Heeeeey, I am super duper sorry for the hiatus, I am ashamed especially since this chapter will probably not be worth the wait at all haha *Siiigghhh*. I've just been super busy since school is starting soon and yeah I've been preparing so again sorry. That and the fact I had a MAJOR writers block with this and I didn't know what to do :S

**IMPORTANT!** trigger warning for some people, there is a suicide attempt in this chapter I have marked its beginning and end with an "asterisk*" so you know what to avoid.

Randy inhaled then exhaled deeply and opened his eyes. His vision was met with the world once again on fire, destruction as far as the eye could see, the city, his home destroyed. Yet Randy stared emotionless at the ground, his eyes dead and sunken, no life within. The ground shook and rattled transforming into a giant earth version of the sorcerer who laughed maniacally as it picked Randy up with its giant hands and was about to eat him. But the giant sorcerer stopped and stared at Randy befuddled, extremely confused from the lack of fear or emotion present on Randy's face. The earth dissolved and dropped Randy back to ground level revealing Evil Randy standing there an annoyed look on his face.

"What gives kid? I spent like hours thinking up this horror show and—" He paused his rant to get a better look at Randy's face, his irritation transforming into a mixture of confusion and suspicion then finally settling into the face of evil glee. "Ohohohoooo, I see, something's happened hasn't it? You've lost everything, and you've finally accepted that you're out of options"

Evil Randy began cackling maniacally and grabbed Randy's head. He made Randy stare into his glowing white eyes which enveloped everything around Randy until Randy could no longer feel anything.

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Randy opened his eyes again slowly. The dream that just played still vivid, but he could honestly care less about that. What mattered wasn't his dreams, it was reality and right now his reality was his best friend lying unconscious on a bed. Randy bit his lower lip remembering how his friend got into this state and who was to blame, it was him. Randy had never left Howards side since they got back to Doug's, from morning to night, that was fine by his other teammates too seeing as none of them even wanted to converse with him, ninja Howard attempted to, but Randy was too busy hating himself. Randy reached out and held Howard's limp hand in his own, gripping tightly, almost as if he was afraid Howard would disappear if he let go.

"I…am so sorry bud…" Randy said his voice quivering, his other hand latched onto Howard's hand as well. He laid his fore head on his fists that were currently clutching Howard's. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, if I'd just been more careful, if I hadn't been so stupid, none of this would have happened to you. If only I wasn't such a huge mess-up if-if only I was a good ninja"

Randy was quietly sobbing at this point.

"If only I wasn't such a failure….." Randy continued eyes and nose running now, the pain in his voice apparent. "I'm so….I'm so scared Howard….I'm so scared all the time, and I don't know what to do. I want to be better, but I'm starting to think that I can't, that, he really is my future and I'm so…."

He scrunched up his face in frustration as the tears continued to fall. He let go of Howard's hand and stood up, thus ending his confession.

"Maybe…maybe Henry was right" Randy said clenching his fists till his knuckles turned white. "Maybe everything would be better without me…."

Randy turned and left the room, unaware that Howard began to stir from his slumber.

As Randy made his way downstairs, he decided he would get some water for Howard. He entered the kitchen and it was empty, not surprising, the other ninjas were in the garage racking their brains for a solution. Randy walked closer the garage where he could hear their conversation.

"We've been at this for hours! And we still have nothing, so wonk!" He overheard ninja Howard complain.

"You got any plans you wanna share, Hensletter? You've awfully quiet the entire time" Mac questioned Henry.

"…..You already know what I'd suggest" Henry said in an irritated voice.

"And I will deny it every time" First ninja said sternly.

"Yeah man, stop suggesting we kill my bro!" Ninja Howard remarked angrily.

"Why not?!" Henry defended. "Everything would be fixed, just. I don't want to kill anybody OK, I hate that this might be out only option left, and I hate myself for even considering it! But how can we hold his life over millions of others? How do we know that we can't stop him from the becoming the monster that we're trying to stop right now?"

"The juice that matters! Right guys?" Ninja Howard yelled, waiting for the other ninjas to agree with him, but he was only met with silence. "Guys?"

Randy had heard enough, he made his way back to the kitchen and away from the garage. Randy's hand were visibly shaking, he was scared again, not of what his teammates were considering, but scared that maybe they were right. What if there was no stopping what he'd become, what if his future was already set.

Randy was about to reach for a glass of water, but his shaking hand instead moved towards the knife rack. *Randy gripped the knife in his hand and stared at it for a while. Tears began falling from his eyes again as he lifted up his shirt and held the end in his mouth baring his chest. He held the knife with both hands over where his heart is, his hands shook as they held the knife over his chest. He shut his eyes tight, but he interrupted when a hand knocked the knife right out of his grip*.

"What the juice man!?" Howard said, extremely concerned. "The first thing I wanted to see waking up was not you trying to off yourself!"

Randy's shock was replaced with more tears as he hugged Howard and cried into his shoulder.

"Howard-I'm s-so sorry…" Randy cried, his speech becoming incomprehensible from the emotion in his voice.

Howard slowly put his hands around his biffer.

"You don't gotta be sorry for anything bro, this isn't your fault" Howard said. "I…I hate seeing you like this bro. This isn't you at all, you're not the guy who gives up who lets shoobs tell him what he can or can't do, you can't let all this get to you bro…Do you ugh-wonk wanna talk about it?"

"Thanks Howard" Randy said releasing his bro and wiping his tears and snot with his sleeve. "I-I think this is something I need to figure out on my own"

"Then think on it" Howard said handing Randy one of the talismans they used to hide their presence from Evil Randy. "Get some fresh air. That always calmed you down when your brain was being wonky"

"Howard I don't think the other'll let me—"

"I'll cover for you, don't worry about it. Everyone's on high alert and being shooby like we need to relax every now and then"

"Howard we went to the gamehole 2 days ago"

"Yeah well…I think you need something more than the gamehole. Just, just be careful"

"…Thanks buddy. I, I think I'm gonna go to Lake LaRusso…"

"..Okay, just ya know, watch yourself out there Cunningham"

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Randy was walking down the shore line of Lake LaRusso with his hoodie up, so many things were going through his head at the moment. He didn't know how to feel, he didn't know if he could trust himself anymore. Trust himself to be the ninja, trust himself to be a hero, he couldn't even trust himself to not become some crazy psychopath bent on world domination.

"JUST DUMP IT HERE! I WANT TO GET OUTTA HERE NOW!" Randy's thought were interrupted by a familiar angry yelling, the other guests currently enjoying the lake right now also interrupted from what they were doing. He looked towards the other side of the lake to see Mcfist there with a giant truck that seemed to be filled with some strange liquid, probably some sort of toxic stuff Mcfist was trying to get rid of Randy guessed. Mcfist noticed him and put on his 'lovable town gazillionare' face.

"Nothing to see here good citizens of norrisville!" He yelled at Randy and the other lake geusts. "Just uh dumping some definitely not toxic chemicals into the lake, in fact it's uhhh….chlorine?"

While it may have fooled the other guests Randy just shook his head in disapproval and turned to leave, his walk clearly having been ruined by Mcfist, that was until he bumped into something short that caused him to trip.

"Ow! What the juice!" Randy said aloud and looked to see whatever had caused him to trip had also gotten all tangled up with him. It was a kid, a little girl about 5, with her was a small dog on a leash. "What the? A kid? What're you doing here little girl?"

"Sorry!" He heard someone call out, he looked up to see Theresa fowler running to where they were. "Claire I told you not to go too far ahea-Randy?"

"Hey" Randy said getting up and helping the little girl named Claire up as well. "What're you guys doing here? You and your?"

"Cousin, we just wanted to walk her puppy" Theresa replied smiling. "Claire this is Randy, Randy this is Claire"

"Ohhhh, you're Randy!" Claire said excitedly at Theresa. "The boy you said you wanted to ki—"

Alarm bells ringing, Theresa clamped her hand around Claire's mouth. "Hahaha kids have a really active imagination"

"I bet" Randy said giggling, he kind of wanted to know what she was going to say though.

"SO uh…what are you doing here?" Theresa asked curiously.

"Uhh…nothing I was just taking a walk to clear my head" Answered truthfully.

"Mind if we join you?" Theresa asked twirling a strand of her hair on her finger.

"I don't mind" Randy said smiling.

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"Okay, Weinerman…where is he?" Mac said holding his finger covered in spit disgustingly close to Howard's ear.

"I-I'll never tell!" Howard squealed.

Henry pulled both boys apart, Henry got up to Howard's face. "This isn't a game Howard. Where's Randy?"

"I said I. AM. NOT. TELLING" Howard retorted, matching Henry's tone. "After everything that's happened he needs some him time"

"I'm serious Howard!" Henry barked. "We can't leave him out there, he's dangerous!"

"And that's why I'm not telling you! The way you're talking about him is seriously cheesing me off!" Howard said with hostility, he shoved Henry's hands off him. "You're talking about him like he's some honkin monster! He's not! He's the nicest bravest guy I know!"

Howard and Henry stared each other down, ready to blow.

"Enough" First ninja said, over powering authority in his voice. "I grow tired of breaking up the squabbles within this team. Howard I understand your reasoning, but we simply cannot risk having my talisman fail now when Randy's evil self is out there at full power, please tell us where he is"

Howard sighed in defeat. "Fine…"

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Randy and Theresa were currently on the pier a little bit away from the rest of the people who were on the shoreline chatting away. Honestly Randy was glad for the distraction from his thoughts.

"….And then my mom asked me to take Claire and her dog Kenny out for a walk, and I said yes" Theresa said, taking a look Claire who was playing near the shore line of the lake with Kenny. "She's so cute, I love her"

"I'll say" Randy agreed, his mind still lingering on his previous thoughts.

"So…What's bothering you?" Theresa asked concerned. "You haven't looked like your usual self the whole time we've been talking"

"I…" Randy said quietly.

"It's okay…you don't have to tell me everything, or anything, just tell me whatever you want to talk about if it makes you feel better"

"I…*sigh* can I ask you for some advice then?"

"Of course"

"What if…what if someone gave you two choices one you hate, the other one you really really hate. What do you choose?" Randy said his eyes showing hints of desperation.

"Wow, that doesn't sound like the thing a high-school freshmen should have been asked in the first place" Theresa said having been caught off guard. "Weird, you never struck me as the kind of guy who let someone else corner you in to making a choice"

Randy heaved a dry chuckle. "Howard said the same thing…"

"Rand—"Theresa couldn't finish her sentence as the pier they were on suddenly started shaking violently. Randy grabbed on to Theresa with one hand then held on to a post near them with the other.

Randy looked to the other side of the lake, his eyes widened when he saw a creature he thought he wouldn't have to deal with ever again.

The Shark-Dermanator had awakened and it wasn't on the right side of the bed. It thrashed and roared angrily in the lake causing huge waves and violent rattling. Something had angered it and Randy had an idea what or who that was, because he was currently fleeing from dumping waste that clearly irritated the Shark-Dermanator in the lake.

"MCfist…" Randy snarled. "Theresa we have to get out of here!"

But to their misfortune the violent rocking began to break the old wood that held the pier together, it shook until finally a big chunk of the pier broke off giving way into the lake trapping Randy and Theresa at the end. Randy's mind raced he noticed one of the wave slayers jet ski's still attached to a post on their side. He bolted for it and dragged Theresa by the hand. As they untied the Jet Ski Randy looked around to see the other civilians panicking and running away from the shore line as some of the waves threatened to pull them into the water, luckily no one yet. Randy knew he had to stop the Shark-Dermanator but he didn't have his mask so he cursed internally, he noticed the beast thrashing angrier, then he noticed that the pump that was expelling the chemicals that were irritating the creature was still on and continuing to pump away. Randy needed to turn that thing off before it drove the monster out of the Lake and to the city where it could cause some major damage.

"Okay, Theresa we need to shut that thing off so the Shark-Derman-I mean weird shark monster calms down before it sets its sights on the city" Randy explained finishing untying the knot. "We'll take this jet ski so we can get back to the shore and turn it of—"

"Oh god…" Theresa said despair in her voice interrupting Randy. "Claire's in the water!"

Randy's head snapped to the water and saw her and her dog Kenny flailing in the water being knocked back and forth by the violent waves.

"We have to save her!" Theresa said urgently jumping onto the Jet Ski and trying to start it.

"Theresa we have to stop that thing before it takes out the city!" Randy reasoned.

"We can't just leave her!" Theresa pleaded.

Randy biy his lip we was left with another impossible choice, if he took the Jet ski to save Claire the Shark-Dermanator would leave the lake very soon and go to the city, but Claire was clearly having a hard time staying above water and he couldn't just abandon her. 'This Honking sucks!' Randy thought, how could he be forced to choose something like this? He didn't want to sacrifice anything that wasn't his to sacrifice to save something else. Randy shut his eye then opened them with steely determination, no he was gonna make his own choice, he wasn't going to be cornered. He brethed slowly considering his option and exhausting every option he had until he came up with a plan, it was risky, probably suicide but he knew it was his best choice.

"Theresa, go to the shore and turn off the truck dumping the chemicals" Randy said to Theresa determination in his voice.

"But Clai—"Theresa was interrupted when Randy grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight.

"I'll save Claire" Randy said giving her hand another squeeze. "I promise I'll get her back, we don't have time to argue, and right now you need to stop those chemicals"

Theresa felt an unshakable resolve in Randy's voice and eyes. She nodded and took off. Randy took off his hoodie and shirt, those things may hinder him in the water. Then he dived.

He swam as fast as he could to where Claire was barely keeping her head above water, crying out for help. Randy pushed himself to go faster, he reached her and grabbed on to her and began swimming towards the shore. This was proving difficult with the violent waves constantly knocking him off course. He fought to keep his, Claire and Kenny's head above water while his arm muscles burned from exertion. He swam as fast and as hard as he could hoping and praying he would make it.

Meanwhile Theresa had ditched the Jet Ski the moment she made it to shore, she made a run for the truck dumping the chemicals. Once she reached it she saw the lever above the faucet that was dumping the chemicals, she instantly reached for it. Unfortunately the lever would not budge, she frantically pulled with all her might.

"Come on you stupid thing!" She screamed, she then looked to the lake to see Randy and Claire struggling in the water. She rolled up her sleeves and pulled harder than she has ever pulled before, it began to budge slowly then all at once. The chemicals stopped flowing as the Shark-Dermanator's violent struggling started to lessen and lessen. Finally the Shark-Derminator stopped and sank again below the water and fell back asleep at the bottom of the lake. She was about sit down in relief when she realized not everything was OK yet.

She ran as fast as she could and pushed past the crowd that was forming in front of the shore. She shoved one more person until she saw Claire on the shoreline drenched. She ran to her side and kneeled down, she sighed in relief when she saw her breathing softly and her eyes began blinking rapidly. However she looked around and began panicking when she noticed Randy was nowhere in sight.

"Randy!" She yelled, looking around frantically. She grabbed on to the nearest person she could. "Have you seen a boy? Uh pur-purple hair, about yea high? Please?!"

Suddenly out of the water Randy burst out near the shoreline, whipping his head to the side to throw off some of the water on his face. In his forearm was Kenny, Claire's dog.

Theresa hugged Randy with almost enough force to topple him.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For saving Claire" She said as she squeezed him, then she grabbed him and made him stare at her stern eyes. "But don't EVER do that again, you scared me!"

"Heh Sorry" He chuckled. Suddenly the crowd started surrounding Randy singing his and Theresa's praises, Randy had to admit this morning he was feeling really wonky, but now? This it felt good.

"The paramedics will be here soon to check up on you kids…you did good" An off duty cop said after a phone call with 911.

"Hey" Theresa said quietly to Randy. "That was really bruce of you"

"It wasn't much" Randy replied embarrassed.

"No it was" Theresa said smiling softly. "The way you just did what you knew you had to do, the way you found another way, the way you never let anything believe you were beat, just-just the way—"

"Made my own path…" Randy interrupted.

"What?"

"The limited paths ahead is not the paths a ninja should consider" Randy said quoting the nomicon. "What if, what if everything, what if everything he was doing was to make me believe I only had limited paths….Of course, that's whats he's doing! Theresa you're a genius! I know what he wants now, I know how to stop him!"

Theresa just stared at him extremely confused. She was even more confused when he hugged her with all his might.

"Theresa | gotta go, thank you again" Randy said making his way through the crowd.

"What about the ambulance?" Theresa asked.

"I'm fine! I'll see at you school!" He replied just before he was gone from view.

Theresa just tilted her head and sighed in defeat. The off duty cop came up to her and was also looking at the direction he left in.

"Are you sure your boyfriend's OK?" The cop asked.

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Somewhere in the treetops near Lake LaRusso five people stood. They had seen all that transpired in the lake and everything Randy did.

"I don't know about you guys, but that looked like a hero to me" Howard commented.

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"Howard!" Randy yelled as he entered through the kitchen door looking for his biffer, but stopped when he noticed Henry sitting at the table reading a book. Randy swallowed hard, he braced himself for the lecture he was about to get for leaving the house.

"Hey…." Which never came and was instead replace with Henry's greeting.

"Um, hi?" Randy replied cautiously.

The just stayed there in silence. Henry closed his book and got up and looked down then began scratching his neck.

"We uh…saved you some pizza in the fridge" Henry said avoiding Randy's eyes.

"..Thanks" Randy replied.

"Well I'm...gonna go now soo"

"Wait" Randy called out. "I uh never got to say sorry"

Henry clenched his jaw and finally made eye contact.

"What, what I did I know it was wrong and stupid and I *sigh* I'm sorry for putting you guys through that" Randy apologized, sincerity in his voice. "I just hope you guys know….I just did what I thought was the right thing at the time"

"Yeah…" Henry said, fumbling with a reply in his head "I'm sorry too for…you know trying to off you. But I hope you know I thought that was the right thing to do too, but if I'm forced to I'd do it again"

Randy gulped, looks like the tension between them hadn't been as erased as he hoped, but it was a start. Henry turned to leave.

"Wait, uh can I ask a favour?" Randy said hoping Henry would at least hear him out.

"Depends on the favour" Henry replied raising an eyebrow.

"Can I…borrow your nomicon for later?" Randy asked.

"Why?" henry asked confused.

"I just want to hear how, how I turned again, in full detail" Randy said, bracing for Henry to say no.

Henry looked at him suspiciously but sighed and took out his nomicon. "Okay…just don't use up all its energy, like it said it's really weak now"

"Thanks man you the cheese" Randy said accepting the nomicon. Randy then left the room to look for Howard, he found Howard in the living room playing grave punchers.

"Howard I need you to do something for me" Randy whispered into Howard's ear.

"Don't do that!" Howard said swatting Randy's face away from his ear. "Your breath feels gross on my ear. But what'ya need?"

"I need you to call smith, tell him to bring the messenger and meet me on the roof near the attic window secretly" Randy said seriously to Howard's confused face. "Tell them I need to know every way we have to beat evil me. And remember secretly"

"Okay…" Howard said as Randy left for the attic to be alone.

Randy reached the attic and closed the door so no one would disturb him.

"Okay nomicon, I think I figured out evil Randy's plan" Randy said as the book buzzed.

"And I am done letting people tell me the choices I have. I am done letting people force me into the choices they made for me. From now on I'm making my own path, so evil me better watch out"

Randy opened the book and shloomped in with a 'oof'.

Like I said probably not worth the wait haha, I'll try to better from now on okay.

I am almost done with this story, I believe it will be 2 maybe 3 more chapters then it'll be done

Don't forget to review :D