aside and instead focused on his relief that Raphael was finally awake as his senses reached out for signs of the last monster.
"The hothead's ok?" Karai finally asked after almost a half hour of silence.
Leo stopped at a rooftop edge and peered down. "Yes, Raphael is fine." The sound of Raph's nickname coming out of her mouth, after Raph had taken a hit meant for her, grated on his nerves. Besides, that nickname was for family.
Karai frowned. So much for being considerate. She'd have to try another tactic if she wanted Leo to talk to her. She peered over the side of the building as well and her eyes followed Leo's gaze to see what had captured his attention. She saw a man clearly breaking into a car. She knew if Leo wasn't so exhausted that he'd be down there stopping him. But Leo was exhausted and they had a bigger job to do right now. Still, it gave her an idea.
"I'm thinking about moving the Foot back to New York City," she said. She felt Leo tense next to her. "Your team is clearly busy doing other things. Don't look shocked, I may not know what you're doing but I heard Michelangelo mention he had to get up early to prep food for work. And I don't remember food prep being part of ninja training."
Leo scowled at her but said nothing.
She'd take the scowl over the blank expression he'd been giving her the past three days.
"And after my success in Japan, I'm sure I can fill in where your team has failed. We'll get this city cleaned up."
"And yet, you had to come to us and ask for help," Leo said.
"True. And I'll admit we weren't making any progress before your eerily strong senses joined in the monster hunt. But I'm not talking about hunting supernatural monsters, just the normal everyday thugs of the city that you seem incapable of handling." Karai watched Leo's fingers flinch and recognized his impulse to pull his katana. She smirked and pulled her own sword.
Leo felt his previous anger at her rise up again and pulled his katana at the sight of her own sword in her hands.
"So you think you can just come back to the city and take over?"
She began to circle Leo and was pleased again when he responded by circling back. "Oh come on, Leo, surely you can see that I'm better than you."
He lunged for her and she quickly responded by raising her sword to protect herself. She dodged and twisted, listening to their swords strike each other only when he raised his against her. She remained on the defensive, not that he seemed to notice, waiting for him to tire himself out. She could see the anger in his eyes and took a few steps back again, trying to keep a distance between them, especially after he'd managed a pretty forceful kick that sent her flying across the rooftop.
She noticed that his anger seemed to only fuel his strength instead of making him sloppy. His skills had obviously improved since they'd last sparred, not that that surprised her. She'd never met anyone more dedicated to ninjitsu than Leonardo.
She was exhausted but she pressed on until their swords stuck one final time and the amount of strength Leo put into the blow actually broke her smaller sword in half.
They stood glaring at each other, both panting from the battle. Karai looked down in shock at her broken sword.
"What the hell is your katana made of?" Karai asked, incredulously. She raised her eyes back to Leo's face and stared at him as he smiled at her for the first time in over six years.
"That felt good," Leo said, full-on grinning at her now.
She scowled at him but wasn't able to hold the look for long in the face of his grin. She didn't smile back but lifted an eyebrow and said, "So, do you forgive me then?"
"Do you really think you're better than me?"
She looked down at her broken sword again and tossed it onto the rooftop. "You've clearly improved since I've been gone."
"My question really only required yes or no for an answer," Leo said.
"You're clearly just as smug as you were before."
Leo raised an eye ridge.
"No, I do not think I'm better than you."
She looked down at the ground and then back to Leo. Her eyes narrowed once more on his upper arm where the last remnants of the now faded letter R remained. She thought back to Raph's blue wrist guard and something finally occurred to her. "You know when I was patrolling with Raphael, he and I had a heart to heart discussion where he calmly said I was full of shit and called me out for leaving." She watched a small smile form on Leo's face. "He yelled at me for hurting the family and for hurting you. I was expecting a spar from him and the calm discussion with you. But it seems like you two have rubbed off on each other since I've been gone."
Leo couldn't help the grin. His eyes slid down to the ground.
Karai threw her head back and laughed. "Seriously?"
Leo still didn't answer her. Instead he returned his attention to the street below again.
"I'm actually not that surprised. I often noticed Raphael's eyes on you when you weren't looking," Karai said, thinking back. "And there was all that weird tension between the two of you, for no apparent reason."
Leo glanced over at her and grinned again.
"I don't really have the right to ask, but Leo, I'd really like to know what's happened since I left." She watched Leo seem to consider her request. He was hesitating and she didn't blame him. "Leo, I know now that I hurt you guys. But I honestly thought when I left that I'd be doing you all a favor."
Leo's head jerked back towards her with clear confusion in his face.
"I wasn't raised to be in a family, Leo. You had all this blind faith in me that I appreciate more now than I did then. I had been pretty sure if I stuck around that I'd ruin the Hamato clan. And I was in Japan a long time before I began to even consider that I may have made a mistake. And then the longer I stayed away, the harder it was to think about coming back. I threw myself into re-organizing the Foot because if I ever did come back, I'd need something to show for my time away. I couldn't come back a failure. Or empty-handed."
Leo shook his head. "That's not what family is about, Karai." He watched her nod slowly but wasn't sure she really understood. But how was she supposed to understand with Shredder for a father?
"Leo, do you know if – if Master Splinter even wants to see me? If I could talk to him and try to explain, do you think he'd understand?"
Leo knew his father would want to see her. And she wouldn't even have to say anything to earn his forgiveness. He smiled at Karai, "Well, I wouldn't go into it with weapons like you did with me."
"It worked with you," she muttered, scowling at him again. She was about to say something else when she noticed his blue eyes flip to white, something that had always creeped her out about the turtle brothers.
Leo's arm lifted and his katana blocked a tranquilizer dart aimed for his side.
"Behind me, Karai."
"What?"
Leo blocked another tranquilizer. "You don't have a weapon. Call your Foot."
Karai hit the tracker while tossing throwing stars at the stone generals who were beginning to close in on them.
"They're made of stone!" Leo said in exasperation at her waste of the shuriken. He watched them bounce off the generals. "Why are they attacking us?"
"I have no idea!" She yelled back.
Leo removed his T-phone and tossed it behind him to her. "Open that and press the emergency button."
Karai did as she was told and turned to check for an escape behind them. They weren't near a fire escape and they'd never make the leap to the next building without a running start, something they weren't about to get in this situation.
"Give me a sword," she said and watched Leo actually hesitate. She knew he was lethal with two, but he couldn't leave her unarmed, either. They watched the general with the tranq gun toss it aside as he ran out of darts.
Leo turned to her and handed her one of his swords, "Only because you're a Hamato," he growled at her and she nodded and actually smiled in appreciation as she took it. They turned together and charged at the generals.
Leo struck a charging stone monster with his katana and felt the vibrations of his steel hitting stone return all the way down to his fingers. He tried to shield Karai as he fought but they were outnumbered and their blows to the generals were having almost no effect. He spun to kick one of the generals getting too close to Karai when another grabbed him by the throat from behind.
He dropped his remaining sword as he felt his air supply being cut off so he could paw at the unrelenting stone around his neck.
"Stop! What are you doing?" Karai yelled. "He's not the last monster! We were still looking for it!"
"Yaotl will believe he is," one of the generals said to her.
"Who?" Karai yelled, feeling helpless as she watched Leo's hands drop and his body go limp in the giant stone grip.
"That's none of your concern," another general said. "Your job here is finished." He swung his stone arm towards her and her vision went black.
A/N: Raph and Leo fighting is my least favorite part of that whole movie. But by switching the roles around a little, I think this works.
