Raphael practiced his forms in the dojo, powerful strike after powerful strike. As he whirled his sai and stabbed them into the air, he grinned with satisfaction at his skill.
"You think you are very powerful, do you not?" a wonderfully familiar voice said. "You think that your strength is your greatest asset."
Raph spun around. "Sensei!" he shouted. "You're alive!" He ran to give Master Splinter a hug. Just before Raph reached him, a twisted grin crept on onto Splinter's face and he vanished, leaving Raph with nothing but an armful of cold mist. "Sensei?"
Splinter rematerialized on the other side of the room. "You are anything but powerful, Raphael. You are helpless."
Raph's temper flared up. "That's not true! I'll show you who's helpless!" He charged Splinter, too blinded by anger to think about the fact that Splinter could easily hand Raphael's shell to him.
As he ran, the world changed. He slammed into the metal bars of a sewer grate. On the other side, Shredder and Splinter dueled each other.
A low hissing voice spoke in Raphael's ear. "What can you do to save him? Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Sensei!" Raph pulled at the bars in desperation as he watched Splinter plummet to the ground. Shredder picked Splinter up. "No! Don't do it!"
The scene froze as Splinter's body made contact with the water.
"You are powerless," the voice hissed. "Weak."
Raphael screamed and whirled around, punching the air. "Show yourself! You think I'm powerless, huh? I'll show you!"
A large, dark mass lurked in the shadows of the sewers. "I don't think you're powerless. I know you are. You know it too.
"What were you able to do against the Creep?"
Raphael shuddered as he remembered the giant monster grabbing hold of him. He hadn't been able to do anything, there was no way he could have fought back, he…
"That doesn't prove anything!" Raph shouted, charging the mass. He drew his sai and was about to strike, but they vanished from his hands.
The mass stepped back from the strike, tsking. "Not powerless? Where are your weapons?"
"I don't need weapons!"
"Mm. Of course you don't. What good did they do you against that Mom-thing? "
The world shifted. Suddenly, Raphael was in the grasps of the Mom-thing's huge, slimy, tentacled mouth. He roared and struggled, unable to do anything…
Everything changed again. This time, he was stuck in a trap on the ground, struggling to escape. He looked up, saw Karai falling into the vat of mutagen. There was nothing he could have done …
"Powerless," the voice said. "Powerless and weak."
"No," Raph moaned.
The world whirled around him in a confusing blur. The next thing he knew, he sat tied to chair as the dark mass approached him. It shifted into the shape of Master Splinter and walked around him in circles.
"You couldn't save me," Splinter said. His voice was a low hiss. "What could you do for Leonardo? You sat by his side, wanting to help, but what could you do? You were powerless."
Raph watched in horror as Leo's limp body came flying in through the window.
"You tried to stop the Kraang, but you were powerless against them, too."
Kraang Prime was coming straight for them – what could he have done? Donnie was the genius with the tech. April's powers drove the creature back. Casey was the one who'd smashed into the thing.
"Every chain has a weak link, Raphael. That weak link is you."
Raph struggled uselessly against the ropes. "I'm not powerless! I'm not weak! I'm not!"
Splinter vanished. The dark mass congealed into a gigantic black beaver with fang-like incisors. "Then what will you do to stop me?" In the background, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey appeared, all bound in ropes. "What will you do to stop me from killing them? What have you ever been able to do? You'll watch them die, and you'll be the only one left.
"You'll die alone."
The giant beaver lifted up its foot, poised to crush Raph's brothers.
"No! Don't do it!" he screamed. It was like watching Shredder fling Splinter into the sewer drain all over again. "No! No!"
The beaver's massive foot crushed down on top of them. When he lifted up his foot, all three of them were a lifeless, bloodied mess, their shells crumbled into pieces.
Raphael's heart seemed to explode inside of him. He screamed his brother's names, begging them to get up.
Suddenly, Splinter was at his side again. "You couldn't save them. You couldn't save me. And you can't save yourself."
Then Splinter was gone. Raph remained alone, tied to the chair, struggling, and screaming as stared at his brother's dead bodies.