Author's notes- I don't own the TMNT, just Lia, Yoshi and Karm.

My wonderful, patient readers, thank you so much for bearing with me. I've decided this story is pretty much done and dusted, so, here's the third to last chapters, chapter 14 and 15 will soon follow.

Forgiveness.

I glance over at Leo to find his face contorted in a mix of anger and shock. Looking at my other two brothers, their faces show similar expressions. Raph stands at the door; his back to us and his fists clenched at his side. One look at Karai shows her emotions clearly, shock and disgust.

"How could you?!"

"Yoshi, you've got 5 seconds to say this is some twisted joke."

"Dad!"

"Leonardo, please-" Lia starts.

"No." Leo shakes his head. "This is wrong."

"How is it?"

"Our clans do not belong together, Lia. We are sworn enemies."

"Mother, you taught me to never feel ashamed of who I am, and who I am loves Yoshi."

Mikey snorts whilst Don shakes his head.

"Ya don't love her, Yoshi."

"Yes I do, uncle Mikey!"

"Yoshi, we're your family, we wouldn't tell you this was wrong for no reason-"

"Yes you would, uncle Don. This is just about your pride, your honour."

"An' that's important in our family, kid."

"As it is in mine." Karai agrees with Mikey.

"And just because you've both betrayed your honour because of each other, we can't love each other?"

"Yes!!" Leo and Karai echo.

"You weren't around when she put us through Hell." Don looks up darkly.

"Ya weren't there to see how her family tried to destroy us."

"You don't know why your Mother's shell is-"

Leo stops himself and I snap my head up.

"My shell? What about it?"

"No Karm, you know too much already."

"Does it matter Don? This isn't the reality I'm from, right?"

"We can't guarantee this is something that only happens in our reality."

"Leo, c'mon!" I look up at him, but his eyes are fixed on Lia. "Don? Mikey?"

"Your shell… your plastron…"

"Yoshi!" Leo roars at his son.

"They ruined them!" Yoshi shouts defiantly.

A stunned silence falls over the room.

"I… I…" I swallow hard. "How?"

"No." Leo finally looks at me, his voice stern. "No, Karm. I'm telling you, you can't know."

"It's my life! I deserve to know!"

I clutch at my brother, towering over me but he shakes me off roughly.

"Ya went lookin' fer Shinrai…"

"Raphael…" The blue banded turtle grimaces.

"Ya were angry, ya were on their territory… the advantage was theirs. Ya were Stockman's last experiment…"

"Shredder hated how strongly armoured we were, it was our advantage, he was out to change that."

"Donatello…"

"We can't run from this anymore, Leo. This is what happened, and ignoring it and hoping it will go away won't work, okay?!"

The purple banded turtle squares up to his oldest brother, his brown eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. Leo seems to shrink back, no longer the tall proud turtle he was when I first met him.

"Shredder had one order for Stockman; destroy our natural defences. Any turtle the Foot captured, they were to be kept alive but… left vulnerable. It was then he could have his real fun." Our leader lowers his eyes to the floor.

"Luckily, we managed to find you in Stockman's lab and escaped but unfortunately, he had damaged your shell and plastron considerably. It was a blow to your already dwindling self confidence. When you finally got the courage to join us in a fight against the Shredder again, the Elite… brought Shinrai out."

"Ya hung up yer pretty weapons that day." Raph turns back to us. "Then, not long after, ya had a different path in life."

With tear filled eyes, I look at Yoshi. All the information I've been given over the past day runs through my head and it all starts to add up.

"Me. I'm the one…"

"You're the one that what?" Don tilts his head slightly.

"I'm the only that fucked it up."

"No!" The five turtles shout.

"Never." Raph shakes his head.

"We couldn't live without you." Leo steps forward.

"Raph and I kissed, everybody was angry at Stockman because of me, I was angry and I strolled into his lab. Shredder killed Stockman and pinned it on Raph because of me and Shinrai is dead because of me! It's myfault!"

"No Karm, it's not, we've all done things-"

"If it weren't for me… your lives would be great!" I start to back up towards the door. "You wouldn't have some bitch breaking you apart and making you more enemies, I shouldn't exist!"

"Don't say that to me, just don't!" I watch as Leo's eyes fill with tears.

"Leo, I came between you and your brother!"

"No, I came between us. Blood is thicker than water, I should never have turned my back on you Raph, I was angry… You wanted her, and I couldn't stand that."

"Trust me, I couldn't stand it either, bro."

Leo shuts his shimmering orbs for a moment then opens them to look at his brother.

"Raph… I'm sorry. P-please come back home, we need you."

"Ya never needed me." The red banded turtle looks at his hands. "Yer doin' fine without me."

"No we're not." A shaky-voiced Michelangelo steps forward. "I've missed ya Raph, I-I never, I never meant to say I h-h-hate you, 'cause I don't. I l-love you."

Raph's amber eyes soften and begin to glitter with tears.

"D'ya forgive me?"

The youngest brother can only manage a small, meek nod before he starts to cry. Raph swallows hard before stepping tentatively towards him; shock taking over his features as Mikey falls into his arms sobbing and shaking; the older brother then stroking his shell.

"I love ya too, even if yer a bonehead."

Through a sniffle, Mikey chuckles a little.

"Don…"

"Don't Leo," The injured brother holds up a hand, "I know, you're sorry-"

"No, I'm not sorry, I'm extremely sorry. I have been an asshole all these years, to you especially. I know you've found things hard, trying to keep the peace."

"In all honesty, it's been ripping me apart." He sighs then smiles slightly, "But I accept your apology."

The two brothers share a small embrace, before turning to Yoshi.

"I guess we all owe you two an apology, don't we?"

In true Leonardo fashion, the oldest turtle crosses his arms across his plastron.

"Damn straight." The green banded turtle grins a little too like somebody else in the room.

"Whatever makes you happy, Yoshi, and we'll try to understand."

"Well, you might uncle Don."

Three sets of brown eyes fall on Mikey and Raph, now composed.

"What?" They echo.

"Uncle Raph, uncle Mikey." Yoshi shakes his head good-heartedly.

"Leonardo…" Karai steps forward. "You have no objections to… to this?"

"No, and I don't think you should either."

I carefully watch the older kunoichi; her eyes showing flickers of anger and her hands curling into fists.

"Mother… they have forgiven us, we should forgive them."

"No Lia, we should not."

Leo's eyes narrow whilst his brothers straighten, ready for anything.

"We should ask if they would forgive us."

The Japanese woman falls to her knee in front of Leo, her head bowed and Lia follows suit.

"Karai, you hurt our family for so long and we have hurt you… But it shall be forgotten and forgiven. This is a new beginning. The past can hurt, but we shouldn't let it inflict pain on our children."

With glassy eyes, she looks up to the blue banded turtle, her breath held.

"Thank you."

With a small smile to myself, I lower my head and find my head races with thoughts.

"Karma."

I snap my eyes up to find 7 eyes trained on me.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. You've helped to fix two families and without you, this war would have raged for many more years, but…"

"We're sorry." Don carries on from his brother. "Once again, you've sacrificed your own feelings to help us, and we know how much this has hurt you."

"No, it hasn't. It's helped put my life in perspective. Thank you, all of you, but yanno something?"

"What?" Leo asks.

"It's all in a days work." I grin.

"Has she been playing kunoichi tricks on us, again?" Mikey blinks.

"Were ya pretendin' ta be upset?"

"Would I ever?"

"Yes!"

The 5 male turtles all rush for me, gathering me up in a big hug and tickling me.

"NO! No, no, no, no! Get off! Leo! Raph! Don! Mikey! Yoshi!"

I fall down giggling and breathless as they let go.

"Wait! We need to know something." Don turns serious.

"What?"

"We really want to know what changed… why you picked Leo in this reality, and not Raph."

"I don't have the faintest idea." I tilt my head. "I guess something just happened."

I start to feel the strange pull on my body again, dragging me away to someplace else.

"Whoa! I think I'm going home!"

"Karmy!"

"Bye Karm."

"Stay beautiful." Raph winks.

"Goodbye Karma."

"Bye mom!"

"Bye mom-in-law to be!"

"That's not funny, Lia!" I frown playfully.

"Bye Karm, thanks again."

"I told ya Leo, all in a days work."

I smile back at the blue banded turtle, his brothers, his son and the two Japanese women standing behind him, all reunited and happy once again as I feel my body ripped away from this world.