A/N: As promised, one (long) chapter full of (some) answers.
Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
Chapter 10-Hidden In Plain Sight
The word about Leonardo and Raphael's status as the Shredder's Honored Sons' spread around Foot Headquarters like wild fire. Leonardo and Raphael walked side by side trying their best to ignore the whispered words and looks of hate from disgruntled soldiers as they passed. It hadn't felt "right" walking the long corridors of the building before Master Shredder adopted them, and now? Well now it felt just down right awful.
Leonardo let out a deep sigh of relief as he entered the empty dojo and turned on the lights.
"Finally some peace." Raphael growled.
Nodding Leo grabbed a meditation mat and carried it over to a corner. Raphael did a couple of halfhearted stretches before he began viciously striking one of the heavy bags in the room.
Crossing his legs, Leo took a couple of deep breaths to center himself before embarking on his meditation. The steady rhythm of Raph's fists against the bag acted like a meditation chime, allowing Leo to easily enter the astral plain.
At first Leonardo let his mind wander, allowing all of the hate his fellow soldiers have been throwing at him to wash away like the river over a stone. Eventually Leonardo's thoughts began to focus on the two mysterious mutant turtles that had approached Raphael. Even though Master Shredder had declared that the two turtles and their rat master were working for the enemy, Leo couldn't shake the feeling that something about all of this wasn't "right." After all, Raph's story didn't suggest that the two mutants and that vigilante fellow had meant Leo's brother any harm. And besides, it's not like mutant turtles just pop up out of nowhere every day or something. Leo couldn't help but be at least a little curious about them, even if they did happen to be on the wrong side.
Leonardo soon found himself walking down a hallway with doors along one side. Leonardo approached the first door and turned the doorknob to open it. The door was locked. A frown crossed over his face. Leonardo tried again, but the door didn't open.
"What the shell?"
Grumbling, Leo turned to the side and tossed his weight into the door, shoving against it with his shoulder as he jiggled the handle.
Nothing happened.
Again and again Leo tried to open the door.
"Come on, come on! Why won't you open?"
Snarling and growling, the young ninja continued to beat against the door, his shoulder aching from the abuse as a bruise began to form. But no matter how hard Leonardo tried, he couldn't get the blasted door to budge even a little.
Leo turned his attention to the next door, ready to try all over again. He only took one step before a chorus of five voices bellowed down the hallway. The words carrying with it a force strong enough to shove Leo right out of his meditation.
"BE GONE."
Roughly thrown back into reality, Leonardo cried out as if he'd been struck.
Raphael paused mid strike, his brother's cry interrupting his concentration. Raph's black clad eyes turned to his brother across the room.
"Leo!"
Moving faster than his large bulk would suggest, Raph quickly reached his brother's side. Leo was breathing heavily and his skin was covered in a layer of sweat, as if he had just finished a long training session.
"Leo?"
Grimacing in pain Leonardo clutched his shoulder, his black clad eyes blinking rapidly as he struggled to regain his focus. Raph's hands hung uselessly in mid-air, as he was unsure of what to do. He'd never seen Leo react to meditation like this before.
"Leo?"
"R-Raph?" The response was little more than a whisper, as Leo's senses slowly returned to the present.
Satisfied that Leo was returning to him, Raphael realized that Leonardo was clutching his shoulder. "Are you hurt?"
Leo shook his head, no.
Unconvinced Raph reached out, only to have his hand smacked away by his stubborn older brother.
"I'm fine Raph."
Rolling his eyes, Raphael's muscles tensed, preparing to fight to see the injury, but Leonardo beat him to it.
Removing his hand, Leo looked down at his shoulder. Leonardo spoke out loud, seeking to convince not only his hot tempered brother, but himself as well. "There's nothing there. It was all in my mind."
Satisfied that Leonardo wasn't injured, Raph growled. "Leo, what the shell is going on?"
Leonardo always preferred to keep his thoughts to himself, but one look at Raph's face, and he knew there would be no getting out of it. Leo took a deep breath, then began to recount the recent events from his meditation.
Donatello spent hours carefully mapping out the layout of the two spare bedrooms with his fingers, then capturing the image on paper. Michelangelo had lost interest for a while, but he immediately shut off the video game when Donnie's shadow loomed over him.
"Look at this."
Mikey accepted the papers and stared at the drawings. The bedrooms were sketched in pencil, and looked nothing like the minimally furnished rooms the two brother's saw.
"Whoa." Mikey's orange clad eyes met Donnie's own. "Bro, do you realize what this means?"
Donnie shook his head quickly. "Yeah Mikey, those two turtles with the Foot Clan, they really are our brothers."
"But Donnie how?" Mikey shook the papers. "All of this stuff. Dumbbells, a hammock, a motorcycle helmet, a futon, a sword rack?" Mikey frowned as he tried to call out everything on the page. "And are those incense?"
Frowning Mikey glanced at his brother. "I don't see any of it when I walk in there. How is this even possible?"
"I'm not entirely sure Mikey." A look of determination flashed across his face as Donatello began walking out of the lair, one of the photo albums in his hands. "But I think I have an idea."
April locked the front door of her antique shop, Second Time Around. The red head's eyes fell upon the old grandfather clock in the corner. It was time to start cleaning up for the day. Moving to the display cabinet, April reached down to pull out her window cleaner and a rag. Rising to her full height the red head let out a yelp of surprise as a photo album suddenly appeared in front of her, held by Donatello.
"Donnie!" April held a hand up to her chest as she struggled to regain her breath.
"Sorry April." Donnie's purple clad eyes went from intense to guilty in an instant, as he watched April bring a hand up to her chest, struggling to catch her breath.
With a half-smile April shook her head. "It's ok." How a large turtle could move so quietly she'd never understand. "Where's Mikey?"
A jovial voice called out from the darkness. "Michelangelo's in the house!"
Michelangelo was little more than a quick flash of orange as he popped out of the darkness and landed on silent feet next to his brother, his smile wide as he held his hands up in the air.
Teenagers. April shook her head again as her smile grew. "So what brings you boys over here so early? Casey won't be off of work and here with the pizzas for at least another 30 minutes or so."
Donatello gestured to the photo album on top of the display case. "I want you to take a look at something April."
"Ok."
"Tell me April, what do you see?"
April looked at the genius for a moment, then back down at the photos. "I see family photos."
Donatello tapped one of the photos impatiently. "No April, what do you see?"
April peered at the photos again. "I see photos of you and your brothers."
Nodding eagerly, Donatello asked. "How many brothers April?"
This time Michelangelo leaned in as well, curiosity all over his face.
"I see all four of you."
Mikey gasped at the same time Donatello cried out. "I knew it!"
"What? Bro come on, tell us!" Michelangelo hopped back and forth on his feet. Donnie had figured it out.
"Tell us, tell us!"
Catching on, April answered instead.
"The four of you have been there all of this time."
Donatello nodded. "Exactly."
Confused, Mikey tilted his head. "Say what now?"
"It's an illusion Mikey. The bedrooms in the lair, the photos in this album. All of the stuff that's ours and belongs to Leonardo and Raphael. None of it ever went anywhere. It's all an illusion of the mind. That's why we couldn't see the stuff in their bedrooms, or Leonardo and Raphael in our photos, but we could see them in April's. It's all one big elaborate illusion."
Mikey slumped into a nearby chair in shock. "Wow."
"But Donnie, what about your memories?"
Donatello closed the photo album, then sat down next to his little brother. "I don't know yet April." The genius turtle shrugged. "One answer at a time."
Master Splinter closed his eyes and began taking slow deep breaths, seeking to pass the time through meditation. The skilled ninjitsu master entered the astral plain with ease. Taking his time, Splinter let his mind wander in any direction that it wanted. For a while, the old rat just hung out, enjoying the peace and tranquility brought forth from years of practicing meditation.
Eventually Splinter's thoughts began to focus on his two sons and he soon found himself walking down a hallway with doors along one side. Opening the first door Splinter was greeted to an orange pool of light, radiating joy, laughter, and a tinge of mischievousness, all traits belonging to his son Michelangelo. Moving on, behind the second door was Donatello, with curiosity, intelligence, and stubbornness mixing together, creating a swirling display of purple.
Looking down the hallway, Splinter realized that there were two more doors. Splinter's eyebrow arched up in surprise. He only had two sons, so who could these other two doors belong to? Curious, the old rat approached the third door and turned the knob. The door was locked. Well that was odd, why would a door from the depths of his own mind be locked? Maybe he tried to open the last two doors in the wrong order? Splinter moved on to the fourth and final door, but this one too was locked tight. Well clearly the order in which they were opened didn't matter then. Which begged the question, why couldn't he open the last two doors?
A feeling of unease ran through Master Splinter. Something was wrong here, something very, very wrong.
Splinter returned to the third door and tried again, tugging harder this time. The door remained shut tight. Narrowing his eyes, Splinter promptly began focusing all of his energy into opening that blasted door. After a few minutes of deep concentration the door cracked open. Silently slipping inside Master Splinter stuck to the shadows. The old rat's eyes widened in surprise at the sight before him.
The only light from within the dark room was radiating from the center. Hovering in the air were two figures that appeared to be asleep. Both were covered in primitive looking armor that hide most of their faces from view, the shape of the armor giving them a short, triangular, squat like appearance. The two demons each held a large double bladed staff in their right hands. The armor for the figure on the left was white, with a subtle movement suggesting wind circling the staff and moving throughout the armor. The figure on the right was a shade of turquoise, the movement around the staff's blades and among the plates of armor possessing a shimmer similar to the reflection of sunlight on water.
They were the Shredder's Foot Mystics, and in between the two Mystic Ninja was a ball of red light, radiating strength, passion, and aggression.
When Splinter took a step forward the eyes of the turquoise Water Mystic snapped open. A wall of ice sprang forth blocking Splinter's path, then a gust of wind from the white Wind Mystic tossed the rat out of the room. Moving fast Splinter yelped as the door whacked against his hand, but the injury was worth it for he had prevented the door from slamming closed and locking him out once again.
Water and Wind began channeling their energies for another assault. Splinter growled like the animal that he was.
"Get out of my head!" Splinter roared as he leapt forward, a blast of controlled fury, love, and protection radiating from his astral body. The two Mystic Ninja vanished when stuck by the beam of white light.
Immediately memories flooded in and Splinter realized that the ball of red light belonged to his second eldest son, Raphael.
Splinter ran out of the room. There was one more locked door, which meant that there was most likely one more son that he had temporarily forgotten about. With a surge of fatherly protection rushing through his astral form, the old rat demonstrated his namesake as the final locked door quickly turned into a pile of splinters before him.
Once again Splinter found himself inside a darkened room. This time three figures hovered in the air. While similar in shape and size to the Foot Mystics from Raphael's room, the colors of these three were different. The armor for the figure on the left was brown, the edges looked as if they were dripping in mud, although none fell onto the floor. The middle demon was part red, and part orange, flames of various shapes and sizes moving along the edges. The final demon was grey, with armor that reflected the fire's light, revealing sharp looking edges.
The Earth, Fire, and Metal Mystics opened their eyes to attack the intruder.
Splinter dodged the blades and fireballs from the Metal and Fire Mystics, as he leapt over cracks developing in the floor beneath his feet from the Earth Mystic. In the center of the darkened room, patience, bravery, and a hint of overprotectiveness mixed together, creating a swirling pool of blue.
"I will not let you have him!" Splinter roared as another series of blasts shot out from his astral form. As the three Mystic Ninja slowly vanished, Fire's voice lingered in the air.
"He is already ours."
Splinter gasped as he blinked quickly, trying to re-orient himself to his surroundings. He was back on the cargo ship. Weakened from his fight, Master Splinter struggled to look down at the photo he still held in his hand. Next to Michelangelo and Donatello, the images of a missing third and fourth figure slowly faded into view. The images were of Leonardo and Raphael, his two eldest sons. The Foot Mystic Ninja's control on Master Splinter had been broken.
Shifting to lean against the wall of the ship, Splinter closed his eyes and his stomach churned with worry. Over the years, the old rat had trained his sons in the art of meditation, yet even Leonardo, his most advanced student, would not be skilled enough to break free from an attack such as this one. Which brought forth two very important questions, what had the Shredder's Mystic Ninja done to his four sons? And how on earth was Master Splinter going to free them?
A/N: Aha! So that's who is behind all of this, the Foot Mystics, or the Mystic Ninjas, or the Heralds of the Shredder, or, well I've seen them labeled quite a few ways actually. Well, were you surprised? Maybe? At least a little?
Anyway, here are a few more fun facts about this story. Fun fact #3. A small portion of Shredder's speech to Leonardo and Raphael in the last chapter was from the 2003 episode "Shredder Strikes Part One" when Shredder tried to convince Leo that he was a good guy. Fun fact #4. I left a small clue that the Foot Mystic Ninja are the one's responsible for the mind control back in Chapter 7.
More answers as to what's going on are coming up in later chapters. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review if you are enjoying this fic. Virtual pizza to those who do!