RISE OF A LEADER

Hello, my dear readers! Due to the hype for the new Rise of the TMNT Movie coming out on August 5th, I wanted to write my own version of what I think it would happen in that scene where Leo is falling from the sky (my poor boy!). This fic will have three chapters: the second's almost ready and I've barely written a few lines of the third one, so while I finish with them, enjoy reading the first one.

P.S.: English isn't my first language, so you might find several mistakes.

1

Lost Hope

Leo knew it was a no return mission, suicide. But he had to be the one to do it, none of his brothers were in condition to fight, and he was already there… It's what a leader does: protect the team, his family.

In order for his brothers to live, he has to die.

"Please, Leo, there has to be another way," pleaded Raph through his com. Leo only listened in silence, "We'll figure this out!"

"Raph, there's no time," answered Leo while struggling to keep his voice from breaking, "You barely made it out of the Krang's infection, and Mikey and Donnie are in no shape to fight. I have to do this."

"But-"

"Dad was wrong about me," the slider seemed to have accepted his fate, "You should've kept being the leader."

"Leo…"

"This mess is all my fault. It's because of me that you and Donnie are gone in the future! I let you get infected by the Krang, I let Mikey get hurt, I let Casey down… What kind of leader does that?"

"Leo, please," Raph was struggling a lot to hold his tears, "You don't have to do this."

"Hey? It'll be okay," said Leo while turning off his com. If he didn't do it right now, he would second guess himself, and that was something he couldn't do, not now that he was so close to putting an end to this catastrophe.

"Leo? Leo!" Despite all his attempts to reach out to his brother, it was no use. All he could hear from the other side of the com was static.

Raph turned to look at his two youngest brothers with watery eyes. They shared the same concerned look as his. Even being hurt, Mikey was more worried about Leo than himself; it was understandable. Donnie, who was holding Mikey and tending to his wounds, was speechless for the first time in his life. Even though he wasn't so open about his feelings, especially about Leo, he cared about him, and was as worried as the rest of his brothers. He had called Leo reckless before, but this was another level. The dumb-dumb was going to get himself killed, especially since he didn't have his mystic powers anymore. Without his Ninpo, it would be a deadly challenge to face whatever was inside the Technodrome.

They couldn't do anything more than wait and pray that his brother would make it out alive.

He was blinded by the light of the explosion, the sound leaving a temporary ring in his ears. When he entered the Technodrome, he wasn't expecting to find a huge mecha controlled by none other than Krang Prime. The design of the armor brought back really bad memories: it looked a lot like the Shredder, but with a long whip-like tail with something that looked like a stinger at the end, and one single sickly red eye. Inside of it was one of the Krang. It didn't look larger than the rest, but it was surely more terrifying due to his left eye being bright red like the one its armor had.

Leo felt like the fight only lasted seconds, but his badly battered body said otherwise. Krang Prime agreed to have a duel with him: if Leo won, the Krang would leave the planet and never come back, but if Krang Prime won, they would stay and he would kill Leo and his family first. To make things fair, the interdimentional creature gave Leo his mystic powers back, even his katanas regained their ability of creating portals, but none of that was enough to defeat Krang Prime.

Leo was no match for the alien creature. He couldn't remember getting this beaten up before, not even by the Shredder. The worst part was when Krang Prime got him with his clawed hand, big enough to cover the slider's full torso. When the creature tightened his grip, Leo felt the sharp claws trying to break into his shell; one of them found his way into his left arm, leaving a huge bleeding gash. After managing to get away from the deadly claws, Leo tried one last desperate move, blinded by rage and frustration of not being able to defeat the damned creature, but was quickly overpowered. Weakened and pinned to a huge rock, Leo could only stare as Krang Prime gave the last fatal blow, destroying the piece of floating debris they were standing on, and now he was falling.

Falling, falling…

Why falling? Why this again? It was his curse, his biggest fear ever since that day when Draxum had thrown him off the roof of the Grand Nexus Hotel. But this time it was different.

He was falling from the sky, he had lost his swords and no one would come to save him.

He was all alone.

Leo could feel his Ninpo leaving his body now that he had lost against Krang Prime, and worst of all, he had failed his family. Now they all will die because of him. He had messed up the future again.

The only thing he could hear was the ringing in his ears due to the explosion, his vision was blurry and felt every inch of his body screaming in pain, the wind furiously hitting his limbs, worsening his injuries. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again, feeling the tails of his blue bandana hitting themselves and his face.

Using the last of his strength, Leo took out the picture from his pouch. Since he was about to die, at least he wanted to see his brothers one last time. He took a good look at the picture: it was all dirty and battered, but he could still see the smiley faces of his brothers, dad and April. It was funny to think that this wasn't the actual picture they took, but from a future version of Leo who gave it to Casey in order to find them. Leo felt a bit guilty about having taken it with him, but on the other hand, he was glad he did because otherwise, how else could he apologize to them?

He felt like a failure, a disappointment, a loser. He was no leader and was never meant to be one. He had doomed the world, he had doomed his family.

All those feelings concentrated in a single tear that rolled all the way down to his chin, while he embraced the picture tightly, close to his chest.

"I'm sorry."

And after that, the darkness claimed him.

If there was one thing Raph hated more than anything else in the world, it was feeling powerless. He couldn't help Mikey because it was him who hurt his youngest brother in the first place, and he couldn't help Leo because his mystic powers were gone and he had no way to get up there. Frustrated, he punched a nearby car with both fists, making it bend like a soda can.

"I can't wait any longer, we need to get there to help Leo!"

"And how do we do it, Raphael?" teased Donnie. He looked as frustrated as him, "We have no powers, my battle shell is toasted and the flying vehicle of the Turtle Tank was destroyed! Don't you think I care? Don't you think I'm afraid too? I am as worried as you are, but there's nothing we can do!"

"Stop it!" Mikey shouted, now standing on his feet, "Arguing will do no good. Donnie is right. Right now we can't do anything but wait."

Raph clenched his fists and lowered his head. He was afraid of his brother's well-being, he was afraid of losing him. Mikey could sense this and put a hand over one of Raph's fists. The warm feeling of the box turtle's little hand was enough to calm down his mind.

"Leo will be okay, I trust him."

Raph was about to reply until he heard several steps coming their way, his first instinct being to put a protective hand in front of Mikey and Donnie.

"Guys! We finally found you!" It was April, who looked exhausted, but happy to see the turtles, "Boy, I'm so glad to see you!"

"Master Raphael!" Casey screamed in excitement, taking off his mask to reveal a relieved expression, "You're free from the infection!"

Next to the young warrior was Splinter. The old master had a huge grin on his fluffy face at seeing his oldest son was himself again. The oldest Hamato wrapped his son into a big hug.

"My son, I'm so happy to see you're alright," he said while taking a look at the crack on his plastron and the ripped mask. It was when he checked on the rest of his sons that he realized one was missing, "Where's Blue?"

All three turtles were silent. They didn't know how to tell their father about Leo.

"Boys… where's your brother?"

It was Raph the one to answer by looking at the pink portal in the sky where the Technodrome was. Splinter's blood ran cold. Everyone else turned to where Raph was looking, terrified.

"No…" Casey whispered, alarmed.

"You're telling me Leo's in there?!" April asked, pointing to the huge portal.

"I couldn't change his mind", Raph answered looking away.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" "This wasn't supposed to happen!" Casey shouted, panicked and running his fingers over his hair.

"What do you mean?" A concerned Mikey asked.

"Master Leonardo never mentioned facing Krang Prime alone," Casey answered.

"Wait, Krang Prime?!" Donnie asked, alarmed at the sound of that name and the way Casey said it.

"He's the leader of the Krang," answered the young warrior while turning to face the Hamato family. He had a lost, horrified expression, "He's too dangerous. And since Master Leonardo never faced him alone in my timeline, I don't know what is going to happen next."

They all fell silent. April had covered his mouth, Splinter was feeling like he couldn't breathe, Casey was completely horrified and all three turtles seemed lost and more concerned than before.

"Leo…" Raph whispered, frustration and worry growing inside his chest. He was powerless in all senses, he couldn't help at all. He couldn't do anything. This uncertainty and waiting would kill him. He wasn't the kind of person who would stay on the sidelines and do nothing, but this time he had no choice, and he didn't like it at all.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an explosion coming from above. They all turned to the portal, which was the source of the explosion.

Suddenly, April gasped.

"No… is that-?

"No, it can't be…" Casey's eyes were wide open, an expression of pure horror on his face.

Raph felt like his heart skipped a beat.

Right there, between huge pieces of falling debris, was Leonardo.

And he was falling.

"LEO!" Raph screamed, watching helplessly as his brother fell to a certain death.

Everyone followed his path with their eyes until Leo's body disappeared behind some distant buildings. Everyone looked away and closed their eyes tightly. There was no way Leo could've survived that fall. He was gone. Despite that, they knew they had to get the body to give him a proper burial. Raph wanted to get to his brother as soon as possible, he didn't want to leave him alone. He had to find him.

As if he had read his brother's mind, Donnie made a suggestion.

"I… I can track him," he said while touching a few things on his tech-gauntlet's screen, "Just give me a sec."

Mikey knew what Donnie was referring to. If he was right —and obviously he was —, Donnie did put a subcutaneous tracker on Leo the same way he did with Raph. Splinter walked a few steps until he was next to him. The old rat put a comforting hand on his shell.

"We will find your brother," he said while patting the youngest turtle's shell.

"I have the coordinates," Donnie announced, "We better move."

They all ran as fast as they could, Raph holding Mikey between his arms since he wasn't completely recovered. Raph will never forgive himself for everything he did to his brothers: he attacked them, hurt them, and lost one of them, all in the same day. Worst of all was that he did the first two things while being under the control of the Krang. The last one was totally his fault. He shouldn't have let his brother go alone, he should've done a better job trying to convince him not to do such a crazy thing.

He should've told him how much he appreciated and loved him.

He didn't know Leo was feeling everything he said through the com, he always seemed so chill and happy, but it ended up being a façade. Raph felt so guilty for not realizing this sooner, he could've helped him. Leo didn't have to go through all of this alone.

But he did.

And now Raph would never be able to help him.

Tears rolled down his face and got lost with the wind during his race. All he wanted now was to find his brother.

It took them a while to get to the exact location, but a few blocks before reaching it, they found something between the debris, something that belonged to Leo.

Casey was the first one to see it, making everyone stop on his tracks: there, lying hidden between some debris and dust, was one of Leo's twin katanas, a bit battered due to the fight and the fall it took. Once the young warrior got close, he fell on his knees and took it gently with both hands, seeing his reflection on the now dusty blade. Casey's eyes got filled with tears; that wasn't the face of a warrior, that wasn't the face of a ninja apprentice. That was the face of a child, a poor scared child who couldn't keep the promise he made to his sensei before he died.

"I'm sorry, Master Leonardo," Casey said with a broken voice, "I'm so sorry." He put the sword close to his forehead, unable to contain his tears.

His master had died in vain. He had failed him.

The sudden shout of Donnie snapped Casey out of his sorrow. The softshell and Mikey had walked away from the group until they reached a warehouse on the corner of the street. They looked distressed.

"Guys! Over here!" Donnie shouted from a distance while Mikey ran past him and headed around the corner, "We found him!"

Cliffhanger! So that's all for now. I should finish the second chapter before the end of the week. I've been writing all of this on my phone after midnight, (I can't sleep without my daily dose of angst, and if I can't find one, I write my own, hehe).

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it, see you next time!