Author's Note: This is an alternate ending to the episode Slash and Destroy from season two. The first chapter is meant to be a teaser or prologue, so that's why it's so short. It's going to be a shorter story, possibly five chapters, that I work on off to the side, as my main story Inhuman is my first priority. This story is going to be graphic and violent, as said in the summary, and it's done intentionally so, as I want to concentrate on the darker, twisted angle of this arch. I found this episode to be one of the more dramatic ones of the series, and I loved it. However, this story is going to focus more on Leo and Raph, because Leo managed to get out of most of the madness in the original episode, and we can't have that, right?

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT or Nickelodeon. All rights go to their respective owners.

Speak No Evil:

"But the tongue no man can tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." James 3:8

{Raph}

The images flash behind my eyes, harrowing and sharp. His fist coming down on my brother, smashing him into the rooftop. Me, running, screaming incoherently for this madness to stop, reaching out for Leo's limp form, bruised, bloody, and broken. But I wasn't fast enough. I wasn't strong enough. That monster took me out in a single blow to the head, and my world dropped into the darkness. And when I woke…

"He took Leo," I gasp, trembling beneath the throbbing ache in my bones.

The taste of blood is thick on my tongue, where my gums have been split under the blows of his fist, and my teeth are coated in the crimson that seeps from the damaged tissue. I grimace against the pain and spit a mouthful of blood-filled saliva off to the side, wiping my mouth and grunting at the sharp sting.

Donnie and Mikey watch me, their eyes filled with fear. Leo's gone—that…that thing took him. And the chances of us getting him back in one piece are dwindling by the second.

"Raph…" Donnie starts, hoarse and spent, clutching his broken arm to his chest as he tries to keep the pain from showing on his face.

"What're we gonna do?" Mikey whimpers. One of his eyes is swollen shut and colored deep purple, and the skin has been sloughed off across his cheek and the side of his face, as well as his arms and legs where Spike—no, Slash—dragged him along the asphalt.

I'm breathing heavily, torn, aching, stiff and bloody. I can't stand the sight of my brothers wounded before me, because of me. I clench my jaw and snarl, averting my gaze to the blood-stained concrete.

"I'm going after him," I mutter.

Donnie's eyes widen and Mikey instinctively reaches out for me. "Raph, no—"

"He'll kill him if I don't," I snap. "And this is my fault… All of this…"

The sheer terror of it is enough to carve out my insides and leave me feeling empty and sick. I wince as the metallic tinge pools into my mouth again and drips out the corners of my lips. I wipe it away with the back of my hand, smearing the red across my face. I have to do this… For Leo, for my family. I can't lose anyone, not even if it means losing myself.

"Get back to the lair," I grunt, swallowing past a raw throat. "Splinter will care for you until I bring Leo back."

But Donnie's struggling to get up now, hissing as he accidently puts weight on his broken arm. The pain etched onto his face makes my stomach twist, and I have to look away from the two of them.

"Raph, please, you can't do this alone—"

"I have to," I growl. "Now go, before he comes back. Get underground and wait for me."

There's a moment of silence. Tense and coiled, ready to snap and strike us all dead with the weight of what's before us now. But Mikey breaks it when he drags his body from the ground, whimpering at the pain it brings him. His good eye is brimming with tears that streak down his face and carry the muck and grime along his cheeks, and he stumbles towards me, clutching his arms around my shell and pressing his forehead against my chest.

"You better come home," he cries, his voice broken and wasted from his screams. "And he better be with you."

I look down at my little brother, my eyes raking over the claw marks going across the back of his shell, the blood oozing from his wounds, seeping over what has already dried and crusted. The bruises and welts littering his body have rendered him black and blue and red. It's almost unreal to see little Mikey like this. I've never seen him so scared, so exhausted and frightened that his eyes no longer shine. There's a word that hangs above the three of us. A word that drowns everything else out until it's just us and our wounds and the holes in our chests.

Hopeless.

Never before have we been reduced to this. Not even when Shredder took us out the first time. This is something different, something wicked and evil and twisted beyond all comprehension. His eyes are burning in my mind; that ferocity, that ruthless gaze was so black and dark and void. To think that I used to find comfort looking into those eyes, that I used to confide in that beast, that only this morning was he sitting in my lap eating from my hand—it all makes me sick. My world has melted all around me and become a mesh of darkness and shock and pain. And it's all my fault.

This is my nightmare. But it's one in which there's no such thing as waking up.

Let me know what you guys think! It's a new idea that I started writing last night, but I was too excited to wait for posting, so ta-da! I hope you enjoy it and stay tuned for future updates!