Author's note: This one was a little harder to write. As the leader, it seemed to me that Leo's fears would be more complex. Since we know that both failure and his brothers dying because of it are his greatest fear (thank you, Fungus Humongous), I realized that this had the potential to be too similar to Donnie's and Raph's dreams. I also didn't want it to turn into Fungus Humonguous 2.0. In addition, I wanted to explore Leo's thoughts on their being stuck at the cabin. Hopefully, I hit the mark. This chapter is a bit longer, and it is also the most violent one yet.

Leo limped out of the house into the woods, cursing his injured leg the whole way. He hated feeling this way . He was supposed to be the leader – Splinter had chosen him – but here he was, unable to lead because he was hobbling behind.

It wasn't as though it was unusual for Raph to beat him – and at least this time, Raph had been sympathetic instead of mocking him.

Leo knew that they needed to go back to New York. The Kraang threat was just going to keep spreading unless they cut it off at the source. He hadn't seen the results of the Kraang's perfected mutagen with his own eyes, but news reports from somewhere in New Jersey had managed to get photographs of it.

No single news station in New York was reporting. How could they?

Leo wanted to lead the charge into New York, to save the day, to be the hero he'd always figured he was destined to be…

With that thought, a gigantic meteorite plummeted from the sky and landed only a few feet away from him. Nonplussed, he hobbled over to it. On a whim, he touched it.

Electrical currents flooded his body. He was thrown back several hundred feet. But when he stood up, he was completely and totally healed.

"This is amazing!" he shouted, not caring that there was nobody to hear him. He practiced all of his favorite kenjutsu katas, reveling in the renewed strength of his body. He performed a mighty leap, and to his shock, he was leaping over the tree tops. "I'm a super hero!" he shouted. "Watch out Kraang, here we come!"

Suddenly, something collided with him and he plummeted to the ground. After he'd recovered from a moment of dazedness, he looked up. A massive, evil looking beaver stood over him.

"A super hero, hmm?" the beaver said. "It would seem you need a super villain."

Leo narrowed his eyes. Some of the mutagen that had spilled in the woods must have affected a beaver dam or something. "Oh yeah? Bring it – um, huh. Where's Mikey where you need him?"

The beaver raised a huge foot to stomp him; Leo rolled out of the way. With a shout, he slashed at the beaver's ankles. The beaver fell to the ground. Leo leapt onto the beaver's chest, holding the point of his sword at the beaver's throat.

"Ha!" Leo shouted. "I've beaten you!"

The giant beaver lay on the ground, staring down the blade of Leo's katana. It grinned wickedly. "Oh, have you, mighty hero?"

Two massive clawed arms moved faster than Leo could even see – the next thing he knew, he was flying through the air. When he hit the ground, he looked up to see his brothers around him. They helped him up.

"All right, you monster!" Leo said. "You might be more powerful than me, but against my team, you're helpless!"

The beaver chuckled sadistically.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Raph said. "Your team?"

"Um, well, yeah…I'm leader…"

"The heck you are!" Donnie said. "Some leader. Where did your leadership take you, exactly?"

"Yeah, dude," Mikey added. "Way to go with that awesome plan that nearly killed you and us."

Raph shoved a finger at Leo's chest. "If you think we're following you anywhere, then you're stupider than we thought."

"They are right, Leonardo."

Leo whirled around in shock at the sound of Master Splinter's voice. The two of them were in the dojo. The beaver, the woods, and his brothers had vanished entirely. "Sensei?"

Splinter scowled. "I regret nothing more than my decision to make you leader. Your lack of decisiveness, and your inability to convince your brothers of your authority, caused all of this."

"No," Leo muttered. "I – "

"Furthermore," Splinter said, as he pounded his staff on the ground, "you are solely responsible for what happened to Karai. Your leadership – and then your failure to lead – led to those events.

"My daughter is ruined because of you!"

The world spun in a kaleidoscope all around him; the dojo was gone. Leo leapt to catch the cage as Karai fell…

He missed. Her terrified eyes stared up at him, begging him to help her. Then, in an instant, they disappeared into the vat of mutagen.

"No!" Leo cried. "Karai! No!"

"All your fault," hissed an icy voice. "All your fault. All your fault…"

Leo grabbed his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "It is – it's all my fault…"

He was in a free fall, spinning out of control.

He'd never been in control.

He slammed into the ground. When he opened his eyes, Leo found himself in a horribly familiar construction site in New York. Snowflakes drifted lazily from the overcast sky.

A shadow stood overhead. Leo's stomach turned into a brick of ice.

Shredder.

"You fool," Shredder said. "Deluded by your youth and ridiculous ideations. Did you really think you could defeat me? Did you think you could defeat the Kraang? Did you really think you were ever suited to lead?

"You are nothing. I am a leader. My men follow my orders without the slightest hesitation. Attack!"

Tiger Claw, Fish Face, and Rahzar leapt down from above.

Leo realized he was unarmed. He'd lost his swords in the fight against all the Footbots. He was exhausted. He wasn't a super hero. He wasn't even a hero. He'd never been one.

And he never would be.

The three mutants converged on him – with every blow, he felt his strength draining away. He was becoming weaker and weaker…

"You will always be too weak to lead," Shredder said. He gestured to his henchmen. "Finish him."

With a roar, Leo pushed himself back from the brink of despair. Fueled by rage – rage at the Shredder, rage at himself – he drove back the three mutants. Against all the odds, he was winning…

…then Shredder stood behind him. He wheeled around. All he could do was raise his forearms to block the strike…

Shredder's blades bit into the flesh of Leo's arm. With a cry, he flew backward. Another sharp kick broke his leg. He fell to the ground, moaning in pain. Shredder plunged his blades into Leo's upper chest. Leo started gasping for air, coughing up mouthfuls of blood.

"So weak," Shredder said. "Incompetent fool. At least you lead your family in one thing. You lead before them as the first to die" – he twisted the blades; Leo cried out in agony – "and you led them into the jaws of death."

Unable to move, bleeding out slowly, Leo watched as the world spun around him. Shredder attacked and killed his brothers one by one. Raph's throat was slit. The Shredder impaled Donnie through the vulnerable joints in his plastron. Screaming, Mikey leapt into the fray.

Shredder strangled him with the chain of his own kusarigama.

"No…" Leo gasped, choking on blood. The scene played over and over again like a video on loop, soundless except for an icy voice laughing in delight.