Dagger From the Mirror (ROTTMNT/TMNT 2012 Crossover Fic)

Through the Portal, Part 2

On her 13th birthday, April's father bought her a watch. It came in a hand wrapped box, with tissue paper and small stars decorating the inside. A handwritten note from her father was written on beautiful, pale yellow stationary inside, and that paper soon found itself hanging on her mirror. The watch inside the box was golden with lime green engravings on the sides, tracing around the sides like vines wrapped around a fence, and a golden flower sat on the top. The numbers were dark green against white, written in roman numerals, and as delicately drawn as ever. It was really a beautiful piece of jewelry. And, it was something special from her father. The young teenager adored it, and wore it everyday without exception. She even slept with it some nights.

But after a few days, April found it didn't work properly . For some reason, the minute hand ticked by much too slowly, and it continuously gave off the wrong time. April couldn't figure out why. She wasn't a clock maker, and neither was her father; she didn't know how to fix it. Even the simple instructions google gave her to fix the problem never seemed to do it. April didn't know if they were bad instructions, she was following them incorrectly, or the universe just hated her, but... she couldn't fix it. The clock would never keep the right time.

So, April took it to the one individual she knew could, without a doubt, fix the problem.

She still remembered handing it off to the purple themed turtle, who frowned in thought and walked to his lab without another word. April had followed him in curiously, looking over his shoulder to see what he was doing.

Donnie worked diligently and carefully, working the small clockwork with ease. Within minutes, it was as good as new. April had hugged him tightly, thanking her best friend a dozen times, and then went off to show off the watch to the other three turtles.

She wore that watch everyday for the next year. Where she went, the watch came too, without exception. Then, at 14, she got her first phone. There, she had the time forever. She wouldn't need to keep the time on her wrist anymore; it was too much effort to read the traditional clock anyways. A glance at the digital numbers on her lockscreen was so much faster. She decided to forego the watch and kept it on her dresser for decoration; she no longer needed it. It was unnecessary.

Staring at her dead, darkened phone screen now, April regretted that decision gravely. She had no way of knowing how long she had been sitting in the locked Kraang closet, where a certain red eared slider had decided to leave her behind. It had to have been at least a few hours by now. Time was passing slowly, and she knew she could be misjudging the time solely because of how anxious and bored she was, but there was no way she had been sitting in here for anything less than two hours. Curse Leo for not coming back by now to let her out!

Her mind chastised her for cursing him for that, especially when he might not have a choice in the matter anymore. She shoved that thought out of her mind; Leonardo was fine. He was getting his brothers out, and they were free. Michelangelo was fine. Raphael was fine. Donatello was fine. They were all awake and beating up Kraang as she sat there, and were only moments away from coming to get her out of here. There was no need to worry.

April sighed.

"Denial will get you nowhere, O'Neil..." April muttered to herself, groaning and rising to her feet. Leo had told her he knew there was a way out of the room and he wouldn't have locked her in if there truly was no way of escaping, so she just had to find out the escape route he was referring to, right? There wasn't that much in the room, so... it couldn't be that hard to find.

Either way, searching would give her something to distract her mind with. April forced herself to shove her worries aside for another day, so she could use all of her energy to find this secret escape route herself.