For a while, they said nothing to each other, both warriors keeping to the task at hand. Covering one another, they alternated between pausing to observe while the other advanced ahead. As had been the case before, there was no sign of suspicious movements. It did not sit well with Leonardo. The Shredder had an army that was practically legion, and he did not injure the falcon mutant enough to not expect them to attack quickly after. At the very least, they should have found some expeditionary forces meant to keep tabs on them. Perhaps there was something else going on behind the scenes to lower them on the Foot Clan's threat scale.

"Why have you stopped?" Alopex whispered beside him. She had watched him perched upon the tree ahead of her for several minutes, long enough for her to worry if he had noticed something unusual. Her golden eyes scanned the immediate area closely.

"If the Foot were out here, we would have seen them by now…," Leonardo murmured.

"Perhaps, unless they had orders to avoid us at all costs. Shredder trains his shinobi well," she remarked, a small hint of pride lacing her words.

He could not argue against that, as he too had learned much from his father's ancestral adversary. Glancing aside to her, he spoke.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked with genuine surprise, believing that if anything, she would have been the one to apologize.

"I didn't mean to put you on the spot earlier. I don't want you to think I'm forcing you to join up with us, or follow me."

"You're not forcing me to do anything," she reassured firmly. The fox snorted softly, stating apologetically, "It was not my call to make, sparing her. I do not agree with it, but it was not my decision."

Leonardo nodded, respecting her candor as he was well aware his brothers did not always like his choices either. It was for that honesty that he began to explain his reasoning.

"All life is sacred…, whether that individual life is good or evil. Did Oroku Saki inform you about us, my father and brothers?"

"Some. He would claim that your father is his ancient enemy reborn, and that you yourselves are the reborn sons of Hamato Yoshi," she answered back, though her voice would lend to her disbelief. They were all reincarnated souls, but into different species on top of that. She would not outright refuse to believe such a claim, however, as she had her own experiences with the trickster Kitsune to warrant some belief in the realm of the supernatural.

"It's true."

She said nothing to Leonardo's claim, though her brows knit closely together to convey her concern as to what it had to do with his desire to not take a life. She was still just too angry at The Shredder for everything he had done to her and her past life to see any other alternative. It was plain to see that his influence was still ingrained in her mind, that death was the only solution for this problem, and any problem regarding the Foot clan.

"Evil begets evil… Violence begets violence," he continued, shifting so that he could sit down upon the branch with legs hanging beneath him. "We don't know how Saki came back, or if he just never died at all. What we do know, is that he killed us. Father saw his men execute us. And somehow, here we are again, all of us, at each other's throats once more. Killing us didn't stop anything. Killing him won't stop anything either, Alopex. Maybe it won't mean anything in the end. Maybe he'll kill us all and we won't come back for a third time. But… we have to try to stop this, peacefully."

He smiled gently at her, "I mean, just take a look at us." His hand motioned between the two, "Raph wanted to kill you, and maybe you would have let him. He didn't though-"

"You stopped him."

"That's not the point. The point is that regardless of how you were spared, you're alive, and we're not enemies anymore."

Alopex watched him with a far more intense look to her expression, studying him. He was certainly an odd one, odder than all of his brothers in fact, despite giving the outward appearance of being the most normal.

"If… if it does come down to it, where I have to kill him in order to save a life," the eldest turtle grimly murmured, "Then I will. But if I have to choose between saving a life or taking one, then I will gladly save one, every time."

"That is why you fled…," Alopex said almost inaudibly.

"What?"

"After we had rescued your father from Stockgen, when we attempted to recruit him to the Foot, then kill him when he refused. You came, you and your brothers. You were able to overpower the bear together, and you had the chance to end it, once and for all, but you fled instead."

"Yea…"

"I thought it cowardice then, fleeing as our reinforcements were due to arrive," she stated with some bitterness directed at herself for thinking in such a way now, "I would have killed him when I had the chance. But… that would have risked your father's safety. That does not quite answer why you let her escape. We were no longer in any danger."

While she had a made a valid point, he was not one to subvert his morals for the sake of convenience. Killing the falcon mutant would have spared them a greater headache later on, no doubt about it. He smirked though, when he finally answered her.

"Shredder killed four little kids and an old man hundreds of years ago, and they came back to become ninja-butt kicking mutants. Hate to think what she'd become in the next life…"

"That…," she said, not able to help herself grinning back at him, "…is a fair point." She would not concede her own personal view on the necessary killing of dangerous foes, but she would respect his view, and his decision as leader, for now. She knew, however, that Shredder needed to die, Karai needed to die. Every last Foot soldier needed to be erased from the face of the Earth. Time would tell how, if ever, Leonardo and his brothers would accomplish such a thing, peacefully anyways.

"C'mon, we should finish up," Leonardo said, standing up and offering his hand to her.

She looked to him for a moment and then his hand. With a smile, she nodded and accepted the open hand with her own to pull herself up with beside him. It was odd to feel… as if she was growing soft, and he was to blame. She should feel angry at him for it, but she could never hold onto that anger for long. Not towards him, at least. It was likewise odd not suddenly being interrupted by one of his brothers. She had expected Donatello to call out to them, this time around. The night was still young, however.

Koya's talons clacked audibly along smooth stone floor. Her movements were watched every step of the way by armored warriors wielding naginatas. The master's elite warriors, she thought to herself derisively. They were beneath her. Any one of them would make a fair meal for her, peeling apart their armor like a tin can to get at the soft flesh beneath.

"Master," she respectfully rasped out as she knelt before the simple dais and throne.

"Your wounds have healed, Koya?" the deep booming voice called out from behind the steel helm.

"Yes, master."

"Karai has informed me of your failure, but there is more that I wish to ask you. Personally."

She would not show it, but her pupils grew a bit smaller as a familiar chill went up her spine. Silently, she awaited the interrogation.

"You say that Alopex has truly aligned herself with Hamato Yoshi and his sons?"

"Yes, master."

"And there is more…?" the Shredder subtly demanded, in a voice that could not be refused if one expected to live.

"I believe she has taken to become the lover of your former chunin, Leonardo," Koya replied with as much composure as she could muster, knowing that the master would not stand for idle speculation.

"And your reason for this accusation?" he asked, betraying no emotion to this rather surprising development. Karai had told him as much, passed on by his former pet falcon, but that had only been second-hand knowledge. He needed to hear the conviction in Koya's voice, the kind of conviction that came only from speaking as if your life depended on every word. It was a fear that was not so easily instilled in others. It was a fear that only he could deliver.

"As I spied upon them, she and the turtle were sitting far too close to be mere allies of convenience, or as companions, if such a thing were so quickly possible, given her violent history with them. They would not be so quick to trust the likes of her. Then, when we engaged them, and I had soundly defeated her, it was Leonardo who immediately came to defend her with a betraying concern in both his voice and in his eyes."

"I see," Shredder answered with an unnerving casualness to his voice, as if Koya were simply telling him the weather for the next day, "You are dismissed, but you do well to meditate on your failure, Koya. I will not be as lenient as Leonardo was."

"Yes, master," she willed herself to reply, standing up as she felt his eyes burning a hole through her, specifically where neck which still bore a thick bandage to cover the cut she had received from the eldest turtle. Turning away, she dutifully left the chambers to take her rage out somewhere inconspicuous.

"Kitsune…," Shredder commanded once he was alone with his guards.

A robed figure seemed to materialize gradually into view from the shadows beside the throne. The white fox mask over her head hid her expression as she simply turned slightly towards Oroku Saki.

"Find Alopex."

With a soft and silent nod towards him, Kitsune slowly returned back into the shadows.

Knowing she could hear him still, regardless of where she was, Shredder added with an audible tightening of his fist.

"Do not fail me…"

The patrols were fruitless, though only Leonardo seemed worried over the matter. Alopex was only mildly concerned, if only because he was. While the others preoccupied themselves with loading up the car and recently fixed up pick-up truck, the oldest of the turtles wandered along the fenced boundary of the farm. This was a peaceful place, but once again they brought along destruction and misery, as they did where ever they went.

"Yo, Leo," Michelangelo called out to his brother, jogging towards him from some distance away.

"Mikey?" Leonard asked, at first believing something was wrong, and saying as much, "What's wrong?"

"Nothin', just wanting to see how you were doing. We'll be pretty much ready to go in the morning, but it won't be pretty." There would be quite a bit of rope and haphazard lashing to make sure none of the boxes and luggage flew off the vehicles. But that was not what Michelangelo was referring to.

Leonardo raised a brow.

"Alopex ain't a morning person," Mikey whispered, his hand alongside his mouth.

The raised brow remained, but now joined by a more incredulous look. It was not in disbelief of the possible fact, but that Mikey considered this important enough information to share.

"It's true!" the youngest brother said, defending his info. "Made my own patented O'Neil breakfast pizza the other day. Remember? Everyone thought it was the funniest thing ever!" He beamed widely at his accomplishment of getting everyone off of their depression train that first morning. "Everyone 'cept for her. Not one smile." He mimed a zipper going across his lips, mimicking the arctic fox's neutral expression as best he could.

Leonardo rolled his eyes, though his teasing words were mainly to keep up apperances, "So we've got another Raph on our hands…"

"She's way nicer though. Well, when she isn't trying to kill us, or trying to kill someone else. Wicked fast too." He rushed over a few feet, crouching low, and then dashed off in a sprint to jump into the air while shrieking. "Shoulda seen her! The way she just used Raph like a springboard to jump into a pool of feathers! Girl's got killer moves, glad she's on our side now." He didn't take to heart too much that Koya had been able to best her. After all, the giant bird beat their father as well, and Leo, from what Donnie had told him after.

"Yea…," Leonardo murmured more wistfully, "I'm glad too."

"Oh, I bet, you are," Mikey said playfully, but he had meant it more seriously rather than actually insinuating anything as Raphael had, "You were a total grouch the first day back. And I thought Raph had lost it when he was the one that convinced Alopex to stay and talk to you." With that, Mikey threw his arms around his oldest brother, muttering more quietly. "We're glad you're back…" Pulling back, he said, poking at Leonardo's still ruined painted mask. "And dude…, tell your girlfriend she's totally gotta do a better job with your make-up."

"Har har, Mikey…" Leonardo dryly said with a roll of his eyes, much to Mikey's continued pleasure. Smiling a bit more genuinely, the oldest took the youngest in a playful headlock. "C'mon, let's go see if they need any help finishing up."

"Hey! Hey! Watch the do!" Mikey jokingly protested as knuckles started rubbing teasingly over his light green scalp.

"You don't have hair, dummy."

"I meant, the bandana…" Mikey corrected with air of a sophisticated socialite, huffing with mock indignation as he adjusted that orange strip of cloth over his face. A startled gasp sounded out as Leonardo abruptly slipped it off his face and released him. "Give it back, Leo!"

"Maybe I'll have my girlfriend paint your face too! With a little mascara too, to bring out your eyes better!" Leonardo shouted over his shoulder as he took off running, with Mikey right on his heels. That brought out an odd look to his eyes as he realized what he had said. They were not a couple though. She was not his girlfriend. He cared for her, but as a friend only, he assured himself.

Michelangelo did not take his brother's words too seriously, regarding the oldest brother's relationship with the fox. If anything, it discouraged the younger turtle's thoughts. It would have been more damning for Leonardo to deny it, rather than play along. It felt almost like old times as both were laughing and screaming at one another on their way back to the farm house. Maybe everything would be alright in the end.

They had their brother back. And soon, they would have their home back.