Guest reviewer Faith wanted me to do a sequel. If you guys want to suggest something for me to write, then by all means do so! It helps!

"I choose Michelangelo."

"Very well. The decision has been made."

"MIKEY, NO! NO! NO!"

"DON'T TOUCH HIM, YOU MONSTER!"

"No, please. Mikey…"

"Guys, guys. It's okay. I want Sensei to choose me. Please don't hate him for this."

"But..but Mikey…you-you can't do this to us."

"Bye, guys. I love…"

Leo knelt protectively over the body that was wrapped in a white sheet. His brothers Raph and Donnie were sleeping on the other side of the van, but they sat far away from each other instead of being huddled together like they used to. All of the Turtles had dark circles under their eyes that were hidden by their masks. None of them slept the night before.

How could they when they've just lost their baby brother forever? What made matters worse was that Master Splinter chose him to die.

Leo felt his anger rise up within him as he thought about his so-called "father". He didn't care that the Shredder gave him a sadistic choice. He should've just let the monster kill them all, because without Mikey, there was no family, anyway. It just wouldn't work without him. They'd all be better off dead than to live without their sunshine and voice of optimism in a dark and hopeless world.

And Leo knew that both Donnie and Raph felt the same way.

Donnie was almost like a robot, emotionless and unresponsive. He was alive, but at the same time, he wasn't. Raph, on the other hand, was an emotional mess, shedding tears in his sleep and shedding ever more tears when he was awake.

"Leo."

Said turtle looked up at the teenage girl who was sitting in the passenger seat of the van. "We're almost there," she whispered, being careful not to wake Raph or Donnie up.

Leo merely nodded and went back to watching over the large bundle on the floor.

April leaned back in her seat and closed her tired eyes, letting out a heavy sigh.

"We can't sit here and do nothing, Red! We gotta help them!"

"I know, Jones! Believe me, I want to go in there and save them, too! But we have to wait until the Mutanimals get here! We can't take Shredder and his guys on our own!"

The disgruntled hockey player kicked a nearby trashcan, spilling its contents onto the concrete floor. "We're running out of time! They could already be dead, for all we know! That's it! I'm going in!" Casey started to march toward the front door of the abandoned warehouse.

"Wait, Jones! Stop!" April grabbed him by the arm and tried to pull him back, but the teen wouldn't stop resisting. "Jones! Don't make me use my powers on you!"

"Just go ahead and try it, Carrie!" Jones spat as he continued to fight back. "But I'm going to save my best…!"

Casey's voice trailed off and his face became pale as he saw the Turtles walking solemnly out of the building. Raph was gripping his shoulder and crying. Donnie stared blankly ahead as if he was in some kind of trance. And in Leo's arms was Mikey. He was bleeding all over Leo's arms and chest, and deep slashes covered his entire body. There was no doubt that this was the Shredder's work.

April put a mouth to her hand in shock and ran to the leader. "Leo, what happened to him?!" she screamed, reaching for Mikey but too afraid to touch him. "Is he going to make it?!"

Leo said nothing and looked down at his brother with sad eyes.

"Leo, tell me that he's still alive!" April grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "PLEASE TELL ME! LEO!"

Leo only shook in his head in response. The kunoichi looked back down at the limp Turtle and saw a deep wound in his chest. She then realized that the Shredder had pierced his heart, and there was no denying that her little brother was truly gone. The reality of it all hit her like a ton of bricks, and she fell to her knees, put her head in her hands, and screamed in agony.

Casey glanced at April with sympathy. When she broke down completely that night, he immediately came to her side and did his best to comfort her, holding her in his arms and whispering to her. He was both surprised and disgusted that Donnie, who supposedly "loved" her and thought the world of her, didn't even attempt to comfort the weeping girl. He just continued to stare at them impassively.

The loss of Mikey had torn the once tight-knit family apart, and they were now only a group of strangers who barely even spoke to each other.

Mikey wouldn't be buried. They all agree to that. He deserved to have a much more honorable funeral. He'd have a funeral fit for kings.

Once they reached the farmhouse in North Hampton, they immediately went to work and constructed a funeral pyre made of wood. While the others worked outside, Leo remained with Mikey's body in the living room and made a paper crown similar to what Little Mikey wore in his world of imagination. He pulled back the sheet to reveal Mikey's face, which was now starting to rot and was greatly disfigured from Shredder's assault. But he didn't hesitate to kiss his brother's cold cheek and then he gently placed the crown upon Mikey's head.

"I…" Leo choked and covered his face with his arm. "I'm sorry that I let this happen, Mikey. As the oldest brother, I was supposed to protect you and yet…and yet I let that monster do this to you. I…I hope that you'll be much happier wherever you are right now. You deserve it."

He sniffled and chuckled bitterly. "What am I doing? I'm not even speaking to you. I'm just talking to a dead body. I must be going nuts." He then frowned and looked out the window, watching his brothers put the pyre together.

"If you're in Heaven, then we must surely be in hell."

They thought that they would have something to say, but nothing came out of their mouths as they stood in front of the pyre. There was complete silence.

Leo sighed and took out a match. "Let's just get this over with," he mumbled. He lit the match and started to walk toward the altar.

"NO!"

Raph suddenly shoved Leo away and hugged Mikey, sobbing greatly. April put a hand to her mouth and tried her best not to cry. Casey was near tears, himself, as he watched his best friend completely lose it. Donnie remained impassive as always.

Leo wasn't even moved and was instead aggravated. "Raph, move aside," he said rather coldly. "Crying won't bring Mikey back."

"No!" Raph continued to sob and hold onto Mikey, burying his face in his brother's shoulder.

"Raphael, I'm doing this with or without you at the pyre," Leo threatened. "If you don't move, then you'll burn along with Mikey."

Raph didn't even move. April and Casey were shocked by Leo's words and immediately went to action. They both grabbed a hold of Raph and tried to pull him away.

"NO! NO!" Raph fought back and wouldn't let go of his baby brother. "STOP IT! LEAVE US ALONE!"

"Raph, come on," April grunted as she struggled to loosen Raph's grip on Mikey.

Without warning, Leo elbowed Raph hard in the head and knocked him unconscious. Casey caught the Turtle before he fell to the ground and looked up at Leo in bewilderment. Leo didn't even look at them and lit another match.

"Get him out of here," he ordered.

As soon as the two teenagers pulled Raph away, Leo threw the match into the pile of wood. The funeral pyre was slowly consumed with fire along with Mikey's body.

Leo suddenly left in the middle of the ceremony and headed down the road, with April running after him.

"Leo, wait!" she called after him. "Leo, where are you going?"

"Back to the city," he said without stopping or looking back at her. "There's no point in me staying here any longer."

"But what about the others? Your brothers need you, Leo! You need to be there for them now more than ever!"

"It doesn't matter anymore."

"What…what do you mean, it doesn't matter anymore?"

Leo stopped in his tracks but his shell still faced her. "I'm saying no matter what I or anybody else does, we can never be a family again. Never. Mikey was the only one who really kept us together. Without him, it just...it just can't work."

April said nothing and continued to stare at Leo in disbelief.

The leader briefly looked back at her with dull, tired blue eyes before walking away. "Goodbye, April. Look after them."

Donnie sat at his old workbench in the barn, staring at the items laid out before him. Casey slowly and quietly walked through the entrance, looking at his friend in concern.

"Um, D?" he said softly. "You…you need anything? 'Cause if you do, just let me know, okay? 'Cause I'm here for you, man."

The despondent genius turtle said nothing and started to fiddle with the items. Casey sadly watched as Donnie went to work in a robotic manner.

Raph locked himself in the bathroom after he regained consciousness. By the time he woke up, the pyre had already burned to the ground and Mikey's body had been reduced to nothing but ashes. He felt cheated and betrayed by his so-called "family".

He sat on the edge of the bathtub and took out a sai, staring at its silver steel. The image of Mikey's body being covered in scars would not leave his mind. He wanted to feel the same pain that his baby brother felt moments before his death. It would make him feel…closer to him.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pointed the tip of the sai at his cheek…

April sat down on the couch, hugging herself and feeling hopeless and scared. Leo had deserted his family, Donnie was like an emotionless machine, and Raph was just inconsolable and overwhelmed with grief.

She wanted to forgive Splinter for making such a terrible choice, and she understood that the Shredder forced him to choose. But still, to choose Mikey of all people…

April knew that it sounded terrible, but she'd rather it had been Karai instead of Mikey. She could move on without Karai, and so could the rest of them. But Mikey was link that connected them together. Without him, the whole family would collapse. And right now she was watching that happen before her very eyes.

She put her head in her hands and cried for herself, for her family, and for Mikey.

Mikey, why did you have to go?

"N-no! No, p-p-pleazzzz…"

Those were the last words that Baxter Stockman buzzed before his insect head was sliced off his human shoulders. He was among the poor souls that had suffered the wrath of Leonardo.

Tiger Claw, Rahzar, Fishface, Rocksteady…all of them had been slaughtered like pigs.

The last one standing was the Shredder, who didn't look the least bit intimated. In fact, he even chuckled at the stone-faced Turtle. "You are a fool to think that you can defeat me on your own. But not even the four of you put together would give you an advantage over me. Not the slightest."

The ninja Turtle merely smirked and said, "You're right. That's why I'll cheat."

Suddenly he threw some kind of vial at the Shredder, who immediately reacted by swiping a hand at the object, completely shattering it. The second he did, a purplish gas was released and the monster unwillingly inhaled it all.

His muscles suddenly stopped working and he was frozen stiff. No matter how hard his brain willed him to move, he could only stand with his arms hanging limp at his sides. He watched as Leo slowly walked toward him with a malicious smile on his face, his eyes white with hate and thirst for blood.

"One of Donnie's latest inventions. A special kind of gas that causes complete paralysis. We've never actually tested it on anyone, though. So you're the first to experience it, and as we can see from the results, it actually does work and is a complete success."

He got up nose to nose with the Shredder, pointing the tip of his katana at the mutant's blue beating heart. "I could pierce that rotten heart of yours right now," he whispered venomously. "But even that wouldn't be enough. I am going to make sure that you suffer like you never have in your last moments, the same way you made my brother suffer."

Bebop gripped his bleeding shoulder as staggered toward the exit, sobbing hysterically. He was lucky to escape with his life. He only wished that his dear friend Rocksteady could've escaped the Turtle's rampage as well. He was about to barge through the door when he heard a terrible sound from inside the main halls of the lair. A sound that would haunt him to the end of his days.

Agonizing and inhuman screams could be heard along with the swishes of blades.

Bebop gulped and his heart pounded with fear. There was no doubt that his boss was now a dead man.

Holy crap…0.0 Intense, huh? The next few chapters will be focused on each character and how they live their lives 30 years later.

I wrote this chapter after I said goodbye to my 13 year old dog, Nala. I was with her as they put her to sleep. I'm greatly saddened that she had to go, but at the same time I'm relieved that she won't suffer anymore. She's finally at peace. :')