A/N: I know, this update has been a long time coming, but life kinda got in the way...Enjoy!
The joy of Leonardo's soon to be full recovery had everyone in state of euphoria for the next week. Leo especially was in so good of a mood that he didn't once protest the orders of total bed rest for that week. Everyone with the exception of Donatello was relieved of training responsibilities until their injuries were healed, so company was in no short demand.
His friends and family kept Leonardo busy enough to make the bed confinement time fly. Michelangelo hooked up one of his gaming systems in the lab and the two had daily competitions, taking turns in beating each other's scores. They had a blast but Leonardo was worried about his youngest brother, but he couldn't really figure out why, something just seemed off with the orange masked turtle.
Raphael kept him busy by planning out their training and physical therapy schedule, what exercises are better to strengthen verses which for rebuilding endurance. By the end of the week they had a solid plan worked out with a few insights from Don to help maximize their progress.
Even though Leonardo loved spending time with all his brothers, he enjoyed the past week the most with his purple masked brother. It started with Leo wanting to know more about these nanites that helped him regain the use of his legs which sparked several discussions of replication for future use of this new technology and what would be needed to take on such a major project. Leonardo wanted to learn so he could help his brother in this particular endeavor so Donatello started him on basic physics, technology and even some engineering ideas and theories.
Donatello found his blue banded brother to be a quick study which did and didn't surprise him. Leonardo always caught on to things fast when he had a real interest, which until recently was things only relating to Ninjistu.
So Leonardo's one full week of total bed rest was soon over and he was able to be up and about…with restrictions of course. But again that week went by at a more normal speed and his recovery progressed faster than any other past injury both mentally and physically.
The end of this second week marked in all the brothers back to their regular training schedules with few limitations. And by the end of the third, the team was ready to hit the rooftops once more.
"Come on guys, let's go already!" Mikey didn't bother to contain his excitement in finally getting back up to the surface.
"Hold yer shell Chucklehead. The roofs ain't goin' nowhere."
"I don't know about that Raph."
"Don' know 'bout what Mike?"
"Your advice." Mike answered, keeping a questioning look.
"What advice?" Raphael was totally confused.
"About holding my shell? I mean aren't I holding it already by like default or something?" A smile now plastered on his face.
His red masked brother just rolled his eyes, choosing not to deem his brothers lame joke with the usual slap on the head.
"Careful Mike or I'll let Raph know where your favorite hiding spot is." Leo said as he and Donnie met the others at the front door.
Mike narrowed his eyes in mock anger as the others filed out the door chuckling, "You ruin all the fun Leo."
"You know I try!" Leo gave his brother a teasing wink.
After that it got unusually quiet. Mikey would normally keep the banter up all the way to the manhole where they usually ascended to the surface. Leo cast a questioning glance to his closest brother which happened to be Donnie, who shook his head in response.
'Well if Donnie doesn't know what's wrong then Mike doesn't want to talk about it yet…but he never holds things in for this long. That means it must be really bad.'
Leo had a feeling that he knew what was bothering his little brother and if he didn't talk soon it could burst out in an inappropriate time, like a fight.
'I have do something, but what?'
Leo came up with the idea as they were climbing the fire escape.
Raph spoke up first, anxious to get going. "So what's it going to be tonight Fearless?"
"How about some sparring?" Leo readily responded.
"With weapons?" Raph asked hopefully.
"Why not?" Leo said with a shrug of a shoulder, "We're all ready for a little more action, right Don?"
"Everyone has a clean bill of health as far as I'm concerned."
"Excellent!" Raph exclaimed as he drew his sai and twirled them a few times already circling Donnie, claiming him as his partner.
"But-" All three of his brothers groaned which Leo ignored with practiced ease, "You get to choose your opponents weapon."
This was a new twist, they had never tried this before which is why Leo knew they would agree to it.
"So Raph, you and Don can pair off and I'll go with Mike. I'll give you a few minutes to think about weapons."
Donatello immediately went to his bag he always carried with him and pulled out a whip. He tossed it to Raph,
"Here you go Raph! I came across this the last time I was at the dump and I know you love Indiana Jones so I thought you'd like to try it. No time like now huh?"
"Sweet Donnie! Um…" Raph looked around and tried to think of what to give Don as a weapon. He caught Leo's eye and his older brother held them for a second and then pointedly looked a t Mike's belt and looked back at him with a wink. Raph didn't know what was up but he decided to go a long with it,
"You get Mikey's chucks."
"WHAT?!" Mikey exclaimed theatrically as his eyes went wide.
He sniffed and wiped away pretend tears as he carefully cradled his weapons in his arm and snuggled them like one would a child.
"I'll miss you my babies, Uncle Donnie will be good to you I promise."
"Oh geez Mike cut the theatrics and hand them over!" Donnie took his brothers weapons and shoved him away playfully.
"Okay, Mike what's my weapon?" Leo asked as he unsheathed his katana to set them aside, keeping a not to obvious look of longing on them.
"Well…you can have your swords I guess."
"Really?" He asked in a half surprise half hopeful face.
"Yeah, I mean you haven't really got to train with them for a while now so…" Mike left his statement open not really knowing how to finish it.
Leo was relieved that his plan was working so far and he hoped that Mikey would forgive him for what he was about to do.
"Here." He held out one of his katana to his youngest brother.
Mike looked at the sword and back at his brother, "You want me to use one of your katana?"
"Yeah, Don told me you were pretty good but I've never seen you use one before." Leo hoped he sounded innocent enough to fool his brother.
Mikey took a deep breath and almost hesitantly accepted the katana, "Okay, then."
The brothers squared off with their partners, bowed and took defensive stances.
Raph uncoiled his whip and gave it an experimental flip. A huge smile plastered on his face as the tell tale 'CRACK' sounded.
Donnie flicked his wrists to start the nunchaku spinning, not quite as fast as his orange masked brother always did but fast enough to get the job done. He knew he was going to have to change things from what he would normally do because he was now wielding a short range weapon instead of a long range weapon. But he also knew that Raph was going to have to do the same in reverse, which was to Don's advantage because Raph was more set in his ways while Donnie was able to adapt faster than his red masked brother. So all he had to do was get in close and stay there.
Before he could charge his brother, Raph threw the whip aiming it at his brothers' torso. Donnie could have easily dodged it but tried for a trickier move by batting it out of the way using a nunchacku. Timing was everything and the maneuver was a success much to the surprise of the whip wielding turtle. Don used that to his advantage as he lunged towards his brother wrapped a nunchaku around the whip and yanked hard and fast successfully disarming him.
Instead of being angry at being disarmed so quickly, Raph smiled at his brother,
"Nice Don! Guess I could use some practice huh?"
"Thinking about switching weapons Raph?"
"Nah, I'll leave the long range weapons to you, but it could still be useful ta carry 'round."
"You never know, it might succeed in scarring off some Foot who are scared of a loud cracking noise."
"That was weak Don."
"Yeah I know. I just don't know any good whip jokes." Don said with a disappointed sigh.
Raph was just about to reply with a juicy whip joke but a violent clash metal drew them both to their other siblings spar.
Their katana were locked and both were trying to push the other away. Leo feigned backing off to draw Mikey in but the orange masked turtle backed off instead and the two separated so they were just tip to tip. Leo moved next, striking down on his brothers blade to distract from the following swipe to his right, aiming at throat level and came back down and across, kind of like a Zorro 'Z'.
Mike leaned back and away from the throat swipe, just enough for the tip to pass but not unbalancing himself, and brought his katana up and deflected his brothers next strike. He then sidestepped to the right and slashes downward, quickly hopping back to the left with another down slash, which his brother manages to block.
The whole sequence only took about seven seconds, but both had sweat dripping down their faces and their chests were heaving slightly for breath.
Mikey doesn't wait and charges his brother with a leap, weapon raised above his head. Leo sees his brothers mistake and goes in for the 'kill' shot to end the spar, but at the last moment Mikey suddenly changes direction in mid air bringing his sword down to deflect Leo's strike. As he lands, Mike's weight on his sword causes Leo to buckle. Mike takes advantage and captures Leos' wrist in a lock making him drop his weapon. With his weapon at Leo's throat, Mike has won the spar.
Raph, Leo and Don were amazed at their baby brother's skill,
"Whoa" Raph whispered as Mike made the final move.
"Even better than his fight with Karai." Don whispered back.
Mike just stands there in shock for a few moments and then his eyes go wide and he drops the katana and sprints away from his brothers.
When his brother dropped the sword and ran, they were all confused and Raph shouted and started after him,
"Mike, wait!"
"No Raph," Leo blocked his way, "Let me go. I think I finally know what's been bugging him."
Raph wanted to help his baby brother but of he was honest with himself, he wouldn't know what to say when he caught up to him anyway, so he had no problem with Leo taking this one.
"Sure Leo we'll…just see ya back at the lair I guess."
So Donnie and Raph Left for home While Leo took off after his youngest brother. Leo only had to go about three block before he saw his brothers silhouette sitting on the ledge of the roof. Wordlessly he sat down next to him and waited for Mikey to initiate.
After a few minutes of silence, a soft whisper reached his ears, "I'm sorry."
Leo was shocked and confused by Mike's apology.
"You're sorry? For what?"
"I…I don't know." Mike replied, sounding defeated.
"Come on Mike, talk to me. You haven't been yourself lately, what's up?"
A shoulder shrug was all Leo got in response. Leo only hesitated a moment before he plunged in.
"You're good you know. Really good."
One who always craved praise, Mike couldn't help the smile that took over his face.
"Thanks."
"So why don't you use them? Practice or otherwise?" Leo asked, genuinely curious, plus he just wanted to get his brother talking again before he asked what was really on his mind.
Mike took a big breath and let it out as a sigh, "Remember when we were kids and Splinter first introduced us to weapons?" Leo nodded. "Well like all of us, I thought the katana was really cool. But after we'd been practicing with each weapon for a while, Splinter pulled me aside. He told me that I could pick any weapon and be really good at it, 'cause I had a natural ability to learn quick or somethin' like that. So I thought really hard about which weapon I really wanted and narrowed it down to two, the nunchaku and the katana. Those were my favorites. On the day Sensei chose our weapons for us, he started with Raph and Donnie 'cause they were pretty obvious of which weapon suited them. I had told Splinter I wanted the Katana and he told me that would be good 'cause he was gonna give you one too and then-"
Realization hit Leonardo like a punch in the face, "And then I asked to wield the double katana, oh geez Mike I'm sorry! I didn't know! If I had-"
Mike chuckled, "It's okay Leo, no one noticed the distressed look on Splinters face, but when he looked to me to speak up, I chose not to. You looked so proud and confident I just couldn't bring you down like that. I was only disappointed for like a day at most. 'Sides, I love my chucks and I'm really good with them too."
"But you never stopped working with the katana, did you?"
"Nope." Mike confirmed Leo's suspicion. "I would get up in the middle of the night and work with the bokken for an hour or two a few times a week until we got more practice swords."
"Why the secrecy though?"
"I dunno really. I guess because we all look at our weapons as ours so I felt like I'd be steppin' on your toes or something. It's stupid I know."
"That's not stupid, but why'd you run away tonight? It couldn't be because of that." That caught the orange masked turtle off guard and his mood deflated once more.
"No, it wasn't."
"Wanna tell me about it?"
"Not really." Mike sighed as soon as he said it, "but you're not gonna leave me alone til I do huh?"
"Nope." Leo replied with a small smirk.
"I didn't kill her Leo, Karai, I didn't kill her."
No Leo was really confused, "So what? Just because you couldn't kill Karai-"
"No Leo!" Mike interrupted firmly . He looked his brother in the eyes. "I didn't kill her. Not couldn't, not wouldn't, but didn't."
Now it all made sense. Mike was afraid everyone would find out that he didn't try to kill Karai. He knew exactly what he was doing when he impaled her; it wasn't just a 'lucky' shot. Mikey didn't want everyone to know that he purposely maimed an enemy and left them to live, something that goes against the honor code they were raised with.
"Okay, so you didn't kill her. Do you know why?"
Mikey went quite again. Then he whispered, "Yes. I wanted her to suffer Leo, to truly suffer. All the crap she's put us through, put you through…I-I couldn't let her get away with it this time. I wanted revenge."
The quiet admission stunned Leo. He never would have pegged Mikey, his happy, positive and sweet younger brother be the type to act for revenge. None of them really would, not even Raph. Yeah sure he talks about it all the time but they were raised in the ways of Bushido and the Ninja and neither condones revenge.
Now Leo truly understood Mikey's mood over the past few weeks. He was terrified everyone would find out, especially Master Splinter. He wouldn't be able to handle the disappointment coming from everyone. Mikey was the type of person who relied on acceptance through praise and then crashed hard when it he felt like he failed or disappointed someone. Like he was doing to himself now, but it would only increase if everyone knew the truth. Not because of the act itself but rather that he was the one to do it. They all held Mikey on this special pedestal and he knew it. He truly loved it though, his role in the family.
Quiet sniffling brought Leo's attention back to his brother. Mikey had quietly begun to cry, with tear streaks running down his cheeks.
"Please don't make me tell everyone Leo! I…I can't!"
He started to cry harder and Leo gathered him up in a hug and rubbed his shell like he did when they were kids, trying to sooth him.
"Shh, little brother. It's going to be okay. As far as I'm concerned it's over and done with."
"Really?" Mikey asked as he pulled away slightly so he could look into Leo's eyes.
"Really. Except for your sword skills. That can't stay secret."
Mikey wiped his face clean of tears and chuckled, "Yeah I kinda figured that."
"Felling better now, bro? Ready to head home?" Leo asked.
"Almost. I need to do something first. Wanna come with?"
"Of course Mikey."
IIIIIIIIII
She could not wait for the day when she would be free of the confinement of the hospital. Karai was on the verge of losing her sanity. She has not regained feeling in her legs and has been informed that her condition is most likely permanent and she detested the pitied looks she received from the doctors and nurses alike. Even her second in command, who came daily to keep her informed of the Foots' affairs, had that look in his eyes. This had caused her temper to flare more than once. Her problem though, was not her condition, but rather that she could not decide whom she was more angered with, Leonardo for managing to escape, his insufferable brother Michelangelo for humiliating her twice, Bishop for letting the turtles escape without much difficulty, or herself for being so easily fooled by the orange masked turtle and his ridiculous sob story.
She was not asleep though her eyes were closed, but they snapped open when she felt another presence in the room.
"I know you are there." Her voice was low but firm. She had not lost her attitude.
Michelangelo stepped out of the shadows and into the soft light emanating off the machines and he saw the fury flash in Karais' eyes before she could conceal her emotions.
"What is your business here?" She demanded, in that same quiet but demanding tone.
"You." He simply stated, his tone held none of the lightness that Karai always associated him with.
In truth, Michelangelo had no idea why he felt compelled to see Karai or what he was going to say now that he was here.
Her eyes narrowed in anger and if she had use of her legs the turtle would be lying in a heap on the floor, but of course she did not have that option, so a cold hard stare was all she could manage.
"What could you possibly want with me?" She hissed in responded.
"I'm sorry." He blurted out.
Karai was surprised at the apology. One never expects to hear an apology from their enemies.
But the turtle wasn't finished, "I mean…" He faltered for just a moment "Don't misunderstand me I am not sorry for lying to you or beating you, but I am sorry for how things turned out."
"You can't possibly be expecting me to forgive you?" Karai's tone was accusatory.
"No I didn't."
"At least Leonardo has suffered my fate, if not worse."
Karai wanted to know of the blue masked turtle's condition but could not just ask outright, plus this jab ought to get a reaction out of the youngest turtle, but his reaction was not the one she had planned on. Michelangelo plastered on a smile as another figure climbed in the window and stepped into the light.
Karai's eyes went wide with genuine surprise and then narrowed into an angry glare,
"How is this possible?! You were on the brink of death and Bishop damaged your spine, I saw it! Even Donatello could not have healed you."
"That's a question you will never learn the answer to Karai."
Both turtles turned to leave, when she said, "This is not over. I will have my revenge."
Michelangelo whipped back around and came up to her bedside. A kunai knife was in his hand. There was no fear in her eyes as she stared him down. She welcomed death. Michelangelo brought the knife up and dropped it in her lap. Karai looked at the knife and with a confused expression looked back up at the orange banded turtle before her.
"I fought you and I won Karai, it is over. Want to know why?" Michelangelo did not wait for her to answer, "Because even if by some miracle you did get your legs back you would still have lost to me and the Foot Clan could not retaliate against us. The elders wouldn't allow it. You would have to come after us by yourself and that would be suicide because I would not fail to kill you that time. So you might as well commit seppuku right here, right now while you still have some honor left to you. The feud between our clans is over Karai, accept it."
They were gone before she could blink, leaving her alone to her own fate.
THE END
A/N: So? Any final thoughts? ;-)