CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
In his room, Leonardo was quietly brooding to himself. Casey knocked on the wall, alerting him to his presence.
"Hey, it's me" he said
"Leave me alone" Leonardo replied
"Yeah, I think we do enough of that already, and you don't exactly become the life of party that way"
"Life is no party" Leonardo continued
"Tell that to the others" Casey added
"Just what is it you want?" Leonardo asked
"A little insight" Casey answered, "Based on how I've seen you act, you're the lean, green version of me from a few months back when me and April first crashed down here. I couldn't get it into my head how these two worlds of ours could care let alone collide, now I'm warming to the notion. You? You're still cold about it, and I don't think that's just because nature intends it"
"I tire of this belief I am cold to anyone" Leonardo snapped back "I have raised concerns for I myself am concerned. Everyone's so eager to embrace what the world can give, that none of them truly wants to remember what this world has taken away. One of us has to carry that memory, so we're all cautioned, so that none of us will ever be lost in the same way"
"Maybe they've just decided to let go of that memory…let go of the past. Like all of us have to. Surely you can open up about this"
"…Maybe you DO need to understand…maybe if you do, you'll side with me." Leonardo rationalized.
"I'm all ears" Casey said, leaning his head on the wall
With a heavy sight, Leonardo conceded to Casey's wishes.
"Alright. I'll tell you" he replied.
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
Four of the young Turtles were playing a game of catch in the tunnels , Leonardo gingerly walked behind the scrambling group, he was holding in his arms an ordinary Turtle, the fifth member of the group that had been unaffected by the green substance that had transformed the remainder several years earlier.
Even as a youngling, I kept to myself a lot. I didn't let anyone in except my master…our father. It must have been difficult for him all those years, managing all those combustible elements…forces as wild as nature. Most of us igniting the sewers, our energy as white hot as summer, but I remained as still as an autumn leaf.
The young Raphael ran up to Leonardo and tapped him on the shoulder. Leo shied away, taking a few steps back. Raphael folded his arms, annoyed. He spotted the regular Turtle. He tagged IT. Leonardo gave him a dirty look. Raphael shrugged and gave him a cheeky smile. Leonardo walked away. Raphael sulked and opted to chase after a boundless and energetic Michelangelo instead.
Everyone tried to get me to join in, look to the middle of the road…
Leonardo walked up to a ladder, he stared up. Above him, he could see a manhole…a portal to the world topside.
…but I was always looking upwards.
As the young Turtles began to grow tired of their play and huddled around each other for a group sleep. Splinter smiled at the students and gently patted a slumbering Donatello on the head . He nestled down beside them and drifted off the sleep himself. All was quiet and still...
One day. One… foolish…day. I broke away from the pact, I went above ground.
Young Leonardo's eyes popped open. He grabbed the smaller Turtle, crawling across a snoring Raphael, and made his way to where he had been earlier, climbed up the ladder, and opened the manhole.
I went to where the stars came out.
Once topside, Leonardo stared at the beautiful night sky/. He was mesmerized the sight. He held up the smaller Turtle so it could share in the view
Suddenly…he heard a series of loud noise and frantic intakes of breath. Sensing danger, he ducked behind a large dumpster and peered around it as a man, in a cream lab coat ran around the corner and into the alley way, he was pursued by a man in a ragged, half-torn coat, with a hideously tattered purple scarf draped around the neck, the man in the lab coat resigned himself to his fate when he realized he had nowhere to go. The ragged man grabbed his victim and pinned him against the wall. The young Leonardo watched on.
"Last chance to talk. Where did they go?" the man said.
"Off the grid, that's all I was given in the paperwork…" his victim replied
"Nothing as big as them can just vanish like that, people on the circuit MUST still know something. Tell me the truth…" the stalker pressed on.
"I don't have what you want" the victim insisted
"Then I will take what I want from you" the attacker continued
"I have no knowledge of the matter" the victim continued, pleading for his life
"Knowledge isn't what I intend to take…" the ragged man said, and raised his right hand to reveal a sharp metal dagger attached to his wrist.
"No, no please" the victim said.
I shouldn't have tried anything, but a part of me remembered the savagery I witnessed on the day I was transformed. I had seen true malice and the devil given form that night…out of some hot-headed loyalty to my father, I opted to tempt hell this one time
Leonardo put both hands on the dumpster, and charged it towards the ragged man. The dumpster struck him. sending him reeling. Leonardo tried to make himself scarce. As he rushed away, he was spotted by the woukd-be victim. Leonardo cheekily put a finger to his lips, urging the man to keep quiet.
The man, perplexed by what he has seen, just nodded and followed Leonardo out of the alley. When he exited it however, the strange creature who saved him was nowhere to be seen. He looked around…no sight of him. He looked back into the alley and found his attacker stirring. He made good his escape, he rushed past one of the tipped over trashcans, little realizing young Leonardo was hiding inside of it.
As the man left, Leonardo breathed a sigh of relief, only to discover his pet Turtle was missing. He scrambled for it in desperation, but couldn't find it. He peered back into the alley, and finds, to his horror, that the Turtle was still there, and, worse was in direct path of the ragged man, who was incensed at losing his quarry.
Leonardo was frozen. He couldn't risk being spotted this time. He could only watch as the ragged man made eye contact with the little Turtle. His expressions, hidden away by the tattered scarf, were expressed through the sheer maliciousness in his eyes.
He walked over to the Turtle, and, with one swift lift of his shoe, brought down the full weight of it onto the creature, crushing it to death. He then walked out of the alley. Leonardo scampered back into the trashcan as the ragged man approached.
After the ragged man slipped away into the still and quiet streets, Leonardo ran back into the alley to inspect the damage. What once was a lively, slow but gentle creature was now a mess of barely recognizable goo. Leonardo gathered as much of the solid chunks of the trodden corpse as possible and nursed them in his hands. Tears welled up in his eyes. He stared up at the stars.
I blamed all the wrong things that night as I sat there. The stars for drawing my attention, the victim I had saved for getting into his situation, even my master for not preparing us more thoroughly. It took me some time, some amount of growth, before I settled on the easiest to blame: Myself. My lack of insight. I wanted to see the world, and I knew nothing of how it worked…until that night. Until I lost her.
" "Her?"…the Turtle…it was a girl?" Casey asked as Leonardo concluded his recollection.
"Venus. Her name was Venus" he finished.
The two were swiftly interrupted by an excited Donatello.
"…Guys, hate to break up the bonding, but Master Splinter's back. He's brought us something"