"Alright, so here's the deal…" Leonardo paced in front of Cori. She had taken a seat on the brick ledge of the rooftop they were standing on. They were across the street from Mr. Murakami's shop, a couple stories up. A bitter wind blew by. Cold air seeped through the hole in Cori's jacket and chilled her spine. She clenched her jaw, trying not to chatter her teeth. The turtles did not seem to be bothered by the cold. Occasionally Donnie would rub his arms, but otherwise did not complain.

Leo continued to talk. "You can ask us whatever you want. But, we also get to ask you whatever we want. You ask a question, we ask a question. Got it?" Cori blew a stray hair from her face and tersely responded, "Fine."

"This is a bad idea."

Raph sat on top of an air-conditioning unit with his bandaged arm resting on his knee. His other leg dangled off the side. He eyed Cori with a cold gaze, never looking away. Donatello's annoyance bubbled to the surface with a sharp reply. "We know, Raph. You've only said that, what, six times now?"

"I'm just saying, she could work for the Foot. How do we know this isn't some set up to learn all of our secrets?"

"I don't work for the Foot," Cori replied. "Do I look like a ninja to you?"

Raph tilted his head and said, "Yeah? Well, if you don't work for the Foot, how do you know about them?" Cori opened her mouth to respond but hesitated. It was true that she was not some sort of undercover spy for the Foot, but she did know about the Foot before. Not much though, just that the Purple Dragons worked for them. She decided it was probably not a good idea to reveal she had personal relations with some of the gang members. Maybe she could say that she knew them through Donnie's memories… But how could she possibly explain all of that?

Mikey popped one of the last gyoza in his mouth and said, "Yeah, how do you know about them?" They all stared at her curiously waiting for an answer. Cori tightly clenched the ledge and said, "I've heard you guys talk about them. Back at the Kraang base. I'm not deaf." Not exactly a lie, but not the full truth. She sensed their suspicion waver. "Whatever…" Raph grumbled, his way of giving up the argument.

"So, you've heard about the Foot through us," Leonardo started saying. "How did you learn about the Kraang?"

"Hold on, I thought this was a you-ask-a-question, I-ask-a-question scenario?" Cori asked impatiently.

"Alright. What's your question?"

"What are the Kraang?" She paused for a moment and added, "I mean, I know they're aliens. But, where did they come from? What do they want?"

"Hold on wait a minute, that's three questions," Raphael pointed out. His brothers ignored him and Mikey answered, "The Kraang are like these pink blobby little brain guys, which you already know. They're all psychic and spooky and talk weird. And they got this ooze that mutates people. I guess you probably already knew that too."

"I'll take it from here," Donatello intervened. "The Kraang are aliens that come from Dimension X. I don't know what it's like over there, but they don't breathe oxygen like we do. Apparently, they came to Earth thousands of years ago. They've been trying to terraform it ever since. We were successful in stopping their latest invasion, but they're still here."

"How many are there? Like hundreds? Thousands?" Cori had started to panic a bit thinking about the scale of the Kraang. Donnie shrugged; he did not say out loud his belief that there were thousands of Kraang in the city itself. Who knows how many were in Dimension X? Another thought was gnawing at the back of Donnie's mind.

"How did you know about April? And Casey?"

"I mean, I've met them. We go to the same school…"

"No, but how did you know that they knew us?" Donnie gazed at Cori expectantly. "I never told you that they did…but I thought about it." Cori shrinked away from Donnie's stare. She cursed herself silently for being so obvious about her powers earlier.

"It's hard to explain. You wouldn't believe it."

"We're four mutant turtles raised to be ninjas by a rat," Leo said. "Believe me, it wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened." Cori looked away and started to pick at a piece of cement that was flaking off the ledge.

"When I touch someone...I can feel their thoughts. Their emotions. Their memories. I don't know how or why, but I can." Her explanation was met with silence. Although, Donnie's thoughts rattled around in her brain as he frantically started to put things together.

"So...you're psychic?" Leo asked. He had crossed his arms and met Cori's gaze with a confused expression. Mikey jumped up excitedly and asked, "Ooh, can you read my mind? Quick, what number am I thinking of?" He shut his eyes tightly and pressed his pointer fingers to his temples. His tongue slightly poked out of his mouth.

"Not really. It's difficult to explain, but I can feel people's emotions."

"Really?" Raph scoffed. "Can you guess what I'm feeling right now?" Cori ignored his taunts. She reached her hand over to press the wound on her back. The gentle pressure hurt at first but relieved some of the pain. "The other night we met at the Kraang base, and I got hurt, I remember you took me back to your…'lair?' I remember Donnie was the one to wrap my wound. When I touch people, I can access their minds in a way. I can hear their thoughts, see their memories. Even when I'm not touching, I still can. It's just…harder. It's almost like it's fuzzier. I can only do this with people I touch, though. I can still feel people's emotions regardless." She waited a moment before adding, "I don't really know why I'm like this."

Donatello rubbed his chin and widened his eyes. "Interesting," he said, "Somehow you can form a telepathic connection to others through direct contact with your epidermis." Cori struggled to understand what Donatello just said. She assumed he understood what she meant though.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Fascinating. I wonder if they're anything like April's powers." Donatello was lost in deep thought. Cori was about to ask what he meant about April when Raph hopped off the AC unit and declared, "Welp, this is getting a little too freaky for me. I'm not really into having my thoughts be poked and prodded by some stranger."

"I can't read your mind, only Donatello's. If you were listening…" Raph snarled at Cori's remark. "How is your back?" Leo asked.

"What?"

Cori was caught off guard by Leonardo's concern. He seemed genuine about it. "It's...fine," she said, still holding her back with her hand. Her answer did not convince the turtle.

"Maybe, we should have Donnie look at it. It's been a couple days since he fixed it up."

Donnie snapped out of his trance when he heard his name. "What? Oh, right. I can do that." He started to walk towards Cori when she snapped, "I'm fine." He stopped and stared in surprise. Cori breathed sharply and looked up at the turtle. A small seed of guilt started to grow in her chest. She begrudgingly twisted her torso around so that her back faced Donnie; her way of accepting his help. She moved her hand away and pulled off her leather jacket. She drew in another sharp breath as she rolled up her shirt slightly. A shiver ran down her spine as a cold wind prickled her now exposed skin. Donnie moved closer to her again. He sat on the ledge beside her, straddling it with his legs. He gently placed his cold hands on her back. Cori felt a surge of his thoughts with his touch. The only other person's thoughts she could hear were from her mother. Hers were much simpler and straight forward than the turtle's. It was like he could not focus on just one thing for too long. His ideas and theories were constantly evolving and changing.

The turtle slowly unwrapped the gauze on her back. He cringed as he removed the last layer, revealing a bloody red sore. The bleeding had started recently. The burn wound looked infected, with yellowish pus oozing out of the blisters. Cori gasped as the cold air touched her burn. Donnie frowned and reached into his belt for something. While he was doing that, Mikey leaned over the ledge in front of Cori. He tilted his head, looking at her straight on with his light blue eyes. His face was close enough to hers for Cori to notice the spattering of freckles on his cheeks.

"So like, you do have powers though? And you wear a mask? You're like a superhero!"

"I'm not, but thanks."

"Sure you are! You even have a cool superhero name."

"I do?"

Mikey looked away for a moment and said, "Oh yeah, I don't know if I actually ever told you. I thought your name should be Crow cuz of that creepy mask you wear. I'm kinda an expert when it comes to naming things."

"That's actually not that baaAAAD!"

Cori tried not to cry out as Donnie slapped something onto her back. It burned worse than her actual burn wound did. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw.

"Oh uh, sorry. This is going to hurt a bit," Donnie warned too late. Cori cussed him out in her head, unable to say anything aloud. The intense pain slowly faded into a dull one. Her back throbbed as the turtle rewrapped it with gauze.

"That should help for now. I have an ointment back at the lair that you should use though. We can go back and—"

"We're not taking her back to the lair," Raph interrupted. Cori listened silently while the brother's argued, inching towards each other. She slid her jacket back on, trying to desperately get warm again.

"Why does it matter?" Donnie argued back. "She's already been there."

"She was unconscious the whole time though! We bring her back now, she'll definitely know where we live."

"So?"

"You're right, Don. Let's just go around the city walking up to strangers and telling them where we live. Why not give them a grand tour?"

By now, Donnie and Raph were butting heads. Mikey had taken a seat next to Cori to watch the fight. Leonardo squeezed in between his brothers and pushed them apart. "I don't think it's a good idea to take Cori back," he said as a final decision.

Raph smiled cockily at Donnie. Leo continued saying, "I'd prefer if Splinter doesn't find out about Cori. The less he knows the better." Donatello sighed in frustration but finally admitted defeat. "Fine, but we should really get her some stuff from my lab." Cori tapped her foot impatiently and said, "This was fun and all, but can we get back to answering my questions? I don't really care whether or not I'm 'allowed' to see your place." Raph rolled his eyes at her remark but stayed silent.

"So," Cori continued, "if the Kraang took someone, where would they take them?" Leo scratched his head and replied, "I'm not sure. I mean, we found that prison for mutants with Metalhead one time. But honestly, we don't know any specific bases."

"Most of the bases we've found were by complete luck. And, it doesn't seem like the Kraang like to stay in one place for long," Donatello added.

"So, you don't have any clue."

Cori's eyes glistened as she heard what the turtles had to offer. They were just as clueless as her…

"Who are you looking for," Michelangelo asked.

"What? No one. I mean… I don't…" Cori's voice softened. The last time she told someone what happened all those years ago was Ren. She was not ready to open up again. "Cori," Leo started to say, "we can help you. We may not know as much about the Kraang as we'd like, but we're alway keeping an eye on them. Whoever you lost, we can help find them. You just have to tell us." Cori looked around at the turtles. They seemed caring and kind. Even Raphael's gruff expression had softened. They wanted to help, but she did not want their help. Not like this.

Cori stood up abruptly and harshly said, "I think I'm done with this interrogation thing. We don't really have anything else to talk about." She started to stomp off to the rooftop access door when Leo grabbed ahold of her arm. She stopped but did not turn to look at the turtle. "Hey, we're just trying to help here," he said accusingly. Cori said nothing back. She felt her throat tighten as her eyes watered. She was trying her best to hide her disappointment in front of the turtle.

Leo's voice softened as he continued, "I don't know why you're so obsessed with the Kraang, and you don't have to tell us, but you know you can trust us. I think the other night we proved that, right?" Cori shakily exhaled and tilted her head towards Leo. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Leo let go of his grip on Cori. She turned away from the turtles and headed back to the door. The four brothers watched as she silently left the rooftop. There was nothing else for them to say.