September Fifth; Two Weeks Later…
My talk with Buck had left me with nightmares that went on for nearly two weeks, straight. I feel like I haven't slept in three moons, and my nightmares are getting me to having Insomnia.

It's really bad.

My sleep problems are taking a heavy toll on both my body, and mind. If that wasn't bad enough, the herbal teas April and her father got me are all gone and Sensei's own teas aren't helping with either my stomach problems, or my sleep. The only way I could actually get some rest, even if it were for a few hours at best, was to use pressure points to force myself to sleep… Or, without anybody knowing, sneak into Don's Lab and inject some of his sedatives into the teas I would drink before going to bed.

I don't want to think about the nightmares, let alone talk about them. But, I know that they know of my tired, fatigue state and soon, they'll force the truth out of me about the... The dreams.

Even with my Insomnia issue, I wouldn't allow it to bring me down when encountering with a giant, feral-crazed humanoid-mutagen mutant running through the city, looking for April after Donnie decided to vent his feelings to Timothy. My foolish brother was so caught up in his own world, he didn't even think about putting away the few mutagens we found together, which gave Timothy the strength to break out of the Lair and find my pseudo-sister.

…I do feel sad for Tim; we got him involved in our battle, resulting him to mutate, and when we had no choice to but trick him into ingesting a fake mutagen that would keep him frozen in ice until Don finds a cure... And in the end, all he wanted was for April to be his friend and keep her safe... From us. Or, more specifically, from Don. Guess all that time talking about her, wanting her to be back in his life… Sneaking off to go see her and apologizing for ruining her life that caused her own father to mutate, made Tim a victim to being the go-to guy for my brother to pour his feelings out and wanted both he and April to not have Don hurt them, anymore.

And so, he's once again a prisoner in our Lair. Unable to move, to think... To even speak the truth, that we end up hurting others the more we tried to help.

…I ended up having to hurt Miwa, my own sister, by taking her down after my brothers freed me from her grasp... Her first night at leading the Foot Clan, wanting to get back at my brothers for betraying her, and I, her half-brother, defeated her in combat and, forcefully, demanded her to take her grudge onto me, not my brothers.

The only thing that gave me hope to reach out to her and tell her the truth of her true parents, was when she told me her plan to bait my brothers to come for me and then force Master Splinter into coming to save us. I told her that Shredder lied, that he didn't take the life of her own mother... And she knew that I would never lie to her, not even to save my own life. While her loyalty proves to be too strong to break through, she did hear me out and seemed to take my words to consideration when telling her to believe me that my Sensei didn't take her mother from him.

I didn't tell her that it was Oroku Saki; it isn't time to tell her… Though, I nearly slipped the tongue when I almost called her 'Miwa'. It's gonna be a bit harder for me to hold back on keeping the truth from her, but soon, it'll all be worth it when she see through the Shredder's lies.

While one sister is still lost to me... I regained my other-sister... And the funny thing is, it's all thanks to Miwa. She had Kraang create an overgrown, almost human-looking Kraangdroid that apparently is called a Chrome Dome... And wanted it to target April. Instead, behind her back, Kraang programmed it to try and kidnap April to take it back to their lab. We were fortunate to prevent another kidnapping attempt on April and, in the end, she came back to the Lair and accepted our apology.

She is back in our lives and together, we'll find her father and turn him back into a mutant.

Sadly, Kirby left Hudson Valley a few days ago and none of the animals had seen him since. I just hope he didn't fly out farther, or he'll no longer be in New York and end up in another state that we won't be able to find… Though, I don't know which would be worse: He flies out further to another state, or Kraang had found him and are keeping him captive for a third time.

As for our search, we found six canisters of mutagen together. Including the nine canisters the animals found, adding seven more they found two weeks later, twenty-two canisters are located and out of harms way... For the time being. I was able to get four of the sixteen canisters back to the Lair, without causing any suspicious from my brothers. I really need to get the rest to the Lair, on my own and having Don's scanner with me as a cover up to getting the remaining twelve canisters the animals hid and guarding.

Don's been working double time with finding a retromutagen to cure Kirby O'Neil and with April back, he's been less stressful with his work... So far, his experiments have resulted four canisters to freeze, half to dissolve like evaporating water and a single canister to almost explode into his face. I'm very much scared that one of his failed experiments will cause him to get himself mutated and having a double-mutated humanoid-turtle is something we can't afford to waste time with, especially if that turtle is the only one who could be the only one to conduct the necessary experiment to finding a cure.

Though, it seems after the incident with Tim, he still refuses to put the mutagen away. Because, even with putting multiple stickers and notes on a jar full of rejected retro-mutagen samples to show it's dangerous, Mikey claimed to not see the signs very clear and put some of the mutagen onto his face. Since he's hitting puberty, the mutagen caused serious acne problems to appear all over his body and, if we couldn't find a replaceable molecular centrifuge to help come up with a cure for the negative effects of the mutagen, our youngest-brother would end up exploding.

We were able to find a centrifuge and Don was able to make the cure on time to save our brother… However, to our horror Bradford got double mutated... To me, it's horrifying to the sudden change he went through: His limbs got longer and his body appeared thinner, but showed to be much stronger than his first mutation. The stones on his body seemed to have morphed with his skeletal structure, becoming two feet fangs and claws, with some spikes coming out of his limbs and fur, that seemed to also be the replacement for skin, even having some of his bones to be out of his body and acting like some form of armor.

…He appeared to have mutated to a humanoid-wolf, a possible werewolf in terms of speaking, the ancestor descendant of the dog... His form terrifies me, and not because of his new appearance. He's the first mutant to be double-mutated and even if Faunus hadn't warn me to not have me and/or my pack to get double-mutated, this form is more than enough to make it clear to never be near mutagen.

Other than having an enemy to becoming much stronger and more dangerous should we ever cross paths with Bradford... Raphael has been getting more frustrated lately, it's becoming very concerning. He did calmed down after our fight with Miwa, but since dealing with Timothy, his anger seemed to had grown back, twice the rage and starts picking fights with the others... I can't deal with it.

With training, looking for mutagen, trying to treat my stomach issues and now my Insomnia, having to get my brothers to stop causing fuse with each other, even from idiotic reasons that isn't worth fighting for is causing my own stress level to making me sick. A few times of these days, I ended up vomiting my teas a few minutes before I end up falling asleep and takes longer for me to fall asleep, since the sedatives wouldn't have enough time to knock me out immediately from what little time it stays in my stomach.

The others knew my health is declining from my sleep problems and stomach issues, that Sensei is having me stay in his room for the time being and try to help by performing Pressure Point sessions. They only give me brief comfort and then the nightmares come back to haunt me... Even Tang Shen, who comes to my dreams as much as possible, wasn't enough to help me with the darkness going on in my head.

…I wish Faunus was here, right now. He would help me with my nightmares and his herbs are the only things to bring any comfort to my stomach… But, I have to do this on my own and until I can learn Root Bond to even make an attempt to see my Soul-Brother and Forest-Sister again, I'll have to take care of my issues on my own.

"Oh, yeah! Level Eighty-Three, dude." Michelangelo cheered, eyes glued to the arcade game as he rapidly kept pressing the buttons to continue shooting the computerized bad guys.

On the couch, Leonardo is playing a game of his own on the TV: Ōkami. He's having Amaterasu running through the snow of Wep'keer in search of the animals to feed them before following Kai, wanting to complete the game at a hundred percent and get all the trophies. He loved the art-style, the music, the graphics and story plot of the game. While it may not look as violent that many may think it doesn't show, the challenges, bad guys and bosses prove to make anybody think otherwise.

On his right-shoulder, Karasu stared at the screen. She found the game very amusing, especially to the part where Amaterasu found the Chicken Chinese Zodiac/Phoenix Constellation: Moegami. She even tried to mimic him one time and tried holding a blade in her talon when she couldn't find a replica for a Japanese tobacco pipe... After nearly getting herself stabbed when tossing the blade in the air and trying to catch it in midair after dive-bombing, she never tried to copy what she sees on TV, again... Not unless, Leonardo supervises her and helps her with timing and precision.

*Bam!*

"MIKEY!" Raphael's voice roared out for the orange-masked turtle, stomping out of his room.

Beta-Brother Raphael out for blood. Chi-Brother Michelangelo must cause something serious for rage to course through Kin's heart and mind.

From the volume of his voice, Leo knew the youngest is in deep trouble and paused the game, preparing himself to intervene should there be any problem.

On Raph's left-shoulder, Spike took comfort on his spot, a blank look on his face; even for a pet snapping-turtle, he must've gotten used to his caretaker's outburst.

"You got pizza stains all over my collection of Modern Ninja magazine. They're ruined!" The red-masked turtle yelled, holding up a magazine in his right-hand. Sure enough, there are indeed pizza stains on the front-cover of the magazine. If there's stains on the front, then there's surely more stains in the inside on other pages.

Leonardo glared at Michelangelo, disappointed that the youngest-turtle doesn't take care of other people's property. Even with his ADHD, he does have enough commonsense to take care of other people's stuff, whether he was using it, borrowing it or none at all.

"Dude, those things are, like, twenty years old. They're not exactly modern." The orange-masked turtle replied, not really caring about some comic he may or may not accidentally dropped his pizza on while trying to clean up with one hand and tried to hide it in Raph's room. He had hoped to make his older-brother think he did it sometime ago, or at least wouldn't notice for quite some time.

Clearly, his plan failed.

"They're vintage!" Raph yelled, angry that Mikey wasn't getting the point to the problem and mess he caused. "It took me six years to collect 'em… Six! Years!"

Ever the calm, casual, never-thinking-about-the-consequences-of-his-actions turtle he is, Mikey swiped the magazine out of his brother's hand.

"Chillax, bro. I'll clean it for ya."

To Raph, Leo, even Karasu's shock, the youngest-turtle started licking the magazine, as if getting the rest of the sauce and cheese from a paper-towel after heating a pizza pocket in the microwave... And he's enjoying it, from the taste of pizza sauce, lapping at the stain of food and thinking cleaning it up wasn't too much of a problem.

Unfortunately, Raphael didn't see his point of view. After setting Spike on a wooden crate that's meant to hold up a lamp when one of them wanted to read in the living-room, he grabbed for his ruined magazine, rolled it up and whacked Mikey in the head.

"Ow!"

"You mess up everything, Mikey." Raph accused, raising his magazine over his head, planning to whack him upside the head again... Until his big-brother, sensing it was time to intervene, grabbed at the arm.

The twins glared at each other, Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes challenging Emerald-green eyes.

"It's just stuff, Raph... Meager possessions. It shouldn't be worth having to beat our brother continuously in the head like a Piñata or a drum."

Raphael is appalled of his only big-brother standing up for their trouble-making brother, when he is clearly seeing what was going on and that the fault is all Mikey's fault.

"What about your precious comic-book collection, huh? You always stick up for Mikey. Try seeing my point of view for once."

Leo narrowed his eyes a bit more. In some way, his eyes flashed a bit more lighter.

"First off, I'm keeping those comics safe until somebody shows an interest on wanting them and will take better care of the design. I have no intention on keeping them." He explained, shocking his two brothers that he's planning on selling his own collection. "Second, I'm not taking either sides; yes, I'm standing up to you to protect Mikey. However, that doesn't mean he's going to get away, without being punished. -He released Raph's arm and turned to face Michelangelo, who crouched a bit low and still covered his head with both hands, shielding himself from Raph's attack.- Mikey, you've been told time and time again to respect other people's property. You knew those magazines you ruined are very important to Raph. Right?"

Nervously, Mikey nodded his head.

"Y-Yeah, but I-…"

"No. Do not speak until I'm finished. You knew that it was wrong to try and hide the truth from him, and yet you still chose to hide your mistake, whether it was an accident or on purpose. Is that correct? -Afraid on what his brother would do if he tried to explain himself, Mikey nodded his head again.- This will not go unpunished, Mikey. In order to fix your mistake, you're going to buy Raphael new magazines to replace his ruined one, out of your own allowance."

Raphael and Michelangelo were stunned by his words.

"What?!" Mikey cried out, eyes almost as wide as dinner plates, gaping at his big brother as if telling him he was banned from eating pizza for an entire month. "But, Leo, that's not fair! I don't even have that kind of money!"

Leo and Karasu knew that that was a complete lie, and the blue-masked turtle wasn't very happy of the youngest trying to avoid punishment of his neglect.

"Since you have more comic-books than you can read and a bunch of them you hadn't read in a good while, you can easily use them to get the money for Raph to buy himself new magazine, and then some. -Realizing he's been caught and being threatened to lose his own precious comic-collection, Michelangelo shook his head.- In that case, go buy him a replacement magazine for his collection. And the next time you decide to intrude into another person's room without their consent and hiding the damage you've caused to their belonging, consider your video tapes and action figures, forfeited and surrendered to be sold on the next bid on the online auction."

Fearing of losing his precious belonging, Mikey immediately ran to his bedroom to get the money he hidden inside his pillowcase to give to Raphael.

While the youngest ran to get the money, Raphael could only be stunned by what just happened. And while he knew that that won't be enough of a message to get through to the youngest to be respectful of other people's possession, the fact that Leo did in fact took his side and hold Mikey responsible for ruining his magazine... It proves to the red-masked turtle that the oldest isn't picking favorite and will hold any of them accountable for their own mistakes, and won't give any special treatment or any excuse to avoid punishment.

"…Leo," he managed to get out.

The blue-masked turtle turned to his younger-twin, his eyes no longer glaring.

"I know this won't make up for the mistake he made, let alone won't be the last he'll make. However, next time, instead of exploding and threatening to beat them to a pulp, make them see the errors of their ways and have them fix the mistake properly… Though, I don't recommend to continuously threatening to use their own belonging as hostage. Otherwise, Sensei will have to intervene and will end up punishing the both of you."

True to his words, he isn't picking sides with either Raphael and Michelangelo. However, he's making it fair for the both of them to be more considerate in the future and, in a way, for the hothead in the family to avoid being punished for something he didn't do wrong.

Just when they thought they'd taken care of one problem... Another came out of Donatello's Lab.

Firework-like balls of fires came shooting out through the open-doors, letting out high-whistling sounds and going through random directions in the air.

Startled, Karasu leaped in the air in a panic and let out screech of fear when her panicking mind isn't giving her a clear message on where to go.

"Attack! ATTACK! UNDER ATTACK! Must get out! GET OUT!" She screamed, almost getting hit by a blue-fireball if she didn't force herself to fly backwards, which ended up damaging Mikey's discarded skateboard.

Immediately, Leonardo grabbed her in the air and held her against his plastron before a reddish-pink fireball could get her from behind, crouching close to the ground and taking shelter behind the back of the couch.

The sounds going around him was like talon scratching through glass, from the top of the empire state building straight down to the bottom, without stopping. His enhanced hearing made the sound around him so high, he wanted to scream. To slam his skull against the wall. To head for the pool area and swim as far away from the Lair as possible, until the ringing and the high-whistling is gone.

He wanted to do so, so badly, but knew he can't just take off running without a thought to know where to go or leave his brothers and Sensei behind.

"SPIKE!" Raphael called out, trying to get to his pet snapping-turtle, who still sat sprawled on the crate where Raph left him, only to be prevented to reach him by the few fireballs before his face.

After setting Karasu down and sending a firm growl "Stay!", he lunged over the couch and sprung straight for the five year-old turtle.

At the same time, a yellow-fireball made the same direction for Spike as the blue-masked turtle was leaping forward to. Time went slow for the humanoid-wolf/turtle, as he and the yellow-fireball were racing for the defenseless turtle. Pushing himself on all-fours, he used every strength in his limbs to flung himself forward, putting himself in front of the fireball and making a grabbing attempt for Spike.

…The crate broke into splinter-like pieces, caused by the yellow-fireball. At the small-steps, Leonardo curled himself on his right-side... Held in the safety of his arms and against his plastron, Spike's shell.

As soon as the last of the fireball died down after hitting against the pillar, the snapping-turtle popped right out of his shell.

Relieved that the turtle is completely unharmed, Leonardo smiled down at the surprised turtle.

"You're okay, Spike." He whispered to the turtle, gently stroking his head. "You're okay."

Ever the quiet one, Spike simply leaned in to the touch. Not a single sound could be heard from the turtle, even when clearly distressed from nearly being blasted with a raging ball of fire.

His silent really was surprising, even concerning, to Leo, for as long as he could remember. Ever since he hatched, not once, has he ever heard Spike spoke a single word. It was very puzzling to the blue-masked turtle, especially since he's been able to understand other land-mammals for a very long time. It's possible, because of the pneumonia Spike sustained after hatching in a very cold environment and barely surviving from being flushed down a toilet as an egg, it could've done some damage to his vocal-cord to prevent him from making any sounds, let alone utter a word in the Tongue of Animal.

Whatever the reason could be for Spike's inability to talk, Leonardo can't say for sure. However, he has a feeling, in due time, he'll be able to speak.

"Spike!" Raphael called out, making his way to his big-brother and eyeing in worry for his pet-turtle.

Sitting up, Leonardo handed the snapping turtle over.

"He's all right, Raph." He informed his twin, smiling at the reunion between his brother and his companion. "A little shaken up, but other than that, he's completely unharmed."

See no signs of injuries or damage to his pet, Raphael hugged the snapping turtle to his plastron. As he held Spike, he sent his big-brother a very grateful gratitude on his face.

...Till the expression on his face turned from relief, to immediate concern and was instantly kneeling beside the blue-masked turtle.

"You're bleeding!" He cried out, his eyes zoning in on Leo's right-leg... Which had a large-red line over the skin... Blood seeping out of the wound, while the injury pulsed from the sudden burning sensation when his adrenaline died down. "You're hurt!"

It's a good thing Leonardo has a high tolerance for pain, or else he would be expressing great agony. Though, that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt him or is immune to pain.

Leo reassured his twin that he's fine but when he tried to stand, the wound sent a major pulse wave of protest and forced the blue-masked turtle to kneel back down to the ground. Raph and Mikey can clearly see he's not fine, and that his injury is much more serious than he's letting them on.

Karasu was instantly at his side, taking her spot on his right-shoulder to see the wound, herself. Her eyes flashed with deep concern and fear from the sight of blood.

"Wow." Coming out from his lab, Donatello leaned against the door, pulling up the goggles that shielded his eyes from the blast he caused to happen. "I did not see that coming. Is everyone okay?"

Angered that Don caused another exploding incident, with the results actually getting one of them wounded, Raphael stomped to the purple-masked turtle.

"What are you, crazy?!" He yelled, getting right into Don's face. "NO! We're NOT okay!"

Master Splinter came out from the dojo after his meditation was disturbed by the sound of explosion, wondering what was going on and the sudden disarray of their living room. When his nose picked up the scent of blood and saw his eldest clenching hard on his leg to slow the bleeding, he immediately came to Leo's aid. "What happened here?" He questioned his sons, removing his son's hands to examine the wound, himself.

Raph immediately spoke out.

"I'll tell you what happened, Master Splinter. Donnie almost blew us up, again! And worse, he almost blew up Spike and Leo got hurt, because of it!"

Seeing the wound that his failed experiment caused to one of his brother's, Donatello felt immediately guilty.

"Leo, Raph, I'm really sorry. I-"

"Sorry doesn't cut it, this time, Don!" Raph cut off, shoving his brother aside and storming into his lab, grabbing the last canister of mutagen that, to his disgust, was resting next to a frozen mutant that used to be Timothy. "Until the mad scientist gets his act together, I'm holding this for safekeeping."

Despite the pain, Leo tried to get back on his feet. Splinter wouldn't allow him to move, keeping him pinned on the ground.

"Raph, be reasonable." He called out, worried from the thought of the canister breaking and his twin ending up getting mutated. "It isn't safe to have mutagen nearby, without keeping it secure."

His words falling on deaf ears as Raph continues making his way to his bedroom, leaving his family to be concern about his outburst.

"Man, that's my last canister of mutagen." Donatello grumbled, disappointed that he won't be doing more experiments to finding a cure with his older-brother keeping their last canister in his room and, after hearing the argument going on from Michelangelo ruining his stuff, he dares not to sneak into Raphael's bedroom and reclaim the canister.

Though, now wasn't the time to be pouting. Not when they have a mess to clean up, and Leo's leg needs to be attended to.

And so, with both Donatello and Master Splinter helping the blue-masked turtle to his lab, the genius turtle used disinfectant to keep the wound clean and twelve stitches to close the cut. With Leo's leg bandaged, the three turtles and their humanoid-rat father started cleaning the living-room.

However, barely two minutes into the cleaning, Master Splinter decided Raphael had enough time to put away the mutagen in his room and told Michelangelo to retrieve his brother to help them clean.

Leonardo, being mindful on the way he moves his injured leg, was mopping the floor near the pool-area. Karasu remained on his shoulder, watching the head of the mop going back and forth on the ground.

Small beads of sweat trickle down his face, both of the results from his injury, and his stomach getting upset. He can feel whatever food he was able to eat wasn't sitting right, and is taking every ounce of his strength to not go running for the bathroom and vomit again.

'Don't throw up,' he thought to himself. 'Whatever you do, do not throw up!'

It'll only get worse if you keep fighting it. Thanks to Raph's decision to keep exploding, at the rate this is going for you, the mutagen in your stomach will make the symptoms worse and will start causing some form of damage to your organs.

'I know, but I need to keep whatever food I can handle inside my stomach. I can't keep throwing up, because of the negative emotions going on in the Lair. I need to get over it, if I want to stop losing weight and keep up my strength.'

Let's hope Raph starts calming and, hopefully, your stomach problems won't worsen.

Stomping sounds made their way back to the living-room, and Leo knew which of his brothers is making that sound.

'Please, Raph. Not now...!'

"Sensei, this is completely unfair!" The red-masked turtle yelled, coming over to their father, who was sweeping around the couch. "Why should we have to clean up?! It's Donnie's mess! -To further his anger, he looked behind the humanoid-rat and saw his twin slightly hunched over his mop, trying to keep cleaning.- You're even making Leo clean, and he got hurt because of Don!"

Leo's feet started to feel shaky. His heart making a few fluttering beating against his plastron, as he felt himself starting to slightly pant. The blue-masked turtle knew they were warning signs.

'No… Not now…! I can't lose anymore meals than I already lost!' "Raph, it's all right." He reassured his red-masked twin, stopping the mop for a moment and clenching the wooden pole, his only line to focus his pain on while his stomach is getting upset. "We all need to help out with the mess, so we can use the living-room properly, before the explosion came in and made a mess. Please, Raph. We need your help on this; it'll make the job go quicker."

His words did little to calm Raphael's rage. In fact, all his words did was infuriated his brother even more. So much, that he stomped over to his older but shorter-twin, glaring down daggers that could be compared to becoming Superman's Heat Vision onto Leo's slightly hunched form.

While frightened by the rage, Karasu went to Leo's left-shoulder, crouched over and letting out a warning screech, ruffling her feathers to look bigger than she really is.

"Enough with the bullshit, Leo!" Raph yelled, ignoring the raven/crow hybrid's warning signs to stay away from their big-brother. "We both know that this is not all right!"

What he did next, startled the blue-masked turtle: Raphael, without taking notice how ill his brother is, snatched Leo's left-arm into his grasp, gripping tightly to the limb in his stronger-grasp, pulling him up to almost have their faces touching each other.

Karasu, scared by the sudden move her older-brother did, let out a distressed screech and flapped in the air, flying backwards in case a fight were to break out between the twins of the family.

Donatello and Michelangelo were at a complete loss, both dropping their cleaning equipment and running to their big brothers. However, Splinter, also surprised by his older-son's decision to grab onto Leonardo, held out a hand to his younger-sons to stop them in their tracks and slowly made his way to the two turtles.

"You keep saying that you're all right, when that's a complete lie!" Raphael continued to yell, slightly tightening his grip on Leo's arm, not caring that his grip is making his older-brother wince in pain and trying to pull himself free. "And even when you know that they're at fault for their screw-ups, you still find way to take their side and act as if it isn't a big deal, when it really is!"

The beating of Leonardo's heart is now banging against his eardrums, his vision already starting to blur and his stomach was doing flips. He knew that he can no longer push down the nausea and only have mere seconds to free himself and head for the bathroom, before they have another mess to clean up that'll fuel the fire even more.

He's not going to let go! You need to get free, now!

Slightly panting, Leo pulled at Raph's wrist.

"Raph, please, calm down." The blue-masked turtle begged, already starting to walk to the direction of the bathroom and trying to get free.

All his actions did, was only have Raphael clenched tighter on his arm, forcing out a slight whimpering sound.

"No! I WON'T calm down, Leo! Not until you admit that you're not all right!"

Raphael, so lost in his rage, couldn't see the pain he's administrating to his own brother. The damage he's causing to his only big brother, furthering the distress and agony of his already ill state.

Before he would do something else to further Leonardo's clear signs of stress, Master Splinter came forth and lightly trapped to fingers against the right-side of his neck. Barely adding any source of pressure to the spot, the red mask turtle immediately lost any feeling to his arm and, to his own surprise, felt his body go slack and fell on his shell.

He made a few grunting sounds, most likely in some form of pain or discomfort, trying to regain movement to his body but unable to even move his fingers.

Towering over him, his father stare down at him, his eyes flashing clear signs of disappointment and disapproval of his behavior. He opened month, about to say something to his second child.

...Till, from behind the humanoid-rat, Leonardo let a large gasp and fell to his knees. His left-arm, covered with three bruise marks that, no doubt, were made by Raph, curled over his stomach. His Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes are wide, panicking and clear signs of pain can be seen in his gaze.

Donatello and Michelangelo ran to his side, kneeling next to him and checking over him. However, before Don could even get started to see the bruises or even ask what was wrong, as quick as a whip, not caring what they would say, Leonardo sprang forward. Holding his injured arm against his plastron and his right-leg having some problems moving without agitating the wound, ran to direction of the bathroom, using his remaining two limbs to carry him to his destination.

Six seconds later, his family could hear the sound of vomiting coming from the bathroom, followed by desperate gasp for breath before he would go right back to emptying his stomach.

His throat burned from partly digested food and stomach acid bile traveling up his neck, and straight out of his mouth. More than once, he's glad to have only one stomach instead of two, like wolves are born with. Otherwise, the situation would probably be far worse and should his pack find out he had two stomachs, possibly around the time the mutated-squirrels came to their Lair and couldn't get one of them out of his body, it would be very hard for the blue-masked turtle to explain his extra organ without bringing up his wolf-blood.

After twenty seconds of puking his guts out, he slumped down to the cold floor, panting for air and curling himself into a tight ball. He felt so cold, his body shivering and wanting to find more warmth, but he knew he's burning up and needs to bring down his temperature. He hope laying on the ground will help relieve him of some of his abnormal body temperature; he doesn't think he can bring himself to muster the strength to put himself in a cold bath, not without running the risk of possibly falling asleep.

Through the floor, he can hear faint vibrations coming his way. He knew it's from his brothers and Master Splinter. And right now, he didn't want to see them. Not when he's like this... And yet, he can't really do anything right now.

Hands like his removed him off the ground and placed him against a plastron. From the faint smell of motor oil and hand sanitizer, he's laying against Donatello.

"Leo, can you here me?"

The high sound of brother's voice made him wince.

'With a voice as loud as Don's, even a deaf person can hear him.'

With his voice still sore from throwing up, Leo answered with a silent nod. He clamped his eyes shut, feeling a bit irritated when near the bright light shining Don over him.

A hand rested over his brow. The hand belonged to Master Splinter, feeling five-fingers and thick wrappings resting against his skin instead of three fingers.

"He is very warm," the humanoid-rat's voice boom in Leo's eardrums.

He felt himself being lifted off the ground, which made him force out a groan of pain when the movement bothered his leg and felt his limb being pressed against his carrier's body.

"Watashi o yurushite (forgive me), my son." Splinter apologize, and already started taking the blue-masked turtle out of the bathroom and, to Leo's guess, to his sensei's own bedroom to rest.

As they moved, Leo's nose picked up a very strong scent that almost made him jump right out of Master Splinter's hold and make a beeline for the source, if the father didn't keep a tight grip on his child and the teenager's fatigue want already sending him to sleep.

'This scent... It smells like-… Kin.'

Something is wrong... Very wrong. He knows something is wrong; when something isn't right, his first instinct on what to do when something isn't right, is to run. And that's what he's doing right now. Running.

He doesn't know where he's going, for there is no path within the darkness, but he continues to run forward to get away from whatever is wrong.

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

It's footsteps were more like sledgehammer shattering through concrete, but there's no mistaking that the creature is getting closer.

'Keep running, Leo... KEEP RUNNING!'

In the back of his mind, he knew he can't escape from whatever that's chasing him. He also knew that he can't keep running; his body is going to give out and if he pushes his body to keep running until he collapses, there won't be any way for him to fight or defend himself when the creature finally catches up to him.

…Then, without warning, something made a grab for his right-leg and pulled him back. His body came crashing down to the ground and his body slid backwards, as the fifteen year-old tried to stop going backwards by clawing at the unseen ground beneath him and failing to stop himself.

Claws dug into his flesh, forcing the humanoid-wolf/turtle to yelp in pain. The pain grew worse when the figure pulled his body off the ground and left dangling upside-down in the middle of the air. Blood trickled down his body, the scent and taste of copper entering his nose and mouth before dripping off of him.

*Grrrrrrrrrooooowwwwlllll...*

The signal of anger made Leonardo pull his head to rest his chin against his plastron, drawn to see what was it that's keeping him captive and injuring him to spill blood.

…The figure is nothing but a shadow to him but the eyes of the creature held so much loathing and desire to kill him, made him come to the conclusion that this figure has a major vendetta towards him.

"Not so mighty and powerful, now. Are you?"

The voice sent shivers down his spine. The volume of the voice made him think of one creature that nearly claimed his life five years ago… However, he knew very well that the figure, itself, isn't White Death.

This creature is something else, an unknown that Leonardo, himself, doesn't know... But will surely figure who, in due time.

The appendage pulled him higher, making him be face-to-face, still upside-down, with his capture, staring into venom-like eyes.

The figure raised it's other appendage in the air, ready to strike the humanoid-wolf/turtle, but not after giving the turtle a final message.

"You're getting everything that's coming to you!"

A mighty roar rang in Leo's ears and, only able to look up at the three-fingered claws, watch as the attack came down on him.

And then, he knew nothing more but the darkness.

"Gah!"

His eyes snapped open and his body shot right up from under the covers, kneeling and on his hands and knees to keep him up. He panted for air, sweat beading down his face, with the expression on his face showing a very clear sign of fear… No, of pure terror.

Leo's right-leg, which he noticed from the fabric of bandages wrapped over his injury, throbbed from the sudden movement. He also felt an odd tugging from the bandages rubbing against his injury, which warned him to not move his leg that will cause him to tear his stitches.

Footsteps, coming from outside of the Shoji door, alerted the scared, injured humanoid-wolf/turtle that somebody heard his distress cry and is coming to check on him... And honestly, he doesn't want to see someone.

…He needed to check on his brothers, and the one coming to check on him isn't one of his brothers.

The door snapped open and Master Splinter immediately came to his son's side, kneeling beside Leonardo and resting his paws on the turtle's shoulders.

"My son, are you all right?" The fifty year-old father didn't receive an answer to his question.

The only thing the blue-masked turtle did was turn his head to stare eye-to-eye with his sensei, his Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes completely unfocused with everything… Except, for the fear his dream made him experience.

And the need to see his brothers, to know they're safe and the creature in his dream doesn't harm them, gave him the strength to get to shake off his sensei and quickly run for the living-room on all-fours.

"Musuko!"

Leo ignored the call of his sensei, getting to the living-room as quickly as he could and finding the room being empty. His heart is racing.

'Where... Where are they?!'

In desperation, he got up to stand on his feet and lifted his beak as high as he could to sniff the air.

The scent of his brothers told him that they left a little over an hour ago... But the scent he smelt before blacking out, is still strong and coming from Raphael's bedroom.

That scent… There's no mistaken it…!

Immediately, Leo stomped his way to their bedroom and when standing before his twin's bedroom, which had a stop sign nailed at the front of it, yanked it over... He could've sworn that his heart stopped, as the air in his lungs froze and turned to ice.

There, in the middle of the ground, is what he feared would happen when Raph insisted on keeping the one thing that makes him worry for his brothers' safety in his own bedroom: A broken canister of mutagen, with said mutagen pooled underneath the canister.

All Leonardo could do is stare down at the broken canister.

Behind him, he heard Master Splinter finally catching up to him, unable to hear his words but were then cut off when, no doubt, saw what his eldest son is staring down at.

"Is that-…?"

The blue-masked turtle nodded his head, not facing the humanoid-rat when all he could do is stare at the mutagen. It was then, as he looked around in his brother's room, to see if there are any signs of damage or disturbance to indicate his biggest fear of one of his own brothers getting double mutated, that he knew there is already a problem.

'Something is wrong... Something feels… Missing from inside. But, what?'

A took a few sniff in the air and, while separating Splinter's scent, all he could smell is Raphael's scent… However, he noticed an odd scent that he knew doesn't belong to his brother.

'This scent is off. It smells like Raph's natural scent, but it smells heavier and too thick.'

This scent... Smells of... Mature Male!

His Instinct's own discovery was very startling to the blue-masked turtle.

'"Mature Male"? As in, an adult? But Raph isn't an adult, yet! We hit puberty at the age of thirteen, and it won't be until another six years, at most, until we fully become adults! I mean, unless we were normal turtles, we would've reached maturity between the ages of five and eight.'

Where's Spike?

His Conscience's question brought great worry to Leonardo when he realized there's no sign of Raphael's pet turtle.

He barely took a step into his brother's room, when he stepped on something made of paper and when he looked down and removed his foot from what he stepped on... His heart banged against his chest.

It's a single photograph of himself, Donatello and Michelangelo, smiling at the camera and to the person taking their picture... Covering all three of Raph's brothers, large claw-marks scratched through the picture. Two of the marks covered Don and Mikey's faces, while the last claw-mark went across Leo's throat.

"You're getting everything that's coming to you!"

The cold feeling came back. Leonardo immediately realized what his dream was telling him, and he has a feeling that he knows exactly who the figure in his dream was.

He turned to Master Splinter, flashing fear and concern to the fifty year-old father.

"The guys are in danger."

Up on the Surface World…
A few cars and pedestrians strolled calmly on the streets and sidewalk of the city, none finding any worry or fear to take shelter from indoors. And so, none were too concern or suspicious when seeing a large-dog casually walking on it's own in the city, carrying two words on it's back* and a wrapped bandage around it's leg, slightly limping.

Because of their ignorance, no human had enough brain smarts to realize that the dog is actually a wolf... A humanoid-wolf/turtle, to be precise. And Leonardo is very grateful that nobody find him odd, especially when his mask can be mistaken very easily for a regular bandana and show signs of being a pet, instead of a stray.

Just the thought of them thinking he's an owned property in the eyes of the law made the black-wolf's blood boil in rage... And yet, he cannot fight or argue with the fact that, in reality and in the very beginning, he and his brothers were bought and made to being Hamato Yoshi's pet. So therefore, even as mutated-humanoid animal-hybrids, he and his brothers are still, in terms, property owned by their sensei.

'But not forever,' he thought to himself. 'When the time is right, I won't be living under the human's laws and will be free from the burden of being labeled as some property.'

And while he at times wished his Conscience and Instinct could still talk to him while as a wolf, when venting in anger or conversation that always plagued his mind, these moment he's truly happy to the quiet response that goes in his head when in a form of another.

His ears caught the sound of flapping wings, followed by the feeling of talons resting on top of one of his swords' scabbards. He knew it was Karasu; many of the birds wouldn't dare go below buildings' rooftops level, unless they were at the park. Since the incident with the squirrel getting mutated and with Kraang most likely out on the streets, they all taken caution to not remain on the ground in public areas.

"Anything?" He asked the raven/crow-hybrid, making his way to a dark alleyway to have some privacy for their conversation.

Walking over to roost on his left-shoulder, Karasu leaned forward to look up at her big brother.

"Nothing," she replied. "I lost them at around the Fortune Cookie Factory, to take care of the vermin from causing another 'accidental' fire."

Leo lifted part of his life and let out a low growl.

"And what became of them?"

"They paid with their lives, for almost taking the life of anybody within the area. -His nose detect the trace of blood from the black-bird, confirming she permanently taken care of the problem with the squirrels.- I have the crows and ravens pass on the word to give out the location of our brothers' whereabouts. So far, there hasn't been anything... However -Leo turned his eye to stare down at Karasu, gaining his full attention on whatever she's going to tell him that could be good news.- Some alley cats passed on the news of finding another canister."

He can tell that something is wrong. Meaning, the canister can very well be in unwanted hands of either Kraang or humans.

"Where?"

Twenty-Four Minutes Later...
"Well... That's just great..." Leonardo stated in a sarcastic manner, looking through the window of an apartment building from across the street. Through the window, he sees a six-year-old girl, playing what looks to be her version of a tea party with her stuffed animals and few dolls at her mini-table.

...In the center of the table, the canister of mutagen stood tall and proud... To the turtle, it almost as if it were teasing him, mocking him that he can't get to it, not without blowing his cover and revealing himself to the human-child.

"At least you found a canister, instead of walking aimlessly through the city, trying to separate scent within your surroundings." Karasu stated, hoping to lighten Leo's irritated mood.

"Perhaps, but it's going to be hard to getting the mutagen away from a human-pup. At least, not without provoking her to scream or cry for her parents." Leo replied, glaring as he watch the girl deciding to uncap the canister and pour a small amount of mutagen into hey tea cup.

Karasu started to get anxious when she, too, saw what the girl just did.

"You must decide quickly, Leo! Otherwise, you and the others will have one more mutant to worry about."

And the worst part? A human child will have her life ruined by not only Kraang, but also your brothers.

That thought made Leonardo's blood boil. Human or mutant, a child is still a child and, as a child, they are more innocent and more pure than any human would remain long before they even reach adulthood. Their innocent nature gives people hope for a better future, a promise for hope, a new beginning, like Spring.

And while many animals still cannot find it inside of them to coexist with humans, they can all agree on one thing: Human-Younglings are pups, and pups must be protected and watched over from all harm and threat.

As the girl slowly brought her cup to her lips... The humanoid-wolf/turtle reacted on instinct.

He pulled out his grappling hook, tossed it to the ledge of the rooftop of the apartment building and, giving it a few tugs, leapt in the air. Before he made contact with the wall, he held his feet out to stop himself from slamming into the building and forced the window open.

Before the little girl even realized that her window opened, Leo flung himself into hey bedroom and kicked the plastic tea cup out from the girl's hand. The cup flew straight for the door and, upon impact, broke into pieces. The mutagen that was inside the cup, pooled into a little puddle on the carpet floor and, after a few seconds, dissolved quickly to nothing, as if it never was on the ground in the first place.

Seeing the mutagen disappearing into nothing, made Leo sigh in relief.

'And that's one problem we won't have to worry about.'

Perhaps, but now what are you going to do about the girl?!

Bringing up the new problem he now has to deal with, Leonardo could only stare down at the slightly surprised girl.

He was at a complete loss on what to do, now.

'Why didn't I consider going to Don's Lab, and grabbing a smoke-bomb?'

Because you were in too much in a hurry to think clearly in grabbing one, and more concern on finding your brothers as quickly as possible.

Having no idea on what to do right there and then, Leo waited for the little girl to scream and cry out for her parents.

...Only, that didn't happen. Instead, her response was quite shocking.

"Would you like some tea, Mr. Turtle?" She kindly offered, raising a new tea cup to him, this one not holding any mutagen inside of it.

...Leo could do nothing but stare at her.

'…Does... Does she not see a giant, humanoid-turtle before her?'

She clearly sees you as you are. Perhaps, her parents hadn't taught her the "Stranger Danger" rules… That, or maybe, because of her age... She may think you're some imagination that came out of her head, like magic. Say something to her, and make sure to have her believe you're a figment of her imagination.

"…Umm…" He cleared his throat a bit, and finally found his voice to get the words out. "I'm sorry for kicking your tea cup from out your hand, Little One."

The girl pouted at his apology.

"I'm not little. You're just bigger than me, Mr. Turtle." She replied, standing out of her seat and lightly stomping her foot. "And my name isn't 'Little One', it's 'Chloe'."

The blue-masked turtle turned his head to stare at the door, hoping that neither her mother or father heard her outburst, before staring back down at the pouting six-year-old girl.

'Think, Leo. What do little girls have a deep interest in.'

"Forgive me, Miss Chloe-"

"No. Just Chloe." Chloe interrupted, stomping her foot against the ground, again.

"Uh, sorry. Chloe." He quickly repeated, earning a firm nod from the child. "I didn't mean to sound as if I were making fun of you. You see-…"

He immediately looked around in her bedroom, hoping his mind will find something to use that would make her see her as a friend and forgive him for calling her little. All he could find was her liking for the color pink, tea parties, some dolls in dresses and flowers.

Just when he was about to say something about flowers... Did he noticed some butterfly-like stickers all over her light-lamp, along with some glow-in-the-dark wall stickers hanging on the ceiling over her bed.

His mind immediately concocted an idea.

"You see, I called you 'Little One', by miss identification."

His words made Chloe confused.

"Identi-… What is that?"

He smiled gently to her question, kneeling down to be as even level with her as possible.

"It's another word meaning to describe a person's sense of identity with someone or something. I, unfortunately, mistaken you for somebody else. For you see, I thought you were her."

That caught her attention.

"'Her'? Who's 'her'?" She asked, leaning forward and resting both her arms on Leo's left-arm, lightly jumping on the balls of her feet to demonstrate her wanting to know what he knows about this mystery person.

"Well... You see, there's this princess."

Chloe gasped in shock.

"A princess?"

Good. You're getting her excited, but you better go ahead and tell her, before she gets too impatient from the suspense.

'Right.' "I come from a far away place, where I've been told there's a princess who can help me find something missing that's lost to our queen. And she told me that this princess has yellow-hair, a pink-bow and blue-eyes. And so, when I saw you, I immediately assumed that you were Little One, the Butterfly Princess."

Leonardo can see the girl's young mind taking his words to heart

"You thought I'm a princess? Really?" Chloe asked, looking straight into his Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes to have him answer her question with the right answer. And to her delight, Leonardo bowed his head.

"Of course, Butterfly Princess. My queen never lies when she tells us about her Little Butterfly Princess, let alone mistaken any princess for another. And since you clearly match what the princess looks like, you must be the Butterfly Princess I sought for who will help us find what was lost to her Majesty."

She let out a giggle of pure happiness... And her laughter made Leonardo's heart quiver with… Joy. Complete, neverending joy from just hearing the happiness of the child he just met and is lying to get her to trust him.

'I do hate to lie to such an innocent child.' He thought, as he lifted his head and smiled kindly back to her. 'Yet, it makes her happy to hear somebody view her to be very important and so long the lie doesn't hurt her, then I'll play along with the lie. However, I need to get the mutagen away from her.'

"Well, Mr. Turtle, if you need my help, then I'll help you. What is it your queen lost?" Chloe asked, crossing her arms behind her back and smiling sweetly to the fifteen year-old before her.

He pointed a finger to the canister of mutagen.

"That, Chloe, is what the queen lost." He answered, making the little girl stare at her newly bought Tea/lava lamp. "That there is something for the queen to make her feel -He hesitated for a few seconds to come up with an idea, till he thought about his own tea and treat it like medication.- ...Better! When she's ill or very weak, she drinks it and makes her feel better."

Chloe immediately got an answer to what he's trying to describe the mutagen.

"You mean like medicine?"

Leo nodded.

"Exactly, like medicine. You see, one of her subjects accidentally lost it, while trying to get it back to the kingdom, and we've been searching high and low for it. And now that it's been found, I need to take her medicine back to the kingdom and help the queen get better from her illness."

"Oh!" Believing his lies, Chloe was stunned to hear how the 'queen' lost her 'medicine' in the first place. "She must be very sick, if she had to have somebody else to get the medicine for her."

Leo nodded his head.

"Very much, so." He said. "If it's possible, Chloe, may I bring the medicine back to me to my land to help the queen get better? It would mean a lot to everybody, if we can get back what was lost to us."

In her young mind, Chloe very much wanted to help the turtle and let him take her new tea/lava lamp… However, as a child, she didn't want to give away what was hers. Not when her father just bought it for her to keep, and do whatever she wants to do with it.

"…You want to take it away?" She asked, walking over to her small-table and holding the canister in her arms, staring at the cool mixture of Aquamarine-green dancing and twirling inside the container. "But-... I like my new toy. My daddy bought it, for me. You lost it! That means I can keep it!"

The blue-masked turtle had a feeling this would happen.

'While children are innocent to the darkness of the world, how they're being raised and/or because they don't grasp on easily to be willing to surrender what's their's, they'll end up falling back to acting and behaving as they are. And while I can easily take it away from her, I'll run the risk on being sighted by her parents, the moment she makes a distress sound.'

Since she's following the Finders Keepers Rule, she'll probably be willing to give it up for a trade.

'Out of the question! I'm not going to give her one of my ninja weapons, that she'll use for a toy; she can hurt herself, or somebody else. Plus, how else is she going to explain how she got a weapon?'

…True… Though, perhaps you can come to another agreement that she'll be willing to surrender the mutagen to you.

He knew it isn't going to be easy; many children do tend to give up belongings for other items that aren't of any value or even toys to entertain them for very long, some children can be very well picky on what they want.

It's not going to be easy… But, he's willing to do whatever it takes to have the little girl, willingly, give him the canister and not be upset.

"…Well, when you put it like that, that does sound reasonable. However, my queen really needs her medicine. -He pretended to ponder on what to do, catching the girl's curiosity on what he was going to do with the problem he has.- …Well, in that case, Chloe. How about a trade?"

The girl's blue-eyes sparked in interest.

"A trade?" She repeated.

Leo smiled at her.

"That's right. A trade. -He walked over to her and kneeled before her.- I don't have anything on me, that would make a great substitute for your new toy. But, what I can offer you, is to grant your request and do what you want to do, until you're satisfied enough to let me take the medicine back to the queen."

She clearly seemed to like where this was going.

"…Really?"

"Really, really." Leo replied, already having an idea on what the little girl will want him to do for her, as a bright smile broke upon her face.

Thirty Five Minutes, Later…
"I say, Chloe, this tea is quite lovely." Leo complimented of the imagining tea that he pretends to have in his empty empty cup, holding out the smallest finger he has, as he pretends to sip at his cup.

"Why, thank you, Mr. Turtle. I made it all by myself, and worked really hard on making it perfect. I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the tea." Chloe politely thanked, pretending to drink tea in her empty cup as well, enjoying her imaginating tea party with the blue-masked turtle. "I wish I can offer you some honey Mr. Turtle, but I'm afraid Teddy ate the whole thing before the party even started."

Said 'Teddy' sat in-between the two, not moving from it's spot in the chair it sat in and kept staring straight at nothing.

"Oh, it's all right, Chloe, Teddy. He must have loved honey so much, that I can't fault him for wanting the honey. Maybe next time, we'll have extra honey for us to have for our tea, while Teddy can help himself to the rest. How about that, Teddy?" Leo asked the stuff animal, knowing he'll be receiving no answer from the toy but doesn't want to upset Chloe by not playing along with her imagination.

Chloe, also, turned to her stuffed-bear, before looking back to Leo.

"Teddy said 'He would like that idea very much', Mr. Turtle."

The two enjoyed with their little tea party for a few more minutes, until the two were interrupteda few knocks on the other side of the door.

"Chloe, it's time to stop playing. It's bedtime." The voice is a male, clearly being the girl's father.

While he should head for the window or find a place to hide should the adult consider entering Chloe's bedroom, Leonardo can somehow feel that he won't come in.

Chloe slightly pouted by her father's words to stop playing.

"Aww, but Daddy-!" She called out, wanting to keep playing tea party with her new 'imaginary friend'.

"No buts, Chloe. It's a school night, Sweetie, so you need to get some rest for school tomorrow. All right? I love you, Honey."

And just like that, footsteps could be heard walking away from Chloe's bedroom door. The two stared at the door for a few more seconds and when they heard the sound of another door opening and closing, they turned and stared at each other.

While clearly not satisfied of her game to be called to a fault, the little girl sat her cup on her little table and went to her dresser to get changed.

Wanting to give her some privacy to change into her pajamas, Leonardo turned his shell to face her, staring at the wall.

'While I'm glad for the game to finally come to an end... The way her father chose to call out to her behind her door, instead of knocking and asking to enter and to properly tell her goodnight, that's not a very good way to interact with your own child.'

Every parent is different when raising their own children, but you do have a point. The way that he told her that he loves her, doesn't really sound very loving for his child. He didn't bother to check on her, let alone take her through the city in the middle of the night when she has school the next day.

...Young's Sire not good Sire? Not raise Human-Pup right?

'Can't jump to conclusions, not without learning the truth. However, right now, it's time to wrap up my stay and get the canister.'

When he heard the creaking sound of the metal spring moving from within her mattress, Leonardo returned and saw the little girl already getting under the covers. Chloe has a clear look of disappointment for their fun being cut off... Yet, in her eyes, they showed the signs of sadness.

As if she was hoping her dad would come in, and see her off to sleep. Instead, he just called out to her to go to sleep and said a quick I love you, that didn't even sound genuine enough for the girl to feel any love from his tone of voice.

The blue-masked, hoping to cheer her up, brought Teddy from his seat and, after making his way to get small-bed, handed the stuffed-animal to the little girl.

Seeing her toy held out to her, she smiled up at the turtle and embraced her bear.

"Thanks for playing with me, Mr. turtle." She replied, letting out a yawn but refusing to lay down to rest. "Can you come back tomorrow and play tea party with me, again?"

To her request, Leonardo gave her a sad smile. He knows that he has to end her fun, and have to tell her that he can no longer see her... No matter how much the two had fun together, let alone how much joy gave him when interacting with the six-year-old as if she was his own child.

"I'm sorry, Chloe, but I need to go home and help the queen get better." He tried to explain to her, though his heart grew heavy when seeing her look ready to put on crocodile tears that'll soon turn into real tears.

"But, I want you to come back and play with me! Please?" She begged, tossing her bear to the corner of the bed and wrapping her arms around the suddenly stunned turtle, hugging him as tightly as she could. "You made me so happy. You wanted to come and play with me, than Daddy wants to work and not spend time with me. You even call me a princess, and made me feel special… Like, you really care about me!"

He felt tears gliding down his skin and heard small sniffling sounds coming from the little girl he now held in his embrace, slowly rocking back and forth and gently patting her on the back to comfort her.

She feels neglected, as if she doesn't matter that much to spend time with.

…Pup only speaks of Sire... Why Pup not speak of Matriarch?

It was very puzzling to the blue-masked turtle, though there are a few ideas to why Chloe doesn't speak about her own mother... And one of those thoughts made him hope to not being true, for the child's sake.

Right now, he needs to help this poor girl see that she's not being forgotten or pushed off to the side.

"…Your Daddy does love you," he told her.

The little girl shook her head to his words.

"No, he doesn't."

To this, he pulled her off his shoulder to make her look into his eyes, but kept her within his hold.

"Yes, he does." He pressed on and this time, he's not going to make her say, otherwise, until he tries to explain to the six-year-old why her own father won't spend time with her... He just hoped that whatever he tells her, is the truth. "Your father loves you, so very much, Chloe, that he's doing everything in his abilities to make sure you have a happy and healthy life. He wants nothing more than to play with you, spend time with you and tell you, like he did right now, every single day, that he loves you… However, because he has grown-up work that needs his attention more, he can't be allow to drop what he's doing and do whatever the both of you want to do, no matter how much he wants to. If he's too busy to play or spend time with you, that doesn't mean he doesn't love you, anymore. It just means he has to take care of important business that needs his attention, before he can stop and be with you. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

Chloe, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her Powerpuff Girls pajamas, stared into his Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes. She still looked sad, but appears to be grasping on to what he's trying to tell her, as much as her young mind is able to process within her thoughts.

"…I think I do," she said. "Daddy can't always play with me, when he has to take care of business stuff he has to do for work. But, he's doing it, because he loves me and when he's done, he'll be free to spend time with me... Just like how you can't stay with me, because you have to work on taking care of the queen. Right?"

Leonardo chuckled at her answer, feeling quite proud of her understanding to his explanation.

"That's right," he said. "But, no matter what, even when we live in separate worlds, that doesn't mean we aren't friends, Little One. Always remember, Princess Butterfly, that you're truly loved and won't ever be forgotten. Also, cherish and enjoy every moment you have with your friends and family, and you'll always know that you truly are precious. And should something be bothering you, go talk to your father and tell him how you're feeling. Can you do that for me, Chloe?"

Letting out another yawn, the little girl nodded her head and leaned forward to give the turtle another hug. While doing so, she allowed him to gently lay her in bed and pull the covers over her to properly tuck her in.

"I will, Mr. Turtle." She promised, getting herself settled to sleep. "Mr. Turtle, before you go and take the medicine to the queen, can you do one more thing for me?"

"…Anything, Chloe."

Slightly squirming in her spot, she gave him her best puppy-eye look, which easily rivaled Michelangelo's own looks.

"Could you... Sing me a lullaby? Please? My Mommy used to sing to me, whenever I get lonely."

Leonardo's heart went out to her, taking her words to account that she, indeed, lost one of her parents, like he feared to being the case. And while it was a simple request, he didn't really know much lullaby songs… Though, there is one that he felt would be very fitting for the six-year-old.

"I do know one lullaby… But, it's in a language you won't be able to understand in." He warned, thinking of other songs that are in English and appropriate for children to here.

She simply smiled at him.

"I don't mind," she said. "Whatever song you sing, I'll like it."

Her honest response to wanting to hear him sing, even if she doesn't understand what it means, really intrigued the turtle... And nervous.

While he would, on occasion, sing with the animals or to himself in solitude, he never once sang a song to another individual. Not even to his own brothers, or Master Splinter... Until now.

Gently clearing his voice and taking cleansing breath... Leonardo sang.

Chīsana chō o tobu
(Fly little butterfly)

Mayoi chīsana chō ni
(Go astray little butterfly)

Nani mo anata no tsubasa o funsai shinaide kudasai
(May nothing shatter your wings)

Muryō no chīsana chō ni
(Be free little butterfly)

Tsuyoi chīsana chō ni
(Be strong little butterfly)

Kaze ga anata o ie ni hakobukara
(Because the wind carries you home)

Dare mo anata ga utau no o kiite wa naranai
(No one should hear you sing)

Saigo no o wakare ga shinda toki
(When the last farewell is dead)

Anata no yume ya omoide o mamotte kudasai
(Please protect your dreams and memories)

Watashi no ai wa itsumo anata ni tsudzukukara
(Because my love always follows you)

Sayōnara chīsana chō
(Goodbye little butterfly)

Oyasumi chīsana chō
(Good night little butterfly)

Tsuki ga anata o ie ni yobu
(The moon calls you home)*

By the time he finished singing, the girl was already deep in her sleep. A gentle smile can be seen on her face, a clear indication that she loved the song, even if she wasn't awake for the rest of the part.

Smiling down at the little girl, Leo gently brushed part of her hair away from her face before getting off of her bed and leaving her bedroom, taking the canister with him.

'Hopefully, the song will bring her some comfort, even if it's only temporary.'

After that talk you had with her, I think she'll be more open to her father about her problems… However, from the way she spoke about her mother that one time, she may still experience being lonely from time to time.

'True… Maybe, Chloe should have a companion to keep her company. I'll talk with some of the strays and see if any of them will be willing to live with them, so Chloe won't be lonely and bring both her and her father close.'

From the condition of their home, might be best to have a cat for the job; a dog may cause more problems and messes for her father to deal with, probably to cause a bigger rift between father and daughter.

'Agreed. For now, we need to take the mutagen back to the Lair and continue looking for-'

Beta-Brother Raphael!

The name his Instinct gave to his twin brother, pulled the turtle from his thoughts and, when catching Raph's scent and hearing the sound of his battle cry, turned his head to the direction where his red-masked brother can be located.

…With him, a seven foot, spiked-shelled, raging snapping turtle.

"Leo!" Above him, Karasu hovered over him. Fear can be seen within her onyx-eyes. "Mikey and Don are injured! Sharp Beak hurt them! He wants to kill you three! Raph is fighting him! You need to help!"

Leonardo glared down at the larger-turtle fighting his brother… Or, more specifically, their brother.

'All that time Raph interacts with him, he's practically our brother… Our big brother*.'

Below him, he watched as the turtle grabbed for both of Raphael's Sais and tossed them off the roof they stood on.

"Ha! It's over, Raphael. You've lost!" A rough, gruff voiced called out, coming from the turtle that was once Spike.

Setting the canister down, Leonardo pulled out both his swords and immediately jumped down from the rooftop of Chloe's home, running towards the black-masked turtle.

"SPIKE!" He yelled, charging at the turtle from behind to grab his attention away from his twin.

When the giant turtle turned from the call of his old name, he left himself open for Leo to deliver a powerful ramming against his plastron. He staggered back, allowing the blue-masked turtle to thrust the top of his head up to collide against Spike's jaw.

"Aagh!" Spike cradled his jaw in his right-hand, snarling ferociously at the one who attacked him... Then, a sinister smile curled behind his lower jaws' fangs.

"So, the Fearless Leader, himself, has finally decided to show up." The larger-turtle grumbled out, pulling up his mighty Mace.

Leo recognized the weapon as being Raph's second favorite weapon... And, one of the very few weapons Leo had yet learned to wield when weapon training. So, like any weapon he wielded or not, he gave the mace a name.

'Odo!'

He glared at the large-turtle that forced Raphael to keep fighting without any weapons and nearly slamming his shell into the building, standing in-between the enhanced humanoid-turtle and his twin brother.

"I warned him this would happen," he said. "I knew Raph wouldn't set the mutagen in a safe spot, where it wouldn't be able to fall or break open. I had hope that he would be careful to not let an incident like this to happen, especially that would result either him or you, Spike, to mutate. I never expected it to turn you into... This."

Spike snickered, seemingly pleased of the clear distress the blue-masked turtle is about the situation.

"And I'm glad that it did happen," he replied. "Now, I can finally exterminate the three of you nuisance, once and for all! Raphael can't see it, but he'll soon realize that this is for the best. And soon, nobody will get in his way or hold him back, ever again!"

His words puzzled the humanoid-wolf/turtle.

'"Holding him back"? "For the best"? Did the mutagen messed with Spike's head, while going through his mutation?'

He sounds very clear of his choice of words and they hold such loyalty for Raph, despite that the two were just fighting to what looks like to the death!

Like Beta, loyal to Alpha.

'And if he thinks that getting rid of Don, Mikey and I, will help Raff become better and stronger, that means he most likely took his rants seriously and viewed us as distractions.'

"And by the way, Leonardo. The name is Slash, now!" The giant turtle yelled, charging at the smaller-turtle, raising the mace over his head with his left-hand and exposing his claws with his right-hand.

Just as Leo was preparing to come up with an idea on whether to strike, or dodge...

"Aauuh!" "No!"

From the sky, Karasu came down and started pecking Spike in the head, screeching out her distress of the giant turtle wanting to hurt her big brother.

"Snap out of it, Sharp Beak! This is not you! Stop it!"

Whether the giant turtle can still hear her words and chose to ignore them, or no longer understands the Tongue of the Animal, the blue-masked turtle didn't know the answer to.

"Ack! Get off me, Karasu!" Slash yelled, covering his head with his left-arm while swatting the bird away with his right-hand, trying to avoid hurting her in any way possible but to get her to stop pecking him.

Leo took notice of the obvious change to Spike's behavior.

'He had every intent to kill me, but then his mood changed when Karasu intervened... Maybe, the mutagen didn't completely changed him than I thought it would.'

Maybe, but from how he chose to have an aggressive anger like Raphael does, it's only a matter of time before his anger makes him go feral-like and actually hurt her.

Leonardo made his traditional high-whistling.

*Pweeeeeeeet!*

Immediately, Karasu stopped pecking Slash and barely missing the swipe of his hand, the raven/crow-hybrid went to her brother's side, hovering over his head.

"Go home, Karasu. He only wants us, and it's clear that this is a matter that needs to be resolved... Get the canister back to the den."

Karasu doesn't approve of his orders; she knew, from the depths of her soul, that Spike won't listen to any reason Leo and the others will say to him. He's too blinded by his own anger, thanks to the corruption from the mutation process from the mutagen, and only has one thing going through his mind: Kill them all!

…However, she has to listen to whatever command Leonardo gives her and if she were to get hurt from intervening, she'll end up as a distraction. Or worse, a hostage that Spike can use to get to Leo and the others. And if there's one thing the black-bird doesn't want cause, is the downfall of her own flock.

Reluctantly, she nodded her head and left her two brothers with the monster that used to be her companion.

'Don't get killed,' she prayed in her mind.

With Karasu safe and long gone, Leonardo turned to the giant turtle, raising his blades to a defensive pose.

Slash snickered darkly.

"You're really going to keep fighting me, even when you have no chance on winning…? Pathetic."

The blue-masked felt a bit insulted by Slash's words.

"You commended Raphael for his continuation to keep fighting you, even after you tossed aside his weapons and knew he has no chance on beating you. But, when I'm ready to keep fighting you, especially to protect my brother from you, you see me as nothing but a fool signing his Death Wish. -He sent a glance over to his red-masked brother, who wrapped his left-arm over his plastron and eyeing the larger-turtle in case he tries to attack and has to dodge, before turning back to the three-quart turtle-mutant.- Even when you intend to kill us, you still care for Raphael."

Slash growled at his words.

"I have no intention on killing Raphael -He pointed a clawed-finger at the blue-masked turtle.- Only you, Donatello and Michelangelo."

Leo then noticed an orange-mask and a purple-mask wrapped around Slash's right-arm... Wearing them, as trophies. Leo's hands clenched tightly to his blade, as his nose also detect the scent of blood from the larger turtle.

'Don't. If I give in to anger, I'll be good as dead. I need to make Spike see that this isn't right. Plus, I can't run the risk of reopening my leg-wound. I need to play smart.' "And why do you want to kill us? What did we ever do, that you found to be justifiable to eliminate us? I would assume it would have to do with Raph, but I feel there's a more personal reason that you wish to do a terrible deed."

The larger-turtle sneered at him.

"Now I see why Raphael gets tired of you always seeming to have the answer to everything," he remarked. "But, I have to give it to you, you sure know how to figure a person out, with little time to come up with a conclusion… Yes, you're right. This is very much personal to me to ridding you three, but just as much for my own personal desire, I really am doing this for Raphael."

Leo can feel his twin glaring at what used to be his pet for five years, giving him relief that his own flesh and blood doesn't want anything that this monster is saying.

"And what makes you think Raphael wants us gone?"

Slash seemed very pleased when asked that question, as if he wanted the blue-masked turtle to ask that specific question and is more than happy to answer it.

"Why don't you ask him, yourself? After all… He would keep saying how much he wished he was on his own, and none of you were here with him."

At a very young age, he's learned how to tell when somebody is lying... And when he heard nothing but the truth from Slash, his words truly did wounded Leonardo. Once again, he turned to stare at his brother. His red-masked brother showed such regret and deep guilt on his face, which verified the larger-turtle's claim to being true.

'…Why, Raph…?' He wondered, though he knows why his own brother would spew out such hurtful words. 'I know there are times that we get so caught up in our argument, and both Don and Mikey would drive us crazy by their antics... Do they really make you so mad, that you actually believe you want to be on your own?'

"He would always say how much you three would get in his way, ignore what he think is the right choices to ensure an actual success during your missions against the Kraang." Slash continued. "You three aren't anywhere near Raphael's level of strength and determination, something that more than gives him the right to become leader. To why Splinter decided to make you leader and not Raphael, is still an enigma to me, especially since you didn't want to become leader in the first place. Although, I guess it couldn't be helped... For what you truly are, Leonardo.

His words completely caught Leo off guard, as the cold-grip of fear clenched his heart.

…He knows... Of course, he would know!

Berserk-Kin knew Pup's secret, when still Earth-Young. Even going through mutation, Berserk-Kin still knows Pup's secret... Very much, like White Death and Rip Jaws knew.

'Is-... Is he going to reveal it, right in front of Raph?'

He hoped, with his entire being, that Slash won't utter a single word about his wolf-blood. Not in front of Raphael... Not now.

Slash unsheathed his claws from his right-hand, his patience drawing to a near end.

"It doesn't really matter, on what you really are. And honestly, I don't really care. Once you three are gone, he can finally reach his full potential, with nothing to hold him back or get in his way, and become the greatest ninja he's meant to be!"

Leonardo glared at Slash.

'I hate to think this, but... Spike has truly became a monster, and he must be stopped.' "So, all because you've been there through all of Raph's ranting, that's more than a good enough reason to kill us? And if that isn't enough, what kind of personal reason do you have towards us, that you want to be rid of us? Did we do something to you?"

The snapping-turtle snarled with irritation.

"What is it with you and talking, when you're in a fight for your life?!" He yelled, slamming his mace into the ground beneath them. "How many more questions do you want me to answer, until you're satisfied and are ready to fight?! Seriously, how is it that Raph ended up being a twin to somebody like you?!"

At that remark, Leonardo snarled at his newly turned brother.

"I always believe that words that ring with truth are much more powerful and held more meaning to resolve conflict, than weapons and bloodshed could ever solve. -Like a horse, he scraped his left-leg into the ground and stomped it right back down, demonstrating his own frustration with his opponent.- To me, I wish to know the true cause for us to draw out our fangs and claws into battle, instead of fighting for a pointless matter that could be fixed in another way. That is the path I wish to choose, on how I follow the path of a true warrior. Unlike one, who lets their anger drive them in their madness for some meaningless vendetta."

At that, Slash roared and charged. In that moment, Leonardo ran towards his opponent, too.

The giant-turtle swiped his mace down to attack his opponent from above, but Leo saw the attack and forced himself to fall to the ground and slid past him, coming up behind him.

"Whatever personal reason you have towards Don, Mikey and I, it shouldn't be worth going through the trouble on killing us." He continued talking, purposely angering the larger-turtle to continue to attack in pure rage. "But, I never once recall any of us doing something so bad to you, that you find to being a good reason to wanting us dead, Spike."

"I already told you earlier, my name is Slash! -The three-quart turtle-mutant twisted himself as fast as he could and tried to bring down his mace, only for Leo to backflip out of the way.- And I already told you, I'm doing this for Raphael! He was the only one who cared for me and took care of me, ever since I hatched! He saved my LIFE!"

Caught off guard by his claim, Leo barely had time to duck from the claws that nearly ripped his head from his shoulders. His quick reflexes made the stitching in his leg pull and tug. It's a warning that he has to be careful, or they will pull and his blood will be spilled.

'He thinks Raph saved him? Why would he think that?!' He wondered, kneeling down and clenching on his injured leg.

He shouldn't be able to remember the time he hatched, so he wouldn't know that it was you who really saved him... The most logical conclusion, most likely, Raph told him that he saved him.

Annoyed by that possible answer, the blue-masked turtle sent an annoyed glare to his brother. Judging from the slightly embarrassed glance away look Raph had on his face, his deduction has been confirmed to be correct.

"Let me guess: Raph told you that he saved you, didn't he? Whether he did or not, in your own delusional mind, he saved you and nothing will ever change that."

Slash growled, but held off on attacking him when his curiosity got him to wonder what his opponent was getting at.

"There is no doubt in my mind he did, in fact, saved me. You three were always caught up in your own worlds, none of you had the decency to even try and bond with me. I had honestly thought that you would in fact try to care for me, like Raphael did. And while I understood that you had to focus your attention on Karasu when you brought her over, you never made any attempt to get to know me."

"You're wrong, Spike!" Raphael, tired of being left out, called out. "Leo did take care of you! He even saved your life! Don't you remember? Don's accident, in the Lair?!"

The larger-turtle snarled, but the growl wasn't intended for either Leonardo or Raphael. he then grabbed part of his head with his right hand, as if a massive migraine just suddenly started hammering his brain with a jackhammer.

'Part of him must know that what he's doing is wrong. Whether his anger, also, got altered when he got mutated or doesn't want to believe what we're telling him, is a big mystery.' "Slash. When a human or an animal gets mutated from the mutagen, it changes them. Not just physically, but also mentally and, sometimes, even emotionally. It can alter your true personality and, when you least expect it, it'll even try and control you on it's own course."

Slash glared at him through the pain, growling.

"You're just trying to get into my head, just to save yourself from your demise!" He yelled, shaking off the pain in his head and charging for the smaller-turtle.

"Slash! Stop!" Raphael's plea fell on deaf ears.

The larger-turtle swiped his right-hand towards the kneeling turtle, forcing him throw himself backwards... Giving him the perfect opportunity to grab his injured right-leg and throw him against the ground four times.

Claws dug into his leg, tearing through stitches with ease and forcing blood to spill. Leonardo couldn't help but let out a yell of pain.

"Leo!" Raph charged, eyes filled with fire, and tried to lay an attack to get the larger-turtle to release his brother... He end up being forced backwards, when Slash used Leo as a replacement mace to attack him with.

"Stay out of this, Raphael!" He yelled, glaring down at the bleeding turtle in his hands. "I've been waiting to do this, for a very long time. Don't ruin this moment for us. -Lifting the injured turtle up, so he can be eye-to-eye with his executioner, upside-down, Slash gave him a sinister smile.- You're about to get everything that's coming to you, Leonardo. -He positioned his mace behind him, intending to use it to finish the blue-masked turtle off.- Any last words you want to say, Fearless Leader?"

Wincing, Leo can only gaze into Slash's changed eyes. Eyes that show to be so much like Raphael's... Only colder, and more like venom than something precious to symbolize to being part of the Earth.

He truly is their brother... And now, he was going to take the life of somebody he doesn't realize to now be related by blood to.

Leonardo gave him a sad look, feeling sad for his newly appointed brother, before closing his eyes, accepting his fate.

"...Watashi wa anata o yurusu."

Both Slash and Raphael were completely taken back by what he just said.

"…What?" The larger-turtle replied. He knew what the smaller-turtle just said, thanks to listening to the red-masked turtle, his brothers and father for speaking Japanese at an regular basis. He didn't expect those words for being his last choice of words.

"What you did tonight, and what you're going to do right now... Watashi wa anata o yurusu."

I forgive you.

Stunned by his would-be victim's last words, Slash released him from his grip. He took a step back from the fallen turtle that struggled to get off the ground.

"You… Forgive-…?" He's completely at a loss on what just happened. "You're about to die by my hand, my very claws, with the mace Raphael gave me and your choice for last words are 'I forgive you'?" His confusion turned to anger, his blood-covered hands clenching tight into a fist. "What kind of shit are you pulling?! What kind of fucked up reason, would have you decide to grant me your forgiveness?! Tell me, before I pummel you to paste!"

The blue-masked turtle lightly gasped for breath, reaching over to his injured leg and grab at it when the cramping feeling of pain coursed through his limb, before looking up at the larger-turtle towering over him. His eyes held no anger to the three-quart turtle-mutant.

"…You don't know," he answered. Slash glared down at him, demanding he explain himself. "You think you do, but you don't. Everything that you believe to be true, from your actual thoughts and memories you recollect or just by hearing it from one person, you don't know which is truth and which is lies. Which is why you don't know the truth... That I found your egg, five years ago."

Slash growled at him, extending his claws out.

"You're so content to stall the inevitable, you're willing to go as far as to lie. That's low, even for you to do, Leonardo."

"No, Spike! It's the truth!" Raphael yelled, going over to his brother's side and adding pressure to the open wound of Leo's leg. "Leo did find your egg! When he ran away, he found your egg and did everything he could to help you hatch!"

He earned a snarl by his mutated pet.

"Stop making excuses for him, Raphael! It's sickening how you would pull the same shit he would always pull on you, when Donatello or Michelangelo would wrong you and he would take their side instead of yours!"

Also getting angry, Raph narrowed his eyes.

"Leo NEVER takes side!" He growled, standing guard over his twin. "And neither would he ever lie, just to save himself! He isn't a coward, or weak. He offer you his forgiveness, while you still intend to kill him. That makes him a better person, a stronger turtle than you'll ever be. None of my brothers are a burden, an obstacle that's in my way! And I'll not stand by and let you hurt them, Slash!"

At his words, Slash let out a chuckle of amusement. He looked pleased, even excited, as Raphael stomped his way to the three-quart turtle-mutant.

"That's right, Raph. We're not like the others." He said, shaking his hand that's still coated in Leonardo's blood. "We're powerful. Our anger makes us strong!"

Leonardo struggled to stand, but the blood underneath him made him slip back down to the ground. He can't stand by and let his brother take on the giant-turtle on his own... The enhanced turtle-mutant, who is their brother of blood.

'Raph… Don't.' He knows if he calls out, his word would go unheard and can't distract his twin from taking on Slash.

Get ready.

His Instinct's warning caught him a bit off guard.

'"Get ready"? For what?'

Blood, thick... Thicker than water.

He stared down at the small-pool his bleeding leg was making, then looked over at Slash, where his hand still dripped off blood he caused to spill. He then looked up at Raph... Who held up a finger.

It was puzzling. How was his twin going to stop a seven foot, three hundred pound mutant, with a single finger?

Father!

His Conscience's voice surprised the blue-masked turtle.

Pressure Point! He's using Father's method!

Slash's roar brought the turtle back to reality, his muscles flexing a bit, readying itself for what he realize is going to happen. The large turtle swiped his claws at Raphael, his rage blinding him from getting a clear hit on his target.

With ease, Raph dodged both the attacks and, timing it right, he ducked the third attack and raised his finger to make his mark.

"Meditate on this!"

His finger pressed into the spot underneath his right-arm, an inch away from his armpit.

…Barely adding pressure to the spot, Slash's expression looked as if he's having a stroke and his body twitched uncontrollably. With his body no longer in control, Raph snatched for Mikey and Don's ninja-masks. Slash's legs made him walk to where Leonardo crouched over, near the edge of the roof.

Immediately, Leo pushed his body to jump away from the uncontrollable turtle... In his place for the giant-turtle to walk into, the pool of his own blood... His footing slipped, and gravity pulled him back.

The blue-masked turtle's eyes widened.

"No!" He pushed himself to run, ignoring the protest in his right-leg, as he reached out for Slash's hand.

"Spike!" Raphael yelled, also running to the falling turtle and making a grab for his right-hand.

…They both missed, and Slash started his descend down to Earth.

"SPIKE!"

The giant turtle stared at both twins, his eyes flashing with fear, shock... And regret.

Before he reached the ground, Leonardo heard the rumbling sound of an animal's growl... Slash was calling out to him, in the Tongue of the Animal... It ended by the sound of concrete breaking.

Both turned away before the large-turtle hit the ground, neither one wanting to see the damage they caused to happen.

"Raph! Leo!"

A maskless Donatello called out, leaning on a maskless Michelangelo to help him reach their big brothers. Both are covered in bruises, their plastrons carrying new cuts that'll heal within a day or two and a few scrapes. While Mikey has a swollen eye and a possible concussion, Don's left-arm is in a sling and has a slight limp.

In the youngest-turtle's right-hand, are Yakuza and Kayura.

Raphael helped his older-twin to his feet, having him lean in against him and wrapped his left-arm over Leo's shell.

"Where's Spike?" Mikey asked, a slight trembling in his voice easily telling his older-brothers of his fear with the large-turtle.

Raph lowered his gaze, glaring down at the ground.

"He's gone." Was all he said, before starting his way to the Lair, pulling Leo alongside.

Neither of the two youngest needed to be told what to do, as they followed behind their big brothers.

While making their way for home, Leo's mind is greatly troubled to Slash's final words were to him.

"Lone Wolves are the first to fall…"

A warning or threat, most likely both, he didn't know. All he does know, is that his secret will now become his greatest weakness... And he knew, the next time they cross paths with Slash, the secret will be revealed to their enemies… Or, to his own brothers.

Back at the Lair…
"All right, that should do it, Leo." Donnie told his brother, after Splinter finished re-doing his stitching and examining them to be certain that they're tight and secure. "Now, you're gonna have to take it easy and not use that leg too much. Which means, NO training sessions for a week."

Leo smirked to his brother going into his Dr. Mode, even when he's bruised and has a broken-arm to care for.

"Right," he replied. "I'll still be able to continue my meditation session, so I won't complain about not having to train for a few days." 'Besides, thanks to our enhanced healing, I'll be good as new in a day or two after the three days are up.'

Don rolled his eyes to his brother getting around his injury and to still do training, along with purposely admitting to try and do training when he specifically said to not train for an entire week.

"Just try to take it easy, all right? You should take this time to let your body recuperate and try to get some food into your stomach; April brought over tea that should help you with your stomach, so hopefully that'll help you with your nausea and Insomnia."

Nodding his head, Leo got off the metal-table and, lifted his injured leg to only use his toes to help him move, left Don's Lab.

'That was an eventful night to remember,' he thought.

No kidding.

Both good, and bad experience occurrence in Pup's life... Best take heed, what Pup learned tonight.

'Yeah...'

Entering the living-room, he found Michelangelo still playing that arcade game, trying to get back at his last level and beat Skullorax. Beside him, Raphael watches him play. Either to wait his turn to play or to mainly supervise the youngest-turtle, Leo didn't know which to guess on. Behind him, Don closed his lab door and, seeing his two brothers watching the youngest going at it on Atomic Robo-X, went over to join in on the action to see if Mikey can get back to Level Eighty-Three and re-reach the Boss Level.

Seeing all three of his brothers gathered together, enjoying each other's company, seemingly to recover their ordeal with Slash and repair their bond... It made the humanoid-wolf/turtle truly feel more like an outsider.

Buck is right, you know. You need to tell them. And now seems like a very good time to do so, than putting it off any longer.

Leonardo's heart raced.

'No! I can't.'

Slash knows! Either he's going to reveal it to them, or use it to his advantage to get back at you! It's better if they learned the secret of your blood from you!

…Conscience is correct. Pup must inform Pack of Truth hidden with Lie… However, Pup's choices is own. Neither can force option onto Pup. Even if Berserk-Brother threatened Pup with warning, what Pup see best, is own decision... And consequences.

'…Either choices, lead a dark path to the consequences that'll await for me... And honestly, I don't know which path is worse: My enemies learning my secret... Or my pack.'

TBC

When I first saw the episode and when watching Leo playing tea party with the little girl, I can't be the only one who thought he would make a great parent from watching him interacting with Chloe. I mean, in the wiki, it even stated that he acts like a parent to Michelangelo sometimes when Master Splinter isn't with them while on patrol or about to enter a fight with their enemies.

*: Yes, normally, anybody would be suspicious of anybody carrying a weapon in plain sight. However, we don't ever see anyone's reaction when seeing an animal carrying a weapon (Maybe in cartoons, but not many showed much worry or concerns than they should). plus, in the show, Even after they went through the whole alien invasion in the ending of the first season and should know very well of the many abductions going on, they still act as if they're just going through their very first alien invasion.

I mean, seriously people! They see giant monsters running through the city, robots disguise as humans kidnapping people, even a giant metal ball that snatched people and animals up and trying to turn them into Kraang people/creatures. and yet, they all act as if they have completely forgotten those incidents actually happened and it's their first invasion. You would think after the first invasion, they would be more cautious and aware of their surroundings... Looks like they didn't learn, and won't ever learn.

*: I just made this song up, with some help from Google Translator… I hope the made-up song was okay.

*: Slash/Spike may be a few years old (Five or six at most), but turtles reached maturity between five to eight years old (Just as Leo said in this chapter). In such, Spike is an adult mutated-enhanced humanoid-turtle. Making him, in terms, the oldest amongst the turtles and their brother. If I were to take a guess on how old he would be as a human, probably between 21 to 23.

In other news… I'M A CHECKER! After almost 3 years of working at Vons, I finally got promoted at being a checker (started training on May 4th, fully started checking on the 5th)! Hopefully, I'll be making a bit more money, at least, than I was making as a Courtesy Clerk.

R&R