She found me tonight in silence.

Silence.

Comatose in mind, spirit, and body, she looked at me unsure. Comatose, she covered me with a blanket and helped me lie on the sofa I had been sitting on. Unable to truly feel my hand, she held it as my mind crashed and roared, swirling with memories of moments that transpired only hours ago. How could this be? We are a family...

~(0)~

"Father?" Leonardo had murmured, walking into my meditation room. I opened my eyes slowly, looking at the blue masked turtle before me. He bowed, and I nodded my head in return.

"Leonardo." I replied. "Is something the matter?" I asked, seeing waves of uncertainty and unease in his eyes. His dark eyes shifted to the floor, almost guilty, before he spoke again.

"My brothers and I need to talk to you, could you come into the main room for a moment?" He said, and I looked at him confused. Leonardo is rarely unsure, he is firm in all decisions, what could be plaguing him so? I stood and followed my eldest into the main room where my three other boys were sitting. Raphael looked bored, Donatello looked normal, and Michelangelo looked nervous. What could possibly be going on?

"My sons, to what do I owe the pleasure of a family meeting?" I chuckled, and the brothers looked between each other for a moment.

"We've been together a long time." Leonardo began. "We're a family, and we always will be."

"You are my sons, nothing can change that." I agreed. "I love each of you beyond measure."

"And we feel the same way, Sensei." Donatello responded. "There's no real way to say this, but..." Donatello trailed off, his eyes clouding over as his gaze fell to the ground.

"We wanna move out." Raphael spoke up. Silence descended upon the family, complete and utter silence.

"Excuse me?" I finally replied, shocked. My seemed to have skipped a beat as the blood in my body ran cold.

"Sensei, everyone topside eventually leaves the nest to go their own way. We're not like them, but we deserve the same chances, the same opportunities." Donatello spoke, his eyes lighting up. "We deserve to be able to have a home that is ours. Not just the lair, but places that are just for us...and I'm not talking about getting bigger rooms." Donatello chuckled. "Everyone in the world above eventually leaves their homes, whether to go to college or just to have their own place. We may not look the same, but the people above are a lot like us."

"What kind of talk is this?" I bristled. "I thought I had raised you four better. You do not just desert your own father for selfish wishes!"

"We're not deserting you, Sensei." Michelangelo suddenly spoke up. "We would never do that, never."

"And would you like to repeat the statement Raphael made?" I questioned, an eyebrow raised. My son wisely didn't respond. "Leonardo, I am ashamed of you. Of all you four, I would've expected such a ludicrous thought to be above you of all turtles!" My eldest, oddly enough, didn't take Michelangelo's wise response to heart.

"You raised me to be who I am today!" Leonardo responded hotly. "You taught me honor and respect, family and loyalty-"

"Did I?" I said calmly, my heart feeling like a stone.

"But we can't just stay down here forever!" Leonardo shouted angrily. "A ninja's journey can't keep him tied to one place, he must move on, see what hasn't been seen. You think you're helping us by keeping us down here, 'safe', but we've learned all we can by your teachings! There are other things out there, things even you can't teach us!"

I took a step away from my son, feeling like he had physically slapped me. I didn't care if my mouth was hanging slightly open, or even that my eyes were wide in shock. Today was not an ordinary day...

"It's not like we won't come back and visit, we will." Michelangelo hastily put in as Donatello moved to Leonardo's side, trying to calm his flared animosity.

"Sensei, if you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, it wasn't meant to be." Raphael spoke up, his dark brown eyes catching mine.

"Emily Dickinson." I finished for him, nodding approvingly. He might be the hot head of the group, but he obviously knew his literature.

"So...we're gonna go." Donatello said, making sure he was between me and Leonardo. He was casting the latter warning looks, and Leonardo just shrugged them off, storming towards the lair door.

"We moved all our stuff out already, I actually cleaned up my room." Michelangelo joked uneasily. I smiled softly, letting Raphael escort me to the couch and sit down.

"We'll come and visit, we swear. We just need to see what's out there, you can understand that, right? Donatello wants to be able to have a full course load on some online college, and with all the crazy around here that's slightly impossible. Mike can have a full week long movie marathon or game-a-thon if he wants without one of us getting in his way, you know how serious he is about all that. He was actually thinking about writing a paper on some dumb movie he watched. This could be good for him, help him grow. And Leo...ya gotta give him time, Sensei. You've kept him under your thumb a really long time, and I doubt ya ever realized it." Raphael was saying, his words slowly getting muffled by my mind-haze.

"And you, Raphael? What about you?" I finally murmured, looking sluggishly at the red masked turtle.

"Me? I ain't that sure, but that's why I gotta get outta here. To find out." He shrugged, and then called his brothers over. They created a line in front of me, made their right hand into a fist and placed it in their left, and slowly bowed in a show of respect. They rose together, always in unison, and then left. I watched each of my sons leave, frozen in place. My voice was locked from usage, and I could only stare ahead in dismay as my pride and joy walked away.

First was Leonardo, always in the lead. I didn't even know if he looked back, and if he didn't, would he regret it? His solemn figure was the last I saw as he disappeared, his place only to be taken by Donatello. My science minded son cast a glance back at me, and an emotion flickered in his eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came, and then so was he. Raphael followed suit, pausing in the doorway to turn back and wave, that cocky smile of his on his face, and then his smile, and he, were gone. My youngest was last. Fear was in his eyes, the fear that things could never go back to the way it was. The fear things were irrevocably unrepairable. He looked scared, but he looked toward his brothers, and then back at me. Of all my sons, it was obvious it was Michelangelo who was the most unsure. He didn't want to go, but he wanted to be with his brothers. I knew this day could come, but how could it? How? Michelangelo looked at a loss, the orange mask tails swinging back and forth as he looked back and forth between the two options. He sighed sadly, knowing whatever choice he made wouldn't go over well.

"Bye, Master." He whispered, then dashing away to catch up with his brothers.

They left, and I was alone.

Alone.

With them went my spirit, and my heart cried out in sorrow as tear splashed into my fur.

~(0)~

The girl was gone, just as my anguished mind came back to the present.

"Kage?" I whispered hoarsely. The girl was back, almost immediately, with a cup and saucer in her hands. She set the cup down gently, helping me sit up and arranging the blanket comfortably around my body before handing me the cup of tea. She looked at me sadly, compassion in her eyes, and a half smile on her face. "They're gone. They're all...gone." I murmured. "They...left."

Kage didn't say anything, just sat beside me quietly, lending me silent support. How could they leave? Did I do something that had regrettable consequences? The questions whispered in my mind, adding doubt, uncertainty, shame. Could I have forced my sons from my house? From our home? Kage didn't say anything, today would've been worse if she did. There had been to many revelations to upset everything, and besides, Kage couldn't talk. Otherwise, she would have spoken by now...right? The girl in question turned to me, tugging on my arm sleeve and pulling me up. She got in the first position of one of the routines I taught her, and she started the tai chi sequence, looking at me encouragingly to practice with her.

If anything, it was a distraction I gladly needed.

"Your stance is sloppy. Fix it." I muttered, and Kage immediately complied. "That's better...I guess." she smiled happily, and we continued.