Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT only plot and original characters are mine.
A/N: thank you guys so much for your support! I know I say this a lot, but it means so much to me. Sorry this took so long I was suffering from both writers block and lack of inspiration/motivation. Oh and also remember Leo doesn't have any clue about his family's state or anything back in New York.Well there isn't much left to say, please enjoy for that is why we write...
The wonder and excitement that filled Ry's eyes as they came to the outskirts of a port in New York City was unmatched. She simply couldn't get over all the new lights, smells, and even the sounds that reached them while they were still out on the bay. She'd never seen so much of anything in her whole life! It was…amazing…
Leaning closer over the side, she grinned seeing several lights sparkle like twinkling stars. How these people managed to get their torches to react that way or how even that they had so many lit without burning down their entire city was beyond her. Still though, this lack of knowledge didn't keep the thirteen year old girl from enjoying it. Her smile however was less than a counterpart to her master's grim expression as he fastened several ropes. His gaze was set towards the lights, but instead of wonderment or even a sense of longining for his family, they only carried darkness and a foreboding feeling. He wasn't looking forward to this reunion at all.
Dead for ten years! Ten solid years, he'd let his family just believe he was dead. Killed by an assassin's blade to avenge the one he killed. The one he could still feel being killed…and now he was back. Just expecting to waltz back into their lives as though he had only been out for a stroll instead of leaving them to grieve for ten years…no that wasn't his plan. He wasn't even sure he had a plan anymore. Getting here, that's all his focus had been on when they boarded, getting away from the shadows that haunted him there and seemed to have branded him with their own mark.
But even here there were shadows, inescapable clouds of darkness that hung around the air and clung to him, pushing him forward yet holding him back. Forbidding him to remember yet always grieve…perhaps he had been dead ten years.
The Leonardo they knew anyways. Perhaps it wasn't a full lie, after all that warrior was long since disposed of and he wasn't ever coming back…at least that's what he told himself. There were times he felt that part of himself return to him, as if trying to get him to remember. Awakening him from sleep, keeping him from peace, but trying to give it to him at the same time…ever since that blade fell that night, it had become a constant battle of opposites. Peace and grief, dead and alive, his old self and new one…his old scars and new ones he bore. Secrets he even refused to share with himself, keeping them separate from his mind and only clawing at his soul. Such was the way it had become for him, and he felt it would take more than even family to help him…
Not that he ever felt he deserved it. On the way over he had been short with Ry, lost his temper several times at himself over a mistake he shouldn't have made while doing something or other. As well as needled by the constant knowledge of what happened here, ten years ago, the family he tried to forget only to have memories dance around him, and what he had left behind for those poor people on the island to fight. They wouldn't stand a chance.
Not even a great general had stood a chance against them…they were the worst kind of evil. Subtle in everything they did and only a few who knew their ways and knew how to detect and combat them could do much about it. And even then, it took more than one person to fight. Often times it took several…
Several…
That word to him usually meant four. Not two or three…and yet he had left less than several to fight the darkness alone. A sudden terrible thought hit him as they drifted closer in through black water, the moon faintly caressing its surface and the turtles face as he regained his balance from a small wave that rocked their boat. What if because he had fled, taken the easy way out and simply didn't tell them of his folly…what if one of his brothers were now dead?! He didn't know they wouldn't be, after all they were always getting into fights.
The foot clan, purple dragons and any one else that threatened them, in his head he could almost see one of his brothers falling alone in an alley or worse in Shredder's palace, perhaps from sickness in the arms of another or under the care of their father…father. Master Splinter! What of him, he was elderly when Leonardo left, if he was still alive he would be even older now, weaker perhaps, a target now more than ever…with every thought of this his hands grew tighter and tighter against a rope he had once been fastening burning into his flesh...
He didn't know or even feel this however, until a small voice caught his attention.
"Sensei?" Ry was now closer to him, yet still at a respectable distance, not daring to move or even touch the turtle to try and stop him from what he was doing. She didn't want to make him angry. The excitement in her eyes was now replaced by a steady fear, and curiosity. Her Sensei had been acting like this more and more ever since they got out on the sea.
And now his hands were starting to burn from the rope he held. Maybe his shoulder… "Is your shoulder alright, Sensei?" She asked in broken Japanese. Over the month they'd been at sea, Leonardo had attempted to teach her some basic English so there wouldn't be a language barrier if she needed help. She was human, she could seek it if something happened. And if she knew the basic language of the land, she could find help faster than waiting for a translator.
"Yes, it's alright. It's getting better actually, thank you." He offered a small smile, it wasn't much but it was all he could give as he undid the rope and set it down, subconsciously rubbing at his shoulder again. He wasn't even sure what was wrong with it. He'd looked at it and even Ry had taken a look in case she could see something from her angle he couldn't from his. She hadn't found anything either, but ever since that fight in the harbor a month ago, it had continued to throb and the pain would occasionally be so intense it brought Leonardo to his knees. It was suffocating when that happened, white hot pain that made all his skin feel clammy and yet freezing to the point it felt as if he was breaking.
The last time it happened, he remembered practicing a kata, showing Ry a standard form with a wooden Bo staff when the pain hit. Embracing his entire body and forcing him to the ground where he had laid for a good twenty minutes, cringing and breathing hard trying to calm the nerves down as they screamed out in pain. Finally he had passed out and when he came to found himself propped up against the side of a small structure that came just over the stairs leading to the lower deck. His kimono was slightly off and his shoulder was bandaged and set, with the strips of cloth Ry had still worn against her elbows and hands. The girl hadn't known what else to do, only that it could be a wound she couldn't see, so she did what she thought would help.
It had helped a little, but more than ever it just made the arm irritated and fall asleep. Leonardo hadn't told her that though, only thanked her and tried to straighten it out after taking off the sling and handing the bandage back to her. He still wore one though around his shoulder, the tight pressure seemed to help the intensity of the throbbing as well as the frequencies.
More than once though he'd had to undo it and then reapply it because his arm would scream for more blood than it was getting, though there were times he'd unwrap it that he thought he saw the smallest hint of a black dot right in the center of the flesh, only to moments later look and it just be the normal green. He'd run through all his knowledge but couldn't find anything that would suggest poison or even a minor wound with infection.
Ry looked at him slightly unconvinced, but nodded willing to accept what her master told her. He wouldn't lie to her. Giving a small bow she returned to her 'post' watching as they came in closer. Suddenly she asked. "Sensei, who are we meeting here?" her face turned slightly towards him.
Leo stopped mid coiling a rope. "What makes you think we're meeting anyone here Ry?" he asked coolly, yet not unkindly, keeping his eyes focused on the task at hand. They had discussed why they needed to leave the island and where they would go, but he'd never told her exactly who they would be meeting. Or even that they would be meeting anyone at all…
"You said last night….didn't you?" she quirked an eyebrow at him. "Something about meeting someone here…or maybe I heard you wrong. It was late." she tried to reason, mentally scratching her head.
She was sure he had said something…then again it had been late. Was she dreaming?
Leo only looked further into the rope while mentally kicking himself. Stupid nightmares! They always came and sometimes he'd awake to his own cry gurgling in his mouth. Other times they wouldn't be that bad and he'd wake up thinking he was back at home with his brothers already, that nothing had happened and the worst thing on the day's roster was keeping Raphael inside the lair; only to wake up and find reality waiting to slap him.
He bit his lip, before straightening. He couldn't keep everything a secret, even if he longed to, it wasn't fair, not to her, not anyone…selfishly though, he could at least hold out any major details. So he gave what little he could. "We're going to meet my brothers and father, Ry. I haven't seen them in ten years, so they might be a bit surprised." That was putting it lightly, but he left out the part about him being assumed dead for that long.
She smiled. "I bet they missed you."
Leo turned towards the girl, not showing the effect those innocent words meant to comfort had on him. Though inside he would have preferred being slashed with a katanna than to hear that they missed him…they missed a murderer, a traitor…they missed him. He didn't want to hear it, despite the truth…
"They shouldn't have." He spoke in a low tone Ry couldn't hear. His eyes hard as they turned back towards the task at hand that was now just busy work as he shifted through his thoughts, his heart aching and shattering inside him all over again. Then speaking louder, he dropped the rope and forced himself to stand up coming over towards Ry and the ships side. "I'm sure if we see them, it will be more of a surprise than anyone anticipated."
If? But he just said…Ry looked at him as if she wanted to question it, but this time he didn't give her the look letting her know it was alright to press on the matter. Instead he simply stood their, face blank, yet full and far away. Wistful even, but also…afraid? She'd never seen her Sensei afraid! Not ever!
Sighing, Leo came back to reality and offered a small smile, squeezing the girl's shoulder. "We should be in port later tonight, mid dawn at latest. We'll need to be ready to go as soon as we can get off the ship. So be ready."
Ry grinned, all they had were the clothes they wore and the weapons all assembled in one area. The food and water were almost all gone. Still she bowed. "Hai Sensei."
Leo smirked slightly, she was either giving him real respect or just being cute over what he said earlier, only know realizing how little they had to carry and yet how important he'd made it sound, as if they were some cargo ship carrying packages from all over the world back home.
Back home…he breathed the thought in, letting it settle inside and wrap around him. Yes, he was back home, back in the land of shadows. Back into his past.
"Get some sleep, alright? I don't want you tired for our first day here." He spoke coming back to reality and offering a smile again. This time though, it was genuine and she nodded back with a grin. Maybe things would smooth out more once they landed here completely. She hoped so…then her stomach sank as well as her curiosity piqued.
"Master Leonardo?" Ry asked drawing his attention back towards her. She hadn't moved from her spot yet her eyes were transfixed at least several hundred yards away. Peering into the darkness she squinted as several shadowed figures stood straight and on the shore almost in a greeting fashion.
Leonardo came over and found his jaw clench, his heart in his throat and his stomach make an icy splash. He could swear all the shadows were smirking.
"How did they…" there was some red that stood out among the shadows to his eyes. He'd trained them to see red against black for years, even in a moonless night.
"Are those your brothers?" Ry asked her smile back, until she saw her master's expression. "Sen…"
"Ry get down! And keep quiet!" he suddenly snapped ducking down and pulling her down as well with a soft thud. She winced but let it go. Shooting him a questioning look, he shook his head. "Those aren't my brothers, Ry. I only have three brothers and my father." There were more than that there, far more, besides his family didn't even know he was alive. They certainly wouldn't be meeting him at the docks. "You remember that clan that attacked us a month ago?"
She nodded, biting her lip.
"Well, they have more than one base."
Ry's eyes widened, but she forced herself to keep her emotions in tact. Before she could ask though, her Sensei began to outline how to avoid them.
"We avoid them at all costs Ry. I have a feeling they knew we'd be here." he lowered his voice. "They're probably watching this ship, waiting for us…even if we have to swim, we avoid them. They aren't patrolling Ry, they used to do that, and probably they still do. But this isn't one of those times. This time they're looking for someone and I have a feeling it's us." Leonardo's words were cooler and sharper than steel, as his eyes continued to penetrate the night. They'd have to get around this, avoid a fight and get somewhere safe.
Somehow…
To Be Continued…
A/N: Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading.
Take care
Be blessed
Your friend
innocent-rebel
