[A/N: How much do you guys love me? Told ya it would speed up now!]

Her Faith

It was so hard to believe it, but he wanted to. With all his heart, Leo wanted to believe. It would explain so much.

"Are you ready?"

He looked over at his brothers and his best friends. He was back in leader-position after almost an entire year. They were waiting for his word.

He took a deep breath and gripped the handle on one of the swords on his back, the thick leather in his dark jacket moving like a second layer of skin.

"Yeah. Let's go."

And to believe that just one hour ago they had been so deeply rooted into the couch that even Splinter hadn't believed them capable of more mischief and gone to bed.

Movie nights had been expanded to include both Sidney and Susie. The others had been a bit worried, but Leo didn't mind. He liked seeing them all together. He loved seeing his brothers happy.

The most surprising thing about that evening was that at midnight there popped up a movie in the bag that didn't include any action what so ever.

"It's a musical. I ain't watching no musical! You can't make me!"

"Oh get over yourself, it's a good movie!"

"Eh? You want to see it, Coral? You hate romantic movies!"

"It's a good movie!"

"Who picked Moulin Rouge anyway?"

Leo turned the DVD over in his hand and looked at the people in the dimly lit room. All the girls shrugged, Raph glared, and Donnie held up his hands to say "not me".

Then everyone turned to Mike.

"Well… It's a good movie….!"

They laughed and bombarded him with pillows. Raph was voted down and Leo started the film.

It was a fun movie, fun enough even to forget the dark beginning, and it made for a lot of debate amongst the teenagers.

"I still think it's stupid."

"Mike! If she didn't lie to him, the Duke would kill him! She's doing it because she loves him!"

"They should just run away!"

"Hush! I love this song!"

Leo watched the love story on the screen. Why couldn't they make movies about easy relationships?

Well, nobody would watch it. No drama.

Still, this was a tragic movie. Why couldn't musicals end on a happy note? Was it some rule? He watched them confront each other, the man almost mad with grief and hurt, the woman silent and suffering for all the things she couldn't tell him. He could relate. Being lied to by the one you love hurts more then anything.

"It's still stupid!"

"If she told him, he would be killed!"

The argument between Mikey and Coral raged on. It was simple enough. Mike would always wish for the happy ending, not the most likely.

"If it were me, I'd rather hurt him and let him live than have him killed!"

"How is that merciful? She'll be suffering her entire life!"

"Given the choice of watching the person you love die, and letting him live to find someone else, what would you pick? She's doing it to protec…!"

The abrupt halt made them all turn their heads to watch as the Asian girl's eyes grew wider and wider. Suddenly, she popped up out of the couch and stared at Leo where he lay on the floor. She looked like she had just made a small trip to Nirvana and come back with a piece of infinite wisdom. Perhaps she had.

"That's what she did…"

"Huh?"

"That's what she did, Leo! That's what Karai was doing! She was protecting us!"

It was the first time since her arm was broken that she mentioned that name, and suddenly hearing it was like a jab to Leo's gut.

"Ye're out of you're brains, sugar. Sit down and watch the stupid movie."

"No! It would explain it! Think about it, Leo! Karai was one of the most honorable people I've ever met! She would never lie like that for her own gain!"

The logic beckoned to him, but his wounded heart shook it off. There had been no mercy in her eyes.

"Leo… My best friend wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it, but if her father threatened you, us, what do you think she would do?"

He looked into her eyes. They were so full of hope. Yeah, it was her last lifeline. The tiny hope that her friend was still her friend. He marveled over how forgiving she could be. All the hurt Karai had brought her, and Coral was still willing to forgive her. He wondered what would have become of the beryl-eyed girl had she not known the Coral.

"Even if that was true, and I say IF, there would be no way to know. If Oroku Saki has her by the throat, he is not likely to just let us walk in and ASK!"

"It doesn't take much to open a door. I think we can handle it!"

"That's not the point!"

"It is so the point!"

"Both of you stop it!"

They looked at Sidney as she sat up in the big armchair and crossed her arms.

"The thing is, even if you can open a door, wouldn't there be guards and so on?"

Coral locked her eyes on her friend and cracked her knuckles.

"Yeah, 'cause I'm gonna let a couple of nine-to-fivers stand in the way! I knew that girl for three years. She's the best friend I've ever had and I was the ONLY friend she's ever had! If there is the slightest, one-in-a-million-chance that I can have her back, you think I'd care about some guards?"

She looked down at Leo on the carpet.

"What about you, Leo?"

He looked down. A one-in-a-million-chance. He thought of the hurt and the year that he had spent away just so he could heal, but the whole time he had been home he had felt that calm and strong presence like a tree in a raging storm. It came from inside him now, and he remembered the time he had learned to ride a bike. When you fall off, you have to get back on, or you will be afraid your whole life.

He remembered that day out on the porch, her cheek on his shoulder and his arm around her slim frame. A one-in-a-million-chance.

"Coral, give it up. She never liked any of us. She used us. Get over it."

"No Leo!"

She sat down beside him and grabbed his hand. He looked up at her, half a mind to tell her to stop crushing his knuckles, but he didn't have the time.

"I don't believe she could have faked it for that long!" Coral cried, anger creeping into her voice.

"It was two weeks!"

"It was two YEARS, dimwit!"

"…Eh?"

She sighed and gripped his hands tighter.

"She's looked at you for just as long as you looked at her. You both always threatened me with the same thing if I ever told anything. I don't believe that she staged that. I don't think it's possible."

The others were dead quiet. The tense atmosphere in the room didn't allow any interference, but the movie was still on and it had perfect timing.

"The greatest thing you ever learn is just to love and be loved in return!"

Leo looked at it. He had forgotten all about the movie and its little story, but even though he wasn't sentimental or easily affected, he still had that strange feeling from his night at the graveyard. Maybe Splinter wasn't the only thing guiding him down the right path in his life. Maybe he had backup. Maybe, just maybe, it's worth it to take chances, even if it's one-in-a-million. He stood up.

"Raph…?"

His brother looked at him from his position deep down between the pillows.

"Yeah…?"

Leo took a deep breath and prayed he did the right thing. But, then again, what's a love story without drama?

"Coral and I are heading downtown. Feel like helping us out with a little something?"

His friend beamed at him and jumped up. Raph just sighed, knowing far too well that the only reason Leo asked was to point out that he would not run off on his own again. He stood alongside Leo.

"Sure, bro. Lemm'e just get my gear."

He held out his fisted hand and Leo placed him palm over it, smiling in gratitude.

"Let's go! It can't be as bad as last time!"

Mikey almost fell off the couch when he stretched out to place his hand on his brothers'.

"Splinter's going to kill us…"

Despite the ominous words, Don was smiling.

"It's a road trip downtown, then!"

Sidney and Susie looked at each other over the popcorn bowl.

"Guess we'll hold down the fort, then. The two of us would be completely useless if we came with them."

"Yeah! And I want to watch Paranormal!"

Leo smiled as the girls brushed off his brothers reassurances that they would be back soon. Suppose that's what all people in the world are looking for; a certain someone who will understand them. Even if they can't understand the things they do, they can just settle for knowing it was important. He was happy that his brothers had found people like that.

He had found someone like that. It was worth the risk if he could have her back.

That was the simple reason that he was in the truck, a block down from the glass doors that marked the entrance to The Foot's headquarters: New York branch.

Coral grinned a cruel grin and turned to Donnie from the front seat.

"You heard the man! Let's go!"

"Splinter's gonna kill us!"

Still, despite the dark future he predicted, he put the pedal to the metal and aimed for the fragile (he hoped) glass.

"Miss Karai!"

She almost placed a shuriken between the man's eyes. She had actually managed to place her hand on her bedroom door's handle when he popped up. She took a deep breath and turned. Hopefully, it was a small matter and she could be in bed in thirty seconds.

"What?"

He hesitated. Bad move. She grabbed him by the neck, a move she had learned from her father at a tender age, but only started using it a few months ago to gain the respect of the foot-ninja.

"What is so important that it cannot wait until morning? Speak!"

"I'm sorry, Miss Karai… It's just that… A truck, a green armored truck just crashed into the entrance and all the guards on the first floor were taken down by five people in black! They wear ninja-masks and seem to be using Japanese weapons. No guns!"

She arched an eyebrow at him, then tossed him aside and made her way to the control room, her mind wiped clean of thoughts of sleep. The Hamato's truck had been green, and hadn't Leo said something about his brothers thinking about armoring it, but five?

The second she looked at the screens showing the first floor she knew she had been right. She would recognize that sloppy left hook anywhere, mask or not.

"They are no true threat. Do not let them take you by surprise. I trust that you will be able to handle five teenagers. If you should show too much incompetence, however, I will be in the top-floor dojo, and I will personally inform my father. That is all."

She left the room, her face a mask of indifference to hide the turmoil beneath her dark hair. They had come for her. For what reason, she knew not, but they were here. She only hoped that they would survive.

Her father did not take the news well. He threw the table aside and cursed the fact that he hadn't burnt down the Hamato house years ago.

"Why tonight? Do they know?"

"Know what, father?"

He turned and looked at her like he had forgotten she was still in the room. Then he faced the grand windows again and waved his hand in dismissal.

"No matter. The foot-ninjas will take care of this small matter. Stay awake just in case, though, and Karai…"

She halted halfway up from her submissive position on the floor.

"Yes, father?"

"When I call for you, come to the garden. Now leave."

A cold hand gripped her heart, but she ignored it. The situation could not get any worse, she thought wearily. How wrong she was.

"Yes, father."

Oroku Saki looked at the doors when they closed behind his heir. He didn't like this.

"Hun! Make sure that that rat's little spawns don't make it this far. You are healed enough for that, are you not?"

The big bulk behind the screen stood and bowed for his master.

"Of course, sir! I will deal with those annoying little squirts myself."

"Good. I will not let anything interrupt my plans now. I do not have the time to start over."

He waved Hun out and walked over to the dark armor cabinet in the corner of the room. He opened it and smiled as he saw his reflection in the flawless metal.

"Soon. As the sun rises, I will be rid of all this interference. I will never have to deal with petty little problems again. Soon enough, I will be invincible."

"When did you become so good with chains?"

Leo ducked in under the protective swings of the weapon Raph had managed to snatch right out of the hands of one of the ninjas they encountered by the elevators. He crouched down and made sure there was nothing threatening his brother's back.

Coral kicked another ninja into the wall and slammed her hand on the button by the shiny metal doors.

"You didn't tell him? You promised!"

"I also promised to stop drinking from the milk carton and I can only keep so many promises!"

"What did he do?"

Raphael chose this moment to attack in a very loud manner, forcing Leo to get up from his breathing space and get back to kicking ninja-butt. It made Leo certain it was something stupid and dangerous.

As the automatic doors slid open, Raph covered them as they got in. Kicking off the last black ninja the doors shut firmly and they started to move up.

"How do we know they just don't cut the wires?"

"Don't worry, Mike. If they were that desperate they would have cut the power a long time ago. They probably think they can take us. Camera in the corner, Don!"

Donatello pushed his staff up in said corner and the little electronic eye sizzled and shut down. All of them slid down on the floor.

"Who has ninja as security guards?"

"A really paranoid old fart? I knew Saki knew ninjutsu. He taught Karai, after all, but I didn't even dream he had so many other ninja in the house!"

"You still think we can make it?"

They looked at Mikey. He was rubbing his fingers over his nunchaku and he looked a bit scared. It had been a bit of a surprise when the slim men had flooded the hallway. They had managed, but only just barely.

"Too late to turn back now, ain't it bro?"

"What was it that you promised to tell me, by the way?"

Raph gulped and looked away.

"Erm… Let's take that at home, okay?"

"Coral?"

"He's been dressing up in biker clothes and gone around beating up Purple Dragons on his bike at night. That's how he's been practicing with those chains."

"CORAL!"

"RAPH!"

"Almost there…!"

"We are going to have a serious talk when we get home!"

Raph shrugged and stepped out the doors.

"Let's focus on getting your princess back, first!"

A familiar voice startled them all.

"Ah, but to get to the princess, you first have to face the dragon!"

They watched as the giant teen stepped out in the hallway, a big, evil grin all over his face.

"Coral, please tell me Karai's room is the other way…!"

"It is, but I bet she ain't there. If the big lug is at this end, I'm guessing she's in the dojo."

"Clever girl, you are, but you won't get the chance to confirm that theory!"

Raph gave a small laugh of contempt and stepped forward.

"You talk big, but last time we met you weren't so tough!"

Hun growled and pointed to his most hated enemy.

"Last time we met YOU were the one who got busted! I got away!"

Raph laughed again and dropped the chains to the floor and grabbed his zai.

"Last we met you were face down in a dumpster, you big dope! Or did you're memory get a bit foggy when I ran you over?"

Hun's eyes went wide at the sight of the chains and the words coming out of the raven-headed teen's mouth.

"That was YOU?"

"Oh please, who else?"

Raph looked over his shoulder at his comrades.

"It won't take all of us to take him down. Go ahead, you!"

Leo nodded and stepped to the side.

"I told ya, NOBODY PASSES THROUGH!"

"Oh shut up, for once!"

With that, the two crashed together for the thousand time, only now Raph had more backup than usual. Within seconds, Hun had failed his master, and soft feet made their way through the hallway, heading for the dojo.

Karai could feel the presence, coming closer and closer every second. She stayed still. If she could just take them out maybe her father would spare them, let them live in the shame of being defeated. It wasn't like they would ever have a chance against him. It was her last trump card. Oh please, nameless ancestors, let it work.

Splinter's heart almost stopped in his chest. He had thought that the kids had fallen asleep when the only sound he could hear when he woke up was the white noise of the television. The only thing he found in the living room was his youngest sons' girlfriends, curled up together; their hands firmly laced together, tears running down their cheeks.

They looked startled at him, not expecting him to show up so soon, or silently, for that matter.

He didn't need to ask, he knew, and his heart grew cold with fear. He walked over to the girls and patted their heads, mind already running ahead of him.

"Call the police. I will be back soon."

Karai stood as the door slammed open. She left the katana on the floor where she had been sitting. She would not need it yet.

"I am surprised that you are first… I thought for sure it would be Leonardo."

Coral glared at her as Karai turned around to face her.

"Don't worry, hon, he's coming. I'm just here to warm you up."

"Very well then. Hajime, let us begin!"

They both took one step forward.

[A/N: MOAR CLIFFHANGERS! Don't worry, Leo will have his turn! I'm hoping to update before this weekend but it depends on how hard I can puch my poor beta! Comments are so welcome!]