SUMMARY: "Pulled from the future after the last of their interactions with their counterparts by Renet, the Dark Turtles find themselves playing a crucial role in bettering the time-stream. They've been given the task of healing a depressed Leonardo, but they end up changing their own lives for the better as well." An AU season 4 rewrite like no other.

RATING: T for turtle (and future violence, deeper themes, and the like)

DISCLAIMER: CAN'T YOU TELL THAT IF I OWNED 'TMNT', IT WOULD BE FAR DIFFERENT THAN IT IS NOW?

A/N: Ok, we leave the Dark Turtles and the unconscious Leo for a chapter, because this one focuses on the others. I can't just ignore Don, Raph, and Mikey after all…

-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-

When Raph woke up, he instinctively felt that something wasn't right. Brushing it off as Leo's bizarre change in attitude, the silence didn't strike him until after he had taken a shower.

A quick glance at the clock revealed one reason for that; he had gotten up nearly an hour before his usual time. Heading to the dojo to see if Leo was in there training like he always seemed to be lately, he frowned when the feeling came back upon the sight of an empty room. Shrugging it off again, Raph figured that Leo was probably just meditating in his room and retreated to his own sanctuary to read through a crime novel April had picked up for him.

-TMNT-

"Oh, Raphie-boy, time to rise and- Oh, you're, uh, awake already," Mikey said, suddenly feeling rather awkward standing on the threshold of his brother's room. "Don't you usually sleep like a rock until I come to get you up? And are you reading a book?"

Raph just shrugged. "Just woke up early taday fer some reason, I guess," was his reply as he climbed out of his hammock, ignoring the second question. "Ain't ya normally cookin' 'bout this time?"

"I came to make sure we were awake so you wouldn't miss my awesome French toast," Mikey said defensively, forgetting about the crime novel. "Oh, and can you get Leo?"

"He ain't up yet?" Raph asked, the feeling that something was wrong increasing tenfold.

"I know, it's not like Leo, but sometimes even he needs a bit of a break, Raphie," Mikey said, sounding as if he was talking to a two year old. "Just go get him, and make sure he understand that he can skip the granola for one day! Because he is not leaving the table until he's eaten at least three pieces of my French toast."

Raph rolled his eyes, but even he couldn't ignore the sense that was screaming 'DANGER! DANGER!' anymore. "I'll get 'im, Mike. Ya just go make sure yer toast don't burn."

"Moi? Burn something in the kitchen? Dude, that's Leo's job!" With that, Mikey hurried away, humming as he went.

Raph dropped his forced grin as soon as Mikey was out. Quickly making his way to Leo's room, he rapped sharply on the door. "Leo? Time fer breakfast, bro." No answer. "Fearless? Come on, Mike says ya gotta eat some o' his French toast this time." Still nothing. "Leo, open de door." The feeling increased when there was still only silence from the room. "Leo, I said open de damn door."

Raph felt himself starting to lose his cool when ever that didn't get a reaction. "That's it." He placed his hand on the door knob, ready to break down the door if necessary.

The fact that the knob turned and the door opened caused him to finally realize what was wrong.

-TMNT-

"Come on, Mikey," Don said. "Just one piece of French toast?"

"Nuh uh, you have to wait until Leo and Raph get here!" Mikey scolded.

"Mikey, that's-"

"Don! Mikey!" Raph shouted, running into the kitchen. "Leo's missin'."

"What do you mean, Leo's missing?" Don asked as Mikey, in a sudden and rare flash of clarity, turned off the stove.

"I mean he ain't here, Don!" Raph said. "His room was unlocked an' he wasn't in the dojo this mornin' an' I had this feelin' that somethin' wasn't right an' I just ignored it!" He hit the table, which shuddered under the blow.

"Raphael, my son," Splinter, who had just caught Raph hitting the table and thus wasn't aware of the rest of the story, said. "Calm down, Raphael."

"How can I do that when Leo ain't here, Masta Splinta?" Raph asked. "I shoulda known…"

"What do you mean, Leonardo is not here?" Splinter asked. "Donatello? Michelangelo?"

Both of them shrugged. "We're just as lost as you are, Sensei," Don said quietly.

"Leo ain't in de Lair," Raph said after he taken a few deep breaths to calm himself. "I woke up early this mornin', an' he wasn't in de dojo then. I just thought he was meditatin' or somethin' at de time. But just now when Mike asked me to get Leo up, I knew that somethin' wasn't right. An' it wasn't. Leo's door was unlocked, and his bed was still made, so he ain't been here since last night at de latest."

"How do you figure, dude?" Mikey asked. "Does Leo make his bed a certain way every day of the week or something?"

Raph shook his head. "No, Leo neva makes his bed before noon."

Don just blinked, his face scrunching up in confusion. "It's a code thin' him an' me worked out so I know that he came back from a patrol or run on time afta that one time with de Shredda. If I can't find him in the mornin' and it ain't made, then he's safe. It's the other ways 'round for the afternoon and evenin'. But, ya know, we had ta keep it subtle."

"…well, that explains why Leo never yells at you if you're in his room for no apparent reason," Mikey said, in large part just to break the silence.

"And you have continued to do this even after the Shredder's defeat?" Splinter asked to make sure Raph wasn't just overreacting to the situation.

"We didn't use it at ta farmhouse, but the first night back here, we started it up again," Raph said with a nod. "An' even if he ain't been actin' normal lately, he neva forgets 'bout it. I'm tellin' ya, he ain't been here since last night."

After he had finished processing everything, Don hurried over to his workstation and pulled up the program for tracking the Shell Cells. Inputting Leo's code, he waited for it to come up.

Mikey, in the mean time, pulled out his own Shell Cell and dialed April's number. "Hey April."

"Mikey? Why are you calling at this time? Is something wrong?"

"Well, I was kinda hoping you knew where Leo was," Mikey said, trying to keep his voice light.

"Wait, Leo's missing? Again? Michelangelo, you tell me what's going on this instant!"

Mikey winced before launching into an explanation of the problem.

At the same time, Raph was dialing Casey. "Come on, ya blockhead, pick up."

"This had better be important."

"Casey!" Raph said. "Look, it is."

"Raph? Um, look, if this is about what happened last night, then I swear I got an explanation…"

"No, Case, this is about… Wait, last night?" Raph asked. "What happened last night?"

"I woulda thought Leo'd told ya by now. Him and me were looking into those robberies that have been occurring lately, and turns out it's the Purple Dragons being lead by Hun. But then we ran into this monster thing that tried to eat us, and we ended up chasing it down to the docks before this helicopter tried to capture it and caused this big explosion. I dunno what happened to the thing."

"Leo was out with ya last night?" Raph asked, making sure he had that right. Fearless Leader and Casey teaming up to bust some heads?

"That's what I said. But, hey, why aren't you just asking him all this?"

"Casey, ya said that ya and Leo went out last night," Raph said, triple checking to be sure.

"I already told you yes, Raph! What, you jealous or somethin'?"

"No, Case, I'm not jealous," Raph said, aware that he was going to start hyperventilating soon if he didn't get all the facts down straight. "It's… Leo's missing, Case. He neva came home last night."

There was a silence for a few moments, and Raph almost thought he had lost Casey. That is, until the self-proclaimed vigilante spoke up again

"Leo's missing? What?"

-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-

E/N: Yeah, another headcanon thing there. Leo and Raph having a system is (to me at least) quite believable, and I decided that it had to be something the others wouldn't notice and pay attention to. Thus, the bed-thing. (The fact that I've been suffering from recent insomnia has nothing to do with it.) Oh, and, yes, Raph reads crime novels. Another headcanon.

This is officially my story with the most chapters! THIS BREAKS ANOTHER RECORD! And I started it yesterday. YET ANOTHER BROKEN RECORD! I'm on a roll with this!