A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates on this story, guys. I graduated from university in December and I've been trying to figure out what to do with my life since then...I'm still not quite sure and to be completely honest, I feel as if I might be veering into depression territory again, simply because I keep hitting walls (so to speak).

Anyway, please enjoy this new (long overdue) chapter. :)

Chapter 14: Mikey

He was thirteen years old, and his mother was cutting out gingerbread men while he not-so-sneakily nabbed fingerfuls of dough from the nearby bowl. The television played in the living room, more for white noise than anything else, and his father was keeping one-year-old Belle occupied at the kitchen table.

He was seven years old, and tears made salty, sticky tracks down his freckled cheeks as he wondered why the neighborhood kids wouldn't play with him. Wondered why they called him a freak. He was just like them...wasn't he?

He was four years old, and the world was on fire. There was a flash of green out of the corner of his eye, the hoarse whispering plea of a man's voice, and then nothing.

"Mikey, wake up!"

The teen bolted upright, fully certain that his lungs were clogged with smoke and ash, only to find that he was sitting in one of the guest bedrooms at the Oroku family mansion. Karai was leaning over him with a strangely intense expression.

"You need to see this."


Mikey felt sick to his stomach as he stared at the words on the television screen. His head spun and his vision blurred. "Oh, gods…"

It didn't make sense. Nothing did, anymore - this was just the icing on the cake.

Karai paced back and forth on the other side of the room, her amber eyes stormy. "Why the hell would she file a missing persons report? It's not like you ran away from home or anything, right?" Her green-skinned friend offered no response and she turned that piercing gaze to his face. "Mikey?"

"I...uh…"

"You ran away from home?!"

"We had a fight, okay?! It was out of my control, and she wouldn't give me the answers I needed, and...and…" And the sixteen-year-old's lip started to tremble and he fisted his hands in the blanket on his lap. He scowled at the floor, wishing that everything would just stop for a few seconds, at the very least.

"And what?" Karai asked, her voice gentle now. She walked over and took a seat on the couch beside him, ducking down so that their eyes met. "What happened, Mike?"

"She pulled a gun on me," he whispered. The first tear escaped from the corner of his eye and he wiped it away with the back of his hand, angry at nothing and at everything. "I- We were both getting mad, but I wouldn't have hurt her or anything, I mean she's my mom, Karai, and she just...she just pulled out this pistol and aimed it at my face. I took off." Mikey sniffled and his gaze grew distant. "I ran into Raph on the sidewalk and he ended up taking me to Donnie's apartment, and then we saw the news report about Hamato Dojo, and then we went to the hospital, and...well, you know the rest."

They both fell silent for a while. Karai offered an apology, but he brushed it off. "Not your fault. I just...I have so many questions, y'know? Like why did she even have a gun in the first place? I thought I knew my family, my story, all of it. And now I'm not so sure anymore."

"Well...how do we fix this? A missing teenager is one thing, but a missing mutant is in a league of its own. News stations across the country will have picked up your story by now."

"I have to find out who she really is," Mikey said finally. "The gun that she had was a fancy one - military grade. From what I knew, neither she or my dad were in the military at any point, so someone lied to me about that."

"How are you going to find out? It's not like you have access to all of her personal information."

The turtle bit his lip, thinking hard for a moment. "Maybe not...but I think I know someone who can help me."


"You want me to do what?"

"Dee, you're the smartest guy I know! If anyone can hack into the FBI's database, it's you."

"I am not hacking the FBI database! Are you crazy? I could go to prison! I could lose my scholarships or-or-"

"This is my mother we're talking about!" There was a beat of stunned silence on the other end of the line after Mikey's outburst, and his shoulders slumped and he sat down hard on the floor. "...I'm sorry, Donnie. I didn't mean to blow up at you. I just...I'm going crazy, I guess, and now that the press picked up my story I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. I could probably stay with Karai for a while, but Child Protection Services and the truancy officers and the EPF are gonna come looking for me soon." At least, that's what happened the last time that he ran off.

"Mikey-"

"I'll figure it out. Don't worry about it. Stay safe, Dee."

The freckled turtle hung up before his voice got too shaky, but by the time he set his phone down on the bedside table, tears were streaming down his face. He wrapped his arms around himself and drifted off into an uneasy slumber. His dreams were filled with fire and steel, and an odd sense of déja-vu.

A/N: Whoo, yeah, another cliffhanger. Betcha didn't see that one coming. Ha. Ha-ha. I'm gonna go cry now.

Stay safe out there, guys. We live in crazy times.

- Queen