Thank you all who stayed with us all this time. We hope your patience feels rewarded. We promised we would not abandon this fic, and here we are now, five years later...

Almost at the end!

And as always, huge thanks to TheHeroComplex and Queequegg for their beta 3

WARNING: Secondary character death, violence and blood.

"Crap! Donnie? Donnie!" Leo rushed to his brother, sparing only a brief glance at the dark puddle spreading under the dead mutant leader's head, where Raph's sai had it propped at an angle. He knelt by Donnie, who was barely sitting upright against a column, shaking and gasping, and reeled at the sight of a red line that ran half-way across his shell. Blood trickled from it like a creek down a rocky hillside.

"April?" Donnie croaked, breathless.

"Just passed out, bro, see?" Mikey said, stepping up with a limp April in his arms.

That seemed to ease Donnie's mind, as he let Leo gingerly coax him onto his side to take a look.

After a quick assessment, Leo let out a lungful of air he hadn't realised he was holding. Wasn't so bad. Not life-threatening at least. Bit of epoxy and no one will be able to tell it was ever broken. "How do you feel?"

"A bit like I split... my shell in two." He still wasn't moving much, but at least he was making jokes. A relieved laugh rang through the group.

"Been there." Leo chuckled, though his heart was still pounding, and reached in Donnie's duffle bag for the medi-gel. "Keep still."

"No," Donnie wheezed, reaching back to stop him. "Hold on to it... just in case... There's a medkit in the... Foot dorms."

"I'll go get it," offered Raph, jumping to action.

Leo pressed his lips, but agreed to take the medi-gel. They still had a ways to go. He doubted Karai had simply bailed and gone back home.

"You should get a move on," Donnie added, and Leo agreed with a nod.

He gave Donnie a loving, feather-light pat on the jagged fissure of his shell, as much for his own reassurance as Donnie's, then put on his leader face and turned to the group. "Sound off, guys. How're we faring?"

"It's all gonna suck a lot tomorrow, but so far pretty chill," Mikey said, April's head resting on his lap as he twisted to check himself out. He had a few cuts and bruises here and there, and a bleeding lip.

"Raph, your hands," Leo said when Raph returned with the med kit and he caught sight of the reddened palms and acid-burnt wraps. The continued use of his sai probably hadn't helped.

Raph merely glanced at his hands. "M'alright. Just need new bandaging." He walked away, and two seconds later, Leo heard the sound of ripping cloth.

"At least Donnie unlocked the door already," Mikey joked, pointing at the splintered shell-shaped hollow right in the middle of the double doors which had clearly broken the outside lock and a couple of hinges. "Thanks, bro! And you didn't even need your app!"

From his place on the stone floor, Donnie slowly raised a thumb and released a pained, "My pleasure."

"Let's have a quick damage control, and then we keep moving," Leo ordered as he sat on a nearby bench to assess that nasty cut on his own thigh. Thankfully it ran along the muscle fiber, so not incapacitating. "I'll take some of that bandaging as well."

Casey limped over with a strip of shredded Foot flag, and as he handed it to Leo he winced, and hopped on one leg. "Ow, that's starting to sting."

"The articulation's cooling down," Leo took Casey's foot, rotating it gingerly. Before the first circle was complete, Casey yelped and pulled back. "Yep. That's a sprain. At least," Leo said.

"Shit, I can't get sprains! I'm gonna miss the game!"

"How about getting out of here alive, you jackass?" Raph berated as he wrapped another strip of the same flag on his hands.

Leo flexed his injured leg with a wince, not letting himself relax for a minute. Having made sure nobody was gonna die any time soon, he stood up, his mind back into high gear.

Part of him wanted to just run straight into the throne room. He had to remind himself that they were supposed to wait for their future counterparts to confirm visual on Karai before attempting to engage with Shredder.

Speaking of, where was his earpiece?

"Anybody hear from Team Roof?"

"Oh… my earpiece musta been knocked out," Donnie replied, finger on his earhole.

Leo tisked. "Mine too. We gotta do something about that."

"And maybe make more of them for the rest of us while you're at it," Raph said, hands now busy spreading antiseptic on Donnie's shell.

"Yeah, yeah, it's on the list," Donnie whined through a grimace.

After a quick sweep of the terrain, Leo miraculously found his piece by a pile of rubble. Immediately as he put it in, he heard the nervous voice of Future Donnie.

"—thing okay? Come on, answer us! Don't make us come in there!"

"I swear to fuck, I'm this close to ramming the Shellraiser into the front door!" he heard older Casey say as well.

"We're here," Leo said quickly.

"Oh, thank Glob! Have you found Karai?"

"What did they say? What's going on?" the others' voices demanded in the background.

"If you'll just shut up, I can find out!" Future Donnie groused.

Leo searched the battle-scarred space for his sword, passing by the body of the dead brute with a pang of regret. Further down, where Lock once lay, stirred a small body, still half buried in his old monster skin. It shocked Leo to realize he couldn't be older than twelve. Shock was still de-mutating, a trembling tar-black mass.

"Super soldiers are taken care of, but Donnie's hurt pretty bad, and April's out," he reported.

"What did they say?" the background voices insisted. After more shushing, Future Donnie repeated Leo's words to them.

"But we still haven't seen Karai," Leo went on. "And we suspect she's making her way to Shredder right now, somehow. Any sign on your end?" He found his missing sword half buried in rubble, and started back to the exit.

"Not yet, but my drone ha—" Donnie's voice stopped short. Leo paused and tapped at his earpiece, thinking the signal had been lost.

"Hello?"

Then… "Shit! Where did she come from?"

"Fuck! Move! Go!"

"No-no-no!"

Leo's heart fell into his stomach, his guts curling around it at the sounds of shuffling, and running, and agitated breathing.

"We see her!" Future Donnie cried. "She's with Shredder! Karai's with Shredder!"

Karai might have been small, but that had never stopped her. Being small was no excuse—Shredder himself had taught her as much. She'd even managed to get a few cuts in, flashing him with her powder for just that one second that Shredder forgot to close his eyes. His seething snarls of pain had felt immensely satisfying. After a lifetime of training under him, she did know him and his fighting style. But father was—

No, not father, Shredder!

Shredder was a monster, in every sense of the word. He was big and quick, and relentless, and knew her even better.

And he'd just realized he was not getting her back. Not alive.

Karai's air was knocked out as she hit the ground on her side, rolling to a stop by Xever's water tank. She had a split-second's time to dodge the next attack. There was a shriek of metal on stone as she stumbled away.

"You are a shadow of yourself under his name!" Shredder growled, disengaging his blades from the marble floor. "Months with him have undone everything I taught you! He's made you weak."

She stood her ground, breathless but obstinate. Her counter attack missed, her blade catching on Shredder's claws, metal screeching miserably, and a flick of his arm sprung it out of her grip. The returning arm backhanded her off her feet.

Panting, bleeding from her face and somewhere on her torso and who knew where else, she blearily lifted her head to look at him.

He stood over her, gazing down like she was already dead, and then had the nerve to sound sad. "I loved you, daughter."

A growl rose in her, boiling in bile. "You never loved me. And I am not your daughter."

Shredder's eyes narrowed, and he cranked his arm back, the glint of the blade like distant lightning.

And in that moment, only when she was about to die, all she could think about was how she would never get the chance to tell her family—her true family—to tell them that they were right, and that she'd take it all back now if she could, and that her last thoughts was of them.

And that felt like the worst part. They'd always think she abandoned them. And hadn't she?

She should never have come.

Before dying, she commended herself to her father and her brothers and friends, and in her mind asked for their forgiveness. Briefly, she wondered if she'd at least be reunited with her mother, on the other side.

Then she closed her eyes, and waited for the killing strike.

Oddly, the killing strike sounded a lot like a car crash.

Just as she started wondering if it was normal that it hadn't hurt at all, she felt glass raining down on her. She ducked under her arms, covering her ears at the deafening clatter of it hitting the marble floor. When she lifted her gaze, there was a bunch of figures standing between her and Shredder. Before she could make out who they were, someone scooped her up off the floor, and she had a reflex to resist at first until she recognized the emerald eyes behind the red bandana.

"Raph?"

"Hey."

"Ugh, I'll never live this down," she mumbled.

"You're damn right." But Raph was smiling. Not smirking, smiling. Something went click in her brain, when she noticed a few things that were just a little bit off. He wore a different mask, his face and eyes seemed a bit older, his voice just that much deeper. He said warmly, "Man, it's good to see you, sis."

The word 'aw' manifested in Karai's mind, surprisingly not entirely sarcastic. She glanced at the others. It was the brothers alright, just not her brothers. Not exactly.

So these are the famous future turtles, her already sluggish mind mused. They were real. And they were here.

Even as their eyes flicked to and fro, watching Shredder and his henchmen, they kept stealing glances at her.

"We gotcha," an even taller Donnie said through an awed smile.

"You're okay," Mikey promised, then grinned sheepishly. "Sorry for the delay."

Then she met Leo's eyes, and was strangely struck by them. It was clearly Leo, and yet she barely recognized him. Then a thought hit her like a truck. The way they looked at her, just mesmerized, like she was some kind of extremely sought-after cryptid. Her stomach gave a lurch.

They came for her, didn't they? They came because of her.

She felt Raph starting to inch his way towards the exit.

"Do not let them leave!" Shredder's voice commanded, and the doorway was immediately blocked by Shredder's glorified monster butlers.

"Where you goin'?" Bradford sneered, and Raph was forced to retreat.

"You took my daughter from me," Shredder said. "You brain-washed her. It's because of you and the rat that she doesn't love me anymore!"

"We're not here to talk, Shredder," Leo snarled, poised to strike like a cobra.

Shredder responded in kind.

Raph's grip on her tightened, and he grumbled by Karai's cheek, "Hang on." Her own hands found Raph's neck as the throne room erupted with the sounds of battle.

"Alright-let's-go-come-on!" Mikey almost shrieked, clambering his way over the trashed wooden doors, followed by Leo and Raph.

Casey limped desperately after them, trying his best to ignore his ankle's screams of pain with every step he took. "Wait for me!"

"For the last time, Moon-Moon," Raph spat over his shoulder. "You're staying!"

"Why!"

Raph paused in his steps only to pointedly look him up and down. "You kidding?"

Casey took one glance down on himself and pretended not to see the acid-eaten pants and increasingly obvious limp, before attempting to climb across the splintered doors. "I can still fight! I can skate! Casey Jones has won games with worse than this!" Just then, one bad step had him biting back a yelp, and he fell on his knees, clutching his ankle.

Leo, Raph and Mikey were already gone.

"I can't just let them— Just the three of them—!"

"Casey."

Casey turned to Donnie, propped sideways on the stone column. April lay by his side. She stirred as he caressed her cheek with his giant knuckle. "April and I could use your help over here. We're kind of useless right now..." The jerk topped that with puppy eyes that said 'we need you, Casey Jones', and Casey glowered at him.

"I see you, Donnie." He wiggled an accusatory finger, but Donnie already knew it worked, the bastard. Casey grumbled, "Fine," and carefully climbed back down to join Donnie by his column.

Stupid ankle. Can't believe you fucking benched me. He leaned one-legged and cross-armed, with no option but to wait, while all their family and friends were up there fighting the baddest motherfucker in all the history of ninjas, probably. Awesome.

Mikey felt like his heart was going to shoot out the front of his plastron like a freakin' chest buster as they made their way up through the empty Foot's church—the dojo front, the second story landing, and finally the stairway leading up to Shred-head's throne room. There was no pause and no instructions—Leo simply led the way straight through the doorway and they followed, ramming right into the bundle of mutants like bowling balls to a chorus of surprised yelps.

Once clear of the wall of bad guys, Mikey screeched to a halt by his two brothers as then they took one second to soak in the ambience. Their four future selves were mano-a-mano with Shredder and none of them seemed to have noticed the new players yet. Immediately after, he spotted Karai, sitting crookedly behind the throne. Future Raph was there with her, standing between her and the fight.

"I told you! They got themselves a team of clones!" Rahzar growled behind them. "There could be more of them!"

"Nobody correct them, bros!" Mikey whispered.

"Leonardo! Get Karai out of here!" Future Leo yelled over his shoulder, and got slashed in the arm for the distraction. Mikey winced and jerked in an impulse to go help.

But then Leo said, "You heard him, Mikey! We'll take the minions!"

"Who you calling minion!" Fishface spat, showing off his ugly fish mouth.

The moment Leo handed him Future Donnie's medi-jigger gun, Mikey bolted for the throne. He zig-zagged, front flipped through the battle scene, dodging kicks and blades, too many turtles in Shredder's face already for him to care, apparently.

"Big sis!" He dashed right past Big Raph and kneeled by Karaiwa. She welcomed him with a tight half-smile, looking very not okay. Her brow was wrinkled and all shiny with sweat.

"Good, let's get her out of there," Raph said. "Hurry, she's gonna bleed out."

"Okay, okay—oh, hold up! I got this!" Mikey whipped out the medi-jigger, and Big Raph nodded eagerly.

Mikey didn't even try to follow what was going on behind them, trusting his big brothers not to let Shred-head near Karaiwa.

"Here, bite this," he said, offering her his chuck, and did his best to do exactly as he'd seen Donnie do downstairs with Hachisu. He used encouraging words as he did all the icky poking of the wound, while Karaiwa twitched and muffled her cries on the chuck's leather. "We're gonna get you home, and I'm gonna give you such a hug you're gonna barf rainbows!"

She giggled weakly, and soon started to seem more relaxed, which meant the gel was doing its thing. From the way she was breathing though, she probably had a broken rib or two.

Satisfied that she seemed to have stopped leaking, Mikey put away the medi-jigger and scooped her up in his arms, looking around them for the way out.

Three of their big brothers were keeping Shredder at bay—barely—while at the forefront of the room, Present Leo and Raph kept Rahzar, Fishface, Bebop and Rocksteady and—phew—Tiger Claw busy. They still wouldn't budge from the exit, but maybe he could sneak past with a smoke bomb...

"Whoopsie-daisy." Holding Karai tight, Mikey hopped on top of one of the two giant glass cases full of weird-ass rock decorations which spread along the sides of the room like a burtonesque boulder zoo. What worried Mikey most was how much fussing Karaiwa was not doing. He knew how much she hated being picked up.

Big Raph kept close, escorting them along. Hoping the glass under their feet would hold, they moved with their backs to the wall, skirting as clear from the fight as possible. Mikey tried hard to focus on the sister in his arms, and in getting her out of there, and not on what was going on in that whirlpool of blades and sticks and metallic flashes and shouts of pain.

They hadn't made it half-way across the throne room when someone smashed into the case. The glass cracked below them. Mikey jumped, muscles tingling with adrenaline, and nearly just avoided Shredder's hand reaching for them, blades whistling by his ear. Big Raph dove in between, metal catching metal.

"Karai!" Shredder's loopy eyes followed them as Mikey ran.

He got to the forefront, his shell flush against the glass panes. Watching present Leo and Raph hold off the minions, he waited for an opening, peeking back over his shoulder in case Shredder managed to get past the future guys.

"Come-on-come-on-come-on..."

He was startled by a high-pitched squeal very near them, and turned Karaiwa away in a reflex, putting his shell to the noise. It was Bebop, stumbling to his feet, wheezing and gripping his arm and completely ignoring Mikey and Karaiwa.

"This ain't gonna end well for us, G! I don't get paid enough for this shizzle! I'm outtie!"

"Da, I am in agreeing," Rocksteady replied, lumbering out the door after his squeaky boyfriend.

"Leo, they're rabbitting!" Raph cried, dodging a robo-kick from Fish Face, then throwing him at Tiger Claw, who snarled in disgust.

"Leave them! Two less to worry about!" Leo replied, busy parrying with Rahzar's knives-for-fingers.

Maybe now was the time. Mikey flexed his legs, ready to pounce for the exit.

"Cowards!" Shredder's voice roared behind him. Mikey had the fleeting-est urge to look back, but kicked off to a dash instead, powering through Leo's and Raph's arena.

"Don't let her escape!" boomed Shredder, as henchmen reached for him like animatronics in a haunted house ride—a claw on his shoulder, a flaming gunshot zooming past his cheek, a flash of shiny chrome.

"Run, Mikey!" Raph yelled, clearly doing his job if Mikey wasn't dead yet.

Almost home free! Almost...!

There was a blast of orange light. Mikey screeched to a halt and bounced back from the sudden scorching heat. The door had just burst into flame, the hallway beyond an actual literal Hell. Dang, that almost burnt his freckles off!

Mikey turned, at a loss, and beyond the many moving, thrashing heads and weapons, met Shredder's eyes. The voracity in his glare made Mikey's buttcheeks clench.

Shredder's hand was on the keypad on the arm of his throne. Mikey always thought it had to be the TV remote, but he supposed it could do other things.

Anyway, he thought meekly as he cast a last gloomy glance back at the tunnel of fire. That's a nope.

Before any of the bad guys came back, Mikey retreated until he was back with his shell against the nearest corner, the near-slack weight of his sister a very real thing on his arms.

Corners weren't so bad. At least their behindus were unreachable and he could see everyone from there.

As he stood there, dancing on his feet, humming to himself, Mikey had nothing else to do but watch as the future bros jumped Shredder, trying to get him away from the throne before he took out any more of his toys. His future self locked his chuck around Shredder's wrist and pulled. Shredder responded by giving a violent twist. Mikey swore he heard the snap from where he stood, and then his future self screamed. Before the others could react, Shredder yanked Future Mikey towards himself, then power-kicked him on the chest. Future Mikey flew shell-first into Future Leo, and they both slid on the shiny floor. Future Donnie and Raph moved in next, and—

Mikey whined, feeling useless, and then Karaiwa growled.

"It's not fair…" she said, and Mikey could feel the hands around his neck close into fists. She felt clammy under his grip.

"Don't worry, sis. These guys are like, super pro," he reassured her just as Big Raph intercepted with his shell what could've been a killing strike for Future Donnie. In the other corner, even closer to where they were, the Leo and Raph from the present had their hands full as well. Mikey didn't have enough eyes to follow everything that was going on.

They were right in the middle of a very deadly game of capture the flag. And Mikey had the flag.

Okay, okay, focus. Get Karai to safety, he chanted in his head. He looked around, for an exit, a hiding place, something. Tunnel of fire on one side, Shredder on the other, henchmen in between. There had to be somewhere safe he could... There had to be…

His eyes landed on the church clock many feet above the entrance, framed in its pretty colored glass. Ooh!

"Hold on, big sis." Once Karaiwa tightened her grip, he took a froggy leap upwards. He climbed one-handed up the Foot banner, which was very close to catching fire, onto the clock ledge that overlooked the entire throne room. Rahzar paused for a hot second to look up at them like a dog wondering what its chances were against the pesky squirrel up that tree, before he was forced to focus back on Raph's sais.

Panting more from the total stress than anything, Mikey plopped Karaiwa down on the ledge. It was warm in the nook, heat rising from the flaming door just below.

"You'll be safe here. Ish."

He was immediately contradicted by something super cold shooting right over his shoulder and hitting Karai in her middle, freezing her to the wall. Mikey gasped, and swiveled around to see Tiger Claw, floating in mid air on his jetpack, his ice gun trained on them.

"Nevermind!" Mikey clawed at the ice, trying to free her.

"Fuck, that's c-cold," Karai mumbled, shaking even as there were beads of sweat on her forehead.

Tiger Claw didn't seem to be in a big hurry, calmly setting himself down on the ledge, gazing at them as if there were a million other things he'd rather be doing. Mikey frantically hacked at the ice with his chuck and prepared to counter whatever Tiger Claw was about to dish out.

"Just give up now, turtle," the tiger said, sounding… bored.

Mikey was about to shout out an epic "Never!", but stopped mid breath when he remembered something. Something the future turtles had mentioned in their story. Tiger Claw had become friendly in their timeline! He'd helped them fix Shredder's mess! He'd taken the remaining Foot back to Japan!

Maybe this Tiger Claw just needed a nudge. If Mikey was an expert on something, it was on making friends, he thought even as Tiger Claw pointed his ice gun at him.

"Tiger Claw, wait!" Mikey began, holding out his hands. "I know you're not totally for Shredder's plan, dude! Guy's always been a jerk, but— I mean, you see what he's doing? He's straight up kidnapping kids and turning them into blob monsters. I know you ain't down for that, Tiger Claw!"

Tiger claw replied with a half-hearted snarl, but didn't shoot.

"He's gonna take over New York, and you know he's not gonna stop there. He'd have every New Yorker turned into those blob things, and then he'd have them all fight the other cities, and turn them into blobs!" He paused for effect, as Tiger Claw only squinted. "You know we gotta stop him!"

Tiger Claw seemed to hesitate for a moment, gun still on Mikey. Mikey started to smile, thinking he'd done it.

But then all at once Tiger Claw's lips curled and his finger clenched on the trigger. Mikey felt the burning cold hit his legs, then his arms, and he suddenly found himself fixed to the wall like a picture.

But he cackled. "I see what you did there, Tiger Claw!" he said through chattering teeth. "Hands and feets! Not a kill-shot! I gotcha!" He winked.

Tiger Claw showed his fangs, still not putting his guns down. "Be quiet, brat, or I'll freeze your mouth shut next!"

"But I gotcha, right?" Mikey squeaked, his confidence slipping. "Right?"

It was only at that opportune moment, as Raph found himself plastron up on the floor with a chrome foot in his throat, that it caught his eye.

Up by the clock, way above his head, Mikey and Karai were frozen to the wall, Tiger Claw's gun in their faces. Neither Leo nor the future squad seemed to have noticed them.

"Shit!" A fresh dose of adrenaline surged through him, and he twisted his legs into Xever's, rolling him on the floor. Xever complained, butterfly knife knocked out of his webbed hand.

Raph took the brief opening to throw his sai up at the clock ledge. The sai flew true, shooting Tiger Claw's freeze ray out of his paw and through the stained glass, both weapons getting lost to the night.

Tiger Claw turned to growl at him, still very much armed with his other gun.

"Hang on, Mikey!" Raph shouted as he prepared to jump. He didn't get a chance to before Xever was back, soaring through the air like a flying fish, and snatched Raph in mid flight.

"This one is mine, Tiger Claw!" he heard him say right before his shell broke through the glass floor and suddenly they were several feet underwater.

Normally water wasn't a problem for a turtle, but pit against a fish… Raph was playing in Xever's home field—the overgrown piranha was in his element and his mouth was stupidly big. He barely even registered the sting on his leg until he realized he was feeling dizzier and dizzier by the second. Not again…

As they grappled in a tangle, Raph's other sai was knocked out of his fist, sinking out of reach. He was finding it more and more difficult to counter Xever's blows and bites. Then, strangely, Xever let go, and before Raph could look, he'd disappeared.

Now free to kick his way around, unfortunately he couldn't tell which way was up. He felt himself spin and nausea struck. He clawed hopelessly at the water, only finding wall after wall. In the struggle, he'd swallowed some water, and his frantic heart was using up all the oxygen. His lungs began to ache. There was no way he was drowning. Drowning! What a pathetic way to go for a turtle.

As he flailed, something live touched his arm, and he reached for it instinctively. Whoever's hand this was, he clung to it for dear life. It could be Shredder himself, his brain didn't give a fuck. He felt himself getting pulled and soon enough he could feel cool air on his face. Sweet, sweet air.

"I got you, Raph!"

He took a lungful and coughed violently as Mikey dragged him along the jagged edges of the broken glass tiles, and at last set him down on solid ground—or solid ceiling, he couldn't actually tell with the way his head was spinning.

When he managed to prop himself up on his elbows, Mikey's worried hand on his shell, the first thing he saw was Tiger Claw, standing close by, with Xever hanging from his claw.

Xever kicked and thrashed and after a nasty squeeze, he simply stopped moving.

The tiger's paw opened, letting the man-sized fish fall to the floor with a sloppy thump. Raph jerked uselessly, expecting the tiger to turn on Mikey and him now.

"It's okay, TC's on our side now," Mikey said with a thumbs up.

"Traitor!"

His brain still trying to bring itself up to speed with whatever the hell was going on, Raph followed the voice to Bradford. He saw Leo's blurry figure, pinned to the wall beneath the mutant's bony talon.

"Master Shredd—!" the dog couldn't finish calling his master before a fireball hit him square in the face.

"Shut up," Tiger Claw muttered through a grimace behind his gun.

Bradford was still moving, still howling as he fell to his knees. He held his face as what little flesh was left there sizzled and smoked, until Tiger Claw double-tapped him, and finally he was silent.

Now that Raph heard it, the whole place had become uncharacteristically quiet. He worked to make sense of his surroundings—a difficult task, with the world still tilting nauseatingly beneath his palms and knees. The fancy polished floor of the throne room shimmered with broken glass, wet and stained and shining a bright orange from the fire still raging in the entrance. Behind Bradford's motionless, face-less body was Leo, sword once more at the ready. Raph followed his burning gaze further into the room. Shredder stood there, glaring in their direction, and their future brothers were all huddled together behind him on the floor.

For a moment Raph feared the worst. But they were moving, shifting achingly, a naginata held menacingly, a pair of sais trained on Shredder. Future Mikey sat to the side, nursing his arm. Future Leo lay beside him, eyes closed, but the grimace on his face was a sign that he was alive.

Raph was most satisfied to see Shredder himself swaying slightly on his feet, breathing like a bull, looking almost as broken as the rest of them.

And now he was alone, surrounded, Tiger Claw's gun aimed at his head. Raph saw the exact moment this very thought passed through Shredder's eyes.

"Tiger Claw, what is the meaning of this!" he panted, his armor dented and his arms glistening with blood and sweat.

"This has gone far enough, Shredder. I can no longer stand by this madness."

"Give up, Shredder. You're finished," Future Donatello announced from his kneeling position by Future Leo, naginata blade glinting dangerously.

"We'll give you a chance to do the honorable thing. Or we will," Raph's older self said in a low growl. Beside him, Future Mikey had the gravest look Raph had ever seen on that familiar orange-clad face.

There was nothing on Shredder's stance hinting he'd even heard them. He looked up, and his eyes appeared to blaze in the light of the fire. Raph followed his gaze and found Karai, standing crookedly on the clock ledge, glowering back with the same unalloyed hatred.

A few seconds went by when nobody moved and the only sounds were the ragged breaths and the crackling of the fire.

Then something gave way in Shredder. Something snapped. His snarl was muffled behind the Kabuto as he started forward, charging at his second-in-command. Tiger Claw's gun fired once, twice. Shredder blocked the shots all too easily, incandescent projectiles bouncing off the steel. Raph ducked as one of them ricochetted past him. The tiger stepped back, reaching for his saber. They collided. At Raph's side, Mikey leapt to his feet, on guard. Everyone else stirred and jerked to full attention.

And all Raph could do was try not to puke.

"Man, I hate this!" Donnie growled in frustration, putting down his T-phone for the sixth time in the seven-odd minutes since the others had left. The strong pain-killers they'd retrieved from the Foot med kit were in effect, and now what was killing him was not knowing what was going on up there—if they'd found Karai—if they'd got there in time. But trying to contact them could only end up being a fatal distraction.

Meanwhile the Lotus had finished gathering all the wounded, and started bringing the newly-demutated kids from downstairs up to the big hall in ruins, all looking extremely confused and wrapped in whatever clothes or blankets they could find in the Foot dorms.

Casey was just done binding up Donnie's shell with a banner, to help keep the crack closed, and was once again idle and restless. "You tellin' me! I should be up there!" he complained. "Man, I'm going! I gotta—"

Donnie grabbed him by the shreds of browned cloth dangling from his knee. "You can barely walk! What're you gonna do? You're just gonna be a liability, ya bonehead!"

"Hey, don't talk to me like that, I'm like three years older than you."

"Not mentally."

"Why don't you go and invent the suckoscope and then test it on yourself?"

Between them, April let out an annoyed moan in her sleep, almost as though scolding them. They looked at each other, their scowls fading into a half smile. Donnie felt the need to chuckle, but his breath caught in a fresh bout of pain.

They fell into a warm silence, and Casey sat down next to Donnie. With nothing else to do, they watched the Lotus work on helping the wounded.

"Oh, there's Billy," Casey commented, and Donnie followed his finger to one of the ex-mutants currently ogling around the big underground hall with a bewildered expression on his sooty face.

Donnie's eyes drifted momentarily to Hachisu-no-Hana, propped against the wall, distraught, but awake. He didn't know the exact number of Lotus casualties, but nonetheless it was a huge blow for what was already a decimated clan.

"So you and April."

The half-question took Donnie by surprise, though he supposed it shouldn't have. He ducked his head a little, not sure if Casey wanted a fight or what. "Yeah… So it seems."

But Casey just said, nonchalantly, "That's good, man. I mean… It was kinda obvious when you look at it."

"Huh… Wasn't so obvious to me," he said, feeling kinda dumb—but also kinda pleased, if he was honest. Then carefully, "And, uh… you okay? With it?"

Casey shrugged. "Yeah, man." He leaned in over April's prone figure and whispered, "April's awesome, and super hot, obviously, but uh… We ain't exactly made for each other if you know what I mean."

Donnie let out a laugh, brimming with relief, because for once they agreed. It was worth the new jolt of pain. "I'm… glad. You're a good friend, Jones."

Casey crossed his arms and for two seconds he only grinned. "Just good?"

"Don't push it," Donnie warned, but really he just wanted to hug him. So he threw an arm over him, gingerly, though his shell protested vociferously, and Casey hugged him back, arms wrapping around his shell.

Donnie flinched. "Ow, ow, careful."

"Sorry."

He smiled, just… grateful. Grateful for April, and for Casey, and for them being the best friends a mutant turtle could ask for, and very relieved that they had seemed to click into place so neatly. It could've ended a lot worse. He could've lost them both to a stupid rivalry. It could've gone like it did for Splinter and Oroku Saki and…

He gasped.

Casey started. "What? What?"

Donnie didn't pause to explain and just moved, his mind racing and his entire body grimacing. Casey was on him in an instant, helping him stand.

"Dude, what?"

"Tang Shen…" Donnie choked out, as Casey handed him a spear so he could lean on it, then helped him walk. They both limped pathetically towards the Lotus's corner, where Hachisu sat.

With great effort, and kinda fearing he'd pull something open, Donnie kneeled in front of Hachisu and bowed.

"Hachisu-no-Hana-san, I need you to give me the pendant."

Hachisu's eyes widened at his directness. Immediately her hand went to her sash, covering the small lump there. "What? No! I cannot do that. She's dangerous."

"Please, we need her! You have to trust me!"

"No," she said, managing to sound dangerous even in her weakened state. He could almost see Shen's fury in her dazed eyes. "I have to do it. I can't fail her," Hachisu went on, and now she sounded pleading, fearful.

Donnie pressed on. He had to convince her. He had to have that pendant.

"That's why you're here, isn't it? She made you come. You came to kill Shredder for her."

Hachisu's features softened. "Not just her. My clan, they deserve justice as well."

Donnie made a wide motion around them. "This is not how you do your clan justice. This is how you destroy it. This is how you become her." He pointed at her sash, at the box he knew lay underneath her protective hand.

Hachisu looked around at Atsuko, and Jiro, both kneeling by her side, so reverently. But their faces, tired and broken and bloody, were telling.

Jiro nodded, and Donnie saw the tiny gesture click in Hachisu's eyes.

"Let it go," Donnie ventured, softly, trying to inject as much confidence as possible in his words. "Give her to us, we'll take her to Shredder. Let us set you both free."

Hachisu gazed at his extended hand, chest heaving. Then, slowly, like she feared she might scare it away, she reached into her sash, and took out the little wooden box with the engraved ofuda. She gripped it tightly for a couple of seconds, as though saying goodbye, and extended it to Donnie.

He closed his fingers around the box, releasing a breath. "Arigato gozaimasu, Hachisu-no-Hana-san."

Hachisu nodded vaguely, still looking as though she might lunge for it. Donnie quickly retreated just in case, box in hand, and let Casey pull him back to his feet.

Casey looked curiously at the object in his hand, and Donnie wondered if he could hear it too, that little hum coming from within. Something tiny squirmed there, like a hummingbird suffocating, fighting for its life.

"So she's in there, huh?"

"Yep."

"Let me do it, dude." Casey reached for the box, but Donnie grabbed his hand before he could touch it.

"No, wait! It could be really dangerous. What if it opens? She might see you as a threat, she could very easily kill you," he said, and Casey flinched, eyeing the box looking more impressed than worried. "But she'll know me. Probably. I have to take her."

"But you're a mess!" Casey protested, indicating Donnie's entire… self.

"I'll manage," he said, propping himself up on the spear.

"Like hell you will. I'm going with you." Both Donnie and Casey turned in unison to see April approach them, looking groggy and attempting to wipe off the dry blood from her nose.

"April! You okay?"

"I'm fine, Donnie, it's just a headache." She waved him off, walking around him to look at his shell instead. He felt her slight fingers softly trace the wound—and boy if it wasn't better than any medi-gel—before putting her business face back on. "We gotta get Shen upstairs."

Shredder's heel to his solar plexus had Leo gliding and tumbling on his shell, dragging shards of glass along which caught on his arms and the back of his head, until eventually he came to a stop half-way across the throne room. But any additional cuts to his skin hardly registered when he tried to suck in a breath and couldn't, the harrowing tightness in his stomach keeping his lungs from fully expanding.

He was lucid enough to check that Shredder wasn't still on him, and saw through blurry tears that Mikey and Future Donnie had stepped up, granting him a reprieve.

Swallowing around the copper tang in his mouth, he rolled to his hands and feet, bits of glass falling down his neck from where they'd collected in the nook of his shell, to wait for the pain to recede, for his breath to come back. Man, his insides felt like mashed potatoes. The gash on his leg was looking nasty, the drooping piece of Foot banner soaked in his blood.

Luckily, miraculously, everybody was still breathing as far as he could tell. And Karai was alive and, for now, safe.

But they were exhausted. He could hear it in their ragged breathing, and the audible desperation in every punch and parry that came in increasingly longer intervals. One by one, they'd been keeling over from injury or fatigue. Most of his brothers lay around the throne room, next to the definitely dead bodies of Bradford and Xever, unable to get back up. Unable to get out.

He was starting to think they might not make it.

Where did it go wrong? Oh yes, there was the Lotus's secret passage, the mutagen, and the resulting monster mutants, Karai going AWOL… Yeah, even 'Plan R' had been out the window miles ago. They'd burned straight through all the letters of the alphabet. There was no plan anymore. Just this moment.

And they were losing.

After all that dedication, after everything Future Donnie and the others had done to get to this point, thinking, hoping this time it would be better, and now they'd…

No. No, no, come on, Leo, stop that. Get up! We can still do this!

They were nearly there. If they'd all stand up once more, if they could just swing one more time, they could finish it.

"Get up!" he meant to shout, but all he managed was a choked grunt.

Shredder was as good as finished. Even Shredder knew it. But that's what made him so dangerous, now more than ever. There was no trace of the proud, unruffled Oroku Saki. This Shredder was rabid. It should've made him careless, but like a speeding lorry with no one behind the wheel, it only made him all the more deadly.

This couldn't be it. They all got to go home tonight, that was the deal!

Leo reached for his sword, the metal screeching on the marble as he pulled it towards him. Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself to his feet. His legs barely held him, and he had to lean on his sword like a cane to avoid once again crumpling to the floor.

Just then, Future Donnie toppled to his side with a cry, and Future Raph scrambled to get between him and Shredder's blades. Sais and tekko-kagi interlocked. Both beasts trembled under the strain of holding each other at arm's length. Then, with a mighty roar, Future Raph gave a brutal, beautiful twist, and the steel snapped.

Shredder retreated, two claws short, and finally, finally, he seemed to waver. Shoulders hunched, but somehow still standing, still holding their gazes, he breathed heavily and shook from exertion.

They had arrived at a stalemate, no one daring to be the first to attack.

Future Donnie's head hung low on his shoulders, one hand draped over an unmoving Leo, the other hand still tight on his naginata, blade a warning. Future Mikey knelt beside them, broken arm pressed to his plastron. The present Mikey kept close to Present Raph, who still wobbled as if he'd just got down from the tea cups.

For a few long moments, nobody moved but to shift achingly, to heave a jagged breath.

He didn't see Karai climb down from the ledge.

One moment she was up there, and then, before he could stop her, she'd already gone past Leo and was creeping up behind Shredder.

Leo's already bruised stomach gave a lurch as Karai lunged, stabbing something into Shredder's shoulder. Shredder roared in surprise. She withdrew, only to sink the kunai in his side once, twice—

And that's about all she could do before Shredder reached back, his blades missing Karai by an inch as she pulled back.

"Don't touch my sister!" the smaller Mikey dove in out of nowhere, nunchaku cracking on the hollow of Shredder's knee, making it buckle. Shredder twisted, and the same kunai was all of a sudden jutting out of Mikey's thigh. Mikey fell, gripping his leg, and his cry of pain made Leo's muscles lurch, wanting nothing more than to go to him. But two steps had him on his knees again. The wound, and the bloodloss, and the lack of air, were clearly doing him in. Mikey made a real effort to get back up himself, but slumped backwards, panting. Future Raph reached for him, dragged him backwards away from Shredder. But the only reason Leo's little brother wasn't dead yet was because Shredder had clearly deemed him unworthy of his remaining energy, his rage once more honed in entirely on Karai.

Now turned this way, Leo could see his eyes boring into her, a guided missile locking onto a target.

"Karai—" Future Donnie panted, shaking as he attempted to stand, only to end on all fours.

She stumbled backwards, and Leo stumbled forward to meet her. Karai started a little when he reached her, but then leaned into him. They held onto each other as Shredder started moving, stalking towards them. A wounded beast with nothing to lose.

"I'm sorry, Leo—I'm sorry," Karai breathed, and Leo's heart twisted at the sorrow in her voice.

He took her face in his hands, shook his head at her. He wanted to tell her they'd be okay. They weren't defeated just yet. He wouldn't let Shredder take her. He wanted to tell her he'd do it all again. He wanted to tell her so much, but he knew he didn't have the time. Shredder moved, slow but no less inexorable than the shift of a continent.

Leo could see the others shuffling pitifully towards them, despair in their eyes, but Shredder was already too close. Nowhere to run. Instead, Leo touched his forehead to Karai's, and hoped the small gesture conveyed everything that his voice couldn't. They shared in a few laborious breaths, hands finding each other between them. With a final squeeze, and a combined snarl, they turned to face the Shredder, even if just one last time.

As though he knew they would not run, that he had time, Shredder stopped just a few steps away, giving them one last glower. Pumping himself up, maybe. Reveling in what he was about to do.

Far behind him, Leo saw himself, some years older, surrounded by his broken brothers, eyes shot wide in horror, hand reaching out like he was sinking.

Now, Shredder seemed to have made up his mind. Slowly, almost ritualistically, his arm cranked up way over his head, ready to strike. Leo prepared to get in the middle, somehow—

Bonk!

Something had flown in out of nowhere like some kind of angry winged creature, hitting Shredder square in the mask of his kabuto. He staggered, arms pinwheeling at his sides. The thing dropped to the ground with a series of wooden clangs.

A bat. A baseball bat.

Everybody turned to the entrance. The fire had gone out. Now three figures stood there, a little crookedly, by the door's blackened remains: April, Casey and Present Donnie. Whether out of confusion or curiosity, Shredder paused to gawk as well. He was probably wondering how they'd got past the fire trap. He clearly didn't know Donnie.

"Leo!" Donnie cried, seeking Leo's eye contact. Once he had it, he untangled an arm from around Casey's shoulders, and held something aloft for him to see. Leo recognized the object at once, and he understood.

He clutched his sword, and nodded. Donnie cranked his arm back, and threw the little wooden box.

Leo swung high above his head. The box opened in mid-air, hitting the floor in two parts, the red pendant rolling out to stop at their feet.

What happened next was hard to get his head around. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. There was an explosion of non-sound—a silence so loud it drowned out everything and made Leo's ears ring. It was as if the entire room had been flooded in thick resin, freezing everything in place like insects in amber. In the tar-like stillness, a low hum, like drowned-out static.

He could barely see. But a figure stood there, quite tall, among all the figures stuck in guarded poses.

Tang Shen moved easily through the leaden fog. She moved towards Shredder.

The unbridled terror in Shredder's eyes was discernible even through the narrow slit of his kabuto. Shen stared back, intent, a hot, vibrating fury radiating off her. Shredder trembled, his fists fighting invisible bonds, as she extended her hand.

But then a third figure emerged from the silty darkness. Leo jerked in seeing Karai, reaching out to grab Shen's wrist, putting herself between her and Shredder.

"Mother." It was as if only the echo of Karai's voice could make it through the fog to Leo's ears. "Please, mother, don't." Her awed, glistening eyes pleaded into Shen's. "Not you."

Shen looked blankly at Karai, and for a moment Leo feared she might just kill her first. But then her ghostly hand left Shredder, and his body immediately plummeted to the ground. Shen's hand moved to cup Karai's face, so tenderly, fingers grazing her cheek in reverence.

She smiled. "Miwa."

"Please, not you. Not like this," Karai begged, again.

There was a flicker of comprehension in Shen's pale face, black eyes softening. The deafening static faded to a murmur, and now Leo could move, though his body felt impossibly heavy.

Before he could make it to his feet, there was a crack. Shredder was curled in on himself from a nunchaku blow to the stomach. He'd barely lifted his gaze again when an angry mass of turtle jumped him from behind, stabbing a sai through each of his shoulders. Shredder roared, arms twitching, muscles bunching uselessly around the metal objects. Future Donnie moved in then, slinging his bo across Shredder's throat, knee on his spine, locking his head in place.

Throughout, Shen only stood aside, looking on. Waiting.

They'd done it. They had him. Immobilized and alone and bleeding, Shredder was finally defeated.

Karai's brothers, present and future, were gathered around him, visibly broken and hurting and exhausted, hands pressing into wounds and guarding broken bones, but fortified by the vision before them, of Shredder defeated. Finally.

The older version of Leo, eye half-closed from a bloody bruise to the head, took a wobbly step forward, sword gripped tight in his bloodied fist. With an expression of disgust, he pulled the kabuto from Shredder's head, and Shredder didn't even react.

Karai thought he was gonna do it right then and there. But then all four of them turned to her.

Big Leo looked her dead in the eye as he pointedly stretched the arm with the sword towards her, hilt end facing her.

"It's your choice," he said calmly, even though she could see in all of their eyes how much they didn't really want her to.

Older Donnie's bo was still to Shredder's throat, though Karai doubted it was necessary at this point. Shredder's scarred face was wrought with horror, gawking at the ghost of Tang Shen as though hypnotized.

Karai looked at the man who she'd once called father, the man who'd made her the way she was, taught her to hate Hamato Yoshi for the longest time. A man who had done too many terrible things to count and yet had spoon-fed her this twisted ideal of honor and love. It was because of this man that she'd only recently learned who she really was.

Well... Better late than never, I guess.

She lifted her eyes back to the bigger Leo, and shook her head. "Not like this." She took a step back, rejecting the sword, and in that way, she felt, rejected the part of her that was Shredder. It was the best way she could think of to honor her real father.

"Then we will," Big Leo said cooly, looking at her askance, as though waiting to see if she'd oppose.

She shrugged.

Then she stepped in front of Shredder, making sure what she was about to say was the last thing Shredder heard. "This is how I free myself of you. Hamato Yoshi is my father. And you are nothing."

Leo's sword came down. And while others gasped and looked away and gave out choked cries of disgust, she felt nothing but relief.

As she gazed down at the lifeless shape, something shifted over her shoulder, like a long heavy sigh, and she turned. Shen was beside her. She reached out with a tender hand, and as she stroked Karai's cheek, she felt a tingle, warm and fuzzy.

Knowing what came next, Karai allowed her mouth to spread in a wondering smile. "Sayonara, Okaasan."

And then Tang Shen was gone.

Splinter was gently pulled out of his meditative trance, his senses honing in one by one on the intruding thing.

Someone was there.

Muscles springing into action before he'd even opened his eyes, he aimed the tip of his cane at the intruder... but it was he who froze.

A gasp caught in his throat. The cane dropped to the carpeted floor with a muffled thud.

"Shen," he choked. "What—"

Was this a dream? Had he fallen asleep?

Tang Shen glided towards him, as silent as a feather in a breeze. She smiled, and extended a white hand. Splinter couldn't be sure he hadn't imagined the touch of it on his cheek as he stared into Shen's eyes. He thought he could hear her say, "Yoshi," before fading away before his eyes.

His heart was still reaching for the vision many seconds after, and only when his chest began to hurt did he remember to breathe.

Now he understood everything.

He sat there for a bit afterwards, going over the events of the last few days. The pieces fell into place so neatly.

There was no doubt. Oroku Saki was gone.

It was over.

He glanced at the clock. There was still time.

Wiping his eyes, he grabbed his cane, got to his feet and rushed out.

Afjlasdhflashglasjdf only one chapter to go...

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