𝙍𝙊𝙏𝙏𝙈𝙉𝙏: 𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙇𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙚 𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫: 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐲 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲?!

As the purple dragons made their escape, the brothers quickly regrouped as they could only see the purple dragons vanish away from the rooftops which of course left Donnie rather ticked off that the Purple Dragons had gotten away from the fight.

"OH COME ON!" Donnie said, he paced around as Raph shook his hands a bit after doing a few hard punches to the missiles and Mikey walked over while Leo seemed puzzled about why the dragons suddenly bailed. "Somethin' ain't right here." Raph said.

"You're telling me, they just ran off like they didn't want to put up much of a fight. Then again, they are a high school tech club so they'd probably lack strength." Leo said, he then arched a brow bone in confusion but Mikey did a quick count as it hit him why the dragons had ran off. "Um guys? Weren't there four of them?" Mikey asked.

"That means there's one still around here!" Donnie exclaimed, he told the others to split up and search the area since they figured the fourth dragon couldn't have gone far as Lillie put the chip away in a hidden pocket of the poncho and she wiped some tears away from her cheeks.

Lillie gave a small sniffle as Lillie regained her composure and didn't want to shed anymore tears, she needed to keep going on her own. "Keep it together. You have to.." Lillie mumbled to herself.

Lillie then saw a blue portal open under her feet as she gave a small scream and fell through it, she landed on the rooftop and saw that the turtles had found her as she got defensive but scared.

"That's the kid, kinda young to be a dragon though.." Leo said, he crouched down and looked at the kid as Lillie backed away from Leo but bumped into Mikey who looked down at the child curiously. "Yeah she is." Mikey said, he seemed a bit confused why the dragons would want a kid with them.

Lillie jolted a bit and she backed away from Mikey as she did look pretty shaken up before she gave a squeak like yelp when Donnie grabbed her by the scruff of the poncho, holding her up effortlessly as Lillie looked at him and she got even more freaked out and squirmed to get away. "Let me go!" Lillie said.

"You really think kicking your feet is gonna save you? For a purple dragon, you're not exactly the smartest of the bunch.." Donnie said, he looked at Lillie and Mikey gave Donnie a look as it did seem a bit harsh to speak like that especially with a kid around. "Donnie, that's not nice!" Mikey said.

"Why should I be?! We're dealing with one of the purple dragons here, who knows what the kid is even capable of doing!" Donnie said, Lillie looked at them and she couldn't get out of Donnie's grip so she did the next best thing to get herself free, she bit the soft shell's hand.

Which of course in response to Donnie, made the purple masked turtle scream and he ran around as he attempted to get the child to stop biting him. "OH MY BANANA PANCAKES THIS HURTS! GET THIS RABID THING OFF!" Donnie exclaimed.

"Donnie, shh! We're supposed to be quiet!" Raph said, he and Leo ran after Donnie as Leo held Donnie still while Raph removed Lillie as the child let go but left quite the bite mark on Donnie's hand which Leo checked out. "Eugh boy.. well, she didn't break the skin but that's gonna be a bit hard to look at." Leo said.

"Oh you little–!" Donnie started to stomp his way over to Lillie as Raph saw the girl shaking in his arms and she instinctively covered her head with her hands. "Donnie stop, now!" Raph snapped, Donnie stopped in his tracks as Mikey came over as he saw the kid practically terrified and Raph had worry lacing his features. "Look. We get your peeved about the dragons, but this one is still just a little kid. Besides, she doesn't look like the type to randomly attack ya'." Raph said.

"Yeah, she seems terrified." Leo said, Donnie scoffed quietly and he couldn't believe that his own brothers were betraying him but he did have an odd feeling as well that he couldn't shake off.

"You're okay kid, we're not gonna hurt you." Raph said, Lillie uncovered her face and she looked at Raph but she still seemed shaken up as Mikey saw a few bandages on the kid's legs or knees so he looked to Leo.

"Maybe we should get her to the lair, she's probably got a few more scuffs or injuries.." Mikey said.

"Especially after that blast, it knocked me and Dontron back pretty good. So I can only imagine how it affected her too." Leo said, he was in medic mode at the moment as Donnie snapped out of his thoughts and heard the conversation before he shook his head no.

"No, nope, no way, absolutely not! We are not bringing that.. thing to the lair, it could be bugged!" Donnie said, pointing to Lillie with an accusing finger as Leo pushed Donnie's hand down.

"Dude, you need to chill out. She's not a thing, she's a little kid. If she is bugged, can't you just scan her?" Leo asked, arching a brow bone at his twin which made Donnie roll his eyes but he typed away on his tech gauntlet.

"Yes, but for the record here. We are merely fixing her up, not letting her stay at the lair." Donnie said, he then proceeded to scan Lillie's frame for any signs of a tracking bug and soon a soft 'chime!' like beep came from his tech gauntlet. "There it is." Donnie reached to grab it since it was sewn in the poncho but Lillie got scared and clung to Raph, hiding her face and didn't let Donnie get any closer.

"Looks like she's not gonna let you get any closer." Leo said, Donnie groaned in annoyance and Raph asked if they could just toss the poncho which made Lillie shake her head no. "I.. I can't.." Lillie said.

"Looks like a rock in a hard place. Sorry kiddo, the poncho has to go." Raph said, he reached for it but took notice how tightly Lillie was gripping onto it and her bright orange eyes glossed over with tears.

"I-It's all I have left.. I worked hard for it.." Lillie said, she didn't want her hard work to go to waste and her hand trembled as Donnie took notice and it reminded him so much himself when he tried to impress the purple dragons and get his own purple jacket.

The soft shell gave a sigh and he looked at Lillie. "Kid, I know what you've been through. Those dum-dum's did the same trick to me, you need to let that memory go. Otherwise it'll just keep hurting you." Donnie said.

Lillie glanced at Donnie and she stayed quiet but remembered what happened with her and Kendra, she stayed silent but removed the poncho and held it out for Donnie which surprised the boys. "See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Donnie took ahold of the poncho and he went to dispose of it properly as Mikey was shocked, he had never in his life seen Donnie show that sort of connection before with another individual.

"That was definitely new for Donnie's progress." Mikey said, Leo agreed as well as Raph before the snapper felt something lean against his plastron. He looked down and saw that Lillie ended up relaxing to the point where she fell asleep, it reminded Raph of Mikey when he was a tot and how'd the orange masked brother would get so excited that he'd fall asleep.

After a while, the brothers headed back to the lair with the kid as Donnie was still trying to process the fact that he somehow got an emotional connection with Lillie, just like that.

He shocked himself with the progress but he needed to focus on the task at hand as they went back to the lair, he didn't tell his brothers but when he had scanned Lillie to check for any tracking bugs, he had also picked up different injuries like bruising on her cheeks, the scraped knees and such.

'What happened to you kid?'