After we made it outside of the Shredder's lair, I looked at everyone.

"Babe, what's going on? Why'd you call this mission?" Leo asked me.

"Because I called this mission." I said sarcastically. "But anyway, we need to find out what the Shredder's up to. I know he wanted to keep Umiko but we need to know his ultimate proposal on what he's really after. So no attacking, we'll be put at risk."

"Aw man. And I wanted to kick butts today." Raph crosses his arms.

"We can do that another time." Aika kissed his cheek.

"Okay." he blushed. "Continue."

"Okay, we're gonna split up into groups. Mikey and Donnie, you both take the east wing."

"Aw yeah! The B-Team's back once again!" Mikey did a backflip while Donnie rolled his eyes in embarrassment.

"Aika and Raph, you both take the west wing."

"Okay." Raph nodded.

"You can count on us." Aika bowed.

I smiled. "Leo, you're with me. We'll take the throne room together."

"Okay. Make sure everyone stays alert. There's no telling what the Shredder's gonna do when he sees us. Stay in the shadows, don't get caught." Leo explained.

"Okay." the gang agreed.

"Make sure to keep your earpiece channels open, and once your purposes have been fulfilled, tell me the sweet stuff that we may need for later." I said. "Alright, let's do this."

After we all snuck into the lair, we parted ways into our destined locations. As Leo and I kept our guard up in the throne room, we heard footsteps. We ducked down to see that the Shredder was going to his throne and sits on it. "There he is." I growled softly.

"He looks mad." Leo whispered to me.

"He does." I said as I peeked my head out a bit. "Hmm..." I noticed that Rahzar and FishFace were there. "Leo look."

"Let's listen in and record this." Leo said as he put his earpiece on record mode and I did the same thing.

"I'm going to tell you this one more time, where is my egg?!" Shredder yelled at his goons.

"Well, the walking fish lost your egg." Rahzar told him.

"Grr! Well it wasn't my fault. The turtles were responsible for the wrecking of your drill." FishFace explained to his master.

"I need that drill so I can find the artifacts of the legend Sea Temple!" Shredder banged his fist. "If it wasn't for the turtles, I would've found it by now."

"Not to also mention he lost the egg you wished for master." Rahzar said.

"Rah! If that mermaid didn't distract me, I would've brought it to you! I think the egg might've hatched by now." FishFace looked away in disgust.

"Hmm, there is another way to get that treasure that I desire." Shredder said as he took out a very familiar book.

I took a closer look using Leo's telescope and gasped at the book that he has in his hands. "He's got the same book that we have Leo."

"This isn't good." Leo shook his head.

"It says here that this Manaphy creature has the instinct to find its way back to its birthplace which would lead us to the Sea Temple." Shredder said. "And the Sea Temple holds a treasure called the Sea Crown. They say whoever is in possession of the crown will be king or queen of the sea."

"So this Manaphy, is our main priority?" Rahzar asked.

"Yes. But since Xever said the mermaid has the creature, it will be difficult. Unless..." Shredder started thinking. And looked at his goons. "Bradford, Xever, I want you to scour the city. Find those turtles and destroy them. As for the mermaid, I will take her dear little creature and make it suffer." he smirked and started laughing, with his goons laughing with him.

I covered my mouth, knowing that I was right all along. He really did want the Sea Crown all to himself. It would be devastating if he finds the guys and took care of them. And then me, and then go after my baby. Everything that he said made me sick to my stomach and I wanted to throw up.

"Babe, are you okay?" Leo held me close to him. "Are you sick?" he puts his hand on my forehead.

"I'm sick... to my stomach. My assumptions were right. He wants to be king of the ocean."

"What? We can't let that happen. I think we better regroup with the others and get back to the lair."

"Okay." I nodded and changed the channel on my earpiece and made contact with Donnie and Raph's group. "Doctor, Tough Guy, do you both read me?"

"Yeah." Donnie said.

"Loud and clear, what's up?" Raph asked.

"We should retreat back to the lair. We got the sweet stuff, but it just turned sour." I said. "I'll explain it to you guys later."

"Okay. Mikey and I are going back." Donnie said as he signed out.

"We're going back too. See you at the lair." Raph signed out as well.

I turned off my earpiece and looked at Leo. "Leo..."

"Don't worry Aqua. We're gonna be okay. Now let's go home." Leo said as he rubbed my shoulder.

"Okay. Let's go home." I said as I got up and walked out of the cursed lair.

After we made it home, I called a meeting on what was going to happen if we didn't act now. "Guys, we have a crisis on our hands. And I was right about this."

"About the Sea Crown, right sis?" Aika said.

"Yes. He wants to steal the Sea Crown for himself and dub himself as king of the ocean. And if we're in the way, he's going to make us all suffer..." I said as I looked at Umiko who was asleep in her homemade crib.

"Well, we're not gonna let him have his victory." Leo said as he stood up. "So what do we have to do?" he looked at me.

"First things first, we have to figure out when the next blood moon is going to appear. Donnie, do you have any calculations?" I asked him.

Donnie stood up. "Yes I do. In theory the next blood moon will arrive in about a week and a half."

"Very good." I said as I wrote it down. "Since Umiko knows where the temple is, she's our only hope for us to stop the Shredder from taking the Sea Crown."

"Umm Aqua. Question." Mikey raised his hand.

"Yes Mikey?"

"Exactly how are we gonna get there? We can't take the Turtle Sub. It's a failure."

"Hey!" Donnie got steamed at him.

"Well, we could..." I trailed off for a bit.

"Don't worry about it sis. I got this." Rachel said as she winked at me.

"Hmm, okay sis. So apparently Rachel is gonna take care of it. Aika and I will do the food rations."

"You can count on me sis." Aika smiled.

"Okay. We leave first thing at dawn in the morning. We can't be spotted by the Shredder of any of his idiotic buffoons."

"Where are we going to go?" Mikey asked.

"You're gonna meet up with Donnie and I at the docks. There's something that would be very useful to us. Right Donnie?" Rachel winked at him.

"R-Right." Donnie blushed.

"Excellent, is that clear everybody?" I looked at them.

"Yes." they all agreed.

"Great, now let's get to work." I said as I wrapped up things with my planner. "Meeting dismissed." I said.

As we got busy with our preparations, I was beginning to imagine what Samiya was going to look like to me in person. But all I know is that we have to protect it no matter the cost.

⭐️ To be continued...