Chapter 10 – Restoration

A/N: This is it! The final chapter of Away From Home. I hope you all enjoy it.

PoM

Two days later

Alice was instructing zoo workers as they loaded crates of supplies into the zoo to rebuild it. She hasn't gone to work for three weeks and when she comes back the whole place is a wreck! How did this happen anyway? Who or what did this? She thought and she eyed the penguin habitat suspiciously. She knew they had something to do with it. Those penguins have always seemed involved whenever something weird happens in her zoo. There is something unnatural about them, but she didn't know what. Sighing, she looked over to the two men carrying a box and groaned.

"Hey, watch it! Those supplies cost us a lot, ya know!" Alice yelled and walked to them.

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Skipper meanwhile sat in their HQ, his chest and right flipper were wrapped with bandages. He looked over to Private who was sweeping the floor cheerfully. When they cleared the zoo from Hans' troops they found their HQ a complete mess! It will take them a while to clean it up though, but still…has it really been three weeks since they lost their zoo? It felt longer than that. Saving his teammates from Blowhole, the invasion, living in the warehouse and breaking into the zoo in the middle of the night. It felt more like months to him.

"So much has happened in such a short time, but it's good to be home again…" Skipper thought. Just then Rico and Kowalski came down the hatch.

"How did it go?" he asked. Kowalski smiled.

"I've managed to make an antidote for the rat king that changed him back to normal and Hans was sent back to the Hoboken zoo. Also I've used my memory eraser to whip his memories of the secret file he stole and won't remember anything that happened when he raided our home." he explained.

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Hans slowly opened his eyes, rubbing the sleep from them. Looking around, he noticed he was in his habitat in the Hoboken zoo with his neighboring habitats around him. His mind was fuzzy and he couldn't remember anything from the last few weeks. Everything was a blur, but what is this nagging feeling that he's forgetting something?

Rubbing the back of his head, the puffin shrugged. "It's probably not important." he said and stood up. Now he needs to work on a new way to get his revenge on the penguins.

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"That's good to know." Skipper replied, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Hey guys!" Marlene greeted as she jumped down the hatch. "We're having this party after the zoo closes today for getting back our homes, wanna come?" she asked.

The three penguins turned to Skipper with hopeful looks on their faces. Thinking for a moment, Skipper nodded. "Alright, we'll be there."

"Yay! Party!" Rico exclaimed with glee. His two other friends cheered with him excited. Smiling, Skipper shook his head at them and turned to Marlene and noticed something off with her.

"Marlene, is something wrong?" he asked concerned.

Marlene looked up to him and sighed. "I'm fine, it's just that I still feel bad that you guys got hurt trying to save our homes while we did nothing to help you." she said, gesturing to the bandages around his chest. "Maybe if we're capable of defending ourselves from the beginning none of this would have happened." she explained with guilt in her eyes.

Skipper stayed quiet, taking in everything she said before he spoke again, only this time with a serious look in his blue eyes. "Look Marlene, you shouldn't blame yourselves for what had happened. We saved everyone and that's all that matters right now. Yeah, we got hurt, but protecting the zoo is our job so it's okay. And you DID help us through this, remember? You told us when was the best time to come."

A small grin appeared on her face and she nodded. Skipper always knew how to encourage her in a way which was something she really liked about him.

"Well, I guess you're right. "

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When the last zoo worker left for the night, all the animals came out of hiding and decorated the place. Bright lights shined in the dark around them and sound of music from Julian's boom-y box filled the air.

Skipper, Rico, Kowalski and Private stood with Marlene enjoying everything in the party. They were all having fun for the first time in weeks.

Private sighed. "It's a shame we didn't get to find out who used to live in our habitat before we came. I really wanted to know though."

Skipper turned to him and smirked. "Don't worry Private. We'll go inside that bunker first thing in the morning. Maybe we'll find something in there." Rico shifted uncomfortably in the back of the group. When they went to join everyone he went back to their HQ instead and came out with a box filled with books and files in it. Everything that was once in the vault was now secured inside it. Wasting no time, he made his way out of the zoo and into the night with the box with him. Just then, a penguin came from behind a tree. He had the same figure as Skipper with a mohawk like his own and wore dark glasses.

"Hello Rico," Jake said calmly. "Is that everything?"

"Uh-huh." Rico nodded, handing him the small box. The mystery penguin examined it carefully and grinned at him.

"Thank you. I thought my research would be safe in the vault in the penguin habitat, but I guess I was wrong." he stated. "Anyway, I better send this back to the penguin main base now. Bye." with that Jake soon left. Rico smiled and walked back to the zoo with many thoughts going through his mind. As much as he wanted to tell his teammates about this, he knew it's for the best for them to not know right now.

But he'll tell them when the time is right

The end

A/N: And done! I finally managed to finish the story and I had lots of fun writing it. I'm also glad many of you liked it as much as I did. Thank you for all your support and the reviews you gave my fanfic.

Like I said in the summary, Rico knows more than he tells. He knew about the tunnel, the vault, the chemical, and the former resident of the penguin habitat but he didn't share those secrets with his friends because he was waiting for the right time for it like when he showed Skipper the secret tunnel that would lead them inside the zoo when they needed it.

Sadly, this is the last long PoM fanfic I'd make for now. I will still write one-shots and short stories but they won't be long like this one and the previous stories.

Now I would like to thank everyone who reviewed for Away From Home.

Aquade

The writer story

Mikadaphne28

Treemist1022

Hope and struggle

Othmaine

Swift kitty

Blue star-TMNT-Warriors

Moon and Venus

Just A Solitary Wolf

and Skipper is awesome

Until next time and don't forget to review! :D