Turtlefreak121: Cousins were over for the weekend - no personal time and they were constantly on the compie! Oh, well - it was great to see them again! Had a weird dream too - it was like a horror movie... It really was... I was so happy when I woke up! Anyways, back to business!

Thanks to all the reviewers!

The Dark Half

Chapter Thirteen

By Turtlefreak121

Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT - this idea is mine. But the title isn't...

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Raph's Nightmare

Leo shakingly stood up and quickly reached out and grabbed the side of the counter as he looked in complete shock at this form of his brother. The real Raph was shaking even worse than Leo as he stood up and looked at his double - there was a pale, horrified look on Raph's face. Leo didn't think he had ever seen his brother so shaken before this.

Glaring at them with an evil smirk, the 'Shredder' held out his forearm and held it back to attack Leo. He couldn't believe that this nescience had turned up - he would ruin everything! But not if he wasn't here...

Holding the continuously bleeding wound on his shoulder, Leonardo looked around and noticed that his katana had mysteriously disappeared - but how? They were right there only moments ago! They couldn't have just miraculously evaporated into thin air - they were real metal blades. Then again - at the moment - these were the least of his problems...

"Watch me take your only brother from you as you're rendered paralyzed by your own fear, Raphael!" Shredder-Raph said with a glint in his eyes before moving with that unmatched speed and ramming into Leo so hard that the turtle flew back into the cabinets.

As Leo grunted in pain and the blood from blue-clad ninja's wound sprayed onto the kitchen counter and floor, Shredder-Raph quickly grabbed Leo and held him there with his left hand on Leo's neck. He then pressed his right hand's claws on Leo's neck and then held it back a bit more to prepare for a perfect strike into Leo's skin.

Leo reached up and grabbed his attacker's left arm and tried his best to breath before he looked over to Raph who seemed in deed frozen - unable to do anything but watch in absolute horror.

"Raph!" Leo managed to grunt out. "HELP!"

His brother didn't budge - he couldn't! He was petrified by fear - and why shouldn't he be? His dead brother was about to be killed by his worst fear - himself. He had killed everyone he held close, and now that Leo was about to be executed once again, he couldn't help but have the flashbacks overtake his body. He shook at them.

"RAPH!" Leo yelled as the attacking 'turtle' began to squeeze his neck harder.

The red-clad turtle was out of it - his gaze was stuck to his feet and he was hardly moving even to breath.

"He's useless, Leonardo!" the evil version of Raph hackled. "His mind is riddled with things beyond your or my comprehension! He's an empty shell - only existing even though his insides are all good and dead!"

Leo couldn't believe this - this was his brother! Raphael was not an easy nut to crack - there was something wrong, of course, but Raph wouldn't let it stop him from saving one of his brothers! Or...would he?

"RAPH! LISTEN TO ME!" Leo begged.

No motion occurred - it was simply as if Leonardo was trying to grab the attention of someone who wasn't there.

"I'M NOT DEAD, RAPH!" Leo pleaded. "I'M RIGHT HERE! ME! IT'S ME - LEONARDO! RAPH! IT'S ME!"

The Shredder then lifted Leonardo off his feet and shoved him harder against the wall to his left. Leo could feel his brother's look-alike's nails digging into his neck and shut his eyes tight in pain.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Leo yelled in desperation before the 'Shredder' thrusted his blades forward - straight at Leo's neck!

Raph's eyes widened - what was going on? He watched as the Shredder's arm began forward and immediately knew what he had to do...

Just as the tips of the blades made their ways into Leonardo's skin, Raphael flew forward and kicked the Shredder back - releasing Leonardo from the monster's hold. He then caught Leo and placed his brother's right arm over his shoulder.

"C'mon!" Raph commanded. "I'm getting us out of here!" he exclaimed.

Only nodding to Raph, Leo leaned against his brother for support before they ran out of the kitchen - Raph leading Leonardo towards a hole in the wall where the monitors of the television used to be and then through a tunnel that gradually slopped upwards.

Not once did they stop in fear that Raph's twin would follow them through the tunnel - but Leo was still able to talk, even with his neck luckily only cut less than a centimeter and his shoulder profusely bleeding.

"What's going on, Raph?" Leo demanded.

Raph's eyes narrowed as he continued on.

"I have to know, Raph," Leo said as he shook his head. "One minute I was fighting--"

"Leo..." Raph said softly before shutting his eyes tightly. "I know you're here to haunt me for my sins...but don't act like you don't remember..."

The blue-clad turtle froze at this. Raph thought he was a ghost? What had happened to his family while he was looking for Max? He hoped that Mike, Don, and Splinter were alright - but the way that turtle in the Shredder's armor was talking it was as if they were all dead. But Leo couldn't believe that just yet - his family was alive! They had to be! Couldn't they?

"I'm not a ghost - I never died!" Leo tried to explain. "I know I probably shouldn't have left the lair or at least should have told you what was going on - but I'm not de-"

"SHUT UP!" Raph snapped as tears ran down his beak. "YOU'RE DEAD! I killed you and I know it was wrong and I know I deserve you haunting me, but don't try to tell me otherwise, Leo! I swear on Splinter's grave that denying the truth is the only thing I won't tolerate!"

They reached the apparent dead end of the tunnel and Raph slowly walked Leo to the side of the tunnel and gently leaned him against the wall. Leonardo watched his brother carefully - his head was buzzing with things he just couldn't understand. He truly wished he knew what was going on - and why his brother was so broken...

Raph grunted as he reached up and touched the ceiling of dirt that uneasily let some small pieces of gravel fall off. He then began feeling around the broken cement and looking for something.

"Could you at least give me a clue as to where everyone is?" Leo asked immediately as Raph continued feeling around.

"Leo...just..." the red-clad turtle shook his head and sighed. "Leo, play around with me..."

The older turtle frowned at this and glared at his brother. "Raph, I already told you that I just now arrived home and saw that...that--"

"Clone," Raph grumbled.

"Clone?" Leo repeated in shock. "Just take my word for it, Raph - I have no idea what's going on here!"

Finally, Raph's fingers ran over a distinct crevice in the rock and he inwardly smirked. His face remained as distraught and saddened as before, though. He then fixed his fingers into the crevice of the rock and began pulling it apart.

"Fine...I'll tell ya...but..." he paused for a moment and shut his eyes tightly at remembering some awful, terrible things... "But let me go ahead and tell you that if you don't remember then it's better if ya don't know at all..."

Not wanting to have to argue his place anymore, Leo sighed and nodded. "Alright..."

The crevice of the rocks pulled apart completely and became a hatch-like doorway. Raph headed back to Leo and bent over to allow Leo to wrap his arms around his neck and then began to lead him through the hatch.

"After we killed yar double...we thought it was over. For weeks ya didn't seem ta have anything wrong with ya..." Raph explained. "But then, one day you woke up just...crazy! You were out of your head and you could hardly see anything. You kept on complaining of headaches and were... You were just pacing all day holding your head and talking to yourself. We'd thought ya had finally lost it..."

Leo listened as Raph helped him jump through the hatch and then followed. Once there, Raph double checked Leo's wounds and forced his older brother's arm around his neck again as he began walking him down a regular sewage tunnel.

"Turns out one of yar 'crazy speeches' would be the thing that answered what was wrong. You got in the corner of the kitchen another morning right in the middle of breakfast and started screaming at 'Aku' - that dude your double had mentioned. But...when we tried ta help ya..." Raph shut his eyes tightly as he felt tears begin to moisten the sides of his mask. "I... I tried to help you up and you attacked me...

"You bit my neck and used yar katana to cut through my plastron..." Raph explained as he pointed out the large scar running from his chest to his ribs. "I couldn't do anything as you...you attacked Master Splinter..." Raph couldn't hold the tears back any longer and tears ran down his beak as he sobbed. "I-I watched ya kill our master, Leo! I-I couldn't let you get Don or Mikey...

Leo was frozen. His eyes slowly drifted towards the ground and he felt coldness take hold of his body. He shivered at it - he had killed their master... How could he possibly do this? He loved their father.

Raphael sighed. "I knew what I had ta do to protect Mike and Don, Leo..." Raph sighed. "I-I waited until you had fallen asleep - normal...we didn't even tell you what you had done to our father...it wouldn't have helped..." He bit his lip and tried to explain. "I-I meant to make it quick, Leo... I still loved you - you were my brother - and I didn't want to hurt you...but...someone...told me to do something...else..."

If Leo had not been hanging on edge before, he was now - could Raph mean the way Aku talked to him? Still talked to him...

"I-I jumped ya and covered your mouth before you could scream out - Mikey and Don had told me to make sure ya didn't suffer and I didn't want them to know what I was about to do..." Raph looked down at his feet and inhaled the air around him. "I-I purposely missed yar heart with my sai... and punctured one of your lungs. I then...cut yar throat...and...just right to let you live while you bled out...

"I called you a bunch of things, Leo... I-I won't say them again, but..." Raph roughly rubbed his eyes and beak to rid himself of the tears. "Oh, god... If you... If you could see the look on yar face..." the turtle's shoulders jerked as he cried and tears broke the dam and flowed onto his emerald skin. "Y-ya didn't know what was goin' on... you didn't even know Splinter was dead... Ya-ya thought that I was just murderin' ya in yar sleep for being a good leader..." Raph then broke down completely and turned to Leo and placed his head on his brother's shoulder and cried out.

Eventually, Leo looked back to see if anyone was following and then sat down on the temporarily dry ground with Raph and hugged him to reassure him. "It's alright, Raph...I'm back...I don't blame you for anything..."

"Don saw me..." Raph continued crying. "He-he saw me spittin' in yar face after ya had died and he-he ran from me... Said Aku had gotten me and dat you had jus been a distraction... He told Mikey and da both of dem ran from me...they were scared to death of me. I tried to get them...but I was too late...

"They ran inta yar double - he was back. And dis time he was part squid-like and he...he got Mikey and..." Raph rubbed the sides of his head. "He snapped Mikey neck... Right dere in front of us..." he sniffed. "And then he turned into me... Said I would finally have all the power I wanted - but I just wanted to protect Don..." he sighed. "So we ran away from him... We did so for a long time... In those weeks he did everything I ever wanted...

"He killed the Shredder and took his place as leader - everyone listened to him and did as he said... But then he came after us again - said he had to make me pay for killing my brother...by killing Don..." Raph shut his eyes and bowed his head. "He did...today... Don...Don was trying to use this tunnel he made with the tunnelor and...the Shredder got him... And...now he's going to kill me... I guess killing you again would be but an added bonus for him..."

Leo rubbed the back of his neck sadly. Suddenly, a thought ran through him - it was all...too familiar...

He looked to Raph. "Wait - I killed Splinter and you're the Shredder?" Leo asked as the wheels of his head began to turn. "And Mikey was attacked by 'me' with tentacles?"

Raph glared at him for continuing after Raph had just explained the hardest thing that had ever happened in his life. "Is that not what I said?" he snapped. "Don't make this harder than it already is, Leo..."

He knew it - they were too much alike to be coincident! "Raph! This is a dream - a nightmare!" Leo exclaimed. "It didn't really happen - this is your worst fear! Aku must be making you dream in those pod-things again and I somehow ended up in yours!"

This didn't even faze Raph. "What are you talking about?"

"Remember when we went looking for Angel's brother in that big mansion that turned out to be controlled by an alien?" Leo asked.

Raph's expression showed no sign of recognition. "What?"

"Of course..." Leo thought. "Why would Aku let you remember that when he's playing with you?"

"No one's playing wit me but you and I don't really like it!" Raph hissed at him.

"Just take my word for it, Raph - this is all a dream! You just have to realize that and we can save Mikey and Don! All those things are just some background Aku put in there to torture you more!"

Raph glowered at his brother. "You're a fool, Leo!" he snapped. "Mike 'n Don are dead! And Splinter too! In fact - so are you!"

"Raph, everything fits!" Leo continued. "Aku's now combining our nightmares and I bet ya Mike and Don are having similar ones! This is mine, yours, and Mikey's dreams in one! The only one's who doesn't fit is Don's because you remember how he had that crush on Angel - loosing her was his!"

As the red-clad turtle opened his mouth to sneer at Leo, a rumbled started from the tunnel ahead of them. They blinked and looked forward as the sound of rushing water began to fill their heads. They didn't need another hint to know what this was!

"C'mon!" Raph growled as he pulled Leo up and placed Leo's arm around his shoulder so he could run with his brother.

"It's just a dream, Raph!" Leo yelled as he refused to move. "Why else would you be so eager to help someone who's dead to you?"

"LEO!" Raph roared as he got a few steps forward and looked at his brother angrily.

"Just remember it's a dream!" Leo commanded before the huge amount of water hit into the wall that had been sitting at - there was so much that it filled the sewers from bottom to top.

The water came rushing forward and Raph began running before he stopped and looked at his brother and shut his eyes tightly.

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Raph opened his eyes and felt a soreness to him he had felt rarely before. He gazed around and everything came flooding back. He remembered what Leo had told him in his dreams and then he remembered the pods from their adventure before. He looked around and sure enough he was sitting upon thousands of dollars in cash - covered in sticky goo that also had him secreted to the seat. He blinked and shook his head.

Through the translucent 'shell' of his pod he saw a form move from his left to the center of his vision. It was dragging something whatever it was and harshly dropped what Raph made out as its head as it reached its destination.

"You're chosen one, Father..." came a sinister version of Leo's voice. That was Leo's yin...

Raph looked down to the form sprawled out on the floor next to the Yin's feet. "Leo..." he whispered to himself.

He noticed that his brother was painfully twitching and turning on the floor. Raph cracked his knuckles in anger as he watched his brother wither in pain. It gave Raph that sick feeling in the back of his throat.

A large, snake-like silhouette moved from the top of Raph's vision before ensnaring itself around his brother's body and lifting him up.

HE SHALL BECOME PART OF MY COLLECTION... Aku's evil voice echoed in the corners of Raph's mind. WAIT! THERE IS A DISTURBANCE IN MY SOURCES...

Before the turtle could think twice about what Aku had just said, a tentacle ripped through the back of his pod and forced itself into the skin behind Raph's head and caused the turtle to scream in pain before his eyes once more lost their luster and his head fell forward...

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"Welcome back, Raphael... You came just in time for me to kill Leonardo!" Shredder-Raph hackled as he stood over the slowly awakening turtle.

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Turtlefreak121: (gargles and spits) Well, now that my teeth are officially brushed I may talk! (coughs) Now that you have a small peak as to what goes on in my noggin', what do ya think? (smirks) Good thing my mom's a guidance counselor, huh?

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