Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT or The Star Spangled Banner which is the USA's National Anthem.
Remembrance
Raph's POV
As dusk falls I follow my older brother's lean frame as he drops down into graveyard below us. Cradled in his arms and my own are over a dozen white carnations; all carefully chosen for a specific purpose.
I hear Leo suck in a breath and sigh as he begins to walk along the rows of graves, pausing at each one that bears a small flag beside it and laying down a flower. For a few moments my eyes follow him before I turn and move in the opposite direction, mimicking his motions and whispering softly a few words.
"Tanks," I whisper as I lay down each flower, gently brushing my fingers across the tops of the headstones before moving on.
As we finish Leo and I return to where we started and glance at each other, Leo's mask, my own, and the color of the carnations all seem to blur against the gentle breeze blowing the small flags by the headstones.
Red, White, and Blue.
Leo nods to me before pulling out a candle, striking a match and lighting it.
We clear our throats before I hear Leo's strong baritone voice cut through the silence with my thrumming baritone following moments later.
Tonight we pay thanks to those who died and to those who served.
Rest in peace brothers and sisters and most of all Thanks for the chance at Freedom.
Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution!
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
A/N: I hope you all take a moment to say thanks to those that died for our freedom and if nothing else keep the military families in your hearts and prayers.