"April, you don't have to do this…" Donnie whispered.

I looked up at him. His eyes bore down on me with a pleading gaze. My heart was beating so hard, it seemed like the only sound on the planet, despite standing on a rooftop in the middle of New York.

I gave him a smile that I knew looked weak. I was nervous, how could I not be. "The signal from the others will be coming any minute, it's too late to back out now." I sighed, if only to calm my body. "Besides, if I am really some type of alien-human hybrid, my link to the kraang could save our lives."

Donnie smiled back down at me, as half-hearted a smile as I am sure that I gave him. A light night breeze fluttered by and played with his bandana tie offs slightly. He seemed to be struggling with what he should say, he looked down to his feet.

"If something should happen…" he muttered to the floor. I grabbed his face with both hands and lifted his eyes back to mine.

"There is nothing we can't handle, Donnie." I said slightly shaking. Where the hell was my bravery?

He lifted his hands to grab mine from his face and held them firmly between us.

"Please just promise if anything goes wrong, you'll run. Just run as far away from danger as possible." His face was set in stone.

Yeah, it's not like danger follows me or anything, I thought to myself with a smirk, but I could not say it out loud. Donnie's face was demanding I take this seriously.

"I promise, Donnie." I saw the light of the promise calm his features.

He let go of one of my hands and gently held my cheek in his palm. If anything, this touch just made my heart rage harder in the prison of my chest. I could feel every inch of my skin and every cell in my body growing excited and warmer as one of Donnie's feet stepped in closer to me.

"Donnie, look, I just want to say-" BANG!

There was a loud explosion from down somewhere below and the entire building shook.

Donnie's body tensed and he immediately let me go and swung out his weapon. "That's not supposed to happen!"

He rushed over to the sky light we were supposed to enter through once Leo called on the Tphone and gave the all clear for that section but explosions were definitely not written into the plan this early. I rushed to Donnie's side and looked down into the building. Donnie had pulled out his Tphone, nervously listening to ringing until I finally heard Leonardo's voice on the other line.

"Donnie, we need you now! We couldn't clear that side of the building, but we located the new dimensional portal. This one looks really unstable, Donnie! Eighth floor down!" Leo paused as a loud crash went off in the background. Mikey's voice rang out over the reception, "Why do they always get the laser cannons?!"

"We're on our way! Donnie out." Donnie lifted up the glass lid to the sky light and snuck in with such grace and swiftness, I could only be embarrassed as I clamored in after him.

We snuck down a maze of dark hallways with no occurrences, but beyond the silence we could hear a distant alarm going off below. Using the layouts of the building Donnie had downloaded into his Tphone, we eventually made it to an elevator. He pried it open with his staff as quietly as possible.

"We can't wait for the elevator, come on." He gripped hold of my waist and swung me close to his side and before I knew it we were hurling down the open shaft by the wire cable. I held my arms tight around his neck, until he stopped at the eighth door down, and he pried the doors open with his spare hand, impressively with his other hand holding the cable and me weighing him down.

The doors opened to chaos, and Donnie had me under cover behind an equipment panel with speed only a ninja could master.

"Stay down!" Donnie yelled and disappeared out into the fight. I looked over my cover at the scene. Raph, ever the one for a challenge, was slicing through kraang robot after robot, with the fierceness only his temper could release. Leo was practically flying with his swords coming down on anything unlucky enough to be in his path. Lasers shot in every direction as the kraang aimed and missed every attempt to take down the turtles. Now, Donnie joined the action making his way to what looked like a control panel that stood in front of large circular arch that glowed and gleamed with what was unmistakably the newest entrance to dimension x we had all come here to destroy.

Where's Miley? I thought, a lump of fear rising in my throat as I scanned the area. Suddenly a body slammed down next to me, and I let out a small yell of surprise.

"April! This is a great party, but I really think I'm over this whole fighting for humanity thing…" Mikey lay, breathing heavily, next to her. A sudden rush of laser shots bore down on the other side of their cover.

"Mikey, are you hurt?" I started looking him over, looking for any harm that might have happened.

"Hah! Mutant always prevails over alien, April!" Mikey leaned his head back on the metal, trying to catch his breath, "Can't a turtle rest for five seconds?"

"Mikey, where is the deactivation unit?" Leo's voice came ringing over the storm of noise.

Mikey looked down at a small machine in his left hand, and looked up at me.

"Guess not!" I smiled at his blue innocent eyes, and waived out my deadly fan, "Let's do this, Mikey!"

"Ah yeah, my sista!" he responded with enthusiasm.

With that we dove out into the fire, and my pounding heart was now drumming in my ears as I dodged shot after shot, running by Mikey's side.

A kraang robot was coming up close on my right. With just enough thought to aim, I swung forth my weapon with all the force I could muster, and my spirit soared as its sharp blade edge sliced through the robots body, and it fell to its knees. My fan flew back my way and I caught it like I was joining a piece of me back to my body. Another robot was straight ahead and I leapt up with my fan, my weapon an extension of my arm, and flew it across its face. As it hit the floor, I heard Mikey pause next to me.

"Deadly accessory, April!" Mikey gleamed, and I stood up straight with pride.

"MIKEY!" Donnie's voice was straight ahead.

"I got it!" Mikey shot towards his brother, holding up the device in his hand. Just as he is about to reach Donnie, I felt it. It is a sense of overwhelming glee from the high left, a feeling of upcoming success. I shot a glance up to my left as the kraang, whose emotions I was feeling, pulled the trigger, and I launched my body at Mikey. The laser beam barely singed the back of my shirt as Mikey and I went crashing down to the ground.

I looked back up to where the shot came from and Ralph was now standing over a heap of metal looking down with concern.

"April, you are a life saver!" Mikey praised as he flung me up and hugged me a little too tight, breathing was made difficult, especially after all that movement.

Donnie rushed up after Mikey let go, grabbing me by the shoulders and looking me over. Once he was done, he pulled me close. I could hear his heartbeat as I pressed my face into his chest.

He only let go when his other brothers approached.

"Everyone okay?" Leo asked with calm resolution.

"Looks like it." Donnie responded.

"Good. We got all the locals, but there will be more kraang here any minute, so get the tech stuff done, Donnie." Raph charged.

"Uhh…guys." We all turned to see Mikey holding up the very broken device that Donnie had created to destroy the portal.

"Oh no." Donnie walked to his brother and held the device up for examination.

"Donnie, can you fix it?" Leo asked with urgency.

Donnie frowned down at the device, his eyes went from focused to a sad realization.

"Donnie, we don't have a lot of time! We need that thing fixed, if this portal stays open, New York will be under siege!" Leo demanded.

Donnie cleared his throat, then spoke in a nervous tone, "I can fix it, but it won't go off automatically. The power surge was supposed to automatically go off once I tossed it into the portal, but now…I'll have to manually activate it."

My insides twisted, "Wait! What do you mean 'manually activate'? You mean-you mean… go into dimension x?"

Donnie kept his eyes locked on Leo's face. For the first time since we began this mission, Leo looked scared and unsure, but his voice stayed steady, "There has to be another way, Donnie."

"Donnie, no way! Its insanity!" Raph barked.

Donnie shook his head slowly, "We all know what happens if we don't close this portal tonight, the kraang will release all types of horror on New York. Innocent people would die."

I could feel my throat tightening and my eyes watering. My insides felt empty and I could feel my body start to shake, "Donnie, you can't do this! You would suffocate to death as soon as you reached the other side! You can't even survive the atmosphere!"

Donnie finally looked over at me. His eyes were so sad, but determined, "April, this is the way it has to be."

Mikey, who had been silent the entire time, came and looked up at his brother, "Donnie, I should go. It was my fault it broke." Tears were streaming down his face.

Donnie gave him a comforting smile and grabbed him in a tight hug, "My little bro, you are amazing. It wasn't your fault, and besides it's my job to protect you."

Shaking slightly with sobs, Mikey stepped back to let Ralph come up to Donnie. "Donnie, please, don't do this. How are we supposed to survive without you?"

Donnie hugged his brother, and Raph's walls crumbled down, I could hear him let out a sob of pain that hit me in my gut. Raph reluctantly tore away for Leo.

Leo looked deep into Donnie's eyes.

"You can't talk me out of this one, Leo." Donnie said in a choked voice.

Leo's eyes twisted in the acceptance of inner pain and he wrapped his arms tightly around Donnie. "We love you."

Donnie closed his eyes and whispered, "Explain to Master Splinter. Tell him…"

"I know, Donnie. We all know." Leo stepped back and all three brothers stood before the family member they were about to lose… forever.

"Donnie?" I spoke with all the control I could muster.

He looked my way and gave me a smile that forced a tear to roll down his cheek. "I'll just have enough time to pull the switch before…I won't feel a thing…" he lied.

I was shaking. I could barely control myself enough to dare to speak. Donnie latched the device to his belt with a deep breath and stepped towards me. He grabbed my face in his hands and starred deeply into my eyes. I felt like I couldn't move. I wanted to freeze the moment, to never let time go further.

"April, it's not like I planned this, but I should have lived life like I knew this was coming, because I never got the chance to say…I love you, April. From the moment first I saw you, I have loved everything about you, and I was a coward to have never told you."

I was caressing his hands that were resting on my neck now. I knew what I should say, but I didn't know how to speak. I love you, too. Don't leave me, you idiot.

I could feel his fingers start to tremble. Another tear fell down his cheek. "It's probably stupid of me to throw this on you now but I- I need to know if we ever had a future together?"

I stared up at him, his brown eyes begging for an answer.

All I could bare to say came out, "We can still have a future."

As soon as the words left my lips, he leaned down and pulled my face up to his. Our lips touched and life raced through my body. His kissed me with the intention of imprinting the feel of my lips in his memories forever. I could feel tears streaming down my face as he began to close the kiss, lingering as long as he could before breaking away.

When he did, he still held my face in his hands, and he smiled a sad smile. "A last kiss with you was everything I dreamed the first kiss would be. I love you so much."

I smiled, and took one last look into his beautiful caring eyes. "That was our first kiss… I'm so sorry." he looked at me slightly confused. I kept a sad smile on my face and whispered, "Bring me back, Donnie."

With that I broke from him, the deactivation unit in my hand. As I ran into the blaring light of the portal, I could hear him screaming my name.