Ch 23 The Familiar Face of a Stranger

Raph, Donnie and Mikey once again stood on the roof across from Shredder's lair. All three were nervous about what laid ahead, but they were determined to find their brother and get him back. After they had seen him the night before, they had gone back to the lair and began going over a plan to bring their brother home and defeat the demon. Donnie had cooked up a sedative that he hoped would bring Leo down and give them the time needed to get him back to normal.

"Alright guys, are we ready?" Raph asked.

The other two nodded and the three raced down to the street and quickly made their way to the sewer where they walked through a maze of tunnels that led to entrance to the foot's lair.

While the three brothers were stealthy making their way through the catacombs, not too far from Stockman's lab, Masuta laid in his sarcophagus with the Tengu artifacts. On his upper body was his breastplate with the a symbol of the Tengu. The ring was on his finger on one hand and on the other was the gauntlet. It was through these items, his energy was renewed, these items gave him his power and these items that would allow him to destroy his enemies, ALL of his enemies and retrieve his army from the underworld. Outside the sarcophagus was the mirror and the sword.

He smiled and slowly came out of his meditative state, he knew they were coming and he was ready for them. He pushed the cover off and got himself out. He walked over to his mirror and stared at himself long and hard. Slowly, the mirror began to swirl and glow with a bright light. The turtle demon placed his paw on the mirror in hopes of absorbing the energy and fight the being within his soul that still tried so hard to push him away.

"What energy do you have that allows you to continue to fight me?" He questioned.

Leonardo's voice sounded all throughout the being's head. "I won't let you hurt my family!' He yelled out. The demon looked into the mirror and saw his true self staring back at him.

"You don't have a choice." It told him, arguing back and forth with his mirror image. "I have you like I did so many years ago and you will bow to me."

"NO! I Won't."

The turtle grabbed his head and fell to the ground on his knees. The two souls were fighting inside and the vessel was slowly being torn apart as both were determined to win. Masuta let out a loud yell as he pushed the more weaker soul down to where it could no longer fight him. He stood and took a deep calming breath.

"Your brothers are coming and I will not have you, or anyone, interfere with my plans Satsugai-sha." He adjusted the breastplate, picked up his sword and made his way to the throne room where he settled himself on the chair in a very relaxed position awaiting the turtles.

He smiled coldly as he heard their footsteps coming into the room. They had barely stepped into the room when he made his presence known.

"About time you guys showed up." His voice cut through the darkness, startling the turtles. "I was beginning to think you didn't care."

It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the dim lighting of the lair and for them to finally see the turtle on the throne. He sat with his back slouched against the right corner of the chair and his left leg slung over the left arm. His head leaned back as though bored or annoyed. He began to hum.

"Leo?" Mikey's voice was timid as he took in his brother's form. It had been over two months since they had last seen him and the fear that surrounded them was clear to the older turtle. He turned to his other brothers. "What's he humming?" He whispered.

"I think it's 'Demons' by Imagine Dragons." Raph responded, slightly bewildered.

Abruptly, Leo stopped humming and turned to his brothers. "Hey Mikey, how's it going?" Leo got up from the throne and made his way to where his brothers stood. "Donnie, Raph, long time no see."

The three gaped at their brother. He was acting like the last two months had not even happened.

"Hey Leo?" Donnie said hesitantly. "We're good, how are you?"

"Oh you know, got kidnapped, beaten, violated and tortured, eventually I succumbed to the demon and now his's taken over my soul. But you know how that goes." He sounded so callous about the whole thing the other three were beginning to think Leo had just lost his mind.

"Leo." Raph stepped forward. "We've come to take you home." He told him, looking at him nervously. "So, why don't you just leave all that Tengu crap here and come with us. Okay?"

"Oh Raphael." Leo waved his hand at him as though waving off an annoying child. "I have no intentions of going anywhere with you." He told him mockingly. "I'm happy here. Besides, your not going anywhere either. I am going to keep you here so eventually dear old dad will come and rescue you, and then...I'll kill him." He smiled at them as though he just made a silly joke. "And you know, you can only fight a demonic entity for so long before it finally takes over." He laughed. "So you should just put your weapons down and bow to me now." He turned away from them and walked back to the chair. "It'd be so much easier in the end for you."

Raph shook his head. "What?!" He yelled out. "Leo, what's happening to you?"

"Raph, that's not Leo talking." Donnie told him. He began to remove his bo. "You should know we will never bow to you!"

"Donnie, Donnie, Donnie." Leo shook his head. "You're almost as bad as Raph when it comes to being stubborn." He took a deep sigh. "I figured we would have to do this the hard way." He stood up again and walked over to where he placed the Tengu sword. He gently and slowly picked it up. "I suppose a fight would be the most honorable way." He walked back to the others. "Shall we do this one on one or you three against me?"

"I take him down." Raph growled and removed his sais.

He let out a loud yell and rushed toward Leo. His sais up and ready to fight. Leo met Raph's sais with the sword and sliced through them. He side-stepped Raph as he fell forward and landed on his plastron in surprise. He rolled over and looked up in time to see Leo's foot coming down on him.

Leo forced his foot down hard and shoved Raph away from him. He turned to the other two. "Now you guys know Raph almost always wins against me." He looked back at Raph and sneered. "Almost." He turned back to the other two. "And you two, if I recall correctly, never win against me."

Donnie and Mikey exchanged looks of fear as Leo expertly twirled the large sword in his hand like a baton. "Now, lower your weapons, call daddy dearest and have him come join our little party and I'll go easy on you. Okay?"

Donnie and Mikey lowered their weapons as told. As they bent down to place the weapons on the floor, Donnie slowly removed a small dart gun from his belt and kept it hidden in the palm of his hand. Raph watched from the floor across the room where he had been pushed away to. Donnie signaled him with a slight nod. Raph then got up and with a loud yell, charged once again toward the possessed turtle.

The sudden loud yell caused the turtle to turn and he once again brought up the sword, this time with the intent of doing the red banded turtle in. But as he lifted the sword, he felt a small pinch on the back of his neck. He dropped the sword and turned to face Donnie and saw he was holding the small dart gun.

Leo began to laugh. "Oh Don..."He said as he pulled the dart out of his neck. He began to sway slightly as he made his way to his two younger brothers, gasping for breath. "I didn't know...you had it...in you." The three turtles watched as Leo fell to his knees and then finally fell forward unconscious.