CH. 5: Legend of the Pearl

'I wonder how I did that.' Alex sighs as she starts to drift off and hears the sound of water dripping before falling asleep again.

A couple weeks later with the weather having hit the rainy season in New York topside. Alex is in Master Splinter's room trying to meditate with Master Splinter. Alex tries to meditate, but every time she closes her eyes she sees the girl with her face. Even if Alex is able to keep the girl out of her mind she then thinks about the fact she is in a new dimension, the fact she has a strong crush on Raph, or about how she doesn't know how long she has been gone in her dimension nor if her family is freaking out about where she is right now.

"Master Splinter, I can't do this." Alex gives a heavy sigh. "Every time I try to focus my mind goes wild." She looks at the ground with sad eyes.

"That is why you most do this. If you can calm your mind than you can solve this mystery." Splinter sighs.

'And how do I do that?' Alex sighs with defeat with looks a sad expression.

Splinter notices her expression. His face looks sad for a secant before he turns to her. "Why don't you take a break from this? You could go to the surface and have a girl day with April if you want." Splinter gives Alex a gentle smile as he pours himself some tea.

"You might be right. Thank you Master Splinter." Alex gives him a soft smile as she stands up and then gives him a slight bow before she goes to see what the guys are up too.

"I hope you are able to figure it out." Splinter whispers to himself as he stares at his tea a little concerned for Alex and these new found powers.

As Alex gets out into the main living area; she finds the guys chilling out with the TV on watching Space Hero's. The guys seem to be absorbed in their own worlds. Leo is watching the show and quoting different parts of it that he has memorized. Donny is working on some math equations in his note book. Mikey is reading one of his alien comic books. And Raph seems to be in his own world spaced out on the end of the couch staring of into the distance.

'Does Alex really just see me as the tough guy that bullies his brothers?' Raph stares off to the side with a slight sigh.

"Hey guys. Do you want to train for a while?" Alex walks over to them with a small smile on her face.

"I'm kinda to into this show right now." Leo doesn't even look away from the TV.

"Sorry, but I have to work on these equations. And after this I'm working on a new Retromutagan." Donny continues to scribble in his notebook and taps the pensile to his lips and then starts writing again.

"No can do dudett." Mikey looks up from his comic book and shakes his head slightly. "Today is alien comic book day. I can't stop until I get to the last volume." He then goes back to his comic book with his eyes glued to the pages.

"That's too bad. What about you Raph?" Alex looks a little disappointed and then looks over at Raph with hopeful eyes.

"What's up?" Raph looks over to her finally coming out of his daze.

"Do you want to hit the dojo and work out together?" Alex motions towards the dojo with a happy smile and hopeful eyes.

"Oh. Yeah sure." Raph looks at Alex and then to the side as he scratches under his chin a bit.

"Okay then. I'm just going to change my clothes, so I'll meet you in there." Alex smiles happily at him and then grabs some clothes to change into. Alex heads to the bathroom and changes into her workout clothes; a black sports bra, a loose rose-red T-shirt with the right sleeve is off the shoulder, black yoga pants, white sox, and white sneakers with red trim to them. After changing Alex looks at herself in the mirror to make sure everything is in its place as her face has a slight blush.

'Come on Alex, stop fidgeting. It's not like this is a date.' Alex gives her head a little shake as she takes a deep breathe to get ready to head for the dojo.

Meanwhile in the dojo Raph is hitting one of the punching bags. As he hits the bag he seems to space out again. Raph has no clue why he can't keep his mind on working out when he starts to think about Alex. He also can't seem to figure out why his heart pounds harder when he thinks about her.

'I wonder what she thinks about me.' Raph hits the bag with a bit of a spaced out expression.

"Hey Raph. Ready to work out?" Alex smiles warmly in the door way. Raph turns around to see Alex in her outfit.

"What are you wearing?" Raph blushes slightly as he stares at Alex in her outfit.

"What is something wrong with it?" Alex looks at her outfit confused by his reaction.

"It's not that." Raph shakes his head slightly. "It's just… you look… different." He blushes a little as he glances at Alex and then stares at the ground as he rubs the back of his head.

Alex watches his reaction and blushes a little herself. The two of them laugh at their own reactions and then start warming up. The two of them do; fifteen jumping jacks, ten push-ups, ten sit-ups, and fifteen crunches. After their warm ups the two of them bow to one another getting ready to spare each other.

"Ready to get started?" Raph gives Alex a little wink with a smirk.

"Funny I was going to ask you the same thing." Alex gives a little laugh as she winks at Raph playfully.

The two of them begin to spar. The both of them dodge each other's strikes as they make a new move for the other. The match continues with Raph throwing a straight punch at Alex. She blocks the punch with her left wrist and then Alex throws an uppercut punch. Raph dodges it and tries to throw her off balance with a right leg upper strike kick. Alex jumps out of the way with what looks like a belle twirl.

'This is as much fun as always.' Raph smiles happily with a fire in his eyes as he charges towards her.

'He's still the best sparring partner I've ever had.' Alex eyes seem to sparkle brightly as she continues to fight against Raph.

The two of them continue the match. Both of them is unable to land a hit on the other. Alex blocks his moves and Raph dodges her advances as well. Alex tries to trip Raph by trip kicking him. Raph jumps over the kick and tries to land a jump kick on Alex. Alex blocks his kick with both her arms blocking her face with them in an X shape with her wrists. Raph tries to land a punch with a three punch combo. Alex moves back enough that she is able to avoid his punches. As she is moving back Alex trips over the edge of the mat falling to the ground back first. Her falling over so quickly causes Raph, whom is close to her, to fall as well landing on top of her with his hands on either side of her head. Alex is pinned down underneath him. The two of them stare at one another, both of their faces are slightly red, unable to move.

"So~ I guess this means you win. Huh Raph?" Alex breaks the silence with a little laugh.

"I guess so." Raph gives a slight chuckles as he smiles down at her. Raph gets up first. "Here. Let me help you up." He holds his hand out for hers.

"Thanks." Alex takes his hand and stands up.

The two of them head for the kitchen. Once they are in the kitchen Raph gets them each a water bottle. Raph tosses Alex a water bottle. Alex catch the bottle and starts drinking some of it to cool down. The two of them start chatting as they cool down with their waters standing in the kitchen.

As they stand there talking Alex's Shell Cell goes off with Aprils face on it. Alex talks to April for a few minutes and the two of them decide to meet up in a little while at her house. Alex says by to Raph as she heads to the shower to rinse off the sweat and change her clothes. Once she is clean she changes into; a red and black plaid shirt, loose blue jeans, white sox, and red sneaks. After changing she leaves with a big blue umbrella heading topside.

Topside the rain comes down pretty hard as the sky is a dark gray color. Alex heads to April's house quickly as she tries to not get drenched on the way. As she heads to April's house Alex's thoughts start drifting to what happened with Raph and how she wishes she knew how he felt about her along with if she is stock in the dimension. But once her thoughts hit that territory she begins to wonder about her dimension and how her family could be worrying about her being gone right now.

"Hey Alex. Are you okay?" April meets her at the door and seems concerned as April notices Alex's distant expression.

"I'm sorry. I was just… thinking about… about my family." Alex looks really sad as she tries to smile at April.

April hugs Alex. After giving Alex a hug they head into the house and up to April's room. April tells Alex that her dad is out of the house and that they can do whatever they feel like doing. The two of them just act like girls for a while; they do each other's nails, brush their hair and try new hair styles, and they eat pizza and drink soda while talking about right about anything on April's bed.

"So you can't seem to meditate?" April takes a bite out of her cheese pizza.

"Yeah. And I can't figure it out." Alex sighs feeling a little defeated as she sips her grape soda.

"Maybe you just need to find the right way to relax." April ponders and then looks over at her CD player. "Why don't we try music?" she walks over to her CD player and start to kick out a CD.

"I guess it can't hurt." Alex finishes her soda. April picks out a CD that plays slightly soft music and then heads back to her bed.

"Alright. Now close your eyes and take a deep breathe." April closes her eyes and breathes deeply. Alex does the same reluctantly. "Then take smaller breathes and with each breathe feel yourself drifting away."

Alex takes deep slow breathes. As she does this she feels like her body feels slightly heavy. 'April this isn't working I'm falling asl…' Alex opens her eyes to see she is sitting in the water place she has woken up in so many times before. 'It… worked?' she stands up stunned as she looks around.

"Alex? Alex you there?" April moves her hand in front of Alex's, passed out while sitting up, face. "I guess it worked." April looks a little pleased with herself as she stares at her zoned out friend.

'Girl! Where are you?! We need to talk! Girl?!' Alex moves around on top of the water shouting out into the endless sea.

'Guardian. What are you going here? What is it you want?' the girl shows up next to Alex out of nowhere.

'I have questions for you. For starters who are you? What's your name?' Alex stares at the mirror like girl with curiosity.

'I have no name. Or at least I do not have one anymore. I have not needed one for quite a few millennium.' The girl shakes her head slightly giving no sign of feeling one way or another about it.

'No name? Then I guess I can give you one. How about… Crystal?' Alex ponders for a moment and then turns to the girl with a smile slightly proud of herself.

'Crystal? That sounds nice.' Crystal smiles slightly at this. Alex smiles as well happy she could give the girl a name she liked. 'You said you have other questions for me. What are they Guardian?' Crystal is back to her poker face as she stares at Alex.

'Why do you keep calling me 'Guardian?' Where do you come from? Why do I have these powers?' Alex seems really confused and desperate for answers.

'You know the answer to these questions.' Crystal keeps her poker face.

'No I don't!' Alex grabs Crystal's arm. 'Please tell me. What's going on?' Alex looks really sad as she stares Crystal in the eyes.

'You know the answer. You have heard the story many times.' Crystal looks at her with calm eyes and a gentle voice.

'Story? What st…' Alex seems confused for a secant and then looks shocked. 'THAT STORY?!' Alex's eyes widen with shock. Crystal nods with a slight grin and then she taps Alex on the head causing her to wake up.

"Alex?! You okay?! You've been out for three hours!" April looks at her really worried.

"I'm okay. And I… I've got my answers." Alex smiles slightly at April as she looks a little reflective. "Come on, we've gotta go tell the guys." Alex takes April by the hand and gets ready to head out.

"Wait what did you find out? Alex?" April seems curious as they head out into the down pouring rain.

As they walk through the sewers Alex reflects back to when she was a kid. As she thinks back the 'STORY' plays through her head as clear as day. April walks close by behind her, still very curious about what had happened in those three hours. Finally they get to the lair. Alex gets everyone to sit in the main living area.

"What is it you have to tell us Alex?" Master Splinter seems very curious yet calm as he sits on the couch with his sons and April.

"Okay. So my family has this weird tradition and with it comes a story. I… I always thought it was just a story. A fun thing to explain why our family does this odd thing." Alex starts as she walks back and forth trying to figure how to explain this.

"What's up dudett?" Mikey chimes a little confused on what's going on.

Alex stops in the middle of the room and takes a deep breathe. "The story goes like this; Once there was a clan of ninja that were taught by a water dragon. This clan protect the dragon and its sleeping siblings of the other elements, this is until the day a ship of Americans came. One American sailor fell for one of the ninja woman and the American was hurt protecting her. To save his life the ninja girl took him to the dragon and the dragon saved him by putting its life force in him. Before the dragon died it turned into a purple pearl and told the ninja girl to leave with the man to protect both of them. It is said that every first born in the family has the potential to have the same powers of the dragon, so every first born is given the pearl once the previous guardian is unable to keep it safe or after the guardian comes to the game of fifty." Alex tells the story trying to explain it as best as possible. The others all stare wide eyed with their mouths hanging down in shock.

"So this is where your powers come from." Master Splinter seems intrigued as he strokes his beard.

"What about the pearl? Where is it?" April's eyes seem to sparkle as she smiles sitting at the edge of the couch.

"My dad has it. He's the last guardian and he doesn't turn fifty for a few more years." Alex rubs the back of her head giving a little smile.

"Well now you know where it comes from and can work on controlling it." Leo chimes in giving a little smile. Alex looks over to see all of the guys grinning with their eyes closed giving a thumbs up to her. Alex smiles at this and tears up a little knowing that she has friends she can count on to help her with this.