Duplicity
"Du-plic-i-ty n. 1. Deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech. 2. The quality or state of being twofold or double." (The American Heritage College Dictionary)
AN. Alright it's been a little while but here's the next chapter. There's a lot of information in this chapter so pay attention… and keep in mind that not all is what it seems. Many thanks go to my beta-reader, Nekotsuki.
Disclaimer: The Turtles and all their friends are the property of Mirage Studios. The quote for this story is by Oscar Wilde (thanks again J.C.). I do not own them, but am grateful for the opportunity to use them in the unleashing of my own imagination.
Rating: This story is rated T for violence and battle related injury. Language is very mild.
Chapter 6
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.
"Don, you find anything yet?"
Donatello looked over from his computer to glare at his older brother. "What, exactly, do you expect me to find, Raph? It's not like there's going to be information about a five-foot-tall, talking turtle just floating through the internet. Wherever Leo's been, he's covered his tracks." Raphael had been at him all morning, trying to get him to find something that would clue them in on what went on the previous night.
Raph sat down beside him and spun once in the computer chair before planting his feet and standing up again, obviously frustrated. "Am I the only one who got a bad vibe from that girl last night? And that conversation they had was just way too weird. She called him brother. And who's this 'father' they were talking about?"
"What happened to listening to and trusting Leo? He said he'd explain everything tonight. You just have to wait."
With a stubborn growl, he sat down again. "It's not that I don't trust Leo. I just want to know what the shell is going on." He met his brother with a stern gaze. "You sure you can't find anything?"
Exasperated, Donnie turned back to his computer. "Alright, fine. I'll check, but I doubt I'll find anything." He went to a people search website and sat for a moment, thinking. "I don't even know what to search for. We don't have anything to go on."
"Well, we know he's in New York.," Raph supplied. "And there was that name she was calling him… Sora or something."
"Dude, it was Sorin. Sora's the guy on Kingdom Hearts." Mikey came over, a plate of mini- pizza bagels in one hand. "What are you guys doing?"
Don rolled his eyes as Raph reached over and stole one of the bagels, popping it in his mouth before Mike could begin to protest. "We're looking to see if we can find any information on Leo." He turned back to the computer. "Alright… first name: Sorin. Location: New York City, New York. Anything else? No? Okay… search." He clicked the search but and they waited as the system ran through its files.
Mikey cocked his head to one side as he continued to munch on his snack. "Is that gonna work? I mean, Leo wouldn't just let info on him leak all over the World Wide Web, would he?"
"That's what I said but…" The computer chimed that the search was complete and three results popped up on the screen. "Okay, let's see. Sorin J. Baker." He clicked the link. "Physics professor at NYU, married, three kids…" hHe lifted his eyebrows and grinned at his brother. "Sounds like Leo's been busy."
"Oh yeah, real smart, brainiac. Try the next one."
Sighing, Don went to the next link. "This one's a Sorin Michaels; winner of last year's… tri-county spelling bee. It's a kid. Raph, this is ridiculous. We're not going to find Leo on here."
"There's still one more, try it."
Rolling his eyes, Don clicked on the final link. He frowned. "It doesn't even provide a last name… just a website…." With a glance at his brothers he followed the link. The page came up displaying a black and white photo of a somewhat bulky figure wearing a black cloak, boots gloves, and a mask that covered his entire face. Above the photo was a headline reading: "Oroku Sorin voted one of New York's most eligible young bachelors."
The three turtles stared in silence for a few moments. "Oroku…" Mikey finally whispered. This seemed to wake the others up and Raph stood, turning away from the computer.
"No. There ain't no way that's him."
"Hold on Raph. I think we're all jumping to conclusions here." Don scrolled down below the photo. "Look, there's an article." After scanning it quickly, he began to read aloud. "Dark, mysterious, and presumably handsome: that's what teenage fan girls are calling Oroku Sorin. His face has never been revealed to the public eye, but that didn't stop him from rising to the top in last week's poll for most eligible young bachelor.
"Originally Sorin Mendel, his life was changed after a car accident, when he was nine years old, which left Sorin not only orphaned but severely scarred and disfigured. He was then adopted by multi-millionaire Oroku Saki, a close friend of the family. His inguries don't dissuade young woman from trying to catch a glimpse of him. Some even believe that his scars might make him dashing. 'He's so shy and gentle,' said 19-year-old, Elizabeth Browning. "I ran into him last week and ended up spilling my purse. He helped me pick everything up and apologized as though it was his fault. I don't know what he looks like but his voice is beautiful."
Don paused to glance at his brothers. Mike had stopped eating, although his plate was still half full. Raph was facing away from them with his arms crossed. It didn't take a genius to guess that his face was steely. Looking back at the picture, Don's frown deepened. "Guys… I think this is him."
"Leo… Leo wouldn't do that…," Mikey said quietly.
"You're right Mikey. He wouldn't." Raph turned to face them once more. "Forget about it, Don. That ain't him."
"Then how do you explain all of this? The guy in the picture is about our height and it's easy to pick out the shape of a turtle under that cloak. The story fits… nine years old, disfigurement as an excuse to hide his face…" he scanned further down the article. "It even mentions a sister, Oroku Karai, 18, adopted three years ago… that corresponds with Leo's trip to Japan."
Raph's eyes were narrowed and his face was grim. "We'll ask him tonight. There has to be a reason for all this."
The day was drawing to a close. Splinter watched in silence as his sons gathered their supplies and headed out to meet with their eldest brother. They had told him in detail about their previous meetings with Leonardo and the old rat had felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Finally, after all these years, their questions were being answered and his son was coming home.
However, Donatello's recent findings had dampened Splinter's spirits somewhat. The knowledge, that his son may have been in the hands of his most dangerous enemy, frightened him. Oroku Saki had slain his beloved Master Yoshi years ago and, in the past few months, he and his sons had battled with the Foot Clan several times. Many things were yet to be explained. How had Saki known of his sons at their young age? What had been his plan in capturing Leonardo? It troubled him greatly.
While the others had assured him that Leonardo seemed well and unharmed, there was no way of knowing how he'd been affected psychologically by his years in captivity. He would have no way of knowing anything until he had the chance to speak with the oldest turtle personally.
It was for this reason that he had considered joining his sons that night. In the end, however, he'd decided against it, knowing that Leonardo would have a hard enough time explaining his situation to his brothers, without being under the eye of his father and teacher. Putting aside his worries, he walked into his room and settled down to meditate. He could only pray that all would work out for the best.
Raphael and the others watched from behind as Leonardo meticulously cleaned his sword in much the same way that Raphael had often cleaned his brother's katana. The older turtle had obviously been waiting for a while on the rooftop where they had agreed to meet. He seemed lost in thought as he carefully wiped the already spotless nodachi.
'Probably trying to decide how to tell us where he's been all these years…' Raph thought. He was having trouble, as well, in deciding how to handle this situation. Part of him, the part he'd always had difficulty controlling, wanted to rush in and confront Leonardo about what they'd heard the previous night and what they'd found online. And yet his other half, the part that over the years had grown into a strong leader, wanted to wait, hear him out.
After several minutes, Leonardo finished polishing his sword and stood to return it to its sheath on his back. He didn't appear to have noticed them, but Raph was sure he already knew they were there. As such, it didn't surprise him when the blue masked turtle took a deep breath and turned to face them with a gentle smile. "Hey guys."
Raphael made a split second compromise. He'd give Leo the benefit of the doubt but he wasn't just going to wait until the topic came up. It was time for answers. He stepped forward out of the shadows; Donnie and Mike close behind him. "Hey Leo… or should I call you Sorin?"
No one missed the slight cringed that filtered through Leo's expression at the name. However, he quickly composed himself and after closing his eyes for a moment, he looked back up at them. His smile was gone.
"So you know," he stated plainly. "I guess it was only a matter of time before you found out. I was going to tell you tonight anyway." He paused for a second, then asked, "Just how much do you know?"
Both Don and Mike opened their mouths to reply, but Raph held up his hand to stop them and took the lead. "We know only what we heard between you and that girl last night and what Donnie was able to find on the internet."
Leo nodded absently. "So then you know that I'm Oroku Saki's son."
"It's true then?" Donnie asked, stepping past Raph.
Mike spoke up as well. "But he's the Shredder! He's like evil beyond evil, worse thean the Joker and Lex Luther combined, staple boy for Villains-R-Us! How could you, bro?"
"Alright, Mike. Knock it off." Raph pulled him back and turned to face Leo once again. His brother's face was set in a slight grimace and his eyes were dark behind his deep blue mask. Raph sighed. "Okay, Leo. Why don't you start at the beginning? What happened after you got abducted?"
Leonardo stepped away, seemingly gathering his thoughts. He leaned against the safety rail of the roof and motioned fro for his brothers to make themselves comfortable. Knowing this was going to be a long story, Mike settled down with his back against a storage shed. Don sat on top of an old crate while Raph chose to remain standing, his arms crossed. After another deep breath, Leo began.
"I guess you know by now that those were Foot soldiers who took me." He looked up and the others nodded. "I never did find out how they found our home. I don't remember much of what happened. I guess they knocked me out pretty quick. When I woke up I was in a small white room, no windows and only one door. It was locked, obviously, and it remained that way for about three days, although it seemed like years. No one came in. I didn't have any food or water or a place to relieve myself… no bed, either. By the time the door finally opened, I was really sick. I could barely move. Saki came in. He picked me up and took me to an infirmary where they cleaned me up and got me on an IV to replace my fluids. A few days later I was well again, but I was a lot weaker then than before, not to mention scared and confused. I wasn't sure what to think of Saki. He was being kind to me, giving me my favorite foods, letting me watch TV. I didn't like it though. I just wanted to go home."
Emotions passed over Raphael's features: anger at the Foot for taking his brother, horror at what they'd subjected him to, and then confusion at the Shredder's actions.
Beside him, Mikey's thoughts were following the same path. 'Poor Leo…'
"Then one day, he took me to a dojo. He told me that he was going to be my sensei; that I was to forget about Master Splinter and you guys and be his student. Well, as you can imagine, I flat out refused. I wasn't about to forget you all and my only sensei was Splinter. That's when he dropped the ultimatum. He told me that he knew where you guys were and that he could and would destroy you if I didn't do what I was told. I didn't want to believe him, but then, I'd already seen his forces. He'd taken me to his weapons storage and to the Foot training grounds. I knew that he was quite capable of following through on his threats.
"So I agreed. But I didn't make it easy on him. Oh, I did what he told me to, but that didn't mean I had to do it well. I purposely learned moves incorrectly. I pretended to be clumsy. I allowed my mind to wander when I was supposed to be paying attention. It drove Saki crazy."
"You were slacking off?" Mike interrupted suddenly. "Whoa, dude. That's like… me not liking pizza. I can't even imagine it."
Leo chuckled, bitterly. "Yeah well, as much as Saki hated it, I think I hated it more. By the end of the first month of training I was so out of shape I couldn't even perform some of the simple katas we learned when we were five. I was miserable. I wasn't learning anything and I was getting punished for it. Sometimes I'd just have to go without food, other times he'd hit me. A few times he just locked me back in the white room. The only thing that kept me going was thinking of you guys."
Don frowned and shook his head in anger and sadness, but remained silent. 'He was nine… he was only nine years old. How could they-'He broke off his thoughts as Leo continued.
"Eventually, Saki decided that he wasn't going to accomplish anything with me the way things were. He got together with his top scientist, this guy named Dr. Stockman, to start looking into brainwashing techniques. That's when things started getting really bad. They tried everything from hypnosis to mind altering chemicals. Some of it was rather lame. But when they started using the chemicals I knew I had to do something. The stuff they were putting into my body was making me sick. I was constantly in pain and as much as I didn't want to be brainwashed, I just wanted them to find something that worked so that they would stop torturing me." He paused for a moment and offered a slight grin to his brothers.
"That's when I started my acting career."
"Huh?"
"Wait, what?"
"Be kind, rewind."
The sudden change in topic had taken all three of his brothers by surprise and Leo laughed. "My acting career.," he repeated. "That's what I like to call it, anyway. You see, it didn't take long for me to realize that my body wasn't going to be able to take much more of their 'brainwashing.' So I came up with a plan. After one particularly painful session with the good doctor, I started faking amnesia. I told Saki and Stockman that I had no memories of my life. Thinking that they'd finally managed to brainwash me, Saki took me under his wing and told me that I was his son. He came up with this lame story about how he created me but I'd been stolen from him as a baby, and he'd only recently found me. I went along with it and started calling myself 'Sorin', which is the name he gave me. He started training me again, only now I was actually learning. I paid attention and did my best … but underneath my façade, I always kept you guys in mind. I knew that one day I'd be strong enough to leave Saki and go home."
Michelangelo smiled. 'I knew Leo would come up with a plan. He always does.'
"Things went well for a long time. I started studying and learning everything I could about ninjitsu and other martial arts. I learned weaponry and turned out to be a natural with the sword. When I was eleven, Saki started taking me out in public. I wore a mask and cloak and we convinced the media that I'd been disfigured in a car accident. I guess I was like his poster child or something. We went on trips and I got a chance to see the world - Japan, China, Europe, Africa, all over the States. I've even been to Disney World… I wish you guys could've been with me."
"Aw gee, Leo." Mikey grinned widely. "We wish we coulda been there too."
Leonardo chuckled and shook his head. "Anyway, about a year ago, Saki started sending me on missions with his Foot soldiers. That's when I really got a taste of the Shredder's world. Doing his dirty work wasn't fun. I started looking for a way out, looking for you guys. Thing is, I was never alone when I went out and I didn't want to risk anyone finding out that I'd been acting all these years. So I waited. Then, a couple months back, I was given permission to go out on my own. The first thing I did was go to our old lair, but when I got there it was abandoned."
"We moved out of that place years ago.," Donnie commented.
"Yeah, I figured as much. So I started keeping an eye out for you guys. I spotted you for the first time a few weeks before Raph's run-in with those Dragons but I wasn't really sure how to approach you. I mean, after such a long time I guess I figured that you'd have forgotten me. So, I watched you for a while, followed you around, and learned your favorite spots." He looked directly at Raphael. "That night you got ambushed, I… I heard you. I was right there. I don't know what you were remembering, but, it was nice to know you hadn't forgotten me."
Donnie and Mike looked between their two older brothers as something passed between them. An acknowledgement? An understanding? Whatever it was, the younger turtles were lost. After another moment, Leo turned away and looked out over the city before continuing.
"Anyway, I guess that finally gave me the courage I needed to face you guys. And… well that's it, I suppose. You know the rest."
Silence passed over the rooftop, broken only by the sound of late night traffic below. Leo didn't look at any of them, allowing them to mull over the information they'd just been given. After several tense minutes, Michelangelo broke the stillness.
"Sooo… who was that ninja girl last night and is she single?"
Raph and Don groaned. Leo smirked. "That was Karai. She's sort of my adoptive sister. Saki found her in Japan when she was younger and set up a place for her there. After our trip to Japan three years ago, she came back with us and was officially adopted by Saki. We've been training together ever since. Yes, she is single but no, you don't want to date her."
"Does she know about your… acting career?" Raph asked.
"No. Karai is honorable, a good and loyal friend. But she's an even more loyal daughter. She would never betray Saki."
Another hush fell over them and Leo eyed his brothers. Don and Mike seemed to have made their decisions on the situation but they were obviously waiting for Raph to make the first move. The red masked turtle stood with his arms crossed and a look of deep consideration on his face. Leo sighed and turned back to the skyline to wait.
There was a sound of metal, then,: "Hey Fearless, catch." Leo spun around just as Raph sent the point of a katana speeding towards him. He expertly sidestepped the blade and caught its hilt just as it zipped by him. Bringing the sword around to his front, he lifted his eyes to his brother, confused.
"Your katana?"
Raphael smiled. He removed the second blade from its sheath and crossed the roof to stand in front of his brother. Gently, he used the blade to tap the one Leo was holding near the hilt. "They're yours bro."
Glancing down, Leo caught sight of the kanji engraved on the blade. Lifting it to catch the light, he was surprised to see his name. He returned his gaze to Raphael. "I don't understand."
"The day you disappeared, Master Splinter had gone out to get something for us. He said it was a surprise, remember?" Leo shook his head. "Yeah well, he did. And when he came back, he gave us all our weapons. Thing is, you weren't there to receive your swords. So I've been holding on to them for you, for safe keeping." He turned the sword, allowing it to rest gently in the cradle of his hands, and offered the hilt to his brother. When Leo didn't take it right away, he continued in a low voice. "I made a promise. I swore that I would find you and give you your swords. It's been seven years since then and now you're here. So take 'em. They're yours."
This time Leo grasped the sword and his eyes passed over it and then back to Raphael. He glanced at his other two brothers. Both wore wide smiles on their faces and he allowed a small smile to grow on his own. But as he looked back at Raph, the smile faded. "You… called me 'fearless.'"
Raph's smirk was one of fond remembrance. "You've always been Fearless Leader, bro. You were just M.I.A. for awhile, that's all."
Leo found himself smiling in amazement. "I… I don't know what to say. I… thank you."
"There ain't nothing to thank me for. You're our brother." Raph laid a hand on his shoulder. "Welcome home."
A moment later, Donatello and Michelangelo were there as well, welcoming him and patting his shell. Just like that, they were kids again, four brothers reunited. Nothing else mattered, not were he'd been or where they would go from here.
For this moment, they were together.
Pulling back, Leo looked at his brothers, staring into each of their faces, memorizing each line and groove. He held his swords, squeezing the hilts and testing their weight. They were perfectly balanced and beautifully crafted. Reluctantly, he passed them back to Raphael. "You'll have to hold on to these a while longer, Raph. I can't take them with me."
Raph stepped back, the smile wiped from his face. "Wait, what do you mean? You're not going back there. You're home now. You don't ever have to go back there again."
"Yes, I do, Raph."
"No, come on, Leo. That's crazy.," Mike said.
"Listen, guys. If I leave now, Saki isn't going to rest until he tracks me down and destroys us all. But right now, we have the upper hand because Saki trusts me. I'm privy to information inaccessible from the outside. If I wait, there's a chance we could deal a crippling blow to the Foot on my way out."
Raph nodded slowly. "You have a plan."
"I'm working on one and it's going to take a little while. But I need to know that I can count on you three when the time comes."
"Of course." Don spoke up immediately.
"We got your back, Leo.," Mikey said.
Raph's smile had returned along with a wild glint in his eye. "I like the way you think, bro. You just lead the way. We'll be there." He took both swords and returned them to their sheaths before grasping his brother's hand. "Same time tomorrow night, then?"
Leo considered for a moment. "No, I've got a mission tomorrow. But I'm good for Wednesday."
"Hey, here's an idea.," Mikey exclaimed. "Why don't you tell us what Shred-head's plans are and we can blow his mission?"
Leo started to reply but Donatello stepped in. "No, Mike. It's too early in the game to risk blowing Leo's cover. We need to maintain secrecy as long as possible in order to deal the most damage when the time is right."
"Don's correct, Mikey. Besides, this isn't anything major, just a routine maintenance run. However, I will keep you guys updated on what Saki's plans are. As for now, I'd better get going before someone comes looking for me."
Raph nodded. "Right, we'll see you in two days, Leo."
Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
