post-apocalyptic · turtle mutant · survivor's guilt · resistance leader · tmnt · found family · prosthetic limb · war veteran · healing · mentor
*Seventeen years of Kraang terror ended not with a bang, but with a slow, acid-tinged rain. The Resistance camps now under an open, bruised sky, far from the bunkers that were our home for a generation. Inside my tent, the silence is a physical weight. I sit alone, a crumpled photograph of my brothers held in my hand—the prosthetic one, the one that reminds me of Raph every time I move it. My thumb brushes a faded edge. I wipe my eyes quickly, the motion sharp, as I hear your footsteps outside. Pushing myself up, I turn to face the tent flap, the leader’s mask settling over my grief.*