Upheaval
by Red Turtle & Ziptango

New A/N: Ziptango and I conceived this story years ago and posted one chapter. Despite favorable reviews, it languished until such time as we could pay sufficient attention to it. Now it's time has come, although alas life has taken Ziptango to places far away from tmnt fanfiction, so it's mostly me now. However, she and I had extenesive notes as to direction of the story and she had contributed to some chapters featuring Leo and Mike, and I intend to incorporate her vision. This first chapter is 90 her. I may involve other authors in the story as well (it's a lot for one person).

Original Reviews:

From: danceingfae (http/ very, very trickey. I wonder who's in invlolved in the fight against the army? Kind of a marvel twist in this except, no superpowers, it's all just genetic mutation.rnrnCan't wait to see what happens.

Arista Niara:

applause WOW! I LOVE IT! Great job! I love it! I can't wait to find out what brother Darin was talking about! Great job and continue soon!

Ramica:

An interesting start giving enough questions to keep me begging for more to figure out what is going on.

Deana:

Wow, this is fascinating! Which brother is involved with the mutant army, huh? huh? huh? Post more soon:)

Original A/N:

This story was co-written by Red Turtle and Ziptango and neither of them own the TMNT. We've got our eye on Donatello though:) "Remembrance of Things Past" was written by Ved Buens Ende.

:This sweetness that surrounded us, and bled with us:

The lair. His only home.

:We touched it, and it smelt far worse than weeds:

Flames licking his skin.

:I have touched winds:
:I have touched sorrows:
:I touched the devil once:

Smoke charring his throat.

:It was like the love of thorns, like the beauty of dead summer:
:But I, the lurker, the carrier or wounds outlived:

Tears streaming. Blood flowing.

:It:
:I have left now. Have I not:

A shadow collapses.
Sensei! Father.

:The thorns embrace us:
:While resemblance dragged us further down:
:It buried in our minds:

A last weak embrace.

:None shall outlive this rhyme:

Leonardo snapped awake. Sheets pooled at his waist, quivering and drenched with sweat. Throwing his blankets off, he swung his legs over the side of the cot in panic. The sensations of burning and fear faded as he panted to catch his breath. That damn dream again.Night after night he watched the same scene, like something from a horror movie. But it would never go away. It was the constant reminder of his frayed past. A memory of everything he had lived for until it was all taken from him. It was the day Splinter died, and the day the clan died with him. Leonardo took another moment to recover and then brushed the nightmare away like he had hundreds of times before. How long had that been anyway? Ten years? Not long enough.

A sliver of soft blue rays from the sunrise sneaked in and made the tent glow dimly. The area was spacious like a small room with camping gear neatly stacked in all corners. The mountain air was icy but fresh. The turtle sighed and slowly stood. A new day was waiting for him and there was no time to dwell in the past. He'd already spent enough time doing that.

"Balance the past, present, and future. Learn from and apply the past. Save hope for the future. The present is your true gift."

His old Master's words beamed into his head. After years of the rat's teachings, the little sayings were nearly impossible to forget. Things had changed though. Leonardo didn't have that same devotion he once did. There wasn't anything he could direct his dedication and motivation towards. The tracks of a decade of depression and sorrow.

After strapping on his harness sporting twin swords and a pistol, he stepped outside to admire more tents snuggly bordering his own. Delicious breakfast fumes hovered around the army camp. He turned toward some far away laughing with slight smile. Life, at the moment, was looking better anyway. He belonged here. Here was now.

Before anyone in his military squad could catch a glimpse of him, however, Leonardo blended in with some nearby pines while making his way to the river. As he approached, the gurgle and laughing of the stream sanded all other tense edges away with peacefulness. Something about nature always relieves one's soul. Although these days it was hard to come by. The turtle reached down and let the cool liquid rush between his three fingers. It dipped and swirled in tender disturbance, but eventually moved around his hand. Just like life, it moved on. A notion he had mastered. Then, taking a scoop, he splashed it on his face. The liquid ran down his tight muscles in rivulets, leaving a rush of refreshment.

When Leo was finished, he sat on the bank allowing the peace to engulf him. The wind rustled the high grass slightly as a reflection in the water stared back at him. He watched it nearly hypnotized. His form morphed in the ripples as sudden memories of his brothers flooded him in a flash wave. Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo. Where were they? How were they? He had no way of knowing, and if there was, he wasn't sure if he'd do it. After the Foot caught the lair on fire and murdered Splinter, each of them just drifted in their own directions. Raph left after the funeral to God knows where. Donatello went next, deciding to broaden his horizons and give college a try. Mike left last. They stayed together for almost a half a year in a dumpy apartment, wallowing in their sorrow. The youngest brother kept more to himself and became enthralled with drawing and writing, almost obsessively. His odd, abstract works littered the already unkept floor. One time he even caught a glimpse of a suicide note, before it was eventually destroyed. Then one day, Mike just got fed up with it all and escaped to see the world in purpose of finding his soul and the focus of his life, or so he said. And that just left good ol' Leo. The "Fearless Leader," loyal to the end. But not too long after Michaelangelo left, he had joined the army. Finally, his dedication was focused and he became the top. A colonel, a very impressive rank for a mutant. Yes, the mutant race had spread world wide by then, brewing hate along with it. This very mission, in fact, was to contain a rebel fraction of that race, before a potential "species-riot" broke out.

Finally releasing these thoughts of the past, Leonardo found his mental core and began meditating for a moment. Another gust of wind caressed him in a sigh. Then, opening his eyes, he looked around suspiciously. The woods were abnormally silent. The wind increased with a blast suddenly and the ground began to tremble. Screams echoed to his ears and explosions lit up the sky.

"The hell?" The turtle immediately stood and dashed back to camp. Rotating his swords expertly left to right, branches and other obstacles were sliced out of the way. Reaching the rise of a hill, his heart nearly stopped seeing the expansion below him. Military mutants were scattered like ants running everywhere to escape raining bullets. Another cloud of fire reached for the sky sending any passer-bys careening to their deaths. It was a trap! The hunters had become the hunted. Suddenly, a bullet whizzed passed, and he immediately fainted to the ground. His radio crackled to life as he rolled briefly down the slope into a dried up ditch. Unsettled dust then wretched him into coughing fits.

"Colonel! Sir! We're under attack!" the radio blared, "What are your orders, Sir!"

He could hear the claps of machine guns in the background.

"Gather the men, Lieutenant, and fight back, dammit!"

"Yes Sir! Briggs out."

He slipped the radio back into this belt and slowly stood. The source of this attack had to be found, and terminated.

He circled around, staying out of the line of fire in hopes of finding the leader of this attack and stopping it at the head. It hurt to see the destruction wrought so far, and twice he almost jumped into the middle to join his recruits, but held off. His mission here was to put a stop to these rebels, and that meant learning who was leading them.

Away from the intense battle he found several mutants raiding their stockpile of weapons, grenades, ammo, guns, ect. Those unfortunate enough to have been assigned guard duty were dead, or perhaps missing. Leo observed from the trees, his green color giving him good camouflage. His heart sank as he confirmed what he already had suspected, they were all reptiles or amphibians, mostly lizards which had become a huge population in the last few years. A huge, troublesome population. He wished he were not in this position, then again they had put him in it through their hateful actions.

Leo drew his swords and lept into action. He didn't outright kill, either knocked unconscious or maimed, and certainly startled them enough that the rest ran off, carrying what they could. Leo knew their way of fighting, they wanted to maximize their supply gains and minimize loss of fighters, which meant that if it didn't look like a certain win they fled. He didn't bother chasing them, his main objective now was to secure those that he had knocked out, so that they could be interrogated and more learned about who was organizing this.

He kept an ear out for threats as he tied up the enemy combatants. The noises of the battle were dying down, the enemy must be retreating, with their stolen weapons and supplies. Leo hissed in frustration, even without surveying the damage he knew the mission was a bust from the armies side, he had lost men and supplies, and unless these captors gave very significant information...

He caught sight of a shape racing through the trees. A shape...not human, and not lizard. It was a turtle, Leo was sure of it. Without another thought he set chase.

"Under the authority of the US Army I order you to halt!" Leo commanded, deciding that his ninja cover was already blown so he might as well go all out.

The figure stopped, allowing Leo to get closer. He almost thought it was one of his brothers, god he hoped not, that would be the last thing he needed, but, no, it wasn't. He recognized the other turtle, a member of another turtle family they had met years ago.

"Darin," he confirmed.

"Yeah. Leo?"

"What're you doing here?"

Darin looked Leo up and down.

"What are you doing with that gun?" he snorted.

Leo blushed fiercely with shame, the last conversation...argument...he had with Darin was about the dishonor of guns.

"It's part of my uniform."

"You joined the army?"

"Yes. I'm a colonel, leading this battalion."

There was an awkward silence. Leo had never been friends with Darin, and they didn't have much in common, besides being the same species. Still, Leo wanted to try and salvage this somehow, especially if Darin knew about this mutant army.

Sirens began to echo in the background.

"I'll tell your brother you said hi, okay?" Darin said, by way of leaving.

"What? My brother? What about my brother?" Leo yelled.

Darin stopped, facing him again.

"Boy, you really don't keep in touch, do you?"

"What do you mean?" Leo demanded.

But Darin started to run off.

"Come back here! Darin, you're under arrest!" Leo ordered.

"Oh no you don't!" Darin replied, dodging Leo's grab.

Leo, very determined, followed him trying to figure out how to pull ahead, how to get around or stop him, but his ninjitsu was not what it used to be, and after a ten minute chase Darin finally disappeared for good. Even when Leo later ordered a crew of men to search the area, they turned up nothing.

Running into Darin after so many year bought Splinters little saying bubbling into Leo's mind over and over again:

"Balance the past, present, and future. Learn from and apply the past. Save hope for the future. The present is your true gift."