A Life of Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfics.

Full Summary: AU. In a world where mutants and aliens are a common sight two turtle brothers, Leonardo & Donatello are trying to survive in the darker parts of New York City. When they finally find a comfortable way to live, Leonardo finds out a friend, who is like another brother to him, gets involved somehow with the biggest and most powerful gang in the city. The Foot. Will Leonardo be able to help his friend successfully? Will he and Donatello find and keep the family they've always wanted? Or will they just lose it all?

End Of The Beginning

A woman with long hair tied in a pigtail walked away from the child adoption center feeling good about herself. She had just adopted to babies who had been left there and decided to care for herself. When she had adopted the infants she soon found out that one was about a year older than the other. She looked at the stroller that she was pushing to her apartment in a wistful like way.

The two weren't any normal human children. They were two humanoid turtles. Though it wasn't uncommon to see humanoids lately the majority of the human race didn't exactly except any of them with open arms. She didn't mind though. So as soon as she had heard about to baby humanoid turtles at the adoption center she dropped everything and went.

The woman couldn't have children herself but she was going to care for these two like they were truly her own. She opened the door to her apartment and carefully took the two sleeping figures inside. She had already had a room for the babes ready and placed them in the crib. When she was done tucking them in she walked away, silently closing the door as to not wake them.

She went to the couch after getting a book about famous Renaissance artists, hoping to get some inspiration on what to name them. She carelessly flipped to random pages until she found what she was looking for. She knew what to name them.

7 Years Later

Yelling. That's all he heard. All he ever heard lately. Leonardo was eight years old. His little brother Donatello was seven. His mother had gotten married to Daniel four years ago. Leo had liked Daniel at first, until he started to do weird stuff to Donny. From an early age Leo had learned to be protective of his little brother. When his Mom had married Daniel for the first two years everything was fine. He had accepted Daniel as his dad and thought he was cool. Daniel would take him and Donny out a lot and they played the few video games they had with each other. He even allowed the two brothers to take martial arts lessons that was nearby, but as the next year went by Leo had noticed the change in Daniel.

Daniel had started to pay a lot more attention to Donatello as they got older and he started to watch his little brother up to the point where Leo finally got really suspicious on his motives of being so much nicer to Don than he was to him. Then one day out of the blue Daniel had hit Don when there Mom wasn't home so hard that Don had gotten a cut on his soft skin. This was apparently caused by him giving Daniel 'the look' so he would get him a new small piece of tech he wanted to mess with. Leo, of course, didn't know why Daniel would do that for asking a simple Yes or No question.

Leo had ran to get the sobbing Donny out of Daniel's reach as he continued to yell angrily and raise his hand to strike again.

That was when their Mother came home. Leo loved, cared, and absolutely admired his mother. Especially after what she did that year. She was so pissed at Daniel for harming one of her children.

"What the hell are you doing!" she had yelled when she came through the door and saw her husband about to strike their child again.

"What the fuck is it to you!" he angrily yelled back at her, turning to look at her better.

"Did you hit Donatello!" Her voice had gotten lower as she tried to stay calm, for her children's sake.

"Yeah, so what?" he asked her straightening up to his full height, trying to intimidate the woman.

That's when she snapped, hearing that her husband had intentionally harm one of there children didn't bode well with her at all. She picked up a book, which was closest to her hand, and chucked it at Daniel with all her strength. "DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING HARM ONE OF THEM AGAIN!" she had yelled in a fit of anger.

The book had nearly hit the man in the head but missed and clattered loudly onto the floor. The spine of the book breaking. Daniel and his mother had glared at each other before Daniel had headed towards the door.

"Fuck this." He had said as he shoved Leo's Mother out of the way with his shoulder and went out the door.

After that the two of them had begun to have more and more arguments and fights. Especially after his Mom stopped doing what he 'asked' her to do. Then the beatings started. One time Daniel had beaten their mother until she was unconscious for 'disobeying' him. Leo knew that this was mostly caused by alcohol and drugs that Daniel started.

He listened, holding onto Don tightly, as he listened to the voices escalate until there was an abrupt silence. The silence was suffocating and he could feel his little brother shake in his arms and the dampness of his blue hoody as tears got on it. The two listened to the sounds of the ever awake city around them. The sounds of the cars, trucks, and vans driving by, the chatter of people on the sidewalk, and the sounds of a few animals crying out their sorrows and worries.

Finally they heard the apartment door slam and soft footsteps running towards their room. The door open and the two looked up, their eyes big, wide, and scared at the mother. She had bruises all over, one black eye, and a slightly bleeding lip. "You must leave." She said to the two as she hurried around their room getting their school backpacks and dumping them of all of their content before filling Donny's with clothes extra pairs of shoes, and umbrella. Then, with a gesture for them to follow, ran into the kitchen.

Don looked up with frightful eyes at Leo before tentatively following their mother. Leo followed suit, also scared out of his wits as he watched alongside his brother. Their Mother was stuffing food that she knew wouldn't rot too fast but was healthy for her two sons in Leonardo's backpack. She then turned to the two and held out her hand so they could grab it.

Donatello took hold of her hand and felt Leo's hand in his left one as he ran with his mother out the apartment door and into the light of New York. It was slowly beginning to get late. The only reason why Don could tell was because the sun was going down. Daylight was disappearing fast.

The small turtles little feet slammed onto the hard concrete as they tried to keep up with their mother who did a sharp turn into an alleyway and went to the very back of it before stopping and turning to them and letting their backpacks onto the alley floor.

"Mother? What's going on?" Leo asked, his voice shaking as he spoke, helplessly looking up at her.

"I'm sorry. Leonardo, Donatello, I can't let him get t-to the two of you. You are both my pride and joy, but I have to leave you here." The two of them watched even more confused and helpless as their mother started to cry.

She knelt down in front of Leonardo her black hair getting a little bit in her face. She had cut it short a long time ago when she got a job that had required short hair. "Leonardo, promise me that you will your little brother safe, till your last breath." She whispered, her hands on Leo's little shoulders, she knew this will be hard for them, especially seeing as how young they were. Eight and seven years old. She couldn't believe she was forced to doing this to such young children, and she was going to burden the oldest with a very great responsibility that he shouldn't have to have at such a young age. "You will need to be the leader and stay strong for your brother, do you understand me?" she asked, looking in Leo's eyes as he nodded his head.

She then turned to Don who was shaking like a leaf. She gave him a big hug before letting go of him and looking him in the eyes as well. "Donatello, stay smart and always be the clever boy I know you are. Keep Leo from making any rash decisions without helping him think of the consequences, ok?"

Donny nodded and felt his mom hug him and Leo at the same time. Then they heard several footsteps and men's voices. "Kurai! Where are you ya little-" the voice cut off as Kurai took off down the street as soon as she heard Daniel's voice. "GET HER!" Daniel yelled as they saw him run past the entrance of the alleyway and several other men after. Leo burned the image of the men's uniforms into his mind so that he wouldn't forget which gang he would get revenge on for destroying his family when he is older, but right now the two turtle brothers huddled against each other, tears streaming down their faces as they sat there in the now silent and very dark alley, not daring to even sob for fear of being spotted. This was the End of their Beginning.

Authors Note: I am very proud of myself for this one. It is DEFINITELY an alternate universe if Kurai is their mother. ^^