I've waited a long time to do this MAJOR chapter!
NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.
In the prime timeline...
"Why'd you drag me all the way out here, Raph? Especially in the middle of the night?" Donnie said with a yawn as they parked the Shellraiser, which was still running even after being in storage for thirty years. They were now at the old O'Neil farmhouse, and the sea of stars shined brightly in the night sky.
Without speaking a word, Raph stepped out of the vehicle and motioned for him to follow. Donnie rolled his eyes and sighed but hopped out nonetheless.
They walked to the farmhouse together, but instead of stepping inside, they stopped at the front steps. Donnie glanced over at his brother confused.
Then Raph pointed to a certain spot on the grass. "Do you remember what took place here, on this very spot, Donnie?"
It took the genius Turtle a few seconds before he realized what Raph was talking about, and his heart clenched as that awful memory resurfaced. He slowly and somberly nodded. "Yes. Mikey's funeral pyre was right there."
Raph nodded, putting his hand on Donnie's shoulder and giving it a small squeeze. "Yeah," he said in a very quite voice.
"Why'd you bring me here?" Donnie softly asked him, feeling the tears coming. He swore that he'd never come back to the farmhouse after the funeral, and he knew that Raph hated this place as much as he did.
"To remind you," Raph answered. "About the short time we have on this planet and the fragility of life. I said some things to Mikey that I wished I hadn't before he died. I can't go back and change what I said, and I have to live with that for the rest of my life."
"What are you getting at, Raph?" Donnie sighed.
"You and Gaia had a fight, and you haven't reconciled with her yet. You won't even return her calls. Don, what if something happens to her before you two get a chance to make up?"
The very thought of something bad happening to the love of his life...he couldn't even comprehend it. He felt a lump form in his throat and swallowed around it. "...Gaia didn't even start the fight. I was the one who walked away in a huff and refused to listen to her. I thought that by marrying her, I would ensure that we would stay together forever. When Casey came into our lives, I was so worried that he would take April from me." He chuckled bitterly. "And she probably would've ended up with me...if I hadn't have pushed her and everyone else away after Mikey died."
Donnie sighed and walked over to the porch of the farmhouse, sitting down on the top step and cradling his head in his hands. "That's always been the problem with me, Raph. I can't even hold onto to the people I care about and instead end up driving them away."
Raph sat down next to his brother and slung an arm over his shell. "You and me both, Donnie. And that's why I'm trying so hard to bring our family back together again, to make up for all the hurt I've caused you and everyone else." He felt his heart clench when he thought about his older brother. "But...I'm not having very much luck with Leo. I mean, I left him in jail, for Pete's sake. And now he'll never forgive me."
Donnie looked up back at Raph, knowing just how hard it was for him to turn in his own brother. He reached to gently touch his shoulder. "Raph, Leo needed to be locked up, as much as we love our brother. And the thing is, Leo knows what he's doing is wrong, and he'll eventually forgive you 'cause even he will agree that it needed to be done."
Raph closed his eye and sighed. "Yeah, but...there's still the suicide problem. Leo is so determined to end his own life. I don't know if I'll ever convince him to reconsider."
"That's a personal battle he has to fight on his own. He needs to overcome it himself, and all we can do is try to be there for him and let him know that he's not alone. And if you do fail to save him in the end, at least you tried, and sometimes that's all we can do."
Raph slowly nodded and looked up at the beautiful sea of stars that could not be seen from the rooftops of the even tallest of skyscrapers back in New York. He startled when something suddenly dashed past his face and realized that it was a dragonfly. The insect hovered down and rested on a blade of grass next to Raph's foot, its translucent wings shimmering in the moonlight.
Somehow, Raph found himself smiling as he stared down at the dragonfly, suddenly reminded of a certain hotheaded teen whom he came to love like a daughter. He prayed that she was safe, wherever she was.
In the alternate timeline...
"We'll stop here for the night," Leo announced as the tank came to a complete stop in the middle of the desert. The crew stepped out of the vehicle and began to set up camp, laying down their sleeping bag and starting a campfire.
Mikey yawned and stretched himself. "I just hope that Ice Cream Kitty isn't having another party with the squirrels back home. Last time she did, they left some surprises in my pillow."
Donnie turned to him. "Wow. You mean...?"
Mikey nodded. "Yep...nuts."
Shadow decided to climb on top of a towering boulder so that she could sleep under the stars, like she used to whenever she went camping with her folks in North Hampton. She set her up her sleeping bag and removed her jacket, folding it up to use as a pillow.
As Raph was about to settle down in his own bag, he felt someone touch his shoulder and turned to see Mikey standing over him.
"Raph, you should go talk to Shadow," the younger Turtle said with a grin.
Raph blinked. "Huh?"
"You know, get to know her more. She doesn't have anyone in this dimension and she could use another friend. Or an uncle," Mikey chuckled.
"Eh, I dunno," Raph shrugged. "I mean, it's not like she's gonna stay with us forever, and I can't afford to get attached."
"Come on, Raph. The kid's been through a lot in the last couple of days. It would probably do her good to have a familiar face to talk with."
Raph sighed softly. "Yeah, I guess so. But I don't know much help I will be." He walked to the boulder and climbed up to meet with Shadow, who was surprised to see him, considering how hard he was on her before.
"Raph?" Shadow scooted over to make some room for him.
"Hey, kid, how's it going?" Raph grinned at her as he sat down.
"Okay, I guess," she said with a shrug before she lay back down on her bag. Staring up at the night sky, her released a soft, sorta melancholic sigh. "You know, in this dimension, the moon is shattered and the sky looks so weird. But the stars...they're still the same."
Raph lifted his head to the heavens and watched the stars with her, briefly reminiscing the good old days before the Mutagen Bomb destroyed nearly everything and everyone he loved and changed the world forever. The kid was right, though; the stars did stay the same, and that gave him a little bit of comfort.
"What if I never get back?" he heard Shadow say in a whisper and turned his head to look at her. Her green eyes were wet with tears. "Maybe this TCRI doesn't exist after all. What if I never see my parents again or get to meet my little brother?"
Hating to see the kid like this, Raph sat up and looked down at her with soft eyes. "Look, kid, I have serious doubts about this TCRI building still standing, but I could be wrong and Mikey could be right...again. Either way, I promise you, somehow we'll get you back home."
Shadow glanced up at him and sniffled. "Y-You will? But...I thought you hated me?"
"What? No! No, I never hated you! It's just...I was hard on you because I wasn't sure if I could trust you. After fighting off mutant gangs for fifty years, you become very...distrusting of others, if you get what I mean."
Shadow smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah, I get it. But you can trust me."
Raph smiled back at her. "Yeah, I know that now."
She yawned and closed her eyes. "Well, I'm gonna get some shut-eye. Night, Raph."
"Night, Shadow," Raph said. He thought about climbing back down the boulder, but ultimately decided to stay with her. Lying down with his hands behind his head, he dozed off staring at the tiny diamonds in the sky.
"Shadow, you can't keep starting fights at school," April sighed as they walked to the car together.
The teen huffed and slammed her door shut. "Well, I can't let them walk over me."
"It's not very ladylike to punch someone in the face," April sternly told her as she started the car.
Shadow snorted and crossed her arms. "Really? 'Cause that wasn't a problem for you when you were my age."
"That was different, honey. I became a kunoichi because I had to. And I certainly never punched kids who said stupid, meaningless things to me just to get under my skin, even though I would've liked to."
Shadow whipped her head to her mother. "You don't even know what that punk said to me!"
"I don't care what he said!" April snapped. "You should never hit someone because they hurt your feelings! You need to be the better person! Do you understand, young lady?"
Shadow merely looked away and out her window.
"Shadow, I said, do you understand me?"
"Yeah, whatever," the teen mumbled.
April sighed exasperatedly and continued to drive down the street. The child could be so difficult sometimes, especially since she was now a teenager.
"You know, that kid called me an 'adopted bimbo'," Shadow whispered bitterly. "And sometimes, I wonder if I actually am adopted."
The car suddenly came to an abrupt screeching halt and Shadow looked at her mother surprised. The reporter seemed extremely disturbed by Shadow's remark and tightened her grip on the wheel as she looked over at her daughter with wide eyes.
"Why do you think that, Shadow?" April asked with some urgency in her tone.
"I-I just..." Shadow stuttered, a little taken back by her mother's strange behavior. "Look, Mom, I know I'm your real daughter and-and I was just...I dunno, angry-"
"Don't ever say such things so carelessly ever again," April reached over to grip Shadow's shoulders so that they'd be directly facing each other. "Despite what others might say, you are our daughter."
Now Shadow was getting a little nervous and pulled away from April. "O-Okay, Mom. I got it. Geez, take a pill."
April took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, regaining her composure as she started on the road again. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I...I just don't want you to have doubts about who you are."
"I understand, Mom...I think."
Suddenly a dragonfly flew straight into the window and left a large yellow smudge.
"Aw, yeeuck!" Shadow said, but she was laughing, as was April, who turned on the windshield wipers. At least the tension was gone.
Shadow fluttered her eyes open and slowly sat up, stretching herself. Raph was still asleep next to her, curled up and snoring like a bear. She climbed down the boulder and looked around for a place to...powder her nose. The only privacy available was a dead dried up bush...of course.
As she knelt behind it and started to pull her pants down, she spotted something in the distance. It liked look a tower or...
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Oh, my god...! GUYS! WAKE UP!"
...
"Well, what do ya know," Raph muttered in disbelief as he stepped out of the tank.
They all stared up at the former headquarters of the Kraang, the TCRI tower. It looked exactly the same as it did fifty years ago, even after being exposed to the Mutagen bomb. No other buildings were standing, though, and the rusted debris and rubble at their feet were all that were left of New York City.
"I can't believe it's still standing even after all these years," Donnie said in awe.
Mikey glanced over at Raph and gave him a smug smirk. "Eh?"
Raph rolled his eyes and huffed. "Hmph. All right, all right. You were right...again."
All Shadow approached the entrance, she started to get an uncomfortable feeling in her gut for some reason, as though she had a hutch that there was something...sinister inside. "Uh, guys, are you sure this building is empty? I-I mean, there are no Kraang inside?"
"Lemme check," Donnie stepped forward and scanned the building with his thermal heat vision. "Hmm...no signs of life detected, which means no Kraang."
"Still, we'll have to move in with extreme caution," Leo warned. "We don't know what awaits us inside. Let's go."
As the Turtles started to move in, Raph noticed that Shadow wasn't following them and turned around to see her staring up at the building with what appeared to be fear in her eyes. "Kid? You coming?"
The teen blinked and shook herself out of her trance. "Huh? Oh, y-yeah."
...
Using his night vision, Donnie guided the others through the dark halls and up the stairs since the elevators didn't work. Every room they checked was completely empty. Not a single computer nor any Kraang technology lying around. Just dust and cobwebs.
As they got higher up, Shadow grew more and more anxious and tense. Even though she had never been to this place before, it somehow felt...familiar to her, like she was getting a strange feeling of deja vu.
"You okay, Shadow?" Raph whispered to her.
"Yeah," she lied with a tense smile, though Raph could see right through it.
Mikey started chuckling out of the blue.
"What's so funny?" Donnie asked him.
"Remember April Derp?"
"Oh, yeah." The other Turtles started to laugh along with him, while Shadow looked at all of them confused.
"April what?" she questioned.
"Oh, it was a long time ago," Leo told her. "We were fighting these clones of April in this very building, and one particular clone was extremely ugly and malformed."
"I called her April Derp," Mikey said.
"So wait," Shadow was still trying to process all of this. "Mom was cloned?"
"Oh, yeah," Donnie nodded. "The Kraang were quite obsessed with cloning. They even cloned her mother."
Shadow froze, stopping dead in her tracks. "Grandma...?"
"Mom, how did Grandma die?"
"Well, you see, honey, a long time ago, when I was little, the Kraang took your grandma away."
"Well, technically the Kraang created a shape-shifting creature using a combination of Kraang DNA and Mrs. O'Neil's DNA," Donnie explained. "We found it beneath the farmhouse years ago, and it passed itself off as April's mother. Luckily we were able to destroy it before it destroyed us."
For some reason, this new information upset Shadow even more.
After nearly an hour of climbing up the steps and searching every room, they finally reached the very top floor, and still they found nothing.
An infuriated Raph punched the wall, leaving a dent. "Argh! Dangit! We traveled millions of miles across the desert for nothing! I knew this would be a waste of time!"
"I don't understand," Donnie rubbed his metal chin. "Why would they leave the TCRI tower standing just to completely abandon it?"
"Maybe they wanted to leave behind a monument to themselves," Leo suggested. "To remind us who it was that destroyed the world with the Mutagen Bomb."
"But wait," Mikey scratched his head. "I thought it was this Emperor guy who dropped the Bomb?"
"It doesn't matter," Raph mumbled. "There's nothing here that can help Shadow get back home."
Mikey turned around, only to find that Shadow was gone. "Hey, speaking of, where is she?"
...
As she walked down the dark halls and stairs alone, images kept flashing in her mind. Images of strange pink creatures, possibly the Kraang, and then Slash and the other Mutanimals looking down at her. Her head began to pound so hard that she thought it would explode.
Now she was running, desperate to get outside and as far away from this place as possible. Her loud footsteps echoed in the empty building and she thought she heard voices calling out to her.
Even as she ran outside and breathed in the fresh air, she couldn't relax, not even a little bit. For some reason, she couldn't stop thinking about the clone stories. It was greatly upsetting her, but she couldn't figure out why.
"Shadow!" She turned around and saw the Turtles running out of the tower. Mikey approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright? You look pale. And I take it that you're not sweating because of the heat."
"I..." Shadow couldn't even begin to speak.
"Look, kid," Raph stepped forward. "We didn't find what we were looking for here. But I promised you that I will find a way to get you back home, no matter what."
"It's not that," Shadow told him. "It's just..."
"What?" Leo questioned, concerned for his new human friend.
"Well...my parents wouldn't lie to me, right? I mean, if I was, say...adopted, they'd tell me, right?"
None of them were expecting this kind of question and they all stared at her blankly. "Uh..." they simultaneously said.
She could see that this was getting her nowhere and she tried to brush it off or at least pretend that she did. "Forget it. It's...nothing." She turned and started to walk to the tank. "Let's get going."
But a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her. She looked behind her to see Raph frowning at her. "Not so fast," he said. "Something's bugging you, and we want to know what it is."
Shadow huffed and pulled away from his grip. "Look, I already told you-!"
"Dad. I already told you before, Shadow is...you know, A-D-O-P..."
Shadow blinked. Where did that memory come from? "I-I mean-"
"I mean, I was doomed to live an abnormal life since before I was even born...The Kraang experimented on my Mom...And then there's Shadow...I don't ever regret finding her..."
She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut as the pounding in her head returned.
"Shadow?" Raph shook her shoulders a little. "Kid, what's wrong?"
Without opening her eyes, she clutched onto the old Turtle's muscular, protective arms. "Mom and Dad...they would never lie to me...even about..."
"Despite what others might say, you are our daughter."
"I am their daughter! I'm not some-!"
"She's the splitting image of my mother."
"I swear, you're looking more and more like her every day."
She slowly shook her head, desperately denying the possibility that she could be... "I-I know I look almost exactly like Grandma but that doesn't mean-!"
"Shadow is...A-D-O-P-T-E-D..."
"I don't ever regret finding her..."
"The Kraang were quite obsessed with cloning..."
"She's the splitting image of my mother..."
"They even cloned her mother..."
She opened her eyes and released her grip, slowly backing away from Raph. "...No...No..."
Mikey raised an eye ridge. "Uh, Shadow?"
"No..." Shadow gripped the sides of her head, her eyes wide and her pupils shaking as she started to crumble under the weight of the horrible truth. "No...they wouldn't...she wouldn't lie to me about...!"
"...finding her..."
"...obsessed with cloning..."
"...splitting image..."
"NO!" Shadow started to scream, sinking to her knees. "I'M NOT! I'M NOT!"
"Shadow?!" Raph knelt down and started to reach for her...when something pushed him back. It was small, like a weak shove, but Shadow didn't even move her arms.
Leo saw it, too, and his eyes widened. "Guys, did you see...?"
Both Mikey and Donnie nodded.
Then the sand started to swirl around Shadow and Raph, and the others knew that it couldn't be a sandstorm.
"Raph...get away from her," Donnie quietly warned his brother as he slowly stepped away with Leo and Mikey. "Now."
But Raph would budge, too worried about Shadow. "Shadow...?"
The teen bit her lower lip to the point that it started to bleed and closed her eyes, the tears sliding down her cheeks. "I'm...not a...a...!" she choked.
The sand started to swirl even faster and bits of it landed in Raph's eyes, burning them. "Ahh!" He covered his face with his arm. "Shadow!"
"I'm...not...a...!"
She could not bring herself to say that one word...but it consumed her mind and her entire being.
Clone.
Finally, something within her snapped and a terrible force was released. Lifting her head to the sky, she let out a blood-chilling scream that was full of so much pain and anguish. At the same time, the winds that surrounded her and Raph expanded and hit Donnie, Leo and Mikey with full force, knocking them off their feet.
Even the TCRI tower began to crumble and fall apart, debris and glass flying everywhere and heading straight for the three Turtles. A brave and protective Leo shielded his little brothers, wincing whenever a piece of metal or glass struck him.
Raph could not even move or see as the winds surrounded him, and he did not know how long it lasted, but by the time it finally settled down and the sands dispersed, Shadow was gone.
Realizing that it was finally over, Leo let go of his brothers and stood back up, shaking the sands off and pulling a small shard out of his left shoulder, hissing in pain.
Mikey coughed and spat out sand that flew into his mouth. "Wow, what just happened?"
"I can't believe it," Donnie looked around in amazement at the damage Shadow has caused. "Shadow inherited April's powers! But...even April wasn't capable of bringing down an entire building!"
"So what you're saying is, she's more powerful than April?" Leo asked.
"It's possible."
"So...where'd she go?" Mikey pointed to where Raph knelt.
The hotheaded Turtle slowly stood up and stared off into the distance, worried about the kid. Then he noticed the shoe prints in the sand. He immediately turned to his brothers. "Guys! We need to go after her!"
But they all seemed hesitant about following him.
"Um, Raph?" Donnie scratched the back of his metal neck. "Shadow's...unstable right now.
"Yeah, bro," Mikey nodded. "She need her space-"
"She's still just a kid!" Raph snapped, angered by their cowardice. "A good one! And she needs our help right now! You don't wanna follow? Fine! I'll go after her myself!" He ran into the direction of shoe prints, ignoring his brothers calling after him.
...
He panted as he ran across the desert wasteland, following the shoe prints that were left by Shadow. The sun was bearing down on him and he ran for nearly twenty minutes, but he was determined to find the kid.
Finally, to his great relief, he spotted her in the distance. She was standing with her back to him and didn't even turn to look at him even as he got closer. He stood next to her, waiting for a reaction, but she only continued to sulkingly look down at her feet and hug herself. He could see that her cheeks were still wet from the tears.
Taking a deep breath and resting his hands on his hips, Raph spoke to her in a stern yet soft voice. "Something happened back there, and I ain't leaving until you tell me what."
For a moment, Shadow remained silent with her eyes closed, slightly turning away from him. But she eventually spoke, although she still wouldn't look at him. "They lied to me," she croaked.
Raph raised an eye ridge. "Huh? Who lied to you about what?"
She sighed softly. "My parents...they lied about who I was. I'm not their daughter."
"Well...what makes you say that?"
"Nobody would tell me anything so I had to figure it out for myself. And I did." She slowly looked over at him with puffy red eyes. "I'm a clone, Raph."
Raph blinked. "What?"
"I'm a clone," she repeated with some agitation in her tone. "A clone of April's Mom."
He scratched his chin and shrugged. "Um, okay? So what if you are a clone?"
She looked at him like he was nuts. "You're kidding me, right? I mean, it's bad enough to know that you're adopted and everyone's been lying to you about who you really were all these years. But to find out that you were grown in a test tube and that you're the carbon copy of someone else...I mean, do you get what I'm saying here?"
Raph firmly nodded and crossed his arms. "Yeah, I get it. But you need to remember that your parents love you with all their hearts and they only lied to protect you."
Shadow scoffed. "Protect me from what? From the fact that I'm not even a real person?"
"You are real, Shadow. You're just as real as everyone else."
"I don't even know what's real anymore!" she screamed, the tears falling down her cheeks again. "I don't know who or what I am! And I've been living a lie my entire f**king life!"
"It was never a lie! You are their daughter! You think genetics and all that other scientific crap determines what makes a family?! It doesn't!" Raph roughly jabbed her in the chest. "It's what's in here that connects you to them!"
Still not convinced, Shadow slapped his hand away. "You just don't get it. I'm not even my own person." She turned away from him and hugged herself again. "I'm just...the shadow of someone else."
Raph thought about to say to her at this point, seeing how distraught she was about being a clone. And he couldn't say that he blamed her. The poor kid was having doubts about who she was.
Then he knew just what to say and reached to gently touch her shoulder.
"Know what? It doesn't matter what everyone else sees you as. Whether they see a clone or a normal person in front of them, it doesn't matter. Even your parents don't get to decide who and what you are. It all depends on you. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Who do you see?"
This time, Shadow slowly turned to look at him, her expression having been softened.
He smiled softly at her and continued. "Yeah, sure, you have an exact replica of Mrs. O'Neil's DNA. But DNA is nothing compared to the soul, and that's the part that really counts. Your soul is your own and no one else's."
He cupped her cheek and gently wiped the tears away. "You've got a light within you that shines brighter than even the sun, and with that light, you cast your own shadow. Never forget that."
At that moment, it felt like she was listening to her own Uncle Raph speak. Even though they were worlds apart, he was still with her, comforting and guiding her in her darkest times.
Hiccuping and sobbing like a little girl, Shadow hugged Raphael, letting out all of her emotions. The old Turtle soothingly rubbed her back and let her cry into his chest until she felt better.
A blue dragonfly that was resting on the branch of a dead bush flapped its wings and took off into the discolored sky.
Happy Holidays!