Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT characters, even though it would be nice if I did XD
Note: This takes place with a mixture of the 2003 cartoon and the CGI movie, a few months after Leo's triumph return.
Summary: The turtles have always been involved with the strangest things, but Raphael has been struggling with a secret for years. When his life begins to be on the line, he realizes it may be time for his family to know the truth. Soon the Hamato family will realize the potential they hold and the world beyond plain sight.
Author's Notes: This will contain turtlecest in future chapters; there is swearing and the most that will happen is some kissing in this fanfic.
Chapter 1 – The Fate of a Lone Wolf
It was happening; Raphael could feel his body tense up with excitement. How long had he waited for this moment? Hunched over he held his sais with so much confidence, yellow eyes studying his opponent before him. The person he faced stood just as confident as himself, brown eyes surrounded by sky blue, katanas drawn and back held straight. A smirk lay on his opponents face, he mock Raphael, as if saying "I know how this is going to end up." Oh, that smirk only made Raph shake with more anger and excitement. For today was the day - the day he was going to beat Leo.
Leo ran towards his brother. Raphael blinked - this was weird - it was usually him that made the first move. Before Raph could recollect himself Leo had tripped him katana pointed at Raph's neck, "sorry Raphael but looks like I win again," Leo said putting his katana away and holding a hand out for Raph. Hitting the hand away Raph grumbled as he got up, "yeah well, you won't be bathing in victory for long!"
"Raph, you got to stop this," the room began to crumble, "what?" Leo said looking around confused.
Raph turned, "what the hell?" He muttered, everything looked like it was being eaten away by this darkness. As if the entire lair was fading into black. He turned to face Leo only to have fear suddenly grip his heart and his breath caught in his throat. Leo was melting away in front of him, "Raph!" Leo yelled and started screaming in agony. Raph watched helplessly as Leo's skin melted away, revealing muscles only to have those melt off to reveal bones and then Leo's bones fading away to dust. "Leo! No Leo!" Raph yelled tears stinging the corner of his eyes as he tried to pick up the pile of dust that was once his brother.
Wake up; Raph looked up quickly whipping the tears away, "show yourself! Who are you?" Raph screamed, "Give me Leo back!" Wake up! Raph turned around only to stare at a creature in front of him, eyes glowing red. The creature was triple times Raph's height; skin appeared black and gooey and the skin was bubbling as if due to high heat. To confirm this fact Raph realized the floor was on fire, and his body felt as if it was burning up, "what the hell!"
The creature moved towards Raphael opening its mouth revealing thousands of needle shaped teeth and green saliva dripping from the roof of its mouth. A drop happened to land on Raphael's arm and he felt a burning pain as it burnt through his flesh. Raph collapse to the ground cradling his burning arm, he looked down at his arm he saw his skin bubbling where the drop had landed. His very skin was beginning to melt away just like Leo's. The pain was so intense but Raph stood up and grabbed his sais glaring at the creature that dared to mess with his family, Wake up!
A sudden yelped escaped Raphael's dark green lips as an ice feeling hit him from someone throwing water on him. He sat up in his bed dripping wet only to find he was staring into the curious, innocent, pools of light blue that could only belong to his little brother. "Good morning!" Mikey sang.
"What the hell was that for?" Raph growled at his brother roughly pushing Mikey away. Raphael's head was pounding and he found that it had almost taken all of his damn energy to push his brother. Mikey was already geared up for battle which meant one reason why he was here – he was sent by Leo, which meant special training as usual – Raph wondered how he was going to survive this.
Mikey leaned closer to Raph; of course Raphael was not giving him the satisfaction that Mikey won some imaginary battle by moving. Instead he glared at Mikey hoping his intense stare would get his damn brother to back off. Mikey did not move - actually - he found that invading Raphael's personal space without getting hit was a new accomplishment, "you were tossing and turning and I had to wake you up somehow." There was a pause and Raph sighed, he knew it was coming, he knew what Mikey was going to say and it confirmed it as he open his mouth, "aw Raphie you were having a big bad dream were you! Want me to get a little teddy for you to cuddle at night." Mike teased in the most babyish voice he could muster up.
A growl escaped Raph's lips as he went to take a swing at his little brother, Mikey jumped back and laughed. "Anyways Raph, Leo and Don are waiting for you outside, Leo has some sort of 'special training'…" Mikey said making a disgusted face and using the quotation marks with his fingers in the air. Raph calm down, his brother was right about one thing – special training with Leo was always annoying. "You better get ready, see you soon, remember you'll get in trouble if you're late," with that Mikey left the room.
Once the door shut behind Mikey, Raph collapsed back on the bed placing his wet but cold hand against his forehead. He still felt as if he was burning up and lifting his damn arm proved to be a challenge for him.
He turned his head to look at the clock on his bedside table, there was a motorcycle magazine thrown over it. Grumbling some insults at himself for being so fuckin messy, Raph sat up. Which prove to be a challenge and toss the damn magazine to the ground. The clock said it was 10pm; it was another late night training session. Jumping around in the daytime was a big 'no-no' for his family.
Ever since the whole Nightwatcher business Raph was having a hard time adjusting to a normal sleep schedule again and the fact that Raph was still exhausted this late kind of scared him. A groan escaped his lips if he was getting worried about his sleep schedule then that means Leo and the others would begin worrying also. And the last thing Raph ever wanted was to worry his brothers.
Standing up Raph felt the room start spinning. Sitting back down he placed his hand against his forehead only to pull back at the sudden heat Raphael felt, "well it was a rather messed up dream…after all I never get sick," Raph muttered not wanting to call it a nightmare or admit that he was ill. He would rather blame the dream then his own body failing to fight off a simple flu. But the dream did feel real, as if to make sure it wasn't, his eyes quickly glanced down at his arm – nothing wrong his skin was perfectly the same he remembered before he went to sleep. Which meant Leo was alright.
Thinking about Leo in his dream a sudden panic took over, what if something happened to Leo? Worrying about his brother seemed to give Raphael the sudden energy boost he needed and got up. Ignoring his aching head or body, Raph walked and grabbed a towel that was thrown over a chair that he would sit on for weight lifting and quickly whipped the water off his skin. He then grabbed his gear and put his bandanna on his head. The last thing Raph he had grabbed before rushing to the summons of his brother was of course his sais.
Raph had found Leo and them on the roof. He had felt a sudden shred of relief to notice that Leo was alright, which meant the sudden boost of energy Raph had faded. Raphael took the time to collect what energy he had left and surveyed his brothers from the roof of a building that overlooked them and deep down Raphael was checking that they were alright.
Mikey was hanging from a tower on the roof making strange shapes with his hands and staring at the different kinds of shadows he made with them. If Mike was doing this Raph realized he must have taken longer than he had originally thought. Raph just couldn't help but smirk while watching Mikey, his tongue was sticking out the side of his mouth as Mikey was concentrating on trying to make his hands form some sort of shape the youngest was picturing in his head. Mikey's usually wide-blue eyes were narrowed with such concentration that Raphael wanted to reveal himself right at this moment to get rid of that look on Mikey's face. An expression like that just didn't seem to match the youngest of the ninja turtles.
His eyes then turned to good ol' Donnie. Raph just couldn't help but swell with pride at his second oldest brother. When Leo was gone Don had managed to keep himself and his family somewhat together. Of course Raph knew he really couldn't let Don take the blame with his vigilante kick. Raph had wanted to keep his mind off of the missing brother and he did it the only way Raph knew how – fighting. After all on the plus side he saved the city from a lot of criminals. Raphael had never meant to give Don such a hard time but with no Leo around it was almost like a silent blow to Raph especially when the leader never returned when he should have.
Even though Don acted tough Raph knew he was falling apart at having to play leader of the family, his decreasing weight was proof of that. But now, Don looked so much more alive since Leo came back (and after quitting that pathetic job of his). He was sitting down at the edge of the building and happily playing with his newest invention – a completely revised shell cell. Raphael shook his head, leave it to Donnie to bring it on of Leo's training sessions for testing.
Then Raph looked to Leo, his eyes instantly narrowing with anger. Raphael couldn't help but swell with anger deep inside as he stared at their 'fearless leader.' Leo was leaning against the tower that Mikey was hanging from, arms cross with his eyes closed and his brows were crossed in an expression that was so obvious – fearless didn't like the fact Raphael was taking his sweet time. Raph wanted to jump down and give that face a good punch but he control himself. See who said I am a short fuse all the time. Raph thought as he took a few more minutes to calm down.
Leo leaving had affected him the most and even though Raph would never admit it out loud deep down he had felt abandon. How could Leo ever justify leaving them for so long? Raphael always wanted to ask Leonardo what it was that he was running from but every time he got the courage to ask it would always turn out to be some sort of heated argument. And as any argument goes with Raph develops into a fight.
Jumping down Raph gave this expression to everyone that seemed to say, what waiting for me? Mikey had fallen off the tower and rubbed his now aching head. Donnie instantly put his shell cell away in the small carrying bag he seemed to always bring with him. But a smirk spread wide on Raph's face as he noticed Leo – the damn guy was thinking so hard he never noticed Raph.
"You called oh' mighty leader," Leo jumped out of surprise. Oh yeah that's right Leo I gotten better at playing ninja. Leo looked very confused at face, the kind of expression that would flutter on the leader's face when Leo knew he had been beaten.
However, that expression did not last long for Raph was instantly given that famous glare from the golden browns of Leo, "what were you doing Raph you made us wait for you." Leo said standing in front of Raph now arms cross, trying to show how disappointed in Raphael he was.
Oh great…Raph thought, I better say something or I will end up with a damn lecture. "Well Leo, sorry if I took time to wake up," Raph replied sarcastically, "you know I would rather sleep in then jump around at night because you're never satisfied until we train ourselves to exhaustion and up to your perfection standards!" Raph had to blink his eyes a few times to try and strive back the tears that were coming with the ever growing headache.
"Raphael!" Leo growled his name, taking a step closer to his brother, "you know the reason why we have to train! Karai has warned us that he is coming back!"
Raph glared at the fact that Leo moved closer, oh so you want to challenge me! He thought as Raph walked up to Leo until he was right up into Leo's face, "oh your little girlfriend is afraid that we would get our asses kick! Well, newsflash! Oh fearless leader, we defeated the Shredder multiple times before how is this any different?!" This pounding in his skull was testing Raphael's ever small patience.
Mikey and Don looked at each other, "so umm Don, rock-paper-scissors?" Don smirked at that for Mikey was right to suggest a game, this look like a fight that would take awhile – of course most of Raph and Leo's fights have been taking up their training time lately. Not that Donnie really cared about it much and from the look on Mikey's face he was quite happy that the two were arguing again – it meant less training for them both. "Sure Mikey," Donnie said with a smile on his face.
"Maybe it is because someone is too damn hot-headed to follow orders lately or maybe it is because this certain someone has gotten sloppy!" Leo replied harshly.
Mikey and Don both paused in their own 'battle' as Mikey looked towards Leo with eyes wide, "ooooo-boy Leo you shouldn't have said that…" Mikey muttered his voice had his usual – you're in trouble tone to it. Donnie silently nodded as he prepared to cover his ears from the yelling match that was probably about to become much louder.
"SLOPPY!" Raph yelled his body shaking with anger and moved towards Leo. This forced Leo to back away until he hit the edge of the building, "YOU ARE CALLING ME SLOPPY!" His head seemed to explode now with pain and the frustration of Leo, his head, and the weaken feeling all over his body drove Raph over the edge. He raised a fist to hit Leo who jumped into the air and ended up behind Raph. Leo already had an expression on his face showing that he already regretted his words.
"Raph look…" However he couldn't explain as he was forced to dodge another hit from his younger brother.
"Don't you dare Raph me LEO; you're the one who decided to open your damn mouth! You think you can come back and start lecturing me!" Raph didn't understand why he was angry; Leo was right maybe that was why. Lately he hadn't been feeling well and even though Raph thought he hid it well Leo obviously notice something wasn't right with him. The fact that Raph was in pain now did not help his anger much either.
For some reason Raph hated how his brother could read him so easily compare to the others, he knew he had only been sloppy lately because of the damn flu bug, "I'll show you DAMN SLOPPY!" Raph yelled as he went to draw his sais only to have his hand hit by a ninja star, "what the hell!" Raph said turning onto Donnie and Mikey but the two just shrugged. There was no why Leo did it Raph was watching his older brother all the time…
The sound of swords being pulled out cause Raph to turn to his brother, yellow eyes giving Leo a questioning look, "get ready guys we're surrounded." Leo commanded putting one foot forward; he was ready for a fight.
Mikey instantly jumped to his feet and Raph watched him as the youngest pulled his nunchucks out, twirling them with such ease and grace. Raphael always hated how Mikey made them look so damn easy whenever he used them. When Raph tried them he found them awkward compare to his sais.
Eyes jumped to Don who pulled his bow staff out and with a twirl had it out to defend himself. Don had always been the one with the least confidence when it came to ninjitsu and his stance seemed to show that.
Raphael suddenly felt the ground twirl underneath his feet and he had to take a few minutes to take deep breaths so the world would stop shaking. Looking back up at his brothers Raph noticed that Don had been watching him. A frown spread on the Don's face, Leo who was beside Don noticed his expression and followed it to Raph also, "Raph, you okay?" Leo asked sudden concern flashing in those brown eyes of his.
"What the hell Leo?!" A growled escaped his throat as he pulled out his sais, "we are about to fight - of course I am fine, I been waiting to beat the crap out of something!" As if on cue the mysterious people that surrounded them jumped out of the shadows bearing a symbol that was all too familiar to the turtles.
"Foot ninjas," Donnie had muttered.
"Hell yeah!" Mikey quickly chipped in which earned him a strange look from Don. "What? I been so bored hauled up indoors."
"This is no time to goof off guys," Leo said instantly taking on the voice that stated I am in charge here so you better listen.
Raphael did not even give Leo a chance to continue his leader talk. He rushed towards the foot ninjas into a frantic frenzy. He was feeling dizzy and his body was starting to become heavy and weak. All Raph wanted was to go back to bed, but he did not want his brothers to know. So in Raph's mind, the best way to solve this is to finish the battle as soon as possible. Raph, however, did not count for how sloppy and slow he was because of his weaken state, just as he took down two of the foot ninjas one hit him across the plastron with a bow staff.
Out of breath Raph found he had went flying only to be caught in the arms of Leo, "Raph," Leo put him down gently on the ground, "please tell me what is wrong…."
"I'm fine!" Raph growled managing to find his breath again as he pushed Leo away, "now what are we waiting for fearless leader let's take these bastards down."
Donnie hit a few of them to shove him away from Raph and Leo, "Leo," Don said simply not wanting to say what he was really thinking for the sake of Raph. A small nod of Leo's head seemed to confirm that he knew what Don was hinting at.
Looking confused at the two oldest, Raph decided not to listen as he rushed into battle once again. This time he let his frustrations of Leo and his weaken state take over. This helped Raphael muster up enough energy to fight.
As the fight continued Raph began to notice something with Leo and Don – he would go take down one to see Don had taken down two that were behind him. Raph would take down a few more only to find Leo had taken some down beside him. And as Raph turned to notice Mikey was fighting off from a distance – alone. It suddenly dawned on the hot-headed turtle. "What the hell?!" He yelled at the two as he continued fighting, "why are you guys playing my damn babysitter!"
"Raph your slow and weak," Don stated simply which earned him a look from Leo.
Leo was right to give Don heck. No one questions Raph's strength, as if to prove this, Raph hit two guys towards Leo and Don. While they were distracted he moved as far from his brothers as possible – a smirk spread on his face a few minutes later as he admire the many knocked out foot ninjas around him.
"Raphie!" Mikey yelled eyes widen as he pointed behind Raph.
Turning around Raph barely blocked the sword that had almost hit his head, "Karai," Raph growled her name.
"Hello Raphael, do you always like to fight solo?" She asked as she went to kick Raph, the fact that it actually hit Raphael seemed to surprise her more.
Breathless, Raph held his gut, his sais on the ground. His head was aching, and the world was beginning to spin again. Grabbing his sais he stood, "solo is all I need to take you down!" He growled as he rushed towards Karai, ignoring the protest from Leo, Don and even Mikey.
Karai held her blade out ready to defend the attack from the most rash and violent of the turtles however the need to defend never came. Halfway through Raph collapsed. She blinked confused – did she really hit Raphael that hard? No, this was something else and it wasn't her doing.
During Raphael's advance towards Karai the world kept spinning, his head began to ache more, his limbs felt like jelly and suddenly he felt so weak as if gravity had suddenly increased. Before Raph realized what was happening black spots had blurred his vision and he felt himself falling, but Raph never realized if he hit the ground or not. For Raphael was once again a victim lost in his dark world of nightmares.
Leo froze in his battle against five foot ninjas as he saw his younger brother collapse to the ground, his eyes narrowed with anger. And in one split second the ninjas were knocked out and a sword was pointed at Karai's neck, "Karai, I respected you but the moment you hurt my brother…"
"Leonardo, I didn't do this.." as if to prove the point she jumped back, "foot ninjas fall back…" with that she threw a smoke bomb on the ground and once Leo was able to see through the smokescreen not a single foot ninja remained.
Turning towards Raphael, Leo found Donnie already kneeling beside him, Mikey was close beside Donnie. First Don had grabbed Raph's wrist checking his heartbeat, then he went to look over Raph seeing no visible fatal injury except for small cuts and bruises from the fight, "is Raphie alright Donnie?" Mikey had asked looking scared that his older brother may be seriously injured.
Leo had walked up and kneeled beside Raph, his brother's cheeks were flushed and the mixture of green and red somehow suited Raph. Raph's breathing sounded and appeared shallow as if he was struggling with each breath. But Leo found he was more interested at how weak his brother appeared at this moment. Raphael had always taken pride in being the toughest, the strongest, and the manliest out of his brothers. At this very moment Leo saw something in Raphael he hadn't notice before – it was almost enchanting…
"Leo!" Don's voice sounded annoyed this time and Leo blinked looking at Donnie, "for god-sakes I been calling your name the past few minutes – Raph's burning up we need to get him back inside."
Leo blushed and quickly replied as Don was now giving him his usual searching look, "wait? Burning up? You mean he is sick?"
"Well I won't know until we get him back into the lab so I can do some tests," Don explained, "but if he is this was not a sickness that came on suddenly he must have been hiding it for a long time."
Nodding Leo picked Raph up, surprised that he was light. Of course, after a year and a half training in the jungle a lot of things were very light to Leo now. Mikey walked up close to Leo giving a pained filled expression, "don't worry Mikey," Leo said trying to give the youngest a comforting smile but it turned into a weak sad smile instead, "Raph is too damn stubborn to be seriously ill."
A small nervous laugh escaped Mike's lips, "yeah I know the flu is probably too afraid of Raphie to infect him." Mikey replied but Leo had noticed the worried expression in those pools of blue.
Don was rather quiet as he watched his brothers silently, Leo knew that secrectly Don was insulted that Raph had never went to him at the beginning. After all Don had always been their 'Doctor' in the family.
As the three made their way home, Leo looked down at Raph again who appeared so fragile it frighten the leader. Where was his hot-headed, rash and stubborn turtle that he loved? Leo paused at that sudden thought and decided to bury it deep inside, emotions like that was not one brother's should have. Why did it appear as if Raph was fighting his own battle? Leonardo couldn't help but have a shaking feeling that Raphael's chi was a lot weaker than usual, and there was so much chaotic energy surrounding his brother Leo wondered if this was more than a simple sickness. "Raph," Leo whispered, "why are you so damn stubborn?"
However, Raphael did not hear Leo as he was struggling with demons that none of his brothers could understand – the kind of demons that haunted him for so long.
Note: please review I really appreciate feedback ^^