Chapter 34: Rant Chant

Hello, my lovely readers!

I am so sorry for the long-awaited update. Long ago, I promised myself that I wouldn't ever leave my readers on a, too terrible, cliffhanger and here I am waiting months to update after finally revealing Leo's secret and then having Leo kidnapped, again, by Baxter. Ugg. My only excuse is that life has been really busy. I promise I have not forgotten this story; I just need to get better at finding and making time for things like writing.

Note: This is a bit of a shorter chapter, but I promise I won't make you wait as long for the next chapter, which will be longer. Now without further ado.

Author warning: anger and some language ahead.


The trek back to the lair had been mainly silent. With the tension tangible and emotions high, none of the brothers had known what to say or where to start, the gravity of the last several hours heavy and burdensome.

After checking that yes, Leo was indeed fine and unharmed, the four reunited brothers had formed a cuddle puddle in the eldest room. Rounding up each of their blankets and pillows to form a nest. Mikey fell asleep with his head on Leo's chest directly above his heart, Donnie cuddled up close to the eldest side, his med bag sat close by after spending the night reaffirming to himself that yes, in fact, his human brother was unharmed from his second kidnapping. And Raph fell asleep with his head resting protectively on top of his eldest brother's, his right arm wrapped around his three brothers' protectively.

But as the night wore on, the three younger brothers, each burdened with the events of the day found themselves facing insomnia and restlessness and thus wound up here, in the pit, ranting about the horrible truth they did not know how to swallow.

"I can't believe we just let him get away!" Raph growled pacing back and forth in the pit. "The bastard kidnapped our brother! Twice now!"

"Language Raph" Donnie corrected, though looking just as furious at the situation as his red banded brother.

"I just want to pound him until he's nothing but slime!" Raph growled clenching his fists. "For a whole Stickin' year we thought Leo was dead an' this whole time that low-life Backstabber Stinkman had him in his manipulative grasp!"

"Who knows what lies that manipulative miscreant fed our naive amnestic brother!" Donnie worried angrily.

"Poor Leo" tears welled in Mikey's eyes. "No wonder he's been so confused! Here we've been trying to teach him about brotherhood and stuff, and he's spent a whole year with Dester Stockboy as his older brother!"

"I just want to…" Raph's fists shook in fury as he clenched them, glaring daggers at the far wall, probably imagining that his punching bag was Stockman's face.

"That denigrate, low life, kidnapping, liar!" Donnie ranted.

After a composed second Donnie took a breath, "This is a sucky situation to say the least '' he turned his mahogany troubled eyes to his two brothers. "I know I am deeply troubled by Leo's revelation and am sure you are too. As grateful as I am to have Leo returned to us, alive and healthy, the notion of him living with Baxter Stockman this past year troubles me to my core." Donnie clenched his fists in anger. "Not only did the scientist mutate him in the first place, but he's also been our enemy for years." Donnie took a breath. "Nevertheless, we need to take Leo's emotions into consideration. Like it or not we can't ignore the fact that Leo's spent the last year with Baxter under the impression that he was his older brother. Our naive, trusting and amnestic kindhearted older brother has formed a brotherly relationship with Baxter, and although we don't like it, we need to accept it." Donnie let his eyes rest with his two other brothers. "This is just as sensitive a subject for Leo as it is to us. Obviously, it's something he's been working up to tell us for a while now, and although I hate that he didn't tell us sooner, I do understand." Donnie took a breath. "Our brother's more vulnerable right now than ever."

Raph and Mikey nodded, the three brothers letting the words sink in for a moment.

"You know what I think we all need" Mikey broke the silence first.

"What?" Raph asked tiredly.

"A rant chant"

"A what?"

"A Rant Chant" Mikey met his two older brother's gazes. "We're all really angry about this. We need to vent our anger about Baxter so that we can move on and heal from this, cause like Dee said this is gonna be a sensitive subject for everyone for a while."

"That's actually a healthy and semi rational idea Mikey" Donnie nodded approvingly.

"I'd much rather pound Stinkman into the ground, but this will do" Raph shrugged. "I'm so mad, I could kick Baxter till he's blue in the face. More than that, till he's nothing but a head sticking out of the ground! It's bad enough he mutated Leo and erased his memories, but to kidnap our bro and lie to him about who he is just a new level of twisted."

"Backstabbing miscreant" Donnie mumbled under his breath.

"He's slime," added Mikey with a scowl.

"Baxter is a craven lunatic with no honor!" Donnie ranted.

"He's scum," Raph growled.

"He's unpredictable and obstreperous and pusillanimous but worst of all he's an untrustworthy thief" Donnie spat.

"No Donnie he's lower than that, he's worse than scum. The thief is lower than scum, he's the slime of the earth. Worse than a bug. He's a fly-buzzing troublemaker, soon to be guts on a wall."

Mikey bit his lip in thought for a moment, before his blue eyes narrowed in an uncharacteristic anger. "Turtle thieving, evil scheming, villainous breathing, mutagen seething, backstabbing meany, Baxter Weeny"

The three brothers looked around at each other, out of breath.


Upstairs, Leo sat with his back against the wall, hugging a pillow to his chest as he listened to his ranting brothers downstairs. It hurt his heart to hear his brother's angry hate filled words, but he understood it. He just hoped that with time, this too would heal. He'd been praying for one brother to turn away from hate, and let go of vengeance and past hurt, he didn't want his younger brothers to carry the same burden.


Wow. This was just a short, emotional chapter.

I wasn't sure how to let Raph, Donnie and Mikey release all the emotions they had inside about this revelation aside from being more overly clinging and protective then they already were. There no doubt would also be some anger about Baxter's actions that needed to come out, but I doubt they would want to vent like this in front of Leo. I had a suggestion that the brothers have a rant-chant. Apologies for the anger and language.