Author's Notes

Sorry for the wait but the universe was not doing this chapter any favors between getting writers block and my computer crashing -_-
But everything's fixed now and I'm so excited to have this chapter done so I can post the next one which is a real turning point in the story so stay tuned!

~Enjoy

Morning Routines

April watched Mikey stormed out of the garage and slam his bucket into the sink before approaching him.

"Well, that was quick." She remarked.

"How can you believe anything that… that… devil has to say?" Mikey asked.

"I don't." April remarked as she walked around him to glance through the window on the door to the garage. "But he's useful to us in ways you don't understand yet."

"Well, whatever this 'classified' project is I'm sure it's not worth dealing with him." He scoffed.

"I take it you two didn't get along?" April asked.

"I hate him." Mikey shook his head. "I hate him so much."
"Ok, ok, it's clear now that having you two in the same room together isn't going to work so you can hold off on cleaning duty for now."

"Thank you."

"Instead we will start your training." She began to walk away.

"Wait, what? Now?"

Mikey stood at the center of a square shaped room while several resistance soldiers circled around him. April and Angel stood at one of the balconies that looked over the dojo.

"Are you sure you don't want me to hold back? I don't want to hurt you're soldiers too badly." Mikey smirked.

"Don't worry about them. These are some of our most elite soldiers. They can take a beating." April shrugged. "I figured since you toke down Angel's without breaking a sweat you'd be up for something a little more challenging."

The first soldier to advance towards him came from his left, armed with tonfas. They parried with their weapons until the second soldier came towards him with a sword. Back flipping away, the two solider toke their stance in front of him.

Mikey gave a small smirk as they darted towards him.

Using his nunchaku and body movements he was able to avoid all their attempts at contact with their weapons. Using his kurgasami chain he tossed it to wrap around the soldier with the tonfas' waist. Before he could get a hold of it, Mikey gave it a hard pull, having the solider fall forward before he came in contact with Mikey's knee.

The other solider tried to lay an attack while he was distracted by swinging his sword horizontally at Mikey. Mikey ducked from the blade having the soldier miss while Mikey kicked his legs out from under him.

"Those are the best you got?" Mikey directed at April with a cocky laugh.

He turned towards the last remaining soldier who stood behind him. He stood about up to Mikey's waist, his dark brown hair hanging loosely over his eyes.

"I guess you're next, huh?" Mikey lowered his stance as he began twirling his nunchaku. The soldier got in his stance before pulling out his weapon of choice: a bo staff.

April leaned further in on the railing as she watched Mikey's reaction.

Mikey's breath hitched as his eyes locked on the long wooden stick in his attackers hands. He began twirling in front of him he darted towards Mikey, the staff a brown blur as it spun in a fast circle.

Mikey glanced behind him to watch the other two soldiers move off the sparing floor.

Mikey toke his first swing with his nunchaku, but with every attempt, the boy's staff would deflect. The boy spun to land a wheelhouse kick to Mikey, but his reflexes were much faster, allowing him to block his foot with his forearm and knocking him off balance. Mikey swung his nunchaku again but the boy ducked from it a spun around so he was behind Mikey, giving his an advantage to lay a hit on him. He continued to land his staff on Mikey as Mikey tried to turn to him to block, his aggravation rising. Mikey turned to meet him again but the boy was behind him and swung his bo to knock Mikey's feet from under him.

The boy let out a laugh as he strutted away with his staff rested on his shoulders. With a growl of aggravation, Mikey got to his feet and released his kurgasami. The boy saw the chain and quickly turned its direction and held out his staff so the chain wrapped around it. He gave it a strong pull but the boy planted his feet and kept a tight grip on his weapon. Mikey gritted his teeth as he twisted his hand around the chain to gain more strength in his pull. The boy only smirked at his struggle.

"If you want the staff so much, have it." the boy let go, having the staff come back and hit Mikey in the face. Stumbling back the boy ran towards him, picked up his weapon from the ground and jumped to deliver the final side kick to Mikey's chest, causing him to fall. The boy held the end of the staff towards Mikey's face before unleashing the blade at the top, Mikey's blue eyes growing wide at its tip.

"Alright, he's had enough, Ben. You are dismissed." April instructed.

The boy gave Mikey one last grin before bowing to April and exiting the room.

Mikey balled up his fist as he sat up.

"Not a bad fighter, isn't he?" April asked as she walked down to meet with him.

"Yeah he's fantastic." Mikey spat as he walked past her.

"Don't take it too hard, Mikey. We've been training him since he could walk." April said in dismiss.

"So have I! I'm a 35 year old trained ninja and I just got my ass handed to me by a twelve year old!"
"Well, actually he's ten…" April winced.

"10! What are you feeding them?" Mikey was taken aback.

"Don't let it get to you, Mikey. So you're a little rusty, that's why you're in training."

"This is stupid. I don't even know what I'm doing here or even why I want to get tangled up in all this again." Mikey sighed.

"Follow me." April led him into the Cafeteria and back into the kitchen where chefs were beginning to prepare dinner. Approaching a large metal door April put her hand against the scanner to unlock the door. The fresh scent of earth was pushed out the doorway causing Mikey to take in a deep breath. The smell of fresh dirt and leaves was nearly forgotten in his mind due to the overabundance of smoke in the air above ground.

"Come." April motioned him inside the sealed room, exposing him to a greenhouse like area. The room was longer in length than it was in width and had several rows of plants lined down the room. Walking down the one of the rows, Mikey examined the various plants that were growing on either side of him. Every plant in there produced some sort of fruit or vegetable. The ceiling was made of plastic sheeting and the surrounding walls weren't walls at all but compacted dirt. Mikey ran his along it, letting his fingers dig deep until the soil was between his fingers.

"This is amazing! I never would've thought there would be a greenhouse back here." Mikey said as she brushed his hand along the missed green leaves as he walked by them.

"Of course. Where else do you think we get our fresh food?" April asked as she went behind one of the rows to get to the end of the green house. "The plastic sheeting absorbs the sunlight, making it warm in here for the plants to grow year round."

"But where does that ceiling lead to? Aren't you afraid the Foot will see it?" Mikey asked.

"The Foot don't come through these woods often anymore. Maybe once or twice a year." April explained. "Plus there are dried up dead bushes around it so it keeps hidden by their branches."

Along the back wall grew an assortment of violet flowers separated from the produce.

"Irisis?" Mikey questioned as he examined the flowers.
"They were Donnie's favorite." April sighed. "They also represent wisdom, faith, hope, and courage: All the traits that make up the resistance."

"Come on." April picked a bundle of the flowers "We're going on a trip."

The surface air was much warmer than the cold temperature of the HQ due to the sun beginning to set over the destructed city. The two crept quietly through its abandoned streets, making sure to keep within alley ways and dark corners where then sun couldn't touch.

Mikey's blue eyes scanned the familiar surroundings from the uplifted pavement to the heavy clouds of smoke that drifted overhead. A street sign post sat sideways in the cement, it's sign faded, but a couple letters could be made out.

That's when Mikey realized where they were going.

"No." He stopped, having April stop too to look back at him. "No, I don't want to be here, let's just go back."

"But, this is part of your training." April insisted.

"No, I don't. I don't think I can-"April let out a sigh as she approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know it never easy, but we all have to face our inner demons eventually. This is part of your inner training." She continued walking. "To see if you would be able to face those demons if they ever approached you."

Mikey toke in a deep breath as he continued to follow her.

The oncoming building sat in ruins with walls caving in and shattered stain glass windows. It was obvious the place was abandoned and left to rot. The front entrance was blocked off from the entrance of the door crumbling down so April led them around a side entrance.

"This way." She instructed as she opened the rusted emergency exit. Mikey let out a calming breath before stepping inside.

The inside of the old church looked nothing like it did 20 years ago. Parts of the ceiling had come crashing down, allowing the full moon's light to shine down upon them and the debris had create an obstacle course to get to the other side of the room. As they walked through, Mikey noticed a hole in one of the tall walls. Glancing through, he could barely make out a resemblance on what that room use to look like except for one small detail, sitting on the upper platform above all the crumbling rock was Shredder's old throne.

Taking in a quick breath, Mikey backed away from the sight.

"Are you sure this place is totally abandoned?" Mikey asked.

"Definitely. Shredder completely abandoned this place once his empire began to grow. He forced the enslaved citizens to build his giant fortress in the center of the city and once completed he saw no need to keep this intact. So he left it to fall apart which it is doing a great job ." She explained as she cleared away so debris to reveal a set of stairs that led downwards.

Creeping down the stairs, they came across a long hallway that sent a chill down Mikey's spine. His feet grew heavier with each step towards the door and his heart rate increased.

April swung open the decayed large double doors to reveal the room that served as a setting to Mikey's nightmares.

The room that started everything.

The portal was gone, obviously, as was everything else in the room. The empty room was only littered with fallen concrete from the ceiling and some left behind wires.

April continued into the room, her eyes glancing around as she toke in the familiar atmosphere. Mikey stopped at the top of the steps, his eyes scanning across the room. He couldn't force his body to follow her inside. He just remained frozen like he did all those years ago.

"MIKEY I SAID NOW!" Raph's voice screamed at him, knocking him out of his trance. Raph's emerald green eyes were glistening as they glared hard at him before turning towards their brother who was lying on the floor. Breaking free from his still state he tore off running through the doors and into the halls.

He ran so hard that his heart was pounding against his chest and his clenched palms grew moist.

He ran so hard that his breath was quick but he wasn't tired.

He ran so hard that he didn't even notice that the lights were back on or how there was no foot solider in sight to stop him.

Pushing through the doors, Mikey stumbled towards the shellraiser.

"Mikey? What's going on? Where are the others?" April asked as the Shellraier's door slid open.

"I-I don't know w-what happened! Everything was going fine and then he came and Donnie he- he- oh god!" Mikey clasped his hands over his face.

"Mikey. Where are they? What happened to Donnie?" She asked sternly as she placed her hands on his shoulders. Mikey tried to control his breathing but each breath was choked back by a sob. "Take me to him." She grabbed his hand and they both ran back into Shredder's lair and into the portal room.

At the sight of Raphael hunched over with Donnie's motionless body in his arms they knew they were too late. Mikey glanced over at April who let her hand fall out of Mikey's grip as her other hand clasped to her mouth. She walked over to the two before falling to her knees.

Mikey could only stare towards them, his knees locked and unable to move him towards them.

He didn't want to see what Raphael was loudly sobbing at.
He didn't want to see where that puddle of red liquid beneath him was coming from.

April turned towards Mikey who stood stiff with his hand clenched in a fist, a cold stare towards the ground.

"Mikey?"

"This is where I stood when it happened." He replied. "I just stood here and starred at him like a… like a fucking idiot when he needed me the most. They both needed me."

"And you helped them. You came and got me like Raph wanted you too." April placed a hand on his shoulder
"BUT THAT DIDN'T SAVE HIM!" Mikey snapped suddenly causing April to draw back her hand.

Mikey let out a deep sigh before dropping to his knees. April followed.

"Why? Of all the times, why did I just freeze like that? I could've done so much more to help and I did nothing. I could've- He could still be alive if I just-"

"Michelangelo, none of this is your fault. There was nothing else you could've done." April assured him. "Everything that happened that day was part of Shredder's plan to which we fell for. It cost us a great loss but now we have to move on and learn from our mistakes in order to stand against him." April laid the irises on a specific place on the ground.

"That's what the resistances is about. Letting go of your fears and the things that hold you back in order to face the demons that lie ahead. The Shredder has taken too much away from us and it's about time we do something to stop him, avenge those that we lost in this war.

You belong with us. We need you Mikey."

The journey back to HQ was quiet as the moon shone upon the ruined city. When Mikey stepped out of the elevator he paused near the middle of the room.

Angle was leaned over the table talking with two other soldiers, they each had a smile on their face. The people they saved from the factory were up and walking around with a healthy glow across their faces and cleansed of their abuse from the Foot. A couple were even wearing resistance uniforms.

These people were away from Shedder's grasp and in a safe community; a place where didn't have to slave away for 18 hours but instead could do what they wanted.

A place where they belonged.

Maybe this was where Mikey belonged.