April trudged through the forest, walking alongside the younger turtles while her soldiers, Karai, Future Michelangelo and Angel walked in between Future Leonardo and Raphael.

"After Master Splinter passed away, the turtles all began to change differently," April explained softly, looking at the three younger turtles. "The Shredder took something away from each of the turtles; Leo's sight, Raph's eye, Mikey's arm and Donnie's freedom. Casey Jones passed away a few years after Master Splinter, we buried him beside Sensei and Raphael grew distant, blaming us all for Casey's death."

"We could have saved Casey! We could have saved Master Splinter!" Raphael roared, slamming his fists down on the desk that April was stood behind. Michelangelo stood still next to April, who was drying her tear-stained face with a tissue. "What did you do? Nothing!"

"I'm sorry, Raph," April replied, tears still falling down her face as she screwed up the tissue in the palm of her hand. "I know Casey was a close friend but-"

"You don't know anything!" Raph yelled, grabbing the desk and throwing it across the room. Mikey reached for his nunchucks but April stopped him by placing her hand on his plastron.

"How do you think I feel about this?" April asked, her tone suddenly angry. "Do you think I'm overjoyed with the fact that the last words Casey and I exchanged were angry ones?"

"You did this!" Raphael growled, pulling out one of his sai from his belt. "YOU DID THIS!" his stab was stopped by the chain of Mikey's kusarigama wrapping around the handle and yanking out of Raph's grip.

"Get out," Mikey ordered lowly, his voice dangerously calm despite the look of fury he was sending his older brother.

Raphael didn't say another word as he picked up the sai from the floor and stomped out of the room, shoving Donatello as the purple-clad turtle walked into the room with a thick stack of paper. Due to the sudden shove, Donnie dropped the paperwork which flew all over the floor, causing the turtle to groan.

"Raph!" he called, "Please watch where you're walking next-" his eyes widened when he took in the state of the room and April in tears. "What happened in here?"

"Ask Raphael," Mikey grunted, dragging a plastic chair over and gently pushing April down into the seat where she sobbed into her hands.

"I have a pretty good guess," Donnie looked up at Mikey and simply mouthed the word: CASEY, which Mikey confirmed by nodding at his brother. Donnie sighed as he scraped up all of the paperwork and placed it on the shelf, "I'll talk to him," he said, turning on his heel and rushing out of the room.

Donnie hurried through the hallway until he got to Raph's room, where he politely knocked before letting himself in. "Raphael?" Donnie whispered, closing the door behind him and flicking on the lights of the room where he spotted his brother, sat on his bed with his red bandana thrown on the floor.

"Not now, Donnie," Raph mumbled, his head in his hands.

"It's okay, ya know," Donnie smiled at his older brother before leaning down and picking Raph's bandana up from the floor. "The whole 'tough-guy' thing...You don't have to pretend that this life isn't getting to you."

"Heh," Raph looked up, his face blotchy from crying. "You always stay the optimistic one, eh, Don?"

"Somebody has to," the purple-clad turtle replied, walking over to the bed and sitting down beside Raphael.

"Don?"

"Hm?"

"We lost Casey ages ago," Raph muttered. "Why am I still feeling so..."

"Unhappy?" Donnie guessed before leaning his shoulder against Raph. "We finally had the chance to bury him last week, so the frustration doesn't help while your mourning. He was your best friend, Raph, you're going to be upset about it. But Casey wouldn't want you to feel sad about this, so...go out there and bash some faces for him, yeah?"

Raph chuckled to himself, "Yeah," he murmured, grinning at Donnie. "Maybe I will."

"So a few years passed, Raphael grew distant but he aided us in battle many times," April continued as she lead the turtles toward an old half-destroyed garage which had a medium-sized blue van parked up inside. April reached into her pocket and opened the door of van with a set of keys, turning the engine on and slowly driving out of the garage. She then got back out of the vehicle and ran around to the back doors of the van where she opened them and signalled for the six turtles to climb in along with Angel.

After slamming the doors shut behind them, April turned to her soldiers, "I'm going on ahead to sort out their injuries. Scout around and meet us at the Farm House as soon as you can. Call if there are any problems," with that said, April climbed back into the front seat and drove out of the forest and along the long roads to her country home.

"It's dark in here, dudes," Mikey called, sitting himself up and leaning into Leo and Raph.

"It won't be a long journey, sweetie," Angel replied, pulling her knees up under her chin and hugging herself while older Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo all were sitting down in different areas inside the back of the van.

"Guys?" Mikey piped up again, his eyes adjusting to the darkness so that he could see the outlines of his family and friends. "Donnie will be okay, won't he?"

A long silence crushed Mikey's hopes as the three older turtles all kept quiet while Angel rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "If this helps, Mikey," she finally answered. "The Shredder won't kill him, he needs Donatello."

"For what?" Younger Leo demanded. "He's tried to kill us so many times, why did he take our brother?"

"In Shredder's warped mind," Future Raph muttered, "he truly thinks that your Donnie can do the things that our Donnie could do."

A/N: Evening all! The flashbacks will continue later on in the story, but next chapter we get back to Shredder, so thanks for the support! *hugs* :'3 :D