Disclaimer: I do not on TMNT 2012.

Donnie died. And it was Leo's fault.

Or that was what the blue-masked turtle thought.

It was on one cloudy night and the four of them were doing their regular patrol around New York. They were taking their time, doing some somersaults and flips as they jumped from building to building, when they had a fateful encounter with a group of Foot ninja.

The turtles were practically outnumbered. Sure, the enemies were only like drones in comparison but the ratio was down to five to one, and being just teenagers, the result had gone from bad to worse. The fight started abruptly, metal clanging against metal. Taking advantage of their distance, some of the Foot started throwing shuriken at the turtles who moved about to dodge the deadly volley. Unfortunately for Leonardo, one enemy had used his spear to trip him and this sent the eldest of the four directly into the line of fire.

And then, that was when Donatello had to interfere.

There was a blur of green, brown and purple and Leonardo found himself staring into his brother's burgundy eyes before the purple-masked turtle collapsed into his arms, his carapace bombarded with the Foot's throwing stars. Most of them had just pierced the surface, only centimeters through his shell. But as for the other few, they bore in deeply, about two inches or so.

In panic, Leo fell to his knees with his unconscious brother still in his arms. He called out his name several times over, only to be answered with an uncomfortable silence. At the sight of this, Michelangelo rushed to his side, dropping his weapons as he ran, while Raphael sunk into a fit of pure rage and managed to drive off the remaining enemies. Afterwards, he was the one who carried Donnie back to the lair.

Master Splinter had immediately come to them when he saw them enter and carefully took Donatello from Raph. His adoptive son felt cold in his arms and the old rat began to fear the worst. He set the turtle on the couch and with tweezers and skilled precision, started to cautiously remove the shuriken, starting with the ones that penetrated superficially. Not wanting to be a disturbance, or even watch, for that matter, the other three turtles went to the kitchen where they wished for their brother's survival.

After what felt like hours of waiting and hoping, they heard a loud thud and they ran to the living room. There, they saw their Sensei and father seated on the floor, amidst scattered shuriken, some with bloodied tips, and his jade staff lying right next to him. He had his face in his hands as he sobbed and sobbed. Fear struck them and they came to their unmoving brother resting on his plastron on the couch.

It was Raph who tried to shake Donnie awake, ever so gently at first. That was when Leo checked for the second youngest's pulse. There was no throbbing against his fingers and the leader confronted his brothers and slowly shook his head. Tears welled up in Mikey's eyes and the orange-masked turtle dropped to his knees and embraced Master Splinter as he began to cry. Not wanting to accept the fact that his brother was gone, Raphael shook Donatello's body violently, yelling and spouting threats that he said the brainiac would receive when he wouldn't wake up. Leonardo had to pull him away, his heart aching when he heard those threats turn into whimpering pleas to not die. He looked at Donnie's corpse on the couch before burying his face into his red-masked brother's shell, both of them also weeping.

The next day, April came teary-eyed to witness the solemn ceremony. With the torch in his right hand and a heavy heart, Master Splinter set his late son's casket ablaze and as it burned, Leo, Raph and Mikey pushed it into the sewage water. The five of them watched sadly as the makeshift coffin drifted in the canal and out of sight, just a tiny fiery speck in the distance.

And now, here he was, Leonardo, the eldest of three of the four ninja turtles left. He blamed himself for Donnie's death, saying that he wasn't alert and quick enough to regain his footing on the night of the incident. If it weren't for his carelessness, the brainiac would still be around, smiling his tooth-gapped smile as he worked his machines and blabbered about a scientific discovery he had just made. They all missed his geeky presence and warmth and several days passed by without them conversing with each other. Even the talkative Mikey was silent, spending most of his time alone in his room.

Seeing his remaining sons so depressed, Master Splinter ordered them to go on a night patrol, hoping that this would clear their heads a bit. Little did he know that it would cause them to cross paths with an unwanted figure and make things more complicated .

That night, as the turtles leaped from roof to roof, they were yet again ambushed by the ever so redundant Foot ninja. Like the last time, they were more than what the teenaged mutants could handle and with their lack of focus and spunky energy, the three were instantly out of the game.

'Face it, Leo,' the katana wielder thought to himself as the enemies loomed in closer on them, 'you're such a failure. You can never protect your family.'

One Foot ninja raised his blade at them. The turtles could only move closer to one another.

'Never…'

The Foot was prepared to bring down the final blow. Leonardo closed his eyes.

'Ever…'

"What the – "

There was crash here and an alarmed scream there. The blue-masked turtle's eyes shot open, taking in the confusion before him.

A figure was moving about, taking out the Foot ninja with swift yet lethal strikes. He was shadowed by the clouds that blocked the moonlight, hiding his identity. His movements were fluid as he swung about what seemed to be a long stick, bringing pain to the enemies from a distance.

His presence stunned the turtles who could only watch in awe. In a minute, all twelve Foot ninja were down with the mysterious attacker triumphantly standing in the middle. He eased up his battle stance and looked at the three with white, emotionless eyes.

"Huh? Only you three left?" The figure said, an unimpressed tone in his familiar voice. "Your brother must be a real weakling."

The clouds parted and gave way for the full moon's silver beam to shine on them all. The identity of the figure was immediately revealed and it was what the turtles never expected. The mere sight of the purple bandanna mask he wore stirred unwelcome memories.

It was Donatello. In the flesh.

A/N

Yo! DemonIncarnate – Ahahaha here!

Got stucked up with my Gintama fic and I apologize my readers for that *bows down low*. Dunno if I'd be able to continue it though…

Anyways…

This is my first TMNT 2012 fanfic, so sorry for its simplicity and weird storyline and all. The show practically dragged me away from my anime addiction a bit, especially since it's a reboot of the old shows. Not mention that it reawakened my old childhood crush on Donnie *giggles like a fangirl*. To make it short, TMNT is my favorite cartoon of all time. I even wanted to go to New York City when I was little just because I thought there REALLY were ninja turtles in the sewers there!

I know, kinda embarrassing *blushes*.

Right so…hope I tickled your curiosity with my fanfic!