A/N: So I haven't gotten any reviews but I know you guys are reading (based off the traffic reports). C'mon guys, please review. I don't get paid to do this stuff, I like doing it out of my own enjoyment and I like writing these stories, but reviews really help. Like I've said before, reviews get me motivated because it lets me know what you guys are thinking and it helps me improve my own writing style. So, please review.

Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT.

The ninja felt himself yanked back by a slender hand gripped on his shoulder. Raph felt the whistle of the blade pass by him and released a gasp of pent-up tension as it passed a mere inch from his face. He scrambled to his feet, bent over from the strike to his shell. Don grabbed his arm and yanked him closer.

The ninja who had been about to strike Raph down turned around to slash at who had yanked him back but swiftly stopped himself and stepped away in shock.

Karai stood in her usual battle attire with her green gaze narrowed. She back-handed the ninja. "You were to bring them to me alive, fool. Get out of my way and subdue the others. Raphael is mine." She snapped. The ninja leapt out of her way and Don stepped in front of Raph, raising his hands and ready to defend his injured brother. He was unarmed, tired, and knew he was no match for Karai. Raph had been right about her, she was more than capable of killing them.

She seemed to know this too as she eyed him with a dangerous glint in her eyes. She unsheathed a katana and slowly approached while her ninjas hung back. Mikey was nowhere to be seen. "You are a fool to think that you can defeat me without a weapon, Donatello." She said sharply.

Don swallowed and stood his ground. Raph was hurt and he needed help. Don would not leave him to fight Karai in his weakened state. Weapon or not, Don could not abandon his older brother to Karai's merciless fury.

A blur of orange and green came between her and Don swiftly. Mikey brought his right hand nunchuck down on Karai only for her to duck the attack and step back. Her green gaze captured his furious expression. Mikey wanted to hurt her. He wanted to kill her. She broke his family apart.

He surged forward at her.

Don ducked under a swinging bo staff before kicking his leg out and sweeping the ninja off his feet. He rose to both feet and side-stepped a stabbing katana. He struck the back of the ninja's wrist, forcing him to drop the katana.

A calloused green hand wrapped around the hilt of the blade before it touched the ground. Don turned in surprise and spotted his brother standing on two feet with a blazing amber gaze. He swiftly slashed out at a trio of ninjas who had drawn close. Blood sprayed wildly as the blade tore through their chest cavities. He held the katana tightly in his right hand and lifted the blade to block an incoming strike from a naginata. The ninja's naginata struck the blade with a clang and Raph's left fist smashed into his cheekbone with a crack and the ninja hit the ground.

Don stepped back, avoiding a katana slash, before grabbing the ninja's outstretched arm and rolling onto his shell where he used his momentum to throw the ninja. He turned to his older brother who was slashing aggressively at the ninjas near him. "Raph, you can't be fighting with that injury!"

He shot Don a glare. "Ain't got much of a freakin' choice, now do I, smart ass?" He snapped back before stabbing the blade into the face of another ninja with a spray of brain, blood, and bone. He jerked the blade free of the ninja's skull.

Don released a frustrated breath of air before turning back to the ninjas.

The chain of Mikey's right hand nunchucks wrapped around Karai's upraised left wrist and he jerked her forward as he brought down the nunchucks in his left hand. She twisted in his grip, moving swiftly behind him. He gave a short grunt of pain as he barely spun around in time to avoid her breaking his wrist by pulling the chain of his nunchuck with the unexpected move. He leaned out-of-the-way of a stab from her katana blade and ducked down as he yanked on the nunchuck still wrapped around her wrist. He pulled it over his head and dragged her along with it, forcing her to leap over his shell or tumble to the ground. She chose to leap and kicked him as she did so. The heel of her foot struck his side before she twisted and landed on both beet. He grunted and brought his other nunchuck to strike at her back as he rose to his feet.

Her katana whipped out and cleaved through the chain of his left hand nunchuck. She swiftly disentangled from the chain around her wrist as he leapt back to avoid the katana strike that had broken his left hand nunchuck. He hurled his broken nunchuck at her, only for her to bat it aside with her katana blade. She smirked darkly. "You cannot hope to defeat me with weapons such as those. Give up now, Michelangelo, and I will spare your life long enough to see your traitorous brother one last time." She spat out bitterly.

Mikey's one nunchuck spun in his right hand and his blue gaze glared her down, dripping with animosity. "Like shell, I will! You took everything from us!" He shouted back at her.

"Not everything, yet." She replied before hurling shuriken at him and sprinting forward. Mikey struck aside the projectiles with his nunchuck and rushed to meet her. He lifted his nunchuck up in both hands as his left leg extended forward and bent at the knee, stretching the chain taut as Karai's katana came down. The chain snapped and Karai's katana scored a deep cut down Mikey's plastron. Blood spurted from the wound and he cried out in pain. He stumbled back and dropped his nunchuck. He pressed both hands to the wound, attempting to stifle the flow of blood.

A blue mask. Soft hazel eyes. His brother's smile and promise.

"I don't regret giving you my heart, Mikey. I never will. Keep it safe, you don't get many second chances in this world."

A harsh glare from that all that remained of one soft hazel eye. "It's all you've got left, now. Don't waste it, Mikey."

Mikey released a soundless gasp and struggled to keep his blood inside of him as he pressed his hands tightly to the profusely bleeding wound. "No. No. No!" He cried, his voice escalating with each word, his blue gaze fixated upon the wound.

Karai approached with a smirk. "Perhaps if you were dead, your brother might return sooner. He seems to have a sense for when you are in mortal danger." She pondered aloud as she lifted the blade above Mikey's head. She brought it down only for another katana blade to stop it with a clang. Her gaze narrowed as Raph gritted his teeth and shoved her back.

He moved in front of Mikey and leveled the katana in front of his body as he stood before his baby brother protectively.

Raph glared her down. "Don't ya dare threaten him! You ain't got the right to do anything t'us, bitch. Leave my family the hell alone." He snarled as he sprinted forward, both hands wrapped around the hilt of his commandeered katana. Karai leaned back, avoiding a slash and side-stepped to avoid another. The blade of her katana glimmered like a shard of pure moonlight as it flashed out and cleanly sliced Raph's katana in two. Raph tightened his grip on the broken katana and surged forward with blazing amber eyes.

She slashed downwards and he raised his left forearm, hitting the bottom of her extended right forearm and stopping her slash from cutting him in two. He snarled as the broken katana in his right hand shot at her face. She leaned aside and the broken blade sliced through her left cheek, drawing a line of blood. She gasped and drove her left elbow into his throat. He dropped the broken katana and instinctively clutched his throat with his right hand. Her katana whipped out swiftly and cleanly slashed his left abdomen open. He stumbled back and pressed both hands to the wound with a grimace. It was deep and definitely life threatening. He knew it would cost him if he didn't finish this soon or get as far away as possible. He dropped to one knee and breathed in. His amber gaze caught on the red hilt of one of his sai and he snorted in irony. His right hand wrapped around the blade as he rose to his feet.

His amber gaze glanced back at his brothers. Don was struggling to defend Mikey from several gray clad ninjas. His brown gaze met Raph's. Raph noticed the fear and worry in his eyes and offered him a soft smile of encouragement.

Don seemed frozen by that smile. "Don't get yer' shell in a knot, Donnie. I got her on the ropes; this is just a scratch, bro." He reassured with a small grin before turning to face Karai.

Her green gaze blazed furiously as her blade came across in a horizontal slash at his face. A hand roughly shoved him back and the blade tore through the left side of Raph's face, spraying blood and sending his red mask flying from his face. It fell slowly, a slash through the left eye hole. Raph fell on his shell and clutched the tattered side of his face. He gasped and grunted in pain as blood flowed down his face, coupled with the blood that pulsated from his abdomen. The crimson fluid was spattered across his face in mock imitation of the mask that usually rested over his eyes.

There was a clang as Karai's katana was abruptly halted.

All movement froze and fighting stopped. All eyes stared at the dark figure that had caught Karai's katana in his left hand. He stood across from her, holding the blade out at arm's length while her green gaze widened in shock.

A trench coat, black as night, fluttered in the breeze from the sea while it covered most of the shadowy figure's form. A pale hazel eye burned on the figure's face.

Raph rose to one elbow, still clutching the left side of his face and stared at his defender standing with one blue hilted katana strapped over his trench coat and resting in its sheath on his back. His blue mask fluttered gently with the breeze.

Complete silence had overtaken the shipping yard. Everyone stared at the newcomer, even the ninjas.

"So the traitor appears. Face my wrath, Leonardo!" Karai's voice snarled as she tore the blade out of his hand and swung it at his head. He leaned back, letting the blade whistle by his bare throat. He straightened and turned his hazel eye on Don, the only unwounded brother.

"Get them the hell out of here, now." He ordered in a harsh and rasping voice. Don stared and nodded as he helped Mikey to his feet and approached Raph. His brothers were shaking and bloodied.

"Foot ninja, bring me Leonardo!" Karai ordered sharply as she moved back. "And don't hold back. Let him know pain."

Michelangelo's blue gaze was fixated on his eldest brother, unable to believe the sight before him.

Leo bent low and retrieved a weighted chain that had fallen from the grasp of one ninja. He spun it swiftly, gaining momentum. The multitude of ninjas present surged toward the blue masked ninja. Leonardo twisted aside as shuriken flew at him.

"Donatello." He said over the din. Don glanced up and ducked, dragging Mikey down with him. Leo dropped to one knee and hurled the chain out in a powerful swing parallel to the ground, loosening his grip and allowing it to sail out at its full length of forty feet.

The ninjas' cried out and tried to move back as the weighted chain came their way, but they were too slow. The sounds of cracking bones and rupturing internal organs filled the night and echoed off the buildings around them. Leo released the chain and sprinted at his remaining opponents: seven of the gray clad ninjas, the Legionnaires of the Foot clan. He dropped in a slide and swung his legs out, sweeping two of the ninjas off their feet. He used the momentum of his sweep to rise to his feet.

He ducked under a punch and grabbed the wrist of his attacker before using the ninja's momentum to throw him over his shoulder. Leo leaned aside as a katana sliced the air where he had stood. He raised his right hand and stopped another blade from taking his head with the flat of his hand. He wrapped his fingers around the blade and yanked it, pulling the ninja forward into his outstretched open hand.

The ninja screamed as the shuko blades on Leo's palm tore through his face. He fell on the ground, clutching the pieces of his tattered face. Leo grabbed the katana by its blade in both hands and jabbed the hilt into another ninja's sternum with a cracking sound. Leo spun around the ninja with a swift movement of his feet and his elbow struck the side of the ninja's skull. The ninja dropped to the ground without a sound. Leo dropped the katana on the ground as he faced the remaining five, three of which were stunned and winded.

He charged at them and they scattered before him, just as he knew they would. He completed a back hand-spring, avoiding the sweep of a katana and twisting in mid-air, and landed on both feet facing his opponents. He sprinted forward and, with a flick of his wrists, sent shuriken flying into two of the closer ninja's faces. They clutched at their faces and drew away from the fight. Leonardo's hands whipped out swiftly as he passed them by, dropping to slide through between one of the gray clad ninja's legs. His hands clamped on the same ninja's calves, digging the shuko spikes into his opponent's legs.

The other two ninjas were clutching at their ruined faces, torn by the same shuko spikes. The still standing ninja cried out in pain and Leo dragged him down to the floor. He tore the spikes out of the ninja's legs and stood up. He calmly raised a foot and stomped hard on the back of the ninja's neck with a crack.

He turned to Karai who had gone paler and stared at him in shock. His hazel eye captured her figure. A black clad ninja at her side was also staring at Leo, equally as shocked as Karai.

Her green gaze narrowed and she strode forward before halting a few yards away from Leonardo. She lifted her katana in both hands, pointing the blade at him as she readied her stance.

Leo remained still, although his gaze turned to the figures of his brothers who were assisting Raphael. Don had wrapped Mikey's wound as best he could with the torn clothes from a few Foot ninjas and Mikey was now on his feet, helping. Don and Mikey helped their brother to his feet and were already rushing out of the battlefield. Mikey shot Leo a glance as he helped carry Raph's weight. Leo's gaze turned back to Karai and he stepped aside as her katana came down where he had stood a moment ago. Leo ducked as her blade twisted and shot across horizontally. He spun on one knee and his leg swept out to take Karai off her feet.

She leapt over the sweep and kicked a leg out at him. Leo rolled to the right and rose to both feet, avoiding her kick. Karai turned to face him, bringing her katana down at the same time. Leo twisted out-of-the-way but saw a flash of steel as her second blade, a wakizashi, whipped out at him.

The clanging of steel on steel echoed in the shipping yard. Leo's katana had stopped the wakizashi before it could chance cutting his throat open. Leo turned his blade flat on the edge of the wakizashi and steel squealed on steel as his blade scraped down hers. The crossguard of her wakizashi snapped off with a crack and she leapt back before his katana could slice her hand open.

Karai tossed her katana back to the same black clad ninja who had stood by her side earlier before wrapping both hands around the hilt of her wakizashi. She leveled the blade parallel to the ground, pointing it at Leo. The blue masked ninja stood still, with his katana hanging loosely in his right hand at his side. His one hazel eye was fixated on her. It was narrowed to a slit and burned with anger and contempt. Karai stared. Never had she seen so much anger in him before, not even when she had held Raphael captive and tortured him.

She shook her head and quickly cooled. Her lips curled into a sadistic smirk.

"I took down both of your brothers with ease. I will do the same to you and then I will slay Donatello and finish Raphael and Michelangelo. There is nothing that you can do to stop me now, Leonardo. You failed your family." She said with a dark look to her green gaze.

Leo's hazel eye did not stray and the usual guilt that would have shadowed him after a comment like that didn't show. Karai's eyes widened in shock. She'd been counting on his guilt to hold sway over him but it seemed to wash over him like nothing. Her gaze narrowed. Maybe she could use his anger against him, which seemed in abundance.

Leo's stance shifted and his head lowered, not in submission but in preparation and observation. His katana gleamed in the dim light. He sprinted forward, blade drifting behind him, gripped loosely in his right hand. Karai widened her stance and braced herself. The black clad ninja stood still behind her, but he was tensed like a trap ready to spring.

Leonardo swung his katana in a wide arc and struck her blade with enough power to nearly throw it out of her grasp. She barely held her wakizashi and she struggled against the immense strength pushing down on her blade. She slowly sank to one knee under his weight and felt something familiar and odd all the same rise in her stomach: fear. She had forgotten the last time her and Leonardo had fought. She had forgotten the fear that he had instilled and it was strongly reminding her just why he had been so terrifying before.

Karai ducked aside in a roll and rose to both of her feet with a gasp of breath. Leo slowly straightened and turned back to her. She held her blade lifted up and Leo's hazel eye trailed down its edge. Karai followed his gaze and noticed that her fear was making her hands shake along with her blade. Her eyes lifted just in time to spot Leo's blade stab at her face. She stepped aside, smacking at his blade with her own. Her back met his shell for a moment before she twisted to strike at his exposed backside. His free hand whipped out and caught the blade in clenched fingers. He spun around and his hazel eye met her green ones. He wrested the sword from her grasp and tossed it aside with a clang.

Karai took a step back as he took one forward. The threatening curve of his katana glinted in the dim light as it rose.

"Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to survive this time." His harsh voice spoke as he leaned in, his hot breath ghosting over her facial features. Karai stiffened and he lifted his blade to strike.

He spun aside, narrowly avoiding the swing of another katana. He faced the black clad ninja, his hazel gaze turned from the ninja to Karai. He straightened, dropping his hands at his sides. He raised his katana over his head and slid it back into its sheath.

"Another time, then." He hissed before turning and walking away casually, as if daring her or her ninja to attack him.

Karai stared at his retreating backside and turned to her ninja who, in turn, glanced at her before turning back to Leonardo. "Owari." She began.

"I watched carefully, Mistress. I will need time and supplies if you still wish for me to complete the task."

"It is done." She replied.

"We may still be able to retrieve the necessary items for Dr. Stockman, as well, Mistress."

"Order one of the Legionnaires to complete the retrieval, but you will be returning with me."

"As you command, my Mistress."

~.~.~.~

Don sighed in relief as he finished properly wrapping the wound in Raph's side. His older brother glanced at him from his place lying flat on the day bed. Gauze was wrapped over the left side of his face, covering his eye and cheek. His one visible amber eye stared past Don at their youngest brother. Mikey stood with his shell to the wall, his pet mouse sat on the counter, munching on a nut and wrinkling its nose every so often. Mikey's head was bowed and his brows furrowed in thought. Most of his chest and abdomen were wrapped tightly.

"Mikey." Don said softly. Mikey's blue gaze lifted to meet theirs.

"Was that really Leo? Who saved us?" Mikey asked.

Don glanced at Raph whose amber eye met his brown gaze. "Yeah. That was definitely Leo." Don answered.

"Just like him to swoop down and save our asses." Raph muttered.

"Do you think he'll come back? I hope he comes back. I really missed him. I have so much to tell him." Mikey sputtered nervously.

Raph sighed and moved to sit up. Don blanched and glared him down. "Don't move an inch! You lost a lot of blood!"

Raph shook him off. "Bah! I've been worse."

The sound of a door opening caused the three brothers to turn. Mikey glanced at them. "Do you think it's really him?"

"Only one way to find out." Raph answered as he stood up, swaying slightly, despite Don's protests. The three turtles moved out of the lab, however, as their curiosity piqued them. Even Don didn't say much as Raph moved ahead of them.

The lights were on in the main room, where Leonardo, wearing his black trench coat, strode towards them at a steady pace. They watched, apparently too shocked by his being there than anything else.

Leo's hazel eye still possessed the same cold detachment, but there was something else odd about him at that moment. Don studied his brother's movements carefully.

Leo passed by the couch and paused. He glanced about the lair and nodded almost sleepily before turning to his brothers. His hazel eye seemed judging and cold. He opened his mouth to say something but instead stumbled forward on his face. He remained still. The three brothers stared in horror.

"Don, what the shell," Raph snarled as Don and Mikey shot forward by Leo's side.

"Raph, hush." Don interjected swiftly as Raph hobble over to them. Don turned Leo over and checked his pulse and breathing. He leaned in over his brother, his face inches from Leo's. He had to admit that Leo had never looked as relaxed as he did then. His eye was closed and relaxed as his brow was calm and his mouth slack. Leo breathed out in his face and Don cringed before slowly rising to his feet. Mikey glanced up at him expectantly, still kneeling by Leo's side while Raph watched him carefully.

"Well, the good news is that he's fine." Don said.

"Yeah, then why'd he pass out on the floor like that?" Raph spat back.

Don glanced at his unconscious brother and back to Raph and then to Mikey. He sighed and glanced back at Raph. "Well, from what I can tell, Leo's been… drinking… a lot."

"Drinking?" Mikey echoed.

"Like booze?" Raph asked.

Don nodded.

Raph ran a hand over his head. "Shit, he was fighting Karai drunk off his ass."