Chapter Text
It didn’t take long for Leo to forget.
He forgot their voices, their names, some days even their faces seemed to swirl and misshape in Leos vision.
But forever Leo had spent looking at that photo, at the smiles and joy forever sealed in a simple piece of paper. Eventually he started to forget why he treasured the image so much but he did anyway out of a pure natural instinct he couldn’t explain. Then he felt a fierce protection over the image.
Now, as he looks up at faces matching almost perfectly to those of which he’d tried to nurture and savour for all of eternity, he was scared.
They loomed above him, staring him down in horror as if what they were seeing in front of them was worse than the floods of tears still streaming down their green faces.
They were green. Leo was green.
Was.
At this moment he was nothing but a massive misshapen bruise. He’d been worse however.
“Leo..?” The biggest one whispered gently, as if the noise itself could shatter Leo’s bones into a million pieces; it didn’t, of course, but it did shatter his heart and Leo couldn’t understand why.
Memories flew around Leo’s head of his own name being screamed at him as he got mercilessly beaten and thrown around like a child’s toy which only has the purpose to be broken, put back together and broken all over again. It was his name. And he hated it.
“Leo, buddy, can you hear me?” The same voice spoke again, louder this time, and with it came a large scarred hand reaching for him. Leo stared at it for a second. Flashbacks of the Kraangs armour launching straight for his face with it’s only goal being to hurt him as much as possible filled his mind.
Instinctively he fought against the hand, crawling backwards. The hard concrete ground made a change from thick air he had no control in. It was quite nice.
“PLEASE NO LEAVE ME ALONE” Leo cried out, his throat throbbed from the effort of it but anything was better than being exposed to more pain. His eyes were scrunched up tightly and he was trying to curl in on himself- ignoring how much his body protested and screamed for him to stop moving and making it all hurt more. He prepared for his futile attempt at defence to be broken and for the shock of whatever injury he’d receive next to encroach whatever internal peace he’d struggled to find for himself.
But it never came. After a short while he hesitantly opened his eyes, his sight was still blurry- made worse by whatever liquid was pooling near his eyes this time. The large turtle with the red mask was now holding his hand away from Leo as if he’d tried to burn it with fire.
“Leo it’s us! Your brothers!” A small orange-masked turtle said from behind the red one. This turtle had orange spots on parts of his body, a rounded face and hopeful yet exhausted eyes. He would’ve been a perfect resemblance to the orange one in the picture if it wasn’t for the yellow cracks going all the way up his arms and fresh cuts covering him from head to toe.
The only one who hadn’t spoken yet bore a purple bandanna. He seemed to be assessing Leo and a million thoughts flashed behind tired eyes.
Eventually they all grabbed him up in their arms, squeezing him tightly as their tears re-soaked his bloody skin and he howled in pain at the sudden movement. At first he fought and struggled, trying to make them let go off him. But after a few moments when nothing else happened he felt himself melt into their embrace.
They sobbed.
Leo sobbed.
For all the thousands of years Leo had been there, he’d never been held. Not once. Sure, he’d been punched and cut and gutted and choked and crushed and flung like a boomerang, but he’d never been held.
At some point they pulled away from him and instinctively he reached out to bring them back to him; seeking out a warmth he’d forgotten existed. It was like he was blind, he couldn’t really see. Leo wasn’t sure if it was because he’d closed his eyes and forgotten to open them or if his injuries we’re causing it. Part of him didn’t want to know. Panic surged through him as his hand closed around empty air and he felt like he was floating back in the Prison dimension. His body weight- which really wasn’t as much as it should be for his age- let him fall through the air and Leo didn’t even try to stop it. A few very short seconds before hitting the floor he was picked back up.
Tears rolled down his ripped cheeks and he relished the warmth of their bodies. He didn’t remember the last time he’d felt any sort of heat. He could hear them talking above him but he didn’t care, he didn’t want to know. He didn’t think he could pay attention to it even if he tried to. Everything hurt and it was clearly one of those times where his body took its sweet sweet time to heal and put itself back together.
When they’d found him it hadn’t been long since the last thrashing he’d constantly receive from the Kraang and he was still recovering; he’d been injured worse before, to the point of which no one could ever live through. No one except Leo. Somehow, the prison dimension never let him die, it would accept his broken figure into it’s non-existent arms and piece him back together no matter how long it took or how much it hurt. Leo hated that, he often wanted to be allowed to die, it would be an escape from his ever-lasting torture that he would gratefully accept. You’d think that the pain would eventually cease and sometimes it did whenever something bad happened to his nerves or his brain but aside from that, every time hurt just as worse as the last time.
But he wasn’t there now, he was here. In the arms of the people from the picture. And they held him close without any more signs of trying to hurt him. Leo liked that.
He felt his eyes begin to shut. He was tired and right now seems like the perfect time to fall asleep- it was something he didn’t get much of in the prison dimension.
He let himself fall limp in their grasp and his breathing slow down. It’s not like he wouldn’t wake up, Leo always woke up. They eventually started shaking him and all he let out was a small grunt. They started begging him to stay awake and not to leave them again but Leo couldn’t hear them through the fogginess surrounding his consciousness.
He let himself go.