This is an idea I've had bouncing around my head for a while. I keep trying to finish my other stories before I start this one, but I don't think I'll be able to really get back into those until I write this one. So, here it is. And I promise I will finish my other stories.
This is based loosely on the episode "Same as it Never Was." This is just the prologue, kind of setting up what happens from here on out. I do not own anything related to the TMNT. Thanks so much for reading!
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I was never really sure how it all happened. It was like, one day everything was normal, and the next day everything was all upside-down and twisted and… wrong. Master Splinter was dead, Raph was blaming Leo, and we were….
Well, I guess I should start at the beginning. After we got home from the future, things went back to normal. I mean, Don had a lot more to think about and went off on this whole big "we could have that technology now" kick. And we had all changed somehow while we were gone. But it was all right. Then the Shredder came back. Raph had said that the only way to get rid of the guy was to kill him and burn his remains. Evidently he was right. We should have known that simply banishing him to a frozen, desolate planet void of atmosphere would not be enough to defeat him. Because he came back, and Master Splinter died. Well, Shredder killed him.
It happened so quickly, too. We were just going to get information. We weren't supposed to fight. But… somehow the Shredder knew we were there. He had a whole army ready, including the Foot Elite. Leo ordered that we retreat (no duh!), and of course Raph said we should stay and fight. Master Splinter didn't say anything, and to this day none of us have any idea what he wanted. Anyway, while we were running (and Raph was yelling), someone pulled out a gun. I don't know who it was. It might have been a Purple Dragon, or one of the Foot, or even the Shredder himself for all I know. Leo went down first, a bullet in his shoulder. His bad shoulder, no less. Based on that alone I can't help but think it was the Shredder, or at least someone acting on his orders. Well, Leo went down, and went down hard. I don't think I've ever seen him in that much pain, and… well, I don't ever want to see anyone like that again. But before we could do anything, Master Splinter was down too. Those psychos were still shooting at us like crazy as Donny picked up Master Splinter and Raph and I half-carried, half-dragged Leo. We managed to get away without any more casualties, but the damage had been done. Master Splinter, the only father we'd ever known, was gone.
The time that followed still haunts me sometimes. Don spent more and more time in his lab, staying up until insane hours in the morning. I think maybe he thought if he worked hard enough it could bring him back. But, of course, it didn't. Raph took to spending more and more time topside bashing skulls with Casey. I swear he got at least half of his scars in those couple months. I tried to keep smiling, to maintain some sense of normalcy, but the others made it too hard. Granted, Leo tried, but it just wasn't working. Eventually I gave up. And Leo… well, he may have appeared to have handled it the best, but I know he took it the hardest. He was trying to recover both physically and mentally while fighting a losing battle to keep the remainder of our family together.
Raph was the first to leave. He had brooded and pouted and sulked and run off and given everybody the cold shoulder for so long that when he finally lost it we weren't really expecting it. A couple months after the… incident… Raph came storming into the lair screaming and throwing everything he could get his hands on. Don was the first one to see what was going on—if he had liked peace before, it had multiplied exponentially after Master Splinter's death. He tried to get Raph to calm down, but he wouldn't listen. Part of it probably had to do with the fact that he had more alcohol in his veins than blood. He started shouting about how the whole world sucked and was set against him, and how nobody appreciated him or cared that he was hurting. Then he saw Leo. And if Raphael had been angry before, boy was he enraged now. He ran across the room, in a surprisingly straight line considering how wasted he was, and slugged Leo right across the jaw. I swear I heard it crack from all the way across the living area. Leo was shocked but didn't say anything as he waited for Raph to say whatever it was he wanted to say. They stared at each other for what had to be five minutes before Raph hissed, so quietly I could barely make it out, "It's all your fault." Before any of us could recover Raph had climbed the stairs and slammed the door to his bedroom.
He didn't come out for two days, and when he did he was completely sober but no less angry. He stated as calmly as I've ever heard him speak that he was leaving. He said he couldn't take it anymore and that he never wanted to see Leo again. He looked at Don and I and told us that we were free to come with him if we wanted to.
I was torn. More torn than I've ever been in my entire life. I was being forced to choose between my big brothers, my heroes. In the end, I went with Raph. Leo asked me why, later. He didn't seem angry, didn't seem sad. He didn't show any emotion, really—something that had become unnervingly common with him. And I told him I didn't know. I still don't know. I think every day, what if I had to make the decision over again? Who would I chose? Would I do it differently? And I never know.
It was Don's own inability to choose that drove him away. Leo begged him to stay, or to at least go with Raph, but the poor guy just couldn't pick a brother. He left shortly after we did. And Leo, well…. Leo stayed. I think we destroyed him when we left him, and he could never make himself leave the lair. His shoulder healed over in time, but if it had bothered him before he was practically crippled afterwards. I saw him once, after I left, on a short visit to New York. Raph refused to come, but I wanted to see my other brothers. Don was staying at the farm house, which April had helped him turn into a lab, and I stopped to visit him on my way to see Leo. Anyway, I could tell by the way Leo moved that he was in a lot of pain. He tried his best not to move his left shoulder, but in true Leo fashion he was still training just as hard as before. He was so different, though. He seemed… broken. He had stayed so strong through everything we had been through, even losing Master Splinter, but while I was there I realized something that sent me running back to Raph in shame. The only thing that had kept him strong, the only thing that had kept him going… had abandoned him.
I've seen Donny a few times since then, and even Raph has come along once or twice. But none of us have seen Leo in four years now. I think each of us, in our own way, is scared to death to face what we left behind. So for the most part, Raph and I stay in our new home in the sewer systems of Buffalo and Don keeps to himself at the old farm house. We never really talk to April and Casey anymore; they got married and the last we heard from them they had moved to Connecticut to be close to April's family. They said there was nothing keeping them in NYC anymore. And Leo… as far as I know he's still living in the old lair, in his old room, doing his old katas in the old dojo, and still trying to singlehandedly defeat our ever-strengthening old enemy, the Shredder.
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I know this is kind of dark and depressing, but it does get better, I promise. Please let me know what you think. I have a lot planned for this. Thanks so much for reading!