"Leo," whispered five year old Mikey as he and his other two, young brothers gathered around Leo's bed.
"Leo wake up!" Whisper-shouted little Don while Raph and Mikey jumped onto of Leo and shook him so that he might wake up.
Leo slowly started to wake up. "Go back to bed guys." He moaned.
"We can't!" Exclaimed Raph, as he and his brother flopped on top of Leo.
"The sky's awake. So we're awake! So we have to play!" Finished Mikey as he made a dramatic sighing motion.
Leo smiled but kept his eyes shut, determined to keep sleeping. But Don knew exactly what to say to get Leo up and about.
He hopped up and joined Raph and Mikey who were still onto of Leo, and said, "Do you want to build a snowman?"
Leo peeked one eye open and a smile appeared on his face.
A few seconds later, the four little brothers were racing down the stairs full of glee 'til they reached the large wood doors that led to the ball room. They pushed open the doors and let out the excitement that they couldn't contain in anymore.
"Do the magic Leo!" Exclaimed Raph.
"Yeah, do the magic!" Agreed Mikey with Don nodding alongside him.
"Okay," Leo responded with a smile on his head and started to spin his hands together which began releasing little sparks of blue and white. "Ready?"
His brothers nodded with anticipation and Leo threw his hands in the air freeing a little, shimmering white and light blue ball with a glitter trail that flew up to the ceiling until it broke into what seemed like a million tiny stars that would gleam in a clear, dark night. It was snow.
Don, Raph, and Mikey danced around giggling as they stretched out their small arms to touch the falling, gentle snow.
"Wow!" Remarked Don.
"This is amazing!" Shouted Mikey.
"Watch this." Said Leo who was filled with bliss since he had brought joy to his brothers.
Leo moved his arms in a commanding motion and spiraling swirls of snow came out creating a winter wonderland. The four little turtles began playing around. Making snow angels, sliding down large amounts of snow, and even making a snowman. Well, more of a snow-cat.
"Hi! I'm Klunk! And I like warm hugs!" Said Leo who stood behind the snow-cat waving its stick hands and speaking in a deeper voice to make it seem as if the the snow-cat was talking.
Mikey, of course, loved the snow-cat. He gasped with delight saying, "I love you Klunk!" And gave the snow-cat a hug.
The four siblings were having a blast in their snowy paradise.
"Hey Leo, catch us!" Shouted Raph who jumped of a pile of snow with his brothers, Don and Mikey, who followed after him.
"Gotcha." Leo shot a blast of snow at the bottom of their feet which turned into a stepping stool for them to continue jumping.
They kept going and Leo kept catching them with the tiers kept getting taller and taller every time they jumped. But Don, Raph, and Mikey were going too fast and Leo couldn't keep up.
"Wait," Leo said worriedly but they weren't listening. "Slow down!" Leo slipped and fell.
His brothers took another jump but when Leo shot another blast of ice to catch them, he missed and hit them all in the heads. The smiles on their faces immediately fell as they did and landed in a pile of snow and looked as if they were sleeping.
"Guys!" Leo shouted and rushed over to them. He began nudging each of them hoping they'd wake up, but they didn't.
"Sensei!" Yelled Leo. "Sensei help!"
Leo was scared and began crying little droplets of tears out of the corners of his eyes as he pulled his brothers together. Immediately the room became frosted with a deep ice as Leo cried and nickel sized, shaped snowflakes began to form on their heads near their eyes.
Master Splinter heard Leo's cries and burst through the room with concern. But when he saw the ice covered ball room his entire expression changed.
"Leonardo what have you done, this is getting out of hand!" He exclaimed gently and ran over to see what Leo was crying over.
"It was an accident." Sniffles Leo as he still sat close to his brothers.
He saw his three sleeping sons on the floor with the marks on their heads and knew what he had to do.
"Leonardo stay with your brothers," he instructed to his scared son. "I know where we have to go."
Master Splinter rushed to the castle library to find a book that Donatello showed him a while back. It had the information that he needed to wake his sons up.
Seconds later, he found the book and reigned a horse with Don strapped to his back and carrying Raph and Mikey with Leo holding onto him. They raced out of the kingdom and into the green forest where their last hope to waking them up.
Deeper and deeper they rode into the emerald woods until they reached a clearing. The clearing was quiet and full of moss covered rocks the size of melons, but it seemed like no one was there.
"Please help! My sons!" Begged Master Splinter to no one as he held his sons tightly with Leo close behind him and walked out to the clearing.
Suddenly the large stones rolled in an orderly fashion towards Master Splinter but stopped as soon as they were close enough. The stony appearance of rocks faded as if it were a camouflage of some sort and the so called rocks turned into small, pink creatures on floating disks. They were utroms.
"It's the king!" Muttered a few of them as they cleared a path for an utrom who appeared to be a leader of the group.
"Your majesty," said the leader utrom then looked at Leo. "Born with the powers or cursed?"
"Born, and they're getting stronger." Replied Master Splinter.
"Come, let me see the children." The utrom said then examined the kids. "You're lucky it was a head and not the heart. The heart cannot be so easily changed, but the head can be persuaded."
"Do what you must." Commanded Master Splinter.
"I recommend we remove all magic from them, even memories of magic, just to be safe," replied the utrom who then began changing clips of the Turtles memories that displayed Leo's magic to events that happened outside in winter on a holographic floating screen. "But don't worry, I'll leave the fun in it."
The utrom then pulled the frost from their heads through a crystal which absorbed the ice replacing it with changed memories.
"They will be okay." He said.
"So they won't remember that I have powers?" Asked Leo as he watched as the utrom changed his brothers' memories.
"It's for the best Leonardo." Replied Master Splinter.
"Leonardo, you must listen to me. Your power will only grow." Said the utrom who then looked at Leo with compassion as the memory screen faded and a different one appeared with an older version of Leo. "There is beauty in it," as the image of Leo displayed him using his powers with miscellaneous people in the background cheering and clapping for him. This made Leo smile.
"But there also great danger," continued the utrom as the image switched from joy to horror with the miscellaneous people once cheering, now screaming in terror, "You must learn to control it, or fear will be your enemy." Then image of Leo, now in fear, was what appeared to be eaten by something that split Leo in billions of pieces. Leo was so afraid of what his future might be.
"No, I will protect him. He can learn to control it I'm sure. "Spoke up Master Splinter to the utrom but also mainly to his son."Until then, I will lock the gates, reduce the staff. I will limit his contact from people and keep his powers hidden from everyone. Including his brothers."
And that's exactly what they did. The kingdom never understood why the castle gates closed and neither did Leo's brothers. No one knew that inside the castle, was a little turtle who had uncontrollable powers of winter.
•❄•
Summer had passed and the first snow of winter came to their kingdom. Mikey gasped with excitement when he saw the window that showed the outside was covered in white snow. He ran to find his brothers who were already ready to go out and play in the snow.
"We already saw," said Don who was already dressed warmly for the cold outdoors along with Raph. "So hurry up and get changed so that we can all play."
Mikey nodded with a smile then ran to his room to get his winter clothes. He passed Leo's room on the way and thought to himself, 'Leo might want to play in the snow with us too!' And turned to go back to Leo's room.
He knocked a rhythmic knock then said "Leo, do you want to build a snowman?"
He got no response.
"Come on let's go and play!" He exclaimed as he looked through the keyhole to Leo's room. "We never see you anymore, come out the door. It's like you've gone away!
"We used to be best buddies, but now we're not. I wish you would tell me why." Leo still didn't answer so Mikey tried again. "Do you want to build a snowman?! It doesn't have to be a snowman."
"Go away Mikey." Responded Leo.
Mikey was crushed. He so wanted Leo to come out and play but he did what his older brother requested. "Okay, bye."
And with that Mikey walked back to his room to follow his original plan to change and play with Don and Raph.
Leo however did want to play with his brothers but he knew he was a danger to them; everything he seemed to touch would freeze over with ice and would stay that way. So Master Splinter found a way that could assist Leo's dilemma.
"The gloves will help, my son." Said Master Splinter as he put the gloves on Leo's three fingered hand. "See, conceal it,–"
"–don't feel it." Finished Leo.
"Don't let it show." They said at the same time.
The gloves helped dramatically with 'freezing-everything-on-contact' problem but it made Leo feel as if he was holding back a part of him that could never be free.
••❄••
A few summers passed and winter rose once more. Don, Raph and Mikey each began discovering their own talents and interests which soon began to distance them from each other. Without someone bringing them together, they found no need to really hang out as much as they did when they were younger.
Don had just finished putting the finishing touches on this new bike, painted to match the color of his bandana which was purple. Each of his brothers had their own, even Leo, but they never seemed to use them. Raph would rather find new ways to break a wall, Mikey would rather hang out with the kitchen staff and Leo...well, Don didn't know what Leo would want to do since he never came out of his room.
Strolling his new bike down the hall, he saw up ahead Leo's room. 'Maybe Leo would want to try out my new bike with me.' Don thought to himself. He knew it was a long shot that Leo might come out but he decided to try.
He did the rhythmic knock, that Mikey showed him, on Leo's door and said "Leo, do you want to build a snowman?" remembering that that was Leo's favorite thing to do in the winter.
"Or ride our bikes around the halls," continued Donnie. "I think some company is overdue, I've started talking to the pictures on the walls." Which wasn't necessarily a lie.
"It gets a little lonely, watching the hours tick by." He made a clicking sound with his tongue that sounded like the tick tock sound a clock made, just for effect.
But it had no effect. Don got no response from the other side of the door as if he was talking to no one, but he knew that someone was listening and that someone was Leo.
A few minutes passed by and seeing that he had failed at getting Leo out of his room, Donnie walked away with his bike and continued onward to his room.
On the other side of Leo's bedroom door though, things were getting worse. As Leo grew, it seemed as if his powers did also.
"I'm scared!" He exclaimed scared. "It's getting stronger!"
"Getting upset about it does not help Leonardo." Calmly said Master Splinter and reached out to comfort Leo.
"No! Don't touch me!" Shouted Leo who pulled back. "I don't want to hurt you."
Master Splinter's eyes grew soft, it looked as if Leo would never be able to escape this curse.
•••❄•••
At least five years passed and the once close trio of brothers now hardly said a word to each other. The only times they ever really spoke to each other was when they passed each other in the halls or if Master Splinter called for them; other than that they all went off and do their own thing.
By this time, they all had given up on trying to get Leo of his room. They figured that if Leo didn't want to have anything to do with his brothers, they would do this same with him.
On a lighter note, the castle was preparing Master Splinter's departure to a neighboring kingdom across the sea.
"See you in two weeks." Said Mikey as he hugged his sensei goodbye. Don and Raph did the same.
"Do you have to go?" Asked Leo who stood at the bottom of the castle stairs.
Master Splinter smiled. " You'll be fine Leonardo. I'll be back soon."
But fate had a different plan in mind, because Master Splinter never came back. There had been a great storm out in the sea and as the sky screamed in anger with the clashing of thunder and lightening, the waters devoured the ship with Master Splinter and his crew on it. He was gone. Never to return to this world again.
When such news arrived to the kingdom, everyone was in mourning. They gave a funeral on top of the tall, green hills that now had a colossal sized stone with Master Splinter's named inscribed in it.
Don, Raph and Mikey all attended the funeral in grief but Leo did not go. It took each of the brothers had. Don, being the calm, levelheaded one, handled his sorrow when he was by himself and away from anything that reminded him of his dear father. Mikey never experienced such trauma and cried the most because knowing that his dad was never coming back, made him miss him more and more. Raph, however didn't seemed to be affected by the death of Master Splinter and became a rock of support for his two brothers.
After the funeral, they walked back to their rooms in deafening silence. Don closed the door on his and Mikey closed his. As Raph began to open his door, he glanced over to Leo's door.
'He's probably fine', he thought to himself then he remembered that Leo was always Master Splinter's favorite since it seemed like Master Splinter was always checking up on him. So wouldn't Leo be one of the few people to be the first to visit Master Splinter's grave and the last to leave? Now Raph was mad. If Leo was his favorite, shouldn't he at least show up at the funeral to show how much he cared?
Raph glared at Leo's door and stomped over to it, determined to get Leo to talk. Remembering the training that Master Splinter gave him that could help his anger management, he knocked on Leo's door. Not even doing the rhythmic knock he and brothers did as kids.
"Leo," started Raph. "I know you're in there. People having been asking where you've been."
"They say have courage, and I'm tryin' to," tears began to roll down his cheeks as he leaned on the door. "I'm right out here for you bro, just let me in.
"We only have each other, it's just you, me, Don and Mikey. What are we gonna do?"
Raph slid down and sat on the floor. He was at his breaking point now and couldn't hold in his mourning.
"Do you want to build a snowman?" He whimpered as he cried silent tears, recalling all the wonderful memories he had as a child; the ones before Master Splinter died, the ones before he and he his brothers stopped talking, the ones before Leo locked them out of their lives.
Leo wanted more than anything to be there for his brothers, he felt the same pain that they were experiencing and many other ones too. But he couldn't. He knew that he was a hazard zone to them and the rest of the world. One wrong move and they would instantly be caught up in a spectral of ice.
Leo was on the floor, leaning against his door too. He looked around in his room to see that ice was everywhere. Snowflakes even floated from the ceiling! But now that Master Splinter was gone, he had no one he could go to for help when his powers were acting up.
Leo felt was alone. Now no one knew that the eldest son to the throne was harboring a beautiful yet dangerous secret. It seemed as if he would never find peace living in this curse.
It seemed as nothing could break the frozen heart.