The Saga of the Next Generation

By: Red Turtle

(A/N: Well, I've been writing this story for about two and a half years now. Thanks everyone who's stayed with me, checking in hopefully between updates and all. It's finally almost done, just one more chapter after this.

Here we have the voice of Donatello the second as the final confrontation between the turtles' family and Saber Khan takes place. It's a bit chaotic, so chaotic that someone had to help me write some of the action sequences. Thanks buddy.

As always, please review.)

Donatello:

The sounds of guns cocking awed me. It meant love, real love. These guys didn't even know us, but just on the basis of us being Huxley Anne's very distant relatives they were willing to lay their lives down for us. I wiped a tear away, and looked to William to see him also wiping his eyes. I resisted the impulse to hold his hand, although it would have provided some stability. This whole future was just so awesome.

"So we've got an army," snapped Julian. "Big fat fucking hairy deal. We're just gonna give them more targets, is all we're gonna do."

"Uh, excuse me, you don't think this is worth anything?" called one of the soldiers as a red dot suddenly appeared right between Julian's eyes. His eyes crossed as he tried to see what everyone was staring at, and uncrossed when he noticed the bright red laser sight leveled at his face. "There's nothing alive as can handle having three quarters of its brains turned to mush and blasted out the back of its skull. Not in the future and defiantly not in the past."

Julian said nothing, and the laser dot vanished.

"Besides, with all of them against his grunts, we'll be able to focus on the real task at hand" Romea stated, twirling her katana threateningly.

"We still need a plan," said only uncle Leonardo.

"I have given it some thought," said Endrame. "I can either teleport us all directly into the heart of Saber Khan's home; using the element of surprise we may be able to take him out quickly. Or I can take us back to the area outside Khan's fortress, and we can sneak in from there, eliminating his army as we go. I warn those of you from the 2050s generation, you will lose about three months when I do this, it is an unavoidable side effect of such leaping."

"I fear a direct leap into his lair would be suicidal", Splinter says, "The outside approach is much preferable. It will allow us to use the art of ninjitzu."

Julian snorted. "Fat lot of good all that ninja sneaking shit did us last time. Let's just get inside so we can all die and get it over with."

Boy, he'd gotten pretty pessimistic. I could tell past-only-uncle Raph wanted to smack his cloned son upside the head, but Julian's head was too far out of reach.

"The plan is to not have all of us die", Chris pointed out.

"We could actually try a full frontal assault," said Huxley Ann.

"Are you insane?" retorted Romea. "Khan's place is a fortress. We'd never get past his security."

Someone among the human soldiers chuckled. "There ain't a piece of security equipment in this time period that I can't disable. I'm guessin' the antiques the bastard we're after uses ain't even worthy of bein' museum pieces anymore. I can get us inside, provided you lot can kill the baddies."

Endame paused. "That certainly would take Khan and his forces by surprise, especially when he is quite sure that he's eliminated all his enemies. It is quite possible that security will be lax at his fortress…"

"And even if it is not, those of us trained in the arts of ninjitsu can eliminate the perimeter guards," said Splinter. "The Way of Invisibility made ninjas of ancient China and Japan the most feared assassins in the ancient East."

"They won't know what hit 'em," grinned our not really uncle Raphael, flashing his sais.

"So it's settled, then," said Huxley Ann. "Grandfather, you and your sons will handle the perimeter guards. Hollen, you'll take down the tech in the installation. Bisenti and Robett will cover you. The rest of us will take whatever cover's available until the all-clear is given."

"How shall we rejoin you, once our task is done?" asked uncle Leonardo.

"We'll follow the bodies," replied Huxley Ann briskly, "Okay, you all, listen up! We leave in five! Fourth squad, you'll carry demolitions and heavy weapons. Third squad, you'll serve as escorts to Fourth squad. First and second squads, I want a mix of heavy automatics, shotguns, repeating rifles, and all the ammo you can carry. I'll leave weapon assignments up to the squad leaders! Move it!"

Huxley Ann took us through her platoon's armory after her soldiers grabbed the gear they needed. Those of us who had somehow lost their weapons or never brought them to begin with picked up replacements from a rather limited stock of melee weapons. William found a dozen oddly-shaped throwing knives to replace the ones he'd lost in battle, after testing them out on one of the targets in the armory's make-shift firing range. I watched one of the jet-black blades plunge to the hilt in the forehead of a firing dummy, even though William seemed to throw it with only a flick of the wrist.

"Blade core's a depleted Uranium/lead alloy, and the outer blade is a sheathe of pure titanium," explained Huxley Ann. "They'll never lose an edge, and they're so dense they go through damn near anything."

Old Uncle Mike chose a pair of stun batons, as there were no tonfa or nunchaku to be found. "Here's hoping I don't bash myself with these things," he said after touching one and getting a nasty zap.

I was amazed to find a bo staff amongst the weaponry, and even more amazed to discover that it telescoped into something small enough to easily be concealed in a pocket. I couldn't help but feel like a Ranger armed with a Minbari Fighting Pike as I practiced drawing and concealing the weapon. William and I had watched Dad's old DVDs of that sci-fi show a lot growing up. He'd always been fondest of G'Kar and the Narns, but the Rangers were my favorites. The cold metal had a textured grip, but I had long ago grown used to the feeling of cloth-wrapped wood between my fingers, so the bo was difficult to grip and use effectively for a while. After a few minutes of practice, though, I felt satisfied that I wouldn't drop it or hurt myself with the weapon when the fighting started. Whether or not that would be enough to keep me alive, well…time would only tell.

Having assembled all our necessary gear, Huxley Ann took us back to her soldiers, and Endrame gathered his powers and tore open a whole through time and space.

I learned the meanings of the phrases "smooth as silk" and "quick as lightning" that night. The teenage uncles who weren't really my uncles and Grandfather Splinter slaughtered the perimeter guards without arousing any suspicion at all. A turtle or rat-shaped shadow would appear behind a patrolling human or mammalian mutant, and the patrolling guard would crumple and the shadow behind it would vanish before the body hit the ground. The intrusion expert entered the building's security system with equal ease and disabled it. Saber Khan wouldn't know what hit him.

Huxley Ann divided us up into three teams. Half the family went with First Squad, and the other half went with Second Squad. Third and Fourth Squads split off and headed for the lower levels with orders to plant charges on every support pillar and power generator, and to kill anyone that got in their way. We were equally indiscriminate with the lives of Saber Khan's minions. I had yet to kill anyone with my own hands, nor do I think my not-really father participated in the killing, but I witnessed plenty, and the real battle hadn't even started yet.

We advanced through the corridors cautiously but quickly. Two of us served as point spotters, to quickly silence lone individuals. Two more acted as rearguard, and the rest remained safely ensconced within the squads. We hid the corpses as best we could as we moved forward, towards Saber Khan's lair.

Soon enough, however, our presence became known and resistance stiffened. We no longer found isolated henchmen and ninjas wandering the corridors aimlessly. They came at us in groups, organized and armed, and from every possible direction. Our rearguard and point spotters fell back behind Huxley Ann's troopers, to give them clear fields of fire fore and aft. Most attackers were cut down by automatic weapons fire before they could even close with us, but a few managed to throw shuriken down the corridor at us or fire their crossbows before they died. One of Huxley Ann's soldiers took a quarrel through the throat and died in a pool of his own blood, and Old Uncle Mike got a nasty slash across the forehead from a shuriken that he didn't quite duck in time.

It took us roughly an hour to fight through the halls and corridors of Saber Khan's fortress and reach a room that I found familiar: the antechamber to Khan's inner sanctum.

Huxley Ann detached three of her soldiers to hold the door, while the rest of us prepared for the final battle. Soldiers slipped shotgun shells into empty chambers, or swapped out clips in their automatic weapons, and made sure they had at least one grenade close at hand. We paired off into fighting teams—William and I were one, old Uncle Mike and young Uncle Mike another, Uncle Leonardo and not-our-father-Donatello a third team, while Grandfather Splinter replaced Julian as Romea's partner.

A fire team moved into position by the door and waited for Huxley Ann's signal. She nodded, and one man keyed the door's opening sequence in. His fellows covered the opening door with their weapons. I braced myself for the inevitable shout of, "Contact!" and the chatter of machine guns and was amazed by the silence that followed instead. I heard a strange, soft whine as a beam of brilliant blue energy lanced down from the room's upper level. The soldier who had taken point dropped without a sound as the energy beam burned a perfectly circular hole through his skull, right between his eyes. He was dead before he hit the ground. We scattered as all hell broke loose.

Saber Khan and his mutant elites poured into the room as the sniper on the upper level continued to fire his particle beam weapon. That weapon claimed three more soldiers before enough suppressing fire forced the sniper to duck for cover and switch positions. That still left Saber Khan and eleven of those tiger mutants that had fought Julian, Romea, Catholicism and Judaism. They were small yet huge at the same time, very fierce looking.

William and I zeroed in on Saber Khan. The malevolent psychopath and the largest of his tigers were already engaged with past uncle Leonardo and not-quite Father. To my dismay, uncle Leonardo was having a tough time against the tiger mutant, and the father that wasn't really ours could barely defend himself against the massive swings of Saber Khan's war sword.

Suddenly a pair of tiger mutants rose to block our path. Just as suddenly one of William's throwing knives sprouted from the lead tiger's forehead, and the other tiger's head exploded as Huxley Ann appeared out of nowhere to pump a shotgun blast into its temple. "Go get that fucker!" she shouted, pointing at Saber Khan, as she threw herself back into the thick of the fighting, shotgun blazing.

I think Huxley Ann is my new favorite cousin.

The tide of battle swept us towards old Uncle Michelangelo and his naginata-armed foe. Like everyone else, he was having a tough time of it, unable to close and barely able to dodge the tiger's skillfully aimed strikes. I couldn't see where young Uncle Michelangelo had gotten to, and I hoped he was still alive. Then the sniper opened fire again. Whether by chance or by design, the particle beams didn't kill old Uncle Michelangelo. The first one burned through his foot, the second through his knee. He went down screaming and the tiger raised his naginata for a killing stroke. Another of William's knives flew through the air and buried itself in the base of the tiger's skull. Spine severed, it collapsed and died as the naginata fell harmlessly to the floor. Young Uncle Michelangelo appeared suddenly, trading blows with the nunchaku-armed tiger that he was fighting. He tripped over old Uncle Michelangelo, and that saved his life as the sniper's particle beam split the air where his head had been. The other tiger mutant collapsed, glassy eyed, a smoking hole where its Adam's apple should have been. More suppressing fire rose from the soldiers, and the sniper vanished behind cover once again.

Momentum shifted, and it seemed like we were going to win. Four of Khan's tiger-mutants lay dead, and the rest were heavily engaged, though Huxley Ann's soldiers had paid dearly for the victories. Of the dozen we had gone in with, only four remained, including Huxley Ann. The soldiers had taken position behind what little cover the room had to offer, taking potshots at targets of opportunity and keeping an eye out for that damned sniper.

William and I continued through the melee, closing with Saber Khan. Both Uncle Leonardo and our not-Father were bleeding from a dozen wounds, though Khan and his tiger chieftain weren't doing much better. A slash across the face had cost the tiger chieftain an eye, and blood flowed freely down his now-useless left arm from a hole near the shoulder joint. Khan's muzzle bled heavily, and when he snarled at almost father, I could see teeth missing from his bloodied mouth. He swung his sword one-handed now, a blow from the bo staff having shattered his other hand.

Grandfather Splinter and Romea appeared, driving a pair of tigers before them and separating us once again from Saber Khan. In the split second they obscured our view, things took a turn for the worse. I heard that familiar whine as the sniper opened fire, and then our-not-father Donatello staggered backwards and fell, smoke rising from a whole in his chest.

Uncle Leonardo screamed, which certainly make sense given that this particular Donatello had been more his brother than our father. The distraction was enough for the tiger chieftain to gain the upper hand and knock him to the floor cold.

The scream inside me took a moment longer to come out. After all, this Donatello wasn't actually anything to us at all; really, at this point we'd only just met. He's not our father, just another separate entity whose death doesn't affect the outcome of me or William being here.

But-

Then something inside me snapped. I don't know what, or even understand why, but seeing any Donatello die again drove me into a berserker rage I've never felt before, or since. William says I screamed like some predatory animal as I charged Saber Khan and the tiger chieftain. Maybe I did; I don't really remember. Most of the battle from that point on is a red haze in my mind.

William tells me I met the tiger chieftain first, and confronted him with a savagery he'd only ever associated with tales about Uncle Raphael from the old days and preventing him from dealing the death blow to past uncle Leonardo. I apparently disarmed the chieftain by shattering both arms before I killed him by cracking his skull open with my titanium staff. Khan and I dueled then, sparks flying from our clashing weapons. William says we struck with such speed and ferocity that he could barely follow our movements. He cut me, deeply, while I broke ribs and shattered teeth. And then, as suddenly as it came, the battle fury left me. I staggered from the sudden shock of pain and blood loss, and my guard faltered. I lifted the staff to parry, and did it so sloppily that the force of impact shattered my wrist. As the bo clattered to the floor and tried to back away, too weak to even cry out from pain.

Saber Khan licked his bloody lips and grinned at me, the feral grin of a predator, as he stepped closer to deliver the finishing blow. He raised his blade in a mocking knight's salute before lifting it high over his head.

"You'd think that after killing your father twice, and then you, that I'd have some sense of satisfaction. But you turtles named Donatello just die too damned easily," he snarled. Then he was flying forward, propelled from some force that hit him in the back, his eyes and mouth opening in wide O's of surprise. That's when I blacked out.

I regained consciousness to find the battle over and Saber Khan's corpse crushing me to the floor. I struggled to free my good arm and fought to keep from blacking out again from the pain of my injuries. Once my arm was free, I waved it feebly in the hopes of attracting attention. I hoped one of Huxley Ann's soldiers would see me, or that William would, but I was half-afraid that the sniper would put a hole through my head and do what his master had failed to. You can't imagine my relief when William's face appeared over Khan's furry shoulder.

"Donatello", he awknowledged gratefully, "We did it."

"We did?", I asked wearily.

Second squad and the rest of the family had arrived in the final moments of the battle to put down Saber Khan's remaining tiger elites, I learned. Huxley Ann was the only survivor from first squad. Amazingly, somehow, all my remaining relations had survived this fight. I was amazed to learn that past uncle Leonardo was still alive.

They hauled Saber Khan's corpse off of me and then hauled me to my feet. My head swam and I felt like I was about to keel over again, but William caught me and draped one arm over his shoulders and helped me stand. I asked him to turn me around, so I could see Saber Khan, and he did. All eight of William's strange throwing knives stood in Khan's back, buried up to and, in some cases past, their hilts. I saw no other wounds, and looked in amazement at William. I did some quick and rough calculations in my head, and the velocity those knives had to achieve to throw Saber Khan into me…well, the numbers said it was simply physically impossible for any human or mutant to throw any knife that fast.

Third and fourth squads rejoined us shortly after the medic had finished tending to the wounded. Both were short three men, and another five were wounded in one way or another. The medic exhausted the last of his supplies treating their injuries.

Wearily, Endrame gathered his powers again, and we found ourselves on the lawn behind our house, but apparently we had moved forward in time as well, according to the sun. I wondered what this did to our bodies. Huxley Ann called over the soldier with the remote detonator for the charges and took it from him. She stabbed the command key savagely with her thumb, and a ball of fire rose on the horizon. The shock wave was enough to knock almost everyone off balance, and a few of us (myself included) were knocked to the ground, we were so weak from our injuries.

"It is finished," Grandfather Splinter declared, with more than a hint of sadness as he was just begining to grieve for thier Donatello. At least William and I had already been through it once before.

I felt another impulse to hold William's hand, and this time I acted on it. Somehow this started a chain, and before I knew it we were all linked together, in the strangest family reunion ever.

TBC by Romea...