TMNT characters are copyrighted by Mirage studios and were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. And this is a non-profit Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written, Robert Louis Stevenson. The music was composed by Wildhorn and the lyrics were written by Leslie Bricusse.

"There is no battle
I couldn't survive -
Feeling like this -
Feeling alive!"

Jekyll & Hyde

Post-traumatic Stress?

Leonardo finally awoke feeling strange. Everything felt so unreal: the colors around her, the reeking smell of the sewer, the cold of the morning, the feeling of the fabric of the couch, the sweat and blood, sticky on her skin… She tried to move and found all her brothers snuggled by her side. 'They are back,' she thought without any particular emotion.

She gently pushed them away and her stomach growled. 'Food!' she thought as she religiously headed to place her seat on the table and poured the cereal. It wasn't until she had poured the milk that she realized she was not hungry anymore and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. She felt the water taking away everything and allowing her to clear her mind. She used the towel to pat herself and remove the moist in her skin, but then she suddenly caught a sight of herself on the mirror. She stopped momentarily, dropping the towel and she began to laugh hysterically, all of a sudden feeling an urgent need for air taking control of her lungs. She tried to gasp for air but felt drowning instead.

She forced herself to control her breathing, finally regaining her focus on that peaceful spot with leaves and sand as she started to mutter some mantras that had been ingrained to her since she could remember, with its soothing and monotonous tone that helped her to drive her troubled mind into the nothing. She then headed to the dojo and considered practicing some katas for her morning practice.

"I am out of swords again," she said to no one in particular. 'Well meditation then…' she thought, arranging her body in the lotus position with her hands on her best imitation of the harmony hand seal. Splinter, who was now deeply concerned as he had trailed after her since the kitchen, called her, trying to awaken her as he assumed she was sleepwalking. He expected her to return to her room or the couch, any minute. He was deeply worried about the tone of the laughter he had heard so became more insistent in his attempt to waken her when she headed to the dojo. The weapons there where dangerous indeed so he made his way quickly in front of her to stand between the weapon-stand and the sleepwalking turtle, but what Leonardo did was even worse and he felt his heart freeze when he heard her talk, as time seemed to stop when he saw Leonardo assuming the lotus position, almost clumsily while uttering mantras and rocking back and forth in an almost frantic and unearthly tone.

"Just what happened to you, my child?" He wondered, sitting by her side, refraining himself from trying to wake her anymore, as the turmoil inside her was palpable.

Don awoke later and found himself snuggled along with Raph and Mikey. 'Ok that was odd.' And then he noticed the missing turtle, all the events of the previous day coming back suddenly, he called the alarm: "Leo!" and woke the other two. "Leo is gone!" The recently awaken turtles still half sleep looked around confused and anxious. Their confusion was eased when a now almost fully geared, sans swords and fresh looking Leonardo walked through the door of the kitchen drinking a glass of juice.

"About time. Up sleepy heads! It is time for the morning practice, you got a lot of catching up to do." she said collected.

Splinter who had left the dojo, to get some herbs, for a minute and returned to find it vacant. He looked at it confused: She had sneaked on him! And that was deeply disturbing for he had not felt the darkness dissipate.

She was mumbling some tunes of the songs she had heard the previous day as she returned to the dojo.

"Morning sensei," she said with a bow.

The rat and the trailing turtles looked at Leonardo disconcerted.

"Leo, are you alright?" Don asked cautiously.

"Why should I not be? Don't you trust my fighting skills Don?" she retorted, narrowing her eyes with a particular glee in them.

"Ok, what the heck is this about? Where the shell have you been?" Raph spat distracting her attention from Don.

"Tsk, tsk… Manners! We don't need another injured, Raphael. Haven't you learned to keep your composure?" she said with a giggle.

"You bastard we were worried about you," Raph growled.

"Really?" She said in a disbelieving tone with a sneer sighing "But you don't want me here remember? And sorry, but I can take care of myself, Raph. I am a big ... shinobi." And then she began to sing slowly as she waltzed in the dojo around them.

"Like the moon, an enigma,... Lost and alone in the night... Damned by some heavenly stigma,
But blazing with light!" She laughed. "The theater is fun!"

"What the heck was that?" Raph exclaimed, trying to bring her down but missing by inches. She used his impulse to propel him to the corner.

"That is what I am talking about: you have gotten slow. One mistake like this and your enemy gets your sais and neck." She said snatching the weapons from his belt before he could react and threw one of them to the practice dummy.

She continued to mumble the song. "It's the feeling of being alive!...Who is next? Shall we take our itinerant and always humble Battle Nexus Champion first?" She pouted when she noticed the cast. "Oh! I forgot! Injury leave, thanks to hothead there." She said still playing with the sai like a baton, looking at the limping Mike. "An excuse as good as always," she added in a low voice.

"Then..." She turned to Don. "Don't you want to take on me, Don ...? For real this time." She said devilishly. "How about a little gamble on my part?"

Don gave her a horrified face.

"Guess not" she replied to herself, chuckling

"Out!" Splinter commanded to his other sons, fearing Leonardo would lash at them. He was ready to take her down himself.

"What a feeling… Mmmmm… Such a feeling of… Mmmmm…" She continued. "But Master I must be ready to finish your vendetta! That is my only purpose right...? The Shredder is back!" She giggled

"Leonardo enough!" Splinter said with a marked Japanese intonation and he added something else his other sons could not understand.

She let go of the sai and put her right hand on her forehead while clenching her eyes painfully, speaking in Japanese. "Yes... Disappointment... Failure… A worthless makeshift warrior, unworthy of a weapon… Lia... But I will finish my taskmaster... No matter what it takes" she said bowing lightly "And I guess I could use some sleep." she said in English heading to her room.

No one uttered a word after she left, no one moved for a while.

"I will meditate on this, make sure he does not leave the lair," Splinter commanded, heading to his own quarters.

"Father!" Raph yelled, demanding an answer.

"Not now. I need to meditate on this." He said, not turning his back on the startled turtles so they could not see the pain on his eyes.

"Post-traumatic stress probably" Don offered as an explanation. "I mean, the Shredder..."

"He meant all of it." Raph spat. "Every single damn word, are you deaf?" he said pushing Don who pushed back angrily.

"Yes, says the one whose only purpose in life is to see if he can tick Leo off! Well, congrats bro." They eyed each other, about to start a fight when the third turtle interrupted.

"Do you think we can sign him for America's got talent? He does have a nice voice." Mikey said, trying to break the ice. He received two smacks from the other disconcerted turtles as a reward for his effort.

Leonardo remained asleep for 14 hours straight before waking up.

She just headed to the kitchen and ate two bowls of cereal as she was starving. She could not understand why her brothers behaved so oddly around him today, for this was supposed to be the day she was supposed to leave on "training" to perfect his skills.

She had awakened in a good mood and prepared her duffel bag excited about the upcoming trip 'Could have sworn I did it yesterday.' She thought.

"What is it Raph?" she asked as she looked for her swords, being unable to find them. "I could have sworn they were here yesterday…" 'Odd, indeed.' "Mikey, where are my swords?" she said, seeing the orange bandanna turtle approaching...

"Dude, you are not going anywhere near any weapon. High orders."

She sighed. "I will be back before you know it. It is only one year, you won't even notice I am gone," she said, ironically.

"What?!" both of them exclaimed.

"My leader training... Master Splinter told you last week, remember? I need to polish my skills by spending some time alone."

"Dude but that was..." Mikey started and ran outside, well as much as his foot allowed. "Don!"

"But you just returned..." Raph said pushing her to the wall. "What are you playing?"

"OK, I am not listening to you... I really don't want to fight with you today, OK? I am leaving so you won't have to endure my presence for a year. You should be happy." she said, pushing him away unsuccessfully.

When Don arrived he found them like that and he pushed Raphael. "Step away!" he said rather territorial. "Leo, what year is it?"

"Dah, I know, you really don't want me to leave." 'But you are going to party as soon as I step out.' She thought. "But it is necessary is... for you" she explained, looking at them. "And, please, give me back my swords, I mean it!" she said getting annoyed.

The 3 of them looked at the decided blue bandanna turtle, confused. "Master Splinter!" they yelled at unison.

Author's notes

No Leo is still alive and back in the lair so be ready for more mayhem.

Thanks again to Lady-Kassy for her beta of this chapter

Thanks for your reviews I don't think I would have continued this long without Lady-Kassy and your support. So thanks to all the regular reviewers and the new ones I was thrilled to find out I had reviewers from every continent in the reader traffic feature.

Did anyone hear the Jekyll & Hyde music? Alive is probably the most chilling one and probably this is the last of the songfic attempts in here.

Mantras: are a religious or mystical syllable or poem like prayers but their objective is to divert the mind from illusion and material inclinations forcing the mind to achieve meditation. Like the Ohm sound in yoga, in the chapter they travel to the Battle Nexus they are able to pass because Leonardo was able to recite I am not sure if they call it prayer, though, referring to what they had heard from Splinter before he passed through the portal so Leonardo must be familiar with them but for some reason his brothers aren't at all.

Do you think I should modify the summary, I am open to suggestions here?