Author Notes: So I finished this chapter, sat back, and proceeded to seriously debate for a while whether to post it or not.
I kinda brought this on myself, to tell the truth. I wanted a flashback chapter here to give the story a chance to breath between all that action we just had, and all the action coming up in the next chapter. And I was like 'Mwahahaha, this'll be so sad, it'll be great!'.
But then I actually started writing it, and it was like 'Ack! Too sad! Too sad! Abort! Abort!'
On one hand, it's much darker and sadder then anything I've written before, and I wrote 'In Search of Shadows'.
But, on the other, I had been planning for this chapter, and basically based everything Leo did and how he acts in this story around it. It explains a lot about why he is the way he is. He's a very traumatized turtle. So, after some feedback, I decided to go ahead and post it.
So, what I'm saying is, warning, this chapter be depressing, yo.
Chapter 24: He Came Back
You know, it had been winter back then too, all those years ago.
It's eerie how time seems to loop around like that.
It seems so long ago, another lifetime, but, at the same time, like it had happened just yesterday. I was only a child then, tightly clinging to Master Splinter's tail as we traveled so I wouldn't get lost in the dangerous world above ground. We made many trips up to the surface, lurking in the darkness of the cold alleyways, scrounging and digging around in the trashcans and dumpsters for food and supplies.
But, on that day, the hint of brightly colored plastic under a box had caught my childish eyes as I faithfully waited for my sensei to finish sorting through a particularly full and promising large dumpster. Even though I was supposed to wait in that spot and not move, I couldn't resist moving over to take a quick peek.
Master Splinter wouldn't notice if I moved for just a second, right?
To my absolute delight, I found a toy car under the cardboard, slightly dinged up and one plastic window gone, but still a treasure to my child-like mind. Two of the wheels were missing, but I noticed one of them laying on the ground where the car had been, and I quickly bent down to scoop it up with elated childish glee and put it in my woefully oversized patched and stained coat's pocket like it was a diamond treasure I had just found. Eagerly, I set off on a quest to find the fourth wheel. The toy car didn't look too badly broken, and if I found all the parts, there was a good chance I could maybe fix it!
Imagine that, to have a toy car of my very own?! Especially if I could get one that actually had all four working wheels?!
I don't know how long I spent looking, but I was snapped back to reality by a dangerous, low growl. I looked up to see some feral looking stray dogs down the alleyway, baring sharp white teeth and snarling at me.
Scrambling to my feet, clutching the precious toy protectively to my tiny plastron, I looked around and suddenly realized I had accidentally wandered too far away, and was now around a corner and out of sight of the dumpster. I slowly began backing up, trying to remain calm, but keeping one fearful eye kept on the dangerous looking stray dogs. I only had a few steps to go to get back around the corner to the proper alleyway, where Master Splinter was. He would protect me.
The dogs followed me, bodies low to the ground and gleaming white teeth bared. I looked around desperately, and, to my alarm and horror, when I looked, the alley was empty. Master Splinter was no longer by the dumpster!
Where had he gone?! When had he left?! Was he looking for me?!
And then I had no more time to think, as the dogs began barking sharply, lunging forward with salivating, snapping jaws. I gave out a cry and turned to run. I had to abandon my new toy in the effort, but, somehow, I managed to scramble over a tall wooden fence and leave the baying and snapping dogs behind.
Exhaling in relief, I dropped down, intending to find my sensei, but I suddenly found myself standing on a sidewalk out on the street. I realized my mistake immediately as I saw the humans recoiling at my sudden appearance.
There was only a moment of hesitation, and then chaos broke out.
'It's a monster!'
A lady screamed, and a nearby shopkeeper swore and swung his broom the broom he had been using, hitting me in the head with the bristles.
Yelping, I covered my head with my arms and bolted, running in a panic now. Where was Master Splinter?! I had to find him! But everywhere I turned, there seemed to be humans, screaming at me, yelling, calling me a monster. Most ran, but a few tried to tackle or kick me. Dogs barked, wailing sirens and flashing lights began to draw closer, and I was terrified. Darting left and right, I wove through alleyways and even stopped once to try and lift a manhole cover, to try and escape into the sewers like Master Splinter had done so often, but I wasn't strong enough to lift the heavy solid metal cover, and had to quickly abandon it to keep running.
Finally, out of breath and completely lost, I managed to tuck myself under a few broken crates and hid well enough to lose my pursuers. I lay there, huddled and shaking for a long time, even after the yelling, angry human voices had long since faded away, leaving the small street empty and quiet once more.
The cold finally forced me to start moving again, seeping into my small, reptilian muscles, and I carefully slipped out, looking desperately around for any signs of familiar and comforting brown and grey fur. Master Splinter must be so worried about me! I had to find him!
Night was fast approaching, and streetlights began to flicker on as I tried to make my way back to the alley where I had last seen my sensei, hoping to find him there. But, by now, I was so lost, I wasn't even sure I was wandering in the right direction. Nothing looked familiar!
Finally, shivering, I stopped over a street grate next to a few slummy looking buildings for a few minutes, hoping to warm myself up with the steam rising up from below. A startled noise caught my attention, and I quickly turned to see a shocked human man dressed in a tan tweed suit standing in a doorway.
He didn't yell or scream, to my surprise. He... talked to me...
A human had actually taken the time to try and talk to me!
A little nervously, true, but he introduced himself as 'Harry Parker'. When I blurted out that I was lost, he told me he would help me, and even offered to let me come in, have something to eat, and warm up first, before we started looking. He referred to me as 'kid', almost like I was normal! I couldn't believe my luck! Master Splinter had told me that not all humans were bad, but I had never met one as nice and helpful as Harry seemed to be, and I eagerly followed him.
His apartment was... dismal, to say the least. Peeling wallpaper and extremely scarce furniture, but I didn't mind. Compared to the sewers, it was paradise! He heated up some tomato soup out of a can, and gave me a cup of coffee in a stained mug. The soup was thin and watery, and I didn't care for coffee, this particular brew seemed like it had been reheated several times, but I remained polite and thanked him. He told me that it would probably be best to wait until daylight tomorrow to head out to start looking for my home, but until then, he had a spare room where I could rest.
He showed me to the room, and I was so happy to be safe off the streets and warm, that I didn't question him for a moment.
I didn't notice him securely lock the door to the windowless room after he left.
...It only took a few hours for the men in black suits and EPF uniforms to come for me.
You know... thinking back on it... I think I might have seen the barest hint of guilty regret flash across Harry's face when he saw me carried out, now shackled and chained. But any second thoughts the man might have had at betraying the trust of a child was apparently smoothed over when one of the agents handed him a rectangular piece of paper, a check, I assumed, and the look quickly disappeared and turned to one of delighted greed as he looked at the figure printed on it.
I was taken outside and thrown into a cage in the back of a windowless van.
...And there He was.
Waiting in a seat and watching me from behind pitch black aviator shades...
Agent Bishop.
The van door slid shut, locking into place with a click of finality, leaving me sitting small and shackled in a cage, staring at this cold, merciless agent
And that was how I learned of the EPF...
I never told them of Master Splinter, or even of our connections to the Hamato Clan, though it seems like the latter information was discovered through blood tests anyways. Not even in the very beginning, when they sent in a nice nurse to pretend to be my friend to try and get as much information out of me as they could.
Those weren't my secrets to share. I would not betray Master Splinter.
I was terrified, but, even at that young age, I was also determined to be as brave and honorable as I could be. I would show these humans what a true, honorable warrior acted like.
Imagine my shock when I learned that, somehow, Master Splinter and I weren't the only mutants in the world.
Held captive in the cell across from me was a gigantic mutant alligator. He was HUGE! Nearly eight feet tall when he stood up, and had all sorts of ugly scars covering his thick, scaly hide. The nameplate outside of the giant humanoid alligator's cell said 'Specimen MA-001', just like mine said 'Specimen MT-001', but the guards always called him 'Leatherhead'.
I never really found out where he came from, or how he had come to be mutated. He never spoke, or showed any sign of understanding any attempts at communication. In fact, the only thing that ever seemed to provoke any sort of reaction or response from him was when the guards threw a piece of raw meat in for him, and the brutal scene that followed that was almost terrifying. Most of the time, though, in the short times I saw him, he just lay there passively in the corner of his cell, watching everybody through hooded eyes, including me. The humans were convinced that he had never developed the higher human-like intelligence like I had, and thus, he was often treated as nothing more then a mere animal.
Even so, as the months wore on, I found him to be both comforting and frightening at the same time. He was big and scary, yes, especially to a tiny turtle like myself, but he was also a mutant and a fellow prisoner of the cruel humans. When things started growing too much for me to handle, I would quietly talk to him for hours through the night. My conversations with him were always one sided, of course, but they proved to be cathartic, and, somehow, I didn't quite feel so alone.
I... almost could think of him as my only friend in that horrible place.
...
Over the years now, I've often found myself thinking back to the humans that I met back during that time of my life. The scientist and security guards and even the janitors and other staff. I was just a kid, even if I was a turtle mutant. Did... did they ever regret how I had been treated? How they themselves treated me?
There had been a few humans that looked uncomfortable when I was upset or in pain. Sometimes I thought I caught glimmers of sympathy, or maybe even guilt on their faces, when they thought I wasn't looking. But nobody ever stepped forward to display open kindness, besides a gentle, almost apologetic pat as I was being strapped down to an exam table or something similar.
I've always wondered about them, why they did what they did, even though they obviously knew that some of it was wrong. Were they afraid to speak up, to come to the defense of a terrified and hurting child, because they were trapped there too? Did they have families? It wouldn't have surprised me to learn that Agent Bishop and his ilk would sink to threatening people to work for them. But, still...
They should have at least...
They could have...
...
...I was just a child...
...
But... but I digress. At any rate, most of the humans, especially many of the doctors and scientist, seemed to not be bothered in the least. A few of them, in fact, almost seemed to delight in cruelty. Cold, clinical, they acted like I was nothing more then an object to be studied, poked, prodded, and examined, no matter my fears and pleas. They would run scanners over my body and take x-rays, poke me with needles, take blood and skin samples, force my mouth open and look inside my mouth, and other, almost endless streams of examinations and test, all demeaning and many painful.
Many times, they would even casually discuss their project and what they thought of my biological makeup and inner workings in front of me as if I weren't a frightened child strapped down to an examination table, but just another specimen to experiment on.
Just like I was one of the many cages of mice and rats with shaved fur and wires sticking out of them... the rats especially made my stomach churn...
...
I witnessed many horrors and atrocities in those labs... many of which haunt my nightmares to this day.
But... one day... it finally happened.
I was exhausted and in pain after a day of unusually brutal testing, and had just been placed back in my cell. Agent Bishop had joined the escort of guards and doctors that day, and I realized something was going on by the looks the guards and staff gave me.
And then Agent Bishop informed me as the door was shutting, sealing me once more into my prison, that a decision had been reached.
Two words.
Exploratory surgery.
A team was being assembled as he spoke, and, first thing in the morning, I would be taken into the operating room. It was generally agreed upon that I would most likely survive the procedure, and the knowledge they could glean far outweighed the risks.
I tried not to let my fear show. I tried to be brave. But as soon as he left, and the lights were shut off, only a lone guard left to stand down the hallway, I couldn't hold it back anymore.
For the very first time since I had been captured, I broke down into terrified tears.
As young as I was, I was no longer innocent and naive. After all I had witnessed, I was under no illusions as to what such an operation would do to me. Yes, there was a good chance that I would survive... but would it be worth it? Would I even wake up afterwards?
Or... or was I going to become like one of those creatures or even humans I had seen floating suspended in tubes of yellowish green liquid...? Not alive... but worse.
As the sobs raked my shoulders, I desperately missed Master Splinter.
I...I just wanted to go home.
...
As my sobs echoed through the dark hallways of my prison, lit up only by red exit signs and panel lights, something strange happened.
Across the hallway, Leatherhead moved. He reached under his crude mattress pad and pulled out an object, before turning and tossing it to land on the floor just on the other side of the bars of his cell.
I sniffled and wiped my eyes, looking at him, confused.
It looked like he had tossed out a stethoscope, though how he had gotten one and how long he had it kept it hidden, I had no idea. It was such a strange thing to see the seemingly wild and unintelligent alligator mutant do.
And, to my utter shock, he then lifted a clawed, scaly hand to the tip of his snout, almost as if beckoning me to remain silent.
Teary eyes wide with both fear, astonishment, and just a little glimmer of hope, I nodded rigorously.
Leatherhead plopped back down and curled up as he always did, once again seemingly unaware of the world around him as the guard began walking down the hallway, making his rounds as per normal.
As he passed our cages, the human guard paused, noticing the medical object on the ground. Frowning, he walked over to pick it up and examine it, before starting to pocket it, muttering under his breath something about careless doctors.
Then a clawed hand shot between the bars, grabbed him, and smashed his head against the steel bars.
The human went limp immediately without a further noise, and Leatherhead quickly reached out and pulled a keycard from his pocket before dropping his limp body. I could only stare in amazement and wonder as the giant alligator let himself out, and quickly moved over to open my cell door as well.
And then, wonder of wonders, he talked! Leatherhead could talk after all!
His voice low and rumbling, but somehow gentle, the great, giant alligator knelt down and, wiping the tears from my scaled cheek with one gentle clawed hand, promised me that they would not have me. He would not let them.
Standing up, his giant form dwarfing mine, he took me by the hand and quickly began to lead me out, explaining as we went why he had kept up his ruse before, why he had acted the way he did. It was a deception so he could trick the humans to be more careless, and escape at an opportune moment. Unfortunately, this wasn't the best circumstances to escape under, and he hadn't completely worked out all the plan yet, but he could not wait any longer, not after hearing what they were planning to do to me.
And... and he tried. Leatherhead, a mutant I hardly knew, tried so very hard to help me.
We almost made it, too. We even got all the way outside. We weren't in the city anymore, but some secret base of the EPF out in the woods somewhere in the middle of nowhere. But Leatherhead was incredibly intelligent, and had figured out that there were several large lakes nearby. He knew that the ground here was mostly made of limestone, and that was perfect conditions for creating underwater caverns. If we could just get into one of those lakes... We were aquatic creatures, both of us. We could disappear.
It was a good plan, and, like I said, we almost made it.
Dodging pursing agents and guards, we ran through the brush and trees. We came across a cliff at the lake's edge, steep, but the water was deep at the base. We could jump off, and the drop would put us right in the largest of the lakes, where we could swim to safety. The humans wouldn't be able to follow us down there. Not without donning diving gear first, and by then we'd be long gone.
All we needed to do was jump off that cliff ledge before they caught us.
Leatherhead made it.
... I almost made it.
But I didn't.
Leatherhead's was more of an accident then anything. He was actually pushed over and fell while trying to defend me. I reached for him futilely, my last friend and hope disappearing as he fell with a roar to disappear in the deep waters below. I was desperate to follow him, but I was securely trapped in Agent Bishop's grasp.
And... I...
...
They decided to go on with the surgery anyways, as scheduled.
I... I don't really remember clearly what happened next. They had me so heavily sedated... everything was so foggy and far away.
I remember being strapped down to an operating table, with round, bright lights beaming down above me through the haze.
I remember humans all around me, pale green masks over their mouths...
There were trays of cold, metal instruments nearby... needles... scalpels... saws...
They were touching me... So many humans touching me... their five fingered hands grabbing at me and touching my shell and running across my scaled skin...
And He was there... He was always there... staring at me with those black, emotionless aviator glasses.
But then...
Then there was a earthshaking roar... and crashing... and... and screaming...
And gunfire... So much gunfire...
... And then... silence...
When I finally woke up again... I was in a cold, damp cavern, water from an underground lake lapping gently at my feet, and light filtering in from a brush concealed cave entrance.
And it didn't take me long to notice that next to me lay a massive, grey-scaled form...
...laying so very still...
He had been shot, so many times...
There was so much blood.
He had protected my small, unconscious form with his own body. How he had even escaped with me and carried me to safety like that, I have no idea to this very day.
...
...I... I tried...
I tried so very hard...
But... there was so much blood...
...
He never woke up...
...
...
I never even got the chance to thank him.
Master Splinter found me down there a few days later. How he did is another mystery that I may never figure out. He was gaunt, his fur matted from neglect, and it was apparent that he had been frantic in his search to find me. Our reunion was heartfelt and filled with tears, both of happiness and grief.
And, finally, we went home. Together. Leaving behind a grave beside an underground lake.
After that, things were different.
Before my capture, we had spent most of our time above ground. Master Splinter had never given up his hope that one day we might find the Hamatos again, and often spoke of the days when we could live alongside the humans.
But after the EPF...
After that... when he thought I wasn't looking... I think I saw resignation in Master Splinter's sad brown eyes.
We spent more time on my training, more time hiding underground. Trips up to the surface became rare, and only at night and with the utmost caution. And while my sensei still told stories about Master Yoshi and Tang Shen and their children... he very rarely spoke of finding them anymore.
Not... not until he became sick... and...
...
You know, I still think of Leatherhead sometimes.
...
...
He... He came back.
...
And... he didn't have to.
He had escaped that hell.
He was free.
...
But still... he came back.
I've thought about that a lot over the years.
...
And... For the first time in my life... I think I understand why.
I know now...
Some things are worth coming back for.
Even if coming back costs you everything.
Author Notes: *raises hand solemnly* I, EchoKazul, promise, in the future, to write absurdly fluffy and cute drabbles with Leo being adorably happy and covered in adoring brothers. I'll even work in fluffy ducklings somehow.