Raphael growled, pacing and waiting for the sun to set. He looked down at his phone. He had texted May a pretty lengthy paragraph about how they weren't mad and wanted to help her and to please come home and all, and had called and left voice messages no less than a dozen times. They couldn't do anything until the sun set, and because they had no backup vehicles (Donnie hadn't even started making Raph a motorcycle) they were stuck in New York to wait for May to come to them.

When the sun finally began to set for the night, before they could start planning where they were going to go and how they were going to get there, who should roll in but their garbage truck.

Raphael ran to the truck and wrenched the door open, grabbing the guilty May from the driver's seat.

"Where- why- h- who said- WHY would you- Oh, screw it, what did you find?"

May shakily pulled the box from her pocket and silently handed it to Donnie, who opened it, and read the note aloud. May quietly gripped Raphael's hand as he did, fighting tears.

"Dearest May Rose;
I knew you'd find it easily. A shame blood had to be spilled to get it to you.
Now, I always did hate your snoop of a mother and coward of a father. They could never see you for who you truly were.
Just.
Like.
Us.
Your mother is still alive. We have her, in fact. Don't you worry, she's safe and healthy, if not a little upset. We won't hurt her until you finish your treasure hunt, mostly so we can use her as a bargaining chip. You will understand soon. You're clever, my beautiful.
And soon, you'll be all mine, to do with as I please...
We enclosed a few photos this time around. We hoped they would motivate your friends to help you.
Your next clue won't be hard to find, sweet Rose, I'll even tell you straight up. It'll be waiting for you at the Museum of Natural History."

Raphael looked at May, who was losing her battle against the tears, and was hugging his arm, silently begging for comfort.

"Hey." He kneeled down so they were eye level. "It's gonna be okay. We'll find them, and we'll get your mom back."

May shook her head. "It's not that... It's... the pictures, the tone of these letters... I... I'm scared of him."

And there it finally was. That last wall of trust she had held back. May felt the words leave her mouth, but didn't regret them, not for a second, especially not after what Raphael said next.

"I won't let him hurt you. We won't let anyone hurt you like that." He promised solemnly.

Donnie gazed through the pictures. There were five in total. Two of them were April, bound and gagged but alive. The others were of May. One was her walking down the street, eating a popsicle, probably from before her house arrest. The second was taken of her in her room, sitting at her laptop doing homework during the day with the window open, and had been edited crappily in photoshop, with a knife stabbing through her back and a collar around her neck, with creepy messages around the edge, detailing a few disgusting acts this letter-writer wanted to do to May, and the third... the third was taken from May's laptop webcam, of her getting undressed, clearly changing into pjs, and not realizing her webcam hadn't been safely unplugged or her laptop closed.

He only glanced at the third picture, before realizing what it was and quickly crushing it into a ball. He could see why May was scared. What were they going to do? Obviously they needed to find the Purple Dragons and save April, but the notes were specifically addressed to May, and if she didn't want to keep doing this, and the letter-writer found out they were the ones finding the boxes, he might not keep giving them clues, and might even decide to kill April instead... if he hadn't already...

"May, this is up to you." Leo spoke up. "We're not going to force you to keep doing this if you don't feel safe, but we will help you if you want to keep looking."

Raphael nodded. "This is your choice May."

May wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. Yes, the letters were getting scary, and perhaps they would only get more creepy as time went on, but she felt braver now, knowing Raphael and his brothers had her back no matter what, knowing they wouldn't turn away from her.

April and May had never been close, and honestly neither had May and Casey, but now this was more than personal.

"I'm going to save my Mom, and I'm going to avenge my Dad."