Why, I've got a treat for you tonight. You get an entire hour'a worth tonight. I hope that makes it better that tomorrow's the last chapter. Depressing, isn't it? Well, tonight the story ends, and tomorrow I'll give you a little more information, alright?

3:00 am

Leo took slow breaths, trying to think of a way to escape. But every option was pointless-he wouldn't be able to carry it out fast enough to avoid a horrible mutation. So he looked to other strategies, and it was then that he remembered how Donnie had become...'normal' for a little bit. And if he was lucky, this could happen again.

"Well, before you do, we should talk for a bit. Give you a little time to look forward to my demise, right?" Leo said, looking at his brother with a weak smile. "Do you remember the Shellraiser? Metalhead? When you first built your laptop?". Donnie's glare weakened, and Leo continued. "Raph and Mikey and me? Yourself? Do you remember the fifteen years we spent together? All the fun times?" He paused. "Do you remember Master Splinter, or Timothy, or April? You seemed to like them..." Leo spent the next few minutes recounting memories, hoping to change everything.

Donnie only dug the blade in deeper, and when this happened, Leo knew he had no chance. So instead of protesting more, he relaxed, sighing, letting his hands fall. This relaxation appeared to bore Donnie. He slowly pulled the blade away, whistling as he did so. And just as Leo fell to his knees, he jumped away, cutting the rope and landing a safe distance away.

3:15 am

Leo heard the cut, the jump, the landing. He heard the ropes moving, and a second before the canisters landed, he heard Donnie's voice, filled with pain and shock.

"Wait...NO!" The mutagen landed, and the instant shock of pain was worse than anything Leo had imagined. As every part of his body burned, he gasped, hoping he ended up dead. The pain was only comparable to the stinging he get every time he trie to remember their first mutation, but this was a thousand times worse. He managed to look up through the pain, and the sight greeting his eyes was the both saddening and happy.

Donnie, a look of shock and sorrow, his eyes filled with regret. One hand held out, the other clutching a blade so hard he was bleeding. The extra mutagen drained away through the special pipes Donne had insisted be in his lab. One last voice echoed in his mind as Donnie sat next to him, hands shaking. "Leo, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry." This was his last thought before closing his eyes, and sleeping for the last time-"At least he's sorry."

3:34 am

As the mutation fell, Donnie gasped, the sudden realization of what he had done finally hitting him. As thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind, he watched in horror as his brother kneeled in pain.

The scariest part was that, despite the obvious pain Leo was in, he hadn't mutated at all. He was still a human-turtle hybrid, the mutagen causing no difference-externally, at least. Donnie was sure the pain was an internal attack, on his bones, his organs, his blood. And when Leo died, Donnie couldn't breathe, only able to fall to his knees and whisper an apology, hoping Leo could hear it.

And when he knew Leo was dead, Donnie stared at him, wishing he could go back, wondering what had made him do such horrible things. And slowly, other memories came flooding up, and as clearly as when it happened, he saw Mikey hanging from his own chain, he heard Raph's clear scream of complete fear, he felt the pain radiating off of Leo. Axross the lair, a door opened-Splinter. He always had been a deep sleeper, a good thing with four boys. Or...three, now.

3:48 am

Donnie listened as Master Splinter went through his morning tasks, and when he let his mind drift back to what he had down, he grabbed the blade he had dropped. His mind filled with hate, but this time against himself, he pushed the blade against his neck, the same spot he had held it against his brothers'.

As he choked, he fell, blood training on to his floor. He closed his eyes, the image that his father would see when he came in here to wake them up flashing in his head as his breathing slowed.

A bloodstained son, one hand wrapped around a blade, two masks carefully tied around the wrist, and the other gripping his older son's wrist. The older son laying down beside him, his face calm. Two brothers, and the final image from a homicidal night.