A/N : Update ! Well, here's the thing, I think Leo's training will come next chapter along with more action and stuff. Also, to Tiger in Blue readers, I'm putting that story to a short hiatus. I was getting lost in the plot. I already have the ending but I need some time to figure out a way to make the Siege of TCRI a great closing Arc. Okay, now on with the story.


Once again, I woke up inside of the TCRI building. Boulders after boulders kept falling on me, stacking on my back. The heavy weight rendered my body useless. I desperately tried to move and get myself out with zero result or progress. All of a sudden, my body went limp. Let alone struggle, I can't even move anymore. It's just like last time after Donnie injected me with something. Clouds of dusts obscured my vision greatly. Out of those dusts, I could make out 4 outlines, 3 of them undoubtedly belonged to my brothers and one I could tell was Splinter's.

I tried to call for help and to my surprise, my voice still works. "H-help me, please." I desperately make out the words. They seemed to hear it as their shadows became bigger and bigger each second. For a good few seconds, I could feel an unexplainable joy inside of my heart. They are coming to help me. They are really coming to help me. However, all of them gone when they only stopped in front of me, not doing anything. What are they doing? For a while, they just stood there, making no move as if they were just some statutes.

Bit by bit, part by part, the fog started to clear up. That was the time that all his hope and joy turned into despair and dread. In front of him, his brothers and his sensei were only watching as he was getting crushed against the boulders. All of them wore the same evil grin on their faces. "W-w-why won't you guys help me?" I asked them, only making their grin grew wider.

Mikey stepped forward. "You want us to stop enjoying the view, bro?" His voice was cold and amused. It was very unlike uncharacteristic to the Mikey he knows, or knew. What did he meant by "enjoying the view"?

"W-what a-are you t-talking about?" I asked in disbelief and confusion.

Raph huffed. "The view of ya gettin' crushed to your death slowly was too good to pass, "fearless"."

I almost lost my breath after hearing it. Splinter crouched down to me and took one of my swords. He inspected the sword just like how I did it when I check for some damage on the blade. He wiped the sword with two of his fingers from the hilt to the tip of the blade. "Let us end this now, shall we?" He said. My heart froze, my breath stopped. I struggled for air to no avail.

"You don't need to fight it, Leo." Donnie joined the conversation. "The poison I made work wonders on mutants and there's no one else that knows the cure but me." He continued. Poison? When did he… That thing he injected me with. It was the poison he was talking about. "From what it looked like, the poison already took effect." He said with a grin.

Splinter raised the sword, ready to plant it on my head. "Good night, my pathetic excuse of a son."

No. P.o.V

Leo shot up from his bed as fast as a bullet. He panted heavily and almost hyperventilated. It was that dream again. It was always that dream every night. His breath was still uncontrolled, gone from very fast to very slow without any pattern. His paws were clenched on the blanket he had used for the night. Cold sweat ran down his face and body like a waterfall.

"Try to breath normally first, Leonardo." Tiger Claw said as he patted Leo's back. He was very worried about the cub's health. Of course he already fully recovered from whatever had traumatized him but only physically. His mental state was the one that worried him. He had been having nightmares for one week. It happened every day that even he already knew what time it will happen and already prepared to calm down the cub right when he woke up. Leo doesn't want to talk about it, or at least he's not ready to share it just yet.

After realizing that Tiger Claw was beside him, he cuddled up to him and started sobbing. It happened so many times now but he was still scared of that dream. It always happened yet it always gave him the same amount of despair and dread, the same amount of the feeling of betrayal. He also felt bad that he had to disturb Tiger Claw's sleep every night. He wanted to talk about it, actually, but every time he tried to, he couldn't do it. He couldn't bear the pain of retelling the story of how his former family betrayed him. Soon, but not now.

"Try going back to sleep. You'll need it for your training." He recommended. He might say that but Leo never actually go back to sleep after he left his room, and he knows about it. Leo will always get another nightmare if he goes back to sleep so usually he just stayed up for the rest of the night. Tiger Claw will train him in the day as if he didn't know Leo didn't actually sleep well. He wanted the cub to become strong. If one incident caused him this much trouble, then he wouldn't have a chance in the real world. He got up from his chair and went to exit the room.

Before he did, Leo tugged his shirt, stopping him. Tiger Claw turned around to see Leo was looking down to his feet. "Could you … sleep here for tonight?" He asked sheepishly. He kicked himself mentally after he asked the question. 'What are you doing to yourself? Wake up, Leo. You're not a kid anymore.' He scolded himself. 'He gave you everything you need to recover and now you're asking more from him?' He was disappointed with himself. Where had the strong leader aspect of him gone to? 'It died along with my old self, end of explanation.' He thought. He's no longer the "Fearless Leader" he once had become. He's now a different Leo. Once he gone through this, he only had one thing in his mind.

"Of course." He answered, much to Leo's surprise. Tiger Claw was happy that the cub was starting to open up on him, even if it was little by little. With that, they both turned in for the night. Leo's sleep was thankfully, dreamless.

The next morning …

Tiger Claw was the first one to wake up that morning, as usual. He woke up while hugging the cub in a protective manner. One of his arms was over Leo's upper arm and the other one was slipped under his head, making a pillow for Leo using his biceps. Slowly, he slipped his arm out from Leo, not wanting to disturb the cub's sleep. He woke up slowly, stretched for a little bit then exited the room. It was already time for their training but he didn't bother waking his cub. Leo hadn't had any peaceful sleep for quite a while so he just let him slip today. They'll start training when he woke up.

He got out from his small house and did his usual patrol. He didn't want anyone to be near his house, especially with Leo around. He just walked slowly with his ears as radar and his eyes ready to focus on anything that raised his suspicion. The trees were tall and seldom to have branches so traveling on ground was pretty much his only choice. His ears twitched occasionally when hearing insects jumping from leaves to leaves. The forest was very quiet when there were no fights happening. The night was much noisy than the morning. Without birds chirping in the morning, the only sound that accompanied the morning was the sounds of the leaves blown by the gentle wind.

His mind was sent back to Leonardo. If he didn't do anything soon, there's a chance Leo won't recover from his damage. He had to find a way to talk him out of it. The longer he's in this state, the more likely he'll stay that way. If Leo still wasn't ready to talk about it, it left him with two choices to get Leo to heal. Number one, is that something much worse than his own trauma must happen but it had to be something that he could easily get out from. Or two, he must do something that could kill a whole or more preferably, a part of his emotions that could get him forget the scar on his soul. Both options weren't sound very good.

'I guess all I could do is keep training him for now.' He was concerned but if there's anyone who could get him out of his PTSD it was Leo himself. Tiger Claw had went through a lot of things that could break one's sanity but he always got out from them, except of one. The memory of when he lost his son was still clear on his head. He could never forget what happened that night to the smallest details, even if he wanted to.

Flashback…

In a cold winter night, Tiger Claw, a tiger-mutant assassin are running and jumping across the rooftops. In his hand, is a little cub sleeping soundly, snuggling to his chest in a search of warmth.

"THERE HE IS! GET THEM!" a sound from afar could be heard easily in the quiet of the night.

For the time being, he's not the hunter. Right now, he and his cub are the hunted. 'Even Shredder isn't this evil.' He thought to himself.

He needed a safe place. At the very least he needed a place for his cub to hide in the meantime. While the Foot clan wasn't the best place to raise someone, it's still better than being raised on a government military base and being experimented on for his whole life. That is, if he could make his way there. His jet-pack had taken some damage earlier so he couldn't just fly to safety. Suddenly, two man in black suits, whom he easily registered as government agents blocked his way with their weapon at ready. Using only his left arm to support the cub, his right hand reach for the gun on his belt and just in the matter of seconds, the two agents fell to the ground. As if on cue, a helicopter, and a large one at that, came from behind them making Tiger Claw turn around.

A man in black suit with a pair of black glasses covering his eyes is standing on the helicopter door. "Give up Tiger Claw. Why don't you just come with us peacefully and no one will get hurt." The man offered.

His blood now boils with anger. "No one will get hurt? What? Do you think I'm an idiot? The only reason you want me and my cub is to experiment on us and you're saying no one will get HURT?" Tiger Claw snapped at the man and then pulled a smoke bomb from his belt and threw it at the ground he's standing on. When the smoke was cleared, both of them are gone.

"Find them! They are not far away!" The man ordered.

Right now, Tiger Claw was hiding in the only place he could think of to buy some time. The sewers. He was thinking about finding someone who could take care of his son, but unfortunately his associates are all too far away, and so is the Foot HQ. Even if they are close, his friends are either assassins like him or someone from the black market. Both of them were one of the last choices for babysitting. He's running out of both choice and time. He was lost in thought that he hadn't noticed his cub was shivering until he sees it himself. Of course, the sewers are freezing especially on winter night.

He lays his backpack to the concrete. His backpack was damaged during the chase and one of the straps had been torn off, but other than that his backpack was still good enough. He took out a blue scarf out from is backpack. It was made by his wife a few days before their cub was born. She also knitted the name she wanted to give their son on that scarf. Tiger Claw wanted to see what kind of name she had chosen but there's no time. He used the blue scarf to wrap his cub. Tigers were supposed to be resistant against cold but his cub was barely 1 week old. Thankfully, the scarf was big enough to cover all of the cub's body. He could hear helicopters come and go on the topside.

He could stop them if he was alone. Even the reason he was on the run in the first place was because he was protecting his son. He got no other choice. He had to leave him until he finished fighting off their pursuers. He locked away all his emotions for that while when he left his cub, but not before finding him a place he deemed safe. He kissed the cub's forehead once and then he leaves.

Once he was outside, he drew both of his handguns. They were specially crafted to boost accuracy and penetration and not power to make it easier for him to fight. He waited for a while with his eyes closed and his awareness was kicked to the top gear. He waited for the perfect timing. Helicopter sound was heard from the distance. As soon as the helicopter was on sight, he shot the helicopter. It was only two shots and then he stopped. A few seconds later, there was a sound of crash originated from that helicopter. When he'd shot them, he aimed for both the pilot's and the co-pilot's head. It was the easiest was and cost the least ammo to take down a chopper. With the eye in the sky was gone, he could now use his stealth again.

One by one, the agents fall victim to his assassination skills. He managed to get all of his pursuers but one. Agent Bishop. He already retreated before the chopper was taken down. When he was sure everything was safe, he went back to the sewers to get his cub. However, he found nothing.

End of Flashback.

His ears twitched when he heard something. Soldiers, around 15 of them are now surrounding him. 'Damn it.' He cursed under his breath. He went too deep inside of his memories that he hadn't noticed the presence of the soldiers. The soldiers doesn't look like they were coming to talk as all of them has their weapon at ready. Tiger Claw drew his ninjaken and with right paw and his handgun with left. This will be a bit of a trouble as in the morning he couldn't use his stealth. Not to mention that his opponents was fully armed with heavy machinery. He took a deep breath and charged.

Leo's room, the Lair, Present time …

Inside of Leonardo's room at the lair, a blue cloth was hung in the same place as his other masks. It was still untouched even after he was gone. Gentle gust of wind flows to the cloth. It was a blue colored scarf and when the wind blown harder, it revealed a name was knitted with black string. Leonardo.


Whew, done. The flashback was mostly taken from Tiger in Blue's prologue with a few tweaks on the grammar and some more detailing. How do you guys like the plot twist at the end?

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