Warnings: Brief mention of torture. Bit of language.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Summary: For months now, Mikey's been through hell with no one to count on but himself. But now that he's finally been rescued there's two problems; he's still desperately missing his family and he has no way home. No OC's. 2k3/2k12 crossover.

Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.

A/N: Thank you for all the comments, faves and follows on this story. It always puts a smile on my face when I see them. Sorry about the wait on this chapter (and everything else). Between life and working on Halloween story commitments, I just haven't been able to focus on this or anything else.

In case you missed it (I had previously mentioned it on a couple of chapters of 'Cursed') there is a TMNT Fanbook coming out soon for Halloween - 'The Darkest Nights'. The book is being organised by my friend Sampsonknight (you can find out the details on her profile on Deviant Art - there is also a link to the journal on my DA profile) and will feature plenty art and stories previously unseen by amazing people in our fandom! If you are planning on contributing to it (everyone is welcome) the deadline is coming up at the end of this month (September 2017). If you need a few more days, please make sure to contact Sampsonknight.

It must be said! The 'Darkest Nights' is going to be spectacular and very different from any of the previous TMNT fanbooks out there. The release date it becomes available to download is Halloween.

AOtGO – Aftermath

Ch 8

Date: 21th Sept

"I'm saying your weapons are irreparable and too dangerous to keep using. They need to be thrown out," Donnie explained bluntly, not seeming to notice or care how insensitive he sounded.

"No! No way!" Mikey blurted loudly, the words escaping him vehemently as he snatched the piece of his nunchaku back from Donnie's hand. "I know better than anyone the condition they're in but I can still use them and I have been! All this time!" he spat hotly.

"Mikey..."

Mikey shook his head furiously, taking a step back and clutching possessively at the ruined wood. "You saw me use them the other night when we were waiting for Leo and Raph to come back. I did just fine with them then," he pleaded to Donnie. "And I sure as shell got a few good hits on them before following you guys through the portal!

"You can't take what's left of my 'chucks away from me." Mikey's voice frantically rose with every word. "You can't make me and I won't let you!"

"Mike, you're being irrational," Leo began, falling immediately silent as Mikey swung on the spot to face him, fear and panic written across his entire body.

"I'm not being fucking irrational!" he snapped furiously. He was and he knew it, but he just couldn't seem to stop. Or care. His 'chucks were all he had remaining; shell they even wanted him to get rid of his belt and mask and replace them with new ones. Those he could at least understand, but his 'chucks... They just didn't get it. He needed at least one link left with home; to the father who proudly gave him these difficult to master weapons so long ago; the father he might never see again.

Not to mention the brothers he grew up training with...

"Michelangelo, I understand you have been through much of recent, however, please refrain from using such language in our home," Splinter spoke up firmly before Mikey could continue

Whirling about to look at Splinter, for a moment Mikey wondered what the shell he was talking about. Then he suddenly realised what he'd just said and calming slightly from the authoritative look and tone, nodded and mumbled, chagrined, "I'm sorry..."

"Mike, please understand, your nunchaku are simply too dangerous to continue using in any way, shape or form, for both yourself and us," Donnie explained, trying to take advantage of Mikey's distraction. As he spoke, he tried to tone down his irritation, though he wasn't entirely successful. "I understand that you had no choice but to use them while you were a prisoner of the Kraang and even out on the street the other night but now things are different. There are other choices available to you now."

Mikey blanched visibly at the harsh reminder but didn't let it stop him from retorting, "I know I can't use them as nunchaku anymore, Don but there's nothing stopping me from using them in other ways!" he explained desperately. He wasn't stupid! Donnie had seen him use them like kali sticks when they defended themselves from the Purple Dragons a few nights back so he couldn't see why the other turtle had to make such a fuss. "I need them... I've got nothing else..." he whispered, clasping the wooden handle protectively to his plastron, determined to fight over it if necessary.

"Oh for the love of! Michelangelo, one good hit with them and they'll shatter and probably hurt you in the process! Then we'll be forced to have to dig the splinters out of your flesh or ours! And that's if we're lucky!" Donnie snapped angrily, throwing up his hands in disbelief. "They were fine to use in an emergency but now that it's possible, they need to be disposed of and replaced!"

Mikey's heart continued pounding frantically as he shook his head in denial and backed away several more steps.

"I am afraid Donatello is correct, Michelangelo," Splinter suddenly spoke up, taking charge of the situation. "It is not simply about the missing chains but rather the wood itself. The handles themselves are too brittle from what they have been through and if Donatello says they are beyond repair, then you can be certain they are."

Unable to speak, Mikey stopped moving and stared up at Splinter, betrayed.

"Just use the damn spare set from the rack already!" Raph snapped in annoyance, wanting to get on with the lesson so he could have his free time sooner rather than later.

Mikey glanced briefly at Raph but returned pleading eyes to Splinter, "I don't mind using a spare set to practice with," he whispered plaintively, "but please don't take these away from me. My father gave them to me and they're all I've got left..."

Splinter suppressed a sigh and somehow managed to avoid running a hand across his face in frustration. "We will not take them from you, Michelangelo, nor will we force you to discard them. However," he put up a hand, silencing Donatello's protest, "you may not use them, nor may you carry them around outside of the lair once you are ready to go out."

Mikey's eyes widened with hope and relief upon hearing Splinter's decree and he finally began to relax.

Splinter turned to Leonardo, "Get the spare nunchaku set from the rack for Michelangelo please."

"Hai, Sensei!" Leo gave a quick bow before rushing to do as asked.

"Er... About that, Master Splinter," Donnie spoke up hesitantly, embarrassment seeping into his voice. "We don't currently have a spare set of nunchaku."

Splinter's eyebrows raised, questioning as he regarded Donatello. "Explain."

"Mikey was using them the night he disappeared. His main set was damaged in battle a couple of days prior and I hadn't gotten around to fixing them yet. Then when he... vanished... well, other things were just more important," Donatello explained, reddening.

"I see," Splinter mused, running a hand slowly down his goatee. He turned to Michelangelo, regarding him apologetically a moment before continuing, "Perhaps it would be best if you sit out weapons practice until Donatello is able to effect repairs or construct you a new set."

Far calmer now that the perceived threat was gone, Mikey straightened, disappointed. He needed this. He needed to have some normalcy back in his life and in this strange world with this strange version of his family, training was the only key to achieving that. He turned and stared at the weapon's rack thoughtfully, unwilling to sit out again unless he absolutely had to. Mikey turned back to Splinter, "I'll... I'll just use a different weapon for practice then if that's okay?"

Without waiting for a response in fear of being denied, Mikey tucked his own weapons back into the damaged holsters of his belt and walked immediately to the rack. He perused the available selection while one set of contemplative eyes and three sets of wary eyes watched carefully. He discovered a nice collection of obviously well cared for but little-used weapons, including spare duplicates of the ones the other three turtles used; the same weapons his own brothers wielded, and Mikey's heart ached at the thought as his gaze lingered on katana, bo and sai.

Feeling as though it were a way to feel closer to them despite the impossible distance, Mikey decided to use one of the more familiar weapons. He instantly dismissed the bo due to it being too wooden and inflexible; he'd learnt long ago that it only cramped his style, though he was certainly more than capable in a pinch. That left the katana and sai. For a moment, Mikey see-sawed between them. Then, remembering back to his Nexus rematch and how Leo's faith had instilled within him the confidence and drive to be victorious at a time when Leo's faith in his own abilities had recently been shattered, Mikey reached out decisively for a single katana.

Whirling the sword around once, twice, three times in his left hand to test the weight and balance, Mikey gave a nod and turned to face the concerned, and in some cases, almost terrified gazes of the family who had saved him.

"What?" Mikey asked, taken aback by their reactions. "I do better with one than two and since I'm gonna be way rusty anyway, it's better if I just stick with one for now."

Raph gave Mikey an odd look, "Just... be careful where you wave that thing, okay?"

Mikey was sure he'd heard a hint of nervousness in the hothead's voice, though his expression, while still wary, belied any such admission. "Huh?" Mikey looked to the katana in confusion and back to Raph.

"It would probably be best if you got used to using a katana during solo practice, away from anyone else," Leo pointed out, way too calm to be natural.

Mikey felt his temper flare anew but bit back on it, hating how easily he came to losing it lately. "My 'chucks are broken and you guys won't let me use them so what else am I supposed to use?" he asked more sharply than he intended, noting how three pairs of eyes kept an overly careful watch of the sharp blade in his hand.

"Something without the long, shiny and pointy blade?" Raph suggested in a caustic tone.

Mikey closed his eyes and took a deep breath, swallowing back his automatic response. He was fully aware that if he didn't keep a hold of himself, Splinter might bench him again; especially after his freak out only minutes before. "Geez, dude, you act like I've never even seen a katana before, let alone used one! Well, this is my choice, I get to have those again now by the way, and I'm using this until Don can help me out with new 'chucks!"

Everyone remained silent as Mikey regulated his breathing once more. As soon as he felt calmer again, he turned anxious eyes on Splinter, seeking permission.

"You may of course practice with whichever weapon you like, Michelangelo," he said serenely. "Perhaps later, if you like, either Leonardo or I could give you a personal one on one instruction in its use."

Mikey's jaw dropped in disbelief as he stared at Splinter. While he knew he'd definitely benefit from it, it greatly hurt hearing the lack of confidence the ninja master obviously had in him. Numbly, he nodded and put on a smile but his voice was oddly flat as he replied, "That would be great. Thank you, Sensei."

-:-

For the next hour, everyone practised basic moves with their chosen weapon, slowly increasing the speed and difficulty as the training session went on. Unused to holding anything but the remains of his nunchucks, Mikey found himself fumbling with the katana at first, causing the others to keep an unnaturally wide berth. Soon though, he regained his confidence and his moves began to flow smooth and strong. As the session went on, Splinter began to relax, if that was possible given how stiffly he carried himself, and divided his attention to all four turtles evenly and by the time the lesson finished, Mikey found himself receiving amazed and impressed looks from the other three turtles.

Finally, Splinter called an end to the practice and an exhausted Mikey quickly returned his borrowed weapon to the rack before joining the lineup and sitting in seiza beside Donatello.

Once the class bowed out and was dismissed, Splinter called, "Michelangelo? If I could have a word?"

Mikey's heart began pounding wildly in his chest once more as he walked back. "If it's about my outbursts earlier, I'm really sorry, Sensei! I really don't know what came over me but I promise it won't happen again!"

"Do not make promises you cannot keep, Michelangelo," Splinter rebuked with a faint frown that Mikey only barely caught. He stared up, hurt again at the blatant lack of confidence in him and had to remind himself that this family didn't know him and it wasn't as if he'd been giving the best example of his normal behaviour since he'd arrived.

Suppressing his sigh, Splinter spoke up again, "Please, Michelangelo, do not take that the wrong way. I know you mean well by such a promise but the fact remains that you have been greatly wronged in recent times. Some outbursts are to be expected as you settle in and attempt to work through what you have been through and regain control of your life."

Mikey nodded numbly as he stood in front of the astoundingly tall ninja master.

"However, if you would like to amend your promise to that of trying, I will more than happily accept that."

"I promise I'll try really hard not to let it happen again, especially during training, Master Yoshi."

Splinter twitched slightly upon hearing his true name but didn't comment, knowing that 'Master Splinter' was, for Michelangelo, a very different person. "Your earlier... outburst... as you call it, is not why I have called you back, Michelangelo."

"It... isn't?" Mikey asked in surprise. "Then why? Did I do something else wrong?" he asked anxiously.

Splinter chuckled in wry amusement. "I gather from that question that you are used to only being called back when you have done something wrong. Would that be correct, Michelangelo?"

Mikey grinned sheepishly up at Splinter, "I admit to nothing, Grandpa Sensei."

'Completely incorrigible. He definitely shares the spirit of my missing son, if nothing else,' Splinter mused, smiling sadly. "That answer certainly gives away far more than you would obviously like," he stated dryly.

"Eh heh..."

"I called you back because I have a question." Michelangelo canted his head slightly and Splinter took that as a sign to continue. "It would appear that you are quite proficient with the katana, Michelangelo. How is this so?"

Mikey blinked in confusion at the strange question. "Master Splinter taught us, of course."

"You are all familiar with its use?"

"Yeah," Mikey replied with a puzzled nod. "We cross-trained at least once a week with each other's weapons and with others too. Don't you guys do that?"

"I'm afraid not," Splinter admitted. "There have been a couple of times we tried but it did not go very well. Perhaps we should try again more frequently in future if you are anything to go by."

Grinning cheekily as he remembered his Donnie with sai and both Donnie and Raph with his 'chucks, he said, "It definitely keeps things interesting, Grandpa Sensei."

-:-

Mikey hesitated at the top of the steps leading from the dojo. He couldn't remember the last time he'd worked out so hard or for so long and between that and the distinct lack of sleep the night before, he felt utterly exhausted. Yet, he didn't really want to return to that room. Glancing towards the pit, Mikey heard the television switch on and decided to wander over and join whoever was there.

As he drew closer, he saw Leo parked only a short distance from the front of the TV, staring in rapt attention at the screen. 'Space Heroes', and one of the episodes he'd watched the previous night at that.

Mikey bit his lip; as laughingly terrible as that show was, he'd had enough of it for one day. Staring in dismay, he realised Leo hadn't even noticed his approach. Sighing to himself, Mikey gingerly stepped down into the pit, intending to lay in the beanbag again but Raph suddenly jumped down and plunked into it, settling, comic in hand. Mikey reached into his belt and pulled out a single nunchaku handle as he instead sat on the bench seat. Minutes later, unable to help himself, he began yawning.

"Yeah, this crap's enough to make anyone yawn," Raph suddenly stated loudly from the beanbag. He never took his eyes off his comic but Mikey noticed a slight smile resting on his face. "What'd Master Splinter want with you anyway?"

"To tell me how impressed he was at my prowess," Mikey replied, deliberately exaggerating. He carefully placed the broken weapon away and instead began to rub absentmindedly at his arm.

Raphael snorted derisively. "Uh huh. I'll admit you were better than with that pig sticker than any of us thought you'd be but that was hardly anything to be impressed by."

Mikey allowed a small smile to alight on his face as he detected the slightest annoyed movement from Leo and realised that Raph was deliberately baiting him. Then, armed with the new knowledge Splinter had given him in their private chat after training, "You'll have to show me how well you do then next time, Raph."

"How about I just show you how lame swords really are compared to a superior weapon instead?" Raph offered as he flipped the page.

"You mean nunchaku?" Mikey asked, sounding deliberately confused. "We'll both have to wait a bit on that one then," he reminded him.

"Well, you can demonstrate that one but good luck, you'll need it," Raph snorted dismissively. "And afterwards, I'll show you both the superiority of the sai in the hands of a true master," Raph smirked, then frowned as he looked up. "Hey, you okay?" he asked with a nod towards Mikey's arm.

"Huh? Yeah, why?" Mikey asked, then followed Raph's concerned gaze. "Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine. It's just aching a bit, that's all. I gotta get used to using it properly again." Mikey sighed again, figuring that maybe he should do some of the rehabilitation exercises he knew. Unfortunately, right now he was just far too tired to put that much effort into anything.

Right at that moment, the commercial break came on and Leo turned to face Mikey with a frown. "Maybe you should have wielded the katana with your dominant hand instead of trying to showboat then. You could have pushed your recovery a little too much by doing that."

"But I did use my dominant hand, dude, I'm left-handed," Mikey replied, looking at Leo askance, wondering just why he assumed otherwise. "Well anyway, I write and draw left-handed but I do almost everything else with both."

That earned him two surprised looks.

"You're a southpaw?" Raph asked, eyes boggling. "Thought Donnie was the only one of those around here."

Mikey nodded; he vaguely recalled hearing the term before, from sports-mad Casey Jones.

The ad break ended and Leo immediately turned his full attention back to the TV, impressing Mikey by how totally entranced he was. He leaned towards Raph with a stage whisper, "If I was that deeply mesmerised by the TV back home, I'd have been banned for a month and given extra training to make up for it!"

Raph smirked again, finding it interesting to have someone else around digging and poking fun at his insane, spacenick brother. "Yeah, well, don't ask me how Lame-o-nardo can get so caught up in that crap so easily."

Mikey noticed Leo stiffen ever-so-slightly in irritation and smothered a laugh. Leo wasn't as unaware as he acted. Far from it, in fact. This was obviously just another exercise in concentration; only what he was concentrating on was trying to ignore the jibes from his acerbic brother. Mikey grinned in delight as he realised the entertainment that could be found here; sometimes subtle games could be fun and he could annoy with the best of them. He tried unsuccessfully to smother another noisy yawn and Leo turned around, irritated.

"If you're that tired, then go to bed. It's obvious you barely slept last night."

With that, Leonardo turned back around, obviously dismissing the other occupants of the room.

Raph glanced back to Mikey. "You didn't sleep?"

"Couldn't," Mikey admitted with a shrug.

"And I thought you were wiped out after training 'cause you're way out of shape."

"Partly..." Mikey reluctantly admitted, embarrassed, "but I'm not that bad."

"Huh!"

"Bed!" Leonardo repeated flatly. He pointed towards the bedrooms without bothering to turn around.

But Mikey heard the command in the leader's voice and nodded. He still didn't really want to go back to that strange room, but perhaps, with the current volume of the TV and if he left the door open a smidgen, it wouldn't be so bad.

-:-

Waking from a blessedly dreamless sleep to utter silence, Mikey's eyes flew wide and he shot up, heart pounding in panic upon seeing the door he'd deliberately left open now firmly closed. Within moments, he was out of bed and out the door, breathing heavily as he tried desperately to calm himself down again.

"Great..." he muttered bitterly. "Don just had to put that in my head about the doors last night, didn't he... I was fine until I started thinking about it..."

Once his heart rate had settled some, Mikey realised the lair wasn't quite as silent as he originally thought. The television was still on in the other room, however, the volume was turned so low that he could only barely hear it from here. Scowling to himself, he realised someone must have decided to be 'thoughtful' by making sure he could sleep undisturbed.

Knowing he wouldn't get anywhere by just standing there leaning against the bedroom door, not to mention aware of the growing ache of hunger in his belly, Mikey pushed away and headed for the kitchen, even as the dread of actually eating again took root.

Passing through the common area, Mikey noticed only Raph still in the pit, half reading, half watching some old looking anime on TV. Since he didn't seem to notice Mikey as he passed, Mikey didn't bother calling out to greet him.

Soon after, Mikey stood pawing through the fridge, sighing at the distinct lack of variety within. All he wanted was a ham and cheese sandwich; he was even willing to forego the pickles, mustard and relish and still be happy, but while there were plenty of cheeses and pepperoni, there was little else. Sighing again, this time in dismay, Mikey settled on a plain cheese sandwich. "Probably can't taste it anyway, so what's the point?" he muttered dejectedly.

Suddenly, Mikey became away of the growing, uncomfortable sensation of eyes boring into the back of his head as he made his sandwich. However, he couldn't tell who was behind him so closing his eyes to gather the strength to face them, Mikey plastered a bright smile on his face and turned to confront the person encroaching on his space.

To his surprise, it wasn't just one set of eyes, but two that met his unflinchingly; the third somehow seemed unable to meet his gaze as though they felt guilty or uncomfortable about something.

"What?" Mikey asked, his voice flat despite his effort to smile.

"Michelangelo," Leonardo spoke up firmly, "we need to talk."

-:-

* If you ever see my stories posted anywhere other than under the name Zelgadis55 at Deviant Art, FFNet, AO3 or Live Journal, then they have been stolen. Please report them.