Rating: Overall story rated T

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Overall story contains disturbing imagery such as blood, gore and the like, and disturbing situations.

Summary: The world as they knew it has gone to ruins. The shadows, once their greatest allies, now harbour threats so great it's safer to risk walking in open daylight and Mikey and April will do anything to keep what remains of their family safe; even if it means abandoning home and everything they knew. This story is AU and a collaboration between sampsonknight and Zelgadis55.

Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.

Saluzozette - Thank you. that means a lot to us :-)


Sekai no Owari

Ch 14

Feeling the sleepiness taking over, April yawned and pulled herself away from Mikey's arms. Though she would love to stay like that for longer, loving the comfort he provided her, she knew there were things that needed to be done.

"Maybe while I have a moment, I should clean up the lab. Leaving it in that condition will not help and I really should collect any samples I can that might help us to figure out what happened to our brothers."

Mikey nodded reluctantly and was about to let her go when he suddenly remembered, "Actually, that can wait a bit longer April, I still need to talk to you."

April blinked at him in confusion, "What do you mean? Didn't we just talk?"

"Yeah but that's not what I wanted to talk about. There's something else and you're not going to like it..." Mikey warned, not quite able to meet her questioning gaze.

"Of course I won't..." she sighed, motioning her hand to get him to spit it out already. "What is it?"

"You're really not going to like it," he repeated. "So just remember before you start yelling that Leo and Raph are asleep."

"Mikey, you're not helping. In fact, you're making this worse; just lay it out already," she warned him.

"Well, we're really low on food, only a few days worth left..."

"Okay, I knew that considering how low we were before we went out in the first place but I get the feeling there is more to this isn't there?"

Mikey took a deep breath, trying to centre himself. "Well..." he drew out uncertainly.

April narrowed her eyes at him, her arms were crossed and she tapped one finger on her other arm, annoyed by how he was beating around the bush.

"IthinkIshouldgooutalonetohuntforsuppliesthistime!"

Literally watching him vomit a string of syllables, April blinked at him, throwing her hands into the air in a t shape, "Woah! Stop! Time out! Now, what did you say? Slow it down, Mikey. I don't even know if that was English you spat out."

"I think I should go out alone to hunt for supplies this time," Mikey explained, trying not to cringe as he repeated what he'd said far more slowly this time.

"WHAT!" April snapped, raising her voice and wincing when she heard Raph stir on the bed.

"I said, I think I should..."

Growling and flashing a look at the two small sleeping turtles, April jumped to her feet, gripped his mask tightly and dragged him from the room.

"No! Wait! April!" Mikey yelped, surprised at her show of strength and pained by being dragged along the ground. "Will you hear me out? Please?"

"Outside, so I can tell you off for even suggesting such a stupid, idiotic thing!" April snapped furiously.

"At least let me get up and walk out myself?" he pleaded. "Gonna get concrete burn like this and I'm already injured!"

"Well too ba..." April froze suddenly, letting go of his mask as she realised how far she had dragged him; it shouldn't have been possible. Quickly covering up her rising fear of the impossibility so Mikey wouldn't worry about her, she turned around, walking out the room but not before calling over her shoulder, "Then get out here! You better have a really good reason, Mikey, since, in this world, heroes get themselves killed!"

"Yes ma'am," he quickly replied, scrambling to his feet to follow her. Once outside, he stood in front of her, fidgeting. "Is here good? Or should we go somewhere more comfortable?"

"Depends if I would need to hurt you or not," April narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't want our brothers hearing your last breaths if it comes to it."

"Would you really hurt an already injured turtle?" Mikey batted his eyelids innocently.

"Yes," April retorted flatly "and that's another reason why this 'idea' of yours is so stupid."

"Wow, dudette, I'm hurt..." Mikey stated, meaning more emotionally than physically this time.

"Oh, you're hurt now, are you?" April leaned against the wall. "Wait until I hear this so-called reason about why you want to risk your shell alone out there when even Leo wouldn't have dared to go out alone!"

Mikey took another deep breath, "It's because of Leo and Donnie and Raphie," he explained desperately. "They shouldn't be left alone for one thing, especially so soon after... everything. I trust Donnie, yes, but it's still not a good idea and anyway, right now, he's trying to work out how the lair works so he can fix the emergency entrance."

"Mikey, I don't know about this. It was a close call with the two of us but alone won't make it any easier..." April bit her lip, understanding where he came from and yet, at the same time she didn't like this one bit. Taking a breath, she had to ask, "And what was wrong with the door, anyway?"

"Donnie said not enough power to run it," Mikey admitted reluctantly, "and there's nothing he can do about that any time soon considering how little power the generator puts out. That means, if we were to be trapped out there again and have to use it, it'd be another really close call for you. Too close"

Growing silent, she shivered at the memory of last time, then shook her head, "That isn't a good enough reason for you to go alone. We were only trapped because the place was on lockdown. Next time, it won't be. I understand you're worried about leaving Donnie in charge but you going alone with no one to watch your shell is suicide!"

"Maybe... but you know I'd do everything in my power to make it back," Mikey insisted desperately. "But there's another problem anyway..."

"Other than you wanting to jump off a bridge into a cup of zombie-infested water?"

"Trust me, Ape, I really don't want to go out there again in the first place, alone or otherwise," Mikey replied drily. "Last time was way too terrifying."

"Then why even suggest it? Mikey, what are you not telling me? For someone who was insistent on the rule, no more secrets between us, why are you doing exactly that?" she stalked up to him, poking her finger into his plastron. She hoped her directness would stop him from beating the dead horse any longer than necessary.

"It's not a secret!" Mikey all but exploded. "This is me being scared to lose you too! Or let anyone else down!"

"What?You're not going to lose me! And you think I'm not scared? Do you really," she threw her hands in the air before storming to the opposite wall and whirling to slam her back into it in frustration. "Where do you get it from that you think you will let anyone down, huh?"

"It's what I always do and what I did the other day. I didn't get us back home in time, which directly led to what happened to my bros," he whispered, averting his gaze from her intense, piercing one. "If we'd made it home in time, none of this would have happened."

"Seriously?" she roared furiously. "If we are going to play the blame game, why not blame it on me for pushing to leave the range we were told not to go beyond, huh? Why not blame it on Raph for being a dick that day and going out early against Leo's orders so it made only us the only ones available to go out there later? Why not blame Leo for not having a better handle on Raph's temper in the lab and stopping him before he did what he did? WHY NOT BLAME DONNIE FOR THE SET UP OF HIS LAB OR KEEPING SECRETS OVER HIS METHODS THAT MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED THIS OR ALLOWED IT TO BE FIXED RIGHT AWAY?" Seething, she took a breath to calm down before continuing. "Either way Mikey, anyone can be blamed for this shit! Yet..." April tightened her fists against her sides, "yet you standing here telling me this is what you always do is bullshit and you know it! So stop spilling this self-pity crap about you not being good enough and how you screwed up or failed when you didn't!" she spat.

Mikey stood there, staring at her in shock and mouth gaping over the vitriol spewing from her. It was then that he heard movement behind him as the door to Leonardo's room opened.

Leo, standing there holding the doorknob, rubbed his eyes as he whimpered, "Why are you fighting?"

Mikey glanced back to April worriedly, then moved quickly to his little brother. "Because I said something stupid that made April really angry," he explained softly. "But it's okay, like I told you yesterday, her bark is far worse than her bite."

"Then tell her she is pretty and not old," Leo pointed out to help his big brother.

Mikey blanched and slowly turned to look up at April, cringing from the look in her eyes. "April, you're really pretty and young?"

Rolling her eyes, she let out an exasperated sigh, "Thanks, I love the part how you question it when stating it, Mikey." April moved forward as Leo extended his arms out for April to pick him up.

Balancing him on her hip she glanced back towards Mikey, "Your big brother is an idiot at times," she stated.

"Our brother!" Leo corrected obstinately.

Nodding, April amended her words, "Our brother is an idiot and should stop and think before being that idiot. Maybe I would feel better over his proposition if he bothered to show some confidence and stop blaming himself beforehand."

"What a prop...osition?" Leo asked as April chuckled before bringing him back to the room with Mikey trailing reluctantly behind.

"A proposition is a suggestion of an idea or plan," April explained, laying him back in bed and wrapping the blanket around him.

"What idea did he give you, that he was an idiot over?" Leonardo asked, giving Mikey a sleepy grin at the idiot remark.

Mikey huffed slightly but didn't comment.

"Well, one that I don't feel should happen because of how dangerous it would be. Therefore, we are talking about the best way to go about it," April admitted as Leo tilted his head.

"So you yell at each other? Dad said yelling isn't talking. It's not an indoor voice," Leo pointed out.

"Pity you and Raph never learnt that," Mikey muttered petulantly under his breath.

Leo blinked at him in confusion, "I don't yell at Raphie, why would I?" Leo trailed off, suddenly unable to meet anyone's eye.

Mikey chuckled, "You yelled at Raphie just last week, remember? When Master Splinter was out scavenging?"

"No, I didn't!" Leo huffed indignantly. "He was yelling, not me."

"You were both yelling," Mikey grinned, coming close to tickle Leonardo. "Every time we were left alone in the lair."

"No, you're lying, Mikey," Leo squealed, wiggling desperately under his fingers as he laughed.

"Me lie? Never!" Mikey laughed, knowing full well he often did as a kid when trying to hide his own mischief.

"Liar!" Leo once again protested between gasping laughter. Thanks to all the commotion, Raph suddenly started to yawn and sat up, tilting his head at the two. Once his sight came upon April, he giggled and crawled to her happily.

"Well, I guess they are both up now." April sat down as Raph reached her, extending her arms out as he cooed at her.

"Heh, yep," Mikey grinned. "Guess we'll have to continue our talk a bit later then. Sis," he added coyly with a wink down at Leonardo.

Smiling, Leo nodded, liking that Mikey called her sis too.

"Yes we do," April replied, shaking her head at the two turtles before continuing, "because if we need supplies... we need to establish new rules," she said, giving a quick glance to both Leo and Raph, "The old ones won't work anymore."

-:-

"So Mikey," April leaned forward on the couch, watching Leo happily playing with Raph and his new action figure, all the while trying to hide her laugh of amusement as Mikey twitched every time Leo bent an arm and so on. After realising staying in the room wasn't an option because April preferred to get it in the little turtle's head that being in the room meant it was time to sleep not play, they moved towards the living area.

He stared back warily from the safety of another chair as he waited for her to continue.

"We need to talk about this now. I promise not to verbally slaughter you if you promise me not to pull the same bull... stuff you did back there. Don't tell me the reason to be irresponsible was you had to prove yourself, you aren't Raph so don't you dare start acting like him," April pointed out, tilting her head at him.

"I'm not trying to prove myself," Mikey sighed, wishing that whole stupid fight hadn't happened, "but it is true that I mess up a lot and no one ever really took me seriously. You can't deny that."

"Well, I did and still do. Do you think I'm any better? I have the bruises of all my mess ups in the dojo and the painstaking glares of Leo's burned in my brain for doing something wrong. Besides, that day many things went wrong and it was no one's fault, just bad luck all around," April said softly, wishing he would stop doing that.

Mikey nodded. "I never wanted to argue about that stuff, April, I wanted to explain why I think it's better if you stay here while I go out and it has nothing to do with the stuff said in that stupid fight."

Shaking her head, she sighed, "Maybe or maybe not, or maybe I was just trying to make you see what is really going on? As in you're not seeing the bigger picture here. You keep telling me no one ever took you seriously and how you mess up a lot... How about now? Do you believe what you're planning is a wise idea? Think about it Mikey, as you already pointed out, you're injured and not at full strength and you want to go out alone? How is that a smart move?"

"My foot's not that bad and while I've still got a headache, I haven't lost my balance or had wonky vision today!" Mikey protested. "Anyway, it's not a matter of whether it's smart or not, we're desperate and the simple fact is, you can't go out there right now."

"Why not? Regardless of if you think Donnie shouldn't, he can and will watch these two munchkins considering that if we want to keep living, everyone that is able needs to pull their own weight. As in, we need to do the salvaging together to ensure we come back alive for their sakes, just as Donnie needs to make sure our brothers and the lair is secure while we are out. There is no other way around it. It's stupid and immature to think otherwise and as much it pains me to say this, Mikey, I expected better from you on this. I wouldn't have thought of you as going off like some half-cocked turtle who thinks he can do this alone only to likely find himself dead in a ditch, leaving his family to ruins because he was too blind to realise how foolish he was being."

"I'm not going off half-cocked, or even full-cocked! April, tell me honestly, can you make it through the emergency door again?" Mikey asked seriously. As her breath hitched at the thought, he added, "This time while waiting for it to fill up before we can swim up?"

April hesitated for a moment, thinking it through before bothering to continue to argue.

"Because that's what we're going to have to do. The last time I looked on the cameras, there were way too many of those monsters out there. No one's been able to clean up for the last couple of days and they're milling around like pigeons on popcorn in the park," Mikey explained intently. "Right now, there's no way we can get outside through the main door without risking us all at this point so the only other way is out through the emergency door. Then I figure I could make my way to the sewers to clean them up from behind. After that, we could go scavenging together."

"That is still too risky, Mikey," April shook her head, trying to think of another solution so they could work together on this, rather than one or the other.

Leaning back, she watched the two little turtles as Raph crawled up to her to give her a chewed up piece of soggy cardboard as a present.

Taking it, she paused, she had to do this for them, they wouldn't survive if anything happened to Mikey; she wouldn't be able to look after them alone. Not for the first time, she wondered how Splinter ever managed to cope all those years alone.

Tilting her head towards him, she took a deep breath, "What other choice do I have, I can't let you do this alone for their sakes and my sanity."

"Then how will hold your breath that long? I'll have to breathe life into you again and I'm not sure my head can survive another bump like that!"

"Breathe life?" April trailed off, vague memories filling her mind.

"Yeah, the kiss of life?" Mikey pointed out, not quite meeting her eyes, "like what I had to give to you last time."

"EWWWW!" Leo suddenly gasped. "You kissed our sister!"

"Sure did, chibi-chan and I hope it was as good for her as it was for me!" he teased, grinning cheekily. Then he baulked as something whapped him in the side of the head. "Ow?" he exclaimed as looked down to see what hit him, only to see a cushion that wasn't there before on the ground beside his chair.

"Ewww! You have girl cooties now!" Leo repeated, gagging and sticking his tongue out.

"Wow, April? You actually managed to hit something besides the broad side of the wall?" Mikey laughed, ignoring Leo's reaction as he leant over to deftly pick up the cushion and tuck it beside him.

Growling, she narrowed her eyes at him, "That was not what I was talking about, I know exactly what you meant… and what do you mean I finally hit something?" Crossing her arms, she glanced at Leo, "He didn't kiss me, Leo, I couldn't breathe so he helped me out. I will explain it later to you when our brother here," she pointed to Mikey, "isn't around to twist my words into some stupid, sick joke."

Leonardo nodded in relief, sitting back down, "Okay sis, so you didn't kiss?"

"No," she assured him before directing her hard gaze back to Mikey, "What I was thinking, Michelangelo, was another solution so both of use can finally stop arguing and stick to the script. Why don't we put one of the air tanks into the chamber? If we are standing there waiting for it to fill up, I don't need to hold my breath until the chamber is full and then I can use the tank to give not just me, but you some air until the hatch opens and we can swim up. That also fixes up the issue of if I ever need to use that way to get back into the lair and it prevents any future disasters if the hatch once again doesn't work properly. You too can only hold your breath for so long."

Mikey leaned back, mulling on what she said. "That's not a bad idea. We'll have to rig a way for it to stay in place on the wall when the water's rushing in but otherwise, yeah, that could work!" he exclaimed in relief; he really didn't want to go out there alone.

"Finally!" April moaned out a breath of relief, flopping where she was sitting.

And that's when Mikey chose to toss the cushion back, hitting her gently on the top of her head.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she threw it back watching as it sailed far wide of his head.

"You'll have to aim better than that," Mikey teased as he jumped up. He stumbled slightly at the sudden weight on the cut on his foot but regained his footing quickly and dashed off into the kitchen to make a start on dinner.

"I noticed, well maybe I meant to do that!" April yelled over her shoulder, then devilishly grinned at Leo, "Leo, do you want to do me a big favour?"

-:-

With a low hum, April entered the lab with a broom and dustpan in hand, pausing halfway as she saw Donnie sitting there at the security computer.

Donnie paused the recording of him and April in the lab, minimised it and swivelled around in his chair to watch her.

"See anything interesting?" April asked nonchalantly, sweeping up the glass into a pile on the floor.

Donnie shrugged, "Nothing I particularly want to talk about."

"Fair enough. Are you busy at the moment? I could use a hand to clean this mess up and gather any remaining samples, regardless that it's been in this state for the past two days." April swept the glass up into the dustpan and disposed of it in the garbage not far from her.

For a moment Donnie didn't respond but then he nodded and hopped up from his chair, going over to help, "Sure."

"Thanks, there is some clean test tubs in the drawer over there and some syringes to see if you can get some liquid samples. If there is none you can scrape some of the residue around the desk with a scalpel and place it in a petri dish." April said, putting on the gloves to start moving the broken tubes to the back of the lair.

"Okay," Donnie replied, moving to do as he was asked. They worked in silence for several minutes, with Donnie thinking about how odd it was working side by side with April like this. It was uncomfortable, being that he'd never really worked in a lab with anyone before that he could remember and yet, from what little he'd seen on the recording, they were frequent lab partners who were entirely comfortable side by side, complimenting each other's skills and abilities. He stopped working after a bit, simply staring at her curiously.

"Is there something on my face?" April asked when she realised she was being stared at.

Donnie shook his head wordlessly and quickly began working again.

Letting it slide, she walked up to the desk, rotating the burned-out hard drive resting on it, "I might try to see if I can salvage anything on this. It still holds vital information, more than just on what I read about the immunity drug in that file that you had hidden. I couldn't even make heads or tails of it."

"Okay," he said, continuing with his task. A few minutes later as he finished, he found himself observing her again as he contemplated going closer to watch, knowing he might be able to learn something new.

Fiddling with the drive, she tapped her finger in frustration, staring blankly at the wall of coding and trying to desperately find anything that wasn't corrupted and see what she could save. It was a slow process and she started to feel the weight of hopelessness settling in. Biting her lip, she knew half the problem was him staring at her like this. She understood, having noticed how he was watching old lab footage but it was hard to think when you have a set of eyes like that on the back of your neck.

Clearing her throat, she smiled at him sweetly, "Are you done over there? If so I could use a hand with this, if you don't mind."

Startled but with a small part of him he didn't want to admit to feeling pleased, Donnie nodded and walked over, trying not to appear too eager.

April shuffled over to let him sit beside her, explaining what she was trying to do, "So basically I'm looking for any combination of coding as such, which parts can be saved, what they are attached to, etc. Even if they might be half or ninety percent corrupted, even little pieces of information are better then none. I'm avoiding the rest for now as anything to do with the immunity drug is what we want so we can solve your little puzzle."

"My little puzzle?" Donnie asked curiously, studying the screen.

Chuckling she smiled, "Yes, your little puzzle. You see, what you told me sometime back you used to leave your experiment findings in the open, making them look complete to any fool that bothered to read it, yet in truth it would have thousands of holes, telling only half of the story. To solve that puzzle, one would need to look for another source, taking little clues you hid and putting everything together. It was a way to protect your work but I swear, at one point you just did it to challenge me, to see if I could figure them out."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I caught you a few times snickering at me when I became frustrated. It was a game you loved to play and sadly I always fell for it," she laughed. "Though truth be told, I enjoyed it too, which made you become more sneaky on how to hide your... oh... you've got to be kidding me..."

As she spoke about their past, Donnie found his hands clenching and he quickly hid them under the desk. "What's wrong?" he asked flatly.

"I was looking at this all wrong," she pointed to the screen, "I took this as corruption but it isn't. It's coded information hidden in the coding... I need to grab the paper files on the drug, I think I found the fillers to the puzzle holes."

"They aren't in the hiding place you described," Donnie pointed out. "I went to take a look at them earlier."

"I left them in the living room," she replied, getting up when she remembered she placed them down when she went after Leo.

Donnie watched April leave before reaching out to close the recording he'd minimised earlier once she left the lab. Then he sat back, waiting for her to return while studying what was about the screen once more.

Returning with the papers April quietly sat beside Donnie, flipping to the pages she knew had the holes, circling them with a pen to show what she needed to fill in.

Once satisfied she found all the holes, she started searching the text for the words which would be needed to finally complete these notes. It was slow at first but it was coming together but even then she felt at a loss. This was beyond her understanding when it came to what the files were implying on how the drug worked.

Silently soaking in what he'd supposedly done and how he did it as April pieced it together, Donnie continued to watch. At first he'd been confused by the process but after a while, he began to notice a pattern. He leaned over and pointed out the next piece she needed to retrieve.

"Thanks," April jotted down the last piece of the puzzle, then sighed, "Even with it now all together I'm not sure exactly what it means... I think I can figure out if you, Leo and Raph are still immune but other than that, I can't make heads or tails of it. I helped you with some of this but you did most of the work and never got around to explaining it to me."

Donnie's hand clenched under the desk at those words but he didn't say anything.

Noticing the tension once again rising in the now young turtle, April bit her lip. Sometimes she wondered if it was wise to talk about the past; was she being inconsiderate or was it a good thing? Letting it go, for now, she sat up straighter, "Well, we should test this on you first, before I dare poke any needles into Raph... he will be the hardest out of the three of you. We can work on this together to see if you're immune and that'll help you to get used to your lab layout again." Closing the program, she placed the hard drive to the side, knowing it must hold other secrets, maybe ones on what tech Donnie might have used or other things not mentioned when coming up with the drug. It was the only explanation considering that even with the puzzle solved, that it seemed like some vital information was held back.

For a moment, a part of Donnie panicked at the thought of a human testing anything on him or sticking him with a needle but he swallowed his panic down, reminding himself yet again she was supposed to be a friend and that Mikey trusted her. "Okay," he swallowed, reluctantly agreeing.

Nodding, she took out her Shell-cell, dialling Mikey.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, asking Mikey for help. I figure you might be more comfortable with him drawing your blood while I get the equipment ready," she explained sweetly, "Don't worry, he is getting better. He only had to stab Raph four times the last time he drew blood."

Donnie's eyes widened at the thought and he backed away, shaking his head frantically. Then he paused as a thought occurred to him, "And you? How many attempts does it take you on average?"

"One, because you trained me well. Mikey, however, well... he wouldn't listen. I think he was trying to piss off Raph for the fun of it, considering how squeamish Raph is around needles, " she chuckled, watching her phone closely.

"That's completely irresponsible!" Donnie gasped in horror. "He's not touching my veins, even if he does have to learn sometime!"

Giving up and hanging up the phone, she laughed, "Yeah, I don't blame you. I refused myself last time when you were busy and he begged me to give him more practice; I told him to stick it." She smiled, placing her cell away and heading for the medical room to take out what she needed, "Can I get you to sit on the bed and make a fist with your right hand?"

Donnie sighed, realising she was a manipulative one but did as she bade regardless.

April ignored the sigh, feeling a bit nervous; she was fully capable of doing this but his reaction was what she feared. Bringing over a rubber band, a needle and three vials she wanted to fill up, she placed labels on the empty vials and wrote 'Donatello' on each. "Okay, I'm not sure if you've ever had your blood drawn before or not but basically, I need to tie the rubber band around your arm tightly. I'll let you know when you will feel the pinch and then I will draw three samples. That should be enough in case of any messups we might do on the first batch."

Donnie nodded. "I've never had blood drawn before, I've only seen it on TV or described in some books I have... had..." he replied reluctantly. "I'm familiar with the theory at least."

"Then this will be a walk in the park," she smiled reassuringly, tightening the rubber band around his biceps before taking the needle and attaching the first empty vial. She tapped her finger agsainst his skin to find the vein and once she found it, she informed him, "Okay you will feel a slight pinch now and you can let the fist go."

Donnie nodded, refusing to take his eyes off what she was doing.

Poking the needle into his arm, she stood there while taking the first sample before withdrawing it and taking the next and the next. After removing the rubber band, she took a piece of gauze ready in her free hand and removed the needle, pressing the gauze firmly in its place. "Hold it there for a bit to stop the bleeding," she instructed him as she disposed of the needle and took the three samples to the desk.

"Okay," Donnie replied, doing as she asked. As soon as her back was turned, he hopped up from the bed and walked up behind her to watch, hungry to learn.

Getting to work, she followed what instruction she was given before, going through the notes on the vaccine. Thankfully, despite the fact that much of the contents of the lab had been destroyed in the fight between Raph and Leo, Donnie's machine that did all the analysing once you programmed it correctly was untouched.

The wait felt endless but eventually, the machine started to beep, printing out the results. Taking it, April swore under her breath in fear. Dropping the paper, she rushed to the cooling unit Donnie kept for samples that needed refrigeration.

"What happened? What did it say?" Donnie asked worriedly, watching her.

April remained silent as she desperately searched the cooling unit, only slamming the door in frustration. "Damn it! Where else would you put it? I doubt that was all you made!" She stormed off, checking another fridge, then resorting to opening up hidden places that Donnie used to keep things safe from mischievous, prying eyes.

With a sinking heart, Donnie put the pieces together. "I'm not potentially immune now, am I?"

"No," she snapped harshly, not meaning to raise her voice but in her anxiety, she couldn't help it.

"So what now?" Donnie asked worriedly, turning towards the computer with the completed notes. He sat down in front of the screen and began studying it but as he suspected, it was beyond what he'd currently learnt.

"I can't see you not having some around, even if you told everyone that..." April trailed off then started to search more, stopping at one hiding place. Inside she found two boxes, one looked like it was a cooling container, the other an envelope with Donnie's handwriting saying, 'I'm sorry April'.

Her hand shaking, she pulled the envelope forward to take a peek inside. Seeing a small bag of ash and what looked like a test result, her blood ran cold. With Donnie in the room, however, she pushed it back inside, going instead for the cooling container again and feeling some relief wash over her, she pulled it out and brought it to the medical area.

Quickly getting to work, she tested one of the four samples inside against Donnie's blood sample, seeing if this was what she was looking for.

Frustrated, Donnie sighed; it sucked knowing that he'd regressed so. Needing a break from staring at the screen and trying to take in information that was beyond him, he turned to see what April was doing. To his surprise, he saw she was working with his blood and realised she hadn't said a thing. "Did you find something after all?" he asked, trying to keep his tone neutral.

"Not sure," she finally admitted, staring at the machine and wishing it would give her the results now. If this was the drug, it didn't necessarily mean it would work on them, for who knows how it would react to how their bodies had de-aged.

Donnie pushed away from the desk and walked over to watch. "So what are you doing?" he asked with a hunger in his eyes.

"Testing your blood with the formula I found," she explained, telling him what was concerning her.

"Then... if it comes down to it, test it on me before you touch my brothers," Donnie eventually said tightly, "but I want Mikey here too, just in case."

Flashing a look at him in horror, she shook her head, "Not until I am fully one hundred percent sure it would be as effective as the first time you had it, who knows what results or side effects it would have on your body after what happened to you!"

"As I said, if it comes to it, not before," Donnie reiterated firmly.

"We will see," April focused on the machine; she knew it didn't have the ability to foresee any side effects that could come out of this and the computer that had the scenario program she designed was now long gone. She was going into this blindly.

-:-

Mikey sighed quietly in relief; Leo had finally fallen asleep and it had only taken reading eight comics filled with questions and interruptions to him. He stood quietly and stretched tiredly. He'd never noticed when they were younger but Leo was actually pretty cute at that age. He smiled sadly, wishing that Leo, Raph and Donnie would return to normal already; he needed them so badly, especially in this messed up world.

Leaving Leo's room, Mikey headed a few doors down to April's to check on Raph. "So gonna have to take heaps of photos of you like this, Raphie," he teased softly, "so that when you finally return to normal I have plenty of blackmail material." His optimistic nature insisted to him things would go back to normal sooner or later, but realistically... they probably needed Donnie at his best to fix things and Donnie... was also affected by this... Mikey sighed again, pushing the negative thoughts away. Suddenly, he noticed his Shell-cell nearby and realised he'd forgotten to turn it on so April could monitor Raph while no one was with him. He really was going to have to find Leo or Raph's own phones so they could use one of those instead but that would have to wait until later, when Raph was actually with April and they didn't need to use his phone.

Walking over to the device, Mikey picked it up to connect it when he noticed there'd been a missed call. He frowned, he hadn't been so far away that he couldn't have heard it. Honestly, he wasn't surprised it didn't wake Raph as his brother always did sleep like the dead. Worse, in fact, than even Donnie, though unlike Donnie, Raph never needed coffee to wake him up. Frowning, Mikey wondered to himself when exactly it was that Donnie picked up his coffee habit and hoped it wasn't for another couple of years yet, otherwise, if his brother had already secretly been glugging the stuff, well, it would explain part of his cranky attitude. Well, that and the fact that everything had changed and Donnie knew it of course.

Mikey checked the tracker app to see where April currently was. Seeing she was in the lab, Mikey turned on his phone to monitor Raph and left to find his friend and now sister for real.

-:-

"Hey, April!" Mikey called cheerfully, entering the laboratory. Then once he had her attention he asked, "You rang?" doing quite a passable imitation of Lurch.

"That was a few hours ago now, Mikey," she answered him, biting her lip as she looked over some results. "I was going to ask you to help me to draw blood but after I told Donnie the truth of your last attempt on Raph he didn't want you to do it..."

"That was a setup and you know it!" Mikey retorted, feigning innocence. "Raph's arm was being all weird."

Raising an eyebrow, she frowned, "That was because you refused to listen to me or Donnie when we told you not to draw from that arm for his veins tend to collapse often."

"I thought you said the other arm!" he replied defensively. "Besides, you guys used all those big words instead of just saying it simply."

"I said his left, Mikey not your left," she shook her head then bit her lip again.

"I distinctively heard, 'your left'," Mikey shot back. "Anyway, so what's going on?"

"Based on Donnie's blood sample, we have concluded that they are no longer immune..." April said softly.

A terrible fear surged through Mikey's veins, turning them to ice. He glanced down at the very quiet Donatello. "So what now? Can you inoculate them again?"

"Yes... and no..."

"Don't go all Master Splinter on me," Mikey retorted worriedly."Is it a yes or is it a no?"

April took a breath before explaining something else she noticed, "Well after testing Donnie's blood with the drug it worked... but..."

"But?" Mikey asked as Donnie looked away.

"Remember what age you were when you guys got your shots for your tetanus, mumps and a few others that you never had done since one, you didn't have the resources and two, you guys weren't around humans so it never was an issue, especially with mumps at least?"

"Yeah," Mikey nodded, wondering where she was going with that. "It wasn't until a few months after we met you when we were fifteen."

Donnie looked up at that piece of news, surprised, "That means you've known us for approximately seven years then?" he asked, looking to April.

"Yes, we have known each other for that long," April admitted and then directed her attention back to the issue at hand, "Mikey, Donnie is twelve and he has those vaccinations in his bloodstream still and if I test Leo and Raph I'm sure I would find they have them too, yet the vaccine isn't there, meaning it must have burnt out or something after this happened to them..."

Mikey stared blankly at April as he tried to process what she was saying and what she wasn't. "So what does that mean?"

"It means that I have no clue why it burned out. If it was truly the cause of their reverse ageing or what other kind of side effects it may have, including..." April went silent, shivering at the idea. "What if injecting them again makes it that this ageing issue can't be reversed and forces them to grow up again naturally. Mikey, I don't know what to do here. I don't know the risks or the damage it will or will not cause... There are no damn answers and... the notes..."

Mikey clenched his fists worriedly at her musing. "But if we don't and any of them gets bitten... Can we take that risk? Sure, we can keep my bros inside for now but we can't forever! And what if... what if the same thing happens to us at some point?" he asked fearfully. "If we were to get younger too... then who the shell would protect Donnie, Leo and Raphie?"

"I can protect myself and everyone else if I need to," Donnie protested faintly. "I may not have had as much training as you but I've still been training for most of my life! Besides, we all saw the footage of what happened. It couldn't have been from merely the inoculation alone. There were other factors involved and somehow I doubt those will be easily replicated since we don't seem to have all the information on those chemicals and the gasses produced when the electricity surged through and activated them."

"Okay," Mikey said slowly, "so that means we shouldn't be in danger of that happening to April or I at least but my other questions still stand. Can we actually take the risk of my bros not being protected and getting bitten or do we lose the possible chance of being able to get them back to normal?"

"I don't know and in reality Mikey, that isn't my call. It's Donnie's decision and yours," April answered, conflicted over the dilemma.

Mikey and Donnie exchanged looks, fearful and uncomfortable.

"I don't want to stay this way," Donnie whispered, unable to hide how desperate he felt over this situation. "I want to run tests but I know I don't have the learning or knowledge I did when I was grown up. I would barely know where to begin now. I've lost years of experience and memories!"

"We don't have to make the decision right now," Mikey said uncomfortably. "As long as none of the three of you leaves the lair, it should be fine and you can have time to relearn what you can. But if it comes to the point we do need to leave, then... I guess we'll have to make that choice then."

April nodded, then gave Mikey a look telling him she needed to talk to him personally without Donnie or his knowledge that they needed to, "Well, let's call it a night and sleep on it. I will put the drug away for now."

"Sounds like a plan," Mikey replied, a touch too quickly. "You should go to bed, Donnie, I know you didn't sleep much last night."

"But I work best at night and I can use this time to study," Donnie protested, an edge of desperation colouring his voice.

"No way, dude, not this time," Mikey insisted loudly. "Start fresh tomorrow, okay? You'll concentrate better if you do."

"But... ugh... fine," Donnie grumbled reluctantly, seeing how Mikey wasn't willing to budge. He turned to leave the lab.

"Oh, and Donnie?"

"Yeah?" he called, looking back at Mikey warily.

"I remember how you always snuck out again after bed to keep reading or whatever it was you did, so don't, okay?" Mikey warned. "We're going to need your help with other things as well tomorrow, so you need a good night's sleep."

Donnie sighed, annoyed that he'd already been caught out when of course he planned to sneak back to the lab later. Then again, he supposed it was his own fault; he'd always been closest with Mikey and often confided in him, especially if he learnt something exciting. Just his luck Mikey had to remember that about him. "I promise."

Once Donnie left, Mikey turned to April expectantly.

"Is he far away enough not to overhear us?" April whispered lowly.

Mikey shrugged and jogged over to the door to peek outside. Seeing Donnie disappear around the corner, he nodded and came back.

"Mikey, there is another issue," April started.

"What?" he asked, wishing once again that Leo was there to take the pressure instead of it being thrust on him.

"For starters, there is no way Donnie will figure this out. I'm not saying he isn't capable of doing so but there is evidence in the notes that Donnie did indeed use alien tech or something to give him the results he got, which makes me believe had a huge impact on what happened to them. That said, there is one other problem," April sighed, looking at the formula in front of her, "We actually have less than a day to figure out if we are going to inject them again or not."

-:-


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