Leo looked to Splinter's back before turning back to his team, "Okay, here's the plan. Donnie, you're going to strike first."

"No, wait. You want me to come at Splinter?" Donnie looked at Leo with disbelief, "I'll get pummeled."

"Well, getting pummeled is your specialty." Raph remarked.

Leo ignored Raph's snide remarks and reassured Donnie, "Trust me. It's all part of my plan to catch Splinter off-guard."

Mikey piped in, "Uh, Leo, don't take this the wrong way, but against Splinter, your plans always get our butts whipped."

Leo was not amused, "Okay, new thought. Mikey, you attack."

"He took it the wrong way." Mikey looked to Hikari, clearly displeased.

"Should've trusted him then." She shrugged.

"Enough talk. Let's do this!" Raph stood up, ready to face one of their biggest challenges yet.

Master Splinter had been standing under the tree this whole time, patiently waiting for his students to make their move. He had to stop himself from smiling as they got into position. He could sense every move his sons were making, he was already prepared the moment Michelangelo directed a kick towards his head. He shifted to the side, letting the attack pass by him before grabbing the leg and redirecting Michelangelo towards Hikari.

She dodged the body being hurled towards her by sliding down low, taking advantage of her position to spiral into a sweeping kick. Splinter leaped up, letting her slide past him. Raphael was next, charging towards him while he was avoiding her attack. He shifted himself and propelled himself off his son's shoulders.

Donatello and Leonardo were standing on his sides. After he avoided Raphael's strike, the two of them tried double-teaming against them. He redirected Donatello's attack before blocking Leonardo's. Donatello was already launching another kick at him, just as Raphael was barreling towards him. Splinter examined his options and grabbed the oncoming arm, throwing Donatello in front of him before delivering a swift powerful kick to his abdomen. That kick sent Donatello flying into Raphael, knocking them both back. The two of them landed on Michelangelo who was still on the ground.

Leonardo was now standing next to Hikari, who looked just as tense as he was. Splinter was proud to see how seriously they were taking this. The two of them shared a quick glance before launching into motion. She moved closer into his space, making him believe she was facing him head-on. She went low again, sending her leg up high to kick his chin. He blocked it, and used her leg to drag her around before kicking her in the back. The force was so powerful that she tumbled across the mat and collided with the other three.

That small opening was enough for Leonardo to land a hit on his face. He might have been knocked off his feet if it were for the hesitation that came after the attack. Leonardo immediately pulled back with a look of horror, "Ah! Sensei, I'm sorry. I-"

Leonardo's state of shock spelled the end of the session. Splinter disarmed him easily and threw him onto the mat. The other four seemed tense in the corner, awaiting the beating they were expecting on Leonardo. Instead, he stopped his fist just before it connected.

"Well done, Leonardo." He pulled his son up onto his feet, "But just when you had the advantage, you hesitated, and that made you vulnerable."

"Hai, sensei." Leonardo said humbly.

"Now, that is all for today." He looked to the other four, "Unless you care for a rematch."

"Nuh-uh."

"No, thanks."

"I'm good."

"Yeah, I think we're all set here."

Splinter nodded before leaving for his room, but the thin paper walls did nothing to block out their enthusiastic conversation.

"Leo!" Hikari said with awe, "That was amazing!"

"Not bad." Raphael sounded impressed as well, something he didn't hear often from Raphael when it came to his eldest brother.

"Dude, I can't believe you actually tagged sensei." Donatello seemed to share that enthusiasm, "That was epic."

"The hand that punched Splinter. You know, you can never wash this again." Splinter smiled at Michelangelo's childlike wonder.

"I gotta say, guys, it was all teamwork." Leonardo responded with humility, "We are definitely getting better."

Splinter smiled, his heart warmed by the overheard interaction. His smile dropped when he heard Donatello talking again, "Think we might be catching up to Splinter?"

"Yeah, maybe soon, we won't need him to train us at all." Where he felt warmth and pride, he now felt pain and emptiness. The thought of his son outgrowing him always lingered in the depths of his mind, but now the boys were so big. That future was becoming more and more real, and Splinter wasn't sure he was ready for his sons to grow up yet.

After that intensive training, the team each went off to do their own things. Hikari decided to meet up with April, who happened to be on a shopping run for her aunt. With arms full of groceries, they walked back to the apartment when Hikari noticed the sullen look on her face, "Hey April, you were thinking pretty hard just now."

"I was thinking about my dad." Her smile on her face barely showed its mark, "This will the first Christmas I spent without him."

"Christmas?"

"It's a holiday where we spend time with our families and the people we care about, we give each other gifts and then stuff our faces with food." She smiled fondly at the memories, "Ever since mom was gone, dad and I always celebrated Christmas together no matter how busy he was. I forgot all about it until I heard my aunt taking plans. I couldn't stop feeling guilty about celebrating without him."

"You're worried about him. I understand." She could relate to April's guilt. Hikari never thought she'd get to be happy again after everything that had happened, but the circumstance of her meeting with the turtles would always leave a painful bout of anguish whenever she thought about it.

Hikari ignored the thought, focusing her attention on April instead, "The Kraang are pretty logical beings. If they've kept him alive for this long, they must have a reason to do so. I don't think they aren't going to do anything to him. We're going to get him back. Could you imagine what it'll be like when you see your dad again, you're on your way to becoming an awesome kunoichi and training to save him, along with the world. I bet he'd be so proud of you."

The two girls walked in silence, comforted by the thought that the other understood their pain. April noticed a rat on the street and stopped, "Aww… Hey there, little fella. Where's your mama?"

Hikari was more amused than anything. The idea that this rat and Master Splinter was so similar was still surreal to her, she once saw a documentary with turtles in it and it was odd to say the least. The discussion that the documentary led to was even weirder.

Suddenly, they felt the ground under their feet tremble ever so lightly. That was enough to alert them to the massive wave of rodents that came around the street corner. "Sorry I asked!" April said in a panicked tone.

The two girls dropped the groceries and started running. More rats were coming from every street corner, slowly surrounding them and any civilians in the area. Hikari looked to the alleyway and pulled April along, "This way!"

They climbed up the fire escape and onto the rooftop. April was still looking down at the rats who had flooded the alleyway they came from. Hikari looked over the rooftops, mapping their escape route. She got April's attention and pulled her to the edge, "I hope you've been practicing your parkour."

That was her only warning before she leaped forth, following a route that she planned which was easy enough for April to do. Eventually, they ran out of rooftops to run on and the rats had started scaling the building. Hikari pulled out her uniweapon and shouted, "Get to someplace safe and call the guys!"

What started as a normal day went south when Leo and his brothers heard Splinter's yell echo from the dojo. The four of them rushed in to see their father on the ground, just the idea that he was in so much pain was terrifying.

"Sensei, are you alright?"

"I am fine." Splinter mumbled, his head still aching.

"Are you sure you're alright? You don't seem-" Leo was cut off from a weird ringtone with birds chirping.

"Hey, that's April's ringtone." Donnie's response only fueled his brothers' teasing, Raph and Mikey mimicking kissing noises with exaggerated goo-goo eyes. Donnie ignored them and answered her call.

"Hey April- I mean…" Donnie cleared his throat, trying to get that awkward pitch out of his voice into something deeper, "Hey…."

April stopped him before he could continue, "Donnie, stop talking. I need some help; I'm having a little bit of a pest problem."

"What happened?"

"Hikari and I were walking down Lincoln Avenue and a whole lot of rats started flooding the streets. She's trying to fight them off, but we're getting swamped."

"We're on our way." Donnie hung up the call and turned to his brothers, "The girls are in trouble, they're down on Lincoln Avenue."

Splinter put on a strong face as he faced them, "Go help them. I will be fine."

"Take it easy, sensei." Leo said reluctantly, "Let's go!"

The four of them took to the rooftops once more. However, Mikey was more distracted than usual. He was too busy taking in the sights, "Oh wow… The city is so beautiful in the daytime. Except for the, you know, billions the rats."

"Actually, the entire rat population of New York is only about 36 million, which-"

"I will smack you out of your shell!" Raph cut Donnie off with one of his classic threats.

Leo stopped his brother, gulping as he got a good look at the situation, "Uh, guys, we may have a problem."

Just as April described it, there were rats covering the streets. There were humans on cars and whatever they could climb on, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the rats. The four of them soon found April amidst the chaos. She was holding onto a telephone pole, clinging to it as the rats swarmed beneath her.

"Oh, rats." Mikey looked over to Raph with a cheeky grin, "Get it?"

"For the 14th time, yes." Raph groaned.

Donnie called out to her, "We're coming, April. Don't go anywhere!"

"Where could I possibly go?" April shot back, arms still holding tight on the pole.

Meanwhile, Leo was scanning the area for a glimpse of hay-blonde hair or sliver eyes, "Where's Hikari?"

Hikari took a moment to catch her breath, she now understood how Raph and Leo felt when they were facing all those mousers. She noticed Leo and the others further down on the other side of the street and pulled out her phone. She could see Leo pick up the phone, "Leo, northwest!"

Leo turned to see her waving from a building on the other side of the road. Leo's shoulders relaxed a little after seeing her, now able to refocus onto the issue at hand. "That pole isn't gonna hold for much longer, we need a plan."

"I've got an idea!" Donnie's bright voice came through the phone, "Hikari, could your whip work with Mikey's kusarigama?"

"What do you have in mind?" Hikari asked, then smiled at Donnie's brilliant plan.

Hikari moved onto the building facing the opposite of the team. Once in position, she activated her whip, pushing as much energy as she could when throwing it out. The whip grew in length as Mikey threw his kusarigama, the two weapons met in the middle and entwined with each other.

"April, grab on!" Donnie shouted to her. April got on her feet the best she could with such little leg room and leaped over, grabbing the dangling line and climbing over to the guys. Suddenly, the phone pole started to tilt, it seemed like the rats at the bottom had did enough damage for the pole to fall over…right where April was!

Hikari acted fast and deactivated her whip, letting April swing over to where the turtles are. April let out a panicked shout as she swung over with Mikey's chain. The pole barely missed her as it toppled down onto the streets. The power cords on the pole made contact with the rats beneath them, sparks and smoke filled the air as the rats stilled.

Hikari blocked it out and ignored it. She moved back, getting a running start as she changed her uniweapon into a staff. She used the staff to vault herself onto the building across. Leo hugged her as soon as he could, both of them taking comfort in each other's embrace.

Now that the team was all together again, they could finally analyze the situation they're in. "Does anyone know what the heck is going on?" April asked.

"I'm not sure. But whatever it is, this attack is extremely well coordinated." Donnie deduced, "Obviously, there is a higher intelligence at work here."

"Well, that rules out Mikey." Raph said offhandedly, much to Mikey's annoyance.

"I'm serious. Someone or something is controlling every rat in the city."

"Wait a sec. Every rat?" Leo paled, "That means that Splinter could be-"

Hikari refused to believe it, "No way, he's not going to let someone control him like that."

Hikari's faith helped Leo ground himself, "You're right. Let's head back to the lair."

(Break

The six of them made it back to the lair, anxious about their Sensei. It didn't help calm their nerves when they saw him comatose on the ground. April looked over to the five, each of them worried about him, "Is he okay?"

The five of them looked at each other before Raph said, "Donnie, you're the smart one. What do we do?"

"Maybe we should poke him." Donnie suggested.

"Good idea." Leo nodded, "Mikey, poke him."

Mikey looked to Leo with horror, "No way, I'm not poking him. You poke him."

"Okay, we'll put it to a vote -"

"Mikey." Everyone but Mikey voted.

"I want a recount." Mikey cried out, then slumping his shoulders when Donnie handed him his bo staff. Mikey snatched it out of Donnie's hand and moved towards his sleeping Sensei, "Fine."

"Easy, easy. Careful not to squeeze the-" Just as Donnie was about to warn him, Mikey squeezed the trigger and the hidden blade sprung out. It barely grazed Splinter's whiskers, they all had cold sweat on their faces at the near-miss.

Donnie snatched the bo staff from Mikey's frozen stature and flipped it around before putting it back in his hand, "Okay, let's try it from the other end."

Mikey inched nervously towards Splinter, using the safe end of the staff to gently poke at him. When it didn't get a response, Mikey started poking a little harder and started messing around, "Whoa, he is totally out of it. Dudes, check out the nose nuggets."

Hikari rolled her eyes as Mikey now putting on a fake Splinter voice, "Michelangelo is awesome. He is the smartest, handsomest, butt-kicking-est of all my-" Splinter's eyes suddenly opened. Mikey flew back onto the ground as he muttered, "ahh! sons…"

Leo went over to help Splinter up to his feet, "Sensei, are you okay?"

"No, Leonardo. I am not." Splinter sighed, "It would appear that your former adversary, Dr. Falco, has returned."

"Falco's behind this?" Hikari asked in shock, "How is that possible?"

"Somehow he has acquired a telepathic connection with every rat in New York." He explained, "And he now calls himself "the Rat King. "

"Oh, great. So now we're letting the bad guys name themselves? We gotta take him down." Mikey said with determination.

"Yes, Michelangelo, you do. The Rat King will not rest until he has total control of this city-" He paused ominously, "and my mind."

The six of them shared a worried look before Leo spoke out, "Sensei?"

"Everything I knew is gone. My wife, my daughter, my clan, even my humanity." Splinter looked at his sons with loving eyes, "You four are all I have left."

"Don't you worry, sensei. We'll stop him." Raph reassured.

"But we gotta find him first." Donnie pointed out.

Splinter did his best to keep a clear head, "When the Rat King attempted to take control of me, I could see into his mind. You will find his lair in an abandoned utility junction beneath Herald square."

Raph nodded, "Let's go play exterminator."

Leo agreed silently, turning to Splinter with concern, "Fight him, sensei."

"I will. Just hurry-" Splinter winced as he continued with his mental battle.

"It's okay, guys." April helped Splinter stay on his feet, "You go after the Rat King. I'll stay with sensei."

The turtles started heading for the Rat King's lair before Leo noticed that Hikari wasn't following her. They shared a look before she answered his unspoken question, "I'm going to stay with Sensei too."

Raph stepped forward, wanting to argue with her about this. But Leo put his arm out to stop him, "We'll be back soon."

After the turtles left, Splinter went back to his rest. Hikari and April went to the kitchen, wanting to prepare something for Splinter while he saved his strength. Hikari had never been more grateful that she spent time learning how to cook.

While waiting for the water to boil for his tea, Hikari sighed, "In a way, I'm relieved that the guys don't have to see Splinter like this. No one wants to be seen in their most vulnerable moments."

"He's going to be fine, Hikari." April tried consoling her.

"I just lost my family; I can't go through that again so soon. And the guys…I don't think they'd recover if Splinter-"

"Splinter is the strongest person I know. He'll be fine"

"Can I be honest about something? Lately, It's hard to even remember what my dad looked like, I never got to see him much because he was always in combat. But I always remember feeling safe around him, and now I see Splinter every time I think about him."

"They are kind of like your new family, so it makes sense."

"And I love them for that. But I can't help feeling like I'm replacing my dad. Besides, I don't want to overstep my boundaries."

"I'm sure Splinter doesn't mind. He doesn't seem like he'd take just anyone under his wing."

"Same goes for you too then." With that, the two girls went back to the dojo. However, Splinter was no longer lying on the mat where they left him resting.

April got an ominous feeling as she looked around for him, "Master Splinter?"

That was when Splinter sprang an attack on them, it was only their intuition and constant training. Splinter's moves were far too quick to do anything but dive and dodge. "Sensei, it's us!" Hikari cried out, trying to get through to him.

But her pleads landed on deaf ears, and he knocked Hikari out with the hilt of his katana, "The Rat King wants to see you."

April wanted to help her but only to be met with a blade in her face. She was frozen in place, unable to do anything as Splinter picked up Hikari's limb body and disappeared into the sewers.

When Hikari came to, she was bounded with wires. She cursed as she noticed that Splinter was still holding her in a restrictive hold, stopping her from trying anything to free herself. She looked around, only to come face to face with a disturbing sight. The face before her looked bony and dried up like a corpse, it had to be Falco. She kept a brave face and spoke, "What do you want with me? I might not be human, but I'm certainly not one of your rats to control."

"Funny, Splinter here said the same thing." The Rat King chuckled, "I may not be able to see your mind anymore, but I am quite interested in what that brain of yours has to offer. I did notice a secret you hid so deeply in your mind, a kind of weapon perhaps?"

"What makes you think I'd tell you anything?"

Just then, she heard an explosion rock the room. She felt chills going down her spine as the Rat King let out a cunning smile with what little teeth he had left, "We'll see if you can stay silent while I take down every member of your precious team, maybe even that boyfriend of yours."

"Ah, my turtle friends, we meet again." Leo and his brother turned to face the voice, only to be getting with a creepy, hollow version of the Dr. Falco they last encountered.

"Except last time, Falco, you weren't wearing a sad Halloween costume."

"I am the Rat King!" He screeched angrily.

Mikey rolled his eyes at that, "Lame."

"Sorry, we don't have any treats for you. But we've got a few tricks."

Their threats fell flat as Donnie's weird lovely-dovey ringtone went off, "Way to ruin the moment, Donnie."

"Uh, April, now's not really the best time." Donnie whispered into his phone, then his voice became concerned, "What do you mean, "gone"? Gone where?"

"Here." Splinter said in a mindless tone, Hikari still struggling within his grasp.

"What's wrong with him?"

"It's like his brain is completely turned off."

"You mean like Mikey?" Raph quipped back, surprised when Mikey said the same thing with a deadpan tone.

"Dude, you are so predictable." Mikey smiled smugly at Raph.

Hikari didn't stop struggling as she looked up to Splinter's eyes, "Sensei, snap out of it. They're your sons."

"You waste your words, girl." Splinter's mindless voice responded, "This is where I belong, with my brothers."

"Let them go!" Leo demanded; his katana pointed at the Rat King.

The Rat King laughed at their words, "He is mine now. Looking into his mind revealed so much to me, including how important she is to you. Imagine my delight when I realized that controlling your master would not only make me invincible but would also be the key to your demise."

"Splinter, drop the girl and destroy the turtles." With the Rat King's command, he did as he was told and drew his blade.

"Sensei, don't!"

"Are we really going to do this?" Donnie asked nervously, his palms starting to sweat as he clutched his bo staff.

"Remember, we did beat him once… kind of." Raph answered, seemingly trying to convince himself more than his brothers.

"Yeah, and we can beat him again. We can do this, guys. Do not hesitate." Leo gritted his teeth with determination, "Take Sensei down."

Hikari struggled against the power cables that coiled tightly around her body, her arms bound to her sides without much room to work with. Although Splinter's insight informed Falco about her Guard and her uniweapon, no one but her knew about the small hidden knives that she had taken to hide in her clothes. She pulled out a knife she had hidden between her belt and her jeans and started cutting the cable.

She was doing it as fast as she could without drawing attention from the Rat King or the dozens of rats in the room, but she still felt like she wasn't moving fast enough as she watched Splinter attacking his own sons.

"Enjoying the show, my dear?" the Rat King asked with an amused tone.

"Testing mutagen on your friend and colleague was sick, but making a father attack his children is just inhumane." She spat back.

"You cling to this idea of humanity, and yet neither you nor they are human. I don't understand why you limit yourself with such pointless concepts."

"I don't expect you to." The moment her arms were free, she threw the knife in her hand at the Rat King. Unfortunately, he saw the knife coming and stepped aside, letting the knife fly by him.

She got out of her wire binds and followed with a barrage of attacks. Her movements were sloppier than usual. Her attacks, fueled by outrage and disgust, were all aimed to take out his life. The Rat King could only laugh at her pathetic attempts, she was no different from Splinter. Pulling the right strings would turn her to nothing more than a simple bloodthirsty creature.

"Splinter, protect your Rat King!"

She had a moment to register what he said before she was desperately fighting for her life. She tried using her knives but he deflected them all without breaking a sweat. Once she ran out of knives, she had no choice but to keep her distance. She couldn't risk getting in range, lest Splinter's cold ruthless blade sliced through her flesh.

Donnie and Mikey appeared by her side, blocking Senpai's attacks while Leo helped her to the other side of the room and checked her for injuries. Once he knew she was fine, he noticed that her pockets were empty, "Where're your weapons?"

"The Rat King probably figured out what they were and had Splinter get rid of them before I woke up." She tightened her fists, feeling so helpless with no weapon to fight with. "How could we win this?"

Leo grabbed all his ninja stars and gave them to her, "Wait for my signal. If Sensei comes after you, don't let him hurt you."

While Leo was with Hikari, Donnie did his best to land a single hit, but Splinter moved so fluently as the staff barely grazed him. It took Splinter two moves, an upwards strike to disarm him and a powerful blow to the gut, to send Donnie flying backward with the breath knocked out of him.

Before Splinter could take another step, a chain sliced through the air. Mikey was a whole mix of emotions right now, despair at the fact they were fighting their Sensei, fear for his family, but the most prominent emotion was anger towards the Rat King for putting them all through this. Mikey sent his kusarigama flying at him, he wasn't going to let Splinter get any closer to Donnie right now.

Splinter shifted away and held his blade up, letting the chain wrap around it instead. Splinter tightened the grip on his katana before swinging the blade forward with all his might. That pulled the chain Mikey was holding, tossing him across the room and slamming him onto the wall on the other side.

Raph tried attacking him from behind, but Splinter sensed him and moved out of his sight. Raph was tense, scanning his surroundings with his sais in hand. That might have been the reason he never noticed Splinter coming down from above. With a front flip, he landed a heavy kick to Raph's head and knocked him onto his shell.

This was when Leo and Hikari got back into the fight. Leo had his katanas out, but reluctant to use them against the man who raised him. With a heartbroken voice, he reached out once more, "Sensei, please… Wait!"

But the Splinter they were facing was a ruthless unstoppable machine. Splinter couldn't step down, so Leo had no other choice but to face off against him. The two ran at each other before clashing metal. The fight between them was so skillful, Hikari would've admired it if it wasn't clearly a cruel game of cat-and-mouse, a man ordered to kill his own son. Splinter had the upper hand when Leo was knocked back on his feet. However, a ninja star soared by him and stopped him from taking another step.

Hikari was on the floor above them, ninja stars in hands as she threw them with precision. She threw them where they needed to be, enough to get his attention without hurting him. She had to resist throwing a few at that cursed Rat King, she knew using anything on him would be wasted with Splinter guarding him.

Splinter turned to deal with her, only to dodge another of Leo's attacks after he got back onto his feet. The two were doing pretty well against him for a while, until Splinter turned the tables on them. Once he spotted an opening, he performed a powerful kick that knocked Leo onto his shell and made him drop his katanas. In that split second, Splinter spun around at threw his own blade at Hikari. She nearly avoided it, the sharp blade cutting into her forearm a little as the blade stuck itself onto the wall and pinned her jacket in place. Had she been any slower, that blade would've pierced through her arm, instead of grazing it.

With no more cover, Splinter was free to pick up one of Leo's katanas and pointed it at him. Splinter's foot on his plastron only added to Leo's fear as he looked up at the eyes he once knew but saw a cloud of red without a hint of fatherly love.

The Rat King was pleased at how well his newest recruit is performing. With a manic grin, he commanded, "Finish him."

Leo had one last move to play. He quickly pulled out the prized portrait that Splinter had treasured and showed it to him, "Remember who you are, Hamato Yoshi."

Hearing his human name made Splinter hesitate, and that was all Leo needed, "Donnie, Raph! Now!"

Donnie and Raph jumped onto Splinter, their combined weight pinning him to the ground. Once Hikari ripped her jacket to free herself, she and Mikey joined the others as they pleaded with open hearts. "Come back to us, Sensei…" She whispered.

"Please. Father, we need you." Leo begged.

"Don't listen to them, brother. Your place is with me." The Rat King pushed his voice into Splinter's head. That reigned him back in, forcing him to throw all five of them off onto the ground. His body was ready to listen to every order, but the fear on their faces… It was what brought him back.

"My place is with my sons!" Splinter shook off the Rat King's control and sent heated glares his way.

"Sensei!" The five of them cried out in relief.

The Rat King was furious and tried to regain control of Splinter's mind, but Splinter was one step ahead. He had already cleared and blocked out his mind, using every ounce of his skill and rage to attack the Rat King. With one powerful blow, he knocked the frail disgrace of a man down. Knowing that he had lost, the Rat King summoned his rats to aid in his escape. His body was covered with a wave of rats scurrying over and carrying him away.

"And that's the last we'll see of Count Rat-ula." Mikey deflated when he was faced with blank stares from his family, "Yeah, all right. It's Rat King. But I'm naming the next one."

As they were leaving, Hikari broke away from the group and leapt back up to the floor above. She returned quickly with Splinter's blade in her hands, looking up to him as she presented it, "And I think this belongs to you, sensei."

The six of them made it back to the lair, all a little worse for wear but still together and alive. Leo was still fidgeting nervously as he went into the dojo with the others following behind him, "Sensei, are you sure you're okay?"

"I am fine, thanks to you. You did well, my son." Splinter smiled, touched by their concerns.

"Well, you did hesitate, and hesitation leads to vulnerability." Leo pointed out.

"We did pretty good, too, huh?" Mikey smiled.

"Yes. I am proud of you all." Splinter looked over the five of them, each beaming as they celebrated among each other.

"Who knows, maybe one day we'll be even better martial artist than you." Leo said with a cocky smile.

Splinter smirked before grabbing Leo's arm and throwing him into the tree in the middle of the dojo, "Remember my son, everything you know I've shown you. But I have not shown you everything I know."

"It's great to have you back, sensei" Leo grunted in pain. Everyone else laughed as Hikari helped him up, not that she was hiding her amusement either.

Splinter was drinking his tea when he heard Hikari coming into the dojo. "You wanted to see me, Sensei?" Hikari asked.

"Come in," Splinter stood up and approached her, "You seem distant after we returned from our battle with the Rat King."

"I figured you wanted to spend some time with your sons, especially after everything that happened."

Splinter noticed her careful choice of words and placed his hand on her shoulder, "It is true that my sons are important to me, but they are not the only ones in my life anymore. You and April have accepted me and my sons the way that we are, and you both have become like family to me."

That was enough for her to break down and wrap her arms around his waist, "I was terrified, I thought I was going to-"

Splinter did not expect this reaction, but he comforted her all the same. Although there were no tears shed, he stroked her hair as she hugged him, "It is alright, my child."

He always wondered what Miwa would've been like if she and Teng Shen had not lost their lives that day. But now, he could only hope that they looked down on him kindly with this new family he had found.

A/N: This was a tough chapter to write, mainly because I spent a lot of time wondering whether it was the right time to grow the familial relationship between Splinter and Hikari. Hikari sees the turtles as her new family, with Leo as someone more than that. But she had never really told Splinter about how much she now sees him as a father figure, her own insecurities about the whole situation and the fact she was worried she would just be seen as a replacement for Miwa.

The Rat King was a very interesting villain in the show and they did a good job with him. I figured that he would want to pursue every ounce of knowledge to use to his advantage. So of course, he'd try to get Hikari to spill any alien info he could get his hands on.

I'm trying to update more than once a month, but times are difficult now. You'd think I would be more motivated to write now that I'm always inside. But I will get the next chapter out as quickly as I can. Because the team is about to meet one of the most annoying people in the world :D

Please feel free to leave some comments to share some love. Feedback and reviews give me life and motivation.