Author's Note:

To the Guest: Oh yes! Thanks a lot for reviewing :D

Rude Awakening

Silence reigned over the night. From time to time, one of the desert travelers turned and tossed around in their bedding, a soft sound that didn't escape the one who wasn't asleep.

Leonardo remained as still and motionless as he could. He didn't want to wake up Raphael, who was sleeping in the same tent as he did, or Splinter or April.

But sleep was eluding him. His body felt too tense for that.

Leonardo finally decided to walk a few steps in the desert and stretch a little. With slow, careful movements, he left his tent.

The desert night was cold, but also filled with a life that the sun sent hiding into the ground. Leonardo was careful to look where he set foot so he avoided walking on a scorpion or something venomous like it, something that wouldn't want to be disturbed.

That task was made easier by the almost full moon that lit the sky.

Leonardo began going through simple katas that he had learned as a child and let his mind wander.

Tomorrow in the evening, they would arrive at the oasis. Leonardo's home. The place he had been forced to leave like a thief - with everybody thinking he was one.

And he had no idea how he would be welcomed.

It doesn't matter, he tried to tell himself. What's important is stopping Bishop before he can cause a disaster.

Leonardo and Raphael hadn't told the others about their bloodline. After thinking about it, Raphael had deemed it irrelevant to their mission. After all, as long as the Shredder remained buried right where he was, nobody would look at him and wonder about the resemblance with their mother.

Leonardo was all too happy to come around to Raphael's opinion, even if a corner of his mind kept whispering that it was disingenuous and he should be honest with Splinter and April. Especially April who was putting her life down the line without having anything to do with them in the first place.

When Leonardo reached the last stance of his kata, he held it for as long as he could. He only relaxed when the burn in his muscles became unbearable, and he softly collapsed on the sand.

In the sky, the moon looked like it was smiling at him. Leonardo allowed the vision to soothe him. He took deep, relaxing breathes, his body entering a meditative trance.

Before he knew it, he had closed his eyes.

The cavern is huge, and the ice cocoon inside is almost as huge. It's glowing blue. Two figures are running towards it, one of them in a wheelchair; but it's the one Leonardo doesn't see that worries him the most.

The ice cocoon is a protection, a shield. The being in its core can't break it on his own, but now it's being pierced.

Someone is drilling a tunnel inside it. Leonardo knows that, even if he can't see it. Even if he doesn't hear anything. Somehow, he feels the being that's trapped inside stir for the first time in centuries.

Stop it, Leonardo wants to say. But he's not here, not really; and all he can do is watch.

The two figures inside the cavern split. Suddenly a pink ray emerges from the ice cocoon, something that Leonardo has never seen before. It reflects on the rock and ice, too fast for Leonardo to follow it, until it hits a pool of melted ice and disappears.

The tallest figure addresses the one in the wheelchair. When a second pink ray emerges from the ice cocoon, the figure in the wheelchair traps it inside the rock with something that must be earthbending.

For a while it looks like it's going to work, then the rock slab explodes and the pink ray is back and even faster than before.

Leonardo watches it, helpless, as it hits the ice again and again. It's ice that should never have existed in the first place, not here where it's still way above freezing temperatures. Only the being's powers made it last for two hundred years. And today, the pressure applied anytime the unknown pink ray hits it, combined with the tunnel created in its core, are going to defeat it.

It's done.

Leonardo sees the ice break in thousands of blocks. He sees the figure in a wheelchair protect himself and the man outside. He sees another figure fall, a tall and bulky figure that tightens his hold on an item Leonardo has never seen before.

None of this gets his attention for long. His consciousness is feeling attracted to the subconscious of someone else, someone who's struggling to wake up - someone who knows his body will be crushed if he doesn't react.

It's life and death. And that someone has always chosen his life over the death of others.

No, Leonardo thinks. No no no no no no!

Leonardo's eyes opened at the same time the Shredder broke his century-long slumber.

"Nooooooooooo!"

His desperate yell had his companions awake in a second. Raphael was at his side before he even knew it, his concerned face level with Leonardo's.

"What's the matter, Leo?"

"He's back," Leonardo whispered. "He's back."

Splinter soon joined Raphael next to Leonardo.

"Tell us what you saw," he ordered.

"I saw…" Leonardo swallowed hard. He felt like he was going to be physically sick. "A cavern. Underground. There was Bishop, and a man in a wheelchair, and Hun. And they woke up the Shredder. The ice broke…"

"You were just having a nightmare," Slash said, although his horrified face betrayed his uncertainty about that.

"I saw it," Leonardo insisted, his voice on the verge of breaking.

April exchanged a glance with Splinter.

"We believe you, Leo." She knelt next to him. "We knew this could happen. We'll deal with it together, alright?"

Leonardo nodded, impossibly relieved that she didn't doubt his word.

"We have to hurry." Casey's expression was grim. "The others will need all the reinforcement they can have."

Splinter nodded. "Yes. Let's be on our way."

Leonardo forced his reluctant body to stood up and help packing, worry about his family gnawing on his heart.

Even if they left now, they wouldn't be at the oasis before midday tomorrow.

It was an eternity.

Mikey hadn't managed to go back to sleep. Therefore, he was fully awake when the earthquake hit.

At first he thought he was imagining things, but when the pitcher on the table near their beds fell to the floor and broke, Mikey knew it was real.

"Wake up!" he said, shaking Donnie, because Donnie had made no sign of doing that in spite of the noise.

"Whatshappening?" Donnie mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"It's shaking!" Mikey insisted.

Donnie was fully awake in a second, his eyes suddenly filled with interest.

"An earthquake?"

A bigger tremor caused bits of the ceiling to break, and Mikey decided that his twin could get excited in a more sheltered place, like under the table.

"Donnie!" he said, pulling his brother as he threw himself under the furniture item.

"It's the first time I get to witness an earthquake that strong," Donnie said as more ceiling bits fell. "I wonder what caused it."

Mikey didn't exactly care about that right now, but his brother seemed more excited than afraid and that was very reassuring.

A well-known voice interrupted Donnie's considerations.

"Donatello! Michelangelo!"

"Mom! We're here!" Mikey shouted.

Tang Shen burst into the room and visibly relaxed when she saw that her children were safe. She joined them, quickly followed by Yoshi. The table was just large enough to hide the whole family.

"What happened, Mom?" Mikey asked, safely nested in his parents' arms.

"I don't know, sweetie," Tang Shen answered, holding him tighter.

Soon, the tremors ended. The family waited for a while before daring to leave their shelter. Mikey began to think that maybe this earthquake was a good thing. It had been a while since he had felt that close to his parents.

And the damage didn't seem that bad. Granted, the house would need some repairs, but it hadn't collapsed.

It was all good, right?

"I'm going to the village," Mikey's father told his mother. "I want to make sure that nobody got hurt. Maybe you could spend the rest of the night in the gardens. Just keep away from the trees."

Tang Shen bit her lip, and Mikey had a feeling she wanted to accompany him.

"We could stay on our own," he suggested, looking up at her.

She smiled at him. "No, Mikey, I want to stay with you," she said, stroking his head. Then she turned to her husband.

"Be careful, Yoshi."

Saki was galloping towards the warriors' shack.

He had made sure that Karai was safe. His daughter had the common sense to take shelter under her bed when the earthquake had begun. In his relief, Saki had turned a blind eye to the fact she was keeping things in her room that she shouldn't have, like the sharp knives that had hit the floor in several places.

She was safe. It was all that mattered.

He had told her that he was going to patrol in the desert just in case, without mentioning that he wasn't supposed to. Maybe that earthquake was just a regular one, but he was going to make sure nothing had happened at the digging place, no matter what Bradford or Yoshi said.

When he arrived at the shack, he was satisfied to note that all the warriors on duty were already ready to go. They were supposed to, of course, but it was good to see that they were as fast as he trained them to be.

"Sir!" said one of the warriors, a woman that rarely lost her cool.

"Yes?" Saki answered, a bit concerned by the blank expression on her face.

"Sir, we've drawn water in case of a desert expedition, as the procedure demands. We…"

She hesitated, making Saki's stomach tighten just a little.

"Go on."

"We had to melt it. It was… It was frozen."

Saki didn't show the slightest surprise, although the news had taken him aback. What would cause the water under the oasis to freeze? What, if not the legendary waterbender that was supposed to remained buried forever.

So we're too late, he thought somberly. See, Yoshi? I was right. We had no time for diplomacy.

"Follow me," he told the warriors. "We're going on a reckon mission."

Stockman felt the earthquake from his hiding place inside the rock. He felt the mass of water change its volume, putting pressure on the earth.

He was using his earthbending to propel himself as far away as he could from this wretched place.

Himself, and the unconscious Bishop he had picked up in the cavern.

Stockman remembered the prior events. Bishop waking him up in the middle of the night, telling him that something was wrong. Them rushing to the tunnel entrance, passing by the unconscious guards - although they showed no sign of having been knocked out. The ice-cold liquid water at the bottom of the cavern.

The hole opening in the ice cocoon.

Bishop had quickly devised a plan. Stockman was to hide while Bishop challenged the intruder to come out. When they would leave the tunnel, they would make an easy target.

Except the intruder hadn't come out. He had fired at them, creating a pink ray that was unlike anything Stockman had ever seen. A new kind of firebending maybe?

The ray reflected against rock, and Stockman had tried to trap it into the wall, but it hadn't worked.

In the end, the ray had destroyed the ice cocoon, something the intruder obviously hadn't considered.

Stockman wondered what had happened to them. It was highly likely that they had been crushed by the ice when it had shattered, right before it was turned to water by the being they had woken up.

Bishop had fought it, and for a while it had looked like he was going to win, but in the end…

In the end, he hadn't.

Bishop stirred in Stockman's lap.

"Don't move," Stockman said gruffly. "You're badly hurt."

"There was something more," Bishop whispered dreamily. "He's more… than a man." His fingers were grabbing a black stone that looked harmless to Stockman. "But I have what I came here for." He closed his eyes. "Take us back to camp. We're leaving immediately."

"What about the oasis people?" Stockman asked. "At the very least we must warn them."

"They're no fools," Bishop said. "They will know what happened." He looked at his battered body. "I can't help them now, and I can't afford to die here. My quest is only at its beginning."

Stockman's conscience showed him the picture of a child's face, a child curious and brilliant and eager to learn.

"You caused this," he said, his voice trembling in anger. "And you won't help them now?"

"My mission is more important," Bishop repeated.

Stockman resisted the impulse to abandon him here and there.

"Then tell me more about this mission of yours," he demanded.

Bishop locked eyes with him.

"Very well."

The Shredder had seen the two men disappear into the Earth.

He didn't intend to give them chase. In fact, if he had been the grateful type, he would have thanked them for doing what no one else had - for waking him up.

That was why he hadn't killed the third man either. Instead, he had trapped him in the ice, like the Shredder himself had been for so many decades.

It felt appropriate.

The Shredder settled more comfortably on his throne of ice. Freezing the groundwater tables in the oasis was bound to draw the firebenders' attention. He hoped they wouldn't be long to come into his cavern and challenge him. He couldn't wait to destroy them.

And if they didn't… Well, tomorrow night the moon would be full and he, the Shredder, would get his full power back. After that, he would be able to leave the underground and take back his oasis.

Of course he wouldn't have had to do that if his daughter hadn't betrayed him in the first place, but she was long dead and he couldn't make her pay for this.

It didn't matter that much. Others would in her place.

The Shredder closed his eyes and expanded his mind, paying close attention to his surroundings.

He had waited for two hundred years. A few more hours were nothing.