"He's not here Don! We should call Leo. Tell him they got him." Raph paced the pizzeria from front to back getting curious glances from pizza eating patrons.

Mondo licked an eyeball, earning him a glare from a frustrated Donatello.

"Mondo, how many times has Mikey asked you not to do that when you're working?" Donnie offered a reassuring smile to a family eating at a table nearby.

Mondo shrugged. "It's cool, D. Nervous habit. Mikey's okay though, right?"

Donatello rubbed his face as Raph bumped into a table and kicked a chair causing several customers near him to jolt. "Raph, can I talk to you for a minute, in the kitchen?" he pointed a finger toward the kitchen then looked at his gecko friend. "Mondo, I need you to keep running the place, business as usual, please?"

"Sure, D." Mondo's tongue peeked from between his teeth, Donnie scowled and Mondo sucked it back in his mouth.

"We don't have time for this!" Raph yelled.

"No, we don't." Michelangelo said from the kitchen door. All heads whipped in his direction and he waved to his customers offering them a warm but tight lipped smile that Donnie knew meant nothing good. Raph was through the door before Mikey could back out of it, Donnie followed him through while Mikey said something to Mondo before joining them, leaving the gecko to tend to their customers.

"You're here. Where the hell you been?" Raph eyed his little brother as if checking for injuries. Donnie admitted to himself he was doing the same. But Michelangelo appeared unscathed.

"What happened, Mikey?" Donnie asked him.

Michelangelo's frown provoked a sinking sensation in Donatello.

"Ever took me to the future and it— it was awesome. But then she tried to take me to an alternate future, but it got messed up and we ended up in the past. Anyway, I saw what I needed to see, and had her bring me back here so we can stop it."

"Stop what?" Raph blurted out.

"If we don't go back in time and stop Shredder he's going to kill Splinter and release the stuff Donnie made into the water so there will never be any mutants." Mikey rubbed the back of his head and took a shuddering breath. Donatello noticed his brothers hands were shaking.

"What's wrong, Mikey?"

"He, uh, he wants to save Tang Shen and raise Karai with her." Michelangelo swallowed.

"Where in time are they?" Donnie was already forming a plan. They'd call Leo, tell him on the way. They'd have to get Ever—

"It doesn't matter! How the hell are we gonna get there? We aren't time travelers! Unless, that Ever lady is still around." Raph looked around the kitchen then back to Mikey. "But I don't see her." He growled at Michelangelo, "Why don't I see the time traveler, Mikey?"

"She's gone. But we don't need her." Mikey shook his head.

"We don't?" Donnie and Raph said in unison.

"No. I know where there's an Apprentice Scepter." Mikey motioned for them to follow him. "Come on, I'll explain on the way."

"The way where?" Raph snarled.

"Home," Michelangelo replied.

000

"You've got to be kidding," Raph complained standing outside the old lair door, glaring at the flashing CLOSED sign.

Donnie was overrun with a strange blend of pride, accomplishment, and yet, privacy invaded. The three of them stared at the clear glass where a brick wall had been. The lettering on the automated door read:

Lair of the Ninja Turtles

Relic Museum

Hours of Operation…

Relics. Donnie shook his head. They were older, but not dead. Hardly historical artifacts. Giving up the lair had been hard, but when they were exposed they were left with little choice. Kids were getting lost, hurt and sick trying to navigate the tunnels to find them. Then a few actually had. And they'd not been home when it happened. Raph thought Leo would have a heart attack. Then Splinter did.

Donnie shook the memory off as Raph complained. "Well, Genius, we bustin' right in?"

"No. And did you call Leo like I asked?" Donnie eyed the reformed sewer tunnel, now a tiled, lit, entrance to the lair.

"No phone remember?" Raph held his hands out and shifted his weight.

Donatello ignored him seeing the control panel on the left side of the wall just feet away from the street entry. He flung open the door and felt Michelangelo hovering over him in an instant. Donnie's tongue edged out the corner of his mouth as he began rewiring select fuses.

Mikey's fingers crept into view, flipping switches as Donnie swatted him away.

"Stop it."

"What's this one do?" Mikey reached for another.

"Stop it." Donnie waved him off.

"What's this one do?"

"Stop it!" Donnie repeated.

"But I can help. See if I flip this one and you move that wire to that wire it should open the door." Mikey poked his fingers in amid the fray of wires Donatello was moving about.

Donatello's fingers stopped. "That's exactly what I'm doing. How did you know that? And if you knew that, why are you tormenting me with the random button pushing?!"

"Because it's fun." Mikey grinned. "And… uh…" he withdrew his hand, tucking it behind his back as he walked back toward the door without answering the rest of the question.

"Mikey?" Raph pressed as Donnie finished, the sliding door opened, and he closed the panel.

"Michelangelo?" Donnie raised an eye ridge.

"Because, I'm the one that helped Renet hide the scepter here." He raised his palms face up and shrugged, offering a bashful grin.

"What? Why would you hide it here where hundreds of people come every day? People who could see it, realize what it is and steal it?" Raph waved a fist at Mikey. "Little Brother, have you lost your mind?"

Michelangelo held up his hands. "No, no, look, I come here sometimes. Made friends with the night guard. She's real smart like you, D. She told me what to do when I want to come alone. Since it was our home, and I'm me, she knew she could trust me. Renet wrote me a while back saying she had something priceless she needed to hide. I told her I knew just the place." Mikey grinned, "You know hiding things in plain sight, that's the best way to go, right?"

Raph rolled his eyes and huffed, but withdrew his fist.

"Well, Mikey—" Donnie began as they stepped into what used to be their living room, looking around at pit where the pillows, cushions and television were. Where he and April spent hours working on her homework together. Where his brothers and he learned the basics of the arts, then mastered them. Where they celebrated their victories, licked the wounds of their losses, where they became who they were. A family. A place that some part of him still recognized as home.

"Uh, D? You okay, Dude?" Michelangelo's hand on his shoulder broke Donnie from his reverie.

"Yeah, yeah Mikey. I'm okay." Donatello looked around, the outline of their bedroom doorframes blurring into focus. The doors had been removed for museum tours. He lowered his gaze to look at Mikey and asked, "Hey where'd Raph go?"

"I can't—gah—believe, uh— they—grrrr!" A grunting, huffing sound came from the dojo and Donnie and Mikey made their way to the entrance.

There Raphael stood with one foot on the wall, tugging, pulling, and snarling as he tried to pry a set of his sai from the hold.

"They bolted the suckers to the wall! I mean it's my old training pair, not my favorite babies but still! They're bolted on there!" Raph tugged one more time and a bolt creaked, before giving way, sending him flying backward on his butt. He held the three pronged weapon up in victory, kissed the blades and grinned. "Mikey, get that scepter and let's kick Shredder's—"

"Language, Raphael!" Mikey protested.

Raph scowled at him. "Man, I'm thirty-eight, I'll curse if I want ta."

"Scepter, Mikey." Donnie scanned the dojo, still not seeing the device.

"Righty-o." Mikey chirped, bouncing from the dojo on the balls of his feet. Curiosity crept into Donatello's mind. He had to know where the Time Masters Apprentice had hidden the sacred object. He and Raph followed Michelangelo upstairs to his old room where there, plain as day the scepter was standing on the floor with a lampshade over the top of it.

"She hid the scepter under a lamp shade?" Raph said, scratching his head.

"Well, yeah, I mean it looks like a fancy lamp, right?" Mikey grabbed the plain white shade and tugged it off, casting it aside before lifting the scepter and handing it to Donnie. "Remember how to use it, D?"

Donatello swallowed, but the butterflies in his stomach quickly subsided, the device feeling as familiar to him as picking up his weapon. "Sure I do." He answered. Besides I have to. I've got to find April. No matter what's happened between us, I have to know she's safe.

"Mikey, get Leo on the phone. Tell him we're coming to him and," Donnie glanced at Raphael, "and we're bringing him his gear."

Raph's mouth curled into a grin. "Like old times."

"Exactly like old times."