Chapter Text
Since meeting the turtles, April O’Neil had thought they would always get back up and continue their fight against evil, until she found their mangled body after their final fight against Shredder. She ran to them, not noticing their blood and guts were spilling themselves in a puddle of mutagen, let alone that the remains of the bodiless brain known as Krang was there too. She stayed there on her knees, crying, hugging the nearest of the turtle, not sure which one it was, nor that she was wading in a mixture of mutagens, body fluids and parts.
She only moved at the clang-clang of the footclan’s robot-soldiers approaching, no doubt coming to collect the bodies of their fallen enemies. She ran away in the opposite direction, still dazed by her grief, not noticing she had become a turtle herself, nor that she seemed to be a little girl again.
Some days had passed since the death of her friends and the subsequent fall of New York. At first she had tried to hide among the population of the city, freshly renamed Shreddopolis, a huge portion of its inhabitants being turned into mutants in the take over, but she soon discovered she was hearing everyone’s thought in her head like they were shouting directly in her head. She fled the city, which was a really good call as, on her way out of town, she heard someone think of a recent declaration made by Oroku Saki. The Shredder offered a prime to anyone offering him the dead body of a mutant turtle, even though he knew all to well Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael were dead.
She finally found a place to hide, at least for a time. A cave in a far away forest, where she could pic and hunt all food she needed.
April still had a close call, with Shredder coming in person because of rumor of a mutant turtle in the woods, but he never found her. That said, once Oroku Saki failed to find her, (or any other anthropomorphic turtles, for that mater) convinced paranoid peoples had simply seen the shadow of a bear and mistake it for a mutant turtle sulking about, she overheard him gloat how he had been able to end Krang as soon as the "gesticulating brain" had done the same to the turtles, all thanks to his "new and improved helmet with mental shielding".
Wait, was Krang a telepath? Does that mean I’m part Krang?!? Wondered the young turtle. Well, that explain why I hear everyone’s thoughts, including the new mutant lieutenants Shredder recruited. And his new headgear would explain why his head seem emptier than Beebop’s or Rocksteady’s, when I know for a fact it’s not.
Still, once Shredder was gone the former journalist decided to move again, especially since the man had let some of his new lieutenants and a battalion of his androids behind just in case.
In her flight she never expected to end up in what looked to be a small slum lost in the forest, populated by a small group of mutants seeming to prepare a counter-attack against Shredder should he find them. She wanted to help them, especially since they seemed to know martial arts and could help her learn, but she couldn’t realistically hope to join them until she learned how to control her telepathy. So instead she stayed near by, but far enough to not hear their thought. Each day, she would get just near enough the village to vaguely hear what its inhabitants were thinking, but far enough that it seemed barely more than a whisper, trying to close her mind off of their own.
It must have worked, because over time she could go closer and closer to the town without having a headache. But at some point she must have forgot to keep an eye on her surroundings, because she got spotted by some of the locals who started coming in her direction, and not for a friendly chat. Not that she could blame them for thinking she might be one of Shredder’s new enforcers. She ran as fast as she could, but one of her pursuer was a fox woman. As a turtle, even if an impressively fast one, she didn’t have a chance. Said woman pounced like a cat, and April ended on her back.
The person on top of her rapidly let go, seeing the former star reporter of Chanel 6 as nothing else than a terrorised kid which trying to hide in her shell. To be fair, she was. But now, with someone so close to her, she couldn’t shield herself from that person’s mind. A woman who had, out of guilt, built the slumish town as a refuge for mutated peoples refusing to side with the Foot. Someone that had been betrayed by the man she couldn’t help but think of as a father, even after learning the truth. Before her mutation, that person as been known to the world as Oroku Karai, daughter of the Shredder.
It’s only when Karai took her hand (paw?) away from April’s shoulder, that said turtle realised Shredder’s former right-hand woman had put it there trying to give some comfort and reassurances. Alas it was too late, April had already utterly violated the repentant villainess’ mind. Although she must have sent some of her memories too, because a shocked Karai called her "O’Neil?!?", having a hard time believing the kid in front of her was the former star reporter of Chanel 6.
"Yeah. Sorry about…" But the arctic fox immediately interrupted her. "Not your fault, especially with how new you are to your powers. And how few interactions you had with peoples probably didn’t help in that regard." A short pause, and she added "Say, since we don’t have any secret for each other anymore, how about I try to help you? I’m no Splinter, and don’t have any psychic powers myself, but… I could try to help you learn how to stop from projecting your mind at a touch. I probably should try to help you compensate for your shell when doing all the katas you pulled from my brain." To April’s surprise, that last bit was said with a smirk.
The young turtle nodded with a smile. "I would like that." Then, with a somber face she shyly asked "It must be hard, to…"
"To what, O’Neil? To be changed against my will by someone I trusted with my life? To discover he wasn’t my father but my kidnapper? That my real name is Hamato Miwa, daughter of Splinter? someone I was taught to hate all my life and eventually killed with my own hands? Hard doesn’t even start to describe it, but thanks for your concerns."
April didn’t dare say it out loud, but thought "It’s not your fault, Miwa." She must have projected that one, because the fox snorted and answered. "No its not. But it doesn’t help me feel any less guilty…"
Years passed, and April’s mastery of her powers had greatly improved. She was finally able to shake hands or hug someone without getting more than a vague impression of their current mood. She was also able to manipulate the minds of the few Foot goons passing through or near the village so they wouldn’t remember seeing anything else more than more three in the forest. Making them go the other way would have been easier, in fact it was what she did when the first patrol got around here, but it had made Shredder and his troops very suspicious of the zone.
They couldn’t move either. Even if they took apart the village, Oroku Saki find trace of it and it would strengthen his suspicions. And to go where anyway? He had conquered the world already. Sure, there was little rebellions here and there, but they might as well be cavemen fighting against an extraterrestrial invader.
But even with all their precautions, Shredder eventually found them. Most of the village died, and the mad conqueror decided send the two only survivors, Miwa and herself, to the Dimension X, the home world of Krang and the rest of the Utroms, having recognised the arctic fox as his adoptive daughter and former right hand. Not before sneering "So, you took a turtle as student? I believed I had made a Oroku out of you, seems I was wrong."
Shredder and his men didn’t notice the portal generator had been damaged during the fight. There was two consequences. The first was to sent April and Karai not in their intended destination, but in the past, giving them a chance to create a better timeline. The second was a portal generator exploding a few seconds after the two girls got through, causing the death of Shredder and several of his men. Without its tyrannical leader, the newly unified world would descend into a devastating civil war, rendering life on Earth utterly impossible.
April hadn’t expected transport via interdimensional portals to feel like falling in a well, especially since they had entered like they would a gate. She hadn’t expected to end up separated from Miwa either. Or end up in pre-invasion New York for that matter.
But if she was there, or rather then, did that mean Miwa had ended up somewhen else?
She didn’t have long to ponder this, as she soon heard the voice of an old lady coming from behind her, speaking like she knew her. "You’re late to the party, my friend." Turning around she saw what looked like no less than two Miwa. One looked like the one she knew as Karai all those years ago, when she first met the girl. The second looked like an older version of the fox she got more used to. In fact, she looked to be around the same age as her father, Splinter, the last time she saw him alive.
Unsure, she telepathically called <Miwa?> to the fox, who answered <Yes, but please call me Alopex from now on. My younger self isn’t ready for the truth yet.>
Acting like she was hadn’t recognised her friend at all, April exclaimed "Alopex-sensei?!? Is that you?"
"Please my friend, just call me Alopex. You have long become a master yourself" insisted said fox, who then pointed to her younger self. "This is my latest student, Hamato Miwa. I rescued her as a baby from the evil Oroku Saki, before he could raise her as his second. I would love nothing else than to reunite her with her father, but Shredder is still after us, so it could pose problems. Could you transmit this message to him?" At this, the fox gave an envelope to April. "With pleasure, Alopex" answered the turtle, bowing.
As she departed for the hideout, she heard the young Miwa asking. "Alopex-sensei, your 'friend' is just a teenager, like me. How can she be a sensei?" April didn’t hear the answer.
April had known she was in pre-Shreddopolis New York, but not when exactly. That was something that got corrected as soon as she saw her human self in the sewers, clearly searching for the hideout, like she didn’t know the way yet. It was the day she first met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Once she had been spotted, she was even mistaken as one of the TMNT and asked where was their base. "I’m not a member of their team, though I wouldn’t mind. That said, I can guide you to the hideout, I was on my way there to transmit a letter."
She expected the team to be mistrustful of her, seeing as she was a stranger seemingly already knowing their secret home, but instead they were quite enamoured with the idea of a female anthropomorphic turtle in their mist. Oh, joy. "I’m just here to deliver a letter to one Hamato Yoshi. He is here?" To her surprise, the boys looked at each other puzzled. It wasn’t until a familiar rat revealed himself, saying "That would be me. Altrought I prefer to be called Splinter since becoming a giant rat." She didn’t need her psychic powers to know how much he distrusted her.
The other April noticed how she tended the letter with her two hands, bowing slightly. "Splinter-sama, a letter from someone you believe is long dead," she said in perfect Japanese. Raising an eyebrow, mistrust still etched on his face, the rat politely took the letter in his two hands with a small bow of his own, as tradition from his homeland demanded, before sniffing it. Satisfied he didn’t detect any hint of poison or explosive, he used one of his claw as a letter opener and read the letter. The emotions on his face kept shifting, not that she needed to look at him to know what he felt with her powers. It’s with joyful tears that Splinter looked at her again. "Please, convey my eternal gratitude to your former teacher, miss Alopex, for saving and raising the daughter I thought dead, and impatiently await the day we will finally be reunited" he said in his accented english. "I would also request lessons in defending against your own art for my sons and myself."
There was a lot of things she wanted to say to Splinter, especially since the letter had told him who Alopex and herself truly were. But she also knew there was only one answer which would satisfy him, and it was also one that, in the long run, might very well help against Krang and, by extension, Shredder. "It would be my honor to get students as illustrious than yourselves as my first ones."
April O’Neil had taken for habit to come see the Turtles often. Sometime just to be with some friends; she didn’t have much true friends outside of Irma and, now, the Turtles and their master; but most of the time because she ended up facing the kind of problems the Turtles were better equipped than her to solve during some of her investigations, often in the form of the foot clan.
She never expected Splinter and the girl one to team-up in insisting she accept lessons from them, going so far as claiming they would happily give them for free. Not that she could blame them after today’s debacle…
Speaking of the female turtle, she wondered what her real name could be. When she had asked the day they met, after Splinter had discovered his daughter was alive, she had answered in a way that suggested May wasn’t her actual name, but always dodged the question afterwards. (Somehow, only Splinter noticed how the aforementioned turtle slapped herself about the name she gave herself.)
That is, until she ended up on her ass at the end of her first lesson, which she found rather humiliating even with all the reassurance she did really well for a first lesson. (The others made all those katas look so easy…) Still, May extended a hand to help her up, an encouraging smile on her face. She took the hand proffered, but the telepathic turtle had inadvertently lowered her mental shielding, causing April to get a glimpse of her mind. Not much, but at the time May was thinking of the day she found her four mutant friend dead, and how hopeful she was that day wouldn’t come this time. It was enough for her human student to understand who her teacher really was.
Since meeting the turtles, April O’Neil had thought they would always get back up and continue their fight against evil, now she knew better. She also knew the true identity of the fifth and seemingly younger of her mutant friends and, with the help of said time traveler, she was determined to prevent the horrors of her native timeline from ever becoming reality in this one.