Rain in the Dark: While any footage of tsunami or floods did not fuel this chapter (I've had it in my head for a while now that some disaster had to happen), I've watched enough disaster-reenacted TV shows and YouTube videos throughout my life to know how it would look like. How it would feel to actually witness it, to hear it and feel it and see it, is something else entirely that I pray I never get the chance to experience. But that's what writers do. They create scenarios and then focus on the emotions of a few. They make it personal. The last half of Chapter 36 and all of Chapter 37 were roller coasters to write, and I won't deny that I was teary at some points just because of the emotion left in the wake of the disaster. It's cruel irony that you just so happened to stumble across the 2011 video only a day before my posting the chapter. As far as things working out...um... I'll get back to you on that...

Turtlecrazy714: 'Wow' is a word I treasure in reviews. Thank you so much. There's a saying that goes along the lines of "Always brightest before the storm", and Chapters 36 and 37 outline it. It's still a sunny day. It's still a beautiful day in August, the height of summer, with family, and fun, birds, and leaves, and sweet-smelling grass and flowers. Then disaster strikes. And it's horrible and awful and everyone's in a panic and fearful but it's still a beautiful day out. Yeah, the fluffy moments between the brothers are still fresh in their minds, and they can't help but hope and pray that they get some kind of closure in whatever form it comes in.

TheMaskedTimelord: (Great username, by the way!) I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter so much! I'm a sucker for cliffhangers so there will undoubtedly be more in future chapters. :)

2ndGenGeek: I take it you liked the chapter but didn't enjoy the cliffhanger. Sorry!

crazysnowdragon: Welcome, welcome a hundred times over! New readers are always appreciated! Here's your update!

WhoAmI659: (In response to Chapter 35) I am quite proud of how well that went for Splinter and the two Leos. Agreements were made, hugs exchanged, fluff all around!

Author's Note: All right, guys. It's not Thursday yet, but this chapter's ready for reading! Also, Dooley Bridge does not exist.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 37

Raphael knew that his brother and father didn't understand the words that just came out of his mouth. The bank – the water just tore it away… Mikey and Leo…they're gone. He couldn't blame them. He wouldn't have believed it either if he hadn't seen it happen with his own two eyes. But…it was true. Mike and Leo were...gone. Just like that. In a tumble of mud and screams.

"I-I couldn't get them out," he went on, desperately trying to get his words past the sobs in his chest and throat. "I tried ta get ta them but the current… I couldn't keep up. It just swept them away. Leo was screamin'…" He gulped and bowed his head, his whole frame shaking with everything he didn't want to feel – grief, shame, sorrow, regret. "Dad, Donnie, I'm so sorry."

It was several moments before either of them inhaled. Don just leaned into him, and he felt the tears land on his shoulder. Splinter hugged them both. "You did what you could, my son," he whispered, his tone mangled with his own emotions.

Raph just nodded miserably. "Can…can we look fer 'em? I mean…" He trailed off, so uncertain, so unsure. He wanted to make certain. He needed closure.

Don cried harder but Sensei nodded. "We can."

Raph supported his brother carefully with one arm wrapped around his olive, sob-wracked shoulders, as their father took the lead, staying several yards from the dissolving banks. The roar of water made his head ache, and his leg throbbed from running, from trying to reach his brothers...

"I was talking to Leo," Don suddenly said, catching his attention.

Raph blinked. "What? When?"

"I was meditating, we were talking about the book and his notes, and then he went really quiet. When I asked him what was wrong, he asked me what would make hundreds of birds fly off at once."

Birds! Birds! Leo had cried happily. Raph shut his eyes to drive out the memory.

"I mentioned a couple things but when I said disasters, he just kind of…snapped. He told me you guys were in trouble. 'Our brothers are in trouble.' Fate, Raph, I never pulled out of meditation so hard or so fast in my life."

Raph gently squeezed his brother around the waist. Splinter had warned them multiple times throughout the years to not pull out so quickly; it could have serious, adverse effects: loss of consciousness, dizziness, and nausea. Apparently Don had ignored it all to get to them. He'd run a mile inside of minutes to reach them…

"Donatello! Raphael!" Splinter shouted, abruptly veering away from the river toward the trees.

Raph tried to pick up the pace but his leg gave a painful twinge and he almost buckled. Don caught him carefully. "Easy, Raph. Let's take it easy. Come on."

Now Raph was being supported. Tears still ran down his elder brother's cheeks, and he was reminded strongly of how much Donnie was like Leo: being strong, carrying on despite it all… Oh, Fate, they had to find their bodies. He wouldn't rest until he found them…

Splinter knelt under a tree that was far back enough away from the bank that it still stood. Both brothers halted at the sight.

Mikey.

Mikey lay curled beneath the tree, visibly shaking and crying as Sensei tried to soothe him.

Mikey was alive.

Raph was pretty sure that Don didn't mean to yank him forward but he bit back his hiss of pain and knelt beside his family.

"Mikey! Mikey, Mikey, are you okay?"

Their little brother was soaked and filthy, and sported numerous cuts and bruises; his bright orange mask was muddied and torn but at least he had both his nunchaku. Tears tracked through the grime on his face. "Guys…Leo. I lost Leo."

"Hush, my son," Splinter murmured, trailing gentle hands over his head and shell. Meant as a comfort but also a check for injuries, Raph knew.

His little brother didn't seem to hear because he continued. "I couldn't hold on. I let go…to use my other hand to haul us out but…he slipped. I had him on my back. He was right there with me and I felt him slide away. I tried to reach for him but I slipped and I panicked. I should've jumped in after him. He just…went right under."

Even Splinter was crying now, though it was probably half and half of relief and loss.

Raph inched forward and pried his baby brother from the muddy ground, cradling him. "Ya did what ya could, Mike," he barely managed to say.

Sensei's head snapped up at his words in another's mouth but Raph just clutched his Mikey more tightly.

"We gotta look for him," his little brother said tearfully, sniffing and pulling away a fraction. "He's a strong swimmer. I mean, yeah, he's three but he's still a turtle…"

Donatello opened his mouth, probably to say that if an Olympic athlete had been mutated into a turtle or even a freaking fish, there was no way he would survive. No one – nothing – could survive the flood because it wasn't just the current; it was the debris. It was the crumbling banks. It was the sheer amount of water forced into a narrow channel that created rapids and dangerous eddies. Raph knew about floods as well as his genius brother did. He had made sure he knew about them years ago after the sewers had flooded with heavy rains.

Raph cut him off before he could say any of it: "We'll head downriver. Check the banks fer footprints. Yer right, Mike. He might've gotten out."

The two elder brothers shared a glance over Mikey's head, and Raph could see Donnie's hatred for the hope he knew burned in his eyes: if one of their brothers had survived, perhaps another one did, too. But Raphael knew he was kidding no one. Not himself, not Splinter and not Don. There was no hope. There wasn't any hope at all. But for Mikey's sake, they had to try.

It was Splinter who helped the youngest turtle stand while Raph used the tree for support. He blinked in confusion when Don held his bō out to him. "Take it," he urged. "You can barely walk."

Normally, the red-banded turtle would never even consider touching his brother's weapon - or any of his brothers' weapons, for that matter - but today was not normal, and he accepted the purple-wrapped staff with a jerky nod. The four mutants set off. Onyx, chocolate, amber and baby-blue eyes scanned the ground for any sign of something alive having crawled out of the rage only sparse yards away. But there was nothing. Raph's knuckles paled as his grip tightened around his brother's staff. He would settle for a body. He just wanted to make sure.

They covered the next half mile in solemn silence until a bridge loomed around the bend. Several cars were halted there, several more backed up on either side, and Raph knew from the cracks snaking around the pillars and the deep dugouts along the opposite shore beneath the structure, that the bridge was getting ready to collapse.

"Oh, no," Mikey whispered.

Raph instinctively reached out to touch his fingers to his shoulder, wordlessly telling him to not move.

Splinter turned to face them and Raph had to wonder at the expression he saw there. Grief was clearly taking a back seat for the moment as he said, "Donatello?" with a meaning Raph didn't catch.

"Fifteen minutes tops before it goes," was the dead-sounding reply. "The water's tearing at the banks, too. You can see it." He pointed needlessly. "Fifteen minutes."

Splinter nodded. "While I normally do not condone revealing ourselves, in times of emergency, the choice is left up to you."

"What are you saying, Dad?" Mikey asked. "What about Leo? We have to still look for Leo."

"My son, the time has come to make the choice Leonardo made a dozen times over: to save the many or fail to save the one. Your brother is gone." The words broke on their way out and Raph held back his own tears. Barely. "But his choices stand before me, living proof of what he loved most in all this world. Now you must take up his legacy and make your choice."

The three brothers were silent for a long moment – something the people on the bridge couldn't afford.

"I'm makin' my choice," Raph said. His voice didn't hold firm as he spoke but he didn't care. Tears fell down his cheeks, his damp mask sticking to his skin. "Leo wouldn't turn his back on innocents. Neither will I. Are ya guys comin'?"

Donnie nodded and whispered, "Yeah" while Mikey could only nod as he sobbed.

Splinter stepped closer and touched their faces one by one. "We are still family," he told them, "and you are still a team. Come. Before we are too late."

Racing up the embankment to the road was nothing short of murder for Raph's leg but he forced his pain back and accepted Mikey's hand the last, few, steep feet. Raph could immediately see why the traffic wasn't moving: a large semi had overturned on the sharp corner on the far side, cutting off escape from that end. The humans didn't seem to understand that the bridge was compromised because they sat in their cars, some anxious and fearful but impatient at the hold-up.

Raph held his breath as Mikey, still swollen-eyed, walked up to the nearest vehicle, rapped his knuckles on the driver's window and made a circulatory motion in the air with his finger. The driver rolled down his window with wide eyes. "The bridge is about to go," the turtle said, his voice thick. "Turn around and get out of here. Get to higher ground."

"Are you an alien?" the man asked, visibly trembling.

"You can sit there asking me questions or you can live," Mikey snapped. "Best choose fast 'cause I'm not sticking around." Then he walked away and onto the next car.

Raph reminded himself to give his baby brother a good, long hug after this was over. It looked like he wasn't the only one putting his grief in a trunk and locking the thing.

"Raph!" Donnie caught his attention. "Splinter and I are taking the other side. You and Mike get the people off this end and as far away from the edge as possible! When the bridge goes, it might take a ton of ground with it."

"Got it! Hey," he added to the couple who sat in the car right beside him. "Ya heard him. Get yer butts off this bridge!"

The man instantly abandoned his seat and ran around the other side to the woman who was heavily pregnant.

It was nothing short of a miracle that nobody screamed at the sight of three, five-foot-tall, mutant turtles and one, four-foot-eight-inch, mutant rat. Apparently even humans had some kind of self-preservation instincts because as soon as they were ordered to leave, they scarpered like frightened rabbits, taking only what they could carry which was pretty much just their children and handbags. Across the bridge, Don hollered a morbid countdown to utter destruction which, though useful, did not help Raph's nerves.

At three minutes left, the bridge swayed dangerously and people on the far end screamed as web-like cracks split the asphalt of the road and the concrete of the bridge.

"Go!" he heard Donnie bellow and he blitzed past him only a moment later. "Splinter's following. Hurry!"

"I'm comin'!" he replied, though movement caught his eye. "Gimme a minute." He lunged toward the woman who fought to extricate something from the backseat of a beat-up Toyota. "Are ya crazy!?" he demanded, drawing up beside her. "This bridge is about ta go and yer worryin' about yer baggage?"

"My baby's in here!" she shrieked. "I can't get the buckle!"

Aw, shell. There was no time for this. "Hold this and move!" he ordered, thrusting Don's staff at her and body-checking her so, so carefully out of the way. Not only was the baby stuck but there was also a crud-load of gear in his way. Slinging the baby bag and blanket over his shoulder, he unsheathed a sai, silently thanking his ninja training which forbade him from enjoying a family outing without his weapons. Before the mother could inhale to scream at the sight of the blade near her child, Raph sliced through the straps, tucked his sai back into his belt and very gently manoeuvered fragile limbs. "I got him!" he yelled as he threw himself backwards out of the car. "Run or we die!"

The young woman broke into a sprint and Raph kept up with her, ignoring the agony in his calf as well as the sideways glances she gave him – whether out of fear of him or just making sure he stayed with her, he didn't really care.

The odd trio made it to solid ground where Raphael gently handed the woman her baby and supplies as she handed him the purple-wrapped staff. "Thank you," she whispered, tears in her eyes.

"Don't mention it," he replied, leaning on the stick and breathing heavily. A glance at his leg told him the wound bled through the bandaging. Don would have to stitch him back up. He tried to ignore it and continued, "Really. People will kill us if they find out we exist."

"How old are you?" she asked.

It was a strange question to ask, certainly not the classic 'Are you an alien?' that Mikey had gotten minutes ago. It was actually a relief, funnily enough. "Uh, not really sure, but our dad thinks we're sixteen."

"Sixteen," the woman breathed, and then she gave him a heartfelt, one-armed hug. "You are amazing."

"Is that it?" Don asked, running up. "Was that everyone?"

Raph pulled out of the hug, the adrenaline pumping through him too much for him to feel embarrassed. "Think so. Where's Sensei?"

"I don't know! He was here a second ago!"

"Raph! Don! House at ten o'clock!"

Both turtles, along with the gathered crowd, turned like a synchronized flock of birds to see the decent-sized house come barrelling along with the deluge. The house crunched into the concrete bridge and ground to a halt. Water immediately backlogged behind it, and the bridge groaned and swayed again.

"MOVE BACK!" Don roared. "The bridge won't last under the pressure! Move back now!"

Raph guided the woman and her baby away and up the hill. "Keep goin' fer higher ground," he urged her, "and stay together."

More than one person looked back at the three turtles. "What about you?" an old man queried.

"We'll wait for our father," Mikey replied smoothly.

"Uh…you're not adopted, are you?" a twelve-year-old girl asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because I think I see your dad." The kid pointed to something behind them.

The turtles turned in time to see a flash of grey and brown amongst the colourful vehicles still on the bridge. Splinter held something bright yellow which clung to his neck.

"Dad!" Mikey yelled just as someone else screeched, "Caroline!"

Raph made to lunge forward but Don grabbed him by the arm. "No, Raph! The bridge is collapsing!"

Raph snarled and fought his elder brother's grip. "Donnie, it's Sensei! It's our dad! Let go!"

"No, Raphael! I'm not losing you today, too!"

A blur of green and orange leaped past the two older turtles and both screamed, "Michelangelo!" as Mikey raced down to the bridge.

Raph shoved his brother away and ran. He ran so hard that his heart hammered and his breathing laboured and his leg burned and he found himself begging Fate or whatever deity or higher power existed that would hear him: Please, please, not today. No more death. Please, no.

Stony groans filled the air, screeching cracks echoed over the roaring water. Splinter was twelve yards from safety and they were ten yards from the bridge. Massive fissures snaked across through the asphalt, slowly separating the bridge from the shore. Still they ran: Splinter and the child he carried towards them, and they toward him.

Then he was off the bridge but they didn't stop running and for a brief second, Raph's heart felt like it would burst with relief.

Then: "Get back, my sons!" Splinter shouted. He stumbled, and the ground beneath his feet crumbled and then gave way.

"NO!" Mikey lunged over the side, one hand extending down to catch Sensei's outstretched hand, the other reaching back for Raph. Raph dropped the staff and caught his brother's hand in both of his. The weight of two mutants yanked him forward onto his belly and he skidded towards the raging gulf. A sudden weight fell on his legs, and he bit back a hiss of pain, but thanks to Donnie, they successfully ground themselves to a halt with Raph six inches from the ledge.

Raph watched the rest of the bridge plunge into the watery depths, leaving only a couple pillars standing. Cars plummeted like toys but he couldn't see anyone, and his heart eased its rapid pace a fraction.

Don shifted his weight so he was more on top of Raph's shell than his legs; breaths were heavy beside his head. "Did we get him? Mikey!"

"I got 'em!" came Mikey's strained reply. "Pull us up whenever you want!"

"On three?" Raph offered.

"Yeah. Three!" Don wrapped his arms around him and heaved, Raph grunted as he used his brother to support his weight for half a second and pulled his feet back under him, and the two of them hauled first Mikey and then Splinter back up onto stable land.

"Dad! Dad! Sensei!" The three young turtles fell to their knees around their father and promptly remembered the child in his arms when he held up a warning hand.

"We shall hug later, my children," he told them. "Let us return the little one."

The girl huddling against the rat's chest looked barely three or four – the same age as Leo, Raph thought with a pang. The girl was a smattering of yellow: yellow dress and yellow hair done up in pigtails with yellow ribbon; her brown eyes were wide as she took in the three new mutants.

"Let me take her, Sensei," Raph said when he saw that Splinter struggled to stand.

Father nodded and relinquished the child to him, and Don and Mikey helped him up. Raph set the girl on his hip and tried not to think of the last similarly-aged child he'd held not even two hours ago.

They didn't even make a few steps before they were greeted by Caroline's family – mother, father and two older brothers – and applause.

Raph didn't know how many people stood there surrounding him and his family, and he had to bite back the instinctual urge to either draw his sai or run, but they all clapped, they all hugged their neighbours and whooped with glee, several whistled. Caroline's mom embraced Splinter with a sob while her father shook their hands ardently.

It was a tense moment for the four mutants, and then Splinter said at last, "Come, my sons. Let's go home."

"But…what about Leo? We have to do something," Mikey whispered, and Raph had to look away from seeing the tears burn in his little brother's eyes.

"We can mourn. That is all we can do. Come. Before news reporters arrive."

"Hai, otosan," all three turtles murmured.

Splinter led them around the crowd, giving them a safe berth, and into the trees where they melted into the dappled shadows like the ninja they were.

-:-:-:-

'It's unsure exactly what happened here at Dooley Bridge earlier this evening," the reporter on the eleven o'clock news said, his confusion professionally hidden. "Reports from witnesses vary from aliens to angels to regular humans saving all seventy-two people from what could have been another tragedy on this tragic day in Northampton."

The camera cut to a recording of a dishevelled woman with a baby in her arms. "A young man saved my child. He, his brothers and his father saved us all, and I owe them our lives. They lost someone they loved today, I heard them say so, but they put aside their grief to aid complete strangers. I pray that they find comfort and peace."

The reporter continued, "These mysterious good Samaritans seemingly vanished into the woods after this daring and extraordinary rescue. Police are urging the public with any information to come forward. A hot line has even been up and running for the last two hours but officials say that not a single person has called in."

Mikey watched numbly as Casey switched off the TV and turned sad eyes on him. "Do ya think people will stay quiet about this, Mike?" he asked hesitantly.

"Who knows?" Mikey heaved himself out of his chair and walked away into the kitchen to…do something. Anything. It was best to keep his hands busy. If his hands worked, so did his brain which meant he didn't think about…everything.

In theory, of course.

Pan on the stove with oil. Watch out, Raph! Dial to medium heat. The ground beneath his feet turned to mud and he fell. Water and pancake mix in the bowl. Leo clung to him, screaming. Whisk in hand. Mikey slung him over his shell and told him to hang on, fighting to keep both their heads above water. Stir 'til smooth with no granules on the bottom or sides. It's going to be okay, Leo. We're going to be okay. Test warmth of pan. A dead, fallen tree gave him an opportunity to live. Still had to wait another minute. I need my other hand, Leo. Can you hang on good and tight? Might as well set the table…

Tears welled in his eyes as he took the plates down from the cupboard and walked the table's perimeter, setting places. Splinter at the head then Donnie on his right, Raph beside him and Casey at the end. Then April on the other side and Mikey beside her.

There was an extra plate in his hands.

He was hauling themselves up and into the tree. Leo, no, don't let go! Hold on. Hold on as tight as you can!

It wasn't even one of the plastic ones April had given them weeks ago with the rest of the stuff she'd brought. It was glass. The same as the other six on the table. A plate for his big brother whom, for an instant, he had forgotten had been turned into a toddler; whom, for an instant, he had forgotten was dead.

The water sucked at them, threatening to pull them back in, but his strength held. Leo's did not. He couldn't reach him. He almost fell back in - his head went under - but he kept his grip on the tree. He couldn't reach Leo. He couldn't even see him when he resurfaced.

Mikey leaned against the fridge and slid down it to land on the floor, knees tucked up and arms wrapped protectively around the lone plate against his chest. He cried. He didn't even try to stop the tears from coming. His brother was dead. His father and friends and remaining brothers had all told him that it would be okay, that they'd make everything all right. Like how he had told Leo that they'd be okay. Somehow, he'd save them but he had only managed to save himself.

No how. No way. It would never be all right. He sobbed into his knees, holding the plate like it was all that remained of his big, brave brother, his fearless leader, his Leonardo.

"Mikey?" A voice intruded into his mourning. Strong hands curled around his shoulders. "Oh, no, Mikey. It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

Why did everyone keep saying that?

"What are ya holdin'? Mike, what is it? Let go, Mikey. It's okay." Those strong hands tried to take the plate from him, tried to take the last thing on Earth that was Leo's.

"Raphael?" A second voice arrived, skilled at feigning smoothness and calmness. What an able liar that voice was…

"It's a plate. He's holdin' a plate. He won't say why. He won't say anythin'. Mikey, c'mon, buddy, talk ta me."

"Raphael, the table has been set for six."

"Seven." The word was a breath by his ear. "Oh, Mikey. It's okay. Ya can let go of the plate now. It's fine. Ya can let go. Please let go of the plate. Yer gonna break it and cut yerself. Mikey? Won't ya let go? It's okay ta let go."

"No, it's not," he whispered.

"Mikey?"

"It's not okay. It's not going to be okay. It's never going to be okay ever again."

"Michelangelo…"

"Stop lying to me!" he screamed. He shoved away from the fridge, pushed past Raph who fell back in surprise and pain – from his leg, he remembered with a pang of regret – and ran past Splinter and Donnie and April and Casey.

But no Leo. Leo wasn't there.

The screen door slammed behind him as he raced out onto the porch but, cruel Fate, he couldn't leave. As much as he wanted to run forever and never look back, he knew he would look back eventually. He could never leave his family. He couldn't leave but he just needed to be...away. The porch swing creaked on its chains as Klunk stirred in his sleep. He looked so peaceful, his tail curled over his nose. Mikey stumbled into the swing, curling up on it and around his pet without disturbing him. He didn't have the plate anymore; he had no idea what had happened to it. He was too tired to get up and look for it. His hands found fur instead and he hung on, burying his beak in it. He smelled grass and sunshine on washed carpet mixed in with his cat's natural musk. Beneath it all was a faint whiff of sewer - of home - that no amount of soap or licking could get rid of...

The door creaked open. A warm presence filled the space in front of him, and even though he had his eyes closed, he knew it was the liar.

No, something inside him corrected. It was Sensei. It was his father, his dad.

A so soft and gentle hand smoothed over his head, soft lips touched his brow, soft words reached his ears: "I'm sorry, my Michelangelo." Then the hand, the lips and the words left.

He blinked open his eyes and caught the hem of his robe as he turned away. "Dad," he rasped.

Splinter immediately came back to him, falling to his knees and enfolding him in those small yet protective arms. Whiskers brushed his cheek. "I'm here," he said, and Mikey could hear and see his father's tears. "I'm right here."

Mikey shifted slightly around Klunk to grab hold of his father. "It hurts."

"I know. I know it does. It's all right to cry. It's all right to be sad."

"Not all tears are an evil," Mikey whispered.

Something wet landed on his shoulder and his dad's grip tightened. "That's right, my precious shisoku," he managed to say after a moment. "That's exactly right..."

-:-

Please review. Please, don't hate me.

Translations

Shisoku - son