Shout-out to my dearest friend and fellow writer here on FF, Bloodrayne666, for her suggestions and help with this chapter.

Chapter 44

War's End

Leonardo and the others returned with the survivors to the heart of the village, where the others were gathered to lick their wounds from the battle, though it was very reluctantly as they came carrying grave news.

As she saw her mate and the others return, Monalisa hurried to meet them, followed closely by Pandora, despite Dahila trying to keep the hybrid back in order to treat her wounds.

Getting closer, Pandora noticed the sad faces among the adults as they talked to her mother, her father especially, and shortly after she saw how Monalisa dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

"Mum? Dad, what's going on?" she asked as she got closer, at which point she noticed that her mother was weeping.

Looking at the people assembled, she saw that Barry was carrying an injured Rattletrap, while Jake carried an unconscious Amber, but she knew that there were more missing than just those.

"What's happened? Where's uncle Mikey? Did you find him? Is he okay?"

"Mikey? Where is he?" a voice asked suddenly, as Kate walked up to them, having heard her boyfriend's name mentioned.

Leonardo clenched his fists and turned away before forcing himself to face them. They needed to know.

"Pandora… Kate… I'm…" tears again threatened to spill over. "I'm sorry… Mikey… he didn't make it…"

"W-what?" Pandora stammered, while Kate could only stare at the blue-masked turtle in disbelief and utter silence.

"Michelangelo… is… dead…" Leonardo forced himself to say, not able to hold back his tears any longer.

"Uncle Mikey is… dead…? No… no, that can't be! You're lying, uncle Leo! Or you're wrong! He can't be dead! He can't!"

"It's the truth, kiddo…" Rattletrap said grimly, something very different from his usual self. "He's gone. Him, Moe, Sarah, and that orc, Scorm. They're all gone. Only me and Amber survived."

Tears started rolling down Pandora's cheeks, then she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she glared at the rat.

"Why? Why?! Why couldn't it been you instead?!" she snarled and lunged at Rattletrap, ripping him out of Barry's arms before the warthog could react and pinning him to the ground.

"Why didn't you die instead of him!?" she shouted as she sobbed and started tearing into the injured rat with her metal claws. "I wish it was you who died! Instead of him!"

"Pandora! That's enough!" Raphael cried out as he pulled his daughter off of Rattletrap and tried his best to restrain her even as she struggled violently to get free.

As she did, she caught sight of Devina to her side, Pandora's head instantly snapping towards the undead woman, glaring daggers at her.

"You! Why didn't you save your magic and energy to save the one who means so much to me and Kate?! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you both! I hate you!"

Devina didn't know what to say, and even if she did, she did not think anything would change the hybrid's opinion of her. She wasn't even sure that it was undeserved in the first place. She was the one with healing magic after all, maybe, just maybe, there was something that she could have done differently, something that might have saved those poor people.

"There was nothing she could have done, Pandora…" Leonardo said in an attempt to calm his niece. "They were already dead when we found them… and with all those gnolls… we could never have gotten to them in time…"

Whether Pandora listened or not wasn't clear, but she had stopped flailing in her father's arm, though that was most likely due to exhaustion, and was left weeping, tears falling to the ground.

As Barry once again picked up the brutalised rat, Leonardo looked to Kate, and while there were tears rolling down her cheeks, she didn't say anything.

She made no sounds at all, did not move a muscle, she only stood there, staring out into the air with the widened eyes of someone deep in grief, not responding to neither words nor touch.

She was completely catatonic.

Deep inside Kate's mind, she had always pictured her heart as a fractured glass figure, broken time and time again from her earlier relationships. Each time, she had picked up and reassembled the pieces, only for her to have to do it again the very next time.
Eventually, it was shut away to keep it from breaking again.

Then, she had found Michelangelo, and that sweet, goofy turtle, with that disarming smile and gentle soul, uncovered her scarred heart, and together they began to slowly heal and repair it.

But now, she found herself laying in a fetal position, weeping and sobbing amidst a sea of fine glass dust, as that was all that remained of her heart after hearing the news of her beloved's death. Her heart had been broken like never before, possibly to never be able to be repaired again, and neither might she.

Once the grave news had been shared with the others, there were a lot more that grieved their lost friends, while Devina joined James and Dahila in tending to their wounded, the recently attacked Rattletrap included.

Raphael led his daughter and mate aside, together with Donatello, Kemeko, and Splinter, so that they could deal with the loss of Michelangelo.

Meanwhile, Leonardo was forced to push all of that aside, as there were things that had a higher priority. Gathering up Cam, the two mercenaries, and a few of the Nordlings, he sent them together with Barry and Jake to collect their fallen.

"Leo!" he heard a voice.

"Sephie?"

"You saw that on the horizon, right?" the gecko asked nervously.

"I was just about to ask you the same."

"We saw it, tortle. It was hard not to." said another voice, belonging to one of the Riders, who upon removing his helmet revealed a red-orange face with a large, flat nose, wide mouth, yellow eyes, and pointed ears. A Hobgoblin.

"I'm Ovrul, captain of the Royal Riders. If my information is correct, you are the steward of this settlement, yes?"

"That is right."

"Good, good. Now, regarding that event, if you are planning on investigating it, I have to insist that myself and two of my riders accompany you, as we will need to report all of this."

"I understand, and I welcome your presence, as we don't fully know what we will find."

"I'll tag along as well." said Ragnir. "Pretty much the same reason, since I am your liaison and all, but I would do it even if it wasn't required."

"I'm going too." said Sephie.

"Didn't think you would stay behind for a second." said Leonardo. "And I won't stop you."

"If you are to search for your leader, then I will aid you." another voice said, belonging to Harald Stormrider.

"No one wants the aid of a savage, Nordling." Ovrul snarled, glaring as he placed his hand on the handle of his sword.

Harald met the glare with equal intensity.

"I was not asking you, Torgalian. The Wolf clan is an ally of the Dragon clan, and Jarl Tyroth is a brother in spirit. I also owe my life to him."

Ovrul frowned even deeper, then he removed his hand from his weapon and his features softened a bit.

"I can respect that."

"If the two of you are done, we should move." said Leonardo. "We have quite a bit to walk."

"Lead the way." said Harald.

It took the group well over half an hour to reach the edge of Tyroth's battlefield, and when they saw it they all gasped.

Craters, deep burned grooves in the land, several hundred gnoll bodies in various states of dismemberment or incineration. The death and destruction was shocking on its own, but the fact that it was all caused by basically a single person was both awe-inspiring and terrifying beyond words.

Ragnir remembered when Tyroth had confronted him about his true intentions for coming to Mutopia, how the dragon had waited until they were at what he called a safe distance for the village's sake, and now seeing the destruction Tyroth was capable of, it was as if Ragnir's spine turned into ice.

"It is as if Ragnarok itself struck this place…" Harald whispered to himself as they made their way across the newly made mass grave.

"I doubt anything could have survived this." Ovrul said as he surveyed the area.

"If anyone could, it's Tyroth." said Leonardo, but seeing the devastation, he couldn't deny that even he felt uncertain about that statement.

The group spent ten minutes looking through the battlefield, finding only corpses of gnolls, hyenas, witherlings, and trolls. The trolls were given some extra attention, just to be certain that they really were dead. And to everyone's relief, they were.

But that did little to ease the feeling of dread that was building up inside of Sephie. They had already lost several of their friends, and she prayed with all her heart that they wouldn't have to add her mate to that list.

"Hold." said Harald. "I believe I see something." He pointed to an area ahead of them, specifically at something red among the dirt and ashes.

"Tyroth!" Sephie exclaimed, not able to restrain herself any longer, and ran as fast as she could, despite Leonardo's protests. And as she got closer, it became clear that it was in fact Tyroth laying on the ground. "Tyroth!"

She skid to a halt, dropping to her knees next to him, and instantly placed her hands on him to check if he was alive. But she cried out in shock and pain, pulling back her hands almost as fast as she had reached out.

"Sephie! What's wrong?!" Leonardo asked as he and the others caught up to her.

"I… I burned my hands…" she said, showing them the palms of her hands, there were plenty of red and white blisters forming, and while they would heal in short order, they did hurt as they were. "I burned my hands on Tyroth."

Leonardo carefully stretched out his hand towards Tyroth, being very mindful not to touch him. As soon as he got within two inches of the dragon's body, Leonardo felt the heat and quickly pulled back his hand.

"What could have happened to leave him like this?" he asked out aloud, even though he didn't expect anyone to answer.

There was no way they could carry him back like this, but at least he was still alive, as evident by him breathing, even if it was weakly. He was still injured, though, that much was easy to see, and Leonardo really wished that they would have brought someone with them to help treat the dragon's wounds, as even though Tyroth was known for having the best healing ability of them all, the wounds were clearly not healing at the normal pace.

As it was, there was nothing they could do for him, but it didn't feel right to just wait around until Tyroth came to. Looking around, Leonardo searched for something that he could use to hopefully nudge Tyroth awake without burning himself.

In the nearest part of the trench, he found a roughly oval stone that could do the trick. With that in hand, he knelt next to Tyroth again and used the stone to gently shake the dragon's head a few times.

Eventually, Tyroth's eyelids fluttered and he groaned as he regained consciousness.

"Who…? What…? Leo? What are… why are you… poking me with a rock?"

"Sorry, Tyroth, but we couldn't really touch you." Leonardo apologised.

"No?"

"Take it from me, hun. You were scorching hot, literary." Sephie said, holding out her palms for him to see. "I burned my hands just from touching you."

"What even is that heat? It doesn't seem to radiate very far from you."

"I guess… I guess that's what happens when I'm struck by lighting…" Tyroth said a bit groggily, holding his head. Then he remembered the threat he had faced. "The gnolls!"

"It's okay, hun. I think…" Sephie looked around. "I think you got them all."

"Then… it's over." he sighed in relief.

"It is…" said Leonardo. "Tyroth… there's something you need to know…"

Tyroth has been found alive and about as well as one would expect after his fight, but he is now about to hear the dread news.
Likewise, the others have also been told about their losses, and as we saw, some took it worse than others.