Hey guys, heads-up! This chapter is Jade and Nightwatcher. Raph and Midori finally meeting again, and Shredder's guys begin to close in. But don't worry next chapter Jade (not Midori) will meet Raph's brothers! I'm so excited!

Ch. 19-Just to be Close to You

It had been two weeks since the appearance of the strange, anonymous Foot Gang Lieutenant. Since then the Nightwatcher had busted eighteen Foot Shipments. And Shredder, needless to say, was not happy…

"I gave you a job to do. When I brought you to this country I had assumed that you would make fine work of the Foot's Smuggling operations, but as of yet you have been working on this project for years, and your smuggling ring has only just gotten started."

"I had to establish connections first Master Shredder. The ring would be flourishing my lord, were it not been for the interference of this Nightwatcher." Shredder growled, his throne chair turned away from his addresser. His fist hit the arm of the chair and his gauntlet blades flashed. The masked lieutenant hurried and went on, "He has broken up eighteen of our shipments in the past two weeks. And the other vigilante, Jade, is continuing to meddle in our affairs."

"Spread this message to all the Clan. That I am prepared to offer a reward to anyone who can bring me the Nightwatcher. Alive. I want the pleasure of disposing of him myself. As for the girl, kill her. She has outlived her usefulness. Bring her body to me. Her mother was practically sister to Hamato Yoshi, knowing both she and her daughter are dead will make him suffer."

"With pleasure my Lord." The big man smiled behind his mask. Then he added after a thought, "But the girl has a strong connection to one of the turtles. Shouldn't we use that to our advantage?"

"No, Dragon. Once we have the Nightwatcher, the other turtles will come to us." Shedder smiled maniacally.

'Dragon' looked up, waiting for his leader to explain. Shredder held up a small computer chip. "This footage the Foot Bots provided of the last encounter have revealed that one of the turtles and the Nightwatcher are one in the same."

"But which one, Lord Saki?"

Another grin, equally sinister. "The only one with enough gall to think he could pull off such a scheme and get away with it." He paused and went on reflecting, "When I first battled them, I saw the anger in his eyes. His anger makes him stronger, but he doesn't use it to the fullest capacity. That makes him weak. It is undoubtedly a weakness which the rat, whom he calls Father, has instilled in him. If your anger serves you well, you should be able to defeat him easily."

"And the girl?" the crony asked.

"Bring me the Nightwatcher. Then you may take care of the girl in whatever way you see fit."

The masked figure nodded, and gave a small bow before vanishing in the darkness.

He had a quarry to hunt.

The Nightwatcher was making some late-night rounds. Though, unfortunately there was very little activity on the streets that night. Then some movement caught his eye. He jumped over a couple roof-tops closer and confirmed what he thought had been some kind of optical illusion. There were people moving around on the upper stories of a condemned site that if he remembered correctly was about to be torn down. As he drew closer, the turtle was so focused on his approach that he didn't sense the figure coming up from behind him. Then a shuffle of quiet feet had the vigilante whirling around catching his follower's arms behind their back and holding them there.

"Why are you following me?" He growled low and menacingly.

"You've been muscling in on my franchise and I wanna know why." The female voice snarled back at him. He immediately released Jade and she lashed out, throwing a high-kick at his face.

He grabbed it with one gloved hand and held it there. "Isn't that none of your business?"

The female vigilante struggled, but she sensed that she wouldn't be able to free her foot without catching him off guard. "It's my business if you start trying to stop me."

"It should be pretty obvious that I ain't, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered having a nice cool conversation with ya." He answered, doing his best to disguise his voice by making it deeper and adding a thick Brooklyn accent.

"That's not necessarily true." The female vigilante replied.

"It is the truth though. I'm just looking out for ya. Protecting yur best interests."

"How would you know what my best interests are, Nightwatcher?" This time when she tried to pull her leg away from his grasp the turtle let go and the sudden loss of resistance sent her tumbling down on her bottom.

"So you do know my name. I was beginning to wonder." Raph said, masterfully keeping himself from laughing, though he couldn't disguise the absolute mirth in his voice.

"It's hard not to. Your picture has been plastered all over the internet and news reels."

"So you're…Amethyst was it?" Raph teased, knowing it would annoy her.

Midori's eyes narrowed in annoyance behind her visor. Who did this guy think he was? Stupid stuck-up punk! "Jade."

"Same thing."

"No it isn't." Then she let out a sigh, "Look, I don't appreciate you meddling in my affairs. So just quit while you're ahead." She started to walk away when a hand caught her wrist.

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll deal with you the same way I do all my other enemies."

Raph smirked and took advantage of the opportunity. "Funny, pretty little thing like you, wouldn't think you'd have too many."

Midori's eyes narrowed behind her visor. "Watch it punk. You're getting dangerously close to a sock in the jaw."

Raphael smiled happy to see that she was still spunky as ever. But that wasn't quite enough for him, so he went on. "Like to see ya try. No offense, but I think yur just a little on the small side, short stuff."

Jade wheeled around on him and threw a punch, which the ninja blocked expertly. "What was that?!"

"I think you heard perfectly well, darling."

The female vigilante actually growled at him and continued her onslaught. Every blow perfectly avoided and blocked by the masked turtle. Working with Midori had given him an edge and he could predict her movements marginally well.

Suddenly the Nightwatcher turned his head and his eyes immediately focused on the constructions site he'd noticed earlier. "Foot Soldiers?" he said out-loud, and when Jade realized it wasn't a ploy to distract her she too looked over.

She made a noise of agreement. "I'm going over there and don't bother coming after me."

"Oh I'm going, whether you like it or not. I hate the Foot just as much as you do and I'm not about to let them get away." Raph pushed her to the side gently with the back of his gloved hand, and he could feel her glaring at his back. "So, you wanna tag-team it?"

"I wouldn't fight with you if you were the last thing on the face of this planet."

"Touché, but yur gonna need some kind of backup."

"No I won't."

"Yes you will. The Foot have started carrying guns and I have no doubt there's at least three of them in there. So you can either accept my services, or I can take care of it myself without your help, in which case I have no doubt you'd jump in anyway and we'd both mess each other up. So let's put the rivalry aside for the time being and work together."

Midori's eyes narrowed but she had to admit, Nightwatcher had a point. "Fine."

The two of them approached, Nightwatcher pointed towards an old broken window where there was a hole large enough for Jade to slip through. He lowered her in gently before circling around the building to where he found an open window he could jump through. The vigilante could see Jade on the other side of the room and he gestured for her to join him. Albeit reluctantly the female vigilante was quickly at his side about to speak when he put an arm in front of her pushing her back against the wall and gesturing her to listen.

Midori breathed as silently as she could behind the mask and listened intently. Someone or something was rapidly approaching the door. She tensed as she saw that Nightwatcher was pulling out some sort of chain-like weapon. Funny it resembled a giant manriki. Interesting. She too, drew her jitte and for a moment she could have sworn that the vigilante pushed her behind him as the door creaked open. Footsteps followed and then absolute silence.

Then in a flash Nightwatcher kicked the door, and barreled into it. He slammed it closed with his shoulder but the Foot bots were pushing back vigorously. The hand of one of them was still inside the room and was holding a gun. Jade stabbed its hand with a jitte and twisted it until it came off and Nightwatcher pushed the door closed, Jade grabbed one of his chains and tied the door shut, sealing them off. They turned around, only for about a dozen Foot bots to break in through the windows surrounding them.

Raph looked around noting which ones had guns and which ones didn't. He then paused for a brief moment, staying absolutely still, and the room was still. Everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move. Nightwatcher became a blur as he finally lashed out, throwing Jade back towards the wall and out of the fray. He struck, using his chain to yank the hand of one of the gun-bearing Foot bots. That bot ended up shooting one of the others and so on so forth, but what the vigilante did not see was the robot coming up directly behind him. With a gun.

Suddenly a jitte flew past him from the front, stabbing the looming figure straight through the head. He turned around slowly and looked down at the ground. His eyes fell on the downed Foot bot and slowly bent down and yanked the jitte from its head. Raph spun it lightly and tossed it back to Jade handle-first. "Thanks, brat."

Those words struck a chord inside of Midori and she froze, the jitte hitting the floor noisily as another wave of Foot soldiers appeared. As they charged her she crouched down and swept out one leg, knocking them down on the ground, where she could grab the weapon and stab them.

A Foot bot with a gun appeared behind her, and she whipped around her eyes widened, and she froze. Raphael didn't think he just hurled himself between them.

The shot echoed through the broken down building and Jade went straight for the gun, grabbing it and shooting the robot in the head. She was by Nightwatcher's side in seconds, frantically examining the upper-left side of his chest.

He pushed her away and flung his chain out behind her, pulling down yet another robotic soldier. After a few more minutes all the bots were down and Jade turned to him.

Midori had watched the vigilante's fighting style carefully, but it wasn't until the battle had ended and Nightwatcher's shoulders drooped that suspicions were confirmed. Nightwatcher let out a pained grunt as he pressed a palm against the upper left of his chest.

Jade stared. Midori would recognize that sound anywhere. She'd heard it often enough. The realization slowly sunk in.

Then, all at once she leaped at Nightwatcher as he turned to face her, pulling herself so close so that she could whisper to him, despite the their helmets. "Meet me at my place. We need to talk."

"Only one problem with that. Where do you-"

"I think the jig is up." The male vigilante stiffened and Midori knew she was right. All of a sudden he pushed her away gently and began heading for the window. "And Nightwatcher." His silver helmet turned towards her, "Ditch the suit." The male vigilante nodded and was about to jump out the window, but he paused. Air swept into the room through the broken windows and a shiver ran down Jade's spine. "Though, if it's any consolation…I think you look better without the costume."

Nightwatcher turned to face her, before back-flipping out of the window and into the night.

Later that evening…

Raphael and Midori met as themselves for the first time in weeks. She had insisted on going for a walk, despite the turtle's protest and because of his…well… 'looks' the two of them couldn't just walk the surface streets. So the pair of them were now walking side by side down the dark back alleys, the turtle completely on edge all the time. Suddenly Midori stopped him and examined the upper left hand side of his plastron there was a deep indent, she rubbed it gently with her thumb, not missing the way Raphael stiffened, wincing slightly.

"You could have been killed."

"Then I would have died for a good cause."

"That bullet should have gone straight through."

"The under part of the suit is made of old bullet-proof vests."

Her gorgeous amber eyes met his neon green ones sternly. "You should have told me you were going vigilante." She said quietly.

"I thought you'd never want to see me again, so I did the only thing I could think of to stay close—I mean to keep a watchful eye on you." A long silence spread between them and Midori changed the subject before things got awkward.

Midori looked around, taking in her surroundings. "I really need to walk these alleys more often. Get to know my way around."

"Absolutely not." Raph growled. "This is a bad part of town. I don't want you walking anywhere near here in the daytime when I'm not around." Midori smiled.

Good ol' Raph. Always got your back. Hmm…

Flashback…

Midori's mother was telling her stories about her 'uncle Yoshi.' The little girl with long black hair listened intently.

"I never had to worry about enemies or undesirable attention. As we always used to say when we were little: Hamato Yoshi will always have your back."

End Flashback...

My mother always used to say that she loved him very much. I suppose our family and the Hamato clan are destined to remain intertwined.

From the rooftops above, the 'Dragon' watched and followed them, observing his prey carefully, preparing to strike.