Finally another chapter! :D

First off, special thanks to Techno Dawn, who reviewed my last chapter; Thank you so much for your kind words! :D :D I hope to surprise you in a positive way with these OCs, as I get where you are coming from not really liking OCs in general You will see more of your fave turtle Donnie soon, in more than one version! :D
And ofc, a thank you to those of you who pressed the favourite and follow buttons! :D

This one is very SAINW!Mike and SAINW!Raph - centric (that's was a weird sentence… xD ) chapter, but half-way through we get introduced to a couple of new characters which I hope you will like, and I hope that I'm writing well
To see at what these girls look like, you can visit Myrling on DeviantArt, and see her designs of her OC "Irrilia" (there is a fan-group dedicated to the character as well on DeviantArt, and there you can find examples of how she looks all grown up, as I'm writing her. She is about 20 years old in this fic ) as well as my DeviantArt-page, where I also go by Elileo, to see what Donna looks like. (She is around 16 years in this story)

I'm still just mentioning Dark Don in here, who belongs to YAY Productions, as she is called both here on and on Deviantart. But he will appear more soon As well as SAINW!Leo that we haven't seen anything of yet, and the 2012!TMNT characters will also make their appearance soon
So stay tuned for the next chapters, no matter who is your favourite turtle :D

(Then a repeated disclaimer; I don't own TMNT (Nickelodeon does), I don't own Irrilia (she is an OC belonging to Myrling, you can find her on deviantart) and I don't own Dark Don. (He is a concept belonging to YAY Productions, found both here on and on deviantart)

These wonderful OCs was loaned to me for this story, and I hope to do them justice :D

I do, however, own Donna, my own OC. And I hope you will like her too :D)

SAINW - universe:

Raph followed Mike to his brothers "secret" stash, hidden in a locker nearby the sleeping area Mike and April shared, watching him fumble around as he checked which bottles still contained an ounce or two of alcohol. Not many of them it seemed, as Mike hissed and mumbled in an annoyed tone, seemingly forgetting everything about Raph standing around watching him; "I told April we'd be going first thing in the morning." Raph said, his voice flat, as he didn't even bother to point out what an hopeless alcoholic his brother had turned into. Mike turned to him, his voice hoarse and unnecessary loud as he spoke; "We need to go now! Time is of the essence!" standing up, still wobbly on his feet, he pointed at Raph, with something Raph guessed was to resemble a stern look on his face, to make sure he got his point across. Raph snickered humourlessly and folded his arms as he leaned on the doorframe; "We ain't going nowhere when you are drunk." Mike seemingly thought for a second, staring at the bottle he now held in his hand; "I don't get it." He said, offended and not bothering to pick the fight. He gave Raph one of those weird smiles that didn't reach his eyes, and sat heavily down on the floor, his carapace against the locker behind him. As he put the bottle to his lips, a glimpse of sadness showed in his features, a small sigh escaping him as he drank.

Raph felt a sudden pang of compassion for his worn down little brother, and sat down beside him. They stayed that way for a little while, shoulder to shoulder and not looking each other in the eye before Mike broke the suddenly heavy silence; " M' sorry." He slurred, before he went quiet again. Raph turned slightly towards him, a questioning look on his face, and spoke in a soft voice; "For what..?" Mike let out a weak, hoarse laugh in response; "For not living up to… whatever the fuck I'm supposed to be 'round here." Raph heard the sadness lingering in his voice, and took a deep breath as he searched for the right thing to say. He was never that good with words, so he decided to just be as truthful as possible; " I think you have done better than anyone would ever have expected of you for the last few decades…" Mike turned to him, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, still slurring; " Not that it was very hard to sur'plass people's expectations of me…" Raph nodded slightly at that, knowing he too had never taken his brother seriously enough to see any of the potential he so clearly had all along.

He felt a little guilty about that. Very guilty actually. Since this was a rare occurrence of sincerity between them, along with the sudden possibility to talk in private, he decided to own up to that "I know. And that was wrong of me. Of all of us." He felt as he was screwing around again, and didn't find any of the right words; "I mean… I never thought you were the leader type. And so hard-core." He smiled tryingly at Mike, giving him a weak punch to the shoulder. Mike gazed back at him, the small smile still there as he shook his at Raph's comment. Raph continued after a brief moment of collection his thoughts; "I guess I never thanked you… for having my back like you did back then. You know, when Mona…" Raph felt his chest hurting and his mind being clouded by pain as he spoke her name, and found himself unable to finish that sentence. Mike put down his bottle and let his hand rest on Raph's shoulder for a moment; "You don't need to. We are family y'know."

Mike knew how much Mona Lisa's death had pained his brother, broken him down beyond recognition and clouded his mind in different ways that his anger usually did. It was as if he had fallen down into a black abyss, where he was unable to reach. He just locked himself up all day, ruining his training dummies and slipping out at night to go on his lone missions of beating up foot bots and soldiers patrolling the streets. It was a wonder he hadn't died in the process, and Mike was grateful for that. He had hated seeing his brother trying to sneak back in the morning, covered in a mixture of his own and others blood, limping or crawling back into his solitude and grief. Mike tried to pull a Leo, scolding him harshly for his continuous reckless behaviour. After all, he had people who cared for him, people who would suffer badly if he got hurt or died in lonesome battle. Raph, who had once been his source of strength, who had believed in him and backed him up when he needed it most, had drifted away. Mike had grown angry with him, excluding him in ways he knew would hurt his brother, taken away his power and influence within the rebellion, bit by bit. He thought it would make Raph get his shit together, provoke him into coming back to them, if only to prove that he could. However, it had the opposite effect, and he had chased him away. Raph took off after an especially intense argument with Mike, leaving them all behind, as Leo had done so many years ago. Mike was left with what small remnants he still had of his family, and without Raph's strength to hold onto.

Mike had grown more cold, more indifferent and careless than ever, just anger left burning within him, along with the feeling of loss eating away on his insides. When in battle, he was no longer compassionate and could no longer stay level headed. His anger got to him, making him bare his teeth like an animal and scream in agony as he fought dirtier and more ruthless than he ever thought he was capable of. His drinking got worse, and he spent his days training and beating enemies to a pulp. The big brother role he had grown into with the years was no longer his, and although he kept his rank, he just knew his soldiers, the kids he trained and protected, didn't have the same faith in him anymore. Even April had lost her patience, and even though she understood and cared, they weren't the strong team of two that they once were.

Raph suddenly spoke again, and Mike was brought out of his trail of thoughts; " I'm sorry I just left like that." Raph was looking down to the floor, his hands resting on his knees. His voice was thick with emotion. "I made you leave. Should have dealt with it better. Come to think about it, I didn't really have your back at all." Mike answered, carrying his own guilt heavily on his shoulders. Raph shook his head slightly, closing his eyes; " You were right to be angry… I left everything. And retreating when Mona fell… I'm glad you gave that order." Mike nodded; "I thought we could save her…" They both fell silent again, lost in old, painful memories, grief and remorse. Mike quietly offered up the remaining contents of his bottle; Raph accepted without a second thought.

"I left her… Just a kid. All alone." Raph said quietly, sounding utterly defeated. Mike turned to his brother again; "You did." He couldn't lie; Raph's disappearance so soon after her mothers death, had left his daughter scarred, possibly for life. Something between Raph and Irrilia had been irreversibly damaged, if not broken. Suddenly she had no one; Mike understood that feeling, he truly did, and hadn't wanted her to be victim to her unforgiving surroundings, like had been himself, so long ago. Taking her into his care hadn't replaced what she had lost, but he tried to believe it made things more bearable for her. He couldn't be anything but a substitute, but at least he could give her that. He had tried doing his best; he couldn't afford to be indifferent and cold when he was trying to be there for his niece. Somehow, she had helped him along as well, very slowly but surely bringing out the softer side of him around the children he tried to care for. He was happy Irrilia and his own adopted daughter, Donna, found each other in their fellow grief over their seemingly unloving parents. It was unnecessary to explain how it affected Donna that her biological father was a ruthless psychopath, constantly putting his own family's life at stake, playing his mind games because of a seemingly insatiable bloodthirst. At least Irrilia had the one remaining sane brother of his for a father, as absent as he had been…

"You are back now. And you are trying." Mike said matter-of-factly. Raph turned to him, with an almost pleading look in his eyes; "But is that enough..?" Mike shrugged apologetically; "I don't know. All you can do is try. Right?" He tried to sound encouraging, but knew he wasn't really putting up a good act. "Right…" Raph mumbled through clenched teeth. Mike tried to smile; "I'm glad that you are back. And that we can talk again…" he paused briefly; "I need you on my team, y'know."

Raph smiled slightly at that, turning to Mike, seemingly about to say something, when the doorway was suddenly occupied by a very agitated April; "Guys! The girls... they are gone!"

Earlier that evening, at the base, in the laboratory:

Donna was still running on caffeine-induced energy as she desperately searched for the destination Don had travelled to less than 24 hours ago. Of course, he had tried to cover his tracks, but he hadn't taken the time to do it properly. Therefore, it was still possible to track him down; It was time consuming, and in theory unnecessary for her to do it, since the whole team of technicians were working on it simultaneously. But, if there was only a slim chance she knew what he was planning and possibly where he was going, she would spend all the time necessary to track him down, hopefully before her "colleagues" made it. It wasn't because she was trying to prove anything, it was just that, if she knew him correctly, his intentions were anything but peaceful and she knew what utter destruction and pain he could possibly cause. Even when he was working against the clock and had the rebellion on his tail. If anyone made it against all odds, it was him. And she hated him for it. Staring intently on the computer screen before her, she tried not to think about how this was all her fault. If she hadn't tried to replicate the time-sceptre's technology after Renet died, none of this would have happened.

To be honest, she had expected him to have developed this kind of technology himself, given his superior mind and all. It made her believe that this plan of his was something he had come up with when he first discovered what she had been working on, and not something he had dwelled upon for years. Or so she hoped, because that might be their only advantage. If he had overseen something because he hadn't had all the time in the world to come up with a plan, whatever it was he had been planning, they might figure out his complex reasoning for suddenly making a leap in time. She had spent years trying to figure out how his mind was constructed, to understand what made him tick; solely for the purpose of predicting his course of action. Determining the direction he might take, have the ability to stop him from harming and destroying what she held dear, because she knew him; that would be the ultimate weapon.

He kept outsmarting her, kept being unpredictable due to this game of shadows he kept playing. It felt as if no matter what the enemy got their hands on, whether it was a location, a date, any kind of sensitive information, he was somehow involved. She constantly got the feeling that he was some great puppet master, making each and every one of them play their part with a purpose, creating a bigger picture only he knew what looked like. It could be her paranoia speaking, making her see patterns that wasn't really there, but she doubted it. Knowing what he had done to his family in the past, knowing how he willingly had given up the city he once loved for the sake of destroying what he had once considered his family, that was a testimony of a sick, twisted mind.

Both Mike and her own mother had kept telling her how something had possessed him; how this Don wasn't the same person their Donnie had been. It was after the secondary mutation Donnie had gone through that everything changed. They had seemingly accomplished to de-mutate him into his former self, to be accurate he did that himself, but they were soon proved wrong. He had looked normal, he somewhat acted like himself again, but his mind was torn and twisted, something had snapped; the Donnie that once were, was long gone, only fragments of his old self remaining. Mike grieved, still to this day, over his brother as if he were dead, and in some sense he truly was.

Donna knew all this, but still, she held no sympathy for Don, like she knew much of her family still did, if they were willing to admit it or not. The only version of him she had ever met, was the spiteful, unsympathetic, twisted, self-absorbed monster that had created her. He was a ruthless genius, not letting compassion, morale or ethics get in his way. Not that he was very productive anymore as far as they knew, invention and experiment wise, which again confirmed her suspicions of him spending time on other "projects" to meet his needs of destruction and inflicting pain on a regular basis. Not that it helped her figure out his motives for his actions this time around.

Donna cursed under her breath, as the continuous searching still hadn't given any reward. She rubbed her eyes, dark circles had formed underneath them as she hadn't slept since the discovery of Dons break-in. Her yellow mask hung around her neck, as she hadn't bothered to put it on again. Planning on making another pot of coffee, she took a hold of the wheels of her wheelchair and backed up to start manoeuvring her way over to the coffee maker. It was tiresome and not really graceful; she luckily didn't need to use the chair more than a few times a month on average, so she hadn't really gotten the chance to practise moving around in the impractical vessel. But it was more comfortable than the crutches or leg braces, she had to admit.

She could suddenly sense her cousin's presence a little further down the hallway; of course she would come check up on her. Donna had a tendency to push herself too much, and Irrilia knew that better than most. Too bad her psychic abilities wasn't strong enough to sense Don the other night. Another thing Donna felt responsible for. She had only felt him approaching when it was too late to do anything but hide…

Sure enough, the salamander-turtle hybrid showed up seconds later, quick and agile as her unique DNA enabled her to. She moved soundlessly, gracefully, a result of how seriously she took her training as a kunoichi. Donna felt a slight twinge of jealousy thinking about that, and quickly pushed the feeling into the back of her mind. "Hey Irrilia." She said, her voice lacking any energy despite the small smile on her lips. The coffee would take care of that.

Irrilia had never really felt at home in the lab Donna had a tendency to spend almost every waking (and sleeping) hour in, but Donnas presence usually overshined that fact, with her scientific babble and soft spoken persona. And thank god for that; the lab was in the best state possible under their circumstances, but that didn't really mean it was anywhere near flawless, or even safe for that matter. Cables were hanging in clusters from the ceiling; broken tiles covering the floor, where they weren't missing completely, along with the heaps of spare parts and scrap metal everywhere. Everything in here was second hand or homemade, and truth be told, it used to be an old locker room that their scientists made into a lab and modified to their needs. "Hey D!" she smiled, making herself comfortable by sitting down on a lab table near Donna. "Just making some coffee." Donna said; "Want some?" she gave another soft smile as she gestured towards the coffee machine. "No thanks. I'd rather sneak something from Uncle Mike's secret stash." Irrilia answered, looking tired and a little glum. "Just kidding." She quickly added as Donna gave her a disapproving look. Irrilia continued; "My dad is here. I saw him earlier today. Yelling at Mike." Donna turned away from filling the coffee machine with water, a compassionate look on her face as she spoke; "Oh… Are you okay?" Irrilia shrugged, trying to pass it off as nothing; "I'm fine. No big deal…" she didn't sound very convincing, so Donna furrowed her brow and rolled over to face her; "You don't need to pretend. I know it's not that easy." Donna smiled reassuringly, and took her hand between her own; "You can talk to me." Irrilia smiled weakly in return; "I just don't get why he doesn't want to talk to me… I'm telling you, it's like he is always avoids me when he comes around." She sighed; "I'll have some of that coffee after all." Donna nodded and gave a reassuring smile as she turned around to get two cups of coffee; "I don't think he is trying to hurt you in any way. He loves you, you know." Handing her cousin a chipped mug she continued; "If he is anything like you, I bet he is having a hard time forgiving himself. He is so emotional; it's hard for him to admit his mistakes and owning up to it without ending up hating himself in the process." Irrilia raised a brow as she sipped he coffee; "So, that's what you think of me?" Donna gave an apologetic smile; "You aren't the best at apologizing and admit to your own feelings either." Irrilia huffed; "I'm not like him. He was never chosen to be team-leader; I was." A smug smile made its way to her face, but Donna had the feeling she wasn't as confident in matter as she tried convincing her she was. There wasn't really a reason to call her out on that though. Irrilia was having a hard time dealing with her absent father as it was. Therefore Donna just nodded; "That's true." Taking it as an opportunity to change the subject, Irrilia spoke up again; "But enough 'bout me. How you doing after… y'know, running into our evil-ass relative." She said relative on purpose, knowing how much Donna despised being his offspring. Sure enough, Donna tensed up at the mere mentioning of him, visibly uncomfortable by the thought of last night; "I'm working on tracking his destination as we speak, and I think I'm closing in on-" Irrilia cut her short, mid-ramble; "Not what I meant, and you know it. How are you doing?" Leaning forward, Irrilia locked eyes with her cousin, not letting her avoid the topic. After a short, heavy silence, Donna answered with a sigh; "Not so good… I didn't do anything to stop him. This is my fault... I should never have built that machine in the first place." Irrilia shook her head at that; "This is not your fault D. You know that even Mike can't take him down; how could you possibly have done anything to stop him?" Donna nodded slowly; "Yeah… but I might have been able to alert someone, to stop him from jumping through that portal, if I didn't just… freeze. He terrifies me. Really." She truly didn't like to admit it, but nothing scared her like Don did. Another reason to hate him. "I get you girl. Hell, I'm not scared of shit, but even I don't like running into that guy." Donna was about to respond, but the flashing screen of her computer caught her attention; "Oh my god. I found him!" she exclaimed, disbelief in her voice. Jumping down from the table, Irrilia made her way over, leaning in over Donnas shoulder; "Shit!" she said, golden-green eyes wide from anticipation. A smile spread on her face and a look of determination settled in her eyes; "We know where to go…"

That's all for now, and I hope you will return for the next chapters I will try updating once every week