The first thing he saw was darkness. His head was a pounding resonating tempo against his skull as he squeezed his eyes shut. It almost made him want to puke. That and the churning in his stomach. He had this nagging feeling like he had done something awful and he just couldn't remember what.
Leo went to pull his hand up but it stopped short, a rough binding holding his hand snugly behind his back. "What the…" He tugged on his other hand. The same result. The turtle started to move all of his limbs only to discover that he was hogtied. He pulled so hard his wrists and ankles started to wear and bleed in some spots. His weapons were missing and he was in some dark room, alone. "What the hell is going on here?!" He finally yelled when he realized he couldn't break the restraints. The door was flung open, the light blinding him for a moment.
"Leo! Leo, tell me you are normal again!"
He squinted towards the light and tried to focus on the figure approaching. "Mikey? Mikey what's… I thought…." He looked around and realized he was on his bed, in his own room. "How'd I get home?" He asked. "Wait, why am I tied up?" He looked up angrily. "What's going on?!" He started squirming around again
Donnie entered the room. "You are finally awake. Good. Now it's just the other two I have to worry about." He looked to Mikey. "Cut him loose, he's back to normal clearly."
"Clearly." Leo frowned as his nerd brother left the room.
Mikey was quick to cut the bindings off the eldest one and pull the ropes away. "Sorry Leo, but we had to. You… you weren't yourself." He tried to explain.
Leo rubbed his sore wrists as he sat upright on his bed. "What is that supposed to mean Mike? Full sentences please."
Mikey ran a hand over his face. "A few days ago you broke in, you were acting all crazy… you tried to kill Jack and in the process you nearly cut Ant's hand in half."
He froze. "I did what?" He looked around the room. His weapons were missing, taken by his brothers he presumed. "But I'd… I'd never do that. Jack helped me, Why would I attack her?" His mind hadn't registered that he didn't know who Ant was, he was too horrified with the fact he almost killed a poor woman. Getting to his feet he brushed past Mikey and found Donnie hunched down by the sofa handing another turtle a handful of pills. Raph? No… the color was wrong.
As he came up behind the couch the smaller turtle looked up and jumped, scrambling backwards before he almost screamed when he put his weight on his hand.
Donatello glared at him. "Leo. Get out of here. Go sit in the dining room."
He blinked, astonished that Donnie had been so threatening, so demanding. Leo obeyed and went to sit at the table. He could hear him talking to the other turtle.
"Calm down. Remember what I said, he's back to normal, he's not going to hurt you again. You need to relax and stop jostling your hand or you are going to tear out all those stitches."
"I know." The younger one replied. "He just startled me is all. I wasn't prepared to see him looming over me." He held his hand out and Donnie gave him a few painkillers. In a gulp they were gone and he laid down, closing his eyes.
By the time Donnie was on his way over to the table, Mikey had already joined Leo. "That, would be Antonello."
"The turtle Raph brought back." Leo filled in, remembering catching a glimpse of him briefly when they had been down in the swamp.
"Yes. You cut his hand in two Leonardo." Donnie said with a scowl. "I'm not sure it will have much function when it heals.
Leo ran his hands over his face. "I don't know what you are talking about. Please, someone tell me what happened. The last thing I remember is sneaking around the Xanus labs down in Georgia. I don't even know how I got home." He was frustrated, clearly, as he restrained himself from beating a hand on the table.
Donnie's features softened. "You really don't remember?"
"No I don't! Mikey says I wasn't myself, you say I almost amputated this kids hand… and… where is Jack? Is she okay? I didn't really hurt her did I?" He was starting to really get worried.
Donnie sighed. "She's still unconscious. You guys have been out for four days."
Leo jumped to his feet. He looked around the house. "Where is she?" He spied the new addition to the house, the new hallway, and headed towards it. He was stopped when someone grabbed his wrist.
Mikey was holding him in place. "I wouldn't." He suggested. "Raph hasn't left her side."
"They are… close, to say the least. Hurting her, hurt him far more, I think." Donnie told him.
Leo stopped and looked from the hallway back to his brothers. "What? He…" He swallowed hard. Pulling his hand from his younger brother's he frowned. Turning he headed in the other direction. "I'm going to meditate. I need to think." So he disappeared down the hall and into the meditation room.
Donnie leaned back into his chair and let his head fall back. "Oh boy… this is not going to be a good week."
The one in orange just frowned. "Should we tell Raph that Leo is awake?"
"We will tell him the next time he comes out." He rubbed his face. "I just think we need to all sort this out quickly. What ever happened to Leo, it wasn't his fault. Someone did it to him. We need to figure out what he knows, and what is going on here."
"Well you know Raph isn't going to think clearly until he knows Jack is going to be okay."
"Yeah… That's what worries me. I'm not sure she will be." Donnie hung his head. "I should have forced him to take her to the hospital."
Leo was sitting cross legged on the mat in front of the table where the incense was burning. He was taking slow deep breaths in a rhythmic succession as he tried to focus his mind. He needed to think, to remember what had happened. He tried to let the pain in his wrists and ankles just fade into the back ground as he focused on his breathing.
He wasn't sure how long he was in there before he opened his blue eyes. Rising to his feet he left the room. Glancing to his right he spied the training room, inside he caught the glint of steal that was his swords, lying on the floor, tossed there like trash. Stepping inside he grabbed them, hesitating as he lifted them. There was blood staining one of the blades. Slipping the clean blade into its sheath on his back, Leo carried the dirty one to the wash bowl against the wall. He washed it off with a frown before drying it off with a towel and replacing it in its sheath.
Silently, calmly he walked down the hallway passed where his other brothers had been and headed for Jack's bedroom. Pausing outside her door, Leo listened. He could hear Raphael inside talking to someone. His voice was softer than he had ever heard, tender almost.
"Please, just wake up… I can't…"
Leo opened the door and in an instant, the strap across his chest was grabbed and he was pinned against the wall. He held up his hands as Raph glared in his face.
"What are you doing here?" Raph hissed.
Leo looked passed him and pointed at the bandaged woman on the bed. "I came to check on Jack."
His eye narrowed. "Check on her?! You are the one that put her here!" Raph let him go with one more final shove into the wall before he turned around and headed back to the chair at the bedside.
"I never meant to… I don't even remember." Leo tried to explain.
With a shout Raph whipped around and punched Leo square in the face. "I don't care!" There was a tear rolling down his face. "I don't know what to do Leo! She won't wake up, won't move… What if…" He turned to the side and let his fist fly into the wall. Plaster and wood crumbled under the pressure. "I can't bear the thought of losing her. And you!" he pointed at him. "You were so hell bent on killing her… I almost couldn't stop you. My brother, our leader. How could you break my trust like that?"
Seeing the tears on his brother's face hurt Leo. It made him realize just how much he cared for the woman on the other side of the room. The tears hurt him more than the punch he received. But what hurt more was hearing he had lost his brother's trust. His stomach dropped and his own vision faltered for a moment as Raph's words echoed in his head.
It had taken them years to get to the point to accept on another, to listen and follow. Leo had taken so much pride when he received his brother's blessing. Of course they always had spats like all brother's do, but they had forged a bond over the years, something so intense he thought nothing would ever break it yet… he had done just that.
Raph lashed out at the wall again but Leo stepped in the way. "You are going to hurt yourself." He said softly as he let his brother let punch after punch land on him.
It lasted for a long while, until Raph's body was trembling from both fatigue and sobbing. Sinking down to his knees Raph hung his head, sitting at his brother's feet. Leo, now covered in bruises, leaned his aching body down and pulled the heavier body of his brother up.
"Come on, let's get you to bed."
Raph shook his head. "I'm… not leaving… her." He panted between choked sobs.
Nodding his older brother helped him to the chair at the side of the bed. Collapsing into the wooden structure, Raph leaned forward and rested his arms and head on the bed. His knuckles were a little bloody, a mixture of his own and his brother's, but he didn't really notice. Grasping Jacquelyn's hand he rested his head against the sheet and closed his eye as he tried to catch his breath.
Leo watched a moment before he quietly slipped out of the room. Making his way to the kitchen he opened the freezer and found the infamous bag of peas that had been in there forever but never once thought of being used for actual food. Pulling it out he held it against his throbbing chin. Bruises were forming all over the place, his face, arms, chest and torso. He didn't mind though, he deserved it.
"You look like hell."
Leo glanced over at the sofa where a green figure was rubbing at his bright eyes. His gaze averted, it was the young turtle that he had mutilated. "Yeah…" He didn't feel like the mighty leader.
Antonello forced himself up of the couch and drug his feet over to the kitchen. Standing beside Leo he started to rummage through the refrigerator for something to eat.
Leo glanced around a bit awkwardly as the younger turtle stood next to him. "Look, I'm sorry…"
"Don't worry about it." Ant said as he took a bite of cold pizza. "Donnie explained what happened as best as he could. Said you still need to fill in the blanks but… You weren't really right in the head." He gave Leo a lopsided grin.
He couldn't help but stare at the bandaged arm he was holding across his body. Unusable. It made another knot form in Leo's gut. Swallowing hard Leo blinked and looked away. "So uh… What's your name?"
"Raph dubbed me Antonello. They all started calling me Ant though, Shadow started that trend." He chuckled.
Leo nodded. "So, you… you didn't have a name before?" He paused, looking at him again.
Ant straightened, a piece of pizza hanging from his mouth. Swallow some he shook his head. "Well I don't remember anything. So I guess I'm like you in that sense." He locked eyes with him for a moment.
Breaking his gaze, Leo looked down at the scar on his chest. "Yeah… I just, wish My memory lapse didn't include attacking two innocent people."
"You must have scared the crap out of Jack."
Leo looked up at him, a bit ashamed of what the turtle was saying. The younger one didn't seem to notice.
"Raph has been training us to fight. She either completely froze, or you are just that good you thrashed her." He paused before taking another bite. "I guess there's always the possibility that Raph was always going easy on her…" He shrugged and took his bite.
Leo shook his head. "I don't think he'd go easy on her… But then again…" He thought about how Raph had been acting in Jack's room. There was no way he'd risk really hurting her during training. He had to have gone easy on her. If she really wanted to improve, she'd need a different teacher to spar against. Of course Raph would teach her proper technique but he'd never actually hit her. But all of that could wait, first she just had to wake up and be okay. "I need to talk to Don." He said suddenly.
Shrugging, Ant followed, curious as to what was going to take place. Besides, he could use some more pain killers. Leo knocked on his brother's door and a few short moments later it opened up revealing Donatello's spacious lab. He let them in without a word and went back to his desk to continue his analysis on the object he had plucked from Leonardo's neck.
"To what do I owe this intrusion?" Donnie asked as he continued to examine the object.
"We need to discuss what I found out. And what you have." Leo glanced at the kid and then to his brother.
Donnie caught the glance. "He's fine. He is one of us… You'd know that if you came home sooner."
Leo's eye brow twitched. "I was trying to protect our family." He said through gritted teeth before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. How had everyone else seemed to get along so well without him while he was still on edge with his whole family? What had these two strangers done while he was gone?
"I haven't figured out much about this thing." Donnie admitted as he leaned back in his chair. He looked over at Ant as the kid picked at his bandages. "Stop it… You're worse than Mikey…" He mumbled. Rolling his chair over to a different counter he grabbed a bottle of pain killers and tossed them to the younger turtle. "How's the hand feeling?"
The turtle pinned the bottle between his bicep and his side so his good hand could twist the top off. "It's not… beside pain if that's what you meant." He frowned. "I can't really feel much of anything in it." He tilted the bottle awkwardly and spilled half the bottle's contents onto his hand and floor. "Shit." After shoving a few pills in his mouth he knelt down to pick up the scattered white objects.
Leo dropped to a knee to help.
"So what did you find out?" Donnie asked as he turned and wrote down some notes only he would understand.
"Well, Xanus is moving their headquarters up here." Leo started. "Most of their facilities were empty by the time I figured out how to get into them."
"Obviously not all of them or else this wouldn't have gotten slapped on to you." Donnie smirked.
Leo grumbled under his breath. "The Purple Dragons are back."
Donnie froze. "What?"
"I saw someone there with a dragon tattoo. They were talking about the gang, and distributing… something up here. Something that Xanus had been making." Leo ran a hand over his face. "I also saw some weird looking ninja… Foot maybe. It's like the Purple Dragons are a recruiting center for the Foot. They are just going to come up here and claim all of the kids that try and join the gang… I didn't hear anything else. Something hit me in the back of the head. I blacked out and woke up here."
"Yeah this hit you." Donnie slid a petrie dish over with a disassembled unit.
"No kidding." Leo rubbed the mark on the back of his neck. "The question is… why not just kill me on sight? Why send me on some wild goose chase?" He held his brother's stare for a long moment as if he might be able to answer the question but Donatello said nothing. A voice from behind him caught him off guard.
"Perhaps they wanted you to take care of something for them. Something they couldn't find?" Ant was leaning against the wall, yawning, struggling to stay awake, the high dose of painkillers kicking in.
Donatello got to his feet. "You need to get to bed." He ushered the youngster out of his room and watched his stagger towards his own. Ant only made it half way before diverting to the couch and plopping down on it once more and falling asleep. Turning back to Leo, Donnie shut the door. "What if Ant is right?"
"What?"
"What if whoever put this on you wanted you to do something they couldn't…"
Leo frowned. "Like what?"
His green eyes flicked up to meet the blue of his brother's. "What were you trying to do?" the rhetorical question didn't wait for an answer. "You were going for Jack."
"You are saying someone wanted me to kill her." Leo scratched his head. "But why? She is just a human, she doesn't know anything…"
"Not that we know of." Donnie looked at him.