I honestly keep forgetting to post here. So I'm going to spam all the other chapters real quick!
(:)
Leon's fingers dug into his arms, breath catching in his throat when Raph stood back up, folding out a gravity blanket that must've been sitting on Splinter's vacant chair. He unfurled it, creeping as carefully as he could over to Leon's side, and tossed it firmly over Leon's shoulders.
Leon gasped at the weight of it, reaching up his hand to grab it securely and hold it in place. He shifted, barely rising to stand before sitting down again, making sure the blanket covered every non-head inch of him. Leon relaxed into the comfort of the quilt. Okay, so… it wasn't that bad of a trap. It probably wasn't even a trap! His stupid, stupid mind betraying him and getting out of hand…
Mikey passed over a cup of tea, scooting it over the table. Raph took it in hand and shoved it the rest of the way to Leon, setting it firmly on the table next to him. Leon reached a hand out through the folds to cradle it, lifting it up to drink it thankfully.
"Sorry, I know how this looked." Raph comforted, taking a few quick steps back to relax on his own chair, scooting it backwards to give Leon space. Rather than comforting, it gave Leon a feeling of isolation, but at least he had his tea. "We… figured it was best to do this early on in the morning."
"Ah, right…" Leon grumbled, developing some of his snarkiness back and glaring at Raph over the rim of his cup. "A perfect time to corner me."
"It's not… okay, it's cornering a little bit, but…" Raph struggled with his wording for a bit, casting a desperate look over to Mikey, who was better at explaining reasonings and… well, words in general. "We're just worried about you. You've been not only a lot quieter lately, but angrier too. I know you're trying to hide it by locking yourself in your room all day, but…"
"Have you been sleeping okay?" Mikey whined, reaching out a hand to drum on the table near Leon, letting Leon know he was there for him. "You have eye bags."
Leon reached up mildly to brush his finger against his eyes, feeling the sag underneath the mask. He… he hadn't thought they'd be noticeable beneath his mask, but of course they were. "It's nothing!" He assured sharply, glancing at Raph in frustration. Because how dare Raph orchestra such a thing? Didn't he know? Didn't he get it? "Insomnia has just been kicking into overdrive lately. No big deal, I've just been getting more tea to make up for it."
"Ergo," Donnie huffed past his fingers, tilting his head slightly at Leon, brows furrowing deeper, "angrier."
"I'm not-!" Leon faltered, fingers curving sharply into each other underneath the gravity blanket. He switched his glare from Donnie to the table in front of him, trying to take a couple deep breaths through his scowl to calm himself. "I'm not trying to be." He assured, his insides twisting angrily within him, "I'm just… tired. I'll get over it. I just need to wait out this bout of insomnia."
Donnie's brow furrowed in suspicion, leaning forward challengingly while Mikey shot Leon a sympathetic grin and Raph looked down at his hands. "Leo," Donnie huffed, "I know you well enough to know that your insomnia gets worse in stressful situations. And don't try to tie it to Shredder, because this didn't start up until Papa made you leader. So, spill."
"I…" Leon froze, vision shaking a little bit and growing blurry with tears. He didn't know what to say. He didn't want to even say anything, he just wanted them to leave him alone! "I wasn't… I don't want to talk about it."
"Leo…" Raph bit out, folding his arms across his chest. "If you don't want to be the leader…"
Leon's head snapped up, staring at Raph in shock. "What?!" After everything he'd done for Raph, he wasn't going to just… give up! He wasn't going to let Raph get back to the grind so soon; he could keep this up for as long as Raph needed, and longer, too! He didn't care that Raph refused to talk about it and wouldn't give him any tips and tricks, he was doing this for Raph! "No! Of course I want to!"
All three of his brothers startled, staring at him in confusion, their foreheads pinched together.
Um. "I just… I need to get used to it! I… I know I haven't been doing any leader-y things yet, but I… I'm going to get ready so I can be a good leader! I just. Just." Just what? Just scared? Just weak? Just pathetic? I can't say any of those, no matter how well they fit… "…I haven't been able to talk to Gram-Gram." Smooth. What if they can? Then they'll get more suspicious, and ask more questions. Ha, you know that she doesn't care about you, and that's why she doesn't reach out-
Raph made a choking noise in the back of his throat, and his face consorted. "You too? I mean… me too! Or… us both? I just… Gram-Gram hasn't been talking to me neither!"
"Either." Donnie corrected with a mix of an eye roll and a sympathetic sigh. "I haven't necessarily tried," Mikey gave him a sharp look which he countered with "yet! I haven't tried yet, but I'm not sure if even Papa has been able to get in contact with her, or any other ancestor, for that matter. I have high suspicions that his willing exile into his room is not only due to his own exhaustion from the whole experience, but also from the effort in trying to establish a solid link with them. Which, frankly, would be so much easier to do if the mystic and-slash-or spirit world had phones, which is why I-"
"Dee…" Mikey whined, waving his hands desperately in an attempt to make Donnie stop talking. "I know you want to build mystic gear and stuff, but is now really the time to brag about it?"
"My darling Miguel, it's always the time to talk about it! Gram-Gram said she was impressed by my tech! Impressed! By me! It's only right that such impressive works of sophisticated science make their way to her so she can properly enjoy them every second of her afterlife-"
"Donnie…" Mikey gestured wildly over to Raph and Leon, who both were staring awkwardly at Donnie and each other. "Now's definitely not the time."
Donnie huffed in irritation, then followed Mikey's movement to their other two brothers. He deflated, and shot an apologetic look over to the youngest turtle. "Ah, right, of course. Apologies. I shall stew silently in my own brilliance."
"Thanks." Mikey deadpanned, then rounded back over to Raph and Leon. "But Donnie's right! None of us have really been able to contact Gram-Gram, or really anyone. I'll bet if you called April, she'd say the exact same thing, and she shared a body with Gram-Gram!"
"That's…" comforting? A little bit, Leon admitted to himself. So Gram-Gram didn't completely hate him, after all. Or at least her distance wasn't because she did, because… because nobody could talk to her. That was… that was good. Well, obviously, it was bad for them in total, but it was nice to know he wasn't alone. Sort of.
"I wish she'd come back." Raph whined, staring down at his hands in despair. "I wish we'd been able to get to know her before she just… vanished. It'd be cool to meet all our ancestors, really. Like Grampsaki, Grandma Atsuko, and Grandpa Sho…"
Good riddance. Leon's mind supplied angrily, clawing at his brain, but no, it wasn't! He loved his family, ancestors including! He wanted to see them again, and… if he really missed them, wouldn't he let Shredder-?
What. What was going on?!
"Leo?" Raph's hand reached out for Leon again, and this time Leon jerked back as far as possible, shoving his chair back from the table with a grinding noise. His mug spilled from his fingers, clattering against the countertop as liquid spilled across the counter top. Leon might have gotten some tea on his fingers, but he didn't know, he just didn't!
Donnie, ever prepared, pulled several sheets of paper towels from either the counter behind them or his battle shell, Leon wasn't exactly paying attention, and sprawled them out across the table, soaking up the tea. Leon backed away a few faulty steps, nearly tripping over the gravity blanket that he hadn't even realized he'd dropped, barely managing to catch himself.
Mikey was before him in the next moment, scooping up the blanket and trying to toss it around Leon's shoulders again. Leon cringed into himself, and Mikey paused, bundling the blanket into a hug against his chest.
"Okay," Raph huffed, narrowing his brows at Leon. "Clearly there's more bothering you than just-"
"Yeah!" Leon snapped, whipping around to jab a finger at Raph. "And you of all people should know! Why didn't you…?! You're trying to corner me, to trap me, and for what?!"
"Leo-"
"Don't! Stop 'Leo'ing me! You want to fix this? You want me to feel better or sleep well or whatever? You talk to me! You tell me how you managed to survive this for so long, you tell me how to fix it!" Leon took a step back, staring down at his shaking hands, then looked back up at Raph. "…please! If you're not going to… to talk to me, at least tell Donnie and Mikey! They need to know, they need to be ready, because I can't keep this up, and, and…"
"What are you talking about?" Raph's voice broke, twisting into something so full of concern and confusion that Leon almost believed he truly didn't know. Almost.
"Ohoho, that's rich, coming from you!"
"Buddy, com'n…"
"You knew about the pinching thing, didn't you?! You had to have known something or else you wouldn't have-! But you didn't tell me! What else have you been hiding from me?! What else should I know?"
"I don't… understand, Leo, are you-?"
"Angry?! Furious?! Betrayed?! You know what, Raphael?! I am! I'm hurt, and frustrated because you never tell me anything! This is indubitably the worst I've ever felt about anything, and I wish I could just-" The words died on Leon's tongue, his mind screaming out a mantra of run them through with your katana! Kill them! How dare they question you? What a shame, they were fun while they lasted… kill them, kill them!
Wait. What?!
Leon jolted backwards, shell slamming against the wall right beside the door, over missing his bounds. A shudder ran through his body, and Raph paused in the middle of saying something, Leon couldn't hear what it was, he was sorry, so sorry- the oldest brother eyeing Leon in a mix of hurt, confusion, and worry.
"Leo, I'm sorry!" Raph whimpered, reaching out towards Leon too quickly, "Please, don't-"
Leon pivoted on his heel and ran.
His head pounded angrily against him, something was wrong with it, wrong with him! Stupid things, it was saying stupid things, and making him want to… no! That wasn't right, that wasn't him! He… he was a good brother! He'd never consider such… such awful things. Not with anybody!
Then why had…
Why had he thought them?
(:)
"Everyone packed up?" Leonardo's voice rang out through the lair, the young leader exiting from his room, slinging two different backpacks over his shoulder while juggling a fanny pack and saddle bag over one hip. One backpack was packed to the brim with all sorts of remedies that the scrolls had recommended, like candles, a certain type of fruit, and a wide variety of mystic chants copied from the scrolls. Himself, Raphael, and Michelangelo each had a bag filled with all the scrolls they deemed might come in handy, but Leonardo had his suspicions that most of them would be unnecessary to have.
From different corners of the lair, Leonardo's brothers emerged. Donatello from his lab, loaded up with all sorts of inventions with a metal carrier strapped to his back and holding the dimension portal expander held carefully between his hands, lassoed around his neck with a lanyard. Raphael came from his own room, carrying one scroll bag and one loaded up with various ninja supplies and a plentitude of camping gear. Michelangelo, meanwhile, came from the kitchen with nothing personal loaded up but Ice Cream Kitty in her cooler carrier.
"Mikey…" Leonardo pinched the bridge of his nose, "didn't April say she would be feeding Ice Cream Kitty?"
"She did," Michelangelo admitted slowly, "but I don't trust April to feed her Neapolitan. I think she'll try to make Kitty more Pistachio, and then I can't eat her, because Pistachio is nasty!"
"On the contrary, Pistachio is delicious. April has good taste." Donatello huffed, pulling the container off his shoulders to sort through the tech to make sure everything was in place.
"Just because she's your girlfriend doesn't mean you have to agree with all her tastes." Raphael teased, turning his attention from Donatello's offended exclamation of 'but it is good!' to face Leonardo. "But anyway, Ice Cream Kitty aside, I think we have everything."
"Yup, definitely have everything." Donatello carefully repacked his gear, nodding proudly as he mentally checked off everything he needed. "We should be completely fine!"
"I've got enough packed for three days, in case we stay longer than planned." Raphael reassured, adjusting his backpack so it didn't dig into his shoulder blade. "And you've got all your… magical hooten-nanny?"
"As much as I could find."
"Great. Then… Mikey, is that really all you're bringing?"
"Uh, duh! Ice Cream Kitty is my therapy animal and food source all in one!" Michelangelo scooped Ice Cream Kitty out of her container, holding her up Lion-King style with pride, ice cream dripping off his hands. He paused after a second, noticed her melting, and dropped her right back into the cooler, lipping the lid closed. "Ooo-boy, okay, I gotta remember to stop doing that."
"Yeah, try not to pull her out too much." Leonardo advised, still not particularly fond of the idea of bringing her but knowing it was the best way to keep Michelangelo happy. "And, Donnie, you have a spare dimensional… thing for April?"
"Yeah. I'll give it to her once we get to the rift; she'll meet us there to see us off." Donatello pulled the container back onto his shoulders, taking a good look at his brothers. "…I'm really unprepared for this."
Leonardo's head sprang up at that, regarding Donatello with worry. "I thought you had packed up everything? Do you need anything else?"
"Nono, not that type of unprepared! I'm just. Not ready to fight Shredder again." Donatello massaged his temple, looking down at his feet. "After… that night, I hoped we'd be done with him forever. But of course Kavaxas brought him back, but then Shredder shoved Kavaxas and himself back into the portal, and I thought that maybe…"
"I know." Leonardo huffed, running a hand along his scalp. "I think we all did. We thought he was dead and gone, and yet… we'll get him this time, though. I'll just kill him again, and that should get rid of him for good."
Donatello shot Leonardo an exasperated look, shaking his head. "As much as I love scientific theories, I really hate battle theories. We all know things are going to go south as soon as we get there."
"Then we'll handle it when it happens." Raphael promised, punching Donatello's arm. "Now, I'm itching to get home already. Faster we get rid of Shredder, faster we can get back."
"Raphael's right." Leonardo's right, huffing out a breath as he took a look around their lair. "…let's get going." And he led his brothers out to the surface.
(:)
"And you've got everything?" April insisted for the tenth time, even after Donatello had handed her a personal copy of the dimensional expander, and was making his way through the portal. "Being able to text through a dimensional rift is no good if you didn't pack your phone charger, and your T-Phone."
"April, please, you know my T-Phone can last a week without being charged, so even if I did just happen to misplace the charger, I'll still be able to call!" Donatello whined, though he looked a little smitten with the attention.
"Yeah, besides, Mr. Boy-Scout over here," Raphael jerked a phone over towards Leonardo, "made sure I packed extra chargers."
"Thank you, Leo and Raph." April huffed, poking Donatello's plastron threateningly. "Now you better give me updates. Casey and I'll protect the city as long as you guys are here, and I'll keep in contact with Bishop and Karai to make sure nothing big is coming, but… if you guys aren't back in a few days, I'm coming to get you myself!"
"Wait, how many days is 'a few'?!" Michelangelo gasped, poking his fingers together. "Because depending on how awesome the other Mikey is-!"
"There's a lot of variables." Leonardo interrupted, shoving Michelangelo affectionately with his elbow. "But we'll keep in contact, and keep you up to date. Give us four days before you come barging in like a raging kunoichi."
"I guess I can give you that grace period." April sighed, tucking an arm around Donatello. "But if you need help at any point, I'll drop everything to come help. Be it sleep, school, my job, or even if we're in the middle of a gang raid."
"Thanks, April." Donatello beamed, hugging her back. "We'll be back before you know it."
"You better be back before finals week." April grumbled, glaring up at him. "Who's going to help me study if you're in another dimension?" She slipped out of his grasp, giving him a light shove towards the portal. "I'll see you four in a bit, okay? Don't get too caught up in alternate dimensions."
"You got it, April." Leonardo promised as Donatello set up April's portal expander, setting it down on the ground and allowing it to pull the partials of air apart, forming a spiraling vortex behind them. Leonardo cast a look over his shoulder, wincing at the purple crackles of electricity that gushed through it, crackling through the air. "…now, that's unsettling."
"I was expecting it to be a neat triangle or… circle or something." Donatello agreed, frowning at it. "It should still be safe, but… um, hold on. I want to mark down the readings I'm getting from this. It feels like something we should pay attention to, so we can seal it up behind us when we leave, or neutralize any side effects it may or may not produce."
Michelangelo stuck out his tongue at that, brow clenching in disgust. Try as he might to understand why Donatello would want to close up what could potentially be a good thing, he knew that the process still sounded dull, and he'd much rather play video games.
"Okay," Donatello huffed, slipping away his pocket book and standing back up. "Done. April, we'll see you again soon, okay? I'll send you a text once we're settled."
"Let's go, team." Leonardo summoned, reaching out to grab Michelangelo's hand comfortingly. Raphael latched onto Michelangelo's other side, and Donatello grabbed Leonardo's other hand. The four boys looked at one another, taking a deep breath amongst themselves, and then stepped through.
The first step was the hardest. There was a pull at every motion they made, a grinding feeling that yanked at their feet and tried to stop their first step from landing onto the ground. Leonardo felt Michelangelo's grip tighten on his, while Donatello attempted to withdraw. In response, Leonardo held them both more firmly, wanting to comfort Michelangelo while keeping Donatello close, and then-
The next step was easier, a small jerk pulling them forward instead of back, and then they came to a stop, the portal still ablaze behind them. Leonardo took a halting breath, glancing between his brothers, who looked as dazed as he did, looking at each other.
"Okay, that was…" Donatello wrapped his free arm around himself, brow clenching in befuddlement, "I don't remember interdimensional portals ever feeling like… that. And we've been in so many…"
"They've never looked like that, either." Michelangelo pointed out, jerking a shaky thumb back towards it. "This is… weird."
"But everyone's okay?" Leonardo pulled his hands free from his younger brothers, looking over Michelangelo's head to Raphael.
Raphael gave a thumbs up, and then squinted, tiling his head up to the sky. "...are we… is it a different time here?! It's so bright!"
"I have no clue." Donatello shrugged, huffing as he sent April's T-Phone a text that they arrived safely. It went through, thankfully, and April sent back a thumbs-up. "If we find a bank or a car lot or something with a billboard displaying the time outside…" He glanced up at the sky, glancing to and fro. "The sky's dark, and there's definitely no sun, so I'm guessing the lighting is purely man-made. This New York is more luminous than ours."
"That's great." Raphael grunted. "I'm going to go blind if I stay out here."
"Okay." Leonardo dusted himself off, and secured his bags more firmly, glancing at his brothers. "No going blind. Let's get to the sewers as soon as possible, and go back to the lair. Or… at least, this dimension's version of the lair."
"Hopefully they'll be nice and welcoming!" Michelangelo chimed up, eager.
"Yeah, and not brain-dead like our other counterparts." Raphael grunted, rolling his eyes and not feeling too optimistic.
"And not 'throw shuriken first, ask questions later' like our other other counterparts." Donatello added. "I'd prefer it was easy, but knowing us, it probably won't be."
"If we're lucky, the most they'll be is suspicious. Remember, they seem like alright fighters. One of them is managing to hold their own against Super Shredder, after all." Leonardo pointed out, already grabbing a ladder off to the side of the bridge and starting to climb up it, motioning at his brothers.
"More people than I was expecting." Leonardo noted as his head peaked over the edge of the pier, looking out over the small clusters of people here and there. In all honesty, there weren't many people. Maybe three dozen in total unevenly spread out along the shore, but it was still more than Leonardo had seen in one place for a while. Most of the time, especially at night, New York citizens kept indoors, especially with all the alien invasions that had occurred in the last five years.
Leonardo twisted his head around to glance down at his brothers, Raphael right on his heels, Donatello right behind Raphael, one hand gripping the railing to the ladder, half turned towards Michelangelo at the rear. They were all in position to move as quickly as possible, muscles tensed and eyes white, ready for fight or flight.
Leonardo looked back at the milling people, then gave the signal to move, shoving himself onto solid ground and breaking into a run. He heard Raphael scamper up behind him and follow in his steps, but he didn't check to see if any of his brothers were following him until he got to the alley, too busy trying to move stealthily between the two closest groups of people without being seen.
He paused as he reached the nearest alley, leaping up to grab the nearest fire escape and boosting himself up, watching his brothers follow him in. Raphael and Donatello got in easily enough, but Michelangelo stalled around the half-way point, glancing off to the side, before returning to full speed and joining them. Raphael pulled Michelangelo up onto the fire escape along with them, and the four turtles quickly scaled the rest of the way up to their rooftop.
"That," Michelangelo breathed, glancing down, "was weird."
"What happened?" Leonardo asked, peering over the edge of the building with him.
"One of the dudes looked over at me when I was running." Michelangelo admitted, pointing down towards one of the groups. Leonardo didn't know which individual he was gesturing to, but none of the people were acting strangely. "He just kinda… sipped at his canteen and then went back to talking. I'm not sure if he even realized that, um," he gestured to himself, "this look is weird."
"Maybe mutants are common ground here?" Donatello suggested, scratching the side of his face. "I mean, even with how much light pollution there is, we already know that this dimension is different, and… well, our counterparts were fighting Kraang in daylight."
"Either way, it's best not to be seen until we know for certain." Leonardo sighed, turning back to the general direction of their lair. "We'll all try to move more carefully now."
His brothers all nodded, falling into line behind him as he led them out across the rooftops, vaulting and leaping across mostly unfamiliar rooftops.
Very quickly into their short travel to the lair, Donatello spotted a neon sign advertising the city's current time, and how it did, indeed, correlate to their own dimension's time. The city's unnatural lighting was just bright enough that, even with no sun in the sky, there was constantly the illusion of twilight.
The sewers weren't quite as bright, but they were still filled with more sunlight than their dimension's sewers. The trail to their lair was almost identical, too, except Leonardo couldn't shake the feeling that everything felt a few steps short. Maybe it was an ongoing thing; the rooftops felt more compact, too, and it felt like there were fewer buildings in the city, too.
On a more mysterious note, their lair was empty. Not just no turtles anywhere in sight, but the abandoned subway station didn't even have any furniture in it. No pillows lined the square divot in the ground, and every room was devoid of anything. The dojo's carpets were gone, and the tree was overgrown, branches sticking up everywhere and even covering the ground.
"Donnie, please tell me you have an explanation." Leonardo begged, pulling away from the doorway of the… apparently not the dojo, turning towards his brother who was standing in front of his empty lab, none of the heavy metal doors blocking it from the rest of the lair.
"I… we're in the right dimension." Donatello reassured, but set down his metal pack to dig through it, pulling out his energy reader and holding it up, leading the frequency. "I mean, the alternate dimension. The correct one we were supposed to land in. We just… it's obviously parallel, but if the lair… maybe they have a home somewhere else?"
"We've been all through the sewer system. This is the easiest area to defend." Leonardo argued, raising a hand and gesturing around.
"Maybe they don't know that. Or maybe they found an unconnected area. It's entirely possible that there's areas we can't reach and thus never found. Or their dimension is different enough that they found a better area. We don't know all the details, so we can't exactly judge."
"Okay, that's great Donnie, but how are we going to find them?" Raphael crossed his arms, leaning against the far corner, trying to avoid coming in further and witness the emptiness of the lair. Michelangelo had walked further into the tunnels, having entered the lair, saw how devoid it was, and then turned and strode off. From Raphael's position, he could see Michelangelo holding Ice Cream Kitty a little ways off, refusing to come much closer. And honestly, Raphael couldn't blame him.
"I'll try to hone into the signature that led us here in the first place. Earlier, we weren't tracking a dimensional rift, but the unique mystic energy on the other side of the portal. Now that we're here, we should be able to narrow it down." Donatello faltered, frowning. "...well, it should be easy except for the fact that it seems there's that energy everywhere."
"Wait, Don, what does that mean?" Leonardo looked over Donatello's shoulder, wincing at how many anomalies there were flickering across it. Donatello's jaw was clenched, and Leonardo wondered if it was even worse than it seemed.
"Well, it's just that… maybe Super Shredder level threats are everywhere. We have very little magical or spiritual situations we need to handle, but it looks like they have them every day, or at least weekly. So… maybe they're able to stand their ground against Shredder because they're used to such powerful threats."
"That's disconcerting."
"You're telling me." Donatello agreed. "But I think I can organize them to be a bit easier to search one by one until we find our counterparts. I can adjust it so it only shows us the ones in the sewer, and we can start from there."
"Who knows if they're even living in the sewer." Raphael pointed out, narrowing his eyes. "They might be, but if they're not?"
"We'll find them." Leonardo reassured, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest. "For now, though, Donnie's right. The sewers are a good starting point. Where's the nearest source?"
"About two miles away."
"Great." Leonardo straightened, dusting himself off and letting one of his bags fall off his shoulders. "Let's leave all our scrolls and bags here. We can come back for them, later, when they're not in danger of being damaged if we get in a fight. We'll just set up camp here for a bit."
"I'll get Ice Cream Kitty and the scrolls from Mikey." Raphael volunteered, turning away to go find their youngest brother. He paused before he left, casting a look at the second bag on Leonardo's shoulders. "You're keeping one bag?"
"Feels like I'll need it." Leonardo admitted, though he hoped he wouldn't.
(:)
Leon quickly discovered that time passed ridiculously slow while sleep deprived and after getting out of a massive fight with his brothers. Every second that passed was irritatingly noticeable, and every time somebody walked by his door, his ears strained to listen. Nearly every time his brothers' steps slowed, like they were considering knocking or coming in, and then they kept going. Sometimes they stopped fully, then turned around and retreated the same direction they came.
As much as Leon didn't want to see them or talk to them, he wanted to confess everything. Tell them everything that had been happening in his mind, how confused he was, and just…
He didn't know. He wanted to apologize for running away, for even considering he wanted to kill them. The anger he had been fostering for the last few days had faded away to a dull hum after he had exploded at Raph and left, and without it he felt… honestly empty. Like he didn't quite know how to feel alone. Being angry wasn't even his thing. Donnie was the closest they had, but he had made it clear he wasn't angry, just emotionally unavailable.
It was scary to spend days being so consumed by anger that after it left, he didn't feel anything other than… general unease and fear. He didn't want to confront his brothers again, but if he stayed laying here, he'd fall asleep again, and he… he didn't want that. Not yet. He wasn't… mentally ready.
It meant his only solution was to go out into the rest of the lair, and try to walk the exhaustion off, while… also avoiding his brothers.
Leon raised an arm, slowly preparing to use the momentum to throw himself off his bed, but crumpled right back into his mattress when a familiar knock came from the pipe outside. A brother must have walked up without Leon hearing them, because he was just… distracted.
"Nardo?" Donnie's voice echoed behind the curtain, a touch of certainty in his voice.
"Donnie." Leon grunted, squeezing his eyes shut in frustration as Donnie shoved open the curtain, leaning awkwardly against the wall as soon as he entered, rubbing the back of his neck. Sometimes, Leon forgot that Donnie understood the need to be left alone. Out of all the brothers, he was the one who probably could relate the most, and honestly was probably dragged to the confrontation earlier by Raph and Mikey.
"Hey." Donnie greeted, slowly lowering his arm to cross over his chest. "Look, I'm not here to force you to talk. We just got an… one of my emergency beacons went off. And I know you might not be in the mood, but I've already got Miguel and Raph, and we're going to scare them off. Biometrics look like some kind of Yokai rather than sewer workers."
"Kind of have to." Leon huffed, the anger beginning to eb back into his mind, frustration that having to go venturing out gnawing at him. "I'm the leader," he accompanied his words with quotations, "remember?"
"Unfortunately enough." Donnie responded, pulling back the curtains back, holding them open.
Leon shoved himself off of his bed, hugging his arms to himself as he trailed after Donnie, glaring stubbornly at the floor as if it was tormenting him. Donnie didn't try to nudge him reassuringly, doing nothing more than sigh slightly at Leon's mood, following him into the center of the atrium.
Raph and Mikey waved as Leon joined them, sending him nervous, almost sympathetical, smiles at him. Leon kept his face purposefully pointed down, not looking up at them. He felt more than saw Donnie look at them, shaking his head subtly. Both let their shoulders go slack, taking a few extra steps back to give him space.
Great…
"Anyway, we should get a move on." Donnie huffed, jerking his head towards the exit from the lair. "Sooner we get this over with, sooner we can get back."
The four brothers went off together, Leon pressing himself to walk directly behind Donnie, who was leading the way. Mikey trailed a few steps behind, and Raphael took up the rear, keeping an eye on everything and anything they passed, always the big brother.
"Why do you think Yokai are even down here?" Mikey wondered, stretching his arms over his head. "Do you think it's one of those bounty hunters?"
"I mean, it's four life signals, which would account for each bounty hunter and their hound." Donnie admitted, shrugging. "So it's possible? Their readings seem to be too small, so unless they updated their human disguises to be smaller in size…"
"Do you think Big Mama sent them?" Raph chimed in, settling a comforting hand on Mikey's shoulder.
"It's possible, but I think we're on slightly better terms with her after Shredder - and Casey - put her out of action. She at least assisted us in finding Papa." Donnie pointed out, casting a mildly irritated look over his shoulder.
"We never told her we got him back, though." Leon huffed. "It's been almost two weeks, but we… we didn't let her know. She could be mad about that. Might be hunting us down 'cause of that."
His brothers fell silent behind him, and Leon winced, wishing he hadn't mentioned it. It was probably weird, and not at all helpful, and maybe his guess was way off. Maybe he-
"I knew we were forgetting something!" Mikey squawked, falling back a few more steps to shake Raph's arm. "I told you! Aw, man, no, we should've told her! And now she's sending Yokai to track us down! Man, oh man, we should've been more careful!""
"We'll be fine, Mikey. We'll flex off our old Mad Dogz power, and then we'll be home free!"
Leo wrinkled his nose. He didn't like the idea of visually showing themselves off to whoever they were trying to scare off. If it was Yokai hunting them down, the opposite effect would actually take place. More Yokai would know they were down here and try to find them, but it wasn't all bad. Maybe Leon could take his frustrations out on them, and…
Okay, head, can you stop?
"Okay, gentlemen, they're going to be within earshot of us in a few seconds. Which means we're going to be in earshot of them, naturally. Shh!" Donnie raised a single finger, silencing his brothers efficiently, the light-hearted shoving match between Raph and Mikey falling to a standstill.
Hardly a second later, a loud laugh echoed through the sewers, followed by an overenthusiastic "guys, please, I didn't mean it like that!"
Leon shoved himself in front of Donnie, motioning his brothers to be silent. If they were going to attack head-on… they might as well 'ninja' while doing it. He was the leader after all, as much as his head was killing him and wanting to do literally anything but lead at the moment.
His brothers, thankfully, didn't argue and fell into line behind him. Raph reached over both Donnie and Mikey's heads to squeeze Leon's shoulder, withdrawing quickly at Leon's flinch. It's okay. Leon reassured himself, creeping around the nearest corner to peak out. They're not going to hurt you. But I- no. Nono, none of us are going to hurt each other. That's a promise.
Leon saw nothing around the corner, but could hear distant footsteps around a corner several meters down, coming closer to the corridor. As good as time as ever to get into position, he supposed.
Leon motioned his brothers forward, drawing one katana from his hilt, striding forward to the middle of their part of the corridors, leaving enough room behind him for his brothers to also join in, each one grabbing out their own weapon at the ready.
A foot appeared around the corner, and then-
Four other turtles, wearing matching color-coded bandanas, rounded the corner.
They stared at one another, and then, slowly, all eight turtles raised their hands to point at one another.