WebMistressGina: Heh, I know I took an insane amount of pleasure in keeping everyone confused and on their toes… so I'm glad you appreciated that instead of getting annoyed, LOL. Thanks so much for the wowzers!

Starfire201: ROFL… I never kid about explosions… they're fuuuuun!

Pig: Yup, this is it. Plotting is just about as much fun as exploding things…

Cat488: Thanks! Here's the epilogue, as promised! ;)

Mew Sakura: I do like the awesome… and here's the final update.

Sara: I'm so glad to hear you were laughing through the last chapter! There's nothing I enjoy more than making people laugh. Thanks for all the reviews you've left me, dear! You should spend the every-other-day you have free now writing something yourself! But you'll have to let me know if you ever do, since I don't know your penname. Happy reading!

Author's note also included at bottom.

"Looks like you're in trouble, dude," Mikey commented the next day, eyeing the board with a grin. Leo glared at him, while Donny continued to stare down at the chess pieces. Mikey was right… Leo was in trouble for once, and for Donatello, this was incredibly satisfying. Somehow, Donny had managed to fork Leo's queen and bishop… and Leo had completely overlooked it, missing the chance to move either one to safety.

"Hush, Mikey," Leo snapped crossly. Donny grinned.

"Don't get mad at him because you made a mistake," he said, electing to take the queen, a more valuable piece. "It's a nice change for me to have the upper hand every now and then."

Instead of looking upset though, Leo started smirking instead.

"Oh, I was really hoping you would take the queen, because this wouldn't have worked otherwise," he said. Don groaned as Leo took advantage of the knight's relocation to attack Donny's king with his rook. "Checkmate."

"You're kidding, right?" Donatello sighed. "Leo, you're the only one in the world who can actually bluff at chess. Can't I win, just once?"

"Just because I let you and Mikey take the lead roles in a plan doesn't mean I'm going to start letting you win when we play chess," Leo said, rolling his eyes. "And don't get used to that either… I'm never going to make a plan like that again."

"I liked yer plan dis time," Raph snorted. "Ya finally stopped worryin' about strategy and just did somet'ing without thinkin' too much! I'm proud of ya, Leo! Why ain't we never had our enemies jus' kill each other off before? Makes our job so much easier…"

"Hate to disappoint you, Raph," Leo sighed. "That was strategy. The whole thing, other than Shredder re-routing us for a bit. Even then, we jumped right back on track without too much trouble. Did you really think I'd lead you in there without knowing… for the most part… what was going to happen?"

"Whatevah, Leo! Ya couldna really counted on any of dat! Bishop mighta killed you an' Donny right there at the warehouse."

"Nah, he figured that killing Donatello was just wasting his time, since Shredder was controlling him. Once he found out what Shredder was, he couldn't get to him fast enough… before he could use the helmet to start taking over the world. And I counted on him being able to tell us apart, adding to the confusion of whether Don was there or not. And, of course, that left Donny free to blow up the lab, which made Bishop get suspicious of Shredder again, which made him easy to convince that Shredder had anything to do with it, which made them start fighting each other, which gave us the perfect chance to get away."

"And Bishop blowin' up the building, wit' himself still in it? Come on, Leo. You couldn't have expected that."

"He had to! Haven't you heard?" Leo grinned knowingly. "Saki turned out to be an alien trying to take over the world! He was willing to sacrifice anything to stop him! Bishop couldn't have known that the bomb would've gone off on its own eventually. So, of course he… expedited things."

"You really had all dat planned from the beginning?" Raph wondered skeptically, working hard to keep the awe out of his voice. Not that he would ever admit it, but he was-

"Impressed?" Leo asked with a laugh. Raph scowled.

"How the shell didja know dey were gonna do everyt'ing they did?"

The leader sighed, glancing at Mikey. His youngest brother had two small scars from where Shredder had dug into his skin with the gauntlet. Mikey didn't seem to notice them too much, except for when he'd tried to use his "battle injuries" as an excuse to get out of training that morning. Master Splinter, however, was not at all pleased with their escapades and told them in no uncertain terms that they did not get to sleep in after the night's adventures.

Mikey wasn't hurt, really, but that didn't comfort the oldest turtle very much.

"Well, obviously I didn't know everything they were going to do," Leo said guiltily. "Mikey, I'm really sor-"

"I swear, dude," Mikey exclaimed in exasperation, cutting him off. "If you're about to apologize, I'm gonna hurl! Come on, bro! I didn't really get hurt. Aren't we past this? It's like Donny said… we can handle ourselves. I thought that was the whole idea of letting me and him have the fun part this time! Weren't we proving ourselves?"

"Well, yeah-"

"And didn't we?"

"Yes, but-"

"No!" Mikey put his hands over his ears, dancing a small, circular dance to indicate that he wasn't even remotely listening. "No 'buts', Leo! There are no more 'buts'!"

Donatello chuckled and shook his head. "He's right. We proved that we could take on more than what you'd like to think… you lost the right to apologize for every tiny detail that may not go exactly the way it was supposed to. Sorry, Leo, but you'll have to settle for being as fallible as the rest of us from now on."

Leo smiled at his brothers, holding up his hands in surrender. "Ok, ok, I get it. Sorry I keep apologizing."

The others groaned, but Raph shook his head. "So ya still gotta tell me, Fearless… how didja know… MOST of everythin' they did… before dey even did it?"

Leo grinned and picked up a knight from the chessboard. "Same way I keep beating Donny at chess."

"Yeah, he cheated," Donny grumbled, making everyone – including Leo – laugh.

"Nope," Leo chuckled, closing his eyes and relishing the feeling of being right. "I'm just… that… good."

Mikey snorted, enjoying the sight of his oldest brother being happy that something had gone right, as opposed to upset because something had gone wrong. He shook his head.

"All the weird dreams I'd been having," he pondered aloud. "I really am kinda surprised we got off as lucky as we did. Ya know, dudes?"

"For Pete's sake, Mikey!" Leo said, rolling his eyes. "Haven't we been over this? Sometimes, dreams don't mean anything at all! Your weird dreams probably come from the ungodly things you put on your pizza, not from some premonition."

"I beg your pardon, but there is nothing wrong with what I put on my pizza. Take tonight for instance: sunflower seeds, blueberry jam, coconut, and spaghetti! Yum!"

The others groaned at the disturbing concoction, while Mikey laughed and turned on the TV, just in time for the evening news. The same story was plastered across all the stations, as they had been hoping.

"Hey dudes, check it out! We made the headlines!" Mikey said, pointing at the screen. Donny turned up the volume as they saw it was a news report on the mysterious destruction of the Saki Tower. The screen went to a shot of a disheveled and thoroughly pissed off John Bishop being led away in handcuffs.

"Now really, how the shell did he survive that?" Raph asked grumpily. Once… just once… he'd like to defeat an enemy and have him stay defeated.

"Maybe he's like a cockroach," Donatello said in awe. "But more likely, he just threw the bomb and ran for the exit. If he was in just the right position, it's entirely plausible that the blast would have thrown him clear. You were only one story up, after all. Hey, did you know, a cockroach is able to live through a nuclear blast, even if-"

"Yeah, ok, t'anks, genius. Shut up an' listen."

"We have identified the perpetrator as a retired federal employee by the name of John Bishop," the reporter was saying. "Bishop refused to comment on any motive for this destructive crime, or what connection he and Oroku Saki had to begin with. So far, no other survivors have been located."

"Wow, that is one huge pile of rubble," Donny gasped as the camera panned over to the previous site of the Tower.

"Yeah, even ol' Shredder probably couldn't have gotten out of that!" Mikey said hopefully. "Think maybe that was the end of him for good this time?"

"Somehow, I gotta doubt it," Raph growled. "Bishop got out. And Shredder never stays dead for long."

"Yeah, how many times have we killed him off now?" Donny wondered, watching as the TV showed several rescue workers shifted through the tons of debris.

"Well, Leo's killed him a couple times, Master Splinter got rid of him at least twice," Mikey started ticking off on his fingers. "Casey put him in a trash compacter once, can't forget that, it was classic… then he was sent off to some ice world on the other side of the universe, but of course his cosmic doppelganger got him out when he tried to erase us out of existence… then-"

"We get it, Mike," Raph groaned.

"So far, no one has been able to locate Saki's body," the reporter continued, bringing their attention back to the report. "When questioned on his whereabouts, Bishop would only say 'I hope that alien was crushed to death before the beam of light could take him away.' What Bishop may have meant by that can only be speculated on. In other news-"

Leo turned the TV off and the four turtles glanced at each other.

"Before… the beam of light… could… take him… away?" Donny repeated in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?"

"Well…" Mikey said, trying to think of something optimistic to say. "Well… well… awwwwww, man…"

The End

A/N: Well, there you have it. Staying true to the ideals of cartoons everywhere, the arch-nemeses never REALLY end up dying… I hope everyone enjoyed this story. We've all seen the turtles defeat Shredder and Bishop physically, and I really wanted to show them beating them mentally instead. Hopefully, I've succeeded there. I want to thank all my reviewers who've made this such a HUGE treat for me and built up my confidence:

Livi-Love (first reviewer award! LOL), moaboa (I expect to see a story out of you, too!), Melody Winters, Mikell, MidnightMoonWarrior, starfire201, Pacerpaw, Hannah-bear, WebMistressGina, Cat488, sait4soreyes, banisha, Pig, HumanGuineapig, Donatellolover, MySynonym, Arroba Dotcom, Sara, Lovat, ACWriter1985, Kolaida, Pinguin1993 (and thanks for the advertising in your own story, lol!), Jokers-Destructia, LuvlyLady, DuckiePray (now see, I told you that you wouldn't regret it!), Toraus, Not so Dark, Blazichu, Randomchick16, Scribe of Turesa, Longing for Leo, Artemiss-K-Arrow, InsaneMelon, Cloud-of-Dreams, Vampy, Mew Sakura, The Happy Stalker Ball, Diva Danielle (I'm eagerly awaiting my t-shirt…), Eridani23, PlantyPie, and xtheamazingnothingx.

Thanks for sticking this through to the end, even after the ominous prologue… remember, nothing is ever as it seems. To quote a great movie, "As soon as you think you've got it figured, you're wrong."

Thanks also to the people who read this and enjoyed it without reviewing.

Thanks to everyone who reviews this chapter without signing in… I have no way of getting back to you this time, so consider yourselves thanked!

A very special and heart-felt thanks goes, once again and as ever, to Mikell, for beta-ing this, for flashes of inspiration, and for laughing in all the right places (two seconds later… LOL!). You rock, girl! =D

With that, my dearest, dearest readers, I must bid you adieu…

Adieu.