Faline ran her fingers through her hair. Her body ached, partly because of her recovery from the stab wounds in her side, partly because her heart felt like it had been ripped to shreds.

She was in Leo's bedroom. Captain Ryan stared blankly at her from his place in the Space Heroes poster on the wall, and she stared right back.

She didn't feel like being in her own room. It was still barren, with only a bed and her shoe box of memories from life before she met Leo. It felt lonely in there, and she didn't want to wallow in loneliness in the middle OF loneliness.

What luck, right?

She lost her mother and father to a car accident. Her brother to drugs. And now Splinter to the merciless blades of Shredder.

Fae wondered how long the world would continue to torture her, ripping away the ones she loved. What cruel whim did the universe have prepared for her next? Kill off her boyfriend too?

She closed her eyes, tears slipping from beneath her lids. A world without Leo was a world she refused to imagine. But she was at her wit's end. Just when she'd begun to become secure, to look at Splinter as a kind of father, he was murdered.

Would this be what her life consisted of? Loved ones going too soon? Happiness being dragged away by more death?

She wished the comforter would swallow her up in an avalanche of down feathers. Her head felt filled with fluff. Her limbs were heavy, and moving a finger took so much effort she wondered how she'd even be able to get up and walk out.

That was what she did best: recover.

Leo had said she should pride herself on it. "A person who can return from any blow isn't capable of being held back."

But the world had thrown so much crap at her, and Faline had considered whether recovering was really worth while anymore. It was easier to just remain on this mattress, sleep away the days, and become detached. Detachment meant no pain. Only silence, and thinking and rethinking your life, perhaps imagining what might have happened if one thing had changed.

Like today, for example. Fae wondered if Master Splinter might still be here, had she remained convinced that staying home, away from battle, wasn't the best thing for her right now.

If she had gotten off her lazy ass, forced her soreness into submission, and aided on that mission, would she have been able to succeed where the others had failed?

No.

Even if the odds had turned out in their favor, the universe had twisted ways of ensuring everything happened the way it was destined to be. Master Splinter was destined to die, Fae supposed. And she was destined to remain constantly in limbo, battling the storms of life alone. For if anyone happened to become close to her, it seemed as if their stay was only temporary.

Master Splinter wasn't here to comfort her, or distract her with meditations and training sessions. He was dead.

She still remembered the thing he'd taught her that very morning. Despite his complete lack of knowledge on the subject, he'd somehow been able to instruct Fae on her Freeforming.

Half transformations. She'd worked her way up to obtaining only her tails, ears, and teeth that came with her leopard form, but remained relatively human apart from that.

It had been a great accomplishment. They'd parted in celebration, and anticipation of tomorrow's lesson.

Little had they know there wouldn't be a tomorrow. At least, not for Splinter.

God, the Freeformers. And Ōkami. Sensei had only learned of his supposed half-sister a week ago. He'd retreated into silence, but in the end had smiled and told his family he was grateful another member of the Hamato Clan had survived.

Assuming she had survived. Fae didn't know if her dream of the forsaken daughter of Hamato Yutan was of a ghost, or an actual being. What if she was already dead? What if the only person left who knew anything about Ōkami, or the history of the clan, or why Faline was like this...was Shredder.

She hadn't noticed the small whimpers escaping her. Captain Ryan's unrelenting glare seemed condescending now. He seemed to be saying, 'Pull yourself together, cadet! We've got a galaxy to protect!'

Poor Leo, she thought. Fae knew how much she meant to him, but her boyfriend had always revered his sensei. With Splinter gone, he was the official leader of the team, of the clan.

That struck her. She sat upright, her injured side sending a warning through her pain sensors.

Leonardo needed help. If he was going to run this family and help find these Freeformers to destroy Shredder, like the prophecy predicted, he surely didn't need a sullen girlfriend for support. He needed strength and stability more than ever. Faline definitely had grown tired of recovering from one blow after another, but to protect him, she'd do anything.