Genre: action, drama, horror, humor, suspense. Some minor elements or romance and tragedy.

Part 1:

Karai… Miwa… she was a mutant now. And her mind was lost. If that hadn't been enough, Oroku Saki had had the gull to blame him for the matter. It was a bitter insult to injury. His beloved daughter slipped from his fingers at the first opportunity he had even had to get to know her. Why was the Shredder's judgment so clouded he couldn't take the responsibility for what he had done? If he loved her in any way the way he did… why?
Master Splinter tried not to be bitter as he and his four sons waited anxiously for any sight of her. Donatello had buried himself in his lab, trying to get everything he could to re-create the retro-mutagen, but he knew they were running out of resources.
And he wasn't the only one in the race to make it either. Master Shredder had ordered Baxter Stockman to generate the antidote as well. It seemed at every turn Donnie made, he was there, racing for the same ingredient and it quickly grew frustrating. Since they were working towards the same goal, Donatello had posed to the fly man that they form an alliance, but Baxter would have none of it. He didn't need help from the likes of Donnie, or so he claimed. But Donnie had had facts to back him up. At the rate they were going, there wouldn't be enough to change him back from a fly and that made the mad scientist rethink his priorities a little.
If Tigerclaw hadn't gotten wind of it, they might have been working together. Baxter Stockman had had to beg Tigerclaw on hands and knees not to tell the Shredder and after that the bug man never so much as looked at Donnie again. Once again they were competitors and that was how it had to be.
And the unfortunate fact was: he was winning. They had exchanged some data while they were allies and now he was so much closer to finishing the retro-mutagen than Donnie was. There just wasn't enough mutagen to go around. He'd have to go to the source, break into a Kraang facility and syphon gallons of the stuff in order to complete it. And that was a fool's errand.
But Leonardo—he was just fool enough to do it.
Leo knew that if Baxter Stockman made a successful batch first, they would imprison Karai and blame them for the whole thing. Shredder may even torture her. He didn't put that past him anymore. Leo refused to let that happen. They had to be the ones to save her. He had to be the one to save her. And so every day, Leo was breathing down Donnie's shell, pressuring him to finish it. If there was anything Donnie needed, Leo ran to it. He wiped his brow, poured beakers, sat impatiently in corners, made him sandwiches. Anything.
So when he heard Donnie mutter about breaking into the Kraang facility, Leo did the only sensible thing he thought he could do. He gathered his three brothers behind their father's back and sent them all out on the dangerous quest to go get it.
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(A/N: Welcome and thank you for reading Crumpled Roses! It's in a bit of a different style from my usual but I very much hope you like it so far! I will have the next several parts up very shortly. :))