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Leo was pretty sure that this situation couldn’t have gone any worse. Yeah, the Technodrome was destroyed (again), but the Triceratons were somehow even worse. At least the Kraang weren’t trying to suck Earth into a black hole. Obviously mutating all of New York was pretty bad, but that could be undone. The Kraang had won temporarily, and Leo and his brothers had fixed it.
If the Triceratons won, there would be no ‘temporarily.’ There’d be nothing left to fix.
And of course they were huge, and way better fighters than the Kraang were, because why not? Let’s just make everything even harder for Leonardo!
And now they had Mikey.
Leo ducked behind a battered condenser unit with Master Splinter as a Triceraton ship flew by. Along with Mikey, the bastards had managed to capture the remaining Mutanimals and Casey, leaving their team even more fractured.
Mikey was gone. Who knows where, having who-knows-what done to him. And Raph was–
Raph–
Leo tucked his hands into his armpits, hoping no one would notice how they shook. It was just him and Donnie now, and he couldn’t–
Not again–
“We have to go back for Mikey,” Leo blurted out. If someone had been speaking, he hadn’t heard it over the rush in his head. “We can’t leave him. If we can get back to the Kraang ship–”
Master Splinter frowned slightly, his brows drawing together. “Stopping the black hole machine must be our priority. If we cannot stop this weapon–”
“My brother is my priority!” Leo snapped, and everyone went still, staring at him with wide eyes. Leo’s shoulders trembled, but his eyes did not waver from his father’s unreadable face. “We can’t just leave him with them! Not again, I’m not– I’m not leaving another brother behind!”
The silence was deafening. Donnie looked between them, fingers tapping a frantic rhythm against his bō as he mulled over his words. His voice was hesitant when he spoke. “Sensei, I… I agree with Leo. It’s gonna take some time for the Triceratons to fix what Leatherhead did to the generator, and if we don’t get Mikey back quickly…”
Splinter stroked his beard in thought. Leo refused to look away, a stubborn set to his jaw. He had always listened to his father, because his father was smart, but if Splinter disagreed now–
“Go, then,” Master Splinter said finally, and Leo felt weak with relief. “Save your brother. April and I will stop the Triceratons and rescue our friends.”
“Wh– you're kidding, right?” April's eyes went wide with panic. And Leo understood: just Splinter and April? When they'd failed earlier with everyone minus one, including the remaining Mighty Mutanimals? It seemed, frankly, like an awful idea. But when Leo went to voice his opinion, say that they should wait for him and Donnie to get back and attack the generator together, his father's eyes were hard. Resigned. And any argument caught in his throat like a rock.
“Trust me,” Splinter firmly stated, and though he responded to April, he met Leo's eyes.
And Leo, like a fool, nodded.
~~~
Yoshi knew better than to believe that the Foot hideout was as empty as it appeared. He was soon proven right, and though the first mutant (the strange, invisible one) he dispatched with ease, he had come with the larger rhinoceros. And then–
The tiger assassin aimed his gun at Yoshi.
Yoshi only had eyes for his missing son, standing at the tiger’s elbow.
“Bad move, rat,” he growled. “Breaking in here. Are you desperate, or just fools?”
April recovered faster. “We’re not here to– hey!”
In the blink of an eye, Raphael had her in a chokehold. His tekkō-kagi dug into the flesh beneath her jaw, and she fell silent.
“Foolish, bringing a cub here,” Tiger Claw said with derision, and rage flared within Yoshi.
“Old enough to be forced to fight for your master, but not old enough to speak with him?”
For a split second, shame flashed in Tiger Claw’s eyes. He glanced at Raph, just for a moment, before focusing back on Yoshi with his reserved countenance back in place. His aim never wavered.
The anger was forced down. Compressed into a dense, blazing ember that burned in Yoshi’s chest.
Deep breath in.
“We are not here to fight you,” Yoshi said, the words blistering his throat as he spoke them. “We don’t have much time.”
At his back, the low, booming voice that haunted his dreams spoke. “Then what are you here for, Hamato Yoshi? Perhaps to end your miserable existence?”
Ash coated his tongue, looking at his son while negotiating with the monster who had captured him. “Our feud is meaningless in the face of this invasion, Saki. The world will soon be destroyed. Will you sit by and watch? Or will you help us save it?”
Silence. Yoshi refused to give Saki the satisfaction of turning to look at him.
When Saki spoke, his voice was softer. “Where is Karai?”
The ember behind Yoshi’s ribs blazed once more at the reminder of the other child Saki had taken from him. For him to have the audacity to be concerned about her, after all he had done... All he is currently doing... But Yoshi bit back on what he wanted to say, even as he ached to tear his brother to pieces.
“I do not know. She is alive, but she has fled the city.”
The softness was short-lived. Saki snarled, pressing his tekkō-kagi against Yoshi’s back, hard enough to bruise. “You lie. Are you so incompetent as to keep losing your children, rat?”
Yoshi’s claws screeched against the metal of Saki’s gauntlet. Face-to-face, Yoshi bared his teeth with a threatening hiss. “Do not speak to me of losing the children you have stolen from me. You know I would not be here if there were any other option. Help me to stop this invasion, or we all will die. I am not asking you, I am telling you.”
The eyes that bored into his own were cold and full of hate.
Yoshi hated him right back.
“He’s telling the truth, Shredder!” April yelled, even as Raphael pressed his tekkō-kagi harder against her throat. “Karai is still out there, and guess what? If the earth blows up, she will, too!”
Saki’s eyes narrowed further. Yoshi’s breath caught in his lungs.
“Takeshi!”
Saki did not look away, but the tiger mutant snapped to attention regardless.
“Gather the Foot. We leave in five minutes.”
Yoshi’s shoulders relaxed as relief flooded through him. He nodded once, short and brusque, before stepping back.
Almost as an afterthought, Saki continued, “Raphael, release the girl,” and the immediacy with which his son—his, above all else, stubborn son—lets her go makes Yoshi’s stomach turn. Without being told, Raphael went to stand at Saki’s side.
Yoshi’s hands clenched at his sides as he fought the urge to reach out, the instinct to pull his baby boy to his chest and bite anyone who dared to come close.
His sons had told him, after their last encounter with Raphael, that they felt he was still aware, to some degree. He had fought off control enough to spare Michelangelo’s life, they said, with pain in their eyes that spoke to the cost.
Looking at him now, with his blank, white eyes and his expressionless face, Yoshi wasn’t so sure.
Looking at the assortment of injuries that littered his body, Yoshi hoped they were wrong.
Still, he forced himself to smile even though he felt he was cracking apart to do so.
There’s no other choice, he insists to himself, but that knowledge does nothing to clear the bitter taste in his mouth. “Hello, Raphael,” he said gently. “I am… happy to see you again. Your brothers and I, we have missed you. So much.”
Raphael gave no indication that he had heard. He wished to say more— I love you, your brothers are working so hard on a cure, we are still coming for you, soon, I promise soon —but Saki was watching, petty delight dancing in his dark eyes, and Yoshi had no desire to give him any more than he already had. He swallowed over the lump in his throat, falling silent as they waited.
Tiger Claw was back well under the allotted 5 minutes, the rest of Saki’s mutants in tow. Yoshi managed to tear his eyes away from his son still and silent in a way he never was and look over the assembled temporary-allies. Disdain painted their faces, from mocking grins to complete apathy.
When Yoshi began to explain the black hole generator, their amusement fell away.
One mutant, some sort of robotic fish, watched him strangely. Yoshi quickly gave up on trying to parse his expression—as long as he did what was asked of him in battle, Yoshi could not care less about what he was thinking. But he could feel his eyes on the back of his head the entire way to the generator.
~~~
Leo had known his father had something up his sleeve. There must've been more to the plan, and Leo trusted him to make a good one.
And he was a bit preoccupied with saving his baby brother. That was most of it.
But even if he hadn't been, nothing could've prepared him for returning to earth, Donnie and Mikey in tow, and seeing–
“Raph?” Leo choked out, the words like razor blades in his throat.
“Aaand the rest of the Foot Clan,” Donnie squeaked from behind him, but Leo couldn't bring himself to look away from the brother he hadn't seen in over a month.
He looks sick, was his first thought. Paler and thinner, with smudges of purple beneath his white eyes. Mostly covered by that awful black mask. His scales were littered with bruises and poorly-stitched lacerations. He still wielded the tekkō-kagi, something that screamed wrong! Wrong! Wrong! in the back of Leo's mind.
He didn't look at them.
And Shredder stood at his side, a hand against his carapace.
The Triceratons, the black hole generator, all of it faded into the backdrop. Leo saw red.
“Step away from my brother,” Leo growled, violence lacing every word. His katana were in his hands, held threateningly before him as he dropped into an offensive stance. Of course. It got worse. Distantly, Leo was aware of Donnie and Mikey falling into position behind him.
“Is that any way to speak to the man helping you?” Leo could hear the smug smirk on Shredder’s ugly face, and it was only Mikey's bruising grip on his bicep that stopped him from lunging. “After your master came to me begging for my assistance?”
After–
The fog of anger faded just enough for Leo to realize Splinter stood among the crowd of Foot, along with a grimacing April. The droop of his whiskers was all the confirmation that Leo needed, and his swords fell, just slightly. “Master Splinter, how could you–”
Splinter shook his head, his shoulders squared. “Believe me, I am not happy with this, either. But we cannot save your brother if there is no planet, Leonardo. We had no other choice.”
“Of course we had a choice!” Leo insisted, voice cracking with emotion, even as doubt settled heavily in his stomach. “He kidnapped our brother! Literally anybody else–”
“There is no one else!”
Leo’s jaw snapped shut at his father’s harsh tone. Splinter’s tail flicked in agitation, but he had schooled his expression into something even. Calm, but with a hardness that brooked no argument.
He was right. This wasn’t the time.
The knowledge did nothing to extinguish the rage that lashed around his throat, leaving smoldering embers in its wake. Leo clenched his teeth until he felt his jaw pop, gripping his katana with hands that longed to slice through armor and flesh, and jerked his chin down in a terse nod.
Leo positioned himself beside Splinter, across from the Shredder, as they discussed the plan. Raph stood directly opposite Leo—silent, unmoving, staring blankly ahead. A possessive hand rested on the back of Raph’s neck, gripping just tight enough to be uncomfortable. A mocking facsimile of fatherly affection.
Leo’s stomach churned, bile threatening at the back of this throat.
“The rat and I will destroy the machine,” Shredder ordered, ignoring the teenaged glares trained on him. “The rest of you, keep the monsters distracted. Raphael–”
Raph turned to look up at him, awaiting instruction.
You don’t deserve to speak to him. You don’t deserve to even say his name.
“Stick with your brothers,” he finished, a sick sort of amusement in his eyes. “Show them what you can do.”
“Yes, Master Shredder,” Raphael rasped in a voice that sounded so unused as to be painful. All three brothers stiffened, as upset by the words themselves as the dry croak that spoke them.
Even in a literal world-ending scenario, Shredder was making sure to hurt them as much as he could. Leo wanted to tear him limb from limb. Wanted to rip out his tongue so he could never dare to order their brother around again.
Is this what Raph feels like all the time? Yikes.
Leo gave a curt nod, and, without another word, everyone leapt into action. Mikey and Donnie peeled off together, leaving Raph with Leo.
No snarky comment about the A-Team came. For once, Raph was silent and focused, not even a growl as he attacked. He was following orders to a T.
Leo hated it.
The Triceraton gun aiming at Leo’s forehead was kicked aside by Raph, the alien receiving a slashed arm in the process. Without speaking, Raph dropped into a roll just as Leo charged forward to slice through its Achilles (or… the alien equivalent, he supposed).
They still fought as a unit. They both knew when to duck, when to attack. They avoided each other’s weapons on instinct, and knew how best to follow up the other’s attacks so as to not give their opponent any time to react. Things almost managed to feel normal, as Leo leapfrogged off of Raph’s carapace to slash at the Triceraton’s face.
With a roar of fury, the alien swung its gun like a club.
With an ear splitting crack, his brother flew across the courtyard.
Leo's blood turned to ice.
“RAPH!” he screamed. The Triceraton aimed for him next, but Leo managed to dodge, so close that he felt the woosh of air. He managed to disarm it with a well-placed gash; the staccato beat of panic drummed against his skull.
Raph, Raph, you need to check on Raph–
Leo was distracted, when the alien swung a massive fist at him. It would've hurt, at a bare minimum, had it landed.
A blur of green and black intercepted the blow, knocking the Triceraton to the ground before tearing out its throat. A cry was on the tip of Leo's tongue—to tell him to stop? It was dead already, what was the point—but it shriveled up and died when his eyes focused.
Blood streamed from Raph's nostrils, beginning to dry between his lips. It looked like the Triceraton had smashed in his beak, which was never fun.
More importantly, his leg twisted below him, bending in a way that made Leo sick to look at. And Raph was walking on it, running and jumping even as his knee contorted further with every second.
His expression remained blank, even as one step sent him stumbling with a crack that even Leo heard.
“Oh my god, what are you doing?” Leo was at his side in an instant, slotting beneath one arm to support his weight. “How are you even– don't put more weight on it!” As Raph tried to pull away, Leo held him tighter, glancing frantically around for help.
Tears overflowed from Raph's eyes, trailing sluggishly down his cheeks without him furiously wiping them away.
His flat expression didn't change. Leo's grip on his carapace tightened.
Leo hated this. Raph continued trying to pull away, and Leo continued holding him up, a touch of hysteria bubbling up in his chest.
“I’m sorry, Raph, I’m so sorry. Please stop– Your leg–”
Leo searched for recognition in his eyes. Acknowledgement, something to let him know that Raph could hear him.
“Hurry, Saki! We have no time!”
Master Splinter was running towards the timer on the black-hole generator, Shredder hot on his heels. The timer was about to run up but they were so close, Splinter’s outstretched hand inches away–
Tekkō-kagi burst through Splinter’s chest.
“NO!”
Leo’s scream joined the chorus as his father fell to the ground, blood staining the concrete beneath him. Raph went rigid in Leo’s arms, a choked gasp escaping from his throat, and Leo probably would’ve found that more significant if Splinter weren’t–
Shredder kicked Splinter onto his back, looming triumphantly over him even as the countdown on the generator ran up. He had just doomed the entire world—doomed himself, doomed Karai, doomed his clan—and he laughed.
“Raphael!” Shredder called, an uncharacteristic mirth to his words. “Kill the turtles.”
Leo only barely managed to let Raph go in time, jumping back as his brother lurched towards him. He moved like something out of a horror movie, uncanny and wrong, tears flowing freely down his face. Leo dodged each swing, refusing to fight back but knowing it didn’t matter anymore. They’d lost. It was over.
A burst of yellow energy slammed into Raph’s plastron, throwing him back towards Splinter, and Leo jerked towards him, hand outstretched–
“Leo!” April yelled, pulling him back with a hand on his shoulder. “Look!”
“Look at what?” Leo turned to glare at her, only to see what exactly ‘what’ was.
A spaceship had landed behind them, the door hissing open to reveal a robot of some sort. It wasn’t a spaceship like he had seen, neither Kraang nor Triceraton, and the robot said in a clipped, urgent tone, “Hurry! We haven’t much time!”
All around them, gravity shifted. Trash and small animals began to float up towards the newborn black hole, and Leo could feel his limbs getting lighter.
“Not without Raph!” Leo cried, tugging desperately away to start towards his fallen brother.
A tree ripped right out of the ground, flying up and disappearing into the maelstrom above. Shredder stared at them, completely disregarding the chaos around him. The whipping of the wind was too loud to hear what he said, but Raph reacted, dragging himself to his feet to stand before him. His shoulders heaved with emotion, even as his face remained vacant.
Leo dropped to the ground as an entire playset flew over his head. Halfway there–
Shredder ran his fingers almost lovingly along Raph’s jaw, wiping away his tears with a gloved thumb.
I can reach him, I’m almost there–
Leo felt like he was underwater. The screams around him were distorted, echoing strangely as Shredder plunged his tekkō-kagi deep into Raph's carotid, slicing through scale and muscle and cartilage like butter before he drew away.
Blood bubbled up on Raph’s lips, his mutilated throat gapping grotesquely as he struggled to take a breath through an esophagus that was no longer airtight. As if in slow motion, Leo watched his brother fall, like a puppet with its strings cut, into a heap beside their father’s body.
Someone was wailing, a primal, agonized keen that hurt to listen to. Leo couldn’t breathe just like his brother, this must be what Raph felt like, because nothing could hurt more than this, and the sound trailed off into a silent, gagging sob. Hands dragged him back, clutching at his arms, his scabbard, anything they could grasp. His feet were touching metal, now, and everyone was yelling. One of the voices was new, but it was as garbled as everyone else’s over the roar in Leo’s head. An overwhelmingly bright, sterile light attacked his eyes, but he refused to take his eyes off the corpses of his brother and father.
The last thing he saw, before the metal door slammed shut, was glassy, green eyes.