Chapter Fourteen:

Ambush

The air feels heavier tonight

Something's coming

The lights are restless in the sky

Silence, cutting

I lie awake

Hopeless, insane

Inside the grave I made

While I wait for the pain, inside the evening hate

-Red

[Splinter]

The weight of the world seems heavier tonight. With every rise and fall of his chest, it seems to grow, bowing my aging shoulders. His hand is warm beneath mine but there is a chill that lingers in the air around us. The unspoken truths. The mirrors we cover. The thoughts that dance softly in the corners of our mind, waiting for the chance to front.

I tighten my hold on his hand. The ghosts are visible tonight. I cannot ignore them. I watch my son sleep - watch him dream, breathe, exist - and I know that there will come a time when we are not this fortunate.

I close my eyes and release the fog within my chest. I must ground myself, here and now, in this moment. The lab is quiet. His brothers are safe, tucked away in their rooms, resting. And he is here, with me. His pulse is strong. His wounds are minor.

There will come a time, yes...but thankfully, it is not this night.

~T~

[Raph]

"You're supposed to be sleeping."

Donnie's voice startles me from the dark of my eyelids. I glare at his silhouette, leaning against the frame of my bedroom door.

"And you're supposed to be watching Leo," I mumble. Mikey stirs softly beside me, snoring lightly. Dumb kid talked himself to sleep.

Donnie steps into the quiet of the room. Exhaustion seeps from him. "Splinter took over for me… He wanted to be alone with Leo for a bit."

"Hm." I avert my gaze to the ceiling - to the tacky, faded little glow-in-the-dark star stickers that Mikey begged me to put up. They barely work anymore. That was a couple years ago, I guess.

Donnie stands there for a moment more and gently taps his finger on the rim of my drumset. "Any chance I could squeeze in?"

I scoff quietly. "No, but feel free to try."

He shuffles over and I pull Mikey to the middle of the bed as gently as possible while Donnie makes himself comfortable on the edge of the mattress.

"We're getting too big for this kinda stuff now," I mutter. He ignores me and grabs the blanket, yanking it from the corners of the mattress so it covers all three of us. Well, sort of.

"Get some sleep, Raph." He pulls the blanket tighter, leaving my shoulder exposed. I glare at the back of his shell. "Splinter will wake us up for our shifts in a few hours."

I don't say anything else. I stare at the peeling stickers and try to remember the day we put them there. Time just slips on by, doesn't it? Time slips on by, and yet we find ourselves here, again and again. One of us hurt, one of us missing, wondering if it will ever let up or if one day we won't have the happy endings we've come to rely on. Leo's alright - I know he's alright. But the scare of losing him tonight...it was so familiar. And yet, no matter how many times I've felt it, endured its cold grip, it never gets easier. Despite finding him and bringing him back home, I know it was just pure luck. And luck isn't comforting. It's a taunt. A challenge. A risk.

Donnie's soft snores join Mikey's. My eyelids are growing heavy. My body aches and my mind feels like a sponge that's been squeezed dry. I'm exhausted.

He's home, he's home, he's home.

My mantra. I hold tight to it and try to push everything else away. Let it go, let it float to the ceiling, let it stick and peel and fade.

He's home. He's okay. We're okay. I let my eyes close, loosen the talons in my mind, and drift off to the sound of my brothers beside me.

~T~

[Mikey]

My dream warps from the usual food-centered nonsense to something intense and full of sound. Sirens, shouting, shaking. Voices fade in and out and the colors drain from behind my eyes. It all sounds...familiar.

Mikey!

Really familiar.

Mikey, wake up! Wake up-

My eyes snap open when something cold hits my face.

"Ah!" I shout, sitting straight up in bed. Water drips down my chin and neck, giving me goosebumps. My vision is blurry and my heart's skipping. "W-What's going on?"

Donnie throws the now-empty cup to the floor and shakes me again. "Get up, get up now!"

He grabs my wrist and pulls me out of bed. I stumble after him, blinking rapidly, legs wobbling. My head hurts. It's so loud…

"Donnie?" I cry, almost tripping as he yanks me from Raph's bedroom and into the hall. The alarm echoes through the Lair and rings through my head. "What's happening?"

"Foot soldiers," he pants. My heart skips faster and my chest fills with dread. "They found us - I don't know how, but they did, and they're all over the sewers."

My eyes widen. I start to regain control over my legs and pull my hand free. "Is Leo okay?"

We head to the dojo, feet sliding on the tatami mats, and we quickly grab our weapons.

"He's fine, Splinter's with him." Donnie double-checks the blade on his bo staff before leading us out of the room and toward the turn styles. "Raph's already out there trying to lead them away from the Lair."

"H-How'd they find us though?" We jump the stairs and I steal one last glance at the lab. The doors are closed, probably chained shut by now to keep Sensei and Leo safe. My gut twists at the thought of Shredder finding us...tracking us down in our own home, cornering us underground. This was the only place we've ever felt safe.

Running past the turn styles, Donnie stops for a split second to listen for Raph. I stretch my neck and hope to see him down one of the tunnels bashing some Foot heads in, but the darkness is thick and I can't see a thing.

"They...they probably put a tracker on Leo," Donnie whispers. His voice floats away in the shadows and I suddenly feel so small. "I mean, I thought it was weird how we just found him out by the docks, but…" He groans and rubs his forehead. "I'm so stupid - I should have checked-"

"Hey." I put a firm hand on his shoulder. "You were tired and worried. We all were, D. But there's no time to go beating yourself up for that. We have to get out there and help Raph."

He nods frantically. "I know… Okay, I think he's down that way." He points his staff to the tunnel that branches off to the main sewer. I don't see any Foot soldiers around us, which means Raph's done a good job chasing them the other way.

I steel over with resolve and tighten my grip on my nunchucks. "Let's go!"

We start running in the direction of the faint clash of steel and shouting. Water splashes up the back of my legs; cold enough to numb my toes. The noise gets louder. I narrow my eyes and focus on the fight to come, pushing all the unhelpful things from my mind, like how tired I am and how sore my body is. It doesn't matter. It can't matter. Right now, protecting Leo is the only thing that's important. Naps can come later.

We turn a corner and Raph comes into view. He's in total beast mode, screaming curse words and drop-kicking Foot soldiers left and right. But...there's so many.

"Mikey," Donnie huffs, catching my eyes for a moment, "are you ready?"

I nod and raise my nunchucks, prepared to hop into the crapstorm ahead. But his next words catch me off-guard.

"If you see any of them heading toward the Lair...do what you have to do."

A lump forms in my throat. "Y-You mean-"

"You know what I mean, Mikey," he snaps. His eyes are fire. Raph shouts ahead of us and punches a Foot soldier in the face so hard, I swear I can hear his skull fracture. Donnie's words ring in my ears with the sound of bone breaking. "We don't have a choice."

Heads turn to face us. Dozens. Weapons gleam in the dim light of the tunnel, and now that we're closer, I can see Raph's chest heaving, his legs quivering, and his skin slick with sweat. His sais are red and dripping. My heart sinks toward my gut and I look frantically at Donnie for some sort of reassurance to see him staring ahead with narrowed, steady eyes. The blade flips out from his bo staff, sharper than I've ever seen it.

"This is it," he says firmly. "Fight with everything you've got."