Notes: This is a SAINW (Same As It Never Was) fic, from the POV of one of the Shredder's devoted followers.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Aren't they lucky?
Aftermath
Master Shredder was dead.
Then again, he had always been an egotist who underestimated his foes. Nevertheless, he was a powerful and cunning egotist that despite underestimating, had consistently conquered the odds. He had built an empire. No, empire was too small, too insignificant a term. The world was his. The people, the humans were herded like the cattle they so imitated. Instead of spending their unfocused lives devoted to the whims of their own society and wasting energy and time in productive-less acts of bigotry and hate, they were given a purpose. They were given efficiency.
The world finally made sense.
I had spent many years serving the Shredder. I was there for the conquering of Beijing. I was there for the unveiling of the lethal Karai-bots. I was there for the cruel experiments performed on the late Hun and Stockman. I was an irreplaceable asset to the project, and had always been rewarded richly for it.
The Master should have seen my relentless need to excel and achieve new levels as a threat to himself, to his power. His own superiority blinded him to my manipulations.
Of course they came. Though they were scattered and incomplete, it was only a matter of time before their absurd ideals brought them to a final showdown. I watched through surveillance as they fell, one by one. The amputee Michelangelo, the blinded Leonardo, the scarred and tattered Raphael, the tormented Karai, then finally, the tyrant himself.
Master Shredder's bio-suit didn't hold up to the compressed ionized pressure of a common laser-drill point. Stockman's original designs left room for this particular error; however, it had been caught. And to the Shredder's knowledge, rectified.
I wonder who could have left him such a weakness..?
Everything ended as planned. Better than planned, actually. It was every schemer's, every plotter's dream come true. Every person of importance, every player in this maniacal game of chess, managed to cleanly kill one another off. The Shredder had finally fallen, and with him, his second in command- Karai. The opposition had also become moot; granted, I would have been just as happy to have them as allies. More so, in all reality. But as I've stated before, their ideals stood in the way of their own success.
It's better this way.
The traveler is gone, and I am the next in line to lead this empire that was left behind. The world shall continue on it's hard-won path of efficiency and perfection. The image of the Shredder will remain, but behind the mask, behind the fear...Hamato Donatello shall rule.
