Chapter 21: Breaking Through

The light was blinding, engulfing, robbing them of their sight as they felt the ground leave beneath them, the quality of air change around them as they felt weightless, their beings torn to pieces, particle by particle, and reassembled on the other side.

The gray cloud-ridden sky spoke volumes.

"Where are we?" Mikey whispered "There aren't any street lamps here."

"Or people" said Raph.

"Thank God" whispered Don.

"I don't recognize this place" Raph said, brow knotted as his eyes surveyed his surroundings. There, only trees dotted the horizon, only a thick, white expanse of newly fallen snow spread before their feet.

"It's cold" shivered Don almost involuntarily. He had been planning to keep that thought to himself so that his brothers wouldn't worry, but it had just slipped out before he could stop it. "It's winter here, maybe December?" Don said trying to distract them from his uncontrollable tremors against the cold.

"But when we left it was September" said Mikey, a different kind of worry creeping into his voice.

"Chances are that we weren't transported back to exactly the time and date we were taken from. It was hard enough to get the Porthole to send us back to the right place."

"But what is this place? This ain't New York is it? It's too quiet. No sidewalks or traffic or nothin'."

Mikey looked around and peered up to the horizon just above the tree line. Finally, his eyes lit up and he pointed to the grey haze-covered skyline.

"Look! I see the Chrysler building! Over there! This has to be New York!"

Raph let out a sigh of relief when he spotted the massive skyscraper looming in the distance. "Yeah. I was startin' to think somethin' went wrong."

But then, Donny gasped.

"I know where we are" he said quickly, shaking more than ever under his brother's comforting grasps. But this time, they failed to comfort.

"What? Where?" Mikey demanded, inheriting Don's panic.

"Kerry Lake."

"Oh… the park. Duh" said Mikey, mentally smacking himself. His brothers seemed to have panicked over nothing.

"No, Mikey. Were standing on the lake."

From underneath their feet, the ice moaned and cracked.

"God damn it! Turtle luck's still runnin' true to form, ain't it? Raph breathed, trying to think light thoughts to keep his weight from cracking the fragile sheet of ice beneath his feet..

"Tread lightly, my sons, we do not want to break through" warned Master Splinter as all panicked gazes shot to Donatello. They all knew the danger they were in. If they broke through, Don wouldn't have the strength to swim.

"Shit!" cursed Raphael under his breath.

Splinter threw him a look. Even in a time of panic, foul language was unacceptable. He made a mental note that once they had made it safely back home, Raphael would receive a stern talking to about his new-found colorful language.

"Lighten your mind and the body will follow" instructed Splinter to his three sons, stepping lightly across the slick surface. But under their combined weight, the ice continued to moan and creek, threatening the frigid waters below.

Halfway across the frozen lake, Mikey felt Don start to collapse again. He tried to compensate for his brother's weight as he pulled him from his knees, but it was too late. His foot broke through the fragile sheet of glass and into the icy water below.

He pulled his foot away, throbbing from the instant cold as each of them froze.

From the small hole in the ice, emanating cracks radiated from its center, spreading outward like cruel talons, threatening to snatch them away into the depths of Kerry Lake.

"It's breaking! Run!" shouted Raph, heaving Donatello's weight up upon his shoulder, getting ready to make the mad dash to shore.

But after only a few steps, the ice gave way as the three brothers fell through into the numbing grip of the black frigid waters.

Master Splinter could only watch in panic as his three sons struggled and thrashed against the biting cold. If they did not get to the shore quickly, they would surly drown.

"My sons!" the old rat called from his perch on the ice above them "you must swim to shore! Northeast there is a low bank!"

"Keep his head above water!" shouted Raph to Mikey, desperately trying to keep himself above water and support Don with his one remaining arm.

"I can't hold him!" shouted Mikey in his desperation.

"Just do it! Northeast!"

The pain in their muscles pierced and stung like one thousand icy needles as they began to lose hot sensation to the cold. Their joints ached, their lungs begged for mercy, but they refused to stop, refused to ever let go.

Refusing to let go of his brother, Raph swallowed mouthful after mouthful of choking frigid water. The shoreline was in sight.

When they finally reached the grassy bank, Mikey felt like he could have kissed the ground. He heaved himself up from the water and dragged Donny onto shore, Raph closely following suit.

Shivering, the three brothers huddled together in the snow as Donny and Raph coughed up vast amounts of cold lake water from their lungs. The pain and numbness of cold took hold of their bodies as they sat, still clutching one another, shivering and pale.

Watching as their son's emerged, mostly unscathed, the old rat hopped gracefully from ice burg to floating ice burg without disturbing even a single ripple in the lake.

Raph watched on, glaring jealously at his sensei as he coughed up more burning lake water.

"Master Splinter" he said, voice trembling between coughs "how did ya do that?"

"A light mind, Raphael" the old rat said thoughtfully as he crouched down to Donatello, who was still sputtering miserably. But Splinter knew that it was by no fault of their own that his sons had fallen through. They weighed a good one hundred pounds heavier than he, and even the most skilled of ninja could not combat the forces of nature.

"Donatello, it is all right" he said gently, supporting his son as he coughed. "Breathe, my son."

"I'm tired" announced Mikey sleepily. He looked deathly pale and unsteady, laying back into the snow.

Master Splinter knew that the cold would soon come to claim his reptile sons into hibernation if he did not act quickly. It was a battle they had fought since their childhood, every winter for twenty years.

"Don't sleep Mikey" said Raph, his eyes half closed. "We hafta keep movin.'"

Don yawned and closed his eyes, but Master Splinter shook him awake, making his eyes open again.

"You stay awake too, Donny" yawned Mikey.

"We need ta get someplace warm" said Raph, heaving himself up onto unsteady feet.

"It's too light to move around. We'll get seen" reminded Mikey. It was a notion they had almost forgotten since experiencing the freedom of New Manhattan.

"We gotta go or else we'll sleep here 'till spring" he said, offering a hand to his younger brother.

Mikey got slowly to his feet, his joints still stiff from the cold. He stretched and then helped Raph lift Donny to his feet. Don's head nodded and looked like he had already given in to his drowsiness.

"Don!" Raph shouted in his ear. "Wake up!"

Don popped awake and looked up dazed, his eyes unfocused to where his brothers were taking him.

"There's an abandoned subway station under Fifth Ave. It should be…" Don trailed, his eyes closing again, his head lolling to the side. Raph shook him and he looked up to finish his sentence "…warmer there."

Moving like shadows underneath the ancient trees, the family slowly made their way out of Central Park. They took to the familiar winding ally ways down to Fifth Avenue where Don had indicated a manhole. They wrenched open the cover with numb fingers and slipped inside.

After a few excruciating minutes, they stumbled upon the subway station and to their relief, found it empty.

Down there, it was still cold, but warm enough to keep the turtles from falling asleep until the thaw.

"Bring him here, my sons" Master Splinter said, indicating to Donatello. Mikey and Raph eased his brother down to where their sensei sat cross-legged on the floor and rested Donny's head in their father's lap. Immediately, Don closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Raph stretched his hand out to wake his brother again, but Splinter stopped him.

"It is alright, my son, let him rest. The danger is over for now. He is simply exhausted."

The old rat stroked his son's head and felt the coldness of his skin. Taking off his kimono, he draped it over Don's sleeping body.

Don sniffed against the cold and coughed quietly in his sleep.

"I hope he doesn't get sick" said Mikey, arms crossed across his plastron, that familiar look of worry coming to his face once again.

"He will be alright for now, Michelangelo" Splinter reassured. "Each of you looked to have caught a chill. Please, keep moving to warm yourselves."

"We should probably go see what the lair's like… ya know… in case it's changed."

Mikey nodded to his brother, still hugging himself and staring at Don. "We could see if it's ok to go back home, get warm and get Don to bed."

"Be careful, my sons. I shall wait here with Donatello."

"Yes, sensei. We'll be back ASAP to give ya the word" said Raph, quickly bowing to his father before turning back down the tunnel from which they came, Michelangelo following closely behind.

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Michelangelo and Raphael made their way in silence, not knowing what lay in store for them when they finally approached their once beloved home.

After nearly ten minutes, Raph became irritated by the quiet and stopped on a nearby rooftop, turned and met his brother's running form.

Mikey made to run past and his hand stretched out to grab him.

"Wait, Mike."

Mikey only shrugged his brother off, and without losing momentum, he lept again, spanning the empty void between to buildings and landing with an easy grace on the next rooftop below.

Raph followed suit, this time, grabbing a hold of his brother and refusing to let go.

"Mike. Stop."

Mikey twisted in his brother's grip and glared him hard in the face.

"Let go of me Raph" he spat.

"No"

"We need to go. Don and Master Splinter are waiting."

"Not until ya talk ta me for a sec."

"Why?" Mikey said blandly.

"'Cause I don't like this. You and me. We used to be buds, Mike."

Mikey's eyes narrowed as he shook free from his brother's grasp. "Not anymore."

"Look, I know you're mad at me. Ya have a reason for it too. I'm sorry Mike. I'm sorry I…" Raph's voice trailed in the dark winter air "you know."

"Left us" Mikey finished.

"Yeah."

"I can't forgive you. Not yet, ok? So if that's what you want, you're not going to get it."

"No… it's ok if ya can't. I just… wanted ta say it again." Raph looked up into the sky, choked hazy brown with light pollution.

He looked to his brother again, a sincere concern glazing his eyes. "I don't wantcha like this Mikey. I don't like it."

"Well neither do I, but you don't hear me complain" Mikey snapped in reply.

"No, but I see it. I know it kills ya, Mike."

Mikey looked at his brother, slowly searching him, seeing all the changes in him… he had changed… a lot.

"I know ya think ya hafta be like this, ya know… strong for Donny, mad at me. 'Cause I felt it too. I know what we did. We killed a lot a people. Our brother died. I still have dreams about the blood, about Leo."

Mikey shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, again hugging his arms around his plastron.

"I do too. All the time" he whispered.

In the distance, a car alarm broke the quiet.

"Yeah" Raph sighed finally. "Just… whenever ya need ta talk… you know."

Then the two brothers turned and lept off the rooftop again, sprinting from one to another in an endless stream of subconscious movements, burned into their mind from the familiarity of it all.

"You did a pretty good job back there, Raph" Mikey said while leaping to the next roof, his feet planting softly on its rough surface, sprinting for the next. "You make a good leader."

He smiled to his brother over his shoulder. "Thanks, bro."

That was all the forgiveness Raph could have ever needed.

When they approached the final rooftop, they peered down to what they had remembered as a secluded little back ally street, where a manhole cover sat, planted in the concrete.

The Lair would be just ten minutes walk from where it sat, opening to a ladder and a maze of winding tunnels, all heavily guarded by Donatello's ingenious security system.

But when they looked down from the side of the building and peered into the familiar street, they could not believe their eyes. It had to have been a mistake.

Where the manhole cover had once been stood a gaping doorway, glass doors built into the street like a museum, planted far below the concrete. Stone steps dipped down to meet it. On the doors, the walls the ally way roads, signs littered the streets.

Slowly, Mikey read one out loud.

"Visit Sewer Manor… New York City's newest attraction. A marvel of science. A mystery to behold. Come explore the ledgend of the creatures that roamed this sewer home.

"Admission: 20 adult 5 dollars child."

Raph and Mikey were shaking, unable to believe their eyes. Raph looked over to his brother, his fist clenched, his heart thirsting for a battle.

Raph grinned at Mikey's wide fear-filled eyes and proclaimed "Guess it's time to drop in for a visit."

Thank you all for your responses. You guys are great! I love you all!

Much Love, Willowfly