Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT (Mirage Studios does) nor do I own the song (Alice Cooper does).
Warnings: Rated for all of the following: Death, alcohol abuse, graphic images, and mentions of suicide. But no profanity. (In fact there are only 17 words of actual dialogue.)
Mindless Babble: This plot bunny has been running around in my head for weeks so I had to write it. It is just a one shot song fic and I'll be returning to my main fic now.

Might As Well Be On Mars

The city streets are wet with rain tonight
Taxi driver swerves from lane to lane

Casey watched the yellow car as it cut people off like they weren't even there. The dark haired man laughed without humor. He stood on the edge of a ten story apartment building watching the people below. From here, they looked small and insignificant. But Casey knew that each one of them had a story; each one of them had known love and pain, though he doubted that any of them had story like his.

A lonely guitar man playing down the hall
Midnight blues coming through the walls

Casey slowly walked back to his apartment. The guy that lived three apartments down from him was playing again. Casey had heard him play before and had always stopped to enjoy the music. Today, however, the soft melody brought back memories that he didn't want. Not yet. Not so soon after… what happened.
Raphael had once said he like the man's songs; that they seemed to speak to the turtle.

I tried to call you on the telephone
I left it off the hook
Just to hear it ring

The familiar ring of a phone not being answered meet Casey's ear. He had been calling April's place every night for the past week. No one ever picked up. Casey never thought anyone would. April would be at the same place she had been every night since 'it' happened

You told me you were better off alone
I never knew that tears could sting

The phone hit the wall with enough force to shatter it. A face that hadn't seen a razor in a few days fell into calloused hands. Casey was amazed that he had enough tears left to cry. It seemed that that was all he had been doing since they… had gone away.
April had made it very clear that she did not want to talk about what happened that night. She had literally thrown him out of her home and told him that she never wanted to speak or even see him again.

Frustrated and lonely, Casey Jones took to the streets again.

I'm standing on the roof and I'm starin' at the stars
Lookin' down at all the cars
I can see you
In the window of your favorite corner bar
But the reach is just too far
And I might as well be on Mars

Casey watch as the young redhead started her fifth Guinness. He knew that she would drink two more after this one before she stumbled home. He would follow her home to make sure that nothing happened to her. After all, she was all that was left to him and he swore he wouldn't loose her too.
He had tried to reach her but she, in turn, rebuked him. When he sent her flowers, she threw them away. When he called her at work, she would hang up on him. And yet, Casey refused to give up on her.

The city seems so old and grey and beat
It closes in and makes me wanna suffocate

A pair of dirty blond men followed April out of the bar. Both wore pea green coats that hung just past the knees. And both kept their hands in the deep pockets.
Casey watched them closely. One of them reached out and grabbed the young woman's wrist. She was too drunk to do anything but scream and pull away.
That was when Casey struck. In a matter of moments, the two thugs were unconscious at his feet. Casey gently took April's hand and helped her stand up. He then walked with her to her apartment.
She didn't even invite him in.

And you just live across the street
But that's a billion miles away

That was alright with Casey. He was used to it. He made his way up to the roof of the building opposite of April's place. He sat down cross legged, his favorite bat across his lap, and watch her apartment until the sun cast its orange glow over the city. Then he returned to his own sanctuary.

You've turned my world into a dark and lonely place
Like a planet lost in space, my light is fadin'

(Flashback)

"Casey! They need us! They might still be alive!"

The young man held the redhead back from plunging back into the inferno that, up until a few minutes ago, had been a Foot weapons warehouse. Though his back faced the flames, the image of the fireball that had engulfed the building had been burned into his brain.

"No, April. They're beyond any help now."

He had been helpless, standing on a catwalk, watching his friends die one by one.

Leo had been first. The Foot had targeted him and littered his body with burning holes. White phosphorus rounds. He hadn't died of trauma, or of blood loss. He had been burned alive from the inside.

Raph had been next. He had shouted his lost brother's name before jumping into the center of the group of gunmen. He had been too close for them to use their weapons, so they switched to their tantos and dog-piled the raging turtle. They pulled away, blades dripping with the blood of their enemy. There couldn't have been much of the red liquid left in the body, because there seemed to be too much of it surrounding the lifeless husk.

Don had died next to the first of his fallen brothers. It had seemed as if the young turtle's mind couldn't grasp the concept that two of his brothers were dead in just a matter of minutes. He had knelt next to Leo's still body and cradled what was left of his head. He hadn't even moved when the ninja walked up to him and placed the barrel of the Glock against the smooth, green scalp. The ninja pulled the trigger.

Mikey had stood like a jade statue, unable to do anything to save his brothers. He had turned his eyes to where Casey was, all life in them extinguished. The man had known what that look had meant, and took off for the exit. He turned one last time to see the youngest turtle pressing the remote that would obliterate the entire building and everything and everyone inside.

Casey had sprinted out the door that April had been guarding and grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the building. Together, they had watched the building disappear into a geyser of flames, taking their friends with them.

(End Flashback)

I'd cross the universe to be right where you are
But I'm right in your backyard
And I might as well be on Mars

Casey picked up a framed picture that had sat on top of his dresser for the last year. In it, a dark haired man had an arm around a beautiful woman with deep green eyes. Behind them stood four grinning mutant, ninja turtles. It had been taken during a happier time, a time when Casey had had a family. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

And now he was slowly loosing the last person left to his family

I might as well be on Mars
You can't see me
I might as well be the man on the moon
You can't hear me

Casey sat down on his unkempt bed. The despair was overwhelming but he found he couldn't cry anymore. He thought about how he and April had made their way back to the lair only to find Splinter dead by his own hand. That had been the last straw for the young woman. She broke down, falling to her knees with the tears flowing down pale cheeks. Casey had taken her home that night. That was also the night she had thrown him out of her apartment, telling him that she never wanted to see him again.

Casey had understood at the time. April had been hurting just as much as had. And in her eyes, he was just a living, breathing reminder of what had been lost.

He fell into a restless slumber, still clutching the framed picture.

Oh, can you feel me so close
And yet so far
Baby, I might as well be on Mars

Another week had passed, and still Casey found himself taking to the rooftops during those hours of darkness. He watched as the only light left in his life faded like the moon did each night. The man felt like he was watching his four friends die all over again. He still tried to get through to April, but every time he approached her, she would look at him with eyes that reminded him of Mikeys eyes the last time he saw the adolescent turtle.

Casey couldn't bear to look at those any more. He gave up.

Baby, I can't fly
If I could I'd come down to ya
Maybe I should try

He stood on the edge of eternity. The wind caressed bare arms and dried tears that rolled down rough cheeks. The only sound that reached him was the song of a living city. A city he felt that had no more need for him. He lifted a foot to take that final step off the 15 story structure.

"Casey?"

The voice had been an angel's voice. An angel that he had loved since the turtles had first introduced her to him. He put his foot back down on the ledge and turned around.

April stood there, dressed in a flowing white gown. The wind played with her loose hair, making her appear like a beautiful Gorgon. Her eyes were red, but this time it was not from the alcohol. She wiped a tear from her cheek. That was when Casey noticed the nearly fresh cuts on her wrist.

He jumped down from his perch and ran to her. His strong arms wrapped around her small frame. She returned the embrace. The moonlight surrounded two souls that had been brought together this night by the bond they shared. A bond created by four unusual friends and strengthened by their own emotions.

I'm on the roof and I'm starin' at the stars
Lookin' down at all the cars
I can see you
In the window of your favorite corner bar
But the reach is just too far
And I might as well be on Mars

Casey and April sat on the ledge that the man had been ready to end his life with, letting their feet dangle over the side. In his mind's eye, Casey saw Raph, dressed in his trench coat and fedora, sitting in a darkened corner, nursing the only beer he would drink that night. April watched as a ghostly Don fiddled with some new gizmo on the roof below them, always so eager for the field test. Casey had always privately wish that the could have even a fraction of the grace that Leo had as he became more like a dancer whose partner flashed in the moonlight, cutting through the air like it was a mere extensions of the muscular, but transparent, body. April smiled when Mikey finally looked up from his mountain of comics to grin and wave at her, eyes sparkling with life that no longer existed in this world. Splinter stood beside the pair of humans, though he looked like he was standing on the other side of a campfire from them, shaking his head as he watched his sons.

A rough hand gently took a small, slender one and intertwined their fingers. Ocean blue eyes met forest green ones and a wordless question was asked and the answer was given. Together they stood and together they joined their mutant friends.

Fin