As they moved speedily through the sewers, Leo, Raph and Mikey made sure to keep their distance from alt-dimension Donnie. The turtle basically radiated off a stern and inhospitable aura, the firm scowl on his face as proof. He seemed to be more serious than their Sensei and also might be more ruthless. This factor, along with him leading the way back to the lair and his height, made him look older than his age. Shell, it even looked like he was the eldest of the four and not Leonardo.

"Dunno why I am saying this, but this version of our deceased geeky brother freaks me out a bit," Raphael whispered as he fell back to his eldest sibling's side.

"Yeah," Michelangelo agreed, joining them, "he's a real grouch. He's a whole lot grumpier than Leo and Master Splinter combined."

"He acts so mature and – " Leonardo cut himself short to process what the youngest said. "Hey! I'm not that grumpy!"

"My point exactly."

"Oi! You gaki finished with your little pep talk?" Donatello suddenly inquired, looking over his shoulder and at them.

His hard burgundy stare made them gulp in and they nodded. A few minutes later, they reached the lair. It was ten minutes until midnight.

"Leonardo! Raphael! Michelangelo!" Master Splinter called, anger evident in his voice. "Why are you three home this late? The time is 11:50PM and – "

Shock interrupted his likely lecture. Standing before him was his late son Donatello, scarred, scowling and pretty much alive. The old rat dropped his jade staff as he walked towards the purple-masked turtle gradually, as if caught in a trance. With shaky hands, he took his son's arms, feeling the rough and marred skin underneath his touch. Sepia eyes met burgundy ones as with the same trembling hands, Splinter cupped his son's face before he thought it would fade away just like any other hallucination.

But it didn't. His son was truly there.

"H-How?" Was all he could force out of his throat, tears threatening to spill.

Donatello closed his eyes and when he opened them, they stared hard and deeply into Splinter's soul. He then stepped back, freeing his face from the rat's warm and tender hold.

"I'm sorry, Splinter-san," he said rather grimly, "but I am not your son."

Splinter's face was laced with confusion and seeing this, the brainiac sighed and motioned him to the couch to sit. The other turtles also joined in, taking their seats on the floor in front of their Sensei. Donatello sat on the floor as well, his carapace facing the TV as he faced them.

"From where I come from, in my dimension, the whole world has gone wrong," he began, his voice loud and clear. "Oroku Saki, AKA Shredder, managed to rule over everything with his power and help from the Foot clan. He even collaborated with the Kraangs and that made matters worse. He made New York City his base of operations and with the Kraangs' Mutagen, turned most of the Big Apple's residents into mutants and controlled them."

"No way!" Mikey gasped, leaning in closer. "That's…terrible!"

"Shredder…how can he become so powerful ?" Leo wondered allowed as he and Master Splinter shared worried glances.

"What kind of a sick and twisted world is that?" Raph questioned, hands balled into fists on his thighs.

"My world," Donatello answered and went on. "What made it more horrific was when my brothers Raphael and Leonardo got into an argument and eventually, a fight with each other. From then on, they went their own ways, leaving me, Michelangelo and Master Splinter to fend for ourselves.

"I had to step up to the role of being the leader since my Sensei was getting weaker everyday due to a fatal injury that he obtained in a brawl with some of the Foot. We struggled to survive. Shredder had the Foot infiltrate the sewers and we had to move to an abandoned warehouse by the docks. We were doing good for some time until…"

The brainiac heaved out a sad sigh. For a minute, everyone thought he was going to cry right in front of them, but his gaze hardened, telling them otherwise.

"It was raining that night when the Foot suddenly barged in, armed with the latest of the Kraangs' gear and technology," he continued and fingered a scar that ran from his left bicep to halfway down his forearm. "They gave me this. It was bleeding a lot and hurt like shell, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.

"Right in front of me, before my very eyes, they killed Michelangelo and Sensei. They were practically skewered with the Foot's katana and their blood splattered almost everywhere, including on me. Inside me, something snapped and I went into a frenzy fueled by revenge and bloodlust, annihilating almost every single one of those teme. The next thing I knew, I was captured and brought to Shredder.

"I wanted to kill him so badly and what stimulated this was what I saw in his room. Leonardo's and Raphael's shells hung on his wall like plaques and award certificates. They were as good as dead and those were the proofs to that. For the second time, I cracked and went head-to-head with the tyrant, successfully decapitating him."

There was a moment of silence. Splinter, Leo, Raph and Mikey took the time to look at the disfigured turtle before them. All those scars…had Shredder done this to him in their fight?

"My son, you have been through the worst of things," Splinter stated softly, gazing intently at him. "But how and why you came here is still not clarified."

"An invention of mine did it," Donatello replied as he brought out a calculator-resembling device from his duffel bag. "The Foot were on to me after I killed their master. I created the Time-and-Space Jumper to escape and turn back everything so that I can reverse and redo how it all happened. But instead of doing that, it ripped a hole in time and space continuum and sent me hurtling through all sorts of periods and dimensions. Pirates, knights, aliens, you name it, I've seen it. After countless of out-of-schedule visits, I was finally able to fix the TSJ."

He pressed a certain red button on the gadget and the Time-and-Space Jumper came to life. Its screen glowed a bright lime green and from it projected another screen, this time transparent, hologram-like and much bigger. The turtles and their rat father watched in awe as Donatello swiped across the seemingly tangible screen with a finger, skimming through hundreds of files and folders. After a couple more swipes, he finally found the file of his choice and clicked it. The hologram screen then played a maximized view of a video. In the video were the three turtles, their Sensei and their human friend April, all of them sadly watching something float on the sewer canal and away from them as it blazed on and on.

"Familiar?" Donatello asked.

"That's…Donnie's coffin," Leonardo pointed at the burning box in the video.

The alt-dimension brainiac nodded and turned off his TSJ, the video and hologram screen vanishing all of a sudden.

"This was how I came to this dimension," he explained, holding out the device. "Your Donatello died and I knew it would corrupt this dimension's future, especially with all your mopping around and depression crap. I came here to stop this before it would be too late."

"If that doohickey can let you travel across time," Raphael started, frowning, "then how come you didn't use it to save our Donnie from dying?"

He had a point. The red-masked turtle's brothers nodded in agreement and turned to the bo-staff wielder for an answer.

"Because," Donatello spat out the word in annoyance, "if I were to meet this dimension's Donatello, the entire time and space continuum would collapse on itself and everything will cease to exist. Can't risk that now, can we?"

"But still – "

"Urusai!" The purple-masked turtle yelled as he got onto his feet. "There's no use explaining complex matters with you ahondura. You're all too naïve and easily moved by the wave of events around you. This dimension's Shredder will surely finish you off if you're all that weak."

The comment struck a nerve. Raph stood up and came face-to-face with the brainiac. They were growling at one another and were about to lunge at each other's throat when Splinter came in between.

"Raphael! Donatello!" He exclaimed, thumping the floor once with his staff. "Enough of this! Calm down and regain your composure."

He then turned to the disfigured turtle on his left and reached out to him.

"Donatello, my son – "

To his and his sons' surprise, the brainiac swatted his hand away and glared at him.

"I might look like your son, Splinter-san," he said coldly, a raging fire in his burgundy eyes, "but I definitely am NOT your son. Neither are you my father and Sensei. He's dead, along with my brothers and everyone else I cared about."

The rat stood there, hand still reached out and a look of utter shock in his face. In anger, alt-dimension Donatello swung his duffel bag over his shoulder and went to the late Donatello's room, slamming the door in the process. Leo proceeded to follow him but was stopped by his father's hand on his shoulder.

"But Sensei – "

"No, Leonardo. He is right. He is not our Donatello and therefore, we have no authority and meaning in his life. We will just stand by and watch as he does what he thinks is appropriate for all of us."

And with that, Splinter returned to his room, head hung in sadness. His sons watched his retreating back with solemn expressions.

"Sensei…"

/

In his room, Donatello locked the door, set down his duffel bag on the nearby desk and sat on the neat yet a bit dusty bed.

"Like I said, easily moved by the wave of events," he repeated to himself as a nasty grin appeared on his face. "Even if they're just lies."

A/N

Donnie, what are you up to?

Yes, alt-dimension Donnie's story was referenced from the TMNT 2003-2009 episode entitled "Same As It Never Was". In that episode, Donnie was sent to a dimension where Shredhead's basically the ruler of the world, his family had split apart, April's the leader of an anti-Shredder faction, Splinter's dead and the Donnie of that dimension was nowhere to be found. In the end, all of his alt-dimension brothers died and he defeated the upgraded Shredder. To those who don't know this, I highly recommend you watch this. It's a sad yet heart-warming story. :')

Right now, I wanna have a TSJ of my own. I have a lot of things to rewind and redo, lots of embarrassing moments I wanna erase. Sadly, such an invention is not yet available. DX

Japanese Vocab Corner

-san – A Japanese title equivalent to the English "Mr." or "Ms.", depending on the gender.

Teme – Jerk, but can also mean Bastard (I think alt-dimension Donnie preferred the latter).

"Urusai!" – "Shut up!", but can also mean "Silence!" or "Quiet!" or flat out "Too noisy!".

Longest chapter so far. Whew!