"Misunderstood Guardian"

Ch. 1

For weeks Mikey kept himself locked in his room, not talking to anyone else. He would just lie on his bed either staring blankly at the ceiling or crying softly in to his pillow.

Bryan was dead and he didn't even get to say goodbye. They had returned to inspect the charred remnants of Dominick's castle and to search for the Homunculus' remains the next day, but they came up with nothing; everything had been completely incinerated in the blaze.

There came a knock at Mikey's door but the turtle didn't make any move to answer it. He just curled himself in to a tight ball.

"Mikey, open up!" It was Raph. "You have to eat – please! I know you're grieving over the loss of Bryan but is this what he would have wanted you to do? To hide yourself from the rest of the world and starve yourself?"

"Just go away, Raph… go away and let me die… It's better than living in a world without Bryan…" Tears welled in the orange bandana clad turtle's eyes. "We should have done something… we shouldn't have just left him."

"Mikey, please…" There was desperation in the older turtle's voice, something you didn't hear very often coming from Raph. "We're still here for you – your family – we want to help you through this…" When he didn't get a response from the other, the red bandana clad turtle sighed, setting the tray of food he had been holding on the floor beside the door and left.

Walking in to the kitchen Leo, Don, and Gina stood up from the table looking at Raphael hopefully.

Looking at them, Raph sighed, the others sitting back down looking dejected. "He just won't listen. I just – I just don't know what to do." The turtle sat down at the table, placing his face in his hands. "But he's right… we should have done something; we shouldn't have just left him."

"Don't start this up, Raph," Leo frowned, "You know there was nothing we could do. We didn't stand a chance against Dominick!"

"Well, that's just it Leo, we didn't even try!" Raphael shot back, staring up at his older brother. "If we attacked him all at once we could have overpowered him!"

"Please guys don't fight…" Gina pleaded. "This isn't going to bring Bryan back or help Mikey in the slightest… What's past is past and now we have to concentrate on the present. We have a very sick turtle that – if we don't figure out a way to help – is going to end up starving himself to death."

"Gina's right… if worse comes to worse we might have to force Mikey out of his room. He can't continue doing this to himself," Don said.

"Whatever, I'm out of here." Getting up, Raph began to don on his street clothes.

"You can't leave Raph, we need you here!" Leo got up, grabbing the red bandana clad turtle's arm.

"Let go of my arm, Leo," Raphael hissed, wrenching his arm away from the other. "Don't even try ordering me around." With that, he stormed out of the lair.

Raph walked down the city street grumbling quietly to himself. He wished he knew how to help Mikey. It hurt him so much to see the once bright and chipper turtle reduced to this. And Leo – that turtle really knew how to piss Raph off. What was he doing to try and help Mikey?

The hotheaded turtle was too busy with his own thoughts that he wasn't looking where he was going and ended up bumping in to someone in a long trench coat with a hood over their head. "Watch where you're going ya stupid—!" Raphael stopped short when he thought he saw a flash of orange-yellow cat ears. The person pulled the hood tightly around his face but he knew what he had seen. "Bryan…?"

The person ran and the turtle followed quickly behind. He kept on the figure's tail, bobbing and weaving between bystanders always making sure he didn't lose sight of him. That's when he saw it, a tail poking out from under the trench coat and he knew for certain it had to be Bryan.

Raph saw the other bolt down an alley way and he quickly followed him only to discover he had disappeared. The alley came to a dead end, so where could Bryan have gone? Looking up, the turtle saw he was right underneath the fire escape of an apartment building. Figuring that's where the neko-boy had disappeared to, he jumped up, grabbing on to the ladder and climbed up to a window, which was open.

Quietly entering the building he looked around; there was no sign of anyone. "Maybe that wasn't him… maybe I'm just going insane and I imagined seeing Bryan…"

"Who is that? What are you doing in my apartment?"

Startled, Raph turned to see man who looked to be in his early 40's standing with a gun in his hand. He was dark skinned, probably African-American; he had ash brown hair that reached down to his back, the bangs completely covering his eyes. He wore black jeans and a lose, white blouse that was open to expose his chest to reveal long jagged scars; the sleeves were rolled up to reveal more scars on his left arm and to the turtle's amazement, the man had a robotic right arm that would have made Don envious. There were also scars on his face as well.

"I asked a question, who are you and what are you doing in my apartment??" The man cocked the gun, the movement causing some of his bangs to shift to the side to reveal one of his eyes. It was a grayish blue color; the man was blind.

"Gerald, put the gun away, he's… a friend…"

"Are you sure, Bryan? He smells kind of funny – like he came out of the sewers." The man called Gerald lowered his gun but still kept a firm grip on it just in case.

Raph stared in shock as Bryan came in to view, pulling the hood down. "Bryan… I-I thought you were dead…"

"I really thought I was going to die…" Bryan started, "I thought it was the end for me and I was ready to accept that fate as long as I knew you, Michelangelo and the others were safe. I remember Rage going super nova and then everything went dark. Then the next thing I knew I woke up face down in the woods. I've been staying here with Gerald ever since."

A mix of emotions surfaced inside the turtle; First relief and joy that the neko-boy truly wasn't dead, then confusion, and finally anger and betrayal. "Why didn't you come back?! Why have you been hiding from us?!" Raphael lunged forward, grabbing Bryan by the collar of his trench coat. He heard the click of a gun behind him.

"Gerald, don't. I didn't come back because I thought it would be better this way. I've caused so much trouble for your family and I—." Bryan took in a shaky breath turning his gaze away from the other. "Well let's just say Mikey is a whole lot better off without me."

"You idiot… you stupid idiot! Mikey has been locked away in his room starving himself because he thinks you're dead! He thinks it's his fault and now he's punishing himself and the rest of his family!"

Bryan looked back at the turtle, eyes widening. "Take me to him."