"Stand up!" Aiden screamed into the door of Shelby's detention cell. Bri flinched from her spot at the table she had set up outside the cells, her very own makeshift lab where she could work while staying close to Aiden and helping him while also moving the process of making a mind control serum along for her father.

Shelby sat on the floor of her cell, her teeth clenched tightly as she squeezed her eyes shut, covering her ears. "No!" She screamed back. Her face was flushed and sheen with sweat but her voice was strong and unwavering.

"I thought you didn't have to talk out loud to control her." Bri commented as she typed some notes into her laptop.

"I was hoping adding emphasis would break her." Aiden growled in irritation as he looked back at Bri. "Why is the mind control serum failing?"

"It's not. Once you get her under, she's completely compliant. There is no getting through to her." Bri stated. "I... Well, all I can think of is she just has more will to resist your commands than you have to give them."

"That's insane, I have the will." Aiden insisted.

"i HaVe ThE wIlL." Shelby mocked in a high pitched voice. 

Aiden pivoted to face her, slamming his fist into the metal door frame. "SHUT UP!"

As if a light switch had been flipped, Shelby's face was wiped clean of any emotions, becoming unflushed as the symptoms of her body fighting the serum subsided. Aiden's body physically relaxed as he let out a sigh. "Finally." He then walked forward and unchained her from the wall. She stood on what Bri assumed was an internal command. Aiden then turned back to Bri. "You up for some training?"

"Always." Bri smiled, wrapping up her notes and making sure it was available for her dad to download before she shut her laptop. "I will say, I miss sparring with you. I felt much safer worrying about whether your katana was gonna get me. Now I have to worry about not getting hit and turning into a popsicle."

"Yeah, controlling her turning into a wolf is one thing." Aiden admitted as they started making their way out of the detention center. Shelby walked silently behind them, her eyes half-closed and dead to the world. "But those ice powers... I honestly don't know if Shelby even knows how to use them like that, you know? It seems to just happen as a consequence of her inflicting any kind of damage."

"Maybe..." Bri muttered, pressing her lips together for a moment as she thought. "Although, when she's mad, she makes the room cold and gets those swirly ice things around her. That's obviously a manifestation of her powers, right? So it stands to reason that if she can outwardly manifest them with just her emotions, then she should be able to outwardly manifest them on command, right? And then by extension, you should be able to too."

Aiden nodded slowly. "Well, I suppose it's a working theory." He stated as they entered the elevator, and Aiden pressed the button that lead them to he and Brianna's rooms, as well as their private dojo. "Are you willing to be the test subject of that theory?"

"Eh, someone's gotta do it." Bri smiled. "Besides, I'm tougher than I look."

"Ha! Don't I know it." Aiden laughed. The elevator dinged and the three of them exited and headed straight into the dojo. As Bri made her way to her kama hanging on the wall, Shelby's body bent down and contorted as she transformed into a wolf on Aiden's command. Bri's smile widened as she watched the clothes she synthesized for Shelby seamlessly blend into her wolf fur as she transformed. She loved when her creations, big or small, were successful. 

"Alright, Bradfords." Bri stated as she made her way to the mat, taking her usual stance. "Give me all you got."

"Be careful what you wish for, Stockman." Aiden stated. Shelby growled, her hackles raising as she lunged towards Brianna. Brianna's stomach instantly flipped as she had to dive and roll out of harm's way. Shelby skidded to a stop, her claws ripping at the carpet, causing frost to spread across the red fibers. Bri had just enough time to recover before Shelby pounced again. This time, Bri jumped up instead of to the side, and as she came down she landed on Shelby's shoulders. She pushed off and rolled across the floor, and the thrust of her legs caused Shelby to splay onto the ground.

"Not really standard ninjustu." Aiden commented.

"I don't think ninjustu accounts for fighting mutant snow wolves." Bri responded as Shelby stood without missing a beat. With Aiden controlling the body, unable to feel any pain Shelby was in, her body did not need to recover from an attack. It kept obeying Aiden's command until it was physically stopped. 

"Alright, we're gonna do a snow move. Be prepared." Aiden stated. He took a deep breath, staring intently at Shelby. The she-wolf huffed, and Bri realized quickly that neither Aiden or Shelby were breathing.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" Bri muttered.

"I'm trying to produce those icy crystal thingys." Aiden answered in a strained whisper.

"Maybe try dropping the temperature first." Bri suggested.

She waited for about a minute as both Aiden and Shelby strained, but after a fair amount of time passed without the air cooling or Aiden breathing, Bri turned to him. "Okay, okay. Both of you are going to pass out."

He sucked in a deep breath, and Shelby did as well. "I just, I don't get it. I tell her to breathe, she breathes. I tell her to bite, she bites. I tell her to lower the temperature, and it's like static."

Bri pursed her lips. "Maybe you were right. Maybe it does depend on what Shelby's able to control herself. I mean, if you were controlling an infant and told it to speak, do you think it would produce English, or start babbling? Maybe you can only access the level of skill Shelby has herself. If she can't control the ice... well, neither can you." Bri muttered. "It's very interesting. I wish I had more time to study this stuff."

Aiden opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the doors of the dojo opening. One of Brianna's Foot soldiers stepped in, looking hesitant. "Commander Stockman, Commander Bradford has requested you and Commander... Bradford's presence in a video chat."

Brianna raised a brow. "Which one?"

"Huh?"

She frowned. "Which "Commander Bradford"? I know one's standing right here but there are still two more that aren't in this room."

"Uhh, the blonde one."

"His name is Tyler." Aiden stated as he crossed his arms. 

"Sorry, sir!" The soldier bowed before hastily exiting the room.

"The blonde one." Aiden scoffed as he and Brianna also made their way to the door, Shelby trailing behind them. "Makes you wonder what they nicknamed me and father."

"Ummm, probably the mutant one for your dad." Brianna guessed.

"And scar face for me?" Aiden inquired with slight irritation in his tone.

Brianna chuckled. "Probably more like "the mean one"."

"No, both my dad and I are mean, that's not specific enough." Aiden laughed.

The trio made their way to what was colloquially known as the "tech level", but it was much more than that. The floor housed the dojo's means of communication with the other dojos, their mainframe and the various softwares that kept the system running, as well as the simpler things like heating, cooling, the water boiler, and basic utilities. But "tech level" was so much easier to say. They exited the elevator and walked a couple feet before turning left into what looked like a scaled down version of Nasa's mission control room. The majority of the back wall was a large screen, which just happened to have Tyler's face pixelated on it. Then below and situated in neat rows were a couple dozen tech savvy Foot soldiers that were responsible for running the technical operations, which, unfortunately for them, included a Skype call between the Bradford twins. 

At first, Tyler's eyes locked on Aiden and Brianna as they entered the room. Bri waited for that signature smile, but it never came. And as she studied the person on the screen, she found herself struggling to recognize Tyler Bradford. His hair had been harshly chopped back, even shorter than Aiden's, and it was jarring to see his ears. His skin was not only pale, but chalky looking, and Brianna could see the beginning of dark circles under his eyes. She had to concentrate really hard to keep her face from giving away any surprise or horror at this transformation. Whatever Tyler was going through, it was very obviously taking its toll.

As they walked further into the room, Tyler's eyes drifted from the pair to the she-wolf walking behind them. For the moment, his eyes widened and his jaw clenched. Then, his eyebrows fell dramatically as his eyes narrowed. Brianna's mouth became dry. Though they were twins, Brianna had never realized just how similar Tyler looked to both his brother... and his father.

"I see the rumors are true." Tyler muttered. His tone was a mix of exhaustion and disgust.

"You'll have to be more specific than that." Aiden stated. Bri suddenly felt like she was invading a very personal conversation.

"Oh, just that you two are getting along so well! So happy for you!" Tyler said in a mockingly sweet voice, batting his eyelashes dramatically into the camera before his face fell again. "I'm obviously talking about the fact that you captured Shelby."

Aiden crossed his arms. "I don't think "capture" is the right word. She walked in by herself."

"Oh yeah, on her own accord, right? No influence whatsoever?" Tyler hissed. 

Brianna felt Aiden stiffen next to her, and she turned to face him just enough to see his face slowly flushing red. "What is your problem? Do you really not understand the necessity of all of this?"

"Do you not understand how fucked up this is?" Tyler yelled. He gestured with his hand towards Shelby. "That's our sister. You're treating her like some sort of inanimate object! Something lower than an animal!"

"She did this to herself! Are you really so stupid that you forgot that she betrayed us? She left us for a band of freaky talking turtles! If she had just stayed with us, none of this would have happened. But she had to pay for her treachery, and we can't leave her kind of power to be utilized by the Hamato Clan!" 

"She left because she had no choice!" Tyler snapped. "Our father abused our mom for years and for some reason they didn't separate until dad hit Shelby in the middle of one of their fights!"

"Oh shit." One voice muttered in the crowd of technicians just loud enough to hear as they began whispering among each other, their gazes and heads bouncing back and forth between Aiden and Tyler.

Aiden shook his head. "Where are you coming up with all this?" 

"After Bri finally decided to tell us what Shelby told her, I decided to call grandma. She told me everything." Tyler stated, sitting back in his seat. "For some reason, mom and Shelby didn't tell us all these years, something about mom not wanting us to resent dad if he ever decided to come back to us. But guess what? He only came back for us when he was ready to use us."

"How dare you?" Aiden growled. "He took us in and gave us everything we could ever ask for after mom died."

"So what was stopping him from giving that to us while mom was still alive?" Tyler demanded. "Where was he when mom was two months behind on rent and not able to buy groceries? Why was it our grandma, aunts, and uncles who helped keep us fed instead of him?" When Tyler paused, Aiden gave no response, only stared up at the screen with fire sparkling in his sapphire eyes. "So yeah, Shelby wanted nothing to do with him. And when we hopped on the dad train, she probably felt so alone. She was suffering all by herself, can you blame her for wanting to leave?"

"Yes. Because all it would have took was her telling us all this information before dad picked us up. Or any point after that." Aiden muttered.

"See, that might be true for me, but I don't think that's true for you. You're so far up dad's ass, he might as well be a Muppet."

"God damn!" Another technician yelled as the rest gasped. 

"Okay, that's enough you two. There's no use arguing over this. The damage is already done." Brianna yelled.

"You're right, Brianna. It is already done." Tyler stated, before the screen went black and the words "lost connection" flashed across the screen.

Brianna stared at the screen momentarily before realizing that the room was now completely silent, with everyone turned and staring at Aiden, Brianna, and Shelby. Bri frowned, her brows knitting together. "Okay, everyone, let's stop acting like you're watching a telenovela. Get back to work." 

As the technicians turned back to their computers, a small ripple of complaints washing over the room, Aiden turned on his heels and stormed out of the room. Shelby followed automatically, but Brianna had to scramble to catch up.

"Maybe we should call it a day. Let's go back down to the cells and let Shelby and you rest. Collect yourself." Bri suggested.

Aiden was already on his way to the elevator, pressing the down button. "Fine, I'll put Shelby back in her cell. But I'm not relaxing. We're requesting an audience with Master Shredder and pitching the memory erase serum idea."

Brianna looked up at Aiden in surprise. "After all that, you still want to go through with erasing her memory?"

"After everything I just heard, it's only convinced me more." Aiden stated. "It's becoming obvious to me that Shelby will never be happy here with all the resentment she holds. I can only bring my family back together if we start with a clean slate."

"Aiden..." Bri muttered as the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. "I get where you're coming from, I really do. But wiping Shelby's memories... at that point, I think you're risking getting Shelby back just to lose Tyler."

Aiden scoffed. "No, don't be ridiculous. Tyler's heart is bigger than his brain. He'll get over it as soon as he sees Shelby in person again, a Shelby that will be so excited to hug him again because we told her how her younger brother was so worried after the accident."

"I don't know, Aiden..." Bri said, her eyes trailing to the floor. She had a bad feeling about this.