A Cold Year

by DefinitelyaUsername

Summary:

Leonardo was kidnapped by the EPF directly after the invasion. He's kept there for a long time before his family finally manages to get him back.

Notes:

This is for a secret santa. I really hope you like it!

Something was…wrong. 

 

No, something was Wrong with a capital W. Something was so wrong that Leo felt like he couldn't move. Everything was so loud he felt like his head might explode. 

 

There was so much yelling around him, he was constantly being jostled around. His body throbbed with every footstep. He was dizzy and disoriented. It sounded like people were fighting. He heard a loud bang before he was roughly dropped onto the ground and picked up again, by someone who was much less gentle. He was carelessly thrown onto something metal before he heard a door slam shut.

 

 The worst part about it?

 

He couldn't see.

 

°°•°°

 

Leos not…aware…of how much time has passed.

 

He's trapped in a room, alone. It's dark, from what he can tell.

 

His limited vision, which he assumes is a side effect of the severe concussion he'd had when he was first taken, hasn't shown him much. It's mostly dark, no matter where he was taken, and everything he could manage to see as long as it was right in front of his face was blurry.

 

He'd learnt to rely on his hearing and scent. It's saved him from being hurt multiple times. He can tell when someone gets close to his door, and he can tell when someone wants him to eat… something .

 

They're drugging him. He can feel it coursing through his body every time he's given something to eat. He doesn't know what it's for, but it makes him tired very quickly.

 

When he wakes up something's different. He doesn't know what, but it's definitely something . It's mostly his legs, but other times it's his shell. On the rare occasion it'll be his face. Sometimes it's his eyes, other times it's around his eyes, where his stripes are. At one point it was his hands, specifically his fingers. They haven't been pain free since. He can't sit up straight anymore. It's painful. Something shocks him every time he tries. It starts from the center of his shell and works its way out. He doesn't know what they're doing to him, but he's scared.

 

He's really scared.

 

°°•°°

 

He's hurting.

 

He's really, really hurting. It's physical and emotional and it's painful. He wants it to stop . He doesn't want to do this anymore. He wants it to be done and he wants to be at home, safely tucked away in the little subway station they'd found, surrounded by his brothers.

 

He really misses his brothers.

 

°°•°°

 

A low pitched noise pierces his eardrums.

 

It sounds like a bass. 

Low pitched, constant, noise.

All the time… it wont stop.

 

He needs it to stop. 

Someone make it stop please. Please. Please.  Stop stopstopstopstopstopstop

Stopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop stopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop

STOP.

He smells iron.

But it's finally quiet.

 

The cycle repeats.

 

°°•°°

 

No one talks to him. They put a muzzle on him. 

It's so quiet.

He can't talk. So he growls. He hisses. He can't see. So he blindly claws at anyone who comes close. 

With the world a blur, he has no choice but to rely on his turtle instincts. He tries his hardest not to lean into them too much, but he knows it's a losing battle. He wants to go home.

°°•°°

 

Eleven months.

 

It's been a long eleven months since their brother was taken. Almost a full year. Their injuries had a chance to heal.

 

Mikey had a concussion and couldn't use his arms. Donnie’s shell was torn and bloody, and Raph…

 

They shot their oldest brother in his leg, making him fall and drop the very fragile turtle he was carefully carrying. 

 

And then Leonardo was carelessly tossed into the back of a truck.

 

That was the last Donnie had seen of his twin. There's been no sightings, signs, or hearings of him. Donnie had no clue if he was alright. He had no way to know where he was. Leo's tracker went offline when the portal closed and hasn't turned on since. 

 

He slumped over his desk, putting his head in his hands. He was exhausted. He’s never been this sleep deprived. He kept himself awake every possible second of the day for as long as he could, searching, hoping he could find anything about his brother's whereabouts. 

 

A ping sound had his head shooting up. On the screen, there was a faint blue dot. It blinked and flickered, but Donnie immediately knew what it meant. It was Leo’s tracker. There were two possibilities. It either rebooted on its own after being idle for eleven months, 

 

…or someone turnt it on. 

 

Donnie grinned, an evil, malicious grin. He finally had a sign. 

 

He wants his brother back. And he will do anything to make that happen. 

 

°°•°°

 

A plan was made. 

 

Donnie was able to hack into the security cameras outside. There were almost no cameras inside, which worked both in their favor and against them. They got Draxum and Casey Sr, who could make portals. Splinter, Raph, and Casey Jr, were going to be their muscles. Donnie and April were going to be leading the way with his tech, and Mikey was going to be their secret weapon. He couldn't use his ninpo as much as he could before, but he's had nearly a year to regain his strength. He was their last resort if anything went wrong. 

 

Leo was coming home and nothing was going to stop them. 

 

°°•°°

 

Sometimes mIkey thinks his brothers are being too overprotective and cautious of him. ‘Dont go outside alone’ or ‘Keep your phone on you’ or ‘Don't do that, you'll get hurt.’ He thought it was just a thing older brothers do to annoy the hell out of you. It was definitely working if that was the case. 

 

But now…

 

Now Mikey understands. He's been torn up with worry over his immediate older brother, Leo. He would do anything for his siblings. He’s torn the universe up for Leo before, to get him home safe and sound and he would do it again.

 

If his arms weren’t useless. He could barely pick anything up, let alone open a mystic fucking portal. He’d tried in the beginning, when Leo was first taken. He tried to open multiple portals, setting his healing back drastically. 

 

It was his family that finally managed to talk some sense into him. Save his strength, they told him, so when it came time to rescue Leo he would be ready. 

 

And save his strength he did. 

 

He hasn't touched his ninpo in almost a year, letting it build back up. He can feel it. What felt like a calm ravine of power before the invasion now feels like a tsunami waiting to be released. Crashing tides begging to be let out. He hasn't told his brothers how much it recovered. Not even Draxum knows. Mikey is more than fine with being the last resort, and if he's being honest, he's hoping it comes down to it because he needs to teach the assholes who hurt his family a lesson. 

 

Leo was coming home one way or another. Mark his words.

 

°°•°°

 

Raph was angry. He was so angry that he spent nearly every day in the dojo for hours on end. He was responsible with how long he spent training, giving his body time to rest, but he was beyond furious that someone dared to take his little brother straight out of his arms. He was mad at himself that he didn't do more to stop it from happening. And now Leo was missing and it felt like it was all his fault. 

 

But he would right his wrongs. He would get his little brother back. He would carry him home. He would keep his family safe . 

 

So as they made their way through the halls of some government building, Raph made a vow to never lose his brothers again. 

 

Door through door, hallway through hallway, corner after corner, they finally found where they were keeping him. They could hear something coming from inside the room. It pounded at Raphs ears, he felt the vibrations through the floor. It was awful. He could tell it made his brothers uncomfortable too. 

 

Every nonturtle being with them could clearly hear it too, but they were not as affected but it as the brothers. 

 

After entering the room, the family was shocked at the sight before them. 

 

Leo was chained up and covered in bruises, scars, and cuts. He was clawing at a device placed over his ears and the muzzle over his mouth. His face was scrunched up in discomfort, tears were leaking from his eyes. He hissed and clicked when he couldn't get a grip on anything. His hands trembled, he looked around frantically, his eyes covered with their third eyelid. 

 

The brothers rushed forward to help, not caring about the mess on the other side of the room. They pointedly ignored the dried blood on the walls and around Leo's mouth. Donnie pulled the headphones off of Leo’s head, dodging the hands that swung at them. They could hear the noise from before get louder. The headphones had been amplifying the noise. Mikey grabbed onto Leo's hands, holding them there gently. Leo growled and hissed, but couldn't do anything as Donnie took the muzzle off as well. They managed to unchain Leo, and Raph grabbed him when he tried to make a run for it. 

 

“Leo buddy calm down, it's us!” Raph yelled. Leo wasn't listening. He fought to get away. 

 

“ No Le- go! Stop!” His broken English was interrupted by a series of clicks and trills. 

 

“What the hell did they do to him.” Mikey said lowly. Raph looked over and saw him staring at Leo. His face held a rage Raph had never seen on his baby brother's face. 

 

“I'm not sure, but we can figure it out at home. We need to go now. ” Donnie said. 

 

“Right. Let's go.” Draxum said as he made a portal. They went through one at a time. Raoh brought Leo straight to the medbay, followed by his family. Leo fought every step of the way, but froze when he was set down on the bed. 

 

They didn't crowd him, but Mikey crept up to the bed, trying to touch Leo. Leo snapped his jaws at Mikey, making him retract his hand. 

 

“Leo it's me, Mikey.” Mikey tried again. When Leo kept fighting, Mikey let out a chirp. Leo paused, looking at Mikey before sniffing him. Then immediately dragged him onto the bed with him and held him tightly, holding him there and hissing at anyone who got to close. 

 

“Maybe,” Splinter started. “We should leave them be for a bit. Blue has been through something traumatic, I'm sure he would like some time to relax.”

 

Everyone sighed disappointedly, but made their way back into the halls.

“That was too easy.” Donnie said, breaking the silence. “It's like we had some inside help.” 

 

“We must be careful from here on out.” Splinter said. 

 

“Did you see his hands?” Raph asked. They looked at him sadly. 

 

Donnie spoke before anyone else had a chance. He was visibly upset as he said,  “They declawed him.”

 

Everyone was horrified. They couldn't imagine why anyone would do that to another living creature. They all knew what it entailed. 

 

°°•°°

 

After the discussion they all broke off on their separate ways. Donnie went straight to his lab, but paused when a message flashed on the screen. 

 

‘You're welcome doofus.’ It read. ‘ Don’t get caught again’ . 

 

A small dragon signature at the bottom corner of the screen. Kendra.

 

°°•°°

 

Leo was warm. He hasn't felt warm in a long time. He let out a long churr, relaxing into the softness beneath him. 

 

“Leo? Are you awake?” Someone asked him. 

 

He paused. He hasn't heard someone call him by his name in a long time. He opened his eyes but couldn't see much. He squinted but it didn't seem to help.

 

“Leo?” 

 

“Hmm” He hummed. He didn't think he'd be able to actually talk just yet, having only made turtle noises for a while.

 

“Hey Leo.” Someone said softly. They brushed their hand against his face, letting him lean into the warm touch. “Mind if I tell everyone you're awake? They want to know you're alright.”

 

He didn't care. No one gave him options anymore. He didn't think he had a choice anyway. He just wanted to sleep. He shut his eyes again, leaning against whoever was next to him. He heard a soft laugh before they chirped. 

 

Oh.  

 

It was Mikey. He was home? 

 

Mikey wiped something wet off Leo's face, he didn't know when he started crying. 

 

“It'll be okay Leo. You're safe now.” 

 

He believed it. His family would help him. He'd be ok.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 6 of Leo centric fics