Leo crouched in the shadows on top of a railing that hung thirty feet above a room that looked like it once held weapons and equipment. There were a couple of scattered empty crates to suggest that the items had been relocated to another storage room and for good reason. A corridor attached to the room held multiple cells filled with the Foot Clan's prisoners. Leo had the perfect view to the entrance of the corridor and the foot clan members in his area. There were three members inside the prison corridor who were talking among themselves and two guards standing beside a cargo lift.
Leo had been tracking the ones in charge of this operation. They had captured his brother's quickly back in the forest. Mikey and Raphael had been subdued with tranquilizers right off the bat while Leo tried escaping with Don. Unfortunately, Don had lagged too far behind and the foot clan caught up to him before Leo could turn back.
He hid away for hours while the foot clan combed the forest to find him. Although it was hard not come out of hiding to attack those that took his brothers away, it gave him the advantage point to see who was calling the shots and he even heard one of the clan members talking over a radio about the location his brother's were sent to.
As Leo snuck into the foot clan's hide out, he kept wondering how they were found out so quickly. He hadn't noticed anyone following them to the safe house and he was sure that no one knew about it but April.
For a brief moment, Leo suspected Vern. The idea still lingered but a small part of Leo knew it just couldn't be true. Vern may out them to the police or publish an article about them but he would never give away their hideouts to the foot clan directly.
The blue ninja observed for a while longer on his perch and watched as a messenger exited the hallway of cells and walked toward the cargo lift, stepping inside. The man stood there for an uncomfortably long time. After what felt like a full minute, the man had brought his hand up and hovered it over the button to the lift but he never pressed it. The two guards also seemed to share the same confusion that Leo felt while they all watched the man inside the cargo lift.
A loud rattling of chains followed by animalistic growling from inside the corridor told Leo that Raphael was alive and close by. The guards looked over their shoulder to the corridor as well.
When Leo looked back at the man he had finally lowered his arm and stepped back out of the lift, walking toward the corridor once more.
"Shredder wishes to see you two." Leo strained his ears, hearing the messenger declare this.
"The master wishes to see us now. We will be rewarded."
Leo now watched as the messenger and the two men in charge were heading toward the cargo lift.
The whole exchange felt odd and incomplete and there was definitely something about it that made Leo feel uneasy. However, as the three clan members rose out of sight on the cargo lift, Leo was able to get the upperhand over the guards who began to talk about their own feelings of uneasiness from what happened. With them distracted, Leo was able to drop down beside them and grabbed their heads, slamming them together. They were knocked out easily and Leo headed for the corridor.
"Raph?" Leo called out in a hoarse whisper as he walked down the long stretch of cells. He heard his brother's talking in the distance and felt his heart swell with love. As he passed by each cell he noticed that there was a surprising amount of foot clan members behind the bars. Leo wondered why so many of Shedder's loyal people were locked up.
"Fucking turtles…" One of the prisoners grumbled with a dark chuckle, making Leo stopped for a moment, "They shouldn't have locked me up. I'd never let a turtle get lose inside the prison area; bunch of idiots running this operation now." The prisoner mumbled before minding his own business again, clearly more interested to see his people fail than to stop Leo from escaping.
Leo looked ahead again, barely able to see much in the dimly lit corridor. He heard more chains rattling and then the distinct sound of his baby brother Mikey crying.
"Mikey!" He heard Raphael shout and panic filled Leo, making him run.
"Mikey!" Leo shouted this time.
"Leo?!" Leo saw the dark outline of a turtle's hand sticking out from between the bars a few cells ahead and he ran over, grabbing onto Donatello.
"Donnie, you're okay!" He smiled, touching their foreheads together affectionately between the bars.
"You're free!" Donnie shouted, overjoyed to see that Leo was not a captive but actually here to save them.
"What took you so long?" Raph said from the cell next door. "How far out are we?"
"Not that far. We're back inside the city limits." Leo moved away from Donnie to Raph, "It's not the same guy-"
"I know," Raph interrupted, "I heard a couple of boneheads talking about the guy that took us last time. He's no longer in charge."
"Leo." Mikey whimpered.
Leo turned around to Mikey and smiled as he came over and gave him a similar greeting as he did for Donnie.
"Let's not all act like we're in the clear already. If you haven't noticed, we're still chained up and we're still behind bars." Donnie chimed in, shaking his chains for added measure.
Leo looked down at the padlock on Mikey's cell and grabbed it with both hands. He gave it a tight squeeze, bending the lock until he heard a snap. The broken padlock clanged to the ground, "Easy." He muttered. There was a rooted uneasiness that wouldn't leave Leo's mind. Why was this so easy?
"The chains are the same as the ones in the other location." Raph stated, "They're even fed through the walls like before but I don't know if they have the same shock ability."
"I've noticed that there aren't any cameras in here." Leo walked across to Donnie's side and grabbed the lock, squeezing it until it also snapped off. "I didn't realize how much Shredder underestimated us. The guy who captured us last time left barely any room for error when designing our prison."
Leo finally went to Raph's cell, destroy his padlock.
"They must be putting a lot of faith into some kind of death trap lying around." Raph suggested.
There was a long whirring in the distance from the cargo lift as it descended back down. Leo thought about opening up Raphael's cell and stepping inside. It would have been a decent plan in getting the upper hand by using a surprise attack on whoever was coming back down.
But something inside of his head stopped him,
"I see you…"
Leo's blood ran cold and he looked down the hall. He knew that voice...
He took a few steps back to get a view of the cargo lift in the main room. The first thing he noticed was the three foot clan members had been mutilated. The second thing he noticed was a man appear out of nowhere and step off of the lift.
"Little turtles…I've come back to play with you." The man's voice was loud inside of Leo's head, clawing at his brain. There was no doubt in Leo's mind that this was the man who had captured them and forced them to rape each other.
"Leo." Raph whispered, "What is it?"
Raph sounded miles away to Leo. He kept the eye contact with the man who was walking toward the corridor, "Who are you?" He finally asked.
"One,...Two….Three…." When the counting started, the whole area felt strange and dense. Leo's head was swarming with nightmarish images of not only what happened between him and his brothers but torture scenes involving other victims. "Four,…Five,…Six…" Leo saw Shredder tearing apart his own men, "Seven….Eight….Nine…." He saw an image of the three foot clan members killing each other in the cargo lift, "Ten."
The man was now standing a few yards away from Leo.
"What the fuck?" Leo could still hear Raphael but it always sounded so far away, "Who are you?"
"Can you hear me, Leonardo? Do you remember my voice, little turtle?" The man asked telepathically. He seemed smug like he was relishing in every moment of fear that Leo felt. "I missed our fun times together. I've been given a new chance. I think Shredder finally sees my potential."
"Get out of my head…" Leo ordered, trying to fight whatever mindfuck was happening to him right now.
"I'm a mutant, too…They call me Ten…or sicko…or freak. Shredder hired me to destroy you and your brothers and I think I did a pretty decent job of that. But I can also see how our fun time has created such a loving bond between you four….how adorable." Ten smiled at this and he reached out to Leo, "I'm going to let you leave this place, Leo. With your brothers. With you under my control. Let's all go back home." Ten closed his eyes and, for a moment, Leo felt him free from his mind.
The chains around his brother's wrists all clattered to the ground, making Leo jump with surprise. He looked over at Raphael who kicked the chains aside, angrily.
"Who the fuck are you?" Raph asked again as he pushed out of his cell and stormed up to Ten.
Leo felt the unwelcome presence flood his mind once again.
"Stop him." Ten ordered.
Leo put a hand on Raphael's shoulder. "Wait, Raph."
"Who the fuck is this?" Raph growled at Leo now, demanding answers.
"I'm a friend,"
"He's a friend." Leo was surprised with how vulnerable he felt.
"Let's go home." Ten grinned.
"Let's go home," Leo repeated aloud.
Well, it's been awhile but I keep coming back and reading this story, wanting to write more. For awhile there I was just busy. Then this site was acting weird and not letting me create any new documents so I gave up for a moment out of frustration and things got busy again until I stopped coming on here at all. Twas dark times ._.
Now I'm back and I REALLY want to continue this. It's one of my favorite stories. I don't know if anyone else is still keeping up with this but for all of those future readers (and anyone who happens to stumble back onto this story again from the past) I'd like to leave them with an ending. I also would like to see an ending to this as well since it's one of my favorite stories on here.
This story is hard for me to just let it go unfinished :) It was so unacceptable to leave it the way it was. What a horrid cliffhanger ._. Also, I had to change a few details in the previous chapter 49 (just in case anyone noticed) Just a few unimportant alters to make this chapter flow nicely with it :)
Thank you to all my readers who inspire me to write :) I would also like to thank Brittany Hamato. I stumbled upon your story in Archive of Our Own and I'm flattered that I inspired you with your story 'New Predicament'. I look forward to reading it! There's just not enough of this stuff, am I right? LOL
