The Falling Lotus

by Tenebrae's Downfall

Four months after the invasion, the gang travels to upstate to await for their leader's revival after their horrid defeat against the Shredder. In a turn of events, Leonardo finally wakes up from his injuries with troubling questions no one was prepared to deal with. While in the misfits of it all, the lingering drama from home slowly returns.. (OCCs, T-cest, AU-ness included).

1. Prologue

Hello, I'm new to the TMNT fan fiction so I apologize in advance for any mishaps that I may do with my works. This is just my intake on how I feel the beginning of Season three should've went down in the 2012 series. However, I am a huge fan of the 2003 series, so I will be adding some elements of it to many of my TMNT fan fics. Also, I will be using T-Cest in a couple of my works, but the turtles won't be related as blood brothers, but as foster brothers or brothers-in-arms. So don't spam me on how horrible it is, I'm explaining my reasons behind it so take the time to read it instead of going bananas over it alright? Thank you very much.

So I hope you enjoy my long stand alone and see you guys with the first chapter next week!

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Prologue

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It's been almost four months since we left our beloved home. The Kraang and Shredder defeated us one by one, and took everything with their mutagen and very advanced foot soldiers. The people of the city were either taken into dimension X after being mutated or slaughtered up into bits without a single care, with blood running throughout the streets and sewer pipes.

When we left our home, we drove through the empty highway that lead to upstate with my father's party van, see all but buildings upon buildings, and trees upon trees. Leonardo remained asleep, even after his horrific fight against the Shredder and his elite soldiers, while we were kept on our toes. Our weapons sharp yet slowly dulling away from lack of use.

Things were different without our leader and Sensei. Donatello felt guilty about the invasion; his once hopeful eyes turned dimming into nothingness, losing its light with each day that went pass. When he wanted too, he would come out of the barn to get food, not saying a word to us other than quick formal talk with hellos and good nights whenever everyone else went to bed. Most of the time though, he stayed in the barn to work on creating all sorts of herbal medicines to heal Leo for when he woke, if he woke up I should say.

Raphael was stood by Leonardo's side. Ever since he came out to all of us as bisexual just days before the invasion began and right after Donatello performed a DNA test to confirm their genetics just only out of curiosity. By the time the results were announced, Raphael eventually confessed his feelings for Leonardo in front of Splinter and soon enough, things were in our warrior's favor with his lingering feelings slowly returned. Everything seemed at peace for all of us, especially for Raphael that was until his lover was defeated by the hands of the enemy. But even now, our wounded warrior kept his lone stool near the bathtub with Leo's navy blue blanket wrapped around him, and waited, waited until he passed out on the floor.

Michelangelo tried to maintain a positive outlook when dealing with the worse. He would help me around the house and prepare meals for Raphael and Donatello when they didn't want to be bothered that day. Deep down though, Casey and I knew that he was hurting, but regardless of it, he wanted to keep everyone happy as much as he can for their sanity. And mostly for his own sanity so he won't suffer as well. As for Casey and I? Well, we were in the dark with the 'brothers', trying our best to keep everything at a small level of normalcy when things gotten rough with the constant fights between the warrior and the genius.

But most of all, Master Splinter's fate was worse compare to ours, well expect for Leonardo's. He remained in New York City, unknown to us if he made it out alive after the terrible fight against his old rival. We wanted to stay and fight back, but his orders were final once we saw him falling into the water hole.

It only took us moments to figure out that he was most likely dead to the world when the Shredder gave our beloved sensei a weird gaze of remorse. In the end, we still keep our hopes up that he somehow made it out alive. After all, we all did, just barely.

I wish things were normal again. I wish I can see and hold my dad close again and for the brothers-in-arms to be together instead of broken. But at this point, all we can do is hope.

Right?