Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Donatello rubbed his eyes harshly, clearing up his vision. He was starting to make a lot of dumb mistakes, a sign that he needed to make himself some stronger coffee.

It would work this time, it had to. He had double-checked everything, just to be sure. Donatello put the Kraang device on the floor –careful of the mess of tech awkwardly welded together he'd used to replace one of the missing parts– and manually restarted it.

The device started vibrating, and then slowly rose from the floor. Hope swelled in Donnie's chest, but he didn't call out to his brothers, he'd already given them too many false hopes on his last unsuccessful attempts.

He was right not to: thick, nose-stinging smoke started rising from the device. The smoke detector activated and water started pouring on everything, the sharp scream of the smoke alarm ringing in the lab.

The disappointment left him dizzy and he slumped on his chair, his head heavy with that same headache that kept coming and going since the beginning of the week.

Raphael was the first to burst in, red-faced and covered in sweat, his eyes darting everywhere before landing on the device. It was still hovering and still smoking, now with an additional grinding sound adding to the ambient din.

Leo arrived second, just in time to see the device tearing a portal in the middle of the lab.

Donnie jumped to his feet, he’d made it!

Had the portal been undamaged, it would have reached the ground. But it was small and unstable, flickering and shifting in size and shape, requiring a solid jump to reach. Donatello scrambled for filtration units. They needed to be quick, he didn’t know how long it would hold and it was already starting to shrink.

They were about to jump in when huge, scaly hands came in from Dimension-X and gripped the sides of the portal, pushing it wider until Leatherhead’s large snout came out, then all of him.

He was alone, why was he alone?!

“Where’s Mikey?” Leo’s voice was just as urgent and panicked as Donatello felt.

Leatherhead walked away from the portal, he was coughing and it seemed like he was going to hurl on the ground. Thankfully it didn’t last and he turned around to stare at the portal, without answering their question. From the corner of his eye, Donatello saw Leo hold back a furious Raphael.

“Leatherhead!” Inquired Leo, louder over the sound of the room’s global commotion.

Donatello didn’t have any more patience than Raphael, if Mikey wasn’t here, then Donnie would have to go get him himself before the portal closed. He grabbed the filtration units and threw two to his brothers.

“Ah!” Michelangelo stumbled out of the portal, falling face-first into the ground with a Bam and a “Uk–”.

Donatello stared. Mikey was here, it wasn't a dream this time, his little brother was home.

“Mikey!” Raph was first by his side, followed closely by Leo. Together they helped him sit up. He was as pale as a sheet, staring at his brothers with big wet eyes, not saying anything.

Mikey shouldn’t be so pale and silent, something was wrong. Donatello pushed Raphael out of the way, ignoring his protests. Mikey’s hands were clammy and his breathing was… “He’s not breathing!”

Immediately, Raphael and Leonardo grabbed firmly each one of Mikey’s arms, as if it was going to do anything. His filtration unit was nowhere to be found, Mikey couldn’t have been in there without it, where was his filtration unit!?

Mikey shook his arms out of his brothers’ hold before firmly thumping his plastron a couple of times. He grunted and then he started coughing violently, curling up on himself, his body shaking with spasms as he struggled to breathe.

"Donnie, what's happening to him?" Leo’s voice was tight with worry.

The answer was a short, nearly growled, “I don’t know.” His eyes didn’t leave his brother's shaking form. Mikey was on earth, he shouldn’t have any problem breathing here. Plus he wasn’t not breathing, he was– he was–

“Dimension-X’s atmosphere is much thicker than earth’s. The transition can be a shock if his anatomy isn’t made for it.” Leatherhead was keeping his huge form out of the way, but he was still watching anxiously.

Now that he knew what to look for, Donatello could see some faint pinkish smoke escaping Mikey's mouth. His mind immediately conjured everything he knew about liquid breathing and all the disastrous effects the past attempts in medical history had led to. Mikey’s lungs were probably still full of the stuff, he needed to cough it all out to breathe better. Donnie gritted his teeth. It was unfair, the first time seeing his brother in three months and he was utterly incapable of helping him.

He shuddered, the filtration units were in case Dimension-X's atmosphere was toxic. He’d never been happier to be wrong, Mikey would have been dead by now if he wasn’t.

Mikey’s body was wracked with uncontrollable coughs and gasps, one hand holding tightly his belly and the other clutching Raphael’s knee, leaving bloody crescent marks where his nails pierced the skin.
Raph didn’t seem to even realize, his face was livid and his hands hovered uselessly over Mikey, unsure of what to do. Leo didn’t have such hesitations, he started rubbing his shell, trying to offer some small measure of comfort.

Donatello slipped his arm under Michelangelo's tight form, placing his hand on his chest, frantically feeling for the state of his brother’s lungs. With the spasms following each ragged breath, Donatello could feel the rattle from the thicker substance obstructing his lungs. He put his second hand on the back of Mikey’s neck, he needed to calm down, panic could only worsen the breathing problem. “I know it’s hard Mikey, but you need to slow your respiration.”

Michelangelo did, he tried. His coughs turned into harsh, guttural moans and his chest quivered painfully under Donnie's trembling fingers. It was a sign that Mikey was getting more air, Donatello knew it, but it was distressing anyway.

Leo leaned down, gathering Mikey in his arms, then against his chest. Mikey’s face was contorted with panic, his eyes wide and unfocused, big fat tears streaming down his face.

Raphael grabbed Mikey's arm again, squeezing reassuringly, looking up at Donatello expectantly.

Donatello was going over a mental list of everything that could help, but there wasn't much to do. He grabbed Michelangelo's other hand, "You're doing great Mikey, here, you're already breathing better, can you feel it?"

Mikey nodded slightly, his chest heaving with each labored inspiration, the spasms lessening in intensity, a deep wheezing sound escaping from his throat.

Finally, he slumped back against Leonardo, exhausted and weak. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and scratchy, "Ha, sorry for the scare." It was the most beautiful sound in the world.

Donatello collapsed on Mikey, crushing his baby brother in the tightest embrace possible. Mikey hugged back, one of his hands scratching lightly his scutes. Donnie could have passed out from relief, for the first time in three months, everything was alright.

Raphael made space for himself in the family hug. His embrace was much more forceful and he mushed his cheek against Mikey's head as he said, "You're never getting out of my sight ever again, do you hear me? If you do that again, I’ll beat the crap out of you."

This made Mikey giggle, "Aww, missed you too!"

Leo didn't say anything, seemingly content with all three of his brothers in his arms. He probably didn't have any more courage to leave than Donatello because he turned toward Leatherhead and asked, "Could you go retrieve Sensei? He must be in his room."

Leatherhead nodded before leaving the lab.

Donatello would have stayed right there and never moved ever again, but Mikey started to push them off. Leonardo was pinned under his siblings and Raphael didn't budge, the only one to comply was Donnie. Thankfully, Mikey kept a firm grip on his shoulder, holding him at arm’s length. Like that, they could get a good look at each other.

Mikey was missing his bandana and he seemed tired despite the lack of dark circles under his eyes. He hadn't actually been pale from shock when he arrived, his skin was washed-out and discolored with a slightly grayish tint.

"God, Dee, you look like shit! What happened to you?"

It was so ridiculous Donnie couldn’t help but chuckle, “I’m not the one that got stuck in a foreign dimension full of enemies for three months. I’m more worried about you.” And then he dragged Mikey to the examination table, ignoring the protests of his two older siblings.

Mikey didn’t protest, and he automatically closed his hand around the plastic cup when Don handed him one with a curt, “Spit in there.” before starting to gather his equipment for a global checkup.

Mikey didn’t ask any questions, it was Splinter who wondered, “What for?”

Donatello hadn’t even noticed that Leatherhead had come back with their Sensei. “If Dimension-X’s air is that thick, then there will be some of it still in there, I’m going to analyze it, just to be safe.”

When he turned back toward Mikey, he was sandwiched between Leo and Raph, staring at the empty cup and not saying anything.

Leo nudged him, “Hey, you alright?”

But Michelangelo ignored his question, turning his attention toward Leatherhead, “How long were you in Dimension-X?” which was a stupid question, they already knew the answer. It was what? A year? Maybe more?

But instead Leatherhead answered, “It’s been more than ten years.”

Raphael was the first to react, “No, you left last year. It was months ago, not years.” before being chastised by both Leo and Mikey for being rude.

Donatello frowned. Leatherhead did look older, maybe. But then it would mean… His brain was already spitting-out hypothesis after hypothesis. They were all bad, either because they were very unlikely or because he really didn’t like what it could mean.

Mikey spat in the cup and handed it to him, silent. Donnie put it away before starting his examination, he wanted to be done with Mikey before checking Leatherhead for signs of experiments that could have led to something like that. It was one of the kraang's experiments, it had to be.

Mikey went along with the examination without making a fuss like he usually did. It was unnerving. Leo and Raph didn’t want to get farther from Mikey than they had to. Donatello understood, really, having Mikey here still felt surreal. But it didn’t make the examination easier.

He’d grown by a few centimeters, there were a few new scars, a slight loss of muscle mass and his pale complexion. Some of Dimension-X’s atmosphere probably remained in his lungs but it would be cleared away with breathing exercise and the next few training sessions. Donatello sighed with relief, there was nothing incredibly worrying.

Once he was done, he turned to Leatherhead, “Your turn now, if one of the kraang's experiments turned those months into years then it may have done something else.” But Leatherhead drew back, clearly against the idea. It was understandable, especially after what he went through, but still–

Mikey slid down from the table, followed by Raph who refused to let go of his arm, “There’s no need, it’s not an experiment. Time is just different in Dimension-X.”

Ah, a temporal differential then. That was crazy, but that meant… “How long was it for you?”

Mikey tilted his head to the side, thinking. “Probably around three years.”

Three years?!

“Anyway, I’m starving. I’m going to make spaghetti, who wants some? Leatherhead, will you eat with us?”

And he fled the lab.

Chapter Text

Raphael silently followed his brother in the kitchen, he hadn’t let go of his arm, but Mikey was clinging to him just as hard.

Raph was lost, he had spent the last three months thinking of millions of horrible things that could happen to Mikey, alone in an unknown dimension, without any proper food, face to face with an unknown environment that might just kill him, he’d thought about Mikey alone with the Kraangs, outnumbered, hurt, captured, tortured, killed.
And now he was back and telling them that he hadn’t been left alone for three months, but for three years?
Raph wanted to stop him, to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. But what would he even say?
Mikey was on a one-man mission: making his stupid spaghetti. He was already shoulder-deep in a cupboard when Leo arrived, “Michelangelo!”

Mikey flinched and hit his head against the top of the drawer, “Ow– Yes? What’s the matter?”

Leonardo looked downright offended, “Don’t walk out on us like that!” Both Donatello and Splinter piled in behind him. Leatherhead was looking through the door but didn’t come in.

“Okay.” Mikey pulled out a bunch of dusty packs of spaghetti that Raphael didn’t even know they had and turned toward the pot drawer. “Leatherhead, are you hungry?” He didn’t look especially sorry about leaving the lab like he did.

Donatello looked like he was going to fall over. Raph pulled a chair for him and clasped a hand on his shoulder when he sat. Managing to fix the portal was incredible, Raph was proud of him, and thankful.

Leo was still standing and didn’t look like he was going to calm down. His voice was pained, “Three years Mikey? Really? It’s not a joke?” Mikey didn’t make bad jokes like that, Raph knew it, and so did Leo. But still.

“More or less, I didn’t count the days –couldn't, most of the time– but around that, yeah.”

Silence… except for the sound of water filling the pot. Finally, Leatherhead chimed in, “I’m not hungry.”

Mikey looked down at his pot, “Oh…” He turned around, “Anyone else?”

Raph sighed, “It’s three in the afternoon Mike.” They’d been running in circles for months trying to get him back; they didn’t expect him to return like that, without warning, without them having to go and get him.

Somehow, Mikey seemed as lost as everyone else.

"I will speak with Leatherhead," stated Splinter, walking to the door, "I trust you have the situation handled, my sons."

Leonardo nodded, but Raphael wasn't so sure. He would never admit it, but he would have preferred their sensei's steady presence to the privacy he was offering.

Donatello slumped on the table, dead tired. Everybody eyed him a moment, then Mikey turned back to put his pot over the heat, putting salt in the water. "Gosh, Donatello, you look half dead."

Of course he did, he'd spent the last three months trying to repair the portal. Donatello didn't answer. He probably wouldn’t fall asleep for good, that would mean having Mikey out of his sight. But now that his adrenaline level was back down, he was likely going to start nodding off.

Leo decided to refocus the discussion, "So, Dimension-X?”

Mikey opened the fridge to rummage through their mess of cans and expired food, apparently not even registering the question.

Raph clenched his teeth. Leo sent him a pointed look before turning back toward Mikey, “How was it?”

Mikey tilted his head, "It was big, and weird. Things didn’t always work the same as here, t’was an adjustment.” He got a jar of pre-made tomato sauce out of the fridge, sending them a judging look. He didn’t like pre-made sauces, they all knew that, but hey, he wasn’t there and they had still needed to eat.

Raph growled and Leo crossed his arms, Mikey was not taking their questions seriously, it was infuriating. “But what about the Kraangs? Were you safe?”

Mikey —the jerk— had the guts to roll his eyes, opening a couple of spaghetti packs and dumping the contents in the pot, setting a timer. “Of course not, I was mostly out of the Kraang's way, but Dimension-X is dangerous, with or without the Kraangs."

No big surprise here, Raphael probably wouldn’t have believed him if he had said that he‘d been completely safe.

“What about your nunchucks?” Donatello was lying on the table, his neck twisted awkwardly to keep his eyes on Mikey. The weapons he was carrying were indeed different from the ones Splinter had given him, Raphael would have noticed too, if his thoughts hadn't been otherwise occupied.

Mikey opened the jar of sauce and put it in the microwave to warm up, “I lost them in Dimension-X, had to find a replacement. I’ve practically never used these ones.”

He what?

And Leo was surprised too, “You found these in Dimension-X?"

Mikey simply hummed in agreement, too occupied by whatever he was doing in the fridge to bother thinking of a proper answer.

Raph didn't care about where the fuck he had found the replacement, he was more concerned about the fact that he had needed to. Their weapons were a gift from Sensei, some of the few remains of his human life that he had managed to retrieve. It was the first object of value they had ever possessed and they were all very attached to it. The idea of Mikey losing his…

Raph's eyes widened in realization: Mikey had somehow ended up defenseless in Dimension-X. "But… But you were already with Leatherhead when it happened, right?" And his voice nearly didn't crack with the question.

"Oh, no! I rescued Leatherhead right before coming back." His voice was light and unbothered, but he must have seen something on their faces because he added, "I was fine, nunchucks are useless in Dimension-X anyway." He then started heaving cans out of the fridge to put in a cupboard, not noticing how pale Donatello had turned, the carefully neutral expression on Leo's face, or the white-knuckled grip Raph had on the edge of the table.

Raphael wanted answers! He wanted either reassurances or to know what he should be worried about, not Michelangelo dismissing their questions like they weren't important, like he didn't care, more focused on his fucking kitchen. “I can’t believe dad let you store the cans in there, that’s not where it goes.”

Raphael snapped, “Nobody cares about the goddamn cans Mikey! We’re asking you questions! Damn it, you could take the time to answer us properly!”

Mikey flinched and dropped all the cans he was holding, Leo berated, "Hey!” and Donatello straightened, looking at him with big owlish eyes.

Through the door, he saw Splinter glance their way, ears flat against his head.

He looked back toward Mikey and his heart dropped. Michelangelo had backed away, eyes wide and hands held out, his face as pale as a sheet. It made Raphael’s guts twist: Mikey didn't do that, he shouldn't do that, he was home.

Raph bit his lip, apologies stuck at the back of his throat.

Mikey regained his composure, cleared his throat and dusted himself off like he was wearing clothes.

Raphael sent a desperate look toward Leonardo. Mikey wasn’t listening anymore, picking up the fallen cans to store with the rest.

Leonardo took a deep breath, "We've spent the past three months not knowing if you were fine. We just want to know what you went through, we were worried sick."

Mikey crossed his arms, "You were worried sick?" His voice was unnaturally flat, "For three years I had to wonder if you guys were fine." With horror, Raphael realized that tears were gathering at the corner of his eyes. "The portal- You guys were not behind me, at first I thought you'd been delayed, but then- the portal closed and-" Mikey rubbed his eyes tiredly, wiping the tears along the way. "I thought something had happened to you..."

Donatello's hand caught Raphael's arm under the table, he was trembling. Raph leaned against him.

The timer beeped and Michelangelo took the pot off the heat to drain the spaghetti. Donatello explained, “The portal broke, and with the time difference… I spent the last three months trying to fix it.”

Mikey frowned, putting spaghetti on a plate with sauce and handing it to Donnie, “Is that why you look so bad? Did you not take care of yourself?”

Donnie looked offended, “I was in a hurry. What if I had taken more time? With the temporal differential, it could have taken even more years from you.”

Mikey sat at the table with his own food, knocking his fork against the side of Don’s plate, “Eat.”

A knock against the open door cut-off any further disagreements, Splinter was back, Leatherhead behind him. If he was surprised to see Donnie eating, he didn’t comment on it.

Leatherhead bent to whisper something in Michelangelo's ear. Mikey frowned, “What?”

More whispering, but Raph couldn’t hear.

“Now?” And Leatherhead nodded.

Leonardo probably didn’t like Mikey’s upset look anymore than Raph, he asked, “What’s happening?”

“I’m going to leave for some time, I have something to take care of, now that I have reached an advanced age.”

Oh, no wonder Mikey looked so crestfallen, “Are you sure you can’t stay a bit longer?”

But Leatherhead shook his head, “I want to be done as soon as possible.”

Mikey scowled, scooping another forkful of Spaghetti, “Alright.”

Chapter Text

It was four in the morning when Donatello went to the kitchen to refill his coffee pot. That’s when he found Mikey, sitting at the counter, writing in his journal and cradling a steaming mug. It was quite surprising, Mikey loved his sleep.

“Hey,” he said, “you should be sleeping.”

Mikey hummed, “So should you.”

True, but Donatello had been trying to implement some new feature in the shellraiser, it was time-consuming. He started the coffee maker, waiting for his brother to speak.

“I can’t sleep.”

Donatello raised his head, eying the mug resting on the table, “Coffee probably doesn’t help.”

Mikey laid his head on his hand, lazily turning the pages of his journal. "It's cider."

Red flag. He was far too young to drink alcohol, and alone? In the middle of the night? "Where did you find that?"

Mikey looked up at his brother, seemingly surprised by his tone. "I got it at my last grocery run."

"Since when do you drink alcohol?"

Mikey did not stop sipping the cider, "Since Dimension-X."

It deflates him at once. It had been one week since they got Mikey back, but they hadn’t managed to get him to tell them how it was. Sensei had forbidden them to ask him any more questions.

He was fine now, Donatello reminded himself. Calm and humming like he always did when he wanted to fill the silence. His lungs were clear and he had started regaining colors. He was also awake at four in the morning and drinking cider.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Donnie asked worriedly.

“No, nothing of the sort. I’m just jet-lagged still, I guess.”

“From Dimension-X?”

“Yeah, there was no night and day there. Also, I think I screwed up my circadian cycle.”

That… that couldn’t be healthy. “I could probably try to work on a program to get you back on track.”

Mikey paused, probably to think about it. “That would be nice.” He finished his mug and scribbled something on a page corner.

“By the way, I finished analyzing the sample of air from Dimension-X.” It had been hard to isolate but once it was done the process had been fairly easy.

It made Mikey look up questioningly. He didn’t look like he was going to ask, Don explained anyway, “It’s really interesting and kind of weird: it fills all space like a gas, but it’s heavy and denser at the bottom of its container, our air does that too but on an incredibly larger scale. Generally, Dimension-X’s air acts a lot like a fluid, I was right about that, but it becomes tricky with the analysis. Everything in there looks like a really heterogeneous melange of a lot of elements, but when you look closer, it looks like their half-life is much shorter, do you follow me?”

“Right, yeah… Half-life.” Mikey was listening, but he didn’t look interested at all.
Usually, when Donatello went too far in explanations, someone would point it out to him so he could go back to being understandable. But Mikey seemed content to let him talk in vain.

“The most important part is that it shouldn’t have had any lasting effect on you, yay!” Saying that, Donatello hesitantly waved his hands, hoping for a reaction.

It made Mikey smile, he looked tired.

Right… Donatello's coffee was ready and he still had a lot of work planned for the night. “You should try to catch at least a few hours of sleep, you’re going to be dead on your feet tomorrow.”

“You’re going back to work?”

“Yes.” Because there was no other time to do it nowadays with all the fighting and training, and because Donatello actually had experience functioning on few hours of sleep, unlike his brother.

“Cool, see you tomorrow.” Michelangelo didn’t look like he planned to move from his stool.

When Donatello went back to working on the shellraiser, he couldn’t help but think about it. How many other habits had Mikey picked up with his trip to Dimension-X?

Chapter Text

Mikey actually managed to fall asleep early that day. Three hours earlier than he should have, actually. He left right after dinner and practically passed out in his bed. Once again, he blamed his erratic sleeping patterns, he hadn’t been able to sleep the night before.

However, he later woke up in a shiver. The room felt too cold, but the covers were sticking to his skin. He got up, steady on his feet despite the head rush, and shuffled to the bathroom.

He switched on the light, the sudden brightness sending a stabbing pain in his skull despite his firmly closed eyes.

The shivers got worse. His head was hurting, bad. He rubbed his face, trying to clear his thoughts. In the mirror, toxic green eyes looked back.

He hastily opened the cupboard, trying to forget the vision, and began clumsily rummaging through the medicine, knocking over bottles and boxes.

He took a deep breath, pinching his nose in a futile attempt to lessen the pain in his head. Fuck, it hurt.

He tried to read the label on a bottle, but his vision was too blurry and he could barely hold it still with how much he was shaking. It probably wouldn’t do anyway.

He left the bottle in the sink with the rest of the medicine that fell from the cupboard. He picked a box, still blurry. Gods!

A whine escaped his throat and he gripped the sides of the sink, firmly closing his eyes again, willing the world to stop swaying and the pain to just leave, please.

But it was no use and he was beginning to feel nauseous. He sank shakily to the ground, not trusting himself to keep upright.

It would pass, but gods, he was feeling so bad. A sob tore from his throat. Maybe a cold shower would help?
Maybe not.
Probably not.

Ugh, he needed something, sleeping pills, pain meds, ibuprofen, anything. Fuck, maybe he should have gone to Donatello, he was probably still awake.
But Mikey didn’t want any of his brothers to see him like this. They would worry and there was nothing to be done. It would pass. He just felt incredibly bad. He’d really like the shivers to stop now.

Mikey didn’t know how long he remained on the floor, trying and failing to find the energy to get back up and get his freaking meds. He was openly sobbing now, that was probably what drew his brother’s attention.

He barely registered when the still ajar door of the bathroom opened. He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Leo.

“H-hey.”

Leo was speaking, but Mikey had not been paying attention.

“What?” His voice was croaky from crying.

Leo put a hand on his forehead, “You don’t feel feverish.”

“N-no, it, it’s normal, it’ll pass.”

Leo looked worried as a new, bigger shiver shook Mikey.
He was feeling so bad.
He threw himself at Leo, hugging him as hard as he could. Leo would make it feel better, Leo always knew what to do.

“Hurts.” He sobbed.

Leo said something else, but again, Mikey was not paying attention.

If he clung hard enough to Leo, it'd be enough, those awful shivers would go away, Mikey would stay right there, at home.

A gentle hand came to his neck.
“Mikey, please!”

Mikey groaned, trying to focus on his brother.

"Where does it hurt?"

Mikey tried to answer, but he really wasn't sure. "Head, tummy… everywhere."

It was awful, he felt like he was dying all over again.

No, he did not. He was not dying, that was just an episode. He just needed Leo to stay there, to remind him that he was home.

Leo was right there, solid anchor in the cold sea threatening to sweep him away. Warm and talking, even if Mikey couldn't focus on what was being said.

His teeth were chattering and he had to clench them to stop it. The blood was thumping, dudum, dudum, at his temples.

He tried to focus on Leo, Leo was good, Leo was there. He'd make things better.

Leo's voice rose and Mikey realized that he was calling for help. Mikey smothered him, putting both of his hands on his mouth, pushing him down — he hadn't meant to do that.

Leo's scream had hurt his ears, more people meant more sounds, more worry, more problems. Mikey was so tired of the problems.

He just needed to ride this out, if he could just…
"I need you to grab me the pain meds, Leo."
A firm, barely not shaking voice, that was good.

Leo shifted and Mikey clung harder. He needed Leo, he'd shake apart and disappear without him.

Leo answered to his clinginess by a careful, hot hand on his shell and by some slow, calm hushing sounds.

Right, meds.

Leo rose and Mikey remained at his feet, keeping a hand on his calf to try to get himself in a proper sitting position.

Leo was there again, a glass in one hand and two pills in the other.
It took more than one attempt and Leo ended up helping him drink.

He slumped against his brother again. It had been a while already, it would stop eventually, the meds would soon take effect, he just had to hold on.

"Tha– Thank-you."

Leo was there, he was speaking again, his voice steady and warm, piercing the tambours in his temples.

"Cold"
Because at this point he didn't mind being an annoying pest or a needy baby. "Please take me to bed."
Beyond the pain in his head and the ache in his muscles, he could feel the bone deep exhaustion gaining territory. Sleepless nights and adrenaline crash and crying for who knows how long on the bathroom floor, all of it catching up to him. That was good, he wanted everything to stop already. The shaking had been going on for too long and he was aching everywhere. He felt like he was made of glass, without strength, incapable of anything without breaking.

Two arms went below his knees and his back and he was lifted.
He hadn't realized how much the ground helped until it was gone and the world began spinning violently. That was it, he was dissolving.

Leo was there, and Leo knew where was up and where was down. So Mikey left himself sag, boneless, against his solid frame. Everything was a blur and Mikey closed his eyes, willing the world to stop spinning and to start making sense again.

He was left on a bed and there was a blanket over his limbs and Leo's presence beside him. Mikey waited for his body to stop bothering him. Everything was so heavy. He felt oblivion claim him slowly.

Chapter Text

It was terrifying, finding his little brother crumpled on the floor, barely aware of what was going around him. He was in pain, crying, shaking like a leaf.

And Leo hadn't known what was happening, hadn't known what to do. There was no wound, no fever, no obvious reason for the pain.

And Mikey was making no sense, half sentences about how everything was normal, how it was going to pass.
As if it was normal, having his brother clutching him like a lifeline, chocking on his own breath, in pain. His eyes, green like the ink of a torn highlighter.

And then things went worse, Mikey was begging, between sobs he’d ask for it to stop, for the shivers to please leave him alone, he was cursing and shaking harder and he stopped answering questions.

Alone in the bathroom with his unresponsive brother falling apart in his arms, Leo panicked. But when he’d tried to call for help, Mikey had stopped him.
He was hyperventilating and making even less sense. Stammering about not worrying the others. But Leo was already worried, of course he was, how could he not?

Like a marionette whose strings had just been cut, Mikey lost his grip on his shoulders, collapsing on him like a rag doll, still shaking, still crying, but silently. Mikey was never this silent, the only trace of him still being conscious was the weak grip he still had on his arm.

“I need you to grab me the pain meds, Leo."

Leo scrambled to do it, finally something he could do to help his brother. But when he tried to get up, Mikey whimpered weakly.

Leo couldn’t take it anymore, all of it was so wrong, he should have called for help immediately. How had nobody heard them?

He tried to soothe his brother, it was easier now that there weren’t any sobs to cover his voice, it would be good if the silence wasn’t sending ice-cold terror through his veins.

Leo looked for the pain meds, the cupboard was a mess and the boxes were everywhere. He wasted precious seconds looking for the pain meds. Beside him, Mikey was trying and failing to get himself up. The grip on his calf weak as a kitten’s. The silence was deafening.

He got back on his knees and helped Mikey up, giving him the pills and water. Leo started filling the silence with a low stream of reassurances, it seemed to calm him.

Mikey slumped against him with a sigh. He was still shaking, that was not normal. Leo should have checked for a conclusion before giving him meds.

"Tha– Thank you."

Leo hummed to his brother, wary of loud noise since the outburst from earlier. Mikey was really out of it, didn’t even react when Leo checked him for bumps on the head. There was nothing.

"Cold.” Leo barely heard the voice buried in his shoulder. “Please take me to bed." The shaking looked less violent and really, how could he say no to his brother when he was like this.

When he lifted his brother, he made a low keening sound. Leo waited, still as a statue, for any hint that he needed to put him back down. Mikey relaxed again and Leo went to his room.

Mikey curled up as soon as he was left down, gripping the sheets. Leo laid beside him, keeping guard over his now sleeping brother.

He didn’t sleep, replaying the scene in his head, again and again, wondering what could have caused this, how he should have reacted. Mikey wasn’t shivering anymore, he was still like a corpse. The slow breathing and the steady pulse under Leo’s fingers were the only reminders that Mikey was fine. At least he should be now, if Leo believed him when he said that it’d pass.

The hours were slow until morning, the time Leo usually got up came and went. However, he didn’t dare leave Mikey alone.

Raphael peeked in through the door, checking on them. Leo shooed him out.

Last time Raph had tried to drag Mikey out of bed, he had snapped that he was tired and that if he couldn’t manage to get enough hours of sleep, he would not be foolish enough to go patrolling while sleep-deprived.

Leo couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it had happened before.

If he hadn’t gotten up to get some water, he wouldn’t have heard Mikey, the bathroom was too far from the bedrooms. How many times had this happened before for Mikey to be so sure about how it would end. Was that why he was always so tired during the days?

That’s when Mikey began waking up, Leo would get his answers.

Mikey groaned before noticing the turtle behind him. He sighed and sat up, followed by Leo.

“We need to talk.”

Mikey whined while dropping his head on Leo’s shoulder. He was much more tactile than usual. “I know.”

“What was that yesterday, Mikey? You scared me.”

“That was… It’s not the first time it happens, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Mikey was avoiding eye contact, Leo was feeling frantic, of course it was worrying! “Why did you not say anything?”

Mikey was now twisting his fingers nervously. “I did not want to worry you, what would I even had said?”

“Anything!” Why was he so nonchalant?
“How long has this been going on?”

Mikey waved a hand dismissively, “Some time. Really, I’m fine.”

And Leo couldn’t stop himself, he shook Mikey. “You were not fine, you were miserable!”

Mikey looked surprised by Leo’s outburst, “I… No, you’re right, I was miserable, but there’s nothing to do about it.”

“How can you be so sure about that? Stop avoiding my questions, Mikey, you don’t get to scare me like that without explaining anything afterward.”

“It’s a side effect from a product I got exposed to while in Dimension-X.” Mikey had retreated to the corner of the bed, his legs against his plastron. He looked tiny.

Dimension-X? That was more than two weeks ago. “Have you been having these crises this whole time?”

Mikey shook his head, “No, it’s the first time it happened since I’m back. I really am fine.”

That was not fine, why couldn’t Michelangelo understand that? “Donnie needs to examine you.”

Mikey began fidgeting, “Or, you could drop it.”

What?

Seeing as Leo wasn’t saying anything, Michelangelo continued, “I mean, thinking about it makes me really uncomfortable. I’d really like it if it could stay between us, and uh… If we could not speak about it again.”

Leo couldn’t believe his brother, Michelangelo was not asking something like that from him.

“Plus, you know. I’m not sure if I want to know what Don would find. Maybe I am better off not knowing.”

Leo shook his head violently, getting back to earth. “It’s absolutely out of the question, Donnie is examining you and this is non-negotiable.”

And Mikey could not negotiate.

Chapter Text

Raphael had noticed changes since Dimension-X, it was hard to miss honestly, Mikey was so different.

Oh, it was still Mikey. He would still go bother Donnie to get him to eat or sleep. He would still try the most weird and extravagant topping on his pizza. He was still the most optimistic person Raph ever knew.

But he was also tired, constantly. And Raph did not think that the fatigue was only physical. Mikey seemed to be tired of everything, tired of messing with people, tired of arguments, tired of petty banter.

It was disturbing. While Mikey used to whine and pout when there was a disagreement, he now backed down immediately. It made Raph’s skin itch.

Then came training. Michelangelo was rusty, somehow. Nobody knew what he did in Dimension-X but it apparently didn't involve his ninja skills. He was less exuberant, more thrifty with his moves, like if he was preparing for an hour long battle.

Splinter did not clear him for patrol right away, it took two weeks of personal training for him to be allowed to join and even then, Mikey didn't come each time.

It was a patrol like every other, they had just beaten the purple dragons when Mikey froze on his spot. "Casey? How did you get this gash?"

And yeah, there was a gash on Casey's arm.

“In the fight?” Casey sounded unsure, because it was a stupid question. They had just fought a gang of thugs.

Mikey narrowed his eyes, but dropped the subject.

Later, when Raph got to the Lair from escorting Casey back home, he was intercepted by his little brother.

"Do you have a minute?"

Mikey was uncharacteristically serious and Raphael clenched his fists in worry. But if Mikey needed his full time and attention, then he first needed to take care of the post-patrol check-up with Donnie.

Michelangelo didn't argue and Raph couldn't tell if it meant that it was more or less serious than he thought.

He later found his little brother in his bedroom, papers haphazardly thrown into a mess around him. He was humming to himself, writing on one of the pages.

Maybe he had forgotten.
Maybe Raph had worried for nothing.

But then "Raph! Come in, don't mind the mess, I was going to go get you."

Raphael did mind the mess. The pizza boxes specifically had started piling up again since Mikey's return and Raph thought it disgusting.

Michelangelo had put down his pen and was rearranging the papers. "I wanted to speak about Casey."

"Why?"

Mikey turned toward him, his face void of any amusement, "because I know that the gash on his arm doesn't come from the purple dragons."

Raph blinked, he really didn't want to blow off his brother when he was like this but "Mikey, this is ridiculous. How could you know something like that. Plus, Casey told us it was from the purple dragons."

Mikey crossed his arms. "I think he lied."

Raph was growing annoyed, Casey wouldn't lie to him. "Why would you think that?"

"The gash didn't happen during the fight."

Michelangelo wasn't explaining anything. "You already said that, but I still don’t know where it comes from. Plus, even if he lied, it's just a scratch, nothing to be worried about."

"I'm just saying, Casey could have gotten himself in a bad situation. You should keep an eye open." Which was fair, Casey had a thing about finding trouble.

But he would have told Raph.

Mikey left after that. Because Mikey didn’t do confrontation after a disagreement, not anymore.
It was slightly awkward because Raph was left alone in Mikey’s room.
Mikey’s room with it’s cold pizza smell and toys laying everywhere.
Mikey was so messy, Raphael was even surprised he tidied up his papers. One more thing he picked up in Dimension-X. Too bad it didn’t extend to the pizza boxes.

It was late, like really late. Leo was probably getting ready for bed. Donnatelo was probably working on one of his inventions. Mikey was off, doing whatever he does when he should be sleeping.

Raphael was tired, the heavy eyelids kind of tired. But his talk with his brother had left him raw and tense, he did not want to go to sleep.

He missed Spike. He didn't have anybody to entrust with his worry anymore since his mutation. Slash was good, he saved their asses more than once with the mutanimals, but it wasn't the same and Raphael had lost a friend.

Without anybody to confide in, he would normally go punch the sandbag. But it was late and Raph was still aching from the mission.

Without any other plan, he decided to go keep Don company. Not that Don needed it, of course, but Raph didn't want to be alone. He felt the heat of Mikey's gaze from the kitchen table on his way and hurried.

Don didn't even acknowledge his entrance, nose deep in electric wiring.
Raph sat in a corner, listening to his brother working. He should have taken some comics.

The silence was comforting and Raph was gently roused awake by Don some time later.
"How long have you been here?"

Still half asleep he answered, "I don't know, what time is it?"

And Don put a hand on his forehead, testing his temperature. "Really late Raph, you should be in bed, you're going to regret sleeping on the floor."

And Raph was already regretting it for the pain in his neck, so he kept silent.

"Are you alright? This isn't like you Raph." Geez, Donny was worried, well done.

"Sorry. I just, I was thinking about Mikey." About what if he really had noticed the gash before the fight. He would never have noticed something like that before. But that was unlikely.
Why was he so sure that Casey lied. This lack of trust was so unlike him.

"He's gonna be alright."

Raph raised his gaze at his brother. Donnie had a determined look on his face, he sounded sure of himself.

Chapter Text

Donatello is a genius. He knows it and it gets confirmed each time he manages to create the impossible with second hand material scavenged from the trash. But sometimes, he feels like an idiot. When he misses something obvious, that he should have thought of right away. And worse, this time it had been about his brother's health, no less.

He can't believe he didn't think of doing a full inspection of his brother after he came back from Dimension-X. No, he had been content with a normal checkup then left for bed.

How tired he had been at the time shouldn't have mattered. And here he was now, glaring at the blood test results in incomprehension.

There was something wrong with the tests, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

He'd asked Mikey for a second sample, sure that the first one had been contaminated with another of his experiments. But the second test result was the same as the first.

There was something wrong with Mikey's blood.

Leo had come to his lab one morning, Mikey fidgeting behind him, and he'd asked him to do a full inspection. Mikey was twitchy, he couldn't stay in place when Donatello tried to test or take samples. Donnie felt sorry for forcing him through that, but he couldn't do otherwise. Mikey had lost weight, muscle mass and he had a few new scars. Also, there was something wrong with his blood.

Donatello had a problem with this last one and he was contemplating going to Mikey to ask questions. That would be against direct orders from their father. But Splinter probably didn't think about health issues when he promised Mikey that they wouldn't ask about Dimension-X.

His musing was interrupted by a knock and Leo coming in. Donatello checked the time. 8:24 a.m. He forgot to go to bed. “Leo, how was your night?”

Leo crossed his arms, “Did you pull an all-nighter? Again? We spoke about that.”

Leo was unhappy. Deflect! Deflect!

“I’m happy you’re here, I got the results for Michelangelo’s blood test.”

Leo raised his eyebrows, and approached Don’s desk. “Really? How is it? Did you find the source of his episodes? Is he sick?”

Don bit into one of his pens. He never liked to show unfinished research. “He’s not sick.”

Leo did not relax like Don hoped, “But you found something, right? It’s not normal.”

Damn Leo and how perceptive he was, “There's something but…”

“We should call Michelangelo, I know he tries to wake up at regular hours now.” Ah, Don had been wondering if he was following the program he made.

“Wait!” Leo, stopped and looked at him surprised. “I’m not sure yet, I need to ask him about the chemicals he was exposed to.”

Leo frowned, "He said he didn't know."

And wasn't that a problem. "I know, but he could tell me more about it, what it looks like, where it happened, how he was exposed to it. I need something Leo. There's something wrong with his blood and I'm worried."

Leo squeezed Donnie's shoulder reassuringly. His eyes on the lab’s exit as if aching to see Michelangelo. "What's wrong? Is it dangerous?"

"His blood is radiating Leonardo, whatever that chemical was, it should never have been in contact with any living beings." Here, he said it. Michelangelo's blood was not supposed to do that, blood was not supposed to do that. That was the kind of thing you expect from a Fukushima mushroom, not from a little brother.

"What does it mean? Is Mikey going to be alright?"

“I don’t know Leo, I’ve never seen that anywhere.”

“What’s happening?”
And okay, maybe Donatello was feeling a bit hysterical, and maybe Leo and he had progressively been louder and louder, apparently Mikey had heard them.

“We were speaking about your blood test, you're radioactive, little bro.” Don wanted to slap Leo. Yes, Mikey had a right to know those things, but seriously, you couldn’t just say things like that.

Mikey didn’t move, probably more perplexed than anything else. “Am I, Really?”

“No, you’re not, it’s like radioactivity, but not quite. Organic matter doesn't react to the radiation, which leads to the question of how your blood began to react like that.”

Donatello was hoping for an answer, but apparently Mikey didn’t even register it as a question. “Is there anything about these chemicals that you may be able to tell us about? Like how you got exposed to it for example.”

Michelangelo was biting his lip, he mumbled something. It was loud enough to be heard, but Donatello was pretty sure that he heard it wrong because, “You what?”

“I drank it!”

For the love of- “Why would you drink a non-identified substance, Mikey?”

“I didn’t have a choice, okay?”

How? What happened? He wanted to ask but his tongue was stuck.

Leonardo seemed about to interfere but, “Don’t look at me like that! You weren’t there.”

That effectively shut them up and he took advantage of it to leave the room. He was right, they weren’t there. They had been foolish enough to hesitate to follow him into Dimension-X and then, when it broke, Donatello wasn’t good enough to repair the device that would open a portal in less than three months.

He exploded in tears. His little brother. Alone in the Kraang’s dimension for three years. Tears now? Come on, he wasn’t a baby. He was smart, he was level headed, he didn’t do tears. He buried his face in his hands, hiding the world from him, hiding his numerous mistakes from him.
He barely registered Leo’s hand on his shell. He didn’t want to be comforted, he didn’t need it. He needed to do better, he needed to stop failing his brothers.

“Come with me.”

Leo took his arm and led him out, through the corridors to his room. Donatello held his breath, muffling his sobs in his hand. He didn’t want the others to see him like this. Once the door closed, Leo sat on the bed beside him, holding him close, humming slowly.

“I left him down.”

Leo began rocking him, “Shh, you did not. You nearly worked yourself into the ground trying to fix the portal to Dimension-X.”

“He must hate me.”

Leo released him from his embrace, only to hold him firmly at arm’s length. “No he does not, you know he doesn’t.”

“He’s not the same. He doesn’t goof around anymore, he’s always tired. He dissociates more. He spends hours writing in his stupid journal. I miss my little brother, Leo.”

Leo’s face did something complicated, somewhere between a grimace and a frown. “It’s been three years, he changed, it’s normal. But he’s still our little brother, he’ll always be”

“I don’t know him anymore. I don’t know how to reach for him and he doesn’t try to spend time with me.”

Leo pushed him to lay down, “It only means that we get to learn to know him again.”

Leo’s strokes were southing. “Everything’s going to be fine Don, I promise. Sleep, you need it.”

And he slept.

Chapter Text

Don woke up slowly. He felt like he had slept an eternity. He reached for his phone beside his bed, to check the time. But his phone was not here.

He always plugged his phone beside the bed before going to sleep. He frowned, he couldn't check the time.

"You slept eleven hours."

Donatello jumped in surprise. Michelangelo was sitting against the door.

"Eleven hours, that can't be right, I wasn't that sleep deprived."

Michelangelo rose and sat on Don's bed. "You had been awake for twenty-seven hours, and you’ve been sleeping three hours a night for who knows how long. So yes, you were that sleep deprived."

Donnie frowned. “And what were you doing in my room? You didn’t stay there this whole time, did you?”

Mikey scoffed, “Of course not. I just got there.”

Of course he did.
Donatello got up, putting on his mask.

Mikey was scrutinizing him. “How hungry are you?”

Donnie slept for eleven hours, it must be seven pm then. He missed training, father was not going to be happy. “I can wait for dinner.”

Mikey smiled, “Cool, I was about to start cooking.”

Donatello followed him and fixed himself a cup of coffee.

After washing his hands, Mikey began gathering some food for the pizza. “You know Donnie, this rhythm you’ve got going, with you staying awake until you crash. You need to stop. It’s going to ruin you.”

Ooh, he was not going to like this conversation. “I’m capable of managing myself Mikey. I know my limits.”

“Alright. I just want you to be careful.”

Mikey began to spread out some dough that he had already prepared. Was that it? No lecture about taking care of himself, no further nagging?

Not that he was complaining, maybe he had more trust from his little brother than he though. Maybe Mikey wasn’t realizing how unhealthy Donnie’s lifestyle actually was.
It wasn’t his fault though, there simply was too much to do.

The room had fallen silent. In the back, Donnie could hear Raph hitting the sand bag and Leo’s Space Heroes. “Have you read any funny comics lately?”

“Not really, no.” Mikey was now preparing the tomato sauce. With basil leaves and paprika, adding some chocolate.

The silence was suffocating. This never happened before, Mikey would spend hours speaking about his comics, his new skateboard move or his last prank. Donnie didn’t event have to ask him to, he would just file the space with his voice and laughter.
Keeping Donnie updated on what he missed while he was holed up in his room, drowning out his never silent mind.

But Mikey didn’t do pranks anymore, did he?
And he hadn't been reading comics either apparently.

Mikey tore the wrapping plastic from the mushrooms and began washing them. This silence was wrong, Mikey was never silent. Donnie needed to say something.

“Hey, Mikey?”

Mikey didn’t turn from the sink, “Yes?”

“I…” He didn’t know what to say. He never knew what to say nowadays. His throat tightened. "I…"

And something must have shown through his voice because Mikey turned around to get a good look at his face.

"I…"

"Take your time." He said, as if Donatello was trying to say something hard. Which was not the case, he just didn't know what to say.

"I…"

Mikey was waiting patiently. Why couldn't Donnie say anything?

"I'm sorry."

Silence. Louder this time. Mikey didn't move.
Donatello was sorry. But he didn't plan on apologizing right there. Why had he said that?

"About Dimension-X? You don't have to apologize, it's not y-" "Don't!"

He hadn't meant to cut his brother off, but he couldn't hear him say it. "Don't say it's not my fault."

Mikey closed his mouth, probably swallowing his protests.

"The portal wouldn't have been opened if I hadn't left it laying around, it wouldn't have broken after one use if I hadn't tweaked with it. You wouldn't have been alone in a hostile dimension if I hadn't held up the others from following you right away. You wouldn't have been alone for three years if I hadn't taken three months to repair it."

Mikey didn't say anything.
Donnie understood, really. He didn't know why he had unpacked all of this to Mikey like that. He knew, logically, that Mikey would never hate him. But Donatello needed him to understand that it was his fault.

“You know I don’t blame you, right?”

He didn’t say anything, his eyes fixed on the table. He didn’t know. He didn’t know anything anymore when it came to Mikey. He wasn’t even sure if the assurance that he wasn’t blamed was reassuring or a new stone in his stomach.

“I went in that portal, Don.” And they didn’t follow. “And honestly, I’m happy you weren’t there.”

He turned his eyes to his brother’s serious face. “Why?”

It was Mikey’s turn to avoid his gaze. "Well…" He clenched his teeth.

"I’m glad you didn’t have to see what I have."

Don bit his lip, Mikey had refused to speak to anyone about what happened in Dimension-X. They knew that it must have been hard, but they had no idea of what it was.

"Hey, don't make this face, there were some good times." Mikey was now making this understanding smile that always made him look wise.

"Really?" He was not sure if he believed it.

"Yeah! And the last year wasn’t that bad. And even during the first two in paradox-space, there were some silver lining, I learnt to play the trumpet."

"What?" In Dimension-X? Inhabited by the Kraangs? Where did he even find a trumpet.

"Yeah, pretty unbelievable, I know. I haven't played since I fled Scratch's manor."

Who was Scratch and why did Michelangelo have to flee his manor?
The oven bipped. Mikey refused to develop anymore about Dimension-X. Getting any form of information was like pulling teeth, it was exhausting.

Chapter Text

Sweat trickled down Casey’s neck. The nearest source of light was an old streetlamp blinking about fifty feet away. This was one of the quietest neighborhoods in the city, people around here knew better than to go out at night.

Casey was hiding next to the stinkiest garbage bin he’d ever smelled, right behind one of Hun’s chop shops. He’d been kicking the gangs’ asses for a while now, but he’d never gone after their money makers. Doing something like that would be akin to a war declaration —and normally Casey wouldn’t really care about doing something like that— but it wasn’t why he’d come here today.

To be honest, he wasn’t so sure anymore that this wasn’t a trap.

If someone were to find him here, he’d be cut into pieces and sent to another continent in a big suitcase. And there would be no mutant turtle to save his ass this time, he was alone.

A loud crack rang out and Casey held up his hockey stick, ready to defend his life.

… Nothing. No sudden flash of light, no thugs leaping from the dark, no gunfire.

Casey exhaled slowly, shaking his hands to try to calm down. He was still hidden.

He was so far out of his element, it was ridiculous, the great Casey Jones was meant to proudly kick bad guys’ asses and protect the city, not hide behind stinky dumpsters like a coward. If anything, this proved his point that the true, best way to do things was to hit until he got results. Here, he was a sitting duck, and it was starting to really drive him crazy.

That's when the gunshots happened. Five clear shots, ringing through the cold metal of the garage.

Casey’s blood turned to ice, dread coiling his insides. What was that? What happened? Was his contact alright? Hurt? Dead? Should he go check inside?

Barely daring to breathe, Casey started counting in his head.

Ten, nine. Everything had gone deathly still and Casey wasn’t sure whether things had gone even quieter than before or if it was just the sound of his beating heart covering everything.

Eight, seven. If there was still nothing at zero, he’d go check.

Six, five. Waiting was for losers anyway, he was going in, now.

Casey checked all around him one last time before walking out of his hiding spot. The side door of the chop shop opened and Casey braced for a fight.

Angel got out, with a young girl by her side.

He sighed and rushed to their side. “Oh my god, are you alright!? What happened?”

Angel immediately hit him over the head, “Shut up! Gosh, don’t be so loud, you’ll get us noticed.”

Casey rubbed the sore spot. He wasn't really hurt, but it was still painful. He turned his attention to the younger girl. She looked battered, her clothes were filthy and torn in several places. “You must be Atomie, right?”

She crossed her arms and looked the other way, grumbling.

“Ryan sent me. He said he was your dad.” Casey wasn’t usually the kind of guy to do errands, but he hadn’t been given many choices this time.

“Ryan isn’t my dad!” No shit, the guy looked like he could be in high school with April and him, the lie hadn’t been very convincing. “I know, but you can’t stay with the gangs, it’s not a good place for little girls.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say because Atomie stuck out her tongue before stomping on his feet as hard as she probably could. “I’m not a little girl!”

Casey had to bite his tongue to stop himself from screaming and waking up the entire neighborhood. “I hate to interrupt,” Angel cut in, not apologetic at all, “but you two can’t stay here. Things could get ugly if someone sees you.”

Atomie shook her head, “I’m not going back to Ryan.”

Casey huffed, “I don’t care, this place is dangerous, you’re coming with me. I know a good noodle shop not far, we can decide what to do there.”

Atomie looked like she was about to object, but Angel cut her off, “Go with him, he’s a good guy, and I don’t want you here.”

Atomie didn’t answer, she was staring at her feet, her face all scrunched up like she was about to start crying.

“What about you?” He asked Angel. “It can’t be safe for you either.”

Angel scoffed, “Nah, I’m not coming with you. I’ve got other stuff to take care of inside.”

Casey didn’t ask what that “stuff” was. He had a bad feeling it involved bodies, and he knew she wouldn’t tell him even if he asked. “Alright then,” he concluded. “Take care.”

And he left for Mr. Murakami's Noodle Shop, Atomie trailing behind.

Mr. Murakami was nice enough to let them in. Casey was honestly surprised to see him, he didn’t think the food preparation started that early. He even offered them a bowl of soba dipped in broth.

Casey refused, he didn’t think he could stomach anything, but Atomie happily accepted and started eating like it was the last meal of her life.

“This guy, Ryan. What does he want from you?” The guy was shady as fuck, he had specifically asked Casey not to tell anything to the turtles. The coward was probably scared of getting his ass kicked by a bunch of mutants.

Atomie stared into space, chewing her noodles loudly. “He and his… associates, they killed my mom, and then they took me away. You can’t make me go back there, they hate me at home.”

Casey felt all his blood drain from his face. He’d been hoping the guy was at least a brother or some cousin. He looked barely older than Casey, how does a guy so young end up doing something so gruesome?

“Did you call the cops? What did they do?” Casey knew how inefficient the police could sometimes be —he wouldn't need to do vigilantism if they weren’t, but this was next level. Casey was completely out of his depth. “How old are you anyway?”

Atomie frowned, “Why do you ask? Didn't he tell you to bring me back?”

“He did, he’s got my father hostage. That doesn’t mean I’m alright with sending a little girl to just anybody.”

That made her look up from her bowl, "He took your dad? Really? That's not like him, are you sure he's not with Diane?" She was looking at him for the first time since they entered the restaurant, her eyes were red, and she looked tired.

"He was alone when I spoke with him." He should totally go break this guy's teeth. The only reason he hadn't was because he looked genuinely worried about the kid and seemed desperate to get her out of the purple dragon's gang.

Atomie resumed eating her noodles. "It's probably a bluff. He doesn't have the guts.”

Ryan had looked pretty confident the other day. Didn’t she say he’d killed her mom? Why would he not have the guts now? Something didn’t add up. Plus, he hadn’t missed how she had avoided answering her question about the cops. Casey was starting to get tired of being taken for an idiot. “I asked how old you are. And where were you before you joined the purple dragons?”

Atomie crammed another forkful of noodles into her mouth, staring at him doubtfully, and then she mumbled something.

“What did you say? I can’t understand when you speak with your mouth full.”

It took her a few seconds to finish chewing, “I said,” she resumed, clearer, “that I ran away from the boarding school. It was shit.” She took a new mouthful of soba and went back to mumbling. “And I’m ten.”

Casey sighed, he had no idea what to do with that. The easiest option would be to send her to the CPS, but Casey knew how awful that would be…

In any case, he couldn’t do anything until he’d done something about Ryan. “Alright then, there’s only one thing left to do.”

Atomie tilted her head to the side questioningly. “Please, not the cops.”

“No,” Casey answered reassuringly. He couldn’t let them see the state of his home, he was too scared of having his dad taken away. “I’m going to kick his ass.”

Atomie blinked at him, “You can’t do that, he’s too strong for you. And what about your father?”

“Pshh! He doesn’t look that strong. He won't even get the time to do anything to my dad.” At least he hoped. He didn’t have any other choice anyway.

They stayed long enough for Atomie to devour a second bowl of soba. Casey thanked Mr. Murakami a few more times, and then they left.

“So, what's the plan?”

Casey gripped his hockey stick tighter, “I’m going to beat up Ryan so bad, he won't ever think about coming back.” He was also hoping for an explanation, because he was still not over Atomie’s not-so-coherent story.

Atomie looked panicked, “You were serious? I told you, he’s too strong for you.”

Casey rounded on her, “Stop underestimating me! I’m perfectly capable of handling a fight, Ryan isn't fit, he isn't tall, and he honestly doesn't look trained.”

Atomie blinked at him.

“I'll be fine. Here, that's the building I live in. You hide in this backstreet, I'll take care of it.”

He did not take care of it. Ryan apparently packed a really good punch, the kind that made you fly across the room. It was quite humiliating after what he had just told the kid.

Casey blacked out a few seconds after the hit to the jaw, and woke up to Ryan staring down at him.

“That was impressively lame. What were you even trying to do? Let's say you managed to ‘break my teeth’ and ‘kick my ass so bad I never came back’. What then? Would you have called the cops on me?”

Uh.

“And Atomie? Would you have sent her to the social services? What do you think they’d have done with her once they realized she doesn't have papers?”

Uhh… “I wouldn't have called the social services.”

“Oh, this is just great. You just-” And he went back to lecturing Casey. He was lecturing Casey, the guts of that guy.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted the kid coming in through the window. She had climbed the fire escape. Casey needed to distract Ryan.

He spat a gob of blood and asked through gritted teeth, “Where's my dad?”

Ryan threw his hands up, “He’s fine! Geez!” and then he crossed his arms, scowling, “Not that he deserves it, he's been absolutely insufferable these last three days. He insulted you a lot, by the way.”

Yes, well, Casey had a pretty good idea of what words his dad had used. He hadn't called Casey by his name in a long time, he was used to it by now.

“Plaf!” That was Atomie falling flat on her ass. What a klutz.

“Atomie! Nom de Dieu! Do you have the slightest idea of how worried I was?” He picked her up and hugged her close despite her squirming.

“Release me, you oaf! I’m fine!” He put her down, licked his thumb and rubbed some grime off her cheek. Eww!

“Your school called, they are pissed. Seriously, what went through your head?”

Atomie pouted, “The school was lame, they hit us when we don't shut up and they make the oldest boys fight in some weird underground fight club. Plus, I’m pretty sure the headmistress is an alien.”

“I don't care if the headmistress is an alien or if the school is used as a recruiting ground for some shady organization. It was cheap and you had a roof over your head. How is that not better than being homeless and working for some lame-ass street gang?”

Atomie opened her mouth, but Ryan didn't let her get a word in, “It was a rhetorical question. Do you have the slightest idea how hard it was to make all the fake documents needed to enroll you there? If you’re not happy with the boarding school you can come back home.”

Casey got up. His hockey stick was out of reach, but Ryan looked too focused on Atomie to punch him again.

“I wanted to stay in the broken universe.”

Casey just had to get around the couch.

“The broken universe won't exist for much longer, you know that. Now, either you accept to go to the boarding school, or you come back home.”

There! Casey had managed to reach his hockey stick, and without being noticed by Ryan.

Atomie did spot him though, she pointed a finger at his face, "Did you hit him?"

Casey cursed his bad luck, raising his hockey stick in front of him. He was gonna get his father back, even if he had to lose a few teeth in the fight.

Ryan was unrepentant, "Of course I hit him. He tried to bash my head in with a hockey stick!" Which was true.

Atomie dragged Ryan down by the coat to speak in his ear. Casey couldn't hear what she said.

He was kinda pissed though. Everything that happened till now was proof that he’d been right not to believe either of them.

"With him? Are you sure?"

Ryan looked thoughtful. "You want to change schools? Do you have the slightest idea of the nightmare it’s going to be? And in the middle of the year, no less."

“I could stop school.”
“In your dreams.”

Atomie left Ryan’s side to come clinging to Casey’s clothes. “I’ll go back to school if you let me stay with him.”

“Hey!” What was happening? Casey wasn't okay with this.

Ryan sighed, then put his hands on his hips. "Casey Jones, right?"

He nodded.

"Atomie wants to stay with you. I have a few conditions.”

“Absolutely not.” Casey wasn't agreeing to any kind of condition, this wasn't what he was here for. “Where is my dad?”

Atomie pulled at his sweatshirt. "I don't want to go with him, they all hate me at home.”

Casey bit his lip. “Why are you the one taking care of her?” Ryan opened his mouth, but Casey cut him off before he could spout another lie. “And don't even try to tell me you're her dad. I’m tired of this bullshit. I want the truth!”

“She doesn't have anyone else.”

“Because you killed my mom!” Atomie added, screaming in fury.

“Because we killed her mom,” confirmed Ryan, without an ounce of remorse. “She deserved it.”

“Okay, I’ll take her.” Or, as Casey liked to call it, ‘Fuck it, we ball’. What else was he gonna do anyway? Call CPS? He'd never forgive himself. Leave her to this weirdo who apparently killed her mom? No! Especially if she hated it enough to run away and get enrolled in the purple dragons instead.

Both Ryan and Atomie sighed in relief. “Thank you!” exclaimed Atomie, hugging him around the waist.

“Right!” Casey grimaced, hiding his rising panic behind the best impression of a smile he could muster. How was he going to manage that? He couldn’t take care of a kid, he could barely take care of himself!

Ryan clapped his hands together, “Great! So, for the conditions.” Casey raised an eyebrow. Since when did he get to set conditions?

“Are you serious?” He really had no shame.

“Absolutely, if you can’t agree, then Atomie comes back home.”

“Nooo!” she whined.

“Yeeeees.” Ryan objected with a flat voice. “You don’t get to run around getting enrolled in gangs.”

“Ok, God! Stop that!” This was ridiculous, all of it, his entire night had been ridiculous. “What conditions?”

Ryan’s first condition was to keep Atomie far away from Casey’s dad. Casey was kinda pissed about it. Sure, his dad was a bit violent sometimes, but only when he was really drunk, and that only happened a few times a week. Who would take care of him if Casey left?

“He’s an adult, he can take care of himself,” objected Ryan, as if he knew anything about Casey’s father.

“Have you seen him? No, he can’t. He’s not doing well lately.” He hadn't been doing well since the death of his wife to be honest, but it had been worse these last few years.

“I can send him to rehab. Then bam, you get the apartment.”

“No!” They’d send someone to check on him, and then he’d have to leave. “That’s absolutely out of the question.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow at him, “Don't you want him to get better? No offense, but I doubt he’ll manage by himself.”

Casey crossed his arms. He’d already read everything he could find on alcohol addiction. Most free rehab programs around here were reserved for drug addicts, and rehab didn't work if people didn't want to get better. Also, Casey knew he wouldn't be allowed to stay with his dad afterward.

Ryan sighed, “Alright. But you need to find somewhere else to stay with Atomie. If your dad really needs help, you can just visit. I’ll send you some money to help you out, but I’m warning you, it won't be much.”

Casey nodded, already running through every place he could think of to crash for a few days. He could probably ask April for help, but she was still struggling with her father’s recent mutation. He wasn’t sure how long she could stand living with him and a random kid, it wouldn’t be fair to her. Plus, she’d ask a ton of questions and there was some stuff Casey wouldn’t like sharing with her, or anyone else. Casey also knew a lot of abandoned buildings nearby. He’d crashed there a few times when he didn’t feel like going home, but it was already the start of autumn and it would soon be too cold to sleep there.

“Ah, another thing. You know the mutant turtles, right?”

Casey didn't answer. He was pretty sure Ryan already knew the answer, considering he’d asked Casey not to ask them for help.

“Michel-Ange can't see Atomie. Never, ever. He’ll know right away she's ours if he does.”

"I don't understand, what's your problem with Mikey?" Because that was honestly weird, Mikey was the friendly type.

Ryan looked sheepish. "Diane and him aren’t exactly on good terms.” Weird. Casey could count on his hand the number of people Mikey really disliked, and he’d still have fingers left.

"Where did you even meet him? He doesn't go anywhere without his brothers."

Ryan blinked at him. "Uh, I never really met him. He hung out with Ingo for some time in paradox-space and then there was this whole thing with Diane.”

Paradox-space? What was that, some kind of nightclub? And who the hell was this Diane, it was the third time they spoke about her. She sounded like a bitch.

Casey shook his head, he didn't care, he had more important things to worry about. “And my father? Where is he?”

Turns out his dad was tied up in the bathroom. He looked kinda pathetic, squirming like a worm in the tub.

Ryan left after making Casey promise to call if needed. Leaving Casey alone with a kid he barely knew and his father tied up in the bathtub. God, he’d never seen his dad so pissed, how was he going to untie him without getting lashed out at? He couldn't leave him like that, but he also really didn't want to get any more punches to the face, his jaw still throbbed from Ryan’s punch earlier.

Casey took a deep breath. He was an awesome hockey player, and a vigilante at night, and he was friends with a bunch of mutant ninja turtles. He could handle this.

“Atomie, why don’t you go raid the fridge while I take care of this? I’ll be here in five minutes.”

Chapter Text

"Raph, Raph wake up!"
That was not a gentle wake-up call.

The urgency in Mikey's tone sent him straight to the alert territory. "What's happening?"

"I need to go topside, come with me." Mikey was anxiously rubbing his arm, not quite scratching but not far. He was tapping the ground with his foot and his eyes, green again, couldn't settle anywhere.

"What do you mean, you need to go topside? Why?" Topside was dangerous and it was the middle of the night, far later than their patrol hours.

Mikey replied, "I can't breathe, Raph." as if it was a valid explanation and not just plain worrying. Plus, Mikey was breathing fine —a bit hard but it was barely noticeable.

"You can breathe, Mikey." Raphael was trying to be reassuring but Mikey apparently didn't care.

"I don't- Raph I- I can't see, I don't-, I need to get out of here."

God, he was so bad at this, his brother was panicking in front of him and he didn't know what to do. What even was that? It didn't look like a panic attack.

Mikey hissed "Come on!" And the despair in his voice was enough for Raph to drop the questions.

"Alright." And Mikey was out of Raphael's room the next instant, leaving him to rush to get himself prepared.

He made a quick stop in the dojo to grab his saïs. Mikey's nunchucks were there too. Seriously? He grabbed them too.

He found Mikey in front of the lair's entrance. Pacing, rubbing his arm again. When he saw Raph he left out a shaky breath. There were tremors in his arms.

"You forgot your weapons."
If Mikey heard him, he didn't feel the need to respond. He was already unlocking the entrance anyway.

The door opened and Mikey bolted. He wasn't straight-up sprinting, but it wasn't the pace they used for long runs. Raph still took the time to send a quick "going topside with Mikey." to Leo. He would only see the message in the morning and he would be pissed, but Raphael didn't quite have a choice.

Raph followed his brother to the nearest exit. Mikey didn't even pose. He climbed up, pushed the heavy manhole out of the way and disappeared topside.

Raph rushed behind him. Mikey climbed the nearest building and collapsed on its roof. He was lying on his back, gulping air like a drowned man.

Raph sat beside him, unsure of what to do to make it better. Leo was so much better at this. Even Don would have had an idea of what to do. But here, he was utterly clueless.

They remained like that a moment, Mikey, staring at the dirty clouds of pollution above their heads, breathing hard, and Raph, sitting there like an idiot.

Mikey was rubbing that same spot on his arm again, inside his elbow, where Raph knew he had a patch of burnt skin the size of a nickel.

Mikey's breath hitched, he began sobbing, hiding his face behind his hands. "I'm sorry!" His voice was jagged, cracking with each breath.

It was such a Mikey way to cry in the middle of this weird behavior, Raph had whiplash. He leaned over his brother, looking for a clue of what's going on. "What for?"

Mikey didn't look like he could have spoken, even if he had wanted to. He moved his fingers, his big, round, tearful eyes looking right at Raphael.

"Mikey."

Mikey breathed in sharply. "I'm sorry I woke you up in the middle of the night."

Seriously? That was a joke, right? He was glad Mikey didn't go topside alone in this state.

Mikey was still crying. "And I'm sorry I'm not the brother you used to know."

What was he talking about?

"I see how you guys look at me, I know I'm different. I don't even want to pretend otherwise."

Were they that obvious? They didn't mean it like that.

"I'm sorry I can't be like before." His voice was wet and he was still hiding most of his face with his hands.

"I'm-""Shut up!"

He hadn't meant to snap, but Mikey needed to stop. He was home, that was the most important.

"We were so worried when you disappeared in Dimension-X. Leo couldn't do anything anymore, he was constantly imagining the worst scenarios and he became reckless when he thought he could steal a portal from the Kraangs. Donnie thought it was his fault. He never left the lab, constantly working on the portal, he didn't sleep anymore. None of us did. Dad was closed off, we didn't know what he was thinking, he only stopped meditating to make sure that we weren't running ourselves into the ground, and I…” Raph bit his lip, “I'm so glad you're back Mikey. We all are."

He was crying too now. Michelangelo was frozen, but he wasn't sobbing anymore, at least.

"You're not the same, it's true. And it's weird because we were always together before, and this time we weren't there when you changed. It's just hard, not knowing what happened to you. Not knowing if we should be happy, angry or sorry for what you lived through."
He felt like all the miasm that had been clotting his insides was pouring out. All the thinking while staring at his ceiling late at night. But he couldn't stop, he needed to make sure that Mikey knew they loved him in any case.

Mikey's face twisted, "I'm not sure I changed for the better Raph."

Oh, no! Mikey! Raph dragged him into a hug. Clutching him hard against his chest.

"I did some horrible things in Dimension-X Raphael." Did he? Raph had been thinking about horrible things happening to Mikey, not the other way around.

What was he supposed to say? He didn't know what happened. "Did you want to do those things?"

Mikey hiccuped, "I didn't always feel like I had a choice."

"There's always a way."
Mikey began to shake in his hold. He wasn't hugging Raph anymore, trying to curl up instead.

Fuck, it definitely was the opposite of what he should have said. The answer was nearly automatic, it was how they did things, it was how they kept fighting when it felt like they couldn't win.

But maybe Mikey couldn't hold on to these principles. He was alone after all. Raphael always had the others to support him when his certainty wavered.

He didn't loosen his hold. Mikey was staying right there, where Raph could keep an eye on him. He would never be alone ever again if he had anything to say about it.

"I know you did your best."
He knew that, there wasn't a shadow of a doubt. Mikey may be calmer, more tired, different. He would still always be Mikey. And there were parts of him that would never change. Mikey always had the best intentions at heart, he was always trying his best. It wouldn't be him if he didn't.

He went back to clutching him, "I missed you too. I missed you so much Raphie. I thought I would die without ever getting to see any of you again. I thought I'd never make it back home." Raph had worried too, about never seeing his baby brother ever again.
They got him back, but the experience had changed him. Raph would never see the carefree Mikey that had left that day.

"You're older than me now." Raphael didn't know why he had changed the subject, it was kind of weird. They avoided that specific can of worms with precaution.

Mikey grimaced, "I am." He glanced back at Raph, “Does it bother you?”

“Yes? No- I mean… I’ll get used to it.”
It was weird, Michelangelo had always had a knack for getting himself into trouble, coming back with scraped knees and bruises everywhere even when he was so little he could barely walk, they had quickly gotten into the habit of always keeping an eye on him. He was the textbook example of the little sibling behavior, Splinter didn’t have any trouble choosing his place in the age order, not like he did with Don and Raph.

But now… Michelangelo had spent three years alone in a way that none of them had ever been, and it showed.
Mikey’s head was resting heavily against Raph’s shoulder, “Don’t go falling asleep on me. I am not carrying your snotty ass back home.”

It made Mikey chuckle wetly, his torso and shoulders shaking with it against Raph’s plaston. Raph smiled, taking the small victory.

"Seriously though, what was that? Why did you need to get out so much?" Was it likely to happen again? What should he have done to help? And then worriedly, he added, “Did you have another one of your episodes?”

Mikey turned his eyes and began fidgeting, a nervous habit that survived Dimension-X. "Oh, no. I just… Being stuck between four walls in our home, meters under the ground, it gets a bit suffocating sometimes. It reminds me of the manor I was locked in."

Locked? In what manor? What the hell, was it some kind of claustrophobia then? Mikey had been imprisoned!
"What did the Kraangs do to you?"

"No, no!" Mikey raised his hands, trying to pacify him. "It wasn't the Kraangs, I barely interacted with them at all."

What?

"Yeah, the void- or Dimension-X, as we call it. It’s like… really big. I got pushed really, really far. There were no Kraangs there."

No Kraangs? "Seriously?"

Mikey slumped against him, he looked tired. Raph felt tired. Mikey murmured, "Took me three years to come back. You wouldn't have found me even if you had managed to open a portal."

That made a weight appear in his stomach. He imagined Leonardo, Donatello and himself, looking frantically for their baby brother, without ever finding him.
"I'm so glad you're back. I don't care what you had to do to make it, we could never have lived thinking that we left you to die alone in there." And then his throat tightened. Voicing this fear that had plagued him for so long was apparently beyond what he could give. He was crying now, again. It was the fault of his lack of sleep anyway, it made him emotional.

Mikey hummed, “Everything was green.”

Raph wiped his face furiously and choked through the lump in his throat, “What?”

“The manor. It was huge and, like… really, really green. Green carpets, green furniture, green wallpaper…green me. The place was a green prison. And everyone inside was a prisoner.”

“Everyone… You weren’t alone?”

He held his breath, Mikey was going to close off, again. “The manor was Doc Scratch’s prison, but he liked to get himself cellmates.” Mikey spoke with this false, light voice dripping with bitterness that they only heard once or twice since he came back. It was unnerving.

He detached himself from Raph, tense in his brother’s arms, scratching at his arm again, eyes on the ground. He wasn’t talking anymore, Raphael grabbed his arms and shook, “Michelangelo, come-on! What do you mean ‘he liked to get himself cellmates’? What did he do to you?!”

Mikey swatted his hands off, “Stop that!" He glared at Raph, "It could have been worse.”

“What do you mean ‘it could have been worse’?” Raphael snapped, “That’s no way to consider a traumatic experience!”

He shouldn’t have raised his voice, Mikey shot up, putting distance between them, “It wasn’t traumatizing! I could go everywhere in the manor, I was free to wander and nobody was even trying to kill me!” He started pacing, “I just…I had this ridiculously robust manacle that kept me from leaving and I couldn’t get it off and I felt so useless.”

He was speaking quicker and quicker, “Mikey!”, “I had to come home and I had stuff to do outside to get a way to it, but I couldn’t. Instead I had to be stuck with a bunch of dumbasses more preoccupied with murdering each other than getting out and with fucking Doc Scratch who spent his days playing at being a pretentious asshole!”

“Michelangelo!”, “You don’t understand Raphael!” He was breathing hard again, “You guys are all worried about what I went through when the truth is that I did nothing, I spent the two first years of my time in Dimension-X wasting my days on a freaking couch, making plans for people who were going to die anyway and waiting for the hours to pass.”

Raphael planted himself in front of Michelangelo, “Mikey, hey! Listen to me, take deep breaths, count with me. One…”

Mikey breathed in with the count, but couldn’t hold the exercise, he hiccuped and went back to breathing too hard. He grabbed Raphael and repeated, “I did nothing!” His voice was small and strained, like he was trying to hold back from crying a second time tonight. Raphael shushed him, placing his brother’s hand against his plaston, “You’re upsetting yourself Mike, breath.” And he restarted the count. “One, two, three…”

It took some time to calm Mikey again. By the time they were done, all of the pent-up emotions that had animated Mikey earlier had left, leaving him empty and exhausted. Raph didn’t dare ask any more questions, seeing Mikey so distressed had scared him.

He didn’t let go of his brother’s arm until they were back home.

Chapter Text

Mikey didn't watch tv anymore, didn't skateboard, nor pranked anybody. He spent his days zoning out or scribbling in his journal. It was worrying.

He did cook, but it was a thing he did in the middle of the night, when nobody was up, that wasn’t healthy either. Raph and Leo had tried a lot of approaches to try to get Mikey out of his room, to get him to actually do stuff.

They had tried everything at this point, or nearly everything. Raph had another idea, something Don had told him about his time in Dimension-X. He called it plan Z, because he really hoped he wouldn’t have to get to this point. Unfortunately, it was looking more and more like he would have to.

He knocked at Michelangelo's door and a faint "Come in, Raphy." answered. At least he wasn’t tired of annoying him when he could, Raph hated this nickname.

He came in, his hands hidden behind his back. Inside, he was met with Mikey's new brand of mess. The pizza boxes had been shoved into a corner and the ground was hidden underneath a good layer of papers, notecards and post-its. In the middle, Michelangelo was cross-legged, chewing on a pink highlighter, pulling a face at his journal.

"Wow, what's all of this?"

Michelangelo finally looked his way, "What?" The bags under his eyes had receded, but he had not left his room all day and his skin looked pale and thin. Raph bit back a nasty remark, Michelangelo tended to flee conversations when he was too much picked on.

"All the papers? I can't go further without walking on anything."

Michelangelo looked around, as if seeing the mess for the first time. "Oh geez! You're right." He began collecting the papers, making piles. "It's one of my latest projects, I'm trying to make a map."

He raised an eyebrow, "A map? A map of what?"

Without the papers, Michelangelo's room looks tidier than he'd ever seen. He had probably swept before setting up on the ground. "Paradox-space, that's where I spent my first two years in Dimension-X."

Really? Raph was happy to see his brother being more open about Dimension-X. "That's awesome! Do you think it could be useful in the fight against the Kraangs?"

Mikey shook his head, "Nah, it doesn't exist anymore."

Huh? "What doesn't exist anymore?"

Mikey put his papers in a big cardboard sleeves that Raphael hadn't noticed. "Paradox-space, it imploded, just like that: pshooooo!" Mikey was mimicking something with his hands, probably some kind of explosion. He was always really bad at this kind of things.

"The place you were in imploded?" The idea sent a chill in his spine.

"No big deal, bro. There was nobody left alive in there. Anyway, did you want anything?"

And just like that, Michelangelo cut off the discussion about Dimension-X, again. Raph wasn’t even surprised, just annoyed.

"Yes, remember this comic you were so excited about before Dimension-X?"

Mikey tilted his head, not answering. Maybe he didn't remember.
Raph pulled the nearly new comic out from behind his back, "Tada!"

He'd been so happy to find it the other day. He thought Mikey would be jumping up and down with joy and excitement. He didn't get any new comics since he came back.

Mikey smiled wide, his eyes squinting a bit, he laughed and moved his hands in an excited motion. "The last Crognard comic book! Aww, Raphy! You shouldn't have! Thank you!"

Raphael frowned. What now? Why did Mikey's reaction look so forced?

Mikey took the comic and flipped through the pages, shaking his head lightly. Then he put it on his shelf with the others.

There wasn't any comic in Michelangelo's bed, the shelves were dusty. He truly hadn’t read anything recently.
Raph bit his lip. Plan Z then. Fuck, he was so going to regret that.

Mikey put his arm around his shoulder, grinning. “I know you tested my wasabi and walnut cream this morning, how did it taste?”

Raphael gagged at the simple thought of this horrible mixture. It was disgusting, “It was really good, you should make Leo try it next.”

Two hours later, Raphael was in Donatello's lab, sitting on the unused examination table, watching his brother work. "I'm going to do it."

Don hummed, "It's the third time you said that, I heard."

Raph clenched his jaw, "But I'm really going to do it."

Don put down his tools and turned around with a sigh. "What do you expect me to say? Go on. I'm not going to stop you, I helped you find it in the first place. It's right there."
And he pointed to a large box in a corner.

Raph bit his lip. "Alright, I'll do it, but tonight. It's a huge gift."

They were eating pizza in the dimly lit kitchen. A heavy silence accompanying their meal. Donatello was probably thinking about what he was working on. Michelangelo was focused on his food, eating his third slice with a grimace. Splinter was eating his portion with a knife and a fork, impossibly managing to look dignified while eating pizza. Leo was eying Raphael curiously, as if he had felt his brother's anxiety.

When Donatello finished eating, he began clearing his plate. Once someone had gotten up, it was the green light for everybody to finish eating and do the same.

Soon, only Donatello and Raphael were left in the kitchen with Michelangelo busying himself with clearing the table.

Donatello waved to Raphael.

Raphael got up, shaking the table and startling Michelangelo. "Stay here." He said with a harsh voice. And then he left to retrieve the box.

When he came back, Michelangelo was still in the kitchen, glaring at Donatello.

Raphael put the box on the table. "Donatello and I noticed that you didn't take time to enjoy most of your previous hobbies."

Michelangelo tensed, leaning against the cupboard with his arm crossed. "Yeah. Well, it's no big deal."

"I don't think it's healthy Mikey. You spend your days zoning out and writing in your journal. You don't get out in the sewers anymore, you don't move as much as you used to. It's worrying." Donatello insisted.

Michelangelo huffed, "I don't see why I get an intervention. Donatello does it too and he doesn't have everybody worrying about his hobbies."

Donatello stared at his brother, shaken by his own behavior being used against him. But then he shook himself. "It's not the same. I actually like working in my lab."

"Well, maybe I like zoning out all day!"

...

"Yeah, okay, it doesn't sound good. But I can handle myself and I don't like that you guys are worried about me." He was fixing them with one of these looks that showed how serious he was about this.

But Raphael wasn't going to let go of this so easily. "What's wrong with your hobbies, why do you not spend time on them?"

Michelangelo rubbed his arms, self-conscious. "I- I guess I grew out of some of them. It's not as interesting as it used to be."

Raphael repressed the need to growl. It would be unwelcome here and now.

Donatello moved the box to the middle of the table. "We thought about that."

Michelangelo looked warily at the box. "Is the trumpet for me?"

Both Raphael and Donatello stared at him. "How did you know?"

Michelangelo left out a dry chuckle. "In a box like this? It wasn't going to be a book."

Raphael didn't think the box was particularly trumpet shaped, it was one of the cardboard boxes they were keeping at the back of the store. But Mikey obviously knew more about trumpets than him, so what did he know?

Michelangelo opened the box and took out the trumpet.

It hadn't been hard to get. The hard part was to find a store big enough the trumpet wouldn't be missed.

Michelangelo began adjusting different parts Raphael couldn't name nor explain the role in the instrument.

He smirked "You guys must really be masochists."

Raph had spent the whole day thinking this exact same thing.

Mikey inspired deeply, then blew. A loud, brassy note rang through the lair. Mikey looked happy like the cat that got the cream.

Suddenly, Leonardo and Splinter appeared in the kitchen's doorway, armed and white as a sheet.
Michelangelo showed them the trumpet, a big smile on his face.
Somehow, both Leonardo and Splinter became even whiter.

Mikey adjusted his instrument again, smiling brightly. "Did you know, I first learnt the trumpet for the specific goal of annoying Doc Scratch."

And he blew again, and again. It was loud, but it was music. The flight of the bumblebee.

Raphael was damned, Michelangelo knew how to play. He began swaying with the music, jumping on some notes, dancing.

Raphael didn't regret finding this thing.

Chapter Text

Donatello was not expecting to see his brother still awake at three in the morning, though it was less surprising than it used to be.

Michelangelo was lying starfish-style on the bathroom floor. His feet were cramped in the corners by lack of space.

"What are you doing?"

Michelangelo turned his eyes toward him. They were green and toxic again, nearly glowing in the badly lit bathroom. "Nothing." His voice was low and scratchy.

Mikey raised his hand, "Help me up."

Donatello complied, feeling how cold his brother's hand felt.
On his feet, Mikey hugged himself, shivering. He had dried tear tracks on his cheeks.

He was beginning to be worried, Michelangelo looked really pale. Matching the low voice of his brother, he asked "Are you alright?"

Michelangelo hummed, "I took painkillers, don't worry. It's not… it's normal."

Donatello blinked, it must be the end of one of these "episodes" Leo told him about. He would have to tread carefully, Mikey needed space when he was silent and closed off like this, otherwise he snapped at them.

"Alright."

Michelangelo got out and left him the bathroom.

When he got out, Mikey was still in the corridor, waiting for him. He didn't look good, but Donatello didn't know how to help, he was still clueless concerning what he had found in the blood samples. "Is there anything I can do?"
Having to ask, not knowing the answer by himself, it hurts more than he would admit.

Michelangelo shook his head lightly. "Nah, it's nearly gone now, just tired."

He looked tired, "You should go back to sleep then."

Mikey shook his head before leaning against him, "Don't wanna."

Donatello hugged his brother. He was still shaking slightly, he needed sleep. "What about your schedule? You were doing so good Mikey."

Michelangelo grumbled from the space between Donnie's shoulder and his neck, "You don't get to lecture me, you're worse than me. You're ruining your health."

Donatello still had a hard time with the way Mikey was silently disapproving of his sleeping habits… or his lack of. Disagreements were usually solved by a big argument and then things went back to being good. But Mikey was not digging his heels, he wasn't even arguing at all. It was just a long, torturous routine of long sad stares and quiet resignation. It was wearing on Donatello's nerves.

But he would not breach the subject now, it wasn't the time. "Alright, do you want to watch space heroes with me then?" Maybe Mikey would fall asleep while watching.

He shook his head, still not hugging back but soaking in Donnie's affection. "TV's boring."

Donnie rolled his eyes, of course he would say that. "What do you want to do then?"

"You don't have to stay with me, I know you planned to work on this app for April's birthday. I was gonna work on my journal."

No way was Donnie going to let his brother bury himself in his notes again. He looked so sad sometimes when he did. Donnie tightened his embrace, "I can work on April's gift later. Think of something else."

Mikey groaned, but he seemed to be thinking about it, at least. "What about a board game?"

Donatello raised his eyebrows. Unexpected, but why not. "Did you have anything in mind?"

Mikey leaned back, griping Donatello's forearms, grinning. "I do, actually. I know you finished fixing the printer, can we use that? I promise to find you some new cartridge soon."

And that's how Donatello ended up on the living room's floor. Listening to Mikey explaining the rules of “5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel”.

"Do we have to redraw every piece placement each time?"

Mikey shook his head, "No, it's just for you until you get the hang of it, afterward you'll find your own way to keep track of the game." Then he shook his notebook. "I keep track with notes, but you'll probably want to do it differently. Right now you need to understand the concept."

He took a new printed page of the chessboard and drew the move of the first pawn. "Your turn."

Donatello drew his move on the next page. It was pretty simple for now, but if he had understood correctly, then it would get complicated very soon.

Michelangelo got his knight out of the ranks. No time travel yet.

They exchanged moves, it looked like a normal game of chess. Michelangelo was good. "Again, where did you learn to play this game?"

He already knew the answer. Didn't change the fact that it was pretty confusing. The more he learned about his brother's time in Dimension-X the more curious he became.

It was the twelfth move, a long line of pages was now between the tv and the sofa. Michelangelo got his bishop in a corner, "It was pretty much the only thing I did in Dimension-X. Thanks for agreeing to play. I wanted to keep practising, keeps my mind sharp."

Donatello moved the pawn that was in the way, he would take Mikey's rook next move. "Your mind is pretty sharp already, no need for mind-blowing chess games."

Michelangelo placed a new page beside the ninth one. "I send my bishop in the past. It creates a new timeline."

Okay. Donatello understood the move, he had understood this part of the rules. The bishop could go diagonally, four times left and four times backward through time. However, it did compromise his whole strategy.

He moved a pawn.
Mikey moved a knight.

"Checkmate!"

What?

"Look, my knight can take your king in the past, since your pawn isn't in the way anymore. Your king can't flee, because it's in the past."

Oh. Oh! That was so cool!

Mikey smiled, "I knew you'd like this game."

Donnie studied the game again.
"Wait… I could have checkmate you with my rook. If I had moved it there."

Mikey was giddy, "Yes, you could have." The difficulty with this game was the number of moves possible. The square of what can normally be played in chess, more or less.

“I want a rematch!”

They restarted the game. It was really fun, Donatello couldn’t help but think about how it could work. Theoretically, time travel could exist, not in a Euclidean space but someplace where general relativity could apply at all instant individually, like in a black hole… But that would require the existence of a space-time bubble in a black hole where all matter didn’t turn to mush…

“You should focus on the game, brother of mine, or I’ll beat you in less than ten moves.”

He would consider the implications of time travel later.

They kept playing, this time, he was the first to try to send his pieces back in time. Michelangelo went back too and managed to kill his queen super early, which was not cool because queens were the best at going around in timelines.

Then Michelangelo started erasing the pages, Donatello didn't understand. "Why are you doing that?"

Mikey slowed and turned toward him. "You don't need this page. It's a doomed timeline."

Donnie looked at the pages again, "What do you mean?"

Mikey finally put down the eraser. "The timeline in which you or I win is called the alpha timeline. We don't know yet which one it is, but it isn't this one." He pointed to the timeline he started erasing.
"The timelines in which nobody wins are called the doomed timelines. No move you can possibly make could lead to victory, the king left and the remaining pieces can't travel in or out of this timeline. They are condemned to a useless death."

Right, a useless death, because that made so much sense... It was mainly pawns anyway. "Alright." Donnie moved his knight, putting one of Mikey's kings in check.

Mikey simply moved his king out of the way, which gave Donnie the space to send a knight in the past.

Mikey smiled and moved a pawn. Donnie moved his knight again, moving to the fourth timeline.

Mikey giggled, moved his tower and declared, "Checkmate!"

Donnie blinked, then studied the board, "What happened?"

Michelangelo pointed to his knight's previous emplacement. "Your knight was protecting your king from my tower. Half of your main pieces moves are blocked by my pawns, so no other piece was protecting your king in the third timeline."

"I can't believe you managed to do that with a pawn!"

Michelangelo started erasing the pages. "The pawns are my favorites."

"Why? Aren't they super limited in their moves? It's far from the best piece."

"True, but that's because they are like us."
Donnie made a face which made Mikey chuckle, "Look, they can only move forward, no time travel, no jumping between timelines, no tricks. They remain in their original timeline, it's really linear."

Right…

That's when Leonardo's head appeared over the back of the couch, catching them sitting on the ground with their papers and pens everywhere. "Did you guys spend the whole night playing?"

It was not really a question, Donnie knew it. Still, he fumbled for his phone; it was seven thirty in the morning. They'd been playing for hours.

Michelangelo rubbed his face, "I had another episode, Donatello kept me company."

Leonardo's disapproval immediately evaporated, he jumped over the back of the couch to crouch by Mikey, putting a big hand on his forehead in this careful way only worried big brothers knew how to. "Are you all right? How do you feel?"

Mikey nuzzled shortly to his hand before taking his distances again. "Better, I told you it was not a problem." He turned back to the papers, beginning to gather them.

"And you stayed awake afterward? You were exhausted last time."

Donnie bit his lip, maybe he should have insisted on his brother going back to sleep. He hadn't really been paying attention, but Mikey looked even more tired than when he found him earlier.

"I didn't want to be alone while getting back to sleep. Donnie played chess with me, it was fun." Then he turned to Donnie, handing him the papers and smiling. "It's been a while since the last time we played together, we should do that again sometimes."

Donnie nodded, it had been a long time. He was often too busy with his lab to spend much time with his brothers outside of meals and patrols. And his siblings didn't play a lot of board games either.

Mikey got up and stretched, yawning wide and loud. "I'll go try to get a few hours of sleep before training. I haven't prepared anything for breakfast, will you guys be fine with cereal?"

Leo reassured Mikey about breakfast and began to push him towards his room, it would be the perfect opportunity to sneak back to his lab and get back to his work. He caught Mikey's eyes while leaving, tired and resigned, he didn't even look surprised. It stopped Donatello dead in his tracks.

He was left alone in the room with his guilt. He hated that, he didn't have anything to feel guilty about, it wasn't his fault there was so much to do.

But he thought about Mikey and how tired, jumpy and sick his irregular sleeping pattern was making him. He could imagine how worried his brother probably was, now that he experienced these side effects himself.

He didn't regret the hours he didn't spend working. He had spent his time with his little brother, playing a game, sharing something. He had missed that. He didn't want Mikey to feel like he had stolen hours of sleep from him, he'd feel guilty and wouldn't want to spend time with him again.

He changed track and went to his room, he would catch up on his work later. That day, Donatello fell asleep thinking about possible strategies for their next game.

Chapter Text

Leonardo quietly got down to a fire escape and eyed the two Foot Soldiers patrolling the docks. He signed to his brothers.

Casey, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo climbed the fence and got in the area where containers were piled. April waited for him on the next roof.

On the water, they could see the ship that just reached the docks. They needed to take its cargo from the Foot clan.

After waiting ten minutes for the others to get in position, Leonardo and April made their way to the ship, avoiding the Foot Soldiers who were more and more presents the closer they were to the ship.

Leonardo pointed at a group of crates, that’s what they were looking for. They didn’t know what was in there, but it looked important, it couldn’t be good. Mikey had been stressed about what could be inside during the briefing. Leo was in agreement, if Schreder wanted it badly enough to send Tigerclaw away for a month to retrieve it, it had to be dangerous. Suddenly, a huge explosion shook the place and a large tower of smoke appeared from the other side of the docks.

Casey and Raphael had a perfect timing. Half of the security left to check it out.
April and Leonardo waited five more minutes, watching the ninjas becoming more and more uneasy with the time trenching out and no news from the dispatched ninjas. Suddenly, the big lamps lighting the place switched off, Donatello and Michelangelo had succeeded in their part of the plan.

Leonardo and April were ready, they jumped in just when the light went out and started fighting. Their eyes were already accustomed to the darkness and they had a distinct advantage. As Leonardo knocked out the last guy, he felt uneasiness pooling in his stomach. Plans never went so smoothly, there was a catch.

April climbed the biggest crate and began opening it. A big paw shot out of the opening, grabbed her ankle and pulled her in. The lid closed back on her.
Leonardo screamed and was about to open it to help her, but the lid shot up in a bang.

Tigerclaw heaved himself out of the crate, holding April by the ankle, her face at his eye level. “What do we have here, a bunch of rats meddling with what they shouldn’t.”

There was blood on her face and one of her legs had a weird shape. Still, she spat in his face with defiance. He recoiled and threw her away. Leo didn’t wait for him to wipe his face and attack her again, he jumped at him with his swords.

Tigerclaw was an experienced fighter, each one of Leo’s moves was met with cold metal coming at him with enough strength to break a wall.

The lights switched back on, Tigerclaw had the upper hand, Leo kept moving back to avoid the deadly slash of his giant sword.

That was not good, Tigerclaw was a powerful enemy, Leonardo was not confident in fighting him alone. Where was April?

His foot touched something, there was April. She was unconscious.

Leonardo couldn’t back down anymore, not if he wanted to remain between her and Tigerclaw.

Someone screamed, which distracted his enemy.

Sacrificing defense, Leo jumped over the giant sword and on Tigerclaw’s face. He didn’t have claws and his swords were not suited for close combat, but he could still hit, tear and blind. Tigerclaw had claws, they sliced at his shoulder, white, hot pain biting his skin and cutting his muscles. Leo cried out but didn’t relent. Tigerclaw grabbed his shell and tug. Leo clung to his armor, the bandolier over Tigerclaw’s shoulders conveniently full of pockets to cling to. He wouldn’t be thrown off, leaving Tigerclaw to hurt his friend. His brothers were coming, he had heard them, he just had to hold on a little longer.

Tigerclaw roared and Leo was hurled off his face and thrown in the empty crate. The lid closed just in time for him to see Donatello and Michelangelo attacking Tigerclaw.
Sounds of struggle could be heard from outside. Throwing down whatever he had torn from Tigerclaw’s armor, he began climbing to get out. But then the crate shook with something hitting its side and pushing it back. He fell back to the ground, the crate swayed and tilted, then a big splash. The crate had fallen in the water.

Water was coming in through the space between the planks. Panicked, Leonardo tried to climb again, once, twice, but his weight just made the crate roll over in the water, making him fall back down, the salt water burned his wounds and made him cry out in pain. He was stuck.

He got his phone out, not daring to call his brothers who might still be fighting, but still sending a quick text.
Luckily, the crate was made of wood, there was no risk of sinking. Still, his weight was enough to submerge it partly and he now had water up to his knees.

He mindlessly rubbed his arms, trying to keep them warm. The water was cold and Leonardo was shivering, his shoulders were burning and he didn’t quite know which feeling he hated most.

No, he did know, it was the hot pain in his shoulders, he couldn’t see and didn’t know if the wetness he felt on his shell was only from the water or also from his bleeding wounds.

He started walking around as much as he could, trying to stay warm. He was shivering like crazy and he hoped that his brothers would quickly get to him.

There was a weird leather case floating in the water. Leo picked it up, it was probably what he’d taken from Tigerclaw’s pocket. Leo shook it, something was clunking inside. He took a quick look, it looked like rolled paper. Luckily, the case looked waterproof. Leo closed the case back and put it safely in his belt for later.

He didn’t feel so good and finally decided to sit down in the water. Checking his phone again, he had the bad surprise of realizing that there was no more connection…

Chapter Text

Now that their part of the plan was completed, Donnie wanted to go help Raph and Casey who had more than half of the security to deal with. However, Mikey insisted on going back to help April and Leonardo.
Donnie relented, the quicker April and Leo's part was completed, the quicker they could all go help Raph and Casey. Plus, the duo was probably having fun breaking things.

They left the control room, the light would probably be switched back on by the next guy coming, but the element of surprise and quick advantage was over by now.

They made their way back out of the control tower and went in the direction of the ship and the cargo.

Michelangelo was acting strange, more stressed than usual, not cracking jokes like he still did on patrol sometimes. He barely waited for his brother before starting to run toward the part of the port where April and Leo were supposed to be.

It was probably because of a bad feeling, and thank god for this because when they arrived, April was sprawled on the floor, unconscious, and Leo was fighting Tigerclaw, alone.

Michelangelo screamed, which was far from a good plan because it could both distract Leo and make them lose the element of surprise.

Luckily, Tigerclaw was the only one to be distracted. As they ran the distance separating them from the fight, they saw Leonardo jump on Tigerclaw's face to try to gouge out his remaining eye. They saw Tigerclaw grab him with his claws and try to get him off. They were not even ten meters away when he finally threw Leo in the nearest crate. Donatello immediately attacked him, trying to bash his head in with his staff. Tigerclaw blocked it with his blood covered hands. That was Leo's blood.

Tigerclaw lifted the staff. Donatello didn't let go of it, using the new support to throw two strong kicks in his face instead.

Tigerclaw roared and kicked him back, straight in the plastron, sending him flying in the nearest crate. He did so right in time to dodge the blade of Michelangelo's kusarigama.

Donatello got back up, the crate had taken a huge part of the kick's energy and tumbled into the water instead of him. Shit, Leo was inside.

Michelangelo had his legs around one of Tigerclaw's arms, they were exchanging blows, but he wouldn't hold for long.

Donatello looked around for something that could help them. That's when he spotted April trying to sit up, she looked disoriented and in no state to fight.

She was far too close to the fight, she was going to get killed. Tigerclaw pined Michelangelo to the ground with his foot, Mikey responded by stabbing his ankle with his Kusarigama. Donatello used the moment to slide toward April and help her up, “I need you to try to get Leo, he’s in there.” and he pointed to the crate drifting off rapidly.

She nodded and left, limping heavily. Donatello turned back to the fight, just in time for Mikey to land face first on him after being thrown off too. Tigerclaw’s walkie-talkie screeched, delivering a message full of static noise that couldn’t be deciphered from how far the turtles actually were.

Tigerclaw eyed them, growling lowly, before answering the walkie-talkie, “What about the material?”

Another unintelligible answer, and Tigerclaw was leaving, one of the smaller crates under an arm.

Donatello and Michelangelo left him. They couldn’t fight him with only the two of them, plus they still needed to take care of the remaining crates, find Leo and April, as well as Raph and Casey.

Michelangelo didn’t wait any longer before trying to force open a crate with his weapon.

Donnie chastised him, “Stop that, you could damage the contents.” before taking over, making quick work of the nails.

Inside, covered in bubble wrap, was some kind of machine. “Do you know what it is?”

Donnie shook his head, “I’d need to disassemble it to know for sure. Plus, it looks like a part of something bigger.”

Mikey tore a piece of bubble wrap and started popping the bubbles, “It probably wasn’t vital if Tigerclaw left without it.”

Donnie agreed, “That, or they can easily get another.” He looked around, they probably wouldn’t be alone for long.

“Mikey, I need you to go look for April, I don’t know how long she was unconscious for. Call me when you find her, we need to get to Leo. I’ll take care of the remaining crates before more people get back.”

Mikey nodded before heading off in the general direction April had taken.

Donatello sighed, this mission could have gone worse, but it was far from a success. Tigerclaw had gotten away with probably the most important part of the cargo, Donnie had left April alone to go try to retrieve Leonardo even though she was hurt, and Leonardo was hurt too. Donatello was worried.

Also, there was no news from Raphael and Casey. They were supposed to take care of a huge number of foot soldiers. Donatello checked his phone, there was only one text from Leo that said that he was stuck in the crate. Donatello had thought that Leonard had got out and simply swam back to some other part of the port, this was really bad news. He texted back a quick update on the situation. The text didn’t make it through, an “undelivered” notification glaring back at him instead. The night kept getting worse.

Raph and Casey joined him shortly later, that was one less thing to worry about. Together, they made quick work of the machines in the crates. Donatello took as many pictures as he could of both the outside and the inside of the machines, and then they set everything on fire.

That’s when Mikey called him. He was with April. She was concussed, with what Mikey thought to be a broken leg, but they still managed to “borrow” the keys of a boat to go look for Leo.

“Don’t leave without us, Mikey, you don’t know how to drive a boat and I don’t want to find out what happens when you try.”

Mikey easily agreed before hanging up. They all headed towards the public area of the port.

They found April sitting on a small motor boat, Mikey was still on the pontoon, pacing. “There you are, let’s go already!” He was probably worried too.

They all piled into the boat and Donatello took the helm, starting the engines to leave the port.

It was now five in the morning, far later than they usually stayed out. They were lucky people with private boats usually came later than professionals, they could have been noticed. The sun was beginning to rise, a rare sight for them. Too bad nobody could enjoy it.

Beside him, April was apologizing again about the fight against Tiger claw and for getting hurt. Mikey was busy looking out for the crate with Raph and Casey, but he answered before Don anyway, “Chill dudette, you were doing great! … And then you were not doing great anymore. But hey, it can happen to anybody! Trust me, had it been your fault, I'd have thrown you off the boat already. Now stop whining.”

April looked down, Donatello screamed, “Michelangelo!”

Mikey immediately raised his hands in surrender, “Sorry, that was mean, my bad. You have my apologies, April.”

Yes, that was uncalled for, “What the fuck, Mikey!” It wasn’t like him to say things like that.

And the others agreed, “The fuck is wrong with you?”

But then Mikey pointed at something, “There! I think that’s Leo!”

It was far, Donatello couldn’t see what it was, but when they approached it actually looked like a floating crate.

They stopped beside it and Casey, Raph and Mikey opened the crate, “Yeah, Leo’s here. Shit, he doesn’t look good.”

Donatello bit his lip, Leo was unconscious? That was bad!

Raphael jumped in and passed him up to both Casey and Michelangelo. Donatello left the helm to Raphael and knelt beside Leonardo to examine him. He really didn’t look good. “He would probably be burning up by now if it wasn’t for the water. He’s probably going to get a fever and an infection. I’ll need to clean the wounds and give him antibiotics.”

Also, his shoulders were in ribbons, it was going to take time to heal.

Chapter Text

Leo shifted in the infirmary bed. He had argued that he was well enough to at least go back to his own room, but Donnie was adamant about keeping him under observation. "You've been really sick," he said, "Your shoulders could still get infected.", "Blah blah blah", still, the bed was uncomfortable.

Don was at his desk, working on his theories concerning the machines they had destroyed. It had been three days, he’d gotten pretty much all information he could get from the pictures, but there were still elements he was unsure of.

On the bench beside Leo, Mikey was writing in his journal, his notecards dispersed all around him, an orange highlighter between his teeth, uncapping another pink colored one. He came to keep Leo company and at first they had played cards, but Mikey kept winning, it wasn’t funny. Then Mikey brought him some of his comics. Leo wasn’t a huge fan of Crognard the Barbarian, but he had already reread all of his own comic books in the last two days, at least it was new reading material.

Mikey hadn’t left, he’d brought all of his papers and took a free corner of the lab for himself on the bench. Leo had finished the third comic book and Mikey was still at it.

Leo reached out and picked up a notecard with a lot of green highlighter, wincing when the movement sent hot pain through his shoulder. He turned the card in front of his face, studying a moment what Mikey had written there. There was a lot of scribbling in Mikey’s messy handwriting, no full sentences, a lot of arrows everywhere and highlights that added to the global messiness instead of adding order. “None of this makes sense, Mikey.”

Mikey huffed, taking the highlighter out of his mouth to answer, “It does to me. You just don’t understand.” He slowly took the card out of his brother’s hand, “And you shouldn’t move your arms.”

Leo shifted in the infirmary bed, grumbling. He was bored. He was a patient turtle, but he’d been stuck in there for three days already, it would take a toll on anyone.

Mikey must have understood because he said “I would play the trumpet for you, but someone,” he turned sharply toward Donatello, glaring, “forbade me from playing in his lab.”

Donnie spun in his chair, “And I told you I couldn’t work with how loud you are with this thing!”

That’s when Splinter knocked on the lab door, coming in, followed by Raphael. Mikey silently glared at Don before starting to gather his notecards.

“No need for screaming, I am sure that Michelangelo understands his brother’s need for relative silence when working. Right, Michelangelo?”

It wasn’t truly a question, more like a pointed demand. Mikey hummed, shifting to leave space on the bench for Raph.

Leo turned to his brother, “Donnie?”

And Donatello switched on their projector, “You guys remember how we intercepted some machines from the Foot clan, right?”

He switched to a picture of one of the machines. “I had never seen anything like that before, someone managed to mix Kraang and human technology. See this purple liquid?”

“Don.”

“It’s something commonly used in Kraang tech to both carry the energy through the machines and regulate the temperature. But this here,”

“Donnie!”

“-is a human made microprocessor, with electric cables connecting it to a battery.”

“Donatello!” Donatello fell silent, turning toward his immediate older brother, “What?”

Raph waved around “You’re rambling, what are the machines for?”

Don switched the projector to some kind of rough sketch of an assemblage of machines. “At first I thought it was some kind of portal toward Dimension-X,” From the corner of his eye, Leo saw Mikey tensing, “but there’s a few things that don’t make sense with this theory, some elements missing. Also, there’s the matter of what Leo took from Tigerclaw.”

And then he switched to a picture of the scroll that was in the leather case. It looked like … It looked like a bunch of grapes, with a big red X drawn on one of the fruits.

“The fuck is that?”

Don glared at Raph, probably tired of getting interrupted. “I’m not sure, the annotations aren’t very clear, but it’s about a ‘World-Destroying spear.’”

That’s when Leo noticed with alarm how pale Mikey had turned “Hey, Are you alright?”

Mikey didn’t even look away from the picture, frowning, “That’s a map of our multiverse.”

“What?” Mikey couldn’t just say things like that. He needed to develop.

“It’s not complete, but it’s surprisingly accurate. Each sphere is a universe, remember when we were transported to another world where we met our trans-dimensional counterparts?”

And they did, the other dimension’s Krang looked like a huge idiot and he’d tried to wipe out their dimension with his dimensionizer.

“Well, their universe is one of those spheres, and so is ours.” Leo frowned, he’d never tried to visualize the whole multiverse thing, it was weird.

Raph got up, his arms crossed, “And how would you know that, where do you recognize the map from?” They already had a pretty good idea of where, but it still made no sense.

Mikey didn’t bat an eye, “I’ve seen it in Dimension-X.” He pointed at the grapes, “Our multiverse” and then he pointed at the outside of the grapes, annotated ‘Void’ on the map, “Dimension-X”.

“Wait, Dimension-X is outside our multiverse?” Why were they only hearing about this now?

“Yeah dude, the Kraangs are an invasive species. they’re after all of our multiverse, not just our dimension.” Mikey’s flippant answers were beginning to get to Leo.

“And you didn’t think about telling us? This is big, Mikey!”
Leo understood that Mikey didn’t want to speak about what happened in Dimension-X, but there were limits to how much he could keep to himself, this concerned the safety of them all.

Mikey crossed his arms, looking back at him defiantly, he was clearly uncomfortable, “I’m telling you now. Plus, I don’t see what your problem is, it doesn’t change anything.”

It could change things, if the Kraangs attacking the different universes were only one force. It meant there were many more of them than they thought.

“It’s not a problem! There are alternative versions of us to defend the other universes. Remember our alternate selves? They had no problem handling Krang, no need to panic. Plus, we can’t defend our whole multiverse by ourselves, it’s too big.”

Leo deflated, it was true, they had seen them fight Krang. It had not alarmed him then. Don hummed, “Am I the only one worried about that whole ‘World-Destroying spear’ thing?”

Mikey bit his lip, curling in on himself.

Leo turned back to Don, “If this map shows the way to a dangerous weapon, we can only assume that this is what the Foot clan is after. We have to stop them.”

“After studying the pictures, I’m pretty confident that they can’t recreate what we destroyed in less than two months. What Tigerclaw took with himself was probably a Kraang power cell, which can’t be replicated. If we manage to steal it back, they won’t be able to create the portal.”

Raph cracked his knuckles, “When are we going then?”

“An instant my children.” They all fell silent at Splinter’s interruption. “Leonardo is still healing, and Miss O’Neil will be in a cast for the next month. It would be imprudent to go unprepared. Donatello, you said that we have at least two months?”

Donnie nodded, “That’s how long the human tech would normally take to be reconstructed, more or less.”

“Then we will wait for both Leonardo and Miss O’Neil to be healed before attempting a mission so dangerous.”

Leo was not happy to be one of the reason the mission had to be postponed. Don had prescribed him a month and a half of rest, that left far too little time to be comfortable.

He was about to protest, but a sharp glare from his father and sensei silenced him. Leo knew this look, Splinter would not be swayed.

“There’s also the map, they’ll want it back if they need it to find the spear, right? How do we know that they won't attack us to get it back?” suggested Mikey. And Leo agreed, the Foot clan couldn’t leave without knowing where they were going.

“Nah, the map we have is a copy, we can assume that they still have the original.”

That meant that the map they had couldn't be used to slow them down. That was bad news.

"At least they won't try to attack us for now, that's cool." Right, Mikey's eternal optimism, that was at least one thing that didn't change.

"Alright, it’s settled then. We will attack the Foot clan to steal the power cell in a month and two weeks. Have a good afternoon then my sons." And as he was going out he added, "Raphael, follow me, you have some more katas to do."

Leo turned to Donnie and Mikey, "What's wrong with Raph?"

Don was already absorbed in his work, it's Mikey who answered, "Dad has been on his case for his anger issues again. Something about getting in an argument with Casey and looking for problems topside yesterday."

Leo blinked at him, processing what he just heard, "Raphael went topside yesterday?!"

"Yeah, you know how he gets when one of us gets hurt. He went out to blow off some steam. Dad shouldn't be so hard on him."

Leo hummed in acknowledgement, but didn’t reply further. Raph’s anger had become a thing to be feared during Mikey’s absence in Dimension-X, like a dark cloud of searing ash running down a volcano, scorching everything in its wake. It had gotten him hurt more than once. That’s why their father was back to being so strict about it, Mikey didn’t need to know that, though.

Chapter Text

Michelangelo was reading the newspaper from last week. It was blood stained in the corner, but he didn't care that much. There was nothing to do around there. The shop was quiet, no customers, no birds singing outside, nothing.

Well, he shouldn't have expected the end of the world to look any different.

The newspaper's first pages were about the first fights on the battlefield. Mikey skipped the part about the players' death and went directly to the funny comics at the end.

The doorbell rang as two young pawns got in.
Mikey leaned over the counter, curious about who it could be at a time like this. These were children.

He didn't know what they were doing there. He pulled his customer service smile and exclaimed, "Well, hello? Could I help you with anything?"

There should not be anything alive around there. The Hororterrors had killed everybody, slowly eating the doomed timeline. How had these pawns survived?
Mikey should probably be happy to see survivors, but he couldn't help but be suspicious. The last survivors should be dying on the other side of the planet. That was why he was hiding is this shop. The Horrorterrors had already hit, they wouldn't come again, not yet.

The younger pawn was hiding behind the older one. "No, we're good, we can pay."

Mikey did not say anything. He was looking for something.

They began picking up some items from the shelves. Michelangelo checked the runes carved inside his elbow. It was his assurance that his memories would remain after his death. With a bit of luck, they would get to another variant of himself in another timeline.

He put down his newspaper and went back to watching the children. He had removed most perishable food from the shelves, but he had left some fruits that were still good. The kids took two apples to go with the cans of beans they had chosen.

They came to the counter with their items and Mikey scanned them. The apples were rotten.

They weren’t before being picked up…

He knew how they were still alive.

He looked at the children. The youngest noticed his frown and smiled, wide. Too wide.
“You’re gonna die”. Michelangelo’s mind supplied.

He threw himself between the two pawns. Pushing the oldest behind himself and away from the thing.

The oldest screamed, "What are you doing?" and the youngest exploded into an enormous appendage that threw Michelangelo through the shop's wall.

He held onto the remaining child, cushioning him from the impact. He screamed, "Run!"

But the child was frozen, watching with horror and disbelief the monster his friend abruptly turned into.
It looked unnatural, shapeless, growling from too many mouths on strong whiplike appendages, destroying everything around.

It was one of the Horrorterrors.

Mikey jolted awake. His head was pounding. He was home, safe. He rubbed his eyes. His skin was covered in cold sweat, he felt sticky and vaguely nauseous.

It felt like he was still there, on a condemned planet, in paradox-space, waiting for his death. He had died. The Horrorterror had killed him. He’d been thrown in the air and impaled by one of its appendages.

He rubbed his plaston. No wound, no scar. Just the sensation of it, the hot numbness from a vivid memory. The lack of pain felt like a missing limb, like a betrayal.

He wasn’t dead, of course not, that was another part of him, from another timeline, him, but not really… not him him.
He was the only variant of himself who survived paradox-space, the only one who made it back home. He was home.
Hot tears spilled from his eyes, relief crashing into him. He was home.

Mikey got up, the vision still vivid behind his eyelids. He got out of his room, adrift, off-balance, it was like he was seeing the corridor for the first time in years. He couldn't stay like this, he needed to recenter himself. He hesitated shortly before knocking at his father’s door.

Splinter opened his door, dressed in a big white tunic, a bit of drool sticking to the fur at the corner of his mouth. “Hello Michelangelo.”

Mikey felt his eyes warm with tears at the sight of his father, who he had missed for so long, who he had seen mere hours ago. He remembered being in front of the Horrorterror that would kill him, he thought he’d never see his dad ever again then.

The words weren’t coming, stuck in his throat. His dad looked at him with concern and Mikey gripped the sleeve of his tunic, both in hope that he would understand what he needed, and in fear that he would move away.

His father placed his warm hands on his shoulders, rubbing comfortingly.

Splinter was the only person he’d told about paradox-space. Mikey hadn’t planned on doing so, he had unreasonably hoped that he could try to forget about everything that had happened both in paradox-space and in the broken universe, that he could play ostrich at least for some time.

But he had been putting off dealing with those last few timelines since he’d escaped Scratch and Paradox-Space a year ago. He couldn’t delay it any further and it wasn’t something he could hide.

Recollecting was different from these damned episodes that left him in pain, oversensitive and shaking. He could usually feel the Recollections coming and shove it back to deal with later.

…usually.

He had only slipped up once before. He had been alone with Splinter when it happened. He first turned unresponsive, and then he jolted back to himself shortly later, scrambling away from his father, scared out of his mind and unaware of where he was for a few minutes. It had scared Splinter a lot.

Michelangelo had felt obligated to explain then. Splinter made him promise to ask for help when needed, in exchange, Michelangelo got his dad to promise that he wouldn’t have to tell anything to his brothers. It was a good compromise, he could never have kept anything to himself without Splinter's support.

“Did you have another flashback?” Mikey flinched at his dad’s voice, having somehow forgotten his presence.
Recollecting wasn’t really like having a flashback, it was the emotional part of his variant's memory catching up to him, making it as if it had been him, in that shop, about to die. He now remembered the feelings, the stress and the fear, the cold resignation. But he was tired of explaining how it worked, he was so incredibly bad at explaining things, nobody ever understood. Instead he just nodded, it was close enough.

He wiped the humidity off his eyes, he hated this.

His episodes were the results of whatever Scratch had done to him, it was horrible in a fucked-up way because Mikey never had any say in it. But Recollecting? He could only blame himself for that. Collecting the memories of all of his doomed selves was his choice.

But, god, did he hate how lost and emotional it made him.

He must have been dissociating because he was now in the dojo, his dad probably dragged him there.

“Sit, my son.”

He did not feel like sitting, he felt like pacing and crying and drinking alcohol until he was too far gone to think about anything–
He sat.

Splinter made him close his eyes and go through multiple breathing exercises.
It did help him calm down a bit.

“You told me you needed to make a map of your memories, have you been working on it?”

"Yes", he had resumed his journaling. But he still had the memories of several timelines to go through. He’d been making notecards, trying to order everything.

“Good, do you know what timeline this flashback is from?”

“I do.” Of course he did, it was the timeline twenty-four. Easy, he hadn't died twice in this specific way. He had a whole bunch of notecards for this timeline. He would have to take note of everything before he forgot. Geez, updating his journal would take time.

Splinter didn’t say anything right away. Leaving him time, Michelangelo guessed. He was often a bit slow after this, dissociating easily, losing himself in the maze in his head.

It was hard sometimes, he had been on this planet in a lot of timelines and had often died there. Knowing which memories belonged to which timeline was like trying to make a puzzle with a picture of the blue sky. The journal helped a lot.

“What were you doing in this flashback?”

“Taking care of the shop.” It was incredibly boring, he had hoped to spend his last moments trying out all kinds of things that he normally couldn’t because of consequences, but no! He had to stay in the shop. There weren’t even any customers! Except the two kids, but they didn’t count.

“Why?”

“I promised to do it” It was in return for his memories being taken to one of the remaining timelines after his death.

“You already knew the timeline was doomed then?”

Yes, the players were dead. There was no hope of success anymore then. He’d first hoped to get out of paradox-space without splintering himself through different timelines, but paradox-space was too dangerous and the idea of never making it home was terrifying.

“Michelangelo!”

Mikey blinked up at his father. Splinter was observing him with big concerned eyes. He must have called him more than once.

“I’m here, I’m here. Sorry.” He’d managed to worry his dad again… Geez!
Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes again. Michelangelo breathed in deeply, willing the tears to stop. It was ridiculous, he was fine, he was home, he didn’t have any reason to cry. Everything was just so… frustrating.

Splinter opened his arm and Michelangelo clumsily accepted the embrace. Less than ten seconds of his father engulfing him in the biggest, tightest embrace he could and Mikey was openly sobbing in his tunic.

They stayed like that a long moment.

A few minutes after his cries quieted, Mikey separated himself from his father’s embrace, “Thank you sensei.”

Splinter offered him one of his sad smiles, he always looked sad when he looked at Mikey lately. It was one of the reasons he feared to talk about it to his brothers. “I hope I could help.”

“Of course you help. I wouldn’t come to you otherwise.”
Mikey had multiple ways of dealing with the aftermath of Recollections. For the less stressful memories, he'd often distract himself in the kitchen, trying one of the most funky recipes he could think of. But for the more difficult ones… Mikey felt better with someone else around to remind him that yes, he was home. He had gone to Raph once, after a particularly disorienting Recollection. They had gone to the rooftops and everything, he’d cried like a baby and his brother hadn’t even made fun of him. But Raph had been really stressed and tired –stressired?– the following day and Mikey didn’t want to make it a habit.

Now he just went to his dad.
Splinter was good at leading him through the maze of memories. He didn’t even know what happened in most timelines and he rarely asked, it wasn't relevant anyway, they were called doomed timelines for a reason. Somehow he still managed to always ask the right questions anyway. Mikey was incredibly grateful for that.

He yawned. It was the middle of the night. He knew better than to apologize for waking up his father. Splinter had made it clear that he preferred Mikey asking for his help to a full night of sleep.

Mikey eyed his dad, “You can go back to sleep, there’s still four hours before your alarm.”

Splinter didn’t move, instead he said, “You grew up so much, my son.”

It was unexpected and Mikey froze, his mouth open like a fish’s. He didn’t have anything to say, it was just awkward. Was his dad expecting some kind of smart answer?

The silence was broken again by Splinter asking, “Are you going back to sleep?”

“No.” He really didn’t feel like going back to bed yet. “I was thinking of trying something new in the kitchen, I’ll get back to bed later.”

His father hummed, “Let me join you then.”

Chapter Text

Mikey switched on the light and started the kettle for Splinter’s tea.

In the other room, his father was knocking at Donatello’s lab, flicking his ears when the faint sound of typing didn’t stop. When he came in, Donatello was still working at his computer, frowning at the lines of code on his screen.

“We are closer to morning than to evening, my son.”

“A moment.” Donatello kept typing —presumably finishing his line of code— before turning his tired face toward his father, “I’m sorry, what did you say sensei?”

Splinter asked, “You should be sleeping, what is so important that you would sacrifice your sleep like that?”

In the kitchen, Michelangelo scoffed: Everything was more important to Donnie than sleep, and Splinter knew that too. Mikey leaned on the counter. In the fridge, there was still some chicken that needed to be eaten soon, some bacon, mushrooms and peppers. Cheese, eggs, oranges and milk… Ah, he’d forgotten about the artichokes; he could try to recreate that weird dip he’d tasted in the broken universe.

Donatello’s eyes went back to his screen, “I found a new computer in the junkyard, but some parts of the printed circuit are damaged. I'm rewriting a part of the DIOS under the kernel to get around the unsalvageable parts.”

Donatello could have spoken a foreign language, it would have been the same for Mikey. Splinter probably didn’t understand much more either, but he didn’t comment on it, “Alright, but I want you to get at least a few hours of sleep before training.”

As if a few hours of sleep were enough to fight correctly afterward. Mikey knew firsthand what Donnie’s lifestyle could do to reactivity, precision and critical thinking. He was dreading the day Donatello would have to pay for it. Mikey opened the cans of artichokes and drained the contents. The dip he was trying to recreate was made with ingredients from a foreign multiverse Mikey had never visited, but he was pretty sure that the artichokes would provide the same texture. He also put out the cheese and the mayo.

Donnie went back to his computer, far too invested in his work to question the fact that his father was awake in the middle of the night.

Splinter joined Mikey in the kitchen, he looked exhausted. “You were right, Donatello was still working.”

Mikey hummed, of course he was. He didn’t hold any illusions about forcing his brother to adopt a better sleeping schedule. Donnie may have been making more efforts recently, but if he didn’t want to sleep, then he didn’t sleep, even if it was both unreasonable and unhealthy.

The water boiling, Mikey poured some into a cup and put it on the table for his father before going back to his food. Splinter would take care of the brewing part, he knew best how to make it to his tastes. Mikey efficiently chopped the artichokes and added them to a bowl before starting to grate the Parmesan. “Thank you again for tonight. I really appreciate your help, I know you need your sleep.”

Splinter answered with a tired: “It's perfectly normal, I’ve told you already.”

Mikey shook his head, adding two big spoonfuls of mayonnaise to the bowl, “Not many would have the patience to help me like that.”

Splinter opened his mouth, likely to object again, but Mikey didn’t feel like getting into a big discussion about that. “I’m nearly done anyway. There are only a few timelines left to deal with, I will soon be able to finish my map, and then all of this will be behind me.” Mikey couldn’t wait, he’d finally be able to really get back to his life. He tasted the unfinished dip and couldn’t hold back a wince, it was gross. The dip didn’t taste exactly like he wanted it to, the vinegar was far too strong, plus there was something missing. Mikey started cutting an orange.

“Does that mean that you’ll remember being each one of your variants?” Splinter’s voice didn’t waver –because Splinter’s voice didn’t do that– but it had a fragility that made Mikey uncomfortable.

He added some citrus juice to the bowl. Cooking was a mindless activity supposed to keep his mind distracted, he wished his father could keep his questions for another time. “All the timelines I managed to recover my memories from, yeah.”

Mikey opened the spice drawer, he was running low on everything but oregano… It would do, but not by itself. He opened the cupboard used to store all the bulky and rarely used ingredients. The only thing looking remotely like spice was a box so old the label was erased. Mikey smelled the content. Yes, that was what he was looking for. Splinter was watching his tea oversteep, a deep frown pulling at his mouth. Mikey’s eyes trailed toward the bottom of the cupboard, where he kept the bottles of alcohol, contemplating the idea of getting himself a drink… He shook his head, drinking when upset was a bad habit he didn’t want to fall back into.

He took the spice and slammed the cupboard shut, turning back toward Splinter.

“Stop making that face. They are part of me and they’ll finally stop feeling foreign, It's good news!” More than anything, Michelangelo was glad. Having them all was a miracle. It had been a real headache, the shenanigans he had to pull to get them out of the doomed timelines had already been a mess, but getting them to the manor he was trapped in had been even worse. He managed to get the memories from all but one timeline, and even then it was because they were wiped out by a reboot of the Game.

Splinter didn’t stop staring at his tea, “But you died in every timeline.” And now his voice wasn’t merely fragile, it was faint. Mikey held back a sigh, adding a good portion of oregano and of whatever was in the mystery box to his bowl and mixing energetically. He didn’t appreciate his father feeling worse than him about it, but he also didn’t want to snap at him for this, it would be insensitive… probably.

“That’s how it works.” Mikey set his bowl in the microwave instead of the oven, unwilling to face his father for too long without anything to keep his hands occupied. “Two versions of the same person can’t survive outside paradox-space, you know, because of the paradoxes. What would you have done anyway, with two Mikeys going out of the portal instead of one?”

Splinter looked pained. Good, he was asking painful questions. “I wish you hadn't had to go through all of that. I’m just trying to understand.”

Mikey wished he didn’t. He didn’t need someone to understand, he didn’t need the pity, he needed to fucking go back to his life. He cut a couple of slices from the leftover bread and put them in the toaster.

“I’m not the one who suffered the most in all of this anyway, it’s the players.” Mikey had told Splinter about the players, about how young they were, about how the Game used them.

“What happened to them?”

Zap! The toaster short-circuited.

They both stared at the offending appliance.

“Oops!” Mikey hurriedly unplugged the toaster, bringing it to his chest to inspect. “They live in the suburbs, I’ll have to visit them soon.”

Splinter had finished his tea, he was now staring at Mikey, “They are here?” His surprise was understandable, the whole point of the game was to create a new place for the players, a new multiverse.

Splinter was waiting for more explanations. Mikey was bad at explanations, “The multiverse larva didn’t survive after the Game. They didn’t have anywhere to go, so I told them to come here.”

Mikey removed the slices of bread from the toaster and looked inside, narrowing his eyes at the lack of light.

“Why haven’t you visited them y–” Bam! Bam! Bam!

Mikey hit the side of the toaster, then checked out the inside again, “I will, I’m just waiting for their phone call. We aren’t exactly on the best of terms.”

But Splinter was currently more concerned for the toaster, “Maybe you should ask Donnatel–” BAM! This time, Mikey had hit the toaster against the counter, breaking off the metal cover underneath.

“Michelangelo!”

Mikey sent him a sheepish look, “Sorry.” He removed the cover and stuck a fork inside the electronic insides of the toaster. He was still incredibly bad with the whole electronic stuff, but he was pretty sure that the problem came from these two metal parts that were probably supposed to be touching, “So, I was thinking… Maybe just this once, you could let me go alone.”

“No!” Mikey flinched hard, abandoning his fork in the toaster to face his father, “Not going alone, understood!”

That’s when the microwave beeped. Mikey rushed to open the door before too many beeps could chime. “Can I take Raphael then?”

Splinter sighed, he was maybe starting to realize that he should have left earlier, “Michelangelo, your brother’s grounded, you know that.”

Mikey did, but he also strongly disagreed, “Raphael needs to breathe.” He went back to fiddling with the fork and the toaster. “I don’t know how you manage to stay sane while cooped up in there, but we can’t.”

Splinter joined his hands in this ridiculous facade of composure that Michelangelo hated so much, “I understand that you boys are young, but the outside is dangerous,” Mikey gritted his teeth, “your brother’s anger could g–” “Raphael’s anger is deserved!”

Silence. Mikey shouldn’t have cut his father off like that, “Sorry.” He got a roll of duct tape out of a drawer, avoiding his father’s eyes. “It’s just… It’s not a life. All the fighting, the foot clan, the Kraangs, the war. We can’t keep doing this forever, it’s going to kill us. We have every reason to be angry.”

Splinter didn’t say anything, he knew that already, Mikey was just being uselessly difficult. He tapped the metal cover back to where it belonged and plugged the toaster back in.

“You’re being too hard on Raph, let me take him to see the players.” It wouldn’t be pretty, Mikey hopped Raph could handle it better than Leo or Don. He put the slices of bread back in the toaster, holding back his breath when he restarted it.

And it worked! Yes!

Splinter was still hesitating. That wouldn’t do, “Come on! We’ll stay out of trouble, please, please, please, pl–” “Michelangelo, stop.”

Mikey stopped talking, Splinter didn’t like to think under pressure. He brushed his beard, thinking…

“Alright.”

Mikey threw himself at his father, “Yes! Hahaha! Thank you!”

Splinter hushed him before he could wake anybody, then a sudden pop resounded, the bread was grilled. Mikey put some of the artichoke dip on both slices before offering one to his dad.

Splinter arched his eyebrow, but politely took one slice. When he bit, his fur bristled and he held back a faint choking noise.

Aww, come on! It couldn’t be that bad.

Splinter swallowed with difficulty and asked, “Did you mix vinegar with celery salt?”

Ah, celery salt, that’s what was in the mystery box. Mikey bit into his own slice…

Okay, it wasn’t great, but it was really close to what Mikey had tried to recreate. Just… not good.

Mikey took another bite. It wasn’t bad either.

Chapter Text

“Eek!” There was a Kraang on the edge of the roof, right where Donatello had nearly sat to consult the coordinates on his phone.

Paff! Donatello urgently kicked the Kraang, sending it flying toward Michelangelo’s head. “Hey!” Mikey stepped aside to avoid the slimy projectile.

The Kraang crashed against a nearby brick wall and slid down into the alley below, leaving a trail of a gross mix of clear mucus and deep purple blood.

“Eww!” Mikey grimaced with exaggeration. “This wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t so sleep-deprived.”

Donatello chose to ignore this umpteenth jab about their amount of sleep. “Do you think I killed it?”

“Who cares, it was gonna die anyway.” Mikey peered down into the alley. “I’m more worried about where it came from.”

Right, Kraangs can’t survive without their droids. Michelangelo silently gestured for Donatello to approach. Mikey didn’t often do that, and only when the situation was serious.

Donnie looked down into the alley, where Karai stood over a pile of broken droids.

“What is she doing?”

Donatello rolled his eyes, “She’s looking for new shoes."

"Really?"

Donatello wasn't sure if it was a joke or if Mikey had genuinely just asked this question, "No! I don't know what she's doing." There were no living Kraangs in sight, they were either dead or they had fled without their robotic suits.

Karai didn't look like she was leaving, she was messing with the empty droids. That couldn’t be good. “We should try to approach.”

Michelangelo turned an incredulous look toward him, “Are you crazy? She’ll notice us straight away, she’s a ninja.”

“And what if she does? We’re unlikely to learn what she’s doing if we don’t confront her.”

“This is supposed to be a recon mission.” Michelangelo waved his hands in frustration, “We’re in no state to confront her!”

Donatello rolled his eyes. The fact that Michelangelo couldn’t fight correctly without his eight hours of sleep didn’t mean that he had the same limitations.

“I’m going.” And he jumped down, slowing his fall on a window sill before landing in the alley.

Karai instantly took a defensive posture, she was standing in the middle of a pile of broken kraangdroids, with a couple of dead Kraangs nailed to the wall with throwing stars.

Mikey dropped beside Donatello.

Karai sneered, “The turtles.”

Donatello was about to start fighting, but Michelangelo stopped him with a heavy hand on the shoulder, “Hello to you too. It’s been a while, how have you been?”

Donnie shot a baffled look at his brother. Was he seriously trying to make small talk with her?

Karai started gathering a few droid parts scattered in the wreckage. “Shredder was quite furious with your last meddling.”

Donatello couldn’t help but smile, “Is that why you’re fighting the Kraangs now? They don’t want to furnish you with the necessary components to replace what we broke?” It had been something important then.

Karai hummed, “The negotiation is ongoing.” She shoved everything in her bag.

Mikey nudged a dead Kraang with his foot, “And what a way to negotiate.”

Karai didn’t answer, throwing herself at them instead. Donatello was already in front of Mikey and parried her sword with his bo staff.

Mikey jumped behind her, only to receive a strong kick in the face, ouch. Donatello answered by hitting her with the tip of his staff, sending her flying against the nearest wall.

She snarled and lunged at him. Donatello tried to dodge but stumbled on a metal arm. Karai pinned him to the wall and tried to stab him. Just in time, Mikey managed to catch her arm by the chain of his kusarigama, prying her off his brother with a hard yank.

Karai switched her sword to her free hand and twisted to get enough slack in the chain to go at Mikey. She was about to strike when, “Halt villain!”

Both Donnie and Karai stared at the intruder. Mikey used the distraction to strongly headbutt his opponent, sending her reeling back.

A huge cloud of smoke exploded in their faces. When it dissipated, Karai had left, taking her bag of droid parts with her.

Donatello frowned, walking away from the wall he’d been pinned against, “Why did you stop me from attacking straight away? She was obviously stalling to get what she needed.”

Mikey crossed his arms, “I didn’t want us to fight her. Did you see how much we struggled? At two against one, fighting her shouldn’t have been so hard.”

“Am I bothering you guys?”

Donnie was about to answer in the affirmative, but Mikey was quicker, “Not at all Casey, come here.”

Donnie groaned before crouching to inspect one of the kraangdroids.

Casey approached, walking carelessly on metal scraps. “Woah, were you guys fighting the Kraangs? This looks violent.”

And it was violent, some droids were literally torn apart, most of them had limbs cut off and… There was something missing from the main module.

Mikey shook his head, “It was Karai actually. She nearly kicked our ass tonight… Not fun.” He then took his most dramatic pose, “Oh! If only we’d been in actual fighting condition!”

Donnie groaned, “Knock it off! Had I known you would spend the whole time complaining, I’d have insisted on going with Leo.” He then dragged another droid to his lap, it looked like Karai hadn’t gotten the time to finish messing with this one.

“Right, and you would have had Leo fight Karai? With his shoulders still healing?”

The answer was no, obviously. Mikey sighed, “We were just supposed to check the presence of Kraangs in the building. What do you think he’ll say when we tell him what happened?”

Donatello dropped what he was doing to glare at his brother, “Don’t you dare!” Leo was already feeling bad for letting them go without him, “He’ll never trust us on our own again.”

Mikey looked unconvinced.

Donnie insisted, “Think about it, it’ll be the end of the B-Team!” Donnie hated this name but for whatever reason, Mikey loved it.

“But we aren’t the B-Team.” Mikey answered sharply, “We’re the T-Team, like Tired.”

Casey snorted. Donatello twitched in annoyance, “Seriously?! I told you you didn’t have to come. If you intended to be an ass about this the whole time, you should have stayed home, like you had planned to do!”

Mikey made a weird face, mumbling something too low to be understandable. His crossed arms looked like he was hugging himself.

“What did you just say?”

Mikey gritted his teeth, “Had I not been here, Karai would have stabbed you.”

Donatello exhaled loudly, it was true.
But it didn’t give his brother a pass for being so insufferable. Had Mikey had his way, they would have stayed home and wouldn’t have known about any of that.

Even though Leonardo was technically healed enough to start parkouring the city, he wouldn’t have been careful enough to avoid straining his injuries. Raphael was still grounded and Mikey…

Mikey had another bad night.

Donatello didn’t know if his brother had managed to catch up on sleep at all during the day but he’d initially planned not to go on patrol. That is, until he realized Donnie would either go alone or with Leo.

“Are you two fighting? What is going on?”

Donatello huffed. They weren’t fighting, Michelangelo was loudly stating his disapproval without actually asking for anything. It was going nowhere, like always. Don went back to trying to access the circuits at the back of the droid.

Mikey didn’t answer Casey’s question either, probably to avoid aggravating his brother with any more snippy remarks. Instead he asked, “Are you patrolling alone?”

“Yeah,” Casey sounded sheepish, “April is still stuck in her cast. Plus, she’s never been a huge fan of the whole ‘masked vigilante’ thing.”

That was no surprise, “I somehow don’t see her screaming ‘Halt villain!’ at random criminals.” He chimed in without looking away from the mess of alien technology he was working on.

That being said, the cast must have been driving her crazy, Donatello would have to call her again tomorrow morning.

Mikey added, “I thought you’d wait for Raph to be back.”

It wasn’t official, but they all knew that when there was no patrol, Raphael often went out at night to beat up criminals with Cass. But after their fight last time…

Casey grumbled, “How is he?”

“He cooled down a bit, but he's still upset, you two should talk. He’s still grounded, but you can visit the lair.”

Casey groaned, "He doesn't get to be upset. It's my life. Atomie and where I live are none of his business. Everything was under control.”

Donatello scoffed, everything was so under control that Casey's sister had to call Raphael to get her brother out of a shady gig. They hadn’t even known Cass had a little sister.

Mikey kicked a metal arm and sat on a droid, “Try to see things from his point of view. He trusts you with practically everything in his life and then he realizes that you ran away from home with your little sister and didn’t even tell him about it. He thought you guys were closer than that.”

Casey made a strange face at that. "But we are close! It's just- I had more important stuff to think about!”

Donnie hissed and ripped his hand out of the droid, putting his burnt finger in his mouth with a groan.

That effectively got Mikey’s attention. He leaned over the kraangdroid that Don was taking apart, “Do you know what she took?”

Donatello wasn’t sure, “I think she took the electro-cooling fluid. The kraangdroids were milked dry and the reservoirs are missing. That’s why the circuits are so hot now.” Donatello’s finger was still painful.

“She took what?”

“The purple liquid, I named it like that because it carries the energy through the robot like blood while cooling down the system.”

Mikey stuck out his tongue in disgust. “Are you saying that Karai took all of the robot blood? Like a vampire, eww!”

Not like a vampire, that would be weird. Donatello shook his head to banish the mental image of Karai biting the neck of a kraangdroid.

“Looks like it’s deserted inside, I’m going to check it out.”

“Are you sure?” The building was a suspected Kraang base, that's why they were here.

“Yes, two hundred percent sure. No! A thousand percent sure.” Then Michelangelo climbed a trash can to access one of the high windows. Donnie didn’t ask how Mikey knew what it looked like inside, he wouldn't get any answer anyway.

It was getting late. Instead of immediately following his brother, Don pulled out his T-Phone.

The phone only rang once before Leo's voice came through, “Donatello! Are you guys alright?”

“Yes—”
“You were supposed to be back five minutes ago.”

Donnie bit his lip, looking up at the window Mikey disappeared into. "I know… But we crossed paths with Cass, he's been patrolling alone."

Casey rolled his eyes. Through the phone, Leo's voice asked, “So what?”

Donnie climbed the trash can and hoisted himself to the window, “So we stopped to talk.” From there, he had a good view of the inside. There were rows and rows of shelves around the room. And between the shelves? More dead Kraangs in broken droids. Karai really hadn’t pulled her punches.

“What was that sound?!”

“Nothing, just Mikey breaking stuff." He snapped his fingers, getting Mikey's attention. Holding his phone away from his mouth he whispered as loudly as he could, “What are you doing?”

Mikey was holding a pipe, he gave a last, huge swing to the poor computer he was attacking before turning around. “I don’t want the Kraangs to get anything if they come back.”

“Stop. Breaking. Stuff!”

On the phone, Leo asked, “What’s happening?”

“Nothing.” Donatello shouldn’t have called him, he should have sent a message instead. “Look, we’re checking things out and then we’re coming back. There’s no Kraang here, the place was sacked before we arrived. I’m pretty sure it was the Foot.”

“The Foot? Are you guys sure the place is empty? You weren’t supposed to enter the building.”

“Yes, it’s empty.”

There was another big crash as the metal cover of the computer broke off, revealing the fuming mess of Kraang tech beneath it.

“Alright, try to stop Mikey from destroying the building.”
“Yes—”
“And be careful.”
“Yes—”
“And send me a message when you start coming back.”
“Leo!”
“Alright, alright.” He hung up.

“Uh, Donnie? Do you guys need me?” Donatello had nearly forgotten that Casey was still in the alley.

“Absolutely not! We’re nearly done, you should go home.” And then he dropped down in the building.

Mikey dumped the pipe, “You lied to Leo.”

“No. I did not.” He omitted a few elements. It wasn’t the same.

Amidst the wreck, Donatello could make out some broken laser blasters and spare parts of Kraang technology. No mutagen, sadly. The building was probably used for storage or as some kind of armory.

“But you don’t want to tell him about the fight against Karai. Why? It’s no big deal.”

No big deal? “He’ll never let us live it down! He’ll feel super bad about it and he’ll forbid us from leaving the lair until he’s better.” Mikey rolled his eyes. Donnie pointed an accusing finger at him, “You think he won’t?”

“I think he can’t.”

Donatello scoffed, handing an empty bag to Mikey, “Hold this.”

He started gathering the few pieces of Kraang technology that had miraculously survived the fight. If Karai could help herself, then so could he.

There was so much stuff in there, electrofusion connectors, kraangdroid voice boxes with translators, power reversers, blasters, charging hoses for electro-cooling fluid… Donatello was ecstatic with what he’d found. But at the same time he couldn't help but feel frustrated. He would have killed to get his hands on this a few months ago, when Michelangelo was lost and alone in a foreign dimension because of him.

“Donnie?” Right, yeah. Mikey was here, that was the most important.

Mikey hummed patiently, looking through the wreckage with detached curiosity while his brother quickly filled the bag.

The night was dark and chilly as they made their way back in comfortable silence. There were so many things Donatello could build with what he’d picked up. But he’d have to inspect and analyze everything beforehand.

“Hey, Donnie.” Mikey sounded impossibly tired.

“What?”

“I won't tell about Karai. But I want you to get more sleep, at least before patrols and missions. You scared me back there.”

Chapter Text

Leonardo was pretending to watch tv, volume low and only a small part of his mind actually following what was happening on the screen. His episode of Space Hero had ended a while ago, but he didn't want to move and disturb the turtle resting on his lap.

Mikey mumbled, "No, you can't move your rook." Before burying his face against Leo's plaston to try to drown out the light. Leonardo scratched his upper scutes in silent support.

"Why not?" Donatello was on the ground, surrounded by papers, a notebook in his hands as he wrote down what he needed to keep track of his game.

Mikey groaned, "Because if you do, my queen from the fifth timeline can eat your bishop in B5. And then you can't take my king anymore."

Donatello hummed and scratched out something in his notebook. In his lab, a sharp ‘Beep!’ resounded, it was the fourth time they heard that sound in the last ten minutes.

"Okay, but like, if I moved my bishop back in time first, then it could hold your queen back while I move my knight."

"You can try. But you’re already struggling to keep track of the timelines we already have, you should try to get the hang of it before adding new ones as a part of your strategy."

Donatello bit his lip and turned to a new page of his notebook, starting anew. In the lab, the ‘Beep!’ resounded again.

Michelangelo had planned to go skateboarding today –for the first time since he came back from dimension X– and since he was still not allowed to go out alone Leonardo had meant to go with him.

Mikey had been so happy when he’d asked Leo to accompany him the day before, he'd been babbling about a map nearly finished and having more free time. But then Leonardo had found him sobbing under the shower at five in the morning, the water ice cold and Mikey refusing to get out.

It was his second episode that week.

Raph got out of the kitchen, a glass of juice in hand, "I don't understand how-” Beep! “How Donatello can have so much trouble beating Mikey at this game. He's the smart guy of the family."

Mikey grumbled, "’ot cool ‘aph." Before briefly shifting his face away from Leo's belly to protest more clearly, "I'm just as smart as Donnie. Dee, tell him I'm just as smart as you."

Donatello didn't look up from his notebook, "Being smart is a matter of experience, Mikey. I've been developing my aptitude to pick up and learn complicated subjects since I was a toddler. So yes, in the conventional meaning of the word, I'm smarter than you."

Mikey groaned but didn't say anything more about it. Beep!

Leo nudged Donnie with his foot, Donatello looked up at him with a clueless expression before seemingly realizing what he had just said, "Ha, but it also means that, had any of you spent as much time on books and experiments as I have, then he'd be just as good as me at it. It’s a matter of what kind of skills you develop."

Mikey rolled his eyes, "I may not understand half of what you do, but what I do know is that you aren't going to beat me just yet. You spent ten minutes studying our current game position without realizing that there's only one move you can make to avoid a checkmate in a couple of turns."

"Wh- How? Where?"

Beep!

"Look at your king in the first timeline, what's defending it?"

Donatello looked at one of the pages. "You- Alright, I move one of my pawns from the third to the first timeline and eat your knight, putting your king in check."

That's when Michelangelo's phone started ringing. Mikey groaned and rolled out of Leonardo's lap, falling from the couch in an undignified heap before grabbing his phone on the table with a yawn. "Yes, Michelangelo speaking."

Freed, Leo moved to a more comfortable position, crossing his legs on the couch.

Mikey was frowning, "Now? Can't it wait? It isn't safe for me at this hour."

That got everyone's attention, "Alright, alright, no need to be rude." Mikey, clearly not happy with how concerned they looked, sent them a look and made the OK sign with his free hand, "No, I already know where you are. I'll be here in three quarters of an hour." And he hung up, sighing deeply.

Beep!

"Is there a problem?"

Mikey shook his head, heading for the kitchen, "I need to go topside," he stopped at the door and turned toward Raphael with his biggest puppy eyes, "Raph? Would you please come with me?"

And then he disappeared in the kitchen, his siblings behind him. "You can't go topside, it's the middle of the day.", "And Raphael is still grounded."

Mikey removed the lid of the coffee pot and drank it all in one go. "Nah, we'll be careful, it sounded important. Plus I’ve got Sensei's permission to take Raph with me."

"Really?" The hopeful tone in Raphael's voice was obvious and Mikey chuckled. "Yes 'really', but we need to leave quickly, go get ready."

Raphael sprinted out of the Kitchen before anyone could protest.

"What’s happening? Who called you?"

Mikey assembled a few elements in the kitchen and put them all in a big bag he had in a corner, "It's a guy I met in paradox space, he moved into our world nearly a year before I came back. I'm just going to check up on him and his roommates, no trouble, no fighting, it's going to be fine."

He didn't wait for more questions before going out of the kitchen. Raphael was already waiting at the door. Beep!

"I'll be reachable on my T-Phone, we should be back before tonight."

Then they both got out. Leonardo signed.

Beside him, Donatello asked, "Did he say that he met this guy in Dimension-X?"

Leonardo nodded, Mikey had said paradox space, that was where he’d spent the first two years in Dimension-X.

Donatello was frowning, probably trying to remember if Mikey had mentioned something like that before. He hadn’t, not in front of Leo at least, he’d have remembered.

In the lab, the ‘Beep!’ resounded again, "You really should check that, it could be important."

Donnie shook his head but turned back toward his lab. "It's the security system, it means that someone went through one of the main entrances of the sewers."

Leonardo tensed, "Really! But Mikey and Raph just got out? And what if they're after the lair?"

Donatello waved his hand dismissively, "The sewers are big, Mikey and Raph will be fine. And for the lair… the alarm would be far louder if they were anywhere near our home."

He passed the door of his lab and sat at his desk, Leonardo behind him. "It happens often, most of the time it's maintenance operators."

Don clicked a couple of times and opened the recording of the camera that had sent the alert.

That’s… "That is not a maintenance operator."

Knock! Knock! The sound resonated in the abandoned subway station. "Leatherhead? Are you here?”

No sound came from the subway car.

Donatello was shuffling uncomfortably behind him, holding his first aid kit with one hand and gripping Leo's elbow with the other, “What if he’s not here?”

Leonardo frowned, “We saw him enter the sewers, he should be here by now.”

As if on cue, a low rumble came from the subway car. Then a few klangs and the door opened.

Leatherhead looked bedraggled and run-down. There were less bandages than Leonardo had feared after seeing the video, but they looked yellowish and uneven, old. His face showed no surprise at seeing them, “Leonardo, Donatello. I wasn’t expecting you so soon, I just got back.”

“Yeah, one of our security cameras filmed you entering the sewers. We came to check up on you.” Leatherhead hadn’t warned any of them that he was coming back, not even Michelangelo. If he had, Mikey would have made sure to be the first to greet him.

“That is very nice of you,” He opened the door wider and stepped out of the way, “Please, come in.”

Inside, everything was dusty except for the bed, the table and the ground. Leatherhead must have done some cleaning.

“I haven’t restocked yet, so I don’t have much to offer, but the electricity’s on, so I can make you some tea or coffee.”

Donatello flopped on a chair, frowning deeply, “Tea, please.” He’d been trying to lower his coffee consumption lately, but he clearly hated it.

Leatherhead nodded and sent Leo a questioning look.

“Ah… I’ll have that too, please.”

As Leatherhead turned toward his kitchenette to make the tea, Leonardo crossed his arms, still standing awkwardly in front of the door. He didn’t want to sit, they had come for a reason. “How was your mission?”

“My trip went as well as it could have. The Kraangs didn’t dispatch a huge unit, taking care of them was easy. The hardest part was to find the lab.”

Leo didn’t say anything, he didn’t know what lab Leatherhead was speaking about. What he did know was that Leatherhead had promised Mikey that he’d stay out of trouble. And yet, the "easy part” had left him covered in bandages.

Donatello gestured toward his first aid kit, “I was hoping you’d let me get a look at your wounds and redo the bandages.”

Leatherhead turned to Donatello with a surprised look on his face, “I wouldn’t want to deprive you of your supplies. What if–”

But Donatello interrupted him by waving his hand, “Don’t worry about that, Mikey will skin me alive if I don’t make sure that you’re fine.”

Leatherhead blinked at them, an uneasy look on his face, before quickly turning to his kitchenette to take care of his now boiling water. He poured it in two mugs before adding the tea bags, “Speaking of which, how is he?”

“He’s…” Leonardo hesitated, Fine wasn’t the right word, Mikey was definitely not fine. But he didn’t know how mu– “He’s as well as he can be. We’ve been trying to leave him some space.”

Leo threw Donatello a dark look for answering in his place, but Donnie was already nose deep in the first aid kit, gathering the material he was gonna use.

Leonardo accepted his drink with a quiet thanks, blowing on the liquid and moving the tea bag around in his mug.

“Come on, sit on the bed, these bandages look ready to fall off.”

Leatherhead complied with a grimace, “I did as best as I could.”

Right, bandaging a wound could be a real struggle depending on the area. Leonardo usually had one of his brothers to help him bandage his wounds, but Leatherhead had been alone, and his build had probably not helped.

Donatello started unwinding the bandages, “I thought you weren’t supposed to run into any Kraangs, what happened?”

Leatherhead grumbled, “I found the ruins of the lab in the middle of the swamps. There was no one there anymore so I went through their old files and data to see what happened to the other first mutants. I believe I set off an alarm while doing so. The Kraangs arrived a few hours later.”

Ah, Mikey had said Leatherhead was searching for his roots, Leo hadn’t thought that was what he’d meant.

Leatherhead flinched with a hiss.

“Sorry.” Donatello absently apologized while cleaning a cut with cotton and alcohol. “It’s not as bad as I feared, you treated them well.”

A low rumble escaped from Leatherhead, but he didn’t say anything.

“And did you find them? The mutants I mean, do you know what happened to them?”

“Most of them died, either during the experimentations, or during the destruction of the lab. A few survived, but except for Tigerclaw, I don’t know what became of them.”

Donatello posed, “Tigerclaw comes from the same lab as you?”

“The same batch of mutagen, even. I was surprised too, most experiments were led in Dimension-X at the time.”

That was… Something. Leo wasn’t sure how to really feel about it. He drank some of his tea and put that last information in a little box to worry about later. He grimaced at the taste, it was Licorice tea, far from his favorite.

Leatherhead now had an arm raised to give Don better access to a wound. Leo frowned, “How do you know all of that? I thought you and Mikey came back from Dimension-X right after freeing you.”

“We did, but since Michelangelo’s blue friend was doing most of the fighting, we had time to look through one of their computers.”

…

“Mikey’s what?”

“His blue friend.” Leatherhead frowned, “I mean… I don’t actually know if they’re friends, they didn’t talk much and I didn’t get his name, I’m just assuming.”

“Wait, wait, wait. There was someone with Mikey?”

Leatherhead met their dumbfounded looks with his own. “He didn’t tell you?”

This! This is exactly why they should have spoken with Leatherhead before he left, “No, what are you talking about? Who was that guy?”

Leatherhead looked incredibly uncomfortable and crossed his arms protectively. “I don’t know, when Mikey arrived to get me out of my cell, he was accompanied by this blue giant. He did most of the fighting when we were at the base and he accompanied us to the portal afterward. He remained in Dimension-X.”

Donatello pulled on Leatherhead’s arms, “Don’t curl up like that, I haven’t rebandaged everything yet. You’re going to irritate your wounds.”

Leatherhead complied sheepishly and Donatello went back to work, his movements sharp and efficient.

“I, uh… Should I not have mentioned the blue giant?”

Leo held back a sigh. He knew that questioning him the moment he came back wasn’t ideal. But he thought he could have handled this conversation better. “No, sorry, it’s us- me. Mikey hasn’t spoken much about Dimension-X. We’re just surprised.”

Leonardo finished his tea. Each time he thought he was going to understand what happened to Mikey in Dimension-X, he ended up with more questions and no answers. It was frustrating.

Donatello secured the last bandages then drank his tea so fast he probably didn't taste it. They discussed a bit more about the activities of the foot clan and the purple dragons, and then they were on their way back.

“Shouldn’t we tell Mikey that Leatherhead is back?”

“We can, but I’m pretty sure he already knows.”

Chapter Text

If he had hairs, they would all have gone gray by the time they reached the house, Raphael was sure of it. There was a reason they only went topside during the night and stayed far away from busy streets. Humans always panicked when they saw them, they would scream, sometimes even cry and pass out, and they generally ended up calling the cops.

But Mikey’s “friends” from Dimension-X lived in the suburbs. They had gone as far as they could by clinging to subway cars. It wasn’t so stressful at the beginning, but the train had to eventually go above ground which was very scary. And if it wasn’t enough, after the train they still had to walk for several kilometers hidden under bedsheets before actually reaching the house.

They’d gotten weird looks, but looking like weirdos was far better than looking like sewer monsters, creating a panic and having the cops called on them.

Mikey had looked as stressed as him on the way. He’d tried to hide it with jokes and humor, but his voice was tight, his movements were sharp and his grip on Raph’s arm was borderline painful.

When they finally got there, they quickly climbed the gate and hid behind the hedge to pull off their bedsheets. That’s when Raph realized how pale Mikey was. He grabbed his arm and asked, “Hey, you alright?”

Mikey turned sharply toward him, “Change of plans.” He started rummaging in his bag, “When we get in, I want you to go straight upstairs.”

He fixed Raph with a deep frown, “Like, straight away,” he gestured helplessly, “I don’t want you to linger downstairs.”

He handed a couple of large bags to his brother, “I need you to get all the dirty laundry you’ll find, including the bedsheets.”

Raph frowned, he didn’t like being ordered around, and even less like that, sharply, without explanations, and by Michelangelo, no less.

He was about to object but then Mikey raised a finger, “You will find a girl upstairs, in the third room on the left. Her name is Jade, I need you to send her down to me. I don’t care if she doesn’t want to move or to get dressed, send her down butt naked and by the scruff of her neck if you must.

Raph blinked at his brother, surprised, “Shouldn’t you be the one doing that?” Michelangelo threw a look at the house and grimaced, “I’ll have my hands full.” He was still handing the bags to Raphael, looking at him expectantly.

“Alright,” he said, taking the bags from Mikey’s shaking hands.

Michelangelo faced the house, dusted himself off like he was wearing clothes and signed deeply before walking to the door and ringing.

At first, nobody answered the door, Mikey started banging angrily, “Dave! Open the goddamn door!”

Still nothing, Mikey sighed again and opened the door. Immediately, Raphael’s nose was assaulted by the rancid smell of… What was that? A mix of stale Thai food, sweat and… mildew?

Raphael wrinkled his nose, his feet frozen at the door, he had never seen anything like that. The floor was littered with piles of random junk carelessly pushed against the walls and out of the way: magazines, broken skateboards, forks, cups and plates, weirdly shaped computers covered in dust, sweaters, old books, piles of old take-out containers, weird robot parts, a couple of sledgehammers… Raphael could go on, it looked endless.

Mikey was already inside, standing beside the stairs, blocking the way to the living room and staring at him expectantly. Raphael huffed and went up the stairs.

However, right before reaching the upper floor, he got a glimpse of the open living room and of the slumped form of a guy face down on the kitchen island.

Upstairs, the hallway was just as clustered; clothes, piles of games, swords, music speakers, broken computers, plushies, more clothes… Raphael signed and got to work, they were going to spend the whole day cleaning.

He started by picking up what was in the hallway, mostly socks, sweaters and pajamas. Barely hesitating when he found a sock that was being used as a bookmark in some weird glittery book with a magician on the cover.

Then he knocked at the third door on the left… Silence, there was no light coming from under the door. The room could have been empty for all he knew. But Mikey said that there was a girl—Jade—here, and he was rarely wrong with this kind of thing.

This made him uneasy. With a huff, he went to pick up the clothes in the other rooms.

There were three other bedrooms upstairs, the first one was full of the same kind of mess as in the hallway, but with more puppets and broken swords. The second was full of books haphazardly thrown on the ground, empty bottles, unfinished knitting projects and an impressive amount of wizard statuettes. The third one looked unused. It was chilly and apparently served as storage for various piles of magazines, CDs and DVDs neatly piled in a corner. The window was wide open. He picked up the clothes he found and went back to the third room on the left.

He knocked again, louder this time. “I’m coming in,” he warned before opening the door. The room was dark, the blinds pulled all the way down and barely any light filtering in. Jade was in the bed, buried under a mountain of blankets, plushies and pillows, not moving, even after a stranger entered her room. “Hey, uh… hello,” He tried again, switching on the light to get a better look at the room.

That got him a groan, “Urgh, what?” The blankets rustled, just enough to let a pair of eyes squint at him.

Raphael waved awkwardly, praying silently for the girl to not jump or scream, “I’m here for the dirty laundry.”

How did he let his brother talk him into this?

The air smelled like a mix of sweat and dirt, it was nearly as bad as Mikey’s room on a bad day. Raphael switched off the light and crossed to the window—avoiding the mess of books, dead plants, clothes and bullets littering the floor—to pull up the blinds and open the window to let the air in.

That’s when he saw. Dozens of fruit flies, disturbed by the sudden wind, flying all around the room.

Raphael didn’t flinch, but he couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose. What the hell? He was starting to understand what Mikey meant when he said that they needed help.

A croaky voice emerged from the mass of blankets, “Noo! Close the blinds!”

Raphael would like to do that, he would like to close the blinds and get out of that house. He didn’t know this girl and he had no business intruding on her personal space like that. It was awkward and invading.

“I’m sorry, I’m just ventilating the room for a bit.” He said as he picked a few clothes off the ground. The hard part would be the bedsheets. “You need to go downstairs.”

The blankets rustled again and a mass of black and white hair emerged from under a pillow, a pair of milky white eyes blinking at him between the strands of hair, she looked blind, “Michelangelo? The fuck are you doing here, you’re supposed to be dead.”

Raph frowned at her, holding back an instinctive growl at the idea. She had almost sounded accusatory, “I’m his brother.”

That didn’t seem to phase her, she rolled back under the blankets with a groan, “My condolences. Can you please close the blinds.”

“No!”

Her nonchalance was starting to seriously irk him. They had called Mikey. He was tired, he’d had a bad night and still, he had walked in the open streets for kilometers in the middle of the day because they had asked him to. She knew Mikey was alive. ‘My condolences’. What kind of sick joke was that supposed to be? “Get up! Mikey's not dead, he’s downstairs, you’re supposed to join him and the other.”

“I’m not leaving the bed, I don’t want to. Plus, downstairs sucks, I bet Rose is in the pool again.”

Raph didn’t know who ‘Rose’ was, and he didn’t care. The girl looked like she hadn’t gotten out of bed for weeks, she was pale like a corpse, she smelt like an animal and she looked sick.

“Get up!”

“No!”

Leo was nice, he would have discussed with her for hours, trying to coax her out of bed, Don would have argued about it, making arguments until she understood that it was for the best. Raph didn’t have the patience for either of those. He grabbed the end of the mass of blankets and yanked.

Still tangled in the blankets, she landed on the ground with a startled yelp and a growl.

Raph put his hand on his hip, watching her flail uselessly to crawl out of the blankets, clawing at the floor and leaving deep scratches in the wood.

Raphael frowned as she sat, kicking the blanket away, she was topless, a big, white, fluffy tail flicking in annoyance behind her, she was wearing panties, but that was it.

He looked away and focused on removing the duvet covers from the blankets, “Will you go down now?”

She groaned, “You’re nearly as bad as Michael.” She heaved herself off the ground, knocking the bedside lamp and a bunch of empty wrappers off the nightstand without a care. She yawned and paddled out of the room. Without getting dressed beforehand.

Raph put his face in his hands, “What the fuck!”

He quickly got the rest of the laundry and got out of the room, following Jade down the stairs.

“Wow! What the fuck are you wearing? Where’s your coat?”

Michelangelo was in the kitchen, a huge towel over his shoulders. He answered with a tight voice, “I just fished Rose out of the pool.” He was sorting through the empty bottles and containers on the island, his movements sharp and frantic. “And I didn’t want the coat anymore, got rid of it.”

Two blond teenagers were sitting at the kitchen island next to Mikey, probably Rose and Dave. Rose was soaked to the bone and shivering miserably while gripping a big towel. Beside her, Dave was still face down on the island, glaring at Rose with the same empty white eyes as Jade.

Jade scowled “I was speaking about the bandana, I didn’t take you for an orange kind of guy.” She slumped onto the sofa. “How are you even here?”

Mikey scoffed, “I took the train, like a normal person.” When he saw Raphael, he waved at him with a strained smile before adding a few plates to a pile of dirty dishes.

Raphael carefully didn’t comment on how Mikey’s way to take the train like a normal person was to cling to the roof like a mollusk.

“Yeah, but like… Weren’t you supposed to be dead?”

Mikey halted his hectic cleaning to frown at Jade, “Why would you even think that?”

Jade waved flippantly, “I don’t know, Scratch died, his manor got destroyed… You haven’t been answering your emails.”

Mikey looked away with a grimace, “Yeah, I don’t check my emails anymore,” he pointed at the boy still face down on the island, “but Dave knew, he called me.”

Dave made the effort of straightening up, propping his face on his hand, “Actually, I didn’t know either, it’s Rose who told me.”

Rose hummed, squinting at the twirling alcohol at the bottom of a Get 27 bottle she was lazily rotating. Mikey promptly took the bottle out of her hand, closing it and stowing it away in a cupboard with others.

Raph cleared his throat, catching the attention of his brother, and raised his bags full of laundry, “I’m done, I think I got most of it.”

Mikey squinted at the ceiling, “You did.” Then he pointed at a door beside the stairs, “Could you start a washing cycle? The laundry room is over there.”

Raph grimaced. He wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic to come if he knew he’d spend his whole day cleaning.

Starting the washing cycle was quick, he only had to try twice and hit the machine once before it started running. When he got out, Mikey was done clearing the island and was now glaring at the ceiling, “John-”

Raph nearly jumped, not expecting the volume.

“Could you please get those flies out? It’s unsanitary.”

Nobody answered him, only the wind and a slamming window resounding.

“Thank you!”

Raph crossed his arms, “Who’s John?” He hadn’t seen anybody else upstairs.

Mikey blinked at him, “It’s one of Dave’s roommates, you saw his room upstairs, the one with the open window.”

He heaved a couple of piles from beside the wall, putting them on the table. He turned to Rose, “I can probably sort through this with Dave, which means that you and Jade got the time to take a shower.”

She glared at Mikey with her big white eyes, still shivering like crazy. From the sofa, Jade didn’t say anything.

Mikey tilted his head to the side, “Do you need help with the shower?”

That got her moving, she paddled softly through the living room, leaving puddles of water in her wake as she took Jade by the hand before walking out of the living room.

Dave sighed, “Thanks for coming.”

Mikey scoffed, “Of course I came. Get up, you don’t get to mop around either. We’re going to get rid of all of the broken stuff you never took the time to throw away.”

And that’s how they spent the next hour. Raph helped pick up the trash, then he folded the laundry and started a new machine cycle. Mikey did the dishes before helping Dave with sorting through his stuff. Sometimes asking his opinion about what to do with something. A worrying amount of what Mikey wanted to throw away was covered in blood.

“Why do you still have that?” Mikey was holding some weird green disk.

Dave frowned from where he’d been sorting a pile of magazines, “Why not? It’s not like I could throw it out for anybody to find.”

Mikey crossed his arms, looking even more displeased than when they arrived. “It emits green sun radiation, that’s traceable.”

“It’s fine. Rose has been cloaking us. Even you couldn’t see us until you were on the property.”

“You should have gotten rid of it before getting to my multiverse.” He pushed a few piles to the side, pulling a green box out from under a broken skateboard. “How many other things like that do you guys have?”

“I don’t know, a few? I don’t keep track.”

Mikey stared at him, starting to look like he had eaten something sour.

Dave crossed his arms too. “I don’t see what your problem is, it’s not like anybody’s looking for us. Paradox-space is destroyed, everyone is dead.”

Mikey put the box down, “It’s common sense. You don’t keep proof of unregistered multidimensional travel in the middle of your house.” He eyed the broken skateboard, “Do you want to keep the wheels?”

Dave shook his head.

Raphael had kept mostly silent until then, but it had been an hour and he was starting to get worried, he pointed at the bathroom, “Why are they taking so long?”

Dave sucked in a breath and turned wide-eyed toward Mikey.

Michelangelo sighed and put down the broken skateboard, “I’ll go check.” He picked up a few clothes that Raph had just folded and left them alone together.

It was awkward, neither said anything, but Dave was staring at him with his big white eyes. Raph closed his secondary eyelids and growled, “What are you looking at?”

Dave turned away, he’d finished sorting the magazines and was now untangling a bunch of wires. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect Michelangelo to show up accompanied. I didn’t even know he had siblings.”

“Why did you call him? Your friend didn’t sound happy to see him here.”

“Who? Jade? It’s because of his association with Scratch. He was a freak. But I didn’t have anyone else to call.”

Raph didn’t know much about Mikey’s time in Dimension-X but he knew that Mikey hated that Scratch guy, “He was kept in his manor against his will, how is that an association with him?”

Dave leaned back against the wall, looking sorry, “Scratch kept your brother because he wanted an heir.”

Raphael blanched, “What does that mean?”

Dave merely shrugged.

“What does that mean?” he growled, getting up. Mikey hadn’t talked about what that guy had done to him. In fact, he’d been carefully avoiding the subject. Raph should have pushed Mikey to talk about it, sensei’s orders be damned.

Dave looked up and blinked at him, “What?”

“What did he do to my brother?!” He snapped.

Bam! “It’s not like that!” A big steam cloud was escaping through the bathroom door behind Mikey. He looked disapprovingly at Dave, “I leave you five minutes with my brother and you find a way to upset him.”

“Hey! I was just telling him about the omniscient. It’s not my fault he freaked out about nothing.” He defended himself.

“I left for five minutes Dave.”

Dave held up his hands apologetically, “Sorry.”

“I’m not upset.” Raph felt the need to add lamely. Then, “the omniscient?”

“Scratch.”

Jade and Rose got out behind Mikey, hairs wrapped in towels, wearing clean clothes, “There’s hot water still.”

Mikey held out a clean set of clothes to Dave, “Try not to drown, one person is enough for today.”

Dave waved his hand dismissively and disappeared in the bathroom.

“So,” he continued, turning toward Rose and Jade, “We have gathered your stuff, I’d like us to go through it to choose what you’re keeping.”

“Can’t we keep everything?”

Mikey tilted his head to the side, “I’m not gonna force you, but I’m sure you can get rid of some stuff. This, for example,” he picked a pack of sorrow gushers out of a pile. “It’s poisonous and expired.”

Rose grumbled but agreed, the poisonous candies went to the bin. Without the trash and the broken or bloody objects, there were far less things to go through. While Mikey helped choose what to keep and what to get rid of, Raphael helped clear the unused office to make space for storage. When he got out, Dave was back and all three teenagers were staring at Michelangelo making a phone call, “Yes, I’ll have the form filled out right away.” Mikey noticed Raph and waved, “Twice a week would be ideal. What day? Uhh…”

“Tuesday.” Rose muttered, “And not Thursday.”

Jade was busy combing Dave’s wet hair, so nobody else said anything.

“Tuesday would be great, and uhh, Friday?” Nobody said anything. “Yes, do Tuesday and Friday work for you?”

Raph moved behind his brother to stare at the computer screen open in front of him. It was the website of a cleaning agency. “Yes, of course, I’ll send the bank details with the form… Yes… thank you, goodbye.” And he hung up. He navigated on the website and opened a form, checking a few cases before turning the computer around to show the teenagers, “What do you say?”

“And we can cancel after two weeks?”

Mikey frowned, “I’m not forcing you to accept in the first place, but I’d prefer if you at least gave it a try.”

“Why do we even need this in the first place?”

Mikey crossed his arms, “You haven’t been taking care of yourself, this would take a part of the workload off your hands.”

Jade grabbed the computer to sign the form, “You can just say that you don’t wanna come back.”

“I don’t wanna have to come back,” he corrected. “It’d be great if you guys took care of yourself.”

“What for? It’s not like we’ll get better.”

Mikey raised an eyebrow, “Dave was crying when he called me-”, “Hey!”, “-and I found Rose at the bottom of the pool.”

That effectively ended the argument. Jade and Dave looked away, Rose clenched her fists, her eyes red and puffy and Mikey… Mikey was shaking again, “I- I’m sorry.”

His eyes darted all around the room, like he wanted to run away. It made Raphael’s guts churn, “Alright, okay!” He grabbed Mikey’s hand and dragged him behind him, “We’ll get started with the hallway upstairs.”

He ignored Mikey’s protests until they reached the top of the stairs, away from the teenagers. “Why did you do that?”

Raph crossed his arms, “First of all, because you were getting upset.”

“I wasn’t-” “And secondly, because you owe me an explanation.”

Mikey opened and closed his mouth a few times, “You said you could wait until we left the place before asking questions.”

Yeah, and Michelangelo had said that they probably weren’t that well, not… whatever was going on there.

Mikey looked down, vigorously rubbing his arms as if he was cold. Raph recognized this from Don, he was probably running on a lot of adrenaline by now. “Hey,” he grabbed Mikey in a tight hug, “How are you feeling?”

“It’s fine.”

Raphael frowned, it was absolutely not fine, “Mikey…”, “No really, I am. We do whatever we can to help, so not that much. And then we go home. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“You’re shaking.”, “I’m just tired.”

Raph broke the hug to scrutinize his brother a few moments longer before really letting go, “So, what’s…” He gestured at the stairs, “What was that?”

Mikey sucked in a breath, looking unsure, “I- They’re dead.”

“What?”

“That's why their eyes are white. When people die, their soul is normally processed by their multiverse, but they died in paradox-space. There was nowhere for their souls to go.”

“What? They died in Dimension-X?” Michelangelo hummed affirmatively.

He really should have told him about this before getting there. Raphael knew he was good at ‘rolling with it’, but there was a limit. “Aren’t ghosts supposed to be- I don’t know… Incorporeal or something?”

"No, 'ghost' is for all dead people, not just the incorporeal ones; dead people can be a lot of things."

“Right.” Because this was such a normal thing for his brother to know about.

Mikey dropped his head against Raphael’s shoulder, “I should have warned you we’d be playing housekeepers before dragging you here, huh?”

Raphael huffed and put a hand on the back of Mikey’s neck like Leo always did when he wanted to be supportive, “Yeah, probably.” He’d have come anyway, someone had to.

“I’m sorry you had to see this, I asked dad to let me come alone, but he said no, and I really didn’t want to fight with him.”

Raphael squeezed lightly before dropping his hand, “I’m glad to be here.” For once, he was thankful for Mikey's conflict avoidance.

Mikey dusted himself off and took a deep breath. He offered him a tight smile and they went back to work. The hallway wasn’t that big, so dealing with the trash was quick. Afterward, Raph got down to get the others while Mikey ‘Spoke to John’, whatever that meant.

Raphael managed to get everyone to go upstairs with some of the stuff they had already decided to keep. Mikey helped Dave and Jade with tidying their rooms while Raphael helped Rose.

He dealt with the empty bottles and containers while she decided what she wanted to keep. They picked up her books and uncrumpled them before putting them away on her bookshelves. She got rid of more than half of her wizard statues and with Mikey’s insistence, all of her green radiating items and “magic stuff” went in a big box for storage.

They spent the whole day putting things away and organizing what would be kept. They convinced someone to make a few round trips to take out the trash and managed to clear most of the floor by the end of the day. There was a lot of cleaning left to do, but Mikey had apparently discussed that already with the cleaning agency.

It was the end of the day when they decided to head home, the sun was down but there was still some daylight left outside, which was probably for the best. Two guys walking around under bedsheets in the middle of the day was already weird enough, but at night it was really suspicious.

They had just passed the door when Dave stopped them, “Michelangelo, hey!” He handed him a cardboard box. “Here, you forgot that in paradox-space.”

Surprised, Mikey started rummaging inside, “Did you seriously keep all of that? You shouldn’t have bothered.”

Dave shrugged, “It was there.” He glanced inside, then back at Raph and Mikey, “Thanks again for coming, I know we aren’t exactly friends, but you came anyway and that means a lot.”

Michelangelo shook his head, “There wasn’t much I could do, it was just surface stuff.” He waved his hand, an apologetic look on his face, “Jade is right, you’re not going to get better… physically I mean. You need to find a new balance, and that, I can’t do it for you.”

Dave grimaced, clearly not happy at the prospect, “We’ll try.” He turned to Raphael, “It was nice to meet you, I’m sorry it had to be in these circumstances. We probably could have been good friends, had you not been Michael’s brother.”

Raph frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Dave closed the door before he could ask.

The box under an arm, Mikey was on his phone, probably telling the others that they were about to head home. Raph tried to peek in the box, “What is it?”

“Useless junk,” Mikey showed him inside. There were a couple of empty jars, firecrackers, a cue ball and a glowing green deck of cards, a folded newspaper, three rolls of duct tape, a phone card and a small toolbox.

"They’re your things, why would you want to get rid of them?”

Mikey picked up one of the newspapers, getting a good look at the cover. “I’ve got no use for it anymore.” He grimaced, “And the deck of cards is green sun powered, we’ll have to burn it on our way back.”

Raph looked back down to the box, “Really? Even the duct tape and the firecrackers?”

Mikey shook his head, “I don’t want to keep anything from this place.” He took a long look at Raphael, “Ah, but you can take some stuff if you want. The phone card probably works here too.”

Raph picked up the card, “Why do you even have that? Did Dimension-X really have phone booths?” Who even still uses phone booths nowadays?

Mikey hummed, “Depends where in Dimension-X. It’s for multidimensional communication, I got it to try to call home but it turns out you can only call other registered users with it. It’s kind of lame.”

They could have known how he was, if he was fine, if he was alive. That would have been so cool. Raphael squinted at the phone card, maybe Donatello could find out how it worked, replicate it. “I’ll keep it anyway, if you don’t mind.”

Mikey shrugged, “I said you could.” Then he grabbed his bedsheet to go out in the street.

Chapter Text

Klang! Crash!

Splinter barreled into Donatello's laboratory, "What is happening here!?"

To his horror, the only answer he received was loud sobbing. Donatello was on the ground beside a toppled rolling table, sat among a mess of broken glass and smoking machines.

"Donatello!" He rushed to his son, grasping his arms firmly and pulling him up and away from the mess. "Are you hurt?"

Donatello didn't answer, his breath still caught into uncontrollable sobs, wiping his eyes furiously and smearing his tears all over his face in an attempt to make them go away.

He sat Donatello in his office chair and kneeled to examine his legs. As expected, he’d gotten cut by the glass and was now bleeding.

Splinter frowned, even if it was painful, Donatello would not be crying like this for such a wound. Had he been pulling all-nighters again? “Hey," he said in a low voice, "what’s the matter?”

Donatello sniffed before answering, his voice tight and shaky, “It’s just- Nothing’s working. Mikey’s episodes. I can’t even find out what is happening to him and- he’s getting worse and I- I don't have the slightest idea of what to do about it.”

Splinter felt his ears drop low against his head, he hated seeing any of his sons like that. “Is that why a part of your lab is destroyed?”

Donatello lowered his eyes. Yes then.

Splinter sighed, “Come on, let’s get that taken care of.”

Donatello nodded and showed him his legs. There were little pieces of glass embedded in both of his shins. Splinter retrieved the disinfectant and a pair of tweezers as well as some gauze, “It’s going to hurt.” he warned, and then he started to try to pull the glass out with the disinfected tweezers.

“Woah! What happened here?”

Donatello had been loud enough to be heard in a good part of the lair. And while both Leonardo and Michelangelo had left a while ago to visit Leatherhead, Raphael would naturally have heard the commotion.

Splinter didn’t answer the question, waiting for Donatello to do so himself.

His youngest son lowered his head and kept silent. He wasn’t sobbing anymore, thankfully, but he was still furiously wiping at his face. “It seems like your brother decided to take out his frustration on his equipment.” Splinter finally supplied.

“His frustration?” The surprise was clear in Raphael’s voice and Splinter guessed that, if he turned to look, it would show on his face too.

“They’re getting worse.” Donatello repeated, perhaps for Raphael.

“What?”

“Mikey’s episodes, they’re longer, more frequent. And I don’t even know what triggers them, how to treat him. I don’t even know where the problem comes from.”

“Did you manage to get him to tell you more about it?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t seem to-Ow!” he yelped as Splinter removed a piece of glass that had gotten especially deep. “-to know much.”

“Is that why you…” Raphael posed. “Was that your molecular centrifuge?”

Donatello nodded again. “My readings are making no sense, it’s… I have absolutely no experience with things from outside of our multiverse, I have no knowledge, nothing to compare what I find to. I’m completely blind! I-” “Chill bro!” Interrupted Raphael. “You’ll figure it out, just like you figured out the Kraang portal. That’s not from our multiverse either, remember.”

Unexpectedly, Donatello glared at his brother. “Chill? Chill?! And what if I figure it out too late? Again!”

“You weren’t too lat-” “We’re losing him, Raph!” “Donatello!”

That stopped them both. “I’m trying to get glass out of your legs. Stop moving.”

Donatello nodded.

Behind, he heard Raphael scoff, then a big rattling sound. When he turned his head, the rolling table was back on its legs and Raphael was standing in the middle of the broken glass- “Raphael!”

Startled, he turned to him with big eyes like he had no idea of what the problem was.

“You are going to hurt yourself, do not stand there.”

Raphael frowned, “I was being careful sensei.” but still, he stepped away from the glass.

“You can fetch the broom if you want to make yourself useful.”

Raphael nodded and left.

"Your brother would be very upset if he knew the state you get yourself into for his health."

"He doesn't get to be upset, worrying about his health is my job,” Donatello answered, crossing his arms with a scowl. “Plus, I’m not the one spending his nights shaking under the shower. He has no leg to stand on."

Splinter frowned, while he was grateful to his son for handling a huge part of the medical problems and injuries that showed up, it wasn't his responsibility alone. "You're wrong," he corrected, his voice firm like when he delivered important lessons, "worrying about your health is my job. And while your help is invaluable, it is no excuse to carelessly hurt yourself."

Donatello bit his lip, "It was an accident, sensei."

"I know,” Splinter conceded, wiping a bit of blood with a tissue before going back to getting the glass out. "But I also know that you broke some of your precious equipment for naught."

Donatello hummed, looking away with a grimace.

Behind, the door of the lab opened again as Raphael returned with a broom and a dustpan. “How do his legs look, sensei?”

“I’m nearly done,” he answered absently. The last bit of glass was particularly hard to get a grip on.

WAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Splinter jerked the tweezers away from his son’s wounds. Donatello was already twisting in his chair to reach for his computer.

“What the fuck is that?”, “Raphael, language!” They had to shout to be heard over the sound.

“It’s an alarm.” Donatello supplied unhelpfully, cutting off the blaring siren.

“No, really?” Raphael jibed, “but what is it for?”

“Nothing good,” Donatello replied, “let me check.” He was now typing quickly on his computer, much to the annoyance of Splinter.

“Can’t it wait? I am not done with the glass.”

Donatello didn’t look up from his computer, still typing. “Just a moment…”

Splinter sighed, knowing better than to expect it to last less than a few minutes. He went back to trying to get that last piece of glass.

“Ow!” “It’s done,” he quickly reassured. Now he just had to disinfect and bandage the wounds. Luckily, none of the pieces of glass had gotten really deep. His son would just need to make sure to keep it clean. It should heal quickly.

Behind, Raphael threw the glass he had collected in the trash and came to crouch beside his father, getting a good look at his brother’s wounds himself.

Splinter poured disinfectant over the injuries, “Ouch!” Donatello jerked his legs away, bringing them against his chest, still typing.

“Sensei can’t bandage your legs if you keep them here Don.” Raphael admonished, leaning over his brother’s shoulder to peer at the computer, “What are you even doing?”

Donatello lowered his legs sheepishly, “Look,” he said, showing his brother a report on his screen. “The Brookhaven Lab got robbed last night. They have the only components that could replace what we broke at the port without needing to import everything again. So, if it’s the foot clan, and I think it is, then they’ll be able to make their weird could-be-portal much sooner than I thought.”

“Oh, that’s not good. How soon do you think they’ll have it done?”

“I have no idea.” He grumbled, “they could already be done for all I know.” He opened a few other pages, “However, the technology they robbed needs a huge amount of energy. Without BNL’s specific infrastructure, the city’s electrical grid won’t be able to provide the power they need until Friday morning.”

Splinter soaked a couple of gauze pads in disinfectant and started to bandage Donatello. What he had found was indeed really bad news. They had planned to attack the foot clan the next week. But if they struck earlier… Miss O’Neil wouldn’t be fully recovered, there were parts of the plan they hadn’t finished ironing out and some of it wouldn’t work anymore. “We will have to attack on Thursday night then.”

“Thursday night?” “But sensei-” “No buts. Without Miss O’Neil we will have to change the plan. Moreover, Donatello’s legs will need a few days of healing before being safe for the mission.”

At this, both of his sons groaned, “Leo won’t be happy.”

Chapter Text

Raphael yawned, shuffling to the kitchen. It was past midnight and he’d spent the last three hours turning in his bed without finding sleep. He was gonna test if warm milk really did help with falling asleep. He switched on the light and– “Oh my god!” He exclaimed, “What the fuck, Mikey?!”

Michelangelo looked up from the cupboard he was rummaging in, “What?” His eyes were neon green again.

“Switch on the light! Geez, we talked about that, you’re going to harm your eyes. How do you even see what you’re doing?”

Mikey shrugged, “Forgot.”

Raphael sighed, “Did you have another episode?”

“Not this time, no. I’ve been working on sorting out the kitchen, didn’t get the time to really do it since I came back. Now’s as good a time as any.”

Raphael frowned, “As good a time as– It’s the middle of the night! Everyone’s sleeping.”

“Not true.” He gestured in the direction of the dojo, “Sensei and Leo are still working on the plan.” He squinted, his voice turning cold, “Sensei’s being all creepy again.”

Raphael frowned, Mikey made it sound like it was a normal occurrence, “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, creepy.” He turned back to the cupboard, getting a pile of old, dusty boxes and an empty mousetrap out of it. Raph didn’t even know they had mousetraps.

He mulled over his options. On one hand, he’d really like to get Mikey to go back to bed, he didn’t get many peaceful nights as it was, he shouldn’t ruin it with a kitchen reorganization that was absolutely not urgent. But on the other hand, he was really curious, “I’m gonna check it out.”

Mikey hummed, “Don’t interrupt them, I wanna hear what they say. It probably won’t last much longer.”

Raph rolled his eyes, exiting the kitchen, glass of milk forgotten.

He followed the corridor leading to the dojo and stopped at the shōji door. Indeed, there was light coming through the paper. “But what if the foot n—”, “—oncentrated in that part of the building? The alarm won’t—”

He could hear parts of the conversation, but not everything. They were not speaking very loudly. In any case, none of it sounded creepy.

Raphael crouched and inclined his head to the side, ear against the door. He knew it was rude, but Mikey was right, he shouldn’t interrupt them, refining the plan was important. Moreover, they were just speaking strategy, none of that was private.

“Alternatively, I could go with Raph first to check the eastern side of the building, then we could message Mikey and Don so they can take the safest route… I still don’t know sensei. All of these plans have some important drawbacks… and the time-sensitive parts are a major risk…”

Leo posed, probably expecting an answer or an opinion. Splinter didn’t say anything, which meant that he was probably doing his silent eyebrow thing.

“Or, I could go with Donatello, Raphael would be with Mikey and they can handle the passage to the main hall… That would solve the problem with the eastern building, but it would also…” Leo’s voice dissolved into mumbles.

Raphael squinted through the narrow space left between the door and the wall. Leonardo was scowling at the map like it was responsible for the problems in his plans.

“Is there a problem Leonardo?”

“No, no… I just… I can’t tell which option is the best. The foot clan is going to be expecting us and if we fail… Well, you said that it could be the end of our world if Shredder got his hands on this weapon. What if something unexpected happens? The plan has to be perfect.”

Raphael scoffed. Splinter seemed to be of the same opinion because he replied, “There is no such thing as a perfect plan, Leonardo. Something unexpected is more than likely to happen. That is why you are here as the leader, so you can adapt the plan if the need arises.”

“But if I don’t see any good path? What if I can’t do it? Last time I led an operation like that, we crashed a giant spaceship into New York. We were lucky the Technodrome crashed in the ocean, it could have killed thousands of people.”

Raphael swallowed around the lump in his throat. Last time Leo led an operation like that, they had almost lost him.

“A leader can be faced with the hardest choices, sometimes every option will cost you. It is your responsibility to always know what you can and cannot afford to sacrifice.”

Leonardo nodded. Raphael thought it was bullshit.

Finally, he asked, “Are you sure that you don’t want Mikey to lead this one?”

What?

“You said that it’s something that he mastered while in Dimension-X, with all the risky situations he faced and the split-second decisions he had to make to surv– to hold out. He’s been in there for three years, he’s got much more field experience than I do.”

Leonardo couldn’t seriously be thinking about stepping down, he loved being the leader, he had fought with Raphael over it. And even if Raph loathed to admit it, he was good at it.

“Being able to take care of oneself is quite different from being able to decide for others in a team. Moreover, Michelangelo knows what he’s willing to sacrifice, that is quite different. When the world is at stake, willingness has no place in the balance. You must know what you can afford to sacrifice to carry on the mission to its end.”

Why was Master Splinter giving this lesson to Leo? He had already proven exactly what he was willing to “sacrifice” for the world when he stayed behind in the Technodrome.
Leo looked grave and solemn, eyes downcast, but he nodded nonetheless.

“Don’t doubt yourself so much, you’re a good leader; you know how to think about everyone, you are responsible and committed, driven and determined. Your siblings trust you and you have proven yourself worthy of it.”

A shiver ran down Raphael’s spine, making him spin around. Michelangelo came to a stop beside him, tilting his head to the side, green eyes boring into him, “So?”

“So? So what?” Raphael whispered back, “Don’t be so loud, they’ll hear you!”

Michelangelo made a face but started whispering anyway, “What do you think?”

What did he think? Raphael dug his fingernails into his palms, he hated everything about this! Why did they have to be the ones making sacrifices? Why did Leo have to be the one making sacrifices? With his track record, he was going to get himself killed one of these days!

Raphael threw a dark look at his brother, “You knew?”

Mikey grimaced, “I disagree with sensei on a lot of things regarding the team and how it works.”

Raphael stared at his brother in disbelief, “You want to be the new leader?”

Mikey looked at him weirdly, “Of course not.” And he opened the shōji door.

Raphael squeaked and flailed, blushing when both Leonardo and sensei turned to stare at them.

He waved awkwardly, "Hey!"

Sensei sighed and Leo glared at him, which was unfair because Mikey was there too, why was no one glaring at him?

And then Mikey had the guts to ask, “Are we interrupting?” Raphael couldn’t believe it, he knew he was interrupting!

Their father shook his head in disapproval, or maybe in resignation, "No, we were done anyway, Leonardo, you should get some sleep."

"Haï sensei!" He replied before bowing and joining his brothers out of the dojo.

“Shouldn’t you two be sleeping?” He asked, frowning at them while closing the door behind himself. “Did Mikey get another episode?”

Mikey scowled, “Raph asked me the same thing. No, I didn’t. Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind?”

Leo raised an eyebrow, refusing to dignify the question with an answer, simply staring pointedly at Mikey instead. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping then?”

“Nah, I gotta talk with Splinter.” Ouch, Mikey was pissed. He reopened the shōji door and disappeared in the dojo, closing behind himself.

Raphael and Leonardo stared at each other, Leo looked just as surprised as Raph was.

Leo gestured to the door, “What got into him?”

Raphael had an inkling of what it was, but he held his tongue and shrugged instead, “Dunno.” Then he asked, “Are you going to bed?”

Leo yawned, “Yeah, it’s late. I didn’t expect the planning to last so long.” He patted Raphael’s shoulder before leaving.

Raphael was curious to know what Mikey was going to say to their sensei, but he had to speak to Leo. He followed him to the living room, “You don’t usually spend days on plans.”

“I know, but it’s our first really big mission since the Technodrome fiasco, I don’t want to mess it up again.”

Raphael refrained from rolling his eyes, they had saved New York, and instead of feeling proud, his older brother was feeling guilty over something that could have happened. “So, have you finished the plan?”

“Nearly, I’ve narrowed down our options to two possible courses of action. I do–”, “Let me team up with you.”

Leonardo stopped in his tracks, “What?”

“There’s a plan in which we stay together, right? Choose this one.”

Leo scowled, “So you were listening in.”

“Yeah.” He didn’t really feel guilty, not after what he heard. Leonardo wasn't getting out of his sight on the next mission, not if he had anything to say about it, “So? The plan, can I be paired with you?”

Leo looked at him suspiciously, but he finally agreed, “Fine, I didn’t know how I was gonna choose anyway.”

Chapter Text

Donatello held his breath and tucked himself further into the narrow space between the two chimneys, silently tracking the movement of two foot soldiers standing guard over the rooftop. There wasn’t much space, he could feel Mikey’s breath against the nape of his neck. It made him want to squirm in discomfort.

He waited for one of the two men to only be a few feet away from them. Not yet… Not yet… Donatello leapt and dealt the foot soldier a strong blow to the jaw before immediately restraining him. The second guard had obviously noticed them, but Michelangelo had his chains around him before he even got the chance to reach for his walkie-talkie.

Donatello didn’t lose any time before starting to unscrew the cover of the elevator vent while Mikey tied up and gagged the two men. It was the start of their shift, with a bit of luck, their arrival wouldn’t be noticed until the next rotation.

Crack!

Donnie looked up in surprise.
The remains of a broken walkie-talkie lay sadly on the ground. Donatello sputtered, “Why?”

Mikey raised an eyebrow at him, “What? Did you want to leave it there so they could try to signal us?”

Don shook his head, “We could have taken it with us, listened in on their communication.”

Mikey held up the remaining walkie-talkie, “We still have this one. But I don’t know if taking a walkie-talkie with us would be very stealthy.”

Case in point, the walkie-talkie screeched to life. “Team eight here, the technicians say the power failure was normal. Electricity should be back on in zone B. Over.” And then, “Team two. Yes, the light is back on. Over.”

Donatello sighed, “Ok, shut that off. I don’t know why you always feel the need to break stuff while on mission.”

He finished removing the last screw and yanked off the vent cover. As expected, a dizzying drop awaited below. Had they been lucky, there would have been a ladder in there. As it was, Donatello gripped the edge of the wall and reached down in the elevator shaft to attach their rope to one of the safety hooks meant for maintenance.

Everything ready, he checked in one last time on Mikey before slipping in, his brother close behind. Mikey pulled the vent cover back on as best as he could and they were plunged into the dark.

Below, Donatello started counting the floors, noticeable by the faint lines of bright light slipping in through each elevator door. One, two, three, four… The elevator was five floors below them. They started to carefully slide down the rope and stopped at the correct floor, Michelangelo only slightly bumping into Donnie’s shoulder with his foot.

They forced open the door and held their breath, ready to jump at any foot soldier that may have seen them…

Nobody.

They both snuck into the corridor, the elevator door closing behind them. Inside, everything was lit up by bright, slightly buzzing neons. The cheap kind, like they sometimes found broken in the junkyard. They progressed as quickly as they could through the corridors while trying to stay out of view of the cameras, foot soldiers and other working personnel.

Finally, and after only fighting two other foot soldiers who they hid in a restroom, they reached the door of the security control room and Donatello started to work on the electronic lock.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap- “Could you stop?”

Mikey flinched and threw him a look from where he was keeping watch over the neighboring corridors. “What?” he whispered back.

“Tapping, with your foot. I’m trying to concentrate.”

Mikey stopped with a light groan, rubbing his arms vigorously.

Finally, the light on the electronic lock went green. Donatello kept the door barely open and asked, “Ready?”

Mikey hesitated a second before nodding. Don opened the door and they immediately lunged to immobilize the two security agents inside.

Donatello checked the time: three thirty. It would soon be time to unlock one of the doors to the basement for Raph and Leo. Don was already analyzing the computer and control panel to locate the unlock command. “What does the walkie-talkie say? Have they noticed us yet?”

“No, but someone noticed the silence on the line from the two first guys we neutralized. They’re on their way to check up on them. Maybe you could block the elevator we just took? I don’t think anybody else noticed anything yet.”

Donatello looked up from the screen, Mikey had just finished tying up the security agents and was now trying to push them into a corner, far away from any equipment.

“You want me to… block the elevator?”

Mikey straightened and turned to face him, dusting himself off. He was slightly shaking. “Yeah, can you do that?” He slumped in the chair. “Unless it’s a bad idea, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a bad idea.”

Could he do that? Most elevators had no reason to be connected to any kind of outside control room, but maybe this one was. Donatello checked the computer… No, no elevator. But maybe he could… He started typing quickly on the keyboard and… Bingo! That should keep them away from the roof for some time.

Donatello finally found the control system for the different doors, now he just had to wait for the signal. Observing the cameras, he noted the important number of technicians coming and going through some parts of the building, each of them under the protection and surveillance of some foot soldiers. Splinter and Leo had been right, with so many of their members occupied, now was probably the easiest moment to sneak in.

Still, “I know sensei wanted us to prioritize our safety, but I still think it’s a bad idea to intervene while they prepare the portal activation.” What if they didn’t manage to complete the mission quickly enough? And why were Raph and Leo taking so long? “What do you think? Mikey?”

Beside him, his brother had curled up on the chair, hugging his knees tightly. “Michelangelo.”

Mikey jolted, turning wide eyes toward his brother. “Sorry, what?”

“You’ve been really silent, are you alright?”

“I don’t-” Mikey slowly uncoiled, biting his lip. Like that, the tremors in his hands were obvious. “I don’t feel so good.”

He didn’t look so good, he was really pale. “You don’t feel good, how?”

Mikey crossed his arms, clutching tightly, keeping them from shaking. “I, uhh… I think I’m having an episode.”

Donatello felt all his blood leave his face, “Now?”

Mikey screwed his eyes shut with a hiss, “I’m sorry.”

Donatello turned back toward the computer, “Alright, okay.” Not okay, not okay, not okay, not okay, not okay at all! He needed to get his brother out of here right now!

On his T-phone, a message appeared, the signal. Leo and Raph weren’t where he’d been expecting them. Donatello opened the correct door, then shut off the computer. Good, now he could get Mikey out of here, screw the second part of their mission.

Don tugged his brother to his feet, “Come on, let’s go.”

But Mikey dug his heels into the ground, “We can’t leave now.”

Donatello stared, astounded, “What? Of course we can, we don’t have a choice!”

“No.” He closed his eyes again, breathing deeply, loudly, “No, no, no, no, no. We’re supposed to shut off the electricity in the lower levels. Raph and Leo can’t do their part of the plan without us. Plus, I won’t make it out before the worst of it anyway.”

Shit. Donatello got his T-phone out, ready to call Leo-

“No!” Mikey tried to wrestle the phone from him.

“Hey, what are you doing? Stop that!” Donatello held the phone out of reach.

“You can’t call them now, they’re going to get caught!” Mikey wouldn’t manage to take it, his movements were too disjointed and his grip was weak.

That’s when the alarm started ringing. Mikey immediately crumbled to the floor with a cry, hands on his ears, fat tears rolling down his cheeks.

Chapter Text

Raphael was keeping watch while Leo finished tying up the two last foot soldiers they’d beaten. He had his arms crossed, still angry at his brother. He couldn’t believe Leo had convinced him to go through the controlled-access section.

They were supposed to get in through the parking lot while hiding under a car. However, they hadn’t planned on the search they were doing at the entrance, there hadn’t been any the previous days. Raphael would have preferred they tried it anyway, but Leonardo decided it was too dangerous and would get them caught too quickly. Plus, there was a plan B for this kind of situation.

The controlled-access section was restricted to the head researchers and a few trusted foot soldiers. With everyone working on the last-minute preparations before opening the portal, the place was nearly empty.

The problem had been the biometric authentication at the entrance. The only way to get in was to threaten one of the head researchers. Raphael hated threatening civilians, it made his stomach twist and left a bad taste in his mouth. He knew Leo didn't like it either.

The researcher was absolutely terrified, she kept shaking while completing the various tests and she started crying when they tied her up afterward to lock her in a closet.

They should have tried the parking entrance.

"Done, they aren’t going anywhere,” announced Leo, joining Raphael where he’d been keeping watch.

Raph grumbled in agreement and they went back to progressing through the building while avoiding the cameras.

Considering the map of the floor he had memorized, they shouldn’t be far from the elevator. They should-

Raphael jerked away with a "Hiss!" Just in time to avoid the blade aimed at his throat. A sharp pain cut through his arm as he ducked another blow to parry with a knee to the foot soldier’s abdomen. The man went down with an “Oof!” and Leonardo crushed his hand with his heel. A soft crack followed and the foot soldier dropped his weapon with a whimper of pain.

“Holy shit!” Raphael whispered. He hadn’t sensed the man until the very last second. That would have been a very shitty way to die. Leonardo was holding the foot soldier down, but he was looking at Raphael with wide, scared eyes, “Are you alright?”

Raph nodded, snapping out of his shock to help his brother with the man. They removed his weapons, tied him up and left him in an empty office.

They kept progressing through the brightly lit corridors. There were fewer foot soldiers there, but the ones they encountered were better trained and more experienced.

It was slow and stressful.

They made their way to the elevator and Raphael sent a quick message to Donatello.

The door opened immediately. Raphael exhaled in relief, their brothers had made it to the control room unscattered. He and Leo could leave these horrid corridors behind.

They entered the elevator and he waved to Don and Mikey through the camera to thank them. They had thought about taking the stairs, but it would mean leaving the controlled-access section, and the stairs were probably quite crowded with everyone coming and going to the basement to work on the portal.

There was no escape hatch, but with enough force and a good blade Raphael managed to remove one of the panels to access the elevator shaft. Leo pushed the button to the lowest floor before joining him at the top of the elevator car, replacing the metal cover behind themselves.

The car started to move down and they counted the levels. One… ground floor… parking lot…

The elevator stopped.
That was bad.

Raphael held his breath. Three sets of footsteps entered the car. He couldn’t see who it was through the metal cover, but they must have been important to have access to this elevator.

“I’ve sent word that we’re looking for them,” that was Baxter Stockman. “But with all the agitation I wouldn’t be surprised if they were held up by a technical problem. There’s a lot of things to do, and that’s without mentioning the calibrations we still have to perform, the parameters we might–”
“I don't care what your engineers do!” Interrupted another voice. “Just make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Raph looked at Leonardo and saw his own horror mirrored in his brother’s eyes. Shredder was just below them.

Baxter mumbled something and everything went silent, except for the sound of the elevator going down. They kept counting the floors: minus one… minus two…

There was a shuffling sound. Doctor Stockman asked, “What is it?”

A gruff voice answered, “Blood.” The third set of footsteps had been Tiger Claw's. He growled, “Turtle blood.”

Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit! They were done for! Raphael silently reached for his sais, ready for a fight. Beside him, Leo did the same. They waited…

The elevator stopped, but nobody moved. When Shredder spoke, his voice was cold with barely concealed fury, “Tiger Claw. Find me these turtles. We’ll speak about your men's incompetence later. And Stockman-” there was a yelp, “I want that portal opened right now.”

“But sir, the city’s electricity–” “I don’t care! You can fry the entire grid system if you want, as long as it opens that wretched portal. Make. it. work!”

And they all left the elevator.

Raphael sighed, shaky with the adrenaline excess. When he looked up, Leo was scrutinizing him, “Your arm.”

His arm? What– He was bleeding. That must have been from when he got ambushed earlier.

Fuck. It was his fault they got noticed.

Leonardo was already wrapping the wound in some gauze, apologizing softly when Raphael flinched in pain.

They shouldn’t be wasting time on this, the foot clan was about to open the portal, “Leo.”

“I’m nearly done.”

“The portal,” he insisted.

Leonardo nodded, finished with wrapping Raph’s arm. “I know. But we can still complete the mission in time.”

Raphael grimaced, stealing the Kraang energy source was going to be way more complicated now.

They reached the correct floor. Luckily, the elevator being restricted to high-ranking personnel, the corridor outside was completely empty. However, they could already hear the ruckus from all the technicians and scientists going and coming farther in the basement.

That’s when the alarms started blaring, drowning out everything else. Neither of them noticed the message Donatello sent them.

Chapter Text

“Turn left.”

Donatello turned and started running through the new corridor, panting hard with the added weight of his brother on his back. He passed a few cameras without sparing them a glance, he had sabotaged the control room before leaving.

He could feel Mikey’s hot face against his cheek, his breathing rough and labored, he kinda sounded like he was going to puke.

Donnie would worry about being heard if it weren’t for the awful alarms blaring through the entire building. He didn’t know what got them caught, whether it was one of the tied-up foot soldiers that had been found or if Leo and Raph had gotten into trouble. He desperately hoped it was the former, he still hadn’t received any reply to the message he’d sent them.

With Mikey in this state, there was no way they’d manage to reach the distribution board to cut the electricity needed for the portal. Raph and Leo would need to find a way to steal the Kraang power cell before it was placed in the machine, but with the foot clan on high alert, he honestly couldn’t see how they could make it.

He felt a big shudder shake Michelangelo, followed by a long, barely concealed whine and a new wave of burning tears dribbling uncomfortably between their cheeks and down his neck.

“Stop.” Donatello stopped. “Closet… on the right. Hide.”

Donatello groaned before doing as told. He closed the door just in time before the sound of people running joined the sound of the alarm. The room was dark, it was some kind of small storage room. Sinking to the floor, he carefully set Mikey against the wall. Normally, Donatello wouldn’t shy away from a fight against a group of foot soldiers. But right now, he really couldn’t take the risk.

Beside him, Mikey left out a whimper, “I feel like my head is going to explode.” And he slid down to the floor to curl up into a ball.

It’s around this moment that the alarm stopped. In the comparative silence, Mikey’s miserable cries sounded twice as loud.

Sticking his ear against the door, Don tried to ignore his brother’s choked sobs to focus on the sound of the enemies outside. The group was now at the end of the corridor and getting further away. However, there was also a loud “Slam!” resounding over and over, and it was getting closer. A few soldiers were checking the rooms. Donatello would have to fight, but first…

First, he dragged his brother’s dead weight further back into the closet. Nobody would get to him, not while Don still breathed.

A hand weakly gripped his ankle, "Deeeeee!" Mikey whined.

Donatello took a defensive position, they were only a few rooms away, "What?"

Mikey's voice went dry and flat, "Careful."

Don held back a scoff, it shouldn't even be a question, "Of course, I've got you, Mike. They won’t touch you."

"No- You!"

What?

"Be careful, Dee."

Ah. Donatello nodded. Michelangelo probably didn’t see it, but there was no more time. The door opened and the foot soldier behind it fell dead, neck broken by a strong blow from Donatello’s staff.

Immediately, Don went after the remaining foot soldiers, making sure to remain between them and his brother while doing so. Fighting them was easy; fighting them while keeping them all in sight to prevent any from slipping through was much harder.

Once done, Don rushed back to Michelangelo. “We need to move, they weren’t alone.”

Mikey struggled to his feet with the help of his brother, but when Don tried to get him back on his back, he started to flail and squirm, “No, no, no, no, no. Stop! You… You’ll never make it out like that.”

Donatello held back a sigh, letting go of Michelangelo, “We don’t exactly have a choice!”

Mikey clung to one of the shelves, trying to keep himself standing. The shelf rattled with his tremor, and Donatello briefly wondered whether it was just a side effect of the episode or if he was also shaking from the effort of staying upright. He didn't know, and at this point, it mattered little.

“No…” Mikey gritted his teeth, giving him what was probably the strongest and bravest look he could muster in his state. “I think you’ll have to leave me here.”

Donatello blinked at his brother, dumbfounded. Mikey had never turned delirious during his episodes before. At least until now… The thing was, his siblings could be so dumb sometimes, Don wasn’t even sure it was delirium. “You better be joking, Mikey.”

Losing all color, Mikey lost his fight against gravity and crumbled to the floor like a puppet without strings. For a second, Don thought he had passed out, but the labored breath and half-closed eyes that kept tracking him proved otherwise. He was even paler than when he’d gotten back from dimension-X. “Oww…” he groaned, “I could, uhh… Hide in a corner or something? I’ve– I’ve done that before.”

This was not as reassuring as Mikey apparently thought it was!

“Raph and Leo– They won’t manage to steal the power cell– You need to complete our part of the mission.”

Mikey was serious, Donatello had never felt so offended in his life.

“Remember– Remember the vending machine on the first floor? On the plan?”

What the fuck was he talking about now?

“The cables– to take the electricity from the city. They go through a wall not far from that… Less exposed than the electric control panel… Cut off the electricity there.”

Donnie kinda wanted to slap him… or at least try to shake him back to reason. But neither option would be a good idea right now.

Cursing, he heaved his brother back onto his back, he would not lower himself to arguing against something so– so absolutely ridiculous!

“Donnie, wha–” “If you squirm or flail again, you’ll get us both killed.”

He didn’t know if it was how furious he’d sounded when he’d said that or the perspective of getting them both killed, but at least it got Mikey to shut up.

The worst thing was that he was right, at least on one thing. They absolutely needed to complete their mission.

Chapter Text

The blade was cold against Leo's throat, the cutting edge sharp against the tender scales that held back the warm blood flowing through his neck from spilling all over the floor.

“Show yourself, drop your weapons, and give the power cell back to mister Stockfly, or say goodbye to your brother.”

Leonardo grit his teeth, looking for an opening. “You have until I reach zero.” Rahzar had a strong grip on his shell and arms, keeping him down and immobilized. “Three…” The ninja holding a sword to his throat was none other than Karai, and she didn’t look like she could be reasoned with. “Two…” His own sword lay on the ground, far out of reach.

“One—”, “I’m here.”

To Leo’s dismay, Raphael walked out of the shadows, dropping his sais and holding the power cell in evidence.

Stockman immediately tried to snatch the crystal, but Raph refused to let go, leaving the fly to pull uselessly without managing to get it. “You get that blade away from my brother’s neck first.”

Shredder nodded at Karai and the weapon pressing against Leo’s neck vanished.

Raphael released his grasp over the power cell, sending Stockman crashing backward. He shook himself, buzzing angrily, before flying to the machine to put the power cell back in its place.

Shredder hummed, “And the others?”

Leo and Raph threw each other a panicked look. “They ain’t here. We left them at home.”

“Do you—” Voooooom! The machines roared to life, multiple parts beginning to turn rapidly, purple liquid lighting up the strange machinery with a sinister glow.

“Do you take me for an idiot?” Shredder repeated, louder. “Where are the other two?”

“Sir! We still don’t have enough electricity to open the portal, it’s too early!”

Shredder turned sharply and grabbed by the throat the engineer who dared speak up. Shaking him like a rag doll, he insisted, “I said to make. It. Work!”

That jolted the scientists into a panicked scramble, they all started to run around, barking orders to each other and doing something to the machines.

“Now, back to you tw—Umph!” Raphael had grabbed a rolling table covered in weird science-y equipment and thrown it to his face. In the confusion, he snatched his sais off the ground and lunged at Rahzar’s face with a roar.

Rahzar flinched back and Leonardo wrenched out of his grip to reach for his swords. He barely had time to get them and parry a few attacks from Karai when a scream pierced the air, loud enough to drown out the racket of the machines, chilling Leo to the core. Raphael had been kicked across the room and crashed into the nearest wall, he now lay in a pile of disgruntled scientists who had the bad luck of standing in the way.

Rahzar was on the ground, nursing a bad cut just below the eye, and beside him stood Tiger Claw, who hadn’t been in the room a few seconds ago. “Sir,” he said, “my men have noticed suspicious activity in the upper floors. We think it’s the remaining turtles.”

His arrival was followed by dozens upon dozens of foot soldiers filling the room and piling up in the corners, awkwardly trying to stay out of the scientists’ way. The basement was big, but it was seriously starting to feel crowded. This was bad, Leo needed to reach Raphael and get them both to a safer position. Except, he couldn’t. He parried two new hits from Karai. She was relentless, Leo didn’t even have the breath to try and reason with her.

Shredder must have been answering to Tiger Claw regarding Don and Mikey, but his voice got drowned out by the cracking sound of an awful hole ripping through the middle of the room, the portal.

It felt like the start of an electric storm. The air tasted like iron, sharp and metallic under Leo's tongue, and a faint buzz pulsed through his fingertips.

There was something wrong, the scientists looked panicked, gesturing wildly in their inability to hear each other over the noise. One of them tried to tell Shredder something, making big, frantic gestures toward the portal. Finally, the portal stopped growing and the noise from the portal lessened to be covered by a bunch of scientists screaming at Shredder.

“The portal!”, “It’s unstable!”, “It’s going to break down!”, “You need to cross!”, “NOW!”

Shredder made a few gestures and both Karai and Tiger Claw jumped through the portal, followed by a group of foot soldiers. He turned to Rahzar and the dozens of foot soldiers awaiting orders, “Kill them.” And he jumped through the jittering portal, just in time before it collapsed.

The foot soldiers jumped at Leonardo and Raphael, just as the electricity went out.

“Leo!”

Raphael's alarmed exclamation brought Leo to a stop.

They'd evaded their pursuers barely a few minutes ago. The rooftops were far too exposed for Leo's taste, they couldn't stop here. But Raphael sounded distressed. Remembering the scream he’d heard during the fight, Leo eyed him anxiously, looking for an injury. “What is it?”

Raph had been checking his T-phone. Instead of answering, he showed him the screen, “The others had a problem.”

It was a chat with Don, the last two messages read “Mikey’s having an episode” and “what do I do?” Both were nearly half an hour old.

Leonardo held his breath, counting to five. Then, he breathed out. They had cut the electricity off, maybe they were fine, maybe they’d found a way to manage. What if they were hurt? What if they were still inside? What if they'd been caught?

No use panicking. Biting his lip, Leo started going through their options. Going back inside when they didn't know if Mikey and Don had gotten out would be foolish. If they were at the lair, a quick call to the cheese phone would clear things up. But if they weren’t… “What do y–” Ring!

Raphael frowned, “You didn't put your phone on mute?”

“The others know to only call in case of emergency–” They should have called, instead of merely sending a couple of messages. Why hadn't they called?

Sure enough, and exactly half an hour too late, Leo’s ringing T-phone showed a picture of Donatello’s goofy face, “It's Don!” and he answered, “Donnie! Are you alright?”

Raphael drew in close, “Put him on speaker!”

“-ve been better. Have you seen my messages? How did your side of the mission go?”

Leo felt his throat close up at the reminder of the mission. Raphael answered in his place, “Yeah, we saw just now. Is anyone hurt? Where are you?”

A voice rose from the phone, too low to be intelligible through the speaker. Donnie mumbled something back, then he answered Raphael, “We’re both fine, we just got to the lair. Mikey's episode ended shortly before we made our way out. What about you?”

"Don–" Leo sounded like gravel. He swallowed his discomfort and forced his voice to work, "We failed. We got the Power Cell but... Shredder went through the portal to go seek the World-Destroying spear. I'm sorry.”

There was a long silence, then Donatello answered, “Alright. Just come home.”

Chapter Text

“Ah, there you are.”

The entrance of the lair opened to reveal Mikey, waiting for them. He looked like shit, with huge, bruise-like bags under his eyes, a mug in one hand and a coffee pot in the other. He scrutinized them both, his eyes stopping on the bruises blooming on Raphael’s shoulder where he’d landed earlier. “I need you to talk Don out of what he’s doing.”

Not expecting this, Raphael raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“He’s been holed up in his lab since you called. Come on!”

And he turned around without a second glance to make sure they were following him. He could be such an ass sometimes. Raphael huffed and followed.

“Dad! They’re home!”

Master Splinter emerged from the dojo, “I know, you already told me five minutes ago.”

Leonardo and Raphael bowed, “I’m sorry sensei. We–” but Leonardo was stopped by his master raising a hand.

“Your brother already told me what you shared on the phone.” Raphael grit his teeth, ashamed. And he was sure that Leonardo was feeling even worse. But instead of lecturing them on their failure, Splinter sighed and continued, “The most important thing is to have you all back alive. Go get yourselves checked out, I’ll join you shortly.” And he left toward the kitchen.

“Wow.” Raphael wasn’t really surprised, but their father generally never missed an opportunity to make them learn from their mistakes.

Mikey hadn’t waited for them, he was already in front of the lab, sitting on a stool beside the door, tapping his foot impatiently. Leo raised his eyebrows, “Aren’t you going in?”

Mikey shook his head, refilling his mug with the still half-full coffee pot, “Dee kicked me out.”

“What do you mean he kicked you out?” With how worried Dee was about Mikey’s episodes? Raph was surprised Donnie was even done examining him.

“He said that I’m an idiot and that he didn’t want to listen to me.” Mikey took a big swig of coffee, “Which means that you,” he sent them both a meaningful look, “have to be the ones to stop him.”

Leo didn’t linger any longer than that and entered the lab. Raph crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at his brother, “Should you really be drinking so much coffee?”

Mikey smiled and waved dismissively, “Don’t worry bro, I know how much I can take before it makes me sick. This is fine.” He finished his mug and refilled it. Raph wondered why he didn’t drink directly from the coffee pot like he would have before Dimension-X.

Mikey’s smile faltered, “What are you waiting for? You should really get your shoulder looked at.”

Raph bit his lip, he wasn't really worried; Don would never have left Mikey out of his sight if he wasn't fine. But he looked bad, like a warmed-over plate of worms and algae kind of bad. “Are you really alright?”

“Of course I am, I‘m just tired. Don didn't let any foot approach me, you know how he can get. You should have seen him, he went all Terminator.”

Raphael didn't actually know, first because in the rare case where Don really got angry, Raphael was generally just as angry, if not more, and second because he didn't know what a Terminator was. “Okay. I’m, uh… I’m gonna go see what's going on.”

Mikey smiled, “Don't play down how much your shoulder hurts, I really don't think Donnie’s in the mood for this kind of bullshit.”

Raphael rolled his eyes, “It doesn't hurt that much,” he grumbled before entering the lab. It only bothered him when he touched it, or when he moved it, or when he was standing in a certain way.

Donatello was already checking out Leo, making sure none of the cuts he’d gotten were more serious than they looked.

“Woah, what is all of that?”

Donatello didn't even look up from where he was examining Leo’s neck, “What?”

“All of this. This wasn't here when we left.”

The lab was even more in disarray than usual. There were multiple piles of plans and papers spread out on the table and the board. Some of it had even been haphazardly pinned to the walls over the usual science posters.

“Oh, this?” He said as if he was only now noticing the problem. “As I was explaining to Leo, since Shredder already left our universe to go searching for the world-destroying spear, our best bet at stopping him would be to go after him.”

What?

Raphael turned to Leo, hoping he’d be able to give him a more complete explanation. Leo looked back, looking just as lost as him.

Donatello groaned, “Come on guys, you saw the map of our multiverse just like I did. We already know where Shredder is going, we just have to go through Dimension-X.”

Ah. That's what Mikey wanted them to talk Donatello out of.

“This sounds like a great idea Dee,” Leo interjected, “but, uh… I don't think we have three months in front of us.”

Raphael gaped at Leo, he couldn't believe he’d dared to say something like that. He knew Donatello felt bad about how long it took him.

Fortunately, Don seemed too invested in his last brilliant idea to fall back into the rabbit hole.

“I know we don't have three months,” he replied with his most petulant and annoyed voice, crossing his arms. “But it will only take me a few hours this time. Look,“ he pointed to a charred mess of wires on his desk, “I already have a portal that I managed to fix once.” He pointed to a box of weird junk he kept at the back of the room, “I have electrofusion connectors and power reversers from that time I raided a Kraang base.” He pointed to the power cell resting on his desk, “I have the perfect power source. And most importantly.” He pointed at all the papers strewn around his desk, “I already have all the research and blueprints I need.”

Wait, those were the research he’d made to fix the first portal? “Don–” “I can have it ready by the end of the afternoon today, I can even make it portable, that way we can get in and out of the other universes and–” “Donnie!”

Donatello stopped and stared at him, “What?”

“You want us to go to Dimension-X? Today?”

“Through Dimension-X,” Donnie corrected. “We’d only be there until we reach the correct universe.” He reached out for Raph and dragged him to a chair, “How did you get that?” He mumbled, prodding at his bruised shoulder.

Raphael hissed in pain, “Got kicked into a wall." Don started to gently move his arm around to test his mobility. “But Donnie, Mikey said that traveling through Dimension-X was hella dangerous. Don’t you think we should take the time to think about it?”

“All the time we wait is time we leave Shredder to find the world-destroying spear before we can stop him. I’m not against following another plan, but last time I checked, we didn’t have one. Except maybe waiting here for Shredder to come back with the spear and hoping to beat him then.”

Yeah, that didn’t sound good. Finally, they both turned to Leo, who had been silent for some time now. “What do you think?”

Leonardo grimaced, “Are you sure that we can reach this other universe through Dimension-X?”

Donatello nodded, “Absolutely, and Mikey confirmed it before I kicked him out. Look,” he pointed to a piece of paper he’d pinned to a wall, the map they’d stolen from Tiger Claw, “Remember how Mikey said this was a map of our multiverse? It looks like some kind of tree.”

“Yeah,” a really fucked-up tree, maybe. “So what?”

“Well, Shredder’s portal transported him through the branches, he didn’t actually get out of our multiverse. Without the portal, our only way to travel the multiverse is by getting out of our dimension and getting back in somewhere else.”

Raphael flinched, barely managing to hold back a grunt of pain, Donatello had found an especially painful spot. “Sorry.” Don began rummaging through the clutter on his desk, “It looks like a simple contusion, you’ll be fine. Try to avoid moving your shoulder too much and you should be fine. You should ice it too. Here,” Donatello held out a bottle of ibuprofen, "for the pain.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” insisted Raphael, taking the bottle anyway. Don’s headaches were supposed to be better, but the bottle was suspiciously half-empty.

“Donatello.” Both Raph and Donny turned toward Leo, “Why is Mikey against your plan? He said you kicked him out because he was being an idiot.”

“He was being an idiot, regardless of the plan,” Donnie replied, crossing his arms defensively. “Do you know what he asked me when his episode started? He asked me to leave him behind. In the middle of a foot base. He was obviously making no sense, so I sent him to bed as soon as I was done checking him up and drawing some blood samples.”

Raph saw his wince reflected on Leo’s face, Mikey was probably not getting much sleep.

“You’re not answering my question. Why is Mikey against your plan?”

Donatello grimaced, “I don’t think he wants to go back to Dimension-X.”

“That’s not the problem,” interrupted Mikey, standing at the door, their father behind him. He was still holding his mug and the coffee pot while balancing a bag of frozen peas. The coffee pot had been refilled. “The problem is that we can’t rush into something like that, especially considering how little we know of what’s coming.”

Donatello groaned, “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“I’ll go to bed when you do,” retorted Mikey, taking a long gulp of his coffee and handing the bag of peas to Raph. Splinter went to sit on the bench not far from him, making that face he always did when he was going to let them struggle with a problem without helping.

“How little we know of what’s coming?” Redirected Leo. “The plan is to follow the map in order to intercept Shredder and stop him before he gets the spear. If Dimension-X isn’t the problem, then what is?”

“Well…” And Mikey put down the coffee pot to start listing on his fingers. “First of all, we don’t know what the universe indicated on the map looks like. Second, we don’t know how long it could take us to get there. Third, the map… The map is weird. Why would there be a map leading to a world-destroying instrument? It’s shady as hell, a world-destroyer never stays in the same spot for long.”

A what? “Mike–”

But Mikey had started counting again, from the start. “It could be a trap, it could be a fake map, it could be a simple, regular spear, it could be–”, “Mikey!” Michelangelo finally stopped to stare at them.

“What do you mean, ‘world-destroyer’? You never spoke about a world-destroyer before?”

Mikey opened and closed his mouth a few times. “... It's in the name. What else would have it?”

Taking advantage of the coffee pot left unattended, Donatello picked up a mug resting on a corner of his table and filled it with coffee.

Leo was now glaring at Michelangelo, “I don’t know Mikey, a simple, normal guy? What even is a world-destroyer? Is it like… like a title you earn when you destroy worlds? Shouldn’t we be worried about that?”

“What? No, no, no. We’re supposed to have a world-destroyer, every multiverse has one. It’s like– Uhh…” Mikey sipped his coffee, tapping nervously against the side of a shelf lined with vials of colorful liquids. “It’s like the white blood we have to fight sickness and stuff, but for our multiverse. We need it.”

“The immune system,” corrected Donatello.

“Yeah, that. So a world-destroyer is always busy. It goes around protecting our multiverse and destroying universes that become useless or dangerous, and all that stuff… It’s weird that it would stay in the same place long enough for a map to be made. And even if it’s really there. I have no idea how Shredder could take its spear, I mean, Shredder is just a guy, he’s no match for a world-destroyer.”

Raphael was starting to get impatient. This is the kind of thing Mikey should have warned them about when coming back from dimension-X, not something he can just tell them if it comes up. Michelangelo had been home for months now, the fact that he still hadn’t managed to take a day to tell them everything was absolutely infuriating. “Ok, so we don’t know shit, great! What do we do then? We can’t… not do anything.”

“We won’t," answered Leo. "We’ll go after Shredder, but not today. We’ll need to rest, get some supplies, and reorganize our fighting formations. When we get to that world, we’ll find a safe place to leave Mikey while we make sure Shredder has no way to get the world-destroying spear.”

A long silence followed.

“This has to be one of those jokes I’m not getting.” And wow, Mikey was livid, Raphael was kind of worried the mug would shatter from his grip.

“You have to understand, I know your episodes are unpredictable, but we can’t afford you having one in the middle of a fight against Shredder. You could have died tonight.”

“You can’t do that.” Oh shit, Mikey’s voice was shaking.

“I’m your leader, your security is my responsibility.”

“Bullshit.” Okay, he was angry. Raphael didn’t know if it was better or worse than if he'd started crying like he’d feared. “When I say you can’t do that, I mean that you can't do it without my compliance, and I am not going to comply with that.”

“Michelangelo.”

Raphael sighed in relief at their Sensei’s intervention. He thought for a moment that this was going to end badly. Of course it would be something like this that would force Mikey to actually stand his ground in a conflict. But with Sensei intervening, they’d listen to him.

“I’ll be the one deciding whether Mikey stays back or not. Does that work for both of you?”

“Hai Sensei!” and they both bowed.

Master Splinter had never stepped up to replace Leo in his decision-making regarding the team. He’d always respected the unvoiced hierarchy: Master Splinter, then Leo, and then them. If he had advice or orders regarding the team, he usually gave it to Leo and then Leo did it. For him to intervene like this…

“Since you aren’t leaving today, I suggest you all go get some sleep. And Michelangelo.” At his name, Mikey tensed. “You and I need to have a talk.”

And then Splinter left.

Mikey made a face, pouring the remaining coffee in his mug and downing it in a few gulps before following their sensei.

Chapter Text

Michelangelo inhaled deeply before entering the dojo. He did not want to have this conversation, least of all now. He was tired, the coffee he’d drunk had settled like a stone in his stomach and he felt both wired and jittery.

Master Splinter was in seiza beside the tree. He looked like he was meditating, but Mikey knew better. He sat in front of his sensei, not bothering with the proper sitting position but careful of keeping his shaking hands out of sight, and waited.

Master Splinter wasn’t saying anything, which meant that Michelangelo would have to set the tone for the conversation. Mikey wasn’t sure if he was glad for it or not.

He didn’t even know where to start, he didn’t understand how he’d ended up needing to defend his place in the team to his master.

If he waited long enough, maybe Sensei would start the discussion himself…

...

Who was he kidding? Splinter had always been more patient than him, Mikey didn’t even know why he tried, especially considering how hurried he was to go to bed.

“First of all, I’d like to point out that I understand Leo’s concerns, really, I do.” There, that was a good starting point. “But do you really think we can afford to give less than our best against Shredder? You know I'm a good ninja, and we’re better when we fight together.”

Finally, Splinter opened his eyes. Mikey held his gaze, hoping for anything that could betray what he truly thought, but as always, his master didn’t let anything show. “You won’t be very useful if you can’t fight and end up needing your brothers’ protection.”

“So it’s fine for me to go to Dimension-X with them, but fighting Shredder is too dangerous?”

“Would you rather stay here while your brothers go through Dimension-X?” Mikey winced, but Splinter continued, “I can assure you, we all hate that you have to go back to a place that caused you so much pain. This is not. fine. But you know we don’t have a choice, you’re the only one with any experience with Dimension-X.”

Mikey bit his lip, looking down in guilt; he hadn’t even thought about how his family would feel about this. “That’s… I just… I don’t want to be left behind.”

Splinter’s ears flattened against his head, but Michelangelo refused to look up to see the look on his master’s face.

Splinter sighed, “How did you deal with your episodes when you were in Dimension X?”

Mikey cocked his head to the side, “What do you mean?” There was nothing to do, he just had to wait it out.

“How were you able to defend yourself during your episodes?”

“Err… I ran away? Or I hid when that wasn’t an option.” It hadn’t really been a problem in Doc Scratch’s manor, and in the broken universe Mikey could just walk from one shard of reality to another. But it hadn’t always been effective, and Mikey had gotten quite good at weaseling out of situations.

“And you would run away in the middle of a fight against Shredder if you felt one of your episodes starting?”

“Of course.”

Splinter raised an eyebrow, “Leaving your siblings behind?”

“Yes.” Ideally, he’d find a way to end the fight and drag his siblings with him, but it may not be possible; he’d come up with something else if needed. “What, you don’t believe me?”

Splinter didn’t say anything.

“I wouldn’t let them endanger themselves by trying to protect me,” he insisted, “I’m not that dumb.”

“You’re not dumb, Michelangelo.”

Mikey groaned. Dumb or not was not the point, the point was that he needed to be here for his brothers during that fight. Especially with how dangerous Shredder was.

“Plus, it’s super unlikely to happen. I get an episode, what, two times a week? It lasts an hour at most, so two hours in seven days. The fight is unlikely to last that long, but considering an entire mission, let’s say three hours. The chances are still very slim. I don’t know how much —we could ask Donnie— but they’re like, almost nonexistent.”

“A bold claim, from someone who had an episode during a mission less than two hours ago.”

Mikey cringed, that was true, but still, “It was a freak accident, it doesn’t mean it'll happen again. If anything, I've already burned through my bad luck, now it’s even less likely to happen again, just like Don’s story with the three doors and the goat.”

Mikey wasn’t exactly sure that was how probabilities worked, he hadn’t actually understood the story with the three doors and the goat, but he was getting desperate, and it showed.

Splinter looked deep in through, combing his beard while scrutinizing him.

Michelangelo really hated how his sensei could remain silent like that. How was he supposed to argue his case if Splinter didn’t tell him what he was thinking? Finally, Mikey gave in, “So what, you actually agree with Leo?” because that was definitely how it looked, and Mikey was out of ideas to convince his master.

“Yes,” fuck. “And no.” Oh, come on!

Mikey inhaled, and he exhaled. Getting angry at his sensei now would be stupid. “What does that mean?”

“It means we’re not done speaking.”

Urgh!!!

Mikey dropped his head in his hands. How much longer could this last? What else could they need to talk about? Splinter was scrutinizing him with a disapproving frown. Mikey shifted to stare back as he waited for his master to say something; holding back a yawn, he wondered if he looked as bad as he felt. Probably not, his master would have delayed their discussion if he had.

“I don’t understand, I thought you were done with Recollecting.”

Mikey frowned, “I am. I’ve finished the map and everything, but Recollection doesn’t have anything to do with my episodes. Recollecting was a side effect of retrieving my memories from the other timelines.”

“I see, and your episodes are related to your allsight, right?”

His- “My what?”

Splinter sent him a deadpan look, “You don’t need your eyes to perceive your environment anymore. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?”

Mikey felt his insides turn uncomfortably. He wanted to flat-out deny it, brush it off as normal ninja stuff. But he couldn’t lie about something like this, especially not to his father.

“What,” Splinter inquired, “you don’t have anything to say?”

“I’ve never heard it called like that before.” Doc Scratch had passed down some of his omniscience to Mikey. Jatvas and Franklin called it ‘partial omniscience’, but Mikey called it a pain in the ass.

“It’s an old technique, achieved with great concentration and a lot of training,” added Splinter.

“Ah? Doesn’t really sound like me, does it? Aren’t you surprised?”

Splinter frowned, “Don’t sell yourself short, I know you are capable of great accomplishments when you put your mind to it.”

Yeah, that remained to be proved. Mikey hadn't gotten like that by concentrating really hard, and Splinter probably knew it. “Do you have it? The allsight, I mean.” That would explain all those times Leo and he had gotten caught stealing the cookie jar in their childhood.

“Sometimes, yes, when I’m in the correct mindset.”

In the correct mindset… That sounded nice, Mikey wished there was a way to turn it off. Maybe he’d manage with enough practice, one day. He wondered how far his master could see. All of the lair? To the old condemned shaft up north? Could he see the surface? Further? He wouldn’t want to answer those questions, so he kept quiet.

“You should tell them.”

Mikey looked away, “I’m pretty sure they already know.” He hadn’t exactly been subtle, and his brothers weren't stupid.

“Whatever you think they know, it probably isn't in the lines of ‘My brother gained a sixth sense by feeling the energy of the world around him.’”

“Probably not, no.” The energy of the world around him? Maybe that was how it worked, Mikey didn’t actually know. To be honest, he’d always thought his brothers’ energy would look like balls of blinding lights or something, like in movies and anime, not a weird mass of wet meat too complex for him to understand. “Will you make me tell them?” Please no, please no, please no.

“I won’t force you. But if you don't, you’ll probably regret it later.”

“I-” Mikey’s voice cracked. Telling them? So they could feel bad about their lost privacy? So they could ask questions Mikey wouldn’t answer? Mikey hated it, and he knew his siblings would hate it just as much. “I… I don’t think I will.”

Master Splinter sent him a stern look, but didn’t comment further.

“So? About the mission?”

Mikey’s sensei sighed, “About earlier, I don’t appreciate you challenging Leonardo like that. You know it’s important to keep the hierarchy clear.”

Seriously? Seriously? Mikey had to get shit about his episodes, his- his allsight or whatever Sensei had called it, and now that? Mikey wanted to go to bed, not deal with his father’s incapacity to differentiate between clan and family. “Sorry, was I supposed to just shut up and take it with a smile?”

“Your sarcasm is not appreciated, Michelangelo. You can bring your concerns to your brother without challenging his authority.”

Michelangelo scoffed, “Right, because he was so open to discussion! Are we going to pretend-” What was he doing? Fighting with Splinter is the last thing he wanted to do right now. “No, you’re right. I should have handled that differently. I’ll be more careful.”

Splinter was apparently not satisfied with Mikey’s easy submission, “Do you know why it’s important?”

This one was easy, “Because we must be able to follow Leo’s orders without hesitation in critical situations.”

Silence, Mikey closed his eyes. Pointedly not mentioning any of the actual issues he had with what had happened, they had clashed over how the clan worked before, and Mikey didn’t plan on resuming the argument. He couldn’t spend all his time arguing with his Sensei, especially when he knew Splinter was making efforts to take his remarks into account.

Finally, when it was clear Mikey wasn’t going to say anything, Splinter said, “I’ll tell Leo not to leave you behind. But I’m counting on you to be reasonable. Alright?”

Mikey opened his eyes again –his eyelids felt like they were glued together– and straightened up to answer assuredly, “Hai! Thank you Sensei.”

Splinter’s whiskers were low, and he looked pretty unhappy with their talk. He eyed Michelangelo, who was still sitting in front of him. “You can go.”

“We’ll be alright, you know, in Dimension-X. I’ll make sure of it.” Splinter probably wasn’t worried about only that, especially considering everything they'd just talked about. But Mikey still felt bad about what he’d told him the last time they’d talked privately. ‘What do you think will happen to my brothers the day one of us dies in battle?’ It had been harsher than necessary, and mean, and he knew it had gnawed at his father. “We’ll come back quickly.”

“I know my son, I have the utmost faith in you and your brothers.”

Mikey knew full well that he'd worry nonetheless, but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he just got up to leave. “Thank you, by the way,” he added when he reached the door. “I’ve seen the efforts you made to show them how you felt.”

And then he left for his well-deserved fifteen-hour nap.

Chapter Text

“Does everyone have their backpack and filtration units?”

The question was answered with three affirmatives, and Donatello switched on the portal. It worked flawlessly, as expected. He’d tested it earlier. Making it had only taken him two days, and the portal was perfect: large, stable, portable and reusable. He tried not to be bitter about it, but it was still proof of how much better he could have done when his little brother depended on him.

Mikey started toward the portal without hesitation, and Donatello’s hand snapped out to catch the lip of his shell, holding him back while Leo and Raph crossed the portal.

Mikey frowned at him, puzzled, “What?”

Don let go of his brother, “I-” He didn’t have anything to say, “Nothing. My bad.”

And then they crossed the portal.

Donatello wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t… That. The portal led to a rock, floating in the middle of nothing, with a few other floating rocks around.

Leo and Raph were still there, and Leo was already staring at his copy of the map.

“Woah!” Raphael had jumped, and he’d gone several meters higher than expected. The air kinda felt like water, but the resistance didn’t hinder their movement, probably because of a difference between the dilatational and the dynamic viscosities of the atmosphere.

Mikey was just beside Don, anxiously rubbing his arms and squinting around.

Leo turned his map around, as if looking for the correct way to hold it, “This place is so weird, there’s no sun and–Raphael!” he snapped, “don’t stay so close to the edge, there's nothing to land on if you fall.”

Raphael complied, and Michelangelo laughed, the first sound he made since he’d gotten here. “It’s fine bro, and look, there is a sun.” And he disappeared over the edge.

Heart in his throat, Donatello ran to where Mikey had fallen, Leo and Raph right beside him.

Upside-down on the underside of the rock, Mikey looked down at them with a grin and a wave. Pointing at a distant point of bright pink down below.

Screw the mission, Donatello was going to strangle his dumbass of a brother.

“Our multiverse is in the pink sun territory, that’s why everything is pink around here.”

“Come back here, now.” Leo admonished. He would sound really pissed if there wasn’t a slight waver in his voice betraying how badly Michelangelo had scared him.

Mikey did, he took a step over the edge and the dimension’s weird physics immediately brought him back on the ground, right side up this time.

“It's pretty cool, right?”

It was pretty cool, but Donnie wouldn’t admit to it. He joined Leo to get a new look at the map. It still looked like a weird tree, with a lot of arrows pointing to different parts, and a cross on one of the ‘grapes’.

He looked back toward the big void. There wasn’t much to see, just a lot of pink, and the sun, which was also pink. But nothing that looked like what was on the map.

“Where’s the multiverse? How are we supposed to know where we are going if we can’t identify any landmarks?”

As if on cue, Leonardo turned the map upside down once again. But it didn’t make more sense that way.

Mikey hummed, “You’re not looking at it right.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Asked Raphael.

“Well, you have to adjust your eyes, just like that.” And he put his finger in front of his face, crossing his eyes like a moron.

Raphael rolled his eyes, and Mikey elbowed him in the sides, “Look,” he insisted, before slowly moving his finger away from his eyes. “You adjust your eyes to the distance you look at things, yes? Well, you need to adjust it just right to be able to see it. It takes some getting used to.

Donatello tried, but without any kind of visual marker, it was… Not easy.

“Oh! I have it! I have it!” Exclaimed Raphael, “Wait, no, I don’t have it anymore.”

Mikey rested his chin on Leo’s free shoulder. “Doesn’t change the fact that this map is crap. Can you turn it the right way up, please?”

Leo reoriented the map again, “Do you know where we are?”

Mikey grimaced, “Not really, no. But we’ll have time to figure it out later, right now we need to move.”

“Without knowing where we’re going?”

“I know we’re at the tip of one of the branches. We’re too exposed here, I don’t like it.”

“Exposed to what?”

Mikey shook his head, “Open-water creatures. They're too big and fast, it's dangerous.”

Leo folded his map and put it back in his backpack. “Ok, show us the way.”

They moved around by jumping from floating rocks to floating rocks, and soon, they started coming across some floating island, covered in weirdly shaped crystals, with some wildlife swimming around like the atmosphere was water.

Finally, Mikey stopped on an island, “Okay, it’s safer to pause around here.” And then he pulled his map from his bag.

“How come we haven’t seen any Krang since we’ve gotten here?”

“What do you mean?” Mikey looked up from the map, frowning, “We went past a Kraang base less than ten minutes ago, bro.”

Had they? … Donatello turned to Leo and Raph, who both looked surprised. Raphael shrugged, he hadn’t seen anything either. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Okayyyy! Mikey didn’t look like he was joking. In fact, he looked very displeased. He turned the map upside down, frowning.

Donnie bit his lip, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Because Don wasn’t, and the way Michelangelo was acting wasn’t very reassuring.

“Well, Donnie,” Mikey started in his horribly sarcastic tone that they had all learned to hate, “as you can see, I’m trying to find where we are on a multidimensional tree, from a flat map that is both, incredibly unclear, and unfinished. Does that answer your question?”

Right. Donatello bit his lip. He needed to think about something else, or he’d keep hovering behind Mikey, stressing out about everything. Plus, his brother probably needed to focus.

They had indeed moved away from the edges. Here, the dimensions were far more numerous. He still couldn’t hold the same focus for long, but more often than not, wherever he looked, he could see at least one of the enormous spheres floating around, linked together by what looked like bright veins.

Most of the wildlife he could see around seemed uninterested in them. There were weird worms with mouths that cut their faces in three when they opened them, octopus-like things catching whatever came near, weirdly normal-looking crabs scuttling around, and giant worms that walked on horrible spider-y legs, and flying worms and… There were a lot of worms. The flora wasn’t much better, there was nothing. Unless these weird crystal structures… were… Are those power cells trees?

Donatello approached, and yes. The crystals were made out of the same material as the power cell. Except one piece of it was enough to power a multidimensional portal, a car or dozens of his inventions, and here, there were entire trees of it, probably enough to make a forest.

Don tried to pry some of it from the tree. It wasn’t easy, but with a bit of determination and a lot of force, he managed to break off a piece.

Immediately, it started glowing and heating up. Realizing what it meant, he threw the crystal away, and jumped on the nearest of his brothers, just in time to avoid the enormous explosion he’d caused.