A/N: Alright, the story is almost done! I think I'll get one or two more chapters into this and then I can start on another project. Thanks for continuing to read!

Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT.

The moon hid behind dark clouds, as if hiding its face from the violence of the world. Rain fell from the dark clouds like the moon's tears for the world. The city was a blur of dim lights that blinked under the heavy pour of rain. The weather drummed out a steady beat upon the unusually quiet city. It felt as if the entire island was holding its breath in anticipation.

Several figures, barely visible in the darkness, stood atop a roof. Two ravens flitted above their heads and towards the tower the figures faced. The tower seemed to glow slightly in the dark and dank sky. Lightning flashed and thunder followed shortly, booming and clapping loudly. The lightning illuminated the cityscape, only to plunge it into a deeper darkness. The lightning flashed again and the figures were gone.

~.~.~.~.~.~

He sat at a table, surrounded by his three brothers and his father. They were all dimly lit by the candles on the cake before them. "Happy Birthday!" was scrawled messily in red icing on the cake. He grinned at his brothers and caught a warm smile from his father. "Wake up!" The unlikely family cried in elation.

Raph's head jerked up and a short muffled cry of pain escaped from his mouth and into a leather gag at the searing sensation that took hold of his left thigh. His vision, blurry, caught sight of a wild splatter of dried blood on the bricked wall across from him. His eyes darted about the dark room, lit only by a torch scone on the wall, and his heart seemed to thud painfully in his chest. Racks and tables were against the walls, neat arrays of sharp objects were arranged on the flat metal tables. His eyes darted to an iron maiden in the corner of the room and to a rack in the other corner. He attempted to rise from his shell and found himself bound to a metal table with thick steel clamps holding his wrists and ankles down.

Tsssssss!

Raph turned his head and clamped his teeth down as another surge of searing pain tore through his left leg. His breath came out in a gasp as the burning sensation began to slowly fade. He turned his head and froze at the sight. A snarl broke out on his features with the exception of the tape that covered his mouth and prevented him from spitting out the foul tasting gag.

"You are awake, then, Raphael?"

Karai held a glowing orange brand in her gloved left hand. She held a look of utter disgust upon her features. In her right hand was a small green object. Raph's eyes darted to the object instantaneously and he felt himself tense up. "Where are Mikey, Leo, and Don? Are they okay?" He thought franticly.

He did not have to wait long for his answer as Karai held up his shell cell. "Your brothers remain in hiding. You are alone, Raphael." She spoke calmly and sharply. Raph strained against his bonds, glaring hatefully at her. She waved it off. "I have no reason to lie to you. I do not lie to my enemies, I would rather destroy them." She stated. "That is why I have brought you here, Raphael." She finished before yanking the tape off of his mouth and the leather gag out of his mouth. Raph worked his jaw muscles as Karai began another bit of speech.

"I have threatened Leonardo with your life, he will likely arrive shortly. My men are ready to capture him so that I may slay the pathetic wretch." She bit out every word in anger. Raph furrowed his ridges and a bark of ill-humored laughter escaped his raw throat. She snapped her gaze back to him and her eyes narrowed. "He ain't comin'. He ain't gonna risk the rest o'our family fer' me, ya dumb bitch." Raph bluffed, feigning a smug grin. Karai shoved the brand back into glowing orange coals and, with her now free hand, she slapped Raphael roughly. The sound of the slap echoed slightly in the near empty room. Raph turned his head and spat the collection of blood in his mouth at her face. It spattered messily on her cheek. She wiped it off angrily and Raph grinned smugly. She yanked the brand out of the coals.

"If you so believe that he will not come, perhaps we should offer an incentive." She said, opening up the shell cell and pressing a button. Raph's eyes narrowed. The phone began beeping as she called his brother. It went on for what felt like hours to Raphael until there was a muffled breathing sound.

"I know it's you Karai." A stiff and cold voice spoke.

Raph stared; he hadn't heard Leo speak like that before. He was shocked at the complete coldness in the voice. Karai merely smirked. "Let us not bother with pleasantries, Leonardo. I have your brother here, and he wonders why he hasn't been saved yet." She replied. Raphael opened his mouth to shout a protest and Karai thrust the brand upon his other leg, smirking at the steaming sound of the hot metal burning against his flesh. Raph could not bite back the cry of pain that escaped his throat. Karai removed the brand and brought the blunt handle down on his midsection. Raph grunted with the strike and his breath came out in a gasp.

There was silence on the phone but Raphael could sense the anger from his brother. Karai brought the phone up to her mouth and spoke into the receiver. "If you don't hurry, Raphael might be no more than a charred husk of," She began.

"I will be there soon and I will kill you easily." Leo interrupted with a sinister voice dripping intensity. "If my brother is harmed in any way, I swear I will kill everyone you ever cared about."

Raph's eyes went wide as Karai fumed. There was a beep and the line went dead. She hurled the phone against the wall and it broke apart at the impact in a shower of small blue sparks and green bits. She turned back to Raphael and dropped the brand back into the coals. "Your brother believes he can kill me. I will make him pay for his insolence." She spoke as she lifted a pair of tongs. She retrieved a red hot coal from the furnace and approached Raph. He sensed the inevitable pain approaching. Raph was still stunned by Leo's comment and he knew there was naught he could do to fend off Karai in his current state. Her free hand whipped out and struck his solar plexus. His breath whooshed out of his mouth and she opened the tongs to drop the red hot coal in his mouth. Immediate and burning white hot pain flooded his senses and he fought desperately to rid himself of the coal. Karai taped his mouth shut before he could spit out the coal.

He shook his head wildly. The sizzling sounds filling his mouth flooded his head. He began thrashing in his bonds as he fought against the pain. Involuntary tears streamed from the corners of his eyes. His vision was blurred with the tears and he paid no heed to anything but the intense pain.

Karai set the tongs down and lifted a short rake-like object. She brought it up over her head and slammed the rake's spikes into his left thigh. Raphael bucked in agony; muffed cries escaped his burning mouth.

Karai withdrew the rake from his flesh with a disgusting suckling sound and tossed it aside before taking the tongs back into hand. She ripped off the tape and forced his mouth open as she gently removed the burning coal. His mouth had blackened from the outside and his tongue was both black and red. Raphael's head lolled aside as he breathed in through his mouth in relief of the burning pain. His body wracked with deep breaths. Karai tossed the coal back in the furnace and dropped the tongs on a table. She pulled something underneath the table Raph was strapped to and it tipped suddenly. She pressed a button and the table rose up, as it rose it tilted more and more until Raph was hanging upside down. The blood rushed to his head quickly and his vision grew dizzy.

She nodded to a man standing in the corner of the room, a man Raphael hadn't noticed before. The man stepped out of the shadows of the room and his identity was revealed: Hun. Raph shook his head and gargled an insult with his severely burnt tongue. Hun grinned sadistically and in his hand he held a hand saw. Hun placed the teeth of the saw at the base of Raphael's plastron, just on his crotch. Raph's eyes went wide and he fought all the harder to free himself from his bonds when the door to the room opened and shut quickly and the torch hit the ground, suddenly pitching the room into darkness.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

He glared hard, his breathing was even and near silent. He had left his allies to fight off any who dared intrude before he had entered the room. His katanas were clenched loosely in his grip. The room was pitch black with the exception of the orange glow from the furnace that illuminated Hun and Raphael. Leo moved in a blur, his katanas whipped out, striking Hun's back. His katanas tore through muscle and bone, forcing a cry of pain to leave the overgrown human's throat. Leo then slashed a katana up, taking Hun's arm at the elbow. The big man had no time to react with anything other than a scream as he hit the ground, dying. Leo tilted his head to the side, avoiding a katana thrust for his throat.

"Hello, Karai. I'm here to exact payment from your hide." Leo said in a chilling voice, his mouth rose into a malicious smirk. Raph could only stare. He was chilled to the core by the sudden coldness from his usually compassionate brother. His throat and tongue still throbbed painfully as the blood from his leg trickled down his plastron. He shook his head and struggled to turn the table so he wouldn't pass out.

Karai gave a cry and charged. Leo expected it, he leapt aside, and his trailing foot caught her leading one and she tumbled to the ground before the door. "You're so angry, Karai. It's only making this easier for me. But, I don't want you to die just yet. Let's give you everything you deserve." He spoke again; a sadistic grin broke across his features in the flickering orange glow of the furnace. He strode forward as Karai shakily stood up. He sheathed his left hand katana and turned his body to avoid a slash that would have taken his left arm. Leo's free hand whipped out and caught the collar of her shirt. He pulled her up to his face and brought back the pommel of his right hand katana. It struck her cheek with a sickening crunch. He shoved her back where she dropped to a crouch, clutching her cheek. He stood waiting for her to get back up.

"Is that all you've got for me, Karai?" He asked, letting impatience creep into his voice. She glared at him hatefully and hurled a handful of shuriken at him. Leo smirked again as he deflected the hits with the blade of his katana. "Pitiful. But I am running out of time, Karai."

Leo's smirk vanished, replaced by a cold and distant face as he rushed forward. Karai stood up and deflected his first blow with a clash of sparks. He was a whirlwind and she was forced to parry more than attack. Leo smashed the pommel of his katana into her left wrist and she grunted as the bone crunched. "Yes, feel the pain I was forced to carry." He hissed as he slashed her left calf open; tearing through the leather boot and revealing gleaming red muscle in the orange glow. She stumbled back and for the first time in a long time: she was scared.

She favored her left leg as she hurled smoke pellets at Leonardo's face. He ducked under them and hurled his body forward as she struggled with the door to the room, passing the dead Hun and his struggling brother. She managed to get it open just as his katana entered her right thigh. She gasped and twisted away instinctively, slicing her thigh open. Blood spurted wildly, splashing on Leo and the white floors of the brightly lit hallway. Karai whirled and hit the ground, her katana clanged against the tile as she just barely managed to keep her grip on it. She began crawling toward the elevator not six feet away. Leonardo, covered in her blood, glanced about with a disinterested look on his face. His allies, the Hamato clan ninjas, were striking down Foot clan ninjas with ease. He reversed his grip on his katana and brought the blade down with powerful force into Karai's left arm. She cried out in pain as the blade sliced through her flesh and the tile of the floor. The blade effectively trapped her body to the floor. She struggled pitifully; her bloody body was smearing red on the white tile.

Leo unsheathed his second katana and reentered the room in which Raphael was held prisoner. He turned the table so that it was parallel to the ground. He sliced through the shackles holding his brother and looked him over. He assisted Raph into a sitting position; Raph swung his legs over the side of the table and rubbed his head. He took in all of Raphael's injuries as the red-masked terrapin shook his head free of dizziness. Leo removed his blue mask and wrapped it around Raph's injured thigh, temporarily stemming the flow of blood. Leo frowned; his brother had yet to speak. "Raph, are you okay?" He asked tentatively, his dark side was seemingly quelled by the worry for his brother.

Raphael shot him a suspicious look and pointed at the furnace and then his mouth. Leo then noticed the black burn marks on his mouth and his hand clenched around the katana hilt tightly, threatening to pop out his own knuckles at the extreme force. The soft light in his eyes faded quickly and his head whipped toward the open door to Karai's mangled body. Leo straightened and his eyes held a menacing glow as he strode toward Karai's struggling form. He yanked his katana free from her arm with a small spurt of blood. He brought both blades up to end her. He suddenly leapt back, avoiding an arrow aimed for his heart. Leo shot a look in the direction the arrow had come from to spot the elite ninjas sprinting for him.

Leo took an offensive stance, raising his katanas. He was determined to keep his brother safe and slay Karai, both of those in order of importance. The four elite ninjas disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke as they neared him. Leo ducked as they reappeared surrounding him. A blade that would have found his throat instead met air. Leo sweep kicked, knocking one off his feet. Leo rolled forward and stood behind another ninja, dropping a katana and bringing a tanto across the ninja's throat in a swift movement. The ninja dropped to the ground with a spray of blood.

One of the two still standing ninjas was carrying Karai to the elevator. Leo found a snarl caught in his throat at the sight and he twirled aside, dodging an axe swing from the other standing ninja. Leo continued his spin, slamming his elbow into the back of the ninja before plunging his katana into his side.

Leo, forced to let go of his katana, leapt aside, dodging a thrusting trident. He found himself dodging swift stabs and slashes from the trident. Leo's eyes narrowed. "You're wasting my time…" He growled under his breath as he noticed that Karai and the fourth elite were gone. He sidestepped a stab of the trident and moved forward quickly, his tanto gleaming in the brightly lit white hall. He buried the tanto to the hilt between the ninja's ribs. The ninja shoved him off and smacked his trident against Leo's shell. The wood splintered upon impact with his shell, breaking the weapon as Leo had braced himself for the hit. The ninja staggered back and tripped over the bodies of his comrades as he clutched the tanto sticking out of his rib cage. Leo yanked his katana free of one of the dead elites and brought it down on the wounded one's neck. His head struck the ground with plop. Leo spat at their dead bodies before retrieving his weapons and flicking the blood free from their blades.

He glanced down the hall to see piles of dead ninjas and he could still hear the sound of metal clashing on metal. Leo whistled loudly before reentering the torture chamber to retrieve his brother. Raphael looked up at his entrance; he appeared shaken by something though he could not voice it. "Can you walk?" Leo asked him as he sheathed his blades. Raph nodded and slowly stood, clearly favoring his left leg. Leo glanced back as one of the Hamato ninjas entered the room. It was Tenjin. Leo returned his gaze back to Raph and placed both hands on his brother's shoulders. "Tenjin will help you get home, alright?" Leo said, the warmth had returned to his eyes, but there was a coldness still hiding in them. Raph immediately shook his head and gargled words escaped his mouth. Leo shook his head. "You're in no condition to fight, Raphael. Just please go with Tenjin. The others are safe. I need to make sure this never happens again, I promise I'll be back, Raph." Leo said, touching his forehead to Raphael's before sprinting off, past Tenjin.

A/N: So yes, Leo's got a bit of a dark side now. You really can't blame him for having one, he's been through some tough cookies lately. Anyways, please review!