Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Did you ever participate in the Battle Nexus?”

His new weekends were designed to give him a much-needed break. 

Designed as in, like the rest of his week, it was planned beforehand and he had no say on what he’d do with his time unless it was free time.

‘Break’, because weekends were apparently reserved for ‘mom and son time’, which of course meant they assisted to the Battle Nexus in the afternoon of both Saturday and Sunday to watch the spectacle from the luxurious cabin designed for the owner of the Nexus, sitting uncomfortably close together in the couch, Big Mama using most of the space in her spider form and he cross-legged as far as mutantly possible from here, which wasn’t much, because somewhere in between the year and something since he last stood there, they changed the furniture for something smaller, although a lot more comfortable.

Assistant had returned to her post as his shadow in the morning of the Saturday, so his freedom was very limited. After laying in his assigned room for a couple of hours after breakfast in a weak attempt to recharge, with only Venus to judge him—and listen to his info-dump about the movie he had missed thanks to this whole stupid situation—he decided to take the opportunity to learn a bit of the yokai-only zone, and visit the underground levels of the hotel, where the yokai élite resided. The rest was closed for him, due to humans, so there wasn’t much opportunity to map out the entirety of the hotel as much as he would’ve liked it before getting dragged to Big Mama’s office.

Plus…

That Sunday morning, he woke up in cold sweat, straight from a panic attack, after a weird dream that…

Well…

It was just weird, okay?

He remembered falling asleep on Big Mama’s lap, like he had done the past week against his will, and after that, things took a turn for the worst.

Maybe it was the exhaustion.

After Shredder, they all had pretty weird dreams that included the armored beast in awkward situations. Mikey had admitted once to dreaming of Shredder with a giant tutu as the black swan in a very bizarre interpretation of ‘the swan lake’, with Raph as the white swan, with a majestic dance off at the end of the dream that ended with Gram-gram’s death—because of course some of the trauma had to spice up the dream.

And Leo still had nightmares about the Prison Dimension.

Or about the Kraang.

Living his normal life while Kraang One followed him was his most despised and common one. Common, though, meant little since he usually had issues falling asleep anyways, so it wasn’t every day that he saw the ugly chewed-gum face of the crazy space octopus.

Besides, this dream was… weirder.

Not worse, no, nothing could be worse than…

But it was definitely weirder.

“I have,” Big Mama confessed, boredly watching a cat yokai getting beaten to an inch of their life by eight other yokai, clearly disappointed by the performance, unlike the rest of the stadium that cheered at the bloody sight. “When I was younger, and before I started to amass my actual fortune.”

Weirder, because since he began falling asleep under Big Mama’s influence, he hadn’t had a single dream until then, and in general, because… well… it was just weird!

The dream began in the dojo. Not the one in his home, his favorite one—and the only other he knew—but the one in the Nexus Hotel. He woke, disoriented, to a psychedelic world. Leo had never done drugs before—willingly and that didn’t make him immediately pass out—, but based on a few cartoons and movies, that was the best description available for the world that surrounded him inside his mind that night.

Big Mama was there. Only person he could mention because she was in fact the only one there.

Little could be said about the rest of the environment inside the dream. It didn’t have crazy scenarios from his daily life. His brothers never appeared in unicorn onesies while screaming about a giant however-that-one-worm-foe-of-them-was-called dragging along a Hypno-pothamus plushie. It was a so uncharacteristically normal scenario for a dream of his that Leo could’ve just assumed it was real if it hadn’t been so… well, random.

Specially the part when she attacked him, over and over, with mastery that Leonardo could not believe from a woman he had seen hospitalized before after a fight. Though, to be fair to her, her strife had been against the Shredder, so no one could really fault her for losing. Unstoppable force, and all that.

Still, while Big Mama hadn’t shied in other occasions from putting up a fight against the mad dogz, he had never seen her be so…

Fierce? Ferocious? Brutal?

“So, you weren’t always the owner of the Nexus?” Leo’s inexistent brows furrowed as he slid further into the sofa.

“I always was, but it wasn’t always this big. I’m bashtressered to admit it, but the Battle Nexus once was nothing more than an eeny-teeny tiny battle club.”

Leonardo hummed. “And the hotel?”

“I bought it afterwards. It was a more reliable means of income, and a phizz-worthy cover up for the other biz.” She motioned her arm towards the arena.

In his dream, Leo had to battle her. Like inside a videogame, she turned from a minor inconvenience to a final boss, and the abilities to back that up accompanied her.

It was like entering that one house in the fifth generation of pokemon, where you’re expecting to rob a sweet old lady from an hyperpotion or something, and you end up fighting the former champion of the fourth gen—pardon his pokemon references, he was currently playing Arceus in the new switch to put a nonchalant act and now he couldn’t keep them to himself, the pikachu shaped thoughts.

She was relentless, pinning him over and over with webs, and keeping him in the ground to strike him until he couldn’t stand anymore.

Then, she told him to stand up, just to beat him down again each time he managed to put any weight over his legs. A whole bit dedicated to humiliating him like the cat yokai, once, then twice, then again and again, repeating to him the words ‘stand up’ with a frigid voice that sent shivers down his shell; it mattered not that Leonardo was trembling under the pressure, that he could barely keep awake inside the dream, because she didn’t relent, continuing to challenge him to stand, repeating the whole thing once he did.

An impossible situation. Staying in the ground brought unknown consequences, and unknown was always dangerous. On the other hand, standing up brought pain. Pain he didn’t even know one could feel while asleep, blunt with all strikes. She kept at it until his dream self-passed out and then he woke up, his whole body aching like he had actually fought Big Mama.

But it was just a dream.

No marks, no bruises, and no way in hell the woman would be able to actually fight like that in her condition, with half of her legs already inside the coffin—thank the pizza supreme.

“So, you really made all of this from zero?”

“I did!” she nodded, clapping excitedly, pleased with herself.

Her happiness did not last long, as the commentator announced the end of the third fight, and the staff ran into the colosseum with a stretcher, throwing the cat with so little care that Leo winced at the sight, his inner medic cringing at the treatment.

It was clear that the cat’s leg was unsalvageable. Their enemies had been merciless; since the cat had been too fast to hit them more than once, the other yokai incapacitated the cat, using a spear to pin them by the leg in the middle of a struggle, then using the opportunity to win the fight, all too happy to kick the fallen.

Bloody, but not exciting. 

For Leo’s standards the fight was disgusting. He wasn’t one to play particularly fair, even less in life-or-death situations, but he had a sense of honor instilled in him by his father and by Raph, and the way the warriors fell too easily into foul plays left a bad taste in the slider’s mouth.

What was the point in hurting someone who was already down?

Of torturing someone that had already been beaten?

‘Where are you, pest?’

By the time the sixth combat began, Leo realized that Big Mama didn’t pay much attention to them either.

She did look at the fights whenever it seemed to kindle the crowd, because at the end of the day, it was her job to learn what the yokai liked, so she could then proceed to promote that in hopes of increasing profits. Overall, though, she seemed pretty detached from the whole place, instead focusing on a tablet that he couldn’t see from his place, as she held it quite close to her face, and in her spider form she was way taller than him.

He didn’t mind, because aside from the occasional glance, he too was absorbed in the middle of his playthrough of pokemon Arceus, naming his pokemon like his siblings—because it wasn’t like Big Mama would go through his game just to make sure that he’s kept clear from naming character after his family, so he’d use the chance to not go cray-cray.

It had nothing to do with how he was avoiding touching the copy of animal crossing, as it felt like betrayal to his villagers and pumpkin farm that waited for him back home, and if it was, it didn’t matter, because there were a ton of other games waiting for him inside his assigned room, like he had the time to actually play them.

“How does the whole Nexus work?”

“What, exactly?”

Maybe if he could get access to an online game, he’d have a chance to contact his family?

It was a dangerous bet, because while he didn’t think they’d check a videogame console to keep his communication channels closed, in the off chance that they did…

And now that he thought some more about it, would his family even be playing video games while he was gone?

Like maybe one or two to pass time while they searched, but Leo couldn’t imagine any of his brothers, even less April just sitting in front of a console or monitor to have a six-hour marathon while he was gone.

On the off chance that he managed to actually send a message through without getting found out, would his family even receive it on time?

“Like, it’s open every day, right? There are at least three combats per day, and a lot of the combatants are forced to fight— “

“They chose this life— “

“—over contract-“ he paused at her interruption, side eyeing her and mouthing the word ‘forced’, slamming the accelerator and continuing before Big Mama could interrupt again. “My point is, how do you keep it open every day? And still get a good amount of dough?” He rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign of money.

Big Mama did not answer right away. She stared down at him, analyzing him in search of something. In response, Leo raised his chin slightly, not willing to back down, even if at this point, he didn’t feel as confident as he tried to act.

“At least three fights are programmed every day, by warriors already under contract. In special occasions we add a couple of fights depending on the situation, and we got especial events biweekly.” The spider answered, suddenly interested in the fight.

This time, it was a mythological yokai he did not recognize at all against the same eight idiots that had just sent someone back home in a stretcher. It looked humanoid in shape, but their whole self was covered in a fancy layer of black, shiny feathers, arms replaced by wings with hands at the end, like a feathery bat. They held themself with pride, dancing around the arena with a facility that only an experience combatant would be able to pull off, blatantly mocking their opponents.

Unlike the cat yokai that had lost before, this fighter did not rely heavily on a single part of their body, so even when this yokai made mistakes, they were quick to cover them up.

It was impressive, but it did little to satisfy the blood-hungry spectators, who cheered lower than they had for the rooks that almost killed the cat yokai.

To Leo, it was a shame; he found brute force boring in actual combat. Sure, a well-aimed punch with much strength behind it could instantly K.O. anyone in an instant, but where was the fun in that? He loved to put up a show, to banter with friends and foes alike. Be quick, responsible, but have a little fun while doing it.

Anyone in his family would tell you that he was just dramatic, a theater kid. Leo liked to say that it was the swordsman in him, his love for a more elegant rather than gorey fight. Regardless, he loved the way the yokai so seamlessly blended with their environment, single-handedly beating one by one each of the opponents with ease.

“Especial events like…” He trailed off, waiting for her to continue.

She backed further into the couch, putting down the tablet by the opposite side to which Leo sat, and crossed her arms, pensive. This time she didn’t bother to look at him, seemingly content with whatever she found in him before.

“Like the fazzdidledazz duel you and your father had against my little-ittle Kraken Tom, of course. Sometimes we do tournaments, or rallies. Anything goes. From the most gruesome battle royale for survival, to a flimwash race between parents and children. It all depends on the season.”

“Or the opportunities?” The slider asked, pulling his legs closer to his plastron, his half-forgotten switch sliding down his leg as he turned to look at Big Mama, more invested in the conversation that he realized.

Big Mama nodded, still not gracing him with a glance, but allowing herself to smile a little at his inquiry. “Yes, or the opportunities. It’s important to use anything offered to you, even if not in the way they intended.”

Leonardo's gaze wavered the second she locked eyes with him, not entirely sure what to do with the lesson she had freely offered for him.

Had it been anyone else, he would’ve taken it as a piece of advice, like one of those motivational speeches that Raph sometimes listened to while training, something said to boost one’s spirit for a little while.

‘Yes! You are meant for great things! You must persevere and never give up. Take all opportunities given to you, make new ones!’. He could already hear the toxic—yet useful and needed from time to time—positivism that helped the eldest get ready for the day.

From Big Mama, the comment was different.

She wasn’t trying to make him hopeful, her words weren’t supposed to be kind and inspiring. The intentions behind her offering were ill-intended. ‘Make use of everything you get, regardless of how you do it’.

‘Regardless of what you have to do’.

‘Or who you have to hurt.’

A piece of advice that he had already been using before, hadn’t he?

If he had to lie, or practice some sleight of hand, from smiling widely and winking to jumping into hell himself, didn’t Leo already live by that sentence?

‘You really are just like Big Mama’ hit harder when there was evidence, and that realization fell onto him in the form of dizziness.

As if sensing his hesitation and the end of the conversation, Big Mama blinked slowly at him, then turned to retrieve the tablet, to continue whatever she had been doing before.

Up until that day, despite the harshness of the challenge, Leonardo had been willing to play the long game as Big Mama had planned, blind to the fact that they were not, in any way, playing on the same level.

Leo might have been smart enough to play her once or twice before, especially when it involved having someone else’s help, and when the con lasted no more than a few hours, while he was at his best game, but he never truly won even then, did he?

He wasn’t gonna win this, was he?

Ringing from the announcement that the match was over and the sound of one of his Pokémon crying for attention overlapped, both quickly washed away by the frantic cheering, calling his attention back to the arena, making him instantly wince at the gruesome sight.

Birdie had won by a landslide, there was no debacle on that. He was pretty sure that one of the henchmen was dead, because their neck was stuck horribly in a degree that shouldn’t be possible, and one of their teammates hovered over them, desperately shaking them as if that would wake them up.

Although victorious, the yokai hadn’t come out unscathed.

A broken wing, holding most of their weight over their left leg, and still standing as if they were on top of the world, valiant in the face of destruction carelessly constructed by themself.

Petals of crimson were thrown by the spectators, who, excited by the gruesome end of the combat, were now happy to proclaim the fighter a champion.

“What happened to the Kraken?” Leo found himself asking, though his own words sounded distant, like said behind a glass wall.

“Kraken Tom? You beat him, of course.”

Like that answered his question, even if both knew why he had asked.

In a big show of pride, the yokai vowed at the public, raising his good arm and screaming at full volume.

“Did he continue fighting, after that?”

“Well.” Big Mama hummed. She wasn’t leaving the question to the air like considering what could be said after, nor leaving it to his imagination.

Her little ‘well’ was a statement. One that made Leo’s blood freeze.
Eyes that don’t see, heart that don’t feel, right? So, he picked the switch back up, smashing the A button to turn it on and immersing into sweet ignorance, focusing on leveling up Mikey.

___________________

“I’m not surprised that you found nothing. The purple’s one idea wasn’t bad, but triangulating a third party with clues from another piece was never going to work the way you kids intended” Draxum took a loud sip from his cup, reclining against the back of his chair, unbothered by the creaking noise that accompanied the motion.

“You two have mad-scientist facetimes every Thursday, I know you know his name, Drax,” the youngest turtle side eyed the yokai, unimpressed, although a bit amused when the elder choked on the drink, looking away sheepishly.

Mikey didn’t bother to drink the hot milk offered to him. It seemed like lately that was all they did besides searching for Leo; sitting, talking and drinking some hot beverage, and it was starting to taint his feelings for hot cocoa.

“We did find them,” April scoffed, glaring at the cups with so much anger that the box turtle could swear it was reheating the liquid inside. “That’s kind of the problem,”

Obviously, that didn’t clarify nothing, and Barry raised an eyebrow into a pointed look, waiting for the human girl to elaborate.

Which she did. “We found the group yesterday, after two days of searching. Mikey recognized one of them as the one Leo tricked to make an escape from a rooftop and we followed him. We talked to him, but he didn’t know anything!” She threw her arms in the air, hitting the table in the act and cursing at the impact, retrieving the affected hand to inspect it.

Well, he did know a couple of things, but not nearly enough to piece the information into something coherent that would help them find Leo.

April and he conducted the interrogation over a nice cup of tea while Donnie and Raph talked outside, gaining the dude’s trust fairly quick—read: the guy was crying and screaming during the entire conversation like they were murdering him, because they were pretty close to actually committing murder—and he admitted to all he knew in a matter of seconds.

All his knowledge consisted of ‘the boss told us to’ and ‘I just followed orders’, so it amounted to a whole lot of nothing.

Similarly, when question on the ‘boss’, the yokai refused to cooperate at first and ended up being useless at last.

“Their boss disappeared a couple of days ago,” Mikey muttered, trailing the markings in the wooden table with a finger.

“That!” April pointed at Mikey and then looked at Barry like that had been some big revelation to the world. “We talked to him, and he knew nothing, and his boss apparently knew everything about what happened and why they were searching for Leo and who made the bounty but then we asked about his boss, and she’s been missing for a few days. Completely off the radar!”

“Something unusual for them?” Draxum questioned.

“I mean, I don’t know! I guess? He seemed really worried.”

Understatement. He didn’t seem ‘really worried’, he seemed mortified. In his wide knowledge about feelings, he still couldn’t guess if it was from the threat to bomb his place or his missing boss, but Mikey didn’t care much.

‘It’s not uncommon for us the low folk to get picked off if we upset someone,’ He had told them once he managed to calm down. ‘We were the last to try anything before the bounty was off, so… I don’t know. Maybe she is trying to find whoever won? Since she almost broke the lad’s wrist maybe she wants a cut of the prize or some.’

That had been the explanation that he and the rest of the gang had apparently agreed on after their boss disappeared without a trace, but the guy just didn’t seem convinced. After that, anything the guy said felt irrelevant.

How did they find the Hamato family? Easy, everyone knew about them, and if you listen in the streets of the Hidden City, a red eared loudmouth frequented Run of the Mill, Leonardo was well known for causing trouble and chatting up anyone who would listen near the pirates’ bazaar and the bay.

Where could they find the bastard that got their brother? No idea. Retrieval was called near the entrance to the forbidden forest, that giant hole in the mushroom forest, pretty common standard for outlaw bounties, so no one could trace back the source.

Was there any other person who could help them find their brother? The dogs, any mercenary really, but considering how high the pay was for Leo, it was likely he was already dead or sold, depending on what they wanted him for.

Sold.

That hadn’t been something they ever thought about.

An enemy trying to get to them, or someone with a grudge, or something of the sort, but Leo being sold? Crime, topside or downside wasn’t uncommon. The Hidden City had a pretty weak control over its citizens. the police were incompetent at best, and if the criminals were brave enough to go topside from time to time, clearly, they felt comfortable with what they were doing. They knew how to do their job and do it well.

But trafficking… It was an entirely different thing. They’ve never been face to face with something so…

And why even kidnap someone in particular for that?

Mikey had seen a couple of things about it in movies and news, but the idea that it could be real, for them, for Leo…

Draxum sighed deeply, “What’s next, then?”

Mikey shrugged. “Don says we’ll keep checking to see if we find any of the other yokai so we can have another, uh… data…?” He turned to look at April for help, and she mouthed the word, which the young turtle translated as “yoink,” running to correct himself when she frowned and mouthed once more, the motions exaggerated the second time, “point! The data points! Says he wants different opinions before making a decision!”

“And what does the rat—” Draxum paused at the glare that Mikey sent him, rolling his eyes and conceding. “What does your father say?”

“Splint thinks it’s our best bet,” April leaned against the table, resting her chin over her folded arms. “Since we haven’t found nothing new, tracking the yokai that attacked the boys might be the only way to find Leo. Donnie’s already checking some recordings from two weeks ago.”

“Very well, that sounds reasonable. And after that?”

April and Mikey paused, sharing a single look. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the question. ‘What’s the plan in case that doesn’t work out?’

It’s just that they don’t want to think about it.
What will they do if this turns out to be another dead end?

Hesitantly, April answered. “Well, we’re planning to sneak into the Battle Nexus the next Saturday if we haven’t found Leo by then.”

“Ah, I do remember Donatello mentioned his suspicions during our call.”

“I think he’s wrong,” Mikey huffed, his shell clacking against the back of his chair.

“Oh?”

“It’s just—She hasn’t done anything against us since the whole Shredder thing, you know? I want to think she learnt her lesson after she landed herself in the hospital.”

Draxum mused, tapping his fingers rhythmically against the table. “You think highly of people that do not deserve it.”

That made April snort, loudly. “You’re forgetting he saved your ass?”

“No. That’s exactly why I say it.”

Helping the Baron hadn’t been an easy job, but Mikey never thought of it as an impossible task. Everyone had good in them if you knew where to search. Despite all the terrible acts he committed, even Shredder had a wisp of light inside all that corruption.

Honestly, the hardest thing was keeping his escapades secret from Raph, but since Leo liked to sneak out to the Hidden City and to Run of the Mill, and Mikey also sneaked out regularly to tag different places around the city, they made a deal to cover for the other. No questions asked. Each went their way to their secret adventures and Raph was none the wiser.

Eventually he dragged the rest of the family into the tiny apartment and forced everyone to get along! Mostly!

Leo still liked to mention the incident—which Draxum had yet to apologize for, a work in progress—and Splinter enjoyed bickering with the yokai—they had a better relationship after the Shredder thing, but both got a kick off annoying the other as much as possible, and with Donnie and Leo as his brothers Mikey was used to that, so he could manage.

Today, Barry was a better person.

Mikey was not stupid enough to say that he was a good person; it hadn’t been more than two months since they had to find a way to cover the guest room so the landlord wouldn’t notice the make-do alchemy laboratory and all the illegal experiments held in it. But he was a better person, and progress was progress.

Progress was good, that’s why Mikey didn’t understand why Draxum was so adamant to talk about himself like he was trash at the bottom of the barrel. Maybe some internalized hatred, rooted on the deep sense of loss after getting tricked by the foot, losing his powers, assets, home, and life, ending up as a lunch lady, unpredictably ending up as part of the same family that not only he tried to kill, but also were the ones to defeat him?

Or!

Wait.

No psychoanalyzing people during an important meeting, Mikey!

“Aww, come on. I think you’re pretty great!”

Unmoved by the positivism, Draxum deadpanned, “That’s the opposite of refuting what I’ve just said,” and proceeded to down the rest of his drink.

And Mikey giggled, in response, hands fiddling with his bel, and not looking regretful in the slightest. “You gotta learn to see a bit of light in everyone! Everyone has a reason for what they do!”

“Like trying to kill you,” the yokai’s face pinched. “Would you let someone kill you if they have a reason noble enough?”

“Well, no,” Mikey rolled his eyes, smiling when he and April caught each other looking, silently side eyeing Draxum. “Like, if they wanna kill me because they think that’s gonna save their people, but they don’t fact-check their local prophesy…”

“Funny,” Draxum huffed, raising from his place and picking each of the forgotten beverages without much resistance. “What if Big Mama did kidnap your brother?”

“She didn’t,” he defended, surprising himself, April and Draxum with how quick he answered. Quickly, he followed with, “I don’t think she did anyways.”

Because if she did, then she not only betrayed their trust, but most importantly, their father’s.
She had willingly and callously lied to the face of someone she claimed to love time after she apologized for harming him so inhumanly in their shared past. It meant that all the remorse she said she felt did not exist.

Worse. It meant that Mikey had defended her to the rest of the family while Leo was battling for his life in the Battle Nexus, alone and hurt, after saving Mikey.

She couldn’t have kidnapped Leo because if she did, then Mikey had defended Leo’s kidnapper.

His stomach clenched at the thought, and Mikey had to swallow down the knot that formed in his throat.

“I’m curious. You are very firm in this belief. Why? It’s not like that spider has given you any reason to trust her before,” the elder placed the cups in the sink, ceramic clashing against each other as it fell into place with the rest of the dirty dishes.

April took charge of the conversation. “Apparently she’s retiring.”

Draxum choked in his spit, coughing into his fist as Mikey and April hurried to help him, patting his back, and directing him to his seat, steadily supporting him until the man could breathe once more.

“She’s— retiring?! How come there’s no news of this?!” He exclaimed while they lead him back to the table.

“Doesn’t seem like she has shared the news,” the human popped her lips at the end of the sentence, jumping to sit on the edge of the table, right by Draxum’s side. “We know because she told Splints like, two weeks ago, but apparently is all pretty lowkey for now.”

“That’s preposterous!” Barry patted his own chest, clearing his throat in the process. “So the Nexus is closing, and she is trying to sweep the entire thing under the rug?!”

“Well,” Mikey paused, mirroring April, sitting on the other side of the caprid yokai. “She’s not closing the Nexus, she’s just retiring.”

“Retiring,” Draxum repeated, his voice as if he had just heard and said the stupidest thing in his life, and well, to be fair, didn’t everyone have the same reaction when they first learned about it? “Who’s receiving the Nexus, then? Surely, she isn’t just–raffling the Battle Nexus, or the hotel?”

“No, no. She has a… uh… son? Who is inheriting the whole thing.” April raised a leg, the heel of her shoe scrapping the wood as she used her knee to rest her head. “Can you believe that?”

From disbelief to a flash a confusion, then a realization, and then a mix of negative emotions that were hard to read. Sadness? Unease? Worry, defeat, anger, disappointment, resignation… a whole set of emotions that painted bad news in his face.

“I didn’t know she—well… now he, I guess, had transitioned.”

“Wait, she?” the human straightened, her fingers tensing around the raised leg. “Barry.” She warned.

The yokai raised both hands with a deep sigh. One straight to cover his eyes, massaging his temples. The other just used as a sign for ‘pause’, leaving them all in silence what the goat man thought his next words under the death stare of both oldest and youngest from the Hamato kids.

“Can we talk about this another time? I believe it’s more important to find the blue one, no?”

Gasping, April jumped off the table, stomping towards her bat, her face contorted in fury, her glasses tilted to the side, giving her a more deranged look, completed by her ungroomed hair—which really, it wasn’t her fault, none of them had had the chance to take proper care while Leo was still missing.

“That’s a low blow, Barry. Do not use Leo to get out of a conversation!”

“I’m not. I’m merely… listen. This is a complicated topic, and this concerns all of you. I think it’d be better if the rest were here at least to listen.”

“Why?”

Mikey grimaced. He hadn’t meant to sound so bitter, although there was little he could do when he was enraged.

Whiplash from the sudden change in his emotions made him wince.

Sure, Draxum’s comment had been a tad insensitive, but it didn’t warrant the wave of barely contained ocean of reigning fury that Mikey felt, right?

He had to remind himself that there was no reason to be ashamed of his feelings. It was a natural reaction, a defense mechanism, a way to cope with situations. It wasn’t like he never got mad either. He did plenty, in fact! With Raph’s constant overprotection, Donnie’s issues with empathy, and Leo’s inflated cover-up ego, and most importantly, all the villains that lacked common sense and dipped joyfully into the pit of bad decisions, Mikey knew what being angry was like.

Being angry wasn’t nice. He didn’t like being angry. Mikey always burned through those feelings quickly, firmly expressing himself or acting on those so nothing was bottled up and he could sooner move onto better emotions.

This anger was different. A cold fire that rather than burn down a house in a big show, it would slowly corrode the foundations until it fell. Under the surprised gazes of his sister and second-father, Michelangelo couldn’t help to feel like he was going to implode with how hot his chest felt while he tried hard to contain the passionate ire inside of him.

Why was he so angry, anyways?

Was it like April’s fury, invoked by the weak excuse of their missing brother to avoid the topic?

Or maybe it was because he hated it when people hid things from him?

Was he just annoyed at the whole situation and taking it out on Draxum?

Was he angry at Leo?

“Who is sh…he, who is he?”

“Michaelangelo—“

‘Cut the bullshit,’ he almost said.

Instead, he managed to hold it and interrupted with a “Barry.” Said in the same tone the yokai had called him, only with a lot more venom in it, Dr. Delicate Touch definitely peeking from his enclosure along with the warning.

He was angry at Leo.

Draxum held his breath, for a second or two, considering his next words, then releasing it against the palm of his hand, unable to hold eye contact with either of the visitors.

He was so angry at Leo.

Leo knew that they were looking for him and didn’t say a thing. Leo knew that he was in danger and acted like it was all okay, even choosing to leave the lair with no more reinforcements than Mikey when clearly, they couldn’t keep fighting. Leo who defended him and insisted on going for pizza because Mikey refused to make dinner. Leo, who opened a portal where Mikey would go through first even if he himself could barely move at the time.

Leo who Mikey didn’t even know if he looked back for them after deciding to throw himself into a damn Prison Dimension where he would die alone and—

Ah.

A sting in his lip, in his heart, the worried look that April gave him, the regretful one in Draxum’s face. The ball of shame smashing through his fury like bowling pins.

‘I thought I was over this’.

Yeah, he was angry.
But underneath the flimsy layer of anger was grief, deep as the sea and dark as the glimpse he caught of that hell dimension.

‘We lost Leo again’.

‘This time maybe forever’.

“Mikey?”

“I’m fine.” he grumbled, pursing his lips and retreating his head slightly into his shell, rubbing the tears off his face, sliding down from the table and sitting back in the chair he had been before. After thinking it over, he corrected that with an “I’m angry.”

April didn’t look like she knew what to say, and Mikey did not blame her.

God, what if they never saw Leo again?

Whoever kidnapped him had been so thorough, so careful not to let anything slip. They didn’t even know who had actually gotten the prize! One more day to complete an entire week since their brother got snatched and they weren’t any closer to getting him back.

Their Ninpō said otherwise, but with the amount of clues they had, Leo might as well be dead, right?

Did Mikey spend Leo’s last moments with him joking about getting in trouble with Raph and Donnie?

Any moment now would their comms activate to let them hear a last goodbye. The sky would go dark, once more, leaving behind a fracture line as a permanent reminder of who they lost, and–

‘I’m not giving up on him,’ he thought, with so much strength behind the words that it felt like his chest jumped.

‘We’re gonna find him. We’re gonna save him. We will…’

“The thing is, you four weren’t the only subjects I had for the experiment of mutation.”

Someone call the cops and check the cameras for the plate’s number, because Draxum’s sudden confession hit him like a truck and ran from the crime scene like Sonic or The Flash.

“Drax, what the fuck does that mean.” April slammed a hand on the back of her forgotten seat, grip tight enough that her knuckles paled, shaken up, with eyes as wide as plates and the demeanor of someone who was close to passing out.

“Just that. Originally, there were six of them, turtles,”

Breathless, Mikey managed to ask, “six?” With a voice so small he almost wondered if he really said it out loud.

He didn’t. Draxum nodded and continued. “I managed to grab one before your father could, and I found the other hours later, alive under the debris from the explosion.”

Six of them.
Six small turtles mutated with human DNA to become warriors. Weapons. Monsters.

Two stayed behind. Four escaped and turned heroes.

Two stayed behind and…

One of them was now with Big Mama, the other missing—like Leo, missing like Leo never to be—focus! Leo would be fine; the idiot was probably annoying the hell out of his kidnapper!

“Wait,” April signaled him to stop with a hand, her train of thought matched Mikey’s but she had been quicker to react, considering she wasn’t overthinking. “Wait, wait. If you found them, how did one of them end up with Big Mama, and where’s the other?”

Pause. Conflict flashed over Draxum’s factions before he buckled up and resolved to answer. “One of them was… lost, during an experiment, further in time. I could not… rescue her, I’m afraid.”

Mikey inhaled sharply, the mellowed fury returning once more in all its glory, the idea that someone that could’ve been their sister was no longer alive sparked the embers back, uncaring of the forest—uncaring of his other feelings.

He had a sister. Another, not counting April. One that was a turtle, just like the rest of his siblings and him, and he would never be able to meet her now.

Would she have joined them, had she still been with Draxum when they found the Hidden City?
Would she have been a villain instead, helping Draxum reunite the pieces of the Dark Armor?
What was her favorite color?
Would she have used a mask like theirs? Would she have chosen a warm, or a cold color? Was she older or younger than him?

He’d never know now, would he?

Mikey didn’t like feeling so bitter, especially when it was directed at someone he cared about, but the revelation sat heavy in his chest, and he couldn’t help the wisps of resentment against Draxum from taking her from them like that.

Feeling was healthy. Feeling was natural. Feeling was normal.

It was okay, take a deep breath, burn that bridge when you get to it and not while you're crossing another.

“And…” his (only) sister hesitated, no longer sure if she wanted to learn more. “The other one?”

Draxum managed to catch Mikey’s eyes, staring deep into his soul with a storm of emotions that the young turtle could no longer identify as he was neck deep into the well of his own feelings.

“I… sold number One to Big Mama, to finance my investigation, soon after the explosion.”

Today, Barry was a better person.
Mikey was not stupid enough to say that he was a good person.
Mikey was not stupid enough to forget that before, he was a terrible person.

It made sense that they knew each other. That Big Mama was so willing to negotiate with Draxum even after the alchemist warrior managed to unscrew some of his screws. It made sense that the man had been capable of replicating everything even when the council of heads was against his decision. It made—

“Mikey!!”

The chair thumped against the ground, with the sound intensified by the huge body that accompanied the wooden furniture.
Nothing could be heard over his own heavy breathing and ringing in his ears, and Mikey felt like he was floating, numb to all contact except for his right hand, the one he had used to strike Draxum square in the face.

April rushed to place an arm over the turtle’s plastron, to keep him from attacking the man again, though her hold was weak. Though they both knew that if he really wanted, he could escape from her at any point.

“You—!”

“I regret it.” The yokai said as he scrambled to his knees, a hand covering his nose and the other supporting half of his weight, his voice clear enough that it overshadowed all other noise. Not daring to look up at the betrayed face of his youngest. “Every day, I wish I hadn’t. Wish I had kept them safe. Both of them… Even with all the things I regret, I wish over them all that they were here today with us.”

Mikey didn’t want to hear it anymore. He didn’t want to hear it.

They were gone. They were gone, and so was Leo, and covering his ears like a little kid didn’t keep away the thoughts, the anger, the grief.

It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s—

Instead of hiding in his shell, like he usually would at this point, Mikey turned on his heels and ran, ignoring April’s calls, slamming the door open and leaving it like that as he turned to the nearest path towards the emergency stairs, never looking back.

—————————————

Training became harder after the first few days. Especially during Sunday, his lazy day!

Excuses were hard to find, because while the environment did influence his mad skills, most of the fault fell on him.

For starters, he was still skipping dinner.

It wasn’t the food that kept making him fall asleep. Big Mama knew it, Assistant knew it, Tecna knew it, Leo knew it.

But just because he knew it, didn’t mean that he cared. He was gonna be as petty and bratty as mutantly possible without risking breaking the deal, and skipping dinner was one of the safest choices, so he did.

On top of that, it was him who lacked general combat training—turns out that jumping straight into ‘cool action movie moves’ was a terrible idea, especially if you wanted to go hand to hand against someone who’s been training most of their life. Who would've guessed?

Absurd, he knew, but damn.

Plus, while he had been doing better mentally wise after having a social break, he was still drained. In general.

That weird dream from the past night did not help.

Finally, while he hated to admit it, Venus was just good.

She adapted quickly to his style. Quick on his feet? Keep combat close, intertwine the legs to keep him from jumping away or from running or maneuvering his way out or close combat.

Relies heavily on the environment? Well now she fought without her armor, cutting him from anything that might be of use in the empty space.

Talked too much to distract her? Now she aimed to his stomach and face—not that it stopped him, but now he had to pause from time to time to make sure she wouldn’t deck him in the nose.

The only thing that Leo had over her is that he was ages ahead in predicting her attacks. Telegraphing all her movements made it an easier job for him dodging with enough ease that he just went into defense and held his own for as long as he could, turning each match into games of endurance rather than combat.

Or maybe she didn’t telegraph shit and he just noticed.

It came with the whole teleporting, he guessed, because at the end of the day he had to know where his weapon, enemies and team would be before trying anything, or else, he could wind up killing someone—whoever thought it was a great idea to give him—the one that couldn’t concentrate on anything for five minutes straight—swords was a genius, /sarcasm, dad.

Venus ended up besting him again.

Since Thursday, Leonardo had won a total of two matches out of however-much-five-times-four-was. A total blow to his ego, because he could no longer laugh at Venus’ face every time she lost, since, you know. She wasn’t losing at all.

Like, the audacity, woman! How dare she not lose?

Rude!

That was exactly how he ended as a chair.
She had been quick to retrieve the ziploc bags from the mini fridge before body slamming him—despite the fact that he hadn’t moved from his place in the ground—sitting over his shell, virtually immobilizing him, dropping the bag of carefully chopped apples on top of his head, claiming that they didn’t have to worry about it falling because his ‘bald head had the perfect porosity to keep the plastic from slipping’.

Which of course he answered by reminding her that she was equally as bald, starting a very important discussion about if the spikes in her shell counted as hair—they did not—and if marks counted as hair—they did not but he’d keep saying that they did until she regretted even talking to him in the first place—while eating the fruit.

Had it been anyone else, he might’ve pushed them off his shell, but…

She weighed around the same Mikey did.

And he really missed his brothers.

Plus, he had to play nice with her if she wanted to avoid suspicion later on, right? She lowered her defenses and he’d be able to have a bit more freedom.

There was also no way Venus wasn’t touch-starved, or attention-starved.

Big Mama had her limited to who she could talk to.

It was an amazing opportunity to bond with her and maybe help her out, once Big Mama was gone. Draxy was bound to know something about her, and how to help her brainwashing. He’d use Mikey to push the goat man around a little and force his hand into helping Venus whether he liked it or not.

If she wanted, who knew? Maybe they’d have another sister. April would probably love that.

God. Leo could already see them. April talking her ears off about fashion, and good food, Sunita teaching them both a bit more about normal yokai their age, Venus totally bored because she was more used to combat stuff, then falling in love with April’s passion the same way they all had…

A normal life…

“Oh, now you’re giggling over nothing. I knew you were crazy,” Venus scoffed, biting into her apple slice, crossing her legs, perfectly balanced over him.

“I was just thinking about some great jokes—“

“Yeah, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Okay but—“

“No.”

“Did you know that—“ “No!” “—the way you’re sitting is called—“ “Do not!” “—criss-cross applesauce?”

“I hate you,” but she made not a single move to get off of him, and in fact, made herself more comfortable.

He laughed at his own comment—not as much of a joke, but he enjoyed her frustration. There was not much public for him to do his stand-up comedy show, which was okay, since he was laying down at the time.

Venus was a lot more talkative by the end of their sparring sessions.

Well, she was generally more talkative whenever the armor was off, and that was usually after sparring, but the point was that she was a lot more willing to answer his questions or to indulge him with some bickering whenever they were in the dojo.

Maybe it was the lack of people, but Leo thought that it could be the training itself. Because if he and his brothers bonded through sparring, surely Venus was similar? She definitely seemed to enjoy the challenge. Adrenaline and pride intertwined in a teal glow that shone brightly in her eyes every time she managed to overpower Leonardo last second.

Of course, it came to his detriment, her joy—and that thought made him huff at the apple slice in his hand, ignoring the side eye that the other turtle sent him.

No, he's not crazy, and he’s not cursing internally at an apple, dammit.

“Don’t worry, no need to plant seeds of discordia in this place—“

“Oh my- just shut up.” She whined, her talon poking his side and making him jump at the feeling.

Not that he was ticklish, but Raph had the terrible habit of poking their sides, and especially Leo and Donnie hated it. They had fight and flight responses every time any hand got near their sides, and Leo always got weird stares whenever he jumped away from anyone who got slightly close to his plastron, but what could a traumatized—he’s being dramatic, don’t worry—person do in the face of danger but act up?

It didn’t seem like Venus cared, at least. She probably chalked it up to a normal response to getting kicked in the torso while eating, which was a big mercy because had she realized that weakness, who knows what she could’ve done?

Leo took another piece.

It was oxidized by that point, but the quality remained. Juicy, sweet, a small aftertaste of perfect sourness that he loved in his fruit. Part of him wondered if Big Mama knew his tastes and had prepared accordingly for his arrival, but that was so… creepy. How long could she have been preparing to kidnap him to know all of this?

Alas, knowing his dad, maybe she didn’t have a hard time recompiling the information. Lady crazy had probably messed with Splinter, claiming she wanted to know more from them and making him tell her.

How absurd it sounded, to think that Splinter would be one of those proud dads to boast about their kids and their accomplishments. But it made sense.

Leo could see it.
Had they been human, their dad would totally be a sport dad, cheering from the sidelines, taking photos, screaming that yes, those four idiots in first place in any kind of competition were his children and he loved them very, very much.

Walls would be covered in paintings and framed diplomas for activities each more and more obscure, but all of them still mastered by one of the four weird kids.

And the honorary one that wormed into their family.

Splinter’s loving nature—even if a bit neglectful at times—had sadly played against one of his boys this time.

Or maybe she had just guessed.

Maybe Big Mama had nothing to do with the food.

At this point, overthinking was a valid option. He was paranoid, but Leo liked to think that it was justifiable given the circumstances.

He still wasn’t over the fact that he had skipped food an entire day and he still had passed out.

It couldn’t be airborne, could it? Surely someone else would’ve passed out if that was the case. Did they just have immunity? Antidotes? It was a waste of resources so it had to be something isolated or… magic.

If it was from mystic origin, what the fuck was he supposed to do??

Magic??

How?!

“What the fuck!” He yelped.

As startled as he was, was Venus, who bounced from his shell, giving him space to sit up and inspect his arm, the one where the silver band sat, currently stabbing his arm.

“What—“

“Holy shit.” His voice came out panicked, and he shook it energetically in hopes of dislodging it.

“Don’t, you’ll injure yourself,” Venus stopped him, catching him just below the band, keeping it in place until she was sure he would not be waving it like a madman.

It touched his bone, the needle that came out of it. He could feel it releasing something cold into his system, and it was painful, though the way it held on its own, almost like floating in place while he stared at it in horror had an almost comedic sort of effect.

Bet he would’ve laughed had it happened to anyone else.

Sadly, it was happening to him, and it wasn’t as funny as it was nauseating.

A thousand thoughts per second raced through his head, heart beating so fast that he worried it’d made the drug act faster. There was a single explanation to his predicament, and he thought that at the very least the confirmation was comforting.

“It seems that Mama has left the vicinity,” Assistant mused, retreating towards the bench where her armor laid, ready to go back into his guard persona.

“You think?!”

In response she just chuckled, massaging her right shoulder before stretching it until there was a loud ‘pop’, then placing the torso piece in place.

What was he supposed to do?!
Was he panicking?! Oh god he was panicking.

What the hell, of course he was panicking!!

It was hanging by his wrist like a damn crooked painting fixed on a wall by a nail! It was so thin, too. What if it broke inside his arm?!

No more than a couple of seconds, that felt like hours, is what it took for the bracelet to slide down his arm, the needle disappearing into the silver surface and hitting him like a truck with a dizzy spell. 

It didn’t hurt, once it let go, but the phantom sensation of a needle piercing his skin still settled over his arm. It was surprising to see no blood coming from the small hole. Did whatever-the-fuck was injected in him included an anticoagulant? Because that was incredibly well planned and—holy shit his arm fell asleep.

He could still move it and all, but it was asleep! Static like sensation running up his arm so quickly that he didn’t even notice the second it started expanding from his shoulder toward his torso and his face.

Leo grunted when he smacked his face against the wood of the Dojo’s ground, his vision rapidly blurry, everything turning gray, similar to the night of his kidnapping.

“You gonna fall asleep already?” Assistant asked, fixing her mask into place.

Not that Leo could see, because now his world was spinning and spinning and—

Mikey, did he get Mikey out of there? The bounty was in his name but what if they took his little brother too? He couldn’t let his baby bro get hurt, it was—

What was he thinking? It had been almost a week since his kidnapping, Mikey was okay.

Worried, probably.

Everyone would be worried, actually.

Right?

No, no, don’t feed those nasty thoughts. There was no way he was getting another session with dr. Delicate Touch.

No nasty thoughts in this head, sir! No need to worry!

On the topic of his family…
Would his little brother be at Draxum’s house, looking for options to find him?
Donnie had been getting along with the crazy goatman lately, birds of a feather and all that, couldn’t keep the mad scientist away from the maddest scientist. Would Donnie accompany Mikey? Or Raph? It wouldn’t be the first time Raph ended up getting dragged to Barry’s house.

April was a lot more likely to accompany Mikey though. Since she lived right below the yokai…

Someone sighed in his vicinity; a disappointed exhale that made Leonardo scrunch his nose, already ready for the scolding.

He hadn’t even done anything this time!

“I’ll take you to your room. Come here.”

How was he supposed to get anywhere if he couldn’t move? 

Whatever the answer was for that, he’d leave it for another day, because at the moment, he was too busy passing out in the middle of the dojo.

Not the most comfortable place in the world but it didn’t matter, he couldn’t feel it anymore anyways.

Leo didn’t know if he should be more worried about the fact that he was starting to get used to it; just randomly falling asleep whenever other people wanted him to.

“Oh. Guess…..faster than.……….…tell T…….………….Not that……listening…………..”

‘Ding’