Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to TNMT.

Splinter woke to the faint daylight that was filtering into the sewer tunnel. For a few moments, he stared ahead at the wall in front of him, trying to orient himself. He was afraid to look at anything else, afraid to find out whether everything he remembered from the night before was true.

A slight movement against his chest made him look down. Four small, softly breathing, humanoid turtles confirmed the reality of the situation. At first, Splinter was relieved to see that the turtles had made it safely through the night. Then, he realized that this meant what had happened was real—well, assuming he simply hadn't gone insane.

Now what? he thought to himself. He couldn't stay here all day. When the turtles woke, they would be hungry. For that matter, he was hungry. They needed fresh water and a place to stay. He could try to sneak them into his apartment, but even if he could do that in broad daylight, they couldn't stay there forever.

For now, he would explore the sewers and try to find a suitable spot. He hoped that there might be a section of tunnel no longer in use, and that he could possibly fix it up to make a temporary home for him and the turtles.

Carefully, Splinter disentangled himself from the four turtles, trying not to wake them. Only the little one made a noise, but did not wake. Splinter smirked at the memories of Miwa rousing with the slightest noise. Tang Shen was always severely under-rested as a result.

He spent a few moments stretching and surveying his surroundings. He practiced a few katas to loosen up and familiarize himself with his new body structure. All in all, it wasn't so different, and he found that his tail made his balance more stable than it ever had been. Better night vision, better balance…perhaps becoming a rat wasn't the most horrible thing that could happen to a ninja.

After loosening his joints, he turned to look back at the turtles. The oldest one, now awake, was staring at him with delight. Splinter performed another kata and almost laughed when the turtle gurgled in glee. "You like that, turtle-bo?" he asked. The turtle giggled loudly, waking his brothers. Promptly, the youngest started crying.

Naturally, it started a chain reaction and soon all four turtles were wailing.

Splinter decided that he should go to the surface and see if he could find anything suitable for them to eat in the dumpsters. The thought disgusted him, but he supposed that if he was a giant rat he may as well get used to it. Acceptance, after all, was the key to true peace.

And unless these turtles ate something, there would certainly be no peace. He left the wailing turtles in the alcove and climbed up to the world above.

This early in the morning, there was very little human traffic around the alleyway. Splinter managed to find a past-date, wilted head of lettuce near the top of the garbage pile. He tossed it into a large, empty cardboard box that stood beside the dumpster. He continued to rummage around, looking for anything useful, when he saw something glittering out of the corner of his eye.

Turning, he saw the partially shattered glass canister that had changed everything. With a sigh, he carefully picked it up and examined it. There were no more traces of the strange ooze it had contained; apparently its exposure to the air had caused it to evaporate away. On a whim, he decided to keep the container. He also gathered up the few scraps of his tattered clothing that lay on the ground. When he found his set of keys and his wallet, he sighed in relief. Tonight, he would be able to sneak back into his apartment and collect all of his belongings.

After his scrounging, Splinter returned back into the dank warmth of the sewers and hurried over to the alcove where he had left the turtles. He cursed himself when he saw that all four of them were gone.

"Turtles?" he cried, looking around frantically.

Suddenly, a cold hand wrapped itself around his ankle. Looking down, he saw the littlest turtle staring up at him with teary eyes. Setting down everything, Splinter immediately scooped the turtle up in his arms. "There you are," he said. "Where are your brothers?"

A soft noise came from behind, near the bottom of the access ladder. Splinter whirled around to find the other three turtles sitting there. They all stared at him with looks of profound abandonment.

"I'm sorry, little ones," he said. "Come here. I found something to eat." He sat down on the damp sewer floor and started tearing off pieces of the limp lettuce, which he handed to the turtles. They ate it readily. With a sigh, Splinter took a nibble of the expired produce. To his surprise it wasn't as bad as he expected. Apparently he acquired the taste tolerance of a rat as well.

Lovely.

After he fed the turtles, he decided to scout out a more suitable place to live. Thinking better of just leaving the turtles on their own, he emptied the cardboard box of its contents and put the turtles inside. It was deep enough that they should not be able to escape.

He spent the rest of the day exploring the sewers, being careful to track his progress so as not to get lost. Eventually, he found a place that seemed to be an old subway route, long abandoned. There was a large cavernous room with an open vent high above. It let in a ray of sunshine and a breath of fresh air. Below the vent, a small tree, perhaps two or three years old, spread its branches toward the light. Splinter thought that the place would be as good as any—secluded, but not completely removed from nature.

He headed back to retrieve the turtles and bring them to their new home—if it could be called a home.

A pang of guilt greeted him when he returned to hear a cacophony of crying emerging from the cardboard box. "It's all right, turtles. I'm here." He looked into the box with a warm smile to greet the turtles inside.

Three turtles.

Three! The shy turtle was gone.

"Turtle!" cried Splinter, looking around frantically. "Where are you?"

Panic. Guilt. Fear. Trying to swallow the emotions and forge on with a sense of calm, Splinter squinted and searched the surrounding area with his newly keen night vision. He moved further and further from the crying turtles, calling out again and again.

How could he have been so careless? How could the turtle have even gotten out of the box in the first place? A sudden sound to his left made him whirl around. Two tiny eyes glistened at him from behind a pile of rocks.

"Turtle?" The shy little reptile crawled out. With a sigh of relief, Splinter scooped the turtle up in his arms and gave him a little squeeze. "How did you get out? What are you doing over here?" The turtle squirmed and tried to escape Splinter's grasp. Splinter set him down again. "You frightened me, little one."

The turtle giggled and crawled back over to the pile of rocks. Suddenly, Splinter realized that the turtle had been stacking them like blocks. The pet shop owner had said that this turtle was very calculating and intelligent.

"Well, turtle-bo, you are quite smart," he said. "You managed to get out of the box and then come over here to play. That's quite a stack you've built."

With a gurgle of joy, the turtle crawled over to another pile of rocks. However, this one was more structured. A long stone was balanced on top of two stones like a saw-horse, and atop the long stone was a single rock.

"Well, now doesn't that look like a warrior on a horse?" Splinter said. "You are going to be a sculptor someday, I think. Now, let's go back to your brothers."

The turtle fussed and struggled when Splinter picked him up and carried him back to the box. He set him inside with the rest of the squalling turtles. Then, he picked up the entire box and headed off to subterranean room he had found.

As he walked past the shy turtle's collection of stones, he looked again at the equestrian-like structure. He paused. It reminded him of the statue that Tang Shen had admired so much at the art museum's Renaissance exhibit.

You are going to be a sculptor someday, I think.

What was that sculptor's name?

Splinter picked up the rocks and put them in the box so that the turtles could play with them before he continued on to the abandoned subway station. However, halfway there, the turtle were fighting over them and banging each other on the head with them, so Splinter took them out and tossed them on the floor.

He was rewarded for his peacemaking efforts by listening to the turtles scream and cry the rest of the way there.