Hiya again!

So I have updated this chapter too. A few changes on this one as well and hope you like it. Won't hold you for much longer. On to the story! ^^

Too Late

Chapter 2: A Nightmare

Sleeping in is really the best thing ever. Not having to be crudely awaken by a beating alarm, or a brother who pushes you out of bed just to get you to morning practice at 7 a.m. Yeah, best thing ever. Yawn. Or... or maybe a new comic book is the best? The feeling of newly printed pages filled with awesome action heroes who saves the day with their awesome powers! No-no-no wait! A new game maybe? Wait-wait, an awesome new recipe รก la Michelangelo? Wait-wait-wait- Successfully pulling a prank on Raph is really awesome too. The face when he realizes that I had put glue on his sais or colored them a very hot pink- the best! or maybe-? Dude... let's face it, there is a lot of things that ranks as the "best thing ever". There's just too many sweet things in this world.

Anyway, the next morning I woke up around 11 a.m. Which gave me 4 sweet hours of sleeping in and that did wonders to my handsome face, watch out ladies, and not to mention, my sore leg. As I headed downstairs to make some breakfast, or brunch, however you want to put it, my stomach was game for some scrambled eggs this particular morning. The most awesomest breakfast ever made by yours truly- the Battle Nexus Champion/Turtle Titan. The eggs always end up that way anyways, so why fight destiny? My bros was gonna sing and dance once they smelled the delicious aromas. I mean literally. Raph will sing and dance, just not the way you think. He hates the stuff and the mere thought of it will turn him a few shades greener. Well, he is already green but I mean like, my skin color, which is lighter or something. So, as I said; the most awesomest breakfast ever.

While being occupied with the thought of scrambled eggs, I completely missed the delicious smell which had already filled the air. When I walked into the kitchen, I was quite surprised to find Raph and Donny already in there, sitting by the table with breakfast already done. And no scrambled eggs. Aw... what a bummer. But hey, pancakes! I'm not saying no to that! After all, they are the close runner up for the first place as the most awesomest breakfast ever. Especially Don's pancakes. He makes them just the way I like them.

"Pancakes, pancakes, pa-aa-aan-cakes, dude," I sang while walking over to the cupboard to fetch me a plate before I sat down by the table. While grabbing as many as my fork could possible take, and those dropped stuffed into my mouth , I couldn't help but ask; "Howo hmowo howow phowo?"

"Don't eat with your mouth full, shell-fer-brains," Raph grunted as he slapped me upon my head, making me bite down and severing the pancakes I had stuck out of my mouth.

Swallowing with a big gulp, I repeated the question; "I said: Dude, how come there's pancakes?"

Still hiding his head behind yesterday's news paper, Don calmly explained; "I was up early and though I could fix breakfast for a change." Then he looked up from behind the paper and gave me a mocking grin as he continued; "And besides, everyone here is sick and tired of scrambled eggs."

Feeling quite offended in behalf of my most awsomest dish ever made, I asked while having my hand over my heart for a more dramatic gesture; "How can someone be sick and tired of scramble eggs? It's like the-"

"-only thing you can't screw up on purpose," Raph rudely injected with the same mocking tone as Don, but of course, he had more bite to it and the subtext was- I hate scramble eggs.

Apparently it was going to be a mocking-Mikey-day today and I wouldn't have it as long as I was the ruling champion of pranks and teasing! Have they already forgotten how annoying I can be when I set my mind to it? If I just stepped one foot inside Don's lab and he would have a fit of; Don't touch this, Mikey. Don't touch that, Mikey. Don't touch ANYTHING, Michelangelo. And what would I do? Of course, touch everything breakable. With Raph? Practically anything I do in his presence is annoying him on a normal day. So when I put my mind to it, I pull a prank worthy my title. So when I was about to defend my honor and my outstanding cooking skills, I was interrupted yet again, but this time by the sudden appearance of Master Splinter.

"Good morning, my sons," he greeted us as usual. But even I could detect that there wasn't anything "good" about it.

All our eyes was up and alerted at our father by the end of his greeting and I was shocked at how much older he looked from last night. He was depending on his cane a bit more heavily than usual and dared I mention a bit more greyish in his fur? It was like he had aged ten years since only last night! Master Splinter is old, so that would make him like- really old! Hey don't judge me for not knowing the exact age of my father. It's not like he has told us.

"Good morning, sensei," we said in a chorus, but we too did not really voice the "good" with the appropriate tone to match the word.

He gave us all an acknowledge nod which told us that he knew we hadn't missed the subtitle behind the greeting. "I see you have made your delicious pancakes, Donatello" He said as he gazed down on the table.

"Eh, yes. I woke up early," he explained once again and stood up before offering a chair to our father. "Sit down, sensei. I will fetch you a plate."

"Thank you, Donatello. And some tea, please."

I stood up to help him sit down on his usual chair in between me and Donatello as Don began to fix Master Splinter's breakfast. He thankfully took the seat and I was quick to grab my own. Uncomfortable silence fell upon the room. The only sound being from Don as he worked his way around the kitchen to get Splinter his plate and tea. The air around us suddenly seemed heavy and filled with unsaid thoughts and feelings. A deja vu feeling struck me. Or rather two.

There has been two times when the four of us has been in this kitchen like this and our brother Leonardo was not. One was when Leo had first left for Japan to see the Ancient One to work on his anger management issues after he had nearly taken Splinter's head off. He had been so angry after we had defeated the Shredder and have him exiled to an asteroid somewhere in the galaxy. Well, that was not really the reason for his anger. It was more that he felt like he couldn't protect us and the only way of defeating the Shredder was to blow up his spaceship with us in it. And I guess that Karai had a small part in his rage because she managed to stab him pretty badly. But all worked out and Leo returned to us to save the day once again as the good leader and hero he is.

The second time was after Leo had gone off to South America. Once defeating the Shredder again! But this time from wiping out all existence and saving all our counterparts in all the different multiverses. Master Splinter though that Leo needed to go off on his own to learn how to become a better leader. I think his exact words was like; A leader needs to learn to be independent before he can expect others to depend on the leader. Or maybe it was more like; A leader needs to learn how to depend on himself before he can have others depend on the leader. Maybe that was wrong too... Well there was a lot of leader, independent, depend, others, himself... I don't know. I was too caught up in the shock of Leo going away for a whole year - which turned into 2 years before he finally returned. Just in time to get rid of a few 3000 year old living statues/Generals and their plan to bring more monsters from that portal-thingy.

The difference from those times was that Leo was not gone, at least not yet. Though he has put some distance from the rest of us and doing only he knows what- I couldn't help but think; Would all this end up in him being sent away again? I didn't dare ask in case that was the case.

Finally, the silence was broken, though the topic wasn't really doing anything to change of the mood in here.

"Has your brother returned?" Master Splinter asked, while looking at each of us in turn. Once his eyes met mine, I could only shrug as I had no clue.

"Yes. He came in between four or five," Don said while gazing upon the clock as doing so would tell him the exact time.

"I see," our father simply said with a thoughtful look taking place.

I couldn't help but to gaze at him in the corner of my eyes. There was no way of describing the feeling of how badly I wanted to know what was going on between our father and brother. But there was no way I would be the one to ask the question. Sure I can have words randomly blunt out of my mouth without me thinking about it, but this topic was scaring the shell out of me. Sure we all had our bad days with Master Splinter. Dude, we're teenagers. All teenagers have issues with their parents at least one point in their lives. Some argue, - like me, Don and the old Leo, and some rebel - obviously Raph and the recent Leo. Although most teenagers spread it out over the years, talking out a little at times. But clearly Leo has decided to take it all out at only two times. The first I have already mention and it had ended up with Master Splinter hurting his head, but mostly his fatherly-feelings. Though back then it was the source of something else and it all blew up upon us, it was not intentionally directed toward us. This time though, was different. It was all directed towards Splinter and giving him hell. But the rest of us was getting tones of it too.

"I had to redo his stitches when he got back," Don broke the silence and my thoughts. A frustrated expression was painted over him.

Well that explained the pancakes. Though it is my second favorite breakfast item, it is not Leo's. Sure he like them just fine like basically everyone else on this planet, it is not his favorite choice. Knowing that, Don must have been in a bad mood after fixing the stitches on our favorite leader and made pancakes. Though if he really wanted to get back at Leo, then he should probably have let me do my choice of dish.

Although there wasn't really a surprise that Leo had pulled his stitches, actually I had expected him doing it much sooner from all the training he was defiantly doing. We all knew he would pull some stitches as in even in his normal state of mind, Leo would be the one who most often would need to redo them, -next one was me. You expected me to say maybe Raph? Dude, I am the one who has the problem of sitting still. Just can't do it, and defiantly not when I have been hurt and is forced to. Can you imagine all the ideas, thoughts and inspirations I get through my mind while sitting still? So, no, no sitting still is defiantly not the way to go.

"And he was practically soaked in blood," Don finished with a heavy sigh, like knowing that this information was going to be blown back at him.

"His own?" Raph finally spoke up surprised, though frustration was quickly working its way to take over. Almost like, why didn't you tell me that sooner. No matter how much he denies it, whenever one of us has gotten hurt, he shows his caring side. It's so predictable and pretty ironic, if not funny that it has to get to that point until he shows his softer side. How would he ever get a girlfriend with that attitude? Not that there is.. or ever... well... hm...

"He told me it wasn't all his. Most of it wasn't, but... He had a few new cuts and bruises I had to tend to, but nothing serious," Don explained, worry reeking from his tone. "But I am worried he will end up doing something stupid." He looked up at Master Splinter, giving him the opening he needed to give us an explanation.

Both me and Raph followed his gaze upon our father, hoping that he would indeed take it. Both Raph and I followed his lead and eyed our sensei, hoping that he would give it to us. There was no way that Master Splinter could miss our silent pleads as it was glued all over our faces. Yet he did not take it.

"If he continues like this he may end up killin' 'imself," Raph pushed with more force in his tone than Don naturally had, hoping that that would encourage sensei to speak up.

Splinter signed heavily before he said with an unreadable tone; "It is indeed good to hear that your brother is fine."

"But he's ain't fine!" Raph harshly inquired, slamming a fist down on the table.

"Raphael!"

"No, sensei. I've had enough of this. Ya 'n' Leo've been at each others throat fer weeks now 'n' ya refuses to give us as much as a simple explanation ta why." Clearly Raph was at the end of his patience and that was the cue for me to keep my distance. Normally I would be the one that got to see the better part of this side. And with no Leo around to protect me, I was screwed if I did something stupid.

Anyone could smell the anger coming from the both of them from miles away. I had never seen Raph push at Master Splinter this much but what surprised me even more- Master Splinter did not snap at him as he usually did or gave him a classic smack upon his head with the cane. Instead, Master Splinter was starring him down.

"This is between your brother and me," Master Splinter said as he tried to sound as calmly as he possible could after Raph's outburst, but clearly his words had gotten to him. It had to be something real serious if not even Master Splinter could keep a straight face. He is the master of masters in hiding emotions and yet here he was struggling with it.

"No offence, sensei, but this isn't just affecting you. We're all getting our fair chair of it. The only difference is, that we have no idea what it's all about," Don chipped in far more gently than Raph.

With yet another heavy sign, Master Splinter admitted defeat as he said; "You are indeed right, Donatello. This has been going on for long enough." But instead of giving us the explanation we desperately was searching for, he just stood up from his chair, hinting that now was not the time that we would get it. "When your brother awakens, please tell him I require to speak with him about his request." Then he headed for the kitchen door.

"It may be at least twelve hours until he wakes up," Don informed him as we watched our father leave the room. "I gave him some much needed sleeping pills."

"When he awakens," he repeated like he hadn't even heard a word of what Donny had said. "I will be meditating and do not wish to be disturbed." He then turned the corner and I could hear his walking cane hit the floor as he walked the small distance to his room.

"I have a hard time belivin' it will be tha easy ta get Fearless back ta normal," Raph said with a gruff, loud enough for Master Splinter to hear.

"I wonder what that request is," Don said, deep in thought before turning to Raph.

Feeling the stare, Raph shrugged away a little as he snapped; "How the hell should I know?" He grabbed his plate before he abruptly got up on his feet and walked over to the sink. "I'm gonna go ova ta Casey's. He needed help with that new crib."

"I have not given you the go for that. Your shoulder isn't fully healed yet," Don called after him as Raph walked over to the door.

He slightly turned before answering; "I ain't said I was gonna assemble the damn thing." Then he turned the corner.

"You better not!"

A small smile crawled up my lips at my brothers.

Somehow the day past as usual and just as Don had said, Leo didn't wake up. I had caught a glints of him enter or exit our oldest brother's room. He had always opened or closed the door real quietly, which indicated that Leo was still fully asleep.

Naturally practice had been cancelled. Even if neither of us was healing from sour limbs, we still didn't have a master or a leader to take control of the training session. So none of us was even tempted to bring up that idea. But don't worry, I had plenty to do to fill the time. Instead of the boring routine of katas, weapon training and sparring sessions, I was busy watching the X-Men movies all over again, fast forward to the good parts obviously, reading comics, playing games and been chased around the lair by a less happy Raph. As much as my sore leg allowed, of course. So I had taken cover in Don's lab. After spending all that time in patching me up, I was pretty sure that he wouldn't let me get killed so easily if Raph did managed to get a hold of me. Sadly, I was dead wrong about that one. After hiding behind a lose cupboard on the floor with a lot of breakable stuff, once Raph had spotted me I had hit the thing and everything went smashing on the floor. That earned both Raph and me a lecture of how you should not run around where there is glass flasks with chemicals within and how happy we should be that none of it touched our skin. After that I had been left in Raph's mercy.

So at the end of the day, I was happy to go to sleep with all my limbs still attached to my body and a head still screwed on tight. All in all, it was a pretty good day for a change. Now bed was calling my name, or more like screaming for me to climb into it and lay under the soft covers. Yes, I would have a really good night sleep and tomorrow everything would finally be back to normal. Leo will wake up with all his grudges, anger, rage or whatever he's fueled on gone and he will have the talk to Master Splinter and they will work it all out. At the end of the day tomorrow, we all will be laughing at all that's been and be happy.

Shouts and sounds of metal clashing together drove me from my deep sle

ep. Once my eyes managed to open, they found their way to the alarm clock right next to my head. It was about 4 in the morning. Another clash of metal had me sitting up in an instant and realizing that what had driven me from sleep was from my dreams. The tiredness left me like a flash and I realized that there was a fight going on somewhere in the lair. The voices I recognized right away and pure fear struck me hard as the memory of the last time the two of them had argued like this, it had ended badly.

Literally I jumped out of bed and as soon as my feet caught the floor, my sore leg screamed from the impact. Yet I was too scared to care about that as I stumbled out of my room to see if my fears was coming true. The scene before me confirmed it.

The first though that crossed my mind was; Maybe I'm seeing wrong. I'm just dreaming. This isn't real, cause it can't be. Yet I couldn't deny what was taking place right before my eyes.

In the corner of my eyes, I spotted my other two brothers. Just as me, they had the haunted look of deja vu all over their faces along with fright and disbelief.

Apparently Leo was awake and by the look of things, Master Splinter had either woken up at the same time or he had waited up for him. Either way, they had clearly talked. I guess that something hadn't really gone the way Sensei had expected it, cause Leo's eyes was burning with a fury so determination that even I knew that he had full control of his actions. This wasn't a simple helping-to-get-your-frustration-out fight which Master Splinter had at times with my brother, this was a real fight.

"I am your father and I forbid you!" Splinter's harsh but trembling voice spoke up.

"I don't care what you say!" Leo roared forcefully.

The fight was real intense and I was amazed by how well Leo could keep up with Master Splinter while having the wounds of his. Either he had been holding back on us or he was fighting with nothing to lose. Either way, Leo clearly had the upper hand. The metal of the swords collided with an high pitching clang and shrieking sounds which echoed through the lair like in a song. Somehow Master Splinter had managed to get a hold of one of Leo's katana and was defending himself from Leo's powerful hits and strikes. It was clear to me that Leo wanted it back and he knew that the only way of getting it back was to defeat our Sensei.

Master Splinter though, wasn't going to be defeated so easily and strongly kept defending himself, but never struck back. But he may be good at ninjutsu and stuff, but because he is so old, he doesn't really have the strength to fight off every hit. Eventually, Leo will break through his defense.

"This is not the right way," Splinter forced.

"There is no other way!"

I stood frozen in place on the second floor, watching the fight with big intense eyes. Fear had me at a loss. What was I supposed to do? I didn't know. Could Leo really kill Master Splinter? He sure looked like he could, and would.

Unsure if I could get a single sound out of me, I still tried to ask; "Should we do something?" The sound of my voice would have me question if it had really been me who had spoken if it had been on a normal, uneventful day.

When I didn't receive an answer, I turned my eyes and head away from the fight to look at my brothers. Don looked conflicted, like he didn't know if he should interfere or not. Maybe he thought that if he did interfere he would end up hurting one or the other, or maybe even himself. It was almost like he was waiting for them to tell him that they were just sparring. It was clear that he was just as scared as me.

Raph looked at the fight with a stony expression glued to his face, but is body languish told a whole different story. His left hand was grabbing the railing so hard that his knuckles was roughly white. While his right hand had automatically gone for his sai and was lingering on the hilt of the weapon. Though seeming like he was going to jump in at any second, he too was glued to the floor in uncertainty of what to do and if interfering would do more damage than good.

"Leonardo!" Master Splinter cried out in both plead and rage, followed with the sound of metal clashing on the floor.

My eyes shot to the scene once again and was shocked to find Master Splinter lying on the floor with the tip of Leo's katana against his throat. The other sword rested in Leo's other hand and he was looking down on our father with a cold glance.

We were about to go into action before Leo would do something really stupid, of course he had already done something stupid, but I mean stupid like- well like-killing-our-father-and-sensei stupid. There was no way he would ever forgive himself if he did that when he finally returned to normal. Leaping to the air, we had our weapons out once our feet touched the ground. My leg protested in a painful flash, but again I ignored it. We did not get to close until we stopped in a dead halt when Leo had his sword pointed at us. Though still watching our father with intensive eyes, he knew exactly where he should point his sword to stop us.

Being the one who most often defied Leo, Raph took a few steps closer and he was met with the tip of the katana. "Leo what the hell are ya doin'?" Raph demanded with venom in his tone.

"Leo, please stop this," Don pleaded, also chancing a few steps closer but too, was met with the sword's tip.

Leo never took his eyes off of our father, knowing that if he did, he could easily lose the upper hand. He stood right in front of the door to the sewers and my eyes fell upon the packed bag that was placed right by it. I felt myself go pale when I realized what he was going to do. He was going to leave.

"You're leaving," I stated with shock. Raph and Don turned to look at me in confusion, then they too, spotted the bag behind Leo.

"Where the hell do ya think ya're goin?" Raph demanded, now clearly more furious than before.

"Why Leo?" Don pleaded.

In one smooth motion, Leo quickly took away his sword pointed at Raph to pull the handle to open the door, then he quickly put it right back in place before we even could take half a step closer, while the whole time he had his other sword against Master Splinter.

"Guys. I'm sorry," he said probably more coldly than he had expected. He chanced a glance away from our father to grab a quick look upon our hurt, betrayed and sad faces so that he could memorize it. He look in his eyes told me that this was probably the very last time we were going to see him. His gaze fell upon our father once again, his eyes stone cold. "But I've had enough."

"Don't you dare leave, Leo!" Raph warned between his teeth.

Again he quickly grabbed for the handle and pulled it so it would begin to close. Leo backed towards the door and his bag, before he abrutly pulled away his swords and placed them back in their sheath and grabbed for his bag before he sprinter out of the door which was about to shut close. Raph leaped forward as soon as the sword was gone from his throat to the door, trying to slip through the crack before it closed but didn't make it.

"LEO" He shouted and started slamming on the metal door. "LEO COME BACK HERE"

Don though had gone straight to Master Splinter's side to check for any injuries or bad bruises. But from what I could see, he didn't have a scratch on him.

"Raphael!" Splinter said firmly, stopping Raph in the middle of pulling the handle to open the door once more.

"But Masta' Splinter we have to go afta 'im!" Raph yelled and again was about to pull the handle.

"No" Splinter cut him off.

"He's gettin' away," he pushed with a growl.

"You will do no such thing," Splinter spat furiously. His eyes was pitch black from anger. He let Don help him up on his feet and then brushed him off. The look he gave each one of us was the darkest look I had ever seen upon his face. "From this day forward, Leonardo is no longer a member of this clan."

"WHAT?" We all but spat out in disbelief.

We all looked up at our father and sensei more shocked than ever before.

"None of you shall go after him, or their will be severe consequences. Am I making myself clear?"

All I could do, was hesitantly nod. I couldn't trust my voice to give him a verbal confirmation as my throat suddenly felt very dry and a huge lump was swelling. Tears was burning behind my eyes and quickly made their way through. I was terrified of this sudden change and the reality of it all had a hard time to sink in.

I tried to convince myself that this was just a horrible dream. A bad, real bad nightmare, nothing more. That when I wake up, Leo will be here and acting like himself and reassure me that this was just a fabrication of my greatest fears and nothing of it is real. I wanted to pinch myself, but I was in too shock and my limbs wouldn't move. Instead I bit my lower lip and bit it as hard as I could. I was feeling the pain but didn't want to acknowledge it cause it was all a dream. Leo had once told me that you can't feel pain while your dreaming.

The taste of iron filled my mouth and I realized that - This was so not a dream.

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To Be Continued...