Nirvana


PROLOGUE



Honda Province
Japan, 2042

The turtle took in a ragged breath and reached out his hand, his eyes fixed on the mask as it slipped from his fist onto the counter below. He turned his back on the giant patch of blinking circuits and wires lining the wall. His shoulders shook visibly as he fought to contain the overwhelming sorrow that had gripped him so suddenly.

"Dammit Chet." His voice came as a whisper.

He glanced around the room, watching as it slowly returned to normal once again. The lines and knots of the hardwood floor replaced what was moments ago the crumbling brick and concrete of a New York rooftop. He stared in silence as the bodies of dead Foot members, and Oroku Saki, the Shredder himself, began to fade and disappear.

An illusion...it was only an illusion.

The surrounding skyscrapers and cityscape transformed back into soft plaster walls once again, but still, the vision that he'd tried so hard to dissolve in his mind, the one that he'd feared to even look upon, had only moments ago been a reality. After all these decades, all these grueling years he'd struggled to forget, their faces had come back again to haunt him.

Closing his eyes, he shuddered. Try as he might to push them away, they were there waiting for him, taunting him with their presence, refusing to leave him in peace. Knowing there was no escape, he rose his eyes to meet theirs one at a time, almost breaking under the strain of the young faces, their eyes so full of wonder and innocence.

He stared at Leonardo, the strong, courageous eyes reflecting the discipline, the self control.

Leonardo...I miss you. You were aways so...

He choked on the thought and tore his vision from him, unable to bear the past any longer. Instead, he looked to Raphael, stared into those black eyes of steel. The fire, the passion burned there, until he thought it would consume him.

His sight traveled to Michaelangelo, his "little brother", and the tears began to well up again. He had been so free in life, so full of optimism and heart. An adventurous smile spread across his lips, reflecting his child-like innocence.

This was the way he had always wanted to remember them. Unfortunately, the years had changed them all, for better or for worse, he still wasn't sure.

Finally, he swallowed his fear and turned his gaze to the last pair of eyes, the ones he was most apprehensive to confront. The tears began to fall down his cheeks as the reflection of his youth stared back at him. It was as if he were gazing into a mirror that reflected only his past. But where wisdom of age had replaced the curiousity of youth, so did the fear of what he had become.

He closed his eyes again, unable to bear the memories any longer. Dammit, Chet, if only you hadn't brought them back... But he knew that it wasn't the computer's fault. Chet had only retracted the images that Don himself had created in his own mind.

^^DONATELLO?^^

The turtle didn't answer. Instead, he gripped his bo so tightly his nuckles began to turn white, and then hurled it across the room. As he leaned his back against the wall with a sigh, hundreds of memories began to flood his mind at once. He closed his eyes again, begging them to leave, but they refused, and in fact, grew even stronger and multiplied until all he could think or feel or hear or smell was the past.



Chapter One

Nirvana

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