Thanks to Sapphire93, mav32, Kyaserin Marii, aronoiiel, Rose of Hope, BubblyShell22, BigfootSighted, Merdeka21, hmw95, and Lady-of-the-Rings, 54Viruses, Julia-Catherine, and Paranoid Puppy for your reviews. I still don't own the turtles. Enjoy!
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Days passed. We weren't really sure how many, but it was a lot. The man still taunted us and hurt Leo, who was steadily losing strength. I was scared—more scared than I've ever been in my life. I had never seen Leo this helpless, or at least not while he was being attacked. Raph, Don, and I didn't talk much. The silence hurt, but we couldn't bring ourselves to say anything. We just stared at our leader or away from him, whichever hurt less.
But luckily, Leo hadn't given up yet. He was dying, slowly, but he still tried to escape. When the man wasn't in his cell, he worked on breaking the chains. When he was, he took the torture calmly, biding his time. I had never been so proud of my brother or so scared for him.
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Leo pulled at the chain a little more, trying to widen the gap in the link. If he could just get it wide enough, he could break the chain and get his revenge. He stopped pulling for a moment to catch his breath. God, he hurt. There didn't seem to be a part of him that wasn't bruised or cut. But he had to avenge his brothers. He began to put steady pressure on the breaking chain again, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes tightly.
Leo suddenly heard familiar footsteps outside his room and quit pulling, falling limp against the wall. The door slid open and the man stepped in, only this time he was alone. Leo continued to stare at the floor, hoping the man would leave. No such luck.
"I know you are awake, turtle. You can give up your charade," he taunted. Leo seethed from his place against the wall, looking forward to when he could get his hands on that guy. When he didn't answer, the man walked over and struck him across the face. "We're going to have fun today. I've kept you here long enough. It's about time you die!" Leo closed his eyes again. This was it. He had to get free somehow. "It's too bad your brothers aren't here to witness your heroic last moments."
Leo finally looked up at the man, all the agony he had gone through the last few days fighting its way to the surface. He watched as the man picked up one of Raph's sais from the ground. Oh no, you don't. As the man lifted the weapon to strike, Leo lunged at him. The blade caught him on the upper arm, leaving a deep gash seeping blood. He fell back against the wall and gasped. He saw the dagger coming at him again and tried to dodge the blow, but the chains inhibited his movement. The knife entered his side, between his shell and plastron, but the wound wasn't too deep.
Leo knew he had to think quickly. He had to get out of the chains. An idea suddenly struck him, and as the sai came back for a third hit, he scooted to the side, pulling one of the chains into its path. He closed his eyes and prayed that the dagger was stronger than the chain. It was. Leo heard the crunch of metal breaking and his eyes snapped open. He realized suddenly that his arm was no longer holding his weight—it was hanging by his bleeding side, the shackle still around his wrist and two inches of chain hanging down. Without thinking, he threw his free fist into the stunned man's face, knocking him off balance. He gave a yank on the weakened chain, which was still attached to the wall, and felt it break as well.
Leo was beyond pain as he leapt onto the man, ripping the sai from his grasp and putting against his throat. "Who are you? What do you want with me?" he yelled, seeing the man's unbelieving gaze.
"How—how did you…."
"Who are you!?" Leo screamed.
"My name is Timoto Kizake." The man seemed to have suddenly regained his composure. "And I want you to join your brothers in death."
Leo growled. This man was so dead…. "Why did you kill them? They never did anything to you," he ground out between clenched teeth. It was torture to even think about his lost brothers. He had failed them so miserably….
The man laughed shrilly, almost maniacally. "Never did anything to me?! You and your brothers ruined my life! You took from me the only person I ever loved."
Leo almost let go of the man in his surprise. He had never seen this man in his life before his capture, and he was certain his brothers hadn't either. "What are you talking about?"
"My wife, Selena. She was American. We lived here in New York together, and she died because of you bastards! You killed her!" The man, Kizake, was struggling now. "You killed her!"
Leo froze when he heard the name. Selena? Memories flooded him quickly, too quickly. The woman in the fire… he had tried to save her, but he was too late. She was already burned so badly, and had begged him to put her out of her misery. He had been reluctant, hoping he could still save her, but there was nothing that could be done. It was either let her die slowly and painfully, or kill her quickly then and there. Leo had hated himself for months, but had eventually pushed the painful memory to the back of his memory. She had said something before she died… "Tell him, Selena loves him…." But he had never known who "him" was. Had she been talking about this man, the man who had put him through so much agony?
"She asked me to kill her. It was that or let her die slowly and in much pain. Besides," he said, sobs choking his words, "my brothers had nothing to do with it. I was the one who killed her—my brothers weren't even on patrol with me that day."
The man's gaze darkened. "I knew the best way to hurt you was to hurt your brothers. I worked for years in Japan to train a clan of ninjas capable of defeating you and your pathetic brothers. You destroyed my world, so I destroyed yours." With a shout, Kizake pushed an unprepared Leo off of him and ran for the door. Leo lunged after him but only landed on the ground, hard.
Leo lay there for a moment, the last few minutes replaying over and over in his mind. The man had done all this to repay him for helping his wife. He had destroyed his family because a fire had destroyed his. It hadn't been Leo's fault…. Leo tried to push his desire for revenge away. Didn't that make him just like the man? But no, that was different. Leo had been trying to help; this man had been purposefully hurting him and his brothers. Leo pulled himself off the ground, not knowing where he got the strength, and ran out of the room after the man. He would kill him, not for himself but for his brothers.
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Sorry for the long wait, I was out of town for a while. I didn't write about the others because just Leo's section turned out to be so long, but the next chapter will be all about them and their reactions to this chapter. I hope you like this chapter—the story is coming to a close soon. I'm not really sure how many more chapters there will be, but it won't be too many. I hope some questions were answered—let me know if there are any other questions you want me to make sure I answer in future chapters. Thanks for reading faithfully.