Archive of Our Own ^beta

In accordance to every other part of their lives, the moment they all step into the neon pink portal-

-something clearly goes wrong.

There’s a sudden flash of brilliant blue through the whole thing, and then their surroundings goes vibrant purple. The violent sensation of falling happens shortly after that, and the exit back to their home shuts behind them as it does.

“This isn’t supposed to happen,” says Donnie, using that resigned tone he does whenever he knows something has gone haywire in a way he can’t stop. Raph, Mikey, and April- where’s Casey, oh shit they’ve lost him- scream in response to Donnie’s relatively calm words.

Leo swallows his own screams as they fall through empty blinding space, plummeting faster and faster and faster-

A tear in the void opens beneath them, and Leo has no way to stop himself before he flies right out of it. His sense of spacial awareness finally snaps back into order as he realizes they’re coming out horizontally above the ground. This is mostly due to him hitting it at an angle and rolling to his feet; shoulder and shell both smarting. Leo barely has time to look up before Mikey comes flying towards him and they collide with an undignified shriek. The other three members of their team aren’t far behind, unfortunately.

“Oh shit… it’s never done that before,” says an unfamiliar voice. Leo groans from under the pileup of bodies, looking for its owner.

There’s- a mutant turtle, holding a huge sword. The sword’s jittering glow fades as the purple portal closes up.

“Are they- are you mutants?” asks one of the turtles, and as Leo’s spotty vision focuses properly, he sees the turtle that’s just spoken has an orange mask across his face.

“Oh, no,” Leo groans. He kicks at the body he’s pretty sure is his idiot genius brother. “Don- Donnie, you sent us to another alternate dimension again. Get up and fix this.”

“Um- excuse me, are you talking to me?” asks a purple masked turtle who isn’t the turtle Leo is kicking.

Donnie hisses, “No, he’s talking to me, and Leo if you don’t stop kicking me right now I’m removing your whole foot.”

Leo stops kicking Donnie.

As they all untangle themselves, grumbling and shoving whoever is invading their space, the four unfamiliar and yet very familiar mutants in the room make excited gasps.

“Holy shit- you’re us?” exclaims the one that towers over everyone, and- oh no, that’s a Raph. A very, very big Raph.

“I take it this is your first interdimensional encounter?” Leo asks wryly, eyeing the size of the grinning Raphael. Oh, and his teeth. His very sharp teeth. Wonderful.

Leo’s own Raph is still dusting himself off, muttering, “I hate god damn fucking interdimensional encounters,” and only notices his other self when the guy gets closer. The two of them stare at each other like startled cats.

“What-” Raph says.

“-the fuck,” finishes Alternate Raph.

“Why are you huge?”

“Why are you tiny?”

“HEY!”

“I didn’t even know it could do this,” says Leo’s own doppelganger, who is staring at his sword with obvious awe.

“Hence why we were running tests,” Alternate Donnie says. He’s creeping closer as he says that, a critical examining eye darting over everyone. As is how all Donnies act, no matter the dimension. “So- gist of things is that you’re us and we’re you, but from parallel universes?”

“That is the gist, yes,” agrees Leo’s version of Donnie. The two purple masked turtles begin sizing one another up, examining each other as they circle.

“But who’s she?” asks Alternate Mikey, pointing at April.

April blinks, looking faintly surprised. “Oh, have you guys not met me in this dimension yet?”

“Uh, I don’t think so? Who’re you?”

“I’m April O’Neil.”

All four of the doppelgangers stop where they are, staring at her. April crosses her arms. “What?” she asks defensively. “I’m not like, some kind of enemy in this dimension, right?”

“You can’t be April,” Alternate Leo says, his brothers all nodding.

April balks. “Wh- why can’t I be myself?”

“Because you’re white,” says Alternate Mikey in confusion, and the look on April’s face is enough Leo has to turn and cough into his fist. Raph nearby chokes and starts laughing, along with Mikey. Leo hears Donnie just sigh long-sufferingly.

“We’re not making that trade deal with the Utrom, are we?” Donnie says.

-/-

So besides Casey’s MIA status- he’ll be fine, Casey fears neither god nor the devil and they’re pretty sure not even those two powers combined could kill him at this point- Leo’s whole team has made it to the through the portal accident in one piece.

Now they just have to wait for the two Donnies to figure out how to fix things. Easy enough done; this is basically like every other time they’ve ended up in the wrong dimension. Except… it’s also not.

“So… you’re honestly telling me you’re not the leader?” Leo asks.

“Yes and no,” Leon replies. He shrugs nonchalantly. “I mean, Raph mostly just calls himself the leader because he feels good about himself when he does. We usually kinda just- group effort it? If someone’s got an idea, we go with that idea.”

“But- no, no that’s not how it works!” Leo says, reeling at the concept of Raph being the leader of anything. “In the middle of a battle, who’s making the decisions? Who directs the team’s fighting formation? Takes charge of training? Someone has to be the leader; otherwise everything ends up in chaos.”

Leon is giving him a weird look, which isn’t fair at all, because he’s the weird one here. With his thick scale markings, stupidly huge sword, and mixed up family.

“That sounds kinda overly stressful, dude,” Leon says, shaking his head. “We don’t even fight people all that much, or like, train, either.”

“…You don’t train?”

“Eh, we do and don’t. We roleplay scenarios from Lou Jitsu movies with our pop, mostly.”

Leo looks upwards at the ceiling of the huge atrium they’re in. Questioning the multiverse as a whole.

“I can’t believe this,” he mutters, lowering his head and pinching between his eyes. The portal mishap between their dimensions was weird enough- but that’s simultaneously normal for his life. This conversation, and his doppelganger in front of him, is what’s really weird.

“I can’t believe it either,” Leon says. “You’re like- so not me. You don’t even look like me.”

Leo lifts his eyes to Leon again, taking in once more the overall streamline appearance the mutant has, long lanky limbs, all somehow almost reminding Leo of a puppy…?

“…How old are you, exactly?”

“Fourteen. You?”

And suddenly Leo understands a little better the attitudes of this version of his family. “I’m twenty-one,” he says. It’s no wonder this kid is such a kid; Leon is literally that. They all are, him and his brothers.

“Twenty-one? Seriously?” Leon asks curiously, giving him a fresh onceover. “Huh. Guess that explains why you’re so grumpy. You’re old.”

“I am not grumpy,” Leo refutes firmly. “Or old, either, for that matter.”

Leon gives him one arched eyeridge for that reply.  “Sure, whatever you say,” he says. “So, if you’re almost twenty-one, does that make Donnie also twenty-one, Raph twenty-two, Mikey twenty? Wow, that’s so weird to think about. Being in our twenties.”

“What? No. We’re all the same age. Aren’t you all fourteen?”

“Uh, no? Me and Don are fourteen- but he’s older by like, a few days or weeks or something. Raph’s the oldest, ‘cause he’s fifteen, and Mikey’s the youngest ‘cause he’s thirteen. Actually- no, April’s the oldest. She’s sixteen.”

Leo opens his mouth, closes it, and tries to process that lineup.

“Okay,” he says after a moment. “That at least explains why you’re letting your Raph throw his weight like that. God, I can’t imagine having Raph as an older brother and leader.” Leo shudders. “I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten you all killed in some bullheaded way yet.”

Leon’s expression abruptly shutters closed, crossing his arms. “Hey, watch it,” he says in a warning tone. “Raph might not always think everything through, but he’s still my older brother and he looks out for us.” He reaches out and prods Leo in the chest, still frowning. “An’ the only people allowed to get on his case ‘bout his stupid choices are me ‘n’ our brothers. You literally on just met us, too, what the hell. Didn’t your Splinter teach you manners?”

Leo scowls and swats Leon’s hand away. “My Splinter is dead.”

“He- oh. Oh.” Leon’s hostile expression abates somewhat, sympathy showing in his eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Leo glances away, old scars stinging. “It was a few years ago. Can we not talk about it?”

“Yeah, sure. Of course.” Leon is quiet for a moment, and then says, “I… I don’t know what we’d do without our Splinter. That must’ve been… awful. But,” he says, rallying, “that doesn’t excuse you badmouthing my brother.”

“I wasn’t,” Leo says belligerently, temper rising. “That’s just how Raphaels act, no matter what dimension.”

“I don’t care. It’s not nice of you to say no matter what. And that’s not how I act, so.” Leon takes a few steps back. “I think I’m gonna go see what the Mikeys are up to, instead’a starting a fight with you.”

Leo’s mouth is agape with indignation as his doppelganger practically skips off to join their orange banded siblings across the room. He tries, and fails, to reconcile that he and Leon are technically the same person, and yet Leon has just totally disregarded him like so.

Leo draws himself, hisses at no one, and stalks off to find someone actually in charge of things. Like- Splinter. He’ll find the alternate Splinter. And he’ll definitely be able to do so without getting emotional about his own father’s death.

-/-

“I can’t believe you got away with doing graffiti all over the lair. That’s so sick.”

“I asked permission for most of it, actually. Pops encourages my artistic expression.”

“Cool, cool. I never really got into the whole art thing, personally,” Mikey says, leaning his elbows on his crossed legs and putting his cheek in his palm.

“How come?” asks Mikey 2.0, aka the cutest and most weirdly innocent version of himself Mikey has ever met. Michael, they decided Mikey 2.0 could be called for now, since that’s a nickname that’s been thrown around already.

Mikey shrugs. “Dunno, no time? Not really my thing? Raph does it more than me, an’ I think I mighta just gotten sick of fighting over the pencil crayons.”

Michael tilts his head. “You could’ve gotten your own, couldn’t you?”

“I mean, yeah, but…” Mikey shrugs again, not really having an answer to that one. He offers his best explanation anyway. “We already shared a buncha stuff as it was; copying each other more than we had to wasn’t much fun.”

“Huh… fair enough,” Michael says, nodding. He then smiles. “But it’s never too late to start doing art again! Plenty of famous artists didn’t start painting ‘n’ stuff until they were pretty old. You could even borrow some of my supplies while you’re here, if you wanted.”

“You know what? Sure,” Mikey says, smiling at the kid’s generosity and eager grin. “If we hang around long enough, I’ll try a doodle or two. But I kinda doubt we’ll be here more than another hour, or something. These things tend to go pretty quick for us.”

“Is cross-dimensional hopping a regular thing you guys?”

“Just about. Although we’ve done a lot more time travel than we have dimensiony bullshit.”

“Time travel? Holy shit.”

“Yeah, we even almost unmade ourselves one time!” Mikey says, laughing as he recalls the serious near miss with that adventure. “Like, every time we checked this photo of our family in the future, it got more faded and empty ‘cause we kept screwing stuff up. We lost Casey out of the picture, an’ then April… master Splinter wasn’t in the photo, but he would’ve been gone, too, probably. Huh. I kinda wondered, though, if he would’ve turned back into a human in the picture first before he disappeared…”

Mikey trails off, seeing Michael’s somewhat disturbed expression.

“What?” Mikey asks.

“Dude… you guys almost erased yourselves from existence?” Michael says in a quieter voice than before. He’s tugging at the orange bracelets he’s wearing, twisting them around his wrists as he talks. “Wow… that’s a little scary. How’d you fix that?”

“Uh, we sort of didn’t? It was supposed to happen that way, I think,” Mikey says, eyeing the twisting bracelets. Nervous fidgeting? About that? The trip to see his father’s old human life was practically a vacation, all things considering.

Maybe since they’re so young, Michael and his brothers haven’t had those kinds of experiences yet. Well, that’s a reasonable explanation to his reaction. “It wasn’t all that scary, honestly,” Mikey says, trying to be comforting, even if this is a stupid thing to get worked up over.  “We’d been through way worse. New York got invaded by aliens- like, four times in a few years- and the earth got blown up, which we also fixed with time travel, and… I dunno, plenty other shit. That specific jump through time was kinda tame in comparison, since inevitability is a thing and all.”

“The earth got blown up?” Michael exclaims, looking genuinely distressed by that factoid, which wasn’t Mikey’s intention, but.

Mikey is lost; the only people he’s ever hung out with are all the same age or older than him. Kids are so squishy and confusing. “More like broken into pieces and sucked into a black hole, but I said we fixed that, didn’t I?” he says, trying to not sound irritated. “It was fine.”

Michael puts his hands to the sides of his head, mumbling, “Oh my god…”

Mikey scratches the back of his neck, figuring he should salvage the conversation. He knows at least someone will get mad at him if he makes the thirteen year old in the room upset.

“Uh… enough about me!” Mikey enthuses as best he can. “What’s up with you guys? You and your magical weapons and, uh, stuff.”

“Oh, uh- we pretty much stole them from some crazy mutant guy living in an underground magical city below New York that no one knows about. He kidnapped April’s teleporting dogcat thing.”

“Huh.” Mikey nods a few times, and then says, “I think it says something about my own life experiences that I think that’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.”

Michael laughs, light and giggly. It’s strange to hear, since Mikey knows he sort of laughed like that, a long time ago. Like hearing a recording of himself from childhood.

So bizarre. But also more tolerable than that one version of him, the one that was all rounded curves and sloppy mistakes. Mikey understood, spending time around those guys, why his brothers get so annoyed with him sometimes.

Someone joins them at that point, interrupting. “What’re you guys laughing about?” asks little Leo, dropping down into a crouch beside them.

“That crazy Baron guy,” Michael explains. He leans around Leon, looking at someone else. Mikey follows Michael's line of vision and sees his own Leonardo, who is looking miffed as anything as he storms out of the atrium.

“He was definitely short a few fins of an imitation crabpuff,” Leon agrees sagely.

“Bruh,” Mikey says, pointing at Leo’s vanishing figure across the room, “weren’t you and my bro getting along all chummy like earlier? Why’s he look like a cat that’s met a spray bottle recently.”

Leon scowls briefly. “Your bro’s kind of a jerk. He randomly started badmouthing Raph right to my face. Our Raph, I mean.”

“Ugh, yeah, he does stuff like that with our Raph all the time,” Mikey says, rolling his eyes. “They’re always either two peas in a pod, or kicking each other in the shins constantly. You get used to it, so just ignore him.”

“Really? I don’t do that with my Raph at all,” Leon says.

“No?”

“Nope.”

“That’s weird.”

“What? Why is it weird I don’t fight with my brother constantly?”

“I have so many reasons why, you don’t even know.”

Leon doesn’t look convinced. Whatever, Mikey can only muster enough fucks to please one version of Leo at a time. “What’d Leo say, anyway?” he asks, diverting the focus off the side topic they ended up on.

Leon frowns deeper, sitting down properly and huffing. “Stuff about Raph being a crap leader and big brother.”

Michael makes a tiny little gasp, frowning. “Seriously? Rude.”

“But Raph is a crap leader,” Mikey says, confused. “He’s kinda an asshole big brother, too, a lot of the time.”

“Oh, come on. Not you, too,” Leon gripes in an annoyed voice.

“What, is your Raph not like that?”

“Uh, yeah?”

Mikey thinks about the two Raphaels in comparison, who’re out collecting the other version of April and some takeout for a snack. The one from this dimension towered over Mikey’s brother; bigger and stronger in every sense, with a sharp toothed smirk to add onto it all. Mikey saw the spikes studding the kid’s shell earlier, too, and knows this Raphael is the oldest of his family.

“Sure,” Mikey says, opting for the least confrontational route. “I mean, I wouldn’t wanna say a bad word behind his back either way, if I were you guys.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael asks, adopting the same disgruntled expression as Leon.

“Uh, the obvious thing?” Mikey says. He gets blank looks for that. “I mean he’s huge? He obviously packs a serious punch when he gets pissed off, right?”

“What do you mean?” Leon asks, more confused than annoyed now.

“He clearly packs a literal punch, dude.” Mikey smacks his fist into his palm, for further clarification. “My Raph is shorter than me now, since I finally got a growth spurt, but he still hits like a motherfucker. I wouldn’t wanna be on the wrong side of your Raph, especially when he’s angry at you, no way.”

He gets two sets of weirded out looks. Leon and Michael don’t seem to know how to respond to that.

“Okay, now we’re all confused,” Mikey says, giving up. “What is he like when he gets angry, then?”

“Uh… Raph doesn’t actually get angry all that often,” Michael says slowly.

Mikey blinks, surprised. “Really?”

Leon nods. “He gets frustrated sometimes, but he’s a pretty mellow guy.”

“Mellow and Raph in the same sentence? Are we talking about the same turtle right now?”

“I don’t think so,” Michael says, shaking his head.

Mikey sits back, considering the two mutant kids in front of him. They’re sitting shoulder to shoulder, at ease with each other’s presence and presenting a unified front. It’s a stark difference from Mikey and his Leo; Mikey’s usually stuck in the back of things with Donnie, or sometimes just on his own. Leo is always putting himself in the thick of things, acting as leader and calling orders.

Leon meanwhile is slouching comfortably here with them, rather than trying to fix their situation, and hasn’t done anything more commanding than a request for people to stop saying stuff about his big brother. In fact, now that Mikey thinks about it- Leon has acted pretty similarly to Michael, in the sense that they’re just hanging out and enjoying the ride.

Mikey doesn’t really know what to say about any of this, including the Raph stuff, so he just settles for, “Huh.”

-/-

“It doesn’t matter how you try spinning it, that’s just a stick.”

“It is a specially crafted wooden weapon, which I made myself. It’s also a traditional weapon my father gave to me himself, since I have a… actually, never mind. He said it was because I had a peaceful soul or something, and I don’t think a single part of my soul has been peaceful since I was like, two years old.”

Don snorts. Donnie internally wonders why he even tried defending his bo staff; it is an extremely versatile weapon, and he does make them by hand, but there’s just no comparison to the tech bo Don is holding.

Donnie saw it go from a simple staff to a rocket powered hammer in the span of seconds, when Don was demonstrating its abilities. He wants it so badly his hands are itching to just grab it and run.

“Can I just have yours? We’ll trade,” Donnie tries with a hopeful grin.

“Not on your life,” says his obviously younger counterpart, clutching his weapon close.

Donnie sighs wistfully. “That’s fair. I wouldn’t trade, either.”

“Just make your own, jeez,” Don says in a duh sort of tone. “I’m surprised you haven’t yet.”

“I… started to, a couple years back, but a lot of things distracted me. There were aliens, and gang wars, and a whole lot of other junk-”

Don interrupts him. “Don’t you have time now?”

Donnie stops, blinking. Well. “Um, I guess so?”

“Then do it. Free time is wasted time, unless it’s a self-care day.” Don says self-care day with emphasis, seeming very serious about it. “Those are sacred and work free.”

“Hm,” Donnie says, thinking about that idea. A self-care day, huh?

…He can’t really picture that. He’s got ‘downtime’, technically, but… his nights and days are always spent jumping from one project to another. Or repairing something that his brothers broke, or abandoning those chores to deal with a crisis mission, or etc.

“If I have a moment,” Donnie says noncommittedly, since he knows he can’t even promise himself he’ll have time for anything. “But you’d really speed up the process, giving me a breakdown of your own tech…”

“Let’s sort out the dimensional anomaly that sent you guys here, first, and then I’d be happy to,” Don says, giving an excited grin. Donnie feels himself grinning back. From the first few moments of them meeting, they’ve basically agreed on everything. Don might be younger than him- Donnie wages a guess of about fourteen or fifteen, on the early side of puberty- but he’s without a doubt a genius. It’s so nice to have some decent company for once.

Donnie is also really trying to remind himself stealing from a kid is probably wrong. Could he get away with it before Don noticed? Absolutely. Don and his brothers are all complete greenhorns to ninjutsu. Could he live with the guilt of having stolen Don’s shiny little toys, all of which he built himself and undoubtedly treasure like his own children?

Donnie has done worse, honestly. He’ll decide if he wants to burn that bridge once he’s crossed it, after he gets a crack at Don’s lab and inventions. See if he’ll be able to replicate the schematics from memory or not.

“Sure, sure,” Donnie says, eager to get things moving along quicker. “But it was less of an anomaly, more of a cross contamination. That sword your Leo has- it opens portals, right? I’m fairly certain it interfered with a Kraang portal I’ve been working with in my lab.”

“Really? I was wondering how Leo’s sword managed something like this, but that explains it. Our dimensions probably aligned just long enough for things to get mixed up-”

“-which resulted in our portal breaching the barriers between the dimensions, using Leo’s sword as a beacon-”

“-causing your portal to dump you here instead of where you wanted to go-”

“-which means that it’s as simple as retracing our steps with the accident-”

“-and sending you all home by reversing the entire process! Incredible!” Don exclaims.

Donnie puts a hand on his heart, feeling oddly choked. “You understood that without me having to explain it five times. Oh my god. This is something I’ll remember forever.”

“Please, hold your adoration until the end of the presentation,” Don says, bowing slightly.

Donnie laughs, bemused at the easy confidence Don has. He envies the kid; Donnie doesn’t remember feeling so confident about his skills, especially at that age. His family was still prioritizing martial arts over sciences back then, and… still do today, ugh.

Donnie sweeps those thoughts away, focusing on having a fellow genius to talk to. “I take back what I’ve said about alternate universe versions of myself,” he says. “You’re a blessing to this whole disaster and we should figure out how to Skype across dimensions.”

Don smirks. “We’ll add that to the list of things we have to do before you leave. ‘kay, so we can start building a stabilizer in my lab-”

“-and then something to ground it all, in case it overloads,” Donnie adds. “We wouldn’t want to leave your lab a smoking crater if the energy goes critical when we pass through the portal.”

Don nods. “Definitely. I’ll just have to move some stuff around and then we can get to work.” He turns and waves to get someone’s attention. “Hey, eyes on me! We’re gonna get things going, now, so I’m gonna have to grab a couple of you to help. Leon, could you bring us your sword?”

The lanky, brightly colored version of Donnie’s brother stands up; waltzing over with a relaxed gait. The two Mikeys he’s with follow. “Sure, Donnie,” Leon says, drawing the oversized weapon from across his shell. He flips it around and presents the grip to his brother, who takes it after he collapses his tech bo and slides it away.

“Thank you,” Don says. Then, addressing his other sibling, “Mikey, you wanna help us with the welding? The whole frame will have to be big enough for them to cross all at once.”

“Totally,” Michael says with an eager smile. “I’ll go grab my gloves, just gimme a sec.”

“You’re getting a Mikey to help?” Donnie asks incredulously, which causes Michael to pause in his departure.

Don gives Donnie a confused glance. “Yyyyes…? What about it?”

Donnie snorts. “Do you want this to blow up in our faces? Michelangelos wreck anything they touch.”

“Oh my god damn GOD!” Leon exclaims loudly. He throws up his hands, saying, “What is it with you people? First the other me, and then this guy-” He points accusatorily at Donnie’s Mikey “-and now you’re ragging on my brothers. What the fuck, dude?”

“What? I’m telling the truth,” Donnie says, annoyed by the sudden hostility.

Don shifts the oversized katana in his hands, crossing his arms carefully. “I don’t know what it’s like in your dimension,” he says coolly, expression disapproving, “but Michael helps me with plenty of projects. All my brothers do.”

“I don’t wreck everything I touch, and I like helping Don out,” Michael says in a hurt tone, shoulders hunched. He gives Donnie a wounded look. “Why would you say something like that?”

Donnie realizes he’s made a serious misstep. He glances towards his own brother, and sees Mikey scratching the side of his neck with a bored expression. His brother shrugs at Donnie’s unvoiced questions.

He won’t be getting any help from there, it seems.

“I’m sorry,” Donnie says, since apology is really the only thing to do here, even if he doesn’t quite get why. Maybe this dimension is more different from his own than he thought. “I didn’t mean offense; I just… don’t want anything to go wrong with us getting home.”

“It’s my sword, so you guys should start minding your manners better if you wanna use it,” Leon says seriously, still riled up and glaring. Then Don puts a hand on his brother’s shoulder and Leo huffs and deflates a little. “…But, okay. Let’s just get this over with. Apologize to Mikey first, though.”

Donnie looks towards the youngest member of their group, who averts his eyes from Donnie’s.

“I’m sorry,” Donnie says sincerely, starting to feel a little ashamed. Michael looks genuinely hurt; it’s not an expression he’s used to seeing on Mikey. Nothing sticks to Mikey, sliding off like rain down a window. The fact that Michael let a single negative comment get to him like this speaks volumes of how soft bellied and young he and his brothers are.

“Thanks for the apology,” says Michael, though he still is eyeing Donnie a little warily. He reaches over and tugs on one of the long gloves Leon wears. “C’mon, Leo. I just remembered I forgot where I put my gloves. You gonna help me look?”

“…Sure,” Leon says, giving everyone one more peeved look before he goes. He takes Michael by the hand and pulls him away from the group; the two of them hopping up a level and vanishing into the tunnels extending from the atrium.

Donnie doesn’t comment on that Michael was just making up an excuse to take his brother with him. It was obvious enough it doesn’t warrant calling out, since everyone could tell. He wonders at the actions of the younger mutants; unable to recall a single instance of any similarity within his own family. Mikey hasn’t looked to anyone for comfort like that in recent memory; not since time blurred years of their childhood, honestly. And Leo’s method of comfort revolves around practiced sounding lectures, these days.

“Well,” Don says, breaking the silence. His expression is flat and unimpressed, definitely as displeased as his siblings are right now. “That aside, let’s get going. The others should be back soon with snacks, and I want us to at least have a base design before they do.”

And then his battle shell opens up and lifts him into the air, hovering over the floor as he flies out of the room. Donnie may or may not make a whine of pure jealousy over the tech.

Then, he realizes Mikey is still standing there, staring at him. “What?” Donnie asks.

“Nothin’,” Mikey says.

Donnie looks at him for a moment, and then, sighing and taking a note out of his other self’s book, he asks, “…Do you want to help build the portal stabilizer?”

Mikey barks a sharp laugh, and then, with a perfectly flat expression and tone, says, “Go fuck yourself, Dee.”

Donnie rolls his eyes so hard it hurts. Like he didn’t see that one coming. Mikey never wants to help anyone unless he gets something fun out of it. “Fuck off, Mike. Make yourself useful and find where Leo’s wandered off to; I don’t want to have to go hunting you all down when it’s time to leave.”

At that point, Leo stumbles out of a room adjacent to the atrium, dodging a well-aimed remote flying at his head. He fails to dodge the DVD case that follows right after.

“There he is,” Mikey says, lazily pointing at their cursing brother.

“And he is now your problem,” Donnie says, because if Mikey won’t help with the portal- not that Donnie actually wanted him to- he can at least babysit their leader.

Mikey grumbles as Donnie leaves him, and Donnie does not feel bad about that in the least.

-/-

“He hit me. With his tail.”

“Sounds terrible.”

“Because- because I was interrupting his gameshows. Can you believe that?”

“I can’t, wow.”

“All I wanted was to give him some pointers on how to train the other us better!”

“The audacity of refusing those pointers.”

“Mikey, you’re not taking this seriously.”

“How’d you guess?”

-/-

April is expecting her friends to be in the alley when she comes out the backdoor. She’s expecting to hand off the takeout to one of the brothers and hop on Donnie’s back for a ride, and for them to head back to the lair for whatever surprise Raph has been excitedly hinting at in his texts.

She’s not expecting some white lady to be loitering out back, dressed in a black and yellow tracksuit and packing legit sword as a weapon.

“Uh… ‘cuse me, miss?” April says, looking the stranger up and down and inching backwards. She wishes she hadn’t put her phone away just before coming outside, since 911 could be needed. April uses her best customer service voice as she says, “You’re not really supposed to hang out back here.”

“I tend to be where I’m not supposed to,” says the red haired lady. She’s looking at April weirdly, which pings April’s intuition about shit she should probably avoid.

“Are you April O’Neil?” asks the lady, and oh shit, April definitely needs to call the brothers soon as possible.

“Who’s askin’?” April questions carefully, trying to be subtle about reaching for her cellphone in her back pocket.

Mystery lady rubs the back of her neck. “Uh, technically yourself?”

April opens her mouth, shuts it, and then says, “You need to elaborate on that this instant.”

Mystery lady started to respond, but yelps instead as someone drops out of the sky and sends both of them scattering. Raph’s mask tails haven’t even returned to gravity before he’s in April’s face, exclaiming, “April! Look what I got- it’s another me!”

He points at the snarling green thing he’s got under his arm. April sees a red mask instead of a red bandana, and has trouble matching the furious turtle to her beaming friend.

“Uh, you sure, dude?” April says dubiously. The other not-Raph snarls and snaps at her.

“Oh yeah, he’s another me,” Raph says happily. “He bites a lil, but he’s alright. Keeps tryin’ a’ run off, though.”

“I’m gonna kill all of you,” hisses not-Raph, struggling in Raph’s grip and still failing to break it.

“Charming lil guy, isn’t he?” April says dryly. The not-Raph practically yowls at her.

“Don’t mind him, he’s always like that,” says mystery lady, appearing next to April with spooky quietness. She smiles, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I should’ve introduced myself, too. I’m also April O’Neil.”

April’s brain takes a moment to absorb that information. She stares at the mystery lady.

“She’s you,” Raph says.

“From an alternate universe,” says mystery-lady-who-is-also-named-April.

April stares a moment longer.

“You sure?” April says, breaking her silence.

“I’m pretty sure I’m myself, yes,” replies the other April.

“But-” April gestures frantically. “Why are you white?”

“Oh my god, April,” says Raph, definitely enjoying what’s happening, “you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”

“You shut the fuck up, Raph. Don’t quote Mean Girls at me right now. What did you guys even do?”

“Leo’s sword broke the universal barrier.”

“Seriously?”

“I don’t know how to feel about people questioning my race,” other April says offhandedly.

“I don’t know how I feel about being packed around like a stuffed toy,” snarls other Raph.

April wants to rub her temples, but she’s still holding the bags of Chinese takeout. She settles for theatrically groaning. “I leave you all alone for one evening shift.”

“April? Are you still here? Who are you talking to?”

April curses, shoving Raph, Raph, and other April away from the door. “That’s my boss- guys we gotta go, I cannot lose this job after only two days! Raph, boost me.”

“No prob, girl,” Raph says, lowering one hand for her to step on. April steadies herself on his palm, and is ready for the rush of being launched upwards.

It’s a little harder than usual to pull off the trick, takeout bags getting banged up as April scrabbles for purchase on the edge of the roof. She hauls herself up and over it with minimal squishing of the bags, thankfully. She’s just standing up straight again when the other April appears, gracefully vaulting onto the rooftop.

“Whoa, gal. Nice moves,” April says appreciatively.

Her other self smiles. “Thanks. Half a decade of ninja practice pays off.”

“Wait- you’re a ninja?”

“You’re not?”

“You think I’d be having my friend toss me two stories into the air if I could do it myself?” April stops, considering her own statement. “Actually, I’d do that either way.”

Other April laughs. Their turtle friends make an appearance then, Raph clambering onto the roof with one hand and still carting his smaller self under his arm.

“You got flat teeth, bro,” Raph is saying admonishingly. “They’re not gonna do a whole lot to me.”

His other self hisses, teeth locked around a chunk of Raph’s scaly skin. Raph is regarding the attack with mild annoyance, not terribly affected at all.

“God, he’s so embarrassing sometimes,” other April mutters, covering her face. “I’m just glad Casey isn’t here to encourage him.”

“Who’s Casey?” April asks, edging away from Raph and Raph. Does she want to get between the two of them right now? Not really, no.

Other April lowers her hand, giving her a look. “Don’t tell me… Casey’s not white, either, isn’t he?”

“Fuck if I know. Who even is he, for starters?”

“…Oh. Um. Our friend? Also a menace. His hobby is throwing himself at the most dangerous thing possible, including the idiot your friend is holding.”

“Interesting sounding guy. Don’t him, either. You didn’t bring him along for the ride?”

“We sort of lost him in the portal on the way here, actually, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s been through stupider accidents than this.”

April cocks her head, giving the other April’s faintly stressed expression some consideration. “This shit happen to y’all regularly?”

“You have no idea,” other April says in a tired voice.

Raph then lets out a startled yelp, drawing their attention. His smaller self has finally gotten hold of his own weapons again, and is currently trying to stab at Raph’s side.

“Raph, no maiming,” other April says. Her friend just curses in response, clawing his way up his larger alternate self and trying to get a lock around his neck.

“Should we break that up?” April asks- technically herself, ugh. They need to figure out a system to keep this from getting confusing.

“Probably,” other April says.

Neither of them move for another moment, watching the two Raphs hiss and grapple with each other. Then, they both sigh, April puts down the takeout, and they roll up their sleeves.

-/-

“Either you shut up and play nice, or I’m gonna have Raph sit on you again,” lectures the pigtailed, sports jacket wearing version of Raph’s friend.

“Go to hell,” Raph snaps.

“Hey,” growls his other self. His other self who is three times his size and has been carrying Raph around like it’s nothing for the past half hour. Raphael fixes a warning look on Raph. “You don’t talk to my friend like that, got it? Like she said. Play nice, or else.”

Raph sneers. He’s taken on bigger enemies than this guy. He’s just been avoiding actually applying force; this version of himself might be pissing him off, but it probably wouldn’t feel right to actually stab the guy.

Also. Alternate April sure has one heck of a glare. He gets the sense she might do more than just glare if he injures her friend.

“Raph,” says his version of April, “can you please just chill out? The food’s getting cold and we should’ve been back by now. God only knows what other disasters could’ve happened while we were gone.”

“Not like I wanted to come along,” Raph says belligerently, shooting a nasty look at his April, who just raises one eyebrow, daring him to continue. The other April also has an eyebrow raised, tilting her chin and looking at Raph over her red framed glasses.

They both cross their arms at the same time. Raph reads the silent challenge.

Deciding it’d just be easier to avoid evoking the wrath of not one but two Aprils, he opts to back off. “…Fine, I’ll chill. But only if he stops fuckin’ carrying me around.”

“My brothers like it when I pick them up, dunno what your problem is,” says Raphael, sulking. His April pats his arm consolingly.

“Well I’m not your brother, now am I?” Raph says snidely.

“Oh hush up,” says the April with pigtails, putting herself between Raph and her Raph. “You got a free ride and free takeout out of this, and all you’ve done is bellyache about everything. If you want even one spring roll, you’re gonna quit trying my patience.”

“I don’t have to listen to you.”

“Oh, do you really wanna go with that route? Look me in the eye. Do you honest to god want to try me like that?”

Raph does look her in the eye. Despite himself, part of him cringes away.

How does someone so small pack so much threat into a single glare?

“…No,” he grits out.

“Uh huh. That’s what I thought,” she says.

“What she said,” agrees ponytail April, the absolute traitor she is. She links arms with her alternate self, and they go waltzing off along the tunnel they dropped into once they left the roof. It’s been barely five minutes since they all met, and the two of them are practically best friends already.

How annoying. Raph sends a disgusted glance towards his own alt self, who meets his gaze with a neutral look.

“We gonna follow or what?” asks Raphael. Raph doesn’t deign to answer, just marching forwards and grumbling under his breath.

They walk in silence for a while. Or rather, Raph pointedly ignores his own dimensional clone, and the two Aprils chat pleasantly a few paces ahead. Raph feels someone looking at him, and he glances up with narrow eyes.

“What?” he demands.

“Nothin’!” says Raphael. And then he keeps fucking staring. Raph thinks fondly of two hours before all this, when he was home and having time alone in his room without anyone to bother him.

Raph has no patience for this. He pinches between his eyes, sighing hard. Maybe he can use a ‘go away Mikey’ solution to things. “You can ask one question, and then you have to leave me alone.”

“Oh! Oh, uh. Okay.” There’s a pause as Raphael thinks over whatever he’s got in his head right now. Raph uses the time to look at the tonfa strapped to Raphael’s belt, wondering why any version of himself would choose them over sais.

“You know, I’m just gonna go with the obvious one,” Raphael finally says. “Why’re you so grumpy, dude? Did somethin’ happen to you today or what?”

“This happened to me today,” Raph snaps. “I was perfectly happy staying home all night, until some people decided it was a great idea to hop back into the murder dimension that still has an entire alien race looking for our heads. And then we don’t even make it there, we end up here, and then you fuckin’ picked me up and ran off without asking and now I’m getting cussed out by not one but two Aprils. And I lost my best friend halfway here, which is just a cherry on top of all this heaping pile of horseshit. I am completely fucking justified in my grumpiness.”

Raphael looks at him for a long moment, and then reaches into his belt. He takes something out and offers it to Raph. “Want a stress ball?”

Raph looks at the little round toy incredulously. Then he slaps the hand away from him. “No I don’t want a fucking stress ball, I want to go HOME!”

His shout echoes along the tunnel, and both of the Aprils whip their heads around.

“What’d we just talk about?” warns pigtails April. Ponytail April frowns at Raph, looking unjustly frustrated with him. His feelings about the situation are perfectly reasonable, thank you very much.

“No, it’s cool,” Raphael says, waving them off. “I got this.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

She gives him a dubious stare, but nods, and turns away again. Ponytail April gives Raph a don’t think I’m not watching you look before also turning away. The Aprils go back to talking amongst themselves, but glance back now and again as they talk. They walk further down the tunnel, giving Raph and Raphael space.

Raph hunches his shoulders and crosses his arms. He doesn’t have to respond to whatever Raphael is about to say to him, and if it’s a fight he’s finally picking, well, Raph will more than welcome it.

“I’m sorry.”

…What?

“I didn’t want to upset you,” Raphael continues. He fidgets with the stress ball he’d offered, twisting the soft plastic in his hands. “I just- got a little over excited, and didn’t think about that you really wouldn’t like me carrying you around. My brothers never mind, an’ I just really wanted to show you to April, but- that’s not an excuse, either. I hope I didn’t ruin this all for you, ‘cause it’s been really fun for me, so far. Even though you bit me.”

Raph stares at Raphael.

“Did you just apologize?” Raph asks.

“Uh, yes…?”

“After I yelled at you.”

“Yeah.”

“And tried to stab you.”

“I didn’t like that, but I pushed you into a corner so I get why you were freaking out.”

“I wasn’t-” Raph cuts off, ignoring the half blocked out feeling of panic, of being held down, unable to escape- he stops that line of thought. It connects too easily to others in his memories. He breathes in and out.

Raph revaluates the mutant in front of him. He takes in the non-aggressive posture of Raphael’s body, and apologetic expression he’s got. If he has any anger towards Raph for the vitriol thrown his way, as deserving as Raphael had been for it- the other turtle is either hiding it too well for Raph to find it, or it’s just not there.

“…Thanks for the apology,” Raph finally says, a little confused despite himself.

Raphael nods. Then, he smiles, like none of that ever happened. “No problem. Sorry again for picking up an’ stuff. I, uh. Don’t have much experience hanging out with anyone ‘sides April and my little brothers. We’re still figuring out the personal space thing with people we don’t know, haha.”

“It’s… fine,” Raph says, watching the huge mutant in front of him look embarrassed, if not downright flustered. What the hell. If Raph were that big, he probably wouldn’t feel intimidated by anyone ever again.

“Let’s, uh- let’s get goin’,” Raphael says.

“Yeah, sure.” Raph lets Raphael get a little ahead of him as they start walking again, puzzling to himself about the easygoing attitude his other self seems to have. Raph would have punched himself for how he’s been acting, and he was ready to punch Raphael for how he had been acting, so Raph doesn’t get how it’s all just been swept under the rug with a few words.

Then again, the sincere apology threw him for a loop. Raph doesn’t think he’s even all that mad anymore.

…Ugh, alternate dimensions. Next mission, Raph is just going to seal off his room and ignore his entire family. There’s too many of them at home as it is, he doesn’t need another whole set of their stupid family to give him a headache. Including another version of himself; it’s confusing and annoying, especially with everyone having the same names. Speaking of-

“Hey, uh- other me?” Raph says.

“Yeah?”

“What am I supposed to call you, anyway. I’m givin’ myself a headache trying to think of everyone’s names right now.”

“Oh- um, guess you could call me Raph?”

“But that’s what I’m called.”

“Oh.”

“Do you have any other nicknames? Because I don’t, an’ I don’t think full names will help here, either.”

“His other nickname is jackass!”

“No one asked you, April!”

Raphael snickers at the Aprils making faces at them. “Okay, okay- you could call me Ralph, I guess? Or Red Rover. That’s my radio codename.”

“…I’ll just call you Ralph,” Raph says, deciding to not pick on the kid for the dumb codename. Ralph is definitely younger than him, too; Raph’s been getting that sense ever since Ralph apologized.

Ralph beams with all his sharp teeth, like they’re great friends suddenly. “And you can call my little brothers Don, Leon, and Michael- ‘cause I heard you guys calling each other Donnie, Leo, and Mikey already.”

“Sure, sure.” Raph hopes he won’t have to interact with any of them more than he has to; he’s tired and has used up all of his social points for the night already. Then, Raph’s brain finally notices something amiss with what Ralph said.

“Hey, wait. Little brothers?”

-/-

“You seriously don’t hang out with anyone else? Just the brothers and this Casey guy?”

“Uh… I hang out with their older half-sister, sometimes?”

“They have a sister in your universe?”

“She’s human, too, actually.”

“Wow. How’s that supposed to work?”

“Same dad, except from different points in his life. She’s an international crime lord, now, actually. She took over after we helped kill her evil fake dad who stole her from master Splinter before he came to New York and ended up raising the boys.”

“…There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence.”

“It sounds bad when I say it out loud, I think.”

“No, I think it’s just bad. Four mutants, some crazy white boy, a crime lord and an old rat man? That’s who you hang out with every night? Girl.”

“The crime lord is part snake mutant, actually. Forgot to mention that. I don’t know what’s up with her girlfriend, best friend, second in command or whatever, either. Shini says she’s a real witch, and I honestly can’t think of any reason to doubt her at this point.”

“Jesus.”

“Our whole friend group is inhuman, at least a little, I think. Even me. Oh, except Casey, but I don’t think he really counts as human.”

“Jesus.”

“I’ll admit it does sound really bad.”

“No shit. You said you’re not human?”

“Part human, part Kraang hybrid, all alien super weapon. I was technically supposed to destroy the world.”

“What the actual fuck.”

“They bred my family for it for generations.”

“April, girl, dude- take a fucking vacation already. Go to the spa. A mall. Try team sports- get some normal friends, god damn!”

“Being large crowds actually triggers a lot of anxiety for me, and the last time I took the subway during the day I nearly broke someone’s wrist ‘cause they bumped into me.”

“…Okay, we’re sittin’ down, and we’re gonna have a nice long chat about you figuring your shit out, because isolating yourself in a group directly associated with the trauma you’ve experienced is not healthy, bruh.”

“…I think I’d like that, yeah. The brothers, and Casey… they don’t do the whole ‘talking through trauma’ thing.”

“You tried talking to Splinter? Or your dad? Splinter’s actually pretty good for advice, as long as you don’t mess with his TV time, an’ dad’s always got my back about whatever it is I’m goin’ through.”

“My- my dad has even worse anxiety than me, about the stuff we went through, and, um… our master Splinter passed away years ago.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“I was there for it, actually. He- well, he- I was hurt, and I couldn’t get there in time, none of us could, and- and-”

April stops, feeling a hand on her shoulder. Dark eyes are giving her a sympathetic look, understanding and calm.

“You don’t gotta talk about that part,” says April’s other self. “We’ll just work through the day to day stuff.”

The tension growing around April’s chest eases off, and she manages a weak smile. “Thanks,” she says honestly.

Her glasses wearing counterpart smiles warmly, squeezing April’s shoulder. “No prob, it’s the least I can do, helping my own self out.” Then, she smirks. “Even if you’re a whitewashed version of me.”

April is startled into laughing, getting an arm around her other self’s shoulders and drawing her close. “Oh my god, shut up- I’m older than you, so I existed first. Which means I’m not a whitewashed version of you, you’re a- wait, can I say blackwashed? I don’t think I can.”

“Nope!” giggles the other April. “That’s not even a thing, dude, but I’m gonna give you a one-time pass on things ‘cause we’re the same person.”

The absurdity of the statement sends them both into giggles again, alleviating the dark atmosphere the discussion of April’s life brought on.

Raph grumbles, “Glad one of us is enjoying this,” somewhere behind them, and April flips off her friend without looking. Her other self sticks up a middle finger as well, and they both laugh at Raph’s indignant noises.

The lair is bright and welcoming as they enter- not at all like the one April is most familiar with. There’s a video game hall, a skateboarding park, graffiti all along the walls- it’s a teen’s paradise, and it makes the lair in her home dimension seem dark and cold in comparison.

“Huh, no one’s home,” other April says, surveying the room. She shifts her bags to one arm, whipping out her cellphone and dialing. A moment of waiting, and other April smiles.

“Donnie, babe! Where you all at right now? Yeah, I figured you’d be holed up in the lab. I got snacks, I’ll send ‘em your way. Love ya, say hi to your alternate self for me!”

She hangs up, and holds most of the bags out to Ralph. “Raph, hon, could you be a dear and play delivery boy? I need to go have a self-reflection session with myself, here.”

“Sure, do you want me to save anything for you guys?” Ralph asks, taking the bags.

Other April holds up the bag she kept. “Nope, we got soup and crackers. Go make sure the others eat, we’ll be fine with this.”

He nods, and turns to walk down yet another off-shoot path from the atrium, presumably to the lab of this universe’s Donnie. Raph looks like he almost wants to stick with her, but is likely lured by the scent of hot food going the other direction. April’s other self takes her arm, leading her down a different route.

“C’mon, we’ll get some coffee from the kitchen while we’re at it.”

“Oh, sure. Thank you.” She chew her lip for a moment, before asking, “So… are you and Donnie… you know?”

“Am I and Donnie what?”

“You know.”

“No. What?”

“Are you guys dating? I mean, me and my Donnie never worked out like that, but maybe here-”

Her other self stops short. “What? Oh, no, no, no- we’re not dating, Christ. He’s basically my little brother? And also fourteen, god.”

April flushes in embarrassment. “Oh. Sorry.”

Other April gives her a sincerely grossed out expression. “Are you telling me you and yours-?”

“No! I just said- we never worked out like that, and our relationship was way better as a friendship once we- once Donnie- let go of his crush.”

“I cannot even imagine that. He’s- they’re all pretty much my family, and I’m years older- it’d be icky feeling for more than one reason.”

“Look, he’s twenty-one in my universe and we met when we were both fifteen, gimme a break here.”

“I’m gonna give you a bowl of soup and a good cup of coffee, and then we’re gonna sit down and talk, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

-/-

“So, where’d you lose April?” Mikey asks as Raph slouches over to join him and Leo, eyes on their dimensional clones across the room. Big Raph and lil Michael a parallel to them right now, talking happily as big Raph hands over takeout bags.

“Her other self kidnapped her,” Raph says, sitting down with a huff and crossing his arms. “They took the wonton soup.”

“Aw, are you kidding me? I really like wontons.”

“If want ‘em so fucking bad, go get them yourself, Mikey.”

“Man, who shoved a hornet up your ass?”

“Fuck off.”

And thus, they are no longer parallels to their other selves. They’re juxtapositions. Mikey rolls his eyes, moving his attention from his pissed off sibling to his blankly staring at the ceiling sibling. “Leo. You’ve been quiet. You wanna go get wontons?”

“Who am I if I’m not the leader?” Leo says vaguely, eyes on the ceiling of Alt Donnie’s lab. “He doesn’t even care. He doesn’t want to be the leader. I don’t understand.”

Mikey drops his head back against the wall and groans. Figures Leo would crap out on them for an ill-timed existential crisis.

“Donnie!” Mikey shouts across the room. Both turtles working on the big portal thingy look up at him.

“What?” shouts back his Donnie.

“Leo’s broken and I want wantons! Come help me make April share some!”

“Wontons-? Oh for- Mikey, I’m busy. Go get the wontons yourself. If you ask politely she’ll probably share.”

“And what if she won’t?”

“Then starve.”

Raph has himself a little chortle over Donnie’s terribly, terribly cruel words. Mikey gives up and gets up. “You’re all assholes.”

“Takes one to know one,” Raph says, sticking his leg out in Mikey’s way. Mikey hops the appendage before it can trip him, and dodges the kick to the back of his legs, too. After years of long practice, he’s gotten good at avoiding Raph’s casual roughhousing and bullying.

Mikey gives Michael a wave as he passes them, and Michael waves back. Big Raph, surprising Mikey, waves as well.

Mikey decides not to dwell on the oddly mellow version of his brother, skipping out of the lab and following his mental map of the lair. It’s bigger than theirs back home, but virtue of more rooms and tunnels coming off the main atrium. It’s also more colorful, and warmer, and feels… cozy, almost.

Mikey will see if he can convince his brothers into redecorating the lair when they get home. Dress up the drab stone and such; try emulating the brighter, more welcoming aura of this place.

Mikey gets a little lost for a bit, just following wherever he feels like he should go, but eventually he happens across a room that smells like food and sounds like April. His friend is at a beaten old table with another girl, both of them with bowls and mugs of hot liquid.

“Yo, April,” Mikey says, slipping into the room. Both of the girls turn to look at him, and Mikey considers them both. “Aight, so you’re why everyone was so confused about our April being an April.”

“Got it in one,” says the April with coily pigtails and lovely dark skin. She sticks out a hand to shake, and Mikey approaches to take it. “Sup, dude. You’re a lot older than the Mikey I’m used to.”

“I’d say I was cuter, too, but even I’m gonna admit mini me is totally adorable,” Mikey says with a wink.

“Oh, he really is, isn’t he? You should see his face whenever I get new stickers for him. Pure. Cuteness.”

“I was gonna draw stuff with him, but I, well, we, me an’ my bros… we kinda pissed mini me and his brothers off. Whoops.”

“We’ve heard,” says Mikey’s April, all pale skin and paler scars. It’s a weird but cool contrast, the two of them together.

“How’d you hear?” Mikey asks, pulling up a chair. Hanging around with April is preferable to going back to his brothers, since she- both shes- probably won’t get on his case about anything. Even this, judging from their unperturbed expressions.

“Donnie’s been texting me,” they both say, showing their phone screens filled with text. Then they both giggle, also simultaneously.

Mikey huffs, leaning on one arm. “Cool, so you’re both up to date on us bein’ jerks accidentally. Can I have some of your soup anyway?”

“Only if you say please,” says glasses and pigtails April.

Mikey uses his best begging eyes, clasping his hands together. “Please can I have some?”

Both the girls laugh at his dramatics and push their bowls of soup over. Mikey, never one to say no to second hand food, scoops them up and drains them both one by one.

“And now, respectfully speaking- we need you to go away,” says glasses April.

“What? But I just got here.”

The April with a sword ducks her head. “We’re sort of… having some private girl talk, Mikey. Could you please…?”

Private girl talk, huh? Mikey takes a closer read of his friend’s body language and sees that feelings are happening. Part of him wants to ask if she’s alright, but he’s already been told to bug off, so.

“Sure,” he says, standing up from the table. “I’ll see you whenever.”

“Mikey- don’t get upset.”

“I’m not.”

“But you sound-”

“It’s cool, April. You guys have a good talk, I’m gonna go find the bathroom.”

The lie is as easy as turning away from his friend.

The kitchen and the Aprils are left behind with a few swift steps and a couple turns of the hall between him and them. Mikey doesn’t think about the little twist in his chest, or the sting of his friend not wanting to confide in him. It’s fine, it’s cool. No one ever wants to talk about that stuff anyway, least of all with him.

Mikey keeps walking aimlessly, trying to kill time until someone comes and tells him it’s time to go- up until there’s someone else in the hallway and he’s pulled out of his thoughtless haze.

His distorted mirror image is in front of him, looking not terribly surprised to see him. Michael pushes the black goggles Don gave him for welding, meeting Mikey’s eyes properly.

“Hey,” says Michael, “I was just comin’ to find you.”

“Why? Is it time to go already?” Things hadn’t looked that close to being done to Mikey, but hey, what does he know about interdimensional portal machines?

“No, I just… wanted to see if you still wanted to draw with me.” Michael offers a small smile. “Donnie- erm, both Donnies said that they could take care of things from here, and I thought we could use the time to draw before you leave.”

Mikey stares at the kid for a moment, and then says, “You still wanna draw with me? Really?”

“Yeah,” says Michael, nodding his head. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Uh, ‘cause my brothers were assholes to you and your bros?”

“They said they were sorry, didn’t they?”

“Leo didn’t.”

“Well… I forgive him anyway. Raph- my Raph- told me that he thinks you’re all having a bad night, and we should cut you some slack. Unless you start saying rude stuff again, ‘cause then that’s all out the window, because just no. Not okay.”

Mikey is quiet for a moment, thinking about that. Then he says, “Fair enough. Let’s get drawing.”

Michael grins like that’s a fantastic gift, and not Mikey is just killing time in a less boring way than sulking. He makes an effort to actually smile back, and uses all his accumulated people-who-are-not-his-brothers socializing skills to be polite as possible (practiced for exactly six years now). Making Michael sad again would be like kicking a puppy or something; totally criminal.

-/-

“You guys… you sure got a lot of scars, you know.”

“Mm, yeah. A few. You get used to it.”

“How’d you get them?”

“…You sure that’s a question you want an answer to, kiddo?”

“I wanna know so I can make sure it doesn’t happen to my brothers and me.”

“…”

“...”

“…That’s some heavy shit for a kid, but- ‘kay. I’ll tell you the important stuff. And… you said your brothers are good about lookin’ out for you, right?”

“Yeah. And I look out for them.”

“Yeah, yeah- that’s good. Make sure you tell ‘em, too, okay? Dealing with this kinda stuff on your own- it sucks ass.”

“’course I’ll tell them. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Dunno. Ask me from a few years ago.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Also, love the centaur guy you got there. Show me how to draw that an’ I’ll tell you about this big scar on my shoulder here, for starters…”

-/-

“You feeling like less of a jerk, now?”

Leo looks towards Leon, who is crouching next to where Leo has laid down and not moved from for who knows how long.

“…Possibly.”

“Good, ‘cause I feel less mad at you, too.” He pauses, and then says in a low voice, “I wanted to talk to you about Splinter. Your Splinter, that is.”

Leo’s chest twinges and hurts- even the mention of his father will still do that to him. “And what if I don’t want to talk about him?”

“Then I’ll ask someone else. I figured, though… having a say in things is really important to you. I thought you’d wanna be the one to fill me on that stuff.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“If you still had your pop, and you met another you who didn’t, wouldn’t you want to find out how they lost him? So you could make sure you didn’t lose yours?”

Leon has a glint of emerging steel in his eyes as he says that. A growing sense of determination that’s yet to fully take root. Leo feels very old, suddenly, because Leon is very young to have that sort of expression.

Leo was young, too, when he had to become like that.

Leo sits up slowly, sighing. There is such a thing as inevitability, that much he knows about life. “Okay. I don’t know if you’ll ever have to deal with him here, but you need to always be wary of one name above anyone else: Oroku Saki, the Shredder.”

-/-

“You were probably just hangry, which is totally understandable, ‘cause I get mad hangry sometimes, too.”

“Mgh.”

“Don’t worry, one Raph to another- all water under the bridge.”

“Hmgh.”

“And you can have my crabpuffs, too. We, uh- had a bad experience with ‘em, recently. I gotta remind April to stop grabbing them with the takeout.”

“Mmh.”

“You don’t talk a whole lot when you’re not yelling, do you?” asks Ralph.

Raph swallows a bite of noodles, growling, “More like I don’t talk much when I don’t wanna talk.”

“Still hangry, then.”

“Try ‘just generally pissed off always’.”

“That sounds tiring, being angry all the time.”

“What do you care?”

“I care that you seem pretty miserable, and Raph doesn’t just leave people upset when he’s been part of makin’ them upset.”

“Dude, look. Doesn’t matter how many stress balls you toss at me, or whatever regurgitated good vibes shit your master Splinter has passed onto you ‘cause you’re the leader, doesn’t matter what you say or do- I’m still gonna be fuckin’ pissed off.”

“Do you want to be pissed off?”

“I- no, ‘course not.”

“Then try letting go of the anger. I get it, it’s easy to be mad- but you have control of yourself and your actions. You can choose to release all that.”

“…Piss off, you’re fifteen. You don’t know what kinda shit I have to deal with.”

“I don’t. But my pops helped me learn how to control my emotions when I was a kid, an’ my brothers- they got my back. I know it gets easier if you work at it, an’ you have people helping you through it.”

“…”

“Still want me to stop talking?”

“A little.”

“That’s not a yes.”

Raph stares at his container of shitty takeout noodles. Ralph sits next to him, continuing to be frustratingly unaffected by Raph’s barbs and tone.

After a moment, Raph picks up another couple noodles with his chopsticks and slurps them into his mouth.

“You get five minutes,” Raph tells his younger counterpart, and then actually listens as Ralph talks. The conversation goes well past five minutes, and Raph doesn’t say anything about that.

-/-

“My brothers just- they don’t respect me or my work like yours do you,” Donnie says, attaching multicolored wires to their connectors. “I thought it’d be like that here, too, so I pre-emptively lashed out. I didn’t mean to hurt your brother’s feelings, really.”

“Michael forgives easily, don’t worry,” Don replies, scuttling around the top of their machine with his envy inducing spider appendages. “He’s not going to hold it against you, long as you don’t say that kinda thing again to him. However, I do not forgive that easily, and I will hold a grudge if you badmouth any of my brothers again.”

“I won’t, promise.”

“Good. Now hand me another few bolts.”

Donnie holds up a handful of bolts and Don’s extra limbs take them from him. Donnie finishes with the panel he’s got open, tucking in the last few wires, and then shuts it. Don drops down at the same time, finished with securing the conductors up top.

“She’s beautiful,” Donnie says appreciatively, standing back to admire their handiwork.

“I do like dramatic curves, if I do say so myself,” Don jokes. Then, he asks, “Do they really not respect you? Like, not even a little?”

“Only when I make something that blows up, but that’s just temporary fanfare,” Donnie says with a resigned sigh. Such is his life. “But it doesn’t matter. This was the most fun I’ve had in a while and you were a wonderful lab partner.”

“You weren’t such a bad one to work with, either,” Don returns. His smug smile turns wickedly excited. “Now let’s fire this baby up and see what she can do.”

They retreat to a safe-ish distance- if this goes boom, no one in the lair will be safe- and they press the on button together. The clamps to Leon’s sword light up as mystical energy crackles along the blade’s length, transferring along the wires and to the makeshift portal they’ve constructed. Don’s lab has an amazing amount of tech in it; it hadn’t been terribly hard to find stand-ins for the actual parts of Donnie’s reverse engineered Kraang portal back home.

The energy swirls into formation, filling the portal frame rim to rim. It crackles blue, then pink, and then finally the vibrant purple they needed.

“SUCCESS!” Donnie cheers in unison with Don, high-threeing his counterpart. On the edges of the lab, the attention of the Raphs and Leos are caught. Don’s siblings cheer for their brother, and Donnie’s siblings give a mildly impressed look his way.

Oh, if only he were appreciated the way he should be.

Donnie hears Leo start to say they should go find the others, but he’s interrupted as a scream fills the air and something comes flying out of the portal.

“Oh,” Donnie says, recalling there’d been six to their original party, “there’s Casey.”

Casey curses and snarls as he tumbles, getting to his feet and brandishing his hockey stick. With his mask on his face, he admittedly looks intimidating to anyone who doesn’t know him. But, unlike the three alternate universe turtles in the room retreating backwards- or is Donnie and his family the alternates in this situation? Oh well- Donnie does know the psycho in the homemade armor.

“You’re late,” he informs Casey, who whips his eyes to Donnie.

“You assholes left me in there!” Casey yells.

“Technically, we lost you completely by accident.”

“Donnie.”

“Hey, I opened another portal as soon as I could! You should be thanking me.”

His friend- dubiously titled so- drops his hockey stick and takes a run at Donnie to tackle him. And, because Donnie was a little worried about their friend’s wellbeing out there in the void- he lets Casey make contact. He regrets doing so a moment later, when they end up on the floor.

“This is Casey?” Don says.

“Yep,” Raph replies, joining the spectators. “The one and only.”

“He’s very…”

“Psychotic?”

“I was going to say ‘unique’.”

“No, you should really just say psychotic. It’s more accurate.”

“Donnie, Casey- get off the floor,” Leo says in his most leaderly voice, apparently done with his latest existential crisis. “You’re both embarrassing us right now.”

Donnie snarls wordlessly. So does Casey. Donnie continues to hold his stupid asshole friend in a lock, and said stupid asshole friend continues to sock him in the stomach. (Neither action actually inflicting real injury, but a decent enough scuffle to work out their agitation with each other.)

Leo sighs. “Raph- big Raph, not my Raph- would you mind, please?”

“Sure thing.”

Donnie hisses as someone grabs him by the scruff. He and Casey are pulled apart by someone strong enough to lift them into the air with ease, and then they both hang there like disgruntled kittens.

“There,” says big Raph firmly. “No more fighting, okay? Raph says so. You’re supposed to be friends, anyway.”

Casey sputters. “You’re Raph?”

“Yup.”

“But- you’re huge!”

“Shut up, Casey,” Donnie says, kicking out at his friend. “We’ve already been through that whole song and dance; I’ll fill you in on everything later. Let’s just go home.”

“But-”

“Oh good, you found him!” April exclaims, entering the room with her alt self and the two Mikeys. Casey stops thrashing as April rejoins the group, mollified by her presence. Donnie can’t help but feel the same way, and their good behavior results in big Raph setting them gently back on the floor.

As everyone regroups and starts chattering, goodbyes and parting statements circling around, Donnie notes Casey is staring at the alternate universe April.

“Dude,” Casey says. “Is that an April?”

“Yes. Don’t stare.”

“But she’s-”

“Obviously.”

“Huh. You know, she’s kinda-”

“She’s also sixteen, shut up.”

“Oh. Eugh, sorry.”

“And she’s the oldest here, too, so. Play nice.”

“Wow, is everyone here like, just a bunch of kids?”

“Basically.”

“Where’s lil me, then? I wanna meet him.”

“They haven’t met you yet, actually. You might not even exist here. I didn’t get a chance to check.”

“What? How could a universe not have Casey Jones in it?”

“I don’t know. I wish I knew.”

Casey punches his arm. Donnie punches him back.

-/-

“Goodbye, farewell, come back soon!” Mikey says, waving as their alt selves walk towards the portal.

“Not too soon,” mutters Leon. Raph and April shush him.

Donnie holds his finger over the remote as their other selves approach the portal, ready to deactivate it. He feels a familiar touch to his ankle just before the other group passes through the swirling light, and Donnie looks down to see that their dad has joined them for the send-off.

“My programs for tonight have ended,” Splinter says, providing the explanation Donnie silently asked for.

“Ah,” he says. Someone turns back, catching sight of Donnie’s dad.

“That’s Splinter?” exclaims the older Mikey. He practically howls with laughter, an off-kilter, disconcerting version of Donnie’s little brother’s laugh. The older Mikey is grabbed by the edge of his shell and hauled into the portal by his version of Raph, laughter echoing in the lab as he and his family are swallowed by the pulsing light.

“Aaaand goodbye, twilight zone us,” Donnie says, hitting the off button. The portal shuts down, and he hears more than one sigh of relief.

“What a bunch of weirdos,” Leo says. “My sword isn’t gonna bring them back here again, right?”

“The chances of that are highly, highly improbable,” Donnie assures his twin. “It took a minor miracle for this to happen in the first place; I doubt out dimensions will ever be within alignment like so ever again. Thank fuckin’ god.”

“Amen.”

“Language,” Splinter reprimands mildly, tail smacking the back of Donnie’s leg. There’s no force to the gesture, though, so his legs don’t go out from under him like they could have.

“They weren’t that bad,” Mikey says, perched up on Raph’s shoulders. He leans forwards, craning his neck to meet their big brother’s eyes. “I mean, like you said, Raph. They were probably just havin’ a bad night.”

“Sure, Mike,” Raph says, and Donnie has to wonder if Raph didn’t lie to their brother so Mikey wouldn’t take to heart some of the hurtful stuff their other selves said.

Leo leans towards Donnie, saying, “You’re taking apart the portal, right?”

“Absolutely,” Donnie replies.

April clears her throat for his attention. “But you’ll still help me set up an interdimensional phone line, right?”

“Also absolutely. I still want to collaborate with my alternate dimension twin, even if he was a bit of jerk here and there.”

“Good, ‘cause the other me? That girl needs some serious life coaching, and I can just tell she’ll put off doing what I told her to if I don’t bug her.”

“A valid reason to establish the first ever interdimensional phone line, yes.”

They bump fists, and then the group breaks up. Raph and Mikey leave as a trio with April, all of them starting to chat about their experiences with their alternate selves. Leo sticks with Splinter, surprisingly, seeming very serious about whatever topic it is Leo’s brought up.

Donnie just slides his goggles over his eyes, and heads to start work dismantling the portal. He reaches to his belt to draw out his favorite omnitool, intending on speeding up the process with a bit of tech bo action, and-

“Wh- hey. Where did I…?”

-/-

“You’re just cruel, Donnie,” Raph says flatly, arms crossed.

Donnie hums, admiring the length of stolen tech in his hands. It whisks in the air as he spins it expertly. “Oh, he’ll build another one. He probably has spares, too.”

“You stole tech candy from a nerd baby.”

“He’s only two years from drafting age; he can handle a little theft.”

“I can’t believe you.”

“If it helps any, I promise I feel very, very, very bad about what I’ve done. Horribly. Crushingly. I don’t know if my heart will be able to sustain itself under the weight of my guilt.”

“Stop smiling like a crazy person and maybe I’ll believe you.”

Donnie just coos to the tech bo and puts his cheek to it, doe eyed and grinning with a wide smile. Raph rolls his eyes and leaves; not really giving that much of a fuck about Donnie’s klepto habits.

He just hopes that whenever they meet their other selves again- and Raph can tell they will, because if he doesn’t want something to happen, it usually does- that Donnie has come up with a more convincing apology by then. Because the other version of the four them? They seem a lot more invested in sticking up for each other than Raph is for his brothers.

Yeah. Donnie’s on his own when the time comes, that’s for sure.