Disclaimer: TMNT doesn´t belong to me. It´s all from Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, and also Nickelodeon.

So great was the extremity of his pain and anguish, that he did not only sigh but roar.

Matthew Henry

-PROLOGUE: ANGUISH –

"So…" The deep metallic voice that was already so familiar reverberated again on the other side "Are you still refusing my offer?"

The being who wanted to obtain an answer didn't move, neither answered. He was too weak, too fragile to move by himself. His captor took his silence as a no.

"So be it" His cape caressed the ground, raising dust, while he turned around and walked to the exit. Before closing the door, he added without looking at him "I wonder how much time you'd be able to stand it"

After the steel door closed with a big rumble sound, all became silence; but the captive didn't care. He didn't care about anything anymore.

Cold.

That was the last thing he would feel when his soul finally abandoned the living world. Since the first moment he got into that cell abruptly, he tried to fight to get through those tough bars that stood in front of him, keeping him from freedom in a menacing way. In spite of the fact that his mind was clouded, he was still able to remember that there was a moment when he refused death with all his might. He cried, hit the walls, and even pulled the bars as strong as he could so as to get out of there. However, all that fight was worthless.

He opened his eyes. Those blue eyes whose shine was about to vanish. Since too much time ago, he had lost count of how many days was he trapped. It took time for him to avoid misty vision and focus his sight, and even more time to realise he was still laid on the ground, lying on his side and curled up. He tried to keep the little corporal heat he still had, but the humidity and cold had no mercy. There wasn't any blanket to wrap around him neither nor light to envelop him in its heat. Nothing at all.

His stomach roared, again. But he knew there was nothing to eat. He was trapped there until he took a decision, or died before it.

Who was he? Why was he there?

It was increasingly difficult for him to remember the past, moments when he was truly happy. He held those memories with his heart in his mouth. The mental images, which were more and more blurred, represented the only proof that demonstrated he was once a living being, not just an empty shell made of flesh and bones.

He closed his eyes, just trying to witness it all again.

A sky blue look seemed to smile at him as he entered the living room. It got close and embraced him with a hug full of energy. He could feel his heart beating lively against his own heart. He responded to that sweet peculiar gesture by getting even closer. The time flowing and the situation didn't matter as often as that radiant smile that could go through his soul and erase all sorrow.

Just the thought that he would never feel this happiness again tore his heart a little more.

Whenever he saw him, he was reading a book or sat at the table of "his laboratory". He liked to call it laboratory. With a screwdriver in his hand, he disassembled every device he found in the landfill. He was fascinated about the accuracy of his movements, and about the feeling of knowing what he was doing, though it was just a mess of nuts for him. He pressed his lips together and took out the tongue at one side, as a concentration gesture. When he finally understood how that mechanism worked, he rose his arms and shout due to his excitement. Then I looked at him with a huge smile, showing the diastema that had gone with him since his first years.

He nodded, proud of having someone so special, so singular in his family, just like him.

He would leave his last heart beat to have the chance of seeing one more of his inventions. Just one more, to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him he would always be there to support him.

It seemed it was yesterday when he fell into cold water. He was about to die of hypothermia that night. His father and brothers' voices sounded like echoes in the distance. He only felt ice and cold inside.

But then he felt something that wrapped him softly. It was warm, beating, like a flame standing up against any adversity. He recovered his consciousness gradually. He was laid on the bed, and it hugged him firmly. As he was numb, it took him some time for him to understand that it had stayed there to warm him. He had his eyes strongly closed. Occasionally, it whispered his name, begging him to stay in the living world, not to die.

He had never been someone who pretended to look like looking for mercy. He wasn't outspoken, and least of all intelligent. Nevertheless, he would never leave you, being always with there, guarding your back, ready to take all the damage needed to save his loved ones.

If he could, he would have cried. The only thing he did was curling up even more. It was now, more than any other time, when he needed his hug. An affection not so intense as his younger brother's one, but firmer, more determined, which would never change no matter what happen. He also loved his other brother, but he was different. There were moments when it seemed that both of them were pieces of the same soul, connected far beyond any physical attachment.

And his father…

"No. I can't" His heart was no longer able to stand it. Too much pain inside.

All those memories were been secluded by those injuries, the blood and the fear. He hugged himself firmly, feeling the crusts of those deep injuries with his fingertips. It wasn't the first time that he wished he was dead to get together with his family.

"Did you suffer? Was it painful?" wondered silently. He knew nobody would answer him, but just the thought of them suffering a slow painful death was unbearable. "I hope that, wherever you are, you'll be happy" He tried to smile, but while trying it his chapped lips started to bleed again. He clenched his fists and bit them, holding a sob.

He couldn't. He couldn't stand it anymore. He had to finish it all up.

"I only want to see you again" He wished with his heart bleeding.

Leonardo. He was Leonardo. He remembered who he was.

"It doesn't matter who I am if there isn't any loved one around me"

Darkness surrounded him again. Was he dreaming or it is finally time for the Death to wrap him with its arms?

A deep fear covered each centimetre of his body and soul.

"No…No…NO! I don't want to die!" He shouted in vain. He sank gradually, increasingly, in a profound pool. It was stifling and cruel, as the destiny that had taken away his family from him before revelling in the remains of his soul

"Mikey, Donnie, Raph, father…" He whispered, dying, as it was a prayer. "Please, I want to see them again"

I don't want to die alone…

A/N: Hi there, everyone! Here you have the prologue of "4" in English! I finished it long time ago, but I haven´t upload it until now. I had some problems which needed to be solve. I must thank (again) this special friend of mine who lent me a hand with the translation. Again, English isn´t my mother tongue, and I have a serious lack on writing skill. Furthermore, I feel I lose a big part of my style at the time to write it in English, but I do as much as I can.

Well... what are your first impressions about it? Do you want to read more? I´ll be willing to read your reviews. I´ll translate as fast as I can, but it´s hard for me and I am really slow.

See ya!

Regards.

Jomagaher.