The Perfect Son

Disclaimer: I still don't own them.

Author's note for: Haoyoh Asakura- For me, it would be difficult for any one to enter enemy territory (even if it is to aid a friend) without some sort of planning. Ninja need to be prepared, and usually use shadows to assist in fighting. If I was to send the turtles in with no preparation I would end up killing one or two of them as I see it as being realistic. Thanks for your review, and trust me.

Chapter Twenty - Escape.

Christine:

I sat in the silence of the small room holding Leo's trembling body in my arms. I could feel his fingers clenching and unclenching, his breathing was slowly starting to calm. I ran my hands under his head, raising it up to see his eyes, they were devoid of any emotion. They were flat, lifeless, soul less eyes.

The look in his eyes confirmed to me what I feared the most, that Leo could not accept failure. He had to be perfect for his family and he knew he wasn't perfect -how could he be?- and failure clearly, wasn't acceptable to Leo.

He could not accept what failure meant, he couldn't find balance between failing and perfection, for him it was one or the other. Failure wasn't an option for him.

Gods, the way some families could treat one another. Family could sometimes treat their more immediate members worse then they would treat a stranger, or a friend. Family, could have high expectations, or demands and push for better. Sometimes, their intentions were good, they wanted the best for their children. But sometimes they let their own goals and dreams get in the way of what their children wanted of life.

Leo might be a perfectionist, but some of his desire to be that way could, possibly lay at the feet of his family. Leo might have desired attention and Splinter's praise for doing something well, could have been enough to lay the foundation. Splinter's expectations of Leo, and who knew what else while growing up played a role in it, until Leo was a perfectionist.

I had to wonder how often Leo felt that he had failed either his family, or training or worse yet both. Probably for him, at any rate, he had failed numerous times. He could feel that he had failed, by a brother getting hurt in battle, after all he was responsible for them.

"Leo, poor Leo. What have we all done to you?" I murmured. "Your family, your enemies. Even I hurt you, but I didn't mean to Leo. I'm sorry, so sorry. Now, look at you. We've turned you from a warrior to a pacifist, and then a shattered broken husk of what you once had been."

I shook my head, as I thought about that. "Was it perfection alone, or too much responsibility demanded of you? Though you tried Leo, to be all that and more. You could never live up to all the expectations of you." I reflected a little. "Old beyond your years. Did you ever have a chance to play, or be young? Enjoy your life maybe. No, wonder you didn't want to fight any more. Didn't even want to remember fighting. It is far easier to cut off a past which is more of a burden then a pleasure."

Poor Leo, by being made the perfect son you were destined to fail. You could never meet the expectations that were placed upon you. You tried to be perfect, but you knew you fell short of it. So, you kept trying to be perfect working harder, pushing yourself further, just to get better, in hopes of obtaining the unattainable goal.

"All this time, knowing you weren't perfect, could never be perfect and one too many failures, was just too much for you to handle. We've all lost you now Leo." I spoke softly, hoping some how some way that I could still reach him. "But do you know what the worse of it is? That feeling that you failed your family, you couldn't seem to see how much your family needed you back with them."

Of this much I was certain, "Your brothers were just so happy to know you were alive, and back in their lives. You know Raph doesn't buy the perfect deal, and I'm pretty sure Don doesn't either. I'm not sure about Mike," I confessed.

"If we had only known earlier why you weren't remembering it might not have come to this. Leo…Leo please come back. Don't stay lost to those who love you." I pleaded with me. "Understand Leo, it is true that you can't fail if you keep trying and something can be worked out with your family so that they understand that they can't expect you to live up to their own expectations of you."

I kept whispering and crooning to him, stroking him to let him know I was here. I wasn't getting any response from him in any way. I just poured my soul.

I hoped some part of Leo could hear me, and would turn around and come back, that is if he hadn't shut himself off entirely from the world. I had my doubts about his ability to come out of it, but I had to try, because I didn't want to fail him, or his brothers.

I winced slightly, how would I ever explain this to his brothers? I mean an amnesic Leo had been bad enough but at least he had been responsive, and I couldn't say that for what I held in my arms.

Leo was beyond where anyone could reach him, he was now so locked up inside of himself there may be no way to get him out.

Leonardo:

I came aware ever so slowly feeling I had fought the longest, hardest battle I had ever faced in my life. I felt worn and wrung out from all of it. I was sure that I could just sleep for hours.

I could hear Christine murmuring softly, her hands were gentle on my head and face. I lay still and quiet trying to figure out what was going on, where I was or how I had managed to get here, and while we were at it where was here anyways?

Images bombarded me, I rode along with them setting most of them aside to consider later at my convience. One image startled me -I was cowering before the Foot, refusing to fight them.

When had I ever cowered to anyone? Never mind cowering to the like of the Foot.

I wasn't fully sure of what had gone on by the time it was done, but I knew enough. I knew somehow, for a time, I had forgotten who I was. I knew Christine had become my friend, and I knew my family had tried to help me back. Most of all, I knew we were both being held by the Foot.

There were two more important things that I knew. One, was that it was time for payback. The second, was that my name was Leonardo, the katanas were my chosen weapons and I was hoping to appropriate some real soon.

I wiped a hand slowly over my face and looked up at Christine her eyes were closed now. Her body was slightly slumped as she held me. I thought of one of the more recent images, of her coming after me, relentless in her attack. It really didn't seem to suit who she was on the inside, but I was glad she had some fighting spirit. I could use some help getting out of here and I knew without a doubt I could trust her.

"Christine?"

Her eyes flew open as I spoke.

"You know you could make a hell of an enemy, so I'm glad I can consider you my friend." I stated simply.

"Leo?" she gasped, her eyes growing wide in surprise, "You're all right?" she asked tentatively.

"I think so," I answered hesitantly, as I sat up glancing around the room.

"How? I thought…" her voice trailed off.

"I'm not quite sure myself," I admitted with a small shrug, "and I don't really have time to figure it out right now. But trust me when I get a spare moment I will work on answering that." I assured her.

"Hmmm. Doesn't look like the Foot have any security cameras in here that I can spot, that's good. They won't know what we are up to. Odds are, if they don't install cameras they won't bother with listening devices either." I muttered more to myself then her.

I looked at her. "Do I recall, that you said that you were able to do a little fighting?"

Christine seemed startled, but stammered an affirmative answer. "Raph has been helping me improve with my hand to hand skills."

"Really?" I arched an eye ridge surprised, but pleased with it none the less. "Good. Now here's what we got to do Christine." I began to lay out a hastily constructed plan that would hopefully get us out of here and a part of me was sort of hoping that we'd meet up with Quan on the way out.

I wouldn't go looking for him but if I ran into him I wouldn't turn away from the challenge either. I knew for a fact that he had challenged me. It was a challenge that I was looking forward to accepting it, if not here then elsewhere, at some other time.

I could wait. I had patience to spare.

"Now you understand what I want you to do don't you Christine?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she gave a small smile, "So this is the Leonardo, your brother's spoke of."

I winked at her, "you haven't seen anything yet." I promised her, "Just wait until we get out of here."

"You really think we can do it?" Christine wondered.

"We are about to find out, aren't we? It is worth trying. Though I admit I wish my brothers were here, no offence to you, but if we were together we'd definitely get free of this place."

I began to edge my way into a corner of the room, using the two connecting walls to climb up towards the ceiling.

Christine waited until I was in position before pounding on the door and yelling.

"Hey out there. Anybody out there? Listen if you can hear me, I know where the other Freaks are and I'll tell you how to find them." She paused and then slammed her fist on the door again. "Listen, I just want out of here. I'll give you what you want. The bastards don't mean a damn thing to me. You want them? You can have them. Just let me go. You want the freaks, not me. It's a fair deal isn't it?"

A couple Foot Soldiers unlocked the door, as they entered the room I jumped down and knocked them out before they could yell an alarm or allow the other Soldiers to know what was going on.

I gagged them by tearing strips off their dogis. I then checked the weapons they had on them. I took a belt which was well stocked with shuriken and put any other shuriken from the second soldier's belt as well. I got a dagger and handed it to Christine.

"You might need a weapon to protect yourself with. Until we find something better you can use this."

Unfortunately, neither of the soldiers carried katana, both of them had sais. I held one pair of the sai and tucked the spare into the belt, just in case I lost a weapon, or I had to throw one. I knew without a doubt that the number of Foot Soldiers in the area, I ought to be able to pick up a katana somewhere along the line.

I could use just about any weapon, Splinter had trained us in a vast number of weapons. So, I knew that the sai could be effective enough in my hands.

I gestured Christine out of the room and shut and locked the door just to slow down the Foot who were now trapped inside. The less Foot we had to fight on our way out the better.

I took the lead up the stairs, there was another door at the top of the stairs, funny I didn't recall seeing it when I'd been brought out before. Obviously, my mind hadn't been on observing my surroundings. It was locked too, that was okay I could pick the lock.

I felt a very faint rumbling, as I worked on the lock. I doubt Christine felt it, but I knew what it meant. I knew Don's silent bombs when I felt them, my brother's were close.

We just might get out of this mess after all. I couldn't help but grin it would be good to fight together again and do some real damage to the Foot.

I suddenly recalled a joke I had thought of before - something along the line of how to make a Foot fall? By stomping on it. At that time I felt it was the wrong answer.

Now I knew it was the correct answer after all and I couldn't wait to see how badly they were going to be stomped on.

TBC