Chapter Text
The lair was quiet.
Too quiet.
No movie playing. No music. No jokes or jabs.
Just the low hum of tension.
Mikey hated it.
He sat on the couch, bouncing a little, watching as his brothers ran through the final gear check. Donnie’s fingers flicked across his T-Phone screen, scanning through mission details. Raph was adjusting the straps on his sai holsters, testing their weight. Leo stood near the exit with a weird expression, arms crossed.
Something was wrong.
Mikey could feel it.
This wasn’t normal pre-mission prep. Usually, they’d talk. Crack jokes. Raph and Leo would argue over some stupid stuff. Donnie would tell them to stop being idiots.
But right now?
No one was saying anything.
Mikey’s knee bounced faster. “Sooo… why does this feel like a funeral?”
Raph sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. Didn’t look at him. Didn’t even try to.
Leo exhaled “Mikey.”
One word. Careful.
Mikey didn’t like that tone.
Didn’t like any of this.
Donnie finally looked up from his screen, his expression tight. “This mission isn’t like the others.”
Mikey sat up straighter. “Yeah? So?”
Leo’s fingers twitched. “So we can’t screw it up.”
The words sat heavy in the air.
Mikey frowned. “Okay, but we never screw up. Well. I mean. Not all the way.” He grinned, trying to cut through the tension. “You guys remember that one time we had to infiltrate Shredder’s base, and Raph set off the—”
“This isn’t that,” Donnie cut in, sharp.
Mikey blinked.
“One mistake could get us killed.”
Mikey’s stomach twisted.
Leo exhaled, rubbing his temple. “We don’t have time for this.”
Mikey’s grin wavered. “Wait. Time for what?”
No one spoke.
Mikey looked between them, his fingers curling against his knees. His chest felt too tight. Like the air wasn’t sitting right.
Then—
It hit him.
His stomach dropped.
His voice came out smaller than he wanted. “You’re not taking me.”
No one answered.
And that?
That was enough.
Mikey stood up fast. “Are you serious?”
Leo sighed. “Mikey—”
“No.” Mikey stepped forward. “You’re leaving me behind?”
Donnie adjusted his grip on his Bo staff, not meeting his eyes.
Raph exhaled sharply. “Look, it’s not—”
“I can handle myself!” Mikey snapped.
“Yeah?” Raph finally looked at him. Tired. Stressed. Guilty. “You can handle yourself when things get messy. When things go south. But this? We don’t know what we’re walking into, Mikey. We barely have intel.”
“That’s the same as every mission!” Mikey shot back, his pulse pounding.
Donnie shook his head. “No. This is different. We don’t have backup. We don’t have a second chance. And if something goes wrong, we can’t risk you being there.”
Mikey’s stomach churned.
Leo inhaled slowly, voice calm. “We’re trusting you to stay here and hold down the fort.”
Mikey flinched.
There it was.
The fake reason. The nice-sounding version of the truth.
Leo was trying to soften the blow.
Mikey clenched his fists “You don’t trust me.”
“That’s not true,” Leo said immediately.
Mikey laughed, but it was wrong. “Then why am I staying here?”
Leo exhaled “Because we can’t afford any distractions.”
Mikey’s breath hitched.
Distractions.
That’s what he was to them.
A distraction.
His fingers shook.
Raph sighed, gripping the back of his head. “Mikey, c’mon, don’t make this a thing.”
Mikey stared at him. “It is a thing, Raph.” His voice was tight. His throat hurt. “You guys are just pretending it’s not.”
Silence.
Leo adjusted his katanas. Avoided his eyes. “We’re leaving in five.”
And just like that—it was over.
Mikey wanted to scream.
Instead, he just stormed out.
***
Mikey wasn’t the only one angry.
Splinter’s grip on his staff was too tight. His eyes dark, his posture rigid.
He had already spoken to Leonardo. Already told him what he thought.
But the boy had left anyway.
Splinter exhaled, slow and controlled, but there was something dangerous curling under the surface.
Mikey sat on the floor of the dojo, legs crossed, arms wrapped around himself.
He felt small.
He wasn’t supposed to feel small.
His brothers always said he was annoying. Loud. The baby.
But he’d never felt this.
Left behind.
Forgotten.
Splinter’s tail flicked once. “They should not have left you.”
Mikey’s stomach twisted. “They didn’t have a choice.”
Splinter’s voice was cold. “They did.”
Mikey looked down at his hands. His fingers curled slightly.
Splinter stood up, his silhouette tall against the candlelight. His grip on his staff was too tight.
“This lesson has already been taught to them,” he said, voice quiet, but sharp.
Mikey blinked. “Huh?”
...oh
The invasion.
The way they had been separated.
How much they had all suffered because of it.
Splinter exhaled slowly. “And yet, they have made it again.”
Mikey didn’t know what to say.
So he didn’t say anything.
Just sat there, letting the silence settle in.
His brothers were gone.
They had left him.
no, no, don't think like that.
***
Leo crouched on the rooftop’s edge, his eyes locked on the Kraang facility below. From up here, the whole thing looked like just another abandoned warehouse, but the faint pink glow seeping through the cracks in the metal told a different story.
This wasn’t just some supply raid.
This was deep in enemy territory.
A direct hit on the Kraang’s strongest base in the city.
Leo tightened his grip on his katanas. One mistake could get them killed.
Donnie knelt beside him, fingers flicking over his holographic wrist display. His expression was grim. “Security’s tighter than we expected.”
Raph scoffed. “Shocker.” He adjusted the grip on his sai, eyes scanning the perimeter. “Tell me we can still get in.”
Donnie exhaled sharply. “We can, but we’ve got a problem. I thought this was just a lab, but…” He turned the screen toward them. A live feed from one of his spy drones flickered against the rooftop’s shadows. Rows of human prisoners.
Leo’s jaw clenched.
Dozens of people were locked inside glowing containment pods, hooked up to Kraang technology. Some were unconscious. Others… weren’t so lucky. Their bodies twitched violently, tendrils of pink energy lashing through their veins.
Mutations.
Raph’s grip tightened. “They’re experimenting on them.”
Donnie swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
Leo forced himself to breathe evenly. This wasn’t just about stopping the Kraang. This was a rescue mission now.
He tapped his earpiece. “April, you getting this?”
Her voice crackled through the comms. “Yeah. This is worse than we thought. You guys need to get those people out—fast.”
Leo nodded. “Plan stays the same. Donnie, you shut down the security grid. Raph and I will take out the guards and get those prisoners clear.”
“And if the Kraang bring reinforcements?” Donnie asked.
Leo exhaled through his nose. “Then we improvise.”
Raph smirked. “My kinda plan.”
Leo ignored him. “Let’s move.”
They dropped down into the facility like shadows.
Leo’s blades flashed as he took down the first Kraang droid, slicing clean through its metal body. Raph lunged forward, his sai piercing the chest of another, yanking it free as sparks exploded into the air.
The guards never saw them coming.
Everything was going smooth.
Too smooth.
Leo should have known that was a bad sign.
Donnie worked fast, hacking into the main console, fingers flying over the controls. “Almost there… I just need a few more seconds.”
Leo and Raph covered him, taking out any remaining guards.
Then—
The alarms blared.
A piercing, synthetic wail that made the whole room vibrate.
“Donnie—?!” Leo snapped.
“I didn’t trip it!” Donnie shouted, eyes wide. “They were expecting us!”
Boom.
The entire room shook as the far wall exploded inward.
Metal shards flew. Smoke filled the air. Leo staggered back, coughing against the dust.
Then he saw them.
Kraang Prime Sentinels.
Towering, grotesque biomechanical monstrosities, their glowing tentacle-limbs crackling with energy. Their eyes pulsed with sickly pink light as they advanced.
“Threat has been detected,” they droned in unison. “Termination is imminent.”
Leo’s heart pounded.
This was a trap.
They had walked right into it.
They fought like hell.
Leo slashed, ducking under a sweeping energy blast, rolling to avoid the impact. Raph was a whirlwind of movement, stabbing and tearing through the alien flesh of the Sentinels, his breathing ragged.
Donnie scrambled to override the system, hands shaking as he worked. “I just need a minute!”
Leo blocked a strike that sent him skidding backward. “We don’t have a minute!”
Then—
Everything exploded.
Not just the alarms. Not just the facility.
Everything.
A Kraang portal erupted open behind them.
The air was sucked from Leo’s lungs as a gravitational force pulled him backward. Raph cursed, digging his sai into the ground, trying to hold on.
Donnie barely had time to scream before the energy ripped through their tech. His T-Phone exploded in his hands.
The Kraang had been ready for them.
They weren’t just trying to kill them.
They were trying to take them.
Leo grabbed for Raph, but the force was too strong.
He barely had time to hear April screaming his name through the comms before—
They vanished.
***
Mikey sat on the floor of the dojo, eyes unfocused, staring at the flickering candles.
The lair was quiet.
It had been quiet for too long.
Recently - Mikey, Casey and April had been out every night, searching, following dead-end leads, pushing themselves too far. April looked more exhausted every time she came back, her psychic abilities stretched to their limit.
And Splinter—
Splinter wasn’t Splinter anymore.
At first, he had been furious. Angry that they had left Mikey behind. Angry that they had vanished without a trace.
But now?
Now, something else was growing inside of him.
Something darker.
Mikey swallowed hard, staring at his own reflection in the dojo’s polished floor.
Splinter didn’t talk much anymore. Not to April. Not to Casey. Not to him.
But sometimes, in the middle of the night, Mikey would hear his voice.
Low. Whispering.
Like he was speaking to someone.
Like he was speaking to them.
Mikey squeezed his eyes shut.
They were coming back.
They had to.
Right?
Mikey barely had time to blink before Splinter was in front of him, his shadow stretching long against the dim light.
“You have not trained today.”
Mikey swallowed. His throat felt dry. “Didn’t feel like it.”
Splinter’s tail flicked once. “That is unacceptable.”
Mikey frowned, staring at the floor. “I just—”
A sharp thwack. Wood against wood.
Mikey flinched as Splinter’s staff struck the floor next to him, close enough that the vibration rattled through his bones.
“You will train,” Splinter said, voice flat.
Mikey hesitated, something cold settling in his stomach. Splinter’s voice… it wasn’t like before. There was no warmth, no guidance.
Only steel.
“…Okay.”
He stood up, trying not to let his knees shake. Trying not to think about the way Splinter was looking at him. Like he wasn’t Mikey. Like he was something else.
Something lesser.
Splinter stepped back, gesturing toward the training post. “Strike.”
Mikey took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders. He moved into a stance, then lashed out, his nunchaku cracking against the post.
“Again.”
Mikey hit it again.
“Harder.”
He gritted his teeth, swinging harder, ignoring the way his muscles ached, the sting in his joints.
Splinter circled him, silent, watchful. His eyes were dark, unreadable.
Mikey hit the post again, his breath coming quicker.
Then—
A hand.
Gripping his wrist.
Tight.
Mikey froze.
Splinter’s claws dug into his skin, not enough to break it, but enough to hold. Enough to make it clear he wasn’t letting go.
“You are not strong enough,” Splinter murmured. “You are not focused.”
Mikey’s heart pounded. “I—I’m trying.”
Splinter’s grip tightened. “No. You are not.”
Mikey winced, his wrist burning. “Sensei, I—”
“Silence.”
Mikey’s breath hitched. Splinter had never spoken to him like that before.
This wasn’t right.
None of this was right.
Splinter finally released his grip, stepping back. His tail flicked once, his ears twitching. His face was unreadable, but his voice…
His voice was cold.
“You will train until I say you are done.”
Mikey swallowed hard. His wrist throbbed. He could feel the bruise forming.
But he didn’t argue.
Didn’t fight.
He just turned back to the post and struck again.