A/N: Hope you like this chapter, it was kind of sentimental, er- sensitive, gah! I don't even know what I'm trying to say! Okay, it was really…not emotional…but…ugh, touchy (?) for me to write it. Anyways, you get the picture!

Water dripped from a leaking pipe nearby. A puddle had already started not far from the tail of Master Splinter. He was alone in his cell, once again away from his family. He despised his torment. So helpless, unable to reach his sons. He had not seen Michelangelo earlier, suspecting that the youngest turtle must be on watch or possibly even injured.

And what of Leonardo? He'd surrendered, given up without a fight. He had sacrificed his own dignity, thinking it would save the lives of the old ninja. If there was one thing Splinter could take back, it would be teaching Leonardo to think of others before himself. He saw his life as worthless, no more useful in the fast paced world. One so young, like Leonardo, shouldn't be trapped in such a hateful world. Splinter cursed himself for being so conceded.

Light foot steps could be heard a few feet away. Coming into the dim light Leonardo stepped in front of his sensei. Tears of sorrow stung his eyes. He had failed, he had lost his sensei and his brothers.

"Master Splinter..." he whispered, dropping to his knees outside the gated cell.

"My son," Splinter said just as softly. He too knelt to the ground, observing his oldest sonin this rare condition of his.

"Master, I-I have failed you..." Leo whimpered, keeping his eyes on the ground. "I surrendered to the enemy, Master...I have lost my family."

Splinter listened to his son, his heart full of woe. This ninja, so young, and yet, so wise beyond his years. Splinter recalled to their earlier days, of a certain young turtle playing with his brothers in the sewers. So young and innocent he was then, so carefree...he didn't carry the weight of the world on his shoulders as he did now.

The old ninja reached his fingers through the bars of the door, and tilted Leonardo's chin up, forcing him to look at his sensei through his watery eyes. "I am not your master, Leonardo." Splinter whispered. "I am your father."

For a young boy of six, this could have been a thought shrugged off, having known for all his life that this rat was his true father. But for you a young man of sixteen, realizing that the elderly mutated rat kneeling in front of him was, truthfully, not only his mentor and master, but his father, the man who cared most for him, is the greatest gift of all.

Leo gently placed his hand on top of Splinters and mouthed, "Father..."


Moments later, as he was walking behind Shredder, head down and heart filled with shame, Leonardo recalled what Splinter had just informed him.

"Regardless of the choices you make," Splinter had said before Leo was forced to leave. "I will always love you because you had made them. You did not let anyone push Leonardo. And for that, no matter the outcome of events, I will always love you, my son."

A tear slipped from Leo's eye as he continued to drag behind Oroku Saki.

"Sadness is a weak emotion, turtle." suddenly Saki announced.

Startled, Leo looked up at the back of his now leader. "Master Splinter says sadness is just as strong as any emotion and just as important."

Saki glanced back at the turtle in blue. "He is wrong."

"Master Splinter says being wrong is only being right in another situation."

Saki whirled around to face the teen, glaring at him through his mask. "Your Master Splinter is no more!" He shouted, he then turned back and started to walk down the hall again. "As of now, a group of my men are heading to his current location to do some permanent damage."

Leo stopped in his tracks. "You tricked me."

Acting as if the statement were as obvious as the greenness of the mutant behind him, Saki answered, "You tricked yourself."