Turtlefreak121: (glares at a hamburger) Ever since my science teacher made me write that report on E. coli O157:H7, I haven't been functioning the same...way... (pleads with teacher) WHY? WHY? Why would you give a germaphob a report about E. coli? I can't drink after my own mother, let alone knowing about this! (sighs) I've even quit eating at Hardee's darn it! (hits head against desk) THAT WAS MY FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT! DARN YOU, E. COLI O157:H7 - YOU TAKE NO PRISONERS!

Thanks for all the reviews, guys!

The Dark Half

Chapter Eleven

By Turtlefreak121

Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT.

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Hearing Voices

Attempting to escape the clutches of Max, Leo pulled and twisted himself to try and break free of the large tentacles that restricted each of his appendages. It wasn't working - the tentacles were too strong, Leo's shoulder was injured from being thrown against the wall, and Max was too close to let it go by without notice. After all he'd been through...after all he'd done to rescue his family...after everything - Leo couldn't believe this was the end.

It was the end for him, for his family, and - if his hunch about Aku's plans was right - it was the end of the world as he knew it.

"You know what I hate, Leonardo?" Max smirked as he juggled his gun from hand to hand - still wavering it in front of Leo as he sweated.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, Max..." Leo said as calmly as he could manage as his eyes shifted with the movement of the small firearm.

Max laughed - a deep, evil laugh - at this. "Well, I'll spare you the question and go ahead and tell you..."

"I can hardly wait..." Leo hissed.

"I'm sick and tired of people who think that good always is going to win..." Max stated with a broad grin. "I'm tired of those pathetic lil' people who tell me over and over again that things always turn out for the best... They never do..."

Leo's eyes narrowed. "But isn't it true?" he asked skeptically. C'mon, Leo - keep him talking! Buy yourself just a little bit more time to come up with one of those plans of yours! he thought to himself.

The sick man snorted. "You tell me!" he snapped. "Look - you're a prime example right now!"

Now a little curious, Leo raised an eye ridge to tell Max to continue.

"Why did you come after me today, Leo?" Max asked. "Even though I told you what I'd do if you interfered with my affairs again?"

"You were holding Mikey captive," Leo growled. "My brother who has absolutely no part in this matter whatsoever! Not to mention how you nearly killed our friend, Casey! Then let's add the fact that you were running around killing innocent people!"

Max's face quickly turned into an ugly scowl. "I told you that I have nothing to do with your precious family!" he growled. "As for your friend, he was in my way and these people you claim as 'innocent' are the ones responsible for making me this!"

Sighing, Leo closed his eyes for only a second before glaring at Max with his penetrating eyes. "If they're guilty, Max - tell me each of their crimes! What judge ordered their arrests? What bailiff locked them up for the night? What jail housed them for that night? If they were guilty, then why did they never serve out their time, Max?" Leo demanded. "Tell me these things and I'll be sure to agree with you and leave you be, but you can't tell me these things..."

He clenched his hands into tight, pudgy fists and glared at Leo through his glasses. "Don't you understand?" he demanded. "These people put themselves above the law! The tortured me day-in and day-out! No breaks, five minute lunches, claiming our possessions after divorce, cheating me for money when all they had to do was fix a tire! Unpaid bank loans when I distinctly gave them money! That is their crimes!"

"In other words..." Leo stated, "you're getting payback from bullies?"

Max smirked. "That's it..." he answered.

That's when Leo realized that the tentacle hold his left arm had loosened quite a bit as Max felt like he was talking to a green skinned therapist. Leo allowed his eyes to shift to it for only a second before looking back at Max - giving Max his 'full attention'...

"What else, Max?" Leo asked. "What can you get out of them once they're all dead?" Leo's eyes then became dull. "Sounds to me like you don't get the things you want out of just killing them..."

That's when Max's crooked, evil crocodile-like smile showed itself through his wrinkly skin. "Then..." he stated, "I get their families..."

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Splinter's head shot towards the darker form of his oldest son. "What is it that you have done to our home?" he demanded.

The yin looked over at the elderly rat and only gave a toothy grin. He bellowed a mighty laugh as deep red tentacles shot through the water of the pond and then curled around the edges like fingers ready to pull someone up from a hole in the ground - sort of like someone who was the living dead. This was something in the forefront of Don's mind as he tried to get up as his home continuously shook under the creatures might.

A haunting, alien scream broke through the air around their home and echoed off of the walls.

Raph pulled out his Sai. "What is that?" he demanded.

Don's eyes widened in surprise as he realized exactly what this creature was. He looked to Raph in horror and began to explain. "Raph - do you remember that monster thing that we fought to save Angel's brother?" he asked.

His heart skipped a beat in its quickening pattern and Raph looked at his brother with a look of absolute terror. "That alien-thing that trapped us in those pods?" he demanded. It wasn't possible - Leo destroyed him! How could he still be alive?

'Leo' smiled at the looks that Raph and Don were giving each other. "Say hello to my true father - we call him Aku...he likes that name. It seems to...suit him..."

"He ain't stayin' in my home!" Raph roared before breaking loose of Don's hold and charging at the monster.

The dark turtle smirked evilly before slowly pulling out his gray-clothed swords. "You don't have a choice..." he hissed before using an upwards slicing motion to block Raphael's attack. The turtle held perfectly still as Raph struggled as hard as he could to maintain enough strength to overpower the swords of his brother's 'twin'. At the moment, it seemed impossible.

The turtle leaned forward and gave a menacing grin the Raph. "You see, Raphael - I am just like your brother..." he hissed into Raph's ear. "I will always be better than you..."

Growling, Raph pushed harder through his Sai - apparently only straining his muscles more because the swords never budged. "SHUT UP!" he spat at the turtle. He hated this turtle and he constantly reminded himself that this was not Leo...

Then Raph realized something. The longer this turtle had stayed around, the harder it was for Raph to remember what the real Leonardo was like - that he wasn't this evil conniving impersonator. That he wasn't a traitor...

This was becoming harder because Raph could feel something about this Leonardo that told his instincts that it was indeed his brother - even if they knew that Leo was no where to be seen.

Probably dead knowing our luck... Raph couldn't help but think. He shook his head. No! NO! I can't think like this! Leo's out there...he's alive - I know it!

The Raph felt like his entire head had just shut itself off and left him for dead in the mid of a horrible storm with a screeching wind.

HE IS DEAD! YOUR BROTHER IS DEAD AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!

"RAPH!" Don yelled at as he charged with his Bo towards his brother.

Raph's eyes lost all luster to Splinter's surprise. Slowly, the red-clad turtle dropped his Sai and his arms hung uselessly at his sides before his legs buckled and he fell to his knees. Still, Raph's face gave no expression as his body dropped to the floor and he ended up face down on the ground at their captor's feet.

"MY SON!" Splinter shouted in horror - it was not possible. It was as if Raphael's very soul had been sucked from his body at that moment. Something Splinter did not doubt in the least bit - but he couldn't give up hope.

Smirking now that that part of his job was complete, 'Leo' backed away from Raph's limp body and allowed the remainder of the family to check him. He allowed the laugh in his throat to pass - he wanted to watch what they would do next now that Raphael was most certainly out of the picture.

Don dropped to his knees and slowly turned Raph onto his shell. His eyes had closed and he was flinching as his face turned into a horrid look - like he was having a horrible nightmare.

"Raph!" Don called down to his brother. "Raph! C'mon, Raph! Wake up!"

Splinter sat next to Donatello and lifted up Raph's wrist and slipped his thumb beneath his son's wrist band to feel his pulse - it was racing fast enough to worry Splinter.

"Raphael..." Splinter tried to call out to his son. "Raphael, my son - do wake up now...listen to my voice..."

Suddenly, Raph started jerking back and forth and screaming. "NO! STOP! DON'T - LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS! MIKEY! DON! NOOOOO!" he screamed out in horror.

"Master Splinter, grab his arm so he doesn't hit himself!" Don exclaimed as he grabbed the other arm.

Splinter followed only to have Raph struggle even more.

"NOOO! STOP! LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Raph shouted as tears forced their way down his cheeks.

"Donatello, what is happening?" Splinter asked in horror.

Don slowly shook his head. "I...I think he's having a nightmare - but it's real...to him, at least..." Don explained as he watched his brother in a wide-eyed confusion. The truth was, he really couldn't be for sure what was going on other than the thing making its way into their home and their brother's evil twin were most definitely responsible!

Glaring at the turtle responsible, Splinter felt a hatred he had not felt before. "What have you done with my son?" he demanded.

The turtle smiled. "Introduced him to the real world - or at least the world he's going to be getting used to from now on..."

"What do you mean?" Don asked - he didn't like where this was going...

"My father needs...food..." he began with a smirk at the horrified looks he received from he two. "And I don't mean just any regular dollar per pound hamburger meat from the corner store - Aku eats something...different..."

Slowly - as if to do so without the dark turtle realizing what was happening - Don began to ease his arms under his unconscious brother. He never broke his eye contact with 'Leo', though - that was important.

"He devours dark..." the turtle continued. "He feeds off the evil in someone's heart - gets stronger, sucking their energy from them and allowing them to consume themselves in the darkness - because they kind of like it..."

"That's why Aku's back..." Don said suddenly as he began to understand. "After that fight with the Shredder, Leo was depressed..."

Narrowing his eyes, Splinter joined in. "And this monster drove him farther away from the honor he so held dear..." Splinter said in disgust. That time of their lives had been so difficult for all of them - especially Splinter. It pained him so much to see his oldest that way - changing beyond control. And now, it made so much more sense.

Aku had been 'stalking' Leonardo ever since that day - waiting for a time for Leo to open a crack to his soul and allow darkness in. That depression after Leo had been unable to save his family had been it.

And when you give the devil an inch...he takes a mile...

"Is this why your master has decided to come out now?" Splinter demanded from the yin. "Leonardo had fought back - had gone to the Ancient One and returned enlightened. You had lost your largest source for power...and you needed a way to get it back!"

The yin looked taken back by this - how had they figured this entire out so fast? What were the chances hey could still warn Leonardo about their plans? His eyes narrowed and he looked to Raphael who was withering in the imaginary pain of his nightmares. Another sinister grin came upon his face.

"Perhaps..." he answered before glaring at the turtles. "And then again, maybe Aku is thinking of gaining four moresources of darkness!"

Suddenly, Don felt like everything had gone numb in his body and there was a raging headache splitting his head wide open. He screamed in pain as all he could focus on was a large, glowing-red eye that was within his mind.

"Donatello!" Splinter shouted out in alarm. "My son, resist its temptations!"

Don landed on his knees and started jerking his torso back and forth as he screamed. He couldn't feel anything but the tremendous headache and the screeching voice of the red eye.

DONATELLO! DONATELLO! YOU ARE MINE!

Don's eyes followed the same example set by Raph and became a dull, lusterless brown before his entire body shut down and caused him to drop to the floor. Slowly, his eyes closed and the nightmare began.

His eyes widening in terror, Splinter shot his head to the turtle and scowled at him. "Release them!" he demanded.

The turtle smirked. "Why would I do that?" he asked with a horrid grin on his face.

Slowly, Aku let out an alien, screeching noise and raised three tentacles high into the air before sicking each of them after each of the unconscious turtles. Splinter tried to stop them but was too late.

He lunged to grab Raphael, but the tentacle snatched him up as Splinter landed hard on the ground where his son had once been.

"Raphael!" Splinter yelled before seeing another one grab Donatello. He scrambled to his purple masked son but was smacked down by the tentacle and had to watch as his son was carried off.

"DONATELLO!" he yelled before looking back and seeing Michelangelo being taken from the couch.

Looking back to 'Leo', he let out a deep growl. "What are you doing to my sons?" he demanded.

"The same as we're about to do to you..." 'Leo' said emotionlessly.

When Splinter had gotten up and was ready to attack the yin, two tentacles surrounded him. The elderly rat prepared to fight when suddenly; he heard a screeching voice in his mind.

AND ALLOW THE DARKNESS TO UNFOLD WITHIN YOU...

He shut his eyes tightly and shook his head. "No...I...shall NOT!" he answered back.

YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!

Suddenly, Splinter opened his eyes to a grizzly sight - the bodies of each of his sons laying about their home. His eyes widened in horror and he dropped to his knees. Tears fell down his face as his sons' blood ran underneath him.

To try and tell himself this wasn't happening, he reached out and lightly touched Michelangelo's pale, perpetually horrified face and felt his corpsy, hard skin. It was real alright - the blood from the sword indent in the orange-clad turtle's head stuck to Splinter's fingers and caused the rat's heart to stop for a moment.

"My sons..." he whimpered out - seeing all four of their bodies.

There came a dreadful, evil laughter from behind him and Splinter turned his torso and looked in horror to see his children's murderer - Oroku Saki dressed in his now bloody armor slowly came walking towards them...

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Turtlefreak121: Bizarre? Maybe... Horrible cliffhanger as to what's happening with real Leo? Probably... (cough) Umm... That's about it... Don't eat tainted meat without cooking very well...don't get E. coli O157:H7 and...uh...live a good life!

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