Work Text:
Their defeat was inevitable.
Leonardo thought he was prepared. He led his brothers the few times they went topside and he thought, foolishly, that he was prepared to truly lead them. He’d trained his whole life for this; he’d been in charge since they were kids, since he could remember. He’d trained hard to earn this position, to earn the title of a leader.
He was so sure he could do this.
He was wrong.
Leonardo wasn’t prepared for this. Thinking about it, nothing could ever prepare him for losing. No amount of books or stories or theory could equal experience. He wished he would have realized that sooner, not when armed forces that outnumbered and outpowered them multiple times attacked them at their home.
And he found himself unable to stop the upcoming doom.
He knew, from the moment they breached their perimeters, that they couldn’t win this fight. Their training didn’t prepare them for such destructive forces and the humans didn’t hold back. Although they wanted them alive, that didn’t mean they cared if they injured them or not.
They didn’t care. He realized that when he heard Raph’s angry yelling and the terrific rumble as the fan room collapsed.
Leonardo’s heart stopped for a second, but it was secong too long. He hoped to hear his brother’s voice, but if he did say something, if he let out any sign that he escaped the collapse, it was drowned in the sounds of firing darts and charging weapons.
Desperately, Leonardo turned around, trying to map where everyone was. His eyes searched rapidly, trying to find their father. He needed to find their father, needed to ask him what to do, needed him to remind him that he trained for situations like these, he trained to fight for survival. He needed an assurance that they still could get out alive.
He got not a single one of those things. Instead, he found their Sensei fighting a lost battle against the Shredder.
Leonardo moved, acking without thinking. He yelled for his teacher, running towards tim, only to get surrounded by four armed men. Their staff crackled with electricity, the blue light blinding him.
He hot hit on instant. The electricity coursed through his body and his knees buckled involuntary. He found himself on the ground as the other three men jumped at him, ramming the tasers everywhere they could reach.
Trying to hold his screams as much as he could, he called for Donatello. Him and Michelangelo started making their way towards him, but they wouldn’t be fast enough. He needed to get the attackers off as soon as possible, before his muscles spasmed and his body gave up.
He managed to get hold of the tasers, joining them together to create a discharge that was strong enough to throw the men back.
There were sparks in front of his vision as he pushed himself up on his feet. He stumbled, his muscles refusing to cooperate, but he pressed against the strain and forced his limbs to move.
It went downhill faster than up to now.
They were doomed. Defeated. It was only a question whether they would make it worse for themselves, or not.
Leonardo dropped his weapons. His brothers followed his suit. Metallic rattle filled his ears before it was replaced by his brothers’ agonized screams.
They tased them again, and Leonardo could do nothing but watch and hope that it won’t be enough to kill them.
They led them onto the streets, keeping them at bay with the staffs. Heavy raindrops wet their leather skin, making the electricity stronger and flowing with ease.
He told his brothers to stay strong. He told them to remember what their father taught them. But truth to be told, Leonardo wasn’t sure for whose sake he was saying it; theirs or his.
They didn’t take Splinter. They said that Raphael was dead. And now they were taking them, hurting them – hurting his two younger brothers, even though they went willingly.
Leonardo didn’t know how he could have ever been so stupid as to think he was prepared. Nothing could ever prepare him for losing half of his family and knowing that the other half will die soon while he could nothing to stop it.
The electricity burned through his veins, spreading failure and grief into his whole body, until they reached his mind – and then they attacked his heart.
Leonardo accepted the shocks like the punishment they were.