Author's Note: Lots and lots of action coming up. But first... ;)
To those faithful reviewers who literally make my whole day better, thank you. :D To any other readers out there, feel free to drop me a line! I would love love love to hear from you.
Early morning drew Leonardo out of bed.
For reasons he couldn't explain, he refused meditation and instead took a seat outside his bedroom on the veranda, blue eyes thoughtlessly searching out the rising sun. The rain had left them behind and everything was brighter and fuller for it. The smells were so much heavier, so much richer than anything he'd ever experienced in New York. It was a wonder that two such antithetical places could exist in the same world, occupied by more or less the same beings.
Such different lives, Leo thought. Living parallel to one another.
Rising from his spot, Leo returned to his room. Something shifted underfoot and when he glanced down, he saw it was the framed photo he'd dropped next to his bed. The corners of his eyes crinkled and he leaned over, scooping up the photo and running a finger over the glass. After a moment's inspection, he removed it from the glass and placed it in the collar of his yukata, next to his plastron.
A soft knock came at the door and Leo glanced up.
"Good morning," said Ame as she stepped in from the hallway. A smile he couldn't resist lifted Leo's features.
"Morning," he greeted quietly. He accepted his tea and medicine without complaint, knowing full well that telling Ame he wasn't having any more pain would do nothing to assuage her concerns. Normally, she left him after she was certain he'd done as he was told. However, when she turned to move away Leo brushed her sleeve and she paused, dark eyes moving to meet his.
Maybe last night had been a dream, Leo told himself for the fiftieth time since he'd opened his eyes that morning. Maybe he and Ame hadn't really kissed under the sakura trees or watched for hours as the festival came to a close and the darkness fell in waves around them. Even though he'd parted with her at the door to her room, he'd felt her presence all night.
Ame stepped closer and placed a hand on his front, her expression as soft and secretly pleased as ever. How had he ever thought there was nothing to be found behind that smile? It made him wonder just what else in life he had been blind to.
"Will I see you today?" asked Leo when he managed to form his thoughts properly.
As he'd expected, Ame responded with a mischievous smile. "If you look for me," she teased, moving the hand to his cheek and pressing a kiss there. "I always watch when you train..." she admitted with a pink flush to her cheeks. "You are so focused, you do not notice me."
"I don't know how I could miss you," he replied as he pressed his fingers over hers.
The day Leonardo resumed his place as Sensei, the villagers cheered louder than any he had ever heard. The fierce young girl in Leo's class of ninjutsu – Kana – rushed to him with such a great and vigorous hug that Leo nearly fell over to the ground. He grinned and patted her head, flushing a little at Hiro's laughter from the side. Looking all around him, he saw the happy reflection of the villager's faces everywhere he turned.
This place was so different.
And he would keep it safe, no matter what.
When he wasn't training, Leonardo led Usagi and Hiroshi into the mountains to search for signs of Drako. However, even as the days went on, Drako did not attack and neither did his shadow warriors. "Somehow," said Hiro one day as they lounged near a fire high in the hills. "... This does not reassure me."
"Nor I," Usagi agreed as he munched on noodles.
Leo reclined on his mat and kept his gaze skyward, eyes tracing the outlines of shapes in the stars. "Well, he's sure not afraid of me," the turtle admitted wryly. "If I hadn't jumped, I'd be dragon food right now."
"Everything is dragon food," Hiro said flatly.
Usagi and Leo grunted in agreement. Several minutes of silence passed before Hiro swallowed the last of his food and dropped his bowl. "So Kin is pregnant," he said with a boyish grin.
Usagi and Leo sat up in tandem, eyes wide. "Hiroshi-kun!" Usagi exclaimed, clapping him on the shoulder. "That is most wonderful news!"
Leo laughed and patted Hiro's head, ruffling his hair. "Yeah, Hiro. Once again, you've managed to surprise me."
Hiro shoved him away with a laugh, shrugging under all the praise. "I did very little, as usual. It is all Kin," he said before pointing. "And she has terrible timing, obviously. I mean, really. All her fault."
Usagi rolled his eyes. "All the more reason to settle this conflict quickly, my friend. You will have other responsibilities soon."
"Don't... tie this kid to a tree, please," Leo added.
"Kin's child? I do not think so," Hiro made a face. "I will be lucky if it does not eat my hand!"
"Has anyone ever told you..." said Ame with a teasing grin, "... you worry too often?"
Leo raised a brow ridge at the woman sitting across from him, cross-legged in the warm green grass. Shallow currents bubbled next to them over rocky streams and swarms of tiny fish, a pleasant gurgle carrying up the side of the hill to reach them. They sat far enough from the main village to avoid being spotted and Leo basked in the moments in which only Ame filled his vision.
"About a million times," he answered truthfully, shifting to stretch out a leg on the warm carpet of earth. The wind rolled over them in comforting waves, just strong enough to stir the tendril of black hair that escaped Ame's bun. The sight of it was driving Leo to the point of distraction.
"And not once has it occurred to you to do something about it?" asked Ame in her frank way, her head tilted in his direction.
Leo made a face. "It's not that easy, thank you very much."
He looked out over the water and lost himself in its constant movements, unmoving even as Ame edged forward and caught his chin with a fingertip. "I did not say it was," she told him as a thumb stroked over his cheek. "And yet I asked anyway, because I know it is something you can do."
"You have more faith than I do," Leo brushed his lips over her forehead before he inhaled deeply. "I just wish we could find Drako. This waiting – it's the worst feeling." He'd explained about Drako to Ame – how the dragon creature had come from one of the other dimensions, how it held a grudge for Master Splinter of his loss at the Battle Nexus. How, somehow and in some way, it had come to this dimension looking for something.
And now it waited, coiled and ready to spring.
"Usagi says the village on the other side of the portal hasn't reported seeing him. He's still here on the island somewhere," Leo curled his finger against his knee. "And yet no where on this whole island can we find any trace of a gigantic dragon. I feel like one of those clueless detectives on television that has a pet dog smarter than they are," he scowled.
Ame giggled. "You do not have a dog, so I do not think that is true." Leo made a face at her and Ame straightened, fixing him with a firm gaze. "Leo-san. Think," she commanded. "What happened when you fought Drako before?"
The turtle squinted. "I almost died?" he tried, smirking when Ame thwapped him on the chest.
"No. Not that. What happened to your surroundings?"
Leo turned his gaze skyward in thought. "Well, we were in the forest. And he destroyed most of it."
Ame prompted, "And why is that?"
"Because he was a huge dragon," Leo raised a brow ridge.
Ame tilted her head and gave him a pointed look. "Right. He is a large creature with little room to move in dense forest. Why would he be there, in a place you could so easily track his movements?" She shifted to her knees in front of him and held up three fingers. "There are only three places he could easily hide on the entire island. One is the dried ravine on the northeast side of the island. Another is the western coast, which is much less crowded than the rest and has no homes," Ame plucked a blade of grass thoughtfully. "The third is the caves on the mountain peaks, all of which are in but one area. Search those places and you will find him, if he is truly still here."
Leo blinked. "Are you really smart or am I really stupid?"
Ame's pretty features relaxed into a laugh. "Neither," she said, even as Leo shook his head in disagreement and found her hands with his.
"Nope, you're definitely a genius and for some reason, you can find the patience to talk to someone as slow as me."
"If it makes you feel any better, Usagi-san and Hiroshi have lived here their entire lives and did not think of it," she snickered.
Leo tugged on her hands so she came closer and Ame leaned forward, looping them behind his neck. "Maybe we're all just years behind you," he said with a nod. At Ame's brilliant smile, an uncomfortable twinge tempered Leo's peace, reminding him of just how unfairly brief this feeling would be. How quickly it would come to an end when he returned to New York.
And yet, for once in his life, he didn't want to face it. He didn't want to be reminded. Ame had asked him if he'd ever taken the advice of others and stopped worrying. He hadn't.
But maybe he could start now.
When the internet signal finally lined up and the call jumped across the world, Leo reclined against the rooftop of the cafe and waited. After a few minutes of mechanical buzzing, the camera image of Leonardo moved to the corner of the screen and was replaced by a freckled face shrouded in red hair.
"Hey April," Leo grinned.
"Leo!" April exclaimed in delight, quickly casting a glance around. "I'm the only one home. You meant to call my computer, right?"
Leo nodded to the screen. "Yeah, I just … wanted to talk to you, that's all." He paused, watching the myriad of emotions that floated over April's expressive features.
"About what?" she asked, her eye fighting to study him from a world away.
Leo paused. "Anything," he told her with certainty. He hadn't thought it possible but April's smile grew even larger. She pushed away her books from her desk and scooted forward enthusiastically, her chin dropping into her hands and her blue eyes wide.
"I miss you, Leo."
"I miss you too, sis."
"... and so I jumped out of the closet and she screamed so loudly, she woke my father and mother and everyone on the island!" Ame's eye glittered in triumph. "She was so startled, she dropped her ink and spilled it all over her kimono. And I was the one punished for Mariko's clumsiness." Ame's put-out expression volunteered exactly what she thought of that arrangement and Leo laughed at her, shaking his head. He drew himself up to her knees, upraised from where she sat on the veranda railing. Her socked feet dangled high above the wooden flooring, toes curled.
"You're the one who scared her," Leo pointed out.
Ame made a face. "I was an innocent child," she said primly.
Leo snorted. "I'm beginning to think you were never innocent. Just a little demon child with a sweet face," he smirked.
Ame bit her lip to suppress a smile. "Perhaps," she conceded. She reached out her arms and Leo moved her gently to the floor. His hands lingered at her hips, even the mound of fabric at her waist doing nothing to deter his grip.
"We should..." he said, pausing long enough to clear his throat. He'd almost said go to bed but that suddenly sounded too suggestive in his head, where every thought had become clouded by a new underlying meaning, a real possibility that lingered throughout the day in a space it had never existed before. "... go to our rooms," he finished at length. Ame's touch at the collar of his yukata certainly didn't invite self-control, even as demure as it appeared on the outside.
"You are right," she said. Drawing him back into the home and its shadows, she let Leo wind her up in his arms and give her a soft kiss. They'd maintained their careful distance of each other in public, with not even Hiroshi seeing the two of them together like this. It had been a routine that had been neither discussed nor refuted. Moving away just enough to take in the sight of her face, Leo kept one hand at her back and drifted the other up to her neck. He felt her pulse jump under his curled finger.
He bent low and kissed her again, this time pulling the motion from her in a slow languid movement that left them both breathless and straining, pining. Both of Leo's hands tucked behind Ame's head and only the trust he had in his own discipline kept him comforted, certain that he wouldn't hurt her or move too quickly. Every second passed was another inch of Ame's body that relaxed into his, closer and warmer than he'd ever dared to imagine.
With one last pull at her lips, Leo forced himself away. His hands slowly followed, dropping at his sides with reflexive curls that mourned the loss of her soft skin and dark hair. "Good night, Leo-san," the barely there tremble in Ame's voice spiked Leo's satisfaction in a way he couldn't possibly hope to describe and it nearly broke his self-resolve and drove him back into her arms.
"Good night," he whispered.
He'd barely slept half an hour when a nightmare ripped him from his bed.
A flaming man riddled with arrows, crying out in anguish and yelling for help. Leo's clouded vision, smoky under the haze of sleep wrapped around the man's scalding image. His shouts grew louder and louder still, calling Leo by name.
Leo blinked and stepped away from his bed, not realizing until he hurried out of his bedroom that the man wasn't a nightmare at all. He was real, a burning effigy of what had been the village's night guards. And as he collapsed at Leo's feet, he could only look up at the stunned turtle with an agonized shout.
"He's here..." the man cried out with his last breath.
And just like that, everything Leonardo had been avoiding for the past few weeks – everything he'd been avoiding for years washed over him in a suffocating wave of smoke, heat and blood.
"HAMATO!"
Leonardo rushed out into the village only to careen to a stop as a blast of fire cut off his path. Turning with a snarl, Leo brandished his katana and faced a pair of glowing green eyes. Villagers screamed and ran, fighting to get away from the massive hoard of shadow warriors and human bandits, possessed and incapable of doing anything but the bidding of the monstrous dragon at the village gates.
"Leo-san!" Hiro rushed to his side, jutte in hand. "I am guessing this is the dragon!"
"You think?!" Leo snapped.
"Leonardo-san!" A tumbling white blur landed deftly in front of them, swords drawn. Usagi straightened. "I think he wants to see you!" In response, the red dragon stomped his way through the front of the village, crashing into whatever lay in his path as swarms of warriors made their way past him, laying waste to whatever was nearby.
"At least we know what he was doing all this time!" Hiro winced as the seemingly never-ending band of bandits covered the streets with angry yells. Leo turned his katanas in his hand, his eyes narrowed and white. "Hiroshi, get the villagers out. Southeast gate, take them to the river."
"Got it!" Hiro tore off, jumping right into a throng of shadow warriors attempting to hack their way into someone's home. As before, the bandits rushed through the village in a mad search, taking the time only to cut down those who stood directly in their way.
"Are you with me, Usagi-san?" asked Leo, body tensing as Drako approached in his furious march.
"Always," replied the rabbit with a fierce nod.
"Then let's end this," Leo crouched and charged, racing towards the dragon with Usagi at his side. The two launched into the air at the dragon's head, barely avoiding a blast of flame as they came down on it with their blades. Drako lashed out with a huge claw and knocked Leo off path but he twisted his body, driving a blade into the thick red hide of Drako's front leg. The dragon snarled fiercely and snapped his jaws at Leo as soon as the turtle hit the ground, missing him just barely.
"YAH!" Usagi caught the dragon on the opposite side but the scales were difficult to scratch, repelling their blows with effortless ease.
"You dare to fight me?" roared Drako, smashing his spiked tail into the ground and throwing Leo and Usagi into the air with its impact. Leo recovered and swiped at the base of the tail but Drako lurched and Leo went flying, crashing into the wall of someone's home. Usagi growled, jumping off the ground with a powerful leap and lashing out at Drako's neck. The dragon caught him with one taloned hand and laughed, throwing him roughly into the ground.
"Usagi!" Leo shouted, his wide wide. He jumped up and charged at Drako, swiping and cutting over and over at the Drako's claws, as long and sharp as a spear.
"You can fight me all night, Hamato!" growled Drako. "But you will lose! Soon, I will have what I need and you and your kind will be sorry to have ever walked this dimension or the next!"
Leo rolled under a heavy swipe and plunged his katana into Drako's clawed hand. "What you need is a lesson in shutting your mouth," he hissed, wrenching his blade free from Drako's hand and earning a spray of blood for his efforts. The dragon howled and turned swiftly, catching Leo by surprise and launching him several feet in the air.
"I could not agree more, Leonardo-san!" Usagi shouted, jumping onto the back of Drako's powerful neck and hacking at him with his swords. "You have no business here, Drako! Leave my village be!"
"It is not your pathetic village that I desire, ronin!" Drako snatched at Usagi but the rabbit jumped away, rolling on the ground and coming up next to Leo. He grabbed the turtle by the arm and hauled him up so that the two could turn to face Drako once more.
"You!" someone shouted from the side and Leonardo turned, his heart pounding under his plastron when he saw his own fighters line up beside him. "We are here to defend our village," one of the men called out. "Be gone!"
"I will destroy you all to get what I came here for!" Drako sucked in a deep breath.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Leo shouted but it was too late and a great plume of flame erupted from Drako's mouth, eliciting screams from the line of warriors. Leo nearly fell prey to the fire again but managed to duck away with Usagi and a few others. Out in the street, half a dozen of the warriors scattered in groups of panicked shrieks ignited in flame. The little girl Leo had trained since his arrival, Kana, cried out the name of her older brother. Turning to face Drako, she readied her scythe and raced at him with an angry howl.
"No, Kana!" Leo leaped from his spot but it was too late.
Drako caught her between his jaws and lifted her in the air, shaking her once like a wild animal before he tossed her out into the fields in too many pieces to count. Leo's body froze in place for a split second but that was all it took for his rage to boil over. His feet turned sharply in the dirt and his eyes became white once more, a ferocity that was almost calming in nature forcing its way down every stream of blood and muscle in his body.
A battle cry built up in his throat and grew louder as he raced at Drako with his katana held high.
Drako struck but Leo hit him first, slashing up through the dragon's jaw and connecting with the fangs there, knocking a handful loose and spraying everything within fifty feet with blood. Leo landed behind him and whirled around, unrelenting in the fury that fueled his skill, the training he'd spent years building. Drako's reptilian features contorted with pain but he continued to lash out at Leo, occasionally finding a mark but never keeping the turtle down for long. His massive form stumbled back and knocked into the wall of the small temple. Blood poured from his maw and created streams in the unpaved roads, his breathing growing heavier and more labored with every hit.
"You are done!" Leo shouted, his eyes blazing. "And I will not give you the chance to plead for your life. Not now."
Drako hissed and shrieked, fighting to get away from Leo's attacks but having no where to turn. Leo advanced slowly, his shoulders tight. Drako opened his blood jaws, crimson leaking to the ground and sticking loudly in the open gums where his prominent fangs had once been. He fought to straighten but could only slump where was.
Leonardo raised his sword.
"MASTER!"
The shout made everyone turn their heads and a chill raced down Leo's shell when Drako let out a bellowing laugh. "Yes!" he cried out, falling forward and hurrying on all fours to the group of bandits making their way out of the temple. One of them turned to the dragon and kneeled, offering a box as long and wide as a coffin. Leo's eyes widened as Drako reached forward and opened the box.
"I have it!" the dragon cried out triumphantly, his claws twitching with anticipation.
Somewhere in the background, Leonardo heard Kenichi cry out in anguish. He ignored him. Drako curled his injured hand around the contents of the box and raised it high above their heads. "At long last," he laughed again, the sound guttural and terrifying. "I have the Daimyo's War Staff!"
"No!" Usagi shouted from behind him and Leo whirled to face his friend. The terror he saw there was enough to stun Leo into a stupor. "He cannot have that, Leonardo-san! That is one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe! Do not let him take it!"
Leo's throat ran dry when the staff began to glow but the brilliant white light prompted him into action. Rushing forward with a silent charge, Leo jumped into the air just as the magical staff burst with light and threw itself from Drako's hands. The dragon hissed in pain and withdrew just as something flashed overhead. The force of it caught Leo in mid-air, his eyes widening in terror as he realized he was floating.
And then being drawn away from the earth, just as was everything else around him.
"The staff rejected him!" Usagi called out, even as the light overhead began to whirl and twirl into an otherworldly vortex. Leo shifted and tried to claw his way back to the ground but it was no use. "Leonardo-san!" Usagi rushed forward and tried to grab Leo's hand but the pull was too strong.
"Usagi!" he cried out. "What's happening?!"
"It created a portal!" Usagi cried out, fighting to keep hold of a beam that rooted him to the ground. Leo felt himself being drawn closer and closer to the portal. At the same time, he heard Drako scrambling to stay on the ground as well. His spiked tail whipped closely to the vortex. Below them, the Daimyo's War Staff flew up from the ground and disappeared into the portal with a pop.
"No!" Drako called out and then let himself go, following the war staff into the portal.
"He cannot have that staff, Leonardo-san!" Usagi called out. "He will destroy everything!"
"Then let me go!" Leo shouted over the deafening winds that yanked on him, sucking up anything not bolted into the ground. "Let me go and I'll stop him!"
"But Leonardo -"
"Just do it!"
The rabbit let out an angry cry and loosened his grip, not on Leo but on the wooden beam he held. Leo realized in a flash of understanding that Usagi meant to come with him, to enter this void which possibly held no return. And he could not allow that.
And so he pushed Usagi away with a great shove and had only a moment to register the anguished look on his friend's face before it disappeared, along with everything and everyone else in the village.
Author's Note: I really like this chapter. o.o