Chapter Text
The first thought in my mind was I was dead.
The last thing I could remember was the look of sheer horror and devastation on Casey Jr’s face as I sent him hurtling through Michelangelo’s portal. The tears falling from wide eyes as he screamed, so distraught as to fail mustering a single word. The sight was seared into my mind, even if I only saw him for a moment before the blinding flash of light whited out my vision.
Scorched by a flame thrower. I always thought my death would’ve been more ceremonious, but there wasn’t really a need for theatrics when the only living creatures left were the monsters, was there? I suppose there were worse ways to go.
Death would’ve been a mercy unwarranted.
The darkness was peaceful at first, like I was floating through a vast expanse of absolutely. . . .nothing. There were no bombs, no explosions, the absence of sound deafening to ears long used to the screams of friends slain and the horrifying pandemonium of conflict.
The only noise was soft and hard to describe. It was the dark rumblings of a large vehicle, but as if a hornet’s nest had nuzzled its way inside the engine.
It was off putting, like a noise I knew I should be familiar with but couldn’t quite place.
I felt so tired. I wanted to rest, to ignore that tiny imitation of Raph going off in my mind, pushing me to get up.
Why would I need to do that though? How could I move without any tangible body. . .
My time was up. I was ready to move on. I wanted so desperately to follow Mikey and everyone else I loved into that void of eternal rest.
I want my family again. . .Please just let me—
The pull of something slick at my wrist caught my attention. It was wrong in so many ways, a wet worm sliding up the appendage. Alien.
The tug back to reality and away from my dissociation had me alert within moments. I realized I was hanging off the ground, the same restraints around my ankles. My right side was slightly hunched, prosthetic arm apparently having been removed. Or torn off.
I tried to open my eyes, but that was my first mistake. Before there had been a dull throb, and I’d brushed it off as a headache. I was used to those. This was something entirely different. It was white hot agony, making my eyes water, which only elevated the pain.
The laserbeam. I was blind.
The slimy tendril traveled to my waist as a gasp slipped free, and I swallowed thickly, ignoring the disgusting texture when it wrapped around my middle and pushed me forward. But it was the heavy footfalls of metal on stone that sent a chilling fear up my spine. I knew who that was. I prayed this was a sleep paralysis situation, but I knew better than to think God would hear my prayers.
“The pest finally awakens.”
My heart was frozen, adrenaline spiking despite the exhaustion in my body. My breathing quickened, jaw clenched, and I forced a deep breath through my nose to keep myself under control. My mind was racing. I felt like a rabbit trapped by a wolf.
If I wasn’t dead before, I was going to be soon.
The most horrifying part was that I couldn’t even see him approaching. I couldn’t even run from the sound. I was helpless as he stooped forward, I was just trying to stay calm, stay calm stay calm just stay calm—
I could sense his touch moments before the iron claw scooped under my chin, lifting my head up to force eye contact. I don’t know why Kraang Prime even bothered. I literally couldn’t see him, I thought that would’ve been obvious assuming my face looked even half as superb as it felt right now.
“After all these years of evasion and delusional heroics. . .” He said, and I tried to pretend that was begrudging respect in his tone, “At last, the Resistance’s precious ring leader has been caught.”
He paused, the restraints’ grip slacking just slightly while his hand tightened, squishing my face together and making me bite back a grimace at the needles-and-pins feeling sparking through singed nerve endings.
“You’ve lost your touch.”
”It happens to the best of us.” I said hoarsely.
I didn’t have the energy nor the motivation for chatting today, and he seemed to pick up on that, judging by his loose touch tilting my skull just slightly to the side. Like he was pondering something.
“I will admit, your efforts aren’t without merit. You and the other creatures of this planet have wielded more courage than we had previously anticipated.”
I felt two metal fingers tug lightly at the tails of my mask still miraculously attached to my head. Gosh, these guys were freaks sometimes. “But all things must come to an end.”
He let go, and my head drooped as he stepped away. Once again, the gunge restraining me tightened. I was acutely aware of every tendril, to the point that it could almost be called claustrophobic.
“Now tell me. Where did you send the boy?”
The boy?
My brow line furrowed under the tattered mask.
It clicked. He didn’t know where CJ was.
Any lingering anxiety that maybe the portal had formed too late and my student had failed to cross over before the Kraang captured him — or worse, ended his life — faded to an acquiescent relief.
He was okay. I may have doomed this timeline, but if Jones was even half as stubborn as his mother, I knew he wouldn’t let my mistakes happen again.
Find the key, stop the Kraang.
I guess things really did come to an end.
Despite the pained pull on my skin at the motion, I couldn’t help the smile that broke my face. I huffed, struggling to keep my shoulders still, but eventually I was cracking up. It turned into a laugh, a deep, freeing sound I hadn’t made since before Donnie had been killed.
And maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to laugh in front of the most dangerous being on Earth.
But I’ll be darned if it didn’t feel good.
“Ha ha! Mikey, you did it!” I cackled, the agitated frustration I could sense from Kraang Prime only made me grin wider— enough to crack chapped lips.
“Oooh, buddy, you tried so hard to beat us, didn’t ya?” I said to Prime, “You really thought you had us this time?”
I chuckled, shaking my head.
An animalistic snarl was the only warning received before the restraints were released and a cold hand shoved me roughly against the wall. It knocked the wind from my lungs. I wheezed, him partially pressing against my throat, restricting air.
“Do NOT play with me! Where is he?!”
I let myself fall limp, dangling in space. I was grinning like I’d just won the lottery. Which I kind of did in all honesty.
“I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew, hermano; the kid’s looong gone.”
There was a moment of silence, his hand loosening enough for me to breathe at least somewhat normally. I waited, wishing I had my vision if only to see his expression. He might not realize it yet, but everything he had accomplished? Every continent, every world he had ever conquered? It was all for nothing.
His grip fell away completely, letting go of me. In midair. My stomach leaped into my throat at the drop. I couldn’t gauge the distance, and I plummeted a second too long before my feet hit the ground. Hard.
I landed wrong, too much weight on one side. My left knee locked up, pain shooting up my leg as my ankle turned at an odd angle. I tripped forward, barely catching myself with my arm to break the fall.
“They always do things the hard way.” I could hear him over me.
Eugh boi—
His foot came down on my back, crushing me into the floor. I gaped like a fish, struggling to even breathe out a choked cry. My shell was cracking under the weight.
I could feel the engines of the Kraang ship rumbling through the tiles… or whatever Kraang ships had instead of engines. Every scratch on the floor, every ridge and imperfection, I felt them under my fingertips as I failed terribly to find some leverage.
Suddenly I felt very empathetic to the bugs I used to squash growing up.
I heard the hiss of something release, the near inaudible wet flick of an alien tendril. Kraang Prime held my head up once again, but this time it was two tentacles on either side of my temples.
The appendages pushed under my mask, branching off to snake around every opening they could find. My head was filled with a sound of rushing currents as they shoved into my ear canals. I couldn’t breathe through my nose anymore. And when they tore around inflamed eye sockets, an explosion of pain made me scream. Or try to at least, but nothing came out except a strangled sob.
Every muscle in my body lock up as he invaded my mind, sifting through horrible flashes of my life like panning for gold. He was trying to find information.
Everything hurt, every notion of resistance hurt. But I forced myself to breathe, struggling, but managing.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. . .
I bit my tongue at the migraine attacking me, but I did what I could to mess with Kraang Prime’s search.
My family was sitting around a worn and dirty rug we’d found in a half collapsed house. Cassandra sat across from me, helping little Casey Jr stand. His pudgy fingers had his mother’s in a vicelike grip as he took one wobbly step forward, and then another.
I smiled as he let go of Cass, looking around the small circle to each uncle with those big brown eyes, like he was deciding where to go.
He looked to Raph the longest, but to my surprise, he took a step forward before turning his attention to me, unsteady but assuredly. He took another step, then another.
“Come on, bud, you got this!” I cheered him on, hardly able to contain my own enthusiasm.
At one point, he tilted to the side, and in an instant I was ready to catch him. But he managed to catch himself instead, sticking his tongue out in that adorable little way to focus.
And when he did finally come within arms reach, I scooped him up into my lap, raising his arms above his head as the room cheered for his accomplishment. Junior giggled at the attention, and even Donnie — who was filming the whole thing off to the side — had broken into a soft smile.
My skull jerked back as Kraang Prime pulled away, disgusted. My head came down on the hard floor with a ringing bang. I was going to feel that in the morning.
“Insolent brat,” he hissed, reintegrating with his mech suit and finally lifting the crushing weight from my abused shell. I sucked in a deep, grateful breath.
“No matter. We will find any remaining survivors, I promise you.”
I was hardly listening at this point, collapsed on the tiled floor. Sweat trickled down my neck, and my breathing was shallow. I didn’t care if he killed me. I didn’t care any more.
My story was over. My journey had ended. I was just the mentor, the guest speaker, only relevant for the first five minutes of the movie, only purpose giving the hero their call to adventure.
. . .So why was I still alive?
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I don’t know how long I was laying there. It could’ve been anywhere between a couple of minutes to a couple of hours.
I knew it was a while, I could sense the time passing. But without any motivation to keep track of said time, it was hard to tell how much had gone.
I was starting to lose patience. I guess I’d never been too good at waiting for things. One of the many flaws I tried burying under the mantle of leadership. I wanted my life to end.
I must have passed out at some point, from physical exhaustion, dehydration. . . I couldn’t decide. Both? Neither?
When I woke to the sounds of footsteps, they were soft, cushioned, the opposite of Prime. I couldn’t muster the strength to react, even when I heard whoever it was stop in front of me.
And then I felt their hand brush over the top of my skull. The soft skin surprised me. The apocalypse had rendered everyone’s to a dry, leathery texture, but the mysterious individual was baby smooth.
“Oh, little blue. . . . .” came a gentle, honey milk voice.
My eyes once again watered, but the pain was rooted deep in my chest this time. My fingers twitched in reaction to her call, one of her hands resting at the base of my neck, over a weakening pulse.
I opened parched lips, managing a broken smile.
“. . .Hey Gram-Gram. .”
I knew it was her. I couldn’t see her but I knew. I must’ve been so close to death that the barriers between this life and the next were paper thin. Or somehow my ninpo had reawakened. The first one seemed more believable.
She lifted my head into her lap as she smoothed the rough edges of my mask, then pulled it down so it hung loosely around my neck. My eyes were throbbing, but a tear tracked down my cheek. I felt her catch it with her thumb.
“You’ve been through so much. . .” she said. I forced down a lump building in my throat.
I felt like a small child again, held in my father’s lap while I cried. Back then it was probably for some silly reason, maybe I had tripped and fallen, or broken an action figure.
I cried now, and it still felt silly.
Does wishing for death make me weak?
“You are not weak, Leonardo,” she said, and honestly I wasn’t sure if I’d said my thoughts out loud or if she could just read my mind, “This world has beaten you down, but that does not mean you are weak.”
I drew in a shaky breath, tears like acid on my skin. I would hug her, but my body remained limp. I didn’t have the willpower to command it to move anyway.
I understood her words were meant to be reassuring, but how could I believe them? I was the root cause of the apocalypse. I was the reason the Kraang came to our world, the reason they escaped.
It was my weakness that brought the Earth’s destruction. It was my weakness that killed my brothers, my weakness that stole Junior’s childhood. . .
Even now, I lacked the strength to carry on. Casey Jr escaped the fate of this timeline, and with him left any last shred of hope. Without hope, the fight within me was extinguished. What was the point? The longer I laid here, the harder it became to stay focused on my surroundings.
“. . .Am I dying?”
I felt her still above me, the tips of her fingers hovering over my forehead. I could imagine a saddened expression on her face. Her reaction was answer enough.
“This is not where your story ends, Leonardo.”
I didn’t understand that. What did she mean? Did I not get to go home?
Tenderly, she stroked the side of my head and neck, “There are others who will need your aid. Only you can prepare them for what comes.”
My throat felt tight.
Frankly, I wanted to give up. The implication of a new adventure was daunting, and left me wanting to lie here for the rest of my hopefully short and miserable life. Yeah, no, I was done. Ready for retirement, please and thank you.
“Don’t make me. Please.”
I was starting to lose any ability to focus. It felt as if the world was tilting on its axis. Slipping into unconsciousness, I couldn’t tell anymore if her touch was really her touch or if I was just imagining things in a desperate need for some form of comfort.
I could hear her voice, humming a soft melody. It could’ve been something Dad sang to my brothers and me when we were little, I couldn’t tell. I was too disoriented for anything to feel familiar.
“Anata wa hitori ja nai.”
The world went dark.