Chapter Text
“This way!” Satisfied that his brothers were actually listening to him for once, Leo started his climb up the nearest wire in the elevator shaft. Soon enough, he could hear his brothers following him up.
“Go, go, go!” Donnie’s shout behind him made Leo glance down quickly, seeing the amount of Foot soldiers swarm the elevator shaft. The temptation to leap down and start slicing them to pieces with his one remaining katana was almost overwhelming, but after that fight it didn’t seem like the best idea in the world.
They had made it about halfway up the shaft before Mikey screamed. “Ah! Get off of me, you bug-eyed creep!” When Leo looked down at Mikey, he saw his brother holding onto a wire with one hand as a Foot soldier clung to his leg. Without a second thought, Leo let go of his wire and pushed off the wall, managing a backflip before his feet slammed into the Foot soldier’s head and releasing its hold on Mikey’s leg. When Leo managed to grab onto a wire again to halt his falling body, he realised he’d fallen most of the way with Foot soldiers close below him.
As Leo started his climb again, he looked up to see his three brothers had stopped, staring down at him or something below him. “Those guys are robots?” Donnie said.
“Move your shell, Donnie!” Leo yelled up at him, painfully aware of how quickly the Foot, what where they? Bots? Where gaining on them. He was constantly moving his gaze between his brothers and the Foot Bots and his relief was hard to contain when he saw Raph reach the top. Raph had quickly turned to pull Donnie up, then reached for Mikey.
As Leo watched this, he felt something close around his ankle, almost yanking him from the wire. A Foot Bot now clung to him, much like it had done to Mikey. Kicking at its head, Leo glanced up at Raph. His immediate younger brother was holding out his hand to him, ready to pull him out.
More and more Foot Bots where now surrounding Leo, trying to drag him down. He stretched out his arm towards Raph, straining against the weight of the Foot Bots now holding onto his shell. However, that’s when he seemed to see everything for the first time. Raph can lean out further than that, he did so to pull Mikey out. Why isn’t he trying to get these bots off me? Where are Mikey and Donnie?... Don’t they… Don’t they care about me? Leo had pulled back his hand without even realising it, just watching Raph’s face yet not registering anything that his younger brother was saying or doing. They didn’t need him, didn’t want him. Raph was just willing to let the Foot take him, yet he’d put up an act of trying to save him… His brothers didn’t care…
When the wire snapped, Leo barely felt anything. He just kept watching Raph as he fell.
Down.
And down.
And down…
Raph wasn’t entirely sure of what was going through Leo’s head when he pulled his hand back, making it impossible for Raph to reach him. It wasn’t that he’d been forced to, Raph could see right now that his arm was still free. Raph continued trying to reach his brother, until he heard the sound of snapping and the wire Leo was holding onto went slack.
“Leo!” For the second time that day, the first being while they were facing off against the Foot Bots, Raph felt completely useless as he watched Leo plunge down the elevator shaft along with the Foot Bots. It wasn’t every day that you wondered how someone would feel as they fell, knowing they were now in the hands of their enemy but the expression on Leo’s face was not what Raph had expected. He’d have expected shock, maybe even fear, but he saw neither of those. Instead he saw confusion, hatred… Betrayal…
Raph slowly backed away once he’d lost sight of Leo, looking over at Mikey and Donnie. “He’s gone… And it’s all my fault…”
Once back in the lair, Raph sat with Spike on his lap, slowly tracing the patterns in the smaller turtle’s shell. Donnie paced back and forth behind Mikey, who wasn’t joking around about anything for once.
“We didn’t follow his lead…” Donnie said after a long silence besides the sound of his footsteps.
Mikey sighed. “How are we gonna explain this to Master Splinter?”
“Explain what to me, Michelangelo?” Splinter just seemed to appear in the room, although it wasn’t like that was uncommon.
Swallowing back the lump in his throat, Raph looked up at their sensei and father. “It’s Leo, sensei. Karai… Captured him…”
Splinter bowed his head. “Hmm… I knew it would come to this eventually.”
“Come to what, sensei?” Donnie finally stopped pacing as the three of them looked at Splinter in curiosity.
“Karai wants to take revenge. She believes that I took one of her loved ones away from her.” The whole time, Splinter kept his gaze on the ground.
Mikey sat up slightly straighter and even though Raph was behind Mikey and couldn’t see his face, he knew Mikey was nervous. “But it’s not true, right?” Mikey asked.
Splinter only sighed, finally looking at the three of them. “It is very much… The opposite of what she thinks.” He then raised his voice slightly. “Find Leonardo. That is what is important right now. Rescue your brother.”
“Already on it, sensei.” Donnie said as he turned towards his lab. Glancing at each other, Raph and Mikey both followed.
Once the two entered the lab, their brainy brother was already typing away on his computer. A few seconds later, he called them over. “Okay, so I hacked into some security footage…”
“That fast?” Raph muttered. “Why can’t you be that fast when we’re trying to hack into Kraang stuff?”
Donnie rolled his eyes. “Just look.” He played one of the videos and pointed to a white van on screen that took a corner a little too fast to be just a normal driver. “It’s Karai’s van.”
“They took Leo to the Bradford Dojo!” Mikey pointed out.
Raph nodded, “Let’s do this.”
“Wait so you’re leader now?” Mikey asked, clearing annoyed at that idea.
“Woah, woah, woah. Hold up.” Donnie interrupted. “I’m the smartest so-“
Raph stepped back from the two of them. “Look, let’s not argue about this. Leo needs us and listen, this time we fight the way Leo wanted us to fight. The way he fights.”
Leonardo woke up to one hell of a headache.
The next thing he noticed was how cramped his muscles were. He’d been shoved into a very small cage, honestly he wouldn’t be surprised if it was for some kind of bird. The final thing he noticed was Karai, watching him as she spun a tanto in her hand. “You know I bet I’d make a fortune if I sold you to a science lab. Could you imagine the press?” She smirked as she turned her back to him, which made Leo question if she was talking to him or herself. “’Talking ninja turtle found in sewer’.”
Leo sighed. “Great… Betrayed, captured and now totally humiliated… Awesome day Leo, awesome day…”
Karai now turned to him, her smirk replaced by a glare as she pointed her tanto at him. “You’re getting everything you deserve Leo, after you betrayed me last time.” A snap of her fingers and Foot Bots appeared. Great… Just what I need…
“Don’t you love it? My new Foot Bots follow my orders to a T.” Karai never got to finish what would probably be another taunting speech as Leo decided he’d had enough.
“Karai, get to the point. Why bother keeping me like this? Unless you want to talk me to death?” Leo snapped, fidgeting in the small cage.
Karai paused as she watched him for a few moments, then suddenly threw her tanto towards his cage. The small knife cut through the rope at the top and the cage hit the floor with enough force to throw Leo out and onto his plastron. When he looked up, his katanas were thrown in front of him. “Foot Bots, deshell him…”
This was going to be fun…
Leo got to his feet as he grabbed a katana in each hand, barely managing to turn to block another katana that had been aimed for his back. Another weapon came at him from his left, so fast he couldn’t see what it was. Just as he’d sliced through that Foot Bot, more took its place from more angles, more weapons being aimed at him. Once managed to duck past his defences and land a roundhouse kick to his plastron, while another knocked a katana out of his grip, managing to snap the blade in the process. It was after a few moments of this that Leo spotted a pattern.
Every time he landed a successful hit on a Bot, it would pause momentarily (if it was still functional) and its eyes would glow red as it processed the move, learning it. He could destroy them in that moment if he timed it right. Every time he saw glowing red eyes, he’d switch targets to that Bot. Either the Bots couldn’t see his method, or they just weren’t capable of learning it, but either way they weren’t able to defend themselves.
As the last few Bots fell, Leo was left facing off a very surprised Karai. “How… How did you beat them? They were meant to be invincible!”
“Don’t take everything for granted, Karai.” Leo said as he sheathed his one remaining katana. “I suggest you leave Karai, quickly.”
Karai looked like she was considering fighting them, then she sent him a quick glare before turning and walking out the door. Of course Leo could have just finished her there and then, but he remained where he was until the door shut behind her. With her gone, he then turned to the disabled Foot Bots. “Now I guess I’ll just help myself to some of their stuff, seeing as they broke my katana, twice.”
The three took their normal route along the rooftops, forming whatever they could of a plan as they went. “Security is going to be high, they’ll be expecting us.” Donnie pointed out.
“We could just ninja smoke bomb our way in, grab Leo and smoke bomb our way out again. Simple!” Mikey said the last part as they leapt across a gap between buildings, pulling a small pose before he landed.
“And did you bring any smoke bombs with you?” Donnie asked, showing that both he and Raph didn’t bring any with them.
Mikey quickly checked his belts. “Uhh… No. I gave the last few I had to Leo…”
“Well ain’t that just great…” Raph muttered. “So not only are we going in without much of a plan, but we’re going in without a decent way out too, that’s just- Leo?” He came to a sudden stop, causing Mikey to run straight into his shell.
“Dude! Warning next time. What’s with the sudden stop?” Mikey peered around his older brother until he could see what had made Raph stop. Running away from the Bradford Dojo was a figure that all three of them could easily recognise as Leo, the large shell kind of giving it away. “He escaped on his own?”
“That’s fearless for you.” Without hesitation, Raph took off running after Leo with Mikey and Donnie close behind him.
Donnie soon moved alongside him. “Raph, this doesn’t seem right… Leo isn’t heading back to the lair, or towards April’s. We might want to be careful.”
“Oh loosen up D!” Mikey said as he bounced alongside them. “I bet Leo’s just making sure no Foot are following him. He’ll head down into the sewers or something soon.” Even as the words left Mikey’s mouth, Leo dropped down from the roof tops and into an alley. “See?”
The alley had no fire escape to climb down, so the three were forced to jump down onto an old mattress. As they now stood in the middle of the alley, they found no sign of their older brother. “Guys, somethings up…” Donnie whispered. “This alley doesn’t have a manhole. Why would Leo come here if there was no way into the sewers?”
“That’s a good question Donatello. Can you work it out?”
The voice that had spoken was so familiar yet using a tone so foreign that it sent shivers up Raph’s spine. As one, they all spun to face the entrance to the alley, which now turned out to be the only way in and out. Leaning against the wall was the familiar figure of Leo, arms crossed over his plastron and his legs crossed over each other as he watched them from the corner of his eye.
“Leo! Dude, you scared us! We thought you were the Foot or something!” Mikey seemed relieved, but Raph could see the uneasiness in his youngest brother’s eyes. If he had to be honest, Leo’s actions had him on edge too. Something was definitely wrong.
“The Foot?” Leo chuckled, pushing himself off the wall. “You thought I was with the Foot? How amusing.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Raph was terrified. Leo was still standing in shadows, not allowing them to see him fully. The way he was standing, the way he talked, how he watched them. It was almost, hostile. Like he didn’t trust them.
Maybe Leo had read his thoughts, or had sensed how uneasy they were becoming. Either way, he slowly stepped forward into the light of a nearby street lamp. Under the light, Raph could see this clearly wasn’t the Leo they knew.
This Leo carried only one katana, the other scabbard empty on his shell. His mask, wrist and leg wraps had all been replaced with black fabric, the same used to make the Foot uniforms. Another hilt of a sword showed on his new black belt, but Raph couldn’t spot anything that actually showed there was a blade attached. It may not have been much of a change, but to Raph, Leo might as well have covered himself in pink paint and glitter.
“What the shell Leo? What’s with the getup?” Raph had stepped forward, yet he was unsure if he was trying to get closer to Leo, or put himself between Leo and his younger brothers.
Leo remained silent, his gaze slowly moving between each of them. This silence seemed to drag on for hours before Raph’s impatience caught up with him. “Okay that’s it! Come on Leo, let’s go home!”
He went to grab Leo’s arm, yet soon found the tip of Leo’s katana resting under his chin. Pasting the pounding of his own heartbeat, Raph could hear the surprised gasps behind him of Mikey and Donnie. “I’m not going with you. From now on I’m going my separate way and if any of you try to stop me, I won’t have a problem ending you. That clear?”
Raph could only dumbly nod as Leo slowly backed away, still keeping his katana pointing at them. “And just so you know, Leonardo is gone. It’s Nero now.” When none of them moved, Leo turned and ran out onto the street, making it to another building and easily climbing into the roof. As soon as Leo was out of sight, Raph sprinted after him, glad that is was still night and too dark for them to be spotted by humans.
“Raph!” Both Mikey and Donnie soon followed close behind him, but once Raph reached the roof Leo was nowhere in sight.
Raph sighed as he turned to the others, “He really is gone…” He muttered. “And it is my fault.”