The final chapter. At last.
It was never ending.
He knew where he was, how to get home, but his body was too weak to get him there. Blood poured from his side as his lungs continually failed to bring in enough oxygen.
He was losing the battle.
As his feet dragged along the cold floor, Leo looked wearily ahead of him, desperate to see any signs of home.
Had to be close. Had to be…
And finally, there it was. A light shining in the distance. He could see where the wall opened into the turnstile entrance.
Home. At last.
Just a few more feet down the tunnel and he was there. So close. So. Close.
Not enough.
His legs suddenly gave out beneath him, sending him falling to the floor in a crumpled heap. Pain flashed through him as the metal edge in his side was pushed deeper. His vision blurred as everything began to go numb. Couldn't feel his side anymore. His arm, his legs… everything was failing him.
No. Not yet. So close. Just get home, then you can rest. Just. Get. Home.
An attempt to pull himself up only ended with his one good arm trembling and folding beneath his weight. And every subsequent attempt was even less successful than the last.
He wasn't going to make it.
No! He refused to give up here. Throwing his arm forward and pulling with all his might, Leo dragged himself along the cold concrete, eyes fixed on the lair's entrance.
Almost there. Almost home.
But after pulling himself several feet, even his arm gave out. He was out of energy and out of options. Couldn't move, could barely breathe.
Couldn't make it home.
But he was close enough… perhaps if he shouted, his family might hear him? Might come find him and help him the rest of the way. "Help…" His voice grated weakly as a cough impeded his airways. It felt as though it'd been a decade since he last spoke at all. "Help!" He tried again, but his voice was still barely audible. "Raph… Donnie…" Another cough. It took too much air to speak. "Mikey…"
Were they safe? Were his brothers alive? Had they at least made it home?
As another cough crawled it's way up his throat, Leo felt himself fading. His vision blurred, going dark around the edges, as his body seemed to become weightless.
The pain was gone. Exhaustion, gone. All that remained was peace…
No. Don't give in. Not yet. Not yet! They would hear him. They would come. They had to.
"Sensei…" Splinter would sense him. Just hold out a little longer.
Just a little longer.
Mikey stepped into the kitchen, attempting to keep his emotions from pouring out in tears that he knew would never end. Master Splinter says that time heals all wounds, but Mikey didn't think that applied to losing a brother.
He would give anything to see Leo again. Anything.
Grief fell on his shoulders without subtly, pressing on him as he tried to shake his head of it. Leo was dead, but Raph was alive.
But Leo…
It was too much.
Suddenly feeling claustrophobic in his own home, Mikey headed for the exit, in desperate need of a change of scenery.
Some place where every object didn't remind him of what they'd lost.
As he slogged through the turnstiles, Mikey didn't know where he was going, but he already felt better being out of the lair. The home he'd been so desperate to get back to was nothing more than an open wound nowadays, festering with fear and grief. He was grateful to be home, of course, but it would never be the same home now that Leo—
Something caught his feet by surprise, tripping him up so he fell on something hard. As he blinked through the surprise, Mikey looked down at what he'd fallen on; it looked like a… shell?
No…
His eyes pulled open as he struggled to his feet, staring at what was before him in fear and disbelief:
Leonardo laying prostrate on his plastron, one arm mangled and disfigured beside him, and the other stretched forward, as though he was reaching for home.
"L-Leo!" Mikey fell to his knees beside his brother's body, feeling his neck for a pulse. None came. The skin was frozen and the body looked as though it was turning blue or purple. Mikey nearly hurled at the sight, hands trembling in disbelief. "Leo…" It couldn't be… how did he get back here? How did he survive the explosion?
Why wasn't he breathing?
"DONNIE!" Mikey shouted as loud as he could, eyes looking wildly around him for help. But all he found was a trail of blood that led to his brother's body, dried and crusted as though it'd been there for a while.
By the time his older brother showed up, Mikey was still trying to overcome the shock.
"Mikey what—? …Oh my g—"
"Leo, it's Leo, he's—He's not breathing, Don—He's bleeding, we need to stop the bleeding, and he's not breathing and he's cold and—" Don placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping Mikey's panic as it rose to new heights.
"Let me take a look." He said as gently as his pounding heart would allow. He could already tell from the coloration of the skin it was pointless… but he pressed his fingers to Leo's carotid anyway. Nothing. He put his hand in front of Leo's nose to check for air. Nothing. And there were no signs of his chest moving in rhythm of breath.
Nothing. This wasn't their brother. This was a corpse.
"Don?" Mikey's pleading voice was a dagger to Don's heart. "Don, you gotta help him!"
"Mikey…" Placing a hand on his brother's shoulder, Don had no idea how to say the words stuck in his throat. "…He's gone, Mikey. He's… Been gone a while." Don said with more than a hint of confusion.
Silence. Mikey didn't know what to do. Half of him wanted to grab up Leo's body and hold him until he breathed again, the other half wanted to run away from everything and everyone and never look back.
"At least a week." Don mumbled, but Mikey heard.
"A week?" He stared down at the corpse in his hands. "…You mean he was here? All this time, he'd been here and we just hadn't noticed?"
Don didn't have the heart to reply as he stopped examining his brother's body, unable to quell the shaking of his hands.
"He was here and we let him die alone!?"
"I'm…" Don had no words. "I'm… sorry Mikey."
"No. No, that can't—Why didn't he shout for help!? Why didn't he—" Gripping his brother ever tighter, Mikey's eyes slammed shut, praying to never open again. "Leo… Please, Leo, open your eyes..." Mikey's heart was breaking. "LEONARDO!"
But the corpse offered no reply. No explanations. It couldn't tell them of it's daring trek through the darkness to find home. Of it's many obstacles overcome only to come up short in the end. Of how desperately it fought to see their family alive and well.
Or of how it had waited for hours, calling for help that would not come. In the dark of the tunnel, alone and in pain, Leonardo had waited for his family to save him. Waited with faith they would be there soon. Waited in vain. At one point, the lights had shut off in the lair, and it sounded like there was water raging down the tunnels. He heard feet run right in front of him, shouting about finding a generator. But at that point, Leo'd had no strength to speak. He could only reach his hand forward, praying the person turned around and saw him in the dark. But the light of their flashlight disappeared back into the lair and he was left alone again.
Yet still, he held hope. They would find him. His family would find him.
Everything would be alright.
Mikey cried louder and harder than he ever had before, his brother's corpse in his arms, and guilt like a lance staking his heart.
Leo had died alone. So close to home. They could have saved him.
The life faded from Mikey's eyes as his heart froze entirely.
He would never be able to smile again.
Yup. The End.
…or this is a quick, insomnia driven April Fools joke that I couldn't resist writing. Wouldn't that be cruel?
End of Line
-TRAaP
