Remember when I said my next chapter would be a lighthearted one? I lied. Remember when I said I'd keep my stories under 5 pages (Verdana, 9)? Well...I lied. I guess I'm a big, fat liar everybody. :P

Okay, so I'm incredibly determined to update this, even though my eyelids are drooping. Horribly.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! I hope you like this one as well.

And the Word for Today is:

Prosperity

Ever since Karai was brought under the tutelage and usage of The Shredder, she had been brought up to believe she would, one day, live a life of prosperity beside him. And her belief in his every word never waned, never wavered, never weakened.

Until, that is, she had met…

"Karai! What are you doing!?" Leo roared at her, his auburn eyes torn between rage and shock as he took one, threatening step towards her. He held both of his katanas out in front of him, unsheathed and ready to create a warpath.

But it was where Leo's eyes were turned which told Karai that the younger turtle was not planning for her to come out of this dilemma without her blood spilt.

"L-Leo," Mikey gasped out, pain tearing his features apart. It was a sound that made Karai wince, despite herself. In her years, she had learned to make men beg for mercy, taken away their will to live, and manipulated the strongest wills to destroy itself inside out.

And yet, it took an exhale of pain from boy who wasn't even a boy to make her skin crawl.

Though, she will admit that she went rather overkill when she twisted his arm until she heard it crack underneath her fingers. It's just that when she saw his nunchaku flying at her, she had no time to draw her katana in front of her and, so, she immediately listened to her instincts.

Though, she will agree that the results of her actions weren't pretty (they never were, to be honest)–his arm was angled behind his back at an unnatural 90-degrees. His fingers twitched above his head and it was obvious that any slight movement he made brought waves of pain running down his appendage.

No. It wasn't pretty by any means.

"Mikey, hold on," Leo said in a hard voice, looking at his brother with steel determination. But there was this never before heard edge underlining his words that made Karai's eyes widen. "Just hold on."

Mikey shook his head once, sharply. "Leo," he tried again in a steadier voice. To Karai's surprise, he gave his brother a pained, quivering smile as he forced out, "'Mem…'member what M-Master Splinter said?"

Leo's face flashed with surprise.

And, slowly, he slid his auburn irises back towards her.

"Never take your eyes off the enemy," he stated slowly, his voice unfeeling and his eyes morphed into a cold fury.

Karai felt her hands begin to shake.

And she grit her teeth. "Do not step any closer, Leonardo," she said lowly, trying to hide her newfound anxiety from her voice. She reached down to the turtle kneeling before her feet and held tightly onto his opposite shoulder, raising her katakana high above her before rotating it downwards and tilting the tip towards Mikey's head.

Leo bared his teeth at her. "I'm not the one who should be warned right now," he pointed out scathingly, readying his blades before him as he bent his knees slightly. "And I'm warning you, Karai, you've crossed the line." A cold chill began to run down Karai's spine. "Don't make me destroy it."

Karai's grip began to falter at that.

She was prepared to face Leonardo and her brothers. She was prepared for a battle. She wasn't ready for…for this.

"I am sorry," she said quietly and against her better judgment, she closed her eyes briefly. "But as the daughter and second-in-command of the Shredder, it is my duty–"

"Then what about your honor as a ninja?" Leo snapped, his fingers shrinking around the handles of his katanas. "As a person?"

Karai paused at that. She had never really…thought of simply grouping herself within the regular levels of society. As an individual in society. She was the daughter of Oroku Saki, a member of the Foot Clan, and amongst the followers of the Bushido. Because she was unwanted by her own parents, she scrambled to adapt to a life where she could belong.

And the only other life that sought her out was the same life that demanded unconditional loyalty to everyone and everything but herself.

So how can Leo expect for her to suddenly drop everything that made Karai the person she was today…and just become Karai?

A wry smile came onto her lips.

"Trying to convince me of my character, Leonardo," Karai ruefully stated, tightening her grip around her katana. "Will not be able to save your brother."

Disappointment and utter self-deprecation seeped into Leo's eyes. And even though she struggled against it, the sight had made something twist in her gut. "I should never have trusted you," he stated in unforgiving tones, taking a few steps closer towards his brother and his enemy.

But he stopped immediately when Karai pressed the tip of her blade against his little brother's head.

"No, you should not have," Karai admitted through a soft sigh. "And your mistake will cost you dearly…" She paused as her eyes flashed to the side, analyzing it in quick notes. It wasn't the best exit, but it was the smoothest she could find. And she needed to complete this mission for her father. "…Unless you let me go."

Leo watched as she dragged her katana further down across his baby brother's head and the reflection of the moon from the blade flickered back onto his eyes. Pursing his lips, he unwittingly glanced towards the cerulean irises half-covered by drooping eyelids and he felt the heavy weight of nausea tighten around his heart.

'There is a reason why Karai's head is still on her shoulders,' a small voice echoing in his head reminded him.

The bile that filled his stomach began to make its way towards his throat and he knew he was out of options. He was going to have to let her go, let her remain unpunished, and give her another chance to come after his brothers; the family he swore to always–

"YOU'RE GONNA DIE, KARAI!"

Leo's eyes widened and his mouth slightly parted when Karai's katana went flying from her hands and hit the pavement with a resounding clang. An inexplicable relief pooled into Leo's heard when he saw a red-handled sai embed itself on the cement next to the fallen blade.

Karai, on the other hand…

"You!" she yelled through clenched teeth, spinning around and instantaneously forgetting the wounded turtle she just turned her back on. She turned a seething stare towards burning amber, irises.

"Yea, me," Raph snapped, getting into his battle stance as he held his remaining sai right out in front of him. "Y'know, I'm getting' tired of yer ugly mug around us all the damn time and I'm gonna make sure ta take care of that," he said, his voice shaking with rage. He saw Karai's hand raise to go to her other blade latched onto her back. And he smirked sadistically. "Ya sure you wanna do that?"

Raph suddenly lunged, giving no time for Karai to pull out her katana. She quickly pulled her hand away in favor of defensively holding it out in front of her and she tried to duck below the flying body intent on crashing into her.

What she didn't expect was for Raph's knee to be the one to smash into her face. Karai began to feel something warm run down her forehead and a sudden ringing deafened her ears. She felt herself get thrown far off to the side from the force of Raph's kick and she held out her hand beside her to cushion the landing.

Big mistake.

Karai gasped in surprise when she felt something pop in her wrist. It didn't exactly feel broken but something was out of place. 'Sprained,' her mind wildly supplied her as she tried to lift her uncooperative hand. 'It's sprained.'

"Need a hand?" Raph asked sarcastically, bringing his sai out in front of him and pointing it downwards. And with the flick of his wrist, he let it drop. "Lemme help with that."

Karai let out a piercing scream when the tip sliced through her palm and impaled her appendage onto the pavement. Shocks began to run up and down her arm and she gripped her bicep hard enough for her fingernails to puncture through her skin. She blinked rapidly, trying to look past black and white specks bursting in front of her eyes.

"That's fer Mikey," she vaguely heard through the fog in her mind.

"Then you will understand, Raphael," she hissed through clenched teeth, shakily wrapping her fingers around the handle of his sai. "What this is for." With a pained groan, she took the sai out of her hands and in a quick flurry of movement, she–

"Shit!" Raph gasped, kneeling immediately as his sai stabbed through his foot.

He tried to grab it out of her hands but she was quick to force the sai from his feet, all in favor of slicing a deep cut onto his arm.

She slid the blade down his forearm, leaving a trailing scar in its wake until she could hook the gaps of Raph' sai around his wrist. She used the friction to pull the turtle close to her. Then leaning further forwards, she pushed her elbow down on the back of his neck and then brought her knee up to slam it against his plastron. And after she let him fall back onto the floor, she dug the tip of his sai in the back of his head.

Her hands shook with the effort not to ghost down to pierce the tip through his throat and she had to force herself to keep that touch of metal from drawing his blood.

But making him feel it, however…

"Do you concede!?" Karai snapped through her pants.

For a moment, there was a pause in the air as a stubborn, self-deprecating fury swirled on Raph's face…

…And suddenly, it gave way to a small, triumphant smile.

"Nah," he said in a mockingly unassuming voice. "But I gotta feeling you're gonna concede very soon."

Karai's eyebrows furrowed together. "What do you–"

The edge of a blade pressing against her throat made her instantly drop Raph's sai onto his shell.

A death grip on her shoulder took the oxygen right out from her lungs.

And a dark voice, promising death beside her ear, made an indescribable dread sink into the pit of her stomach.

"Step away from my brother."

Slowly, she straightened herself in time to the movement of the katana pressed against her throat, wincing as she felt her blood drip from its edge and down her skin.

A shadow of movement caught her peripheral vision and she turned her eyes away from the cement below her feet. And when she straightened her head towards the scene in front of her, what she saw made her eyes widen.

Because, there, a few ways from her were Leonardo's two remaining brothers.

Donnie held Mikey in a strong embrace, the older turtle's Bō held protectively in front of the both of them, upright and standing against the ground in ominous warning. And there was this look on his face, an uncompromisingly pitiless one that made Karai slowly start to realize how screwed she really is.

She felt her throat become a desert and she forced herself to swallow what little saliva she had left.

Her eyes traveled down further.

Michelangelo had his arm angled back into the right place, secured against his side with the aid of Donatello's violet banadana. And for a split second–with his shell pressed against his brother's chest –Karai thought that he must've been sleeping. But then his mouth started moving, speaking words that were too soft for her to ear.

Then she watched as Donnie's eyes darkened inexplicably, his arms around the younger one tightening even more. And he didn't, even once, glance back at her.

But the youngest one did. The youngest turtle's head lolled to the side and in shuddering movements, his eyelids parted to expose his painfully glazed azure irises.

And, in her own haze of irrationality, she could've sworn she saw her own reflection gazing back at her.

Her own defeat.

'Forgive me, father.'

Karai's limp hands curled into quivering fists. "How…" Her voice was foreign in her own ears. "…How?"

The blade against her neck shifted. "Never take your eyes of the enemy, Karai," Leo spoke, his voice now behind her as a biting resentment painted a layer over his words.

"Even when ya got another one right in front of ya."

Mocking. The words, the voice, the person–it was mocking her. And, incredibly, it got to her. It made Karai's jaw throb with the pressure she pushed onto it, a sickening sense of humiliation partnering with her explosion of anger.

"You," she hissed.

She began to turn her head downwards, but then she felt Leo's katana cut deeper into her flesh and his fingers dig harshly into her shoulder. She snapped her head upright and with a growl, she kept her head motionless as she shifted her eyes down to the current bane of her existence.

"You are the one to blame for this!"

"Heh." Raphael was crouched on one knee now as he rubbed the back of his neck. An infuriating smirk of insolence played on his lips. "I ain't gonna be losing any sleep over this, if that's what you're hopin' for," he replied with a laugh, coming to a stand as he cracked his neck to the side.

"Are you okay, Raph?" Leo asked, his voice unreadable.

But it wasn't unreadable enough. And, for the life of her, she couldn't explain why the…the worry that softened the edges of Leo's voice wounded her.

"Yep, m'good, bro," Raph said with a half-hearted smirk, a grimace tearing through his features as he lifted his injured, bloody foot slightly off the ground.

Karai's palms began to sweat as she felt Leo's blade slide closer to her jugular.

Raph's eyes widened. "Leo, Really," he said with surprised rimming his tone, eyebrow ridges raised high. "I'm alright."

"…Fine."

Karai identified the katana restricting her movements become slack.

She felt Leo's grasp on her shoulder loosen.

Then she noticed Raph's warm grin.

And she saw red.

"STOP!"

A rushing roared in Karai's ears made the sounds around her become nothing more than an echoing clamor, but in consequence, everything around her heightened. Leonardo's pulsating heartbeat shook inside of her mind, Raphael's hitch in breathing made time pause before her, Donatello's fleeting shriek exploded within her ears. But what she felt the most was…her hands.

Because within the flesh of her palms…

…She held Leonardo's katana.

"RAPH!"

'Were his eyes always this…color?' Karai's mind distantly asked her as she stared into Raphael's eyes, uncomprehending as she watched bright amber dim into a pale brown.

Halfway embedded into Raph's stomach, Karai felt the katana meet resistance. And almost as if was second nature to her, she automatically turned the blade in her hands to the side, creating a widened gap in Raphael's plastron.

"No…"

Something hard slammed into her temple, right over the perfect spot that created a blinding white light to asphyxiate over every inch of her eyes.

"…No…"

Her body crumpled to the ground without a moment's notice and past the fog of silver waves of ignition, she saw olive-green feet step over her fallen figure, bending down to place a severely trembling hand on the side of Raphael's face.

"…NO!"

At this point, everything around her was an utter blur–the sounds, the feeling, the scene. But with every slow blink that she struggled through, she could see a snapshot of what continued before her.

The one thing she saw most, though, was the body-paralyzing, mind-shattering fear.

Because never, once, had she thought Leonardo was capable of such a thing.

"Raph, no, don't get up, stay down. I said stay down Raph! No, no, wait, don't close your eyes. Keep them open, please, for me, keep them open…yes. Y-Yes, that's better…Raph…Raph? Raph, you're going to be okay, you hear me? Just don't close your eyes. Don't close your eyes."

Leonardo's voice had fallen into an endless anguish of desperate pleas. It was something Karai was not a stranger to.

And from the very beginning of it all, she knew it was going to be something that would haunt the last remaining vestige of her consciousness; up until it slipped from her grasp for the last time.

"Don't close your eyes."

Then her eyes began to slide into darkness and Karai knew–right then, right there–that her life of prosperity had finally, truly…

(Flinch) I know, I know, this isn't my best. I swear I'll put more into the next ones! Then again, I seem to be on a roll so far with all the lies, so you never know...

And don't worry! Raph's not dead. :) I'm incapable of writing tragedy fics. Just a crapload of angst and drama.

Oh, also...how was Karai? I'm afraid I'm rather...biased towards her, so I might have made her more violent and crueler than she really is. And I'm using the term, 'biased,' lightly.

And speaking of her...gosh...I made Karai use Leo's own KATANA against his brother. Can you imagine how horrible Leo must feel? His weapon is pretty much an extension of himself, so it's like he was the one who harmed Raph to such an extent. He'll probably never be able to look at his sword the same way, no less touch it...

...That is, until Raph hits him over the head and tells him to get over it. :P

Okay, so, hope you guys liked this one, I'll see you next time! Hopefully I won't be as sleepy then as I am now...