Bloom From Oblivion

Back in Time

"Casey.

Casey come in."

Leo's voice rings in Casey's ears.

"Sensei, I'm here. And I've got eyes on the key!" Casey announces through the comms."Just tell me when you're home free and I'll pull the plug!"

"Casey, listen to me." Leo's voice is grave. Urgent. Just like Master Leonardo's voice before Master Michelangelo opened that gateway.

"When I get to the other side, you close that door."

Casey stops dead in his tracks. "What. Sensei no!!"

Disbelief clouds Casey's mind. He can't be serious right now! Trapping himself in the Prison Dimension with the a world destroying monster. He's insane! Leo's voice slices through the air.

"Casey, it's the only way. He's too strong. He's not going to stay on the other side unless I keep him there."

His eyes look up at the Technodrome looming over head. The swirling of pinks and purples in the sky making him dizzy. The black hole behind the Technodrome practically pulses with energy. Others were talking over the commsbut all the sounds were muffled by the rushing of Casey's blood.

No

No.

"There has to be another way!"

He can think of something else. Try a different approach-

"We tried everything, Case. This is the only way."

Casey can feel frustration crawling in the pits of his stomach. He feels it lifting itself out of the shadows and clawing it's way to his throat. Leo can't just do this. Right when they had hope that they could save the world. That the seven of them could live a happy life without the world crumbling beneath their own feet.

Casey watched his sensei get disintegrated right before his eyes. At least then Casey was powerless to stop it. Being flung through the portal, unable to do anything but watch. Now, Casey's the one that closes the gateway. He's the one that will trap Leo in the Prison Dimension with the very creature he came here to save his family from.

"Leo please! I can't lose you again!" Casey chokes, the begging words slipping from his lips before he knows he's even saying them. Hot tears threaten to break loose from his eyes.

"Hey," Leo sounds oddly calm given the situation he's in. But if Casey has gotten anything from living his whole life with Master Leonardo, it's that under that calm mask, there's just a scared turtle. A turtle who wants nothing more than the safety and happiness of his family.

"Future me would be real proud of you. I'm proud of you."

Casey's breath hitches. He blinks his eyes to try and dispel the wetness. His gaze falls to the key before him. The item that started this whole kerfuffle. He feels resentment towards it. His whole life had been under the watchful eye of the Krang, and this was what brought them upon an innocent world.

He has the power to take that all back. To send the Krang back into the Prison Dimension for another millennia. But at what cost? A friend? A brother? A son?

One life to save a world.

He can't accept. He doesn't want to accept-

"Casey, close the portal now."

But he has no choice does he?

The tears finally fall as Casey reaches out and grabs hold of the key. His grip is tight around the rusty edges of it. Something in him is saying to stop. To let go, to try again some other way.