Chapter Text
I. Leonardo
Raphael’s eye was already getting kinda cloudy; Leonardo knew he couldn’t save his brother from going partially blind. He also had to deal with the trauma of having his conscience taken over by aliens.
Donatello’s injuries go deeper than just a few broken ribs and a fuck ton of bruises. He hasn’t been talking much, which is semi-normal for Donnie, but still a bad sign.
Michelangelo’s been sending mixed signals; Leo isn’t much of a psychologist though so he can’t really decipher what the fuck is going on in Mikey’s head. Mikey’s physical injuries are mostly just bruises and flesh wounds, but his hands are the most noticeable. Leo doesn’t know the technical name for Mikey’s shaky hands, so he just calls it ‘Manus Instabilitate’ because Latin makes things sound smarter.
April and Casey had been staying strong and suffered minimal injuries, thank the gods.
Leo was the most beaten up, but despite his terrible condition, he made sure his brothers were okay before he even thought to take a look at his own wounds. By the time he did inspect his injuries, most of his bruises and flesh wounds were naturally healed. Though he had a broken arm and a shit ton of broken ribs, so he quickly patched those up and went back to helping the others. Even when he was as physically healed as he was gonna get, he still felt off, he felt sick, but just assumed that’s what happens when your insides get beaten flat by a giant ass alien robot.
Boy, was he wrong.
1.
It had been 2 months since the Krang invasion; Leonardo and his brothers were in better shape. Well, except Raphael. He’s constantly bruised, or bleeding, and he refuses to explain where his injuries come from. Of course, most are from combat, but sometimes new ones just randomly appear.
Donatello is fully healed, and he’s slowly starting to open up again. Emphasis on the ‘slow’.
Michelangelo is healed, but his hands haven’t gotten any better. His mental state hasn’t gotten much better either, if anything it’s gotten worse.
April and Casey have been doing better than ever. Leo is worried that Casey has made April emo, but that’s the least of his concerns.
Leo still feels sick. Heck, he feels worse than before! So Leonardo does what he does best, and consults his medical equipment.
After a quick X-ray, he discovers something disturbing.
Something that’s not supposed to be there. Its Krang. Leo has been infected by the Krang.
He doesn’t know what to do. Tell his brothers? They wouldn’t know what to do though! And how would they react? He can’t do that to them… not to Raph.
If only he knew someone who could help, someone who could just possibly have the smallest chance of helping him get rid of his intruder…
Draxum! Maybe he can help! He is their father after all. But his brothers would stop him from talking to the sheepman.
No worries, just don’t tell them!
Leo is still contemplating if he should try to get help from Draxum when,
“Hey.” Donatello clears his throat and steps into the room.
“ HEY!” Leo fumblingly hides the X-ray, “What’s up?” He softens his tone and faces his brother.
Donnie sighs “Raph wanted me to check up on you. He’s worried.” His voice is quiet and insecure.
“What? Why would he be worried?”
Leo’s twin lets his shoulders fall as if he just then realized how tense he was, “Leo, you haven’t been looking too good recently.”
Leo does his iconic overdramatic gasp “How dare you! For your information, I look great!” he says teasingly
“Nardo.” Donatello snaps back, his tone sharper, “You haven’t been eating, or drinking enough.”
“Well, I’m busy helping everyone.”
“ ‘Everyone’ should include you , Nardo. You haven’t been getting enough sleep, you’re sick!”
Leonardo scoffs “Yeah, and who’s the doctor here? Me. That’s who.”
Donnie rolls his eyes “Some doctor. You aren’t even an actual doctor, you’re just a medic, a healer.”
“Well, at least I’m actually doing something to help out!” Leo snaps.
“I help plenty!”
“Name the last time you helped us for anything.”
Donnie didn’t respond. Leo won the argument. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” His twin left the room, closing the door behind him.
2.
Not too long after, Leonardo had made his decision. got up and left the lair, taking the nearest portal to the hidden city.
Just talk to Draxum, he’ll probably help you! .. maybe. Yeah no, the chances of him actually helping are real slim.
Leo portalled to Draxum’s laboratory, still kinda destroyed. Oops. He wandered around looking for the Baron. Maybe he’s gone out for lunch? In the hall, Leo hears voices from one of the rooms.
“Hello?” Leo says, against all logic, and basic instinct.
Leonardo hears footsteps coming closer.
Shit, I shouldn't have said anything.
He almost wants to hide. A silhouette walks closer down the hall, Leo suddenly feels himself swept up in the oh-so-familiar vines that he’s hated ever since he first met the Baron.
“Oh. It’s the red-eared slider.” Draxum said after he could get a better view of the intruder. “Why are you here?”
“I just need some help, okay? I’m not here to fight. You can put me down now. .. please.”
Without warning, the vines drop Leo.
He falls down as the vines suddenly slip out from under him. “ow. I kinda have a tiny little problemo, and I was wondering if you could maybe help?” Leo knew Draxum wasn’t a very helpful guy, but hey, hope is a ninja’s greatest weapon.
“I would help if I wanted to, and if I knew what you needed help with.”
“So remember two months ago when the Krang invaded Earth?”
“Yes, it was a very memorable occurrence. And?”
“And I got trapped in the prison dimension with a Krang?”
“Wait you what?”
“So uh I think the Krang that I got trapped with infected me, and now I have a little parasite crawling around my vital organs.”
“Holy- Blue, what did you do!?” the Baron asks, slightly disgusted.
“I dunno, he kinda just beat the shit outa me.”
Draxum sighs, rolling his eyes, “... ugh. Fine. I’ll help you.”
“Yay!!” Leo tries to hug his creator but is held back by vines.
Baron Draxum turns back to the book, Leo can't read the cover, it's in a weird foreign language. “This… situation might end up being a good thing after all.” his tone is kinda sus, but Leo doesn't notice.
“WOOOOOOO!”
“Emphasis on the might.”
“Alright! Can you please help as soon as possible?”
“... yeah. Sure. Follow me.”
The slider didn’t know what he was getting himself into as he followed his creator down the somewhat ethereal hallway, lined with doors and artwork.
Why would someone as broody as Draxum have art on his walls?
They turned into a large room with machines and chemicals.
“Hey, Drax? Dad? Mind if I call you Dad? Uhhh what are we doing here?”
“A. no. you cannot call me that. B. you asked me for help, did you not?”
“Well yeah.”
“Then just trust me.”
“Yeah. Yep. I trust you. One question though. How long will this take?” He looked around with curiosity.
“Could take a week, could take six months. It depends on how cooperative you are.” The Baron sits down at a desk and starts looking through books and articles.
“Yeah, cause like I know that it’s possible to get rid of a Krang parasite, ‘cause I helped Raph with one of his own, but it wasn’t until he was taken over. So I don’t know if there’s a way to get rid of it before the whole transformation thing happens.”
“Of course there is. Just do as I say, and everything will go perfectly.”
“Mkay.” the slider nodded, not noticing all the red flags.
Blue’s creator “First of all, I need you to focus.”
“Yep. I am great at that.” Leo was, in fact, not great at focusing. But he was good at lying.
“Focus on the Krang parasite. Don’t try to fight it. Not yet."
“Why can’t I fight it? I’m great at fighting!”
“Just do as I say, remember?”
“Oh yeah.” He’s only half focused on his dad’s words, a lot is going on in the room for him to look at and think about.
“That’s all I can tell you for now. You should return daily so I can check your progress.”
“Alright!” Leo made a quick portal and started back to the lair.
3.
Mikey and Raph are eating dinner together in the kitchen. Mikey looks over at Leo and his face lights up
“Leo! Where were you? I saved you some pizza.”
“Oh, uh, I'm not that hungry. Thanks though.” He turned to go to his room; freezing in place when he heard Raphael stand up.
“Leonardo. You are not leaving until you eat.” The snapping turtle’s face was stern and his tone was sharp and serious.
Oh shit. Full name alert.
“So sit yo’ stripey ass down, and eat.” His older brother glared at him.
Defeated, Leo sat down, grabbed a slice of pizza, and took a bite. “Where's 'Tello?” He looked up and almost choked on his pizza when he saw the furious look on his big brother’s face.
Raph held eye contact with Leo. “He’s in his room, ‘parently you said something to him. Leonardo. What did you tell him?!” He snapped.
“I might’ve just slightly hinted to him that he doesn’t help at all and we have to do everything..?” The slider shrunk into his chair, his voice an octave higher. He knew he was in trouble.
“YOU WHAT?!”
Oh shit.
Mikey went back to quietly eating his pizza.
Raphael is still standing up. “WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?! ITS NOT EVEN TRUE!”
“Oh really? What has he done for us?” Leo snapped back
The snapping turtle takes a deep breath to calm himself down. “Without Donnie, we wouldn’t have half of the things we have now.”
Mikey gets up and leaves. He was trying his best not to react to the argument, he knew his absence would be enough, and the arguing brothers see this as a sign to stop.
Leo finishes his pizza and leaves. Raph stays behind to clean the table. Faint music is playing from Mikey’s room.
It’s finally peaceful, for now.
At least for three of them.