Author Note: Oh boy, do I love the lovely readers! 'Blue' WON the 'best action/ adventure' fanfiction awards! I was so excited, I literally screamed. It also came second in 'best Leonardo scene' and third for 'best moral' and tied in third for 'best OC'. I wanna give huge thanks and hugs to everyone who voted for 'Blue' - it meant a helluva lot to me to place at all, let alone win!

Apologies for the lateness of this chapter - I had real problems thinking of where it was going. I owe HUGE thanks to Olafur - again! - for his help, ideas and letting me know I was on the right track.

This chapter is important to the fic, but short on action. Trust me, the next one is filled with fights!

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The 'lair' that Leo had mentioned was underground, not in an abandoned building as I had suspected. We drove into a warehouse that looked abandoned from the outside and parked up the Battleshell. Leo got out to check on me as I exited - I really didn't wanna move, I'd just gotten comfy and I was feeling kinda sleepy too - while Donnie messed about just out of my sight. I could hear a muted hum and an elevator rose from the floor, covered in strange symbols and glowing weirdly.

I frowned at it. "Is that thing safe?"

"We use it all the time. Never crashed yet." Leo ushered me into the elevator and I almost lost my cookies as it descended. I'm not normally bothered by such things, but it'd been a very long day.

I examined the strange carvings. "Don, why the marks? Is it Zen or something?"

He laughed. "I didn't make the elevator. We discovered it. Turns out the lair and the elevator and a whole underground city was made by an ancient race called. . ." He stopped as he saw me struggling to follow what he said. "I'll explain it later. Let's get you patched up first."

"And you can tell us what happened tonight," added Leo.

"Right," I muttered. I certainly wasn't looking forward to that.

The elevator doors opened and I glanced around in confusion. "Is this a sewer? This place is huge!"

"We'll give you the guided tour later. Let's look at that head injury first." Don ushered me over to the couch and I sat down while he peered at the wound, flashed a penlight torch into my eyes and generally made me feel like an extra in an episode of 'weirdest ER moments' or something.

"It's not as bad as I thought it was," he said eventually. "Head wounds bleed a lot and you're proably in shock too."

"I am not!"

"Anyone would be, after cars and Dragons and whatever else happened." Don sounded absent as he turned to Leo. "Can you grab me something to clean it up with? And sutres too. It'll take a couple of stitches."

"I can clean it up," I said grumpily.

"You're a worse patient than Raph!" A new voice from nearby and a moment later Mikey walked into view. "Dude! You look like someone kicked the shell outta you!"

"Ya know, ya could lie," I said. Leo returned with some lukewarm water for my head and Don began cleaning blood from off my head. I winced and jerked away. "I can do it."

"You can't see it in a mirror, it's too far back. And you can hardly stand."

That muted humming again - the elevator was back. I tried to keep my head still so that Donnie could sort out the wound but that didn't mean I had to like it. I hated the feeling of incapability that came with someone else patching up my injuries. It took me back to the hospital where I had spent time after being shot, unable to leave, have a say in my own fate, dependant on others. It made me sullen and uneasy and my mood wasn't helped by knowing I still had to come up with an explaination for the nights events. And I was beginning to get angry too.Now the initial pain and stress was wearing off, I was eager to get back on my feet and go out looking for some payback. Not wise perhaps, but it was just how I felt.

"What happened to you?" I heard Raph's voice in the background, sounding both concerned and angry.

"Ah, we're never gonna get to watch the movie now!" Casey, who else.

Raph wandered into my line of sight and gave my injuries a look. "What the hell happened?"

"I think that is what we would all like to know."

I sat up in a hurry, knocking Don's hand away. Splinter was approaching, tapping his walking stick as he made his way across the floor. I fought down my revulsion and managed an innocent smile.

"Sensei's got a point." Leo gave me a look almost as stern as Splinter's. "What happened."

"Uh. . . " I glanced around at the expectant faces of the people I called friends and wondered how much of a lie I could get away with. I really didn't want to admit I screwed up - again. "I was heading home from a bar a week or so ago and I heard this noise, like a fight. I was kinda worried so I went to check it out and there were all these Dragons fighting this one guy. Hun was there too. I mean, twenty against one, I couldn't just leave the guy to it right? So I jumped in to help. I knocked down a few Dragons and the two of us got rid of the Hun - "

"Just the two of you?" Raph didn't look like he believed me.

"Well, the guy had this glowy thing, like a light sabre, paked a helluva punch and he was a real good fighter too - what? What'd I say?"

The Turtles, Splinter and Casey were exchanging surprised looks that suggested they knew more about the Guardian than I did. Leo frowned thoughtfully. "Did he say anything to you?"

"Well, yeah. Thanks for the assiss. Said he was a Guardian, that the people he was guarding weren't in the city but he had an eye out for someone. Then he kinda - vanished. Damn ninjas. You got any idea of how annoying that is?"

"We've been told that," replied Mikey.

"So you ran into the Guardian," said Leo. "Where does the explosion fit into this?"

"Uh. . . I guess the Dragons weren't too happy about me helping him. One of them must have recognised me, maybe even Hun. I don't kow if they followed me or something, but they must have found out where I worked because this evening I finished work and there was a strange car on the lot - it was even more of a wreck than mine if ya can believe that. And it blew up and Dragon Face grabbed me while I was woozy. But I got away."

There was silence and I hoped against hope that I had got away with it, that there were going to be no more awkward questions. After all, I hadn't lied exactly. I'd just kind of - edited what had happened a little.

Had I really hoped it would be that easy?

"You were on Dragon turf?"

I glanced over at Raph, irritated. "Yeah, so?"

"Ya had to know it was their turf."

"It's been a long time, OK? And I was kinda drunk too. It was the fastest way home and I took it."

"And ya never went by that way before?"

"Why would I?"

Splinter stepped forward and stared at me, his gaze probing and unwavering. I wanted to look down or tell him it was rude to stare, but I didn't want to look like I had something to hide. On the other hand, I wasn't much of a liar. I always overacted, looking too innocent.

"Young man, you are not telling us the whole truth."

I widened my eyes and tried to look offended. The expression was met with stony glares and after a few seconds I gave up and sighed. "Well, uh, maybe I have been onto Dragon turf a time or two. Just, uh. Y'know. Uh, keeping an eye on things?"

"I knew it!" Mikey pointed at me theatrically. "You're the guy they've been talking about! The new vigilante, it was you!"

"I wouldn't call myself a vigilante exactly. . ."

"Carrying on the tradition!" Casey grabbed my head and ruffled my hair roughly, completely forgetting my probable concussion.

Leo glared at him and Casey let me go, rubbing the back of his neck and looking upwards. "Uh, I mean, that's really dumb Sam!"

"You said you weren't going to go after them," Leo reminded me. "You could have been hurt a lot worse than this!"

"You guys do the same thing, all the time," I pointed out. "I knew you were gonna act like this, that's why I didn't say anything before!"

"That's different," said Leo.

"How?"

"We've been trained in ninjitsu, we've been doing this for years and there are four of us so we can watch each others backs. You're out there on your own, looking for fights just to settle an old score."

"That's not what I'm doing!" I scowled, trying to think how to explain. "Well, maybe just a little. but I wanted to make up for what I did when I was a Dragon. I thought if I could scare some of them of or get the Dragons locked up or something, it'd put the kids off joining them and maybe the Dragons would just - fall apart."

"We've been doing that for years and the Dragons are still going strong," pointed out Donnie. "It's not that simple."

"I didn't expect it to be simple," I replied. "I just didn't want to let things drop, I wanted to do somethin to try to stop the Dragons. Is that so bad?"

Mike shook his head. "Look dude, we know you're trying to do the right thing, but look at you! Think the Dragons are gonna stop here? Think again. And there are loads of them. You can't take them all on."

"Not that I'd ever agree with him, but he's got a point," said Raph. "Ya could have a normal life, why ya wanna be out chasing those thugs?"

Splinter held up a hand, silencing Raph immediately. "Sam can make up his own mind. He does what he feels he must."

Leo stared, surprised. "But Master Splinter. . ."

"You are certainly not the ones who should be lecturing him on why he should not fight. I do not approve - but it is not our place to judge."

I had to wonder if this sudden interjection by Splinter was another trick, a way to make me relax before he hit back with the ultimate argument - but that seemed to be that.

It was obvious that Leo wanted to argue further, but he refrained. "So, did Dragon Face tell you why he grabbed you?"

"Actually, yeah." I thought back to being in the car, tried to remember what exactly had been said. "He seemed to think I might know where the Guardian was hiding out, like maybe I could lead the Dragons to him. But I don't know anything. I only saw him that one time."

"And the explosion at the garage? That was the first time they tried to grab you, right?"

"Well . . . maybe the second."

"So they're really serious about this." Leo scowled and I just knew he was furious with me. That made me feel kinda guilty. "You do know you're not safe in New York now?"

"I ain't leaving. Not this time." I knew that I was about to hear a ton of crap about why I should and sought to change the subject in a hurry. "So when did you guys meet the Guardian? I mention him, ya look like ya seen a ghost."

"We thought they were all long gone," said Donnie. ""We ran into them a few years ago. Enemies of the Foot, we allied ourselves with them for a short time. But why would any of them still be in the city after all this time?"

"Probably to keep an eye on Shredder, make sure he doesn't get his hands on any of the technology he needs to build a transmat," replied Leo.

Raph scowled. "But the Foot know he's in the city."

"Maybe they think he has some of that Utrom technology," mused Don. "It'd make sense, he'd have to get in touch with the Utroms if something went bad."

"But - how would Shredder find the technology?" Mikey looked mildly confused by the whole thing. "He was using the Sword of Tengu, right? And we trashed it when we fried the tech at Foot HQ."

"That's probably why they tried to grab the Guardian," said Leo.

"We'd better hope he hasn't found a way to track the Utrom tech," said Don, glancing around the lair. "Because most of what remains on Earth is down here with us."

"Cheery thought Don," grumbled Raph.

There was a pause and I took the chance to speak. "Anywhere I can get cleaned up?"

"Oh yeah, over that way," said Mikey, gesturing.

I got up slowly, wincing. Now the adrenaline was worn off and I'd been sitting still for a while, the various bruises, cuts and knocks I'd taken that night were complaining seriously. What I really wanted to do was stand under a shower for about a week, but I'd settle for cleaning up the blood and grime and maybe that would help me feel a bit more human.

"Wen I'm done, I wanna know more about this Guardian," I said, hobbling away. "Ya obviously know more than I do and I hate being in the Goddamn dark."

An hour or so later, I was cleaned up to a respectable level, although there wasn't much I could do about the shredded clothes, thinking over some insane story about ancient aliens, magic swords and other worlds while the turtles and Casey argued about something - I wasn't listening. Occasionally I gave Splinter a surrupticious look but he wasn't going anywhere (or getting any closer to me, which was what I was most concerned about) or joining into the argument, just sitting in a chair with his walking stick over his knees, eyes closed. I doubted he was asleep though. Closed eyes or no, he had an air of alertness about him.

Just how much was I supposed to believe of their crazy story? The logical part of me wanted to dismiss the whole story - but then again, I was sat in a sewer with four talking turtles and an oversized rat. And how much of it was true with regard to the aliens wasn't important. It was the Guardian that concerned me now, and how the hell I was gonna get out of the latest mess I'd gotten myself into.

". . .Here tonight?"

Realising I'd completelly missed the last ten minutes of the conversation, I refocused and realised Leo was looking at me. "Uh, what?"

"I said, maybe you should think about staying here tonight. . ."

"Here?" I tried to jump to my feet, moved too fast and had to slump back in the seat as my head swam again. That wasn't going to fill anyone with confidence over my health I thought, but the rueful thought was swallowed by rising alarm. Visiting the sewer, fine, I could live with that for a few hours when there was gonna be a DVD and I could leave whenever I wanted. But to try to sleep there - no way, not down there. I didn't care how well protected the place was, I couldn't stay down there with the damn rats, including the giant Zen one who had opened an eye and was watching me with an inscrutible look.

"I can't stay here," I said, trying to think of something to say before I got myself into more trouble when Leo realised the main problem with staying there. "I'm uh, I'm clutzy-phobic."

"Better stay away from Casey then," said Raph.

Don smirked. "You mean claustrophobic, doofus. And in case you hadn't noticed, this place is beigger than your whole apartment."

"There aren't entire buildings built on top of my apartment," I said, managing to unsettle myself with that thought. "I'll just go back there. The Dragons won't know where I live."

Leo shook his head. "We can't risk it."

"Hey!" Casey looked like he'd just invented the lightbulb or something. "Ya can stay at my place!"

"Case, I haven't been to a sleepover since I was eight and I don't plan on doing it again."

I was being ignored. Casey was too full of his brillaint plan. "And we can watch the DVD! It'll be great!"

"Then it's settled," said Leo. "Sam can stay with you."

"Hello! Is anyone listening to me! No sleepovers!"

Leo crossed his arms and frowned. "Don, you go with them. Just to keep an eye on Sam, make sure his injuries don't get any worse."

"Fine," said Donnie, getting to his feet. "Come on you two. We'll take the Battleshell."

"Later guys!" Casey waved casually at the others before grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet, forgetting again about my health. "Will ya stop whining Sam? It'll be a blast!"

"Yeah, like an A-bomb," I muttered, trailing after them.

"We'll be over later," said Leo. "Maybe we'll have come up with a plan by then. Not that we can do much of anything until Sam recovers."

I stopped. "You're gonna let me help?"

"You already managed to get involved," replied Leo, souding annoyed. "If the Dragons are after you, you can't exactly not help."

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

"Come on Sam!" Casey was stood by the elevator, looking impatient. "I'm gonna watch this movie tonight if it kills me!"

I rolled my eyes and managed a smile. "Later guys. Later Splinter."

There was a chorus of farewells and Leo added, "Try not to get into any more trouble tonight."

Oh yeah, he was pissed at me all right.