Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

An old rusty car flew over Donnie’s head, barely just scraping by his goggles as he flipped back and landed in a well practised crouch. Sigh. Mondays.

“Woah—!” Mikey cartwheeled over to his side, his breath heavy. “With all these cars Repo's throwing, it feels like we're in some kind of boss battle!” 

Donnie couldn't help but agree with his little brother. These cars just kept coming and coming. It was getting old. Then again, they were in the junkyard, so what else had Donnie been expecting? At least that giant mantis cat wasn't out. 

He heard the scoff of his blue adorned twin across the clearing, flipping his mask tails back with his usual dramatic flare. “Yeah, if it was level one!” Leo danced around Repo, taunting him as he weaved in and out of his punches. Repo was obviously getting mad.

“Damn turtles! I’m gonna—” 

Leo cut him off with a smug grin, “What? Dice us up? Hand us our own rears, so to speak? Come on! Give us something we haven’t heard before!” 

Another car hurtled through the air, only this time it was aimed at Repo. Donnie followed the trail of where the car came from with his eyes, and just as he suspected, Raph was standing there. “Leo! Will you take this seriously please?” Despite Leo being their leader, Raph still often took up his usual older brother responsibilities and kept him in check. Donnie figured there were just some things you can't change. 

Leo laughed and effortlessly dodged a swipe from Repo. “Oh come on, we've fought Repo plenty of times before! Can’t we at least have a little fun with it?” 

At that, Donnie piped up. “Uh, yeah, only this time my precious baby is on the line!” He stood up and brushed dust off himself. “Give me back my Shell Hog!”

Repo turned to Donnie and glared at him. “Hey, that Moon Buggy was mine before you damn terrapins took it from me. I’m just takin’ back a piece of what was mine.”

Leo scoffed. “Dude, that was, like, forever ago.” 

“Five years, seven months, three weeks and four days ago.” Everyone paused and stared at Donnie, even Repo, to which Donne just shrugged. “Give or take.”

“Man, how do you even keep track of that?” Leo muttered. 

“Well, I says who cares? I found that bike fair and square. Finders keepers.”

“Then you clearly haven’t met me. ” Donnie spun his bō around, feeling his ninpo flare up and that familiar sense of mystic power he’d come to love. Power made possible from his family. 

The designs came easily, and he conjured up a rocket to whack straight at Repo in the face. No one came between him and his tech. Donnie would rather die before he let Repo get his dirty mitts on his precious bike.

Repo narrowly dodged the flying missile and it exploded a junk pile somewhere off in the distance. Raph stuttered and shot a look over to his younger brother. “Donnie!” 

“What? I warned him.” 

“Not really!”

“Yeesh, remind me not to get on your bad side.” Leo murmured, leaping over to him as they all converged together once more to face Repo, who was preparing to throw another car. Just as Donnie expected. Man, this guy was predictable. 

Donnie smirked at his twin. “Too late for that.”

Leo rolled his eyes at him, but there was a smile on his face. With all the insults they threw at each other and all the bickering over nothing, Donnie knew that deep down, he’d do anything for Leo. For all his siblings, of course, but the bond he had with Leo was just different. Special, as cheesy and lame as that sounds. Yeah, there’s no way he’d ever say any of that out loud, but he didn’t have to. He knew Leo understood, and that Leo would easily do the same for him. 

Okay Donatello, enough sappiness. Back to reality.

Repo threw another car and growled, “I'm gonna repossess yer shells, ya no good deadbeats!” 

The turtles all swiftly dodged out of the way, and Leo used his momentum to bounce off a mountain of junk and back at Repo.

“What did the barber say to the guillotine? Just a little off the top!” He sliced his katana through the air and cut off the top of Repo's hair. An improvement, Donnie would say. His hair was awful. 

Raph watched Leo’s movements with mild disapproval. “Was that really necessary, Leo?” But all Leo did in reply was laugh and shrug. 

Repo's raptorial claws frantically grabbed at the now empty space where his hair once was. “What?! No! Damn stinkin’ turtles!” Repo shouted, obviously pissed now, and threw a car straight at Leo, who was only now turning around to see it.

Donnie slid over to his twin and spun his bō, urging his ninpo to create a shield of some kind. His powers faltered and for a split second Donnie thought they were going to be crushed, but his ninpo soon rightened itself and the shield easily deflected the car, causing it to crash into a rusty pile of who knows what.

Leo straightened up and huffed. “Thanks for the save, Don.”

“Don't mention it.” Donnie stood up and they fist bumped, though Donnie didn’t feel like celebrating. His ninpo failed. Again. It was a pattern he’d noticed in all his brothers as much as himself. Raph’s larger forms of red weren’t always as big, Mikey’s chains and fire not burning as bright, Leo’s portals not even working half the time, and Donnie’s own powers occasionally flickering. It reminded Donnie of when his brothers first got their mystic weapons, inexperienced and just stumbling around in the dark until something worked. It felt like forever ago.

Donnie hated it. He hated that his own powers were now something that was unpredictable, that he himself was becoming an unknown variable in combat. That all of them were. They’d all gotten so used to their ninpo now that it would take a long time to get used to the idea of no longer having mystic enhancements.

Donnie had a few theories as to why their powers were going all loopy, but one of them seemed most likely, the most obvious. Their powers had only started playing up when Dad got sick.

Donnie was dragged from his thoughts when he heard Mikey gasp, and he turned to see him point. “Repo's getting away!” 

“So long, shell-heads!” Repo called back before ducking around one of the giant piles of junk.

Before Donnie could start running after him, Leo was already doing so. He smirked at his brothers and dashed past them, unsheathing his other katana. “Not if I have anything to say about it! And, let's face it, when don't I have something to say? Portal ahoy!”

Donnie face palmed. “What did I say about only using ‘ahoy’ for ship based adventures?!” 

But Leo had already disappeared in a flash of electric blue light, and he was gone. Donnie sighed. “Typical. As always, it’s up to the brains of this team to—”

“I got it, Dee!” 

Before Donnie even knew what was happening, Mikey zoomed past him and spun around in a wide circle of fire. He whipped his chains out to swing around a pole jutting out from the ground and flew around the corner shouting, “Whiporama!”

Donnie and Raph hurried after their extravagant little brother, hearing a cry and a loud thud. Once they rounded the corner, Donnie’s tense shoulders relaxed at the sight. “Or I guess that works too.”

Mikey had Repo chained up face first on the ground, and was standing over him victoriously. He had a bit of a smug grin on his face, something he definitely picked up from Leo.

“Nice one, Mikey!” Raph walked over and crouched down in front of Repo, grabbing the chains to haul him into a sitting position. “Now. To deal with you, ” Raph muttered, cracking his knuckles.

Donnie sat beside him, grabbing the chains and pulling Repo to his face. “Where the hell did you put my baby?!” 

Repo leaned away from Donnie’s furious expression and scowled. “I didn’t do nothin’. I was simply returning what was already mine.”

Donnie just rolled his eyes. “As I previously stated, my fellow brother in orange and I got that Moon Buggy from you fair and square five years ago, and I, being the genius I am, converted it into the Turtle Tank. Anything associated with it is mine. ” Donnie leaned in close again, intending to strike fear into him. “And no one gets away with taking my tech.”

Before Donnie could beat Repo to a pulp right there and then, Raph picked him up by the battle shell and stood him away from Repo. Donnie didn’t protest, he just kept a hard glare on Repo and crossed his arms. He trusted his older brother probably had a better idea than borderline maiming. But if not… it was still an option. For Donnie, at least.

“Alright Repo, you heard my brother, where’s the Shell Hog?”

“Yeah, you can’t separate bikes, you know. They’re like two halves of the same pizza. You can’t just have one without the other. That’s criminal!” Trust Mikey to turn this into something somewhat poetic, Donnie thought with mild amusement. Even if it was about pizza.

“But most importantly, they are mine!” Donnie took a breath and laced his fingers together. “So I would greatly appreciate it if you returned this other half to me,” he said through gritted teeth, forcing a smile on his face. 

Repo went to say something, but he caught the look on Raph’s face behind Donnie, and thought better of it. “Fine. I’ll give ya back yer precious bike. On one condition.”

Raph sighed, already growing tired of this. Donnie could relate. “What?”

“You give me back that Moon Buggy.”

“Again with the Moon Buggy?! That’s it, I’m getting out the disposal unit—”

Donnie flailed around as Raph picked him up and held him in the air, looking calm as ever. 

“Repo, you know that’s not happenin’—Donnie, would you calm down?”

Donnie growled and crossed his arms again, muttering something under his breath as Raph plopped him down. He looked over to Repo and saw that Mikey had crouched to whisper something into his ear. Whatever it was, Repo clearly didn’t like it. Donnie truly admired the work of Dr. Delicate Touch at the best of times.

Repo went to say something again but hesitated, before suddenly finding his voice when Mikey tightened the chains. “Alright! Alright… I’ll give you back the stupid bike. It’s over there.” Repo nodded his head behind him, but before Donnie could sprint in that general direction, something Mikey said made him pause.

“Wait, how do we know you won’t just keep trying to steal it in the future? I mean, this is the fourth time.”

Donnie hummed and brought a hand to his chin. “You’re not wrong there, Angelo… Ah! I know!” Donnie summoned a mechanical arm from his battle shell and took out a piece of paper with blocks of text and a dotted line at the bottom. Another mechanical arm came out and gave Donnie a pen, which he clicked a few times just for good measure. “If you would just sign this form to declare you will not touch any of our property again, we will be on our merry way.”

Raph frowned at Donnie, glancing at the document in his hand. “Don, where the hell did you find the time to whip that up so fast?”

“Oh, I keep multiple forms and drafts for a plethora of occasions.”

“Quick question: Why? ” 

“Why not, my dear Raphala? You never know.” Donnie shot his confused older brother a smirk before crouching in front of Repo and narrowing his eyes. “You’re lucky my brothers are on the side of peace,” he muttered and nodded at Mikey to release Repo from his chains. 

Mikey nodded back and whirled his mystic chains away from Repo, who grumbled and grabbed the document from Donnie’s hand, taking out some glasses from his back pocket and reading over the fine print. 

Donnie suppressed a smile at the action, because it reminded him of Dad whenever he’d show him something he had to read, or if Mikey and Leo tried to show him a meme on their phones. Donnie felt an uncomfortable pang in his chest. Dad… 

He shook his head and focussed on the moment right now. Head in the game, Othello. You have to get your Shell Hog back. 

Repo frowned and looked back up to Donnie, taking the glasses off. “This says you’ll have free reign of the yard and can take anything you ‘so desire’,” he quoted with great irritation.

Ignoring the glare he received from Raph, Donnie simply shrugged. “Yes, a reasonable request, if you ask me.”

“It’s not like you don't come ‘ere and steal anything you want anyway…” Repo mumbled, putting his glasses back on and reading through it again.

“Yes, but, at least this way it’s legal.”

When there were no protests against his words, no back chat or any snarky comment, Donnie felt… strange. He expected as much from one of his brothers by now, saying how dumb this was or that none of this really felt legal, but it never came. Before Donnie could think about it for too long, Repo gave a heaving sigh and held out a raptorial. 

“Gimme the damn pen…”

Hissing a victorious “Yessss” Donnie gladly gave Repo the pen to sign the form. His hold on it looked awkward, but he seemed to be managing just fine. Years of practice, Donnie concluded. 

But not enough practice, it seemed, because his signature was messily scrawled along the dotted line. Still legible, however, so Donnie didn’t really care. Repo shoved the form back to Donnie and he safely tucked it back into his battle shell so he could file it away in the lab when they got home. “Thankyou for your cooperation.” Donnie couldn’t help the air of smugness to his tone, which Repo did not appreciate, only making Donnie’s smirk grow.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now grab what yous came to get an’ scram. I got work ta do.” He waved a claw at the three of them (wait… three?) and he walked off, eyeing Mikey suspiciously before rounding the corner. 

Raph crossed his arms and shook his head, an amused smile on his face. “Raph’s gotta hand it to ya Donnie, I got no clue how you got Repo to sign a contract, but ya did.”

Donnie put his hands on his hips and beamed. “Haha! There is nothing my superior intellect can not accomplish. Though, I have to ask…” He glanced over to his younger brother and raised an angular brow. “What did you say to Repo to have him so spooked?”

At that, Mikey smiled innocently, but there was a clear mischievous glint in his eye. “Oh, nothing really. I just told him that if he didn’t give us back the Shell Hog, we have so much dirt on him we could send him to the Hidden City jail for years and have him go out of business.” 

Donnie laughed and slung an arm around Mikey, feeling warm in his chest when his little brother leaned into the touch. Somedays, touch was the single worst thing ever, but today Donnie was feeling okay. Especially since it’s with his family. “Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that. I mean, give me one dedicated afternoon and a shot of caffeine and I’m sure I’d be able to find enough that’d have him behind bars for life.” 

Raph watched his two laughing brothers with mild concern. “Guys, c’mon. You can’t just blackmail people. It ain’t right, and certainly not what a hero would do.”

“Aw man, Raph said the thing and we don’t even have pizza.” MIkey muttered, leaning away when Donnie took his arm off him, who decided that was enough touch for now. 

“We can always go to Huesos and get some…?” Donnie suggested, pulling out his phone.

“Wait, you guys are still on about that?!” Raph groaned and slumped over. “You’re never gonna let Raph live that down, are you?”

Mikey smiled warmly at his older brother and nudged his arm with an elbow. “Nope!”

As Mikey and Raph kept talking, Donnie smiled and listened to the background noise, but something wasn’t sitting well with him. He distracted himself with his phone for the moment, but there was a clear absence, something that made him feel… weird. It didn’t feel right.

“Hey, where’s Leo?”

Mikey’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked up from his phone. His tone was so casual, so light. A general question with no undertones of worry or concern. It only made the pit in Donnie’s stomach grow, and he had no idea why.

Raph shrugged. “Last I saw him, he portalled himself to Repo. Only…” Raph trailed off and frowned. “Huh. He never came back.”

Mikey laughed a little and started walking in the direction of the Shell Hog, resting his hands behind his head. “What’s the bet he portalled himself to Tahitti this time?” 

At that, Raph smiled, his worry line disappearing with a chuckle. “Or maybe he even poofed off to Paris again, remember that?”

Donnie gave a slight smile and a hesitant nod. “Ha, yeah…” He knew how unconvincing he sounded, but thankfully the others didn’t seem to notice. Donnie inhaled sharply and willed himself not to worry as he followed his brothers through the junkyard and to the Shell Hog.

Raph took his phone out and started typing something. “Y’know what? That talk of pizza has Raph hungry. I’ll let Leo know we’re at Run of the Mill for when he gets back.”

“Only question is, what pizza do we order? Our frequent buyers card is full and we get a free pizza! We gotta choose the right one…” Mikey brought a hand to his face in thought.

Donnie trailed behind his brothers as they debated what pizza they should get, and he tapped at his tech-gauntlet. He wasn't worried. Psh, no, of course not. He was just checking Leo’s location so he could tease him about it accurately for when he got back. Yeah. Totally…

Donnie brought up the hologram and saw all his family's trackers. Himself, Raph and Mikey were at the junkyard (obviously), April was at the lair with Casey Jr. and Dad. Since Cassanndra was now considered family, Donnie had tried to put a tracker on her, but she simply evaded him every step of the way. Even in her sleep, she was karate chopping his hand away! It frustrated him to no end, but he’d decided to just leave her be. For now, at least. 

Everything seemed normal enough, so he zoomed out, but… Leo’s tracker wasn’t showing up. Donnie scoffed, blaming his twin for this inconvenience and he reloaded the screen. Again. And again. And again. And again. And—okay, this was going nowhere. Was Donnie’s tech malfunctioning?

Ha! Of course not, Donnie shoved the mere thought of it away. His tech was flawless, his designs beyond their time. Okay, his tech wasn’t bugging out, so what else could it be?

Perhaps Leo’s location had a bad signal, but he quickly crossed that off the list. He didn’t even know what bad signal was since he launched his own satellites, equipped with some mystic enhancements so they were hidden from the government and didn’t get shot down. 

Maybe Leo tampered with his tracker somehow? No, that wasn’t plausible. Donnie planted the trackers with the intent for them to be unnoticeable. One, for the comfort of his family, and two, so they didn’t try to remove them. They practically weren’t even there, save for the evidence on Donnie’s tech-gauntlet. 

Okay, so, had Leo’s powers messed with the tracker somehow? Donnie groaned quietly so the others couldn’t hear his frustrations as he dismissed the thought. The trackers had always worked when it came to their mystic powers, so… where the hell was his brother?

“There it is!”

This time it was Raph’s voice that pulled Donnie from his own head and he looked over to his brothers. Raph was pointing to the Shell Hog that sat among some other, totally inferior bikes off to the side of Repo’s yard. Donnie ran over and hugged the Shell Hog.

“Oh, my poor baby! He better not have scratched up your paint job with those raptorial claws of his.” Donnie hastily checked over the Shell Hog, trying to distract himself from his growing concern at his brother’s disappearance. Leo was fine. This kind of thing happened all the time and he always came back. He always came back. Leo was fine.

Raph raised a brow at Donnie. “What’re ‘raptorial claws’?” 

“They are the accurate description of Repo’s mantis claws. Y’know, these things.” Donnie held up his hands and mimicked Repo’s own ‘hands’. 

Mikey chuckled and shrugged. “I’ve always thought of them as his hand scythes.”

“Hand scythes?” Raph looked over to Mikey in amusement.

Mikey grinned and nodded. “Yeah! I mean, they kind of look like that, don’tcha think? Besides, how cool would it be to have scythe hands?” Mikey mimicked Repo’s claws and started doing little fighting poses equipped with sound effects, earning a fond laugh from his older brothers.

“I do see the vision, Micheal. But I prefer my own three fingered hands, thank you.” Donnie stood up and deposited his helmet from his battle shell. After taking his goggles off, he slid it onto his head and latched it into place. He smirked at his brothers and hopped onto the Shell Hog, revving the engine. “Race you to run of the Mill.”

Raph grinned and cracked his knuckles. “Oh, you’re on, Donnie!”

Mikey pumped a fist into the air with an excited “Woo! First one there gets to decide what kind of pizza we get!” And with that, he ran off, slinging his nunchucks out and flinging himself forward. 

Raph scoffed and hastily ran after him. “Hey! No fair!” 

“All is fair in war and pizza, my dear brother.” Donnie laughed maniacally as he revved the Shell Hog and zoomed past Raph. Listen to that baby purr. His baby. He made this. Ah, Donnie loved himself. He truly was the greatest.

Only, right now, with no one to make fun of his ego, with no one to call him stupid or say he was nothing compared to themself, Donnie felt hollow. Leo should be making fun of him. Leo should be commenting on his irrationally big ego and comparing it to his own shamelessly. Leo should be here. 

Putting the Shell Hog into auto drive, Donnie checked his tech-gauntlet again. Raph, Mikey, himself, April, Casey Jr., Splinter… but still no Leo. Donnie sighed and just tried to focus on beating his brothers to Huesos. They weren’t worried about Leo, so why should he? Leo would be fine, wherever the hell he was. Maybe Donnie’s tech was malfunctioning, but deep down, he knew it couldn’t be that. And that wasn’t just his pride talking.  

Mikey, by some miracle, had beaten them both to Huesos and had the honour of ordering a supreme with their free voucher. Donnie liked the supreme, so he wasn’t complaining. They all sat at their usual booth and talked as they ate, complimenting one another from the fight with Repo and jesting at Leo’s disappearance once more, thinking of all the most ridiculous places in the world he might be, but Donnie couldn’t join in on the conversation. It didn’t feel right, which was shocking, because he always jumped at the chance to tease Leo, but this time… he couldn’t. Instead, he just hid himself away in his phone.

His brothers seemed to notice his lack of contribution to the conversation and shared a look, probably coming to the conclusion that Donnie was getting overstimulated and they should wrap up. Donnie was thankful for that, because the background noise was slowly becoming too loud, the surrounding yokai and mutants becoming uncomfortable, so they polished off their plate and made their way to the lair, with Raph carrying the Shell Hog over his shoulders like it was nothing.

Donnie trailed behind his brothers as they walked through the sewer tunnels and he thought about notifying them of Leo’s tracker not being, well, trackable, but he decided against it. His pride wouldn’t let him, because his tech never malfunctioned. Never.

Besides, he wanted to spare Raph and Mikey of the churning pit of worry he felt in his stomach. He didn’t want to burden his brothers with such a thing, so he kept his mouth shut. Besides, Leo would be back soon. Any minute now. He never disappeared for too long, so Donnie should stop worrying. It was nothing, just something that had happened countless times before and it always worked out in the end. Always. Leo was fine. He had to be. 

Ugh, Donnie was rambling to himself. He urged his racing thoughts to calm down and he hugged himself tightly as if to ground himself to reality. He longed for his weighted blanket and the comforts of his bed. He didn’t want to go to the lab, not tonight. He just wanted to sleep his damn emotions away and wake up to Leo’s annoying voice ringing out in the lair. He’d tease him endlessly if he knew how worried Donnie was right now, so he just needed to calm down.

They made it back to the lair with no troubles and April greeted them with a smile, glad to see they’d been able to retrieve the Shell Hog. Raph, with Mikey pitching in here and there, retold the fight to her and Donnie hung back, staring off into the distance. 

(Since April graduated college, she moved in with the turtles and got her own train car room, next to Casey’s. Everyone had been so excited, and it felt so natural to have her here. She was their older sister, after all, and had basically lived in the lair before she even moved in anyway.)

Everyone soon went off to do their own thing, to get some sleep most likely, considering how late it suddenly was, and Donnie trudged off to his room. He caught a concerned look from April as he passed her, but was relieved she didn’t say anything. That girl could read him like a book most of the time. It was both a comfort and the most annoying thing ever.

Donnie slid the door of his room closed and collapsed onto his bed, groaning into the pillow. He laid there for a moment, processing the day, but eventually got up to take his gear off. He slipped his headphones on and got out his weighted blanket, instantly feeling some form of relief as the calming music played and his thoughts were whisked away with the soft tunes. 

Donnie eventually drifted into a light sleep, keeping his headphones on, but there was still a feeling of unease in his gut that wouldn’t let up. No matter how he distracted his mind with music or tried to focus on the comforting weight of the blanket over him, he just couldn’t shake the growing dread that he felt. 

Where the hell did Leo go, and why couldn’t Donnie track him?

Chapter Text

“What?! No! Damn stinkin’ turtles!” 

Oh wow, Leo really pissed him off with that one. His grin only widened all the more as he snickered at Repo’s amazing new hair cut. Should Leo become a hairstylist? He spun around and that was when he saw the car being thrown at him. Leo muttered, “Eugh boi…” under his breath. 

He could have portalled away, of course, but… he also couldn’t. It frustrated him to no end. Why wasn’t his ninpo working as it should?

Just as he was about to kiss his sorry ass goodbye, Leo’s faithful twin Donnie slid in front of him and twirled his bō staff in a blurr (show off) and created a shield in front of them before the car could turn them into pancakes. Leo watched it crash into some pile of rusted who knew what, and he turned back to Donnie with a huff. 

“Thanks for the save, Don.” 

“Don’t mention it.”

Leo held his fist out to him and Donnie bumped it with a small smile, stirring a warmth in Leo's chest. His twin always had his shell, through thick and thin, and he was endlessly grateful for it. But in that fleeting, mushy moment, he noticed how tense his brother’s shoulders were, the tightness of his smile. It seemed forced, and Leo was pretty sure he knew why. Donnie’s shield had faltered. It had been quick, but Leo had noticed it. Just as he’d noticed the changes in Raph’s and Mikey’s ninpo as well. It was subtle, but Leo had seen it, as much as he had with himself… it annoyed him that Donnie most likely knew about it too.

Leo was the leader. He was supposed to be there for his team, sure of himself and confident in his actions to give his brothers the strength they needed. So that they knew everything was going to be okay. 

Leo couldn’t let himself slip, couldn’t seem weak in front of his brothers. He knew they wouldn’t care, that they’d try to support and comfort him, but Leo didn’t want them to know. He didn’t want to burden them with his responsibilities and his internal struggles. That was his emotional junk he had to deal with, and he’d do it just fine.

“Repo’s getting away!” 

Leo turned to see where his little brother was pointing and saw that Repo was, in fact, getting away. But not if Leo could help it. He shot his signature smirk to his brothers before he shot off after Repo, unsheathing his other katana. “Not if I have anything to say about it! And, let's face it, when don’t I have something to say? Portal ahoy!” 

Leo’s ninpo felt off. It had for a while now, so this was a risky move, but he was desperate to prove himself in front of his brothers, desperate for them to see he was alright. Better than alright, he was great! No emotional baggage that he should be dealing with instead of suppressing it here!

…yeesh, if Dr. Feelings knew what his inner thoughts were, he’d lecture him about it for days. But Leo shook the thought from his head and sliced his katana through the air, feeling his ninpo surge through his body in that powerful and familiar way he loved, and he lit up in a brilliant electric blue. 

He heard Donnie say something, but couldn’t quite catch it as the portal closed off behind him and he landed on cold, hard earth. 

“Alright Repo! You—oh…” Leo looked around and realised that he was definitely no longer in the junkyard. It was dark. And grey. And really cold. Too cold… bone deep cold. He suddenly missed the sun.

“Am I in a cave…?” He muttered to no one, trailing his eyes over his surroundings. He looked up and jolted when he saw stars. Okay, not a cave. “What the…?” Was he on the moon!? He took a deep breath and exhaled. Breathable air, that was good, and also a sure sign he wasn’t on the moon, which was also good. Suffocating and dying would not be fun.

He sheathed his katana and scanned his environment once more, humming to himself. This place didn’t look like anywhere on Earth… he was surrounded by grey rock, jutting out of the ground in some places and flat in others—a faint glow was coming from one. He walked over and crouched down, his eyes widening at what he saw.

A small, blue plant looking thing was glowing softly, and when Leo glanced to the left, he saw more of the same plant. Wait… did this mean…?

He suddenly stood up and laughed. “Well, shit, Leon! You’ve really outdone yourself this time!” 

He had portalled himself to another freaking planet. How cool was that?! Sure, it wasn’t on purpose, but he still did it! He briefly wondered if it was pure dumb luck or his ninpo that zipped him to a planet where he could breathe. Leo wouldn’t be surprised if it was the work of his ninpo. It was powered by the love of his family so, in a way, they were the ones keeping him safe. Aw, how sweet. 

Leo looked at the plants again and tilted his head. Maybe he should take one of them back for Donnie to look at. He was sure his twin would have a field day examining alien plant life, and the thought of Donnie being so excited over some dumb glowing plant made Leo smile. 

He crouched back down and took a clump, or ‘sample’ as Donnie would’ve corrected him, and put it into his pouch. Some glowy stuff got on his hand and, silently praying it wasn’t toxic, he rubbed it off onto the ground before standing again. “Alright, Leo, fun’s over. Gotta get back to the fight.”

He whipped out his katana, smirking to himself when they made a noise like he was in some kind of movie, and he twirled his hands around, cracking his neck. “Whelp, bye weird planet! Gonna have to love ya and leave ya.” He slashed his katana in front of him, cleanly slicing through the air, but… nothing happened. 

Leo chuckled to himself and rolled his eyes. Maybe his portal skills weren’t as up to date as he thought they were. Memories of when he used his ōdachi for the first time flashed through his mind and he smiled. He’d grown a lot in five years. All his brothers had. “Come on, Leo. You got this.”

He rolled his shoulders and jumped on the spot a couple times, hyping himself up and he sliced through the air again with his eyes closed. He peeked an eye open after a couple seconds of silence and felt his heart flutter nervously when, yet again, nothing happened. There wasn’t even a blue spark.

“Wow, my ninpo sure has bad timing,” he muttered, ignoring the way his skin started to crawl and he cut through the air again. And again. And again. At this point, the swooshing sounds his katana made didn’t even bring him joy anymore. 

After his tenth try, Leo sighed heavily and glared at his hands. “Come on! Why won’t you work?” When he noticed the way his hands had started shaking, he looked away, taking a deep breath. Leo was alright… everything was fine. He was fine.

He exhaled and urged his mind to clear, shoving away the creeping sense of dread that grew in his stomach and he slashed again. And again. And again. And again— 

Leo let out a yell of irritation and threw his katana to the ground before he knew what he was doing. The clang that rang out on impact made him cringe and he sighed. “Damn it, Leo, get it together…” He ran his hands over his face and head, resting them behind his neck and playing with the tails of his mask. His hands needed something, anything to distract himself and keep him focussed all at once. Distract himself from the panic that threatened to overtake him, and keep him focussed on getting back to his brothers. He couldn’t lose his temper like this. It wasn’t very ‘leader like’ of him.

Leo clenched his hands into fists at his sides and took another breath, ignoring the subtle shake. His ninpo felt so far away, so unnervingly off that his attempts to delude himself were becoming less and less convincing. 

“Alright Leon, think.. clear your head…” Maybe meditation would help. Wow, Leo never thought he’d ever form those words in his head. He sounded like Raph.

But, still, he sat down on the cold, scratchy dirt like stuff beside his katana and crossed his legs. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, urging his nerves to calm the hell down so he could get a coherent thought in.

He kept taking in well practised deep breaths and exhaling again, slowly, calmly. Because he was calm. Psh, anxiety? Leo didn’t know ‘em!

Maybe he could even try to connect to his ancestors. They were always there whenever he needed a spot of leadership advice or just someone to talk to after a rough mission. They always assured him everything would be alright and knew just what to say to restore his faith in himself as a leader and a ninja. They could help him out. They were his family, after all.

Leo opened his eyes after a while—how  long, he had no idea—and groaned. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Not a single spark. No ‘Hey Leo, what’s up! It’s us, your ancesters! You’re our favourite out of all your brothers, ya know that? Anyway, what’s that you say? Your powers aren't working? Wow, what kind of leader can’t get his own thoughts together? How can you expect to lead a team if you can’t even handle yourself—’ Okay, Leo, shut up. Stop rambling.

He stood up and stretched his sore muscles. Wow, he’d been sitting down for a long time… he was surprised he’d even managed it with how hyperactive he always was. Always on the move, always tapping, fidgeting, doing something to release all the built up energy that was constantly flowing through him. 

Leo let out a soft curse under his breath when a thought came to him; who the hell was he holding back for? So he took a deep breath and just yelled it out into the vast expanse of nothing to try and make himself feel better. It helped. A little. But all he could think about was that empty space where Raph should have been scolding him for cursing in the first place. Leo sagged. Maybe it hadn’t helped. 

Leo groaned at himself before straightening up again. Having a stupid, childish outburst like that wouldn’t help things. “Come on, Leo, you’re the leader! Use that tactical brain of yours and think of a way off this cold, dusty rock,” He pep talked to himself aloud, needing to hear anything but the desolate, soundless void beyond. Eugh, that thought did not sit well with him. He suddenly felt claustrophobic, only… it was kinda the other way around? Leo was sure there was a word for it that Donnie would helpfully throw his way, but it never came.

Leo shoved his opposite-of-claustrophobia aside and tried to pinpoint exactly why his ninpo refused to cooperate. On top of that, why he couldn’t contact his ancestors. He wondered if it was a physical block, that he was too far from home to try and connect with his ancestors, too far from his family to try and use his ninpo, but that didn’t sit right with him. Surely mystic stuff transcended any real distance between him and his family, even if he was on some other alien planet. 

Alright, so not physically, but what about mentally? Emotionally even? Leo fought the urge to trap the thought and kick it to the dark corners of his mind, where he threw most things he didn’t want to deal with, and instead embraced the possibility. What had happened recently that could put him on edge? 

He thought over a few minute, dumb things at first: he’d fought with April over something meaningless (they soon made up in, like, an hour, as siblings do), Donnie had very obviously cheated in the game they were playing and with all his denials, it had put Leo in a sour mood (Dee eventually came clean though, and even offered to buy him the latest issue of Jupiter Jim as an apology), portalling here of course made him feel queasy (but his powers had been messing up before this, so, that was a no.)

Leo crossed his arms, bouncing on his feet as he was deep in thought. With all the excuses his mind offered him, he declined with a wave of his hand and moved on to the next. Nothing seemed right, not enough to throw him this far off his game anyway. But then a small, hesitant voice spoke up, and he latched onto it, feeling a gnawing dread as he realised it was the thing he’d been trying to keep out of his head for weeks now.

It’s Dad… the voice said quietly, almost like it was trying to let him down gently. Yours and your brother’s ninpo has been playing up since he got sick… Leo tapped his hand against his bicep, trying to focus on the rhythm as he let the thought continue, you’re worried about him… and you have every right to be.  

He began pacing back and forth along the cold, dusty stone. Beneath the dust, it was angled and jagged, and each step brought on a new form of dulled pain that was enough to make Leo tense. The cold seemed to seep through his feet and crawl its way up his legs, threatening to take his whole body. Leo faltered and with a gasp, the cold and the darkness became something that felt all too familiar… It all rushed over him like a relentless tidal wave.

Suddenly he was back there.

“Leo, please don't do this! Leo!”

“You're one to talk, big bro. Hero moves are totally your style.”

The intense sharp and burning pain he felt everywhere.

“Leo, please! I can't lose you again.”

“Hey, future me would be real proud of you. I'm proud of you.”

Leo couldn’t see beyond the raging storm in his mind as he fought to hug himself.

“Casey, close the portal now.”

“What? No! Let go of me!”

“Casey, PLEASE!”

He’d come to terms with it, at the time. 

“You’ve been portal chopped!”

That he was going to die. 

“You… You ruined everything! And now, my wrath will be reserved for you alone.”

To save the world.

“You think you've won, YOU WRETCHED, LITTLE PEST!”

To save New York.

“WIPE THAT GRIN OFF YOUR FACE!”

To save his family. 

Leo gulped in air, almost choking from the effort, and he collapsed to his knees. He clutched at his plastron and he felt heart thrum wildly beneath it. Nonono, damn it, not now, please not now. He gritted his teeth and screwed his eyes shut against the few pesky tears that had escaped. He was shaking uncontrollably now. How long had he been shaking for? He didn’t even know at this point. 

He hadn’t had a panic attack for months, and by god, it showed. Without Mikey’s soothing words that lulled his racing thoughts, without April’s gentle assurances that helped him come back to reality, without Raph’s big bear hugs that could squeeze him until all the anxiety and panic melted away, without Donnie’s awkward but comforting gestures of trying to distract him by rapidly info dumping about anything he could think of, this hit so much harder. So much worse.

It was such a shock to his system that he didn’t even notice the small glow emanating from his body behind his closed eyes. It was only when he felt an achingly familiar yet foreign spark within him that he opened his eyes and saw the electric blue flashes of his ninpo enveloping him, his markings glowing with an intensity Leo didn’t recognise.

His last coherent thought before he was whisked away to who knew where was a sarcastic “Eugh boi, here we go…” 

Chapter Text

Donnie stirred, lifting a heavy eyelid to be met with his dark bedroom. Groaning slightly, he shifted in his bed and sat up to rub his eyes in an effort to get rid of his dreary mood. 

His headphones had fallen off and stopped playing music at some point in the night, but he was glad they did. He didn't think sleeping with headphones on all night was a particularly good thing. He would have played music through his speakers, but there was something about his headphones delivering noise straight to his head that he found soothing. And not to mention the numerous complaints he'd surely get from Leo.

Donnie tensed and he shot up out of bed.

Leo.

Where was he? Did he come home last night? Was he alright? 

Worried thoughts bombarded Donnie's groggy brain as he stumbled out of his room and into the main area. Silence. That wasn't good. Especially in this household. Then again, Donnie often awoke earlier than his brothers, so maybe he shouldn't be ringing any alarms just yet. 

Donnie cautiously made his way through the lair, walking up the stairs two at a time and heading for the kitchen. He relaxed slightly at the sound of familiar voices wafting over to him. But as he drew closer, he realised that these weren't the voices of casual morning conversation. Concern laced their tone, with an edge to each word spoken. 

“… and he hasn't texted at all?”

Donnie heard April's distant voice, followed by Raph's soon after. 

“Nope. Nothin’. And with that on top of him not bein’ here, well… Raph thinks something might be up.” 

Donnie didn't need to ask who they were talking about. 

He rounded the corner into the kitchen to see Raph and April sitting at the island bench. They both looked over to him and smiled in a way that seemed warm at first glance, but Donnie still caught the tautness in their expressions. 

It seemed Mikey and Casey weren’t up yet, but that didn’t surprise him. Mikey usually slept in, and Casey never used to, but had fallen into the habit. Donnie couldn’t blame him, from all those years spent growing up in the apocalypse and needing to fight just for the chance of seeing tomorrow. Casey very well deserved his sleep ins.

Skipping his usual morning greetings and salutations, he simply walked straight over to Raph and April. “Leo didn't come home…?” 

He didn't need to ask, of course; he already knew the answer, but for all his genius he just needed this one piece of confirmation. Hey, who knew, maybe for the first time in his life (popular to contrary belief) he was wrong. Perhaps they were talking about someone else? But Donnie knew these thoughts were just those of a worried brother hoping his twin was okay. 

Raph visibly tensed and April averted her eyes. That was an answer in itself.

Still, Raph spoke up. “No, he… he hasn’t. No calls, texts, nothin’.”

Donnie released the breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. He clenched his hands into fists and silently told himself to get a grip. He needed to think this through, find the logic in the situation and open it up for discussion. 

He walked over to his two older siblings and sat down on one of the stools, lacing his fingers together. He wanted coffee, but some things were just more important.

“He hasn’t tried to call anyone else? Mikey? Casey?”

April shook her head. “Nope. I checked their phones in their rooms, there’s no messages or missed calls from Lee.”

“Hm. No one has done anything to upset him?” 

Raph shrugged. “He seemed fine yesterday.” 

“Please, Raph, this is Leo. You know how petty he can be,” April muttered, resting her chin on her hand. “But I don't think we have… we fought the other day, but it was so dumb I don't even remember what it was about. And we made up in the next hour anyway.”

“Nardo may be petty, but he wouldn't stoop to the level of disappearing and leaving us in the dark. Especially in the middle of a fight…” Donnie brought his laced hands up to rest against his mouth as he thought. 

“Yeah, that ain't like him,” Raph agreed, crossing his arms. He then perked up and looked over to Donnie with a renewed hope. Donnie felt nauseous under his stare. “Don, you have trackers on us all, right?” 

“Against our will…” April muttered, but Raph continued anyway.

“Surely you can see where he is.”

Donnie drew a sharp breath and placed his hands back onto the bench, tapping it at a pace he knew was far too quick to be casual. “Well, about that…” He mumbled something under his breath and avoided eye contact at all costs. 

April raised a brow. “Spit it out, Dee.”

Donnie sighed and ran a hand over his head. “I am unable to track him. His signal just… won't show up.” 

“What?” Mikey rushed into the room and over to his older siblings. Donnie should have known he was eavesdropping, but he was less aware of his surroundings with this damn pit of dread in his stomach. It threatened to consume him and cloud his thoughts, but he kept it at bay. For now. 

“Leo never came home? And you can't find him?” Mikey asked as he looked at Donnie, disbelief evident on his face. 

Donnie met his gaze and gave a small nod. “Affirmative. He is, somehow, off the radar.” 

Mikey hugged himself as he walked further into the kitchen to join the conversation, and April held an arm out to him. He smiled a little and went over to her, snuggling up to her as she side-hugged him. Donnie didn't know what they'd do without April. 

“Where's the feline, might I ask?” Donnie tilted his head at his little brother. Since they’d gotten Klunk three years ago, the two had been inseparable around the lair. 

“She's with Dad…” Mikey murmured, resting his head on April's shoulder and Donnie nodded. He knew animals had some kind of ‘sixth sense’ when someone was sick. Even though she was just a cat, Donnie still found her to be quite emotionally intelligent. She sure took after her owner. 

“Maybe this is foul play,” April spoke up again, bringing the conversation back to the main subject. She looked over to Raph and Donnie. “You think mystics could be involved? He might have been portal jacked.” 

Donnie shrugged. “Still doesn't explain why I'm unable to track him.”

“Someone might have messed with it? Like, a spell or something so he can't be found,” Mikey piped up from where he was still leaning into April's side.

Donnie almost scoffed at the mere suggestion. “Michael, please, I have implemented a mystic proof system into all my tech . No one could even dream of tampering with it.” 

Raph's brow furrowed, showing his worry line. “I dunno Don, they might’ve found a way. We are still pretty new to this whole mystic thing. We've only known about it for five years, but the Hidden City built their whole society around the stuff.”

Donnie grumbled a bit, but otherwise didn't protest. They did have to consider every possibility in this and, as much as Donnie hated it, his tech malfunctioning or being tampered with were two of them. He bit back a retort and just crossed his arms.

Raph rolled his eyes and looked back over to April. “Maybe we ought to check out the city today.”

April nodded, her hand rubbing Mikey's arm. “Sounds like a plan. I'll bat down every door necessary to find Leo.” She had a glint in her eye that Donnie knew all too well, and he was sure she meant every word.

“Let's not be too hasty, O'Neil. We can't just run around the entire Hidden City and bang on every door in hopes that Leo is down there. We need a plan of attack,” Donnie pointed out, raising a drawn brow at her. 

It was April's turn to grumble, but she nodded. “I guess you're right, Dee.”

Donnie smirked. “To no one's surprise.”

“Don't make me swing my bat at you. ” 

“Guys, c'mon.” Raph held up his hands in front of them and sighed. “Alright. Plan of attack. We can do this.”

“Strategy is always Leo's thing…” Mikey murmured in a small voice. Donnie knew that in contrast to all his teasing yesterday, Mikey was really starting to worry now. 

“How ironic… The person we're searching for has the very skill we need,” Donnie muttered, but even as he spoke those words he shrunk in on himself a little. The gap where Leo should've been was way too noticeable. Without his big, bright personality to warm the room, it felt cold. Tricks of the mind, Donnie knew, but it still unnerved him. 

Raph shook his head. “We’ll be fine. Raph’ll take up leadership until we can find Leo. Now.” He clapped his hands together and grinned. “Game plan.” 

Donnie was a dark blur over the rooftops in the mystic city, his movements precise and well calculated from years of training. Of course, he didn’t need to keep out of the public’s eye, this was the Hidden City after all, he was among his people. But, he and his brothers had grown quite the reputation around here from their many escapades over the years and he was not in the mood for being recognised and gawked at like some kind of celebrity. You couldn’t have an epic family related mystic battle in the palm of the Crying Titan without word getting around. Let alone save the entirety of New York from an alien invasion.

He leapt onto an old shed and surveyed the docks below him. He and the others had decided it would be best to split up, since they could cover more ground this way. Raph and Casey (when he’d woken up) paired up to search around the Battle Nexus and local areas to see if they could find anything. Mikey tagged along with April to wander around the rest of the city and source the crowd, asking if anyone had seen blue portals or a slider with a blue mask anywhere, equipped with pictures of said slider on their phones. Donnie had opted to go by himself and check around the docks, since that was the place where ‘portal jacking’ was a common occurance.

Donnie had insisted that searching in threes would be less efficient and he’d be fine on his own, to which Raph eventually agreed. But that was only half the truth.

Donnie didn’t want his family to see the state he was in. He caught himself tapping a hand on his knee and he gripped it with the other to stop moving. He was so worked up and for what? Sure, Leo was missing, but it’d barely been twenty-four hours since he zipped off to wherever. Donnie shouldn’t be losing it already. They’d find Leo and drag him back to the lair with celebratory pizza and a scolding from Raph awaiting him. It would all be fine. For all Donnie knew, Leo had merely gotten distracted by something and would offer a half baked excuse as to why when he portalled back home.

But a small voice in the back of his mind told him it wasn’t that simple; a heavy weight on his chest told him something wasn’t right. Donnie shook his head and silently scolded himself. He didn’t work from illogical things like feelings or damn insecurities that flooded his mind. He stood and narrowed his eyes down at the docks below. He worked with logic. Cold hard facts. He would find his brother. And no one was going to get in his way. 

He leapt down and pushed off the adjacent wall into a crouch, keeping to the shadows as he skirted the busy streets and remained unseen. Donnie had gotten a tip from Hueso that there was a guy around here who still often did portal jackings. Just because he was out of the business didn’t mean Hueso hadn’t kept an ear to the ground. Metaphorically speaking, of course, since he doesn’t even have ears.

Donnie set aside his questions for how things like that worked and closed in on the dingey little corner store at the end of the street. He fought not to gag from the overwhelming stench of fish and something else he couldn't identify, but he decided he didn’t want to know. Not in a place like this.

He stood straight and emerged into the light, wearing a look that told others he was not to be messed with. He suppressed a satisfied grin as the few yokai around him averted their gazes and kept out of his way. Donnie stalked his way over to the open store and leaned his hands onto the worn table out front. 

Despite how horrendous Donnie knew it would be under a black light, the place had some kind of cosy atmosphere. It was filled with all kinds of mystic knick knacks and warm light emitted from fairy lights that were no doubt magical in some way. But Donnie wasn’t here to comment on apparels. Donnie was here for answers. 

He lifted a steady finger and rang the small bell that was on the counter. Curiously, it made no sound, but it seemed to have done something. He heard the clerk yell out from the back before he came into view, stumbling through the various items he had obtained (all definitely stolen) and to the front table. He looked like the kind of yokai Donnie was expecting: an oceanic creature of some variation and a pirate inspired outfit. He regarded Donnie with a blank stare and a tilt of his head. “Yeah?”

He didn’t know who Donnie was.

Good.

Alright, Donatello, interrogation time. “I’ve heard talk that this place is pretty experienced with portals…?” he muttered cooly, leaning against the table like he hadn’t a care in the world.

At that, the clerk showed off a crooked grin. “Well, not to brag, but ya could say that… just what’re you after here, kid? Somethin’ specific?”

“Information.” Donnie stood straight again and loomed over him.

The clerk held his grin as he crossed his arms. “Well, we don’t really trade in anything like that ‘round here, but if I had some help jogging my memory…?” He held out a slimy hand and Donnie forced himself not to recoil.

“Oh, I have plenty of ways to do just that.” The mechanical limbs extended from Donnie’s battle shell and he narrowed his eyes at the yokai before him.

The guy simply held his hands up with an amused expression. “Woah! Easy there, pal, no need to be so rash. Let’s talk it out, yeah? How about you tell me what you came here for and I’ll see if it’s worth my time.” 

Was this some kind of game to him? Well, of course it was. He had no idea what was on the line for Donnie. And he had no idea just what Donnie was willing to do to ensure he got what he came for. 

He straight up glared at the guy before he caught himself. He needed to ease up; he couldn’t let his frustrations show. Donnie sighed through his nose and retracted the metal limbs, crossing his arms. “Red-eared slider mutant turtle, male, yellow markings on his arms and legs, red stripes on his face, approximately my height, loves blue and is very full of himself. He went missing yesterday after a portal mishap. Have you seen him?”

The clerk pretended to think in a way that was so obviously fake it rubbed Donnie the wrong way, and he had to bunch up his fists to keep himself in check. “I dunno, purple guy, we get a lot of folks who come and go around here, so my memory is a little foggy… if only I had somethin’ that could help me remember…” He raised a brow at Donnie with a smirk he wanted to smash right off his face.

“Not happening,” Donnie forced out through gritted teeth. 

The yokai shrugged and turned around. “Then I’m afraid I ain’t got nothin’ to tell ya.”

Something inside Donnie just snapped. How could this guy act so nonchalant?! His twin was missing. This guy was just ticking off all the boxes that were in favour of beating him to a pulp. It’s not like he wasn’t a criminal anyway, so Donnie could justify it in that sense. Even though he needed no justification. 

Donnie cleared the table with ease and whipped the guy around, slamming him onto the worn surface with an arm gripped tight behind his back. “Apologies, I don’t believe I made myself clear. I will not be leaving until you give me a straight answer.”

The guy made a pitiful cry and immediately tensed under Donnie’s grip. “W—wait! Hey! Let go of me you ugly terrapin freak!”

Ha. He was one to talk.

Donnie applied more pressure onto him, bending his arm further back. He was done with this guy's bullshit. “I will ask this once and once only. Where. Is. My brother?”

The guy squirmed beneath Donnie and he only made his grip tighter. He didn’t know the proper anatomy of this yokai, but he felt bone, and he had no problem with threatening to snap it. The yokai shrieked and started trembling beneath him. “Please! I dunno nothin’! We only scheduled a portal snatch for next week, we haven’t done anything this week!”

“Pitiful excuse to keep your arm attached,” Donnie growled and threw the guy to the back wall.

“No, nothin’ of the sorts! I swears it! We’re the only portal snatchers 'round these parts and I’m tellin’ ya, we didn’t do nothin’ yesterday!” The guy was violently shaking all over and there was a clear wavering in his voice. One word came to Donnie’s mind: pathetic. 

“I don’t believe you.” Donnie approached him and took out his bō, giving it a twirl before he raised it over his head.

In that moment, that split second when Donnie brought it down on the yokai, some realisation came to him and he stopped within an inch of his face. His heart thrummed wildly in his ears. His eyes raced over the shivering, curled up form before him. He glanced to his hands, clutching the bō so hard it might as well have been splintering. He exhaled.

What the hell was he doing?! 

Donnie lowered his bō and vaguely regarded the small whimper that came from the clerk. He felt numb.

“Tell anyone I was here, and I will find you.” Donnie’s voice held none of the fire it had only seconds ago, but the message still seemed to get across.

The yokai vigorously nodded and didn’t dare move as Donnie turned and leapt onto the closest roof. He ran across the city until he found a dark, secluded rooftop where he could collapse to his knees, panting. Not from the run, but from the raging hurricane in his head.

He had let his emotions get the better of him. What was wrong with him?

He almost laughed at the thought. He knew very well just what was wrong. His twin’s location was unknown. His current condition was unknown. Whether he was doing just fine or struggling for his life was unknown. Donnie had no idea where he was or when he’d get back, and it was already driving him insane. 

Donnie curled up a fist and went to punch the ground, but only ended up resting his hand on the rough surface, followed by his forehead. He took a deep breath and forced his body to unwind, his mind to calm down. He needed to collect his thoughts. If not for his own sake, then for his family’s. For Leo’s. 

Donnie didn’t know how long he’d stayed there on the roof of some random dark building, tucked in on himself and sulking, but eventually a noise came from his tech-gauntlet and stirred him out of trying to organise his thoughts. He sat up and collected himself before answering the call. 

Raph’s projection flickered to life and he had a hopeful expression. Donnie forced himself not to flinch. “Donnie! Found anything?”

Donnie closed his eyes for a second and shook his head. “Negative. The guy I… talked to said they were the only ‘portal jackers’ around. They had nothing to do with yesterday.”

“And you're sure he wasn’t lying?”

The look of fear in the clerks' eyes flashed through Donnie’s mind. He felt sick. “I’m sure. There’s no way he could have been.”

Raph’s face grew somber and he nodded. “Yeah, no luck on our end either. We were thinkin’ of regrouping and maybe trying something else. You up for that?”

Like he even had to ask. “Of course, I shall see you at the agreed upon meeting spot.”

Raph nodded and his hologram flickered away. Donnie stood up, but his shoulders still sagged with an invisible weight. He ‘d failed. He’d failed Raph and was no closer to finding Leo. 

Donnie quickly shook his head and tensed his shoulders. He couldn’t think like that; he had accomplished something. They now knew Leo hadn’t been portal jacked, so that was one thing crossed off the list. The list of possibilities that was already way too small, and dwindling fast. Donnie knew he wasn’t wrong about his tech not messing up. He started towards their  meeting spot. 

Yes, he knew he wasn’t wrong, but for once in his life, he hoped he was. 

His limbs felt heavy despite how little he had done today, and he knew it wasn’t from physical exhaustion. On top of Dad being sick, Leo was missing. Donnie was a very logical and level headed turtle, but he feared his current circumstances might change that.

Chapter Text

Leo screamed and face planted into the dirt with a groan. “That never gets any easier…” He mumbled, rolling onto his side. He glimpsed a puddle and couldn’t help the smirk on his face. “At least I still look good, considering…” he sat up and looked around, “this whole situation.”

It had been about a day (maybe two?) and Leo had done nothing but zip all over the place since he left that weird glowy plant planet. After his first super fun mental spiral, he had eventually come to and found himself in an entirely different place. Everything about it had been a stark contrast to the weird glowy plant planet. He was surrounded by lush, entangled vines and shrubs, all clinging to one another and the great surrounding trees that fought to stay out of their clutches. The trees reminded Leo of willows back on Earth, only they were pink and… weird. Everything was weird. It made Leo feel unsettled as he fought to stand amongst the thick undergrowth. 

He had only been on that planet for what he could guess was a few hours, trudging through the entangled plants and hacking at them with his katana, when his foot snagged on something (he assumed it was a root from the feel of it). 

The world was turned upside down and suddenly the sky was all that surrounded him, his body entirely weightless. He soon caught sight of the ground, only to realise with a pang of dread that he was plummeting towards it. He’d tripped off a stupid cliff. 

His heart rate spiked at the sight and he yelled out, his voice piercing the winds that whipped all around him. Right as he was about to give the ground the most intense and painful high-five ever, that painful spark from before engulfed his body and he was torn through space yet again, dispensed onto an entirely different planet. 

He took a sharp breath and coughed, clambering onto his knees as his body violently shook, screwing his eyes shut against the effort. 

“C—calm down, Leo… calm down…” He whispered, fighting to get his breathing back to anything that felt normal. 

Once his heart stopped threatening to hammer right out of his chest, he peeked an eye open to see his hands tearing through some kind of plush, red plant. Kinda like moss, Leo thought to himself as he lifted his gaze to find that he was completely surrounded by the stuff. This was better than that pink nightmare planet at least. 

He shifted into a crouch and stood from there, regarding his surroundings with a quirked brow. He stooped to grab his katana that were lying beside his panicked claw marks on the ground, and he returned them to their sheathes. He was glad he hadn’t dropped them while he was falling through the air.

As he began to take slow steps across the soft red field, he started to wonder if it was him doing the teleporting or his katana. 

He shook his head, crossing his arms over his plastron. Leo figured it was just his ninpo being all screwy, especially since his power didn’t come from his weapons—not anymore at least. In contrast to his prior use of the ōdachi, he didn’t rely on his katana for his ninpo to work. He simply channeled his powers through them and used them as a guide. Only now, all they were guiding him to do was fling around the place uncontrollably. Leo scoffed; scratch that, they weren’t guiding him at all. 

Splinter’s words rang out through his head at that thought, “The weapon is only as skilled as its wielder, Blue.”  

Yep. And this wielder was currently feeling like he was royally— 

A loud exhale of air to his right brought Leo out of his thoughts and he jumped back. Wait, how long had he been walking for? Whatever, that didn’t matter. What did matter was the staggering and slightly terrifying alien thing before him. How the hell had he not seen that?! 

Then again, when he got into his head like that, he was really in there, so who knew how much he hadn’t seen on his little stroll?

Leo eyed the creature warily as it stared him down, and he took a cautious step back. The alien was at least one and a half Leos tall, crawling around on all fours with alarmingly sharp claws and a mouth full of teeth. It was scaly, kinda like an alligator or something, and it had a long, flicking tail behind it. The creature was red with a piercing yellow glare, and Leo guessed that was how he hadn’t seen it earlier. 

“Camouflage,” Donnie’s overly nerdy voice came to mind. He was surprised to find he missed it, despite it having only been a few hours. The alien was growling in a way that Leo had never heard before, but deep down he knew it couldn’t mean anything good. He gulped. 

“Heyyy buddy, I don’t want any trouble… Just passin’ through…” Leo held his hands up and took another slow step back, which only caused the creature to snarl. It lowered itself down and Leo instinctively knew what was coming next. 

As it pounced, he dodged away and barrel-rolled to his feet, unsheathing his katana in one fell swoop, his blood roaring in his ears. Or was that the alien?

Well, he never found out, because right before he moved to defend himself against an oncoming blow, he was ripped away from the fight and flung across the cosmos in that same electrical current of his (yet it also wasn’t his) and before he knew what was happening, his face found the ground. 

He huffed and sputtered, struggling to his feet and stumbling as a wave of dizziness clouded his vision. He dropped his katana to clutch at his head with his eyes glued shut, gritting his teeth as if that alone could ground him and stop the world from swaying. 

Once the storm had passed, he warily opened his eyes to find himself in an actual storm. The rain bucketed down in relentless torrents all around him, and he looked up to find a giant leaf shielding him from the worst of it.

Leo sighed heavily and leant against the stalk, allowing his jittering legs to give out beneath him as he slid to the ground. Overcome with exhaustion, he slumped to his side and lay there, staring out at the rain. He would have found the moment peaceful if it weren’t for the thoughts of dread that still swirled around his head and weighed on his body. His eyes felt heavy and, not feeling safe in the slightest amongst this alien environment, he let them slip shut. 

Leo’s consciousness unwillingly returned to him and he tried to blink away the haze that had settled over his mind from sleep. 

He felt cold.

His body was bare of sheets.

Had he kicked them away again? He did that in his sleep sometimes.

But then he felt the hard ground beneath him. Saw the onslaught of rain surrounding him. And he remembered. 

He wasn’t home.

He bit his lip, shifting to move his stiff body into a sitting position. Leaning back against the stalk again, he realised with surprise that it was still raining. He frowned and wondered how long he’d been asleep for. It had felt like a while, considering how rested yet sore he was, but that didn’t explain the rain that was still thundering down. Surely, if he had been asleep for a couple hours now, then it would have flooded his little space beneath the giant leaf. 

Leo rolled forward onto his knees, much to his body’s protest, and he looked out at the ground around him. The rain seemed to sink into the ground almost immediately. He tilted his head in curiosity and when he looked back up, he smiled. 

He could almost see Mikey dancing around in the rain, frolicking without a care in the world, while Raph would urge him not to stay out there because he would surely catch something. Leo sat back against the stalk and saw Donnie on the edge of the leaf’s shelter, watching the rain seep into ground with amazement dancing in his eyes as he rapidly typed away on his tech-gauntlet. Casey sat beside him, placidly watching the rain, and April leaned against Leo with her head on his shoulder, a gentle smile on her face. And Splinter would be there with them all, looking on at his family with a fond expression. He would be there… he would be alright…

Leo’s fantasy quickly fell apart and he was plunged into reality. He was alone. Cold. And so far from home. He sighed and lazily dragged a hand out to grab his katana from yesterday (he assumed it’d been that long anyway) and he sheathed them. He curled his knees up to his chest and hugged them tightly, resting his chin on top. 

He allowed the sound of the rain to burrow its way into his head and nestle there amongst his thoughts. It wasn’t distracting, but more of a white noise. Leo wished it was distracting though, because now he couldn’t stop thinking about his family, with his worry directed at one member in particular…

Splinter had been sick for about a week before Leo’s epic portal failure, and he seemed steady for now. But Leo didn’t know how long that would last, especially with the startling memory of the way his twin’s face fell when he realised there was nothing he could do. This wasn’t something they could wait out like the rat flu, this was something different. Something that would last…

Leo bit his lip and shook his head as if to rid his mind of those thoughts, but it didn’t help much. He knew he was spiraling. 

What if he couldn’t get home? What were his family doing right now? Were they worried? 

Leo huffed and nuzzled his head against his knees, curling up into a tighter ball. “Of course they’re worried,” he muttered. His voice sounded distant, nothing like his own.

Did they think he had left them? Were they looking for him? Was Splinter okay? Or was he worse…?

Leo closed his eyes, fighting back the sudden sting they held. “Stop…”

Was Casey lying awake at night and worrying about him?

Leo’s nails scraped at his skin. 

Was April doing everything in her power to find him? 

His breathing steadily grew louder than the rain around him.

Was Raph pacing holes into the floor with his worry line splitting his forehead?

His muscles tensed and spasmed in shivers against the damp cold.

Was Mikey on the verge of terror despite trying to stay positive for the family?

He gritted his teeth so hard it hurt.

 Had Donnie locked himself away in his lab to try and find Leo himself? 

“No…” He whispered, his voice as alien as the planet around him.

Or did they… did they think he was—? 

Leo snapped his eyes open as he felt that same unnatural tugging within him, colliding with the despair that was already so sharp throughout his mind and latching onto it. A scream tore from his throat as he was yanked away from this weird planet to yet another.

He crashed into the ground and instead of the usual shaky nerves that hit him, all he found was frustration.

“Alright Leonardo, that’s enough!” He scrambled to his feet with a stumble and stood firm. “You are going to get a grip and stop panicking yourself into episodes! This isn’t going to help you at all, let alone your family.” He started pacing and scoffed at himself, “hell, if they saw you right now, you’d only be worrying them further! Come on, man! You’ve got to keep a clear head and find a way home. If not for yourself, then…” he stopped, and turned to look out at the valley that now stretched before him, a determined glint to his eye as he sucked in a breath, “...do it for them.”

Leo brought his hands up and tightened his mask around his head with a newfound purpose, and he marched down the hill. He would find his way home. He would make it back to his family. No one was going to stop him.

Leo was zipped to two other planets after that one, only to now land himself here. Wherever here was, anyway.

Leo dragged his weary gaze around him and drank in the sight. He narrowed his eyes. Okay, either he was now delirious from the amount of times he’d accidentally teleported after a spike in panic, or he was now in a Jupiter Jim comic.

This place… was a city. Pizza supreme in the sky, it was civilisation! Not only that, but it looked straight out of a JJ comic. Trying not to fanboy too hard, Leo shifted onto his feet and stood, gawking at his surroundings. Aliens of all kinds of species walked the streets, with flying cars crowding the skies and buildings that defied any kind of architecture possible on Earth. 

Realising he was in what must have been an alleyway, he crept over the edge to peek out from behind the wall. Neon signs blurred his vision and he looked up to see the purple and blue dusted abyss that was the sky. If it wasn’t attached to his head, his jaw would have dropped to the ground. 

Blinking a few more times at his surroundings, Leo shook his head and took a breath through his nose. “Alright, Leon, shove your amazement at this totally awesome place away and focus on the task at hand: getting back to the fam.” He nodded in affirmation to himself and peeked around the corner again. He didn’t see an issue with just… walking out.

He shrugged and joined the throng of aliens, grinning to himself as he fit right in and no one bothered casting him a second glance. Now that he wasn't hiding away, Leo took this time to get a bearing of the city surrounding him, trying not to let the sheer size and population overwhelm him. It reminded him of the time he and the fam had first stumbled upon the Hidden City—only then he was with his brothers so he wasn’t overwhelmed at all. But now, he was alone… and he was definitely way too conscious of his siblings’ absences. 

Not letting himself sit on that thought for too long, he returned his attention to his surroundings. The whole place reminded him of the Hidden City, actually. Only where the Hidden City had more mystical vibes, this place felt way more sci-fi. 

Despite being out in the open, Leo began to feel too closed in by the crowd, and he backed himself out of it to lean against a wall. He breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment to collect his thoughts. Leo needed to know where he was, who all these aliens were, how he could possibly get home… he needed information. His presence clearly didn’t bother anyone, which was a huge bonus, because that meant he’d have no problem talking to anyone… 

And talking to people was what he did.

Refilled with a raw confidence, Leo slicked back imaginary hair with a smirk. “Time to turn up the Leo charm.” 

He scanned the crowd for his first victim. He first laid eyes on a couple of dinosaur looking guys, with tactical gear and very big, scary looking guns. Leo decided to steer well clear of them as they were already giving him bad vibes, and with another sweep spotted a couple of aliens casually talking to one another at a table, outside what looked like some kind of bar. 

They had purple looking skin and big, black eyes that looked like two voids sitting in the middle of their faces and yet they held so much emotion there. Their outfits were like nothing Leo had ever seen before, but still, they looked like they’d leapt from the pages of a Jupiter Jim comic and had manifested before him. He also noticed that they all seemed to be wearing some matching funky looking bracelets, and wondered if they were the alien equivalent of a friendship bracelet. If so, that was actually kinda sweet.

Leo held himself high and strolled over, confidence oozing off of him with each stride and when he reached the table, he leaned against it and flashed the aliens a charming grin.

“Excuse me, fellow aliens, but would you be so kind as to tell me where I am? I’m a little lost, as it is.” He gave a quick laugh and shrugged. “Space GPS these days, am I right…?”

When they did nothing but stare at him, he faltered for a moment, his smile slipping momentarily before he corrected himself and stood straight. “Look, I’m just a guy tryin’ to get back home to my fam. Help a turtle out, would ya?”

They blinked at him and he blinked back. After a silence that stretched on way too long to be comfortable, one of the aliens spoke. 

Only Leo had no idea what they said.

“I’m sorry, what now?” he muttered, almost to himself as he frowned at them in confusion. 

The alien spoke again, but seemed annoyed this time and poked a finger at him. At least… Leo thought it was a finger? Shoving that thought aside, he stepped back and glared. “Hey! There’s no need for that. Just tell me where I am.”

One of the other aliens spoke up and the first one turned to them and started talking again. Leo stood by awkwardly as they seemed to lapse into an argument of some kind and the third alien completely ignored him, picking at a plate of what Leo thought looked disgusting. 

“Okay then…” Leo muttered, inching backwards until he could scoot away from that whole situation, and he got himself a fair distance from the aliens before leaning against a wall. 

“Man, that did not work…” He muttered to himself, feeling a little disheartened. Then again, he was in an alien city with alien streets and alien cars and cool looking alien dudes, so what else had he expected? For them to just start speaking flawless English? He gave a chuckle at the thought. How stupid that seemed now. He’d been so caught up in the moment he hadn’t even realised no one around him was speaking anything he could understand. 

No, he needed a game plan. If an alien city like this with so many different species could exist and function properly, surely there was a way for all of them to communicate? Leo straightened up and stretched his arms over his head, arching his back as much as his shell would allow and he shook them out by his sides. 

He scanned the never ending crowd again and narrowed his eyes. “Alright faceman, time to face.”

It took Leo about an hour to get somewhere. 

And by somewhere, really, it was nowhere.

First he had flagged down a lizard looking alien and tried to talk to them, but they completely ignored him. Refusing to mull on his irritation, he went to the next aliens he thought looked friendly enough, with how small and fluffy they were, but then they bared their teeth at him and started growling. A couple seconds later, Leo was shouting out as he ran down the street to evade the adorable nightmares. 

Once he caught his breath, he spotted another decent looking alien and tapped their shoulder, only for their skin to stretch and stick to his finger. Eugh, he hadn't realised they were some kind of gooey alien. As they threw what were most likely a bunch of alien cusses at Leo, he quickly wiped his hand on the wall and, mortified, dashed away. 

He ran into another alien, big looking guy, and leaned against the wall and politely started asking it some questions when a group of aliens to his left began doing what Leo assumed was laughing… and he glanced back at the alien only to realise it was one of those flying car things. Piping hot with embarrassment, Leo discretely slunk away as the aliens doubled over in laughter. 

After a handful of other disastrous attempts at talking to someone, Leo slipped into a nearby alleyway and out of the eyes of others. He pressed his palms to his eyelids and groaned, leaning against the wall to slide down and sit on the hard ground. 

Man, this was so much harder than he expected. 

Everyone here either ignored him, laughed at him, or threw what he assumed were a multitude of slurs. It reminded him of New York, in some weird way. If New York suddenly decided to have the biggest science fiction convention of all time, that was.

Leo made a long drawn out sound as he bumped his head onto his knees. How the hell was he going to get home if no one would talk to him? No, no he couldn’t think that way. He couldn’t give up. He took a breath and recalled his words from before. 

“If not for yourself, then… do it for them.”

For them. He had to get back to his family.

Finding a new sort of resolve, Leo lifted his head and hardened his gaze. 

“Come on Leo…” He murmured small encouragements to himself as he stood up again. He couldn’t just lie around and sulk. He had to get things done. No matter how long it took. No matter how many aliens he talked to. No matter the distance. No matter the cost. No matter what, Leonardo freaking Hamato was going to get back— 

A loud exhale snapped Leo out of his thoughts and he instinctively ducked behind what looked like a dumpster (for an alien civilization, this place still had quite an Earth-y feel). Head swirling with déjà vu, he dared to peek out from his hiding space. At the end of the alleyway, one of those creepy dinosaur guys stood, scanning over the surrounding area with a narrowed gaze. 

Leo ducked back and felt his breathing pick up slightly, so he clamped a hand over his mouth and urged himself to calm down. It was small, but he could feel his ninpo below his skin, churning around his body and threatening to consume him as it already had so many times before. He wasn’t sure if he could take another portal mishap so soon. Not after finally getting the chance to find some answers and maybe even get home. 

Leo listened to the dinosaur alien as he fought to control his breathing. He heard movement from beyond the alleyway and a gruff voice followed. The dinosaur alien looking over the alleyway replied in the same weird language, and only when he couldn’t feel their heavy steps vibrating through his very being anymore, Leo allowed himself to relax.

That was too close.

Whether he meant the dinosaur alien finding him or his powers surging up again, he didn’t know, but it could be said for both. 

Leo slumped in on himself and hit his head back against the dumpster in frustration. He focussed on the dull pain that throbbed in the back of his head and for a moment, in some strange way, it grounded him.

He closed his eyes and shifted to get himself into a more comfortable position. As he stretched his leg out, he felt his foot brush by something. He opened a lazy eye and stared at it with a look that said he really wasn’t in the mood. Once his gaze landed on the object, however, both eyes shot open with a renewed interest. 

Leo heaved himself upright and he reached a careful hand out to it. He picked it up and looked it over. Sifting through his memories led him to realise it was one of those bracelets he had seen the first aliens he talked to wearing. In fact, with a little more digging and nudging at his exhausted brain, he realised the majority of aliens he’d seen were wearing it.

That had to mean something. 

This one looked worse for wear compared to the others he’d seen, with dirt marks, scrapes, and a cracked screen. Leo did his best to try and clean it up a little, wiping away the gunk and trying not to think about how gross it was. 

Once he got it to something that was less gross than before, he held it up to give it a closer look. It was sleek and looked very high tech, despite having been found amongst garbage, and it had some kind of screen in the center of the metal bracelet. It reminded him of Donnie’s wrist thing in a way.

Leo slumped back against the dumpster again.

Donnie. 

Damn it, his genius nerd of a twin would be so much help right now. Frowning, Leo looked over the small device in his hand, trying to distract himself from the gnawing ache he felt in his chest.

Whatever, Leo could do this without him—as much as he hated it, he didn’t really have a choice. 

Or… did he?

Leo hummed aloud and tried to look over the bracelet with new eyes. With Donnie’s eyes. How would his brother see this contraption? How would he approach it? How would those big beautiful eyebrows of his get this thing to work? 

First Leo did the most obvious thing and tried to tap at the screen. When nothing happened, he then fiddled around a little more and got the back of it to unlatch. A warm buzz of anticipation and hope stirred within him and he quelled it as much as he could, trying not to let his excitement show. He needed to focus. Like Donnie.

Leo worked the bracelet onto his wrist and latched it shut, but still, nothing happened. He bit his lip and his furrowed brows raised with a thought—was it voice activated?

Sure, Leo had no idea how to speak alien, but what did he have to lose by trying anyway?

He cleared his throat in an unsure way and stared at the bracelet on his wrist. “Uh… turn on.”

Nothing.

Leo heaved a sigh and shook his head. “Okay… Um, how about ‘activate’.”

Silence. 

Frowning, Leo shifted to cross his legs, resting his wrist with the bracelet into his lap. “Power up.”

Nope.

“Start.”

Nuh uh.

“Boot up. Initiate. Operate. Abracadabra. Stop being an asshole and turn on.”

…

Leo groaned and thumped his head against the dumpster. “Mierda…” he muttered. 

A small beep pierced the air and he shot upright as a light glow came from the bracelet’s screen. A beam came from it and scanned over his face before beeping again. He looked down at the screen and saw one word: Tierra. Earth. 

Leo shot upright and laughed in triumph. “Haha! Who’s the smart twin now, Donnie?”

With no insults or comebacks thrown his way, Leo tapped at the now illuminated screen and a hologram came up. He tilted his head, squinting his eyes at the projection as he waved a hand through it. It showed a tonne of stuff he couldn’t even begin to comprehend, even if he tried to don a Donnie persona again.

Leo looked over the screen again, remembering it seemed to respond to Spanish for some reason. 

He racked his brain for the word he was searching for. “Okay, let's see… languages, languages… idiomas.” 

The device beeped and the screen flickered, showing what looked like a long list of all kinds of different languages scrawled across the display. He stared wide eyed at just how different they all looked, and could even see some languages from Earth. 

Not wanting to scroll through what was probably thousands of languages, Leo chanced his luck again. “Alright… hopefully this works… Inglés.”

There was another faint beep, but apart from that, nothing happened. 

Leo took a deep breath through his nose and slowly let it out. Moment of truth.

“What are you?”

It took a moment, but a small loading circle appeared before the hologram flickered to show a user guide of sorts. Leo sagged in relief that the text appeared in English. He took a moment to look through it, and, not including the big confusing words, he got some understanding. This little bracelet tech thing was a translator, but it could also do some other things with the basic AI it had built in. But it was no Shelldon, that was for sure.

After reading for what felt like forever (it was five minutes) Leo felt he knew enough now to test this baby out and finally get some answers; where was he? How far away was he from home? And most importantly, how could he get back?

He stood up, stretched his tense muscles and bounced on the spot for a moment before twirling around to face the alleyway’s entrance. Here we go his thoughts echoed as he stepped back out into the busy streets of Space New York. Eh, he’d find out the real name of this place soon enough. 

Leo scanned the crowds once more and thought of yet another plan of attack. To avoid annoying the wrong alien, he figured he would ask his questions separately, one at a time with different aliens. He also needed to figure out exactly how to use the translator in the first place.

He thought back to the way it had scanned him and identified him from Earth. Was that how the whole communication thing worked around here? And, on top of that, how did it know he was from Earth with his mutation? Leo looked just like any other alien around here. Maybe it detected he was a slider somehow? Or maybe mutations were in its database? 

Leo shook his head. He had to focus on what was important; those questions could wait until he got back home and pestered Donnie about them.

It took a few tries, but eventually he got someone to pay attention to him. The translator scanned the alien and converted what Leo said into a language they could understand; at least, Leo was pretty sure that was what it did, because the alien answered his first question. Leo was in a galactic city called Korlo. He tried not to jump for joy in front of the alien from finally getting somewhere. 

He then thanked the alien for his time and skittered off to his next target. Leo bounced up to another alien, no longer able to quell his excitement, and asked them if they knew of Earth. The alien tensed and then ignored him.

Confused, Leo wondered if his translator was acting screwy; he had found it in some dingy alleyway, after all. He politely asked the alien again, but they cast him a glare that Leo knew well enough meant go away.  

Refusing to let his good mood slip, he just moved onto the next alien. They regarded him with a welcoming vibe, but as soon as Leo asked about Earth, their expression dropped. Their eyes darted around nervously and before Leo could ask what was wrong, they were halfway down the street. 

Leo blinked at the space where they had disappeared into the crowd.

Once was just some bad luck, but twice…?

He shook his head and just kept asking. But time and time again, he got variations of the same reaction: hesitance, surprise, uneasiness, judgement and… fear, of all things. What the shell was so bad about Earth that would have people stressed and worried from the mere mention of it?

Leo tried to make sense of it, but he couldn't come to some form of an answer. He just figured he’d keep trying until he finally got to someone that would help him out. And, after another half an hour of horrified expressions and irritated looks, he found someone.

“Earth? Been a while since I’ve been there.” The alien shrugged and looked down at Leo with its four eyes.

Leo searched his face for any hint of a negative emotion, any signs of fear or distress but… there was nothing. The guy was perfectly fine. They gave a casual response. Leo could almost cry.

“Oh you’ve been there?” Leo leaned against the wall, hoping the casualness of the action was enough to cover the pounding of his heart against his plastron. 

“Yeah, for sure, a couple times before. What’d you wanna know?”

“I was actually wondering how far it is from here…?” He asked slowly, holding his breath for the answer. 

“Oh, sure I’ll tell you. Let me just double check…” The alien pulled out what Leo figured was a space version of a phone, and showed Leo. 

Leo’s eyes widened and the breath he’d been holding onto left his lungs. He stared at the screen so long the alien had to ask if he was alright. Leo nodded absent mindedly and thanked the alien with a mumble, turning away. He found another quiet alleyway off to the side and sunk back behind a dumpster to keep himself hidden.

Leo stared at the wall ahead, where the alleyway ended.

His mind was static.

His body felt drained.

He felt numb.

He carefully lifted his hands up to focus his unsteady gaze onto them. Why? He didn’t know. Maybe he just wanted to make sure he was still here and in reality. 

Especially after what he’d found out…

128 lightyears away from Earth.

Away from New York.

Away from home.

Away from his family. 

Leo somehow found the strength to move, but only so he could bring his knees to his chest and hug himself tightly. He rested his chin on his knees and stared at the ground. He blinked once and felt a dampness. Twice; the dampness swelled up further and stung his eyes. The third time allowed a tear to escape and roll down his face. 

His lower lip quivered and finally he broke. He shoved his face into his knees and shook slightly from the sobs that came from him. He tightened his arms around his legs and clung to himself in fear that if he let go, he would simply fall apart.

He’d tried to keep everything light, despite the situation.

He was Leo, after all. The one who always cracked jokes in the middle of a fight, the guy who never took anything too seriously, the turtle who always had a plan for anything thrown his way.

The brother who never broke down.

The leader who remained strong for his team.

But with no team to see him, he let his emotions slip through the cracks as reality set in.

He was so far away from home… and with no idea how he could ever hope to cross that distance, he felt stuck. Helpless. 

He didn’t know what to do anymore.

He needed his team with him. His siblings. And yet… they weren’t here.

He was alone.

Chapter Text

Casey Jones Jr. 

Occupying his bedroom. Status: Asleep.

April O’Neil. 

Currently in the living room. Status: Awake. Concerned.

Splinter Hamato.

Stationed in his bedroom. Status: Asleep. Sick…

Michelangelo Hamato.

Also in the living room. Status: Awake. Distressed. 

Raphael Hamato. 

Sharing the living room with the former and April O’Neil. Status: Awake. Comforting Michelangelo. 

Leonardo Hamato.

Unknown. Status: Unknown… 

Donnie rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, applying a gentle pressure to try and shake the drowsiness that was settling there. He opened them again and stared blankly at his latest blueprints.

One week, three days, eleven hours and forty-seven minutes since Leo’s disappearance. 

Donnie felt terrible.

Not just because he’d been stubbornly living off of caffeine and energy drinks (as much as he despised them) for the past five days, but because he’d been trying everything he could to find his brother and still came up with no results. No answers. No solutions. No Leo.

Donnie sighed and nervously checked his tech-gauntlet again. The rest of his family were all still in their home. Still here. Still here… They weren’t going anywhere. He stared at the interface for a moment longer, again confirming to himself that they were all still here, and he went back to work. 

Donnie had been working tirelessly to try and enhance his scanner’s range so he could find Leo again. He had narrowed down his theories as to why his twin wasn’t showing up on his scanners to distance. Perhaps his brother was so far away, he didn’t come up on Donnie’s radar, even though his radar covered the entire solar system. 

Extreme, he knew, but he wasn’t taking chances. Not in this family.

Alas, it seemed that even with a distance as great as that, it still wasn’t enough. Leo was still out there somewhere, out of reach. Even with Donnie’s two latest enhancements to his satellites, his new scans still came up empty handed. But he wasn’t giving up that easily.

Now that he knew what the problem was, he had somewhere to direct all his focus, and Donnie would convert his whole lab into a ‘finding his dumbass twin’ zone if he had to. He would just keep upgrading and expanding in hopes that he’d soon have enough range to detect Leo. If the technology didn’t yet exist, he would damn well invent it. 

As for his family, their efforts had been just as tireless. April and Casey made multiple trips to the Hidden City, still asking around for the same red eared slider but finding nothing new. April even broke her restraining order and went to Witch Town to see if there was some kind of locating spell they could use, but to no avail. Again.

Donnie and his brothers still patrolled the streets of New York, fighting petty crime as usual, but they all kept an eye out for their missing brother. No alleyway went unchecked. No sketchy abandoned building unsearched. Every rooftop they perched upon was scanned over thoroughly, every object lifted and examined, any small chance or sign that could be Leo was chased down and apprehended. But each time, they came back home still feeling incomplete. 

Raph kept in touch with the Hamato ancestors to ask for guidance and if they knew where Leo was. Unfortunately, they did not know, for they were also trying to reach him, but could not. They’d described it in that cryptic way of theirs that something was troubling Leo and he felt far away, not by physical distance, but in the sense of his mind. 

Donnie gladly let Raph do the talking with them. He did not have the patience nor time for their perplexing nonsense. 

And Mikey… he’d taken it the hardest of everyone. Everyday, he kept trying to make a portal to find Leo again, just as he did when he was in the prison dimension. Yet no matter how hard he tried until he’d collapse in exhaustion, he couldn’t make a portal. In theory, he should have been able to summon his ninpo to find Leo and bring him back that same way, especially since he was stronger and more confident in his abilities from all the practice he’d been having. 

Donnie had a few hypotheses as to why that was not the case, but that meant leaving his lab. That meant less time working to find his twin. And time was crucial. Leo could handle himself, they all knew that. He had survived a beating from Kraang Prime, after all. Well, barely. 

But ten days? And still nothing? 

Something was wrong. And with each day that went by, they all grew uneasier. More tense. More desperate to find their sibling and bring him back home with warm hugs and his favourite hot beverage.

Donnie’s furiously typing hands slowed to a crawl. When he became aware of this, he stopped all together. 

He couldn’t keep hiding away from his family like this. Especially if he had viable information to share. 

With one last glance at his tech-gauntlet (all accounted for… all but one) Donnie heaved himself out of his chair and wobbled on unsteady legs from the effort. Kicking his chair aside and grabbing at the workbench for balance, he took a few deep breaths to prepare himself for the onslaught of emotions from his family, all the while concealing his own. 

He couldn’t let them see how truly distressed he was by everything that was going on.

He had to remain strong for them.

He wasn’t the eldest, so really, that responsibility wasn’t his to bear. But if there was any way he could lighten the load from his two elder sibling’s shoulders, he’d take it.

Closing his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts, Donnie straightened up with controlled breaths. He opened his eyes and fixed them on the door to his lab. They flickered to his tech-gauntlet briefly before he strode over and left the lab.

Careful to remain as quiet as possible, Donnie crept through the lair, and though his steps directed him towards the lounge room, his pesky heart told him he had to make one stop first. 

Veering off his intended path, Donnie slinked through the lair until he stood outside his father's bedroom. He took a shallow breath and poked his head inside. Feeling like he was young again after having a nightmare, he carefully trod his way through the room and to Splinter's bed.

He first saw a small, fluffy, calico mound of fur sat beside the larger shape in the bed. Klunk was curled up beside Splinter, and she lifted her head when Donnie came into the room. He gave her a quick pet, to which she purred softly before snuggling back amongst her fur and dozing off. Donnie then turned his attention to the larger form beside her. 

There, his father lay motionless save for the shallow rise and fall of his chest. Donnie's face fell with clear concern from the slight wheeze that punctuated each breath taken, like it was an effort just to draw even a little air in for the sake of oxidising his blood and carrying it out through his body so it may continue to function. So he may continue to live…

Donnie crouched down beside his sleeping dad and rested a gentle hand on his. Splinter had been so distraught with Leo's disappearance, and everyone had done their best to calm him. Splinter didn't want to rest while one of his precious sons was out there somewhere, but his sickness lulled him into an unwilling slumber regardless. 

Donnie gave the lightest squeeze to his hand and leant over to nudge his head against Splinter's furry one. His whiskers tickled the sides of his face and a broken smile wove its way into Donnie's once tight expression. It yet again reminded him of when he was small. When he couldn’t protect himself, Splinter had always been there to soothe him. To dress his wounds when he hurt himself. To make sure he was okay. To keep him safe.

Now it was Donnie's turn. 

“We'll find him, Dad… I promise,” he whispered, nuzzling his face one last time before pulling away. Splinter was undisturbed from the whole ordeal and it left Donnie both assured and uneasy at the same time. Splinter had always been a heavy sleeper, but with no comforting words from his father, Donnie felt strangely hollow. 

Brushing those feelings aside to be dealt with later, he left Splinter's room and continued his trek to the lounge room. 

Voices wafted over to him in the warm, still air of their home and Donnie peeked his head into the space.

April was sitting in one of the beanbags—an ottoman meant for comfort, though she sat stiff and unnerved. Mayhem rested in her lap, and she seemed to methodically pet the creature as a means to keep herself grounded. 

Mikey was in the centre of the room, his arms outstretched with the rest of his body positioned in a ready stance. A stance Donnie recognised all too well from these past few days. One he recognised from that day on Staten Island, when with tears blurring his gaze, he saw his little brother tear a hole through this realm to retrieve Leo. The Hamato bond truly was something to behold. 

But now, his stance seemed uncertain. His hands gripped at nothing and his arms shook from the effort of him willing his ninpo to do as it had done that day. Tears pricked his torn expression and it stabbed at Donnie's already overwhelmed heart. 

Raph was standing beside Mikey, despair etched into every line of his features: the downturn of his mouth, the slight narrow in his eyes, the furrow on his forehead with his worry line on full display. 

“Mikey… please…” Raph whispered. He sounded torn. Helpless. That too wretched Donnie’s bleeding heart right out of his chest. 

Mikey shook his head, tears that had obviously been flowing for a long time still streaming down his face freely. “N—no, Raph. I can’t stop… I have to keep trying… it worked once, why won’t it work again…?” His voice was so quiet, so unlike his massively enthusiastic, loving little brother. It stung. It hurt so much. 

Raph’s lower lip quivered slightly but he forced it away with a sharp intake of air. “I know, Mike, Raph’s not saying you should give up… it’s just…” He looked over to April, for comfort it seemed, to know his older sister was there with him on this, as she had been time and time again, and he turned back to his younger brother. “We’re worried about you…”

Mikey sniffed and he bunched his hands into fists. “Don’t worry about me! Worry about him! It’s been over a week and we haven’t heard anything! I…” Mikey sobbed further, something Donnie hadn’t thought possible from the amount of tear streaks already staining his face, and his baby brother ran over to Raph, burying his face against his huge form. “I—I can’t do it Raph! I can’t do it again! I don’t know why! I don’t…” His voice warbled and he wrapped his arms around his older brother as best as he could.

Raph’s carefully steady expression shattered and tears immediately began to well in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Mikey, enveloping the smaller box turtle in a warm, crushing hug. “I know… I know… I got you, it’s alright… we’ll find ‘im, Mikey… we won’t give up.” 

April watched the whole interaction from where she sat. She seemed unsure, frozen in place with indecision, but she glimpsed Donnie from the corner of her eye, and her tight posture straightened further.

“Hey, Don…”

Donnie stood rigid. He hadn’t seen his family for the past two days. He’d been in his lab, surviving off of microsleeps and whatever food or drink he had lying around. His family knew this from him all too well, but at a time like this, it pained Donnie to see the obvious relief on April’s face.

He was worrying them.

He had not intended to do that. 

They had enough on their hands as it was.

Shaking his head to physically clear his overworked mind, Donnie crossed his arms over his plastron in an effort to feel smaller, and he took slow steps into the room. 

“Greetings, family…” He murmured, casting a small glance in the direction of Raph and Mikey.

Raph’s eyes flickered up to meet his and he gave a weary smile. Mikey lifted his head from Raph’s plastron and sniffed as he looked over to his softshell brother. “Hey, Dee…” he whispered, his voice so soft Donnie had to wonder if he’d imagined those words in his delirious sleep deprived mind. 

Mikey uncurled himself from Raph slightly, seeming hesitant in something, but Donnie knew what that look on his face said. 

Sighing softly, not out of irritation, but of a sweet sorrow, Donnie held out his arms. “Come here, Angelo…”

Mikey minutely perked up at that and he rushed over to him, crashing into Donnie so hard he stumbled back to catch himself. Mikey’s arms wrapped around Donnie and squeezed tightly, burying his damp face against his shoulder.

Donnie’s tense form relaxed and he held his little brother close. Moving slowly, he guided the box turtle over to their elder sister. Keeping him in his arms, Donnie lowered himself and Mikey down onto the beanbag beside April. Mayhem caught the disturbance and poofed away to the couch nearby, twirling around three times before settling down again. 

Mikey curled up in Donnie’s lap and rested his head against his plastron, arms crossing over his own to curl into a ball. Donnie kept his arms around him in the most comforting embrace he could manage.

The softshell leaned against April’s shoulder, who happily obliged and rested her head on his. Raph gave no hesitation as he walked over and sat beside the beanbag, shifting to rest a head on April’s knees. 

Nobody moved for a long moment and Donnie soaked it in, only to feel that constant void where Leo should have been. He hugged Mikey tighter to himself. 

Once the quiet stretched on long enough, April’s soft voice sounded in Donnie’s ear, “how’s your lab work going?” 

She asked it in such a gentle tone, Donnie couldn’t help but feel calmed by it. There was no judgement in her words, no expectations, no irritation towards him. Just a light, loving nudge in the right direction for conversation. 

“It’s… going,” Donnie responded simply, shifting further into the beanbag and carefully holding Mikey to his chest. “I have not yet been able to find Leo, but… I’m getting somewhere, I feel.” 

April nodded, no disappointment in her expression at all as she lifted a hand to rub Mikey’s shoulder. From how wound up he was in Donnie’s hold, her gentle actions seemed to soothe him, and Mikey opened his eyes to flash a look of gratitude towards his older sister. 

April smiled back as she kept rubbing his arm, lifting the other hand to rest comfortingly on Raph’s head. Raph closed his eyes from the contact and his previously stressed out features slowly subsided. 

Remembering Mikey’s unsuccessful attempts at making a portal, Donnie looked down at his younger brother in his arms, then to his two older siblings. 

“I… have a theory regarding Michael’s portal incapabilities.” 

Upon hearing Donnie speak, his siblings sat attentive, the curiosity evident in their eyes. 

“At first, I thought it might have something to do with…” he took a breath, “Father's illness, as that has been tampering with all our ninpo lately.”

Raph visibly tensed up in April’s lap and Mikey shrunk in on himself a little, causing April to double down on her efforts to comfort them both. 

“But, since Mikey is still able to create certain things, as we all still are able to do, I figured that might not be the direct cause.” 

Raph tilted his head up from April's lap to rest his eyes on Donnie. “What're tryin’ to say, Don?” 

“I am saying that I believe there is a difference between Mikey's and Leo's portals. A significant one, at that.” 

Mikey uncurled from himself a little to look up at his older brother, while April watched on with a questioning glint in her eyes. Raph's brow rose slightly in interest. 

Donnie shifted his hold on Mikey and kept him held close to him, as if he alone could shield him from all the bad things that were happening right now. Literally, he could do so with a giant purple shield, but he wasn't even sure he could trust his ninpo right now. That frustrated him to no end. 

Donnie sighed and rested his head on top of Mikey's. “There are some obvious differences with both your portaling capabilities: Leo's are blue, yours are orange. Leo has been able to summon portals since we first discovered the mystic weapons, you only learnt to hone in your abilities when Leo was in the prison dimension. Leo requires his katana to channel his ninpo and produce a portal, you can do so with your bare hands.” 

Donnie nudged his little brother's hand with his own before continuing, “But there is another thing I have noticed throughout the years, especially recently. Leo has the ability to tear a hole through space, allowing him to travel straight through to different areas within our universe. You, however, can tear holes through time and dimensions.”

Donnie's siblings all perked up at that, surprise written on their faces, eyes shining with intrigue. 

“Evidence to support this theory of mine holds to Leo's previous portal mishaps. Going back to the numerous times Leo has accidentally portalled himself across the planet, he never once went anywhere but within our universe. It just seems that, with time, he has harnessed the ability to travel greater distances.”

Raph spoke up, “Yeah, he did portal us to Tahiti one time.”

“And himself to Paris,” April mentioned.

Mikey frowned. “Wait, what about that time we were running from Baxter? When he tried to portal the Tank away from all those people, but he ended up zipping us into some weird place with that giant monster… are you sure that wasn't another dimension?” 

Donnie glanced down at Mikey. “My scans from that time indeed confirmed we were still in our universe. Just somewhere deep in the cosmos…”

“So, wait, aliens are real?” 

Everyone turned and stared at Raph. 

Raph blinked at them before his face slacked with realisation. “Oh, right, of course… we've known that… heh, my bad.” 

Donnie smiled softly with a slight shake of his head. “Anywhizzle , getting back on track, Mikey's powers seem to differentiate with dimensions and time. Example one would be the first time he ever opened a portal, which was to the Prison Dimension to save Leo. Then, further evidence from Casey states that Mikey in the other timeline used his powers to create a rift in time in order to send Junior back and prevent the invasion. But, he did not survive…”

“I am getting a lot stronger with Draxum's teachings now though!” Mikey piped up and smiled faintly up at Donnie. 

Donnie smiled back and tapped his hand again. “Yeah, you are.” 

“And we're all real proud of you, Mike.” Raph lifted a hand to pet Mikey's shoulder in a warm, brotherly gesture. 

Mikey smiled back, but it slowly slipped off his face and he cast his eyes downward. “So… You're saying I can't portal Leo back because my powers are limited to… Different dimensions and timelines?” 

“Theoretically,” Donnie confirmed with a small nod. 

Mikey’s brows furrowed together. “So that means… Leo is still here somewhere. Only he’s… out there…” Mikey looked up at the ceiling, and despite not being able to see the sky, they mimicked him. 

“Affirmative. I believe he is somewhere amongst the stars as of now…”

“And we'll search every single one of them to bring him back.” April looked over her younger brothers. “We won't stop.” 

Raph nodded. “No we won't. We'll get our blue brother back.” 

“For Leo.” Mikey held out his hand.

Raph smiled and placed his hand on top. “For Leo.”

April was next to do the same. “For Leo.”

Donnie looked at the intertwining of his sibling's hands, feeling another pang in his chest from the absence of an olive green hand. “For Leo.” Donnie laid his own hand on top, determination clear in his gaze.

“That being said…” April murmured, glancing over at Donnie. “You need sleep.” 

Donnie frowned at her. “There are more pressing matters than—”

“Looking after yourself and not working your body to the bone? No. You're not getting out of this one Donnie.” 

“Scoff! My health is fine…”

Mikey squinted up at his older brother. “Are those bags under your eyes…?”

“How would you know? I’m wearing my mask,” Donnie muttered, but he still glanced away from Mikey’s eyes.

“Donnie.”

Upon hearing Raph’s stern tone, Donnie knew there would be no room for arguments. So, reluctantly, he looked back to face his family. They all stared at him knowingly. April seemed fed up with him, while Raph donned his older brother glare, but Mikey… damn it. He was looking up at Donnie with those baby brother eyes of his, concern written all over his face. Donnie stared them all down evenly until he finally relented.

“Sigh, fine. I shall stop for a quick nap…”

April shook her head. “Nuh uh, you’re sleeping the full eight hours, Dee. And you’re getting something to eat and drink. Maybe even a shower. I love you, but you look like shit.”

“Love you too, dear sister of mine.” Donnie’s tone dripped sarcasm, but he couldn’t help the small fond glance over at April. His family truly did care for him. Donnie felt he should make more of an effort when it came to his ‘self care’, or at least get better at lying so his family couldn’t tell the difference. Though evidence suggested that the latter was highly unlikely due to past experiences…

Donnie gave Mikey one final squeeze before shifting to stand. Mikey moved to get up as well, rubbing his eyes as he did so. He wasn’t crying anymore, but Donnie could tell he was still feeling worse off. If only he knew how to comfort him, to comfort his other siblings too. Perhaps he should read up on that later. Donnie never was good with emotions, after all. Assistance in any form would be beneficial. 

“How about I cook up a quick dinner for us all? There’s this one recipe I found a couple weeks back that I’ve been dying to try out.” Mikey gave his older siblings a wobbly smile, wiping over his eyes again. Despite the circumstances, Mikey was always the ray of sunshine in the family, trying to warm every cold and tense room with his beaming smile alone. But sometimes, even the sun’s warmth could be blocked out by clouds. Donnie just hoped the clouds would clear soon enough. For all their sakes.

“Sounds good Angie, if you’re up for it of course.” April kept her soft tone as she again placed her hand onto Mikey’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I really want to. I wanna do something at least.” Mikey murmured with a small shrug. 

Raph nodded. “Alright Mike, if ya say so. Raph is gonna check in with the Hamato spirits again real quick. Just to be on the safe side.”

Everyone muttered their agreements as Raph turned to head to the dojo, and Mikey split off soon after to make his way to the kitchen. Donnie started towards his lab, eager to get back and keep searching until Mikey finished dinner, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“No way Donnie. You’re showering.” April raised a brow at him.

Donnie glared at her for a second, but he just huffed and soon relented. He trudged down the hallway with April looking on, a small, sad smile on her face.

Donnie’s stomach was comfortably full after dinner, with his skin feeling cleansed and fresh once more. He collapsed into bed later that night, donning headphones yet again, after he checked his lab one more time. Still not enough range. Still no signs of Leo. Still failing. 

He tossed and turned for approximately fifty-three minutes after that, but to no avail. Even with music right now, he couldn't sleep. With how heavy his eyes were and how badly his racing mind craved the sweet mercy of slumber, he was surprised that sleep refused to take him. Or perhaps it was him refusing the sleep.

Donnie muttered something under his breath and stood up, arching his arms over his head before taking his headphones off and setting them on his bedside table. He slipped out of his room and his eyes immediately drifted to the entrance of Leo's. It was stupid. He knew it was. And yet he couldn't stop himself from walking over there, one small step after the other, and he peeked in. 

Empty. 

What else had he expected?

Nothing, really.

He found himself walking into his twin's room and before he knew it, he was lowering himself onto his brother's bed and lying down, curling up into a ball as his head sunk into the too-soft pillow. 

A few months ago, April had kept complaining about Leo having no sense of hygiene and convinced him to try using deodorant or some kind of perfume. Only, in true Leo fashion, he chose the most obnoxious smelling deodorant he could find (Donnie hadn't even known leather-cookie was a thing until Leo bought it). April gave up on her lectures, but Leo still used the deodorant from time to time. It took a while, but Donnie had begun to associate the smell with Leo and eventually got used to it. 

That stupid deodorant surrounded him now and he curled further into himself. He never thought it would ever become some form of comfort. Donnie forced himself to relax as he grabbed Leo's blanket and pulled it over his aching limbs, closing his eyes. 

Eight more restless minutes had passed when he heard shuffling by the door. Donnie didn't move as tentative footsteps entered the room. He couldn't find the strength to even open his eyes. 

The footsteps stopped by the bed and he felt a three fingered hand on his shoulder, so light Donnie had to wonder if it was even real. The bed dipped and he felt a weight come down behind him. His heart rate picked up slightly because he knew he wasn't wearing his battle shell. The form shifted and slipped under the blanket beside him, and he felt them press against his softshell. Instead of going into panic mode, he relaxed. It was Mikey. 

Donnie sighed softly, in relief or to acknowledge his brother's presence, he wasn't quite sure. It was probably both. 

Mikey, in turn, nuzzled his face against him and settled into sleep. Focussing on his little brother's slow, deep breathing patterns, Donnie allowed the soft sound to wash over him and soothe his tired, overworked brain. And soon enough, with less of a struggle this time, he fell asleep. 

In bed, next to his little brother, and surrounded by the aching memory of his twin. 

Chapter Text

It was dark in the alleyway. 

There was no sun in this place, it seemed, so all sources of light were man made. Well, ‘alien made’. Leo didn’t mind though. The darkness was nice. It made him feel safe. As safe as he could feel in a totally unfamiliar place lightyears away from home, that was. It reminded him of the abandoned subway station—only the station was way more cosy than this. 

The metal of the dumpster was hard and cold against his shell. Unwelcoming was the first word that came to mind. They didn’t want him here, and Leo didn’t want to be here in the first place. He wanted to get back home so bad, only he had no real idea of how to go about that. So, instead of persisting, he just allowed himself to sulk in some sketchy alleyway of the giant alien city. 

No one cared about him here.

Why would he matter to anyone? 

He was merely a speck amongst all the other millions of aliens.

Leo suddenly understood why Raph always freaked out when he was alone. Only now, Leo’s situation was a hundred times worse. 128 lightyears worse.

He didn’t know how long he’d cried for, but he knew it had to have been a while, because his mind and body were once again overwhelmed with exhaustion. Too much had happened. Too much was happening. Was this how Donnie felt when he was overstimulated? 

Careful to keep himself hidden, Leo moved to lay down on the grubby surface, feeling disgusted by it, but he needed sleep. If he could even get to sleep, that was. 

He dragged his eyes over his surroundings, shifting to lay on his side, shell pressed against the wall. There wasn’t a whole lot in the alleyway to look at. If he hadn’t known any better, Leo would have thought he was still in New York.

The two buildings that encased the alleyway stood tall and proud, rising up high to brush against that mesmerising star speckled blue-purple sky. There was some trash scattered around, along with a puddle here and there. Was that water? Did it rain here? Do other aliens need water or do they survive off of other things? Leo blinked. The energy of his thoughts did not match the state of his body.

Across from the dumpster Leo was lying behind, there was another identical dumpster. There wasn’t a noticeable stench that choked the air, so he was grateful for that. Did the dumpster have some kind of filter so it didn’t smell? If so, New York could totally take some notes. 

Leo sighed. New York. Bustling streets. Busy people. So many things going on. So many smells. Most unpleasant, but there was one that often wafted on the breeze, one that identified as a true New York classic. 

Pizza.

Man, did Leo miss pizza. He missed food in general. When was the last time he ate? Leo hadn’t felt hungry like this in a long time. Was this what Mikey usually felt like? He was constantly snacking, after all… it was a wonder he didn’t eat everything while he was cooking. Then again, he snacked on other things whenever he cooked, so Leo supposed that was enough to stop him. 

Still mindlessly trailing his eyes over his surroundings, Leo thought back to all he’d been through since the fight with Repo. The busy streets of aliens he’d never seen before. Technology that belonged solely in a sci-fi movie as far as the eye could see. Buildings that made no logical sense. Bright lights glaring down at him with each step. Strange languages and words thrown at him from every direction. It was all so confusing and stressful. Was this how Casey felt when he first came back in time? 

Leo then thought back to the moment he portalled away. He’d known something was wrong. And yet, his pride didn’t want to admit he was struggling. But, was that really his pride that told him that? Maybe it was something else. 

Leo curled an arm under his head to rest it on. Why did he do it? Even when he knew something was up? Denial, maybe? It was the first stage of grief… he shook his head. He had nothing to grieve. Dad was still alive. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Leo would get back and he’d still be there. Just as he always was. In front of the TV, sipping on milk and munching on cake. He would be there. 

Leo used his free hand to rub his heavy eyes and he shivered. As ‘cosy’ as this little alleyway was, it was still cold. He missed his bed.

His eyes landed on something across from him and his fuzzy mind tried to make sense of it. It was a lump of something, twisting and ruffled in various places. Leo sat up a little and saw it was a cloth of some kind. It was also blue. 

The colour of the fabric alone was enough to pique Leo’s interest, since blue was the best colour to ever exist. He reached out a hand and dragged it towards him. 

After some fidgeting with it, Leo saw that it was a cloak of some kind. It didn’t look too manky… sigh. Oh, the things Leo was now subjecting himself to. He missed his wardrobe.

He carefully slipped the garment on and, to his surprise, it was really comfy. The cloth wrapped all the way around him and was held together by a latch at his neck. The hood was big and spacious, draping over Leo’s face and making his bright features seem a darker hue. This would do.

Using it as a wrap around blanket, Leo laid down again and resumed his earlier position of using his arm as a pillow. He stayed like that for a moment, trying not to fall asleep despite how tired he was. Once the thoughts racing through his mind became too much to bear, he shifted his wrist so the translator was in front of his face.

“Hey… you on?”

The translator lit up and beeped once. The text on the screen read, Do you require assistance?

Leo thought for a moment about what this thing might be able to do. He needed a distraction. 

“What can you do?”

A little loading icon popped up and a wall of text was slammed into Leo’s face. He squinted at the sudden hologram and tried to make sense of it. With a sigh, he rolled his eyes.

“Okay, pretend I’m stupid. Simplify it, would ya?”

“No need to pretend, Nardo,” Donnie’s quip came to mind, and Leo could almost see the smirk he’d pull on his face, that snarky aura and utter joy teasing his twin brought him. 

Leo shook his head and watched as the translator loaded again. The wall of text didn’t lessen by any means, but at least he could make sense of it now. He roved his eyes over the various lines, but nothing was sinking in. 

After rereading the first paragraph for what had to be the fifth time, Leo gave up and tapped the screen to get rid of the projection. He rolled onto his shell and repositioned his arm to keep using it as a pillow, staring up at the purple-blue cosmic display. It was really pretty. He wondered if he should take a photo to show everyone when he got back. He still had his phone, after all. Something he hadn’t even thought about up until now.

A thought flittered into his head, one that was actually useful amongst the others that only wanted to spiral, and he turned his attention back to the translator. 

“Can you play music?”

Leo tensed in the few seconds it took for the translator to load a response.

Please please please please please— 

No. 

Simple and straight to the point. Leo sagged. He would kill for some noise to distract his thoughts right now. Hell, he’d even listen to Donnie’s horrible techno nonsense, he was that desperate. 

Stuck with nothing but the ever present background noise of the streets and his own looming thoughts, Leo returned to staring up at the dusted sky. A soft tune started playing in his head, one that he’d heard many times before in the company of his siblings. It was a slow song, the kind of music Leo didn’t really like, but this song was the exception. It was the one they played whenever they wanted ‘chill vibes’ throughout the lair.

Leo traced the few stars he could see in the sky with his eyes, and he started humming the tune. It was nice to have noise other than the loud chaos of the streets just outside his little safe haven. Even if it was just his own voice. But, hey, since when had Leo not enjoyed listening to himself?

A small smile wove its way into his calm expression and he hummed the tune louder, thinking about the peaceful moments he’d had with his family in the company of this song. He used his free hand to tap out the melody on his plastron, and the action soothed him further. It gave him something to do. It grounded him. 

Leo allowed his eyes to slip shut, and though his body was still feeling stiff and uncomfortable, he felt content. It wasn’t a full, relaxing kind of content. He still missed his family immensely, and that longing sat heavy on his chest, squeezing at his heart. But for now… Leo was okay.

Not great, far from perfect, but he was okay. 

Whether it was by willing his ninpo to stop messing around or hijacking some kind of spaceship to zip back to Earth, he’d do whatever it took.

He’d get back to his family. He knew he would.

A sharp, curling sensation in his stomach roused Leo from sleep, forcing him to shrink in on himself with a groan. He sat up and blinked his eyes open to take in his surroundings. The stab in his stomach happened again and he wrapped an arm around his plastron. He was so hungry. How long had he been asleep…?  

His brows rose with a thought and he looked down at his translator.

“Can you tell me how long I was out for?” His voice was heavy with sleep and Leo had to shake himself a little to get his brain functioning again, his mouth gaping with an audible yawn. 

The translator loaded upon hearing Leo’s question and responded with what he had expected.

No.

Again, this thing was no Shelldon. Eh, what’d he have to lose by asking anyway? It wasn’t like he didn’t just sleep among literal garbage. He then felt a small pang of sympathy for homeless people back in New York. Maybe he’d ask Donnie if they could donate some money to a shelter nearby.

Leo smiled a little. Yeah, he liked that thought. 

His stomach growled at him again and Leo frowned. He didn’t have any food on him, since this whole situation was not accounted for. Maybe when he got back home, he’d ask Mikey to stitch on an extra snack pouch into his gear.

Leo’s eyes widened as he remembered his pouch, and he stuck a hand in to pull something out. He held it up before him, the soft glow reflecting in his eyes. The plant from the first planet he went to. 

He stared at it for a long moment, and though his body was still, there was a raging battle inside his mind.

To eat the plant or to not eat the plant? That was the question…

His logical side told him not to be stupid, but the hungry side of him said, “who cares?! I want food!”

Leo hummed to himself and frowned deeply. What would his family say? He could almost imagine smaller versions of them sitting on his shoulders like little angels and devils telling him what to do. 

“Come on, Nardo, you aren’t seriously considering this, are you?” Donnie raised a judgmental eyebrow at his twin from his left shoulder. “You have no idea what this thing could do to you.”

“Yeah, I’m with Donnie on this one, Lee.” April stood beside him, crossing her arms.

“Buuuut, what if it tastes delicious?” Mikey bounced on his right shoulder with a grin. “It could be a whole new food source!” He gasped with starry eyes. “Imagine what I could cook up with something like that!”

“Yeah, I mean, Raph’s eaten worse than some weird plant and I’m still fine!” Raph shrugged. 

Donnie grimaced, “Oh, do not remind me. So gross…”

Casey hummed from beside Raph, “I dunno Sensei, we had to eat leaves and rats in the future and I turned out fine.” He paused. “Well… maybe not fine, but, something.”

Leo laughed at himself. This was so stupid. More stupid than actually considering eating the plant. 

His little imaginary siblings dissipated and his smile fell with it. He did still want to give the plant to Donnie, so… maybe he shouldn’t eat it. Besides, he did not want to throw up his guts later. That was worse than just starving. 

His hunger persisted with another drawn out ache in his stomach and Leo clenched his teeth. “Alright, alright, I’m going,” he muttered, standing up with his cloak flowing around him as he arched to stretch his sore limbs. He carefully placed the glowing plant back into his pouch and sighed.

Food. He needed to find something to eat.

And on an alien planet lightyears from home, how hard could that possibly be?

Leo laughed nervously. “You’re really in it now Leon,” he murmured to himself as he dragged his feet over to the alleyway’s entrance and peeked out. With the cloak concealing him, Leo felt a little better about facing the never ending alien crowd. Maybe this was why Donnie loved his hoodie so much. 

Slipping into the flow of people that led down the street, Leo took the time to scan his surroundings rather than the aliens in the crowd. Now that he wasn’t looking for a conversation, he could truly soak it all in. Especially since his new goal in mind was to try and find food.

Leo figured that since this translator had languages from Earth, then this place obviously knew it existed (not to mention all the weird looks he got when he asked people about it) and there should be something here that he could eat without his insides becoming outsides. He just needed to find a place where people wouldn’t stare at him like he’d killed their mother from the mere mention of Earth. 

No pressure.

As Leo strolled along the streets, keeping to the outskirts of the crowd so he wasn’t fully swept away, he took notice of all the things he’d overlooked before. Like all the little fairy lights strewn across the street, the uniqueness of each building and shop front he came across, the way the pavement felt beneath his bare feet, and, of course, the wanted posters. There were. So. Many.

Leo had no idea why that was the case, but using his translator to scan them, most of the text read as resistance members of some kind being wanted dead or alive by order of some guy called Emperor Zanmoran. 

He sounded like the kinda guy you would not want to mess with, and Leo became curious about this resistance’s story. Were they the bad guys in this situation or was this Emperor dude in the wrong?

And his curiosity grew with each poster he saw, because among the resistance members here and there, there was one wanted poster that was everywhere. And the numbers on this guy’s head were so much more than the others. He seemed to be some kind of robot guy, by the looks of his blurry picture. And the title on his posters was pretty much a dead give away: Fugitive Android. 

Leo wondered what he’d done to earn this many wanted posters. He tried to ask the translator, but again, it just said ‘that was not a service it could provide.’ He really missed the usual sass he got from Shelldon. 

The drone would probably just roll his eyes and begrudgingly do some snooping and minor hacking of other systems to tell him. Or he’d straight up tell him no. Come to think of it, maybe this was better than dealing with Shelldon’s attitude.

He still missed it, regardless. 

Diverting his attention from the posters and back to the task at hand, Leo used his translator to read all the signs around him. Some were bizarre store names Mikey and Casey would laugh at, some were strange fashion brands with clothes Donnie would find appalling and judge severely, and some looked like niche little souvenir shops that Raph and April would drag everyone to.

Leo wished everyone could see how cool this place was. They’d surely make the connection of it looking like some place straight from Jupiter Jim and be just as excited as him about it. But he was also glad they weren’t here, for their sakes. 

All those wanted posters with tales of a strange resistance and a random android everyone was after told Leo that something wasn’t quite right, and he should be careful with where he went and who he talked to.

Finally, after a few more scans of random stores, Leo found a place that looked a lot like a bar. He could go for a decent meal right about now. Shell, he could go for any meal right now. 

Mentally bracing himself for what awaited him inside, Leo pushed the double doors open and gave the place a once over. It had the kind of vibe you’d expect from a bar, and he was surprised to see less sci-fi looking things in here. 

The place was built out of something resembling wooden planks, with tables and chairs dotted around the main bar that sat right in the middle. Booths were placed along the edges next to simple windows that gave you a wonderful view of the drab building next door. 

Towards the back, behind the island bar, there was a set of double doors that lead to what Leo could only guess was a kitchen of some kind. Light tunes he didn’t really care for played in the background, but he supposed it did add to the ambiance of the place.

It wasn’t too crowded, considering New York standards, and Leo allowed himself to be more at ease. He just hoped his hobo appearance didn’t draw looks from anyone. He was also glad he kept the cloak, because as well as concealing him and having his bright markings covered up and less noticeable, it also hid his katana, making him seem like less of a threat. 

The last thing Leo wanted was a deep space bar brawl. He didn’t know if he even had it in him to rile someone up right now, even though some small part of him always did want to stir trouble. Just to see what happened. 

But, not wanting to test his already bad luck any further, Leo made his way through the place, unnoticed or just ignored—he didn’t know for sure. He took up an empty stool at the main bar, off to the side to draw less attention, and he hugged his cloak a little tighter around himself. 

Leo’s leg bounced on the stool’s footrest and he leaned his elbows against the bar. He spotted a big, burly looking alien with four arms tending to the other aliens that sat around the bar and Leo knew they must’ve been the bartender. He wasn’t sure how he should try to get their attention though. For all he knew, a small, friendly wave could start the next galactic war.

He knew he was probably just being way too paranoid, but Leo did not want to chance it. 

“And what can I do for you?” 

Leo nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the voice in front of him and the bartender laughed, “Woah, woah, easy there kid, you’re alright.”

Leo huffed and his leg bounced faster. “Sorry, I just… haven’t exactly had the best of luck around here lately,” he muttered, casting a hesitant smile up at the bartender. They looked so much bigger up close. 

The bartender gave a hearty laugh and leaned against the counter. “Yeah, I can tell from the looks of ya, kid. But it’s fine, no need to be so jumpy. I don’t discriminate ‘round here. We serve folks from all corners of the galaxy, after all.”

Leo relaxed slightly, but he still knew he had to tread carefully. “Heh, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Everybody goes through rough patches here and there. Anyway, back to my previous question…?” They raised an eyebrow (maybe it was an eyebrow?)

Leo straightened up a little. “Oh, right. Well, I’m a turtle with simple needs, ya know? So, anything I could eat would be great.”

“Gotcha, and just where were you from, ‘turtle’?”

“Oh, uh…” Leo started fidgeting with his hands. Everyone else had reacted so badly when he asked them about Earth, but to outright tell someone he was from there? He knew the bartender said they didn’t discriminate and they seemed nice enough, but Leo wasn’t sure he could take that chance. Then again… what’d he have to lose by being kicked out? He could just try to find some other place, as much as his stomach protested at the thought. He let out a small breath. “...Earth.”

The bartender narrowed their three eyes at him and Leo wanted nothing more than to shrink inside his own shell. “Earth, ya say?”

Leo gave a shaky nod. It was like time had frozen, all background chatter and terrible music had vanished, and there was only him and the bartender. Leo could hear his blood pumping in his ears and each shallow breath he took. He knew this alien could do some damage if they wanted to literally ‘throw him’ out of the place.

“Earth…” they repeated slowly, humming. 

They straightened up so fast Leo flinched back on his stool, and they snapped their fingers together. “Oh, you’re from Terra?”

Leo blinked. “Yeah…?”

“Of course! I should have something around here for you. Just give me a sec.” The bartender turned and left a trembling Leo behind.

“Holy truffle mac’n’cheese…” Leo muttered under his breath, slouching in relief and resting his head onto his hand. He really needed to stop having close calls like that.

A couple of minutes went by and Leo used that time to collect himself and organise his thoughts. The bartender soon came back with something he found questionable.

“There ya go! Terra friendly dish.”

Leo stared at the sludge placed before him and warily poked it with a finger. Maybe he wasn’t as hungry as he thought he was. “Uh huh… and you’re sure this won’t, like, make me explode from the inside out?”

The bartender laughed again and leaned against the counter once more. “Oh, you are quite the funny one, turtle! No, I have served many Terrans in my time, and they always came back for more. Although, I must say, I have never seen someone like you from Terra before.” They sighed and shook their head. “Planets evolve so fast these days.”

Leo smiled and shrugged. “Well, you could say I’m the exception in this case…” 

“Very well, everybody has their story. Say, what is your name, young turtle?” 

Leo tensed. He did not want to tell this total stranger his name. This alien seemed nice, sure, but Marcus Moncrief also seemed nice, and then he straight up tried to kidnap Leo and Mikey! And he was Leo’s idol! This person was a total stranger. Not to mention the first time they met Big Mama… what a shitshow that turned out to be. 

But Leo also wasn’t getting any particularly bad vibes from this alien, even though he still didn’t trust them. He didn’t want to simply leave them hanging or tell them his real name, so… 

“Uh… Donatello. Donatello of the Tomato clan.” Leo shone a nervous grin up at the bartender. 

The bartender tilted their head at him and brought a hand up to their chin. “Tomato clan? I do not believe I have heard that one before.”

Leo shrugged. “Haha, you’d be surprised…” Damn, what was wrong with him? Leo was never this nervous around people. He was the faceman! The confident turtle who was always sure of himself in every egotistical way possible! Then again, Leo had never talked to any aliens that weren’t trying to destroy his planet or bash his face in soooo… first time for everything?

The bartender just shrugged as well and crossed a pair of arms over their chest, while the other two sat on their hips. “That’s the thing with this job, you never know what to expect. Anyway, I am Kyor, and I run this here establishment.”

Leo nodded, but it soon turned into a frown as he realised something. He glanced down to his translator, but it was off. He then shared his confused look with Kyor. “Wait, how come I can understand you without this thing? Do you speak English or something?”

Kyor gave him a confused look of their own before realisation dawned on their face and they laughed once more. “Oh, no! I am not speaking your language! Much like your…” they narrowed their eyes at Leo’s wrist, “outdated translator, I have a chip that has been implanted into my head so that I may understand you, and you may understand me.” They gestured to the side of their head, where Leo now saw some kind of chip sticking out the side. It looked kinda cool. “Most folks have them these days.”

“Huh… personally, I think I’d prefer to keep my head to myself. All natural, as they say.” 

Kyor chuckled and nodded. “Yes, some people do wish that, so they just get something much like what you have. Less convenient, but it still works. As for me, this chip makes my job so much easier.”

“I can definitely see how handy it would be,” Leo murmured, doing a quick sweep across the place with his eyes and seeing all the different types of aliens here. 

Kyor nodded and stretched their four arms over their head. “Well, I shall leave you to your meal, Donatello. This one's on me, as I can see you are looking…” they tilted their head at him, “worse for wear, so to speak.” 

“Oh, thank—” before Leo could finish speaking, Kyor was already off serving the next customer, “you… okay,” he muttered to himself and looked down at his food with a suspicious frown. 

Sure, it looked disgusting, but he was feeling pretty desperate… then again, this thing could be poisoned. Leo glanced over next to the dish and saw some kind of spoon, so he grabbed it and used it to poke the sludge once more. Then he trailed his eyes over to Kyor. They were serving up a bubbling green drink to some other alien. 

Could he trust them?

His gut hadn’t given him any bad feeling about Kyor, and they sure seemed friendly. Besides, what would they have to gain by poisoning some random mutant turtle from Earth anyway? A free, dirty robe along with his sick katana, weird glowy plants, and a phone that probably didn’t even work this far from Earth? Besides, Kyor didn’t even know about his katana, plants or phone! And, on that note, killing some rando probably wouldn't be the best for business…

Leo’s eyes slipped back down to the meal before him. 

It sat there.

He narrowed his eyes.

It continued to just… sit there.

His stomach growled as if to hurry him the shell up and Leo sighed. “Fine… but if we die, I’m blaming you,” he muttered to his stomach as he used the spoon-thing to get a decent mouthful. 

The consistency of this thing was real weird, and it stretched as Leo got a piece out. He grimaced at the sight and took a moment to mentally prepare himself for how this thing was gonna taste. This was better than starving… he hoped.

He tentatively brought the orange, mushy substance to his mouth and screwed his eyes shut so he didn’t have to see what he was assaulting his beautiful body with. His lips made contact with the spoon-thing and a bit of the food touched his tongue and… wait.

Leo opened his eyes and blinked a few times. This was… holy chalupa, this was really good. Whether that was his borderline starvation talking or some still-sane part of him, he didn’t know but he did not care. The food was good. 

The tension in Leo’s muscles slowly relaxed with each bite of his food, each gloriously mouth watering bite. He was okay! The vibe of this place was chill and good natured. He didn’t feel queasy or like his insides were melting, so that was a sure sign the food wasn’t poisoned. Another bonus! 

He sighed and allowed himself to, not fully let his guard down, but to unwind. Just a little. He took in his surroundings as he happily ate his food, looking over the other aliens in the bar as they ate, talked, laughed, just… existed. Like normal people. 

He could pick up some conversations, from people who had the chip in their head, Leo figured. Although, hearing it now, some speaking perfect English like it was nothing, and some talking with weird growls, gargles and other strange noises, it was jarring. 

It almost shell-shocked Leo in a way he wasn’t fully prepared for, but he didn’t let it get to him. This was his moment. His small pocket of happiness and calm. His leg bouncing had even stopped by now and Leo revelled in it.  

So he just kept listening to his surroundings and placidly eating his food, but he soon caught onto a conversation that sounded quite interesting. He straightened up a little and honed in on the two voices that were speaking English behind him (definitely had chips, it seemed) and shamelessly eavesdropped on their conversation.

“...gotta find him soon. This was his last known location.”

Oh? A manhunt? Well, that sounded fun. 

“I know, man. I dunno how this stupid droid has been able to hide away from every bounty hunter in Korlo, I mean, come on! He’s just some dumb smarty pants who thinks he’s all that. It’s stupid.”

Huh. Not a manhunt… a robot-hunt? Leo’s eyes widened. Wait, were they talking about that one guy on all the wanted posters? The… what was it? The Fugitive Android?!

“Chill out, dude, we’ll catch him and reap the benefits. Emperor Zanmoran has a pretty penny on his head after all. Say, what the heck did this guy even do to draw so much attention anyway?”

The other guy groaned, “I’ve told you this a hundred times already!”

“Come on, Zico, you know what my memory is like.”

“Ugh, fine whatever. As it goes, this guy—android, is a super smart guy, yeah? And he’s got blueprints to a portal device—”

Leo almost choked on his food. Portal device?! Okay, okay, act casual Leon. Keep calm. 

“—and Emperor Zanmoran wants those plans for himself. Only thing is, the android destroyed all his research and his entire lab just so the Emperor couldn’t get to it, so it’s all in his mind. Or database. I have no idea how androids work, but regardless, that’s why the guy is so wanted. And you better remember this, ‘cause I ain’t explaining it to you again, Ricky.”

Leo’s heart threatened to pound right through his plastron. He could flip a table over and cheer. He could cry in utter relief. He was so happy he could punch a rainbow. A portal device. A portal device.

This could be his way home, save for his screwy ninpo of course.

He could get back to his family, no worries at all. 

He could see them again. He could go home. 

A small beep pierced its way through Leo’s thoughts and he honed in on the two bounty hunters again.

“Alright, come on Ricky, we just got a tip. Says the android might be close by.”

Leo heard movement behind him and glanced to his side to see them walking towards the exit. He needed to follow them. He needed to find that android. He had to get home.

Leo scoffed down the rest of his food (even with how desperate he was, there was no way he was wasting this slice of heaven) and he shot out of the bar, his sick ninja skills keeping him from bumping into anyone on the way out.

He caught sight of the two guys across the street getting onto vehicles that looked like motorbikes and Leo smirked to himself.

He adjusted his hood over his head, tightened the clasp, and began to tail the two bounty hunters.

“I’m coming for you, android guy.”

Leo stumbled slightly as he landed on the next rooftop and he panted, doubling over to grasp his knees as he caught his breath. He may be fit, but damn those space motorbikes did not mess around. 

Leo had lost sight of the two bounty hunters a few blocks back, but he just kept running in the same direction anyway. Now that he had some small inkling of hope to cling to, he wasn’t letting it go that easily. 

He would find this portal making android guy and get back home.

Leo exhaled forcefully and nodded to himself as he stood straight and drew in a deep breath.

Alright. Game plan. Leo excelled in that. Strategy was his area of expertise!

As much as he wanted to keep running in hopes of catching up to those bounty hunters, he figured it wouldn’t be the best plan of action. He loved a plan that hinged on dumb luck as much as the next guy, but he really didn’t want to risk getting more lost. Although, he was already technically lost since he had no idea where he was…

Whatever, Leo could do this. He crossed his arms over his plastron and started strolling across the length of the rooftop and back again.

“So. Now I’ve got a goal to work towards. I just have to figure out how I can get there…” he muttered to himself, swivelling around to mosey back to the other side of the roof. Talking out loud helped organise his thoughts, and besides, who wouldn’t love hearing this awesome voice? It was a blessing to all who heard it.

“This android guy has a portal device and so that can get me home! Only…” Leo hummed, “those bounty hunter dudes said he destroyed all his progress and research so that Emperor guy couldn’t get to it. And all the blueprints are in his head.” He stopped and brought a hand to his chin.

“Sooo he’d still have to build it. I dunno how long something like that would take, but I guess I have some kind of reference when it comes to Donnie.” Leo thought back to all the times his twin would get caught up in his next big project and hermit away in his lab for days on end, sometimes a whole week, and Mikey would always bring him food and water so he didn’t, ya know, die. Oh Donnie. For such a genius, he really was a dumbass sometimes. Leo laughed at the thought. Maybe his own dumbass-ery was rubbing off on him.

Anyway, back to the point. 

Donnie’s projects, the really big ones, would sometimes take months to finish, even if he was hyper focused on them. And Leo wasn’t sure how the sci-fi tech out here worked, but building a literal portal device had to take a while…

He sighed. “Maybe this will take longer than I’d hoped for,” he murmured, brows furrowed. He groaned and ran his hand over his face. “Not to mention, how’d I even find this guy?! This place—Korlo, was it? I dunno, whatever this place is, it’s huge! How am I supposed to find a genius robot guy who’s managed to avoid a tonne of bounty hunters and, hey, maybe even this place’s law enforcement, for who knows how long now?! What’s he gonna do? Drop right into my hands?”

A loud crash sounded nearby and Leo looked over to the direction it came from. There were frantic shouts, and among the voices he heard something about 'finally finding the android.'

Leo laughed as he ran over. “Dumb luck for the win!” 

He shot over to the next rooftop and peered down into the alleyway below him. Three figures stood by the entrance, all holding what looked like cool, glowy laser guns (the geek in Leo tried not to freak out) and a cloaked figure stood cornered in the opposite end of the alleyway.

“There ain’t nowhere to run now, professor. And hey, Emperor Zanmoran never specified you couldn't be a little banged up when we brought you to him. Just as long as your head was still intact…” The bounty hunter charged up his gun, an electrical thrum slicing through the cold night air, and he aimed it at the cloaked figure who was still backed up against the wall.

Leo grinned to himself as he stood tall and whipped out his katana, the satisfying swoosh they made now bringing him joy once more. He hadn’t felt like a real ninja ever since he started zipping all over the place, but now? 

Now he was in his element.

Leo flipped off the building and used the opposite wall to propel himself towards the guy with the gun. His katana swiftly sliced through the gun and he made quick work of the others. 

“What the—?!” The bounty hunter was cut short with a kick to the face and Leo danced around the others with jabs and swipes, feeling more like himself than he had in days. He wasn’t even ashamed of the downright joyful grin on his face. 

The last guy spun around and fell to the ground amongst his unconscious accomplices, and Leo sheathed his katana with a cocky smirk. “That’s how we do it in New York. Turtle style baby!” 

Leo turned to the hooded figure at the end of the alleyway, and he made sure to remove his own hood. “Hey, it's cool. You can come out now. I don’t wanna hurt ya.” He then frowned. Wait, he had no idea if this guy actually was the portal building robot he was looking for. Had he just beat up three guys for nothing? 

No, of course not. Even if this person wasn’t the android, he still saved someone in need. And that’s what heroes did.

Buuuut, he would still very much like to know who this guy was. “Uh, who are you, anyway?”

The figure took a cautious step forward, their cloak concealing all of them but their face, where two glowing, orange dots could be seen amongst the shadow. Two white, metallic three-fingered hands slipped out of the clothing and slowly rose up to the hood.

“I am…”

Leo held his breath as the person brought their hands up to the edges of the hood and slowly brought it down to their shoulders. Digital eyes flickered up to meet his own, wide eyed stare.

“...the Fugitive Android.”

Chapter Text

Okay, Leo had to admit, that reveal was kinda awesome. But more importantly— 

“Yes! You’re the guy who can make a portal thingy and get me back ho—”

The Fugitive Android’s eyes turned into exclamation marks and he held out his hands. “SHH! Do not speak of it alou—AHH!” he stumbled and barreled into the garbage that seemed to be leaking out of the overflowing dumpster. Leo cringed and muttered a small “eugh boy…” before walking over and offering the android his hand. He found it funny in some kind of way to see that the guy had three fingers like him. Maybe it was some common ground they could relate to together?

Yeah, sure Leo, bond over having three fingers with some random robot guy who’s a fugitive of the law. What the shell was he thinking?!

The Fugitive Android accepted his outstretched hand and allowed Leo to pull him to his feet. “Oh d—dear…” he murmured, twitching as a buzz rang out through him, spirals replacing the exclamation marks that were once in his eyes. 

“Uh… you good, lata?” Leo tilted his head at the guy, fidgeting with his hands. Man, why was he suddenly feeling so awkward? This was the robot that could finally help him get home! First impressions were everything.  

The Fugitive Android shook his head and his digital eyes returned to normal. “Oh, y—yes, I suppose… though I b—believe my voice b—box is mildly damaged.” He sagged, his eyes turning to slanted semi circles. He said something in a language Leo didn’t know, but he could take a few guesses as to what it meant.

“Great!” Leo paused. He blinked and silently cursed himself. “I—I mean, no, that’s, uh… not great, obvi, I’m just glad you’re… sort of… great?” Yep. Leo wanted nothing more than to end his suffering with one of those blasters he’d sliced in half.

“Erm, r—right.” The Fugitive Android seemed just as awkward as him as he adjusted his cloak around himself. “I believe thanks are in order for you saving my life…” he trailed off, loading icons replacing his eyes and once they cleared, he scrambled back. “Wait! H—how do I know you are n—not just trying to get the reward on my head?! Oh, I should be more careful with my—myself…”     

Leo hastily held his hands up, shaking his head. “Woahwoahwoah, easy lata, I don’t wanna hurt you. I mean, that money isn’t even worth anything to me anyway,” he shrugged. “But that’s not the point, I uh, overheard from a totally reliable source that you can build a portal or something…?” He trailed off, silently praying to whoever was still watching over him that those bounty hunters had been right.

The Fugitive Android’s eyes drooped again and he sighed with another short-circuit convulsing his whole body. “That dreaded teleportal de—device is the whole reason I’m in this pre—predicament…” His eyes returned to normal and he watched Leo warily. “How do I know I can t—trust you, stranger?”

Leo brought his hands down to hang by his sides, his own cloak enveloping them. What could he say? This guy had every right not to trust him, and Leo felt for him. He was just some random cloaked person who had catapulted himself off the roof and easily taken out three of those bounty hunter dudes. Sure, he had saved the Fugitive Android, but for all the robot knew, Leo was putting on a front. Pretending he was some kind of saviour to gain his trust only to shatter it as he dumped him in for the cash.

Leo felt sickened by the thought.

Then again, how could Leo even trust the Fugitive Android? For all he knew, the android was the one lying and was actually wanted for mass murderings and he was next!

But… the robot was also his only shot home.

Leo doubted his ninpo would want to cooperate with him any time soon (ironic that the very thing powered by the love of his family was keeping him away from them. He wanted to find it funny. Wanted to laugh at the thought. But he couldn’t find it in himself anymore) and the chance he could hijack some random spaceship in hopes that he could figure out how to get home was astronomically low. 

This guy was his best bet. His final chance. His last hope.

He considered lying, considered summoning his cocky facade to woo his way into convincing the android to trust him, but it didn’t come. 

All he considered was just… telling him the truth.

Leo took a deep breath and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, I’m just gonna to be straight with you here. I really, really need your help.” He smiled sadly as he murmured, “two reallys…” With a shake of his head, continued on, “I know you have no reason to trust me, I get that, I do. But you’re my best shot at getting back home. I need to get back to my family. I… I can’t imagine what they’re going through right now…”

Leo crossed his arms and hugged himself. It had only been two (three?) days since his ninpo had decided “you know what? Space travel could be fun!” and already there was a gnawing dread that rested in his stomach. His skin prickled from the constant sensation and he felt so cold without the warm presence of his family by his side. He hoped the earnestness in his tone and the raw vulnerability in his eyes was enough to convince the robot he was telling the truth.

Something about what Leo said must have stuck with the android, because he was now openly staring at him, no longer looking wound up or on edge like before. “Your… family?” he asked quietly. 

Leo met his artificial gaze and he nodded. “Yeah, they’re…” he smiled softly, “they’re everything to me. I’m nothing without them.”

The Fugitive Android blinked at him, seeming to think things over. “Might I as—ask for your name?”

This caught Leo by surprise and he dropped his arms back by his sides. Was this a step in the right direction? “Wait, why?”

“If we are to b—be acquaintanced, then I believe we sh—should at least be on a first name basis—sis.”

That cold pit in Leo’s stomach began to melt with the warmth that stirred in his chest, a small flickering flame of hope that dared to light up the darkness. He considered giving him a fake name like before (well… it wasn’t totally fake. Sorry, not sorry Don), but for some reason, Leo felt more at ease with this guy than he had with that bartender. Even though he had wondered if the robot wanted to kill him, like, less than five minutes ago, something in his gut told him this guy could be trusted.  

And besides, had he mentioned this guy was his only way home?

“Leonardo. Leonardo Hamato.” He smiled, finding his confidence again and sticking out his hand with a wink. “But I also respond to Leo, Neon Leon, and World’s Greatest Ninja.”

The Fugitive Android seemed to let out an amused sound, but another electrical current through his body cut him short, and he collected himself from the brief spasm to take Leo’s hand and shake it.

“It is n—nice to meet you, Leonardo. Though, I only—ly wish our circumstances were different.”

Leo nodded and crossed his arms over his plastron. “Yeah, you’re tellin’ me, dude. Anywhizzle, what’s your name? As charming as it is, I’m sure ‘Fugitive Android’ wasn’t your first choice.”

The Fugitive Android straightened up and cleared his throat—wait, do robots even have throats? “My na—ame is Professor Zayton Honeycutt—”

Leo waved his hand. “Okay, woah. First off: cool name, and second, I am never gonna remember that, lata.” He brought his raised hand to his chin in thought—Mikey had always been the master of naming things, and he willed his brother's talents to somehow help him now. He snapped his fingers as he thought of something and he grinned. “Hey! What if I just call you Fugitoid? Kinda catchy, don’tcha think?”   

The android blinked at him. “Fugitoid…? I ha—ave not considered taking a different name be—before. Although, in this new body, I do—do feel in some sense that I am no longer the ma—man I once was…”

‘New body’? Okay, Leo would have to ask about that later. “So…? Whaddaya say lata?” Leo shrugged, gesturing at him. “Fugitoid suits you.”

The android hummed and nodded once. “Yes, I do believe this new na—name could be… good.” 

Fugitoid almost seemed lighter as he came to the conclusion, but his orange gaze on Leo narrowed. “Though I mu—must ask that you refrain from referring—ing to me as ‘Tin can’, Leonardo.”

Leo couldn’t help the snicker that escaped him. “Wait, you speak Spanish?”

“I have a plethora of—of dialects stored in my database f—from all corners of the galaxy, so ye—yes, I know Spanish.”

The way he talked reminded Leo of Donnie in some strange way. He fought the urge to call him a nerd and instead asked, “So you're actually speaking English right now and not using some weird chip thingy that’s attached to your brain?” Leo gestured at his own head and grimaced, muttering, “Which, gross, by the way.”

Fugitoid convulsed with another short circuit and blinked at him. “Correct.”

“Huh…” Leo leaned against the wall, eyeing the bounty hunters on the ground. There was something blinking beside one of them, a light flashing on and off, but Leo paid no mind to it, because they were still out cold. He smirked to himself. He was just too good. “So, Fugi, how’d you come about being the galaxy’s most wanted robot?”

Fugitoid visibly sagged at that—another strange trait that implied he had muscles in the first place to hold strain. Leo filed that away for later. “Well, for the very—ry reason you sought me out, Le—Leonardo.”

Fugitoid leaned against the wall beside him, and though his eyes were digital, Leo knew that look anywhere. He was about to enter speech mode. Leo took a small breath and urged himself to keep his feet firm to the ground and pay attention. This talk wouldn’t be like one of Donnie’s many info dumps, this one would matter (again, sorry not sorry Don-Tron). 

“As my title—well, my former title suggests, I wa—was a scientist, specialising in technological advancements, qua—quantum mechanics and many other things that involved working with machinery and—and building for the future.”

Techno what now?

“My inventions we—were praised by many and my own intellect was eagerly sought out by—by  all. It was enjoyable… that feeling of ‘being on top’, s—so to speak. But, all things soon changed when I had the idea to create a teleportation de—device…”

He trailed off for a moment, and Leo could feel the regret practically radiating off of him.

“In theory, my teleportal device was des—designed to cross the galaxy in the mere blink of an eye, a—as opposed to week-long journeys, even with the aid of hyperdrives cutting back the lightyears to a few—few days. This was supposed to be something revolutionary…” Fugitoid sighed and twitched with another spark singeing his insides. 

“Once I had the theo—theoretical calculations figured out, I was beside myself. I was—was  blinded by the thrill of discovery, oblivious to the dangers this n—new technology could face. For when creating something for go—good, you must also consider how it could be used for evil—vil.” 

Fugitoid’s eyes narrowed into orange slits. “Emperor Zanmoran heard of my discoveries and off—offered me funding. I was… more than happy to oblige.”

He turned his glowing gaze over to meet Leo’s eyes. “Emperor Zanmoran is of the Triceraton ra—race; he and his army have ruled over this quadrant of the galaxy for many a year now—now. His rule is unjust and often harsh. It was not al—always like this. We were once a peaceful community, but now…”

Fugitoid shook his head and looked to the ground. His eyes were slanted again, making his expression look saddened. “Even with the resistance giving it the—their all, their efforts are still not enough. The Emperor has a ti—tight grip on everyone. Not to mention his fearsome army at his si—side.

“Once I finally caught sight of his intentions to use my—my teleportal device for evil—to attack and destroy planets, disman—mantle civilisations with the ability to sneak past their defences undetected—I refused to further my re—research or continue my experimentations. However, Emperor Zanmoran…”

He trailed off, eyes squinting again as he tried to find the right words. “...he was ve—very convincing, so I stayed,” he decided on, looking back up to Leo. “But I could not let thou—thousands, potentially millions, die by the hand of something I had created. So, I destroyed my lab, wiped—wiped the database clean, and… I ran.

“My min—mind is all that holds whatever is left of my projects… Emperor Zanmoran was furious when he—he discovered what I had done, and since—since then, I have been evading his military, law—lawless bounty hunters, and just about anyone with eyes, really.” He gave a small laugh, but it sounded forced to Leo’s ears. He felt his heart ache.

“Fugi, I… man, I’m sorry that happened to you. Well, is happening to you.”

“You have my thanks, Leonardo, but I do—do not deserve your sympathy. If I had taken even just a second to consider the dan—dangers of such technology, then maybe—” he shook his head, cutting himself off. Leo chose not to pry as Fugitoid continued on, “I was with the resistance for quite—quite a time, but the Triceraton soon found their headquarters. Many were captured… I was fortunate to escape with my bod—body still intact.

“I remained on the streets for approximately a we—week before I was discovered by some bounty hunters and, well, you—you came to my aid.” His voice seemed lighter at that last part. 

Leo couldn’t help the genuine smile that came onto his face, but he quickly covered it up. “And, you’re welcome, by the way. Those guys are probably seeing stars right now.”

Fugitoid stared at him for a long time, all the while Leo was shamelessly grinning at him. “Please do not—not tell me that was your attempt at humour.”

“Oh come on! We’re in space. Seeing stars! It was right there! Besides, it’s how I cope, Fugi. Take it or leave it.”

Fugitoid let out an exasperated sigh and brought a hand to his head, almost like he was trying to relieve himself of a headache. “ Wha—what have I gotten myself into?” 

A warm smile snuck its way onto Leo’s face, one he wasn’t even fully aware of. But before he could revel in the small moment for much longer, it seemed the universe had other plans.

“There he is! In the alleyway!”

Both Leo and Fugitoid froze, heads snapping towards the entrance of the alleyway. 

“Eugh boi…”

“Oh my… Leonardo, I mu—must insist that we make haste.”

Fugitoid brought his hood back over his head, probably out of instinct more than practicality, and Leo stepped forward to shield him, glaring at the bounty hunters that now had them cornered in the alleyway. 

One of the bounty hunters snickered, taking on a relaxed stance as they slung their laser gun over their shoulder. “Well, looks like someone beat us to it, lads… on our turf no less.”

Leo stood his ground, eyeing them all warily and assessing the situation from where he stood. Five bounty hunter guys with very big guns, one busted android who was his only way home and also wanted by said bounty hunters, who just so happened to be blocking their only viable exit.

No pressure.

Leo gave a nervous laugh, clasping his hands together and pointing his fingers at the bounty hunters. “Okay, I have two questions: one, is there some kind of Space New Jersey? And two, are you guys from there?”

Leo’s quip was met with a wicked sneer. “Whatdya say we teach him a lesson or two, boys?” A symphony of cheers in both English and what Leo thought was utter gibberish rose up, with all five of the bounty hunters moving to take aim.

“Le—Leonardo!” Fugitoid’s urgent tone sounded from behind him, but all Leo did was smirk.

“Don’t you worry your little circuit boards, lata. I got this.” In a totally necessary dramatic flare, Leo swept his cloak off and revealed his katana, unsheathing one of them and holding it out before him, the light from the street glinting on the steel blade. He felt so badass right now.

Fugitoid frowned from where he stood behind him. “I thought I—I informed you to stop—”

“HOT SOUP!”

Leo leapt at the bounty hunters, flinging his cloak up to blind them as he swept out a kick to one of their faces. 

He felt his foot make contact, the force so hard a sickening thwack sounded through the still air and the bounty hunter fell to the ground. 

His grin was downright evil as he unsheathed his other katana, now wielding both of the deadly weapons in his skilled hands. “Let’s dance.”

All four of them open fired on him and he weaved in and out of the lasers with a little difficulty, deflecting the blasts where he could, but he managed. With a quick glance to make sure Fugitoid wasn’t becoming scrap metal from the onslaught (the android had enough sense to hide behind the dumpster), Leo sprang at the closest bounty hunter and sliced his gun in half. He spun around and elbowed him in the chest, using that momentum to throw him into the next guy. 

They toppled in the tight space and Leo pushed off of them to knee the third guy in the face, flinging his katana out to disarm the fourth bounty hunter. With a few more whirls, kicks and flicks of his wrists, he soon had them all a tangled pile of sore limbs on the alleyway’s cold ground. He butted the last bounty hunter standing in the face with the hilt of his katana, making the guy sway before blacking out and adding to the pile of bounty hunters. 

With a hit like that, he wouldn’t be seeing anything. 

Leo stood, puffing as he sheathed his katana and threw a cocky smirk back at Fugitoid. “See? Told you I had it, Fugi.” 

Fugitoid came out from behind the dumpster, his mouth piece lighting up like he wanted to say something, but a shadow fell over the two of them and Fugitoid’s eyes hollowed. If robots could sweat, Leo bet Fugi would’ve been right now.

“Halt in the name of the Emperor Zanmoran!”

Leo tensed and heard a whirring electrical sound behind him, the click of a gun being loaded. He gulped and slowly turned around. “Heyyyy… we were just—messin’ around, ya know?” So the dinosaur guys were the Triceratons. Leo squinted at the two that now blocked the alleyway. Yep, that name was fitting. “So… are you guys from Space New Jersey?” 

“Put your weapons down and raise your hands in the air! Failure to comply will result in punishment.”

“Okay, no room for banter… jeez, is everyone in space just incapable of humour?” Leo turned to raise an eyebrow at Fugitoid.

“Leonardo!” Fugitoid hissed from where he was now cowering behind him.

“Hand over the Fugitive Android and your life will be spared.” They raised their laser guns and aimed right at Leo’s beautiful face. 

“Woah, okay fósiles, that went from zero to a hundred real fast. Take a guy to dinner first at least…”

It seemed they were not in the mood for Leo’s awesome one liners, because the guns started glowing and the subtle energetic whirring grew into a loud, high pitched hum. 

“Okay! That’s my cue. Hold on, Fugi!” He took out his katana once more and slashed it through the air. 

He blinked at the empty space when nothing happened. Mierda. 

“Oh… right.” Leo sheathed his katana and tapped his fingers together, shifting from one foot to the other. He drew in a breath and looked back at Fugitoid. “Yeah, we should run.”

Chapter Text

“Ri—”

Leo already snapped to the right before Fugitoid could finish stuttering out the word.

“Lef—left!”

Leo swung them both around a pole, getting a terrified yelp out of Fugitoid before he darted down the next narrow street.  

He kept one hand firmly on Fugitoid’s metal wrist and the other gripping a katana, his breathing loud in his ears, heart hammering in time with his pounding feet (well, it probably wasn’t, but… it would still be cool, y’know?).

Leo snapped his head back and breathlessly groaned when he saw the two Triceraton still casing after them. For big, bulky guys, they were surprisingly (and annoyingly) fast. Then again, so was Raph, and he was probably around the same size as them, so it really shouldn’t have surprised Leo. Man, his ninjocity had been so off lately.

The Triceratons had been chasing them for a good few blocks/hexagons/triangles/whatever shape aliens used to section off their buildings, and Leo was starting to get sick of it. Not to mention Fugitoid was now fully exposed to the public… yeah, in hindsight, maybe throwing Fugi’s cloak at the Triceratons as a quick distraction to high tail it outta there wasn’t his best decision. He totally could have taken those guys if he really tried! It would be just like sparring with a slightly bigger, slightly spikier, and slightly more orange-yellow Raph. With a huge gun. And so much tactical gear it put Donnie’s arsenal to shame. 

Leo jerked to the side and a laser flew past his head, hitting some poor bystander. Leo watched as he and Fugitoid blurred past them, how their body violently convulsed with jagged blue light raging over their body only to leave them as a smoking, charred heap on the ground.

On second thought, maybe running was a good idea. His currently messed up ninpo was kinda like electricity and it sorta hurt whenever he had a panic attack that would send him bouncing across the universe, but he was sure that would tickle in comparison to whatever the Triceratons were using. 

“Du—duck!”

Leo snapped to attention and narrowly avoided crashing into the low flying car as he slid beneath it, his precious mask tails copping a shot from the Triceraton. He jolted upright, dragging Fugi with him, sheathing his katana so he could grab the mask tail and inspect the damage. 

“No! It’s all singed, and it’s not like I have any spares out here!” He shot a glare back at the Triceraton. “Oh, you guys are gonna pay for that one—”

“Le—Leonardo, I believe there a—are more pressing matters at hand!”

“No one touches the mask tails Fugi—” Leo weaved in and out of a small crowd, relying on his ninja skills to keep him from barreling into anyone, but Fugi wasn’t having so much luck, “— no one. They’re part of my charm!” 

They burst out from the throng of aliens, all giving them various looks of shock, irritation and fear. Fugi uttered small apologies to all the people he’d bumped into, but Leo was pretty sure they couldn’t hear them. Hey, it was the thought that counted, right?

Leo took out his katana again and looked around for something, anything he could do that might help them escape. “Do you guys have alien fire hydrants?”  

Fugitoid shot him a question mark with his eyes as they shot down another side street. “Wh—what?!”

“Well, do you?!” Leo yanked Fugitoid to the right and kept pelting down a busier street. 

Fugitoid’s eyes turned into loading spirals as they scanned over the blurring street. “Ahead! Green!”

Leo saw what he was pointing out and pulled him to the side as more shots were fired. The ‘fire hydrant’ was super similar to the ones they had on Earth. He wasn’t sure whether to be unnerved or relieved at just how… familiar everything in space was. Maybe aliens and people weren’t so different after all. Well, technically, Leo was an alien right now.

He got a little excited by the thought, wondering if he could be the next alien ally to appear in a Jupiter Jim comic, but he forced his mind to reel back into reality and he brought his katana down on the fire hydrant. 

It sliced right through and an orange liquid that reminded Leo of soda burst out, covering them from the view of the Triceraton. Leo didn;t miss a beat as he flung Fugitoid down the next side street and kept running. 

They took a few more turns before Leo dared to slow down so he could catch his breath and talk. He was a really good runner, all his brothers were with the whole ninja thing, but working off of nothing but some random alien food, barely any sleep (or too much sleep?), and sheer spite as he refused to be captured before he could get home, Leo was really feeling it. Usually, he could run forever, but right now… boy did he want a nap.

“How did those guys even find us so quickly? The street we were on was already barren.” Heh. Barren. Barron Draxum. Leo narrowed his eyes at the thought of his ‘second dad’. He still hadn’t forgiven him for throwing him off a roof. 

“I pre—presume the bounty hunters had a honing signal to a—alert nearby hunters.” Fugitoid easily matched Leo’s pace, and he felt slightly envious of his robot body right now. “It seems th—the Triceratons have tapped into said signals.”

Realisation dawned on Leo. 

The blinking red light beside one of the guys he’d knocked out.

He groaned and face palmed himself. How could he have been so careless? Dammit, he should have said something. But no, his ego got in the way and he just had to gloat to himself about how great he was. He didn’t feel so great right now…

Noticing the small things when it came to tech was always Donnie’s thing, anyway. Leo did his best to drag a breath, slowly releasing it in a sigh. He couldn’t rely on his team anymore while he was out here. That was why he felt so out of his element. No Raph to throw the big punches and give him pointers as a leader, no Mikey to add some flare to their fights and shoot Leo a massive grin with a high-three when they took someone down, no Donnie to talk his ear off about possible strategies or rely on in a fight to have his back. His twin always had his back… but now?

Leo just felt so exposed.

Shots zipped past his head and he picked up the pace and shoved Fugitoid into another side street. “Seriously? How are they still following us?!”    

“The—the Triceratons are a ruthless race of wa—warriors, Leonardo. Merciless and unrelenting.”

Leo scoffed, though it sounded more like a wheeze with all this damn running. “Great. That’s just fantastic.” He shook his head and kept looking around the street they were currently on. What now?  

His eyes landed on something up ahead, and he thanked his beautiful brain for being so awesome, smirking to himself as an idea formed in his head.

“Hey Fugi?”

Fugitoid turned his head towards Leo and just avoided crashing into some aliens. “Yes, Leon—onardo?”

Leo turned his smirk towards Fugitoid and nodded up ahead. “Can you hotwire a car?”

Fugitoid narrowed his eyes in thought. “I do believe I can acc—accomplish such things with a hovercraft, but wh—why would you—what are you doing?!” 

Leo took Fugitoid’s wrist and vaulted him into the convertible space car, spinning around and whipping out his katana. “I’ll cover you! Just get that thing going, running isn’t gonna get us anywhere!”

“Oh d—dear.” Fugitoid ducked out of sight and Leo heard sparks behind him.

He let a shaky breath out, his body still alight with adrenaline and he got into a defensive stance when he saw the Triceraton approaching them. He twirled his katana around in his hands and narrowed his eyes. 

They aimed their blasters and opened fire, Leo’s skills (thankfully) not failing him as he sliced through the lasers and deflected them with blurring steel. “Any time now Fugi!”

“Thi—this was your idea! Do not rush m—me!”

“Yeah, you can say that to the rapidly approaching Triceraton!” 

“I am do—doing my best!”

He heard another spark behind him and just tried to stay focussed on not getting turned into fried turtle. His twin had already gone through the horrors of trying to be cooked alive with Meat Sweats, and Leo did not want to share in that experience.

His wrists were starting to get sore with each slash and flick of his katana, his heart threatening to burst through his plastron. A bead of sweat trickled down his face and he gulped as the Triceratons gradually became bigger and bigger. 

“Fugi?”

Leo missed a laser and it scorched past him, hitting the body of the car and leaving a black simmering hole behind. 

“Fugitoid!”

“We are on—online!” Fugitoid shot up and immediately regretted it with a shriek as he ducked back out of the line of fire.     

Leo sheathed his katana, leapt over the side and slammed his foot onto a pedal. “Hold onto your circuits, lata!”

Leo and Fugitoid jerked back in their seats as they sped off into the air, wind whipping at their faces and causing Leo to squint while Fugitoid remained unaffected. Again, it would be great to have a robot body right now. 

When Leo almost crashed into several other flyers and a building, he realised he had no clue what the shell he was doing and grabbed Fugitoid’s hands to slam them onto the rectangle steering wheel thing. 

“You steer! I’ll… I dunno, look pretty!”

“Wha—Leonardo!”

“Well, I always look pretty, but you know what I mean!” He shot Fugitoid a grin, but it soon fell off his face as he saw who was behind them. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

The Triceratons—more of them now, so that was fun—were flying behind them on these triangle looking things.

“What i—is  it, Leonardo?”   

“The damn dinosaurs have flying doritos of death now!” 

He swung out his katana and deflected one of the lasers fired before it could hit Fugitoid. One down, a gazillion more lasers to go.

“Fugi, you got somewhere we could go?” Leo’s katana were a blur, deflecting and slicing all (most) of the lasers that were sent their way. “Then again, you were in a rag in an alleyway about to get jumped by bounty hunters, so probably not.”

“We can head to—to my laboratory.”

That earned a side glance from Leo, but he soon had to get back to defending them from the lasers. “Uh, lata, I think a little more than just your voice box got damaged. Didn’t you just tell me you destroyed your lab?”

“I have an—another. Granted, it is not as spectacular as m—my previous one, for it is simply an abandoned ware—warehouse, but it should suffice.”

Leo shot him a straight up glare. “And you didn’t think to lead with that?! We’ve been running aimlessly for ages!” He flicked his wrist and his katana zipped past Fugi’s head, deflecting another laser.

Fugitoid narrowed his orange eyes to Leo. “I still had to consid—consider the possibility that you were still a bounty hunter. I was not ju—just going to tell you of my only sanctum!” Fugitoid barrel-rolled through the sky and Leo had to quickly scramble to grab hold of the seat so he wasn’t flung out, and despite himself, a small smile cracked onto his face.

“But considering re—recent events, it is clear to me now that y—you speak of the truth.” 

“Oh yeah? Considering I’ve saved your shiny metal ass multiple times?” As if to solidify his words, Leo quickly cut through another laser before it could hit Fugitoid.

“My—my ‘shiny metal ass’ is mo—most wanted in this sector of the galaxy!” Fugitoid veered the flying car right and Leo jerked in his seat, only just managing to keep upright. 

“Yeah, okay, touché.” Leo muttered, only now realising how much the car had sped up. He had to sheath a katana so he could grip the seat with one hand. “Uh, lata?”

“I suggest you sit in your seat, Le—Leonardo.” Fugitoid’s eyes narrowed into orange slits as he went faster still. “This ends here.”

Leo couldn’t help but let a small grin slide onto his face as he slid down into his seat, still clutching a katana in one hand and using the other to grip whatever he could so he wouldn’t go flying—right now it was Fugi’s shoulder. 

“Hold o—on to your gluteus maximus!”  

Heh. That reminded Leo of Donnie. He wondered what that nerd was up to right now. He bet his twin wasn’t in some high stakes chase from the (corrupt) authorities across an alien city with a fugitive as his only considerable friend. 

Then again, with the lives Leo and his brothers lead… it wouldn't have surprised him.

Leo was brought back to reality when he saw the blurry buildings getting alarmingly closer and his heart sank. “Uh, Fugi? The ground happens to be in that direction, bud.”

“Trust me, Leonardo. I—I have a plan.”

Leo looked over to this crazy android and sighed. What choice did he have anyway?

Fugitoid dipped the spacecraft right into traffic and Leo yelled out as they just scraped by all the oncoming cars. He had to hand it to the guy, he sure knew how to drive. Leo’s yell soon turned into laughter, even letting out a “Woo!” when Fugitoid barrel-rolled over other cars. 

Leo looked over to the android in question and grinned, his tail masks whipping out behind him. “Dude! You’re crazy!”

Fugitoid, however, looked utterly terrified as his quick movements evaded the oncoming traffic and zipped in and out of buildings. His hands were gripping the steering wheel so hard Leo could see they were denting, and his eyes had turned into exclamation marks. “I—I have never had to execute such evasive maneuvers be—before!”

“You’re a natural, lata!” Leo looked behind them to see the Triceratons lagging behind and he cheered. “Yes! We’re losing them!”  

“Good! I would like to cease th—this as soon as possible!”

“And not to get lasered to death, but sure, that too.” Leo chuckled as he turned back around to watch Fugi expertly dodge and weave between the buildings and traffic. They came onto a straight and Leo saw something up ahead. It looked like some kind of mini UFO, floating above all the traffic. “Hey, what’s that thing?”

Fugitoid looked to where Leo was pointing briefly before returning his attention to the ‘road’. “That i—is a speeding camera!”

Leo watched the small thing get closer for a moment, considering something in his head and smirked. He threw an arm around Fugitoid, who still looked scared to death, and slung his katana over his own shoulder. 

Fugitoid flickered his eyes over to Leo. “What a—are you doing?!”

“Might as well have some fun with the inevitable! Smile, lata!”

Leo winked at the camera as it beeped, and he stuck his tongue out, a flash blinding him as they sped past it. Leo laughed and looked over to Fugitoid. “You didn’t smile.”

“I have n—no mouth to perform the act—action!” 

“Well, you could have done it with your eyes or something— woah!”    

 Leo ducked from the lasers flying over their heads and he groaned, looking back to see the triple ‘d’ (dinosaur death doritos) closing in on them.

“As much as I admire your sick skills, I don’t think they’re enough!”

“I ha—have an idea, but it has a sixty-four percent cha—chance of failing.”

 Leo bit his lower lip and looked from Fugitoid to the Triceratons. 

You know what? Screw it. When had Donnie’s nerd numbers ever stopped him anyway?

“I don’t think we have much of a choice, dude!” 

“Alright, ho—hold on!” 

Leo raised a brow at Fugi. Like he’d ever stopped holding on. 

Fugitoid rose above the congested traffic and b-lined down the street straight for the large building at the end of it. Leo frowned and looked back at the ever closer dinos on doritos. 

“Lata?”

Fugitoid’s eyes were no longer exclamation marks, but had returned to their previous narrowed and determined stare. 

“Fugi?”

The building was getting closer and Leo kept glancing back and forth from the building to the Triceratons behind. If he wasn’t so used to rapid motion and constantly being on the go, he probably would have felt dizzy. 

“Fugitoid?!”

But he got no response and instead decided to brace himself for death. Damn, there was still so much he wanted to do, so much pizza he still had to eat! (Shared with his family.) So many comics to read! (In the company of his family.) And this world just wouldn’t be the same without his beautiful face (would his family be the same without it?) Whelp. What a way to die. Turtle splat on the side of some random building in space (having never seen his family again…)

Leo was torn from his thoughts when Fugitoid reared the spacecraft up on a sharp angle to do a backflip before they could crash into the building. The Tricerton, however, had no such luck as they crashed into the building in a fiery display that had Leo grinning like a maniac. 

“Holy shit Fugitoid! That! Was! Awesome!!” Leo laughed, shaking Fugitoid’s shoulders enthusiastically once he had gotten the spacecraft level again.

Fugitoid was jittering with his hold still hard enough to dent the steering wheel, his eyes blown wide. “I… I can—cannot believe that worked… Oh my…”

Leo punched his shoulder, wincing as it struck metal and he shook his hand, but he wouldn’t let that diminish his smile. “You better believe it, lata! That was insane! Awesome! Insanely awesome!” 

Leo looked behind them, just to make sure they still weren’t being followed, and he smirked at the sight of the gaping black hole that now occupied the building, sparks of electricity and flickering flames being the only things to dent the darkness. 

“Well, I think it’s safe to say we have successfully evaded the paparazzi.” Leo sighed and rested his hands behind his head, kicking his feet up on the dashboard. “Such is the life of a deadly robot outlaw and his fearsome, dashing protector.”

Fugitoid let out a pixelated sigh and shook his head, his eye catching something as he did so. “Le—Leonardo, what is that on your wr—wrist?” 

“Hm?” He took his hand out from behind his head to look at his little translator. “Oh, it's one of those translator things I was using to get around.”

“Might I suggest you des—destroy it? They might be ab—able to track us. Besides, I could create a better one than…” he trailed off, glancing at Leo’s wrist again, “...that.”

Leo sighed and nodded. “Yeah, sounds about right. It was kind of an asshole anyway.” He took the tracker off his wrist and unceremoniously flung it over the edge of the spacecraft, watching it tumble down towards the city, glinting each time the light caught in its screen.

The city looked… beautiful from up here. And holy smokes, it was huge. 

Leo never took his eyes off the flickering lights below as Fugitoid gently brought the spacecraft up into some low clouds to shield them from view. He watched as the mist gradually thickened until it snuffed out the glow from beneath them, only to be replaced with the blue-purple one from above.

Leo hummed and shifted in his chair, bringing his arms back behind his head and gazing up at the stars.

“Let us ge—get somewhere safe.”

Leo smiled and nodded. “That I can agree with.”

Leo hadn’t realised he’d dozed off until the steady flow of air around him slowed and the engine of the spacecraft dulled into a gentle hum. The noise cut off and Leo peeked an eye open, reluctant to fully wake up. He was so comfy right now. The seating of this car was the closest to plush he had felt in days.

“We have arri—arrived, Leonardo.” Fugitoid’s tone was gentle, which Leo appreciated. After everything that had happened in the last, what, hour? He was so ready to crash out and sleep for a hundred years.

“Yeah, I’m up…” Leo muttered, his voice slurred with sleep. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, blinking as his eyes adjusted to his dimmed surroundings. He looked around and saw it was much darker out here, wherever here was. 

He looked behind him and saw flickering lights in the distance. Okay, they were really far out from the main city. The further the better, Leo thought. He had no interest in bumping into the dino death doritos again.

He looked forward and saw Fugitoid had already gotten out of the spacecraft and was standing closer to the dark, dingy building he had parked in front of.

“Come along, Leon—Leonardo!” Fugitoid spun around with a twirl of his finger and started towards the small door to the left of the warehouse.

Leo smiled a little and jumped out of the car, practically bouncing over to him. There was a newfound energy filling his body, and he was honestly looking forward to seeing Fugi’s little hideout. Leo wasn’t expecting too much, he was sure the guy would do the best he could with what he had, but Leo was just looking forward to not sleeping in some sketchy alleyway.

“Welcome, t—to my lab.”

Leo blinked rapidly when Fugitoid blinded him with the overhead lights, and once he could see again, his jaw dropped.

“Damn Fugi, I gotta say, I’m impressed.”

The main area was a massive space of concrete walls, bright lighting, benches strewn about everywhere and tech littering all of them. In the centre of the chaos, there was a large circular platform with panels open to reveal its mechanical organs and wires spilling out and criss-crossing over one another. 

He saw a hallway off to the right leading to who knew where (well, Fugi knew where), which was lit up too. 

“Well, I d—do my best with what I have. It is not as im—immaculate as my previous laboratory, but it suffices.”  

“Dude, this is incredible.”

Fugitoid’s eyes turned into little upwards arrows. “Well, I am pl—pleased you think so.”

“See! You can smile with your eyes. Told you.” Leo gave him a light nudge with his elbow and walked around the wide area, gesturing to the huge platform. “What’s this thing?”

“Oh! That i—is my teleportal device in its ea—early stages of development.”

Leo blinked and turned around to face him. “Wait… you’re already building it?”

“Affirmative. I be—believe such a device could turn the ti—tides of this war on the Emperor in the resistance's favour. Though gath—gathering supplies has been quite challenging, considering…”

Leo gestured at him with a knowing smirk, “this whole situation.” 

Fugitoid chuckled. “I suppose so, ye—yes. And as I am, moving around discreetly is… quite challenging.” Fugitoid sighed and looked over his creation. “I still have yet to—to find more materials to finish construction. Many mo—more.”

Leo hummed with a nod, thinking it over. His thoughts stirred around his head and his eyes widened when he caught onto a specific one. He fleshed it out more, his smile growing the longer he thought of the idea, and he snapped his fingers at Fugitoid.

“Fugi! I could gather the supplies for you! With my rad ninja skills, I’ll be able to slip in and out of places easily. They won’t even know what hit them until I’m already halfway across the city. I could get all the tech stuff you need to finish the portal thing and when you’ve finished it, I’ll be able to go home!”

Fugitoid regarded him with a tilt of his head, his eyes turning into little loading symbols. Once they returned to normal, he blinked at Leo. “That… co—could work, Leonardo. It would be ben—beneficial for the both of us. I could get things done mu—much quicker around here without the need to go out and gather th—the necessary materials, and you would be able to mo—move far more efficiently than I.” 

“Exactly! So, what say you, Fugi? We in this together?” Leo stuck out his hand with a grin, tilting his head the same way Fugitoid had.

Fugitoid looked to his hand and then back up at Leo, his eyes turning into semicircles as he took it. “I sa—say we are indeed.”

They shook their hands up and down, and that same warm feeling flooded through Leo’s chest again. Look out, Space New York. Leo was gonna give them all a run for their money.

Leo sat on the space he had cleared on one of the many gadget filled benches, swinging his legs back and forth.

Fugitoid had insisted that he get to work on fixing his voice box, because it was annoying the hell out of him, and Leo couldn’t blame the guy. He didn’t know how long he’d last with a constant glitch in his voice like that.

They talked on and off about nothing in particular while Fugitoid worked, and Leo was in the middle of explaining his ninpo powers when he noticed the lack of Fugitoid’s contributions to the conversation. 

“Uh, lata?” Leo looked over to the android in question, who waved a hand at him.

Leo raised an eyebrow and walked over to see Fugitoid had taken his busted voice box out and was in the middle of attaching the new one he’d just fixed up. He plugged a few wires in and slotted it into place, his eyes showing a loading bar gradually filling up as he processed it and synced it up to his systems. 

Once it hit a hundred percent, he blinked and closed the panel exposing his inner workings. His voice started out low, but soon returned to its normal pitch. “Aaaand—and—and we are back!” Fugitoid’s eyes turned into semi circles again as he faced Leo. “It may not have been long, but I tell you I am so relieved to be talking properly again.”

Leo smiled and nodded. “I gotta say, the absent glitch suits you.”

Fugitoid beeped in response and turned back to the table. “Now, what was it you were informing me of your ‘ninpo’, Leonardo?”

Leo beamed and leaned against the bench. “Okay, so it’s like, powered by my family’s ancestors and the general love we have for eachother, because we want to protect and look out for one another, you know?” 

Fugitoid nodded as he grabbed a futuristic measuring tape and took Leo’s wrist, but Leo didn’t really register it as he kept talking. “So my older brother Raph’s ninpo allows him to get bigger and create little clone Raphs, which is super dope, and my little brother Mikey can make these fire chains with his nunchucks and throw literal buildings, that was just crazy when we all first saw him do it. He can also make portals which, uh…” Leo rubbed the back of his neck with his spare hand, “got me out of a rough place one time. But still awesome.

“And my twin brother, Donnie, he can make all sorts of things with his ninpo. I swear, he whipped out the whole US arsenal one time in a fight, it was crazy cool, but don’t tell ‘im I said that. I’ll never hear the end of it.” Leo rolled his eyes and looked down at his hand, finally noticing Fugitoid’s hold on it.

“What’re ya doin’, lata?”

“Taking measurements of your wrist.” Fugitoid got what he needed and flicked the side of Leo’s head. “And stop calling me ‘tin can’.”

Leo laughed and batted his hand away, shrugging. “Come on, it’s a good one.”

“That is what you think.” Fugitoid shot him a deadpanned look, his eyes upside down semi circles of disapproval, and he turned his attention back to his work bench. 

Leo looked over his shoulder and pouted. “Wait, why do you need measurements of my wrist?” He gasped and grabbed Fugitoid’s shoulders, eyes sparkling. “Are we gonna make friendship bracelets?! Just so you know, I’m quite partial to blue.”

Fugitoid shook his head and kept working. “Negative, we are not making… friendship bracelets, Leonardo. I am constructing your new translator device, but it will be far more advanced than just that. I shall input all the required components of my teleportal device and their location so you may retrieve them.” 

“Sick.” Leo paused and looked around before muttering, “willithavegamesonit?”

“No, Leonardo, there will not be any video games.”

“Damn. You should add games, Fugi.”

Fugitoid sighed, but Leo took it as something fond, so he smiled. 

They sat in silence for a moment, with Leo looking around the lab and Fugitoid continuing his work, but his digital voice broke Leo from his thoughts.

“I do not believe I have asked you yet… where are you from, Leonardo?”

Leo glanced over to him and he hesitated, biting his lip. Surely Fugitoid wouldn’t act crazy when he told him… right?

“I’m from Earth…”

Fugitoid stopped working and his head snapped in Leo’s direction, an exclamation mark in one eye and a question mark in the other. “Earth?!”

Leo sagged and ran a hand over his face. “Dude! Why does everyone freak out whenever I tell them! It’s not that bad of a place!” He frowned. “Although… New Jersey needs to be taken into account…”

Fugitoid set down his tools and faced him. “No! Leonardo, you do not understand! A fearsome, powerful enemy feared throughout all the cosmos was last seen on Earth!”

“Was it… the residents of Florida?”

Fugitoid took a moment to collect himself, and once his eyes returned to normal, they were slanted in worry. “There were beings that held their terrible grip on this galaxy centuries ago, conquering every planet they came across, showing no mercy. They deemed all lifeforms that were ‘weaker’ than them inferior, and sought to take control of the entire galaxy.”

Wait… that sounded familiar. “Fugi… don’t tell me you’re talking about the Kraang?”

Fugitoid actually squeaked and flinched back. “You know of the Kraang?!”

“Yeah, they tried to take over Earth!” (And they succeeded in one timeline…) “But me and my brothers stopped them with our sick ninpo I was tellin’ you about. We banished one back to the Prison Dimension, the other probably blew up with the ship, and the third is with some sketchy government agency Donnie stalks once a month.”

Fugitoid blinked at him and stood straighter. “Prison Dimension…?”

Leo tilted his head. “Yeah, they were banished there by warriors like hundreds of years ago, but then the Foot Clan opened it back up with a key, but we stopped the Kraang from, ya know, enslaving all of mankind and terraforming the planet to their slimy needs, but it’s whatever.” Leo waved a hand, trying to act normal despite the sudden tightness in his chest. He really didn’t want to talk about this…

“I can assure you they ain’t comin’ back, Fugi. Not ever.” Leo tried to remember his sibling’s words from when they’d talked him down from a panic attack. How they guided him through box breathing. The way they would wrap their arms around him with a tight squeeze so he could ground himself back in reality. He took a deep breath and sighed, feeling his tense muscles melt as he did. “We made sure of that.”

Fugitoid hummed and nodded, looking back to his bench before returning his gaze to Leo. “I do believe you should get some rest, Leonardo. It has been quite an eventful day.”

Leo only now took notice of how exhausted he felt: his eyes were heavy, muscles feeling like deadweights and his thoughts slowly turning to mush. “You know what? That’s your best idea yet, Fugi.”

Fugitoid told Leo to go down the hallway and take any of the rooms he wanted. He also said he was welcome to grab anything he wanted, so Leo made sure to do just that.

He found a tonne of different things in all the rooms, a lot of them he had no clue what they were, so he decided to steer clear. He got to the end of the hallway with a ragged sheet he’d found and planned to use as a blanket, and he opened the door, just about collapsing in relief at the sight of the mattress in the corner. And it was off the floor! Could this day get any better?

Leo ran and jumped onto the mattress, a layer of dust poofing up around him and making him sneeze. The metal frame beneath him squeaked threateningly, but he didn’t care. He was just downright giddy at the thought of finally sleeping in a bed. He curled up under the torn sheet and snuggled into the flat pillow, sighing and feeling his body relax into the tough and springy mattress. 

He thought over his day, from the alleyway he woke up in, to the weird alien food he ate, and the bounty hunters he absolutely destroyed with his sick skills. Meeting Fugitoid was a huge relief to his stresses, then running from the Triceraton had just about had them through the roof again.

Leo frowned, keeping his eyes closed. There were quite a lot of times when he’d felt truly panicked and at one point he thought he was actually going to die, and yet… his ninpo never flared up. Not once did he feel it prickling beneath his skin, trying to drag him off to another planet. 

Why…? How?  

Everytime Leo had felt even an inkling of discomfort, he’d feel his powers surge up and if he didn’t get a hold of his storming thoughts, he’d be zipped away to a new planet. So why the shell had he not teleported anywhere today? Or even felt his ninpo at all during the chase?

Leo tried to think over different possibilities, but the one thing he could think of was… Fugitoid.

Maybe… maybe he was meant to come here. Maybe his ninpo was guiding him in some bizarre, uncoordinated way.

Leo smiled to himself. That sounded like something Mikey would say, only for Donnie to call fate nonsense, and then rant about how science is superior for the next thirty minutes with Raph face palming, April barely containing her laughter, Casey looking on confused, and Splinter falling asleep. 

…

God, he missed them all.

But it was okay! He had a plan now, had a proper goal to work towards in order to get back home. And he would. Nothing in this whole damn galaxy was gonna stop Leo Hamato from getting back to his fam.

He just hoped they were doing okay. Leo thought about how he’d greet everyone when he got back, tease them all about how much they’d have missed seeing his gorgeous face everyday, but now… he just wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around them all and tell them how much he missed them. He hated to think that his absence would be the cause of their distress in any way.

He curled himself into a ball, pulling the sheets over him tighter. 

“Don’t worry, guys… I’m on my way…”

He whispered into the empty room. He was going to get back to them all. He knew he would. After all, he had some hope to hang onto now. A ninja’s greatest weapon…

Chapter Text

Donnie glared soullessly at the screen before him, the only thing that illuminated the dark, stuffy lab. It highlighted Donnie’s eyebags, made his skin seem paler and his features dull. (Had he lost weight…?)

He rubbed a hand over his dry eyes, ignoring the way it felt so good to have them closed, then looked back at the screen.

Leonardo Hamato not found.

He dragged air into his lungs. Then did so once more. And again. He could feel the pinpricks of tears in the corners of his eyes, but he quickly blinked them away and wiped his snout with the back of his hand.

He’d cried enough already.

Instead, he hesitantly cast his numb gaze over to his digital calendar, internally dying inside all over again when he saw those numbers.

Two months. One week. Four days. And seventeen hours.

Still. No. Leo.

Donnie dragged his heavy eyes from the calendar and looked back at his tech-gauntlet. Like clockwork, every few minutes he would check in on his family to assure himself they were still there. He repeated their names in his head like a mantra: April, Raph, Mikey, Casey, Splinter…

But his song was incomplete. It sounded wrong, unfinished. It could never sound right until Leo was there. He should be there. And yet Donnie couldn’t do anything to find him.

Donnie scoffed and started typing again. Some tech genius he turned out to be.

His family wasn’t much better off than he was—of course, how could they be? One of their own was missing, and they had no fucking idea where he even was.

Leo’s phone was radio silent, his tracker untrackable, hell, even their damn all powerful and mystical ancestors had no clue where he was.

Still, Raph checked in with them every single day, but even he was starting to get sick of their cryptic messages and avoidant answers. His worry line was always on his face nowadays, too. He was desperately trying to keep his family together as well as himself. Their once strong and sturdy older brother was slowly cracking under the pressure, and if it weren’t for April, Donnie was worried he’d soon shatter.

April was always the glue that held them together, but even more so now. Donnie could tell just how much she was struggling with the reality of one of her little brothers being lost out in space, but despite it, she made sure to look after the family she still had left. She was always checking in with everyone, encouraging them all to look after themselves. If not for them, then for Leo’s and Splinter’s sakes. They couldn’t worry their father any more than what he was with Leo having gone missing, especially in his current state.

Splinter’s health… wasn’t improving. It also wasn’t getting worse, however, so Donnie took that as a small win. A very small, fragile win.

Their father was always sleeping now, and whenever he was awake, he’d ask about Leo, his baby blue, and when no one could bear the thought of replying with “we have no idea”, they’d just say he’d be here soon. A lie, of course, one that they’d all tell to themselves too, hoping that if they said it enough, they could twist it into the truth. 

Donnie came out of his daze and realised he’d stopped typing. He sighed and ran his hand over his face again. He’d been doing that a lot lately.

He felt a stab in his stomach and only now fully registered just how hungry he was. If he didn’t eat now, he was sure to get swept up in his work, lapsing into another hyper focussed state and starving. Besides, what would Leo say if he saw him like this?

Donnie could see it now: his bright and colourful twin’s face unnaturally contorted into one of shock and concern. And Donnie would be the one causing him to feel that way. He couldn’t do that. Not to his twin.

He got up and stretched his aching back as much as his softshell allowed, shifting his stance to try and get rid of the numbness in his legs, feeling his muscles slowly turn to static as they registered the movement. 

He walked past the wires and circuitry and all sorts of tech that had been strewn about the place in his anguished attempts to find his brother, and over to another of his work benches, one stacked high with dirty dishes and old food.

He… he really should clean up. Eventually. When Leo came home. When his twin was safe and he wasn’t on the verge of having a mental breakdown every day. 

Donnie scanned over the space and saw the latest dish Mikey had cooked up for him and the rest of the family. He had heard Mikey come by with a gentle knock and hushed words, but Donnie never registered them over the sound of his blowtorch. But he knew Mikey had been talking anyway, and yet he kept welding. Whether he was subconsciously ignoring him or simply avoiding any contact with his family in fear that they’d see just how badly he was holding up, he didn’t really know.

What he did know was that the soup Mikey had lovingly made was now stone cold from three hours of neglect. The vegetables were soggy and waterlogged with broth, the chicken falling apart where it had started dissolving, the broth itself looking murky and distasteful.  

And still, with all this in mind, Donnie picked up the cold bowl, feeling the chill soak through to his fingers and seep into his weary bones, and he picked up the icy spoon to take a sip.

Lou Jitsu would be appalled.

Donnie couldn’t care less.

It was a sensory nightmare, but he ignored it in favour of satiating his hunger. But even so, with the vegetables a dissolving mess and the chicken simply melting on his tongue, it tasted so good. Donnie didn’t deserve his baby brother. 

Mikey had been a shell of himself these past two months, and yet he still mustered up the energy to put on a broken smile and willed his hands to continue creating nutritional dishes so the family wouldn’t succumb to their sorrows and simply starve. 

One night a few weeks ago, when Donnie had snuck out of his lab to grab a tool he’d misplaced in his room, he heard Mikey in his room. Despite his theory from when this all first started, his little brother still tried to make a portal to find Leo. Every night.

And that night Donnie had heard him collapse to the floor in tears, his shaky breaths sounding choked as he tried to keep himself quiet. Donnie didn’t waste any time rushing over to his brother’s cart and walking in, crouching down in front of the trembling shell before him on the floor. A new fracture was added to his already shattered heart at the sight.

“Mikey…?” he’d whispered, and the sobs only got louder as Mikey slid out of his shell and latched onto him. 

“You’re right, you were right, Don I can’t… I can’t find him, I can’t get to him, is—is it my fault? Why can’t I…?” He trailed off and lapsed into more unsteady cries.

Donnie’s expression fell, his insides feeling numb with the sight of his lively and bubbly little brother broken into tears like this, at how wrong the whole scene was.

“I… I got you, Mikey, it’ll be alright… I got you…” he’d murmured back, his own voice wavering, but he didn’t cry. He couldn’t. Not when Mikey had needed him. 

They had stayed together all night, and once Mikey finally fell into an uneasy sleep, Donnie had simply held him in the dim light of his train car. He hadn’t bothered to keep track of how long he stayed like that, but after his limbs began to protest at his position on the floor, he got back up and tucked Mikey into his hammock, making sure to surround him with plushies and blankets before leaving the room to get back to work.

Donnie had only caught glimpses of his little brother since that night, and as he finished off his soup, he felt that deep pit of guilt stir in his stomach again, squirming around and gnawing at his insides. 

He pretended he was physically shoving that festering guilt away with the empty bowl as he tossed it and spoon onto a free space on the bench. The metallic clink of the spoon against the ceramic rang out in the otherwise dead silent room, save for the gentle thrum of Donnie’s generator. 

He was about to go sit down again but he paused, hearing another humming alongside that white noise, one that was slowly getting louder. When the whirring settled behind him, Donnie sighed and pinched between his eyes.

“Please leave, Shelldon…” he muttered, his voice sounding wrong in his ears. He sounded so… defeated. Pathetic.

Gentle clinking sounded behind him, and Donnnie could imagine his technological son tapping his rotors together in a similar way that Raph would fidget with his hands.

“Uh… just came by to see how you were holding up, Don…”

Donnie turned his head around, keeping his back to the drone, and stared at him with a blank face.

Shelldon let out a humourless laugh and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, you’re doing shit, I know bro… we all are.”

Donnie huffed and turned to his desk. “‘Shit’ doesn’t even begin to describe it, Shelldon. My twin is missing and I can’t even—!” He cut himself off, realising he was raising his voice, and sighed. He didn’t want to yell at Shelldon; the drone didn’t deserve that.

Shelldon tilted his head at his creator and slowly hovered over. “When was the last time you slept, dude?”

Donnie narrowed his eyes as he thought it over. He… genuinely couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten a good night’s rest. He’d been surviving off of micro sleeps and crashing out on his lab desk when his body demanded he recharged. Other than that, he hadn’t even been to his own room for weeks. 

“I… I slept, last night. A little. Maybe…” Even to his own ears, he sounded unconvincing. Dreadfully so. He silently cursed his inability to easily lie like his twin could.

Shelldon squinted his eyes in a way that looked like he was raising an eyebrow at him. “Uh huh… you do know I can see your vitals, right?”

Dammit, he forgot Shelldon had access to everything. Donnie's grasp on his mental faculties was… tenuous, in his current state. 

Donnie turned to fully face the drone and crossed his arms, a scowl on his face. “Alright, fine! I haven’t been sleeping, but how can I Shelly? How?! How could I even bring myself to close my eyes and rest when my brother is God knows where?!” He laughed maniacally, the way one would when they’re teetering on the edge, he supposed. “Shit, nevermind, not even God could know where because how could he even exist when something like this could happen? Spirits above, our own ancestors who were meant to look over us don’t even know where he is! 

“He could be in danger, Shelldon, he could be running for his life, scared and alone, or he could even be—” Donnie took a shaky breath in, his eyes wide as he stared down at his trembling hands. He blinked, remembering himself, and dared to flicker his gaze up to Shelldon.

The drone was just as wide eyed as he was, so still it was hard to believe time hadn’t just stopped. Shelldon blinked, and his expression turned to one of great concern. Donnie had to hand it to him, even with a digital gaze he could hold so much emotion.  

“Donnie—”

Donnie held up a hand to cut him off, looking back to the ground and closing his eyes, focussing on his breathing.

In.

Out.

In.

Out. 

Breathe, Donatello. He couldn’t afford to lose it. Not now.

Once he was sure his voice wouldn't betray anything, he spoke. “Go check Dad’s vitals… let me know if anything has changed.” He’d shifted his tone into something robotic, emotionless. That was good, he was comfortable with that. Emotions were messy and strange, he didn’t even know what to do with his own half the time.

He turned and walked back to his monitor, but Shelldon didn’t leave. 

“I, uh… already did. Sent everything to you right away, like, twenty minutes ago.”

He did? Donnie glanced down at his tech-gauntlet, and sure enough, a notification from the drone occupied the corner of the home screen. Donnie hadn’t even realised it was there. He should have spotted it with how often he was checking the damn thing to make sure the rest of his family hadn’t up and vanished like Leo had.

Donnie didn’t say anything.

Shelldon continued on regardless. “I also swung by to let you know that I’m going out with Casey and Cassandra on patrol, since, y’know, I can scan through walls.” Shelldon half chuckled and Donnie could imagine him shrugging. “It’s a lot less hazardous rather than having Cass break down the door of any place she thought was suspicious…”

Yeah, that didn’t surprise Donnie at all. 

“Would you… wanna come with? We could use the extra hands, and hey, when was the last time you left the lair, anyway?” 

Donnie tensed at his words, biting his lip. He hadn’t gone on a mission or regular patrol in weeks. He, Mikey and Raph, most of the time accompanied by Casey, Cassandra, and April, had gone on nightly patrols in the first month Leo went missing, scouring every inch of New York for their brother, but after that month had gone by, Donnie stopped coming. He’d rather spend his time enhancing the range of his scanners so he could find his twin.

His tech told him he was out of range after all, so wherever in the universe Leo was, Donnie would scan it all until he found him.

He slowly forced himself to relax so he could muster up the strength to simply turn and look at Shelldon.

The drone seemed to catch on, and he nodded. “Yeah, okay… I’ll, uh, let you know how it goes and leave a mission log for ya.”

“Thanks…” His voice was so quiet he would have thought Shelldon hadn’t heard if he didn’t already know his hearing was ten times better than his own.

Shelldon nodded again, and he lingered for a little too long before turning to fly out of the lab.

Once Donnie heard the clang of his lab door closing, he allowed the air to gush out of his lungs and he collapsed back onto his chair, staring mindlessly at the ceiling. He needed to work. He wanted to work. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He felt numb…

Everytime he scanned, it always came up with nothing, nothing, nothing. 

It felt like no matter how far of a reach across the cosmos he had, he’d never find his twin, and Leo would be doomed to float out amongst the stars forev— 

No. 

Donnie couldn’t think like that. He would find Leo and drag him back to Earth, with his family, where he belonged.

He would. He just had to keep trying.

He groaned and pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes, only now noticing the dull throbbing at his temples. Of course he was getting a headache. Of course. Why the hell not?

He stayed there for a moment, just allowing himself to wallow in his misery, and when the grating silence became unbearable, he found the energy to snatch up his headphones from his work bench.

Donnie practically threw them on and felt them snap into place over either side of his head. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but the pressure grounded him even with no music yet. He picked up his phone from his workbench and shakily willed his hands to hit the playlist that was composed of all his calming songs. 

This playlist got the most attention nowadays; everything else was too much. He couldn’t properly enjoy his other music anymore, because he couldn’t feel happy. He shouldn’t anyway, not when his twin was missing.

He turned his chair back towards his desk when the soft melody curled its way through his thoughts, and he sighed heavily before smacking his head onto the hard surface. It was a little harder than what he had intended, so he flinched minutely upon impact, the new sting at his forehead only worsening his growing headache, but he didn’t move to try and ease the pain.

The steady rhythm from his headphones were comically beating in time with his headache, almost like it was mocking him (did he actually find it funny? Not really. Leo would have seen the humour in it, though. He was sure of it). 

Donnie whispered a curse, reaching to turn the music up louder so he could drown out his turmoil of thoughts and start working again. He heaved himself upright, pausing before his hands could reach the keyboard. 

His eyes trailed down to his tech-gauntlet.

April, Raph, Mikey, Casey, Splinter, and…

He snapped his eyes back up to his screen, his head pounding alongside the music, and he began typing.

Donnie felt something cold and hard beneath his face, his eyelids feeling like weights as he forced them open.

His cheek felt damp, and he was mildly confused until he registered that it was saliva. 

Donnie forced his weary muscles to aid him in sitting upright, and he blinked the last few remnants of sleep away as his mind slowly came back online. He saw the small puddle of drool on his desk and grimaced slightly at the sight. 

He only ever drooled in his sleep when he was dead tired, which was pretty much every day now, and he quietly apologised to his precious workbench as he grabbed a nearby cloth and wiped it off. He then dragged his hand over his mouth, not bothering to use the cloth since it was covered in oil and grease, and he rubbed his eyes.

Donnie’s headphones had fallen off at some point and stopped playing music, a feature he had applied so they wouldn’t keep playing for nobody and drain their battery. Speaking of drained battery, he could really go for a coffee right now.

But that would mean leaving the lab… and facing his family… in this state…

Donnie willed his eyes to look over at his tech-gauntlet and he started tapping at the interface. 

April, Raph, Mikey, Casey, Splinter…

They were all in their rooms, and their vitals showed a slower heart rate, so they must’ve been asleep.

Good. That was good. Maybe he could afford to grab a coffee, if only to aid his poor, tired brain in resembling anything close to being fully operational again. 

The new promise of some form of functionality gave Donnie enough energy to drag himself out of his chair. 

He swayed a little once he stood, and he had to grab onto the edge of the workbench, waiting for the sickening dizziness to end before he could move again. He groggily stumbled over to the lab door, but once he opened it his general ninja instincts kicked in.

He was a silent blur as he passed through the archways and halls of his own home, only stopping once he reached the kitchen. Where his sweet salvation awaited him. 

Bittersweet, he thought to himself, creeping through the dimly lit kitchen and over to the coffee pot. It was a nice change for his eyes, to be greeted with the subtle warm tint of the kitchen. Having fairy lights strung around the lair had always added a level of cosiness that Donnie appreciated, although they didn’t do much to help with that right now. Despite the soft, inviting glow, the place felt cold, empty.

Lonely. 

Donnie started up the kettle and grabbed out his favourite mug: a simple purple ceramic with the words #1 GENIUS written on the side, gifted by his family years ago. His sleep deprived mind told him that needed to be changed, for what genius couldn’t find his own damn brother—?

No, Donatello. Don’t go there. Just… focus on the task at hand, dum-dum. 

He grabbed the coffee and scooped a generous amount into his mug. He didn’t bother with sugar or milk, couldn’t be bothered to grab them. 

He stared at the kettle as he waited for the water inside to boil, wondering if his own heated gaze would be enough to warm the water faster when he got a notification on his tech-gauntlet. Was that Shelldon back from patrol with Cassandra and Casey already?

Surely not, it would be highly improbable that— 

He stopped dead and stared at the screen of his tech, an innocent little reminder he’d left for himself spawning one hellish idea, born of desperation and longing. 

The E.P.F.

Donnie usually checked in on them once every few months, sometimes more often if he was bored and wanted to challenge himself by hacking into their more classified files (it was great fun; the poor E.P.F. techs really did try their best. But alas, Donnie was simply superior in every way). He did this because, of course, he figured it would be best to monitor the guys who had a literal Kraang contained within the facility. 

But among this, Donnie had discovered they knew quite a lot about other things too. The Hidden City, Yokai, Mutants, aliens from other planets. Hell, they even had files on him and his brothers too (Donnie loved messing with them whenever he could. Right now, they were all classified as Middle-aged Yokai Karate Frogs. The tech workers truly hated the elusive Bootyyyshaker9000).  

One thing that they also had, however, was something Donnie actually respected them for. And that was super high tech. He was talking futuristic weaponry, innovative projects, alien technologies from all over the galaxy, things his mind couldn’t even begin to comprehend at a first glance. It was like a candy shop to him, one he had to use all his will power not to break into. He figured it would be best not to put himself or his brothers on their radar as potential enemies (he’d already had to delete all the E.P.F.'s footage of them from the Kraang invasion, and that was a hassle).

But standing there in the dim, chilled kitchen, the sound of the boiling water in the kettle miles away, his hunched over form leaning on the counter, an idea began to form. It tangled and wormed its way through any shreds of rationality he had left and snuffed them out. And Donnie let it. 

He knew it was bad. Stupid. Reckless. Something only an idiot would do.

But dammit, this idiot just wanted his twin back. 

He did say he would do anything, did he not?

The edges of his lips twitched as he poured the now boiled water into his coffee, curling their way into a delirious grin as he sipped his coffee and formulated his plan.

A plan to infiltrate the E.P.F.

A light breeze played with the tails of Donnie's mask as he sat crouched on a rooftop, directly opposite the E.P.F's headquarters. Using his goggles, he scanned the interior of the building, searching for the least problematic entry point. 

He’d scoured through every blueprint and schematic of the place, the layout burned into his memory. He’d looped all their security footage, disabled the interior sensors, studied the guards’ schedules, and equipped himself with all the tech he might need (his ninpo was too much of an outlier now, so he couldn’t rely on it anymore).

Once his scan was complete, showing nothing he hadn’t already expected, he stood with a new resolve. He lifted his goggles to the top of his head, the harsh glare from the streetlights below reflected in his eyes.

Donnie narrowed his gaze and adjusted his tech-gauntlet. He snuck a glance at the interface, just to make sure.

April, Raph, Casey, Mikey, Splinter, and—

…

He sucked in a quick breath and looked back to the building. He was ready.

Donnie took a step forward and fell off the roof, picking up speed as he plummeted to the concrete street below. Before he made contact with the ground, he activated his jet pack and quickly altered his trajectory to shoot up towards level thirty seven of the building: the technological advancements department. 

Donnie summoned a laser cutter from his battle shell and precisely carved a circle through the glass big enough for him to enter. He used suction cups to take the glass out and spun around, hovering backwards into the facility and sealing himself inside. Donnie dropped to the ground, the laser from his battle shell already working to seamlessly weld the glass back into place.

A mechanical arm took the suction cups away, tucking them back into his battle shell, and he pulled up schematics of the place as a hologram on his tech-gauntlet. He began walking  

The mission was simple: thoroughly scout the place out, obtain anything that could prove useful in finding Leo, and bring it all back home.

Oh, and also not to get caught by the guards and become the scientist’s new little experiment. That too.

Donnie shivered at the thought of having cold, gloved hands rake over his skin, white lab coats obscuring his vision as they did unspeakable things to him all in the name of ‘science’ and ‘discovery’... they’d surely have a field day studying him.

Donnie shook his head to get his thoughts back on track. He would not get caught, so there was no point in worrying over what would never happen.

… he hoped.

His tech-gauntlet’s built in radar and tracking system showed the heat signatures of anyone nearby, and Donnie made sure to avoid them at all costs as he navigated the identical, sterile halls of floor thirty seven. 

The next door to his right showed promise of something useful, from the files he’d been able to hack into beforehand. He took the outside panel of the keycard scanner off and rerouted the wiring, smirking to himself when he heard the door automatically unlock. He replaced the panel and quickly opened the door to slip inside, feeling better now that he was somewhere closed off.

Donnie took a moment to trail his eyes over the room: it was a decent size, with filing cabinets lining the walls and the various pieces of unfinished tech displayed on the shelving told Donnie the place was most likely for storage purposes. He walked over to one of the filing cabinets and read the labels there. They all showed seemingly random numbers and letters, but Donnie figured they were past names of experiments. 

He rolled his eyes before moving to one of the shelves. Couldn’t they be a little more creative? Sure, Donnie saw the use of just having a numbers and letters system, but that was so stale and plain boring. Where was the personality? The dazzle?

This was just one of the many reasons Donnie hated large, government run organisations like this. Another one being that they would probably dissect him and his brothers if they got the chance, so, that wasn’t too great either. 

He looked over one of the supposed ‘inventions’ and read the label in front of it: 

Test run 19RMA8: failed. 

Donnie hummed to himself and looked over the other pieces of tech in the room. Each one had failed written beside its code and he soon came to the conclusion that this room was where failed experiments and inventions came to collect dust and be forgotten about. 

Why keep them in the first place if they were failures? For spare parts, maybe? Sentimentality even? Donnie shook his head and turned to leave. This place didn’t seem much like the sentimental type, so perhaps they kept them around to document their process and learn from past mistakes. 

Right as he reached out a hand to the door handle, he heard voices and froze. They were soon followed by a beep from the door and his heart plummeted to his feet. Donnie dashed back and hid among one of the rows of shelving as the door came open and two people in white, crisp lab coats walked in. 

The one holding a clipboard scanned over it with their eyes and pouted. “The boss wants us to grab… 35ERV3.”

Donnie looked down at the tech by his feet. 

Fuck.

35ERV3.

Why were the fates so against him?

Footsteps approached his location and Donnie timed the steps to make a run for the door. Once they were about to turn the corner, he silently dashed out and slipped out of the door in mere seconds. He took a steady breath and sighed, heading for the next intersection of corridors. 

He glanced back to make sure they weren’t following when he walked straight into something. He startled from the sudden contact and when he looked forward, his breath caught in his throat, veins turning to ice.

Someone in a lab coat ogled at him, their mouth agape as they stared at him.

Donnie felt stuck, unsure of what to do. Until she found her voice, of course.

In the form of yelling. How fun.

“M—Mutant! Mutant in the facility! Code 1047! Guards!”

Wow, they had a code specifically for mutants? These guys really were prepared for anything. Donnie fled in the opposite direction, turning a sharp right as he booked it for any nearby windows. Damn it, every hall looked the same in this place.

He fumbled with the interface of his tech-gauntlet and desperately tried to find a way out—a window, stairwell, elevator, anything— as he barrelled past more people adorned in lab coats, uncaring of who saw him now. He just needed to get out. Get out, and he’d be fine. Maybe he could recuperate and even come back later better prepared—

Donnie stopped dead in his tracks, heart thundering in his ear and breaths coming in quick, short gasps.

Was that because of the panic or the running? 

Probably both.

Before him stood five heavily armed guards, decked out in padding and safety gear, equipped with utility belts almost as good as Donnie’s own, and very high tech, glowing guns. They were all whirring loudly with energy.

And they were all trained on him.

Chapter Text

A sharp, stinging pain rang out in various areas of Donnie’s body, and he hissed through clenched teeth, clutching at his singed plastron as he leant against the entrance of his lab. Using the wall as his only support, not trusting his trembling legs, he heaved in one breath after the other. 

His adrenaline had since worn off after his narrow escape from the guards, and now he was really feeling the full extent of the burns from those lasers. The stinging had been dull at first; suppressed by his desperation to escape all the eyes and the crippling fear, cutting a jagged hole through the first window he saw and kicking through it to shoot out into the night.

Then from there, when his adrenaline rush had simmered down, the faint sensations had only ramped up into searing pain.

Donnie had no doubt that the lasers could have sliced right through him if the guards had wanted them to, so they must have had it on a lower setting. But that lower setting still fucking hurt. 

Blinking rapidly against the sudden wetness in his eyes, he shifted his gaze over to his work bench, and sure enough, Shelldon was sleeping in his charging station. That brought Donnie whatever little relief his frayed mind could manage, for he knew the drone wouldn’t wake up no matter how loud he was. 

Donnie took a moment to mentally prepare himself before daring to make his way to his work bench, groaning and grunting as each burn flared up again from the movement. Donnie’s free hand trembled and grasped at whatever was nearby while the other stuck firm to the side of his plastron, the area badly singed from a guard who got a lucky shot.

Every ‘villain’ or ‘bad guy’ Donnie had ever faced, save for the Kraang and Shredder, had been practically unserious. Comical, really. But the E.P.F… they did not leave room for messing around. No hero and villain banter, no quips or classic little one liners cursing Donnie for ‘foiling their plans once again’. It was straight down to business. No hesitation. Just open fire.

And fire it sure as hell felt like, Donnie thought bitterly as he finally took the last few staggering steps to his desk, the air leaving his lungs in a relieved and pained wheeze. He gingerly lifted his hand off his side to take a look at the damage, and wanted to cringe from the sight, only he knew the slightest flinch would spark the pain again.

Donnie bit his lip and covered it with his hand again, looking over the rest of his body to fully assess the extent of the damage. He hadn’t gotten hit too many times; the only reason he even got hit was because his lagging brain was functioning at less than low capacity, but the places he did get hit still stung like a—

Okay, Donatello. Just take a breath and assess the damage.

Donnie did just that and concluded he had four more burns, blisters already forming on his skin in some places. He was just thankful he’d had enough mind to wear his battle shell. A burn on his vulnerable softshell would have been ten times worse than on his skin, he was sure.

Donnie could already imaging the scalding sensation raking over his shell like a merciless inferno, stabbing and blistering away at the sensitive area relentlessly—

Donnie sucked in a breath and forced his thoughts elsewhere, anywhere but there.

He was wounded, so that required… tending to. By dressing the burns. And applying burn cream. Yes, that was what he should be focusing on. Fixing the most pressing issue, and working his way down the list from there. He could do that. 

Donnie vaguely recalled a medkit that he kept at one of the benches in his lab… on the other side of the room. Why was it so far away?

Gritting his teeth for what had to be the hundredth time, he braced himself for pain and tentatively placed one foot in front of the other. His vision was becoming annoyingly blurry and he had to use his spare hand to wipe the tears away, shaking his head as if to physically rid himself of his current thoughts. 

Everything was too much. 

The pain, from his skin and plastron to his aching heart, the shame, the guilt, the embarrassment. Hell, even the usually comforting gentle haze of his purple LEDs seemed to burn his eyes.

Donnie had failed. Again. It seemed like it was all he did these days. Scan after scan after scan it was the same four words over and over. 

Leonardo Hamato not found. 

Would he ever be found? With a pathetic excuse of a genius like Donnie looking for him? Was there even a Leo to be found? 

No, God no, stop. He couldn’t start thinking like that. He couldn’t give up. He couldn’t do that to Leo. He couldn’t… 

He couldn’t do this anymore. 

Donnie’s lower lip trembled no matter how hard he tried to make it stop. 

He was useless. 

It was as plain and simple as that. He couldn’t find his twin after two months. Not even a single trace of him! For all he thought he had to offer to his team, he couldn’t even find their damn leader. Their brother. His twin. 

He was useless. So useless. So useless and stupid—

Donnie bumped into the corner of a workbench… the one with all the empty dirty dishes, he soon realised as a bowl slid off and onto the ground. Donnie watched with a wide-eyed stare as it shattered on the ground, shards spiralling off into various corners of his lab and turning the floor into a minefield. 

He froze. The loud sound that had pierced the air left as soon as it came, and he waited. 

Not even five seconds later, he could hear footsteps thundering through the hallways of the lair. His siblings. Because who the hell could sleep right now? When one of their own was missing? 

And Donnie was certainly no help in finding him. 

He was sure of one thing though: his horrible physical and mental state was sure to only add to his sibling’s ever growing stress when they saw him. Like this. Pathetic.

He was going to get that disappointed look from April that made his skin crawl with shame.

He was going to get that look of distress on Mikey’s face that gnawed at his heart.

He was going to get that eerie calmness from Casey, a practised neutrality after a lifetime of dealing with war and death.

He was going to get a frantic lecture from Raph that would surely send him spiralling.

All because he just had to leave the soundproof door of his lab open. It was like he was asking to be caught, selfishly aiding in his siblings' distresses, further solidifying his conclusion that he was, in fact, useless. Hell, he couldn’t even remember to close his own damn door.

As their rampant footsteps came closer, some delusional part of Donnie wondered if one of them were Leo’s, that his twin had come back home without him knowing while he was off on his little escapade to the E.P.F.

But he knew they weren’t. They never were. They never were—

Raph slammed the lab door fully open and came stumbling in, followed by Mikey, April and Casey. He caught his breath as he looked around at the pathetic mess of Donnie’s lab before his eyes landed on the pathetic mess of Donnie. 

Raph’s already panicked expression became further distressed. “Donnie! Are you alright? What happened?!”

Donnie felt stuck under the eyes of his siblings, all wearing varied expressions of worry, concern and shock. He blinked, feeling a building wetness when he did. He opened his mouth to speak, to try and give some sort of believable answer to his condition that would put their minds at ease. But nothing came out.

Nothing but an embarrassingly loud choke of a sob.

Tears now streamed freely down Donnie’s face as he began to shake from the feeble hiccups and other sounds that left his throat. His legs trembled beneath him and they suddenly felt too weak to hold up his body—all the weight on his shoulders, in his chest, his head—and he felt himself swaying to the side. 

Donnie expected a cold, unwelcoming floor to greet him, but instead felt two strong, sturdy hands wrapping around his shivering body. He felt a plastron press against his side, warm arms wrapped around the other, and he managed to blink away enough tears to be met with Raph’s crestfallen face. 

His big brother’s eyes were glistening with unshed tears of their own, and Donnie selfishly curled in on himself and against Raph’s chest, his cries now convulsing his whole body as he fought for breath.

Donnie felt the safe, warm embrace around him tighten ever so slightly, as if he were something delicate and breakable. But Donnie knew he was already broken, and he knew that Raph would keep all the pieces together for him. Because that was just what big brothers did.

It took Donnie a little while to notice the faint jostle of Raph’s arms, and he soon realised they’d started moving. At first, Raph’s steps were careful and precise—probably avoiding the earlier shattered ceramic—but now they were rhythmic and strong in long, even strides. 

Donnie didn’t know or care about where Raph was going, or if his other siblings were even following, because all that mattered was that his big brother had him. Donnie knew that as long as he stayed in his arms, that nothing bad would ever happen. Because Raph simply wouldn’t let it.

So Donnie just allowed himself to cry. To feel. He forgot to hate himself just for a moment and relied on his big brother to make everything bad go away. He knew Raph would be there when he stopped, and he knew he’d be there to help Donnie rearrange the cracked and broken shards and put them back together. They all would. 

Donnie probably didn’t say it as often as he should, but he fiercely loved his family. He didn’t know what he’d do without them all.

Well… he knew what he’d do without one of them…

Exhibit A: The snivelling burnt turtle in his older brother’s arms. 

The pounding of feet soon slowed and came to a stop, but Donnie still didn’t look up even as he felt Raph lower himself down. A soft whump of air sounded and before he knew it, Donnie was being encased in blankets and pillows, still held firmly in Raph’s arms. 

He heard the soft rustling of his siblings surrounding him, and there was a pause to the movement before something cold was applied to the heated burns on his skin and oh it felt so much better. 

The cold balm eased its way into the blistering and angry wounds, carefully soothing the areas and making the searing sting of the pain fade until it was nothing more than a dull ache. 

Donnie felt like he was five again, waking up from a vivid nightmare his little developing mind couldn’t understand and sneaking out of his room to find solace in his older brother. And Raph was always more than happy to share his teddy bears and his bed. Even when Leo and Mikey were already there.

He felt like he was fourteen again, when the Shredder had damn near killed him, tearing through his battle shell like it was nothing that day on the docks. Donnie probably would have died if Raph hadn’t thrown Shredder off of him. After that, he and his brothers all slept in a turtle pile in the living room together for the next few nights that followed. 

He felt like he was sixteen again, just after they had won the fight against the Kraang, after they had gotten Leo back from the prison dimension. His twin had been all battered and beaten to a pulp, but even so he still managed a smile on his face at the sight of Donnie and the others. Donnie’s softshell had felt way too sensitive after connecting with the technodrome, and being ripped out of it had only made him more paranoid; the phantom sensation of the tentacles latching onto him and coiling all over his carapace had haunted his memories for months.  

And, for months, he and his siblings had all stuck very close to one another, rotating whose room they slept in each night. No one had wanted to be alone after that. 

And now… now Donnie just felt weak.

…Pathetic.

A few more minutes went by and Donnie had managed to calm himself down, the only sound being his pitiful sniffling in the deafeningly silent room. Donnie took a deep breath, knowing he couldn’t just hide behind his brother anymore, and slowly shifted his head against Raph’s plastron so his face was now visible to his siblings. 

The first face he saw was April’s, and when their eyes met, her features immediately softened and she gave him a shaky smile, her eyes looking glassy. 

“Hey Donnie…”

Donnie blinked at her, already feeling at ease from her gente nature alone. He glanced around and saw that they were in the living room, with the fairy lights on low, giving the place a warm and cosy feeling.

Raph sat in front of the couch, leaning against it with Donnie still held firmly in his arms. Pillows spilled all over the floor, tangled in blankets and a teddy bear or two. Casey was sitting on the couch beside Raph’s head, with April sitting cross legged in front of Donnie. He wondered where Mikey was, but his question was answered when he sniffed again, and a green hand had come into view from behind his head, offering him a tissue.

“Thanks, Mikey…” Donnie muttered, using it to wipe his snout and then weakly tossing it to the side. 

He took a few more breaths before working up the courage to talk again, his eyes flickering to meet April’s only to look away again, shrinking in on himself a little. 

“‘M sorry…”

April’s brows furrowed together, and she shared a look with the others before looking back at Donnie. 

“Sorry…? What for?”

Donnie’s face scrunched up a little. How could she be asking that? Look at him! He couldn’t hold himself together anymore, not even for his family. He’d failed, and he was all too aware of the void where Leo should be. It tugged at his heart and made his chest tighten painfully, a feeling he’d since grown used to, yet it never got any easier to deal with. 

Donnie met her eyes again and raised a trembling hand in an attempt to gesture at himself. “This. You guys don’t need this right now… not with…everything.” Donnie sniffed again and curled in against Raph’s plastron a little more. Despite his siblings having treated his wounds, he still burned with shame. “No matter what I do, it’s never enough...” 

He knew how pathetic he sounded, how self-pitying he was, but he couldn't help it. Donnie just felt so defeated. 

A hand brushed over his own and he lifted his gaze to see it was April’s, her expression still concerned, but a new sort of determination shining in her eyes. It seemed that Donnie had miscalculated earlier—it wasn’t Raph he had to worry about receiving a lecture from. It was April. 

“Donnie, we… we’re all worried about Leo…” her voice wavered at the sound of her little brother’s name, but she continued on, “...and we’re all trying to do whatever we can to find him. You can’t beat yourself up over this, it’s not your fault. Hell, it’s not anyone’s fault. You can’t blame yourself like this just because you haven’t found something.”

Donnie huffed and squeezed her hand. “Another thing I can’t seem to do right…”

“Hey, no, stop that.” April used her free hand to flick Donnie’s forehead and his head snapped up to look at her, his eyes widened.

“Wha—?”

“No more of that, Dee. I mean it. No more putting yourself down, no more hiding away from us in your lab, no more bottling up your emotions.”

“I second that,” Mikey muttered, petting Donnie’s shoulder. Donnie looked up at him only to be met with a raised eyebrow, and Donnie sighed. 

“So you’re all just going to gang up on me, is that what this is?” 

“Until you stop avoiding us, yeah.” Now Raph was in on it too, and Donnie saw Casey nodding.

Donnie frowned. “Betrayal.”

“Tough love.” April sighed, her expression softening with her next words, “I know… it’s hard. And you don’t like it, but you gotta talk to us, Don. You can’t… shut us out like this. We need to stick together, especially now. For Leo.”

Donnie narrowed his eyes at his older sister. “...you’re playing that card?”

“You better believe I’m playing that card.” April retorted, no hesitation. “It’s the only way I can get you to listen. To remind you that you need to take care of yourself. For yourself.”

“And us. Y’know we worry about you, Don.” Raph looked down at his brother in his arms and Donnie’s frown softened.

“I know…” he murmured quietly, resting his head against Raph’s plastron again, sighing. “And I am… sorry. For not… talking. I’ll try to do better…” His eyes flickered up to April’s face and he saw relief flash in her eyes. 

She nodded and leant against Raph’s arm, still holding Donnie’s hand, which he was actually quite grateful for. Donnie felt Mikey’s chin rest on top of his head and he managed a small smile. They lapsed into a moment of silence, but April soon spoke up again, giving voice to what the others were no doubt wondering too. 

“What… happened to you?” 

Donnie met her steady gaze warily, but as he watched her, he saw that it wasn’t accusatory. Nor was it pity or worry or irritation. It was just… April. 

Donnie felt a sudden pang of guilt in his chest, for keeping so much from his family when all they wanted to do was to make sure he was okay. He knew he was far from it, which was why he’d locked himself away in the first place… even though he knew they would have helped him no matter what. He just… didn’t want to be a burden.

And look where that got you, dum dum. 

“I…” Donnie trailed off and thought about what April said earlier, about being open with them. He had to come clean and tell them what happened. He at least owed an explanation after stressing them all out like that. He took a breath and mentally prepared himself for what was to come. “...I infiltrated the E.P.F. It did not go according to plan, and my mission… failed.”

There was a long stretch of silence, but it was broken by Raph’s outraged, “What?!”

Donnie cringed a little from how loud it was… and from the guilt that began to fester inside his chest.

Casey frowned. “Wait… you mean the place you stalk like, once a month?”

“Yes…”

“Didn’t they take the Kraang?” Mikey leaned over Donnie’s shoulder, his uneasy expression only causing Donnie’s guilt to grow.

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you realise how dangerous that was?!” April was gripping his hand firmly now, as if she was keeping him from running away.

“Yes.” Donnie sighed and used his spare hand to rub his aching temples. “My intention was to find something that could aid us in acquiring Leo’s location. The E.P.F’s tech is the best of the best, all very high grade and very very classified. I figured they might have… well, something that could have proven useful.” 

Casey fidgeted with his hands, glancing at the burns on Donnie’s skin. “Donnie, we don’t know what these guys are capable of… I mean, if they can keep Kraang’s sister trapped there for three years, who knows what else they can do.”

Mikey shifted from behind Donnie, now sitting next to him. “They could have… taken you away from us.” 

Donnie felt a pang in his heart from his little brother’s quiet tone. “I was… aware of these possibilities. I was aware of everything I was risking, and I… I went along with it anyway.” He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing down. “In hindsight, it was… still stupid.”

“It should have been stupid in foresight, Donnie!” April’s death grip on his hand did not let up.

“Okay, yeah, I already knew it was. I still decided to chance it. I… I was desperate. I am desperate, I just…” Donnie’s voice wavered slightly and he bit his lip, closing his eyes for a moment. “I just want to bring Leo back home…” 

Everyone went quiet once more, and Donnie felt Raph’s hold on him tighten. “I know, Don… we all do. But we’re your team. More importantly, we’re your family. Ya can’t just… run into these kinds of things without telling us. You’re lucky you got away with just a few burns. Raph has a feeling those E.P.F guys coulda’ done a lot worse.” 

Raph exhaled irritably, and flicked Donnie’s forehead, causing him to flinch.

“What is it with everyone flicking my forehead?!”

Donnie could already guess what Leo’s immediate response would’ve been: “I mean, with the size of it, it’s an easy target.” The thought only further crushed his broken heart into a fine dust, entangled with a deep longing to hear his voice again.

“Because you’re not getting it. You gotta trust your team, Donnie. Trust us. And don’t you go runnin’ off into dangerous places by yourself ever again, or Raph’ll do a lot more than flickin’ your forehead.”

Donnie looked up at his brother and saw that he’d meant what he said, but there was a plea in his eyes, behind his stern look. Donnie’s guilt wormed its way down to his stomach, making him feel sick. 

“I… yeah, okay. I guess that’s fair.” Donnie mumbled, glancing down again.

The tension in Raph’s muscles eased up slightly, his grip on Donnie loosening as well. April’s hand squeezed his again, making him look up to meet her eyes.

“No more keeping secrets… okay? If something happens or if you’ve got something on your mind, we want you to tell us. It’s what we’re here for.”

Donnie squeezed April’s hand and nodded. “Okay…”

She tilted her head at him. “Promise?”

Sigh. He couldn’t say no to that face. “Yes, I promise, April… no more secrets.”

She stared at him a moment longer and Donnie huffed. “And I shall not bottle up my emotions anymore…” He muttered, pointedly looking away from her.

A smile wove its way onto her face. “Good… we’re here when you’re ready to talk, m’kay?”

Donnie nodded, his scrunched up features softening at her words as he thought them over. He was still hesitant, however, at the thought of facing his greatest enemy. A messy and complicated thing that no matter how hard he tried, he could never seem to wrap his head around it. Feelings. 

But, April’s earlier words echoed through his mind: “No more putting yourself down, no more hiding away from us in your lab, no more bottling up your emotions.”

Donnie figured he should talk to them to get things off his chest and work through his whirlwind of a mind. And… he knew he wouldn’t be a burden on them, just as much as they were never a burden on him. He didn’t know why he ever thought that… he knew his family loved and cared about him. Just like he did for them.

So, Donnie gave in and talked, and they listened. And when they talked, Donnie listened. Their flittered conversations drifted around the room and made it feel as it should again: like home. Only… there was still a piece missing. Even so, Donnie felt better than he had in a long time, and his guilt from earlier subsided as the night went on. 

Before long, everyone had fallen asleep. Raph was still holding Donnie in his arms, with Mikey snuggled up to his softshell, after they had taken his battle shell off, and April was using Raph’s arm like a pillow. Casey was curled up on the couch behind Raph, in a comfortably close proximity of the others. 

Donnie remained awake for a few minutes longer, listening to his siblings' soft breathing and quiet snores. He looked down at his wrist… seeing his tech-gauntlet. He tapped the interface and refreshed it once again.

April, Mikey, Raph, Casey, Splinter…

But still no Leo. 

Donnie took a shaky breath and slipped his tech-gauntlet off, setting it aside before snuggling up to Mikey and Raph, finally closing his heavy eyes. It didn’t take long for sleep to whisk him away into blissful unconsciousness, but his constant worries still haunted him even in his dreams, as he stood in the black void of space and called his twin’s name.

But he never got a reply.

He never did…

Chapter Text

Day: something… 

Leo wasn’t entirely sure, but he didn’t care! He was gonna go home and see his family again real soon. Nothing was gonna stop him!

That morning when he woke up, he bounded down the hallway and exploded into the main room in his usual flourish. 

“Fugi!”

Fugitoid—who had been working on some delicate wiring for the teleportal device—just about leapt out of his metal plating, holding a hand to his robotic chest. That was another weird thing Leo had noticed about Fugitoid; he always did things that seemed… alive. 

“Leonardo! You are quite the different turtle once you’ve had some sleep.”

“What can I say? I need my beauty sleep.” Leo shrugged as he walked over to Fugitoid and slung an arm over his shoulders, peering forward. “Whatcha doin’?”

Fugitoid gave an exasperated sigh and set down the… hot pokey thing he was using (Leo had no idea what anything in here was called. That was more of Donnie’s field of expertise. Heh, he was such a nerd).

“I was working on some delicate wiring that required a steady hand and hyperfocus, but, alas, I have cut said wiring and must start over.” Uh oh, Leo recognised that tone; it was one he’d heard from Donnie all too many times… 

He slowly removed his arm from the android’s shoulders. “Eugh boi… heh, my bad Fugi.” Leo rubbed the back of his neck with an apologetic grin.

“It is quite alright, Leonardo. Only now, I must go back out and acquire more of these specific wires for this task, which will take up more time I don’t have and set the entire project back and—” he stopped, remembering himself, and he looked over to Leo with up-turned semi circle eyes. “Oh, I am forgetting! I have you now!”

“Yep! Good ol’ Neon Leon here to save the day as usual.” Leo smirked as he crossed his arms, but it slowly slipped from his face and was replaced with a frown. “Wait, what am I doing?”

“You, my dear new assistant, are going to obtain said wiring for me today among some other materials that I will require.”

“Oh! Cool…” Leo laced his fingers together and pointed at Fugitoid. “One small problem: I—being totally awesome by default and not a complete nerd like some people—have no idea what I’m looking for.”

“And that is the perfect segue for me to introduce to you your new wrist interface! Designed by yours truly.” Fugitoid gave a little gleeful laugh as he spun around and walked over to another workbench nearby. Leo followed along with an amused smile on his face. 

“This—” Fugitoid picked up a small bracelet looking thing and turned around to show it to Leo, “—is the ultra advanced artificial intelligence agent 5.203! (fancy tech space name lol)! It possesses state of the art identification systems, an inbuilt translations module, an accurate location tracker and directions guide, high resolution photography, a holographic call ability and is included with a simple AI that can answer any questions you may have about its functions or the city of Korlo.”

Leo blinked. “Wow… you built this for me…?” 

He carefully took the device from the enthusiastic robot’s hands and looked it over with a bewildered smile. “Fugi, I dunno what to say… this is amazing.” Leo turned the piece of tech over in his hands. It was similar to the translator thing he had before, looking like some kind of cuff with a small screen on the side, though it was clear more time and care had been put into this one. And the fact that it wasn’t found in some shady alleyway beside a dumpster probably also contributed to Leo’s more positive opinion of it. “It certainly has a lot of blinkity blink.” 

“Hm. I do not believe I have heard of the phrase ‘blinkity blink’.”

Leo smiled and looked over to the android. “It means it’s pretty high tech. And that it looks sick.” 

“Oh! Well it was merely something I scraped together in my spare time. It consists of any extra parts I had lying around…” Fugitoid waved a hand, but his eyes still showed his smile.

“Dude, if my twin was here, he would be drooling all over this.” 

“Your twin…” Fugitoid’s eyes showed loading symbols for a split second before focussing again. “That would be Donatello, correct?” 

“Yep. Good ol’ Don-Tron, science nerd and even bigger tech geek.” Leo clipped the interface onto his left wrist. It adjusted itself around him, and he uttered a small “woah…” as it shifted to size. It fit perfectly, almost like it wasn’t even there. Spare parts my shell, Leo thought with a raised brow.

Fugitoid hummed in an amused tone. “I must say, I would quite like to meet this twin of yours. From what you have informed me of his personality, it seems he and I share similar interests.”

Leo gasped and turned to face Fugi. “Omigosh lata! You could come with me when you finish your portal and meet the fam! I’m sure they’d all love you.” 

The glow in Fugitoid’s eyes faltered slightly, and he looked down. “That sounds… wonderful. But I am afraid I will have to decline your generous offer.”

Leo’s brows furrowed together and he tilted his head. “What? Why?”

Fugi paused for a moment, eyes flickering as he tried to come up with the best response. “The… resistance may still require my assistance after this. And besides, I am a fugitive of the law, Leonardo.” He looked up and matched the angle of Leo’s head tilt, adding, “I would not wish to burden your family with the dangers my presence would hold.”

“Oh… right,” Leo muttered, but he shook his head. “But we’ve dealt with fugitives before, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. I mean, we once helped a seven foot sheep man who also happens to be my second dad… not to mention, he threw me off a roof one time, so they’d have no problem with you!”

Fugitoid fidgeted with his hands. “That is far too kind of you, but again, I must decline… I would not want to risk the safety of your family. Not after all you have done for me.”

Leo smiled a little and shrugged. “Well, if you change your mind, our door is always open, lata.”

Fugitoid nodded. “I will keep that in mind…” he clasped his hands together and the smile in his eyes returned. ”Now! Allow me to show you how to operate your interface.” 

Day: Okay, maybe Leo should start keeping track of this, so… day five? six? Yeah, six days since he portalled away from Repo’s junkyard. That seemed about right.

The crisp night air whipped around his face and new cloak as he dashed across rooftops and slinked in and out of the shadows. Then again… it always seemed like night here, so Leo figured it was just normal air then. Man, space was weird… he’d give anything for the mostly polluted air and noisy streets of New York. 

He skidded to a halt on the next rooftop, leaning against an… air vent thing to catch his breath. Leo was really starting to miss his ninpo—all this running was exhausting. He could still feel it there, somewhere deep within him, but it felt… unreachable, despite being so close. It was like there was something blocking it from him now, the complete opposite of when it was throwing him everywhere all over the place. He knew it had something to do with his… emotions, but he didn’t have to figure out that whole situation anymore; with Fugitoid’s teleporting machine, he could shove the whole thing aside. Well… that was until Dr. Delicate touch had a word with him. Leo knew his little brother would not let that slide. 

Once Leo felt like his lungs weren’t going to collapse, he stood straight and tossed the newest piece of tech Fugi had him steal grab into the air and caught it again. 

“I am too good.” Leo turned the piece over to take a proper look at it, and frowned a little. It was… well, it was a disk. He had to resist the urge to throw it across the city as far as he could, and he instead directed his attention to his interface: Galexa. (There was no way Leo was remembering whatever Fugi had called it, so he decided to name her Galexa).

“Uh, Galexa, you sure we nabbed the right thing? Cuz this just looks like… a glorified frisbee.”

His interface lit up as her voice came through. “Affirmative, Leonardo. In its simplest form, this is a cooling router. It will aid in regulating the temperature of Professor Honeycutt’s teleportal device to ensure it does not overheat. Delving a little deeper into its mechanics will reveal—”

“No, no thanks, I’m good with surface level knowledge, Lexy. I probably won’t even remember half of what you say anyway… but it sounds like you and Fugi know what you’re doing, so I’ll gladly leave it to you guys.”

“Noted. If you require further assistance with anything else, I am available.”

Leo hummed. “Hey, actually, what was our time for that one?” he asked as he looked up at the night sky, those brilliant dusty blues and purples dancing around each other, stuck forever in a hypnotising cosmic dance… he decided to take out his phone (no longer dead thanks to the new charger Fugitoid made him) and snagged a quick pic to show the fam when he got back.

“In your units of time, that took one hour, forty-three minutes, and twenty-seven seconds.”

Leo gasped and slipped his phone back into his side pouch. “Yes! I have enough time for a snack break.” 

Since Leo was now technically on the run from those dinosaur dudes with Fugitoid, they both agreed he probably shouldn’t stay out in the open for too long. He did not wanna get caught and thrown into whatever cold and harsh space prison they had waiting for him. So they set the limit for two hours at a time whenever he went on supply runs, with some wiggle room if it looked like the job would take longer because of security measures or distance. 

Leo went to the edge of the roof and crouched down, peering over to the street below with his cloak’s hood concealing his head. “What’re we lookin’ at, Lexy?”

“The Pylor Bazaar. It contains two market stalls with food that is safe for your consumption.”

“Sweet, let’s head to the closest one.” 

Galexa brought up a holographic map and Leo pocketed the disk thing (apparently a temperature regulator) before shooting across the rooftops once more. 

Fugitoid had insisted that he give Leo some space credits, even though Leo could easily steal food for himself with his rad ninja skills, but Fugi would not have it. 

“I do not wish to steal any more than we have to, for the good of the people. And besides, you are a growing adolescent, and thus require a healthy diet that… Galexa will ensure you sustain while out here.” Fugitoid was already transferring a fair amount of credits over to Leo’s interface mid-conversation.

“Fugi, I don’t wanna chew up whatever credits you have left on food! Trust me, I can just ninja in, get a snack or something, and ninja out, ningún problema. And besides, I’m like, nineteen, so I’m basically an adult now… although, Casey says I get super tall in the future...” Leo mumbled, pouting as he thought it over.

“Which gives me all the more reason to support your growing body and ensure you have a healthy, balanced diet. Galexa, make sure he eats properly.”

So, thanks to Fugitoid’s insistent ‘pocket money’ supply, Leo wasn’t on the verge of starving anymore and could really soak in the flavours of the weird alien food he was eating. The food in question wasn’t… too bad.  It certainly wasn’t anything he’d ever tasted before, but it wasn’t sickening either. 

It sure as shell didn’t beat a classic New York pepperoni and cheese pizza though, where the flavours would melt on his tongue and the steaming pie would warm his soul… Dammit, now he was craving pizza. That wouldn’t be the first time that had happened in the past few days.

Leo sighed as he slipped into the alleyway closest to the stall. The whole street seemed to have little pop up stalls everywhere all the time, or so he’d noticed whenever he came by this way. There were little lights strewn across the street, kind of like lanterns, and various colourful tents and other pieces of cloth separating one vendor from another. Leo couldn’t even begin to figure out what half of the things being sold were, but he didn’t care. He was here for the food baby.

After he made sure his cloak was securely tucked around himself with his face hidden in the hood’s shadow, Leo ducked out of the alleyway and into the bustling street. He weaved among the many different kinds of aliens with a practised ease, being careful not to bump into anyone or draw attention to himself as he made his way to the stall. 

Bright lights from all the other stalls flitted in and out of his vision, various smells slammed into his nose, snippets of conversations in an unknown language swarmed his ears, and the presence of everyone around him filled his senses and made his head spin. Leo hugged his cloak tighter around him and made a beeline for the food.

It was moments like these when he could really sympathise with his twin, because he knew the crowds Leo found a breeze would often feel like… well, this to Donnie. Too bright, too noisy, so overwhelming, leaving you feeling drained and regretting every decision that led you to this moment. 

Feeling a familiar ache that had settled into his heart long ago stir up again, Leo grabbed the food. He paid by using some of the too many credits Fugitoid had given him, and slinked over to the nearest alleyway he could find. He released a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding and closed his eyes, leaning against the wall. 

Before he could spiral with his thoughts for too long, Galexa’s voice broke his trance.

“Leonardo, your heart rate has spiked from 85 beats per minute to 104. Are you alright?”

Leo took a deep breath through his nose and slowly let it out. “Yeah… yeah, I’m good Lexy. Just… that crowd felt a little intense is all.”

“Understood. Would you like to avoid this area from now on?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I guess I’m just… not feelin’ it today, you know?”

“Noted. Is there anything else you require assistance for?”

Leo’s eyes started trailing around the alleyway. “No, I think I’m—” Leo stopped and stared in stunned silence at what his eyes had landed on, his jaw just about dropping to the ground. “No freaking way…” A surprised laugh left him and he walked over to the opposite wall of the alleyway. “No freaking way…”

Right there, haphazardly slapped onto the wall, was a poster with… his face on it. More specifically, it was the exact same pose he had pulled with Fugitoid for the…

“The speeding camera, of course!” 

Leo brushed his fingers over it, just to make sure it was actually there. It felt so surreal to see a wanted poster of himself, since he and his brothers always stuck to the shadows (ignoring all the times they were out in broad daylight, of course… you know, they probably weren’t the best ninjas when they were younger) and also considering they never… intentionally broke the law.

Leo jumped on the spot as a childish sort of giggle escaped him and he grabbed out his phone. “Wait ‘til Donnie sees this. With all the shady biz he’s definitely up to, I’m the first one to get an actual wanted poster.” 

He took a few pics and selfies with the poster from different angles with different expressions (ranging from shock, smug, and his classic I’m so much better than you Donnie smirk). Once he was happy with the various pictures in his gallery, he pocketed his phone and took a closer look at the poster. It was in a different language, obvi, and the material was something sorta like paper, but not quite. Way tougher to rip than regular old Earth paper. Mikey would surely love the stuff for all his art projects. 

“Hey Galexa, think you could translate for me?”

“Of course. Give me a moment.”

Or, more accurately, it took a split second for her to display a hologram of the poster in English. Leo’s jaw dropped for a second time when he read what it said aloud.

“Wanted: Fugitive Android and Donatello of the Tomato Clan?!”

He blinked at the hologram before a snicker escaped him, but it soon turned into a full blown laugh. He laughed so hard, he had to lean against the wall so he wouldn’t fall over onto his shell.

Once he caught his breath again, he wiped tears from his eyes and looked down at Galexa on his wrist.

“Lexy, that bartender alien totally snitched! You remember the one I told you about from when I first got here?”

“Correct. The information is stored in my database.”

“Wow… I mean, I don’t entirely blame them, I guess. They have to protect their business and themselves from those crazy dino dudes, but still,” Leo shook his head and looked over the poster again, “I’m so gonna hold it against them.”

As he continued to read the poster, his eyes gradually widened, and he felt the need to read it aloud again. 

“Lexy, we have $100,000 on our heads! Yikes… oh, wait, there’s more— Any information regarding the location of the fugitives must immediately be reported to the authorities. Hail Emperor Zanmoran, may his reign last for all time…” Leo scoffed and rolled his eyes. “More like Zanmoron… ”

“It appears there is a significantly high bounty on yours and Professor Honeycutt’s heads, Leonardo.”

“Yeah…” Leo muttered, looking back at the real poster.

“Might I add that you have ten more minutes until you need to return back to the warehouse, so I suggest you begin making your way back.”

“Alright, thanks Lexy.”

“Of course. If you require further assistance, I am available.”

The hologram disappeared and Galexa’s interface went dark. Leo turned to run up the wall and across the rooftops again so he could avoid the streets, but he hesitated. An idea sparked in his head and his mouth curled into a grin. He faced the poster again and carefully peeled it off the wall.

“You are gonna look sick in my room back home.”

Day: Eleven…? Yeah… yeah Leo was pretty sure it was day eleven.

He slowly blinked his eyes open to be met with the soft blue haze of glowing plants he’d hung around his little room, and he pulled the sheets tighter around himself with a sleepy groan. 

Leo had begun to collect a bunch of things for his temporary room to give it a little more pizazz, rather than just having it as a dull, boring, and dirty supply closet-esque room. Ew, no, Leo was better than that, even if he wasn’t going to stay here for much longer. He just had to add his own charm to the place. 

It was better off with it, anyway. Then again, let’s face it, everything was better with a little dash of Leo’s touch.

The blue plants softly illuminating the place were actually the same ones Leo had found on that grey rock type of planet, the one he’d first portalled to. Man, that felt like forever ago now… Anywizzle, it turned out that the plants were called Moon Tears, which was fitting considering their shape, and, Leo couldn’t lie, kinda awesome.

As for the other things he’d thrown around his room to make it a little more cosy (and a little more Leo) he just grabbed random alien stuff he thought looked cool and kind of threw it around the place to give it something more. He’d also hung his wanted poster up beside his bed, which he was definitely gonna take home after all this. How could he not? Having a certified wanted poster from a corrupt alien government was so sick. 

With a dramatic sigh, Leo heaved himself out of bed and stretched his arms over his head, his mouth agape in a quiet yawn. He rubbed his eyes, then tied his mask around his face and trudged down the hallway into the main area, where he knew Fugitoid would be doing whatever he did. Once Leo rounded the corner and saw the android, he smiled.

Despite his homesickness that was slowly building with each passing day, weighing heavily on him, Leo found that Fugi’s presence sorta helped with it. In some ways, he reminded Leo of his family. The android had a little of Donnie’s sarcasm and nerdy flare, only maybe with a touch more of Raph’s kindness, a little of Mikey’s pizazz, or even April’s warm smile… okay, Leo might be self projecting at this point. Fugi couldn’t even smile in the first place. But… if he tilted his head a bit and squinted, he could probably fool himself into thinking he could…?

Damnit, who was Leo kidding. He could not lose his sanity now, not this early on. He was simply too pretty for it.

Before he could spiral any further into his not-so-sane thoughts, Leo cleared his throat and walked over to where Fugitoid was working on the teleportal device, his grin still plastered onto his face. “Mornin’ lata! Get any sleep last night? Or… whatever androids do for rest.”

Fugitoid popped up from behind the wide base of the big machine and he flipped his helmet thing off his face (the same kind of thing Donnie used whenever he was soldering things with his blow torch). 

“Oh, good morning Leonardo. I was just working on the structural integrity of the teleportal device, ensuring the base framework and outer metal plating was secure.” Fugitoid set his blow torch aside and took the helmet thing off as well. “As for ‘sleep’, I did change my internal energy core over, so I am fully recharged for today and the next ninety-three hours.”

“Oh, cool.” Leo hopped up on a nearby bench and swung his legs back and forth over the edge. 

“And you slept well, I hope?” Fugitoid walked over to the bench Leo was sitting on and started looking over the various blueprints and calculations scattered over the surface. Even at a glance, it all made Leo’s head spin.

“Yeah, I did. That new blanket I found from one of those pop up stores on the street is so comfy. Maybe even better than that bird’s joey pouch I had pizza in one time with Don… after I helped my skeleton friend Heuso and his brother make up with each other by going on a heist to infiltrate Big Mama’s vault, of course.” Leo sighed wistfully and leaned back on his hands. “That pizza was so good…”

Fugitoid glanced over at Leo and tilted his head. “I must say, you lead quite the eventful life.”

“Yep! All part of being a teenage mutant ninja turtle, Fugi.” Leo winked at him and looked around the warehouse again, thinking back on yesterday’s mission. 

He had gotten some high tech computer chip thing from a heavily guarded facility (that he infiltrated with ease, to no one’s surprise) and everything about the place had felt like something right out of a Jupiter Jim comic, or even one of the movies. Shell, ever since he first got here, all of Korlo had felt like a JJ comic come to life. The similarities were wild. Leo just figured the comic artists had managed to capture the space civilisation vibes really well. They so needed a raise, because they nailed it.

“Hey, you know that mission I went on yesterday Lata? The whole place looked like it was from a Jupiter Jim movie I always watch with my brothers, where Jupiter Jim—” 

Fugitoid snapped his fingers together with a loud metallic clang, and he cut Leo off. “Apologies, Leonardo, but I now recall why Earth sounded familiar to me before! Aside from the Kraang, of course.”

Leo straightened up, his hands gripping the edge of the workbench at the mention of… them. He felt a prickling sense of unease curl up in his stomach, but thankfully Fugitoid kept talking, and it soon faded. 

“Jupiter Jim was well known across the galaxy for wanting interplanetary peace—”

“Woah woah woah, wait a sec Fugi. Are you saying… Jupiter Jim was actually a space adventurer?”

“Yes, I am surprised you did not know this. He was considered a hero to some, but to most…” Fugitoid tilted his head from side to side, “...he was quite the nuisance.” 

“So… wait, lemme just…” Leo brought his hands to his forehead, trying to organise his sudden raging thoughts into coherent ones (Jupiter Jim was actually a space adventurer?!) “Okay, I have so many questions, but first I’ll ask… how did he end up on Earth?”

“Well, to my knowledge, he was always from Earth, being human, but he soon made a name for himself with his travels across the galaxy in his spacecraft. His primary directive was interplanetary peace, and he surrounded himself with individuals who also sought a similar goal. However, his methods for achieving such things were… questionable.” 

Leo tilted his head, shifting to sit cross legged, facing Fugitoid. “How so?”

“Jupiter Jim, or Marcus Moncrief as was his real name, would often kidnap people he thought were suspicious, or looking to disrupt any form of peace between planets. But these people were usually innocents, and the kidnappings caused wars rather than prevented them…” Fugitoid sagged a little with a sigh. “He was, to put it lightly, something of a nutcase.”

Leo laughed and rolled his eyes. “Tch, tell me about it! The guy tried to kidnap me and my brothers once because he thought we were evil lizard aliens. Never meet your heroes, am I right? Especially low budget sci-fi ones…” 

“I certainly would not put it past the man… anyhow, Jupiter Jim became quite the menace throughout the cosmos, which drew attention from our higher ups on the intergalactic counsel. They put him on trial for all he’d done, and soon decided it was best to banish him back to where he came from.”

“Huh… So then, how did he become a sci-fi franchise? He’s pretty big, y’know…” Leo paused, thinking back to how Marcus Moncrief’s meet and greet had been devoid of any fans when they went to see him years ago. “...to me and my family, at least.”

“Ah yes, well, the council erased his memory as well as they could without doing anything detrimental to his mind. They then set him up with directors and story writers to… convince him that everything ‘sci-fi’, as you say, in his head was make believe.”

“So… basically the council decided to just gaslight the guy?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.” Fugitoid frowned and fidgeted with his hands. “Which, in hindsight, is quite horrible… but kidnapping is also quite horrible, so…” he shrugged.

“I mean, it’s a little extreme if ya ask me, but even then it still didn’t work. Dude totally still thought he was the real deal.” Leo propped his head up in one hand, leaning his elbow on his knee. “That also explains why all his weapons were real…”

“Perhaps the effects wore off over time… the event did occur over twenty years ago.”

“I guess so… but what about Red Fox? His sidekick? I thought she was a yokai.”

“I do not know of her origins, but I do recall her following Marcus to Earth out of loyalty to him.”

“Oh, that’s pretty sweet actually.” Leo’s eyes widened as he suddenly realised something and he shot upright. “Wait! So… if JJ was an actual space guy, and so was Red Fox… then does that mean all his enemies are real? Like the Plutonians?”

“From what I can remember, they are a peaceful race.”

“Kangaroolians?”

“Known throughout the galaxy for their hospitality and excellent fighting skills in battle.”

“Robo bloodsuckers?”

“Hm, actually, they’ve always been quite troublesome.”

“OMIGOSH is Atomic Lass real?!”

Fugitoid blinked at Leo and tilted his head. “Yes, she is involved with the resistance alongside her husband Atomic Lad. I have worked with her myse—”

Leo started shaking Fugitoid back and forth by the shoulders, not bothering to contain his excitement. “Seriously?! Fugi, why didn’t you tell me? Donnie loves Atomic Lass! He’d freak out if he knew she was real.” 

Realising he had to let go of Fugitoid for him to speak, Leo released the dizzy android from his hold. He still rapidly tapped his hands against his legs, though, needing some kind of movement or he figured he’d literally explode. 

Fugitoid’s eyes spun for a second before he shook his head and they went back to normal. “Well, as I stated previously, I did not realise Jupiter Jim and his former associates and enemies were something of your interest.”

“Then you clearly don’t know me at all.” Leo feigned an offended scoff and held a hand to his plastron. “I thought we were friends!”

“I have only known you for nine days,” Fugitoid stared at Leo with a deadpan look, but after a moment’s pause, he continued on, “even so, I too would consider us… friends.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Leo’s mouth, and he felt a warm fuzzy feeling spread through his chest. “Aw, Lata, don’t get all mushy on me…” he waved a hand at Fugitoid and hopped off the bench. “Besides, how can you really be my friend if you don’t know what all my favourite things are? Let’s start off easy, my favourite colour is blue, superior to purple, and—”

“I will gladly converse with you after today’s supply run, Leonardo.” Although Fugitoid cut Leo off, he still sounded amused. “I have already uploaded the materials I will need you to collect to Galexa. They are all crucial to these next developments I plan to execute on the teleportal device.”

Leo nodded, remembering himself, and that this wasn’t a fun hang out. He had to help Fugi finish the portal machine so he could get back home to his family. He didn’t know what they might be thinking right now… especially with him being gone for eleven days… Leo was sure they were worrying, and he hated that he was the cause of it. The sooner he got back, the better. 

“Say no more, compadre! I’ll be out and back so fast you won’t even have time to miss my beautiful face.” Leo pointed a finger gun at Fugitoid and winked before dashing back down the hallway to his temporary room. He grabbed Galexa from his little bedside table (some random barrel he’d found lying around the place) and booted up her interface.

She greeted him like usual, then showed him the list of things he’d need to grab today along with where they were and… eugh boi.

Leo sighed as he slipped his cloak on and headed out of the warehouse. He knew it was going to be a long day.

Day twelve now, and Leo’s head was still reeling from his and Fugitoid’s conversation yesterday. 

Jupiter Jim… real space guy. His adventures… most likely real (he was kinda loony, so who knew if anything the guy said was true?). His enemies… also most likely real (half of them had been innocents according to Fugi). But most importantly, his allies were real. Atomic Lass was real. And working with the resistance! 

Leo couldn’t wait to see the look on Donnie’s face when he told him. Then again… would Donnie even believe him in the first place?

Eh, Leo would find some way to convince him. The nerd relied on solid proof and data… so Leo really needed something like a picture. Psh, how the shell would he even hope to get one?

Leo kept trying to think of some way he could convince Donnie that Atomic Lass was real as he weaved amongst the swarming crowd of aliens. He was headed towards a stall that had food he could eat, having finished up his run today with ten minutes to spare. 

The new things Fugitoid had Leo grab were all safely tucked away in his pouch, since they were small enough to fit. Leo was thankful he didn’t need a bag or anything today; it made sneaking around and trying to be unsuspicious so much easier. That, and moving through massive crowds like this one.

He held his cloak tightly around him, feeling overwhelmed like he had a couple of days ago and relying on the pressure of the fabric against his skin to calm him down. He could feel his breaths slowly increasing alongside his racing heart, his mind all too aware of the people and noise and colours and eyes all over him— 

Leo was startled out of his head as he bumped into someone also wearing a cloak. Damn it, he needed to be aware of his surroundings, not spiralling into his stupid thoughts! 

He saw a flash of light purple and neon green as he stepped back, raising his hands to pull his hood lower over his face. 

“Uh, sorry…” Leo mumbled, unsure if the alien would understand him.

The other person tensed, in a way that resembled surprise, before a feminine voice spoke up to answer him, “Oh, no need to apologise. I should have been watching where I was going… I just have a lot on my mind right now, I guess.” She gave a weary laugh, and Leo saw her shrug.

Wait… she was speaking English?!

“Psh, don’t I know…” Leo muttered, risking a glance up from under his hood, but her face was also hidden. 

She seemed to consider him for a moment, the crowd still flowing around them. “Are you from Terra?”

Now it was Leo’s turn to tense, and he awkwardly coughed into his hand. “I, uh, well you see, funny thing about that is um… no?” Damn it Leon, what the hell?! Why was his beautiful brain not working right now? Better yet, why was he still talking to this person? He needed to leave before he risked getting recognised and caught. He couldn’t let that happen, not when he was so close to getting back to his family. 

The stranger chuckled and waved a hand. “Oh, apologies, I’ve just never met someone else who could speak English… not since—” she cut herself off and cleared her throat. “A—an old friend.”

“Right… well, nice to… meet you?” Leo gave an awkward wave, his hesitant smile encased in shadow.

The stranger raised her hand as well, concealed with a purple glove. “Yeah, sure kid. Nice to… meet you too.” She gave another small laugh, and despite their awkwardness, Leo felt himself warming up to her.

Why? He didn’t really know, but he didn’t have time to figure it out. He had to get his shell outta here. 

And as if on cue, because the universe just loved Leo, he saw two Triceraton guards stalking through the crowd, heading his way. They also happened to be checking each alien they passed, ripping the hoods off any who were wearing them. Mierda. 

“Aaaand that’s my cue to leave.” Leo whipped around and hurried in the opposite direction, only for some burly alien to barge past him so aggressively he was knocked over flat on his shell.

Causing his hood to fall off.

Leo froze, his breath catching in his throat as legs, tentacles, claws, and robotic limbs all continued to tread around him like he was some mild inconvenience. He yanked his hood back over his face and stumbled to his feet, releasing a slow breath as he looked around. No one saw him. 

No one but the stranger.

They made eye contact and Leo stood still, hands gripping his hood so hard he could have torn it from the seams. Would she dob him in? Take the money? Or even just shout out to the Triceraton who were looming ever closer?

As Leo’s thoughts all jumbled around his head in a panic, some still-functioning part of his brain took the time to notice something about her. Her eyes, her skin, although darkened in shadow, seemed… familiar?

Leo’s trance shattered as he heard the gruff tone of a Triceraton two aliens away from him. If he ran, that would draw attention. If he couldn’t get away in time, the Triceratons would find him. If he tried to hide, that would look suspicious, again drawing attention. And what about the stranger? He still didn’t know what she was going to do. 

“Oh, stardust… Come on, this way, we have to hurry.” Her tone held none of her previous hesitance and became stern, serious. Determined.

Leo registered a hand grabbing his as he was dragged off and—wait, was she helping him?

“Are you—?”

“Over here.” She cut him off, darting through the crowd and guiding him over to an alleyway nearby. 

Once they reached it, she pressed herself to the wall, Leo doing the same, and they waited in tense silence for the Triceraton to lumber past. Leo took this time to assess his situation.

Okay, so… she didn’t snitch on him to take the cash—or credits, as Fugi called it. Then… what was her aim here? Her motives? Did she want to kidnap him and demand to know where Fugitoid was so she could claim the full bounty? 

Leo just prayed to his non responsive ancestors that she didn’t want to eat him as the Triceratons stormed past, still barking orders at quivering aliens as they checked each one on their rounds. 

When they were a safe distance away, Leo dared to relax as he slumped against the wall. But he soon remembered the stranger, and he straightened up, turning to her with his brows furrowed. “Hey, wait, why’d you help me? What’s your game here, lady? Because I’ll have you know, I do not wanna play.”

Her eyes were still trained on the crowd, and once she was satisfied that there was no more imminent danger, she turned her attention to Leo. “No games, kid—”

“Not a kid…” Leo muttered, crossing his arms.

“—but I guess I do owe an explanation. You’re Donatello of the Tomato Clan, correct?”

Despite his situation, Leo couldn’t help the snicker that escaped him before he made it out that he was clearing his throat. “That depends on who’s askin’.”

“Right, well, I’m asking…” She lifted her hands to her hood and allowed the fabric to slip off her head, revealing— holy pizza supreme in the sky. 

Leo’s brain just about went silent for the first time in his life as he openly gawked at her. Her!!

“I’m—”

“Atomic Lass,” he breathlessly finished for her, eyes wide and mouth agape. His mind finally decided to work again, though the only thing it could manage was a fangirl squeal.

She smiled and gestured at herself. “Uh, yeah, actually. I’m assuming you’ve seen my wanted posters too then?”

Of course she would have wanted posters as well. She was in the resistance after all. How had Leo never noticed before? Why hadn’t he noticed before? Why was he only realising this now? Why… why?!

Receiving no response, Atomic Lass just assumed his silence was a yes and continued on. “Well, I recognised you from your posters, and I saw that you were with the Professor.” She crossed her arms and sighed, her expression one of concern. “I haven’t heard from him since… the raid.” She shook her head, glancing down. “The Triceraton took so many of our people. Are you… still with him? Is he alright?

“Me is. I… yes, yeah, I’m with Fugi—I mean lata—I mean… android. Person…” Leo laughed nervously and fidgeted with his hands, giving her a small sheepish grin. 

Atomic Lass tilted her head at him. “Are you… okay?”

“Yeah…?” Leo shook his head, “yeah, I just—” he exhaled and ran a hand over his face. He had to get a grip. This was Atomic Lass! He couldn’t afford to embarrass himself now. “You’re the Atomic Lass.”

She blinked at him, slowly unfolding her arms with a small smile. “Yes? I didn’t know I had… a reputation?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course you do! Like that time you battled against a hoard of space silverfish to save those Zorlins, or—or when you sailed the seven galaxies to help Jupiter Jim on one of his missions, and that time when—”

“Wait, Moncrief?! How do you know him? I haven’t spoken to him since…” She scoffed and put a hand on her hip. “Nevermind, it’s in the past, and we’re getting off track. Professor Honeycutt—is he alright?”

Leo snapped his fingers, trying to reorganise his thoughts. “Yes! Yeah, he’s fine. I’ve been helping him build his portal thing so he can help me get home.”

“Right… I suppose teleportation would be the only liable option since Emperor Zanmoran has all hyperdrive spacecrafts on lockdown. The only operating vehicles with one are cargo ships, supplying the Triceraton’s main outpost in the centre of this sector.”

Leo blinked. “Wow, you sure know your stuff.”

Atomic Lass (he still couldn’t believe it was her!) smiled at him. “I’ve been at this for a long time, Donatello.”

Leo laughed and held up a hand. “Oh, uh, that’s not my name. My twin is Donatello, he’s back on Earth. My name is Leonardo Hamato.” He flicked his mask tails back, smirking. “But I also go by Leo, Neon Leon, Battle Nexus Champion, World’s Greatest Ninja—”

Atomic Lass chuckled, “I can just call you Leo, how about that?” 

“Keepin’ it short and sweet, I like your style.” Leo gave her a finger gun. His eyes widened when he remembered something, and he rummaged around in his pouch. “Uh, hey, I know we probably don’t have a whole lot of time, but do you think you could do me a quick favour?”

“Oh, of course! Anything for a friend of the professor’s. What do you need?”

Leo held his phone in both hands, using it to gesture at her. “Well, I was wondering… could I get a quick selfie with you? I—it’s for my twin, Donnie, who I mentioned earlier? He’s kinda your biggest fan and he would freak out if I actually got a picture with you.” Leo quickly waved his hand, continuing, “But! I know circumstances aren’t the best and right now kinda isn’t the time for selfies and whatever, but… it would mean a lot. To me. And him.” Leo sighed. “You know what? Just forget it, it’s dumb—”

“Woah woah, slow down kid, it’s fine.” She laughed and rubbed the back of her neck. “I have time for a quick picture if you want, especially if it’s for your twin. I never even thought I’d… have a biggest fan of any kind, so this means a lot to me too.”

Leo positively beamed at her, and he jumped up and down on the tips of his toes. “Awesome! Thank you so much, Donnie is gonna love this!” 

Leo walked up to her and flipped his phone camera around, stretching his arm out to get himself and Atomic Lass—Atomic freaking Lass!—into the frame. He took the picture and just stared at it on his phone for a moment. It was real. This was real. Atomic Lass was real. He just got a selfie with the Atomic Lass.

Leo was sure he might’ve stared at it forever if it weren’t for her voice snapping his mind into coherent thoughts again.

“I should get going now, but I just wanted to say… thank you. For looking after the Professor, and helping him to finish his teleportal device. It’ll change the tides of the war in the resistance's favour, and that’s thanks to you. I’ll be forever grateful for your efforts and dedication to his cause—our cause. Any friend of Honeycutt’s is a friend of mine.” Atomic Lass smiled and held her hand out to him. “See you among the stars, Leonardo Hamato.”

Leo had to use all his strength to hold back the girly little giggle that so desperately wanted to escape him, and he shook her hand. “See—” he cleared his throat so it wouldn’t sound so high pitched, “see you ‘round, Atomic Lass.”

She nodded to him, a determined smile on her face, before donning her hood again. She turned and disappeared into the fray of aliens streaming past the alleyway, leaving a stunned Leo still clutching his phone behind.

He blinked. He blinked again. His chest felt tight, a tingling warmth surging through him until he couldn’t hold it back anymore. It bubbled over, pouring out into the rest of his body as he started laughing loudly, jumping up and down like a kid again. 

Leo’s hysterical giggles died down, and he wiped tears from his eyes, a big, stupid grin still lighting up his face. “I love my life,” he muttered between gasps for air.

The feeling he had right now was similar to the time he and his brothers found out Lou Jitsu was their dad—holy pizza supreme in the sky, Leo couldn’t wait to tell the others that Atomic Lass was real! Especially Donnie. The softshell’s usually calm and analytical brain would probably short circuit upon seeing the photo Leo now had in his phone. 

Leo just about jumped out of his skin when Galexa started vibrating against his wrist, and his phone fell out of his hand. He quickly scrambled to grab it, dropping it a few times before finally securing it in a tight grip, letting out a sigh of relief.

He safely pocketed it back into his pouch and answered the call coming through the interface. A hologram of Fugitoid flickered to life, and his eyes told Leo he seemed worried. 

“Leonardo! It’s fifteen minutes over your allocated return time, are you alright?”

Leo’s giddy smile remained on his face, and he leaned against the wall with a laugh. “Oh, Lata, you will never guess what just happened.”

Day: fourteen… 

Leo sighed, slumping his shoulders. As cool as space was, he was really starting to get sick of it. New York’s rush hour was one thing, but here in Korlo? Take that, times it by ten, and loop it for 24 hours a day. He had no idea if that math was right, but if Donnie was here, Leo was sure he’d have something to say.

Leo trailed his eyes down to the floor, swinging his legs back and forth over the edge of the workbench. He wondered how his family was doing, a thought that’d been no stranger during the past two weeks. Were they worried about him? Sure, they’d probably be stressing by now, but… as far as Leo knew, the teleporting machine was almost done. He’d be home soon enough. Besides, two weeks wasn’t that bad! They’d be fine, he was sure of it…

But still, Leo felt like he was counting down the minutes until he could see them again. He felt so cold without the rest of them to light up the room with their smiles. What he wouldn’t give for an eye roll aimed at him after one of his killer jokes, a high three after getting a skate-board trick right, a celebratory pizza party after a mission went well…

A warm hug when everything felt like it was too much.

Well, at least I’m not alone, Leo thought to himself, bringing his gaze up to meet the back of Fugitoid’s head. The android was muttering incoherent equations to himself (well… they were incoherent to Leo, at least) and tapping his fingers against the tabletop. A soft smile wove its way onto Leo’s face as he watched, but it slowly shifted into a frown. 

Something had been on his mind for the past two weeks, ever since he first met Fugitoid in the alleyway (after totally kicking ass in the fight against the bounty hunters). Every time he thought about the moment, a question came to mind: why had Fugitoid been so willing to trust him? 

Sure, the both of them were stretched thin for options at the time, and he had decided to trust Leo after he spun his little tale of woe, but… still. Leo knew it was a risky move for him, big time. Especially now that Leo knew how high the bounty was on Fugi’s head… and how high it now was for him. (Note to self: brag about being a wanted space criminal to Donnie). 

Even when Leo explained his situation to the android, he very well could have been lying. He was the face man after all, he could do so as easily as if he was telling the truth. And now he was back to square one: why had Fugitoid trusted Leo so… easily?

Leo bit his lip, giving it some more thought before plopping down onto the ground. He moseyed over to where Fugitoid was now holding his head in his hands, leaning so close to the blueprints he wasn’t sure the guy could even read what was there anymore. Leo slowly stepped up beside him, leaning against the bench. When he was sure he wouldn’t be distracting the android from something important, he cleared his throat.

“Hey, uh, Fugi? I’ve been thinkin’...”

‘That’s dangerous.’ Leo could practically hear the insult from Donnie as if he were standing right beside him. He felt that familiar ache in his heart stir up again, but he shoved it aside for now. 

“...why did you decide to trust me?”

Fugitoid looked up from the blueprints, his eyes shifting from little orange slits to something like a smile. “Well, if I recall events correctly, you did save my ‘shiny metal ass’ from perilous situations quite a few times.”

Leo barked out a laugh and waved his hand. “No, no, I don’t mean the car chase. I mean when we were back in that alleyway… when I beat up those bounty hunters with my off the charts ninjocity,” he shamelessly added, smirking a little. 

Fugitoid didn’t say anything at first, he just… stared. 

Leo found his smirk slipping, replaced with a hesitant smile. His eyes shifted off to the side a few times, but still, Fugi’s gaze wouldn’t let up. It almost made Leo’s skin crawl.

“Lata…? You there?”

Fugitoid blinked, shaking his head. “Ah, yes, apologies, my mind was… somewhere else,” he murmured, a tone of voice Leo had never heard him use before.

Okay, now he was kinda getting worried. 

Fugitoid’s eyes met the ground, and he seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment before flickering his digital gaze back up to meet Leo’s mildly concerned one. “Back then, in the alleyway, I was… alone. My allies were all presumed captured, bounty hunters were out for my head, and I had knowledge to build a very powerful and potentially dangerous device, should it fall into the wrong hands… I was, how you might put it, ‘screwed’.”

That brought a small smile to Leo’s face, and he kept listening as Fugitoid continued on. “But then, by some miracle, I was saved by you… at first, I was hesitant to trust you, of course, but then… you spoke of your family.”

Leo’s brows furrowed together. “My family?”

Fugitoid nodded once. “Yes… for I, too, have lost my own.”

Leo’s mouth parted, his eyes widening slightly. “Fugitoid…”

Fugitoid leaned against the bench next to Leo, and looked off to the far side of the lab. “When I spoke of my origins, I only told half of the story. I had— have a wife and child, whom I cherish more than anything in my life…” Fugitoid’s eyes shifted to the ground. “My wife, Marra, knew of my reputation among others, and she supported me, as did my daughter Elena. But… when Emperor Zanmoran became involved, I didn’t even consider the possible dangers I’d be putting them in, I—” Fugitoid sighed, bringing a hand up to pinch between his eyes, even though he couldn’t feel it… 

Almost like he’s alive, Leo thought again. 

“It was already too late by the time I realised Emperor Zanmoran’s generous fundings were tainted by his soulless desire for destruction. When I tried to leave, to call the entire project off… he responded by showing me live footage of my family locked in a cell.” 

Fugitoid closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I had to continue my work for their safety… only when I came close to finishing, I realised I had a choice to make: I could either give a dangerous and powerful individual a machine with the potential to wipe out civilisations, ensuring my family and I would never truly be safe again, or… I destroy everything, and I run.”

Fugitoid huffed, gesturing to himself. “You can see I chose the latter.” He opened his eyes again and looked over to Leo, who for once in his life was shocked speechless. “It pained me to leave them behind, but I know Emperor Zanmoran will not harm them. Not as long as I’m still here. He knows I will return for them.” Fugitoid narrowed his eyes, his tone sure and determined. “One way or another, I will get my family back.”

Leo watched him, seeing the android in a new light, and he felt that ache in his heart come back full force. He didn’t know what he was doing until his feet moved forward and he wrapped his arms around Fugitoid. 

Leo felt Fugi tense, but a second later his steel arms were wrapping around him. Leo gave him a squeeze, feeling the hard metal plating press against his plastron, the cold seeping through his skin and chilling him to the bone. 

It was the best hug he’d had since this whole mess began. 

“I’m sorry that happened to you, Fugi, I…” Raph flashed into Leo’s mind, pink coiling around him and clawing its way into his skin, a shriek emerging from his throat before Leo was dragged back and away from his older brother by the rest of his family… “I know what it’s like to have your family taken away by heartless monsters.” He stepped back, his hands on Fugitoid’s shoulders, and he gave him a reassuring smile. “And I also know that I’m gonna do everything I can to help you get your family back.” 

Fugitoid’s eyes widened and he started to shake his head. “I simply couldn’t ask—”

Leo whacked a hand over his mouth and firmly shook his head. “Nuh uh, don’t even start on that, Lata. Nothing you can say will stop me from helping you and your fam. You’re already helping me get back to mine, so let me return the favour.” Leo took his hands off his shoulder and face, holding one out to him with a grin. “We’re in this together, Fugitoid.”

Fugitoid stared at Leo’s hand before slowly raising his own, clasping it in his, his eyes turning into upwards semi circles. “Indeed we are, Leonardo.”

Leo shook his hand, beaming, and when he let go, the ache in his heart felt a little less intense. “Right, now that all the sappy stuff is out of the way… there’s been somethin’ else I noticed…”

Fugitoid tilted his head. “Yes?”

Leo laced his fingers together and pointed at the android. “I really hope this isn’t offensive, but have you always been a robot…?”

Fugitoid chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, of course, you don’t know! No, I was once ‘alive’, so to speak. Before… this whole situation.”

Leo smacked his hand on the bench, poking Fugi in the chest. “Haha! I knew it! There were so many little things you did that just seemed weird for a robot to do.” He crossed his arms and smirked, flicking his mask tails back. “Power of the faceman baby.”

Fugitoid rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of a smile to them. “Yes, well, before this predicament, I was a Neutrino, from the planet Neutrino ironically, and um… in my first few trial runs of the teleportal device, it didn’t go so well…”

Leo gasped. “You were vaporised? That’s so cool!”

“For you, yes. For me… well, I had no clue what was happening until I suddenly found my conscience occupying the body of my android assistant at the time. And as for my body…” he slouched forward, “it was reduced to ashes.”

“Yikes… wait, how’d your brain get to your robot assistant then?”

“That was the teleportal device’s doing. In frying my body alive, it transferred my consciousness into the mind of my assistant. I assume you do not wish to know the science behind how this happened…?”

Leo laughed and shrugged. “You could try and tell me, but I’m not gonna lie to ya Lata, I’d probably fall asleep.”

Fugitoid sighed (something that now made sense to Leo). “I predicted you’d say something along those lines…”

Leo wrapped an arm around his shoulders and grinned. “Aw, come on Fugi, y’know you love me.”

“...that’s debatable.”

“Who could resist these charms?” Leo framed his face with a hand and raised an eyebrow at Fugitoid.

The android side-eyed him, but he soon caved with a fond laugh. “I suppose I do value our newfound friendship…”

“Ah, see? I knew you’d come around.” Leo nudged him before letting go, but the warm smile on his face remained.

He was determined to help Fugitoid get his family back from the evil triceratops guy, and he had no doubt Fugi was just as determined to help Leo get back to his own. 

They were in this together now, after all. 

Nothing was gonna stop them. 

Day: seventeen. 

The ache in Leo’s heart had since spread to his chest, only to then start weighing down on his shoulders and make the rest of his limbs feel heavy and useless. He rubbed at his eyes, blowing out a slow breath before blinking them back open to scan over the facility below him. 

He had to blink a few times for his eyes to adjust, and once they did he pulled up the building’s blueprints on Galexa. Leo hummed aloud as he looked them over, his gaze flickering back and forth from the facility to the layout displayed on Galexa. 

Once he was sure he had it all memorised, he switched her off and leapt from the rooftop, his cloak billowing out behind him. He slid down the wall and landed in a crouch, slinking closer to the building and honing in all his ninja training, the skills coming back to him as easily as breathing. 

Once he managed to discreetly slip into one of the windows left open (seriously, did these guys have shells for brains?) he snuck his way through the long, dimly lit corridors. With only the whites of his eyes catching the light, Leo darted back and forth through the halls, sticking to the shadows and relying on his cloak to aid him in blending in.

He took a moment to double check the schematics before carefully opening the door to one of the rooms on his left. His shoulders sagged at the sight of the laser grid greeting him, the tech thing he needed behind the crisscrossed strobe beams of death. It was some kind of fancy circuit type of thing that Fugi said was necessary for the teleportal device and blabbity blah.

So, taking a deep breath and shrugging off his cloak for the time being, Leo shot forward and weaved his way through the lasers, the heat radiating from them and skimming over his scales reminding him of how dangerous they were. Once he made it to the tech thing, he let out a sigh of relief, smiling. 

“Ya still got it, Leon…” he muttered, reaching out to grab it, but Galexa beeped on his wrist and it made him freeze.

“Leonardo, I am detecting some kind of energy field around the target object. I must advise that you proceed with caution.”

Leo drew his hand back and bit his lip. “Right… of course there is,” he groaned, running a hand over his face as he rapidly tapped his foot against the ground. “Where’s Donnie when I need ‘im…”

Like, hundreds of lightyears away at home, probably stressing about you so hard he’s got a migraine… his thoughts uselessly provided for him, and Leo frowned. 

He stared at the tech thing and looked back at the entrance, where his cloak still lay on the ground. Something started forming in his mind… something ingeniously stupid. 

“Galexa, is that energy field like a security measure? Is it hooked up to the alarms in this place?”

Galexa’s screen showed a loading symbol for a few seconds, and then she beeped. “That is correct. Passing your hand through the threshold would trigger the alarms.”

Leo looked from the tech thing and back to the entrance again. This was one of the last things Fugitoid needed for the teleportal device, and time was of the essence. The longer it took for him to finish it, the longer Leo had to stay out in space…

And the longer his family was left worrying about him. Not to mention Fugi’s family, still in the hands of that insane dinosaur guy…

Leo sucked in a lungful of air and nodded. “I can make it.”

Before he could give it a second thought, he snatched up the tech thing and dove back through the laser grid. Just as he got to the other side and donned his cloak once more, shrill sirens blared in his ears and he grit his teeth against the mind scraping sound. 

He burst out of the room and fled down the hallway, already hearing the shouts of various guards echoing above the sounds of the alarms. He knew he’d get away in time though, and a small smirk formed on his face. These losers had just been robbed by the one and only Leonardo of the Hama—

He skidded to a halt, his breath catching in his throat. Leo’s grip tightened on the piece of tech in his hand, his eyes darting up and down over the figure that stood before him, who wore some orange and had a round featured face. Though the flashing lights and screeching alarms made it hard to think clearly, he could swear it was…

“Mikey?” The name of his little brother breathlessly left his mouth, his body now trembling. 

The figure squinted at him, slowly backing away before running down the hallway. “He’s here! The intruder’s over here! Guards!”

Leo blinked the sudden haze covering his vision away and shook his head. He wiped a hand over his eyes and scowled. Of course it wasn’t Mikey, Leo, get your head in the game!

That ache from before made itself known and consumed his heart, leaving Leo feeling like he was suffocating. But the air soon rushed back into his lungs when guards rounded the corner, all aiming their laser guns at him. 

“Freeze!” 

“Eugh boi… no thanks,” Leo murmured to himself before whipping around and racing back down the opposite end of the hallway. He heard more shouts before laser beams began to light up the corridor and bounce off the nearby walls. 

He started zig-zagging and dodging the lasers as best as he could, but his mind was still caught up in the tarry feeling weighing down on his chest. It made it hard to focus, to breathe. 

Leo felt his ninpo, right there beneath everything, and he tried to swim through his raging thoughts and reach out to it, banging on the internal wall closing it off from him and his ancestors. 

A red hot searing pain burst onto his shoulder and ripped him from inside his head, his opposite hand instinctively clutching at the burnt skin. He hissed through gritted teeth and fled around the next corner, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest despite all the running he’d been doing over the past two weeks.

“Galexa! Where the hell is the nearest exit?!” 

“Take two more lefts and continue straight until you reach a window, but there is quite a drop, so I must advise you proceed with caution—”

“I think it’s a bit late for caution now, Lexy!” 

Pinpricks of heat kept stabbing into various areas of his skin and shell as he slammed into the opposite wall to round the corner, pushing back off it instantly to keep his momentum going. 

Everything after that was a blur, the crashing through the window, the running through the streets with stinging pain all over his body and his vision misty with unshed tears. He soon lost the guards, but his pace didn’t waver until he saw the warehouse. His legs threatened to give out upon spotting it, but Leo refused to rest until he was sure he was safe. 

He kicked open the door and stormed inside, tears still threatening to trail down his face from the corners of his eyes. Fugitoid spun around, his eyes widening. 

“Leonardo! Are you alright? You’re injured.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed!” Leo snapped back, feeling strangely bitter now as he shoved the tech piece into Fugitoid’s cautiously outstretched hands. “Here’s your dumb tech thing. I’m turning in for the night.”

“Leonardo, wait! Your wounds need to be treated—”

“I’ll handle it myself! I’ve done it before.”

And with that, he marched down the hallway and back to his stupid room with his stupid glowing plants and his stupid wanted poster. He felt a twinge of regret for being so harsh to Fugitoid, but he couldn’t bring himself to care right now. 

Right now, the thing he wanted most was hundreds of fucking lightyears away. 

Leo collapsed onto his old, dirty excuse of a bed and grabbed out the medkit Fugitoid had scraped together for him back when all this started. He used Galexa to find the burn cream and then turned her off, setting the bracelet on his bedside table before applying the cream to his wounds. 

Leo sniffed, screwing his eyes shut momentarily, but he blinked them back open and brute forced his way through the pain, wrapping Earth’s equivalent of gauze around the worst of the burns so they’d heal properly. 

Once he was done, he fell back onto the bed and glared at the ceiling. That little hint of regret started growing, curling around in his stomach and making him feel sick. Fugitoid hadn’t deserved that, Leo wasn’t mad at him… but he still felt like too much of a mess to bother apologising right now, so he rolled onto his side, curling into a ball.

He hesitated before reaching for his phone in his side pouch, opting to scroll through his gallery for the millionth time rather than spiral down further into his thoughts. 

Hugging his pillow, he skipped over the most recent photos from his space adventures and back to when he was still on Earth… back when everything was normal. 

Well… as normal as it could be for a teenage mutant ninja turtle, anyway. 

The first few photos he stumbled upon were various selfies of him and Mikey in the kitchen, making pizza puffs and other snacks for the game night they had. A small smile worked its way onto Leo’s face, and as he kept scrolling, he saw more photos of him with the family. 

The time he walked in on Donnie dancing in his lab at two-am, blurred images following the video of the dancing softshell showing what Donnie thought about Leo filming him. He huffed out a soft laugh, flicking over to a picture of him and Raph on a rooftop, out for one of their duo missions since the others had been busy. Next was a few selfies of Leo and April messing around, a few more with Casey in them as well. 

Leo’s smile faded when he landed on a group photo with all his siblings on one of their movie nights, a Jupiter Jim movie playing in the background. Their smiles were all so bright, adding to the shine in their eyes and the general excitement that was radiating off of them, something Leo could tell even through the picture. He sniffed again, fighting back the hot tears now stinging at his eyes, matching the burns he still felt throbbing all over his body in time with his rising heartbeat. 

He swiped to the next picture and his eyes widened, his shallow breaths ceasing when he saw that photo.

Raph posing in the back, showing off his muscles while Donnie, Casey and Leo took up the middle, each flashing a smile of their own with April and Mikey hugging one another in the front. It w

as the picture they all took together after they defeated the Kraang and New York had a chance to repair itself…

And right there, in the front, using his tail as a selfie stick with the biggest smile of them all, a smile that showed how proud he was of his kids, was Splinter. 

He looked so… normal, so lively and full of joy, before he got sick—

Leo took a shuddering breath and turned off his phone, burying his face into his pillow to hide the sob that escaped him. 

His whole body shook with each hitch in his breathing, hands gripping the pillow like a vice as the tears finally burst free and seeped into the fabric. 

He just… he was so done with everything.  He wanted to go back home. He wanted to see his family. His siblings. His dad. 

Leo didn’t even know how much time Splinter might have before he…

He couldn’t even bring himself to finish the sentence in his head. He just knew he had to get home as soon as he could. No matter the cost.

Leo was going to get back to his family. 

His heavy crying soon tapered off into sniffles and shaky breathing until sleep finally decided to have mercy on him. He slowly drifted into the void of unconsciousness, the soft blue glow of the plants in his room illuminating the tears still staining his face. Tears that made him look so much younger…

Chapter Text

Fugitoid’s cold, metallic shoulder drained the warmth from Leo’s cheek, but he didn’t really mind. It kinda reminded him of Donnie’s battle shell, whenever he’d lean over his twin to see what he and his big beautiful eyebrows were up to. Besides, the pressure of leaning against the android was nice. 

Comforting.

After Leo had shuffled out of his room that morning, he’d immediately tried to apologise to Fugi for snapping at him yesterday, but Fugitoid had waved his stuttering words away. 

“I understand your frustrations as well as my own, Leonardo. I know how despairing it can be to know where your family is but have no way of getting to them. To make matters worse, you are in an unfamiliar environment with strange surroundings and even stranger people. It is perfectly reasonable for you to feel the need to lash out after everything has been building up for so long. You do not need to apologise; I already forgive you.” 

Since then, Leo had just been leaning against Fugitoid and idly watching him go over any last minute calculations or schematics or blabbity blah. It all made Leo’s head spin if he even tried to follow along with what the android was doing. He was again reminded of his twin, thinking about whenever the purple clad softshell would enter ‘speech mode’ without warning.

April was probably the only one who could understand at least half of his info dumps, since he always used to help her out with her science projects for school. Leo knew Mikey would try his best to listen and follow along, but would end up either getting distracted or getting lost ten seconds in. 

Raph, on the other hand, would simply zone out until Donnie talked himself into a conclusion and ran back off to his lab. Casey would likely understand most of it, kinda like April. He always talked about how he would sometimes help out Future Don, aka Uncle Tello, in his lab (Leo would never let Donnie live that name down). 

But those memories soon whisked away as Leo became aware of where he was once again, and the small upturn of his lips slipped back into a weary frown. He sighed softly, seeing his breath billow out in front of his face, and he tugged his cloak tighter around himself. He was glad he’d had enough mind to grab it before leaving his room, even if he still felt somewhat frozen.

What he wouldn’t give for a warm, toasty turtle pile right now.

Fugitoid, despite being absorbed in his work, seemed to notice Leo’s shifting. “Are you cold?”

Leo huffed, forcing a smile onto his face. “A little,” he muttered sarcastically, a shiver running down his spine. “Who knew being cold blooded in space would suck so much? I might as well turn into a turtle popsicle…” 

“Perhaps some physical activity will aid in warming you up and getting your blood flowing.”

Leo shot him a look of disbelief, placing a hand to his chest. “Fugi, are you seriously suggesting training right now? I feel betrayed!” He scoffed and crossed his arms. “You sound like Raph.”

“I do not understand why you are complaining; this would be to your benefit.” 

“Ugh, fine. I guess it would help…” he mumbled. Moving from his comfy spot beside Fugitoid, Leo trudged over to a clear area in the warehouse to do some warm up stretches. 

He bent down and touched the floor, only for his hood to flop over into his face and block his eyes. He made a little irritated noise before straightening back up and flinging his cloak onto the floor. Once it landed in a heap, he got back to stretching, the slight shake in his limbs slowly becoming less noticeable as he naturally slipped into his usual routine. 

When he dropped to the ground to start doing some push-ups, he heard Fugitoid speak up from where he was still sitting across the room. He sounded casual, but Leo could tell there was a certain something beneath his tone. 

“Leonardo, I have been meaning to ask you—do you recall what you said to me when we first met?”

“Back in the alleyway?” Leo switched to one arm push-ups, a smug smirk easily forming on his face. “I dunno, but it was probably something brave and heroic.”

Leo could hear the smile in Fugitoid’s voice when he spoke again. “Knowing you, perhaps you would think so, but no. There is something else I had in mind.” 

“Oh yeah? Was it, rather, something bold and daring?” Leo switched to his other arm and started doing more push-ups. Although he was barely breaking a sweat, his body was finally starting to warm up now.

“Again, no, it was not. Leonardo, do you remember what you told me of your family?”

This made Leo pause mid-pushup, and he wracked his brain to try and figure out what Fugitoid was getting at. He shifted to his feet and stood up, looking back over to meet Fugitoid’s harsh orange gaze. 

Well, it wasn’t that harsh. Leo knew Fugi held warmth in them in his own way, only most of the time it didn’t really show because of— say it with him now! —his whole situation. 

Leo tilted his head at Fugitoid as he placed a hand on his hip. “My family? Well, I dunno, it could have been anything from Mikey’s peanut butter eating habits to the huge size of Donnie’s forehead.” He started snickering, but Fugitoid just narrowed his eyes at him.

“I do recall you mentioning something about your twin’s… ‘large forehead’, but that is not what I am trying to say.”

“Then what are you trying to say, Fugi? C’mon, you know I get enough cryptic stuff from my ancestors as it is. Shell, they’re not even talking to me right now.” Leo shrugged and shifted his stance to run through some moves from his favourite Lou Jitsu movies. Sure, he could practise some kata, which Raph had introduced them to a couple years ago, but Leo couldn’t be bothered for formal training right now.

He needed fun and comfort, damnit. 

Fugitoid took a breath and sighed (more of a sound effect than something physical, really). “Alright, I shall just be out with it then—that day, you told me you were nothing without your family. Why would you say such a thing?”

Leo faltered mid step, messing up the fight scene he was practising from Lou Jitsu and the Unseasoned Chicken, his warm hands starting to shake again. He knew that tone… it was the same tone Mikey would always use as Dr. Feelings whenever he’d try to force Leo to talk about his emotions. Yeah, Leo was in no mood for that right now, thank you. 

Before his mind could spiral any further, he shrugged it off. “Tch, nothing without my family? Wh—what do you mean? I don’t remember saying that, Lata. Are your circuits on the fritz or somethin’?”

He tried to laugh, but it sounded empty even to him. So Leo just cleared his throat and fixed his gaze on the wall ahead, slipping back into the movie’s fighting choreography. 

He could feel Fugitoid’s stare boring down on him, but he refused to make eye contact.

“Leonardo… you do know you are something—someone, even without your family, right? I just struggle to understand why you would think anything different.”

Leo missed a step in the choreography and almost tripped over, reaching out to steady himself against a nearby bench. He took a breath and scoffed. “Well, had I said that, which I didn’t, I’d tell you a faceman is pretty useless with no team to face for.” He turned to face the android, a fragile grin on his face. “I mean, all these good looks and not a single thing they can be used for. Other than simply looking drop dead handsome, of course.”

Fugitoid narrowed his eyes at Leo—not in a way that was accusing though. It was more like… concern. “But you do not need your family in order to find value within yourself. You are just as important as any other person, whether you are in the company of others or not.” 

Leo stood still, holding Fugitoid’s confronting  gaze, but his words were starting to sink in. It made his skin crawl and his chest tighten uncomfortably, so he just whipped around and kept rehearsing the movie’s fight scene. 

Despite Leo choosing to ignore him, Fugitoid pressed on, “You have told me of how amazing your siblings are, with your brothers even possessing ancient mystical powers passed down through your family bloodline.” Fugitoid could’ve been frowning. He could’ve had those little loading symbols in his eyes. He could’ve changed his stance. Leo didn’t know. Leo didn’t care. 

Leo was just gonna focus on getting these fighting moves right. Moves that were becoming less swift and accurate with each word the robot spoke.

“Yet…” Fugitoid continued, “I do not know of your own powers. Is… is that why you feel you are nothing without your family? Because you do not possess the same mystical enhancements they do?”

Something about the tone of his voice made Leo pause. He genuinely sounded like he was trying to understand Leo, to get through to him. To help.

Leo rubbed the back of his head, daring to flicker his eyes back up to Fugitoid. “I, uh, no, that… that’s not it. I….” He blew out a long sigh and dropped his gaze to his hands. “My mystic powers are what got me into this whole mess.”

Leo began to explain how his ninpo worked—that he could create portals using his swords to travel wherever he wanted to go. Only, the last time he’d used them (roughly two weeks ago), they had decided to send him off into the middle of nowhere in deep space. 

On a floating rock with weird glowing plants.

In the cold. And the dark.

Completely and utterly alone. 

So, naturally, he’d started to freak the shell out, only for his ninpo to throw him off to an entirely different planet. He told Fugitoid about how his ninpo only worked again whenever he felt panicked, but he couldn’t control it. At all. Which was how he ended up here. 

“...and after all of that, all of this, they still aren’t working.” Leo struck out with his hand, thrusting himself back into the fight scene of the movie. “And I’m still stuck here. I can’t even rely on myself, so how the hell is my team supposed to rely on me?!” He swung again, itching for his fist to connect with something, only for it to whisk past where his brothers should've been acting out the scene with him. 

“I’m the leader, the example, the one they all look to when shit goes wrong. But I’m not there, am I? No! I was overconfident and didn’t think through my actions, even though I knew my ninpo wasn’t right. I was being cocky, just like I was three years ago when my arrogance almost doomed the entire world.” He let out a bitter laugh, his words becoming frantic. “Fuck, I did ruin everything in another timeline, so badly I had to sacrifice my little brother so my friend’s son could travel back in time to warn us of what was coming.”

Leo’s movements became more erratic; his hands trembling, his feet tripping over themselves, his breaths coming in rapid, shallow gasps. 

“I keep failing as a leader, I keep getting so caught up with myself and how I look to my team—to my brothers—in hopes that they can still count on me to get them through everything. I have to be strong for them. I have to be good enough. Yet I can’t even be there for them while Dad is sick. For all I know, he could be dead by now—”

Leo inhaled sharply when he felt a firm, metal hand on his shoulder. His vision was blurry, and he lifted a hand to his cheek to find it wet. He turned and saw a warm, orange glow through the haze, his lower lip trembling. 

A voice wove its way through the maelstrom in his mind. “None of this is your fault, Leonardo. You are still so young, you cannot burden yourself with the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

Leo sniffed and finally caved, embracing Fugitoid in a death grip of a hug. The android wrapped his steel arms around the shivering slider, gently starting to rub his shell in an effort to comfort him. 

The warehouse was silent save for the soft hums from various machines and Leo’s shaky, uneven breathing. He didn’t bother trying to be quiet, not anymore. He openly cried in the arms of his only friend in this galaxy, holding the android so tight a small voice in the back of his mind worried he’d break him. 

After however long—Leo didn’t know or care—his crying became less intense, devolving into sniffles and attempts to calm his breathing. He felt something soft press against his snout, and opened his eyes to see an old rag. 

He took it and used it to wipe his face, blowing his nose after. Then, Leo felt the comforting fabric of his cloak wrapping around him, and he looked up to see Fugitoid adjusting the hood over his head before draping the rest of the fabric over his body. 

The android met his stare, his digital eyes downturned. He sat down in front of Leo, leading the turtle to only now realise he was sitting on the floor. How and when that happened was the last thing on Leo’s mind, his full attention on Fugitoid. 

“Leo, it is okay if you do not have all the answers. It is okay for you to make mistakes, because that is how you learn and grow from them.” Fugi reached out a hand and gently sat it on Leo’s leg, covered by his cloak. The pressure was nice. Grounding. 

Leo opened his mouth to try and protest, to say he still felt like he was failing his team because he was too cocky for his own good, but Fugitoid held up his spare hand.

“Please, allow me to finish. I have listened to you, and now I ask that you listen to me, alright?”

Leo sighed silently, glancing down to the floor, before nodding.

“Thank you, my friend.” Fugitoid then placed his spare hand over the other, continuing, “As I said, it is okay for you to not have all the answers, because that is what your team is for. You must rely on them just as they rely on you for direction. Trust in their abilities to help you, and they will trust in yours to help them.”

Leo lifted his eyes to meet Fugitoid’s once again.

“Believe me, I know it can be difficult. I, too, struggled to do this in my time with the rebellion, even though I wasn’t in a leadership position, like you. But over time, I learnt to trust in my team to aid me in our battles, as they trusted in me to aid their efforts against the Triceraton.

“You are just as important as the rest of your team, even when you are alone. You’re already doing all you can just to get back to them, risking your own life to gather the necessary resources to build my teleportal device. Despite everything happening in your life, you keep pushing forward. You refuse to let it stop you from getting back to your family. You do not give up.”

Fugitoid lifted a hand to Leo’s shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “And that, Leonardo, is quite remarkable.”

The android’s words stirred a warmth in Leo’s chest, the kind of warmth that pushed back against the icy grip of his anxieties, and melted the weight they came with. His lips curled into a small smile, and he wiped his eyes one last time.

“Wow, Fugitoid, I… I dunno what to say.” Leo managed a laugh—a real one, bright and alive. “Mikey would love you, that’s for sure.”

Fugitoid chuckled, petting Leo’s shoulder again before removing his hand. “Any time, my friend. We all have our own internal battles we must face, but it is important that you remember you do not need to face these battles alone.”

Leo’s smile softened. “Anata wa hitori janai…” he murmured under his breath, placing a hand over his plastron, above his heart.

You are not alone. 

Maybe his ninpo had led him here after all.

“Precisely,” Fugitoid replied, his eyes forming upturned semi circles. “For as long as we are in this predicament, we will always have each other.”

Leo leaned forward and gave Fugitoid one last loose hug before standing up.”Thanks Lata… I think I really needed that.” 

Leo meant every word he said, feeling lighter than he had over the past week after finally letting it all out. Sure, he’d already cried the night before, but this felt way better. He had someone to lean on this time, both figuratively and literally. 

His ninpo was still not feeling… great. Leo could sense it within him, just out of reach, but maybe this was a step in the right direction to getting somewhere. Somewhere better. Somewhere he could… eugh, finally deal with his emotions. Deal with Dad…

But that was enough sappiness and mental breakdowns to last Leo the next five years, so he decided to kinda just deal with that stuff later. When he was home, safe, and cosied up with his fam watching a Lou Jitsu movie. 

Leo knew he wouldn’t wanna go near Jupiter Jim movies for at least a few months. He was getting sick of space (even though it was still totally awesome). 

Fugitoid also stood up and started walking back to the workbench. “As I said before, any time. It is no problem at all, Leonardo. But, on that note, I do have some news that may lift your spirits!”

Fugi’s sudden upbeat tone made a new spark ignite in Leo’s chest. “Wait, really? What is it?”

He followed the android over to the workbench, holding his breath as he anticipated his next words. 

“It is in relation to my teleportal device! After I complete these last few assessments and calculations, we will only require one more component before it is fully operational.”

Leo’s mouth hung open for a moment before morphing into a huge smile. “Omigosh, Lata, that—that’s amazing! That’s huge!” Leo laughed, wrapping up the robot in another hug and spinning him around. “We’re gonna get your family back and I’m finally gonna go home!”

He set Fugi down, who was also laughing now. “Yes, I too am quite thrilled.”

“I never thought two weeks away from home could feel so long,” Leo muttered, crossing his arms over his plastron. He felt another ache in his heart, but it was significantly dampened by the buzzing excitement now raging through him. 

“Well, I have been keeping you busy, but all our work shall finally pay off!” Fugitoid whirled his finger in the air as he spun around. “I will now go and upload the location of the last component to Galexa.” Fugitoid tapped one of his monitors to bring it to life and started rapidly typing. 

Leo clapped his hands together, bouncing on his feet. “Yeah! I’ll head out and grab it right—” 

Thunder erupted in Leo’s ears and he was blown off his feet, tumbling through the air until he hit the wall and fell to the ground. A high pitched ringing bounced around his skull, making it difficult to gather his thoughts. He smelled smoke… saw orange through the blurry haze of his eyes.

Still dizzy, Leo struggled to his feet, mentally checking himself over. He didn’t feel like he was hurt badly, but that could have just been the shock. He felt pressure on his arm and urged his head to turn in that direction.

Muffled sounds fought back against the ringing still piercing his head, his feet stumbling as he felt himself being dragged somewhere. He fell to the ground beside the white-grey blob beside him, their motions blurring before his steadily returning vision.

“Leonardo!” 

Fugitoid’s hand clicked in front of Leo’s face and he was slammed back into reality. He started coughing, his eyes darting around as he took in the scene before him.

“Fugi?!” Leo coughed again. “What the hell—it looks like a damn bomb went off in here!” 

“That’s because one did! Look!”

Fugitoid directed Leo’s attention to beyond the flipped workbench they were hiding behind, where the explosion had gone off. There, stepping through the billowing smoke and flames, were numerous tall, foreboding figures. Pale, jagged horns gave way to sunburnt orange scales, leading down to high tech tactical gear and heavily armoured… oh shit. 

“The Triceratons?!” Leo whispered, ducking back behind cover, his wide panicked eyes looking at Fugitoid. “How the shell did they find us!?”

“I am unsure, but it was inevitable. They too managed to discover the resistance hideout even with every precaution we took.” Fugitoid leveled his gaze at Leo, his tone becoming serious. “Leonardo, listen to me very carefully. You need to get out of here, leave everything behind, run as far as you can and do not look back.”

“Waitwaitwait, Fugi, what about—?”

Fugitoid placed his hands on Leo’s shoulders. “I will cover for you while you make your escape. The Triceraton are ruthless beings; if you were to get captured, you would never make it back to your family. I cannot allow that to happen.”

Leo frowned, shaking his head. “Fugitoid, no—”

A booming, gravelly voice rang out over the crackling fire and sound of spaceships landing outside. “Fugitives! By order of the Emperor, you must come out with your hands up and be confined for your crimes against our society. Or we will be forced to open fire.” 

A bit late for that, Leo thought bitterly to himself, almost hysterically, before looking back to Fugitoid. “Fugi, I can’t leave you behind! It wouldn’t be right, after all you’ve done for me, I… you’re my friend.” His voice wavered on the last word, and he fought to keep himself together. 

Fugitoid looked sympathetic, squeezing his shoulders. “Leonardo, I appreciate everything you have done for me and for the resistance. You have been a vital member for the short time you aided me, and a memorable friend. This is no time to argue. When I open fire, you must use the chaos to slip away and escape.”

Leo was still shaking his head, even though he knew Fugitoid was right—arguing meant time wasted, and they already had so little. 

“I believe you will make it back to your family Leo. As for me…” Fugitoid seemed to smile sadly, his eyes flickering over to where the Triceraton were still barking orders and stomping around. “Perhaps this is where my story ends.”

Leo went to protest, but laser fire erupted around them, making him shrink in on himself out of instinct. 

“I’ve detected a heat signature behind this debris!” 

Fugitoid released Leo’s shoulders and narrowed his eyes. His hands started twisting, opening up and morphing into… no way. 

“Fugi, you’ve had laser-hand-guns this entire time?!” Leo screeched, gaping at the two canons now replacing the androids hands. 

“These are actually a new upgrade I implemented after our first meeting! I figured I should have some way to protect myself. It seems I was right!” Fugitoid sprung up and opened fire, causing the Triceraton to scatter in confusion. “Now go!”

Hesitating for a split second, Leo looked over Fugitoid one last time before sprinting away, keeping low to the ground. He sped down the hallway, his cloak flapping out behind him, and then barrelled into his room.

He had to grab one thing before he left.

He saw it, sitting innocently on his bedside table right where he left it—where he left her. 

“Galexa,” Leo breathed, dashing over to equip her to his wrist. “Lexy, I need you to give me the quickest way out of here not involving the front door because it just got blown up!” 

Galexa’s interface showed a loading symbol for a second that lasted hours. “How strong are you?”

“What?!” 

A shot zipped past Leo’s head, so close he felt the heat of the laser, and he whipped around to see a hulking Triceraton blocking the hallway—and approaching fast. 

“Due to the number of hostile enemies swarming the vicinity, you must break down the wall to your left in order to evade capture.”

Leo turned to his left, now staring at a solid concrete wall. 

“How the shell am I supposed to break down that?!” 

Maybe he was delirious from stress for admitting this, but Raph was right. Leo should have trained more. Leo should have tried to become stronger like his older brother. Or smarter, like his twin Donnie, so he could find some kind of pressure point or weakness in the structure. Or more creative, like Mikey, so he could razzmatazz his way out of this whole mess. 

But it was in that moment, with explosions still sounding from the main room, and shots still being fired at Leo, that he realised something. 

He wasn’t as strong as Raph, or as smart as Donnie, or as creative as Mikey… because he wasn’t his brothers. 

He was Leo. He was Leonardo Hamato. He was strong, smart and creative in his own ways. 

Leo snapped his attention to the Triceraton bumbling towards his room, feeling an eerie calm settle over him. 

“Galexa… I have an idea.” A small smirk managed to slide its way onto Leo’s face. “Hey, dino-doofus! I’m right here, why don’t ya stop shooting and come grab me already! Unless you’re too afraid of my ultra sick ninja skills to do so!” Leo stuck out his tongue and held out his cloak like he was ushering a bull.

Enraged, the Triceraton let out a roar and charged forward, seemingly forgetting his laser gun. 

Just as Leo planned. 

Waiting until the last second, Leo sprung out of the way with a wave of his cloak, cheering “olé!”  

With a loud crash and some chunks of flying rubble later, the wall was now… half a wall, and the Triceraton was groaning on the ground.

Leo couldn’t help but snicker. “Wow, even in space, cartoon villains are still so easy to antagonise.” 

He didn’t waste another second leaping through the hole and disappearing among the neighbouring buildings, taking Fugitoid’s advice in running as far and as fast as he could from their no-longer-hideout. 

Though some part of him mourned the loss of his room—the very space that had been his sanctum for the past two weeks, that was the least of his concerns.

All that was on his mind right now, as he dashed over the alleyways and whisked across the rooftops, was how he was going to find the Triceraton’s main base. 

And how he was going to rescue Fugitoid.