A Million Miles Apart

A/N: SUMMER! YES! I am school-free for the next two and a half months. I have not been so good at updating this story the last few months, but I hope to do better now that school is done for the time being. I also realize that I've spent almost a full year on this story, and haven't even gotten halfway done with it. Makes me wonder how long this story will eventually end up being.

I also want to take this moment and thank Just-Gold, who recently sent me a wonderful and supportive PM, since I've had such a rough year last year. So JG, if you're reading this story and this chapter, thank you so much for your kind words and for reading this story. It's people like you who make this so much more fun than it already is. Thank you!

I also want to thank ThisVioletofMine, for taking time to proof-read this, since she's had a lot to do these past few days.

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 32, Time To Leave Town

The Invasion was coming. The Kraang would be ready to take over New York any day now, and we were all ready to help them do it. If Shredder was happy about that, he didn't show it. As usual, any accomplishment that we might have made was never enough for him. I could tell him we managed to find the Turtles' lair and knew where Splinter was hiding and he would still say it wasn't enough. It was never enough.

He had called us all to his throne room without telling us the reason why. And we were all there, waiting for him. Tiger Claw was testing the edge of his sword against his claws and seemed pretty uncaring about the rest of us. Xever and Bradford just stood around, ever trying to find some entertainment by bugging Stockman, and Bradford just stood and waited like the sickeningly obedient dog he was. I sighed and rested my chin in my hand. I was surrounded by mutants. What had become of my life? And what was becoming of this world? I groaned and jumped down from the table I had been sitting on for the last fifteen minutes.

"Father called us to a meeting thirty minutes ago! What's taking him?" Tiger Claw glanced up from his sword to look at me for a second before he looked back at his weapon again. He didn't care much about me- or anything but his loyalty to Shredder. And even that seemed to have become a bit flighty.

"Patience is a trait of the ninja, girl. A true warrior can wait for hours, waiting for his enemy to attack or for the perfect moment for an attack to arrive. Perhaps you need training in said art." I growled at him and was tempted to slice his other ear off. That might make him shut up. I had just placed my hand on the hilt of my sword when the doors opened and Shredder walked in. I quickly pulled my hand away from the weapon and bowed my head to him in respect.

"Father." Tiger Claw put his sword back in his belt and placed one fist in his other hand, bowing in respect as well. Both Xever and Bradford copied our actions, but Stockman didn't- he just bowed his head slightly before he got distracted by another chocolate bar that Shredder threw at him to keep him quiet. Father didn't make a sound. He just walked up the stairs to his throne and sat down. He was quiet for the first few minutes before he finally decided to speak.

"I have spoken with the Kraang. They are ready for their invasion of this wretched city. And Kraang Prime has offered his assistance in the destruction of Hamato Yoshi and his wretched turtles- if we aid him in taking over the city of New York." I looked up in shock. He was actually gonna do it? He was gonna make the entire planet suffer and hand it over to the Kraang just to get his revenge? He couldn't do that, could he? I mean, I want Yoshi dead just as much as my father does, but to pay the price of our planet?

"You're despicable, Karai, you know that?"

"Nobody of his blood would ever agree on something like that!"

"What will destroying us do for you, anyway? Bring back your mother? 'Cause it won't, and you know that."

Leo's words started to ring in my head and I suddenly started to feel doubtful. Not by what he said- I still don't believe a word he had said about Hamato Yoshi being my father- but the meaning his words had. How far was I willing to go in order to get what I want? I took a breath and looked up at my father.

"Help the Kraang? Is that really such a smart decision, father? They are aliens, here to destroy our world and replace it with their own! Is it worth the risk of working with them?" He looked down at me with harsh eyes and slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne, standing up from his seat.

"Watch your tone with me, Karai! I am well aware of the Kraang's plans to take over our world." He sat down again and started talking with a calmer tone in his voice. "However, what you say is true. They are dangerous allies, but they have provided us with much technology and asked for little in return." Tiger Claw kneeled down before Shredder's throne and looked up at him.

"The girl is right, Master Shredder. They will betray you, you know this. They care nothing for the human race." Shredder looked down at Tiger Claw and glared at him with clear anger and annoyance in his eyes.

"Nor do I." My eyes widened and I looked down to avoid having anyone seeing my face. How much was he ready to sacrifice to get his revenge? Just how much? I looked up when I heard a low, rumbling voice speak up. Bradford's voice.

"Uh, Master Shredder? What are your plans concerning the Turtles?" Shredder leaned back in his seat again and hummed lowly. He turned to look at me and gestured at me to come closer. Once I got to the stairs that led up to his throne, I kneeled down before him and lowered my head in respect.

"What do you know of the Turtles' current situation, Karai?" I looked up at him, trying to look as normal as I could.

"I ran into Leonardo earlier tonight. He is clearly distraught over the death of his precious little brother. And I highly doubt the others aren't as distraught, if not more so, than him. They have barely gone out on patrol and they are no doubt unprepared to deal with an invasion right now." Shredder chuckled, pleased with what he heard, and stood up again.

"Excellent, Karai. Your little scheme to take down the Turtles, although not performed as it should have been, clearly has broken the Turtles. It should not be hard to destroy them in their current pathetic state." He walked down the stairs just as I stood up and placed both hands on my shoulders. "Well done, Karai." I smirked, feeling very good about myself, but the gnawing feeling in my brain wouldn't go away. Shredder turned to look at me. Then he looked to the mutants in the room.

"Go, search the city! Find the Turtles and then inform me of their destination! I am going to enjoy seeing them destroyed."

Calling up as many of our allies as possible wasn't that hard, since we didn't have that many. At least not that many that could help us fight against the Kraang. Slash had helped us against the Newtraliser, but I still didn't know if I could call him an ally. Especially after what he had done to my brothers. And the few other mutants and humans we knew, like Malachi, Rockwell, Pigeon Pete, Kurtzman and Murakami, weren't much help to count on. We had managed to get a hold of April and Casey, but other than that we didn't have that many allies. April's father only had to hear that we were talking about the Kraang to lock himself and April up in the apartment, forcing April to leave through the window of her room, so he was out of the picture. But they were still our friends and we could use all the help we could get. At the moment, we were all sitting in the lair, trying to think up a plan. And we didn't have much time to come up with one.

If anyone were to ask me what I thought we should do, I thought we should stay and fight. The Kraang and the Foot had been after us for so long, kidnapped innocent people, mutating them, trying to kill us, sent their crazy mutant servants after us and so had tried to take over the world, or -even worse- given the other enemy the key they needed to take over the world. and didn't even care. And now, they had taken one of our brothers away from us, and that was the final straw for me. Now, it was more than personal. We should stay and fight, or die trying, if it were up to me.

Leo was pacing around in the living room, hands on his shell and a serious, worried look in his eyes.

"The invasion will happen any day now, and we are at a big disadvantage. And the question is, what can we do? What are we going to do?" He asked both himself and everyone around him at the same time as he paced the living room with his hands behind his back. Mikey, who was sitting beside Leatherhead, raised his hand slightly.

"Um, we could break into TCRI and destroy more of their technology? Or maybe go to Dimension X and set the invasion back some more? That might slow 'em down, right?" Leatherhead shook his head and turned towards Mikey, frowning slightly at him.

"I do not think that would work, Michelangelo. Remember, in Dimension X there is a temporal differential. The time in Dimension X goes faster than in our dimension. Even if we did manage to destroy all of their technology, their every technodrome and all of their mutagen, it would only be a matter of days before they would have it all functional again." Casey fingered the wrappings on his baseball bat, looking as he was trying to come up with a good idea of his own, but failing. After a few minutes of silence, he looked up.

"I don't get why we can't just go and fight the invasion as it is. I mean, what else can we do? It's our city, those aliens don't have the right to take it!" April looked over at him tiredly and she looked ready to drop to the floor from exhaustion- especially considering how late it was and how little sleep she'd clearly gotten recently.

"Think a little, Jones. We don't have the weapons or the allies to win. At worst we'd die, and at best we'd only make things worse. We can't take out an entire invasion with less than ten people." Leo bit his lower lip and seemed to think over our options. Then he looked over to Master Splinter.

"What do you think we should do, Sensei? Do you have any ideas on what we should do?" Splinter closed his eyes, took a deep breath through his nose and then opened them again. He was trying to hide it, but I could see that he was still pretty distraught over the news Leo had told us about Karai. That probably distracted him a little from the issue at hand. And I couldn't exactly blame him for that.

"I do not think it would be wise to try and fight the invasion as of now. We clearly are at a disadvantage, have fewer fighters on our side, and we don't have any weapons to match theirs. We need more time. Time that we do not have." Leo hummed in thought and rubbed his chin. He was in his leader-mode, and if I knew him right, he also had a plan in the making.

"Hm... I think the best thing we can do is leave the city. We need to find a second base, outside of the city, come up with a plan out of danger, and then return when we're ready to fight off the Kraang. Right now, we're not ready." Wait, what? That was his brilliant plan? No way! We couldn't run away from the problem. That's not what Donnie would've wanted. He would want to stay and fight, even if we didn't have a big chance on succeeding. He always fought with everything he had, even if it wasn't very much. That was the Donatello Way: never give up.

April, who sat with her chin in her hands and her elbows on her knees, looked up at Splinter and then at Leo. "Uh, my family has a farmhouse. Upstate, in North Hampton. We could go there, stick around as long as we needed and come back to New York when we felt ready to take on the Kraang. It's far away from the nearest town- we'd be safe. We could take the Shellraiser and leave before they even notice we're gone." Leo hummed in thought and then looked up at Master Splinter, who nodded.

"As for now, I don't believe we have much of a choice. The Shredder will not let us leave if we wait much longer, and the Kraang's invasion could happen at any moment. We have to retreat." Alright, that's it. I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore. I shook my head and flew up from my seat on the stairs that led to Donnie's lab.

"Wait, what? That's it? Are you saying we should just give up and run away without even trying to fight back? No way!" Leo sighed and looked over at me, too tired and stressed to argue, clearly irritated.

"Raph, we don't have a choice. We're at a disadvantage and we need time to get better before we fight back. We have to leave the city before the Kraang or the Shredder kill us. There's nothing else we can do." I stomped up to Leo and shoved my finger into his chest, showing I wasn't about to give in.

"I am not running away, Leo! Especially not from the Kraang- not after what they've done to us! Leave if you want, but I refuse to retreat! I've sworn to take care of this city until Donnie gets back, and I will. With or without you." Leo sighed heavily and pinched the space between his eyes. I saw Mikey stand up from where he was sitting and walk over to us.

"Raph, c'mon, dude, you have to listen to him. You can't stay behind alone! You'll get killed!" April stood and Casey walked over to us as well, and for a second I felt relieved. Casey was my best friend; surely he would have my back. But-

"Yeah, dude. You can't seriously think that you can handle the Kraang, the Foot and the Shredder all on your own! You can't, and you know it." I growled at him and folded my arms over my chest.

"Maybe not, but I am not going to run away from them like a coward! I'd rather die trying to defeat them than run away with my tail between my legs. Especially without even trying to throw a single punch." April placed her hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes.

"Raph, please, you have to be reasonable here. If we leave now, we can come back in a few months. And then, we'll be able to handle everything that the Kraang have done here. With Shredder out to kill us, it's not safe to stay here. You know he'd stop at nothing to get you all." I sucked in my lips, tightened my arms over my chest and stubbornly shook my head, turning my back on my friends and brothers.

"Well, then, you leave! I'll stay here and keep an eye on things until you come back! That's what Donnie would've wanted; to stay here and fight back with everything we've got." Leo growled and I could practically see him face-palm and try to keep himself from losing his temper.

"So Donnie would've wanted you to get yourself killed?!" I froze and my anger slowly faded a little. I remained in my stance, with folded arms, a frown on my face and my whole body tense, but it slowly started to relax. Leo sighed, a lot calmer, and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Raph, I understand what you're saying. I really do. But you have to understand that we can't stay here- it's just not safe. And I know that you're still sore over..." He trailed off and took a deep, shaky breath. "O-our loss, but I can confidently say that Donnie wouldn't want us to get killed in a fight we couldn't win. And even if he wanted to stay and fight, I can tell you right now that the moment he realized that we couldn't win, he would give in, retreat and leave with the rest of us, if only to make sure we were safe. He wouldn't want any one of us to get killed just to win a fight. You know that." I let out a heavy breath through my nose and let my head tilt forward a bit. Master Splinter walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders, turning me around to look at him. And when I still didn't look up at him, he placed his fingers under my chin and made me look him in the eyes.

"Raphael, I can see that you're hurting, and I wish there was something I could say or do to take that pain and grief away- but I can't. None of us are ready for an invasion right now, and none of us wish to lose another family member. I only have three children left, and I do not want to lose another one, Raphael." I bit my lip and looked away from my father. He was right- I knew he was. I just didn't want to accept it. We had to leave, but I didn't want to leave. This was our home, we had to fight for it, not just let the Kraang and Shredder take it.

"But... B-but..." Leo placed his hand on my arm and I looked up at him.

"Look around, Raph. Our family is broken and we've already lost one member- one brother. Are you really willing to risk losing another one?" One question. One freaking question was he needed to throw me off completely. I felt all will to stay pour out of me and I looked around the room. Two brothers, two human friends and two mutant adults in the room. That was all we had right now. And right now, they needed me to be there for them. Losing one more? I shook my head. I couldn't do it. I looked over at the others, sighed heavily and let my head fall forwards, gazing down at the floor.

"Okay, you win. We'll leave town..." Leo patted my shell consolingly and Mikey hugged my arm before we all looked up at Splinter, who stroked his beard in thought.

"My sons, we cannot bring much with us. All of you, bring only the most meaningful things with you. Pack lightly. We will leave in the Shellraiser." We all bowed and ran off in different directions. Mikey ran towards the kitchen, Leo towards his room and I was about to go to my room before I halted and looked behind me, at Donnie's lab door. Those big, heavy, metal doors that had been closed for weeks now because no one had dared to go in there out of respect for Donnie's belongings and inventions. The others had considered cleaning out the lab and putting away Donnie's things, but no one had the heart to do it, so we all just let it be.

I hesitated, looked around the room to see if anyone was still there, then heaved the doors open and slipped inside.

The second Splinter told us to get one important thing from the lair, I immediately thought of Ice Cream Kitty. She was my pet, even though the reason she was the way she was had been a total accident. There was no way I could leave her behind right now. I opened the fridge and there she was, as happy and carefree as ever. I also knew she would make fuss about leaving our home, and her leaving her freezer.

"I know this is your home, but you know we have to leave, right, Ice Cream Kitty?" She just licked herself and meowed happily, like she always did. I carefully reached into the freezer and grabbed her, knowing she would fight back.

"Now, come on, kitty kitty. Easy, easy." I tried to pull her out, but she had grabbed onto the fridge and refused to let go, meowing loudly in protest as I pulled harder and harder, until she finally let go. I placed her into the cooler that I also had filled with frozen pizzas. She still meowed in protest, but not as loudly as before.

"There. You'll be okay in there, Ice Cream Kitty. Just squeeze in there between the pizzas." I carefully closed the cooler and picked it up before a terrible thought hit me. The photo. Was it still there? I almost dropped the cooler, heard Ice Cream Kitty yowl indignantly, and looked through my belt for the photo of me and Donnie. I almost thought I had dropped it when I felt a piece a of paper in my belt and pulled it out to see it it was okay. And it still looked alright, if not a little crumpled. I sighed and felt small tears form in my eyes, but quickly wiped them away.

"Whatever happened to you, I hope you're in a better place than we are right now, D."

I didn't have many bags, but I knew I had a small duffle bag where I kept some of my valuable things that I didn't want Mikey or Raph to find or break, like rare Space Hero toys, comics or other things from my childhood. Right now, I needed it for other things. I emptied everything in the bag onto my bed and then walked over to my bookshelf. I grabbed the photo album and put it in the bag, along with a photo of the whole family, my ducky blanket Splinter got me when I was a kid and my journal and a pen. I always had my phone in my belt and the swords on my back so I didn't need to pack them, and I didn't think I needed to bring anything else with me.

I was just about to close the bag and go back out to the living room to meet up with the others when my eyes fell on the spine of a book on my bookshelf. A thin book with a tattered cover and a one word-title, just a name. Carrie, one of Donnie's favorite books. I bit my lip, looked down into my bag, to the door and then back at the book. I had packed a photo album, filled with pictures of all of us, so it's not like I didn't bring anything that didn't give me something to remember my brother by. And Splinter had told us not to pack that much- only things that were really important to us. But, still, it was one of Donnie's things. He had loved that book, so shouldn't I bring it with me? Something that was Donnie's and meant something to him.

I sighed and walked over to the shelf and picked up the book, looking at the title and the picture on the front- a blonde girl covered in blood and with the strange look in her eyes. It was strange to think I would find such a strange story to be so good. I mean, when I started to read it, it had seemed like such a cliched high school story with a dash of Cinderella in there, with a bullied girl getting to be the belle of the ball for one night. But it turned out to be so much more disturbing than that- in a good way! I mean, a girl who develops telekinetic powers and goes on a killing spree on her Prom Night? Who comes up with these sorts of things? I had no idea that Donnie liked that sort of book. And, in a way, I was tempted to look at his bookshelf and see if I could find anything else good to read. If they were anything like this book, it might actually be a pretty good read.

I exhaled softly and stuffed the book into my bag and zipped it closed. It would have to do for now. When we came back here, after the Invasion was over with and the Kraang, gone, I could look through Donnie's shelves to see if he had any more interesting books. I placed the strap of my bag over my shoulder, looked over my room one last time, and felt pretty heavy-hearted. I didn't want to leave my home, but we had no other choice.

"We'll be back. And when we do, we'll stop the Kraang and save the city." I turned off the lights and closed the door behind me, hopefully not for the last time.

I could not leave without what little I had left of my old life. If I lost that, I would have nothing left to remember my old family by, and I couldn't bear to lose any of it. I had one rather large bag that I had used for scavenging food and resources back when my sons were mere babies. It would have to do, for now, despite how big it was. I packed the photo of my family and I, along with a photo of me and Tang Shen after we had just become a couple. I did not have much else.

I sighed, turning toward my room, and walked in. On a small shelf was the box where I kept many of the items, photos and other memories from my sons' childhood. I had to take it with me as well. My sons were all I had left in my life. I had to take their childhood with me. I couldn't bear the thought of it being destroyed.

It was a small box, but still big enough to fit a lot of photos, toys, old practice weapons and much more. I opened the lid and checked to see if anything was missing. Nothing could be left behind. I dug my hand through the different toys and photos and then let out a sigh of relief. Nothing seemed to be out of place or missing. Raphael's old child-proofed sai, Michelangelo's childish drawings, Leonardo's toys and Donatello's small and simple inventions. Everything was there.

My eyes wandered over Donatello's inventions, drawings, toys, and pictures of him from his childhood and felt my heart clench. Why did I keep these things together like this? Perhaps I should pack them separately or just put them someplace else? So it would hurt less whenever I felt like taking a peek at my sons' items? I knew I didn't have it in my heart to get rid of any of it, but still. I had already felt the pain and grief of losing a child, why torture myself by reminding myself of the second one? The one I had cared for since the day he was mutated, and spent the last sixteen years watching him grow and mature and loved as my own flesh and blood. I sighed. Yes, why torture myself with everything that he did in his life, and the ideas of what could have been the future.

I my eyes fell on a small red plastic pocket knife with a small button on the side. I reached down and picked it up, placing my finger over the button and pushed it, releasing seven small 'arms' from the sides of the apparatus, each with a small tool on them. A knife, a nail file, a pair of scissors, a can opener, a fork, a toothbrush and a spoon. I couldn't help but chuckle at how silly it looked, yet also at how useful it had been. Donatello had put it together for me when he was about eight years old, so I would always have a spoon or a knife on me when I cooked our dinner or had a pair of scissors or nail file in case my claws needed to be trimmed a little. A very nice thought, but I had only kept it and at first used it to humor him. But I had ended up using it more times than I'd thought I would when he gave it to me. He had always been so resourceful, using whatever he had to build his own toys or inventions to help us get by. Even if the end product would end up looking a little silly.

I let out a heavy sigh and decided against the idea of separating the items. I couldn't do it. Everything that Donatello had done for us, everything he had created and memories from his childhood, should be with everything his brothers had done as well. He deserved much more than that, but it was all I could do for him now. He had always been such a quiet child- it had been hard to know when he was bothered or had a problem. But I still should have seen that he was hurting in his situation in our family. I hadn't been there to help him when he asked me to, so the least I could do was acknowledge everything he was to me.

I carefully put the pocket knife back in the box and closed it. We had no time to sit around anymore- we had to leave now. Our home was not going to be safe for much longer.

Donnie's lab had remained untouched for almost three months now, and it really showed. The workspaces, tools and inventions were covered with dust, and it had a sort of eerie atmosphere about it. I almost felt like I was intruding on forbidden ground. I looked around the big room with as much respect as I could, but also couldn't help but feel melancholy. This had been Donnie's very own place of enjoyment and relaxation; his sanctuary. A place where he could go nuts and create whatever he wanted with whatever he had- do what he loved to do. And also a place where he could be himself. Or that's at least what I assume. He never really talked to us about his problems or what he felt.

He once said that he talked to the Pulverizer- uh, I mean, Timothy- about his feelings when April had left us after that Mutagen incident. That felt like almost a century ago now, with everything that had happened the last year. I had asked him about it as if he was crazy because of this, but I had kinda wondered afterwards what he thought about us, since he found talking to a barely-sentient blob with organs therapeutic. But I had also dismissed it as unimportant and ignored it. Like the douchebag brother I am.

I walked into the room and looked over all the inventions and trinkets Donnie had made or collected over the years. Like that little trophy shelf he had over his desk, filled with- what he called- collectibles from a lot of our fights. Snakeweed's claw, that Kraang mind control device Mr. O'Neil had on his neck, a Kraang-bot's head and some more stuff. Why he collected these things, I had no idea, but he seemed to like the things, so whatever. There was the desk, covered with bottles of different kinds of chemicals, sketches for inventions, notepads with equations and notes written down and pens, tools and machine parts scattered all over the workspace. Typical Donnie. His mind was sharp and had no room for the unneeded stuff and ideas, but his lab was almost always a mess.

This whole room was all Donnie's, and it felt wrong to even be in here. But I felt like I should bring at least something, in case the Kraang or the Shredder found our lair and destroyed it. But I had no idea what. I couldn't exactly bring any of the big stuff, like Metalhead or any of the bigger inventions- that would be too much to bring along. And what would we do with it, anyway? And Donnie's small stuff, like pens and blueprints and such, was not exactly that important, and not valuable enough to bring. So what should I bring? The Shellraiser was his invention, of course, but that wasn't where his whole spirit was- he'd mostly made that out of necessity rather than as a personal project for enjoyment.

My eyes fell on what was left of the Pulverizer, or Timothy, or whatever his name was, and I cringed slightly. No way. Too big, and what use would we have of him anyway? He was a frozen chunk of guts and internal organs. Instead I walked up to Donnie's desk and started to look through the drawers to look for something, anything. But in two of those drawers I mostly found the same stuff I found on the desk. Paper, notebooks, pens and blueprints. I shook my head and drew out the top drawer to look through that one before I had to go out and meet up with the others before we left.

The first thing I saw was a big, thick book with some complicated title that none of us could pronounce or understand, other than that it had something to do with physics, and I grabbed it and flipped through the pages. It just seemed like any of those books that Donnie had about science or math or anything else, so I just sighed and was about to put it back down in the drawer when something else caught my eye. A small stack of about three or four journals; I carefully put the book aside and picked up one of them and skimmed over the first page.

Journal Entry, April 20th 2014

Well, this day certainly could have gone a whole lot better. I don't know how many times I've told myself to start listening to Master Splinter more and take his advice to heart, but tonight I really feel like it cost a lot more than it should.

The Kraang are back in the city and they tried to ship a cargo of some sorts to, I guess, TCRI, and when we found out, we tried to stop it. And we failed- miserably.

The cargo, which of course turned out to be mutagen, was spilled all over the city and- on top of that- April's dad was hit by one of the canisters. And what's worse- when April found out that we were largely responsible for that, she was furious. I have never seen such hate in her eyes, and the fact that it was directed towards us felt horrible, to say the very least. She said she never wanted to see us again and ran off.

I hate to make this about me, 'cause I feel terrible for April and her father, but I don't think she realized how she broke my heart.

There was more written on the page, but I tore my eyes away from the page. So these were Donnie's more personal journals. Where he wrote down the things he never told anyone. I looked down at the other journals in the drawer and moved to pick them up, too. These I could take with me out of the city, and they didn't weigh that much. But suddenly a sense of awareness hit me, and I pulled my hand back. Should I do this? Was it right to take my own brother's personal journals with me, with my thoughts set on reading them? I mean, would that be seen as disrespectful?

I bit my lip, thought as long and hard as I could, since we didn't have forever, and then snatched up the first journal, leaving the other ones in their place. One would be good, for now. I only had to hide this from the others. I knew Leo and Sensei would kill me if they found out I had essentially taken Donnie's diary and read it. I put the large book back over the other journals and then made my way out of the lab, closing the doors as softly as I could so no one could hear me. I held the journal tightly in my hand.

"What are you doing?" I almost yelped in surprise and turned around to see who had caught me, hiding the journal behind my back. April sat on the couch with her phone in her hand, as if she had just called someone, and looked at me weirdly. But she didn't look as though she knew what I had done, only like she was surprised I was in Donnie's lab. I tried to look as normal as I could and shrugged.

"Nothing. What are you doing?" I bounced her question back at her so she would answer that and strike up a small conversation and hopefully forget what she had asked me. She put her phone back in her coat pocket, her eyes leaving mine for a second, so I put the journal in my belt, hoping no one would see it, and folded my arms over my chest to look as casual as I could.

"I'm just calling my dad. He said he's going on a small trip- you know, to relax a little. With everything that's been happening lately, he felt like he needed some time away from the city." She rolled her eyes slightly and groaned a little. "You wouldn't believe how much arguing it took for me to convince him that I could stay with my aunt and not go with him. I wanted to keep an eye on the Kraang, but I couldn't exactly tell him that." I nodded and looked over at Casey, who was fingering the wrapping on his hockey stick. He had been almost uncharacteristically quiet tonight, which was really weird, since he was Casey.

"Well, what about you, Jones? Aren't you gonna call your dad and tell him you're leaving for a while?" He looked up and looked like he had been shaken out of his thoughts, or woken up from a daydream. He then shook his head and looked down on his bat again.

"Nah, my dad just left town for a business trip with his job- he won't be back for another two weeks. And my sister is staying with my mom, who lives in Philadelphia." April looked surprised and turned to Casey.

"Oh, your mom? But, I... I mean, I just assumed that-." Casey smirked slightly at her.

"That she was dead? No worries, Red, I'm not picky about talking about her. I just don't do it so often. She moved out of town after she and Dad got a divorce a few years ago. I don't see her so often, since I'm still kinda ticked that she left us, but my sister goes to visit her as often as she can." April nodded slowly and turned away so we couldn't see her blush. But she still asked,

"Well, what about you? Why are you staying home alone while your dad's away? Shouldn't you at least be staying with a relative?" Casey shook his head.

"My dad doesn't care much about me. He sees me as old enough to take care of myself, and left me to look after our place. But since the Invasion's gonna come any day now, I don't think he'll be too picky about who's taking care of our house." I bit my lips. Casey rarely talked about his family, and if what he said was true and he had a rough relation with his dad, then that might be pretty understandable.

April stood up from the couch and zipped up her coat. "I'm gonna go home real quick and say good bye to my dad. He said he's gonna leave for the airport in less than an hour." She looked up at me. "You guys will stop by and pick me up, right?" I nodded and gave her thumbs up.

"Sure thing, Apes. You can count on us." She smiled and looked over at Casey. He looked up at her, and for a second I could swear I saw his cheeks get just a tad redder. He stood up quickly and gathered up his stuff.

"Uh, I-I'm gonna go with A-April. I mean, heh, somebody's gotta make sure she gets to her apartment all safe and secure, right?" April laughed lightly, sounding a little embarrassed, and I could swear I saw her blush a little, too, before they almost ran out of the lair without even saying goodbye. I looked after them and hummed in thought over what I had just seen. April and Casey, both blushing at being alone together and leaving in such a rush? I rubbed my chin in thought. Could they... Nah. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at the thought. April was serious and driven, and Casey was much goofier and lazier than her. They couldn't possibly... or could they?

"Raph, are you ready to go?" I was jerked out of my thoughts and saw Leo come out of his room and Mikey come out the kitchen, Mikey carrying a cooler and Leo having a small duffle bag over his shoulder. I turned to look at them, tried to look as though I hadn't been thinking of what I had been thinking about, and walked up to them.

"Uh, yeah- yeah, I'm ready." Mikey looked at me, and then towards the lab doors. He looked both suspicious and confused.

"Uh, what were you doing in Donnie's lab, dude?" I gulped and felt myself getting a cold sweat.

"Uh..." I wracked my brain trying to think up a good excuse, but then I saw Master Splinter come out of the dojo with a small bag of his own.

"Come now, my sons. We must leave now, while we still can." I let out a small sigh of relief. Saved by the rat. We all walked towards the Shellraiser, where Leatherhead was already waiting for us. Leo turned to look at me.

"Where're April and Casey?" Oh, I had almost forgotten about that for a second. I shrugged slightly.

"She went to say goodbye to her dad. Apparently he's leaving for a trip and she wanted to see him before he left. Casey is escorting her." Leo nodded and walked up to the driver seat. Mikey and I sat down at our own positions, looking over at Leatherhead.

"It's probably gonna be a little cramped, but I hope you'll be able to cope anyway." Leatherhead sat down in between Leo's station and mine and wrapped his tail around his legs.

"It will suffice, my friends." Master Splinter looked over at Donnie's station and he hesitantly sat down. I could see that he felt like he was treading on forbidden ground, and sitting where he wasn't supposed to. But we didn't have time to think about that. Leo started the engine and we started to move out of the sewers. No one spoke for a very long time. Leo's eyes were locked on the screen that showed him where he was going, Mikey was fingering the photo of himself and Donnie, Splinter seemed to be in deep thought, and Leatherhead looked pretty uncomfortable from his position on the floor.

My fingers travelled down to my belt and the journal that was placed there. I was extremely tempted to look through it, but it felt like it wasn't exactly the best time and place to do that. I looked around to see if anyone was looking, and then slowly took the journal out from my belt and looked it over. It had gotten a little wrinkly, but undamaged enough. I was about to open it and read more about April 20th, when a loud THUD was heard and something landed on top of our van. Mikey looked up from his photo and up at the roof.

"What was that?" I shook my head and shrugged, showing I had no idea. At first no one knew what to do, but then, out of nowhere, a long sharp knife cut itself through the roof, only inches away from Leatherhead's eye. Leo slammed on the brakes and we all flew up from our seats.

"Someone's out there!" Leo cried, drawing his swords, ready to fight. I hid the journal as quickly as I could under one of the canons and drew my sai.

"Wow- really, Leo? Did you figure that out all on your own?" I snarked at him and he glared at me, but didn't answer. Mikey pulled out his nunchucks and Splinter gripped his cane a little tighter. Leatherhead didn't have any weapons, but he looked ready to attack with what he had anyway. Then a voice rang out.

"Come out, Turtles! We know you're in there!" Tiger Claw. Leo forced the doors open and we ran out, only to see a whole bunch of foot-bots, ready with their weapons, both Tiger Claw and Rahzar with claws and swords drawn, and when we heard the knife in our roof being pulled out we saw Karai and Fishface there with their weapons drawn. And, from the looks of it all, they were not going to let us go without a fight.

"Aw, sewer bunnies." I muttered and gripped my sai even tighter. This was gonna be fun.

NOT.

A/N: Finally done! This chapter... I have no idea why it was so hard to write, but now it's done and I hope you liked it!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!