"Where were you?" Leo asked her, his arms folded and his glare especially icy. Em was seated on Donnie's couch in the corner of the room, her hands folded on her lap and her eyes locked to the floor. "And don't say you were dead because obviously you weren't." Em was silent. Leo kneeled next to her so she'd look at him, but she only turned her head away. "Em, talk to me. Please." Leo pleaded and took her hand. This time, she didn't rebuff his affection and allowed him to hold her right hand in his own. She sighed.

"Back when Shredder stabbed me and I was bleeding badly, I had been on the brink of death. I'll admit, it really did look like I wasn't going to make it-"

"Yeah, it did." Leo snapped at her. His stare was so angry that Em was surprised they hadn't started glazing over with an indignant frost. "You were gone, there was no pulse, no heart-beat, no breathing, nothing. So how exactly are you sitting here, alive and well?"

"That's the thing," Em began to explain. "I thought I was going to die, too. But then I woke up the next day in a dumpster outside Shredder's lair. He must've fixed me up and threw me out."

"Why would he heal you?" Leo asked her. She shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

There was a moment of silence between the two as Leo debated on whether he should ask this question or not. If he did, then he risked getting an answer that he wouldn't like and that could possibly crush him. But if he didn't then he'd never know the truth.

"Why didn't you come back?" He risked it. Em didn't want to reply to that, but she knew he deserved to know. After all, he was the reason she had kept her distance from the Turtles after the huge show-down.

"I did it to protect you."

* * * * * * * * * * *

Madi's eyes widened at the feeling of Raph's lips on hers. He did it. After nearly a year of waiting, he had finally manned-up enough to make the move she'd been wanting him to make. A second later, Raph pulled away and realized that the shock on Madi's face had only increased from when he had clamped his hands down on her shoulders seconds earlier. Suddenly he wondered if he had made a mistake by kissing her.

What if she was grossed out now that she had been kissed by a turtle? Would she start screaming over the fact that she was contaminated with turtle-cooties or something along those lines? Maybe she'd slap him across the face and yell at him. If she believed everything Donnie had pointed out to her about him, like how he had yelled at her when she messed up and how he treated her badly when they had first met, then maybe she'd just walk and out never speak to him again. That would be the worst of everything he could imagine.

If she never spoke to him again, he surely would break.

"Madi!" Mikey shouted again from the halllway. "It's been a minute!" She felt her face turn red and used Mikey as a way of escape.

"I'm coming, Mikey!" She shouted again and quickly pulled the door open and slid through the entryway, out into the hall. Mikey grinned to see her again and she grinned back. Sparring against Mikey would definitely be a way to clear her mind and calm her nerves after that kiss.

That kiss.

She had kissed Raph.

He had kissed her.

It was still processing through her mind when Madi realized that the butterflies fluttering anxiously around her stomach refused to go away. Her fingers tingled and her adrenaline began to pick up its pace. Sparring was definitely one way of calming yourself after kissing someone you felt like you had loved since the beginning of time. But did she really love him? Did she still have feelings for Daniel? And what about the letter Donnie gave her in Japanese stating how much he truly admired her? She wrapped her arm around Mikey's neck and dug her knuckles on the top of his skull as the two walked down the hall to the dojo. Mikey laughed, just relieved to have his pizza-loving buddy back.

"Wait-" Raph said nervously from the doorway of his room. Madi didn't turn around, just kept walking with Mikey. She couldn't look at him again with strengthening her confusion.

She just couldn't.

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Jacob shouted, his voice loud like an announcer. He stood in the middle of the sparring mat between Mikey and Madi, while Splinter, April, Donnie, Lisa, Raph, Leo, Em, and Samantha sat off to the side and watched. Jacob extended his arm in Madi's direction. "In this corner, we have Madi, the Master of Madness!" Lisa, Leo, Donnie, Em, April, and Raph all cheered and chanted 'Madness! Madness! Madness!' while Master Splinter clapped politely. Madi flexed her muscles, threw a few fake punches for flare, followed by a jump-kick, summersault, and an ending pose where she was kneeling on one knee, her fingers extended like guns towards Mikey. Jacob laughed, then extended his arm over to Madi's opponent.

"And in this corner, we have Mikey la Pizza Diablo!" Everyone cheered for him as he jump-kicked, swung his leg across the floor, followed by a moon-walk, doing 'the wave' with his arms, and finally a one-handed hand-stand. Madi's jaw dropped. Man, Mikey had style. Once Mikey was back up-right, the three of them met in the center of the mat.

"Alright, ladies." Jacob said, a smirk on his face. "I want a clean fight. No biting, pinching, spitting, cursing, or anything that would be considered cheating."

"What if it's considered 'using your resources'?" Madi asked with a sly grin.

"Just don't cheat, Madness." Jacob said and playfully punched her arm. He walked over to the edge of the mat, where the crowd had gathered and kneeled down. Madi and Mikey bowed respectfully to each other, then got into their fighting stances. "And.....FIGHT!" Jacob shouted.

The two circled each other for a moment, side-stepping along the sparring floor.

"Come on, this can't be fair to you." Mikey said with a smirk and swung his nunchaku. "I'm armed and you're not."

"Didn't stop me from kicking those Foot soldier's rear-ends." Madi replied and lunged. Mikey blocked her first punch-attempt with his free hand, but she had expected that coming. Using the base of her heal, she swung and knocked him off of his feet. She jumped forward to pin him down, but was met with a foot to the stomach. Everyone gasped and even Mikey's eyes widened. That was a move that would've definitely hurt.

But before he could've apologized, she held fast to his foot and yanked it back with her. Rolling backwards onto her back, the amount of momentum plus Madi's newly achieved strength caused Mikey to fly through the air over her and body-slam the wall. He grunted in pain as he collapsed to the floor and Madi jumped to her feet.

You'd think that Madi would've won.

But the fight was only beginning.