Chapter Six: Trust

Leo saw the look of pure confusion on Paige's face and took advantage of the situation.

"Get the remote!" he ordered. His team complied, rushing at Paige with intimidating speed from all directions. Karai stayed where she shoot, playing back-up just as Leo told her. As per their promise to Casey, none of them had their weapons drawn; it was get the remote and get out. "Non-lethal force!" Leonardo added, sprinting forward to join them.

Casey watched as his friends swarmed her and remembered one small but very important piece of information. His eyes went wide. "Guys!" he shouted. "Wait!"

But he was too late. There was a flash of white and almost immediately after they lunged in for the attack, the turtles found themselves face down and back where they'd started, their limbs aching and very dazed. Karai blinked in confusion but then recovered from her stupor in time to rush over to her brothers.

"You guys okay?" she asked.

Raph sat up, rubbing his stomach. "What the heck just happened?" he sputtered; he felt like he'd just taken a wrecking ball to the gut.

Leo pushed himself up, blinking dirt out of his eyes. "Anybody get the number of that truck?"

They all looked to the source of their confusion. And there stood Paige, still poised protectively over her two cases, but now with a small shield in her left hand and an Indian push-dagger in her right. She glowered at them. "Try that again," she said boldly.

Casey finally realized what he'd forgotten to tell his friends. "Oh yeah…did I mention she kinda taught me how to fight?"

"No!" was the terse reply from all of them.

As they were trained to do, the four ninjas assessed their opponent's weapons…If they could be called weapons. The shield and the push-dagger in Paige's hands, although they had the look and shape of weapons, completely lacked the glinting and visual appearance of metal. Instead they were matte, completely white from end to end, and appeared to be made of an unknown substance.

"Ok," Donnie heaved, rubbing his rear end. "Minor setback."

"We gotta get that remote," Leo told his team.

Finally recovering, Raph stood, twirling his sais. "You want that remote?"

Raphael rushed at her in a blur of motion. He stabbed, slashed, and kicked and he was outwitted each time. Whatever strike Paige couldn't parry, she blocked with her shield. She kept her knees bent as they exchanged blows, steadying her center of gravity. When she wasn't defending, she countered with lightning speed, wielding her push-dagger with force unexpected from a woman her age. Her feet disappeared under her in distorted motion, concealed by the folds of her dress and trench coat. Raphael held his own despite the fact that the style Paige employed was unfamiliar to him.

Leonardo hesitantly drew his swords. He wanted to keep the promise he and his team had made to Casey, but the mission was the first priority. He breathed out one determined breath. "We need to get that remote and lead Paige away from those suitcases. Donnie, you and Raph are with me. Karai, you're back-up. Let's move!"

At some point in the their scuffle, Paige had sent one mighty kick Raphael's way and sent him flying. He landed in Karai's waiting arms as Leonardo and Donatello took over. "Man, she can really move in that dress," Raph panted. Karai raised an eyebrow. Then he realized what he just said. "Not that I was checking her out-I mean checking it out-I mean…Aaargh!" He charged forward to try a different attack; he needed to get that shield away from her if he wanted that remote.

Casey looked on at the ensuing fight, unable to find the strength to join in. He was far-far-away. The Casey Jones from a week or a month ago would be giving him the argument and whooping of his life if he could see him now. He already could hear the snappy dialogue in his head.

Eventually, his mind wandered down a rabbit hole leading him to the conversation he had with one of his friends that same morning.

The lair was gravely quiet. Karai walked into the den from her room, her phone pressed to one ear. There she found Raphael seated in front of the TV and half-heartedly watching the morning news. The rest of the family was still asleep since Master Splinter had cancelled training for the day; he decided that they would need their rest.

Karai hung up with a murmured domo arigato. "Okay, I called Murakami-san and he's giving me today off." She looked at the spot on the couch where Casey had set up his own little roost. He was, oddly, not there. "Where's Casey?"

Raph shrugged. "I dunno. Last I saw him, he was murmuring something about being more depressed than he was when he watched the Last Airbender movie."

Karai dropped her phone with a loud crack. "And you left him alone?!" she yelped. She then sprinted to every corner of the den, searching almost frantically. "Where is he?" When there was no answer, she made her way to her red-banded brother and grabbed him by the shoulders. She shook him so violently as to be funny. "You tell me where he is!"

"Dude, calm down, he's in the kitchen!" Raph answered distortedly.

Without so much as an apology, Karai scrambled over the couch, stepping on Raph's head for purchase and causing it to withdraw into his shell. She shoved away the curtain and what she saw chilled her to the bone. Casey had his entire upper body in the pizza oven, apparently unmoving. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, causing Casey to bolt upwards in surprise and hit his spine on the oven door.

He emerged from the oven, covered in soot, his bandana over his nose, and a brush in each hand. He rubbed his spine with the back of his hand. "Karai, what the heck?"

"Sorry," she muttered. "Raph said you were depressed and here you were with your head in the oven."

He deposited his cleaning supplies in the sink and pulled his bandana down. "I was cleaning it, Karai. Mikey sure as heck doesn't. Besides, it's a wood-burning oven. If I was gonna end it all, I'd choose something quicker than baking." He sat down at the table with a heavy sigh.

"Fair enough," she said, sliding onto the chair opposite him.

The boy pulled the bandana from his neck and ran his hands over it thoughtfully. "She gave me this," Casey said dejectedly.

"What?" Karai asked.

He hung his head in sadness. "My bandana. Paige gave it to me when I was twelve-before she left for England. Since then, we haven't really talked much. I figured she'd wanna get on with her life. I mean, she was just a nanny. And we were just her college friend's kids."

Karai's brow furrowed in melancholy. She didn't like self-depreciation; she'd always looked down on it with disgust. Now, she felt only sympathy…and frustration. This was Casey Jones. This was her stubborn, impulsive, and arrogant friend. The one with a penchant for hissy fits that rivaled her brother Raphael's. Not some heartbroken schoolgirl. She knocked on the table, causing him to look up from his spiral of self-pity.

"Look," she began, "the way I see it, you really don't have anything to lose here. From what you told us about Paige, if it turns out that she's innocent, that's great and we can all laugh about this one day. But if she's not...then, she was never worthy of those good memories you had of her to begin with…and you've still got us, haven't you?"

A small smile formed on Casey's face. He realized it was true. "…Yeah," he agreed.

"But," Karai added, "if you seriously think you can trust her, and she won't hurt my brothers, then you let me know. You let me know and I'll do what I can to help you."

"You think I should give her a second chance?"

Karai leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why not? After all, if it weren't for second chances…or you…I wouldn't be here, remember?"

He flashed her a crooked, gap-toothed smile. "Oh yeah." He knocked on his head. "Derp."

Karai drummed her fingers on the table, trying to think of a more pleasant topic to lighten the mood. "Hey, did I tell you? Murakami's is getting a karaoke machine."

"Cool. Now we got a place to sing that song Mikey's been working on."

"Yeah." She looked at the clock. It was just about time to execute the plan. "Well, first things first. You ready?"

Before he could answer, a loud chiming resonated through the kitchen. Casey reached into his pocket and produced his phone. He'd just received a text. "Perfect timing, Paige," he said to no one in particular, "as usual…Okay. Karai, could you get the others? It's show time."

Casey snapped out of his reverie as something possessing the glint of metal slid towards him on the grass and stopped at his feet.

Paige's microcomputer…

Raph joined in as Donnie and Leo were distracting Paige. It took some trying and a blow to the gut, but he managed to knock the shield from her hand. He skidded away from the brawl on his belly and elbows, tasting dirt. In an instant, Karai was at his side.

Paige's brow furrowed; she'd noticed something on the red-banded turtle's face in the split-second before she kicked him. Why was he smiling? Then it occurred to her: he was aiming specifically for her shield. She looked at her left wrist. Her microcomputer was gone. Her eyes went wide as dinner plates and she looked around frantically. She couldn't continue her search, however, as she was forced to deflect katana and bo-staff blows left and right.

Raph spat out the last bits of dirt in his mouth. "Got it!" he yelled triumphantly. Then a strange beeping noise had started out of nowhere. "What's that noise?" Realizing it was coming from the device in hands, he turned it over to look at the screen. The tiny screen was flashing numbers in descending order from the number 60.

He'd pressed the countdown button.

:56

"Oops," he murmured.

"Raph!" Karai shouted with unhampered annoyance.

Leo looked over from where he and Donnie were fighting Paige. "What's going on over there?" he hollered. He ducked just as Paige swung her push-dagger at him.

"Raph pulled a Mikey and started the countdown!" Karai answered.

:50

"Are you kidding me?!" Leo yelled, stomping a foot. His leader's mind raced to think of a solution. Fast. A light bulb blinked in his head. He looked at his purple-banded brother, realizing he could be the only one who'd know how to deactivate it.

But Donatello had already beaten him to it. He gave Leo a look as if to say "Distract her." Leo nodded and Donnie slipped away as he engaged Paige in single combat. Donnie ran to his red-banded brother. "Raph, toss it to me!"

Raph did so and in a tag-team manner, took his brother's place in the scuffle with Paige. "All yours, poindexter."

:45

Donatello went to work on the device. In no time at all, he'd dug up a way to cancel the countdown. "Okay," said the genius turtle, more to himself than to anyone else. "I've found the override switch." He looked at the screen, which now flashed a large green button. Failing to notice as Paige threw something at his direction, he poised his thumb over the override button-

"Donnie, look out!" Karai shouted. Too late.

Something slammed into his hand, knocking the remote from it and sending the device a considerable distance away. Donnie snatched his hand back with an exclamation of pain. He looked to the source and found a large white wheel-like object embedded in the tree next to him. Ever the curious mind, even in times like these, Donatello took a closer look at it. Before he could determine exactly what it was, the object "melted" into a rivulet of small white index cards and scattered in the wind.

Snapping to his senses, Donnie looked around for the remote. It didn't take long for him to find it at least thirty paces away from where he stood. The remote had skidded along the grass and came to stop in front of a pair of roller-bladed feet. The turtle had almost forgotten their human friend was there to begin with.

Casey Jones bent down and picked up the remote, an unreadable glaze over his eyes.

:36

In spite of the fight these shell-wearing ninjas had started, Paige managed to keep her eyes on the remote. She saw it land at Casey's feet. She knew from the start that this fight was pointless and her patience was wearing thin. She had to finish what she started.

"Right!" she huffed, blocking and countering a strike from Leo. "That is the last straw!"

In an unexpected move, Paige switched her push-dagger to her left hand just as Leo made another swing at her. The blue-banded turtle watched in self-induced slow-mo as his blade inched closer to her unprotected arm, unable to retract the attack. In the blink of an eye, her dagger had transformed into a new shield which deflected the blow. And then she followed through with blinding speed. Using two fingers, she jabbed at a certain spot in Leo's side. The blue-banded turtle crumpled to the ground in a twitching heap. Taking advantage of Raphael's surprised state, Paige repeated the process on him. She raised her shield, blocking a downward strike from Donatello. Using the momentum, she rounded on him and delivered a paralyzing blow to the back of his neck. He joined his brothers on the grass.

"I do hope you can forgive me for that," Paige breathed. Then she made for Casey.

:30

"Guys!" Karai exclaimed. She rushed over to where her brothers lay and knelt down. They were conscious but motionless.

"I'm fine," Leo insisted. "I just can't move."

"Me too," said Raph.

"Same here," Donnie agreed. He knew this feeling all too well; Master Splinter used it on them whenever they got just a little too rowdy. They wouldn't be able to move for a good while. "She got our pressure points. We're staying down. Karai, stop her!"

Gnashing her teeth, the kunoichi whirled round to see Paige sprinting towards Casey. She drew her sword and made for the Englishwoman, determined to not let her anywhere near Casey.

:27

"Casey," Paige called. "Stop!" She was the one to stop, however, as a katana-wielding Karai blocked her path. She switched her shield over to her right hand. In yet another mysterious display of what could only be called "magic", the shield transformed back into a push-dagger.

Karai was glaring at her with the ferocity of a coiled viper, standing protectively in front of Casey. "You leave him alone!" the kunoichi growled before lunging at her.

:23

Paige's push-dagger and Karai's sword met in an ear-splitting clang. They exchanged blows in a display reminiscent of a deadly dance. Paige was clearly more experienced and had superior coordination. Yet Karai had an advantage: she knew the way of push-daggers. She once sparred with Shredder on a regular basis, after all. She knew their biggest weakness: distance. She waited for an forward stab…

With speed too quick to counter, Karai dropped her katana, caught Paige's arm and threw her over her shoulder. Keeping a death-grip on Paige's arm, Karai disarmed her and threw the push-dagger far away.

"Casey," she shouted, "don't stand there like an idiot! Shut it down!"

Casey's grip tightened around the remote, the exertion threatening to break it. His friends shrieked and bellowed but their voices were just a few of the many resounding in his head. He was still lost. He didn't know what he wanted more, to believe his friends, or to listen to Paige.

Before Karai knew what was happening, Paige seized her arm and pulled her down to the ground with her. They grappled for a moment, but Karai was victorious, pinning Paige underneath her.

:19

"Shut it down, Casey!" Karai shouted again.

"Casey, I need you to trust me!" Paige was begging now.

"Press the button!" yelled Donnie.

"Casey, shut it down!" came from Raph.

"Do it now!" Leo shouted.

"Casey, look at me!" Paige begged.

Casey did so, staring into her eyes. They held the same look of love and honesty that they had for years. They were the same eyes that bore down on him when he'd done something foolish. The same eyes that produced tears of pride at his first hockey victory and tears of sadness as she wept over his mother's death with him. The same eyes that he looked to when he had no idea what to do. Much like now.

:13

But now they were joyless and glinting with desperation, tears threatening to spill from them. "I know you may have already heard some things about me…and a lot of them I can't ever justify…but I swear to you: I would never do anything that would hurt you or yours. Ever!"

"Casey, what if she's lying?!" Leo shouted. "Press it now!"

:10

"Shut it down!" Raph roared.

:09

"Please!" Paige insisted. "Just trust me!"

:08

"Casey, you idiot!" Donnie shrieked. "Deactivate it now!"

:07

"Shut it down!"

:06

"Press the button!"

:05

Casey took one deep breath. "Paige," he forced out.

:04

Then came moment of pure nerve-wracking tension that rivaled the halting of Earth's spinning. Casey thrust out the hand that held the remote…

And dropped the device to the ground.

:03

He put up both hands in an unthreatening gesture. "…I'll always trust you," he said.

:02

The machine beeped its last and everyone closed their eyes and waited for the end. Everyone save for Paige, who bolted up and waved her right arm in a large arch just as the timer reached zero.

The ground gave a tiny and hardly-noticeable hiccup. One second passed, and then another, and another, and they were still in the world of the living. Casey and the Hamato siblings took a tentative peek at their situation. There was no damage at all: no fallen trees, no scorched earth, no mushroom cloud. After a while, the turtles could finally feel their limbs again. They stood up on shaky legs and looked for the bomb. But it was nowhere in sight. In its place now stood a strange white igloo-looking dome. Emitting from it were fine strings of white smoke.

Then Paige strode over to the dome. She was in no rush, walking at a pace reminiscent of a funeral march and her eyes downcast and sad. She did indeed feel like she was mourning something: the illusion for which she'd bled and worked so hard for twenty years. The illusion of her identity.

Finally reaching the dome, she knelt down and placed one hand on it. She made a clawing motion and the dome collapsed, scattering everywhere the sheets of paper from which it was made. Sat in the middle of the mess of papers were the leather trolley bag and the platinum suitcae, completely unscathed. Paige gave a halfhearted smirk as she looked at the platinum one. The explosives had done their job: they'd blown the locks clean off. She flipped the case open, revealing its contents to the world.

"This is what I came here for," Paige said solemnly.

The ninjas and Casey, their weapons still drawn, took a tentative step forward to look at the contents. In the suitcase were stacks upon stack of a glossy silver paper.

Paige cleared her throat, catching their attention again. "I needed the explosives because they were the only way to get this case open. If I had tried to open the locks myself, it would have set off an incendiary device-and that would have been worse, trust me. I told you what I was doing was harmless."

She made a flipping motion with one hand. In response, the silver papers came to life and, in a move reminiscent of cards being shuffled, transferred out of the platinum case and into the leather one. When the final sheet of paper was relocated, Paige closed the trolley shut and stood up. She then turned her attention to the white papers scattered everywhere. This was one mess she could not ignore. She held out both arms. Almost instantly, the papers rustled into life and flowed in two steady streams back into her coat sleeves. This continued until the only papers left on the grass were the scorched and blackened ones; those were useless to her.

Paige turned to her baffled audience. "Right," she began, smoothing out both sleeves. "I suppose it's time for that explanation I promised." She cleared her throat again. "My name is Padma Balasubramaniam Higgins. Ex Paper Master for The British Library Special Operations Unit, Medical Division. And the former twentieth holder of the codename 'Agent Paper'…

"And the next time you speak to me in that tone, Casey Jones, you will wish you'd been born a dog."

Author's Note:

Wow, my first author's note in over 10 years. I don't really like to post them because they never felt professional to me, then I kicked myself in the head and told myself that we're all here for fun and not to take myself so seriously.

So here goes. Thanks so much to all who've followed and reviewed this story. I am a person who enjoys validation, so the fact that you even take time to skim my stories makes me feel like I'm not pointless . Special thanks to tvfan69 for helping me with a project that I will not disclose to the likes of you guys(for now). Shout out to BubblyShell22 and Andromakhe for being such great sports. And a big fat kiss to all of you lovelies who give me a review and, in doing so, a reason to smile and squee in the morning.

Just to clarify for anyone who might be confused: the part where Casey recalls the conversation he had with Karai, it's a subtle flashback in a flashforward (if that makes sense). Also, I hope you've noticed the subtle parallelism regarding the whole suitcase thing *wink*. I really really truly hope that my character Paige isn't coming off as a MS, that is honestly my worst fear when writing fanfiction. I fear it more than a root canal.

I'd also like to point out that these last 2 chapters didn't even exist until like 5 days ago, because being the paranoid person I am, I analyzed the original drafts to death and realized "Eh this isn't workin' for me". Oh well. We'll all take a closer look at Paige's personality in the next chapter. You'll see that even though she may now be a half-English and half-Indian goddess, deep deep down, she is twisted and crazy and ugly just like you and me. That's all I'm saying for now.

But I am curious now as to who's side you were taking during the countdown, Paige or the Turtles'? If you'd like to answer, please do:)

I, personally, was siding with Casey;)

I'll be updating soon. Thanks so much.