Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Places ❯ 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Part 3

Only three turtles met Splinter at breakfast. The feeling of disappointment was tangible. Wordlessly Mike dug out the leftovers, heated Splinter's rice and served it all on the table, glancing at all of them as he sat down. All of them ate quietly, looking sometimes at the empty chair or at the doorway to Leo's room. The hurt of the past three months lifted, but this new feeling stung. The reunion they'd imagined wasn't happening.

"Is he awake yet?" Donatello asked in a low voice.

"Oh yeah," Raph said. He rubbed his sore jaw again, still bruised. "I don't think he went back to sleep after last night."

"You saw him?" Mike asked. "Did he say anything?"

"Yeah..." Raph grumbled and looked down. Leo hadn't made him promise not to tell, but it felt like a breach of trust anyway. "He told me a little. About that bad place."

Splinter put his bowl down and stared. "What did he tell you?"

"That it was a bunch of hallways full of creatures that him and two other people were killing, and that they were trying to find a way out." He looked at his master. "You shoulda' seen him. I've never seen him look the way he did when he talked about it."

"I heard fighting last night?" Splinter asked, but his tone said he already knew.

"He started it," Raph said and winced at how that sounded. "I mean he asked if I wanted to see if he'd gone soft."

Mike leaned forward before Splinter could reply. "Has he?"

"He's not as strong but he's faster," Raph said, shaking his head. "Put me on the ground in a couple of minutes." A thought struck him and he looked up. "Hey, has he eaten anything since he got back?"

Mike shrugged. "I didn't see anything out the first night."

"I'll ask him," Don said, pushing his empty plate aside. "I wanna make sure he's okay, too."

His tail tip twitching, Splinter nodded and stood up. "Very well. When you are done, tell him to come to my room afterward. I wish to speak to him."

Donatello nodded and left, heading upstairs. He peered inside Leonardo's room and found it quite dark. "Leo, you awake?" he whispered. There was no answer for a minute.

"...yes. You can turn on the light if you want."

After feeling along the wall for the switch, Don found it and flipped it on. His brother sat at the far end of the room beside his low table, shielding his eyes until they adjusted to the light. A layer of dust covered everything and he wished he'd cleaned the place regularly. They hadn't thought about such a little detail in the last few months. He walked across the room, painfully aware of the sound of his steps, and sat down at the table's corner. "You okay? Your eyes--"

"I'm all right. Just not used to the light yet." Leo sat with one leg out, one bent with his arm draped over the knee, head down. He'd found another bandana to replace the one they'd thrown away. "They send you to check on me?"

"Not quite." He gave his brother a quick look over for anything he might have missed before.

"You don't have examine me," Leo said without looking up. "I'm not hurt."

"Um, okay. Have you eaten anything yet?"

--they came around a corner and five of them, things on two legs with white hairless skin, dug their claws into the four legged gray thing to hold it down and ripped chunks off with sharp teeth. Blood spattered the walls and, headless, it screamed as its back legs were stripped to bones and it screamed--

"I'm not hungry."

"But you--"

"Not. Yet."

Shot that down. There might as well have been a wall between them. Don wondered what was so interesting about the damn floor. Three months and he couldn't spare a glance at him, couldn't act at least a little relieved to be home? He stared at the emotionless thing he wanted to call his brother. Rage, tears, depression, anything for God's sake, but not this automaton with Leonardo's face.

"What is it?" Donatello asked, not really sure what he was asking. He thought he was asking Leo what was wrong, but his brother seemed to take it differently.

"Taking the weight back."

The answer came in a whisper but in the quiet room, it sounded loud. Donatello frowned. What weight? "Huh?"

Leo didn't answer for a moment. Then he smiled and laughed once, humorlessly. "Nothing." He closed his eyes. "Raph told you?"

"About where you were?" Donatello nodded and glanced away, nervous even though his brother wasn't watching. "Yeah, something about hallways full of monsters, and two other people."

"That's it?" Leo looked up at him with wide eyes. "Nothing else?"

Stung that his brother was only looking up in surprise and not because he'd missed him over three months, Donatello frowned. "You wanna tell me what he left out?"

"Not really." Leo shook his head and sighed, back to looking at the floor. "Damn, did he even listen to most of it? Or maybe..." A long shot, but maybe Raph didn't want to betray what he thought was a confidential discussion. Figured, the first time he wanted his sibling to explain things to them in his place, Raph grew some ethics and kept it to himself.

"Well, if you won't talk to me, Splinter wants to see you in his room." Don didn't try to hide the frustration in his voice as he stood up and went to leave. "He's probably there waiting."

Wincing, Leo called his brother's name. When Donatello stopped and turned, Leo didn't look up but spoke to him anyway.

"Don, I..." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I can't. Not yet. I need more time..."

"...I'll tell Splinter--"

"No, not about that." Leonardo clenched his hands into fists, concentrating as if he fought to form each word. "I can't be like...like I was. Not yet."

In his mind Donatello kicked himself. His older brother had gone through something traumatic and here he was expecting him to bounce back, no problems, happy to be here and boy do I have a story for you. How much more insensitive could he be? "It's all right. I'm sorry." He smiled and shrugged. "I guess we're just so excited you're back we didn't think."

"It's all right. I'd better see him now anyway." Leo pushed himself up and walked past him, eyes lowered and arms crossed.

Donatello thought he looked like he was heading for a scolding, but dismissed it as his imagination and his brother's depression. He followed after him, jumping to the bottom floor and joining Raph and Mike at the table while Leo disappeared inside Splinter's room.

"Is he okay?" Mike asked. "He looks worn."

"He wasn't nothing like that last night," Raph said.

"That's good to know," Donatello said. "I think he's just tired. I'm sure Splinter'll be able to help. He needs time."

"Yeah," Raph said. "Kinda stupid to think he'd come back and everything would be all right, huh?"

Donatello swirled his coffee around before he finished it. Cold. "Yeah, stupid."

At least Splinter's room was dark. Leonardo closed the door softly and sat down in front of his master, one lit candle among many others unlit burning between them. One of their training exercises had been to snatch the candle from Splinter's hand. Now he thought he could snatch the flame from the candle itself. He watched the still flame burn until Splinter raised his head, the slight motion sending the flame twisting in panic.

"Leonardo..."

He waited, shoulders tense as he waited for the questions.

"You are uninjured?"

"...yes, master."

"Good." Splinter took a long match out of a box beside him and touched the head to the flame, sending it up in an angry hiss of smoke. One by one, he lit candles around himself, driving the darkness back. "You were gone a long time."

"I know, master. I'm sorry."

"Your brothers searched the entire city. They put themselves at great risk in their attempt to find you." The match burned lower, coming closer to his fingers. "And protected Miss O'Neil's shop from local criminals."

Leonardo raised his eyes, asking his question wordlessly. His small surprise would save him the trouble of speaking.

"Yes, it is rebuilt. She had to explain how fire insurance works." Most of the candles were lit now, and he shook the flame off the match, setting down the burned stick. "For three months, your brothers were left to themselves. Is this as it should be?"

"...no master."

"You told Raphael you searched for a way to escape."

"Yes, master."

"And revealed yourself to two humans in the process."

"No, master. It was constantly dark, light was rare and we only sighted our enemy during it." He winced as it all came in a rush, but it was true enough. "They never knew what I am."

"At least there is that, then." Splinter exhaled and a heavy weight seemed to come off his shoulders. "I am honestly relieved you are well, Leonardo, but to know so little about your absence and to have your brothers alone for so long...was tiring." His tail flipped once behind him and he lay a hand on Leonardo's shoulder. "You are their older brother. You must be here to protect them. To leave them for so long...and in such danger..."

"I'm sorry, master." Bit by bit the weight settled on his back, just as crushing as he remembered. He'd had a whole day off, though, couldn't complain. The candles burned bright around him, fire filling the air and turning the room as red as blood, dripping down the walls and Splinter's face as the flames flickered.

"I do not blame you," Splinter said. "I'm sure you returned as quickly as you could. But I am just as glad to see you are well, so you may again shoulder this responsibility. I shall bring you up to date on Miss O'Neil's situation, as that is the most pressing problem facing us. I believe that Michelangelo allowed himself to be seen on one of his runs, but as nothing has come of that yet, we may ignore it for now."

Business as usual. There was some relief in that, that he'd come through this discussion so easily. The unspoken rebuke still hung in the air but he didn't have to hear it. He listened to his master explain their recent fights with an off-shoot of the Purple Dragons, the Five Claws, and how they'd manage to only drive them off.

"How many are there?" he asked.

"At least twenty," Splinter said. "All well armed. You see now why your brothers require your presence. April's is the only business on that street untouched, and they will certainly be back. It's been a week now. They grow bold again, having forgotten the pain we inflicted."

He nodded. "Then I should stay at her shop. If activity increases, I can call you while still protecting April."

Splinter hesitated a moment. "I agree, but I think you'd best remain here a few days, re-center yourself. There is time yet and you should rest."

Recognizing the dismissal, Leonardo nodded once and stood to leave. The scent of smoke followed him out. He didn't even consider joining his brothers (who all looked up, faster than before but still their reaction time was too slow, they should be training) at the table or even snatching something out of the fridge--

--Felix fired before the door even opened all the way--

but went back to his room, turning off the lights as he went. He had an order to rest and he would take advantage of it. Sleep would take him back to the endless maze from the time he closed his eyes until he opened them again, but he could lie on his bed and watch the light from downstairs send shadows waving across the ceiling.

TBC...

*

1. I thank you for the reviews. I save each one and often reread them.

2. Things will indeed quicken. Things will get much worse and much better, all at once in different ways. But this slow pace is necessary for the next few chapters.