Cold Fire Rising

Chapter 24

(Author's Note: AAAGH, you guys, I am so freaking nervous about this chapter you have no idea. It's been trembling in my mind for so long. I might go back and add things; I do like to listen to my dreams. I can say that I am following the episodes themselves, so Splinter will appear in the next chapter, just like in Mikey's vision, and then there will be more. I am actually not finished at all. I still need to torment our psionic hero with nightmares and PTSD, you know.)

Chapter Twenty-Four

"To help a baby bird fly, sometimes you must push it out of the nest" -Unknown

"Two paths diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by." –Robert Frost

"The Universe puts us in places were we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are is the right place, at the right time. The pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born." -Delenn, Babylon 5

"I will tell you a great secret, Captain, perhaps the greatest secret of all time: The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside - that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star-stuff. We are the Universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. And, as we have both learned, sometimes the Universe requires a change of perspective." -Delenn, Babylon 5

"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wildflower:
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour."
-William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
- e. e. Cummings

"Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season. - Heraklietos of Ephesos

"Don't look at me. You're the one with the parachute!" –Unknown

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." ― Rumi

"Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free." ― Rumi

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. – Rumi

When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about." ― Rumi

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you." ― Rumi

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The hug Tirren gave him may have been one of the longest, sweetest embraces of his life. Michelangelo tried to not cry. Fuck it, he cried. He picked up the child and spun in a circle, and the tearful laughter both cracked and soared his heart. The embrace he gave Sirra equally hurt his heart, but there were a thousand thanks. She had saved his life.

In the end, he asked Donatello to give Sirra the M'Kari stone.

Goodbyes were solemn and sweet. Sirra had in fact made two whole backpacks of medical supplies, plus a pack of food and provisions for both the trip to Risal and back to the Ulixes. Her hug with Donatello lasted a little too long.