Chapter Text
"Finally home." The turtles cheered weekly as they staggered into the lair. They could rest at last now that they had made it home. After such a brutal battle against the Foot clan, the three turtles were battered and bruised, tired and barely able to walk. They were lucky to be alive.
Raphael had been the one to take the brunt of the attacks, protecting his younger brother.
While Donatello and Raphael collapsed on the couch, Leonardo took his seat on the steps outside of the lair after letting the younger turtles go. He pulled his knees to his chin, holding himself. Guilt weighed heavy on his shoulders, he blamed himself for this, for everything but no one else did.
Oroku-Tang Leonardo had originally been born into the Foot clan, his father being the Shredder who he had betrayed, leaving everything he had ever known and everything he had been raised for behind. Tears filled Leo's eyes as he held his mask between his fingers, stroking the fabric. It was in two pieces after the Shredder had ripped it from his face, marking a permanent symbol of the betrayal he felt toward his son across his right eye.
"Gah!" Raph suddenly shrieked, snapping Leo out of his thoughts. He turned his head slightly to see Donnie popping the hothead's shoulder back in to place, "-warn a guy next time." He grunted, rolling his shoulder.
"My sons!" master Splinter cried upon seeing his children hurt and covered in various injuries. He carried a tub of water with him, some towels, packs of ice and the first aid kit, a suggestion Donatello had called ahead for. Immediately, he began to tend his son's wounds; cleaning them, stitching and wrapping them.
Donnie waved his father off, directing him to his brother instead. "My injuries aren't so bad. Raph's the one that really needs tending to."
Leo listened in the distance with a heavy heart. He had sworn to Splinter that he would protect Donnie and Raph as if they were blood. He rubbed his mask which he held tight, this was the symbol of his failure. "Leo, are you hurt?" Donnie called to Leo, only now had he realised that the leader hadn't made it inside and was sat out on the stoop, "-his father was there. They fought again." The genius explained to his father who had lifted his head, "Shredder struck him and tore his mask off."
Splinter nodded and entrusted the rest of Raphael's patching up to Donatello.
"Leonardo?" Splinter resting his hand on Leo's carapace. The scorned turtle jumped at the touch of a warm hand, he lifted his head to see Splinter sitting himself down beside him, holding out a new mask to the young leader, another thing Donnie had called ahead for, "Not many would choose the path you have. Following against your heritage is never easy."
Resting his head back on his knees, Leo looked longingly into the distance. "Nothing ever is," he responded. Leo had learned a long time ago that being a mutant wasn't simple or easy, to begin with, but being a mutant turtle born into a predominantly human family felt almost impossible. "-they were right about me, you were right about me. It seems no matter what I do, I cause pain and misery."
Splinter damned nothing more than his past and Leo's words had taken him back to his time like an arrogant human and the day Leonardo was born.
A tiny helpless child, screaming for his mother and all the Hamato clan could see was his mutation; his tiny green figure, the shell on his back, the three toes on his feet and the three fingers on his hands. Leo's mutation had been seen as a bad omen, despite the circumstances on which it happened. Leo was deemed a yokai, or more specifically, a Kappa. A malicious turtle creature of Japanese folklore. As his father refused to do so, the duty to dispose of him had fallen to Splinter and he thought he had until two years ago when they met again. There was no denying that those blue eyes belonged to the same child he had cast into the depths. "That is your ancestors speaking. They were wrong to have judged you so prematurely as an infant, I was wrong. You cried for your mother, just as any other child would."
"I was probably hungry." It was hard to watch the optimism fade from Leo's eyes, to watch him lose faith in himself. His dream of becoming a hero like captain Ryan was being demolished and that confident grin he used to have before taking his troops out on patrol no longer appeared, instead, it had been replaced by turmoil and a permanent feeling of being lost.
"You were and are just a boy looking for a place in this world, as we all are."
“I thought this was the place with other mutants but... look at your sons..." Leo turned his head, looking at his brothers, "-your daughter. I've cost you so much."
The usually wise and sage rat was at a loss for words. He didn't/he wouldn't blame Leonardo for any of this. No child should feel this way about themselves and their existence. "My sons are home. They are safe and Miwa will be found again. Why must you blame yourself?"
"You asked me to protect them."
"And you are doing that to the best of your abilities." Splinter's words did nothing to comfort Leo. No matter how hard he trained, he couldn't change his past, he couldn't change that he had betrayed his father and now his father wanted vengeance on the family who in his words had brainwashed him.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. "I don't think my abilities are enough."
"What are you talking about?" Donnie asked, making it apparent that the two slightly younger turtles had been listening to the entire time. The genius turtle limped over to the entrance while being mindful of his injuries. "You got us out of there in one piece."
"Barely." It was an extremely close call out there. Raph and Donnie were on the ground with the Shredder standing over them, he was milliseconds from striking when Leo suddenly threw a smoke bomb at his father. Leo couldn't stop replaying his father's words. 'I will destroy you for what you have done to my son.' So clearly could he see the terrified look on Donnie's face and the fear that Raph tried to hide. All of it was still so fresh in his mind.
"Yeah, but that's not your fault."
"I left my father. This is my fault."
"Raph, you wanna jump in here?" Donnie said. Raph hadn't moved or even turned around. "-Raph?"
Raph held his wounded wrist. He had been thinking while the others were talking. "What can I say?" He asked. "The prince is still conflicted even after his father almost ripped out his eye."
Leo's heart sank at the word 'prince', he had heard it all his life.
Raphael, after two years and everything they had been through together still did not fully trust the former Foot soldier, at least not as much as the others did anyway but Leo couldn't blame him. His father was the only blood he had left, it had been hard to leave him and watch him fall further down the destructive rabbit hole. This made Raph keep a cynical distance and a continuous eye on the appointed leader of the Hamato clan.
"You don't understand, Raph," Leo spoke lowly. "You have no idea what my father did for me."
"Well, maybe if you told us, we'd get it." Donnie responded.
Leo and Splinter exchanged glances with one another, Raph and Donnie didn't know the story of Leo's birth. They were worried about their reaction to their father's misconduct as a younger man. "Forget it, Donnie, he's not gonna tell us." Raph interrupted the silent conversation the two elders of the clan were having. "Let's face it, he's always gonna be this way, if he's not a hundred per cent sure on his loyalty then maybe..." Raph sighed, with a heavy heart, despite not being able to fully trust Leo, he still looked to him as an older brother, confiding in him whenever it necessary, "-he shouldn't be here."
With a heavy sigh, Leo removed his katana from their holster on his back and held them out to Splinter.
"Leonardo." Splinter reached out for the oldest turtle.
"Don't. Please..." Leo waved Splinter off.
"Leo!" Donnie called after the distraught turtle but it made little difference. "The Foot are still out there."
"Leonardo, you shouldn't be alone."
"I'm going for a run,” Leo wasn't turning back, he ran before his mind could be changed. “-I need to clear my head.”
"Let him go, Donnie," Raph said, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "-it was bound to happen sooner or later."
Splinter then made his way back into the lair. "Do you think he'll come back?" Donnie asked looking toward his Sensei for answers.
"I believe something will bring Leonardo back but what that will be, only time will tell." Splinter made his way to the dojo, his eyes remained on the swords in his hands as he was taken back to the day he'd given them to a newly enrolled Leonardo. "These are the swords your father once wielded when he was a member of this clan and now I pass them on to you." He remembered Leo's face lighting up when this honour was given to him. "Oroku- Tang Leonardo, you are now a ninja of the Hamato clan." And from that day forward Leonardo strived to prove himself as an honourable leader for the Hamato clan.
Leo had been running through the city for what felt like hours now but maybe that was the grief. Taking his usual running track, he did laps, jumping across rooftops until he finally got tired. As if he didn't feel bad enough, turning to his right, he found that he had stopped on the rooftop opposite the Foot headquarters. "Crap, I really can't escape it."
Being cold-blooded, it didn't take long for Leo to start to feel the early spring chill that came with the wind, it thudded against his shell, hitting him in spots that sent bitter chills crawling up his spine. "Couldn't have grabbed my jacket." His brain started to argue against his choice, even though for weeks it had been telling him to do so otherwise. Sighing heavily, Leo watched the changing of the guards on his father's roof.
He remembered a time so fondly when none of this was needed.
Leo grew up in a rural area just outside of New York, the house sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking a glorious view of a river that flowed below. Thinking about that place made the dispirited turtle long for the days of climbing trees, waking up to the early bird's call, growing his own food in the garden, the fresh smell of pancakes every Sunday morning and snowball fights in the winter that resulted in cosying up by the fire with hot cocoa. He missed the father that read bedtime stories and built forts with him.
What frustrated Leo the most was how much he cared about both sides of this war. It was tearing him apart; his father loved him and raised him, taught him everything he knew while giving him everything he could ever want or need. Splinter, on the other hand, gave him a reason to fight and defend the world against those who sought to destroy it. "They don't need me. All I've ever done is make things worse." Leo often spoke to himself allowed, it wasn't much different than when he was talking to the others. Pulling his knees to his chest, Leo felt his eyes well up. ”I wish I had never been born.”
"Then the ones known as the Turtles would not be the ones to save the planet known as Earth."
Leo whipped around after hearing what sounded like a Kraang talking. He instinctively went to take out his Katana but they were gone, he'd left them with Splinter. He balled his hands into fists holding them up ready for a fight. "Who's there?" He demanded.
The stranger stepped out of the shadows to reveal themselves as another turtle...
It was the same disbelief Leo had expressed when he first met Donatello and Raphael two years ago. Another turtle was stood before him.
"Do not be what is called alarmed." The stranger stepped forward with their hands held up, showing that they meant no harm. "-Ax'el should not have done what is called snuck up on you."
Standing wide-eyed, Leo was at a complete loss for words.
The turtle apparently named Ax'el was tall and slender possibly taller than Donatello, they lacked much of any mass and or colour, they also looked more like a turtle than him, with blotches of brown decorating his face and other small areas of his body. If Leo had to guess from his timid body language the Kraang had raised him but as a prisoner rather than one of their own. “No, it's not that, it's...you’re another turtle.”
Ax'el tilted his head. "Ax'el is a what is called a Terrapathian."
"You're an alien?"
"Terrapathian."
This was unreal, Leo fell silent again, he started to question whether was awake, perhaps he hadn't made it out of the fight against his father, maybe he had knocked out and this was all a dream.
"Is the one called turtle the Earth term known as okay?" The new turtle stepped forward placed an oddly gloved hand on Leo's shoulder and immediately, he started to feel the effects of some kind of substance taking over his body. His arm was the first to go numb.
"What..?" Leo slurred unable to control his mouth before falling forward into the arms of his apparent assailant. The last thing he heard was an empathetic apology before everything turned black.