Sorry for posting this chapter at such a late time, I got caught up with school duties. Though when I was about to finish the story, something went wrong and I ended up losing it, so I had to retype it again. But please enjoy this longer Chapter 7 of Belonging~

At first, all she could think of was pain. It hurt where she had crashed into the wooden crates; where she had been flung though the air like a mere rag doll. Her instincts had failed her. They hadn't been fast enough. Disgraceful.

Then she heard voices- familiar ones, not the smooth but cold tone belonging to her adopted father, or his annoying lackey who was leader of the Purple Dragons. She felt the fuzziest form of happiness. It sounded like family.

Despite the stabbing pains in her limp body, Ren smiled.

Raph stared gloomily at Ren's motionless body, which was spread out on the couch. He turned to Don, who seemed bent on examining a set of notes scribbled with formulas. "Are you sure-"

"Raph, you've been asking me that question for ages. For the last time, she will recover!" Don snapped, half-exasperated at his brother's repeated questions. It had almost become a ritual for him to spend most of the day watching the blacked out teenager on the sofa after training no matter how tired he was, perched cautiously on the arm rest, his face slightly saddened. Don had to admit, it was probably one of few rare times he had seen Raph in such a vulnerable state.

"Are you sure? She did take the largest impact from the bomb, and it's been rather long since then," Leo commented as both he and Mikey came over to join in the conversation.

"Her greater endurance as a half snake mutant helped; the injuries were lessened. She was lucky the bomb was a small one too," Don noted as he raised up another notepad which was filled with elaborate calculations.

"Small?! Did you forget how that pip-squeak managed to turned the whole warehouse into a bizarre flaming cave?!" Mikey howled in protest to Don's easy dismissal of the bomb.

"Well, I've examined whatever remains of it I could scavenge, and it's incredibly high-tech. I still don't quite know how it works, but it shouldn't be able to cause a very big fire; it's probably because of all the wooden crates that it managed to burn the whole place," Don answered. "Either way, Ren is fine, she just needs rest." Raph stared at the still figure on the couch slightly doubtfully. He knew she was strong, sometimes even far too strong for her own good, but...

"She will wake, right?"

"Ooooo, is Raphie scared that his sweetheart won't be there to kiss him goodnight?" Mikey taunted. Raph spun around and glared daggers at his youngest brother, preparing to lunge forward and throttle him once again.

"You guys are loud," Ren mumbled, though she couldn't help smiling as well, hearing the familiar bickering of Raph and Mikey.

"REN!" The four brothers chorused in unison as they crowded around the orange haired teenager, delighted that she was conscious again. Ren propped her body up, wincing slightly in pain as she did so.

"Actually, I had been up for a few minutes. But your conversation seemed too interesting to miss…" She grinned. Raph flushed with slight embarrassment, wondering if she had heard his worry for her in her unconscious state. But Ren moved on from that topic and gingerly got out from the couch; her body still ached somewhat, but it was bearable and could be dealt with. She stretched and yawned, the tips of her pointed teeth showing.

"How long was I out? An hour? Two?"

"Hour? You've been out for three days," Raph laughed, relief now flooding in. Sure, Don had consistently ensured him that she was not in any life-threatening situation and would wake, but seeing her awake from her blacked out state was certainly more assuring.

Ren felt her mind freeze.

Three days?

...

Uh oh.

"SHELL!" Ren screamed as she turned to the exit of the sewers and ran to it, almost knocking Raph back in her haste.

"Woah! Where are you-" Raph broke off as Ren disappeared from view in a matter of seconds.

"Should we go after her?" Don turned to Leo for guidance of the current queer situation, but even the leader was slightly at a loss of what to do over the sudden change of events. Thankfully, Master Splinter arrived.

"No, I sense that she has urgent matters to attend to. We shall obtain all the details from Ren when we meet her next time." Master Splinter settled the situation calmly before turning back to his room to mediate. Yet, even as he said those words, a sense of unease lingered in his mind. At the same time, Raph felt agitation rise in his chest, not quite knowing why. They both thought the same thing.

Would there be a next time...?

Ren almost collapsed in her room as she jumped from the window sill and landed clumsily on the floor. She fell to her knees and gulped in deep breaths of air, having far breached what her current stamina could offer in her despair to return home as soon as possible. Pain stabbed at her torso, the ache from her injuries pulsing from her recent exploit of her already limited strength.

But none of this pain could rival the wrath of Oroku Saki. The thought made her entire body go cold. Her adopted father wouldn't be pleased that she had been sneaking out without his permission. And not only that, she had been in contact with outsiders. That was the 'Golden Rule' that had been imposed on her since she became Oroku Ren- apprentice and daughter of Oroku Saki, The Shredder. He would give her freedom- allow her to travel to other countries once in a while when she was on her weapon hunts, give her a large room with her battle trophies on a grand display in it. But at the same time, she needed permission for venturing out at any time of the day, and had to grant utter obedience to his rules. She was also never to make any contact with others, and even if she did (such as the victims of her weapons hunt), she must never keep in contact with them.

Ren ran towards the washroom in her bedroom and turned on the basin's tap. Cold water poured out and she splashed the cool liquid onto her face repeatedly, trying to calm her ragged breaths. For a split second she considered lying- deny having ever been in contact with anybody when she was out at night, but she knew it was useless. Master Saki would know. He always did. She had broken all of the rules, simply by a reckless battle with Raph which led to many more events.

Raph.

Ren closed her eyes. Mentioning his name seemed to calm her. The turtle with the red bandanna. The turtle with a temper. The turtle who liked being the aggressive and strongest (in his own opinion, at least) member of the quad. The turtle who was the user of twin sais, just like her. The turtle... whom she had come to grow close to, came to like as more than a friend. She didn't know if such a feeling counted as 'love', but neither did she care. She had just felt contented being with them. But it had been foolish to believe the days would last. Starting from tomorrow, she would be locked in her room, with guards watching her every move to ensure she was confined within the boundaries. She would never see the turtles, Master Splinter, Casey and April again. It finally sunk into her. She would no longer be able to meet and talk to the people (and turtles and rat) whom she had come to view as family- far more so than her adopted father.

She would never be able to be with them again. They wouldn't even know what happened to her after her abrupt departure.

A heavy weight lodged itself into her heart. But before she had anymore time to dwell on the matter, the sound of knocking echoed from her door. Without warning, the door opened (she heard it creak) and someone stepped into the room. Ren closed the tap and wiped some beads of water off her face with the back of a hand. Squaring her shoulders, her arms poised at where her sais were hung on her belt, Ren stepped out of the washroom and stared up into her adopted father's dark eyes. If she had to be punished, she might as well face it bravely. Yet, he didn't seem angry.

On the contrary, he had a small smile on his face.

"I bring good news, Ren. But first I must apologise for neglecting you for the past week. You see, I was very caught up with the current project at hand and had been away from the house for a few days..." Ren stared blankly at Oroku Saki's face, though she carefully concealed her surprise. Could it be... Was there just the slight chance that, obsessed with his work, he had not bothered to check up on her, and had even left the house at the period of time she had been knocked out cold in the turtle's lair? It was too good to be true. Far too coincidental. But that seemed to be the only explanation for his reaction- his lack of angered outburst. In a hurry, Oroku Saki might have scribbled a note, or attempted to get one of his lackeys to inform Ren off his trip before leaving out of the blue. But if his lackeys had failed to find her, they would probably have been unable to contact him about Ren's disappearance for the fear of interrupting their master and invoking his wrath. Before that, he might have been obsessed with his task and failed to realise that his adopted daughter was neither present in her room nor the training room. Or anywhere else in the house, for that matter. And with that, Ren's disappearance from the house would have gone undetected, in spite of having been missing for three days. She knew just how deeply immersed her father would be in his work, almost to the point where he easily disregarded everything that did not involve life and death.

For the first time, Ren allowed the faintest glimmer of hope to penetrate her heart.

"Ren, did you truly think you could hoodwink me?" The smile disappeared. His eyes became cold. That was when Ren knew.

Oroku Saki had been aware of it all along.

But instead of cutting the chase and delivering a lashing blow towards her, he had decided to entitle her a minute ray of hope first, which would all the more make the disappointment and the punishment more severe. Despite herself, Ren felt a sharp stab of dislike at her adopted father's actions. It didn't seem right, and she was not only feeling so just because she was a victim.

"Ren," he sighed. "I adopted you when you were still a child, and raised you like my own daughter. I have granted you freedom, allowed you to roam the world to embark on your weapon hunts, and all I ask for is merely your obedience in exchange for such luxuries..." Ren fidgeted slightly and clenched her fists tightly, willing herself to be silent. The truth was, despite having been adopted by Oroku Saki- an act that would have probably saved her life, Ren did not feel as indebted to him as she should have.

It had made her feel guilty, but the truth was, she couldn't bring herself to completely trust the man. Her mind had pointed out that she should be grateful to the man for saving her life, but her instincts and her heart warned her to be careful- there was more about him than met the eye; he was not to be trusted. Perhaps that was why her adopted father generally favoured her older sister Karai more so then her, Ren recalled. She had been trained and sent to Japan to lead The Foot Clan there, while the ever rebellious Ren stayed under Oroku Saki's watchful eye. Yet even then, Ren had maintained a distance from the man and busied herself training and widening her collection of weapons. She snapped out of her thoughts as Oroku Saki glared at her, still not done with his tirade.

"The project I had been so obsessed with was all for your welfare Ren. I had been searching for an antidote for your mutation. And yet, this is how you choose to repay me? Not only did you show a complete disregard for my rules, you even went as far as to consort with your parent's assassins!" Ren's eyes widened in surprise. It was the first time he had addressed her past before. And... assassins? He was wrong. There must be a mistake. She had only been in contact with the turtles, and there was absolutely no way that they could have-

"You're wrong! I've only been talking to the turtles, and they would never-"

"Just how much do you know about them?" His silky voice cut through her wild protests. Ren gripped one of her sais and tightened her clench.

"I know enough." She whispered dangerously. Oroku Saki sighed.

"It would appear that you have been tricked by them, Ren. Do you fail to see that they are responsible for turning you into a half mutant? Those vermin are the sole reason that you have lost your parents and become an outcast shunned by society!" The man thundered.

"But I will give you a chance to redeem yourself, Ren. Kill the turtles. Avenge your parents. When you have done so, I shall reward you with the antidote I have recovered after weeks of research." To prove his point, Oroku Saki produced a glass bottle with a clear dark green liquid inside. Without awaiting her reaction nor answer, he turned and swept through the open door silently, leaving the orange haired teenager alone to contemplate about what to do.

Ren raised her right hand- balled into a fist, hovering in an almost tentative fashion over the wooden door.

She took a deep breath as she brought her fist down, but before she could make contact with the wooden door, voices boomed out from the opposite side. Not exactly boomed, Ren corrected, but her sharp ears still caught the ongoing conversation taking place at the other side of where she stood. She had always possessed extremely keen hearing, having trained at the bamboo forest near her house when she was younger, alone and blindfolded. But now was not the right time to delve into the past. Ren strained her ears as she heard her name between snippets of the conversation.

"Are you sure that girl will take your deal?" A gravelly voice asked, belonging to the annoying gorilla, Hun, Ren thought disdainfully. He was the arrogant muscleman who so insistingly believed that he was The Shredder's most prized subordinate and second-in-command, painfully unaware that the only person The Shredder trusted enough to bequeath the role of his successor to was Karai.

"Of course, Hun. Do you dare doubt me? I have blamed the death of her parents on the turtles and their rat, and I prepare to award her the antidote that can reverse her transmutation on the completion of her task, there is no possible way that she will refuse," The Shredder (He must be in his armour, Ren decided) remarked chillingly. Blamed? Ren repeated to herself silently. That was certainly a strange choice of words.

"But then, who was the one that killed her parents? What do you mean?" Hun was full of questions, his voice tinged with bemusement. Ren hid a snort. As important as Hun believed and made himself to be, he wasn't exactly the brightest of the lot. And they were already a pretty stupid bunch, Ren sniggered mentally.

"You disappoint me Hun," The Shredder's reply was cold and curt, his tone reminiscent of an annoyed parent telling off an overly curious child. Which made his next words even more unexpected than they already were.

"I did! I, The Shredder, was the one who assassinated Ren's parents! I was unaware that they had a child until The Foot's scientists experimented with her, but I saw her potential when she broke out of the lab and took her in." His voice turned colder, if that was even possible, and Ren could vaguely envision the twisted smile that must have adorned his lips now.

"Isn't it ironic that the child whom I saved, took in and raised, half-dead and cold on Christmas so many years ago, was the one who I was responsible for her status as both an outcast and an orphan?"

Without a word, Ren smashed through the wooden door, taking along with it part of the wall. She stared down at the mass of wooden splinters, her fists clenched tightly by her sides, trembling with suppressed rage.

She raised her head.

"I will kill you."

Ren jumped and charged at The Shredder with startling speed, easily knocking Hun aside in her fury. She unslung her sais, gripping each one tightly, and struck, cut, parried, punched and kicked at her adopted fa- No, at the filthy piece of vermin that was responsible for her parent's deaths. Ren ignored her wounds and injuries coldly. Here, her years of training, which stretched even back to her childhood days in Japan as she dealt blows to the wooden dummies in the forest, sometimes trying the task blindfolded, soon came into evidence. Her strength, further fueled by her rage, easily knocked out Hun (with a well-aimed kick and smash of her sais to his head) and easily matched the Shredder.

"You were always a rebellious child, Ren," The Shredder sneered coldly as he deflected a punch. "You never fully trusted me, even though I went through great lengths to earn your alliance," Ren ignored his words, her face a mask of indifference. All that mattered now was bringing this piece of trash down with her own weapons, the two sais her father had crafted for her before his demise. The very thought of her father sparked her confidence again as she brought out yet another onslaught at The Shredder. The Shredder glared down and quickened his pace, intent on ridding himself of the orange-haired nuisance.

"Yet, you forget yourself. I obviously have the upper-hand in this situation," The Shredder hissed. His words stopped Ren, but the latter refused to be intimidated. Instead, she leveled The Shredder's glare with one of her own and raised her eyebrows, a sign that she disbelieved him. To prove his point, The Shredder grabbed a glass flask from a table, filled with a clear green liquid.

"This, as I have said before, is the antidote to your mutation, which I have acquired through extensive weeks of research. Drink it, and you will revert back to normal and be able to live a normal live once again. Kill the turtles and the rat. Eliminate them, and I shall give it to you." His voice hardened.

"But refuse to do so, and I will crush this bottle, along with your only chance of pursuing a normal life." The Shredder snarled.

Ren hesitated. A part of her was screaming, telling her to attack until the monster responsible for her parent's deaths fell- a final act of avenging them. Yet another smaller part of her was whispering treacherous thoughts, coaxing her to do The Shredder's bidding and obtain the antidote, to regain a normal life. She would be able to step into society again without people screaming at the sight of her, without needing to hide. She could walk the streets, free of any kind of restraint. She could start a life up top, go to school, make friends and see Toby again. The thoughts made her skin go cold. The prospect of being human again. The prospect of having a peaceful and normal life.

The prospect of belonging.

Ren stepped towards The Shredder, her hands by her sides, clinging on tightly to her sais. Yet she made no attempt to strike.

The Shredder smirked underneath his mask. His victory was certain. The turtles will die. Die at the hands of someone they trusted.

Ren looked up slightly at the Shredder, her face emotionless.

"Dream on, Tin Can."

The orange haired teenager then promptly lifted up her foot and slammed her boots into The Shredder's chest, who, caught off-guard and not expecting an attack, staggered back and fell, breaking the table. Standing over his fallen self, she felt triumph flare in her chest.

"The only reason I wanted to go back to being normal was to have belonging, a place to belong to. To have friends and people close to me again. But even without going back to normal, even without the antidote, I already have all that."

And even as she said those words, she knew.

Memories of the past days, of spending time with the people who became the friends and family she lost, flashed past her. Master Splinter, April, Casey, Leo, Mikey, Don and Raph, the people who welcomed her, accepted her as who she was despite her hideous appearance, who accepted her as family in spite of it. She no longer needed to be normal. She already had belonging- a place to belong to. And that was by their sides.

"And I wouldn't give them up for anything in the world!"

"Then I have no further need of you." The Shredder's voice was suddenly even more ominous. Forced to accept that despite her potential and strength, Ren could no longer be roped into becoming his ally, her existence was no longer a question. The Shredder slammed his iron fists into Ren's face repeatedly, knocking her back as she staggered under his heavy blows, before proceeding to deliver a swift kick that broke her ribs. Ren resolutely ignored the pain and struck out with her sais, but The Shredder, now resiliently intent on killing her, dodged her attack and instead, grabbed one of her wrists. Twisting it into an awkward angle- enough to draw a strangled scream of pain from her throat, he pulled the teenager into a closer range and kicked her again, this time aiming for her foot. Finally, he threw the the orange-haired teenager back, who, at this point of time, was barely standing.

"This was the move you were so fond of using, wasn't it? The one that the turtle in the red bandanna copied from you as well. Lee was a good spy to make use of, lumbering about and starting a fight to bring you and the red bandanna turtle close together." With that, The Shredder ran forward and executed an uppercut- but instead of using his fists and knocking Ren away with a devastating blow to her chin, he speared through her stomach with his gauntlet, raising her up, as if flourishing some kind of bizarre trophy.

"It mattered not where you two have went that day, or whether you two had gone at all. I had a Foot Ninja tail you, and Purple Dragons everywhere if I needed their assistance. Since Day 1, I have always been aware of you and that turtle's meeting and relationship. The only day I was unaware was the day you went to the warehouse. With all of them there, my Foot Ninja could easily be seen. But, if it was only you two, lovestruck and reckless with your guard down, the Foot Ninja would easily pass by unnoticed." Ren stared at him through a haze of pain; a glimmer of shock flashed through the green orbs for a while. Blood trickled down her mouth and dripped down from her newest wound; where she had been stabbed with the gauntlet. She dimly heard rain drops falling outside.

"It seemed ideal for you two sai users to grow closer together, until you were inseparable. Then I would reveal the truth to you, that he was your parent's murderer, and you would proceed to exact 'revenge' on him, on all of them. You would have gained enough trust by then, to easily kill the turtles and the rat while they were unwilling to raise their weapons on you. Alas, you refused to do so, but it matters not now." The Shredder strode over to his balcony. It was indeed raining. He leaned over the wooden railings and held his arm out, dangling Ren over the great height below her. Thunder seemed to flash through the sky on cue, tearing the spread of dark inky blue laced with heavy grey clouds into half.

"It matters not now," The Shredder repeated, "For the death of a close one will still hurt them beyond means." He retracted his gauntlet and grabbed Ren's black hoodie- now thoroughly soaked in blood, and flung her down the entire foot building, not even bothering to watch as she plunged down- down to her death.

Raph gave a start as he woke from his sleep, panting as if he had been running for a long distance. Everyone had been in a rather subdued mood after Ren's sudden departure, but only Master Splinter and Raph had the nagging sense of unease, and admittedly, Raph's was stronger. He had seated himself on the couch, unable to concentrate even on training, and ended up staring blankly into space, every past memory spent with Ren echoing in his mind. Even Mikey seemed worried, not even bothering to tease Raph for the latter's spaciness, since the younger brother too was caught up with the queer events from earlier. Raph had finally excused himself and went to his room, hoping to banish all doubts and worries from his mind by sleeping. But he had barely fallen into a light, uneasy slumber when he suddenly woke, as if he had received a shock, left with the feeling that something bad had happened.

Raph lay his head back down and tried to sleep again, hoping, praying, wishing that doing so would rid himself on the sense of helplessness by falling into a state of torpor, but even in his rest (if it could even be called that), the vision of Ren, thrown from a great height and falling (one of the sais on her belt slightly cracked with a small part of it chipped off) continually haunted him. As she plunged into darkness, the charm she and Raph wore hung on her cold lifeless hand- unmoving and still even when she slowly fell to her death.

Cliff hanger~ The way the Shredder tosses Ren out of the Foot Building is somewhat of a call to when she remarks to herself in Chapter 1 that if her adopted father were to throw her down from the Foot Building, even her greater resistance as a half mutant would not stop her death.

Thanks for reading~