It was very late, or early, really. It had been two weeks since the night, er, morning that Raph had met Casey. The duo worked extremely well together and made a lot of progress in their efforts against the Foot. In fact, they'd learned that tonight the Foot were planning to rob a technological research facility of some of its most valuable new tech. Just what that entailed, they weren't sure.

They arrived early to case the joint. The facility was by no means unprotected and the Foot would undoubtedly have difficulty disarming the encrypted alarm systems. At least, that was assuming they didn't already have someone on the inside.

With little more they could do, Casey Jones and Raphael settled on the rooftop opposite the institute and waited. It didn't take long.

Two vans full of Foot soldiers parked and a large group of them got out. Raphael recognized one of them almost immediately. Huh. He thought that chick had gone down with the rest of Sacs' tower.

One of the Foot Soldiers addressed her as 'Mistress Karai.' She spoke in fast, hushed tones, issuing orders to the soldiers.

Casey turned to Raph, "The hell is she saying?" He whispered loudly.

Raph shushed the human and did his best to listen carefully.

"Be certain to get all the parts required." Karai said evenly, "My Father will not be pleased if the parts do not arrive on time. His suit must be reconstructed."

The pieces slowly fell into place in Raph's mind. Her father? Shredder! Wait, she's Shredder's daughter?! And he wants to reconstruct his suit! So he did survive the fall!

"Let's get out of here." Raph said, his large, emerald-green tugging Casey's arm.

Casey blinked, glancing from the Foot on the roof to his mutant friend, confusedly. "What? Aren't we going to kick Foot butt?"

Raph shook his head, "Not now. We have all the information we need. Shredder's still alive."

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Raphael stormed into Casey's tiny garage that opened onto the alley adjacent to his apartment. Casey had taken to leaving the door open just a crack in case his friend ever decided to pay him an unexpected visit. That, and he spent copious amounts of time working on his bike, so half the time the turtle came to visit he was in the garage anyway. Jones flinched when Raph knocked the toolbox over in his blind rage. Tools hit the ground, creating a cacophony of deafening clangs. Casey Jones had already had a ridiculously long day, but he waited for the turtle's rage to die down so he could find out what was wrong.

He'd only known Raphael a couple of weeks now, but their friendship meant a lot to Casey. Somehow, he'd developed an almost paternal concern for the turtle. Casey felt partially responsible for Raphael. And it wasn't just because Raph was still barely more than a kid, though that was definitely a factor, it was also because they were kindred spirits. They thought and acted in very similar ways and they understood each other. If Raphael weren't a turtle, they might have been brothers.

As Raphael stalked angrily around his garage, Casey realized how upset his young friend was. He reached out to grab one of Raph's hands, but recoiled as he felt a thick, sticky substance flowing warmly beneath his fingers and onto his palm. Casey looked down at the red stain on his hand and his lips bent into a severe frown.

"Yur bleedin! What the hell were you doin? Beatin' up punks without me?!" Casey's tone made it seem like he was angry, but he was actually extremely concerned. He headed straight for the first-aid kit, one of three that he'd purchased to take care of the injuries they brought home from their late-night escapades.

"Punched a wall." Raph muttered, sounding a little ashamed to admit it.

Casey examined the turtle's hand, noticing, not for the first time, that Raphael didn't make a sound while his injuries were being tended to. "How the hell did you manage that without busting a knuckle?" Casey briefly wondered how long Raphael had been sustaining injuries like this, but those thoughts were shoved aside when Raph answered his question.

"I did bust a knuckle. I have a tricky one that gets easily dislocated. I just snap it back into place and keep punching. Done it so many times it hardly even hurts anymore."

Jones' jaw dropped, then he smirked and shook his head at his young friend. "You are one messed up piece of shit."

Raph smirked back at him. "Try 'seriously twisted' that's what the others always say."

Casey raised an eyebrow and canted his head slightly. "I thought I was the only one who knew about you."

"You are. I just meant...never mind.  It's a long story. You wanna know why I'm so mad?"

Jones nodded slowly. They moved over to the table and Casey took a seat.

"Brace yourself and don't do anything stupid." Raph warned, prompting Casey to stiffen even more.

Raph allowed the human a brief moment to compose himself before going on. "You know the backup I went out to get? Well they don't believe me. They still insist that Shredder is already dead."

There was a long moment of silence. The six-foot talking turtle jumped as Casey's fist slammed the table with a bang that echoed through the garage. Fiery, brown eyes stared directly into Raphael's green ones as he spoke haltingly, his words a deep, low growl, "So no backup."

"None." Raph affirmed.

"Shit." Casey cursed, turning back to his friend. "So what we gonna do?"

Raph growled and glowered at Casey. "Do? We're gonna do it ourselves, that's what we're gonna do!"

"I thought you said this Shredder dude was too much for us to handle." As soon as Casey saw the fire in Raphael's eyes, he knew the turtle was not about to back down.

"You scared, Jones?" Raph goaded.

Casey glared unappreciatively. "Hell yeah, I am. If he's half as good as you say he is, I have every right to shit in my pants. And I suppose you're not scared Mr. 'I'm impervious to pain'?"

"Not what?" Raph asked, looking up with dazed eyes. He'd gotten lost somewhere in the middle of that Casey's admission.

Casey rolled his eyes.

"Not scared, dumbass!"

Raphael frowned, still off in another world. "Fuck yeah, I'm scared. But when you're focusing on what needs to be done, there's no time for being scared. You lose your focus in a battle with Shredhead and you die." He paused and absently fingered one of his sais. "Now that we got that over with, let's go."

A hand caught the back of Raph's carapace as he headed for the door. The turtle stopped and spun 'round to face his comrade.

"Whoa, yur really just gonna go off and do this without backup?" Casey asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I'm going. With or without you, Jones. You coming?"

Jones smirked. "Let me get my mask."

Raphael's smirk mirrored his friend's. "Alright, now you're talking!"

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The hockey-masked human and the mutant turtle jumped from roof to roof with efficacy. Both were conserving their energy for was to come. So far, no sign of Foot. That was good and bad. It was good because it meant that Shredder wouldn't see them coming. It was bad because it meant that Shredhead would have even more reinforcements to back him up. Raphael's mind floated to other things...

Things he probably shouldn't have been dwelling on. Basically all of what, at any other time and place, he would call 'hypothetical shit.' And 'hypothetical shit' was something that Raphael never bothered himself with. That was more Leo's department. But for some reason, as he and his human friend ran together in silence, Raph's thoughts began to wander and he wondered:

What if things go wrong? What if we lose? Shit, what if we die? What then? What about Leo? And Sensei? What if they never find out what really happened? They'll think I just left. Like I always said I was gonna. What if they don't realize how much I care about them? And if I never get to tell them...

Donatello probably won't care too much, if earlier this evening was any indication.

Poor Mikey. The fact that I'm gone will really hurt the little guy. Not that Mikey's sensitive or anything but honestly...I probably would have left this family years ago if it hadn't been for him.

The red-masked turtle's thoughts flew back to earlier that night...

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Raphael closed the dojo doors softly as he emerged into the main room. He was on his way out. It was very late, past time anyone should be up. He'd just retrieved his sais from the dojo and now he had an appointment to keep. Earlier this evening, Raphael had tried, and failed once again to convince his brothers and father that Shredder was still out there somewhere. That was the straw that broke the turtle's shell. If his brothers weren't willing to help him, the hothead was going to take care of this on his own.

A soft shuffle made Raph whirl around. His glaring green eyes met a panicked blue stare.

"Raph?!" Mikey asked, jumping back slightly, bumping into Donatello, who was standing directly behind him.

The nerd turtle gave Raph an accusing stare. "What are you doing up?"

"I'm going out." Raph answered evenly, figuring there was no sense coming up with a cover story since Don would see straight through it anyway.

"Does Sensei know that?"

Raphael gave the brainiac a death glare, "If you breathe one word, I'll..."

"Save your threats, Raph, we've heard 'em all before." Don raised a hand to silence Raph's protests and went on, "Go ahead and run like you always do. But seriously, if the only way you get attention is by acting like a selfish, spoiled child, don't expect us to come out looking for you. You've done this one too many times, Raph. And frankly, you don't treat us well enough for us to care much if you leave for good this time."

"Donnie!" Mikey chided, shocked by the brainiac's outburst. He turned to Raph with a worried face. "He doesn't mean anything by it Raph, you know Don, he gets real cranky when he doesn't get his eight hours."

Raphael scoffed and waved off Mikey's concern. "Save the excuses, little brother. I know what Donatello means. Though I'm not too surprised. After all, this is coming from a self-proclaimed genius who fails to take all possibilities into consideration and has never even heard of a thing called reasonable doubt!"

Donnie bristled. "Well, when you get through chasing ghosts, let us know! We'll all sleep easier in out beds!"

Raphael threw up his hands. "Alright, I'm outta here."

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And now, they might never really know the truth. I love you guys. Raph thought, wishing they could hear him. I love my brothers and my dad. I just hope they know that.