The Power Inside Her

"Darkest Plight"

**The Power Inside Her** is the twenty-second episode of the fourth season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 100th episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

Donatello becomes concerned and decides to test April, only to discover that her psychic abilities are rapidly growing in power.

## Characters

* April O'Neil / Za-Naron(Mae Whitman)
* Casey Jones (Josh Peck)
* Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
* Leonardo (Seth Green)
* Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
* Raphael (Sean Astin)
* Splinter (Hoon Lee)

### Minor Characters

* Aeons
* Elite Footbots
* Fishface (Christian Lanz)
* Ice Cream Kitty (fantasy)
* Mutagen Man (fantasy)
* Purple Dragons
	+ Hun (Eric Bauza)
	+ Fong
	+ Tsoi
* Razhar (Clancy Brown)
* Tiger Claw (Eric Bauza)

## Plot

As a storm begins to gather over NYC, in the Turtles' lair, Donnie is preparing to examine April in regards to her recent increase in her psychic powers as Leo watches. April assures them she's fine, using her earlier battle with the Super Shredder to prove she has things under control, but when Donnie attempts to take the Aeon crystal to analyze again, April refuses to part with it, assuring him she's fine and the crystal's safe with her.

As Donnie begins the test, he tells April to let him know of anything strange that happens to her during the test, but as April tells him with great annoyance she's fine, she is unable to complete her complaint before she suddenly goes crazy, clutches her crystal tightly, and causes much of Donnie's lab equipment to be levitated and thrown around the room. Leo realizes this was a bad idea to begin with, before April glowers at him, then unleashes a psychic blast that sends Leo, Donnie, and the equipment flying away.

Raph enters to see what all the noise is about, and is stunned to see his brothers in a daze from what just happened. Mikey joins them, and as Donnie removes April's Aeon crystal to put somewhere far away from her, the crystal struggles against him and tries to return to April, only to be caught by Raph before it can reach her, and then tied down by a nail that is able to restrain it for the time being.

Splinter enters to see what is going on, and once told of the situation with the Aeon crystal, he realizes it has become too dangerous to be around April, and has her taken to the dojo to be treated with the healing mantras, yet the crystal seems to levitate towards her as she is carried out.

Topside, Casey is bored out of his mind due to being left on foot patrol alone by Raph, before noticing Tiger Claw, Fishface, and Rahzar loading a van full of mutagen to help maintain Super Shredder's mutation. Although shocked upon seeing that, Casey decides to warn the Turtles about it. Raph gets the call, but warns Casey not to do anything rash until they get there, but Casey makes it clear he's not going to stay out of trouble until they get there. After Raph hangs up, he warns his brothers of the situation, and while Leo and Mikey go with Raph to help Casey, Donnie remains behind to deal with the Aeon crystal and try to cut it's link to April.

Tiger Claw and the others soon finish loading the van and take off, and with no sign of the Turtles, Casey decides to try and deal with them himself. However, as he is soon clinging to the rear bumper for dear life, two Elite Foot-bots that were in the back with Rahzar come out to deal with him. However, Casey gets aboard, and manages to throw Rahzar out, then take out Tiger Claw when he slices one of Casey's photon pucks in half, causing them to hit the Elite Foot-bots instead so Tiger Claw gets caught in the blast, and finally shock Fishface and throw him out of the driver's seat, allowing Casey to commandeer the van. However, Tiger Claw and the Elite Foot-bots continue their pursuit, despite the Elite Foot-bots now being on fire from the photon puck Tiger Claw cut in two.

Back in the lair, the Aeon crystal continues to be analyzed by Donnie, while Splinter helps April in the dojo, only to be beset by visions of Xaava-Dal and the Aeons, ending with watching as one Aeon is devoured by the Aeons' dark side, before it lunges for him. Shortly after, April awakens, and begins to panic as she realizes her crystal is missing. Splinter tries to hold her back and reason with her, warning her that she needs to break its hold on her, but April simply lifts him into the air with her psychic powers, and attempts to crush him. At the same time, her crystal is able to attempt an escape from Donnie as he tries to stop it from reuniting with her, but his efforts are in vain. Once it reunites with April, Donnie wonders what the heck she is doing, before she begins to choke him psychically. Splinter shouts for April to fight the evil influence controlling her, but April fears it is too powerful for her to overcome before it asserts control again, dropping Splinter and Donnie to the ground, before slowly rising into the air, laughing evilly, and then diving at them as Donnie shouts in fear.

Soon after, the evil influence controlling April lifts off a manhole cover and rises toward where the storm clouds have begun to rotate around a center-point like they have become a supercell thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. As the evil influence looks down on NYC, gloating at all the people below, April tries to fight the evil influence, but it wants to purge the city of all evil. April seems to agree with it, wanting to destroy the evil to save everyone, before spotting the van that Casey commandeered racing through traffic as Casey loses the two flame-engulfed Elite Foot-bots, but can't avoid a dumpster that causes the van to flip onto its side and crash. Casey kicks out the windshield to escape, but is soon confronted by Tiger Claw and Fishface.

As they overpower Casey and prepare to finish him off, April descends to confront them. Fishface goes after her first, but thanks to the evil influence from the Aeon crystal, April overpowers Fishface and knocks him out. Rahzar attempts to attack her from behind, but gets psychically slammed by a dumpster, leaving only Tiger Claw, who is simply held aloft and psychically choked before being flung into the wall and knocked out himself. Casey is stunned to see April take all three of Super Shredder's goons out on her own, but is soon joined by Leo, Raph, and Mikey, who wonder what happened, before April is given control again, but before they can talk to her, the evil influence takes control again and she leaves their presence.

Back in the lair, Donnie emerges from the rubble and helps Splinter out as well, but as both of them realize the danger April is now in because of the Aeon crystal, Donnie blames himself for ever experimenting on it, but knows he has to get it away from April and destroy it for her sake. Splinter warns him to be careful, but Donnie knows if he can reach April, he can help her fight the evil influence off.

Back topside, the other Turtles and Casey chase April to the Channel 6 building, and confront her on the roof. However, as April again regains control and wonders what's going on as she can't remember recent events, the evil influence takes control again, and Mikey realizes it's the Aeon crystal that's to blame. However, the evil influence takes full control of April again, and introducing itself as Za-Naron, it prepares to face the Turtles and Casey as Donnie tracks April to the Channel 6 building.

As Leo wonders what Za-Naron wants, Za-Naron reveals herself to be one of several ancient Aeon elders whose physical body was destroyed, but their spirits were transferred into the Aeon Sol Star for protection. However, when April was given the Sol Star fragment for helping to purge the Aeons of the dark influence of the Heart of Darkness, Za-Naron was slowly taking over April in mind and spirit, but at the cost of being corrupted because of Earth and all the corruption Za-Naron sensed within humanity and the planet, and now Za-Naron wants to purge the Earth of all that corruption, even if it means wiping out humanity to do so.

After psychically flinging the Turtles and Casey off the roof, they recover and watch as Donnie climbs up to confront April himself, but Za-Naron warns him to stay out of her way. Donnie tries to reach April, but April can't fight off Za-Naron's influence. Apologizing to Donnie, April lets Za-Naron retake control, and fed up with Donnie's attempts to get April to destroy the crystal and fight off her influence, Za-Naron lifts Donnie up in her grip, and reduces him to atoms for his interference, much to the shock and horror of Donnie's brothers and Casey.

As rain begins to fall, Za-Naron lets out a triumphant roar as she zaps the Channel 6 broadcast tower with lightning, knocking the Turtles off. By the time they recover, April has vanished. As Casey and the Turtles mourn Donnie and fear he's gone forever, April is soon granted control of her body again as she crashes onto a rooftop in exhaustion, and realizes to her horror that by letting Za-Naron help her with her psychic powers all this time and protecting her Aeon crystal in the process, she's now murdered the one Turtle whom she loved because of her obsession over her Aeon crystal and belief she needed it to help her psychic powers. However, before she can suffer any more guilt over what she's done, Za-Naron regains control and tells her she made her choice by picking the crystal over the Turtles and Casey, and tells her to let go of her connection to them and aid Za-Naron with purging the Earth of its corruption, starting with NYC.

The first target for April and Za-Naron: Hun and the Purple Dragons, who are about to mug a helpless old lady unless she pays for protection. April's arrival allows the lady to flee, but when Hun wonders if April is here to play, she easily overpowers him and the Purple Dragons. Impressed, Hun offers April the choice of joining the Purple Dragons, but Za-Naron refuses and sends him flying, crashing into a parked car as the Turtles and Casey arrive.

Leo tries to reason with Za-Naron again, but she warns them to stay out of her way, or she'll cleanse them as she did Donnie. Casey fears that they can't attack Za-Naron if April is still in there somewhere, but the Turtles agree that after what happened to Donnie, April is gone, and they *must* take her down, leaving Casey devastated.

Raph restrains her, but Mikey can't bring himself to attack April, allowing Za-Naron to break free and attempt to crush Raph, only to be restrained by Leo and Mikey, saving Raph. However, this gives the Turtles and Casey a chance to try and reach April, reminding her of everything they've been through together, such as Mutagen Man, their adventures with the Fugitoid, Master Splinter, Ice Cream Kitty, everything. Despite their best attempts to reach April, Za-Naron refuses to let April resurface, blasts them all away, and after tossing Casey aside when he tries to protect Raph, she prepares to cleanse him as well, but as Raph begins to feel himself being ripped apart on the molecular level, he tries one last time to reach April by reminding her of Donnie. As visions of Donnie, along with her guilt of murdering him flash through her mind, April is able to regain control, stop Za-Naron from murdering Raph as well, and restrain Za-Naron long enough for Leo and Mikey to recover and Leo to tell her that she's the only one with the power to destroy the Aeon crystal once and for all.

Fighting off Za-Naron for just long enough, April tears the Aeon crystal from her neck, and with a final, furious yell, throws the crystal to the pavement, shattering it. However, this results in Za-Naron being exorcised from April's body now that her link to April was destroyed, and reassuming a physical form as the Aeons' corrupted form seen on Xaava-Dal. Furious that April chose her friends, family, and humanity over having all the power in the universe, Za-Naron charges her in retaliation, but furious over what Za-Naron put her through, April draws her tanto blade, charges Za-Naron back, and when the two collide, April slays Za-Naron once and for all, ripping her physical form to shreds, and leaving Za-Naron's energy to disperse as Za-Naron lets off one, final anguished scream of defeat before being silenced for good.

As the Turtles and Casey recover, Casey wonders if the April before them is the real deal, and as April makes sure herself, she then remembers what happened to Donnie and is guilt-ridden and devastated over what Za-Naron made her do to him. As she wonders if there is any way to bring him back, she sees several wisps of energy coming off the shattered remains of her Aeon crystal, and realizes he's not truly gone for good. Picking them up, she realizes his molecules were only scattered, and concentrating as hard as she can with the broken pieces, she's able to retrieve all of Donnie's molecules and restore him to his full, corporeal, physical form. As April hugs Donnie in relief that he's alive and she's so sorry for what she did, she finally runs out of energy and passes out from exhaustion.

April comes to back in the lair, and once she sees she's home, she apologizes for having allowed her obsession with the Aeon crystal to nearly destroy her and her friends in the process, especially Donnie. Splinter is proud of her as she was able to literally destroy her demons, but there's still the matter of her psychic powers. April knows she can't harness the Aeons' power anymore, but she now has a better understanding of controlling her own psychic powers, as she demonstrates as she manages to summon her tanto blade's sheath from her back to her hand, though she does cause a startle with the Turtles and Casey as they fear she's going to turn her powers on them again, but in the end, as April looks down at her tanto blade and the Hamato Clan insignia on it, she knows at least something good came out of all this as she smiles with satisfaction and pride.

## Trivia

* April's transformation is similar to *Dragon Ball Z* when several characters turn into Super Saiyan, a legendary warrior with an increasingly long mane of blond hair who gains increased magnitude of power.
	+ Even April's hair has a similar style to a Super Saiyan.
* April's power crystal addiction arc loosely mimics that of Dark Willow from *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*; a seemingly ordinary supporting character who then develops special powers but becomes addicted and eventually corrupted by them, forcing her friends to try and reign her in. Her father even looks like Willow's creator, Joss Whedon!
* Whedon's Dark Willow storyline was also partly inspired by the Dark Phoenix Saga from Chris Clarmont and John Bryne's 1980's X-Men comics, where telekinetic/telepathic redhead Jean Grey is possessed by a powerful entity from outer space and loses control.
* April's "There Is no April, only Za-Naron!" quote is similar to how the original *Ghostbusters'* character Dana Barrett was possessed by Zuul.
* This was the last of three episodes rebroadcast in a 90-minute feature-length arc entitled *Powers Unleashed*. This arc first aired on December 4, 2016.

## Quotes

**April:** There is no April, only Za-Naron!

*Za-Naron has just reduced Donatello to atoms for trying to interfere in her plans***Leo:** DONNIE!!**Raph:** DONNIE!!**Casey:** OH MY GOSH!!**Mikey:** NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!