Chapter 2 – The One Who Witnessed

Casey handed her one of the two blue raspberry slushes he held in his hands and plunked himself unceremoniously beside her on the bench. "So what's with the face, Red? You're looking bluer than this stuff," he angled, taking a long pull from his own drink.

April shot him a stricken look, about to cry at any moment, but she felt it from him as well… that same tendril of fear gripping him if she turned her eye on him too fast or looked at him too harshly. She couldn't blame him. Or any of them, for that matter. "Donnie… broke up with me," she told him, then quickly clarified, so he wouldn't get any ideas, "After I blew him up, he's… scared of me."

She expected the boy to jump at the chance to make a pass at her, to extol his virtues over his mutant rival, but he only let out a long sigh and replied, "Yeah." April tried to look him in the eye, but, like Don, he kept avoiding her direct gaze. "Don't get me wrong… Watchin' you kick the Foot mutants' butt was awesome…" he said with a grin, but it quickly subsided. "But…seein' you blast Donnie to space dust was…intense."

"Donnie's mad because I didn't fight her hard enough. Za'noran was just so powerful… I couldn't hardly move outside of her grip on me. Don wanted me to fight when my whole body was being jerked around like a puppet!"

"And you shouldda."

April jerked back a bit, stunned at this declaration. "How?!"

"Any way you could. Tooth and nail. Get pissed. Throw her off her game, and once she's off-balance, keep hittin' her, hard as you could. Take back what's yours, 'cause otherwise…" He stopped to take a long slurp of his drink, until the straw rattled with the lack of liquid, then he popped the lid off and dumped the remaining ice on the sidewalk in front of him. He kicked out with one oversized teenage foot, scattering the little ice chips across the pavement, where they melted into a thousand little wet circles in the autumn sun. "…she dusts everything you love."

They sat silently as the tiny circles shrank and faded to nothing.

"You think… I mean… She… was goin' after Raph next. But after that… would itta been me you poofed, ya think?" April stared wordlessly back at him, aghast. "Or would I have even made a blip on her radar? Just some kid raging against the machine with a hockey stick… We were nothing but bugs to her." He thumped his heel on the concrete to knock some remaining slush from it. "Is that all we are, Red? Ants, for some cosmic power bigger and stronger'n us to come wipe us out with a giant magnifying glass?"

She stared numbly. "I hope not." Seeking comfort, she turned, leaning her face against his arm. She was startled when a moment later, she was grasped gently by the shoulders and pushed away. "Casey?"

He loosed his grip, but wouldn't meet her gaze. "Look… with all that's happened, I don't wanna be your fallout guy…"

Her brow wrinkled. "You mean my fallback guy, right?"

His shoulders lifted lazily. "That too. Point is, Donnie was your favoritest thing in the world, and you, like, atomized him right in front of us." That little ribbon of fear curled itself around him again, but this time, it was also doused in melancholy. "And… if he wasn't worth enough to you to fight for," he paused, shooting her a sad but charming grin, "…what kind of chances have I got?"

"Casey, no…" April tried to explain, but he simply rose and jammed his hands in his pockets, stalking off.

"I'll see ya around, Red."

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a/n: Sorry for getting Za'noran's name and the episode title wrong in the previous chapter! Too many villains with Z names...