There was silence that stretched out for an eternity between the two groups of turtles.

Leonardo made sure to keep his position calm and relaxed, lowering his hand to cross his arms in front of his chest in a neutral stance. He knew Raphael drew his sais, and despite the battle stance Raphael was in, he would not attack until Leonardo did, or until the turtles attacked them. Donatello didn't reach back for his staff, but he did take an extra step back to protect the energy tracker from any danger. Michelangelo kept both hands perched on his weapons, but Leo could practically see his easy-going smile as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

Across from them, the other four turtles were posed in different battle poses. Just looking at them, Leonardo could find about half a dozen places per turtle that were open for attack, and he couldn't completely hold back a wince at their faulty stances. They looked more like they were posing for an action movie's poster than actually preparing for a fight. From their expressions, though, they didn't realize that their positions weren't exactly… safe.

The other red-clad turtle stood a little in front of his brothers, hunched protectively over as if he was ready to charge forward and smash anyone who took a step forward. One arm extended out to the side, not bearing any weapons, but keeping his brothers safe from charging attacks.

The donned-in-blue turtle had ducked under his arm almost immediately, taking his place in front of the rest of the turtles and drawing his sword, eyes narrowed into slits. His other katana was held like he was preparing to throw it, which, well, wasn't really the most effective use for the poor blade. It felt disrespectful even to watch. Behind him, the red turtle seemed to keep a nervous eye on the blue turtle while also maintaining eye contact with the four turtles in front of them. Leonardo felt his eyes drawn to the blue turtle's gloves, recognizing them from his vision.

Ah, it's the probably-me.

The purple-covered turtle had several claws extending from his violet shell, all four pinchers snapping in the air and threatening to open an assault if anyone got too close. His wooden staff also appeared to be glowing with an energy that seemed more… magical than anything, but that was so uncharacteristic that it was ignored in favor of the belief that it was just an extremely high-tech upgrade.

The orange-patterned turtle stood in the back, clearly highly protected by each brother. He could hardly be seen through the tangle of limbs and weapons, but his expression was no less fierce and determined, and his numb chucks flaring in front of him like a shield. There was so much life and joy in his face, and it felt completely right, given the circumstances.

"Hello." Leonardo greeted, dipping his head respectfully, his back going ramrod straight and his arms falling stiffly to his side to complete the bow. He straightened almost immediately, keeping his expression as neural as he could. "We-"

The blue turtle snarled before he could finish, actually throwing his katana like his position had originally applied. Leonardo managed to snap his head to the side in time to avoid the blade, but then the blue turtle vanished, seemingly glitching out of existence. Barely a quarter second later, Leonardo felt the hilt of the thrown sword grind into the back of his head, knocking him off balance.

The red turtle said something in Leonardo's brief second of disorientation, and the three other turtles lurched to fight, their weapons already lashing out.

Leonardo twisted his head around to watch Raphael pin the blue turtle against the wall, an enraged growl breaking free of Raphael's throat. The pinned turtle dropped his sword, glitching out of Raphael's hold in the same motion, appearing with the sword in hand, catching it before it clattered to the floor, falling into a crouch. He swept for Raphael's legs, managing to make him stumble in surprise, lurching backwards from the turtle. A second later, the red turtle slammed into Raphael, knocking him fully off balance and sending him soaring past Michelangelo and Donnie.

As the purple and orange turtle slammed into Donatello and Michelangelo respectively, the red turtle pivoted to help the blue turtle to his feet. The blue turtle shook off his help immediately, whirling around to attack Leonardo again.

Leonardo managed to dodge the next swing of the sword, using the momentum to land into a squat, landing a firm punch to the blue turtle's knee mid-step. It was one of the weak spots that he had noticed earlier; even in action, they left themselves too vulnerable, too open.

The blue turtle let out a harsh breath at the movement, kneeling over to try and wrap himself protectively around his leg. Leonardo jumped over him, considering him temporarily neutralized, on the way to protect one of his brothers.

The red turtle lifted his fist to smash into Michelangelo, and Leonardo started to twist around to prevent it, but then Raphael reentered the battle, smashing into the red turtle, plunging his sais sharply into the plastron of the red turtle. And then the red turtle turned completely red, crumpling out of existence, sending Raphael careening through the open air, gaping like a fish. The red turtle was standing a little off to the side, watching him go, looking just as surprised. His hand was grasping his chest, where Raphael had supposedly stabbed, but there wasn't anything there-

Leonardo's gaze connected with Raphael's still startled one, and an understanding passed between them. Somehow these turtles were magic in one way or another. Teleportation for the blue turtle and a type of shedding for the red. Hard to touch for both of them, but not impossible. Raphael catching the blue turtle earlier proved just that.

As if to prove his point, Michelangelo did a backflip through the air, vaulting off of the red turtle as he did, screeching to a stop behind them, swinging his nunchucks in quicker circles, panting briefly. "These dudes are-" Michelangelo noticed the sword swinging for his head just in time, jerking to the side just as the blue turtle's katana passed through the now empty air. "-not very nice! Little dude has fire!"

Leonardo was about to ask what in this situation could be regarded as 'fire', but then a blazing nunchuck snapped by his head, stretching out and snagging Michelangelo, dragging him back to the orange turtle. Oh. Literal fire.

"And extension chains, this is awesome!" Michelangelo as he hurled past Leonardo, Raphael, and the red turtle, all three of them barely managing to jump out of the way. Just before Michelangelo reached the orange turtle, he kicked up, landing a square blow on his opponent's jaw. The hit made the orange turtle lose his grip on his flaming nunchuck, releasing Michelangelo from his chains.

"Hey!" Michelangelo noted, admiring his arms and plastron. "They don't burn! That's so awesome!"

The red turtle slammed into Michelangelo, smashing him roughly in the ground, pivoting immediately towards the orange turtle. "Mikey! You okay, little guy?"

"I'm fine." Michelangelo groaned hazily from the ground. "Anyone know the number of the bus that hit me?"

"I'm peachy!" The orange turtle, clearly Mikey, responded, massaging his jaw. Good to know that his name corresponded with his color and personality in this dimension. They never could be too sure. "That was a super good hit, though! I'm gonna be feeling that!"

The red turtle breathed out a sigh of relief, but his attention remained on Mikey, still patting him down. Leonardo jumped onto the red turtle's back in his distraction, lodging his fingers firmly into the nerve cluster between his shoulder and shoulder blades, rendering his arm useless. Beneath his hands, the red turtle jerked with a short cry, prying himself away from Leonardo and leaving a quickly fading red copy in his place.

"What happened?" The purple turtle demanded, twisting his head around to regard the red turtle in surprise.

"He did something to my arm!" The red turtle snapped, regarding Leonardo with wide eyes. "I can't move it."

The purple turtle snapped on his goggles, prying himself away from his fight with Donatello and beelining over, face twisting into a concentrated frown. "Don't worry, looks like it's just pressure points, just avoid being-"

Donatello hit the purple turtle's back, slamming his fist first into the neck bone, and then a couple other choice places, rendering the purple turtle completely useless. The purple turtle choked out a noise of surprise and slightly suppressed pain, crumpling forward.

"-hit." The purple turtle finished, raising one hand to point at the sky, but that arm quickly went down, too, as Donatello yelped, hitting his shoulder again and backing off quickly to observe from afar.

The red turtle gasped out in horror, taking a single step towards the two purple-masked turtles. Whether he was going to attack Donatello or help up his brother, Leonardo didn't know. Leonardo wasted no time, jumping onto the red turtle again to slam his fingers into his neck, promptly slipping his other hands into another point closer to the spine. The red turtle molted from under his grip again, but both him and his glitched copy collapsed, slipping against the ground.

"We're not here to fight!" Leonardo informed them, taking a few steps away from the red turtle, not wanting to make the other turtles believe he was posing a threat to the red turtle's safety. "We're just here to solve a-"

Raphael snagged Leonardo's wrist, yanking him to the side just in time to avoid the blue turtle's katana, which stabbed into the ground right beside the red turtle's head. While they regained their footing, the blue turtle glitched on top of his much larger brother's shell, pointing his second blade at them threateningly.

"Not here to fight?!" He gaped in disbelief, a snarl pulling at his lips. "You just knocked out my brothers!"

"We're not knocked out." The purple turtle grumbled, his voice muffled from around the ground. "We're simply… incapable of movement."

"Yes, that." The blue turtle nodded, his eyes narrowing further as he reached down to yank his katana from the ground. He ignored the red turtle's flinch as he heaved up his sword, brandishing both of his blades confidently. "So don't try to lie about that!"

"You attacked us!" Raphael admonished, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest. "It was self defense!"

"Yeah, well-!" The blue turtle paused, his brow furrowing. "That's-!"

"Leon, they're right." Mikey pointed out, walking over to tug his brother's arm. "They're just trying to stop us from fighting!"

The blue turtle, who was sure enough Leo, or 'Leon', except it was clear - especially since he had been the one leading the earlier attack - that he was more impulsive than Leonardo, frowned at his brother. "Yeah, but… didn't they kick you in the jaw?"

"Not that hard! Look, I'm not missing any teeth!" Mikey smiled at Leon to prove his point, showing off as many of his teeth as he could, though Leonardo couldn't help but notice that he did have a tooth gap off to the side. Judging by how Leon didn't react to its presence, it seemed he had lost it ages before. "See? They're friendly!"

"They still kicked you!" Leon frowned, but he stepped off of the red turtle, putting away his swords. "But, okay, say I do believe that they're not villainous masterminds… it doesn't explain why they're impersonating us!"

"We're from another dimension." Donatello stooped down to pick up the purple turtle from the ground, humming out a soft apology at his groan, wrapping the turtle's arm around his own shoulders and clinging to his waist so he was somewhat standing on his feet. "We're tracking a… demon. If he can be called that? I feel like he's a demon at this point.

"A demon?" All four of the other dimension turtles exchanged a glance, pausing from whatever they were doing to stare at each other.

Leon shoved his shell against the red turtle's forearm, attempting to roll him over, his feet kicking against the ground to try to gain momentum. "We beat the last demon thing we came across." Leon assured, still regarding the other turtles suspiciously. Now that he was looking right on them, Leonardo could make out the dark circles underneath his eyes, even as covered as they were by his mask, and felt sympathetic. He knew what it was like to be stressed so much that he couldn't sleep, and this kid was clearly going through the same thing. It sure didn't help that he was being chased by Shredder while he was at it. "So we'll handle it if it ever rears its ugly head. You can go back to your own dimension, buh-bye!" With one last shove, he managed to fully roll the red turtle onto his back, toppling onto the larger turtle's plastron in the same movement. Leon ignored the soft grunt his brother made, giving Leonardo and his brothers a flippant wave.

"Leo." The red turtle sighed deeply, regaining enough mobility in his arm to push himself up to a sitting position. He gave his smaller brother a soft punch in the arm, scoffing a little at the hiss he got in return. "Don't be so cynical, the least we could do is hear them out! They came all this way-"

"Donnie, talk some sense into Raph!" Leon whined, glaring at his purple brother and confirming that their names did fully correlate with their color schemes and weapon choices. "He's being an idiot!"

"Normally, Nardo's right." Donnie sniffed, shoving off of Donatello, and managing to stand on his own with minimal stumbling. Mikey wrapped him in a hug anyway, and Donnie regarded the smaller turtle with an exasperated look, holding his arms out to his sides to avoid Mikey's. "But, in this case, I think it's an exception. They definitely weren't trying to actually hurt us. Just - Mikey, please get off, so help me - disarm us. Rather effective, actually." Mikey still refused to untangle himself from Donnie, so the robotic arms popped right out of Donnie's shell again and took to prying Mikey off. At the sudden movement, Donatello jumped back, eyeing the metal arms with a mixed look of worry and fascination.

"Thank you." Leonardo bowed again, "when we can avoid a fight, we like to."

Raph stretched his arms experimentally, popping each joint with a slight wince. "Yeah, sorry about that. We're very… uh… impulsive. Usually, when people wind up in our sewers, it's because they want to kill us."

Donatello winced sympathetically at his words, relocating the energy tracker from where he'd dropped it. To his relief, it still looked intact. "I mean, same for us. Normally, we wouldn't wander around unfamiliar sewers uninvited, but we're sorta in a time crunch."

"We can discuss back at our base!" Mikey grinned, still somehow holding Donnie, despite the metal limb shoving at his cheek, not even flinching at the cold steel. "If you're facing a demon, you're going to need to have full stomachs! Pizza, anyone?"

"Oh, heck no!" Leon snapped, glaring at Mikey in horror. "We are not bringing four strays home! Who knows where they've been!"

"Uh, the sewers?" Raphael grunted. "Basically the nastiest place on earth already."

"My point stands! Our place isn't hospitable at all right now! We're still rebuilding from our last hoorah! And as much as I'd love to get back into action," Leo grumbled the last part more like it was expected of him to say but not like he actually meant it, "we're really not in the shape to help! I think we just proved that!"

"It's alright." Leonardo assured gently, not wanting to cause trouble for the younger, but much taller, group, especially Leon. He remembered what it was like to have his orders second-guessed so often… "We don't need to go back to your home. We just need to ask you a few questions to start, and that's all."

"Nonsense. Family, this dimension or otherwise, are always welcome in our home! Leon would agree, he's just been a bit sleepy and grumpy lately." Raph snorted, wrapping one arm around Leonardo and Raphael each, turning them around and nudging them along their way. Mikey finally detached from Donnie and sprung his way onto Raph's shell, sitting happily on his shoulder. Leonardo's team exchanged a look as they were nudged on, finally letting it sink in on how different their counterparts were.

"Sleep deprivation does that to a person." Donnie added, elbowing Leon teasingly as he walked by. His blue brother glared after him, whispering something about insomnia as Donnie left. Leonardo highly doubted insomnia had anything to do with this situation, desperately wanting to pull Leon to the side and talk to him. It was clear he hadn't told his brothers anything.

Donnie ignored Leon's words, paying full attention to the device in Donatello's hands. "And what's this gadget?"

"It tracks unnatural fluctuations in energy flow and permits me to track changes in real time. It's why we were heading down this direction." Donatello told him, flipping open the top of the device to show off the insides. "It's quite durable, I must say, considering I've never exactly needed to bring it into battle before. Now, tell me all about your robot arms!"

"Ah, a like mind, excellent! I'll bet if we could combine this with my own mystic goggles we'd be able to increase its reliability. You see-"

Leon glared after his brothers and the four other turtles, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest. He didn't like this, not at all. His head was practically screaming at him, and he wanted nothing more than to take his sword and run it straight through his counterpart. Better yet, to slice off his head, and watch his blood splutter from his neck, thick red droplets dribbling down his shell-

No!

His brothers were right. His constant nightmares, and sleep deprivation, were getting to him. His thoughts were getting more violent as days passed, and ever since this morning… a lust for blood was filling his mind whenever he was around people, and he…

It didn't matter. There was something suspicious about these turtles. These thoughts wouldn't be triggered for no reason. Nono, not at all. He was good at figuring out when certain company was best not kept, and he could tell immediately that these turtles were part of that equation. Leon pulled out a single katana in preparation, trying to keep his grip on it casual, and turned his attention to the seven turtles up ahead of him.

"If you didn't already guess, I'm Leonardo, and this is Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo." The shorter blue turtle was saying to Raph as Leon tuned back in, gesturing to each of his brothers in turn. "Thank you for your hospitality, of course, but we don't want to impose, or-"

"Nonsense!" Raph cooed happily, all four newcomers looking slightly alarmed by his pleasant tone. "You're Mad Dogz, just like us! You're always welcome. Mi casa you casa, or however that saying goes. In any case-"

"Mi casa su casa." Leon corrected with a huff, dashing up to linger beside Raph, but keeping the Dons in his line of vision, despite them staying behind. The Mikes were leading the way, and were easy enough to watch. He'd just have to remain on his guard

Leonardo relaxed when Leon joined them, flashing his younger counterpart a reassuring smile, hoping that Leon joining the procession meant that he was growing more comfortable and maybe showing his support. However, Leon scowled in return, trying to project his utter distrust towards Leonardo. Raphael peaked over his brother's shoulder, noticed Leon's expression, and mimicked the look, his face twisting into something almost deadly.

Raph was still blathering when Leonardo turned his attention back to the behemoth, waving the hand not wrapped around Leonardo about cheerfully as he chattered. "-not sure how comfortable you can make yourself, though, our base is a mess! Don't freak out, though, there's no chance of anyone dying again, we've been cleaning up everything to make sure of that, at least-!"

"Again?" Donatello asked, pulling out of his conversation with Donnie to narrow his gaze. "That sounds like a concern all on its own."

"Oh, uh." Raph blinked awkwardly, glancing at his brothers for help.

"She didn't die due to the collapsed base." Leon soothed, though his voice carried no trace of comfort. "What's that thing Donnie always says? Causation doesn't equal correlation?"

"Correlation doesn't equal causation." Donnie scoffed, rolling his eyes. "But, essentially, yes. The causality and the destruction of our base were both caused by the same thing, the last demon we faced, but they didn't cause each other."

"Who… died?" Michelangelo asked, threading his fingers together anxiously, his big blue eyes scanning the group.

"Classified information." Leon dismissed.

At the same time, Mikey shrugged, and said "Gram-Gram."

"Technically she didn't stay dead." Donnie pointed out, ignoring the way Leon glared at first Mikey and then him, and pretending not to see the confused expressions Mikey was given from their four visitors. "She rematerialized as a ghost for… about a day, all while possessing April."

"Ah." Leonardo nodded, as if it made perfect sense. (It didn't.) He was still confused about the 'Gram-Gram' part, but he let it slide. Clearly, they had a bigger family tree then he and his brothers did.

"…is she out of April?" Donatello asked, pinching the back of his hand nervously, frowning at Donnie. "'Cause our April was possessed once, too. And it… didn't go too well."

Michelangelo jumped away from Mikey to dive at Donatello, wrapping his arms firmly around his older brother as they walked. Donatello side-hugged him back, offering him a thankful smile.

"Oh, don't worry." Donnie dismissed, completely missing the fear that radiated off of Donatello. "She's been unpossessed for a while now. And even if she was still possessed, I can't fathom how what would possibly go wrong. Gram-Gram would never purposefully hurt us, and I doubt April would let her. It's actually a pity that she's no longer possessed, all things considered, he lamented."

Leonardo arched an eyebrow at the self narration, but didn't comment, keeping his gaze locked on Donatello. His taller brother didn't look to be doing too well with the given information, his expression becoming more and more rigid despite Michelangelo's tight hug. "Hmm. Perhaps we should just… focus on the matter at hand rather than swap possession stories."

"Yes. Please." Donatello nodded fervently, relief spreading across his face.

"Well, we're here!" Raph announced, still not seeming to notice the awkwardness his visitors were showing, pushing past both teams to pull back the tarp covering the sewer entrance, waving his hand to reveal their home. "Again, it's a mess."

"Yooo, it's so big!" Michelangelo squeaked, completely ignoring the stated mess, staring down the atrium in awe. "I bet you could perform the sickest skateboard tricks, and, wait, wait, Donnie, isn't this our water slide room?"

Donatello glanced around, arching an eyebrow as he followed Michelangelo in, peering over his younger brother's shoulder. "It actually looks like it! I guess in this universe, they never used the room as a water way."

"Yo, that's awesome!" Michelangelo chirped, clapping his hands together eagerly. "Please tell me you guys have some spare skateboards, I want to ride these ramps. Please tell me you guys have realized how amazing it would be to use this as a skateboard park. Please tell me you have skateboards-"

"We absolutely are not idiots, and have realized the awesomeness this room presents." Donnie snorted, sounding half offended as he yanked some skateboards off from their wall rack. "In fact, the first thing we did after we patched the rift to the Hidden City was repair the skateboard ramp so that we could still ride the rails on our off time."

"I'm in love with this dimension." Michelangelo announced, peering over the edge as he tried to figure out which trick would be the best first trick to perform. "Aw, man, take a look at this drop!"

Leonardo hung back while Michelangelo gushed over the skateboard ramp, trying to put his thoughts in order. His other brothers and their counterparts had already shoved their way completely into the room, the counterparts loudly bragging about their accomplishments and moderate construction skills while Donatello listened eagerly and Michelangelo set to work trying to figure out the coolest way down.

He had recognized Leon's arm from his vision, that much he knew. From how Leon's brothers dismissed his fatigue meant they didn't know the bigger picture, though the expressions they, especially Raph, had tried to send Leon when they thought Leonardo and his brothers weren't looking, proved they were still worried. They would've mentioned something if they were aware something was haunting Leon, and Leon probably didn't want them to be aware, anyway. Which meant Leonardo couldn't outwardly confront him, he'd need Leon to admit it. That might be hard.

"Leo?" Raphael pressed against him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him a few steps back from the entrance. "You, uh… you good?"

"Yeah." Leonardo hummed, gesturing at his own counterpart. "...that's him. I'm sure of it. His arm looks like what I saw. Same glove. I don't want to press him or just… ask. I think the last thing he'll need is more challenges. He looks too young, and I just…"

"I hate it when you're right." Raphael tsked, watching their counterparts cheer the Michaels on, loud whooping echoing through the atrium. "You've got a soft heart. It's a good thing it's not another ally, right? Like, uh… like it'd be bad if it was Master Splinter. Like this, we can just… hopefully wrap it up quick."

Leonardo nodded, his stomach clenching uncomfortably at the idea of seeing their father again, alive. It felt like some sick twist of fate that the option even arose, and he hated the idea of facing him. If they had to recount their stories, and told him he was dead…

From Raphael's expression, he was thinking much the same. His brother shifted his hold around Leonardo awkwardly, yanking his gaze away to the other six turtles. Both of the oldest brothers winced upon realizing the Mikes were long since gone, already riding the skateboard ramps.

"I'm… going to go check that out." Raphael informed Leonardo, letting his hand fall away. "Gotta make sure Mikey doesn't kill himself with horrible stunts, right?" He didn't leave immediately, a sure sign that he was still worried over Leonardo, but at his leader's small smile, he gathered enough willpower to head over to the ramp, loudly demanding to know their safety measures and to make sure that there was really no chance of casualties.

Leonardo took his sudden isolation to regain his bearings. He pushed himself to move, striding into the lair. Their counterparts didn't seem to notice he was hanging back from the overall group, too busy affectionately yelling at each other and bragging about their achievements to Donatello, calling to the Michaels, and laughing at Raphael cautiously approaching the edge.

Those four were definitely younger and more rowdy than Leonardo could ever remember his brothers being and he… he was jealous of that. He wished his brothers had ever been that happy with one another, but their lives had always been full of competition. Even before venturing up to the surface, there was plenty of fighting and wrestling among them, and not all of it was good-natured. In fact, much of it was hostile and angry. Especially on Raphael's side of things, but Leonardo certainly hadn't helped with that.

"Alright, that's enough skateboarding for now!" Raph clapped his hands together, turning on his heel to catch Leonardo's eye, relaxing significantly when he spotted him. "We don't want to be holding these guys up."

"Awww," Mikey mourned as he kicked off his skateboard, wrapping an arm around it as he landed on solid ground. Behind him, Michelangelo mimicked the movement. "But outside family!"

"This time, we're not getting attached." Raph huffed, shooing Mikey along towards a less steep ramp leading down to the ground floor of the atrium. Both Michales whined that they could've made it down on skateboards in less time, but their moans fell on deaf ears.

"Do you have a room that's sixteen by sixteen feet or smaller?" Leonardo inquired, adjusting his hold on his backpack, fingers digging into the straps. He had almost forgotten he had been wearing it during their earlier battle. It was a stress relief, honestly, to hold the sturdy scraps of fabric so tightly, knowing he couldn't damage them with his grip. Right now, he needed that stimulus more than ever, to keep his mind straight.

The blank looks he got from three of the other dimensional turtles to his question didn't do much to boost his hopes over such a room existing, but Donnie perked up almost immediately, gesturing them to one of the side rooms a fair distance away. It was in one of the furthest corners of the lair, untouched by the wreckage around them, barely out of the radius of destruction. All seven turtles followed Donnie without hesitation as he guided them do it, over pieces of rubble and under some broken rebar.

The room itself was almost a square, with the exception of the corners being more round in nature. The door leading in was placed at the center of one wall, and there were no noticeable lights, but that didn't matter much. To Leonardo's relief, the room was barren aside from a couple plastic crates shoved in the corner, but they weren't nearly big enough to get in the way of anything. The empty area made the room even more ideal, providing ample space for them all to sit.

Leonardo quickly found a spot on the floor, kneeling down and slinging his backpack off his shoulders. While he dug through it, his brothers pulled their own off, setting them against the right wall. Leonardo pulled three candles and a box of matches from his backpack, lighting each mound of wax one by one. He handed a candle to each brother, gesturing for them to place one in both corners beside the door and the third against the wall across from the door. While they obeyed, Leonardo pulled out a stick of incense, for wisdom, and lit it, placing it in a bowl he fished out and then moving it to the center of the room.

Leonardo took his seat, facing the door with a candle behind him, taking a deep breath to allow the fragrances to hit his nostrils. At his left, Raphael took his seat, Michelangelo on the hothead's other side. To his immediate right, Donatello settled down.

"What is all this?" Raph asked, watching the display with interest. He sounded curious rather than condescending and gave the air a curious sniff.

"Smells dee-light-ful!" Mikey chirped, leaning over one candle and breathing in the aroma. "And delicious! Are these edible?"

"As long as you throw it up afterwards, sure." Raphael huffed, arching an eyebrow. "I'd advise you not to try it, though."

Leonardo glanced at Raphael, noticing with worry how tense his younger brother actually was. His arms were crossed, fingers clenching his forearms so tightly his knuckles were paling. Leonardo hoped that they'd be able to settle this quickly and defeat Shredder in record time, for Raphael's sake if for nothing else. He was outside his comfort zone, meeting new people and shoved into a place that wasn't even his own universe. His brother was surely going to be dealing with high levels of stress the whole time they were there, and Leonardo couldn't prevent it.

As Leonardo switched his attention back to the hulking figure of Raph, he leaned slightly toward his own red brother to offer invisible comfort. Raphael untensed the slightest bit. "To answer your question, these are kumquat candles. They're used to ward off demons, or at very least pacify them and neutralize their influence. It's only a temporary fix, as the candles will eventually go out, but they're effective. The candles are absolutely not edible, Mikey, but kumquats themselves are. I brought some for later."

"And what's the incense for?" Leon asked, his expression softening as he looked at the display, inhaling the incense's fumes.

"That's just for me." Leonardo shrugged lightheartedly, letting a small smile crack. "For wisdom. I'm going to need it, believe me."

"That's what I'm always telling you." Donnie chuckled playfully at Leon, elbowing the air beside his brother and not Leon at all.

"Can't advise me to get what you don't have." Leon fired right back, elbowing his purple brother right back.

"Hopefully," Leonardo put in pleasantly, "it'll help everyone present." He gestured for them to be seated, watching as his brothers' counterparts took their seats. Leon sat across from Raphael, and Raph perched on his blue brother's right. Mikey sat on Leo's other side, and Donnie sat on Raph's right. The Michaels, sitting on opposite sides of the circle from one another, poured at the arrangements, but didn't vocally complain. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Right, of course." Raph beamed, very uncharacteristic. Or, maybe it wasn't, but it felt that way. Like he was trying too hard to butter them up. "You said you were trying to find a demon, right? We've got some experience." He jabbed his thumb proudly against his plastron, puffing himself up.

"I don't think we'll need any fighting help." Leonardo reassured, wincing slightly at the idea of teaching them to fight like they had done with their first counterparts. At least these ones actually used weapons, and acted like they were eager to learn, but Leonardo didn't want to risk it. "We just need to ask some questions for now."

The four other turtles nodded, and Leonardo started, keeping an eye on Leon.

"First of all," Leonardo said, leaning forward slightly, one arm resting on his knee, "the demon's name is Oroku Saki, or… the Shredder."

"Ours, too." Leon huffed, narrowing his eyes at the wall behind Leonardo and vigorously avoiding eye contact. It was impressive.

"We defeated him a little under two weeks ago." Donnie informed them, while Mikey made a jabbing motion like he was thrusting a spear. "I'm fairly certain we took care of him for good, however."

"This isn't your Shredder. It's our dimension's Shredder, and we… Well, we thought the same. He's been dead for about a year in our dimension, but now he's back in spirit form. We're pretty sure he accidentally somehow ended up in this dimension."

"How are you going to find a spirit?" Raph asked, eyebrows kneading together.

"Is that what you're using the energy tracker for? Finding him?" Donnie perked up, eyes sparkling. "Then the mystic crystal can definitely come in handy. Maybe if we get Shredder's unique energy signal… I think I got a reading on the dark armor once, or maybe-"

"That would be amazing!" Donatello clasped his hands together, grinning widely. He snuck a look at Leonardo, and twitched anxiously. "I'm not sure if it's necessary, though. I think… um…"

Ah, right. Leonardo had yet to inform Donatello and Michelangelo he knew who it was. Meeting Donatello's eyes, he inclined his head slightly towards Leon, earning a nod from Donatello. Turning back to their counterparts, he was relieved to see that they hadn't seen the movement, too busy trying to puzzle together why Donatello had been hesitant to accept Donnie's help.

"We're fairly certain that possession is more or less involved." Leonardo reported, drawing their attention back effectively to him. 'Fairly' was an understatement. He was sure. "So if we find who Shredder's possessing…"

"There's millions of people in New York City, though." Raph blinked, "how will we find who it is?"

Leon, Leonardo noticed, was starting to zone out, fear gradually creeping into his expression, and… Leonardo felt a little bad, admittedly.

"I imagine," Leonardo carefully stated, "it'd be someone he particularly hates. A counterpart to someone from our dimension. One of you, or a friend, like… April. Or Casey. Or… or Master Splinter." Michelangelo's hand wrapped around Leonardo's, and he squeezed back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raphael and Donatello doing the same.

"So we have to ask our allies." Donnie noted, thoughtfully nodding while simultaneously oblivious to Leon's growing distress. " What other symptoms could there be?"

"Well, emotions can be warped." Leonardo suggested. "According to some scrolls I've read, the demon, in this case Shredder, can inflict his own personality on people he haunts. Our Shredder has extreme anger issues, so… irrational anger? Demons typically manipulate dreams, which can make it difficult to get sleep. Sleep deprivation, anger, and general paranoia can have various side effects, and…" Leonardo trailed off, tilting his head at the hardened expression Raph, Mikey, and Donnie all developed. Leon, meanwhile, seemed to take especial interest on a scab on his knee, picking at it with farce conviction.

"Would you excuse us for a moment?" This time, Leonardo could tell that Raph's cheerful tone was absolutely fake, his smile a bit too bright and his eyes full of passionate frustration.

Leonardo nodded slightly at Raph's request, expecting to have to leave the room temporarily, or watch their counterparts all leave, instead. Rather than leave or request them leave, however, Raph simply turned fully toward Leon, and smacked him upside the head.