…Bittersweet Reunions

"Here we are," Raphael whispered.

Leonardo nodded without a word. After hours of silent travel through the desert, the oasis' gates were in sight.

They were home.

He was home.

He took a deep breath, surprised by the intensity of his feelings. He wanted nothing more than to ride to his parents' house and reunite with his family; now that he was less than an hour from them, the wait seemed intolerable.

Of course it wasn't possible. He had to wait until they were allowed to come in.

And now that he paid attention to it, the guards posted at the gates looked unusually nervous. It was a good sign, because it meant both that they were not too late and that their people were aware of what was going on.

Or at least that something was going on.

"Stop!" one of the guards shouted.

Leonardo and the others obeyed and dismounted. The guards soon recognized Splinter and Casey, and their expressions shifted from suspicion to relief.

"Sir, you'll never believe what happened," one of the guards said, attracting himself a glare from his superior.

"On the contrary, I think that I have a pretty good idea," Splinter answered, his face grim. "What's the situation?"

The leader of the guards, a woman with several scars on her face, answered. "Master Bradford left to join Master Saki with most of our troops. Master Yoshi stayed in the oasis to coordinate the rescue operation."

Casey frowned. "The rescue operation?"

"There was an earthquake," the guard explained. "The village next to the Western Gates was heavily hit."

"What?" Raphael exclaimed, moving forwards. "How's my family?"

The less experienced guards watched him in shock.

"They're fine as far as I can tell," said the woman, who was managing to hide her surprise better than the others.

Her gaze searched for someone else, and she smiled when she recognized Slash.

"We're glad you were able to come back safely, both of you. We were worried about you when Bishop came back alone."

Slash nodded, obviously pleased. He began conversing with one of the guards that he apparently knew rather well, and Casey patted another one on the back. Meanwhile, Splinter asked several more questions to the scarred woman, Raphael listening intently to their conversation.

For his part, Leonardo remained frozen right where he was, next to April. He didn't feel offended that he hadn't been included in the welcome. The guards' leader couldn't have expected him, and besides, he was hiding his face in the shadows of his scarf to avoid being recognized.

Which was stupid. He had nothing to be ashamed of. He belonged here!

With a deep breath, he bared his head and moved forwards to join Raphael. The sudden silence of the guards made him blush, but he didn't retreat.

"Is this…" a guard whispered.

"But where was he? We've been looking for him for days!"

"I thought he was dead!"

Raphael cleared his throat, clearly annoyed by their lack of tact. "Yes, I found my brother," he said, his tone definitive. "Now we would like to reunite with our family. Can we go?"

"Oh, yes, of course!" the leader answered. She looked at April. "I don't know you," she said, her tone interrogative.

"My name is April. I'm here to help you, if I can."

"I vouch for her," Splinter added.

The leader bowed her head. "Sir."

As he entered the oasis for the first time in so many weeks, Leonardo felt his heart rate accelerate.

Mom, Dad, Donnie, Mikey, he thought. I'm coming home to you.

Mikey was beginning to get hungry for his midday meal, and he salivated watching the group of villagers tasked with cooking for everybody.

Donnie wasn't with him because he had wanted to go explore the village, while Mikey was more interested in the food.

It was going to be bread and soup. Fine by him.

"Do you need help?" he asked them.

He was sincere in his offer, but he would be lying if he pretended he didn't hope to taste that soup before everybody else.

"We're almost done, thank you," the chief cook answered. "But you can help us serve it, if you want."

Mikey nodded enthusiastically before realizing that serving the food meant that he would eat last.

With a discreet sigh, he began bringing the bowls to the various people present in the village square, including his parents.

Yoshi and Tang Shen stopped their whispered conversation when they saw him arrive, and Mikey wondered what they had been talking about.

Mikey, Donnie and Tang Shen had arrived at the village at dawn, just in time to see Yoshi and Bradford quarrel. Apparently Bradford wasn't happy with the decision Mikey's uncle, Saki, had taken.

"My brother left to investigate," Yoshi had been saying coldly.

"He wasn't told to." Bradford's tone had been just as cold.

Mikey had been a little worried, because Bradford was accompanied by a troop of warriors and he didn't want his father to be in trouble.

But then Tang Shen had asked what the situation was, and what she could do to help, and said that their house was mostly undamaged and they could shelter people, and Yoshi had realized that his family was here.

And then a messenger had arrived, saying that Bishop and all his people had vanished. Mikey guessed it was really bad news, because Bradford had paled and asked him to repeat his message even though it had been perfectly audible.

Now Bradford had left with most of the warriors, which was a relief.

Mikey gave another bowl of soup to Leatherhead, who was resting under a tent near the entrance of the square. From what Mikey had understood, the blacksmith had used his strength to help a lot of people get out of their collapsed house, and he made sure to give him an extra wide smile.

Leatherhead smiled back with fondness. "Thank you, Mikey."

Then his smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of shock, and Mikey wondered whether he had done something wrong.

Or maybe it was the soup? Mikey hadn't tasted it yet, maybe the cooks had added too much salt and it was uneatable and what was Mikey going to eat?

But now Leatherhead was grinning, which made zero sense to Mikey.

"Look," the blacksmith told him, and he tilted his head to show something behind Mikey.

So Mikey turned around, and at the entrance of the square… He saw them.

The two figures who looked a lot like Mikey's eldest brothers, except Raph and Leo weren't home and they really should have been because now everybody was sad.

"Hi, Mikey," Leo's voice said, and his smile was wavering a little as if he wasn't sure what Mikey was going to say.

"Leo?" Mikey whispered, as if he was afraid the vision would disappear. "Raph?"

"It's us, little brother," Raph said, kneeling. "Now come here. Don't you have a hug for two weary travelers?"

And Mikey ran to them, and they were real, and he hugged them very very hard even if his arms were too short to completely wrap around their waists, and he sobbed in their shirts.

"Why did you leave?" he asked Leo. "I've missed you."

"I'm sorry, little brother," Leo whispered, kissing his head. "I'm here now."

And Mikey felt two other pairs of arms wrap around him, and he was pretty sure that this time his mother was crying tears of joy, and he grinned.

His brothers were back. Everything was going to be fine.

"Let's go find Donnie!" he said. "He'll be so happy to see you!"

Donnie was having a lot of fun examining the wreckage. He wasn't going to tell people because they had lost their home and that wasn't fun, but it allowed him to study all the different ways a house could collapse and it was giving him ideas about how to better build them.

He finally arrived at the place where the village's well stood.

Usually, access to it was protected with wooden boards, with a small hole for the bucket, but today the well had been completely opened so the firebenders could melt water.

Donnie's eyes sparkled. This was a golden opportunity to study the phenomenon everyone was talking about: the freezing of all water.

Donnie checked left and right. The firebenders who were tasked with melting the ice so the villagers could drink, cook and wash were having a break, and nobody was watching the well too closely.

Donnie tiptoed to the well and leaned forwards.

His grin turned into a frown. The bottom was too dark and he couldn't see the ice. This was so frustrating!

Unless…

Donnie considered the bucket that had been put to the side. Maybe he could use it to go just a little downwards?

His decision taken, Donnie jumped into the bucket. A rope was attached to it, a rope that went into the pulley. He grabbed it on the other side, so that he could prevent the bucket from falling into the shaft, and he kicked the edge of the well to put the bucket in the middle. Then he went down, his hands moving slowly on the rope.

His arms were tiring fast, but now he was beginning to see the ice. Just a little closer…

And then the rope slid from his fingers. The bucket gained speed, swinging and hitting the shaft's wall, and Donnie fell from it.

He suddenly had an epiphany. This idea had been a very, very bad one.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Leonardo was walking through the village in search of Donatello, a huge smile on his lips and Michelangelo on his shoulders, when he heard the yell.

His heart skipped a beat when he recognized the voice, and he began running towards the source. Not even two seconds later, he came in sight of the village's well.

There were people leaning into it.

"He's falling!"

"I can't firebend to melt the ice! There isn't enough room, it'll burn him!"

"Donatello!" Leonardo heard his mother yell, several feet behind him.

Michelangelo was grabbing his neck, and Leonardo could feel his growing panic. Raphael was already at the well, yelling their brother's name…

The well. How could Donatello have fallen inside? Wasn't it supposed to be protected?

The guards at the gate had warned them about the water being frozen, which was a very concerning display of the Shredder's power and also not Leonardo's problem right now.

And sure enough, Leonardo could feel the presence of the ice at the bottom of the well.

That ice… It was going to hurt his brother. It was way too hard a surface, Donatello risked breaking his neck!

Leonardo reacted on instinct. He stopped abruptly, making Mikey gasp in surprise, so he could move his body the proper way. His arms rose in the air, his hands clenched and opened…

In the well, his element answered his call. The surface of the ice melted, giving enough water so a liquid tentacle could coil around Donatello's waist and lift him.

Leonardo caught his little brother in his arms as delicately as he could.

"Donnie! Are you alright?"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH… Leo?" Donatello blinked. "Leo!"

He put his small arms around Leonardo's neck, bumping his head against Mikey's in the process.

"You came back!"

Leonardo breathed a deep sigh of relief. As far as he could see, Donatello was unharmed.

"Yes, I'm back," he whispered, rocking his soaking wet little brother.

Unaware that everyone was looking at them in shock.

Raphael took a breath so sharp his chest hurt. Donatello had been falling into the well, and now he wasn't falling anymore, he was safe in Leonardo's arms, because Leonardo had waterbent to save him and…

Ah, yes. People.

Raphael straightened up, and although he wanted nothing more than to run to his brothers and hug them and maybe yell at Donatello for being stupid enough to fall into a well, he walked calmly towards them, glaring at everybody who dared to look horrified that his little brother was alive.

"Yes, yes, my brother is a waterbender, so what? Don't you have anything better to do?"

Meanwhile, Tang Shen had reached Leonardo and she was taking Donatello in her arms.

"Donatello, what were you thinking?" she asked, absolutely appalled, and Donatello's face fell.

"Sorry Mom," he whispered.

"He saved him," someone said, and Raphael smiled gracefully at that person.

Absolutely. This was the right way to look at things, this was the only way.

He joined his family and stroked Donatello's cheek.

"Hey, Donnie. Way to give us a scare, uh?"

"Raph!" Donatello extended his arms so he could hug his brother, ecstatic once again. "You brought Leo home!"

"Of course. I promised you I would, didn't I?"

As he hugged Donatello, Raphael kept an eye on the growing crowd. He tried to detect whether the whispers were threatening, but so far they sounded more stunned than anything else.

And now Yoshi, who had stayed behind to talk to Splinter, was running to his family. "What happened?"

"I fell into the well and Leo caught me," Donatello exclaimed, and it almost sounded like he was proud of both.

Raphael caught sight of Leatherhead in the crowd, hushing people away so his family could have some privacy, and he smiled gratefully at him. Then April and Casey also joined the crowd, and Raphael decided that he had enough allies here and it was therefore safe to focus fully on his family.

Leonardo seemed still pretty shaken and Raphael nudged him.

"Talk about a grand entry. You couldn't help yourself, uh?"

Leonardo blinked and gave him a sheepish smile.

"I didn't exactly have time to think."

Yoshi hugged them both.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry anymore about what we'll tell them," he joked.

But Raphael didn't miss the concern in his eyes.

Karai had been napping when she heard the commotion. She quickly jumped on her feet, and rushed to the place where everybody was.

The village's well.

Almost every villager had gathered here, and she couldn't see what was in the center. She spotted Angel in the crowd, next to Spike who had also come with Bradford and stayed to help.

Angel saw her and immediately made her way through the crowd to join her.

"Karai!"

"What happened?" Karai asked anxiously.

"It's your cousin," Angel said. "Donnie. He fell into the well, and Leo used his waterbending to save him. Because he and Raph are back! I can't believe it!"

It took Karai a few seconds to process the news, then her heart filled with joy. So Leonardo was alright after all! Finally, some good news!

Oh, she couldn't wait to ask him where he had been. And to lecture him for leaving without saying a word to anyone. And to tease him for somehow making his waterbending obvious within minutes after he had come home.

She jostled to join her family, her mind registering snatches of whispered conversations.

"But it's forbidden!"

"It's a blessing."

"I don't know…"

When she reached Leonardo and the others, her cousin was grinning at Donnie and Mikey.

"You've grown up so much," he praised, either oblivious to the crowd around them or unwilling to pay it any attention.

Both boys puffed themselves up. Karai noted that Donatello was soaking wet, but it didn't seem to faze him.

"Karai!" Donatello exclaimed when he saw her. "See? Leo and Raph came back!"

"I see, yes." Karai smiled at her cousins. "How was your journey?"

Raphael and Leonardo exchanged a glance.

"Interesting," Raphael said.

"Instructive," Leonardo added.

"Did you see him save me?" Donatello cut them off. "Did you?"

Karai shook her head. "No, sorry."

"He used waterbending! It was so cool!"

Leonardo wrapped an arm around Donatello's shoulders.

"I thought he would be more shocked, but apparently not," he told Karai.

"That's because we already knew!" Donatello said happily. "Karai told us!"

Michelangelo nodded with enthusiasm while Karai glared at them both.

"What?" Leonardo, Raphael, Tang Shen and Yoshi all exclaimed.

Karai grinned sheepishly. "It's a long story."

She was about to give a short version of it when a rider came to them, causing people around to hastily move out of his way.

He stopped next to Yoshi.

"Sir! I have important news from Master Bradford!"

Karai's happiness vanished, immediately replaced by deep concern.

"Go on," Yoshi said, his face serious.

"Your brother is reported missing, as is every firebender he brought with him."

Karai barely heard the shocked exclamations of the villagers around her as she sank to the ground.

"No," she said weakly.

Please don't. Not him. Not my father, please.