I do not own the turtles, but my co-writer and I own the two characters seen here.

LONE RANGER 97- "Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in my mission to steal the rights to TMNT 2012. Not even my friend with solid game or I was able to get past the final security droid, and that was before it used its flamethrower and death laser. On the bright side, me and him got a new battle scar." Removes armor to reveal hole in chest big enough to fit a basketball through. "I think I should get this looked at. What do you think?"

"Start praying. I'll get the doctor. How are you still standing?"

Please read and have fun.

I hear my brother beginning to come to behind me as I pull him along switching arms now and then to try to retain some strength in them. I'm feeling some weakness coming on.

Then he groans. The sound makes my skin crawl. I fear someone hearing it. Yet, my heart feels lighter at it's sound as well. I got some of Donnie's power-juice into him earlier. I made sure to do so before even getting him onto the board. Part of me had been expecting this. Part of me had been fearing it. Part of me had been hoping for it. Part of me was now amused.

I can almost feel the tightening in his muscles and his annoyance simmering behind me as he takes in his situation. "Rein, what's going on?"

I answer in a quieter voice than his. "I'm pulling you to a place with better light and more stuff to help us both after our ordeal. Be silent so we get there safely."

"Why am I trussed up like some animal on here with you pulling me along like a kid in a little red wagon?"

"It's an iron, two-person, skateboard. Having your legs just drag along behind it didn't seem practical and there are inclines and slopes along the way."

"Well why didn't you just wake me up!"

"Shush. Our enemies might still be following us. And I thought you needed your rest. Your body wouldn't have shut down so much otherwise."

"When I get out of this, I'm going to shove my foot so far up your–!"

"Language."

My brother's voice goes from angry to slack jawed confused. "Since when do you care about my language?"

I blink and almost stop walking. I've been raising boys who'd found publications, some for children, some not, swept down the drain around the same time Donnie found a way to get stations on an abandoned TV even in the lair, some programming picked up was for children, some not. For a while now, I've applied this pattern of interrupting them in order to prevent them from saying things Splinter and I have both decided they shouldn't say.

My brother, who is "not" under my authority in the same way just triggered my automatic habit for my kids. Thankfully, Safe Place's entry point is straight ahead. I say a prayer of thank you for this convenient interruption. "Shush …" I pause, drop the rope I'd been holding and pull a lever that then causes the door to slide aside.

"What the–"

"Shush!"

I pull him inside and use the lever to shut the door behind us. Then I whip out a knife and bend down to free him from Donnie's iron skateboard and Mikey's old cowboy lasso. I grab a bottle of Donnie's energy drink, twist the cap off, and hand it to him. As I watch Maverick grasp it and take a sip, I lean back, watch, and ask. "How do you feel?"

"Like used chewing gum on the sidewalk." Maverick sits up with a grimace and hiss of breath. "Last thing I remember was mentioning my training brother. Everything else is fuzzy. Did I say anything more after that?"

I glared at him. "You asked me if I knew the organization I hated killed the people you loved in order to set you up to be their errand boy."

Maverick looked at her with annoyance "What are you upset about? I'm the one who was lied to their entire life. What do you have to be upset about?"

"What do I have to be upset about? You thought I knew 'The Association' took more from 'you' than 'me,' and didn't say anything to you about it? You thought I could have honestly told you something that would have made you hate it more than me, and stayed silent? I struggle to keep my mouth shut about anything! You probably would have killed them all or taken me far, far away from them if I'd told you something like that! I wanted the latter! You thought I'd just sit on that and let you keep serving them? I only left you because I thought you'd never leave them!" As I closed my mouth, my thoughts went on unvoiced. And I thought you and the Shredder couldn't possibly co-exist, I thought to myself.

I let out a long breath before continuing. "Mav, right now I'm thanking God we met again tonight. I spent all these years with leaving 'you' as one of my biggest regrets. I killed more people than I want to think about during those years with The Association. Then I worked for another murderer with the understanding he wouldn't ask me to murder. Then he asked me to kidnap someone so 'he' could murder them after I brought his victim to him. But a lot of nights these past fifteen, going on sixteen, years, I was haunted by the way I left you."

I let my gaze and voice soften, "Can you forgive me? If not, I'll get you somewhere safe where you can get help for the condition the Kraang left you in, and either step out of your life entirely or just coordinate with you on how to take out the Kraang together." I shrug my shoulders a little trying to play it cool while my heart speeds up. "What will it be?"

Maverick looks at the bottle of energy drink in his hands. His face is creased up, and I don't think it's just because his blind eyes are so tightly shut. He takes another drink before getting up and moving toward a wall. "You know after I found out the truth, I hunted as many Association scum as I could... But... every time I stopped to rest... I always asked myself; what was wrong with me... what was so horrible about me that she would break her promise to me... did she know the secret and not tell me to spare my feelings, could she just feel how inhuman I was, could she not stand to be near me because I was everything she hated and feared... I asked myself that every time I went to sleep... but when you died I decided I didn't care about why you left... I just wanted everyone back, my parents, Manami, Hiroki, my teachers, you, I even wanted my training brother Rebel back. Everyone who wasn't dead disappeared. I don't know what happened to them. So, if I forgive you... Can I trust that you won't abandon me again... Even if it kills me, even if I was bleeding out, would you stay with me or leave and get help?"

I stare at my brother angry and calm all at the same time. "Mav … I would take any and every chance to save your life."

Some of Maverick's wrinkles fell away, but his face was now too lax, even long. "If that's your honest answer... I don't know if we can go back to the way things were... I'm tired Rien ... Tired of this world... Tired of losing my family over and over, I'm tired of it... I just want to die with something rather than die with nothing, with no one."

I glare at him. "That would be selfish Maverick! I've regretted leaving every family I've ever had, or even had the chance to build ..."

Wild dreams of telling the Hamato brothers about my life and mission, and asking them to get their clan to help me take on The Association and burn it down to the roots, maybe pulling in Maverick too, because maybe, just maybe he "did" love me more than he wanted to find his parents killers, instead of carrying out my "mission" to kill Yoshi danced in my mind again briefly. I threw them out of my consciousness again and plunged ahead. "But even though I wanted to die almost every moment of some days of serving my sensei, especially before you came along, I've never regretted while I had a 'new' family 'Living' to have it. There's always someone out there you can help even by being things you never believed you could be in your darkest days. I learned that after I left my second murder-happy-boss for my new life I'm continuing now. Like I said, I regret leaving you behind, but I don't regret not-dying after all these years of living while 'not' being an assassin."

"Rein this 'world' is selfish, it 'has' been selfish, and it always 'will be' selfish! Doesn't matter how many good people there are because the rules of this world were made by selfish people! You either live by its rules or you suffer either until you die or you start following its rules again! It's no different than The Association! Money, power, reputation, those are all that matter! People are always taking something from someone else, and I'm tired of it being me!"

I shake my head at my brother and reply sarcastically. "Sure, that's why rules like "don't steal," "don't lie," and "don't murder" are so common, because stealing, lying, and murdering aren't easy ways for the powerful to get exactly what they want! We both know that better than most. And don't pretend we never took anything from somebody else including their lives! I no longer believe the world was always or meant to be this way. I do believe we can make it better if we choose to like I'm choosing to help you right now."

His brow furrows further making particularly sharp ridges above his nose. The lines around his mouth, however, relax. His voice is low, but confused. "How do you do this? I'm afraid to be near you. Then you say something that makes me afraid to be without you... How?"

I shrug. Then I remember, he can't see. I think a moment before putting my reply into words. For one thing, I don't know. For another, I don't care. My loved ones should be okay without me. I can't promise I'll always be there for them. It might even be unfair I still get to be with them, when I've taken so many from so many others. I actually want people I love to be okay if I disappear off the face of the earth. It's surprised me, cold, ruthless character I used to be so many even a once enemy I tried to kill cling to me. I can't explain it. I just know Maverick is not the only one who says this. I begrudgingly admit this with a blunt flow of words. "My family of the last fifteen years says the same."

"I'd like to meet them. But speaking of families, I need to get back to mine. You have a phone I can use?"

"Give me a moment." I go to a cupboard and rifle around until I found one of the earliest phone models my genius son made with no screens and a standard button layout. I toss this to my brother while saying right before I release "Here you go."

Maverick catches it easily and dials the number with a frown, refusing to meet my eyes with his blind ones. I raise an eyebrow at him. He swallows. I narrow my eyes at him. The phone stops ringing just before a voice speaks on the other line. My brother responds to it in a wavering voice. "Hey Jackie?" A voice on the other line starts yelling colorful language I won't let my sons use.

My brother flinches, pulls the phone away from his ear, and holds it at arms' length. Then he responds, "I know! But it wasn't my fault!"

There is more yelling from the other end of the line. "Yes I know, you can do all that later, but if you keep yelling like that you're going to wake them up!" All sound cuts out from the other end of the line. After a few moments of silence Maverick cautiously holds the phone back up to his ear... "... Hello... Jackie y-"

*HOOOOOOOOOONNNNK!" An air horn erupts from the other end of the line. Maverick yanks the phone as far away from his ear as possible.

I hold my hand out toward my brother and the phone. "Would you like me to explain the situation I found you in?"

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes