PROLOGUE

Donatello's head was reeling from the impact with the mountain of debris, but he knew he had to help his brothers fight against Drako. With a whirl from his bostaff, he jumped up ignoring the throbbing pain behind his eyes.

"huh?!" he exclaimed, eyes behind a purple ninja mask wide open. The lair was in ruins, debris scattered all over the place. "Master Splinter?" his heart skipping a beat as he looked around. Was he out the whole time they were attacked? Where's his family? "Master Splinter? Leo, Raph, Mikey?!"

"what the shell happened here?" he thought out loud to himself, his voice echoing off the dusty stone walls. He went around the lair picking through chunks of cement that was once a wall, trying to find a clue as to what had happened. Judging from the amount of dust accumulated on the debris, he figured that it's definitely been a while since the lair was attacked or anyone has been around for that matter. Around 10 or 20 years he guessed.

"but that just doesn't make any sense… we were fighting Drako just a while ago…" he said to himself as he maneuvered around the wreckage, looking for a safe exit. It wouldn't do to just stay here underground. He had to go topside and see what was going on up there. With this kind of destruction wrought underground, he doubted that anybody wouldn't have noticed up there. There was definitely damage done topside, of that he was sure. He also had to go and check on April and Casey. He had a bad feeling about all this, a chill running up his spine.

He finally gotten past much of the rubble and started on a path that looked pretty promising. A lump was forming in his throat and tears threatened to fall from his eyes as he thought about what might have become of his family, but he shook his head and took a deep breath as the darkness of the sewer tunnels took him.

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In a narrow and dark alleyway, everything was silent. So deafeningly silent, that the soft scraping of cement against the metal manhole cover seemed almost as loud as that of an ambulance' siren. A small green head slowly surfaced from that dark hole and just as slowly took in his surroundings. Seeing no danger, he slipped out quickly into the shadows. Don had just been at April and Casey's apartment, which had been all but obliterated. Nothing but rubble was left in the wake of the place that their friends had once called home. Deeply troubled by this, he decided to go and check out the warehouse.

As he slid out of his current position to another alleyway across the street, he briefly saw the devastation wrought upon his home, 'new york'. It was horrible, no building was left whole and the roads were… By the looks of it, something just ripped the street into half. The thought of what may have made that kind of damage, is just frightening.

One look up at the sky reminded Don why he had decided earlier to not go by way of rooftop to his destination as several conspicuous aircrafts flew over head.

Suddenly, Karai's voice blared out from somewhere,

"attention servants of the shredder, you're lord and master will now address you,"

"karai?" Don gasped. "What the shell?" he whispered under his breath as he stood still tense, scared.

"For those of you still living under the illusion that you will have freedom. Know this, my armies have exterminated the last pockets of resistance and I now control the entire planet…"

As the announcement went on above him, Don could only slide down to the floor, his shell roughly scraping at the wall of the building he had his back to. He knew that voice. He knew that voice just a bit too well.

"…There is no hope, there is only the shredder."

"the shredder…" Don sputtered out in disbelief. This wasn't happening. It just can't be true. From the sound of it, it almost seemed that, the shredder had finally… won.

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Shaking his head at that, the very thought of it making Don shiver. That just can't be. How was it possible that the shredder had won. His family wouldn't have allowed that to happen.

'Master Splinter…' he remembered his missing family. Where were they?

Leaving all worries about the shredder behind for a while, he continued on his way to the warehouse. He was pretty sure that they'd be there 'if they were still alive that is,' he thought grimly with a grimace. No, he wouldn't think that. He didn't want to think that unless he had proof. Real, viable evidence that his family was six feet under. so to speak.

Watching out for danger, he looked around only to find this street the same as the past several blocks. It was completely devoid of all people, or any sign of life at all. It just wasn't right, especially since this was new york. A city that never sleeps.

Sprinting the last stretch of road, he quickly dodged a search light from a helicopter flying nearby. He leapt behind a particularly large mound of rubble as his heart throbbed in his chest hard, seemingly threatening to pop out of his plastron. He shut his eyes for several seconds, trying to calm his shaking breath.

A cool breeze caressed his face and neck, drenched in sweat. 'I should be right by the warehouse,' he thought to himself. And as he opened his eyes, sure enough, the warehouse was but a good 10 meters away. Letting out one last shaky breath, he shifted his eyes up to the dark skies keeping a look out for those aircrafts, and then to his destination. He began to smile at this, it still seemed to be whole, a bit battered but still very much whole.

Keeping to the shadows and flitting from one place to another with much more ease compared to before. Relief poured into his very being with the thought of someplace familiar and safe in all this mess. With a soft creak, he opened the side door. He couldn't help but gasp at the wreckage he found.

It was way worse off than the lair had been. One side of the roof had completely fallen in and the wall adjacent it had a large gaping hole right through it that was just threatening to cave in as well. (he couldn't see these from his earlier hiding spot. XD sorry! Too lazy to write that part)

He didn't even bother to check the place as thoroughly as he did the lair as it was obviously just beyond salvaging, but he consciously noted that the tunneller still seemed functional. Confused and upset, he took in his surroundings for one last time before stepping through the hole. "none of this makes any sense…" don said with a shake of his head. Suddenly, a sound of a helicopter caught him by surprise. His heart skipped a beat as it's searchlight shone upon him, revealing him to all present.

"attention citizen, place your hands in the air and drop your weapons. Repeat, hands up and drop your weapons." rang out amidst the cacophony of the helicopter's noise and the sound of cocking guns

As several men in black came closer, don's breath started to hitch and panic filled his head. 'I've been seen… I've been seen!' he thought as he looked around him. He could see nothing but the dark men's silhouette's, making the image of the men closing in on him even worse. Like some dark entity, their guns like teeth bared, shining in the bright light. 'man, leo's gonna kill me…' he thought with a groan.

one man broke out of the dark mass and approached him, breaking the images his over imaginative delusional mind was trying to show him. Spotting a familiar symbol on the man's left forearm, don gritted his teeth. This was it, the proof. How it was possible for the shredder to have had taken over his beloved city, his beloved planet was just unfathomable. It was frightening.

"the shredder…" he said under his breath with as much malice and hate laced in it as he could. He didn't know how this situation came to be, but as long as he still had life in this body of his, he would fight. And with that he drew out his bostaff strapped upon his back. He wouldn't allow the shredder to prevail. He would fight.

With a growl, he readied himself to leap up and unleash hell upon his attackers. Suddenly, three ninja stars flew out of nowhere and landed just before the shredder henchman's feet. The masked man looked up and quickly gave out instructions to get a light on the culprit up on the roof. Don stared in wonder and fear at the new figure. Who WAS this guy? He was just so agile and well… good. He could do nothing but stand there, lightly grasping his bostaff in his hands as the figure quickly dispatched of the whole troop single handedly.

In the dark, don could only catch glimpses of this guy's features. He seemed familiar somehow but don couldn't quite place how. Realization finally dawned on him at the whip of a nunchuck at an offender.

"mikey?" he managed to whisper with wide eyes as Mikey fired at the chopper relentlessly with one of the foot's guns. With a loud boom as the aircraft exploded upon a building two blocks away, mikey let go of the gun he held in his hand.

Shoving his bostaff back into its place, don ran over to mikey. He couldn't hold back the excitement in his voice as he said, "mikey, am I glad to see you!"

And he really was. Finally! A familiar face in all this mess, in this nightmare…

"so… it's really you…" said mikey. After a moment, he stepped into the light and said, "you came back."

Don held back a gasp as he saw his youngest brother. Scars of all severity littered his aged body. His eyes flitting all over mikey's wounds before finally settling over the spot that would have been where his arm was. "mikey… your arm!" don exclaimed, his heart, feeling as though it was being wrenched out by the shredder himself. "what happened to your arm?!"

With a heated glare, mikey replied, "you're the one that's got some questions to answer," pointing a finger at don accusingly.

"where the shell have you been all these years?!" he asked with a hardness that don's never heard in his brother's voice before. don cringed at that. Where has his jolly, happy-go-lucky brother gone? 'what's happened to you?' he almost voiced out but then mikey's statement confused him even further. It just really didn't make any sense.

"all these years?" don asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"you've been gone for 30 year donatello…"

"30 years?" don said with incredulity. "it can't be?!"

"can be and it is." Mikey replied with a tone of finality in his voice.

"we thought you were dead," he added softly, almost like an afterthought. "how the shell could you just abandon us like that?!" he screamed at don after a moment, chest heaving.

"I didn't…" don said quietly, face slightly withdrawn. "I'd never abandon you guys…" he said looking away. He was just so very confused. "one minute we were all in the lair together, the next minute… I woke up here."

" I don't know how…" don said, looking up into mikey's eyes searchingly as if he held the answer to his unspoken question.

"so," mikey started with a sneer, "the turtle with the big brain finally doesn't have all the answers."

Don hung his head. He didn't know what to say. The silence between them was so thick. Mikey's pain seemed to roll off in waves and don didn't know what to do or say.

"who woulda thunk it." Mikey said at last. Whatever pain that was reflecte in his eyes earlier was gone now as he slid back into the shadows saying, "but we can't talk here." Starting out of a small hole in the wall. "come on." He said with a final glare at don. With a silent nod, he gulped back the lump that was forming in his throat and set out the same hole to follow mikey.

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whew...

ok!

mmm, i... dont really like this chapter. i really REALLY suck at starting stories. so i do hope you forgive me for putting this crap up. honestly, this is all just to practice my english because coming here to japan really messed it up. haha! but then, as i thought about how the story would go, the plot became really interesting :D still, even though this WAS just an english exercise thing, i didnt really bother with the small details like capital letters, periods... etc. haha! the heck?! XD

anyway, i hope you all TRY to stick with me to the end on this, because i really AM planning to complete this fic, which... i have never done before!hahaha! well...

Thank you so very much for reading!

Review please! And… no flames if you can help it! thank you!

Constructive criticism is very much welcomed though. J