Disclaimer:…. I obviously do not own Ninja Turtles. Peter Lair and Kevin Eastman do.

Over the next five months, Moth danced between her two separate identities; searches for her mutant family became more frantic as more and more Foot ninja were injured or killed. She found herself constantly slipping away during patrol without being noticed, which was easy since with the uniforms all Foot ninja could not be told apart, she would 're-appear' soon after in her classic fur-and-bones gear, fighting her so-called comrades. Many of the times, she encountered and even fought side-to-side with the mysterious girl from the first fight, the girl refused to say her name.

Kai, despite his broke wrist, was demanded to continue his duties. He no longer went on search parties, an experienced Front-liner temporarily took his place in that certain duty. But the fight that caused his injury had left him both shaken and angry. His angst was so thick that if you strained you could probably see the congealing aura clustering around him. Not only was he viciously reprimanded by his parents for making a mistake in battle, but as punishment Leonardo broke his other wrist. Kai could not so much as train or practice the kata's he so coveted. All he could is meditate uncomfortably and glare at people as he plotted his revenge against the one who had beaten him (Whom he had no idea he had regular contact with).

Moth found she could not enjoy his suffering…. Not too much at least, she actually felt pretty sorry for the poor kid. In fact, his 'punishment' only made her hate Leonardo more. Sure, her father was tough with her growing up, but he wasn't a slave-driver trying to force her to become the world most perfect and obedient ninja like Leonardo was doing to Kai.

Oddly enough, for a cursed woman Karai really did not have much power in the Foot clan. It was like this; if the Foot clan was a puppet show, Karai would be the lead puppet, but Leonardo would still be the one pulling all of the strings behind the velvet curtain. Every action thought up, Leonardo always had the final say.

While Moth brushed up on 'research' of the Foot clan, she also studied a bit of the Oroku family tree. It was interesting, soon after a family head was dead and their child took their place, it was very soon after that the new head had a child of their own. Oroku Saki, for instance, in the three years following his fathers death, met a woman, married her, and had Karai. The mother was unknown, except she had died in childbirth…. In fact, the longest time span between a successor becoming head of the Foot clan and said head having a child was made by Karai, who, probably devastated by the death of Jade, did not have another child until six years later, with Leonardo.

Karai should never have had another child, he was only going to be killed shortly before her…..

During these months, Moth also adjusted to being around other people; she didn't talk with her mouth full, growl when someone came close while she was eating, and she got somewhat of a handle on slang. Her original cadet squad of Jones, Keene, Quinn, Travis and Reno became very good friends: Keene, Travis, Reno and Jones having finally became full-fledged Foot ninja about four months back. Moth often 'hung out' with Quinn or Keene, for reasons Moth did not know, Keene had taken it upon himself to hang out with her a lot. Not that Moth minded, she was actually glad for companionship with people who weren't snarling coyotes or giant talking ninja turtles. Hedidn't even mind the fact that she wasn't quite sane.

Knock Knock

"Marlowe! Yo, Marlowe are you home?" The muffled voice of Keene came from the other side of the door. Moth opened her heavy eyelids and blurry looked at the door with her eyes that burned with fever, she was lying on her bed under the covers, trying to recover from her latest bout of sickness. Pouring cough medicine into her drinks on a regular basis really did help, but it proved to not be strong enough to spare her from the current winter season.

"Go away!" She weakly grumbled and turned to her other side facing away from the door; she sighed when the door opened anyways. Annoyed, Moth plucked a kunai from her pillow and tossed it over her back at Keene; there was a metallic sound as he blocked it with the battle axe he'd been given as a weapon.

"Why are all of the lights off?" Keene asked casually as he flicked on the lights; the lights were extremely bright and painful for Moth; she groaned and pulled the blanket over her face. "Yo, Marlowe, why you sleeping this late?"

"I'd sleep if I didn't feel like shit," Moth growled "I'm sick, now beat it."

"Sick?" Keene inquired "What, with the flu or something?"

"No, a fever; my patrol was out in the rain and snow last night." Moth said; last night, it was raining freezing cold during half of the patrol, and then it snowed even colder the other half. Moth was already quivering uncontrollably and sneezing by the time they got back.

Keene approached her and yanked the blanket off; Moth glared and bared her teeth, out of habit, at his smugly smirking mug above her; he wasn't wearing his mask this time. "Geeze, you really look horrible." Keene remarked and helped her sit up.

Still glaring at him, Moth said "You're no doll either." Then she went into a fit of hacks.

"You okay?" Keene asked with concern.

"No; I'm sick and I have an annoying friend not letting me wallow around in misery, alone." Moth mumbled "Now I wallow in misery and you're here."

Keene let out a slight laugh "I'll help you, I got a few things that will help right away." He said before heading to her mini-fridge; he pulled out a seven-up soda and tossed it at her, Moth managed to catch it. "Drink that." He commanded, then turned to the door "I'll be right back, you stay here."

"Like I have a choice." Moth grumbled as he left; she stared down at the can of seven up before popping it open and slowly sipping some. Soda still made tears form in her eyes because of how cold it was, making her progress even slower. She was only half done with the soda when Keene returned.

"Room service~" Keene sang as he returned with a tray that had a bowl of something on it, along.

"What's with the hat?" Moth asked, referring to the paper hat that looked vaguely like a badly made origami paper boat.

"I'm a waiter, so I need the hat." Keene replied and placed the tray on Moth lap. She looked at what was on it; a bowl of soup with a spoon, and two orange tablets.

"What is it?" Moth asked.

"Chicken soup and ibuprofen." Keene said as he decided to longue on the loveseat in front of the coffee table "Take them before you eat the soup, remember to drink all of the seven up."

"Thanks." Moth stated and swallowed the pills.

"Don't mention it." Keene said "I used to tend to the sick all of the time. My little brother was born with aids, so he couldn't fight off sickness and got sick a lot."

"Poor kid." Moth said and decided to ask no questions; likely, with Keene here in the Foot his brother was probably dead "What's his name?"

"Alexander." He responded, sounding sad "He was seven years younger than me. My old man caught aids when he was cheating on mom, he passed the virus to mom and it spread to Alex while she was pregnant with him. Fucking old bastard." His voice was thick with pain and hate.

While Moth had a hard time understanding the situation (Because she for one had no idea what aids was), she still knew that his mom and brother had gotten sick because of his father cheating. She felt bad for Keene, she realized soon after joining the Foot that not everyone was born with a family that honored the concept of family like hers did.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly.

"Wasn't your fault." Keene answered, sounding uncharacteristically morbid.

Moth spooned some of the soup; she had soup often during the winter, well, forest soup anyways, forest soup was the meat of some animal boiled in water for a long time until the mixture became like a warm, meaty jell-o. This soup was good too though, even though it was a bit watery. "Patrick…." She trailed off, her friend tensed up at the use of his first time "Buck up dude, a frown is not suiting of you." She said.

Keene sighed "You always have the weirdest, formal way of saying things…. Thanks for listening…. That's what I like about you, you listen. You don't interrupt, or throw in your two cents about something... You listen."

"…Thanks…. I think." Moth said and sneezed.

Keene turned back at her and his brows furrowed "You're shivering…." He stated, Moth realized she was; oh she hated fevers, her father told her that the reason she felt so cold when she had them was because the inside of her body was burning. Keene got up from the love seat and approached her; he grabbed the blanket and draped it over her shoulders.

"Thank you." Moth croaked and ate more of soup, grateful for having a friend like Keene.

"Don't mention it; hey, I'll tell Master Kai you can't come to patrol tonight." Keene said, getting up.

"I can come to patrol!" Moth argued, only to go into wheezing fit.

"….Really?" Keene cocked an eyebrow, unconvinced "Marlowe, stay in your room. Don't worry about anything except getting better okay?"

Moth sighed in defeat; there was no stopping Keene once he decided to do something "Fine, fine!"

"Later Mar!" Keene told her before turning to the door and leaving. The fever must have been worse than she thought; the heat burned her cheeks, and her stomach was doing these strange flip-flops, in fact she didn't quite notice when her heart started racing.

Venus DeMilo and Michaelangelo snuck into the graveyard; it was night and the air of suspense hung in the mist of the crypts as it did every night. But the graveyard seemed to be peaceful tonight…. Beautiful in a morbid way, with all of the snow blanketing it. Their feet left imprints in the snow that would soon by filled by the falling flakes as they calmly walked to a certain crypt.

They were silent shadows as they continued through the eerie stillness, but a destination was still in a mind.

They came upon a crypt.

Michaelangelo turned to Venus, question in his eyes; she nodded, looking pale because of all of the dread filling her. Being the spiritual type, being in a bone yard was painful for her with all of the restless spirits wandering about.

Letting out a deep breath, Michaelangelo knocked on the crypt.

They waited.

The door opened; the two brother priests stood side-by-side, with smiles on their faces.

"Welcome." Benign greeted warmly.

"We have been expecting you." Bellicose finished, and they lead the two turtles down to the bunker deep underground.

Some down time for Moth, Michaelangelo and Venus doing mysterious stuff.

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