Mikey alone with a gash in his leg. Raph surrounded by foot solders. Donnie pointing his quivering bo staff at an angry bear. All of them screaming his name. Leo! The reverberating sound in his head shocked him awake. Leo! His heart raced and his eyes opened wide as the call faded into the back of his mind. Only a nightmare. He reassured himself but the images stayed sharp in his mind. Their pain, his failure, the fear. He drew his attention away from his shaking hands to the day that lay before him.

Morning peaked through the trees and passed the clouds, lighting up the leaves in vivid shades. The birds greeted each other and the wind gently pulled across Leo's skin, cooling his feverish forehead.

He let the calm morning take him in and slow his racing heart. He could continue his search now and hopefully calm his panicked mind. Fatigued body or no, Leo wasn't going to sleep well without knowing his brothers were ok. Especially Mikey. That nagging feeling hadn't left him during the night. If anything, it pulled with greater urgency.

He climbed down slowly. Thankfully, his body had regained some of its strength despite the nights' restless sleep.

Leo landed on the ground with a slight ruffle of leaves. He winced and wobbled precariously as he caught his balance. In the city, he wouldn't have made a sound. Even taking into account his injury, he had made too much noise. Leo frowned. He would have to adapt his skills to this new environment.

Unfortunately, his knew very little of how to apply his ninjutsu skills away from the city and he knew even less about how to survive in the wild. Leo's stomach growled.

He frowned. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. Everything before landing here was a mess of clipped memories. Nothing fit together. He had no way of telling how long he'd been out or how far back the fogginess in his memory went.

The last clear memory he had was of practicing his katas in the dojo. The soft slice of his katanas was only interrupted by Raph chasing after Mikey in retaliation for his little brother's latest prank and Donnie's hurried shushing. His felt his heart squeeze painfully. He'd never been this long without his brothers. Never had to.

His hunger would just have to wait.

Leo bent down to pick up a fallen branch. He could at least get himself moving more quickly. The stick was way too tall but had a nice "Y" shape at about shoulder height. Leo cracked the branch over his good knee and placed his arm in the crook.

With his balance improved, Leo continued his search for any clue of his brothers' presence. He hobbled in a direction chosen at random, slicing a notch into each tree he passed with his katana. Hopefully that would keep him from going in circles. It might even lead one of his brothers to him. Or it could lead an enemy.

Leo tried calculating the likelihood that he'd run into the Foot or some other opponent. It didn't seem probable. They would've tracked him by now, assuming they had been the ones to put him here. He hadn't sensed anyone near by… Of course danger was always a possibility but as he looked around at the trees spreading endlessly before him, he decided it was worth the risk.

Leo refocused on finding clues. A dash of green, in the otherwise orange and brown forest, or even an odd array of leaves might give Leo a hint of where they could be. But scour as he might, he was still drawing up empty. Leo's stomach tightened in protest. He felt like a rag being twisted dry, stretched too far and too tight. What if his brothers weren't even here?

That gave Leo pause. What if he were the only one. Maybe his brothers were still in New York, worried about where he was. No, that couldn't be right. It didn't feel right. They had to be here. He could sense that they were here…

That was it! He could mediate. Maybe he could find their energies. That could lead him to his brothers or at least allow him to check that they were still alive. Or dead. Leo shuddered at the thought. Focus.

He sat down and crossed his legs, concentrating on his breathing. His leg and stomach desperately pulled him away but eventually he found himself in deep meditation.

He fixed his attention on his brothers. Where were they?

Leo felt their presence… lightly, like it was far away… but it was all jumbled up. Leo could sense them in the forest with him but was unable to glean any information about where or how they were. Their auras seemed scattered in a thick, omnipotent fog. Mikey's in particular…

Leo opened his eyes. They were out there, somewhere. How they were doing he had no idea. He would just have to keep searching. He pulled himself to his feet, trying to think positively. His brothers were alive and here somewhere, which meant he could find them. He had his katanas and had figured out a safe place to rest. All things considered, he had a lot on his side.

With that thought, the clouds that had been following him since the last night opened up, pouring out their sorrows onto the earth. Great. Leo sighed. Squinting his eyes in order to peer through the rain, he picked a new direction. Carefully, he continued his search through the dense, now muddy forest, slashing at the trees with irritation as he went.

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