"Japan?" Donnie questioned with a puzzled expression. "What's Shredder want with Japan?"

She wasn't able to stay long after taking the picture; Shredder's nightly patrol of guards around the building were coming in hot and she needed to get out of there ASAP. So she'd called up Leo on his t-phone (they were only allowed to do that during patrol if is was an absolute emergency) and told him to cut patrol short for the night- they had more important things to worry about.

So that was why everyone was gathered in the dojo at four in the morning, April and Lisa in their pajamas, Samantha sleeping at their feet, Master Splinter and Jacob appearing as if they'd never gone to bed in the first place, Em sitting off to the side in a lame attempt to not be noticed by Leo. Mikey, Raph, and the blue-clad leader himself stood a few feet away from Splinter and Jacob, but close enough to the wall to see the image being projecting on the thin white paper screen. 

Madi remained at Donnie's side while he plugged her phone into his laptop and downloaded the picture into his data files. The picture was larger on the wall, clearer, easier to tell what exactly was being pin-pointed. And after some quick investigating with the help of Google maps, Donnie was able to find the answer to his own question.

There were twelve red dots out of the two maps. Eleven of them rested on the map of New York, while only one remained on the map of Japan. In the most mountainous area of the entire country, far away from the nearest city, town, or marked village.

"Well," the purple-masked turtle began after a few minutes of deafening silence as everyone waited for him to find answers. "if Google and every news channel in the city is correct, then I can say for a fact that those eleven dots in New York represent a location where large quantities of mutagen have been exposed to the public. At least forty gallons worth of the stuff."

"So if we're thinking logically here, that dot on the Japan map must represent the same thing, right?" Mikey said, his face looking deep in thought and his thumb rubbing his chin slowly. Everyone looked over at him and he glared back. "What? I can't be smart too for once?"

"But why would that area of Japan be exposed?" Madi asked out loud. "It's literally in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from the nearest city or town. What's the logic of exposing so much mutagen to it?"

"Maybe Shredder used it as a landfill for the stuff?" April suggested. Lisa squinted at the map on the screen, almost as if she were trying too hard to comprehend what was in front of her. Or trying to convince herself it wasn't really what she was seeing. Madi didn't notice her mother's look of recognition and shook her head.

"It wouldn't be that simple, he wouldn't waste money and resources like that when he could've just dump the stuff in the ocean or a river." Donnie agreed with Madi when she didn't believe April's theory to be a logical explanation. 

"Maybe he has other enemies besides Splinter to worry about." Raph suddenly spoke up. He'd been unusually quiet during this meeting, but Madi didn't take it to heart. She'd been trying harder to ignore him, which was a very mean thing to do on her part, but was the best option when she knew that increasing her feelings for him would've gotten them both killed in the long run.

"That's hard to believe. He's been too focused on destroying us and Splinter. He wouldn't just switch his priorities, not even for another enemy." Lisa left the room as Leo spoke, silently slinking out the door unnoticed. She knew what he was after, but she herself couldn't believe it. It wasn't another enemy Shredder was worried about.

It was a possible ally.

When she returned a few moments later with an old dusty box in her hands, everyone was still debating on what Shredder could possibly be planning for Japan.

"He isn't worried about enemies." The woman in her pajamas spoke up loudly. Everyone in the room turned their attention to her and the little cardboard box she held in her arms. She looked over to her daughter and took a deep breath, then removed the box's lid. As her fingers slid over the smooth surface of the photo sitting in a pile of blue and black fuzzy fabric, Madi made her way over to her mother and looked at the contents inside the container. Everyone was as silent as the dead.

"I wasn't sure when I would tell you about this, I guess I never thought I would. I always believed that maybe...if I never brought it up, never thought about it, it would just go away. Like an old nightmare. But that's never the case, we're never that lucky." Madi picked up the photo and the scent of old smoke drifted from the dusty package. Lisa took another deep breath. "A few months before you were born, your father, Karai, and I were living in a small house in Japan. Right where that dot on the map is." Everyone shifted their eyes for a split second from the woman to the map on the wall.

When Madi's stoic expression met her mother's once more, the woman continued.

"But we weren't alone." 

In the photo was Oroku Saki, Lisa, little Karai sitting on her father's shoulders, and a baby boy smiling gleefully in his mother's arms.

"His name was Shang, after his great-grandfather on Saki's side. Like you were named after your great-grandmother on my side. He was barely a year old when a fire took our home and we..." Lisa inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled through her mouth. "We lost him. It was the worst thing that ever happened to us, it's what set your father on his downward spiral to darkness. He loved Shang, adored him, needed him just as much as Shang needed his father-"

"He's not dead."

Madi didn't look or sound apologetic when she interrupted her mother's lament. Because she wasn't sorry. Her mother had kept a secret this big from her for all these years, and she was furious with her. The worst kind of furious- the calm, cool, and collected kind where it burns like fire inside. But on the outside, you look like you're in control. Madi reached her hand inside and pulled out the pile of blue fabric, an old half-burnt baby blanket that must've belonged to her brother. She felt the cloth between her fingers, took in the scent of the smoke and vaguest hint of bamboo.

"Madi," Lisa began once more. "He's gone. The flames were too hot, the fire took the entire house. There is no possible way he could've-"

"Shredder would've never put that place in his mind ever again if the incident was a bad as you say it was." Madi snapped at her silently, smoothly, calmly. Her eyes gleamed like fire. "If the apple of his eye really was dead, he'd force it from his mind. Because emotion like that is what kills us in the end. He'd never show that kind of weakness. Shredder is ruthless and vile and sadistic." The tension between the two females was so thick you could've scooped it into a bowl like ice cream from a bucket. 

Madi turned on her heal, both blanket and photo still in her grasp, and began walking to the door.

"Madeline," Lisa scolded. She didn't care that everyone was watching. She didn't care that everyone probably thought she was an idiot for keeping something like this from her daughter. She didn't care how ridiculous she probably looked in her pajamas, yelling at the most dangerous looking person in the lair. "Get back here. Where do you think you're going?"

"Japan." Her voice was unsympathetic. The only sign of emotion in her tone was the determination, the disgust, the betrayal. How could she? How could she, after everything they'd been through over the years? After her father and sister supposedly died, then suddenly come back from the dead to be their worst enemies hell-bent on killing them if they didn't join his side? After so many secrets, her mother couldn't bother shedding a little truth on something so personal? "To find my big brother."

She slammed the door behind her.