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Chapter Text

Leo possessed absolutely no idea what to do; he needed to fix what he had ruined.

He triggered the apocalypse.

They were finally able to fend back against the Kraang when their ninpo united to yield a dazzling light show. A lethal attack that would devastate any normal person.

The kraang threw them off with a flick of a finger.

Their greatest hope was annihilated. How were they going to combat it?

The Kraang assaulted Donnie and Mikey, who were blasted off the ship.

Leo shifts in Raph's road, doom etched on his visage.

"Go!" He screamed Raph nodded, and then leapt through a portal. Raph performed a last-minute catch on his brothers.The pink alien speaks something to Leo, yet he refuses to truly listen.

Standing up again and adopting a war stance, he begins fighting with all his might.

Casey's voice breaks through the silence. "I'm here; I see the key!"

Leo can't fight it off for much longer.

"Listen to me, Casey, when I say so close the portal!" Leo knows what he must do; that's either the end of the world or his own demise.

"I can't, Sensei. I cannot lose you again! Please!" Casey's voice is cracking and Leo can tell he's crying. "It's the only way, Casey."

Leo glances at Kraang's foul visage and snarls.

Raph's voice is swiftly seeping through, and his older brother begs him not to do this. "Hey, you're the one to talk, big bro. Hero moves are totally your style.

Leo can hear Mikey's tortured sobbing, Donnies' seized breath, and Raph's never-ending pleas.

He throws one of his swords at the kraang, but it misses and penetrates the prison dimension. It's coming straight at him, crushing him under its monstrous metal heel.

It says that he has kept struggling despite the fact he is losing, while also mocking him about his failed attack.

Leo chuckles, "You should know that I missed on purpose!" He sinks the blade deep into the kraang's leg, delivering them to the prison dimension.

"Now, Casey, close the portal!" The kraang learns what he's doing and dashes towards the portal.

Leo clings on tight and begs Casey to shut it.

The portal dies with a massive blast. Leo drifts away, smirking. "You've been portal-chopped."

The next few seconds are a whirl of anguish and pain. "You, pest!" The kraang howls at him and strikes him so heavily that he flies into the nothingness. He clutches a photograph close to his breast, tears cascading down onto his cheeks.

His head crashes something, knocking him unconscious whilst still clutching the photograph.

Mikey was bored; it's had been a dull day within Dimension X.

He is investigating, attempting to discover additional food sources. He was sick of eating the revolting fruits from the tree where he made his dwelling.

It's been a long four months since he entered the portal before his brothers.

This new part of dimension x is pretty dull—not a single fun colour in sight. The blasphemy Mikey thinks.

Mikey is nearly scared off his feet when he hears a giant boom. Whipping his head toward the sound, he sees a gaint Kraang bot attacking a green and blue figure; the figure looks like it's passed out. Clicking his tongue, he couldn't let this go. Nope, he had to save that creature. Maybe they could even become pals.

Pulling out his dimension x modified nun-chucks and grabs a bug from a pouch. A few weeks ago, he discovered that if you tickled the bug's nose as it would sneeze, it would explode.

Jumping into action, he grabs the bug and throws it, hitting the giant Kraang bot in its slimy pink face. He quickly runs to catch the green figure and bolts towards safety, scaring a couple of whale-like creatures that are covered in feathers along the way to confuse the bot.

Finally making it to safety, he looks at the figure in his arms; it's surprisingly light.

The figure was a turtle.

A turtle in a familiar blue colour that was shared with his older brother.

Upon closer inspection, he deduced that the turtle was a boy, presumably Leonardo, from another dimension.

Clutched in Maybe-Leo's three-finger hands is a torn photo.

Gently, Mikey takes the photo from Maybe-Leo's hand and sees three more familiar-coloured turtles and a human girl that Mikey presumes is Maybe-Leo's April.

He notices that maybe Leo is squirming in his sleep, his hands unconsciously looking around for the missing photo.

Handing the photo back, Mikey decides to look over Maybe-Leo's injuries.

There's a lot.

God.

What has this boy been through? Sighing, he grabs the last of his bandages and begins bandaging Maybe-Leo's injuries.

Mikey would have to raid a Kraang compound and get more medical supplies.

Picking up Maybe-Leo again, he takes the red-striped turtle towards Mikey's makeshift bed.

He would have to ask Maybe-Leo what type of turtle he was when he woke up.

Making Mikey's next meal, he sits down and waits for his new guest to wake up.

Chapter Text

Leo hurt

Everything ached. His limbs felt like lead. Leo opened his eyes to see but promptly shut them in regret.

The lights were terribly bright.

He groaned in the back of his throat, and his entire body was in anguish.

Leo wanted to get back to sleep.

There was someone speaking to him.

Leo struggled to understand what they were saying.

Leo tried to open his eyes again.

The world was hazy and disorienting.

There was a dab of green and a smudge of the familiar orange. It must be Mikey, Leo reasoned.

Wait.

Mikey?

But Leo was in the prison dimension along with the kraang.

Leo groaned again, cringing with hurt as he struggled to sit up.

Mikey's palms were on his shoulders, attempting to influence him to sit down, but they felt too big.

The digits are too thick to be mikeys.

Leo blinked rapidly to eliminate the the blur.

The mass of orange and green finally acquired clarity.

The turtle in front of him echoed a Walmart-brand Mikey.

"Wha?" Leo mumbled in an intelligent manner.

Walmart-Mikey was talking. It was a struggle for Leo to fully understand him.

"Huh?" Leo murmured.

"-eo? The Walmart-Mikey said.

"Leo? It's okay. Walmart-Mikey soothed Leo.

Leo stared at Walmart-Mikey.

"Leo? "Can you understand me?" Walmart-Mikey inquired.

Leo nodded sluggishly, his head bumping against the front of his shell forcefully. Clunking the teeth together painfully.

Leo whined pathetically. Leo merely wished to go home and be given one of Raph's shell-crushing hugs.

Leo wanted to go back home so that Pops might call him by name and voice his pride in his sons.

Leo desired Mikey to whip up him his all-time favourite food.

Leo even wanted to listen to Donnie enter speech mode and instruct him about thermodynamics or whatever nerdy thing his twin was spouting about this time around.

Leo longed for his home, not some off-brand Mikey.

"Leo, could you look at me?" Walmart Mikey asked gently.

Leo reluctantly gazed at Walmart-Mikey, realizing that he had shut his eyes.

Walmart-Mikey smiled broadly and exclaimed, "There you go!" Walmart-Mikey cheered.

Leo cringes at the loudness.

Walmart-Mikey apologizes at a significantly calmer level.

"You're probably really confused right now." Walmart-Mikey continues, "Well, my name is Michelangelo, but I'm not your Michelangelo." 'Obviously' Leo silently retorts, "I'm from another universe." Walmart-Mikey finishes" Of course, Leo supplies himself in his mind.

Wait, what?

Another universe?

“Only Mikey.” Leo thinks in non-comical manner.

"K" Leo slurs.

"K?" Walmart-Mikey ask

"Yeah, k," Leo responds.

Walmart-Mikey laughs so loudly that Leo's head hurts.

'Great,' Leo thinks. He has got a concussion.

Leo grunts in pain and irritation.

"Sorry, sorry." Walmart-Mikey amends

"You must be hungry and thirsty." Walmart-Mikey points out

Now that Leo thinks about it, his throat is incredibly irritable and his mouth is dry.

Walmart-Mikey puts something to Leo's mouth. "drink." Walmart-Mikey tells Leo.

Leo drinks cautiously before gulping up the water as he tastes it.

It tasted even better than those pricey river water minerals plastic bottles.

Walmart-Mikey laughs as Leo chugs down the water.

After Leo finishes the water, Walmart-Mikey puts a makeshift bowl in Leo's hand.

The bowl held a fruit that had been cubed.

The fruit resembled nothing Leo had seen before. It was a pale blue in tint and appeared to glisten in the light.

Leo lifts one of the chunks and sniffs it cautiously.

Smelt okay.

Slowly, Leo took a small bite and almost gagged at how sweet it was.

Spluttering Leo tries to remove the unpleasant sweetness from his tongue.

Sticking his tongue out with disgust. Walmart-Mikey laughs. "I know they can be super sweet at first, but you should eat them, dude."

Leo glances at Walmart-Mikey incredulously.

Walmart-Mikey chuckles harder. "You should eat it, bro. It will help you recover."

Leo questioned whether the fruit would be able to do that.

But Leo grudgingly decided to eat it, simply when his stomach began to grumble with hunger.

Chapter Text

It was made very apparent to Mikey that this Leonardo is absolutely nothing like his elder brother.

Leon, as he preferred to be called, was, shockingly, not the oldest.

"What do you mean you're not the oldest?" Mikey asked incredulously; as far as he knew, all Leonardos were the chosen oldest.

"Yeah, my bro Raph is the oldest." To Leon, it was obvious. "Wait? "Am I the oldest in your universe?" Leon asks excitedly.

Mikey nods. "Yeah, dude, you're like a total stuck up in my universe."

"What?" Leon laughs. "You're making me sound like Raph." Leon exhales his plastron. "I'm deciding not to believe that there is a version of myself that isn't perfect," Leon adds, flicking his mask tails out.

Leon, having knocked his photo off his lap, bent down to pick it up, a small wince on his face.

"I had noticed that they looked like you and your brothers," Mikey said. "Could you tell me about them?" Mikey asks.

Leon glances down at the photo, a sorrowful display on his face. "This is Raph," Mikey states as he points to his brother donning red.

He's massive, Mikey thinks. "He's an alligator snapping turtle; he might look intimidating, but he's really a giant softie."

Mikey chuckles at the notion of his raph being soft.

Leon then points at his purple-coded brother. "That's my twin, Donnie."

'Twin?' Mikey thinks "dons a soft shell turtle, therefore he wears a battle shell to protect him, but he's a total nerd," Leon adds.

Mikey chuckles as Leon refers to his Donatello as a nerd; that must be an ongoing theme throughout the multiverse.

"This is my Mikey," Leon adds, indicating towards the orange-masked turtle.

Apart from the yellow markings, Leon's Mikey closely mirrored Mikey with his brothers.

"Mike's an ornate box shell; he's the artist of the family." Leon shows fondness for his brother.

"His work is all over the lair." He went on proudly.

A pang of longing ran through Mikey's heart. Mikey craves that his brothers would talk about him like Leon did about his other self.

Leon gestures at the human girl in the photograph. "And this is our close friend, April!" Leon says it with enthusiasm.

"Really, she's more like an older sister than anything else." Leon shrugs.

Mikey let out a laugh. "Wait! Wait." Mikey says this with full-body laughter.

"Does your Donnie have an enormous crush on her? Like, to the point, it's almost stalkerish."Mikey finally asks, having caught his breath.

Leon stares at Mike, puzzled. "No, I think he would rather eat pineapple on pizza than even think of her like that."

Mikey tells Leon that Mikey's donnie, however, had an enormous crush on April, which prompts Leon to burst out laughing and wincing.

Finally, regained his breath, Leon indicates himself in his torn photograph.

"And finally, the best for last, yours truly." Leon punctuates this by flicking his wrist towards his chest.

"My gorgeous self is a red-eared slider, and I'm the face man." Leon stares down sorrowfully at the photograph. "Or at least I was."

Mikey isn't certain what a face man is, nevertheless he puts a comforting grasp onto the slider's shoulder.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure what's a face man is, but I think that you're a pretty chill dude, so that makes you alright in my book." Mikey consoles Leon.

Leon sends Mikey an appreciative smile. "Thanks hermano"

Leon turns to Mike with forged solemnity and declares, "Your turn, Angelo."

"Angelo?" Mikey raises a phantom brow.

"Yeah, I've got to have a name you can use so I can stop calling you Walmart-Mikey inside my head." Leon says this bluntly, offering no further clarification.

Mikey shrugs. "Well, my brothers look the same as me."

His brothers and him really did look identical, particularly when they were tots.

"We all have small differences, but my leo is the oldest, or at least that's what Master Splinter told us."

Leon's mask raised on one of the sides, mimicking an eyebrow. "My brothers and I are quadruplets, or at least that's what Donnie calls us."

Mikey smiles broadly as he speaks. "My leo is a total stick in the mud, constantly ranting about training or buttering up Sensei." Mikey waves his hands around while he speaks. "Leo is infatuated with a series called Space Heroes."

"Space heroes?" Leon asks.

Mikey shares all he knows about space heroes. "O-mi-gosh! "That sounds like Jupiter Jim!" Leon exclaimed enthusiastically.

Mikey listens to Leon describe what Jupiter Jim is. "Yeah, that sounds like Space Heroes; it must be a similar thing but different names," Mikey muses, stroking his chin comically.

Leon concurs with him.

"My second eldest brother is Raph; he's truly a hot head." When Leon prompts him, Mikey begins sharing stories about his older brothers.

"Just don't let him hear me tell you this, but he has an enormous soft spot for his alien pet turtle named Chompy."

Leon smiles. "It looks like our raphs are more similar than we believed. My raph adores April's pet dog-cat thing that can teleport; mayhem. Except Mayhem despises Raphael's guts." Leon describes it lovingly.

Mikey laughs. "Animals love my Raph; he's like a Disney princess." Mikey and Leon burst into laughing.

"Donnie is super smart, although he's a total simp for April," Mikey remarks about his purple-coded sibling.

"It's so weird that your Donnie likes your April." Leon laughs.

Mikey can't help but agree.

"Finally, I believe my April is the most unique among yours, unless your April has psychic powers?" Mikey concludes:

Leon shook his head. "Your April has psychic powers?"

Mikey nods. "Yeah, she's this ginger girl who has these wacky psychic powers."

Mikey and Leon spent the remainder of the night recounting tales from their respective worlds.

Chapter Text

Leo wasn't sure how he felt towards Walmart-Mikey; he was strange.

He hadn't asked any questions about Leo or been concerned that an alternate version of his elder brother had been taking up room in his treehouse.

Leo was grateful that Walmart-Mikey had rescued him; he had really needed an alternative to refer to him other than Walmart-Mikey. So Leo chose to call him Angelo, as his own Mikey rarely used it.

The nickname was ideal—something alienating that wouldn't continually remind him of his baby brother.

The Hamatos youngest son, Leo's little brother, was only barely a teenager before his big brother was ripped from their small, broken family.

Leo felt like crying and wailing into his father's chest. He yearned to be home with his family.

There are sharp pains in his chest and knee Leo was certain he was suffering from a mild concussion.

Since he was the one who started this entire mess, Leo couldn't help but feel that he truly deserved it. He had needed to fix it, and fix it he did.

It is irrelevant that the fix involved his sacrifice.

In morbid humour, Leo considered how ironic it that the trait of sacrifice seemed to run in his family's blood.

Leo has no idea why he was saved, why Angelo is around, or why he is bringing someone he doesn't even know back to health, someone who is nothing more than a rip-off of his older brother.

Much like how Angelo is for Leo, it looks like they have both chosen to pretend that each other is someone he isn't.

The slider was left alone in this tree house, and Angelo went out to gather more medical supplies for him.

Leo finally allowed himself to cry at the loss of his family and mourn his own sacrifice.

Leo's chest burned as he sobbed over his broken and damaged body.

Leo felt like crying and wailing into his father's chest. He yearned to be home with his family.

There are sharp pains in his chest and knee Leo was certain he was suffering from a mild concussion.

Since he was the one who started this entire mess, Leo couldn't help but feel that he truly deserved it. He had needed to fix it, and fix it he did.

It is irrelevant that the fix involved his sacrifice.

In morbid humour, Leo considered how ironic it that the trait of sacrifice seemed to run in his family's blood.

The slider was desperately pawing at his eyes, attempting to dry his flowing tears. He wailed out for his family.

He virtually begged Raph to pull him into his chest and push them to start a turtle pile since they needed it after everything they'd gone through.

The notion of his family in a turtle pile without him ripped through his heart with brutally terrible precision. If Leo hadn't known better, he'd have assumed his anguish was attempting to pull his heart out and crush it in front of him.

Leo was nothing without the others.

Leo is absolutely nothing without his brothers and sister.

Leo craved and depended on them.

The slider isn't sure what he'll do without them.

How could Leo be able to push forward from this? Is there a means for him to return to his family?

Will Leo ever get to see his home again?

If he couldn't, how could he possibly be happy?

Would Angelo want him around, even if Leo was destroyed and traumatized?

What if Leo began using Angelo as a replacement? How could he forgive himself?

How will Angelo feel? The slider questioned whether the somewhat older turtle could ever embrace Leo as his brother.

Given that Leo was younger than Angelo, would Angelo be responsible for taking on the role of older brother? The protector.

The slider would never ask that of him, and neither would Leo want to.

It would be demeaning to his older brothers; Leo already had two of them and didn't need more.

oblivious of the older turtle's arrival, Leo's suddenly shook out of his weeping period in a firm hug.

Angelo was holding him, and Leo decided perhaps a single hour he might allow himself go and indulge in the notion of having a big brother there to protect him.

Leo clutches Angelo back with smothering force. he softly sobs onto Angelo's shoulder.

Angelo reassuringly rubbed Leo's shell and hugged him tightly.

Leo gradually calmed down; he had not felt so fatigued in a long time.

Angelo asks Leo to sit up and replace his bandages.

Leo slowly sits up, a little wince on his face.

"There you go; thank you, Leon." Angelo spoke warmly to Leon.

Angelo was patching up Leo with all his care. "Now, Leon, could you please tell me what caused you to..." Angelo trailed off, clearly unsure how to proceed.

"I miss them." Leo says it bluntly, with a slight wane to his voice.

"Oh, Leon." Angelo says. Leo resented the way that Angelo's voice rang; it was pitying. Angelo was pitying Leo.

Anger erupted within Leo in the form of furious tears.

Leo loathed it. Why couldn't Leo stop crying? It felt like the only thing Leo had done since being transported to this God-forsaken dimension.

Angelo hugged Leo within his arms, mistaking his sobbing for those of a tiny child. Leo was furious.

But, suddenly, Leo began to fall asleep. Leo could hardly keep his eyes open.

After a few minutes, Leo falls happily into the world of slumber.

Mikey breathed a sigh of relief. Leon was safely sleeping. The poor child must be in so much pain.

Mikey gently places Leon back on his makeshift bed. Mikey would have to figure out a method to create another bed for them.

Mikey didn't fancy the prospect of sleeping on the floor again.

Mikey sighs while he rewraps all of the bandages that he couldn't do when Leon was awake. Mikey sees this as an opportunity to apply an antibiotic to the wounds; it wouldn't do any good if the slider became infected.

Mikey finishes quickly while remaining as soft as possible.

The orange-masked turtle slides to the floor, leaning against the bed frame. How bad has Mikey gotten himself this time?

The slider was only sixteen; how was a barely nineteen-year-old supposed to care for him?

How was a teenager meant to take care of another teenager? Mikey believes he will just have to do his best until Leon's brothers arrive and help him.

Mikey did not think about the possibility that Leon's brother might not arrive.

Mikey got up and decided now was a good time to eat. The orange-coded teen goes to one of the many branches and grabs one of the many fruit hanging from it.

Mikey takes out a knife and slices through the tough skin, revealing a pale pink hue. Mikey sighed. He suspects he will have to have a bitter meal today.

Mikey hasn't been able to figure out how to discern the various types of fruit the tree would produce; as far as Mikey was concerned, the fruit was all the same on the outside.

The inside was a different story, but from what he's collected so far, the pale blue colours were sweet and tasted like cotton candy. The pink ones were bitter and tasted like coffee, just without the added energy.

Mikey isn't sure how many colours there are, but he knows of two more. A green one that tasted sour, like the strange Warhead candy April used to bring to the lair, and another a deep scarlet that was quite salty.

These fruits appear to do nothing in halves.

Mikey, having successfully removed the fruit's inedible skin, begins chewing bites, shuddering at the bitterness.

Mikey carefully eats the fruit and goes about checking the parameters, something he did earlier after he came back.

But Mikey now had another person to keep an eye out for; he wanted to ensure Leon's safety, which required Mikey to keep an eye on the parameters.

Mikey snorts underneath his breath; since when has he sounded like his older brother Leo?

Mikey observed just a handful of harmless wale birds. Mikey turns and returns to the tree house.

Mikey smiles as he discovers Leon is still unconscious. Mikey had no idea how to comfort the slider.

Leon is so much different from him.

It's understandable; Leo and Leon are very different guys.

Mikey couldn't stop himself from mentally comparing the two; he knew it was horrible, but Leon was so different.

Perhaps it was Mikey's fault for looking for something that would never exist.

Mikey groans and settles down by the bed again, taking out a small journal he managed to snag off a kraang bot and starting to doodle.

Mikey, thinking ironically, believes that perhaps all Mikeys are artistic, just some more than others.

Mikey had chosen to sketch Leon; perhaps if he presented his sketches to his brothers, they would be as proud of him as Leon was of his counterpart.

Mikey hopes that his counterpart is doing well.

Mikey understood how Leon felt earlier; he dearly missed his brothers.

But Mikey was accustomed to it. Mikey has been apart from his family for almost five months now.

Mikey missed his family, particularly Ice Cream Kitty.

Mikey does not express any of these thoughts; instead, he simply continues to draw what could be and what is.

Mikey doodles in the early hours of the morning, waiting for Leon to awaken.

Chapter Text

The next morning came in with a bubbling baby pink sky. The sky was bursting with cotton candy clouds that were pale blue in hue. Leo thought the sky looked like an enormous gender reveal party.

Watching the sun rise in this dimension, Leo thought he was witnessing a scene from a science- fiction movie. In Leo's eyes, the stunning picture mirrored a scene from a horrific horror film.

It was the type of media that focused on making the audience uncomfortable rather than frightening them.

Leo's body ached; he was gradually recovering, but only just. Angelo had instructed Leo to eat the strange-tasting fruits, saying they would help him heal faster, but Leo didn't believe it.

Angelo will sometimes go and return with supplies, fatigued yet always with supplies.

Leo was bored.

There was nothing to do in the treehouse but sleep, eat, and cry.

Leo desperately longed to leave and follow Angelo on his supply trips. Leo's pleas were consistently rejected.

This universe is both terrifying and incredible. There are numerous things that you would only expect to see in a dream or in a movie.

But, for all the amazing animals and objects, there were also horrible beasts.

Leo will experience nightmares throughout the rest of his life about some of the things he witnessed through the window, such as the thing in the tree house.

This is one of those moments.

Below the widow, Leo notices a massive red creature—no, not red.

The creature was grey; the only reason it appeared red was due to the amount of blood encrusted on its back.

The previously creature's lips snarled, with long, pointed teeth protruding from its salivating jaws.

Drool falls from its wide maw, and a long, slithering tongue hangs from its jaw as it stares down at its victim.

The beast is stalking its victim, a cow-like creature.

Within seconds, the beast's drooling maw seized the cow-like creature's neck and bit violently.

The cry emitting from the cow-like creature's mouth haunts Leo.

The creature's jaw snaps the neck of its prey with a thunderous crack.

The beast isn't finished yet; it digs its disgusting claws into its prey's core and pulls.

The cow-like creature's head is torn from the rest of its body with a splash of red.

The revolting sight of the prey's spine remaining connected to its head, covered with blood and tendons.

Blood gushes from the hole in the prey's body drenching the predator.

The predator doesn't eat carcasses so much as it plays with it.

The predator is flicking the prey's head around in its maw, much like a dog might a chew toy.

Blood flings off the head and encompasses the immediate area, painting it red.

Leo feels as if he is witnessing something he shouldn't, but he can't tear his gaze away.

It's like seeing a train crash; it's horrifying, but you can't take your eyes off of it.

The predator is done toying with the cadaver head and is now rolling around on the body, smearing blood all over it.

Leo is beginning to smell the predator's blood and foul odour.

Leo gags softly before looking away and covering his mouth with his palm, attempting to keep his lunch down.

Leo decides he should return to bed, so he painfully limps back to it and flops down.

The grotesque site plagues Leo; every time he closes his eyes, the only thing he can see is the predator's claws digging into the prey's shoulder and the sickening squelch of it ripping the poor cow-like creature's head clean off.

Well, not clean, but still, the creature did it so easily.

It makes Leo wonder what will happen if the beast pursues him.

Leo does not have his swords, and his injuries already put him at a disadvantage.

Would the beast kill him as swiftly as it did, or would it treat his corpse like a chew toy while he was still alive?

Would it fling him around like it did with its prey?

Would it rip his head off, pulling his spine out the same way it did to the prey?

Would it swallow him whole and kill him in its stomach, or would it chew him up in pieces?

Leo couldn't help but puke over the edge of the bed, creating a loud spatter on the ground.

Leo heaves and gags as he is made to vomit more.

The vomit has a disgustingly sweet flavour, which leads Leo to puke even more.

Finally, when it seems like it's all out of his system, Leo slumps onto his chest and pants for air.

He is drained and his body aches all over.

Leo tries to pull himself up and clean up the mess, but his body gives out.

Leo weeps into his pillow and passes out from exhaustion.

When Mikey returns to the tree house, he is greeted with the foul smell of vomit and discovers Leon sprawled out on the bed.

The vomit is piled on the floor close to the bed. It's an unnatural blue tint, with bits of colourful fruit mingled in.

Mikey sighs, places his materials on the ground near the entrance, and begins cleaning up the dried puke on the floor.

Mikey hopes that Leon isn't getting sick; he would hate if the younger boy were to.

Having finally finished the honestly disgusting job, Mikey moves Leon on to his back and pulls the blanket over him.

Mikey touches Leon's forehead with the back of his hand and clicks when it feels warm.

Mikey takes a mostly clean rag and splashes cold water on it. Unfortunately, clean materials are sparse in Dimension X.

Mikey puts the moist rag on Leon's brow and stands up.

Mikey proceeds to examine at the resources; fortunately, Mikey was able to steal some cold medication from the kraang.

Mikey hasn't got much, but it's better than nothing.

Mikey returns to Leon, props him up in a sitting position, and attempts to awaken the feverish turtle.

Happy when Leon grumbles, Mikey coaxes the pill into Leon's mouth, puts a flask of water in his mouth, keeps his mouth close, and tilts Leon's head back so he swallows it.

When he sees Leon swallow the medication, he returns the dazed turtle to his back and places the strewn towel on his forehead.

Mikey sighs, pats Leon on the head, and whispers softly, "Good night, Leon; get better soon."

Chapter Text

Mikey was at a loss; he needed to go out and get more medication so that Leon could recover from his cold, but that meant that Mikey needed to leave the treehouse and go out and leave Leon alone.

Mikey couldn't leave Leon alone, especially with how ill the red-eared slider was.

Mikey sighs, turns to the sleeping form of Leon, and gently takes the wet rag off of the turtle's head and rings the now warm water out the window of the treehouse.

Mikey spills some cold water onto the rag, folds up the damp, chilling rag, and places the now-cool rag on Leon's forehead.

Mikey looks down at Leon; the sight of the other turtle was... sad. Leon was breathing shallow and unevenly; some of Leon's breath stuttered out as if the very act of breathing was painful for the slider. Leon's face was flushed from the sickness. 

The pitiful sight of the usually very loud and boastful turtle irked Mikey the wrong way. Mikey closed his eyes and scrunched his face up, bringing his hands up to his face to rub it. Mikey groaned and wondered if this was how his older brother Leo felt while taking care of his brothers and himself. They certainly weren't the easiest to handle.

Resigning himself, Mikey stood up from beside the bed and started to put on his gear. Mikey grabbed a skull-like mask, which was still covered in the poor creature's fur. Mikey had found out that the skull of this creature was particularly strong, and he could use it as armor. Mikey made sure to grab a rope and his bag.

Mikey tied the pouch-like bag to his hip and slotted his knife into a holster on his thigh. Mikey finally grabbed a dark grey hooded drap he could wear; it served as a means to protect him while also concealing his identity. Even if Mikey himself didn't care about the Kraang bots knowing it was him who was stealing from them, he didn't want them to go after his brothers, so Mikey hid who he was.

Finally fully prepared, Mikey moves to leave the treehouse. Mikey climbs up to the opening for the window; it was the only entrance to the treehouse, so it acted as a door slash window type thing. Crouching down so he can leave, Mikey leaps out of the tree and does a roll, so he breaks his fall.

Mikey starts to head in the general direction of the Kraang settlement but stops when he catches a glimpse of himself in a puddle of water.

Mikey looked nothing like himself; the turtle in the reflection looked intimidating and stoic. The turtle wore a torn and battered dark grey cloak that Mikey recognized as his own. The mask the turtle wore covered most of his face.

The whites of the turtle's eyes took over, making him look fierce and dangerous.

This turtle wasn't Mikey.

Mikey was the clown; he was the comic relief and the silly, joking brother, not whatever war-torn soldier was in front of him.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Mikey calms down.

Now wasn't the time for near-adulthood existential crises; Mikey needed to focus and get to the Kraang settlement. It's his only chance of helping Leon recover.

Mikey needed to do this; he couldn't afford to get distracted.

With that last thought, Mikey took off running. He jumped, swung from a hanging vine, and soared across a casym in the ground.

The rush of adrenaline exhilarated Mikey, sending a rush of dopamine to his brain and causing him to let out a whoop of excitement.

Mikey spent time in the direction of the Kraang settlement; it was always a long trek, but it was necessary for their protection.

Mikey came to a sudden halt when he spotted the Kraang settlement and some guards posted at the entrance, hiding himself in the dark purple bushes. Mikey scans the area.

There were fewer guards than normal, and Mikey could easily overpower them if needed, but not so many at once.

He guesses he will have to do full stealth on this mission, pulling his hood further down his face. Mikey slowly makes his way through the bushes towards the back.

There's an air duct on the roof near here; the duct is easily big enough for Mikey to crawl through. Mikey just needed a way up there.

Mikey watches as two Kraang bots move away from the back, leaving it almost completely open. Moving into action, Mikey sprints and jumps off of one of the metal power boxes and pulls himself up to the roof.

Slowly making his way to the air duct, Mikey grabs the side of the metal covering and gently pulls the covering off. Forever ago, Mikey found out that this air duct in particular had a loose cover and used it to his advantage frequently. Mikey softly set the cover to the side so it didn't make any noise and looked down the air duct.

The drop wasn't very big; Mikey hopped over the edge and fell down the duct. Crouching down when he lands to make a minimal noise, and possibly, there was only one way to go from here.

To the left of him, there was a single passageway. Mikey shuffled and started to walk down it. Mikey had to stay crouched the entire time, so it wasn't that comfortable, but it was better than nothing.

Walking down the slightly cramped air duct, Mikey makes his way towards the centre of the Kraang settlement, where he knew the infirmary was.

Mikey passes by a vent opening to a chamber; this was Kraang's prison cell of sorts.

It's where the Kraan kept whatever poor soul they captured this time.

Mikey was surprised when he saw it empty. The poor creature he saw here last must have died. Death was the only escape for someone when they got imprisoned by the Kraang. Be it by your hand or not, the Kraang will never let you go unless it's into the loving arms of death.

Mikey turns forward and continues on. Mikey needed to take the next right, then another right, and finally one more left before he got to the infirmary.

The trip was slow and slightly painful; Mike's thighs were starting to ache from the constant crouching.

Finally, Mikey makes it to the infirmary and scans through the vent opening to see if the coast is clear. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone there, so Mikey gently pushed the vent open and dropped from the air duct.

Mikey softly lands and quickly makes his way to the drawers. He looks over the pill bottles and tries his best to read the labels.

Most of it was in the kraang's language, but some of it was in English, obviously medication that the kraang had stolen from the human world.

Mikey puts every bottle of English in his pouch. Was it really stealing if Mikey was taking what was already stolen?

Mikey opens another drawer and sees a bunch of gauze and bandages.

Putting some of them into his pouch as well, Mikey continues to look through the drawers, bagging everything that seems like it could be of use.

Mikey whips his head towards the door when he hears a sound, jumps up, and crawls into the air duct again.

Mikey watches as a Kraang bot clearly trying to impersonate a human doctor walks into the room, deciding watching this doctor wannabe was boring. Mikey makes his way to the exit of the air duct.

So far, so good. Mikey has successfully made his way to the entrance of the duct, or exit, depending on how one sees it.

Mikey makes sure his bag is secure and makes his way out of the duct by pressing between two of the walls and shuffling upwards.

Mikey has successfully made it to the top and placed the air duct cover back in place.

Mikey scans the perimeter and secures the rope he brought along, making sure the rope is securely secured around a facet in the stone of the building. Mikey loosely ties the other end around himself, scans the perimeter once more, and scales the side of the building. Mikey safely makes it down and removes the rope from his body.

Just as he's about to remove the rope from the building, Mikey is spotted by a Kraang bot. The bot alerts the other bots, and Mikey abandons the rope and makes a mad dash toward the forest clearing.

Mikey runs for both his life and Leon's. Mikey had to get this medicine to Leon.

Mikey runs faster than he has ever run in his life. He hears the kraand firing bullets at him.

Mikey makes a split-second decision and runs through a flock of whale birds. The enormous creatures scatter around him and cover his decent to a hiding position. Mikey is squashed between two rock faces; the one posted over top of him offers shelter for him, cascading him in darkness.

Mikey holds his hands over his mouth to minimize sound and watches wide-eyed as a pair of nicely dressed legs and a pair of shiny dress shoes appear before him.

Mikey watches with batted breath as the feet of a Kraang bot walk slowly in front of him.

Mikey slumps with relief when the feet move away. Mikey stays there on the rock ledge just to be sure that he's safe.

Chapter Text

Everything seemed to freeze. An air of calm and success filled the air as Mikey breathed an air of relief.

The air felt like gulps of cool water after a long stretch of dehydration. The cool air soothed the burn in his lungs from anticipation.

Mikey scans the area from out under the rock ledge, not a single krang bot in sight.

calm, serene…. Deadly.

Mikey looked down at his knife clutched in his hand. His body contorted uncomfortably to fit under the small rock ledge. His shell bumped softly against the rock in tune with his breaths, the sound muffled by his cloak.

Mikey bristles when he feels a cold and unfeeling gaze land on him.

It drowns him; a fresh sense of dread fills Mikey's lungs.

Mikey could feel the world stutter and stop as his face slowly looked up.

Black beady eyes, a face impervious and calm. Stoic and stereotypically handsome.

The eyes of the Kraang bot scan Mikey, and a white, smooth hand reaches down, holding a gun.

Mikey's eyes widen. Mikey tries to lunge forward and attack the bot.

But despite Mikey's best efforts, the needle of a tranquillizer is plunged into the green scales of his arm, and a clear liquid is forced into his blood stream.

Mikey sways as he tries to get out from under the rock ledge.

Mikey swings the knife and fights drunkenly, his movements sluggish.

The last thing Mikey sees is the pale white fist of the Kraang Bot coming at him and connecting with his temple. Filled with his senses, Mikey collides with the ground.

Unconsciousness was overtaking him.

When Mickey wakes, blinding pain covers his vision, and blots of darkness cover parts of it. The rest is a painful white.

Mikey's head is forced back with a strong grip on his jaw, and the fingers of the hand dig into his beak painfully.
His eyes blink rapidly to focus on the offenders stoic and calm face.

The face of a Kraang bot.

Black, uncaring, heartless eyes fill Mikey's vision.

Mikey scans the room he’s in; it's plain and dark, and only Mikey and the Kraang bot are in it. Mikey is strapped to a chair uncomfortably with cold metal chains.

Mikey isn't wearing his mask; he's not wearing his cloak.

Mikey feels naked under the frigid gaze of the Kraang bot. He feels like the kraang can see right through his plastron and veiw his racing heart.

Mikey can hear his rapid heart beat in his ears, the organ thumping against his chest with petrified determination.
The Kraang Bot is stereotypically attractive: a white man with a strong jaw, smooth features, dark brown eyes, and a clean and handsome dark brown haircut.

The bot's mouth neglects to move as the kraang speaks; the kraang is already aware of Mikey's knowledge of its vile nature and its small, disgusting, slimey pink face.

"The kraang wishes to know if the intruder known as the turtle, known as the one which the kraang is meant to destroy, is in the building known as the base of the kraang."

The voice of the kraang is monotonous and robotic in nature; this particular kraang has a slightly faulty translator. Mikey is able to hear a faint impression of the kraang's native tongue, which is squeaky and high-pitched.

Mikey ignores the Kraangs question and tries to see if there is a way out. He needs to escape; Leon was dependent on him.

The Kraang bot roughly grabs Mikey's jaw and makes the Terrapin look at it. Mikey glares at the Kraang bot's face with a gaze full of hatred.

"The kraang wishes to know if the intruder known as the turtle, known as the one which the kraang is meant to destroy, is in the building known as the base of the kraang."

The kraang reiterates at a faster pace; the squeaks and trills; the sounds grind in the back of Mikey's scull painfully.
Mikey's head protests with the annoying monotonous voice of the kraang mixed with the grating, obnoxious sound of the kraang's natural language.

Mikey rolls his eyes and says.

"I heard you the first time, my dude; I just didn't want to answer."

The kraang speaks again in that horrible voice.

"The kraang wishes to know that the intruder known as the turtle, known as the one which the kraang is meant to destroy, is in the building known as the base of the kraang!"

Mikey sighs, of course.

This was going to be a long, tedious escape. Mikey rips his jaw out of the painful grip of the bot's hand.

Mikey looks down at the chains strapping him to the chair.
Mikey doesn't see a lock that's keeping the chain in place.
Mikey spots that his legs are left free; oh, the kraang would regret that.

Mikey subtly looks down to the legs and feet of the bot; if Mikey was fast enough, he could hook his foot between the kraang's legs and kick.

Mikey could cause the kraang to fall.

Mikey looks up at the Kraang bots face again and smiles. Mikey speaks with a dramatized, bored tone.

"You wanna know why I'm here?"

When the Kraang bot focuses its unemotional gaze on Mikey, it displays that he has his full attention.

Mikey continues to drag out his sentence.

"Well, I came here to..."

Mikey thrusts his foot between the bot's legs and sweeps it to the left. The leg of the bot is hard, and it hurts when he kicks it, but he pushes through it.

The kraang crumples to the floor, and a loud metallic clang sounds around the room.

Mikey finishes his sentence with a pleased and amused tone.

"To do that."

Mikey looks down to the chains, tries their strength, and finds that they aren't wrapped around him very tightly. Mikey wiggles his arms out, hooks his palms onto the back of the chair, and slowly, slightly painfully, worms his way out of the chained chair.

Mikey stands beside the chair wrapped loosely in chains and looks down to the fallen kraang bot.

Mikey sees it writhing and trying to stand back up.

Mikey lifts his leg and sees a deep purple bruise on
it from where Mikey had swept the leg of the Kraang bot.

Mikey stomps his right foot down onto the stomach of the Kraang bot, disgusting pink slush squirts from the crushed bot's stomach.

The kraang is dead, killed by Mikey's foot.

Mikey gags and shakes the pink alien blood and guts off of his foot.

Mikey looks around and spots a door previously hidden from Mikey from how he was strapped in the chair.

The chair was facing away from the door, keeping it out of Mikey's field of vision.

Walking purposefully, he strides to the door. Opening the door, Mikey walks through it.

Mikey feels he just doesn't care anymore; he did the stealth thing once.

Mikey needs to go back to the treehouse; Leon is sick.

The younger turtle is sick, badly.

If Mikey can't get that medication to him, Mikey fears that the red-eared slider won't make it through the week.

Mikey's little escape act had caused caos; a red blinking light overtakes the hallways; a blaring panic alarm sounds down the hallways; the sound echoes in the otherwise silent hallway.

Mikey reached the end of the hallways, being greeted by a door labelled something in the Kraang's language. Mikey can't understand it, but from the numerous times that Mikey has successfully infiltrated the Kraang's base, Mikey knows that the room is where they would have put his stuff; it's like a weird version of an evidence room. The only things kept in the room are things they've taken from people or captured.

Opening the closed door, Mikey immediately spots his cloak and mask along with his pouch and weapons, equipping them again. Mikey searches his pouch, and relief floods him when he sees the medication he needs for Leon to recover.

Mikey dawns the bag once more, retreats out the door, and walks once more down the caos-filled hallways.

Mikey walks right past some Kraang bots who don't seem to register him.

It's like he's invisible; the Kraang's are so focused on finding him that they don't even notice him when he walks right by them.

Mikey continues on and walks right out the front door. Mikey softly chuckles.

The kraang never seemed this incompetent when he was younger; they had always seemed so undefeable.

At least that was until his brothers and he faced the shredder.

Now the kraang is nothing more than a nuisance to the turtles.

Mikey walks lazily towards the forest and makes it a surprising amount before he's spotted and the kraang chase him.

He runs like he's never run before; his leg is killing him, but he finds he can't care.

Nearing the vine, Mikey jumps and just barely catches himself onto the vine he swung from before.

Landing safely on the other side and securing the vine so the kraang bots are unable to swing across as well.

Mikey runs across the way and slows when he nears the treehouse.

Mikey doesn't know how long he's been gone; the sky never gives away the time; it remains as similar as always, a beautiful sea of baby pinks and cotton candy clouds, never changing.

Mikey scales the side of the tree and slumps inside. Mikey sits in a heap on the ground, still panting from running so much.

The orange-coded terrapin looks over to the bed, and his heart stops when he sees a mess of blood beside the bed.

The smell of vomit intrudes on Mikey's nostrils, and he rushes forward, throwing his mask aside with a clatter and ripping his cloak off.

Mikey falls beside the bed; his leg aches, but he ignores it as he takes sickly sight of Leon.

The red ear slider scales aren't their normal lush green colour, taking on a more sickly complexion.

Dried blood cakes itself onto the younger terrapins lips, and Mikey curses softly under his breath.

Moving his head closer to the sliders, Plastron Mikey waits with bated breath to see if Leon is still breathing.

Mikey feels tears of relief fill his eyes when he hears the ragged and pained breaths of the blue-adorned turtle. Leon's heart is faint and slow, but it's still there.

Mikey's let's out of breath of relief and grabs his flask of water and brings it to Leon's mouth, urging the younger turtle to drink.

A small smile makes its way onto his face when Leon drinks.

Taking the flask away, Mickey is sure that Leon has drunken his fill. He frantically looks through his pouch and pulls out a half-full bottle of cold medication.

Quickly reading the instructions, Mikey plops two pills into his open palm and sits Leon up, opening his mouth. Mikey puts the two pills in and quickly fills Leon's mouth with water from the flask.

Shutting Leon's mouth and clasping a palm over the red-eared sliders beak, Mikey softly whispers kind encouragement and smiles brightly when Leon swallows the pills.

Setting Leon back down onto the bed, Mikey collapses beside the younger turtle in exhaustion.

Mikey can't even bring himself to care that he's practicing sharing a bed with his brother, something he hasn't done since he was a tot.

Mikey's eyes drifted close, and the two alternate brothers lay sleeping beside each other.

Chapter Text

Leo was groggy and in pain when he woke, with a sharp pain in his plastron and carapace. Coughing erupts from the teen.

His vision was swimming, blobs and colours barely visible; a humming murmur could be heard; it sounded like someone was trying to talk, but the words fizzled out before Leo could understand.

Blots and fuzzy shapes of orange and green filled his fever-addled vision.

Mikey, his younger brother.

Leo reached his hand forward to the splotches that made up the young terrapin; finally, he could see his family again.

Again?

Why would he need to see them again? His family was safely at home.

But this bed didn't feel like his own; it was too lumpy and scratchy to be his blue-stained sheets.

Why did Mikey's voice sound different?

The murmurs were too deep and too different.

The hands on his shoulders were too boxy and too large.

This wasn't his brother.

When had he last seen the youngest Hamato?

When was the last time he saw his twin and older brother, his sister, April?

His father?

Why was he alone?

The fever that oppressed the turtle's brain was confusing him.

What was the last thing Leo remembered?

Fighting.

Terror, chaos, and destruction.

The Kraang.

Paralyzing fear overcame Leo; his body wasn't moving, and his chest fell and rose rapidly with his petrified breathing.

Leo's lungs hurt, and muscles he wasn't aware he had hurt. Tears fell from his eyes, and his limbs shook in trepidation.

Calloused scales touched his arms. Leo flinched, but the hands stayed warm and steady, reminiscent of Raph's giant hands.

Leo sobbed, and he clutched onto the faint impression of his big brother's hands. A soothing voice vibrated in his sickly head.

Slowly, Leo's sobs lessened, calmed by the idea of his big brother being there to protect him.

Leo's vision cleared eventually, and the orange and green blots took shape.

Angelo… right.

Leo wasn't in New York anymore; he was trapped in this blasted dimension with a knock-off version of his baby brother's visage.

Reluctant acceptance washed through Leo.

There was no use fighting the fact that he was stranded in a strange, otherworldly dimension that was out to kill him.

A voice filled his ears, so Leo looked towards Angelo and listened to what the older man had to say.

"Hey, are you with me, Leon?” Angelo asked.

Leo moved to speak, but a hoarse, dehydrated voice came out, so Leo just settled for nodding.

Angelo nodded in return and brought a flask of cool water to Leo's cracked lips.

Leo drank deeply; the brisk water soothed his throat and quenched his thirsty tongue.

Leo understood he was sick, but the sixteen-year-old terrapin could feel deep in his bones that he was slowly getting better.

Leo takes a deep breath, and he can feel his sore throat cry at the cool, harsh air of the prison dimension.

Leo looks over to Angelo. Leo wonders how this turtle could be so kind to someone who barely knew him. Leo then spoke in a hoarse voice from inactivity.
“How long?”

Angelo blinks slightly, surprised by the question, and he tilts his head. The orange terrapin likes to move his hands around as he speaks.

“A day at least... I could be wrong though; I kind of got captured by the Kraang for an unknown amount of time.”

Angelo shrugs like it's not that serious.

Leo stares at Angelo, genuinely concerned by how unbothered the older turtle is by the idea of being captured by the enemy. Leo couldn't help but think back to when his own selfish actions caused Raph to be captured by those disgusting bricks of undisclosed goo.

Donnie would know Leo thinks absent-mindedly. Donnie would probably have it all figured out by the time Leo reunites with his family, if Leo reunites with them.

Leo mentally shakes his head; he couldn't think that he needed to be a leader. Leo needs to be the face man, and the face man is always happy.

Leo shrugs in response to Angelo's words. And he stares off into the distance. Leo then asks

“Where exactly are we? I know we're in the prison dimension, but I've never seen it look like it does out there.”

Leo gives a generalized gesture towards the pink and blue candy sky. The sky looks more like a picturesque painting of what Leo would think a horror movie would look like if it was based on cotton candy.

Angelo looks outside as well, and he stops for a moment before he turns back to Leo and asks, surprised.

"Prison dimension? Don't you mean dimension X?"

It's now Leo's turn to be surprised and confused.

"No, I mean the prison dimension."

Both of the turtles are now becoming more and more confused.

"We're in dimension X, the original place of the Kraang."

Angelo explains slowly. But that's not right. Leo thinks.

"Wait what? But I thought that the Kraang were some weird alien race."

Leo rebutted.

"Well yeah, they're aliens, but they come from dimension X."

Leo shakes his head, and he says, in more denial, that Angelo's statement

"They don't come from this 'dimension X' though. They're trapped in the prison dimension. That's the whole point of the prison dimension being called the prison dimension!"

Leo raises his arms in frustration, but then immediately regrets his injuries and complains loudly. Leo winces and puts his arms down.

"What are you on about?"
Angelo asks, completely confused. Then it clicks for the older terrapin.

"Oh, right, different universes and all that mumbo-jumbo jazz."

Leo falls silent. Oh. Leo had conveniently forgotten that detail; of course, their respective worlds would be different. Leo supposes that Angelo comes from a universe where the kraang comes from whatever weird mix of prison dimension and dimension X is.

This makes Leo curious; the boxey orange-coded turtle spoke about the kraang as if they were nothing more than a nuisance. Leo wonders if that means Angelo's kraang are different than Leo's or if Angelo and his family are just insanely powerful.

Leo muses for a while about Angelo's word choice, and he thinks about how even though Angelo and Mikey are irrevocably different, they're still the youngest brothers in their respective families.

Leo hopes that both Angelo and Leo are able to return to their families safely, but some part of Leo finds that hope unbearably difficult to hold. Oh, how Leo missed his family.

Chapter Text

A misty whisper of sunlight peaks through the windows of the rickety, creaking treehouse. Inside the old dead tree sits two mutated turtles, one a boxshell turtle dawned in a sun-kissed orange bandana, the other a red-eared slider wearing a crisp blue bandana. Both ninjas and brothers. 

Mikey sits next to Leon, a chunk of wood in the green grasp of his hands. His three-digited hands work to widdle the wood into a mangled version of Mikey's beloved Ice-cream kitty; he missed her and was trying his best to capture her image in the wood with the help of a sharp steel knife. Leon is sitting bored. He can't move with the still healing injuries on Leon's body, and in his weakened state from his recovering illness, once Leon is back up to full strength, maybe Mikey will trust the other to not randomly collapse, but for now Mikey is forced to stay next to the restless turtle mutant, so very different from how Mikey remembers his own Leo to be. Maybe his Leo would be as joking and carefree as Leon is if Mikey's eldest brother hadn't been pushed to take care of his three younger brothers. Mikey can only imagine how much of a handful he, Donnie, and Raph had been. Sensei often retreated to his dojo, leaving Leo to pick up the slack. To this day, Mikey is still grateful for Leo's leadership and older brother's protectiveness, even if Mikey doesn't show it that much anymore.  Next to Mikey Leon, let's out a long, drawn-out sigh. of boredom; a few seconds later it happens again. Leon's actions kind of remind Mikey of when Mikey had been younger, around the same age as Leon had been; since then Mikey had grown a bit—if only just a bit. Another long drawn-out sigh sounds from the younger turtle mutant, and Mikey looks up and over to Leon and says, "Don't you think you could keep it quiet? Some of us are trying to do art!" Mikey holds up his unfinished sculpture of Ice-cream Kitty, and Leon looks at it unimpressed and critiques, "What? Your sculpture of a deformed rock?" Mikey gasps in an exaggerated sound of offence and says, wiping his eyes of a nonexistent tear, "You wound me, Leon; it's not my fault some of us have an eye for the finer things in life." Leon just rolls his eyes and mutters, "Wow, you're even more dramatic than Don." Leon then continues in a louder, more annoyed tone, "And besides, you're the one keeping me in here! All of this fabulous beauty can't be contained, you know!" Leon gestures to his face with a large smirk on his scaled green face. Mikey's unimpressed, to say the least. 

Mikey rolls his eyes, and he turns back to craving off small curls of wood shavings on his work-in-progress wooden figurine of Ice-cream Kitty. Mikey had just been working on her ears when Leon let out a long, dramatic groan of boredom, and Mikey's eye twitched in annoyance. He sets his sculpture aside, and he says, "Fine! You wanna go out? We'll go out." Mikey stands up and grabs his coat. Leon shoots up off the bed, only a small wince on the younger turtle's face, and he cheers, "Let's go!" Mikey groans, but in annoyance, and he grabs his mask and puts it on Leon, warning the teenager, "Don't take this off. It stops the Kraang from figuring out who you are" with a flinch goes through Leon's body at the mention of the Kraang. Mikey doesn't comment on it as he moves over to the bed and rips off the sheets that he long ago raided off of a Kraang base. He fashions it around Leon as a messier version of his own cloak. The younger turtle is obviously a bit annoyed by it, but it's a small price to pay for the guarantee of their lives.  

Mikey walks over to the window, and he looks out to the vast expansion of Dimension X. It's roughly early evening, and the sun is still high in the sky. Good. Where there's sun, there's safety. Leon will learn that soon or else the red-eared slider will lose his life... but Mikey won't allow that. Mikey had already saved this kid's life once; he's not about to let it go to waste.  Mikey gestures for Leon to follow him, and he scales the height of the deceased and dry tree, the bark rough on his green scales. Standing at the bottom with his hands on his hips, he looks up to Leon stumbling down with all the grace of a newborn horse-kelp One of the many, many beasts of dimension X. Eventually Leon does manage to get down from the treehouse. Mikey rolls his eyes, and he says, "We're going for a water run; we need to get to the grove of laughing flowers and make it past the sleeping cashews to get to the watering hole." Leon just stares at Mikey, and he lifts a hand and points one of the three green digits and deadpans. "I understand only a quarter of those words... Are you good, man?" Mikey just groans a bit in annoyance and turns around and begins to walk in that direction, calling back behind him. "Just keep up."

Mikey has a feeling that this will be a long, long day.

Chapter Text

Leo was quite proud of himself for getting Angelo to let him explore. 

As Leo looks around, he finds many alien things. Well, that would make sense since currently Leo was in an alien dimension, but this alien dimension didn't seem to follow anything logical. 

There were a few points where Leo would find certain creatures or plants that reminded Leo of his comic books or some of the heinous villains that Lou Jitsu would fight. Angelo at first seemed a bit confused by Leo's tendency to yell "HOT SOUP!!" and karate chop one of the particularly mummy-looking plants, one that looked like it was wrapped in bandages and looked like the major antagonist of 'Lou Jitsu Meets the Mummy Ninjas'. If Donnie were here, Leo was sure his brainiac of a twin would say it were a membrane or something yuck... membrane

After seeing Leo karate chop a couple more plants and kick them, regardless of the pain Leo feels in his chest plates, Angelo began joining Leo in on the fun. Except for yelling "HOT SOUP!!" Like Leo's Mikey would have done, Angelo yelled something that sounded like "BOOYAKASHA!" or sometimes "COWABUNGA" when Angelo did a cool flip that Leo tried to copy but ended up falling on his tail, still recovering from... 

Anyway. Angelo was right, there are laughing flowers, they taunt things at Leo, call him things like "cool blue" or "fearless leader," and then laugh magically.

Leo doesn't understand why the flowers call him that, especially since he's only recently become a leader and he's not all that fearless. Casey made sure Leo knew that when Leo failed his family.

One little red flower that was laughing in a rough voice said 

"You know best, oh fearless leader."

The flower sounded sarcastic, but... was that fond? Leo was sure he'd never seen this flower before, so how could it know him?

Leo looks over to Angelo for some sort of explanation. A joke on his tongue, but it fizzles out as he sees a look of pain in the older box turtle's eyes. 

Leo clears his throat, and he follows Angelo on to the watering hole.

"So..."

Leo begins, Angelo looks over to him, and Leo continues on. 

"How did you get here?"

Angelo shrugs and says

"A portal"

Huh, Leo managed to get to the prison dimension the same way.

Leo wants to ask more questions, but he doesn't know how to approach this, and he couldn't think much more of it.

As they were nearing the watering hole, having it in their horizon. The air got cold; a chilly, slimy sensation crawls up Leo's chutes. He turns his head. 

Pink

A clink of metal against stone, the ear bleeding scratch of it fills the two turtles ears.

Panic seizes Leo's lungs, a crumple smile on that ugly pink face. 

Leo fusses for his now ironically twinless katana, just like him.

Wielding the weapon in his tripod grip he gets into a defensive stance.

Vaguely Leo notices that Angelo does the same.

The Kraang of Leo's nightmare laugh, a cold, sinister thing that fills their ears.

"Finally"

It's metal mesh suit takes a booming step forward, and it's red eye locks in on him.

Leo slashes his katana with the intention to create a portal, but all that his mystic power is able to produce is a sad buzz in his blade. Little blue sparks of energy surround it, but his attempt is fruitless.

"Having trouble with your power little turtle?"

The Kraang asks 

Leo feels fear grasp him; his carapace suddenly seems too tight; he can't breathe. 

Angelo makes some animalistic call; a flock of large whale-like birds fly towards them. Angelo grabs onto his arm and yells

"C'mon! We don't have much time."

And they're running. Leo's feet stumble on small tigers and roots. His lungs can't catch air, his vision blurry from the pain there.

Leo doesn't know how long they were running for, but when they finally stop, he collapses into the side of a tree, coughing and wracking his still-recovering body.

Pain fills his senses, and the warm hands of a turtle he so wishes wasn't some poor imitation of his baby brother grab his shoulders. Leo can't make out Angelo's words, but they sound concerned.

Looking up from where he's slumped down, Leo coughs again, and the last thing he sees before his vision falls to black is red splashed against green scales.

Chapter Text

The events that brought them to this confused Mikey... what kind of Kraang looked like the one that attacked them? It was so much bigger than any he or his brothers had faced before.

Looking down at Leon's unconscious form, he sighs; he has to get them to safety. Everything had been so good; the two of them were having fun. You don't mess with fun.

Looking around, Mikey debates what to do next; the trek back to the treehouse is far too long for the two of them to make it. And he's not sure he can carry Leon well enough, but this place is familiar.

This is near where Mikey first found Leon.

Hadn't Leon used a katana when fighting that weird Kraang? Maybe Mikey can get it for the younger turtle.
Gently hoisting Leon on his back, he begins walking back towards the dark and dreary part of dimension X.

Mikey could feel the dead weight of the unconscious red-eared slider on his carapace, but he could also feel the breath of life against the scales on the back of his neck. It brought some ease to Mikey.

The terrain around them slowly changed from the bubblegum skies and cotton candy clouds to a deep grey rock and purple void, its vastness so dim and cruel.
The soft orange grass under his feet growing more and more dead as Mikey made his way towards the site, he found Leon; surely that Kraang wouldn't be there.

It took Mikey roughly twenty minutes. Mikey doesn't know time was a lost concept to him since he found himself in dimension X.

As Mikey looks around at the jagged rocks, he tries to spot the katana Leon was using; with a stroke of luck, he manages to see a glint in the distance.

Walking towards the speck of reflective light, the very air around them begins to cool; whispers of a foggy breath leave Mikey's panting mouth with the effort to carry the red slider, sending a shiver along Mikey's scales.

"Who turned off the heat?" Mikey questions aloud as he looks around.

They're almost to the katana; they can make it.

Just as they reach the weapon, its leather handle bumps against Mikey's foot. A soft warm breeze feathers across the rocks; it catches Mikey's attention, and turning towards the warmth, a small speck of light fills Mikey's vision.

A swirling of orange... energy sparks like a blade against rock; a rushing sound emanates from it, and Leon shifts against Mikey's carapace.

The light swirls and spirals in a circle; it breathes a sense of safety like it was meant to bring hope.