Mostly from the third episode of the 2003 TMNT series "Big Brawl" storyline.

Note, this third chapter used to be Donnie's POV of a missing scene following these events. That chapter is now chapter 4.

Please enjoy.

Usagi's heart sank at the words of what was most likely the best healer in the land. Leonardo san had been poisoned, and the source of that poison eluded the one charged with his care. The Samurai looked to his fellow warrior's family members.

The Nezumi known as "Splinter san" looked defeated. Usagi recalled the old fighter had not looked defeated when his leg was broken during his bout with Draco, nor when Draco had wrapped his tail around him and squeezed in that sneak attack after his loss to Splinter san. However, that same Nezumi who had looked determined then, looked defeated now. The rodent's large, sad eyes stared at the still form of his son lying on a mat in the healer's pavilion. Leo had groaned and then seemed to faint as they laid him down upon it moments earlier.

Usagi felt he should not have been surprised at the identity of Leonardo's father and teacher. Yet, he had been. Splinter had beaten Usagi's own master to win the Battle Nexus Championship. The Nezumi's master, Yoshi, had also beaten his master in the Battle Nexus Tournament even longer ago. And that Splinter was Leonardo san's father, probably his teacher as well. Usagi thought he could see the similarity in their fighting styles now. This family was hard to beat.

A voice from behind them startled Usagi. Anger at himself flared within him. He'd inexcusably let his own guard down after an assassination attempt on his friend, while said friend lay helpless before him?

Usagi felt only slightly better upon realizing, who it was who'd managed to get a clear view of his back. The Daimyo's son stood in the entryway. He also called himself "The Ultimate Ninja." Why he thought the title honorable, Usagi did not know.

His words confused the Samurai too. He did not remember the Daimyo's son showing such concern for guests' well-being before. Neither, except, perhaps, for a shared desire for perfection, could he think of a reason for the Daimyo's son and Leonardo to share a special bond. Perhaps it had to do with Splinter's relationship with the Daimyo? This thought seemed verified by Splinter's departure with the stated intent of speaking to their host.

Usagi noted while Leonardo had simply called his brother "Don" their Nezumi father called the purple-wearing kame "Donatello" as he commanded him to stay with his brother. Usagi pondered this.

He himself called Genesuke "Gen" at times. Friends often did such things. Perhaps brothers did too. Fathers tended to be more formal. Leonardo had been short of breath, when he'd called his brother "Don." Still, Usagi wondered what "he" should call this still extremely frightened and fierce brother of his friend to avoid arousing his wrath again.

Usagi watched the Nezumi, who had beaten his master, won the Battle Nexus Championship, and apparently trained two impressive warriors, leave. He hoped the Nezumi's discussion with the Daimyo went well. Usagi stiffened, when he noticed the Daimyo's son watching Splinter go too.

If he was really worried about Leonardo, shouldn't the Daimyo's son be following Splinter to add his concerns to the discussion with his father? If not, shouldn't he be watching over Leonardo's recovery? Speaking of which, Usagi himself looked back to Leonardo lying on the mat feeling somewhat guilty for not doing so already. Still, he was trained to watch doorways, and windows, and people not acting like themselves.

Donatello's voice captured his attention. "What can I do to help?"

Usagi looked to the healer Donatello had addressed. The healer gazed down at Leonardo while stroking his beard. "I must discover both the identity of the exact poison itself and the manner in which it was introduced into his body before I go too far in his treatment."

Donatello continued speaking in the strained, slow, and somewhat comical manner he'd used to ask Usagi about the healer's actions earlier "How. Can. I. Help. With. That?"

The healer nodded. "You can bring his fever down while I consult my records on poisons. I have not had to treat many poisoned warriors before. Using a poison in a Battle Nexus Tournament match is forbidden. It would not be wise for me to go forward in this warrior's treatment without consulting others more experienced in the ways of poisons than I am, or at least without consulting their writings."

The healer left to consult those writings. His patient's brother watched him go. Usagi, in turn, warily watched Donatello.

The purple-wearing kame stood straight and stiff like some did just before lashing out, but Donatello then spun in place instead eyes searching. He stopped, rushed to a nearby pitcher of water resting in a basin with a towel hanging over its rim, grabbed these, and ran back his brother's side. There, he knelt, placed the cloth in the basin, and poured water over it. He pulled the soaked cloth out and wrung it. He placed it over the other kame's brow. Usagi smiled. Leonardo had a good brother indeed.

The rabbit Samurai glanced back to the Daimyo's son still wondering what his place was here. The "Ultimate Ninja" now gazed in the direction the healer had gone. Usagi raised an eyebrow at this. "Do you wish to help the healer gather and consult his scrolls? Four eyes and hands should do the work swifter than two."

The Ultimate Ninja turned his gaze upon him. Usagi thought a glare flashed over the warrior's face. Honestly, it looked far more familiar there than his look of concern. The ninja's expression became mild again so fast, Usagi almost thought he'd imagined the other expression. "I fear I must learn my father's wishes in this matter. After he speaks with the r … to Splinter san, he will surely have new orders for me. But I will bring up your recommendation to him."

The Daimyo then left the same way the old Battle Nexus Champion had gone. Usagi watched wondering why his spine prickled.

. . .

Usagi began to feel the same strain of impatience he was certain tightened inside Donatello. The healer had been consulting his scrolls on poisons for what felt like a long time. Usagi glanced outside. The sun had barely moved since they'd arrived, but seconds counted when treating wounds, and the ill, and the poisoned. Leonardo's only treatment, thus far, had been his brother bathing his brow with a wet towel. Usagi would have taken a turn if he hadn't feared Donatello would beat him off with his bo staff if he asked.

Usagi struggled within himself. It made sense, the master healer of the Battle Nexus Tournament did not get much practice treating those who'd been poisoned. The safety measures prevented warriors from receiving deadly wounds during the tournament. Warriors injured during the tournament were sent to the less knowledgeable healers, because there was no need for them to see the master healer, usually. Also, as the healer himself had stated, most warriors injured during the tournament did not suffer from poisoning. Using poisons was wisely against Battle Nexus rules. But Leonardo had been poisoned, he was not recovering, and the best healer in all the land was not treating him, yet.

Usagi was not a healer. He had some training and much experience, but he was "not" the best healer in the land. He did have some experience with poisonings and assassinations, however. It had been his duty to protect others from such things many times. Yet, usurping the master healer's position felt wrong to him. There was one thing he could do that might help without putting himself in the healer's place, though. Usagi closed his eyes.

Leonardo was staring down at him. He was pressing down on their crossed swords, clenching his jaw and sweating with the effort. Usagi pushed up doing the same. Their blades were locked in combat. Walls surrounded them. Inside these barriers they were alone, though a crowd loomed outside. Usagi neither saw nor heard a sign of anyone else near them …

So, who had hurt Leonardo if not him? Had the kame swallowed, breathed, or touched something placed their earlier to poison him? Others had fought in that arena before them. He had fought there with him. He felt no need to be treated for poisoning. No one else had come here for that. Besides, placement with another combatant in another section of the arena was supposed to be random.

Usagi went over the bout again, thinking, remembering, seeing. Leonardo had taken some deep breaths, but he had not let go of his swords to touch anything else … The swords! Leonardo had handled them long before anything appeared to happen to him, but … they were one thing only the Gyoji and he had touched. "Have Leonardo's swords been checked for any poisons that could soak through his skin?"

Donatello looked up at his words. Then he looked to the healer. The latter did not even look up from the scroll he stared at. "His hands show so sign of that and the Gyoji is very thorough. He should have already examined the swords and contacted me about any tampering with them before now in his investigation of this matter."

Usagi bowed his head and thought again. He'd not witnessed Leonardo eat or drink since their meeting in the Pavilion of Champions, but Leonardo had been out of his sight since then. "Donatello?"

The Kame wearing purple paused in applying the wet cloth to his brother's head. He glared at Usagi over his shoulder. "What?"

"Did your brother eat or drink anything just before entering the arena, or even earlier?"

Donatello looked back to his brother and continued with his work. "No. He hadn't eaten or drunk anything since our family last ate together. I've gone over it in my mind myself a dozen times. He didn't have anything father and I didn't have, and we both seem fine."

"Hmmmm …" Usagi admitted to himself this was a good point. The healer's voice made him turn.

"It was a good thought, Usagi san, but I am almost certain this particular poison was introduced directly to Leonardo's bloodstream. Now I must find out how, when his skin does not seem to be cut."

"Maybe you should check 'Usagi san's' swords."

Usagi straightened and clutched the hilts of "Willow Branch" and "Young Willow." Then he forced his form to relax. If he must allow an examination of them to clear his name and help Leonardo san, he must. He did not have to like it.

The healer's next words relieved him. "No, no … I can tell there is no cut in my patient's skin as weapons such as them would make. There is also no discoloration nor scent on my patient's hands of a poison absorbed through his skin through holding his own weapons coated with such would cause.

Usagi's slightly bunched shoulders fell. His sharp ears heard Donatello growl. The Samurai did not want to distract the healer again, so he stepped even further back into the shadows and went quiet. He closed his eyes again.

Leonardo fought with him in the arena, jumping, swinging, blocking … Then they had their swords locked together. He stared into his face grimacing with effort. Then … Leonardo winced. Leonardo turned away. His movements had been off. He'd dropped his swords, he'd turned back to him, called out … and … then reached back over his shoulders as if …

In his back? Unlikely, his back was covered with his shell. That route was a fool's way to attempt to poison a kame! Whoever they were dealing with, Usagi did not think them a fool in the ways of killing. So, if not in the back then … the back of the neck. But what could have ..?

Usagi closed his eyes and went back again to the moments before the wince had distorted Leonardo's face. What direction had the back of Leonardo's neck been exposed to? The wall, there were walls of stone parting them from the other warriors in every direction. And he hadn't heard any sounds coming from over those partitions. From where else could one have aimed at him as he stood there? The stands? No, the buildings! Yes, an assassin could have hidden in the shadow of the buildings there! But what weapon to shoot from there? An arrow?

Usagi dismissed the thought. Foolish! He would have seen an arrow himself. Everyone would have. It would have been obvious. A dart then? Yes, a dart "could" have made it all that way, but … where was it now? He should have seen it either sticking out of Leonardo or lying on the stone floor of the arena. The Gyoji should have seen it too. Donatello should have seen it … Unless …

He glanced to the healer still reading his scrolls. He, Usagi, was a warrior rather than a healer. But …

"Master Healer! You are needed at once! The Daimyo had been attacked!"

Usagi looked up. His heart dropped again. No … the Daimyo? The tall figure in a red robe was carried by his guards into a more secluded room in the back for care and the healer followed them in. Donatello's plaintive cry followed the others too. "But, what about Leo?"

The sliding door closed behind both healer and his new patient. Usagi looked back to the kame in purple kneeling next to the one wearing blue. The choice seemed taken from him then. Usagi moved forward.

Donatello sighed as he looked down at the still sweating and not stirring Leonardo. "What can I do? I'm an engineer not a doctor."

Usagi knelt silently on the other side of his friend and reached for Leonardo's shoulder. His wrist was grasped. Donatello thrust his face nearly into his. "Don't you even think about touching him!"

Usagi drew back slightly. Donatello, much to his relief, released him. The Samurai tried to keep his voice low and respectful. "Please … I only wish to examine your brother."

He was careful to call Leonardo "your brother," rather than "my friend," in case that would anger the kame warrior and … "engineer" further. Usagi decided to do the last thing he could to show his good intent toward Leonardo at this point. He turned away and took off his swords.

He dared not linger over the action. Time was of the essence. His hands tingled though as he let "Willow Branch" and "Young Willow" go, however.

He was in a lesser known place. Enemies were about. He, like Donatello, was unsure who to trust. Yet, he put his blades down.

They marked so many good points, and less good points, in his life. They gave him comfort, a purpose, and protection. He wondered what battling Leonardo for the first and last time with them might count as later if this did not work. Likely it would seem a bad memory at first, and a good one later. Grief seemed to work that way.

Usagi then grabbed the lantern the healer had come back with along with his scrolls. Perhaps, he had realized it might be helpful later for the same reason Usagi thought it might be now. He turned back with it to his friend's side. Then he looked up to meet Donatello's gaze. "I mean no harm."

The kame in purple looked at him a moment longer with that hard, untrusting face … Though … Usagi had seen plenty harder and less trusting now that he thought of it. Then that hard expression melted away into a sad smile. The same could be said of the kame's voice. "Fine, but I'll be watching." He crossed his arms again. His voice and face grew a touch harder at these last few words.

Usagi held the lantern out toward the kame. "If you would hold this, like so."

Donatello, whose arms had been folded looked to the lantern with slightly wider eyes. Then he reached out and took it. Usagi turned Leonardo over on his side. The Kame groaned at the movement, the most sound he'd made since he'd been laid down there.

Usagi made sure the back of his friend's neck was exposed to his sight. Then he brought out a prism he kept for this purpose. He looked up to meet the gaze of his friend's brother. "Observe." He focused the light from the lantern through the prism onto the back of Leonardo's neck. There it was, the outline of the puncture wound, very small, and not easily seen in the pattern of Leonardo's scales, but much easier to see in them than it would have been through fur.

Donatello sounded almost as amazed as he did angry. "What is it?"

Usagi's own face and voice grew hard as he met Donatello's gaze again. "It is the entry point of a dissolving poison dart, a rarely used weapon nearly impossible to detect even by a trained healer."

If not for his own occupation, he likely wouldn't have been able to detect it either. As a protector of those others would like to assassinate, though, it was good to know such things. He pulled forth some herbs he also kept for this purpose. "Now that we have located the source of the toxin, I have some medicine that might help." He paused and looked up at Donatello again. "With your permission?"

Donatello met his gaze. His own face was creased and pinched with tension. Then he nodded. Usagi looked down and applied the herbs to the puncture wound. He watched the poultice lie there against the warrior's skin, so seemingly benign and yet so critical. He looked back up to meet the gaze of that warrior's brother. "All we can do now is wait." So, they both hovered over Leonardo.

What did you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes