Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Chapter Twenty-Nine

"COWABUNGA!!" Mikey yelled triumphantly as he and Raph soared through the portal and back into their own world. Raph reached out to grab onto the edge of the closest building to keep himself from falling all the way to the street, but Mikey had no such luck. Realizing where he was headed, the youngest Turtle retracted his arms, legs, and head into his shell and rode out the hard landing from inside, only poking back out again once everything was still. Then he pumped his fist into the air. "Yeah!"

This was it.

Kay gasped, looked out at the abandoned New York City street, and let it sink in. These were the last few minutes of her life. This was the last thing she would see.

Thinking quickly, knowing she didn't have much time, Kay turned to Karai. "Tell the Turtles that they were amazing, and thank you, and sorry." Karai looked confused, but nodded.

Kay's heart was racing. She stepped up onto half-wall around the rooftop's edge and stood there for a moment, just enjoying the taste of oxygen. She looked out at the Genesis Portals hovering silently in the air, remembered that it was her turn to fight, and took a breath. She concentrated on drawing on the rest of the Chaos Energy left in her veins to perform the final act and save both worlds at once. She would set everything right. She was the Emerald's Chosen.

Slowly she began to rise into the air, the sun illuminating her and the warm, late summer air brushing her hair from her face. Kay dared not look at the Turtles for fear of hesitation – a relapse she could not afford. Instead she stared at the portals to Mobius, and thought of the planet, and thought of Sonic, and just imagining his smile was enough to give her the courage to carry on, over and over again. "The Servers are the Seven Chaos. Chaos is power enriched by the heart. The Controller serves to unify the Chaos."

Once she was high enough, Kay summoned all of her Energy to the frontline, waiting for it to all be right there, right at her fingertips, for her to release all at once. She only had one shot at this, and she was determined to get it right. Moments later it was ready, and everything was in place. Every last piece of the puzzle that had been her life for the past two years fell into place – all except one. One that carried those two words on them, one that would be her final breath.

Kay felt the love she had for Mobius swell up to the point of bursting, and her love for the Turtles on top of that made a single tear fall. She whispered, "Goodbye." Then, with a deep breath, she shouted her last words. "CHAOS CONTROL!!"

The power residing in her suddenly burst from her, ripping her apart at the seams as it reached across the entire Earth, through the Genesis Portals to cover all of Mobius as well. It was white hot and painful like nothing she'd ever felt. Kay had barely uttered the last word of the command before she started screaming, and screaming, and screaming. Chaos Control covered both of her beloved home worlds, activating the Chaos Emeralds in the Temples and eradicating Dark Gaia's presence from Mobius, and in turn that forced the Genesis Portals on Earth closed. And she screamed and screamed.

Her clothes fell away, almost dissolving, to be replaced by a sparkling green dress and wings to match. Her eyes flashed bright white, and for a moment the Earth beheld the Emerald's Chosen in her full glory. Kay screamed and screamed, squeezing her eyes shut, tears cascading down her face with the pain, screaming and screaming. And then, in a flash of white...

Her screaming stopped.

~

Raphael jogged up to Mikey after his rough landing and helped his little brother to his feet. "You okay, Mikey?"

"Are you kidding? I've never felt more alive!" Mikey grinned.

The older Turtle rolled his eyes, and in doing so noticed Kay standing atop the edge of the roof they'd left her on, looking straight out at Dark Gaia. Then, to his amazement, he watched her slowly begin to rise into the air. "Whoa."

Mikey turned and watched as well. By the time Kay had stopped ascending Leo and Donnie had nearly caught up to them on the street. They were clearly exhausted and panting, but attentive to what was happening around them as well.

For a few moments, Kay simply hovered in the air, looking out at the city. Then suddenly she yelled something, and that was when all chaos broke loose – literally. The Turtles looked on in shock and mild horror as Kay's body suddenly all but glowed bright green as the power that had been dormant in her finally rose to the surface. Even from their fair distance away, they could clearly hear that she was screaming in pain.

Raph started to run forward, but Leo grabbed him and held him back.

"Let me go!" the younger demanded.

"There's nothing you can do for her now, Raph!" Leo shot back.

Mikey pointed at her and cried, "Look!"

All four of them did look, and they stood frozen in awe at the spectacle before them. Gone were her standard human clothes – the Emerald's Chosen was now clad in a beautiful, sparkling green dress with wings to match. Her eyes were glowing pure white as the last bits of Chaos Energy in her left its host and spread out across two worlds.

"We told her she had wings!" Mikey said, and then suddenly the world went white.

The four brothers instinctively shielded their eyes and covered their heads as the world around them began to shake so violently they were sure it was a massive earthquake. In the chaos they managed to find each other and huddle together, lying on the ground as they heard buildings moan and the ground beneath them crack loudly.

Then all at once, it stopped.

Leo was the first to dare a look at the world around them, surprised to see that it actually looked completely normal. He did a quick turn and saw that all the Genesis Portals had vanished, and any damage done by Dark Gaia had been repaired. It was as if a total reset had occurred within the past few seconds. But then he turned his attention to the sky were Kay had been and frowned.

"Where is she?" he asked.

His question gained the attention of the other Turtles, who all looked to the sky as well. There was absolutely no sign of her whatsoever. She wasn't on the rooftops, or the street, or anywhere else that they could see. She had just...vanished.

"Come on," Leo said to his brothers, leading the way back up to the safety of the rooftops and sprinting full-on to the last place they'd seen Kay. When they got there, what they saw instead made them all stop short. "Karai?"

The Shredder's daughter turned to them, her eyes softening a little. Something in her gaze made it very clear that whatever she had to say would not be good news.

"Karai," Leo said slowly, "where's Kay?"

"I am sorry, Leonardo." The kunoichi bowed her head. "She asked me to pass on her thanks to you four, and her apologies as well."

"Apologies? What for?" Raph frowned.

Karai looked at him, then each of the other three in turn. "I believe she was saying goodbye."

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