Shredder didn't care what time it was or how long it had been as he sat all alone in his throne room, listening to the raging storm outside.
His plan had failed. Again.
Days of planning and dealing with the Kraang aliens . . . all ending in failure. The rat and his turtle pupils still live, and his one chance to use one of the turtles completely thrown out the window.
Unbelievable rage consumed him.
He did not hear his own daughter entering and walking up to him, but she should know to never disturb his solitude of fury.
Karai kneeled down and bowed respectfully to her father before making an attempt to speak to him. "Father?"
When he heard a voice interrupting his thoughts, his hands tightened to fists. Karai saw this and became nervous, but continued. "Are you all right?"
Shredder did not say a word for a moment, too furious to speak. "Leave me, Karai."
Karai stood up, determined to help her father even at this state. "Look, I'm just as furious as you are about this. But we can come up with another plan. Let me go to the sewers and I'll finish them off myself-"
"I SAID LEAVE ME!" Shredder suddenly shouted, blindly throwing a blade toward her direction.
Karai gasped, moving aside just in time to miss the incoming blade. However, the blade was able to cut her cheek before zooming off and falling onto the ground. Holding her bleeding cheek, Karai stared at the blade in shock.
She turned back to the Shredder, feeling hurt that he would injure his own child. He never looked up to her, returning to his thoughts. He may not have even noticed that he had harmed her.
Anger rose inside her the longer she glared at him before she finally walked away, leaving Shredder alone once again.
More unknown time had passed and Shredder at last made a decision. He had thought he could take care of Hamato Yoshi and his turtles by himself. But after remembering all the failed attempts on them, Shredder knew that he needed more to defeat them.
He needed help.
Shredder pressed two buttons on the arm of his throne and, right before him, a screen appeared, revealing a close-up face of Kraang Prime.
"One called Shredder," Kraang Prime greeted in delight, as if Shredder had finally accepted his invitation.
"It seems that my plan to use your micro mind-control devices has failed. My spies have informed me that the turtles had succeeded in destroying all of them, even the one I planted inside one of their own."
"And now, Shredder has come to Kraang to accept Kraang's bargain on which to destroy our common adversaries and the Kraang's plan to take control of the city known as New York City."
"I want Hamato Yoshi and his turtles alive," Shredder growled threateningly.
But it didn't faze Kraang Prime. It only made his smile wider. "Kraang agrees to this. Do we have a deal, Shredder?"
Shredder sighed. It really wasn't a terrible deal. Both he and the Kraang will be getting the same thing in the end. It was the aftermath that concerned him.
But he had no choice, nor did he honestly care. He wanted that rat's skin and the turtles' heads displayed in his throne room.
Shredder looked up at Kraang Prime. "Deal."
"OWCH! Quit it!"
"Hold still, Mikey."
It had been an hour now and Raph, Donnie, and Mikey were back in the lair with April, trying their best to bandage themselves.
"Ugh, not too tight, Raph!" Donnie told Raph, flinching in pain. Raph was trying his hardest to wrap the bandages on Donnie's wounded shoulder as gently as possible. "Maybe I should be doing this as well."
"Stop being a baby," Raph replied with a frown, moving Donnie's hand away from his shoulder. "You stitched your scar all by yourself; you can handle this."
To be truthful, Donnie only stitched it because, though he wanted April to do it, she was too busy fixing up Mikey's broken arm. Raph had volunteered to stitch it himself, but Donnie immediately refused, since Raph couldn't sew if his life depended on it.
"But Raph, what about you," Donnie asked him with concern. Raph's cuts were still fresh with beads of blood slipping from them, and his bruises were turning to ugly colors.
"I'll be fine," Raph assured him, finishing the shoulder at last.
April had just completed wrapping Mikey's broken arm and placing it on a sash around his neck. "That should do it for now."
Mikey groaned, holding his broken arm delicately. "Oh man, it hurts so much! And it itches too!"
April immediately slapped Mikey's hand that reached for his bound arm. "No scratching, Mikey!" Mikey groaned loudly, leaning back on the couch.
Now done with Mikey, she moved over to Donnie and Raph, bringing with her a bowl of water and a cloth dipped in it. "I see you did a good job on Donnie's shoulder, Raph," April said with a warm smile. "Why don't I work on you now?"
"I'm telling you, I'm fine," Raph insisted, but he sat down anyway and allowed April to touch his cuts and bruises with the now wet cloth. Donnie watched on with disappointment.
Mikey groaned once again, but suddenly silenced when he heard someone coming. He turned his head around to see who it was. "Master Splinter!"
Raph, Donnie, and April immediately looked up to see Splinter entering the living room. His face held the same stern look, but his eyes looked older and tired.
Raph stood up. "Well? Is Leo okay?"
"Yes, he is." Splinter paused, as if trying to find the right words. "Leonardo will be well physically. He has not wounds on his body."
"Great!" Mikey said happily, though he slightly moaned in pain from his broken arm. "So, can I go see him?"
Splinter looked hesitant.
"Master Splinter?" April spoke.
"What do you mean by, 'He'll be well physically,'" Raph asked his sensei.
Splinter released a long sigh, his stern face slowly collapsing to reveal a very miserable look. "Leonardo has locked his door and refused to open it at my request."
Sorrow instantly flowed through the group. Well, except for one.
"Ugh, this is so like Leo," Raph said, fuming. "He's blaming himself for everything, even though it really is all Shredder's fault, not his! I'm going in there and knock some sense into that guy."
Raph jumped over the couch (wincing from that action) and started forward, only stopping when Splinter held his hand up. "Do not, Raphael. Let him be for now."
"But Splinter-" Raph tried to say.
"You need to understand what your brother is going through right at this moment. He is the leader of this group and it was his responsibility to protect his brothers, his family, from any harm. To discover that, not only has harm befallen his family, but he was the very cause of it, well . . . that would be his very nightmare come true."
"But Master Splinter," Donnie spoke up. "Isn't there anything we can do for him?"
Splinter paused, wishing he knew some way to help his troubled son. "All we can do is let him know that we do not blame him and that we are here for him when he needs us. For now, let him have his privacy.
There was no more words to be said anymore.
Leo didn't care what time it was or how long it had been as he sat all alone in his bedroom, listening to the voices of his family outside.
He wanted so much to see them, but he couldn't. He could not bear to look at them or even have them look at him without sparking a dreadful memories of him as the monster.
Sleeping had not helped him at all, for nightmares plagued him, replaying those same, terrible memories. There were even some that had a different ending: him actually finishing the job and killing them all.
He saw himself stabbing his sensei and father to death.
He saw himself hit April with the end of his katana and blood pouring out of her head.
He saw himself stabbing Mikey's heart right through as he lay unconscious at his feet.
He saw himself holding Donnie down and watching him bleed to death before him.
He saw himself use his katana to stab all the way through Raph's throat.
All while Leo did these acts with a heartless smile.
Tears came to Leo once again. How could he have done that? To his own family? To his own brothers? Their screams and pleads for him to stop refused to leave him.
He had failed them. He was the leader and the oldest; it was his duty to keep them safe. And he failed.
He turned to a small mirror beside his bed, staring at his own reflection.
He no longer saw himself in it. He saw that monster that almost destroyed his entire family. Everyone that he loved.
Suddenly livid with himself, Leo took hold of the mirror and threw it hard against the wall, hearing it shatter against it and collapse to the ground.
Sobbing intensely now, he fell back on his bed and buried his face into the pillow. Oh my poor brothers! My poor family! I'm so sorry!
His eyes peeked open to look down over his bed and spotted a big chunk of the mirror close by. He saw his reflection on it, but this time, he saw his scars. The scars that will stay with him forever. The scars that will remind him of the monster he was and the things he had and almost done.
The scars that Shredder have given him before this whole thing started.
Pure rage came upon him. Shredder. He was the one who turned Leo into that monster. He was the one who had Leo hurt his family. He was the one who almost caused Leo to kill his own loved ones.
He swore to himself that Shredder will ultimately pay for his actions. Leo didn't know how, but he will make that sharp-clawed freak pay for it if it's the last thing he does.
One way or another, Leo will make Shredder pay.