"L-Leo..." Michelangelo breathed out, taking a hesitant step back from the shorter turtle. He couldn't believe his eyes. No… No, this couldn't be right! The dark, almost pitch-black scales, the glowing blue lightning-bolt veins, those eyes… Leonardo had become the same as Leatherhead. But that couldn't be! Leatherhead was only like that because of his alternate's experiments! Surely this world's turtles were not so cruel that they'd experiment on their own brother's body to accomplish their goals!

The young turtle took a step towards him, tiny bolts of electricity arcing between his body and the power transformers as he stalked forward. Mikey shuffled backwards to keep out of arm's reach of the boy, knowing full well what potent dangers that tiny body contained. His hand drifted instinctively to the deep burn in his plastron, the now permanent imprint of Leatherhead's hand on his chest. He couldn't afford to be cornered like that again.

"L-Leo… C-c'mon, li'l dude… I-it's me..." he pleaded softly, raising his shaking hands in defense as he continued to keep some distance between himself and this younger version of his eldest brother. Leonardo didn't seem to hear him. Either that or he was ignoring him.

Suddenly, there was a loud clash of thunder as Leonardo disappeared in a bolt of electricity. Michelangelo let out a yelp of surprise before looking around frantically for the boy. He was gone, vanished without a trace. Mikey shined his lantern light around the room, trying to find the boy hiding somewhere in the room, possibly behind the power transformers. Nothing.

Another thunderclap was his only warning before what felt like a white-hot cattle brand press against the back of his arm. Mikey let out a scream of pain, diving forward instinctively to get away. He spun around on the ground just in time to catch Leonardo staring blankly down at him before disappearing in another violent arc.

Mikey's breaths came out in panicked gasps as he looked around for the young mutant once more. At first it took him a moment just to realize what the hell was going on, but soon he managed to clear his mind enough to remember Leatherhead. He remembered how the gator's body flickered in and out of reality, how the process of being torn back and forth between dimensions had driven him completely mad. The same thing must be happening to Leonardo, though it seemed like the boy had actually learned to control his dimensional jumps.

Michelangelo wasn't about to stick around long enough to figure out just how well he controlled it, however. The ninja scrambled up to his feet and took off out of the room as fast as his legs would carry him. He didn't want a repeat performance of Leatherhead. He didn't even want to think of that possibility. Not with Leo. Not his own brother.

As he ran, he could hear the claps of thunder following behind, chasing him through the Machine. What's worse, they were getting closer. He ran faster still, weaving in and out of rooms and corridors before he could register what was in them. The thunder followed still, growing closer and closer until it was right on his heels. Then, when Mikey was sure the little fiend was close enough to grab him, they stopped.

Michelangelo wasn't about to give Leonardo time to catch up, though. He ran on, trying to put as much distance between himself and the mutant boy as he possibly could. He ran until the muscles in his legs burned so badly that his knees nearly gave out on him once or twice. Finally, he allowed himself to slow down, to come to a stop and catch his breath. His lungs burned from the frigid air of this place, his entire body trembled from the stress he'd been under, both mental and physical.

Even as he panted and gasped for air, he strained his ears to listen for the tell-tale thunderclap that would signal Leonardo's continuing pursuit. He heard nothing, not so much as a distant footstep. Rather than be relieved by this, it only served to panic him further. He didn't know how much longer he could take this. Heart-pounding as they were, at least the sudden crashes of thunder gave him an idea how close that tiny little predator was. The silence was more unnerving than anything.

Still, it seemed he'd lost Leonardo long enough to catch his breath for the moment. He took the opportunity to look around this new area, to see where he'd been driven to in his fevered panic. The dim light of his lantern revealed many humongous vats of a strange blue liquid, one of which lay open in front of him. He cast his lantern upwards, catching sight of a brass sign; Warning! Compound X, Highly Corrosive, Highly Flammable, Highly Toxic.

'Compound X'… That was this world's Mutagen, wasn't it? But it was so different from the chemical he knew… Perhaps that was why the turtles it created were so very different from the ones of his universe. A twisted chemical to produce twisted minds. The thought had occurred to him to burn it. Burn every last drop and this wretched Machine along with it…

Mikey was ripped from his thoughts when a sudden bolt of lightning struck just before his face, a blackened fiend leaping out of the nothingness at him. The ninja hardly had any time to react before he was tackled to the ground, the younger turtle's hands wrapped tightly around his throat. Mikey choked out a loud scream of pain, already feeling Leonardo's hands burn through the cloth of his mask tied around his neck and into his very flesh.

"You… did… this..." came the wispy, ethereal voice of the boy as he continued to choke the life out of the larger turtle pinned below him, seemingly unphased by Michelangelo's desperate thrashing in an attempt to free himself. "This… is all… your… fault..."

Mikey continued to cry out in agony, trying in vain to toss the otherworldly turtle off of him. He could feel those hands burning deeper into his skin, threatening to breach vital arteries. He couldn't last much longer. He was going to die if this kept up. His next move arose more out of instinct than anything. He curled up, placing his feet squarely at Leonardo's plastron before kicking away with all his remaining strength.

Mercifully, Mikey felt Leonardo's hands wrench away from his throat, he felt the weight of the boy lifted off his form. His hands immediately clasped around his horribly burnt neck, shaking against the tattered remnants of his mask that had been melted to his very skin. He had little time to recover before he heard a loud, ungodly screech accompanied by a splash of liquid. His eyes widened when he realized what he'd just done.

He jumped up to his feet, ignoring the painful protests of his body as he darted over to the railing that overlooked the open vat of that godless Compound X. Sure enough, there he found Leonardo, swimming desperately to keep to the surface of the strange viscous liquid. Mikey could already see thin streams of glowing blue blood floating away from the child's body under the surface, a pale blue smoke rising up where his skin broke the surface. A noxious stench filled Michelangelo's nostrils, a stench made fouler still by the knowledge that it was his brother's rapidly corroding body that now filled his lungs.

"Leo!" Michelangelo called out in horror, reaching out in a desperate attempt to grab hold of the boy's hand. He didn't care that it would burn him. He didn't care if he were pulled down with him. He just had to do something. He couldn't just sit there and watch his brother die!

But he was too late. Leonardo's screams died down into a cold silence once more, smothered away as his lungs filled with Compound X. Mikey's body was frozen in place, his eyes wide as he watched what remained of the young turtle's body sink slowly downward in the tank until it faded away into darkness.

Michelangelo sunk down to his knees, eyes still staring down into that tank. He could already feel the hot streams of tears burning lines down his cold cheeks. He couldn't believe what he'd just done. He'd killed someone. He'd sacrificed his own brother's life to save his own.

"L-Leo… I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean… I-it was an accident..." he whispered out weakly. Of course, there was nothing he could say, nothing he could do to justify his actions in his own mind. Accident or not, he'd taken a life. He was a murderer, no better than his sick-minded alternate who called this rotten world home.

"Fret not, dear 'brother'..." came an uncomfortably familiar voice from just over Mikey's shoulder. "Could you not see? Leonardo was suffering. He was in pain. There was no way anyone could have saved him. You did the right thing. You showed him the mercy that he truly deserved."

Mercy. That one word made Mikey's breath catch in his throat.

"Y-you… You call this mercy…?" he wheezed out, still too much in shock at what he'd just witnessed to move. There was a cold, chilling chuckle from behind him.

"In this festering world, so tainted by humanity's lust and greed, surrounded by the detritus of this so-called progress? Yes. Yes, the most merciful thing one can do for the masses is to rid them of their painful, stupid, pointless lives. Of course, if this concept still eludes you..." there was a pause, in which the faint sound of a rifle slide clicking into place could be heard. "Then I shall demonstrate for you personally."

He didn't know where he'd mustered the strength or the will, but Michelangelo dove away just in time to avoid having a rifle bullet lodged in the back of his skull. He looked back at his attacker, his gaze locked with a pair of acid-green eyes.

"Then you're no different from them..." Raphael commented with a light sigh as he operated the slide on his hunting rifle once more, releasing the spent casing and loading a second bullet. "Such selfishness, such stubbornness in the face of impending death! You call me the monster, yet you'd do anything to assure your own continued survival, even murder your own brother!"

Mikey drew in a sharp gasp as the barrel of a gun was aimed at him once more. He scrambled to his feet, vaulting over the nearby railing and dodging another bullet by mere inches. He landed less-than-gracefully down below, between the large vats of Compound X. He hadn't the energy left to run, so he hid as best he could, back behind one of the containers for that foul blue water. He heard as Raphael jumped down after him, his footsteps echoing throughout the area as he stalked through looking for his prey.

It was all Michelangelo could do to keep quiet. His heart was pounding in his chest, his breaths coming in quick gasps. He covered his mouth with his hand to keep from being heard, straining his ears over the sound of his own heartbeat trying to hear Raphael's footsteps. He could hear them echoing all over the room, unable to pinpoint where they were coming from. Suddenly, they stopped. He began to panic slightly. Had he been seen?

The answer came more bluntly than he'd hoped. A shot rang out among the chemical vats. Mikey immediately let out a loud scream, his left arm erupting into a pain the likes of which he'd never before experienced. He stumbled forward onto the ground, grasping at his injury as if trying to keep his blood from draining away on him. It didn't take long for him to realize that he couldn't move his hand anymore. In fact, he couldn't feel anything below his mangled elbow. The only thing he could feel in that moment of shock was the blood that flowed out from between his fingers, dripping down and beginning to pool on the stone floor beneath him.

He hadn't the time to wallow in his pain, or to discover the true extent of his injury. He heard Raphael approaching once more, the sound of his boots stepping through spilled Compound X as it poured from the fresh bullet hole in a nearby vat, the sound of that slide operating once more, another bullet being loaded.

It was by virtue of pure adrenaline that Mikey found the strength to take off running once again, weaving throughout the chemical vats as the sick shadow of his brother chased him down. He ran as far as he could, until he'd left that room entirely and found another. This new area was a return to the machinery that had surrounded him during this whole ordeal, the sound of giant gears meshing underneath his feet making it hard to hear the approaching danger. He looked around for a place to hide, but there was nothing. The only possible cover was a collection of chemical barrels stacked up against the wall, likely containing more Compound X. A glance over the railing at the back of the room served to show him the grievous error he'd made in coming that way. Down below was a huge system of truly titanic gears. Jumping down there would mean instant death for him.

He was trapped. Cornered like a damned rat.

"Michelangelo..."

Mikey spun around at the sound of his name, coming face to face with the gun-wielding Raphael once again. He had no cover. He had no real way to defend himself, not against a gun like that. His left arm hung limp at his side, useless and continuously dripping vital lifeblood. No wonder he'd been found so easily. He'd left him a trail.

"Put aside your misguided crusade and let us save them." Raphael urged, thankfully not shooting him the instant he'd caught up with him. Perhaps he hesitated due to Mikey's resemblance to his own brother? If it were true, his eyes didn't betray such a sentiment. He held that same expressionless facade, his rifle still held at the ready.

"You may hate me, Michelangelo, but our dear Father has seen the future, your twentieth century, and let me tell you this: a far greater slaughter awaits us there. We seek to save the world by blood now before millions fall beneath history, pushed under by blade, bullet, and gas."

"So you wanna kill everyone to save them the pain of dying?! Are you guys crazy?! That makes no sense!"

"It makes perfect sense!" Raphael barked back in reply, showing a rare outburst of emotion in his face. Anger. It gave him an uncomfortable resemblance to Mikey's real brother.

"So long as humans exist on this world there will always be senseless death! War, torture, genocide! And all for nothing! Even we four were fated to die in their pointless battles, lungs full of mud and shrapnel on the banks of the Somme! Even then we will have changed nothing!"

"B-but you can't blame all humans for something a few idiots do! What about the good ones?! Won't you even try to save them?!" Mikey pleaded, his good arm moving cautiously to his hip. Perhaps if he kept him talking a while longer, got him distracted…

"Show me these 'good'! I do not see them! Every last human on this planet thinks only of themselves! They are all selfish, greedy swine who do not deserve the empires of fat and waste they have built for themselves! They are ruiners, beyond redemption! They are a plague to be washed clean! They are rotten flesh to be carved from the body of this world, no matter how large a scar it may leave!"

"And you call me a murderer..." Michelangelo growled out, his hand tightening around the grip of his kusarigama, still waiting for the right moment.

"Murderer… yes, I will gladly accept that mantle if only for the short time I am to remain alive." Raphael replied, returning to his earlier calm. Mikey furrowed his brow at that. What did he mean by that?

"Did you think we would be so selfish as to live on even after our work is done? We were created for a purpose; to act as redeemers for this world. Once all of humanity is washed clean of this world, so too shall we. Unlike you, I do not fear death. Unlike you, I do not fruitlessly try to delay the inevitable."

Raphael's finger tensed on the trigger of his rifle, preparing to deliver the final, killing shot.

"Die like the filthy pigs you idolize."

This was the moment. The only moment he had left. Before Raphael could pull the trigger, Mikey tossed the end of his kusarigama as quickly as he could. The long chain wrapped around the hunting rifle several times, the kama blade locking the tight grip he now had. He then pulled as hard as his weary body would let him, as hard as he could with only one arm. It worked. The rifle was suddenly pulled towards him, past him, and sent careening over the rail to the gigantic gears below. Unfortunately, it didn't come alone.

Mikey let out a yelp as it felt like his shoulder was being jerked from it's socket, the chain of his weapon going abruptly taught as a large weight tugged on the end of it. He slid across the stone until he was pressed against the railing, having to brace his legs against it to keep from going over himself. He glanced down, utterly confused at what had happened. A rifle shouldn't have weighed this much. A cold chill washed over his body once he realized what that weight was.

Dangling over the gears, his arm caught by the chain around his rifle, was Raphael. No… No, he couldn't do this again! Leatherhead and Leonardo were bad enough. He didn't need a third death on his head, even if Raphael had just tried to kill him. Raphael merely stared down at the grinding machinery, that same blank expression on his face as ever.

"Raph! Climb up! Hurry!" he called out desperately, steeling his grip on his end of his kusarigama. He couldn't let go. He simply refused to. He wasn't going to let it happen. Not again. Not to another one of his brothers. Raphael looked up at him, his expression impossible to read. After a long moment, he took hold of the chain with his free hand, bracing his feet against the wall and pulling himself up just enough to loosen the grip it had on his arm. His hunting rifle fell from his hand, almost instantly reduced to splinters as the gnashing steel teeth below ground it up without faltering.

"C'mon, I can't hold it much longer! Please! Ya gotta hurry!" Mikey pleaded, feeling his muscles in his arm begin to weaken. Raphael took one last look down at the gears before looking back up at the injured turtle above. Then, a smile spread across his lips.

"We are the pig, brother. We are all the pig."

Michelangelo's eyes widened at that. What the hell was he talking about? He'd just spent how long preaching about how humans were nothing more than pigs, only good for the slaughter, yet…

"N-no… No, don't do it! Please, don't! Raphael!" Mikey begged, his eyes filling once more with desperate tears. But it was too late.

Raphael let go.