Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Casey knew his dad was weird, to say the least. He still loved him, and he loved them both back. He remembers being taken to the cinema between training sessions, being treated to new tech for passing advanced mathematics in fast-tracked university at age 13 . Trips to baseball games in Bunkyō, and in Boston, even though he preferred ice-hockey he wouldn’t ever pass down an opportunity to spend time with his family. Still his Dad was a bit crazy, he wore that helmet, the Kuro kabuto , everywhere and forced his foot soldiers, both human and the bots (the ones he had built!) to refer to him by the Shredder , and now-

“You want me tah what?”

“Come back to New York-”

“What?! You just sent me here!”

“Yes, but you must return” 

“why?”

“I was saying, Befriend this April ‘O Neil ”

“You can’t just, ya know, kidnap her?”

“No, our ‘accomplices’ would catch on, they don’t know of you”

Of course, unlike his sister, Casey kept a pretty low profile when it came to ‘business’ , sure the foot soldiers around base knew of him, not his face, knew better than to second guess him, but anyone on the upper end only knew him from the pseudonym Rakkī Kyū .

“Yeah”-Casey stopped tinkering with his new weapon, a shield/ningata combo disguised as an umbrella- “when the plane?” There was no point in arguing when his Dad got an idea, best was to follow through and hope the fallout wasn’t too terrible. 

“It’s leaving Tokyo in 3 hours, pack quick and thoroughly” 

Translation; this is important, don’t question it now and don’t expect to return for a while. To be honest that was actually nice news. Sure he loved Tokyo, just as much as his birthplace New York, but that place didn’t matter if he wasn’t with his actual family.

“Ok, I’ll see you when I land, mate ne ”

“ Ki wo tsukete ”

The flight was commercial, economy class instead of the jet. Something something ‘safety’ blah blah. Casey didn’t mind, he mostly slept through it except for the first 3 hours where some poor exhausted parents just couldn’t get their screaming ball of utter joy to just shut up for five minutes (seriously though who takes their newborn on a 14 hour flight?). He woke a bit early which he could’ve done without, the unreasonably undersized seat left his head too much room to think. Like why did his father do a 180 on sending him to Japan? One moment he’s keeping a keen eye on the Purple dragons, updating the foot-bots, hacking into large corporations, the next thing he’s sent away, having to do all of that again but now over 6 thousand miles away. Seriously, did he lose his head? Dumb question, speaking of whom. His father and, surprisingly, his sister greeted him at the gate. 

“Karai!” He hugged her, making sure his bag hit her back just hard enough to be annoying. 

“Case!” She hugged him back, placing her arms in just the right position to do a belly-to-belly suplex.

“Dad!” He dropped his bags and leaped into his fathers arms. It'd been too long since he saw the both of them, but Dad left earlier and he missed his swinging hugs. 

“ Okaerinasai ” He whispered whilst lifting his son off his feet, squeezing hard but never too hard.

They were both in civilian clothes, western civilian clothes, the type Shredders enemies back in Japan wouldn’t dream of seeing him in. It reminded Casey of his old superman comics where clark only had to wear glasses to- 

“How was your trip?” his Dad asked as they began to walk. He knew this game, Karai and he loved to play it at old diners and malls. 

“It was fun! Got up to a lot” he moved his ‘umbrella’ from one shoulder to the next.

“Hmm?”

“Well ya’ know, people are busy, but business, it’s good” 

They made it to the van, parked far off into the parking lot where normal people would be, with no issue, expected but nevertheless enjoying, normality became a rare commodity nowadays. They all got into the back, despite the outside looking normal(-ish), the interior was completely different, outfitted with custom tech and backwards seats so passengers could face each other. A designated ‘driver’ bot sat in front. Sitting right ahead, his father passed him a folder. 

“On the girl”

“Wait, yeah- it’s a girl? Why wouldn’t Karai be any good?” She didn’t attend any school in America, she felt no reason too, preferring hands-on work opposed to hockey games and espionage.

“She has made her presence known to the girl”

He opened the folder, thin, that was all they had? Just her name, assumed height, couple grainy CCTV photos, address, school-

“That’s who I’m befriending?”- he pointed to the nicest photo, it still looked like someone microwaved it- “this is April ‘O Neil ?”

“Yes, and you will begin attending again tomorrow”

“Tomorrow?! Already? Ughhhhh!” 

“You must begin immediately, any further delay creates problems.” 

“Could’ve given me a day”

“Case-”

“I’m just saying! Jet-Lag is a total real bummer!” 

Karai giggled a bit, she sat next to him gesturing to a photo on her phone, “just be glad you don’t have to deal with the turtles yet”

His eyes peered down-

“The what!?”

The ride was short, the conversation bleed into the late evening, there was a lot he had to be caught up on. The rundown; Hamoto Yoshi is alive , raising some four mutant turtle sons to fight against what is seeming to be a potential soon to be alien invasion, a species called the Kraang . Karai mentioned some deal they had going on, weapons and power in exchange for compliance. Casey didn’t need her to spell out what their father was really doing. Keep your enemies close. 

Luckily he had already been attending a nearby school beforehand so transferring wasn’t too hard. Especially since the Kraang themselves had somehow infiltrated the school without anyone noticing, they didn’t know the difference between an official transfer application document vs a bathroom pass! He looked at the photo once more, not much to know about her, online presence was null but her fathers, Kirby 'O'Neil wasn’t . A widow, who graduated with a masters in psychology, disappeared only a week ago, huh…

He slammed the locker door shut, this new place sucked, him joining part way through the year under belief of expulsion for ‘misbehaviour’ (geez thanks dad) did not help his case in the friends department. People here actually cared for their grades. At least he could stay with his old hockey team, but none of them attended this school leaving him an outcast- ah there she was. At the end of the hall, lone redhead- April. At Least his first day led to some gossip, April had no friends, well maybe except that Irma girl? She too was new. And she signed up for extra credit, Perfect. He readied his hockey stick, aim, and fire . 

Chapter Text

The overweight wannabe gangster collided with the dumpster to a satisfying slam! Casey turned, twisting the arm of the attacker before he could get a hit in, twisting, waiting for the bone to snap. He so needed this, after the deal with that mutagen man thing and Karai having thought it’d a totally wonderful idea to ‘test out’ the Kraang new superweapon, which wasn’t even fully theirs! It was stolen from his foot tech! Breaking into his time with April, not to mention it tried to kill her. The third tattooed slab of meat stupidly rushed to tackle him, with a flicker he spun himself to allow his guest to take the brunt of it. Bradford had somehow gotten mutated again during their last encounter with the turtles, he was howling all night . At least Dad actually introduced him, as Rakkī Kyū, to them . No more having to watch everything from the far off shadows. A satisfying rattle rang out as the skinny gangster crashed into the dumpster where gangster 1 was. “Hey man c’mon give it up- We give up!”  Not so tough now. How stupid was Hun to hire these buffoons? Stealing from old grannys wasn’t cool-

Wait, where was the third one? Where did he-? 

Giant fleshy arms clamped around his midsection, trapping his hockey stick against his side. He raised his elbow up ready to strike when-

“Gah!” a blur of green wooshed past taking the grunt with him. Casey caught himself before the floor met his face. 

“Hey what the- show yourself!” Casey lifted himself up, watching the mutant turtle emerge from the shadows to send the other man flying . Huh he wasn’t expecting to really meet one. This could be good. 

“Another mutant? Some sorta turtle ninja? Ha!” He couldn’t finish fake laughing as he heard the two goons behind him flee, he needed to make this look real. “Scum! I’m not done with you!” He began to run slowly, c’mon, take the bait. Readying his bat, his bag’s strap tightened, yanking back he was face to face with the red masked turtle again. 

“Let me handle this” 

“Outta my way!” 

“ Ya know , Anger is a dangerous ally” His feet tripped as Raph pushed back, “Why don’t you cool off for a while?” 

“That’s it lizard, I’m done with you!” Casey readied his stick, perfect .

“ Goongala! ”

They traded playful insults and moves. Casey kept his simple, allowing Raph some soft hits, he can’t just use his fathers moves, that’d ruin his disguise. Plus Raph just ain’t a threat, even as Casey let him throw him into the dumpster. Jumping out, 3 flashes of light flew his way, raising his mit to block, he felt the sharp thuds against it. “Gotta admit, throwing stars are cool” that’s it, the flower sigil, confirming his dad's claims, there be Hamatos. Continuing the fight into the road, purple dragons long forgotten, Casey served his own platter of kicks and punches, twisting to dodge Raph’s own serving of sharp sais and meaty fists. He swung a quick hit, fled to the street corner, then rushed in to punch again. A dance of sorts, with Raph right dead centre. Casey felt the blood rush, his knuckles turned white, heart pumping, It’d been so long since he actually had fun whilst fighting. He aimed again, swinging his hockey stick down. It stopped early, Casey felt the metal bend as Raph slammed him into a car hood. Back stinging, Raph screamed, his eyes bone white, his sai a blur as it rushed down, fast, too fast, shit. shit! SHIT-

It stopped. 

Right between his eyes, 

Thank god . 

“What am I doing?... Maybe I do have anger issues…”

A split second of hesitation, Casey flicked his homemade stunner alive, sparks flew, sticking the metal rod into a gap in the turtle’s shell. Watching Raph convoluting with sweet electricity. Take that turtle. Latching on the back of a passing taxi (thank you New York!), yelling out-

“You ain’t seen the last of me turtle!” 

Oh Casey will make sure of it. 

Three whole days. No sign, not even an image capture from the bots. Nothing! April hadn’t even said a word to him about it and he referenced it right in her face! Irma dragged her away before he could get a word in! She hadn’t even talked to him about the mutagen goo man that chased ‘em, or the footbots that attacked ‘em! He saw that fear in her eyes, that uncertainty, she thinks he won’t want to be her friend anymore. He got that, making friends when you’re ‘aliens most wanted’ had to be hard, how many others knew from her ramblings? How many others had first hand experience? 

How many ex-friends did she have?

He won’t abandon Red like that, even if he wasn’t already on a mission to befriend her. She actually seemed cool (how many people knew how to fight!) and most importantly normal . She didn’t deserve a large target painted on her back. The turtles seemed to help lesson that target at least. It’s a thought for another time, where even were the turtles? Shouldn't they be doing patrols or something? They’re ninjas , right? Karai said Raph was ‘the hot-head’ but damn dude! He would’ve killed him! Just a second longer and… nah, nah. Casey would’ve, he should’ve hit him earlier- still Casey just wasn’t expecting it, his mistake, he won’t make it again. Still Dad said Yoshi was kind , did he really teach Raph that anger? No, no way- what he said- ‘Anger is a dangerous ally’ - that’s Hamato Yoshi.

“Maybe they have anger issues!!” 

And that’s Raph.

Casey peered down at the ranting hot head as he slipped under the alleyways sewer cover. Sticking to the shadows, following the turtle at a fair distance to not get lost in the labyrinth of drainage pipes. God, it stunk of rotten egg and wet cardboard, Casey held his breath. Luckily the smell dissipated as he walked closer to the noise and light, it looked like a train station entrance, turnstiles ‘n all. Surprisingly homely with towering pizza box stacks, rugs about, walls decorated with beautiful graffiti, carefully lit candles, a heavily stitched up punching bag, arcade machines, a small multi-colored cushioned sitting centre where the turtles currently sat watching some old show. He’d found their lair. Seriously that easy too? Why didn’t Karai just do this to begin with? He turned to leave, seeing his stick get caught on one of the stacks. He bent over, catching the fallen box, a metal fork sprung out, hitting the floor Loudly .

“An intruder!”

damnit. 

They easily thwarted Casey’s pitiful attempt at ‘escaping’, the closest two of them to pinning him down. Blue mask (Leonardo?) reached forward and ripped his cheap mask off, Casey snarled gaptooth showing, they jumped back, thank god he went the whole mile with the face paint. Leo shouted, “He’s just a kid!” 

What and he ain’t?  

“Let go of me you stupid reptiles!” 

Gently elbowing Donatello next to him, he jumped out of their grasps, readying his bat for the attack-.

“Casey? Casey!” 

April was here? Wait weren’t they arguing-

“You know these guys?”

“Don’t hurt him, he's my friend!-”April runs between them, creating a much needed barrier, she turned “-Casey! what are you doing here?” 

“Better question, what are you doing here?”

“Uh These are my ‘other’ friends, the ones I was telling you about” She listed their names, pointing to each. 

“I named them after my favourite painters and sculptures of the italian renaissance” Tall, hairy, rat teeth, robe with that colour and that symbol. The great Hamato Yoshi. He couldn’t help the yelp as he nearly fainted. He’s a rat . 

“This is master Splinter Casey, he’s cool”

“Do not fear me my friend, I do not bite” 

He heard Raph yelp as well, something about cockroaches, whatever, he was too focused on the figure ahead of him. Alive, mutated but alive and despite that every bit like how his Dad described. Their eyes locked, Casey prayed Yoshi didn’t see any recognition as they widened. April stuck a hand to her head grimacing,

“Sensei, we're not alone!” multiple red flashing lights appeared above. The footbots! How did they…? He set them to attack when he was in this disguise. Did Karai make them follow him? Grabbing his dropped bat, does he fight with or against them? Hamato Yo Splinter moved ahead, began to easily dismantle the bots in a flurry of precise hits, straight up decapitating one with his bare paws. Ok, definitely fighting with them, he swung for the nearest bot, pulling back to come back-to-shell with Raph, “You’re the one who did this!” 

“They followed you too dude!”

“Don’t dude me dude!”

“Hey! He’ll give away our location!” Donetello pointed to the highest up bot, a tracker, as it finished 3D scanning the lairs layout, nice ! Abruptly turning away to flee. 

“Casey Jones is on it!” He chased the bot, this was his escape. A hard shove threw his balance as a green smear raced past. Raph!

“Tell Casey Jones I don’t need his help!” 

Racing out the station through the subway system, Casey easily overtook the turtle. The bot still paces ahead, ground rumbling, Raph drew nearer, the tracker continued to flee along the tracks. Backup bots descended from the subway's curved ceiling, swamping them. Him and Raph split up, different ends of the tunnel, Casey smiled as the metal dented under his reinforced stick. Turning to Raph, he was focused on twin attackers, his exposed shell facing Casey. It would be easy to strike him down, one precise blow could easily knock him out. A consolation prize if the turtles fled the lair, and a massive blow to the turtles too! But… that would give them all a reason to hate him and keep that stupid feud going. He launched a puck at the last bot as it tried sneaking up on Raph exposed back. The tracker continued to run. Skates skidded against the metal tracks, “Faster man move yer shell!” A roar bellowed from behind, wheels screeched, lights flooded behind him. Shit! Throwing himself at Raph, barely dodging the train car. 

“You ok?”

“Thanks…-” Raph pulled himself off the ground ”-there he is!” 

He pointed towards the top of the still moving train, Casey nodded to Raph, he smiled back.

They followed it on the car’s roof. Casey really started to regret giving them four arms. Wind slapped Casey face. The damn train was moving! he never fought on a moving train before! The bot sword aimed to pierce Raph, Casey leaped into motion easily hitting the bot on the shoulder, ruining it’s aim, a sudden rush of wind knocked his balance. His foot slipped , the ground turned as he spun, he held his arms to break his fall but there was no ground .

Something tight constricted his waist, seeing the ground blur below him as he painfully smashed into the metal carriage side. He freezes in the hold, he could’ve- would’ve- no, not now . He pulled himself up the rope.

“Now we’re even”

Raph had caught him, with the same rope he pulled him away with earlier. Instead of focusing on the bot, on saving his family , he saved Casey, a stranger, instead. The same guy who beat him up, held a sai right between his eyes, now saved him. Over the bot, to hell with even .

The thought ran circles in Casey’s mind, as he leaped through a shattered window, avoiding the glass, as his bat wings reverberated the metal walls, just to hit something , as both him and Raph took that damn robot down. 

It was actually nice, not an afternoon picnic ‘nice’, but like when he and Karai trained together. Raph actually had his back.

He missed that feeling. 

Finally at the punisher move. Raph squeezed Casey's hand, yanking him up beyond him to the tracker. Allowing him to use his stunner (the same one he used on Raph) right on its back. He spun, spinning the bot with him, releasing letting the bot crash its way down the subway stairs. A satisfying dwelling of static accompanied the swift strike of Raph’s Sai to its face. 

“That was too close”

“You’re a pretty good fighter Jones-” Raph walked towards the fallen bot, wrenching his sai out the bots head “-Sure you’re raw, unfocused, dangerous, crazy… but not bad” 

“Thanks” Casey walked up, “You’re not so bad yourself-”

They clasped hands, 3 fingered, scaly, mutated, green and friendly hand met his mit. This was it! his ticket to them. Their hands pushed each other, fighting to lean it one way over the other. 

“-For an amphibian” 

“A little birdie told me the turtles made a new friend” 

A voice manifested itself besides Casey's ear, its words wormed their way into his mind. Only two people even knew about his secret lab, the only two with access to it. 

“Karai! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” He spun the chair round, “Uhh you heard about that?”

“Heard about it? I watched it happen!” She pointed towards the computer screen Casey had been typing upon. The Sural network connected all the bots to the base, connection fizzled out near the bots deactivation to prevent tracking, one that also displayed what the Footbot saw. He knew it in and out, he coded it himself. 

“So you did set them to follow me!” 

“Yeah! Good thing I did! You would’ve been captured!” 

“No way! I was gonna escape!”

“Yeah, cause that was definitely escaping to me, oh and it definitely looked like you were ‘scouting’ 3 days ago too” busted

“Heh, uhh does Dad know…?” She raised an eyebrow,

“Does dad know” she repeated in a tone that screams ‘ Dad definitely knows ’. He covered his face, a groan slipped out. “He wanted to see you actually” he groans louder, it wasn’t good if Dad sent Karai to fetch him, guess he could tell Casey was avoiding him. Sure, Casey hadn’t really told his Dad what exactly he was doing those nights, but it wasn’t like he was doing anything bad! Just y’know going to the base of the enemy. Something bugged him,

“Why did you send the bots to tail me?” 

“When I found out about the dragons! We’re above this, You can’t just go fight them-”

“They were stealing purses Karai! That’s not honourable!”

She glared slightly at being interrupted, “you can’t just fight them alone . What if one pulled out a gun?”

He got silent, Karai had a point but it wasn’t like he was going to admit that to her. She sighed, “I just don’t want you to get hurt, some hidden backup won’t hurt”

“I won’t, I just. I just needed something to do, actually do, ya know? … I ain’t done anything helpful in weeks!” It was true, he couldn’t crack the Kraang language, April had still felt more like a tutor than a proper friend, and he only just met the other mutants on their team. Pathetic really- Stockmen was having a greater effect-

“Casey! It’s always going to take time, besides you don’t have to do anything. You’re not some robot.” She held out her fist, “you just have to be Casey” It was a cheesy line, like straight out of some old coming of age movie they’d watched, it still helped. He bumped his fist against hers.

“Thanks Karai”

He felt a little better, but a question remained, he looked up to Karai. 

“How dead am I?” 

“Buried” 

Casey stepped up, the ‘throne room’ was built to be imposing, to show his fathers authority, strike fear into subordinates. That fear didn’t work so well when you held memories of pointing out the constellations with him and Karai through its long sunroof. He walked up, not stopping at the bottom, he wasn’t some foot soldier or henchmen, not stopping till he was right in front of his father. 

“I awaited your arrival” 

‘ I know what you did ’ more like, a hint of ‘I’m mad at you’ too, not a good start. Casey took a deep breath.

“I’ve befriended the turtles” 

“That was not your objective”

“I know but it just-” Casey shrugged, ”- happened ” 

A half truth, he wanted to meet the turtles ever since Karai showed those blurry photos. He sought them out, yes, but befriending them wasn’t exactly planned. His father knew all that already.

“I want you to have nothing to do with them”

“But Dad!”

“I want you to have no part in the feud between him and I”

This again, his father kinda hated Yoshi, and it seemed Yoshi kinda hated him too. At least by the way he’s trained his sons to fight him before he even knew about his return to japan. 

“You’re, We’re not actively attacking them! they don’t have any reason to-”

“Yet, they will find one” 

“I’ll run, the moment they do, I’ll run back here ” 

His father’s eyes narrowed, his helmet shaded his face. Casey stood tall. The room tightened. He yelled,

“I want-! I want there to be no feud . if- if this is how. Then we just have too, and, and we have to do it now whilst there's still a common enemy!” 

“ This isn’t your fight! ” 

His father shouted at him . Casey stepped back, eyes widened, magnetised to the floor, heart began to beat faster and faster and the walls grew spikes. 

His fathers hand slowly raised up, pausing just before his cheek. Casey leaned into the touch allowing his father to gently cup his face, helmet discarded under the arm of the other, he could see his Dad’s face again. Casey couldn’t help but draw his attention to the touch, it didn’t hurt.

“Breath, I should not have yelled at you” 

Casey did so, a couple of times, the room widened into its typical shape, spikes disappearing, the surrounding water reflected the dim lighting into various serene patterns. He was safe here. 

“’s fine, were yelling at each other”

Casey sniffed, he was no fragile flower. Normal families, without the trauma and  without the long histories of conflict and without the whole ninja clan trying to prevent an alien invasion thing, yelled at each other. Normal families fought, It was normal to yell and argue, and those arguments didn’t lead to a bloody beating. 

“Enough, I will… I will allow you to befriend the turtles. If that will make you happy.” Casey smiled, 

“However, you don’t go near him and the moment they suspect you. You will run, you will run and you will tell me ”

Dads hand sunk into his face ever so slightly, Casey smile only grew, 

“Of course, Dad”

Chapter Text

The stars danced upon the calming waters at either end of the long room, their waves reflected patterns against the walls. It was relaxing to watch, grounding, he implemented them for that exact reason. His son had returned from his ‘outing’ and a decision had been made. He could never deny something that would make the boy happy, the same applied to Karai. But this was a massive step up. His initial plan completely thrown away. Casey was meant to just learn why the Kraang wanted with this girl, April ‘O Neil, he’d then send the two right back to Tokyo, together and safe. 

Clenching his fists, Steel claws threatening to poke out. Shouldn’t have gotten either of them involved, he should’ve just stayed in Tokyo. They all should’ve, he shouldn’t have tried to chase his brother- Shouldn’t have started that fight -

Enough.

The time for peace had passed. There was too much bloodshed, countless soldiers, Hamato, Foot, their Yoshi’s father, Teng Shen-

He breathed deeply, he could only hope wherever she was now, that she approved of his care for Karai. Nothing he could do would earn her forgiveness, though he tried. He never kept it a secret, telling her origins when she was of age. There were many old wounds opened that day, some new ones made as harsh though justified words striked his way. Maybe the day could’ve gone different, had he realised Yoshi had lived. But Saki couldn’t lie to himself. He would’ve dropped everything to strike the last killing blow. He even began raising Karai with some deranged plot of revenge against his long dead fake father and thought to be then dead brother.

Then Casey came along. Or first the Purple Dragons, and their greed and their smuggling. He chased their disgraced leader after he racked up an immense debt with him. The man's apartment was barren, destroyed, turned chairs and shattered glass tables surrounding in an ocean of empty beer bottles. And amongst the wreckage, a broken boy hiding amongst the tattered furniture. He hadn’t known when the pieces finally snapped together, however if there was a moment he could pinpoint it’d be then. Seeing the tiny, too tiny boy folded impossibly small into the corner behind a crumpled table, broken arm, nose, black eye, countless cuts and bruises, scars . Who flinched at even the slightest moment of light. Shredder wasn’t in New York anymore, young Saki was buried, abandoned under rumble, the choking smoke, before Hamato Yuuta snatched him away, deceived him . But this was different, he never knew his own father, the boy did. Minutes stretched to hours as he slowly inched closer, convincing the boy it was safe, he was safe. Eventually being able to carry the glass child in just one of his arms. The other reached up, grabbed the Kuro Kabuto off his head and slid it on the boys. It tilted slightly, he’ll grow into it. 

It took days of constant, considerate care before he even got the boy’s name, Casey Jones . Confirming he was the man he was chasing, the old Purple Dragons leader, Arnold Jones, son. The boy seemed used to the ‘harsh treatment’, as he called it, that he wasn’t even shocked when his own dad started swinging at him again , only shocked he didn’t come back to swing again . Doctors confirmed the existence of scars littering the boy’s bones, one major healed burn mark cascaded down the boy's left shoulder. The blistering heat, cracks of wood, cinder smoke and screams of betrayal - 

Enough, He had to focus.

What kind of disgrace would beat his own defenceless son? To attempt murder in some vain effort to save his own worthless skin? Would Oroku Keiji? Yuuta had when he denied him his truth all those years ago. So was he to Karai now.  

He spent the whole time next to the bandaged boy, Casey , working next to him. Slowly having the child warm up to him. He wasn’t surprised when a young Karai came crashing through the door, demanding an answer to his sudden ‘disappearance’. She shut up pretty quickly when she saw the near mummified kid, 

“ Otōsan, kono hito wa daredesu ka? ” 

“ Anata no atarashī otōto, Kēshī ” he answered, turning to the confused boy, and translated, “Your new brother, Casey”

The boy, his son , shyly smiled. 

He was still shocked at just how fast Karai latched onto Casey, and vice versa. The two were now inseparable, forever siblings despite the lack of any connecting blood. He was still so shocked at the sudden change of it all, how training sessions became less about the offence and more of the defence and the art, how dinners became so loud, when the days shifted, less full of Foot clan work, more full of family . His time spent obsessing over the Hamatos became less and less till it went away completely.

How could he focus on all that when his children were right in front of him. 

Casey watched over the video tapes again, and again, taking it all in. It’d taken him weeks to get a backdoor into the Kraang’s online facilities. Watching the playbacks security tapes of the turtles breaking in, unknowingly separating from April, the Kraang thwarted attempt of extracting her DNA, the countless clones. They escaped, thank god, unlike his Father the Kraang were not pulling their punches, they shot to kill . 

He rewound the tape, just as Raph failed in saving April, being held down by multiple of the stronger Kraang droids. It wasn’t until the unnecessarily sharp and deadly extractor needle neared her head did she eerily scream, the whole feed went to static bursts, next thing next Raph was helping April out, surrounded by ruined bots. She complained about a headache. The computer beeped, signalling completion, Casey stared at the decoded Kraang message block,

“Kraang (Mutant) April clones: Unsuccessful, too NOT April.

Kraang (Mutant) April clones: Decommissioned.

Kraang extraction of (Mutant) April DNA: Unsuccessful.

CAUSE: (Mutant - Multiple) group known as ‘Turtles’ attack

(NEW) Objective: secure parameter of base X0-V5

(NEW) Objective 2: increase security on base X0-V5

(NEW) Objective 3: Gather data on (Mutants - Multiple) group known as ‘Turtles’

Kraang Prime: Unknowing of Kraang failure, would be knowing soon.

Plans: Shift Kraathatrogon operation to primary objective A.”

Nice more unknowns to add to the evidence board, god it was getting full with unknown motives and missing leads. It was hard to find out what an alien species wanted, OK? 

“Adding more to the Crazy wall?” 

“Hey! It’s a’ evidence board Karai! And yeah actually, check it!” He pressed a key, replaying a highly sped up version of the translation from Kraanglish to English.  

“Looksees-” he swirled on his chair, letting Karai peak at the text, “Took ages but bettah’ than nothin’”

“Who’s Kraang Prime?”

“Dunno”

“And Krah-kaa-tha-tro-gon-ugh whatever that says operation?”

“No clue”

“Huh no wonder it looks sporadic” She said with a light laugh, she’s right, many photos and text with too many question marks dotted across a flimsy pinboard. Grainy photos of the turtles, other mutants and April mixed with notes upon notes of Kraang plans. He’s going to run out of red string soon. 

“Hey why does it say ‘Mutant’ next to April?” she pointed to the screen

“I… dunno actually, think it’s to do with the Kraang wanting her?” 

“Yeah, the turtles have the same thing too” She moved her finger down, “Here” Huh, it was clear the Kraang language was way different than English, more robotic, just from the way they spoke. “Wait, you think it could be a tag? Like here it’s says group!” 

“Makes sense, then why would April have the tag ‘Mutant’?”

A silence hung in the air, the dots connected, a red flow of understanding.

“Karai you don’t think…?” 

“It can be it” 

“I mean- it’s April! She’s so… so normal! ”

“Is she?” 

“Yeah she…” Casey paused, his face scrunched. Sure he didn’t know much about April yet but the small moments they had together, her and her fathers kidnapping, her mother, her connection to the turtles, her headaches and that scream .

It made just a bit too much sense.

“April’s a mutant ”

He seriously regretted coming here, of course he needed to hang with the turtles to get to know them and find out more about his recent discovery. Besides, he loved hanging with them! But he really wished he had chosen a different day. Maybe tomorrow or the day after. Damnit, stupid rats. Somehow possessing Splinter, that was scary, so much so he fled to the living room. Not dealing with that, nope.

“Hey” Raph come up to him

“Hey” 

“You Ok Case?” 

“Yeah yeah. Just tha Rat thing ya know?” 

Casey controlled his breathing, Raph looked like he wanted to say something, but the others flooded out the kitchen towards them. Case walked towards April, the plan was going into motion and he needed to help, even if… if… 

Giant rats, why in god's name did it have to be giant rats? 

“Hey are you ok?-” a feminine voice in the darkness asked, it echoed, slamming into the walls of his mind, ughhh who’s idea was it to attack giant, mutated rats head on? Especially with him alone on his bike. Peaking his eyelids open the light almost blinded him, ringing echoed from ear to ear. The short girl sat in front of him, kneeling, surrounded by the bars of their cage. 

“-mister?” 

“Irma?”

“Casey?! Why are you dressed like that?” 

“Does it matter? Why are you… How long was I-”

“Welcome esteemed guests-” A deep voice interrupted them,emerging from the shadows his dark robe did little to hide his hideous skin, skeletal face and teeth on show. Casey saw scars before,  this wasn’t it, this looked like his face was rotting. “-There's no need to fear, I won’t hurt you that I can promise”

“Let us out of here you freak!” Casey yelled rattling the hanging cage, others stared at him, had to be at least a good ten trapped in here. 

“All in good time…” He began to monologue, Casey usually skipped this part, he knew what the bad guys wanted to do, plus giving them time to talk usually meant they were stalling something, but usually Casey wasn’t in a cage suspended tens of feet in the air surrounded by giant mutated killer rats . Why, why out of all the creatures, did it have to be rats ? 

Irma fainted into his arms as the Rat King detailed his plans to them, ‘his new rat army to take over the world’. Talk about mad, man could have figured out a cure by now! But no it’s always ‘world domination’ with these guys. Irma's body lay limp, her breaths even, her heart whirred to a constant comforting hum, he quickly patched up a cut on her forehead, the bandage shifted from pure white to bright red. Everyone was now murmuring to themselves, too afraid to stand to the madmen downstairs, lest they become his second test subject. The first experiment squirmed, a mass of teeth, fur, and human parts mumbled about cheese in a disjointed mix of squeaks. Hot Bile climbed up his throat, he looked away. He needed-

Wait, Irma’s heart was whirring? He bowed down, placing his ear to her chest. A faint beat alongside a constant buzzing, whirring and even a click of a- 

Robot! Irma was a krang bot! This whole time? Why is she here? Kraang never mentioned her, anywhere- not even in the encrypted reports he managed to hack. Was she that on the downlow? Was she here to spy on April too? But then how or why did she faint? And that cut, it still bled red, human blood must she only be part Kraang bot? How?

“Casey!” Another voice whispers loudly, he peered below, a familiar redhead through the steel bars.

“April!” 

“Shhh! We’ll get you out of here!” 

“Heck Yeah! I’m not gonna be stuck in a cage with all these Rats! Not again!” 

“So uh, we gon talk about it?”

Raph sat at the end of the ledge as Casey finished climbing the last of the fire escape stairs, this roof had become ‘their spot’ over the past couple of weeks they’d been friends. A place to get away when the lair just didn’t cut it, or when Leo was being a stick in the mud. It'd been a whole day since the whole Rat King fiasco, which went surprisingly well. All the mutated rats had disappeared along with their ‘king’. Good riddance.  The night’s quiet, cloudy skies, New York was still recovering which meant no scum on the streets tonight, and he really needed to bash some heads. 

“Talk about what?”

“Ya know-” Raph fidgeted for a second, “-the whole rat thing, ya mind tellin’ me about it?” 

Oh he wanted to talk about that, ughhh-

“What’s it to you man? Just a fear ‘n all” he moved to sit beside Raph, feeting hanging over the roofs ledge. The cars looked like toys up here. 

“Maybe it’s got something to do with what ya said back there? ‘ Again ’, like you got some sorta history with him or something?” 

“What that freak? No way dude-just, just ta rats” 

“You gon tell me about ‘em?”

“You gon tell me about the ‘roaches?” 

“That has- ugh!” Raph whispered angrily, a lightbulb in his head went off, “-I’ll tell you if you tell me” 

Casey wasn’t expecting that, Raph didn’t really seem like the one out of them all to ask or even notice, he was expecting Mikey or even Leo to bring it up. Casey mulled it over, there wasn’t really any harm.

“You first”

Raph looked ready to punch him, eyebrows (or where they’d be) scrunched. “Fine.” He muttered,  “I- I don’t really know exactly when it started but- I -I just couldn’t be near them. I’d feel them crawling on my skin, in my skin, even if they were nowhere near me-” he swung his arms wildly, “- and then Donnie had the great idea to attach cameras to them, like some sorta spy bug!-” He began to breathe heavily “-and then I couldn’t even get rid of them! He knew I hated them!”

“That tough man”

“Oh you just don’t get it . One of them dropped into mutation and it chased me across New York! Like- Like some bug terminator!” 

“Sick!”

“Not Sick! We couldn’t stop it and it-it was, just. It grew bigger and bigger and-and just it didn’t stop!” Raph breathing raced, his eyes blew wide. Casey slowly, within Raphs eyesight, reached forward, placing an ungloved hand on his shoulder, allowing a small grounding piece for Raph to latch onto. The same his father did when he had a moment like this.

“I got it.-” a breath in, “-I… I got it in the end.” a breath out, “But it still- I thought I confronted the fear, ya-ya know? Got over it but-”

“It came back?” 

“Yeah…” 

They sat there in silence for a bit, just watching the cars pass by below, office buildings lights still on, Casey squinted his eyes, he could almost convince himself the far off ones were stars.

“Fears don’t really just go , it’s ‘ah whole process yeah?” 

Raph sighed, “Ok ok, wise guy- I said it now yer spill”

“Uhhhh…” shit how was he meant to-

“Oh no ,don’t even think about not tellin!”

“I’m adopted.” 

“What?” Raph just looked confused, “Whats that got tah do with anything?”

“Uh, my dad, my bio dad, he um wasn't exactly a good guy” Casey moved his hand from Raph's shoulder, they bundled together. “When he was mad at me, or just ya’ know mad he’d… he’d” Casey tightened his grip, glad for the mitts stopping his nails digging into his palms. Breathe in, out, cars argued in beeps below. He closed his eyes and,

“He’d lock me in a cage in the cellar, n’ just leave me there for hours .”
“Case-”

“And and, he wouldn’t even turn the lights on! Just me! Me and… and the…”

“The rats”

“Yeah, they bite… sometimes…”

“Man, Case I’m sorry,  I thought it was-”

“Disgust? No” Casey thought for a second, “I- I’m not afraid of your dad if that's what ya think, not not fully”

Casey opened his eyes, Raph gaze was fixed on a crushed can in the corner,

“But you ran out when my dad…”

“Yeah no sauce? He was out of his mind! Uh no Offence, I- I guess I should’ve helped but- Just- ya know?”

“Yeah I get it man, but he’s like- he’s like a Dad and a rat, Is that like a combo or…?” 

“What? nah, look It happened years ago, dude, I don’t hate Spliter for bein a dad!” He grabbed Raph by the shoulders no warning this time, “or for bein a rat! Just- It’s just gon take a but of time to adjust yeah?” 

Raph mulled it over for the half second their eyes met, his face trapped between Casey’s hands upon his shoulders, “yeh yeh, makes sense”

“Besides my dad now, my real dad, he's way cooler than your Dad! Plus I’ve got my sis too!”

Raph humphed, his eyes still refused any contact for longer than a second, wait was he guilty about-

“Dude, c’mon ya think ya think you can force the Casey Jones to talk if he really doesn’t want too?” 

Raph seems to perk up a bit at that, reassured he did overstep. First time having actual friends must make all the turtles slightly anxious. Raph grunted, turned to him with fiery determination in his eyes.

“If I ever see em, I’ll give him what he deserves”

Casey didn’t doubt him for a second.

“Ya ought ta’ get in line first”

–NO CALLER ID–

Irma, I know your secret.

Meet me at the Old Shoe Diner

18:00 today, don’t be late.

Or else.

Chapter Text

Hot, oily grease invaded his nose the second he stepped into the ravaged diner kitchen. The back entrance gave him front row seats to the sizzling burgers and fries. Bitter coffee wafted through the air, he had to stop himself from swiping a cup off the counter. Between late night talking with Raph and the complete failure in researching anything to do with Irma, he felt like he was sleepwalking. It’s like she never even existed! Someone had to purposely scrub her presence from all records bar her attendance records at highschool (which lets be honest, had nothing worthwhile). Only highschool, no middle or elementary records exist, how did she even get accepted? Speaking of which, he could see her shoved into the far off corner booth, head down, hands hugging herself as she stared blankly out the window. Her eyes seemed to scan the street outside left, right, left again not leaving the glass. The doorbell rang, her eyes darted onto the incoming young couple as they screamed at each other, completely ignoring the poor hostess. Calmed, Irma quickly turned back the window glass.

“Seat taken?” she jumped, he slid into the booth. 

“Ah! Wait, Casey? uh yeah I’m expecting someone soon” she replied curtly, Casey just sat and waited, the clock’s hand ticked past 6:00. 

“You? How did you get my number? Is this some sorta joke?!” 

“Don’t shout , you know this isn’t a joke Irma ” he stared at her, she stared back. “If that’s even ya name?” she bit her lip, eyes darting for an escape, but Casey had her pinned. “Listen, obviously ya not a-” his voice lowered, “- Kraang bot, cause I’d know if you were… but you’re not really human ” 

Her fingers fidgeted, eyes downtrodden refusing to look at him, swallowing dryly she finally spoke. 

“I’m part human” 

Casey silently leant forward,

“I- I’m part robot. A Cyborg . The Kraang they- they changed me ” 

“Why?”

“My parents were scientists, do ya’ know the Dr. Langensteins?”

Yeah actually, Casey did. It’s a horror story, scientists gone mad by their own experiments, disappearing into the night to never be seen again. Most of them were fakes, passed around as cautions to get enough sleep or stay within the law or blah blah blah. Most except the Langenstein doctors, they were different, a complete power couple, advancing astronomy beyond its limits. Story goes they were kicked out, names erased from all their papers after revealing some classified government information, some real high level secretive stuff. People believe that's why they disappeared not long after, that something or someone got them. He had a couple of their old original documents, unredacted, littered across his crazy wall. 

“Yeah” 

“I, I wasn’t meant to be alive, not even a month, something about my muscles and organs? I don’t know, my parents, they made some sorta deal, me for info.”

“They sold ya to the Kraang?!” He quietly spat out. Some heads slightly turned, he glared back at them as they moved back into their boring lives. 

“No! No , they, they-” Irmas arms crossed, hugging herself, two fingers on each hand poked out moving in a quotation motion, “ -‘fixed me’, turned me into this , in exchange my parents helped them. But after a while I think the Kraang valued me over any info they could’ve given” 

Casey didn’t want to ask, it felt way too personal, but he had too. If Irma’s parents were still revealing information to the Kraang one way or another they needed to be stopped, yesterday. 

“Then what?”

“The Kraang murdered them, I escaped dimension X and erased any info of myself from their databanks”

Casey felt there was more, lots more to the story, how old even was she when she left? but however small this fraction of it was, it wasn’t a lie. 

“Sorry”

“It’s fine.” She sighed, hands rubbing her arms in comfort, it must’ve not worked the way her eyes began to water “if, I mean, being honest I-I don’t think I was much of a daughter to ‘em, ya know. Was just another experiment” 

Casey stood from his side, moving beside Irma in the extended booth seat. Slowly, to prevent scaring her, snaked an arm around her shoulders. “Man that- I’m sorry man” she leant slightly into him, he shifted the over the should arm hold into a side hug and allowed Irmas small tears to soak his hoodie. 

Some time passed, Casey didn’t care how long people came and left and a couple of glares at the snobbish waiter kept them secluded. Finally Irma seemed to collect herself, Casey moved slightly away giving her space. Wiping the remaining drops off her cheek with a tissue, 

“I- I think I’m glad a ran away um, not just because of the whole alien part” 

“If uh you ok, why aren’t the Kraang after you now?”

“I ran when I was only ten, and I’m not stupid, I’ve been upgrading myself over time, I look way different than what I did before”

“That's wicked cool…” Casey couldn’t help mutter under his breath. It was incredible, what little he derived from when Irma passed out, it was super advanced tech. He caught himself, everything did line up. Irma shouldn’t know about the Langensteins, or the Kraang involvement with the government, or even dimension X . Her glare pierced Casey's very soul.

“Ok ok, I… damn! that just sucks, are you like OK?”

“Yeah, I don’t like talking about it obviously ”

“I- I’m Sorry, for real, sorry. I just needed to make sure you-”

“-Wasn’t a threat?”

“... yeah” Casey sheepishly answered, he felt like he’s broken some sacred promise, “look man, you really could’ve been some sorta spy thing!” 

“But there's no records of me on the Kraang database, are there?”

“No-”

“I just don’t want to get involved alright? I just want to live a normal life”

“Ya will,! I- I won’t bother you again. We can go back to you being April’s BBF and you hating me” 

She paused for a moment, face twitching. Her cold glare thawed ever slightly, meekly responding,

“I never hated you”

“Sure… Irma really it’ll be fine I don’t-”

“ Never hated you. I’m just not good with people, obviously ” 

Casey reached out a hand, “I’m not either”, a small peace offering “If you’re down, we can like, actually be friends? I-” 

“ But How did you know? ” Irma interrupted, her voice stern and piercing eyes locked back on Casey. He stared back, her right eye didn’t match her left now. Not perfectly. If before was bad this is nightmarish.

“What?” 

“You know a lot about the Kraang, you noticed I was-” her eyes rolled staying stuck on him, “- ’different’ , you even knew about my parents, you knew about those turtles boys that saved us, I never give you my number”

Casey tensed, Irma was smarter than he initially thought but there was no way she’d-

“You knew I wasn’t in the Kraang database either. You work for the foot don’t you?” He almost stood, catching himself. He breathed, he can work with this-

“No, you’re-” She leaned in more, whispered “- Shredders son ”

“How do you know about-”

“ Please , think you're the only one that can hack the Kraang? Think I wouldn’t be watching my back? I knew about about April too” 

“You-!”

“Relax, I’m not going to tell, yet . Nor am I going to ask, I like to get to know people first. Unlike some ”

Direct hit. They sat there, Casey tried to decipher whatever Irma wanted. He really didn’t want to do anything to her, or even tell his Dad but Irma had the power to blow his cover, everything he worked for, he actually enjoyed being friends with the turtles. If they found out now, this way, they’d never forgive him. Looking back at her she wasn’t completely offensive, she was at a loss too, telling April didn’t guarantee her acceptance. If anything it’d light a spotlight on her for the Kraang. 

“I think we can come to some arrangement, I don’t tell and neither do you” she blurted out, cutting Casey thoughts, 

“That sounds nice.” Casey’s tongue felt heavy, something lingered their like a sour fruit he couldn’t spit out, but he tried too. “I think, despite this uhh, rocky start. We can actually be friends?” 

“Really? You just interrogated me”

“I know! I know! But ya’ get I was only doing it to protect April and my uh ‘other friends’?  I trust yer’ tellin’ the truth and if ya are then, look If I wanted to do something I would’ve!” He took a breath, “I do wanna be friends with you” 

They sat in silence, twilight fought through the mountains of blood redbrick, seeping its warmth into the diner. Many have left now, only some sleazy late night truckers and last minute essay writers remain. He allowed Irma this long time to think it over. He’d understand if Irma didn’t agree, it’d suck. Maybe he could strike some other deal? How was Irma paying rent anyway? 

“Okay”

“Hmm?”

“Okay to the deal, to being friends. I mean we can’t just forget what we know but we can at least try, I wasn’t the best to you when we first met” she turned her head back to the window, studying the near empty streets. “April was my frist friend and I- I didn’t want to lose that” some scroll unravelled, their secrets unfolded. Irma wasn’t a threat, she never was, she just some scared girl, she doesn’t deserve to be thrown headfirst into any of this. Neither did April.

“besides” she continued “you would’ve handed April or even me in at this point” she looked away “If I’m honest, if I knew what I did I- probably wouldn’t have even talked to you first without outing you” 

“That’s ok, I guess I’m glad I didn’t do that, or you found out. uh when were you plannin’ to tell her?” 

“Never, if I could. I- I just wanted to help a little, I can feel she’s part Kraang, like they did something to her too, I just wanted to help, if anything came up… but-” She paused, hands gripping her shoulder bag strap, hyperventilating,

“-But I- last night I couldn’t even. I don’t think I’m-”

“Irma, Irma! it’s ok, breathe! I get it. Serious I won’t get you involved”

“Thanks Casey, but I still wanna know the whole deal with the foot and the Kraang tho, from your side just to be fair.”

“Yeah I get that, We’re only really with the Kraang to-”

 “Will you two just order already!” the waiter angrily walked up to them, clipboard in hand, Casey noticed just how many empty papers were left. Dude was not having a profitable night. Irma reached forwards and grabbed Casey’s still outreached hand.

“Oh! I’ll have the chocolate milkshake!” Irma smiled like she’s never done anything wrong in her life, evilly turned to Casey “it’s your turn to cover this one Jones ”

Her eyes darted across his facing searching for something, her face held some nervous cracks in her happy facade as she tested the waters, he smiled back reassuringly, turning it to a shiteating grin as he turned to face the waiter, 

“Guess I’ll have the strawberry”

—

Irma bashed shoulders with the braindead teenager, rattled by the bus's constant motion. She would’ve taken the train, but the increase in earthquakes had led to a wide span closing of them cause god forbid the government or big business spend just a little extra on making the damn thing safe . Feeling a familiar buzz, she squeezed her arm up, grabbing at her phone, she came across the previous messages; a new number popped up.

UNKNOWN NUMBER
Hey, friends? 

She smiled, typed a response, ‘yeah friends’ clicking send, she tapped away at her phone.

NEW CONTACT ADDED: CASEY 

She was about to message April when the bus shook once more, another Earthquake, they’d be rampant, completely unprecedented, New York wasn’t meant to have earthquakes. She felt a new notification as the quake subsided.

Irma: yeah friends

Casey: cool if uh ya need anything jest message

Casey: just*

Casey: U feel that?

Casey: U good?

Irma: Yes, the bus is packed.

Irma: This is the third earthquake this month, each five days apart. 

Casey: Huh, that's weird 

Casey: U think it’s …? 

Casey: We can look into it ya know?

Casey: Do you not want me to ask about that stuff?

Casey: I won’t if you don’t want me too

Casey: Irma? 

Irma: yes, I'll send you a map. 

Casey: Thanks Irma :) 

Irma: you’re welcome.

Irma:  :]

—

Casey put his phone down he would’ve walked Irma back home safely but she didn’t want him to know where she lives, fairs. Returning to the computer screen, lines upon lines of code stretching for miles faced him back. The foots bot new update, more fighting moves, better GPS signalling, more efficient use of multi-core CPUs and, most importantly, an updated firewall and malware detection. The Kraang were getting just a bit too close for comfort, they’d so steal his tech if they had the ability too, hell he’d do the same. Even if they were a advanced alien species something was just off about them. More than just the whole alien species, like why do they all talk like that? Surely out of every single individual Kraang they can’t possibly all talk the same. 

His lab door opened; only two people knew the lab even existed, let alone the door code. “Hey Dad! What’s up?” He shoved his headphones off,

“I have been approached by Tiger Claw to aid in the destruction of the Kraang and the turtles”

Straight to the point, always the same with his dad especially in the lab. Something about the untidiness and the severed footbot limbs. Wait, did he say Tiger Claw? As in the Tiger Claw? Asia’s most deadly assassin?

“You accepted?” 

“Yes, He’s-” 

“Wait! Have you actually told him?” 

“No, it is for the best that our motives remain exclusive. We do not know if he can be trusted”

“Gon set him off on the turtles? Dad he’ll-!”

“No, never. The turtles are meer teenagers, their master however-”

“I thought ya didn’t care?” 

His Dad sighed, looking down at him, he’d taken his helmet off when he entered leaving his face bare, the scars across his eye wanting to weep.

“There’ll never not be lingering resentment. I have moved beyond petty fights between us”

“Then why?”

“To test his loyalty and ability, if he does succeed within the limitations I’ve set. He may join us fully” 

His computer beeping interrupted them, not the one uploading the update to the bots. A further one off translating an encrypted Kraang message they intercepted; he walked up to it, skimming its contents, huh that was odd.

“Hey Dad, what’s ‘a Utrom?” 

Chapter Text

“So these are the Robots you told me about?” Casey feigned ignorance. He really should be at home, Dad wanted to introduce Tiger Claw properly, but he got his robot double to cover him, to ‘keep appearances’. Not that it’d fool his Dad or sister. He’ll definitely get to watch its recording, at some point, later. 

“With their little brains inside yeah” April responded, they both stared down from the rooftops above. “What are they doing?” A whole queue of the same faced Kraang bots (seriously they can’t afford to get even a slightly different look? lazy) walked into one of their triangular portals. Casey’s seen these before, back at one of the Kraang drop points. When they were transporting their supplies over, they never let him near any of the tech. However, from what he could tell that was localised, needing a whole damn machine grid to uphold the portal, not just up in some back alley. Silently jumping down the rusted fire escape, “That’s a new trick”, yeah it was, a trick Casey wanted, badly . 

“I got this red, stay here” He slid his mask on his unpainted face, creeping towards the last bot in the line, it didn’t matter if Kraang knew his ‘Casey Jone’s’ face, he never met up with them without his helmet. His hand gripped the bat, the wood felt homely, heavier than the typical bat. He quickly swung, knocking him around the head. The dent showed clear on the ‘mans’ forehead, he allowed them to get a couple hits, give April a show. Speaking of which; she beat him to the finishing move, slicing the last one clean in half, “Nice red!”, What was Splinter using to sharpen that Tessen ? Striking the pink brain lookin’ alien as it crawled out of its stomach casting into a satisfying slam as it hit the dumpster. “When you play cricket you gotta have some crumpets!” 

Meekly it crawled into the darkness, they really were nothing without the suits. The damn cowards.  

“Wow, let’s take this to Donnie, let him check it out” April said as she picked up the too clean hexagonal device, it had fallen as the triangular portal closed. 

“Ya think he’d be able to sort it?” 

“Trust me, Donnie’s wayy ahead of other scientists” She pocketed the device, walking slowly towards the sewergate within, green eyes dimly looked on-

“April wait!”, he grabbed her arm softly, “let’s uh take the scenic route” He pulled her back into the lit street, cars weren’t passing by but the occasional window was alight. 

“Now’s not the time for romantics Jones! we got to get this to Don!” He leaned closer, arm trapping April to his side, like they were in some cheesy romance movie, Eww .  

“I don’t know about you Red, but that just seemed a bit… off” he whispered, looking back into the alley, whilst he couldn’t see any more Kraang eyes, he wouldn’t put it above them to stage a sudden ambush or silently follow them. They always just had to get more of April’s DNA “Let’s just get a couple streets down, then go to them, Kay?” Not on his watch. 

“Oh-kay? I don’t see why we can’t just-” 

“Some random Kraang going single file in some alley, don’t seem right, ya dig?” 

“I guess… yeah there is something fishy about that!” 

Luckily April looked convinced, he dropped his arm from her shoulder as they rounded into an alley way further off, he glanced up as she sunk down the sewer ladder, nodding to the foot bots watching above. It nodded back.

“Wow the Kraang are always one step ahead!” 

Donnie said amazed, they all stood in his lab staring straight into the portal coloured triangle that spawned from the small device. 

“I wonder if this is what’s behind the earthquakes?” it’s not, way too small, “We’re going to have to test it” Don activated it, just like in the alley a purple, triangular portal grew out of the metal. He couldn’t just sit here and wait for the Kraang to push through into Don’s lab, he ‘accidentally’ bumped into Donnies shoulder as he pushed past.

“If you turtles are gonna be slow about it, I’m going!” 

“You’re crazy, Nuts! Outta yer grouge!-” Raph shouted, nudging him slightly, “I’m going first” jumping right. 

“C’mon red!” 

Casey grabbed April’s hand and pulled her into the portal behind him. It felt like standing up top Tokyo tower, all the wind blown into his face in one swift movement. Cotton stuffed his ears, the feeling of being dunked underwater, a cold slam of slipping on frozen ice, the stabbing of one hundred pinpricks swords, the hot swelling of bread in the oven. All of it stretching for infinity but no longer than half a second. The sensations all drained immediately, all except the taste of blood red pen ink in his mouth. 

The others jumped out the portal behind him, looking equally disoriented. They stood on nothing, no floors, an eternal thunderstorm raged in all directions, was the floor invisible? Despite the lack of any walls, they seemed to be in the middle of some stretching portal hallway. Don gushed, “Wow it’s like the grand central station of dimensional travel! The Kraang must use it as a gateway between realities!” Why’d they need a gateway, why don’t they portal straight to realities? Are realities different from dimensions? Looking through the nearest triangle a creature of indescribable size flew past, other smaller ones followed, a family? He reached out, maybe he could just feel their scales-

“We’re Trapped!” Mikey screamed, pointing to an empty space where the portal they’d just jumped through used to be. Great… he pulled his arm back. 

“There's thousands of doors! Everyone! start looking for a way out!” Leo ordered as he began peeking into the nearest triangle, everyone followed suit. Tons of varying landscapes, some in vast outer space, others underground in dark, cramped hallways, some even looked quite normal and others, others he couldn’t even compare anything at all . How many dimensions (realities?) even were there? “Guys look! I think it’s dimension X!” 

Impossible structures resembling oil spills in slow motion scattered across a metallic floor, some giant, metal, spikey balloons floated in its purple and pink atmosphere, everything had the ‘iconic’ Kraang brand glowing purple stripes of unknown energy flowing through it, the lifeblood of their tech. A few of the single Kraang piloted ships zoomed past, unknowing of their observers. “Home of the Kraang” Raph said, Casey was too stunned to respond. He never got a true glimpse of it before. Damn secretive jerks. He knew it’d be stupid to think a whole other dimension would even look anything close to their normal, but man this was something else. Is that Kraang back there walking upside down ? 

“This place is making my brain melt!” April quickly slammed a hand over Mikey’s mouth,

“Sh! I- I sense something coming!” 

As if to summon them, a metal plate floated down carrying two huge gorilla like bodies, minus the whole Kraang head, staring right into the portal. Maybe they had seen them, whoops. Everyone almost began to panic, fighting off the two ginormous gorilla Kraang machines, their pilots were clearly skilled and even knocked him off kilter a couple of times. They were doing well despite their lack of any sort of goal, at least until Leo, Mikey and Raph all got thrown into a separate portal. A giggling Kraang welded a metallic remote. New goal, nab that. Before Casey could even take a step, one gorilla turned around and- 

“Butt Cannons Run!” 

Bolting down the seemingly eternal hallway with literally no floor, the firing stopped, the gorilla slammed himself down in front of them, the hallway shook. 

“I got this “ Casey baited the thing into a punch, dodging it the top heavy machine lost its footing, Don and April used this to their advantage pushing it into the nearest portal. The colossal shrieked as it fell downwards into the abyss. 

“That was too close” She sighed

“Alright Don, how do we get out of here?” 

“How am I meant to know?”

“Oh I thought you were the expert here Gap tooth?”

“GapTooth! Look in the mirror lately, Cave mouth?” 

“Guys stop!” April interrupted their spat, “check this out!” She pointed towards another portal, some Kraang bots in their blue semi-human, robotic suits jjabbing stun sticks into a giant maggot, pushing it into the too small portal. 

“Looks like some other part of dimension X” Don sumerised, if it was it partial confirmed Casey theory. The Kraang couldn’t portal inside the same dimension yet , they needed some sorta border dimension, the place they’re in now. Though why was still up in the air. 

“Kraang is aware of spies in that doorway where Kraang is not but soon will be” Pointing their sticks towards them.

“Oh no” April turned away from the portal, they all did only to be face to face with multiple laser blasters, all charged up. 

“Surrender is optimum,”

“None surrender means disintegration,”

“Which is less optimum” 

Different bots spoke in parts, the same monotone static voice, seriously they needed a grammar update like yesterday.

“For now, play along,” Don whispered, hands in the air. Casey followed, those stun guns hurt when they actually hit, though he had to get a word in,

“Just for the record I don’t count this as a surrender!” 

“Go move!!” Casey slammed the door shut, it reverberated across the tunnels. Sliding one of his older bats between the bars to keep it shut, he heard the Kraang laser blasts thud against the metal. Continuing on seemed like the best option, at least then when the Kraang got through the door they wouldn’t find them so easily. His phone buzzed, a message from Karai -

‘This new guy is crazy! Where are you? We captured 3 of the turtles!’

He flinched, lagging behind the others to read the slew of messages sent before, paragraphs of updates. Another popped through-

‘Case you safe?! Answer!’

Shit, he quickly typed back,

’Safe, with Don and April. will try to keep them away. What’s dads plan?!!’

“Wow, the old Pneumatic subway. Built in the 1800s nobody uses them now!” Donnie looked around the old tunnel system, Casey shoved his phone away and caught up. 

“I used to skate here! Hell, my tags are probably around the corner!” He ran ahead, taking a left then right, the others right behind them. Good, any distance from the door is good but this place was a goddamn maze. “Uhhh? Was it this way or…” 

“Oh great! you’ve gotten us lost!” Donnie sighed

“Like you know either! You-”

A strange noise filtered through. April looked around,

“Guys! What’s that gross slobbering sound?” 

“It sounds worse than Mikey eating pizza!” 

The tunnel opened up into a central meeting point. Peaking over the edge, they saw a massive Kraang machine dead centre, this one, despite its alien looks, still abided by some of Earth's rules of gravity, with it hanging precariously off the ceiling. Couple of well placed bombs should send it all toppling down. So much for leading them away from the Kraang. Four of the maggot creatures, Kraathatrogons , they saw before looked attached to the machine, wait where they…? The ground shook in time to the portal shifting, pebbles fell from the roof. 

“It’s the Kraathatrogon! That’s what’s causing the quake!” Donnie said,

“The kraa-tha-Krah- ugh the space worms! Why bring ‘em? Are they Gettin’ milked?” Casey asked, pointing towards the tubes connecting the worms to… 

“Is that Mutagen?” April pointed towards the giant glowing green container, the pipes connected to the worms below seemed to be feeding into it. Donnies eyes lit up,

“By Darwins beard! This is where the mutagen comes from! Fascinating and-”

“Disgusting!” April interrupted, He couldn’t help but agree at least he knew why the homemade batches Stockmen made seemed to always fail in some way. Guess the bomb plans on hold. Why bother bringing them here? Why not milk them ( Gross ) in dimension X and just transport the mutagen over? Surely that’s safer? Unless, the mutagen has to be milked in this dimension? 

“Casey I said stop that!” April shouted, he lifted his arms up, he didn’t know what he’d done but she was mad, oh wait now she looked confused. Turning towards her bent legs she screamed, a literal baby faced smaller version of the worms was hugging her leg. Casey swung his stick down on the things head. It did a complete one-eighty, wait so that was it behind ? Split its mouth open and screamed. 

The droids turned their heads, those semi-human but not all the way there versions of them always gave him the creeps .

“Kraang! we have been discovered in the place that was meant to be undiscovered!

Unleash the Kraathatrogon!”

The worm slivered it way up, ohh this must’ve been it’s baby, defo shouldn’t have hit it so hard then- it cried louder, Whoops. The ‘mother’ face opened into 3 slits revealing razor sharp teeth, its roar echoed through the tunnel causing it to shake, more pebbles fell to the ground.

“I don’t think I have a big enough hockey stick!” 

*Buzz* *Buzz*

Casey felt the floor around him, it was cold, wet and… and squishy? Gross. What happened? Creaking his eyes open he was met with a blinding brightness, the walls and floors were a watercolour mess of purples and blues. What were they doing again? They were being chased by that giant space worm, he tried to delay it so the others could run away, they climbed up a sewer ladder, Donnie held out his staff for him to grab and, and…

Casey missed.

He fucking missed . 

Wiggling slightly, the tentacles constricted his sides even more, ughh it was so slimy and sticky. If he missed then that meant the worm. It ate him, was he being digested right now? No, no no no-

*Buzz*

His phone! It rang right in front of him, how did he have a signal here? Wrangling his body against the growing tentacles, he slipped his arm out and grabbed it. Karai was ringing him, he activated the voice changer and answered.

“ Brother! Where are you?”

“Uhh- don’t worry about that, where are you?”

“We’ve captured Splinter but the turtles escaped”

“ What! ” 

“-We’re taking him to Father, Now where are you?” 

“Uh, moving? I’ll be ok! Promise! I’ll continue on my end!”

“Got it, Tiger Claw and I will move Splinter, we’ll see you at the lair”

“Hopefully”

“What?”

“Nothing! I’m fine ok? see ya later! love ya! bye!” 

Casey hung up before Karai could respond. He hoped she wouldn’t call again soon. He really didn’t want them to know he got eaten by some giant space worm, at least till he was out of said worm. He continued to squirm, not getting any more out than earlier, if anything the tentacles tightened. Ugh at least there wasn’t some pit of acid, or mutagen since that's what these things produced, how did these things make mutagen anyways? Did they have to eat something specific, or just anything? Do they keep their prey inside to digest later? Casey wasn’t about to wait to find out. He can’t just alert the footbot, they’d just tell Dad and his cover would be blown, not to mention how worried (then angry, then worried again) he’d get, he just phoned April. 

The conversation was brief, they were with some conspiracy theorist, Kurtzman, and they’ll come to get him outta there. That was… nice, he didn’t expect them to be so worried, Don especially since he got a knack getting that dude's shell in a twist. A bump and the tentacles came loose, swiftly Casey shifted his hand, a hidden tantō spring out, its sharp edge piercing the creature. It made a disgruntled noise, vibrating the entire wet cavern, saliva dripped down, tentacles releasing him. He got up on all fours, crawling in the space, any attempt at standing left him dizzy, feet uneven, he’ll topple and be left at square one again. 

He wasn’t going anywhere near the damn things maw, those razor sharp teeth would tear him to shreds. The other way was a no go too, if this worm biology reflected anything like normal animals then that’ll for sure lead him to a hot pond of stomach acid. So he was stuck, can’t go forward, can’t go back. Just waiting, hoping April and Don had some sort of idea of how to save him. Ugh maybe he should called for Karai’s help, he brought the phone out again, a couple new messages;

’Dad wants Tiger Claw to capture Splinter, he said not to attack the turtles but he isn’t listening!’

’Case?’

’Where are you!’

’Answer!’

<5 missed calls>

’ANSWER!!!’

<You had a call, your voice was modified during the call>

’Casey, Father refused to fight Splinter, Tiger Claw pushed for it’

’The turtles have attacked the lair, they’ve taken Splinter with them’

’We are going after them’

<Karai has turned on location sharing, you can now track Karai location>

<Share your location with Karai? [Y/N]>

Casey didn’t respond to the query, Karai didn’t need to see him somehow racing across the New York subway systems at Mach 7. The worm titled and jolted, he tried to hold on, the floor was so sticky . He could feel bile climbing up his throat, it stank in here like boiling gym socks, moulding walls and burnt medicine. He swallowed the bile down. A light flashed in the corner of his vision. An abandoned droid, beside it lay a small screen, still working, a couple messages flashed on it. He began to translate, if he was going to be stuck here he might as well get some information out of it. His phone beeped, translations complete, he read.

‘Bishop,

I don’t believe things are going well, Kraang grows stronger every day. The light fades. 

Will there be a species to fight for once we’re done? Our culture is rubble, our people enslaved. Are we doomed to slowly perish upholding a doomed ideology until the lone survivor is left desolate? This world is not ours, but he’ll take it nevertheless and it won’t be enough. The Triceratons will take it after, we’ll be lucky if even a seedling survives. 

I say this out of desperation, not hopelessness. I believe there to be a chance! Utrom will survive! Flourish! A future our spawn deserves! But we are so few and they so many. We need help. We need to take action. I’m sick of waiting. 

-Your allie and friend, Rook’

Casey stared at the message. This, this was something . He looked towards the Kraang droid's empty, white body beside him, he hoped whatever, whoever was inside had escaped this prison. Had the Kraang purposely fed them to the worm? There’s that name again too, Utrom, and who’s the Triceratons? Why was the body white and not blue? The worm shifted, the stomach room jolted with a thud. Something or rather someone got dislodged, from under some half digested subway carriage. A tiny pink brain scattered out of the dark. 

“Hey!” 

Its green eyes pinpricks, instead of attacking, it tries to crawl away.

“Wait! Stop! you wrote this? I translated it! I know what you said!” It paused, “I hate the Kraang too! You need help right? I can give that to you!”  it fully turned around, it actually looked sceptical of his offer, he didn’t know Kraang could show emotion, if they’re even called Kraang… “Swear it, like how many people can actually read this yo?” He held the datapad up, they made some grouchy noises with its jagged toothed mouth, failing motions with its multiple stubbed tentacles. “Uh I don’t know what you’re saying right now” It looked annoyed, slowly, as if calculating the best means of escape as it got closer, snatched the pad from Casey's hand. “Wha- hey!”

Furiously its tentacles tapped away, the worm sidewalls began to wiggle. Finally it stopped and showed the pad to Casey.

‘I, Rook. Kraang, singular not plural, bad bad. Need supreme him gone, freedom for Utrom! FOR ALL! We seen you little, you know turtles? You help? Turtle help? Answer.’

“Uh, ok? Well I don’t think the turtles can be of much help right now , I can’t either. I uh I can explain that better later. You, Uhh want my number for now?” He passed his phone to the alien, allowing it to input some form of communication signal, damn can not believe he just did that! The alien passed his phone back, as he grabbed the phone something in Casey’s head clicked out of place. Before Casey could even question it, a loud bang ringed from the side of the worm, followed by another and another and- 

His knees felt wetter, the worm saliva rushed up, engulfed him and the alien, thunderous roar as a bright light flashed his eyes. Casey could only hold his breath as his body met the concrete, different parts of his gear still wet jabbed into his sides. The ground felt comfortingly solid and firm, but damp from the worm's spit. Gross but a thousand times better than being inside it.  

“Casey!” a solid latched onto him, nearly knocking him back down. 

“April!” He latched back, in the corner of his eye he saw Rook dissolve into the shadows. 

Ok since when was April an animal person?! Riding a space worm like some cosmic cowboy was defo going in his top ten moments of ultimate cool . Especially when they burst through the solid ground meeting up with the others whilst they were fighting against the foot henchmen, stupid SkeleDog and expired Sushi always getting in the way. Tiger Claw was there too, but he wasn’t fighting against the turtles, he had Karai locked in his sights, sneaking up behind her. 

“Karai look out!” Leo shouted before he could, Karai turned Tiger Claws stinking paws latched onto her holding her above his head, threatening to dig in as he  he twisted around to the roofs edge. Casey didn’t wait, whispering into April's ear, she smiled and pulled the worms two antennae. Splinter rushed forwards, Karai struggled in Tiger claws grip as he neared the edge. Splinter surprised him, delivering a powerful kick sending Tiger Claw fumbling through the air. Karai fell and rolled on the floor, inches away from the immense drop. His grip on April tightened as the worm jolted, zooming closer to Tiger Claw. It opened its maw as it swallowed him whole all the while Casey howled, 

“Take that Tiger Claw!” 

April woo’d in delight as they rocked on the worm, the other henchmen fled, in the corner of his eyes Casey saw Karai sneak behind a billboard whilst the others were distracted. They shared a quick glance nodding to one another, ‘I’m okay’ it said. The worm screamed as its air sucked them back into the hole, and through the portal. He didn’t miss Dons Bo this time nor April’s hand as she flew beside him.

“I’m gonna take back everything I said about you Donnie! You rule!” They fistbumped, steadying themselves to make the long trip back up on foot. Casey looked back towards the machine, the portal which the worm and Tiger Claw got sucked through, he scowled and waited for Don and April to walk ahead, stabbing his stick into the mainframe, the sparked dance as the machine flickered to death.

‘Good riddance’

“Then Ka-Blam! right into the dumpster!” Mikey recounted the tale of what happened, creating large hand gestures to Splinter. They all sat around the couch in the hideout now, waiting for Antonio's pizza delivery. Ugh, he has to explain to Dad about Tiger Claw, great… Karai would back him up though, the guy wasn’t following orders the entire night, he was going to throw her off the roof! He was glad the others missed her behind the billboard. Leo noticed Splinter concentrated face,

“You ok Sensei?” 

“Yes my sons, I just cannot forget something Karai had said”

“What’d she say this time?” Raph turned around, Leo shoved his elbow into him as they all stopped to look back at Splinter.

“After you fled, she called someone-” Casey heart stopped, “-She had asked if he was ok” Casey entire version sharpened, did he-

“Why’s that matter? She was probably taking to the Shredder” Raph rolled his eyes,

“No, she called him brother ” 

The turtles froze, he gripped onto his stick tighter, his breaths caught on his mask.

“What! She has a brother!” 

“Shredders got a son?” 

“Whaaaaaat?”

“Why haven’t we-”

“ Yame , We don’t know much about the boy, we have not seen him. I only know that he is young, and his name, Rakkī Kyū from what Tiger Claw called him” The others stayed silent, eyes glancing at each other, Casey joined in on the confusion, faking a look of disbelief in his eyes. “I did not wish to sour the celebration, Do not fear my sons, for I doubt he is a threat” 

“Shredder has a son! Who shack up with him- ouch!” Raph hit Mikey over the head

“Does it matter! Now there’s two of ‘em” 

“ Rakkī Kyū? “  April asked,

“It means Lucky Nine’ , But why would Shredder name his son that? Nine ain’t even lucky!” 

“That’s gotta just be a code name Leo, probably doesn’t want anyone to know his real name. It’s Smart” Casey almost smirked, Don just called him smart. He relaxed his posture, less formal. He kept his stick close, squeezing the wood, his hockey quickly squealed. They didn’t know it was him, not yet. “What did he sound like Sensai?” 

“I believe he must have been cloaking his voice somehow” 

“Wait! A real time vocal changer! That’s amazing!” 

“Are you seriously complimenting this guy Don?”

“No Raph , I’m complimenting his tech. There’s a difference”

“Not like he could hear us now anyhow” April butted in, oh how wrong she was. He roughly swung an arm round Raph shoulder,

“C’mon dude we faced like a giant worm! I even got eaten by one! Some guy got nothin’ on that! The Casey Jones beats him” 

“Ha!-” Raph shoved Casey back playfully, “-In your dreams Jones!”

“Yo pizza here!” Mikey stood to walk to get it,

“I’ll grab it! Won’t you scare the guy? Ya’ know mutant ‘n all?”

“Nah broshakya, that’s the best part. Free pizza!” 

“Yeah until they ban our numbers Mikey” Don handed him some money, Casey didn’t want to ask where he got it. Knowing Don, it was probably something highly moral and righteous, and also highly illegal. 

“Let me come!” April ran up, “You’ll probably need an extra hand” 

They walked down the abandoned New York station line towards the pick up point. Thank god for New York crazies making a pick up in the middle of a street at 7 in the morning look completely normal. His phone buzzed against his leg, a new message from his Dad,

’How are you? Update’

’Fine, couple bruises, nothing serious’

’Karai has told me about Tiger Claw, is it true?’

’Yes, he attacked her whilst she had her back turned’

’A disappointment, where are you currently’

’With the turtles, they know of my existence but not of who I am’

’Are you safe?’

’Yes, very’

’Return to the lair once your ‘hangout’ is over, there is much to discuss’

’Yes dad’

<All chats set to auto delete after 5 hours. Click here to change this>

“Who are you messaging?” Casey looked up, April stood a couple steps upfront, illuminated by the left open sewer gate, too far to see any of the messages. 

“Oh just ma Dad, he was worried cause of the all earthquakes”

“Wow, you’re Dad really just lets you go out so late?”

“Eh, he tried to stop me once but… it’d ended up being better to just let me out than have me sneak out, ya know?”

“Huh, sounds cool I guess”

She ascended up the ladder, He climbed up after her, avoiding all the jagged edges of rust. “Oh he is! He used tah take me ‘n ma sis to the cinema all the time, lied about our ages to get us into all the action movies!” It was true, he’d even told the same to the turtles too a while back, though he always left out the part where they were all in Japanese. An easy breeze of fresh polluted New York air filled Casey’s lungs, the sounds of the early morning traffic arguing off to the left. 

“Aww that sounds so nice! my Dad was all protecto mode before he.. He”

She paused, voiced hiccuped, face scrunched, uh no.

“You uh good Red?”

“Yeah yeah I- *sniff* I just miss my Dad”

“Oh Apes-” He slightly held his arms ever out, an invite she could easily ignore, he was glad she didn’t. She practically threw herself into it, tears soaked his shirt. “C’mon I’m sure we’ll figure something out” he felt her arms clamp around him. 

“I hope we do” her voice muffled as she pressed further into his hoodie,

“We will” Slowly, he began rubbing circles into her back, her shaking slowed to a halt. She was that nice height for hugs, just like Karai. They rocked a bit, till a  shadow loomed in front. 

“Uhh Pizza delivery for uhh-” voice cracked, the underpaid acne painted delivery boy looked at a ripped paper in his hands, balancing a tower of pizza boxes “-Captain Ryan?” oh of course, Leo ordered it. April giggled as they parted, wiping the last of the tears out her eyes.

“Yeah yeah man, that's me” Grabbing most of the hot boxes, April picked up the rest, he paid telling the poor preteen to keep the change. 

“Uhh Case?”

“Yeah?”

“How do we get down the sewer ladder?” 

‘Meet at the soon to be given Coordinates, At the soon to be given time’

-Rook

Chapter Text

The rain pattered upon the cobblestone floor, its rhythmic beat trickled down from the patio roof breaking the silence. Casey slid the shoji door shut behind him, a cold breeze carrying the crisp outdoor smells of home, brushed against him. Karai sat ahead, legs curled up to her chin, staring off into the garden. It’d been tough stuff to hear, lingering in their minds and darkening their very soul. Dad told them both everything, the truth, their origins, their history with the Hamatos , Karai’s real father and mother. He already knew his own past, Karai did too, even if the memories were a little fuzzy he knew Father wasn’t lying. He tiptoed across the wooden boards, avoiding the creaky ones as he stepped closer to her- 

“Did Father send you?”

She didn’t turn around, her mind elsewhere. He couldn’t blame her for thinking that, not with the sharp words she shot at their Dad… did she see him like that anymore? “Nah, he, uh actually tried to stop me heh, said you’d want- err need the space” He scratched the back of his neck as he dropped down next to her listening to the droplets of collected rainwater fall from the tiled roof, “Kai, You Ok?”

Sighing, she shifted her head a fraction towards him, her eyes locked on a bird in the far off Cherry blossom tree, posed over their eggs in its nest. “I… I just need some time, just need to think about it all” her legs moved down so she was only resting her chin on one knee, hiding behind her folded arms. The other leg stretched into the garden allowing the rain to soak part of her leg. Casey suddenly felt out of place, his dad was right Karai needed her space and he should’ve left he be. He began to slowly step back,

“Wait, stay with me… Please?” 

Karai's face turned around to him, her eyes were collecting water, hair soaked. She must’ve been in the rain earlier. He nodded, dropping down beside her. And they sat there, watching the puddles grow as the rainfall continued to pitter off the rooftop, some drops leaking through onto them. Another bird flew to the lone one in the tree and huddled beside them cradling the eggs, it wasn’t the same species, yet they huddled still. The pink petals cascaded down into the tiny river feeding into the lily pond. He shifted slightly closer to Karai, noticing that she did the same till the two were practically leaning on each other. Some fish swirled in harmony inside the pink freckled pond. Yeah, maybe things won’t be easy right now, there were so many questions needing answers and way more difficult talks but right now it was just them, the rain, and the garden. 

Hours passed in serene silence, there wasn’t anything either of them could say so they both just sat there leaning against each other till eventually the rain grew too powerful and they both retreated inside. To where their father stood. Towels in hand, waiting for them despite the harsh words said to him before. More were spoken, lots more, long into the night, some rightfully harsh but luckily it didn’t boil over, probably because Saki didn’t rebuke what Karai said. Maybe it was the rain, their soaked clothing or the peaceful garden with its mismatched birds and fish. Or maybe it was how the truth came out, dad clearly fighting a hurricane of guilt behind his eyes, admitting to never being able to forgive himself for that night and that Karai didn’t have to either and she didn’t have to ever call him father. Maybe it was the fact he confessed to the truth, never painting himself as some saviour, admitting to his sins and hatred and anger. Maybe it was some grand combination of it all, an alignment of stars that ultimately led to Karai forgiving him that night. 

Whatever it was, all those long years ago, Casey couldn’t have been more thankful for it as he lifted his yunomi cup, watching his Sister and Dad talk about strategies and even some Shinigami gossip over the chabudai table. He sipped some of the green tea, its scent sent him to those gardens but the chatter brought him back here, where his home really was, right with his family.   

“So this is the ‘retro-mutagen’?” 

“Why so little?”

Karai and their Dad stared into the tiny tube attached to a string roped around Casey’s neck. It’d taken him forever to weasel the formula out of Donnie, so much pretending not to know what an ‘element’ is, and little sneak peaks at his notebook, Don's Kanji handwriting is so bad. He trusted Don to get it right, and just last week proved that it actually worked with patient no. one Kirby. 

“Almost I’m just missing the finishing touches” he signed placing the tube back under his t-shirt, it was tied to a rope so he could wear it like a necklace, “and it’s little Karai because this” he held the vile high,  “took a whole week to brew, but from Kirby’s… err ‘curing’ all ya need is a drop” they’re eyes widened, Karai slightly moved forward,

“A drop?!” She exclaimed, “all you need is a drop ?” 

“Yep! Believe it! I was right there! It was sick! Flyin’ on BatKirb back!” 

“You were flying-!“

“ Flying? ” 

Casey sheepishly looked towards his father, he sat next to him, “uhhh well I had some foot bots nearby?! April was there too! And-And it’s her Dad!” Their dad's gaze softened ever so slightly and mouth creaked into the tiniest smile, he wasn’t the most emotive, so Karai and him learnt to read the subtle minute changes as easy as a children's picture book. He placed a hand on Casey’s shoulder. 

“As long as you remain safe” 

“I know Dad, I know. I will ”

Casey smirked a bit at Karai as she bit into her Saba Shioyaki to hide her own smirk back, “so anyway, daxter kidnapped April. Turns out she’s immune to mutagen!”

“No!” She popped her head up,

“Uh huh! She was completely dunked in and came out fine!” 

“Why’d Stickman kidnap her to begin with?” 

“He thought if he-“, Casey placed his chopsticks down to bring his fingers up in a quotation motion, “‘mutated with her’ they’d mutate in some fusion human thing… which I guess isn’t too far off” 

“What do you mean?” His dad asked

“We’ll uh you know the finishing touches? heh, Funny thing It’s uh… Aprils DNA” 

The silence could move mountains, shocked faces from his family made Casey almost wish he had a camera, if the reason wasn’t… well what it was. “Uh yeah that’s what I’m stuck on, Don hasn’t really talked ‘bout the ‘ultra extreme complicated DNA splicing your pea sized brain couldn’t begin get Casey ’ ugh”

“Mean-“

“-nah, I called Donnie a horse face Frankenstein wannabe . That must’ve pis- annoyed him” he snatched the chopsticks and chomped into a bit of his fish to avoid having to comment more. Luckily his Dad seemed to drop it as he turned to Karai, “how are the foot operations?” 

“Oh things are moving smoothly downtown…” Casey felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Karai’s description of the Foots most recent run-in with the purple dragons (seriously they were getting bold) and corrupt police officials fell into the background.  He picked it up and checked the messages, 

Irma: April just tried to eat street pizza -_-

Irma: also she said she had a date with you? Please tell me she’s joking

Footbot report bot: weeks report summarised ready to read

Footbot alert: multiple bots taken down in Manhattan dock area AB3, cause unknown, sighted: mutants (2) and the turtles.  

Ugh he still had to update the bots facial recognition, at least create some new profiles for both Slash and Newtraliser. Last time he updated the crazy wall he had to tiptoe his way through the growing tendrils, a growing tumour filling his lab. He’s glad he bonded with Raph though, it’d suck if Raph benched him because he was afraid he’ll ‘break’. A single lone message drew his attention, 

‘Meeting Point: 4th floor 23 office room of the 41st Building on Checkers street. 22:00 tonight, do not be the late Code: En Passant’

It’s Rook! He must’ve gotten ‘the place’ and ‘the time’ then. He stood from the table, slowly walking towards the small attached kitchen area dodging the many overgrown houseplants. Their small secluded ‘home area’ of lair was tucked away behind hidden doors upon hidden doors. Once through all the secret tunnels you’d find their sleeping quarters, Casey’s Lab, as well as a small kitchen/dining area with hundreds of plants Karai keeps bringing in. It’d probably be better if he didn’t tell his Dad what he was actually doing or else he’d want to shadow along or at very least force him to bring Karai too “Sorry got to go, some bots by Checkers street are going crazy”

“There is no need to-”

“I know! I like seeing what causes them things to break”

“You just want to bust some heads,” Karai smirked as she finished her rice. 

“ Noo !” He angrily smiled back, “Serious! I need to know what's up! It’s a hardware thing so I gotta go there!” 

“Very well, go as-”

“Rakkī Kyū, I know Dad I will” 

“Avoid going by the Hundensons Bodega!” 

“Will do Kai!” Standing straight, he sent a mock foot salute to them before walking to his room to change. 

It felt so freeing to run about New York unrestrained, wind blowing into his face (or rather his helmet) as he glides across rooftops without a care for who sees, he got why Karai’s likes sneaking out on her own. Jumping over the alleyway to the pinned location he slipped into one of the roof vents. Sneaking into office buildings sucked the most. There’s no challenge, no interesting layout, and usually no need for any destruction too! His thick, black biker-esque suit concealed any echo’s the metal vents would’ve made as he dropped out onto the floor. The place was dead silent, workers had gone home by now. A massive clump of dust built on his gloved finger as he swiped one across on one the nearest desk. In fact the whole office looked barren, a pattern of empty, plain desks. Or maybe no one worked here? Unease spread into Casey’s bones when he spotted countless glowing wires snaking across the carpeted floor, all leading underneath a door. Its outline glowed an unholy blinding white, the only source of light on the entire floor bar the dim wires. He took a deep breath, and pushed open the door. 

A Ginormous lit terminal faced him taking up the entire office wall, all furniture thrown aside for the growing tumour of stomach pink tendrils and multicoloured wires. A mismatch fusion of junked metal panels and soft slimy skin, like someone turned their organs inside out and fused them with a toaster. The wires under his feet combined into thicker ones, glowing brighter as they drew nearer the breathing mass. The ceiling was gone, rotting floorboards gave way as Casey could see the up into two floors above, even a bit of the smog night sky cracked through, the walls were covered in veins, decrying red tree roots stretching out . Some indescribably horrid smelling liquid dripped from the cracked rusted pipes above, they too fed into the machine. Some mushrooms that he recognised from inside that damn worm seem to stem out from the base, towering over him, dripping their own liquids out onto the floor feeding into other alien plants that Casey couldn’t even begin comparing to anything. Not even the wild flowers Karai brought back from who knows where. Some of the drips seemed to move upwards . In fact it started to hurt staring directly at the thing, he felt the beginning thumping of a headache pulse behind his eyes.

Twin semi-translucent (the ones that didn’t have skin but weren’t fully metal) whitish, not blue, Kraang droids stood on either side of the machine, a single human looking one kneeled in front facing it, his back facing towards him. They all turned, pointing their guns at him. 

“You are not to be in this place!”

“You must be eliminated”

“Wait wait! En Passant! En Passant!” Casey waved his hands in front, as if he could technopathically stop the plasma firing. His suit's thick padding should stop any hit shots being fatal, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt like a bitch, not to mention he hadn't actually tested it against their weapons and really didn’t want to . Casey stepped closer in, the door slamming shut behind him. The temperature rose tenfold. The bots lowered their weapons, the pink stomach brains opened their neon green eyes. 

“You are not of Kraang or Utrom but know of Codename how?” 

“Uhh Rook sent me!?”

He slowly took his helmet off, the stale musk of the room filled his lungs, the right one step forward, “I, Rook. The boy speaks truth.”,  he pointed to the fully human looking one “He Bishop”, then the other blue skin, “and He Prawn”. This was going to get confusing fast. A booming static erupted from the mountain of pink flesh, a single line wobbled as a voice spike through,

“I am the Utrom Queen, I apologise for my appearance our biosphere does mix coherently with your unnatural environments” 

“Uhh no problem, ya the computer?”

“No it isn’t safe for me to on earth, the time isn’t right” 

“Ok well I was uhh messaged here?”

“Yes Rook has informed me you translated our written language, that is a feat not coming of most species especially after Kraang tainted it” 

“Uh-huh thanks? Wait what do you mean by tainted it”

“It is a long story…” 

It was a lot of course, cut short and simple by the threat of being tracked by Kraang Prime. Even here in another dimension they had to be careful. The gist of it being that they were a ‘peaceful’ rebel group called the ‘Utrom’, not an entirely separate race, that departed ways with the Kraang. No hive mind either, that was just a side effect of the ways their interspecies translators work, the rebels must’ve worked on theirs since they actually sounded pretty human here. Bishop, the actual human looking one, snidely said he was the creator of the look, the ‘Norman’ suit as he passed Casey a more secure hexagonal shaped ‘secret communications device’ to use.

“We are awaiting the loud invasion to set our move, we wish to do beforehand however-”

“Loud invasion!? What?” 

The terminal itself paused, breathing stopped “The Kraang loud invasion. Earth's environment can be cooperative to Kraang means of hyper-terraforming. You did know this, yes?”

“I thought they- What happened to taking it slow! Undercover, like! The brain swapping stuff! Not a full blown invasion!” 

“Yes we believed that too, however Kraang Prime has grown impatient. He requires little more to fully invade now” 

“What’s he need?” 

“Nothing specific. That is the concern, our dimension runs faster than yours. It is only a matter of time before he’s collected the requirements for the hyper-terraforming.” 

“Damn I gotta- wait ‘hyper-terraforming’?”

“Yes” Bishop walked forward, opening a suitcase to reveal a small cartoonish looking blaster, “Observe” He pointed the gun to the corner of the room which looked weirdly normal. He fired. It’s energy convulsed in the air, striking the corner. Instantaneously large, purple crystals protruded out of the floor, scratching and burrowing into the plywall, some even went straight through. A shiny contrast to the flesh around the terminal. They looked like the ones he saw in that hallway.

“Woah… and he got enough of that to do all earth?”

“He will, soon. We know for a fact and he’ll begin here, in New York”

The moment he entered back into the lair a meeting was being held. Someone had stolen The Kuro Kabuto and his Father was pissed . Especially at Rahzar who allowed Anton Zec, the ‘Master Thief’, to get away. What were you expecting from the guy who got mutated by some teenagers, twice? So now he was stuck stalking the rooftops slightly ahead of the others for it. The footbots reported nothing useful, apparently this Zec guy could turn invisible so that didn’t help. His Dad had sent everyone besides Karai on the job, so he was stuck here with bug boy, and fish man too. They were the worst. His bots sent an alert, they actually found it! Though it wasn’t with Anton, the (mutant) Turtle Rapheal had it and they were now-

Wait, how the fuck did Raph did get it? 

No seriously, How the fu-

Casey bolted to meet the bots that were tailing the turtles. He spotted their truck as it rounded the corner, it almost looked like a train carriage on wheels, bigger car wheels . Donnie had really gone all out, massive wheels in the back, a spiked roller in the front, spray paint mapped the outside, he could imagine how cool the inside must look. A large purple ray of light blasted through the air, completely out of nowhere, straight into the truck side flipping it over. None of his footbots weapons shot like that, neither did any gadgets the others owned. Could it have been the Kraang? Tiger Claw? He quickly scanned the rooftops and found nothing, no sign of the bad pink aliens or the oversized house cat. Casey breathed, He was still in some worm stomach far off in another dimension, don’t get it twisted now. He scanned the alley where the truck fell, a shimmer in the darkness. There it was, poking out a plain bag. Sticking to the shadows whilst Rahzar dropped down denting the trucks side, leaping to the Kuro Kabuto he was swiftly kicked aside by Leo. 

Casey made a break for it. Jumping out the safety blanket of the darkness, lunging for the fallen helmet. Raph lunged for it too, both their hands grasped the smooth sides. “What? Who are you?!” Casey didn’t answer, only rushed to stand, yanking the helmet out of Raphs hands. “Whah? Hey!” Raph used his place on the floor to spin kick tripping Casey. He fell down onto his back, helmet slipping out his grasp. Raph nabbed it before it hit the ground then promptly threw it behind him before pulling out his sais for an attack. Casey rushed up, pulling his own katana out and swinging it to block. Their blades met, Raphs Sai’s pushing against his katana. 

“So let me guess you’re Rakkī Kyū”

“And you’re Rapheal?” 

“Huh, not kidding about the voice changer” Raph swiftly shoved Casey back a few feet aiming for another attack when, 

“Raph c’mon!” Don yelled from the fire escape, Raph grunted swinging a kick, Casey allowed it to hit, throwing him into the shadows again. Raph turned to follow his brothers up the metal stairs. Rahzar crawled up the brick wall after them, promptly getting an AC thrown onto him. Casey held back a laugh as linked up with the foots systems, some bots watched on from afar, they weren’t needed in the fight the henchmen should handle it fine. Looking through their eyes, Casey followed the turtles from the street below. Eventually Leo got separated on ground level with the helmet encountering Anton, he started to fight the invisible guy. Casey stalked closer, it’d be too easy to just snatch the helmet from under Leo’s nose, but who knows what ideas they were planning on doing with it? Leo shoved a whole bunch of trash into the backpack, shoving it into Antons hands, tricking not only him but also the rest of those mutant lackeys. Casey could almost laugh if he didn’t need that helmet too and, more importantly, needed to stop Leo before he did something stupid. 

Climbing up the opposite side of the roof than Leo, they met, green face to mask. “Nice trick, The Kuro Kabuto” he extended his arm out, though he knew Leo wouldn’t just hand it over. 

“Are you Shredder's son? Or just some other foot lackey?” 

“I‘m Rakkī Kyū now, hand it over!” 

“The helmet for Karai!” Leo held the Kuro Kabuto close, his Katana pointed directly at him. “Let her free and you can get your fathers helmet” 

“What? Dude, we’re not holdin’ her captive!“ Casey was glad for his own helmet hiding his face away. His fists clenched at the way Leonardo spat out father. He took a deep breath, hands relaxing open, “She’s free to do whateva she wants!” he stepped closer, hand still raised “the Kuro Kabuto- ”

“-No! I don’t believe you!” Leo shouted, he hunched over more, shuffling back ever slightly nearer the roof edge. “How come we haven’t seen her then?” 

“ Leo , you don’t get it, my dad isn’t gonna let you just break in yellin’ and then just leave ” he would. He absolutely would, not without throwing Leo around a bit, sure, giving the turtle enough bruises to have to waddle back home definitely , but no cuts. Leo wouldn’t bleed even a droplet. His father had an image to uphold but Leo was only slightly older than he was, and despite that image his father had some morals. Casey walked closer, “and Ya think ‘cause you guys haven’t seen her that she’s been locked up?” 

“What else could it be?” 

“ Maybe she don’t want to be around you ” Casey snapped, the static of his voice changer cut sharp, harsh words spilling out by the second, Casey couldn’t stop them, “Maybe she thinks you’re some obsessive creep ” he bolted over, unsheathing his own Katana and swinging at the turtle.

“I can't help it if she's creeped out, we’re mutant turtles!” Leo tried to defend himself, helmet in one hand, he dodged Casey’s swings and unsheathed his Katana. They clashed swords,

“Wow, You actually think that’s why she’s creeped out, Leonardo? ”

“Oh we’re just not meant to try and get our sister back?”

“Back? Lay off! Who’s you to start ‘claiming’ her?” Leo seemed so stumped by the question he almost didn’t dodge Casey’s next swing, throwing the helmet off to the side he brought his twin Katanas up to block. They pushed against each other, 

“Splinters her father, her true father!”
“ No ! by blood yeah, but my- our father, he raised her!” 

“Oh I see! You get to decide but not us?” Leo countered, twisting his lower body to sneak a kick into Casey’s stomach, throwing him back,

“ She decides! Not some- some! ugh!” he flipped, absorbing the pain. Standing upright, he saw 3 green dots upon the horizon growing larger.

“Shredder brainwashed her! She doesn’t believe the truth!” 

“Yes we do! We know all about Tang Shen-“ Casey began circling Leo, sneaking closer to the fallen Kuru Kabuto , “- about Splinter, about everything! Been told it all before... We know what he did ” 

Leo straightened, eyes widening, katanas slightly fallening “Then- then, How can she still call him Father?! How can you?” 

He rushed forward raising his katanas back up for a swing down leaving his front completely open, Casey quickly performed a precise sequence of punches finishing with a powerful kick to the chest flinging Leo across the roof. By the time he got up, Casey had already picked the helmet up and ran to the edge. Turning to face Leo, the dots had features now, the others turtles, they stopped on the rooftop behind Leo, 

“‘cause he regrets it” 

Casey stepped upon the rooftop parapet wall, his fathers helmet weighed greatly in his hands, it nowhere near matched the weight of his stare, daggers stabbing Leo through tinted glass. “Karai will come when she’s ready, If she ever is. Until then, stay away from my sister .” He readied a smoke bomb, raising it high, Leo tried to sprint forward, too far away to stop him but close enough to hear him whisper, 

“ or else ”

Slamming the bomb down, he disappeared into its hazy blue smoke. Hearing Leo cough as it invaded his lungs. He raced into the alleyway, if Leo had any response, he didn’t want to hear it. 

“Father.” he presented The Kuro Kabuto to him, luckily it only had a small layer of grime for the city streets easily wiped away. It’d been through way worse, the damn thing had survived wars. They were alone in the throne room, the others hadn’t been permitted to enter after their apparent failure and sulked off to their own duties. His father plucked the helmet out his hands but instead of putting it on he placed it upon the throne’s seat. He stared down at Casey. 

“Explain”

“Just got the helmet back that’s all” He nervously laughed, hands in pockets. His Dad didn’t respond, only staring at him patiently. Casey sighed he took his own helmet off, “ok fine, the turtles got ahold of it and I sorta maybe I argued with Leo… about Karai… he didn’t know it was me! I was all disguised!  but…” Casey swallowed the lump climbing up in his throat. “He just kept going on and on about her!” Casey clenched his fist, kicking the air below him slightly,  “All ‘cause she’s Splinter's daughter!” His dad ever slightly flinched at his name, his posture returned to normal in a split second as he tried to hide it but when the guy raised you, spotting those kinda things is easy.

“That turtle gets ahead of himself.” 

“Pff yeah-“

“He won’t understand, he’s only been told of… the past” 

“Err I… told him we knew… it just slipped out! I- I didn’t mean it too! I just I…I got so angry and-“ his fathers arms wrapped around him at a snail pace, it gave him the time to refuse the hug without judgement, gave him an easy escape. 

“We will not make choices in anger.” He held him tightly, cape wrapped around them, secure and safe from the outside world. “That is when we will do what we will regret” Casey returned the hug, burying his head into his fathers shoulder. 

“I- I don’t know, I’ve been wanting to say that for forever and now I have and… it- it’s sucks ” 

“Sometimes we must make the tough decisions. Some things are out of our control” The hug tightened, Casey looked up at his father, leaning cheek against the metal chest plate it’s coolness calmed him down, his father gaze is warm “We may not always do the ‘correct’ thing however we must move on, and do what we must, do you understand?” 

Casey smiled and returned the hug more furiously,

“Yes Dad” 

Somewhere in New York, a family talks over the dinner table, two associates argue in a stinking helicopter, a terminal hums a forgotten alien lullaby, office workers sleep awaiting their alarms, and miles down below, through the spalling sewers tunnels, within an long forgotten corner of city, a human sized rat and four turtles talk about blood and choices. 

“If what Leonardo says is true, then there is nothing we can do”

“But Sensei! Shes-” 

“ Yame! She has made her decision.” A long sigh, “As much as it pains me, if she’s happier there” He places a clawed paw upon the smaller blue masked turtles shoulder, “Then I’m at peace with it”

“But, it’s Shredder ” 

A slight change in the very atoms that make up the room, a rare flinch from the rat, he ponders his words then “It has been many longs years since we fought,” his eyes look upon the small shrine, Tang Shen looks back, the words Leo repeated from the masked boy on the roof echoed in his mind, “Time, changes people” 

“This is Shredder's son here!” Raph shouted, “I mean, can we really trust ‘m?” 

“Raphs right, he could just be saying all that” Donnie added,

“It didn’t sound like that, he was trying to convince me to hand it over at first”

“didn’t he not even attack you Raph, he just grabbed the helmet” Micky added,

“What! Did you miss how he swung a Katana at me!” 

“No dude! But he did that after you tripped him and got ya sais out!”

“Errr Mikey are you trying to suggest Shredders son didn’t want to attack us? !” Donnie butted in,

“I mean he didn’t chase us up the roof-”

“-and he didn’t alert the other her henchmen either! He knew I gave a fake and he didn’t call backup!” Leo finished Mikey’s sentence, and they all fell silent. It didn’t make much sense, clearly it’d be better for him to call backup instead of facing Leo alone, unless… 

“Hmmm, this Rakkī Kyū may not be an direct enemy”

Tiger Claw stumbled through the purple portal, the gaping, bleeding hole where his eye should be stung greatly, he took a deep breath allowing Earth pure oxygen to fill his lungs. It stank, polluted, rotting food, and gasoline but a thousand leagues above the toxic alien fumes. Potholes collected the rainfall, dipping down he swallowed the murky water. Finishing he gripped his emptied pistol tighter. He would’ve been one third done by now had that vile worm not swallowed him whole! He slammed a fist against the brick, some cracks webbed across the wall, cold rain pelted down on his stinged fur. Admittedly he foolishly thought it to be only two targets, not three. How Shredder managed to keep a son secret for so long was a mystery he didn’t care to unravel, not now, his sights are solely on revenge.

Targeting the turtles whilst this weak would be a mistake, so would targeting that girl, she had a way with the filthy Kraang he did not want to go near just yet. That left the arrogant boy, something about him was off , his dead stare as he attacked Karai, the one he kept as his whispered into the girls ear, how Karai’s eyes shifted to him out of everyone there, his manic laughter as the worm he was riding swallowed him whole “ Take that Tiger Claw! ” 

He hadn’t told him his name, it hadn’t been spoken until their second fight after Splinter had fled the foots lair. There was no way some skinny American boy would have even heard of it. Except, he introduced himself to the foot's pitiful entourage, to Karai, to the masked, stiff, thin Rakkī Kyū . 

The static voice over that phone call, “on my end” it said, so that explains it.

He had a new target. 

Chapter Text

“You sayin’ Case ran this way?” Raph shined his flashlight into the dark tunnel,

“Yeah, we were just walking to the lair” April stepped over a weird neon blue mushroom, damn, anything grew down here “Some guy ran through screaming about squirrels” 

“Squirrelanoids!” Mikey shouted, April gave him a perplexed look whilst Raph flicked the back of his skull “Ow! Hey!” Leo only shook his head,

“Then what, April?”
“We tried following him but Casey just started screaming about rats and ran off!” 

“Well he is scared of rats” Don took a look around at the growing number of fungi stretching across the walls, “but he’s been able to face them before, and- ew what's that smell?!” Don slapped a hand over his nose, “Blegh!”

“That's what I said! It’s differ-” A high pitched scream cuts April off, “Casey!” she began running through the echos, the scream getting louder. 

Making it to an opening in the sewer, light illuminates a similar silhouette “Casey!” she saw his head tucked into his arms, knees tucked up as though he collapsed. The others hadn’t caught up yet so she slowly stepped forward, “Are you ok?” He sank into his knees more, April only heard faint mumbles of ‘no’ and ‘not again’ come from him as she moved to place an arm over his shoulder. He jumped up the moment she made contact, eyes wide open, body trembling against the curved sewer wall. “It’s ok, Casey, it’s me” she inched closer but quickly retreated when Casey started to shake, her throat constricted, fear radiated out of him in uneven violent waves, she swallowed down some excess saliva forming in her mouth. 

“… stay away, don’t-don’t hit me again, please, I said ‘m sorry Dad!” 

She stepped back, ice stabbing her stomach, Dad? Why would Casey be afraid of his own Dad? 

Footsteps thumped behind her, she reached for her Tessen to defend Casey from the incoming noise. She relaxed slightly when Leo and Donnie emerged from the shadows, followed by Raph half draped over Mikey's shoulder. 

“What happened?”
“We fought a whole buncha alive mushroom yo!!” Mikey shouted, causing Raph to squirm. 

“How’s Casey?” Leo asked, coming up to April. He reached his arm out to Casey only for him to shrink away. Leo step backwards to her, his arms still raised, “he must’ve been hit with whatever Raph got” 

“No, get away from me!” Raph screamed out, still uncomfortably snug in Mikey’s grip. Don dodged a couple kicks as he inched closer. April asked,

“Which is?” 

“I don’t know!” Don roughly grabbed Raph’s head, shining a flashlight into his eyes, “they’re dilated!” Raph tried frantically kicking Don away, “I’ve got to get my hands on a sample!” He reached into his bag to grab something when Casey screamed, 

“The rats! Not the rats!” He stared at the floor, hands squeezing his hockey stick as he started attacking the floor. Leo and April dodged out of its range as Casey swings grew more erratic, a tidal wave of raw fear threatened to topple her, clenching her temple, she forced herself to stay standing. The stick clunked against the floor as Casey tried to run past them, Leo tackled him to the ground before he could even get a few steps in, “No! No! Don’t hit me! Not again please!” 

“Casey stop!” 

“No We gotta! He’s gonna- He’ll kill me!” 

“Casey, you're going to hurt yourself!” Leo shouted, standing, lifting Casey up so his feet were off the ground, but this only seemed to scare him more. 

“No, I’m not going back there! Not again, Dad please, not the cage!” Everything went silent. Don and Mikey, who was still holding Raph close, had both stopped in their tracks, “please! I won’t do it again! I won't!” His struggles simmered down, even Raph seems broken out of his own trance for a moment whilst Casey began to actually cry , “don’t hit me, please Dad please don’t I-“ a storm of hiccups broke whatever Casey was going to say, his head dropped as his body seemed drained of all its energy. 

She gets it, crying takes a lot of you. She remembered those countless nights long ago. When her Father mutated, she hid under the thick heavy covers, praying the others wouldn't hear her tears, hugging one of her fathers silly dated 70’s t-shirts.

Don stepped forward, “did he just say a cage?” Trying to take a glance at Casey's eyes, hidden behind his jet black hair, tears could be seen running down his cheeks. “Like, as in, his dad stuck him in a cage?!” 

“Sounded like it” Leo confirmed stoically, his eyes betrayed him, darting about as he tried to piece together everything. Don focused on the small vile in his hands, swishing it about but April could tell he’s thinking about it too. She herself couldn’t make any sense of it, Casey talked about his Dad all the time, to everyone and he never had a single bad thing to say about him. It’s always ‘my dads great!’, never ‘he locked me in a cage’.

Why didn’t he say anything? Why did he lie to them? Lie to her? 

“Dude! even Splinters punishments aren’t that bad” Mikey shouted getting a small pinched look from Raph, who looked 5 seconds away from throwing up. “I thought Casey Dad’s cool!” 
“Guess he’s not” Leo added, he repositioned his arms. Still not letting Casey go anywhere whilst making it slightly less uncomfortable for them both. A sprinkle of sympathy in his eyes. “We need to find out what’s wrong before-“ 

“ Please don’t- “ 

“Huh? Casey? What is it now?” 
“Don’t… don’t kill him please-“ Casey shook again, he might as well have had hundred pound weights by the amount of strength it took to bring his head up. “Don’t kill my dad please” he begged, voice scratchy, water building up in his eyes, “please” 

“Casey we’re-“ she started, swallowing down a lump she hadn’t noticed in her throat, “we won’t. Promise. Right guys?” She turned to the others for support, they all even Raph agreed in nods and near silent ‘yes’. Whether they were truthful yes’s iss another story, she knew she’s lying. “See we won’t, ok? Just calm down” 

It took what felt like hours before Casey’s sobbing fit turned back into more dull hiccuping and Leo felt it safe to move him to a more secure location. Still something’s off. April could feel it in the air, a great rumbling, the walls falling as something creeped up her back. She turned to it only to get a face full of white powder, 

“Bleh eugh!” 

“April! You ok?” 

That’s Donnie's voice right? She coughed, looking up, when had she sat down? Only for too large nostrils, sharp fangs, so much hair, and large draping wings-

She screamed. 

Leo walked with his brothers, searching for where April and Casey run off too during their ‘intoxication’. He’s more than glad they were ok without him, they were alive, and seemingly recovered from whatever Mushroom man toxins was showing them. Watching a small mushroom dissolve beneath his feet, Leo breathed a sigh of relief, it’s over. They neared the opening only to find April waking up and Casey bundled into a corner, arms around his knees as he panted, they all rushed ahead,

“Err Casey?”

He kept his voice low, he dodged those mushroom clouds like the plague but even he fell under their fear toxins in the end. He hated it, the mushroom’s ballet dancing (ugh boring ), his ‘not brothers’ spitting insults at him when fighting distorted Rakkī Kyū . He couldn’t imagine being stuck under it for hours . Casey kept breathing heavily, gasps cut short, his bitten lip drew a speck of bright blood, wet streaks roughly brushed away from his red cheeks as he scrubbed his face with his mitts. Leo got all the more glad they stopped the fungi, did normal humans react this bad? Or only Casey? All the words came flooding back, all what Casey said. April raised a hand up to grab Casey shaking shoulder-

“ April! Don’t!” Raph half shouted half whispered, she turned to him confused. His own arm had sprung up though he’s still too far to actually grab her, “Let me” he half heartedly shoved April aside to sit down in front of Casey. She took a couple steps back giving them some needed space. Carefully, slower than Leo had ever seen Raph be, he moved his hand into Casey’s eyeline then after a few seconds he steadily helped him stand, gently placing his arm over Casey’s shoulder. “You Ok dude?”

“... yeah”, Casey sniffed, “yeah. I’m good” He wiped away the last of the tears, crossing his arms together. 

“Uh Case” Don started up, “We need to talk.” Casey froze dead still, eyes began to dart across the room with the urgency of a caged animal searching for its escape. 

“Way ta go genius! Ya tryna give him a heart attack or somethin?!” 

“Raph! We gotta!-”

“-I think what Don tryin’ to say is- Casey do you remember what happened?” Leo asked, stopping Raph from shouting more at Don. Casey calmed a bit, nodding at Leo, watching Mikey slowly (not as slow as Raph was) walk up to give him a small hug that Casey seemed to slightly melt into. 

“Aww There's the love!”

“Err, Thanks Mikey-” Casey smiled sheepishly patting Mikey's arm,

“Can you tell us why you were screaming about your dad now?”

“Mikey!” Raph shouted again, hands gripping Mikey ready to pull him off though he knew how strong Mikey's soft hugs can be. Stepping forwards, Leo pulled them both away, getting twin glares in return which he gladly mirrored for a second before softening his face towards Casey. 

“You-” he paused to find the words, “-you were screaming that you were ‘sorry’ and for your dad to stop hitting you and not put you in a cage- ” He flinched back, Raph seemed ready to butt in however Leo marched on “then you begged us not to kill him” Casey shuffled back slightly, arms wrapped back around his midsection. Raph’s temper gave in, 

“Watch it Leo!”

“What? And let him go back into that?!” 

“Casey, you said to me your dad was great,” April interjected, she too walked closer to Casey, despite Raph shouting for everyone to back off. “Why did you lie to me?”

“I wasn't lying!” Casey shouted, his posture shook, “I wasn’t! It’s- He’s not-”

“An abuser? Casey thats abuse-”

“I know!” Casey snapped cutting Donnie off, “you think I don’t know what abuse is?” Casey’s face shot up, “He, that’s my old dad-” taking a breathe in, “I’m adopted, my bio dad is… he did that” 

“Woah like us!” Mikey received a flick to the back of the head courtesy of Raph for interrupting Casey, he rubbed the point mumbling “Just sayin’”

“Yeah? and I’m just gonna-”

“Raph it’s cool”

“Why didn’t you mention it before?” Leo asked,

“Cause it’s not any of your guys business? Like I got adopted ages ago, it don’t bother me” He looked down to the stone floor, “‘cept now I guess”

April moved forwards, her arms open, Casey accepted the hug, he didn’t even look at Donnie like their little game, only getting slightly knocked as Mikey joined in. Leo remembered something,

“Wait. Why did you think we were going to kill him?”

“Dunno, maybe I thought you’d get the wrong Dad? y'know? Like you’d kill my adop- my real dad rather than my bio one” the hug dissipated, “My dad he… doesn’t like him, wants him dead sorta deal” 

“Yeah he ain’t alone” Raph folded his arms over each other though hadn’t moved away from Casey. Who began explaining the whole cage thing after Don pried. Leo tuned it out partly, didn’t want to think of a kid stuck down there, alone, with rats biting his feet. He shook the thought out his head,

“It happened years ago so I’m fine now!” Casey finished,

“But you still…”

“Well yeah? You guys were under all it too, right?”

“I saw my dad too Casey” 

“See! And your dad is fine now! We fixed him”

“He could mutate again though” April slightly glared into Casey’s eyes, Casey glared back. 

“My bio dad could come back again too.” Everyone went quiet, Casey suddenly looked very interested in the floor “Sorry apes, I meant, he probably won’t but like, he could come back and…I dunno how’d I- what I’d do-” 

“It’s cool Case I know what you mean”

“Thanks red” He placed an arm around her shoulders and gave a quick friendly side hug. Mikey looked like he was about to tackle Casey into another one of his. Leo noticed he’s the only one still a bit away. Everyone else had drawn nearer and nearer together with Casey in the centre. He walked forwards so he stood in front of him. He copied Raphs slow movements from earlier and placed a hand on Casey shoulder,

“Well I’m glad you’re not in any danger” Casey smiled at him, 

“Yeah I’m glad too” 

Mikey gave in, somehow grabbing them all into a tight group hug, “Dudes I’m glad we don’t gotta deal with the Squirrelanoids again!”

“what?!”

Post mission report, if it could be called that, happened in the lair. Everyone gathered around the pit discussing what the Mushroom’s made them see; April saw bat mutants resembling her father, Raph of course was many human-sized cockroaches, and Donnie nervously revealed his fears of April leaving them because of the whole spilling the mutation incident. She reassured him she wouldn’t ever say such horrible things he heard. Leo’s happy she’s still their friend, after everything. Casey mostly kept quiet butting in to add he too wouldn’t be going anywhere, receiving Donnie’s overly exaggerated annoyed face in return. 

“Impressive, and would you say you mastered your fear?”

“No, I just faced it Sensei” Leo responded to Splinter, they were sitting above the pit away from the others. His own hallucinations echoed in his mind, words of not being good enough, disappointing the others and a static voice ‘you’ll never be her brother’. Leo clenched his eyes shut so hard it hurt. To the sound of his father voice, he relaxes again,

“And that Leonardo is why you are a great leader” 

“I saw Rakkī Kyū too, he kept on about how Karai won’t ever be our sister” Leo breathed, spying Splinters reaction in the corner of his eye. He looked stoick, eyes closed and thinking “I think I’m over it, I’ve got to face the facts, that she’s happier there and sees Rakkī Kyū as her brother over us” Leo sighed, “I can’t force her to change, only be here for her I guess”

Splinter placed a paw on Leo's shoulder, fondly smiling down at him, “For now that is the best we can do for her” Leo smiled back. “Let’s hope that one day, she may see us as family also”

“Yeah boi! Check it out!” Mikey yelled out from above, interrupting their moment as he dropped down, pizza box in hand. Leo walked over to it, missing how Casey’s had been slightly sideways staring in their direction.

Splinter didn’t. The once man now turned rat sighed as Casey's head quickly pivoted away towards Michelangelo, that boy and his irrational fear of rats.

Splinter watched his children, both mutants and not, from afar as they played some video game on the box TV. They decided after the mushroom incident that a sleepover would be in order, to ensure ‘only Mikey’ wouldn’t get nightmares. Their laughs and yells of glee filled the living room, bleeding into the cold quiet kitchen where he sat, alone. His tea steam rose, smells of the grass he hasn’t seen closely in years let alone sit in it. Another mug beside him, filled but untouched. His sons never knew, whenever they caught him, he’d claimed he poured it out for them, in case they wanted to join. He’s glad that if his sons ever had suspicions they never brought it up with him. He wouldn’t know how to explain, how do you tell your sons you can’t bear not pouring a cup for your brother ? Even after it all? 

He signed, doubtful Saki, now Shredder but in his mind always Saki, did similar. He held anger in his heart, perhaps some was justified, maybe Yoshi would’ve been the same had he been lied to, taken that genocidal night, his bloodline murdered. He brought the tea up, warm sweetness hushed the thoughts. He needs to move on. No matter how much he missed him, growing up together, even those small moments of pouring tea. 

However, the new question of Rakkī Kyū still stands. Where does he lie in all of this? Why would Shredder have a son? One whom he told the truth about Tang Shen? He watched the ripples of the tea, there’s no easy answer to any of this, why steal his daughter only to then tell her the truth? ‘Because he regrets it’ that's why at least in the boy’s eyes, she forgave him. There must be more he was missing, sixteen entire years worth of reflection, change. He knows those years had been tough on him, changed him in ways he would never have predicted, not even including the mutation side of it. Were they hard on Saki too? Hard enough to change him?

A loud crash boomed, he swiftly headed towards the noise. TV long abandoned, Pizza boxes he told them to throw weeks ago lay scattered and abandoned. Michelangelo lay in its clustered centre, a rainbow sprinkled slice slapped across his face. 

“Dad! We were just-”

“I see, there is no need for concern Leonardo”
He watched Donetello and Leonardo speedily collect the fallen boxes, April joined in as Raph stood laughing. Casey held a hand out to Michelangelo to pull him up, instead got pulled down. Casey clumsily fell into the pile of turtle and pizza with a squish, Don dropped the boxes he was holding to burst out laughing. 

“Dude! Gross!” 

“Hey! I’m just getting even! You said I couldn’t do it!”

“Well ya couldn’t! I wasn’t tellin ya to try!” 

The two jokingly argued, Splinter moved to return to the kitchen, his sons and their friends were fine, safe, having fun even. It’s all he could ask for. Their voices blurred into the background, Leonardo seemed to get them all into gear to clean up. His sons need not to be constantly alert, they could relax and enjoy themselves, for that he was happy. The noises didn’t prevent his mind from wandering back however, back to Tokyo, to the clan days where he and Saki would also play about, laughing as they run across rainy cobblestone streets, laughing as they joked about their Sensei, laughing about-

Why can he still hear it? 

Not in his mind, not in his head but behind him . Twisting he saw no hulking figure, no blades of anger growing out the hands like claws of a beast, no screaming, burning pillars of agony. 

He saw his sons, April back hunching up and down, all laughing but his focus drew towards the boy, for a moment, a split-second he saw him. Saki, young Saki, right there. Not the Shredder, but like he’s walked back into those old streets and times where the cherry blossoms smelt so fresh, where he and Saki were brothers before it all went so wrong. 

He blinked and it vanished, Casey was back, laughing amongst the others. Splinter turned away before anyone noticed and slipped into the kitchen. He grabbed the teapot, pouring the contents down the drain. It’d gone cold. Hands gripped the extra mug, still the semblance of heat lingers. He poured it out too. Walking across, sticking close to the shadows his mind screamed at him, he blocked its attempts to further drag him down. He needed to meditate on this. In his rush he didn’t bother looking back at his sons. 

Maybe if he did, he would have noticed Casey’s stare. 

Chapter Text

“They act like they know better!” Karai shouted, her arms flying in the air, bed dipping slightly under her exaggerated motions. Casey grabbed the sides of her head, plastic gloves ruffled against her cheeks, tilting her back into looking straight forward. She took barely any notice continuing to complain about Xever or the footbots or some other issue. He mostly zoned her out, dipping the brush into the bleach blonde hair dye mix, swirling before applying some splotches. She grumbled, turning over to slightly glare at him, “Are you finished yet?!” 

“It’s your hair! Ya wanna look like some crack case or what?” He shoved her head back forward, 

“Tsk- You’ve been at it for hours!” 

“Nuh uh! It’s been 20 minutes! I told ya this would happen when we dyed it this blonde ” 

He shoved the empty box for cheap dye into her face, she backed off from the model's overly edited face, going back to complaining about the most recent group of foot soldiers. Father’s been replacing more and more of them with the Foot bots he and Casey designed together. They both knew why. He scraped the edge of the plastic bowl, splattering the last of goop onto Karai’s shaved undercut. Only when he placed the equipment down on the cluttered bedside table did he notice an eerie quiet had taken over. “So uh, just gotta leave it for like 20 ish minutes” 

“I know” She flipped the page of a familiar folder in her hands, “Where’d you get this?” She held it up so Casey could read the bold lettering, ‘TURTLES IN NEW YORK CITY’ stared back at him.  

“How’d you-!” 

He lunged forward, she ducked back holding the coffee stained paper over her head and more importantly out of Casey’s reach “It was waiting for me on you lab table, really should clean that up” 

“Karai c’mon! Ya know what they’re like! Sleazy no good -”

“- ‘Jerks lookin’ for a quick buck’ I know, I know” Karai butted in, “You said it before but I didn’t know it spread to breaking and entering ”

“As if you can talk!” 

“That’s different! That sword was just rotting in there!” 

“Yeah sure ” Casey sat back against her bed’s headboard, soft pillows behind his back, “Ya won’t tell Dad?” 

“Hell no, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” She dropped it, reaching under her bed, making sure her long black hairs don’t escape the hand band protecting them from the bleach, collecting 3 more folders and creating a small pile between them. The titles ‘TROUBLE AFOOT?’, ‘MUTANTS IN MANHATTAN’, and ‘ALIENS ABOUT?’ joined the lone folder. “Thanks for this” She tapped the one with the grainy photo of the foot soldier caught on CCTV. 

“’s nothing, was there so why not do some shopping?” 

She huffed out amused, eyes darting back down to a photo of a greenish grey blur, “Why are you friends with them?” 

Casey paused, “What do you mean?” 

“They- Why are you risking this? We’re meant to be enemies.”

“Are we? Hello, alien invasion coming soon?” 

“ Dad wants Splinter dead!” She harshly whispered out.

“Does he?” Casey whispered back, leaning forwards “I mean does he?” Casey repeated, Karai’s own face contorted as she questioned his words, “He would’ve killed him by now if he did. Not like we don’t know where he is” 

Karai looked away for a moment, Casey followed her gaze to the weapons neatly shelved on the wall. “You have to tell them” 

“What?” that caught him off guard, since when did Karai care about him and the turtles? “Where’s this coming from?” 

“This!” she referenced back to the folders, “When did you start properly sticking your neck out for them!? You wanna hang out with them to gather information, fine. but this?” she dangled one in his face, some of its contents falling out across the bed, pages of insults and circled faces. “This is just a risk for no reason!” 

“They’ll be exposed! Then what? Whole government will be knockin’ on our door next!” 

“That’s not your real reason and you know it” 

He grumbled, crossing his arms “Would’ve said no to helping’ ya if I knew I’d be interrogated!” 

“I wouldn’t have to interrogate you if ya didn’t pull stuff like this!” 

“Ya know what? Screw this” Casey pushed himself off the bed, heading straight to the door until Karai blocked his path. 

“You go and I’m telling Dad!” 

“Snitch! I’ll tell him about your little outing’s too!” His voice raised,

“I’ll tell him about you almost being turned into a rat!” 

“How do you-!” 

Karai hand slaps across his mouth, her skills showing in the lack of pain despite the ridiculous speed and force. “Look, we can just talk ok? Dad doesn’t need to know anything” 

Casey stared for a second, letting his anger simmer down. He nodded, removing her hand as they both headed to the center of the room, Karai sat in her swivel desk chair forcing him to sit on the only other surface that wasn’t the floor, the damn bed. “I just wanted to know-”, She sat backwards, arms resting on where the back meant to, “-Why are you actually trying to be friends with them?” 

Casey peered down at the folders again, grainy photos of mutants, mostly the turtles, looked back at him. His eyes darted from word to word catching on every anti-mutant statement. It’s nothing but lies. They do nothing but risk their lives and all people have to say is that they’re not human . Why should that matter? They act more human than some he knows. But that doesn’t really answer Karai’s question, it’s one he’s been dodging himself, why does he stay friends with them? 

“Honestly Karai, I don’t know”

“You don’t know?” 

“I mean, it’s…” He sighs, gathering the words, “....It’s hard to describe? I like being friends with them, like actual friends ya know? People in Tokyo weren’t like that” She nodded, agreeing. Both Karai and him were homeschooled, not even allowed outside the household without escort due to ‘ninja business’ . The only close friend they have is Shinigami and meeting her was on a completely magical whim. 

“So, you want friends?”

“Don’t make me sound like some sorta loner! I still have my hockey team!” 

“So why not hang out with them?”

“They’re different, they… they seem like they actually care ya know? They like havin’ me around. Leo checks me for injuries, Mikey knows my favourite kind of pizza, and Donnie well he got his thing with April but when that’s not in the way he can be fun too! Plus he helped when I got eaten by a worm”

“Eaten by what!?” 

“Oh yeah, remember when you ‘n Tiger Claw captured Splinter ‘n I wasn’t answerin’? Well it was cause a Kraang worm ate me, don’t worry about it, I'm fine!” He sat up, arms out, gesturing to his clearly fully intact body, Karai shook her head in disbelief,

“You got eaten!”

“Well you almost got killed when you got the Kraang to alter one of my footbots!” 

Karai fist shook in the air, her mouth tightly shut. She released a breath of air, calmly stated “Later. I’ll ask later , and you missing one”

“Oh yeah Raph, he’s… I think he’s actually my best friend. Behind you of course, he noticed how bad I was after all the rat stuff went down, checked up on me and well I kinda spilled” Her face rose in alarm, “The rats! Just about the rats! And uh- my dad but not Dad Dad! but him.” It speaks to how well he knows Karai that despite her excellent attempt at hiding it, he can still see the anger bubbling up at the mere mention of his bio Dad. “yeah only after he spilled about his bug-phobia, would’ve been a jerk not to tell afterwards and that was after they came to save me from him!” 

“Ok Ok I get it, they’re good people- err turtles ?” She corrected, “What about April and uh, Splinter?”

“Oh April’s great,smart, funny - I ain’t got a crush on ‘er ” He side-eyed Karai, “it’s just funny to see Donnie’s reaction, besides I think I prefer her as a friend than anything else”

“And…” 

“Splinter he’s- he’s exactly like Dad said he was like” Casey paused for a moment, remembering the smallest bits of info they’d squeezed out of Dad before all this. “I’m still a bit freaked out at seeing him cause ya’know rat . But he also seems to care, I mean he ain’t said nothing bad tah me yet” Casey paused for a moment, “Sometimes he, acts off”

“Off?”

“Yeah like sometimes he stares at me”

“You think he knows?!”

“No! There’s no way! Plus he stares at everyone sometimes so maybe it’s just a ‘he thing’”

“Dad never mentioned it”

“Why would he? I don’t mention your complaining all the time”

“Hey!” She threw a pencil lightly at him, it bounced off his arms and rolled to the floor, “They’re right complaints! And- wait, you talk about me? To who?”

“Uh well I mentioned you and dad sometimes to them but I keep it vague! Like no names or anything, it’s only minor stuff too…” 

“How’d that happen? What happened to ‘low profile’?!” 

“It just slips out! There was this whole thing with nightmare mushrooms and ugh, I do not want to talk about it!”

“Too bad we are!” 

They both stared at each other again, a fight of wills to see who’ll crack first. Eventually Casey broke away, he can’t hide things for long against her at least not everything. He began the long explanation about the fear mushrooms, the hallucinations he saw and how whilst under it he started shouting about his bio dad in front of the turtles. “I told Raph before, back with the rat incident, but now they all know and they all seemed so… understanding. They may have pushed it a bit but they stopped when they knew I was safe ” he paused to look at her fully.

Karai seemed to mull over Casey words for a bit, head in arms as she spun slightly in her chair. After some silent thinking she spoke up, “Ok, ok. So they’re chill, but you’ll eventually have to tell, then what? Think they’ll take that well?” 

“I-” He paused. The mere thought of telling them twists his stomach into knots. His fists clenched tightly, jaw locking up. He’d rather mutate or have the world end than tell them the truth, they won’t take it well. None of them would, maybe he could get them to understand if he’s lucky but the trust would be completely shattered. They’ll never be proper friends again. “I think I’m just going to enjoy it whilst it lasts” 

He looks down at the folders, trained ninja senses alert him of tiny footsteps increasing in noise beside him until the bed dips and Karai’s sitting next to him again, shoulder to shoulder. “They sound like they really like you” 

“Yeah” 

“I…” she pauses, “I’m not good at this” She rushes the words out her mouth, slowly snaking an arm around his shoulders, he lets her. “But I think they’ll come around, especially if you tell them rather than them finding out”

“Do you want me to tell them? Is that what this is?”

“No!” She grips, “I just, I’m worried you’ll get yourself hurt in more than one way” slowly she twists him round to bring him into a hug. 

“Thanks sis” He mumbles, resting his head on her shoulder before fully reciprocating the hug for a second until some fumes made their way into his nose and- “Eugh!” 

“What?” 

Karai asks panicking, Casey pushes himself back, holding a finger up whilst taking a massive gulp of fresh air, he pants out,

“I think it’s been over 20 minutes.” 

“Got a light?”

Casey asked forming a circle out of concrete blocks, they retreated to a rundown pizza joint rooftop, far from where the Turtles or Foot patrol. They both snuck out after Karai washed the bleach out of her hair. She really should’ve noticed the stinging but Casey was more important in the moment. Luckily they caught it before any permanent damage, she could not rock a bald style. Smirking to herself at the reaction she imagines Dad would’ve had if she did that though. She shook the thought out  her head throwing the documents down into a homemade fire pit, eying the red circled name, “Who’s Kurtzman?”

“Just ta’ weirdo obsessed with the Kraang, but he don't deserve cop lockin’ him up ‘cause he talked to a mutant” Casey replied sourly, she nodded in sympathy passing him the matchbox. The anti-mutant rhetoric is slowly building, no thanks to those canisters the turtles dropped everywhere . There’s importance in snuffing out sparks before they catch alight. She squeezed the gasoline out its little casting causing the folders to darken, grimy stills and blurry photos blended together into a darken mush. Striking a match, Casey flicked it into the pit. The paper's edges scorned black as the fire consumed, papers curled trying to hide away, save what little it could. The baby fire lacked food enough to grow so it relented, remaining its minuscule size and tried with all its might to emit some warmth. She untensed, those reports are going nowhere. 

Casey leaned against the roof's parapet wall, opposite from where the smoky remains ascended. She leant beside him, “Karai?” He took off his helmet and started to fiddle with it, his eyes flickered back ‘n forth between the fire and the floor. 

“What happened? You fell out with the turtles?” She hoped not, prayed not. It’d be horrible for that to have happened right before she talked to him about that. 

“We’re fine, It’s just…” he looked away for a moment, as if the next words to be said were rising in the smoke, “ya know when dads helmet got stolen?” 

“Who didn’t ?” The entire lair was stepping around broken glass for the whole week . Father wasn’t happy his henchmen failed to retrieve a simple helmet, only worsening when Casey discovered the ‘master thief’ sponsor. “Has someone found out?”

“No! Why’d you think-” She raised her eyebrows, without words questioning why he wants to befriend the turtles even if Dad allowed it on the pretence of ‘spying’ . “- dude! ” he said between his teeth, shoving her a little. “ Ugh . Leo thought we kidnapped you!”

“What! Why’s he thinking that?”

“I know right! It’s stupid!” he shouted back at her. she didn’t know why Leo‘s so obsessed with her. Sure, maybe she egged him on a bit (Ok Casey a lot ) but it’s too easy, she’d bat her eyelashes and he’d be there. Guess it’s foolish believing he’d back off despite her insisting she didn’t believe Splinter being her father’. “I sorta said we… knew about Teng Shen ?” He finished the sentence as though it’s a question, she opened her mouth to speak but before anything could come out, “and you think Leo’s an obsessive creep!” Casey sneaked in, rushing the words out with a single breath. 

“You said all that?” he nodded, mumbling under his breath,

“And to stay away from you… or else” Casey mumbled, batting his head away. Didn’t matter though, she only saw red,

“ Seriously!? Casey, are you insane!?”

“I’m Sorry! He just kept going on! it all slipped out!” 

“So? Why would saying that be a good idea?!” 

“I was just tryna to protect you!”

“I don’t need your protection!” 

She pushes him, he holds his hands out in surrender. She feels boiling hot anger bubbling up. What Right does he have? Shes the older sibling! Not him! SheOpens her mouth to scream more, ready to let it pour and burn but Casey’s posture stops her. He’s gripping his helmet so hard the glass looked to almost shatter, his shoulders hunched, eyes not daring to meet hers, he’s shaking. She looks into the fire again, watching the small flames dance into cancerous smoke, contents flying into the sky on orange specs, it’s almost pretty, almost. She had told Casey, during training and on calls back when he was still in Tokyo, so he hadn’t lied. Father's words echoed in her head, his experienced eyes, the warnings of acting solely in anger. She took a deep breath, sweet sulphur, he didn’t mean to hurt you, her brain supplies cooling the anger to a light simmer. She sighs, she is the older sibling, “You really said ‘or else’ ?” he nodded, confusingly glancing at her, “Are you a cartoon villain? ‘Or else’ ” she ended it with a mocking tone.

“huh?” 

“Ugh, that was stupid and I’m still angry at you, but…” she makes herself nonchalantly lean back, spitting Casey’s confused look she elaborated, ”I don’t think I care if they know” 

“What? Like not at all?”

“Why’d you think I said Shredder’s my father to begin with?” 

Casey shrugged, “I still shouldn’t said it” 

“Yeah, you shouldn’t’ve,” she stressed, “but they would’ve found out eventually” 

He grimaced, shaking his head, “Yeah, eventually, you should’ve been there at least to stop me talkin’...” 

“Like that’s gonna happen, you know I don’t like being around them” They both sat in silence for a moment, just staring at the embers slowly eating away at the last of the folders. Karai tried to imagine her next meeting with Leo, what he’d say and the look on his face, ugh what would Splinter’s look like? 

“I’m so sorry Karai-” 

She grabs the front of Casey's jacket, the one she ‘borrowed’ when she attacked April, pulling him down, “Quit apologising! I'm not that mad!” She let go sending Casey back causing his helmet to knock onto his head wrong, whilst he’s blindsighted she sneaked a couple punches in, purposely hitting Casey’s ticklish spots to force him to laugh.

After squatting her attack away, he returned to standing next to her. Sure she’s annoyed at him right now, but he’s her brother and that’s what siblings, even younger ones, do, be annoyingly overprotective besides she’d probably do that same, though she’ll never admit out loud. He shuffled down, resting his forehead against her shoulder. The same as when they were kids, always easy for her to translate its meaning, a silent ‘love you’. She nudges her shoulder sideways, bumping his head, after letting it rest there for a moment, no words leave her mouth but they’re there,

‘love you too’.

“Father”

Karai walked up the steps to him, his shadow looms over the desolate throne room, New York’s light polluted sky being the only source of light. A robot body lay mangled in the corner, one of her Foot bots. Serial attacks left them destroyed, littering the rooftops; usually it’s the turtles or some arrogant purple dragons but neither left them this torn up, no it’s a message. However, it’s not the reason she’s been summoned. No, Casey’s missing , completely gone radio silent. He’s never done that, even when with the turtles he gives some updates. She knows that despite his stone cold face, that scares their father like nothing else . Last time he went this long without an update those giant Rats were running about. 

“I still have received nothing from Casey,” His posture deflates by a micrometer, she panics inside. Father had made it clear how important regular updates were, and sure they both found it annoying, but they are Shredder’s kids, it’d be dumb to not too. He holds out a device and she stops breathing, quickly she nabs the thing knowing what he was asking of her. No one else knew Kyū's true identity after all. Looking at the beeping metal box, the red dot indicating Casey’s tracker’s current location, only turned on in emergencies, Not too far, a few streets north of the foots territory, close to that one reporters office. She scowled, of course he was near there. 

“I will bring him home”

She bowed, escaping the lair to follow the device's pointer. Her heart smashing against her ribcage. Call her crazy but she’s always known whenever Casey got himself into trouble; she knew when they met the turtles, when the rats happened, even when he got ‘eaten by a worm’ she knows when he's in danger by the twists in her gut. It’s some loud older sibling instinct rooted inside ever since she laid eyes on him on that damn hospital bed and promised herself he’ll never lay in another again. It’d been yelling at her for hours, why hadn’t she listened?

Making it to the rooftop above the alleyway in record time and she quickly surveys it. There’s nothing special here, just another dirty New York street. Hands clammy, Karai double then triple checks the tracker. It’s pointing here alright, a red flashing light between the two building blocks. Some voices speak out in the darkness causing Karai to duck down, she tenses after spotting O’neil and Leonardo silhouettes by the alley’s end. They’re never good news. She can only faintly make out what they were saying, something about Mikey’s forgetfulness? She peaks over the edge watching Leo pick something up, squinting, dull white stark against the alley’s darkness. A painted hockey mask, Casey’s mask. Her stomach drops, he never parts without it, never.  

“Leonardo” 

He jumps as she lands directly in front of them, nearly dropping the precious mask as he reaches for one of his Katanas. April gracefully opens her Tessen , positioning herself into a defensive stance between them. Karai barely noticed, her eyes struck the floor, puddles of grime were tinted crimson red and neither of them had any cuts to explain it. What happened? 

“You wanna do this Karai? I’m warning you I have been training with Splinter big time and I’m ready to kick your butt!” April calls out,

Karai put her arms out, “I didn’t come to fight! I came to talk”  

“Oh um well I’ve been trained in that too”

“Wait, really?” Leo stepped forward, moving his hand from his unsheathed katana.

“It’s about what my younger brother said, it’s time we talked about it” 

She noticed Leo wince at the mention of her brother, did they know? Surely not, otherwise why bother coming back for the mask? Wouldn’t they be angry? The two looked at each other seemingly questioning if they should listen to her, she doesn’t care what their opinions of her are, she doesn’t really understand why Casey does. She’s happy where she is, with her Father and Brother, being second in command of the Foot, she just needs to know he’s ok. They both knew where Casey's mask was, meaning they had to know where he was, what happened to him, who hurt him. “Please Leo, for me, I believe we need this”

“Ok, I Believe you, but if this is some trick-”

“This isn’t a trick O’Neil! Believe me! A talk is overdue… with everyone, "she quickly added at the end hoping she isn’t laying it on too thick.

“This… This is great! I’ll take you to the lair. You can talk to Splinter” She watched Leo quickly pass the mask to April so he could grab her hand. She glanced back at the mask, spotting freckles of red on porcelain white, swearing a silent promise to herself. 

Whoever did this, she will kill them. 

“I don’t believe this!” Raph shouted the second she stepped into the lair, he jumped into arguing with Leo. She looked around, Casey wasn’t lying, the place really did look cosy, old worn rugs spread out shielding the turtles feet from the harsh cold floor, also adding some needed friction in case of a fight though she doubted that was purposely done with the amount of comics and pizza boxes scattered everywhere. The TV’s static illuminated the couch pit where Mikey sat crouched. Her blood froze, there Casey was, laying banaged and completely limp. She focused her vision on his face, purple splotches ballooned around his left eye, a splash of red on white tape wrapped below his hairline, a cut lip reflecting the light as fresh blood escaped down his chin before Mikey wiped it away. 

This shouldn’t have happened, that should be me on there not him never him. It’s not fair-

“Tiger claw threw him off a building! and you just brought his partner in crime for dinner!” her heart dropped, Tiger Claws back? Her eyes darted across Casey, he’s too heavy for her to carry let alone whilst fighting or fleeing. Mikey cocked his head sideways whilst squinting his eyes back at her. She pivoted back to Raph,
“I didn’t know! My Fath- Shredder kicked him out!” 

“Yeah, sure and you just happen to appear right where he left ‘em?”

“It’s where I saw Leo! I’ve been looking for you!” 

“Oh what a lovely coincidence!” 

Leo placed himself between them, shouting at Raph “Will you just listen!”

“I’ve heard enough from you and your girlfriend, she’s probably leading the Shredder here right now!” 

“Enough!” A loud voice shouted through the base, Splinter emerged from the shadows not too far from them, his breath caught, “Miwa?”

She bowed slightly, a lump climbed up her throat, she forced it down. She had do this, for Casey, “Splinter” he slightly bowed back, 

“Come with me” 

She followed Splinter's lead into their makeshift dojo, the turtles not far behind. She paused to gaze up at a large Momiji tree growing in the middle, light breaking through its orange leaves, its like the ones back home in Japan. When it’s autumn, back when she and Casey would beg their dad to let them out in Tōkyō during Halloween night. She shakes the memory out, wincing slightly when she looks back to the rat. Despite Splinter’s warm welcoming aura she felt greatly out of place, intruding like leftover oils. He’s painted an entire new life without her, there's no empty space left despite his attempts at making more. She understands because she’s done the exact same. 

He displayed a photograph, “I retain very little of my old life, but this I will never let go, my daughter”. Her mother lovingly gazed at her, standing next to a human Hamato Yoshi . She reached into a hidden pocket in her chest armour, sliding out another photograph. An old tear marked straight down the middle, a lightning strike of paper, however it’d been ever so carefully taped together, it creased in her fingertips. They’re the same photo. She showed it to Splinter, refusing letting hers go, it’s worth too much. 

“He told me what happened” 

“I’m surprised,” Splinter started, “Has he truly told you everything?”

She nods, relaying their origins, fighting over Tang Shen, even the part where she got fatally hit by Shredder and its fiery aftermath. He agreed with her retelling, a hidden weight lifted from her chest, Father hadn’t lied to her. Everything did happen how he told it all those years ago, “He thought you perished, raising me in your place” Splinters eyes widened,

“I don’t get it, why didn’t you tell us that before?” Leo asked as he walked nearer to them,

“I thought you lied! Abusing Hamato’s name to trick me!” She shouted back, “I needed to be sure, Shredder told my brother and I many things, which I know now are true.”

“What had he said?” Splinter asked, eyes widening.

“That…” She held her breath now she understands how Casey spilled before, it’s so hard not too when those eyes are upon you, when some part inside screams it’ll be better to all be out, even if the ‘right’ part of you knows you shouldn’t be the one to say it. She relented, “That he regrets everything.” gripping her worn photograph in her hands, “I can’t ignore all the years he raised us, cared for us. He saved my brother from an abusive home.” 

The Turtles all seemed to look at each other to confirm that yes they were all hearing this, she didn’t want to turn around to see Splinter's reaction. She can’t handle it, “Even after confessing the truth, he said I didn’t need to call him Father if I chose not too”

“And?” Raph pried, arms crossed trying to seem un-bothered but she could see in his eyes, nagging curiosity had worn him down.

“I didn’t, for months, and he continued to be a Father to me regardless. Still trained me and cared for me.” Her organs catapult, shouting warnings of ‘tread carefully’ , one wrong word and she exposes everything, but doesn’t all this need to be said? She was literally on Casey for this only a few nights ago! “I realised he didn’t care for being called Father, only that we were cared for” 

“Wait, you’re saying the evil leader of the evil clan is actually… ya know? A good father ?” April brought up, she stands besides Donatello by the dojo doors, she too must feel like she’s intruding these sacred grounds, though for entirely different reasons.

“I am, there… were issues obviously, but I truly believe he cares for my brother and I-”

“-Wait you said ‘an abusive home’?” Donnie finally spoke, great of all the things he could’ve picked up on. “What do you mean?”

“We’re… both adopted” She kept it vague, she didn’t know what Casey had told them about his past and she didn’t need them making those connections right now, not whilst he’s lying unconscious in their lair. “But he came after me, I’m a year older, ‘n I remember how he was when first brought in, it was horrible. I believe without my father, he’d be dead.”

she hears faint mumbles from Raph, “younger?” But ignores them for Splinter. 

“You care a lot about your brother, this Rakkī Kyū?” he spoke calmly, eyes betrayed him, both looking at her and miles away solving a puzzle spanning decades. 

“Yes, both of us. I-” 

“Ugh!” 

“Casey!” Mikey rushed out towards the cry, she’s not surprised. He looked like he didn’t want to be there the most. Donnie tailed him, slowly they all left the dojo, Karai sneaked one last glance at the tamaya shine, her mother glanced back, she quickly turned and rushing to join the others. 

Casey’s grabbing at his side, wincing in pain, the bandages hide the extent of his injuries but his face shows it clear. It’s Bad. His eyes widened at her, then looked towards the others “Why’s she here?” Karai scrunched her face pretending to take offence at Casey’s empty hate. 

“Been asking that myself” Raph mumbled before getting silenced by Leo’s elbow,

“What happened?”

“That damn overgrown housecat that’s what!” Mikey shoved a pillow under Casey's head, propping it up enough so he could comfortably look at everyone, receiving a small thanks in return, “He came out of nowhere!” 

“Tigers aren’t housecats Casey” Donnie jabbed, though Karai could see how he’s eyeing the reddening bandages, “Stay still, you'll open your stitches!” 

“Why didn’t you call us? You needed back up!” Raph shouted, getting into Casey’s face. She caught her hand as it unconsciously snaked to her Tantō, Raph is Casey's best  friend, he wouldn’t. 

“He’ll be a dann housecat when I’m done with him! And you try calling whilst being shot at!” 

Splinter stepped forward, “Casey, do you know why Tiger Claw attacked you?” 

“He wanted revenge, Make me pay for the whole worm thing…” Casey winced in pain, he rolled his eyes around, “kept talking about ‘rebuilding the foot's honour’ and… ” Casey looked at her, “saying he’s going after you next”

“What?!” 

Everyone shouted, “That’s what I thought! Ugh!” Casey grabbed his side, “but he said he’d go after Shredder, and he ain’t joking, wants to take over the whole Foot by force!” 

Casey’s words stood in the air. For a moment no one could say anything, until Casey tried to stand up causing Donnie, with April's help, to hold him down. She quickly runs out after Donnie asks her something. If TigerClaw wants to overtake the Foot, why not attack her? Why risk revealing himself getting revenge on Casey? Unless, if TigerClaw’s truly planning on overtaking the Foot, he’d need to eliminate all the heirs, which means… he knows. 

She steps back in shock, Father must be warned, Casey needs to get out of there. Back home, safe. April rushes back in holding lumped bandages, bottles of pills and disinfectant, handing them to Donnie. She also passes Casey his mask, he begins fiddling with it before holding it close to his chest. She took a deep breath in, he’s safe here. 

“I have to tell Shredder” 

“Oh what a surprise! She goes back to Daddy!”

“It’s not like that Raph!”

“Is it? Or are you just afraid you won’t be queen of the Foot no more?” 

“Enough!” Splinter yelled, he turned towards her “Miwa please explain”

She sighed, “Shred- My father isn’t trying to kill you all” Casey’s eyes widened asking ‘are we doing this? Now?’ she breathed deeply, a subtle ‘yes’  “Otherwise, he would’ve on that rooftop. Or hunt you down, you’re not exactly the hardest to track” Casey raved about the train fight to her food hours, giving her all details he wouldn’t dare tell their dad. 

“We forgettin’ the times he’s attacked us?” 

“We thought you were adults! Raph has he ever made you bleed?” He didn’t respond, Karai didn’t let him, looking down, catching Casey’s conflicted face on the way, making herself look small. “You saw Tiger Claw! He's Asia's greatest assassin. If he gets the power of The Foot… there’ll be no stopping him” 

“So we're helping The Shredder?” Mikey poked up, “isn’t he a bad guy too?” 

“Didn’t you say ‘an enemy of an enemy is a friend’ Splinter?” 

“Raph! you saw what Tiger Claw did! Do you want him to have more power?” Leo looked to her for help, but she couldn’t turn from the waterfalling cut on Casey’s forehead or the way his eyes were dulling- drooping.

“If it means getting rid of The Shredder! Who, ya know, hired him to kill us in the first place?” 

That jolted her out of it, “No he didn’t! We ordered him not to hurt you! Hiring Tiger Claw was help against the Kraang” 

“Wait-” Donnie tightly wrapped a bandage around Casey’s head, the boy yelped as he secured it, Karai caught herself again, “-Isn’t Shredder working with Kraang?” 

“Of course not! We’re keeping them on close watch, preparing for their invasion! Since they mutated him, we thought he’d be helpful, but…” 

“He tried to kill you” Splinter supplied his paw gently resting on her shoulder, 

“Yes, he must’ve plan this all along, Casey interrupted it” 

“What can I say? Riding a space worm was wicked cool- …” His words began to slur, being awake is sapping whatever leftover energy he had left. Regardless he stubbornly kept his eyes cracked open just a little bit despite Don's insistence on rest. 

“I need to go warn him,” with a freezing flash of realisation she grips her wrist, her own tracker bracelet, twin to the one in Casey’s mask, that's how Tiger Claw must’ve found him. “Tiger claw could be tracking me right now!” 

“What!” Everyone but Raph shouted, he growled and looked like he wanted to punch her so badly.

“What have I done!” She looks to Casey for reassurance but his head is slumped on the pillow, he’s lost the battle with the sleep medication. If Tiger Claw got here, he’d easily finish the job. “There's no time to argue! I have to get out of here! I can lead Tiger claw away!” She shouted turning towards the turnstiles by the entrance. 

“Go. Take Karai and watch over her, I will stay with April and attend to Casey” She nodded, turning around. Splinter placed a hand on her shoulder, spinning her to face him again, his gaze soft, “Miwa, you are who you chose to be. Not what others make you” 

She nodded again, ignoring Raph mumbles under his breath as she sprinted to the exit, Turtles behind her. Splinter’s right, she’s who she chooses to be and right now out of everything tonight, she chooses to be two things, Casey’s big sister, 

And Tiger Claws end.

Chapter Text

“You’re not still mad about the worm thing, are you?”

Tiger Claw’s upside down scowl grew darker, he flexed his paws, claws digging into his ankle. Casey winced, the pain shooting up to his head, he swears there's gotta be a dent in the metal table now. He swings himself back ‘n forth, Tiger Claws grip doesn’t shift not even a little, he’s squeezing tighter “Hey lemme go!” 

“Silence! You’ll pay for getting in my way!” Tiger Claws left over eye glares at him as he tightens even more, as though he’s trying to pop Casey’s foot clean off. Pointed tips dig in, and wet warmth soaks his sock in red. It matches the rest of him. “It’s time I ended this, once and for all”, Casey throws his not held leg back, thanking his past self for being extra and adding real spikes to the edges of his skates, he quickly brings it back down, striking a swallow cut across the cat’s striped shoulder. It barely breaks his thick armour but the shock is enough for Tiger claw to drop him. Casey darts towards the doorway when a cutting pain radiates from his side. His skates slip from the sudden pain, he topples out the door, knees scraping against the roof concrete floor. “Quit fleeing!” 

Casey ducks behind a raised vent, he pushes a gloved hand against the pain, returning it dyed deep red, one of Tiger Claws Kunai’s lie not too far sporting the same red shine. It may have only grazed him but it still hurt . “ Dammit” Casey mumbles, peeking over the edge only to find the roof empty. It isn’t. He knows that. Tiger Claw is somewhere out there. He shuffles slightly and heat blooms from his foot at the slightest weight, how’d he even get out the door? Adrenaline? All he knows is that it freakin’ hurts now, too much to properly skate away fast enough especially since the cat’s been on his tail for hours now. 

“Know you’re hiding there, come out and I’ll make your demise swift” 

His call’s come from behind the vent, pointed directly at him. There’s no other cover, the roof is disconnected on this side leaving a large canyon down to the alley below. Way too large to jump without at least a running head start, one he can’t do right now. There’s no questioning it, Tiger Claw has him trapped. He counts his punk bombs, only 2 left, the others had exploded against random cars and walls across New York during this chase, one had left some nice fragments embedded in Tiger Claw arm. Maybe if he positioned and timed them right he could dig those ones in even further. 

“Come out Oroko” 

Casey’s blood froze, no he can’t. No, No- 

“Come out and maybe I’ll make your sisters end swift too” 

“You bastard!” With energy from nowhere Casey leaps over the vent, hockey stick in hand. He takes a swing that Tiger Claw easily grabs, grinning like the cheshire cat insane cousin. Casey returns it when he jabs his eletro-stick into his ribcage. He raises the voltage, fifty thousand, seventy-five thousand, a hundred thousand- A flash of white invades his vision, bringing ringing to his ears and throwing him backwards into the vent. His back snaps against it unevenly, needles rocket up. Something wet drips down his cheek, he wipes it away to realise it’s coming from his forehead. Tiger Claw himself is taking a breather, smoking from the static shock. Casey speaks up, voice harsh, “Who told you?” 

Tiger Claw only laughed, cracking his knuckles. Seemingly unaffected by the metal poking out his arm, and the leftover energy radiating off him but his eyes betray him, pain lies underneath. Pain he doesn’t want to confess too. “You told me, when you knew my name. Before you threw me into the bowels of that beast!” 

Casey remembers the moment, how could he be so stupid? Capturing himself savouring the sickening sense of relief when the worm swallowed him whole, he’ll feel that again when Tiger Claw’s actually gone. He wants to argue more, instead he shouts, asking “You tried throwin’ Karai off the roof! What for? She was an ally!” 

“You two are nothing more than obstacles for me to destroy”

Casey can’t even ask for what before Tiger Claw’s already rushing towards him. He backwards flips over the vent, to the roof's edge. Casey grabs his last hockey stick, punting the last two punk bombs out. Tiger Claw ducks to the left, dodging the first one but gets hit dead center by the second. His body thrown by the force, silhouette disappearing into a lump on the ground and consumed by smoke clouds. The bombs must’ve caught something, the crackling of the beginning of a fire call out. A few tense seconds of silence pass, Casey could run, he should but he has to know. Sliding out his hidden Tantō whilst shouting over the smoke clouds, “Obstacles to what?!” 

“Ruling the foot.” 

The voice is beside him, Casey twists but he isn’t fast enough. Tiger Claw forgo’s weapons and straight up bites into the delicate flesh of his neck into the collarbone. Teeth digging and digging and Casey can feel the bone about to snap. Gripping his Tanto, turning it with all his leftover strength, Casey stabs into Tiger Claw’s stomach, shoving in deep and twisting . 

He’s pushed away closer to the edge, letting the knife go he steps further away, his body whines against the movement, the world itself tilts and blurs as his steps stutter. From blood loss or concussion? He can’t make out the answer. He raises his hand up, tapping the hidden button in his mask to activate the distress call he should’ve made ages ago. His throat constricts, it’s harder to breathe, his feet dangle. Raised up by a large muscular striped arm, why won’t he die already?

“ Yoku tatakatta ne, kabu .” You fought well, cub. His brain translates as the arm drags him across the roof, his and Casey’s blood mix, leaving a trail as shakingly steps closer towards the edge. Running on fumes Casey kicks, punches and scratches the arm, he lunges up grabbing a sharp fragment in his forearm, pulling it down. Blood water falls onto his face but Casey doesn’t care, he keeps going. 

They reach the edge, Tiger claw grip tightens, he stares down face full of disgust as he strangles Casey over the roof, the alley’s dirty floor greets him from at least three stories below. 

“When I’m done with you and your pathetic sister, I’ll kill Shredder and restore the Foot Clan to its rightful Honour and glory!” 

Casey coughs out, “You’re crazy, Like you could -!”

“Sayonara Oroko Kēshī” 

Tiger Claw lets go.

—

Pain greets him like an old friend, stabbing his side, pounding against his skull and trying to stretch any tiny cuts wide open. Too many points in his body desperately vie for attention he can only squeeze his eyes tighter shut. He remembers the fight, the drop, Tiger Claw, calling the turtles, then nothing- pure nothingness, then Karai-

Karai! 

His eyes shoot open, the lairs' bricked ceiling stares down at him, the lights are thankfully dimmed and there’s no noise besides the far radiator gentles hum. It almost lulls him back asleep, if it weren’t for the many moments racing back at him; Karai was here, he warned her about Tiger Claw before passing out again. Dammit, Donnie definitely slipped in some sleeping pills with those pain meds, not that it’d matter, everything is screaming to go back to sweet nothing right now he can’t even comprehend how loud the call must’ve been then. 

“Casey?” 

The voice jolts him, erasing every drop of sleep. Every muscle protests as he pushes himself up, thunderous pounding against his head. He twists his ankle and pain shoots up, he feels the cracks of dried blood underneath the wraps flake against each other, he stops moving when he feels his side start to tear. “Casey you’re still injured” Soft hands- no paws lightly push him back down, carefully avoiding his injuries. 

“Splinter? What happened?” 

“Do you not remember?” 

“Tiger Claw got me… then Karai was here?” He half asks, truthfully his mind refuses to give him an unblurred picture of the past… wait… “How long have I been out?” 

“Hmm… my sons brought you in four hours ago-” 

He screwed, so screwed, four hours straight with no updates signals something bad happened. Meaning Dad will get involved, and if he gets involved it’s bad news for everyone- “Casey?” He breathes in quickly, nah nah, Karai was here surely she told Dad he was OK, right? Unless something happened to her too, before she could- “Casey-” he’s breathing even faster, What if Tiger Claw got to her? What if she’s captured? What if she’s dead- 

“Casey!”

Splinter's voice snaps his attention, and shockingly Casey doesn’t flinch when he’s suddenly reminded of the giant rat beside him ‘cause it’s not a rat it’s Splinter, Yoshi- “Casey breaths slower” He hand moves up in place of an exaggerated breath in. Casey’s mind works before he does, following Splinter hand movements. Down, breathe out. Up, breathe in- 

“Thanks… I’m good now” Casey speaks after a moment of time he can’t figure out. Why does Splinter know how to do this? He doesn’t ask. “I just got caught up that’s all, Where’s everyone?”

“My son’s are out”

“And Karai?” 

If Splinter thought his question was suspicious he didn’t say anything about it. Only sighed and held his chin in remorse. “Tiger Claw has her now, he states his intention isn’t to kill her, my sons are out looking for any sign of them” 

Ice stabs him, no she would’ve escaped. Gone back to the lair, that’s why the turtles haven’t found her yet. “That’s- That’s good. I guess- what’s he want with her?” 

“He didn’t say” 

Casey bit his tongue harshly, tasting iron on the corner of his mouth. He can’t get mad at anyone. No one, even Raph, would intentionally give her to him. Unless he was wrong about them. A dark cloud shifted over Casey’s brain, maybe Dad was right, maybe they were just waiting for a slip up, maybe they’ll team up with Tiger Claw and destroy the foot and kill his dad and-

“Casey?” 

“Hm? yeah I, damn that’s a lot. Uh you good?” 

“I’m concerned for my sons, and for my daughter” Casey bit his tongue again, stopping himself from saying anything, “but I find myself also concerned for this Rakki Kyu ” 

“Uh Rakki who?” Casey asked like the answer was staring him in the face.

“Have my sons not told you? He’s Karai’s brother”

“What? She’s got another brother? That makes like five!” 

Splinter shook his head slightly at Casey’s exaggerated tone, “Yes I guess so, regardless from what I've been told he’s quite protective of her. I can only imagine what he and Shredder are planning” 

Silence carried through, Splinter’s concerned about him? He should hate him! Kyu stands between him and Karai, his (bio) daughter. Why does he care? Casey carefully twists his body from laying down to sitting normally on the couch. He spotted his hockey gear leaning against the wall by the exit. He’ll be able to use the stick to walk if his legs feel too weak. Splinter slowly stands up, “I’m going to prepare some tea, would you like to join me?” 

“Thanks but I gotta head home-”

“Casey you’re in no condition to move”
“My dad’s gotta be worried man! I ain’t told him I was at a friend's house and you’re telling me I've been MIA for four hours!” 

“But you cannot walk, how do you expect to get home?” 

“Uhh” his eyes darted side to side, the answer’s somewhere here he knew it. An excuse or something, “I’ll use my hockey stick like a crutch?” He answers more like a question and Splinter gives him a look that tells him there’ll be two cups of tea brewed. “Ok, ok I’ll stay. Can I at least call him? Explain before he tears New York apart?” 

“Of course, I hope you can avoid-”

“I’ll call it a muggin’ or something, none of the mutant stuff” 

Splinter walks off grabbing something off the table then returns to pass it to Casey, a broken phone, luckily it still works despite the dents and cracks along the screen. Splinter’s nice enough to walk into the kitchen to give Casey some privacy, however much he can get whilst still being in the lairs equivalent of a living room. He turns it on, immediately getting flooded with messages, countless requests and missed calls from both Karai and dad. Oh he’s so screwed. Texting won’t do, not after this long, he fought with Tiger Claw for hours then was unconscious for another four. There’s no way his Dad is gonna trust anything other than his clear voice (or maybe Karai’s too). He scrolls the contacts (all labelled incorrectly with ‘normal names’ besides the turtles, April and Irma) finally getting to Dad and pressing the dial. 

He doesn’t even wait half a second.

“ Keishī!  Doko ni iru no? Dō shita no? Kega o shite imasu-” 

“Dad! Dad, I'm ok! There was umm a problem!” Casey has never been more glad Splinter isn’t in the room, and that the phone is tightly against his ear, he places another hand over it to block more of his dad’s voice from escaping. “Dad” he begins to whisper, “What’s she told you?” then gets louder, “I know! I know it’s late! Hockey ran late! Then some jerk mugged me!” 

Lady luck is finally on his side as his dad seems to understand the game Casey’s playing, and plays along however it’s clear he’s struggling to lower his voice, he repeats what he told Karai hours ago. “She’s been missing seen she went for you-”

“What!” Casey involuntarily shouted, slapping a hand over his mouth, his eyes darting to the kitchen door, whispering “I dunno, why ain’t she at home?” 

“She went after Tiger Claw herself”

A pit grew in Casey’s stomach. Pain erupting out of it, the cut is not to blame. 

“I- she’s not-”

“ No.” The voice is sharp. “She’s alive, whatever Tiger Claw is planning I will put an end to it” 

“Ok, I-” 

“Return home at once.” 

“I- I can’t. My ankles busted, so my side. Even if I wanna…” he pauses to think for a second, “... my friends dad won’t let me walk the streets like this” 

“They’re holding you hostage?”

“They’re… concerned ” Casey emphasises, holding his breath, the line goes silent. He knows his father doesn’t believe it, even if he knows Splinter and the turtles only see him as Casey Jones, not Oroko Casey. “For real, I’m safe ‘ere, promise” he layers on, hoping luck will pull through, in one final push he whispers, “please focus on her, she needs it more” 

He hears a growl, “Fine. You have until tomorrow to return. Morning latest. Failure to do so will result in swift action. Do you understand?” 

“Of course! Will do Dad! Lova ya!” 

“ Anzen ni ite kudasai ” 

The phone beeps. Casey sighs in relief, holding his head in his hands. This is good, Dad isn’t shredding New York apart, that’s good. But Tiger Claw has Karai, his brain unhelpfully adds, he pulls his hair tight. Why’d she go? Why’d he say anything? He could’ve waited, then she wouldn’t’ve felt like she had to go and avenge him like some goddamn ninja warrior she thinks she is. ‘ Cause she’s your sister, His brain adds on again. He smacks the side of his head like that’ll shut it up, instead it screams in pain as Casey is reminded of the direct hit Tiger Claw gave to him. He squeezes his eyes shut while the lights get brighter and the surroundings turn to watercolour, 

“Casey!” Splinters in front of him, gently ripping his hands away from his face. “Casey take these” he offers a paw, white dots stand stark against brown fur. 

“Ibuprofen?” Splinter nods, “Nothin’ else?” Splinter looks confused for a moment before grabbing a box on the small tray that’s also holding a kyusu with two steaming yunomi cups of tea. The pills match the picture on it, so Casey throws them back. Their paper-like texture sticks to the back of his throat long after the pills go down. “Thanks” 

“You’re welcome” 

“I’ll be gone by tomorrow, ya ain’t gotta deal with me for long-”

“Deal with you? Casey, you'll always be welcome here.” Splinter passes a yunomi cup, Casey can’t speak so he carefully takes the delicate thing, its patterns don’t match the one in Splinter's hand, a golden crack runs through it. He sips the hot liquid, earthy tones wash away the pills aftertaste, even taking some of the pain with it. Casey forces the memories of home down with them. “Casey, is everything alright?”

“Yeah, no pussycat gonna keep Casey Jones down!” 

Splinter smiles? Is he actually smiling at him? Huffing out, “I guess not, however I meant at home” 

“What do ya mean?” 

“You sounded troubled on the phone, mentioning a girl?” 

“Oh my sister, yeah, she’s great! But uh she didn’t come home either so my Dad’s real worried” Casey side steps around the truth, “Why do you care?” 

“Karai was able to warn Shredder about Tiger Claw’s plan. He may target your family now” 

“Nah nothin’ will stop ma’ Dad! Thanks though…” Casey sips the tea again if only to buy him some time to think before saying anything else, is that why actually Splinter brought this?

“We’re here if you need us Casey, don’t forget that” Before Casey can even respond Splinter has turned around, grabbing something from between the mounds of bandage wraps and medicine. It’s a lot of stuff, Donnie must’ve scraped a whole hospital clean for it. “My son’s were keen on going out again to get this”, He turns around passing Casey another object, round and white- “I believe it’s yours”  

His mask! Snatching it, he holds it tightly to his chest, not too tight, it isn’t the Kuro Kabuto ; built to survive hundreds of years of battle. It’s flimsy, meant to break instead of the wearer's face, the old paints completely worn off, requiring Casey to paint on his own skull design, and now after so many years of wear it’s on whatever death’s door is for masks. Karai says he shouldn’t parade it around, that it’ll break beyond repair but even if it does he’ll never get rid of it. He’ll weld metal behind the plastic letting the crack show like a badge of honour. If it breaks he’ll string each fragment together into a necklace he can wear underneath his top imitating soldiers' dog tags, it’s good luck. It’s the only thing he has of her, besides one single grainy photograph delicately placed beside well lit candles. He’s not losing it so easily, not losing her. 

A shift in front reminds him of where he is, “Sorry, it’s important to me” he sandwiches the mask between two t-shirts and zips his bag up, Splinter only nods, did the others tell him about it? Splinter solemn look answers him, yes he knows the feeling very well. The pit in his stomach grows into a sinkhole, the others risked their shell going back out for this. Risked going face to face with an then unknown enemy, all so Casey can have his precious piece of plastic. Not to mention Splinter's real concern for his family. Karai’s right, he has to tell them, he owes them the truth at least. He wills himself to look up, seeing Splinter face, the eyes pierce him and the confession refuses to come out. He mumbles instead, “Thanks, seriously thanks” 

“You’re welcome Casey” Splinter for a split second looks like he’s about to say something big, but brings the teacup up and swallows it down.

What does that mean? 

—

Casey gets no answer, Splinter’s too good at hiding his true thoughts behind his literal ratface, and It wasn’t too long until Casey fell under the spell of sleep again. He wakes to stinging on his forehead,

“Ack!” 

“Oh you’re awake!” Donnie pulls the cotton pad away, dropping it onto a table beside him, medical equipment swarm around them. “How do you feel?” 

“Fine, I’m good to go Doc!” 

Donnie groans annoyed, pushing Casey shoulder down, seriously how long are they expecting him to stay here? “Not before I check you out, I didn’t work on you for ages for you to just kneel over a step out the lair” 

“Wow you wanna ‘check me out’? Donnie it’s like that?!” 

“Can it Casey!” Donnie pushes down harder, shuting Casey up. Donnie realises his mistake and quickly pulls away continuing his analysis on Casey wounds. He unwraps the bandages across his stomach, eying the stitches before grabbing a bottle labelled ‘disinfectant’. “This’ll hurt, one second” Don gently dabs the stinging cotton onto the wound. 

“Heh. since when did you get good at this?” Casey bites out between hisses, where’s those damn pain pills? 

Donnie gives him a flat look, “Well you try being the only one who can read medicine bottles let alone a doctors textbook, and not become the one stuck doing all the post-battle stitches”

Casey pauses, it shouldn’t be as shocking as it is. The turtles fight the footbots and Kraang all the time, of course they get injured, of course someone would have to patch them up, of course it’d be Donnie. But, “Wait, who does yours then?”

Donnie stops dabbing, eying Casey like he grew a second head, “I don’t get ‘em. I’m for one, don’t like throwing myself into battles” Donnies eyes point sharply at Casey, though he can tell the statement isn’t just targeting him alone. “When I do it’s small enough that either I or Splinter can do it” 

“Damn maybe I should learn it, can’t be too hard right?” and swap some of the foots weapons to duller ones. 

“What! Of course it is! You gotta know the right medicines, and stitching techniques not to mention…” Casey deafens out Donnies rambling, he takes note of his injuries again. His head stings but only from whatever disinfectant Donnies slabbed on, so does a few cuts here and there. His foot remarkably feels ok under the layers of wraps. His side shoots ignorable for now pain upwards at uneven intervals.“... and you gotta be able to tell-”

“Ok! I’ll leave the doctorin’ to you! But ya gotta show me the stitching at least, imagine stitchin’ myself in battle! Metal!” 

“It’ll hurt Casey!” 

“That’s what makes it metal!” 

Donnie rolls his eyes “You’re still gonna need bedrest but you should be fine to walk home at least” 

“Thank you doc!” Donnie mumbles something whilst collecting the medical supplies, and Casey realises something, “Hey where is everyone?” 

“Casey it’s 2pm everyone’s still asleep” oh, that actually makes sense. “We were all out trying to find Tiger Claw till like 9am?” ah, yeah… him . “Casey? Anything hurt?”

“Nah no way man. Nothin’ keepin’ Jones down!” 

“Good your back to being obnoxious, guess that means something” 

“Wait why you up then? How are you even up?”

“The drink of the gods.” he raises a mug, coffee “And someone had to check on you after Splinter went to sleep. You just had to wake up an hour later didn’t you?” 

There’s no real annoyance there, it shocks Casey. He thought Donnie hated him because of the whole April situation. He admits it probably isn’t the nicest thing to do, but back then he saw them as nothing but interesting enemies, not friends. From now on, no more flirting with April, even as a joke. “You got anymore?” Casey points to the mug. 

“Yeah but hell I’m letting you have any, Jones ” 

“Oh c’mon!” 

—

In the end, Donnie brews him a mug. Only because Casey swears he’ll buy a large bag from the bodega round the corner since ‘no where else does it better’ according to ‘Coffeezilla Donnatello’, jeez and Dad thought he was bad, that reminds him. He grabs a nearby hockey stick, one he left behind last time he stayed round, and positions it like a crutch to stand. 

“I gotta go, my Dad’s gonna kill me” 

“Let me walk you there” Splinter appeared from nowhere (Seriously how does he do that?) slipping an arm under his, lifting him by the shoulders 

“What?” Casey nearly shrieked, partly due to the sudden, pleasant feeling of no longer having to hold his weight on his hurting leg and partly due to how close Splinters rat face is right now. Whatever grace period of fear free talking between them was fading fast.

“I can dad-” Don butts in from the kitchen, rubbing an eyelid, Coffee can only take you do far…

“No, you need sleep. Allow me Casey, you’re injured and Tiger Claw is still a threat.” 

“No it’s ok really! Uh my Dad! He’ll lose his mind if he sees ya plus ain’t it day now? ya can’t go out!” 

“Then only through the sewers”

“I can’t let ya risk somethin’ like that, what if someone lurking?”

“Then it’s better I go with you then not?” 

Casey gripped the wooden stick so hard it could splinter, he really didn’t want his father to see this. Sure the chances of his father actually being in the sewer is near zero however one of the bots will be lurking in the shadows and will snitch. But he couldn’t say anything-

“Ok, only the sewers though” 

Splinter led Casey throughout the eerily quiet sewer, their footsteps were accompanied only by the echoing droplets of the filthy water. Sunlight peeked through the gates of the sewer.  Before reaching the gate Splinter spoke up, 

“I find myself concerned for you Casey” 

Casey's heart stops, he grips the stick harder, “Hm?”

“Casey you…” he pauses, Casey can hear his tail brush against the floor as the rat man thinks of what to say, sweat grows on Casey's forehead. “You lack formal training, April at least has powers that are growing. Today you were targeted and almost killed because you-” 

“Imma stop ya there Splinter, you tellin’ me that hangin’ with a buncha mutant turtles fightin’ aliens and a ninja clan is putin’ me in danger?”

“Casey this is serious-”

“I’m bein’ serious!” Casey shouts, it echoes through the sewers he pushes himself off Splinters hold leaning against the wet brick wall. “I ain’t been more serious about anything before! Yeah it’s dangerous! Ya think I’m too stupid to not know that?” Splinter looks to almost say something but Casey’s in a rant and he can’t stop- “Cause I ain’t! I didn’t sit around when there were purple jerks, I definitely ain’t gonna sit when there’s aliens yo!” He stands fuller, “You can’t bench me! You won’t, I won’t let you!” 

Casey huffs, the rant leaves him hollow. Splinter is just standing there, has he run out spiritual shit to say? Dread swamps him, here it comes. A full ban, a kick out the front door to never return. Goddamnit Casey, why ruin everything- they just saved you-

“Casey, I appreciate your enthusiasm” Splinter speaks like he’s in a verbal minefield, slow and steady, “I see why my son has you as a friend-” what? “You’re very talented, however I fear your  reliance on it over skill will do more harm than good” He clasped his paws together, “especially with this habit of facing enemies on your own, tell me why didn’t you call for help sooner?” 

“Thought I could take him” It’s the truth, Casey really did think he could even without his gear. Shredder’s training should’ve been enough but he got cocky, played with his food. “Sorry for shoutin’...”

“It is alright, I understand your concern.” Splinter speaks with the patience of a saint, it makes Casey want to puke. “I would not ‘bench you’ as you call it. At least not without reason” he gestures to Casey’s injuries, “I would certainly not stop you from seeing my sons. Perhaps you join in for some sparring sessions every now and again” 

“I- yeah that sounds good” Casey scratches the back of his head, the floor is suddenly way easier to look at than Splinter's face. It’s a nice offer really, even if he already knows how to fight, it’d be nice to learn how the turtles fight from the source. Besides, he can't remember how long ago he last trained with his own father. He misses it. 

“Very well, shall we continue?” He offers a paw out. 

Casey takes it. 

—

Half crawling through the window into the deathly throne room, bag slips off his shoulders, thunking onto the floor, legs wobbling as the weight falls. Those last streets were torture, Splinter had made good on his promise and didn’t follow him past the sewer gate, at least he hoped so, how would he explain coming here? His legs were spaghetti, everything turned sideways-

“Casey!” 

Large arms scoop him up before he fully collapses, tightening around him before pushing away whilst still holding him, “What happened?” His father's head pivots over him, eying Don’s mummifying bandages, his forehead felt a little wet, bringing his hand up it returned sticky and dark. The floor changed below his feet, when had he been picked up? 

“-Walked here, it’s cool. Where’s Karai?” 

His father stiffened, stopping dead in his tracks before continuing to walk ( when had he started? ) placing him onto a bed, ( where? ). He slowly unravelled the wrappings around Casey’s head, mumbling a small apology as the damp tissue peeled off the cut. It stung, “Dad? Where’s Karai?” 

A long sigh, Dad removed his helmet, “Tiger Claw has her”

“What? We gotta-!” Casey rose off the table, ignoring the pains in his stomach, pills wearing off. He’s gotta track her down, save her. Two heavy weights pushed down on his shoulders, his fathers large hands gripped them ever so slightly. 

“No.” he started, staring directly in Casey’s eyes “You will remain here, recover. I will find her” 

“I’ve recovered enough! I can help!” 

“I have those mutated fools for that-”

“They failed gettin’ a helmet! How’re they gonna-”

“-They’ll have too.”

“-You can’t be serious!” Casey shouted, fighting against his fathers grip. “The turtles beat ‘em! how’s they gonna-” 

“Enough!” Casey shut his mouth but kept his glare strong, his father glared back. A minute stretching into eternity, till Casey lost and looked down, his father grips on his shoulders loosened, his hands raised, cupping his head forcing Casey to look him in his face, “Everything I’ve done has been for you two. I will get her back, I will avenge her ” 

“She don’t need avengin’!” 

“I know-”

“Ya need me-” 

“ -No I don’t ”

“What.” the air left his lungs, no of course he’s needed- “you do! You ain’t benching me! You can’t!” Déjà vu dizzies him, or is that just his head?

“Silence! You are too injured! I believe you could handle yourself. Now I know you cannot”

“You saying I’m weak?”

“ You are! ” His father shouted. Casey swears the whole room shakes, bottles on the shelves click against each other, curtains flow from the force. The mountain of his Father stands tall, shadows engulfing him. Casey can’t talk, the tension is so thick in the air he’ll choke on it. If he doesn’t bleed out from his dad piercing glare. Never before has he gotten why people were afraid of his father, but now it’s thrown right in his face and he gets it . 

Almost instantly, mountain Shredder crumbles down, “It was not meant like that” he begins, allowing the world to return to normal, “I’ve lost Karai,I will not lose you too” His fathers eyes pierced through him, he felt so small, reflected in those black and white irises Casey could see half healed bruises splattered across his own face. “I could’ve lost you both tonight. Karai… will be saved but you… these injuries could have been fatal . Do you understand? ” he looks down at all the bandages, he hates them, wishes he could shred them apart, them and Tiger Claw. His face is pushed back up to meet his Dads, “I won’t lose you”

The silence stands, the only reminder of time passing is the slight pressure as his father patches the reopened wound on his forehead. Casey stares down the corner of the room like it’s to blame, fighting the tears forming in his eyes, they threaten to fall, none are from the antiseptic sting. Finally he heaves some words out,

“It’s my fault Karai’s gone. Should’ve said nothing about Tiger Claw” 

“No, what you both did was overconfidence, foolishness, I trained you both better” The bitter stab of guilt and shame spreads from Casey chest to his brain, a constant beating parasite screaming failure “but you are young, I should’ve foreseen this.” That’s funny, they’re only sixteen and dealing with ninja clans, alien invasions, mutants, being thrown off roofs and… and… it’s not funny anymore. “Tiger Claw targeted you two because he fears me, he wants to weaken me. Hiring him was a mistake as was sending Karai. I should’ve retrieved you,” 

“Didn’t know he came back” a tear broke free, stinging the shallow cut on his cheek. “ya would’ve blown my cover” An empty laugh escaped under his breath at what would’ve been everyone's faces if ‘The Shredder’ was the one to find him at their lair. His father wrapped his arms around him softly, not pushing on the wounds.

“That doesn’t matter” yeah, no point in the cover if he’s dead sorta thing. Still Casey likes having the turtles as his friends, like they actually care about him, he doesn’t want to lose that not after tonight. 

“Fine, I won’t go anywhere… I’ll work on the bots from here-” A middle ground, his father stood firm, glare unending “after a couple days?” Casey added, looking up at him still wrapped in his arms. 

“You may work on them after you’ve recovered” 

The tone’s meaning is obvious, ‘don’t try anything’ . He got it, of course, doesn't mean Casey liked sitting around doing nothing while Karai is out there. He tried feeling hopeful, it won’t be hard to find her, Tiger Claw doesn’t want her dead or else he wouldn’t kidnap her. He won’t be useless here, he’ll recover for his Dad but the second he can, he will find her. He slowly returned his fathers hug, feeling his father hold marginality tightening, minding his bruised back. He’ll get her back, He promises. 

Whatever it takes.

Chapter Text

“Dudes! We totally wrecked those suckas! Did you see the way I-” 

“For the hundredth time, yes!” Raph pushes Mikey forwards as he slings a sports bag over his shoulder, a ghoulish green glow peaks out bouncing off Raphs scales. Leo holds his breath, nearly moving over to ensure the damn sports bag is completely zipped up, they don’t need a second case of mutagen canisters spilling all around New York. It wasn’t even in the plan to attack the foot tonight, they were meant to be searching for Karai but during their little split up Donnie and April had spotted a group of footbots looking awfully suspicious. He sees them walking up the fire escape to them now, chatting about something to do with April’s connection to the Kraang, how she sensed them alongside the robots, and surprisingly Donnies not gushing over her like some love sick puppy for once (huh, guess science overrides it). 

“I’d say that was a successful mission team!” Leo forces a smile on, it was successful, they did stop the Kraang from doing… something bad, but they still haven’t found Karai and it sours every little victory they get, atleast to him. Not only that, footbot sightings have been sporadic, clusters of them here and there, in places they’ve never been seen like abandoned shipping yards and even the richer, upper class streets, scattering the moment someone comes near instead of attacking. He shoves the thoughts down for later mediation, clapping his hands together, “Now Shredder’s got less mutagen to mess with.” 

“There was already so little though, does anyone else find that strange?” Donnie asked, eying up the two in Raphs bag, “He usually transports more at a time…” 

“Well maybe he’s actually learning a thing or two about messing with us” Raph shoved the bag into Donnies arms, startling him slightly and nearly causing the bag to drop entirely. Don looks like he’s about to explode when,

“Dude! You think they’re scared of us?” Mikey leaps back into the conversation, literally, he’s jumped on Raph’s back causing him to practically throw Mikey right back off. 

“Hey! That-”

“Guys hold on a second” April brings a finger to her temple, for a second a scene from space heroes plays in his head, the one where- “I’m sensing something.” 

“What is it?” Leo asks, everyone draws nearer to her as if attracted by some cosmic force. 

It is a sight to behold, Leo thinks, despite being a talking mutant turtle, he still finds it so cool that April has actual super powers. She clenches her eyes together, head slightly twitching side to side like a cockroaches antennae, he keeps that thought to himself. Her head eerily moves up, slowly turning to the side of the roof. 

“Someone’s watching us” 

Leo follows her eye line to the billboard at the far off corner of the roof. He can’t see what it's advertising since from their perspective it’s only the wooden panel back but Leo’s ran on these roofs long enough to know there’s just about enough room for someone to stand on the other side. He places a finger on his lips, shushing up the others, then starts to draw one of his katanas out-

“Damn, they weren’t kidding about ya’ powers” 

Oh, it’s him.

The unfortunately familiar static infused voice belonging to no other than Rakkī Kyū infested the air. Leo's hand rushes towards his katana’s handle, gripping the leather tightly. He hasn’t seen him since their last fight over Shredder’s helmet weeks ago. He carefully watches Kyū's biker-esque helmet rise out from atop then over the billboard as he perches on it, delicately balancing his body on its thin frame, difficult since now he’s got some tactical backpack on. It’s near insulting how calm he looks sitting up there, he’s completely outnumbered, outweaponed, out-everything and he’s swinging his feet!

“What do you want? A rematch?” Raph pushes him aside, pulling out his sais positioning himself for the attack but Kyū doesn’t move, he actually looks quite comfortable ugh . 

“Rematch for what?” The static infused voice grates against Leo’s ears, can’t the guy speak without the mask? 

“The helmet?!” Leo shouted, 

Distantly behind him he hears April ask, “Who’s this guy?” 

“Oh hey!” he quickly turns his head to her, though the movement is small it’s very clear he isn’t paying a lot of attention to them. What is this to him? Some friendly chat? He’s waving his hand to her, “Name’s Rakkī Kyū-” he turns his head back to him and Raph “-and that was a fight? Dude, I only wanted my Dad’s helmet back. Ya could’ve just handed it over-”

“Oh! Are you part of Daft Punk ?” Mikey pops a hand up, “When’s the next album out?” 

Leo quickly shoots a side eye before being drawn towards the gritty laughter coming from above.

“What? Daft Punk? My voice that good?-” 

“I give it a 6/10” 

“Donnie!” Leo twists to glare at Don, only receiving a shrug back,

“What I’m being honest-” 

“6 outta 10!? Dude This is homemade-”  

“What do you want?” Leo yells pointing his Katana up. Kyū hasn’t shown his face in weeks, he wouldn’t break that trend unless he wants, no, needs something. 

The silence stretches, only whispers of a sleeping New York accompany them. Kyū demeanor shifts, legs quit childishly swinging and arms grabbing one another in… mock comfort? Leo’s own Katana drops slightly, why’s he scared now? Shredder might’ve raised him but his biker suit doesn't hide the scrawny body, which isn’t winning a five vs one and he has to know that. Leo eyes dart to the surrounding rooftops, only now noticing the alarming amount of cover they provide. Faintly a voice reminds him how easy getting those mutagen canisters were… how little foot bots were guarding them. 

His grip tightens. 

“We need to talk” Kyū states jumping down onto the billboard platform, it keeps the slight height advantage but nothing compared to before. Before he can talk, Leo spots the slight shine of two Kamas half sheathed on both his hips, “About my sister.”

“Why does that sound familiar?” Leo barely misses April mumbling under her breath. Kyū’s talking about Karai, as if he knows something new about her, something they need. Boiling hot Jealousy bubbles up from his stomach, he wires his jaw shut, repeating in his mind that Karai and Kyū have been siblings long before she even knew they existed. It’s ok for him to call her his sister even if it hurts… And it hurts a lot.  

“She’s been taken by Tiger Claw.” Kyū fully drops down now, seemingly fully ignoring Leo’s katana in his face as he holds out a sheet of paper in the air between them for him to grab. Leo stares at it, is this a trap? some sorta to get his guard down?- 

Kyū flashes forward in a blink, Leo hears the loud slap before he feels the slight sting on the palm of his hand. He doesn’t even get a word in before Kyū swiftly retreats to the other end of the roof. He doesn’t remember fighting anyone with that speed since… The Shredder . 

Huh, guess he had to inherit something from the guy.

“jeez man, can’t bite ya with tha’ helmet on,” Kyū knocks his fist against his own head twice, twin clunks mockingly echo across the rooftop.

The paper audibly crinkles in Leo’s ever tightening grip, there’s a sick desire to tear it to pieces just to watch Kyū reaction. He doesn’t of course, that’ll end all chances to get Karai back too, so he stares into his own distorted reflection in that godawful helmet as the others step forward. When everyone peeking over his shoulder he unfolds it, neat Japanese in dark ink greeting him. “What’s it say?” April whispers, Leo realised she can’t read it so he clears his throat before beginning aloud, 

“Shredder. I ended your son, your daughter is next unless you meet my demands. You know where to find me. Midnight Thursday, any earlier or later and she dies. Tiger Claw ” 

“Dark right?” Kyū crosses his arms.

“That’s tonight!” Donnie snatches the paper out of Leo’s hands bringing it closer to his eyes as if some hidden message was written between the ink.

“Jeez” Mikey breathed out, “that’s not good”

“Yeah,” April adds, looking up. “What does he want?”

“Dunno,” Kyū Shrugs, “but if I have tah guess? He wants control of the Foot.” He’s leaning against a square metal vent, arms crossed and shoulders relaxed. If it’s meant to make him look ‘unaffected’, it’s blatantly failing. The erratic tapping of his foot, and his hands twitching are dead giveaways. 

It forces Leo to pause for a single moment, Kyū as annoying as he is, has come to them undeniably for their help. Not the foot or the Kraang or even his Dad, but to them. He’s vulnerable and currently at their complete mercy.  

“And you think Shredder will just give it to ‘em?” Leo asked, ignoring his own mind.

“Yep.” Kyū answered,

“Really? Just like that?” 

“Yep. ”

“Really?” Leo has to emphasize, 

“Ugh, it might be news to you but my Dad cares about us, and that's the part that scares me,” Somehow Leo can feel Kyū molten hot glare through the helmet straight into his skull, “he’ll give up everything to get her back.” 

Sure, Leo isn’t near as smart as Don is, however Leo is logical, he can spot direct lies and complete contradictions however despite hours upon hours of mediation he can’t see any in Karai’s previous or currently Kyū’s words. Karai’s came naturally with too much ease, even if it’s clear she was still withholding something, and Kyū's failed attempts at hiding his currently hunched in stance, which is making him completely vulnerable out in the open, screams a sense of desperation that just can’t be faked. 

Words immediately get caught in his throat, all of them arguing with each other over what to say, everyone else is silent too. Of course they are, what stands in front of them is apparently a complete rejection of all of what The Shredder is meant to be. The Shredder is meant to be a feared name, a fierce warrior who defeated them easily, a criminal leader of a deadly rival clan, a bloodthirsty killer… 

A father who deeply cares for his kids. 

Just like their Dad…

It makes Leo want to vomit, all the hate is returning, he wants to scream to Kyū that he is wrong . That the bad guy isn’t meant to be like this. That the Shredder isn’t meant to be like this. The man who murdered Tang Shen, Karai’s own mother shouldn’t have been the one to raise her, to actually care for her! So why, why does she forgive him? How can she when Leo himself can’t? 

A weight on his shoulder silences the thoughts, his hand grabs the offending newcomer only to be met with familiar, green scales with a bright red stripe as his clear vision returns. “Leo you back with us?” Raph voice calls from infront, as Leo is forced to recognise he’s still on the roof.

He peaks over Ralph’s shoulder and sees Kyū talking to Mikey of all people, he makes a move to pull him away. “It's cool” Raph begins, “if he tries anything he’s gotta face all of us.” 

“Besides if he wanted to I think you gave him a pretty good opening with the whole standing and staring, what was up with that by the way?” Donnie adds, watching Kyū , no wait, his eyes are on April beside Mikey. 

“Just thinking, this sounds like a trap-“

“Probably because it is” Raph emphasised, staring hard at the other group.

“ But I don’t know, I hate to say however if anyone knows Shredder the most it’s him, and if he’s right then-“

“Then what?” Raph yells quietly enough that the others don’t hear, “let’s let Shredder drop the foot ain’t that what we want? ” 

“And have of Tiger Claw take it over? We’ve seen what he can do so,if Karai’s right, having him run the foot would lead to a bloodbath.” 

“Oh so this is cause Karai said-“

“It’s because of what they both said! It lines up too well! If they were lying about it they’d trip up by now but have you seen a single time they do?!” Leo throws his head into his hands, it is so grating, this used to be easy! A villain to beat like in space heroes, now it’s all grey. 

“I’ll admit,” Donnie starts, “Kyū hasn’t shown his face outside of the whole Helmet thing-” 

“Don’t remind me” Leo mumbles.  

“-he wouldn’t break that streak unless he really needs too” 

“So he’s desperate,” Raph grins. 

“Likely.” 

“Kyū!” Leo calls out, drawing the masked guy and his brother out of their conversation, he nods towards him, “why do you have to come to us for help?”

“Cause ya seem to like her? Plus don’t ya also hate Tiger Claw?” 

“Yeah, but why us? Why not come up with a plan with your Dad? Or the Kraang” 

“Eww work with those stomach brains? No thanks.” Kyu visibly shudders, “as for my Dad, he’s uhh not so keen on letting me out right now.” 

“So you’re sneaking out right now?” Donnie shouted, and Kyū shrugged. 

“Woah hiding from the Shredder, epic” Mikey half whispers, getting a small laugh out of Kyū as he softly elbows Mikey, 

“Yeah, ‘epic’” he mimics,

Raph pulled a grin, pushing past Leo, “So if something were to happen to you-“ 

“My dad would hunt you down” 

“Eh could be worth a-“

“Raphael!” Leo gets between them, shooting Raph a mean look, “ok if we were to help you what would that entail?” 

“We shouldn't talk about it here, do you guys have some sorta uhh lair or something ? ” 

“Oh there's the truth! You wanna know where we live!” 

“Uhh… not really, more like I don’t want someone overhearing us more than they already have . And going to mine is out of the question since ya know, my Dad can’t know. Unless ya wanna go Aprils-” 

“You’re right” Leo spits out, “c’mon” he turns around throwing his arm in an over here motion, he spots Mikey practically start to drag Kyū by the arm, babbling about pizza recipes of all things. Donnie’s moved to April's side, ‘coincidentally’ between her and Kyū. Raph throws his arms out, 

“Seriously!? We’re actually gonna let him-” 

“Yes Raph, unless you got a brighter ideas” 

“Oh I got an idea-”

“No.”

“Oh you-”

“-Gotta be kidding me!” 

Casey, or well Kyū right now, hears Raph grumble from the front of the Shellraiser, he swears he can feel his finger on the ‘eject’ button even if his own back is faced towards the front window. Forced to by the agreement made between him and Leo, no seeing where the lair is, how they get there or how to get out of it, lest he knows where they live. Of course that doesn’t really matter since he’s been regularly visiting for the past month now but they don’t know that. 

“Then I put gummy bears and jalapenos on it!” Mikey spins him the tale of his many various pizza toppings, or as he dubbed his ‘Search for grand high ultimate super Pizza!!!’, he only gives slight nods which so far has been more than enough to keep him going. April’s besides the both of them, and he can feel her psychic knocking on his skull as she is trying to get some sorta read on his brain for the whole trip. He silently thanks his past self for actually listening to Shini’s ‘lessons’ (if you can call them that, felt like experiments on him half the time) on mental defenses, based on April’s annoyed face they must be working. 

“You should try mentaiko or nori” He finally says. 

Mikey pulls a questioning face, going so far as scratching his chin whilst thinking about it, April looks confused, “What?” 

“Oh it’s spicy cod roe and seaweed,” he answered her, “Karai liked Mochi too but I don’t like the chewiness” he decided it was best to leave out how his Dad liked the same New York pizza joint the turtles order at, they’ve had enough surprises surrounding him for one day.

He crosses his arms at the memories, late at night studying for exams with Karai when his Dad had important Foot work meant either leftovers or takeaways some nights. Sure they ran a whole crime empire but having people cook for you just felt weird for all of them. Plus his Dad’s paranoia of assassinations (valid in his eyes) meant trusting little to no one came near them let alone near their food without his overwhelming presence. 

Explains the whole lack of any real friends. 

It’s moments like those he really wishes his hockey mates actually cared about him, he thought Nick did but that ship sailed long ago. It sucks the most since it’s so fun to play with them and he’s good at it! Maybe in a different life he could’ve gone complete pro. His Dad would’ve let him he’s sure of it, although being a ‘celebrity’ would mean dropping the Foot, his family and he’s not doing that. He doesn’t blame any of them, friendship is a commitment, one he can't really make with normal people. So he’ll take whatever doomed friendship he can, for however long they last for. 

His sister comes first though.

“ Kyū ?” April asks his name,

“Huh?” 

“We’re here,” she turns him over to the open door, he sees the familiar garage and fakes novelty at the sight of Donnies experiments. 

“Tada! Welcome to the lair!” Mikey’s hands spread out across Donnie’s familiarly messy garage/lab, he looks around pretending to be taking it all in for the first time. Maybe there’s a new chemical bottle glowing or machine beeping somewhere but Casey hasn’t got a perfect memory to notice the subtle changes. However he keeps an eye out for whatever machine Donnie must use to get April’s DNA for retromutagen, the tiny vial round his next has laid incomplete for too damn long. “Check this out!” Mikey calls, waving a hand in front of the frozen mutagen man, god he can still feel the chills down his spine, he knows Donnie’s guilty but man does he have to have him in the open? Not even a cover? 

“Mikey!” Donnie pushes him away, now seemingly caring about covering up his… friend? 

“What just showing man the digs, Oh! You should see my room!” Mikey doesn’t wait, he grabs and pulls Casey’s hand so hard he almost topples over, pulling him through and straight out the room into the shared living area. It’s darker than normal, like an unwanted presence has taken root, he’s seeing through his helmet at the moment. He can hear the others shout behind them but doesn’t stop Mikey in his tracks, he’ll cling on to any trust he gets. Before he knows it he’s shoved through another door and sudden lights almost blind him.

He lowers his arm shield, having raised it to protect himself from the surprisingly harsh lights. Mikey's room is a near perfect reflection of the turtle, at least for what Casey knows about him. There's half torn, doodled on posters hung about every wall, a Bradford cutout ( ugh ) from when he was human, comics spewed on the floor, a half eaten pizza with toppings he honestly can’t name and too many articles of human clothing (is he stealing them or getting them straight out the dumpsters? Casey doesn’t know which is worse). It’s nice, despite the clear lack of tidiness, it’s a clear display of Mikey comfortably living here, enjoying being here, he imagines the other rooms must be similar reflections of the others, the only places they feel safe to live. He refuses to let that get taken away. 

(Mikey’s room also kinda reminds him of the first time he saw the Utrom terminal in that abandoned office building, in fact the whole room reminded him of Dimension X. Casey shivers at the reminder, a jab at the back of his head like an icepick comes and leaves just as fast)

“Whatcha think?” 

“It’s… amazing” Casey really says, in a tone which he prays Mikey can tell is honest, by the way the turtle head lights up it seems like he’s got it right. 

“Really?”

“Really, it’s so you dude-“

“Mikey!” Raph busts through the door, grabbing his arm trying to pull him out the room but Mikey follows suit gripping his other arm and yanking the opposite way. He feels like a toy being fought over by two kids, “Mikey! How many times I gotta tell ya to stop being an idiot!

“Hey I was only showing our brother-cousin around dude!” 

“What?” Raph shouts, his hand going slack with shock and Casey takes the opportunity to push him off, Mikey luckily let's go on his own. “What are you talking about?” 

“Well Kyū is Karai’s brother and Karai’s our sister so that makes him our brother too!” Mikey explains, hands waving so vividly Casey imagines their family tree forming around him weird lines and all. “But he’s also Shredder's son, and since Shredder is Dad’s brother that makes Kyū our cousin. So, brother-cousin! Duh!” 

Mikey’s hands fall on his hips with a prideful look, a wide smile shown off to them. Casey spots the others in the doorway, probably having run up with Raph, they also look to be baffled by the term. The reasoning is clear, if a little unsound with relying on both Splinter accepting Shredder and Karai accepting them. Whatever happens, Casey can’t stop his heart pounding from the idea of actually being considered family to them, even if it’s only Mikey. 

Yeah, he doesn’t think he would mind being their ‘brother-cousin’ . 

“Ok… that happened? Let’s just get to-“ 

“Are those blades on your legs?!” Mikey shouts dramatically pointing towards Casey’s thigh and gasping. He isn’t pointing at anything; since his last fight with Tiger Claw he’s added some… ‘new additions’ to his suit. A precaution really, in case someone comes too close again. Blades , hundreds of tiny razor sharp blades not as show-offy as his fathers but definitely taking inspiration from him. “Woah!” Mikey leans forward bringing a finger up close to them.

“Don’t! You’ll cut yourself!” Casey steps back nearly tripping over some leftover pizza. “They're sharp!” 

“Ugh! We don’t have time for-“

Leo quickly stops talking, his attempt at changing the subject stalled when a large shadow looms over him. Casey swears his own heart actually does stop this time. It shouldn’t, he’s been prepping for this since he begged his dad to remain friends with the turtles, but it stops regardless. 

“Dad!” 

Shit-

Splinter heard the incoming ruckus from all the way in the Dojo. He honestly thought Donnetello had sound proofed the lab ages ago but alas, his mediation is once again interrupted. Then again, his rat hearing is beyond that of his previous human self. He’s glad the reason is pure however, his sons are home safe unlike his daugh-

He pauses his thoughts, as much as it pains him like no other pain he’s experienced before, Karai isn’t Miwa, not anymore. She was raised by Saki , and shockingly from her own words raised well. The only brother she accepts right now is the one raised alongside her, Rakki Kyū. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t want her safe, so he hasn’t intervened with any of Leo’s attempts to find her. 

Crash! 

He sighs, getting up from the comfortable shade of the tree to attend to whatever new conflict has arisen between his sons, they have returned early afterall. He spots them, plus April gathered round the entrance to Mikey’s room, Raph’s shouts bleeding out over their heads. He steps through them, hearing slight gasps and even a warning from Donnie, warning? What for-

“Dad!”

Oh, he sees. 

Between Raph and Mikey stands a new figure he hasn’t seen before but has definitely heard about. He’s slightly shorter than Donnie, cloaked in thick, black biker gear hiding what must be a rather skinny frame, Splinter notes the brand is Japanese, the same one Saki liked all those years ago. He always held an interest in bikers and cars, though never went anywhere with it. 

Rakki Kyū, the adoptive son of the Shredder, is standing in the middle of his youngest son's bedroom. 

“Uh Dad! I can explain!” Leo starts up again, Splinter holds up an hand gently silencing him as he’s walking past both him and Raph to be right in front of,

“ Rakki Kyū, correct?” 

“Uh, yeah! Yeah… that’s me uh you can just call me Kyū ” the boy stutters out through the biker helmet covering his entire head, not a shred of skin pokes out. He slightly bows down and jabs out his hand for a shake, the odd mitch-match of greetings only seems to only make his shoulder shake even more. 

He’s nervous, very nervous. 

Splinter takes his hand, shaking it softly, if only to break the tension between them, taking note of the light reflecting off the boy’s legs… tiny razor blades are scattered across. He speaks gently as to not spook the boy any more than his mere presence clearly has, 

“Why are you here?” 

Like a light switch the boy's demeanour changes, his shoulders harden to a stone statue and his camouflaged voice stops its stuttering, “My sister- Karai is being held for ransom by Tiger Claw. He wants the foot and once he gets it he won’t stop till all of us are gone.” 

Ah, it makes sense, he hasn’t heard of the boy's actual activities outside of the helmet incident, and when Karai was on the phone with him. Donnetello passes a note over which he quickly reads, Tiger Claws ultimatum, “I see, and you’ve come to us for help?” 

“My father won’t let me near, he thinks i’m ‘too hurt’-“ he flicks his fingers up mockingly before crossing his arms, “-but I ain’t! Besides there ain’t no way that pussycat is gonna be keepin’ his side of the deal.” 

“A trap then?” 

“Yeah,” For a second Splinter spots Michelangelo sending Kyu a confused look as he talks, but keeps whatever he’s thinking in his head. (He raised his sons since they mutated, he knows when they’re hiding things, especially someone as naturally expressive as Michelangelo.) “It's exactly why I need your guys' help. Tiger Claw sent the message to my dad , he won’t be expectin’ you.” Kyū's voice raises to a shout, “Ya know, I bet he tryna split us apart ‘cause it'll be easier to take us all down!”

He immediately notices the volume and lowers it with a meek “ah, sorry.”

“It’s fine. Are you sure of his intention?” 

“Yes! He hates you guys almost as much as he hates the Kraang-”

“That must be why he’s against you! Cause you’re working with the Kraang!” Donnie states from near the entrance, everyone’s slowly moved in at this point, turning Michelangelo’s room into a place of discussion much to the turtle's annoyance. 

“We’re not working with the Kraang!” Kyū is back to shouting, “we’d never work with them!” 

“Oh really?” Raph pushes forward, 

“Yeah really! We’re only with ‘em so we know what they’re doing!”

“Anyone else really believe that?” 

“The mutagen you just got, tell me how many foot bots were defending it?” 

“Like eight?” Donnetello speaks up, Splinter keeps himself quiet, observing is easier than probing for answers himself besides it looks like Kyū is more comfortable talking to his sons than himself.

“Eight! For two whole canisters of Mutagen?! When we know you guys are also after it?” Kyū's voice drags like a teacher prompting their students, it’s undeniably an interesting sight having all his nervousness leave in place of spilling the trick. 

“You understaffed it on purpose! You wanted us-”

“-To get the mutagen out of the Kraang hands!” Leonardo finishes Donatello's sentence for him receiving a small glare from him in return. 

“Plus one to Leo!-” Plus one? ”-We faked being low on resources ‘n programmed my bots to be louder than normal and tada! Four turtles for the pick up, oh and April too.” Kyū explained. 

“Your bots?” Donatello barely mumbled underneath his breath, it seems like Kyū about to answer however,

“So you laid bait for my sons?” Splinter finally speaks again, he tries to keep his voice low but the knowledge that someone, in the foot, had successfully lured his sons somewhere, seemingly easily should he add, doesn't sit right with him. (even if it wasn’t a trap per se)

“Uh sounds bad when you say it like that nhehe… it wasn’t a trap! Swear it! I wanted your sons to have the mutagen!” 

“How do you know they want the mutagen?”

“Lucky guess?” He shrugs, it seems to be a habit of his, similar to Mikey’s frantic hand movements. In fact he noticed throughout this entire conversation the boy's arms have been twitching like he wants to move them about, why hide such movements? He must know he’s lost most of his mystery by now. “I mean I think we both don’t want any in the Kraang hands, right?… right?” 

It's definitely reasonable with what knowledge he must get from being in the foot, and maybe Splinter would’ve fully believed it if it wasn’t for the way the boy nervously stood in front of him, begging to be believed. Clearly he’s scared out of his mind though he tries to hide it behind the curated look. The fear itself is easily explained by the fact he’s deep in enemy territory, but Splinter can’t help feeling like there’s something more to it. A strange voice in the back of his mind is screaming there’s something incredibly vital he’s missing, just out of his grasp.  

Splinter abruptly nods at the boy then turns to walk out of Mikey's room, he’ll need more time to think it over later, right now there’s something more important “let us plan Karai’s rescue in the Dojo.” 

“Us?” Kyū sound’s confused as he echo’s Splinter. He starts walking behind him, keeping a good distance between. Said walking has unconsciously brought the others to start following behind him, finally bringing everyone out of Mikey’s room. 

“If Karai is in danger, I won’t sit around.” 

“You do know my dad is gonna show right? The guy you hate?” 

Splinter freezes, thoughts- memories swarm his mind. Some good some… not. Slowly, he turns around to the boy (his nephew?) his own mind racing about with clear reasons to but… “I don’t hate him.” 

“Ya don’t? Sorry I missed that with the whole Shredder’s evil stuff ya sons talk about.” 

“We don’t!” A shout from far back,

“You got his face stuck on a punching bag Raph!”

“It is true.” Splinter interrupts before this becomes another shouting match, “I didn’t have good opinions of him, I foolishly believed he hadn’t changed in the many years I last saw him. I believed the moment he heard of me being alive he’d try to kill me” 

Kyū's own posture slows, arms dropping in… shock? It’s hard to fully tell with the helmet on. “Eh, it’s chill especially since ya’ know …” Splinter very much does, “plus he kinda did want you dead for a bit anyway, but that was ‘cause he thought you were training some ‘mutant army’ against him. Nheh, Sounds stupid when I say it aloud but, can’t argue when there’s giant turtles on the big screen ya dig?.” 

“See! So you can’t blame us for hatin’ him!” Raph shouts,

“But! He stopped chasin’ ya when he figured it out!” He defends, “besides ain’t it’s always you guys trashin’ our plans and we can’t just roll over ‘n take it! What’s that gonna look like to the Kraang?” 

“You’re a criminal organisation!” Donnie yells over Raph. 

“Ok ok! I’ll give you that one.” The boy's hands are finally released, going up in a surrender motion, ”Let’s get on track, we’re here about Karai. If we’re to rescue her, we need a game plan like yesterday .” 

The second all the planning was over, Mikey snatched Kyū hand, ignoring the half yells of the others as he dragged him to the center of the lair, finishing the journey by gently shoving him onto the couch. He doesn’t get it, why is everyone acting so serious? Kyū is in their home sure, but it’s their home - he ain’t got any power here! Besides Mikey’s got the feeling they’d already be in deep trouble if Kyū really was bad. 

So since they have some free time till the actual mission starts, he’d like to get to know his brother-cousin a bit more, and not have his room invaded again, thank you! Besides, he saw how tense Kyū has been since Dad came into the picture, which won’t be good before a mission, believe him he knows. So Mikey puts the TV on as background noise playing a rerun of Space Heroes, something ‘normal’ or as normal as it is to watch next to a mutant turtle.

“What's this?” 

“What’s this?” Mikey repeats Kyū's question, there’s no way- “Dude you’ve never seen space heroes?!” 

“I don’t think it aired in Japan? Or well we never much-”

“-Dude it’s the best! My favourite episode is when Commander Grundch gets replaced by a fake at the beginning and they had to watch everyone slowly figure it out! It’s so obvious it’s him but they don’t notice!” 

He seems to still for a second, “Nheh wow… seems like a pretty cool episode-” 

“It’s the best episode!” Mikey watches Kyū body language in the corner of his eye, noting wherever theres a minor shift in his breathing or twitch of the finger, he’s currently has his arms crossed however, unlike Raph, he isn’t doing it because he’s angry, Mikey can tell it’s a self comfort thing but he doesn’t comment on it. “What did you used to watch then?” 

“Hm? Oh we used to watch stuff like Detective Conan , Dragon Ball … to be honest we didn’t watch a lot of TV” 

“Shredder not allow you?” 

“No! We just had other stuff to do, like training or studying-”

“Studying bleh!”

“Yeah it sucked but when you’re fast tracked to get a uni degree at thirteen you gotta study and study hard. ” 

“Wait, you got a University degree? Like a bachelor?” Donnie stops behind them, when did he get there? Had he been watching them?! “In what?” 

“Mechanical engineering, Karai’s got one theoretical physics,” 

“You’re lying- ” 

“-For what?” Kyū leans on the back of the couch, lazily glazing at Donnie who stands above, but Mikey doesn’t miss the erratic tapping on his foot, “Who do you think made the footbots?”

“You made them?!” Donnie's question is laced with shock, Mikey can remember it being mentioned quickly earlier. 

“With my Dad, and I might have… borrowed a few things from the Kraang too, only minor things” 

“So you made that big bot that tried to kill us?” Donnie crosses his own arms snidely. 

“Ok you can’t blame me for that, Karai took him out before he was ready!” Kyū shouts, “If she just waited for me to safeguard it! Agh! No wonder it went after her…” He mumbles the last part,

“...Safeguard?” 

“Yeah, ya’know make them nonlethal? …Wait ya thought they were that weak?” Despite Kyū's static voice his shock is clear, he turns his entire body around so he’s sitting on the couch sideways. “Ya joking right?” 

“What does nonlethal mean?” Mikey asks to ease the thick tension in the room, he spots April eavesdropping from the kitchen. 

“Means they ain’t tryin’ to kill yah” 

“Why… Why do you make them nonlethal?” Donnie asks slowly, 

“Cause we don’t want to kill you? Kinda says it on the can” 

“Why?” 

“Cause ya’ ain’t older than me ‘n Karai! Why would we want to kill you?” 

“Cause we’re opposing Clans?!” 

“Dude there’s what? Five, six of you? Some clan… I mean the only ‘problem’-” he motions with his fingers, “-there is, is the one my Dad got with yours.” 

Donnie explodes, “So what, he’ll be perfectly fine if our dad’s dead!?” 

Silence washed over the lair, no one dared make any noise for a solid minute. Mikey could only glance awkwardly between the two, Donnie’s harsh glare and Kyū's chest is rising and falling quickly, his hands fidget before he finally breaks it. 

“If i’m bein’ honest, I don't think he wants to… ya’ know” Kyū the most quiet he’s ever seen, honestly the loudness of his voice has been the main thing Mikey’s used to judge his mood beyond subtle gestures here and there. But he can hear the stutters through the static. “I- I don’t think, I don’t think he wants to kill your Dad anymore.” 

“What made him change his mind?” Mikey dares to ask, ignoring the moment when Donnie’s rude gaze switches to him for a moment (it’s fine, he’s more than used to his brothers being stern) he almost dares to reach and hold Kyū hand for comfort, the reminder there’s no different in age really brings to light how fucked of a situation they’re in. 

“Dunno… he didn’t care about all this-” He refers to everything around him, “Til he saw you guys and thought about the whole army thing. Before that he… he never really mentioned Yos- your dad outside of…”

“Outside of what?” Donnie prompts, his face softening a fraction, 

“I- back in Japan before everything… We thought Splinter was dead. We had a photo of him on a Shinto altar. We took it off when we found out the truth of course but… my dad didn’t throw out the photo.” 

“Oh…” 

Donnies entire posture switches like a… light switch, changing from being akin to Raph’s simmering outbursts to more a softer look, it’s clear the confession has taken him for a loop just as much as it’s taken Mikey. Didn’t Shredder try to kill Dad? Why would he bother with mourning him, let alone honouring him on a Shinto altar. 

“Mhm, let’s just drop it now, ok?” Kyū turns away from Donnie, staring at the rolling credits of the episode. His head pivots to Mikey, and he’s quickly forced to change his expression when he sees how concerned it looks in the warped reflection, luckily Kyū doesn’t comment on it, instead asking, “What’s the next episode about?” 

Mikey rushes to the pile of tapes next to the TV, picking a lighthearted episode about a space festival, not his favourite but definitely top five. He hears steps slowly get lighter as Donnie walks towards his lab. 

He doesn’t say anything when he spots Leo, Raph and even Splinter poking their head through the Dojo doors on his way back to the couch. With how loud Donnie got he wouldn’t be surprised if people on the surface heard them. He jumps onto the space next to Kyū making him bounce a little off the couch too. He spots how harshly Kyū gripping his forearms, they both need a distraction. He presses play and does what he does best, rambling,

“So in this episode Captain Ryan crashes them on another planet and they need to leave but there’s this festival on and…” 

April sneakily glares at the Rakki Kyū from the kitchen island. Her fingers twitch and electrons fire in her head as she tries once again to pry into his head. All attempts so far had led her straight into a brick wall, a completely new feeling for her. Sure she doesn’t go around jumping into people's heads willy-nilly but whenever she does, either into the Kraang or someone clearly offering, their minds are a simple reflection of themselves. Donnie’s is an organised closet, neatly folded clothes with shoes that don’t match, Mikey’s unexplainable chaos, Leo and Raph are both surprisingly similar but still strikingly different at the same time. She peeked into Splinters once, however his is a heavily locked safe, which makes sense considering everything she’s heard about him. 

But when she looks in Rakki Kyū is a wall, an impeachable, unbreakable brick wall blocking every thought and feeling from escaping or in her case anyone getting in. It’s a slap in the face, reminding her ‘hey maybe you shouldn’t be poking your nose in places it isn’t wanted?’ , but how can a seemingly normal human block her out anyway? So she ignores the voices, this is her chance to find out something about the oh so mysterious ‘son of Shredder’ that’s got everyone’s energy twisted. (She doesn’t know how else to describe it, so she’s stealing words from the girls obsessed with horoscopes in her math’s class. Deep down she wishes she was only worried about mercury being in retrograde, whatever that means.)

(A horrible part of her hoped the wall would drop during the whole talk with Don about his dad, but she shoves the feeling so deep down she’ll need a submarine to get to it.)

She closes her eyes, breathes then slowly chips at it, pokes the bricks for a loose spot, there’s gotta be one somewhere, there always is. Subtly placing two fingers to her temple, it helps, don’t ask her how, April really thinks hard, imagining the whole wall crumbling down into rubble. However it remains tall, immovable and strong, she pushes her temple enough to bruise as she psychically grabbing a sledgehammer and raising it high-

“Hey April!” 

“Mikey!” She shouts, throwing her hand underneath the kitchen island, her nerves shoot upright when she notices Kyū is standing right next to him. Shit, she must’ve been so focused she didn’t even hear them, and why is Mikey so obsessed with ‘hanging out’ this guy? Why the hell is he letting him? “What’s up?” 

“Gonna grab a quick pre-‘mission snack, oh and Kyū gotta meet Ice Cream Kitty!” Mikey says, opening the cupboards for one of his many ‘secret’ stashes of snacks. 

“Right… How are you Kyū ?” She tries being nice, maybe he’ll drop those walls a bit if she is. 

“Good.” He states, sitting on the stool opposite to her, how he does without cutting himself with the newly discovered razors sowed into his pants she doesn’t know. “You?” 

“Good.” 

Silence takes over, besides the clanks of Mikey moving jars and boxes of many different kinds of food. April stares at his helmet, slightly twitching her head about to see if the lighting above will show some of his real face; it doesn’t, not even a little bit. Mikey eventually pops back up, placing a sandwich with an incomprehensible combination of ingredients, he takes a bite before she can even count the amount of different things in there. “Wait! I gotta add jelly beans!” Mikey shouts, turning to race out to his room leaving her alone with Kyū . 

Great , even though he can be a bit much, she wishes Donnie was here. He has hundreds of questions for him yet Leo physically pulled him away for mission planning, making him hack into the building plans and CCTV cameras for Tiger Claws new base, and well, she doesn’t blame him for not wanting to be near after that talk.

“How’s the psychic stuff?” 

“You know about that!?” How does he-

“I ‘work’-” he flickers two fingers up and down on both hands sarcastically, “- with the Kraang, I was able to look at a couple of your files.” 

Her own heart nearly stops, how much does the Foot know about them? How much of that relates specifically to her? And how much could be about… She bites her lip, stomach twisting when the words leave her mouth, but she has to ask, “Was there anything about my mother?” 

He stills, then his shoulders drop, “Sorry, they kept nothing on her-” 

In a split second she dived deep into his mind, searching for any hint of a lie, but she only came face to face with that damn brick wall again, she tries harder to knock even a brick out of place, something- anything to have a peek-

“Hey, quit it!” 

“Uhh quit what?” 

“Trying to read my mind, it’s annoying-”

“Wait, how do you-?” 

“April I can feel it.” 

“How? No one’s ever before!” Except once with Kraang Prime, but that was her fault for being loud. Kyu crosses his arms as he leans in, overhead light harshly bouncing off his helmet. 

“Me ‘n Karai got a friend back in Tokyo,” He whispers, “she's a witch. ” 

“Psh no way,” Like she’ll believe that supernatural stuff isn’t real. He almost jumps up, entire body straightening out and he waves an arm out,

“April you’re genetically engineered by aliens from another dimension and you’re friends with mutants but you draw the line at witches? Seriously?” 

“Ok, ok you got a point there- How’d her being a witch help with that though?” 

“She taught the both of us how to block out spells that do the same, turns out magic and psychic stuff aren’t too different.” She nods, not fully believing it because… well with all the other craziness happening in her life learning those girls in her class waving crystals about might actually be onto something is just another problem to add to the growing stack, what’s next? Time travel? vampires and werewolves? “So… Can ya stop?” 

“Uh sure” It’s so blatantly awkward she can feel it in the air, 

“Good, ya should be careful with that ya know? I mean do you scout before you dive in or…?” 

“That’s not how it works, if I’m in the mind I’m in there.” 

“Yeah but you know what you’re even looking for? Like do you have a specific goal you’re shootin’ for? Or do you just… jump in?” 

“It’s a mix?”

“Right… that can’t be good-”

“How would you know?” she shouts, how does he think he is? “Cause no offence but it’s not like you can do it.” 

“Hey! I’ve seen enough Mahō Shōjo with magic power going haywire to know when somethin’ ain’t right!” He shouts, but quickly lowers his voice back down, “look I ain’t gonna force ya’ just don’t go jumping into random people's minds- you might see something you don’t like.” 

“I’ve been kidnapped by the Kraang and almost experimented on, I think I can handle a few ‘bad memories’” 

“Oh really?”

“Really.” She doubles down because yeah, she’s been through hell these past months since the first Kraang kidnapping so some poor memories and bad experiences of the average person won’t bother her at all.

“Well it doesn’t matter if ya can handle it- who do you think ya are poking into people's minds anyway?” 

Oh, who does she think she is ? Who does he think he is! As if he didn’t just waltz up asking for their help! Now he’s policing her powers! Maybe he didn’t expect her to come along but damnit she’s helping him, the least he can do is stop being so- so egotistical! “You don’t go skating into people’s minds, right?” 

“What’s it to you?” She doesn’t, unless she and Donnie are doing some experiments on each other or someone willing (usually Mikey), none of which have really worked out so far. He’s so… different, a wildcard who for all she knows could be plotting to betray them the second he gets his sister back, a risk none of them can afford. 

“Listen, I know ya wanna know things- I’ll tell ya anything ya wanna know-”

“What’s your real name then Rakki Kyū?-” her voice pitches at his name, it’s a fake and she knows it, everyone knows it, “-Since you seemingly know everything about us. ” 

“Ok everything ‘cept that. Look you can find out about my ‘real’-” He flicks his fingers up and down again, “-identity once the whole Kraang stuff is dealt with, till then no reading my damn mind deal?” 

He holds his hand out for a shake, she doesn’t take it instead she peers into where his eyes should be and sneakily tries to pry into there again. She doesn’t have to listen to him, the oh so high and mighty son of Shredder , coming into here causing chaos, saying she’s wrong! Why’s he so guarded? If this is some sorta truce then what’s he got to hide? His hand shakes in the air, she doesn’t take any notice she can feel the wall crack under her gaze, she stares harder and harder until a brick falls out of place leaving a miniscule hole behind. She lunges to peek through it, she needs something to hold over him- something anything to bring them to a closer level she can’t stay being near useless - 

Darkness, the shattering of glass reflected on the ground, fractures lodged into her arm and her head, both hurt so much, too much. She looks towards her arm and it’s bent at an angle it isn’t meant to be, blood pours down to the floor as a shadow takes over, she doesn’t move her head on her own will but her surroundings itself move, a blurry undetailed room smear until she’s face to face with the cause of the shadow. It bleeds a warmth so hot it burns but she only focuses on the silhouette- Shredder’s helmet .

She’s back in the kitchen, Kyū hand is outstretched, violently shaking and instinctively she reaches into his mind again only to find the wall entirely repaired, cracked but there’s no holes in sight. April's hand grips the table enough to crack it, every blink takes her back to that room, it’s hazy and every time she blinks it gets less and less detailed until there's only one thing left, a primal emotion and it’s fear . 

It’s an old memory, the one she remembers Karai spoke about when she came here. 

“Happy now?” Even through the disguised, Kyū voice is scattered across the air, the broken words barely making out his mouth, 

“I- I’m sorry I-” She doesn’t know what to say, it was only meant to be a bit, she would’ve never purposely gone there. She only needed enough to- to what? Blackmail him? “I’m sorry I shouldn’t’ve-”

“Yeah ya shouldn’t have” Kyū spits out, “I trusted ya but ya kept diggin’. Listen I get it, I’m the enemy, ya got no reason to trust me and ya probably want something over me so I don’t do anythin’ stupid- but I ain’t given you a reason to not trust me, am I?” the words are being rushed out, “I can’t help it that my Dad’s Shredder.” 

“I-” Her will to argue deteriorates with every passing second she sees Kyū hunched posture,  “you’re right, I should’ve stopped- Sorry. What- what even was that?”

“A memory, ah bad one. Look I’m sorry too, all this talk about my Dad and not wanting you to see things made me think… well… ya know.”

“And that was?” She blurts out before she can stop herself, it makes her want to scream- “only if you wanna say I mean-”

“It was when my Dad found me, didn’t Karai tell ya?” 

“Yeah she uh, told us he saved you from an abusive home.” 

“Well that's it isn’t it? Ain’t gonna be pretty” 

Her gut twists as a part of her guiltily admits maybe she isn’t built to see peoples worst moments, their darkest memories. Hell she doesn’t even like thinking about when her Dad was kidnaped or mutated or some other bad shit that’s happened to her. Why would she want to see bad shit too? But she has to, if she wants to be useful, at least until her fighting gets better, it’s the least she can do. 

“Let’s just forget this happened, yeah? If you stop tryna’ read my mind I won’t bring this up and we can forget about this” Once again he extends his hand out, it’s shaking way less than before however there’s an uneven sway to it, “Deal?” 

“Deal” She doesn’t wait to take his hand, forgetting about this is the best option otherwise she doesn’t think she could face the Shredder again without the flashes of that apartment going through her mind. 

“What’s up fellas! What’d I miss?” Mikey bursts in carrying a whole armfull of sweets, some fall to the ground with little taps. He’s a good distraction to the conversation, almost too good for timing wise but she’ll let it go in favour of breaking the newly made tension, Kyū is seemingly on the same page as he points and asks about the more obscure sweets. Now's a better time than ever, she sits up with an excuse to check on the others and speed walks out the kitchen, their talking quickly becoming background noise. 

There was something undeniably off about the conversation they had, other than her seeing that. Something she should question him about when she gets the time, if she gets the time- she pauses in her footsteps, Karai was taken by Tiger Claw immediately after her and the turtles left the lair, according to them they were running across the rooftops when they were ambushed and she was taken. Just them, no one else, not even a phone call…

So how the hell did Kyū know about what she said?

“Are you sure you can’t bring any foot bots?” Donnie peers through the lens of his homemade binoculars at the abandoned warehouse from a nearby rooftop. They’d been scoping out this place for the past hour via grainy CCTV, in person is obviously better but Kyū had made it clear the risk of Tiger Claw spotting them wasn’t worth it. The heat signatures, from his sights, show the orange blurs of two figures. There’s something else he can’t fully make it out, damn rushed ‘trash home-made’ binoculars can only take him so far. Leo and Rakki Kyū are crouched beside them, together they make up this mission ‘A’ team, with team ‘B’ being composed of Splinter, April, Raph, and Mikey, who are currently at the ground floor at the opposite end of the building.  

“Tiger Claw would see it coming a mile away, he has a knack for that stuff.” Kyū answers, his helmet not straying from the building, does it have heat vision built in? 

“And you’d know that because…?”

“He’s the greatest assassin in all of Asia, you think you get a title like that without having a knack for these things?” 

His synthesised voice bleeds through the helmet, cloaking his real one in robotic tones, not too dissimilar to the Kraang, are they using the same voice box? He scowls, despite their closeness he can’t see anything through the black screen separating them. It sucks, because with exactly one semi-good image of a face, and a well trained AI, he could get a lot out of the city’s many CCTV cameras. (Karai, shockingly didn’t leave the foots base much, at least if she did she must’ve disguised herself well, that or New York CCTV camera needs a massive upgrade) 

Oh Einstein what he wouldn’t give to just have a peek inside the helmet, just a little one, enough to see how the wires connect. He doesn’t even care for the face underneath, it’s the smart thing to hide his face in public (he won’t mention that out loud,) it’s something he wishes his brothers could do but the whole mutant turtle's physique would ruin it immediately.  

That’s not even mentioning Foot bots themselves, he’s already had his fair share of deconstructing them, alongside the Kraang droids, well any his brothers annoying don’t beat way beyond broken, their architecture and hardware are practically second nature to him now, the software however seemingly deletes itself moments before the robots ‘die’, smart but so damn annoying (he tried ‘kidnapping’ a bot once, the second he got the head open the code was gone, some failsafe must be implemented to erase it once the bots are too damaged or broken into.). None of that compares to doing analysis with the creator! A primary source with no guesswork, and someone who actually knows what each wire does!

“Donnie?” Leo taps his shoulder knocking the thoughts out his head, 

“Huh what? what?”

“We’re sneaking in, gotta get to Tiger Claw before Shredder does.”

“Right. There's a vent up top we can slide through there” 

Leo nods, turning to Kyū who also nods before they all make their way to the vent. 

Taking the vent cover off is easy, so is climbing in, it's the crawling through without making too much sound that’s the issue, but they manage, keeping their shells low and their knees light against the thin metal. They drop out on top of some tall shelves, the type that holds crates from ships. The warehouse itself could fit three floors in it, though judging from the obvious spread of wood rot across the support beams nobody has been here for decades. A blinding light bleeds from the corner of his eyes, a tiny robotic gasp is heard, Donnie turns over to the glow and his eyes are blown wide.

Mutagen, a whole lot of mutagen . 

It’s way more than when they found that worm thing, the Kraathatrogan’s, being milked in the old subway. It’s enough to fill a pool with the stuff, it looks like the only source of light in the entire room cause no other is needed, it’s that bright. Honestly if he wasn’t seeing it with his own eyes he would’ve thought it impossible, such a reactive concoction would’ve already formed bonds with the surrounding area, like with the mushrooms or trash man. Following some large cables leads Donnie’s eyes to a Kraang-like terminal, it must control the flow of mutagen, having that much would lead to disaster if not properly disposed of after a mutation.

But that isn’t even the worst thing. Held only by a thin iron chain high above the green ooze pool is Karai, locked in an iron cage, she hasn’t spotted any of them yet. The rusted chain holding her above the ooze pool is connected to some pull system, just one wrong push or snap and it drops her down. He shudders, with that much mutagen would she even mutate into something? Or would she become Timothy 2.0? He watches her visibly struggle against the metal, screaming even though her mouth is bound making them muffled. Even if she frees her hands and feet from their locks she’d never escape the bars before Tiger Claw releases that chain. 

Oh no , Donnie’s gut twists and an awful part of him thinks- knows that even if Tiger Claw gets his way, Karai might be going in for a dip regardless. 

They have to get her out of there, but how? 

“Look!” Leo whispers, nudging his shoulder as all three of them lay down on the top shelf, heads poking out. 

“Are you kidding me!” Kyū loudly whispers, Donnie can sense his anger through the helmet as he peers down to see what they’re both looking at.

Footbots , different from the normal ones, instead of their regular, humanish styled heads, a large ugly box is placed starting on their forehead, wrapping around to the back of their head, ending below where their ears would be. It’s gnarly, and so are their movements, no longer smooth and calculated but now janky like they’re learning to walk for the first time. “That damn pussycat! When I get my hands on him I’ll-“ 

“Sush!” Leo shoots a glare at Kyū who actually cowards slightly, strange, “that’s a new problem we’ll deal with, Karai is still the priority” Kyū only nods back, face not moving from Karai, it really sucks she isn’t looking their way, not that she’d spot them in the near dark anyway.

Donnie scans over the other side, team B are meant to be coming in on the ground floor through a boarded up window. They don’t know about the controlled, not foot, bots (so just bots then?) but he can’t run the risk of getting them captured by sending a text. It’s ok, they have Splinter with them, even if he lost last time against Tiger Claw that was underhanded and they’re all fighting now so they’ll be ok. Surely? 

The room becomes infinitely brighter, large industrial lights above them glare so harshly it could burn. The shelf they lay upon starts violently shaking and Donnie can hear the bolts below roll out their sockets as the entire structure wobbles before it starts to fully tip sideways. He jumps upwards, jumping down each level of the shelf until finally landing on solid ground, wet solid ground. He quickly eyes down, the smell of grease invades his nose, the black liquid fumes floating up- Oil. He sees Leo land next to him, Kyū is lost in the dust cloud, the beeps of robots sound around them, a large shadow engulfs them all, their heads shoot up towards the source-

“I tire of your meddling.” 

Tiger Claw.

Things went so wrong so quick it should be a world record, fastest mission failure ever. Firstly their plan of surprising Tiger Claw is thrown out the window considering they were caught a minute after entering the building. Secondly overwhelming him is also a bust since he’s somehow taken over more than a few footbots, he can’t get a number of them as the dust cloud clears. Kyū is nowhere to be seen, of course he ditches them the moment trouble comes, he should’ve seen it coming-

He doesn’t have time to dwell on it, Karai’s still in danger and team B aren’t here yet, Leo pulls out his sword and yells, “Let Karai go!” 

She screams from underneath the bandage covering her mouth, shaking the cage she’s trapped in, the thin chain dangerously sways. Tiger Claw (he has an eyepatch now! When did he get that?) barely acknowledges the two of them, only turning around and stating bluntly to the bots, “kill them.”

Immediately they fling themselves forward, and sparks fly as his sharp katanas meet their strong metal bodies. One benefit they have is the bots are mostly unarmed, the ones with weapons are holding rusted pipes and shelf support beams. He can also hear the thumps of Donnie’s Bō hitting the bots ring out beside him, though it ain’t easy over the loud whirring of their fans. He has no clue what they run on but whatever Tiger Claw has done to them is definitely messing with their systems. 

A stinging heat wizzes past his cheek, radiating through the air as he feels the burn start up on his cheek. Shit, Tiger Claw obviously has left the fight, he’s cowardly aiming from the sidelines, using the bots as a distraction for his targets. His blood boils. He isn’t quick to anger like Raph, he’s got years of mediation to thank for that, except his family is in danger, and trying to pick them off one by one from afar, with a Kraang like laser pistol no less, is plain old dishonourable. 

He watches in slow motion as  Tiger Claw pull his second pistol up, the freezing one if he remembers right, aiming not for him but-

“Donnie!” 

Leo heart pounds against his chest, he races to push Donnie out of the way but he knows the distance between them is too great, the blast would hit before he can even take a step, he tries anyway. Reaching and reaching through the swarming bots to his brother just as Tiger Claw squeezes the trigger. 

In a split second a large blur tackles Tiger Claw to the ground, his aim is completely thrown off and shot fired into one of the industrial lights. It glass litters to the floor like rain as it shatters from the strain of the ice forming around it. “Dad!” 

Splinter is quickly thrown off Tiger Claw as they start to exchange blows. Raph, Mikey and April all run out of the darkness into the dogfight against the bots. From the small glances Leo gets between slashing bots it seems Tiger Claw’s entire focus is on now strictly on Splinter. He continues to fight, jumping in when he spots someone starting to get overwhelmed. He stabs one aiming for April directly through the lower back into its stomach, his blade comes out the other end as he pulls up splicing the robot in near two. It twitches as it collapses down, “you guys keep fighting!” Leo yells, “I’m getting Karai!” 

The others give various nods between their own attacks, Leo spots Donnie practically sprint to April's side (which is good, he didn’t want her to come since it’s way too dangerous but he knows she’d follow them anyway), and Raph covers Mikey from an incoming bot as he slips between two new bots, (where are they from?) towards the massive glass bucket of ooze. He reaches the upper floor and see’s…

“ Kyū! ” 

Casey hates hiding, hates it with a biting passion. It’s the weak, cowardly way out, although right now he needs it more than anything else in the world. If Tiger Claw figures out he’s here there’s no way he won’t try to use his secret identity against him. Of course he’ll never allow something so stupid to get in the way of saving his sister but he knows the shock of the reveal will put the others out their A game and they need to be workin’ their hardest if this is going to work. 

Admittedly going to them for help sucked too, keeping his helmet on the entire time, arguing with Leo and Raph in that horrible voice that isn’t his , and then revealing even more of his fathers secrets after Karai had felt so, so wrong. Not to mention the strange looks Splinter and Mikey we’re giving him the entire time. He liked the new term Mikey made up though, ‘brother cousin’ it’s almost as stupid as it was endearing. 

Focus!

He snuck away, using the massive dust cloud formed when the shelves fell as cover, leaving Donnie and Leo to fight off the controlled bots alone. They should be fine, by the way they all practically limped about it shouldn’t be too hard right? Right? Besides, team B couldn’t be too far away now. 

Biting back the rising hatred for whoever decided to lump that ugly box on top of his foot bots, he crawls in the shadows towards the terminal by the far end. He’s biting his tongue at the punches he hears being thrown, weapons clashing and even Tiger Claws laser gun firing. Their ok, they’re ninjas too. He ducks down, dodging the gaze of the guarding bot. This terminal has to be one controlling whatever machine Karai’s trapped above and hopefully even the cage she’s in. As much as he wants to get her out, the mutagen is his main focus, get rid of that and Tiger Claw loses his advantage over his dad. Plus climbing on the cage, adding more weight to the flimsy chain holding it up, whilst it’s above mutagen just isn’t a good idea. 

He stabs through the guarding bots turned head, his katana sliding through an well known weak spot he’s been meaning to patch forever, its weapon clatters onto the floor as it’s body slumps. He quickly glances over the terminal, Kraanglish words roaming the screen, it’s plain gibberish to him, but as he’s about to close the current page some of the words jump out. 

-Snake - leadership - deal - prime - Shredder

What the…?

“ Kyū!” 

“Leo!” What’s he doing here? “Keep your voice down! Tiger Claw can’t know I'm here!” He kneels in front of the terminal's alien keys, thank god Rook gave him a once over during one of their meetings. 

“Why?” Leo whispers, he waves to Karai  only widens her eyes. 

'Cause’ it’ll just be better if he doesn’t know! Duh! The whole deal thing- he’ll think I was sent by my Dad!” Casey makes up excuses whilst tapping frantically on the keypad. 

“You’re messing with that instead of getting Karai out?” 

“Shut up! You wanna crawl over mutagen with that chain?” Nothing on the screen is making any sense, guess Rook’s ‘lessons’ (shoving a screen in his face) can only go so far, god he wishes Irma was here. The screen flashes a blatant incorrect message, he quickly turns around, “Actually, you think you could throw me up?” 

“Throw you?! Are you serious?!”

“How else are we gonna get up there?” 

“Climb!” Leo shouts, he steps onto the keypad, ignoring the whines of the terminal as he climbs up the screen to jump up and grab the chain, hanging like he’s on the monkey bars at the park. Casey follows suit but pauses once he sees the strain it’s under. He clenched his fists, even if there's no way he’s heavier than Leo (that shell can’t be light), any weight added won’t be helpful. 

“I’ll cover you!” He dips down to grab the fallen bots gun. It looks like one of the Kraang's typical plasma rifles but it’s heavier in his hands, large and bulky too, the metal wraps around the edges- it’s definitely been modified, by who? 

He shakes the question out of his head, and starts to take aim towards the crowd below, there’s so many bots swarming around the others, so this is where they all went? He starts blasting at the backs and heads of the many bots, making sure to keep far away from the other incase they run a direction he doesn’t predict. 

Three of the bots have Raph pinned, two holding his arms in a lock and the last one raises a sword, going for the kill. He shot it in the face, burnt circuits burst out an eye socket, immediately he switched to the two remaining ones firing their arms clean off. He gives a thumbs up when Raph stares up at him receiving an annoyed grunt in return (he doesn’t hear it, but he knows Raph's face) before he runs to where Mikey is trapped in some triangular cage. He moves his sights onto April and Donnie, they’re doing well however he still shoots a couple surrounding them. Wait where's…

He scans the battlefield, realising he can’t see Tiger Claw or Splinter anywhere in the fight, eventually spotting orange stripes through a gap in one of the crates shelves. His focus is locked on attacking the rat, pushing him dangerously away and alone from everyone. He brings the gun to his eye, (well as close with the helmet) taking aim at Tiger Claw form through the cracks, and pulls the trigger. 

It strays, (lousy thing!) hitting the shelf and knocking a few molding crates aside. For a split second he sees Tiger Claw's furious face before Splinter kicks him further into the darkness right into one of the shelves, Casey can’t see it but by the way the shelves metal poles shake and a few of the boxes and barrels on the top fall down with loud bangs he doesn’t think Tiger Claw will get up anytime soon. 

He watches Splinter rush over to join his sons (and April) in fighting the bots, April has gotten trapped in one of the cages herself with Donnie trying to release her between dodging swings from the bots, seriously who the hell is supplying Tiger Claw with this many bots? Casey aim’s to give him some cover when,

“Brother!” Karai yells out, he turns to her above him, her face is turned away from Leo who’s hanging on the cage in front of her to him. 

“You ok?!” He responded between blasts, “Leo! Get her out of there before-“ 

Something big tackles him, knocking the all wind out his lungs and throwing him across the room right into the glass of the Mutagen container. His head slams against the glass and he feels his brain move inside his skull. He panics, feeling behind himself for newly formed cracks. None, thank god, he'd rather not get mutated today but the heat from the ooze bleeding through the glass plain could burn him. 

He'd notice it more, if the grip on his throat wasn’t so familiarly tight. 

“You… why won’t you stay dead!” 

Tiger Claw pulls him forward then slams him back against the glass, if he had any breath left it’s all gone now and not even the thickness of his helmet can stop his head snapping back, still he feels wetness start to grow at the back of his head. The glass behind him cracks slightly. He strains out between prickles breaths, “Stop! You’ll- ack! Break the glass!” 

“ I’ll kill you first- “ it's a promise. One made of regret for not finishing the job before, one Casey knows deep down will happen. 

But not today. “You keep your paws offa’ him Tiger Claw!” Raph shouts, stopping his attempts at releasing Mikey to throw a shuriken at him. Tiger Claw grabs it in the air and examines it all while still squeezing Casey’s throat tighter and as his eyes roll back he spots Leo fiddling with Karai’s lock, her stare is directly on him. He has to fight back, has to do something! 

Using his grip on his paws and Raph’s shouting as a distraction, he lifts himself up bringing his knees to his chest before in lightning speed pushing them forward to wrap around one of Tiger Claw’s arms, around his thick biceps and twists . 

He’s so, so thankful for copying his Dad's idea of blades everywhere . 

Red scatters over the floor, hundreds of tiny red lines litter Tiger Claw’s arm breaking the orange into strips, the red sticks to his own legs, but the tightness around Casey’s throat is blessedly gone as he stumbles back, holding his arm. He raises one of his guns directly into Casey’s face. His own heart races,  the helmet useless at point blank range, especially against a fucking laser pistol. “ You’ll pay for that-“ a nasty grin splashes over his mouth, oh no , “ You’ll pay Ca-“ 

A black blur slams into Tiger Claw for the second time tonight, straight into the terminal, breaking it in two. It’s glass shatters, screaming error messages and electric sparks out of it. Casey swears for a moment he sees the Kraang signal flow through the thick tubes connected to it. The plasma blast strays down, grazing the side of his leg before hitting the cracks in the glass of the mutagen container, and ice crystals start growing off the plain. Casey doesn’t notice it with all the new, sweet oxygen flooding into his brain, the large black blur begins to morphs itself into a figure, a tall, bulky figure he’s known since he was five-

“Dad! You-” 

Crack

He shuts up, face slowly turning behind him, towards the cracks growing across the glass like a spider’s web from where Tiger Claw had slammed him into it. He slowly steps back in a trance he can’t break out of- that much mutagen will get them all in one single sweep, what would they even become? Some amalgamated mess? He yells out, “It’s gonna break!” 

He can’t see his Dad anymore however he can hear the many shots of TIger Claws two blasters far away. He’s probably gone into a rage, seeing your kids in danger would do that, but it’s a good thing, it means no Tiger Claw to worry about, now all they gotta do is get his sister off that deathtrap before it breaks and mutates them all. Easier said than done. He reaches for his dropped gun taking a step forward- “Agh!” He drops down, pain blossoming from his leg where the blast grazed, he flashes down to it and sees the blue crystals glowing on his calf, he feels their pinprick claws as they’re slowly climbing both directions, up his thigh and down to his foot. 

It hurts, a burning freeze refusing to numb, he grits his teeth enough to break them as he reaches forwards for the gun, sitting up he holds it high and slams it own on the ice causing it to shatter immediately- it’s weak, very fucking painful but weak- he holds in a scream as he hears Karai shout out to him. His breath hinges, tears welling up in his eyes, the cracks across the mutagen are being held together by this fragile substance, they need to leave. 

Casey double checks the charge, five shots, enough for what he wants, and aims at the locks on the cages holding April, Mikey and even Donnie (when did he? -Doesn’t matter) who’s first target. He screams loudly when he takes aim, cutting off immediately when the plasma hits the lock, opening the triangular cage out. Casey would laugh at the girly scream and Donnie’s face if every breath didn’t shoot down towards his calf. He uses two more to release April and Mikey, luckily Raph and Splinter had moved out the way, busy fighting off the remaining bots refusing to stay down. 

He turns the gun into a makeshift crutch to lift himself off the ground, “Leo! What’s taking so long?!” 

“None of this is budging! The locks are too tight!” 

“Can you try the terminal?” Karai yells, from the way she rotated she must’ve not saw,

“It’s totally wrecked!” Glaring at the broken remains of the once functioning terminal spits out electricity, some of the sparks edging dangerously close towards the oil spill on the floor, kuso he forgotten about that. 

He spots the glowing from the shelves behind, “Leo get my sister outta here! I’m gonna get Tiger Claw!” he yells as he half limps towards the multicoloured flashes.

“Don’t! He’ll-” Karai starts,

“I got this!” he leans against the terminal's dented metal letting him peer through the scope for his Dad. Following the flashes he watches fractions of their fight through the metal and rotting crates, waiting for opening, he only has one shot. His finger hovers over the trigger right as his father lands a punch on Tiger Claw's face, throwing him across the room and, probably unintentionally, towards them. He’s about the pull the trigger when he spots Tiger Claw taking aim, not towards his father but jutted out towards him- no it’s raising higher and higher- he’s aiming for- 

Casey shoots and so does he. 

Their bullets fire together, brushing each other as they race in opposite directions, Casey’s lands nicely over Tiger Claw’s chest, right above his heart causing a wonderful scream of pain out the cat's mouth. Tiger Claw’s shot flies over Casey's head, he snaps his neck to follow it as it his it’s target. 

The chain holding Karai up.

He can only watch, heart stopping, as Leo instinctually grabs the chain still attached to the ceiling as the cage still holding Karai, drops her into the mutagen. Her scream cuts off as she’s engulfed by the mutagen. “No!” 

He rushes towards the glass to see through, he doesn’t care how he accidently pushes something electrical into the oil below, he doesn’t care that his leg is screaming at him or the obvious risk of the cracks breaking and pouring the mutagen over himself, he doesn’t care at all he has to see her. But the only thing breaking out the thick liquid is the vomit inducing snap of bones and rips of skin, he almost folds, bile raising from his throat however he forces it down, he has too. A large lump falls beside him, a breathing mound coated in mutagen and slowly rising, tall and taller until whatever remnants of mutagen is gone. 

What stands in front of him is horrific. A huge, albino snake head with wide, staring green eyes and as she’s coughing out leftover mutagen, her fangs, so sharp they’d bite him in two, poke out. That does get him, his eyes are drawn towards two slightly quieter hisses and he sees her hands aren’t hands but two other smaller, snake heads. 

“Mi- Karai?” Splinter's calm and also very clearly horrified voice breaks Casey out of his shock, he’s closer to her and he tries to reach out but her eyes are glazed over. She hisses in his face with her main face before whipping him away with her very long tail. He tries to step forward, smoke beginning to thicken the air around him, using the gun as a crutch again, although he doesn’t even get a step in before in a flash she’s right in front of him too, snake hands biting into his shoulders. 

“Karai…?” She hisses, mouth widening wide enough she could swallow him in one go, “Kar- anaki?” his hand is shaking whether it’s from pain or fear he can’t tell, “please…” he wants to reach out, he wants to tell her it’ll be ok, he’ll fix her but the word refuses to leave his mouth. She’s staring at him now, or it looks like it, her eyes don’t fully reach him before they morph into a look of shock, her snake hands let him go, pushing him away so hard he topples down… or maybe that’s his leg’s fault. He swears he sees a look of remorse before she turns and races away. “Karai!” He tries to reach out to her but in that form she’s too fast to catch so he’s left there…

Alone.

He has to swallow down the pain building up, his leg is nothing to this. His own throat closes up as tears roll down pooling where the helmet meets the face. It hurts, it sucks and its- its.. So hot, near boiling. Smoke clouds his vision as flames lick the floor, some of the shelves sway as they're nearing their collapse from the strain. “Anyone?!” He yells through the smoke, he lost sight of where Splinter was thrown and the others have seemingly fled too, he doesn’t blame them but it hurts… they’ve abandoned him too just like- 

“ Kyū!” 

Mikey’s voice breaks through the smothering smoke, his arm reaches under his pulling him up by the shoulder so he’s lifting him up beside him. He keeps his grip tight on the gun, one shot left and they might need it desperately, “We gotta go!” 

“Where's the others?” Casey pants out, scanning the area but the half-alight, leaning towers of crates makes it a little difficult.

“A shelf collapsed between us, then I saw you were still here dude! so… C’mon!” 

He’s a deadweight in Mikeys arms, gun only dragging them both down but we won’t let them be defenceless. Hobbling past the oil covered floor as it’s being overrun with flames, the ceiling is so coated in smog that it looks like a cloudy sky, Casey tries to speed up when Mikey coughs in his ear, his steps starting to become more staggered. Shit, even if most of it floats up some smoke is definitely going straight into Mikey’s lungs, should he give him his helmet for a bit? He is doing most of the heavy lifting-

“You!” 

No fucking way.

They both turn around to witness what is a man on his last legs, or well a Tiger. Even from here Casey can see there’s burns on his legs, trousers charred at the edges of their tears as well as distinctly three slashes all over his body, each one bleeding onto the floor, his own smaller and more frequent cuts on his one arm still pouring sporadically. His silhouette is outlined by the glowing mutagen, cracks splinter across the glass behind him. He could- he doesn’t even bother thinking it, Casey raises his gun towards Tiger Claw and pulls the trigger-

Tiger Claw dodges, about to laugh when the loudest crack bursts from the Mutagen, and in a burst of adrenaline Casey grabs Mikey and runs out the building. 

It felt like he’d been slow cooked, laid flat on the tray underneath the stoves heated iron bars, moisture slowly draining out of him until turtle jerky was all that was left. The stench of rotten eggs and molding food rudely drifted into his nose. 

“Mikey?” 

Noises lazily swam into his ears, overlaying each other in a loud, blended mess. He painfully peels open his eyes, they argue back at him refusing to clear up the smudges until he rubbed the will back into them and the familiar ceiling of the sewer finally greeted him. The noises began slowly morphing into something he can call comprehensible. An occasional drip of water onto concrete floor, the echoes of rats scurrying across pipes, and the tell tale static repeating of,

“Mikey! Mikey are you ok?” 

Kyū's helmet-covered face hovers over him, giving him a reflection of the black eye started to form on his face. He pushes himself up, arms weak but luckily not burnt, he twists his legs to check them and sighs in relief when they don’t sting even if splotches of black sot decorate them. “Ugh what happened?” 

“The place caught fire, then I might’ve blown up the mutagen.” 

“What dude!” 

“Well I didn’t see it! Just… shot at it. Tiger Claw was aiming at us!” 

“How did we escape?”

“I ran the second I shot, you passed out once we got a block away so I carried you down here” 

It made sense, and slowly the memories are coming back, the fire, the mutagen, Karai- wait!

“You’re leg!” He turns to look at it, though Kyū leans so he’s covering it up. 

“Don’t worry about it” He waves his hand as if to brush him off, “Are you ok?” 

“Yeah… wait where is everyone else?” 

“They're ok! They got out, I think… you said you were separated when you grabbed me” 

“Oh, what about your dad?” 

Kyū looks away, “lookin’ for my sister…” 

Mikey's memory replays Karai falling into mutagen, the mutation itself and the blazing aftermath more clearly now. It sucked being beaten so badly, especially since it was Tiger Claw, not even the Kraang or the Foot (even though they're somewhat actually ‘good’ now?). “You ok?” 

“Yeah… fine” 

Kyū's head is bobbing up and down ever so slightly. The small amount of light bleeding in through the sewer grate from the street lamp illuminates a dark red line dripping down the tiny amount of exposed skin on the back of his neck, starting to stain the top of his biker suit. The moment Tiger Claw slammed him into the glass wall replays in his mind. 

“Dude! Your head’s bleeding!” Mikey reaches forward, thanking Donnie for forcing them all to secretly carry bandages, hands hovering over the sides of the helmet, Kyū leans further back. 

“Can’t- I’m fine!” 

“Dude… your so not-“ 

“ Can’t-“ 

Mikey arms stutters in the air. He gets it, and even though they’re all ninja’s, he gets it probably more than his own brothers. It’s the same reason he doesn’t use his real name (or his old username) on social media ever since Bradford , sometimes you don’t want people knowing who you are, for safety, for privacy,

For friendship. 

Who knows what’s under the helmet Kyū wears daily?

Mikey does. 

“Take the helmet off Casey.” 

The sudden freeze is enough of an answer, Kyū- Casey’s hands shake in the air, it all practically screams your right so much Mikey half expects the correct jingle of a quiz show to play. Honestly Mikey’s known for a while now, how could he not when he made it so, so obvious? Or we’ll Karai mostly did with her hovering over him when Tiger Claw first attacked him. Confusing at first but once the pieces all lined up it made zero sense otherwise. 

“Please?” Mikey leans forward again, gently placing his hands over either side of the helmet, then without opposition he carefully pulls it off. 

In his dreams, when Kyū was nothing more than a name Splinter overheard, he imagined some Frankenstein-like monster from the movies he’s ‘banned’ from watching. One with a mutated, forced face stitched on a completely separate body, it was the only way he could justify that the Shredder had a kid he hadn’t stolen. Then he saw him when trying to get the Kuro Kabuto , and the name had a covered body to match, one that strickenly seemed fully human. After hearing the story of his adoption, the face morphed once again. Instead of the harsh glares and rude scowls he imagined from the genes of The Shredder, it was… softer still strong, the type that had been through some shit but survived, one that knew how to and would under any cost. Then, finally, he came to them for help, one step away from begging, and the whole ‘tough guy’ illusion shattered into a million pieces. He’s no older than them , not much different once you remove their mutantness, they were all teenagers in not so ideal circumstances and his now sister is gone. 

Mikey gently lifts the helmet entirely off, familiar jet black hair poking out in different directions (ha ‘helmet hair’) greets him first and from the way his head bows in one final attempt to hide it, he can see the red shine from the cut at the top. How that actually happened is beyond him, he places a hand underneath his chin and gently pushes his head up to see… Casey, just Casey. Nothing fancy, no glare, no secrets, no nothing. Just Casey’s watery eyes stare back at him, lip quivering and Mikey knows it isn’t because the head injury hurts, even though he's sure it does.

He quickly grabs the bandages and silently wraps them around the cut, apologising whenever Casey flinches. Hopefully it’s one of those spots that bleed a bunch but are actually completely fine, he was never that good at knowing, this job is usually left to Donnie or sometimes even Leo though that was when Donnie was hurt. 

“And… done!” Mikey claps his hands together slowly so it isn’t loud enough to hurt if Casey’s got a concussion (he’d be surprised if he doesn’t at this point)

“… thanks… is it bad?” Casey’s own voice is a shock, honestly Mikey got used to the static overlay and even if he hadn't, Casey's voice is now quivering . 

“Uh, I dunno. Might wanna get it checked properly but at least it won’t bleed? heh” 

“That’s good…” Casey finally lifted his head back up on his own, watery eyes staring into his own. “…so you’ve known then?” 

“Yep!” 

“What gave it away?”

“To be honest it was Karai-“ 

“Karai?!” Casey voice jumps up a bit, voice strachy,

“Yep! Ya know when Tiger Claw beat you up?” 

“Don’t I-”

“You should’ve seen the way she acted when you were passed out! She reached for a knife every moment someone came near!” 

“Really?” Casey doesn’t sound surprised, however his eyebrows move up slightly and his eyes lighten a little bit. “Everytime?”

“Yep! Plus there was how you knew Tiger Claw, how Karai’s adoption story lined up with yours, how close you got with April-“ 

“Hey me and Apes ain’t nothing, I only do it to annoy Donnie! nheh” Mikey shoots him a look raising his eyebrow (or where his eyebrow would be, turtle means no hair anywhere), “honest! At first I was meant tah just find out why the Kraang wanted her. I ain’t got feelings” 

“Wait, you weren’t told? Isn’t your Dad working for them?”

“ With them, and not really we’re just keepin’ a close eye remember?” 

“Right” Mikey eyes up the rest of Casey’s suit for any more darker spots, it’s hard ‘cause of the black colour and the sewers lack any real light beyond the slight sliver of the sunrise. 

“Wait is you knowin’ it why you wanted to hang a lot?” Casey asks sitting up more, his hand races to his leg though he annoyingly pushes away any help Mikey offers, ugh he’ll have to do it the hard way then. 

“Yeah! I wanted to know the real you!” Mikey shouts whilst he reaches for the extra bandages he carries, the others get injured more than he does so he carries spare.

“The ‘real me’?”

“Yeah!” Mikey doesn’t get the confused look Casey shoots at him. Who wouldn’t want to know about the real friend hidden under the facade? “Like who you really are!” 

“Mikey…” Casey’s eyes leave for a moment, Mikey follows them to an uninteresting pile of moss growing on the floor. It looks like the ones he’s pick with Splinter years ago. “There is no ‘real me’, Casey and Kyū there like both me, ya know?” 

“Uhh no? Weren’t you faking being Casey to trick us?” Mikey does earnestly ask, he knows Casey isn’t evil if he was then Mikey wouldn’t be here right now. 

“No! Not a trick… uhh more like not telling you everything? Look I… I never didn’t act like myself.” 

What? “Ya lost me.” 

Casey sighs and holds both his hands out, one of them takes a long second to properly leave his thigh. He shakes the left one, “this is The Casey Jones -“ then he shakes the right, “this is Rakki Kyū-” he then slides both of them together like their one, “and this is me…” he takes a deep breath in, “ Oroku Casey Jones , but you can stick it with Casey.” 

“So you’re like both?”

“Yeah,” one of his hands drops back down, the other flails about as he talks, “I mean… Kyū’s for more serious stuff, like in the Foot. We’re fighting against an alien invasion! I have to command the foot bots, I can't be Makin’ jokes! Or bustin’ head with a hockey stick!” Mikey nods, he can get it slightly, he acted differently when talking to Bradford, it must be like that right? “But when I’m with you guys I can relax, have fun! Of course we’re still fighting the Kraang but… there’s less pressure to be right all the time ya’ know?”

Mikey nods slowly, turning his head to watch the sun bounce off water. This whole time he’s drawn a nice, thick line between Kyū and Casey, even when he figured it out a week ago the line remained, it didn’t feel right to blend them together. Except earlier, when Casey was hanging with him before the mission, still disguised as Kyū . He rewrites the memory, drawing Casey’s face over the helmet and, besides the awkwardness that came with his brothers being on edge, he didn’t act any different. When you put it together it really was that obvious… 

“I get it,” Mikey confirms, even though he doesn’t fully, Casey and Kyū are still different, alike but different. He’ll get it eventually though, he’ll try for his- “brother-cousin?” He holds out an hand for him to grab,

“Brother-cousin.” Casey takes it, “Mikey, can you promise me you won’t tell ‘em just yet?”

“What! But I thought since I knew…” 

“I know! And I will tell ‘em soon just- need tah give it a minute, Karai’s been mutated! I don't want to give them another mic drop.” 

Casey squeezes his hand tightly even though it’s way smaller, one of the many differences he’s noticed between them and humans like April. His eyes refuse to fully meet him, darting towards every corner of the sewer besides the one Mikey’s in. “Ok, but I gotta look at your leg dude that looks gnarly. ” 

The new light bleeding through shows the strange scarring happening to Casey’s leg. Jagged, blue lines like lightning strikes stretch across his pale skin. “It’s fine man, doesn’t even hurt”

“Then it’ll be ok for me to touch, please?” 

Casey’s shoulders drop, maybe it’s exhaustion since he must’ve been up a full twenty four hours by now, maybe it’s the pain, who knows, Mikey doesn’t and he ain’t gonna unless he can just look at it! He slowly nods defeatedly, extending his leg to let Mikey get a full view. Agh, he knows Donnie would be better at this, even though it’s from some cool futuristic weapon, Captain Ryan doesn’t get injured like this. 

Still Mikey reverts to what he knows, which isn’t a lot but it’s the basics of first aid. Luckily there’s no cuts to stitch only the raised markings alongside some massive bruising, carefully he reaches forwards and brushes a fingertip against the wound. Casey tenses, sucking a breath in between his teeth (or lack thereof), “Sorry.. Just checkin’ man” Mikey rushes his hands back away, he reaches for a small vial of burn cream (for Donnie mainly, whenever he wants to experiment mid battle with Kraang tech) then gently rubs it into the marks. He watches the pain seemingly leave Casey as his body untenses, and for a split second he realises the absurd level of trust he’s got right now. Casey, son of The Shredder , is trusting him, a Hamato, to dress his wounds, hell even if he pushed for it, it’s a lot and he doesn’t even fully get the whole conflict between them! Hell Casey had made sure the both of them got out without Tiger Claw following them, even after they failed to help him get his (their?) sister back. 

Yeah, if there’s anything that proves Casey isn’t evil, it’s this. 

“Thanks” Casey sighs, bringing both his knees closer until he’s hugging them both. Mikey crawls over to sit next to him so they’re side by side, his own legs sprawled out, forearms touching each other. 

“No prob bruh.” 

A small, awkward silence is brought between them, only broken by the steady stream of water flowing and Mikey’s erratic foot tapping; he almost makes a beat when Casey fully breaks it by asking, “Do you think the others will accept me? Like knowing I’ve been ‘spying’-” he shrugs, and Mikey gets from the tone shift on the word he’s not been spying on them at all, “on you guys?” 

Will they? Mikey wants to believe they will, him and Raph are practically besties but won’t that make it worse? He remembers how heartbroken he was when it was revealed Bradford was on Shredder’s side but he’s so different from Casey, he sucks! Bradford never cared about him, about his brothers, only about impressing Shredder! Casey has proven he does care about all of them through all their time together. However, as much as he knows his brothers, he can’t predict something like this, something this big, would Raph rage out? Probably but the question there was would he simmer out or continue burning until there’s nothing left? What about Donnie or Leo? Would they go into insane protection mode at the mere mention of an Oroko about who wasn’t Karai? April?

What about Splinter? 

Mikey swallows down the worry, there wasn’t any point in it, he can’t control or predict his siblings and neither can Casey, though there is one thing he’s certain of. He places a arm around Casey’s shoulder and brings him close into a sideways hug,

“I sure hope so dude.” 

Chapter Text

The Shredder is not a good person.

The Shredder is not patient.

The Shredder is not merciful.

The Shredder will kill without warning, without waiting, without caring. 

The Shredder is backing Tiger Claw into a corner at the end of a long hallway of shelves, his own mechanical claws, mirroring his biological ones, are raised up high for the final fatal strike. The Shredder would be lying if he wasn’t looking forward for the cat's blood to paint the warehouse floor as he leans further back then snaps forwards in time for Tiger Claw to raise his blaster out. The Shredder is quick, faster than sight itself. The few people who live past seeing him fight whisper amongst themselves, he pivots sideways as the cat pulls the trigger, a fiery heat brushes against the gap in the Kuro Kabuto as it slides past his face towards… Karai! 

A decade and a half ago, The Shredder burnt down his the Hamato’s clan’s home, their ancient buildings turning to ash under his direct orders. The Shredder struck the leader his father, Hamato Yuuta, down in an unfair battle to the death. It’s what he deserved, —it’s the way it’s always been— clans fighting against clans spanning generations, —it’s revenge, —it’s vengeance, violence, it was too far. The Shredder torn down the door to his brother Hamato Yoshi, challenged him to a fight and when he was about to hit the killing blow Teng Shen-

He didn’t mean it to hit her, never meant to hit her, she wasn’t supposed to be there at all!

Oroku Saki is not a good person. 

There was nothing to be done, he tried to reach out to her but the bright red blood dripping from his claws had shot into his brain like a bullet, paralysing him where he stood. He hadn’t even noticed Yoshi had fled, not taking advantage of his state to kill him right then and there (maybe he should’ve). The Shredder Oroku Saki only broke out of the trance with the sound of a crying baby, the bundle Teng Shen had been holding, the one he luckily missed when he… Reaching forwards ignoring the wooden pillars crumbling around him, Saki gently moved Shen limp arms and grabbed the bundle out of them before leaving the building entirely. 

He hadn’t waited for his brother Hamato Yoshi, hadn’t looked beyond the cold, charred remains. They found countless bodies, in states of both fleeing and fighting, one of them had to be Yoshi, with how surrounded the entirety of the home enemy base was with foot soldiers it’d be impossible for him to escape alive. 

Oroku Saki is not a patient person.

Raising Karai to be the perfect soldier started early, training her to become a master in any form of combat he can get her to do was a must. She had to be perfect, Yuuta had to be wrong, he could be the good father Yuuta claimed to be, claimed Yoshi could be, but never claimed Saki could be (‘Your anger controls you. You burn too hot Saki, everything around you burns’). There’s nothing more important than her being strong, independent and merciless. 

Oroku Saki is not a merciful person.

Five years passed fast, routines of training and training Karai on deadly moves to both dodge and execute made the years fly by (would Teng Shen approve of this? Would Yoshi?). Then on an ordinary day everything changed. A boy, small and frail and abandoned by his own father, his own blood, left on death's door. A boy who despite the burns and twisted arm and the bruises and the missing teeth, he looked like himself, a twisted reflection into the past whenever he failed one of Yuuta’s teachings. 

Oroku Saki is not a merciful person… is he? 

He had taken (saved?) the boy, given him to Karai and he knows deep down they’re different, one’s american, one’s a girl, one’s not even related to either clan by any blood, one’s never known of their bloody past, one’s covered in cracks, and there’s no blood between them yet… They're siblings. He sees the connection between them grow into care, into friendly competition, into compassion and refuses to acknowledge it until-

“Dad! Come quick!” 

Karai's own voice bursts through the smoke clouding his mind, he’s in Japan again, not long after he’d taken Casey away from America. The two had run off into the garden to play after training, a reward to promote their cooperation (two deadly ninja’s are better than one). She slams the sliding door open and grabs his arm, “Dad quick! Casey’s hurt!” He doesn’t know what caused him to move so fast, near leaping out of the chair, he practically ran towards where Karai was leading him. 

Oroku Saki is not a patient person.

They found Casey underneath a tall tree, crying and gripping his leg, twisted a way it shouldn’t be and one that causes Karai to flinch slightly before she’s at his side. The sight turns his insides around. He’s seen blood, gore and things no one else in the world has seen, but this makes his bones chill, why is Karai holding Casey like that? Why does she care? Yoshi never- after Yuuta’s punishments (always him never Yoshi), he never comforted him like that. 

His hands move on their own, so does his mouth, mumbling the phrase taught to him by who might’ve been his uncle before his discovery (he never saw that uncle again afterwards, or many other ‘family’ members, he reckons Yuuta had something to do with that). His hands glow through his gloves, which he rips off the moment notices he’s still wearing them then carefully places both on the twisted leg. In the corner of his eye he watches Karai hold Casey's head closer to her chest, as he slowly repeats the Healing Hands mantra over and over, turning the leg around. He continues on, the bone snaps into place, cracks across it close as does the skin and muscle like stitching a cut on a cloth.

Oroku Saki can be a patient person.

Eventually Casey's cries turn to sniffles as he slowly sits up more and rotates his ankle seemingly shocked at the lack of pain jumping out at him. Saki makes a move to stand, there’s been too much… today for him to handle, when a small force slams into him. Looking down to see a mess of black hair he knows who it belongs to, joined by another small mass with a slight mess of black hair. “Thank you… Dad” 

The voice is small, so small, nearly scared to say it as tiny hands grip onto him. Karai’s been his since the fire, but Casey’s just barely been here a year and throughout that entire time he refused to call him ‘dad’, he didn’t care, the boy was his regardless of how he spoke about him. So why does he care now? Why does his chest tighten and an overwhelming need to protect flood his mind, why does his arms wrap around the two of them. Why does he- 

He’s been doing this wrong, so wrong. He thought he was showing Yuuta was wrong but he only followed in his footsteps, he was going to burn whatever connection between Karai and Casey (his kids!) had formed to the ground the same way Yuuta had poisoned the soil between him and Yoshi (or well Yuuta only poisoned his soil and let Yoshi flourish). 

The next day there’s no training, he hangs with his kids, takes them into town and lets them go wild, anything and everything Yuuta never did for him (ironically, he realises, the bastard had given him the template on what not to do, one Oroku promised to follow from now on). It was awkward, stiff and they noticed the strangeness, but Oroku can be patient for them, he will be patient for them. However the illusion of normalcy can only last so long, they’re still the children of The Shredder so training is started up again, but he reframes it, they don’t fight against each other anymore, but rather together. It’s mostly defensive then only after some time has passed does he move to the offensive side making them swear to fight fairly (unlike he did) and to not use these fatal or near unfair moves unless absolutely necessary. 

There are no punishments either. Nothing like Yuuta’s forced exclusion of him from everyone or his ‘extra training’ or denial of his food. Never, he won’t allow it, not again. Even when they have done wrong, a move they can’t get right or accidental breaking of a pot or even an angry raised voice, Saki refuses to shout back, he refuses to allow The Shredder to take over, refuses to allow the years of hurt to force themselves to the frontlines and attack his kids. It ends with him, Yuuta’s ‘teachings’ will die with him. 

Oroku Saki will be merciful to his kids, and so will The Shredder. 

The scream brings the moment back into focus, those memories having flooded his mind for a fraction of a second between the blast only grazing him and then striking directly at the thin chain holding Karai up. He’s frozen, unable to do anything as he watches Leo shoot up and Karai drop as the chain snaps, dropping right into the mutagen.

Oroku Saki will kill Tiger Claw. 

Seeing red, he turns a complete one eighty, fists high up and pointed directly at Tiger Claws neck. He dodges, rolling underneath his arm as the metal spikes coming out of Shredder's fists get slightly stuck within one of the rotting crates. He flees like the coward he is, but not before trying some sneaky shots at Shredder, he pivots side to side dodging the multiple fires of both plasma and ice that hit the crates behind him. He overhears Yoshi try to talk to Karai, not missing how he almost calls her Miwa and his fists clench tighter. He pulls and pulls, the entire structure shakes with Shredder’s own pulling against it to dislodge his hand, Tiger Claw’s hits against it haven't helped keeping it up. With one final, strong pull back his arm is free but the tower starts to crumble, rotting pillars giving out and large abandoned crates falling from the top. 

He bolts towards the mutagen, racing towards the still glowing container only pausing to gag- Smoke, thick and strong with the pungent, invasive smell of oil littered about. Of course Tiger Claw had a back up plan, he knew this ‘meeting’ with him wasn’t going to be as simple as the letter wrote out. It was why he hadn’t done anything when both it and Casey went missing hours before the scheduled time. He scans the area, everyone has fled except for a stumbling figure, Casey is shoulder to shoulder with one of the turtles using a gun to hold himself up as they both begin to drag. 

He sprints towards them, just in time to see Casey raise the gun up towards the container, Saki pivots his head where he’s aiming to see Tiger Claw swiftly dodge the blast only for it to hit the glass. Saki knows what’ll happen, he speeds up grabbing both the limp form of the turtle and his son, the rapidly increasing cracks echoing across as he races towards the exit with the last thing he hears is Tiger Claw’s last scream. 

It’s music to his ears. 

—

“Dad?” 

Casey finally speaks up, Saki had taken over from his stumbling walk to carry both his and the turtle's now limp forms down to a safe spot in the sewers. Far away from the warehouse and more in the direction to their own home. The turtles know where they live, however in turn he only knows they must stay underground to hide from the Kraang mutant sensors, where underground is a question still left unanswered. He looks down towards his son sitting against the wall, luckily from what he can see he has no major injuries needing attention however he can’t tell what’s human and tiger blood. Saki turns his head from the sewer tunnel, he’s been watching it the entire time they’ve been there just waiting for Tiger Claw to show his cursed face, towards him and gives a small nod for him to continue.

“Where’s everyone else?” He asks, helmet-covered head darting across the darkness behind Saki. Sometimes he wishes he had never let him get so friendly with Yoshi’s sons. That he sent him back to Japan with Karai the moment he knew what that April girl was really wanted for. Hell he wishes he never brought either of them here in the first place, it’s only been trouble. (It hasn’t, and he wouldn’t really, he hadn’t seen Casey come home so happy in so long.) 

“They fled.” leaving you two behind, he wants to say but bites his tongue. From what he’s seen so far none of them would willingly leave another behind; the place was crumbling, engulfed in flames with a massive canister of mutagen just waiting to break apart. He doesn’t blame them for rushing out and thinking their fourth brother was following right behind them. Besides, if his eyes didn’t deceive him, the turtle, Michelangelo, or Mikey, he learnt after seeing his orange mask in the waking sunlight, had actively gone back for Casey. Something he won’t forget. 

“Where’s… Tiger Claw?” Casey whispers almost afraid to say the name, that won’t do-

“The warehouse. He could’ve have escaped-” 

“What if he did? Did you see a body?” 

“No, we should go-”

“We can’t just leave ‘em!” Casey points at Michelangelo laying form, “what if that pussycat survived? He came back from another dimension!” 

“Casey.” He’s firm, placing a hand on the boy’s bony shoulders (he never gained any muscle despite whatever training they did, he preferred speed anyway. Karai inherited all the strength of the two), again he regrets the bond between him and those Hamatos —he doesn’t, not really— even through the helmet and armour he can tell Casey breathing is too fast, so Saki takes a deep breath hoping Casey will copy before stating clearly, “Stay here, the rest of them must be looking for him. I’ll search for Karai and Tiger Claw. Do not move” he stresses the final part, a tone he rarely uses for his kids but here he must. “I will come back, Understood?” 

Casey nods, further leaning against the sewer wall next to Michelangelo, an adrenaline crash is very likely the cause of the sudden drop in his energy. He couldn’t see any injuries (he hadn’t really checked him over though a quick glance doesn’t reveal any red) but the smoke inhalation must’ve done something, that or a hit to the head and the bruise hadn’t formed yet. He hesitantly turns around to the rest of the sewer, it’s best to remain underground whilst armoured, in his time here he’s seen his fair share of strange New Yorkers but walking the street with knives on his hands would be pushing it. He gives one last glance at the two before watching them disappear as he turns the corner. 

He made sure to be a good distance away from the warehouse, for fear of the mutagen seeping down on top of them, so it's a few long minutes before he makes it to a sewer gate nearby. The first thing to hit him as he starts climbing up the rusted ladder is the smell. It’s a mixture of pure acid and a disgusting crispness, the air itself starting to get wetter, more humid and heavy the more he climbs up. Eventually reaching the top he opens to an abandoned alleyway beside the building but even from here he can see the green glow through the dusty boarded up windows. He climbs further up to the roof towards a dusted sky roof, it too had been boarded up though from the outside allowing Saki to break through and see inside. His own heart stops at the sight. 

The entire warehouse floor is coated in a thin layer of neon green. Spiky, blue crystals jutting out from random edges and corners, the tallest reaching up to try to touch the ceiling. Mushrooms big enough to sit and climb upon growing faster than he can blink, their spores infecting the air with a purplish fog. It’s all so alien, so different and wrong and.. Kraang-like. This must be their plan, to turn the entire world into this. His blood boils, if he only could he’d eradicate them all. Destroy whatever means they have to coming here, all their technology if he can. But their dimension time speed difference makes them a threat you have to calculate way in advance. 

(He really does love technology, always had a thing for the new machines, a thing Yuuta, with all his traditional ways, hated with a passion. However Saki didn’t, he made his own army robotic after all.)

His eyes scan the green sea for the lumpy body of Tiger Claw but comes up empty. There’s no way to confirm the difference between what could be a crate or a robot or whatever could be him, which means without proof of death, Tiger Claw is very much alive (Saki learnt from Yoshi not to trust surroundings as evidence alone, a body is needed). Scowling to himself he looks at crates from before. Instead of the alien-like features, the crates have started sprouting their own plant-like organisms. Neon moss, thick vines and twisting roots seem hung up like veins. Unnaturally square leaves bigger than any he’s seen bloom from an rusted orange tree near the center. He swears he’s watching the entire place move, a slight raise and fall like… like it’s breathing. 

He steps back, breaking out of the trance the place has on his eyes. This is something else, something he needs more information about desperately. Terraforming is one thing but the environment being alive? A living being? It’s way beyond the Foot’s current scope. The last they heard of alive plants were the small cluster of nightmare mushrooms Casey reported a few weeks back but those were believed to be an exception.

What the hell does mutagen do?

He hastily climbs down into the sewer again, just being near the area is giving him a headache. As he steps onto the concrete floor he glances at the wall surrounding the ladder, miniscule droplets cry down the cracks between the bricks, a green shine to each new tear. Stepping back he follows the wet path they create down towards the floor and where sewer water flowed to the ocean. Glowing puddles of the stuff are merging with the ground and random trash laying about, creating more of the strange flora he saw before except this time it’s fusing with the jagged aluminum edges of empty soda cans and the old food stained takeaway cardboard boxes. Thankful to Kuro Kabuto for covering his mouth, Saki sidesteps over the goo, contact is deadly for him, a voice in his head screaming that mutation may have worked ‘nicely’ for Yoshi but it won’t for him. 

It's a short walk back to his son, but there’s a long list of things to think about. 

—

He heard the mumblings before turning the corner, eyes downtrodden at the slowly decreasing green glow in the sewerwater. It’s spreading, slowly and it’ll eventually stop as the supply runs out but not before it reaches where he left Casey and his… friend. He can’t make the full conversation out, only the small words, ‘hope so dude.’ as he turns around the corner-

He isn’t wearing his helmet, Casey head is on full show- He’s leaning it against the turtles shoulder and… and he’s hurt- 

“Dad!” Casey shouts, hand up almost to stop him. His friend leaps up from where he’s sitting to shuffle back, “dad wait!"

He tightly grabs the sides of Casey's face and pulls him forward fast, tilting his head to see where the wrapping is putting pressure onto. It's a cut on his forehead, not deep but it bleeds a waterfall judging from the soaked cloth and Saki can’t help the invasion of thoughts into his head. God, he’s hurt, he’s hurt badly and Saki didn’t even notice- too focused on Tiger Claw to care about his own son, how terrible of a father- is he bleeding anywhere else? Hurt anywhere else? Hard to see with the armour-

“Dad! Dad!” Casey head shots out of his light grip, “I’m fine! Seriously! It’s a small cut on tha’ head, ya’ know how much they bleed!” His eyes are concerned but both irises are the same pinprick dot, his speech is clear too, no slurring, so no concussion at the least. “Dad, see Mikey patched it all up!” 

At the second the name is uttered out of Casey’s mouth Shredder- Saki pins his sights on the now standing turtle, a small disgusting part of him happy at watching him shrink under it. He’s staring, has been this entire time- he knows Casey’s real identity, why hasn’t he attacked? Why did he… help him? 

Saki takes a deep breath as he attempts to school his face in something hopefully less threatening, he knows it still is despite his attempts being less so but maybe the tur- Michelangelo will see his lack of attacking as something good. He’ll admit (to no one) that the moment he discovered the actual ages and relations of the turtles to Yoshi he lost all interest in destroying them. They weren’t a mutant army hellbent on revenge, they were a family no different to him, Casey and Karai. Most of all they weren’t any older than them. 

“You went back for my son?” He states more than asks,

“Uh yep! Sure did” With one hand he awkwardly held a thumbs up, the other scratches an itch Saki knows isn’t there on the back of his head. He’s shaking and eying every corner of the tunnel for a way out. “Uh, did his leg too!” He rushes out the words like they don’t belong in his mouth. “All fixed up!” 

His leg?

Saki focuses downwards and realises Casey’s camp trousers have been slightly cut open to allow them to be pulled up his thigh and the now free leg is revealed to have large blue streaks jutting out across from an impact point in the center of the front of his calf. There’s a slight, thick shine to the entire area, a glaze for burns Saki realises with baited breath. Not just that but the marks glow, a small blue light is illuminating the tunnel. Slowly his eyes raise back to Michelangelo who seems to be shaking even more. 

“Thank you.” Saki states after a hard glare, “You will keep this to yourself.” 

“Of course!” He raises his hand for another quivering thumbs up, only meeting his eyes for a split second before backing out and staring at the wall beside Casey’s head again. 

Casey grabs his raised hand (when did he raise it?) giving it a small squeeze, “Dad is Tiger Claw…?” he’s afraid to finish the sentence but clearly wants to push the moment along. 

“There wasn’t a body.” He watches Casey’s face drop, he knows what it means. “We need to leave-” 

“Dad-”

“-It won’t be safe to go alone,” He interrupts Casey, directing it towards Michelangelo, who only dares to look at Casey in scared confusion,

“He’s sayin’ come with us, if Tiger Claw’s about and finds you he’ll kill ya’.” 

“Oh!... Um, ok?” he answers like it’s a question itself but Saki doesn’t bother waiting for a real clarification. Instead he starts helping Casey up and hides his shock when Michelangelo overcomes his very blatant fear of him to walk forward and place himself underneath Casey’s arm to lift him up from the other side. Effectively joining in on helping Casey up and continuing by letting the boy lean on him when Saki starts to take the lead. 

“Psst here,” he overhears Michelangelo whispering, Saki sneaks a look at what they’re doing before he starts to walk forward and spots him giving Casey his, slightly cracked, helmet. “Incase… ya’ know”

“Thanks!” Casey responds, slowly putting it on, “almost forgot about it ha…” 

Michelangelo lets a laugh escape from under his breath, nerves removing all humour from the situation, Saki pretends to have not heard and rushes his eyes away when he looks up at him. Marching forwards he ignores whatever whisperings they have between them and focuses on the dark tunnel opposite to the way he just came.  

He’s a barrier, he repeats in his mind. Something to place between an attacker and Casey. That’s the real reason he’s allowing one of the sons of Yoshi.

(It’s a lie and he knows it.)

“This way. Follow.” he commands calmly through the labyrinth that is the New York sewer system. They’re heading towards his base (again he knows the Hamatos know where it is) and they’ll figure something out from there. Michelangelo can probably find some way to contact his siblings to get them to pick him up, right? A headache starts to form, this whole night has been every nightmare rolled into one. Karai’s mutated, nowhere to be seen, Casey’s hurt, his secret identity’s in danger, the Kraang terraforming plans are far beyond what he believed them to be, Tiger Claw is still very much alive, and now he might have to actually talk to Yoshi, ugh.

A treacherous voice in the back of his head mutters out, 

‘Would it really be that bad?’

‘Don’t you miss him?’

—

The sewers twist and turn in on themselves. At this point it would’ve been faster to call a pickup and shove Michelangelo somewhere into the back of a car than walk all this way, however he’s been hoping Karai’s hiding place would eventually show. She’s mutated beyond her sanity, sure, but survival instincts are a trend amongst the newly mutated, she should know how to avoid being seen by the general populace, even if she didn’t, Foot reports and screams from above would’ve alerted them all by now. 

“Is your foot feelin’ right?” Michelangelo murmurs,

“Yeah, Tiger Claw got it good but it’s fine, sorry I’m leaning on you so much-” Casey replies even through the helmet, he can tell he’s grinding his teeth. Saki almost turns around to pick him up himself but that could leave them all exposed to attacks.

“‘S cool brah, wouldn’t have offered it if I didn’t wanna.” 

So he keeps walking, peering into any new junctions and dark pathways they don’t take a second longer than he should need to, just in case (if they ask, it’s for any signs of Tiger Claw, not Karai). The uneven footsteps and whisperings of the two behind him are a small comfort to the trip, at least Casey is right about one of the turtles being accepting, now the question is if they all will be… of Casey that is. The relationship between him and Yoshi is beyond severed, and despite Casey’s own attempts, there’s too much bloodshed and ruins between them, between their bloodline, to fix it. At the very least Saki hopes with the allegiance (friendship?) between their sons, the fighting will stop. 

(and maybe the world won’t be engulfed by the flames he foresees, destroyed by hubris beyond mortal comprehension, a desire to rid the earth of everything human, there’s blood on his- the Shredder’s claws.)

A small, near missable, clatter rings out across the cramped tunnel, coming from around the corner. The vibrations run across the smooth polluted walls, repeating echoes carried across the pungent air towards him. Something is closing in on them but he can’t see them through the darkness, the only light being a sliver of sunlight through a small ceiling gate a step or two in front of them. Saki holds an arm out using his tattered, brunt cape to hide the two behind him, their whispering ending at the unexpected movement. 

“Stay.” he commands to them, claws slowly peaking out from his gloves as the clattering noise starts getting louder and louder. 

He marches forward, Casey pushes Mikey into the wall to shrink their silhouette; despite his injury, he pulls his own kanata out and puts his guard up (in the corner of his eyes, Saki spots Michelangelo also reach and grip his nunchucks). Shredder keeps a hand out in front of them to make sure they don’t follow as he steps towards the noise. If Tiger Claw truly survived the mutagen flood he’d be in no state to fight, it’d be an easy, though unfair, victory but one Saki would take in a heartbeat. 

He nears the corner giving the smallest amount of room between him and the cut off point. The noise is booming compared to how quiet it was before, Shredder raises his fist, claws completely out and ready to strike. Different, whispered voices start mixing in with the muffled footsteps, the crinkle of a can being crushed and one of them swears, it’s voices he just about recognises.

He steps back, lowering his fist a fraction of the way down just in time for an eerily familiar rat face to turn the corner. 

Yoshi- Splinter

“Shredder.” His own hand, (paw?) reaches out to stop what must be his sons behind him. Though his attempt is as null as the red masked one, (Rapheal?) pokes his head out, quickly followed by Leonardo. 

“Shredder!” They shout, pulling out their weapons, Leonardo moves to place himself in front of Splinter but is stopped by a simple hand wave. Shredder watches with the tiniest amount glee at how his eyes rapidly dart between him and Splinter. He doesn’t waste time lowering his fist down all the way, still keeping the claws out in case they even think of trying anything to break whatever this is. He motions to the two behind him and hears the soft uneven footsteps start walking over. 

“Dad!” Mikey's own voice calls out, Shredder half turns his body revealing them. 

“Mikey!” Rapheal shouts, he pulls his sais up, “let him go!” 

“What? Dude I’m free to go!” Michelangelo yells back, his hold on Casey slipping slightly in shock and Shredder doesn’t blame him. What part of his son leaning on his brother screams being held hostage? “I can go right?” He is much quieter. 

“Yeah man,” Casey states, moving the green arm off his shoulders and leaning against the wall, his leg looks worse, its faint glow illuminating the tunnel in a soft blue is competing with the sunlight shining through the sewer gate above. Saki makes a small quick tilt of the head towards Splinter and Micheangelo makes his way over.

It would be beyond easy to grab him, to slam him against the wall by the neck hard enough to make that shell break. To force Splinter to beg him to let him go since he knows he would on his hands (paws?) and knees. It’d be so easy to squeeze until the bright light left his eyes, to stab through the thick shell into the beating heart until it stilled.

But Saki has no desire to. 

He stares as the turtle shyly walks past him, speeding up into his fathers arms once he’s out of his remit. Splinter only stares daggers at him, wide familiar eyes watching over the whole event. He knows Yoshi, it’s been years (and more, way more than just time) between them but he knows Yoshi and he knows one wrong move will mean war. He can’t risk that, not with Casey leaning so heavily against the wall.

(there’s more at stake here) 

The tension in the air is thick enough to cut, Shredder could, he could cut Yoshi in half before he could even take a step-

“Err… so! Son returned! No issue right?” He feels Casey’s hand reach over, piling on his cape until he’s leaning on his arm and facing Yoshi himself, helmet covering his face. “Cause my leg hurts like a bi- badly! It hurts badly.” 

He clenches his fists at Casey’s clear show of weakness, he knows it’s to lower Yoshi (and his sons) guard, to make them less… jumpy. It somewhat works as he spots Yoshi's eyes dart down to the glowing streaks on his leg. 

Have they gotten brighter? 

Saki keeps his glare entirely focused on Yoshi whilst he easily wraps an arm around Casey's skinny form and slightly lifts him up, holding him upright as though he’s still standing, feet dangling off the floor so there’s no weight on his hurt leg. He turns slightly so his own body is between him and Yoshi, a clear message is sent between them as he starts to step backwards into the sewer. 

Casey whispers, “Wait Dad! They gotta know about-“ 

He freezes, groaning inwardly, just about holding himself back from squeezing his own son tighter. Sometimes, just sometimes he gets on his nerves (as did Karai, and he’s sure many other kids do to their parents). However he knows what Casey’s referring to, he knows Yoshi should know about it and a painful part of him wants so desperately to warn him if only to speak to his brother for a second longer (as much as it’s hurt to). 

He shuts that part of him off. 

“I didn’t find Tiger Claw's body.” 

Is what he ends up spitting out, only barely noticing Yoshi quickly widening eyes, he swears some of his many hairs stand on edge. It’s more than clear he gets the message, a game they used to play when they were younger, double-speaking their way around the dojo right in front of their elders. His heart stings at the memory, it’s older than the others, Yoshi ended the game when Yuuta glare hit him. (He only got hit with a glare, nothing else, not like Saki). He turns quickly, holding Casey, his own son, he brought him in (saved him) so it’s his son, (same with Karai) closer to him and for a singular second he wonders if Yoshi remembers the game too. 

Does he remember any of it?

—

No one dared say another word, muscles frozen stiff and not thawing until well after Shredder's steps stopped echoing out throughout the sewer. Only then did they decide to begin heading back home, glancing over their shoulders every few footsteps into the vast darkness behind them. Raph’s gripping the handle of his Sai so hard the whites of his knuckles showed through. He’s more than glad Mikey hadn’t resisted when they so obviously shoved him into the middle of their shuffling group, nearly refusing him any sight of Shredder and Kyū . It’s not until the familiar sound of the revolving turnstile reached his ears did his muscles even begin untensed.

He closes his eyes for just a second. This past day (has it even been that long?) has been beyond exhausting, from dealing with Kyū to actually fighting Tiger Claw to… to Karai mutating and the whole place getting going down in flames. He could still remember it, he’d just about freed someone from one of those almost on fire cages when an ear piercing scream nearly knocked him over. Then a splash, more shouting and he fled with the all the others, well almost all the others, 

“What the hell were you thinking!” Raph stomps over to Mikey completely ignoring Leo’s weak attempts to stop him, Mikey only looked confused,

“Uh what?”

“Oh so you weren’t thinking then?!” 

“Dude what are you going on about?” 

Raph balls up his fists, nails digging into his palms to stop him from raising them, “The Shredder! You were walking with the Shredder!” 

“Oh, hehe yeah- oh and Kyū too” 

Raph’s about to scream, does Mikey seriously not see how dangerously close he was to being killed? How he was just walking with the enemy? “Why would you do that?” 

“Dude what else was I meant to do?” 

“Maybe not walk with the Shredder you-” 

“-Uh Mikey!” Leo butts in all diplomatic; the others have started coming closer too, Splinter watching from behind everyone clearly wanting answers too, “I think what Raph is trying to say is that we’re all a bit confused? Why was Shredder just letting you walk with him?” 

“Oh cause he invited me to.” 

“He what!” Everyone shouts.

Raph's own hands fall, unclasping themselves in their own mini shock, his eyes quickly dart towards everyone and when they fail to provide an answer he starts to question the floor, the ceiling, the punching bag with that monster (guy? Father?) face on it but it all comes to a frustrating nothingness. Raph can’t even string a sentence more, the words refusing to come forth, his jaw is left open. Splinter steps forth, gracefully gliding through everyone with ease none of them will ever have (he’ll never have) before he stops in front of Mikey. “He asked you to?” Mikey nods, and Raph spots how Splinter's tail, usually still and calm is erratically twitching like a caught snake-

-bad thought right now, Raph strikes it out his head and hones in on the two in front of him.  

“Why?” 

Mikey crosses his arms- no he’s rubbing his arms with his hands— he always does that when he’s nervous. Raph has to force himself not to step forward and give him a side hug. (his favourite type of hug to give since he can show he cares without a ton of mushyness). “Well, I noticed during the fire that Kyū wasn’t moving ‘n I realised his leg must’ve hurt from Tiger Claw blast-”

He remembers seeing that, at first he was impressed at how Kyū tanked it, shattering the ice-like crystals forming on his leg with the butt of his gun. He’d forgotten it was still a weapon, not some fun little ice making machine or toy, hell he remembered getting grazed once during their fight ages ago. Even though it was the other one, and it was only just barely a hit, it still hurt like a bitch for a few days afterwards. He can’t image what a direct hit must’ve felt like, Tiger Claw probably wasn’t even aiming for his leg, if they were right in thinking he was trying to take the Foot over he-

-Shit, Raph's throat tightened, in all the chaos he’d forgotten that they weren’t Tiger Claws targets, that whilst he certainly wouldn’t mind killing them, he was dead set on killing Kyū. He'd been shooting to kill and Kyū got lucky… very lucky. 

“-so I went back for him, started carrying him out but I think the smoke got to me and I passed out for a bit.”

“You passed out!?” Donnie yells before dashing to his lab, April (he’d forgot April was still here) took over,

“Wait, how did you escape?” 

“Uh well um, apparently Kyū carried me for a bit, then Shredder carried us both?” Mikey shrugged slightly, 

Instead of the shouting from before, everyone only glances at each other with wide eyes. The Shredder, mass murder, leader of the Foot, enemy number one had rescued Mikey? No, no way-

“I don’t believe it!” 

“Well what else could’ve happened? I don’t remember much but after Ka- Kyū tried to shoot Tiger Claw we were grabbed by something large.” 

“Then what?” 

“I dunno I passed out.”

“Mikey-!”

“What!?” 

“-What Raph means is what happened when you woke up?” Donnie walked back in and started pushing Mikey to sit on the couch, everyone else slowly followed so they all circled him whilst Donnie put on some modified headphones to his ears connected to a suction cup like device and began placing the cup over Mikey’s chest. “Now big breaths” 

Mikey took a deep breath, keeping them steady and continuing, “Well I woke up with only Kyū in the sewers, he told me the jist of what happened and we patched each other up.” 

“What about sa- Shredder?” Splinter asked, head tipping as he looked over Mikey himself. 

“Kyū  said he showed up for a second then left to look for Karai, plus Tiger Claw’s… uh body but like he said he found nothin’. That's why he told me to walk with ‘em cause it was safer than walking alone and getting attacked by him.” 

Raph grips the couch’s cushions hard enough to tear. It doesn’t make sense— it’s gotta be some sick ploy right? To lower their defenses so he can stab them in the back? But why didn’t he then? Unless he wanted to follow them! He spins his head towards the lairs entrance, any second now they’ll be ambushed. He knows it. Any second-

“He really said that?”  

Splinter’s voice knocks him back. It’s the weakest he’s ever heard it be and that’s saying something. Even when he’s whispering to the altar in the Dojo, to Teng Shen photo, he’s never sounded this… small. Raph forcibly unlatches the cushions, stiff fingers thanking him for the stretch, his eyes navigate to the photo on the punching bag and his stomach twists. How much do they know? They thought they knew everything there was, Splinter told them The Shredder wasn’t merciful, wasn’t patient, would kill them without warning and he tried to do that one night— now he’s purposely protecting one of them? It doesn’t make sense.

(‘It does’, a voice like Kyū speaks from afar, beyond the brick walls and sun lit sky, ‘I told you so’ it mocks.)

“Yeah, I think he liked how I patched up his son.” 

“How do you know that?” Leo asks,

“Because he thanked me for it.” 

The air itself stills. His own heart pounds, maybe a part of him could accept that Shredder saved Mikey only because he was alongside Kyū. Raph could accept that Kyū convinced (or maybe begged) his father to not leave Mikey for dead out of some honour ‘life debt’ or something but… Kyū couldn’t force his mouth, there’s no way he could force him to thank Mikey unless… Shredder really was thankful. “For what?” Raph pushes out,

“I dunno, for trying to save his son?” Mikey asks in a decidingly not questioning way, but it doesn’t boil his blood like the other times that tone has been used against him, he just feels hollow.

“Thank you Michelangelo, I believe you three then walked until you met us?” Mikey nods, Splinter breaths out slowly, bringing his arms up like he’s meditating then stands and walks to the Dojo. 

“Sensei?” Leo asks, 

“There is a lot to think about my sons, I wish to do part of it alone.” He turns around to face them before stepping through the doors, “get some rest, I believe we all need it.” 

Raph watches Splinter disappear into the dojo, his steps are as muddled as his mind probably is. Hell, Raph’s own mind is arguing with himself, repeating different feelings over everything that’s happened. One moment Shredder’s evil, then he’s a Dad, however he kidnaped Karai but she knew and doesn’t care, and he’s working with the Kraang but apparently only to backstab them later…

He gets up from the couch, when everyone’s distracted over… something (probably important) he hasn’t been paying attention to anything anyone said since he last saw his own dad’s confused face. Raph pushes down the feeling of wanting to collapse, instead walking up to his worn punching bag.

He tears off the photo. 

—

It’s a long trek to the Foots clan’s base. Casey moved from being carried upright in his fathers arm to being slung partial sling over his back. A more embarrassing way to be held but a better one if Tiger Claw showed his face. He wraps his hands tighter when a sting shoots up his calf, receiving a small, questioning nod in return. 

“I’m ok.” He states through grinding teeth. He really wishes he was telling the truth right now, his leg has only gotten worse with each step. Despite being hit with some ice gun, it won’t stop burning. Earlier it was a manageable heat but it slowly crept up and up until it felt like Casey’s dipped it in lava. His head is no better, helmet might’ve protected him from a concussion but there’s definitely a big bruise forming on the back, a pounding resonating from it slams into the back of Casey’s eyeballs with a vengeance. 

He really wants to sleep right now for, like, a week. 

Dad lays him in a generic hospital-like cot, calling for medical supplies which are quickly provided by a rushing in Footbot. It’s just like when Tiger Claw attacked him except without the buffer of Donnie’s healing work on him, his Dad is exposed to the full damage, and there’s a lot. The cut on his forehead, bandaged by Mikey, has scabbed over, a lumpy bruise forms on the back of his head sending those painful signals to the rest of him, smaller blotches of purple litter where he was hit along with other cuts. Ignoring his clearly supernatural glowing leg, Casey’s gotten lucky with the extent of the injuries, even if his Dad doesn’t see it that way. 

“Dad… everything ok?” —such a stupid question!

“Why did you do it?” 

“Do what?” 

“Go after Tiger Claw, include them!?” 

Oh great, Dad’s angry about that. Something he can’t really defend beyond- “it was a trap! You gotta have known that!” 

“Of course it was a trap! I did know that so why did you believe going behind my back and entrusting them was a good idea?” 

Casey doesn’t miss the way he spits out them like the turtle's —or Hamato— names are cursed, “I thought… I thought we could overpower him ‘n get Karai back. Tiger Claw wouldn’t have expected them since he sent the message to you.” 

He doesn’t get a response, only a few glances between patching up a large, shallow cut on his arm, thank god for padded armour. “Yet they still failed.” 

“I don’t think anyone predicted the giant mutagen canisters.” Casey remembers something vital it brings back some energy, “...or the controlled footbots! Who the hell reprogrammed them!?” 

“Some amateur…" His dad mumbles under his breath as he finishes wrapping the bandage, he comes closer to him, “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

And isn’t that a loaded question? Casey knows what’s flying around his Dad’s head (or at least he can make an educated guess), why don’t you trust me? Why did you go behind my back? Do you trust them over me? Are a few he can list easily, sometimes his Dad is an open book. —or maybe that’s just what happens in families, you know each other in ways you don’t even know yourself— 

“I thought you’d stop me” Casey decides upon telling the truth, what else is there really? “Thought you’d get overwhelmed and Tiger Claw would… he would” his voice hitches, “he might’ve actually… killed you.” 

“Case-”

“He already tried to kill me ‘n he then got Karai! I couldn’t- I couldn’t just sit and watch you go too!” He knows he’s shouting but even his dry throat is useless against the dangerous mixture of rage and regret brewing inside him, bringing up things he didn’t even realise before, “‘n I know it was stupid! I’m stupid for even trying it but I- I couldn’t stand being sidelined! I’m not some useless weakling! I’m not!” 

“Case!” 

“Now Karai’s mutated ‘n I haven’t even finished the fix I started ages ago ‘n maybe she would’ve been fine if I hadn’t done anything and I-” His breaths are coming in and out quickly, “I thought if it worked, if we got Karai back and, I dunno, killed Tiger Claw things would be good… That we could’ve teamed up and maybe… it’s dumb!” 

“Casey!” His dad is holding his shoulders and it’s another repeat from that damn time before, “you are not stupid-”

“It was a dumb to do! They’re not even trained properly ‘n I didn’t even attempt with the Footbots cause I feared they’d get spotted! All I did was put Karai in even more danger!” 

“Casey, Karai was always going to be in danger even if you hadn’t come.”

“But maybe you guys could’ve sorted something out…”

“I don’t make deals, especially with the likes of him.” 

“Not even for Karai?” Casey dares to ask, the hidden question is obvious (not even for me?) 

“Perhaps it would’ve been the exception, but we both know what he wanted would’ve spelled disaster. Know this, I would burn this city down if either of you two were hurt.” 

Maybe normal parents don’t say that, maybe they do but they don’t mean it, not like how his Dad does. “Thanks dad, ‘m sorry I didn’t tell you about it… it was stupid-”

“No.”

“No?”

“The plan wasn’t stupid, Tiger Claw wasn’t fully prepared for it and failed in getting what he truly wanted.”

“But we lost Karai!” 

“And I will get her back. Not telling me was the foolish part, do not do that again. We will never be enemies, do not treat me like I can’t be trusted, understood?”

Casey nods, a small question prying the back of his mind. “Would you have stopped me if I told you?” 

There's a small moment of silence between them, as if the universe itself is deciding what to do and for a moment Casey swears he feels the tiny atoms around him shift. 

“Of course I would’ve.”

—

After their… conversation, Casey is left alone to rest. He knows deep down his dad doesn’t want to leave him but the Foot clan is currently in a horrible state with Karai being gone and him down for the count, that he’s left with no other choice. Besides, Casey kinda doesn’t want to be around anyone on account of feeling like the biggest failure ever. 

He leans over, careful of the bruises around his ribs making themselves well known, into his bag and grabs his phone, or more specifically Kyū’s phone and starts writing the text.

Unknown number: Mikey? Are you ok?

It doesn’t take long until there’s a response, 

Mikey: Yeah, we’re home you?

Unknown number: home too, Dad’s trapped me in the medical room

Mikey: Dude same! Donnie’s been staring at me for ages!

Casey huffs at the message, but the glaring need for something burns through him, they were discussing it during the walk in the tunnel, whispering behind his dad’s back. The incomplete retro mutagen Casey brewed weeks ago and the final bit of the recipe. 

Unknown number: Do you think you could get it?

Mikey: yeah but i don’t know what any of it means!

Unknown number: Dude don’t worry, just send a pic over

Unknown number: I’ll get it

Mikey: Ok

Mikey: are you sure this is a good idea? Can’t you just ask when you reveal yourself?

Unknown number: I can’t wait for that, plus IDK how Don will react

Unknown number: he might hate me!

Unknown number: pls Mikey I need my sister back

There’s a moment of radio deadness between them, the two ticks marking ‘read’ mockingly lit up on his messages. For a moment Casey’s heart drops, will he not send it over? Will Mikey snitch? 

Mikey: ok here

‘Mikey sent 2 attached images’

Casey opens it before responding, it's a blurry but readable photo of a page of Donnie's notes he hasn’t seen yet. It displays the formulas and notes on April’s DNA sequencing for retro-mutagen, as well as an image of the machine he used. It’s exactly what he needs, the final piece of the puzzle. 

Unknown number: Thanks Mikey! 

Unknown number: really, I promise I’ll tell them once this is sorted

Mikey: Really?

Unknown number: promise, 

Unknown number: brother-cousin.

Mikey: brother-cousin :) 

‘Unknown number has been changed to ‘brother cousin :)’

Casey shuts off ‘Kyū ’s’ phone, a weight lifting off his shoulders. It’s nice Mikey knows now, how he doesn’t seem to care he’s the son of their enemy, maybe all his talk about Shredder not wanting them dead anymore actually did something? Or maybe Mikey just knows he wouldn’t hurt them with what he’s seen now. 

He brings the phone closer, hugging it to his chest before bringing a hand down to the vial still hanging around his neck. He finally has it, the complete formula for retro-mutagen, at least Donnie's take on it. It’ll take ages to fully create but once he has it Karai will be human again! She’ll be cured! Hell he might give some to Bradford or Xavier (for good behaviour). He groans at the thought of seeing them again, especially since their new job is to rotate babysitting him until his leg fully heals. Why can’t Dad see it’s fine? Sure it’s got some strange blue streaks that glow now but he can definitely walk by now isn’t that enough to be healthy? Ugh. 

He stares back at the uncovered leg, the streaks have grown higher, pulsing but thinning out at their ends. Their soft glow is one of the only things illuminating the room beyond the ambient light in the corner. Tiger Claw’s guns looked alien, Kraang-like even. Maybe the Utrom will have an idea on what its effect is? He’ll have to ask at their next meeting, and tell them about the mutagen spill, and also ask for more info on their portal tech,ugh he should write a list. 

He lets the encroaching sleep overcome him, numbness in his feet is the last thing his brain registers before darkness overrides. 

—

It starts with a growing numbness, first his toes are an icy cold, then he can’t move them at all, spreading up his leg until everything below the knee is an unfeeling freeze. Next is the fever, setting in overnight and leaving Casey huffing for a cool breath. The side effects of Tiger Claws weapon, some sort of infection leftover from the fragments left in his leg. The moment Saki finished checking him over he ordered Baxter to look into it, and now, two full days later, the disgusting fly has unveiled a solution.

A serum.

Similar but not the same as retro mutagen, something powerful to combat the Kraang-like crystals poisoning Casey. Whatever it is he doesn’t care, as long as it’ll heal him. Still, he won’t inject something into his son without at the very least knowing, “How does it work?” 

“It’zzz a boost, it’ll rework hisssss immune system to fight it off." 

“Did I not tell you to get rid of it!”

“It’zz too powerful… it’zz dug in too much. To take it out would be-” He turns his large literal bug eyes away to hack out a cough a couple times, respectfully or maybe because he’s terrified, “it’d cause per- permanent damage ssssssir.”

Saki eyes the vial, green blueish liquid swirls inside unbothered by the whirlwind thoughts racing through his head. His guts writhe, disgust brewing; mutagen, the cause of all of this will somehow cure his son, he almost can’t believe it, however the buzzing bug flying about next to him helps the disbelief. Casey isn’t getting better, he’s been on the steady decline for days now, those blue streaks up his leg have spread to coat the entire limb in a ghoulish blue shine, tendrils of it snake up beyond his thigh to his lower torso. If it’s already dug in so much to cause near irreversible damage to his leg, what will it do to his vital organs? 

He hates how this is the best he can do. 

With Karai’s mutation, he’s potentially lost a daughter, he won’t lose his son too. 

“Inject it.”

Baxter flounders for a second before delicately removing the glass vial from the container it’s in, jabbing the lid with the hypothermic needle and pulling the substance into the syringe. Saki watches the entire ordeal for any sign of foul play, he knows Baxter is not foolish enough to try to betray him, especially like this but that does mean no one else might try to. The fly lines the shot with a particularly thick strain on Casey’s thigh and takes one final, long look at him waiting for a split decision change. He nods, launching a hand onto Casey’s limp arm as the thin needle eases its way in. A part of him swears the glow goes down even a fraction of the scale as the last of the cure is pushed in, Casey doesn’t wake. 

Hours drag on, Saki refuses to leave the bedside watching at the door for intruders (and it hurts to look at Casey’s pale skin). The foot clan can operate fine without him running it for a few days, Bradford and Xavior, as annoying as they are, aren’t completely useless. However it has been days now, he hadn’t left the room since Casey first started showing symptoms the moment he first woke up after returning home. He can’t imagine the Foot will fare well if he stays gone for much longer, and that’s not including the ever present threat of the Kraang. Why did he decide to come to New York? Revenge? Vengeance? To see if his brother was truly alive-

“Dad?” 

He rips his eyes away from the door towards his son’s face, eyes peaking open underneath the large wet cloth placed above on his forehead. “What happened?” 

“You fell ill” he replaces the cloth with another, allowing his words to process in his probably cloudy mind. “Tiger Claw gun blast poisoned you.” 

“Really? I thought… ugh, I thought it was gonna be somethin’” 

Casey doesn’t question how he fought it off, does he assume he fought it off naturally? Like a normal flu? Or is he too sick to start interrogating yet? Saki himself doesn’t fully understand the concoction Baxter injected in him and right now he can’t be bothered to answer his upcoming questions if he did tell Casey…. So he doesn’t, for now. He can request force Baxter to give up all the details… later. 

Right now he just wants to be away from everything for a small moment, so he’ll steal the tiny fraction of normalcy, acting like Casey’s recovering from a simple cold. He stays in the room, listening to his mostly incoherent mumbles, changing the rag on his forehead periodically to soothe the lasting headache.  However his mind returns to his daughter, Karai, she’s still somewhere out there. Throughout Casey’s bout into unconsciousness he’d been managing the search for her whilst his henchmen covered the rest of the Foot clans duty. 

There’s still no sign of her.