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It felt like an eternity before Talia felt her eyelids slowly crack open like a clam. Her vision was blurry and there was the weirdest feeling in her head yet. It wasn't exactly pain, but felt more like pressure. There was someone looking down at her, but she couldn't figure out who it was. And the overhead stage lights. . . it was a nuisance for her eyes, so she used her hand to shield some of the light away.

"Dude, I think she's starting to wake up!" The person turned their head and shouted behind them in a familiar voice. "What do I do?!"

"Then help her out, genius!" Another familiar voice responded gruffly.

"Hey, hey." Talia then felt the person grab ahold of her shoulder and shake it. "Come on, you can do it. Earth to Talia."

Talia opened her eyes. She blinked several times before seeming to zero in on the person's face. It was of a familiar-looking brown-skinned boy, revealing a dimple on each of his cheeks as he broke into a smile of relief. His freckles reminded Talia of a constellation of stars. He was—

"Mikey?"

"Yay! You're alive!" Mikey gently helped Talia get to her feet.

Seeing Mikey alive and well caused Talia to suddenly hug him like he were a friend she hadn't seen in forever. Although she and Mikey probably hadn't made it to the 'hugging' stage in their one month-old friendship, she couldn't pretend that him coming out fine after the two were caught in a life-or-death situation meant nothing to her.

And speaking of that life-or-death situation. . .

"Where are Shredder's ninjas?" Talia questioned, pulling away from Mikey. She turned her head every way (which was torture for her head), worried that they were still in the area. "Where did they ago? Are you alright? Is Raph alright? Is anyone alright—"

"Woah. Slow down, Tals," Mikey said. "I think ShredHead's errand guys are gone."

Hearing that, Talia tried to calm herself down. "Okay, okay." But then she shot Mikey a slightly panicked look. "You think?!"

"Definitely. Definitely gone, is what I meant," Mikey immediately corrected himself. "Raph and I are okay, but—" he then cringed "—the question is: are you okay?"

Talia drew her brows together. She didn't know what Mikey was talking about until her line of sight fell on her shoulder and suddenly, felt the memory come back to her. Oh! That's right.

The wound inflicted by the arrow had stopped bleeding, but the jagged skin unzipping a thin layer of visible soft and pink tissue glistening red underneath was hard to miss.

"It's just a graze," Talia said. "I'll be fine."

"That's not what I mean. There's a— there's a—" Mikey pointed specifically at her face, staring at it as if he were looking into the eyes of an extraterrestrial being.

So Talia brought her fingertips to her forehead, them flinching back when she felt something hard and round. Pressing on it made Talia wince in pain. It was already a giveaway— experiences of splitting her head open at primary school and tumbling down the grand staircase because she ran too fast in her beloved mansion let her know that she, in fact, suffered a bump to her head. As to how big it might be. . .

"Is it that bad?" Talia asked Mikey, fiddling with her necklace. She hoped it wasn't. The last one she had took nearly two weeks just for it to disappear. Her father never stopped checking in on her.

Mikey hesitated at first. "Nah, it's fine! You're good." He formed a strained smile.

But Talia could hear it in his voice. "It's bad, isn't it?" She whimpered.

"To be fair, it's not the biggest one I've seen so far. Once, Raph got a bump so big I almost named it! Ursula or Maddox were my top two choices."

That made Talia smile a little, but then she winced again. She felt hazy and groggy all over. "Where's Raph?" She asked.

"Seeing if April is alright," Mikey replied, grabbing Talia's hand when he noticed her legs wobbling. "But I don't know. When I saw her, she looked kinda. . ." Mikey did his best to recreate a 'dead' expression—tilting his head, rolling his eyes back, and sticking his tongue out.

Why would April be. . .? Wait a minute. . . Her memory may have been a little foggy, but Talia still remembered the last thing she saw before she blacked out. She had to see her best friend! Talia asked Mikey to take her over to where Raph and April were, in which he did by slinging her arm around him and helping her should she lose her balance.

As soon as Raph and April came into view, Talia let her hand slip out of Mikey's as she stepped forward for a better look. April was knocked out cold, but Talia couldn't see any visible cuts or bumps. It was like she decided to take a nap after doing that. . . thing.

Raph sensed company and turned around. "You guys—" he widened his eyes at Talia —"goddamn! What the hell happened to you?"

Talia sighed. "I took a fall, thank you."

Raph coughed. "That looks bad. Ice alone isn't going to cut it, you know?"

"Yes, I am aware."

That seemed to answer it. Raph then said, "She won't wake up." He pointed at April. "I've tried everything in the book, but it's like she's in a coma."

"Have you tried doing the thing?" Mikey asked. "You know—" he did the motion of pressing both his hands down repeatedly "—what the paramedics do to bring people back to life!"

"CPR?" Raph frowned. "Well, no, but—"

Mikey knelt down in front of April and pushed his brother's face away. "Step aside, loser." Mikey positioned April so she was laying flat on the floor. He then grabbed a sword stage prop left behind by one of the theatre kids and started poking April using the sword's hilt, probably expecting a reaction out of the redhead. But April didn't even flinch.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" Raph had an unsure look on his face.

"Of course I do!" Mikey claimed. "I have to make sure she isn't alert or aware before I start!"

After poking April for the tenth time, Mikey was finally satisfied. He was about to begin chest compressions when April— who flung her eyes open in a heartbeat— grabbed Mikey's hand and judo-flipped him across the room. Where or how April learned to do that or where that burst of strength came from was something Talia had no answer for.

"So much for being comatose," Mikey groaned from afar.

"Wow, I wish I could've recorded that," Raph remarked, but then he grew serious. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he told April.

April rubbed the back of her head. "What do you mean—"

"April!" Talia practically threw herself at the redhead and went for the hug. "Oh my gosh—you're okay! What you did back there—how did you do that? Do you even know what you did?"

With every ramble that spewed out of her mouth, Talia just squeezed April harder. Any more squeezing and April might've taken another trip to black-out land.

"Okay, Tals!" April's voice sounded more strained. She pat Talia's back as an indicator to loosen up on the grip. "I'm fine! Really. What, did I die and come back or something?"

Talia let go of her best friend. "Raph found you passed out. What I don't understand is why. . . especially after what you did to Shredder's ninjas. . ."

April frowned. "You keep saying 'what I did.' What exactly did I do?"

The image of April's eyes glowing and creating some kind of powerful force with a swat of her hand reappeared in Talia's mind. "Don't you remember?" When April stared at her blankly, Talia simplified everything in a couple of sentences. She didn't know what reply to expect out of April, but what she ended up saying—

"I don't know what you're talking about." April shook her head.

Talia knit her brows. "What do you mean? I saw you! You were powered up like that superhero Wonder Lady—"

"Wonder Lady?"

"Yeah— she's super strong and can fly and from what I remember is a princess from another island."

"Do you mean Wonder Woman?"

"Mmh. You were kind of like her! Well. . . in a way. If you hadn't done what you did, The Reaper and his friends could've killed us! That's how I got this!" She pointed at her head bump so April could see. "See?"

"Look, Taly—" April got up. She was blinking rapidly, as if she were trying to think. "—as much as I would love to give anything to be like one of the most badass super-heroines in superhero history for a day, I really don't know what you mean. I can't—I don't remember anything."

Feelings of worry and confusion swung back and forth in Talia's brain. "But it did happen! Mak is a witness, too! He's right. . ." She pointed to the spot where she last saw Mak, but he wasn't in sight. ". . . there. . .?"

Now it looked like her head injury provided nourishment for her speaking 'nonsense.' Talia kept her eyes on April, unsure whether her best friend was joking or if she was telling the honest truth. She looked back and saw Raph and Mikey sharing glances with each other, like they couldn't decide what to believe. But Talia knew what she saw. She wasn't going crazy. . .

Was she?

***

Raph

Raph had left Talia, April, and Mikey to go find Mak. As if his day couldn't get any crazier after being attacked by three perfectly-looking teenagers who revealed themselves to be Foot assassins— something he seriously thought was messed up— here was Talia saying that she saw April doing. . . magic? Sorcery? Is that how she described it as?

I knew I should've stayed in bed today, Raph thought as he wandered in the hallway. The school was still as quiet as a mouse, so Raph figured the sleeping gas still had its hold on the student body and teachers. He looked at the clock that was stationed on the wall. Two-fifteen p.m.? School would be out soon! Just how long until everyone wakes up?

As he turned the corner, Raph spotted Mak, who looked like he was in a hurry to get to the front entrance. For a second, Raph put himself in Mak's shoes— if he was just an ordinary kid looking forward for the school's pep rally, only to almost get knocked out by sleeping gas, attacked by killer teenagers who know ninjitsu, and witness some crazy power act (hypothetically, if he were to follow Talia's claim) from some girl on the newspaper crew— he would also try to skiddadle the fuck out of here as fast as he can. There's only so much bullshit someone can take in a day.

"Mak! Wait!" Mak's footsteps only quickened once hearing Raph's voice, but Raph matched his pace and ended up in front of him.

Every time Mak tried to go around him, Raph only blocked his path. This went on until Raph sighed loudly and said, "Relax, Mak! I just want to talk. I'm not one of them."

Mak stopped, but the slight fear and uncertainty didn't melt away from his delicately-featured face. His nose twitched a little like a rabbit's. "But you do exactly what they do, right?" He asked in an almost whisper-like voice. "You're not on the same team as them, but. . ."

Raph bit back his tongue. How could he explain? He could never explain. It was called a 'family secret' for a reason! If his ninja ancestors could see him right now (something that was most likely happening as of this moment), they would yell at him in Japanese, "What happened to the rule of the ninja?! DISHONOR! A DISGRACE!"

This is what happened when you try teaching the art of ninjitsu to someone living in the twenty-first century. If the laws were built like the ones that existed over eight-hundred years ago, then Raph had all the power in the world to lure Mak into some dark alleyway and kill him just for knowing about the existence of ninjas.

But the law says that you can't kill someone just because you're afraid they might spill your juicy secret. Oh, and Raph wouldn't actually kill anybody just for that. He was way too educated to get his hands dirty.

"It's. . . complicated," Raph said at last. It was the only way he could put it. "Listen, Mak. . . you have to forget you ever saw anything. Forget you saw those three guys, forget whatever action you saw in the band room and auditorium, and forget about me. Trust me. It's for the best."

Telling Mak to erase all his memories of today was like trying to force Mikey to eat broccoli— utterly impossible, but Raph wanted Mak to try to make an effort. Actually, he definitely wanted Mak to make an effort. It was bad enough that Talia and April were already involved, but a third person? What if Shredder decided to go after Mak, too? Everything was just a case of bad timing.

Mak's eyes held the magnitude of a black hole, but Raph could see in them the confusion unraveling like a pipe cleaner. Mak had no idea what to do after what he'd seen, and Raph felt shitty about it. He hated asking this of Mak, but it he felt like it had to be done.

Slightly nodding, Mak lowered his head and resumed his walk. Watching him go, Raph thought about their shared interaction earlier. Maybe Talia was right— they could've been friends. Just maybe. Eventually— when Mak learned he didn't need to stalk him just so they could hang out. Lately, Raph felt like he wanted another friend, someone he could talk to comfortably. Of course, there was Casey, but where the hell was he? It was like he disconnected himself from the world. And then there were his siblings. Raph loved them, of course, and could have easy-flowing conversations with them— maybe more so with others— but they weren't always available (especially Miwa). They had things to do. Having an actual friend was much more convenient and fun— someone he could act silly with and tell things he never had the courage to tell his family to.

But like everything else in his fucking life, something just had to complicate things.