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Mikey wakes up with a gasp.
Panic grips at his heart, making his mind fly as he first looks down at his plastron, expecting to find a huge, bloody and terrible gaping hole in his lower abdomen where he had been stabbed.
Only to find nothing there.
He pants, patting himself down with tears building in the corners of his eyes, hands trembling. He should have been.. He thought he was-
“Michelangelo,” A familiar voice called, making the turtle look up to see the ronin rabbit Yojimbo coming over with a look of concern. “What happened? Are you alright?”
The dream–the feeling –was still too fresh in Mikey’s head. His throat was closed tight. “I-..I-I thought.. Jei, he-”
He was interrupted when Raph gave a yelp, jerking forward and up, eyes wide and looking around. When they landed on Mikey, he froze, pausing in his own panic. He blinked, almost as if processing, and when he spoke his voice cracked in disbelief. “Mikey..?”
The orange-banded turtle’s bottom lip quivered. He wasted no time in launching himself at his older brother, the aftereffects of his panic still running its course as Raph’s strong arms caught him and held him tight.
“Oh thank god, you’re okay..” Raph breathed. He sounded on the verge of tears. “It was just a dream..”
Mikey shuddered, and dug his face further into Raph’s shoulder. “ Didn’t feel like one. ” He whispered.
“What didn’t feel like a dream?” Came Usagi’s voice from where he had been kneeling. The confused, weary concern in his voice drove the two to look up at him. The look on his face was worse. “What did Jei do now?”
Raph hadn’t let go of his younger brother, scowling protectively, but looked away from the rabbit at nothing in particular, a far away look in his eyes. “.. He messed with our heads.” Was his quiet, dark response.
Before Usagi could ask him any more questions, Donnie’s entire body had twitched, a grimace twisting on his face before his eyes flew open. Immediately, Raph and Mikey went to his side before any terrible, heart-wrenching conclusions could be formed in the genius’s head. The purple banded turtle had let out a single sob upon seeing his brother’s faces, and yet again there was another, tight hug between the three of them that lasted for a good minute or two.
In all of the commotion, Pugtaro had woken up, and if it weren’t for the suddenly somber, heavy tension in the air, he would have been ready to yell at the turtles to go back to sleep. Instead, he had walked over to the ronin watching the hug, fingers pressed together in a show of worry. “Rabbit, what happened? Why is everything so.. So gloomy?”
The rabbit in question shook his head, frowning. “I do not know. But I get the feeling it has something to do with Jei.”
“.. You’d be right.” Donnie had sighed as Mikey and Raph finally pulled away, though kept near him seemingly just in case. It was still obvious he was shaken immensely, but he looked up at Usagi and the child with a somber expression. “He.. He had us convinced we were fighting him. In our minds. We were all trying to stop him but..”
Raph finished for him, that same scowl from before plastered on his face as Mikey sunk into Donnie’s side. “He got the jump on us. Made us watch each other die. ”
Usagi’s frown deepened at the news, anger burning him inside. No wonder they had woken up looking as if they had seen a ghost. It made sense, and it was in a way that was cruel . But then Pugtaro had looked towards the front of the cave, and his thoughts were suddenly turned elsewhere.
“But then, what about Leonardo?”
The three turtles gave each other wide looks at the realization. Then they scrambled to their feet and up to their oldest brother's side with Usagi and Pugtaro not too far behind.
It looked as if Leo was sleeping soundly, but when Donnie laid his hand on his forehead he grimaced. “He’s sweating,” He clarified when the others gave him questioning looks. His own frown was full of weary sadness. “Like he’s.. Still fighting or something.”
“Is.. Is he going to wake up?” Mikey asked quietly, fearfully, hanging onto Raph’s arm. “He.. He has to, right? We can’t have him do this to us again. ”
Yojimbo glanced at him. Again? Just how much have these children been through?
Donnie’s response wasn’t reassuring. “I don’t know, Mikey..”
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, other than Leo’s soft breathing and eyes moving underneath the fabric of his mask, and they waited, watching with bated, fearful breath. At least, until there was a hitch in his breathing that made them all perk up with alert.
Tears had begun running down the oldest turtle’s face. Pure sobs of despair ripped from his throat despite him sleeping, and all the others could do was watch, their hearts breaking at the sound. None of them could imagine what it was he was seeing, what he was experiencing, in that moment. Mikey reached out and gripped Leo’s hand tightly in hope that it would do something, anything, to help wake him up. Tears of his own burned in his eyes.
“Please..” He whispered past the lump in his throat. “ Please wake up, Leo..”
They watched as the tears turned into rage, and then a fear they had never seen on Leo’s face before. His hand suddenly ripped out of Mikey’s, who gave a yelp of surprise, and had almost gone to get it back had it not been for the fact that his brother raised it to cover his face.
His yell echoed in the cave around them. “ NO!!”
“Leo!!” Donnie cried in part relief, part in trying to get his brother’s attention, the others joining him as he bent over Leo’s face, a hand going to Leo’s raised arm in an attempt to ground their oldest brother. “Leo, it’s okay! It’s us! You’re okay, just breathe. We’re right here.”
After a moment of panting, Leo lowered his arm slowly, blinking up at his brothers, the despair, fear, grief still playing in his eyes, now coupled with disbelief. He stared up at each one of his brother’s faces, as if unsure if what he was seeing was real. “G.. Guys..?”
“Yeah, it’s us Fearless.” Raph responded, and attempted to smile despite the situation. “We’re not goin’ anywhere without you.”
That seemed to be what had broken whatever trance their leader had been in. His eyes welled with fresh, yet unspilled tears, and he rose up to envelope all three of his brothers in a tight hug for the third time that early morning. Mikey sniffled against his plastron, Raph pressed into his shoulder, and Donnie rested his forehead against Leo’s, Usagi stepping away with a quiet sigh of relief once seeing they were all alive, letting them have their moment. Pugtaro followed hesitantly after him, giving a single concerned look towards the Turtles before moving away.
Leo took in a deep, shaky breath of air, pulling his brothers closer. “Don’t you ever do that to me again..” He hissed, eyes shut tight. “I thought.. I thought I had lost all of you…”
Raph scoffed, pulling away just a bit to speak. “Says you, Mister ‘Sleeping Longer than the rest of us’. And do I need to mention how many times you’ve almost gotten yourself killed?”
“Yeah,” Donnie sniffed indignantly, and proceeded to give a light punch to the blue-banded turtle’s shoulder. “Not like what happened was in our control anyway, and–”
“O-okay, alright, I get it,” Leo interrupted, voice quivering slightly.
Donnie grimaced slightly. “Sorry.” He whispered. “That was the stress.”
A pang of guilt hit him, and he brought his brother’s closer, snuggling into their embrace, sighing. “N-no, it’s alright Donnie.. I get it. We’re all just.. Worked up.” He had just said the understatement of the century, he knew. But upon thinking about what they had just been through, only made him shudder.
Please.. Don’t make us go through anything like that again. He pleaded to whatever spirits were watching them now. Don’t make them go through that again.
Mikey gave a sniff, and moved his face to look up at Leo with blue, watering eyes. “You know we love you, right?”
Leo met his gaze, and though his heart broke with the look his little brother was giving him, his words also warmed him. He affectionately nuzzled Mikey’s nose with his own, earning a soft, watery giggle. “I know.” And he proceeded to do the same with Raph–who almost recoiled from him with surprise, but took it anyway while blushing–and Donnie. “I love you guys, too, you know.”
“Yeah,” Raph grumbled. “We do.”
Then, someone had cleared their throat, and reluctantly Leo raised his head to see Usagi standing at the end of the cave they had taken refuge in, facing them.
“Not to break this up too early..” The rabbit murmured quietly. “But we still have a job to do. We must get Pugtaro to the Temple before it is too late, and get you four home.” Then he raised a brow with concern. “Perhaps, on the way, you may fill me in on what exactly it was you four experienced, if you wish to.”
Leonardo sighed heavily, wanting nothing more than to sink back into his brother’s arms and forget the world for as long as he could, forget his duties. But as usual, there was always something to remind him of them, and he knew the rabbit was right. He gave his brothers a final, meaningful look, and they pried themselves from him reluctantly, Raph helping him stand to his feet.
“Right,” He said upon regaining his composure, going into his “leader-mode” as he walked up next to Usagi and stared out at the mountains of snow before them, shoving down his emotions for later. He’d deal with them later. His brothers circled around him, which helped him feel mostly better, and Leo couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at his lips.
They were right there. They were okay. That’s what mattered now.
“Where do we start?”