Chapter Fifteen:
The Beginning of the End
Leonardo awoke to the sound of Raphael moaning in pain beside him. He blinked twice, trying to focus his eyes through a strange cloud of smoke that bellowed from below them. He too felt a sharp sting from the back of his head. Leo went to raise his hand, only to find it was tied behind him.
"What happened?" Raph moaned again. Leo looked all around him. They were hanging in midair, tied together by a steel cable, which was connected to a crane. Leo strained to look through the smoke to see what was below them.
" I don't know." He finally answered Raph. " The last thing I remember was-holy crap....."
Raph felt a sudden sense of dread drifting from his brother. He focused downwards, as Leo did. The smoke was clearing a little, and they could plainly see they were dangling above a pit of fire, or it was something that resembled fire. Colors of red and orange swirled around, looking more like a whirlpool than a fire, and it floated above a thick shadow of black. Raph then gasped in horror as the black shadow began to move, stretching and reaching up. It twisted and turned its' way through the fire until it took the shape of a clawed hand. Then, moments later, more ghostly hands appeared, reaching for the two turtles. The black shadow then turned into a new shape. Leo and Raph watched in a frozen terror as a demonic face appeared, showing a deep red eery glow in it's eyes.
"What the hell is that?" Raph whispered to Leo, his voice apparently shaking. Leo only answered by shaking his head without turning his eyes away.
"I think you just answered your own question, you mutant freak." A familiar voice hissed up to them. Leo and Raph turned their eyes to the creature they had seen before they were captured and knocked out. Jonas stood near the edge of the pit, still smoking away at his cigarettes. Behind him stood over half of the Foot army.
"Seems you can take the prize for being a freak now." Raph laughed at his comment, then stopped when the fire in Jonas's eyes grew.
"SHUT UP!!" He screamed. " It's only because of your kind I am like this!" He spit the cigarette out of his mouth, then slowly raised his hands to his face, staring intensely at them. "You mutants are to blame for everything in my life." He returned his fiery cold stare back to the turtles. "All of your kind will pay."
" I don't get it." Raph yelled as Leo struggled against the cable. "You were a human the last time I saw you!"
Jonas narrowed his eyes. "Do I have to waste my time on an explanation?"
"No-" Raph was about to say when Leo nudged him, then whispered.
"Get him to talk! It'll buy me some time while I tried to get us loose!" He pulled out a small sharp cutting tool from his sleeve.
Raph grinned, trying to show Jonas he was interested. " Sure. Why not? A background story might be a little helpful."
"Fine," Jonas rolled his eyes in annoyance and sighed. " If I have to.... where do I start? Well, I'm sure you have heard some of my past from that nosy reporter. She sure does like prying into a person's personal life, doesn't she?"
"How do you know about April?" Leo asked, stopping his work on the cable.
"Please! I know all about you and your friends." Jonas laughed. " The Master has been very descriptive."
"'The Master'?" Leo repeated. He turned to Raph and lowered his voice. "Does he mean Shredder?"
"No, he means the Easter Bunny." Raph rolled his eyes, causing Leo to lose his patience.
"Could you cut the sarcasm? Now is not the time for it!"
"Sorry, but I thought you knew who he was talking about. I didn't know you were so dense!" Raph purposely laid the sarcasm on thick, making Leo steam.
"Well, excuse me!" Leo added in his own sarcasm, his voice raising. " I'm having a hard time believing all of this when we watched the Shredder die years ago!"
"What, you didn't believe Linda when she told us?"
Leo turned his head away. " Please don't bring any of that up again."
"Why?" Raph stared intensely at Leo. "You still can't accept the fact that she lied, can you?"
Leo glared back. " I said, don't bring it up!"
Down on the ground, Jonas growled with impatience. He turned around, pushing his way through the crowd of Foot soldiers and headed for a large wooden crate. He stood in front of it, then placed his clawed fingers to his temples. Seconds later, the crate lifted into the air, and with his eyes, Jonas directed the crate at ramming speed towards the still-arguing Leo and Raph. It smashed into them, causing the cable to swing viciously from side to side. They both moaned in pain again, feeling the sting of thousands of wooden splinters digging into their skin.
"Now, if you two are finished with your brotherly spat, should I go on, or should I just kill you now and get it over with?" Jonas gave them an evil smile.
Raphed sneered and was ready to turn his anger towards Jonas when Leo nudged him again, nodding his head towards the cable.
"Yeah, sure." Raph's sneer turned into a fake smile. " Go right ahead."
Jonas sighed, thinking back into his past.
" I was eighteen at time, nine years after my parents were taken from me. Master Saki had finally located that evil mutant that had killed them, and I went after him. I spent many hours making him suffer." Jonas grinned his razor sharp teeth at Raphael. Raphael just glared back.
"After I had my fun, Chaos was finally dead, and my parents were avenged. I went back into the streets, and began to make my way back to this very warehouse, but I never made it. A beam of light stopped me in my tracks, and I then found myself aboard a Madira spaceship. They had seen what I had done, calling it a hate crime against the mutant species, which was around that time they were trying to pass that stupid law! So, they set their own punishment on me, by the order of the King." Jonas stared at his hands again. "They turned me into this! They turned me into a mutant!" Jonas picked up a nearby Foot ninja and flung him into a back wall. Leo heard the sickening crunch of the soldiers bones, and it made him sick to his stomach. Jonas took a deep breath, then continued.
" I spent almost three years in that nightmare! They drained everything human in me and replaced it with mutant DNA! I was cut open and put back together!" Jonas turned his back to the turtles. " The only thing I have is my memories, every horrible one."
"But how in the hell can you look human if you're like that?" Raph asked.
"What? This thing?" He held up something that looked like a costume, only it was human skin, stripped of everything on the inside. "I 'borrowed' this from some bum on the streets." Jonas chuckled loudly. "You've seen Men In Black before right?"
Raph made a face of disgust while Leo held back his vomit.
"But what about your apparent telekinetic powers?" Leo asked after his nasuea passed.
"Oh that," Jonas turned away. "That's- it's- it's none of your business. Now, moving on to the present time, I've made it my life's work to get rid of every last one of your kind, cause of course this was all mutant kind's fault-"
"Our fault?!" Raph yelled. " Look buddy, just cause some dumbass, insane, mutant bumped off your 'rents don't mean every other mutant in the world should get your foot up their ass!"
Jonas laughed again. "Of course it does! You mutants stick up for each other! It only makes sense to destroy you all! But as I was saying, I was trying to get back at the Marida for doing this to me, and I got their attention by blowing up everything they had done for the mutants in this city."
Leo gasped. He thought back to the day last winter when he and Linda witnessed the library explosion, and Linda's mother had lost her life.
"Those 'things' were for every one! Mutant and human! Do you know how many lives were lost because of that?" Leo screamed at Jonas.
"Don't know, don't care," Jonas sighed. " Well, either way, I got their attention. But this time around, things had changed. The Marida weren't the friendly aliens everyone thought they were. The King was aging fast, and his lead general was in commanded now. He and I are close friends." Jonas showed his toothy grin again. " I made a deal with him. If I helped the Marida take over the Earth, I would get my human life back. Plain and simple, don't you think?"
Leo shook his head. " So you would waste the lives of everyone, human and mutant, just to return back to the monster you once were?"
"I'm not a monster!" Jonas screamed.
"Sounds like it to me," Raph agreed with his brother.
Jonas let out an ear-piercing shriek and motioned to a group of ninjas near the opposite edge of the pit. "I'm sick of this! Lower them in!!" he looked back up to Leo and Raph. "I'm going to enjoy watching you two die."
"What's the story with the cable, Leo?" Raph whispered loudly.
"Do you know how hard it is to cut through steel?" Leo rolled his eyes. Suddenly, a loud clank noise rang out, followed by the shifting of the crane that held them.
"Well you better start cuttin faster!!" Raph yelled out. The felt the cable begin its descent towards the pit. Raph close his eyes, and to Leo's surprise, started to pray.
"God, look, I know I'm an asshole, but please do somethin to help us!!"
Leo couldn't help but laugh at his brother, and it made him fumbled with the cutting tool his used. Then suddenly, it seemed God had answered.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Minutes before.....
"How in the heck are we going to get past all of those sentries, Donnie?" Mike asked, tugging on his brother's uniform.
"Shhh! I'm thinking!" Donnie pushed Mike's hand away. Leslie sat to him, her gun in hand and ready to move.
"Don, why don't we just cut straight through?" She asked.
"Too risky, and beside, there is only twenty of us, and what- fifty of them?" Don looked around again. " There has to be some way to-"
Just then, screams were heard as a hoard of Foot ninjas went running by them.
Mike laughed. " I think it's even now!"
"What was that all about?" Leslie looked as shocked and confuse as Don did. He peered threw the haze of the afternoon sun and saw two figures walking towards them.
"Well, I'll be damned....." Don's words trailed off as he rose to his feet. He walked towards the figures and embraced one of them. He joined the two figures as they continued their walk.
"SPLINTER!!" Mike jumped up and ran to his father, tears of happiness streaming down his face. He grabbed the rat in a hug and lifted him off the ground. Don smiled and motioned at Leslie.
"Come on. I think we have a way in now."
Leslie smiled, then yelled for the troops to move out.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Now why in the hell didn't that work when I was locked up?" Raph directed his question to the sky. He watched as his other two brothers, Splinter, Leslie, Han and the Special Ops Team poured into the building.
"What the-?" Jonas screamed. " Get them you idiots!" The Foot began their attack as Jonas watched the crane sink lower and lower.
"Hurry Leo!" Raph's impatience began to take over.
"I'm trying!" Leo yelled back. Jonas then realized what Leo was doing.
"No!" He turned to the crane and with his mind, he began to move the entire crane closer to the pit. It was almost near the edge when Jonas was suddenly thrown to the ground. Leo and Raph looked up to see Don standing over Jonas.
"Hey guys. How's it hanging?" He smiled and waved.
"Ha ha. Real cute." Raph said with a dry laugh.
"Hey! I got it!" Leo said triumphantly.
"No!!!!" Jonas jumped back up and ran towards the crane, shoving it off the edge with all of his might, and watched it disappear into the swirling fire. Don came up behind Jonas once again and the two began to struggle.
"Hang on Raph!" Leo grabbed onto his brother and the broken end of the cable, swinging it over to the edge, but they fell too short. Leo caught the edge of the floor, with Raph sliding down his brothers body, finally catching Leo's left leg. Don managed to push Jonas back to the ground and ran to help them.
"I got you Leo. Hang on."
"No!" Leo yelled up. " Get Raph. He's too weak. Help him first!"
Don reached his bo staff down into the pit as Raph reached up with his right hand. Suddenly, a Foot ninja came out of nowhere and shoved Don back away from the pit.
"Ah, great." Raph moaned, locking his hand back around Leo's leg. He stared down into the swirling fire, watching the black hands of the dead reach for them. He closed his eyes.
"Leo?"
"Hang on Raph. I think I can get us out of this." Leo reached his hands up higher on the floor, only to have them slide back. " If I can only get a grip on this-"
"Leo! Forget it!" Raph yelled. " This is it bro! We ain't makin it this time."
Leo looked down at his brother in disgust. " Don't you dare say that Raphael!"
"Leo, remember that time, when you were ten, and Mikey had glued the pages of that sword book together? That was like your favorite book or somethin, right?"
Leo made a confused face. " Yeah, but why are you bringing that up now?"
"It wasn't Mikey who did it. It was me."
"What?!" Leo was shocked. " Why would you do something like that?"
" And that time you couldn't find that wooden sword that Splinter gave you?"
"Yeah, that was Master Yoshi's practice sword," Leo raised an eyebrow.
"I stole it from ya. I'm also the one who burned it."
"Raph! Do you know how much trouble I got into for that? Splinter thought I did it!"
Raph sighed. " Look, the point is, all my life, I treated you like shit, and I think it was only because I was jealous of you. You did everything right, you never went against Splinter's word-" Raph opened his eyes. "Then you risked your neck to save me, after all I did." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm sorry Leo. I'm sorry for everything I ever did, and I'm sorry for not being the brother I should have been."
As Raph raised his head, Leo lowered down his hand, and Raph grabbed onto it, feeling that his oldest brother had accepted.
"Guys! Grab on!" Leslie appeared over them, reaching her hand down. Leo gave Raph's hand over to her, and Raph grasped her tightly. Using all of her strength, she pulled him up until he was able to grab the edge himself. He was almost up when Jonas came running up behind Leslie, screaming at the tops of his lungs. He threw his claws down, causing a huge gash in Leslie's side. She screamed in pain as the blood spilled out and she fell backwards, her foot catching Leo's hands, and causing them to slide farther down.
"Leo!!" Raph screamed as he caught Leo's right hand, forgetting about the broken bones inside the arm that held both of their weights. He clenched his teeth to hold back the pain, but kept a tight grip on his brother.
"Raph! You can't hold me with your arm like that! Just let me go!"
"No way." Raph growled back. " Do you think I'd let you go after you've gotten us this far?"
Leo shook his head. " Raph, you can't hold both of us like this forever-"
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do," Raph watched the broken bones in his arm twist around. "We're gettin out of here, both of us."
" Raph?"
"What?" Raph looked back down at Leo.
" Do you remember the first time you snuck out of the lair and somehow Splinter found out?"
"Yeah, I was grounded for like a month," Raph laughed.
"I told him." Leo confessed.
"Mikey told me he did it." Raph then became confused.
"Only because I paid him to." Leo smiled slightly, as Raph laughed. Leo then continued.
" And when you crashed Don's computer after he worked for months on it, I told him you did that too."
"Geesh, Leo, you were a regular tattle tell when we were younger, weren't ya?"
Leo sighed. "It's only because you were so reckless, and so rebellious-" Leo looked directly into Raph's eyes. " It made me wish I wasn't so uptight, that I could be more like you."
"Leo, come on." Raph smirked. " I don't buy that."
"It's true! You don't know how many times I wished I could go with you when you up to the surface, or how many mornings I wanted to sleep in like you did and miss practice. But I couldn't. I just couldn't be that laid back."
Raph shook his head. "So you where basically as jealous of me as I was of you?"
Leo nodded in response, then laughed. " You know, I think we have more in common than we think we do."
" I think so." Raph laughed, then winced in pain. " Now what do ya say we get out of this 'hell hole'?" Leo laughed loudly at Raph's pun, then placed his feet against the pit's wall.
" Ready?" Raph watched as Leo nodded, then pulled Leo up, forcing the little strength he had on his good arm. Leo helped by pushing with his feet, and soon he was up and out of the pit. He turned and pulled Raph up, taking care not to further injure the broken arm. As Raph got to his feet, he ran to Leslie, and looked over the massive wound Jonas inflicted on her. Jonas was standing a few feet away, using his telepathic powers to overcome Donatello.
"This guy is all mine." Raph felt the anger that he had held back for Jonas rush through his body. Leo didn't bother to stop him, but instead pulled Leslie, who was still alive, over to a safe spot, and joined in the fight against the Foot.
"Hey, you freak!" Raph yelled out as he stood behind Jonas. Jonas stopped his attack on Don, and turned around to face the mutant he had tortured for the past year.
"Are you ready to finish this?" Raph glared into the fire of Jonas's eyes. " Cause I am."
Jonas laughed. " You're kidding, right? Look at you! You're weak, all broken and battered! What could you possibly do?"
"Oh, maybe something like this-" Raph leaped into the air and delivered a bone- crunching hit into Jonas's jaw. The beast tumbled to the concrete floor, howling in pain. Raph regained his stance, feeling the pain increase in his body, but he continued to ignore it.
"It's funny what one can do if he directs his anger the right way!" Raph laughed, letting some of Splinter's words pass through him.
" You will pay for that," Jonas crawled to his feet, rubbing at his jaw, feeling the heat of his blood pour out. Before he could take a step, Raph delivered a series of punches and another kick into his face, and Jonas felt his body sail backwards across the floor. Raph fell to the ground this time, the pain become unbearable. Don held back the Foot long enough to run to Raph's side. He looked at the injuries Raph suffered and shook his head.
"Why are you so stubborn?" He grabbed Raph under his arms and was about to drag him to safety when he suddenly found himself frozen in place. They both looked over at Jonas, who had one clawed hand out in front of him, the other place on his temple.
" What's he doin?" Raph asked, feeling a sudden pressure on his body.
"It's his telekinesis." Don dropped to his knees and grabbed his head. "He's pushing down on us with it!"
"Just a little trick my Dad taught me." Jonas smiled, blood running over his sharp teeth.
" Just a little bit of pressure on your bodies, then SPLAT!- your dead."
"Your-dad?" Raph asked, feeling the pain in his head as Don did.
"Yes, that was my other little secret." Jonas winced as he talked. " That was the mutant power my father held."
"Shit," Raph held onto his head. " His dad was a mutant....." Raph felt his brain begin to push against his skull. " Who woulda thought........
"Jonas!" A female voice rang out, causing Jonas to let go of his hold on Don and Raph.
They both fell over onto the floor, their breathing heavy and uneven. Raph managed to lift up his head and stared in shock as Leslie staggered across the floor, her gun in one hand, pointed at Jonas, the other holding onto the gash in her side, which leaked more blood onto the ground.
"Why can't you mutants die and stay dead!!!" Jonas screamed and hurled his body towards her. Leslie held her ground, and fired the last shot in her gun; the bullet meeting the middle of Jonas's forehead. He stood still for a minute, as if he lost in thought. Then the weight of his heavy mutant body fell backwards, right into the fiery pit behind him. Then, Leslie fell back to the ground.
Having taken out the rest of the Foot, Mike and Leo ran over to their brothers. Mike pulled Don up as Leo helped Raph. As soon as Raph made it to his feet, he limped his way over to Leslie and knelt down. He pulled her head up into his lap and brushed the blonde hair out of her eyes.
"You did good work, soldier," Leslie smiled, her breathing becoming shallow. Raph laughed slightly, shaking his head.
"I told you, call me by my name,"
Leslie placed a hand on Raph's cheek and patted it. " Sorry, Raphael," She coughed heavily, blood coming up in her mouth.
"Come on, " Leo tapped Raph's shoulder. "We have to get her out of here." He reached for Leslie's feet.
"No, don't worry about me. You guys save yourselves."
"We're not leavin you!" Raph gave her head and shoulders to Mike. On Leo's count, he and Mike lifted Leslie into the air. Don grabbed onto Raph, letting him use his bo staff to lean on. The Turtles joined Splinter and Han at the doorway, then they felt a sudden rumble beneath their feet.
"What is that?" Mike asked, his eyes becoming wide. They all turned towards the pit in the floor and saw the fire had grown, and strange flashes of bright lights shot out into the warehouse.
"I think our friend's telekinesis powers were opened up when Leslie fired that shot into his head," Don explained.
"What? That's crazy!" Raph tighten his grip on Don's shoulders.
"How do you figure that?" Mike asked.
"Saw it an alien movie once," Don shrugged, then turned back around and pushed Raph along. "But now we have to go, because if it was like the movie , this whole place is going to blow!"
As Don's words passed, the ground shook harder and the rumbling became louder. The ceiling above them began to fall as they reached the doorway. Han and Splinter pushed the grass covered doors first, then helped the Turtles pull out Raph and Leslie; the remaining MM soldiers climbed through after. They ran at top speed towards the bridge, only stopping long enough to watch the building explode into a swell of fire and smoke, then they continued the journey towards the MM hideout.
Far across the river on a hillside in a nearby valley, Shredder, surrounded by his elite ninja force, watched as the Foot warehouse was engulfed in flames. He found himself laughing, believing that his enemies were finally gone. He also felt relieved that Jonas was gone. He had grown so tired of that man, always whining and complaining. Shredder felt like a burden had been lifted. He turned to his force and pointed at the flaming warehouse.
"Look. my elite ninja! Look, and know that my enemies are gone! The Turtles are no more!"
A cheer went out among them. Except for one.
Linda sank to her knees, her eyes wide in shock. Tears welled up but somehow didn't pour out. She didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that her father, or that Leonardo was gone. All she could do was stay on her knees in the grass and stare into the swirling flames.