"What did I say?" Leo asked, honestly bewildered. Raph shrugged in response.

"Oh, who cares? Good riddance if you ask me. That girl's been trouble ever since we met her." Don glared at his brother and opened his mouth to argue but was beaten to it by Master Splinter.

"Do not talk about her like that. She is my daughter!"

"No offense, Master Splinter but are you sure? What if the Shredder just told you that to confuse you? I mean… Karai? Really?" Raph asked. Splinter looked outraged.

"Of course I'm sure. A parent knows their child!" He paused and lowered his gaze. His momentary outburst seemed to have weakened him and when he spoke again his voice was filled with sorrow. "She looks so much like Tang Shen, my love."

The teens exchanged worried and slightly guilty looks. Darren and Caitlin, sensing that this was a family issue, quietly left the room to give them some privacy. After a moment of nobody really knowing what to do, Mickey pulled himself off the floor and gave Master Splinter a hug.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, I didn't mean anything by it," Raph said eventually and after giving him a searching look Splinter nodded.

"It is forgotten. But now we must find a way to show Miwa that she is part of this family. She shouldn't be out there alone, I should go and talk to her and convince her to come back inside where it's safe."

"Let me. She knows me better," Donnie cut in.

"Shouldn't it be Master Splinter? He is her father," Leo pointed out. Donnie shook his head.

"Right now, I don't think she'll want to see him." Splinter gave a tired sigh but nodded again.

"Very well, Donatello, you talk to her." Donnie smiled weakly and went to leave. At the door he paused and turned back to his family for a moment.

"Don't worry, Master Splinter, I'll talk her round." With a parting smile he exited the room and left his brother's to try and comfort Master Splinter

Karai hadn't gone very far. In fact she'd only made it to the rooftop where she had trained with Donnie the night before. Had that really been only yesterday? So much had changed since then that it seemed almost unbelievable. Only a few hours ago she's been certain that she was the Shredder's daughter and now she wasn't sure of anything. The picture of her mother stood next to Hamato Yoshi was ingrained in her mind so she couldn't think of anything else. She knew that picture. She had a copy with just her mother and had always assumed that the cut off part would have shown her father standing there. And now? Well. That wasn't exactly untrue…

When Donnie found her she was crouched low to the ground so she was almost sitting and staring straight ahead, eyes glazed.

"What are you going to do?" he asked after a moment's hesitation. There was no point tiptoeing around the issue.

"I don't know. I can't stay here."

"Miwa…" he tried but Karai stopped him. She rose to standing and grasped his arm almost painfully, forcing him to meet her eyes.

"Don't. Don't you dare. My name is Karai."

"But… the picture…" Karai's eyes widened slightly and she gave a short, shocked laugh.

"Even if I except that Splinter is my father, and it's not like I'm completely convinced of that, I'm still Karai," she told him defiantly.

"He's telling the truth, he wouldn't lie about this. You are Miwa."

"Right, so I'm just supposed to give everything up then!" Donnie furrowed his brow, not understanding what she meant. Karai finally released him and turned away with a frustrated sigh. "Don't you get it? I just found out that everything I've taken to be true is a lie. I've spent my whole life certain of who I am. I was the Shredder's daughter, destined to lead the Foot Clan one day. And now? Who am I now? You've taken everything that made me who I am, I won't let you take my name as well!" Donnie felt an overwhelming sense of guilt that he'd managed to make things worse. This whole situation was confusing enough for him, but he was beginning to realise that Karai was barely holding herself together.

"I'm sorry," he told her, "I wasn't trying to steal you identity or anything." The girl almost laughed at that, shooting him a rueful smile.

"Yeah, I know."

"Listen, we need to talk about this. With the others. There's a lot to work out and a lot we don't know and running away from it isn't helping. We can take this slow – nobody wants to push you – but I know Master Splinter at least would really like to talk to you."

"Well I don't want to talk to him," Karai insisted. Donnie started to reply but she interrupted. "And I know you're going to tell me he's my father and I should give him a chance but how do we know he's telling the truth? So he's my father," the word, once a known constant in her life, felt unfamiliar on her tongue but she ploughed through regardless, "What does that change? He could still have killed her, and it's not like he'd admit it."

"That doesn't make sense, Master Splinter would never-"

"I know! Damn it, I'm just… I've spent so long defining myself by my hate for him. How can something that is such an important part of me be pointless? I don't know what would be left if you took that away that hatred."

"You're looking at this wrong. You don't need to hate Splinter to be you. It wasn't something you were born with, it's something you learnt. And you'll learn to let it go."

"What if- What if I don't want to? What if right now, that hatred is the only thing keeping me grounded?" her voice sounded small, that of a child, and she was still turned away from Donatello so he couldn't see her face. Donnie hesitated, conscious that he might just makes things worse, and then he stepped forward to place a hand on her shoulder. She seemed to not acknowledge the contact but Donnie hoped he was able to give her some measure of comfort with it.

"Well that's just not true, is it? You've got me." he said softly. For a moment he thought he'd said the wrong thing. Karai tensed and twisted out of his grip, but before he could try and take it back she'd turned around and threw herself at him, burying her face into his chest. His arms moved round to hug her instinctively and he held her tightly.

"If we try this, I don't know how it will turn out," Karai admitted, "I can't change who I am, who the Shredder raised me to be, and I'm going to have to relearn everything I thought I knew about all of you. There's no guarantee that I'll ever be able to see you as family."

"It's going to be ok," he said soothingly. Karai shook slightly in his grip but she didn't cry, even now managing to stay in control. "I know it must be… scary and confusing right now, but it will get better. I'm not going to leave. You helped me when I needed it most and now I have to help you. Whatever you decide and however this pans out I'm staying right here. We'll make this work. All right?"

Karai thought about her father. He was still in her mind as the Shredder, bearing down on her with a sharp sword and wild eyes and she shuddered with fear and grief. But here, with Donnie, she felt safe. Donnie – not yet family, but definitely a friend and somebody she felt she could rely on. She took a calming breath and extracted herself from his embrace. Now, she felt ready to deal with the revelations of the day. She felt ready to try and make a new future and a new family for herself. She smiled, not taking any notice of the tears in her eyes.

"All right."

AN: And that's all folks! This is the last planned chapter of An Unlikely Truce. I know the ending is kind of open ended, but I think this is a good place to leave it. Thank you to all my fans for sticking with me through the large gaps in between updates, sorry about that again! :)