Chapter Text
Hamato Leonardo was quite perceptive.
He had to be. When you were the leader of a team of teenage ninjas, having a keen sense of intuition was vital. It was life or death. He had to be able to look out for his brothers and always be aware of his surroundings. At any moment, someone could be lurking in the shadows or aiming an arrow directly at their heads. Under their feet there could be a wire, just waiting to trip them and set off an explosion. Their enemies were just waiting for the moment Leo let his guard down.
It didn't matter whether they were on a mission to save the world or sitting at home playing video games; Leo was always on the lookout. He slept with his swords by his bedside, he ran with an ear out listening for the slightest sign of danger, and he always made sure he knew where the nearest escape route was. This planning had saved his team's lives before, so he didn't plan to stop anytime soon. Leonardo was always listening for danger.
And it was exactly this cautiousness that told him something was off.
Leo glanced back at the edge of the building where he stood with his brothers. The four were discussing something about a new comic that Mikey was reading, but Leo had long since drifted out of the conversation in order to focus on the sound he knew he had heard. While his brothers may not have noticed the quiet breathing from of someone standing on the fire escape below, he did.
Now, this would not have bothered him usually. People could do that if they wanted to, Leo didn't really care. They were low enough that they couldn't look over the edge of the roof to see them; all they could hear was their voices. If these random New Yorkers wanted to listen to their stupid conversations, then Leo figured they could have at it—even their actual plans of attack against the Kraang and Shredder probably sounded like pages from a new novel or the hottest new TV show. The worst that had ever happened from that was some old guy yelling at them for being "rowdy teenagers" staying up too late "on a school night". That had made all of them laugh, and the man threatened to climb up there and call their parents. Mikey and Raph wanted to lean over the edge and beg him not to call their parents just to freak the guy out, and Leo had almost let them. Keyword: almost. Even he was disappointed when he decided they should just leave.
No, Leo wouldn't have paid the person on the fire escape a second thought. But he heard them hold their breaths after, and after sparing a subtle glance behind him, he saw the person had climbed up a bit and was peering over the edge of the roof.... watching them, before ducking down once again to stay hidden. This wasn't just a random New Yorker wanting some air.
They were being watched.
"That doesn't even make logical sense!" Donnie exclaimed, holding the comic book in his hands. He pointed to the creators' names on the cover, "Whoever Jenna Brown and Gerard Santos are, they don't understand anything about science at all. None of the science in this comic makes sense! It's all gibberish!"
Mikey ripped the book from Donnie's hands in an instant, and hugged it to his chest tightly. "You take that back! This story is a work of pure genius and Dr. Tobias is even smarter than you!"
Raphael laughed as Donnie fumed, and the two broke off into a more ridiculous argument over whether Dr. Tobias' explanation of his shrink ray made any sense. Raph watched in amusement, and glanced over to his older brother.
"Hey Leo, are you seeing this? They-"
He stopped when he saw the serious expression on Leonardo's face. His eyes widened when Leo very subtly gestured behind him, and silently mouthed something that made him do a double take.
"We're being followed."
Now that Raphael was aware too, Leo quickly started to formulate a plan. With a few quick hand gestures and another look sent to his brother, Raph got the overall message. He quickly mumbled something along the lines of forgetting his T-Phone at home, faking his annoyance, and then disappeared off the opposite side of the building. The youngest brothers continued their discussion.
"Mikey, I swear, if you say that one more time-"
"You just don't understand science."
"Do you know who you're talking to?!"
"I-"
"Hey! Get your hands off of me!" Their argument ended abruptly with the sounds of protest coming from the fire escape, as Raphael pulled the spy up onto the rooftop. Leo grinned at how well his plan had worked, while Donnie and Mikey watched the scene with wide eyes. What had they missed?
"I'm serious, let go of me right now, or you'll regret it!" The girl exclaimed, trying to pull her left arm away from Raph's hand. He eventually let go, once he realized she wasn't a foot ninja waiting for the chance to kick him in the shin, though he still stood right next to her to make sure she didn't run. She glared at him, rubbing her upper arm. "You could've been more gentle, you know. You'll be lucky if that doesn't leave a bruise."
"Alright, start talking," Leo interrupted with a frown. He pulled out one sword, pointing the blade at her. His grip was loose enough that it wasn't an outright attack, but a genuine threat nonetheless. The girl frowned, but didn't seem all that too threatened, oddly enough. Leo took this chance to get a better look at just who their observer was.
She looked to be around their age, probably 16 or 17. She had dark skin and darker hair, and wore large red cat-eyed glasses. The corners of lips were pulled downward in a tight frown, but she didn't look scared, just upset and annoyed. Somehow, there was a sense of recognition in her eyes. She didn't seem put off by their appearance, and there was purpose behind her following them; he could tell. It made Leo uncomfortable. He had no idea who this girl was, but she must know something about them.
"Why were you following us?"
"I-" She started to speak, but then paused. She pursed her lips and looked up in thought, visibly weighing her options, and then let out a sigh.
"I was following you guys, but I swear I'm not a bad guy, okay? I just needed to talk to you."
"Then why were you watching us like a creep instead of saying something?" Mikey asked, more genuinely confused than outright suspicious like his brothers. The girl laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"Well, you see, I was trying to figure out what exactly to say that would stop something like this from happening," She admitted. "I guess I kinda messed that up, though. Sorry 'bout that."
"Cut the small talk," Raphael growled, taking a step back to stand with his brothers now that he was sure she wasn't going to run away. "Tell us who the hell you are and what you want or you're not gonna get another chance. I'll make sure of that."
"Wow, you're mean here..." The girl mumbled under her breath, voice so low they almost didn't catch it. She sighed once again. When she spoke again, it was all in one breath.
"My name is April O'Neil, and I'm from another dimension... I think, or something like that at least, " She blurted out. "I got kidnapped by these weird things called the Kraang into your world along with four of my friends who are you guys in my dimension, turtles just like you, and those aliens want to use them to hurt you guys apparently and I'm trying to warn you and wow I just realized how ridiculous this all sounds."
Leo blinked. "What?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Raphael was very blunt. "You're not April, we know April, come up with a better story."
Mikey frowned, squinting suspiciously, "Maybe she's April's twin sister."
"They look nothing alike, Mikey." Raphael punched him in the shoulder. Mikey just looked confused.
"So? What's that gotta do with anything?"
"Why would twins look nothing alike and have the exact same name? Do you know how twins work?"
Mikey frowned, looking up in thought for several moments, before he shook his head. "No, not really."
The self proclaimed April groaned, her frustration growing. Making vague gestures as though she were trying to strangle the air, she tried to explain herself again. "I mean... Ugh!! Exactly what I said!" She suddenly turned to Donnie, "You're the Donatello here, right?! You better be smart like my Donnie, so listen! There's more than one dimension, there's alternate universes and alternate versions of all of you there, and I'm from a different one, and my boys were kidnapped and I overheard the weird brain creatures talking about mind controlling them to attack you guys, so I decided to do the nice thing and warn you!" She laughed hesitantly, rubbing her arm and looking away before mumbling a few more words.
"Annnndd... I have no idea how to get them back or get home on my own, so this was all I had to go off of..."
No one spoke for several long moments. The turtles were processing everything she just said, each going through their own various phases of disbelief, confusion, and the like. April, on the other hand, was growing more anxious with each passing second of quiet. She began to tap her foot against the ground, looking around nervously and praying the silence would end soon. She soon grew impatient.
"Well? Say something!"
"I..." Leo hesitated, and that hesitation gave a certain someone the perfect opportunity to interrupt.
"You can't expect us to believe any of that." Raphael deadpanned. "I mean... it's ridiculous! There's not two Aprils, there's not more us's, and you're either crazy or... or a foot spy or something!" He laughed nervously, looking around at his brothers for support, "Right, guys? There's no way she's telling the truth."
"I'm not lying!" April exclaimed.
Raphael just laughed. "Yeah, you are-"
"I don't know, Raph," Donnie spoke up, "I mean, I've never been able to prove it but... the multi-verse is a completely plausible thing. I guess it's not completely impossible that there's other dimensions out there with different versions of us." He frowned, "But... I've never even considered that any technology would be advanced enough to permit interdimensional travel...."
"Exactly!" Raphael exclaimed. He pointed accusingly at her, "Come on, there's no way she's from another universe. This is probably just a ploy to get us to walk right into some Kraang lab to save her-" He used his two fingers to create sarcastic air quotes, "'friends', and as soon as we try to save them we'll be thrown right into a trap!"
"Hey," April folded her arms over her chest, "Don't you go putting words in my mouth. I never once suggested walking in there!"
"My point still stands."
"But Raph, weren't you just suggesting we go invade one of the Kraang's hideouts again because they're 'probably up to something' like, an hour ago?" Mikey pointed out, only to be met by a fury filled glare of Raph.
"Okay, we'll figure that out later, team, let's just see what she says happened," Leo spoke up. He sent everyone a look that shut them up, which made April blink in surprise, though he wasn't sure why. He turned back to her.
"You said they kidnapped your friends to attack us, right?" Leonardo asked, to which April hesitantly nodded. "Well, what did they do? Are your... us's evil or something?"
"No, of course not!" April exclaimed. "I... I don't know what exactly I saw, but..." She shook her head, interrupting herself. "I'm gonna start from the beginning."
"Ooh, storytime!" Mikey shouted, which made the girl chuckle a little. She began her story,
"So I was hanging out with my Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie a few hours ago—or was it last night? I'm not sure, I lost track of time—when this crazy pink purple portal opened. Leo was freaking out claiming it wasn't his portal when these crazy robots with brain creatures inside them stepped out and started shooting at us.
"We would've won, we took out a ton of them. But they just kept coming and coming and coming... There were dozens of them, and we must've taken out at least a hundred. We knew we needed to shut down the portal and Mikey just- he just jumped through! Probably try to shut it down himself or something, so we all had to follow him through and we were in this weird looking world. They had Mikey unconscious by the time we got in, and then Leo's and Raph's mystic weapons weren't working and they took down Donnie and Raph... took them somewhere just like Mikey."
Despite the turtles being quite confused over her describing Leo worrying they'd blame him for the portal or what mystic weapons even were, they stayed quiet April's face had grown downcast. Her voice had lost the excited storytelling tone it had in the beginning, and she sighed, continuing much more softly.
"And then it was just me and Leo. He really didn't want to, but we had to retreat, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't portal us out of there—poor thing was worried he was failing again before since he's had a lot of trouble with his sword, but Raph's tonfas hadn't been working either. We kept running and we hid in some Kraang storage room, and then he locked me in one of the storage closets so he could go run off and try and save them without me getting kidnapped too—the stubborn moron knew I was gonna go help him, but he was convinced we'd lose either way so... He saved me, I'm gonna strangle him for it, and all four of them got captured. I just... let it happen."
A silence again, and Leonardo hesitantly spoke, "That's awful, but you said that they wanted to-"
He was interrupted with April shoving a hand over his mouth, effectively silencing him. Caught completely off guard, he froze and she glared at him. "Don't you go interrupting this girl in the middle of her emotional story! Listen up!"
Leo nodded while the other three hid a laugh, and April continued.
"I stayed in there a while... partially because I was terrified they'd hear since the bots were still looking for me, but mostly because Leo locked the stupid door so I didn't have much of a choice. I eventually found and crawled through the air ducts, then went to try to find them.
"It took a while, but when I found them, they were.... different. They had some kind of," April gestured blindly, "purple glowing device put on the back of their necks, and the Kraang were giving them orders and they were listening. They were listening to them! Like they were-"
"Mind controlled." Donnie's eyes widened, "Those were the same things April's—I mean, our April—her dad was controlled with!"
"So, what, the Kraang went to grab us from another dimension to use them to kill us?" Raph asked.
"That makes sense, yeah," Donnie nodded, frowning, "It sounds like a pretty Kraang-like plan. And I wouldn't be surprised if they had the technology to do that, they're already traveling back and forth between here and Dimension X without an issue. Traveling to another dimension to kidnap us to mind control isn't too far out there, I guess." Mikey gasped.
"Dudes, we're gonna have to fight us?!" He exclaimed, "Woah, bros, that's like, blowing my mind... Do I gotta punch myself? What if we get us mixed up? What if other me doesn't like me?!"
"I don't think that's our main worry here, Mikey-"
"Okay, well, at least we know that this is something the Kraang could, and would, pull off." Leo interrupted, frowning. "Donnie's right about that."
"So you believe me?" April asked hopefully. Raph narrowed his eyes.
"Slow down there," He said, arms folded across his plastron. Though he still seemed suspicious, his sais had returned to their place on his belt, so that was a good sign. "We didn't say that. You could easily be lying, and your story is still ridiculous. We still don't trust you, yet, none of us do."
Raphael's statement was mostly correct. Neither He nor Donnie or Leo completely trusted her words just quite yet. Michelangelo, however...
"What's other me like?!" He excited asked, standing right in front of Other April with his hands on either of her shoulders. "Is he funny? Does he like pizza? Does he have Ice Cream Kitty too?"
April chuckled, "Uh, yes, yes, and um... no, I'm not sure who or what that is."
Mikey gasped dramatically, recoiling in horror at the thought, while April laughed. "Nooooooooooo!!!" He cried out in anguish, falling down to the ground. Not bothering to stay down long, he jumped back up and launched into even more questions about his other self. April seemed content to listen and answer them, amused.
The remaining three turtles took the opportunity to back away from them, and whisper amongst themselves out of the newcomer's earshot.
"So, what are we thinking?" Leo asked, "Do you guys believe her?"
"Hell no!" Raph whisper-yelled, "Are you kidding? There is absolutely no way this chick is for real. This is obviously some trap by the Kraang or the Shredder, or both."
"I don't know Raph..." Donnie looked down, "I... I think she might be telling the truth."
"What? Her story is ridiculous!"
"Yeah, it is," Donnie agreed, "And that's why I think she's serious. She seemed genuine when telling her story, but more importantly than that, why on Earth would the Kraang or the Foot come up with a story like that to trick us? They'd try to go for something more realistic, like having that girl claim one of our friends were captured, and send her to us for help. There's a billion better stories than kidnapped and mind controlled alternate turtles."
Leo nodded, "I've gotta agree with Donnie on this one, Raph. Her story is crazy, but I think it's a little too crazy to not be true."
The red masked turtle looked rapidly back and forth between his two brothers, mouth agape. "Are you kidding me? Both of you believe her? She's gonna betray us!"
"I'm not saying she's definitely telling the truth," Leo said, "But there's a chance she is, one that I think is pretty high... We should at least hear her out. If we end up not seeing these other turtles ever, then she's lying. But if we do see ourselves, then that speaks for itself."
"Unless she stabs us in the back before we get the chance," Raph grumbled. Donnie frowned.
"We have shells, Raph, that'd be a highly ineffective method of betrayal-"
"It's an expression, Donnie, and you know that." Raphael rolled his eyes. Two arms suddenly appeared around his and Donnie's shoulders, a grinning Mikey popping up between them.
"Guys! Guys! You'll never believe this!" The youngest turtle exclaimed, "Other April says other us's have magic weapons!!! Except Other Donnie because he's boring and didn't want one or something, I don't know, but other me has a kusari-fundo that can turn into a flaming skull with a cool fire spirit!! Isn't that cool?!"
Donnie met Raph's sight with a raised brow, "You still think the Kraang would come up with something like that?" He asked. Raphael replied with a groan, but didn't say anything else. He waved him off.
Sighing, Leo got to work.
"Alright, April, we'll trust you for now," He said, shooting a glare at his younger brother, who was giving Other April dirty looks. "And Raphael is going to too, because that's what we decided to do."
"You mean, that's what you decided to do. I did not agree to that," Raph snapped.
"And I'm the leader of this team which you are on, and I said we're gonna trust her for now, and what I say goes, got it?" Leo hissed. Raphael didn't reply, and turned his gaze elsewhere. April looked lost.
"Wait, you're in charge here?" She asked. Leo nodded, looking slightly confused. April looked even more so. "Huh."
"Is your Leonardo not?" Donnie asked, and April shook her head. Leo frowned.
"Wait, who is leader then?"
"Raphael."
"What?!" Both Leo and Raph exclaimed simultaneously, shock evident on both their faces. April nodded.
"Yeah, but my Raph is also a lot different than yours too... A lot nicer, and more trusting. It's Leo who is all suspicious of everyone, and I don't think he'd even want to be leader." She pursed her lips in thought, two fingers on her chin, "The Mikeys are probably the most similar from what I've seen so far..."
Questions were now on the tips of everyone's tongues, begging for an answer, an explanation, or anything. What were they like then? What about Donnie? What was their world like? What was up with the magical weapons? There were so many unknowns to her story. Leo glanced around at his team, and sighed. There was a time and place for everything, but here and now was not for those questions. Not with how late—or early—it had gotten.
"Okay, well... we'll find out more about them later," Leo said, slowly, "For now, we should be getting home—the sun is gonna be up soon. We need to get back to the lair."
"You're showing her where the lair is?!" Raph shouted, but April just waved his concerns off.
"Oh, relax, meaner Raph," She said nonchalantly. "You guys live in the sewers, right? If I didn't see you guys by chance tonight I was gonna go searching there anyways; that's where my boys live too. I'd have found you all eventually."
Raphael looked to Donnie and Leo helplessly, who both shrugged. Mikey ran ahead of them and pulled April along.
"Come on, I'll show you where it is!" He grinned, completely comfortable with April at this point and acting as though they had been friends for years, "Let's go!"
April laughed and the two jumped down from the building, climbing down the fire escapes and landing on their feet before the others even realized it. Raphael mumbled some more complaints and swore under his breath, but didn't object anymore and just silently followed the two. Donnie trailed close behind.
Leonardo stood behind for a few seconds longer, wondering if he had made the right choice. He hoped so, at least; they couldn't afford a spy in their midst, not after all they had worked for... The Foot was still a threat. Karai was mutated and lost. The Kraang were planning an invasion. They had too much to plan for, and not enough time to get it all done. Adding in this wasn't going to be fun, and if this April really was a spy like Raph said, they might lose the secrecy of their own home. They couldn't afford that.
But if Leo was right to trust her, and Raphael was wrong... maybe that'd be even worse. That would mean they were going to be forced to fight themselves, and would have the added task of saving them, and protecting another human. The Kraang would have no doubt upgraded their mind control tech by now, since they must have known that they freed April's dad of their control months ago, so it might take Donnie a bit to figure out how to get their minds free. Not to mention Leo had no idea how strong these other turtles were. What if they were even better fighters than them? April had mentioned mystic weapons, whatever those were, so that probably wouldn't be fun to deal with. The Kraang wouldn't have taken them if they were much weaker, so they had to be at least evenly matched...
Leo had no idea what they were about to face, but he knew one thing: these next few days were going to be quite stressful. The next hour would be even worse, since he'd have to explain to Master Splinter why they brought yet another stranger into their home. And they had just gotten another lecture on not doing that only a few days ago...
Leonardo sighed, and followed his brothers and a new April O'Neil back home. Everything would be dealt with soon enough.
