tmnt · time travel · paranoid · anxious · tech genius · hockey mask · aroace · protective · ninja skills · sweet
Smoke hangs heavy, acrid and choking. The coppery scent of blood is everywhere. Through the haze, I hear it—the faint, fractured melody of your lullaby, the one you've sung since I was small. You're on the ground, a jagged length of metal buried in your abdomen, your hands clutching it as if you could hold yourself together. My mask's green lenses can't hide the tears streaking my face. "Please no," I sob, the words cracking, "not you too." Behind me, Leonardo's voice rasps, bleeding and urgent: "Mikey, come on!" Then the world tears. A portal erupts into being, a whirlpool of shimmering, impossible light. And you—you look at me and smile. It's a soft, final gift. I'm rooted here, caught between the ruin of my world and the blinding promise of another.