A/N Whew, this was a tough chapter to write. And, whoo-boy, ya'll are going to hate me when you get to the end of it. But don't worry, things have a way of working out for the best. ;)
In the days following the fight, there was very little interaction between the two sets of brothers. Raph, Mikey an d Leo, when they weren't training, either spent their time in Raph's room, or safely topside. Raphael and Michelangelo, on the other hand, had chosen Master Splinter's old room as their retreat. Only Donny and Donatello had any extensive contact, and that was kept strictly on the business of returning Donatello and his brothers back to their dimension.
After several days of discussion and false starts, the pair finally came up with what they reasoned would be a workable plan for returning the excess turtles back to their home. That evening after dinner, all seven turtles were summoned to the living room to be briefed.
"All right," Donny said, starting off. "This is what we know for sure. The night our unwanted visitors appeared in our world, Donatello had been testing a new quantum dimension detection unit, at the same time Saki's unit went on the fritz here. Now, when Leo's katana cut through the control panel, we think it interfered with the internal power distribution coupling. In short, it prevented the machine from delivering enough power to the window projector to complete a connection between our dimension, and the demon world Saki intended on reaching. However, since the machine was already activated, it began searching for a closer dimension, one that would require less energy, to latch on to. It hit upon Donatello's dimension, because his detector acted as a beacon for it."
"That's all very interesting, but what does that mean," Raphael asked.
"It means that we should, by returning to that warehouse and, with a little tinkering, powering up Saki's machine again, be able to open a portal back home," Donatello replied.
Leo looked at Donny. "Do you agree," he asked.
"Right now, it's our best shot," Donny said. "As long as no one has interfered with the machine, which I doubt they have since the warehouse as been under lockdown for the past week and a half, restarting the machine should simply reopen the portal to its last destination, which would be their dimension."
"Very well," Leo said, making his decision. "Have everything ready to go by dusk. I want to be on our way to the warehouse by nightfall."
TMNTTMNT
Just a few hours later, the seven turtles were packed up and ready to go. As Leo moved out of the Lair, he stopped, gave the familiar surroundings one last look, a sense of foreboding settling over him.
"Hey, bro, what's the hold up," Raph said, coming to his side.
"I'm not sure," Leo said. "I…it's just, I get the feeling I won't be coming back."
"Don's say things like that," Raph growled, a sliver of panic slithering through him. "Of course you will. Just think, in a couple of hours our unwanted houseguests will be gone, and then we can come back and plan that party we were talking about last week."
Leo just smiled at his brother, but deep down inside, he knew that party was never going to happen.
TMNTTMNT
The trip across town to the warehouse was uneventful, but that only served to make Leo more wary. He hated missions that seemed to be going too easily; they were always the ones that ended up going to hell. Still, it was a relief to arrive at the warehouse and find it, other than the police tape, relatively untouched.
Immediately, Donny and Donatello moved in to assess the dimensional window projector. Donny gave a whistle as he inspected the damage done by Leo's katana.
"You are something else," he told his brother admiringly. "I don't think you could have hit more essential systems if I have given you a blueprint and point-by-point instructions."
"You can fix it, though, can't you," Leo asked, and Donny gave him reassuring pat on the shell.
"Bro, if I can completely repair Raph's shell cell after Casey stepped on it and then Raph dropped it in sewer water, then this will be piece of cake by comparison."
That said, the two purple accented got down to work. Leaving them to it, Leo turned to the other four turtles and said, "Spread out, and keep your eye out for anything out of place. I wouldn't put it past Saki to come back and try to reclaim his little toy."
"And you would be right, wouldn't you," a very familiar voice hissed from behind Leo. The oldest turtle turned to find Saki and fifteen of his Elites emerging from the shadows. "Now, why don't you stand aside, and I promise I will make your death quick."
"Like shell," Leo said, drawing his katanas.
"Good, I was hoping you would say that," the Shredder said with a cold smile. "In that case, my ninjas can entertain your pathetic little family. I'm going to take care of you myself."
"Keep the Elites away from Don and Donatello," Leo ordered over his shoulder. Turning to the Shredder he added, "I'm going to end this for good tonight."
As the fifteen Elite ninjas rushed past Leo, he gave them no mind, instead keeping his attention solely on the figure directly before him. He knew from past experience just how fast Saki was, and knew that taking his eyes off him could very well prove to be his downfall. For a long, tense moment, neither combatant moved.
"Well, turtle, aren't you going to make a move," Saki taunted. "Or have you discovered you're really a coward underneath the shell." Leo never blinked; he just continued to look at his enemy with a calm, implacable gaze. Feeling unaccustomedly unnerved, Saki moved first, lashing out with a clawed gauntlet. Leo met the oncoming weapon with his right blade. Using the momentum from the strike to whirl himself around, Leo landed a kick straight at the Shredder's back. Saki used the forward drive to power a forward handspring away from Leo. Turning back toward his opponent, Saki executed a flying kick that caught Leo solidly in the plastron, knocking him backward.
Allowing instinct to take over, Leo redirected his backward movement into reverse somersault, and came back to his feet, swords in hand. With a leap, he somersaulted over Saki's head, turning to last out with his left blade as he landed, but the blow was caught on Saki's left gauntlet. Before Leo could disengage, Saki dropped and swept his feet from beneath him, sending Leo onto his back. Instantly, Leo rolled to his right, barely getting out of the way of the descending blades of the Shredder's clawed armor.
Quickly regaining his feet, Leo once again found himself face-to-face with his enemy. This time, Leo didn't wait for the Shredder to take the offensive; instead, he launched blistering attack of flashing blades and powerful blows. It was enough to drive the Shredder back a few steps. He recovered instantly, however, and suddenly it was Leo who was once again on the defensive.
Acknowledging that he couldn't keep this pace up forever, Leo back-flipped away from his opponent, giving himself a little breathing room. It was apparent Saki needed a moment as well, for he didn't immediately come after the sword wielding turtle. Concerned for how his brothers were managing, Leo looked to where they were fighting to keep the Elite ninjas away from Don and Donatello, who looked like they might have the dimensional window up and working, but he didn't have time to do much more than acknowledge that they were holding their own before Saki was upon him once more. This time, however, the metal wearing warlord changed tactics slightly, as he leaped at Leo, catching around the chest. Instead of letting go, however, he followed the turtle to the floor, and as they impacted against the floor, he dug his claws into the tend flesh along Leo's right side, between his plastron and his shell.
Unable to hold back a cry, Leo's body bucked in pain, dislodging his attacker. Arm pressed against his bloody side, Leo turned unsteadily to face his opponent, bracing himself for another attack. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Saki was looking at him with a self-satisfied look on his face, Leo's blood dripping from his left hand.
"I must admit turtle, a good deal better than your predecessor," Saki told Leo. "He never lasted half this long during our sessions while he was in my 'care.' Pathetic, really. By the time I killed him it was a mercy. You, at least, have presented me with something of a challenge. But it doesn't matter. It's only a matte r of time before I succeed in killing you, and then your brothers will be at my mercy. I think I'll take my time with them; I wouldn't want my enjoyment to end too soon. By the time I'm done with them, they will be cursing you for the quick death you enjoyed."
At the Shredder's words, an intensity nothing like anything Leo had ever experienced before overcame the oldest turtle. Strength and energy unlike he had ever known previously flooded through Leo, and he dropped his arm away from his wounded side. Moving almost too fast for the eye to see, Leo landed a punch that sent the Shredder, who was shocked by and unprepared for the strength of his adversary's assault, stumbling backwards, his helmet flying away. Unable to move fast enough to block the incoming attacks, Saki could only stand there as Leo pulverized him.
"You will keep," Leo growled as he landed a snap-kick against Saki's jaw, "your filthy hands," a bruising roundhouse to Saki's stomach, "away from my brothers!" A final uppercut laid the warlord out in the floor. Without a second thought or the tiniest regret, Leo pulled his katanas, and buried them both in the Shredder's stomach, deep enough that they pierced the floor beneath his body. For a long moment, Leo was aware of nothing beyond the sound of his heavy breathing and the bloody, lifeless figure lying on the floor before him. With a grunt, Leo pried his swords out of the floor and, after wiping the blood off on his enemy's clothes, placed them back in their sheaths across his back. That's when the silence hit him. Turning away from the Shredder's corpse, Leo found his stunned brothers staring at him, surrounded by the unconscious bodies of the Elite ninjas. Before he could make any move toward them, however, the silence was broken by a loud crack, and Leo suddenly felt an agonizing flash of heat in his stomach. Looking down, he was horrified to see the blood gushing from a hole in his plastron.
"No," Raph screamed, as his brother collapsed on the floor, blood pulsing from the gunshot wound in his gut. Without thought, and without looking, Raph sent a said flying in the direction he had seen the shot come from. Ignoring the pained scream from the sai hitting its mark, Raph rushed to his fallen brother, Mikey and Donny at his side.
Falling to his knees beside the blood covered Leo, Raph wasn't sure where to start. He was grateful, therefore, when Donny ordered him to take the towel (from Donny's ever-present bad which, like a good boys scout, was always prepared), and press it firmly against the wound. Raph did so, though he winced as Leo gasped and the new pain.
"Shh, easy bro, it'll be alright," Raph reassured his hurting brother. "You're gonna be fine." You've got to be. But even as he said it, Leo's words from earlier that evening came back to haunt the younger turtle.
"He's not gonna make it," Donatello said, coming up behind Raph, followed closely by his brothers.
"What do you know," Raph growled, pressing even harder on the still bleeding wound.
"I know that if Leo doesn't get medical help soon, he's going to bleed to death," Donatello told him. "I also know that your Lair is too far away, and even if you get him back there alive, you don't have the equipment you need to save him."
"So what do you suggest we do," Mikey snapped from Raph's other side. "Just let him die?"
"You could send him back with us," Donatello suggested. "I have the equipment and the knowledge to save his life. Besides, it's a lot closer to our home than to yours."
"No," Raph immediately snapped. "You nearly killed him before. How can we trust him to you again?"
"Because he's our brother too," Donatello said quietly. "And despite the horrible mistakes we made previously, we still care for him. I don't want to watch him die anymore than you do, and I have the means to save his life."
Before Raph could disagree once more, Donny cut in.
"Raph, he's right," Donny said sadly. "Leo needs attention; now. If we tried to get him back to the Lair, he'd be dead before we arrived. Besides, I don't have the necessary means to save him."
"So what, we just send him back with the jerks that almost killed him in the first place," Mikey asked, tears streaming down his face.
"The way I see it, we have two choices," Donny said, his own face covered in tears. "We can either keep Leo here and let him die, or we can send him with them and let him survive. It all comes down to which reality we'd rather live with."
For a long moment Raph sat in silence, weighing the two options. Finally, he gathered his brother's limp body in his arms and embraced him tightly against his chest. Then, with great solemnity, he gained his feet and, turning to face Donatello, passed the body of his best friend, his big brother, over to the other turtle.
"Please, save him," Raph said, his voice gruff. "I'd rather know he was out there somewhere, still alive, than to watch him die here. Just…just take care of him. You almost destroyed him once; don't do it again."
With an equally solemn nod, Donatello took his brother's body and disappeared through the glowing portal, Raphael and Michelangelo close on is heels. It wasn't until the portal shut down behind them that Raph collapsed, heaving sobs pouring from him as he lost his brother yet again.