AN: RUN, PLOTBUNNIES!! Sorry for the really late update.
Kavara winced slightly as Leonardo looked them over, much like a hostler picking a horse for his master to ride. He shifted in his ties and they clanked loudly.
"Ah, yes, you will do," Leonardo chuckled, motioning for his guards. Kavara growled slightly as they came forward, bearing what looked suspiciously like a muzzle. It was strapped around his head, and straps were converted to hold onto his horns. It had a thick steel plate in front of it, so fire would just rebound into Kavara's face.
They untied him from the stall and herded him to another room. The door clanged shut when Leonardo entered the other room.
Mikey tried to look over the walls of his stall but couldn't; he walked as far forward as he could in the cold grey walls and looked at Donatello, who was right across from him. "Donatello," Mikey hissed. "Where are we?"
Raphael's voice answered instead; Donatello was gazing sadly at the door only he and his brothers could see. "We're in Leonardo's fortress, Mike," Raphael sighed. "Impossibly hard to find. Very well-guarded and manned, as far as I can see. He's a technical mastermind now, with his team of scientists and engineers." Raphael scoffed.
Don's voice rang out. "Mikey, can you Feel him?"
Raphael quickly nixed that idea. "No, Mike. We could lose both of you."
Mikey mumbled something numbly and sat down on the floor of his prison dejectedly. He drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped both arms around them, the wrists tied together and making it slightly uncomfortable.
Raph sat down in his stall as well, his wings twitching as he began a bit of meditation to clear his mind.
Don had enough slack in his restraints to sit against the wall, and so he did with his legs crossed underneath him. He leaned his head back against the cool steel and began thinking.
Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo were silent, lying still on their respective tables. Donatello and Michelangelo were thinking about their wives, kids, and nieces/nephews/in-laws. Raphael thought about how they might break free and looks solemnly at the room they were in. It was basically a small barn.
Four stalls, though how Leonardo had known Leo and his brothers were here was beyond Raphael. Oh, wait, duh, Raphael thought to himself. Of course. He caught Mikey before, and that means he was hanging around the mansion. Raphael growled at himself for not seeing that Mikey's return was to put them off guard for Leonardo to move in.
Later…
Mikey sat bolt upright, his mouth working like a fish on the bank. He looked past Donatello's table at something only he could see. Donatello, noticing this, quickly tried to reach out to Mike with a mental hand, but then the young turtle screeched.
Everyone else gasped slightly as Mikey's scream tore through the room. It was cut off suddenly and Mike collapsed, breathing heavily. Donatello watched him carefully. "Mikey, are you okay?" he called.
Mike groaned and sat up, holding his head in his hands. "Th-they did s-s-something," he stuttered. "S-someth-thing b-bad."
"What, Mikey? Come on, talk to me," Raphael ordered.
"I… dunno. Just… pain." Mikey shook his head feebly and suddenly there was a loud clang from the door where Kavara had been taken. Mikey forced a loud, shuddering breath through his body.
"Where, Mikey?" Michelangelo asked loudly.
"My… My head hurts," Mikey whispered. Only Donatello caught it, and he repeated it so everyone else could hear.
Another clang from the room, louder, and then the door opened slowly. Leonardo strutted through and closed the door behind him with a foot, going over to the tables and staring evilly at the occupants. He chuckled and walked out, leaving them scratching their heads. Usually, Leonardo was quick to extract pain from prisoners.
They understood why a moment later when Leonardo re-entered. He wasn't alone: unbound and unrestrained, Kavara followed in his wake, wings half-open like a bristling guard who thinks there is a threat.
Mikey Felt the difference in Kavara and whimpered quietly. The large turtle didn't even glance over, just stood behind Leonardo and glowered at them all without a particular direction.
"Now… I have a meeting in another world soon. You six will stay here and behave. If you do, Quintar here will be alive when we return."
"Quintar?" Raphael scoffed quietly. Kavara focused on him and growled slightly, but said nothing.
"Indeed. "Changed One". It fits." Leonardo strutted out, quickly followed by Kavara/Quintar.
"Quintar, get a troop together and prepare my ship," Leonardo ordered as they walked out.
"Yes, Master," Quintar answered gruffly, breaking off in the hallway and heading in a separate direction. Leonardo watched him; he still moved stiffly.
I'll have to perfect this, Leonardo told himself, wandering towards his private quarters. Quintar proves useful already. He is smart, loyal, obedient… Not to mention, the best guard I could ever have.
He entered his suite thinking about possible uses for such a titanic turtle. There was the obvious guard, but perhaps this counterpart could be used in more subtle ways?
A woman came forward with a plate of Leonardo's favorite fruits, but Leonardo waved the servant off and strutted into his private labs. He took a sample of Quintar's blood out of a slot in his metal side and quickly put it in the freezer until he could work on it more.
Then he sauntered towards his hanger. Waiting at attention was a troop of ten guards with pristine suits and clean guns. Quintar stood at their head and bowed very deeply to Leonardo.
"We are ready to depart, Master," he said quietly.
"Good. Get on the ship and prepare for take-off," Leonardo ordered, brushing by his guards and climbing up the short ladder into the hovercraft vehicle he used in place of cars. It was cleaner, quieter, and more efficient.
Quintar sat opposite him in the hovercraft at Leonardo's insistence, the rest of the guards sitting in the back where they could not be seen. Leonardo was heading to an important meeting with the governor of a large city in another world and couldn't risk being seen with so many guards or he might be suspected of something.
The driver started up the hovercraft and they glided out of the hanger and into the world outside where the dawn was just ending and the sun was bright. Quintar seemed to wince behind his mask and covered his eyes; there were large glass windows in the hovercraft that let a lot of sunlight in.
Not wanting his only guard to be blind, Leonardo ordered one of the guards in back to find something to help darken the mask. A thin strip of black cloth was passed forward; it was from the medkit, used to cover a person's eyes if they were blinding by a flash grenade. Leonardo handed it to Quintar, who bowed his head in thanks and slipped it over the blue of his mask.
He sat straighter and grinned slightly. "Much better. Thank you, Master."
Back in Leonardo's Fortress:
Mikey winced as Leonardo left, Kavara/Quintar in tow. He shut his mental barriers tightly and lay down on his plastron, banging his forehead once against the hard floor before sighing and turning his head to rest his cheek on the steel.
Raphael and Raph thought moodily, the older one lying on his table and staring at and through the ceiling, not really seeing anything. Raph gazed dejectedly at the wall, while Don shuffled around as he paced.
Donatello kept a watchful eye on Mikey, knowing that Leo's "problem" could affect the youngest turtle badly.
Michelangelo hummed a soothing song quietly to himself as he drifted in his thoughts. It wasn't that he was calm; he just knew that he had to be calm. Raphael and Donatello would come up with the escape plan; his best bet was to keep everyone else together so his older brothers would have three extra turtles to help in their escape.
Mikey breathed deeply, feeling the Bond between him and Kavara strengthen constantly by the smallest of increments. It was… Beautiful. The word rose unbidden in his mind, like an echo of his thought.
He turned his head slightly to peer at the wall across from him quizzically, wondering how something so cold and grey could capture his attention.
Elsewhere:
Sky cooed gently to the younglings gathered around her. Lionel cuddled into her chest, crying quietly. Alastha was comforting more of the younglings, and the other humans had a child to hug and soothe.
"Who is Leonardo?" Sky asked Beth. Beth winced but shook her head when Sky offered to take the question back.
"He was my husband," Beth started, sitting against the wall of their prison. It was a large, steel room with one door and a couple of air vents. The vents were covered with a thin network of lasers that fried what they touched. Sky joined her on the floor, cradling Lionel and another young girl who was cuddled in one arm.
"When we first met, I thought we'd be so happy together. He loved his brothers more than anything, and I could understand that. But he loved me, too. He managed to balance it all out. He spent hours with his brothers, training, meditating, patrolling… Then he'd come home and spend a few hours just with me. We'd talk, listen to music, read… Anything, but we'd do it together.
"One night, everyone was asleep. I had moved into his room a while ago, and we were sleeping peacefully. Or, at least, I was. Then, suddenly, he woke me up with a gentle kiss. He said that he'd been thinking for hours and had decided. I asked what he had decided on, and in response, he asked me to marry him." Sky sighed warmly, remembering how her Leo had asked her to marry him.
"I was so happy. I think I actually cried; I know his eyes were wet. I agreed and we went back to sleep. The next morning, I woke up and there he was, waiting for me. Usually, by the time I woke up, he was already practicing. But he was sitting there, meditating. In his hand was a ring box; he slipped the ring on my finger and then left without a word.
"By the time I was able to gather my thoughts and drag myself out of bed, it was almost lunch time. I didn't know what the heck to think; when his brothers saw the ring, they were stunned. I mean, this was Leonardo we were talking about…" She gave a dreamy grin at the memory.
"Master Splinter blessed us and then died soon afterwards. Leonardo was heart-broken; but then we realized I was pregnant. He seemed determined to name our son "Splinter" in memory of his father. I thought that would be a fine name."
Beth paused then, staring at her son lovingly. Ralph was curled up in her arms, sucking on his thumb gently in his sleep.
"What happened?" Sky asked softly, stroking Lionel's wings soothingly as the youngling fussed.
"He changed. Got so angry all the time… Once, he even hit me… I think it hurt him so much to see that…" Beth looked away, tears crawling down her cheeks. "When Ralph was born… I wanted to name him after the one who had been so kind to me, even when Leonardo changed…" Beth sobbed quietly and Sky wrapped her arm around the distraught woman, shifting Lionel into her lap to do so. The small draconic turtle curled up like a cat, cooing softly in his sleep.
AN: O.o Oookay, that took me a while… Sorry about the delay, all! Hope you liked it, leave a review!