Where could she be?

That was all Leo had been thinking since they started looking for Karai about a week ago. Donnie had finally finished another batch of retomutagen after almost a month of gathering samples of mutagen every time they fought the Kraang. Anyways now all they needed to do was find her, if they could find her they could cure her and everything would be ok, they could be a family again.

But nothing is ever as easy as it seems.

It was well past midnight and Leo was debating on whether or not to call it a night and once again return home without his sister. He cringed when his mind came to that; he hated the thought of it. Splinter pretended he didn't know what they were doing. He pretended he didn't come out of his room when they returned each night to see if they had been successful and said that he did it simply to confirm that it indeed was his children who had entered the lair. But they all knew. They all knew that it had broken his heart when his daughter was mutated into a nearly mindless serpent and that he only wanted her safe. Anyways as the four brothers jumped from roof to roof scanning the city streets below Mikey interrupted the silence of the night.

"Over there!" He exclaimed as everyone came to a stop. They fallowed the finger Mikey pointed just in time to see a purple and white scale covered tail slip around the corner of an abandoned factory building across the street.

Leo nodded to the other's signaling them that they were going. They hurried down the fire escape of the building they were on and darted across the street. Mikey went to one side of the building and Raph to the other while Leo and Donnie went to the roof. Mikey and Raph didn't bother with stealth, they didn't want to take her by surprise and scare her; they weren't here for a fight. Hearing their footsteps Karai turned around fast as lightning only to see the red and orange masked turtles emerging cautiously from the shadows.

"Easy Karai it's us" Raph said trying to keep her from attacking, she had recognized Splinter when she was first mutated, hopefully she would recognize them.

"Donnie finished the retomutagen, we can help you" Mikey told her.

Curious about something Raph looked at the mutant in front of him a little more closely, or more focused anyways, he didn't dare take one step closer.

But something seemed off about her. Her face seemed pale, or as pale as a snake could be anyway. Also he wasn't sure how high off the ground her upper body normally rose but she looked like she was closer to the ground than she should've been. Then there were her eyes. Her jade green eyes held no anger or defense, just something that looked like fear and desperation.

"Hey guys, she's not looking to good" Raph called to Donnie and Leo who came down from the roof.

The two turtles that landed from the roof walked a little closer to Karai who backed up only to bump against a dumpster.

"Raph's right, I don't know where she's been but she looks pretty sick" Donnie said upon seeing what Raph was talking about, there was clearly something wrong with Karai.

"Can we still change her back?" Leo asked desperately hoping that Donnie would say yes. Sick or not they had finally found her and clearly she needed them, they had to help her.

"Can't hurt" Donnie said with a shrug but still waited for Leo to give him the order to do it, even though he knew he would.

Leo took half a step closer to Karai who for whatever reason looked terrified. There was defiantly something wrong with her. Karai, even and probably especially a mutated Karai didn't scare easily and if she was afraid she attacked her fears. Faced them and never showed her fear for even a second.

"Karai it's me. It's Leo. It's ok, everything's going to be ok" Leo said to her a whisper of a voice. He then nodded to Donnie who held up his spray bottle of retomutagen.

"Ok Karai hold still" he said as he aimed it at her then sprayed.

Everyone held their breath, so nervous that this wasn't going to work despite having seen it change Mr. O'Neil back to his normal self a few months ago. Sure enough much to everyone's relief the snake before them changed into the Karai they all knew, or sort of anyways. Yes it was Karai, human Karai. But she knelt there in tears as everyone wondered what exactly had happened to her in the last few weeks.

"Karai its ok you're ok" Leo said quietly as he got to his knees in front of her and tried to get a look at her face. Despite having been returned to a human something was clearly still wrong with her. Her face was a little paler than it should've been but her cheeks and eyes were beginning to turn red from crying. Her bangs were stuck by sweat to her forehead and maybe what scared Leo the most was that when she looked at him in her eyes he saw nothing, it was as if she didn't even recognize him.

"Karai?" He asked hoping for a response but she didn't give one, it was like she didn't even hear him.

"I think she might be in some kind of shock, we should get her to the lair fast" Donnie said as Leo began to try and calm her down, the last thing they needed was for her to start screaming and catch the attention of somebody when they tried to bring her home.

"Hey Karai it's alright. Come on we're going to take you home" he said as he gently put his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her.

He rubbed his hands up and down slowly on her arms whispering to her. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against his sister's as ran his hands down her arms and incased her hands inside of his own.

"Shh shush, shush, shush it's alright" he whispered, "everything's going to be alright".

The other three just stood behind Leo in silence. Karai looked like she didn't know what was going on, it was almost as if her body was responding to the situation but her mind was asleep. But they stood in silence because Leo knew Karai better than any of them and if anyone was going to get through to her it was him.

Leo stayed there on his knees, he could just feel the heat of her forehead against his own, and it crossed his mind that she probably had a fever. As her already slow tears began to stop and her hiccup like breathing became a bit steadier Leo knew that she was starting to calm down.

"There, see you're ok" he said becoming relieved that maybe she was getting a better grasp on reality.

"Can you tell me what happened to you?" he whispered to her, his better judgment told him not to ask but he had to know. What could've done this to her? It was hard to tell if she was sick or just afraid or if it was a mixture of the two but one thing was clear and that was that she had clearly been through something traumatizing recently, aside from her mutation. Suddenly Leo was afraid, what if it was her mutation that did this to her? What if she had been like this ever since the warehouse? He shook his head; they had to get her home. That was all they needed to worry about right now. If they got her home then Donnie could figure out what exactly was wrong with her.

When Karai once again reacted by not reacting, like she hadn't even heard the question, Leo didn't push her. She was calmer and that was all that mattered.

"Ok, that's ok. We're going home now alright? Do you want to go home?" Leo asked and glanced up surprised that when he asked if she was ready to go home she gave a small nod.

With a smile Leo got to his feet "ok come on" he said holding out a hand to help her up but she didn't move.

She didn't move and she didn't even look up, she just continued to stare absently down at the pavement below her as if she was completely unaware of what was going on around her. Gently Leo put a hand on her arm and pulled her to her feet. At first Leo tried to lead her along as they walked back to the lair but it was almost like she was sleepwalking and they had a relatively long walk ahead of them, not to mention it would be faster if they traveled on the rooftops. So before they even got to the front of the building they were currently behind Leo picked up Karai in favor of carrying her back to the lair and saving everyone some time.

By the time they got back to the lair Karai had fallen asleep. It was hard for Leo to tell when exactly she fell asleep as she kept opening and closing her eyes the whole way back, as if she had been trying to keep herself awake but just couldn't. Clearly though she had given into her body and drifted off before they made it home and when they did Leo immediately laid her on the couch. He felt the lump in his throat the second they entered the lair, he silently prayed that for once Splinter wouldn't come to see if they had found her. But he knew he would and sure enough just as Leo finished setting Karai down he did.

"Mikey go get a cold cloth" Donnie ordered his younger brother as he headed for his lab.

Upon hearing that and seeing Leonardo standing over the couch Master Splinter made his way down to the pit.

"What happened?" He questioned scanning the room to make sure none of the boys were hurt, but then his eyes made it to the couch.

"Miwa" he gasped in a heartbroken voice, his daughter lay on their couch asleep and returned to her human form. A part of him felt relief at the sight of this and another part of him took in the sight of Leonardo's worried face and the sound of Donatello asking Michelangelo for a cool washcloth and the fact that his daughter was indeed asleep.

Donnie soon appeared with a blanket and draped it over his sister as Mikey finally got over there with the washcloth.

"She's going to be fine Sensei. Hopefully she'll be able to tell us what happened to her once she wakes up" Donnie reassured as he sat down on the edge of the couch and placed a hand on Karai's head to confirm she had a fever before placing the cloth on her head. He would've preferred to use a thermometer but if she were to wake up in a panic the last thing they needed was her choking on a thermometer.

He gave the cloth to Splinter who he knew was planning on staying there then returned to his lab, the other three fallowed.

"Good to know you're sure that she'll wake up" Raph said once the door to the lab was securely closed and Splinter would not hear them.

"She will wake up Raph" Leo said almost in a defensive way, he refused to believe she wouldn't.

"But what if she's the same as she was when we found her?" He continued now turning to Donnie who shook his head.

"I don't think that will be a problem, by the time she wakes up her body will have snapped out of the shock" Donnie explained and Leo nodded relieved to hear that Donnie wasn't fudging the truth with Splinter and that Karai really would be ok.

They just had to wait.