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When I open my eyes again, I find the room bathed in dim light. I rub my eyes with my free hand, and it is only then that I realize that Casey is still sitting next to my bed and holding my hand.

"Hi," I mumble, my voice still husky from sleep. "What time is it?"

"Around eight," Casey replies.

I frown. "The brothers aren't back yet?"

It's not really a question, rather stating the obvious. If the others were back, Casey would have left my room. He wouldn't have risked getting caught here, holding my hand while I was sleeping peacefully. It's part of his soft side, and he would never let the brothers, especially not Raph, see it. On the other hand, I think he would be fine being caught kissing me. It would contribute to his macho-image.

Casey shakes his head, and my eyes widen a bit in surprise. The brothers are usually back before dinner.

"But they'll be back any minute," Casey adds quickly.

I nod. He's probably right. I sit up and let go of Casey's hand. I try to ignore how cold my hand feels immediately.

After a moment of holding his hand in mid-air, Casey slides it into the pocket of his jeans. Then he rises and I get up, too.

In silence, we move to the kitchen - and wait. And wait. And wait.

It's already dark outside, and we're still waiting.

I had stopped trying to hide my concern long ago, and I stare at the kitchen table with a deep frown.

"Well...uhm…" Casey clears his throat. "Maybe they...uhm...decided to do some extra training and found a place to stay for the night. They'll be back by morning, I'm sure."

My frown deepens, but I nod.

This is unusual for them. They never stay outside in the woods overnight, especially since Leo's leg still isn't healed completely. It would be too dangerous.

There only were a few reasons that could have kept them away from the farmhouse at night. Leo's condition has worsened and they couldn't make it home in time. Or something has happened to them. Or both.

I like neither of the options.

I bite my lip, but before I can let these thoughts sink in even further, Casey places a hand on my shoulder and leans forward, searching my eyes.

After a moment of hesitation I look at him.

"April," he says emphatically, "I am sure they're all just fine."

I close my eyes and take a deep, calming breath. Then I open my eyes again before I place my hand over Casey's and give it a gentle squeeze.

"Okay," I say and force myself to smile.

Casey smiles back, but I can tell from the stern look in his eyes that it is as much a forced smile as mine.

I carefully remove Casey's hand from my shoulder, giving it one more squeeze before I let go completely. Then I get up and leave the kitchen.

I can see from the corner of my eyes that Casey is watching me, but he doesn't come after me.

When I reach the staircase I am not sure if I am relieved about this or angry. All I know is that it somehow bothers me. But I refuse to go back into the kitchen. And so I enter my room moments later.

I lie down on my bed, but I don't even think of sleeping. I know sleep is out of the question for tonight. I doze off every now and then, but wake up almost immediately, but this time, it's not the fear of nightmares that keeps me from sleeping, it's the worries about my friends that keep me awake. The moments I doze off are dreamless, quiet, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that I want my friends to be safe.

It is a restless night full of brooding, moments of dreamless snoozing and listening into the darkness.

It's almost a relief when I can hear a familiar voice, almost because Mikey is screaming.

I am on my feet in no time and rush downstairs. From the corner of my eye I can see Casey following me. I pull the door open and stop for a moment. But my kunoichi-skills kick in almost immediately, and I know from which direction Mikey is approaching. And within a heartbeat I force my feet into motion again and run to meet Mikey with Casey right on my heels.

We reach Mikey at the barn.

"April, Casey!" he cries out and sinks to his knees, panting for air.

I kneel down and place a hand on his shoulder.

Mikey looks at me with wide eyes.

"They got them!" he continues.

My heart tightens at his words, but I try to keep a straight face.

"Relax, Mikey," I say, and I have to give it to me, I really do sound calm and reasonable, despite the panic pressing my chest together. "Tell me what happened."

Mikey takes a deep breath and what comes next is a summary of the events in maximum speed, the words simply bubbling from Mikey's mouth. It's hard to follow, especially when Mikey hardly stops for breath and doesn't concentrate on the facts and instead tells simply anything that comes to his mind and with Mikey, that's a lot.

But knowing him for a while now, I think I can extract the facts. They are as follows:

They had stopped after a while to give Leo the chance to rest a bit. While they were waiting, Mikey had given one of his Crognard-imitations - he uses the words "absolutely awesome and Oscar-worthy" - to pass their time. But Raph had gotten so annoyed with him, he had decided to turn this into a sparring-session, and at some point Donnie had joined them.

Distracted, they hadn't realized the mutant frogs sneaking up on them until it had been too late. Faced with superior numbers, they had surrendered without a fight, even Raph, although Mikey describes his inner struggle in every detail.

The frogs brought them to their headquarters, an enormous tree where their whole tribe lives. They were asked why they had entered the frogs' territory without permission.

When Leo explained that it had been an accident, they were almost let free again, but when one of the soldiers mentioned their fighting skills, a frog named Rasputin, some sort of an advisor of the king, said that they could be of use for their plans. When asked about what they think of humans, Leo replied truthfully that some of their friends were humans. This was enough to raise a row and they were all thrown into cages immediately. They would be put on trial the next day for entering the frogs' territory and befriending the enemy. During the discussions among the frogs that followed, an invasion of the human world was mentioned, a plan to bring back nature to the cities, and that it should start at the farmhouse not far away.

Only one frog named Napoleon Bonafrog defied this plan and tried to persuade his companions to set the turtles free again, but he was only laughed at.

During the night Napoleon snuck up to their cages. He was so clumsy that he was easily detected by the guards, but because of his clumsiness they didn't take him seriously - either this had been his plan all along or he really was that stupid, Mikey's narration wasn't clear here - so this gave Napoleon the chance to get close to their cages. He managed to open Mikey's cage before stumbling and landing flat on his face on his way to Raph's cage. Leo ordered Mikey to warn us, and after a moment of hesitation Mikey ran for his life, literally. He managed to escape, making sure to take some detours and only took the path to the farmhouse when he had been sure that he hadn't been followed.

And that's how Mikey ended up here.

His brothers will most certainly be sentenced to death as enemies of the frogs tomorrow, so we quickly get moving.

I even take my tessen with me. I know I am not good at fighting with it at the moment, but I still can throw it which might come in handy.

Mikey and Casey didn't even dare to object me coming with them. I know they would prefer to have kept me back at the farmhouse, but under no circumstances would I have stayed there. My friends are in danger, so I'd do anything to save them. Well, except for staying back at the farmhouse, that is, freaky, disobeying tentacles or not.

Mikey leads us through the woods and to the frogs' home tree. We get there faster than I had expected. Mikey gives us a sign that from now on we need to be quiet. I just nod.

Carefully, we sneak closer.

I can see Casey from the corner of my eyes, all geared up and wearing his hockey mask. Then I hear a thud and see Casey stumble. He regains his balance, cursing under his breath.

I turn towards him, but before I can remind him of our precarious situation and the need to stay quiet, something falls over me.

A trap!, I want to yell, but it's already too late.

Covered by the net, we all sink to the ground.

With glaring eyes I watch the frogs getting closer and removing the tessen from my grasp. I don't even have the time to try to cut myself free.

They've been expecting us. I slam my flat hand on the ground angrily. Of course, they've been expecting us!

I grit my teeth, cursing my own stupidity.

They bind our hands before they lead to some sort of crazy elevator that brings us to a platform high up in the tree.

I can't help, but be amazed by what the frogs have built here. I am not sure if the canister of mutagen the Kraang-clone of my mother has dropped in the woods has caused these frogs to mutate or if they had been mutated by the Kraang many years ago and had moved here, but either way, I am impressed, maybe even a little more impressed if the former is the case. Building all of this in such a short time is just incredible.

My amazement vanishes when we are brought before the king. I can spot the other three turtles in their cages in the background. So much for rescuing them.

"We captured them when they tried to invade our home tree," one of the guards explains, and the three of us are pushed to the ground.

With my mouth set into a hard line, I sit up into a kneeling position.

The king watches us over for a while.

"Very well," he says, "bring the turtle to his brothers. Their trial will begin tomorrow as planned. As for the human and" - he quickly looks me up once more - "whatever that is, we'll deal with them right now."

His words make me inhale sharply, as anger squeezes my chest, rumbling angrily inside me like thunder. I know I look weird, ugly maybe, but hearing this from a fat mutant frog, that really does it.

"Whatever that is?" I repeat, my voice calm, too calm. I get to my feet.

"Red…" Casey says warningly. This is no time for an outburst, I know that. But I just can't ignore the anger any longer, let alone fight it down.

"Whatever that is!?" I call out, slamming an elbow into the guard's chest when he tries to push me back onto my knees.

"I am April O'Neil!" I yell. "I am not a whatever!"

"April!" The warning in Casey's voice is even more urgent now. And there's a begging touch to it.

I know I should stop now. Only, I can't.

I quickly turn my head to the side to look at them.

Their eyes widen, and Mikey even yelps in surprise and shock.

I turn back to the frogs' king.

There's something rumbling in my chest, vibrating through my body.

When I open my mouth, a shriek comes out, a shrill, ear-piercing sound.

I know they all look at me now, but they don't attack me, they just stand there, waiting.

This vibrancy is still there in my body, making my skin tingle, feeling like waves of energy running right through me.

"You are going to release my friends now," I tell them, my voice calm, icy.

Some of the guards move over to the cages and open them. The other frogs just look at me.

Donnie, Raph, and Leo leave their cages. Leo's limping heavily, almost jumping on one leg. When his brothers realize, they position themselves on either side of Leo and drag his arms over their shoulders, supporting him on their way over to me.

"Behind me," I say to them, and they obey.

But the moment they pass me, the energy, the vibrancy dissipates, and I fall into darkness.

When I come to, it's to a flickering light that makes the throbbing pain in my head even worse.

I groan and raise a hand to my hurting forehead.

"April!" Leo's by my side immediately.

It takes me some overcoming to crack my eyes open, and the sight before me seems so surreal. Have I really woken up again?

But my head is hurting too much to not be awake.

I am sitting on the ground, my back leaning against the trunk of a tree.

And because I am awake, the home tree on fire before us must be real.

"What happened?" I ask, my eyes glued to the flames that are devouring on the wood of the frogs' tree.

"A fight broke loose when you fainted," Leo explains, "during which a fire bowl was overturned. Quickly, the fire was spreading. Napoleon Bonafrog shouted that we have to work together to all make it out of there alive, and that, we did. The others and the frogs are preventing the other trees from catching fire."

"I see."

Together, we watch how the fire is licking at the big tree. It still does when the sun rises, the orange light of the sun mixing up with the color of the flames. It looks even more surreal than before, almost beautiful.

When the fire finally dies down, it is daytime.

The pain in my head is still too much for me to dare to get up, and so I just sit there.

When the others come back to us, they explain that they have been pardoned by the king because Casey and Raph had saved his life when they had fled from the tree.

The king had rethought their plan of conquering the human world because after all, a human had been involved in saving his life.

"And what do they want to do now?" Leo asks.

Casey shrugs. "Looking for a new home."

I turn my head over to the group of frogs not far away. They avoid my gaze except for the king and a frog in a funny T-shirt who look back at me. The king gives a quick nod before he turns around, and the other frog waves at us.

Then they set into motion, going deeper into the woods.

"Can you walk?" Leo asks as he turns to me.

I try to stand up, but a jolt of pain shoots through my head.

"Ouch!" I hiss.

"I take that as a no," Leo says.

Before I can react, I am picked up by Mikey and carried away into the direction of the farmhouse.

Behind us, Casey and Raph are supporting a limping Leo. Donnie brings up the rear. He looks at me, and again, there's a frown wrinkling his forehead and concern in his eyes.

I quickly raise my gaze to the smoking, black skeleton that has once been the frogs' tree.

I know now how the tree had caught fire, what had happened after I had fainted.

But I have no idea what exactly has happened before that.

I have no idea what has happened to me.