One of the first works of humankind Leonardo had ever read (not counting comic books) was an old torn and frayed bible he'd found in one of the many winding tunnels. Even at a young age, he had liked to flip through it and try to break down its narratives as his eyes scanned its yellowing pages.

Donatello had shaken his head at this, thinking that reading anything that wasn't considered truly "educational" was a waste of time. The blue classes turtle had politely disagreed, for he saw the words as educational in a different way. The words, true or not, taught valuable life lessons that applied even thousands of years later. Of course, since the lesson wasn't one focused on some form of biology, the lesson was still considered useless to his younger brother.

Leonardo still remembers his favorite story. The resurrection of Lazarus. Even present day he can recall the passages word for word: "Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face." Death is always the very last thing in a child's mind, straight behind consuming broccoli on a daily basis. Now, it's quite the recurring theme in his life, seeing as his life and his brothers' lives are on the line every time they step foot outside the confines of their lair.

And Lazarus was what was going through Leonardo's mind as he watched the final escape pod launch from the Technodrome. He remembers the give of his youngest brother's kusarigama chain as he falls backwards against the already sinking ship. Kraang Prime charged forward with his spindly arms flinging towards the quickly fading escape pod in the distance, until the pod wasn't viable. Water is already midway up his body, and he can hear the gargantuan alien's wails of their shared demise, yet in those precious few heart beats he had before the ship went under, he wasn't afraid. He knew his death was inevitable, not even just in that moment, but in the life he lived because his brothers they always had to come first.

"No, no. Kraang will not perish - Kraang cannot!"

"We both will," Leonardo coughs out, smiling weakly as he gives a mock salute,"Looks like we're both going down with the ship, captain."

Kraang Prime didn't hold the same disregard for death and angrily charged, screeching as if swiped its spindly metal limbs at the blue classed turtle. He managed to avoid a few sloppy stabs in his direction, but one deep gouge wound in his shoulder later he was down for the count. His spewing blood joined the quickly rising water, and he weakly held his shaking palm to the wound. The warmth of his blood gushed forth from his fingers and he went to his knees, breathing raggedly. At this point, the water was at his mid-torso, sloshing around him in great, angry waves. His blood diluted into a light pink as it joined the water. He closed his eyes for a short moment, but like falling asleep, he was quickly whisked away as he falls into the water entirely.

"No, no! Stupid, monkey-blooded, turtle! Look what you've done...No! You don't deserve death," The alien snarls in the distance,"You don't get death. You get something far worse...yes...Kraang will live, and so shall you. So shall you, pathetic reptile."

The water had long since risen far beyond a reach, a hold of any sort to support Leonardo's head above the waves. He could hold his breath much longer than the average human, but not for an eternity. Darkness slowly began to envelope him. He held his breath as long as she could, too long in fact. Flashing splotches danced in front of his vision and he couldn't even tell if his eyes were opened or closed. The coldness he had felt as the water initially began to rise was completely gone. A desperate hot wave had come over him, warming even his frosted toes. His heart was beating rapidly in panic. The urgency for air was more apparent than ever. The splotches of color seemed to flash in unison with his heart beat, and as it stuttered to a halt, he succumbs to darkness.

The last thing he hears are the gargantuan alien's final taunts,"Kraang knows this...you, turtle will never earn the sweet release of death. No, you'll never...ever..."

———

"Leo! Leo, don't do this," One voice snarls harshly in time with a harsh slap across his face,"Donnie - Don - Do something! He's still not waking up!"

There was pressure on his chest, a shifting beneath the plates of his shells. There was a heavy breath surging into his lungs, and a panicking reply,"It's not working!"

There was muffled sob, a warm hand in his own as a soft voice squeaks,"Please, please, Leo. You have to come back...you just have to."

Leonardo surges upwards, water spewing from his lips as he coughs violently, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Donatello his on his knees in front of him, his reddish-brown eyes watery as he sniffles weakly. April has her arm draped over his shoulder and she's visibly crying in relief, her hand over her mouth. Immediately Raphael engulfs him in his arms, squeezing what little air he had from his lungs as he laughs nearly hysterically, playfully cursing his older brother for scaring them half to death. Michelangelo had draped himself over both of them, resting his head on top of the blue clad fed turtle's with his arms wrapped tightly around both of his older brothers.

"You idiot," Raphael exclaims, pulling away from the hug to give Leonardo a slap upside the head,"I came this close..." He hovers two of his fingers a paper's length apart,"...to having a damn heart attack. If you ever pull that crap again -"

Michelangelo cuts in,"We'll use all of your comic books for toilet paper! And then...we'll open the boxes of your collectible action figures! And then - Leo?"

Leonardo is curiously prodding at his shoulder, a deep frown on his lips, for it is noticeably, well, not damaged. The gouge the gargantuan alien had left him as a farewell present wasn't visible, and he wondered if it ever even existed. He slowly blinks and gulps. He let's out another shuddering breath, the chatter of his companions turning into a low hum in the back of his mind.

"Leo!"

The blue cladded turtle jolts and automatically inquires,"What?"

"I think you're starting to go out of it, again," Donatello frets and he turns to Raphael,"Help me get him up. He doesn't need to be walking, and we need to get him back to the lair so I can give him a full check-up."

Leonardo didn't even muster the strength to object to the babyish treatment his brothers were giving him. Raphael hoists up his upper half, while Donatello handles his legs, struggling with them for a moment, but he quickly gets a stable grip. April and Michelangelo are at either side of him, each holding one hand and giving him warm, comforting smiles. The baby blue hues of his youngest brother's eyes are the last thing he sees before he's plunged into darkness again with one last, stuttering breath.

———

Leonardo dreams of his near-death experience more often than he admits to his brothers, when he wakes up panting and soaked in sweat at night. Master Splinter tries to provide a very large open-ear, but the blue cladded turtle doesn't have it in himself to place on more thing on his sensei's already burdened mind. His brothers and his friends all worried for him, he felt it in their eyes when he arose in the early hours and immediately went to the dojo. The dojo had become his only sanctuary in the crowded lair. If there was one way to avoid his persistently nagging brothers, it was by residing in the place where they had to do what they hated most: train. But that's precisely what he did.

The one factor Leonardo hadn't accounted for were the human semi-residents of the lair, April and Casey. Leonardo was already wary of April out of habit, though he sensed that it hurt her, for he was the only turtle that had managed to dodge her every hand at friendship. He had never been deliberately mean to the human girl, for he had no personal grudge against her. It was just a matter of whether or not he could stand to grow close to another living being, and have one more weight on his back in battle. Then there was Casey, the new one, that he especially avoided, for the same reasons and many more. The main one being that the human reminded him far too much of his hot-headed brother, and that was the last thing he needed on his plate.

So, needless to say, when April and Casey decided to stand behind him while he was practicing blind-folded sparring techniques, his brothers were almost short two human friends. Leonardo had only barely managed to halt his own swing with his wooden practice sword just a mere millimeter from Casey's face. The blue cladded turtle had quickly ripped off his blind fold with his heart beating out of his chest. The two humans were startled, the boy may have wet himself, but they were both visibly unharmed.

Smiling sheepishly April apologizes,"Sorry, Leo. That probably wasn't the smartest move, huh?"

Leonardo frowned, allowing his blindfold to dangle from his neck as he holds his wooden practice sword to his side. "There's no need to apologize. It's Casey that would be having to take his food through a straw," He quips dryly, and he begins to pull his blindfold back over his eyes to resume his personal training session. He stops when neither human moves and both stare at him with wide eyes,"...Sorry, was there something you needed?"

Shoving Casey forward with her elbow, April stammers,"Actually, Casey was hoping to spar with you."

"Yeah, totally. There's a pool going around on whether or not I could beat you in a one-on-one fight," Casey abruptly spurts out, mouth twisted in an annoyance,"And with all the money on the boy in blue, I was hoping to win some easy cash."

April face palms and quickly explains,"He thinks he can win in a fight against you, I and pretty much everyone else in the lair strongly disagrees. I think he could use a good butt-whooping to deflate his ego, and I could use a few dollars for my college fund."

Leonardo opens his mouth to object, but before he can utter a single word, Michelangelo peaks his head into the room, eyes everyone there and gasps aloud,"It's happening! It's finally happening," With his hands in the air, he scurries away screeching to everyone in the lair,"Leo and Case are gonna fight!"

"What? No way," Raphael exclaims from the kitchen.

"Oh, shell...I've got to see this," Donatello sniggers as he runs from his lab, forgoing his latest experiment,"Time to see Puck-head put his money where the gap in his flapping mouth is."

Leonardo has a deep flush on his face as a small crowd gathers into the dojo, and he runs his hand over his face. "Look guys, I'm not in the mood -" But he's doesn't even get to finish his sentence before a foot clad with a dirty, paint splattered shoe is swinging towards him. Barely flinching he catches the entire leg with one hand.

The look of horror on Casey's face is nearly comical as he realizes what he's done, and April's mouth nearly hits the floor in shock. Raphael is chortling under in breath, nudging a hysterically giggling Michelangelo with his elbow. Donatello has a smirk on his face, his fingers laced together over his lap as he simply observed the show.

"Uh, look...I think there's been a misunderstanding," Casey nervously chuckles, hopping on one foot as the latter narrows his gaze.

Leonardo releases his grip and simultaneously shoves Casey's leg away from himself, knocking him off balance. As the human goes spinning towards the ground, the turtle straightens his arm and slams it against the latter's stomach, shoving him backwards. As the human falls onto his back with a wheeze, the turtle takes a step back, waiting for him to get back up. With a wheeze, and a determined glare, the human shakily gets back up.

"Shoulda stayed down," Raphael mutters with a shake of his head.

Leonardo draws his wooden sword and swipes it across the air, before holding it at his side. Casey smirks and reaches towards the makeshift sheath on his back and pulls out a hockey stick, wrapping both of his hands around it in a tight grip. The human, impatient, dives forward immediately with an ear-piercing yell of some word that the turtle knows for certain is made up, but he's quickly met with the hilt of the wooden sword in his stomach. As the human falls to the floor on his back, the turtle swings the practice sword in an arch above the human's head, before resting the tip on the latter's throat.

"Oh, yeah," Michelangelo squeals enthusiastically,"Turtle power, bro! In your face!"

April giggles uncontrollably, giving an amused shake of her head as she breathily adds,"If Casey keeps this up he'll be paying for my tuition into Yale."

"So smart," Donatello says wistfully, his eyes practically heart-shaped.

"I dunno," Raphael states, turning to April,"I feel bad taking the guy's money. It wasn't even a fight. It was just a humiliating ass-beating."

Wordlessly as the humans and turtles chatter about the fight, Leonardo silently exits the room unnoticed. In his mind, he hears the alien screeching as the ship fills with water, feels the water fill his lungs. He stumbles and leans against the wall, his hand going to his throat as he coughs. Even then, as his lungs filled and emptied in time, he could feel that cold, stillness clamping onto his chest, freezing his vital organs.

Some distant part of Leonardo knows that the reality in which he lived at that very second in time shouldn't be possible. Every fiber of his being knows that it is simply out of the question for him to have drowned and still be walking around. He was no corpse, that was for sure. He could feel the warmth of his pumping blood on his skin, and he could hear his own heart beat. Every breath that filled him and left him was genuine and fulfilling. He was truly and wholly alive, in that moment, but he hadn't been.

"I..." Leonardo struggles to say it, but he managed to choke it out,"I died. I...I w-was...d-d-dead..."

"Kraang knows this...you, turtle will never earn the sweet release of death. No, you'll never...ever..."

Leonardo's hand goes over his mouth, and with wide eyes, he slowly pushes himself up off the wall with one hand. As if in a trance, he stumbles across the living room towards the gaping door that lead towards his room. He can hear voices calling his name, the seemingly thunderous falls of their footsteps, but he feels as he's drowning all over again. Breathing raggedly he barely makes it to his doorway, before his eyes roll into the back of his head and he falls to his knees. Just like that it's lights out and he collapses entirely onto his floor.