Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hot! Soup!”

They didn't know what had just happened, exactly. One moment, they - Mikey, Donnie, Raph and Leo - had all been in mid-air together. The oldest of their group was about to punch the alien with the combined strength of their Hamato Ninpō and then…

All four of them had been separated from one another as the Kraang snapped his fingers. The act had somehow sent out some kind of shockwave towards their group.

Raph and Leo had been sent flying towards the TechnoDrome and crashed along its surface. Then the other two had been sent into the large chunk of skyscraper still stuck in the air with them.

Donnie grunted as he crash-landed on top of the partial building, his youngest brother crashing along next to him. The softshell shakily lifts himself onto his hands and knees, only to almost fall back down when he looks up in front of himself and gasps. His eyes went wide as the alien they had just been fighting appeared next to him out of nowhere.

He shoved himself up onto his feet and quickly moved over to cover his littlest brother. Pulling out his bo, he held it in front of him in preparation as he watched the Kraang rear his arm back to swing at them. Donnie spun the staff around while coating it in a layer of his Ninpō, creating a shield in order to try and block the hit.

A futile attempt, however, when the hit does land and ends up shattering the purple-clad turtle's creation to bits. The metal fist continues moving forward and he braces for the inevitable impact. He feels as Mikey does the same, huddling against his back with his hands gripping at Donnie's biceps.

The force of the hit colliding sends the both of them flying off the face of the building. Both of them fade in and out of consciousness as they hurtle through the air and towards the ground.

“Raph, go.”

Raph looks up from the two and back to Leo, nodding his head at the others' order. He drags himself to his feet and starts to run for the edge.

“On it!”

As he ran past Leo, he watched out of the corner of his eye as the slider swung a glowing blade down. In front of him opened up a portal and the red-banded snapping turtle took a running leap into it. He knew for a fact that the portal would spit him back out closer to their brothers, making the rescue a more likely success.

The wind whistled past his ears as he fell out of the other side. Raph had never been happier than right now that he was the heaviest of the brothers as he quickly caught up to the two.

“Gotcha!” Dodging around the rubble falling with them, he grabs and gathers both of his barely conscious little brothers into his arms.

“Don't worry, Donnie!” He reassures as he wraps all three of them up in a protective layer of his Ninpō and curls around them. “This is not a hug. It's a rescue!”

Curling his body up more, his Ninpō construct follows and does the same as he prepares himself for the coming impact. As the ground closes in, Raph closes his eyes as he tenses up his muscles. Finally connecting with solid earth once more, the snapping turtle let out a grunting yelp.

His ninpō had crumbled apart as they landed, smoke flying as concrete was broken. Raph takes the brunt of their landing, holding the other two close as they drag along the rubble to a stop. A large chunk of debris crashes into the ground a couple of metres away from them, a loud bang resounding around them.

“Where are we?” Raph pushes himself up gingerly and rubs at a sore spot on the back of his head, taking a look at their surroundings. “Staten Island?”

“Oh, gross.” Donnie sits up from behind some debris with a shiver, his head pounding. He looks towards the other two and spies Mikey's head pops up out of his shell. “So how would everyone rate that rescue experience? Unsatisfied? Very unsatisfied? Wish Donnie would have done it? Um-hum?”

His vision is blurry and his head is spinning, too heavy for him to hold up as he flops back down. Raph looks at him in annoyance and attempts to push himself to his feet.

He thinks that he has most definitely done something to his right knee as it gives out on him. Kneeling on the ground, he looks up into the sky with worry etched clear onto his features.

“Donnie, Leo's still up there.”

His words snap Mikey out of his stupor and he looks to where his eldest brother is staring off to. Donnie pushes himself back up into a sitting position and stares at Raph. Seeing the look on the taller’s face, the purple-clad turtle turns to follow his gaze up.

None of them could see or hear anything that was happening on the TechnoDrome, being too far away to do so. This is both good and bad and does nothing to diminish the fear they all feel for their brother.

“Casey. Casey, come in.” Leo's staticky voice comes in over all of their communicators and everyone listening lets out a collective breath. He was still alive.

“Sensei, I'm here. And I've got eyes on the key.” The future boy grunted as he landed, staring up at the altar in front of him, determined. He spoke into his own communicator between gasping breaths as he ran towards it. “Just tell me when you're home free, and I'll pull the plug!”

The scattered family all held their breath as a heavy thumping echoed through Leo's communicator to them. When the slider spoke again, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief before regretting it as the others' words had registered with them.

“Casey, listen to me. When I get to the other side, you close that door.”

Casey froze, his hand inches away from grabbing hold of the Mystic Totem that had started all of this. His eyes widened as he had clearly just misheard what Leo had said. He couldn't have possibly just said what he thought he had just said, right?

“What? Sensei, no!”

“Casey, it's the only way. He's too strong. He's not gonna stay on the other side unless I keep him there.”

“There has to be another way!”

Raph walked towards the edge, staring at the TechnoDrome before stopping and catching himself from falling off. He looks down at the communicator on his wrist, hears his brother's voice come through and turns to the other two for confirmation.

The both of them are huddled together on the ruined concrete floor behind him, Donnie holding Mikey and helping him to sit up. The identical and knowing expressions of horror that each of them sport are enough to tell him that what was happening was actually happening.

“We tried everything, Case. This is the only way.”

Raph's eyes widen further - if they even could - and he brings his wrist up to his mouth. He hoped that he could talk at least some kind of sense into the younger. To stop him before he ends up doing anything that was too drastic.

“Leo, please don't do this! Leo!”

A gaspy chuckle comes through in response to his pleading before the slider speaks. “You're one to talk, big brother. Hero moves are totally your style.”

The snapping turtle's arms fall lax by his sides as Leo speaks back to him. He turns around to stare up at the giant alien ship in anguish as his jaw drops wide open. His everything feels numb and he doesn't even feel like he is a real person right now.

Nothing more comes in from the slider for a moment before Casey speaks again. The kid sounds near begging- no, he is begging. Begging in a teary voice for Leo to not do what they all know he has already made up his mind on doing.

“Leo, please! I can't lose you again.”

“Hey, future me would be real proud of you. I’m proud of you.”

Everyone listens in dread as the alien's voice filters in from Leo's own communicator. It sounds as if it is in the distance, but they all know that they must be right next to each other for him to have been heard.

“Weak words, weak actions.” Pained grunting and groaning fills the air, and the sound of something cracking follows as they all wince. “I have forever known what you fail to understand - strength. Always. Prevails!”

The ‘Shlick’ sound of a long blade stabbing into some kind of organic material is heard. “What you fail to understand is I missed on purpose.”

They all wait with bated breath as they hear the telltale sound of Leo opening up a portal and grunting from the effort. Soon after, they hear Kraangs voice again, followed by Leo’s, as strained as it is.

“No, enough of your little tricks.”

“Casey, close the portal.” Casey gripped the key, whimpering as the unshed tears began to overflow. He didn't want to lose his Sensei - his dad - so soon after having just gotten him back.

“What? No! Let go of me!”

“Casey, please!”

Grunting from the effort that it took to force himself to actually do it. Holding onto the ancient relic tight, Casey ran from the altar as a shockwave was sent out and up, power surging to a close.

He swung away and ducked for cover behind some nearby debris as the gate closed to a shut around the TechnoDrome. The ship still stuck halfway through and held the damned portal open.

This minor inconvenience does nothing to hinder the process, however, as the gate continues to close and cuts the giant ship in two. A massive explosion erupts in the aftermath of doing so.

Every remaining member of the Hamato clan stares up at it. Each and every one of them could be found in varying stages of hurt, horror, fear, regret, and so on.

Everything is silent.

Debris falls.

People cry.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

Leo's favourite catchphrase is heard right before the communicator cuts off into static. The gate finally closed for good. The last thing that any of them would ever hear from the blue-banded Hamato brother. How very on-brand for the resident Red-Eared Slider.

Walking through the destroyed and rubble-filled streets, Casey uses his arm to cover his face from the still-settling dust in the air. Blinking vigorously to clear his eyes, he glances up ahead of himself.

His eyes catch sight of a familiar shiny metal and his muscles tense up. He knows that shine.

The kid drops his Genius Built™ hockey stick onto the ground as his tired brain finally registers just what it is he is looking at. He runs forward with a stumble and collapses onto his knees in front of the lone sword with a grunt.

Gently moving his hands under the blade and handle respectively, he stares at his own reflection. Making eye contact with himself, realising what he has done, he holds the weapon close. His shoulders shake as he begins to cry. Silent sobs wreak his slumped form as he refuses to let out any noise in his mourning.

April rubs a hand against Splinter's shoulder as he dry-heaves into the ground. His frame shakes and yet no tears fall. His baby, his baby blue - gone!

Tears fall from the girl's eyes and down her cheeks to pool along her chin. She glares behind herself at where the creature is still trapped. Sister Kraang laughs at their suffering and misery, feeling victorious despite having just lost everything.

Mikey stares up into the sky, frozen where he was. He had finally managed to stand up and felt his knees trembling from the effort.

Donnie faced away silently, unable to bring himself to look. Every single thing around him felt numb and he couldn't believe that what had just happened had just happened. He stares out into empty space as his eyes see nothing, something tickling his cheek.

He brings a hand up absentmindedly to wipe whatever it is away and is surprised when he feels something wet on his fingertips. Bringing the hand away, he looks down at the clear liquid stuck to it. Was he- was he crying?

On the ground in front of him, though not that he could see, Raph is curled up on his hands and knees. His whole body shakes with effort as he desperately tries to keep the tears and sobs that want out, in.

This can't be happening, it can't! He's the big brother, he's the one that's supposed to protect them all, he's the one that's supposed to-!

Soft whimpers and cries catch his attention and he looks up at the youngest. Mikey's shoulders are set, though shaky, and his arms are stretched out before him. He stares as tears land on the ground, pulling himself to his knees as his littlest brother cries.

“Mikey, it's over.” He says as the box shell looks back at him.

“Leo never gave up on us.” He says, eyes facing forward once more and determination taking hold. “I’m not giving up on him.”

He grunts with focus, voice straining as he starts to glow. The makings of a portal, small as it is, start out in front of him. Behind him, he hears Donnie let out a gasp in astonishment.

“Woah.”

“Mikey!” Raph pulls himself up fully, running forward with Donnie in tow to stand next to the short Box turtle. They both stand on either side of him for encouragement. “Whatever you're doing, don't stop!”

Together, they all watch in disbelief as the small dot continues to grow bigger. It reaches around to the size of a basketball and small glowing cracks start to form up Mikey's arms.

Both of his oldest brothers put a hand on each of his shoulders. The same orange cracks begin to form on their own skin where they are connected as they help to take some of the strain.

“We're here, Mikey. Together.” Said Raph.

The orange-banded brother glanced at the both of them in disbelief. His eyes grow relieved as Raph looks back down at him. Growing even more determined with their support than before, Mikey looks back to the still-growing portal and grunts with the effort to open it further.

The cracks continue to traverse their skin, Donnie and Raphs eyes glowing as Mikey borrows some of their energy to fuel his own. They all grunt and groan with the effort that it takes them not to let go of the youngest.

The portal stops growing now, the young box shell seeming to have finally reached his limit. Peering inside, all three of them have an almost clean view of their missing brother. He's far, too far to just reach inside and grab him out.

They all watch with bated breath as Leo turns himself around to see what the glowing light is and reaches out towards it. He sighs, looking exhausted and beaten. The sight brings tears to their eyes with the effort that it looks like it takes him to speak.

“Took you guys long enough.” They don't hear what he says fully, he's too far away and his voice is weak.

Raph stares at him determined and reels an arm back. Activating his own Ninpō, he creates a giant red arm and throws it into the portal, straining at the toll on his body. Reaching for his little brother, he grabs onto Leo's hand and forearm and holds him tight.

Seeing Leo smile tiredly back at him, he starts to pull him back to them before he freezes up. Behind Leo, the Kraang emerges from out of the shadowed dark with a deep, rumbling growl.

“Leo!”

Hearing the fear in his oldest brother's voice, his vision too blurred from a mix of a concussion and a black eye to see his face, he glanced back. He sees - well, he hears - the Kraang let out an enraged screaming roar as he nears closer.

Donnie, seeing the enemy reach out for his younger brother, gets mad. He can’t take him. He can't have him. Seething protectively, the purple-clad Softshell creates a weapon from his own Ninpō and launches a giant spinning drill head at the alien.

Now, in a perfect world, the alien wouldn't have seen it coming and the drill would hit its target dead in the chest and knock him further away from his twin. Or, at least, it would distract the bastard for long enough so that the oldest could safely pull the slider the rest of the way to them and out of the portal.

But this isn't a perfect world, is it?

The Kraang, having reacted quicker than Donnie had hoped he would, moved over to the side quickly and dodged the projectile by a hair's length. The vindictive creature lets out a sinister laugh as he reaches out and grabs onto the slider with a clawed grip. Holding the smaller being tight around the middle, he tugs.

Raph panics at this and deactivates his Ninpō on reflex when his little brother screams out shrilly in pain. Donnie gags as they can all hear the very audible snapping pop sound of broken and then dislocated bones. They all watch as Leo collapses in the other's grip, looking barely conscious as he goes limp and sobs.

The Kraang pulls the turtle close, holding him to his chest and laughing in victory. Much like a child who had just won a game of tug-o-war with a toy.

All three watch helplessly as the creature falls backwards, floating further and further away from them and deeper into the Prison Dimension. They watch as their brother floats away from them.

Their faces morph into horror as the portal starts to slip closed, the oldest glancing at Mikey to see his eyes start to droop. His shoulders fall lax as his legs give way and Raph stoops to catch him as he passes out.

Without something holding the portal open, it closes completely with the Kraang’s laughter ringing in all of their ears.

Donnie stares at the pained and teary face of his only twin brother, the image ingrained in his head long after it had shut for good.

He stands there numbly, still staring at the space that the portal had once occupied. Everything is silent around them, nothing at all makes a sound of any kind and Donnie just stares.

He is lost, confused, disoriented and, if he wasn't already, starting to dissociate as all hell.

His brain, as large as it is, is outright refusing to allow him to process what had just happened. Ignoring the tears that fall from his eyes, he collapses roughly onto his knees and mumbles as his vision begins to darken.

“... Leo…?”

Chapter Text

Mikey… was fine.

No, really, he was!

It's just that… well…

It was a lot, alright?

It had been almost three years since the end of the world had been averted and it had changed everything. So much was different now and he was oh so mixed on how it all made him feel.

On the one hand - it was nice to be able to walk around the city in broad daylight without much worry now. But on the other hand… it just all felt like some kind of booby trap. That it could be sprung at any moment and they would all be caught off guard by their consequences.

Everything felt like it was all too good to be true. That all of the kind smiles and friendly interactions thrown his way were all some kind of an act.

That any day now, the other shoe was gonna drop and then they would be hunted down like the animals that they no longer wore. By the government and by those that they had all come to call their friends.

God, he'd gone and developed Leo's trust issues, hadn't he?

He and his family had all grown so much, that growth being both the physical and mental kind. But stopping an apocalypse would do that to you, he supposes.

They all left their masks in the past, metaphorical and literal, feeling almost wrong to wear them now and they were all taller as well.

Raph especially, being almost eight feet, Donnie second with 6 '4 and Mike at 5 '10. But after having gained more control over his Ninpō, his older brother had been able to change his physical height without a red construct surrounding himself.

But he had to keep his focus for that to work lest he shoot up to the size of a damn dinosaur. And he hadn't ended up losing the eye that had been affected by his… ‘Infestation’, but he could no longer see out of it.

Donnie had eventually upgraded his signature headphones to include a holographic visor. He wore it almost constantly, except for when he was a certain kind of upset and the weight of them would just make him feel more stifled. Well, that's what Mikey had got from what little of an explanation Dee had managed to get out the one time he'd asked about it.

Mikey himself had ended up growing hair not long after the whole thing. It was long enough now for the tips to almost touch his shoulders, straight and black. Dad often commented on how it reminded him of back when he was human, but that Mikey seemed to have none of that slight natural wave that he had remembered his own having.

Casey had once mentioned something about his use of Mistic back in his original timeline had caused him to age quicker - far too quick, really - and that the portal that he’d opened was the likely cause of it. Along with those lasting little scarred cracks in their skin that each of them carried after that very same event.

Also, they wore clothes, now!

... Leo would have loved all of that...

“You good there, big guy?”

“Huh?” Mikey looked up from where he had been zoning out while staring down at the crossing to meet the concerned gaze of his eldest brother. He brushed some stray hair out of his face before shoving his hands into the pockets of his ripped blue jeans and giving Raph a strained and unconvincing smile. “Uh, yeah! I'm just peachy, why?”

The mutant snapping turtle just stared down at him with a frown set on his face. He could tell that the shorter was clearly lying to him, but the almost absent look on his face stopped him from questioning further. Hearing the crossing lights beep next to him, he nudged the other on the other on the shoulder.

“Oh, it doesn't matter.” He grabbed the other gently and pulled the both of them across the road. “Look! There's Donnie’s building, what do you think it is that he wanted to show us?”

Mikey looks up at his red-clad brother and his gaze follows along his arm to see what it is that he's pointing at. Stepping up onto the sidewalk, they both pause to stare up at the building standing in front of them.

It was tall, not as tall as some of the ones around it, but Raph did have to stretch his neck up to see the top of it. And who knows how far down this place would go down underground, too.

The two looked at each other in apprehension before moving to walk up the concrete staircase. Neither had really understood why their tech-coded middle brother had been so all about this place when he had started.

Especially given the guy's stance on the government and this place was basically that. The government, he means. Not- whatever.

The two move up the stairs together, waving to the people they pass as they ascend. They didn't come by Donnie's place of employment often - if at all - but they had been here enough for some of his coworkers to start recognizing them all by name.

That is, if they didn't already know them from back when they had stopped the apocalypse from happening.

All sorts of videos had been circulating the internet in the aftermath of that event. Many had claimed it to be some kind of good C.G.I. and others thought it some drug-induced mass fever dream.

All kinds of conspiracy theories had popped up from people trying to explain away what had happened without saying what had actually happened. Those prior two being some of the more prominent theories that are discussed.

“- APHEAL! ”

The snapping turtle tripped over his feet, stopping just before he ran head-first right through the glass rotating doors. Again. Yeah, he didn't want to have a repeat of that incident.

Shaking his head to regain his focus, Raph looked over to where the shout had come from. He saw Mikey staring up at him with an incredulous look on his face.

“What?” He watched, feeling lost, as the younger just gaped up at him before he shook his head and mumbled something under his breath. “What?”

“Forget it. Let's just go inside already so that we can get through the check-in process.”

Raph nodded wordlessly and followed the shorter turtle mutant inside. Getting through the door after shrinking himself with his Ninpō to 6 '5 instead of his now 7 '9, he waves over to the security guards stationed nearby and heads over to the secretary. Thankfully, his red sleeveless hoodie, black jeans and sneakers had shrunk with him.

This was a person that the brothers had grown close to when she had started here a couple of months after the softshell had. She was a rather tall - for a human, at least - and pale girl, with beautiful red hair that curled all of the way down to her waist when let down.

She had often complained to them about being compared to that Scottish Pixar princess with her looks. Hell, she'd even almost ended up sharing a name with the fictional character.

In true secretary fashion, she had also kept those gorgeous locks tied up in a messy yet neat bun. However, that choice in hairstyle seemed to be more for convenience's sake than an aesthetic decision.

Upon closer inspection, he also noticed that her forest green framed glasses had been propped up on top of her head to stop the fringe from falling into her equally green eyes.

He can tell that she is busy tapping away at her phone until she looks up at them with a smile on her face. The familiar vibrations of Raphs still large feet on the tiled floor likely must have alerted her to the two's arrival.

The box shell trots up to greet the woman that they both had come to know as a good friend, his flip-flops slapping on the ground. He folds his arms beneath his chest and leans down against them on the front desk. His open cardigan sweater hangs off one shoulder and his hair frames his tired face, having not slept much at all last night.

“Hey Sheila! How's the ‘Kid’s’ doing? Same old, same old?” The two grin mischievously at one another and giggle a little over their shared inside joke. The supposed ‘Kids’ in question being a couple of potted plants and a cat that the other owned.

“Same old, same old, Mikester.” Sheila matched the box shell's energy with glee and craned her neck to stare up at the other mutant she’d grown close to. “And how have you been, Godzilla?”

“Oh ha ha, funny. I’m doin’ good, Shells.” Raph crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at the small humans oh so loving nickname for him and offered a smile of his own in return.

Leo would have gotten along great with this girl had he been given the opportunity - or misfortune, depending on who you asked - to meet her.  The two of them had almost the exact same sense of humour as the other along with the same equally as shit taste in men.

No, on second thought, those two probably would have gotten along with each other a little too well. And that was way too much chaotic energy for Raph to be able to handle at one time.

The snapper's smile faded barely a fraction at the thought of his lost brother - because he's not dead, he's not.

His little brother is strong, he's not going to let a few broken bones stop him from fighting back. He's gonna find a way to survive. Like Gram-Gram had.

Mikey took notice of the others' mild change in mood and moved to distract their friend. He knew that his big brother would not want for her to think that it was somehow because of her.

But he also knew what the other had actually been thinking about. And he couldn't say that he hadn't considered that same train of thought himself on more than one occasion.

He had figured that that was also why their middle brother often couldn't stand to be in her presence for more than what was necessary, either. Yeah, losing a big brother had shattered him, but losing a twin? Someone that you shared your life, your everything with?

Mikey couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of pain that the softshell had been going through these past couple of years. And he also knew that he blamed himself for their loss. They all did in some way or another.

Especially the three of them when they couldn't stop that damned alien bastard from taking their brother away from them that second time. But they hadn't been as telling with their survivor's guilt as the future boy had been about it.

The poor kid, having to lose his father twice and those times being so close together in the same week like that.

“So! What can I do for the two of you today? Are you going out to lunch with your resident scientist?”

With both of them being so lost in their own thoughts, the two brothers were caught off guard by the girl's chipper tone, her Irish accent laid on thick. A quick look at her expression told them that she suspected nothing of their sudden downturn in mood.

“Ah, no, Dee wanted to talk to us about something,” Raph said.

“Yeah, he called us up out of the blue early this morning and told us that we needed to come down around this time today.” Mikey continued after, leaning back to give his friend a more noticeable frown now. “He'd seemed like he was really worked up about something and we offered to head over right then, but he had been adamant that we came over at this time.”

The box shell paused for a second before raising an eyebrow that he actually had now and looking hopefully at her. “Do you know anything?”

Sheila gave the both of them a blank look before turning in her chair slightly. She muttered something unintelligible under her breath, wreaking around in her brain for any information that she could give to her mutant friends.

Shaking her head minutely, she scooted her chair closer to better see the screen of the computer sitting on her desk and turned it on. She pulled her glasses off of her head and moved her fringe back into place before putting them on and scrolling around on the screen.

“Not off of the top of my head, no.” She started clacking away at the keyboard in front of her. “But I can look up if anything out of the ordinary had occurred earlier today.”

“Oh!” Mikey's eyes widened and he brought his arms up to wave in front of him. “No, you don't have to do that! It was just if you knew anything, we’re not actually all that worried about it-!”

The turtle's red-headed friend shot them both a mischievous look and brought one of her own arms up to wave him off in turn. “Nonsense! I'm all curious about it myself now, too. Don't worry, it'll be no sweat!”

She smiled at them sweetly when she noticed that both of the boys were looking nervous. It really would not be all that difficult for her to check it out from here. But it was nice to know that they cared about her. Although she may end up having to take a more in-depth look at it later on when she has some free time on her hands.

Opening up a couple of different files on the screen, Sheila glanced back up at the brothers.

“So, what time was it did you boys say that you got that ~Mysterious~ phone call?”

“Ah-?” Raph pulled out his phone to go through his call history. “It was around, like- FOUR A.M.!? I hadn't realised how early it was before, what the hell was he even doing up at that time? Let alone here? ”

“Four A.M…. ” Both watched as Sheila looked back to her screen, the light reflecting in her eyes, and clicked at her mouse. “Hmm. I’m not seeing anything of note occurring at that time… but the ‘Something’ had probably happened earlier than that, if that was the time that he had finally called you about it.”

The girl scooted her chair an inch closer to her desk, as if it would help her to find the answers that she was looking for quicker. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and nibbled on it absentmindedly as she searched. Opening up a different file, her brows furrowed as she looked back up to the other two.

“Huh… did you know that that reporter friend of yours had been here last night? Gah, what was her name again?” Sheila rubbed at her chin in thought before looking back up. “It was a month, right?”

“Uh, yeah, her name is April,” Mikey confirmed for her and smiled when the other snapped her fingers at the reminder.

“That was it! Thanks.”

“She was here last night?” The box shell asked, his tone showing his confusion at the information.

“Hey, hadn't he been saying something the last couple of days about staying out late to help April work on something for her work?” Both looked at Raph as he said this and he ducked his head slightly in a bit of embarrassment. “Don't look at Raph like that! You gotta pay more attention to your surroundings Mike.”

“Mmm.” Sheila giggled when the shorter mutant turtle let out a grumble at his brother and turned her attention back to the screen again. “Yeah, that tracks. Says here that she has been coming in the last couple of nights to see him and then leaving early in the morning with him.”

“Weird, do you think that she's still here, then?” Mikey asked.

“Nah, says here that she had signed out of here just a bit before ‘Mr. Science’ had called you this morning,” Sheila answered.  “Though the person that had done her signing out had made a note about her appearing to be ‘Dishevelled’ and ‘Erratic’...”

Mikey pushes a strand of hair out of his eyes and looks to his left to see the worry growing on his older brother's face. The two stare at each other silently as they both grow concerned with just what it is that Donnie wants to talk to them about.

Is everything okay? Did he do something? Is he in trouble? What did April leave here like that and why had Donnie not left at all? What was happening?

Sheila looks up from her screen finally and looks at the two with a smile, somehow seeming completely unaware of the way that the air was thickening between the brothers. “Hey, maybe she knows what it is that your brother wants to talk to you two abo-!”

“Brethren! So glad that the both of you could join me this fine noon!”

Chapter Text

“You've been portal-chopped!”

Those were the last words that Hamato Donatello had ever heard his younger brother say. Honestly, how fucking cliche of him.

It had almost been an entire three, to the day, years since they'd been made to say goodbye and the wound still felt as fresh as a good stabbing to the heart would.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

The purple-clad softshell chuckles darkly from where he's sitting at his desk. His form slumped over in the chair he sat in as much as he could without slipping out.

He glares at the glowing screen up in front of him. His mismatched eyes start to glaze over with tears he stubbornly refuses to shed as he stares at the last recorded statistics of his own twin's health.

How scared he had been during that last fight. And yet how his heart had been beating steadily at the same time. His determination to win the war and his regret for it having even begun in the first place.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

He dug his sharp claws into his arm, creasing the ironed fabric of the deep purple turtle neck he wore. His claws pierced in deeper as he looked down and wished that the material was his own skin instead.

Sharp teeth bite down into his lip. The taste of blood distracts him from trying to keep the tears at bay with a wince. He curses as they start to roll.

Down along his cheeks where they pool along the point of his wobbly chin. The mutant feels as they drip off one by one and land down onto the black slacks that he also wore.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

Whimpering, he sits up properly only to drag his legs up onto the chair with him. Wrapping an arm around his legs, he holds them to his plastron tight and buries his face into his knees.

The turtle lets out a wince in pain when they end up digging deeper into his eyes than he had intended to happen. He can't help but to imagine the stupid, stupid look that the other would have been wearing on his face while saying that.

With the other arm that wasn't holding his legs in place, he kept it outstretched to press play on the old and scratchy audio again.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

And again.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

And again.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

And again.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

And again.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

Again.

“You've been portal-chopped!”

Agai-!

“... Professor? ”

Donnie gasps at the sudden interruption to his unwanted emoting and snaps to attention. His legs slip off the seat of the chair and he wipes aggressively at his face with his sleeve to rid it of the evidence.

Swinging the chair around, he winces again and covers his eyes from the bright light now coming in from the open door. He hadn't even realised just how dark it had gotten inside his lab with all of the lights off. His surroundings only being lit up by the screen of his computer prior.

“Professor Othello.”

He waves off the person standing at his door, rubbing at his eyes some more. With his sight just clear enough now, Donnie recognises the face in his doorway. He sighs and finally replies to the girl still waiting patiently for his answer.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Just… give me a minute, alright?”

“Of course, professor.”

She gives him a hesitant nod and turns to walk away before pausing, holding onto the door handle as she glances back to the softshell briefly. Donnie can't properly discern what the look on her face meant, but he just knows that it had to have been something almost pitiful in nature.

The mutant frowns back at her and turns his chair back around so that he is once again facing the large screen. He blatantly ignores her presence until she finally shuts the door. He was uncaring of how rude or mean the action was, he just didn't want other people to see him when he was in that kind of state.

He waits in silence until the footsteps disappear far enough down the hall that he feels that his privacy can be safely restored. Sighing, he pulls his chair closer to the screen and calls out for his lab's A.I. to turn on the lights.

“Lights on.” he hisses as the sudden brightness abruptly assaults his poor sight from every angle. “FUCK! Dim it by thirty per cent!”

He rubs at his eyes with fists to ease the pain and help his sight adjust, finally turning the program opened up on one of his many screens. He looks over to the small collection of photographs that he keeps off to the side of his desk.

Staring for a moment, he reaches over and picks a certain one up. The softshell stares with a saddened gaze at a pair of red and blue eyes not unlike his very own two.

His thumb rubs down the rosy cheek of one of the two figures in the photo. A face that was now so much younger than his own and a face that he had not seen outside of a screen in so, so long.

His world had changed so much in the last couple of years, ever since the apocalypse had been averted. With such an open display of themselves to the public eye while fighting the aliens, the current Hamato clan had a harder time hiding from them.

And as it had turned out, they had not been as much of a secret as they had all liked to believe that they were. Apparently, the general public had had the knowledge of their existence since the four brothers were children.

Babies , even!

At first, it had started out as some sort of folklore shit in order to keep dumb kids out of trouble. The mutated rat and his four turtle children. There had been sightings reported of them at various places all throughout the years.

But they had been given the same treatment as something along the lines of Bigfoot or Mothman. That was until they had entered their early teens and had started doing their nightly patrols along the surface.

Sightings of them had become more and more common among the people as time had gone on. They were often treated as the near beloved cryptids of New York City. At least, that's all that they had been.

Well, that was all that they were before their very public involvement in fighting the Kraang. It had certainly been quite a shock to all of them that they were almost so readily accepted into society after all of this time.

Well, no, it did actually make some sense that people had already known about them. They were good, but they weren't that good, you know?

Granted, there were still people out there who were against their existence and vocal about it, but luckily they seemed to be few and far between. Leo wouldn't have trusted that for a second.

“Professor Othello?”

The sound of a robotic voice suddenly overhead cuts through his thoughts, startling him into dropping the frame. Donnie floundered around with a gasp, singing a breath of relief when he caught the picture.

He checked that the frame was unharmed before setting it back down on the desk in its original placement, adjusting it to fit his liking. He looked up to the ceiling with a scowl on his face and a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

“You had asked me to inform you of when your brothers had arrived on the premises, Sir.”

Donnie looked down with a grumble and pushed himself up to his feet. Brushing imaginary dust off of his pants, he gathered himself together until he felt like he looked more presentable.

“Alright then.” Gathering up whatever he needed, he finally headed out the door after one last glance at the smiling faces in the photo. “Let them know that I am on my way and will see them soon enough.”

“Of course, Professor.”

The softshell closed the door behind himself with a click and stood there for a moment. Just trying to collect himself just that little bit more than he could. He squeezed the handle and stared up to the ceiling, trying not to start crying again.

Donnie hated that he was feeling like this. He didn't want to be feeling like this. He had thought that he was over this, that he had been doing better now, but…

Donnie was startled at the near-distant sound of someone's footsteps walking down the corridor towards him. He wiped roughly at his cheeks with the fabric wrapped around his forearms. A pointless effort, really, to rid them of any leftover evidence that may have remained from before.

Glancing down both his left and right sides of the hall, he realised that there wasn't anyone close enough to see him. Good then, that meant that he was in the clear for now.

Looking down at the things in his arms that he had grabbed, he shoved his phone into one of his pants pockets. He shoved his lab coat between his legs to hold it out of the way as he used both hands to put his headphones back on.

Donnie had ended up changing the way that they functioned when he had to remake them. The last pair had been pretty much destroyed during the invasion and had pretty much stopped working almost entirely.

This new pair worked almost the same as the last, although he had ended up adding a holographic visor onto them. That was a fun addition to add into the mix, though as difficult as the tech had been to figure out and fine-tune.

Especially when the visor had allowed for him to dawn a more expressive pair of eyebrows. Compared to when he had just drawn them on the overtop of his mask, that is.

Well, Donnie hadn't ever drawn them on. That had always been Leo's thing. The slider having been the one more adept at anything make-up-wise between the four brothers. Better than April, as well.

He would always end up offering to do them for the softshell and then it had just become expected of him over time.

But with his twin gone now and the fact that he no longer even wore a mask, it had just seemed to be the best solution overall, really. It had also helped him with his sight, having become more shit after he had piloted the Technodrome, as brief as it had been, that he had started to require wearing his glasses once more.

Not as bad as when he was a mere tot, but bad enough that it had been noticed. And by himself without someone pointing it out to him, too.

Pressing a button on the side and turning it on, a glowing violet screen filtered across his vision. He had to close his eyes briefly to lessen the sting of the sudden light right in his face. But other than that, he noted that they seemed to be working relatively alright.

Donnie glanced down to the bottom right corner of his visor, almost hesitant in the action. When he did, he made eye contact with the little avatar that he had created to go with the A.I. that was made for his lab specifically.

He smiled fondly at the memory of when he had decided to do that. He had remembered all of his twins’ Three A.M. ranting about how he shouldn't go off and create robot versions of his brothers when they died and had stubbornly decided to go with the next best thing.

The softshell had designed the A.I.’s face to resemble that of his lost twin's own mug, but this one was in cartoon form. He’d even had Mike help him out and draw the little animations for him.

Donnie couldn't make it sound like him though, no, that would have been too hard for him. Mentally, he means. He could totally do it in reality, he just wouldn't be able to stomach it.

Thinking that he had wasted enough time as it was, he pulled the coat from between his legs and shoved his arms into their respective holes. And then immediately took it off again, because he had done it wrong and the fabric of his damned sleeves had bunched up uncomfortably.

He frowned as he straightened the sleeves of his turtle neck out again. Holding each of the cuffs in place, the softshell carefully slid his arms into the coat one by one.

Making sure that he did it slowly at an appropriate speed so that the fabric wouldn't bunch up again. Giving himself one last once over, he made sure that everything was right, before rubbing at his eyes as they started to unfocus.

‘God, he needed a nap’, he thought as he yawned wide into his elbow.

Donnie looked down at the lanolin floor as he started to walk down the hall. His mind wandered off as he got lost in the expanse of his own thoughts. However, he remained aware enough of his surroundings that he didn't walk into a wall or bump into any of the people that he had passed.

He had to remind himself to take a breath as he tried to make heads or tails of his spiralling thoughts. It had all happened so quickly and yet it had felt as if hours had gone past. Which they had, but… whatever.

Stepping onto the elevator after it had arrived and the doors had opened, he let out another yawn. This one was big enough that it had made the muscles of his jaw start to ache.

Watching as the doors started to slide shut, he jumped when a hand was abruptly thrust between them. Well, if he hadn't been awake before, he certainly was now. The doors moved back open from the sensors and in popped a face that seemed semi-familiar to the scientist.

“Professor Othello!” The man smiled toothily at the mutant and Great Galileo, how could someone be so chirpy this early in the day? “Didn't you hear me calling out to you before?”

“Uh-”

“Well, no, you probably didn't. I mean, just look at you!” Donnie frowned as the guy looked him up and down. “You're swaying on your feet like a zombie! When's the last time that you'd even slept properly, Professor? You know that a good night's rest is important for the brain-”

‘God, does this kid ever shut up?’

“- and, you know, with how important yours is, you should really be taking more care of it and-!”

“Yeah, yeah, ‘Sleep good’ and all that.” Donnie chuffed and turned to point at the keypad of different floors. “Which one are you going to?”

“Oh! Uh, ground floor for me, please.”

“Mm.” Donnie pressed that key and only that key, as he was also going to the same floor.

The softshell swayed slightly where he stood, listening half-heartedly to the music playing above them. The other person onboard with him was still talking as if the mutant turtle was even still listening.

Or maybe he just didn't care whether or not the professor was paying attention and just wanted to hear the sound of his own voice. Donnie could think of a couple of other people that he knew that were also like that.

It only took them about ten seconds give or take for their elevator to reach the surface once more, Donnie's lab having been deep underground. Although he did actually have an office up on a higher floor that overlooked a nice part of the city, he didn't spend much time up there if he didn't have to.

The doors slid open and both inhabitants exited, the softshell waving numbly to the other as they went off in different directions.

Thank whatever higher power was listening.

He stifled yet another yawn into his fist as he started to walk down the last stretch to the receptionist area of the front lobby. Moving to turn around the final corner and greet his brothers finally, the muffled sound of talking stops him in place.

“- at that reporter friend of yours had been here last night? Gah,  what was her name again?” There was a pause before the person continued. “It was a month, right?”

He thought for a moment before it clicked in his tired mind and he recognised who it was that was speaking. A snarl started to form on the mutant's face at the unwanted memory of that damned secretary. He didn't know what it was about her, but something in his gut just didn't sit right whenever he was around her.

“Uh, yeah, her name is April.”

April? Why are they talking about April for? And was that Mikey's voice just then?

“That was it! Thanks.”

Ugh.

“She was here last night?”

Mikey again.

“Hey, hadn't he been saying something the last couple of days about staying out late to help April work on something for her work?”

And that must be his beloved big brother, Raphael.

“Don't look at Raph like that! You gotta pay more attention to your surroundings Mike.”

Yup, he was right. And thank you, big brother. At least someone had been listening to him.

“Mmm. yeah, that tracks. Says here that she has been coming in the last couple of nights to see him and then leaving early in the morning with him.”

“Weird, do you think that she's still here, then?”

“Nah, says here that she had signed out of here just a bit before ‘Mr. Science’ had called you this morning. Though the person that had done her signing out had made a note about her appearing to be ‘Dishevelled’ and ‘Erratic’... Hey, maybe she knows what it is that your brother wants to talk to you two abo-!”

And there would be his cue.

“Brethren! So glad that the both of you could join me this fine noon!”

Chapter Text

“Brethren! So glad that the both of you could join me this fine noon!”

He rubbed his hands down the front of his lab coat to smooth out any wrinkles created by his dash to draw their attention. This meeting was of a sensitive nature and he didn't need that… secretary snooping around any more than she already had been.

“Donnie?” The box shell mutant turned around at the middle brother's noisy entrance. “How did you know that we were here already?”

The turtle in question looked over to the smallest t=of their - for now - trio and quirked an eyebrow. Mikey rolled his eyes at the other, remembering the unknown amount of trackers that he had stuck on them all, over the years. Especially considering how paranoid the man had gotten after semi-recent events.

“What's happening?” Raph glanced down at Sheila's whispered question and shrugged. He never was too sure of that himself.

The snapping turtle and his red-headed human friend watched as the younger two turtle mutants stared the other down. Donnie seemed to be holding eye contact with the shorter mutant rather well. However, the near-vacant and glazed-over lack of a sparkle in his eyes was probably the reason why.

Mikey seemed to be analysing each and every one of the softshell's tics and tells. He was clearly keeping a mental note of each one to use later on. Being the psychologist of the family and currently working towards his degree, the box shell deemed himself pretty good at reading everyone around him. But never as good as Leo had been.

He’d never had to read a textbook to know what someone was thinking.

He’d never had to sit in an hours-long class to know whether or not someone was lying to him.

He’d never had to study through gruelling hours that dragged on through the night to know how someone was feeling.

Leo just knew. And Mikey didn't.

“So,” the boxshell looked judgingly at his brother's shambled appearance. “Why are we here, Donnie?”

“Ah, yes.” Donnie jumped back to reality at the reminder of why he had called this meeting. “Let's head up to my office, we can wait for April to get back, there.”

“Do we need to wait for April to get back in order to find out what's happening?” Raph asked.

“Nope.” Donnie replied, popping the ‘P’ at the end.

Turning around sharply on his heel, Donnie stumbles a bit as he almost flings himself straight into the ground. Raph and Mikey's eyes widen at the sight and they both rush forward to catch him before the softshell can fall flat on his ass. He manages to right himself in time and they both breathe a sigh of relief and feel their shoulders slump.

“Good luck.” The boys look back to see Sheila offer them an encouraging smile, but her eyes tell them clearly how she was glad that she didn't have to deal with all of that herself.

‘Lucky.’ Both semi-properly conscious mutants thought as they glumly followed behind the stumbling turtle mutant.

Raph kept his hands hovering just above Donnie’s shoulders in case he decided to take another almost tumble. The snappers' eyes flickered worryingly back and forth between the softshell and Mikey. The box shell was the one to guide them to where the elevator to go up was located.

It seemed as if Donnie had not gotten a wink of proper sleep - if any at all - in the last couple of days. Which, honestly, was not all that unusual for the other mutant. But he definitely should have crashed by now. He was very likely going to as soon as the three of them finally got up to his office.

Raph smiled fondly to himself as Mikey pushed the button to call their ride to the ground floor. He ignored the box shell's side eye as he held his immediate younger brother up-right. He nodded along to the jumbled rambling the other was doing. He offered him a ‘Yeah’ or a ‘Mhm’ and the occasional ‘Is that so?’ whenever he thought it necessary.

Hearing the telltale ding and slide of the doors opening, The red-coded mutant herded the younger two inside. The eldest has had to duck his head just so in order to fit into the squished space. The elevator itself was relatively larger than most of the standardly sized ones, but given the body mass of the mutant snapping turtle in there, it wasn't very roomy for the three.

Mikey hissed in annoyance as he had to press against the mirrored wall to get any breathing room from his larger brothers. He rolled his eyes at the elders muttered apology and grunted out an ‘It's fine’ in reply. The box shell shoved a stray hair out of his eyes and looked over to the keypad of the building's floor numbers.

“Hey, uh, Dee?”

“Mmmmangie?”

“Yeah, Dee-Dee, it's me.”

“Mangie!”

Mikey rolled his eyes, again, this time towards the softshells behaviour. That's it, he doesn't care about the whining that the other is inevitably gonna do. He's taking a mandatory nap once they get up to his office, whether he wants to or not. He knows that the older one keeps a pullout couch for when he wants to pull overnighters in there.

“Yeah, bud… Mangie -” He side-eyed his oldest brother to tell him to shut up when he snickered. “- wants to know what floor your office is on.”

The softshell looked over to him with wide - but delirious - eyes. “Mmm… ‘ou doo?”

“Yeah, Dee, are you awake enough to remember?” Donnie rolled his head up to look at the ceiling and Mikey wondered if he was gonna fall over. He looked over to Raph with a raised eyebrow. “Should I hop out and ask Shei-?”

“NO!”

Both mutants jumped at the shout, having not expected it. They both stared at their middle brother as his lips lifted into a snarl and he hissed at them. He brushed Raphs hands off of him and moved over to stand in front of the keypad himself.

The other two watched as he pulled off the name tag I.D. that they forgot he always wore clipped to the right breast pocket of his lab coat. He pressed it to the scanner just below the keypad that neither had noticed before, but not without missing the mark a couple of times first.

“You don't need her. This will take us right up to the right floor.” the two watched as he yawned into a fist before re-clipping the I.D. back to the same spot as it was previously.

Straightening up his coat again, Donnie wobbled back over to Raph and climbed up into his arms. The snapper is quick to adjust his stance accordingly in order to properly support the other's sudden weight. The elevator let out a beep to signal to the inhabitants that it was finally starting to ascend.

Mikey watched as the softshell bumped his forehead against Raphs broad shoulder. He grumbled something unintelligible and his own tensed shoulders started to sag. Donnie eventually went limp in the oldest brother's hold and the snapper couldn't stop the fond smile from taking over his beak as the softshells’ breath finally evened out.

“Wow,” Raph whistled quietly. “He's out like a light.”

“Mm…” Mikey hummed in thought and looked to the wall beside him.

He stared into the eyes of his own reflection and couldn't help but get sucked into the sight. The bags on his face were rather noticeable now that he had enough quiet to actually pay attention and he frowned at that.

That dream that he had had last night that had kept him up had been horrible. And it had almost felt real, too!

That was why he was in such a bitchy mood today. He had not gotten any sleep since he had startled awake a mere couple of hours before Donnie had originally called Raphs phone this morning.

The call itself had not helped him much either, anyway. Had only ended up worsening that distinct sinking feeling in his gut, more so than before. Mikey looked up to Donnie’s own set of prominent eyebags and looked to the floor as he thought to himself.

‘Had it really been all a dream?’

~~~~~~~~

April slammed against a wall and grunted with the force of the impact. The adrenaline coursing through her veins right now stopped her from feeling the full extent of the pain that she’d likely suffer later on. But she could already tell that there would be significant scrapes and bruises littering her skin later as well.

Panicked as she was, the girl knew that she had been running too drastically and had turned the corner too late. Due to her lack of awareness of her surroundings and stupidity from her exhaustion, she had ended up sliding right into the roughly textured surface.

The haggard human leaned over and braced herself with a hand splayed over her knee and the other hand grasping at a loose rock sticking out of the wall to keep herself upright.

The wall itself looked worn enough to be over centuries old, but the girl knew that that was mostly just the architectural style that the Hidden City had been constructed in. The girl gulped in lungfuls of air as if it were an oasis in the Sahara Desert and she had been lost out in the sun for days.

Her chest hurt and she wasn't sure if it was from the overexertion or the information that she now was the unfortunate bearer of.

God, her everything hurt. Her heart hurt. Her head hurt. Her legs hurt. Her back hurt. Her. Everything. Hurt.

April pulls herself gingerly back into standing up right after a couple of minutes, a hand holding her left side as she huffs out a complaint of stitch. She manages to take a few falsely confident steps away from the wall before she takes a stumble directly into the one opposite her. A sharp yelp leaves her lips as she grapples with the worn stone for purchase.

Looking down with an accusatory expression to the ankle that now troubled her, the human girl frowned in thought. She must have either sprained or twisted the blasted thing when she had messed up on that last turn of hers.

“Damn,” she frowns, “I'm gonna have to call someone, aren't I?”

The human girl hung her head as she panted for breath, her curly hair shoved into a last-minute ponytail bobbing along with the movement. She'd been running on nothing but adrenaline and a will for answers all morning. But now that she had stopped for a moment and just took a breath, she could feel every ache and pain in her abused body start to hit her all at once.

God, her head hurt.

April placed a hand onto her sweat-covered temple and rubbed the area with the heel of her palm. Is she getting a migraine?

She must be, she hadn't managed to sleep a wink last night, too much energy coursing through her. Not that she could have anyway, given what she had learned with Donnie, but…

“ -il? ”

What?

“ - are y- … -ay? Ap- ”

Who?

She tilted her head up just so, looking around with bleary eyes for who the voice had come from. It felt familiar to her, but she felt too dizzy to make out just who the person was.

“ -pril, wha- … -oing on?… -or ey- … -owing? ”

She turned her head around to look over to her left, startled by how close the other person was. Why were they so close? Their voice had sounded so far away from her before.

The blurry figure moved towards her in a way that seemed as if they were trying to catch something. What were they doing?

What was she doing?

Had she been going somewhere? Yeah, she had been going somewhere.

But why?

Was she meeting up with someone? If she were, then who? Why couldn't she recall any of this information?

And why was her head hurting her so much?!

April opened up her mouth to say something - anything - but all that she could force out was a gurgle as she struggled to breathe. The figure in front of her jumped in what must have been worry for her.

April tried to reach out to them, tried to reassure them that she was fine. That she was alright. She just needed to catch her breath.

She just needed to breathe.

The human pushed herself off from the wall and tripped when her feet hadn't seemed to have gotten the same message to move. Warm arms wrapped around her form, holding her to a broad and soft chest as she started to choke on her own spit.

She scratched at her throat, nails digging sharply into her skin feeling numb as black started to cloud her already poor vision. When had she dropped her glasses?

It felt as if a rope had been wrapped tight around her neck. Her body writhed in the grip of someone who clearly knew her - feared for her. The rope slowly grew tighter, tighter, tighter.

She felt distantly as a small hand grasped onto her shoulder, her feet scuffing the ground, and she gasped. The small and hesitant touch triggered her into sucking in a large lungful of air harshly.

Her body constricted painfully as a bright, greenish light shot out from all around her. Shot out from her. Something had forcefully activated her Hamato Ninpō.

Where was she again?

“... Hello. ”

She turned around and… when had she stood back up?

“ Are you okay, lady? ”

The small voice directed her attention down to the small child before her and…

Oh.

Oh, god.

Chapter Text

Mikey looked up to Donnie’s own set of prominent eye bags and looked to the floor as he thought to himself.

‘ Had it really been all a dream? ’

~~~~~~~~

The elevator finally arrived at the right floor, only after what had felt like an eternity to the tired box shell. A ping rang in the small space as the two shiny, metal doors slid smoothly apart.

Ah, the joys of having both money and the government supporting you!

Mikey stepped out ahead of the other two, eager to breathe in air that wasn't full of his brother's stink. He looked up to stare at the bland and white ceiling as he waited for Raph to lumber his way out after him. A thump and the sound of whispered cursing dragged his attention back over to the older two.

He watched as the oldest mutant moved the grumbling softshell’s head back to where it was lying on his shoulder. A barrage of softly muttered apologies could be heard flowing out of the snapper's beak.

Donnie must have slipped down some from all of the others jostling about. Then the snapper (not having been mindful enough) had slammed the younger's forehead right into the elevator doorway as he had exited.

“Shit! Sorry, little bro. Sorry.”

The box shell watched over the two with uninterested and tired eyes. He wasn't all that worried about the softshell having been injured. He’ll most likely only be a little sore later. But it was nothing that the youngest had felt that he should have been too concerned about for the time being.

Mikey waits for the eldest to calm his brotherly worry down before turning away. He hears Don let out a huffy grumble. The sound of fabric being ruffled settles down and Mikey glances back out of the corner of his eye to see that the softshell had laid his head against the snapper's shoulder, a hand gripping onto his sleeveless hoodie.

Raph looks down at him and can't stop the pleased rumble that emits from his chest at the sight. It reminded him of when they were all younger. Before they had met and integrated April into their weird little family, even.

Of how his younger baby brothers would always run and cling to him with need and want whenever their father seemed to be absent from the lair. In both the physical and mental sense of the word. Raph’s fond smile faltered just so at the thought before the smallest had caught his attention.

Mikey snockered when the sound reached his ears and ducked just in time to avoid getting a slap up the back of his head from the red-faced elder. Turning back around, the mutant started walking down the hall to where he remembered Donnie's office being.

He ignored the tallers’ mumbled warning to be careful of where he was going. Staring him right in the eye, the shorter shot the snapper a cocky look. Placing his arms up and folding them behind his head, he begins to taunt the other.

“What's wrong, Raphie?” He looks up into the elders' tired eyes with a smirk. “Reflexes slowing down in your old age?”

“Micheal.” Raph growled, an unspoken threat hanging on the tip of his tongue, warning the younger to knock it off.

“Rapheal.” The box shell countered, mimicking the tone the other used as he was tired enough to stupidly try pushing the buttons of someone who could easily squash him like a bug.

“... an’ ‘onnie..! ”

Both of them stopped their impromptu staring contest to look over at the softshell. He stared with unfocused eyes at the air just next to where Mikey's head was. A content and lopsided smile lit up his face and one arm was held triumphantly up in the air.

He stayed like that for another second before he dropped back into his sleep like nothing had even happened. The remaining two just silently stared at him for a moment longer.

“... Oo-kay?” Mikey drawled the word out before his eyes flicked up to glance at the snapper's face.

Having found that the bigger mutant was already watching him, he turned to stare at the wall next to him instead. He felt as if all instinct to fight had drained out of him after the softshells' well-timed interruption of utter delirium.

Normally, the youngest wouldn't have been so quick to snap his teeth at his brother, but he had just felt so damn on edge lately. There was just some inkling in the back of his mind that something was going to happen - That something was already happening - but he just didn't know what.

He didn't know what it was that he should be preparing for. He didn't know what kind of signs or clues he should be keeping an eye out for. He didn't know what people could be a friend or a foe to him. And what made it all the worse was that he didn't even know why it was that he was even feeling like this!

He was even starting to unconsciously push his family away from him because of it. The mutant felt as if everything was going to come to a head sooner rather than later. Looking up to see the way that the expression that Don ‘donned’ in his sleep pinched his face, led him to believe that he was not alone in feeling this way.

Mikey perked up a little as a thought suddenly came to him. He raked his eyes over a poster hung up on the wall in front of him, noting that it was only promoting a positive work environment.

Because, hey, what if that feeling of foreboding darkness filling up his chest and flooding his mind was in some way related to Dee’s problem? The thought sure does do some good in easing the pressure in his head and the weight on his shoulders.

Just the mere idea that he was not alone was enough for him to start to feel better about himself. That he was oh so close to finally getting some much-deserved answers to his yet-to-be-asked questions. Asked aloud, at least. But, he won't say anything about it until someone else were to say something about it first.

Without turning his head back around to face Raph, Mikey starts to walk further down the hall. He doesn't say anything to him, either. Even though he could just feel the persistent burn of the oldest’s eyes on the back of his head. Despite this, he keeps his eyes downcast towards the tiled lanolin floor.

Following the patterns under his feet, he fails to take notice of the footsteps quickly approaching him. That is until he ends up slamming his person straight into that of another.

“Mike, watch out-!”

“Ow!”

“Shi- sorry! So sorry.”

Mikey rubbed at his forehead as he stumbled back a few paces. Hissing at the sting, he glanced up to see what he had just run into. Or- rather… who he had just run into.

The box shell mutants’ eyes travelled up the broad chest in front of him to make eye contact with the person that he had just rammed into head first. Feeling taken aback by the sheer height of the other, Mikey felt as his eyes widened. He stepped another two steps back to get a better look at the face of the man and deduced that he was probably of Japanese descent.

This guy just had to be over six feet tall. He was definitely taller than Mikey, as the boxshell had to tilt his head up in order to make eye contact. But he was probably not taller than Donnie and he was absolutely nowhere near reaching Raph’s height.

Fluffy black hair was tied up into a messy and surely rushed bun on top of his head. The volume of the hair led Mikey to believe that it would have fallen down to just below his shoulder blades when left to hang. He couldn't help but to frown when this stranger kind of reminded him of a human Leo.

At least, if it weren't for the nerves that seemed to wrack down the poor kids' frame as clear as day. The guy kind of even resembled what Dad had looked like back in his Lou Jitsu days.

The guy threw his arms up in front of him and just started verbally spewing out rushed apology after apology to the shorter. “Hey man, wow, I’m- I’m so sorry. I didn't even see you there, I should have been paying better attention to the path ahead of me-”

Mikey opened and closed his beak a couple of times as he tried to take in all of what the other was saying. His voice was shaky and rushed, the words stringing close together.

The shorters’ mind finally caught up to him and he shook his head. He tried to clear his thoughts before he went to interrupt the others' word vomit and reassure him that it all was fine and dandy.

“Oh, no, no, you're alright. It’s fine, it was my fault.” He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck and tilted his head back to shoot an apologetic look at the taller human. “I hadn't been paying attention at all to where I was going like I should have been, so you're not the one in the wrong, I am .”

The Asian man stuttered out the start of a rebuttal before giving in and finally (Read: reluctantly) accepting the turtle mutant's words. The box shell watched as the human fixed the black and thickly-rimmed glasses sitting lopsided on his face. They must have been knocked askew when the two of them had collided with one another.

“Yes, well, I suppose so- uh, Professor Othello? ” The man turned his gaze to just behind Mikey with a confused expression on his face.

“Huh, what?”

Mikey turned around to see Donnie's head swish back and forth after he had snored a little louder and snorted himself awake. The softshells' eyes finally landed on the… intern? Maybe? and lit up in misplaced recognition after a moment of staring. Raph stumbled to fasten his hold on his brother as he had almost thrown himself out of the snapper's arms and onto the floor as he jumped to point at the kid.

“Ah! Johnny, my boy!”

“That's not even close…” The guy huffed and mumbled under his breath, seeming a little taken aback by the mutants' behaviour.

“Johnny, John-John, I need you too …” Donnie held a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn before continuing. “I need you to… alphabetize the samples!! ”

Mikey watched as the kid blinked slowly, like a cat almost. He also watched as what the other had said finally caught up to him and his face had morphed into an expression of confusion.

“Uh…” He looked at Mikey for an example for any kind of an explanation and the boxhell just offered him a shrug in return. “Profes-”

*SNORE*

Whatever he had been about to say was interrupted by Donnie, once again, falling back asleep. Raph sighed in the way that only a father who was tired of his kids' bullshit could and readjusted the hold he had on his little brother once more. “Nah, don't worry about him. He’s just a bit, uh…” He glanced down at Don's face and back to the intern. “A lot tired, that's all.”

“Yeah, we’re just on our way to his office to put him to bed.” Mikey took notice of how he furrowed his eyebrows at that and moved to further clarify for him. “No, like, he has a pullout couch in there. Workaholic.”

“Ah.” The softshell dubbed ‘Johnny-boy’ gave a short nod in understanding. “I’ll uh, just leave you to it, then.”

The kid bent down to the floor and started gathering up the papers that had been scattered around his feet. And there were a lot of them too, so both of the mutants present had felt surprised not to have noticed that the kid had even held them before. Let alone that he had dropped them when he and Mikey had run into one another.

The boxshell’s body jerked as if it were trying to offer the human his help on instinct. Realising what he was doing, he stopped before his hand could reach out too far, or his knees could bend too low and just stared at him.

He wanted to help the other. Truly, he did! But for some reason that he couldn't quite understand, his brain was telling him that it was unnecessary.

There were very few pages left scattered around and it felt useless now to even try. That didn't stop him from feeling awkward just standing there and staring down at the other, though.

A frown formed on his beak as the guy finally picked up the last slip of paper and he quickly wiped it away as the kid looked up from the floor. The mutant awkwardly thrust his arm closer to the inter below him as he moved to stand up, offering him a hand up. ‘Johnny’ froze at the sight of the green-scaled limb outstretched towards his face suddenly and hesitated.

His eyes looked as if he were fighting some kind of internal war that showed to the box shell through the slight frown of his lips. He seemed to realise that he was taking a second too long to respond when Raph let out a cough, feeling the tension in the air.

He quickly wiped any trace of that moment of distrust from his face, covering it up with an almost faked smile. If Mikey hadn't been standing so close to the other, he likely wouldn't have seen the intern's change in expression for himself.

He grasped onto Mikey's hand tightly and hauled himself up and onto his feet with a grunt. Although he had used the box shell as an anchor of sorts, he acted almost as if he hadn't even needed the slightest bit of help at all.

As if the exertion and the effort that he had acted like it had taken, had been nothing but merely putting on a show for the mutants present before him. Letting go of the turtle's hand, he dusts himself off with his one free hand and then straightens out his papers and lab coat.

Mikey takes a step back and looks down at the hand that the kid had grasped onto previously with wide eyes. The kid, as shaky as a leaf and as lanky as a pole as he appeared, his grip had said otherwise. The boxshell looked from the palm of his hand, to the kid and back again.

He must be too tired for his mind to properly comprehend anything at the moment. That was the only explanation. That was the only explanation that he could accept.

“Uh, thanks… man! And, uh-” ‘Johnny’ gave a solitary finger gun and a look Raphs way before he finally left. “Good luck with… that.”

“Yeah, thanks, we’ll be needing it.” Raph waved goodbye to the intern as he walked away and towards the elevator, sparring neither a glance. The snapper looked down to where Donnie was drooling onto him, ignorant of the internal plight that Mikey was currently facing. “Right, let's get this guy to his office, Mi- Mike?”

Finally looking over the youngest, the Alligator snapper mutant couldn't help but be stopped in his tracks. Mikey remained standing still in the same place as before. He was muttering some kind of gibberish under his breath that the older couldn't make heads or tails of.

But if he had grabbed a closer look at the shorter mutant, he would have taken notice of the slightest of trembles in his knees. He would have seen the mix of confusion and mild fear in his stare. The tenseness of his shoulders. The faintest glow of mystics swirling inside of his slitted irises.

Instead, Raph looked down at his youngest little brother and saw just how exhausted the other must be. He saw the darkening bags sitting right underneath his eyes. The growing slouch in his frame. The paleness of his scales - likely from a lack of both sleep and exposure to proper sunlight.

As well as the fact that the boxshall just looked about five seconds away from passing out right then and there.

Sighing, he moved Donnie around so that he could hold him in one arm more comfortably for the both of them and held the other out towards Mikey. Placing it onto the top curve of his shell, he started to guide the mutant.

His feet seemed to be stuck in place for a moment before he eventually put one foot in front of the other. But not without a bit of coaxing from the snapper first. Raph frowned as the Boxshells shuffled steps appeared to be more sluggish than what would have been necessary.

Yeah, Raph was gonna have to make him take a nap with Donnie, his wants be damned.

The alligator snapper shuffled his way down the rest of the hall and then around the corner. His speed slowed down from both the weight in his arms and having to keep Mikey from mindlessly bumping into anything.

The smaller mutant moved like a zombie stuck on an auto-pilot. His eyes were set on the floor and his arms hung limply by his sides. He looked like some kind of haunted marionette.

Honestly, Raph was starting to feel concerned for the shorter. He had stopped mumbling under his breath for the time being at least. But he still didn't react much, other than to let out the occasional grunt and/or hum.

Stopping the Box Shell from walking straight into a potted plant, he sighs. He looks up to the path ahead and feels his shoulders relaxing at the sight of a familiar door. Finally, Raph could stop toting around his little brothers everywhere. Well, for now. God only knows that he would have to (Willingly) do this again and again.

He grabbed Mikey by the shoulder with a firm hand, halting him in place. And just in time too it seems, as the mutant was about to walk into another person. He offers a small nod in apology towards the worker, his smile awkward as he cringed inwardly while they passed one another.

He watched as they side-eyed the three of them before they turned the corner and fully disappeared from being in the snappers' line of sight. Staring after them a little longer, the mutant let out a breath that he had not realised he had been holding in.

He could only imagine just what kind of a… unique sight he and his brothers might have made up to anyone that were to run into them.

Turning back to the door, he looked up to read the nameplate stuck to the painted white wood. Reading ‘ Prof. Othello ’ in bold, black lettering on the golden label, he looked around to other doors down the hall. He couldn't help but think that this place almost seemed to look like some kind of an apartment building.

If he hadn't known any better, he probably would have believed that that was what it was, himself. He quickly checked that Mikey was still standing upright next to him before finally grabbing a hold of the door handle.

Letting the handle go, he allowed the door to swing open wide. He put a hand on the small of Mikey's back and gently guided him inside of the room. He took a look around the room to find where the couch was. He looked over to the left and saw a black wall covered almost completely with a large carpet-to-ceiling-sized bookcase.

He laughed at the sight, because it was just such a donnie thing for the softshell to have one. He turned his head to the right and closed the door behind him with a click.

He smiled when he found the couch sitting there against the opposite wall. It was an old-looking piece of furniture. Not in the way that it looked ratty and worn, but just that it looked like something one would find inside of their grandmother's sitting room.

Placing Don down on the ground gently,  he moves over to the couch. He inspects the aforementioned piece of furniture before pulling all of the cushions off. Throwing them onto the floor behind him, He takes in what that leaves him with.

Seeing the bottom of the folded-up mattress, he reaches in and grabs onto the fabric handles stitched into the back. Pulling on them, he lifts the mattress up and out of its hidey-hole. He doesn't let go of it until he is sure that it is situated in place and won't just slide back in once he has let go.

He reaches over to the top facing the ceiling and grabs onto the folded-up legs that keep it from hitting the floor. Pulling those out towards himself, he lets it fall to the ground as he starts to unfold the bed out.

He does the same thing two more times until it is all done and stands back. He places his fisted hands on his hips with a huff and stares at the barren bed with a frown. Where does Donnie keep the blankets and pillows for this thing?

Glancing around himself, he spies a door on the other side of the couch to him and right next to a large window. He walks over and opens up the door. Sticking his head inside to see a bathroom instead of the supply closet that he had been hoping for, he lets out a light grumble. Shaking his head, he closes the door and sighs while leaning his forehead against its surface.

A flicker of light flashing in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned to the left to stare out the window. His eye searches the landscape before him before landing on a billboard a block or four away.

He didn't remember seeing it the last time that he had been up here, so he figured that it must have been installed recently. The sun must have been caught on a piece of its metal framing and that was what he had seen.

A tired eye roams over the base of the structure before it travels up to look at the image displayed. He wonders why Donnie had not mentioned something like this going up. He definitely would have complained to them about something new being put up that would have ‘totally blocked off his perfect view of the skyline’ and… oh.

That's why.

It had taken a moment longer than it really should have for his brain to register having seen his own face. Younger, but it was still him. Him and his brothers. Him and his two brothers. Yeah, Don probably wouldn't have mentioned that. It must have been the cause for all of the other's recent late nights as well.

The softshell did always have that little self-destructive habit of throwing himself into his work in order to distract himself. He and Leo both, if he was remembering things right.

He turned up to the ceiling and blinked a few times. He waited for a moment for the misting that had gathered against his will in his one good eye to dissipate before turning his attention back inside the room. He looked over the state of his brothers before his line of sight caught onto a third door.

It was closest to the one that had originally led the trio entry into the office and so he had missed it before. What with him being preoccupied with setting his brothers off to the side and out of the way. And then with figuring out how to turn the couch, from a couch and into a bed.

Walking back over to the other side of the room, he flinched as a floorboard creaked loudly under his heavy foot. With his shoulders hunched up to his ears, he hesitantly glanced over to the other two. Mikey was still as unreactive as a zombie without the ability to hear. That made him a little concerned for the other, actually. He frowned and looked down to the floor next to where the boxshell stood.

Doing so showed him that Donnie was also still in the same state he had last seen him in, snoring away peacefully. Bent over like an inchworm, ass in the air with his coat partially over his head and drooling onto his neon purple rug as if nothing had happened. He let out a sigh and carefully tiptoed the rest of the way to finally reach the (What he hoped to be, as he was running out of options) closet door.

He stops and carefully places his hand onto the handle. He puts a little pressure on the handle and, second by second, pulls it down. He jerked the handle a couple of times to make sure that it was down as far as it would go. Slowly, he started to pull open the door, the hinges screaming out loudly their protest at the mutants' action.

Raph panicked at the sudden noise and wrenched the door completely open in one full swing of his arm. Letting go of the handle on instinct to cover his ears sent the door flying into the wall next to it. Not ‘Off its hinges’ kind of flying, but the ‘Smashing into a wall at full force with a loud bang’ kind of flying.

The snapper froze at the sound, having been caught off guard by just how loud the bang had been. He could swear that he had even felt the floor shake a little bit. And he knew that he saw the door itself vibrate from the force. Which was a shock, as the door looked like it was made of a very stable feeling wood.

His eyes went wide as he slowly turned his head around to send a weary glance over to his brothers. When he saw that they had made no change from their previous positions, he felt his shoulders untense.

The alligator snapper let out a sigh of relief that the two appeared unbothered. He was both glad and a little concerned that the noise had not seemed to have disturbed the two of them at all.

“Donnie has gotta oil that thing.” He said with a scowl that dissipated when the mutant in question let out a snore that was significantly louder and sighed. “Nah, I'll just do it for him later.”

He turned back around to face the door and hesitated while peeling it off of the wall. He really didn't want to see the damage that he had done. But he would have to do it eventually and so he thought it would be better to get it over and done with now rather than later.

He sucked in some air through his teeth and peeled open his good eye to look at the wall. When he saw that no damage had been done at all, he straightened up his back and dropped his shoulders back down.

Pinching the bridge of his snout, Raph sighed in resignation. He started rummaging around all of the bits and bobs that occupied the supply closet. Or, ‘Supply closet’, more like it. That was if you could even call a couple of thin blankets, a purple weighted blanket, and two flat - flat - pillow supplies. And was that a -

“- half-eaten box of crackers? Donnie… ” Raph sighed. It's just like back when they were kids all over again, except only now they were all bigger than before. At least it was all good practice for the future and everything.

Ignoring the crackers - which he would have to talk to the softshell about later - he started pulling stuff out. He piled all of it together onto the floor as he started to think about how to layer it all on the bed. Maybe if he put down one of the blankets as a bottom sheet and put the other one with the weighted blanket on top of it.

Oh, wait, there are already sheets put onto the mattress. Huh. handy. Welp, that solves that issue, then. Now, onto the pillows.

Raph picked them up and sighed. These were too thin to do the younger two any good on their own. But it didn't look like there were any others left inside of the closet still. So that means that he was stuck working with the ones that he had in hand.

Ack, he would have to have a talk with Donnie about that too, then. He sighed to himself as he added it to a mental list he had made of all the things he would fix himself instead of bothering the younger with it.

The snapper muttered something unintelligible under his breath for his ears alone to hear. He moved closer to the bed and situated everything to the best of his abilities. It looked… okay, but there was just something still missing from the final picture…-!

Oh!

The couch cushions!

That's what it was!

Those are supposed to go on the back there at the top of the mattress. They covered up the gap between the mattress and the back of the couch and acted like a headboard. Or something to that degree.

Moving the large pillows from off of where they had been discarded onto the floor prior had also revealed a couple of smaller pillows. They must have been on the couch as decoration or something. The twins had always had a shared interest in interior design.

Raph could never really grasp the concept of that subject well enough to understand all that the two would rant loudly about to one another. At the odd hours of both day and night, much to the chagrin of everyone within earshot of whatever room they occupied at the time.

Raph picked them up, noting how soft and smooth the fabric felt as he ran his callous-covered hand through the fluff. He placed them carefully at the head of the bed. He moved them around until they fit in a way that the fretting snapper had hoped would end up being comfortable enough for the younger mutants to rest in.

Stepping back, he grabbed the chance to take in and admire his work. He made it a point to stubbornly ignore that part of his hindbrain that was complaining about the nest he had made being lacking in many aspects.

Feeling that he was plenty satisfied with the results, he quietly crept over to the other two. He decided to deal with Donnie first and picked him up, off of the ground and into his arms. The softshell continued to snore away undisturbed as he was heaved up into strong, yet gentle, green arms.

Raph made sure to be as gentle as he could when dropping Donnie onto the bed, making sure that he was lying on his stomach. Not for him to sleep like that, no.

It was only so that it would be easier for the snapper to take off his lab coat, shoes, and any other accessories that could impact the quality of the softshell's much-needed sleep. It was all a quick and painless affair, the softshell barely letting out a grumble at all as he was jostled about.

However, actually getting him situated inside of the bed was gonna be a whole other story in itself. Raph rolled him over so that he lay on the other side of the pullout bed by flipping him over about two times. Like a pancake, heh.

Once he was out of the way, the elder pulled back the blankets so that he could place the younger underneath.

He shuffled the pillows around until he felt satisfied enough that the softshell would be comfortable with the arrangement and reached over the bed. He rolled Donnie over another two times so that he was lying back in his original spot.

The snapper looked down at the frown on the grumbling - though still sleeping - mutant's face and chuckled. It was always a challenge to get the other to go to sleep. But when the softshell slept, he slept.

Now, Mikey, on the other hand. The box shell was both easier and harder than their middle brother had been to manoeuvre about.

Raph had pulled the blankets back on the still unoccupied side and fixed the pillows before he'd moved to guide the youngest over. He'd taken off the cardigan and pulled the tie out of his hair before he eased him into sitting down. He pulled off his flip-flops and threw them down onto the floor somewhere near where he had placed Donnie's own pair of shoes.

After that, he gently moved the mutant about until he lay down on his shell. Then, he pulled the blankets back over the top of him, tucked them in around his sides and fluffed the pillows behind his head just a little bit more. He looked down at his handy work and nodded to himself in approval of what he had managed to get done.

Moving to walk back around to do the same thing to Donnie, a quiet voice just catching his ear stopped him.

“...aph…?”

Turning back around to glance at Mikey showed that the box shell had broken from his trance some. He looked down at his barely open eyes and couldn't stop the fond smile from creeping up onto his face.

“Don't worry, Mikey. Just go to sleep.” He watched as the shorter eyes slipped closed, too tired to try and fight off his exhaustion any longer. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, letting out a churr as he did so. “Sleep tight, little bro.”

After that, he went and did the same thing for Donnie as well. He tucked the blankets in around him, fluffed his pillows a bit and pressed a kiss to the back of his head.

He softly churred out another good night for the softshell. Despite the fact that it was actually still only about mid-day at the moment.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~

Her body constricted painfully as a bright, greenish light shot out from all around her. Shot out from her. Something had forcefully activated her Hamato Ninpō.

Where was she again?

“ ... Hello .”

She turned around and… when had she stood back up?

“Are you okay, lady? ”

The small voice directed her attention down to the small child before her and…

Oh.

Oh, god.

~~~~~~~~

April couldn't help but stare down with a blank, wide-eyed look on her face. A mixture of shock and confusion swelled inside of her chest at the sight of the child.

The small child.

The small, very young child.

Oh god, why was there a child there??

This was the spirit world, a gateway to the afterlife of the Hamato clan. Why the hell would there be a child here? And why did this kid look like-?

“April.”

The human shook herself out of the deep recesses of her mind at the call of her name. Turning around to search for the source, she finds herself coming face to face with the tired eyes of one Hamato Karai and flinched. The woman looked so exhausted.

Too exhausted, given that the woman could be considered properly dead dead for over half a decade now. Was it even possible for someone who was a spirit to even experience exhaustion?

“April, I am sorry. ”

“Huh?” The girl blinked at the spirit, curious as to what she felt the need to apologise to her for. She took a brief note of the elders' shambled appearance and tried to reach out a comforting hand to her. “Gra-”

“But I just did not know what to do with myself anymore! ”

The spirit of her adoptive family's ancestor interrupted her with a shout. The woman seemed to act as if she hadn't heard the human starting to speak to her at all. April snapped her mouth shut and allowed the other to continue with her rant as she lowered her hand back down to her side.

‘Girl looked as if she was in major need of a good venting session, any-swizzle. ’ April thought as she gave the other a sympathetic frown.

“It's all just been so much! I mean - ” Karai ran a hand through her hair - or at least she tried to, as when she did, her fingers only ended up getting tangled into the knotted bird's nest on top of her head. “ - the whole thing with my father, and him making a deal with that damn devil, and then me having to lock myself away with that husk of a man in order to protect everyone!? I never had any time for kids!! ”

April jumped as the woman suddenly lunged for her. Getting a good grasp on the collar of the white button-up shirt underneath her yellow sweater, the spirit began to shake her back and forth. And rather vigorously, at that.

She would be more concerned about the movement snapping her neck if she were in her actual body right now.

“I don't know how to take care of one, I am not equipped for this! Maybe physically one could argue that I was, but I am most certainly not able to handle this shit on a mental level! ”

April tried to get a bearing on her surroundings, starting to feel a tad dizzy from all of the shaking. The spirit, however, ignored this as she continued to yell right in the young woman's face. She noticed that a tinge of crazy was starting to form in her eyes.

“And certainly not one who is still alive! At least if she were here because she had died, then I wouldn't have to be so stressed out about accidentally killing the kid for real! OR! Or, I wouldn't have to worry about the kid accidentally killing herself!!  She just puts everything in her mouth! Everything! Is it always like this? ” She stopped violently shaking the human's soul for a moment just to look off to the side, her eyes half-glazed over as if she were suddenly a person possessed. “I have to go and apologize to my father, I must have been so similar as a child myself… ”

April took the chance to slip out of the spirits loosened hold. She chuckled nervously as if her movement would startle the woman in front of her.

When she didn't offer even a flinch at the fabric being pried out of her hands, April decided that it would be better to just leave her where she was. The dead can't die twice, right?

She wiped the sweat off of her forehead and looked around herself. She spotted the child from before and couldn't stop her heart from breaking at the sight. Not that the small thing seemed to be upset or anything, she actually looked to be quite content, chewing on a… random… plant..!

Okay, maybe she can see why now that the spirit had been so distraught earlier.

But it was just… that the kid looked so much like -!

“Is the old lady gonna die? ”

The small voice, slightly muffled by the stick she was still chomping on between her teeth, caught April's attention. She leaned down enough to rest her hands against her bent knees as she addressed the kids' questions. “Ah, no, hun. She is… already kind of… mm… dead. ”

“Oh… ” Why did she look so disappointed at that? “Then are you gonna die? Am I dead?! ”

“Wel-”

“No, no, that would make Ma mad.” April opened and closed her mouth as the… toddler? - how old even was this kid? - mumbled away to herself. “Well I’m mad at Ma, so I don't care that it would upset Ma! Don't tell my Ma that I said that.”

April nodded wordlessly at the small child's request - or rather, her demand - as she turned and pointed a finger right at her with her tone matter of fact. Satisfied by the human's answer, the child turned and started to march away from the two adults. As if sensing the child's coming absence, Karai whips her head around at a concerning speed and shoots a pointed look at the kid's back.

“Hey! ” She yelled. “Where do you think you are going! ”

The kid stopped and turned around to look at her, back the way she had been heading and then back to Karai while pointing behind her. “That way? ”

April couldn't help the little giggle that escaped her at the expression on the little girl's face. It just screamed ‘Are you stupid or just dumb?’ and it was so similar to the one that Leo had always worn himself whenever someone asked him some dumb medical question. Mainly with regards to Raph and his nut allergy and what he could and couldn't put in his body.

“No! ” April flinched, caught off guard by the unexpected screech in the elder's voice. She shook her head.

“‘No’? ” the child parroted back.

“That's right! I said no! ” Karai put her hands on her hips with a huff, pulled her shoulders back and straightened her stance, standing her ground against the small creature that she could very easily punt like a football. “You can't go that way! ”

The child stared at her for a moment before sharply spinning on her heel and, once more, walking away from the two adults. The human watched as the spirit screamed and grabbed two fistfuls of her hair, her jagged from being gnawed on fingernails getting tangled up in the many, many knots that she had accumulated.

The spirit ground her teeth together in frustration at the child's behaviour. She was doing it with enough force that it left the human feeling worried her teeth would turn to dust had she still been alive. Feeling like now would probably be a good time for someone to step in, that someone being the only other soul around, April spoke up before the spirit could go and somehow do some kind of physical damage to her ghostly persona.

“Hey! Uh… what's your name?”

“My name? ” The child tilted her head off to the side with a thoughtful look for a second before turning back with a bland look. “Flytrap. ”

“What.” April froze at the little kids' answer.

This kid couldn't possibly be serious about that being her name, right?  The kid couldn't have actually been given the name ‘Flytrap’, right? Right?

The human shifted to take the briefest of glances at the spirit to get a confirmation of her thoughts. The woman stared at the child with an expression of annoyance, yet she said nothing to dispute this new piece of information.

April looked back at the child - Flytrap, apparently - and took a mental note of the youth's body language. Calm, cool and collected. No sign of a prank or a slowly building childish giggle of mischief in sight on the kid's face.

‘Oh god, ’ April thought to herself with a face of disbelief. ‘This kid's name really was Flytrap, wasn't it? ’

“Uh, alright then.” The human coughed into her fist, feeling the awkward tension that lingered in the air thicken as no one said anything.

Flytrap scoffed and rolled her eyes - god, this kid had an attitude on her. Where was she even fitting all of this audacity? “Did you need something, lady? ”

“Yeah,” she pointed a thumb at the spirit still quietly seething away somewhere behind her. “Grams over there mentioned something earlier along the lines of you…” April threw up some quotation marks. “'Still being alive’? Why are you here, then, if you aren't dead?”

Flytrap clicked her tongue and glanced between her and the Karai. The level of precision and assessment in the eyes of a child so young put April a bit more on edge than she had been before. That just wasn't the kind of gaze that a child should ever have to possess.

As the child attempted to stare into the heart of her soul with her piercing eyes, the human felt as a bead of sweat rolled down the back of her neck. April released a breath she hadn't even noticed she had been holding in as the child finally moved her gaze elsewhere. The kid clicked her tongue once more and stared off into the distance at god only knows what.

“Dunno. ” She shrugged.

‘Informative. ’ April huffed at the younger's empty answer. Beginning to feel irritant, April moved to try and ask her questions from a different angle. “Well then, do you happen to know how you ended up here?”

The kid gave her nothing but a lazy shrug as an answer this time around and began to lightly pick at the fraying hem of her dress. April stopped her silent fuming to suck it up and finally get in a good look at the kid. She looked closely at the little one's physical appearance.

Her black hair was a mess and April was only just able to make out two little pigtail plaits barely holding together on either side of her head amongst the mess. It was short, mostly straight with a bit of a curl to it and - if she could just give the kid a bath with shampoo and conditioner - rather soft, smooth and fluffy looking.

She had little tufts of hair sticking out every which way and a handful of twigs and leaves tangled into her birdnest of a hair doo. Noting that it still didn't look as bad as Karais did, she made a mental reminder to try and redo it later after the kid had calmed down enough to accept the older’s touch and moved to study her face.

The poor girl looked so tired, with too large bags for someone her age sitting underneath her eyes and dampening the red crescent moons that sat on her face. The kid looked as if she had just taken a good old dirt bath right before April had been brought here. Her clothes were almost completely coated in the stuff and muted the seemingly otherwise bright colours of the girl's clothing.

Pale yellow fabric scrunched up around her elbows from where her sleeves had been purposefully rolled up. It must have been done by her guardian, maybe that ‘Ma’ person that she had mentioned earlier, as it looked too neat and proper to have been done by the kid herself. The shirt itself seemed as if it were likely a few sizes too big given the way that it hung off of her little shoulders.

Over the top of that sat a worn-out, light blue denim dungaree dress. The skirt of her dress had two little pockets on either side with what looked like little flowers sewn along the opening, as if they were real and sitting inside of a vase. April looked lower and noticed that there were also small flowers lining the bottom hem of the skirt.

Underneath her skirt clung a pair of pink, dirty leggings. The knees were ripped and a little bloody, as if she had fallen down recently and hurt herself. And if the way that she shuffled around while favouring one leg more than the other, it at least still ached a noticeable amount.

This shuffling had led her gaze down to stare at the kid's bare feet. She could only feel sympathy filling her with how ruffled up the appearance of the little girl before her looked.

Moving away from her analysis of the kids' clothing with a tsk sound, April decided to try and get a read on the body language the kid showed in front of her.

How her shoulders were tensed up and stiff. How she made it a point to avoid making eye contact with either of the two grown-ups within her current vicinity. The tight frown she had etched somewhat permanently onto her face. How she didn't seem to have the capability to just sit still and not move for more than ten seconds in a row.

She noticed that the kid always seemed to have her hands busy doing one thing or another. How she twiddled her little thumbs together or felt around the heming of her dress. How she went and picked at the stick she still held absentmindedly in one of her hands.

The human's eyes flickered over to the side just enough to catch sight of a stuffed toy clutched tightly between the elbow of her other arm and held against her side. A rat, if she were to be more specific. Wearing what looked to be a crudely made robe, a dirty and brown and rugged-looking thing that it was, but a rat nonetheless.

Having decided that she had seen enough, the human let out a sigh and started to make her way closer to the kid. She frowned at how the girl still blatantly refused to look at her.

She would have assumed that she hadn't heard the elders approach, if not for the obvious full body flinch and guarded flick of her long tail that clearly stated the opposite. Stooping down in front of her, she crouched to both make herself seem smaller and to get on an eye-to-eye level with the kid.

Flytrap let out a huff as the adult entered her immediate vicinity. She turned her back to the other as much as she could do without coming full circle and ending up face-to-face with the strange lady again. Not doing or saying anything that could show she acknowledged the bigger presence, she turned her gaze down to the toy held in her arms with a wobble to her bottom lip.

She sniffed stubbornly as she started to feel annoyance sinking in as the stranger had not seemed to have taken her silence as the answer she had intended for it to be. The human either had not gotten the girl's hint or she had deliberately ignored it and Flytrap didn't know which of those options had caused her to feel more frustration.

The adult remained in that position, crouched in the one spot behind her and silent. The atmosphere was quiet enough that she could hear as her own heartbeat pumped away in her little ears. At least, she could kind of make it out if she focused on blocking out the crazed ramblings of the ghostly woman standing further behind the two of them.

April glanced back to Karai and watched as she started to pace back and forth with her hands grabbing at her hair. She clicked her tongue and determined that the woman would be okay enough for her to try and have a decent one-on-one talk with the kid.

Thinking that this might take a while longer, April let herself flop back and land on her butt with an ‘oomph’. She winced and rubbed at her tailbone as she had landed on it rather harder than she had intended to. Deeming that nothing had been broken, she folded her legs underneath her so that she now sat crisscross applesauce.

“So,” she said, hoping to get the kids' attention on her and frowned when it didn't work, turning her head to the side with a mumble. “How do you talk to young kids again?”

Flytrap remained facing the other way, physically appearing as if she were ignoring the human behind her. Her little ears, however, were kept trained on every word that was uttered out of the woman's mouth. A trick that she had picked up on and copied from her dear mother, given just how often her parents would pick on each other and fight (both mockingly and in seriousness) in front of her.

She looked down and picked at the fraying fabric covering the stuffed teddy now lying in her lap as she sat on her feet. The toy didn't belong to her and she should not have taken it without permission, but there was nothing that could be done about that now.

She stared into the beady little black button eyes stitched onto its face and had to actively try and hold back the whimper that desperately wanted out at the reminder of her mother. Oh, how angry her mother would be with her when she got back home.

If she ever got back home, that was.

“- your hair?”

Flytrap flinched at the interruption of her inner sad thoughts. Her head whipped around and she faced the human and stared at her with wide eyes from being caught off guard.

“What did you just say? ”

“Uh, I just asked if you wanted me to, ah,” the woman gestured to her own head of hair while staring at the amalgamation of twigs and leaves still tangled glaringly obvious with their strange colours on top of the kid's head. “Fix your hair?”

Flytrap's stare was unwavering as her brain worked on processing what had just been asked of her. A small hand slowly made its way up to the top of her head before she realised that she had even made a move at all.

She tried to attempt running her fingers through the kid's hair as best she could with half of it still managing to somehow stay tied up. The pads of her fingertips didn't even need to touch down on the top of her head before she was pulling back with a leaf in tow. She brought her hand down with the leaf in tow to be level with her eyes and stared at it.

April watched as the kid moved about silently. She felt herself start to grow a bit concerned with the distinct lack of youthful snark being handed to her.

Looking off to the side, she caught sight of Karai's mental breakdown out of the corner of her eye. She watched as the woman went and snatched up the spirit of some small hand-sized animal by the scruff of its neck and started raving to it. She chewed on her bottom lip and thought that maybe she was pushing her luck a tad by asking to do the kid's hair.

Beginning to rethink her course of action, April opened up her mouth to try and take it back before she felt something solid thumping on the ground an inch away from touching her shins.

Startled out of her worrying, she did not expect to find that the kid had gone and flopped herself directly in front of her. Leaving just enough space between the two of them for her tail to lay down on the ground comfortably. Yet not too far away that the elder would have to stretch too far to be able to reach for her hair.

Flytrap sat hunched over, holding the stuffed rat teddy up to nuzzle and bury her face in as she refused to acknowledge and give the adult the satisfaction of having won her over. That, and she didn't want to have to outright deal with the fact that someone other than her family was touching her right now. But it would only make her mother nag her oh so much more if she were to come back home looking like the right mess that she did currently.

“Right,” April said, staring at the birdnest the kid was wearing like a hat and wondering just how on earth she was gonna do this without any supplies or products to help aid her. “... Okay.”

She clapped her hands together and muttered out a quick apology for unintentionally startling the kid before moving to untie the two golden ribbons that were holding her hair together. While gently carting her fingers through and undoing any knots and tangles, she let out an impressed whistle at the feeling of the kids' hair. Although it was dirty, unwashed and just greasy enough to be noticed visually, it was still so soft to the touch.

The girl winced once or twice when she had to work through a tougher knot. Seeing this, April attempted to replicate the little chirps and coos that she had often heard her boys back in reality let out after a stressful situation.

The kid had looked back at her the first time that she had done it while wearing an expression full of questions and confusion. But then she just turned back around without uttering a word in protest to the humans' shoddy excuse of mimicry.

It wasn't much and it wasn't good either, but April was still glad that the effort she had been putting in had worked in placating the kid. Even if it was only by a little bit.

She smoothed out the hair that she had undone so far and moved over to make a start on the other semi-held-together braid. April began to hum a quiet tune under her breath as she worked.

Distantly, the human felt as the girl's tail gave a light flick of its spearheaded tip, the small spines lining the length of it fluttering and her shoulders jutting up just so as if she had recognised and was surprised to hear the tune. April took this as a sign that her plan to get the kid to lower her guard was working in her favour. Happy with that realization, the human continued humming away as she worked, making sure to do so louder than before.

“What's that song called? ” The little girl piped up finally, her interest getting the best of her.

“You don't know?” The human countered, a mischievous hint of a smile forming.

“ ... No. ” The little girl answered, her tone and hesitance to say anything paired together in a way that suggested clearly that she intended to try and give the adult some form of a test.

April's smile grew more prominent as a light chuckle bubbled out of her at the thought. She pulled out a strange-looking leaf from out of the kid’s hair, purple and kind of shimmery in the light, pocketed it for later and answered the kids' earlier question. “Well, it's just this old song that my mother used to sing whenever she had the time to do my hair back when I was ( probably ) not that much younger than you are. But now it is just something that I humm away to myself whenever I need to keep my hands busy and my mind focused.”

“Mm. ” Flytrap nodded absentmindedly before what the human had said caught up to her and she looked back with an expression of shock on her little face. “'Mother'? ”

“Yes, ‘Mother’. Everyone has one.” April said, moving her hands to follow when the younger moved her head suddenly, lest she pull any of her hair out or lose her progress in untangling the braid.

The kid's eyebrows pinched together, as if she hadn't ever had to consider what the older woman had said to be true. “They do? ”

“Yup!” April answered with a chirp in her voice, blissfully ignorant to the little crisis that she had started going on inside of the kid as she gently nudged her head back into place.

“Oh… do… do Mothers have Mothers, then? ”

“Of course they do! How else do you think that they themselves had come to be, silly-billy?” Her questions were strange, but April didn't think to question them in turn. After all, she was just a little kid and they were all so very curious about the big, new world that surrounded them.

Flytrap studied the scales that covered the expanse of her little hands quietly, contemplating what her next words would be before speaking up with another question. “ ... and Fathers? ”

“Yes, and fathers, too. Although, not everyone is lucky enough to ever meet their birth paren- ah, the ‘ mother ’s and ‘ father ’s that made them.” April caught herself, fixing her words to something more along the lines of what the kid could better understand.

“Oh… they don't? ” It felt to the adult as if the kid had not ever had to imagine that that kind of a scenario was possible and really, lucky her. Or rather, un-lucky her, given their current situation

“No, unfortunately, many people do not.” The woman's hands faltered a moment as she moved to finally untangle the last knot she could find in the kid's hair and stared at the back of her head with a brow raised. “How come you’re asking me that?”

The kid turned her head around and stared at the human over her shoulder from the corner of her eye. She watched the older for another second longer before averting her gaze back to her lap. More specifically, the stuffed rat still sat neatly in between her hands.

April leaned forward just enough so that she too, could stare at the old stuffy from over the kid's shoulder and her expression turned thoughtful.

She moved her gaze up and took in the younger's own expression with a feeling of curiosity. This kid must have been raised in a rather reclusive area if she hadn't even realized that everyone had a mom and a dad at her age.

And how old was she? Where had she come from? How?

It couldn't have been the same method that had brought Casey Junior here, had it?

This kid had somehow found her way into the Hamato afterlife and (to April's knowledge) the only way to gain access to the place was through blood. Whether that was through birth or - in April's case - a blood pact, didn't matter.

The human shook her head and knocked that train of thought off its tracks before it could steamroll its way out onto her tongue.

This was all-important to gain, but the kid was still so young that she could very well get easily overwhelmed if the adult were to just dump all of that on her in one go. Especially with the entire situation that they still had on their hands currently.

She would have to make sure that she moved along with caution here and carefully worked her way up to the more difficult questions. Or disguise them in between some more innocently intended ones, just like whenever she would go and conduct an interview for a new written piece at work.

April nodded her head in agreement with herself. That should work out perfectly.

Flytrap watched the older woman out of the corner of her eye, mild judgement over the others' inner discussion filling her gaze.

‘This woman is weird. ’ A memory of a story her mother would tell to her often found its way to the front of her mind as she watched the elder nod as if in agreement with the non-existent being before her. ‘Were all humans like this one? ’

“Alright!” The human clapped her hands together loudly and flinched at the sharp glare the kid sent her in retaliation for the loud noise right in her little ears. It reminded her of… someone, but who, she couldn't remember at the moment. “Sorry… uh, your hair is all shrubbery and tangle-free now! Yay! Would you like for me to re-braid it again for you, orr…?”

The kid glared at her a milli fraction harder, almost as if she were trying to study the human woman's face for either a lie or a trick of any kind. A little hand reached up to run through her now mostly untangled hair and she scowled at the grimy feeling that it left on her skin. Sighing, the kid turned to have her back fully towards the adult once again and the older took that as a sign of permission.

“... sooo, what's your favourite colour? Mine is green!” April picked up and handed the two blue ribbons over to the kid to hold as she began to sort the hair into two separate parts. “Like the leaves that grow on trees and the grass that's on the ground…”

Flytrap stared ahead of herself with a face of confusion. Not that she had been confused by the elders' question or anything, she was just confused by what kind of mind games she was trying to play by so blatantly avoiding the obvious elephant in the room.

She listened as the human just prattled away with her list of things that Flytrap knew were not actually green before giving in out of pity and saying something. Just to make her stop, really, because it was all starting to get sad to listen to.

“ ... Yellow. ”

April stopped herself mid-rambling as she heard the younger speak up. “Really?”

“Mhm… ” She nodded. “Like Ma. Ma likes yellow. ”

“Like Ma? Do you mean your mom?” The kid gave her another nod to confirm her suspicion. “What is your Ma like, hun?”

Flytrap gave a little hum and continued with her picking away at the frayed fabric of the teddy’s robe. April watched her do so before asking for more about this mysterious woman. The girl stayed silent as she thought over how to answer the question.

“Mad. ”

“Mad?”

“Yeah. Daddy says that Ma is mad and not to bother when Ma locks the door. ”

… Mad.

Was that the angry kind of mad or the crazy kind? April chewed on her lip as the thought flew through her mind. Did she even want to know the answer to that?

April had thought better of that and decided to direct the conversation somewhere else.

“Uh… SIBLINGS-! Sorry, sorry, little ears. Do you have any, uh, siblings?”

Flytrap sent her a strange look over her shoulder, given that she had more space to do so now with the first braid almost finished and handed the older one of her ribbons to tie it off with. “Siblings? Is that some kind of disease? ”

April stared off into the distance with a faraway look in her eyes, unintentionally saying yes out loud before her brain caught up to her and she quickly backpedalled. “No! No, siblings are just - uh, you know how your parents made you?”

The kid nodded and April sent her silent thanks to whatever god had been stupid enough to give the slider his rather blunt nature with regards to any and everything medical. “Siblings are just when your parents repeat that process and make more of you. But not a direct clone! They are different people with their own thoughts and feelings on things.”

April rushed to add on that last bit before the kid could get any ideas. She had had to have that particular conversation more than enough times for this life of hers alone.

“No, I don't have a ‘siblings’. ”

April felt a breath of air escape her lungs as she let out a sigh of relief. Don't get her wrong, the kid was… sweet, but the thought of there being more than one of her? It just made the older woman feel a bit more sick to her stomach than before, was all.

“Uh-huh, well, I have a few siblings myself. Four of them, to be exact. And I’m the oldest.”

“The ‘oldest’? ” the kid tilted her head at the word.

“Yeah, it means that I came into existence first. If your parents were to go and have any more,” she ignored the growing pit in her stomach and the rising bile in her throat, “then that would make you the oldest of them all.”

“...”

April frowned at her silence. She saw the look of contemplation on her face and an idea struck her. Maybe she could go and do a tad of influencing here.

“Yeah, and being the oldest means that you are responsible for watching out for your siblings' well-being. It is hard work to make sure that the dummies don't hurt themselves or each other too badly, but it is pretty fun to tell them what to do!”

“Really? ” The kid perked up at the idea and April smiled at the fact the seed had been planted, now all she had to do was give it some water so that it could grow.

“Oh yes! Though you have to make sure that you are careful with them when they are really little, you can play all kinds of games together with them. And, they can keep you from getting bored or feeling lonely! A friend for life that you can always go to and who will understand you when your parents can't. Or won't. Isn't that just… neat! ”

April finished tying off the ribbon into a bow at the end of the second braid with a flourish of awkward jazz hands that the kid ignored entirely.

Flytrap stared ahead of herself and didn't even notice that the other had moved around so that she was sitting more beside her instead of directly behind the kid. Her mind was filling itself with ideas like a well in a storm. She felt the excitement at all of the possibilities that now sat at the tips of her fingers racing through her veins like a bout of adrenaline.

April watched over the kid as a small, ever so slight smile began to spread across the thin lip of her beak. Maybe now was as good a time as any to ask some of her more deep questions. Whether they would be deeper for her or the kid would all depend on how, or even if, the little girl was willing to answer them.

“Hey,” she called, “uh, so, how old are yo-?”

“ Oh, thank the very STARS THEMSELVES!  Finally,  somebody who actually has some kind of an idea of what they are damn well doing is here! ”

The two of them jumped at the sudden and unexpectedly loud shouting. They were very quickly reminded about the ancestral spirit that they had almost entirely forgotten about while wrapped up in their own little bubble. Flytrap turned to share a look with the human as she wondered what could have caused the spirit to put a pause on her rambling away what little of her sanity she barely still had left.

April missed the kid's gaze and swung around, having been caught off guard, and moved so that she was now kneeling with one foot planted firmly on the ground and shoved an arm out in front of the kid. Flytrap, however, had just shot straight up to her feet as she moved to stare past the human's back.

She hissed when she saw that there was a new spirit standing not far from Karai and facing away from them, her hackles rising up like that of a cat at the unknown level of threat that this new figure had brought to them. The human didn't even have the time to question why the sound had faltered off rather quickly for how on edge the kid always was before she got in a good look at their new arrival.

As if sensing the two's presence behind them, the figure turned around to face them and April couldn't stop the gasp before it fell past her lips.

The annoyed expression on the figure's face dripped away as her eyes landed on a point behind April, likely where the kid stood still. It seemed that whatever it was that Karai had been babbling away to the newcomer about had been starting to get on their nerves.

The figure's eyes floated up from studying the kid's person and locked onto April's shocked gaze. The newcomer's eyes hardened just a smidgen, barely even a noticeable fraction, and she made her way over to the human and young spirit-not-a-spirit child with a barely seen smile plastered on her face behind a thin mask of opaque black fabric fluttering across the lower half of her face.

“Hello, ” she bowed her head just enough to be recognised as a greeting to introduce herself to the human before bending down into a crouch, the skirt of her kimono draping around her as she spoke kindly to the child who now shyly hid her face behind the toy rat, clutching onto the pant leg of April's jeans with nervous claws.

“I am Hamato Atsuka." She pointed a finger to her chest before tilting her head, her mask covering a likely smile while showing off the kindness in her eyes. "And I hear that you are very far from home, little one. ”

Chapter Text

~~~~

Rocking chairs are pieces of furniture that were invented around the early seventeen hundreds. People would tie skates to the bottom of an English Yorkshire Windsor chair, yet the term ‘rocking chair’ would not enter the Oxford dictionary until it was nearing the end of the nineteenth century.

These chairs were traditionally made of wood, with two curved bands attached to the bottoms of the legs. These bands connect the front legs to the back two, keeping the chair always in direct contact with the floor. Thus, only two legs are needed instead of all four.

Originally, they were designed to assist mothers in rocking their young babies to sleep. This allowed them to calm their children while still being able to work on other household chores, such as knitting and sewing.

These chairs are also seen as comfortable because, when a user sits in one without purposefully moving it, the chair will automatically rock backwards until its occupants' centre of gravity is met. This grants the benefit of the occupant being kept at an angle and position that does not put any more unnecessary stress onto their body.

The action of rocking is often seen by many as a rather relaxing activity to do. This is because it releases endorphins into the brain that work to both improve one's mood and reduce the feeling of stress. The piece of furniture also produces a calming sense of nostalgia and happiness.

Many adults who use these chairs tend to find them to be soothing because of the gentle back-and-forth motion that they create. Mimicking the process of a parent rocking their child off to sleep, it provides a faster onset of sleep when compared to someone who would remain sitting stationary.

It may even help with relieving the symptoms of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder and depression because of its sensory qualities-

Splinter scoffed as his eyes roamed over the words printed on the little pamphlet he held and made a move to scrunch up the paper and toss it over his shoulder. Looking down at the little caricature his youngest had drawn, he thought better of it and carefully folded it up instead and slid it into the pocket of the dark blue robe he had replaced his old one with a couple of years ago.

That last line had been a reason that made it all the more uncomfortable for him whenever his children - or rather, anyone really - would bring up that he should probably use one more often.

Now, it wasn't that it was a bad reason or that he disliked them, finding them to be rather soothing himself, it was just that he had been raised in a time and place (traditional Japanese home in the mid-to-late-nineteen hundreds) where that would have been seen as a weakness almost punishable by death if you were to be seen as any less than human (anyone that wasn’t straight, cis-gendered, a man and mentally well).

He was still trying to work himself out of that mindset all these years later. But at least he was a lot better than he had been when his boys were small little tots, and he was so very glad that he hadn't managed to infect his children with the same way of harmful thinking.

Splinter let slip a sigh, dragging it out as he sagged into the back of the chair, closing his eyes and leaning back as far as he could without somehow tipping it. The old furniture, he had found, had the tendency to creak loudly whenever his weight shifted even so slightly in it. Which was rather unfortunate, as given his earlier thoughts, he was in a rocking chair.

The constant sound of the wood squeaking against itself made him feel a little worried that any extra speck of dust landing on top of it could collapse the chair entirely.

He winced and rubbed the heels of his palms against the base of his ageing rodent ears as the noise continued to grate on his nerves like nails to a chalkboard. A groan followed a mumble, and a huff came from right in front of him, causing him to almost jump right out of his seat as his ears caught onto the disturbance with a twitch and a flick.

Keyword: Almost.

His aching back went as ramrod straight as it had in a long time when he shot upright and gave his full and undivided attention to the bed he had stubbornly sat himself beside earlier. He stared in wide-eyed anticipation at the mound of blankets that covered the mattress. Noticing nothing more than a shuffle or two from the mound, he felt his joints settle back down as his muscles untensed, feeling rather reluctant to do so.

He let out a huff and settled back into the comfort of his chair, wincing at the cracks and pops his old joints let out in vocal disagreement of his sudden movements before.  He brought an arm up and placed the point of his bony old man's elbow against the wooden chair's sidearm, the fabric of his robe lightly catching onto the beginning-to-chip-from-use wood varnish. He rested the worry lines of his forehead to the knuckles of his fisted hand and began to zone out, his thoughts reflecting on what had happened today and how he had even gotten into this position in the first place.

He thought over how his day had dragged on and on.

He thought about just how drained the day had left him feeling, in both his body and his mind.

And he thought about how the day had just - as a whole - been plain out bad.

Suppressing a yawn, he closed his eyes and mentally looked back on the events that had occurred only earlier this morning. That's right, it was hardly even midday yet, and already the mutant felt as if it were time that he were to retire to bed. He scoffed as a thought passed through his mind that Blue would have very surely taken the opportunity to make some poor joke of him being too old for the land of the living because of it.

If only the second smallest of his little babies were there to read him like the open book that the slider had tended to see everyone around him as.

Three years, nearly to the day, that he had lost his son. His baby. His poor little Blue.

After the whole ‘Alien Invasion/Apocalypse’ thing had happened, his family - what had remained of his family - had gone and retreated back underground temporarily so that they could mourn for as long as was possible for them. They had done so for a few weeks until, finally, each of them had decided that enough was enough, making their individual ways back to the top side to provide their help to any of the citizens of their city still left alive.

The same citizens who had also lost a good chunk of their people that day, just like their clan had. That had had people taken by the same things that their shrunken clan had.

Splinter felt himself begin to seethe at the memory of hauntingly pink flesh - so much pink everywhere that it covered everything in sight - bathed in red, dark laughter and pained cries, fear and horror both echoing in his mind. Nowhere- no one had been left untouched or unscathed on those cursed days.

He stopped and steeled himself, taking a careful breath in and out as he slowly pulled out his claws from where they had dug themselves into the wooden arms of the chair. He couldn't help but remember all of the naggings that his children had done in their worry over his ever-worsening health. There was no need for him to worry the lot of them any more than all of them already were.

But back to where his head was going before he spiralled a bit, earlier that day - earlier that very morning, he and the baron (surprisingly, Draxum carried the actual title alongside it being his real given name) had gone and ventured out into Kakueta Ukeire.

All of his years spent living in the Hidden City, and somehow, he had never realised that the place had had an actual name. That it wasn't just called 'The Hidden City'. How funny was that, hm?

Ahem.

Besides that, he and Baron had gone out that morning- on a walk together! It was not a date!

Despite what Orange might try and spiel to anyone or anything that sat still long enough to listen otherwise, he did not like that blasted ram in that way!

In ANY way!

Bah!

Splinter cleared his throat with a grunted cough. He ignored the slightest tint of heat that he felt roasting the tips of his ears and continued with his reminiscing.

It had been early in the morning, early enough that even the most morning a person would have thrown a shoe out of their window to get them to stop causing such a ruckus. A saying that he used only as a metaphor and definitely not something that had actually happened as they had argued over some nonsense underneath some poor sod's windowsill.

The only reason that the two of them had gotten out of bed before the sun had risen was that the resident alchemist needed to get some more supplies, as he had planned to teach a new spell to their youngest child and didn't have everything he needed.

It had become a common pastime in the last couple of years for the two of them. As Michael grew, cultivated and moulded his Mystical Mana, the spells and techniques that the elder would teach to him would become more and more complex as the boy's abilities advanced further along.

And, of course, that damned old fool couldn't just go and settle for anything less than the very best of all at his disposal. He only ever had the need to use the hardest-to-find ingredients. Not to mention that they always happened to be the most expensive as well.

Which Splinter was pretty sure had been the exact reason why he was always dragged along on the ram Yokai’s excursions.

The two of them had been carefully travelling through the back streets and barely lit-up alleyways of the ageing city. Something, something, the best stuff will always come from the sketchiest of sellers.

If the rat had not known any better himself, he almost would have thought that the other was a drug addict of some kind. Which, really, wasn't all that far off from the actual truth if he were to think about it.

They had just left what the rat was praying to be their last shop before they had heard a startling commotion off in the distance.

~~~~

“For all that is holy, Barry, How much longer is this all going to take??”

Baron Draxum, the Yokai that he is, rolled his eyes at the others' insistent whining and groaning. Splinter saw this and gaped up at him, taking offence to his wordless answer and scoffing huffily.

The ram immediately turned his back to the shorter man as he heard the telltale sign of the mutant rat stretching out the kinks in his back starting up. Something that he tried not to pay too much attention to on purpose, The sound of his joints cracking away like popping candy being enough to make him nauseous at times.

“No, Yoshi, that is… repulsive.  Utterly repulsive. How have you yet to break your body by doing that so often?” The ram Yokai had to physically try and hold back his gagging as the rat started cracking each of his knuckles one by one while jumping around in an attempt to stare his dead in the eye like the little pest that he had turned him into all of those years ago.

“Oh,  I'm  sorry , Barr-Barr -”

*Crack*

“- but what is with that sour expression on your face? -”

*Pop*

“- Are you perhaps beginning to feel a tad under the weather? -”

*Gag*

“- or -”

*Click*

“- am I, by any chance, making you -”

*Snap*

“- feel uncomfortabl- YEOWCH!!”

Barry quickly pulled his hands away from where he had been attempting to block out the shorter’s sickening actions when he heard the near deafening screech like yelp. He had been close enough to throwing up that he could still taste the remnants of rising bile in the back of his throat as he swung his whole body around to face the rat.

He watched as the shorter man hunched over himself and clutched his clenched fist to his chest. The mutant's frame shook as he uttered hushed curses under his breath.

“Yoshi…” The Yokai reached out a hand to place into the other's shoulder in concern for him. “Are you alri-!”

The man-turned-rat flinched away from his touch, and the tall Yokai recoiled from shock in turn. Draxum clutched the hand he had reached out with to his own chest as if he had been physically burned by the other's reaction. His eyes widened and flickered around the alleyway as he stuttered out an apology for whatever he had done.

“I-I’m sorr- I did not mean-” Draxum gulped and hunched his shoulders down, subconsciously trying to make himself appear like less of a threat to his companion. “... I am sorry…”

Splinter sucked in some air through his clenched teeth and tried to think around the sudden and glaringly obvious pain pulsating up the length of his arm from his hand. He pulled his hands away from his chest and looked down to examine them. The source of his misery was the one hand he had cradled in the palm of the other.

Working up the courage, he looked close and saw that one finger had been more misshapen than normal when he compared its state to the rest of his digits. He sighed and clicked his tongue in annoyance, speaking to calm the taller man while he examined his hand some more.

“No. No, don't be. I was being dumb, and so it was my fault.”  He looked up from the beginning to blossom bruises on his - no doubt, if he remembered correctly from back in his days as an action actor without a stunt double - dislocated ring finger and came face to face with the personification (ramification?) of a kicked puppy before him. “Do not beat yourself up over something that you did not do, you big, overgrown dumb-dumb.”

Draxum stared down at him before nodding. He forced his shoulders to relax and hesitated for a moment before deciding to try reaching out a hand again. “Do you -  would  you .. like for me to bandage it?”

Splinter raised an eyebrow. “A dislocation? A mere bandage alone won't do much to help with that, I am afraid. But thank you for the offer, either way.”

“Ah… nevermind, then.” Draxum rubbed the nape of his neck and glanced away before quickly looking back. “Then we should go and find someone who can help-”

The Yokai alchemist was interrupted by the sound of something heavy crashing into thin metal somewhere off in the distance. Both heads swivelled around to face the direction that they had heard the commotion coming from. They wait for a few seconds to see if anything else may have happened with bated breaths.

When nothing else had arisen, the two looked at each other, shrugging off their worries and re-focused their attention back onto the matter at hand (heh).  Splinter's hand.

Draxum reached out and moved to shuffle the other to somewhere with better lighting before the crashing sounded off once more, albeit much closer this time than the last. This time, however, instead of the silence that had followed after the last time, the two heard the sound of a person talking. The voice had just the right amount of familiarity ringing inside of it that it had the two forgetting about their current dilemma in order to investigate whatever the disturbance was.

Draxum took the lead, the alchemist’s noticeably longer legs allowing for him to move further quicker than his shorter partners did. The Yokai made sure to keep his pace just slow enough for Splinter to keep up with him, using the slight amount of mystic he had carved into his gifted Jadeite necklace the rat wore to make sure that he stayed within his reach. If something were to go wrong and they needed to make a hasty retreat, it would be easier for him to just pick the other up and book it.

“Barry, *huff*, re- lax, ” it had been a couple of minutes now that the two had been running and trying to find their way through the absolute maze that was the back alley to get to this voice, the sound managing to travel from everywhere around them. Splinter's already sore body was only aching more prominently now, and he was beginning to struggle with keeping pace with the taller. “It could just as well turn out to be a flock of those pesky mimicry birds fighting over scraps. You know how often the children will have the tendency to stray into places that they should not.”

Splinter sighed as the Yokai openly ignored his words, speeding up until he was doing a light jog in order to keep pace with the others' longer strides. They had not heard anything more of suspicion since the noise had sounded off prior, but the ram seemed dead set on figuring out what had happened for himself.

The back alleys of this aged city felt very much like they had been built akin to a labyrinth maze, with twists and turns that seemed plenty unnecessary to its odd layout. It took the two of them a good minute more to find their way, but when they did, the sight that had greeted them stopped the old men right in their tracks.

The rat human mutant let out a squawk as he bumped right into the back of the ram's knees, the taller man apparently so frozen in place by his state of shock that he didn't even flinch in acknowledgement of the contact. He rubbed at his forehead and started grumbling at the other, freezing himself when he moved to go around the other and see what it was that had stopped the other in his tracks.

“Is that-?” Splinter began, bringing his non-injured hand up to cover his mouth as his eyes widened at the alley's unexpected contents.

“... April?” Draxums eyes shook as he watched the young human before him stumble about the length of the alleyway, slamming drunkenly from one wall to the next - cursing openly all the while.

One may have assumed that the human really was drunk off of her ass if they did not know anything about the girl. But, as Splinter had known her for more than a full decade now - enough to come to think of her as one of his own children - he knew that she rarely ever chose to touch the stuff outside of a celebration and never so much that she was moving about with this degree of sloppiness.

“... What…?” They heard the human say, her voice had come out slurred, but they could still discern what she’d said.

The two old men looked at each other, their eyes silently communicating their shared worries with one another. Turning their eyes back towards the alleyway, they watched the girl swish her head around lazily, the heel of her palm rubbing at the side of her head.

The two started to hesitantly walk closer, remembering to be mindful so as not to spook the girl with her back turned to them, staring hazily down at the ground just off to the side of her own feet.

“Hey… are you okay?” Draxum spoke out, pausing mid-step when the girl's head swished around his general direction while still pointing mostly at the dirty and worn pavement. “April, what has happened?”

“Who…?” She tilted her head up slowly, as if it took more effort to lift than it should have, and squinted at him, her pupils unfocused. Her head bobbed up and down a bit as if the human were actively fighting against unconsciousness.

“April, what is going on?” The ram asked, his concern heavily filtering into his tone as he moved to hover around the girl, unsure of how he should approach the situation. It was clear as day that the young woman was quite out of her wits at the moment, and neither man was sure of the cause nor of how to help her.

“My child…” Splinter reached out with the intent to grab her by the hand when he caught sight of something that made his skin start to crawl.

“... Why are your eyes glowing…?” Draxum spoke up, having realised what his partner had seen and voiced his concern.

Her head tilted towards the left, just enough that she now stared directly at the old Yokai alchemist, and she jolted. Had she not realised that the two were even there - that she wasn’t alone?

She started mumbling something unintelligible under her breath as she leaned heavily against the wall. The elder two winced as she slipped and slid down the wall a bit, just enough that they could see (or rather, smell) as a few drops of blood had swelled up where the few jagged rocks that she had managed to lean on had cut into her skin.

April groaned uncomfortably at the sensation and tried to right her position by using the wall to pull herself back up. Her grip on the stones slipped as she suddenly reached up to claw her fingers into her hair. She stumbled forward, tripping over her own two feet as she headed straight towards the cold floor.

“Drax-!!” Splinter yelled out as he watched the girl tip, hitting at his partner's thigh to catch her before she could go and do any more damage to her poor body.

The ram took a second to react to the situation, and it would have been a second too long if she hadn't managed to catch herself at the last minute, leaning back against the wall. She looked up at them and opened up her mouth, looking as if she were going to say something to them, but all that had come out was some gurgled noise that made the two jump.

She wheezed and reached out into the space between them, likely as an attempt at trying to reassure them that she was fine - as if they didn't have the eyes to witness the truth of the opposite for themselves - and made the stupid decision to go and push herself away from the wall supporting her once more.

This time, she was tripping over her own feet as if she had lost all feeling in them. Her lips began to tint blue, and her skin paled as the lack of oxygen started to show its visual toll on her alongside whatever else she had been dealing with. The Yokai shot forward and caught her, cradling the girl close to his chest as he lowered the two of them down to the ground.

Splinter and he both watched as her body started convulsing, feeling helpless when she began to scratch at the length of her throat, spit dribbling down her chin from the corner of her mouth. The human acted as if some unknown assailant had their invisible hand wrapped around her throat and was strangling the air out of her lungs. Splinter turned his watering eyes away from the lines of red budding on her skin as her nails continued to dig in like dulled claws.

He sucked in a shuddering breath of air before he turned back around and reached out to place his good hand on top of her shoulder. The glow of her eyes grew, and finally, he had gotten an idea of what was happening to her.

He had never seen or heard of someone being called into the spirit realm and reacting with such a violent display before. Nor had he ever heard of it happening to anyone in the bare amount of old tales his grandfather would tell him as a child, either.

The second that his hand had made contact with her, April let out a gasp sharp enough that the rat was sure it had to hurt. Her scuffing feet came to a sudden stop as her body stiffened up and contorted like a pair of skinless frog legs when salt was poured on top of them.

The glow of her eyes grew and grew until it was so blindingly bright that the two had to turn their head and close their own eyes lest they risked losing their sight altogether. By the time they had felt it had dimmed enough that they could safely examine the human's physical state without risk to themselves, the girls' struggles had ceased.

Worried, the rat mutant quickly reached out and gently cradled her face in between his hands, careful of his injury. He looked over the glowing pale green cracks that now ran down from her eyes like spiritual tears and rubbed the pads of his thumbs over the points of her cheekbones.

Her ability to breathe seemed to also have come back to her now that the worst pain of it all appeared to be over and done with for now. Shallow breaths slowly deepened as her heart worked to calm itself down from the stress it had just been pushed through. Her chest moved up and down as she was left in a mockery of the meditative state that visiting any kind of spirit realm would normally put anyone into.

“Drax, we have to -”

“I know.” Draxum looked around their surroundings and realised that he recognised the end of the alleyway, the opposite of where they had come from. He shuffled the human around so that he could scoop her up comfortably into a bridle carry, ignoring the pang in his chest as her head slumped onto his collarbone and her arm not slung over her abdomen hung down limply. “Come on, I know of someone who can offer us a hand with this.”

A couple of minutes worth of walking later brought the three of them face to face with a two-story building that the mutant had no knowledge of ever having seen before in his life. Yet, the sight of that place had brought an uncomfortable bought of familiarity to him that had him feeling weary about going inside.

Splinter stared up at the face of the building before them, not knowing whether it was his height or his exhaustion that had made him feel so small in comparison. “... Are you sure about this?”

“Yes. He owes me a favour, this Yokai does.” Draxum nodded to himself and shuffled his hold on April around so that he could knock on the door without dropping the girl. “He will help us.”

The two tensed up as they waited for the door to open up, their hearts pumping blood through their veins, being all that they could hear outside of the world around them, beginning to wake for the day. The ram went to raise his fist to bang on the wood again, with the intent of being much louder this time when footsteps could be heard coming closer. The telltale clickety-clacking of locks being done on the other side sounded out, and then the creak of the knob being turned, and then the door was opening, and then they were face to face with -

~~~~

“- Señor Rat Man? How are you feeling?” A voice called out.

Splinter flinched as the door behind him was pushed open suddenly, cutting off his recalling of that morning's past events. He clutched at the part of his robe that sat over top of his heart like a metaphorical string of pearls and dug his claws into the arm of his chair, trying to steady his breathing back down to what was normal again.

“Ah! My apologies, Señor. I did not intend to startle you like that.” Said the voice from behind him, apologising for having caught him off of his guard.

Splinter shifted around in his chair and stared at the skeleton Yokai standing in the doorway. He looked almost a little ridiculous, dressed in his plain white t-shirt, blue plaid pyjama pants and a pair of pink and fluffy bunny slippers.

The rat heaved a little more before swallowing to try and wet his dry throat. “Ah, no, you are alright. I was just…”

His eyes floated back over to look at the girl lying underneath the mound of blankets from the corner of his eye, and the other hummed, easily catching the unsaid part of his sentence. “Yes, yes, I understand how losing one child can make you rather paranoid over the affairs and well-being of another.”

The mutant nodded in agreement. They had all been feeling plenty of paranoia ever since the invasion in regard to any and all things that could go wrong, and yet, not one of them had ever thought to consider this situation as a possibility. He still had yet to inform his other children of all that had happened, but as she was stable for the time being, he would wait until it was later in the day to fill them in.

“Mm, you do, do you?” Splinter asked.

He’d only taken notice of the one child being in any of the photos he had briefly glanced at when the three of them had first arrived over a couple of hours ago. However, he understands that the pain of losing someone close to you can affect everyone differently, and maybe the skeleton had gone and removed them after his loss.

He, himself, had had a similar reaction after his mother's passing. A behaviour that was only encouraged by his grandfather's will to forget her life and instead remember only her sacrifice.

The Yokai nodded at his words, a sad expression taking hold of his features long enough to be seen before he cooled himself and donned a smile. “Come downstairs. I have made some food for the two of you, and the baron says that he will not eat unless you do.”

He held up a hand as the shorter made a move to protest his kindness and countered matter of fact. “No, you need to eat. And besides, it is time for you to take some pain medication for your hand - don't think that I have missed how you had not taken any after I had taken care of your injury for you earlier. It is not a good idea to take it on an empty stomach, so come downstairs and eat something so that that old fool will eat as well.”

The rat looked over at him with tired eyes full of pity and understanding. He would have never admitted it out loud, but the scientist had grown to rather adore each of his creations, whether they themselves had been willing to acknowledge the fact or not.

Three years ago, Draxum had left the city after planning for a few months to go on some kind of vacation of solitude in a remote mountain village on the other side of the world. It was only when he had gotten back a couple of weeks later that he could learn of all the destruction and chaos that had occurred during his absence from society.

Splinter sometimes still sees when he closes his eyes that horrific expression the taller had worn as the boys had to sit him down and explain to him how they had lost Leo. Still hears an echo of how the Yokai had cried into the fabric of his robe later that same night after the kids had all either gone to bed or returned to their homes.

Ever since then, the alchemist had been showing feelings of immense guilt and regret for not having been there to help at the time.

Hell, if Splinter had remembered correctly about that day, the ram Yokai's last words to the young slider had been during another one of their arguments, and he had told the younger that he ‘wasn't good enough to be considered a leader’ and that he ‘wouldn’t be surprised if he couldn't do anything without his brothers to help him', or something similar along those lines.

Truly, a stressed parent and a hormonal teenager really do not mix well together.

And now the Yokai was stuck trying to overcompensate for his own feelings of guilt when no one had even tried to blame him in regard to all that had happened. None of them had known that that would happen, and god only knows how much worse it all could and would have been had Junior not been sent back from the future in that now alternate timeline to warn them of the coming apocalypse.

Splinter sighed at his thoughts and pushed himself out of the rocking chair, careful of his aching joints. He made to follow the other out of the room before an idea quickly struck him. He turned back around to face the bed and leaned down to knock his forehead against the human's own, closing his eyes as he tried to hold back from letting loose any fresh tears, not thinking that he had had any left to shed.

He had already lost one child.

He did not want to lose another so quickly.

Listening as the unconscious girl mumbled some unintelligible gibberish at the skin-to-skin contact, he smiled and pecked a kiss on her sweaty temple to wish her a swift recovery.

Gesturing for the skeleton to lead the way, he glanced back with his lips turned down in a subtle frown and flicked off the light switch, carefully closing the door quietly so as to let the girl do what needed to be done in peace.

It was pretty much clear as day to him that there had to be something else that had been at play here long before her Ninpō had activated itself the way that it had, and Splinter was determined to find out what it was. One way or another.

His stomach growled as the two reached the top of the staircase, and he rubbed a hand over his belly with a nervous chuckle at its audibility. ‘But first, some food does sound like it would be rather nice.’

Chapter Text

~~~~

“I am Hamato Atsuka.” She pointed a finger to her chest before tilting her head, her mask covering a likely smile while showing off the kindness in her eyes. “And I hear that you are  very  far  from home, little one.”

~~~~

April pursed her lips and watched the new spirit with a sceptical eye, feeling weary of how they moved about the realm. Unlike almost every other spirit the human had come into contact with, this one seemed to float along the ground like some apparition. The sight reminded her much of those russian ballerinas and their floor-length dresses.

And it- they- she were, well, a her, if April were to take into consideration the now clear context clues. Such as the rather feminine voice that had barely spoken to her in passing and only to the kid more directly.

She flinched and broke eye contact as she felt small, little hands with sharp claws tugging on the leg of her pants. And she knew that they had to be pretty sharp, given how easily they had dug into the material. The human ignored what she could tell were going to be scratch marks in an hour in favour of turning her attention down to the kid still at her feet.

The only human amongst the group of spirits stared down at the child, feeling confused at the fact that the youth had even clung onto her at all.

Just who even was this woman, anyway? And how did her mere presence get the kid to act so much like a… well, like a damn kid?

“Oh!!”

The three of them turned around to face the fourth as the spirit shouted her thoughts aloud.

“I know you! You 一  you’re Yoshi's mother!”

“‘Mother’?” Flytrap repeated, the familiar word rolling off of her tongue quietly, with the tone of her voice hinting at her confusion. The new spirit turned their attention back towards her right when she spoke her next question. “What is a ‘Yoshi’?”

“Yoshi,” the spirit smiled slightly at the little head tilt the kid gave as she listened intently  to her words, “is the name of my son.”

“Son?”

“Yes, just like how you are your mother's daughter, Yoshi would be my son.” She reached out and booped the child on the tip of her snoot, listening to her giggle at the touch. “If you were a boy 一 Kinda like your dad 一  then you would have been your mother's son instead of her daughter. Does that make sense?”

Flytrap thought for a good second before shooting a toothy grin to the spirit as she nodded enthusiastically that she understood. God, April could almost say that the little brat looked cute when she wasn't actively plotting to try and scratch someone's throat open.

“Mhm!” The kid went to move forward, taking a step towards the other, and April reflexively jumped to stop her right as she had felt the claws unlatch from their hold on her leg.

“Woah! Hey. Why don't we just, uh, not walk straight towards random strangers, yeah?” She tried to reason.

“Strangers?” Another 一 just adorable 一 little head tilt and god, does April wish she had the freedom to coo and coddle the kid right now.

“Yeah, kid. Stranger Danger?” A blank stare was all that met her in the silence, and she blinked back. “What? Did your dad never teach you about that?”

April ignored the snorted laugh that the spirit 一 Atsuka 一 had let out after hearing her question. The human didn't know what it was that the woman could have found so funny about her very justified worries over the child's safety and well-being.

“Uhh, no. No, he didn't一 Oh! But, he did tell me not to ever,   never  go  near any weird creatures that I had never ever seen before!”

“Good! Great, that's uh, yeah. Same, eh, kind of the same premise here, hun.”

The kid let out a low trilling noise to accompany the expression of confused confliction she wore. “But… she’s not a strange creature, she is just m一”

“ She is only worried about the young little thing's well-being, O’Neil.” The spirit jumped to interrupt the kid, placate the human and move the conversation along all in one swing. “Now, sweetie, I can get you right back to your mama and papa 一”

“You can!!?” Flytrap interrupted Atsuka as she began to hop around the group in her joy.

“Yes, yes. However, it's going to take a… ‘hot minute or two’ to get it all done.” The little turtle let out a whine at this, and the elder moved to continue before the puppy dog eyes could get any more misty than what they already were. “ But,  April here is hopefully more than capable of entertaining you while Karai and I get what needs to be done, done. Alright?”

Flytrap perked up and nodded aggressively before grabbing onto April's hand and tugging. The human gazed pointedly into the spirit's eyes and studied all that she saw in them as she held her ground against the small weight hanging from her arm.

The way that the elder stared back at her suggested that she had been telling the truth about having the ability to send the kid back to her dad. But there was just a hint of something else deep in the other's gaze that made the pit in her stomach grow just a teeny-tiny bit more.

She made a move to try and further question her apparent adoptive grandmother before a high-pitched sounding whine caught her ear. She turned her attention back to the child, still trying to pull her along and tensed up at the pitiful little face that had stared back up at her.

Dear Gods. She had never seen such an expression of pure kicked puppy on anyone other than Leonardo.

Everyone would have liked to think that Mikey was the best at giving out puppy dog eyes, given that he had been the youngest and all. But in reality, no one could easily outmanipulate the master manipulator that had been one Hamato Leonardo. Even if the turtle in question could never properly realise that fact for himself.

Hell, this interaction was doing nothing more than further cementing the horrid suspicion that she had had of the kids' parentage since she had first met them earlier.

A hand clamped down on her shoulder and knocked her out of the headspace she’d trapped herself in. She looked down to see a pale hand holding onto her, the nails cut surprisingly sharp and painted a matte black. Her eyes followed up the limb to meet the older woman's gaze and swallowed against the lump in her throat, refusing to say anything lest her voice fail her.

“Go with her, O’Neil.” The spirit said. “Ask her a few questions or something, I can see it in your face that your inner reporter is just dying for more information on the girl's origins.”

Atsuka’s encouraging statement broke her out of her stupor. Something that she was thankful for, but the look that the elder had shot her made her start to consider otherwise. Was she… was Splinter's mother hiding something?

It definitely looked to her as if the spirit had some kind of ulterior motive hidden up her sleeve. Or maybe that was just some of that good ole sleep-deprived paranoia that April was dealing with.

Whatever, it wasn't actually that important a matter to her at the moment. What, with the kid still hanging off of her and the sad, whiny chirps, and 一 oh god, the eyes are getting teary.

“Alright! Alright, fine. You win.” She shot a quick glare at the irritatingly smug-looking spirit and turned with a gentle smile to the child and gesturing for her to go back to where they were before. “Let's go sit down again and the two of us can play a game for a bit, yeah?”

The kid nodded her head rather vigorously, and April worried that her neck might go and snap in two from the speed of it. Keeping as firm a grip on the larger hand as she could, Flytrap dragged the tall human away from the two older spirits. She plopped herself down on the ground with a soft thump and patted at the spot next to her using both of her hands.

April let out a laugh at the situation because the way that she was acting was both so kid-like and so un like her. At least it was very unlike how she had been acting since she had met her a few, um, a few… wait 一 how long had she been here, again?

Time always had the tendency to move around in such a strange way here, so it was always hard to tell just how long had passed. Even if you were actively trying to keep track of it all from the start.

But even then, you would never know how long you had really spent wandering around in the spirit realm until you finally got out of it.

April plopped herself down onto the ground next to her and once more sat criss-cross applesauce.

“So,” she looked at the kid as she spoke, “what game are the two of us gonna play then? Ya got any ideas, lady?”

“Okay …” April paused as she tried to think of something, hopefully something that the kid would know already. Come on, O’Neil, you're well on your way to becoming a world-class reporter, you can do this. “Oh! How about we play a good old game of 20 Questions, yeah?”

Flytrap stared up at the human and tilted her head, a light frown curling the corner of her mouth. She let out a little hum, and April jumped to provide some context for her.

“Ah, well, it's exactly as the name says,” April said, “we both take turns asking each other some questions until we have reached 20 total. Really, it's just a way to get to know new people better.”

“Ah.” The kid nodded, getting the big picture now.

“Does that sound like fun? Kids around your age normally love to ask questions about every new, little thing that they come across, right?”

“Mmmyeah! That sounds like fun!” Flytrap nodded before crossing her legs in front of her, holding onto her ankles as she stared at the human, shyly looking up at her through her lashes. “... but you can start…”

“Alright, hun. Let me see…” April turned her head to look up at what should have been the sky, a hand rubbing her chin as she thought. “Ah! Here's an easy one. What's your name?”

  “... my name…?” The kid blinked up at her. “But I've already told you what my name is, it's 一”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She rolled her eyes and waved off the small slider's judgmental stare. “What I meant was 一 What is your full name? Like, what's your last name and stuff?”

The kid hummed in understanding. “Ahm, I get it now. My family name is, uh, Tah-Mah-Toh and my other name iisss, ah… Lema! So that none of the witches can curse me!”

“The witc一 yeah, okay.” April blinked and shook her head. “Alright, and now you get to ask me a question.”

She watched as the kids eyes went wide before they quickly narrowed into slits as she stared at the ground, the cogs in her head spinning round while she thought.

There must have been too many different questions running through her head that she started to nibble on the knuckle of her thumb. A little something that she remembered Leo would do as well whenever his mind was frustrating him 一

“What are your siblings' names?”

“Hm?” April jumped.

“Your siblings,” Flytrap repeated, “what are their names?”

“Ah, their names.” The older one nodded as she got it. “Well, first of all, there is Raphael, he is the second oldest after me. Then we have Donatello and Leonardo, the two of them are twins 一 which means that the two of them are both the same age 一 and last but not least, that would be Michaelangelo. He's the youngest of the whole lot of them.”

Flytrap hummed. “Kay-kay, it's your turn now.”

“Yes, yes, uhh 一” The human hesitated for a second, finding it strange how she spoke pretty eloquently for only being 一

“... How old are you?”

“Six and a quarter! You?”

“I am twenty-one, 一 god, six? But you're so little!” The kid narrowed her eyes at her, and she raised her hands into the air in an act of mock surrender. “Okay, okay, my turn, now let's see… What is your teddy's name?”

“I 一” She turned her head to and fro before she found where the rat now lay. It was only a few feet away from the two of them, and she scrambled over to grab it and move back. “Po. What's your name?”

“April O’Neil. My family name comes last where I am from, whereas your dad came from a place where your family name comes before your given name, uh, Flytrap.” She smiled at the kid with a slight grimace. “So, what's your favourite thing to eat?”

“My da一” Flytrap blinked and shook her head while picking at a loose thread on the toy's little robe. “Uh, yeah, anyways… dried peaches are pretty good and they taste sweet. I like that I have to tear at them with my teeth to eat them. What's your favourite thing to eat?”

“Pizza, is Po your favourite toy?” April gave a little nod in gesture at the toy.

Flytrap stared down at the beady and ever-knowing eyes of the fake, house cat-sized rat. She shook her head slowly as she avoided the human's gentle gaze. “No, Po isn't mine, my favourite toy is my bear, Berry. He's made out of a lot of different colours, kind of like the Star, but all at the same time! Um, why does your hair do that?”

April reached up and stuck a hand onto the top of her head as she tried to figure out how she should answer that. She had grown more accustomed to letting it out recently, and luckily, it was just long enough for it not to outright poof up like an afro when let down.

“Well, you see, my hair is really curly, and so it tends to stick out like this. But I also put some products in it that keep it staying in this nice shape for longer and all un-frizzy like this 一”

“Can I touch your hai一 ?”

“Uh-uh-uh, it's my turn to ask you something, remember, hun? Now, who was it that made the clothes that you're wearing?”

“ Potato chips 一 can I touch your hair? ” She stopped to take a quick and deep breath in, “pleeeaassssee??”

A surprised laugh escaped the human as the child stared up at her with a rather strong pair of puppy dog eyes. She waited a moment before nodding her head, leaning over to give the younger girl better access to her hair.

“Alright, hun, but just remember to be careful that you don't pull too hard on it, yeah?” April said with a smile. “I don't want the risk of any bald spots developing long before I’d start going grey with old age, you get what I mean?”

“Yeah, I know, daddy always tells me to be careful with my own hair so that I don't hurt myself. But mama always makes fun of him for being a big dumb-dumb when he worries about silly stuff like that.”

April listened to the child rant away while she was trying to carefully run her clawed fingers through the human's tight curls. The smile on the adult's face slowly grew tighter and more strained as the kid went on and on.

The more she was learning about her parents, the deeper that the sickening pit at the bottom of her stomach was building. She could feel that it was getting harder for her to keep from accidentally blurting anything out in front of the kid that such little ears shouldn't have to hear.

“一 and then daddy always gets this funny look on his face whenever mama tries to do anything that he ‘deems too dangerous’, which doesn't mean much because he thinks that me stepping out of his line of  sight for even a second is a bad idea 一”

“Oh, wow, that, ah… sure sounds like such a pain for you.” She interrupted, trying to steer the conversation towards a subject less sickening. “But remember that we are still playing a game here, and it is my turn to ask you a question.”

“Oh! That's right, sorry, sometimes I rant” Flytrap slowly pulled her hands out of the woman's hair, making sure that all of the fun extras that she had stuck in there as decoration stayed put. She hopped around and plopped herself back down in front of April with a wag of her tail. “Shoot. Ask your thingy, not with a blasty gun.”

“Yes, do yyooouu… have any pest?”

Flytraps let out a gasp, a sparkle twinkling in her red eyes. “YES! Yes, I do! Mama has a big kitty cat we call Georgie! But daddy doesn't like him, calls him a purring ball of nightmares. A shifter? I think? Do you?”

“Yes, I do actually. I have this little dog-cat-thing 一 well, he's kind of a… lot bigger now 一” April made a gesture with her hands to show the other that her pet was roughly the size of a large husky. “一 called Mayhem. He likes to cause chaos a lot, hence the name. Do you like to play outside in the sun?”

“... Sun?” The kid stared up at her, confused. “Well, I do like it when I get to go and play outside, but… what is the sun? Is it like a kind of plant, or something?”

“The sun…” This kid doesn't know what the sun is? “It’s this giant star up in the sky that lights up everything around you. And we can use its position to tell what the time is, too.”

“Ooohhh…” Flytrap rubbed her chin and nodded, recognising the word ‘Star’. “Anyways, it's your turn again, lady.”

“La一 alright,” April grumbled at the kids' will to not use her name, “uhh, what is something that scares you?”

“...” Flytrap moved from rubbing to scratching at her chin as she thought over her answer. She was silent for a couple of seconds, and the human was beginning to think that she shouldn't have asked that before the kid was talking again. “Pain, I guess. My daddy doesn't like to be alone because it causes him pain, so I don't like it either. I don't like being weak and unable to stop it.”

“Very… grown-up answer there, sweetie…” April offered her a strained smile, her voice shaky as she started feeling horrible about having asked that. “Your turn again.”

The kid perked right back up at the opportunity to ask something else. “What should I name my siblings when I finally get one?”

“D一 uhh, well… typically your parents would be the ones to do thaaaa一 ” She glanced down and saw the heartbroken face staring back up at her, and she could feel as her will broke away. “ Buuuttt, if you're good, then your dad may let you help pick one out, does that sound like a plan?”

The kid gasped again and squealed, and April threw her arms up to quickly cover her ears with her hands. Kids definitely had a hell of a voice on her, and she hadn't even heard the younger give out a proper little girl scream yet. Well, it certainly had April feeling pity for the ones who were raising her.

“Okay! Okay, calm down,” She waited for the other to settle down and did a mental tally while counting on her hands. “Alright, so if my calculations are correct 一 and they usually are 一 then this should be our last question to each other, so give me a minute to think about a good one.”

The kid sat with her hands squashed underneath her bum, her little body vibrating more visibly with each passing second of silence going by. April stifled a chuckle at how much she reminded her of Leo; the resemblance between the two was almost uncanny to the human.

The slider had been very easily excitable as well when April had first stumbled across the Hamato family, and she adored to see that his daughter seemed to be much the same way as well.

There was no denying the two's relation to one another, no matter how uncomfortable the revelation made her feel. Her stomach did twist a little at the thought of having to explain this situation to any of the others.

“Okay,” she spoke up, and the kid jumped, falling entirely still and focusing her full attention on the human, who flinched a bit at the sudden change in her demeanour and coughed to clear her throat before continuing.

“So my last question to you iiissss…” She made a popping noise with her mouth as she paused for dramatic effect and to watch the kid squirm some more. “What do you like the most abou一 ”

“Okey-dokey!”

A voice and a clap of hands behind April's back cut her off, and she yelped, flinching forward. She watched the kid in front of her lean over to take a look around her and jump up to her feet with a gasp. She ran off around the human, who turned in time to see her cling onto the leg belonging to the spirit of Splinter's mother.

Beside the woman draped in black stood Gram-Gram, seemingly calmed down now from her earlier episode of mania and staring directly at the human. April stared back, unnerved at how the spirit refused to blink, and April knew that all spirits still did it, the act being more of the instinctual muscle memory kind from back when they were still a part of the living.

“Uh, hey, guys,” the human shot a finger gun and a grimace of a smile at her own awkwardness, “all done with your, um… spirit… thingy?”

“Hm.” The older spirit (in terms of when their death dates were, instead of when they were born) narrowed her eyes at her briefly before nodding, placing a gentle hand down to pet the kid's hair and earning a chirp and a nuzzle in return. “Yes. We are done without ’ spirit thingy ’ now… and so are you. ”

“Me 一?” April asked, caught off guard by what the other had said.

“Yes, you. ” The eldest nodded at her sharply. “You have most certainly outlived your minimal use in this situation, hu一 child. ”

April blinked and almost caught onto the others' near slip-up before something else had gone and grabbed her attention. To be more specific, it was Karai and the woman had actually 一 physically 一 grabbed onto her. The spirit hauled her up by the arm, and she tried not to flinch at the unnatural chill of the other's hands, still not used to the odd feeling that followed making physical contact with any spirit.

The now visibly calmer Gram-Gram led 一 or rather, dragged 一 her away and over to some area that she hadn’t bothered to pay any mind to back when she had first arrived here.

A large structure loomed above the two of them. She remembered that it was called a ‘Torri’, the name originating from the Japanese language. It was known to represent the gateway between the spirit and human realms, built at the opening of or within a shrine.

From where she was now, April could see that the majority of the gateway was unpainted, its wooden body bared with its age for them all to see. The upper lintel still carries its black paint to look as fresh as the day it was first been built.

Getting close enough to hear the odd and distorted noises that came through from the other side, the human tried to dig her heels into the ground. The untextured floor was doing nothing to give her well-used shoes enough traction to mean much.

“Woah, woah, hey!” She grabbed onto the spirit's wrist and attempted to pull herself out of the other's stubbornly strong hold. “What's going on? What ‘solution’ did the two of you come up with, and why are you trying to drag me back out of here like how you had first brought me in??!”

“Yeah? And how's that?” Karai glanced back at her out of the corner of her eye, still attempting to drag the human back towards the gate.

“Forcefully? Against my will, perhaps? Ring any bells there?!” 

“Aren’t those the same thing?” Karai snarked.

April groaned loud and long, making extra sure that her frustration was clear enough so that every spirit present could take note of it. “Does that matter??”

Karai groaned a frustrated groan of her own and let her head hang down at the others' behaviour. “Why are you so much more frustrating to push around than my son was!! Are you not an adult woman? With an adult job??”

The spirit went back to pulling on the human's arm and managed to get her just the slightest bit closer to the opening. But as she did, April let go of her grip on the spirit's wrist to shoot her hand out and grab onto one of the thin fence posts that bracketed each side of the gate.

The spirit glanced over to see what had pulled her to a stop this time and scowled when she saw the girl only digging her nails deeper into the old wood. A stubborn frown on her face and a sudden inquisitive look took over her face, though the defiance stayed in her eyes.

April paused to quickly gather her thoughts during the likely very brief moment of freedom that she had from being dragged about, turning her eyes to the gate and then back to Karai with a raised eyebrow. “Wait, wait, wait! Earlier, you’d said that you had never had any time to have children 一 ?”

“Yes, yes, that all was true. Now, if you’ll please 一”

“But then how did you, uh, ‘continue on the family line’, then?” April interrupted.

Karai let go of her and stepped back, walking around her before letting out a sigh and speaking. “I just blood adopted a young child a few years older than that one back over there and then taught them everything that I had known, and before I left to imprison my father for the next five hundred years.” The spirit turned back to look at the human and saw that she had let go of both the fence post and her guard, and she sneakily raised up her arms, rushing the girl. “Now, if you will just 一”

April's eyes widened as she looked up in time to watch as the spirit came at her “But 一!”

“Bye!” Karai yelled.

April yelped.

The spirit's impatience had finally reached its peak with all of her questioning and dragging of her feet, and she had forcefully shoved the other by the shoulders. The human fell into the swirling vortex of the mystic doorway, sending her right on her way back to reality, “Wai一 !”

~~~~

“一ait!”

The two old men jumped from where they had pulled in close to one another as the girl's sudden shout had shocked the pair apart.  They looked over as one to the bed where April had sprung up like a freshly resurrected corpse. She thrashed her limbs around,  tangling herself up in the mass of blankets that covered her in the process.

“April!” Splinter shouted, rushing over to help the girl find her way out of the pile.

Draxum hovered in the background, unsure of whether he should approach the pair or not until Splinter had shot him a look over his shoulder, and he hurried over to lend the man a hand. Pulling each one back as quickly as they could without accidentally grabbing one of her flailing limbs, they questioned themselves on why they had thought that so many layers were a good idea to begin with.

With the pile on the ground now significantly more than what was on the bed, they both grabbed the girl by an arm each and helped her to sit up properly.

The alchemist put the back of his hand against her forehead and could feel that she had a slight temperature. He gently turned her head around so that she faced him and stared into her eyes.

Her pupils shot about every which way, slightly dilated as she stared back at the ram, almost staring directly through him. Her chest heaved up and down with so many quick breaths that the Yokai was pretty certain that she wasn't getting any proper oxygen into her body.

The results of his quick 一 and not as extensive as he would have liked it to be 一 examination told him that the human was likely having a sort of panic attack. Which was very understandable, what with all of the stress that the poor girl's body and mind had both just been simultaneously subjected to against her will.

He relayed as such to the rat sitting on the other side of the girl, and together, the two of them worked to calm her down before even trying to work any explanations out of her.

Her shoulders shook, and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly as she tried to even out her breathing. It took her a minute to calm down her heart with the help of the two coaxing her.

She took a deep breath in and out slowly a few times before she shook her head and turned to look at the two, offering them a pretty, non-convincing smile. A poor attempt at trying to reassure them that she was fine now, neither of the pair taking the bait, but not trying to push her any further either.

“So what were the two of you doing before?” She asked, with a curious tilt to her head. “Right when I woke up?”

“That 一!” Draxum went rigid and his face turned a shade of dark red as he failed to notice the genuine innocence in the girl's question, April having been too out of it to take any notice of the two embracing each other so intimately close.

“Nothing! We, ahem, ” the rat cleared his throat with a cough, red tinting his furry cheeks also as he tried to redirect the conversation elsewhere. “We weren't doing anything other than watching over you while you had been 一 what were you doing, exactly? You were unconscious for a good few hours, it is right around the afternoon, now.”

April opened her mouth and snapped it shut immediately after she’d realised what it was that the elder had just said. “What!?”

Splinter held up his hands in an act of mock surrender and made a comment about not biting the messenger that went unheard as the human tried to throw herself out of the bed. The two hurried after her as she made her way out of the room, taking long enough that they didn't catch up to her until she had gotten to the top of the stairs.

Draxum reached out and wrapped his arms firmly around her middle as she tried to foolishly launch herself to roll the entire way down the length of the staircase.

“O’Neil! What is the meaning of this?” He held her tight as she squirmed and clawed at his arms like some feral cat, her dull nails doing nothing but leaving sure marks on his tough skin. “Are you so desperate to go back to the spirit realm so soon after getting out?”

“Baron!” Splinter chastised, his eyes wide and his heart fast at the ram's remark. “But really, April, tell us what is wrong. Tell us what has happened to you for you to be as panicked as you are.”

“We only wish to help you, O’Neil,” Draxum continued while he held her, more for the girl's comfort than to restrain her now. “But we cannot do that if you are unwilling to allow us to.”

April swallowed against the lump in the back of her throat, feeling as if her heart was beating its way up and out of her chest. Or maybe she just felt like vomiting.

She stared down at the ground for a moment before she nodded, pulling her nails out of the old Yokai's arm as he carefully put her back down to stand on her own two feet again.

“Well,” she sighed and stared at the wall behind and in between where the two old men had stood, “what happened was 一”

~~~~

The door slammed against the wall as the trio bashed their way loudly and unceremoniously into Donnie's office. The resounding bang shook the walls, and the box shell snapped out of his sleep, shooting up much like April had earlier with her corpse-like resurrection as the softshell continued to snore away, unbothered by it all.

“Purple one! We have a probl一 !” Draxum's voice cut off in the middle of his sentence at the sight of his eldest son sitting before him.

The snapper 一 all the way on the other side of the room and with the mid-day sun blazing in brightly through the window behind him 一 sat in Donnie's spinning office chair, his large form hunched over the slightly too small desk in front of him.

His elbows lay on the hardwood, and he held his hands clasped together in front of him, the sight looking as if he were busy in prayer. His shoulders were up to his ear slits, and the tip of his snout barely peeked over the lip of his plastron. It was like he was trying to hide from something, and yet he couldn't bring himself to look away from whatever he was staring at.

From the part of his face that could still be seen by the trio, housed the most horrified expression that Yoshi had ever seen on any of his children's faces in the entire twenty-odd years that he had been their father.

The old rat went to say something to the younger, to ask what could be plaguing him so, when his mutated rodent ears caught onto whatever it was that his son was watching.

Above the desk hovered some kind of projected hologram, an odd video playing on the clear screen that had captured Raphael's rapt attention. The strangeness of the dialect spoken meant nothing to him when he compared it to the face that reflected back at him.

It was a face that he had not seen since back when he was only a small boy and still living in Japan with his grandfather. Yet he could still picture her face in his mind so clearly when he did try to.

The image he was looking at may have been backwards from his current perspective, but there was nothing in his mind that doubted for a second that the woman who stared back at him 一 if only with tanner skin 一 was his long-since deceased mother.

His mother, who, for whatever reason he couldn't come up with, was speaking in what he could only say was the language of the Kraang. Looking back, he had heard his elder two bicker with each other in it enough to recognise it after a moment, their having learned the language being a lasting effect on them after the invasion.

But there was something off about the woman, the video angled as if it had been taken in secret and without her knowledge of the camera.

He stalked closer to get a better look at the recording and watched as she did something, an action so insignificant that anyone else might have waved it off as not worth noting. But Splinter, well as a father, would have been able to recognise all of his children in any way and in any state and no matter the disguises that they wore, nor the quality of their cloaking broaches mixed with the acting skills that he had honed into them himself.

“Is that…” his voice wavered, and he swallowed against the lump in his throat. “... is that Blue… ?”