Disclaimer – TMNT's are owned by others, not me.

Okay, folks, I changed the number regarding the presence behind Umbrella Man in the previous chapter, near the end. The way this one developed, I had to have 'one' of them somewhere else. It all works better that way.

So, have you guessed who Umbrella Man is, yet? That's a rhetorical question, btw. In either event, if you haven't, you will know soon enough.

Anyway, thanks to all who have kept up with reading this and for those who have been kind enough to leave a review for me. Don't hesitate to point out plot holes, grammar hiccups, etc, either. I've gone over this with as critical an eye as I can muster, but that doesn't say much, since it's easy to miss the 'obvious'. :0) I think I've changed half of this about a dozen times, though, since I typed the first sentence – and even that isn't the original one! LOL

Either way, be blessed.

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Chapter 41 – Friend or Foe?

Despite her bound hands and feet, Beth struggled desperately with her assailant. She tossed herself around, throwing herself about so violently, that she kept the man in black from lifting her up over his shoulder. He was rather annoyed with her, too, uttering angrily in Japanese and Beth was certain whatever he said it wasn't very nice.

Although only a minute or so had passed since they had broken into her apartment, it was still a sufficient amount of time to give the girl hope. Maybe a neighbor had heard her muffled cries for help and was now calling the police. It was all she could expect, since Leonardo and his brothers had left only ten minutes earlier. Beth was certain they were too far away to know she was in trouble.

Just the same, she was fatiguing fast and Beth finally had to resign herself to her fate. It was either that or risk one of the men knocking her out. Considering how agitated they were and the whispered commands one of them seemed bent on giving the ninja responsible for lifting Beth, she was certain they would knock her out to expedite her kidnapping.

And there wasn't any way Beth wanted to be kidnapped while unconscious, because wherever it was that they took her, she wanted to be awake, just in case she managed to get away.

Finally, conceding defeat, Beth relaxed and soon felt herself quickly thrown over the ninja's shoulder. It was then that she found she had a perfect view of her opened doorway. Standing there at the threshold and watching her as they blocked the door, three others like the one that carried her stood like sentries. With their arms crossed in front of them and with legs spread slightly apart, they seemed quite intimidating. Even if she could break free, restraints or no restraints, Beth knew she would never make it out of her apartment.

Before any of them could vacate her dwelling, though, a sudden unexpected noise came from the hallway. The interruption caused the three guards to turn sharply around.

For an instant, Beth thought for sure the police had arrived and she heartened, and even more so when they brought their weapons up to ready position. As they crouched defensively, she couldn't help but sigh with relief. "Yea! I'm going to get rescued!" she cheered to herself.

Just for an instant, however, she was able to see passed the crouching sentries and into the hall near where Mrs. Edward's apartment and the stairwell were. The first thing Beth did not see was the police. In fact, the only thing she saw initially was an umbrella.

"Who could that be…?" she asked herself, but then Beth quickly recognized it as Mrs. Edwards', if only because of its large size. But before she could identify who had it, the ninja holding her turned to see what his three compatriots were doing. His abrupt movement swung Beth away from her perfect view. Now she faced the kitchen side of her apartment and she was rather disappointed, too.

Nevertheless, a sudden thought occurred to her that filled her with dread.

On many occasions, Beth had seen Mrs. Edwards use the same over-sized umbrella that now seemed to face the three ninja, and it didn't matter if it was raining outside or not. Maybe the woman's skin suffered with the sun or maybe it was just part of her own eccentricity, but – in that moment - it really didn't matter to Beth, since she would recognize it anywhere.

And, considering her current predicament, considering the ninja in her apartment, the girl couldn't help but worry, now. Now she was concerned Mrs. Edwards had ventured outside her tenement, lured there with what little noise Beth had made from her own apartment.

In that moment, Beth wished she hadn't made any noise at all.

"And to think I hated how she watched me whenever I went out!" she grumbled.

Ironically, the girl suddenly wished she had been friendlier to Mrs. Edwards, rather than behave so elusively. "If only I hadn't been so afraid of people," Beth now sobbed anew.

Nevertheless, with the way her attacker held her, Beth couldn't tell what was going on, now, but she did hear a distinctive and sudden 'keeya', resound from the hallway. She tried to turn d around on her abductor's shoulder to look back towards the opened doorway, desperate to know what was going on. The ninja holding her forcibly shifted her back, but he seemed equally concerned, too. As he turned to say something to one of the others standing next to him, he changed his position just enough to make it easier for Beth to see what happened next.

Whoever was in the hallway acted so quickly and suddenly, the girl could hardly believe it happened at all.

At first, the three masked men charged out of her apartment, holding weapons in the air like what Mikey and Leo used. In the next moment, she saw the umbrella open with a sudden 'foomp' sound. A few surprised yips later and the men lay sprawled along the wooden floor. One groaned in pain while the other two were apparently unconscious.

After the first three were down, Beth looked over to where she expected her neighbor to be, thankful for the old woman's intervention. It was then she realized Mrs. Edwards was a man, not that Mrs. Edwards was a man per se', but it had been a man who had Mrs. Edwards' umbrella.

Beth was confused for a moment. "I didn't even know she had company!"

Nevertheless, there was a strange man in the hallway who had his back to Beth's opened door. She noticed he wore a black leather coat and blue jean pants and, as he tossed the umbrella aside, he chuckled once, as if amused with his handiwork.

Beth desperately wanted to know who he was, but he kept his back to her opened door, so she couldn't tell. It was all very frustrating for her.

Then, with the man standing half-way between her door and Mrs. Edward's, and with his back still facing Beth, she watched as three more of her kidnappers rushed outside her apartment the way the first three had done. Baring arms as their compatriots had, they stopped just past the threshold. Beth tried to warn the man, yelling through her gag, but she couldn't tell if he heard her, since the trio in the doorway had effectively blocked her view, now.

That was when Beth heard the door at apartment 4C creak open. Almost in the next moment, though, the same door slammed shut again. Beth could hear its deadbolts quickly locking into place. Although she was most disappointed, it was obvious to the girl that her other neighbors had chosen to retreat instead of intervene.

She really didn't blame them, either.

"I only hope they have enough presence of mind to call the police, though!" she prayed fervently to herself.

Then, Leather-man made a comment about a 'party', but instead of charging towards him as their comrades had done, the trio of ninja stepped back into the apartment again. Now, they weren't as confident as they had been a moment earlier.

In fact, Beth noticed they had lost their courage entirely

Questions filled her mind, causing her to wonder who this man was that could cause such fear in the ninja sent to kidnap her. "Who could he be?" she wondered to herself.

Yet, when she heard him exclaim, "Oh crud', she could tell he didn't seemed very happy and she wondered, then, if something else was about to happen.

As the last vestiges of the man's words evaporated, a momentary quiet – almost a deathly silence – blanketed the scene.

Then, all hell broke loose.

If Beth thought the man in leather had moved fast, the flash of green that came next was more so.

Actually, there were three flashes with intermittent colors of red, orange, and purple. Despite their almost instant appearance, though, Beth knew exactly who they were – and for a moment, she cheered to herself.

That is until she wondered where 'blue' was.

She didn't have to wonder for long.

As the other three 'colors' disarmed the trio in black standing in front of Beth's doorway and rendered them unconscious, they quickly barreled into her apartment.

Gone was her concern for the man. Her friends had arrived!

In reply, each of Beth's two assailants immediately brandished short swords as they turned to face the reptilian interruption. There was little the girl could do except hope and pray she wouldn't be cut during the impending battle.

As she squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for the worst and, as she heard a faint but distinctive 'thump', her 'handler' jerked once and collapsed without warning. Beth began to fall with him, but before she hit the floor, someone grabbed her up just in time.

With her eyes still tightly closed, she didn't know that Raphael had caught her, keeping her from falling under her captor. As he brought her up to a stand and before he could assure her, Beth began to jump around and gyrate again, trying to scream through her gag, as she wriggled around defensively.

Everything had happened so fast and she thought for sure it was the other ninja in the room. Because her attacker had whipped around to face the door so quickly, Beth hadn't seen who it was who had rendered him unconscious. All that mattered to Beth, with her arms and legs still immobile, was that she was still a captive. Consequently, she wanted to make things as difficult as she could.

Raphael shook his head and sighed, then turned her around to face away from him and it was then when she opened her eyes.

And, when she did, she smiled through her gag. Leonardo stood before her, apparently just finishing with sheathing his swords. It was then Beth began to cry.

"It's all right, Beth," Leo cooed as he walked up to her, giving her a reassuring smile, as he took her in his arms. Slipping the gag from her mouth, he said, "You're safe, now," and hugged her to him.

The moment her mouth was free, "Leo, Leo, thank you, thank you so much!" the girl sobbed, "I was so frightened," she cried into his neck as he held her, "I thought for sure I was going to die." Her body trembled as she cried, her hot grateful tears running freely down her face.

"You're going to be fine; it's all over, but…" Leo looked over at Raphael, Mike, and Don, who stood near the prone unconscious forms of the two Foot soldiers, "we need to get you out of here, Beth."

Before she could ask why, someone pulled at her arms, her limbs still tied behind her. Instinctively, she jerked away.

"Hey, stay still," Raph ordered briskly, "gonna take a moment to get this tape off yer wrists." He tried to peel the tape off, but as it pulled her skin, she cried out. Raphael swore and then eased up a bit, but as the tape stubbornly resisted his attempt, he stopped for a moment. "Just be still, okay? Don't move," Raph directed softly.

In the next instant, Beth's hands were free once again. Her wrists hurt a bit from her tight bindings, but she didn't' complain. It was worth the discomfort, compared to what her future would have been like had Raphael and his brothers not intervene when they did.

Beth tried to hop around to thank him, but with her legs still taped together, she bobbled more than hopped. As Raph stopped pressed his hand along her back, Leo steadied her and instructed, "Don't move, okay? Raph has to cut the tape."

Soon, Raph had her ankles liberated. No longer restrained, Beth gratefully turned around to express her gratitude to him, but it was then when she noticed he held a rather ominous-looking knife. Her eyes widened just a little, so he quickly pocketed the blade into its sheath hanging along his right side. In his other hand, though, he held the remnants of the tape that had bound her legs and wrists together.

Raphael grinned as he balled up the lose bindings and tossed them onto the couch, "Wouldn't be much of a rescue if I cut th'damsel in distress, now, would it?" He quickly retrieved his sai from the same side of his belt and twirled it as if showing off, grinning wider as he did.

She smiled at Raphael and almost laughed, but then a movement behind him at the doorway caught her attention. Beth's eyes suddenly grew wide, almost in fear. As she felt a scream edging its way up to her lips, Leo's hand quickly covered her mouth, "Don't make a sound, Beth, we're kind of exposed here," he whispered.

Trembling more than she had before, Beth shook her head, declaring through Leonardo's fingers as her voice rose in pitch, "But, but, but…he's, he's HERE, HE'S HERE, the one who…"

That was when leather-man stepped over the fallen black-clad ninja in the doorway and walked into Beth's apartment. As he eased into the living room behind Leo's brothers, he glanced once at the girl and sighed. Then, he regarded the two disarmed and unconscious Foot soldiers lying prone and along the floor in front of him.

"Well, fellas, been a while, but seems we haven't lost our touch, eh?" he exclaimed with an air of arrogance.

"What?" Beth exclaimed through Leonardo's hand. She was stunned. This monster knew her friends? This man, this freak, knew Leonardo and his brothers? "How…how do you know, I mean, h-h-how?" she stammered, her voice still muffled.

Mikey ignored Beth's exclamations for the moment, as he suddenly slapped the man on the back and then grabbed him in a bear-hug, "Man, Casey, we've missed you! We thought you were dead!"

Raph, a questioning quirk edging one corner of his upturned mouth, addressed his friend, "Yeah, bro, where ya been all these years!" Rather than embrace him, though, the way his younger brother, had, Raphael just stood there, arms crossed in front of his plastron in judgment. With one eye ridge cocked suspiciously, "an' why d'ya show up now all of a sudden and here of all places?"

Casey ran a nervous hand through his dark, short cropped hair and then let out an extended sigh. "Kind of a long story, guys…" he said sheepishly, almost apologetically, and that was when he looked over at Beth again. "I was hop'n t'do what I had t'do b'fore catchin' up wit the rest of ya..." He quickly looked back through the doorway as he heard the subtle click of deadbolts disengaging one at a time, "but I think it's best we git someplace less public, know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Donnie relied, "gotcha on that one."

Then he and Mike moved quickly into the hallway, each going to one of the other two tenements, and grasping a door handle. Keeping the handle inert, they effectively kept whoever tried to open their door from doing so. Although there wasn't much they could do about the Foot soldiers lying along the fourth-level floor, Don hoped someone from the other two apartments had already called the police.

Leo then looked at Beth and smiled, but it was a sad kind of smile. Continuing to keep his hand over her mouth, "I'm afraid you're going to have to come with us, Beth." He nodded towards the still unconscious Foot ninja, "They'll come around in a moment. Now that they know that you know us, you won't be safe." Leo watched as Beth's eyes rounded with concern, so he assured her, "Don't worry, Beth; so long as you're with us, you'll be fine."

Then, Casey, with Raph following, and Leo, guiding Beth ahead of him, filed out of her apartment and headed for the stairs. All the while, Beth tried to make sense of what had happened, but one thing was clear. She did not want to go with them if HE was going with them.

She tried her best to cry out, to try to explain things, to get Leo to take his hand from her mouth. She attempted to pull at his arm, to pry his hand from her face, but he had a good hold of her and, reluctantly, she found herself forced to go along. She could do little but comply, too, as Leonardo's momentum and strength effectively pushed her through the hallway and up the steps towards the fifth level.

As she found herself climbing the staircase involuntarily, Beth was more than surprised with Leo's strength and determination; she was stunned.

How could he do this to her, make her do something, forcing her to accompany this – this MAN - of all people? Beth quickly realized that Leonardo was probably clueless. Yet, if her friend truly knew the facts about this 'friend' of his, she doubted very much 'Casey' would live much longer, not if she understood how Leo felt about her.

Once on top the roof and with Mike and Don as rear guard, Raph pointed one of his sai towards the apartments across the alley backing Beth's building. None of them exchanged words, with all six hurrying to the far end of the rooftop without pause. It was obvious that Raph wanted to vacate the area quickly and to get as far away from the brownstone as possible. It was then when Beth felt Leonardo pick her up. She struggled at first, still pretty peeved by his apparent lack of sensitivity – and knowing what he and his brothers were going to do next.

"No, no, you can't make me, please!" she begged through his hand.

"You can't stay here, Beth!" Leo explained sternly, "I don't have much of a choice. You have to go with us."

In the end, she found Leonardo far stronger than the Foot ninja had been, so she resigned herself to his embrace – and held on as if her life depended on it.

When he finally had her firmly in his grasp and with his hand still covering her mouth, Leo began to sprint quickly towards the edge of the roof, beyond where the narrow byway was, five stories below.

Considering she had been unconscious both times she had been with the turtles when they traversed the rooftops, Beth was uncertain what to expect. Still, considering what he had told her a couple of hours earlier, she knew that Leo was going to jump. Before she could express still another muted protest, he suddenly leapt high and wide over the alleyway, sixty feet below his and his brother's hurtling bodies. In fear, Beth squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath, wanting to scream as she and her friends literally flew through the air. She hoped she would zone out, but as luck would have it, she remained conscious. Much to her dismay, Beth was quite alert throughout the jump. Nevertheless, the girl didn't dare look down and instead, she hunkered harder against Leonardo, burying her face into his plastron.

His landing was a little harder than she preferred, but then she knew he had extra weight to compensate for. Still, it was a much softer landing than she expected and for that, she was thankful.

Overall, it beat falling the sixty feet to the alley's pavement below.

The five then continued to run, with Beth still in Leonardo's arms. "Please, let me down, Leo?" she begged at one point, her voice clearly audible through his hand, as he raced across the line of roofs.

"Nuh huh," he said as he jogged, "we can't afford to have you scream and draw attention to us." He looked down at her and then back to his path, leaping over a short dividing wall of two conjoined buildings. As he leveled out again, following Raphael and Casey over the city and with Mike and Don still bringing up the rear, Leo remarked, "I kind of have a feeling what's going on, Beth, but I want to hear Casey's side, okay?"

Shaking her head violently, Beth tried to yell out, but still found her voice stunted behind Leo's hand, "There is no side, Leo; don't you understand?"

"Yeah," he replied, "I do understand." He held her more tightly, now, as he explained, "But Master Splinter taught us to never rely on the obvious. There's always more to the story – and Casey is our friend, he has been for years. He deserves to be heard, regardless of how you see it."

Beth began to cry again, burying her face into Leo's chest. Through her tears, she let the stress of the past few minutes spew forth. There wasn't much she could do, now, not with how determined he held her. She trusted Leo, she really did, but knowing that this man, this monster, was a friend of the turtle and his brothers, Beth was more uncertain than before about keeping in contact with him. If it meant having to endure this Casey's presence again, she'd rather slit her wrists and bleed out.

Along the way, Casey directed them towards the harbor area. He didn't explain why, so much, other than…"It'll be the best place for what I have'ta tell all o'ya."

After a while, they finally arrive at the warehouse district along the East River. Beth wasn't sure what Casey had to say, but whatever it was, she was determined to speak her mind. And if she had to slap Leo's hand away from her face to do so, she would. Not even Leonardo would intimidate her to silence! In fact, Beth had realized that she hadn't felt any need to zone out, either, she was so angry.

All through their run, though, it gnawed at Raphael the way Beth had reacted to his friend's arrival, when they were still in her apartment. Many thoughts swam through his head why she would react that way. Beth's behavior wasn't of someone generally afraid of people. Her fear of Casey had more substance than that. And the more Raph thought about why that was, his stomach nearly turned. It didn't take Donatello to explain to Raphael that their long-lost friend had something to do with the girl's past. And, if he had guessed correctly, Raph was going to need a good explanation from the man to keep his sai holstered.

As they settled on one particular warehouse roof, where the shadows were quite deep and where the building faced the harbor - thereby assuring them privacy, Leo finally allowed Beth to stand on her own two feet. As he gently let her down, he still kept his hand over her mouth as he said, "Beth, I'm going to take my hand away and I don't want you to scream, okay?"

Her eyes were wide with uncertainty, for she really couldn't promise Leo any such thing, but Beth finally nodded compliance just the same.

"Okay, now…remember," Leo assured her, "we're not going to let anyone hurt you, not even Casey!" He stroked her face with his free hand and smiled.

Nodding again, she closed her eyes and focused on self-control and as Leo slipped his hand off her mouth, she sucked in a deep breath. Then, she quickly moved behind Leonardo, using him as a shield between her and the man they called Casey.

She stared past her friends towards the man they called their friend. Currently, Casey was trying to catch his breath. It was obvious he wasn't in as good a shape as the turtles, as far as stamina was concerned, yet Beth could tell with the way he filled out his jacket that he worked out. For a moment, she continued to watch as he gazed forlornly out over the harbor, seemingly transfixed by the city lights beyond and from where they had started their journey. In that moment, Casey seemed terribly sad to her.

Finally, once she had calmed down, Beth managed to ask, "How – how come you call him 'Casey'?"

Leo turned around to look at her, as he smiled, "It's his name."

"No, it's NOT!" she declared vehemently, her courage and rage growing anew, "His name is Arnold! Arnold Jones, in fact, and he…"

Casey turned around, then, and held up a hand, effectively catching Beth's attention, and quelling whatever she was about to say, "Yes, you are right, Beth," he admitted, taking a single, hesitant step away from her, "and my first name is Arnold. Casey is – just a nickname."

Mike tried to lighten up the obviously oppressively confrontational situation, "Heh, can't blame ya for using Casey, eh, Case?" he chuckled.

The growl was low, menacing, and it built quickly, until Raphael suddenly rushed his friend. The enraged turtle grabbed the man by the back of his jacket, spinning Casey around so quickly the nunchukas flew out of his hand and rolled along the rooftop. "You were the one? You RAPED her?" he bellowed into the man's face, his spittle flying in all directions, as he brought Casey up to face him nose to nose with him.

Don cringed as Raph's words echoed among the warehouses. He looked around worriedly, griping his bo in anticipation, and hoping that they were indeed alone on the docks.

As Casey wiped Raph's slobber off his face and as he swallowed down his dread, he replied tentatively, "Yeeeah, but…"

"No BUTS!" Raph roared, picking the man up by his coat collar in one motion and carrying him quickly over to the edge of the roof, "Ya bettah explain right now why you'd do such a thing, Case, or so help me I'll – I'll bury my sai into ya before droppin' ya in the drink!"

Casey dangled precariously over the lip of the warehouse, his legs bicycling desperately in midair, as he begged, "LEMME EXPLAIN, RAPH! GAWD, LEMME SAY SOMETHIN'!"

"Raph, knock it off, he's our friend," Leo rushed over, and grabbed Raph's arm as he pleaded for Casey's life.

"Not any more, not with th'way he treated BETH!" his brother countered.

"You know there might be a good reason, Raph!"

"What reason is good 'nough, Leo, to beat, rape, and leave fer dead an inn'cent girl like Beth?" Raphael snapped as he glared death-threats at the man in his clutches.

In that moment, Casey began slip from his jacket. Clawing at Raph's arms, he desperately cried out, "Hey, make up yer mind if yer gonna kill me, cuz I'm start'n t'fall outta my coat!"

For a long, pregnant pause, Raph seriously considered following through with his threat. A sinister smile spread along his features, but in the last second before Casey would have slipped free of his jacket to drop into the harbor's dark waters below, Raphael jerked the man back over the roof. No sooner did he have the warehouse directly under him when Casey fell in a crumpling heap along the pea-pebbled rooftop, his coat still firm in Raphael's hands. The man shivered a little, where he had only a t-shirt on, but it was also from the aftermath of seeing his life pass before him, too. He looked up at his friends once more, but then hung his head dejectedly in shame.

Leonardo glanced over at Beth, who now huddled behind Donnie and Mike for protection. Suddenly, the blue-masked turtle stooped down so he could face Casey, while the man huddled in defeat. Noticing the man's expression, Leo saw 'fear' and 'remorse' there. It was obvious to him that there was more to Casey than what he did to Beth, and Leo wanted to understand, to find out why his friend had done what he did to the girl.

As Leo gave him a pointed glare, he saw Casey's eyebrows furrow worriedly. Yes, the man now feared for his life. Casey understood honor and what it oftentimes required, his time with his mutant ninja friends teaching him as much. Still, Leonardo would hear his explanation; he would give Casey Jones a chance to explain himself – even if in the end they would have to give Beth justice the ninjitsu way.

"So, Casey," Leo cocked his head a little, his expression far more serious than his posturing said, "why don't you explain where you've been all these years…and why - you assaulted our friend?"