DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Guiding Light

I've always loved the sun, the warmth it left on my skin. The way it reflected and bounced off everything it touched. But the sun has its dark days too, I've come to realize. Like me. Though, the feeling of likeness is a solitary comfort, I revel in it anyway.

The sewers are dark and rank - colorless except for a thick shroud of black as I walk through the underground tunnels. I don't like the dark, never have. But it's nice to have the silence.

The drone of eternity, that's what silence reminds me of.

It's not like me, though... to think about eternity, or fate, or anything too sentimental or deep.

I'm the loud-mouth, the knuckle head who never quits, the happy one, the one who's always bright and optimistic. But sometimes I just like to hide away from all that, embraced by the envelope of darkness and ambiguity and myth.

The path of Ninja.

My footsteps echo hollowly through the ongoing abyss of tunnel and shadow. My mind buzzed absently as I let my thoughts reign. I'm content here, I could stop and -

I halt mid-step, my sudden thought disturbing the previous tranquilities of mind as I finished the thought with subdued awareness.

I could stop and never go back. I could keep walking, walking, and walking and never have to lose this feeling. I could give up.

I swallowed thickly, my mind forcibly bending itself back in formation and rebelling against the thought: "No... no, no, no, no."

Don't you love it when your mind deprives your heart of what it really wants?

But, it's just trying to keep you safe after all, keeps your monsters locked up tight so you don't have to deal with it, right? Or how your mind flashes white and runs in the farthest direction from the intent and desire to do the traitorously delicious things you've always wanted to taste even though it's wrong?

But again, when you're lost in the never ending cycles of what could be and what is the overwhelming clarity of the people you love come to mind, reminding you who you need to be and gives you strength to become a little more than the desire to be any less.

And that's it.

That's when I see the light at the end of the tunnel, the hope rising with the new dawn to dazzle the brokenness of the world in its radiant smile, smothering the silhouettes of old ghosts from your conscience.

Sort of like Don's overtly bright flashlight.

"Mikey?"

I grunt, lifting a hand to obstruct the blinding beam, "Yeah, bro?"

"It's been over forty-five minutes! I figured you'd come back sooner or later but still! Be lucky I wasn't Leo or you would've really been in for it!"

"Ah-hah," I smile sheepishly, lifting my other hand that was holding an all-too familiar Tony's Pizzeria box, "...like anchovies, Dude?"

We both sat down, chowing down on our respective slice.

I think back on former thoughts and smile, "Hey Donnie, you know why the sun shines so bright?"

"...why?"

"To keep the darkness from taking over the world, right?"

"Not exactly, Mikey."

"Way exactly, Dude," I grin and take another bite of my pizza, "...way exactly."