Ha! I knew that bright light was a bunch of reviews! Thanks everyone! I'm glad people are still reading this story.

Now let's see…

*Breaks open fortune cookie*

You are not the owner of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Please enjoy this chapter while I mourn in the corner. WAH!

Smack!

Clank!

Bang!

Crash!

Boom!

The combination of noises woke April and Casey at the same time. They both rushed down the stairs only to nearly fall over a group of groaning bodies at the foot of the stairs. Their eyes immediately scanned the room for others, and the young turtle tots.

"April, Casey," said a patient voice from the doorway, "Thank you."

The two humans looked towards the door and saw a shadowed figure. Cries reached their ears the next second. Cries that they recognized as the turtle tots.

"Raph! Donny! Mikey!" they cried out, momentarily believing that it was a Foot ninja that had the toddlers.

Imagine their surprise when the ninja that stepped out of the shadows, was a familiar, blue masked turtle.

"Aniki," the three tots were muttering as they were held in their big brother's arms.

"Leo…" April breathed, a smile stretching across her face.

An hour later, the three turtle tots were asleep on a large mattress in one of the rooms upstairs, Casey had left to dump the Foot soldiers off far away from the farmhouse, and the remaining human and turtle were in the kitchen, Leo telling April how he had escaped the Foot and the strange vision he had had when he was unconscious. Leatherhead, who had been in the basement at first, had gotten himself tangled in a mess of electric wires when he had heard the sound of the shell cycle engine in the distance. This therefore, was why he did not appear immediately. Currently, he was outside, attempting to fix the broken living room door that the Foot ninja and broken into a jigsaw puzzle.

"Wow," April breathed. If she hadn't at one time been shown a vision from that y'lintain when they had to stop that nuclear waste from spilling into the river and killing the last of the creature's eggs, then she probably wouldn't have believed Leo.

"I just don't know what to think of it," Leo said, staring down at the table and tilting his head forward so a shadow covered his eyes.

"It seems like they just wanted you to come back to them."

"April, will I ever get my brothers back?"

The switch in tone made April automatically frown before she even caught the words. She swallowed a large gulp of the green tea before her and then took a deep breath, "Of course you will. They'll be back."

April couldn't really say she believed it, and although it wasn't much she tried to push as much assurance in her words as she could. Leo shook his head as he glanced up at April, his eyes had a slight shine to them.

"Don't you understand April? Yes, they're my little brothers. I'll always love them, but they're never going to be the same."

April glanced to the side in perpetual thought before clearing her throat, "You're right. They are going to be different, but they'll be the same too. Mikey will still be the life of the party, Donny's still going to be a genius, and Raph's still going to be hotheaded."

Leo turned his eyes away from her.

"Look Leo," April said, glaring at the blue clad turtle to get his attention, "Those three sixteen-year-old turtles you called your brothers loved you just as much as those three toddler turtles upstairs. They've always looked up to you, always followed you and always will."

The blue masked turtle let out a small chuckle, "You know? I was just thinking something ironic."

"What?" the red head asked, her green eyes sparing with curiosity.

"It just reminds me of something I read in the book The Art of War," Leo explained before glancing at the window when a leaf was blown up against the glass.

"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death," Leo quoted.

"You're still their brother Leo," April reminded.

"But I have to be their father too."

April tapped her fingertips against the table top, "It must be hard."

Leo raised a hand to his face and wiped at his eyes, "Thanks, I needed to get that out. All I can do is my best. I know I can't be a father like Master Splinter was, but I can try."

April lowered her eyes to the table in thought as she filed through her memories, she tried to picture Raph not hotheaded, Donny not working on something electronic and Mikey not sitting in front of a television playing videogames or watching a superheroes show while gulping down junk food…

She couldn't see it.

"ANIKI!" she heard the distant call as the blue clad turtle walked into the living room.

She smiled sweetly and joined them. Leo was sitting on the couch, smiling his normal, soft, caring smile at his younger brothers as they each tried to crawl into his lap. They had obviously all woken up from their nap and ran down stairs to find their brother. Leatherhead was now inside and swinging the door open and closed to test the hinges. Just as the mutant crocodile closed the door for a final time, Casey came in, causing the wood of the door to crack.

"Oops," he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Casey!" April said, "Leatherhead just fixed that!"

"What did you do with the Foot ninjas?" Leo asked, ignoring April's outburst.

"Nearest Police HQ," Casey said with a grin.

"Good," Leo said, adjusting the way he was sitting so the tots could all curl up to him, snuggling into his plastron.

"So now what will be our course of action?" Leatherhead asked, him and the humans looking to Leo.

Leo shouted, "What are you looking at me for?"

Or at least that's what he wanted to yell, but he knew he couldn't, they were all counting in him. He took a deep breath, and thought it over for five seconds before answering.

"We'll leave for New York later tonight. April, Casey, find a hotel somewhere, you're safe as long as you're both in the public's eye. Leatherhead, I know ask a lot of you so I'm sorry, but we can't return to our home and the surface is not an option so if you'll-"

"You are welcome to my home, my friend, I will try not to grow angry."

Leo looked down at his quiet little brothers before sighing, he knew how dangerous Leatherhead could get when he lost his temper, but he and his family had no choice at the moment.

Later that night a single turtle was tossing and turning in his sleep. One might think it was Donatello who was plagued with a similar nightmare from before the Foot appeared in April's apartment, one might even think it the youngest being haunting by the fear of losing his eldest brother, but no. The tot tossing and turning frightfully was the red masked turtle, Raphael, and although it was unbeknownst to him, his nightmares were more than nightmares.

Raph found himself standing on a thick carpet watching a clock above him tick away its tune. He just stood there staring at it curiously.

"Guys, I'm starting to get worried," a new voice said, causing Raph to jump and turn around.

What he saw made him fall back and caused his eyes to widen in amassment. There before him stood three, older turtles, they looked like Leo, only one had Raphael's mask.

"Leo should've been back by now," the orange masked one continued.

"I know this is weird, but, I'm thinking Mikey's right," a purple masked turtle said, holding a long, wooden stick in his hands.

"Master Splinter?" another voice said.

Raph turned and saw that the red masked older turtle was talking to some kind of rat creature.

"Wait, that name's familiar," Raph thought, then it struck him- Their father! The one their older brother was always telling them about!

A woman he recognized as April walked up behind Splinter, glancing down at him expectantly.

The rat breathed a difficult sigh and said with a strain, "Go."

The larger turtles took three steps away from the clock when they heard a scream in the distance. Raph heard shattering glass and turned to see a green, shell-backed body fly through the window and land on the floor with a struggling gasp. Then, he recognized the figure, "ANIKI!"

"Leo?"

"Leo, what happened!"

The other three larger turtles ran to him, their faces showing looks of horror and fear. The little red masked toddler was frozen in place. The orange masked turtle fell to his knees and lifted Leo's head as the red masked turtle clasped his hands together in anxiety.

"Who did this to you?" the red banded demanded.

Leo tried to answer, but only shaking breaths escaped his throat before his eyes closed.

"NO!" the turtle tot shouted running over to his big brother, only to faze through him.

"What?" he asked, "Aniki?"

The sight of his big brother laying still, motionless, beaten, bloody and bruised scared him stiff, his legs grew weak and he fell to his knees before the other turtles. His eyes remained on Leo until he heard the red masked older turtle growl. The angry turtle got up and narrowed his eyes into slits before harshly turning to the window Leo had crashed through, pulling some kind of three pronged knives from his belt and spinning them in his hands.

"I'm gonna find out who did this!" he growled as he jumped onto the windowsill.

"No Raph, wait."

"WHAT!" the tot shouted looking between his older brother and the older turtle with a red mask just like his own.

"That's me?"

Even if he could've interacted with them, he wouldn't have received an answer before a white light filled his vision. In the distance, all he could hear was a familiar scream.

When Raphael sat bolt upright from his nightmare, it occurred to him. That wasn't a dream or nightmare. That had been real.

That was a memory.

Ah… it seems that our little turtle family is back together, it's obvious that Leo still has his doubts and what's this the tots are starting to remember? Well, in the next chapter you'll find out what exactly happened to Raph, Donny and Mikey. You did get a small glance earlier but now you'll get all the details.

Please leave cookies and reviews. Please? For the children?

*Holds up chibi turtle tots with wide blue eyes* Please?

~Moonsetta