RIP Peter Renaday (June 9, 1935 – September 8, 2024)

Sometimes, you revisit the past. Other times, the past revisits you. Those moments can blur the boundary between memories and reality. And yet, sometimes the past is a mirror in which we can see the reflection of what danger the future holds.


"Master Splinter, when you said we were coming up here for a little rest and recuperation, I thought maybe you meant rest and recuperation," said Donny. He and his brothers were blindfolded and armed with bamboo sticks. After the (what they hope was) final defeat of the Shredder, the turtles, Splinter, and Dante went with Casey and April to go to the former's grandmother's farm house to rest.

"Yeah, when you said rest, I was kinda expecting us to be lying on our backs all day doing nothing," said Dante.

"Ah, Donatello, Dante, there is nothing more restful for a ninja than rigorous training It brings focus and—" The sound of a video game's beeping interrupted Splinter and he turned to see Mikey leaning on his bamboo pole, blindfold up on his forehead, as he played with his handheld video game. Splinter swiped the game out of his hands with his stick and he let out a scream. "Game Dude! Speak to me, Game Dude!" Splinter grabbed him, pulled him up and forced the blindfold down.

April and Casey, the only ones who were relaxing, watched.

"Now defend yourselves," said Splinter.

"Uh, Sensei, we got zero visibility here."

"When has that stopped us, Raph," asked Dante. "Besides, I don't think he's gonna show mercy anyway."

Splinter leaped over their heads and attacked Leo first, using his walking stick. Leo uses the bamboo stick to defend himself. Leonardo swung at Splinter's legs, but the rat jumped over the bamboo and landed in front of Raph. He made a couple of passes at Raph, who also successfully blocked the attacks, and then Splinter jumped at Donny. When Donny blocked the walking stick, Splinter hopped down in front of Mikey who also defended against the strikes. Splinter then jumped in front of Dante, who blocked his with his bamboo stick, then knocked the walking stick out of Splinter's hand.

"Not bad, huh?"

"Yes, not bad at all. We are finished for today." The instant the old rat finished his sentence, he kicked Dante in the stomach and he fell over, causing a domino effect that made all the turtles fall over. Except for Leo, who jumped over them and made a battle pose. Dante removed his blindfold and said, "Master, what the shell? You said we were finished!"

"A true ninja should never believe everything he hears." Leo walked over to Splinter and bowed. "Well done, Leonardo."

"There goes Leo, making us look bad again," grumbled Donny as he and his brothers took off their blindfolds.

"Yeah, well, Leo doesn't always get it right."

"What was that, Raphael?"

"Uh, nothing, Sensei."

"Come, let us sit and talk."

The group walked to and sat down at the picnic blanket where April and Casey were relaxing. "It's no big deal really, but I was just thinking about the first time we met the Shredder," said Raph. "And how he almost had Leonardo here going over to the dark side."

"Oh, yeah," said Dante. "After Leo had a little tantrum because he did not get the lesson about how anything can be a weapon in the hands of a ninja."

"Oh, here we go again," said Leo. "You know, I still feel like an idiot about that whole thing."

"I don't blame you," said Raph. "The Shredder almost had you believing he was a good guy, remember? The Shredder invited you to a little party. And like a sucker, you went... alone."

"And you bought his story about how he was an agent of good," said Dante. "Honestly, I would have expected Raph to-"

"Hey! I may not be as smart as Donny, but even I could smell a load of horse poop a mile away! Unlike Leo here."

Mikey did a Darth Vader impersonation, "Join me, Leonardo. I am your father."

"I can't believe you bought the Shredder's whole twisted story," said Raph as he nudged Leo's shoulder.

"Neither can I."

"Do not feel bad, my son," said Splinter. "You hoped his words were true. It is the nature of a good heart to hope."

"I'm just glad you guys opened my eyes. Especially you, Sensei. I should have seen through the Shredder's lies. I should have seen it coming."

"Yeah, well, I'm just glad that the Shredder didn't see Master Splinter coming," said Mikey. "Remember that first time we went to face the Shredder? He kicked our shells all over the place!"

"Yeah, that was when I stabbed the Shredder's guts for the first time...which did nothing at all," said Dante. "I thought he was gonna kill me first."

"I thought for sure the Shredder was going to finish us all off," said Leo.

"Yeah. Too bad he forgot about one thing," said Raph as he motioned to Splinter. "A little ninety-pound weapon of mass destruction we like to call dear old Dad."

Dante smiled with satisfaction as he recalled Splinter toppling the water tower right on top of Shredder.

"I thought I had avenged my Master Yoshi," said Splinter. "But the Shredder was not finished."

"Finished? I wonder if he'll ever be finished," said Casey.

"He does have a habit of coming back," said Leo.

"Yeah. Remember April's place?" asked Donny.

"I wish I could forget it," said Mikey.

Dante frowned as he recalled that night. When Leo was ambushed by the Foot Clan while on a training exercise, who then attacked April's store and burnt it to the ground. And what's worse, that was the day Dante ended up in the hospital thanks to the Shredder stabbing him. He still had the scars to prove it.

Leo said, "That was not a good day."

April sighed sadly. "I really miss that old place. Do you think he's gone for good? The Shredder?"

"I don't know. I sure thought Leo finished him off that night at the Foot headquarters," said Raph.

Dante nodded his head. He can still picture it in his mind: the sight of Leo using the Sword of Tengu to cut off the Shredder's head. "But he still survived that. The sight of him in the TCRI building, about to attack us and our little alien friends, the Utroms, with his head back on his neck was one of the most frightening experiences of my life."

"Seems like he's always trying to make sure we never leave anywhere alive," said Donny.

"That bomb," said Dante.

"Bomb, schmomb! You guys are forgetting the freakiest part of that whole deal," said Mikey. "The Shredder's true identity! Man, when we found out the Shredder was an Utrom, I nearly soiled my shell."

"Nasty little bug," said Raph.

"It also explained how he's been able to stay alive for hundreds of years," said Dante. "And able to survive being crushed, burned, and decapitated. It wasn't his real body, but an exo-suit like the ones the other Utroms used. I just hope he stays dead after that building imploded."

"How come every place we go things get blown up?" asked Mikey.

"Just lucky, I guess," said Raph.

"Or cursed, whichever you choose," said Dante.

"Lucky? Yeah. Cursed? I don't know," said Donny. "But that last time wasn't so lucky for the Shredder."

"There's no way he could have survived that, right," asked April.

"I don't know, April," said Mikey. "The Shredder may play rough. He may play dirty. But he don't play dead."

"Yeah, but he sure leaves a path of destruction wherever he goes. I can't help but think of Master Yoshi," said Leo. "Not only was he Master Splinter's sensei, he was also a Guardian sworn to protect valuable secrets about the Utrom. Secrets that Shredder and his forces would stop at nothing to learn."

"He didn't go down without a fight, though," said Raph.

"Yeah. From what Master Splinter says, Master Yoshi was one tough dude," said Mikey.

"I wish we could have met him," said Donny.

"Yeah, he really threw it in the Shredder's face," said Raph. Then he added sadly, "Even though it cost him his life."

"He who lives without honor will end without honor," said Dante. "Those would be his last words."

"When I think of my Master Yoshi, my heart aches," said Splinter. "But, I know that Master Yoshi kept his honor to the end. A true warrior and a true Guardian."

Everyone hung their heads sadly, except for Casey who grabbed his lawn chair and smashed it with anger. "Th-the Shredder and the Hun! And the Purple Dragons! Bunch of heartless goons! Why, I just wanna-" Dante splashed some water in his face. "Thanks. I needed that."

"I think what Mr. Jones here is trying to say is we're worry for your loss, Master Splinter," said April as she took Casey's hand and sat him down on the picnic blanket again.

"Thank you. We have all suffered at the hands of the Shredder." Upon hearing Splinter emphasize the word "hands", they realized they were still holding hands and let go, blushing.

"April and Casey sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-" April and Casey glared at Dante. "Ahem. Sorry. Actually, my nightmare regarding the Shredder still isn't over." He picked up his dog tag, bearing his name and the numbers 8/21 on it. "All these years I thought these numbers represented my birthday, but it turns out, I'm number eight of twenty-one Foot Sleepers, children created by the Shredder's scientists to serve as his spies and assassins."

"Those poor kids," said Casey.

"It's not their fault," said Donny. "They're being controlled by those technorganic chips in their brains. We're lucky the Utroms managed to remove yours."

"But there's still twenty more kids out there under the Foot Clan's power," said Dante. "It's now become my goal to find them and free them."

"How are you gonna do that?" asked April. "They could be all over New York City."

"With this." Dante picked up the jet injector-like device the Utroms gave him. "I can detect the inhibitor chips located in those kids' brains and remove them. And I'll have the guys helping out as well."

"You guys wanna know the funny part," asked Donny.

"There's a funny part?" asked Raph.

"Well, not ha-ha funny. But kind of ironic. I was thinking that the Shredder had a bigger hand in our lives than we know. Without the Shredder, we'd all still be pet turtles in a glass jar right now and Dante wouldn't have been born."

Mikey did a Gary Coleman impersonation, "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

"Well, allow me to explain. As you all might recall, we got mutated by that strange ooze when we were only babies."

"I remember it as if it were yesterday," said Splinter. "You were all so cute."

"The ooze that mutated us came from the TCRI building, right? And why did the TCRI building even exist? Because the Utroms were trying to build their transmat so they could go home. And why did the Utroms need to go home?"

"Because they were late for dinner?" asked Mikey.

"No, because an evil prisoner they were transporting across the galaxy sabotaged their starship. Causing them to crash land on Earth centuries ago. And they've been trapped here ever since. And who was this evil prisoner who caused the Utroms so much trouble? He was in fact- drum roll, please! The Shredder! Ahem. Ergo, the Shredder had a direct hand in our creation. See what I mean?"

By this point, night had fallen and a campfire had been built. "I think I speak for everyone when I say, 'No'," said Raph.

"Ladies and Mutants! How not to tell our origin story," said Mikey as he made some s'mores.

Donny summarized, "No, listen. If the Shredder hadn't made the Utroms crash in the first place, then they never would have developed the ooze. And if they never developed the ooze, we'd never have been mutated. And if we'd never been mutated, we'd be eating fish flakes in some kid's aquarium right now! And Dante wouldn't have existed because without the Shredder, the Foot Clan wouldn't have existed, and without them, the Foot Sleepers wouldn't have been born, Dante among them!"

"Whoa, that's really deep," said Mikey.

"And Master Splinter would have remained an ordinary pet rat in Hamato Yoshi's cage," said Dante as the realization dawned on him. "That's a lot to take in, Don." He took a bite out of a roasted marshmallow.

Raph shuddered at the thought of it. "Being that closely related to the Shredder makes me feel kind of dirty."

"Hmm. The Shredder may be a part of our origin, but it is we that choose our fate," said Splinter.

"And even if the Shredder's still out there, no matter what he throws at us, no matter how he messes with out lives, nothing he does will change the most important thing. That we are family."

There was a moment's silence. Then Mikey burst out laughing. "Leo, that was off the charts in the sap-of-meter. You've been watching way too many after-school specials, bro."

"Just eat your s'mores and keep quiet, Mikey. Leo's got a point," said Raph. Then suddenly, a s'more got flung at him. He growled as Mikey laughed. "You are so dead, laughing boy!" He tackled Mikey and they rolled on the ground as they fought.

"Watch the graham crackers!" shouted Leo. Too late. The two turtles rolled over the graham crackers box, crushing them. This angered Leo and Donny, so they joined in the fight as well.

Casey ginned and shouted, "Pile on! Goongala!" He jumped into the fray and started wrestling the four turtles.

Dante smiled, then said, "Aw, what the shell. COWABUNGA!" And he jumped into the fray.

As Splinter and April watched the boys wrestle, the latter said, "Well, it's definitely a family. But do you think we'll ever be able to teach the kids some manners?"

"Miss O'Neil, teaching them the ancient art of ninjutsu is hard enough. I am afraid even I cannot work miracles," said Splinter as he shook his head.