No Light, No Light by RomaMarufixx
Warnings Blood, Gore, Angst. Pre-SAINW. A Commission for Elileo on DA.
Tonight had turned out worse than Mikey had intended, not that he has intended for it to be bad in the first place. It had been three years today that his brother, Donatello, had disappeared out of the blue, no note, no sign, no ransom from a kidnapper, no nothing, no...Donnie.
They'd all searched for Donnie at first and hoped he would come home. They'd checked all the places Donnie could have gone and talked to everyone and anyone who might know where Donnie might be, they'd even broken into secret bases, foot headquarters and purple dragon hideouts. But they had found nothing, no trace of Donnie at all in the year that they had searched.
The next year and the following they had tried just as hard to find Donnie but where greeted by the same results and it was just today that his father and eldest brother had decided to stop looking for their brother. Mikey, of course, went mad, he couldn't think why on earth they would stop looking for him.
This lead to many arguments between the family and a few months later Raph left the lair, he did come back, for a few days at a time, but he wasn't around very much, he'd stay for a few days and then they'd not see him again for a month, he'd come back for a few days and then he'd be gone for a few more months.
Currently it had been almost a year since he had last seen his brother Raphael and that might have been because of the big argument that Leo and Raph had, had and...and what had happened during the fight.
Long story short in a fit of rage Raph went for Leo, like many a time he's done before only Leo didn't react as quickly as he would have normally done if he wasn't channelling the same rage as Raphael. Raph's sais slashed Leo's eyes and everything went to hell, more so than it was with Donnie being gone.
It took less than a second for Raph to realise what he had done and Mikey thought Raph was going to run off but he didn't, he stayed, he tried to help Leo and called out for help which is how Mikey and Master Splinter found them. Without Donny they couldn't do much, they all relied on Master Splinter to try and save Leo's sight, but his skills, much like the rest of them were limited.
Leo was blinded. He would never see again. Master Splinter had confirmed it a few days after and that night was the last time they saw Raphael. Master Splinter became very withdrawn and silent, preferring to stay in his room to rest and meditate. Mikey brought him meals three times a day and he did the same as Leo.
The leader in blue had joked that even with his eyesight he was never any good at cooking and he didn't wish to risk it with no eyesight. Knowing his loss of eyesight had affected all his family more, he had tried to be more lighthearted, despite breaking down inside, it worked for a while, even after Raph left, but he couldn't keep up the act for much longer and soon became much like Master Splinter.
And even though Leo couldn't see it, he could sense the change in Mikey's behaviour. The sounds of the games console hadn't been heard in over a month, no flipping of comic book pages, no clanking of pots and pans, no dancing, singing, music, any of the normal things that Mikey would be doing. Now he dedicated his time into looking after Leo and Master Splinter, whatever else he did was not known to the two although they guessed it was patrolling the city and looking for both of their missing brothers.
"Mikey?" Leo questioned one day when Mikey brought him his breakfast.
"Yeah Leo?" he said in a fake happy tone.
"Are you okay?" Leo asked, not knowing what else to ask his brother and wanting to know if his brother was, well, okay, he barely talked to him, let alone ask how he was feeling.
"Of course I am." Mikey smiled a fake smile which Leo didn't see but could feel.
"No, you're not." Leo said, deciding to face the subject now or never.
"Leo..."
"Mikey, please, I can't lose you as well." Leo said, emotion thick in his voice even though he had tried to cover it.
"Leo, I'm not going anywhere."
"Maybe not physically, Mikey, but you're not here mentally." There was silence between the two remaining brothers before Leo spoke up again. "If you ever want to talk Mikey, I'm here."
"I know that Leo." Mikey said, a little more harsh than he had intended to which was evident as Leo flinched. "I'm just going out for a bit."
"Mikey, do you really think that is a good idea?"
"I'm not Raph, I will be back." and walked out of the room leaving Leo debating whether or not to follow his little brother.
Mikey stomped along the sewage system, not sure where he was going just wanting to get away from the lair for a little while, away from Leo as well, just away from everything as much as he could. Life has changed so much so quickly and it had broken Mikey but he had tried to cover it up but Leo had seen through it now, he may as well give up the act but worried it might be the last straw to break their family and Mikey couldn't do that, Raph and Donnie had already done enough.
A shadow going along the sewer wall made Mikey freeze up before drawing out his weapons and scanning the area around him with sharp eyes. He couldn't see or sense anyone but that didn't ease him. He slowly backed away from the area he was in, his weapons still drawn, not wanting to be approached or attack unarmed.
Just like before a shadow appeared along the sewer wall as if it were running and Mikey's patience snapped.
"Who's there?" he shouted and regretted it immediately when two dozen or more foot ninja came out of the shadows and into Mikey's view and he could feel more of them appear behind him.
Shit.
The first few ran at him and he defended himself, only attacking when he knew that he wouldn't get attacked from another angle, but this method only allowed him to knock unconscious or kill five of the thirty or so ninjas.
He tried a new method, just attack, mindless anger, much like his brother Raphael used to fight, back in the days the brothers fought together as a team, facing this amount of foot ninjas he really did need his brothers, he couldn't fight them much longer and there was no way he could get out. He couldn't take the ninjas through the sewers for fear that he might lead them to his home and what remained of his family.
So he ran for the nearest ladder to the surface and made his way along the rooftops trying to lose the ninjas that remained but it was no use, he was going to have to fight them again, at least he now had several ways of getting out of this making it no longer a tight situation.
It wasn't until he had defeated another ten foot ninjas that Leonardo turned up and immediately knocked two foot ninja down, his eyesight obviously not putting a damper on his ninjitsu skills.
"Leo, what the hell are you doing?"
"Saving your shell!" he yelled before taking out another two foot ninjas.
"I don't need help."
"I don't care whether you do or do not need help Mikey, I will help you because you're the only brother I have left and I am not going to lose you." Leo stated and used his other senses to detect which direction the rest of the foot ninja were going to attack him from.
Mikey didn't want to argue anymore, in a way he was glad that Leo was here, he didn't know how much longer he would have lasted just fighting on his own, but by the looks of things, two of them wasn't much better than one, the foot ninjas were much tougher nowadays, mostly because of how powerful the Shredder had become, he needed ninjas that were as powerful as he was if he was ever going to get rid of all of the 'vermin' of New York City which included the turtles and their Master Splinter.
"Mikey, we have to retreat." Leo said, from just a few feet away from Mikey.
"We can't."
"We have to, if we don't we'll either be killed or taken to Shredder and at the moment I don't know which would be worse." Mikey nodded at Leo's reasoning and as soon as they could slip away they did, down the side of the building they were on, into the alley and down a manhole before the foot were off the building.
"We aren't going to lose the foot in the sewer systems Leo and we might lead them back to the lair, that's the whole reason I took them up to the rooftops."
"The sewage systems are very complicated and run under the whole city, we can use it as a maze, it will be much harder to find us running around down here then it would be running along the rooftops in plain sight." Mikey didn't argue with his brother, since he knew he was right.
The two of them had been running around the sewer for an hour and had only spotted foot once, they took this as a sign they could carefully make their way back to the lair, but they were wrong. Around the area that held the secret door to their lair was foot. They wouldn't be able to return home.
"Do you think they know where our lair is?" Mikey said with a hint of sarcasm.
"I think it was on top of the list of things for Shredder to find." Leo hissed.
"How are we going to get into the lair with them outside?" Mikey asked.
"I have no idea, the most important thing on my mind right now is hoping that Master Splinter doesn't decide to leave the lair." he said in concerned for his father's life. A splash of water behind them made them turn and were face by more foot ninja.
"Oh for crying out loud." Mikey censored himself.
"Split up." Leo ordered.
"What?"
"Spilt up now!" Leo shouted and ran forwards into the foot ahead and Mikey ran as fast as he could behind, drawing out his nunchucks to defend himself with as he ran through the foot near the lair's entrance.
All of the foot had been defeated, around Mikey anyway and now he steadily walked back to where him and Leo were not very long ago, there was no sign of Leo anywhere. Having let his guard down for a few seconds was the worst thing he could have done because in that few seconds what remained of his life was turned even more upside down as a blade dug into the skin of his left arm and tore through it.
Everything from that moment on was just pain, Mikey managed to swing backwards and knock out the foot ninja, or he might have killed him, right then he didn't know nor did he care, all he cared about was the pain in his arm, his blurring vision and migraine. Blood loss. That was what was happening to him, he was losing far too much blood. But where was he to go? He couldn't go back to the lair, the foot might still be there and he wasn't exactly able to fight them, losing as much blood as he would, he'd lose more blood but that wouldn't matter as they might as well finish him off in the state he was in, bringing him to the Shredder he'd just die on the way anyway.
He tried walking forward but collapsed on the ground and tried to move forward grabbing the sewer ground with his good arm as he couldn't move the other. There was no point though, he'd barely moved and he was so close to drifting off into unconsciousness but he knew that if he did it would be bye bye Mikey. Maybe it was time, there really wasn't that much to live for anymore and the future could only be worse with the shredder gaining more and more power everyday.
"Mikey!" he heard someone shouting his name but even voices were fuzzy now.
"Leo..." he managed to mumble the person's name back and felt someone touch his shell, he didn't even flinch, but it was a three fingered hand, so he had nothing to fear.
"Jesus christ, Mikey." Leo said as he touched the wounded arm and smelt the blood. "I have to get you to April and the others, Master Splinter is with them." That is the last thing Mikey remembered before he fell unconscious.
He awoke to a bright light and for a few seconds he thought he was in heaven, but his vision cleared and he saw a green figure looming over him, his brother.
"Leo?"
"Hey, you're finally awake." The eldest smiled.
"How long have I been out?"
"A couple of weeks?"
"How bad was it?" he asked and Leo didn't reply, his expression souring.
"I'm sorry little brother." was the last thing he said before leaving the room and a few seconds after Angel walked in, her eyes red, as if she had been crying.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked, worried for the girl, despite the fact he was in a makeshift hospital room.
"I'm fine." she said, her voice weak.
"What's got everyone upset?"
"You probably can't even feel it because you're so doped up on painkillers." she laughed, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
"Mikey you were seriously injured during the attack with the foot, the katana wore through a lot of your arm and being in the sewer...it got infected quickly..." he tears started up again and she sobbed. "We had no choice but to...to..." she couldn't continue her sentence, she had always been very close to Mikey, especially since two of his brothers had left his family. "Amputate." she said and Mikey's eyes widened and he looked down at his arm to confirm the fact that it was gone.
Angel threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his neck, so that he couldn't see her cry. For Mikey, he couldn't cry, he felt so empty, that he couldn't. He didn't know what to feel, as if things hadn't been bad enough before, now he had only one arm. He wouldn't be able to do a lot of the things that he used to do and he would have to learn to adapt to fighting with just his one arm.
He cast his eyes down at the purple haired girl crying into his neck and kissed her hair and buried his head into it, trying to get rid of the bubbling emotions.
This was his life from here on out.
Hell.