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Chapter Text

Raph watches on in horror as Baron Draxum drops her little brother off the roof, world falling silent except for the sound of her own rapid heartbeat.

She leaps after him, willing herself to do something, anything, feeling her mystic power envelop her. It feels warm, solid as stone.

It's not enough. Her mystics crumble as Leo falls right through her palms, a sickening crunch sounding out as he hits the pavement.

His shell is shattered, crumpling in on itself like a wrecked car as it seeps blood. His leg is impaled with stray rebar, and his neck is in an angle so unnatural that Raph feels sick. She can see bones sticking out of his skin and she gags. They shouldn't look like that.

She hunches over his body and tries not to throw up. "Cmon Leo, wake up, I gotta get you home ok? You're gonna be okay. Just stay with me buddy, please.." She pleads, desperately doing CPR even as her little brothers blood smears all over her hands. It's warm and sticky, and Raph fights back a gag. She has to save him.

She has to. She couldn't possibly live with herself otherwise.

She ignores Draxum's maniacal laughter atop the roof of the hotel.

Raph doesn't know how much time passes as she tries to revive her little brother, all she knows is that his blood and body are cold and she can't stop sobbing. She picks him up as gently as possible and holds him close to her chest, wailing as she instinctively curls into herself. She doesn't even notice her other siblings until she hears Donnie retch behind her. Leo's blood is starting to dry on her plastron.

"Raph...Is..." Mikey asks, voice soft and fragile. "Is that Leo..?"

Raph doesn't answer, can't answer. Only more violent sobs rip from her chest, nodding.

Donnie retches again, keening in despair.

"God, he's, he's not fucking breathing." They say, voice strained and raspy from puking.

Raph wails like a banshee, curling over Leo's body until he's almost completely hidden from view. Her anguished screams echo across the streets, tears soaking into Leo's cold scales.

"Who did this?" Mikey asks, anger creeping into his voice. "What even happened?"

"It-" Raph chokes on her cries. "Draxum. Tossed him from the roof. It's my fault. God, this is all my fault." She weeps, gently rocking Leo's limp body. "I taunted him, I did this, I-!" Raph lets out a miserable whine, body heaving with the force of her sobs.

Mikey's whole body tenses up as Donnie finally joins Raph in her grief. All he can feel is anger.

Donnie lays their forehead on their older brother's, their twins chest and sobs when they don't hear his familiar heartbeat.

Mikey screams as he vaults himself up to the top of the roof, something inside of him snapping as the chain of his kusari-fundo wraps around the yokai's waist.

"And what do you think you're doing, child?" The Baron sneers, but Mikey doesn't answer.

The chains begin to glow a bright, searing orange. The metal superheats in an instant, glowing so brightly that it hurts to look at. Mikey blocks out the yokai's screams of pain as the metal ignites, burning Draxum in the fires of Michelangelo's rage. He watches as the yokai burns and burns, screaming his own voice raw. He tastes blood.

-

When Leonardo wakes up, he is alone.

He doesn't know what happened, why he's alone, why he's not home.

All that Hamato Leonardo knows is that he's seething. Something happened to him, hurt him, and he wants revenge. He's cold; filled with a neverending malice that consumes him whole.

The Nexus Hotel turns frigid as an all encompassing, heavy darkness falls over the entire building. The air feels heavy with hatred.

By the end of the day, every employee and Big Mama are dead, nothing left behind but small personal items and large pools of blood.

The anger does not abate. In fact, it only grows stronger. It grows so strong; so terrible that it burns. Leo's spirit flickers violently like an open flame as he carves a path of vengeance on anyone and everyone who's ever wronged him or his family.

His ghost is covered in blood, both his own and not; Impaled leg dragging behind him and neck still snapped at a disgusting angle, bones visible through his skin.

Leo's bloodstained claws twitch at his sides as he stares dead-eyed at the manhole cover leading to his home.

-

Hamato Leonardo waltzes into the Lair as if nothing had happened exactly four days after his funeral.

He's completely unchanged, minus the cold blue glow outlining his semi transparent body and his lengthened claws. His scales are still cold, and his heart does not beat.

Leonardo is no longer a mutant, however. His untimely death has made him bitter and spiteful. No; Leonardo is not a mutant.

Leonardo is an onryō, and his 'life' is far from over.

Chapter Text

Splinter never thought he would have to bury one of his children, especially not so soon. Leonardo, his sweet baby blue, was dead.

Body mangled and cold, caked in his own blood and gore. His eldest had brought him to the lair, sobbing quietly as she cradled him like an infant.

He had looked so small like that, laying still and limp in his big sister's arms.

His baby blue had been larger than life, always energetic even before mutation; So much like Splinter that it scared the rat.

Hamato Yoshi suddenly understood his mother.

‘If only it had been me’, he'd found himself thinking.

He pulled his remaining children into a tight hug as they sobbed, chirping in vain for their brother to wake up from an everlasting sleep.

Leonardo didn't stir.

That day, Hamato Yoshi buried his fourteen year old son. That day, another part of him died.

-

April knew something was wrong.

It had been a normal school day until a pit of dread formed in her stomach, chills creeping up her spine and making her bristle like a cat.

Her phone rang only seconds later, Donnie's familiar ringtone disrupting the silence of her class.

Donnie never called during school hours. April could feel her throat tighten with anxiety.

“O'Niel? I thought I made myself clear about the phone policy.”

April gulped. “I'm sorry, but I need to take this call. It's an emergency!” She knew she sounded frantic, but she couldn't help it.

She answered, stepping out into the silent hallway.

“L-Leo, It's Leo, he-” Donnie sounded like they were hyperventilating, choked off sobs interrupting whatever they were trying to tell her.

“Donnie, what happened? What's wrong with Leo?” The hallway seemed to suddenly grow ten degrees colder.

April could hear wailing in the background of the call as Donnie tried catching their breath.

“Leo, he's- April, he's dead! Oh god, he's dead!” Donnie sobbed and heaved, and it took everything for April to not throw up in the hallway right then and there.

“I- Where are you guys? I'll be right there, have you called Splints? Oh shit, does he-?” Nausea and grief swirled in her stomach. “Just- Just stay there. I'm coming, okay? Just stay there.”

“We're going back to the lair.” Mikey suddenly said, having taken the phone from Donnie, who was nearing incoherence.

“I'll meet you there..” April whispered, and dropped her phone.

Her brother was dead.

Her little brother, one of her best friends, was dead.

He was only fourteen.

Her teacher opened the door and looked her in the eyes, raising an eyebrow.

“I have to go.” She said, body numb.

“You need a note-”

“My brother just died! My little brother! He's dead! I'm leaving!” She screamed, voice breaking. She ran out of the school, leaving her teacher staring at her shattered phone in the hallway.

-

The Hamato family watched in silence as Splinter gently lowered Leo's blanket covered body into the grave he'd dug with his own hands. He was swaddled almost like a baby, wrapped in his softest blue blankets and bandanas. His odachi was laid on top of his still body, along with a small box of keepsakes.

Splinter gently kissed his son's forehead, and shoveled the dirt on top of his body. Donnie stepped forward, holding a small sakura sapling.

They planted it atop Leo's body, tears soaking into the soil.

They didn't want to believe it. Their twin, their older brother laid still six feet underground, leaving Donatello alone in the land of the living.

It felt like they'd been cut in half, the serrated edges of grief cutting into them painfully slowly. They returned to their families’ side, sobbing into April's shoulder as their father's hand rubbed their back.

Raph braided her and Leo's bandanas together and tied them around the sapling, cradling it as gently as she had cradled Leonardo's body.

“We'll miss you, little brother. Don't forget that we love you, okay?”

The family stood under the moonlight silently, grieving.

-

Leonardo stalked the halls of the Nexus hotel, blood still pouring from his ghostly wounds. He was so cold, it wasn't enough.

He needed to eat until there was nothing, no one left.

He absentmindedly licked his lips, tongue running over his sharp canines. He clicked his claws together, mangled leg dragging uselessly behind him and scraping against the bloodstained tile.

The lights flickered violently around him, and he heard a sharp breath to the right of him.

Leo craned his neck to the side, bones cracking loudly as he laid his eyes on Big Mama's idiotic guard dog. He smiled wide, grin splitting his face as a thick black substance oozed from his open mouth. The stench of death and rot permeated the hallway, and Leo lunged.

His claws easily tore through flesh and muscle, fear pouring off the dog yokai in waves.

Leo gurgled out a harsh, rasping cackle as he pulled chunk after chunk of meat off of the yokai's body, bones crunching under his teeth as the sound of him eating filled the hallway.

More warm blood soaked his body, delicious fear and agony absorbing into his very being.

Leo ate and ate until there was nothing left except for a large thick pool of blood and black sludge.

He could smell a powerful yokai further down the hallway.

Big Mama.

Leo straightened his posture, neck cracking and snapping loudly as he forced it back into the correct position. He wiped his mouth with his arm, and continued shambling down the dark, freezing hall of the hotel.

He was still starving.

He didn't bother torturing the other employees he stumbled upon, just existing was enough to trigger their delectable fear.

His throat rattled with a low, near silent hiss as he approached Big Mama’s door.

Kill her. He had to kill her, eat her, make her suffer.

More black sludge dripped onto the floor, pouring from his mouth and eyes and reeking of decay. Leo broke the door off its hinges and laid his empty eyes on the Jorōgumo.

Big Mama couldn't even attempt to make any noise before Leo had ripped her throat out, pleased with the way she croaked and gurgled. He easily snapped her spine and legs, before tearing off her arms and devouring them.

He could taste her agony.

“What's wrong?” He sneered, before placing his ghostly hand into her mouth. “Turtle got your tongue?” He cackled as he ripped off her jaw.

“Oops, did I say tongue? I meant jaw.” Leo rasped, empty eyes locking with hers.

“You've wronged me. Wronged my family. I'll make sure you suffer as I did. Slowly, agonizingly, and terrified.”

Leonardo opened his maw, an eerie low rattle sounding from his throat as he started playing with his prize.

He ripped open her stomach and tore out her intestines, teeth ripping through the rest of her neck and leaving behind only her ornate earrings.

He devoured her organs, crushing her still beating heart between his jaws and drinking down the eerie green blood that burst out. Her spirit tried valiantly to escape, but Leo wouldn't let it.

He clawed it into ribbons, before absorbing it into his own. Leo felt stronger.

The onryō finished his meal, and continued on.

(He was still enraged, the warm spray of blood doing nothing to quell the flames of hatred. It wasn't over. Not even close. Leo morphed himself until he looked alive and clean, and walked out of the hotel towards his home.)

Chapter Text

The Lair was dark and silent as Leo walked into, the only sound reaching his ears being the slight dripping of blood that had not yet dried completely.

He really needed to get cleaned up.

The air was thick with grief and misery, and Leo was surprised to find himself feeling uncomfortable at the sensation. Maybe because it was radiating from his family?

His own hunger suddenly made him want to vomit.

His instincts said to feast off of the negative emotions thick in the air, but his mind and body rejected the idea so intensely he found himself gagging in the hallway outside of the bathroom.

Something shattered behind him, startling him so badly that he couldn't help but let out an ear-piercing shriek.

“Leo?!” Donnie gasped, a cocktail of horror, confusion and relief flooding them.

Leo turned around, staring at them with wide eyes.

“Wow Dee, warn a guy will ya?! I almost had a-”

Leo suddenly realized Donnie was crying.

“Um. Why are you crying?”

Donnie sniffled loudly and pushed Leo into the bathroom.

“Shower first! You smell like a dying animal and you're getting blood everywhere! How did you even get here?! We buried you like, at least one hundred miles away!” They said frantically, hugging their torso tightly and nearly shaking out of their shell.

“You buried me?! I'm not-”

Donnie suddenly looked at him in fear.

“I saw you die. We all saw you die… How are you here?! Are you even Leo?!”

Donnie was hyperventilating, claws digging into their arms hard enough to draw blood. Leo quickly turned the shower on and rinsed himself off. Donnie was still panicking, muttering to themselves, so Leo did the only thing he could think of.

He turned the shower onto the coldest setting and sprayed Donnie with water, and they hissed at him loudly. Leo hissed back before switching the shower off.

“What the hell was that for, ‘Nardo?” Donnie screeched, and Leo threw his arms up into the air.

“I don't know! You were panicking and I couldn't think of anything else to do!”

Donnie looked at him exasperatedly for just a second, but quickly averted their eyes and tried very hard not to gag.

“Dee? Why aren't you looking at me?” Leo asked, tilting his head.

His neck loudly snapped, and Leo felt his stomach drop.

He turned to the nearby mirror, and was terrified by what he saw.

He looked…

Well, he looked dead. Dead in the worst way possible.

His scales were pale and shimmered with an otherworldly blue glow, his red stripes nearly blending in with the blood running down his face, eyes, mouth. His neck was bent at an angle that he didn't even think was possible, and his plastron and shell were shattered and nearly concave.

“Oh. So I wasn't having a nightmare after all.” He said, staring at the mangled form of his body.

His eyes gleamed with an eerie red light, and all he could think was that he and Donnie didn't match anymore.

Donnie was still looking away in the corner of the bathroom, shaking again.

Leonardo really had died. Which meant that he'd also killed all those yōkai.

He took a deep breath, and focused. He closed his eyes and willed with all his might to look normal again.

He didn't want to scare his family. That was wrong.

When Leo opened his eyes, he looked completely normal, like nothing had ever happened.

“Donnie…I'm sorry. You can look now, okay?”

Donnie turned around and sobbed with relief.

“Is it really you, then? You came back?” They whispered, and walked closer to Leo.

Leo nodded, and the softshell brought him into a hug so strong it would've definitely cracked a few ribs, though he didn't think that was possible anymore.

Donnie clung to him tightly, heaving with sobs that soaked into his scales. It seemed Leo was at least still fully corporeal?

He rubbed Donnie's back softly, and they shivered slightly.

“Wow, your hands are like ice cubes.” They giggled softly, but relaxed into the touch nonetheless.

“Comes with the territory of being…Uh, whatever I am now? I guess?” Leo replied awkwardly.

“Do I even…Have a heartbeat?” He asked softly, even though he already knew the answer.

Donnie shook their head.

“You don't. I can hear you breathing, though. Speaking of, do you still need to breathe? I mean technically you are…Undead? A ghost, maybe?”

Leo had a revelation.

“If I'm a ghost, that means-”

Donnie gasped.

“Mikey was right?!”

Leo burst into nearly painful laughter. He laughed until tears streamed down his cheeks, until his chest hurt and felt like it was about to explode, he laughed and laughed until it devolved into heavy sobs.

“I really am dead, huh? T-there's nothing I can do about it. I'm dead. I died! At fourteen! How fucked up is that?!” He sobbed nearly hysterically, hiccuping miserably.

The twins startled violently as the bathroom door swung open.

“Leo?!” Mikey and Raph gasped.

“Deja vu, much?” Donnie mumbled while rubbing Leo's shell.

“I can't believe that I fucking died!” Leo cried, trying to curl up into a miserable ball on the bathroom floor. Raph scooped him up gently, as if he weighed nothing, and sat down with him curled up in her arms like a baby.

Mikey and Donnie joined her, patting Leo's shell and offering comforting chirps and clicks.

“You came back…” Raph whispered, kissing his forehead softly and holding him tighter.

Leo cried harder.

“Of course I did! I-I, I missed you so much! It was so cold, a-and lonely, and-!” Leo clung to his older sister and listened intently to her powerful heartbeat.

A heartbeat he would never have again.

“Raphie, I think it's time for a turtle pile. I'll call April too, okay?” Donnie said, voice wet.

Leo felt Raph nod and let himself be carried to the living room. The air was filled with love, relief and much less grief, which made Leo happy. This was how his family was supposed to be feeling, how they deserved to feel.

Leo smiled, and let his consciousness fade.

-

Word of Big Mama's death circulated quickly around the hidden city, reaching the ears of many powerful yōkai who sought to fill the sudden absence of power.

One such yōkai sat on her plush chair, filing her claws into a point and pursing her lips.

“The spider finally died, hm? Honestly, it was about time! One can only deal with someone like her for so long.” The woman sneered, fangs glinting behind her perfectly painted red lips.

“Tell me, how did she die? Was she crushed under someone's heel as she should've been eons ago?”

A shadowed figure clears their throat.

“She was…Disemboweled, Lady Kitsune. Quite a gruesome sight, if I may say. Whomever decided to kill her had a grudge so strong that even I could sense it days later.”

Kitsune hummed in intrigue.

“Well, isn't that interesting? And what do you mean by grudge, young one?”

The figure steps forward, voice quiet.

“An Onryō has appeared, my lady.”

Kitsune's nail file snaps in half.

“An… Onryō? And you are certain that's what killed her?” Her voice trembled slightly.

The figure nods solemnly.

“Absolutely positive. Only an onryō would leave such a powerful trail of hatred, that I am sure of. What, if I may ask, are you planning to do? Should we ignore this and hope we are spared?”

Kitsune thinks for a short moment, tapping her claws against the arm of the velvet chair.

“Let's wait and observe. I do have to say… I am very interested in how this will turn out.”

She smiles slightly to herself. She could use this.

All she has to do is track down an onryō. How hard could that possibly be?

She just has to make sure she doesn't get killed. Truly, that spider was an idiot and an incompetent leader.

Hopefully soon, all that power will be Kitsune's instead.

Chapter Text

Kitsune bit back a frustrated noise when yet another one of her cubs came back with no new information on the onryō.

Her own efforts had proven useless as well, and she wouldn't be surprised if the reason was that it had simply gotten the revenge it had wanted.

She sighed, her sharp canines catching on her bottom lip as she thought.

Even if it was still out there, how was she supposed to even find it?

“P-perhaps you could lure it out, Madame?” One of her cubs spoke softly, and Kitsune had realized she had been speaking aloud.

“Hmm.. Maybe I shall. How will I do that, however?”

Her cub inched closer slowly, whispering to her a foolproof plan.

Even if the spider was dead, some of her associates still lived. How convenient.

“Thank you dear one. You may go now, I have an onryō to catch!”

–

Leo didn't like being dead. Sure, he could still do roughly the same things as he used to, but they didn't feel the same. They didn't feel right.

The rage was still a permanent itch under his skin, writhing around like a parasite he couldn't get rid of. It scared him, because an anger as great as his could not be suppressed nor held back.

He was just happy it didn't affect his family. The thought of them made him happy, content.

Leo wanted to, needed to protect them, which lead to his dilemma.

He was benched until further notice. It was understandable, considering that the last mission he ever went on ended with him splattered on the ground in front of his siblings.

He tapped his foot on the ground idly, boredom turning everything dull.

Leo instinctively walked towards his twin's lab, knocking on the large steel door. Donnie opened it immediately and Leo silently sat next to them as they continued working on… Something. He didn't know what it was, and he didn't really want to.

He leaned onto Donnie's shoulder, chest rumbling with a raspy purr.

“You sound like a broken engine.” They mumbled, and Leo flicked them on the forehead and stuck his tongue out.

Donnie's own purr started up not long after, and the twins sat in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company.

–

“So, uh… Why're we in the hidden city again, Mike?” Raph asked, scratching at her forearm subconsciously.

Mikey gently pulled her hand away before replying, “We're here to see if the Baron left anything about us behind in his lab. And also to maybe steal stuff! We'll see.”

Raph would've said that stealing was wrong, but it really wasn't when they were referring to the monster that had killed her little brother.

“Yeah, okay. You know which direction it's in?”
Mikey nodded and pulled her to the right, directly through the crowd of people milling about.

The hidden city seemed uneasy, yokai mumbling and whispering about some kind of underworld takeover. Raph tried to ignore every mention of Big Mama, until she heard a yokai gasp loudly.

“Big Mama is really dead? It's finally been confirmed?” It spoke, voice shaking.

Mikey and Raph stopped in their tracks, a confused look flitting between them.

“Big Mama… Died? When?” Mikey asked a nearby yokai, and he went still.

“Nobody knows. There wasn't even anything left of her besides blood and some pearls. All her staff went missin’ too.” The yokai shivered a bit. “It's freaky stuff, I tell ya. People ‘re sayin’ that it was the work of an onryō.”

“What's an onryō?” Mikey tilted his head, and the yokai grumbled.

“Yer too young to know, kid. Ignorance is bliss ‘n all that.”

Mikey huffed in frustration, and Raph walked up to the yokai herself.

“He's just uh- short for his age, is all. It's fine to tell ‘im.” She says, mouthing an apology to her youngest brother as he gives her a look.

The yokai sighs, slouching before leading them over to a stall of some sorts and walking behind it.

“Buy somethin’ and I'll tell ya. Deal?”

Raph nods, and looks at what he sells.

–

Kitsune watches from the shadows as two kappa talk with her informant, watching their expressions closely.

She's seen them before, but she can't remember where.

She tunes back into the conversation.

“-Basically, it's a real angry spirit. Dangerous and vengeful, an onryō will kill anyone who's wronged it. They're rare, but powerful. If anythin’ was able to kill that spider, it'd be an onryō. I'd be wary, as they don't like strangers too much either.”

The big one in red has a look on her face, something akin to dread.

“And uh…How is an onryō born?” She asks, voice trembling slightly.

The smaller kappa at her side looks nervous.

“If someone's had a lotta hardship ‘nd pain in their life, they might not be able to pass on peacefully. Resentment and hatred can brew in their heart, especially if their death was painful or untimely. Honestly… I feel bad for ‘em, especially the one who got to Big Mama. Apparently, the grudge it had was so powerful you can still feel it in that hotel.”

Kitsune watches and waits for the kappa's responses, but none come. They stand there, still and silent, gradually going paler and paler before sharing a look between each other.

They say only one thing; A name.

‘Leo’.

Kitsune grins, and snaps her fingers.

A scream rings out from the crowd.

–

The silence in the lab is broken abruptly by Raph's panic alarm, and Leo feels his nonexistent heart jump into his throat.

Dread fills his body as Donnie answers it.

“Don- You gotta come to the hidden city, fast! Something-” Raph looks behind her quickly and bites back a scream. “Somethin's attacking and it's got Mikey!”

Leo stands up before Donnie can turn off the feed, eyes zeroing on a large, green figure squeezing his little brother.

Hurting him.

Hurting his family.

He remembers Raph's desperate screams as he bled out onto the ground, remembers how Donnie had wailed, remembers the all encompassing rage-

Something inside him snaps.

Back in the hidden city, the air goes deathly still. Frigid air blows across Kitsune's neck, her fur standing on end.

“It's here.” She says, grinning widely even as the two kappa scream in pain.

She sees a flash of blue, hears a low rattling growl, and watches as the onryō reveals himself.

He stares at the giant, eyes locking on the two kappa in it's grasp, and Kitsune watches in awe as his neck falls to the side, shell crumpling in on itself, rebar suddenly sticking out of his leg and black sludge pouring from his eyes and open mouth.

His neck twists, bones snapping and portruding, cracks forming across his plastron and mangled leg dragging behind him as he approaches the giant. He leans down, claws scraping the ground with an ear piercing noise and lunges.

Kitsune belatedly realizes that she might have just made the biggest mistake of her life as she watches the onryō tear through the crowd with his claws and teeth, a shower of blood raining upon him.

Chunks of flesh land by her feet, blood soaking the ground as the air turns freezing.

"We're all fucked, aren't we?" Asks her informant.

Kitsune watches the onryō tear out an eel yokai's innards with his teeth, and can only nod.

Chapter Text

The hidden city had never been this cold.

Kitsune could do nothing but watch as the monster she had lured tore a gory path through the weekend crowd, claws ripping through flesh as if it was butter. The onryō bared his teeth in a snarl, darting through the bloody streets towards the massive ogre holding the two kappa.

The screams of horror from the rapidly thinning crowd weren't enough to drown out the ghastly rattling sound coming from the onryō's mangled throat, nor the scraping of his bloodied claws against the pavement. He launched himself at one of the ogre's lackeys, jaw clamping down around his neck and tearing his head off of his body entirely. The onryō tilted his own head, staring eerily at the now-headless body before barking out a shrill laugh and tearing into the flesh.

He tore into the dead yokai's body, feeding not only on the fear of the crowd but the corpse of his most recent kill.

The onryō tossed the decapitated head around, a cruel grin splitting his face. He launched it at another yokai, shrieking in joy and awe as it tore through a civilian with a truly impressive, nauseating spray of blood and gore.

“Goal!” The onryō yelled, blood dripping from his arms. His neck snapped in the other direction as he heard another pained scream from the two kappa.

He launched himself at the ogre, stopping to tear the intestines out of the nearest yokai before promptly devouring them messily.

Kitsune wanted to vomit.

“I've made a grave mistake…” She muttered before stepping back into the shadows.

She could watch this massacre no longer.

–

Leonardo cackled as he stomped through the remaining lackey's chest, crushing his ribs and lungs with a sound he was sure he'd hear in his sweetest dreams for months.

Blood pooled in the yokai's mouth, escaping with each futile gasp for air. Leo crushed his windpipe, watching the yokai until the gurgling stopped.

Leo licked his lips, running his tongue across his canines. He fixed his head, snapping it back into place with a revolting crack.

He lunged at the ogre holding his siblings with a low, reverberating growl. He latched onto its leg and tore a deep gash into it, relishing in the agonized scream he got in response.

He let his claws dig in deeper, piercing muscle and bone. Another gust of frigid wind escaped from his open maw, fractals of ice forming across the heavily bleeding wound.

Leo crawled further up the giant's body, tearing its flesh to ribbons in the process until he reached the arm holding his siblings. Raph had used herself to shield Mikey from the giant's grip as much as possible, and had a large chip in her plastron to show for it.

Mikey's shell was cracked.

Leo tore the giant's arm off with his teeth, an otherworldly screech ripping its way out of his bloodied throat. The arm landed with a heavy thud, and Leonardo looked down to make sure his siblings were still safe.

The giant roared, blood pouring from its wounds as it swiped at Leo to no avail.

Leo crawled until he was looking the giant straight in the eyes, baring his teeth.

“You hurt them.” He seethed, the rattling from his throat growing nearly deafening. “You hurt my family. You could've killed them.”

Leo's eye twitched as he stared unblinking at the giant.

“I'm gonna have so much fun killing you.” Leo sneered, pulling his hand back before digging his claws into the giant's eye and tearing it out.

The ogre fell backwards, crushing stalls and civilians with its descent. Leo laughed a cruel smile forming on his face.

“Timber!” He yelled, hanging from the ogre's empty eye socket.

The ground cracked under the weight of the giant, and Leo gasped as it started to shrink into a relatively normal size. He glared at the unconscious yokai, kicking it in the side to hear its ribs break.

“Cmon, you can't be done already! Wake up so I can kill you properly!” Leo let his claws dig into the ogre's remaining arm, tearing it off as slowly as possible. The yokai's eyes snapped open as it wailed, and Leo let out a manic laugh.

“There we go! That's more like it!” He tossed the arm aside and grinned with all his teeth. “Now that you've been disarmed, I should probably put you out of your misery!”

Leo crushed the ogre's neck, blood spraying across his face and coating his arms up to the elbows. He licked his lips before dropping the body and turning around to face his siblings.

They looked horrified. Raph was still trying to shield Mikey, silent tears streaming down her face. Mikey was whining in pain and terror.

Leo cocked his head to the side, and Raph gagged as his neck snapped again.

She curled over Mikey even more, a red projection of her covering him entirely.

Leo stared at his siblings, walking one step further. Raph sobbed, trying to shield herself as well.

Leonardo suddenly felt sick. His big sister was trying to protect herself and their baby brother from…

From him.

Leo's legs gave out from under him, eyes burning as he collapsed onto the ground. A thick black sludge started to pour from his eyes, escaping from between his fingers and coating them like oil. His body heaved with sobs, gasping weakly and staring down at the destroyed ground.

The blood and sludge mixed together in a vile symphony, swirling around his body as it subconsciously shifted back into ‘alive’ Leo; The Leo who was fourteen, who had died scared and bitter.

The Leo who just wanted his big sister.

“I'm sorry, I didn't-” He gagged violently, suddenly viscerally disgusted by what he had done. “Didn't mean to scare you. Sorry, ‘m sorry.” Leo whined, pressing his hands against his eyes.

Something in his chest clenched tight, sending waves of agony rippling through his body. He curled himself into a tight ball, desperately trying to become as small as possible.

He was a monster. He had liked hurting those yokai. They weren't his family, they didn't matter-

Leo's own claws dug into his scalp, blood beading under his fingertips. What was wrong with him?

A hand wrapped around his wrist, and Leo flinched violently. His eyes were wild, and the person who had touched him stepped back.

Leo immediately bolted in the other direction, unaware of the fox trailing him close behind.

–

Kitsune watched silently as the onryō came to a stop near a small lake.

He was smaller than she'd expected him to be, especially now that he wasn't killing and/or maiming everyone in his vicinity.

In fact, he almost looked like a child.

She slowly stepped closer towards him, raising her hands in surrender when he whipped around to face her.

His face was stained with tears and small flecks of missed blood, and he rubbed his eyes again.

Kitsune was now absolutely sure he was a child.

“Relax, young one. I wish you no harm.”

The onryō growled weakly at her, backing up towards the lake.

Kitsune folded her skirt under her legs and sat down on the soft grass, her tails resting across her lap.

“I have no weapons on me, child. I promise no harm will-”

The onryō spoke softly, cutting her off. “You can't hurt me. Just-” He sniffled. “I don't care what you do to me. If you're after my family, I’ll-”

“I’m not after you or your family. I just want to know if you're okay?”

The child laughs humorlessly.

“I’m dead. I'm pretty sure that's as ‘not okay’ as you can get.” His voice is dull, breaking around the word dead.

“I…That's horrible.” Kitsune says honestly, and the child simply nods.

“I'm not a child, by the way.” He adds, cheeks puffed out in what seems to be a pout.

“Oh really? How old are you, then?” Kitsune asks, feigning shock.

“...Fourteen.” The teen says, and Kitsune valiantly attempts to stifle a giggle.

“Hey, don't laugh at me!”

“I apologize, you just… Reminded me of someone for a moment.”

The onryō inches closer to her, tilting his head inquisitively.

Kitsune sighs.

“I had a little sister, long ago. She too thought that she was no longer a child once she hit thirteen.”

The onryō picks up on her usage of past tense, and his face falls.

“I have two younger siblings, myself. I…” He sniffles again, “I don't know what I would do if I lost one of them. I'd probably go even more insane than what I seem to be now.”

Kitsune brushes her topmost tail slowly.

“You aren't insane, it's simply in your nature as an onryō.” She says softly, and the teen gives her a confused look.

“A what-now?”

Kitsune's stomach sinks.

“Do…Do you not know what an onryō is?”

He shakes his head, and Kitsune resigns herself to an eternity of agony when she dies. Truly, this plan couldn't have gone any worse.

“An onryō is, to put it simply, an extremely violent and vengeful ghost. They're usually born from resentment, bitterness, or a powerful grudge. I… I didn't think anyone so young could become an onryō, let alone one so powerful.” Kitsune's heart clenches, and she has to resist the urge to cradle this child close to her chest. “What happened to you, child?”

He shrugs, wringing his hands together.

“I was thrown off a roof by an evil warrior scientist who also made me and my siblings.”

Kitsune gapes in shock.

“Yeah. I didn't die instantly either, and I fell through like. A lot of stuff, especially rebar.”

The child looks up at her, eyes haunted beyond his years and Kitsune realizes two things back-to-back. One, she cannot use this child for her hidden city takeover, no matter how useful he may or may not be. Two, she needed to learn this child's name so she could protect him for the rest of her near-immortal life.

“Does your name happen to be ‘Leo’, by any chance?” She asks, recalling the name the large kappa had mouthed.

Leo nods but gives her a suspicious look. “It is, but how did you know that?”

“I saw your…Relative say it. The big, red kappa.”

Leo chuckles a bit.

“Whatever a kappa is, we definitely aren't that. We're turtles! Mostly. Except for me, I guess.”

“How many of you are there? You mentioned two younger siblings, but the big one seems…Not younger.”

“There's four of us! Raph, she's the oldest and biggest. Then there's me, my twin Donnie and our baby brother Mikey! I, um. I scared Raph and Mikey pretty badly, though. God, they probably think I'm a monster now.”

Kitsune places a gentle hand on Leo's shoulder, wrapping one of her tails around his side.

“They don't know what you are, either. They would most likely be less scared if you explained that to them.”

Leo opens his mouth to speak, but before he can an orange streak bowls into him, sobbing loudly.

Leo looks baffled, arms suddenly full of a smaller turtle.

Kitsune's lips form a small smile.

“That's Mikey, I assume?”

Leo nods, rubbing a reassuring hand across his younger brother's shell.

“Hey, Why're you crying Mikester?”

The small turtle nuzzles closer to Leo, head bumping against his chin.

“I thought we were gonna lose you again! You-you just ran away, we had to get Donnie to figure out where you went cuz’ none of us could find you!” Mikey whimpers, hands balled into fists as he gently hits Leo's shell.

“That was real stupid of me, huh?” Leo looks down at his small brother with a look of fondness that reminds Kitsune painfully of her younger sister.

Leo cradles Mikey's head, shushing him gently and rocking him side to side. The big turtle cradles both of them in her arms, and Leo looks both apologetic and relieved.

Kitsune hears soft hissing behind her before feeling cold metal on her back.

“You must be the twin?” She asks, and the metal digs further into her skin.

“What do you want with Leo?” The twin asks, voice low and distrustful.

“Would you believe me if I said nothing?”

“I would not.” They say, hissing growing louder.

“Dee, are you threatening the nice lady?!” Leo shoots a pointed look to the figure behind her, and she hears a loud dramatic sigh before the metal recedes.

“No, I definitely am not doing that.” They say, utterly unconvincing.

Kitsune watches as the turtle walks towards Leo and flicks him on the forehead, and Kitsune notices that they're practically swimming in a deep blue hoodie.

“Don't flick me!”

“Then don't run away, dumb dumb!”

“Whatever, hoodie stealer!”

Raph facepalms with a groan. “If you guys don't quit it with your middle child nonsense, I'm gonna throw you both in the lake!”

“Jokes on you, we're aquatic!” The purple banded one says, but shrinks under the glare of Raph.

“Sorry, Raphie.” They say, plopping themselves as close to Leo as possible and laying their head against him.

“So, now you've met all of us!” Leo says, smiling. It's vastly different from the ones Kitsune had seen earlier, warmer as well as kinder.

“What's your name, by the way? You never told me it.” He asks, and Mikey turns around slightly to face Kitsune.

“You can call me Kitsune, child. All of you can, as I doubt this will be the last time we meet.”

Leo nods, and Kitsune tries to ignore Dee's glare.

She gets the distinct impression that they bite.

Kitsune stands up, brushing off her skirt as she does so and clears her throat.

“I'm afraid I must be leaving now, but first,” She hands Leo a small fortune slip. “If you ever need to contact me, use this. It also doubles as a good luck charm of sorts.”

Leo's eyes are wide, and Kitsune vows to never let anything hurt him or his family again.

She walks away, only feeling slightly guilty about the tracker inside.

It's for his own good, Kitsune tells herself. She can't keep him safe without knowing where he is, after all!

She was never good at lying to herself.

Chapter Text

Leo is exhausted when he finally returns home, blood caked onto his scales and under his claws. Mikey is tucked into his shell, sleeping soundly in Leo's arms. His baby brother snores softly, and Leo's nonexistent heart squeezes in his chest.

He's so small, the crack on his shell just reminding Leo of how fragile his family is now.

Unlike him.

Raph wrings her hands nervously, trailing as closely behind Leo as she possibly can. Her usually heavy steps are nearly silent, something she's obviously doing on purpose.

“Leo, I-” She starts, voice uncharacteristically soft.

“I'm sorry. For how I reacted, I mean…” She idly picks at a dry patch on her hands. “I wasn't-”

Leo sighs before cutting her off.

“It's fine that you were scared of me. I'd be scared too if I saw something like that. I'll uh… I'll explain everything later though, alright?” He holds Mikey closer to his chest, staring intently at the ground. “I'm gonna put Mike to bed and clean up..”

The guilt is obvious on Leo's face, and he seems to curl in on himself further and further the longer Raph looks at him.

“You don't gotta explain anything, Lee. Just… Don't beat yourself up about what happened, okay?” Raph places what she hopes is a supportive hand on her little brother's shoulder, and tries not to shudder at the temperature of his scales. “I'm glad you saved me ‘n Mikey. Raph's proud of you.”

Leo sniffles softly, but tries to pretend he isn't about to cry. It's so painfully nostalgic, so unbelievably Leo that Raph can't even comprehend why she was scared of him in the first place.

She ignores the blood covering his body, the too-sharp claws and the odd blue glow surrounding him and instead focuses on how carefully he's holding their baby brother.

Donnie trails slowly behind the rest of their family, narrowing their eyes at the so-called ‘good luck charm’ from Kitsune.

They know a tracker when they see one. They pocket it silently.

They'll deal with that later.

—

Leo steps out of the shower with a content sigh, the aching cold of his being forgotten for the moment as steam rises off of his scales. He looks at himself in the mirror, checking to see if he missed anything.

Instead, he finds himself looking more… Solid. More alive.

What the hell?

The eerie blue glow has receded into a soft shimmer along his scales, the coloring almost as vibrant as it had been when he was alive.

Leo could almost fool himself into thinking that he was. That all of this was some horrible nightmare he'd finally woken up from. He looked so normal that it was almost uncanny.

And then his neck snapped again. He groaned in frustration, suddenly graced with the wonderful view of the bottom of the sink. Truly, it was a work of art. A slightly moldy work of art.

He should get Splinter to check on that at some point. Wasn't mold dangerous or something?

Leo forced his neck back into its rightful place and exited the bathroom.

He needed to lay down, preferably for at least a week.

–

The tracker that had been put on Leo was deceptively difficult to hack. Donnie would be impressed, had they not been so angry.

Leo, their twin, was being watched. Surveyed like an animal at the zoo!

Sure, Donnie had put trackers on all of their family, but it was different when they did it! They did it out of care, not simple curiousity or fear. They didn't do it to control anyone!

Usually.

Mostly.

It didn't matter. The point was, they weren't going to let anyone track their brother.

They just got him back, and they couldn't bear to think about what would happen if that manipulative vixen got her hands on Leo again.

Their hands shook, anger and frustration threatening to boil over, their body taught like a bowstring. Donnie'd never had a great track record with keeping their temper in check.

They sighed, pressing their fingers hard against their temple in a valiant but futile effort to stave off their incoming rage headache. It didn't work, obviously.

They groaned loudly and got up, throwing the tracker into the nearest trash bin, but not before crushing it in their hands.

They needed a fucking nap. And also maybe something to eat.

–

Leo found himself bringing as many blankets and pillows into the living (heh) room as he possibly could. He could taste the tension in the air, a swirl of negativity bathing the lair and making it hard to think over the screeching of his new instincts.

He dropped the blankets and pillows and began expertly building the biggest, comfiest fort/nest/thing he possibly could.

He would kill at being an architect.

Leo proudly surveyed his work, whistling in awe.

He'd done it. He'd made the most amazing blanket fort in the world.

Somebody call Guinness, because he was gonna be famous.

Leo then remembered that he was a turtle. And also apparently a yōkai. His mood soured just a little.

(A lot.)

Donnie came stomping into the living room, muttering angrily under their breath before stopping in front of the truly massive fort in front of them.

“Did you build this, Nardo?” They asked, and Leo nodded smugly.

“It's great, right? Probably the biggest and coziest in the world.”

Donnie nodded in agreement.

“You used all the blankets and pillows in the house though, didn't you.”

Leo pretended not to have heard them. Donnie sighed, mumbling something about being a ‘pain in the ass to clean’, but otherwise seemed unbothered.

They walked into the kitchen, and Leo entered the fort and laid down. His eyelids suddenly felt heavier than lead, or that weird metal Donnie always talked about. (Tongue-something?)

He wrapped himself in one of the many blankets adorning the floor, pulling it nearly over his head and falling asleep; Completely forgetting about his plan to tell his siblings about what exactly he'd become.

Whatever. He'd deal with it later.

(Probably. Lying to his entire family wouldn't be too bad…

Right?)