Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was just a regular day, well as regular as it could get for a family of mutants. A family made up of four nineteen-year-old mutant turtles and one old mutant rat. Master Splinter still refuses to tell his sons his actual age. They just accepted he’s old.

Leo was meditating while Raph had a go at the punching bag. Mikey was playing a new video game he got and Don tinkering away on his newest project. He wanted to add a few fun features to the Battel Shell. Master Splinter was off to the side, watching his sons with a smile. He never imagined having children when he was nothing more than a common rat, but he would trade his boys for the world. They meant everything to the old rat.

The quiet was nothing out of the ordinary as of late. Recently there hadn’t been any serious issues that arose, not after they had met their interdimensional counterparts. They had been… odd, to say the least. They were so different yet so similar to his beloved boys. It made the rat wonder what other realities are out there. How much does a version differ from another? Was there a universe in which he had been human before mutating? Maybe there was a world in which they called Tokyo their home instead of New York. Questions Splinter surely would never receive answers to, but they were fun to think about. All of them had questions they would love to have answers to or thoughts of possible what-ifs.

Raphael had wondered about a world where they had ever so slightly different weapons, a Leo with an Odachi instead of a pair of katana or a Raph with a pair of tonfa instead of a pair of sai. Donatello wondered about worlds where there were different species, maybe just from the four of them or possibly one where all four are different kinds. Leonardo wondered about the possibility of a world in which they were different ages. They were quadruplets, but what if one world they weren’t? what if in that world, Leo wasn’t the oldest? And Michelangelo? He wondered about a world in which they had superpowers.

The possibilities were endless and so fun to think about. All the different worlds in which they could still be a family.

They finally had gotten the time to think about these things, to have fun with this possibility. But as much as Splinter loved that they all finally got a well-deserved break, he had a horrible feeling about it all. He feared something was about to happen, something horrible. Splinter hoped he was just being paranoid.

As if on cue, one of Don’s many alarms went off. But what surprised everyone more was Mikey screaming in surprise and falling off the couch.

“What’s wrong?!”, asked Leo.

“I’m fine.”, said Mikey as he stood up.

“No one thought you weren’t, idiot.”, said Raph as he walked past Mikey.

Soon all of them, including Master Splinter, were near Don. Don was looking at what causing the signal to off.

“Looks like those sensors we put up finally paid off.”, he said.

Shortly after everything their counterparts happened, Don had the bright idea to put up sensors. It had been too quiet for too long for anyone’s liking, even though they liked the break.

Don pulled up some footage from a camera near where the sensor was triggered.

“Donatello, when did you put up cameras?”, Splinter asked his son.

“I didn’t put them up.”, he simply said.

“Then how-?”, Splinter was cut off.

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, looks like the purple dragons are active again.”

Splinter decided to ask his son about that later.

“Finally! Some action!”, said Raph.

Leo straightened up and looked at his brothers.

“Or breaks over. Let’s kick some shell!”

The brothers quickly gathered their weapons and off they were.

Splinter knew they could handle themselves; he trained them himself after all. But something didn’t let him shake that feeling from earlier. Somehow he felt it the second they left, whatever bad thing is about to come crashing down on them, will happen today. But now, with his boys already gone, he couldn’t do anything but hope he was wrong. He just wants his sons to come home to him happy and healthy, all four of his precious boys.

Soon enough they reached their destination, some kind of pharmacy. At least that’s what it looked like. What could Hun want with medicine?

Within a second they spotted the huge mutant turtle. It was odd to think Hun, their enemy, was now also a mutant turtle, much like them. All because he was stupid enough to touch the mutagen from that other reality. None of them choose to dwell on it too much, for their own sanity.

“Wait.”, said Leo as he stretched out a hand, “Let’s observe them first.”

Raph begrudgingly sat back down again; he was only mere seconds away from jumping into action. He had been itching for a real fight for ages. One could only have fun hitting the pinching bag so many times.

They looked around and saw many different things being brought out of the pharmacy. Many boxes were brought out, some were labelled Ibuprofen, or Tylenol. Oddly enough one box was also labeled testosterone and another was labeled estrogen. Why would Hun need those? Apparently, a few members of the Purple Dragon did more than Hun. They saw a few women take the contents of the estrogen box and a few men take some form of the other one. But that is not important right now!

The weirdest thing coming out of the pharmacy were vials with some kind of liquid inside. It was a light blue shade and not labelled. Hun took one of the vials and inspected it. He handed it over to someone who looked out of place compared to the Purple Dragons. They were dressed in a long coat with a clipboard and had glasses. They weren’t a Purple Dragon that much was obvious.

But just who were they then and why were they working with the Purple Dragons?

As they watched Don noticed that the vials in the boxes they were carrying weren’t medicine at all.

“Guys, those are some sort of drugs!”

“What? How do you know?”, asked Mikey.

Don pulled off his goggles, he hadn’t taken them off before they left and put them on Mikey. “Look.” He said as he pointed towards the vials.

“WOAH! Why are they glowing?!”

“Likely tonic water, it glows under black light and my googles mimic that effect.”, Don explained.

Before they could jump in action they heard the screeching of a car, driving too fast. They looked over to see the source of the screech.

“Is that?”, said Mikey.

“It is.”, confirmed Don.

“Seriously?!”, exclaimed Raph.

“Out of all the people working with Hun it had to be Bishop?!”, said Leo.

The car approaching them was none other than one of the trucks Bishop used all too often.

As soon as the car came to a stop Bishop stepped out and greeted Hun. They couldn’t make out what they were saying. But It looked like they were agreeing to meet elsewhere, but only after Bishop had glanced their way.

Shit.

He knew they were here.

One would assume they would retreat now, but none of them had a good feeling about leaving Bishop or Hun with some unknown drug that could do who knows what to not only them but the whole planet.

So, they decided to follow them to wherever they were about to have their meeting. Hopefully, they won’t come to regret that decision.

Inside one of the many EPF facilities, Hun and Bishop were talking. The four turtle brothers had snuck inside but were still a little too far to hear them speak.

They slowly snug closer. It was awfully easy, almost too easy.

“And you’ll turn me back to normal?”, asked Hun.

“Of course, I always keep my promises.”, Bishop said.

So that was why Hun and Bishop were working together. Hun wanted to be human again. But how did Bishop intend to do that? Surely he didn’t have anything to undo the mutation. Sure, he turned Don back when he got double mutated, but that was different. Don was turned back to a regular mutant, not a normal turtle. Not to mention that the stuff that turned Hun was not from this reality.

They had listened to them enough and jumped into action. Hun and Bishop easily defended themselves. Each fighting two of the brothers. Hun was fighting Leo and Mikey while Bishop was dealing with Raph and Don.

The turtles were gaining the upper hand until nothing was in their favour anymore.

“OW!”, yelled Mikey as he rubbed his left bicep. Seconds later he began to stumble.

“Mikey!”, yelled Leo as he tried to reach his little brother before he fell to the floor. But to no avail. Before Leo reached him he was hit in the neck and also stumbled a bit.

Mikey was unconscious on the floor and Leo was doing his best to stay standing and awake but soon enough he joined his brother on the floor.

“What did you do?!”, yelled Raph as he charged at Hun, who was about to grab the unconscious turtle in blue. Hun moved back to dodge.

“You’ll find out soon enough, mutant scum!”, said Hun.

“Mutant scum? Have you seen yourself lately?”, Raph remarked as he went to hit Hun again.

And then something hit Raph in his thigh, causing him to fall forward to his knees. That’s when Don spotted what had knocked out his brothers, the vials from earlier. They were some kind of anesthesia-inducing substance. Don had to get his brothers out of there. Who knows what Bishop will do to them?

“What are doing?!”, yelled Don.

He moved to hit Bishop one more time but Hun easily picked Don up. Curse the man – mutant – whatever – for his massive stature that made him tower of the brothers.

Bishop smiled that awfully sick smile of his, it always creeped Don out. It never meant anything good. The first time Don saw it he was strapped to a table for some sick experiment. The man was a true monster in human disguise.

“You won’t have to worry about that, you won’t feel a thing. Probably.”

“Let us go!”, Don was trying to get out of Hun's grabs and failing. He hated this situation so much. His brothers are not responding and he wasn’t able to help them. He hated being helpless so much.

“Let me think. No.”; said Bishop as he pulled out another vial.

“Why are you even doing this?!”, asked Don.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Don glared at the man, what was he planning and why did he need the four brothers for it? Don looked as Bishop moved closer to him and tried to lean away from the vial. But given that he was still in Hun's hold it was useless, Bishop put the syringe end of the vial into Don’s arm and the mutant felt the stinging pain as well as the numbness that followed it. Slowly he was feeling his body getting number and number.

“Good night, Donatello.”, said Bishop.

As Don was slowly losing consciousness, he looked at his brothers. Raph had also fallen over at this point and Leo and Mikey were still out cold. Don tried to reach out to them but to no avail. He was tight in Hun’s crutches. Soon enough the drug took his consciousness fully Don joined his brothers in dreamland.

The last thing he heard was Bishop and Hun laughing at the brothers.

“You’ll be my first little test subject, Donatello. You could cause me the most trouble in the long run after all.”

All the way back in their lair Splinter felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

“No.”, he whispered.

Before even another thought he took his cane and ran. Where to? He didn’t know. He just knew he had to save his sons.

Chapter Text

When Leo woke up he saw his brothers by his side. Raph to his right and Mikey to his left. They were tied up and their weapons were nowhere to be seen. But most importantly, Don was nowhere to be found! Where was Don?!

“Raph, Mikey! Wake up!”, called Leo.

“Urgh… no need to yell, sheesh.”, grumbles Raph. He was still waking up. Mikey only grunted at his eldest brother's call.

“Dude, where’s Donnie?”, asked Mikey after he finally woke up.

“Maybe he got out?”, said Leo. More to convince himself that Don was safe, rather than actually believing it.

“Bullshit. Don wouldn’t leave.”, said Raph as he tried to get out of the ropes.

“I wouldn’t try that, Raphael.”

The trio looked ahead and saw Bishop and Hun.

“And why should we listen to you?”, yelled Raph.

“I guess you don’t have to, unless-“, Bishop pressed a button on the remote he was holding, “you’d like to keep your brother.”

A light illuminated the side of the room. There stood a machine. There were many exposed wires as well as a few screens and tubes. It looked almost unfinished. But most importantly there was some sort of chamber. Inside said the chamber was Don. He was awake and trying to get out.

“DONNIE!”, yelled the brothers.

“What do you want from him?!”, yelled Leo.

“The same I want to do with you three.”, said Bishop.

Bishop and Hun walked closer to the trio and Don seemed even more desperate to get out.

“You see, there are quite a few humans out there affected by your little adventure with your friends. Hun wasn’t the only one get mutated. And obviously, getting a retro-mutagen is important. After all what human would want to be a mutant.”

“What do you need us for then?!”, asked Mikey

“You four are going to help me, whether you like it or not. I need someone to run tests on.”

“Why not use the goliath next to you?!”, yelled Raph.

“I need Hun's abilities elsewhere. And why not use you and finally give you an actual purpose.”, said Bishop with that sick smile of his.

Just then more noise came from the machine. Don had managed to slightly open the door, not by a lot but a tiny bit. It gave him hope. But only for a second.

Bishop sighs and calls: “Alex! Give him another dose.”

The person who had been with Hun at the pharmacy earlier ran over and looked at Bishop, afraid. “Yes, sir.” They pushed a button on the console of the unfinished machine. Leo could have sworn he saw them mouth ‘I’m sorry.’.

Then the chamber was filled with a dense gas. A little bit spewed out of the crack of the door.

“What are you doing to him?!”, yelled Raph. The only reason he wasn’t trying to get out anymore was that they would kill Don otherwise. The same could be applied to Leo and Mikey. They wanted to do nothing more than punch them.

“I’m only immobilizing him. He won’t even fall unconscious. This time.”, Bishop said, “But I have to admit. Donatello is much more resilient than you. He woke up an hour before you three. I wonder if that is a side effect of his double mutation.”

Bishop turned back to the three turtles.

“I got off topic.”

“Ya think?”, said Hun.

Bishop glared at him. Neither wanted to work together but they had to for their own benefits.

“As I was saying, I need someone to test my retro-mutagen on. And who better than you? I get to solve humanity's mutant problem and I get rid of you. What better option is there?”

“You said I could crush them!”, said Hun aggravated!”

“And you can. Once they’re regular turtles again.”

Hun didn’t seem convinced. “Won’t be as fun, but I’ll take it.”

“Dude, that’s like animal abuse.”, said Mikey.

“Mikey. Does he look like he cares?”, said Raph.

“Guys!”, said Leo, gaining his brother's attention again.

Over in the chamber, Don was sunken to the floor of the contraption. Alex, the person from earlier, closed the door again. They looked sorry. Like they don’t want to be involved in this. Don hoped that after whatever will happen to him, Alex might just help his brothers out. Don had a feeling they were a good person. Don just hoped he wasn’t wrong about them.

“How about I show you what my retro-mutagen can do? Alex.”, he commanded.

“Sir, it’s far from done – I don’t know what it will do.”, they said.

“I don’t care. Start it!”, he glared at them.

Alex flinched. “Yes, sir.”

They walked over to the control panel again and pressed a few different buttons.

At first, the chamber filled with some gas again, and then a few liquids were coming down, one that weird blue color from earlier again.

Don had a pained expression on his face as everything on him began hurting.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Don’s tribunal marks were back. They were glowing once again. Whatever was going on was triggering them. None of the brothers had thought they could tap into that power again. Could it get Don out?

“Oh no.”, said Alex.

“What?”, yelled Bishop, “What is going on?!”

“Whatever he’s doing is messing with the machine! I – I think it will blow up!”, said Alex.

“Well keep it from blowing up!”, said Bishop as he causally walked out of the room, Hun followed him. They intended to leave all five of them to blow up.

Alex looked towards the door, hurt in their eyes. But they turned back to the control panel working to find a solution.

Yet as they tipped and tipped, the brothers wiggled their way out of the ropes and walked towards the chamber. No matter whether the human managed to stop the explosion or not, they would get Don out.

But before they could reach him the tribunal markings were brighter than they had ever been and the light soon engulfed the whole room only for a giant shock wave to blast them all away from the machine.

The turtle brothers further than the human.

They stood up again only to see the whole machine covered in a wall of smoke. They saw Alex run inside. Likely to save their machine, that’s what the brothers assumed at least. They rushed in to look for Don.

But he was nowhere to be found.

He was gone.

Just then they saw Alex again. They were holding a bag in one hand and Don’s bandana and goggles in the other.

Raph rushed over and grappled them by the collar.

“WHERE IS MY BROTHER!”

“I – I’m sorry.”

“Sorry won’t do!”

Mikey and Leo knew he was close to tears. They were too.

“I know that.”

Raph let them go after Leo placed a hand on his shoulder.

Alex took a few steps back.

“I didn’t someone would take anything this far.”, they held out the bag and Don’s stuff, “Your weapons and… what’s left of your brother.” Their voice cracked.

Mikey took both from the human.

The three brothers took their weapons back. Leo took Don’s bo-staff, Mikey took the goggles and placed them around his neck and Raph did the same with the mask.

“See that window on the left?”, said Alex, “That will lead you straight to the roof.”

Leo and Raph seemed rather hesitant about it all but Mikey just mumbled a thanks and ran to the window. The older two decided to trust Mikey’s instincts on this.

Sure enough, the window led them to the roof.

They ran from there. They had to get home. They knew everything would come crashing down soon, they were only running on shock and adrenaline at this point.

Once they had reached the sewers Mikey had reached his limits. He broke down long before they made it home. Raph held his little brother close; he was also close to simply breaking down and crying.

Leo tried his best to seem composed and put together and he would have if Raph and Mikey didn’t know him like they do. He was just as broken as them. If he was doing this to keep his brothers calmer or if it was to keep himself from crying, they didn’t know.

Returning to the lair with one turtle less was weird. It felt so wrong. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Today was such a calm day, but that never lasted before, did it?

They had assumed they would see their father soon, but far from it. He was gone. They couldn’t help but worry. Things kept getting worse and worse, didn’t they?

Raph gently guided Mikey to sit down on the couch, Raph sat down next to him and only seconds later the dam broke. Raph was never one to cry much, but when he did, it was silent. The tears were running down his face, his expression showed no emotions, like he wasn’t there right now.

Mikey on the other hand was a loud crier. He screamed and cried. Leo walked over to the turtle in orange and sat on Mikey’s other side. Leo, much like Raph, didn’t cry all that much. He always tried to keep it in to reassure his brothers. Mikey kept telling him to just let his emotions happen more often, and Leo tried to take that advice.

The second Leo sat down; Mikey latched onto his eldest brother. Crying into Leo’s shoulder. Leo pulled Mikey closer to him and buried his face in his neck, trying to hide his own sobs.

They were a mess. Who wouldn’t be? They just lost their brother. They lost a part of themselves with him.

After what seemed to be hours, they had no tears left to cry. They were still so destroyed but they were physically incapable of crying anymore.

Raph stayed put on the couch, he hadn’t moved since he sat down. All he did was pull Don’s mask from his neck. He stared at it. This was all he had left of his brother. His ride-or-die, their father called them twins when they were younger sometimes because of it. Raph never admitted it, but he liked that thought. The two middle children, now there was only one middle child and Raph hated it.

Mikey and Leo had detangled from one another but hadn’t moved much. Leo was staring towards the corner where he had placed his own swords and Don’s bo-staff. Don loved that thing; it was simple but he still loved it so much. No one could handle a bo-staff like Don, and Leo would miss watching his brother twirl it with little effort. It was amazing to watch.

Mikey had put the goggles over his eyes. They were a little too big for him, Don always had a larger head than Mikey. Usually, he would laugh at that thought. But not now. All he wanted was to hear Don’s tinkering in the background or his voice. He would do anything to hear his brother again. He would even sit through a math lesson just to see his brother.

As the three dwelled in grief, their father finally returned.

“My sons!”, he yelled as he ran over.

He had looked over all of New York until he reached the conclusion that maybe, hopefully, his boys had returned home. And he was glad they did.

But where was his fourth son? Where was Donatello?

“Leonardo, is Donatello in his lab?”

Once he took a good look at his eldest son, he noticed the tear-stained mask and cheeks. He looked at his other two boys, they also had wet masks and glassy eyes. Oddly enough, Raphael was holding Donatello’s mask and Michelangelo had his goggles.

“Master, Donnie. He-“, Leonardo cut himself off to take a breath, “Donnie isn’t coming home.”

No. No.

“What- What do you mean?”

It couldn’t be true. Donatello couldn’t be gone.

“Donnie’s dead.”, said Raph. His voice had never been this quiet.

Mikey pulled the goggles down again, hiding his glassy eyes again.

“No.”

Splinter fell to his knees.

He broke down. He lost one of his precious boys. He will never see him again. His boys lost their brother.

The three turtles had never seen their father cry like this. They mustered enough energy to move to sit next to him, hugging him and each other close.

Suddenly, the three had more tears cry again, they once again cried.

Why couldn’t they just have an uneventful life? One without all this pain.

Chapter Text

At first, the only thing Don felt was pain.  Then he felt the famously tingle of his Tribunal markings return. He found comfort in it. But the markings could mask the pain only so much. He felt himself be torn apart piece by piece. Then the pain was gone and so was the tingle. He didn’t know what happened just that he could finally rest a bit. He lost consciousness.

Bishop hates his job. He was only in his forties but he wanted nothing more than to retire. And he would have by now if it wasn’t for the reckless kids that wiggled their way into his once lonely life. With his position in the EPF, he could guarantee the children’s safety and with the money he made he was able to spoil them with everything they deserved that their father wasn’t able to get himself. It had been hard enough to get his hands on uranium as a high-ranking officer. Imagine how hard it would have been for a mutant rat.

As the man was doing the paperwork he hated oh so much. It wasn’t that it was hard. It was just a lot. And for some reason, many people still loved the good old-fashioned way of writing this stuff by hand. Why his boss still allowed that when she hated it as much as him, he didn’t know. At this point, he was convinced she just kept it this way to spite him. She would have fired Bishop by now if he wasn’t the EPFs best agent.

Just as he put down one of the papers a crash in front of his desk sent the stack of papers flying. Bishop jumped up and slowly walked around to the desk to see what or who had decided to pay him a visit.

“A mutant turtle?“, he asked himself.

The turtle looks so different from the four mutant turtles he was used to. He was missing a mask; Bishop took notice of that first. Despite seeing the boys without their masks relatively often he still had to admit it looked odd to see them without. This strange turtle was no different.

Bishop decided the unconscious turtle shouldn’t be lying on the floor like that. He picked the mutant up, he was heavier than Mikey, Leo and Donnie, and he was also taller than the three. Bishop wouldn’t be surprised if he was older than all four boys.

When he placed the mutant on the couch, he pulled out his phone. Maybe the resident genius turtle had an idea.

“You’re conversing with Donatello.“, said the purple-branded turtle.

“Hello to you too. Can you come to my office? I think you might want to see this.“

“Did you get me more uranium?!“

“No. Your father banned me from getting you more after that incident.“

“What Papa doesn’t know won’t hurt him.“

“It’ll hurt me. Sorry, kid.“

“Disappointed sigh. We’re on our way.“

Donatello hangs up.

“We?“

Which one of his brothers was coming along?

Before Donnie and whoever he was bringing along came, the mystery turtle began moving around. It didn’t look like he was waking up, rather he was having a nightmare.

Bishop walked over to him and gently tied him to wake him up. The turtle woke up and reacted to the stranger next to him instantly by punching him in the face. Those are some good reflexes.

“I’m so sorry!“, he said.

“It’s fine. I should have been that close.“

Bishop raised his hand as he rubbed his nose. He just hoped he didn’t have a broken nose again.

“Um… where am I and who are you?“

“You’re in my office and I’m John Bishop.“

The turtle froze.

“Bishop?“

He looked afraid. The man didn’t like that expression on his face. Bishop knew he had a reputation but he didn’t want people to be afraid of him.

“I apologize if my reputation-“

He was cut off.

“You’re not Bishop.“

“But I am?“

Before their conversation went anywhere else the bursts open and a pair of mutant turtles walked in. Donnie and Leo.

“So that’s what you meant by us.”, said Bishop.

“Duh, I heard everything.”, said Leo.

“Well, it’s good you’re here too. He appeared out of nowhere and I suspect he’s hurt. Do either of you know him?”

“Just because we’re mutant turtles doesn’t mean we know every mutant turtle.”, said Leo as he walked over to the mystery turtle.

“We never met other mutant turtles.”, said Donnie.

The mystery turtle looked at Leo as he looked over his injuries.

“Leo?”, he whispered.

“Leo looked up at him.

“You heard of me?”, he said while smirking, “See Donnie, I have a fan!”

“Donnie?”, the turtle.

“Why would he even know us? We do try to stay hidden. For the most part at least.”, said Donnie.

“Apparently he knows me, but told him I’m not Bishop.”

Something seemed to click in the turtle's mind, his eyes widened and he stared at the three in front of him.

“Not again!”

“Again?”, asked Leo as he finished up his work. The turtle was only a little beat up. He had a few cuts that he bandaged up. Someone would have to change them sometime but he’ll be fine in no time.

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me but I’m Donatello and-“, he was cut off by the turtle in purple.

“You’re me from an alternate universe!”

“I- yes.”

“The Multiverse is real! Pay up, Nardo!”

Donnie held out his hand to his brother. Leo placed a 20-dollar bill in his hand. Donnie smirked.

Leo turned his attention back to the other turtle.

“If you’re a Donnie, where is your purple mask? Or do you and your brothers not wear them?”

“We do. I guess I lost mine when I got here.”

“Huh. We’ll get you a new one later. Your face looks naked.”, said Leo.

“Thanks.”

Don kept glancing over to Bishop, who was watching the exchange. Was this the counterpart of Bishop? The man in front of him looked far more relaxed and even nicer than the agent he was used to. He talked to the two turtles like they were family, rather than enemies.

“Is everything okay?”, the man asked.

Don had to admit, he was a little nervous. Most humans don’t take kindly to them after all. And Bishop was the reason he was here, stuck.

“I- I don’t know.”

“Are you afraid of Bishop?”, asked Leo.

“Pfft- why would he be? It’s Bishop!”, said Donnie.

Don looked away from them all.

“I think he is.”, said Bishop. If Don didn’t know any better he would say the man sounds sad.

“But you’re- you!”, argued Donnie. There’s no way anyone would be afraid of him.

“He’s from another reality, correct?”

Donnie nodded.

“What if in his world, our relationship is not the same?”

Leo placed a hand on Don’s shoulder. He looked at this odd version of his twin and asked: “Is your Bishop a bad guy?”

Don nodded.

“Do not worry, other me! Our Bishop is not, he’s our uncle.”, said Donnie.

“He’s your uncle?”, Don didn’t seem convinced.

“Essentially. I didn’t really have a choice in it. The kids just decided it and who am I to say no to them.”

“See!”, said Leo.

“Now boys. As much as I would love to have you here instead of young my work, I really need to finish it. I want to get home at a reasonable hour.”

“We’ll be out of your hair in a second!”, Leo said as he stood up, “Come on, we’ll call Raph and Mikey. They can get a spare cart ready!”

Don stood up and walked behind the blue turtle and had his own counterpart next to him who was seemingly on the phone with one of his other brothers.

As soon as he was off the phone and asked his bother: “We’re not portaling? Usually, you like to show off.”

“True, but this guy”, Leo pointed at Don, “could throw up and you’ll have my ass if he does.”

“Fair.”

Don wondered what they meant by portaling. Did this Leo have a portal device?

Don was fascinated as they walked into the lair. It was so different from his own home. It was much more colorful and it looked like an abandoned subway station.

“Welcome to our home. Mi casa es su casa.“, said Leo.

“You know Spanish?”, Don asked.

“Your Leo doesn’t?”

“No. I think Mikey wanted to learn once. He never went through with it.”

Just then Don heard something from one of the train carts and a second later another turtle mutant ran out of the cart. Judging by the orange mask, this was Mikey. He ran up to Don, ignoring his older brothers.

“HEY!” “Angelo!”, yelled his brothers as Mikey ran past them.

“You’re the other Donnie? Where’s your mask?”, he asked.

“Lost it, I think.”

“Do you want a new one?”

“I don’t want to be a bother, it’s fine.”

“He wants one.”, said Leo.

Mikey nodded and asked: “Do you want to be like Donnie’s or more like mine or Leos?”

“Like Leo’s please.”

“Got it!” The orange turtle ran off.

Don smiled; the smaller turtle already reminded him of his little brother.

The twins showed him the cart he was going to stay in for now, while they worked on getting him home. The request was never voiced, the two just assumed he needed help, which he did.

Don had to admit, the two were different from him and his eldest brother. Their dynamic was very different. It reminded him more of how he was with Raph. Individually they were different too. This Leo was more laid back compared to his older brother. And Donnie? Don wasn’t quite sure yet. The other seemed more excited than Don. Maybe it was just the whole situation, Don remembered how giddy he was when he first found out about the multiverse.

“We should see if Raph got the living room ready. He wanted to set up a few snacks and stuff.”, said Donnie.

“Snacks? For what?”, asked Don.

“We need to talk about this whole thing and well, we're curious about you. And if you’re really a Donnie, so are you.”, said Leo.

Don had to admit, he was curious about them.

Mikey, Donnie and Leo all had different markings and while Mikey and Leo had very similar shells, Donnie was wearing a prosthetic one. As curious as he was about the technical part of it, he was worried about the reason for it. Surely Donnie hadn’t gotten a shell injury that left his shell useless.

They made their way to the living room only for Don to almost run into Mikey. Mikey held up purple fabric out for him.

“I found one. Donnie didn’t like the shade, but we kept it.”

“Thank you.”, said Don as he took the mask from Mikey and put it on. He felt much more comfortable already.

The mask itself was a lighter purple than the one Donnie was wearing and it was very similar to Leo’s as he had requested. The mask tails however were a good bit shorter than Leo’s. The mask was surprisingly similar to his regular one just much newer.

“Now you look like a real ninja turtle again!”, said Leo.

“I have to admit, you pull off the lighter shade well.”, said Donnie.

Don chuckled. “Thanks.”

They walked into the living room and saw that everything was arranged neatly the brothers of this dimension walked over to the couch and the beanbags, and Don followed them. Where was their Raph?

“You’re here, great!”, said an unfamiliar voice behind Don.

He turned around and was faced with the biggest mutant turtle he had ever seen. The turtle was much larger than the other three or Don himself. He was even larger than Hun, who had always towered over Don and his brothers.

Don stared. He noticed the red mask adorning the mutant's face.

That’s Raph?!

Did- Did he get double mutated? Why was he this big?

Don wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about the massive mutant in the room just yet.

Raph walked past the shorter mutant and sat down on the ground rather than one of the beanbags. Leo leaned over and took something from his brother. At least they seemed comfortable around their brother. Maybe his situation was different from when Don got double-mutated.

Don sat down on the couch next to Mikey.

“So, how did you get here?”, asked Leo.

Chapter Text

“So, how did you get here?”, asked Leo.

That question was so simple, yet so hard at the same time. Don could recite what happened before he woke up in Bishop’s office but how did he get here itself? That’s the hard part.

Don took a deep breath and began.

“My brothers and I were checking out some activity of the purple dragons-“ Donnie cut him off.

“The high school tech club?”

“A tech club? They’re a gang in my world. So, as I was saying, we were checking it out but then the EPF came and turns out they are working together. We followed them and ran into Hun, the purple dragon’s leader, and Bishop. They knocked us out. When I woke up I was in a machine and I think Bishop wanted to test retro mutagen-“, this time Leo cut him off.

“Retro mutagen? Like something to undo your mutation?”

“Yeah, I’m glad it didn’t work. I do not want to go back to being a regular turtle. Anyway, the machine malfunctioned and blew up. That’s all I remember.”

“Sheesh, you weren’t kidding when you said Bishop is a bad guy in your world.”, said Leo.

“That sounds awful!”, said Mikey.

“Is there really nothing else you remember? Anything?”, asked Donnie. He was taking notes.

“Well, I think Chi was involved somehow.”

“Chi?”, asked Raph, “Is that some kind of mystic? Your Ninpo?”

“Ninpo? No idea what that is, but my brothers and I had these amulets that enabled our chi, our inner power. I felt it again before the machine blew up.”

“Maybe Chi and Mystic are similar.”, said Donnie as he pulled down his goggles. Don had to admit they looked really cool.

“You do have mystic. More so than the average human but less than the four of us. It could be your, as you called it, chi.”, explained Donnie.

“Are you saying my chi mixed with the machine, somehow, and caused it to blow up and send me here?”

“Basically.”

“So how are we getting him home?“, asked Raph.

“We could-“, Donnie began but Mikey cut him off.

“I could try to open a portal.”

“NO!”, yelled his brothers. Don looked at them confused.

“Last time Mikey opened a portal he got hurt, badly.”, said Raph. It was clear to Don he was downplaying the real scenario, but Don wouldn’t push.

“I encountered other versions of us before. The other Donatello and I built a portal stick.”, Don said and turned to look at Donnie, “We could recreate it.”

“Donnie clapped his hands together.

“That’s perfect! Do you remember everything that was needed?”

“Mostly yes, we would still need to test a few things here and there, some things the other Donatello did, did not make sense.”

“Fair enough. We still have enough to start with!”, Donnie stood up, “Let’s go!”

Raph raised a hand and Donnie stopped in his tracks.

“Not today. It’s late and I don’t want either of you working through the night.”, the tall turtle said. Don had never heard this kind of authority from a Raph.

It was even more surprising that Donnie listened to him even if he complained. The purple turtle sat back down in the beanbag.

“Disappointed sigh.” Did he just say that? “But alas, we can still ask you some questions about your world. You can ask us as well if you’d like of course.”

“Sure, ask away. I know I have a few questions for you too.”, said Don.

“Let’s start simple. How old are you and your brothers?”, asked Donnie.

“We’re 19.”

“All of you?”, asked Raph.

“Yeah, the four of us are the same age. Are you not?”

“No, Raph’s 17, me and Donnie are 16-“ “Donnie and I” “and Mikey is 15.”, said Leo with the interruption from his twin that he chose to ignore.

“You’re the oldest?”, said Don while looking at Raph.

“Yes?”, he sounded confused.

“Back home, Leo’s the oldest.”

“WHAT?!”, yelled Leo, “Nope, nope, NO! That’s just gross!”

“Dude, it’s not that deep.”, said Mikey.

“No, I agree with Leon. It sounds like a nightmare. Next, you tell us Leo is your leader.”

“Well…”

“No way.”, said Leo.

“Raph doesn’t know how to feel about that.” Did he really speak in the third person?

“If you”, Don pointed towards Leo, “aren’t the leader then who is?”

“Raph.”, said the younger three turtles. Raph smiled at Don. Don totally didn’t flinch a bit at the sight of the sharp teeth of the mutant.

“Honestly, that feels weird to me.”, said Don, looking away from Raph again.

“Different world, different rules.”, said Donnie.

“Fair, now I have a question. Are you four different kinds of turtles? I thought you were the same kind until I- uh- saw Raph.”

“We are!”, said Mikey excited, “I’m an ornate box turtle, Leo is a red-eared slider, Donnie is a spiny soft shell and Raph is an alligator snapping turtle. That’s why he’s so big!”

So, he didn’t get double mutated. Good. That didn’t make Don more comfortable around the big turtle though, no matter how bad he felt about it.

“What about you and your brothers?”, asked Raph.

“I have to be honest, I’m not sure.”

“Why? The had to be a reason your species was picked to be mutated, right?”, asked Donnie.

“Picked? What do you mean picked? You weren’t accidentally mutated?”

“You were an accident? We were mutated to, and I quote, destroy the human race.”, said Leo.

“We were made to be weapons?!”

“You could put it like that.”, said Mikey, “But don’t worry. Dad saved us and raised us better.”

“I’m not going to question that any more, for now at least.”

“So, you were mutated by accident?”, asked Leo.

“Yeah.”

“Did your dad get mutated like that too?”, asked Mikey.

“He did. He was just a rat before that.”

“HUH?!”

“Your Dad was a rat before he got mutated? Not a human?”, asked Leo.

“Yes?”

“How fascinating. Our father used to be human. How did you learn ninjutsu then?”

“That’s quite the difference. Master Splinter taught us, he learned from his master Yoshi.”

Leo choked on his drink.

“Master Yoshi? As in Hamato Yoshi?”

Why were they acting so weird about this?

“Hamato Yoshi is our Dad.”, said Raph.

“WHAT?”, yelled Don.

“Now you know how we felt.”, said Mikey.

After that, the questions just seemed to end, for now at least. Don still had many questions and he was sure the others had more too. But as Raph had said earlier, it was getting late.

They talked a little bit more until they were interrupted.

“Boys?”

Don looked over to see a grey mutant rat. This was Splinter, his father’s counterpart but at the same time also the counterpart of his kind-of grandfather. That was weird to think about.

The rat looked at his son in purple.

“Did you clone yourself, Purple?”

Did he really call Donnie ‘Purple’?

“Scoff, I did not. He’s from an alternate universe.”

The rat looked at his son like he had grown a second head.

“There was an oopsie, which wasn’t our fault, and now there’s a different version of Donnie.”, said Leo.

“Weird, but okay.”, he then turned to Don, “So, taller Purple. My boys didn’t dissect you yet?”

“What?”

Leo and Donnie erupted and denied the accusation. Donnie being accused of this Don understood, but Leo? Just how different was he from the blue-branded turtle he was used to? The rat just smirked; he knew how to rile up his sons.

“Now, shoo. I want to talk to him. Alone.”, said Splinter.

The boys left the room, bid Don good night and went to their rooms. They had a long day ahead of themselves.

Splinter sat down next to Don.

“If I understood that, you are Donnie but different?”

Hearing a Splinter call him Donnie sounded wrong.

“Yes, I landed here on accident, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

“You make it sound like you aren’t welcome. You may not be from this world, but you’re still a version of my son. Make yourself at home.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, tell me about the other me. Is he just as handsome?”

“Eww, that’s my father.”

“Fair enough.”

There was a short silence between the two. Don broke it again.

“You sons mentioned you are Hamato Yoshi.”

“I am, is your father not?”

“No, he was Hamato Yoshi’s pet rat.”

“Pet rat? I mean I also had one for a bit. The little guy bit me right before I got mutated.”

“Is that why you’re a rat mutant now?”

“Probably.”, Splinter paused, “Would I have been a turtle if the rat didn’t bite me?”

“Why would you be a turtle?”

“Before any of us got mutated, little Red bit me.”

“There’s a chance you could have been an alligator snapping turtle instead of a rat?”

“We’ll never know.”

“What should I call you while I’m here? Sensei or Master Splinter feels… wrong.”

“You can just call me Yoshi our Lou if you want to. Or Splints, April calls me that.”

“Lou? Really?”

“Hey, I was an actor back in the day? The great Lou Jitsu! You should watch my movies while you’re here!”

“Maybe once we get the portal working I’ll bring my brothers to watch with me.”

“The more the merrier!”

Don stood up and bowed to the rat mutant.

“Thank you for welcoming me to your home. I’ll go get some rest now.”

“Good night, taller Purple.”

Don huffed a small laugh. “Good night, Master Yoshi.”

He left the room and walked over to his temporary quarters. Master Yoshi felt right to use it for the mutant.

Inside his temporary bed, Don laid awake.

He couldn’t sleep. Not yet at least.

He looked around the room a little more. For only a temporary set-up, it was decorated. They had strung up fairy lights around the whole room. Somehow he also had a stuffed animal, a dragon, in his bed. He wondered who placed it there. He noticed the bo-staff in the corner of the room as well. They likely noticed he didn’t have his and wanted to let him borrow one. Don had to admit he also liked the fluffy weighted blanket. He should get one once he’s home.

Thinking of his home, his thoughts began to spiral.

He remembered the time Draco sent them to different realities and the hell he had to witness. Don never went into detail with his family about these events. He was sure if it could happen if he ever went missing or died. He didn’t want to think about what would happen to his family without him there. He hated having to witness his brothers, even if they were alternate and older versions of them, die. He had nightmares for a long time after that.

Don felt tears form in his eyes. What if that reality was the future and this was how he went missing? What if this was the event that caused everything to go downhill? What if his brothers would drift apart if he didn’t get home soon?

Don was so stuck in his head he didn’t notice the turtle that entered his room.

Mikey walked past Don’s room to get himself a glass of water. He heard sniffing coming from the train cart and looked inside the cart through the window. He saw Don, he was crying.

Mikey quickened his pace, as soon as he was in the kitchen he grabbed two glasses and filled them with water. Was it any of his business why Don was sad? Probably not. Was it, maybe, just homesickness? Very likely. But this was still a version of one of Mikey’s older brothers. And Mikey hated it when they were sad. So, of course, he would try his very best to help the older one.

He knocked on the side of the cart. When he got no answer he figured Don either fell asleep or didn’t hear him. Mikey decided to walk in anyway.

Don didn’t seem to hear him. Mikey gently placed down the glasses and sat down on the edge of the bed. He placed a hand on Don’s arm to get his attention.

“Don?”, Mikey asked gently.

Don looked at him and his eyes widened.

Chapter Text

“Mikey.”, Don sat up, whipping his tears away, “Do you need anything?”

“No, but I think you do.”

Mikey looked concerned, it was an expression Don never liked on his little brother, much less this younger version of him.

“It’s fine. I just miss my brothers, is all.”, Don looked away from the younger turtle.

“But that isn’t everything, is it?”

Don stayed quiet. He was never one to lie, especially to his brothers. Instead, he just ignored it or pushed it away. He couldn’t bring himself to outright lie to Mikey.

Mikey sat down next to Don and placed a gentle hand on the older turtle’s shoulder.

“You can talk to me, ya know? Sometimes it helps to share what’s upsetting you.”

Don looked at him again, this Mikey, much like his own, was apparently smarter than he let on. Don’s brothers always told all of them to share what was bothering them, Don was still having a hard time telling his brothers everything, especially if he just wanted to forget everything instead of sharing it.

But maybe they were right, both Mikey’s that is. But should he really put this on a child?

“I don’t want to burden-“

“You won’t. I want to help you. Maybe you’re not my brother and I’m not yours, but you’re still a Donnie, I don’t want to see you upset. Please let me help you.”

Mikey looked at him with the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Don always had a soft spot for the turtle in orange, no matter the universe.

“Fine, but only because you insist.”

Mikey smiled and waited patiently for Don to begin.

“So, I really do miss my brothers, but I’m also afraid…”, Don took a deep breath, “A few years back one of our enemies separated us and sent each one of us to another reality. I went to a… let’s call it a bad future. In that future, the me there died. He left and his family fell apart.” Tears began to form again. “With them not being together, the Shredder won and it was horrible.” Don held the plush dragon close. “I- I saw those versions of my brothers die. They all died in their final fight against the Shredder.”

Don took another deep breath to keep himself from breaking down fully.

“I’m afraid that if I don’t get home, my brothers will all be apart and- and everything will go downhill. I don’t want my family to die.”

Actually speaking out about his fear caused Don to break down sobbing. He quickly felt a pair of arms wrap around him and hold him, gently rubbing his shell. Don leaned more into Mikey as he cried.

They stayed there for a few more minutes. Mikey was honestly surprised none of his brothers walked in on them. Don leaned away again and Mikey removed his arms.

“Do you feel better now?”, asked Mikey gently.

Don sniffed. “I guess I do.”

Mikey smiled at him. “See, talking helps!”

“It does, doesn’t it? I should have listened to Mikey about this.”

“We Mikeys know this stuff!”, joked Mikey.

“I guess you do.” Don huffed a laugh.

“Don, you don’t have to worry about this though.”, said Mikey.

Don looked at him confused.

“We’ll get you home! I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“You should also talk to your brothers, maybe. I’m sure they want to know what’s going on this that big brain of yours.”

“I can’t promise anything but I’ll try.”

“At least you’ll try.”

Mikey stood up again, Don knew the kid needed to get some sleep, so did Don but he didn’t want to be alone right after pouring his heart out.

“Do you- um- mind staying for a bit?”

“Don’t wanna be alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Skootch over then!”

Don did as he was told and made room for Mikey who snuggled into the bed.

“Can I ask you something?”, asked Don.

“You already did. But sure.”

“You mentioned Ninpo before, what is it?”

“Well, Ninpo is more than just our powers, it’s us. Ninpo is also family. Ninpo is stronger when we're together, all of us. I think Gram Gram also said that it’s all of our ancestors. They’re supporting and guiding us.”

Gram Gram? Don wondered who that could be.

“Fascinating. Do you all have the same powers then?”

“Nope.”, Mikey yawned, “Leo’s got portals and stuff, Donnie can make stuff, Raphie can get even bigger and I got mystic hands!”

The young mutant wasn’t making all that much sense to Don anymore. Portals he understood, he was confused about what Don could create exactly, he was concerned about Raph being even bigger and he had no clue what mystic hands meant. But the kid was slowly falling asleep. He was tired after all. Don decided to leave it be. He needed some sleep too. So, Don decided it was time to join the younger turtle in dreamland now.

As Don was trying to sleep he couldn’t help but be reminded of the times he and his brothers slept in the same bed growing up, he missed their turtle piles sometimes. Maybe he could convince them to have one if- no when he gets back.

Don glanced one more time at the turtle sleeping next to him. He smiled. The kid was amazing, even with the short amount of time they had until now. He knows his brothers will love him too.

As he looked at the younger he realized something. He was just as bad as his dear older brother wasn’t he? He thought only Raph and a tendency to adopt people all around him, but Mikey just tended to do that with kids. Apparently, Don did it with mutant turtles.

“Good night, Angelo.”, Don said.

Angelo was a nickname his own counterpart had called the box turtle and suited the turtle quite well. It would also help Don differentiate between this world's turtles and his brothers back home.

Don petted the turtle's head and laid back down, he had finally settled enough to sleep. He knew he’d get home soon. His family just needs to hang in there for a little longer. He’s going to come home!

Don had slept surprisingly well. When he woke up he quickly noticed that Angelo was no longer next to him. How long did he sleep? He glanced over to the clock to see that it was still early. Was this Mikey an early riser? Now that is something Don would have expected to be impossible. Mikey loved sleeping in, sometimes Don or Leo had to drag him out. If he didn’t budge they would let Raph do it, which usually got the orange turtle out of bed.

Don stretched and got out of bed. He made the bed and put on his mask. After one more stretch, he left the cart and walked towards where he knew the kitchen was. As he walked closer he started to smell something amazing. He walked inside and almost bumped into the giant turtle known as this world Raphael.

“Sorry.”, Raph apologized, I didn’t see you.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Oh! Morning Don!”, said Angelo from the stove.

“Morning.”, yawned Don.

Don didn’t dare to meet his eyes. He hated himself for being this warry of Raph. He had been nothing but kind to Don, yet here Don was, afraid of a bigger version of his brother.

Don would really need to work on this. He didn’t want to be afraid of him, no matter how big he was. That is still a version of Raph. Not to mention Raph's little brothers, that was still something Don would need to get used to, didn’t seem to even notice their size difference all that much. Of course, they didn’t, they were used to it like this.

Raph placed a mug in front of Don.

“You like coffee right?”, he said, “Donnie likes coffee, so Raph assumed you did too.”

“I do. Thank you.”

Raph smiled at him. Don would almost have called it cute if it weren’t for the sharp teeth, and even then, it was still a little cute.

As Angelo prepared breakfast, the other two turtles stumbled in.

Don couldn’t help but laugh at them. Leo walked in his mask tied around his neck rather than his face. He slumped down opposite from Don and he faceplanted to the table. He only looked up once Raph placed a blue unicorn mug infirm of him and gently nudged Leo.

“Thanks, Raph-a-doodle.”, said Leo as he took a sip.

Don wouldn’t have expected a version of Leo to be such a grouch in the morning. His Leo was the perfect example of a morning person. Usually, he would be meditating by the time anyone else got up. He would then bug someone to make breakfast since Leo had been banned from cooking.

Now when Donnie walked in Don was just as surprised.

The soft shell was wearing a purple hoodie and his mask was nowhere to be found, he did however wear a pair of glasses. And much like Leo he just sat down and waited for Raph to hand him a mug. These two were not exactly morning people. Quite the opposite of what he was used to. Back home Don and Leo were the early birds, while Raph and Mikey were the night owls. It was the opposite here.

As if on cue Mikey called Raph over to help him with the plates.

Don expected to see some toast and maybe some bacon. He didn’t expect to be met with a plate of omurice. Don had to admit he loved a good omelette and had always wanted to try omurice, but none of them ever managed to make one.

The five turtles dug in.

Don took one bite and loved it.

“This is really good, Angelo!”, Don said as he took another bite.

“Thank you!”, said the youngest.

“Angelo, huh?”, said Donnie. “Mikey got a new nickname?”

“I guess.”; said Don, he turned to Angelo, “I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s fine, Donne calls me that already.”

“So, are we getting new nicknames too?”, asked Leo.

“Maybe?”, Don said, “I’m not sure what I could call you.”

“Well, you could call me Leon, Nardo or-“, he was cut off by Donnie.

“Call him Dum Dum.”

“RUDE!“, yelled Leo.

Raph quickly put his hand up and said: “No middle-child nonsense in the kitchen. You know what happened last time.”

The two middle children put a stop to it instantly and shuddered.

“What happened last time?”, Don couldn’t help but ask.

“They met Dr Delicate Touch.”, said Angelo sweetly. Something was off about his smile but Don couldn’t place it.

“I’m going to pretend I know what his means.”, said Don as he returned to eating his breakfast.

Soon enough they finished their food and Donnie and Leo moved to do the dishes. Something about sharing the work.

“I can help too.”, said Don.

“Oh no. You’re our guest.”, said Raph.

Don just nodded and watched the two in front of him talk. He also observed the other two from the corner of his eyes. They were complaining about doing the dishes while doing them. Don figured they only complained to complain about something.

After they were done with the dishes, Donnie and Leo joined them at the table again.

“How are going about this now?”, asked Angelo.

“We need to get the material for the portal device and make some blueprints. That’s all we can do for now.”, said Donnie.

“Since he came here with Mystic- ah, sorry Chi, maybe we could look into that too.”, suggested Raph.

“I look in the spell books Draxum gave me.”, said Angelo.

“Great! Don, let’s go to my lab!”, said Donnie as he stood up.

“Hold up!”, said Leo.

Everyone turned to him.

“Before you do that I want to look at his cuts and change to bandages if necessary.”, said Leo. He sounded usually serious.

“Scoff, Doctor Leon’s back.”, mumbled Donnie.

“Then we got a plan. Donnie gets the lab ready, Leo checks on Don and Mikey and I look over the spell books.”, said Raph.

“To the med bay!”, said Leo as he took Don’s hand and dragged him off.

Chapter Text

Leo dragged Don to another train cart, apparently the med bay. Inside was a bed as well as a few shelves. In one of the corners was a desk with a chair. On the desk were what Don could assume were a few files. They probably kept medical files of everyone like Don did as well.

“You can sit down there.”, Leo said while pointing towards the bed.

As Don sat down, Leo walked over to one of the shelves and pulled out a few things he then pulled over the chair and sat down in front of Don. Don rarely was the one getting patched up. He usually did the patching up.

Don noticed the pair of glasses Leo was wearing, they matched the ones Donnie had been wearing earlier.

“You also need glasses?”, asked Don.

“Yeah. Both of us are as blind bats.”, Leo laughed, “We get it from dad.”

“Really?”

“Yeah even before he got mutated he needed glasses, his sight just got worse after mutation.”

“So, you four have his actual DNA?”, asked Don.

“Oh yeah. Draxum used Dad to mutate us.”

“Draxum? Who is that?”

“Ya know, the yokai that made us? Don’t you have, wait- you were accidents.”

“That sounds so wrong.”

“Fair, does not being bioengineered super soldiers sound better?”

“Not really, no.”

The two shared a laugh. This Leo was different from Don’s brother, he reminded him a little more of Mikey than his eldest brother. He liked this blue turtle nonetheless.

“Now, let’s get to work! I just hope you’re a better patient than my brothers.”, said Leo.

Leo began to remove the bandages and look over the injuries. He disinfected them and then replaced the bandages with new ones.

Don watched his every move, not because he didn’t trust Leo but because he was simply intrigued. He watched him work with a precision Don didn’t expect from the loud teen. It was almost like he was completely switched out by someone else. Leo certainly knew what he was doing and Don was impressed by this 16-year-old. He heard the teen mumble a few things here and there.

“I have to admit, I didn’t expect you to be the medic around here.”, said Don.

“Really?”, Leo looked up for a second before returning to taking care of Don’s arm.

“He’s, let’s say too anxious for it. He’d worry too much if one of us complained about the disinfectant stinging.”

“If Leo doesn’t do it, then who does?”

“I do.”

“Really, you? A Donnie being the medic? That’d be impossible here. Donnie’s too squeamish about it.”

“He is?”

“Yeah, he has a lot of sensory issues. And all this stuff is really interesting and fun. Donnie’s not the only genius in this family, ya know.”, Leo joked.

“My Leo is more of a strategist than anything. He’s not really into biology or anything like that.”

Leo finished up taking care of Don’s injuries.

“They should be healed enough in a few days to remove the bandages fully. The cuts weren’t that deep.”

“Thanks, Leon.”

“Leon?! I got a nickname from you!”, said Leon and he was back to being the loud teen he had met earlier.

“I guess you did.”, laughed Don. He didn’t even notice he said Leon instead of Leo.

Don watched as Leon cheered, somehow he was more ecstatic about the new nickname, one Don had heard his brothers use, even he. Don wasn’t entirely sure why he enjoyed this so much. As the slider cheered, his glasses slipped and went flying throw the room. They landed on his desk, nearly knocking over the vials on it.

“Shit.”, Leon was at his desk, making sure nothing was actually knocked over. Don stood up and walked over to the younger mutant. He looked over Leon’s shoulder and saw what was written in the open notebook.

“Those are some complex equations.”, said Don.

“I dolt you Donnie isn’t the only genius in this house.”, Leon sounded really proud of himself.

“What are you trying to solve here?”, Don asked.

“I’m trying to figure out how much pain relief I’d have to use for Raph. He had a growth spurt a bit ago.”

“How much did you use before?”

“Enough to kill like five bodybuilders.”, said Leon dryly.

“Five?”

“Yeah, last time Raph needed pain relief he was like 6' 5". He was 7' 4" last time we measured him. And he’s still growing, probably.”

“He’s still growing?”

“Yup, all of us are. Draxum things we’re going to be huge, even Miguel.”

“You talk to the guy that mutated you?“

“Yup. He’s our Mom.“, Leon said this as if it was the most normal thing in the world. To him it likely was.

“But you said you were made to weapons?!“

“We were.“

That just confused Don even more.

“Then why?!“

“He changed. He’s family, he made us after all, even if he threw me off a roof.“, Leon said that last part more jokingly than one should say this.

“Don’t worry about it too much. Our family is just weird.“, said Leon as he noticed the concern on Don‘s face.

“I think I’ll just try to ignore half the things you lot say. You confuse me and I didn’t think that was possible anymore.“

Leon laughed.

“You haven’t even seen half of it yet, buddy.“

“And that’s what scares me.“

Leon moved to put away the bandages. He put the ones that were left over away again and threw the used ones out.

Meanwhile, Don looked around the med bay a bit more. He had to be honest, he would love to have a med bay like this. His med bay, if you could even call it that, was just a corner in his lab. He was a little jealous of the younger turtle.

As he looked around, he noticed a few more notebooks most labeled with names. One had Mikey written in it and another had April on it. Leon kept medical records of everyone. That made sense. Don knew it would be rude but he was curious and picked up one of the notebooks. It was Raph. The first page looked old like it had been written more than a decade ago. Especially considering the horrible handwriting. The equations he saw before were written much neater. Was Don imagining things or were the first few things written with red crayons? Just how old was Leon when he first started making these?

On the first page, there are a few basic facts Don already knew, such as Raph’s species. There was also his birthday. Don was a little surprised that Raph was born, or rather hatched, in 2003. that was the year Don and his brothers’ adventures started. Another thing that sprung out to him was the allergy written at the bottom. Peanuts. The big guy was allergic to tiny nuts. Someone he found it ironic. What was even more amusing was the occasional Japanese word thrown in, likely because baby Leon didn’t know the English word just yet. If Don didn’t know Japanese himself, he wouldn’t know that the gibberish written was Japanese. Looks like Leon wasn’t all that good with Katakana.

“Having fun reading Raph’s file?“

Don yelped as Leon said that.

“Sorry, that was rude of-“

“It’s fine, dude. I’m sure Raph’s fine with it too.”

“Some of this looks really old, when did you start writing these?”

“A few years ago, I don’t really remember.”

“It’s really impressive, you’re only 16 but you already know all of this. I’m pretty sure you are more knowledgeable than me.”

Leon looked at him with a huge smile. “Really?!”

“Really.”, Don reassured him.

The older turtle noticed the younger one tail was wagging, if Don didn’t know any better he would have assumed Leon was a dog mutant with how much it was wagging. He really was excited about being praised. Don chuckled; these guys were really adorable. All of them.

Leon faked a cough. “Anyway, I want to ask you a few more things before you can go to Donnie’s lab.”

Leon pulled out a new notebook and a pen.

“Don’t tell Donnie I still have these notebooks. He’s been trying to get me to do this stuff digitally.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Okay, you’re 19, so I’m assuming you were born in 2001, right?”

“Actually, I think time works differently. I was mutated in 1988, not too sure when I hatched.”

“Damn, you’re old.”, said Leo as he scribbled it down.

“Hey- it’s only 2007 in my world!”

“Dude, I was 3 in 2007. You’re old.”

“I like you less now, Leon.”

Leon stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry.

“Anywhizzle, do you have any allergies?”

“No, not that I know at least.”

“Good, good. Any sensory issues?”

“I don’t like gooey stuff.”

“Got it.”

Leon asked a few more questions and wrote them down.

“One more question, your eyes. They are bright red. Is that normal for you and your brothers or do I need to be concerned?”, joked Leon.

“No, that’s just me. My brothers have green eyes, I used to as well.”, Don looked away from the younger turtle, ashamed.

“How did they-“, Leon was cut off by Don.

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Sure. That’s it then.”, said Leon as she shut the notebook.

“Great, I have a question for you before I go to Donnie’s lab.”

“Go ahead.”

“What’s with all the vials and chemicals?”, Don pointed towards one of the cabinets.

“You noticed, huh?”; Leon said, “I need to make all out our medication.”

“You make everything? Why?”

“Human medicine doesn’t work on us, like at all. We’re bioengineered super soldiers, remember? We’re built differently.”

“And you learned how to make medicine? I was already impressed but this is on a whole new level, you really are a genius.”

“Thanks.”, Leon scratched the back of his head.

“I’ll go see Donnie then. Where is-“, Don was cut off by Leon.

“Three carts down to the right. It has purple curtains and is probably glowing purple from the inside.”

“Glowing purple?”

“Donnie loves purple LED lights.”

“Got it, I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll barge in when Mikey tells me to get you for lunch!”

“I figured.”, Don huffed a laugh.

Don left the med bay and walked towards the lab. Somehow he wondered if his own Leo had not been the eldest and the leader, would he be more similar to Leon? Don noticed the similarities; both were kind and caring. One was more vocal about it than the other but Don knew it nonetheless. Where Leo focused on taking care of his brothers in protecting them, Leon was making sure they would heal and recover after a fight. Yet Leon was much louder and prouder than his eldest brother, much more relaxed too. Don always hated the stress Leo put himself under, it was something Don hoped Leo would open up about one day.

If Don didn’t know any better he would assume he had gotten himself two more younger brothers in the span of two days. How could he not if both Leon and Angelo were amazing kids? How could he not grow to love them? Don knew that if- no when his brothers meet these kids, they’d agree with him. Don was getting all of them younger brothers, amazing little brothers. Right now, it was only Angelo and Leon, but if Don could assume anything about this situation, he figured the other two were just a matter of time. Even if Raph would take a long while. Don wanted to like him so much, but he was also scared of the massive mutant, no matter how much he hated that.

Don stood in front of the cart he assumed was the lab, and he knocked.

“Donnie? Leon's checkup is done.”

“Perfect, come in!”

Don pushed aside the curtain and walked inside. As he glanced inside he was sure he had actually died and gone to heaven. There was no other explanation.

Chapter Text

Don was in heaven. Truly. Everything in his younger counterpart’s lab was simply beautiful. To Don everything looked so incredibly futuristic and that says a lot, he had been to the future after all. But he was impressed nonetheless. Just by looking at it, Don knew that these gadgets and inventions were far more ahead of their time than anything he had ever seen. As impressive as the technology of 2105 was Donnie’s lab had things just as advanced in the year 2020, only a few years ahead of Don’s own reality, 13 years to be precise.

“Impressive, am I right?”, said Donnie, “Never seen anything like it?”

Donnie sounded incredibly cocky as well as confident as he said this.

“Impressive, yes.”, said Don before he smirked, “But I’ve been to the future, soo-“

“You what?! Like a good timeline or a bad one?”

“Bad one?”

“Time travel isn’t all that new to us. We do live with a time traveler from the year 2044. A, well, bad future.”

“You live with a time traveler? Where are they?”

“CJ is currently on a road trip with our dear sisters.”, said Donnie.

“CJ? Sisters?”

“Yes, CJ. Casey Jones”

“Casey is a time traveler here? And you have sisters?

“Duh. Don’t you have sisters, you know Cassandra and April?”

“I mean April is kind of our big sister, but who’s Cassandra?”

“Who’s Cassandra? Cassandra Jones? Former Foot Recruit?!”

Don looked at his counterpart. This was something Don would pick up later. He really needed a proper explanation of just how a Foot Recruit became their sister.

“Let’s just come back to that one later, shall we?”

“Fine, you’re not getting around that one. What kind of world do you live in, if you don’t have Cass?”, Donnie mumbled that last part, but Don heard him nonetheless.

Don then saw a metal claw come out of Donnie’s metallic shell. The claw took Don’s hand and dragged him along. Don glanced at the matt metal on the younger’s back. Don remembered that Donnie was a spiny soft shell, they had mentioned it only yesterday, but that didn’t make him worry less. What would prompt Donnie to build such a device? As incredible as that shell was, why would a 16-year-old feel the need to build something like this? It worried Don greatly. Where Don and his brothers, as well as Donnie’s brothers, had built-in protection, Donnie didn’t. Don didn’t want to think about Donnie receiving a bad injury on his shell.

Don decided to maybe ask about that later. Only if he felt Donnie was comfortable enough with answering such an invasive question.

Don was pulled out of his thoughts by Donnie pulling up a purple hologram out of thin air.

“So, you mentioned a portal device from your last adventure in the multiverse?”

“I- yeah. How did you do that? What device-“

“Oh, that’s no device, it’s part of my Ninpo.”

“I really need to know more about that later.”

“We can talk about it over lunch later. All of us are still learning how to harness our full potential.”, explained Donnie, “Anyway- what did you need to build the portal device?”

“Well, it’s actually called Portal Stick, first off. And we need-“, Don began as he listed what he recalled he and Donatello used to create that machine. Hopefully, it will work in this reality too.

“Excited gasp! This will be amazing!”, exclaimed Donnie as he flapped his hands. Was he stimming? Don couldn’t help but find Donnie’s excitement endearing. But it will definitely take some getting used to, to hear someone voice their actions.

Donnie and Don worked on the blueprints first. After all, they need a plan before they can build it. As they worked Don kept getting surprised whenever a purple glow appeared. Donnie was casually using his Ninpo to grab something or even make it out of thin air. Don had met with Mystic before, but nothing was like Donnie’s powers. From what Don could see, the younger powers were the perfect balance between mystic and tech. Don needs to ask more about that later.

“I think those are done now.”, said Don as he put down the pencil.

The two genius turtles looked at their work.

“We should get the materials soon. I just need to see where we can get everything.”, muttered Donnie.

“How about we worry about that after lunch?”, offered Don as he pointed towards the clock in the corner of the room. They had been so wrapped up in their work, that they didn’t notice that Leon would burst into the room to collect them in only thirty minutes.

“Disappointed sigh, at least I can ask a few more things!”, said Donnie.

“Only if I get some more answers too, Donnie.”, said Don.

“Of course.”, said Donnie, “I’ll start then- You’ve been giving my brothers nicknames, except Raph oddly enough, yet you still call me Donnie. Why is that?”

Donnie asked his question and Don knew it wasn’t just curiosity. Was Donnie afraid Don liked him less because he didn’t get a new nickname? Hopefully not.

“Well, you’ve all taken to calling me Don, I assumed you would prefer staying Don. Was I wrong?”

“Well, no. I simply found it… odd.”

“Donnie, the truth, please.”

The pair of purple turtles stared at each other; Donnie eventually backed off.

“I assumed you preferred Leo and Mikey over myself and Raph. I honestly don’t understand why this is important to me, but you’re me, you should like me, right?”, Donnie sounded incredibly sad. Despite the cocky and quite frankly insane exterior was still a 16-year-old boy. One that craved approval and praise much like Don did too and having someone that understood your passion was rare. Don knew that well.

“I don’t prefer any of you over the other. All of you are amazing kids, in your unique ways. Preferring one of you is like asking me who my favorite brother is. That’s an impossible question to ask.”

Donnie laughed a little, he understood that sentiment. If someone asked him who his favorite brother was he wouldn’t know how to answer either.

“I suppose that is fair.”, Donnie said, “But you should also say that to Raph.”

“To Raph?”, asked Don.

“I may not be the best at picking up social cues, but even I noticed. You’re afraid of him. I don’t know why, and really don’t see any reason for that, but some people are afraid of him. He noticed it too. I’m sure of it.”

“I- well.”, began Don.

“You do not owe me an explanation. But maybe talk to Raph? He takes these things to heart a lot.”

“I will, later.”, said Don.

Donnie nodded. He may be the younger brother between him and Raph but that didn’t stop the resident genius from making sure his big brother was enjoying this too.

“Now it’s my turn to ask you something.”, said Don, “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. But why are you wearing that shell cover?”

“Donnie stared at him for a few seconds.

“You are aware I’m a spiny softshell, right?”

“I am, but why would you need to build something like that, not that it isn’t impressive-“, Don began to ramble.

“It’s practical and well, I got hurt when I was younger.”

“Hurt?”, Don sounded so worried.

“Yup. When I was 5, Raph and I were playing, like we usually did, and Raph accidentally hit my shell. He used to have sharp claws. I still have the scars from that.”

While Don’s worry grew, Donnie told this story as if he was telling Don what he ate for dinner yesterday, like this was the most normal thing in the world.

“Raph hurt you?!”

“Accidentally.”

“But still! Where was your Dad?”

“Don’t go blaming people for an accident. It’s not like Raph wanted to hurt me, he was 6.”

“I- I’m sorry. Just the thought of someone receiving a scar that young is scary.”

“It’s fine. Raph came up with the idea for the Battle Shell after that, so it’s all forgiven.”

“Battle Shell?”, chuckled Don.

“What? Do you have something against my big brother's naming skills?”, Donnie was getting defensive on his brothers’ behalf.

“No, no, far from it. I name something Battel Shell as well.”

“You did? What is it?”

The previous conversation was forgotten and Donnie was now fully focused on likely being able to get to know more about the older turtle’s inventions.

“My Battle Shell is our van. I remodeled it to have a few weapons and armor.”

“You also remodeled a vehicle?! Where did you get the initial van from?”

“We- um- confiscated from the Purple Dragons.”

“You stole It from the Purple Dragons? I like your style.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“You wanna see the Turtle Tank?”

“Turtle Tank? You have a tan?!”

“Of course. If you’d follow me, my intelligent friend.”

Donnie led down to the garage. Before he opened the door he paused and turned to Don.

“Originally, the tank was the Moon Buggy from Jupiter Jim's Last Trip to the Moon. Mikey and I stole it from Repo Mantis.”

“Repo Mantis?”

“A Mantis mutant that owns a junkyard and is a repo man.”

“Why am I even surprised, it’s in the name.”

“Anyway-“, Donnie pressed a button and the door began to open, “The Turtle Tank!”

Don looked ahead at the glory that was the Turtle Tank. He has never seen anything quite as beautiful as it. From the sheer size to the perfect paint job, everything was amazing.

And apparently, Don’s amazement was obvious even to the other purple turtle. Donnie smiled at the amazement of the older. Everyone loved the tank but something about this older, calmer version of him loving the tank made Donnie swell with pride. He had always been proud of his inventions, but the tank had a special place in his heart. He loved showing it off, and showing it off to someone who understood the work that went into something like this was incredible.

“Do you want to go inside?”, offered Donnie.

“You’d let me?!”

“Of course, who am I to not show of my genius.”

“Your genius?! Donnie, I already know how much of a genius you are! I’ve seen the tech in your lab. It’s amazing. You are amazing!”

If Donnie doesn’t get him into the tank to distract him, he’ll cry tears of joy from the praise alone!”

“You haven’t even seen half of it!”, said Donnie as he dragged Don along.

Don noticed the big smile and shiny eyes of Donnie. Don knew how much a little praise could mean to someone, especially someone like Donnie. Someone who put his all into making things, things to make life, as well as missions, easier for his family. Don was the same, they both knew their families appreciated their work, but that didn’t mean they didn’t like hearing a little praise or a tank you once in a while.

Donnie showed off every little thing of the tank to Don. For the first time, he got to explain every little detail in full. His brothers knew sure, but they didn’t understand everything that was going on. Where his brothers listened, Don understood. The older even threw in a question here and there.

As Donnie was rambling about his masterpiece there was a knock on the side of the tank. The two looked towards the door of the tank, which they had left open. Leon stood there, leaning against the frame.

“Miguel finished lunch. If you are done being nerds, you can join us.”, said Leon.

“Nardo, you are just as much of a nerd as us.”

“Pfft- no.”

“How many bones are in the human body?”

Don thought that was an odd question.

“206.”, said Leon with no hesitation. Donnie looked smug at his brother. “Dammit.”, said Leon.

Donnie and Don stood up and walked up to Leon.

“Come on before Raph and Mikey eat everything! Mikey made ramen from scratch!”

“Ramen? You don’t need to tell me twice!”, said Donnie and ran towards the kitchen. Leon and Don looked at each other and followed him

Don didn’t remember the last time he had some good ramen. He looked forward to it.

Chapter Text

Lunch was relatively uneventful. Sure, Don was flabbergasted by some of the stories the four shared. Even more so when they mentioned that Master Yoshi was on a Date After Don asked where the man was.

Somehow the idea of any version of his father dating was odd, but Don did wonder who he was on a date with. The boys only said he was on a date with ‘Mama’. Whoever that was.

Don helped Donnie clean up the kitchen. Apparently, they have a cleaning schedule for the remaining three since Angelo cooks most days.

After they were finished Donnie looked at Don.

“I’ll figure out where we can get our materials. You go talk to Raph.“, said Donnie.

Don was impressed by how much this sounded like an order.

Don walked over to the red train cart. He had quickly picked up that the four brothers loved colour-coding everything. If it was red, it was Raph’s, if it was purple it belonged to Donnie and so on.

He stood in front of the cart for a few seconds before he knocked. The curtain was pushed to the side and Don was able to see a few things inside the cart already. In true Raphael fashion, he spotted a few weights in the corner and what Don assumed was a wrestling poster.

“Yeah?”, Raph said as he looked towards the door.

Don took this as his invitation inside.

“Hi.”, said Don.

“Don! Do you and Donnie need me to lift something?”, asked Raph. Don noticed he wanted to reach out his hand but pulled away quickly after he realized what he was doing.

“No, I uh- wanted to talk to you.”, said Don. He did his best to not let his nervousness be known.

Raph seemed to brighten up at that.

“Sure, we can sit on my bed if you want.”, offered Raph.

It was now that Don noticed the snapper’s bed. It was very different from what he had expected at first. He was sure it would be nothing more than a simple bed. But no, first off the bed was huge, not too odd but even with Raph being as big as he was, the bed was massive. Don wasn’t entirely sure why he needed a bed this big, given that even though half the bed was occupied by a big collection of stuffed animals, one would call it an army, it was big enough to possibly fit all four turtle mutants that called this dimension their home and likely even a few more people.

Looks like Raph was the one who left the purple dragon plushie for Don in his guest room. Don was almost sure it had been Mikey; he never expected a Raph to have such an assortment of stuffed animals. Don wondered if his own Raph would like to have one or two stuffed friends. Don remembered his brother liking the few stuffed animals their father managed to find quite a bit.

Raph sat down on his bed, Don took a deep breath and sat down next to him. Don did keep a decent distance between them. Raph looked at him, waiting patiently for him to start what he wanted to talk about.

“I- I don’t really know how to start this.”, began Don.

“You’re afraid of Raph.”, said the big mutant.

Don turned his head to look at him. He looked so sad as he stated this.

“I- yeah and I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Raph gets it.”

Don noticed that Raph was holding one of the plushies close to his chest.

“It’s not!”, Don said. He wasn’t upset because of Raph but because of himself. He knew Raph would never hurt one of his brothers, no version of Raph would ever do that willingly. He knew this Raph cared more than anything. He welcomed Don into his home and even gave him that dragon. Don was angry at himself for judging the big guy just because of his sheer size. He was no better than the humans that jumped to conclusions about them either.

Raph looked at Don, he didn’t expect the turtle who had been nothing but calm since he met to burst like that.

“It’s not fine because it’s a dumb trauma response you can’t even do anything about! It has nothing to do with you and all with my stupid brain!”

“Hey- you’re not stupid.”, interjected Raph.

“But I feel stupid. You’re a Raph! URGH!”

Don put his hands to his face and fell back into the bed. As he fell back a few of the stuffed animals stumbled down and fell on him. Don didn’t bother pushing them away, he did however wrap his arms around a red dragon plushie. It reminded Don of his Raph’s dragon form from a while back. He missed his brothers. Raph gently picked them up again and placed them back in their spots.

“Do you, maybe, want to explain why you’re afraid? Mikey always says talking about stuff helps.”

“He said that to me before too. Angelo and Mikey.”

“It’s probably a Mikey thing then!”, joked Raph.

“Don chuckled a little and sat back up again, this time however instead of being on the edge, in more ways than one, he leaned into the pile of soft plush behind him and crossed his legs, he still held the red dragon close.

“It’s rare for us to interact with mutants as big as you. We met Leatherhead a long time ago, he’s a mutant alligator, but he’s not the biggest mutant we know. That’s Hun. Even when Hun was still a human, he towered over us.” Don paused.

“Bigger than Raph?”, asked the snapper.

“No. I think you’re bigger than them. The last time we ran into other versions of us, Hun got mutated into a turtle since he was fighting us. I- He already was inhumanly strong, the mutation made him even stronger. I guess I just have some kind of respect for a mutant that big.”

“It’s fair that you don’t like big mutants then.”, said Raph.

Don looked at him and the bigger mutant just smiled. The more he talked to the younger mutant, the more time he just spent with him and was close, and the more his fear, no his wariness of the big mutant went away. The more he looked at Raph the more it was obvious to Don that this Raph was just a child, much like his little brothers.

“It was also because I, at first, thought you had been double mutated.”, said Don.

“That can happen?”

“It did in my world-“

“Did it happen to you Raph?”

Raph assumed since Don was a little afraid of the big turtle in red, he had seen a savage turtle in red.

“No, no. I was.”

“You- oh.”

“Remember how Bishop is a bad guy in my world?” Raph nodded. “He did some stuff I’m not going into detail now, but he did some stuff and that resulted in me getting double mutated. I lost myself. I attacked my friends and family. I tried to eat Mikey.” Don took a deep breath. “My brothers don’t know this but I remember everything. It was like I was watching a movie and couldn’t do anything to stop it. I hated it!”

“Raph gets that.” Don looked at him surprised. “Some stuff happened a while back and I got captured and turned into a zombie. I fought my brothers. It wasn’t great.”

“Do you brothers know you remember?”

“Yeah, Angelo made sure we shared all this stuff that happened. And maybe you should talk to your brothers about that too.”

“Pfft- Angelo told me the same thing about something else too.”

“Then maybe you should listen to us.” Raph puffed out his chest.

“I know, I’ll take that advice to heart. Thank you.”

“You know, talking to you is easier than I thought.”, said Don.

“Really? Why?”

“Well, you’re a Raph, my Raph isn’t that big with words. His actions speak a lot louder; you know?”

“So, like Donnie?”

“I guess.”; chuckled Don.

Don sat up straighter again and looked into Raph’s eyes, this was the first time Don made eye contact with the snapping turtle.

“I want to get over this- fear- I want to be comfortable around you all the time because this is a me issue. Would you help me with that?”

Raph looked at him, bright-eyed.

“OF course! How can Raph help?”

“Just be yourself, you’re a good kid and easy to like, Rafa.”

Suddenly there was a quick thumbing noise.

“Rafa! You gave Raph a nickname!”, said Rafa.

Don looked past the spiky turtle and saw his big tail wagging behind him on the floor. Don laughed. Don couldn’t help but be reminded of Leon when they had talked earlier and the smaller turtle’s tail was wagging just as much. These boys somehow had picked up quite a few characteristics of dogs. Don wondered why, but it was cute nonetheless.

Rafa noticed the older turtle looking at his wagging tail.

“Sorry, that happens when Raph gets excited.”

“Don’t be, it’s fine.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, Don looked at the red plush that was still in his arms.

“You like that dragon stuffie?”, asked Rafa.

“Yeah, you gave me the purple one right?”

“I did!”, said Rafa smiling, “I found four of these a while ago and wanted to give them to my brothers, but then I found different ones that felt more like my brothers, but I still have those.”

“That’s really cute.”, said Don, “My brothers and I turned into dragons for a bit that one time. We kinda looked like this. Not as cute but you get the idea.”

Don smiled at the red plushie.

Rafa shot up from this spot on the bed and began going through the mountain of stuffed animals behind them. Some he threw to the side others he gently set down. Don watched with amazement as the 17-year-old practically ravaged through his collection.

Eventually, Rafa stopped his search and turned back to Don. He offered two more dragons. One orange and one blue. Like Mikey and Leo.

Don gently took them from the bigger turtle.

“You can have all of them.”, said Rafa. He fidgeted with his index fingers; well what one could assume was the index fingers given they only had three fingers. “You could give them to your brothers when we get you home.”

Don hugged the three dragons close, somehow having these three made him feel less homesick.

“Thank you, I’m sure my brothers will love them.”

Don reached out his hand and placed it on Rafa’s shoulder.

“I’m also sure they’ll love you guys. It’s hard not to.”

Rafa looked at Don, he was amazed. Don had admitted he was afraid of Rafa not that long ago yet here he was reaching out to Rafa instead of shying away from the bigger mutant. It warmed Rafa’s heart.

But the gentleness and kind words made him happy too, Rafa couldn’t help but wonder if this is what it’s like to be a little brother and have a big brother. If it was, Rafa could get used to it. It was different to having older sisters, he knew what that was like, but his little brothers had shared one time that a big sister was different from a big brother.

Rafa was always happy to welcome more people into their wacky family. Growing up he always dreamed of having a big family and over the last few years, their family just kept getting bigger. He was sure they could call Don’s family their family soon too, Rafa was sure of it.

Just then they heard Donnie call for a meeting, something about needing to share something regarding the portal device.

Don was the first one to stand up. He placed the dragons back on the bed.

“I’ll come pick them up later.” Don smiled.

Rafa smiled back at him and the two walked towards the living room.

Let’s see what Donnie wants to share.

Chapter Text

Donnie explained just where they would need to go to collect the needed resources. Some they could salvage from Repo’s junkyard with no issue. Angelo said the man owed them a few favors after Leon looked after his cat who was sick a few months ago. Other parts would have to be collected in the Hidden City. Rafa said he could ask his friend, Tao, to help him collect things.

Don was intrigued by the concept of the Hidden City but he wanted to experience the Hidden City with his brothers. Something about getting to walk through a city and be considered normal was something Don wanted to share with his brothers. The resident turtles understood that sentiment.

They were about to leave when Angelo interjected.

“Don, I found something you’d probably like.”

They turned to the youngest turtle, waiting for him to continue.

“You mentioned that your brothers could freak a lot after you ‘died’.” That was one way to put it. “I found a spell that can help you get a message to them. But we would need a bit to make it work.”

Before Don could even say anything Donnie answered for him.

“That’s great! You and Angelo can work on contacting your brothers and letting them know that you’re fine. Leo and I will go to Repo’s and Raph can get Tao to help him in the Hidden City.”

“That’s a great idea, Donnie!”, agreed Rafa.

“Only if Don is fine with it.”, interjected Angelo.

“I am. I’d love to talk to my brothers.”

“It’s settled then. The three of us, and Tao, will get the material and while we’re out you’ll work on the spell.”, said Leo.

“I’m not sure if this will work first try though.”, said Angelo.

“Don’t worry, we’ll need multiple trips anyway.”, said Donnie.

Soon the three made their way to collect the first bits of material they needed, not after telling Rafa their pizza orders for a place called Run of the Mill.

Don and Angelo worked hard on getting the spell down, but like Angelo had said, it would take time. They sat together on a few mats in the garage and while Don noticed nothing Angelo took notice of the purple marking appearing on him. He knew it was starting to work. Don just needed a little more practice. Spells were hard, especially this one. It was one even Angelo had a hard time understanding, and that was saying a lot. He was a quick learner when it came to anything Mystic.

So, Don practiced every day the other three went out to collect materials Don and Angelo stayed behind the try and get the spell to work. Every time it didn’t work it left Don disappointed. It felt hopeless.

“Try remembering the good times with you brothers:”, said the cat yokai as he walked back into the garage after they helped Rafa carry something to the lab.

“Tao!”, said Angelo.

“Hi. I’m no good with spells but my sister said that could help after I asked her. I hope you don’t mind I asked. You may not know me, but you’re a different version of my friend, I hope you can get home safe.”, said Tao.

“Thank you, I’ll try that.”, said Don.

“I’ll get going then. When things calm down and everything is sorted out come by my shop. I’ll give you and your brothers a little something.”, said Tao as he left the lair.

“Shop?”, Don wondered out loud.

“Tao’s family has a shop in the Hidden City. They sell pretty cool stuff. We’ll take you there and your brothers.”, said Angelo.

Don couldn’t help but wonder what they sold, no one wanted to answer his questions aside from that he should wait for the surprise.

Finally.

The spell finally worked for the first time. Within the spell, he should end up connecting to his brother’s consciousness. Apparently, that meant he was connected to their dreams.

Judging by the environment he was in; this was Mikey’s dream. It looked like a cotton candy land if a cotton candy land had superheroes flying around everywhere. But much to Don’s surprise it lacked the vibrancy he was expecting from his little brighter. Was it because he had gotten so used to the bright colors of the other reality or did it have a different reason? Don wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Don walked down the path he found. Hopefully, he could find Mikey in this mess. He couldn’t help but notice the pink bushes along the path, were made out of cotton candy with berries made out of chocolate drops. Mikey’s imagination was something else.

After walking for a bit, he finally spotted a familiar turtle. Mikey.

Don took in the sight of his little brother for a second. He knew he missed his brothers but seeing one of them this close yet so far away at the same time. The pain of being separated from his brothers was greater than ever.

As Don was just looking at his brother, Mikey turned around. Don instantly noticed the glum expression on his face as well as the goggles on his head. He was wearing Don’s goggles, the one he had on when he was sent to the other reality. Mikey’s eyes widened as soon as he spotted the sight of his immediate older brother.

“DONNIE!”, he yelled as he flung himself at the older.

Don wrapped his arms around Mikey the second he was close enough.

“Hi, Mikey.”, said Don quietly as he buried his snout in Mikey's shoulder, Mikey did the same.

As if hearing his name was the most heartbreaking thing in the world, Mikey sobbed. He sobbed in Don’s arms and kept repeating his name over and over like he would leave if he stopped saying his name. Don didn’t get to say anything more than comforting words to his brother. As much as he wanted to make Mikey understand that he was alive and well, the counter turtle wouldn’t be able to understand that. Not with the state he was in. Don just hoped one of the other two was more open to conversation.

Instead of getting the message to Mikey. Don just spent the duration of the spell comforting and holding Mikey close.

Don hated to see his cheerful and happy brother like this. He was not supposed to cry like this. Somehow Don had a bad feeling about the other two dreams he was about to invade soon.

While Don was in dreamland, Angelo looked at him amazed. The markings from earlier were getting brother, but they faded just before Don opened his eyes again. Angelo decided to keep that to himself for now.

And Don closed his eyes again, for his second try.

When Don opened his eyes again he knew immediately where he was, not necessarily who’s dream but he knew where the dream was taking place. The dojo, the one back home.

Don looked around, his homesickness only grew more and more as he looked around the place he trained with his brothers under their father’s watchful eye. He never thought he’d say this, but he would do anything to get his shell handed to him by one of his brothers.

As Don took everything in, he finally found out just whose dream it was. It was Leo’s. His eldest brother was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. What stood out the most to Don was what Leo had in his hands. It was his bo-staff. Had all his brothers taken one of his things with them after his presumed death? It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

“Leo?”, said Don quietly.

Usually, Leo would ignore them when he was meditating, until they annoyed him enough that is. So, seeing him look up instantly was a little surprising.

“Donnie…”, Leo’s voice quiet as if he wasn’t sure he was really seeing his little brother.

Don took a step forward and held out a hand to his brother. Leo hesitantly took it, as if Don would disappear as soon as he touched him. Don smiled at his brother as he pulled Leo up. Leo would listen to him, right?

The second Leo stood; he pulled Don into a tight hug. Don didn’t remember the last time held him like this. This reminded Don of the times when they were younger and Leo would do nothing but worry about Don after as much as a small scratch. Sometimes Don thought Leo’s favorite hobby was worried about how much he did it in their teen years, not that he had gotten much better.

“Leo-“, Don began but Leo cut him off.

“I’m sorry.”, Leo said so quietly Don almost didn’t hear him, “I’m sorry. I miss you.”

Leo just kept repeating that he was sorry. Why was he blaming himself for this?! Don wanted to smack some sense into him! This was not Leo’s fault, it was Bishop's!

Don tried to explain, but yet much like Mikey, Leo didn’t listen to him. Don gave up trying to explain it and instead enjoyed the tight hold of his brother until his time in the dream ran out.

As Don was in the second dream, Angelo once again observed him. He was sure he was feeling an inkling of Mystic earlier. And the feeling returned a little bit into the second dream, this time not only did Don gain the purple markings again, but a small Hamato Symbol illuminated in front of him as well. He was slowly tapping into his Ninpo. No one was sure if he had the potential to tap into it, until now that is. It was only a matter of time until Don would unlock his Ninpo fully.

When Don opened his eyes the glow faded once again.

“And?”, asked Angelo.

“Another bust. I just hope Raph will listen.”, said Don before he closed his eyes once again.

Don was afraid now. He feared he would not be able to get through to Raph. He hated that all this work to let them know he was alive might have been a total waste of time!

Don took a deep breath before he even dared to open his eyes. In contrast to the two dreams before, Raph found him before Don had even seen him.

How did Don know with his eyes still closed?

He was tackled into a hug and lifted off the ground. Only Raph did that when hugging his brothers.

Don opened his eyes to confirm his suspicions.

“Hi Raph.”, he said.

“Hi Don.”, he answered.

Could Don actually get through to him?

Raph soon put the purple turtle down and Don looked around for a second. They were in his lab. It was just how he left it. Even the Battle Shell was still in the middle of that upgrade. When he looked towards Raph again, he noticed the purple fabric around his neck. He was wearing his mask, even if it was a little dinged at the ends from what Don could see.

“Raph, I need you to listen to me!”

Raph nodded, but somehow Don didn’t think he was paying attention.

“I’m fine. I’m just-“, Raph cut him off.

“You’re not. You’re gone. And I couldn’t protect you.”

“No, Raph. Please listen.”

“I knew this was too nice of a dream!”; Raph turned away from Don, “Why is my own dream giving me false hope!” He walked further from Don

“It’s not! Raph please!” Don walked after him.

“I just want my brother back. But all I get is a dream. What a sick joke.”

“It’s not a joke-“, Don cut himself off as he saw Raph’s face. He was crying.

Don put a gentle hand on Raph’s shoulder. It was no use. He wouldn’t be able to get through to him, he was too much in his head. Too stuck in his own grief to realize this was real and not just a regular dream.

Don wrapped his arms around his brother. As much as Raph liked to be the bigger brother between the two of them, there were times he came to Don and was the little brother for a change. In a sense, they were his home dimensions twins, like Donnie and Leon. They did call themselves twins for a long time when they were younger. Maybe Don should ask Raph about that again once he gets home.

Don just held Raph, and neither said a thing until Don was about to leave the dream again. The last thing he heard from his brother was: “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

Why did his older brothers love to blame themselves?!

This time Angelo looked at him and only a few minutes into the third dream the Hamato symbol was bigger and brother than before, Only seconds later Don’s gear changed to match the wraps Angelo and his brothers wore. He has unlocked his Ninpo! And much faster than Angelo has thought.

“FUCK!”, yelled Don as he opened his eyes and fell to his shell.

“Didn’t work?”, asked Angelo.

“Not even close! I got to talk to him but he thought I was part of the dream!”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work. But look at the bright side. You unlocked your Ninpo.”

“My wha-“, he looked at his new gear, “What?!”

“I have so many questions. Why do I?”

“I think it’s because of your relationship with your brothers. Every time you were in a dream you got closer and closer until the last one. You connected with them again.”

As amazed as Don was he was also heartbroken. He may have this power now, which did who knows what but figuring this out without his brothers, experiencing them without them felt wrong. Especially since he knew Ninpo relied on the relationships of their family, it was so closely linked to his brothers it hurt but it also made him feel safer and more at home.

Don just wants to go home and soon!

Chapter Text

With Don gone, everything seemed to fall apart.

Splinter fell into a state of depression, he rarely came out of his room. His sons weren’t sure if he even ate. Occasionally he would check on his other sons, but everyone knew he was coping, well trying to cope, with the loss of one of his sons. His boys were everything to him. He tried his best to keep them safe, but in the end, it was in vain, one of his precious boys was gone. The rat man had lost a part of himself when Don didn’t return home. One could only hope he would bounce back, even if only for his remaining three sons.

Much like Splinter, his sons acted like part of them died.

Raph was angrier that ever. Every day he took it out on the dummies and the boxing bags around their home. But there was only so much these things could take before they sub came to Raph’s anger. Most of them had been damaged beyond repair.

Where Raph was loud and angry, Mikey was quiet and mellow. To him, there was no reason to be loud and happy when Don wasn’t there. He didn’t have the energy to keep up that happy-go-lucky attitude of his. Usually, he could keep it up, just so his brothers were a little less on edge. But not with Don gone. Mikey didn’t have energy for anything if he was being honest.

Leo was not much better than his brothers. He tried to cope with meditation and training. He tried to distract himself. But nothing worked. Every turn he took he was reminded of Don, everything in the lair was another reminder of the purple turtle. Leo never thought he would be someone to try this much, yet here he was. Sad and crying over every little thing.

Eventually, the day came when they would have to tell Casey and April.

When they did, they didn’t take it well.

Casey was seconds away from murder. He had made the decision to be better than Hun, who had killed Casey’s father. But the thought of someone taking Don away from them was worse than anything. The only reason he didn’t go out that second was April.

She fell to her knees the second the news hit. She was sobbing her heart out. She loved these boys. They were her best friends and he just lost one of them. When he had no one, these five mutants welcomed her to their family and she loved them so much. She, much like the rest of the family, felt like something died alongside Don.

April sobbed for longer than anyone cared as Casey held her close.

The two may have only been part of this family for a few years, but they had never imagined that they one of them would be taken from them.

April and Casey may not say it much, but they loved these boys like they were their little brothers. They would take on the world if something happened to them, even if they were only human.

Raph woke up abruptly. He sat up in his bed. He rubbed his tired eyes only to notice that his eyes were wet. He had cried in his sleep again. Nothing new to the turtle in red since Don’s death. He had been having nothing but nightmares since then. Today however the nightmare felt so much more real than all the others. Most times he could only remember the pained look on Don’s face. But now? He recalled almost everything. Something was blurry but the second he saw Don everything was clear. He remembered everything.

Raph shook his head. He didn’t know why his brain loved torturing him. He was already angrier than ever since Don died; he didn’t need to feel that anger in his dream too. Raph was angry at himself. Angry that he couldn’t save his brother. He knew Don wouldn’t blame him, but he couldn’t help his anger. The only reason he didn’t go after Bishop yet were his brothers and father. He couldn’t leave them alone, not now. They all needed each other. And Don would have wanted them to stick together. He mentioned that an awful lot in the last few years. Raph had wondered what prompted that, but Don only ever said not to worry about it.

Did Don know something would happen to him? It wouldn’t surprise Raph if he did, Don was the smartest person he knew. But if that was the case, why did Don just let it happen? Raph tried to forget about it, it wasn’t like he could get an answer to that anyway.

Raph decided he might as well let out his anger on a dummy when he was awake already. He doesn’t think he can sleep again, not after that dream.

Much to his surprise, he wasn’t the only one awake. Both of his brothers were awake too. Mikey was curled up on the couch, eyes red and puffy, likely from crying, and Leo was sitting next to him gently patting the younger turtle's shell. At first, Raph didn’t notice it but Leo’s eyes had a sheen to it as well, he had been crying as well.

Raph walked over to his brothers; the dummy forgotten. He sat down on Mikey’s other side.

They sat together in silence for a bit.

They loved each other, of course they did, but everything they did felt off. Wrong even. They had never been separated for good. The only time they were really separated like this was when Leo was in Japan, and even then they knew he was coming back eventually. But this? Don wasn’t coming back and they were forever separated. There weren’t four anymore and all of them hated it. It was just wrong. They knew that in every reality there were four, why did they have to be three instead of four?! Hadn’t they been through enough already? The universe truly hated them, didn’t it?

“I dreamed about Donnie.”, sniffed Mikey after he uncurled himself.

“Me too.”; said Raph.

“That makes three of us.”, added Leo.

“I miss Don. The dream was so real, I thought he was really hugging me.”, said Mikey.

“Mine was too. I – Holding him felt so unbelievably real… I just wish it was.”

“Mine kept telling him it was real. As much as I want it to be real, it can’t be. Bishop blew him up.”

“And he’ll pay for it.”, said Leo.

His brothers nodded in agreement. Bishop is going down and no one can stop them, even if Don would tell them to not go in without a plan, the only plan they needed was to make Bishop and Hun pay.

Over the next few days, the three brothers prepared for their revenge. They kept their intentions from their father, it wasn’t that hard, given he rarely left his room. The only reason they were keeping this from their father, as well as April and Casey, was because they knew the three would try to talk them out of it. They wouldn’t want to lose another one of them.

Eventually, the day came. The day they would storm the EPF headquarters and make Bishop and Hun pay. How would they make them pay? They weren’t sure yet. They would come up with it on the spot.

In the dead of the night, the three of them left through the sewer, leaving the Battle Shell behind. The engine would be too loud and wake up Splinter. If all goes well, they’ll be home before Splinter wakes up and begins to worry about them.

They jumped over the roofs, usually, this would be the funniest part of leaving the sewers, but today, nothing would be fun. They weren’t even sure if anything would ever be fun again. Not as long as Don wasn’t with them.

Soon enough they reached the EPF building. They reached it faster than they usually would have, probably because they didn’t take the time to goof around a little bit.

They easily blended in with the shadows and made their way in, knocking out a man or two along the way.

As they walked around the budling, trying to find Bishop they heard a voice coming from the other end of the hall. Raph looked around and spotted a door, he pulled it open and along with his brothers ran in.

“We just need to wait out these guys and then-“, Leo began before he was cut off by Mikey.

“Dudes? We aren’t alone.”

“Huh?”, said Raph as he turned around.

Behind the three turtles was a human, the scientist from earlier, Alex.

“Don’t make a sound.”, said Leo, trying to sound threatening. It didn’t seem to work. Alex didn’t seem scared.

“No need to. I don’t intend to rat you out.”, they said.

“Why not? You work for Bishop?”, accused Mikey.

“Correction worked. I’m about to quit.”

“Really? Why would you?”, said Raph.

“I don’t want my inventions to hurt people. I only started to work with Bishop to help people recover from their accidental mutation, not to hurt anyone.”

“That never stopped others from hurting us.”

“You are sentient turtles with your own thoughts and emotions. You and I aren’t all that different. I don’t want to hurt you any more than I’d want to hurt a human.”

Alex walked past them to the door.

“I did some research on the events that caused Donatello’s disappearance.”

“Just say his death.”, said Raph, annoyed with the human by now.

“No, disappearance. Something about that purple light caused him to disappear rather than die. I looked over some footage in the machine. Before it blew up, Donatello had already disappeared. He was gone before it happened.”

“You mean our bother is alive?!”, yelled Mikey, Raph quickly placed a hand on the younger mouth and shushed him.

“I can’t promise anything, but there is a chance he is. Somewhere.”, said Alex.

“Why are you telling us this?”, asked Leo.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s guilt.”, Alex sighed, “See that vent, it will lead you straight to the labs, and from there you’ll reach Bishop’s office quickly. Hun should be with him too.”, said Alex before they left the room.

The three brothers looked after them. They were odd, this could be a trap, but they did let the three of them leave when everything went downhill.

“Do you think Donnie could be alive?”, asked Mikey hopeful.

“I – I want to, but I don’t think I can believe that.”, said Leo.

“What if, what if the dream we had, were real?”, suggested Raph.

“What do you mean?”, asked Mikey.

“We all agreed the dreams were very real and what if they were? What if it was Donnie trying to tell us he’s fine?!”, said Raph. Call him delusional, but the dream didn’t sit right with him, everything was too real and that Alex said this, made him hopeful for the first time in weeks. Raph liked to think he was a good judge of character, and somehow he knew the human was genuine. There was nothing to get out of to lie to them.

“They said there was footage of Don disappearing, right? Let’s see if we can find it for ourselves!”, said Leo. The idea of Don being alive, somewhere, somehow, gave him hope and the motivation to keep moving. If there’s a small chance their brother lived, they would take it.

“LET’S DO IT!”, said Mikey. For the first time since Don died, no disappeared, the youngest smiled. Truly smiled, not the pained and forced smile he put on for his family. A real genuine smile. If he can have his brother back, he’ll take the chance!

Leo smiled at his brothers, who returned the smile and walked over to the vent. They would take the chance of a lifetime and trust the human scientist.

When they got out of the vent, they were in the labs, like Alex had said. The machine that had taken Don was in the corner and still broken.

“How did you three get inside?!”, yelled Bishop from above them.

He was standing on the elevated flooring above the broken machine.

“Hun, take care of them!”

“I don’t take orders from you!”, yelled Hun as he stood in front of them and cracked his knuckles.

Before Hun could even try to hit them, something crashed into the massive turtle’s head. Something made of metal judging by the sound.

Chapter Text

A few weeks since Don’s venture to his brothers’ dreams had passed. With Don unlocking his Hamato Ninpo, which he wasn’t entirely sure why he even had it in the first place, he’d been also trying to figure out what his powers were. His day consisted of working on the portal gun and figuring out his Ninpo until someone ambushed him and forced him to take a break.

While working on the portal gun with Donnie, Don tried reaching for a wrench. It was too far away from Don for him to reach it, but before he could ask Donnie for it, who was closer to it, his old tribunal marking appeared once again and the wrench was being pulled towards him. Don and Donnie stared at the wrench that was now in Don’s hand.

“Did I do that?”, said Don.

“Yup.”; said Donnie as he stood up, “Wait here.”

He walked around the room and collected a few things, among them a few tools as well as Donnie’s tech bo.

“Okay, try that again.”, said Donnie.

Don did as he was told. With the time he had spent with Donnie, he quickly learned not to question his train of thought. Donnie was an enigma and no one really knew what exactly was going on inside his head.

Not everything that Donnie had collected seemed to react to Don’s newfound abilities. The ones he had been able to pull towards him all had one thing in common. They were all made of metal, though the tech bo did not react to the pull.

“Interesting, I’d say your Ninpo is magnetism.”, said Donnie.

“Really? How are you so sure?”, asked Don.

“Most of my tools are made of iron, which is magnetic.”

“And your bo isn’t?”,

“Pfft- no. It’s made of high-grade titanium, which-“

“Isn’t magnetic, I know. How did you even get that?”

“For the new one? Uncle Bishop. The first one? Don’t worry about it.”

“First one? I’m not even going to ask.”

With their small detour to figuring out Don’s Ninpo over they went back to working on the portal gun.

A few days later the five turtles got ready to leave to another dimension. With Don remembering just how the portal stick was made and two Donatello’s working on it. The first portal gun was done and working without any big mishaps.

“Don’t you want to tell your dad or your April and the Caseys?”, asked Don.

“Nah. He’s helping Draxum with something. And those three are still on their road trip.”, explained Leon.

“Speaking of which. Did anyone tell them about this whole situation?”, asked Donnie.

“Nope.”, said Angelo.

“Nu-uh.”, said Rafa.

Leon shook his head.

“We’re so dead. Oh well, that’s a problem for future us!”, said Donnie.

Don could only laugh at that. He had yet to meet those three but he already knew they would be just as likable as the four mutants in four in front of him. Just as he reached for the borrowed bo staff Donnie stopped him.

“You won’t be using that one.”, Donnie said, “Since your Ninpo is magnetism. I made you this, with a magnificent paint job thanks to Angelo over here.”

Donnie handed him a small and thin barrel of iron. Don’s grip around it tightened as he inspected it. It extended into a full-sized bo staff with the added pressure. It had purple detailing on it and a deep purple ribbon around the middle of it for a better grip.

“You made this for me? Thank you.”

Donnie smiled and high-threed Angelo.

“You need to take these too!”, said Rafa as he held out the four dragon plushies. Don took them from the bigger turtle. In these past few weeks, he easily grew over his initial fear of the big guy. He may be huge and spiky but he was just a sweet kid.

“Thanks.” Don stuffed the dragons into his bag, Leon had given it to him after he mentioned he liked to carry tools around with him. Don had originally thought it was only temporary, but Leon insisted he’d keep it and if Don was honest he might just replace his usual bag for this one. It was much nicer than the one he had at home and bigger too.

“Let’s go fam!”, said Rafa as they booted up the portal gun and jumped through the portal. Don would be home soon; he’d finally see his brothers again.

The portal gun opened up in some kind of office.

“This place looks so sad.”, said Angelo.

“I think this is Bishop’s office.”, said Don.

“That just makes it worse. Even our dear old uncle’s office looked nicer before we made it better.”, said Leon.

“It lacks purple.”, said Donnie.

“Not everything needs to be purple, Donnie.”, said Rafa.

“Anyway- I would have hoped we would pop out anywhere but here. Let’s get to the lair.”, said Don.

“Lead the way!”, said Rafa.

Don looked around and spotted a window big enough for all of them to leave. At first, he had thought maybe Leon’s portal could get them to the lair, but after bringing up the idea to Leon a few days ago, he explained it would take ages to even find the place since he didn’t know where it was. So walking it was.

Just as Don opened the window, the office door opened. The five mutants froze in place.

In the door frame stood the scientist from back then, Alex, if Don remembered correctly.

“Huh, so you are alive.”, they said unimpressed, “I’m glad my suspicion was correct.”

They closed the door and walked towards the desk, placing an envelope down.

“What is that?”, asked Angelo as he leaned over the human’s shoulder. 

“MIKEY!”, exclaimed his big brothers.

“My letter of resignation.”

“You’re quitting?”, asked Don.

“Yup. I apologize my machine caused this mess.”, Alex said before they turned to leave again, “Also, Donatello, your brothers are in the labs, if they followed my directions that is.”

“My brothers are here?”

“Yes, I believe they want revenge.”

“Those idiots. Thank you, Alex.”

The human smiled. It’s been a while since someone said their name kindly.

“I hope we can meet again, on better terms.”, they said as they left the room for good.

Maybe they could meet again.

“Well, let’s get your brothers and then we leave!”, said Rafa.

“Yeah! Let’s help the other uses!”, said Angelo.

“Wait- do we get to meet the evil Bishop?!”, said Leon.

“And that Hun guy?”, added Donnie.

“Maybe?”, shrugged Don, “Let’s go!”

The eldest turtle led the way to the labs, he had studied the floor layouts ages ago, just the be safe after the first time Bishop had kidnapped them. He knew how to get to the labs. Once they reached the labs, Don spotted Bishop and made his way up the stairs to the next level. He pointed the other four towards the middle of the lab, where his brothers stood. While Don was running towards Bishop he noticed Hun was towering over his brother’s. The four youngest weren’t close enough to stop him.

Don pulled out his new iron bo and fired it at Hun’s head with the help of his Ninpo. This didn’t hurt Hun a lot, the man, mutant or not, always had thick skin.

Don used his Ninpo to call the staff back and was not close enough to Bishop to fight him.

While the human was distracted by the odd metal that had hit Hun out of nowhere, Don extended his bo and hit Bishop in the head sending him flying towards the wall behind him.

Bishop spit out some blood and looked at the fool who had hit him. His eyes widened in shock and surprise as he saw who it was.

“How are you alive?!”

“It will take more than a tiny explosion to kill me!”

Bishop stood up again.

“I’ll just take care of you the old-fashioned way.”

“I’d like to see you try!”

Don had pointed them towards the middle of the lab while he headed towards who they assumed was Bishop.

“Dude, he looks like a lonely old man.”, said Leon.

“He is a lonely old man, Leo.”, said Donnie.

“Fair.”

As they got closer they saw the turtle mutant in front of the brothers. The mutant was only a little shorter than Rafa, this had to be that Hun guy. Rafa had to admit he hoped they’d run into the guy. He rarely got to fight someone close to his own size! Before Rafa could engage the mutant in a fight Don’s bo smacked Hun in the head. This confused Hun for a second, giving Rafa a perfect opening.

Rafa tackled the other mutant and began to wrestle the man.

“WHAT THE?! WHO ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE?!”, yelled Hun.

“I’m Raph.”, the teenager said.

Hun threw Rafa off of him but the bigger mutant managed to land properly thanks to his tail balancing him before he could fall back.

“What?!”, came from Hun.

“Don’t worry about it!”, Rafa said as he charged at Hun again. He was going to enjoy this. Rafa and Hun traded blows. The main difference between the two was that Hun was taking this fight very seriously, he had never fought anyone taller than him, let alone a mutant turtle, but Rafa? Rafa wasn’t even getting serious. As much as he loved his Ninpo, he enjoyed a good spar with no powers involved far more, and having someone who he wasn’t afraid to hurt? Perfect for the big turtle

To say they, Mikey, Leo and Raph, were surprised by the massive and spiky turtle tackling Hun was an understatement. Where did that guy even come from? And who was he?! He was fighting Hun and looked like he was having fun, the fight between the two big mutant turtles obscured most of the view they had of Bishop, all they saw was he was fighting someone, but who?

“He’s really getting at it.”, said someone behind behind them.

“He rarely gets to fight someone his size, let Raph have this.”, said someone else.

“Raph?”, wondered Raph as he turned around. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it surely wasn’t three mutant turtles wearing blue, purple and orange.

“Yeah, ya know big guy with a red mask.”, said, who Raph assumed to be another version of Leo.

“The multiverse? Again?”, said Leo more exhausted than anything, “We don’t have time to help you out.”

“Help us? Scoff. We don’t need your help. We’re here to help you.”, said the other Donnie.

“We don’t have time for this!”, said Leo.

It was clear that the three older turtles were on edge. They were stressed and barely functional. At least to Angelo. They probably wouldn’t listen to them.

“Look, you three need to listen to us. We need to get out of here.”, said Angelo, trying to defuse the tension.

“Not before know if we know Donnie’s alive, little dude.”, said Mikey,

“I’ll let that comment slide, for now. But this is about about your brother!”, said Angelo.

“What do you know?!”, yelled Raph as he pulled out his sai.

“Woah. Put those away, you could really hurt someone with those.”, said Leon.

“That’s the point, stripes.”

“If you’d just let us finish, we could-“, Donnie began but was cut off by a loud crash coming from the side of the lab.

They all looked over to see Rafa had slammed Hun into a wall. The snapper looked a little apologetic. He didn’t want to damage the walls; Titan knew he could take down the whole building that way.

With the attention on the alligator snapping turtle, Bishop used the distraction to push Don over the railing of the small balcony they were fighting on. Don screamed as he went down.

Everyone’s attention snapped to the falling turtle mutant.

“Donnie?!”, yelled the three brothers as they stared at their lost brother. They wouldn’t be able to be there fast enough to catch him. But luckily enough, Rafa was.

He used his Ninpo to get more momentum and easily caught the smaller mutant in his hands.

“Raph’s got you!”

“Thanks, buddy.”

Don was gently set down by Rafa and saw his brothers as well as the other three kids run towards them.

Chapter Text

After Rafa had caught Don in his arms and sat him down, the older turtle mutant was tackled to the ground by his brothers. Don had to admit he was a little surprised, he expected that from Mikey, but Leo and Raph?

“You’re alive!”, yelled Mikey as he buried his face in Don’s torso.

Don put his arms around his younger brother while Leo and Raph joined them in the hug.

No one mentioned if any of them shed a few tears.

“I really love a wholesome moment as much as the next turtle, but we still have two idiots watching us.”, said Donnie.

“You’re right.”, Don sniffed and gently nudged his brothers to stand up again.

As they detangled from each other, the three brothers finally got a good look at Don.

He wasn’t wearing his usual gear, his new ones looked more like what their counterparts were wearing. Leo couldn’t help but wonder why. Mikey took notice of the mask, they knew Don’s was around Raph’s neck, so this had to be from the other Donnie. It looked much newer than his old one. It was nice. Raph noticed that Don’s bo, well the one he had on himself was not made of wood like he was used to. It was metallic, did Don finally make himself a metal one? Raph remembered Don wanting to use a more durable material.

“I like the new gear, Don!”, complemented Mikey.

“Why thank you, “Don joked, “I got a bit of an upgrade.”

Upgrade?

Don turned to the counterparts.

“Meet us from another reality, but I think you know that already.”

“Hi.”, said the smaller Mikey.

“Anywayyy-“, said the striped Leo, “How do we go about this? We do we, or do we do your thing?”

“Usually, I’d say my way with you four”, said Don. This only seemed to confuse his brothers. “But I do want to see Bishop and Hun struggle against you. Soooo- as Leon put it. ‘We do we’.”

“Total chaos, baby!”, said the small Mikey as the chains of his nunchucks expanded and he swung into the air.

The other Donnie looked to his other brothers and said: “Dips on the Bishop guy!” And he ran off, well he flew off. His metallic shell expanded and turned into a jet pack.

“No way chico!”, yelled Leon, as Don had called him, as he ran after the purple-branded turtle.

The big Raph sighs before he runs after his brothers.

Raph wants to join his bigger counterpart but is stopped by Don gripping his hand.

“We’re not going to fight. Just enjoy the show.”, said Don.

“Donnie, you can’t let them fight them alone!”, said Leo.

“They can handle themselves.”, said Don.

“But their tiny dude! Well other than that Raph.”

“True, but their string kids.”

“KIDS? Donnie!”, Leo was already falling into their usual dynamic again. He couldn’t believe Don would be that reckless!

“Woah-“, said Mikey, “Look at little me!”

The four turned to see that the spotted turtle was going. Much to everyone’s, except Don’s surprise, his nunchucks wrapped themselves around Hun and the short turtle just began to spin and with him, Hun did too.

“See, Angelo can handle himself. Also, stop calling him short or little. He will go for your kneecaps, Mikey.”

“Yeah, yeah got it!”, Mikey wasn’t really paying attention. His full attention was solely on Angelo. Mikey had liked the other versions of themselves, they were fun, but Angelo? Mikey knew he was fun too! He had stickers on his shell, of course, he’d be fun! And really cool kneepads! And of course, he was rocking the short mask tails, they looked like a cute bow! Only a Mikey could really pull that style off! But the coolest part was he had powers or something! That was so cool! This version of him was like a superhero or something! Of course, Mikey was the Turtle Titan but having powers would be so cool! He really wanted his dragon form back right about now!

While Mikey was distracted with his own counterpart, Leo was more focused on Leon and the other Donnie, they were tag teaming Bishop.

Leo was impressed with how well they worked together not to mention how fast they were on their feet. Leo was sure he was just imagining things but it looked like Leon was teleporting, surely he was just fast, right?

They were giving Bishop a run for his money and Leo had to admit it was amazing to watch.

Just then Donnie put some distance between himself and Bishop, Leon seemed to take this as his cue and backed off as well. Out of thin air see-through purple weaponry appeared.

“Prepare for my Mystic Tech!”, yelled Donnie.

Leo wanted to put a stop to this but someone was faster than the leader in blue.

“We’re not killing people Donnie!”, yelled the big Raph from the other side of the room where he and Angelo were handling Hun.

“You never let me shine!”, complained Donnie as he snapped his fingers and the weapons disappeared.

Raph’s attention was fully on the big and spiky version of himself. Raph loved the guy already! He was massive and could go head-to-head with Hun! Raph wanted to spar with him! As he saw the other turtles apparently had powers, he wondered what his bigger version could do. What kind of power did he have to make him even stronger?!

Sometime into their fight, Hun was securely in Angelo’s chain. The brothers bumped fists and the spiky guy walked closer to Hun and picked him up.

“It’s air jail for you.”, he said and Angelo laughed. Raph could hear Don chuckling at that.

“Rafa does like air jail a lot.”, said Don, that didn’t explain much.

Rafa’s arms began to glow red, similar to Donnie’s tech, and the arms grew bigger until Hun was lifted up enough that Angelo could properly tie him up.

As soon as Hun was stuck the brothers returned to their side.

“That’s so cool dude!”, said Mikey as was invading Angelo’s personal space.

“Thanks!”, he said while scratching the back of his head.

He really looked like a kid now, even though they just witnessed him fighting Hun with ease.

“Impressive, big guy.”, Raph said.

The big turtle chuckled. He was just a big kid, wasn’t he? Raph couldn’t help but wonder just how big that guy would get.

“It’s rare that someone other than Leo and I gets air jail.”, commented Donnie as he and Leon joined them again.

“Because you two keep doing your middle-child nonsense.”, mumbled Rafa.

No one seemed to have heard him, aside from Leo, but he decided to ask about that one later. There were already many differences between the two sets of brothers. Leo’s, as well as his brothers, curiosity could wait a little longer.

“So, what do we do about these guys?”, asked Leon, oddly enough he was looking between Don and Rafa. Leo found it odd. Wasn’t Leonardo being the leader a constant? It was like that in the two other worlds they had met.

“I say we let these guys decide.”, said Rafa as he pointed towards the resident turtles.

“We could-“, began Raph. What did he want to suggest? The dimension-hopping turtles could only wonder.

“Nope. We’re not doing that.”, said Leo, “Let’s just get out of here.”

Raph snarked a little. He wanted to kick some butt.

They walked towards the open door but a siren boomed through the lab and every exit and window began to lock with thick metal.

“You won’t be leaving.”, said Bishop.

“We really should have left him there, Tello.”, said Leon.

“You said he had enough, Nardo!”

“I just wanted to keep you from killing the guy! I don’t want to sit through another scolding from Raph!”

A shiver ran down Donnie’s spine. “Me neither. It’s almost as bad as Dr. – urgh – Feelings.”

To say Raph, Mikey and Leo were confused by their interaction was an understatement. To them this seemed more similar to a conversation Raph and Donnie, or even Mikey, had about Leo. They had only known these kids for less than an hour and they were already more confusing than the oddballs from the 80s.

A shot was fired and hit right above them, small bits of debris fell down, none of them big enough to hurt anyone.

“Stop talking!”, said Bishop, he was not amused by the unknown turtles that had ruined everything. Though he had to admit, he would enjoy figuring out how different they were from the turtles he was used to.

Don’s focus shifted to the gun in Bishop’s hand. Don got a by now familiar tingle in his fingers. Over the time he tried using his newfound powers, he just started to know when something was magnetic when it wasn’t. His mind was telling him that the gun was magnetic.

His mind was screaming at him to use his Ninpo to protect his family. To protect his connection. To protect his home.

Don raised his hand and stared right into Bishop’s eyes.

“What are you doing?”, Bishop asked, he sounded like he was mocking Don.

“I learned a few things while I was gone.”, Don said.

Just then Don began to glow, the familiar feeling of the tribunal markings appeared in him again, they grew and the rectangular marks illuminated him.

“What?” “Woah!” “So cool!” Said Don’s brothers, impressed that their brother had regained his tribunal markings.

In Bishop’s hand, the gun began to move. Bishop tightened his grip around the gun but to no avail. The second he lost hold of it; it was securely in Don’s hand.

“Dude?! How did you do that?!”, asked Mikey.

“I said I got an upgrade, didn’t I?”, Don laughed.

Don handed the gun to Rafa, who looked surprised.

“Why is he getting the gun and not me?!”, asked Raph.

“He is one of the only people I trust with a gun. The other one is Leo.”, Don explained, “Rafa can you dispose of it?”

“Sure!”, Rafa said as he moved the gun up to his mouth.

“Nu-uh! You ain’t chomping down on it!”, yelled Leon, “I’m not picking metal out of your chompers again! No chomping! Doctor’s orders!”

Rafa grumped a little at the slider’s outburst.

“Chomping is fun though…”

“I take it back, I only trust Leo with a gun.”, said Don.

Instead of biting down on it, Rafa put both his hands around the gun broke it in half with one swift motion and dropped the parts to the ground.

Bishop looked even angrier than before. Don didn’t know he could get angrier. Oh well.

“Even with your fancy little tricks, you won’t be getting out of here! All doors and windows are locked!”, Bishop was really losing his cool. Not to mention he was very well aware that the four new turtles did not take him seriously. He hated it.

“You’re recording this, right?”, whispered Leon to his twin brother.

“Duh.”

This Bishop was really fun to mess with. Their uncle would enjoy how insane everyone was driving him. The agent in front of them wouldn’t survive a day in their dimension if he couldn’t even handle a few mutants every other day.

“We don’t need to leave like that.”, said Don, nodding towards the biggest mutant turtle.

“Leo, portal us out of here.”

“Got it, boss man.”

The slider positioned himself and threw his Odachi, it made a perfect circle on the ground around the eight mutants. He easily caught it in his hand again and underneath them formed a blue vortex. The mutants feel through it.

Before Bishop could follow them the vortex closed.

He really hated those turtles. All of them.

Outside, not far from the building they were just in, a portal opened and eight figures fell out. Four of them landed better than the other ones.

“You really need to work on your landings.”, chuckled Leon.

“I think I’m gonna throw up.”, said Raph.

“It’s not that bad.”, said Don.

“It was.”, said Leo.

“I liked it!”, chimed Mikey in.

When the four turtles had gotten back up to their feet, Leo turned to his brother in purple.

“You have to tell us what happened.”, Leo smiled, “But let’s go home first. The sun is starting to rise.”

Once they reached the familiar lair, Don stuck behind a little. He was taking in everything. He was really home. He was home!

“Master Splinter!”, yelled Raph as he walked in.

The rat came running out of one of the rooms, looking more worried than ever.

“Where were you three?!”

“You see-“, Leo began.

“We got Donnie back!”, said Mikey, happy as ever.

“Donatello?”, the rat said as he looked behind his sons only to see four more versions of his boys. But most importantly, he saw Donatello. His Donatello. He was alive! And he had come home!

“I’m home.”, said Don, his eyes starting to tear up.

“My son.”

Chapter Text

Splinter moved quickly and pulled his lost son into a much-needed hug. All worries washed away as he held his precious Donatello in his arms. The turtle buried his snout in the rough fur of his father.

Raph, Leo and Mikey were quick to join them in their hug. The tears of relief and joy they had been holding back were running down their faces, staying their masks, or fur in Splinters case.

They were in a world of their own, completely forgetting about the four guests they had brought along.

“Awww.”, cooed one.

“MIKEY!”, yelled the other three.

“Sorry”, mumbled the youngest as he put his hands above his mouth.

Don bursts out laughing, and everyone else joins in as well.

With the interruption, the family of five untangled from each other, but never left each other’s personal space, they just turned to look at the other four mutants.

“I’m assuming you four are different versions of my sons? Like the ones we’ve met before?”, asked Splinter.

“Yup!”, said Leon, he flipped his mask tails, “We’re you, but better.”

To say this statement surprised Raph, Leo, Mikey and Splinter was an understatement. This was a version of Leo, Leo was confident, yes, but not like this. This was just cocky and even a little rude. Something you would expect from a Mikey, not a Leo. Raph wanted to smack him like he would Mikey when he said something stupid, but his spiky counterpart was faster.

“Be nice, Leo.”, Rafa said as he smacked the striped turtle.

Leon pouted as he rubbed the back of his head.

“As enjoyable as seeing Nardo get what’s coming is, we do need to ask you if we could stay a night or two.”, asked Donnie.

“We do?”, asked Leon.

“Yes, dum dum. Don and I may be geniuses but we didn’t want to wait any longer to get the portal gun to work more than once per charge. It would have taken us at least a few more days.”, explained Donnie.

Splinter coughed to get the boy's attention. “Of course, you can stay as long as you need to. You brought my son home to us. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

The old master bowed to the four turtles in front of him. His sons, even Don, followed his example and bowed as well. Thanking the four.

“Please get up.”, said Rafa, “There’s really no need.”

“Yeah, if our Donnie was lost, I’m sure you’d do the same.”, said Angelo.

“Eh, not so sure.”, said Leon, pointing towards his twin, “This guy would destroy the world first if we left him alone.”

“I hate that you’re right.”, mumbled Donnie.

“Anyway-“, said Angelo, trying to get the attention away from his brother's homicidal tendencies. He wanted to make a good impression on these guys.

“I’m Mikey, but you probably know that already. Don’s been calling me Angelo; you can do that too.”

The smallest turtle then pointed to his big brothers one by one.

“This is Raph, Don calls him Rafa.”

“That’s Leo or Leon.”

“And he’s Donnie.”

“We know that little man.”, said Mikey, “we are you- AH!”

Mikey is cut off by Angelo jumping him. “What did you call me?”

“Mikey, I warned you. Don’t call Angelo small. He will bite.”, said Don as he and Rafa carefully removed the small turtle from Mikey. Rafa held him like a sack of potatoes in his arm.

“We talked about this Mikey.”, said Rafa gently, “People aren’t-“

“I knooow, they aren’t trying to be mean.”, said Angelo as he pouted.

It was quite odd to see a Raph calming someone down, especially a version of Mikey.

Don chuckled at the interaction, alongside Donnie and Leon, over the time he had spent in the other reality he had gotten used to their antics. They were different from him and his brothers, but they were entertaining to watch nonetheless. Somehow Don hoped they could witness an argument between the twins, just to see his family’s reaction to it. The twins had one argument while he was there, over an energy drink nonetheless, but Don was a little terrified by it at first until Rafa cleared it up. These two really deserved the name their brothers had given them, disaster twins.

Don was pulled out of his thoughts by his eldest brother.

“Don? You okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Just lost in thought for a second. Did you ask me something?”

“No, Mikey did.”

Don turned to his little brother.

“How did you do that metal thing?”, Mikey turned to the counterparts, “And how did you guy do all of that stuff?”

“It’s- well-“, Don began, he wasn’t quite sure how to explain Ninpo just yet, “Angelo, could you?”

Angelo, who had been released out of Rafa’s hold by now, nodded.

“We used out Hamato Ninpo. Mystic powers passed down through the Hamato Clan. We unlocked ours about a year ago, Don unlocked his Ninpo after he tried reaching you through your dreams.”, Angelo explained.

“Hamato?”, whispered Splinter.

“Those dreams were real then?!”, yelled Mikey.

“You remembered them?”, asked Don.

“Yeah, they felt so real, and apparently they were. Raph had a theory they might have been after we ran into Alex earlier.”, said Leo.

“I mean Raph was the most aware in his dream.”, said Don.

“Really? What did these guys do? Not let you talk a single word?”, Raph joked.

“Well- I didn’t do a lot of talking with them.”, said Don. He would keep the desperate sobs of Mikey and Leo blaming himself, as well as Raph’s anger, to himself. They would stay between the respective brothers and Don.

Splinter looked at their guests and asked: “What do you mean Hamato? Do you know Hamato Yoshi?”

“That’s our pops.”, said Rafa, “He goes by Splinter now though.”

“Hold up – Master Splinter and Master Yoshi are the same person in your world? That’s so weird, dude!”, said Mikey.

“Everything that is different is going to be weird, dum dum.”, said Donnie, “You think Leo being the oldest is normal! That’s a crime!”

“You’re not the oldest?”, asked Leo his counterpart.

“Nah man, I’m a middle child.”

“Second youngest, Nardo being older than me and Raph should be punishable!”, said Donnie.

“We get it, Donnie, you like being second oldest.”, said Rafa as he picked up the younger by his shell. As he was picked up like a cat, he stopped all movements, like he was resetting. Rafa picking any of them up like this always did that.

“Wait, you’re the oldest big guy?!”, said Raph excited.

“Duh, Raph the biggest brother, who’s the biggest!”

“You talk in third person? Cool! I should do that too!”, said Mikey.

“Only Raph can talk in third person!”, said Rafa.

“And Draxum, you gave him permission.”, added Angelo.

“Who is this Draxum?”, asked Splinter.

“Baron Draxum, sheep-“ “Caprid.” “yokai that made us.”, said Leon as he was corrected by Donnie.

“He’s our mom!”, said Angelo.

“How-?”, before Leo could ask Don cut him off.

“Don’t bother, almost everything leaving their mouth will just confuse you more. I’m still confused by half the things they say.”

The four brothers in question laughed at Don’s comment. They knew they confused the older turtle and it was fun to do so as well.

They decided to sit down for now and get to know each other. They moved to the couch and the turtles and Splinter that called this dimension their home sat on the couch, while their guests sat on the floor despite getting offered to sit on the couch.

“We like sitting on the floor.”, said Leon, “Well Mikey likes sitting on Raph but still.”

The younger turtle blew a raspberry at his older brother while sitting comfortably on his biggest brother’s shoulders.

Rafa wasn’t paying attention to his little brothers, instead, his eyes fell on Don's bag. How could he forget?!

“Don,”, Rafa said while pointing towards the bag. Don looked at it and smiled as he remembered the stuffed dragons he had gotten from Rafa and brought along.

He stood up and took the bag into his hands.

“Whatcha got there, Dee?”, asked Mikey as he leaned over to see what his big brother was doing.

“I have something for you. Rafa gave them to me and I think you’d like them too.”

“What is it what is?”, asked Mikey excitedly. They didn’t get gifts often, especially on without occasions. Usually just for Christmas and their birthday.

Don hummed and looked towards his brothers.

“Can you close your eyes?”

His three brothers obliged. Even if Raph and Leo didn't vocalize it like Mikey, they were excited too. Gifts were always nice, and everyone had to agree Don was great at giving gifts. This had to be good.

After they closed their eyes, Don placed the stuffed dragons in his brother's expecting hands. Each one received it in their respective color. Don held the purple one in his hand too.

Splinter watched as Don placed the stuffed dragons in his brothers’ hands. He had assumed his sons were too old for stuffed animals by now, they had voiced that they were too old a long time ago. Then again that could easily just have been them being teenagers that thought they were too cool for childish things.

“Can we open our eyes now?”, asked Raph.

“Yup.”, said Don. He was excited to finally see his brother’s reaction to the cute dragons. Don had even asked Master Yoshi to sew him bows for the four dragons in a different shade of the dragon itself. The former actor happily agreed. He even tied the ribbons into neat bows. He had claimed he tied his son's mask tails like this when they were younger.

“Aww. She’s so cute!”, said Mikey, “She looks like me when I was a cool dragon, but much cuter!”

“Adorable.”, said Leo, smiling at the plushie.

“Heh. Cute.”, said Raph. He tried to sound cool, but the soft smile on his face betrayed him.

“Wait- she? How do you know she’s a girl, Mike?”, asked Raph.

“Her vibes my dude! Yours is a dude, Leo’s too. And Don’s a little lady too!”, explained Mikey.

“See I told you that were their vibes, but no one believes Leon!”, said the slider.

Mikey held up his hand and the younger turtle high-threed him.

“Thanks, Don. These are really cute.”, said Leo. His brother voiced their agreement.

Don sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

“Don’t mention it. Like is said, I got them, Rafa, if anything you should thank him.”

“Really? Why did you have them?”, asked Raph. He liked plushies a fair amount, but they were hard to come by when you can’t go topside.

“Raph has a whole collection!”, said Angelo, “He loves his stuffed friends.”

Rafa nodded in agreement. He loved all of them after all.

They continued to talk for a while before Leo something he wanted to ask.

“I have a question. Don said you are kids. How old are you?”

“Well, Leo and I are 16, Raph-a-la here is 17 and our dear Angelo is 15.“, explained Donnie.

“You’re all different ages? That’s cool!”, said Mikey. Learning about a different reality was really cool! The rest found it quite interesting too, even if Don knew most of this information already.

“So, were you mutated years apart or how does that work?”, asked Raph.

“Nope. We were mutated together 15 years ago.”, said Leon.

This was new information even for Don, he had never thought to ask about why they were years apart.

“So, you two”, said Don as he pointed towards the twins, “were one-year-old turtles, you”, he pointed towards Rafa, “were a two-year-old turtle and you”, he pointed towards the youngest, “were freshly hatched?”

“Yeah. Draxum said I was a few months old at that point.”, said Angelo.

“Did you all age at the same pace then? I know it was hard to handle four toddlers at once.”, said Splinter. He took a backseat to the conversation but his curiosity got the better of him.

Three out of the four turtles looked surprised at the question. They didn’t really have an answer for that. They turned to Rafa instead. He just chuckled.

“We didn’t. Me and the twins needed to catch up to the age we were as tots. Mikey was so small he didn’t need to catch up to it. After we caught up, we aged like humans. I think so at least.”

“Do you remember any of that?”, asked Mikey.

“Some. Not any more than a normal two-year-old tot.”

As the conversation went on a few more questions came up.

“You guys look so different! Why?”, wondered Mikey.

“I was wondering when you’d ask. Don over here didn’t take that long to ask.”, said Leon.

“The four of us are a different species of turtle. Raph is an alligator snapping turtle, hence his size and spikes. Nardo is a red-eared slider, that’s why he has red stripes on his face. Obviously, because of the spots, Michael is an ornate box turtle. And I’m a spine softshell. As the name suggests, I have a softshell, hence the Battle Shell.”, Donnie explained and ended his explanation by pointing towards his metallic shell.

One more thing that came up was a question Raph had for his bigger counterpart. It was only meant to be a joke; he didn’t expect to reveal something this big.

“Why do you listen to this guy, if you’re the oldest?”, asked Raph. He was assuming Leon was the leader. Leonardo’s always were, right?

“I’m not the leader.”, said Leon, “Raph is.”

“Huh?”, was all the resident turtles could say.

“Trust me, I was as surprised as you were, but Rafa is doing a great job!”, said Don.

After the initial shock, they calmed down, as Donnie had said earlier, every difference would be weird to them.

Though Leo hoped this information wouldn’t give Raph stupid ideas.

Chapter Text

As they continued to talk, they eventually were told to rest by Splinter. He wasn’t sure when three of his sons had last slept. Somehow he was confident Don had gotten enough sleep thanks to the younger versions of his sons.

Before they could even offer a spare room, or a few blankets, their four guests were huddled together in the center of the living room. It seemed like each one had their spot. Rafa laid down on his chest, his arms securely around Angelo who was hugging his older brother's head close. The twins were settled against the eldest spiky shell. Rafa’s big tail draped over them almost like a blanket.

It was endearing to see.

“Awww.”, cooed Mikey, “They’re so cute!”

Raph slapped his hand over Mikey’s mouth to shut him up.

“Reminds me of when we were younger.”, remembered Leo.

Don looked nervous at his brothers. He had often seen this turtle pile while staying in the other dimension, he even joined in once to twice, but it never felt right. Never how it was with his brothers. He wanted to have a turtle pile too, with his brothers. How does one ask for it when the last time they had one was a few years ago?

“Don? You good?”, asked Raph.

“Yeah.”, said Don. It was now or never: “Can we – uh – do a turtle pile too.” Don scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

His brothers looked at each other and smiled. Don rarely asked things. Every time he asked for something, his brothers would deliver without a doubt. Especially something as simple as this. Mikey took Don’s hand and dragged him towards the already sleeping turtles. The older two followed close behind.

The four settled next to their guests, only putting some space between them. Soon enough the four turtles were sprawled across from each other. It wasn’t as clear to see who was on top of who, it was quite a mess. Like they always had been.

Splinter watched fondly as his sons settled into their turtle pile, it had been a while since the last time he saw them like this. In moments like these, he wished he was better at using technology. He hopes he’ll have the opportunity to ask April or Casey to take a picture of this one day.

Leo slowly woke up. He rubbed his eyes. As he opened his eyes he saw his brothers. All three of them. For a second he thought he was still dreaming. Then he remembered. Don was really back. He was really home. As the other three were still sound asleep, Leo carefully untangled himself from the turtle pile. As much as he loved a turtle pile, he also enjoyed his routine. And they had guests to take care of. Leo wanted to be a good host to the four kids that brought his brother home.

When Leo looked at his brothers he couldn’t help but smile. Raph had both Mikey and Don in a tight grip while he was snoring. Leo knew if he could he would have had Leo trapped too.

Leo chuckled and started to walk towards the dojo, he wanted to get his morning Kata in before everyone woke up.

As he walked past the other turtle pile he noticed the illuminated face of his counterpart. Leon was awake and looking at a screen.

“Morning.”, said Leo.

Leon looked up at him and smiled: “Morning? It’s almost lunchtime.”

“Fair, how long have you been awake?”

“Awhile. I don’t nap usually.”

“And you stayed cuddled with your brothers?”

“Duh. I like it here.”, Leon said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Do you want to join me for my kata?”, offered Leo. He had to be honest. He wanted to know more about this version of himself.

Leonardo, the one from the 80s, was different from him too. He wondered what a Leo was like, who didn’t have the burden of being the leader, a version that he had the freedom to goof off more often than Leo himself. A version that didn’t need to be the responsible one.

“Sure, why not? Kinda want to get to know you too, old man.”

“Old man? I’m only 19!”

“Yeah, and it’s 2007. I was 3 in 2007!”, said Leon as he got up.

“You what?”

“You can ask the nerds about all that stuff, ya know? I don’t know all of the stuff about the multiverse.”

Before Leon walked over to Leo, he made a small detour to the purple battle shell that rested against the couch. He tapped a few buttons and pulled out two cases. He placed the purple one close to Donnie and opened the blue one before putting it back into the battle shell.

When Leon turned to face Leo again, Leo noticed what was in those cases, glasses.

“You need glasses?”, asked Leo.

“Yup. Me and Donnie have horrible eyes, we get it from dad.”

“Do you usually wear contacts then?”

“Yeah, but I don’t feel like putting them in, so glasses it is!”

When they walked into the dojo, Leo began his kata and Leon watched him for maybe a minute. After Loen watched him for a second, he copied Leo’s movements, almost perfectly. Leo had to admit, the kids had decent form. Surely his Splinter taught him, and his brothers, well.

“You’re good, kid.”, said Leo as he finished.

“Hey! I’m not that much younger!”, complained Leon.

“If I’m an old man by your standards, you’re a kid.”, smirked Leo. Leon couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Your Splinter taught you well.”, said Leo.

Leon looked surprised.

“What do you mean.”

“Your form? It was almost perfect.”

“Oh! I never did that before. Dad wasn’t all that big on training us until shit-” “Language.” “- got real. We learned from his old movies.”

“His movies? What did he show you? His favorite soap operas?”, Leo couldn't help but find it amusing. What could you possibly learn from the soap operas his father adored to watch so much?

“Pfft- No. His old movies, from when he was still human. Dad was an actor.”

“Your Splinter was an actor?!”

“Yup, the great Lou Jitsu! The most successful action movie franchise ever! I think people still theorize what happened to him when he disappeared.”

Leo had to admit, that was pretty cool.

“I would love to watch one of his movies.”

“We should ask Donnie if he has some saved. You would love Teriyaki Shakedown. You seem like that kind of guy.”

The two talked a little more. Leo slowly began to grow fond of the kid. He was different from himself, but that was a good thing. Leo was glad there was at least one version of himself that was allowed to goof off. Though Leo, being as perceptive as he was, noticed Leon glancing at his shell. Well, the damaged part of it.

“You can ask, you know.”, Leo said gently.

Leon’s eyes widened.

“Um. Does it still hurt? Your shoulder I mean.”

“My shoulder? I mean sometimes. Why do you ask?”

“Well, Raph has a damaged shell too and his shoulder also hurts sometimes since the crack is so close to his shoulder.”

Right, Leo noticed the big crack in the snapper’s shell.

“Do you have any pain relievers?”, asked Leon.

“We do, but we don’t have a lot of it. I don’t want April and Casey spending more money on us.”

“Dude. If they are anything like ours, they won’t mind.”, said Leon.

“I know…”

“You don’t like asking for help, I get that. But! I know just how to help you!”

“Really?”

“Yup. Don has a lab, right? Can you show me?”

Leo was a little skeptical but his curiosity got the better of him.

“Follow me.”

They walked past the still sleeping turtles only to notice both Mikey and Angelo had left piles somehow despite both having been tight in their respective Raphs' grasps. One short sniff in the air and it was clear. They had headed to the kitchen. One could wonder what they would make for lunch.

Once inside the lab, Leon noticed how clean it was. Impressive for a place that hadn’t been used in a while. Did these guys keep this place clean?

“What exactly are you going to do? Don isn’t the biggest fan of people in his lab without him.”, said Leo.

“Don’t worry. It’s fine. He said himself he has full confidence in my abilities.”

“You’re a good fighter but this-“, Leo was cut off.

“Not talking about fighting, buddy. I’m a medic.”, corrected Leon. He looked around to find Don’s medical equipment.

“You’re a medic? Really?”

“Yup, I fixed your brother up goof, right?”

“Don was hurt?”, asked Leo concerned.

“Only a few cuts, nothing too serious. He was fully healed within a week. All I did was change the bandages here and there.” Leo had found everything he needed. Was it a first aid kit? No. But he only really needed to borrow vials anyway.

“Still, thank you.”

“It’s fine.”

Leo walked closer to see what Leon was doing. He saw Leon putting the glass vials on a free table. Next to the vials were a few tools. Leon pulled a few things out of his pouches.

“I want to show you something.”, said Leon, “So pay attention!”

Leo nodded and watched as Leon explained what he was mixing together and how they were combined. Leo had to admit he only understood a fragment of what the teen was doing.

“And done! Did you get all that?”

“Not really no.”, Leo said sheepishly.

“Meh. That’s fine, I’ll tell Don later too. Anyway, it’s a salve. One especially made for big brothers with bad shoulders! Here. It should last a few weeks. Put it on whenever it hurts. I can’t make the pain go away, but it will ease it.”

Leo looked at this kid. Just how smart was he?! Leo had a feeling the kid was smart from the beginning, something in the way he could keep up with both of the Donnies made that clear. But this? If he wasn’t wearing blue, Leo would have thought he was a Donatello.

“Thank you. You’re a good kid.”

“Still not a kid.”, said Leon as he pouted.

Leo chuckled at his response and couldn’t help but notice the younger turtle's tail wagging from left to right. Something told Leo he was only trying to look cool.

Leo put some of the salve on his shoulder. He noticed the stinging pain he felt before while it wasn’t gone it was number within only a few seconds. Whatever the kid made, was some good stuff. And he whipped it up without much of an effort.

Before Leo could express his gratitude even more, his and Leon's stomachs made themselves known.

“Wanna check on the Mikeys?”, asked Leon.

“Sure.”, said Leo as he followed the younger turtle.

The second they stepped inside the kitchen a wooden spoon went flying and hit Leon in the head.

“OW! MIKEY!”

“Out! You are banned for a reason Leo!”, yelled Angelo.

“You too dude!”, added Mikey directed at his older brother.

“Wake up t everyone but don’t come near the kitchen!”, said Angelo.

“We don’t need your bad luck!”, added Mikey.

Both blue-branded turtles decided to do as told rather than face the wrath of two MIkeys.

“Why are you banned?”, asked Leon.

“I’m a lost cause according to Mikey.”, said Leo, “You?”

“All I’m allowed to do is make a sandwich, only because I can’t burn anything.”, said Leon.

“And because you blew up the oven more than once.”, said Donnie.

“AHH! DUDE!”, yelled Leon, he instinctively punched his twin in the shoulder.

“How did you even do that?”, asked Don.

“No one knows, really.”, said Rafa.

“Someone is worse in the kitchen than Leo? Impressive.”, said Raph.

“Is it bully Leo day today?!”, yelled Leo as he threw up his arms.

“It’s always bully Leo day.”, said Donnie.

Leon lunged towards the soft shell but before he tackled his brother he was picked up by the edge of his shell by Rafa.

“That’s enough. You can do this after we eat.”

Rafa put the younger turtle down again. Picking any of his brothers up was like flipping a reset switch.

“RIGHT! FOOD! COME ON!”

Chapter Text

Angelo slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times to get used to the brightness in the room. As he looked around and wondered where he was he remembered that they had gotten Don home and were staying a few days until the portal gun worked again. The box turtle detangled himself from his big brother's hold and looked around. Surprisingly enough Leon was already gone and his other two brothers were still asleep.

“Psst-. Help.”, someone whispered.

Angelo looked around and noticed Don, Mikey and Raph in a turtle pile. Mikey was awake and apparently trying to get out of his brother’s death grip.

“Help me, dude.”, he whispered yelled.

“I don’t know…”, said Angelo as he put a hand in his chin.

“Please!”

Angelo had to admit, that Mikey looked desperate. He walked over to him and took the end of Mikey’s mask tail to tickle Raph on his snout. After a few tries he realized the older turtle in orange and tried to grab the bandana tail. Luckily for the older turtle, Mikey was fast enough to get away from him.

“Thanks, little-“

Angelo glared at him.

“I mean big man.”

Mikey had to admit he never thought he’d be afraid of a little version of himself. Well, he was not really afraid but he saw that this version of him had a short fuse, what he was capable of and that he didn’t like being called short. He would, as Don put it, go for his kneecaps and Mikey liked being able to walk, thank you very much.

Angelo chuckled at this older version’s reaction. The box turtle knew he didn’t have an ill intent but it was fun to mess with him, especially considering how he jumped him earlier. Mikey had learned his lesson. Without Dr Delicate Touch at that!

“I wonder where the Leos are.”, said Angelo.

“Knowing Leo? In the dojo.”, said Mikey.

“Training?”

“Duh.”

That sounded odd to Angelo. Did he and his brothers train? Yeah, of course they did. Did they do it a lot? Not really. Raph had a hard time getting them to train, even after the invasion. After the invasion they started to train more often, but still not daily. And to be honest those sessions ended in a quarrel between the twins more often than not.

Then again, Don mentioned that he and his brothers trained almost daily. This world was so weird.

“Maan, I’m hungry. Wanna get something to eat?”, asked Mikey.

“Sure, it’s almost time for lunch.”, Angelo said as he looked towards the clock on the wall, “We could make something for everyone!”

“Great idea! Let’s go!”

Mikey led the way to the kitchen. Once inside Angelo looked around and saw the cat bowl in the corner.

“You guys have a cat?!”, Angelo asked.

“Yeah! Her name is Klunk. Do you have a Klunk?”

“No, we only have Tao, but they're a yokai.”

“Tao? Who’s that?”

“A friend of ours. Raph claimed him as his best friend though. That’s so unfair.”

“Then they got to a tough dude right?”

“I guess? Tao doesn’t really fight. Don’t think about it too much. You’ll meet them soon enough!”

“We will?”

It was rare that they got to meet new people. Mikey liked making new friends. Meeting their counterparts was fun already, but since they were from a different world that also meant a whole lot of new people he could meet!

“Yup. He asked Don to bring you guys to the shop.”

“Shop? What kind of shop!?”

“A cool one! Tao asked not to spill the surprise!”

“Oh, I can’t wait! I love surprises!”

Soon enough the two turtles started on lunch. They decided on some fried rice, there was rice left over from yesterday, along with some vegetables and a little fried chicken on the side. They hadn’t really been cooking or getting groceries since Don disappeared and it showed. Mikey usually liked to keep more fresh ingredients around, most they had nowadays were frozen. Now that Don was back, he could get back in his usual grove and cook again.

Angelo was much the same. He liked cooking fresh but he understood the struggle to cook when you don’t have the motivation, or the ability to do so. Frozen meals were a great compromise a lot of times.

As they cooked they fell into a rhythm, like they had been cooking together for a long time. Both Mikey and Angelo didn’t cook a lot with others. Only occasionally did they cook with their respective Raphael.

They were finishing up when Angelo suddenly aimed for the door and threw his spoon straight at Leon.

“OW! MIKEY!”

“Out! You are banned for a reason Leo!”, yelled Angelo.

Mikey was impressed that the smaller turtle noticed them before him. Instead of voicing his confusion he joined in and directed it towards his older brother.

“You too dude!”

“Wake up everyone but don’t come near the kitchen!”, said Angelo.

“We don’t need your bad luck!”, added Mikey.

The two blue-branded turtles left and Mikey turned to Angelo.

“How did you know they were coming?”

“I sensed Leo.”, Angelo said as if it was the most obvious thing. Angelo took notice of the order's confusion. “We can sense each other. It’s a thing. We can mind meld too.”

“Mind what now?!”

“Mind meld. We talk in each other’s heads!”

“Freaky, but so cool!”

“RIGHT! FOOD! COME ON!”, they heard Leon yell.

Soon enough everyone went inside the kitchen and took a plate, even Master Splinter showed up at one point, and moved towards the living room. Usually, the family of five would eat together at the kitchen table, but there wasn’t enough space in the kitchen for all nine of them.

Eating together also resulted in a few more conversations between the two families and much to no one’s surprise, the younger set of brothers did nothing but confuse the older ones more and more.

After they finished eating, Raph and Rafa were tasked with doing the dishes. They collected the dishes and left towards the kitchen. Leo and Leon stayed behind in the living room with the two purple-branded turtles and Master Splinter. Mikey and Angelo on the other hand ran off to Mikey's room. He had promised Angelo Klunk would be there.

Inside the room, the orange cat stretched herself and happily jumped towards her owner. Mikey picked her up and cuddled her close. Usually, she would sleep in bed with him, but since he was having a lot of nightmares in his sleep, she slept almost exclusively in the daytime. Almost like she wanted to be awake for when he was having a bad dream again.

“She’s so cute!”, cooed Angelo.

“I know! She’s the cutest!”, said Mikey. He then placed the small cat in Angelo’s hands. She sniffed him for a second before she decided she liked him and rubbed her head against him. Angelo felt like meeting right there. He really needed to convince Dad to get a cat. She is so cute! Or maybe just kidnap one? Whichever works.

A little while later the two moved to talking about mundane things. Angelo talked about his favorite chef, Ruppert Swaggert, who turned into one of their regular bad guys, Meat Sweats. Mikey on the other hand talked about how he got Klunk in a weird Christmas mess.

As they talked Klunk moved from where she was comfortable in Angelo’s lab out of the room, likely to get something to eat. Once the cat was gone, Angelo could stand up again, after all, it was illegal to move if a cat decided you were her pillow. As he looked around he noticed a costume hung on the side of the room.

“What’s that? A cosplay?”, asked Angelo.

“Nope. It’s my hero costume!”

“You have a hero costume! That’s so cool! But why?”

“I’m the Turtle Titan! I work with the Justice Force!”

“Justice Force? Like a real Hero group?!”

“Duh!”

“That is so cool! Can you show me your costume?”

Angelo looked excited about the idea of a turtle-themed hero!

“Anything for a fan.”, said Mikey jokily.

While Mikey was putting on the costume, Angelo pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. Mikey wasn’t even sure where he got those from.

“Are you going to steal my gig? Not cool, dude!”, complained Mikey.

“What? No? I want to draw you!”, said Angelo.

“Draw me? I’m getting fanart? Amazing! Make me look good!”

Mikey then struck a pose. Angelo laughed; it was fun to have someone new to draw. One could only draw his family so many times and a real person in front of him was more fun to draw, at least to Angelo.

Angelo sketched the older turtle as he stuck many different poses. He wanted Angelo to get his good side, but he had so many good sides. As Angelo was working, he and Mikey kept talking.

“Do you like action movies?”, asked Angelo.

“Of course! What else would I watch?!”, said Mikey,

“You should watch some Lou Jitsu movies, you’d like them.”

“Lou Jitsu? Who’s that?”

“Who’s Lou-? Wait. Your dad wasn’t human. Lou Jitsu is an actor who made some of the best action movies! The actor's real name is, drum roll please,”, Mikey imitated a drum roll for the younger turtle, “Hamato Yoshi!”

“Hamato Yoshi, was an actor in your world? Your Dad?!”

“Yeah. We grew up watching his movies all the time!”

“I wish our dad was an actor, that would be so cool, dude!”

Angelo and Mikey laughed, they were enjoying their time together, no matter how nonsensical it may be to others. They were their own brand of weird after all. Mikey weird!

“I think you would like Lou Jitsu Meets the Mummy Ninjas. You give those vibes.”, said Angelo.

“That sounds so good! Mummy Ninja? So cool! I wanna fight some Mummy Ninja or Origami Ninja!”

“Meh. Sounds cooler than it is. We fought Origami Ninja. They are annoying. They keep repairing themselves. Urgh.”

“What haven’t you guys fought? Origami Ninja, crazy mutants, the Foot-“, Mikey was cut off.

“The Origami Ninja and the Foot are the same thing.”

“The Foot used Origami Ninja?!”

“Uh-hu.”

“Wicked.”

Once Angelo finished his drawing he helped it out to Mikey. Mikey took it in his hands and felt like crying. It was a nice drawing of him. His first piece of fan art! And it looked amazing too! Mikey will forever cherish this!

“Thank you, dude! I love it.”, said Mikey as he went to hug the younger version of himself. Angelo promptly returned the hug.

Only seconds after Mikey took off his suit again they heard yelling from the living room. They ran towards the source of the noise.

Once they saw the reason for yelling, only one orange turtle was surprised, Mikey. Angelo looked at the scene in front of him and laughed. Mikey was confused.

In front of them, they saw a worried Leo and Splinter next to a fed-up Don. They were looking at the twins, fighting like small children. Leon and Donnie were pushing each other and pulling on each other’s mask tails. At least they had taken their glasses off and out in their contacts. They’d be upset if their glasses broke.

“What do we do?”, asked Leo no one in particular.

“Nothing-“, cocked out Angelo as he laughed at his brothers’ antics as well as the reaction of the ones around.

“I’ll get Rafa.”, said Don as he left the room to collect the snapper.

As Angelo caught his breath he finally turned to Splinter and Leo.

“Why are they fighting anyway?”

“We were talking about watching a Lou Jitsu movie and then they were fighting! I don’t know why!”, said Leo. He was clearly concerned because of the whole thing.

“Honestly, that checks out-“, said Angelo.

“It does?”, asked Mikey.

“Yeah.”

“But Donatello and Leonardo-“, began Splinter.

“Are the disaster twins. This is normal.”, said Angelo dryly.

Mikey burst out laughing. The thought of his two most reserved brothers fighting like little kids was hilarious. He and Raph fought like this, but never Don and Leo!

Chapter Text

Raph woke up to someone pocking him in the head.

“Wake up.”

Raph grumbled and opened his eyes only to be met with a hand.

“Finally. Can you let me go now?”

The hand was pulled from his face and Raph saw how had been poking him. It was Don. Right, Don was back and he was trapped in Raph’s arms. The red-branded turtle let his brother go and they sat up. Raph looked around and saw two of their counterparts, Rafa and Donnie.

“Finally awake? Took you long enough. Don was poking you for approximately 5 minutes. I told you should let me do it.”, said Donnie.

“Donnie, your version of waking someone up would be counted as assault.”, said Rafa.

“Pfft- no.”, lied Donnie. Wow, this guy was a horrible liar.

“Yeah, right. How did you wake up Leon that one time?”, asked Don.

“Irrelevant.”, said Donnie.

The soft shell picked up the chase that had been placed on the couch and put the pair of glasses, that was inside, on.

“You need glasses?”, asked Raph.

“Yes, Nardo and I got our bad eyesight from our dear papa.”

Raph couldn’t help but wonder about their Splinter, from what he knew already Master Yoshi, as Don had begun calling him, was very different from his father. Where his own father was a rat before mutation, Master Yoshi was a human. While Master Splinter was calm and collected, Don mentioned that Master Yoshi was as unpredictable and excitable as his sons. But both loved their sons more than anything. Knowing Don, they would meet Master Yoshi eventually. There was no way he would let these kids say goodbye forever, not that anyone else would do that.

They continued to talk for a little before they were joined by the two turtles in blue. Neither was paying attention to them.

“Why are you banned?”, asked Leon.

“I’m a lost cause according to Mikey.”, said Leo, “You?”

“All I’m allowed to do is make a sandwich, only because I can’t burn anything.”, said Leon.

“And because you blew up the oven more than once.”, said Donnie.

“AHH! DUDE!”, yelled Leon, he instinctively punched his twin in the shoulder.

“How did you even do that?”, asked Don.

“No one knows, really.”, said Rafa.

“Someone is worse in the kitchen than Leo? Impressive.”, said Raph.

“Is it bully Leo day today?!”, yelled Leo as he threw up his arms.

“It’s always bully Leo day.”, said Donnie.

Leon lunged towards the soft shell but before he tackled his brother he was picked up by the edge of his shell by Rafa.

“That’s enough. You can do this after we eat.”

Rafa put the younger turtle down again. Raph really needed to know his workout routine. What Raph wouldn’t give to pick up his brothers like that!

“RIGHT! FOOD! COME ON!”

After they finished their lunch and had a nice conversation with Splinter, Raph and Rafa were tasked with doing the dishes.

Raph had to admit he was impressed with the younger turtle! Despite his size, he was very careful with the dishes and everything else. Raph knew he had broken a few plates himself accidentally. Heck, all of them did. Dishes could be rather delicate for a mutant turtle.

As they were putting away the dishes Rafa had ducked and as he was standing up again almost hit his head in the open door of a cabinet. Raph put his hand between the door and the snapper’s head.

“Huh?”, Rafa looked up, “Oh. Thanks!”

“Don’t worry.”, Raph said as he closed the cabinet.

As they put more things away Raph couldn’t help but notice Rafa bumping into things, whether it be with his arm, leg or tail. No wonder he had bandages on his tail and plastron. He wouldn’t be surprised if he had some under those black wraps on his arms and legs.

“For someone as big as you, you sure don’t look around yourself.”, said Raph jokingly as he put away the last cup.

“Not Raph’s fault. I had another growth spurt a few weeks ago! I’m not used to being this big yet!”, said Rafa a little agitated, likely because of the constant bumping into things. He hated it, where his brothers grew more gradually he tended to have massive growth spurts and needed time to get used to his new size. Not to mention his tail! It was always getting in the way because it was so big!

Raph put a hand on the bigger turtle’s shoulder. He had a feeling his brothers didn’t tease the kid a lot about his size, something he assumed about them at first. Looks like Angelo wasn’t the only one sensitive about their height being brought up.

“It’s fine kid, I’m just joking.”

“Raph knew that.”, the snapper said.

Raph huffed a laugh and said: “Since we’re done, wanna go for a spar?”

“I don’t know if-“, Rafa began.

“I can handle a spar with you, big guy! Don’t worry!”, Raph said filled with confidence. If the excited expression on the younger turtle's face when he fought Hun was anything to go by, he liked sparring. If Raph had to guess, he was just worried about hurting someone he cared about, which Raph could get behind, despite how often he wanted to hit his brothers.

Rafa smiled at the shorter mutant. Maybe he could actually get a real sparring partner that wanted and could keep up with him! He did have to admit, he was sure Raph wouldn’t be able to handle his full strength, not that he would let the older know about that.

Raph led them towards the dojo where Master Splinter was meditating.

“Master?”, wondered Raph.

The rat opened his eyes and smiled at the two.

“Hello, I presume you two are here for a spar?”, the rat said.

“Yeah!”, said Rafa excitedly.

“Would you mind if I observed you?”, asked Splinter.

The two turtles looked at each other. Raph answered for them.

“Go ahead.”

Master Splinter stood up and sat on the sidelines of the dojo to give them some space. Rafa and Raph stood across from each other.

“No fancy powers and no weapons.”, said Raph. Not like either had their weapons on them anyway.

“Got it!”, said Rafa.

As the two spared, Splinter observed their every move, He had to admit he was more focused on Rafa than Raph. He knew his son's fighting style well, this new version of his son, however? His movements and stance made it clear that he used his size to his advantage a lot.

One thing, however, was the same. Both mutants liked to punches rather than kicks, preferring to keep solid footing. Splinter couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw Rafa use his long tail in a fight, he could only imagine that the turtle picked it up from his father.

They two were falling into a sort of rhythm, neither coming close to landing a punch.

Eventually, Raph was up against a wall, and Rafa aimed for the shorter turtle. Raph, having amazing reflexes, dodged the punch, Rafa did, however, hit the wall.

“Oops.”, was all Rafa said.

Raph and Splinter looked at the spot Rafa had hit. Raph didn’t know what he was expecting, but he wasn’t expecting the snapper to have cracked the wall. By the looks of it, it would be an easy fix, but it needed to be fixed anyway.

When Raph turned his glance to the snapper he saw his concerned expression. The older turtle nodded to his father. Splinter picked up what his son wanted from him and left the dojo, giving the two turtles some privacy.

“You good, big guy?”, asked Raph.

Stupid, of course, he wasn’t! Rafa looked so distraught, there was no way he was fine.

“I guess.”, the big turtle said as he sat down. Raph sat down next to him.

“You don’t look fine. What’s wrong?”

Raph had to admit it was odd of him to be this nice. But he couldn’t help it. When he saw Rafa’s expression he couldn’t help but be reminded of a younger version of himself. Technically Rafa was just that. When Raph and his brothers were just tots, he used to accidentally break things quite a bit. Raph and his brothers may not have as many differences as Rafa and his brothers, but Raph had always been the physically strongest out of them, no matter how good Leo was, how fast Mikey was or how calculated Don was. Raph would always beat them in pure strength. He understood the surprise of holding back full force but still breaking something. A part of Raph was upset that Rafa held back, but at the same time, he was impressed the kid managed his strength this well. Raph knew that punch was still not everything the 17-year-old could do.

Rafa took a took a deep breath.

“Raph is just surprised. I tried holding back. I could have really hurt you!”, the younger turned to look away from Raph.

“But you didn’t.”

“I almost did!”

“As if I would let you land a hit! I’m a ninja! Been one longer than you!”, Raph huffed.

Rafa huffed a laugh.

“I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am! Now, you were still holding back.”, Raph pointed to the cracks in the wall, “How strong are you really? Tell me.”

“Strong? We don’t really have a scale.”

“What kind of stuff did you destroy? No powers!”

Raph had to admit, he was very impressed by the younger turtle's sheer force. He wasn’t using his powers and still caused a decent amount of damage.

“I punched us out of a cage once.”, said Rafa.

“A what?”

“A cage.”

“First, why were you in a cage, second how did you punch your way out?” Don was right. Everything these guys say just confuses you more.

“We were fighting the Foot and they caught us.”, said Rafa. Did he intentionally leave out that Draxum helped the Foot? Yes. He didn’t need these guys going after Draxum when everyone involved already, forgave him. Rafa could tell these guys were protective of each other, just like him and his brothers, and if Don’s brothers were anything like him, they would soon be protective of Rafa and his brothers too.

“And just how do you punch your way out? You punch all the bars separately?!”

“No, you punch one hard enough.”

“What? I’m not going to question that anymore. You guys confuse me!”

Rafa laughed. Raph joined in.

If you had told Raph he would this easily get attached to an alternate version of himself after the oddballs from the 80s, he would have laughed at you. Yet here he was, very much attached to this big version of himself. He liked the kid.

As the two continued to talk, someone opened the door of the dojo. It was Don, he looked absolutely done with the world.

“Rafa?”, said Don as he walked into the dojo, “We need your help.”

Rafa tilted his head and asked. “Why?”

“The twins.”, was all Don said.

Rafa let out an exhausted sigh and stood up to walk towards the living room. Don looked at his bother. And the two followed the snapper to the living room.

When Rafa walked in, with Don and Raph close behind, he instantly saw the twins fighting. He noticed the Mikeys laughing and Splinter and Leo worried.

He walked over to the twins, picked them up by their shells and let out a deep growl. Four of the five residents of the world were surprised. Despite Rafa’s size the teen had barely used his advantage against his brothers. Yet they didn’t expect him to be able to make such a threatening sound. This seemed to calm the twins down almost instantly, seeing as Rafa put them down again.

“I told you to behave, we are guests.”, he said, “Now, why were you fighting?”

The twins looked at each other and shrugged.

“Dunno.”, said Leon.

“We forgot.”, said Donnie.

Rafa smacked his hand against his head.

Raph huffed a laugh. These kids were much more fun to have around than the oddballs, at least in Raph’s honest opinion.

Chapter Text

After the twins had calmed down, Leo decided to ask the question that had set it all off again.

“Which Lou Jitsu movie do you want to show us now?”

Before the twins could start again, Rafa put an end to it.

“We’re watching Hot Soup Forever.”, he said. His tone indicated that there was no room for argument. The twins pouted a bit but Donnie went to set up the movie anyway while Leon sat on one of the bean bags he and Leo had brought in.

The resident ninja family had to admit, these movies were good. A little cheesy but good. At times it was clear they were a product of their time but they were still very enjoyable. They understood why their guests loved these movies. The best part was the fight scenes. All five could agree the mediocre martial art scenes they were used to were that, mediocre. It was clear that Master Yoshi made sure to make the fighting accurate.

Donnie even pulled out some old interviews from their father. Despite their very different personalities, Splinter could still see the same man he considered his Master and father. It was nice to know that out there was at least one version of Master Yoshi that was alive. Sure, as a rat mutant but alive nonetheless.

Over the course of two more days, the two families got to know each other. They grew to care.

Don and Donnie were working on a second portal gun, even before the orange-branded-turtles had barged in and begged them for one. Mikey and Angelo were everywhere and nowhere at the same time. No one was really sure what they were doing. Splinter just had a suspicion that Leon knew. He did, he caught them covered in paint once. But who was he to snitch? Leon decided to educate Leo about the wonders of Jupiter Jim. The older had to admit it was a great movie franchise, but he still preferred the Lou Jitsu movies. Raph and Rafa were either in the dojo or in Raph’s room. In Raph’s room, they were knitting together. Raph wanted to make clothes for their new dragon plushies. And having a second set of hands to help make them was great.

After the original portal gun was fully charged again, the visitors knew they needed to go home. Their family was likely worried about them. While Splinter would likely figure out what was going on, he didn’t know that the gun needed to be charged.

The thing they were truly worried about where their human siblings. The three had no idea what was going on and if they knew their sisters, which they did, they were dead meat. CJ would still be upset with them but the girls would rip them a new one for keeping this from them.

“Do you really have to go already?”, asked Mikey.

“Kinda, we didn’t tell anyone we were leaving.”, said Angelo.

“You didn’t tell anyone? Not even your dad or April and Casey?”, wondered Raph.

“No one. April and the Caseys were on a road trip.”, said Donnie.

“Wait- Caseys? As in more than one?!”, yelled Mikey.

“Oh. Didn’t we mention it? We have two Casey Jones. Cassandra and CJ.”, explained Donnie.

“Two Casey Jones? How is your world still standing?”, asked Leo. As much as he and his family loved their Casey, he was a lot to handle. Two of them sounded like a nightmare.

“Hey! Our world is only standing because of CJ!”, defended Leon.

Yet another confusing statement, all they ever asked for was context at this point.

“CJ is a lot calmer than Cass; they balance each other out I guess.”, said Rafa.

“Actually, according to our research,” said Donnie while pointing to himself and Don, “Cass is likely the loudest version of Casey Jones, while CJ is the calmest. They literally even each other out.”

“CJ is not someone I would consider calm. He’s kinda quiet but also a little insane.”, said Leon.

“My point exactly, Nardo.”

“We need more context people!”, yelled Raph. As much as he had grown to care about his new honorary little brothers, they confused him more than Mikey. MIKEY! Raph didn’t even know that was possible!

Leon looked at him with a shit-eating grin and said sweetly: “No.”

At this point, the older ones were sure these guys thrived in chaos and confusion. As fun as it was, they wanted in on the jokes.

Don and Donnie set the portal gun up and fired it. The same portal as a few days ago opened up.

“This is it.”, said Leo.

The eight turtles couldn’t hide their saddened expressions.

“Lighten up my sons.”, said Splinter, “This is far from a farewell, we’ll see each other again.”

“Of course, we will. Tao still owes me that surprise. And you-”, Don pointed towards the four younger mutants, “also owe me a meeting with you April and the Casey’s.”

After a group hug the four left through the portal. As soon as they left the portal closed behind them. They couldn’t wait to see them again.

“Wait. Did we tell April and Casey that Donnie is back?”, asked Mikey no one in particular.

They stared at each other for a second. Oh.

“We didn’t.”, said Leo.

While Leo, Raph and Mikey were worried about a talking-to from April, Don was just excited to see his two favorite humans again.

RISE

The portal opened up in Rafa’s room. Why? None of them knew. The location where portals opened really was something Donnie would have to work on more. That didn’t quite work how he wanted it yet.

The four walked out of the room and made their way to the living room, as they walked closer they could hear voices. Specifically, the voices of their three human siblings and their father.

“What do you mean ‘another dimension’?!”, yelled April.

“There was a second purple and the boys are probably getting him home.”, said Splinter. He wasn’t worried about them. He knew they could handle themselves and at any rate in that other world were three more capable ninja turtles, if Don was anything to go by. His sons would be safe.

The brothers looked at each other and silently agreed. As Rafa, Donnie and Leon began walking away, Angelo didn’t seem to have gotten the same idea as his big brothers.

“We’re back.”, he said.

“MIKEY!”, yelled his brothers.

“What?”

“YOU!”, said April as she pointed at them. The brothers knew better than to try to walk away from the situation. Splinter, however, exited the room to leave the kids to handle everything themselves. They brought this upon themselves by leaving the three out of the loop.

“April. My favorite sister-“, began Leon.

Cass fake coughed behind her.

“I mean one of my favorite sisters-“

“Shove it, Leo. Where were you guys?! You ghosted us for three days?!”

“We were in an alternate universe!”, said Angelo.

“Like what Donnie talked about before?”, asked CJ.

“Yes, exactly like that.”, confirmed Donnie.

“And you didn’t take us with you?!”, yelled Cass, “We could have been smashing heads there!”

“We didn’t exactly have time to wait for you when we left. We needed to get Don home.”, said Rafa.

“Don? Whose Don?”, asked April.

“An alternate version of Tello over here.”, said Leon while pointing towards Donnie.

“And you didn’t tell us about him why?”, she asked.

“You were on your road trip and-“, began Angelo.

“The real reason Mike.”

“We forgot.”, Angelo said deflated.

“You forgot?!”, yelled all three of them.

The four turtle brothers nodded, ashamed they had forgotten.

April sighed, exhausted.

“At least you’re back now. We will get to meet these guys right?”, she asked.

“Of course, Don and I made a second portal gun. We will have to make a few upgrades first, they’re not perfect yet, but we should get this done in a week or two. Whoever gets it done first will open a portal.”, said Donnie.

“Good.”, April took a deep breath, “Just because we’re happy you guys are back, doesn’t mean you're off the hook. Cass?”

The four looked towards their eldest sister.

“My girls need new training dummies.”, she said, her smile was borderline terrifying.

“Please, anything but that!”, yelled Leon.

“Cass, I’ll help you with new recipes, please.”, begged Angelo.

“I- I’ll upgrade all the machines for your brownies.”, offered Donnie.

“Please don’t make us do that again!”, begged Rafa.

Despite having faced the Foot, mutants and aliens, Cass’ girls were they were by far the most terrifying thing in the world. They were like Cass but smaller and somehow more feral. Cass was insane, the girls were downright feral. They only respected two people. Cass and April, even CJ had a hard time with them and he was by far more respected than the four turtles.

She smirked.

“You will be at the factory at 9 am tomorrow. I will hunt you down if you don’t show up.”

The four brothers sighed. There was no getting out of it now. They were dead. It was nice while it lasted.

CJ looked at his big brothers as they were talking to their sisters. He wasn’t necessarily mad at them. He had been starting to get anxious when they stopped responding to the texts and calls. Despite having slowly gotten used to this time period, the teen was still afraid of losing everyone close to him. He was afraid and everyone understood why. A few weeks into his stay he had told them everything about the apocalypse. The six made it a point to always check in with CJ at least once a day, not the make sure he was fine but to reassure him they were still there. They thought he wouldn’t notice but he did and he was grateful for it.

What CJ didn’t notice were the tears forming in his eyes. He had been so worried and trying not to break down in worry.

“CJ?”, asked Angelo.

His older siblings looked at him. They knew he was just relieved they were home.

Rafa opened his arms and CJ took the invitation for the hug. The remaining siblings joined the hug as well. They really needed one after not only the worry the three humans had been through but also the time they were apart due to the road trip.

“Never leave us out like that again.”, said April.

“Promise.”, said Rafa for all of them.

2003

“Heeey, April.”, said Mikey on the phone nervously.

“Hey Mikey.”, she said. Usually, she would answer much more enthusiastically, but not since Don went missing.

“Can you and Casey come to the lair?”, he asked.

“Sure, did something happen?”

“Yeah, but you have to see it to believe it.”

With that, they hung up and April said they’d be over in a few.

The brothers wanted to tidy up a little before the two humans arrived, April always nagged them if it was too dirty. And the lair could really need it, the last time they had really cleaned anything was well before Don went on vacation.

When April and Casey stepped into the lair they were at first surprised by three brothers cleaning up alongside Splinter. They hadn’t seen the rat in a while. More surprising was just how happy everyone was. The lair was as lively and happy as it had been weeks prior. Before anyone could ask questions, someone bumped into Casey with a stack of empty pizza boxes.

“Watch it, dude.”, Casey said.

“Sorry, Casey.”

April and Casey snapped towards the person carrying the boxes. There was no way. They sounded just like Don. It had to be a trick, right?!

“Don?”, asked April tenderly.

“I’m home.”, he said as he put down the boxes. It was really him! It was Don. He was alive and came home!

Casey immediately engulfed the turtle in a bone-crushing hug, April joined her husband and little brother only seconds later.

After they calmed down, Casey sat the turtle down again.

“What happened?”, asked April as she whipped her tears away.

“It’s a long story.”, he said.

“You went to an alternate dimension, like the guys from the 80s, and they helped you get home?”, asked April, “And you get some magic powers while you were there?”

“Pretty much, though it is called Ninpo or mystic, not magic.”, Don said.

“And ya didn’t tell us earlier, why?”, asked Casey.

“We kind of forgot.”, said Leo.

“You forgot?”, said April.

“Sorry, dudes.”, said Mikey.

“In our defence, the kids also forgot.”, added Raph.

“The kids we didn’t get to meet!”, said April.

To say she was a little upset with them for not introducing the kids to her was an understatement. She would have loved to meet more childish and younger versions of her brothers. Judging by the descriptions they had gotten of the kids, they were amazing. Apparently a little - no - a lot more unpredictable than the four turtles they were used to but also very fun to be around.

“But-“, Don began, “After I work out a few more kinks, our portal gun should be ready to go and I could take us directly to their lair.”

“You better take us with you, dude! I want to meet other me!”, said Casey.

“There’s actually two Caseys. Cassandra and CJ, I haven’t met them yet either. Nor have I met their April.”, said Don.

“Two Casey Jones?!”, he yelled, “That world is amazing!”

The two adults stayed over for dinner before they had to head home. They still had a lot of questions but for now, they all needed a good night’s rest. April could see the eye bags underneath everyone’s, likely even herself. Most of them hadn’t been getting a good night’s rest in a while.

After April and Casey left. Splinter bid his sons a good night and went to sleep. The brothers would soon go to sleep as well. Before any of them could leave to go to their rooms, Don decided it was finally time.

“Guys, can we… talk?”, he asked carefully.

The other three looked at him.

“Of course.”, said Leo.

Don took a deep breath and said: “There are a few things I didn’t tell you, not about the dimension travel but about stuff from before that. Long before that.”

Mikey moved closer to Don, Raph shuffled closer too and Leo reached out to take Don’s hand. Talking about issues had never been any of their strong suits, even Mikey who preached it had a hard time doing so.

Don finally after years, told them everything. How when Draco sent them to different worlds was faced with the worst possible outcome he could imagine. How he had to watch older, broken versions of his brothers die before his eyes. How he kept it all to himself and how much he worries about it afterwards. He told them how he broke down in front of Angelo the first night of his stay in worry his brothers would be torn apart.

He told them that he vividly remembered the double mutation. The pain of mutating, the terror as he saw himself attack his friend and family. How utterly terrified he had been of Bishop when they needed him to turn him back. Even how afraid he had been of Rafa when they first met and how horrible he felt about it.

With each thing he said, his brothers grew to understand their brother more. They silently agreed to look at him more, to make sure he was really doing fine.

Much to Don’s surprise Leo was the one to pull him into a hug as soon as he was done talking. He had been expecting it from Mikey or even Raph. Don sunk into the embrace. The remaining brothers joined them. They just hugged each other for a while.

“Turtle pile?”, asked Mikey.

“Yeah.”, agreed Don.

Talking about it felt like a giant rock was lifted off Don’s shoulders. He was glad. Talking really does help, he’ll do his best to do it more often in the future.

Chapter Text

After a long day of being abused as training dummies for Cass’ girls, the four brothers lay across the couch and each other. Donnie didn’t have time to work on the portal gun while they were being punished over the past week.

Cass, April and CJ walked into the room.

“You guys suffered enough.”, said April.

“For now!”, added Cass.

The four turtles cheered weakly; they were exhausted. Those girls are monsters.

Just then a familiar portal opened up. While the three humans were on guard, the four turtles seemed to grow excited. Seven figures stepped out of the portal.

“HI!”, yelled Angelo as he ran up to one of the turtles that had stepped out of the portal, another orange branded turtle. Where this?

“Looks like you got it done first.”, said Donnie.

“Guys? Are those…?”, wondered CJ.

“Yeah. Our counterparts, Don stayed with us for a bit. And probably their April and Casey?”, said Leon, guessing who the humans were.

“We’re April and Casey, yes. You’re the boys’ counterparts and of us, I’m assuming?”, the older April said.

“Yeah-“, said Rafa but Cass cut him off.

“Why are you white?”

“CASS! You can’t just ask people why they're white?!”, chimed CJ in.

“Why not?! We-“, she pointed at herself and her human siblings, “aren’t white.”

“True, but don’t just ask that, girl!”, said April.

“Anywhizzle- that’s our older sisters April and Cass and our little brother CJ.”, said Leon, hoping to get the attention away from Cass’ arguably good point. Seriously, why were they boring? Though the older April’s hair was a nice color.

No one seemed to her the adult Casey mumble something about not being white under his breath.

“I’ll go get Pops and Ma.”, said Rafa as he stood up and walked towards a different room.

“Ma?”, asked the redhead.

“Didn’t they mention? Our dear Mama, Baron Draxum. The guy that made us.”, said Donnie.

“I finally get to meet him?”, asked Don. He had to admit he was very curious about the yokai in question. He hoped he could ask him a few questions about the mutagen, or ooze. Maybe that would answer some of the questions Don had about their own mutation, even if the circumstances are very different.

Only a few moments later Rafa walked back in with a rat mutant, Master Yoshi, and who they could assume was Baron Draxum. A tall yokai, only a little shorter than Rafa. If they didn’t know he was the boys’ mother, Don and his family would have been a lot more on edge given his presence.

“Bigger Purple!”, Master Yoshi smiled at the turtle.

“It’s to see you again, Master Yoshi.”

After a short introduction, Rafa stepped aside and seemed to make a phone call. Once he returned he nodded towards Leon.

“I called Tao, they have time for your surprise. After you get it he will bring you to Run of the Mill. We’ll meet you guys there.”, said the snapper.

Before anyone could even ask a question, Leon swung his sword and a portal opened underneath the four turtles and they fell through.

CJ noticed the worry on the remaining dimension travellers.

“Don’t worry, they’ll be fine. Tao is our friend.”, he tried to reassure them.

“And why are they with him?”, asked Miss April.

“Tao and his family sell cloaking brooches and they want to give you guys some.”, explained Angelo.

“Cloaking Brooches?”, asked Splinter.

“These handy little things.”, said Leon while pointing towards his chocker necklace, “They help us blend in with humans.”

He then tapped the gem in the centre of it and was engulfed in a blue light. When the light disappeared, a teenage human boy stood in his place.

“You look human!”, yelled Casey.

“That’s the point of it, duh.”, said Leon. He tapped the brooch again and was back to his turtle self.

“And my sons will be receiving some?”, asked Splinter.

“You too, man. We just figured you’d rather hang out with our parents.”, said Rafa.

“And the guys could probably use a friend closer to their age!”, added Leon.

“I gotta ask, what is Run of the Mill?”, asked Casey.

“A yokai pizza place, we frequent.”, said Donnie.

As the group was settling down, they heard footsteps approaching. When they turned to look in the direction, they saw a middle-aged man approaching. He stopped in his tracks as he looked at the group in front of him.

“I'm guessing these are Don’s family?”, he said.

“Yup! He and his brothers are with Tao for brooches!”, said Angelo.

The man walked over and sat next to Draxum.

“I’m John Bishop, from what I’m aware, my counterpart isn’t a good person.”

At the mention of the name, the three adults stiffened. But soon recalled Don telling them to not judge this world's Bishop too fast. He was very different from the man they were used to.

As they talked the four mutant turtles soon decided they needed a quick shower after the whole ordeal of being training dummies and excused themselves. The rest took it as an opportunity to get to know their counterparts.

April and her older version sat on the couch as they talked.

“So, you’re a journalism major? I wanted to do journalism when I was younger too.”, Miss April said.

“Really? But what do you do now then?”, asked April.

“I used to work for Baxter Stockman as his science assistant, now I own a second-hand shop.”, she explained.

“Baxter Stockman?! Is he- oh no- he is.”, April huffed a laugh, “I think the counterpart of your old boss is a kid, that hate’s our guts, here. Baxter Stockboy.” She promptly burst out laughing

Miss April joined in, the thought of Stockman being a bratty little kid instead of the maniac she was used to was hilarious.

“A kid? Really?”, she said.

“Yeah! Me, Leo and Mikey went to the Stock-In-Shop and he’s had a vendetta against us since. Especially the three of us!”

“You kids really are something else.”

April had to admit, she didn’t know what to expect when talking to an older version of herself. She initially was worried that Miss April wouldn’t be as close to the boys as she was, but she was despite being a few years older than them!

“I have to ask, what is up with you and Casey?”, asked April.

“Oh? We’re married.”, Miss April stated.

“Married?!”

“For a few months now, yes.”

“Congrats, but also gross.”

“Fair, Don mentioned you kids consider each other siblings.”

“Yeah, Cass is like an insane older sister and CJ is a slightly less insane little brother.”

“I have to admit, I’m a little jealous of that. I don’t have siblings, at least not until I meant the boys.”

“I didn’t either, but I met them when I was like 9.”

“9? That young? I’m glad you did. I met the boys when I was 23.”

“23? Dang, that’s a long time without the boys! Sounds horrible.”

“It wasn’t that bad, but I wouldn’t want to go back to that. Looking back at it, it was rather lonely.”

“I get that. The boys aren’t only my brothers but also my first friends. Heck, I only have like one other friend outside of this family!”

“One? Is her name Irma? She was my best friend growing up, she moved to California and we lost touch.”, Miss April said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“No, her name is Sunita. She’s actually not human, she’s a slime yokai.”

Something in April’s voice made one thing very clear to the woman. This Sunita wasn’t just her friend, she was something more.

“I’m guessing Sunita is more than a friend?”, she teased.

The younger got a little flustered at that.

“She’s my girlfriend.”

“Can I see a picture of her?”

April pulled out her phone and proceeded to show Miss April two pictures, one of Sunita’s human disguise and one of her true form, both pictures looked like April had taken them without Sunita knowing, true candid shots.

“She’s pretty. I hope I get to meet her too.”, said Miss April.

“Sure, I already told her about this whole thing already, she’s upset she can’t come to run of the Mill, she’s visiting her Grand-Googly in India right now.”

“This isn’t the last time we see each other.”

Their families tended to pick up people and adopt them into the family, this wasn’t any different.

While April and Miss April were getting to know each other, the three Caseys also talked.

The man was ecstatic to meet these kid versions of him! Not only was he meeting an alternate version of himself but two! He had to admit the boy was much calmer than he had expected, Casey wasn’t even that quiet when he was a kid!

“FIGHT ME!”, Cass yelled and tackled the man.

“HUH?!”, as he could muster.

CJ remained on the sidelines, watching them wrestle each other. This went on for a good five minutes. Until Cass decided he had proven himself.

“You can stay.”, she said.

“What just happened?”, the man asked.

“She decided that you need to prove yourself to the name Casey Jones.”, CJ said, “Congrats you did.”

“Did she fight you too?”

“Yup, lost horribly.”

“That’s because you still have a lot to learn!”, Cass explained.

CJ handed them two bottles of water, but neither knew where he got them from.

“So, how did you meet the guys? I met Raph when I was bashing in Purple Dragon goons.”, Casey said.

“I met them when we were still enemies.”, Cass said.

“Enemies?”, Casey wondered.

“I- I was part of the Foot.”, she sounded ashamed of her past actions.

“Cass, the Foot is a cult and you were a kid. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”, CJ said, trying to comfort his sister.

“Hey, no hard feelings, you did the right thing at the end, didn’t you.”, said Casey.

“I did.”, Cass smiled.

“And you kid?”, Casey turned to look at CJ.

“It’s complicated.”, the boy scratched the back of his head, “In a way I knew them all my life.”

The boy noticed the man’s confusion.

“I’m from a… bad future. In that future the older version raised me. But I met the teen versions a few months ago when I was sent back in time to stop the bad future from happening.”, CJ explained.

“I don’t think I got a single thing you just said.”, said the adult.

“Don’t worry about it.”, both Cass and CJ said.

The man just shrugged it off. These kids were weird, but weird was a good thing, at least for Casey Jones.

“You guys like hokey?”, he asked.

“Of course!”, Cass yelled.

“Yeah, I only played like twice but it’s so much fun!”, said CJ.

“Only twice?”, wondered Cassey.

“After he was all good to go, I took him to play hockey! He’s a natural on the ice, almost as good as me at his age!”, Cass said proudly.

“Impressive kid.”, Casey complimented, “We should play together!”

“We totally should!”, said CJ. This was probably the loudest the kid had been until now. Did he need to warm up to people first? Seemed to fit the kid in Casey’s opinion.

“We can play at my family's barn, once it gets cold enough the grass is like an ice field!”, Casey said excitedly, “Everyone else could play too!”

“Barn? You have a barn?”, asked CJ.

“Yeah, my grandma left it to me. We go there to relax sometimes.”

“We totally gotta go there!”, said Cass. She sounded just as excited as the boy next to her.

It was quite impressive just how quickly Casey got attached to these kids. It was like having younger siblings that just get you. As much as he loved the turtles, these two just understood him in a whole different way. Maybe it was because they were literally the same person, one version was just split in two, but that didn’t matter to any of them.

“You have to meet my Girl Scouts!”; Cass said, “You need to earn their respect!”

“Girl scouts?”

“Cass has a group of Girl Scouts she trains. They know about the guys too.”, CJ explained, “They only respect Cass and April. I’m still working on it.”

“They respect you more than the turtle’s!”, Cass said.

“That can’t be that hard, right?”

“It can. Saw how exhausted and beat the guys were when you came?”, asked CJ.

Casey nodded.

“That’s the result of my girls! They needed to be punished for not telling us. I made them my girls' training dummies!”, Cass said.

Casey wasn’t sure if he should be terrified of these Girl Scouts if they managed to leave four mutant ninja turtles that exhausted.

As the kids were talking the three parents, and one uncle, had made their way to the kitchen to talk and get some tea.

Master Yoshi began brewing the tea as the other three sat down.

“You looked after my son, I thank you for that.”, said Splinter.

“Don’t bother”, said Yoshi, “He didn’t need much looking after.”

“True, he can handle himself rather well. His reflexes are impressive too.”, said Bishop as he rubbed his nose.

Splinter looked at him confused.

“Don first appeared in my office and when he woke up I was too close to him, and he punched me in the face.”, Bishop couldn’t help but chuckle at the interaction. Don had apologized quite a few times over his stay.

“I am aware my son can do that. But I meant to thank you for giving him company. He does not remember to take care of himself when stressed.”

“Then you should thank the boys, they did most of the work.”, said Draxum.

“While that is true, you both raised four incredible sons.”, Splinter said as he turned to Draxum and Yoshi.

“You mean I did. This guy still owes me 14 years of child support!”, said the shorter rat as he placed down the tea cups.

“I recall you running away without sons.”

“You wanted to make them into weapons!”

“I would have changed my mind, probably.”

The two went to bicker with each other.

“Ignore them, that’s normal.”, said Bishop, “You get used to it.”

“I see.”, Splinter said as he took a sip, “What kind of tea is that? I never tasted this one before.”

Bishop took a sip as well. “It’s dragon root. A tea from the Hidden City, if I recall.”

“Hidden City?”

“A city underneath New York for yokai kind. The kids love going there, they can walk around without brooches.”

“That sounds nice. I wish my boys had that.”

“They have now. They can visit anytime. And with the brooches they’ll be getting they can even see a whole new side to New York. I remember the boys telling me how fun it was to see New York as humans.

“That does sound like they’d enjoy it.”

“And by the way, you raised some good kids too. Don talked about his brothers and if he’s to believe. You did a great job.”, said Bishop, “Four mutant turtles can be a lot to handle. I get that, and I’m just their uncle.”

“Thank you.”, said Splinter, “ And uncle? How long have you known them?”

“A few months. After an incident in which the EPF had to get involved and cover everything up. I was tasked to get some information. And it quickly turned into them deciding I’m their uncle.”

“Is that a regular occurrence?”

“I guess. The rat says it’s a Hamato thing, whatever that means.”

“I believe it means that they hold their friends and family dear. My Master Yoshi was the same.”

“Master Yoshi! Right! I wanted to ask you something!”, said Yoshi. The two men had apparently finished their argument.

“You were his pet rat right? How did he find you?”

“Master Yoshi didn’t, rather his partner, Tang Shen. She found me and took me in.”

“Isn’t Tang Shen the name of one of your ancestors?”, asked Draxum.

“She is. The mother of the founder of our Clan.”, said Yoshi.

“These differences work in odd ways.”, said Splinter.

Splinter had to admit, that he was rather curious about the history of the Hamato Clan, given his Master Yoshi did not come from a clan. He would ask about that another time.

The four mutant turtles fell through the portal.

“Urgh, that didn’t get better after last time.”, said Leo.

“You get used to it.”, said Don as he helped Raph up.

“I don’t want to get used to it!”, said Raph.

“I don’t know what you mean, I like it!”, said Mikey.

“You guys okay?”, called someone.

The four looked up and saw what they assumed was a cat Yokai.

“Tao!”, said Don, “Guys this is Tao, Tao these are my brothers.”

“Nice to meet you. Come in.”

Tao opened the door to the shop he was standing in front of.

Once inside they saw that the shop was filled with many kinds of jewelry. Some are more old-fashioned others rather modern.

“Jewelry?”, said Raph, “What do we need that for?”

“You’ll see.”, chuckled Tao, “You can choose whatever you’d like.”

“All this stuff is so pretty! Thanks, dude!”, said Mikey as he walked off to look at everything.

“But why?”, asked Leo.

“You’ll see.”, said Tao as they walked after Mikey.

“Tao is a weird dude. Helpful but weird.”, said Don.

“Fits perfectly with the kids.”, said Raph as he walked to look around.

“Let’s have a look, Don.”, said Leo.

The two began looking around as well.

Tao walked over to Mikey who had settled on looking at the many necklaces.

“Find anything yet?”, the cat asked.

“Nope, everything is so cool!”

“Thank you, Baba and I make everything by hand.”

“Really?! That is even cooler, dude!”

Tao looked at the mutant’s hands, he was holding a few different things, three necklaces and two bracelets with flower gems.

“You like those?”, they asked as they pointed at his hands.

“Yeah, I like the necklaces but I also like the flowers!”

“I might just have the right thing then.”, said Tao as he walked off.

Only a few minutes later they came back and handed Mikey a necklace with an orange flower gem.

“IT’S PERFECT! THANKS, DUDE!”

Tao chuckled as he walked towards Leo to see if he needed help.

The turtle in blue was looking at a few colourful beaded bracelets.

“You like the beads?”, said Tao, spooking the turtle just a bit.

“Uh- yeah, but I think they would get in the way of fighting…”

“And your mask doesn’t?”

“Not really no.”

“Can I?”, they pointed towards the mask. Leo took it off and handed it to Tao. The yokai inspected the fabric for a second before he looked back to the mutant.

“I have an idea; I’ll be borrowing this for a second.”

Before Leo even had the opportunity to object the cat was gone.

When they came back they handed Leo his mask back, this time a few of the beads were attached, different shades of blue.

“You can take them off here, in case you want to change the mask.”, they said.

Leo put his mask back on and looked at his mask tails in the nearby mirror. He actually liked it. They added a nice touch but wouldn’t get in the way.

“I like it. Thanks Tao.”

“Of course, you do. I know how to do my job.”, they joked.

Raph was looking at what he was assuming were earrings. He couldn’t wear them but they still looked cool. He noticed the cat approaching him.

“Those are-“, Tao was cut off.

“Earrings I know.”

“Actually, those are meant for snake bites.”

“Snake bites?”

“You know piercings right here.”, Tao pinched his lower lip with both of his fingers.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

“Do you want them?”

“I don’t have piercings and I doubt my father would approve of it.”

“We can always these ones.”, said Tao as they leaned to the back row of pieces and took a pair of red ones, “They are fake ones. They hold but you don’t need to be pierced.”

Raph grabbed them from the yokai.

“Perfect.”

“No problem.”

Lastly, Tao walked up to Don.

“Need some help?”

“While I still don’t understand why you’re giving us jewellery, but I appreciate the gesture. Also, yes.”

“Of course. Let me take a wild guess. You'd likely prefer something that doesn’t get in the way while you work or fight and still looks nice. Preferably in purple?”

“I- yes. How did you-?”

“I’ve known you for a bit now and it’s safe to assume you and Donnie prefer the same things. Donnie has a wristband I made for him. Doesn’t get in the way of anything. I’m back in a second.”

Tao walled off and a bit later came back with something purple in his hands.

“It’s just a simple brooch, but it would do nice for you.”

Don looked closer at the brooch. It was a small rectangle attached by a delicate chain to a round gem. Don liked it.

“You could attach it to your belt.”, Tao suggested.

“I think I will thank you.”

As they walked back to the other three Tao decided to reveal the real secret.

“You want to know why I gave you these?”, asked Tao.

“Because gifts are nice?”, asked Mikey.

“That too, but no. Because of this.”, Tao tapped the brooch that was now attached to Don’s belt. Seconds later a human stood in his place.

“DUDE! YOU LOOK HUMAN!”, yelled Mikey and quickly tapped his necklace. He two looked human now. The other two did the same. They were amazed. They could look human with these!

“Cloaking brooches. Small trinkets to make yokai and mutants blend in with humans.”, said Tao.

“These are amazing, thank you, but why give them to us?”, asked Leo.

Tao smiled as they answered. “You deserve some normality in your lives. I remember when I got the guys their brooches. I want you to have the same.”

“Thanks, man.”, said Raph.

As they deactivated the brooches one more question came up.

“Can we get one for our father too?”, asked Mikey.

“I was wondering when you’d ask, of course.”, said Tao.

The four brothers easily settle on a beautiful set of cufflinks with a multicoloured gem, with red, blue, orange and purple reflected inside them. Perfect for their father.

After receiving their brooches Tao led them to Run of them Mill to meet with everyone else.

They presented the brooch to their father.

“Thank you, my sons. It’s perfect.”

As they ate they began to talk about their adventures and the many differences between them.

“And his Master Yoshi”, said Yoshi as he pointed towards Splinter, “was actually married to Tang Shen."

“Tang Shen? As in Oroku Saki’s wife?”, asked Rafa.

“Yes!”, exclaimed Yoshi.

“OROKU SAKI’S WIFE?!”, yelled the dimension travelers.

“Duh, You know, Oroku Saki, the guys that became the Shredder?”, said Leon as he took a bite of his pizza, like it was the most obvious thing he ever said.

“Ya know, Tang Shen and Oroku Saki, the parents of Hamato Karai, the founder of our Clan.”, said Angelo as ate his pizza.

The Hamato clan just kept eating as if they didn’t reveal that not only was Tang Shen their ancestor, but also Oroku Saki as well as Karai. Two people they had to fight a few too many times, sure the Shredder was Chre’ll, but the point still stands.

One could only wonder what kind of messy family they had gotten themselves into. But at least they found out that not only did the boys thrive on causing chaos and confusion in others, but it was clear it was a family thing. All of them seemed to enjoy their confusion and surprise a little too much.

Yet they couldn’t wait to see what other things they might spring at them. They had met the most confusing family one could imagine, but they were part of this odd family now, not that they ever had a choice.