The Prosperity

Final Feel Good Chapter.

…

A knock at my laboratory door breaks me out of my concentration. Good thing too, my hands are starting to cramp up. I turn and see April. "Hey." I smile.

"Hey." She says and walks in beside me. "Donnie, this looks amazing. Arimi will be so happy to see her Family Chest restored." She runs her hands lightly over the ancient trunk.

"It's not done yet. The glue still needs to set and the latch needs to be welded back into place. Could you hand me one more clamp?" I ask her.

"Sure." She says.

I point to the box in the corner and she brings back the small metal device.

"Thanks." I say. "So, what's up?" I tighten the clamp around the back edge of the trunk. The glue should dry and set over night. I'll need to ask Casey to pick up some polish for the metalwork. I pause and look at April, who has yet to speak. "April?"

She exhales and sits on the stool next to me. "I received a rather large package in the mail a few days ago. I didn't mention it before because of everything else going on around here…"

She hesitates. I turn to her fully, making a point that she has my attention.

"The package," she says. "Contained legal documents, a certified… death certificate, a deed to a mansion in England and an even larger one in Russia… about 190 patents I now own the rights to…"

I frown at the feeling of my heart sinking. "I'd forgotten she'd done that."

April nods. "There was also mention of a very large sum of money."

"How large?" I ask cautiously.

"Well, between the three separate foreign accounts and one that was recently opened in the states… shit."

I huff a laugh. It's not often I get to hear April cuss.

"Donnie," April's eyes widen. "The money just became available to me this morning… All forty-million of it."

"Shit." I say.

"Why did… I mean I know it is Anya's inheritance, but why me?"

"Why not?" I shrug. "Sasha… ask me who I trusted the most. I thought my choice would have been obvious."

"That's a big compliment."

"April…" I lay my hand over hers. "Have you forgotten already? I know it's been some time since we've had to fight to survive. Maybe we don't say it enough. You are the most important person in our lives. We wouldn't have survived the toughest parts without you. You gave us hope in humanity and today, we have more loved ones around to show for it."

"Oh." She covers her face. "I thought Mikey was the only one good at making me laugh and cry." She wipes her eyes.

"You're our sister. You are MY sister. There's no one else I'd trust more."

She nods. Then blurts out. "But forty-million dollars! Given to a ten-year old… Donnie, what did you get yourself into while you were away from us?"

It shouldn't be a secret anymore. I take the small, half-filled vial of liquid and place it in her hands. "What's inside this capsule, if shared, would forever change the world. Drug companies would close their doors, the human mentality toward mortality would greatly shift, and many of the most treacherous diseases would only be found in history books. This is what I was forced to work on all those months. This is what was started without me but completed by me. Then I fell in love with the woman who captured me and she loved me. And her daughter became my daughter… I was not able to finish it in time to save her."

April shakes her head and looks into my eyes. "This…"

"Protagen." I say.

"Protagen. Donnie, where were you that you were able to…?"

I grin. "That reminds me. I've got to ask Mikey and Raph if they'd like to join me on a small mission back to that secret facility… hidden under the Statue of Liberty."

She gasps. "Holy Shit."

"Whoa, two for two." I chuckle. "It's a bit dangerous to bring you on the first trip. Once I get one of the small submarines working, I'd be glad to take you there. There's a LOT of high-tech machinery there. It was like stepping into the future; Huge screens on the wall and ones small enough to fit on a watch. Its operating system follows you, aiding you with very sophisticated artificial intelligence. I know Mikey would love to have a bunch of those… And there's a gym with premium equipment, Raph would love that. Plus, Anya surely has some personal items she'd like to retrieve. And a few outfits I left there that I'd like to wear again." I know it's a lot to throw at her at one time but it's worth seeing the amazement on her face.

"You wore CLOTHES? You HAVE to take me there, Donnie!" April smiles.

"I will." I wipe my hands and shut off my desk light. We stroll out of the lab. I already smell dinner cooking and start to salivate. I didn't know I was that hungry.

April grabs my arm to stop me. I turn to her. She places the Protagen back in my hand. "Don't think I haven't noticed the vial is half full… does Anya have the same disease that took Sasha?"

I look down and place the vial back in my belt. "You'll never stop being a good reporter." I smirk. "Anya doesn't have it anymore. I gave her the dosage last night."

"And she'll be fine?"

"Yes. Protagen does not get rid of the bad genes, it puts them to sleep. And they never again awaken, not even within future generations. But I won't be sure of all its benefits until I run more tests at the secret facility."

"Are you… So, are you going to share it, somehow tell the world of what you created?"

I take a long look at my friend. I've thought about how or when I would do it, but I kept coming to the same conclusion. "I'm not going to."

She tilts her head in thought. "I thought that was the intent."

"The Protagen is a part of Anya's inheritance as well. I'm going to leave the decision to her as to whether or not she shares it with the world. It's not like I'm going to allow her to do it tomorrow, I still want her to enjoy being a child. She is going to grow up in a different world that we did. If she wants to expose herself with the cure or be anonymous when revealing the cure, it's her choice to make."

April nods in understanding and squeezes my arm gently. "You really are becoming a wonderful father. I hope you can see that."

"I never thought I would. It's starting to feel good."

"Good. Now let's go eat."

…

Anya pads down the steps, entering the bookstore level to meet me. She hands me a folded piece of paper. "Here are the codes I got from Jordan." She says.

I look at her strangely. "You're calling your AI Mother by her middle name?"

Anya shurgs. "Sure. It's not like the machine mother left me is actually her. I didn't want to keep calling it Mother and I didn't want to use Mother's first name so I chose 'Jordan'. It's my middle name too." She smiles and sticks her tongue through the gap in her teeth.

"It's a very fitting name then." I take the list of codes from her. They'll be very helpful in when trying get into all of the rooms at the hidden facility. Come to think of it, that place needs a name. Can't keep calling it 'the facility' when will be making it our secondary home. I'll ask Mikey to come up with a name. He's good at that.

"And here's my list of things to bring back for me. I've numbered them in the order of importance, so if you can't bring it all back, just know I'd like the top items first." Anya says and she folds up her lilac piece of paper and hands it to me.

"I'll put it in my first belt pouch so I don't forget." I humor her.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Your uncles and I are going to have some cleaning up to do." I say vaguely to her. Honestly I'm glad Raphael and Mikey took it upon themselves to check the facility without me first. They knew it would be hard for me to dispose of the bodiless clothing and lay to rest one fallen soldier… and clean all the blood. "Then, I need to do some lab work and make sure the Screen Time network is still functioning, and if I can, magnify its signal radius so we can use them in the city. If we stay on schedule, we should be back in five days."

"Five days? Why so long? What am I supposed to do until then?" She takes my hand and looks up at me with those big golden pouty eyes.

"Awe, I'm sure you can think of lots of things to do while we're away. You can study, help Splinter in his garden. Tidy up your bookcase. Help Amber and Amiri in the bookstore, when it's closed, of course… perhaps you could put uncle Mikey's VCR back together."

"Oh, he told you about that? Sorry, I've never seen one of those before."

"I bet you haven't." I grin. In that moment of silence something about how she's looking at me, look up to me, makes me feel very serious right now. "Anya, I promise to call as soon as I get communications running. And we'll talk every day until I come home, Ok?"

"Ok." She says softly.

"Ok." I secure my bo staff to my back and walk toward the bookcase door.

"W-wait!" Anya says. I turn around and she shoves her little body into me. She holds onto the sides of my plastron, attempting to hug me tightly. "I love you, Daddy. Be safe."

Daddy.

In total shock I close my eyes and feel warmth dance in my chest. I feel my heart beating... Growing, making room. I bend down and wrap my arms around my daughter. "I love you too, Anya. I promise I'll be safe." I kiss her forehead and leave. I meet my brothers at the top of the ladder that leads into the sewers and we go down together.

…

We often recognize bliss in an instant. Then we strive to keep it for a lifetime. We do not realize that bliss is eternal and our mortal lives are poisoned with self-loathing… We feel as though we don't deserve the good that happens to us, so we loosen our grip on the few things we have…

Love is the miracle. Experiencing it is my destiny. Losing it was my fate. But finding it again is the phenomenon.

…

The end.

…

A/N: My TMNT Tetralogy is complete. Thank you to all who have been patient with me and have dared to enjoy all four stories. I covet your comments! Please let me know what you thought. Again, thank you so much- Leatherleaf