A/N - Hi guys! This one's super long, I hope it's worth the wait!
Your POV
After freaking out because I overslept an hour, I scrambled to get dressed in something presentable and grabbed my shoulder bag from my bedroom with all of my college supplies: laptop, notebooks, folders, pencils, all the good stuff. I slung it over my shoulder and went into the living area.
Leo hadn't been in his room when I woke up. Only Mikey was lounging on his stomach on the couch, watching cartoons and shoveling cereal into his mouth. "Oh, hey Y/N," he said in between bites. "Leaving for school?"
"Yeah, do you know where Leo is?"
"Oh, I think he's already by the Shellraiser."
Why would he be there? Sure enough, when I made my way over after fist-bumping Mikey, there he was. He sat on the stairs by the entrance to the lair and balanced his elbows on hsi knees, staring at a particular speck of dust by his feet.
I stopped next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey."
"Hey, good morning, college girl." His voice wasn't very reassuring.
"What happened?" I asked, sitting down on a step next to him.
Leo shook his head. "Don't worry about me. Let's get you to school." He pressed a routine kiss to my temple and took my hands to help me stand up. When he kept one of my hands firmly in his, I felt both a sense of safety and worry. Something was very wrong.
We walked silently through the subway and into the sewers. I knew better than to probe too far. Leo always had a lot on his mind when it came to missions, and I got the feeling that something big was happening in the city. I didn't want to stress him out too much.
Still, when I looked over at him and studied the seriousness on his face, I couldn't help but feel worried. Last night was so romantic and exciting, but now he was being distant.
I stroked his hand with my thumb. "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked as we made it to the ladder of the manhole.
He stopped. Stared right into my eyes with the most hurt look I'd ever seen on him. "I'm not."
"What's wrong, Leo?"
He let out a breath and rubbed his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Angel, I'm just thinking too much. There's a - there's a major patrol we have to do tonight, and I'm not sure...I just don't want-"
"Shh." I reached up on the tips of my toes to give him a hug. "You know you can do this. You're strong and smart and so skilled at fighting. You'll be just fine, I promise."
Leo rubbed my back and settled into me. "But what if things aren't?"
"Everything will be. We're all here for you." I pulled back and took his face in my hands, cradling it and stroking his cheeks with my fingers. "Aw, I'm so sorry you're stressed out."
"It's not your fault. Come on, I don't want you to be late." He placed his big hands on mine and gently removed them from his face, kissing one of them before dropping it to my side. "You've got a big day ahead of you."
Before I could say more, he climbed up the ladder and carefully slid the manhole cover off to the side, just enough for both of us to fit through. I followed close behind and let him help me up. We ended up in an alleyway across the street from the main campus of the community college. Just seeing it brought butterflies into my stomach. It's really happening.
I turned to Leo, who was hiding in a shadow in the corner of the alleyway with his arms open. "Come here," he murmured.
When I rushed towards him and let him envelope me in his strong arms, I felt peace spread throughout my core. "I'm gonna miss you today," I whispered.
"I'm gonna miss you more." He pressed a long kiss to the top of my head, and I looked up so our lips could meet. The kiss was fleeting, but sweet. It gave me courage to face this. "You got this, Angel. We're all cheering you on today. I'm more proud than you know. Okay?"
I searched his eyes, detecting a hint of worry still lingering from before. "And you'll be okay today too?"
He gave me a firm nod. "I will, Y/N. Don't worry about me, please. Enjoy college. Make sure to find lots of stories to tell me later."
A small smile crept onto my face. "Okay. I love you."
"I love you, too." He cupped my cheek and pulled me in for one last kiss before letting me go. "Have fun. Text me if you need anything."
I adjusted my bag and turned to leave the alleyway, looking both ways before crossing the street. Leo's emotions still tore into my own. But I had to focus on school today, secure a future for myself. The moment Igot into the building, I sent Leo a text with three hearts to reassure both of us. We were both going to be okay. We were both going to face our challenges.
The three hearts he sent back gave me a little more strength to continue on and find my first class.
Leo's POV
Karai's words were still ringing in my ears. Because you killed my brother! What brother? Karai has a brother? Apart from us?
As I walked back to the lair, the memories from the night before were relentlessly replaying in my head. I had been frozen to the spot in the hall and could barely blink as Karai started shoving her tanto directly in front of Raph's neck. He struggled before finally pushing her off and holding her against the wall with both arms twisted on top of her head. He threw her tanto away and put all his weight on her. "Okay, Leo, what do we do now?" he screamed impatiently.
Oh, crap. "Uh, take her to the lab. Cover her eyes." I managed to work through my shock and help carry her out of the hallway, Karai squirming from underneath us and whimpering because of her arms.
Raph placed a hand over her entire face and held it there firmly. "Don't worry, sweetheart, maybe if you stop moving, I won't squeeze you to death." That didn't stop her from moving, but whatever. He said his piece.
I pulled the lab door open to find Donnie asleep at his desk, drooling over whatever blueprints he had been working on. Raph and I slammed Karai down on a chair so hard that Donnie snorted awake and blinked a bunch of times before focusing in on Karai struggling on the chair while we tied her up with stray cords lying on the ground. "What the-"
"Just help us!" I screamed.
Karai kicked me in the shin, and I winced as I held her down harder. "You're going to pay for this! All of you will!"
"Leo? Leo, you okay?"
I rubbed my eyes. I was standing at the entrance of the lair, just before the turnstiles. My mind had gotten so lost in the memories that I forgot where I was. Thank God I practically burned these sewer paths into my brain...
"Leo? Dude!" Mikey shook my shoulder. "Is Y/N okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I just dropped her off at school," I mumbled. "How's...you know, Karai?"
Mikey hugged himself and stepped through the turnstile behind him. "She's okay, I guess. You should probably come take a look."
"Okay, what happened?" I could feel my voice rising with every word. What did they do? I followed Mikey to Donnie's lab, where Raph was pacing back and forth in front of Karai and Donnie was holding an ice pack to his head. "Don, are you okay?"
Donnie groaned and went to sit down at his desk. "She attacked me with blades on her armor when I tried to ask her a question! I had to sedate her."
"What?" I looked over to see Karai's head slumped over her chest. We had tied her waist, legs, and arms to the chair, and her short haircut was looking disheveled for once. "But how can we get information from her? Did you get her to explain anything?"
"Only that me and you apparently snuck into Shredder's home and killed her baby brother!" Raph screamed, punching the wall and letting out an irritated growl.
What? "But we never did that!"
He exhaled so loudly I swore he was a bull in one of his past lives. "Of course not! She's nuts!"
Fingers almost pounding on a keyboard quickly got my attention. I rushed over to Donnie and held the ice pack on his head to free both of his hands to type faster. "Thanks," he muttered. I watched as he clicked through a bunch of programs I couldn't understand. He glanced over at Karai and picked up a few electrodes connected by wires. "Could you hook these up to her scalp? I might have an idea."
Mikey was just about to swipe them when Raph shoved him to the side. "Not so fast, wise guy. I don't want you touching anything while she's here. Got it?"
I sighed and took the wires from Donnie's hand. "I'll do it."
"Thanks, Leo."
Raph pushed Mikey out of the lab with minimal protesting from him and shut the door once he was gone. "Okay, I can breathe now."
As I carefully moved Karai's hair to the side and connected the electrodes to her, I shook my head slightly at Raph's anger. "Dude, you can't treat Mikey like that. He's not a little kid anymore."
"He always screws things up when we're under pressure, Leo! I don't want to risk everything again."
"Risk everything? Jeez, man, relax. Mikey's not doing anything wrong." I was about to finish when a bunch of the wires popped off of her head. "Ugh, Don, can you help me?"
As Donnie made his way over to fix my very bad mistakes, I saw Raph storm off in my peripheral. He slammed the door closed behind him so loud that the sound rattled the walls of the lab. I cringed, hoping that Sensei wouldn't hear it and come investigate. We had already managed to make it through the night without him noticing Karai.
"Okay, we're done here." Donnie stepped back to his desk and connected a few loose ends of the wires to his computer. A different application popped up on the screen, and he started clicking around. The ice pack was abandoned on the desk, and I got a good look at the swelling bump on his head. It was starting to turn slightly pink. She had really hit him.
I looked back at Karai and sighed. Why did she think we killed her brother? And when did she even have a brother? He was probably not blood related, so he had to have been Shredder's son. I didn't know anything about his personal life outside of being a criminal, so I had no idea where to start. How old was he? How did he die?
Donnie tapped me on the shoulder. "You okay, Leo?"
"Yeah, sorry." I snapped out of my daze and focused my attention on his computer. "What did you do?"
"Well, I managed to create a memory reading program," he explained. "Using the Kraang memory chip we swiped from TCRI, I found out that their technology allows for advanced mind reading. They could use this to read each others' minds and, more importantly, the minds of their enemies to see what their next moves would be."
I thought about it. "Couldn't they use that on us?"
He nodded firmly. "Exactly. That's why I started developing the program to help us. Originally, we were going to use it to block our thoughts from them and read their minds, but then the whole thing with Karai happened. I realized that we could read her mind to understand the whole brother thing and what she thinks happened."
"How?" I pressed.
The screen burst to life with a bunch of vibrant colors. Donnie translated all of the information into a webpage that was much easier to read and pressed Play on a screen. A video started to play, showing a much younger version of Shredder talking to someone. "You will be the greatest warrior to live, Karai."
Donnie and I both gasped.
The video fast-forwarded on its own. We watched young Karai train with dummies and Foot ninjas. We saw her practically beg for her adopted father's approval and fall for every lie he told her about Sensei killing her mother.
Then, there was an image of a baby. Karai as a young teen cradled him in her arms and carefully moved the blanket surrounding him off to the side. His sleeping face looked peaceful, and she was very excited as she marveled at him.
"That's the brother," Donnie commented.
The video changed to another one with the baby, only a few months older, crawling around a field at night. Shredder jumped into view, clanging his metal knives on the ends of his armor to someone else's sword. They battled hard and flipped each other onto the ground while the baby played nearby. The shadow of an enemy noticed the baby and lunged for it while Shredder pulled at his legs. "Don't you touch him!" he growled.
But it was too late. The baby was thrown up into the air and out of view. Karai watched from a nearby house and screamed when she saw him airborne. The memory was about to cut out when a newspaper flew through the air from the wind.
Donnie pressed pause and zoomed in on the paper. "Leo, look. This happened exactly a year ago, almost to the day!"
"What?" I examined the date, and he was right. September of last year. "But why does she think that we did this?"
"I don't know. Let me see." He rewinded the video and stopped on the image of the unknown opponent fighting Shredder. All that was visible was a dark shadow where the fighter should be.
I peered at the image, trying to make sense of it. "Why can't we see his face?"
Donnie exhaled sharply. "It's probably because this is a memory. We don't always remember every detail of an event, and overtime we forget things. She must not know who that was."
He clicked to the next video, which showed Shredder with his head in his hands inside a house. "That turtle..."
Karai rushed over to him. "Father, was it them? Was it the turtles and Yoshi?"
Shredder was silent for a moment before responding slowly. "Yes. They did this."
"Like shell we did!" Donnie rolled back his chair and stood up, furious. His hands clenched into fists. "He made that up! And she bought it! There's no way we could have done that!"
I held Donnie's shoulders to steady him and turned him so he was looking at me. "Chill Don, please! We know we didn't do it, but she thinks we did. That's why, well..."
Donnie squeezed his eyes shut, but a few tears fell, betraying him. "She killed my April because of that lie! That lying, stupid 'father' of hers!"
"I know, I know." I took a guiding deep breath, and he did the same. "We have to convince her that we're not the ones who did this to her brother. I need you alert. Do whatever you can to keep her knocked out as long as possible while we plan what to tell the rest of the guys."
He sniffled and relaxed, so I let his shoulders go.
"I'm going to meditate, I just - I need to clear my head." I stepped out of the lab without looking back at Karai and felt my body start to shake. My feet carried me through the lair and past my brothers without letting me say a word to them. I wasn't even sure that I could if I wanted to.
Finally, I made it to the safe haven of the dojo.