February 5, 2115

Donatello's eyes snapped open and he sat straight up in bed with a startled cry. He sat for several moments in the semi-darkness, trying in vain to calm his racing heart. That dream…the same dream…would he never be free of it?

Not until you let go of your guilt, a voice sneered in the back of his mind. But you can't, can you…because that would be giving up. That would be failing…again.

Don buried his face in his hands, resisting the burning sensation at the back of his eyes. How long would this go on? Why couldn't he let it go? Why couldn't any of them let it go?

Because he's your brother, the same voice said, softer this time. And he would do the same for you.

"Leo…" he whispered softly. Then Don did something he hadn't allowed himself to do in ten years. He let the memories in. They flooded his subconscious as fresh as the day it had happened. He let them in, and forced himself to relive every moment.

Penance...

The last weapon. Finally! It had taken almost a year to track down the weapons Darius Dun had forged, but it had been well worth it. They were on their way to destroy the last of the weapons they had been able to find. Once they had, Cody's company would return to its good standing, and they could finally get back to Earth and work on the time window.

Don flicked on the auto-pilot and leaned back in his seat, sharing a rare smile with Raphael. He could tell his brother was as excited as he was. Mikey was giggling to himself in the back of the Hovershell, twirling his nunchucks. Leo was still at the forward controls next to him, intently studying the map on the screen in front of him. Raph leaned forward and gave his oldest brother a light nudge.

"Come on, Leo, stop messin' with that. Aren't you the least bit happy we're almost done?"

The blue-masked ninja glanced back at him. "Of course I am, Raph, but just because we're almost done doesn't mean we can relax, just yet. There's still one more thing out there that we have to destroy."

"Aww, lighten up, dude!" Mikey chimed in cheerily. "We'll take it out just like all the others!"

Leo sighed and leaned back. Don knew what he was thinking. He understood his brother's misgivings—this was supposed to be the most dangerous of all the weapons forged by Darius—but his other brothers were right, too. They had accomplished a lot in the past year and deserved a little bit of celebration. At least while they were en-route, anyway.

"That's more like it," Raph said, his voice satisfied. "Now break out the champagne!"

"We don't got any," Mikey answered. "Even if we did, Serling would pop a gasket." He had already left his seat, and was rummaging through the storage shelf on the left side of the cabin they occupied. The Hovershell wasn't a large ship—it had enough room for the four of them, Splinter and Cody, though that was crowding things a bit—and no cargo hold to speak of, so Cody had built in smaller shelves under the consoles housing the ship's main computer terminals. Four seats took up most of the room toward the front of the cockpit, all but one with a computer terminal in front of it. The computers housed navigation and weapons controls. The front-most seat on the left was the pilot's chair, and held all the controls necessary for piloting the ship. All in all, a very efficient system, Don couldn't help thinking, and he had designed it a hundred years ago.

Mikey suddenly grinned and popped his head up over the shelf's door, the orange tails of his ninja mask bobbing. "We got apple cider, though, that good enough?"

"Perfect," Don agreed, and got up to help Mikey with the cups. Once everyone had some cider, Don stood and raised his drink in a toast. "To going home!"

"To going home!" his brothers echoed, and each downed his share in one enormous gulp.

They had settled down after that, Raph and Mikey each taking a nap while Leonardo went deep into meditation. Don sat for a while, watching them, thinking back on all the battles they had fought up to this point. We're probably lucky to be alive, he reflected. It had not been easy, recovering those weapons…and they had made many enemies, especially of the Triceratons. It seemed the race of horned dinosaur-men had been Darius's biggest clients. Because he and his brothers were under the public support of PGA President Bishop, the Triceratons could do little directly to stop them, but Donatello feared the repercussions that might come later. He didn't regret it, though…Cody deserved the help and they owed it to April and Casey, too. He wondered then what his old friends would have been doing right now, back in 2005…

"We're here."

Don woke up with a start. Leo was looking at him with a slight smile.

"What? What happened?"

"You fell asleep," his brother replied simply.

"I did?" Don hurriedly straightened himself in his chair. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I just did."

"Before, I meant. We've been flying for several hours! We could have hit an asteroid belt, or ran into Triceratons, or…or…"

Leo laughed as he ran out of reasons. "Well, we didn't, and I can fly a ship too, you know."

"I know," Don said irritably. "But you need to sleep sometime, too."

Leo smiled again. "I meditated…it's enough for me. Besides, you guys have done most of the work in this operation. It's easier to lead than to be led, or so I've been told. All I do is bark orders." He glanced at Raphael. "Better wake up the sleeping beauties so we can get this over with."

Don looked at his brother askance…they both knew that statement wasn't true. Leonardo carried a burden that Donatello knew he would never have the stomach for. But he didn't press the matter, rising instead to wake his other brothers.

Raph came awake with his usual abruptness, and Don sidestepped his out-flung arm neatly. Mikey, on the other hand, could sleep through Armageddon. There was only one thing he woke up for easily—food. Reaching into the cupboard next to Mikey's seat, Donatello grabbed the box of cheesy, cracker-like food that the ever-hungry turtle had picked up at their last supply run. Where he had found them, Don would never know.

As soon as he opened the box, the odor of stale cheese wafted out, and Mikey sprang out of his seat like a shot, swiping the box from Don's grasp and stuffing a handful into his mouth. He blinked at his empty hand for a minute…it was easy to forget how fast Michelangelo could move when he wanted to. The purple-banded turtle looked at Raphael, who rolled his eyes.

"Good, you're all up," Leo's cool voice said from behind them. "Gather 'round."

They all obeyed, Mikey still munching on his cheese snacks. Don realized that the ship's movement had changed. Leo must have switched it to orbit. Sure enough, out the front windshield he could see the red-glowing surface of Ceratopa, one of the outlying planets in the control of the Triceraton Empire.

"Okay," Leo began. He touched the screen of the navigational computer, and a transparent geographical map of Ceratopa appeared, hovering above the computer screen. "We need to make this short and sweet. The less time this takes, the better. Ceratopa has a PGA base here." He touched a point on the map and a red dot started blinking. "We can land the ship and refuel. Our target is here." Another blinking dot, a few miles from the first. "I thought about going in on foot, but that'll take too long. The PGA only has a tenuous hold out here; we're pretty much on our own. So, we'll have to fly in." Leo stopped and looked up at Don. "That's where you come in. Do you think you can knock their computers out long enough for us to get the ship in and out?"

Don gave his leader a cocky smile. "Do chickens lay eggs? Triceraton technology isn't all that difficult."

"Good." Leo nodded once. "Once the system is down, we'll have however long Donny can keep it down to find the target and destroy it."

"Sure help if we knew what it was," Mikey said.

Raph snorted. "Just look for the thing that's most heavily guarded."

"Hunh. Just looking for an excuse to bash some Triceraton heads, Raphie-boy?"

"I told you not to call me that."

"Nyanya…Raphie-boy."

"Mikey…"

"Guys, focus!" Leo interrupted. He scowled at Mikey. "As much as I hate to admit it, Raph has a point. They'll be really careful with this thing, especially since I'm sure rumors have gotten out about all the other weapons we destroyed."

"For once, Leo agrees with Raph," Mikey said gleefully. "And Raph has a point! Will wonders never cease?"

His red-clad brother glared at him. "Will you ever shut up?"

Leo silenced the two with a glance. "Let's do this, then."