Tonight was the night. The time had finally come for the turtles, April and Casey to go on their first proper mission in finding Jaylene. They have waited so long, too long perhaps, to start searching for their missing friend, and it seemed that two long years of no clues, no new findings had lead them to prepare for this special search.

Raph stood still, and silently in his room, the darkness and dim light above his head was the only company he had, plus the presence of his beloved companion Spike.

He grasped the brown photo frame tightly, and stared at the image, eyes settled on the brunette. The photo was taken a day after his and Jaylene's midnight picnic, a memory that clung to him with the same amount of grip he had on the photo. On the glossy image, his arm was wrapped around Jaylene's shoulder, and he looked…happy.

Sounded strange when that thought crossed his mind, but another way to put it, is he was genuinely, happy. To him, it felt like a crime to wear a mask to cover his real feelings, pretending to be happy or joke around when he was not, but the times he had sudden rages or had moments where he did not speak, worried his brothers, though they knew the reason for his out of control emotions.

"What do I do Spike? I'm a wreck", Raph says to his pet, patting him on the head as Spike munches on his leaf in response. "Hopefully we find Jaylene…soon. And maybe we'll leave in a few hours, and if not, minutes", he speaks to himself and thinks back to the moment in Donnie's lab occurring in the afternoon.

Earlier that day,

Donnie nods firmly at Casey, spins on his heel and walks towards his computer to find the address and if lucky, the blueprints about the 'kraang's possible-new base'. Raph only watches his brother silently, and when he drifts his gaze over everyone in the room, they were doing the same. His heart was thumping with a rhythmic beat like a metronome, and it matched the speed of Donnie's fingers typing on the keyboard when he focused his ears on the two sounds.

There was a lot of pressure on his brother since he made the discovery, and when his part was completed, it would be time for him, his brothers, Casey and April to step in to take on their role of this search. This was the first time Donnie had made a breakthrough with his researching for Jaylene, and the red banded turtle was more than eager to go on this mission as soon as possible.

The successful beep from his computer indicated that Donnie had found the address of the kraang building, but why did he wear a slightly disappointed expression?

'Guess he didn't find the blueprints', Raph thought sadly, but then he situated himself to look on the bright side of things. 'Doesn't matter, cause I don't think we'll need it. We'll get in the kraang base without the blueprints', he thought to prevent his mind from pushing forward the second thoughts he might have pondered on, about the mission.

As Donnie walked away from his computer, he snatches his t-phone with the address already downloaded before lifting his eyes to face everyone in the room as Raph did the same to fix his attention on his brother. "Get ready guys…we leave tonight", Donnie instructs.

Raph remembers the look on Donnie's face. How it was unsure, and was it about the mission? He looked like he was worried about some minor details. Don't worry, Donnie is always prepared for these kinds of things, the red banded turtle reminds himself and nods at the thought.

He strides from one end of his room to the left handed side, where his drum set was located. He taps the tip of his fingers repeatedly against the surface of the crash cymbal, increasing the intenseness of the atmosphere, and the effect it had on him.

He stops short when the strong, but yet, soft rapping of knuckles against the door caught him of guard. Just as he was about to head towards the door to open it, a particular, concerned turtle entered the room, with the squeaking of the door following straight after he placed one foot in Raph's room.

"You…alright…Raph?" Leo asks with a pause in between each word. He was half-in-half-out his brother's room, uncertain if Raph's reply was going to be calm or throw a tantrum, which is why Leo was only partly in the room so that he could avoid the anger Raph might have, since he seemed to have interrupted him.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" The red banded turtle replies, but his eyes are never leaving the photo he was still holding on to. Okay…so he's not mad. Not calm either, but not mad, Leo breathes a sigh of relief as he steps deeper into his brother's territory.

Walking ever so slowly, he cautiously and curiously glances over Raph's shoulder to catch a glimpse of what he was gazing at. The look in his emerald green eyes was fond, with a hint of happy remembrance, and the corners of Leo's mouth twitches at the sight of this. It had been a very long time since he had seen this expression, and it made Leo happy to see his brother happy, after what they all had been through.

Wish Jaylene was here, and everything, and everyone would return to their normal selves, Leo hopes as he too stares at the photo in Raph's grasp. Her sacrifice seemed to have brought the sadness out of Raph.

A few seconds pass, and Leo jumps and backs away when Raph all of a sudden, flinches before gently placing the photo on his shelf. The blue banded turtle had thought his brother would have commented or made a smart remark on why he was still in the room, but only dead silence came after Raph's act.

Leo's mouth opened and closed several times as he debated on whether to place a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder, or wait until Raph says something because his responses were unpredictable. He finally reaches his hand out, but came to a halt just as his fingers would have touched the red banded turtle's shell, before choosing to let the reassuring words tumble out of his mouth.

"Don't worry Raph, we'll find her", he says, not mentioning the when and where, but the words caused Raph to mutter something in return, as the same words were spoken by Donnie two years ago, the night Jaylene was gone, and it only brought miserable feelings and memories to him.

Moments later, Raph hears the steady thumping of footsteps as the words played in a loop in his head, and the sound was very distant even though it occurred right outside his room. But the noises quieten down soon enough when he listens to the statement he had been waiting for the whole day to be spoken. "It's time", the purple banded turtle says, with the result of Raph's fists clenching shortly after he makes the announcement.

"Team A? Ready?" Leo asks Casey and Raph; their reply was their fists smashing into their palms and the cracking of knuckles. He gives a swift nod, and Raph stealthily tuck and rolled, before smashing the lock of the garage gate open with his sai, followed with the use of his three fingers to point past the doorway, deeper into the darkness.

The blue banded turtle hears a brief gulp from the twenty year old stiffly standing next to him, and Casey hesitates at the order from Raph, but begins to walk cautiously towards his friend, legs bent, and head ducked low as they both disappear into the apartment.

Leo knew that Casey was nervous about this mission, since they didn't have a lot of information about this kraang building, and it looked dodgy, especially since it was night time, but also because the area surrounding it was extremely quiet, and the building seemed too old to have droids busy inside, which would have made it a perfect secret base.

It was just hiding in plain-sight, and no one would have looked twice into a run-down building since they were unstable and off-limits. But here they were, standing behind dumpster bins in the dark alleyway next to the building and looking into the mysteriousness of the place, hoping to find a person important to them.

The sound of laser guns going off caused April to bury her face into Donnie's plastron, not wanting to watch what was going on though the action was happening inside. Donnie, who was surprised at her act, rubbed her back in soothing circles to calm her down, happy that she chose him to use as her comforter, but disappointment had also enveloped him, for the reason the red-headed woman hid her face in worry, was because of Casey's safety.

The blasting of the laser guns were soon silent, and everyone waited anxiously before seeing a green hand using a 'thumbs up' gesture sticking out of the darkness. They exhaled the breaths that they had held without knowing they were holding them, and their shoulders visibly relaxed, as Raph's hand was a signal of a successful step one.

"Team B, get ready in your positions", Leo orders Donnie and Mikey, but receives a complaint from Mikey while Donnie positions his arm to shoot the grappling gun aiming at the second floor, for an ambush from above in case more kraang began to attack Casey, Raph, April and Leo who were heading inside the building. "I thought we agreed that we were team 'A minus'", the youngest turtle grumbled as he crossed his arms and pouted, but being seventeen didn't make it look any cuter than it was before two years ago.

Leo, who rolls his eyes at his little brother, sees that he is unsatisfied with the name 'Team B' and sighs exasperatedly. He feels the tapping of a slim finger on his shoulder, belonging to April, and he flicks his head in the direction of the garage doorway, telling her to go first and that he would catch up.

"Fine. Team A minus, hurry. Into. Your. Positions", He says through gritted teeth, and fortunately, the orange banded turtle skips happily to stand adjacent to Donnie as they both shoot the grappling guns in unison, before traveling up the side of the building and onto the floor above.

The blue banded turtle watches his brothers reach the top and half-heartedly smiles, but a happy feeling had settled in the pit of his stomach. "Okay, they're in position."

He begins to jog into the building, and increases his speed once he had gone past the garage doorway, and the sight of kraang droids sprawled lifeless on the floor welcomed him; informing that there may be no danger in this place at all.

"This could be easier than I…" Leo states, but once he passes the main door and into the center of the building, he freezes in his spot next to Casey, Raph and April who all had their arms raised and wearing shocked expressions. "…thought", he finishes his sentence, but paused in between, when he saw that they were surrounded by kraang droids on the first floor and the balcony on the high second floor, guns pointed at them.

"The ones who have broken into the kraang base are the ones known as the turtles; are the ones who have to put their hands up for the kraang", all the droids say at the same time, causing a chill to run up Leo's spine. Not facing these robots for a long time, and listening to them speak in unison was a little creepy, but that didn't mean he had forgotten how to fight the droids.

The moonlight streaming in from the wide open window caught his eye, and he spotted Donnie and Mikey, who were slowly crawling into the building from the same window, ready, and waiting to smash some droids once he gave a signal.

He tilts his head and catches the three pairs of eyes also staring at Donnie and Mikey up on the second floor, and they look from them to him, like they could read his mind, and see what he was thinking.

"Ready…" Leo waits a few moments to make sure everyone was ready before yelling and giving a battle cry. "Now!" he yells and grabs his katanas from behind his shell and charges at the group of kraang in front of him while dodging laser blasts. Raph follows his brother's lead and lunges at the kraang, deflecting the laser blasts with his sais with Casey right on his tail, knocking out droids with his explosive hockey pucks.

Upstairs, Mikey and Donnie are both battling the droids that are continuously running at them, and having trouble to push them off from the lack of space they have on the balcony. "From my calculations, this balcony could collapse right under our feet, from the weak and old material used, and the fact that there's a lot of kraang coming right for us", The purple banded turtle states, and Mikey responds with a quick nod, only hearing half of his brother's sentence since he was busy fighting off the kraang crawling all over and coming from all sides.

The red banded turtle glances up briefly and sees his brothers needing his assistance; leaves the battle on the floor to join his brothers on the floor above. Jumping onto the pillar, he uses his feet to run up the wall in a side-step motion, but done vertically. He swings up and jumps onto the handrail, sitting like a frog and impeccably balanced on both feet while spinning his weapons in his hands.

Raph springs up from his position and spin kicks the seven kraang droids in front of him, strikes them with his sais; eventually stabbing some and throwing them off the balcony to avoid the overcrowding of kraang droids. He repeats this several times nonstop, like a killing machine that ran on forever.

Mikey watched his brother with his mouth a gape as he struggled to hold off a droid with his nun chucks that he used to shield himself from blows. He had never seen his brother fight so seriously in his life, every maneuver and movement performed perfectly, like Leo's style of combat had kicked some sense into him.

A spark lit inside the young turtle, and with tongue hanging on the side of his mouth he spits out, "Booyakasha!"

Whirling his weapons in windmill motions, he sprints towards a droid and jumped onto the chest area; pushed it backwards with both his legs, the impact toppling over several more robots. His excitement caused the number of kraang on the balcony to lessen more and more every second, and Donnie, who was chuckling inwardly, made sure this was the only time he would be glad about his little brother's enthusiasm in battle.

It finally came down to the last droid, and Raph's final blow was jabbing it in the head, shoving it onto the floor, and stabbing it endlessly out of impatience.

He felt that it was his fault his brothers, Casey and April had gotten into this massive battle when he gave the 'all clear' signal, and if anyone was injured even slightly, he would take all the blame for it. He had thought that the building was empty all because he had his hopes up too high, and led everyone into a death arena, but he trusted that April and Casey's training had taken off, so they wouldn't get shot by the kraang. And now, he was taking his anger on the kraang droid, and though he knew it probably wouldn't be able to stand once he was through with it, he needed to vent his emotions somehow.

"Calm down Raph. We're okay", Donnie assures his brother as he pulls him away from the, almost-completely-crushed robot. The red banded turtle bends over and rests his hands on his thighs, but still standing; glances at Mikey who held his thumbs up at him, in which he tiredly grins in return.

Their rest and celebration for their victory was short lived, when a split second afterwards, more than three dozen kraang burst into the main room on the bottom floor, and Raph could hear Donnie correct his earlier statement nervously. "Well, maybe not."

Raph rushes to the railing of the balcony and observes how Leo's expression turns from shocked to angry, before the blue banded turtle hurriedly darts a look straight back at him on the second floor balcony to check if they were okay.

Leo feels content at seeing no injuries on his brothers, and points with his sword at the doorway leading to the stairway that goes higher up the building.

"Donnie, Raph, go upstairs and check the whole building for any sign of Jaylene, or anything that could be useful to find her", he instructs his two brothers, and they immediately dash to the entrance of the stairs while the blue banded turtle gestures for Mikey to join him on the battle on the bottom floor along with Casey and April. "We're staying down here."

"Hurry, hurry, hurry", Donnie says with the pitch of his voice raising and dropping as he pushes the shell of his brother in front of him. The two were out of breath and sprinting up the steps of the stairway as fast as they could, but each time they peered over the edge to look below them, the kraang droids were advancing. The droids were only three levels below, but considering they were robots, they would not tire from running up a long flight of stairs.

A laser blast had unexpectedly shot up from the couple of levels under them, and it singed one of the tails of Raph's mask before it vanished when it hit the ceiling. A squeal from shock escaped from the red banded turtle's lips, and his running paced picked up more speed rapidly. "C'mon, move your shell Donnie!" He barks at his brother, though not intentionally aggressively.

All the purple banded turtle can do is nod in response and continue running for his life; hoping the arm of a kraang droids wouldn't suddenly reach out and grab his leg. But luckily, the adrenaline pumped more blood into his legs and pushed him to his limits, so he was able to sprint for a little longer.

He glances behind him in curiosity, and just as he suspected, no kraang there to grab his leg, no kraang to shoot him with their laser guns. "Over there! We're gonna make it!" Raph yells in between breaths and Donnie whips his head around to settle his brown orbs on the doorway a level away. It may not have looked like much, but it was the door to their safety.

Three words flash over and over again before Donnie's eyes when the door was very close ahead, Please don't trip, please don't trip, and just on the last step, he was unfortunate to stumble over from the excitement and lack of oxygen, but at the same time, his brother had grabbed him on the top of his plastron and hurled themselves at the door, unable to continue on his legs. They burst through the doorway and rolled across the floor, panting heavily with the occasional sound of a high-pitched wheezing coming from Donnie.

"We…did…it…Raph", the younger turtle speaks with pauses in the middle from the sharp intake of breaths. He shifts his eyes to glance at Raph who lay on his stomach, arms spread on the floor a few feet away from him, and suddenly feels the cold air tickle his feet.

Realizing the door was still wide open, he uses a small piece of strength to slam the door shut with the single kick from his foot, and pick himself up from the ground to lock the door. A kraang keypad was placed on the wall next to the door, and the purple banded turtle groans as he crawls towards it. "Too…tired", he spits out and resolved to damage the keypad with a shuriken, and even though he preferred to disable some wires, this option was the easier way, and would save them a lot of time.

A sizzling buzz was heard when the small metal star was embedded in the kraang keypad, and the red banded turtle grinned at the sound, having a feeling that Donnie had used his method of picking locks instead of some complicated, scientific process.

The moonlight had its presence on them once again, the beams shining on their shells as they lay quietly, taking time to rest. A thought popped into Raph's head at the feeling of the light against his body, and his head shot up to face the direction of where it was coming from. The sight of a tall glass window appeared in front of him, and gazing in the other direction, he came to realize they were lying on the floor of a hallway, but this hallway seemed to have many rooms peeking from the walls.

This area looked like a place for people to sleep in, like a hotel, though quite run-down. Finally taking in the details, he began to record mentally what this place looked like to describe to his brothers, Casey and April later, at the intriguing discovery.

This hallway, or level, did not look like it belonged in this building at all, from the beige carpeted floors stretching everywhere, the walls covered in old, pale red painted walls, and every single door seemed to have a plain light brown color.

"Donnie, Don, get up", Raph crawls to his brother who was leaning his shell against the wall and shakes him on his left shoulder. The purple banded turtle mumbles and his eyes are barely open. Never mind, I'll let him have his rest, Raph decides after he waited for his brother for a few seconds and pats Donnie's head as he sluggishly gets up on his feet.

"Just yell if there's any trouble Don. I'm gonna go exploring", he says. Glancing over his shoulder out of caution, Donnie remains in the same position, slouched and resting against the wall. The red banded turtle smirks and turns back around, walking further down the hallway of the unknown.

Well this level is very empty…
Raph takes note of this to put his senses on high alert. He may be a trained, stealthy ninja, but he felt that none of his training was going to help in any situation at the moment. The red banded turtle pauses behind the corner wall, and peeks down the hallway before continuing.

I really don't like surprise ambushes…
He wasn't sure if that was supposed to sound like a threat to an enemy, but concealing the statement in his head didn't sound very threatening, especially if a large group of kraang droids appeared out of the blue.

He begins to tiptoe from that thought in his head, and was curious to see what was behind the doors, but there were too many to investigate, and if there was even a single kraang droid in one of these rooms, who knows what would happen to him and Donnie.

Maybe I should wait for Donnie to finish catching his breath before I go investigating. Two is better than one, the prudent side of him suggests, and he chooses to go with that option.

Without hesitation, Raph spins around and hurries down the hallway back to his brother, but still walking very discreetly. A flash of green was seen from the corner of his eye while he was scurrying, and his feet root themselves into the floor, causing his body to jerk forward from the unexpected halt.

He exhales when he balances himself from falling into a face-plant and stiffly walks back a few steps, the crack of an open door coming into view. The red banded turtle felt extremely curious as to why this was the only door open, and quietly debates with himself on whether to investigate or not, but his curiosity took over and his hand is soon grasping the cold, spherical metal door handle.

He steadily pushes the door open, like he was slowly unwrapping a present and the sight of a plain room with a bed and nightstand appears before him.

A dark shadow looms over the room, giving the room a more ominous vibe, and Raph narrows his emerald orbs to focus his attention on the figure wearing a particular green hooded sweater that he hadn't seen in a long time. With his hopes lifted very high, he felt like he had to swallow a large lump in his throat and his voice cracks as he speaks.

"Jaylene?"

Fin

Finally got this baby up. I did say in the previous chapter that I will take a long time before this would be up, but yay I have finally finished it. More exciting in this chapter because of the dodgy kraang building, but they were lucky they didn't run into Darryl at the place. I would have put him in this chapter so Casey and him could square off, but I didn't want to rush into that moment yet. Hopefully the next chapter will be up by next week and if not, only a couple of days after next week since I have an important test on Wednesday. Please stop by to place a review even though it may be a short sentence or comment!

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT 2012