Leo stared at the message, his heartbeat a thunderous sound in his head. Blood pulsed to the tips of the fingers holding his phone in a loose grip.

Meet me at Calvary. ASAP. You know the plot. I'll bring the incense. –K.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about her a million different times over the years. Because he had. He'd even found her. Had an old friend keeping an eye on her. Kurtzman to be exact. But he'd lose track of her almost a year ago.

Leonardo forced an inhale and exhale. This must be why. She's involved in this somehow.

"You alright, Leo?" Raph asked, taking a step towards him.

"Didn't you say April mentioned an unnamed female losing control of the situation?" Leo shook his head as he stuck the phone in his pocket, and turned for the door.

"Yeah. I thought maybe it was Ever or Renet," Raph's voice hinted at sympathy. Leo accepted it for what it was. He was too confused to know what to expect, what to think, or even how to feel.

Donnie followed them outside. Raph hailed a cab while Leo stared numbly into space. "The letter refers to a 'she' too. I would've never guessed it was Karai. Do you think she's working with Shredder?"

Do I think she's working with Shredder? The words scrolled through his head. Was she friend or foe? His last encounter with her left him heartbroken, but she was not his enemy. Not in a Shredder sense of the word. So what was she doing? How long had she been back? How much of this was her doing and why?

"Leo, get in the cab." Raph guided him into the back seat but before he could slide in next to him Leo motioned him back.

"You and Donnie get to Mikey. I'm going to meet Karai."

"You sure, Leo? It could be a trap." Raph kept one hand on the door while an annoyed cabbie scowled at him.

"Maybe, but I don't think so." Even as he spoke the words, Leo stomach tensed. The truth was, he wasn't sure.

As the cab pulled up to the cemetery entrance Leo debated with himself. Had she joined The Foot? Was she working with Shredder? Why had she kept herself in exile? Why, when he'd done everything in his power to bring her home? Why wasn't he enough for her to come home to?

He climbed the gentle slope, every footstep resonating within, like he was marching toward a fire with little hope of finding any survivors. It was getting late. A day of cat and mouse, wasted. All they'd done was unfold, one strange occurrence after the other.

April and Renet were missing. Mikey was in danger. Mutants were at risk. Every passing moment was another that it all might implode on them, causing harm to any one of those he cared so deeply about. His hand trembled as if reaching for a phantom katana. Even Karai herself could be in danger, of him, if this was her doing. Regardless of how he felt or what duty he believed he had to her. He wouldn't stand for this.

As he neared the headstone, he'd visited more than he wanted for the day, his heart settled atop his stomach like two stones grinding against each other. "Please don't be responsible for this. Please," he begged.

And he waited.

He'd stood for the first hour, meditated through the second. By the third he'd considered abandoning the graveyard to help his brothers. They must've found Michelangelo. They'd be calling him if it had gone badly. They must be waiting to hear from him.

Gradually, the sun dipped behind the skyscrapers jutting above the trees, taking with it what little hope remained that Karai was coming.

Evening air was cutting, piercing his jacket between the insignificant holes in the threads. His muscles bunched, in an effort to warm themselves. The wind blew in gusts, rushing, then silent. Rushing— the delicate scent of jasmine right in his airways. The fragrance coursed through him, stealing his breath, thrusting a shock to his stomach that hurt like a punch to the gut.

She was too smart to ever wear perfume. Unless she wanted to be noticed. He closed his eyes, reaching out with his being to sense her. Her breaths were slight, hitting his ears like a tickle… they came from… behind him. He turned to face her.

Surprised at how close she'd gotten, he took a step back. Her stealth had always been commendable, still, she'd improved. He couldn't bring himself to look at her long. His mouth opened but no words came out. Not at first.

His heart jerked like she was tugging on it, he was once again a fish on the end of a line. Only he'd wanted her to catch him, and at one time, had all but thrown himself at her. And she'd rejected him.

Pride blossomed in his chest, because he had survived that heartbreak, and since then, he'd survived the death of his father. Nothing could break him now. He straightened, squared his shoulders.

The corners of her mouth tipped up ever such a tiny bit, and he wondered if she was still as impulsive as she'd been as a teen.

"Well, Leo, aren't ya gonna say hello?"

Was she blushing? It was hard to tell with the sun gone, only the glow of distant city lights casting a pale white light over the cemetery.

She didn't wait for him to answer. Reaching into the pocket of her long black coat, she pulled forth two sticks of incense and a lighter. She lit them then placed them in the holder on Splinter's grave. Her lower lip trembled, her breath hitched before she captured it, pressing her mouth into a flat line.

Her voice came out cracked, "Did, did he— suffer?"

He wanted to bite her head off. To scream at her, shake her. But he couldn't. Her gaze was fixed on the stone, smoke swirling up from the incense. The weight of his father's death as heavy as the day it happened. In some ways he wanted her to suffer. To let her believe that Sensei had. To hurt her, the way she'd hurt him with her leaving and refusal to come home.

His jaw shifted and the intent rose toward his lips. But as mighty a warrior as he knew she was, in that moment she was slight, tiny, and as lost as she always had been. His shoulders slumped, his gaze falling to the ground beneath her boots. "No."

It didn't matter if he had or hadn't. It wouldn't change what was. It was over. Hamato Yoshi's life was over, and as he always felt in her presence when thinking of his father, he had a duty to her. To protect her, to keep her safe, to save her from whatever tormented her. His legs felt week beneath him, as if they may cave in and leave him a mushy heap. No matter what he'd done, he'd failed them both at that task.

April's voice rang in his ears. You can't force her to do anything, Leo.

April.

His gaze lifted, he commanded himself to step toward her. "Karai, what is all of this about?"

Her eyes remained on the headstone. Her voice soft, her mouth bowing into a frown that for some reason he felt in the center of his chest. "I—" she let out a long sigh. "I—"

His patience wavered in the midst of her sudden appearance, her penchant for appearing and disappearing at her whim, without so much as a goodbye. Let alone an explanation. His fists bunched. Why was he always falling for her act? Her 'I'm sorry', behaviors but not actions. She owed him answers for countless questions, not the least of which was—

"You pushed me away when I found you in Japan. Why?" His temper pressed at his insides, rising as his lips moved. "And I was dumb enough to go looking for you." The corners of his mouth bowed as he swallowed the bile rising in his throat. How he hated fighting with her, but knew that's what needed to happen. How he loathed the way she made him feel. "And while I was here, at home, watching our father die you— were off having the time of your life! Did you plan on running forever?" He thought he may be sick, felt his cool slipping, after years of holding back everything he had to say to her. "Did you ever care about me at all?"

He reached for her wrist intending to pull her close, to let her know how pissed he was. But she blocked him, her hands moving with studied efficiency.

"I wasn't on a fifteen year vacation, Leonardo. I was studying, the art, the villain, plotting, thwarting, and now my moments here!" She had gotten even better than he always knew she was, thrusting a hand in perfectly placed balance points, sending him stumbling backward.

Leo righted himself, moved to snatch her up. "You're moment to what, Karai? You missed out on your true father, it's too late he's gone!"

Blocked again with simple, carefully planned movements, he growled exasperated.

Her almond eyes flashed. "I had a relationship with him, Leo. I wrote to him, had secret meetings. No, we parted on good terms." A softness pierced her fury, brief and fleeting, the rage curling her hands into fists taking precedence. "It's HIM I'm set to destroy. Now's the time. My time. I know his plan, and how to stop it."

No.

Say it isn't so.

Leo's mask bunched, his mouth set in a thin line. Nostrils flaring, he glared at her, choosing his words with great care. Still they tumbled from his lips, sounding pathetic even to him and he hated himself for it. "You mean to tell me you've stayed away this entire time plotting revenge?"

Karai blanched at the tenderness he hadn't meant to let rise to his voice. Her eyes darted to the ground beneath her feet. "I followed him, throwing stones in his path, messing up his deals, tipping off cops to his exchanges. Slowly, ruining his empire."

A pain ripped through Leonardo's plastron like she'd reached in, snatched up the failing muscle, and ripped it from him. But he didn't look away from her, she deserved to see what she did to him. "So he was more important than us."

Her eyes shut and he wanted to force her to look at him. Doesn't she see? Will she never see?

"You don't understand now, any better than you did then," she whispered.

"What? That in a cruel twist you're the one who came out— How did you put it when we were teenagers? Oh, that's right, as short-sighted and narrow-minded, obsessed as The Shredder himself."

Her chest rose and fell in short puffs, water gathering on her dark lashes. "I kept him busy, Leo, away from you, Father, and your brothers. It was me that lured him away when Father passed, it was me that got his lackeys arrested, it was me—" her voice broke, "who wanted to make it up to you."

A solitary tear slipped down her cheek. He only caught it from the way her face was turned toward the moonlight. It glistened as it tipped from her lashes until it grew into a large droplet that escaped her furious swipe, gracing her porcelain skin with its crystal clarity.

And it brought a clear picture to him. One so vivid it hurt to remember, all that she'd endured over the years. All that none of them— "Karai, none of us blamed you for the mind control. We never did, we just wanted to bring you home where you belonged."

She sniffled, set her eyes lifting to the paper white moon that hung like a painting on a navy colored wall. "You sound just like him."

Any anger toward her dissipated with the long-broken creature standing before him. He'd never been able to stay mad at her, but he sure had damn near killed himself trying to protect her, to bring her home, to save her.

He stared at the woman in place of the girl he knew. Her hair, a long straight black curtain down her back, her makeup toned to highlight her naturally sharp features. A soft rose flushed her cheeks. Her shoulders were slight, her arms toned, and he caught glimpse of ink on the inside of her wrist.

Not knowing what possessed him he strode forward brushing the cuff of her coat away to get a better look, and she let him.

His family's crest stared back at him. He spoke with no more thought to his words than he gave to the muscle beating madly in his chest. "I sound like whom?"

"Father," she replied, her voice as slight as the frame of her, a tiny light in the pitch of night.

"Who were you trying to avenge, Karai? Your Mother, your Father, your family? Yourself? How when I was forever trying to show you I was right here, ready to help you, did you refuse to let me?"

She shook her head, a veil of black hair covering her face. She pushed it back, glanced at him, then back to the moon. "I had to figure out who I was without any influence from anyone, to figure out what I wanted, needed, and what I was going to do. In the end I knew, I had to make things right with Splinter, which I did. I had to defeat Shredder, which is why I'm here- all of this had to happen. So you'd be safe, and I'd be-" trembling fingers covered her cherry-colored lips.

His heart galloped, his fingertips tingling as he gently lowered her hand, pressing his palm to hers. How he'd missed her, like a piece of a puzzle had been lost and years later found, only the edges were a little rough and he wasn't entirely sure it would fit anymore. But he dared hope for the hundredth time since he'd met her that somehow the piece would lock into place and the picture would finally be complete. "So you could be what?"

Her chest shuddered, eyes so full of tears he felt the heat of them in his own, looked up at him. "So I'd be worthy of you."

His jaw shifted as he pulled her so tight he had to tell himself not to crush her, but she didn't complain, her thin fingers gripping the lapels of his jacket as she pressed herself against him... and wept.