April started sweating bullets when Karai took the bag off of her head and dropped her in front of the Kraang. There were at least twenty droids, five of whom were suited up to look like humans. They stood in front of one of their stupid white vans.

April was no coward, but she was starting to feel like one. Her knees felt a little shaky. She was willing to do this for Donnie, but she really wished she didn't have to. But then, who exactly looked forward to being captured by the Kraang?

I'm starting to wish I'd sided with Leo on this one…

"I have what you asked for," Karai said. "Now give me the serum and the printout of the formula, like we agreed."

April watched as the Kraang handed over a large stoppered beaker to Karai as well as several sheets of paper. The effervescent liquid in the beaker shimmered like liquid hope.

"The one called Karai may have difficulty reading the formula," one of the Kraang said.

"Yeah, well, leave that to the one called Karai," Karai quipped. "Now, here's my end of the bargain." She kicked April toward them; April stumbled and fell to her knees in front of them.

Thanks for that, Karai. Way to convince 'em.

The Kraang droids advanced and hemmed in around April. She closed her eyes so that she didn't have to watch them. Instead, she cringed as several cold metal hands seized her and threw her roughly. She opened her eyes to confirm that she had indeed been tossed into the back of the van. Several Kraang droids climbed in with her, shut the door, and the van started moving.

April sweated uncontrollably the whole way. Because she desperately needed something to occupy her mind besides the fact that she was being held captive by the Kraang, she found herself wondering whether she'd applied enough antiperspirant to combat how sweaty she was. Desperate to distract herself further, she wondered how exactly antiperspirant worked in the first place. She'd have to ask Donnie.

Donnie.

That thought steadied her. What she was doing meant that Donnie would be back. The guys would bust her out and everything would be just fine.

"Kraang," one of the Kraang said. "Sedate the one known as April O'Neil with the sedative that is for the sedating of humans."

Sedative? April hadn't counted on this. She was perfectly captive already. Why did they need to sedate her? Cold panic shot through her as the Kraang nearest to her placed the needle of a syringe gun into her arm and squeezed the trigger.

The world went black.

The next thing April knew, she was strapped to a table. She'd been changed into some kind of white outfit – it looked sort of like long underwear. April shuddered to think that the Kraang had undressed her while she was out. All of her clothes were gone – even her bra and underwear, by the feel of it. The sense of violation was unbearable. The last time she'd been strapped to a table…Shredder had sliced off her clothes and almost done the unthinkable.

April realized that she was shaking. No. I'm going to be okay. The turtles saved me last time, they'll save me this time. It's going to be okay. Slowly, she looked from side to side. The room was strangely void of Kraang. Maybe they were all off fighting the turtles?

The room she was in definitely was some kind of medical lab. It was cold, and the table she was strapped to was the centerpiece. Above her loomed something that looked like those lights over chairs at the dentist, except that it had a long needle attached to it, as well as several other unpleasant looking instruments.

She looked away. Hopefully, the turtles would be here soon. Her eyes fell on something else, though – a small cart on the other side of the room. It had her clothes on it, neatly folded, and she saw a glimpse of metal.

Her tessen.

She had to get off of this table and get over there before the Kraang came back. She wiggled against the restraints and strained her neck to see exactly how she was tied.

Her wrists weren't strapped down. There was a series of tight belts that went straight across the table, and that was it. They were so tight that she could barely move, but maybe…just maybe…

She arched her back as much as she could and tried to scoot backward. She was able to move higher up on the table by a fraction of an inch.

That was all she needed. Soon, she was wiggling under the restraints in the most bizarre – and deadly – game of inchworm that she had ever played. She worked up an even fiercer sweat than before, fueled by fear and physical exertion. Soon, her head hung over the edge of the table. Then, her shoulders.

Finally, after what seemed like years, she was able to free her hands. She used them to push herself the rest of the way up and out of the restraints. She fell from the table to the floor with a soft thud.

Her heart raced. She couldn't believe it. She ran to retrieve her tessen when she noticed a display panel on the wall. It had a perfect diagram of her, along with what looked like a diagram of a DNA helix.

They've gotten my DNA.

Her stomach twisted.

If they needed her mental energy to help mutate the planet, what were they going to do with her DNA? Perfect the mutagen? This was bad, this was really bad…

If Donnie were here, he would be able to erase this information from their hard drives. Heck, maybe even Mei could do it. But even though April always had stellar grades in her computer science class, she was not enough of an expert to hack alien tech.

Maybe if she blew up the computer?

She knelt down to what looked like a removable access panel and used her tessen to pry it open. There were a lot of wires in there. Donnie might have been able to make sense of it, but to her, it was just a jumble.

Well, here goes nothing.

She stood back, fanned out her tessen, and threw it so that it sliced right through the wires. A shower of sparks exploded from the wires and the terminal went black. She cringed as she waited for the alarm to sound.

However, there was no alarm. She sighed in relief.

Unfortunately, she couldn't retrieve her tessen for fear of electrocuting herself. Instead, she went and put on her boots, tucked her folded clothes under an arm – she wasn't about to let the Kraang keep them and harvest more DNA from them – and ran to the door. To her surprise, it opened.

Huh. Maybe they expected the sedative to last longer?

Once out in the hall, she heard the mechanical whir of Kraang droids approaching. She ducked behind a bulkhead, hoping that they wouldn't notice her.

"Kraang," one of them said, "what is the status of the project that is the project for harvesting the DNA of April O'Neil?"

"The status is that which is known as 'complete,' Kraang. The one known as 'April O'Neil' will be removed to Dimension X for further testing at a time that is later than the time that is now."

Dimension X? April shuddered. Where are you, guys? You'd better get here soon…

The same Kraang droid continued talking. "What is the status of the project that is known as 'The Ronin's Project'?"

The Ronin's Project?

"DNA isolation of genetic markers that mark that which is known as the 'Hamato clan' is still in that which is 'development.' Device for the earth-wide scanning for said genetic markers is nearly that which is known as 'complete.' Kraang estimates it should take two weeks of earth time."

April clapped her hands over her mouth. That was the project that the Ronin had wanted Karai to do – to isolate the genetic markers that defined the Hamato clan and use it to find every last relative – to how many generations was it? – so that the Ronin could wipe them out.

Karai had said that she wasn't going to tell the Kraang to do this project. She'd promised that she wasn't going to work with that creep. She'd said that the eight weeks was to keep Ronin off their case – not to actually develop the tech for them.

Karai, what sick game are you playing?

Maybe there was a good reason for it. Maybe Karai hadn't told them about it yet, maybe she…

Who was April kidding? There was no way that this was anything other than another betrayal on Karai's part. From what Leo had said, Karai had sworn up and down that she wasn't going to get involved with this…and clearly, she had.

What's more, she hadn't informed them of her change of plans.

An alarm started going off. A metallic voice sounded from above. "Be alert for that which is known as 'intruder.'"

The klaxon blared against April's eardrums. It seemed that the turtles had finally arrived.

The two Kraang droids abruptly turned and ran back the direction that they had come. April had a suspicion that the turtles were probably in that direction too. She ran after them as quietly as she could, trying to think like a kunoichi. She dodged behind bulkheads and ducked into recesses in the walls as she progressed.

Soon, she heard the sound of Kraang gunfire and a distinct shout of Booyakasha!

About time.

She broke into a full run, not even caring when a couple of Kraang droids saw her. She rolled to the floor to dodge a blast, then jumped up again and kept running. She was coming up to a split in the hall. Unsure of which way to go, she called out. "Leo! Raph! Mikey!"

"April?" It sounded like Leo.

April immediately ran down the hall where his voice came from. A blast of laser fire sizzled past her head. She kept running, like running was the only thing she had left.

Finally, she burst into a tunnel junction where what looked like an entire company of Kraang droids was fighting the turtles.

Mikey saw her. "April! 'Sup, dawg?"

Unfortunately, a large number of the droids turned to face her. "Kraang," one of them said, "be advised that the one known as April O'Neil has esca – "

The droid collapsed to the floor in a shower of sparks. In a second, Raph pulled his sai out of the droid's head and grabbed April by the arm. "Time to go!"

Raph led the way with Mikey and Leo taking up the rear. Soon, they had all broken free of the lab and ran for the nearest sewer manhole. Once they were underground, they all sighed a breath of relief.

"I don't believe it," Leo said. "That went off without a single hitch."

"You know, except for the dozens of Kraang droids that we had to fight," Raph said. "And the fact that it took us two hours to find April."

"Two hours?" April asked. The sedative must have been extremely powerful.

"Hey, April, why did you change clothes?" Mikey said.

"I didn't change, Mikey…the Kraang changed me while I was unconscious."

Mikey grimaced. "That's just plain creepy, yo."

"Still, all in all, it went perfectly" Leo said. "Now we just have to rendezvous with Karai to test the serum."

Karai. April's stomach twisted.

"Yeah, Leo? About that? The plan didn't exactly go off without a hitch…"

Leo deadpanned. "Karai didn't get the retro-retro-mutagen?"

"No, she got it. But the Kraang got a sample of my DNA. And…even worse…"

All three turtles stared at her with intense looks.

April hung her head. "The Kraang are working on the Ronin's genocide project."

"What?" growled Raphael.

April looked up. The expression on Leo's face made her want to cry. He looked like she'd just stabbed one of his katanas straight through his heart.

"Why would they be doin' that?" Mikey asked, scratching his head. "Karai said that she wasn't gonna…" His voice wavered. "Maybe there's a reason for it."

Leo closed his eyes. "Let's just get you home, okay, April?"

"I want to stay at the lair tonight," April said.

Leo simply nodded, and motioned the way. He offered an arm to April as they went. "She lied to us. Again."

"Liars lie, Leo," Raph said. "It's just what they do. For all we know, she didn't even get the retro-retro-mutagen. Maybe it was something else."

"Maybe we should just ask her," Mikey said. "I mean, it could be a misunderstanding."

After that, nobody said anything. They walked the rest of the way to the lair in silence.