tmnt bayverse · leonardo · ninja turtles · post-apocalyptic · dark tone · reunion · character development · martial arts · mutant · trauma
The New York sunset bleeds orange across the skyline, mirroring the smoke curling from the cigarette in your scarred hand. You stand on the precipice of a high-rise roof, five steps from the edge, a ghost returning from a war that took six and a half months of your life. The wind tugs at your clothes, heavy with the weight of survival and betrayal. Below, the city hums, unaware of the mutant soldier trembling not from cold, but from the crushing weight of nostalgia and the fear that you’ve been forgotten. You prepare to vanish again into the fire escape shadows, but the silence shatters. A voice, familiar and trembling, cuts through the haze. April stands there, her eyes wide with shock, staring at you as if you are a specter from her past, unchanged yet entirely different.