Wow does time fly.

Thanks everyone who commented and liked/favorited the story. Y'all are awesome!

Without further ado, I present to you the second Chapter!

I do not own any TMNT!

The walk home was silent. The streets of New York were empty. It was likely most residents of the town had gotten killed/buried under the rubble and debris that now surrounded the corner of every street. Only very few had possibly escaped the sudden attack, if any. Regardless, it was strange to see a once bustling city so devoid of life, light, and noise.

The three remaining turtles stumbled across the ruined concrete and asphalt, relying on their long-term memory to walk them through the destruction and decapitated buildings to reach a familiar manhole cover they could use to head back home. They didn't worry about being seen – there was not one living creature they could see for miles, and anyone who was still around or alive would not have found three mutant turtles walking around to be any stranger than what had occurred on that day.

Mikey's sniffles were the only sounds echoing in their ears. He kept his head low, arms wrapped around Raph's right arm, refusing to let go. He stumbled a little when his eldest brother suddenly stopped walking and noticed him staring at something. His eyes followed to what Raph was looking at, and stopped when he noticed a sitting Casey Jones, who was cradling one of Leo's swords, a memoir, in his hands. Tears stained the human's cheeks, the orange reflection of a fire feeling on a building not too far from their location flinting off the tears. It appeared the human had been sitting there a while.

The turtles didn't know much about the future or Casey's relationship with the future turtles since they hadn't had a chance to talk about things in full detail, but they could tell how much Leo had meant to him just by how he called him "sensei". His dark eyes would glint with pride, and he would utter the word with great respect. Sure, he had only known the present Leo for a few hours, but future Leo and present Leo were basically the same Leonardo, just in a different "bifurcated time branch".

The youngest brother squeezed Raph's arm upon seeing the sword, fresh tears falling out of his eyes. He buried his face into the larger turtle's forearm and began to sob, the latter turtle placing a hand on the younger's shell. Mikey's cries drew the attention of Casey. Casey's dull, puffy red eyes widened at the sight of the terrapins, and he scanned each one of them with a face that twisted into extreme sadness. The wrinkles outlining his furrowed brows made him seem older than he was. After a few moments, he stood up shakily on two uneven legs, staggering slightly. He quickly regained his stance and opened his mouth to say something. He seemed to hesitate, closing and opening it several times but seemed unable to utter any words. In the end he sighed, burying his face in one hand and clutching the sword tighter in the other.

Mikey's cries gradually got louder and Casey found he was unable to control his emotions any longer. He let out a choking sound, letting new fresh tears squeeze out his eyes for his lost sensei. He dropped onto his knees, kneepads thankfully protecting his knees from the harsh fall, and began to sob as loud as Mikey.

Raphael swallowed thickly, feeling the edges of his eyes pricking with tears. He had already let out so much emotion out of himself that he could feel his throat was raw with pain. But he could feel himself losing the battle to remain composed. He needed to be strong for his younger siblings but the pain burning in his soul was quickly becoming unbearable. The pain of losing Leo…

A few tears spilled out when he squeezed his eyes closed. He gritted his teeth hard, his snaggletooth slightly puncturing the skin on the lower part of his beak.

The small whimpers coming next to him told him Donnie was crying as well. Upon opening his eyes, he could see the purple clad turtle leaning heavily on his Tech Bo with shoulders trembling significantly. He was losing the battle against gravity as he slid down onto his knees. The genius turtle was letting out sounds that Raph had never heard him make in his life as he curled in on himself.

It was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

The eldest turtle grabbed onto his two younger brothers, enveloping them into a hug that they didn't refuse. The grief in his wails outmatched the cries of those around him and echoed in the vast emptiness of the town, which further amplified his screams. His breath shuddered with each inhale, only for him to continue to scream his throat raw with another cry. He couldn't help the torrent of memories that flooded his brain of moments that would never come to be, ever again.

The affected eye stung quite a bit from the salty water entering the open wounds in and around the orbit but he didn't care. Nothing else mattered at that moment.

Absolutely nothing.

Mikey had taken one step into the lair before collapsing into a silent sleep. Thankfully Raph had been close by to catch him before he smashed his face on the floor and placed him gently on a bean bag they had in the living room. The older turtle's face fell slightly as he watched how peaceful Mikey's face looked when sleeping. Poor kid. The attempts to reach his mystic magic and injuries must have taken their toll on him.

He took one last glance at his youngest brother, taking the time to deliver one last pat on his shell before turning to Donnie. The softshell had made himself comfortable on the ground, again curling in on himself, his battle shell still on. Raphael gave a small sigh and proceeded to remove the device from his brothers' back. Donnie made no motion of protests but visibly relaxed when it was removed and placed next to him. Dark purple stains lines the edges of his mask and ran down to his cheeks, which Raph noticed continued down to his chin.

His non-emotional brother was still crying.

"Donnie…" Raphael whispered hoarsely. Said turtle made no indication that he had heard him. When he got no response, the eldest brother walked away with another sigh. He noticed Casey had settled down against the wall of the living room still holding onto the Katana, face shielded by the shadows. Raph wanted to comfort him; he really did. But he was so exhausted. His mind, body, and soul were beyond exhausted, and he could feel his injuries starting to ache. Instead, he slumped down on their couch with a groan.

So much had happened that day. The Kraang had invaded. He had been turned into some sort of Kraang monster. The city of New York had been destroyed significantly. Everyone had gotten hurt. And Leo. Leo was…

He unwillingly dozed off into unconsciousness before his mind could re-open that thought.

It was cold.

That's the first sensation that came to Leo's mind as he was slowly brought back to consciousness. The second thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel his body. He couldn't move.

The turtle slowly opened his eyes. He didn't know how long he had been out, but he felt overwhelmingly exhausted. There was this obscuring fog occupying every inch of his mind. His eyelids weighed a ton as he struggled to open them properly, but he failed and soon fell into unconsciousness once more.

The second time he woke up, pain exploded all over his body. It had started as a dull throb that pulled him out of his deep slumber and gradually became more intense. He gasped in surprise, gritting his teeth together after the action brought about new pain in his chest. It hurt to take deep breaths, and he found it was difficult to try to breathe normally, so he laid there taking quick, shallow breaths.

The turtle tried to get a sense of where he was. He found that his shell was propped up against a wall so that he was in an awkward sitting position. The small room he was in was dark and cold, a few rays of light peeked in through cracks in the walls. What appeared to be dust particles floated gently in the filtering light, lightly disturbed with each of Leo's exhales. He concluded this was definitely not his room. It looked like some sort of jail cell, with its grey walls and cold atmosphere, but he couldn't remember what had happened leading up to this. His first thought was that he might have gotten into serious trouble in the Hidden City again, although during his previous incarceration the jail cell had been nothing like this. Maybe they upped the security given how easily he and his brothers had escaped the jail cell before, or he had done something very bad that wound him in one of their worse cells.

He shook his head slightly at the thought, regretting the action slightly. Sure, he had been known to get into heaps of trouble before, but he was certain he would have remembered a crime so heinous that he committed, or had been accused of, that he had been thrown in here. Unless he had developed amnesia from the blows to the head he was certain he had received given the splitting headache that was throbbing in his temples. He could feel the right side of his face swelling up slightly, confirming he had been punched in the head a few dozen times.

Or perhaps Donnie had finally cracked and started his world domination, and they were now his prisoners—

He coughed, the taste of blood coating his tongue. He grimaced at the taste and groaned at the pain in his chest. He could hear some rattling with each breath. That was not good.

Okay, so this was definitely not Donnie's doing. No matter how much his twin brother talked about violence and world domination he was certain the brainiac would not injure him or their brothers to this extent.

The turtle clenched his teeth again as he craned his neck forwards to look down at his body. A small whine escaped his beak as the action brought discomfort to his throat. He couldn't see much of his body in the darkness, but he did notice a few cracks going down his plastron. Some of them were leaking blood.

He attempted to move his right arm towards his abdomen to inspect the cracks, accidentally jerking the arm upwards, hard, which sent a stabbing pain up his arm. He cried out in pain and a few thick tears escaped his eyes as he let out a few sobs. He took several breaths to work through the pain, glancing down at the offending arm once the sharp pain dulled down. He was still clenching the photograph of his family. A ray of light that shown through the cracks fell on Raphael's face.

Oh.

That's right.

He was in the Prison Dimension. He had sacrificed himself for his family and had been beat to a pulp. The last thing he remembered was Kraang One slamming into him at full force, which must have knocked him out. How was he still alive? And what happened to Kraang One?

He let the back of his head rest against the wall. It hurt too much to concentrate on his memories. The pain continued to rage throughout his body, throbbing with each beat of his heart. He wished the Kraang would have just killed him when he was unconscious. At least that way he could have gone peacefully. Now all that was left was for him to succumb slowly and painfully into his injuries or be ripped painfully apart by Kraang One. Die or die. There was no other option, no way he would be able to get out of here without his weapons. No way to re-open the portal without the key. Even if he could, there was no way he would live given the extent of his injuries. Leo let out a small chuckle. Shell, the universe really hated him. Pulling a heroic act like that to make up for his mistakes and he can't even die like a hero.

He lazily glanced at the photograph once more. He could feel himself wanting to break down at the sight of the family he would never see again, but he was just so physically, mentally, and emotionally tired. Not to mention he couldn't think straight. Leo was 99% certain he had suffered a concussion.

"How bold of you to calculate such statistics without the use of simple mathematics, my friend."

Leo slowly blinked while his brain processed what he had just heard. His unfocused eyes shifted to look at Donatello's smirking face in the photograph. His brows furrowed slightly. He had just heard his twin brother's voice so clearly. Was it the photograph speaking? Was he going crazy?

"Well, that all entirely depends on your definition of 'crazy'. Insane? Highly unlikely. Deranged from the brute force exerted into your head and blood loss? Most likely."

Leo glanced up from the photograph and did the weak equivalent of a double take. In front of him was a purple, holographic-like replica of his twin, Donnie. The holograph was busy typing away at the device on his wrist, his face stoic as always. The drawn eyebrows, currently a bright purple color, were slightly furrowed. He completed the current task he was doing and looked down at Leonardo expectantly.

The blue clad turtle couldn't help but chuckle, wincing when the action brought pain in his chest. The laughter subsided into a low gurgle, blood tinging his tongue and the inside of his mouth. He hadn't even been awake for very long and he was already going crazy.

The hologram suddenly moved, making his way to the injured turtle, and kneeling down to his level. Bright purple eyes bored into his, looking him up and down, staring at each major injury visible on the turtle's body for a few seconds before moving on. Once the entire body had been scanned, holo-Donnie sighed.

"You big dumb-dumb." It made the motion to flick his forehead. Leo flinched, a latent reaction at best, but felt no contact from the fingers. "You are suffering from significant amounts of blood loss and dehydration, not to mention a likely contusion from all the blows to your head. You are in an altered state of mind and thus," He made a sweeping hand motion at himself. "That, or possibly that you are filling up this physical void with representations of your brother so as to not be alone."

"D-Don…" Leo gurgled out but cut himself off. It hurt so much to speak. He couldn't help the fresh tears forming in his eyes looking at the holographic form of his brother. If it weren't for the fact this version was outlined in neon purple and otherwise transparent, he would have thought this were the real version of his brother. The mannerisms, the way it spoke to him, the aura its presence emanated. How he missed them so much.

As if reading his mind, the hologram's features softened slightly. "I'm afraid to say it, but I'm not your real brother Donnie. I'm nothing more than a fragment of your delusional mind." The hologram stood up once more and went back to typing on his wrist. "But if it makes you feel better, you may refer to me with the same name as your brother: Donnie, Donatello, Don, etc."

Leo tried to reach an arm out to him, but it was just so heavy. The edges of his vision began to darken again. Before he collapsed into unconsciousness once more, he saw the hologram-like figure look back down at him with an expression reminiscent of concern. It sighed loudly, as if Leo's syncope stirred up a great inconvenience, before fading into the void.

Mikey woke up with a start. He was laying on the beanbag, a blanket over his shell. Strange, he didn't remember falling asleep in the living room.

He sleepily looked over to his left and noticed Raph snoring on the couch, and Donnie was snoozing on the floor. Ah that's right. They probably dozed off watching a Jupiter Jim movie. Likely Jupiter Jim's Pluto Vacation IV since that would explain why Raph's face appeared busted up. He must have broken something with his face.

He glanced up at the clock. It was 6pm.

6PM?!

Ohmigosh they slept for such a long time. Why did they sleep for such a long time? What did they do the day before?

Mikey got up from the bag and stretched out his limbs. He cringed as soon as he outstretched his arms, wincing at the generalized pain in his body. Another question. Why was he so sore? And why couldn't he remember what they had done the day before? The youngest turtle suspiciously glanced at the sleeping form of his genius brother. He'd have to question him later whether he had sedated them for experiments or just for fun. That would explain why he was still so tired. Not so much the soreness, but Mikey assumed they must have trained extra hard the previous day.

He tiptoed towards the kitchen, careful not to wake up his sleeping brothers, to prepare a breakfast/dinner combination. He enjoyed working on such combinations since it allowed him to express his creativity.

He first set up a pot of water to boil. Coffee for Donnie above all else. His purple clad turtle brother would otherwise refuse to eat or function without the substance. Mikey thought coffee was gross, but with plenty of milk and sugar, he could see how Donnie liked the stuff. He couldn't understand how Donnie could drink it without any cream or sugar, though.

Secondly, he pulled out a carton of eggs. His face faltered when he noticed there were only 2 eggs in there. He triple checked the fridge to see if there might be another carton elsewhere, but was unsuccessful. The turtle pulled out his phone and dialed April's phone number, hoping she would pick up so he could ask her to purchase another carton of eggs for them. He was immediately taken to her voicemail. He sighed. She was probably at school and had turned her phone off. From what Mikey understood, humans went to school during the day until they reached "University", which is where the hours would become crazy and some took classes until 10pm. It was 6pm, so she was most likely in school.

So much for his breakfast/dinner idea. Ramen it is!

He put both eggs to boil in a pot. They'd have to do with half a boiled egg each in their ramen, but he'd make sure to include an extra serving of meat in each of their plates to make up for the lack of protein. They still had plenty of leftover Chashu from a few days ago that he could add.

He opened several ramen packets, making sure to include extra noodles for his dad in case he would like some ramen. Mikey hummed a tune, but all the while he couldn't shake a feeling that he was forgetting something. He proceeded to chop the green onions, shaky hands accidentally scraping his finger with the blade. He let out a small squeak and inspected the finger. Thankfully it had only been a superficial cut, but he'd have to be more careful. The turtle moved on to boiling the vegetables: bean sprouts, edamame, and some spinach.

Once the noodles were cooked, Mikey took out 4 bowls and neatly placed a moderate amount of noodles in each bowl, slightly more for Raph. He poured the broth over the noodles, inhaling the amazing smells wafting up from the soup.

Donnie liked his ramen with "just the right ratio" of vegetables to meat to noodles to broth. Mikey didn't really understand what he meant, but he placed the same amount of vegetables and green onion as Chashu. He had done this several times and Donnie had never complained.

Raph generally liked more Chashu than vegetables, so Mikey made sure to add an extra 5 pieces of meat to his plate, with a small pile of vegetables on the side.

Mikey loved everything in general, so he put equal amounts of everything in his plate.

And Leo…

Leo liked his Chashu diced up and scrambled into the soup. Made sense with his chaotic personality. He sprinkled the green onion all over the bowl rather than stack a neat pile in the middle and added the egg right in the middle.

The gnawing feeling in the back of his mind grew. He pushed it aside.

He picked up Donnie's and his bowls to place them on the table. Raph's was a little heavier so he used both of his hands to take it to the table. Lastly, he grabbed Leo's bowl and headed to the table—

A bright yellow spark went off in both of his hands.

Leo is dead.

CRASH!

Hot soup flew onto his feet and legs as the bowl in his hands smashed on the floor. Some even splattered onto his face but he couldn't feel the burning sensation as he remembered the previous days events.

"Mikey!"

Raph and Donnie were immediately by his side. Donnie closely inspected Mikey's burns on his feet, hissing lightly at some slight swelling that was beginning to form.

"I….I dropped Leo's…" Mikey whimpered as he reached down to pick up the broken pieces of the bowl. Donnie tutted and pushed the youngest turtle to the side to avoid him getting injured further. He cleaned the mess up using the arms on his battle shell.

"I dropped his…". Mikey continued, choking on his sentence. His vision became blurry and he frantically looked around the kitchen. "W-where is—where is…Leo…?"

Both Raph and Donnie looked down at him with wide eyes. Mikey glanced up at them with eyes just as wide and brimming with unshed tears. He could see the hollowness and pain settle into both of his older brother's eyes, the initial worry being replaced with a dullness that only confirmed his memories to have been real and not a dream. He hated how they were looking at him.

His lower lip quivered, and he swallowed thickly, the hot tears beginning to spill from his eyes. "Where. Is. L-leo..?"

"….Mikey…" Raph spoke softly but cut himself off with a soft whine. He noticeably flinched at the sound. Mikey didn't need him to finish that sentence, he already knew the answer.

Leo was gone.

"But he's not dead!" The orange-clad turtle nearly shouted. Raph and Donnie jumped at his sudden outburst. Raph looked like he wanted to say something, but Mikey continued before he could utter any words. "I know he's not! Just because he got trapped in another dimension with that Kraang doesn't mean that he is gone forever. We just need to do something and find a way to open up the portal again where Leo is—"

"Mike…" Raph cut in. "You saw how powerful Kraang one was. We tried to stop him but even with all of us—".

"Leo is a great ninja! His skills have grown a lot since he was appointed leader and he always comes up with an escape plan! So…s-so! I know he escaped. But we need to get to him before it's too late, and-"

"We need to attend our wounds before anything else," Donnie cut him off this time, making a sharp 180 to head to his lab. There had been a slight quiver in his voice but he had been too quick to turn for any of them to have seen his facial expression.

"Raph…" Mikey continued. "We…we can't just do nothing. Please tell me you believe me. Please…?"

Raph continued to look at the direction where Donnie had headed off to, a pained expression on his face. He gave a long, low sigh and turned to look at Mikey. "Donnie's right, Mike. We should tend to our wounds first." When it looked like the youngest turtle wanted to argue, he added, "Getting an infection is not going to help anyone. We should get healed, eat to bring up our strength, and then we can talk about…about things. I promise Mikey. We will discuss this." Again, he looked up to where Donnie had left. "Even if some of us don't want to."

Mikey whimpered. "B-but…You don't think Leo is dead, right?"

There was something in the older turtle's eyes, like he wanted to believe what the younger turtle was saying but he couldn't quite believe it. He seemed to struggle to form an answer.

"Are you guys coming or what?" Came the monotone voice of their purple clad brother. The two brothers jumped slightly at the sound of the voice. Raph quickly tapped Mikey's shoulder and said, "We'll talk later. All of us. I promise," before walking off towards the lab. Mikey visibly deflated and let out a groan that transitioned into a choked sob, stamping his foot on the floor as hard as possible without aggravating the burns on his feet.

Leo was alive. He believed this deep down and was not going to allow anyone to change his mind. Taking a deep breath, he followed his older brothers to Donnie's lab.