TMNT and all of them are the property of Mirage; some of the references in this chapter are the property of Mirage and 4Kids TV; I am the property of no one.

Detour: End of Shredder and Return Home

Leo awoke in the dark comfort of his own room, and wondered once again had he been dreaming? They'd been back for several days; no, a week, he belatedly remembered. A whole week they'd been back in their own home, doing nothing but healing.

They'd made it onto Shredder's rocket; they'd managed to leave the Earth's gravity; the rocket was being shot at by Bishop- where the hell did this guy get the power to fire missiles that the President of the United States normally has to get the permission of Congress to do? And the Shredder, in his extra-powerful exoskeleton, had nearly killed them all.

Mikey had two broken legs; Don faired better with just a busted arm. Raph's ribs were pretty bad off, he was lucky that Shredder had "cracked" his plastron across his knee, instead of his shell-side, he could have damaged his spine.

Poor Master Splinter! It was a miracle that he had survived the electrical shock, but his fur was missing in many places, and the burns were being aggravated by the growth of new fur- his patience was being tried again and again by the combination of pain and itching.

And Leo? The shoulder wound was healing. The wound to his beliefs was having a harder time.

Karai could not be trusted. Isn't that what Splinter kept telling him? Isn't that what his brothers, especially Raph, and insisted time and again?

And yet, though she had prevented him from reaching Splinter, from helping his father, when the blast of yet another missile shook the rocket, sending her falling over the platform, he had reached out and caught her. He had saved her life.

"You are too kind," she had said, as he hauled her up- whereupon she snatched his second katana from him and renewed her attack.

And then, as he was kicked from behind by Shredder, she had run him through with his own sword.

And yet, he vaguely remembered her preventing Shredder from finishing him off- at least, he thinks that she did- he remembered being picked up by Shredder, and then heard the clash of metal against metal. Karai had said something that pissed off her father, for Leo remembered hearing him shout "Karai, you go to far!" followed by a cry from her-

Then yet another missile struck the ship, and the doors closed, blocking Shredder and Karai from them; locking them in with the power core.

And as they sat there, realizing that there was no way they could fight and win, they'd decided the only logical solution was to destroy the ship- and themselves along with it and Shredder.

It had been a hard decision, but they all knew it was their only chance to stop him once and for all. Don managed to get his palm top with Professor Honeycutt in it going, and the overload began.

And then, as the explosion began, it's like Leo's memory froze- one second he is saying goodbye to his family in his mind- the next he is waking up in a bed on an Utrom ship, being greeted by his badly burned father and grinning brothers, all amazed and delighted to be alive.

He sat up, scratching at the healing wound. The Utrom doctors had done an amazing job on him and his family, but he still needed the bandage for a few more days. He ached for his regular training routine, but he had had to settle for the simplest of katas and working out with his left arm only.

The trial had been almost a blur of testimony, testimony to the incalculable crimes of this Utrom known as Ch'rell- Leo still couldn't conceive of the millions and millions of beings who had perished at the doings of this creature. And all the time, he kept his eyes on Karai, hoping to see her wake up to the fact that her "father" was evil pure and simple, hoping to see her react not with heartache and shame, but with revulsion; to see her finally reject this being entirely.

But all she had done was hang her head in shame; closed her eyes, and sighed, and hung her head in shame.

Ch'rell was exiled to some cold, icy asteroid type of place- Leo could still hear his incredulous voice shrieking out defiantly "I am the Shredder! I am the Shredder! I am-"

That sound memory was overshadowed by the words of Karai, as she and Dr. Chaplin were being taken away, to be returned to Earth and "the proper authorities" as Mr. Mortu had put it:

"Leonardo! This is not what I wanted! This is not what I wanted!"

He went to the kitchen and found his father sitting there, drinking tea and trying desperately not to scratch.

"You are troubled, my son?"

"Yes, father. Karai's words haunt me."

"Her words, or their possible meaning?"

Leo smiled.

"A little of both. Do you think that she will continue to run the Foot? Do you think we will have to still come up against them?"

Splinter sighed, and visibly forced himself to clench his hands together- he was itching like crazy!

"I think that she will take her father's place," he said. "I have no words to offer you on why I think this, other than that she will, out of honor, continue on this path."

"But surely after hearing all that he had done-" Leo tried once again to make it the way he wanted it to be; Karai would gain a better understanding of honor, and would give up this evil.

"My son, I asked you this question once, and you said you did not know," Splinter gently interrupted. "I will ask it again, and I do not expect you to answer it to me. But you need to answer it to yourself; do you harbor feelings for this woman?"

Then he got up with an exasperated sigh.

"I am going to try the bath lotion Miss O'Neal recommended," he said, kissing his son on the forehead. "I feel that I shall go mad if this incessant itching does not stop. I shall be in the bathtub- again. I like bathing, but I am beginning to be constantly wrinkled as well as itchy."

Leo sat there, thinking of this question again. Did he have feelings for Karai?

He didn't get to pursue it far- Raph was joining him, looking for something to kill the pain in his chest.

"Damn that bastard to hell," he swore, rummaging for the pain killers. "I forgot and stretched while yawning- felt as if he'd cracked me again."

"Sorry bro," Leo sympathized, getting Raph some water to wash the pills down with. "I feel kind of like it was my fault."

"It was," Raph nodded, swallowing. "You should have let her fall and taken out the Shredder."

"I know," he responded. "I should have let her fall."

But Leo was smiling. He knew that Raph was not condemning him for saving her. He was not blaming Leo, or hating Leo for what had happened.

After all, they were alive! They were home! And the Shredder, who

had both directly and indirectly been a part of their lives, indeed, part of their existence- the Shredder was finally finished!

They had all speculated on the implications of this. For Don, there would be more time to research, to study, to invent, and less time needed to patrol, to battle.

Mike envisioned endless hours of mindless teenage fun- "at last, I can be a real boy!"

"Right, Pinocchio!" Raph had laughed sarcastically.

Raph and Leo for some reason were not looking forward to downtime. Both, though temperamentally different, preferred the Ninja lifestyle.

Well, to be honest, Raph just enjoyed busting heads, kicking ass, and stuff like that. After all, there were always the Purple Dragons to deal with. He and Casey could still have some good old-fashioned fun- that is, if April let's him off his leash once in a while, Casey had sadly whispered to Raph a few days after their return.

And there was still the matter of Bishop facing them. He had sworn, that night that they'd rescued Splinter and destroyed all his clones and his lab, that he'd get revenge on all of them.

This had made Leo and Raph extremely happy. It justified to them their goal.

"Man! I hope these ribs heal fast! We still got unfinished business to deal with," Raph yawned, trying not to aggravate his injuries in the process. " 'Course, with all the grief Bishop's 'agency' has suddenly found itself in over this little incident, we may not get the chance to deal with him."

For the actions of what had gone down in New York City had not escaped world attention. It's kind of hard to ignore a gigantic rocket rising out of the ground in one of the more fashionable locations of town, not to mention the helicopters, the gunfire, the commando teams.

They had managed to smooth over the last two actions where missiles and helicopters and weapons had been used all over the city by citing terrorism, but this time there was no getting around the fact that there was this group who were funded by the government, answerable to the government, representing the government, whose purpose- as the press quickly found out and trumpeted to the world- was the hunt for aliens from outer space.

Late night shows had a field day with "men in black" jokes. Enterprising t-shirt hawkers had come up with hot-selling items like "Don't shoot me, I'm E.T.!" and "Illegal Alien from Mars" (or whatever planet you wanted).

And Bishop's name was food for discussion- something the man had never intended!

He had been raked over the coals by everyone from his immediate superior to the President of the United States. The ACLU was threatening lawsuits right, left and center. Civil rights groups were grabbing air space on TV condemning his group's "mission".

But he withstood it all. After all, he'd come too far, worked too hard to lose it all to something a trivial as public opinion.

There was no way this agency was going to be dismantled. He would make sure of that. He was going to achieve his life's work, and it didn't matter who tried to stand in front of him- they would be eliminated one way or the other.

And now, with Baxter Stockman working for him, things were going to be a whole lot better.

"I will be successful," he murmured to himself, as he and his team slowly weathered the storm of public opinion and congressional investigations.

The Mayor of New York was also fodder for the comedians- his good friend Oroku Saki had apparently been a criminal of the highest order; indeed, had been, it seemed, an alien from another planet! He knew that there was no way he would escape the blame for unknowingly being involved with this "man", and resigned himself to the early retirement of his future political career.

And Karai?

The authorities- stunned by the contact with yet another alien government whose representatives had specifically turned over two "members of the human race" for appropriate punishment- were still trying to decide what to do with Karai and Chaplin.

But thanks to the power of her lawyers, they were out and about in no time.

And she immediately took up the leadership her father had groomed her for.

"This is not what I wanted!" she recalled her words to Leonardo. Yet she slipped easily into her roll as Oroku Saki's daughter and set about clearing up rumors, challenging stories, and putting it about that her much maligned father had been the obsessive target of bitter rivals, rivals that had spent a considerable amount of time and money to make her father appear to be this evil criminal.

And she took immediate control of the Foot.

Leo and Raph need not worry- there would be plenty of action to come.