The idea of Tang Shen becoming Master Shard originated in the tumblr rp-verse. It began with a quick drabble in which Falling!Leo, under the influence of mysterious forces yet to be revealed, developed the ability to percevie and travel between the multiple realities in the tumblr-verse. This is what he found in one of them, and the idea would not get out of my head. So I created shardsoftangshen dot . This story is where I'm collecting the ficlets and drabbles that I come up with for her. It will contain a lot of Shard and baby turtles stories, more than likely.

Butterflies

Leo sat in lotus position in the dojo, calming his mind and reaching for the realities, trying to get a better sense of how they all fit together. He sifted slowly down through them, brushing his mental fingers across them, taking in the sense of them and trying to decipher what his rift-sense was telling him.

He paused as he came to one in particular, frowning. It felt incredibly familiar, and yet there was something very different about it. But as hard as he probed, he could sense no malice in it, and the subtle difference was nagging at him. Surely it couldn't hurt just to take a quick look…. He grabbed that reality and pulled it into alignment, keeping firm hold of it just in case he needed to escape quickly.

He opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. Everything looked normal so far. The dojo was as it always was, with its familiar carpets and the tree that Leo had watched grow as he and his brothers did, nurtured by Splinter's care and the faint light from the grate up above.

He continued to move, though his brow was beginning to furrow. The weapons were still here, but their layout on the walls was different. He continued to the shrine, where he paused. The family portait was the same, but only some of the ornaments of the shelves were familiar. He looked back across the dojo. The entire sense of the lair was different. It was… it was…

Yin.

"Leonardo?"

A voice, strong and feminine, spoke from the depths of Splinter's room. Leo's eyes widened as a figure emerged from the shadows, staring at him with concerned curiosity.

She wore a houmongi of dark navy blue, patterned with pale geen willow leaves, and a richly brocaded obi secured the relatively simple kimono at her waist. A black plume of a tail twitched beneath the hem of the kimono as she stepped forward, and the black-and-white feline face regarding him grew dark with concern. Her green eyes searched his, but though the colour was distinctly catlike, he knew the shape of those eyes. He had seen them looking out of the family portrait every day of his life.

But they weren't Hamato Yoshi's eyes.

"Mother?" he breathed.

She reached a clawed hand toward him. "What is wrong, my son?"

The gentleness underlying the concern was what broke his concentration. With a gasp, he released the realities he had been holding in place, and Tang Shen vanished. Leo found himself standing, alone, in the empty dojo of the reality he called home on this side of the rift.