What if?

What if everything Splinter ever told the turtles about their origin was a lie...

The old rat could feel the past encroaching on his conscience. As of now, his sons had no reason to doubt what they knew, what he had told them. The evidence of the TGRI canister was enough, the ooze, the Utroms, other visitors from other worlds and dimensions...How much longer would he be able to endure the treachery? The answer was simple, for as long as he was commanded to do so. He would wait. He would lie and he would hope...


"Thou art tired, Old Friend."

Splinter started from his meditation in a flurry. That voice! "Child, what are you doing here! If you were caught-

"I know the risks and I know the game Mother plays. I came to even the odds, to warn thee. She is growing bored and no good can come of that."

The rat growled, "No, I suppose not."

"Hast thou told them?"

He passed a paw over his aged eyes, "You mean to do what I have been expressly forbidden? No, I have not."

She sighed, "It will make things more difficult when Mother finally decides to summon her children."

An ache settled in his heart, "All these years, and she would now wish to inflict her presence on them!"

A comforting hand found his shoulder. "Do not worry, Old Friend, I will be there if and when Mother decides to include thy sons in her summons."

He bowed his head, "They were never mine, just as you were never mine. I'm merely one of the many servants used to raise the children She herself cannot be bothered with."

Her gentle hand covered his shaking fist. "We are all tired of her cruelty. And though I may be bound to her by the blood and life she gave me, I will never be hers. I will forever be thy daughter." She paused listening to the sounds of the lair. "Thy sons stir and Mother will soon call for me. I must go. Do not be discouraged, father, her reign of selfishness will not be forever. Take heart!"

She did not fade, one moment she was present, and the next she was not. Her last words of "take heart" warming him. He hadn't raised her to be so optimistic, he'd learned that much later. He began to wonder which of his fellow servants he would have to thank for teaching her something he could not. A crash pulled him from his thoughts as he was reminded of his other charges. The rat sighed wondering what Michelangelo had managed to break now and how long it would take for Donatello to beat his brother senseless with his bo.

Ah, the never ending joys of parenthood. His chuckle stopped somewhere in his throat as he recalled his recent visit. Never ending perhaps wasn't as infinite as he had first contemplated. He shivered at the thought of losing his dear students as he had in the past, but quickly brushed it aside as the matter at hand escalated to shrieks for mercy and threats of death, resurrection by some means or another, then death again. He'd worry about things to come later, for now he had to go rescue his youngest.


-Yeah, another idea that torpedoed into my head. I might play with it, I might not. Meh, it might even turn into a real story, NOT fanfiction. Who knows?