When Raphael agreed to hide to see how the homeless lived, he didn't realize he would end up about ready to break the arm of the young man named Logan.

"Don't touch her."

One hour earlier

Raphael and Artemis just left the warehouse and were heading over to the community of the latter. She was leading him in the dark with practiced steps and he kept close to her heels. She was always good with twists and turns and she had to be so that it was hard for others to find where they were squatting. Art had to make sure that they wouldn't get caught and either be taken into custody or forced to find another place to stay. The shelters were already full enough and there were plenty of people who deserved them more; at least that's how she told it to Raph. He knew next to nothing about homeless people so with every bit of information she gave him, he locked it into his mind for any future reference.

Once they reached the opening of the site she told him to stay and observe like they agreed. Since it finally got dark out he could easily blend in without any notice. He watched as Art kept walking and announced her arrival.

"Everyone I'm back! And I have something for each of you."

Raph saw three figures stand up from sitting around a fire and they approached her. An elderly woman with very short, graying hair was hanging on the arm of a middle aged man with dark hair but had very kind eyes. He knew them to be Cecile and Manny as Artemis did a great job describing them. Cecile held clouded eyes but still could move around well for someone so blind. What he didn't expect was how Logan was so close to Artemis' age...or how close he was to her in general. Logan was right up to her as if checking her over for any injuries and to be honest it rubbed Raph the wrong way. She laughed him off and told him she was fine and showed them all what she got.

"All right you guys. Soap for Cecile, Manny, here's your pills, and Logan with your very much needed toothpaste."

Logan scoffed and held up the box. "I didn't know you needed my breath so clean. Any particular reason?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she just lightly punched him in the arm. Was he flirting with her? Raph couldn't really tell but if he had to guess that was probably what was going on. Raph felt his stomach tightly coil up and turn hot. He wondered if it had anything to do with Mikey's cooking before he left for the day.

"Oh I can't believe I forgot I had this!"

Raph focused himself back over to the group and saw Arty holding a wallet. He knew she was a good pickpocket and that very item might've been the reason she almost got caught today. She looked through it and found multiple credit cards and at least forty dollars in cash. Arty pocketed the cash and went to throw the rest away in a dumpster. Cecile clucked her tongue and whispered to the other two. Raph risked getting closer to hear what they were saying.

"-believe she is still doing this! I told her we would make it just fine without stealing but she just won't stop."

Manny shook his head at Cecile, "You still can't believe it? She won't quit until she feels we're okay. She's told us many times over how she felt. Even if we ended up hating her..." He sighed before continuing, looking over in the direction Artemis went. "Oh, Mija, what will happen to you?"

Logan placed a hand on Manny's shoulder. "I'll talk to her after dinner and see what I can do. She might listen to me since, well, you know."

Cecile growled out, "Just because you've been to jail doesn't mean she'll understand. That girl is more visual than anything!"

Raphael was wanting to hear more but Artemis made sure her arrival was clear. He ducked low behind some tents and watched their interactions further. Her family completely acted like they weren't just talking about her intervention and laughed along with her about more of her crazy day. He was shocked to find out that she easily put him into the conversation but seeing their reactions, he figured out why. They didn't believe she was telling the truth. I mean for any normal human, of course it can't be true; however why would she of all people lie about a mutant saving her from incarceration? Who makes that stuff up? They deviated from that topic and moved on to tonight's dinner of some canned ravioli. Apparently the guys went out earlier and stood by some busy streets and some humans actually took pity on them. With the money they scrounged up, they bought some much needed preservatives. It seems they had a cooking schedule and it was Manny's turn to cook.

Not long after heating up their food had Manny dished out each of them their own bowls. They ate in silence as if this was their first full meal in awhile and they wanted to savor it. In just a few minutes all bowls were empty and Manny gathered them up and went to clean them. Cecile got up and grabbed of ahold of him while announcing she would help. She squeezed a shoulder of Artemis before letting Manny take her to the cleaning station.

Artemis frowned at the action and turned to Logan. "Uh, last I checked it took only one to clean some bowls. What's going on?"

Logan groaned,"You really are too sharp, you know that?" He took off his beanie and ran one of his hands though his hair. "Artemis, I think you may have a possible addiction to theft."

Well...that wasn't expected. Raphael just continued to watch in silence but felt he should leave. This seemed like a private family matter and he had no right to listen in. It seemed Art had the same thoughts because she glanced in his direction before focusing back on Logan.

"Look, we can talk about this literally any other day; today really isn't the best time."

Logan shook his head,"See? That's how it starts. You'll keep saying it's not a problem and you'll fix it some other time but it never happens."

Artemis stood up but so did Logan, like he wanted to block any exits she might go to. She rolled her eyes and started to walk around him but he just moved in front of her. "Artemis, I'm serious. We can't let this go."

"Just for today Logan, please! I actually mean it when I'm saying we'll come back to this."

Logan grabbed her arm and made sure she was looking right into his eyes. "I have been in this same situation before! You won't stop unless forced to and I really don't want it to come to that. I don't want to be the one telling you this but because of my past I was the best option. You know how hard it was for me! And I wasn't even addicted to stealing! Look how far down it's taken me. You're already homeless, do you really want to find out what could be worse than this?!"

Artemis gasped and tried to get her arm out of his grip but instead he just held her even tighter. Raphael couldn't stand watching it any longer and before he could think, he had leapt out and grabbed Logan's arm and twisted it around his back only a few centimeters away from breaking it.

"Don't touch her."

Logan went to his knees, trying to get his arm any sense of relief from the pain of his bone bending. He heard a plate crash and they all turned to look at Manny who dropped one of the bowls from their earlier dinner. "Monstruo Verde! Monstruo Verde!"

You didn't need to know Spanish to figure out what he just said. Raphael looked from the frightened man to the other one he had on their knees. Logan was looking at him with the same fear as Manny and Cecile couldn't get any response from any of them to figure out what was going on. Raphael let go of Logan but still kept himself planted in front of Artemis. He didn't need to look back to know she was angry but that was better than fear; especially from her. Artemis wanted to yell at him, possibly even curse but she had Cecile to take care of. Artemis left Raphael's side and went over to Cecile grabbing her hand and talking to her quickly, catching her up on what was happening.

"I see."

That's all the blind woman could say. What else could she do? He was a mutant that no one thought could have existed. Raphael just crossed his arms and waited for things to calm down. He watched as Artemis guided Cecile to a log and sat her down. Artemis then went to Manny and Logan and helped them to sit as well. She inspected Logan's arm and noticed some bruising but nothing else. She tried to smile but it was obviously forced. "You'll be okay."

Logan scoffed,"Okay? Okay?! That thing probably just gave me a disease! And if not he still tried to kill me!"

Artemis rolled her eyes and poked his bruise, making him recoil back in pain. "You're such a baby; don't twist things around! He wasn't planning to kill you, he was just trying to help me. He thought you were hurting me." She looked over at Raph with some appreciation but still mostly with anger. "Isn't that right?"

"Hm."

Raph just stood there awkwardly, watching as Artemis made her rounds. She made sure they had what they needed before motioning him to get closer. He hesitated. Why go near the ones so afraid of him? He had no qualms about Art but the rest of the group were complete strangers and he already decided he didn't like them. She grabbed onto him and tugged him over by the fire. If they started showing any signs of retaliation he would-.

"What's your name dear?"

This came from the old woman he noticed. "Raphael."

"How nice to meet you Raphael."

Logan looked absolutely insulted. "Cecile!"

"Oh hush now child. If you were really that hurt, Artemis would tell him to leave."

Raphael realized real fast he could change his mind and start to like Cecile. Straight to the point and even with her lack of sight, she still tried to understand the unknown. Artemis only sighed and seemed to be thinking hard about her next words carefully. "Listen, I know you guys didn't believe me before but now you do; so please believe me when I say Raphael is a good guy and he needs to be kept secret."

Cecile nodded without much convincing but the other two stayed still. Manny was mumbling a prayer in Spanish while Logan just absentmindedly rubbed his hurt arm. Raphael couldn't help the little growl that came out. Logan flinched at him and looked away but Manny stopped his prayer and looked right at the turtle.

"You stopped her from stealing before, yes?"

Artemis answered,"He tried to stop me, you mean." She looked at Raphael clearly indicating the time she threw him to the ground. He glared at her and she stuck her tongue out as a response. Raphael just shook his head but his mouth had quirked up into a small smile. Manny had noticed the exchange and nodded like he was confirming his thoughts.

"Then I will keep your secret as well. Not like anyone would believe us anyways."

Manny looked pointedly at Logan, waiting for his decision. Logan growled under his breath but resigned and spoke. "Fine, whatever! It's a secret. Just like Manny said, no one would believe us if we said anything about a mutant."

Artemis seemed to smile in relief.The conversation switched over to something easier to handle, most of it involved Art's snotty attitude when she first joined and how Logan wasn't always such a wimp-that part put in by Artemis herself- and how if he wanted, Raph could stay with them if he felt he wanted a more permanent place. He still hadn't told Artemis about his family and the sewers but how could he? He was supposed to be secretive and not let anyone catch him. He couldn't risk his family; not even for her. He just kept the conversations flowing and tried to keep away from the point of him staying. He promised to keep his two lives separate; it was something he was good at after all. He would keep both safe, no problem, right?

Days went by and soon even weeks and Raphael would spend time with both his family and friends. It was safer to at least let his father know about the situation and beg for secrecy. Master Splinter didn't feel good about hiding things from his other sons but Raphael had been slowly changing and Splinter didn't want his happiness to disappear. He gave Raph warnings about the consequences but let him continue his way. Every other day or so, Raph would go to that abandoned building and helped retrain Art. She was practically a natural, nothing close to him and his brothers but still pretty good for a human. All the while he kept secret about his family from her but talked about fighting some bad guys he knew. He never went into deep detail but just enough to show off. He always felt a little giddy every time her eyes would shine about how he saved the day and what moves he would use. He especially loved the way she took interest in his sais and watched intently as he demonstrated how skillful he was. On that day, he was showing her how precision was important so as not to fatally injure anybody and was surprised about her sudden inquiry.

"Can you teach me how to use them?"

Raph stumbled a bit but kept hold of the sai he was about to throw. "You want to learn weapons fighting?"

She shrugged in her new navy blue hoodie that April gave to Raph. He only told April that it was for putting on a practice dummy so she didn't really question him and just gave him the one she barely wore and wouldn't miss. Raph was probably the most awkward he had ever been when trying to find a nonchalant way to give it to Art. He just threw it at her and told her the other one was falling apart so he gave her a spare he found. She was a little mad that he threw the garment at her but in retaliation she threw her old black one at him and put on the new one. It fit well enough and smelled clean so that worked just fine for her. She had the sleeves rolled up showing off her tan arms that have been toned from training with him. She simply held out her hand to him in a "give me" way. "I don't see why not; you're already training me in hand-to-hand combat. Might as well go up a level."

"Should I be concerned that you want to use a weapon?"

"Nothing concerning about it. Besides I just want to learn but not actually use one if I don't have to. Come on please?" She gave a little pout which normally should annoy Raph but on her...it was slightly adorable. He resigned to her whims and walked over to her. He expertly twirled the sai in his hand and put the handle on her palm. She grabbed onto it gently, trying to test out the weight and the feel of it. She stood from the crate she was on and gripped tighter onto the weapon and gave a few practice swings. Raph rather liked the funny way she tried to handle it and couldn't help but stare for a while.

"You gonna teach me to use this or is this a self-taught lesson?"

Raph snapped out of his daze and gave an annoyed 'humph.' "Don't think for a second you're just gonna teach yourself with my sai. First off, there are a couple of proper ways to hold it." He walked next to her and fixed her hand grip. "It's like an appendage of you and you don't want to lose it, so keep it firm but not so tight you exhaust your hand grip. This very weapon could be your life line in a fight."

"Uh-huh right. Listen Raph I just want to practice with it, not learn the whole moral lecture part."

"My weapon, my lesson; so get over it." She sighed but nodded for him to continue. "Good, now that you have a firm grip on it, give it some more swings." Artemis did as she was told and pretended she was fighting off an assailant. "Don't use both your hands for one sai as it can restrict movement and leave you open. That's good! Keep going." He made her keep going with practice swings until she felt her arm was about to fall off. He let her rest a moment while he set up three boxes stacked on top of each other. "Now it's time to throw. You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"We're going to aim for the middle box. When you throw, make sure to aim at what point you want to hit your target. When you release your weapon you extend your fingers straight so it can help you create the proper guide for the sai. Now go ahead and try to throw." Raph stepped away as she threw the sai the first time. She completely missed hitting any of the boxes and it flew straight towards Raph. He blocked it with ease with his other sai and growled. "I said the middle box not the middle of my head!"

"Whoops! Sorry, sorry! Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. I won't get hurt by my own weapon. Now try again." He handed the sai to her and made her go again. This time he wasn't even in range of the boxes so he felt safe. Once again she missed the middle but at least got the bottom box. "Well, better than before. Are you aiming right?"

"Do I look stupid to you?"

Raph smirked and simply shrugged. She glared at him and picked up the sai, pointing it at him. "I have a sai and I'm not afraid to use it, don't make me mad." She went back into place and tried again and again. Each throw got better but never hit the middle box. She growled in frustration. "This is impossible!" Raph grabbed his other sai and threw it directly in the middle. He gave her a sideways glance while smiling. She rolled her eyes at his bravado. "Show-off."

"Here, let me help." Raph made her go back into position while handing her the weapon. Just before she could throw he went behind her, his plastron to her back, and helped guide her arm a few times without releasing the sai. "Okay, breathe in and breathe out when you release. Now get ready." He guided her arm once more but this time when her arm extended, he spoke, "Release!" This time she hit right on target and landed right next to his sai. They stood still for a second but eventually she smiled and turned her head right to Raph. "I-I did it!"

Raph was so close to her he jumped a bit and hurriedly moved away to grab his weapons while clearing his throat. "Told you I can help." He put away his weapons and made sure to not look her way. He moved the boxes back to where they were and felt her stare on him. "What?"

She grabbed his shoulder and made him face her. "Raph, listen, about earlier I wasn't trying to-."

"Nothing happened earlier!"

Her face scrunched up in confusion. "I meant about almost decapitating you."

"O-Oh, well you're new so I wasn't worried."

Raph wanted to bang his head against a wall. What was he being so sensitive about all of a sudden? She was just a human friend who happened to catch his interest of her different lifestyle. He thought he could just judge a human by how they were and April would be the only exception, but then a thief showed up and showed him new human friends. Well Cecile and Manny at least but as for Logan he could leave him in the sewers for all he cared. It wasn't much more than that...he hoped.

"Raph! You better get going it's almost dawn!"

He looked at the windows high up by the rafters and noticed it was getting lighter outside. "Oh right! I'll see you around Art. Keep practicing." He jumped up onto some crates and pulled himself up into the rafters so he could leave through the windows and get onto the rooftops. Artemis only shook her head and started to clean up the area they were training in when she noticed what looked like a shell on one of the boxes Raph sat on earlier. She picked it up and saw a screen on the other side and realized it was some type of phone. "Is this...Raph's? I've never seen a phone like this though." She went to touch the screen but it came to life on its own while letting out a shrill ring. She noticed the picture on it of a mutant that looked like Raph but with a blue band around his eyes rather than red. Under the picture flashed the name 'Leo' and that just furthered her confusion. "What in the world? Raph told me he was alone so who is this?" She would find out one way or another. She really shouldn't have but she answered it anyways and spoke with a nervous 'Hello?'

"What in the-! You're not Raph! Who is this?! What did you do to my brother?!"

She stood still for a while and could hear more voices in the background. She hung up the phone and felt her hands start to shake. He lied to her! He wasn't alone, he had family! He lied straight to her face while she bared her soul out to him! She thought they were friends and even invited him into her own family just so he wasn't on his own. She felt that familiar feeling of betrayal and her eyes soon blurried up with tears. She shut her eyes closed and counted backwards from ten. No. She wasn't just going to let this go just yet. If this was true she would find out directly from the source and hoped he would come clean. She ran out the door and followed the path she had seen him take before. She didn't let up and hoped she would come upon him somehow.

Raph, on the other hand, was leisurely just leaping from roof to roof; trying to figure out what excuse to give to Leo about being out so long. He was off extra patrols now that Mikey's leg was better but that didn't mean Leo gave him much slack. Raph was about to make his next leap when he noticed some weird activity out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see what looked like a greenhouse on top of a building and surrounding that greenhouse were foot clan ninjas. There was quite a few sneaking their way in and he could count at least fifteen. "What in the world? You guys stealing plants now?" He crept closer and ducked down close to the ledge. He watched for a few minutes until all of the foot clan were inside. He looked to the sky and noted it was still dark but it wouldn't be for long. "I can make it." He got up and leapt over to the greenhouse roof. He looked inside and noticed them scurrying around looking for something. Raph didn't give them time to find their target and crashed through the ceiling landing on two foot clan members. "You guys should feel lucky, you caught me on a good day." He smirked as he launched himself at another ninja who blocked his sais with a sword. It didn't take much to move the weapon downward and kick him to the side. Raph went from ninja to ninja with some difficulty. They got a few hits in but he was doing the most damage as a third of them were knocked out on the ground. He heard pots shattering and saw some were being thrown his way. He deflected them and launched a roundhouse kick to the culprit throwing the offensive pots. While dealing with one particular annoying ninja with two swords he sensed one trying to come up behind him. Raph was so busy with two swords swinging at him he lost focus and saw the one from behind coming up fast. 'Crap! I need to dodge now or I'll-!"

"I don't think so!"

He heard a pot shatter and just glanced quickly to see the enemy from behind him on the ground with dirt and pot fragments on top of his head. This gave Raph time to use his sais to catch the swords of the Foot clan member in front of him and make the swords leave the ninja's grip. Now weaponless, he tried to fight hand-to-hand but Raph quickly knocked him down with the handle of his sai and turned around to see who helped him. He was surprised, to say the least, to see Artemis, panting like she ran quite a ways, and almost felt the need to hug her. He probably would have if not for the six remaining foot clan closing in on them. Instinctively, the two friends went back to back and got ready to fight.

"What are you doing here Art?!" One of the foot felt brave enough to come forward to him first. Raph grappled with him quickly but eventually knocked him away from the greenhouse.

"What? You think you're the only one who can get on a roof? They're called stairs Raphael!" Artemis was fighting with no weapon and was tired from running around looking for the liar known as Raph. She used any adrenaline she had to grab the head of one masked person and brought his face down to meet her knee. He grabbed a hold of his face where his nose would be and knew it was broken. She was glad to notice the other two she was facing were so shocked by their fellow member that she used that distraction as a way to knock both their heads together.

"No! I mean what are you doing in the middle of my fight?!" Raph was quick to finish off the last two using his fists and sighed in relief that things have calmed down.

Artemis smiled and blew some loose strands of hair off her face. "Apparently, I was kicking butt."

"This isn't a joke! You could've gotten seriously hurt!" Raph quickly moved over to her and looked her over for wounds. Other than a couple of scrapes and some bruises starting to appear she would be fine.

"Alright mother hen, enough clucking I'm fine!" She laughed at his obvious worry but soon her laughter died and was replaced with a serious look. She remembered why she needed to find him in the first place. This was the moment of truth. "I was looking for you when I heard some loud noises coming from up here. I figured it might be you causing trouble so I risked it and came up here to see this mess." She gestured around herself.

"Why were you looking for me?"

She reached into the pocket of her sweatshirt and took out his T-phone. His eyes grew wide as he quickly snatched it out of her hands. He looked at the screen and was relieved to see no missed calls or messages. His brothers still didn't know about what he had been up to. Artemis watched Raphael's expressions go from fear to curious to relieved all in under a minute. She needed to do this now before he had time to come up with some excuse.

"Who's Leo?"

Raph put the phone away and faced Art nervously. "W-What are you talking about?"

"Not what. Who. Who is Leo?" Artemis couldn't keep off the anger from appearing on her face.

"Oh, uh, nobody! Just some guy who also knows about my identity and he helps me out from time to time, that's all." He tried to laugh it off but suddenly noticed something. "Wait a sec. How do you know about Leo?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and her face went full-on rage. He lied to her again and she knows it. No identical mutant turtle would be just 'some guy,' he had to be something else! "Because Raph I-."

"She answered my phone call, that's why."

Artemis turned around quickly to see the point of a very sharp sword right in front of her face. What she saw left her confirming her suspicions about Raph's lies. Three mutant turtles, just like Raph, stood before her confused but in defense mode. The one holding the sword matched the photo of 'Leo' and she could only swallow the lump in her throat and hope for Raph to clarify who she was. Raph quickly went to stand in front of her and pushed Leo's sword away. "Quit that! You're scaring her!"

"I scared her?! How do you think I felt when my brother, who has been disappearing for an unknown amount of hours, doesn't answer his phone but instead some random person does? For all I know she could be with Shredder!"

"Well, she's not, okay? So put your weapons away for crying out loud!"

Donnie looked to Leo worried but put his bo staff behind his back and stepped forward. "Okay then, since she's not an enemy, who exactly is she?"

Mikey, who naturally was oblivious to the atmosphere, was excited and went over to Artemis and shook her hand vigorously. "Hey there! I'm Mikey and this is Leo and Donnie! How do you know Raph?"

Raph grabbed Mikey by his shell and ripped him away from her. "Fine! If you must know she's my-."

"I'm no one to him apparently."

Raph released Mikey and turned to face Artemis. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Artemis glared and walked up to him face to face. "Why don't you ask your brothers?" She moved past them and walked towards the roof door, ready to leave.

"Hey wait a sec! Is that what this is about? I couldn't tell you about them! I had to-! Would you stop and listen to me?!" He grabbed her and turned her around to find her eyes had become glassy. He felt his heart jerk around and he felt the odd need to hug her come forth like a crashing wave. Instead, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little. "Hey come on! Be serious. You can't really be this upset."

Artemis pushed his arms away from her and felt tears run down her cheeks. "You lied to me! For weeks you have lied to me and made me believe that you were an honest person that I could trust! I already have enough trust issues without you making it worse! I really thought you cared but you don't!"

Raph was about to try to make her see reason when white smoke clouded all of their visions. Raph coughed and looked around to see if he could make out anyone he knew. He heard Leo yelling from his left. "You guys, it's the foot! Don't lose them!"

Donnie was coughing and trying to catch his breath. "How can we lose something if we can't even see it?!"

"Use your senses Donnie! Just make sure they don't get what they came for!"

It soon turned into a full on brawl with who knows how many they were fighting this time. For now, Raph only cared about the safety of Artemis and she wasn't next to him anymore. He already had three enemies come to him before he could even search and was glad to notice the smoke was starting to clear up. While fighting two of them at once he noticed his brothers fighting their own groups and for the life of him, he couldn't see Artemis! "Get off of me! I don't have time for this!" He pushed the two away and fought the third that was wielding a spear. He was quick to get away from the three and went searching while knocking some of his brothers' attackers away from them. Raph was getting desperate which made him dangerous and he wasn't liking it one bit. While grabbing one of the foot and throwing him at his fellow foot clan friends, he heard Art screaming.

"Raph! RAPH! RAPHAEL!!"

He turned quickly and went running but when he found her, he felt his blood turn to ice at what he saw.

"Artemis!"