Leo

"Mikey, STOP!"

Mikey disregarded me, jumping off the pier and becoming engulfed by the dark waters with a single splash. I gritted my teeth, angry he disobeyed me, yet terrified for his safety. There's no way he'd be able to see down there, not to mention that an enemy in the depths was a fish. I crouched down, looking for a silhouette, bubbles, something.

He has to come up. Where is he?

"Mikey!"I called out.

"Leo!"

I turned, seeing Donnie's bo before my face with four shuriken lodged in the wood.

"Don't worry, Leonardo. Xever will take good care of him. As for you, we fight," Tiger Claw said, pointing his machete at us. The footbots leaped from their positions on the shipping crates, standing with our enemy and instantly outnumbering us.

I frantically turned to my older self, who nodded. It was awesome having another me around. I didn't have to say what I was thinking because he was thinking the same.

"I'm on it." Big Leo backflipped into the ocean with a much bigger splash than Mikey's.

Raph, Donnie, and I charged, bounding with flips over our enemy, so we weren't cornered on the pier. Once we touched down on the concrete, we were swarmed by the tiger, zombie dog, and robot ninjas.

"Donnie, take the footbots! Raph, on me," I ordered.

We were heavily outnumbered; this was nothing out of the ordinary. But without Mikey and Big Leo, our chances of winning seemed slim. If we could fight them off long enough to ensure our men in the water were okay, we could be facing a tactical retreat by the end of this. There was no way we could secure the Heiwa no Buki unless my little brother and older self could pull off a miracle down there.

Raph unleashed a furious cry as he lashed out at Tiger Claw, swooping away from his machete and attempting to disarm him. He locked the blade in the yoko of his sais, twisting both hands and effortlessly flipping the weapon out of Tiger Claw's grasp. The large cat stumbled back, reaching for one of his guns instead. He zapped his heat gun at my brother in red, but Raphael was too fast, bounding and dodging like it was nothing. With another cry, he charged at Tiger Claw, missing every zap that hurtled for his head. When the familiar click of an empty gun rang through the air, Raph smirked. He kicked the gun out of the cat's grasp before he could reload and started throwing attacks with his sais like a madman.

Meanwhile, Rahzar stepped before me. He went to kick me, but I dodged that as well as multiple attacks he tried to lash out. When I heard the exhaustion in his breath, I advanced as quickly as possible. I kicked off a nearby crate for momentum and swung a foot directly across his face. He whimpered like the dog he was, his head jolting to the side. Once landed, I swept my other foot under him and sent him falling on his back.

I turned to check on Donnie while he was down. My second youngest brother was holding himself quite well for a turtle outnumbered by robot ninjas. With a gap-toothed smirk, he pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at a group of footbots. The object emanated what must have been some kind of electromagnetic pulse, shocking and forcing the group of robots to drop with a clatter.

Just as I turned back around to deal with Rahzar, there was a slight rumble beneath our feet. My brothers and enemies suddenly stopped to regain our balance, each looking surprised.

"Look!" Donnie cried, pointing at the water.

Distantly, beyond the pier's edge, there was a faint glow of orange in the blackness. My stomach twisted into painful knots, remembering that Mikey and my future self were down there. Anxiety told me that something had exploded in the ocean, and I could only pray they were okay. Then, something burst from the water in the far distance: Xever. He waved the Heiwa no Buki before crashing back into the waves.

Oh no.

"Let's go!" Tiger Claw shouted.

He, Rahzar, and the Footbots sheathed their weapons. I couldn't believe it, they were retreating! I thought of following them when I heard a commotion in the water and turned to see a sight that made me feel faint. Big Leo emerged from the ocean with a greedy gasp for air, an unconscious Mikey in his hold. What confused me was Mikey was glowing, radiating an orange hue from his skin. He hauled our little brother onto the pier and climbed up himself.

"They're getting away!" Raph said, beginning to run in our enemy's direction.

"Forget them," I said and bolted to the scene on the pier.

Raph had turned around to argue but, after seeing the problem, rushed over himself. Big Leo had already begun CPR on Mikey once the three of us arrived, a fear I never wanted to see planted on his face. So many questions were racing through my mind, yet I couldn't speak. My words lodged in my throat as I watched my future self push down on Mikey's chest with a force I thought would break him. He paused to breathe into his mouth and resumed the chest compressions. This repetition continued for what felt like hours, with the suspension hanging evilly above our heads.

"Come on! I didn't come all this way for you to…to… come on!" Big Leo grunted angrily. His tears mixed with the salt water from the ocean rained on Mikey's freckled face as he continued the compressions.

Suddenly, everything went silent. My older self crumpled from exhaustion, and Mikey's body stopped glowing. We stared at his body in speechless disbelief, my heart crushing like an empty soda can. Then, his baby blue eyes shot open, and his little body heaved upward. He coughed up saltwater and bile over the pier while the rest of us sighed collectively. It felt like the first breath I had taken since I first saw them come to the surface.

Mikey's breathing finally regulated, turning to us with a sheepish smile. Big Leo attacked him with a hug before the kid could get a word in.

"That was the stupidest… please don't scare me like that ever again," he said into Mikey's shoulder, whose face was bright red, not only from embarrassment, apparently. There was a gash across his cheek that seeped blood and saltwater.

"What…what the shell were you thinking?" Raph exclaimed.

I was going to ask the same thing once Mikey had time to breathe, but Raph wasn't as patient as me.

Mikey's eye ridges furrowed. "I was thinking someone had to try to get the Heiwa no Buki back!"

"Well, look where that got you," Donnie said.

Mikey's eyes shot to the ground, massaging the scrape on his cheek with tears filling his eyes. I looked at him with a brief moment of sympathy that soon passed once I remembered that he had nearly died by the hand of his own idiocy.

"The explosion, what was that?" Donnie demanded.

Mikey looked at us, a nervous smile spreading the longer he prevented his answer. "Heh. You dudes are gonna laugh after I tell you because it's hilarious, actually..."

"Mikey," Raph growled threateningly.

Our little brother's nervous grin slipped into a frown. "Uhh…so, I tried to take the Heiwa no Buki from Fish Face, and it just…went boom…" he chuckled with his head withdrawing in his shell.

"WHAT?" my brothers and I shouted in unison.

My gut twisted, and the urge to throw up was intense as I took time to think about what he had said. I clutched my stomach, swallowing thickly. That must have been why he was glowing; he touched the weapon, sparking whatever connection he had with it and set off some kind of orange energy. And in front of Xever… oh no.

"So, Fish Face saw this?" I asked.

The shame on my little brother's face was the answer I needed. We all stood there in haunting silence, knowing precisely what this meant.

"This isn't good," my older self sighed.

"Couldn't you have warned us this would happen?" Raph growled.

"This event never happened in my timeline. My coming here has shifted everything that should have been since I warned you. We are rewriting my past as we speak," Big Leo replied.

"What are we going to do about the Heiwa no Buki?" Mikey asked.

They all looked at me, forcing my heart to sink like an anchor in the ocean. I didn't have all the answers right then. It sucked when I couldn't provide my brothers with that sense of reassurance like a big brother should. Tonight was a failure. I was a failure.

I looked back at all of them, taking in their injuries with a frown. Raph was massaging his arm where the shuriken had made purchase. It was still bleeding almost profusely, and the quivering of my immediate younger brother's mouth told me he was holding back a grimace. And Mikey seemed to have a similar cut on his arm, not nearly deep as Raph's, but enough to be examined along with the gash on his cheek. The handy work of that knife-happy fish, no doubt.

"Right now, we need to get home and patch you guys up. Let's go, ninjas," I ordered with less enthusiasm.

Mikey did his best to stand with a meek groan. Due to his lack of sleep and near-death experience, he just couldn't find the energy to push himself up. Finally, his little body was screaming at him in protest. I was surprised he'd lasted this long, knowing I, myself, couldn't go even a day without sleep.

My future self smiled gently at him. He hunkered down and told him to hop on his shell, to which Mikey complied with a thankful smile.


"Donnie, you stay back with that needle, or I'll pound ya!" Raph shouted.

Our genius brother stopped halfway across the lab, his back stiffening with a frown. "That cut is too deep, Raphael. It won't heal properly unless I stitch it up."

"I don't care! You're not poking me with a needle," Raph protested. He stood from his cot, but my firm hand on his shoulder placed him back down in his seat.

"Hah! Raphie's afraid of needles," Mikey teased from the other cot. Even when dead tired, his desire to be irritating knew no bounds.

"I am not!" Raph argued. I grimaced at the sight of a vein pulsating in his forehead.

The youngest only snickered while Big Leo wrapped gauze around his arm. "If you behave, I'm sure Dr. Donatello will give you a lollipop."

"Why, you little turd!" Raph went to stand again, but Donnie and I held him down by the shoulders.

"Don't worry, Raph, this numbing gel should keep the pain to a minimum. Just try not to move, okay?" Donnie asked gently.

Raph groaned in a weak last resort of defiant protest, allowing our genius brother to work on his arm with a scowl that told me he just wanted it over with. Tough as he was, he wasn't as fearless as he led on.

"Ow!" Mikey squeaked.

"Sorry, buddy. It has to be tight," Big Leo soothed.

I turned to the two, seeing that Mikey's cuts were just about patched up. I sucked in a sharp breath as I knew what this meant. It was time to talk to him, and thinking back on past events, this wasn't going to be a touching heart-to-heart—not like the night I called him a screw-up. He wasn't going to like what I had to say, and I was hardly prepared for that. I'd been ready to reprimand Raph many times…but Mikey. This was going to be difficult.

"Mikey," I called.

He and my future self looked to me. I gestured my head to the common room without a word. Mikey nodded, his baby blue eyes falling to the floor. He knew where this was going; the guilt on his face gave it away. Once the gauze was securely fastened, he shuffled behind me with his head down. I closed the lab doors behind me, though I knew my nosy brothers would try to hear the whole thing. Finally, I turned to Mikey, who already had tears filling his eyes, anticipating what he knew would be a harsh scolding. It almost made me hold back. Almost.

"I'm so disappointed in you," I started.

Mikey melted, his eyes glued to the floor. "I know, ani."

"No, don't 'ani' me," I said quickly. "I'm talking to you as your leader, not your brother. I've tried that already."

His eye ridges furrowed like he wanted to spit something, yet he held his tongue, letting me continue.

"You disobeyed my orders and did something that almost cost you your life, not to mention that you gave yourself away to the enemy. No doubt they'll piece together your connection to the Heiwa no Buki," I paused to sigh. "This was why I didn't want you to come."

"They were going to—"

"It doesn't matter!" I harshly cut him off. "Your life comes first. Don't you ever risk yourself like that again, do you hear me?"

He flinched at my heightened voice, his gaze unmoving from the floor. Meekly, he nodded.

"This impulsive behavior and wandering off has to stop, Mikey. A ninja's head is never in the clouds; he is always in the moment," I continued.

Mikey clenched his fists, finally looking up to me with a face that melted from guilt to irritation. "Yeah, well, I'm in the moment now. And guess what? This moment totally blows!"

"Good! It was never meant to be fun," I said.

Mikey dramatically groaned and rolled his eyes. I'd never seen him like this, even last night on the rooftop. "Ugh! You've been such a jerk!"

"Me? You've been the one with an attitude lately," I said.

Mikey's cheeks burned with anger. "That's because you don't listen to me! I'm tired of you guys never believing me or taking me seriously."

I thought back to the day Mikey left our mission to take care of a cat, accompanied by all the times he hadn't been paying attention or acted impulsively like tonight and almost paid the ultimate price. I didn't want to stress over his safety any longer, the image of his body on the pier flickering in the back of my memories.

"You want to be taken seriously? Then act serious," I said sternly.

Mikey's angry expression softened into something sad. No, desperate. He wiped his eyes, unable to control the tears spilling profusely down his face. "You don't understand. You…you never will."

His voice was fragile and shaken. I suddenly remembered how young he was at that moment, sounding truly like a distraught child. A wave of sympathy knocked me down to my knees as he cried before me, covering his face in shame.

"Mikey…" I said quietly, reaching out a gentle hand.

My little brother pivoted to find solace in his room. There was nothing I could say or do to stop him from running away. I only watched with sad eyes, thinking of all the things I should have said instead. No matter how often I tried to repair our relationship, I kept making it worse.

Why is it getting harder and harder to talk to him?

The lab door grinding open pulled me away from everything. I turned to find Big Leo, his expression pained and sad. I knew he had heard the whole thing. Surely Raph and Donnie did, too, at least the screaming part. I looked away, swallowing thickly to regain control of my voice.

"I'm a failure," I struggled to say.

My future self closed the door behind him, stiffly walking over to me. "You're not a failure; that would mean I'm a failure."

I let myself weakly grin at that, looking to see my older self doing the same.

"I fought with my Mikey too amid this Heiwa no Buki business," he admitted with a sad exhale.

"How did you resolve it?" I asked, my ears craving his answer.

Big Leo's face went almost deadpan, worrying me. "We didn't."

I slackened and looked to the ground, thinking how awful he must have felt when his Mikey was taken before he could make things right. The idea of it happening in my timeline made me sick.

"You never know what you have until it's gone," Big Leo said. He blinked, his eyes turning glossy. "Leonardo, there's something you must know."

I looked at him at the sound of pain in his voice, and I knew whatever he was going to say couldn't be good. I wasn't ready, yet I told him to go on, my stomach swirling like a blender.

"I've been dishonest to my family, and I apologize. I did it to protect Mikey, to protect you, but I can't keep it in any longer. If someone has to know, it has to be you," he said, clutching my shoulder.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"Mikey didn't become a mindless warrior," Big Leo confessed. He fought to continue, but he broke apart before me. "Shredder…he…"

My heart fell to my stomach as a wave of absolute panic struck me. Tears instantly flooded my widened eyes. I stared at him, opening my mouth to say something, but all I could manage was, "No…"

Big Leo hunched over, pinching the bridge of his beak and taking in a deep sigh. I could tell he had been doing this method for years, fighting the tears so others couldn't see, even his younger self. The weight of holding his family together for five years must have been burdensome. It was something I, myself, was not ready to go through and to think it happened in his timeline scared me.

"It was during our rescue mission. We were so close to getting Mikey out of Saki's lair, but a fight broke out with the Shredder and his mutants before we could escape. We all fought as hard as we could. Shredder must have known he was losing, so he… I wasn't fast enough. I saw him run up to Mikey from behind, and I saw him draw back his blades. They…went through his shell…I…"

I released a quiet gasp, my heart twinging with every word he shakenly muttered. My face was sore from holding back crying. Big Leo was struggling himself. It was almost comical how we each tried to stay strong for the other, given we were the same person, yet, I couldn't find anything funny in this situation.

"It was his last resort of revenge, taking the life of his enemy's youngest child before retreating from his own fortress. He knew there was no way Mikey would use the Heiwa no Buki for him or that he could win the fight, so he took Mikey from us…" Big Leo's shell hitched, and I watched a few tears trickle down his face before he shamefully wiped them away.

"Why didn't you tell us this?" I asked quietly. I was dissociated upon hearing his story, feeling like I was in some horrid nightmare instead of reality.

"Would you have told him?" Big Leo questioned back.

I remembered how freaked out Mikey was when told he would be a mindless warrior; the scared look in his baby blue eyes hurt me. The only bright side to that story was that he was at least alive, and there was a way to bring him back to us. Telling him that Oroku Saki himself would end him so brutally… I feared it would have scared him beyond repair. It was like how I kept my most recent thoughts of paranoia to myself to protect him from feeling the same. That's why Big Leo lied.

"Do you know why I'm telling you?" Big Leo asked.

Slowly, still detached from this world, I shook my head.

"I regret every single day not apologizing to Mikey, thinking back on all the things I could have said or done to repair what was broken between us before he... You mustn't take your brothers for granted. Don't make the mistake I did."

My mouth quivered at his words. Imagining a world without Mikey or any of my brothers seemed like a world that could never exist. The thought of one of us gone forever was a weight I couldn't lift from my shoulders. I wiped at my misty eyes, straining to keep from crumbling to the ground.

"Don't worry, I won't let Shredder get the same opportunity, no matter the cost," Big Leo assured, his voice shifting to something much deeper than before, so much so that it shook me. He clenched his shaking fists, concentrating on the ground as the last of his tears fell at his feet.


Meanwhile

Oroku Saki gazed out the massive window in his throne room, his hands laced behind his back, stiff as death as he looked to the twisted city before him, the buildings nothing but dark silhouettes under the moon. He often did this when he waited for a report from his pathetic band of mutant disciples to return, wondering how he could force the buildings he gaped at crumbling to the ground. It was his own hellish fantasy he strived to make a reality, a reality he could have made possible with the Heiwa no Buki hadn't those vile reptiles intervened.

How the turtles found out about Tiger Claw coming to deliver the weapon was yet to remain an enigma to Saki. Still, there was no doubt Hamato Yoshi had told them the legend by now and the incredible power teeming inside that staff. Now they knew its importance, which would make it harder to take back, and God help his men if they turned up another night empty-handed.

Indeed, the Hamatos didn't know his plans with the Heiwa no Buki. How could they? He sought to force that irritating scientist, Baxter Stockman, to harvest its power with the tech Saki bought. How? He didn't care in the slightest; that was the grotesque fly's problem. When the power once used to stop a violent war was his, the city of New York would finally fall. He'd be a god, their ruler once and for all. But before that, Hamato Yoshi and the turtles would be the first to suffer. A sadistic smile formed on his damaged face as he thought of his greatest enemy finally bowing to him, begging for mercy.

The massive doors whined open, pulling Saki from his thoughts. He didn't look as he heard the tramping footsteps of Tiger Claw and Rahzar and the humming mechanical ones of Xever walking up to him. He waited for the sound of them dropping to their knees and, when that came, expected a pathetic plea for more time to find the turtles.

"Master," Tiger Claw greeted. "We have brought to you what you asked for."

Oroku Saki pivoted in surprise, eyeing the Heiwa no Buki in Xever's robotic hands, presented to his master with his head down. Saki heavily descended the stairs in his armored boots. He grabbed the staff, eyeing it to ensure it was real. When he spotted the dove etched in the wood, he smiled.

"Excellent. Tell Stockman to start our little project," he ordered.

"Yes, master," the trio said.

Xever rose from his kneeling. "Master, I should tell you that the tortugas have already discovered how to access its power."

"Don't be a fool," Saki scoffed, his stern voice making the fish wince. "Only a junsuina mono can use the staff, and there isn't a pure soul remaining in this revolting world we walk."

"It's true, master. We all witnessed it, mostly Xever," Tiger Claw said.

Saki narrowed his eyes. There was no way a junsuina mono walked this city, was there? No, perhaps Yoshi and the turtles found another way to unlock its power. Still, if this new information was correct, there was no harm in looking into it. After all, whatever the turtles were doing had to be quicker than what Stockman would do with his tech.

"It was the small one, master. All he did was touch it," Xever continued.

Michelangelo. How could that little brat know how to control the Heiwa no Buki?

Saki turned to his mutants, who stood at attention. "If he can use it as you say, then perchance he could provide me with a little help. Bring him to me. Bring me Michelangelo."


Phew! This was the longest chapter yet. I sure hope you enjoyed because this chapter drained me with all the emotional bits. It was worth it, though! I'm sorry if Leo and Mikey were out of character during that argument. Let me know your thoughts, and I hope you have a wonderful day!