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She didn’t remember much before the accident. Just her parents loving embrace and that they wanted to go home. Home. The word echoed in her mind as she coughed, this place didn’t look familiar. What had he said? Ah, yes. The being that activated the Arc will pay the price by being sent off to an alternate dimension.
She had activated the Arc. She had done it so that they could go home. She didn’t have any recollection of Earth, unlike her parents. So, she sacrificed her life with them so that they could go back home. She knew her father wanted to show her Earth, but, maybe, just maybe, if she was lucky enough she could witness the beauty of their home in this dimension. She just had to figure out where the Arc had sent her first. Definitely not home.
She got up slowly, her bones cracked and popped; her body was still weak from her fall. “H-hello?” her voice felt hollow on this foreign planet.
Better safe than sorry. She thought as she lifted the hood to her ragged cloak over her head. She didn’t know anything about this alternate dimension. For all she knew, they could be evil and being seen like them could go poorly for her.
She wandered around in a wide circle in order to better investigate the space that the Arc had dropped her at. It appeared to be a large cave that had a small opening at the top, which allowed the sunlight to brighten the otherwise dark cavern.
The Arc was a kind and cruel friend. It could take you where you want or needed to go, but it separated families and friends in the process. She wasn’t angry with herself; she was just upset that she wouldn’t get to spend time with her parents. See the beauty they got to see. By 'them,' she meant her dad and his brothers. They came from Earth and saw its beauty but were taken from it in an accident they never did explain. Not to Mother, and especially not to her.
Echoes of somewhat familiar voices bounced off the walls of the cave and alerted the young woman to the intruders well before they came into her view. She would have scoffed at their carelessness, but she knew nothing of this world and their ways. All she could do was count the seconds until they met face to face.
What she saw was something she didn’t think she’d ever see again, at least not for several decades. Father! She shook that thought away and it was immediately replaced with guilt.
“W-who’s that?” the purple-clad one stuttered. If this universe followed like hers, then that is still Donatello. The Donatello that taught her everything about physics before she could write.
“I don’t know, Donnie, maybe you should just ask her?” The orange-clad one asked playfully as he nudged his brother forward. Michelangelo, he was her best friend in the whole universe. He was the one that showed her how to make smoke bombs at the age of six.
“We don’t know if she’s hostile!” exclaimed the blue-clad turtle. Master Leonardo. He was the one who taught her everything with katanas, trained her in ninjitsu.
Katanas! She lost hers in the fall, maybe they found it? She should ask, but how would she ask and, possibly, retrieve her weapons without them seeing too much of her? Keep head low; make sure the hood is on low enough.
“What good is she without her weapons,” the red-clad turtle shot back. Raphael, he was the one that showed her that leaning on yourself is good, so long as you had others you could fall back on.
She wasn’t ready for this. To give up her family to only find them in just mere minutes staring at her, treating her like one would a stranger. It was a stab to the heart, and she could feel the knife slicing her with every word they spoke. She opened her mouth to speak, but the only sound to come out were her sobs as she collapsed onto the ground. “Please…” she managed to say coherently.
“Hey, hey, please don’t cry, Miss,” was the best Leo could say. He was unsure about what to do with the mysterious woman. “If you promise not to attack us, we’ll give you your weapons. Or, at least I assume they're yours,” he said in an attempt to calm her down and then showed her her katanas that she had dropped.
“I’m Mikey,” the orange-clad turtle said in a cheerful tone.
Her sobs turned into laughter, how cruel life was. She was so young and yet she was older than them in this dimension. In hers, they were considered middle-age by human standards. But here they were. Hardly men, if you could call them that, and were addressing themselves by the same names that she had called them by for all her life.
“I didn’t think I was that funny,” Mikey mused as he tapped his chin and thought about what he had said. Nonetheless, Leo cautiously approached her with her weapons in hand and placed them gently into her gloved hands.
“No,” she said as she got back up on her feet. “It’s just… I see all these similar faces, but the stories are all so…different.” She made sure to keep her gaze down, they mustn’t see her. They aren’t hers. They are someone else’s. She knew that if she revealed who she actually was would only lead to more questions than answers. Questions she was too shook up to answer at the moment. It didn’t help she immediately ran into the exact people she thought she would never see again. Mom. She scanned the group and noticed her mother was indeed not there.
“Is there anything we can do to help you?” Leo asked as he cast a worried glance in her direction. He was still unsure on how he should handle the young woman.
“Why should we help her? I’m sure she can handle it herself,” Raph snapped at Leo. He was upset that Leo even wanted to go out of his way to help this woman. They were in the middle of fleeing the enemy, for crying out loud. For all they knew, she was the enemy.
“No, no,” she said declined as she shook her head. “The offer is sweet, but your friend is right. I got myself into this, it’s up to me to save myself,” she said slowly and cautiously as she chose her words carefully. She knew that she would regret this, but she had to ask. For all she knew, they could be her only ticket to a city. For all I know, the Arc could have sent me to a dead planet.
“See she’s fi-”
“But, if you could drop me off at the nearest city, that would help a lot,” She said quietly as she interrupted Raph, which earned her a shocked and tense look from him. The look he had given her made her want to curl up on the floor again.
“Y-yeah, consider it done,” Leo stuttered before he smiled politely at the woman. “I’m Leo, and these are my brothers Donnie, Raph, and Mikey,” he introduced her to the names she’s known all her life; to the faces she’s known all her life. Just a bit different than what she remembered. “What’s your name?” he asked.
She opened her mouth, but quickly shut it; she can’t be truthful with her name here. There could already be another with her name here. She can’t carry that person’s name; she could never carry another’s weight. Names are, after all, one of the most powerful things a being can carry with them. “It’s Molly,” she said confidently as she looked up at them.
“Our ship isn’t too far from here,” Donatello said before he started to explain the location of the ship to her in great detail, while she just nodded her head as he talked. Her mind was elsewhere. If they were to find out who she was and where she came from, she would, of course, have many questions to answer. And her father. She would most likely choose flight if everything unravels. No, when. When it unravels.
“Well, well, well, look who we have here,” said a voice she knew all too well. Star Knight-Captain Kikiko Nexios, she was the one who taught her diplomacy. To always find peace in words, not violence. But here she was, wearing her old, worn out captain hat with the boots that matched it in color, silk pink flower dress, and that damned sword she always wore at her hip, now she was waving it at her. No, not her. Them. All of them.
It didn’t take long for all them to get caught by Star Knight Captain Nexios. She was the best they had; of course, they had no chance going up against her. It was like the fish and bird. All the fish could do was swim around until the bird decided to pluck it from the water.
When Nexios got to her to collect a name, she knew that she would know if she was lying or not. Their glasses were altered and told them many things, such as lying among all other things. She had to tell the truth, and there was nowhere for her to turn. She would give away here name and then they would be tossed into a prison cell where they would hammer her for questions.
“Take off the hood, prisoner,” Star Knight-Captain Nexios ordered as soon as she came towards her.
With a small whimper of protest, she did just that and revealed the fact that she was a half-blood. Half mutant turtle, half human. “State your name, mutt,” she snarled as she spat out the derogatory term for the child of two different alien species.
She took a deep breath and then locked eyes with her father for just a second. Just a second long enough to know that he doesn’t recognize her. Of course, he won’t. He’s not your father. Her gaze immediately turned to stare at the vegetation that was growing not far behind Star Knight Captain Nexios. “I am Mona Lisa Hamato,” she said before she gave the salute her mother had taught her when she was just seven years old. Fists balled up, right hand over the heart, left hand straight by her side.
“Take them to the prison,” Star Knight-Captain Nexios commanded her soldiers as she wrote down the final name in her list.
As soon as they were tossed into the cell, she had believed she would have been hammered with questions immediately. She never considered silence, a silence so loud it was almost deafening. “I… I’m sorry,” was all she could manage to say, her voice shook and her fists balled up into fists and clutched the ragged cloak that she still wore.
“Who are you?” Raph finally asked as he broke the unnerving silence that had enveloped the cell.
“I guess I do owe an explanation, huh?” she asked as she smiled faintly. So much had happened to her already. She was almost positive she would never get to see her turtles. The ones who helped raise her.
“Starting from the beginning wouldn’t help,” Leo put in. He was sitting on one of the beds beside Donatello, Mikey was sitting on the floor in front of her, who was also sitting on the floor, while Raph was behind them, propped up against the wall.
“I…” She paused for a moment in order to figure out how much she should tell him. They never told her what to do if she ran into alternate universe them. Then again, they probably never expected her to be put in this situation. “I am from an alternate dimension where you all exist-”
“No way! That’s so cool! What’s it like? No, wait! What are we like?” Mikey pestered her with his questions.
Donatello also seemed curious and joined in on the questions, “Dimensional travel? How’d you pull that off?” he asked sincerely as he tilted his head to one side in confusion.
“Well, you, or, I mean, my you built it. It was a portal that could take you to any planet. It was meant to take us home, but it came with a price. The portal could only be used manually, and those who activated it would get sent to an alternate dimension, while the ones who went through the portal would go to the selected destination. I… I wanted my parents to be happy again, all those debates about who would work the portal and who wouldn’t be making everyone tense… So, I fixed the problem for them and now I’m here… Stuck in this cell,” She explained slowly as she cast a sad smile at them.
“Parents?” Leo echoed as he squinted his eyes at her.
“Yes… Vhallya and Raphael Hamato,” Mona admitted shyly, which caught everyone’s interest. “Vhallya was a human raised by an alien race, she met my father on the battlefield…” her cheeks brightened. She didn’t know much of how her parents met, now that she thought about it; they hardly ever told her anything. “I want to go home.”
“You said I built it?” Donnie asked after a few moments in an uneasy silence in an attempt to change the awkward atmosphere that had settled in the cell.
“Yes, but I don’t know if you can. You’re so much younger than the Donatello that I know, and even then, he could just build it,” she replied, but her voice lacked the hope that Donnie's had.
“Why don’t we start planning about building a portal once we get out of here?” Raph asked rather harshly. He wasn’t sure how to react to finding his kid from a different dimension. To be honest, it scared the shell out of him. How was he supposed to handle something like this? She was a couple years older than him, being at least nineteen/twenty years old.
“They took our weapons and, if they’re anything like the ones in my dimension, just one soldier is strong enough to take on one hundred men and live.” She said as she picked herself up off the floor.
Leonardo had been silently listening for the most part as he tried his best to make a decision. Should they sit and wait? Should they try to bust out? Sitting and waiting could get them killed, but so could escaping their prison, especially when they had no idea where the enemies had stored their weapons. Speaking of which, they didn’t even know who they were. She wasn’t saying, not that they hadn’t asked.
“We need to stay here until we can figure out what they did to our weapons.” Leo finally spoke up, which caused everyone to look at him. “If we try to escape right now, it’ll more than likely be suicide,” he reasoned.
She nodded her head in agreement. “Mother was worried they would ever kidnap me since she had abandoned their order, so she taught me the basic layout of their ships. So far, it seems to follow what she told me. We had the cafeteria more centralized, and if you noticed the barracks were just south of there, with the clinic west of the café… I believe that that is the typical layout, so that should place the armory above us,” she explained. Luckily, her mother had prepared her for all worst possible scenarios she might experience in her life. Who knew her mother’s paranoia could come in handy in a different dimension?
“And how do you expect us to get there from here?” Raph scoffed as he rolled his eyes at her. So, you’re taking that approach. What more did I expect? She quickly turned her gaze from him to hide her pain.
“The air vent,” she said as she pointed up as she spoke, she made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.
“Ooh! Ooh! I wanna go in the air vent!” Mikey volunteered excitedly and leaped up and down as he spoke.
“You would think pizza was involved,” she joked lightly before she shook her head. “I’m the smallest and I know where to go, I should be the one,” she reasoned.
“Then it’s settled, Mona will go in the vent and retrieve our weapons,” Leo said as he gave a sympathetic glance at Mikey.
“I’ll also give a quick look for the key because it won’t take long for them to notice the weapons are missing.” She added as she looked over at Leo to see if he agreed to what she had declared. At first, it looked like he was going to object, but he gave a minuscule nod in her direction.
It didn’t take long for them to hoist her up into the vents, nor did it take long for her to navigate the narrow vents. Luckily, she wasn’t claustrophobic, but she was afraid of the dark. The thought of never seeing scared the living shit out of her, in all honesty.
To her amazement, the armory was unguarded, and, on a table up against the wall opposite of the vent, were the weapons she was to collect. As she got it, she couldn’t shake the feeling to run. Everything about this felt like a trap, but if memory served correct, this is where the armory should be located. That’s in your dimension, idiot. That little voice in the back of her head said.
She had the option to flee before it was too late or get the weapons. With a shaky breath, she chose to collect the weapons and then flee, which turned out to be the wrong choice, as Star Knight-Captain Nexios stepped into the room with that damned satisfied smirk plastered on her face. “I told them something was different about you.”
“I beg your pardon,” she said innocently as she locked eyes with the Star Knight-Captain.
“You know what I mean, Mona Lisa,” she hissed and placed heavy emphasis on her name. What is she getting at? “I’ll permit you to leave. I’m quite curious to see how your story plays out, and so are the Star Commanders,” she said as she moved away from the table so that Mona could grab the weapons.
“W-why?” she found herself asking as she stared up at Kikiko Nexios like a deer caught in headlights. She didn't know what it meant, but it was a phrase her uncles had said a few times.
“I told you why,” she hissed in response, “Now take your stuff and leave. I’ll unlock your cell, but only for five minutes so hurry up and go.”
She didn’t waste any time as she collected all the weapons and hid them in her cloak that she had taken off and made a bag out of. Luckily, most of the weapons were able to fit.
“Oh, and Mona? The guards are still going to shoot to kill, so don’t die,” she said in a sickly-sweet voice and tossed an even sweeter smile in Mona’s direction that almost made her want to vomit.
“Did you get everything?” Donnie asked as soon as she dropped down from the vent and back into their cell.
“Guys! Hey guys, the doors open!” Mikey exclaimed as he looked back at them expectantly.
She quickly passed out the weapons before rushed out with everyone. She didn’t really know how they could get out without losing one person. Worst case scenario, worst case scenario, worst case scenario… At least at the worst outcome, she would be prepared. Whatever happens, she would get out alive. “Stairs!” she yelled as she lead them up. Down would seem logical in this death maze, but she knew how they think, or she did in her dimension.
She didn’t expect to come face to face with a patrol of guards, they seemed shocked as well. No one had yet to pull out their weapons, but once Mikey came running around the corner and crashed into Raph's back, did the stunned guards pull out their weapons.
The guards may have been trained, but so were they. It didn’t take long for the guards to be lying face down in a pool of blood and them moving on again. “We need to keep going up! You may think this is a ship, but it’s not! It’s an underground base!” she yelled towards them, they were ahead of her now.
She hadn’t seen the soldier standing there with the gun until the only option was to do what was necessary. Survive. She lunged and pushed the would-be victim out of the way and the bullet tore through her stomach. She could hear their screams as she fell backward and hit her head hard on the metal floor. Huh, so that’s what she meant. Was all she could think as she lay on the cold, hard floor in a growing pool of her own blood.
The Arc was a kind friend. The Arc was a cruel friend. It twisted minds and memories. She had been lying to herself without ever realizing it, all thanks to the Arc. She was never the one named Mona Lisa; that right was reserved for someone else. Someone close and dear to her heart.
“Mona!” cried the one she had sacrificed her life for and all she could do was laugh, which caused her to cough up her own blood in the process. Careful, you could choke on your own blood. That little voice scolded her. She would have told that voice to shut it, but then she’d just be having an argument with herself, and she wasn’t ready for that level of craziness just yet.
She remembered now. She had written a not just before she activated the Arc. In it, explained everything. From who she was to how to get back. She had thought of everything except for the fact that she might not check her pockets.
“T-that’s…” she coughed weakly, she had to get this out before she ran out of time. “I-it’s…a lie… The A-a-Arc twisted me-e,” another cough interrupted her and coursed through her body. She’d be damned if she’d let herself die in the arms of him before she could correct her error. All thanks to that damned Arc. “N-not, I-I’m not M-mona. I…my memories were tw-twisted. Vhallya, I-I’m Vhallya,” she whispered, as she slipped a note into Raphael’s hands before she succumbed to her wound.
For the first time since they met at the cave, he got a good look at her features. She had almost snow-white pale skin, pale brown hair, and deep green eyes, which he respectively closed for her. She was beautiful in her own right, but he could have sworn that throughout the whole ordeal she looked different. Had that been the effect of that Arc she kept babbling about?
Two years. It’s been two years since her death, and two years it’s taken Donnie to build the device that she had explained in her note that was needed to relay her message to her family. He couldn't forget what else that note contained. Like who they had been to her in her dimension, and, most importantly, who Mona Lisa had been to her, to his brothers, and especially to him. Today they would make contact with their selves from another dimension. Raphael was nervous as hell. He had volunteered to tell them since she was his doppelganger’s wife, and don’t forget the mother of his doppelganger’s daughter.
Donnie was currently calling them or trying to. They only had one chance at this since the materials to do this were extremely hard to find. Mikey and Leo were sitting nearby for reassurance, but he was pretty sure they just wanted to see what their doppelgangers looked like. He didn’t blame them. He would be doing the same thing if he wasn’t in this position right now, but he is and he feels like he’s about to hurl.
“Got it!” Donnie yelled, and before he could even blink, there was someone on the screen. She was a girl, half mutant turtle, half human, and she was staring at the screen with wide eyes and an open mouth in complete shock. She looked to be roughly twelve years old; she had golden eyes, and hair that looked exactly like her mother's.
“Uncle Donnie! There are people on your screen!” she hollered once the shock wore off and she had finally stopped studying each one of them.
“Then maybe try exiting the tab, Mona!” someone off screen yelled back. So, that was Mona Lisa? He was starting to think she didn’t exist, that she never came into their lives, but here’s the proof that she existed. Sometimes he wanted to hate her for coming into his life, but he can’t, not after she sacrificed her life for him.
“Is your father, uh, home?” he finally asked awkwardly. The frightened girl immediately focused her fierce gaze on him, and he almost cringed at how angry she looked.
“I’m not telling you!” she growled stubbornly as she crossed her arms across her chest and looked away.
“It’s important, please let me talk to your dad.” He couldn’t believe he just begged, but he had to give them closure. They deserved it, after all.
“Fine,” she hissed as she slithered away to find her father. When she came back, a mutant turtle was sitting beside her, he looked a lot like he did, just older.
“So, you found my wife,” the other dimension Raphael stated, not questioned.
“Y-yeah… How did you know?” he questioned aloud.
“I told her not to…not to mess with the Arc, but she was set on getting us home, the Arc changed her before it took her from me – from us. I almost didn’t recognize her; I wasn’t surprised she had used the Arc, just…disappointed. But…where is she?” the other him asked. He sounded wiser and more seasoned than he did. That’s because he’s an old man, you idiot.
“What exactly is this Arc?” he couldn’t help but ask, and he had a feeling the conversation would end as soon as he answered that question.
“It was a device she and Donnie had made, but it came out wrong. Its intention was sincere, at least that’s what they said, but it was corrupt. It had a mind of its own,” other him replied, looking down at his lap as he replied, ashamed that he had allowed his wife to mess with it. “She’s dead, isn’t she?” he asked bluntly, he didn't seem to appear to care that his daughter was sitting right beside him.
He nodded once, “She saved me from a bullet to the gut. Your wife died bravely, and she wanted me to let you know that she was sorry for messing with the Arc.”
“Mom?” Mona asked, her gaze softened upon realization of what they were talking about. “Dad, Mom isn’t dead. She can’t be,” she whimpered as she turned her gaze to stare up at her father. She didn’t bother to wipe away her tears as she waited for an answer.
“Is that all?” other Raph spoke gruffly; it was obvious he was hurting.
Raphael froze for a second as he tried to find a way to tell them this. He had to have Don explain this part to him, how could he begin to tell his other self this? “She told me that she could be saved if you turn the ‘Arc’ into a time machine.” He turned his gaze towards Don and signaled that it was time for him to jump in and help reunite this family the best that he could in less than five minutes. Five minute was how long they had before the resources would be all drained up.
As soon as Donnie began explaining everything to the other Raph, their Raphael walked back towards Mikey and Leo and sat down beside them. He couldn’t exactly wrap his head around everything Donnie was explaining to the pair on the other side of the screen. On the other side, the other him was listening intently, while Mona was writing down notes as fast as Donnie was speaking.
“Thank you, Uncle Donnie,” Mona said without even realizing what she had accidentally addressed him as. “You’ve given us a chance to be a family again. Thank you for passing along this information to us. It means the world to us to now have a temporary closure,” she thanked them sincerely as she began to neatly close up the notebook and place the cap back on her pen.
The other Raphael gave a small nod. “We’ll give Don these details and see what he thinks, thank you,” he grinned.
“Ye-yeah you’re welcome,” Raphael said quietly. His eyes went wide as the screen blinked black. He possibly just saved a family, his alternate family. He brought his hand to his face to cover his eyes and tried to think clearly. He jumped when he felt the wet tears that leaked from his eyes. I’m…crying? He tried to wipe away his tears before any of the others saw him like this.
“Dude, your girlfriend and daughter share the same name,” Mikey finally spoke up.
“Shut up, Mikey!” Raph yelled at him as he whipped his head in Mikey’s direction to glare at him.