Title: Blink
Summary: Everything can change in the blink of an eye.
Character(s): April, Mikey, Don
Genre: Angst
Setting: 2k12
Warning: Character Death
Dis: I don't own TMNT

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Everything can change in the blink of an eye. I've found that out first hand. You can be walking with your dad down the street and all you do is blink and suddenly you are surrounded by alien robots. You can go from clinging to a helicopter rung, to falling to your death, and finally to being caught by an anthropomorphic turtle and all you can do is blink while watching the helicopter you fell from fly away with everything that mattered in your life in it. I now understand the saying 'don't blink or you might miss it'.

Like today. Today had started off as an ordinary day and then it all changed quickly. I turned the corner, I blinked, and suddenly I was taken. All the training, all the practice I've been putting in with the guys and Splinter had been useless against Dogpound as he tied me up and tossed me into the van. I felt ashamed to have been taken so easily, without a fight. Luckily I had managed to shout out the command for making my phone self-destruct before they could use it against my friends.

My brothers.

I already know that the command sent a signal to the lair, and that they knew something was wrong. Despite my situation I smile, because even in this dire moment I think that everything is going to be okay. I scream as they haul me out of the van, the best way to draw attention is to scream. I barely contain my whimper as one of the Dragon henchmen backhands me and I taste blood in my mouth as he grips my elbow sharply.

That is when I hear it. The whirl of metal slicing the air before the sharp end of the shuriken embeds itself into the shoulder of the Dragon that just hit me. Taking this as a distraction I bend low and slide to the ground and bring up my tied feet and slam them into the Dragon's knees. I hear the clash of weapons, the menacing growl of Dogpound, and the dull thunks of bodies as they fall to the concrete. I manage to untie my bound feet and stand up as the last Dragon falls.

Or so I thought.

Brilliant smiles are all I see. Then I blink, and the smiles have transitioned to looks of horror and desperation. I open my mouth to ask what the problem is when I feel the sting of metal cutting into my flesh. I cry out in pain, someone shouts out my name as I fall to the ground. I start gasping. I can't breathe. Something is wrong.

"April!" Wide, blue eyes stare down at me. Panic. That is all I see in their depths as he kneels beside me. A large green hand covers my throat and applies pressure and I whimper. My throat… It's been sliced open by the same shuriken that had aided in my release. "Oh God… Oh God! Donnie! DONNIE!"

I hear screaming. It isn't me. It's Donnie. I manage to turn my head and I see his powerful arms and meaty fists bearing down on the Dragon that was no longer moving. Raph pulls him off the gangster and I open my mouth to call him over but no sound comes out.

I'm so tired.

"April!" I look up at Mikey just as Donatello comes to my side. "You're going to be fine."

"Keep your eyes open for me," whispered Donatello. Why did he sound so far away? "Dammit April! April! DON'T YOU DARE DIE!"

"You should see her, Donnie," I manage, wide blue eyes staring up at a sky filled with stars and a vision I haven't seen in ten years. "She's so beautiful."

"Who?" he asked, looking up at Raph, who is calling 9-1-1.

"My mom."

I blink, one last time, before my lids grow too heavy. I float and fade away, the opened arms of my mother greeting me as a tortured scream fades into nothing behind me. I am free. I am home in my mother's eyes. I look up at her, not believing. She smiles before taking my hand and leading me up higher and higher… I blink, and everything fades to white.

I am at peace.

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END