Alright, here your fellow little TMNT fans go! Part ten of Leonardo's Nightmare. The final part to one of my few first fan fictions. :) It's been a nice run so I hope you all enjoy the final part. Tell me what you think

Part 10

Leo stared ahead at the bloody scene of his murdered family. He felt the overwhelming sense of anguish consume him and the bitter taste of loss felt too real. Closing his eyes and curling his hands into fists Leo chanted to himself, "it's not real… it's not real…" Despite every cell in his brain telling him it was, he had to conquer and find his own subconscious and prove to himself it wasn't.

"You okay, Leo?" Mikey asked standing by the bathroom door looking in at Leo who sat near the toilet incase he had to hurl again.

Looking up at the orange clad turtle, Leo forced an uncomfortable and painful smile. "I'm okay…" He mumbled.

By the look on Mikey's face, Leo could easily see his little brother wasn't convinced. Sitting back and leaning against the bathtub Leo reassured, Mikey. "I'll be okay, little brother," he said.

Mikey nodded, slowly backing up and walking away with a sullen expression still lingering on his face. It bothered Leonardo to see Mikey so upset by him. Michelangelo was always the least affected in situations, so when something did have an impact on him, it made Leo more attentive to the situation or problem. But this time, Leo was the problem that was affecting Mikey and the only way he knew how to fix it was by getting better, but he still wasn't sure how he could do that yet.

His head spun dizzily and Leo closed his heavy eyelids while resting his head on the edge of the tub and sighing. Even while his eyes were closed, he didn't cease to see. His vision was obscured with fake images that even though Leonardo knew consciously weren't real, still managed to affect him significantly as he tried to obliterate them and take control of his own mind.

Leo opened his eyes when he heard the footsteps of Raphael stop in front of him. "Come on," Raph said, "Let's get you some fresh air." Helping Leo to stand up Raphael led Leo outside and assisted to get Leo seated on the front porch.

Sitting down beside him Raph looked out at the sunset and sighed. "How do you feel?" He asked rawly.

"Awful," Leo said shortly not up to elaborating on his deteriorating health. His head constantly ached, his body craved sleep, he couldn't eat without feeling sick, and his bodily injuries were still healing very slowly. The only thing that seemed to have improved within the last eleven days was his negative outlook. While he still felt nearly hopeless, he regained the desire to fight but lost the energy to do so.

"You'll be fine," Raph said very seriously looking down at the ground. Leo stole a glance at Raph, concerned by the odd note of doubt that was underlying his tone.

Not entirely sure what to think, Leo simply replied, "Of course…" Had Raphael finally come to his senses and realized Leo wasn't going to get better? Anxiety and self doubt wrapped itself and choked Leo's heart. Looking away from Raph's indifferent face Leo redirected his gaze at the sunset.

After a few unbearably quite minutes Raph stood up and stated he needed to help Donnie inside with something. He was vague and seemed disinterested in sharing anything with Leo. Once the sound of Raph's steps faded inside the house Leo stumbled to his feet and slowly began to limp into the forest. He wandered until he reached the creek which he knelt into and looked at his reflection.

As Leo took in the sight of his weary eyes and dull expression Saki's shadow loomed over him and his wicked face appeared behind Leo's. Leonardo sighed. "What?"

"So he's finally given up on you," Saki breathed failing to cover his satisfaction.

Leo shook his head, unconvinced, "No, he's just tired."

"No, Leonardo, you're tired, he's lost hope for you," Saki repeated seeming more satisfied as his disgusting grin grew. "Look at you, you're pathetic." Leo couldn't argue as he stared despondently at his reflection "What is there for him to see in you to believe you'll get better? Admit it, turtle, you've lost the battle. You're a failure Splinter would be so ashamed of you."

Spinning around Leo thrust his fist at Saki but Saki's body dissipated and reappeared a few feet away. "He selected the wrong brother to be the leader. You're obviously not fit or strong enough to guide your family." He taunted taking slow steps back when Leo drew his swords and swung one at him futile. "Splinter was a ignorant foolish rat to think you could follow in his footsteps. Look where you've brought your brothers, Leonardo!" Saki suddenly yelled almost angrily as his body suddenly resumed the present day Shredder and his voice resumed it's deep and menacing tone. "You lost to me and now New York is lost to the Kraang and your brothers are stuck on a farm because of their crippled leader."

Yelling angrily, Leo tossed his katanas to the ground and shouted, "You win! Fine, I'm a failure! I failed my family!"

"No, you haven't…." Leo turned around and looked sadly at Mikey who hesitantly stepped out from behind a tree.

Leo scoffed, laughing darkly, "Tell that to Raph. You should have seen how dissapointed he looked not ten minutes ago…"

"Dude, Raph's been out training all morning…" Mikey said with obvious worry.

Shooting Shredder a tired and defeated glance, he realized the scenario with Raphael had been a hallucination.

"Mikey," Leo softly spoke. "I'm sorry. I got you all in this mess and I can't even help myself much less my family… I failed you guys. I failed you, Mikey." Unable to hold a confident gaze Leo looked down, ashamed.

Unexpectedly Michelangelo walked to Leonardo and wrapped his arms around his neck tightly. Leo stood there still and surprised.

"You haven't done anything wrong, bro," Mikey mumbled into his shoulder. "We all messed up back home. But there wasn't anything we could do… You can't blame yourself for what happened." Suddenly backing up Mikey looked sideways with a look of guilt.

"What?" Leo asked curious why Mikey of all people looked guilty.

"Honestly, dude…" He said, "I feel bad I wasn't there to help you fight Shredder and you got hurt because we couldn't help you."

Leo's eyes widened with surprise. He hadn't considered for a moment that any of them would have felt guilty. "Mikey," Leo said, "It wasn't your job to look after me, it's mine to look after you -"

"That's hogwash, man," Mikey snapped. "We're brothers! We look after each other. Maybe you are the leader but we are still a team. It's not you plus us, it's all of us, dude."

"Wouldn't you like to believe that?" Shredder snapped, sudden concern in his voice. "You're the leader! You're the one who -"

"You're right, Mikey," Leo said looking up, a sudden sense of control over his mind coming over him. He glanced at where Shredder was standing, "it's all of us… I'm sorry for being so selfish…" he felt tears suddenly sting his eyes as the guilt of failing to beat Shredder turned into guilt of being so self absorbed with himself.

Mikey resumed his embrace and this time Leo wrapped his arms around Mikey as well. "It's all cool, bro," Mikey said.

Shredder laughed angrily but then shouted, "NO! You're pathetic, you can't actually believe you can get better. Look at you! You're -"

The voice ceased, his presence disappeared. Leo grinned softly and rested his chin on Mikey's shoulder finally feeling the peace he was dying for the last two weeks finally settle in. While he still felt ashamed for being so self consumed, being held by his brother's forgiving embrace set aside his anxiety and replaced it with warmth.

Taking a step back, Leo wrapped an arm around Mikey's shoulder and said, "Let's go home…"

Mikey smiled, appearing like a pleased five year old who was just given a candy.

As so many of you wanted more of Mikey what better way to conclude it than with Mikey shining light on the situation? I wanted to elaborate more honestly, but school started and I've just been too tired and busy to write but I wanted to finish this for everyone so I hope I did okay.

Maybe see you all later for the next fic? ;)