Chapter Text
It was the typical random Wednesday in New York City, nothing off about that in the slightest. Mikey was out though, training with Draxum. So that was the only odd thing about the Lair right now, that being Mikey’s absence. Sure, Raph was concerned about Mikey heading to Draxum’s alone, but Leo managed to convince Raph that Mikey can handle a trip to and fro from the sheep yokai’s apartment. Besides, it wasn’t even that far! And if the situation called for it, Leo could portal Mikey home in a heartbeat.
Well, maybe after steeling himself first, then he would do it.
Leo still doesn’t have a great relationship with portals, and frankly probably never will again. His last two encounters with them were bittersweet, one being able to save him and one being the thing to trap him in the first place. Leo scrolls mindlessly through his phone, letting the words settle somewhere into the back of his brain. Probably into a random file labeled Gloat About to Donnie Later.
Of course his phone couldn’t keep him busy for too long, and he became restless on the couch, fidgeting and leg bouncing up and down. Alright then, arcade it is. He hops up from his seat, stretching his numb limbs out before heading to the nearby arcade. Leo is just grateful they were able to scavenge some of the old games from the old lair to help fill the space out, or else it would look a hell of a lot emptier. He goes and plays some Space Invaders, tongue sticking out in concentration.
After about an hour or so of spending time in the arcade, it was time to bother Donnie. This is how it goes; he starts off scrolling through forums, then arcade, then Donnie. He slides into Donnie’s lab, smirk wide and full of mischief as he slid up next to his brother, who was hunched over his desk, already irritated with Leo even if he hadn’t even spoken yet.
“You saw I had the sign up, Nardo. It clearly states do not enter. ” Donnie hisses out, flipping up his goggles to glare at Leo.
The smirk grew wider, “So?”
Leo swears he can hear Donnie’s teeth grinding, “ So , it means stay the fuck out of my lab .” Ough boy, Donnie was in one of his moods. Leo never likes to get himself involved in those, half of the time he gets beaten to a pulp when he pokes and prods at Donnie like that for too long.
So he makes a hasty retreat, slumping back to the living room. Now he’s out of ideas. He flings himself onto the couch, face planting and letting out a long groan. He hears a quiet snicker from who he assumes to be Raph. Then he heard footsteps and a cheery greeting from his younger brother, Leo already popping his head back up to greet him back.
The box turtle looks a bit tired, in the eyes mostly, but overall seemed fine. The last time Draxum had him work out until exhaustion he got a personal lecture from each of his brothers, including Leo himself. So he’s glad Draxum eased up on the exercises enough. Speaking of those…
“What did Draxy make you do today?” Leo asks, intrigued.
Mikey shrugs, “Not much at all, really! We reviewed last weeks stuff, and he taught me one of the lamer spells.”
“Like what, Mikey?” Raph asks, curiosity flicking at him.
“Teleporting.”
Leo gasps, “But that’s my thing!”
Mikey waves his hands around, “No no no! Not like- portal teleportation. More like- ripping through invisible air for an object? It can only work on inanimate objects, he said. Like-” His gaze focuses on Leo’s phone, laying on the couch besides him. Leo followed his gaze, then looked up to Mikey with a don’t look on his face.
Mikey so does.
He reaches his hand out in front of him, vaguely in the direction of the phone before closing his eyes, static electricity flinging throughout the living room as he did so. Then Leo, forgetting immediately what Mikey was trying to teleport, reached down to grab his phone to record this. Thing is, it was gone, and he looked up and Mikey had it in hand, orange sparks flying around it.
Then the phone’s screen went white then black.
“My phone!” Leo cries out, dramatic in all shape and form.
Mikey cringes slightly as the phone flickers back to life for a split moment, then pitch black again, “...Maybe that’s why he told me not to manipulate electronics…”
“You think?!” Leo grabs his phone from Mikey, trying to flick it back on to no avail. He groans, cursing himself for poking and prodding at Donnie earlier, because now there’s no way he’ll be able to get his phone fixed for at least a few days. At least!
“Sorry Leo.” Mikey looks suddenly very guilty and pulls out those big eyes of his that makes any being bend to his will. Ah shit.
Leo gives Mikey a noogie, “It’s fine man, but those are some neat tricks! With that in battle, us two will be virtually unstoppable!” He grins.
“I think some of your Donnie slipped into there, Leo.” He hears Raph say, shooting a small glare at the snapper. Okay, maybe he and Donnie share some similarities, like slipping into slightly violent moments for Leo. Eh, who knows, maybe he picked it up after Donnie.
“I’ll convince Dee to fix this, he’s in one of his brooding moods again, though,” Leo scoffs, pocketing the phone in the hoodie he’s wearing, “But again, neat trick Mikey!”
Mikey beams, “Yeah! Anytime.”
Leo gets a small idea.
Nah, Mikey said it works only on inanimate objects.
He’ll ask tomorrow.
Another week had passed. Leo had forgotten about his idea the next day.
Today they had to deal with Meatsweats. Same old same old, all of their previous foes feel like nothing after the intense invasion with the Krang. Meatsweats must’ve eaten / consumed a silverfiish yet again, which brought Leo back some nostalgia, but it was not helping with the countless mini-Meatsweats running about and yipping at their ankles. Raph was trying as best he could to make clones of himself to try and catch them all and throw them into a dumpster, but it wasn’t working.
For one, everytime a clone touched a duplicate, it was always taken as a punch and the sucker just grows another.
Leo dodges a swing from Meatsweat’s hammer or whatever the hell it’s called, grabbing a couple of the mini pigs and throwing them into a dumpster. Thank god he’s speedy. He’s guessing the power up for Meatsweats was wearing out, because suddenly all the minis started to gather together. Leo turned to face where they were heading, but found nothing there.
“What the-”
“LEO!” He hears Mikey cry out, turning his head just in time to see a heavy hammer come crashing down on him.
He feels pain.
Thing was, it wasn’t from his head. It felt like it was coming from his chest. No, deeper. Was it his ninpo? That wouldn’t make sense, he didn’t have time to make a portal to escape that one. Wouldn’t explain the pain either. Then the pain grew, and it felt like someone was tearing his plastron and chest apart all over again.
“Wipe that grin off your face!” He remembers distantly, the words echoing as the pain reminds him of the memory.
Then he was tugged. Hard. He thought he should’ve screamed, maybe so, but it happened for only a split second. Then he was in Mikey’s arms, slumping against his younger brother’s plastron as he spotted an orange spark dance along his arm.
Guess he got his answer from a week ago.
Meatsweats was gone. Again. But he wasn’t popping up again, if Donnie and Raph had something to say about it. Urgh, the world was tilting. And his ears are ringing (or lack thereof). Oh, there was a splot of purple in his vision. Donnie was asking him something. His grin was wavering, but Leo says he’s okay, but his voice came out small.
Well fuck, guess he wasn’t.
“Maybe that’s why Barry didn’t want me to do that on any of us…” Mikey murmurs, sounding more guilty than when he broke Leo’’s phone.
“‘S all good, big man…”
“Uh, guys? We got a situation here.” He hears Raph’s voice and he cranes his neck up, trying to spot what the hell the problem was now.
He hears a gasp from his twin, and he swears something is wrong with his vision because he can clearly see at least four images of himself on the ground. He rubs his eyes, stumbling to his feet as he walks over, noting that two out of the four are huge.
Like, big. They looked older too. The uncanny thing is how the four turtles that appeared all looked identical to Leo, in terms of skin markings and being a red eared slider (and he supposes a blue color scheme).
He rubs his head, “Tell me I’m the only one seeing this. Because I feel like I’m going insane.”
“I’d love to confirm you’re insane, but we are in fact seeing the other four versions of you, specifically.” Donnie said, deadpanned. If Leo had to guess, his brother was freaking out inside because holy shit dude this confirms alternate universes.
“Hm…” Leo narrows his eyes at the two groggy looking middle aged turtles, both lacking an arm. Well, one has a prosthetic. Still. “If I had to take a guess these are Future Me’s,” He looks over at the other two, finding one staring at him already. He jumped a mile, his gaze narrowing down to the bandages wrapped firmly around his neck and the scar tissue underneath them.
“Traumatized me,” He confirms, noting that this version was smaller and looked younger. He turns his attention back to the last one, who looked dazzling, might he add, with a blue scarf hanging firmly around his neck and a hood framing his face. Ooh, damn! That mask with the gold brings his markings out, “Annnd fashionista me! We’ve sorted them out.”
“Then why are there two future yous?” Mikey asks, confused.
Leo shrugged, “That’s a Donnie question, Miksters.” Mikey turns to Donnie, expecting an answer.
Donnie shrugs as well, “According to the clearly and stated obvious, both are from different time branches in a sense, possibly. I’d have to interview them myself for this.”
Leo flicks the chin of the plaid wearing Future Him, noting the stripes along his chin going down to the top of his plastron. Other Future Him didn’t have that. “This is Stripes.”
“Dear god you’re awful at nicknames,” Leo jumps a mile as the guy he just flicked stirred, opening an eye and staring confusingly at him, “Leo?” His eyes searched Leo’s face, as if something was odd about Leo not knowing who this alternate version of him is.
“I- uh- DONNIE-” Leo panics. Naturally.
“ Sigh, hello good sir I’m here to ask you a few questions and whatnot, answer them truthfully or die.”
“Okay?” Stripes was most definitely confused, more so when he notices the other him laying on the ground, “Woah, this dude looks not the greatest, looks like a depressed little shit.”
“Answer the questions, please. ”
“Right right, sorry Don.”
“I have gathered all my info, good day.”
“What-”
Donnie marched back over to his brothers, “With the way the alternate version of Leo casually said my name like it was nothing, I am supposing he knows another pair of us and is currently living with them.” Leo looked dumbfoundedly at him, “...it means he literally comes from an alternate universe, not an altered time branch like Casey.”
“That might explain some shit,” Stripes murmured, looking back at the depressed looking guy, “One thing I can at least confirm that this guy had the same thing happen, but it played out differently,” They all turned to stare at Stripes, “We both come from the dubbed ‘Bad Future’ and two different scenarios played out.”
“Dear Gailleo, Leo i’m replacing you.”
Leo gasped, “WHAT?!” Ow ow, okay that hurt his head. He rubs his head as he looks at the other two non-future hims, who were just starting to stir as well. If he had to be honest, Traumatized him was for sure smaller, but he also looked…malnourished. Oh yeah, traumatized. And he’s been awake this entire time, yet he continued to stare at Leo with what looks like slight fear in his eyes. Or maybe not, the dullness of his eyes didn’t help.
The hooded guy, Fashionista, was starting to sit up, using a katana to haul himself up. He looked smaller as well, but age terms. Jesus, were these younger versions of Leo? He wouldn’t be surprised, because man they were able to pull two Future versions of him.
Wait, how exactly did they pull that off?
“Okay okay, why is nobody questioning why this happened?!” Leo blurts out, “We’re all just chill and cool with four different me’s on the freaking ground!”
Mikey spoke up, “Er- it may be because of the thing Barry warned me about. He didn’t really go into details, just said that unwanted results would happen, or whatnot. But I panicked and…” He waves his arm at the duplicates, “...yeah.”
“...This feels like ‘No Way Home’ all over again,” Leo mutters to himself, then spoke up, “Alright hermanos! Let’s head to Draxxy’s if he is such a genius about the consequences of Mikey’s mystic mojo. Even if the only thing he really knows are runes and vines. ” He says, it slipping out sarcastically. Like he wanted it to.
“Then what about these guys?” Raph points out. Good question, what about them.
“...best case scenario? Bring them with us.” Leo suddenly senses something was off, and his eyes flicks over to the Fashionista him, but he was…gone?
“HOLY TRUFFLE CAKES!” Donnie yelled, narrowly blocking an incoming attack from the Fashionista Leo (okay maybe Stripes was right, he does need better nicknames).
“Look, I just want to get home, so you all are going to tell me, since I literally was just fighting you, and explain the copycats.” The alternate spoke, voice sounding surprisingly young. How old is this variation of Leo?
“Okay ‘look’, other me, amigo, we all are wondering the same damned thing: how you all got here. So just- bare with us and lets head to Draxum’s place, capiche?”
Fashionista slid his katanas onto his place on his back, “...That sounds like a solid deal.” Every inch of his body was screaming ‘ hell no it doesn’t. ’
Leo sighs out a breath of relief, glad to get at least one of the different versions of him to cooperate. He turns to look at the Traumatized-
“Before we do anything let’s establish nicknames, shall we?” Donnie suggested. Must be the nicknames he came up with to differentiate them all were getting confusing as well.
Mikey, though it was unnecessary raised his hand, “Ooh ooh! I got the perfect nicknames!” He bounces over to the Fashionista Leo, who stepped back out of instinct, “You can be called-”
“One. My name is One.” One looks down at Mikey, whose mouth was open.
“...oooookay then! You then-” He points over at Stripes, “You’re Stripes-”
“I came up with that one!” Leo points out.
“Yeah yeah-” Mikey waves him off, bouncing over to the now couscous other Future Leo, “You’re Leon! Annnnd you’re…” He trails off as he looks at the last Leo, an uneasy feeling seeming to seep into his every being. Slowly, ever so slowly, the Leo raised his hands up and his hands shook as he signed.
Mikey lights up, “Oh! Green, then?”
A smile never formed on Green’s face as he nodded, his eyes trailing to focus on Leo again.
Leo claps his hands together, “Great! We situated this out, lets go wake Barry up at this ungodly hour!” Leo was all too eager to do that, knowing how much their midnight visits disrupt Draxum’s sleep schedules on school nights.
The odd thing was, as they started making the journey to the apartments, Leo felt like some part of him was missing. He had his brothers here, so what’s the big deal? Eh, it’s probably nothing he should worry about.
All eight of them could barely fit into the hallway outside of the apartment's door. Leo (curse being a leader) was pushed to the front of the group, and was the guy to loudly raps his knuckles against the wooden door. It took a minute before Draxum opened it, obviously not ready for the turtles at this hour.
“It is three A.M.” He stares down at Leo.
Leo grins like the smart ass he is, “So? We’ve got a situation on our hands, can we at the very least come inside?” Draxum narrows his eyes at Leo, but once Mikey appears at his side, he fully gives in and lets the congregation in. Draxum told them all to get situated while he made himself some coffee, because goddamn it is way too early for this.
The next time he came into the room, he looked directly at Mikey, “I’m assuming because you ignored my warnings against using the spell on a living person this happened.”
Mikey, sitting on the couch, looks down at his lap, “Sorry Barry. But I swear, it was a pure adrenaline, out of the blue moment!-”
“Believable.” Draxum sets his coffee down on the table, causing One and Green to jump at the noise, “Since the spell is used to rip open space and time, you did just that. You managed to pull into several time branches and dimensions to pull out these four different versions of Leonardo. Perhaps even more, as some could’ve ended up somewhere else.”
The only ones seeming to take this information deeply was Stripes and Leon, both exchanging glances. They had shared a conversation or two with one another on the way (they had to walk, Leo was out of mystic mojo at the moment), so they clearly have some connections.
Including where both of their minds went as they heard “rip open space and time.”
“Unfortunately, I currently have no solution at this very moment-” Draxum began to continue.
“See?! This is why you don’t go to an alchemist for wizard questions!” Leo pouted, crossing his arms.
Raph smacked him in the shoulder, “Leo, you were the one claiming we should go here.”
“...Oh.”
“As I was saying,” Draxum cleared his throat, “I could get some local contacts of mine in the Hidden City to get a solution from presumably Witch Town-” A groan from Donnie, “But we need to make haste, we cannot afford to waste our time. Their own separate paths and dimensions could collapse should they be parted for so long.”
“Not sorry to interrupt,” Stripes spoke up, “But we literally have nowhere to stay, and I doubt the lair can hold four more of us, yeah? And this place is even smaller.”
“I’m sure we can find you guys a place to stay in the llair! The lair’s big.” Raph says, almost confident in his statement. Emphasis on almost.
“I could hold only two here, if that makes you feel better.” Draxum sighs, “And I’d be entrusting this residence to the adults of this grouping, I don’t want meddling kids to be here while I am off at work.” He pointedly looks at Green and One, Green seeming to wither under his gaze and shrink in on himself. One just looked bored.
“Sweet.” Stripes exclaimed, “Look at that, Mr Pessimistic! I did indeed get a place for us to stay.” He grins, nudging Leon in the shoulder. Leon just stared at Stripes, doing a roll of his eyes. Great, the two stable and (slightly) functioning adults in the room (besides Draxum) were off to an okay start.
“We’ll take Green and One with us then!” Raph beams, “They can share a room or share the guest cart.”
Leo takes another moment to look at the two mentioned. They've been highly quiet during this whole debacle. He expected it out of Future Hims, after all Casey said that his sensei was the greatest ninja to ever live, so respect is key out of that. If these two were alternate hims, he expected a jab here and there, but silence.
Well. One had a good reason. Not- not One, no. Leo’s eyes land on the scars underneath the bandages around Green’s neck, seeing some climb up all the way to underneath his chin. He also used sign to talk earlier, with his name and all. The way he kept looking at Draxum too, something lingered in his eyes.
Was it fear? Leo wondered, because he rarely sees himself so scared of Goat Man. Only time he was truly terrified was when he was plummeting to his death from the Hotel Nexus. This fear though, was pure fear, shown through and through. This fear reminds him of the Krang attack. So whatever happened between Green and Draxum was traumatizing enough to make him deathly afraid.
Green was also sitting up straight, and so was One. Like warriors, soldiers. The realization crept up on Leo, growing cold as he made the two connections. One was saying how he was fighting his brothers. Leo had assumed he meant like a silly argument, but why else would he quickly put a katana to Donnie’s throat?
Actually, Leo can come up with many solutions for that one.
The most reasonable out of the connections would be that fuck, they were made warriors under Draxum’s hand back before his redemption arc.
“Leo? Earth to Leonardo?” Raph was speaking. Leo snapped out of his daze, ignoring the somewhat dirty look One gave him.
“Oh uh, yeah?”
“Ready to portal us back home?”
“Oh uh.” Leo looked back at the Stripes and Leon, Stripes giving him a firm thumbs up. Another nudge from Stripes made Leon hold one up too. “Yeah, yeah.” He twirled his katana, circling it around until it formed a swirling blue portal back home. The portaling seemed to confuse Leon as he stared at it, then back at Leo.
“Wait.” Draxum suddenly says, “Leonardo. I need you for a moment. Along with One and Green,”
“Okaaay? I’ll see you guys in a bit.” His brothers walk through, nodding and saying that they’ll set up the guest cart. He turns to face Draxum, “What’s the deal big man?”
“Your ninpo.”
“...what about it?”
“Your ninpo, or whatever pull you felt when Michelangelo pulled you to him, how does that feel now?”
The question irked Leo, “Er…it was deadly painful at first, but now…” He places a hand firmly on his plastron, “It feels like- emptier? Like- a part of me isn’t there. Even when my brothers are here.”
Draxum sighs, walking over to Leo, “Do you mind if I touch you?”
“Just for today, yes.”
Draxum sighed yet again, setting a hand on his shoulder, and suddenly everything was pitch black. Leo was sure he was conscious still, if the rapid blinking of his eyes indicated anything. “Uh, Barry? What the actual living hell are you doing?”
“Wait for it.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Leo finally sees it. A small pulsing light, tinted blue in color. Other colors were mingled amongst it. He turns around to find four colors, all distinctly him and his brothers' respective colors. They were constantly shifting and moving, the swirls of three of the colors circling the blue flame in the center.
“Is this?...”
“Your ninpo? Yes. Take a closer look, Leonardo.”
And so Leo does. He walks closer to the light, gently pushing the three colors to the side to face the blue flame. It looks…like it’s part of a whole. Not a whole piece. It looked off to Leo, and it must’ve to Draxum, who frowned at the sight.
“I may have to perform this task on the alternative yous, to see if my theory is 100% correct. That, will be for another day.”
Leo feels like he’s being blasted back into his own body, because when he reemerges, the dim lighting of the apartment greets him.
“That is all I needed, Leonardo. You three can go to the lair now.” One and Green stood up instantaneously, and Leo stepped to the side and formed the portal again.
A thing he noticed that he didn’t like was how dull the portal looked, and how desaturated it now was. Was it like that the first time? It very well could have been, he just didn’t bother to take notice. Green and One walked in first, Leo saying a farewell to Draxum before heading into the portal himself.
