Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Places II: Rebirth ❯ 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Part 6

The stars faded. Raphael found himself lying on top of one of his siblings and trying not to move his head. The pain in his stomach had faded to a dull throb, but his head pounded in time to his heart. The loud voices above him didn't help any.

"--do we do?"

"Calm down. We can't do anything if we panic."

"Leo just took down Raph! I wanna panic!"

"He didn't 'take him down', Mike. Raph just got the wind knocked out of him. He'll be fine--look, see, he's coming around already."

Raph didn't open his eyes for a moment, not wanting to do anything but lay still and hope the headache would go away, but his responsibilities lined up one after the other. Follow their brother into the tower, save him, and wrangle him back home for treatment because it was obvious Leo wouldn't come willingly. He took a deep breath and groaned. The headache wasn't going away. When Mike shook him impatiently, he sighed and opened his eyes.

"Dude...you okay?" Mike asked.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Raph muttered. "I fight him often enough. Why didn't I see that was a feint? Ow..."

"Well, that's what he's best at," Don said. "How's your head?"

"Still attached," Raph said. He took a deep breath. "I guess that's it. He didn't really fight us before but now...did you see the way his eyes changed?"

"Yeah, man, I totally thought he was gonna cut you open."

Donatello nodded. "I don't have the equipment to check brain waves, but I'm willing to bet that if his DNA is changing, then his neural pathways might be severely altered by now."

"How bad?" Raph asked.

"Obviously higher brain functions have been affected. From what we saw...he could be farther gone than I thought."

"Whoa, wait a second," Raph said. "If that's true, then how come Leo ain't trying to rip us apart? I mean, he knocked me out but he didn't kill me. "

"Maybe not, but he's worse than before." Donatello looked up at him. "I mean, he did just knock you senseless to get after Shredder. It could be he's felt like this for awhile, he just didn't want to hurt us. From the way he zones out during practice, I'd hypothesize that he submerged his lust for blood and only gave into it when he was alone."

"And now he's got a real enemy he can kill," Raph mumbled. "Hell, we even encouraged him."

"His feeder instincts will drive him to kill Shredder, but if he lapses too far into that mindless state, Saki will make quick work of him." Don exhaled and leaned against the wall. "His only chance is to keep a hold on himself long enough to survive his fight with Shredder and get away."

Raphael thought that over for a moment, then shook his head. "No way. He'll cut through so many foot ninja that he'll be too caught up in killing. His emotions'll run away with him. He'll lose if we don't get there in time." He cracked his knuckles and stared up at the dark foot tower. "Can you call up Splinter?"

"Yeah, sure," Donatello said, and took out his shellcell. After a few seconds, he had Splinter on the screen, as well as April and Casey looking over their master's shoulders. "Master Splinter? We kind of have a problem."

Raphael leaned on Donatello's shoulder and looked at the screen. "Leo's gone inside foot headquarters. I think it's a trap. We're about to go in and get him."

Splinter's eyes widened, but Casey beat him to the punch.

"What? Are you guys nuts? Last time you went in with April on the computer and Splinter was with ya and there was four of you, not three!"

"We don't have a choice," Raph started, then shook his head. "Look, I ain't got time to explain. We can't wait for help. I just needed to let you know what's going on."

"Raphael, your face," April said, reaching toward the screen as if she could touch him through it. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." Raph rubbed his bruised eye. "Just lost an argument with Leo's fist, that's all. We'll be home before the night's out. I promise."

"Raphael...be careful," Splinter said. "We don't know how the clan has changed. You must be prepared for anything. And you must protect your brothers."

"I will," Raph said, "all of 'em. See you in a few hours, master." He clicked off the phone and handed it back to his brother. Still shaking off the headache, he took the fire escape on the side of the building and led his siblings down to street level, hugging the shadows all the way to the base of the tower.

Instead of the bloody chaos he expected, the front lobby was empty. It seemed like the office was simply open late for the night shift. He even expected a janitor to cross in front of the glass windows at any moment. "This is the right place, right?"

"This is where the elite was headed," Don said, "and it's the old headquarters. Maybe Leo's inside somewhere?"
"If Shredder took all this trouble," Mike said, "and it really is a trap, he wouldn't spring it in the lobby. He'd probably lure him in and jump him halfway up."

Raph looked at his brother in surprise. "Mike, you've been hiding a brain in that hard head."

Mike grinned.

Once they were sure the lobby was empty, they came through the doors and scanned the room for alarms, the buzz of tech ninjas, anything. The security cameras in the corners swept back and forth and the air conditioner hummed quietly, but they were alone.

"Weird. The lights are on," Mike said. "But no one's home."

"Leo's probably keeping them all busy," Raph said. "Don, any way of knowing which way to go?"

No answer.

"Yo, Donny?" He turned and found his brother standing by one of the closed doors. He stepped beside him and looked at him.

Donatello stared at the door leading to the stairway, watching a small puddle of blood spread out from under the door. Setting a hand on his brother's shoulder, Raphael nodded at him and opened the door. The secretaries, clients and employees all lay in a tangled heap at the foot of the stairs. After a few seconds, Raphael realized that he couldn't tell where one body began and another started not because they were in a jumble, but because they were in large pieces. The secretary's legs ended where the business man's torso started. Blood trickled down the staircase, dripping off the steps and railing like a slow fountain.

"Oh yeah," Mike said softly, "he's keeping 'em busy all right."

Careful not to slip, Raphael walked across the floor and knelt by the pile, poking his sai tip under an arm and lifting it a few inches. Mike winced and turned around while Donatello kept his hand on his shoulder to steady himself. Something metallic tumbled out onto the floor, and Raphael picked up a shuriken.

"Yup, definitely a trap," he said. "Leo beat her to the throw."

At the top of the stairwell, lights started clicking off one by one down each floor, until the foyer turned dark and every light went out of the building. Red emergency lights came on a moment later, but their power was obviously running low and flickered unsteadily. The stairway was more dark than light, and the blood glistened as it crept across the floor.

"The game," Mike whispered.

"Huh?" Don asked.

"The darkness, the blood...it's the game." Mike looked at him. "He's recreating the game."

They looked at each other for a moment, then slowly started their way up.

On the fifth floor, Leo watched the computer screen go dark. He didn't have Donatello's genius or even a basic understanding of the electrical gadgetry in the security room. He simply knew that if you cut enough wires, eventually the most complicated systems will become scrap. A little dismayed when the red emergency lights came on, he sighed and stretched. The last time he'd been in this tower, he'd felt excited. Now he felt empty, as if he'd been awake too long but couldn't fall asleep.

Something was wrong. He could feel it inside, like a worm chewing through his brain. Donatello had said something about changing on the roof, but he didn't remember it. It was something bad, he figured that much. And he couldn't stop the images in his head of his brothers butchered on the floor. He pressed a hand over his eyes as he shuddered, smearing his face with blood, but by now he hardly noticed any more blood. The hallways weren't dripping yet but the splatters of his kills had left him and the walls drenched.

Footsteps echoed towards the room. Time to go. He turned, pushing aside the bodies still seated at the console, and walked towards the door, dragging one sword on the ground so that it scraped, reminding him of a screamer's shriek. A handful of foot soldiers came at the door. One head, one arm, two sets of intestines and one upper torso plopped to the ground. A copper smell filled the hall as blood pumped out of the severed limbs. The ninja now missing an arm fell against the wall and screamed for several seconds. By the time Leo reached the end of the hallway, the screams had stopped.

After all the anticipation, Shredder's ninjas turned out to be a disappointment. Even the elites he could kill in a few seconds. If Shredder hadn't improved, he might make it home without a scratch. Not a drop of the blood covering him was his.

On the far end of the hall, a door flew open and he turned, expecting a dozen throwing stars to fly his way. Instead he spotted Raphael with Don and Mike behind him, all of them mesmerized by the amount of dead humans in his wake. He watched as they looked up and spotted him, and for a moment they simply stared at each other, Leo in frustration that he just couldn't ditch his younger brothers, his siblings in a mixture of concern and shock. Then Raphael started walking towards him, his look promising that he'd drag Leo out if he had to. Before they could catch up to him, he headed for the second stairwell just a few feet away. Behind him, he heard them whisper and heard their footsteps splashing through blood, and for a moment he wondered what he looked like to them, dragging one sword, head tilted slightly, a dark silhouette in a red field.

Once inside the stairwell, he shut the door and picked up one of the severed arms nearby, jamming it into the door's broad handle. A few seconds later the handle pushed on the arm, nearly breaking the stiff fingers, but the door would not open. Leo looked through the small glass window at Raphael. The red lights made his brother look as blood-soaked as himself, but the light also made his red bandanna glow. Added to his sibling's glare, Raphael looked like an enraged demon. His voice, muffled through the thick steel, sounded like he was underwater as he pounded against the door.

Time to go up again. He made sure to make plenty of noise as he climbed the stairs, drawing ninjas away from the main hallways and concentrating their attack on the stairs. Part of him did this to keep them away from his brothers. Part of him did it to keep a steady stream of people to kill and add to the blood flowing down the steps. It reminded him of a zen watergarden, with timed drips and groans echoing behind him.

The floors passed by in a blur. Everyone facing him wore a mask, making it easier to lose track of how many he'd killed. He felt almost like he was killing the same ninja over and over again.

Almost like his dreams, this heaven and hell wrapped up in a red stairwell. Felix and Chanta weren't here but he didn't need them, didn't even want companions on this trip. This was far more enjoyable on his own. He was beyond his enemies' abilities and he had an endless supply of bodies to kill, two for every step. He left them draped over the railing, sprawled on the steps, in heaps at each floor, and often tossed one or two down the center to fill the well with their screams until the crunch at the bottom echoed back up to him. One foot soldier came at him so fast he didn't have time to cut but rather raised his sword and ran it through his enemy's stomach, straining to hold him upright as the body sagged. Blood gushed over his hands and he stared into his eyes as the light left them, slowly turning into doll's eyes. He kicked the body off of his sword and stepped over it, heading for the next floor.

And then he was forced to stop. Someone had stacked heavy bricks and wreckage in his path, blocking off the next flight of stairs. He grabbed a broken pipe jutting out of the pile and yanked, but nothing moved. He tried to look around it and found it went up to the ceiling and around to the next floor. Nothing to do but enter this door. He figured there had to be another stairway or elevator or, if worse came to worse, a ventilation shaft. That he was being herded didn't bother him.

The slaughter continued. With the red lights and their black outfits, they looked like wraiths with white eyes. Two heads fell to the floor while blood spurted from the sliced arteries a few seconds before the bodies fell. A severed arm. Cut eyes. Slit throat. Spilling intestines. He intentionally slashed a ninja's chest and spun him around, splashing the walls and floor.

The corridor ended in an dark doorway. He went inside, not bothering to search along the wall for a lightswitch. The red glow from the hall reflected off long canisters in neat stacks. He walked further in, listening for any movement.

The door shut and the lock clicked. As he turned, bright lights came on, turning the room a dazzling white. He winced and put one hand over his eyes, and now that he couldn't see, he heard a soft hiss. He couldn't tell where it came from so he forced his eyes open, peering into the glare. A large mirror hung on the opposite wall. The rest of the room was filled with silver canisters as tall as himself. He figured that was where the hissing was coming from and he took a step towards them, intent on turning them off and then finding getting out. His heart started pounding and he grew lightheaded. He had to get out of here, every minute he stayed still let his brothers get higher up--

"Leo, where the hell are you!"

Raphael's voice? How on earth? That was impossible, his brothers should never have made it this high up so fast. He found himself torn between wanting to protect his siblings and wanting to hide so they couldn't force him home. If any of them managed to grab him, there was no way he could fight back. He stepped close to the locked door, hesitating. He had killed all the ninjas on this floor, right?

Screams. His brothers were screaming in pain, calling for him over the din of crashing steel. He grabbed for the door handle only to find it had no handle. With a sick lurch in his stomach, he pushed as hard as he could on the door, pounding on it as Mike's screams turned to a blood-drowned gasp. Donatello hit the door hard and fell silent. Raphael's scream turned into groan suddenly cut short. And Leo stopped breathing when he saw blood trickling in under the door.

Cold and shivering, he touched his hand to the puddle to see if it was real. His hand left a print that quickly filled in again. He backed away quickly, watching the blood spread across the floor. He couldn't breathe. He tried to gasp, to scream, make a sound, anything. Instead he trembled and fell to his knees, unable to look away. God no, not possible, they can't be, no no no no no--

He finally found his voice and screamed.

Only a few feet away, on the other side of the two-way mirror, Saki stood and watched, tilting his head as Leonardo reacted to whatever he'd seen. He couldn't imagine what had driven the turtle to such an outburst, but it satisfied him to watch. He reached up and touched his throat, lightly running his fingers over the faint scar, the only evidence of his decapitation. The headless elite in the alleyway had not gone unnoticed. No one toyed with the Shredder. No one.

But Leonardo was calming now, he noticed. Whatever hallucinations his trap had spawned, his enemy was slowly collecting himself. He tightened his hands into fists. Let the turtle fight his way up another few floors. They'd have their fight soon enough, though it cost him dear in soldiers. This vicious fighting was new to his enemies, and he wondered what had prompted the black mask, but no matter. He'd have to remember to ask before he killed him.

As Saki planned his duel with an emotionally shaken ninja, Leonardo's shaking ceased as if he'd flipped a switch in himself. He raised his head and breathed normally. Shredder couldn't see his eyes under his mask but they were blank, unseeing. Leonardo no longer needed them. And as he stood up, grasping his katana less like a sword and more like a long claw, he heard someone breathing on the other side of the mirror. He tilted his head back, popping a few joints, then turned.

TBC...