"Wow, that was… not at all like in the movies."
In different circumstances, Karai would've had a good laugh at April's wobbly voice, rosy cheeks gone pale. Even her freckles appeared to have faded. She looked like she might throw up. The guys had similar expressions on their faces. Even Casey seemed haunted when he muttered, "Yo…"
Karai would've laughed at all of them, because what kind of ninja gets squicked out by a dumb beheading?
Right now, though, it hardly felt dumb at all. Karai hurt. And not just from the throbbing lump of medi-jelly stuffed in her side—which wasn't quite painful, but felt like too many gloves inside a very tight pocket—and not even from the sight of what had been, for the longest time, the only family she ever knew, headless and lifeless at her feet. She hurt all over and inside out and in all the in-between spaces of her being. And her eyes kept drifting to the spot where Tang Shen had stood barely a few seconds ago.
The silence was leaden with a kind of reverence, mixed with unbridled disgust, as everybody stood gazing down at their conquest. But Karai didn't feel an iota of reverence for the lump. What she felt was weightless, like a Shredder-sized load had been lifted off her life. Like she could float. Although that could be the blood loss...
Whoops. Yep. Blood loss.
Just as she felt herself begin to keel over backwards, a thick arm caught her around her shoulders, lifting her against a plastron.
"Yeah, big sis!" Mikey—the bigger Mikey with the... woolen Ice-Cream Kitty mitten?—practically howled in her ear, squeezing her against him. "Ow, ow—that was amazing, you were amazing—ow—oh my gosh, I can't believe it's you! Mission friggin' accomplished, dudes!"
"Mikey, come on, man, careful with her!" protested Raph's voice behind her.
"And your arm! You're gonna make it worse!" one of the Donnies said next.
"I don't care!" this Mikey proclaimed with a wet whine as the others worked to extricate her from his embrace.
The rest had started gathering around them, starry eyed, smiling oh so proudly at her. Like they wanted to carry her on their shoulders and throw some confetti. Their faces beamed and glowed even through all the multi-colored grime.
Suddenly she felt sick, this time not from the blood loss. Surely not from the frankly very run-of-the-mill gore-fest.
She took the opening to push herself away from all the loving touches, stumbling backwards and nearly tripping on Shredder's cape. Someone reached out to help her, and she couldn't see who before swatting the hand away.
Everybody waited. All four of her brothers, and all four of her other brothers, and April and Casey, all looked at her. Probably wondering what other crazy thing she'd come up with tonight.
"You alright? Maybe you should sit down." Leo made an attempt to approach her with hands outstretched, but she shrugged him off once again. Honestly he looked like he should sit down.
She usually didn't mind being the center of attention, like at all. But all those pairs of attentive eyes, the worried frowns, the dreamy gazes like she was some kind of cosmic event that only came about once every few hundred years...
A wave of shame washed over her, engulfing her with the weight of everything that had happened tonight. This was her fault. All her fault.
The throne room was a disaster area. The previously grand space was dim and in ruins. With many ambient lights broken or short circuited, most of the light came from the street outside. The fancy glass roof now coated the floor in a million tiny pieces, the water from Xever's tank giving them a diamond-like sparkle—except around the puddles of blood, where they shone red like rubies. The entrance was black with soot and ashes, the banners burnt and torn. A cold breeze swept down from the bare roof, over the motionless shapes of the last of Shredder's elite and through Karai's hair.
And her family was alive by the skin of their teeth.
"You guys are even stupider than I am," she managed finally through chattering teeth. "You could've all been killed, and… for what? Me?"
"Take it easy," Leo said. Others made similar utterances.
"We won!" Older Mikey cheerfully pointed at the dead lumps.
She snarled. "And if we hadn't? Why the hell would you come? I can't… I can never make up for this!"
"Before you embark on a long, arduous guilt trip..." Donnie—older Donnie—interrupted her with soothing motions, which didn't piss her off more, solely because she didn't have the energy. He seemed, annoyingly, as unmoved by her words as the other three future turtles. As though they'd been expecting just this. As if everything that had happened today was written on a script somewhere and they'd read it beforehand. "We know what you're gonna say. You don't have to do that right now. You'll have all the time in the world to take it up with these other guys." He pointed at the younger turtles waiting behind her.
"Our schedule's kinda tight," older, thicker Raph chimed in, and the same Donnie nodded.
"Yep. We've got a wormhole to catch." And he clicked something on his wrist, a holo-clock appearing in thin air above it, the counter reading -00:21:43.
The older Leo stepped up, close enough that she could see the wound on his temple, and the dried up trails of dark red. "And there's a couple of things we wanted to say. So… Mind if we… start, and you hold all questions and tirades for the end?"
Honestly, she was stumped. Impressed, almost. She wanted to retort but couldn't even begin to imagine where to start with these guys, or what they would reply.
What else could she do but listen?
"You know? We spent days brainstorming some kind of inspiring speech," older Donnie began. "We covered it all, had several versions, revised and printed. In the end we scrapped everything."
"Thank fuck for that," Raph grunted with a face of revulsion.
"We knew you'd have trouble accepting what happened here and your role in it," older Leo said then. "We know regret. Boy, do we know regret. But we realised, there wasn't a whole lot we could say that you would accept." He topped that remark with a sideways grin so fucking charming Karai forgot to be angry about how right he was.
Mikey chuckled. "Everything we came up with sounded so cheesy. And preachy as frick."
"Yours was absolutely the cheesiest, what're you even—" Raph started, but Leo cut him off.
"Yeah, so… What we ultimately came here to say, to sum up… And try to really commit these words to memory, because they're easy to forget." He stepped closer still, enough to slowly, carefully—as though she might scratch him—take her hands in his. He looked at the others, and the others shuffled near, and they all smiled at her as Leo announced, plain and clear and determined, "We love you, and we understand."
The other three nodded with stupid fucking smiles on their faces and Karai's throat attempted something, but she didn't let it. It took a very dramatic eyeroll to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.
"Well, what else are you gonna say?" she snarked. "You can't give me shit for going on a suicide mission after whatever the hell it is you think you pulled tonight, can you?"
They laughed, a sound full of joy and relief and fondness that could melt the toughest kunoichi, and damn them, it did. There was no way she could hide the movement of her hands as she wiped at her eyes. Ugh.
Older Raph approached her, something in his hand. "Here."
She didn't need to ask. She'd seen it in her imagination all the time Hachisu-no-Hana had been carrying it, even as she slept just a few feet away from Karai. It was the infamous red pendant. Now it lay inert in her hand.
As she rolled it curiously on her palm, tracing the Chinese motifs with her thumb, Donnie waddled over using a spear as a crutch. He leaned in slowly and carefully, a wince on his face and a pained groan in his voice. "Look at that," he said under his breath, his eyes roving studiously over Shen's stone. "Just a regular ol' Chinese pendant now."
"Pretty though," younger Mikey chimed in.
Karai had to agree. It was beautiful, if only because this is where Shen had lived, for lack of a better word. But she was gone now. For good.
"Scan this for me, April?"
April seemed only briefly startled when Karai nearly shoved the pendant in her face, and then hovered a hand over it. "She's definitely gone."
"Yeah…" Karai said, all of a sudden feeling as empty as the stone. She sighed, and felt a small, human hand on her shoulder.
"There's one last thing we have to take care of," started Leo—big Leo—tearing Karai from her reverie. "And I'm afraid it falls with you. We have to decide what happens with the Foot now. What's left of it."
Karai looked at him askance.
"The Hamato already exterminated the Foot once, and it still came back, worse than ever. There'll always be someone faithful to the Kuro Kabuto," he explained.
"And if someone has to wear the damn thing, it could at least be someone who's not a total nutjob," older Raph added.
Knowing exactly where this was going, Karai looked at her brothers from the present. The looks she got back from them were fearful and full of questions.
Future Donnie finally said it out loud. "We considered the possibility that you might want to take the Kabuto yourself."
As if on cue, Future Leo arrived with the Kabuto, and held it out for her to take. She did, gingerly, feeling as though it was a living creature, a cursed relic that could actually kill her. It was something so familiar, but she wasn't used to gazing down on it like this, its weight completely foreign in her hands. She had spent most of her life looking up to this thing and the person behind it. She'd dreamed of wearing it, one day. Now the thought of putting her head inside it made her want to projectile vomit.
"What do you want to do?" Older Leo's voice asked, adult and weary.
She turned back to the others. They looked deflated, but nobody protested.
"Whatever you decide, we… We've got your back," the young Leo assured her.
The others held their breaths, and did not disagree. Young Mikey surveyed her with his trademark puppy eyes, like he already expected her to take the Kabuto. She realized they all looked like they expected that, and they were making peace with the notion.
She let herself think for a bit, even when Older Donnie's holo counter kept ticking down. She could take over the Foot, restore it to its old glory and all that. But the Foot was not so much a part of her, now that she knew it never really was. And now all she wanted was to leave all that behind. There was so much to do beyond it, like watch stupid shows with the guys, with popcorn and ramune soda; eat Mikey's weird, brave food; inflict a goth dress-up on April; bask in the diligent silence of Donnie's lab; tease Leo until his cheeks turn mauve; tease Raph until his temples turn mauve. And she had a lot to catch up on having an actual father.
Somehow those stinky sewers felt cosier than any fancy Foot hall.
With a sudden clarity, she swivelled on her heels and searched around the wreckage. She found Tiger Claw sitting on one of Shredder's decorative boulders, licking his wounds—literally—and watching all the lovey-dovey shit through a scowl, which… Yeah, she'd scowl at her too, she realized, feeling like she should stab something, quick, to make up for the last couple of minutes.
For now merely she stepped away from the group, taking the Kabuto along, and limped towards Tiger Claw. Even her light steps pulled at her wound.
"Tiger Claw."
"Karai-san," the cat said, head somewhat low, as though already begrudgingly accepting his place in the new status quo.
"Stand."
Tiger Claw did, slowly and heavily, but without uttering a single complaint. She turned the helmet so it faced him, and offered it forward. "You should wear the Kabuto. I mean, symbolically. I doubt it'll actually fit your big, fluffy head."
Tiger Claw blinked his one eye.
"Was that a wink or just a regular blink? I honestly can't tell."
"I accept," he growled impatiently beneath an even deeper scowl, placing both paws on either side of the Kabuto. She immediately loosened her grip on the helmet, and watched it go. Good riddance.
"We'll keep in touch," she said as warning, and easily enough the tiger nodded once in resignation.
As she turned around she saw the others approaching, and she went to meet them half-way, putting on a smug look that said 'There, happy?' The gesture got her a couple of smirks and more than a few teary eyeballs.
"So does this mean you're gonna come back to the lair with us?" Young Mikey's question was small and hopeful.
Karai took a deep, thoughtful breath. "Well—"
"Of course," Leo spoke ahead of her, "we'd really love you to come home, but if you don't feel like it's the place for you…"
"Yeah, uh—"
"We get it," he added earnestly, interrupting her again. "It's not what you'd call luxurious."
Donnie quickly stepped in at that. "But we can make some improvements, if that'll help. Maybe better air filters, uh, brand new piping, and heating… I can totally get military grade wi-fi!"
"Yeah, and he's also gonna make us a second bathroom, aren't ya Donnie? With a jacuzzi, like he promised, so you—
"I never promi—!"
"—won't have to brush your teeth to the beat of Mikey's ass-band matinée anymore!"
Both Donnie and Mikey shot blazing looks at Raph, but Karai's nose giggle softened their scowls.
April stepped up then with a face like she was selling Bibles. "Listen, Karai. These guys will literally cross time and space for the people they love. Take it from me, alright? If you're looking for a place to belong…" and here she paused for effect, the jerk, "you can't go wrong with the Hamatos."
Karai gave a snarky response a go, hoping the ache in her chest wouldn't betray her voice. "Aw, well, that's awfully sweet. Jotting that down. Nice armor." She nodded at April's midriff, winking, then threw a complicit glance at Donnie. Both he and April shared a sheepish smile, which confirmed a certain something happening between them. Karai felt stupidly proud of Donnie and made a mental note to shit-talk him about it later, and to demand all the details April owed her.
"Uh, thanks," the princess said, the rosiness of her cheeks and ears now back in full force.
"So...?" Leo said impatiently, bringing Karai back to the topic at hand, and out the corner of her eye she saw Older Donnie compulsively glancing at the ticking counter.
Everybody else waited with their brows way up above their puppy eyes. The fact that they were willing to let her go if she really, truly wanted to pursue the Foot life tore an ironic chuckle out of her.
"Guys…" she began, shaking her head, which she could see some of them took as a bad sign and almost made her laugh again. "Just shut up for a second, will you? All I could think about back there was how much I wanted to go home. To the lair." And as their eyes lit up like someone was turning up the dimmer switch to their faces, she concluded, "I'm not going on any suicide missions for a while."
Mikey screamed, throwing himself at her. If she didn't fall on her ass it was because she was being jostled and patted and hugged from all angles. She let them, not that she had much choice.
"D'awwwww!" Casey proclaimed, and the others cheered and hollered. She'd swear she even saw Raph's eyes being a little misty as he shoulder punched her, relatively softly, before she was overtaken.
Karai was drowning in turtle. She was really not used to so much affection, but damn, once she got past that initial fight response, it actually felt good. And painful, a little bit.
"Guys, will you please be more gentle with her!" she could hear Donnie scold them, then soon he was worrying over her, jamming a big hand between Mikey and her side, something her side was actually grateful for. She realized then it was in fact the Future version of Donnie. It was hard to tell who was who with her entire field of vision overwhelmed with green.
"You called us home," Mikey squeaked, then sniffed into her shoulder guard.
A pressure on her chest and a burn in her throat, which had nothing to do with the hug, finally broke her temper, and her voice with it. "I'm sorry—"
"No! Hey! Shh!" Mikey interrupted her, finger to his lips in the least threatening reprimand ever, once again making her giggle wetly, before getting back to hugging with all of his body.
Eventually they did break the hug, and Karai had to be careful not to lose her balance in suddenly standing on her own.
While the Donnies quickly leaned in to assess any further hug-induced damage, Mikey muttered, "Uh… dudes? Is it inappropriate that we're celebrating in front of a dead guy?"
Older Raph blew a raspberry. "This dead guy can suck it."
"That's enough sap for one day anyway," Karai said to a chorus of sighs and sniffs. She was both energized and exhausted, something she hadn't felt in a while. Or ever. She'd probably need some time to wrap her head around her new reality. After today, the notion that she was Hamato, and not Foot—never was, will never be again—felt completely... official. It felt… true.
Holy Chalupa.
"Guys, we gotta hustle," Older Donnie said, looking at his holo watch with a drunken smile, his movements slow, but easy. Peaceful. Everyone was. "We have nineteen minutes to get to the top of the Wells Building. We better say our goodbyes quickly."
"What do you mean?" Leo perked up. "We're coming with, obviously."
"...Are you sure?" the older Leo said, quirking an eyebrow at the state of many of them: Donnie's cracked shell, younger Leo's bloody leg, Casey's busted ankle and melted pants. Small Raph still looked greener than usual, and Karai… well, she didn't need a mirror to know she looked like roadkill that had been set on fire to and then dumped in a muddy river.
"You kidding?" April said.
"No way we're missing this," the littler Mikey agreed.
"We just need a bit of a sit-down," Donnie said a little shakily, but making up for it with ardent eagerness. "A short Shellraiser ride and we're good to go."
Older Leo replied with a happy nod. "Well, we should move then."
"What do we do with this?" Bigger Raph poked Shredder's head with his toe, completely revelling in the present turtles' protests of "ah, dude, stop, what is wrong with you!"
Older Leo flashed a cocky grin. "Well, according to ancient Japanese tradition, we outta take it to our father's grave."
"Good idea," Future Raph said. "We could take a hand too, make a nice bouquet."
"Ooh, we could use the skull for pencils," Older Mikey said, miming dropping pencils into his own eye sockets.
These guys were the best.
Young Leo was the first to step away with a gesture of utter revulsion. "Let's just go. You guys are messed up."
Stairs were a bitch when all the adrenaline had worn off and all the wounds had cooled down and everything, absolutely everything, hurt.
Everybody was either just this side of fucked up, or too fucked up to even walk on their own and needed help from the least fucked up. And if Raph's acid-burnt hands and various bruises and bleeding gashes weren't enough, he could still barely tell up from down. They had a couple of antidote shots in the Shellraiser, but that meant he still had to make it there.
Casey was casual, and being just as much of a jackass as he regularly was, so it took Raph a moment before he remembered their little… chat up on that rooftop the previous night.
Whatever April and Donnie had been doing when the alarm had gone off earlier that evening, and they'd shown up all pink and glowing, Raph never wanted to know. But what threw him off was the fact that whatever had happened… had happened. And it made him all at once jealous, confused, and hopeful. If they could happen, then—well, that sort of threw off all of Raph's notions of just how much credit their human allies deserved. It… kinda changed everything. Romantic… wise.
And then, obviously, there was Future Raph and Casey. And it pissed him off how much they'd made him think as well. How much he'd been… considering.
Now Present Casey was reaching out to help steady him as they walked, and just him grabbing his arm felt like a whole new thing, and his mind, swirling with panic on top of the fish poison, unable to catalogue it, reeled for just a moment. His pulse quickened and his knees buckled. Luckily, him being fucked up six ways to Sunday might've covered it up.
"Woah, careful there," Casey said, gripping him tighter, none the wiser. Or was he?
And so, guided along by a limping Casey with his hockey-stick crutch, Raph waddled and stumbled all the way down to the Foot church's lobby.
"I can't wait to never set foot in this stupid church again," April grunted once at the foyer, helping Leo carry some of Donnie's weight on their shoulders.
"Amen," Mikey said through a grimace as he gingerly put his injured leg down from the last step, then chuckled. "Get it?"
Future Mikey high-fived him with his good arm, while Future Raph propped Karai on the wall to push open the big entrance doors. The cool night air blew in, and Raph took a healing lungful. There was a deep rumbling and a loud honk. The Shellraiser appeared like a four-wheeled angel and parked itself right in front of the church, side door opening to show Future Casey.
"Hey, bitches! Your Uber's here!"
Raph felt heavenly relief. But just as they were making their way out, a voice called behind them, "Leonardo san."
They all stopped and pivoted achingly on their feet. Hachisu and what was left of the Lotus emerged from the door leading down to the catacombs. The Lotus leader hobbled weakly towards them, flanked by Jiro and the girl, Atsuko. They hesitated for a moment in seeing two of every turtle, but must have decided not to even bother to comment on it.
"Is it done?" she asked simply, though from her tone she already knew.
Future Donnie shifted nervously, glancing at the holo counter sprouting from his wrist thing, but none of the future turtles said anything as Present Leo faced Hachisu fully and replied, "Yep."
"She is gone."
Leo nodded, and reached out with his hand. Raph blinked a few times, trying to focus on whatever he was handing her: it took him a moment to recognize the two split pieces as that little wooden ghost box of hers. But it was obviously empty, seeing as Karai was holding the bright red pendant in her hand, up for the Lotus to see.
"We're keeping this," she said, definitely not asking.
To her credit, Hachisu nodded right away and didn't object.
The others started to move, but present Donnie spoke next. "Forgive me, Hachisu-no-Hana-san. I have to ask. How did Tang Shen's pendant end up in your possession? Where did you find it?"
Raph could tell, even though they huffed impatiently, everybody else was as engaged in the question as Donnie was. Raph did his best to ignore the nausea and pay attention, because yeah, how the hell?
Hachisu's brow furrowed, as though she herself had to think about it. After a few seconds she began, "I went to visit the Hamato clan ruins, to pay my respects. I heard something, coming from the remains of the burnt dojo. A voice, I think. I found it there, half buried in the rubble."
Remembering the Future Turtles' tale of their timeline, Raph lo oked around at his future self, and saw his own green eyes glinting with recognition, jaw clenched. It was probably only because of Future Leo's promise not to interfere in Present affairs that he didn't speak out.
Raph took it upon himself, and demanded, "So why keep that from us?"
Leo gave him a warning look that was half-hearted, still clearly pissed off with his ex-idol. Then he asked her icily, "Why didn't you say something?"
"She never even told me her name," Hachisu explained, with some kind of look of contrition. "The only name I ever heard from her was Oroku Saki. It was only when we arrived at your home, I felt her... stir." She shifted uncomfortably, and pressed at her belly with a grimace of pain. Jiro moved beside her, offered his arm as support. "Even though I only met Hamato Yoshi in his current form, I felt as though I knew him. She showed me, when he was still human. I knew I should not have accepted your offer of shelter, but I could not stop myself. She was in my head. I tried to make it safe for him, kept her hidden. I knew it would be disastrous for Hamato Yoshi, if they met. That is why I lied. I have not thought clearly for a while."
"And now…"
"Now I do." She offered a lucid nod. "I'm sorry."
A loaded silence rang through both groups.
"Thank you for telling us," Leo said finally with a reluctant nod.
"What're you guys gonna do now?" Mikey was the only one who didn't seem to hold any kind of grudge. It was the sadness in his eyes that reminded Raph of just how much these people had lost, and his anger simmered down.
"Heal, honor our dead. Then we go back to Japan, to start over," Hachisu replied, exchanging a bittersweet smile with Jiro.
"Cops are on their way," Leo said to the sound of police sirens wailing in the distance, fastly approaching.
"Good, let them do the after party cleaning," Raph said, making a move towards the exit, hoping to get everybody moving with him. He couldn't wait to get that antidote shot and stop his brain from spinning.
"Oh damn, there goes Janice," April said. "I thought it was her before."
Biting back a groan, Raph followed her gaze to the group of kids being led out of the lower level by some Lotus members, looks of utter bewilderment on their faces. Was that all of the Lotus? Man, he'd only counted 9 of them…
Among the kids, there was a strong-looking girl with a mohawk.
"She shouldn't see me here," April whispered, pivoting herself and Donnie to hide behind his height. "Hope she's okay."
"Help's coming. She'll be alright," Future Leo said to April, giving her arm a reassuring pat that also gently coaxed them out the door, before addressing Hachisu again. "We have to go."
"Us, too." Hachisu paused, looking between one Leo and the other, and then did a quick bow in their general direction. They all gave her a fast one back before shuffling out to the street.
"Tell your master, the pastries were delicious!" came Jiro's call behind them.
Future Casey waited for them, leaning on the open door of the old subway cart. Future Raph got there first and smashed into him, immediately becoming tangled in a passionate embrace and a fiery kiss. Visibly French.
"You okay, babe?" Raph heard Future Casey mumble into the other's mouth, and once again became painfully aware of his own Casey's touch on his side and shoulder.
"Guys, please reel it in, will ya?" Future Donnie griped as he pushed past them, breaking the kiss, and eased Present Donnie down onto one of the seats right before hurrying to the control panel.
Future Casey just showed off his dazzling smile. "What? They already know!"
Raph pointedly avoided meeting Present Casey's eye as he helped him up into the Shellraiser, and Casey's strategy appeared to be the same.
Following their long tradition of close shaves, they arrived at the building site with just a few minutes to spare.
The interior of the Shellraiser had been cramped and the air thick with the smell of blood and antiseptic which was already so familiar to April. Being better off, with little more than a splitting headache, she helped treat all the more pressing first-aid issues during the ride, including Donnie's cracked shell and Raph's fish bite. Turns out, Raph's system had apparently developed a certain immunity to Fishface's venom from his last bite. It at least explained why he wasn't tripping balls.
Karai's wound, the Donnies said, was nicely packed, not bleeding and not in risk of infection. So it was their take that they should not touch it until they got home where they had access to proper surgical equipment, and simply prescribed her not moving much.
Of course two professional opinions weren't enough to keep Karai in the Shellraiser. With barely any time to argue, the most she begrudgingly agreed to was being carried by Future Raph.
It wasn't just Karai who was stubborn. None of them agreed to stay, no matter how messed up they were—and some were quite that. Once they'd parked under the concealing shadow of a big crane, they all shuffled out like the cast of Thriller—limping and moaning and sticky with dried blood. April, together with Future Raph and Future Donnie, carried most of the luggage and tech, and those who were out a limb or two. Future Donnie did all the hacking and hijacking so Present Donnie didn't have to, and the whole group started the journey up to the bare rooftop in the construction elevators.
Donnie seemed so much more comfortable with April's hand on his bandages, so she kept it there as they made their way up. The street below and all the cars and trucks parked on it shrunk under their feet, skyline peeking into view from behind the rows upon rows of high-rise buildings.
She knew a mutant turtle could feel through the tough skin of his shell. But just how much? Then she realized she didn't have to wonder, and decided to ask Donnie later. Perhaps even conduct an experiment or two… The thought filled her with gleeful anticipation. A tickly, seizing sensation in her gut that made her want to squeak out loud. They were done, they were safe, and now this very exciting thing lay ahead for Donnie and her to explore and discover. Maybe it was the post-battle relaxation or the satisfaction from having defeated the Foot, finally, but she was absolutely giddy.
The construction elevator reached the top with a clunk and they spilled out onto the unfinished rooftop, the elevator bouncing with the weight of their steps.
"Woo! We made it," Future Casey said.
"Thank God. I don't have the energy to be any more stressed out," Future Leo exhaled shakily, though visibly relieved.
Future Donnie zoomed right past the group and made a beeline for the northernmost edge of the rooftop. There he immediately got busy with his gadgets, fishing out several devices and a couple of tripod-looking things from his backpack, muttering all sorts of technicalities to himself.
The others, meanwhile, had little to do but sit, wait and complain. But Present Donnie's attention, naturally, was on his older counterpart's corner of the roof, and insisted on going over to assist. That was already a good enough reason for April, but she had another one. A burning need, more like. She'd promised Future Casey, after all.
There wasn't much time left. But there was something she could do.
It was windy up there, the air carrying with it the sounds of distant traffic. April shivered, and squeezed closer to Donnie's warmth as she helped him make his way across the rooftop. Future Donnie's snout was a scarce inch from his holo screen, eyes and fingers trained on all the beeping, booping symbols and numbers.
"Need any help?" the Donnie under April's arm said once there, and his double did a little start.
"Oh. Thanks," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Um, not really? This'll just be a moment. And you should be taking it easy."
"Well, you know how he is," April replied, earning herself a couple of identical sheepish chuckles that sounded like a glitch in the Matrix. "And anyway, we wanted to… you know, chat."
Future Donnie's brow rose, purple fabric rising with it.
"And I wanted to congratulate you on a successful experiment. Truly exceptional work, Donatello." The younger Donnie disengaged from April's hold to reach out with his hand.
The older one gigled, and shook it. "I literally could not have done it without you, Donatello."
Man, she was going to miss the Donnies symmetrically congratulating each other.
Future Donnie's eyes fell on April next, and he extended his hand to her, giving her a wistful smile. "And you, April."
She gave his hand a derisive glance before stepping right past it and going for the hug. True to the Donnie M.O., his hands hesitated for a beat before wrapping around her, and she felt him sigh under her. She made it the usual, but a few pascals tighter, a couple seconds longer, knowing he'd notice and put a little tag on it to catalog later.
And as they held each other, she realized something: she could feel him now. His doors were wide open. She was free to flow through his windows like a breeze. His colors had joined the canvas, now a swirly combination of a warm blue and a cool, dusty mauve, kinda like a sunrise. It was a new color for Donnie. Nostalgic and withheld, but serene and hopeful. She smiled to herself, and when they broke apart, she smiled at him.
He cleared his throat, bashful, and a lot like the Donnie she knew. "Portal's almost here," he said, jabbing a thumb at the New York skyline, and then turning his head like someone waiting for the train. "You know, this skyscraper's gonna have a garden."
"Really?" She looked around her. The roof didn't look like much right now. Bunch of tarps covering material and piles of rebar and a couple of filthy cement mixers.
"Yep. The whole roof will be full of greenery, and flowers, and— ooh, and a beehive too."
"Cool! We could come here when it's finished, bring some candles, if you know what I mean." She elbowed Present Donnie—gently—and he met the suggestion with a playful snicker which left her feeling bubbly inside. When she turned back to Future Donnie she found him staring, looking equal parts perplexed and yearning.
"Hey," April said, planting herself in front of him, took his hand, making sure he really heard what she was about to say. "Get in touch with future me. Will you do that?"
Future Donnie's brow did a little twitchy thing as he shifted on his feet. "Yeah, I'll… I'll try."
April shook her head. Not good enough. She squeezed his hands. "Promise me you'll talk to her."
"Yeah, man, we gotta resolve our bet already!" Future Mikey hollered from way over the other side of the roof. He was sitting on a workbench, body leaning towards them, and pointed between himself and the older Casey standing beside him also watching intently. Mikey's cry, of course, turned a few more heads. How naive of her to think they were having a private conversation. But that's the Hamato household for ya.
And as tradition dictated, Future Donnie rolled his eyes. But at the demanding lift of April's eyebrows, at last, he nodded. "I promise." And then he kept nodding at the collar of his plastron, as though making himself that same promise. "I just want… I want her back," he uttered, quietly so it was only for April. He looked up at her like she held all the answers. Like if only they could have ten more minutes, she could fix everything right then and there.
"Then I think you have a good shot at it," she reassured as her best attempt at that.
As part of her case, she took the younger Donnie's hand now, curling her fingers around it pointedly. The cheeky, somewhat incredulous grin that spread across his face as a result wasn't lost on her. Future Donnie's smile in turn was cautious, a little wrinkle between his brows marring the warmth there, like he still couldn't bring himself to believe.
Then she remembered... "Oh! Do you know about the music box?"
Future Donnie blinked. "Huh?"
"You should ask her. Future April. Trust me."
"Oh..." he said, eyes bouncing between April and Donnie's impish smirks, like he hadn't even thought about that in years—which was probably true, knowing them—and was understandably intrigued. "Okay."
He seemed to be waiting for them to give some kind of explanation. But April scoffed. "No spoilers."
That tore a laugh out of him, which was super satisfying. "Fair enough."
"What about you?" she asked. "Got any more non-spoiler tips for us before you leave?"
Donnie's aura seemed infinitely lighter now as he pondered. "Uh… Sure, I got a couple." He turned to his younger self. "I know you've been wanting to dismantle the algae pools, but don't! Algal bioplastics are the future. Look at this." He showed off his wrist device, which April had always thought would be some kind of modern sciency metal. But when he tapped it with his fingernail, it made a dull, dry sound. "Not to mention the biofuel."
Present Donnie scratched his chin in thought. "Good point!"
"And April; don't stress so much about school," Future Donnie went on. "You're a brilliant student. And if you ever need any help, I guarantee Donatello here will be just thrilled to provide it."
"I know that. Thanks, Donnie. Donnies."
"And we gotta talk about these new powers of yours!" The younger one exclaimed and she almost gasped because wow, she'd nearly forgotten about that little detail!
"Oh, yeah… Do, absolutely." Future Donnie's slightly uncertain tone gave her pause. "Just… You know, take it nice and slow. Just in case," he finished breezily, then simply waved off April's face of concern. "You'll be fine."
Then a loud double beep made April jump. Future Donnie wiggled his fingers at the holograms, and proclaimed, "It's time."
"Wormhole's near. ETA fifty two seconds," Future Don announced out loud like the monitor on a school trip. Mikey, a big ball of emotion, stopped pretending not to listen in on their conversation, and stood like the rest, favoring his wonky leg.
All the future dudes gathered round and picked up whatever they could carry, except Future Casey and Mikey, who were excused from weight-lifting 'cause of their arms.
"Do we have everything?" Future Leo asked, checking around the floor of the roof.
"Shit! Forgot my toothbrush," Future Mikey cried.
Future Leo answered with a loud sigh, "I asked you guys if you'd gotten those."
Big Raph groaned, pulling on Future Casey's backpack on top of Future Mikey's, on top of his own. "Just get a new toothbrush, man."
"Guy-y-ys," Future Donnie droned, snapping them out of it.
"Right," Sensei Leo said, then they all turned to face their goodbye committee.
With so little time left, no one seemed to know what to say. Not even Mikey. He was suddenly hit by the realization that this was the last time he'd see any of them, and what could he say to that?
The two teams faced each other awkwardly for a few seconds before Future Leo said, "Well… this is it."
"Yep," the Leo beside Mikey said to the rythm of everyone else's head bobs.
"See?" Mikey's future self grinned. "Told you guys it'd be sick."
Present Leo chuckled. "I gotta say, I had my doubts."
"I thought you guys would be brats," Future Leo countered. "But hey, you actually may have taught us something. Go figure."
"Yeah? What's that?" Leo quirked his brow, arms crossed, to which the future version smirked.
"You know. Don't forget where you come from, be true to yourselves, maybe dust off the old Splinter Quotes notebook once in a while."
"So the usual moral of the PG13 ending," Future Raph quipped.
"And this time we got the good ending," Mikey's older twin said. "Everybody lives, lessons are learned, romance blossoms..." He nudge-nudged the air between the two teams, and so many cheeks in the Present Squad blushed.
"You know that thing people ask?" Future Donnie chimed next. 'If you could talk to your 16-year-old self, what would you tell them?' Well, we got to do it for real. So that's pretty neat."
Mikey jumped up to correct him, "Hey! We're seventeen."
"I'm almost twenty-one!" the gap-toothed Casey backed up.
A couple of scoffs and condescending chuckles later, Future Donnie went on, "At any rate. At least now we can say, 'we did it'. We were here, and we made it okay. At least in one playthrough." And that smile splitting his face like 'we made it, I made it' was the exact same as the one on the Donnie standing opposite.
Mikey was pretty sure he would cry, but if he didn't say it out loud he was gonna explode. "Future dudes, I just wanted to say," he began, and swallowed an already tangerine-sized lump in his throat. "I'm super stoked that you came. You guys are all amazing, and awesome, and so cool," he sniffed, voice getting higher with every word. Yep, he was gonna cry for sure. "...and you saved Karaiwa, and Master Splinter, and we'll never forget you—" That was as far as he could make it before choking on a sob, and his own snot.
"Aw man! Now I'm gonna—" Future Mikey squeaked before also bursting to tears.
"Aww, Mikeys," Future Raph's totally feelsy voice said, and someone—Mikey could no longer tell who from looking through the cascade of tears—ruffled his bald dome, and then he felt a rain of pats and rubs on top of that.
"I— just l-love… you g-guys, so m-much," he hiccuped, reaching out to hug whoever, everyone.
"And... m-me too!" Future Mikey sniffed.
"Fuck, me too!" Future Casey cried in tune.
"Oh boy," a Donnie squeaked before burying his face in the turtle pile.
From what Mikey could feel and hear, including some "ouches" from tender spots being poked, everyone was bawling their eyeballs out on each other. Which was awesome. Mikey felt connected with the whole friggin' universe.
Until Future Don's wrist thing started screaming like a bomb about to go off.
"Here it is now." The older Donnie sniffed, rushing to extricate himself from the hug pile. "Guys, get ready."
The bundle dissolved begrudgingly, and they started bracing themselves, grabbing all their remaining stuff off the ground and slinging it over their shoulders. They looked tired and droopy, but in a happy way.
A few seconds later, Future Donnie reached out with the portable portal, and it snapped to the air like a magnet.
Fwoosh! The metal thinger split in three parts, and where just a moment ago there was air, now hovered the triangle-shaped door through time and space that looked like it was made of cold lava. It hummed and shimmered and made Mikey's chest guts vibrate under his plastron.
Leo was feeling a lot of things, and they were all playing musical chairs in his head to a beat more sweet than bitter. Among those was a deep sense of resolution, of something done, a mission accomplished, the end of an era. The Shredder was dead, the Foot no longer a problem, hopefully. Karai was back with them, of her own volition, seemingly to stay. It felt like the start of something. He wondered if the future them had the same feeling of vertigo, a whole new world open at their feet, ready for them to take the dive. He wondered if his future self felt satisfied, if he'd gotten his closure, as he went to face him for a proper goodbye before they all stepped through the glimmering portal.
But before Leo could open his mouth, Future Leo swivelled around with such vigor that it made him want to take a step back.
His older double, however, wasn't looking at him. He now faced Karai with an intense look in his eyes that he didn't quite know what to make of. This older Leo had finally surpassed Karai's height by little more than an inch, and he looked imposing, almost menacing—even if the puffy eye kinda took away from it. For a moment Leo faltered, wondering what was wrong. He noticed everyone else had gone quiet as well.
But as Future Leo stepped closer his expression softened, his stance relaxed, until he was dead in front of Karai, and Leo detected a very familiar embarrassment, burning ember hot behind the old blue mask.
"I'm sorry, um… There's something I really gotta do now, or I'll always regret it," Future Leo said as he gazed in her eyes.
Leo was impressed to see Karai's lip wobbling. "What's that?" she asked unsteadily, and Leo's heart started pumping as he saw himself, ten years older, lean forward and plant a timid peck on Karai's lips. Their audience gasped and sniggered, as Karai quickly recuperated and enthusiastically took it further… and deeper...
It was beyond weird being an observer to this, like watching a video of himself that he couldn't remember filming. A video of his dreams, made public for everyone to gawk at. Should he feel this self-conscious when that wasn't technically him?
When they broke apart, Future Leo—the leader, the sensei, the cool-ass warrior—had the stupidest smile on his face. Yeah, been there, budy. Or… almost. Not quite, Leo thought dejectedly, only now realizing Future Leo had beat him to it and... was this a good thing? Should he feel jealous? He couldn't tell!
"I'll miss you, Koi chan."
Karai's smirk stalled. Future Leos' words registered a couple seconds later and Leo frowned.
"Koi chan?" she repeated, giving voice to everybody else's bewilderment.
Future Leo looked like an animatronic stuck on a pose for a moment, before stuttering to a start. "Uh… that's just… something I came up with, some years ago. That I could've called you."
"Seriously?" Future Raph burst into boisterous cackles, immediately followed by both Caseys, then by more timid, less mocking giggles from everybody else and a dreamy "awww" from the Mikeys.
Future Leo blew a dejected sigh, and his mouth pressed into an awkward line that Leo himself felt deep in his bones. "I think I might have a concussion…"
"Wow," Karai said, dragging out the word, and all of a sudden she seemed the tallest of the two all over again. "So is that you getting back at me for the Mochi thing?"
"Yeah…" Future Leo replied in defeat. "But also, you know…"
As Present Donnie elbowed him with a cheeky grin on his face, Leo wondered if his older double was going through the same profound terror that he was—part-way between not wanting to miss a single line, and at the same time resisting an overwhelming urge to close his eyes and cover his ears and dig himself into the concrete roof floor.
Karai looked around at him, and dedicated him a cackle. She winced in pain, clutching at her side, but still made the effort to raise a cocky eyebrow before turning back to the older Leo.
"Glad to see you're still a mochi." And she flicked his snout.
Future Leo was still malfunctioning, nailed to the spot. But as Karai maintained her foxy smirk, his mouth started curving upwards.
"Leo," Future Donnie said softly, and showed the holo counter projecting from his wrist: -00:00:12. The portal behind him sang an undulating tune in the silence, and Future Leo seemed to come to his senses.
With one last look at Karai, he said, "Right. Let's go."
But as he started towards the portal, Future Mikey gasped. Leo followed all the Future Turtles' gazes and turned on his heel.
"Father!" Karai exclaimed.
"Miwa," Splinter panted like he'd come running from the lair and climbed all the way up the building. Which he probably did.
They went to each other, and Karai threw her arms around him. Leo could see their mouths moving, brows furrowed and clothes wrinkling under the clasp of each other's hands, saying things to each other that he couldn't hear over the humming of the portal.
Not long after, Karai quickly broke the embrace so that they could both turn and swap smiles with the Future squad, the Hamato emblem adorning Splinter's robe as well as Karai's new armor. Their parting gift.
The Future Turtles and their Casey beamed, awestruck.
Karai and Splinter. Alive. Together.
Future Leo was the first to move, inching his way backwards, as though wanting to memorize the stamp. Finally, he yelled, "Let's go!" and led the way into the portal, hopping right in and disappearing beyond the shimmering veil.
"See you 'round," Big Raph said, hand-in-arm with Future Casey, administering a monster pat on the shell of his younger self, who eye-rolled and blushed.
"You two be good," Future Casey said, finger gunning at the younger Raph and Casey, then waved at everyone else before the happy couple crossed the interdimensional threshold.
Future Donnie was next in line. He looked back, nodding, face shining with such gratification for a job well done, an experiment successful. It was genuine. Bright. And he, too, stepped through.
Coming at the rear, Future Mikey waved. "Bye, mini us! It's been real—oh! Wait!" he cried just a couple of inches from the shimmering membrane, and whipped out his T-Phone 2.0 to aim it at the group of turtles, human-ish people, and rat staying behind. Only Present Mikey was quick enough to strike a pose before it went click—the rest would come out with less than photogenic faces of surprise—and then immediately after, three pairs of arms sprouted from the portal.
"-you stop with the pictures, Mikey, the portal's closing!"
"You always do this at the worst possible moment!"
"But I'm documenti—!" the shouting was cut short as Mikey was yanked head first into the membrane and was gone with a bloop just as the portal device started to shake and the membrane rippled violently.
Just like Future Donnie had done not three days ago, the present version reached upwards with the spear-crutch, and the portal closed with a metallic buzz. The device, for the second and last time, fell dead to the ground.
And just like that, they were gone, the space suddenly quiet, and oddly empty. Up there on the chilly rooftop, four turtles, three human-ish people and a giant rat were left staring into the nocturnal city skyline.
Leo watched the portable portal device turn in Donnie's hands, the same wistful smile still lingering on his brother's face. The soundtrack now was all sighs and sniffles and light shuffling of feet. It took the good part of a minute for anyone to come out of their reverie.
"Well… That's that," Donnie sang, slipping the device into a pocket.
"I'm hungry," Mikey whined weakly, raising cries of both mockery and agreement, and Leo took the opportunity to covertly approach Karai.
He cleared his throat, and leaned in. "So uh… was that just the hottest pity kiss ever, or…?"
Karai grinned. "Why? Jealous?"
"No!" he replied too quickly, then gave up. "Maybe a little?"
Without so much as a warning, Karai grabbed Leo from the ridge of his plastron, yanked him towards her and planted a rough kiss on him. Though his ears rang, he managed to hear woops and whistles around them. The taste of Karai permeated his nose, slightly acrid, spicy with the traces of a bloody battle.
She ended the kiss just as roughly as she'd started it. "There was nothing pitiful about it from where I was standing."
Everybody watching snorted and snickered, and all Leo could come up with was an inarticulate whimper. "M-meb?"
She scoffed teasingly. "You big mochi." He would've protested then, but then she dove back in and… well there was just nothing he could do.
"Taking notes, Jones?" Raph's voice muttered close by, and Casey gave a little hop of surprise. His friend peered at him with one sarcastic eyebrow up. Casey'd been watching Leo's and Karai's makeout session very approvingly. Had Raph been watching him watching?
Casey blushed in a half panic, but Raph just looked away all cool like nothing, the upper edges of his mask high on his forehead. Casey's eyes lingered, trying to break the code, see just how pissed Raph was, and Raph… didn't snap, didn't even move away. His gaze was fixed ahead, but Casey'd bet his left testicle that his attention was not at all in what was in front of him—that is, Leo and Karai sucking each other dry.
"Enjoying the show, you dirty peepin' Toms?" Karai jeered, barely giving Leo the chance to scold anyone before jumping back in to the sound of laughter and cheers.
Casey risked an assessing sound, motioning at the pair. "Definitely trying it on the first lucky... person... who lets me."
Raph actually met his eye for a full second and Casey's heart did a triple backflip. Raph then glanced to the side, and shifted nervously. Splinter stood waiting awkwardly for the love birds to finish and didn't look like he was paying any attention to anything else. Neither of his parabolic ears were facing in their direction either. But you never know with Splinter.
What was Raph so worried about anyway? Shit, did he think Splinter would not approve? Splinter sure was a traditional rat...
"M'just dickin' around, bro, don't worry," Casey laughed, backpedaling.
Raph replied under his breath, "Look, Case, it's just… I can't— I mean, I dunno..."
Casey chewed on his cheek in thought, cause even though he really was dickin' around, Raph didn't exactly say no. He had some hangups for sure, and he'd have to tread carefully, but… Damn, that was not a no!
"That's cool, bro," he said, really working at making his words sound as breezy and lightweight as he could muster. "Doesn't count towards the final exam anyway. Eating face is like... a side quest."
At that, Raph looked around nervously. "First of all, get your metaphors straight, dumbass. And second of all—!" and he did a gesture like stitching his lips shut, but very menacingly.
Casey shrunk in apology. "No problemo."
As if she'd suddenly remembered Splinter was there, Karai abruptly ended the kiss and pulled herself and Leo straight, clearing her throat. Leo rubbed his palms on his belt, looking dazed and blushing heavily under the grime. Their faces were amazing and Casey joined in the continued clapping and woo-hooing.
"Oh, hey, father! We got something for you," Karai said with a pretty convincing casual voice, like a kunoichi do.
As she walked through the jeering spectators towards Splinter, Casey totally saw the corner of Raph's mouth twitch. Without looking at him, as though he was still more interested in the others than he really was, he said, "Skate patrol tomorrow?"
Casey grinned, totally forgetting to mention his messed-up ankle. "Hell yeah."
Splinter raised his eyebrows as his daughter came to stand before him, hard-pressed to keep a polite straight face. Kar—Miwa dug inside her sash, and handed Splinter something small and smooth and bright red. A Chinese pendant.
He looked at it, turning it curiously in his palm. Suddenly, he felt the spark of recognition, and he released an awed breath.
"Shen's pendant. I had forgotten."
He looked up from the pendant to see his daughter's earnest eyes, and behind her the boys and April looked on with earnest bliss in their smiling faces, just as when he'd opened his Sensei Day present.
"This had been her grandmother's," he explained fondly. "She was very fond of it. It will be an excellent addition to the kamidana."
Splinter gazed at the stone for a few more seconds, his children waiting in captivated silence, before closing his fist tight around it, and slipping it tenderly inside his robe.
"I keep thinking," Miwa said with uncharacteristic reserve. "About mother. I wish I could've met her. Really met her. Always wondered what she'd think of me. Am I anything like her?"
Splinter laughed. "You would be surprised. You certainly are your mother's daughter. I could tell you stories…"
"I'd like that."
"And," he lay both claws on her shoulders, "she would have been very proud indeed."
Her frown dissolved into a broad, radiant smile, which she quickly reigned in. "You're probably just saying that, but… I'll take it." She cleared her throat. "So why the last hour entrance?"
"Oh, I saw Shen. She paid me a visit," he said merrily, biting back a chuckle at all his children's gasps and slack jaws.
"Holy Frijoles, seriously?" Michelangelo exclaimed.
"She went to see you?" Donatello echoed.
"To the lair?" Raphael squeaked.
"To say goodbye…" Karai marveled.
Splinter nodded. "That is how I knew you kids had done it."
They exchanged uncomfortable looks.
"Master Splinter, we're sorry..." Donatello began slowly, "that we didn't tell you about Tang Shen before—"
Realizing what he was going to say, Splinter stopped him with an easy wave of his hand. "That is alright, my sons. I understand why you didn't."
"We wouldn't have left her," Leonardo promised, gaze righteously intense and an oath all on its own.
"Yeah, we would've made sure she was set free in the end," Raphael agreed.
"We just couldn't risk losing you over her," Leonardo persisted. An apology.
At his sons' words, Splinter contemplated on what the Future Turtles had told them, the day they arrived. He thought of his own absence in that future, and how insistent they had been that he stayed out of it. He remembered the night that Donatello and April had discovered Hachisu-no-Hana-san's secret, and almost paid with their lives.
He looked at his children's soulful eyes with certainty. "I think perhaps you did the smart thing..."
"Are you alright, sensei?" Michelangelo asked softly.
Splinter sighed. "Yes. I…" He looked up at the sky, black and infinite, aware of the little stone's shape inside his robe. "It is difficult. Knowing what Saki turned her into. What she had become. That was not my Shen."
"You're right, sensei, it wasn't," April said, a kind of fury to her voice. "It was a manifestation of the injustice that was done to her."
"She's right," Donatello chimed in. "What you saw when she came to you last, when all of it was over... That was Shen."
Splinter felt his chest swell, emotion welling up until it was a burning ache in his throat. "Yes. And now she rests. Thanks to you all."
Now, finally, they looked proud. As they should be. They had done the impossible. Again.
But enough of that! He straightened up, puffed his chest and injected an altogether different mood to his tone of voice. "So! You kids must be tired."
That produced a chorus of hearty groans, as though once he had said it, they had suddenly realized just how tired they all were, with their droopy eyelids and multi-colored splotches on their skin and clothes.
He laughed. "Well, I believe you have earned a couple of days off."
Raphael produced a long heavy sigh. "Or a year."
"I don't know about you guys, but I need to sit down," April exhaled.
"I concur," Michelangelo said before promptly collapsing backwards onto a pile of sand bags.
"Don't get comfortable," Leonardo said quickly, rolling his shoulders. "We still have to get home and heal up."
"Uuuughhh," Michelangelo heaved himself back up with a groan as heavy as a temple door with rusted hinges.
But just as everybody started turning for the elevators, Donatello said, "Guys, hold on. Let's stay, oh, half an hour longer."
"Okay." Michelangelo slumped back down, closing his eyes, mumbling, "Hit the snooze."
"Why?" Leonardo squinted.
"Don't know if you've noticed, but we're all a little bit Night of the Living Dead over here." Raphael motioned with open arms at the whole roof.
Carefully sitting himself down on the pile of bags next to Michelangelo, Donatello wheezed, "Trust me, it's gonna be worth it."
"I'm up for whatevs, this is nothing," Miwa said, pointing at her side. "I've had worse on a regular Tuesday."
Splinter frowned, only now noticing the pierced armor and the dark stain. Perking up, he scanned the group and found a multitude of less-than-trivial injuries. He realized they were looking at him for permission. All of them. Even Miwa. And he had to bite his cheek, and reassure himself that his children knew what they were doing. In fact, soon they would not need his permission. For now, he basked in still being taken into account, and merely sighed dramatically before conceding, "Very well. Half an hour."
"Whoa…"
"Yeah…"
"Pretty..."
Donnie smiled in satisfaction at the various exclamations of wonder around him. A gasp. A long whistle. An incredulous giggle. His brothers, his father, his sister, his friends, all lay together, face up on the rooftop, looking up at the sky. The greens and pinks of the aurora flowed over New York like fluorescent paint poured in a river.
"And the portal's doing this?" Raph asked, pointing with a firefinger.
"The wormhole is. There's no portal anymore," Donnie specified, and shifted his hips trying to find a comfortable position. Because of his cracked carapace, he had to lie on his side with his head angled upwards to see the light show.
It was smaller than an actual aurora, the wormhole's influence being relatively small. But it being closer to Earth meant it bounced off the ghostly layer of pollution, granting it some extra flashes of color. The climatologists were going to have a field day with this.
"Never seen an aurora borealis before," Karai commented. She must have been really tired, because she actually allowed herself to sound somewhat impressed. Other than that, though, she seemed very much at ease, and her wound was stable. He'd checked seven times since they'd got there.
"Actually, it's not technically 'borealis', because we're not in a boreal region. I guess you should call it a… Aurora Temperatis, if you will," he concluded, amused.
Mikey didn't seem to share his sentiment as he feigned an earth shattering snore. But Donnie managed to ignore both that and the snickers that followed. It was surprisingly easy with April lying by his side, looking at him with that scientific enthusiasm, eyes lit up with the colors of the sky.
"I remember my dad telling me about that! Something to do with solar flares and Earth's magnetic field, right?
"Yeah, more or less! But this is a special case! It's fascinating, really. We're typically not supposed to get auroras at such low latitudes, but—and man, I gotta look more in depth into these wormhole phenomena—the forces emanated by the wormhole are causing a kind of electromagnetic disturbance, kinda like a localized geomagnetic storm, and capturing the electrically charged particles in solar winds, and then these particles collide with the atoms and molecules of various gases in the atmosphere—"
"Oh my god!" Raph groaned.
"Look what you did, April," Casey said. "You got him all wound up, now he'll never shut up."
"All I heard was gases," Karai said.
Donnie pursed his lips, but April gave him a complicit smile and it melted every iota of a negative emotion away.
"You can keep telling me later," she whispered, and her pinky found his.
He could kiss her. Right now. In front of everybody, to hell with it.
He sighed, and then he didn't. He put a pin on it, and tried to calm his racing heart. Leo and Karai would be hard to follow anyway, in terms of spectacle. He'd have time. April's my girlfriend now, he thought, using all his willpower not to squeal with pure, unbridled rapture.
"Sure is beautiful though."
"Yeah…"
A gasp. A long whistle.
"You know, guys," Donnie said after a bit of contemplation. "This whole thing really makes ya think."
"Not about ionic magnets in the earth's whatsitosphere, I hope," Raph griped.
Once again, Donnie ignored his brother. Meathead. With April's hand in his, what did he care? He was invincible.
"Think about it. There are near infinite universes out there, countless worlds, each with their own timelines. Every scenario you can imagine, maybe even any story you've read, could be real somewhere, some time."
Donnie waited through the long beat of stunned silence. His words seemed to have caught everyone off guard, finally making the gears grind against each other almost audibly inside all the thick skulls around him.
"Fuck, that messes me up," Raph said at last, something similar to actual terror in his eyes from where Donnie was looking.
"Language, Raphael," scolded the baritone voice of Splinter, and Raphael shrunk with a full-body wince.
"Sorry, sensei."
"We were so lucky today," Leo mused, his gaze also slightly haunted. "Guys, do you realize that? This whole thing could've gone so much worse."
"But it didn't. We got the good ending!" Mikey repeated, elated.
Donnie added fondly, "Thanks to future us."
"Our guardian angels," Mikey crooned, backed up by a few murmurs of approval.
The group descended into another bout of reverent silence as the wisps of light swirled above them.
"I bet in some universe there's a girl turtle, and she has an amazing set of knockers," Casey said suddenly, and one by one every head turned slowly, displaying multiple takes on a sentiment best described by the letters W, T and F.
"Turtles aren't mammals," Donnie said once the initial shock had worn off, his inner biologist writhing in despair. "We don't have breasts, you sewage brain!"
"In some universe you might," Casey said, very convinced, and forget his cracked shell; this was agony.
"I'm totally seeing a universe where we have a band and tour the world," Mikey contributed, forcing Donnie to swallow his appalled refute.
Leo scoffed. "Get outta here, Mikey."
"Maybe there's a universe where we're human?" Raph said next, and Donnie was surprised by the sincere yearning in his voice. The idea rose a few murmurs of interest.
"Holy Chalupa, that'd be amazing," Mikey gasped.
"Hm. I wouldn't mind having five fingers," Donnie said, thinking about how much easier it would be to use keyboards, for one thing.
"What do you miss most about being human, sensei?" Leo asked.
Master Splinter gave it a couple of seconds, then smirked. "I had very nice hair."
Mikey flipped around like a patty to lie on his plastron. "It'd be so cool to have hair. But also we'd live in an apartment, and go to school. And we'd have Splinter and Tang Shen and Miwa," Mikey said, putting emphasis on the name, "and April would have her mom, and we'd know her and Casey from school…"
"You could invite us to your farmhouse in the summers," Leo added with a sparkle in his eye. Leo adored the outdoors. For some reason. "Father would run the best dojo in the Eastern coast, and the most we'd have to worry about would be exams."
"And scholarship applications." Donnie got excited just imagining it.
"Ew, dude," was Casey's predictable response.
"But it wouldn't be you guys, really," April protested, quite vehemently.
"Yeah, and like any of us would last two days before getting into trouble," Karai agreed. "It's a ninja's life for me."
"If we all hadn't been through all that, none of us would be the way we are now," April concluded brightly. "You gotta appreciate that."
There came many pensive sounds of approval, including Donnie's. As he exchanged a knowing glance with April, her slight pinky gave his gigantic one a gentle squeeze, and she winked, sending sparks through Donnie's center and making him wish they were alone. Oh man, he couldn't wait!
"You know what?" Mikey said, his voice warm like a fuzzy blanket. "There's nowhere I'd rather be right now than right here with you guys."
They all looked at each other, silently agreeing with a tandem sigh.
And that's the end, actually!
Wow we can't believe we finished it. It's been six years since we first thought to write a fanfic with our favorite TMNT tropes and pairings, and started brainstorming a plot. We totally went overboard with it, because of course we had to have a time travel sci-fi, AND a ghost tale, AND ninja feuds, and THREE romantic plots, all woven together into one humongous mutant thing. But more than 500 pages worth of novel later, we couldn't be more proud of our BEAUTIFUL MONSTER BABY.
We're infinitely grateful to our two betas, Queequegg and TheHeroComplex, for sticking with us all this time, and for helping us make this a better story. And of course, to all of our amazing readers and your comments that made all the hard work totally worth it. We hope the ending was satisfying to you guys, and that this story inspires you in these trying times. In the words of Sarah Connor, "no fate but what we make."
Thank you TwT