AUTHOR'S NOTE- And I present to you folks the last chapter, something I should have done a month ago, but you know, life. I can't believe it but I finally finished this story, by far the longest its taken ever but better late then never, once gain this has been a blast and I hope this has been the epic conclusion you've been waiting for.
DISCLAIMER- in case you are slow, unobservant or just plain stupid I'll say it again, I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
6
Out of the thousands of passengers that plunged into the unknown darkness, 6 were rescued. Leo, Raph and Don being half of them.
In retrospect they were lucky, extremely lucky. They only lost one when they could have lost a lot more. Out of all the survivors the lost the least, and that fact was just mocking them.
A mother of seven lost all of hers when they were sucked into he black hole, a father had to let go of his wife and children as well, and a child who was taken away from her parents and never would see them again.
These survivors were now all alone, and the weight of despair thoroughly crushed the relief of survival.
They sat in a room together, all of them. Their time without any oxygen should have killed them, but with a stroke of luck on all of their accounts, it didn't. But they all could unanimously agree that it was not luck that had saved them.
They were alone together for weeks. Each in critical states. Their lungs were far to strained to take in all necessary air at once, so the doctors put them each on leveled oxygen.
"The chemical and physical strains on your bodies from the overlong exposure to the radiation makes each of you very fragile, we will help you as much as we can but you must also fight as well." the doctors advised, but they came as hollow sounds to the survivors.
No one had the fight to continue on, they were all at the end of the marathon but lacking the strength to pull through the last few feet, which also happened to be the most challenging of the whole race.
The mother died first, not to anyone's shock. The doctors were force nourishing her and putting her on as many drugs as they could, but her fighting soul was long gone and her body had soon followed.
The father was next, but by his own hand. On his last night he was sitting in silence with the turtles, glaring at the three of them. Perhaps he recognized them from the ship, or maybe he was jealous they still had each other, either way he stared at them for two long hours with a look of hatred and disgust. The next morning he was found dead after an overdose of the drugs that were supposed to save him.
This however had no impact on any of them. They were probably the most hated beings in the galaxy, but that hardly mattered. As soon as they had let go of Mikey they had entered an autopilot state and never came out.
Running now on pure animal instinct, they ate when they could, they slept when they had to and talked to no one, even amongst themselves.
Don wasn't sure what silenced him or his brothers, but he knew it wasn't self pity, they were all the least deserving of that. It wasn't guilt either, because when you at times have too much of something, even pain or sadness, it eventually starts hurting you and becomes a part of you .
Personally what kept him quiet was the irony of it all. All of the events that had lead them there. They had been so unsuspecting, so ignorant before. Especially him, it was his fault and his fault alone that this had all happened. With his curiosity he killed his own brother and thousands of other innocent beings. Regret was with him all the time, in each of his steps, plagued all of his thoughts.
He more then anyone dreaded the return home the most. Home meant confession, reality, and mourning. Things he had been spared from thus far. But he was in no position to be asking for any kind of mercy.
It had been on full year and two months since the turtles had left after the thieves. It had been fourteen months of searching, desperation and hopelessness for those they had left behind. It had been exactly four hundred and twenty four days since Master Splinter last saw his sons safe and happy and was in a calm state of mind.
He was on the floor meditating, resting after a long night of searching with Casey once again, when they walked through the door.
Just like that, so simply, all he did was look up and there they were. At first he thought it was a dream, a cruel dream mocking his reality, but one fact changed all of it, there were only three of four that stood before them.
He stood up, slowly cautiously and walked towards Leo. He was half the size of when he last left home. His face and eyes were dull and grey. He looked exhausted, and was covered in bandages and bruises. He looked like a shadow of his former self, but at that moment it was the most wonderful sight the old rat ever saw.
He stroked a furry paw gently around his son's face.
"Master..." he started.
But Splinter interrupted him by throwing his arms around him and releasing a cry of joy and relief. Leo bit his lip, refusing to let himself spoil what last minute of ignorant joy his father had and returned the embrace as well. For a moment he was almost happy.
Master Splinter repeated his welcome with Don and Raph as well, no words were exchanged, and the only cries came from Splinter.
Once he released Raph, happiness still shining his eyes he turned toward Leo, "Where's Michelangelo?" he sputtered.
Leo thought he could do this, he thought ignorantly he could say these words to his father but he couldn't, he looked away in shame and heartbreak.
Leo missed it, but Raph and Don sure didn't. The look of their father's face from heavenly happiness to one of extreme despair and unbelief. He turned to Don, mouthing the question again, but in his eyes he knew the answer.
Don looked back hard, clinched his fist and shook his head.
They received similar reactions from April and Casey. At first April nearly cried in joy and relief, and Casey gathered them up in a tight bear hug, laughing in relief. And then when they heard the news they were quiet and once again they turtles left a silent room.
Master Splinter didn't get to long to mourn for his fourth son, since the others needed him so desperately. They had each given up and it took weeks for Splinter to get them to say their first words, and and much longer for them to finally tell the story of what happened.
But after months of persistence and patience, the turtles finally returned into some state of normality. Their physical form had been quiet simple to fix, all things considering. And they were eventually in the physical condition of the turtles that had left one year ago, minus one. Mentally however they were permanently scared.
April waited three months until she forced herself back to the sewers. Three months way too long she told herself. But she couldn't help it, after all she put then through returning to see them was the worst kind of torture.
On the walk from the apartment she was shaking like a leaf, and not because of the winter winds. She tightly held an envelope in her hands and her face was white in fear.
Three days after the turtles left after the thieves she knew something was wrong. So she, Splinter and Casey banned together to go search for them. Even at that time she felt guilty, for making all of them go through this because of her, and after a couple of months she was mad with regret and self loathing. Taking away Splinter's four sons was the worst guilt, or so she one thought. When they had returned forgiveness had been for a moment a possibility, but then she relaized it was worse then she previously imagined.
She had killed one of them and made hollow zombies out of the rest. They weren't dead but they wanted to be. Every time she saw them she went back to a place of insufferable self loathing and found her self hysterically crying under her bed sheets. Forcing herself to confront them now made her heart pound with dread.
But April already convinced herself she was an awful person. She knew forgiveness was never going to happen either. It was bad enough she waited so long to confront them after the nightmare she put them through, but she was doing it for a reason that even disgusted herself. But she couldn't help it.
Finally she found herself underground in front of their empty home, which for so long became a tomb for them. Now she didn't know what to call it.
With a shaky hand she knocked on the door making a weak hardly audible sound. However Leo still anwsered it. He greeted her with a face of slight surprise but other wise emotionless. Pleasantries were a waste of breath and therefor not said.
"May I speak to Don?" she whispered.
Leo tuned to a dark corner where Don decided to take refuge an nodded slowly.
April with her head down dragged herself in. She took a long look at the turtle on the shadows then sighed and turned to Leo.
"This came for your father," she said head still down "It came a couple of weeks ago but I never got the chance to give it to him."
She handed him the envelope, now wrinkled from her holding it so long and went over to Don.
Leo turned it over and his eyes widened at the sight of the sender, Mikey. He looked at the date, it was the day of the sinking, Don had calculated it for them, probably of the last letters sent that morning.
Without a second thought he ripped the envelope and nearly cried. It was the picture they had taken on the Titan, the picture Mikey had tricked them into.
We were all so ignorant of what was to come, he thought and slowly ran a finger over Mikey's image. The turned the picture around, and there was the note.
Dear Sensai,
I know it's probably been awhile since we ran after those crazy weirdos who stole April's box thingy, but I just wanted to assure you that we're all good and all together. We even managed to get that box thing back from the pirates. So much has happened since we last saw you, and I don't have time to write it all. But I just wanted to tell you that we're on our way home and will be there soon, all of us.
PS- The picture of us is holographic, its so cool!
Love Mikey, Leo, Raph, and Donnie... um well okay they didn't write this but I know they'd want me to tell you that.
Leo tore the picture and note into as small pieces as he could. He went outside briefly to throw the remains down the sewage canals. And immediately returned home and locked himself in his room.
April approached the turtle slowly, she hated herself for what she was about to do but the curiosity was driving her mad.
"Don," she said in a small voice, he turtle barely acknowledged her presence,"What do you think happened to the Mors Nigra?"
Don was still for a long instant, then looked at April with hatred and regret, "What happened to it was that it did what it was made to do, cause despair and angst. I know from studying it, that thing was made out of hatred and cursed anyone who came in contact with it. After destroying the whole galaxy, it probably went off again in search of a new victim to torment."
April bit her lip, what did she release into the world? "Do you think something like this will happen again?" she whispered.
Don looked back down to his fingers, "We can hope not April, we can pray that the cursed thing is never found again, but just because we want don't something to happen, doesn't mean it won't."
Author's Note- And there you have it folks, the end of my second TMNT story. And sadly it may be my last. I regret to say I have lost my TMNT interest, an finished this story solely because I believe I was responsible to do so. And I apologize sincerely for the numerous time spans between updates, I don't want to go through that again. Bu even though I lost passion for TMNT I will never forget it, and hopefully the stuff I learned here will help enhance my writing in the future. Who knows maybe I'll like the reversion enough to come back, but until then farewell and for the last time please review.