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Anyway, on with the story...

"Leo…?"

"Leonardo?"

Said Turtle only continued to glare at the two. His eyes and expression softened, though, once he saw the altar behind them. Without saying a word, he reached down to pick up a large black bag that lay at his feet and walked pass them.

"Leo, what...?" Raph tried to get Leo's attention as he passed by, but his older brother paid no heed to him.

Leo knelt in front of the altar and stared fondly at Mikey's photo. He kissed his fingertips and pressed them against the glass. "Hi, Mikey," he softly said. "I've brought you something."

Reaching inside the bag, he pulled out what appeared to be a massively deformed skull, but Raph and Splinter immediately recognized it to be the late Super Shredder's mask (or at least, they assumed that it was a mask). He delicately placed it right next to the porcelain bowl, the bottom of which lay the shredded remains of Mikey's mask. Leo noticed the blood stains and a scowl appeared on his face. He took a piece out of the bowl and turned to face Splinter, holding it out for him to see.

"How dare you?" he hissed. "This still has Mikey's blood on it. You couldn't have at least washed it for him? And you didn't even attempt to sew it back together. What would he say?"

The already disheartened rat opened his mouth to speak but Raph did it for him.

"Take it easy, Leo," he said with a frown. "Mikey doesn't care about that at all. I mean, come on! He rarely even washed that thing himself when he was alive."

Leo narrowed his eyes at Raph. "I wasn't talking to you, Raph," he said.

"Yeah, good to see you, too, bro," Raph snapped.

"Leonardo," Splinter focused his eyes on the Shredder's mask. "You killed the Shredder?"

"Yeah," Leo glanced back at the white face in disgust and contempt. "Right after Mikey's funeral. I gave that monster the slow and agonizing death that he deserved." He looked back at Splinter and smirked. "I know what you're going to say: 'I am proud of you, Leonardo.' Right? 'Cause you would always say that to me." His smirk slowly turned into a frown. "Well, I didn't do it for you. I did it for Mikey."

"My son," Splinter looked at Leo with sad eyes, "It is never wise to go down the path of vengeance." He gestured toward the mask. "Look what happened to Oroku Saki."

"Save your words of wisdom," Leo spat. "I'm not Oroku Saki. I'll never become like him."

Raph raised an invisible eyebrow at him. "You sure about that, Leo?"

Leo quickly gave Raph a hateful stare. "You're joking, right? Saki was evil. But I'm not. What, you think I am?"

"No, no I don't. But, I think..."

"Raphael," Splinter placed his hand on Raph's shoulder. "Please step outside. I wish to speak with your brother alone."

Raph felt uneasy about this and glanced at Leo. "You sure about that, Sensei?"

"Yes. Please."

Hesitantly, Raph stood back up and proceeded to the doors, but he stopped for a moment to give Leo a glare. A glare that warned the other Turtle not to try anything funny or else things would get ugly. Leo only glared back, not the least bit intimated. Raph left the room, leaving the rat and his former student alone together.

"Leonardo," Splinter quietly said, "I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to see you again."

His son only snorted and looked away, his arms crossed. "Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't come to see you because I wanted to. I only came to pay tribute to Mikey." He looked back at his father with hateful, cold eyes. "Just the sight of you sickens me," he whispered with utter hate in his voice.

Splinter felt those words stab him in the heart and his ears sank back. But his loving gaze did not even falter. "That is understandable. And you have every reason to despise me so. Still, I am glad you came home, even if it wasn't for me. And I am grateful to you for protecting our family from the Shredder."

Leo responded with a "hmmph" and glanced back at the altar sadly. "I couldn't protect everyone," he softly said. "The least I can do for him is to protect this city from all criminals."

"Yes," Splinter sadly said. "Miwa told me."

"Oh, she did, huh?" Leo got up and stood over him menacingly. "So what now? You're gonna try to convince me to stop? Lecture me on how it's wrong to kill people?"

Splinter only shook his head. "No."

This reaction surprised Leo and he took a step back. "Wh-what?"

The elderly rat gave him a sad smile. "You are no longer a child," he said softly. "You know what is right and wrong. You make your own decisions, choose your own path. Do I approve of what you are doing? No, of course not. And I do not believe that you are evil, Leonardo. You are merely angry and lost. But I know that you will find your way again. You are my son, after all."

For a moment, Leo said nothing and continued to stare at Splinter with wide blue eyes. Then he narrowed them.

"Your son?" his chuckled bitterly then pointed at Mikey's picture. "Well, what about Mikey? Wasn't he your son, too?"

"Leonardo..."

"Let me ask you something. If it had me that Shredder had kidnapped instead of Mikey, would you still have chosen to save Miwa?"

Splinter lowered his eyes. "I wouldn't know the answer to that, Leonardo."

"Don't give me that!" Leo said angrily. "You and I both know that you'd sacrifice me because I'm not really your son! Not me, not Mikey, not Donnie, not Raph! Now don't get me wrong. I would've gladly given my life for Miwa, and I'm fully aware that Mikey begged you to pick him. But compared to Mikey, I was expendable. I was just the leader." He bowed his head and closed his eyes tightly. "Mikey was...the heart of this family. We needed him the most, and you knew it."

He opened his eyes and they glistened with tears. "Yet you chose him," he said in a broken voice. "And you didn't even watch. But I did. I watched every second of it."

Splinter remained silent, but his own eyes watered and he reached for Leo's trembling hand.

But Leo jerked it away, rejecting his father's gesture of love. "Don't touch me," he growled. "You wanted so badly to reunite with your daughter. Well, congratulations, you have her back now. So what do you need us for, right?" He then picked up his black bag and headed for the door.

"Wait," Splinter choked. "My son, please..."

Too late. He was gone.

"I hope that Leo and Splinter make amends in there," April said as she sat the kitchen table with the others.

Then they saw Leo stomp into the living room, an angry expression on his face.

April sighed and rubbed her temples. "I spoke too soon."

Leo stopped in his tracks when he spotted their old pinball machine. Grinning to himself, he walked over to the game and blew the dust off. Though he pushed the button to activate it, nothing turned on.

He heard heavy footsteps approach him. "You know, I never did beat that high score of yours."

Leo turned to face Raph and smiled at him. "Never expected you to."

His hotheaded brother chuckled and playfully punched him on the arm. "Hey! I could still beat it! But the stupid thing doesn't work anymore."

"Sure, Raph," Leo laughed. "You just keep telling yourself that."

"Leo?" April got out of her chair and approached the two. She smiled warmly at the former leader. "It's really good to see you again." She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his shoulder. She felt him hug her back and stroke her red hair.

"It's good to see you, too, sis," she heard him say gently.

She pulled out of the hug and gently tugged at his arm. "Come sit with us. I want you to meet someone."

He allowed her to drag him to the kitchen table and sat next to Miwa, who smiled at him sweetly and offered him some tea.

"Hey, Leo," Casey sat directly across from the Turtle. "Loving the new look, man. Especially the tattoo."

Leo smirked and traced the snake with his finger. "Thanks. Drew it myself."

"Leo," April sat in the chair next Shadow and pulled her close. "This is my daughter, Shadow. Our daughter." She glanced lovingly at Casey, who smiled at her.

Leo looked genuinely surprised. "Oh. So you and Casey got married? Well, what did Donnie have to say about that?"

April looked down at the table crestfallen. "Donnie didn't say anything, because he was never there. He abandoned us only a few days after...the funeral. We hadn't seen him since. I saw him yesterday, though. He now works for Morph Enterprises as a robotics engineer."

"Why isn't he here, then? Too busy?"

"He says he is. But really it's because he doesn't care at all."

"Hmmm," Leo looked down at his tea cup. "So he's cooped himself up in his lab again. Doesn't surprise me." He looked back up at Shadow and held his hand out for her to shake. "Shadow, was it? Leonardo."

Shadow bit her lower lip and slowly reached a trembling hand to grab his. Before she could touch him, though, he grabbed her hand first and firmly shook it, sending shivers down her spine and causing her to flinch. As soon as he let go, she jerked her hand away and scooted closer to her mother for comfort, whimpering.

"Is she all right?" Leo looked at her in concern.

"Yeah, she just has this phobia of mutants," April said as she soothingly rubbed her daughter's back.

"Why?"

"She just has it, okay?" Raph gruffly said. "Don't bug her about it."

"Speaking of 'bug' and phobias," Casey smiled slyly at him. "I forgot to ask: how'd you manage to survive in nature with all of the creepy-crawlies?" He chuckled while April looked at her husband disapprovingly.

"Please, Jones," Raph rolled his eye. "I've gotten over that phobia years ago." As soon as he said that, a cockroach scurried across the kitchen floor. Raph heard it approaching and swiftly scooped in up. Then, right in front of everyone, he opened his mouth and ate it!

As he chewed crunchily, he noticed the disgusted and shocked looks on everyone else's faces. "Sorry," he shrugged. "Force of habit."

"Aw come on, dude," Casey whined as Leo headed for the exit. "Can't you stay a bit longer? We haven't seen you in thirty years, you know."

"Sorry, Casey," Leo smiled sadly at his human friend. "Got a city to protect." He then turned to April and embraced her one more time. "Take care of yourself, April."

The former kunoichi rested her cheek on Leo's shoulder and sighed. "You, too, Leo," she said softly.

Still hugging April, Leo looked up at Shadow and gave her a quick nod. "It was nice to meet you, Shadow."

"Y-yeah," the teen nervously said as she rubbed her arm awkwardly.

"Leo," Karai walked over to him and gently put a hand on his shoulder. She smiled warmly at him. "Thanks for coming. It meant a lot to me and Father."

Leo didn't smile back, but he nodded at her. He reached down to pick up his bag.

"Leonardo."

Leo turned his head to find Splinter walking into the living room, holding what appeared to be a booklet wrapped in plastic.

"Please, wait," he said. "I have something for you."

Leo turned his shell to him and picked up his bag, slinging the strap over his shoulder. "I don't want anything from you," he said in a low, cold voice.

"You misunderstand," Splinter gently urged. "It is not from me. It is from Michelangelo."

At this, Leo turned his head. Splinter held the booklet out to him, his withered old hands shaking. The Turtle finally took it from him and looked at the cover. His eyes widened when he saw the familiar drawing of himself wearing a space helmet and standing on top of a blue-green planet.

It was the comic that Mikey made for him after the Parasitica incident.

"Michelangelo worked so hard on that comic book for you," Splinter said while smiling. "He would've wanted you to have it."

Leo let out a shaky sigh and could feel the tears coming. He remembered the time Mikey read to him when he was in that dreadful coma. He could still hear his baby brother's warm, comforting voice. Though he did not look up at his father, he spoke very quietly, "Thank you."

He then turned to Raph, who stood at the exit with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face. "Raph, I..."

"I'll go outside with you," Raph interrupted. "We need to talk."

"You remember when we used to have water hose fights here on the rooftops?" Raph chuckled as he looked at the forest of skyscrapers with Leo.

"I do," Leo smiled fondly at the memory. "Those were good times."

"Yeah, there were," Raph mumbled, his eye glistening.

Complete silence followed, save for the cars honking below them.

"You know, you shouldn't be so hard on Master Splinter," Raph softly said.

"How could you even forgive him?" Leo asked barely below a whisper.

Raph looked down at the streets somberly. "You know, for I while, I couldn't," he said softly. "I couldn't even forgive myself for failing to save Mikey. But then I realized that moping and beating myself up over it wouldn't have made things better. In fact, things got worse ever since we split up. I needed to stop being so selfish and put my family before myself."

"You really think we can be a family again?" Leo asked while glancing at Raph.

His one-eyed brother glanced back at him and nodded. "I do."

"Don't be stupid," Leo snapped.

"How is that stupid, Leo?" Raph asked angrily.

"Our family's broken, and it always will be. It can't work without Mikey. You know that."

"Mikey is still here with us, bro."

"Oh, god," Leo rolled his eyes. "Here we go."

"No, really, he is! I saw him, myself. Well, in a vision. He said that it was time for us to be together again. That includes you."

Leo didn't seemed too convinced and looked at him skeptically. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," Raph turned to completely face him and crossed his arms. "He also told me about your plan to kill yourself."

Leo's face instantly became pale. "What?"

Raph placed his hands on his brother's shoulders, looking at him in the eye. "Bro, please, don't ever go there," he said softly. "I already lost one brother. I don't plan on losing another. You say it's too late to fix things, but it's not. I know you did horrible things, but that doesn't mean that you're irredeemable. You can still turn back while there's still time."

Leo lowered his eyes and gently pushed Raph's hands away. "Raph, please stop," he whispered.

"No, Leo. I won't stop. I'm not going to give up on you. I promised Mikey that I would bring you back, and that's just what I'm going to do, no matter what."

Leo said nothing and continued to look at the concrete floor.

Raph leaned in close to his brother's face, his voice slightly cracked as he spoke. "I love you, bro. And I can't bear the thought of losing you or Donnie. Please come home. Please, Leo?"

The vigilante finally lifted his eyes to Raph. They were once again cold and emotionless. "I made a vow to protect this city," he had a very serious tone in his voice, "and I'm never going to stop. And if that means that I have to take some scumbag's life, then so be it."

"Leo, wait..." Raph tried to reason with Leo but was interrupted.

"Mikey died because we were too weak. We could've killed the Shredder many times before but we hesitated. Well, I'm never going to hesitate again." He took a step back and pointed to his snake tattoo. "This is who I am now, Raph, whether you like it or not."

Leo's eyes and voice softened. "I know I'm a danger to you and everyone else. And pretty soon you won't have to worry about me anymore. Just...until then, for your own sake, stay away from me."

Leo started to walk away, but he stopped for a moment to look at Raph. His face seemed apologetic, his blue eyes full of sorrow and regret. Raph's heart pained as he came to the realization that Leo truly believed that there was no way out for him. That he was trapped. That he did not deserve the light that was being offered to him, and he was condemned to dwell in the darkness forever.

"Goodbye, Raphael."

And with that, Leo jumped off the rooftop onto the next. Raph watched sadly as his brother disappeared out of sight, them went back to looking at the city lights. He let out a heavy sigh and closed his eye.

The former Leader in Blue had always refused to share his burdens with his brothers, even if the load was unbearable. Even now, he was protecting his family by driving them away. Typical Leo.

What am I gonna do now, Mikey?

Indeed, what will Raph do now...?

You thought Leo was gonna attack Splinter, didn't ya?

I added a reference to one of my own stories, in case any of you haven't noticed yet. :)