He saw her, standing there alone across the street, looking back at him blankly from her roof. At first, he didn't know who it was because of her outfit. But, when he finally figured it out, he gave her a big smile and waved. She didn't wave back. Slowly, after a large amount of time spent trying to get her to respond to his attempts to grab her attention, he realized that she couldn't see him.

She stood on the edge of the brick roof, looking out at the magnificent city before her. The flashing lights, the sirens and honking horns, loud rap songs playing from obnoxious cars. For many different people, this view would've been ugly, filled with smog and smoke and angry people. But to others, it was filled with beauty and color, amazing music and architecture that people seldom stop to admire.

It was a world worth saving.

"Have you made your decision yet?" That same voice asked behind her. She shook her head and the weight of a gloved hand was easily felt on her shoulder. "I'm running out of time. If you want to save them, you need to tell me what actions you wish to take. There is no other way."

He was shocked by how easily he could hear her words and see the scene on the opposite roof across the street, when he was easily over a block away.

"I know that there's no other way, it's just..." She couldn't finish her sentence, tears in her eyes. Just imagining this city up in flames, her home, her TRUE home....it brought emotions to her soul that words couldn't express. And the idea of everyone she loved burning with it-

"You love him." The Shredder said behind her.

It was then that she realized she was clad in black and shining metal, an outfit only a general in the Foot army wore, with her twin kamas in her black gloved grasp and steel mask covering her lower face. She worked for her father. She was a part of the Foot clan. But that didn't change her emotions towards HIM. She turned around to face Shredder and nodded.

"Yes, Father. I do."

"Then you know what you must do." He said as he handed her a gun. She hooked her kamas to her belt. The belt Donnie had personally built for her. It had held too much sentimental value; she couldn't get rid of it when joining her father. She just couldn't. The weight of the hand-gun wrapped by her fingers was foreign, a strange sensation that she rarely ever experienced. Her heart pounded in her chest to a beat that could only be described as deadly. But she needed to do this. She made sure there was a bullet in the chamner. Lifted the gun. Pressed the barrel to her forehead.

Fear suddenly entered his heart at the sight of her putting herself at such risk. What was she doing? She hadn't been suicidal as long as he had known her, she couldn't do it. She wouldn't. His pulse was rapid and his mind raced with thoughts. Thoughts, excuses, anything that would logically explain her actions.

He needed to get over there.

He needed to stop her from making a mistake.

But before he could find the quickest route to get across the quick and busy highway without being spotted, the sound of a gun going off and flesh hitting cement filled the air.

* * * * * * * * * *

It had been hours since Madi had woken up. But Raph hadn't. Master Splinter had been right when he said that Raph was more at danger of getting an illness caused by the sudden cold of the river than Madi had been. Because of his swim in the river, plus the fact that he was a reptile and reptiles are cold-blooded, his body hadn't been prepared for the enormous change in tempurature. Therefore, it hadn't been able to muster up any heat. And on top of all that, after a check-up from 'Doctor Donnie', the lack of warm moving blood to Raph's brain had caused him to go into a coma.

Raph was slowly freezing to death in his sleep.

The guilt in Madi's heart seemed to constrict at her insides, making her ache with pain. This was her fault. If she hadn't attempted to go to that stupid Halloween dance, then none of this would've happened. Raph wouldn't have been on death's doorstep.

That first night, Madi sat outside Raph's bedroom, where his brothers had moved his sleeping body from the livingroom to the comfort of his own room. Of course, her mother had been against sleeping on a cold sewer floor, but Madi wouldn't move. She knew this was al caused by her and her alone, so she was determined to stick with Raph until he recovered. He had been there for her more times than she could count, so it was her turn to return the favor.

When Donnie, Leo, and Mikey came back from scouting the city for crime that night, they saw that even after all those cold hours, Madi still hadn't moved an inch from her seat against the wall next to Raph's door. She sat there, her back pressed against the brick wall, arms wrapped around herself to provide warmth since she had already given up her blankets for Raph to use, and her head slightly leaning forward as she slept. Donnie, Leo, and Mikey all exchanged looks, then nodded once they decided what they'd do with the sleeping teenager.

Donnie kneeled down next to her, slid one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her back, then lifted her up from the floor. She was light in his arms and immediately snuggled up to him, cuddling her head into the crook of his neck. Leo gave Donnie a thankful smile and Mikey gave him two thumbs up, then the boys disappeared into their own bedrooms. Donnie walked down the hallway to Madi's bedroom door, then stopped when he looked through the doorway and saw that all of her blankets were missing.

"Donnie?" Madi murmured sleepily as he carried her away from her bedroom door.

"Yeah?" He whispered to her, careful not to be too loud as to wake the others.

"Is Raph awake yet?" Madi questioned, her eyes still closed. Donnie looked over to the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly seven in the morning. A full day since Raph had been awake last.

"No," Donnie answered. "He's not awake, yet. And he probably won't be for a while."

It was then that he felt the moist sensation of Madi's tears dripping onto his chest.

"It's all my fault, Donnie.." She whimpered. "He's gonna die because of me-"

"Don't you say that." Donnie scolded as he carried her into his own room, gently setting her on the surface of his mattress, then tucking her underneath the sheets. "None of this was your fault. You just wanted to be normal. My brothers and I should've stopped him before he jumped in." She didn't reply.

She had already cried herself to sleep.