As the Party Wagon pulls to a stop inside the abandoned subway tunnels, Leonardo pushes open the hatch in the roof and scans the surroundings, his eyes white. He opens it the rest of the way, leaping out and landing on the tracks in front of the van.

The other three turtles follow, front-flipping and landing in formation around their leader. Destiny and Diaval slide open the side door and climb out, already readying their weapons.

"You think we'll be safe down here, dudes?" Michelangelo asks.

"Shh!" Raphael and Donatello scold, fingers to their lips.

"Full ninja mode," Leonardo orders.

April and Casey leave the van and with that, the team sets out. They steal through the silent tunnels, moving along ledges and rails with relative ease. They duck behind the pillars of an old subway station, watching for patrolling enemies before moving across the platform and coming to a stop at the edge of the nearest wall.

"Shh. You hear that?" Raphael asks softly.

The familiar robotic noise of Kraang droids breaks the silent, followed by the familiar screech of Baxter Stockman's mousers. The droids push past the turnstiles with a loud creaking noise, heading up the stairs above the teenagers' hiding spot.

Casey reaches up to pull out a hockey stick, but Raphael stops him by shoving an arm against his chest. One Kraang notices the noise, looking around.

It emerges next to their spot but finds no trace of the mutants and humans. It beeps and moves forwards, scanning the area but finding no one. Up on a few pieces of piping and maintenance platforms far above, the group breathes a sigh of relief.

"Phew, that was close," Leonardo whispers.

"Too close," Destiny agrees.

"April, you think you can use your powers to track Splinter?" Donatello asks. "You did it before."

"I can try, but you said his mind is no longer one with his body, right?" April inquires. "Which means he could be crazy or unconscious, or...or who knows what?"

"We still need to find him," he retorts, unable to hide the waver in his tone.

There's a moment of brief silence where everyone thinks over their options and possibilities for where their Sensei could be.

"Ooh, what about the lair?" Michelangelo asks.

----------

The lair is what would best be described as dismal. Empty Kraang bodies litter the floor, pinball machines are tipped over, and burn marks scorch the ground in various places.

Leonardo's white eyes appear above a stone ledge leading into his home. Two more pairs appear as Raphael and Donatello pop up beside him, followed by glowing green, pale reddened pink, and baby blue.

"Alright. Mikey, Diaval, you stay here," Leonardo orders.

Michelangelo pops up next to his brothers. "But I want to—" he starts.

He's pulled down by April, his shouts muffled. Diaval slowly sinks back into hiding when he feels Casey poke his shoulder and gesture for him to back off. Before the three turtles can hop over the turnstiles and go in, Destiny places a hand on Leonardo's shoulder.

"We don't all have to go in there," she whispers. "I'll go in and sniff around. If he's here, I'll catch his scent."

Leonardo immediately tenses and scans the seemingly empty lair, but she keeps staring at him and he can feel his resolve crumbling. A quick nod of approval from Raphael and Donatello pushes him to a decision and he sighs, giving his own nod.

"I'll be fine," she reassures him, squeezing his arm. She hops over the wall and crouches low to the ground as she pads across the floor in complete silence. The other mutants disappear from sight.

Destiny keeps her breaths quiet as she moves, crawling up the stairs leading into the dojo. She somersaults in, pressing herself against the wall as she takes a deep breath through her nose. Nothing familiar reaches her nose, nothing that reminds her of Splinter.

She keeps going, reaching the doors to his room. They slide open and she ducks inside, unable to keep a frown from her face when she sees how empty it is inside. Splinter's cheese phone is disabled and a picture of the turtles lays off to the side. She kneels to pick it up, but stops when she sees another framed photo just a little ways from the first. Her hand trembles as she reaches out and picks it up, shutting her eyes briefly before looking at it in full.

The picture is only from a few months ago, but it feels like forever to her. Destiny snuggles against Leonardo's chest, sleeping soundly, and Leonardo's face is free of stress and troubles. Her mouth is hanging open and her hair is an absolute mess. Leonardo's hand rests against the small of her back and his free arm dangles off the edge of the couch.

Destiny has to swallow the lump in her throat as she runs her fingertips along her sleeping, slackened face within the picture. This was back before the first kiss. Back before the torture. Back before the scars. Back when she slept without nightmares. Back before everything fell apart.

"Back when life made sense," she whispers to herself, voice breaking.

To make her feel worse, she realizes that Splinter probably has this picture because it's the only one the Hamatos have of her. Destiny stayed away from taking pictures of herself when she first arrived in the lair due to shyness, and after the scars, she refused to take pictures for a whole other reason.

She sniffs and shakes her head, dragging the back of her hand across her eyes. She sits back on her knees and slips the photo from its frame, folding it gently and tucking it in her pocket. She does the same for the photo of the turtles.

She looks around once more, stands, and leaves the room slowly. She knows in her heart and from her nose and the lack of scent that Master Splinter isn't here and hasn't been for a long time. She tells herself this even though every fibre of her being wishes it wasn't true.

She scoots to the exit, ready to leave, but the sight of a floating Kraang-like orb makes her stop. She ducks behind a wall as it moves by, whirring, a purple beam scanning everything it lays its sights on. Destiny slips a shuriken out of her belt, looking at the thing's reflection in the shimmering surface.

It turns suddenly and splits apart into a load of guns, opening fire in a barrage of ammunition. She clamps her mouth shut, swallowing back a scream as she presses herself against the wall, wishing she could disappear.

The thing stops eventually, its scanners catching sight of a lone rat. It fires and the rat squeaks in pain as it's barbecued with one bullet. The device shrinks back into an orb and continues on its way.

Destiny takes a deep breath, sheathing her claws and stealing out of the lair without any more troubles.

----------

The turtles, Casey, April, and Diaval wait in one of the sewer tunnels. Leonardo paces to and fro, stopping occasionally to look down the tunnel in hopes that Destiny will be seen returning. When he doesn't see her, he frowns and keeps on pacing.

"Calm down, Fearless. You're making me antsy," Raphael grumbles.

"What if she got caught?" Leonardo asks. He sighs. "I should've stayed and given her backup," he mutters.

"Give wolfie some credit," Casey says. "She's got the skills, and it's not like she's going into battle alone. It's just scouting."

"Destiny's good at that," Diaval agrees quietly.

There's the sound of approaching footsteps from down the tunnel and Destiny appears, looking slightly breathless. Leonardo exhales as his shoulders finally slump, hurrying to meet her at the head of the group.

"No sign of Splinter," she says, pursing her lips. "The Kraang have some kind of freaky security system in place to make sure that we don't come back."

"Why not just go take it down and move back in?" Michelangelo suggests. "I miss our home," he admits, lip starting to tremble. "I miss my comic books, my VHS tapes, my action kick Unicorn Man, my collection of human underwear..."

He sniffs and buries his head in his hands. Destiny takes a step or two towards him, hesitates, then reaches out her hand to him. He sniffles and throws his arms around her in a tight hug, burying his face against her shoulder.

"It's not that simple, Mikey," Donatello says, patting his brother's shell. "We can't just move back."

April gasps and grips her forehead, earning everyone's attention. "Guys, I...I think...I think I sense Splinter close by. It's faint, and he seems different." She opens her eyes, the blue strangely bright in the darkness. "Come on, hurry!"

They follow April closely as they go dashing down the tunnel. The sounds of a struggle can be heard in the distance, urging them to run faster. They emerge into a clearing to find Master Splinter fighting off mousers. True to April's word, he's different. His kimono is gone, replaced by a hasty underwear-like sort of wrapping, and he fights like a wild animal.

"Sensei!" Michelangelo calls.

The rat turns, standing on all fours, and his eyes narrow upon seeing the group. He hisses and crouches low to the ground, his eyes void of all the wisdom that they once had. He growls and lunges, knocking over Diaval as he gallops towards Casey and Raphael, tackling the former and snapping at his face.

"Ah! Whoah! Aaah, get him off of me!" Casey shrieks, shoving desperately at the rat. "Get him off of me!"

"It's okay, Sensei!" Donatello calls as him, his three brothers, and Destiny grab Splinter and drag him away from Casey. "It's us! We're your sons! Try to remember," he pleads.

The giant rat keeps struggling, the mutant teenagers finding it harder and harder to hold on. Diaval stumbles to his feet and shakes his head, trying to reorient himself.

"Ugh, too strong!" Michelangelo grunts.

"Sensei, it's us! It's us," Leonardo says, his eyes pained. "Calm down."

Splinter stops struggling and goes almost completely limp, still being held up by his sons and Destiny. He pants, his ears flattened, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

A supposedly deactivated mouser flickers to life, its red scanner taking notice of the mutants nearby. It shrieks in alarm and Foot soldiers drop from the ceiling, making Destiny's tail spike. The other teens snap to attention.

"Oh no...Foot!" April groans.

"Get ready, team," Leonardo orders as he steps away and readies his katanas. "Don't let them harm Splinter."

Destiny and Casey ready their uchigatana and hockey sticks respectively. With a shout from Leonardo, the three of them rush the bots and engage in combat. The loud noises of robots splitting apart causes Splinter to unhinge again. He screeches, rips himself from the grip of his remaining three sons, and disappears down a tunnel at a full-on sprint.

"Oh no. Splinter!" Raphael shouts.

They don't get the chance to run after him. The Foot bots try to follow Splinter and the teens refuse to let it happen. Katanas slice, sais flash, nunchucks and bō staffs swing, uchigatana blade and tessen cut, arrows fly, downing more and more bots with each movement.

"There are too many!" April calls, spinning and dodging as she takes down her assailants.

Destiny's ears flatten as the buzzing of electricity and a scream of pain sounds from the tunnel. She spins around, her eyes focusing in the dark just enough to see a few Foot bots crowd around Master Splinter.

"Guys! They got him!" she screams. She ducks away from an enemy blade and rams her sword through the robot's chest with a grunt.

"Splinter!" Leonardo yells, turning tail and racing towards his father.

Michelangelo grits his teeth and fights even harder through the remaining bots, whooping and making his usual noises the entire time. Diaval scrambles around trying to collect his fallen arrows, his empty quiver far too light against his back for comfort.

"After him!" Donatello shouts as the final Foot soldiers fall.

The teenagers dash down the hall, every pair of available eyes scanning for where the soldiers took their Sensei. They come to a stop at a sewer grate where through the bars, they can see Splinter's limp form draped over their enemy's shoulder and being taken away.

"Sensei!" Michelangelo wails.

----------

Lightning cracks and thunder rumbles against the rainy sky. The Shredder sits on his throne, gazing at a picture of himself and Karai. A flash from outside illuminates the photograph and makes him sigh as he shuts his eyes.

Tiger Claw walks into the room with Emery at his side. Emery flips a knife around in her hand, a bored expression on her spotted face. They stop at the base of the throne steps.

"Master Shredder, your enemies are defeated," Tiger Claw says, his yellow eyes glowing in the darkness of the room. "Do we wait for the lowly Kraang to mutate the entire Earth? Destroy all of humanity?"

"Watch your tone with me, Tiger Claw," Shredder warns, standing up. "I am well aware of the Kraang's plans. When the time is right, we will destroy those putrid aliens and the city will belong to me."

"What should we do until then, master?" Emery inquires, her tail flicking as she brushes some of her dirty blonde hair over her shoulder. "The turtles and their allies are gone. You have already stated that you don't care about finding Diaval."

"Diaval will come crawling back from the hole he is hiding in soon enough," Shredder states.

Emery sighs. "Yes, master, as you've said before. But..." She casts a quick, slightly perturbed glance at her brother. "Is there anything else for us to do other than look for your daughter?"

"That is all you must do!" Shredder roars, making both of the assassins' ears flatten. "Now, keep searching for Karai!"

The doors slide open and a few Foot bots walk in with Splinter still struggling between them. He snaps and claws at them, his eyes still crazed. His long nails rake across one bot's face and it shorts out, collapsing into a heap as the rat snaps and bites at its exoskeleton.

"What?" Emery gasps. Her knife clatters to the floor and she hardly makes a move to pick it back up.

"It cannot be! Hamato Yoshi lives?" Tiger Claw asks, his tone that of his sister's.

The extra soldiers manage to pin the rat down, one bracing its foot against his head as they try to work him into submission. Shredder stands and descends the steps, moving to Splinter with burning hatred in his mismatched eyes.

"He survived, but not intact," he says. Splinter gnashes his teeth against the grip on his skull. "He has clearly lost his mind, become the rat I always knew he was."

"Shall I put him out of his misery, master?" Tiger Claw asks, unsheathing one of his guns.

"I would gladly do that," Emery seconds, finally retrieving her knife. She grins and drags her tongue along her pointed teeth.

"No," Shredder rumbles. Emery's smile falls and she lowers her weapon as Tiger Claw holsters his gun. "Take him to Baxter Stockman."