2012 - universe:

Don watched as the familiar, although quite a bit younger, redhead snuck her way through the alleyways, following her along without a sound; she came to a halt and punched in a security code to make the huge, hinged door open in front of her as she disappeared inside. Mere moments before the door shut completely, Don had already wedged a kunai in the crack, making it easy for him to open it if he came to the conclusion that it would be the smartest move.

Seeing a younger April obviously heading to the old lair just now had just proven that he didn't just hit the wrong date in time, but that he must have ended up in an alternate timeline all together.
That also explained the seemingly unchanged scenery of New York, and the lack of Foot Soldiers in the streets. He was a moron for not realizing it sooner; he had gotten too caught up in his head as usual. He sighed heavily at the thought of more work, just to get to his desired destination. Anger flared, making his trail of though unfocused as rage took the place of his previous cool and calculating mindset, and he suddenly got really pissed at his useless offspring; he had overestimated her capabilities by far, ending up somewhere not even close to his initiated destination as a result.

Sitting eerily quiet on the ledge of the nearby building, fuming on the inside, he pondered what his next move should be. He needed to find Renet to get anywhere else in time, and the best place to start looking would of course be at the old lair. He had initially thought of going to his old hangout at the scrapyard to see if he could somehow throw something together to locate her based on her energy signature or something along those lines, but why make it difficult. Of course, he had no desire to see his traitorous family in any form, and this reincarnation of Donnie would be of no use for him, as he assumed, he hadn't followed the path he himself took so many years ago. Even if he did, this timeline could not be used to fulfill his vision, as it had no direct ties to his own.

However, there was a silver lining to this; if he could travel in time further with the scepter, there should not be a way the rebellion could follow him when they finally caught up, assuming they were as predictable and unprepared as usual.

A predatory grin spreading on his face. He had finally decided on where to go from here on.

Casually jumping off the rooftop, he plummeted towards the ground in one graceful motion, and made his way through the alleys at an astonishing rate; a few moments later he stood in front of the heavy door, getting a good grip and soundlessly opening it after swiftly removing the throwing knife from its former position. Closing the door without a single creak, he found himself in the dimly lit surroundings of the staircase; in the distance he heard oddly familiar voices.

He stifled an instinctive threatening growl, and had to fight to regain his self-control. The plan was to never be noticed; he needed to wait for the right moment, living in the shadows and never make his presence known before the time was right. Silently making his way down the staircase, he decided to spend some time observing. Knowing everyone's routine would make it much easier to do everything he needed completely undetected. He already knew what he needed to find; Mike had always used some sort of commutative device to stay in contact with Renet through time and space. If he could get his hands on it for just a few minutes and send a message desperate sounding enough for the young timestress to react immediately, and without alerting anyone of her upcoming arrival, he could easily grab the staff and be on his way before anyone in the lair even knew he was there.

He smiled wickedly to himself; this plan was simply brilliant, and he had to compliment himself on how well he adapted even when his plans were compromised. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity here and he wasn't about to waste it.

2012 - universe;

Irrilia let out a loud "oof" as she face-planted into the brick wall in front of them. Donna was already spread out on the ground, her wheelchair banged up pretty bad and several feet away from her. Checking for any broken bones, she unsteadily got up on her shaky legs, and slowly made her way towards her cousin; "You okay?!" she said in a worried voice as Irrilia got up, rubbing her forehead on the spot where she had obviously made contact with earlier mentioned brick wall. "Yeah, yeah, just hurt like a mother-"Donna cut her short; "You sure? No dizziness or vertigo? You don't feel sick?"

Irrilia chuckled a little at Donna, crippled with worry; "I'm fine cuz." Turning to look at her, Irrilia couldn't help but notice the wheelchair scattered across the rooftop, and Donnas shaking legs as she did her best to stand up. "You on the other hand, should sit down while I get your chair!" Irrilia said sternly and quickly made her way over to the wheelchair. Looking a bit closer, she came to the conclusion that it was rather useless now, as the metal itself had bended into rather funny looking shapes and one of the wheels clearly had several punctures.

Getting back up she made her way over to Donna, who had luckily sat down by now. Her legs were shaking from the earlier effort. She gave Donna a few minutes to relax as she herself stayed quiet, deciding that there were better times for small talk. "You ready?" Irrilia finally spoke, gesturing for Donna to get back up on her feet. They couldn't sit around forever, with Don roaming this unprepared and unexpecting fragile world. Donna nodded, bracing herself for yet another struggle just to get up.
Carefully hoisting her cousin up from the ground, Irrilia made her put an arm over her shoulder and lean onto her for support. "Looks like we have to leave it behind. Not even you can fix that thing." She referred to the wheelchair, as it wasn't worth dragging along at this point.

Donna merely nodded, the worried expression from earlier still there; "I don't know if I can make it very far by foot though. It's pretty bad at the time being..."

"Don't worry, I got you." Irrilia responded, not interested in any of Donnas usual feelings of being inadequate; "You are the brains of this operations after all, so that must mean I'm the muscle." She gave a cheeky smile and grabbed the other mutant by the legs, hoisting her up, fireman-style. Donna was quite the featherweight and Irrilia was rather muscular, which meant Irrilia had little trouble carrying her even for longer periods of time. Donna blushed a bit, as she clung onto Irrilia for dear life, clearly embarrassed by her cousin's solution to the problem at hand; "Very funny." she said in a flat voice, clearly not happy with any of it. Although, she had to admit she didn't have any better ideas herself.

Irrilia merely smiled, a little more compassionate this time around; "Hey, well find a nice place to set up base for the night, and then you can come up with something more convenient for your self-esteem."

Not awaiting an answer, she bolted off the rooftop, and the two of them made their way into the sunset setting over the weirdly familiar city. New York was quite something before the Foot clan took over, much noisier than she had ever imagined, and the scenery remined Irrilia of what she had only seen in movies back at the base. She had been wildly fascinated every time she was allowed to watch old DVDs on the banged-up PlayStation, as seemingly every sitcom and romantic comedy they had lying around took place in New York. It was strange, to see the portrayal of a city so different from the place she grew up. It was rather heartbreaking to see how it had all come to an end under the Shredder, and she never thought she would get to see it in its former glory. Now suddenly given the chance, she basked in all of its many lights

It was however, a little less amazing, thinking of the reason they were here in the first place.
Hopefully, they had come up with a plan of action by tomorrow morning.

2012 - universe;

Industrial metal still blaring from the headphones around his neck, it made a strange backdrop to this whole situation. Donnie wasn't really sure what to do at this point; April was standing there, hugging him tightly, arms clasped around his waist as if she clung on for dear life. As she whispered how she had missed him, it hit him how worried she had looked just now, and that her voice sounded like she was tearing up.
He carefully placed his arms on her upper back, and answered the only thing that came to mind; "I missed you too…"

He wasn't sure how much time really passed as they stood there locked in an embrace, but he came to the conclusion that he didn't really care. Holding her like this, leaning into her, feeling her body heat radiate and taking in all her signature smells, was utterly amazing, and he realized just how much he had missed her.

He felt so very exhausted, and I wasn't just due to the lack of sleep he was getting. He missed her, every day and every minute of the day. The past few years he had gotten so used to her being around that he had completely forgot how she would at some point have to move on with her life. She was, unlike him, not confined to the sewers for the rest of her life, and she had so much of her future awaiting her up on the surface. Of course, he wanted her to thrive, and he was happier than anyone else when she got in at Harvard, although it was no real surprise to him. He knew how brilliant she was, and he had been encouraging her when she first talked about studying bioscience, telling her to not settle for anything less.

However, despite his sincere excitement on her behalf, he still halfway expected to find her in the dojo for morning training, or have her knock on his lab door for help with whatever science homework was due. He felt like he had taken her presence for granted, and had almost forgot how it could not possibly last forever. This first year she had been away had been tougher than he liked to admit, and he had done his best to not think about all the living she was doing without him. All the new friends she made, the intellectual progress she was experiencing, and the many potential suitors he was sure she had.

He missed her so bad, and everything he spent his days doing were merely distractions from the fact that he couldn't possibly live without her. He had thought that maybe, it was just a teenage crush, and his fascination with her would wear off over time, but his love her had merely changed in character and grown in strength. She was, without a doubt, the love of his life.

It was surprisingly hard to keep it to himself, but absolutely impossible to tell her. He knew, better than most, that she would never consider him anything else than her friend, or maybe more of a brother, which honestly left even less room for any potential return of his feelings. He had come to terms with this a long time ago, or at least he thought so, but that didn't mean that a small glimmer of hope still remained, buried deep in his heart. Every time she did anything like this, hugged him, kissed his cheek, or merely smiled at him in that way which had always reminded him of the sunshine streaming through the grates from up above, he felt it tugging at his heartstrings.

He would give anything to see that smile right now however, as she stood there, still hugging him tightly and hiding her beautiful face from his gaze. "April… what's wrong...?" he asked, his voice tender and concerned. He didn't know for sure what upset her, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it was him who had caused this reaction in her.

Finally, she let go, and although Donatello immediately missed her touch, he saw it as a good sign that she finally looked him in the eye and smiled.
"I'm fine." She sniffled slightly, clearly trying to blink away the moisture that had gathered in the corners of her eyes. "But you don't look too good, D." she said, her small smile replaced with a concerned look. "You worry me when you forget yourself like this."

He looked a little bewildered; he had to admit that he was probably in need of a shower, and maybe some sleep, but he didn't think it would be so apparent that he wasn't in the best shape. He sincerely hoped she couldn't see how this slow heartbreak affected him, although it was pretty obvious that she did. However, she didn't need to know she was the cause of it. He should be happy she no longer ran away screaming at the sight of him.

Despite that depressing thought, he couldn't help but snicker a little to himself at the memory of how their first meeting had gone down. He did indeed have quite the dark sense of humor.

"I don't see how that's funny." April said, her worry now laced with the slightest bit of anger. Donnie immediately gestured wildly with his hands, suddenly in a slight panic at his own bad timing; "No, no, that's not at all what I laughed at, I'm sorry, I mean…!"
Cutting his rambling apology off, April took his hand in a firm grip and looked sternly at him before she turned around and tugged him along with her; "Come. The pizza will get cold."

Seemingly at a second thought, she turned back to look at him and smiled tryingly; "I don't think I'm the only one that have missed you."
Donnie smiled sheepishly at that; he probably did need to get out of his lab more often…

Entering the living room area, Donnie almost hissed at the sharp light as it burned his eyes.
Yeah, he definitely needed to get out of his lab more often.

"Hey D!" Mikey cheered when he saw his brother, waving at him and smiling with his mouth full of popcorn. Donnie returned the smile, smelling the scent of pizza in the air, already trying to locate the source. He hadn't noticed how hungry he was, and couldn't remember the last time he ate. Finding a nearly empty pizza box, he snatched a few slices of Hawaii and ate them all in a few seconds.

"Finally, out of your cave for once." Casey commented, half invested in the hockey gave still playing on the screen. "Missed me much?" Donnie replied as he wiped pizza sauce out of the corner of his mouth, his usual cheekiness back as he bantered with the bandana-wearing vigilante he had called his friend for many years now. Luckily, the childish rivalry from back when they both courted April for all it was worth, had proven to be just that. Casey's teenage-crush on his female best friend had fizzled out over the years, and It became apparent that the hockey-player had a thing for women that reminded them all of a female equivalent of Raph; that did raise a few questions regarding the nature of his relationship to said red-clad turtle, although it was never brought up as a subject. They were all too afraid of Raph's wrath to even suggest such a thing.

Donnie was glad, that the interest Casey had displayed in April was so short-lived. It would have made it even harder if he had a rival to keep at bay the few times a year April came home from college. Quite to the contrary, Casey had proven to be a good listener when it came to Donnie's never-ending love for April, despite not being able to help out much. It was nice to have someone that understood though.

Donnie walked over to Mikey and made him scoot to make some room for his older brother. He then proceeded to snatch the bowl of popcorn out of his hands, before he could devour the entire thing. "Hey!" was the insulted reply, and Donnie gave him a look to shut him up. He knew how much he had probably already eaten by now, not to mention that there would be nothing left for anyone else if they let him go down his usual path of gluttony.

Much to his surprise, April sat down right next to them, smiling as she reached into the bowl of popcorn in Donnie lap, as it was the most natural thing in the world. The thought of her hands that close to his crotch made him blush in the slightest, but either April didn't notice or didn't want to comment on it as she continued to talk undisturbed with Leo about the upcoming training-sessions they were planning on for her. In the meantime, Raph and Mikey had started a popcorn-war, and the floor was now littered and the bowl suddenly near empty. Casey joined in, although half-heartedly, as he threw a few bacon snacks in the general direction of the turtles, grinning in all his almost toothless glory.

As if Casey had sensed Donnie looking at him, he turned to him and April in the sofa, rudely interrupting Aprils talk with Leo; "So, when is Nathan coming to town? Can't wait to show my coming brother-in-law the ropes of the big city." Casey grinned, seemingly unaware of how what he just said affected anyone else in the room.

The lair had suddenly gone eerily quiet, only the noise still blasting from the TV to be heard.
Donnie suddenly had trouble swallowing because of the hard lump that had formed in his throat, and he felt his stomach twist as he turned to look at April; her face said it all. Her expression froze in a look of horror and disbelief as she had turned to look at Casey. She had clearly not been expecting such a question from him; much less thought of a proper reply, as her mouth continuously opened and closed without uttering a word.

Casey's eyes widened as he looked from April to Donnie, and back again, stumbling over the words as he spoke hurriedly; "Oh shit. I thought he knew by now. Really, I did. Sorry!"