As Mikey wandered through the huge ice cream wonderland, he emitted a loud, high pitched giggle. He didn't care if he sounded girly or not – he was in an ice cream world!

The huge, brilliant blue beaver didn't give him pause. He'd imagined things far more exotic than that before. Besides, compared to all of the mutants Mikey had run into, this thing was positively cute. He chuckled when he imagined how the others would react. They would probably freak out. "Hey, giant beaver dude! What's up with all this ice cream, amirite?"

The beaver grinned stupidly. "Hi, giant turtle dude. I'm Dave. Imma s'posed to scare you."

Mikey laughed. "Well, you're doing a terrible job."

"Oh. Okay. Bye now!" With that, the giant beaver evaporated.

"Huh. That was weird," Mikey said to no one in particular. He scooped up a handful of ice cream from the ground and shoved it in his mouth. Rolling his eyes back in his head, he savored the rich, creamy flavor. "This. Is. AWESOME! Man, I wish the other guys were here to see this."

He wandered around for a while, periodically sampling the delicious landscape, goggling at the huge candy cane trees, and laughing at the lollipop toadstools that rose up from the blanket of ice cream.

"Boy, I bet Ice Cream Kitty would like it here," he commented.

As his voice faded, he became acutely aware of how silent it was. There didn't seem to be any kind of animals anywhere, and there wasn't even a breeze.

Suddenly, he really wished the other guys were with him, and not just so that they could see the ice cream.

"Feeling lonely?" Dave's cheerful, friendly voice came from behind him.

Mikey whirled around. "Dave, I'm so glad you're – "

But the world behind him was just more of the empty ice cream landscape.

" –here," Mikey finished sadly.

As he kept walking, he noticed that the temperature seemed to be dropping. The radiant lollipop sun in the sky started getting dimmer. He felt a sudden stab of panic. He was completely and totally alone, and it was getting dark.

He had spent years of his life swearing up and down that he wasn't afraid of the dark. The truth was that he was afraid of it on some small level, even now. It was mostly because of what Donnie called his 'overactive imagination.' But it had been years since he had genuinely been terrified of the dark itself. What had finally cured him of his fear was a conversation with Raph at the age of eight.

"Don't worry, Mikey," Raph had said. "You don't need to be afraid of anything in the dark, because if there ever is anything, I'll kick its butt for you."

But Raph wasn't here now. None of his brothers were.

It was just him.

"Hello?" Mikey called into the sugary dusk. "Is anybody there?"

There wasn't even an echo.

"Boy, you sure are all alone," Dave's voice said.

Once again, Mikey whirled around to find no one. "Dave? Are you there?"

But there was no answer.

Alone.

Mikey's heart started to race. "Dave, I know you're there! You keep sayin' stuff to me, you've got to be around here somewhere!"

The world remained silent as the lollipop sun dipped beyond the ice cream horizon. The temperature dropped along with it. As Mikey stumbled around in the faint last light, he started to shiver. He remembered one winter when the electricity on their grid went out, and it had become really cold in the sewers. But it wasn't a problem. The five of them had piled onto the couch together. Master Splinter threw a blanket over all of them and kept them entertained by telling traditional Japanese stories.

The cold had been bearable because he hadn't been alone.

As the last of the light snuffed out, Mikey realized that the darkness had been bearable because he'd never been alone.

Boy, you sure are alone, aren't you?

"Ra-a-aph!" Mikey screamed. "Leo! Donnie-e-e!"

There wasn't even the slightest stirring of sound in response.

"Sensei?" he whispered.

Mikey sank down onto the ground. The ice cream was freezing cold, and now it seemed disgustingly sticky. Fear and loneliness finally won out. He started crying like he hadn't since he was a little kid.

Longingly, he thought back to the times he'd crawled into Master Splinter's lap when he was little. He'd always found so much comfort and safety there.

And now Master Splinter was gone.

Everyone was gone.

He was all alone.

Alone.