All Roads

by Pheonix500

This is the sequel to Ties that Bind, set three years later. New enemies loom on the horizon and the TMNT and friends must make difficult new alliances to face the fast approaching threat.

1. Introduction

Introduction:

Disclaimer: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are neither my creation (that honor belongs to Eastman and Laird) nor my property (I think Viacom owns them presently) and I have no intention from profiting from this. It's just for fun. Which is why I am happily turning it loose onto the internet. If anyone wants to use this story and my take on any of these proprietary characters for their own original work, alternate version of events, prequel, sequel, one shots or art, have at it and have fun. I really would like to see what comes of it.

I used the internet to research the many things I lacked knowledge of, but needed to incorporate. While useful, the internet is sadly not reliably accurate, so for those in the know of anything historical, geographic, linguistic, cultural or in all other ways real world fact based, I apologize in advance for any errors.

Also, this work pulls in characters from across the franchise and uses the 2012 Nickelodeon series is the foundation (for seasons 1 through the episode The Deadly Venom in season 3). While familiarity with that particular series or the franchise in general is not necessary to appreciate it will certainly enrich the experience (And also, it's super awesome, you should watch it). Additionally, there really aren't OCs in this story, so most unfamiliar characters can be looked up.

I'd like to thank Myra, author of New Ninja Turtles Adventures (check it out), for her suggestion on one of the primary antagonists and the newest member of the Mutanimals. I will credit in greater detail in the end notes (when I get there) in case of spoilers.

Until further notice, the rating of this (which is equivalent to PG-13 in film) is for violence and language. Normally, I finish writing completely before I publish, but I'm going to try publishing as I go for this piece to see how it works out. As a result, even though I have the plot mapped out, there might be massive revisions to already posted pieces as the story progresses. I was certainly all over the place with writing Ties that Bind, so if that becomes tedious or confusing, I apologize in advance.

I never know if have a reference list for the story arcs is a type of spoiler or not, so just in case, it is spaced out below and you can scroll down to it if you like. There may be revisions to that if, while writing, I determine that there need to be more story arcs or is small ones must be absorbed into larger ones and don't warrant their own. Also, since Ties that Bind is kind of enormous, for anyone that doesn't want to read it, but is still interested in this piece, spaced below the list of story arcs, will be a rough summary of Ties that Bind (set three years prior to All Roads) for anyone that needs it.

T

M

N

T

T

M

N

T

T

M

N

T

T

M

Plot Arcs:

Adaptable – Plot arc for Carter Robinson

At Any Cost – Plot arc for John Bishop and the Earth Defense Force

Atonement – Plot arc for Oroku Saki

Balanced – Plot arc for Hamato Donatello and Venus di Milo

Birthright – Plot arc for Ichiro Gokomodo

Curiosity – Plot arc for Dr. Oscar Chaplin

Defiant – Plot arc for Hamato Michelangelo and Renet Tilley

Extinction – Plot arc for the Triceraton Empire

Fierce – Plot arc for Raphael and Mona Lisa/Lisa Webster

Guardians – Plot arc for the Tribunal and their acolytes

Hero Worship – Plot arc for Zachery and Walter Coleman and Caitlyn Roswell

Identity – Plot arc for Pimiko Mattu/Oroku Pimiko

Just – Plot arc for Hamato Leonardo and Oroku Karai/Hamato Miwa

Maturity – Plot arc for Hazel McIntyre/Radical/Raven Shadowheart

On the Run – Plot arc for Fugitoid/Professor Zayton Honeycutt

Players and Pawns - Plot arc for Dr. Eric Sacks

Professional – Plot arc for Aditi Mattu/Lotus Blossom

Solace – Plot arc for Hamato Yoshi/Splinter and Tang Amaya/Headhunter

Swarm – Plot arc for the Malignoid Empire (Thanks to Myra for the idea)

Teamwork – Plot arc for the Mighty Mutanimals (Hamato Slash, Leatherhead, Dr. Rockwell, Pigeon Pete, Mokoshan Umeko and Jason Rist/Mondo Gecko)

To Seek – Plot arc for Keno Reyes and Irma Langinstein

We Are Family – Plot arc for the turtles and their family

Yin and Yang – Plot arc for April O'Neil and Casey Jones

T

M

N

T

T

M

N

T

T

M

N

T

T

M

Ties that Bind Summary:

I will try to make this as succinct as possible. So Shenlong and Fenghuang (two figures from Chinese mythology) are exposed for corrupting the Zhou dynasty (which they helped create) by Emperor Qin (who toppled the Zhou dynasty). The Jade Emperor (of the Taoist/Daoist pantheon) cursed them.

Fenghuang was trapped in the lowly form of a fox spirit and was banished from China, becoming Kitsune. Shenlong's soul was trapped in another realm, accessible only through a magic mirror to be guarded by the descendants of Qin's eldest son who were granted the power to manipulate their chi so that they could fulfill this role.

Thus, Shenlong became the Dragonlord and each descendent of Qin, in charge of guarding the mirror, held the title of Chung I, hidden away in a secret monastery where their order protected the world against the Dragonlord's return.

Kitsune never stopped trying to free her lover over the millennia and ultimately influenced Koga Takuza to form the Foot clan, cursed the Kabuto during its creation so that its wearer could become the Dragonlord's vessel and slowly gathered the five elemental mystics from the natural world.

To this end, she was always working in the shadows behind the Foot clan's actions, trying to cultivate a proper vessel for the Dragonlord, sent agents of the Foot clan into China to find and free the Dragonlord and ultimately directed the Foot clan's demise before resurrecting it through Oroku Saki. In collecting the mystics, she acquired Alopex for the Foot clan, while destroying Alopex's home, and acquired Ninjara for the Foot clan by destroying her home and enslaving her people.

The conflict between Oroku Saki, Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen progresses much as it does in the show, resulting in Shen and Yoshi's daughter, Miwa being stolen by Saki and raised as Karai. Tang Amaya is Tang Shen's twin sister (and the more combat ready, black ops inclined of the two) who is also periodically Saki's lover.

Saki convinces her that Karai is his biological daughter and the Yoshi is responsible for her sister's death, bringing her into the vendetta against him and the Hamato clan. However, the volatile nature of their relationship has Amaya working solo a lot.

Meanwhile, Splinter relocates to NYC after the loss of his family. When he purchases the turtles (biologically related as turtles but each exposed to different human children) and runs into the Kraang and the mutagen, he meets one of Qin's descendants who also buys a baby turtle (from a different set of turtle parents) whom he drops in the mutagen while trying to assist Yoshi (creating Mei Pieh Chi/Venus di Milo).

Unaware of Mei, Splinter flees underground with his turtles and establishes his new home in an abandoned subway station. Finding Splinter gone, Qin takes Mei and raises her as his daughter, even after his brother and sister-in-law die, leaving him to take up the mantle of Chung I and rear his young nephew Da-Huan who will be the next Chung I. Because Mei was exposed to Qin and shares his DNA after the mutation, she also shares in the family's hereditary powers and responsibility.

Also, in antiquity, a Roman soldier comes across a creature of the Null-Time dimension, absorbs its power and enters its dimension, establishing the keepers of time and creating the Scepter of Time.

His apprentice, Lord Simultaneous, is pulled from the middle ages. And Simultaneous' first apprentice (from the Renaissance), Savanti Romero ends up a traitor and an immortal demon, trying to steal the power of the new apprentice (from the Napoleonic era) as well as the scepter.

He ultimately murders the apprentice, Brian Tilley, who through a time jump, ended up in more or less modern New York, but had already transferred his powers to his wife's unborn daughter, much to Savanti's frustrations.

And so Lily (later Renet) is born with the power to manipulate time and space with no knowledge on how to use it and the loss of her sight in compensation. Lily is the biological daughter/niece of the insane billionaire, A. J. Howard who attacked her mother (who ultimately escaped him) and intends the same for Lily.

Lily inadvertently meets Leo at the age of eight and befriends him after he accepts her odd visions of other people in different times and places. Then after her mother dies, she establishes a strong bond with her cousin, Lisa (physics genius), before being placed into a long term mental institution as a result of her visions.

After a vision of Karai's mutation and Leo's death (at the hands of the Shredder during the invasion), she escapes the facility to warn her friend, eventually finding her way back to him (about three quarters of the way through season 2 events).

Meanwhile, Chung I (who knows about Splinter and the other turtles via spying on the astral plane and has kept it from Mei for fear of losing her) is betrayed by one of Kitsune's sleeper agents and fails to reinforce the seal on the mirror. The Dragonlord breaks free and kills him before seeking out the vessel that Kitsune is preparing for him. Da-Huan becomes the new Chung I and Mei is sent to NYC to track down the Dragonlord, with limited success.

During her internship with an R&D firm, Lisa discovers that her mentor, Dr. Filtch (Captain Filch), is a thief of intellectual property, but he catches her. Since he is also one of the Shredder's scientists, he captures her for his mutation experiments with the Foot clan.

During the Invasion, Lily's intervention prevents Leo's death (although he is gravely injured still); otherwise everything occurs as it does in the show. While at the farmhouse, she has a vision of Filtch mutating her cousin, Lisa.

Meanwhile, A. J. Howard, send Dirk Savage, his close friend and black ops specialist, to track down his missing nieces and Mei meets Kurtzman, passing along Kraang intel she finds while asking him to keep her a secret.

The turtles return and save Lisa (now a lizard mutant) along with Splinter (initiating Lisa's romance with Raph). Also, Amaya discovers Karai's absence and travels to NYC with Ninjara (who at that time meets Slash, initiating their romance) to confront Saki, who blames Karai's mutation on Splinter. During this time, Alopex realizes that the Foot clan destroyed her home and wants revenge against the Shredder.

Then the Turtles save and restore NYC from the Kraang. Alopex joins Shredder in NYC, pretending to serve him. Kitsune travels to Chicago and kills Angel Bridge's great aunt to acquire the wind elemental, causing Angel and her mother to relocate to NYC.

After Angel's mother (who once escaped from the Purple Dragons while pregnant with her) is accidentally killed by a rival gang, Angel joins the Dragons for revenge. Casey's dad, Arnold Jones, was once leader (Hun) of the Purple Dragons and is a recovering alcoholic. He escaped with his best friend Angel's mom and was introduced to his wife, Gabrielle, through her. Gabrielle died giving birth to Casey's sister Maria (Shadow).

So Arnold is Angel's legal guardian when her mother dies and reenters the gang world to try and save her, which he does with Casey and April's help, but not without revealing his own and Angel's mother's pasts. Angel is accepted into the Jones family, but vows to take down the Purple Dragons from the inside.

Meanwhile, Kitsune returns to NYC to pretend to serve the Shredder. Dirk and A. J. finally track down and kill Filtch, but not before he mutates A. J. into a mind controlling (mutant specific) slug with a customized mutagen that he was developing for the Shredder as an alternative to Stockman's brain worms. At Kitsune's request, Dirk begins hunting down and capturing mutants for A. J. to form into his own personal army.

Meanwhile, Mei seeks out the turtles for Splinter's aid in tracking down the Dragonlord. She changes her name to Venus di Milo and begins training April and Lily in their unusual powers. April restores Karai's mind (distantly) with her psychic powers, shortly before Karai is brain-wormed.

Then Alopex infiltrates the turtles and sends them into a trap to rescue Karai. She is not able to use the opportunity to kill the Shredder, but she does manage to free Karai and everyone does make it out (albeit badly injured). Despite everything, Karai and Alopex are brought home with the turtles.

Slash has developed enough of a relationship with Ninjara to try and save her. After a tense confrontation between Alopex and Ninjara in the lair (Alopex betrayed Ninjara to Kitsune), Alopex, with Angel and the turtles' help fake Ninjara's death.

Slash and the Mutanimals journey with Ninjara to Japan to free her people from the detention facility where they are being held. Through Kurtzman, Slash also makes a deal with Japan's government to provide amnesty for Ninjara's people in exchange for the Mutanimals service in Japan's Earth Defense Force. Ninjara (Umeko) later uses intel from Karai and Alopex to deliver the Shredder and Foot clan to Interpol in exchange for joining the Mutanimals and earning them more privileges.

Alopex teams up with Angel, to take down the Purple Dragons. After Alopex weakens him, Angel challenges and defeats Hun for control of the Dragons, turning them into a vigilante organization to protect people.

Amaya (who has cut ties with Shredder after losing Karai again) attacks the turtles in their lair, but Venus gives Shen's ghost the power to reconcile the family. Amaya finally learns the truth and joins Splinter and the turtles as part of their family.

April chooses Casey and Venus discovers that Leo loves Karai (after one of Donnie's mutagen experiments gives Leo the ability to kiss her without being poisoned by her venom). After a period of heartbreak, during which they comfort each other, Donnie and Venus ultimately end up together.

Meanwhile, A. J. has captured most of the Shredder's mutants and finally brings down Alopex (as per Kitsune's request). Through her he discovers Lily's location as attacks the turtles, infecting their family with his mind control spores. When Amaya, April, Casey and Angel go to rescue them, they end up fighting their own allies.

Noting the special bond between Mikey and Lily, A. J. uses that to coerce Lily to cooperate. Eventually, Dirk can't take anymore and kills A. J. freeing his mutant army. The turtles, their family and their allies fled for home where Lily has a vision of the Dragonlord's rebirth and they have to move out to save the Shredder.

Having stripped the Shredder of all his allies and collected all the elementals, Kitsune uses the Kabuto to initiate the Dragonlord's rebirth in Shredder and eventually his conquest of Earth. The turtles and allies attack, but are ultimately losing to the mystics when, seeing this in a vision, Lily accesses her full powers and stops time (also restoring her sight).

This brings her to Lord Simultaneous' attention. He brings her to Null-Time and explains her history to her, where she changes her name to Renet (what Brian Tilley would have called her) and reveals that he has Brian's murderer, Savanti held prisoner, but it is not in his power to kill him.

Fearful of Savanti's escape, he can't do his job protecting time. He wants Renet to apprentice to him and offers to help her save her friends if she agrees. Angry at being coerced, she does accept and he teaches her how her powers work and lends her the scepter.

She returns and alters everyone's positions so that when she unfreezes time, her side all gets insta-kills on the mystics and Foot-bots and Venus is able to use her powers to seal the Dragonlord into a device that Donnie built for her. But it isn't going to hold.

Then Simultaneous (Marcus) shows up and opens a window to Da-Huan who has just finished repairing the mirror. He offers them Savanti as a power source, to seal the Dragonlord from Donnie's device to the mirror through the portal. They accept and the Dragonlord is sealed away once more and Kitsune is trapped in the form of an actual, powerless fox. Savanti is drained to an empty husk and no longer a threat to anyone. Renet has to return to with Marcus, but develops a rebellious streak as she's in love with Mikey and unwilling to lose that.

Karai ends the vendetta with her father and Saki sets aside the mantle of the Shredder. He takes a deal with the EDF to avoid jail time in the hopes of once again becoming worthy of his family. Lisa adopts her nickname Mona Lisa and opts to stay a lizard mutant with Raph, although Donnie could cure her and Venus chooses to stay in NYC with Donnie.

And wow that was longer than I thought it would be, but as I said Ties that Bind was huge. I hope I haven't forgotten anything that becomes relevant in All Roads.