Karai had said all she could. She only hoped she'd done enough. As she left Tang Shen's home, and headed for the dojo eager to speak to her father, to see him in his human form, she already wanted to return to her mother. The scent of cherry blossoms clung to Karai's clothes from where Tang Shen had embraced her. She replayed their conversation over and over again in her mind, hoping she'd done the right thing. That she'd done enough.

As she neared the dojo she heard fighting. Then a green three-fingered hand appeared over her mouth. Karai scolded herself for letting down her guard and forgetting about Leonardo, for even a second. How could she? But it was obvious, even to her. She was so full of her mother, her scent, her mannerisms, her voice, the fantasy of her that for the moment was so real, she'd forgotten everything else.

She struggled against Leo but he was determined and had gained the upper hand in her distracted state. He tugged her behind the dojo and pinned her against the wall of it.

"What are you doing, Karai? What did you say to Tang Shen? Where do you think you're going?" Leo's blue eyes jerked her back to reality. What was she doing? Living out the fantasy of every little girl who'd ever lost her mother? Yes. And no one and nothing was going to stop her. Because she'd had the opportunity to meet her and she'd taken it and wasn't a damn bit sorry for it. And she'd do it again, given the chance. Not only that but she'd do what she had planned to.

The scent of sandalwood bled into the cherry blossom and her gut swirled. For there was Leonardo, and there was her mother, and her choice. She reached up a hand to stroke his cheek. "I'm sorry, Leo. But I have to do this. I thought you of all people would understand. This is an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past, to unite my family and for the three of us to be together."

Leo shook his head, frowning. "Karai, however tragic it has been it's played out as it should. The way fate intended. It placed me in your path a long time ago, and if it were only me, I would give up my existence if it would reunite your family. Our family. But it isn't. It's my brothers, it's April, Renet, and even Casey. It's all the times we've saved the world, it's every victim, all of it. You will undo all of it. Please," his hand covered hers and his eyes closed as he breathed in deep. "Please, make the right choice, Karai."

Her heart clenched. She'd already made her decision. She closed her eyes, pressed her mouth to his, and kissed him deeply, then with stealthy movements slid her hands over his pressure points and lowered an unconscious Leonardo to the ground.

"I love you, Leo. But I have to know what my life could've been like. The way it should've been."

She unsheathed one of his katana, dragged his slumbering body into the trees, and returned to the dojo in time to see her mother hide infant Miwa then run into the burning building. Karai ran in after her, sword in hand.

"Tang Shen!" Karai screamed taking in the sight playing out before her. There was Oroku Saki fighting Hamato Yoshi. Her father. Her human, biological father, fighting the wicked, selfish man who'd stolen her from him and Saki was poised to deliver a kill strike.

Tang Shen moved to leap forward between them, but Karai flung Leonardo's sword into Shredder's back stopping him short. Yoshi grabbed Tang Shen, as Saki became rigid, his mouth parted in shock. Karai stood heaving, as a beam fell over Saki's body, dropping flames on his head, burning his face. Yoshi and Shen ran past her, Shen grabbing Karai's arm, yanking her along. But as they reached the door the entire room flashed a piercing white.

000

"Wake up, Miwa!" her mother called.

Miwa sat upright, drenched in sweat, chest heaving. The same nightmare, night after night, and it never altered, never changed. It always began the same, her looking into gorgeous blue eyes on an inhuman face and it always ended in flames before white light. She ran a hand through her long black locks, and put her feet on the floor.

Years.

She'd been having the same nightmare, since she could remember. Her parents had even consulted with physicians, and Miwa cringed, psychiatrists. Nothing helped.

"You'll be late for school!" her mother called again.

Miwa sniffed under her arms and cringed. "Ought to take a shower, wash all this sweat off me," she mumbled then shrugged and rooted through the pile of clothes on her floor to find a somewhat clean pair of blue jeans. She pulled them on and an electric blue t-shirt. "Too late now."

Car horns blared from the street far below and she regretted leaving her window open even a crack last night, for the cold gust of autumn air that rushed in through it. Sometimes the noises of the city helped her off to sleep, sometimes the fresh air distracted her with images of fast food, street lights, and the architecture that only New York could offer. She pushed the pane shut then shuffled over to look at herself in the mirror above her dresser, pausing to pick up the jar of turtle food from her nightstand and twist off the cap.

There perched on her dresser, beneath her mirror, was the fifty-five gallon tank that took up the length of it. The baby turtles her father had bought when she was still an infant, now fifteen, had outgrown both a twenty and forty gallon aquarium.

She reached in, stroking the top of Leonardo's head. He was her favorite, always had been. He was always so calm, and had such a great disposition. Raphael on occasion would nip at her fingers. Michelangelo would paw at her frantically as if begging to be let out, eager to play. And Donatello was quite the escape artist. She frowned as she glanced around the tank and couldn't find him. She lifted up the log he liked to burrow under, then several other ornaments in the tank.

"Miwa," her father's gentle voice filled the doorway.

She withdrew her hand from the tank and turned to face him. "Yes, father?"

He held the turtle, as it clawed at empty air, out to her. "Donatello has escaped again."

"I'm sorry, father. He's like a genius turtle. I swear I've even put school books on the screen covering their tank. I don't know how he does it." Miwa took the turtle from her father and placed him back in the aquarium.

Hamato Yoshi chuckled. "He is very clever."

Miwa gazed lovingly at her pets. "They all are."

"They do have their own personalities," her mother said, appearing behind her father, who reached back pulling her into a warm embrace.

Most kids would gag at sight of their parents open display of affection. But Miwa never did. Not when she'd saved her parents night after night from deaths grasp. Smiling as they gazed lovingly into one another's eyes, she squeezed by them. But as she made her way down the hall toward the front door she couldn't help the other feeling, the one that mingled with the relief of seeing her parents in love, the ache that never left her. Of loss.

Through every slumbering moment Miwa was in a fight for her parent's lives, alongside her turtle pets. At least that's what she'd pegged them as. Since she had turtles and the ones in her dreams had the same names as her pets, she thought it must be them. But the turtles in her dreams, her nightmares, they were human-like. And she was in love with one of them.

In some way she looked forward to her fitful, restless nights, so that she could breathe in the scent of sandalwood mixed with another smell unique to her blue masked love, that of steel. She was eager to close her eyes and slip into the familiarity of the night, where he waited and begged her to make a different choice. To choose him.

In fact from the time she left her home each day until she returned, there was an ache in the pit of her stomach so familiar it had become part of her. Something was missing.

"Miwa! Wait up! We can walk together." April called down the hall from her apartment.

Miwa should've gone to get her friend as she normally would, but she really just wanted to be alone with her thoughts, with the hurt that snaked its fingers around her heart. What I really want it to kiss him again, to feel his arms around me. For him to be real.

"Are you working at your father's dojo tonight?" April asked.

Miwa shrugged. "I'm not scheduled. But I was going to work out after school." Actually I was thinking about ditching and going there now… Miwa eyed April. Would her goody-two-shoes friend do such a thing as- "You know what, April? I'm not going to school today."

April stopped before the elevator and pushed the button. "You're not?" April looked her over. "Are you sick?" Then the redheads eyes widened and she grimaced. "Oh, tell me you're not going to meet Casey Jones?"

Miwa knew her friend had a crush on the boy and couldn't help the grin and streak of unfounded rebellion that coursed through her. "Maybe. Wanna come?"

April glared at her. "That depends," she said stepping into the elevator. "Are you trying to set us up again? Because I'm telling you now, that boy is full of himself."

The elevator doors shut, and as the small room began to lower a bright white square appeared overhead. A girl fell through, landing awkwardly at Miwa's feet.

"Taka Onna!" Miwa exclaimed, thrusting out an arm to shield April.

"Taka whatta?" April gasped looking from the white square where the ceiling should be to the girl struggling to her feet.

"No, no, no. I'm not Taka Onna. I'm not," the girl dusted herself off and cocked a blonde eyebrow. "I mean really? Do I look like a homely old woman Yokai to you?"

Miwa scowled. Aside from the bizarre crooked headdress, the girl was wearing, she was far from ugly. Still, she fell from the sky-ceiling? Miwa glanced above her head but found the white gone and the elevator was normal again, aside from the strange girl.

"Well you sure have the magic of a demon," Miwa said, crossing her arms.

The Yokai-girl straightened her headpiece and smiled. "Eh, it's not magic really. It's the scepter." She motioned to the staff-like object she carried. "I'm the Time Master's Apprentice," she announced, standing up tall and straight.

April and Miwa stared at her.

The girls smile gradually faded and her shoulders slumped. "Right, you don't know what that is." The girls hazel eyes fell to the floor. "This whole mess is kind of my fault. I mean if I'd just embraced who I am this would've never happened."

Miwa's teeth ground together. She didn't like unexpected guests, didn't appreciate demons dropping in on her and wasn't about to be deceived by anything one said. She reached in her jeans pocket, realized she'd forgotten her pocket knife and opted to use the girl's stick-thing instead. In two quick, fluid motions Miwa had the demon-girl pinned beneath the tip of her own scepter. "Who are you and what are going on about?"

"I'm Renet, the Time Masters Apprentice and," Renet's foot swiped out knocking Miwa to her butt and in almost mirrored movements, Miwa found herself staring at the wrong end of the scepter. "I'm here to tell you that the nightmare you've been having every night of your life it's an alternate reality. The world where you truly belong. It's where you need to make a different choice in order to change a terrible outcome." Renet shook her head. "This life, the one you're living, is not your true path, Miwa. This is not your destiny. You will never find your heart full and satisfied, not here." The time mistress frowned. "Your path is that of a warrior Hamato Karai, and you are a great one at that. Have the courage to choose a different journey, and you will find everything your heart desires… even as you think the pain of what you must do will destroy you," Renet lowered her scepter to Miwa's forehead and the elevator fell away, "because I'm here to tell you, it won't.

000

As Miwa landed on her butt, hard against concrete, she glared at the scepter wielding demon-girl. "Where am I?" she snapped, getting to her feet and looking around for her friend. "And where is April?"

Renet stared at Miwa then shook her head and motioned to their surroundings with the scepter. "Hamato Miwa, this is your tomorrow if you don't make a different choice when you go to sleep tonight."

Miwa stood in the center of a silent Times Square. The billboards were as dark and lifeless as the streets. Every window, traffic, and street light was shattered. Litter drifted and coasted down the sidewalks like tumbleweeds, and there wasn't a human anywhere to be seen.

Renet halted a scrap of newspaper with the end of the scepter. "Read the date."

Fear constricted Miwa's movement. She'd never seen New York like this, deserted, abandoned, lifeless. The sky as dark as pitch. She looked up, expected to see stars, instead felt her knees buckle at sight of a massive sphere shaped space ship hovering above the city skyline. "What hell is this?" she gasped.

"Read the date," Renet repeated, picking up the paper and holding it before her.

Miwa's eyes drifted to the date. October 8, 2014. "That's today."

"No. Here, it is yesterday, Miwa. There will never be another paper now, not here, October 9, 2014 or any date hereafter. You see, in that nightmare you keep having, when you choose to save your parents, you are choosing this life and in this life Leonardo and his brothers do not exist. Which means there is no one to save the world from this invasion. Aliens, Miwa. And there's no champion to fight them. Not even you alone. But you can save the world with your sacrifice, and join them, save your home and all these lives."

Miwa stepped away from Renet. "Demons lie! This is an illusion," Miwa waved a disgusted hand at her abductor and the world surrounding her.

"They die here anyway, Miwa. Humanity dies here, ends here. But you can save it."

Miwa shut her eyes as very real concrete crashed into her knees. Her hands splayed out to her sides, fingertips reaching for the pavement, feeling the cool, hardness, lifelessness where the city formerly thrummed with a pulse, a rhythm, a breath of its own. Either she was crazy and hallucinating or this was true and she was faced with an impossible decision. Sacrifice her mother, possibly her father, her family, so that the blue masked turtle she knew she was desperately in love with could save the world? So stupid. She pressed her forehead to the street, kneeling in the center of her crossroads, tears slipping down her cheeks. Because as she cleared her mind, she knew in her gut, in her heart and soul that what Renet was telling her was true.

She wept until she slipped into a fitful slumber, one that transported her to face her destiny, exhausted, and with the fate of the world on her shoulders.

000

Karai saw herself standing on her mother's doorstep, poised to enter, to meet her for the first time, to hear her speak, to look in her eyes, to know her. But as her fingers reached for the door her heart sank. This was it. This was the moment she had chosen what she wanted over everything else.

"I thought I'd give everything to meet you, Mother," Karai whispered against the door, tears slipping down her cheeks. "I thought this would fix everything, but the world needs him," her heart ached as she wept, "and I need him."

She moved to drop her head against the door, only it fell on dead air because it was open.

"Oh, excuse me. Can I help you?" Tang Shen asked in a kind voice.

Karai stumbled back, stricken by the sound of her mother speaking. Her heart could be sliced to bits by Shredders own blades the hurt ran so deep, and in a way it had been because ultimately this was all his doing. But what torture had she spiraled into? Parallel realities where she knew her mother's love and her inevitable fate no matter what she did?

Karai stared into Tang Shen's confused eyes. Choose the right path, Karai. Choose of your own volition, without the influence of any other living being. Choose because you know what will be if you do and if you don't. Karai's eyes filled, her stomach flipping and tossing in a sea of nausea. She opened her mouth to speak, but found no words.

Then her eyes fell on the slumbering infant cuddled against her mother's breast and she stepped back. Save her! Save them! Save yourself from the fate of a life at Shredders bidding! Karai's heart thumped against her ribcage and her foot moved back yet again. Or sacrifice everything, and save the world. She looked in her mother's eyes again. "I-"

Tang Shen stepped forward and reached out one hand. "Are you alright? Do you need help?"

Karai's stomach lurched, and everything spun. Then Leo's arms were around her and he was talking to Tang Shen. "She's a loose Taka Onna. It's why I'm here. She escaped us and I was sent to round her up. Sorry to bother you. We'll just be off now." Leo explained, as he guided a weak-kneed Karai away.

"Wait!" Karai dug her heels into the earth and jerked free of Leonardo. She ran to Tang Shen, inhaled deeply the scent of her, the sound of her, the look of her, committing her to memory. Then she told her, "Choose Hamato Yoshi. Tang Shen, choose Hamato Yoshi."

A small smile formed on her mother's mouth as she cradled the infant closer and whispered. "I already have."

Leo's fingers wrapped around Karai's bicep and he guided her behind the dojo. She slumped against him, clinging to him as she wept and he held her, not saying a word.

000

Michelangelo sprint onto the battlefield, and launched himself up in the air while calling, "April!"

She met his gaze, reached up with one hand and with no notable effort Tang Shen's tessen landed in her hand as if drawn to it by a magnetic force. Just as quick April released it with a flick of her wrist and it flew straight at Shredder.

April freed herself of the ninja holding her and sprint forward as her weapon knocked the vial from Shredders fingers. There were two Michelangelo's then. One leapt from the tree above Shredder to snatch the vial falling from his grasp, and the other across the battlefield had provided the necessary distraction. Mid-air Mikey caught the vial and tossed it not to Donatello, who reached for it even as he was encircled by ninja, but to April. He winked at her then seemed to disappear in thin air.

Shredder screamed in protest as April caught the damned compound with one hand and shoved it in her pocket, then caught her tessen with her other. Her precious weapon in one hand she fought off ninja after ninja.

Beside her, Renet took advantage of Shredder's shock and landed a kick to his shoulder. He stumbled back dropping the scepter, then lunged forward to attack but it was too late.

Renet pointed the scepter and a window cut the air behind him then April ran forward as Donatello screamed. "April! NO!"

But she would not be stopped.

Hun reappeared in her periphery as April raced toward her target. Don't let him catch you. Nothing will stop you. Not now.

"April!" Donnie yelled, diving to block Hun.

She'd had enough of Shredder. She'd earn Donatello's trust with her sacrifice, she'd prove her love to him, and he'd know how far she'd go and how sorry she was. April's foot flew toward Shredder's face, her momentum more than enough to hurl them both through the window.

April was in a free fall, Shredder flailing at dead air below her. Then Hun tumbled past her. Suddenly, Karai's hand was there, and holding on to her was Renet, and holding her arm was Donatello, and holding him was Leonardo, then there was Michelangelo, and Raphael.

"Where'd you send us, Renet?" Raph called out.

Renet smiled at April as she answered Raph. "Home."