Chapter Text
Leo’s hearing was muffled. His eyes were glued to the photo in his hand; an image of a time long ago. One full of peace and joy, something that reflected in the faces of each member of his family, including his own.
The sound of battle crept into the slider’s tympana and his focus panned away from the photo. The ground was moving quickly beneath his feet as he ran. Ahead of him, members of the resistance were trading their final blows with the enemy, and Leo could identify each of his remaining allies. Todd had learned to harness his lemmon rush despite the lack of lemons after the invasion. The End of the World, if you will. Bright, magenta laser beams were shot around the open space, one setting off an explosion. A burning aircraft fell from the sky not too far to the right, coaxing his eyes toward the army of giant Krang-beasts framing the charge of several doglike alien attackers with a glowing eye charging its lazer beam, causing another fiery explosion.
The turtle was injured, and the wound hurt like a tank. He had to keep pressure on it. Looking to his left, Leo was met with a black haired boy with a hockey mask. Over the mask’s eyes were two red stripes that had been painted in Leo’s image. The sentiment still filled him with pride, but the battlefield was no place for such expression.
“I got you, Sensei. Stay with me,” the boy said, voice raised over the commotion of the battlefield.
“You’re a lifesaver, Casey Jones,” the slider responded.
His mask flipped up to reveal his face. “I learned from the best,” he said in stride. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
The ground slanted and Leo’s legs had to work twice as hard to keep pace up the slope. Fulminations continued to erupt as the two ran. Krang-dogs raced past them, snarling.
As they reached the top of the hill, the mangled remnants of the Statue of Liberty lying on the ground came into view. The slider collapsed onto his knees, taking Casey down with him. The Krang-dogs jumped at the opening, aiming to kill the duo, before lightning whipped them to the side.
“Bad doggies!” Cried the familiar voice of the last remaining member of Leo’s immediate family.
“Impeccable timing, little brother,” the slider said, turning to brace himself with his metal arm, chipped sword drawn with the other. “Very dramatic.”
Mikey appeared from thin air as his chains crossed Leo’s vision. The floating box turtle cast his chains out, impaling any remaining enemies in sight and eliminating them in bursts of light. A beacon of Mikey’s ninpo shot into the sky, probably alerting any remaining allies to their location, as well as drawing the attention of the Krang-beasts that still lived.
Casey hauled his master to a pile of rubble, propping the slider into a sitting position.
“Help him, Michelangelo,” Casey begged the mystic warrior. “He’s hurt bad.”
Looking down to the battlefield below, Leo took in the image of what remained of his home. Above it all, the Technodrome gazed upon the ruins, an air of supremacy looming over all who dared oppose the power of the Kraang.
“That’s it,” Leo declared. “The resistance failed. The Krang won.” The slider looked down in defeat before an idea struck him. “But… but it isn’t over. We’ve still got a ninja’s greatest weapon; hope. That, and a badass mystic warrior.” Leo had been saving his family’s swear card for something like this. It was an awful idea, but it was the only one he had. “Mikey, we need a time gateway.”
“It’ll take everything I have,” Mikey replied, not denying the proposal.
“I know.” Gods did he know. “But this is our last chance. It’s our only chance.”
Mikey nodded firmly, before turning and rolling up his nonexistent sleeves.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Casey questioned. “Where is he going?”
“Casey, listen,” Leo commanded his student. Mikey began his process with a glowing focus circle, his cloak swaying as he spun. Golden lightning sparked up the box turtle’s arms as he channeled his ninpo. “The Krang first came to our planet through a mystic doorway,” the slider continued, placing the picture in his hand face down on the ground. If things went his way, he wouldn’t be needing it much longer. Using the blank side as parchment, Leo drew on the back with a stone. “The key that opened the doorway looked like this,” he said, replicating the image perfectly from memory after nearly two decades.
“Why are you telling me this?” Casey asked as Leo handed his student the image.
“Because Mikey’s about to send you back in time to the day that the key was stolen.”
“Wait, he’s gonna what?”
In front of Mikey, a golden rift began tearing through reality, and mystic cracks were staring to form along his fingers. The turtle stranded to widen the glowing gap, pushing himself beyond his capabilities.
“The people who stole that key opened the doorway for the Krang. You have to find it before that happens.” The slider ordered. “Find the key, stop the Krang.”
“But Sensei-”
“-Say it!”
“…Find the key, stop the Krang.”
Leo loosened his iron grip on the boy’s shoulder and patted it encouragingly.
“I don’t want to lose you,” Casey admitted, eyes already full of grief.
“Casey,” Leo began, tone soft. “It's not about me.” Leo recited the lesson the apocalypse had finally drilled into his thick skull.
Unfortunately, no more could have been said, as a red hue engulfed the pair and their surroundings.
“They found us!” Casey observed. He’d always been clever like that. He activated his chainsaw-hockey stick, the mechanism whirring.
Both turned uneasily as another light beamed behind them. “Mikey,” Leo urged. They needed that time gateway, and fast. The box turtle in question was falling apart at the seams, but he kept pushing forward, the fate of the world on his shoulders.
“Master Michaelangelo, no! You’re gonna-” Casey let the sentence die on his tongue as the turtle turned his head and gave the pair a reassuring wink before promptly shattering into a million pieces like broken glass, nothing but a hole in space and time to show he’d even been there in the first place.
Leo gazed upon his little brother's final piece of work, the last chance for the resistance to finally defeat their foe. Leo plastered a smile over his face with a dry swallow, eyes watering. It’s what Mikey would want. What he would have wanted. For them to keep smiling.
The Krang-beasts surrounded them, the portal glowing like the sun that the smog had covered so long ago.
“Casey,” Leo started. A Krang-dog roared off to the side, beginning a charge. “When you’re done saving the world, do me a favor.” Leo wanted to be remembered by his student in a positive light in his last moments, so he chose his last words to be a light hearted joke. “Grab a slice!”
Leo sent Casey one last confident smile, before running back into battle. Leo was going to go out swinging, just like the rest of his family. The slider lifted his metal arm to block a bite from a Krang-dog before shaking the beast from its grip. He slashed down an attack from another beast and ran. Then, everything went red.