Usually, Michelangelo fell asleep immediately after jumping into his bed bunk, but not tonight. Tonight, he was restless. The air was damp, and uncomfortably warm, carrying a faint smell of the sewage that they had to live with. Not that that was anything new, but the air felt thick with a malevolent presence, and it weighed on his chest, making it difficult for him to breath. Panic was rising in him like ice water, numbing his heightened senses to the point where he didn't even realize that an intruder had invaded their bedroom until Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello leapt to their feet. Michelangelo scrambled into a crouching position and whipped out his nunchucks. Simultaneously, the other three turtles leapt from their beds, only to be frozen in mid-air. Phosphorescent blue light surrounded them. Their eyes moved wildly from Michelangelo to the intruder with the small white remote in his hand.

"Damn, he took out all three of us at once. Mikey can't take this guy out alone." Raph thought.

"Forget about us, Mikey! Just get out of here and get Master Splinter," Leo pleaded, hoping Mikey would somehow catch the drift of his thoughts.

Mikey looked at Leo, and grinned, "You want me to abandon you guys, right, Leo? Sorry, but that isn't the Turtle Titan's style."

Raph looked over at Leo and thought "Come on, you have to admit that's pretty cool."

Leo rolled his eyes and thought back "It is NOT cool! Taking on this guy alone is stupid and reckless and… It's exactly what you would do." Mikey launched himself from the bed, hoping to land behind the threat, and away from the remote, which would give him the advantage, but a searing pain through his chest disrupted his landing and he crashed into the wall. He was dizzy, disoriented, and his brothers seethed with rage. Just as Mikey was about to pass over whatever had entered their room, it had taken one of Leo's katanas and used it to slash Mikey from shoulder to hip.

"Showing off and pretending to be a hero may work with your brothers," the figure flipped the turtle's light switch, illuminating the room, "but it won't work with me." Badly injured, but intent on knowing who his attacker was, Mikey focused his double vision and saw… a ninja turtle with an orange bandanna wrapped around his head. He looked like Michelangelo, or at least, what Michelangelo would look like if he had only one arm. His other arm had been severed at the elbow. There was no hint of a smile on his face, and his blue eyes were hard and cold as ice. Donatello's eyes widened with shock and recognition. He knew this Michelangelo, but he'd thought that the future had changed since they'd finally defeated the Shredder, once and for all, and it seemed that it had, but not for the better. At least, not for Michelangelo. The present Michelangelo was so stunned that, for the first time in his life, he didn't know what to say. "I'd say it's about time we got the show on the road. Wouldn't you agree, Mikey?" With that, the future Michelangelo left the room; Mikey's three brother's trailing after him like floating statues. Mikey used the wall for support as he struggled to stand up on his wobbly knees and stumbled after them. All pain and weariness was forgotten after Michelangelo took in what he saw in the dome, replaced by a pulsating rage, and his look alike, seeing his expression grinned mockingly. Mikey's family was arrayed in a wide circle around the future Michelangelo, each floating about 6 feet off the ground, stuck trying to reach an enemy that had already placed itself well out of their grasp. Leo's katana's, Raph's sais, and Donatello's staff - he had all their weapons on his person, but he wasn't wielding any of them.

"I have a few questions to ask you, and-"

"You always do," future Michelangelo interrupted, rolling his eyes.

Mikey gritted his teeth and said, "And then I'm going to kick your ass."

Raph would have strangled Mikey if he could move. "What does that idiot think he's doing?"

"Shoot."

"You're me from the future?"

"Bingo! 10 points to the half wit with the smaller orange bandanna for stating the obvious." Mikey was dying to start twirling his nunchuks and knock that superior smirk off his face, but… Something about what the doppelganger had said was nagging at him.

"You can say you're me until you're blue in the face, but I would never threaten my own family."

"No, you would just let them die." The intruder watched Mikey's composure fall apart with blatant satisfaction.

"You're lying!" Mikey charged at the intruder with his nunchucks spinning wildly, but he was just as fast if not faster than Mikey himself. He dodged Mikey's attacks effortlessly, all the while driving the knife deeper into Mikey's heart.

"You've known your whole life that you're just not cut out to be a ninja. You're not a leader like Leo, you're not smart like Donatello, and you don't enjoy fighting like Raph. You just love attention."

"I'm not listening to you."

"You're no better than a clown."

"Shut up!"

"You're a lazy, worthless ninja, and a useless younger brother!" Mikey staggered and the intruder took the chance to draw Donatello's staff and shove it into Mikey's chest wound, twisting it so that the pain ate at his consciousness, making it hard think and breathe let alone fight. "Pathetic," the intruder sneered as Mikey dropped to a knee, then he sent Mikey sprawling across the concrete floor with a solid round house kick to the head.

"Damn, I can't let it end like this. I can't fail to protect my family when they need me the most" Even though he was dizzy and weak, he managed to at least lift his head, "Alright, that's a start. Now I just have to-," at this point, the Mikey look-alike stepped on his head and walked towards Raphie, a sai in one hand and a katana in the other.

"I can't let my family down. I have to protect them. That's what you're thinking right now, right? Maybe if you had taken Master Splinter's training seriously, instead of always goofing off like a knucklehead, then everyone wouldn't be dead in the future, and they wouldn't be in danger now." In a split second, Mikey saw his doppelganger pull back his arm and throw the sai straight towards the center of Raph's forehead, but Mikey had already guessed what he was going to do, so he was ready. Mikey jumped up above Raphie's floating body, and his leg hit Raph's head with a solid smack when he used the force of his kick to push Raph towards the ground, but the sai caught Mikey in the shoulder, and the force behind it pinned him to the wall. He wonder if he even had the strength to pull the sai out of his shoulder. Raph's face had hit the concrete with a soft squish. "He's probably pretty pissed at me," Mikey figured. The thought of Raph being pissed at getting his face smooshed into the concrete, even though his life was in his useless younger brother's hands, made him want to giggle, but instead of mirth, a mixture of blood and saliva bubbled out of his mouth. He could feel Master Splinter's, Leo's, and Donatello's eyes watching him with fear and helpless rage. "Well, now they know what it feels like," he thought with a hint of bitterness, as the impostor approached him with the katana, his face black with fury.

"Hey Raphie," Mickey said, and he was sure the blood loss was making him loopy, because he tried to giggle again. Quick as a snake, the katana was pointed at his heart, and a slightly older, and colder version of his brother was standing before him.

"How did you know?"

"You used the same fighting strategy I used on Raph at Battle Nexus. You antagonized me until I couldn't think straight and then you immobilized me when my guard was down. I have other strategies, so why would I choice the one I used on you in Battle Nexus? Truth is, I wouldn't, but you would because you knew I would recognize the strategy as mine. You thought that would make believe that you were telling the truth, but if you were really me, you would have used a strategy that only I knew about. You called yourself Raph when you listed my brothers because you hate your nickname, and the only ones you've attacked so far are me and yourself, because you don't mind if you die. You blame yourself for every little thing that I do, which means you'd have no problem killing your younger self if everyone really did die because of me." He tried to manage an exhausted grin.

Raph smiled too and plunged the katana into Mikey's side. "I'm tired of cleaning up your messes, Mikey. It's time you grew up." He released the katana and took a step back. Then he pushed a button on his waste and 3 metal claws protruded from his black gloves. Mikey couldn't help but scream, despite most of his family watching him, when Raph raked the claws through his eyebrow and his eye until they stopped at halfway down his cheek. "I trusted you," Raph said, as he finished and strode over to his younger self, a sai in his hand. "So, of course, I'm partly to blame. Even though I knew you were incompetent, I trusted you with alerting Leo, Donatello, and Master Splinter about invasions while I was trying to bring down the Foot from the inside. I thought that even you could handle something as simple as that, but you proved me wrong. Where were you when they were under attack? Can you guess? No, of course you can't. You were already dead, Mikey! The foot nin caught you off guard, and because of that, everyone died."

"That can't be true." Mikey said under his breath.

"Maybe if I kill my younger self now," Raph said as he lifted up the frozen Raphael's head, and put the tip of the sai on the side of his neck," you'll become strong enough to do what I couldn't. Maybe you'll become strong enough to protect your remaining family, no matter what the cost. Maybe you won't hesitate to become a monster like I did, and then lose everything. At the very least, maybe you'll stop being such a burden to this family."

In response to Raph's words, Mikey brutally ripped the sai out of his shoulder, "Sorry, Raph, but no matter what the reason, there's no way in shell I'm gonna let you hurt my brother!" Mikey's forced grin turned into a grimace when he tried to pull the katana from his side, and after he finally got it out, he slumped to the ground in what appeared to be a dead faint, leaving a long trail of blood on the wall behind him. Having witnessed this, the future Raph threw his head back and laughed, but his laugh rang hollow in the depths of the sewers, and even without the growing edge of hysteria in his voice, it would have sent chills down the spines of the bravest ninjas. It sounded like the laugh of someone who was in the midst of murdering their own soul. Only the chill of cold steel against his throat and neck brought him back to his senses.

"A katana and a sai?" Raph could see his reflection in Leo's katana. His hologram disguise had been disrupted by the blade, and his red bandanna and one eye were clear for everyone to see, but it was Mikey's reflection in the blade that briefly started him. His blue eyes blazed, and despite the tears streaming down his face, or maybe because of them, Raph knew that Mikey wasn't going to hesitate anymore. "Go ahead, kill me. If you don't, I'll just have to kill your brother-" Without thinking, Mikey plunged the sai into his throat, and slit through skin and jugular with the katana. Raph grinned at Mikey, and gurgled something that sounded like "I knew you had it in you," before he slid off the sai and fell to the floor with a thud. The present Raph watched Mikey's hands begin to tremble, until he could no longer hold the weapons, and they fell the ground with a clatter. His knees gave out, and he swayed forward, but Raph could move now, and he caught Mikey before he hit the ground. He embraced his little brother, trying to stem the flow of blood somehow, trying to keep Mikey from shattering into so many pieces they'd never be able to put him back together again.

He had thought that he would never want Mikey to have to suffer through the same guilt of killing someone that he and Leo had to. He thought that he would always want Mickey to be a happy knucklehead, but that future him, if that was who he really was, had wanted to destroy Mikey. "No matter what Mikey did or how much he screwed up, I could never do this to him… right?"