We arrive at the place where Bebop and Rocksteady supposedly are. Supposedly, because they aren't actually here. The place is completely unguarded.

As I stare at the empty space, my skin begins to crawl. It feels like some kind of trap.

"Be quiet, team," Leonardo orders in a whisper. "We don't know what could be around here."

"Oh no!" Raphael gasps softly. "You mean, there might be a huge warthog and rhinoceros sneaking around?!"

Leonardo glares at him and opens his mouth to retaliate, but a hissing sound interrupts him.

A mutant viper slithers out from the shadows and stops in front of the building. The green eyes instantly reminds me of who it is a moment before Leonardo speaks.

"Karai!" the blue-clad turtle exclaims in delight.

"My daughter!" Master Splinter steps forward, his eyes sparkling. He looks as if he wants to wrap the mutant snake in his arms, but he refrains from it with twitching whiskers.

Karai gazes up at Master Splinter with a clouded gaze. Then it clears, and I swear I see her guarded expression softly.

"Why are you here? It is not safe for you. You should be hiding," Master Splinter sounds as if he is speaking to a young child. And maybe he is, but only in his mind.

I shuffle my feet uncomfortably. I don't like the idea of Karai waiting at the exact location some of Shredder's henchmen were previously at. It seems suspicious to me, but apparently no one else thinks about that.

"Followed... Shredder..." Karai explains in her snake-like voice. "He's... Inside... With... Kraang... Portal..."

Donatello tenses up. "So he does have a portal to Dimension X! We need to destroy it before any Kraang come through!"

Karai shakes her viper head in disagreement. "No... Kraang... Just... Portal..."

I blink in confusion. There's a portal, but no Kraang are using it? That doesn't make any sense.

Leonardo tilts his head, equally as puzzled. "Then why does he have a portal?" he questions the snake mutant.

"Kraang... Gone..." Karai hisses softly. "Using... Portal... For... Plan..."

"What plan is it, daughter?" Master Splinter presses, appearing a bit more like his confident self now.

Karai doesn't answer. She slithers over to the entrance and motions with her tail for us to follow.

"I don't like this," I tell Leonardo, but he's too focused on Karai to answer. He walks towards her, his katanas extended at his sides, his eyes full of trust.

A pang of jealousy pricks my heart. I push it away, wondering why I felt like that in the first place. They're siblings- of course Leonardo trusts her over me. And after all, my subconscious did try to kill him back at Shredder's lair.

I wouldn't trust me either at the moment.

Michelangelo senses my distress and places a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, dudette. I won't let anything happen to you," he promises.

I smile faintly. Despite all the pain we've gone through tonight, it's nice to know we still have each other. "Thanks, Mikey," I reply softly.

Leonardo leads the way as we walk up to Master Splinter. The leader turns around, his eyes bright. "Miwa is going to assist us by sneaking in," he informs us.

I stop myself from throwing the mutant snake a mistrustful look. This is beginning to look more and more like a trap.

"Let's go," Leonardo says to Karai, and I have no choice but to follow.

The moment we step- or slither- into the building, we're surrounded. Footbots enclose us and decorate the runway high above our heads. In the middle of the room stands a skeletal dog, a fish with robotic legs, a tiger, a warthog, and a rhinoceros. In the middle of them is Dr. Jersey and the Shredder himself. Just the sight of the iron-enemy alone is enough to send chills up my spine.

I angrily turn on Karai to lecture her for leading us into an ambush, but I stop. The horrified look in her green eyes is enough to tell me that she had no idea about any of it.

"So," Shredder speaks in his evil voice. "You managed to find us. I was beginning to become concerned when you fools did not appear after a while."

"Saki," Master Splinter growls, gritted his teeth in annoyance. He grips his staff tightly as he protectively steps in front of Karai.

"Casey?" I hear April whisper from behind me.

Raphael hears her as well, because he shoots her a puzzled look. "Do you have shells in your brain? Casey isn't here, he went-" he stops mid-sentence, his green eyes wide with shock.

Casey Jones is standing beside the tiger mutant. His mask is up, making no move to disguise himself, and one of his baseball bats is gripped tightly in his hands.

"Casey!" Leonardo exclaims in shock.  "You gave our position away to the enemy?"

Casey smirks slightly and replies, "I told him more than that.  I've been reporting back to him for weeks now.  He knew exactly what you guys were up to every second of the day."

"No," Raphael whispers in horror. His voice rises as his panic grows.  They're best friends, so Casey has all of his trust. Well, up until now, that is. "No, no, no! Casey, how could you?!"

Casey's eyes are dark and cold. "How could I? How could you?" he snaps as he takes a pace forward.

Raphael raises his bandana like eyebrows. "Me?" he echoes, just as confused as we are for once.

"Don't play dumb! You don't care about me anymore!" Casey snarls. "You won't let me do anything! We used to fight bad guys all the time, but now you and your bros are determined to handle it yourselves. It's not fair! So, I'm making you fight now. Against me."

"Wait a minute, Casey," April steps in, looking dumbfounded. "You can't pin that on Raph. He's been doing the best he can to invite you on patrols, but you always turn him down."

Casey is too stubborn to listen to reason. "That's because it's always with his brothers! I want it to be like old times. Just me and him. Without him treating me like some kinda useless dumpster."

"You're an even bigger idiot than I thought!" Raphael retorts.  He stares Casey down angrily.  "I haven't had time to hang out with you! I've been on this shell-brained mission to save the city for weeks now."

"You coulda taken a break like everyone else did!" Casey shoots back viciously. "Instead, I've been wandering around getting into trouble on my own. I even got beat up by Bebop and Rocksteady to get your attention. But you still didn't care!"

"So you decided to get revenge by giving our plan away to our worst enemies?" April asks feebly.  She looks hurt beyond measure. Her best friend betrayed her to our largest foe. Nothing is worse than that.

"It's not just something that started happening recently," Casey insists, his eyebrows furrowed. "You guys never respect me. You treat me like some kind of sidekick while you go off all the time on missions. You didn't even ask for my help when you went back to Dimension X!"

"Oh, boohoo!" Raphael snarls, a bit too harshly. "We were a bit pre-occupied trying to save the world to invite your little whiney-butt along!"

"See?!" Casey exclaims. "This is what I'm talking about! No respect!"

April's blue eyes are filled with tears. "You chose a lousy way to fix that, Jones," she chokes out.

"That's where you're wrong," Casey curls his lip and gets ready to swing his bat. "This is the perfect way to fix it."