Thank you to all you wonderful people who bothered to review for my story. My humble little soul is touched and pleased, as I thought no one will do it. I can see that most of you are confused (and maybe a little weirded out), others seemed to be on the right track about things, but remember that all good things are revealed in time. So you'll just have to keep reading…and reviewing :) and things will get better, promise…
If I make any grammer mistakes, please let me know in a constructive criticizing way :)
Chapter 2
The Replacement-'A Stranger in Their Midst'
The turtle's lair was eerily quiet this evening, as it had been for the last three months. Not since that day they came home to find…
Raphael shuddered at the thought, it was too creepy to remember. He was still saddened and extremely angry at what his brother had done to him, his entire family. It was abandonment and betrayal all at once, his brother leaving him to lead the rest of his clan when he least expected it. Sure, when it came to the ninjitsu, he was always better skilled and more prepared than Donatello and Michelangelo, and of course he always fantasized about being the top turtle one day. But in those fantasies, Leonardo was always there…
But he wasn't, and now Raphael is sitting here in front of their many televisions, which were all blank now, thinking about the scene that lay before them the day Leonardo went missing…
Yes, missing, as none of them can accurately say that he was dead either. They just weren't sure of what had happened. Leonardo went out in the early hours of dawn to do his training exercises, of course he had gotten ticked off the day before, but he was always forgiving, and never stayed mad that long. But even Leonardo on occasion has been known to harbor a small grudge, so when he didn't come back by breakfast time, none of them were too worried, they just figured he was so pissed off that he decided to stay out a little longer to exercise his anger out. As that was another typical Leonardo thing to do, since he was till mad about the day before, they really didn't start to think about looking for him until the daylight hours turned into nighttime.
Raphael led the nighttime exercise, and it was exhilarating. How often did he ever get to lead anything? He noticed the worried looks on Don and Mike's faces, and knew that they were all thinking about where Leo could possibly be. Raphael was worried too, but his ninja training and the ingrained ability to mask his emotions allowed him to not show his feelings, as he thought that such display was a sign of weakness. So they did their nightly patrol in absolute, total silence, highly unusual for them, but that day was strange none of them even gave a comment to it.
Then it happened…
Raphael was the first to notice it: a trail of blood leading to an alley way between an Asian market and an antique clock repair shop. Suspicious and alert, Raphael beckoned his brothers to follow him. Cautiously, they followed that trail, it wasn't much more than a thin line, but nonetheless their ninja senses warned them that danger could still be about. When they reached the end of the trail, all he noticed was a huge bowl-like shape in the shadows. He was puzzled, who the hell would leave a bowl of blood out? Satanists? Wannabe vampires? Donatello was the first to step forward to take a closer look at it. A shuddered gasp from Don was all Raph needed to jog quickly to his brother's side, with Mike following in pursuit. Both of them gasped too when they found out what that object was: a giant turtle shell with a small puddle of blood in it. Now, considering there are only four known mutant turtles that live in New York, there was only one answer to whose it was…
"Leo?" Don whimpered quietly, it was all too weird to be true.
Closer inspection around that area revealed a katana whose blade was broken in half and covered in blood too. The blue wrappings around the handle gave it away…
The rest of the night was a kind of hazy dream for Raphael as he and his two remaining brothers picked up the shell and the katana and went back home with them. They explained what had happened as they showed the objects to their Sensei, who looked down on them with great grief and sadness. Michelangelo and Donatello grieved profusely. They cried, not loud and bawling like a young child, but quietly. They comforted each other and allowed themselves to talk about what happened, and they made a display of the shell and broken katana as a memorial to their lost and broken brother. Raphael thought it was creepy to display a piece of someone's body like that, yet it made perfect sense: it was all they had left of Leonardo.
Now, Raph doesn't know what Master Splinter is doing to deal with the disappearance/death of Leo, but he himself hasn't been grieving with his brothers at all. He felt none, nothing but a great big empty feeling in his gut. He believed Leo did that on purpose, he decided to give up on his family and run away. Some fearless leader he was, abandoning his family like that. Somehow though, deep down inside, Raph knew it wasn't true, but it was so much easier to put the blame on someone than having to deal with him just being gone.
He can hear the sound of sparring coming from their dojo. Don and Mike were practicing, as Master Splinter still wanted them to continue their ninjitsu training despite the loss. His reasoning is that they must be ready for anything. Raphael interpreted that to mean whoever attacked Leo was going to come after them next. It was paranoia on Don and Mike's part that got them training feverishly all the time, well it was anger too, but mostly paranoia. As for himself, Raphael trained as diligently as he normally does, being the new second-in-command (the first being Splinter) didn't make him change his routine in the slightest. He didn't want to be leader or even do ninjitsu anymore, with Leo gone it wasn't as fun or exciting to want to do either. He only did this to keep his sensei and his worried brothers happy, and to get some pent-in frustration out.
Right now, he was just sitting, thinking, at how broken his family came to be after three months. Sure they spent every night looking for Leo, but it was energy wasted and he knew they were all ready to give up. Raph was ready to give up three days after they found his brother's remains…
The sound of the sewer entrance opening reached Raphael's highly sensitive ears. The sounds of fighting still coming from the dojo meant that Mike and Don haven't heard, nor suprisingly Master Splinter. Raph shook his head, some ninjas they are, and went to 'greet' whomever was coming in uninvited into their home. He was surprised that someone managed to slip past their security systems and opened the door. Donatello must be getting sloppy because of his current depression and his obsession for training. Well, it doesn't matter now, because no one would ever get past the volatile force that is Raphael.
He calmly stood at the entrance, arms folded across his plastron, waiting for the person to come in.
But what he saw come in astounded him and his confidence and composure slipped out of him like a balloon whose air was escaping. A turtle, a mutant much like himself, came in through the door. Apparently, this one was a ninja too, and a male from the looks of him. His mask was black, his pads were gray but looked brand new, and he had a deep green skin tone, as Raph and his brothers were also different shades of green themselves. But what disturbed him the most was that this one had a pair of katanas strapped to his back. The handles were the same black as his mask, and decorated in gold designs he couldn't make out from where he was standing, but nonetheless it was a pair of katanas.
The turtle was looking around the lair with an air of someone who has never been here before, taking in his surroundings and noting where everything was at. Raph was speechless, and only one word flowed through his mind. So he decided to say it out loud.
"Leonardo?" he asked the turtle quietly.
The turtle looked at the speaker for a fraction of a second before answering.
"Yes?"
