Don leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. After they'd gotten off the phone with Mikey, Raph had told him of his upcoming rescue mission, and the part he and his men were playing in the attack with France. The last thing Raph needed was more stress, especially if it involved his brothers.
He sighed. Their tiny family had already through enough, tortured and twisted in the hands of the Shredder.
The lair had been invaded and bombed . The family had gone to live with April and Casey, but being at the top of the wanted list brought trouble knocking at their door. April and Casey's place was burned to the ground. They had all only just made it out alive.
Shortly after, April and Casey fled to Korea, but the turtles refused to leave their home city to the Shredder and the Foot. They lived in a cave off of the shores; a particularly damp and grimy one, even compared to the sewers. Master Splinter came down with a horrible case of the flu, and passed away soon after. The night he died was the night the three brothers split apart.
Ah, Leonardo. Their older brother who had gone completely mental. He remembered it like it was just yesterday...
It started off with little things, such as not participating in some of Mikey's video games or movie nights. But that quickly turned into not showing up for meals, and eventually missing training sessions. Once, when Don was still awake late at night, he decided to go see if Leo still had his French Revolution book. He had borrowed it weeks ago when he couldn't sleep one night. Don figured he would sneak in and grab the book as quietly as he could (or as loudly as he could, because Leo was such a light sleeper he knew he'd try to kill him instinctively if he thought there was an intruder in his room).
Deciding that nudging him first to make him aware of his presence, rather than having a startled Leo smash his head into a wall, Don padded on up to his room.
Upon reaching Leo's door, he noticed that something wasn't quite right. His brothers door, which was generally shut tight, lay slightly ajar. Slowly, he pushed the door open. It was instantly recognized that Leo was not in his room, where he should be at 3 o'clock in the morning. He stormed out of the room, leaned over the railing, and double checked the living room. Nothing. He knew he wasn't in the kitchen because he had been in there just five minutes earlier to get a glass of water.
After hours of waiting up, Leo finally came home. It was around 6, and Don sat bleary eyed in the kitchen. Only good old coffee had helped him all the way through the night.
As Leo entered, he noticed his eyes looked sunken in and sleep deprived, as if he hadn't slept in days. Don hadn't noticed that before. However, despite his exhausted state he looked quite alert, if not a little bit tense, and perhaps... fierce?
"Leo?" Don was quite surprised at his brothers state. None of this was at all like him.
Leo stopped in his tracks. He had known his brother had been there, but had evidently hoped that he would just let him go about his business.
"What?" he hissed, his back turned.
"What's going on with you? Where have you been?"
"What I do on my time is my own business." Leo grouched, his back still turned. Don could see the muscles in his shoulders tense.
"It becomes our business when you start missing training sessions. You've missed three! That is so not like you! Raph had to spar by himself! Master Splinter is furious, but your not around enough to know that!"
Leo was silent for a moment. "Back off." the hiss was back in his voice, cold and sharp. He turned around and Don gasped silently.
Running from the very edge of his bandana and down across his neck lay a giant gash of a cut, still fresh and seeping blood into his bandana. The place on the bandana where the cut started was torn and tattered, and the vessels in his eye were pouring tears of blood. All around his face was bruised deep purples and yellows. Don couldn't tell if he'd gotten cut in the eye or just hit; there was too much blood.
"Holy shit Leo! What happened?" Don exclaimed.
Leo grinned slightly, but it was not the sort of grin Don wanted to see. There was something dark and tortured in his face. Don couldn't place the look.
"Mind your own business, Don." He replied, slightly softer, but only slightly. He suddenly ran off to his room, leaving Don quite bewildered.
"What the shell?" he said to himself.
Deciding against his better judgment, he decided to follow Leo upstairs. He clearly needed medical attention, or the cut would get infected. And Don needed answers, whether Leo wanted to give them or not.
Reaching the top of the stairs, he found his brothers door to be tightly shut, as always. Mustering up as much courage as possible and telling himself that it was the right thing to do, Don knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. "Leo? Open up. Seriously, you cant hide. Don't be immature. Come out so I can help you clean up your face. Leo?" There was still no answer.
After a few moments of hollering at the door, Don saw Raph poke his head out of his doorway.
"Yo Donny, some people actually sleep in this place," he said, looking like he'd just been woken from a hounded year slumber.
"I know, but Leo's being a shell-for-brains. He's injured and he wont let me fix it."
"Well how did that happen?" Raph asked, stepping outside his doorway to stand next to Don.
"I don't know...He never came home last night," he whispered the last part.
Rap huffed. "Here we go again on the Leonardo Emotional Train Ride." He stepped towards the door. "Buckle up," he whispered to Don as he knocked. "Leo open this door."
Don held his breath. No answer.
"Leo, get over yourself already and open this door!" he said, knocking a little louder.
"Whoa, what time is it?" asked Mikey as he came stumbling out of his room, rubbing his unmasked eyes.
"Time for our fearless leader to tell us whats been going on," said Raph as Don filled Mikey in on the rest. "Open this door Leo, or I swear, ill break it down."
"No Raph, its ok," said Don, a little bit hastily. "he'll come out when he's ready. And he'll probably need stitches, so it shouldn't take too long. I don't want to piss him off more." He put a hand on Raphs shoulder.
The small family went about their business for the rest of the day, waiting and watching, but Leo never came out.
Night came again and still no sign of him. Eventually everyone fell asleep. The next morning they knocked and still received no answer. Training came and went, and still nothing. Master Splinter was furious. Lunch passed, dinner passed.
"But Donny, somethings not right! I want to go check on him," Mikey whined as Don clung to the back of his shell.
"You're right, something isn't right! And thatch why you cant go see him." Mikey struggled harder against Dons grip, but not enough to hurt him or break entirely free. "Mikey, c'mon, stop."
"Hey, whats going on?" asked Raph, strutting out of the kitchen.
"Don wont let me go talk to Leo."
"Doesn't matter, he wont open his door anyway," said Raph, shrugging.
"Yeah, but its been over a day and a half! I mean, doesn't he have to pee or eat or something?"
"He probably went in the night or while we were training. He's the stealthy one, remember?" said Raph.
"Yeah, and he's probably meditating. He can meditate for days," added Don.
"But-"
"Look if he's not out by morning, I'll be the first person to drag his butt out, whether he likes it or not. But in the mean time, Dons right, we do need to give him space. He seems a little... off, and I don't want you on the bad end of it" Raph said, crossing his arms. "Wow, listen to me, I even sound like fearless," he mumbled under his breath.
Mikey let his head bow defeatedly. He knew they were right. "Fine. Mornings only less than 12 hours away anyway."
The next morning Mikey was up bright and early. He was curious to see what Leo had been up to, and for some reason he just couldn't shake the unsettled feeling that had kept him awake most of the night. He just couldn't figure out what it was. He finally resorted it to the fact that he was just missing his big brother, whom he hadn't seen in 2 ½ days.
He jumped off his bed and trotted to the kitchen for a quick glass of water. His mouth was tortuously dry. Upon entering, though, he was surprised to find both Raph and Donny already awake and seated at the table.
"Hey, what are you guys doing up?" he asked.
"Couldn't sleep," Raph replied, his voice muffled by his hands covering his face.
"Hmm," said Mikey, pouring himself a glass of water and assuming that they had both had the same issue as him. He wolfed down his water like a madman. "Ok, lets go get Leo!" he said, dashing out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
"Alright, lets go pull Fearless out of his brooding," said Raph, rising from the table and stretching.
"More like pull the honey badger out of its burrow. Seriously Raph, there's something going on with him," said Don.
"I know, you've said that a million times, but we cant just let him hide and rot in his room. We need to figure out whats going on."
they reached the top of the stairs. Mikey was already waiting for him, bouncing slightly, like a child given too much candy. Raph couldn't believe he had this much energy this early in the morning.
Once the two got there, Mikey knocked softly.
"Hey bro, its time to come out," Mikey chirped softly.
No reply, as usual. Mikey grimaced at his brothers and pressed his ear against the door. Nothing. He knocked again. "Leo, seriously, time to open up," his voice was a little louder.
"Ok, I'm getting sick of this," Raph pushed forward "Yo Fearless, open this door. I'm not playing around."
"C'mon Leo, you cant live in your room. You need to come out some time. Please, we can help you, but only if you tell us whats wrong," pleaded Donny to the heartless wood door.
Not even the sound of shuffling feet could be heard from inside.
"Maybe he's meditating?" asked Mikey.
"I don't like this," whimpered Don.
"That's it, I'm going in," said Raph. "Donny, go get your tool kit; we're breaking this lock off."
don groaned, both at the idea of dragging a very distressed leader out of his sanctuary and at having yet another thing in the lair to fix.
"What do you suppose is wrong with him? I mean its not like he's gotten stabbed recently," Mikey almost joked but stopped himself.
"I don't know," Raph replied. They looked at each other. Both knew that the Shredder taking over the world had been destroying him mentally, especially because of all the times they had fought the Shredder and lost. Maybe if they hadn't lost thing would have never gotten this far. Now they were forced to hide out like cowards.
Don returned a minute later, tools in hand. He pulled out a screw driver. Knocking on the door he gave it one last try. "Ok Leo, last chance, we're coming in." With no reply Don set to work on the door knob, twisting and turning.
"Oh my God," h said after about 45 seconds.
"What?" they replied in unison.
"It looks like he's completely taken the whole half of the door knob off and jammed the lock!" he said, utterly bewildered. He pulled the rest of the door knob off the door. "Look, thees actually a hole where his side of the knob used to be!" They all looked through it. It was dark.
"Can you open it?" asked Mikey, still looking through the hole.
"Of course. Back up," Don scoffed like that was the dumbest question in the world.
Raph, standing behind Don, was starting to panic slightly. What the shell was going on?
From out of his tool box don pulled a small hammer. He stuck his screw driver inside the door again and swiftly hit it with his hammer. There was a snap. He put the hammer down and twisted the screw driver. Sure enough, they heard the click of the door. Before Don had much time to move out of the way Raph threw the door open.
"Leo?" The room was pitch black. Raph flicked on the light.
Nothing. The room stood in a remarkably destroyed state; the bed covers were strewn about, many soaked in burgundy dried blood. On one wall hung an obliterated mirror. The pieces were scattered about the floor, and there was a bloody three fingered hand print on the wall beside it. The trunk that was usually at the foot of his bed was pulled to the center of the room.
Both Don and Mike's jaws dropped. Raph strode over to the center of the room and knelt down in front of the trunk.
"Raph I wouldn't-" started Don, but Raph already had the lid open. He gasped quietly and the remaining brothers walked around to see what he was staring at.
"Oh my God..."
"No..."
They all stared down at the contents of the trunk. Inside it, right at the top, lay a tattered and bloody blue bandana, two sheathed katana, and a shoulder strap.
"No! No no no no no! He's gone! He cant be gone!" Raph growled as he picked up the bloody bandana, the dried blood crusting in his clenched palm. Without warning, he sprang up from his spot and bolted out the door.
"Raphael, wait!" Don tried to command, but his voice cracked a little and Raph was already half way down the stairs.
Even if Raph had heard Donny, he wouldn't have listened. His head was spinning so fast he was surprised he could see straight enough to walk. His older brother was gone, his leader! What had happened? His katana, Leo would never, ever leave his katana!
He pulled a lever on the wall and bolted out of the lair, Don and Mikey not far behind.
"Raphael!" Don lunged forward and grabbed his shoulder. Raph stopped, and fell to his knees, the bandana still in hand. Don crouched down beside him as Mikey watched silently. Tears were beginning to creep out of his eyes.
"Where did he go? How did he get out?" Raph knew that was a dumb question. Leo was a ninja, and they hadn't exactly been guarding his door. "He'll come back," he tried to convince himself. "He has to." his voice was soft a he spoke, barely audible, like he was talking to himself.
Suddenly, he slammed his fists into the cement, making the puddles of sewer water fly viciously back at him. His eyes blazed, his teeth clenched as he understood what his brothers absence meant. He growled.
"He left us! He has to come back!"
"Raph, listen to me. There was something going on with him. I knew it. I could sense it. Something wasn't right," Don tried, but he knew his words were of no comfort. How could they be? Their brother was still gone.
"Maybe he's still close by! We need to go find him!" Mikey croaked out. All of his childish energy was gone.
"I don't think so, Mikey. He probably left days ago," replied Don. He hated saying it, but he knew it was most likely true.
Meanwhile, Raph's temper was being fueled by the surge of memories that kept pushing themselves into his head: them when they were kids, Leo getting thrown through Aprils window, the fight the two of them had on the roof top after he'd returned from Central America. Mostly, he remembered the phase Leo had gone through after being stabbed by Karai, before he went to see the Ancient One, back when he thought he was not a good enough leader to lead them, and went completely mental.
"Well what do we do?" asked Mikey. "I don't know about you two, but I'm going out to look for him." Raph pulled himself up and stumbled forward
"I'm coming with you," said Mikey as he attempted to follow him, but Don pulled him back.
"C'mon, we'll scout the South side of town. I think he needs to be alone."
Outrage, betrayal, sorrow, fear. Raphael wasn't sure which of these he felt most but all were present and still remained very real to this day.