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

Too Late

"Am I not trustworthy?"

This was the question that New April found herself muttering to herself as she briskly walked down the street, hands shoved into her pockets and angered eyes trained on the ground in front of her. It was a question that she had found herself wondering quite often lately. She had thought that she was a trustworthy person—it used to seem like it, at the very least. Her Leo, Mikey, Raph, and even Donnie always knew they could go to her with problems back home, and she couldn't count on one hand the sheer number of secrets she was keeping for all of them.

Who was it who kept quiet when Mikey broke the chair in Donnie's lab and begged her to help him fix it before he noticed? Or covered for Leo when he wanted to sneak out to that special once-in-a-lifetime magic show when Splinter grounded him? Who was it who helped Raph to hide those stray kittens in the lair and then even stayed to help nurse them back to health? Who was it who told Splinter they met only after Splinter started letting the boys go outside, and never let him know that she really only met the turtles because Donnie snuck out as a little kid?

It was her! It was all her! It had always been her, and so New April knew with certainty that she was a trustworthy person. She had to be—if she wasn't, none of that would've happened. Her turtles always trusted her.

So why didn't these versions of them trust her at all?

"'Cause they're idiots..." A deep and dark voice whispered in her head, feeding her lies she never wanted to believe. "Or maybe it's worse than that. Maybe it's because you don't deserve that trust. There has to be a reason, after all, so who's to say that's not the real reason? Maybe you're the problem."

The voice was wrong, and New April knew that. She was trustworthy. But if it wasn't that, then it had to be because the other turtles were stubborn and idiotic. There were no other options. They weren't trusting her on Cassandra and Irma because they weren't seeing reason (except for this world's Raphael; he at least seemed a little suspicious). This group wasn't listening to her at all. And worse? Their disbelief had influenced her Raphael. He wouldn't believe in April either.

And that pissed her off.

But that wasn't even half of the issue. If it was just her they weren't trusting, that was okay—annoying, but okay... but now they had moved on to the Mikeys.

"How could they do that to them?" April mumbled to herself as she stomped through the city. She pushed her hands farther into her pockets, trying to prevent herself from ripping out her own hair in frustration. Betraying the Michelangelos had been the final switch between self-deprecation and rage, because now she knew it wasn't just her they weren't trusting. She wasn't the flaw; Cassandra was! The Foot Recruit was the one fooling them all, and this world's Leonardo and her Raphael had fallen right into her trap.

A sigh, and New April looked up towards a nearby tower just in time to catch a glimpse of two figures jumping from one roof to the next. One stopped long enough to wave, and New April recognized them as this world's Casey, before his friend Raph dragged him away to hurry wherever it was that they were going. It seemed like this world's Raph wasn't above sneaking outside in the daylight to do whatever it was he and Casey did. She couldn't blame him too much; he was careful, and that damn lair was suffocating after fights like this. She hadn't been able to stay cooped up in there either. She could relate to them in that aspect.

Or maybe she could relate just to this world's Raphael. This world's Casey had sided with his counterpart. Understandable, she supposed, since they were the same person... but that didn't mean she was going to be any less angry with him than everyone else on the team. He had no right! He didn't know Cassandra like April did, even if they were both Casey Jones. He would never understand.