After following the rest of his body, his head hits the pavement with a smack. Donnie winces. He had hoped to do this with minimal damage. The least amount of damage this man took, the more likely he was to trust them. Hopefully, the opinion of the project being "bad" was a unanimous one. That would definitely help too.

Annabel runs to where the body dropped, Raph not far behind her.

"So, Donnie?" he asks. "Did it work?"

"I think Leo would be the expert on this one," he looks over to his brother, who is looking at the man intently.

"His name is Jefferson, I believe," Leo murmurs. "Obviously, his abilities are water related."

Jefferson had light hair, straight and long around his ears. He looked to be in his late twenties. His right hand, particularly his nails, was encased in frost.

"Think Michelangelo's okay?" Annabel asks, looking around the empty street. "The ice looked sharp."

"It wasn't sharp," says a voice over their heads. "It was pointy. Besides," Mikey jumps down from the street light he was hanging off of. "I wasn't anywhere near the attack. I just saved Raph's shell from a distance."

"What are you? Some sort of primate?" Raph says, annoyed.

"Quiet, you two," Donnie shushes them. He nods to Leo, who is trying to stir the unconscious figure.

"Jefferson," Leo lightly slaps the side of his face. "Jefferson."

His eyes flicker. Instinctively, Raph grips his sais. Mikey tenses, ready for a fight.

Suddenly, his eyes fly open, but he remains on the ground, keeping very still. His breathing is uneven, and it's obvious he's trying to keep it under control. The remaining frost on his fingers melts to water.

"Does he think we can't see him?" Mikey whispers loudly to Donnie. Annabel suppresses a giggle.

"I'm trying to figure out why I'm the one lying on the ground," he says softly. "Instead of you." He swallows, coughs. How long had it been since he's spoken? "I don't understand." Jefferson sits up, his hand rubbing the side of his face. His gray eyes, void of color, find Leo's. "What the hell did you do to me?" he asks in a cracked voice.

Leo smiles, relieved. "So you're still in there, huh?"

The man blinks. He slowly pulls himself to his feet. "Yes," he says carefully. "I think I am."

"Oh, man," Mikey's gaze is drawn to the blood on his hands.

Following his gaze, the man inspects his fingernails. "I've had worse. I only fired off a couple shots, after all."

"You did that to yourself?" Mikey asks, confused.

"The skin splits. Its the only way I can create an attack like that," he rubs him hands together, like someone would to shake off the cold. "In the beginning, the doctors were sure I wouldn't be able to produce fingernails ever again. But the human body, you know," he shrugs. "It's made to adapt."

"You remember the beginning?" Donnie asks.

"Of course I remember. I don't think I'll ever forget." the man looks down at his hands, still entwined. "I wish I could forget."

"I'm so sor-"

"Is Emily safe?" Jefferson asks, interrupting Donnie before he can apologize. The message is clear: he didn't want their pity. "Isabelle is getting desperate, especially since you slipped through her fingers, Leonardo." He rubs his hands again. "She doesn't realize you're no longer in her control."

"So she thinks Leo is stuck in la-la land?" Raph asks.

"Yes," Jefferson answers after a pause.

Donnie considers this. "That could definitely work in our favor. She does know about Annabel, though, right?"

"She's known about her for quite some time. She just doesn't understand how. I don't understand how." He looks from Leo to Donnie imploringly.

"What about Derek?" Donnie asks instead of explaining.

"Of course she knows about Derek," Jefferson snaps. "It's hard not to when he's the one causing all this trouble."

"Derek? Who's he?" Mikey looks from Donnie to Jefferson.

"Emily's brother," Leo answers. He looks at Donnie. "I didn't realize you knew about him."

Donnie nods. "I wondered why you didn't bring him up when you awoke."

"I didn't think it mattered. It would just be something else eating away at Emily, is all. Something else she couldn't do anything about."

"Not necessarily."

"He's probably hiding, somewhere." Annabel mentions. "Master sent Emily and me away, when they met."

"Wait, wait," Mikey holds up his hands. "Are you saying that Derek is the cat-guy? The one Leo attacked in the graveyard?"

Annabel smiled proudly. "The one and only. Feisty, isn't he?"

"He's captured," Jefferson says quietly.

The child's face fell almost immediately. "What?" she asks in a whisper.

"That night at the abandoned building. Isabelle sent out scouts, thinking Derek would try contacting Emily again. When he did, we followed them to the building. It was going to be an ambush, but Derek must have caught our scent." He pauses when he sees Annabel's face. She's trying amiably to keep tears from falling, but she's failing miserably.

"Master has heightened senses, being a shifter." she says sniffling softly.

"Derek got you and Emily out in time, Annabel," Jefferson makes an awkward motion, like he's going to reach out and touch her shoulder. He decides not to, however. His arms remain stiffly at his side.

"Hold up," Mikey says, the only one confused with what's going on. "If the cat-man is Derek, and Derek is Emily's brother, then that makes him Isabelle's son, yes?"

"What's your point, Mikey?" Raph asks.

"Well, I mean, is it really a bad thing that he was, er, reunited with his mother?"

"It's a bad thing!" Annabel yells at him, her voice shrill. "He's the one trying the hardest to topple her, to destroy the Dream Sequence!" She rubs her eyes with her fists. "It doesn't matter to her that they're related. She wants him stopped." Her small shoulders begin to shake, and she tries desperately to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Then why does she want Emily so badly?" Donnie muses out loud as Mikey places a comforting hand on Annabel's shoulder.

Jefferson stiffens. He the blood drains from his face and his eyes fly to the ends of the street. Leo tenses, too.

"Perhaps it would be best to continue this conversation somewhere safe," Jefferson whispers, eyes still moving wildly.

"Yes, I believe you're right," Leo agrees. He lays a hand on Annabel's other shoulder. "Let's go home. We'll figure out what to do there."

...

She sits ringing her hands on the old sagging couch.

"They're going to be alright, Em," Casey says from behind her. "There's strength in numbers, after all."

"I'm not worried about them," Emily admits, turning to face him. "It's driving me crazy, is all, not knowing what's happening. Besides, Annabel isn't much of a fighter."

Casey smiles. "Well, if they are able to catch someone, we won't have to worry about that."

"Remind me again," she says hopelessly, "why they felt the need to go out in the first place."

"They needed to be sure the cure worked, Em, you know that." When she sighs, Casey says, "If we're going up against a sadist like Isabelle, we need to be prepared."

Emily smiles stifly, turning back around. "Was I the only one who was surprised by that?"

Casey plops himself down next to her. "Well, I didn't really see it coming, but I can't say I was surprised."

"Yeah, I guess it makes sense."

"You don't have to sound like such a martyr, you know," he teases, nudging her with his shoulder.

The tightness painted on her face relaxes. "What can you expect, Casey? I just want all of this to go away."

"Hey now, no whining here."

"Casey, how do they even know that there is someone from the project out there?"

"They don't. This is only the third time they've gone out-" Emily snorts indignantly. "-but one of them has to turn up sooner or later. There's no way that women is going to give up looking for you."

Emily sighs again, but whatever retort she had goes unsaid, because the door to the lair has just opened. Annabel bursts in, fat tears rolling down her face.

"Annabel, what's wrong?"

Jefferson had been surprised to find that Emily had little knowledge of her brother. Everyone was agreed, however, that the fact that Derek and Annabel's master were the same person should be kept a secret, at least for a little while longer.

"She's taken him," Annabel sobbed now, running into Emily's arms. "She's taken my master."

Emily looks up, a question on her eyes, when she sees the man standing a little behind Leo. She recognizes the gray of his eyes. "So then Leo wasn't a fluke," relief evident on her face.

"No," the man agrees. He steps forward. "My name is Jefferson. It's good to see you're still safe, Emily." He awkwardly extends his hand.

She takes it, makes a face. "Your hand is freezing."

He smiles. "Yes, I suppose it is."

...

To anyone who cares to read:

So I got another chapter posted. Woot. Finally moving the plot along.

Thanks so much for reading, and for sticking with me.

Until next time ~*