They each took turns telling their Sensei what they had learned. When one would choke, another would pick up where he left off. Their Sensei listened to the entire story without interruption, his face an expressionless mask.
"We wanted to ask more questions, but the building was getting surrounded by Foot and I gave the order to leave." leo finished, looking up to see his father's still closed-off expression.
"Sensei?" Mikey asked in a meak voice.
Their Sensei shook his head faintly and seemed to see his children again.
"I'm sorry, my sons." The old master murmered at last. "I think I need to lay down"
"Master?" Leo asked, reaching forward to help him, but Splinter merely held up a paw.
"I'm fine, Leonardo." He said, cutting his eldest son off before he could continue. "I need to meditate." He then gave each of his sons a stern look. "You are not to leave the Lair until I say so, is that understood?"
He waited until each of his sons gave him a nod of agreement for him to exit the room, closing the dojo door behind him.
Mikey was the first to speak, breaking the silence.
"Leo, what's wrong with Sensei?"
"I think he's just in shock, Mikey." Leo confessed, still staring at the door his father had just exited.
"When I find Shredder I'm gonna kill him. After we bring Don back, that's exactly where we're going to go." Raph growled.
Leo looked at his brothers, remembered his father's distant expression. They should be jumping for joy, they should be happy and elated. This was a miracle! Their brother, who they thought dead for eleven years, was alive! Why shouldn't they be happy? But they weren't, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why.
Leo remembered the last time he had seen Donnie, thinking at the time that he was an enemy. All he could see was the frantic way he fought to get away from them, electrocuting Mikey and Raph, only to have Leo himself to attack him.
Not only did Donnie not remember them, but now he thought of them as enemies as well.
"As soon as it gets dark out, we're headin up to find 'im!" Raph said, his tone close to a snarl as he continued his rant, sounding much more leader-like than Leo was used to hearing.
"You will not."
Leo turned to the dojo door to see a very stern looking Splinter standing there.
"You will not look for Donatello tonight." Splinter continued.
"But- but Sensei- it's Don." Mikey stressed. "And he's with Shredder! We can't just abandon h-"
"We're not abandoning him, Michelangelo." Splinter said gently, walking further into the room. "We're simply waiting to get a clear view of the situation."
"You can't expect us to just leave him with the Shredder Sensei!" Raph bursted out. "We're not gonna do that to him-"
"You will do as I say!" The old rat thundered, silencing all of his children with the rarely used tone.
All three of the turtles, even Leonardo who had not spoken, cringed back from the force of their father's words.
Splinter took a moment to gather himself.
"You will not approach Donatello in any way until I have decided on a course of action." Splinter ordered.
"But why?" Mikey whispered, his big eyes watering.
Splinter sighed and knew the explanation would hurt his children as much as it had hurt him to realize it.
"Donatello is not your brother. He will not pause long enough to allow you to explain." Splinter sighed heavily. "You must trust me that this is best for the moment."
"But we went over this, Sensei." Leo finally interjected. "We went to Baron and got the truth from him. Donnie is our brother."
"The Donatello that we knew eleven years ago no longer exists today, my sons." Splinter tried to explain as gently as he could. "He has been molded by the Shredder and it has changed him. He may not allow you to explain before he attacks. You could let your defenses be lowered because you don't wish to harm him, he will not have the same reservations."
Unbidden, Leo once again remembered how Mikey and Raph's bodies were splayed on the ground after being electrocuted. He saw Donatello press the blades against Mikey and Casey's necks.
"We must ensure that Donatello sees the truth and in a safe way." Splinter braced himself for what he had to say next. "And so we cannot yet bring Donatello home."
There was a cry of three simultaneous voices yelling, "What?!" and then three seperate arguments that all stopped abruptly at the sound of their father's voice.
"Tariru!" Their father yelled, fighting with himself to keep his composure. "I do not enjoy this, but it is necessary my sons."
Though Leo had completely agreed with his brothers in their protests only a moment before, the reason behind his father's declaration suddenly became clear to him.
"But he's our brother!" Mikey said, his voice nearly in a yell and his tone uncharacteristically defiant.
"But he doesn't know that, Mikey." Leo said. "If we told him about all of this and brought him home and he was still loyal to the Shredder, what do you think that would do? He would tell Shredder where we are, and then where would we be?"
"But he wouldn't do that." Mikey's response was small and weak, as though he had already realized the flaws in the statement before the words had left his mouth.
"He might, Mikey." Leo explained in a gentle tone. "That's why he's gotta hear us and believe us before we bring him home."
"This is why none of you will contact Donatello in any way." Splinter agreed.
"Well how're we supposed to convince 'em if we're not being allowed to talk to 'em?" Raph asked, the tone of defiance as clear in his tone as it had been in Mikey's.
"I will speak to Donatello." Hamato Yoshi said, eyeing each of his children before continuing. "I will speak to him and make him see sense, and none of you are to intervene."
"And if you can't?" Leo asked.
His father hesitated, his head dipped slightly.
"I do not know." The rat admitted. "But let us not assume failure so quickly. For now, when you go above ground, you will not interact with Donatello. You will contact me and I will handle it."
The old master looked them all over and saw all defiance gone.
"Is that understood?"
"Hai, Sensei." The three mumbled simultaneously, defeated.
The old rat nodded with a grave look upon his face and headed in the direction of his room.
Leo knew without asking that his father would be spending a long time in that room, meditating in hopes of finding an acceptable answer.
As soon as his father's door had closed, the resident hot-head's gasket finally blew.
"Is he serious?" Raph demanded, throwing his hands up furiously. "There's no way he can expect us to do that!"
"We have to listen to him, Raph." Leo said, trying to calm his over volatile brother down. Lost cause never had a clearer definition than this situation right here. "Sensei knows what's best."
"'Sensei knows what's best.'" Raph mimicked in a poor imitation of the blue banded turtle. "Oh please Fearless! You gonna tell me that you don't want to go after Don?"
"Yes, Raph, I am." Leo replied shortly. "Sensei's right. He could be dangerous, and we don't need to be caught in a fight and accidentally hurt him or him intentionally hurt us."
"Well, the second I see him, I'm gonna drag his shell back home. I don't care if the Shredder himself is standin' there!" Raph said, crossing his arms over his plastron.
Mikey stood up at this, giving a solemn nod of agreement.
"We gotta get Don back, Leo. We can't leave him." Mikey said pleasingly. "We can convince him, make him see."
Leo cursed himself and the entire situation silently. Oh how he would love to just break into Foot headquarters and get his brother away from that place, but he knew that wouldn't solve anything.
"And what if he doesn't believe us?" Leo argued. "What if we bring him home, explain everything, and he still doesn't believe us? What then? I'll tell you what'll happen, he'll despise us, he'll see us as an enemy that attacked and kidnapped him."
Mikey and even Raph visibly deflated at that.
Mikey's eyes found the ground in an attempt to hide his fresh tears.
Raph grounded his teeth together and glared at Leo as if he were the representation of all of his problems, a look that the young leader had seen many times.
"Look here, Splinter Junior," Raph growled, suddenly finding the fury to approach the older turtle. "We can't just sit around on our asses and let Donnie stay where he is. No turtle left behind, you remember that? Or is it that he's been gone so long that you think it don't apply to him no more?"
"Shut up, Raph." Leo snapped. What had Raph meant by that? Was he referring to when Leo sat by in the tunnels and let Donnie run off? "I'm trying to protect you guys."
"Guys," Mikey said in an attempt to intervene.
"Not now Mike." Raph growled, getting up in Fearless's face threateningly. "So what? We wait until god knows when for Master Splinter to get through to him, and then hope that it's enough? When will we know that it's okay to bring him home, Leo?"
"Bros, seriously-"
"When we know he's not a threat!" Leo fired back, completely ignoring his youngest brother. "He could hurt one of you and he doesn't understand. We're just being-"
"Guys!" Mikey said again, raising his voice in that way that only a younger sibling was capable of.
"You know what? I've had it with this. I'm going to look for him. To hell with all this waiting-"
"Raphael, Sensei said-"
"Guys!" Mikey yelled at the top of his lungs, a tone he only used in desperate situations. "Enough! Casey spotted some Foot! He needs backup."
This stopped both brothers in their tracks as they simultaneously turned toward the youngest turtle, who was holding his phone that April had gotten him to his plastron, a pleading but aggrivated look on his face.
"Let me talk to him." Leo said finally, breaking away from Raph to take the phone from Mikey.
Mikey handed the phone to Leo eagerly, happy to have someone taking control of the situation.
Raph huffed but let the argument slide for the moment.
"Casey?" Leo asked.
"Leo you need to get over here, like, now dude." Leo heard the human's breathless reply. "These guys are rushing like crazy, carrying all these supplies-"
"Where are you?" Leo asked before the eccentric human could veer off topic.
"I'm at that old pizza place that closed, you remember? The one that Mikey fell off of?" Casey replied.
"Um, yeah." Leo said uncertaintly. "So they're robbing a closed down pizza place?"
"What? No, it's a couple blocks away. This big medical facility and stuff." Casey replied.
"We'll be there." Leo promised and hung up. Taking a breath to gather himself, Leo turned back to his brothers. "Casey said to meet him at Bryers pizza, that old pizza place that closed down. Said they were stealing from some medical facility a few blocks from there."
"Let's go then." Raph grunted, agreeing with his older brother for the first time since they had kneeled in front of Splinter.
Leo grabbed another katana from the stash of weapons in the dojo and held it in his hand. The weapon felt at home in his hand and he was glad to have two swords again, as brief as the seperation had been. The only difference was that there was no blue wrap around this one, but he would make sure to remind himself to put one on it later.
They silently but quickly made their way out of the Lair and into the sewers, quickening their pace once they got out of their Sensei's earshot.
Splinter had told them not to go above ground until he said so, but as much as it pained Leo to disobey, he knew that Casey would simply attempt to take them down by himself if they didn't come. He would seek forgiveness when they returned, but for now they had to get to Casey before the human became impatient.
Getting to the old pizza place was easy and quick, even as they made every attempt to survey their surroundings for waiting Foot ninjas.
Casey was waiting for them on the designated rooftop, hockeystick held in one hand and his mask on top of his head.
"About time you guys got here!" He exclaimed, half glaring as the three turtles climbed on top of the roof.
"Oh shut your trap, Jones." Raph grunted.
"Where are they?" Leo asked.
"Few blocks, come on." Casey said, pulling his hockey mask and starting toward the building he had earlier been scouting.
The turtles followed suit, Leo running right beside Casey so that he would be able to quickly access the situation, while Mikey and Raph made sure to check around them just in case of an attack from the rear.
They stopped a rooftop away from what was undeniably a government lab of some sort, as the materials that were being hauled out of the building seemed to be medical supplies various degree.
"Casey, see if you can get a picture of that stuff. We can see if April knows what they might be wanting with this stuff." Leo said.
Casey nodded and pulled out his phone, quickly snapping a few pictures, zooming it in as much as he could without distorting it.
"Time to bust some heads, Fearless?" Raph asked, already drawing his Sais and twirling them between his fingers.
Raph could already feel the rage of battle building in his veins. He wanted a go at the people who had taken his brother, even if these ninja hadn't been personally involved, Raph was certain that it would help curb his fury at least slightly.
"Yeah, stop them from taking whatever that stuff is but try and leave some conscious so we can interrogate them." Leo said.
The memory of their last interrogation stuck to Leo's mind at the reminder. The leader cringed. He hadn't been able to tell his father about what he had done, too overcome by shame, and so he had left it to Raph. His Sensei had said nothing, but Leo knew, just knew, that his father was ashamed of his actions.
"Sure thing, Fearless." Raph grunted, as unobservant of his brothers thoughts as the others had been of their surroundings.
By the time that Leo stood up, with the pressing feeling of being watched, he was already aware that they had been too fixated on what was in front of them, and turned to see a new shadow on the edge of the rooftop.
Raph followed his older brother's gaze and turned around quickly with his Sais, ready to defend his family, when he too stopped.
Of all the rotten luck, Leo thought to himself as Donnie's emotionless face peered at them from his half-defensive position on the ledge of the building.
Leo couldn't help but look his brother over, shocked at how only a day or so's time had changed his appearance.
Donnie still had that coat with the Foot symbol emblazed on it, but underneath his green skin was frighteningly pale, almost to the point that he looked sick. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he might fall over at a moment's notice. Leo also saw a half-soaked wrap covering one side of his plastron and what looked like the beginning of a serious burn on his other side.
He had looked fine the last time Leo had seen him! Well, before he had attacked him, that was. But what was the cause of such a drastic change?
"Donnie." Mikey breathed behind him and made an attempt to move forward, but Leo was quick to push him back, taking his place in front of the rest of his family and closest to his lost brother.
"You could let your defenses be lowered because you don't wish to harm him, he will not have the same reservations."
He could hear his Sensei's words in his head, ringing as a painful reminder to the young leader. He couldn't think of this turtle as Donnie right now, he had to think of his family.
"We're not looking for a fight." Leo said cautiously, slowly reaching for his katanas in case he lunged.
"Really?" Donnie asked, looking somewhat amused by the leader's statement. "You have your clan scouting a Foot mission, Raphael just asked if you were going to bust some heads, and you said you wanted to interrogate some of the ninja- and you say you're not looking for a fight?"
The turtle's words were dripping in sarcasm by this point.
Leo had to wonder just how long the turtle had been spying on them to know all of that, then decided that he probably didn't want to know.
And yet, despite Leo's expectations, Donnie still made no move toward them. It was then that he realized that Donnie didn't even have a weapon in hand.
"Speaking of interrogation, what did you want with Baron?" Donnie asked, a curious look that Leo had not expected on his face. Donnie chuckled lightly. "I've never seen Baron so angry."
"I put my katana in his leg." Leo informed him, aware that he hadn't actually answered his brother's question.
"Yeah, figured." The turtle nodded with the smallest smile on his face, as if he found this information pleasing. "But that doesn't answer my question. What did you want?"
Behind him, Leo was aware of Raph's shifting and was certain that he was fighting with the urge to grab Donnie right then. One look at Mikey told him as much.
Casey, on the other hand, was furious, the reminder of the blade pressed against his neck still in mind. He didn't understand why the guys were just standing, looking at the turtle as if they were seeing a ghost.
And yet, when he tried to push his way through Leo and Raph to get to the turtle, he found Raph and Mikey pushing back against him, refusing to allow him further.
"Casey, no, please!" Mikey begged.
"Back off, Jones." Raph growled at him as if he were the enemy here.
Seeing Casey's attempted advancements, Donnie backed away slightly, eyes narrowed. Still, he didn't make a grab for his weapon.
"He may not allow you to explain before he attacks."
And yet Donnie hadn't attacked them, or even made an aggressive motion even when he had the element of surprise on his side.
Maybe Sensei had been wrong.
Leo removed his hand from the hilt of his katana and turned back to Donnie.
"We're truly not looking for a fight." Leo said, hoping that his brother would hear the sincerity in his voice.
"Neither am I." Donnie said, seeming to become more relaxed as he looked them all over.
"We just want to talk." Leo continued, seeing Raph tense at the line of speach that was sure to follow.
Leo saw Donnie glance toward the trucks of stolen medical supplies, then back at him.
"I can't." He said.
Leo faintly heard Raph and Casey behind him, talking speaking in hushed whispers about the best plan of attack, which seemed to just be force from what Leo was hearing. And of course, those two had never been great at being quiet.
Donnie's eyes narrowed at the two before his hand finally reached up, edging along his bladed staff.
"I wouldn't." Donnie said. "Like I said, I'm not looking for a fight, but I will if I have to. I'm not going to let you mess this up again."
Leo thought he heard a bit of resentment in his brother's voice as he spoke.
Raph and Leo exchanged looks that Casey didn't understand. Since when did Raph hesitate to smash some heads? And why was he suddenly so quiet? He was furious at the turtle the last time that Raph had seen him!
Leo turned back to Donnie cautiously.
"We don't want to fight you. We just really need to talk to you." Leo emphasized and it became clear that the only reason that Donnie was here right now, was to stall them.
Donnie's eyes flickered toward the truck and back again.
"I can't exactly talk right now." He said with hesitancy.
"Then I'll make you a deal." Leo said quickly. "We leave, we let you finish whatever you're doing here, and you meet us on Bryer's pizza rooftop later tonight."
Donnie seemed to consider this, watching the group carefully as if to seek out any deception.
"Please." Leo said. "We just need to talk."
Donnie glanced once more at the truck before turning back to Leo and giving him a nod.
"Fine. Give me a few hours, three at most. I'll meet you." He said before giving a bow and disappearing down the side of the roof.
"Come on." Leo said, his voice low as he pulled Mikey away from the building, waiting until everyone had started their way back for him to turn back.
Donnie was standing amongst the group of Foot, helping them to unload the materials into the truck. He looked up and caught his eye for a moment.
Leo wanted to run down there and explain everything, right then and there, to beg his younger brother for forgiveness, to take him home. But Leo knew he couldn't do any of that, not right then, at least. That not only would endanger Donnie, but the rest of his family by forcibly engaging the Foot.
No, as much as it killed him to do it, he forced his feet to move, following Raph away from his brother, and he couldn't help but feel as if he were abandoning his brother.
Leo didn't realize that they were headed in the direction of April's apartment until he was standing on the window seal about to jump in.
Shaking his head, Leo jumped into the living room to see Mikey and April trying to break up a fight between Raph and Casey.
"What the hell was that?" Casey yelled. "We coulda' had him! And you!-" Casey motioned to Leo angrily. "What happened to stopping them? We just let them keep going!"
"Cool it Casey!" Raph yelled. "Leo knew what he was doing."
"He wants to meet with him!" Casey turned back to Leo. "Why? So he can kill you in private?"
"Shut up Casey!" Raph thundered. "You don't know what you're talking about!"
"Everybody calm down!" Leo ordered, taking his own advice and closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths before motioning to the couch. "Everyone sit down, we have some explaining to do."
Casey reluctantly complied, throwing himself onto the nearest cushion in a fit of anger and everyone else followed suit. April took the seat beside Casey silently, not knowing what she had missed but understood that something major had happened.
Mikey and Raph sat down too, waiting for Leo to begin.
Leo sighed. They might as well get this out of the way. They had up to three hours before they were supposed to meet Donnie.
Leo turned toward April and Casey and begun the lengthy, complicated explenation that led them here.
They were both silent and Casey grew less angry as Leo explained, seeming to become more curious as he listened intently to the story.
"So the turtle that almost sliced me and Mike's throat is your brother?" Casey clarified, looking them all over for confirmation.
"Yes." Leo answered.
April nodded and leaned back in the cushion, her eyebrows pulled together in thought.
"And Baron said that he doesn't remember you guys at all?" She asked with surprise. "But you remember him?"
Mikey shrugged. "Bits and pieces."
"Why?" Raph grunted.
"Well, it's just that you three remember him, so he should in turn remember you guys." April reasoned. "But from what you told me, he doesn't. I just don't understand why."
Leo shifted, remembering what Baron had said when Raph himself had brought that up.
"Shredder has his ways."
"They did something to him." Leo murmered, thinking aloud to the room. "That's what Baron said. They did something to make him forget."
Unwanted images of what they could have done flickered through Leo's mind as he fought them back.
"What did they do?" Raph snarled, his hands clenched.
April shook her head. "Unless they inflicted brain trauma, which I highly doubt because you can never predict the results from that, it would have to be psychological damage."
It hurt April to say the words almost as much as seeing the looks on their faces.
"Whatever that is," Raph muttered, getting fed up with the whole situation. "Can it be fixed?"
April sighed. "I'm not a doctor, I don't really know. And we would have to know exactly what they did to him, and I doubt we ever will."
April's words felt like law and the turtles felt the heavy weight of the reality of the situation hit them all.
Even if they could get through to Donnie, whatever they did may be permanent.
Mikey, who had been unusually quiet since the rooftop, finally spoke up.
"But we're bringing him home tonight, right?"
Leo sighed and decided that was a question best left unanswered for the moment.
"We should go get Sensei, see what he makes of the situation." Leo said slowly. "He said that he wanted to talk to Don alone."
"Well, we kinda already did that, didn't we? Really, if you were just going to go right back to Sensei, why'd you start talking to him? Why'd you tell him to meet us?" Raph asked.
"Sensei was wrong about how Don would act, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt to talk to him." Leo shrugged slightly, something he rarely did. "But maybe it should be Sensei that talks to him, he might not listen to us."
"But you told him that you three would meet him, not Splinter." April supplied gently. "If he sees him, he might panic and he won't trust you again."
Leo hesitated.
"Come on, Fearless," Raph implored. "You know she's right. It has to be us."
"You just gotta talk to him, it's not like you're walking into Foot headquarters for god sakes. He's coming to meet you." Casey said with a roll of his eyes.
"Pleassssse, Leo?" Mikey begged, looking up at his oldest brother with those big puppy-dog eyes that only little siblings were capable of making.
Leo sighed finally. Four against one. Even if he were to tell Sensei, they would just get to Don first.
Leo knew when he was beat.
"Fine." Leo begrudgingly agreed. "Fine, just us."
"No way bro, I'm coming with you." Casey argued almost immediately.
"Casey, he might not react well to you." Leo said. "I think it'll be better if it's just us."
"And what if he tries to kill you?" Casey prompted. "Besides, he already saw me, so he's probably going to assume I'm gonna be with you."
Leo opened his mouth to reply, to talk Casey down, when Raph interrupted, annoyed that they had done nothing but talk since they had gotten here.
"Oh, just let the moron come." He grunted with exasperation. "He's gonna do it anyway, we might as well bring him."
Leo fought back his irritation at the fact that he seemed to be loosing any and all control over the situation tonight.
"Fine!" He snapped harshly. "Casey, you wait on a nearby roof and keep watch for us."
Of course, there was a good chance that this would probably backfire if Donnie actually saw Casey, but he knew that the human was as stubborn as he was loyal and wouldn't be backing down any time soon and they would only waste time that they didn't have discussing it.
"Now that that's settled, let's go.""One thousand two hundred and eighty-five, one thousand two hundred and eighty-six, one thousand-"
"Mikey, you keep countin' and I'm gonna make you count how many times I can give you a beat-down before you lose consciousness." Raph threatened. "Got it?"
A small squeak of fear served to answer him as Mikey quickly moved away from Raph.
Leo sighed and continued his pacing.
How long had they been out here, waiting? Certainly longer than Donnie had said, and if they waited any longer, it would be sunrise and they would already have to explain themselves to Sensei when they got back to the Lair.
Maybe something happened...
No stop, he told himself fiercely once more. He's fine.
"Leo, he's not coming." Raph grunted as he threw a Sai repeatedly into the rooftop. "It's been like four hours and he's still not here. Face it, he lied to us."
Leo shook his head once more. "No, he's just being held up."
"He'll be here, Raphie." Mikey encouraged as he hopped on one foot on the rooftop's ledge.
They had given up stealth long ago in favor of not dying of boredom.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me." Raph said, standing suddenly with an all too familiar look in his eyes. "What did I tell you about calling me that?"
The young turtle squeaked as he jumped out of his brother's reach and danced across the roof.
Leo watched the two with a small smile. Leave it to Mikey to brighten things up.
"Get back here!" Raph growled and lunged for his younger brother. This was the most excitement he'd had in hours.
"You don't do much in the way of subtlety, do you?" A voice asked.
Leo immediately turned around, refraining from reaching for his katanas.
Donnie sat on the ledge, his arms crossed over his plastron and a small amused smile on his face.
Raph and Mikey stopped their movements too and looked back, which just made the moment even funnier as Raph had Mikey in a choke hold and was practically dragging his youngest brother with every movement.
Leo shook his head. Perfect timing, he thought.
Donnie's smile widened slightly before he to turned his focus back on Leo.
"You said you wanted to talk." Donnie's voice turned serious, all amusement gone. "What was so important?"
Raph released Mikey and stepped closer to Leo, as he was unsure if his older brother would need help telling the story.
Mikey couldn't help but stare at his immediate older brother in awe. All the times that he had been told time and time again that he was dead, and yet here he was. Hurt and changed and older, but alive. It was Mikey's dream come true.
"Where were you?" Leo asked, looking his brother over for any new wounds and was grateful when he didn't find any.
"I had to wait longer than expected. It's been a while since I snuck out." Donnie replied while two of his fingers rubbed circles on his foot emblazed jacket. "So what was so important that you needed me to meet you?"
Leo took brief notice of how hard Donnie appeared to be biting his lip and how his eyes danced between each of them.
He's nervous, Leo realized.
Leo glanced over at his two brothers beside him. They weren't showing any aggression, or at least Raph wasn't any more than usual. Of course, if Leo were to meet up with three ninjas he didn't know, he might be nervous too.
"Look, I'd love to chat, but I don't have all night. I have to get back before they realize I'm gone, so can you hurry up and say whatever you have to say?" Donnie asked, moving his fingers to tap on his thigh in quick, almost rhythmic motions.
"How long until they notice you're gone?" Raph asked.
"I don't know." Donnie replied quickly. "So can you hurry up?"
Donnie looked at them intently as he spoke, his eyes settled on Leo.
Again, Donnie restarted that methodical tapping on his leg.
Leo looked closer, his senses suddenly alert. He glanced around but couldn't spot anything amiss, but yet, Leo couldn't ignore his instincts. His eyes narrowed.
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap- hold for a second. Then, tap- hold. Tap- hold.
Tap, tap, tap.
Leo watched, unsure if this was intentional on his brother's part or if he was simply reading too much into the situation.
Raph, thinking that his brother was simply caught on his words, spoke.
"Look, we needed to see you because, well-" In truth, Raph had never been a turtle of words. He was more of a turtle of action. This whole explaining thing was usually Fearless's department.
But Leo wasn't paying attention to his Immedient younger brother, he was still watching Donnie's hands.
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap- hold. Tap- hold. Tap- hold.
Tap, tap, tap.
Something tickled in the back of Leo's mind, a conversation that he'd had with April some time ago about their phones. How their text messages weren't secure as they were, and Leo had been looking for a solution. Morse code, she had said. It wouldn't be indecipherable, but no one nowadays knew it. Leo had attempted to learn the basics of it before it became apparent that his brothers wouldn't even attempt it, and the idea had been scratched.
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap- hold. Tap- hold. Tap- hold.
Tap, tap, tap.
It hit him then, why the rhythm had looked familiar. Leo knew enough morse code for that.
SOS
Leo stared up at Donnie, who then stopped tapping and looked back, an expression of deep shame on his face.
"What did you do?" Leo whispered, mostly to himself. "Don, what did you do?"
"Don?" The turtle questioned.
Leo immediently recognized his mistake, but he couldn't take it back now. He was still more concerned with why Donnie had been tapping out SOS.
"Fearless?" Raph asked. "What's wrong?"
In response, Leo could only stare at his second youngest brother.
Raph glanced between the two, oblivious as to what had set his older brother off. Leo reached carefully for his katanas and Raph and Mikey followed hesitantly.
Donnie's confused xpression morphed again into shame.
"I'm sorry." He mouthed before standing, his eyes on the rooftops.
Leo held his swords in front of him before following his gaze. All across the rooftops around them were masked figures, the Foot symbol just visible on some of them.
"You were stalling us!" Leo realized out loud. Seething, he turned to Donnie, whose face was once again expressionless.
He had done the same thing as he had with the medical supplies- stalled them, distracted them. And it had worked perfectly.
Donnie said nothing, but carefully backed away.
"You could let your defenses be lowered because you do not wish to harm him. He will not have the same reservations."
No, Leo realized as he glared at the turtle. He didn't have any reservations at all.
"You deceiving little-" Raph gave up with words and roared, charging just as Donnie dived to the side, coming too close to Mikey's side for either older brother's liking.
Mikey, on the other hand, didn't move even to defend himself when his immedient older brother was suddenly beside him.
The Foot must have decided that they had waited long enough as they converged on the group of three.
Donnie wisely backed away, keeping far from Raph and Leo's reach as the youngest stared at him with a heartbroken expression.
"Shell to shell!" Leo barked as more Foot jumped from the roofs.
Raph and Mikey moved to stand shell to shell with their oldest brother, taking down too many ninja to count, only for more to crop up in their place.
Their energy was waning and as many Foot as they took down, the only thing they got in return were cuts and gashes, some alarmingly deep.
Leo watched in horror as a ninja threw a Kunai deep into Mikey's leg.
Mikey, on instinct, reached and squeezed his leg in an attempt to stop the blood flow, unable to see the chain coming at him until it was already secured around his middle and he was being yanked harshly away from the protection of his older brothers.
"Mikey!" Leo and Raph yelled as soon as they felt their younger brother's form being pulled away and heard his shriek of pain.
Raph attempted to get through the swarm of black that separated them from their brother only to be separated himself as soon as he moved.
Raph, exhausted and growing weaker by the second, gave a final attempt to barrel through and get back to his little brother only to receive a series of harsh blows to his skull.
"Raph!" The leader in blue yelled when he stopped hearing his red banded brother's constant cursing and grunting. He hadn't heard any sounds from Mikey either since he had been yanked away. Normally, it was a blessing to have some quiet from the turtle in orange, but now, Leo would give anything to hear a "Booyakasha!" from his youngest brother.
Leo attempted to block the blows that came at him from every side and felt his feet being swept out from under him before his head made contact with the roof. His body ached and he could feel every slice that the blades had made and every bruise on his skin, but still he attempted to stand.
Grunting with the exertion of staying conscious, Leo pulled his lone katana up- he had lost the other some time ago- and swung it toward the nearest ninja only to have a shuriken thrown into his shoulder, forcing him to drop his only weapon.
Leo faintly wondered how he could have misread the turtle so badly before he lost consciousness.