A/N: Much thanks to everyone who reviewed. It means the world to me to hear from you.

"They should have been here by now."

Leo winced as an empty beer can clattered against a brick wall, courtesy of Raph's restless pacing. "They have four more minutes, Raph." He explained dryly, deciding to forego the reminder to keep quiet until then. It would be ignored, and if he knew his brother at all, Raph was probably hoping his antics called down another fight on their heads.

"Great," The agitated turtle spun on his heel and fixed Leo with a blistering glare, "that's enough time to tell me what the hell that guy meant by 'you know'."

Leo held his brother's gaze, unfazed by the expression, desensitized after weeks of the same. He had already agreed to explain when Mike and Don arrived at their location, but fine. He would let Raph think he was giving in. It was best to spread the coals and let fire die down before attempting to cross it anyways. "Why do you assume he was talking to me?"

Raph crossed the narrow alley in two strides to loom over his brother, "Because I don't know what the hell he's talkin' about."

Leo calmly rested his head back against the bricks to look up at his brother's shadowed face. "And you think I would have information you don't? Except for the six times you've run off since I got back, I've been with you."

Raph straightened and crossed his arms, still attempting to look intimidating. "Considerin' I just found out what you were doin' down South, maybe it's somethin' you brought back."

"And considering you were running around in this city making enemies, it would make more sense if he were referring to you." Leo countered casually.

Raph's face twisted into renewed rage. "Except I have no idea what he means, and you clearly do!"

Leo shook his head, a lopsided smile spreading across his face. It was all so monotonous now, he found it amusing instead of insulting. "You're so eager to blame me, you aren't thinking, Raph. This has nothing to do with South America and it has nothing to do with your stint as Nightwatcher either."

Raph's anger was now tinged with confusion. "Then what-?"

"Think, Raph. You heard the same warning I did. It wasn't that long ago."

"You do realize how much you sound like Splinter right now?" Raph huffed.

"He doesn't always have bad ideas." Leo growled, calm resolve slipping over the fresh wound.

Raph slid down the brick wall to sit beside his brother, eyes narrowed. "Karai..."

Leo raised his eye-ridges in mock surprise. "You gonna stick with that one now, or do you want to keep trying?" A not-so-brotherly elbow to his arm had him biting the inside of his cheek.

"Oh..." Raph's remaining rage fizzled as he realized the fresh blood trailing down his brother's arm. "Sorry." It was more of a grunt than word, but years of reluctant apologies had made Leo fluent.

He shook it off. It was his fault for getting snarky with a still simmering Raph, but at least his pain had extinguished the last flames of resentment for the time being.

"Leo?" The harsh whisper came directly above his head.

"No, it's another couple of mutant turtles, ya idiot." Raph grumbled.

"Still in a good mood, I see." Mike said as he dropped from the fire escape into a crouch, wide grin gleaming through the shadows. "You okay, Leo?"

Certain his youngest brother hadn't noticed the gash on his arm, but was referring to what had transpired at the lair, Leo spared him a grateful smile. "I'm fine."

"So what's going on?" Donny asked, always straight to business. "Who were these guys you fought?"

Leo looked at Raph expectantly and got an unamused deadpan expression in return. He turned back to his more receptive brothers. "I don't know exactly, but I have an idea. You remember what Karai said the last time we saw her?"

"Who said what?" Mikey asked, almost reflexively. "Oh wait, no…she's the angry Asian chick. Yeah, I got it. Continue."

Leo raised an eye-ridge, but went on, "She said faces from our past would return. The kid Raph and I talked to said we thought we had won, but we were wrong. He meant a long time ago. He and Karai were talking about the same thing."

"But who exactly?" Donny asked, his forehead creased with concern. "We haven't made a lot of friends."

"That's what I'm not sure about." Leo admitted. He shook his head and rose to his feet, taking up Raph's abandoned pacing, albeit in a much more serene manner.

Raph was standing as well, watching the eldest brother with conflicting emotions that twisted his features into a new arrangement every few seconds. "So what do we do?" He finally spoke, his tone carefully controlled, almost strained with the effort. "He said there were more."

"I should talk to Karai. She indicated she was involved."

"Then that would make talkin' to her a stupid idea." Raph drawled.

"She helped us before." Mikey shrugged.

"Well, we all know who we think she's talkin' about, and that means we can't trust her."

"He wasn't really the type to broadcast his next move. Karai left us a warning." Leo had only met her twice, but she struck him as a true warrior, one with honor. True she had tried to take off his head the first time, but she had been willing to put that aside and had even offered respect for their skills. It didn't make her a friend, but if she could shed light on what was to come, he would risk speaking to her again.

"It was an intentionally vague warning, Leo, and he wasn't above psychological warfare." Don offered.

Mikey stepped between them, waving his arms, "Are we talking about the Shredder? Cuz, I'm still pretty sure he's dead. Did we reverse the call? Is there enough evidence on the replay to merit that?"

Leo managed a grin. "Not yet, but when a challenge is issued, you have to check the tapes."

Mikey looked pleased that his football metaphor had been carried, but then frowned. "So if he's dead, we're dealing with the second string in their territory, fine, no problem… but if he's alive, they've already made it to the red zone… and our coach and captain are beatin' the snot out of each other on the sidelines."

Leo fought and failed to restrain the roll of his eyes. "Mikey, the coach and the captain merely disagreed about previous play calling."

Mikey nodded, as Leo made his point, "And the captain refused to hear any future play calls either."

Leo conceded his brother's simple and yet powerful point. He wouldn't argue that the quarterback could make an audible once in a while when he saw the defense had caught them dead to rights, but the football analogy stopped being relevant when he realized they didn't know whether they were on offense, defense, what time was left on the play clock, or who even had the ball. "What do you want me to do, Mike?"

"Talk to Splinter." He pleaded. "If it really is Shredder, he has the right to know before we do anything. We can't face him divided."

"Then go tell Splinter. I'll talk to Karai and let you know for sure when I get back."

"Leo." Raph's oddly soft warning was accompanied by a contrasting scowl. "The one thing we know for sure is there are more. Get caught out alone and there's gonna be a lot more where that came from." He said, pointing to the still faintly throbbing wound on Leo's arm.

"Then come with me." Leo snapped, his carefully cultivated mask of indifference regarding the rat disintegrating under the stares of his brothers.

"Come back." Raph said, not allowing himself to beg, but coming close. "You promised…"

His brother's quiet, reluctant addition of those words obliterated the last stones in the walls of Leo's defiance. He ran a hand over his face, if only to block out the imploring, wide-eyed gaze of the youngest turtle. "Fine."