~Editted~

Reviews are luved!


Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. ~ Aristotle


"I have considered your words. I have decided that we must locate the jewels before we locate the Shredder." The lead voice sounded.

The voice with wisdom chimed in. "How do you expect to do that? It's not as though we can freely explore the human world."

"Just as I thought," the voice of doubt voice rang the harmony, "this plan is corrupt and unsound. It will fail and ultimately destroy us if we proceed!"

"No," the lead voice was firm, "I have found a way."

"And how is that?" the peacekeeper's voice spoke in.

"I have found a few 'friends' that are willing to help us," The lead replied.

"You don't mean the old allies of the Shredder, do you?" The voice of doubt spoke in disapproval.

"They are changed since the Shredder has gone and agreed to help us," The lead argued.

"They helped us to bring back their leader!" The doubt snarled.

"He is right," The wise put in. "They will rebel with their leader when he has returned."

"I did not say they would help us bring back the Shredder, but simply locate the jewels." The lead said with sound.

"And when will they begin this work?" A fifth voice replied.

"Must you always appear uninvited?" The lead said with disdain.

"Will you not answer my question?"

"They already have. In fact, they have located the first jewel," The lead voice spoke with pride.

"And the location?" The doubt inquired.

"Do you remember the great leader, Maysa?"

"Yes, but she has been deceased for centuries now," The peacekeeper sounded surprised.

"Perhaps, but her reincarnation is in the city of New York, along with her loyal advisors."

"So she has returned! But why do we not use her instead?" The fifth voice inquired.

"They are all but only children now, and by the time we have brought back the Shredder they shall be just what is now called 'teenagers.' They will come as no use to us."

"The location! Where is the first jewel!"

"That is a shocking secret I have found. It seems that one of Maysa's advisors was desperately in love with her as she with him. It would not be accepted in the open so it was kept in secret. A journey came upon the advisors and the four had to leave. The journey's purpose was never discussed or known. Before departure for the journey, Maysa's lover gave her the jewel we are looking for as a gift. Her advisors never returned. Maysa discovered the power of our jewel and protected it from greedy and evil hands such as ancient Shredder-"

"So he was greedy even in his ancient life?" The doubtful spoke up.

"I am not finished yet. And just before she died, Maysa had one of her most trusted allies promise to have the jewel put into her body when she died. It was done. When Maysa died, the jewel was placed into her body. The jewel now lives inside this young child of New York City."

"And how do you propose to retrieve the jewel from the inside of this child?" The fifth voice challenged.

"The Shredder will be our link to the human world; he shall be able to use the technology to safely extract it from her."

"And how do we get the child?"

"We must decide that later. We do not yet know how we will even use her, let alone get her."

"So we shall proceed with the collection of the jewels then?"

"Yes."


Destiny kept its work up. Cally and her new friend had agreed to meet every night on the roof. Like most children, they saw no flaw with their plan and had every night happening in their head with optimistic outcomes. The boy saw that his family would never quite accept the fact that he had a human friend but figured they would never catch him sneaking away. Cally saw that the nuns would never understand that she had a giant turtle as a friend but assumed that they would never catch her sneaking out either. They both had the same idea of how it would work and thought it would never fail. They were like all other people when their completely optimistic about something in their life.

So as planned, Cally went to the roof the next night. She frowned in disappointment when she didn't see her new friend. The sounds of the city still roared in her ears and the stench of garbage night drifted under her nose making her cringe.

"Hi." A voice from behind made her jump. The thoughts of being caught suddenly raced through Cally's head and her heart pounded.

She turned around to see her friend staring at her with a proud smirk. "Hey!" Cally frowned. "You scared me!" She couldn't help but smile out of relief that she hadn't been caught and with joy because her friend had showed up.

The boy simply grinned. "That was da point."

"Why?" Cally demanded. What gave him a right to scare her? Was that what friends did? It actually seemed rather fun, but she refused to give up her frown until he had answered.

"I'm a ninja," He boasted with a proud smirk, then hesitated. "Well, in trainin'."

Cally had heard of ninjas in her lessons. She had been told they were from Japan and could slip in and out of shadows and had extremely good self-defense skills. To her, it sounded like a human dressed up in black with the abilities of many different animals. Now she had a ninja for a friend, Cally thought that was pretty neat. It explained why he wore that mask. She wondered if he could do all the things that ninjas did.

Cally made a face. "So just because you're a ninja you can scare me like that?"

"Yeah, pretty much." The boy nodded, smiling.

"That doesn't seem fair." Cally frowned. She had always heard the saying "Do unto others as you would have them do to you," but did that give the person wronged a right to get revenge? If it did, she had no way of getting back at him that made it unfair to her.

He grinned. "Maybe I'll teach ya some ninjitsu lata."

Cally shrugged. "Alright. Besides," she added, "You're supposed to show me what a friend is." She sounded anxious to know the answer.

"No," He corrected her. "I'm supposed to be yours."

"Well, what do friends do?" She inquired. Cally prayed he wouldn't say play and tell secrets.

"I guess we should know each other's names." the boy seemed to realize just as he said the words. "Mine's Raphael. But I usually go by Raph."

She nodded, "Mine's Cally." Cally had completely forgot about names. It was like that little thing that's so important that we completely miss because we're so focused on the bigger thing, like forgetting to put our name on a big test that we studied so hard for.

"Cally," Raph repeated.

"You say it funny," Cally giggled. "By the way, are- is there any more like you? Turtle people I mean." She couldn't help but wonder. Was there a whole other world here full of people like him? Cally figured that she could fit in better with people like Raphael than she could with her own. But maybe he was just a misfit like her.

Raph hesitated, and then replied, "Yes, three bro's, and my father, but he's a rat. He's also my sensei; he teaches me and my bros ninjitsu." So there were more like him and it was his family. Cally slightly frowned. She didn't remember what it was like to have a family. All Cally knew about a family is what the nuns had told her- that she needed one.

"So why aren't your brothers or father with you?" Cally sat, and motioned for Raphael to sit too. He did, doing so in seiza position. She looked at his legs curiously and how he sat on them. Cally tried to do the same but flinched in pain and when back to criss-cross.

Raph laughed at her then chewed at his lip. "I'm not supposed ta be up here, and by up I mean tha streets." Cally thought as the streets as 'down' not 'up'. She wondered where you would have to be so that the street was above you.

So she curiously asked, " Where do you live?"

"Tha sewers," He replied. Raph flinched right after he said it as if he had given away some kind of secret. He suddenly seemed lost in his thoughts.

"What's a sewer?" Cally's curiosity grew. This was her first connection with the outside world other than riding for long car rides and psychologists. Even though he looked like he lived a more hidden life than she did, he knew more about the world than she did.

Raph came out of his thoughts with a sigh like he had finally given up on something. "S'like an underground tunnel, where rain from tha streets go," He replied. "And what you flush down the toilet," Raph added and let loose a wicked smirk waiting for her girlish reaction.

Cally made a face. "Eww!" She imagined a murky river filled with that stuff. Just the thought made her nose twitch with disgust. Some of the small children at the orphanage didn't flush and she knew what it smelled like after sitting there for just a while. That was an imprint that caused a pet peeve- the toilet had to be flushed before she went within a ten foot range of it.

"Maybe ta a girl." Raphael shrugged, still smirking. He was becoming somewhat attached to Cally even though it was only their second night knowing each other. She was rather easy to talk to because she asked a lot of questions about him so it wasn't like they sat their awkwardly while one came up with something to talk about.

"So you're not human, are you?" Cally asked; she wanted to know what Raph was. Maybe she could ask the nuns if they had heard of what Raphael was. She wouldn't tell them she had seen one but simply that she had heard the word and wanted to know what it was.

"Half." Raph answered simply. He played at his hands nervously. Raph-unlike his brothers and father- was sensitive to what he was. He replaced shame with fake rudeness to those who wouldn't accept them but it offended him more than anything. That was his secret but he wouldn't tell even Cally.

"Half?" Cally wondered what he meant by half. She didn't think about there being an in between. To Cally, being human was like being a girl. You either were or you weren't, there was no morph between the two. But there was with being human apparently.

"I'm half human." Raph sighed, still playing at his hands. His shame was getting to his stomach.

"And half turtle?" Cally guessed because of his physical turtle-like appearance.

"Yah, s'what a mutant is." Raph murmured softly, awaiting her frightened reaction. Half of him figured she wouldn't freak since she hadn't the first time she saw him, but the other side was pessimistic and said that Cally would freak and never talk to him again. All humans are like that and he was showing his human side. Why do we do that? Are we insecure, do we halfway want our worst case scenario to take place, or are we just being practical and wish for a happier side to the situation?

"Never heard of mutants." Cally shrugged. She was used to not knowing most things that other children did. She secluded herself so it was no big deal to her not to know things that other people did. It was actually typical for her.

Raph frowned. "Ya neva heard of anythin'!" It shocked him how little she knew despite the fact she was normal-to him. Cally didn't even know what a friend was. It was strange that she didn't have one. From what Raphael had seen on television, he figured that friends was a must have for all other children. Honestly, a lot of what Raphael knew about the surface world was from the television.

Cally just looked away. Was that bad? She was used to knowing stuff but would Raph think it weird? He might leave her. Ignore her. And then she'd be left by herself, betrayed by not only normal people but mutated ones too. If even the oddest person ever thinks your weird then what are you? A freak? Was that what she was?

"What's wrong?" Raphael asked. He didn't mean to offend her. It suddenly frightened him, the fact that if she betrayed him, she knew where he lived and could betray his family as well. That dread still bubbled in his stomach. Why did Raph tell Cally where he lived? He knew how much danger that put he and his family in. If anything Raphael was faithful to, it was his family. And he would have only proved his father right when he said the world would never accept him.

"Nothing." Cally murmured. She didn't like to give into weakness, to let people know that she had it. Very few people knew that she cried herself to sleep at night. They simply thought that she toughened herself out when her parents died and didn't want trust anyone, but Cally would give anything to have someone to trust.

"Then why are you upset?" Raph pressed. He knew from his brothers that the appearance of anger with the answer of 'nothing' to the question 'what's wrong?' didn't mean that everything was okay.

Cally smiled. Unlike anyone in her life before, he cared. He sounded like he did care, unlike the nuns when they asked if she was okay like she was required to answer or she would be punished. "Really, it's nothing," She gave him a sideways glance and smiled. She laughed at the expression on his face, not out of humor but it was an expression she hadn't seen anyone give her before and she liked it.

Raph's expression was actually out of fear and curiosity really. He did want to know what was wrong with Cally, she was strange and different. He assumed that that was why she wasn't frightened by him. Cally was different on the inside, not the outside. Raphael was also frightened that she would betray him and didn't want that either. But when she went from being upset to laughing within seconds, he couldn't help but say, "You're like Mikey." And he said it with a smile.

"Who's Mikey?"

"My youngest bro; he's a nut." Raphael smiled. Mikey was the humor of his family. He could always lighten someone's day. For Raph, he would pretend he didn't care and go on with his mood but on the inside he felt better. To us, Mikey's motto is 'a laugh is the best kind of medicine' and it is. And whether he meant to or not, Mike could always bring the laughs around.

"Oh. So like what happened?" Cally asked the random question. She wanted to know how he got like that. Was he born like that? Did he used to be a turtle or a human? The questions ran through her head. Cally had a lot of questions but didn't normally voice them. She had tried before but either she wasn't heard or was ignored. Since everyone she was around seemed to think her odd, she assumed she was ignored. And Cally was right. All the other children thought she was strange. She didn't like to do all the other things children like to do. Cally didn't fit into the stereotype. Normally, we would think of stereotyping as gender or race but not age; but it's true. We stereotype by age. Teenagers are supposedly always rebellious and maybe it's that thinking that makes them that way. Children are supposed to like to run, play, and have fun; but when the circle doesn't fit into the square it's simply cast out. Cally was cast away from the mold into the pile of 'misfits', she knew it but didn't know why. Cally didn't know the stereotype for children, just that she didn't fit into it.

"What?"

"How did you get like that? You know, mutated."

"I don' know…" Raph frowned slightly, he didn't like the subject. All he knew is that he used to be a turtle and got covered in ooze and was mutated. But he didn't want to tell Cally. He was still afraid of being judged by her. That was Raph's imprint. Because his father had always told him the world would never accept him for who he was, he became sensitive to being judged for what he was. Raphael hid it well like he did most of his feelings, but he knew it lived inside of him.

"Why not?" Cally thought you always knew what happened to you. She thought it was a figure of life.

"Don' donnify me 'kay?" Raph tried his best to avoid the answer. Even though he completely made up the word, it fit so he used it.

"Donnify?"

"Ya, my otha bro Don wants ta know 'bout everythin'. So if someone asks constant questions we call it donnifyin." It wasn't completely true. His brother Don did ask a lot of questions but not one used the word 'donnify'. But he would try anything to avoid the conversation of his mutation.

"Oh." Cally looked at him, still curious. "But why do you live in the sewers?" Why not an abandoned building?

Raph suddenly stiffened. "I can't tell ya everythin'." He scowled. That was true. If Cally knew too much then decided to give them away, he and his family would be done for. In truth, Raph didn't want to create a reason for him not to trust Cally because he wanted to trust her. He wanted to prove that the whole world wasn't as his father said. He was nursing his scar.

"Why not?" Cally frowned. She thought that friends told each other everything. All people do that. We assume that a certain thing is supposed to be a certain way like a sport with all the rules and regulations laid out. But life is so much more flexible, it can be any way you want or maybe not the way you want it.

"How do I know I can trust ya?" Raphael shot back. He knew he could trust her, but like I said before, he didn't want to create a reason for him not to be able to trust her or fear not being able to trust her.

"Well, I trust you, so you can trust me." Just like 'you scratch my back; I'll scratch yours' right? Not quite. Trust doesn't come that way. It's like a language teacher's essay questions. You have to have reasons to trust. It doesn't come automatically. If we automatically trusted everyone, the world would be a different place. Better in some areas but not in others. Like just trusting someone you don't know on the road with you, it might not turn out so well if you know what I mean.

Raph seemed to think about that, "Maybe…but I can't tell ya anythin' more 'bout us."

"Fine."

"Why've ya neva made a friend before me? I'm not foreva though." He frowned. Raph played the hard to get game by saying 'not forever'. Did Cally really care or was she just here out of curiosity? He wanted to know.

"They don't understand." Cally felt herself falling deep into her feelings, it twisted inside of her chest and wouldn't let go. It was a certain emptiness that drained yet consumed her. Why didn't people understand her? Why couldn't they see what she had been through?

"Undastand what?" Raphael gave her a sideways glance. He didn't know what she was talking about. Who didn't understand her? Understand what?

"That someone must always be to blame for everything." Cally went on, still filled with her sudden emptiness. That's the way she felt. Someone had to be blamed for everything. From car accidents to things falling off the shelf, there was someone to be blamed. For the moment, she was unaware of Raphael's presence. She was too caught up in herself.

"What does that have ta do with anythin'?" Raphael was getting curious. People didn't understand her. Someone had to be blamed for everything. What was she getting at?

"The only one to be blamed is me." Cally droned on. Most of us-including me- place the blame on others even when we know it was us. But instead, Cally placed the blame on herself even when it wasn't her.

"What the shell are ya talkin' 'bout?"

"My parent's death." Cally became once again aware of Raph's presence. She turned to look at him with saddened eyes. He looked at her for a moment before his reply.

"Your parents are dead?" Raphael gawked at her. No wonder she was so different. He pitied her because if his family was dead he'd be worse off than her. He understood struggle, yes, but not as well as Cally did.

"Yes." Cally answered shortly, close to tears.

"How?"

"A fire." A small apartment building. Cally had snuck into the small den when she couldn't sleep and heard something strange to see flames licking up walls of the den. In panic, she had raced out of the apartment without getting her parents. Cally had run all the way down the lobby where she was stopped by the doorman. In violent sobs of fear she told the doorman there was a fire and he immediately called the fire department. It was too late by the time the firemen got there; the fire had consumed the den and her parent's bedroom with them still in there. Cally forced the tears down. Why didn't she get her parents? It was her one regret she would live with the rest of her life, and it wouldn't be the only one.

"And you're ta blame for that?"

"Yes." Cally hadn't thought about her parents' death till now. It saddened her soul inside out, but we have to face our sorrows to overcome them. It was something that had been buried that Raph- that destiny had uncovered. A task destiny does is to uncover what we've done our best to bury. The tears swelled up.

"Why must someone be blamed for that?" Raph's voice was uncommonly soft. He touched her arm and prayed she wouldn't cry because he had no idea how to comfort one of his brothers when they were crying let alone a girl.

"Someone has to be to blame for everything." Cally said solidly. Looking at Raph, she swallowed her tears again and brushed away his hand to tell him she was fine and didn't need any comforting.

"For everythin'?"

Cally thought for a moment then answered, "Yes."

"So then someone should be ta blame for tha reason I'm like this." Raph decided to use another example instead of her parents' death. He looked at his three fingered hands. Was somebody to blame for his mutation?

"Yours is different." Cally told him stubbornly. What she wanted to believe was true and what she didn't wasn't. We all tend to do that with things. We say something isn't true just because we don't want it to be.

"My problem's s'big as yours, both our lives were changed." Raph began to be sucked into himself, thinking on what he was. Was he a monster like most of the world would be believe he was? Was he truly? The pain swelled in his chest.

"But you didn't lose anyone. Mine's a loss."

"Ya think havin' ta hide in the sewers, and tryin' ta fight tha urge of seeing what's up here which I failed at, is a great life? Besides maybe things will change for ya." Raph fought the pain with optimism. He wanted to believe he wasn't a monster so he shoved the 'truth' into his head. And it was true. Raphael was never a monster and never would be, if only he would truly believe it.

"The only way that will happen is if I get adopted and I've never been to an adoption interview." Cally wasn't even sure if she wanted new parents. What if when she got adopted parents she forgot about her old ones? It wouldn't be so bad, she guessed, since she would also forget about what she did to them.

"Adoption interview, what's that?"

"Where some people that want one of us orphans come and have an interview with us, you know, ask us questions about ourselves." Cally had never been to one so she was going off what the nuns had told her it was like. They had hoped by now she would be willing to do it, they were afraid to make her because of the things she might say.

"Why would they want one of ya?"

"I don't know. They don't have a kid, I guess." Cally shrugged. If only someone wanted her. It was the only thing she dreamed of. She didn't go to the adoption interviews because she was afraid of being denied and turned down, just as the world had done to her.

"So, 'cause they don' have a kid, they can take someone else's?"

"No, none of us have parents. I told you my parents died. We belong to no one." Cally truly felt she belonged to no one. In her heart was the emptiest feeling in the world every day because of that.

"Well, yeah, but I didn' know it was like that. Ya shoudn't be scared ta at least try." Raphael encouraged. His dad always told him to try things before he decided he didn't like it or it scared him. Why should Cally be scared of trying to fix her life? Humans are sometimes afraid to fix their lives. We fear the struggles it might take.

"Try what?"

"To make some friends. Go ta an adoption intaview. Try to turn ya life around instead of just feelin' sorry for yaself." Raphael- even though he was a child- knew that simply feeling sorry for yourself would do nothing. Actions had to be taken.

"What if I don't want to?" Cally challenged. She wanted to but hid her craving for love deep within herself.

"Too scared?" He grinned. Raphael treated her like one of her brothers- they couldn't resist a threat of weakness, except for Don. He was just happy if you left him alone so he could go on with whatever he was doing.

"No!" Cally hid a smile. Truthfully, Raph's trick worked. Cally couldn't resist a challenge to her weakness either.

"Then do it! I don' get ta talk ta nearly half as many people as ya do, you're the lucky one!" It was true; Cally was the lucky one to Raphael. She could talk to whoever she wanted- or at least try.

She smiled back. "Maybe…I'll think about it." Her craving was being slightly fed. She had a friend. It was a start for her.

He sniffed and looked off into the city. Cally thought she saw a slight red tint to his cheeks.

"Well, I got to go." Cally stood, suddenly feeling slightly awkward. "The nuns will get worried if I'm tired tomorrow."

Raph stood as well. "Same here." Without saying good-bye he descended down the building using the fire escape stairs. Cally watched him take a metal lid off the cement ground and climb down, shifting the lid back.

So that must be where a sewer is, Cally assumed. She was disappointed that Raph had left so fast. Slipping back through the black door, Cally ran down the stairs and snuck back into her room.

Lying in her bed, covers to her chest, Raph's voice echoed in her head, "…make some friends…go ta an adoption intaview…too scared?"

Cally frowned, though amusement could be seen sparkling in her green eyes, and as if he were there, she answered, "I'll do it." For the first time since her parents' death she felt truly happy. Her life had reached its climax and was turning for the better.