#and he's still in there when his brothers get him out of the prison dimension

[tizeline]

1-I've fallen in love with your Tiz Sep AU, especially how you made Mikey the problem child with the hardest redemption arc out of the 4, because normally it's not Mikey who gets that role (Cause he'll always be a sweet kid no matter what dimension or universe or faction he's in<3), so I'm really interested to see how Sep Mikey and Sep Donnie finally reconcile and become closer<3<3<3<3

I'm glad you're enjoying the AU :D! And I'm still trying to figure out how the events of the movie is gonna go down in the AU, but so far this is what I've come up with (though keep in mind this is subject to change)

So it's during season 2 that all that drama between Mikey and... basically everyone else in his family gets really intense, but he does end up mostly reconciling with Leo, Raph and Draxum during the season 2 finale (don't know the details yet, just that it's gonna happen). With that character development, Mikey also grows more accepting towards humans, he still doesn't like them but he's also not trying to destroy them all so that's something!

But Mikey and Donnie just can't seem to get along, in the time leading up to the invasion they're just stuck in this constant state of animosity. Raph and Leo certainly try to mediate, but it's almost like Mikey and Donnie don't want to get along. It's kinda one of those situations where it doesn't really matter why two people started fighting, cuz now they're been fighting for so long and about so many things that it feels impossible to even try to make peace.

So then The Foot get the Key, which in the AU happens because Donnie and Mikey can't stop fighting for two fricking seconds and they screw up the mission. And then each of them blame the other for the mission going wrong, which just gets worse when Casey Jr shows up and warns them about the Krang and goddam these two are being annoying. STILL! Despite their less than ideal relationship, they have started genuinely care about each other, and they both feel guilty about losing the Key, so when Mikey sees an opportunity of getting the Key back he goes for it (like canon!Leo did). And when Donnie sees that Mikey is about to get fucking skewered by the Krang, he jumps in front of his little brother and shield him with his own body (like canon!Raph did).

The story from here on out is not as thought out, but needless to say Donnie gets captured and "krangified". I'm kinda thinking that instead of the Krang just making him a soldier like Raph was, they instead hook Donnie up to the Technodrome or something? And after being freed from the Krang's control, maybe Donnie can still take control of the Technodrome himself to pilot it back through the portal. Cuz ya know, they still need a way to send it back into the prison dimension and the other turtles can't connect to the TD because of their hard shells. I did have an idea of potentially making April pilot the thing lmao, but I also have a headcanon that the only reason Donnie could pilot the TD at all was because he has some Krang DNA in him (empyrean), which April obviously doesn't. So Donnie will still probably be the one to send the TD back into the prison dimension.

In the AU, I imagine that Leo and Raph are still kinda dealing with the whole leadership-issue throughout the invasion haha. It's not nearly as dramatic and hostile this time around, don't worry! But I love the idea of Leo and Raph becoming co-leaders, only problem is that they're still trying to figure out what exactly that looks like for them. It not a huge issue when they're doing small-scale missions, but with how intense and stressful the invasion is, they're kinda struggling figuring out how exactly their dynamic should look like.

But back to Mikey, he obviously feels guilty as fuck over Donnie sacrificing himself for him and he's not handling very well. Mikey having lost access to his mystic powers is also really getting to him considering how heavily he relies on them. Leo's drama with Casey Jr in the movie is in the AU replaced with Mikey's drama with Casey Jr. Mikey is initially pretty cold towards CJ just because he's human, when Donnie gets taken Mikey decides to direct his hurt and anger at CJ because... well... he's human! And he didn't properly warn them about the Krang! So obviously it's somehow his fault that Donnie got taken! Somehow! It's very weird for CJ to interact with pre-character-development-Mikey acting like a petty brat about the whole situation, he's hurt by it but also quickly just grows very annoyed at Mikey's hostility towards him. And then we get That One Scene where CJ yells at Leo to get his shit together, except of course this time it's him yelling at Mikey haha.

Anyway, then Mikey DOES get his shit together, and he manages to help Donnie break free of the Krang's control by giving this big heartfelt speech about how he's sorry about how he has been acting and he wants to befriend Donnie and become real brother, you get it. But Mikey still feels guilty about everything that has happened, and to add on to that he still kinda has main character syndrome lol. Point is when Raph, Leo and Donnie all get knocked out of the fight and it's only Mikey against Krang One, he pretty quickly decides to sacrifice himself if it means defeating the Krang. It goes down pretty similarly to how Leo did it in canon, Mikey can fly so he lures Krang One into the prison dimension and is able to restrain him there long enough with his chains to convince CJ to close the portal.

So then the question is - how the HELL does he get out of there??? Mikey opened up the portal in canon, which is gonna be hard for him to do in the AU if he's being beaten within an inch of his life by Krang One haha. But I do think I've figured it out, so Leo and Raph at this point in the story have unlocked their Hamato Ninpo but Mikey hasn't, because their Ninpo is fueled by like... the connection to their family, and Mikey doesn't feel very connected to his Hamato ancestry before this obviously. But what if this is the moment where he doesn finally unlock his Ninpo! After both Donnie and Mikey proved their dedication to each other through their sacrifices, Mikey finally feels connected to the Hamato family. The way I imagine this scene is that it's not just Mikey creating the portal, his brothers are reaching out to him with their Ninpo and Mikey is able to reach back, even while in different dimensions. They're able to establish a familiar connection and because of that a litteral connection is formed through the portal, and Mikey is brought home.

Lastly I wanna talk about Donnie, specifically the uh. Injury he gets from the Krang when he shields Mikey. I actually drew this really quick sketch of that moment a while back but I never posted it here so I might as well do it now! It's not super gory or anything, but Donnie's shoulder got a little but fucking impaled and also there's blood so I'm putting it underneath the read more thing

Haha remember when I said this this AU was gonna stay mostly silly goofy? Teehee!

Anyway, I can't really decide if I wanna make Donnie just lose his enitre arm after this because lol. Lmao. But the reason Donnie doesn't like die from blood loss right after this moment is because the Krang goop is sealing up the injury, both when he first gets captured and interrogated, as well as during the time when he's under Krang control. After he's freed, he's mostly only able to help in the fight by piloting the Technodrome up partway through the portal, maybe he's able to like act as support in the fight against Krang One by using his Ninpo? But yeah no he basically gets benched as soon as his brothers get him back because he's still quite injured.

But look on the bright side, Mikey and Donnie both being on bedrest after the invasion gives them PLENTY of time to bond! :D Like sure, they showed how far they're both willing to go for each other during the invasion, but they've still got a lot of bad blood to sort out afterwards and them both being stuck in medbay kinda forces them to deal with their problems haha. So yeah, while the invasion is the catalyst for them making peace, it's mostly during their recovery that they properly bond with each other. (Prepare for B-Team cuddles, it WILL happen!)

And you asked about specifially when Donnie loses his immunity towards Mikey's puppy dog eyes, and I'd imagine it's during their recovery. Not only because they're growing closer, but also because his baby brother is INJURED and SUFFERING and to Donnie's horror he quickly realizes that he is unable to say no to Mikey now haha XD

HOOBOY that's basically everything, I still have to figure out a lot of the details, but writing this all down made me realize that I've figured out way more of the plot than I initially thought, so that's nice!

[ckret2]

Chapter 56 of human Bill Cipher probably not about to be the Mystery Shack's prisoner much longer:

Bill and Mabel wrap up their impromptu lesson on the second dimension, while Ford and Dipper wrap up their final preparations for Bill's execution.

Dipper peeked in through the door to the gift shop. When no one acknowledged him, he cautiously meandered across the living room toward Ford, straight between Bill and Mabel without either of them glancing at him; they were too caught up in Bill answering Mabel's question about how to see through walls with the fourth dimension.

When Dipper was nearly out of the room, Bill suddenly focused on him. "Hey stinky, what have you been up to?"

Dipper jumped. "What?"

Mabel laughed. "Yeah! You smell like burning hair."

"You smell like nightmares," Bill corrected.

Ford muttered a curse under his breath. Ford hadn't noticed a smell, but Dipper's soul had fallen into the Nightmare Realm—did its distinctive scent still cling to him? Would Bill realize what it meant? If he did—

Dipper swallowed hard. "I... was... having a nightmare?"

Bill considered that. "Ask a stupid question..." He shrugged and turned back to the grid he'd been adding notes to.

Dipper sighed in relief. He joined Ford in the entryway to watch the lesson in bafflement. Under his breath, he murmured, "Has this been going on a while?"

"At least the last fifteen minutes." That was how long Ford had been watching. He'd learned a couple things about higher dimensional physics even he hadn't known.

"Wait," Mabel said, "Bill, I get it! You don't look through walls, you look over them!"

Bill's face split into a wide grin. "Explain it!"

"It's like, if I was floating above the second dimension, I could just see over all the walls! But Flatworlders don't even know what 'above' is, so they'd think I was looking through the walls somehow! So there's got to be some kind of fourth dimensional place 'above' the third dimension, right?!"

"On the money, star girl! Give yourself another sticker!"

"YES!" She'd run out of facial real estate for stickers, so she slapped it on her headband.

Bill beamed proudly at her. "How come your brother's the one with the straight A's, huh? You could blow him out of the water if you wanted."

Mabel's smile immediately disappeared.

Dipper hissed between his teeth. "Oooh." Under his breath, he said, "Mabel hates people saying things like that. I should go rescue her." He crept back into the room. "Hey! Bill!"

Mabel turned toward Dipper. Bill only glanced askance at him. Flatly, he asked, "What."

"Uh..." Dipper skimmed the papers coating the room for anything that he could talk about, and focused on the ringed planet behind the TV. He pointed at it. "Is... that Flatworld?"

Bill shrugged apathetically. "Sure, you can call it that."

"Why are all the countries off the planet?"

"Do you think we lived underground?"

Mabel perked up. "Dipper! The shapes live in outer space! In between their home planet and the planet's rings! They only use the planet for vacations and underground science buildings and stuff."

Dipper asked, "Underground science buildings?"

Bill sighed and turned away from the grid, giving Dipper a look that said I'll give you my attention, but I won't like it. "Research facilities. Like wave pools, particle accelerators, and solar farms. Gigantic equipment like that is more stable anchored in bedrock."

(Ford remembered, suddenly, over thirty years ago, Bill telling him that he ought to dig out a subterranean cavern for the interdimensional portal. "A big machine like this," he'd said, "you want that anchored on all sides by solid rock. It'll be a lot more stable that way." Ford had never dreamed that was a trillion-year-old cultural artifact from a dead civilization.)

Still studying the map, Dipper asked, "How do you tell where your country's borders are if you're just floating in empty space?"

"How do you?"

"We use... rivers, and..."

"And sometimes you just make them up. It's not that complicated."

"Were they all as oppressive as the country in Flatworld?"

Bill gave Dipper a withering look. "This isn't a politics class, kid."

(Ford cast a dubious look at the blood-red letters reading "ANTI-MONARCHIST ANARCHISM".)

Dipper scowled, crossed his arms, and looked over the map again. "But, wait—if you were floating in outer space, and you could just... float up and down between your planet's surface and the ring, then why isn't there anything further out than that? What was stopping you from floating all the way to that moon?" He gave Bill a challenging look, as though he'd uncovered a logical fallacy that undermined the whole map.

Bill rolled his open eye. "This is what you get for coming late to class." He pointed his crayon at his star student. "Shooting Star?"

"They did float all the way to the moon!"

Dipper's shoulders dropped. "Oh."

"It was a big extreme sports bragging rights thing," Mabel said. "Like climbing Mount Everest! Except first you have to get through the rings without dying! And it'd take like thirty years to fly there and thirty years to get back!"

"Approximating the human years," Bill said.

"So they couldn't go until they invented cars, because they're fast enough to get through the rings without getting hit and it only takes a year to drive to the moon, but that means you still have to carry enough supplies for two years, and—"

"Hold on," Dipper said. "Cars?"

"Yeah!"

"But there's no ground! They're flying around in the air! They don't have wheels, do they? What makes a car different from a rocket ship?"

"Um..." Mabel looked to Bill for help.

Bill said, "Firepower." He drew a rocket sailing up toward the moon at an angle, its fiery trail cutting through the planet's rings. After a thoughtful pause, Bill added, "I know a guy that used to work at an observatory on the far side of the moon."

Dipper said, "So what happened to your world?"

And there was that hesitance, that guarded look Ford had remembered seeing whenever Bill got too close to teaching Ford enough for him to recognize the danger to his dimension. He turned away from the kids, busying himself with refining the shape of the moon. "Do the math. I'm over a trillion years old! Stars burn out, universes go cold. Your planet will barely last twelve billion years. That's the way planets go."

"Well, if you're so powerful, why didn't you just—I dunno—keep it alive?"

The crayon snapped in Bill's hand.

Mabel gave her brother an irritated look—"Dipper, don't be mean,"—but it turned to a worried look when Bill rounded sharply on them both.

Bill snapped, "Who says I didn't, smart aleck?"

"Wh—I—"

"It is alive, thanks for asking. I made sure of that."

"Then where is it—?"

"Do you think I let you sit in here so you could ask stupid questions?" Bill planted a fist on his hip and pointed toward the door. "All you've done is derail the lesson and bring up stuff we covered three hours ago. Scram, kid."

"What—? But..." Dipper looked to Mabel for help.

Mabel shrugged. Dipper sighed, got up, and trudged out of the living room to join Ford in the entryway, giving him a forlorn look as he did.

Ford muttered, "I used to get kicked out of classes for challenging the teacher, too."

Dipper snorted. "Did he ever kick you out of class?"

Ford thought. "No—but why would he? He needed me to think I was his star student."

Although one time Bill had woken Ford up at two in the morning in the middle of a dream during the portal's construction, because Ford had forgotten some measurements he'd taken in the basement and he hadn't left his notes somewhere one of Bill's eyes could see them. And then, once Ford had retrieved his notes, the irritation of being woken had prevented him from falling back asleep and returning to his Muse.

They'd laughed about it the next night.

"Do you think his world does still exist?" Dipper asked.

Ford shook his head. "The Oracle said he destroyed his dimension himself in his pursuit of power. I trust her more than him."

They stood outside watching as Mabel asked Bill if there was any way for a normal human to see into the fourth dimension without busting their eyeballs. Bill started illustrating a way to grind glass to refract light from several minutes in the future, before abandoning it halfway completed to start explaining to Mabel how regular three-dimensional refraction worked. Ford recognized the unfinished illustration. Bill had included it in his miniature grimoire, too.

Voice low, Ford murmured, "You can't tell your sister we're ready."

Dipper nodded. "She'll be heartbroken."

Ford remembered having the exact same thought that morning. He squeezed Dipper's shoulder. "I suppose I won't be going with her to that concert in Portland tomorrow."

####

"... and that," Bill concluded, "is why the Time Giants banned sixth-dimensional tourism. But by then the damage was done—which is why there's only one survivor left."

Laying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, Mabel said, "I'll never see balloons the same way again."

"Nobody ever does." Bill clicked shut his marker and dropped it on Mabel's chest. "So that covers the last fifty billion years of local politics! Did that answer your question?"

Mabel paused. "I don't remember my question."

"Good. I don't either." Bill sat on the floor beside Mabel and crossed his legs. "Anyway, you owe me fifty grand. All the info I gave you today is worth at least a year of college classes on this planet."

"Pssh, yeah right!" She paused. She sat up. "Wait. Really?"

"I might've skipped a few names and dates and formulas—but sure! We covered all the important stuff!" Smugly, he said, "So, still think I think you're dumb?"

Mabel stared at him, and then around the room at all the papers coating the walls, covered in Bill's handwriting. "You did all this just to prove I'm smart?"

"You proved you're smart. I got a captive audience for the afternoon. Quid pro quo!" Bill grinned. "I wasn't kidding earlier! You've got twice the brains of any of the other morons you'll share a classroom with. I'm surprised it's your brother on the honor roll instead of you."

Mabel's smile faded. Oh. "Yeah," she grumbled, pulling her knees to her chest. "You and everyone else." This wasn't much better than Bill thinking she was stupid: now he had expectations for her.

She'd heard it a million times, any time she did anything intelligent. You're so smart too, why aren't your grades better? Why don't you make grades like your brother?

Because Mabel liked art, music, motion, and stories (and usually not even the stories they read in English class); and Dipper liked—or at least was good at—math, science, and history. Because Mabel's brain fuzzed over with TV static when she tried to read a textbook, and the static got louder the more she was forced to reread it to "study"; whereas Dipper could read a chapter once, retain everything that mattered, and then skim it a second time right before a test to remind himself of the important names and dates. Because Mabel's bulb was just as bright as Dipper's, but hers had faulty wiring, making it flicker on and off outside her control; and she could only get it to glow steadily for things her brain was interested in; and she couldn't choose what her brain was interested in; and school wasn't on that list.

But how did she explain that when her parents were disappointed in her C+ test because Dipper came home with an A? When they told her she just needed to apply herself, how did she explain she was already applying herself five times harder than Dipper and still trailing behind him when the whole family knew she had just as much brains as him? It might have been easier if she actually was stupid. At least then they'd know she was doing her best. But she wasn't doing her best.

She got it from everyone. From her parents, day in and day out; from aunts, uncles, and grandparents; from teachers she'd taken by surprise with a particularly passionate essay; sometimes even from friends. Why aren't you making A's like your brother? So why shouldn't she hear it even from Bill Cipher.

Bill leaned back in surprise when Mabel curled in on herself. "What? I'm calling you smart, kid. Most humans like that."

Mabel shook her head, pouting at the floor. "Forget it. It just—it doesn't matter what my stupid grades are, all right?"

He stared at her in bafflement for a moment; and then said, with a tone of growing horror, "Oh. Ohhh. I sound like your dad."

She hated how much he knew about their home lives. She never knew when he was going to reveal he'd combed through one of her most shameful memories. "Just forget it," she repeated. "I just don't make grades like Dipper, okay?"

"Kid, I didn't mean it like that. I..." Bill floundered for a moment. It was weird to see him struggling for words. He leaned forward, cheek in hand, putting himself eye level with Mabel. "You know—I don't think I'm fond of your brother."

That dragged a small laugh out of Mabel. "Really? You hide it so well."

"I know! I'm a real gentleman," he said. "So when I say 'hey, why aren't you getting A's,' I'm not saying you should be more like him, ugh. I just want to watch the alpha twin trounce that little nerd."

She laughed louder. "Bill! Be nice, that's my brother!"

"And you have my eternal sympathy."

"Bill!" She punched his arm. "I don't want to compete with him, though. Even if I try a zillion times harder, I'll never get grades as good as his." She sighed loudly. But Bill was watching her, full attention on her face, expectant, so she continued: "I don't want to be a slightly worse Dipper, I just... want to be a really good Mabel! And—and maybe a really good Mabel is just okay at school. It's fine if I just... graduate with C's and go to some boring local college to get a boring degree for a boring job... while Dipper goes to some... big, fancy stupid technical college... or..." She trailed off, chin in her hands, staring at the carpet.

"Or while he gets private tutoring from some genius with too many PhDs?" Bill said wryly.

Mabel didn't answer, trying to swallow around the lump in her throat. "I know he wouldn't have actually left me behind."

Bill grimaced, sucking in a breath between his teeth. "Yeeeah, no, he would have," he said. "Sorry, kid. If it weren't for Weirdmageddon, he'd have taken the apprenticeship."

Mabel's stomach flipped. "Oh."

"So, you're welcome," Bill said.

Mabel socked him again, more seriously.

Bill just laughed. "Hey—if it helps, he woulda been worse off for it! He made the right choice sticking with you."

"Really?"

"Would I lie to you?" He paused. "Poor choice of words. I'm not lying to you. He'll be better off suffering through a middle-upper-class Californian high school beside you than he ever woulda been hiding in the woods catching gnomes in butterfly nets."

She nodded. That was some comfort. Even if, in another life, apparently Dipper would've ditched her.

Bill gave her one of those long, piercing looks he sometimes did; and then he nudged her. "Hey. Don't worry about school—that's your parents talking, not you. And don't worry about what your brother does. Let him bust his butt at a big stupid technical college! Flunk every class and draw flowers on the SAT bubble sheet! You'll have plenty of your own things going on, and your dumb grades won't matter for any of them—"

Mabel flung her arms around Bill. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Hey. You're gonna be fine, kid." He leaned his head on Mabel's, one shut eye pressed to the crown of her head. "I—know it's hard. But you'll be fine."

She didn't know how he could know it was hard. He already knew everything, it wasn't like he ever had to worry about grades. But—the fact that he cared (that he cared) meant a lot. "Thank you."

"Buuut, if you ever decide you do want to be an honor roll kid, call me up! I can give you some advice."

Warily, Mabel asked, "Study tips?"

"No way! What a waste of time!" Bill rolled his eyes. "But I can teach you how to cheat."

####

After Ford told Stan and Soos the news about the Dontium, he headed downstairs to fuel up his Quantum Destabilizer. It had been waiting on a worktable in his study for weeks, the corded power adaptor Fiddleford had made plugged in where it usually took fuel, its empty fuel tank laying nearby.

Fiddleford had said the adaptor he'd invented only gave the destabilizer enough power to act like a common laser—not enough to completely destroy matter and energy. It was insufficient for the job at hand. Ford unplugged the power adaptor, carefully coiled it up, and slid it into a storage pocket in the destabilizer's carrying case.

He picked up the fuel tank, retrieved the milk jug of NowUSeeitNowUDontium, and poured it into the tank, eyes never wavering from the jug until every drop had been poured inside and the tank re-sealed. He triple checked the destabilizer's safety before he plugged in the fuel tank. Then he put the destabilizer in the carrying case as well, and shut and latched it.

As he headed toward the door, Ford spied Flatworld laying on his desk—Dipper must have left it downstairs. He picked it up... and then sat down, studying the cover. It showed a square with arms and legs peering through a telescope.

How much did the book really matter? The kids must have cracked open something in Bill's psyche by reading this book, with how talkative he'd been today—Ford suspected he'd learned more about Bill's world in less than thirty seconds of staring at the crayon drawings in the living room than he had in all the years he'd known him. He itched again to start recording revelations in his journal.

Would Bill have been this forthright years ago, if Ford had remembered more about the book then and asked about it? Or was Bill only willing to share so much because the Pines already knew the truth about his cruel intentions and he had nothing more to hide? No, that couldn't be it—just a year ago, long after he'd revealed his plans, Bill had been willing to guardedly confess to Ford that he'd "liberated" his dimension, but nothing more. The only descriptor he'd given of it was "flat." He hadn't even shown Ford an accurate illustration of his home world.

Then was it because he'd died since then—a ghost desperate to share his life story before he dissipated completely? Or was it just because Mabel had asked?

If Bill had been honest when he'd said he wanted to be Ford's friend... then, Ford supposed, it was possible Bill was also sincere in caring for Mabel. No, Ford was sure that was sincere. How many times had he seen Bill lost in thought, staring at the friendship bracelet she'd given him?

Ford idly flipped through Flatworld, choosing a passage at random to read, wondering how much he'd remember.

SQUARE. Most illustrious Sir, I can observe plainly that you are a Circle, though I know not by what magical means you have found an ingress into my dreams. Would your Lordship deign to satisfy the curiosity of one who wishes to know the identity of his esteemed Visitor?

SPHERE. Your question is more difficult than you may realize. To begin with, I am not a Circle, but rather a Sphere, the definition of which I shall explain to you in due time; and you, my humble pupil, if you exercise the full extent of your intellectual and rhetorical capacity, I hope shall be the Square who changes Flatworld. 

SQUARE. Your Lordship both honors and confuses me. I shall strive to be worthy of your high estimation, but I am naught but a mere Quadrilateral and know not how I could contain the potential to achieve such a feat.

SPHERE. I see I have gotten ahead of myself. I shall explain the purpose of my visit. I hope to find in you—as being a man of sense and an accomplished mathematician—a fit prophet to receive the Gospel of Higher and Lower Dimensions, which I am allowed to preach to only one brilliant mind in a century. 

SQUARE. Pardon me, my Lord, if I am speaking blasphemously in my ignorance; but would not a messenger from beyond this Plain who delivers Gospels to Prophets be better described as an Angel?

SPHERE. You may refer to me as an "Angel" if you so wish, as my nature is not so different from the creature you call such. However, I have come not to offer a revelation of the truth of the Higher Dimensions, but to bless you with the inspiration to discover the truth for yourself. In this manner, I am less like unto an Angel than I am to a Muse—

Ford threw the book on the floor.

####

When Ford headed back upstairs, he resolved to tear down all Bill's crayon drawings and throw them away, lest he give into the temptation to waste the rest of Journal 5's pages meticulously cataloguing them.

But when he reached the living room, the walls were bare, with no sign the papers had ever been there aside from some stray crayon marks and a little extra damage to the wallpaper where the tape had peeled up, and a faint smell of smoke.

Ford followed the smell into the kitchen. There was a cast iron skillet on the dark stove, embers and the last few strands of smoke trailing up from it. Bill was sitting at the kitchen table in the dark, staring out into the night, nursing what looked like the second cider can of the night.

"What's all this?" Ford asked.

Without turning around, Bill said smugly, "I knew you'd be back to try to get those papers."

"Wh—? I was coming to throw them away."

"In the middle of the night?" Bill scoffed. "Please."

Ford frowned at the skillet. Well. Temptation removed, just like he'd wanted. Although a petty part of him was miffed that now Bill thought he'd been coming to rummage through his detritus for secrets about his home world, rather than seeing Ford confidently throw it in the trash. "How did you get the stove on?"

"Oh, is it on?" Bill asked innocently.

Ford double checked. It was not, and the knobs to operate it were still removed. But it radiated heat as though it had been; Bill hadn't just dropped the papers in the skillet and ignited them there. (Which would have been an entirely new concern.) Ford checked the cabinet where they kept the stove knobs—all still there. If he asked Bill how he'd achieved that, he'd probably just profess ignorance.

Fine, Ford had plenty of other questions he wanted to ask. "How long have you been able to levitate objects?"

"You mean like this?" Bill lifted his empty cider can, tapped it twice with his index finger, and left it suspended in midair.

"Yes, like that."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I can't do that," Bill said.

Ford sighed in frustration. "Was it the eclipse? You said you were—what was it, 'better at floating' than us? Did it... unlock something? Or have you always been able to do this?"

"This is what I used to like about you, Stanford. You're so curious. You come up with the most interesting connections between things. Sometimes connections I'd never thought of! And you keep—asking—questions. Even when nobody answers you." He finished his second can, used both hands to crush it, and left it floating in the air next to the first. "You used to be such a good student."

You used to be such a good teacher, he wanted to shoot back—but that was a lie. Bill had never been a good teacher, he'd just pretended to be one.

He'd been a good teacher to Mabel today.

Why isn't he always a good teacher? Why had he chosen to be a poor facsimile when he could have chosen to be the real deal? Why hadn't he been better? Why hadn't he been better? Why did they always seem to have these conversations in the middle of the night?

"Why are you..." Ford spread his hands helplessly, gesturing at all of Bill, everything he'd ever done—golden god of infinite wisdom, poisoned by lies and cruelty, trapped in a slowly rotting body. "Why are you like this."

Ford wasn't expecting Bill to get out of his seat and round on him so fast. He didn't even see the blow coming before Bill punched him.

Ford seized Bill's wrist and only barely caught himself before he broke it.

Bill didn't even acknowledge Ford's grip. "I'm so sick of you." His voice was hard as iron. "If you ever ask me that again, I'll burn down this shack with all of us inside."

Ford stared at Bill. He let go of his wrist.

Bill silently swept around Ford and out of the kitchen.

"I'm sorry."

Bill's footsteps fell silent. After a moment, he muttered, "Might've overreacted."

Something about the grudging not-apology hit Ford harder than a proper apology ever would have. He remained standing in the kitchen until long after Bill had gone upstairs.

The cans had fallen at some point during Bill's departure. Ford knelt to pick them up. Experimentally, he tapped one twice, and let it go.

It fell to the floor again.

It occurred to him that, depending on what happened tomorrow, those might have been the last words he'd ever say to Bill.

####

Bill shuffled to his sleep spot under the attic window, flopped unsteadily onto the cushions, pulled Journal 4 from its hiding spot, and carefully stuck the gold star Mabel had given him earlier that day to one of its pages.

And then he filled half a page with all the things he should have screamed at Ford.

####

Mabel came into the bedroom, shut the door—it had been patched earlier that day by Soos—and flopped face up on her bed. Staring at the ceiling, she said, "Dipper I know everything now."

Dipper was already under the covers, eyes shut. "About what?"

"Bill."

"What shape was his dad?"

Mabel paused. "I know almost everything about Bill."

"Pfff."

"But I do know his mom was some kind of supermodel or something! He says that's where he got his good looks. I don't know if he's actually good-looking by Flatworld standards, or if he just has really high self-esteem, but if his mom was a model I guess he could have inherited whatever Flatworlders think is good-looking—"

"How do you know he's not lying?"

"Why would he lie about that? I'll never meet his mom."

"To make his family sound cool?"

Uncertainly, Mabel said, "I guess." After a pause, she loud-whispered, "Did you read Flatworld?"

Dipper figured he wasn't getting to sleep any time soon. He pushed his covers down and sat up. "Yeah."

"It was really messed up, huh?"

Dipper thought about it. "I... guess it was, yeah." He hadn't thought about it much earlier—he'd been trying to wrap his head around the math and visualize the fourth dimension, and then his quick tour of the Nightmare Realm had pushed it from his mind completely; but... "The author's really obsessed with dead baby shapes, huh."

"You remember those old 70s cartoons with singing numbers we watched in class to try to teach us multiplication?" Mabel asked. "I was expecting it to be like that but for old timey people. Not about shapes getting executed for having short sides."

"Or squares getting locked in insane asylums for heresy if they tried to say the third dimension existed."

"Or major sexism against lines."

"Yeah, what was that about? Did they really think lines went around stabbing everyone to death just because they're pointy and they could?"

"I don't know, maybe lines really did do that. If I kept being told to shut up because my head was too skinny to hold a brain, I'd stab my husband too."

"I guess that makes sense." Light through the attic's triangular window illuminated the room a deep gray-blue; but as Dipper watched, the room darkened as a cloud covered the moon. It was probably going to rain tomorrow. "And... this is where Bill grew up?"

"Yeah," Mabel said quietly. "Some details are different from the book, he said so. Like he told me colors weren't illegal and peace-cries were just a dumb etiquette thing. But..."

"What about the executions? Or—or triangles being treated like servants by everyone else?"

"I don't know. He didn't want to answer questions like that. He talked about stuff like dance clubs and gardening in space, but he got super mad when I tried to ask about the serious stuff."

"Maybe he got his power as part of some... triangle uprising? And then he went crazy and decided to destroy everything?" Dipper was thinking, again, about the Axolotl's half-remembered prophecy. That maybe Bill was here to help them against some threat even worse than him.

"I can see why he destroyed his dimension," Mabel said.

Dipper winced, "Okay, but—sure, it was bad, but that doesn't mean his entire dimension deserved to die."

"No, of course not," Mabel said quickly. "But like I get it. If all that was going on."

"If it was. Just... how much is different from the book, and how much is true?"

"I don't know."

The room fell silent again.

"Welp," Mabel said brightly, "I've got the rest of summer to get the whole story out of him! Goodnight, Dipper!"

Dipper's stomach flipped with guilt. "Yeah." The rest of summer. Mabel left for Portland in the morning. "Goodnight."

He lay down, pulled his sheet back up, and stared at the ceiling.

Friday, 11:00 p.m.

####

(Next week's chapter is exactly what you think it is. But before we get there, I'm looking forward to hearing what y'all think about this week!)

[percyaugod]

Unnamed Rise AU

Edit: It has now been named The Prisoner and the Pretender AU. : D

AU where Leo stays in the Prison dimension longer, but is saved by the technodrome. He wakes up bandaged in one of the dark broken pieces and panicking but freezes when he hears Donnie hiss at him to be quiet unless he wants the Krang to find them.

Leo silently panics even more because why is Donnie here? He's supposed to be the only one trapped here! What did that stupid egghead do!?

Donnie helped talk him through it and calm him down. Leo then tries to look for Donnie in the darkened ship while asking what happened. The lights are extremely dim but he can still see, so why can't he find Donnie?

Leo stops when he hears Donnie say "Oh I'm not Donatello, not truly, not anymore. I was though. For a few glorious minutes, we were both Donatello. Both the technodrome."

Leo, becoming very aware that he no longer has his sword with him, decides to keep talking until he can find an exit.

"So if you're not Donnie, then what are you?"

Donnie's voice snipped back, "I'm not a what. I'm so much more than a simple object! I'm the technodrome, the perfect combination…"

Leo stops listening to its rant as he keeps searching the ship. He finds an exit and makes a break for it. Only to be stopped as it's blocked by tendrils and a strange replica of the top half of his brother's body coming out of the wall. In true Donnie fashion, it doesn't look happy about his recent decision.

"Where do you think you're going?" It quietly snarls. "Do you have any idea how injured you still are after your 'fight'? Not to mention the lack of food and other resources outside. If anything happened to you Donatello would be upset with me."

"What do you know about Donnie!?" Leo snaps back, only to be muffled by a tendril wrapping around his mouth.

"I know he would destroy the universe himself if it meant getting you back. He will come for you, it's only a matter of time, and I will not disappoint him.

[vinelark]

do you have comic recs for someone who wants to get into tim and timkon? I read superman comics but your fic made me wanna know more about this character who makes me want to eat metal with how weird and scary he is (affectionate)

hello! and welcome to the “weird scary little guy who makes you want to eat metal” (or perhaps put him in a salad spinner) club

tim has many, many comics, so for the purposes of this i’ll go with some big arcs/series and then some random personal favs

a lonely place of dying (1989): aka tim’s intro, in which 13 y/o tim engages in his favorite pastime (stalking dick grayson), tries to be a family therapist, and somehow ends up in a cape and pointy boots at the end of it.

robin (1993): so much content spanning so many batman plotlines; this is just issue after issue of tim being the most 90s kid to ever 90s kid (and then 00s kid to ever 00s kid). also much of it is written by chuck dixon, who is good at being so homophobic that the characters loop right back around to being queer.

young justice (1998): for both tim and kon (and bart and cassie and the whole yj crew)! also featuring tim and kon both wearing gloves that are way too big for them. no idea what's going on there but it's kind of like when puppies have giant paws they haven't grown into yet.

red robin (2009): THE tim comic to me, partially because marcus to draws most of it (issue 6 on i believe) and the way he draws tim here is peak tim to me, and partially because tim is just balls to the wall bonkers in fucking yonkers the whole series. this spans his brucequest and damian becoming robin (and damian in this is so!! and dick is so!!) while tim takes his shaky next steps. he’s in his messy bitch era but also stuck at 17(?) so that just means he’s randomly making out with sort-of-adversaries on rooftops and thinking longingly of kon and getting fake engaged(??) to a girl he can barely ask on a first date. (it has scant few but still some good timkon moments here and there.) (and speaking of marcus to: this and this.)

a lonely place of living (detective comics) (2017): an arc in which everyone thought tim was dead but surprise! he was just stuck in a pocket dimension prison and now he has to come back and stop gun batman (again). feat. tim being wildly competent from page one. kon is, iirc, currently erased from the timeline but never fear, tim still manages to find a way to think about him.

random/short comics:

WF3: superboy & robin (1996): tim & kon solve a case together in a two-parter that is, as described by a reviewer on its league of comic geeks entry, "…a pretty fun meet cute, I mean team-up…" (basically: see above re: chuck dixon.)

knight terrors: robin (2023): a two-parter in which tim and jason are trapped in a sentient nightmare together. if you like those vibes definitely check out this fic.

nightwing (1996) #25: tim being an annoying little brother is something that can be so personal—

[goodlucktai]

only going up from here

rise of the tmnt word count: 4k pairing: leo & mikey i wrote this for one of my very favorite people and best friends, the bentley to my bookshop and ben to my sammy and mikey to my leo. HAPPY BIRTHDAY @mykimouser! i'm genuinely better off for having you in my life, it would be significantly darker around here without you. i hope your day is absolutely amazing and you're surrounded by people who love you and you get everything you want forever <3 title borrowed from bummerland by AJR read on ao3

x

If you asked Mikey if he was protective of Leo, he would say of course he is! He wouldn’t even have to think about it, what kind of question is that? He’s protective of everything and everyone he loves, and he loves all his siblings more than life itself.  

If you asked Mikey if he was overprotective of Leo, he would say whaaaat? I don’t—I think you’re breaking up actually, shhhcchhkkchhssh—and he’d artfully dodge the conversation by literally sprinting away from it.

The thing is, Mikey knows how annoying it is to have well-meaning loved ones go into hypervigilant mode anytime they come within a five-foot radius of your person. He’s been lobbying since he was twelve for Raph to take the kid gloves off! And throw them far away!! Down a deep hole that Donnie could fill with cement and Leo could plant fake biohazard warning signs around so that no one would ever dare excavate!! 

But Leo has always been independent, more than any of the rest of them. More than maybe he really wanted to be. He takes care of himself, like he has to—like there aren’t a half dozen people around him who would happily do it, who want to do it, who would jump at the first chance to prove that he can depend on them for anything. 

Mikey doesn’t know when Leo got this idea in his head that dealing with him is a chore but it’s an idea that grew up with him. That grew about ten feet taller after the Krang invasion. It’s always towering over them, keeping Leo even further from the people who love him with both its long unwanted arms. 

Sometimes Mikey can slink past those arms and find the hole that Leo hides in and climb in there with him. He’s the best at it, because he’s the smallest, and the one their enemy’s eyes tend to jump right over when they’re sussing out a fight. He can go places the others can’t. And it’s a rule of the universe that once he gets within hugging distance of his brothers, they’re compelled at a molecular level to hug him. 

When they’re holed up together, in that place Leo goes to when he’s alone, it gets a little warmer but it’s still cold. It feels like one of those early winter mornings when the shadows are the longest and darkest and cover more ground than they do the rest of the year and Mikey is just waiting for that spring thaw. He’s been waiting for what feels like forever, but he knows it’ll come. He knows it will.

Two months after the invasion, the sun peeks out.  

“I’m going to tío’s,” Leo announces to the lair, one foot out the door already. 

There’s an immediate crash from the lab, and the familiar sound of a weighted barbell falling on a snapper’s chest from the dojo, as two older brothers scramble to either throw their entire weight into stopping him somehow (impossible) or at least convince him that one of them should tag along (more likely, but Leo would not be happy about it). 

Mikey scrambles from his upside-down seat on the sofa to poke his head over the back of it and call out, “Can I come?” 

Leo glances back down the hall, probably calculating the seconds until his quick escape is botched, but then he looks back at Mikey with that crooked, mischievous smile that’s been Mikey’s favorite since he was two.

“Grab your shoes, Miguelito. We’re prison breaking.” 

“Gimme two shakes!” Mikey says over his shoulder, already bolting for his room. 

Mikey’s arms have mostly healed up from the golden portal he opened into the Prison Dimension. There isn’t a crack or a scar left but the lingering nerve damage is killer. The colorful custom arm braces that Draxum sourced for him help a lot and he’s good about remembering to wear them—so there is really no reason for their entire family to be such worrywarts about it. Especially when Don’s shell is still too tender for battle armor and Raph’s lucky he can still see out of his right eye. 

“It’s because you’re both the babies,” April said a few weeks into their collective recovery period, poking Mikey right on the beak that he had wrinkled in frustration. “The youngest in the whole clan. Even Casey Jr.’s older than you two. Deal with it.” 

Donatello is technically a month older than his twin, not that either of them care about pesky things like birth dates. They’re twins in their souls. Even though that means Leo has to grit his teeth and plot convoluted revenge when Donnie dares play the older twin card. 

But also, Mikey knows even though no one has come out and said it, they’re the two who scared the rest of their family the most. 

Donnie and Raph did what they had to do because it was their direct responsibility. Donnie was the only person alive who could have piloted the Technodrome with some degree of success even without his ninpo-powered technopathy. And Raph gave Leo his escape pod because his top priorities have always started and ended with his little brothers. If there had been another way out, he would have taken it. 

Mikey was willing to disintegrate to get Leo out, holding that portal open even though it hurt, even though every ounce of instinct and intuition was telling him to let go, even though he had no way of really knowing it would work the way he wanted it to. Leo threw himself feet first into hell for the rest of them and came out the other side broken and bleeding and traumatized, and he wasn’t sorry he did it. He would do it again, and again, and again. 

So—Mikey gets it. He does. 

It doesn’t stop him from cramming his Jordans on and snatching up the nearest hoodie—pink; he never gave that back to Raphie, oops. He whirls around to find Leo in his doorway, sword slung over his shoulder, weight braced on the neon blue foldable crutch in his opposite arm. 

“Little rowdy back there,” Leo says peacefully, regarding the state of chaos in the lair as their older brothers actively hunt them down. “Let’s take off from here.”

“You got it, boss,” Mikey chirps, hopping in place as he ties his shoe. 

The cyan portal opens as easily as April opens her bedroom window to usher them in for a movie night, bright and inviting. Having opened a portal of his own, Mikey has a brand-new appreciation for how incredible Leo’s ninpo is. He’s never hesitated to hop right through, even back when Leo was still getting the hang of it—either he’ll go where he’s meant to, or he’ll have a fun adventure wherever he does end up. Literally win-win. 

He steps out into Run of the Mill’s back of house. A harried server pauses mid-step to give him a strange look. Then she visibly clocks the blue of the portal behind him, rolls her eyes and continues on her way. Mikey beams at her retreating figure. She should know who Leo is, Leo is the best. 

Leo takes long enough to join him that Mikey has started poking around in the dry storage area. 

“Raph caught me,” Leo says faux-somberly. “I let him know we’d be home by dinner.” 

“With some calzones as a peace offering,” Mikey says with a nod, matching his grave tone. It makes Leo crack a smile, because it’s always charming to him when his siblings commit to the bit. 

“Can I please get through for a can of tomato paste,” a salamander yokai in an apron and unnecessary hairnet says loudly from behind them. Oh, they are kind of just hogging the whole doorway, huh?

“Weeeell, since you said please,” Leo replies, steering Mikey by the shoulders out of dry storage through the prep kitchen and out the employees-only door. 

Mikey ambles along agreeably, and accepts the hot basket of mozzy sticks Leo plops into his hands without questioning where it came from, and hops up into a seat at the bar since the dining room is pretty full. 

“I’m gonna go bug tío Hueso for a bit,” Leo says. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and if you do—”

“—deny everything and throw Draxum under the bus however I possibly can,” Mikey recites. He would never actually throw Draxum under the bus—unless it was a really funny bus—but they both know that so there’s no point bringing it up. 

“You’re my favorite,” Leo tells him. He knocks his knuckles on the bartop to get the attention of the rabbit yokai back there and wiggles his fingers in a wave when he has it. The yokai’s fur poofs a bit, like always, and he immediately drops the handful of forks he was holding with a noisy clatter. Then Leo whirls off to go make trouble elsewhere, crutch slowing him down not at all. 

The rabbit yokai is one Mikey knows pretty well from a hundred other afternoons just like this one. Usagi isn’t old enough to serve drinks, but he likes to roll silverware behind the bar so he can prop his phone up beneath the counter and watch TikToks. He always watches the Hamatos when they come in—maybe one Hamato in particular. 

It would probably make him less flustered around Leo if he knew that Leo’s entire family had a betting pool going on the two of them. Or maybe it would make it worse. Hmmmm. Mikey won’t mention it just in case. 

“Hi, Usagi,” Mikey says cheerfully, popping open the lid on the marinara sauce nestled into his ill-gotten gains. “Mozzy stick?”

“Hi, Mikey,” Usagi replies. “No, thanks. I’ve already eaten like a million garlic knots today and señor Hueso is making me take the leftover lasagna home since Auntie isn’t back until—” He cuts himself off, embarrassed. He always volunteers a ton of information and then wrongly assumes his friends don’t want to hear about all of that and reels himself back in. “Anyway! How are things?”

“Good!” Mikey says. “I’ve been one-hundred percenting all my Pokemon games since I’m stuck inside so much.”

Instead of remarking on that, or on the bright eye-catching colors of his arm braces, Usagi says, “Woah, even Diamond?”

“Yeah! Ohmigosh, I forgot to tell you, I caught Feebas!” Mikey pulls his phone out to show him proof, the victorious picture taken of his Switch screen. “I finally had to just lock in and totally ignore my phone for like two hours. Raph definitely thought I died when I didn’t reply to a meme Donnie sent in our group chat. Check it out!” 

Usagi leans over the bar to see and his reaction is everything Mikey could have hoped for. He gasps, “It’s a shiny?” 

“It’s a shiny!” Mikey hollers, then ducks his head a bit when the actual bartender gives the two of them a pointed look. Tucking his phone away, he says, “So what is your aunt up to? And what does it have to do with leftover lasagna?” 

“Oh! Well, she’s visiting with her sister, and I told her I could definitely fend for myself while she was gone, but yesterday there was kind of an incident with the microwave—”

Someone settles into a stool at Mikey’s right, and cuts right over Usagi to say, “Hey, Michael, right?”

Mikey glances over to find a really tall cat yokai, tawny fur with a black rosette pattern which makes Mikey think of a jaguar, except his ears are long and fluffy, and his face is distinctly more human than feline. 

“Half-right,” Mikey responds, frowning. “You just completely talked over my friend, bee tee dubs.”

“I’m sorry!” the cat is quick to apologize. “I didn’t realize you were friends, I thought he just worked here. You don’t mind, do you?” he adds to Usagi. 

Usagi has the deer-in-headlights look of someone thrust into a social interaction they Do Not Want To Have, and Mikey cringes a little at himself for it. Resolving to make it up to him later, he swivels in his seat to get the attention back on himself. 

“What’s up?” he says, hoping they can speedrun whatever this is. 

“I was just wondering how you’ve been since the invasion,” the cat says. “We haven’t seen you or your brothers around here much recently.” 

“Yeah, we’ve been spending more time at home,” Mikey says, the usual canned response they’ve taken to giving when their friends and associates wonder about their less frequent appearances lately. “We had some close calls but—you know, we won, so.” 

Usagi’s ear twitches, and his mouth turns down, and he gives the silverware he’s rolling his full attention. He has a lot of feelings about the Hamatos being involved in a huge fight that he was completely unaware of until it was long over. Mikey thinks he would have helped if they’d asked him to. He’d definitely do anything if Leo asked. But how could they ask? 

The cat yokai says, “Yeah, I saw the footage. Very impressive.” 

Mikey frowns and stops turning his seat back and forth. “Donnie—my brother wiped all the footage with us in it.” 

“I’m sure he did. But someone captured a few minutes of your battle on a scrying mirror and it made the rounds down here.”  

Ugh, magic, Mikey thinks with derision for the very first time in his life.

He makes a mental note to ask Draxum about how they can get rid of that footage, too. 

If Draxum doesn’t know, Big Mama will. Leo is her favorite. 

“Did I see Leonardo come in with you?” the yokai is saying, leaning in a little. “A few of my buddies and I, we were wondering if we could interest him in a proposal.”

A suspicious little animal in the back of Mikey’s brain sits up straight and starts paying attention. It’s weird that the guy guessed at Mikey’s name but knows Leo’s. It’s weird that he’s been paying attention to their comings and goings from the one place in the Hidden Cities they frequent regularly. And it’s weird that he has a proposal for a teenager.

On the other side of the bar, Usagi’s eyes are dark and watchful. He and Leo can talk shop about kenjutsu for hours at a time, and in this second Mikey doesn’t have trouble imagining Usagi with a sword in his hand. 

“Why?” Mikey says. 

“Those portals—I’ve never seen anything like it,” the cat says. “He could do so much with that ability. I’m sure he’s got people falling over themselves left and right to offer him work, but my employer could probably double any standing offers.” 

He still sounds surface-level friendly and admiring, but there’s a rot beneath it all, sickly-sweet. A greed. Mikey abruptly wants this guy at least one ocean and a language barrier away from himself and his big brother. 

Yeah, Leo’s portals are second-to-none. It’s incredible, the way he can think in three different places at once and account for every single sibling on the field like he’s playing 5D chess while everyone else is playing checkers. He makes it look easy because he’s Leo, and that’s what he does—he makes impossible stuff look like a breeze. Give his ninpo to a clown like this cat and they wouldn’t be able to accomplish a tenth of what Leo has in two years. Even if they had a hundred years. 

And Mikey can feel himself falling into that trap that Raphael so often falls into—that Donatello is guilty of tripping into now and then—the overprotective one. In the same second he thinks about how capable and cool Leo is, he’s thinking about how he would do anything to keep creeps like this away from him. He’s thinking about how Leo deserves to be around people who like him and appreciate him for him, and not for what he can do for them. 

“He’s sixteen,” Mikey says coldly. To him, sixteen feels very grown-up, but he makes sure to say it the way everyone else in his family constantly says it. “If he wanted a job, he’d work here.” 

“Oh, yes!” Usagi blurts. Then, “Uh, I mean, we’re hiring.” 

“A guy who can portal like that, taking pizza orders? Please,” the yokai says with an amiable grin, like they’re all in on the joke together. “Seriously, can I give you my card? Let him think about it. He could, uh—do some real good. For the community, you know? The Krang left a mark everywhere, even here. If he wanted to give back, there are lots of opportunities.” 

He takes a monochrome business card out of his wallet and slides it across the bar. Mikey doesn’t even look at it. He can feel himself getting really, properly angry. 

Leo’s too clever to get played, but he’s so guilt-motivated. He’s got that huge shadow hanging over him that convinces him so easily that he has all this stuff he has to make up for. He has all this love he has to earn. If this creep framed his job opportunity to Leo as a way to give back, to help people in the wake of an invasion he entirely blames himself for, then Leo would be lured right in. It wouldn’t even be hard. 

Michelangelo is so. Sick. Of this guy. 

“Can I just save you the time?” he says, smiling super brightly. “He’s not interested.”

The yokai’s smile fades a little, expression distinctly less friendly, but just for a second. He looks at something above Mikey’s head, and the smile stretches back out again. 

“I’ll wait to hear that from him,” the guy says, nodding to indicate something behind Mikey. 

Looking over his shoulder, Mikey sees Leo and Hueso chatting as they emerge from the office. Leo is waving his hand while he tells whatever story he’s telling, bright and animated, a far cry from that frightened boy they pulled out of the Prison Dimension. He feels safe here and he doesn’t have to put on a performance for anybody here and it shows. It’s why Raph let him go earlier without much of an argument. 

Mikey isn’t about to let anybody ruin it for him. 

Hueso wouldn’t exactly thank him for starting a brawl in his restaurant during the late lunch rush—and Mikey’s done a really good job of not getting banned this month! 

So sabotage it is. 

He’s the youngest of five—six, now, with the addition of Junior to their ranks—and when it comes to big, wounded eyes and crocodile tears to shake dad off his trail and throw another sibling under the bus, nobody does it better than him. 

Moving fast, Mikey pitches himself sideways off his seat. The stool clatters over noisily and Leo looks up in time to see Mikey hit the floor. Picture-perfect. 

“Ow!” he cries out, only half-faked. He did kind of land on one of his wrists a little too hard. 

“What the hell,” the yokai says dumbly. 

Leonardo is beside Mikey so fast, Mikey’s not one-hundred percent convinced he didn’t teleport himself there. He crouches, broken knee and all, and says, “Gravity two-hundred and eight, Angie zero.”

“No fair,” Mikey protests, sitting up. “It was two-hundred and two yesterday.” 

“Well, this wipe-out was embarrassing enough it’s worth multiple points.” 

Despite his teasing, Leo is entirely focused as he tests Mikey’s wrist for pain. When that doesn’t cause more than a wince, he pulls at the velcro straps until it’s loose enough to slide off. Mikey patiently endures Doctor Leon’s careful assessment of his arm, and buckles the brace back on when he’s allowed to. 

“What the heck happened?” Leo only asks when Mikey is helping him to his feet. 

“That guy pushed me down,” Mikey said immediately, head lowered enough that he has to look up more than usual to meet Leo’s eyes. 

“What?” the yokai snaps. “I didn’t push you down!”

“Sure, I just decided to fall down for no reason,” Mikey shoots back sarcastically. 

“That’s exactly what you did!” 

Leo glances at Usagi, the only eye-witness. Usagi says, to the cat yokai, “I saw the whole thing, man. You’re really gonna sit there and lie?”

Oh, we’re keeping you, Mikey thinks gleefully, almost forgetting to ham up his hurt expression. 

The cat yokai is definitely pissed off, but Leo stands up tall and steps in front of Mikey, his body language daring the guy to say one unkind word about his little brother. Hueso takes over before anything unfortunate can happen, encouraging the yokai to get his food to go and also to consider never coming back to this establishment since he thinks it’s acceptable behavior to bully a child, et cetera. All in a day’s work. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Mikey sees Usagi sweep the business card off the bar and probably into the trash somewhere behind it. 

They hang out at the bar for the rest of the afternoon. Usagi isn’t on the floor today, restocking and cleaning and running food instead, so he gets away with chatting and sneaking them free cranberries-on-the-rocks up until they leave. Leo finds out about the leftover lasagna situation and convinces the rabbit to come over for dinner, including a calzone for him in their take-home order to sweeten the deal.

“Uh,” Usagi says, “sure. Okay. That’d be—yeah.”

“Nice,” Leo says. He sounds way cooler about it than Mikey knows for a fact that he is on the inside. But that’s Leo to a tee—make it look easy. Don’t let anybody in on the big secret that you struggle, too. You have to unlock like fourteen friendship tiers before you get on the other side of all that. 

They portal most of the way to their favorite manhole back home, walking the final city block for a few extra minutes under the warm red evening sky. 

“So what happened with Puss in Boots back there?” Leo says apropos of nothing, when Mikey’s dramatic rendition of his capture of the Feebas and ultimate one-hundred percent completion of Brilliant Diamond has winded down. 

Mikey looks at him sidelong, but Leo is still looking ahead. He does kind of need to pay attention, the city sidewalks aren’t always clear, but that usually doesn’t stop him from looking at his brothers while they talk, to his brothers’ eternal exasperation. 

“I told you, he pushed me.”

“Uh-huh. And what actually happened?”

Ughhhhhh, Mikey has only fooled Leo like three times in his entire life, why did he automatically assume this would be success story number four? 

“That guy was weird,” Mikey mutters. He watches the ground while they walk, his untied shoelace flapping around with every step. “He knew about your portals and wanted stuff from you. He was super shady, Lee! He was like if Kingpin from the Spider-Man comics and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast had a baby. And were cats.”

Leo snorts, and Mikey jerks around so fast he’s not able to hide his smile in time. 

Aha! Mikey thinks, doing cartwheels in his mind. He laughed, I win!

“I’m not gonna let anybody walk all over you,” Mikey says, clenching one fist in front of him. “I know that you don’t need anybody looking out for you—believe me, I know.” They share a commiserating look, two little brothers against the world. Leo looks distinctly amused, like everything Mikey does is worth watching and bragging about later. “But I just love you so much, Leo. If this was a perfect world, everyone would love you as much as I do. But since that’s impossible, and no one will ever usurp me from my number one spot as your biggest fan, then I’ll settle for everyone at least liking you as much as I do. Which is still a pretty high bar, but it’s doable. If they just put the hours in, if they, you know, worked for it—”

“Oh my god, Miguel, stop,” Leo says, pushing at his shoulder. Mikey sways sideways with the push and comes right back, undeterred. 

“I’m unstoppable!” he hollers, lifting both arms and punching his fists up above his head. 

“Yeah,” Leonardo says, sounding like his old self again—sixteen years old, the whole world in his corner. “You’re the best.”

Mikey thinks he could do anything, he could light up the sky, he could punch a hole in the dimension, he could travel through time—he can definitely protect his brother. He’s the only person in the world who can get away with doing it, after all. That’s a big responsibility. Good thing Mikey is big enough to hold it. 

Daylight is only an afterthought in the sky now, all those rich autumn colors dimming into deep, vivid hues of purple and blue. The tunnel home is just around the corner, and they’ll have to reheat the food when they get there, but they’ll have to reheat Usagi’s anyway. 

When Leo reaches over and strings his arm around Mikey’s shoulders, Mikey adjusts his stride, shuffles his takeout bags to one hand, and puts his arm around Leo right back. 

“Thanks, Mike,” Leo says. “For being on my team. I know I don’t make it easy.”

“Your team is the only place I wanna be,” Mikey announces, when he’s sure his voice won’t wobble and give the wet sheen in his eyes away. “If you ever try to kick me out I will make your life a living hell. It seriously would not be worth it for you. Don’t tell Raph I said hell.”

Leo throws back his head and laughs for real. His crutch skids on a dead leaf and since they’re attached to each other they both stumble wildly and almost drop the calzones and get dirty looks from other Manhattanites. It’s the kind of moment that becomes the kind of memory that settles deep in the core of a person, never to be forgotten. 

And Mikey sees it—spring. The sun is finally coming out. Someday really soon, he thinks, those shadows that cling to Leo will have to find someone else to haunt. 

Until then, he can be sunshine enough for them both. 

[angelpuns]

50au Part 18

BLOOD AND INJURY TW!!! Please lemme know if it needs more.

Working out a plan was the easy part. Actually doing the plan was proving to be very, very difficult. 

Leo clearly didn't trust them completely, and he definitely didn't trust Draxum. Draxum, the only person he remembered so far. 

So getting him to willingly go and speak to Draxum was like pulling metaphorical teeth. 

Then there was the issue of Raph, who was hardly there today at all. He followed along and helped as well as he could, but most of the time he was so out of it they could hardly include him in the discussion. 

Donnie almost wanted to ask him to stay home and relax for a while, but he knew it'd be worse for him to be away from Leo right now, so he didn't dare bring it up. 

Mikey was taking the lead on helping Raph anyway, but his energetic mask also seemed to be slipping. He was clearly exhausted, Donnie just hadn't realized it earlier. 

They were all really going to need a break after this was over, that was for sure. 

Talking with Draxum had been stressful, most of all for Leo. Who kept watching him like he'd suddenly attack them all. Donnie wasn't sure he even heard what the yokai was saying at one point, but he dutifully nodded along anyway. 

Donnie had to give his twin points for the unnecessary bravery, at the very least. 

Thankfully, Barry knew a witch who knew a witch, and they could probably help. The issue was going to witchtown itself. Because they obviously were not welcome there. 

Raph and Mikey were, unfortunately, the two weakest links right now. Donnie wasn’t strong enough to restrain Leo himself right now, but he at least had the darts and the tracker, and he had a prototype of a capture device that might work. 

So the plan was to go with Leo to witch town, in disguises, to see if they could get the curse reversed or something. 

And hopefully no one would recognize them and Leo wouldn't try and run off. Hopefully. 

The trip to witch town went, somehow, as planned. They spoke to the witch Draxum suggested and she gave them a book and a list of supplies that should ‘ wash the curse away’, but the supplies were so few and far between it was going to take at least a week of preparation.  Not to mention they had to go into Leo's memories, which had already been difficult enough when they went into dad's. 

“okay, let's get what we can off this list and regroup at home. I'll let the others know we're on our way,” Donnie sighed, pulling out his phone and shooting a text to the group chat, “ we can grab lunch, too, I'm sure Mikey’s arms are hurting him since he didn't get a ton of rest.” 

Leo was silent for a moment, but ultimately nodded. He hadn't spoken much at all on their trip, but Donnie forced himself to ignore the alarm bells that usually set off. 

He was probably exhausted, had woken up in a confusing situation, and was still injured. And Donnie had dragged him down to the hidden city after he'd had to talk to Draxum, the only person he even remembered, and not for the right reasons. 

So Donnie tried not to worry too much about the silence. He figured this was all a bit overwhelming. After all, if he were in this sort of situation…well, he'd be a lot less calm about it than Leo was pretending to be. 

“ um…what happened to Mikey's arms…?” Leo finally asked. 

Right. He wouldn't know because he didn't remember Mikey. 

Donnie wasn't sure how to put it. On one hand, he knew that Leo felt guilty about it. Normal-non-amnesiac-Leo did, anyway. Because Leo had accidentally told him that one night when he was still being weaned off painkillers. 

So he wasn't really sure what the reaction would be when this Leo, who didn't even know he had brothers, found out. It was a toss up, really, and Donnie wasn't good enough at unscrambling other people's emotions to try and predict the outcome. Not that he'd been predicting any of Leo’s plans or emotions lately. 

“ Well, when you were in the…the prison dimension,” He saw Leo stiffen at that out of the corner of his eye, but he kept talking, “Mikey opened up a portal to get you out and it took a bit of a toll on his hands. Mystically” 

He glanced at Leo. He looked like he might be sick, Donnie quickly remembering that reassuring someone was a thing you were supposed to do after bad news. 

“ But he's doing better now-” he quickly offered, “Draxum’s been helping him with the mystic part, I made him compression gloves for the shaking, and we've all been caring for the burns. You especially.”

Leo looked up at that with a faint frown, but he didn't seem like he was going to fall apart any second, at least. 

“Okay…that’s good.” Was all he said, and they carried on in silence once again.  

The list sent them all over the hidden city, the ingredients for some kind of mystical ‘cleansing salve’ few and far between. Not to mention the sellers of these items were suspicious and rude as hell. 

A good chunk of the items needed came from witch town itself, but Donnie wanted to save that for last. They needed to get what they could now, and being run out of the hidden city - or god forbid hit with another curse - wasn't going to help. 

So, they double checked their disguises and made their way into witchtown for a second time that day, this time weighed down by a bag full of items. 

“ Okay, in and out. We already risked enough coming back the first time, we can't afford to be recognized,” Donnie murmured, shuffling the bag back onto his shoulder. 

“ Well if someone had let me have my sword, we could just portal away from any trouble” Leo snarked, rolling his eyes and turning away. 

“ Okay first of all, you couldn't portal right now if you wanted to, I know you're too tired and hurting and you barely slept,” Donnie huffed, “ and second I know you don't trust me and I really would rather my injured amnesiac brother not be running around on his own again,”

Leo huffed, but didn't snark back about it. Probably because he knew Donnie was right about his inability to make a portal. 

“ let's just get this over with, my head is killing me,” Was all he said, and the two continued on into witch town. 

The first stop was to an apothecary, which was easy to get, thank goodness. The witch there was kind enough to even give them a discount, on account of ‘you probably need this for a really  difficult spell’. 

Which, yeah, she wasn't wrong. 

They continued, the next few items more difficult to get a hold of, with sellers that didn't seem to want to part with them. 

“ Please, we're willing to pay you twice as much. We really need it,” Donnie offered, dropping the coins onto the counter. 

The seller- a large, half-blind tiger yokai, growled, counting the coins and shaking his head. 

 

“ No amount of coin will change my mind,” he rasped, the sound of it grating against the inside of Donnie's head, “ these skills are for sacred rituals, only. And you two are clearly not going to be using it correctly.”.

Donnie sighed, grabbing Leo's arm so they could just leave and try another time, but Leo didn't budge. 

“ I'll have you know we're going to be using it in a spell to bring back our old god,” he hissed, “ she's been gone for thousands of years, and the new moon is aligning perfectly for the first time. We need this skull to summon her and we need it now. ” 

The seller opened his mouth to respond, but Leo cut him off, “ and if you don't, we'll just fight you for it,” 

Donnie slapped a hand over his face. His twin was an idiot for sure. 

“ Do you take me for a fool!?” The yokai growled, slamming his hand onto the counter. The coins rattled against the wood, several falling to the ground, “ You two couldn't even dress the part, and the new moon isn't for another two weeks. Take your lies somewhere else!” 

“ C'mon, let's go. We're attracting too much attention,” Donnie hissed, grabbing Leo's arm again. Leo wrenched it away. 

“ Fine, we'll go! But I'm leaving a bad yelp review. And would it kill you to pick up the coins that you dropped back there? We'll be taking our business somewhere else and we'll be needing that coin” 

The yokai growled, but crouched behind the counter for a moment to grab whatever coins had fallen there. 

“ Donnie, time to run,”

“ What-”

Leo suddenly leaned over the counter sbdd grabbed the small skull from the shelf, knocking several more of them onto the ground as he went. 

The yokai leapt up from behind the counter just as Leo pulled away, claws swiping at Leo's hands. 

“ DONNIE, I SAID RUN!” 

Donnie quickly adjusted the bag on His shoulder and ran, glancing back to see the yokai leaping over the counter after them. 

“ LEO, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?” He shouted, fighting to catch up to his twin, “ WE CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS IN FUCKING WITCHTOWN, DO YOU WANT TO BE DOUBLY CURSED!?” 

“ IT WORKED, DIDN'T IT!?” Leo responded, not even bothering to look back. 

Yeah, it worked. Worked to gain the attention of half the population! 

The tiger yokai was hot on their tails, so close Donnie could hear his pants and growls.  A little too close for comfort. He pressed on, slowly catching up with Leo, until he matched his twin's stride. 

“ Here, take- take the skull!” Leo tossed it to him, and Donnie slipped it into the bag. “ really wish we had my sword right about now, huh!?” 

“ Oh shut up! Just keep running!” Donnie hissed, lungs burning with effort. If the bag wasn't so heavy, he could have easily activated his hover shell, but between that and Leo not having his sword, there was no clear escape.

They ran out of witchtown and through the Hidden City Marketplace, but every time Donnie looked back, the yokai was there. Like he wasn't going to stop til he got that skull or killed them. Or both. 

“ Leo, I- do you have a plan!?” He gasped out. His muscles were starting to feel like jelly, they couldn't keep this up for much longer. 

“ there's…there’s an exit here..some-somewhere!” Leo response breathlessly. He looked close to falling out, his feet starting to slow and his strides becoming shorter. 

“ don't slow down! Keep running!” Donnie urged, “ What does it look like?” 

Leo wasn't answering, gasping and panting with the effort. Donnie was reminded that at least he had gotten minimal injuries yesterday. Leo had been put through the wringer and was still recovering. 

“ The-the post office.. False door…on the side- I can't-” 

Donnie spotted it a short distance away, the Hidden City Postal service. He couldn't make out any side doors from here, but he assumed it was hidden in the dark of the alley next to the building. 

Maybe if he grabbed Leo, he could activate his hover shell and give them a little boost. Just enough to close the distance. 

He was about to relay the thought when Leo suddenly stumbled, tripping over his own feet and falling face first into the dusty ground. It would have been funny if not for the imminent danger they were in. 

“ shit! C'mon, get up Leo, we have to keep going!” Donnie grabbed his twin's arm and tried to help him up, Leo struggling to his feet and gasping for air. 

Donnie chanced a look behind them. The yokai was closing the distance, teeth bared and eyes burning hatred into Leo's shaking form. 

“C’mon! Just a little further! I've got you-” 

Leo was standing for only a moment when the yokai leapt at him, claws outstretched. 

Donnie tried to pull Leo forward, but he wasn't quick enough. The tiger’s claws came down first, missing him by mere inches, but his jaw managed to latch onto Leo's calf. 

He dragged Leo to the ground in one motion, Donnie refusing to let go even when he himself stumbled with the force of it. 

Seconds felt like minutes. 

The crowd around them shuffled on like this was normal, clipping against Donnie's arms, legs and shell like he was just an annoyance in the road. Sound seemed to stop, then rushed back all at once as Donnie stated at the blood gushing from Leo's leg. 

And with it, the sound of the crowd, the busy market stalls and worst of all, the piercing, pained scream of his twin on the ground. 

Don't think. Don't look too hard and don't think, just act. 

Donnie was only still for a moment, before his ninpo flared to life and he was charging at the tiger. He wrenched his Bo off his back and got to swinging, constructing a drill attachment as he went. He was going to bury this guy. 

The tiger dodged the attack, letting go of Leo's leg as he did. He spit the blood onto the dirt and growled at Donnie, claws extended and ready to fight. 

Donnie swung again and again, drilling whirring and missing the yokai by mere inches each time. 

“ Ha! Should have brought a real weap-”

Donnie swung hard and the drill finally hit something. It dug into the yokai's side and he cut himself off with a screech of pain. It drew blood the further it went, and Donnie was going for a full swing.

The tiger leapt back, clutching his side and growling at Donnie reproachfully. He wasn't bleeding nearly as much as Donnie would have liked it, but it seemed to be enough. 

He crouched to leap at Donnie again, but he was ready. He through his bo with as much force as he could managed, having added heavy constructs to both ends. He wanted nothing more than to fight this yokai until he was bleeding as badly as Leo, but he didn't have time. They had to get out of there. 

The bo whirled through the air and hit the yokai in the stomach, knocking him to his knees in the middle of the crowd. 

Donnie didn't even wait to see if he'd get up, rushing to Leo's side and trying hard ot to throw up at the coppery scent of blood - way too much blood. 

“ C'mon, we gotta- we gotta go!” He managed to get Leo up, one of Leo’s arm thrown around his own shoulders so he could carry both him and the bag. 

Leo whined and gasped at every movement, but Donnie could not afford to stop, not when the yokai was still after them. 

He ran as well as he could with the extra wait, his gait more akin to a limp with the way he had to drag Leo along. 

He cried out in pain with each step, but all Donnie could do was apologize. 

“Sorry, I'm sorry! We're-we're almost there!” he assured, the alleyway getting closer and closer, but far too slowly for his liking. He glanced back. 

The yokai was on his feet again, limping towards them much more quickly than Donnie would have liked. 

“ I'm sorry, just a little further-” he assured, the doorway merely steps away now. Now that they were close enough, he could see it, a flat, shadowed doorway on the side of the building, without a handle or anything. He glanced at Leo for instructions, but he was unresponsive and limp against Donnie's shoulder, now a dead weight That Donnie would have to figure out how to get home. 

The yokai was closing in. He just hoped that there wasn't some sort of stupid mystic spell he had to do to get through. Donnie stepped through, stumbling out into a cool, New York afternoon. 

The portal shimmered behind them, Donnie hurrying to drag Leo and their bag behind a nearby dumpster. He pressed the two of them against the wall and held his hand over Leo's mouth, squinting into the darkness of the alleyway. 

Nothing happened for a while. The wall went back to normal and Donnie could only assume that the yokai couldn't get through. He didn't want to know why, not right now. 

Leo was still bleeding, a lot, and Donnie had to act quickly. 

He set aside their bag of items and hurriedly searched for something to stop the bleeding with. They didn't have bandages, so he went with the next best thing. He ripped the sleeve from his hoodie, cringing a bit. It was one of his favorites, but this was necessary. 

He tore it into several strips and hurried to lay Leo on the concrete, the scent of blood making him want to gag with how strong it was. Leo’s gaze turned towards him, the haziness clearing away a little. His eyes widened, and his breathing seemed to pick up a second later.

“ Leo, I know you don't really trust me right now, but I need you to stay calm, okay?” Donnie murmured, wrapping the torn fabric around Leo's leg as tight as he could to keep the bleeding to a minimum. Don't think about the blood, do not think about it. And definitely don't think about Leo bleeding Out. 

“I’m- I'm gonna get you home, okay? So just…please don't panic,” He begged, finishing the wrap with a quick knot. It wasn't helping much, but it was what he had on hand for now. 

Leo whined at the pain and blearily looked up at him. His eyes were dazed and unfocused, but he was at least looking at Donnie again. 

“ Who…? I don't…” 

“ It's me. It's Donnie. Your brother. I know you don't know who I am, but-” Donnie choked on a sob, and quickly covered his mouth to stifle it. He could not afford to break down right now. Not with Leo injured, not while they were stuck in some random alley in New York. 

“ just…don’t move, please, I’m gonna keep you safe,” He murmured, taking a shaky breath, “ I'm gonna get you home safe, I promise,” 

Leo watched him for a moment, before closing his eyes again. He curled a little around Donnie, pressing his face into his side like he was seeking that warmth. He let out a few hasps and whines of pain at the movement, but Hus breathing started to even out. 

After a moment, he spoke again, voice muffled by Donnie's hoodie. 

“Donnie…i wanna go home…can I please go home…?”

It took every ounce of strength for Donnie to not break down in tears. Even when Leo didn't remember them, he still managed to tug at all of Donnie's stipid heart strings. Not amount of Bad Boy Masking could help with that. 

“ Yeah..yes, I'm gonna get you home, I promise.”

---

Apparently I lied about not writing this weekend. I wrote the ending of this and then liked it so much I wanted to write more. BTW this STILL isn't the part I've been wanting to write yet LMAO

Ummmmm anyway yeah enjoy :)

Lemme know if more warnings are needed. Also sorry if its confusing I do not be planning any of this.

Part 1 | Part 17

[nowimjustastranger]

Is there a dimension STCMO! Ford finds that's post weirdmaggedon but instead of Stanley having sacrificed all his memories, he sacrificed his life to stop Bill? So I suppose it's a dimension this Stanley's already died in, and all that's left is a grieving Pines family. I'm sure Ford would do what he normally does and give this dimension's Stanford a Stanley he saved from a different dimension, only if this Stanford has proven to him he's deserving of a second chance. Or I wonder if, at the very least, he'd do it for Dipper and Mabel. Though I suppose a Grunkle Stan who doesn't remember them would still hurt a little. Would love to know your thoughts!

Absolutely! And yeah, Ford 419"3 would special deliver a Stan to them, specifically a Stan who had lost his own brother and niblings to Bill during Weirdmageddon. Stan had destroyed his dimension with a doomsday device that Ford had designed during his paranoia era, Ford starting construction on it as soon as he returned to his dimension thirty years later.

Ford had been taken prisoner just like in canon, but Mabel and Dipper were captured by Bill after emerging from Mabel's bubble. The niblings were killed by Bill in an effort to get Ford to talk, but he hadn't spent much time getting to know them in this dimension (too busy building the doomsday device). But Bill had an ace card in the form of one Stanley Pines, because he knew Stan would be inconsolable when he found out that the niblings were dead. Which, in turn, would hurt Ford.

So the hunt for Stan began, Bill's henchmaniacs all relentlessly gunning for Stan, who evaded them with surprising prowess as he sprinted for the Mystery Shack. What remained of the townsfolk banded together and managed to distract them long enough for Stan to get to the shack, Stan heading down to the sub-basement to fire up the device so their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.

Ford 419"3 would interfere once the device was operational, grabbing Stan while simultaneously hitting the button to bring the weapon online, throwing them both back into the wormhole as the device did was it was designed to do. And, with Bill trapped in Gravity Falls, he was caught in the blast radius and destroyed. Gravity Falls was wiped off the map, as well as a good one-third of the world.

Once Ford and Bill realized what was happening, Ford's last words had been a simple: "Checkmate."

[tmntxthings]

So I’ve been seeing a bunch of Future Leo fics where he goes back in time floating around and it got me thinking

Imagine being Leo’s s/o in the future only to die like protecting him or something and then when he gets sent back and sees his s/o’s younger self?? The angst material here!!? Especially if they aren’t dating yet and get together during the Kraang apocalypse. And then when Young Leonardo is being stupid he pulls him aside and grabs his shoulders and is like

“Cherish them! Fucking cherish them!!” As he like sobs or something idk.

This idea just popped into my head. Feel free to add on or just react to this

一∑ blast from the past。・゜・

my reaction? OUCH- my freaking heart anon, you just stomped on it, did a little jig on it, DAMN 😏 you’re good

author’s notes: idk just adding a little something something to this angsty bit^ also imagine future!leo like being unable to stop himself from pursuing 👀 like the implications… the jealousy.. the age gap? 💀 JUST A THOUGHT OKAY???

warnings: angst, cursing, more angst, flashbacks, mentions of death and unedited asf

—————————————————————————

About a month had gone by since Leo had dropped out of the sky back in time. During that time, he had explained himself as best he could. It was surprising how easily they accepted the concept of time travel but Leo guessed they had experienced weirder things! Luckily he had traveled back a day before his younger self royally fucked up! That gave Leo time to explain the kraang with the help of dad, and formulate a foolproof plan. They had made sure to save the world without any casualties. The Kraang didn’t even get the chance to exit the prison dimension. He had saved the world. He had saved their world. Maybe that could make up for the wrongs he had committed in his own timeline. It didn’t feel like it, but Leo felt at least a little bit of hope knowing that none of his brothers would be dying because of his mistake this time around.

After that some things had to be settled. The main thing was what would he do now? A 40-something turtle in a timeline that wasn’t his own. He didn’t belong, despite this being his home. So when the dilemma came up about what to do with the key. Leo readily offered up himself. He had plenty of reasons. 1. He had lived his life already, he didn’t mind living on the run, away from New York, away from the Foot Clan. 2. He was older, he wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. 3. Who else would do it? It wasn’t like it could be destroyed and it also couldn’t stay in the lair or anywhere else that the Hamato Clan held dear.

So yeah, he would take the key. And he would go on what he liked to call around the youngins ‘a vacation.’ He made it sound so grand. He would go travel the world. The first mutant turtle world traveler! To Tahiti and beyond. Plus it wasn’t like they couldn’t call him, FaceTime him. It would be like he had never left! At least that’s what he told the teenagers. For the most part Leo thought he had convinced them. And he had convinced himself too.. until he saw you.

He rarely left the lair, now more than ever since he was leaving in a couple of days. He couldn’t continue to risk everyone’s safety by staying for too much longer. For having the key there in one place for so long. But he had wanted to spend as much time with the boys as possible, so when they offered for him to join in patrol, “Ya know only if your old bones can handle it~” Leon shot back. “What he means to say is—“ Raph started to say, giving his little blue brother an annoyed side eye. “Sure sure, we’ll see who’s trailing behind on the rooftops,” Leo said with a smirk.

The competitive glint shone not only in Leon’s eyes but everyone’s. Good! Leo thought to himself and kept his word. He had a massive lead, the youngins still had a lot to learn. Which made the inevitable departure that much harder. He skidded to a stop on a low-rise building. He peered behind his shoulder, smiling at the group who were now racing amongst themselves for second place. He chuckled to himself as he turned back to the street in front of him. Leaning over the edge to see the sidewalk and it was like someone had physically punched him. Straight in the gut. He wobbled backwards, blinking rapidly before moving forward once more. It couldn’t be! What were the chances?!

Yet there you were, headphones on, none the wiser of the ninja watching you from above. Trailing you as you continued on your merry way. Yes it was just like you, with music involved to be doing a little dance in the middle of walking. His breath caught in his throat. You were here. You were alive. It brought him back to his time, when he had lost you. The pain in his chest from the memory alone had his good hand going up to his upper-plastron. “What’re we looking at,” Leon murmured. It came as no surprise that he would get second place. What was a surprise was how serious he sounded. Leo made sure to school his features, to give nothing away. You didn’t need to get involved… maybe in this timeline you would never have to worry about mutants and villains.

Maybe you could have a normal life and continue doing your little happy dances down the New York City sidewalks. “Nothing, just had a flashback.” Leo decided a half truth would allow you to escape his younger versions curiosity. “Wait a minute! That’s Y/n!! Hold on Peepaw,” and before Leo could stop him, Leon was portaling down in front of your path. He had already met you in this timeline?? His gut wrenched as he pictured your lifeless face. A kraang standing tall, over your body and raining down a harsh red glow. Leo watched as his younger self became animated, talking cheerfully and pointing up to the rooftop. Leo immediately stepped back, the boys taking his place and waving down at you.

Raph looked back giving him a questionable look. Leo just shook his head. He didn’t think he could face you. It was a miracle in itself that he came across your path to begin with. “You guys done saving the world yet? Can I come hang soon??” You hollered and Leo flinched. Sure it was dark, and sure not many were out, but attention shouldn’t be drawn to them. Mikey readily hollered back, “Soooooon! In like a couple of da—“

Donnie smacked a robo hand over his orange brother’s mouth. Donnie pressed his wrist and it lit up. “Not yet! I’ll text you.” He spoke into the voice channel. Leo assumed that was to keep the yelling to a minimum since Leon was next to you and could listen in to the comms. Leo couldn’t see what happened next but he felt nauseous. Like he had just ran a marathon, eaten too quickly, and went on a rollercoaster all at once. Leon portaled back up and Leo presumed you had left. Until you also came through the portal. He seized up all over again. If only for a second before realizing he was an adult and had to act like one. Maybe you wouldn’t notice him on the far side of—

“Yeah see, I told you ! He’s me, just from a different future!” Leon said smugly as he motioned his arm towards his future self. “Oh wow you weren’t kidding!” Your mouth dropped open in sheer shock. You were so close now. And so much younger, he had met you during the apocalypse in his lifetime. He drank in your features. They were softer, you weren’t battle worn, the light was still glowing in your eyes. Music played lowly from your headphones that rested on your collar. “Yeah he doesn’t talk much..” Leon coughed. Leo cleared his throat with frustration, such a little shit. “Hi,” he said lamely.

“Hi!” You smiled back, and took liberty to close the gap. “So I’m guessing you were a big help in saving the world huh?” Leo gulped. Was that a trick question? “Well.. yeah I guess,” it would be too time-consuming to say he had to learn the hard way first. Yeah, actually I destroyed my world, and being the last survivor fate must’ve felt like second-chances were a thing and dumped me here to fix what I had royally screwed. You wouldn’t understand, and from the innocent gaze in your eyes he wanted to keep it that way. You didn’t need to know the truth. It would only dull that spark. “Thank you! For coming back and saving our butts then,” you winked as if this was a little inside joke. Leo couldn’t help but crack a soft smile, one that must’ve gave himself away because in his peripheral he saw someone stiffen. A lot of someones. He could only nod after that, any verbal response completely leaving him as he looked down to his feet. To your feet. He had missed you. It was hard not to just reach out. To hug you. But it was enough to know you were here in this world, alive and happy from what he could tell.

“Rightttt well, let’s portal ya back down huh?”

“Oh wait, look Donnie! Know this one??”

“Indignant scoff! What am I listening to??”

“Lemme listen! C’mon lemme listen!!”

“Guys we gotta get going!”

Leo’s gaze had lifted to see the exchange. Watched as Mikey bounced around with grabby hands for the headphones. Only for Leon to make a well-timed portal once Donnie had chucked them off of his head. “Heyyyyy!” Mikey cried out as Leon placed the headphones on his own head. “Don you’re crazy this is a vibe!” His younger self said as his head bobbed. “I disagree!” Donnie replied promptly. Mikey was turning feral as he lunged for the headphones once more, complaining that it was his turn. Raph caught him mid-air, and Mikey struggled to be released. “Don’t worry Mike I’ll send you the song asap!” You shot him a thumbs up and that was the only thing that seemed to subdue him. Raph still held on for good measure. Leo kept the headphones on as he made a grand gesture for you to go first into the portal behind you. “See you guys later!” You waved before disappearing into the blue circle.

So you had known them for a good while, Leo deduced. He didn’t know how to feel. His initial reaction was to act like you hadn’t existed. Pretend like he had never known you, for your safety. But maybe that had been selfish of him… you were always a joy to be around. Even during the darkest times. It was what had drawn him to you from the beginning. When he couldn’t be the ‘leader’ anymore, when he couldn’t put on the bravado and be the fearless warrior. You had picked up his slack. You had been his lighthouse during an eternal night. The patrol went smoothly from there. Though Leo knew he was distracted. He wasn’t called out about it until they reached the lair again. “So what was that about?” Leon asked.

Ahh fuck. He really didn’t want to explain himself. Not to himself! It would just mess things up further. The less Leon knew, the better. So he did what he thought was best. Brush it off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Classic Leo, classic. “Mhmm no, that’s not happening. What was that look??” Leon continued to badger. And one by one Donnie peeled off, Raph dipped, and Mikey slipped away. Until it was just the two in blue in the common area. “What look???” Leo continued to feign ignorance. Leon crossed his arms, “You know them don’t you? Why were you trying to act like—“

“Can you just drop it?” Leo gritted out as his good hand flexed at his side. “No.” Leon stated plainly. Each looking at one another with a level stare. “Yeah sure I knew them! Alright??” Leo exasperated as he turned to leave. To go to his own room. To escape from any further interrogation. So much for being an adult! “Hey! We ain’t done here, how did you know them?? Why did you look so.. so sad?” His former self sure was incessantly annoying. “Leon just leave it.” He warned for a second time. But no, that was never his style. He had to keep pushing and pushing until someone finally caved. Until the limit was long past breached and crossed and stomped on. “What? Did you like them??”

Leo stopped his escape. He froze in place. The only reason being the way Leon said it. Haughtily. Like such a thing was infeasible. Unbelievable. Laughable. He felt his eyes turn icy as his head whipped back and he couldn’t stop himself as his body moved. Leaning forward and getting into Leon’s space. “Fuck you. You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. So I suggest you stop talking altogether.” His tone was deathly low. Leo hadn’t just liked you. That word didn’t even scrape the surface. “They deserved better.” He spat. That was more towards himself but it felt good to see Leon flinch. To stop fucking around for once. If it wasn’t for him— for me— Leo’s face crumpled.

“You need to cherish them. All of them. Dad, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, April! And especially.. them.” Leo swallowed thickly, “Because you never know what will happen. Got it?” He cocked his head, maintaining that hard stare on his younger self. He watched as Leon nodded. Hands clasped tightly into fists. Like he wanted to punch. Like he wanted to fight. Whatever. Leo had to make sure that at least this piece of advice got through that thick skull of his. “Good,” now fuck off you little shit. The rest went left unsaid but Leo was tired and knew it wasn’t completely healthy to berate a teenager. Even if it was himself. Ugh, such a mess.

.

.

.

.

[camsthisky]

Oooh how about 29 with Leo and Donnie?

turtle anatomy referenced from this post

this is set like immediately post rottmnt movie

29. "Tell me where it hurts, and be specific."

“Tell me where it hurts,” Donnie demands, goggles already flipped down and scanning Leo, and when Leo opens his mouth, no doubt to brush off Donnie’s very legitimate concern, Donnie gets ahead of him. “And be specific.”

“Chill, amigo,” Leo tries to soothe, despite the fact that he’s barely moved from the spot on Raph’s lap. The same spot he’s been in since they pulled him from the prison dimension. “It’s just a few bumps and bruises.”

Donnie doesn’t believe him, because Leo always does this. So Don falls back on his own observations.

“Scans are showing hairline fractures in the entoplastron and hyoplastron bone plates, as well as—Raph, lean him forward two inches so I can see, there—a few of the pleural plates on your shell. It looks like the neural plates are completely undamaged, thank god, so you shouldn’t have any spinal issues, but if you do, you need to tell me right away. The fractured cheekbone will probably—Raph, you can lean him back now—will probably need—”

“Donnie,” Raph snaps, and Donnie pauses, flipping his goggles back up to take in the chasm of worry on his older brother’s face that looks deeper than it ever has. 

Leaning against Raph’s free arm, Mikey has gone pale, eyes wide and hand shaking.

And in Raph’s lap, cradled like something precious, is Leo. Leonardo, his dum-dum twin, who almost—and if Mikey hadn’t—

Donnie forces himself to meet Leo’s gaze. He pushes the longing for data collection to the side—bone fractures, ligament tears, ninpo exhaustion—and takes a shaky breath. 

“Everything’s gonna be okay, ‘Tello,” Leo says, and if it were anyone but Leo, using anything but that secretive voice, using that name, Donnie would already be revolting. 

But it is Leo. It is that voice. 

“I thought you were gone,” Donnie croaks. 

Leo reaches out a hand, and Donnie finds himself incapable of not reaching back and taking it. Like if he doesn’t Leo will disappear again, even though the logic of that thought is completely skewed. But Donnie’s brain is at war with his feelings, and he can’t take the feeling of a hole in his soul where a balm of electric blue is supposed to always be. Not a second time.

Donnie’s ninpo pulses when his hand meets Leo’s, Leo’s ninpo humming back tiredly.

Unbelievably angry and also incredibly relieved, Donnie just hangs on and tries to process the fact that they’re all still here. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of his world, even though it almost was. Because they almost just lost Leo forever.

“I’m right here,” Leo says. “I’m not going anywhere.”

You almost did, Donnie doesn’t say, bitterness threatening to rise up his throat and spit out in biting words. Instead, Donnie just clutches his brother’s hand tighter.

“Can—can we go home?” Mikey whispers, breaking the tension by bringing all three of his brothers’ attention to him. 

Mikey still looks pale, shaky and wide-eyed, holding onto Raph’s belt like it’s the only thing keeping him tethered to reality. His ninpo, usually a crackling flame, is barely an ember, so thoroughly exhausted by everything.

Raph’s isn’t much better. 

“Sure thing, hermano,” Leo says in that voice that he reserves especially for the youngest. The only thing that betrays his calm demeanor is the deathgrip he still has on Donnie’s hand.

Donnie clutches back just as hard.

Today was a clusterfuck. He found out time travel is real. Raph was captured. They were all separated and Donnie was solely responsible for Mikey. The world almost ended. Leo sacrificed himself. Mikey almost killed himself to save Leo.

But they’re all here. All four of them have somehow survived this whole ordeal.

“Yeah,” Donnie says, blowing out a breath and leaning closer to the warmth of his brothers. “Let’s go home.”

[sad-leon]

Welcome to the Shadow Leo au :D

It's a lotta text, but I don't know if I'll make a fic for this au. It'll probably be a lotta fics and doodles. Asks are encouraged :D

When Splinter explodes Draxum's lab, a crystal Draxum wanted to experiment that held a bunch of shadow power, dropped on Leo, fusing him into shadows. He can only appear where there is shadow, so he can't go outside alone or in really bright rooms.

He can choose whether to be visible or not in a shadow he occupies, so if he's around strangers, he stays hidden.

Because of all the light from the explosions, he hides in Donnie's shadow as Splinter leaves. He doesn't show himself to anyone outside of Donnie for a long time. It's only when they're toddlers that they speak. Leo's speaks first and scares the hell outta Donnie. His voice has a bit of an echo-reverb tone, but otherwise normal.

Donnie tries to show everyone, but eventually let's Leo explain that he's scared of meeting everyone. He grew up with Donnie, they know all about each other and their triggers and such. Leo doesn't have that familiarity with the others and he's scared of breaking down in front of them.

When Donnie brings April to the lair, Leo is excited at the prospect of meeting someone who is also an outsider. When she and Donnie hang out in the lab, Leo shows himself to her. She tries to punch him, she just bruises her knuckled on the wall. Over the years, April, Donnie, and Leo become an indestructible trio.

The fam still doesnt know about Leo when they break into Draxum's lab. Draxum immediatly notices Leo in the shadows and gathers all his mystic crystals to try and break his shadow powers. On of the crystals he hits Leo with grants him the ability to emerge from the walls, though his still looks all shadowy.

Leo still chooses to hide in Donnie's shadow, though he ventures out on his own a bit more now that he can hold swords and stuff. Leo still steals the odachi from Draxum, but his use of it is limited to only slicing, though if Donnie swings it, Leo can influence the portals if he's connected to Donnie's shadow.

[Sidenote: when the brother unlock their Ninpo, Leo unlocks his as well, granting him ability to use his portals himself. He can also do the funky teleportation thing.]

---

Leo's out on his own one night when he see's Usagi hanging around the turtle fam's lair. He appears to the rabbit and surprisingly, the rabbit doesnt freak out. Usagi and Leo are quick friends. Leo tells Donnie about Usagi and convinces Donnie to meat the rabbit and eventually, Usagi becomes an honorary turtle, just like April.

---

(Leo is still Casey's future sensei, but by then they had found something, a charm or a potion, that made him physical. When Casey asks about him, Donnie avoids eye contact, but everyone else is confused.)

(The key is snatched by the foot clan because Raph couldn't get to it fast enough. Leo tries to blame himself because if he wasn't so scared he could have used his portals to get it. Donnie won't let him blame himself, and neither will anyone else when they finally meet him.)

During the movie events, Leo connects to Raph's shadow when Mikey and Donnie get flung off. He makes himself physical and pushes Raph toward his brothers. He also snatches Raph's wrist comm. Raph is too panicked to consider what just happened and jumps off to catch his brothers.

He shouts for CJ to close the portal. Casey immediatly follows the command shouted by his sensei's voice before he can process it. Leo stays physical long enough to keep Kraang distracted, then ducks into the shadows.

With the whole Prison Dimension being basically one big shadow, Leo is able to stay hidden after the portal closes. He doesnt heal in the shadows, but his inuries don't worsen. It takes about a year until Leo finds his sword and portals himself home.

-

Donnie, April, and Usagi are all a fucking wreck in a way no one understands, no matter how much they explain Leo and his predicament. Raph explains that he was pushed by a shadow and Donnie breaks down on the spot. Because even though Leo would never meet the fam, he'd still sacrifice himself for them.

For months, Donnie begs Casey Jr to tell him how Future Mikey opened a portal, but CJ won't say anything past explaining how it killed Future Mikey.

Donnie doesn't stop looking for any sign of Leo, but after months he has no choice but to move on. Leo's sword was put in a glass, guarded case after Donnie tried to use it to portal to Leo.

Sometimes Donnie sits in a dark corner and talks to himself.

Then one day, the alarm attached to Leo's sword goes off. Everyone thinks it's Donnie trying to portal again, but they all rush in to see a shadowy Leo injured, on the ground. Donnie breaks down on the spot, but tries to pull himself together enough to help with bandaging what they can see of Leo's wounds.

Leo wakes up to his family around him and finally lets himself meet the rest of his brothers.

[uncannyalien]

Is Brother Krang Still Alive?

Ok hear me out: I was thinking about the movie again and I realized that we never actually get a conclusion for Brother Krang. Krang Prime is obviously in the Prison Dimension and Sister Krang gets taken by the government for who knows what. But Brother Krang? He simply disappears.

He's about to attack Mikey when Donnie takes over the ship and

saves him.

But the last we see of Brother Krang is when he is restrained against the wall by Donnie. He is still very much alive, and in the middle of removing himself from his suit.

Then later on in the movie, we see the Technodrone get split in half by the closing of the portal by Casey Jr. But what happens to that half of the ship? Was it taken by the government? Did New York people scrap it? Where did it go and where is Brother Krang?

The half of the ship in the Prison Dimension doesn't completely explode, and due to it being the smaller half of the Technodrone, it might be safe to say that the Earth half didn't completely explode either.

And if Krang Prime is anything to go off of, I don't know if this explosion would kill Brother Krang. We don't exactly know where on the ship he was.

When Krang Prime notices the ship going backwards he opens up 3 levels of the ship to expose where Mikey and Donnie are. But we don't know how thick those layers actually are.

Not to mention that Brother Krang is much smaller than Sister and Prime. We don't know if they had escape pods or the like. But from Sister and Prime, we know that the Krang are incredibly hard to physically kill.

And if he somehow escaped, the sheer level of damage to the city would allow Brother Krang to blend in during the time period of cleanup.

Not to mention that Brother Krang is shown to be the main spreader of Krang gunk everywhere. He opened the first portal, he possessed the Foot Clan, etc.

Where is he?? What happened to Brother Krang?? Did he somehow survive the explosion and if so, which side is he on? Is he in the Prison Dimension with Prime or hiding on Earth? We only see the government take Sister Krang away, so where is Brother Krang?

Where. Is. He.

If anyone has ideas, please let me know!

[mismatchedtwins]

Mismatched Twins AU - Take Three

The silence stretches; his words sink in.

Leo laughs in the face of the uncertainty and confusion, breaking the eye contact to focus on the wound. Adrenaline wakes him up, unleashing a dizzying heat that burns the slimy coating of uncertainty. “You- You are so right. So right. I do not believe you.”

The arm shifts as the turtle shrugs. “After the first few counterparts, you learn to just accept it.”

Leo isn’t going to touch that. “So do I get a real name, or-?”

“That is my real name.”

“No, really, I get it. Haha-! You know way too much about me and my family! The ones on the other side of that locked portal I can’t open, hilarious!” Leo hisses with a mock smile, flashing gritted teeth and trying not to give into the baited frustration.

There’s no way that this guy is pulling this while he’s an entire prison dimension away from the twin that he’s never going to help take over to the world, or the big brother he can’t properly apologize to, or his feisty baby brother that he’s never going to see grow up.

It’s twisted and demented on so many levels.

He shakes his head, swallowing the pain. “Comedic gold or whatever, but there’s no way in this or any other hell that I’m calling you that, so I’d prefer your real name.”

The turtle’s fingers drum against his thigh as Leo waits, determined to get up and leave- aching back or not- if this guy tries to press the inconsiderate and cruel narrative.

“I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Then stop being suck a jerk.” Leo accuses heatedly. His companion shrinks guiltily. The lack of denial otherwise boosts his confidence. “How are you even here?”

“I don’t- know where here is?” The turtle scuffs the ground with his heel. “I didn’t really come by choice.”

It suddenly dawns on Leo that he’s locked himself in a prison for the worst of the worst. He could very easily be assisting another ancient interplanetary mass murderer. But…

As much as the anger swirling in his gut wants to believe that, he can still picture the determination in his eyes as he drew the most deadly creature alive away from Leo’s position. There was no reason for him to save his life or return his sword for him to escape, especially when he had to know that he couldn’t beat him. Krang would have killed him if Leo hadn’t intervened. It was insane.

And he’s the reason that Leo’s not dead.

So, benefit of the doubt, for now.

“It’s some old dimension prison. Made for ugly mc violent back there.” Leo watches his face for any sign of recognition. “Impossible to get into. And out of.”

He chuckles, humorless. “Not for Aeons, I guess.”

“Is… That what you are?” Leo tries, cautiously. “An Eon?”

“Aeon.” The turtle corrects with the dry sound of someone who does it on a daily basis. “And no, I’m not. It’s an alien species. One in my city, hurting my family. It already hurt Splinter.” He pauses, quieting. “She wants to wipe out everything, and she’s using someone I care about to do it.”

Well, that makes two of them, only Leo solved that problem. “So… What are you doing here? Am I going to have to worry about an Eon problem here to-?”

Like he doesn’t have enough to deal with already.

“Aeon. And, I doubt it. She must’ve sent me here because I was getting through.” The turtle finally looks up. Any confidence is gone, leaving a meek uncertainty that makes it really hard for Leo to keep being mad at him. “They’re still in danger. My brothers. Everyone. I know it. I have to get home.”

The story is incredibly far-fetched. And way to similar to his own to not be some forged copy. Not a villain, but possibly a pathological liar.

“So remember that whole, no getting in or out, thing?” Leo asks. “Still true. Place is sealed tight. Nothing’s getting out of here.”

“I am.” He announces, like nothing could be more simple. The sun rises, pizza’s delicious, and this turtle is going to break out of the dimension that the strongest, scariest, most feared alien species in all the universe couldn’t break out of. “I have to.”

“It’s not possible.” He expresses. “It’s actually pretty impossible.”

“Just because no one has done it before doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.” The causal air has Leo shaking his head.

What is his luck lately?

He’s stuck in a dimensional prison with a turtle who has a terrible sense of humor, a suspicious amount of information, and no idea what kind of horror that he’s gotten himself into.

Can’t anything be easy? Doesn’t he deserve that much?

The turtle, who still can’t even look at his injury for more than two seconds, tries to claim. “I’m pretty much a pro at cracking the impossible by now.”

“Some things aren’t supposed to be cracked.” Leo unwraps his own wrist wraps as the turtle watches with a frown, struggling a bit to copy the trick with his sword. “And unless you know anything about ancient mystics, I doubt we’re breaking out anytime soon.”

“Interesting.” He mutters. “Is that what you did? With the blue light and the gateway? Magic?”

“Mystics.” Leo corrects, bringing the arm back within reach. “Geez, don’t you listen? It’s not the hard.”

The turtle opens and shuts his mouth, dumbfound by Leon’s obvious superiority. Sounds like someone needs to do better research. And he tried to call himself a Donatello. Please.

“But the Kraang don’t use… mystics.” The turtle continues. Leo’s heart skips a beat, brain catching up with the accent on the name. “They harness technology. Like the big guy’s suit.”

“Maybe they don’t use mystics, but they sure know how to take it.” Leo snaps as he begins wrapping the wound. “Stupid Krang and his stupid screams- eugh, that’s totally what he’s going to go for next. How did I not know that? That’s just what I need, to lose-”

“OW!” The turtle tears his arm back, clutching it to his chest. He quickly unwraps some of Leo’s admittedly tight work, leaving Leo’s hand blankly extended as he cradles it and pouts, “You always this aggressive with your patients?”

“No.” Leo states, dryly. “Just you.”

“Special treatment.” The turtle mutters. “Goody.”

He gets up on shaky legs, without letting Leo finish, and puts a few steps between them. He gets about one loop around his arm before his attention is drawn away. To what, who knows, but now he’s staring out into the blacks and grays of what’s probably the sky? like it’s the most interesting thing that he’s ever seen.

Blood loss is getting this guy good.

“Heeey, buddy.” Leo snaps a few times and the turtle blinks dazedly.

He looks over and Leo coaxes, “You might want to come sit down.”

“But it’s debris.” The turtle announces, voice high with the eager tint of discovery. Leo blocks out the image of his twin’s sleepy grin as he literally drags him out of bed at three in the morning. “Floating debris!”

“That’s great and all, but you’re not looking too good.’’

The turtle holds up a finger and then picks up a rock from the ground. He throws it into the distance and then ducks down with his hands over his head like a totally sane person. When nothing happens, he opens one eyes, then the other, and then stands with a disappointed sort of, “Oh.”

“How sad,” Leo pacifies carelessly. “Second’s up. C’mere.”

“Everything else is dead. Can physics die?” The turtle asks and then plows through before he gets an answer, “No, no, NO, it’s another dimension with its own properties with its own massive, freaky Kraang and I just need to figure it out. JUST like dimension X. But not.” He looks to the closest edge. “Bad idea to walk off the side?”

“Horrible idea.” Leo’s a frustrating mixture of baffled and amused. Despite every urge to stay grumpy, he can’t help the humor that stirs in his chest. “No, wait, mind chaaange. Go for it. Totally a good idea. Best idea, in fact. Couldn’t be better.”

“Hmm.” The turtle looks at him with these big, debating eyes and then takes a few steps forward and a laugh punches out of Leo ‘cause holy guacamole, he actually just convinced this guy to walk off a cliff. “Wai-wai-wai-wait! Guy! No!”

He’s snickering when the turtle turns back with the most puzzled look, like he has no idea why Leo’s preventing him from launching himself into the black nothingness of the void. “Kidding! Guy, do not do that.”

“I was going to get a head start,” The turtle grumbles as if that should make all the difference. Leo sits up when he doesn’t stop his trek, morbidly curious to see if he’s about to throw himself off the edge. Unfortunately, hot lightning bites down his spine and blurs his vision. He winces, letting his head fall back with a heavy exhale.

He lets his eyes shut, opening them when the pain fades. His heart skips a beat, eyes widening when he realizes that the turtle has disappeared. Eugh boy.

“…Guy?” He reluctantly forces himself to his feet, slow, this time. He grabs his blade and ignores every inch of him that bites and burns. “You better not have gone splat because that’s the last thing that I want to see today.” Leo reaches the edge, slinging his odachi and falling heavily to his knees before peeking over. “I’ve got enough nightmare fuel to last a-AAGGH.”

He shrieks as something grabs his arm and drags him over the side.

He expects to go flying, but his feet somehow manage to find purchase and now he’s simply standing and screaming. His scream slowly tampers off as the turtle stares at him with an eye ridge raised in judgement. Leo wheezes in air, confused, “Wha-?”

“I was thinking.” The turtle muses, cupping his chin and stepping away. “If he’s equipped with a suit, then that stands to reason that they use technology. So there has to be some variation of ship around here somewhere. Or a Kraang base.”

Leo stares at him. He stares back expectantly.

“I think all that’s in here is death and rocks.” Leo rubs his chest with a light wince. Man, he hates standing. And breathing.

But since air is entering his lungs anyway… “Also are we upside down right now? Is this not blowing your mind? Because I feel like you’re not acknowledging how mind blowing this is.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” The turtle admits, ignoring Leo’s mock whisper of “what is your life?” as he adds, “I bet I can find a portal out of here if I just-”

“Guy, you are clearly not paying attention.” Leo folds his hands and points his fingers tips at the stranger. “This is a million-year-old Krang prison. We are prisoners. The only way out is a key that my brothers have, and they’re destroying it and never, ever, ever, ever, eeeeveeerrr-” He draws the word out nice and long to ignore the fear dawning in brown eyes, “-opening this place up ‘cause otherwise Mr. Nightmare Incarnate back there is going to destroy everything.”

As much as the blantant horror has the writhing guilt making him want to throw himself off the edge for utterly ruining someone else’s day, he’s relieved that he’s finally getting through to him.

“You- you mean…” Something changes as he scans Leo’s face, overcome by disbelief. “They just… Left you here?”

And, hey, when it’s said out loud it does sound awful enough that a new physical ache thuds in tune with his heartbeat.

“No way.” He scoffs, smile wide. “I dragged big and mean in here. It’s their job to keep him from getting out.”

The turtle frowns, and Leo recognizes the emotion for what it is: pity.

“But what about you?”

“It’s not about me.” His hand hovers over the belt where his picture sits tucked safely away. “It’s about the world. The universe! Some things are just a lil’ bigger than me.” He chuckles, weak, and keeps a steady watch on the nothing behind the turtle. “They know that.”

The turtle sighs, “There are those days…”

Leo gives him a curious look and his eyes harden, “Which is exactly why I have to get back.”

The turtle looks up and Leo lets his body sag dramatically in disbelief. Which, yeah, it hurt, but what was this guy’s problem? “Guy, you are a really bad listener! Seriously bad! The worst! We’re-”

“TRAPPED! YES!” He whirls. “MY EARS WORK VERY WELL!”

The shift between level-headed and hysterically shrill has Leo both disturbed, impressed, and slightly fearful for his life.

The turtle runs a hand down his face and then kicks at the ground with a vengeful force. Before Leo can decide if he should poke the bear- er, turtle, he’s rambling, “I understand perfectly. I mean, it makes perfect sense! Why shouldn’t the impossibility powerful immortal alien know about a dimensional prison and how to send me to it? Why wouldn’t I get STUCK in here with a creep who likes beating turtles and a turtle who wants to be beaten?”

Leo raises a hand but doesn’t wait to be called on, “I wouldn’t say I-”

“Then WHY are you so against me finding a WAY OUT?!”

Leo’s mouth opens but no words leave. He swallows thickly, blood mingled with spit, and the turtle scowls, “I HAVE to get home. Maybe YOU don’t, but MY brothers need… Me.”

His eyes fall to the ground, energy gone. “They need me, and they all think I’m…”

The turtle doesn’t finish, something raw and dense fogging the air, and then he’s looking back at Leo. Firm. Determined.

“I have to get home.” He decides as Leo tries to recover from the empathic whiplash that he’s being subjected to. “Without me, they probably would do something stupid like locking themselves in a prison dimension with no known back door.”

“Stupid-!” Leo finally finds his voice, only to wince at the sudden wave of too much air in crushed lungs. The turtle pulls out his grapple. “If I have to create a back door, then so be it. I can’t sit around and wait for that giant Krang to hunt me down and finish me off. Not when they need me.”

He looks at Leo, “You seem to know way more about this place than I do. We’d stand a better chance together. If you can get me to my dimension, then I believe I can take you home. If there’s no way out, so be it. I’d rather die trying than lazy.”

“It’s not lazy. It’s rational.” Leo shakes a hand at his side. “You don’t know what I know. If Krang finds you…”

“So I won’t let him.” The turtle bites before he groans, “Look, I won’t stand in your way if you want to sit and wait, but I have places to be. So are you coming or not?

Leo knows the right answer. He’s aching and bruised and cracked in more ways than one. He wasn’t stupid when he dragged Krang in here and he’s not going to be stupid and merely trust that this turtle who knows nothing about mystics is actually going to make it anywhere but back under Krang’s brutal fist.

On the same token- he’s about to leave. He’s about to leave Leo alone to suffer in the expanding dark and echoing silence surrounded by obliteration and death just so Leo can live a few extra hours of misery before Krang inevitably finds him and finishes him off.

He’s probably the only reason that Leo even survived this long…

But. Um. Maybe… Maybe going is what Master Leonardo would do. He’d give this guy a helping hand. Right? The guy’s weird, and probably a stalker, but he’s clearly desperate. It’d be, heroic, of Leo.

It wouldn’t be Leo being selfish. That would him staying.

He’s be being… Selfless. This way. So.

“A’right, guy.” Leo announces as he strolls forward, pretending not to notice him stiffen as he grabs his elbow and points to the loose bandage. “I’ll give you my invaluable company, but only if you stop refusing Dr. Leon M.D.’s treatment. Can’t be your wing man if you’re walking around clipping your own wings.”

“…Deal.” The turtle agrees after a blank stare at his arm, like the fact that green scales were painted scarlet had never crossed his mind.

Leo peels the bandage off. “Great. So sit down.”

The turtle looks at his grapple. “But-”

“Ah-ah-ah!” He tsks. “Sit.”

“Do I really have t-”

Leo shoves the turtle, who yelps as he hits the ground. He points downward like a disapproving master over a naughty dog. “Sit.”

The turtle grimaces, “Fine.”

He grins. “Good boy.”

Previous Current Next

[colibrie]

Trilo Fang AU: Ephemeral

Hey there! So as some may remember, the one and only @trilobitepunch (aka the trilo bug) bit during whumptober, and I wrote some snips for her fang au where a virus created by the GDF mutates Donnie and Leo into feral instinct driven hunters. If you haven't seen it, stop what you are doing and click the link below. I promise you, you will not want to miss out on it. Anyway, I ended up expanding the snip I wrote for wisp, and Trilo was kind enough to make a new illustration to go with it! So please join me in screaming about it!

"Okay Nardo," Mikey whispered, glancing furtively over his shoulder to ensure the others had not noticed his absence before dipping down to kneel before his brother and leader.

"I know you're still in there. The others are scared and getting tied up in facts and details and possibilities, cause that's what they do. But I know you, and I know Donnie. You're in there, and you're fighting to come home. So, I'm gonna help you, but you have to trust me. Okay?"

He ignored the low growl that rumbled from the sliders throat as he leaned in, and he forced down the urge to flinch back into his shell when those hazy predator eyes slowly opened and settled on his. He hummed his own soothing reply, careful to keep his movements slow and measured as he reached forward to place the tips of his fingers on the pressure points on Leo's jaw and temple.

"Just me Lee. Just Mikey. Nothing to be afraid of here. We're safe. We can relax..."

Like a motor winding down his big brothers growl slowly tapered away, head nodding forwarded into Mikey's hands as the corded muscles in his neck released some of their tension.

"That’s right. Okay, here we go," Mikey mumbled, closing his eyes and bowing his head as he turned inward to grasp the bright orange flames of his ninpo.

It sprang readily to him, swirling and singing with the protective warmth of a bonfire and the potential wrath of an inferno, ready and eager to receive direction. He took half a second to greet it, to hold it close and appreciate it for all it represented, before pushing it inward to seek that place where orange fire met and melded with protective red, electric purple, and brilliant blue. The place that tied him to his brothers.

Normally that connection was easy to find. Once they'd unlocked their mystic powers to face the Shredder, it had sat like a second heart in his chest, beating out a message of love and together and family that had quickly become as essential to his life as blinking or breathing. It had remained against the strife of Leo and Raphs endless fights and surged back stronger than ever after reawakening in the battle with the Krang. It had held him together after the portal to the prison dimension nearly took their hope, and it had soothed him in the wearisome months of recovery. It was there still, yet so far away. Disparate and disjointed, baren threads struggling to hold together colors that should have been an interlocked tapestry.

Red curled away, stubbornly holding silver-grey, green, and aquamarine back from the howling vortex blue and purple had become. The twins’ energies were erratic, feral beasts throwing themselves blindly at the boundaries of connection as they screamed. Pain and confusion beat against the rest of them like storm tossed waves, pushing them back, enforcing the veil of isolation that was choking off those remaining connecting threads.

That had to go.

Pulling his flames in close Mikey lunged forward, diving like a burning arrow towards the heart of the maelstrom.

Sensation slammed him from all angles. Sight, scent, taste, touch, it had all been dialed to a hundred, stabbing and shredding like knives across tender and exposed nerves. Relentless instincts shrieked discordant harmonies, drowning all else out in a mesh of contradicting demands.

Danger. Flee! Hunt. Fight. Claw. Kill. Bite! Bitebitebitebite!

"Leo!" Mikey shouted, shouldering through the deluge in search of a hint of the red eared slider he knew and loved.

For a frighteningly long time, there was nothing. No slip of sparkling laughter, no flash of quick and glib wit, no quiet glow of cunning insight. All that existed was the moan of the abyss that sucked them in, pulling greedily at Mikey's ninpo as though to unmoor him from the bonds that tied him to home. But Mikey would not bow. He had torn a hole through time and space to keep his family whole. He was the greatest mystical warrior the world would ever know. And even greater, he was their little brother. He knew how to make himself heard.

"LEONARDO!" He bellowed, channeling every ounce of Dr. Delicate Touch as he bared his teeth at the indigo storm, "GET YOUR MIND RIGHT AND ANSWER ME!"

His heart skipped as something flickered beyond the tempest walls, a wisp of brighter blue trying to alight. His ninpo blazed in response, marigold tendrils lashing out to cut Mikey a path through the chaos. He lunged forward to cradle the fragment in his cracked hands, pulling it close as the tendrils of his power swiftly wove together to form a shield that shut out the storm.

"Leo?!"

The wisp trembled in his grasp before slowly blossoming outward into the hazy outline of his older brother.

"Mi-key?"

"It's me Lee," Mikey assured, “I’m here."

"H-hurt..."

"I know, I felt it. I'm sorry, we're doing everything we can to fix things.”

"No…You?"

"Me? No, I’m not hurt. I'm fine. So are Raphie, Dad, April and CJ. We’re all okay."

Leo's ethereal eyes drifted close in stark relief, his form wavering dangerously.

"Hey! No no no, stay with me Leo," Mikey demanded, hands shooting out to try and stabilize him. "Listen, you and Donnie are sick. Donnie got infected with a virus when we were in that creepy government lab, and you got infected when he bit you. It’s messed with some genetic stuff that I don’t really get, but that’s what is hurting you. Draxum is here and he’s coming up with some kind of fancy serum to fight the virus and try to fix the genes it mutated, but you and Donnie have to come back to us."

“I can’t…”

“Yes, you can! I’ll help you!”

"Ho-w?"

"I.... I'll get Raph and Dad! Maybe the three of us can pull you out!"

"Don-nie…."

"Of course we’ll help him too, duh."

"No. He's... he's deeper," Leo heaved, visibly fighting to pull his form together. "It's hard to... explain…I can’t think past it..."

"Yeah, well. Thinking has always been Donnie’s strong suit, not yours," Mikey replied, grinning in triumph as the hint of a smirk slipped across Leo's face.

"He’s...nerd."

"If it gets you both out of this, he can be king of the nerds. We just have to reach him."

He frowned when Leo failed to respond, reaching out to hesitantly touch his big brother’s face.

"Hey, come on man. Don't-"

"I can find him," Leo interrupted, ghostly hand rising to press against his plastron. "He's here...always here... if I follow him and... and you pull us back."

"That's risky Leon."

"Wh-hats new?"

"Heh, yeah. We be we?"

"Always Angellllll..."

A sudden wave of dizziness slammed into Mikey with the strength of Aprils baseball bat, vertigo nearly taking him out at the knees. Leo flinched as Mikey's barrier faltered, teeth gritted and grinding as the weight of maelstrom pressed in.

"Hang on!" Mikey demanded, huffing as he forced iron into his legs and more of his power into the barriers.

"You need to go."

"What?! No! I barely found you this time Leo. What if I come back and you’re gone for good?! What if you go too deep and I can't pull you out again?!"

"Tag."

"Huh?"

"Like...like your art. If y-you tag m-meee...with your ninpo..."

"Then I can follow it to you and Donnie! Like a beacon! Nardo, that's a brilliant plan!"

"Heh, s'not jus m'face that's pretty."

"Yeah," Mikey forced a chuckle around the knot swelling in his throat as the older twin’s voice grew tired and faint. Both his shield and Leo's form flickered again, accompanied by another wave of faintness that warned that what little time he had was almost up. His hands shook as he reached out and pressed his palm to Leo's plastron, gathering his ninpo to coat his fingers like paint. Three quick swipes later, a overlapping H and M was emblazoned in brilliant orange on his brothers scutes.

"Find D," he ordered, fighting back tears as he lunged forward to hug his brother. "Find him and hang on tight, because I am coming back with reinforcements. Hear me?"

"Yeah, big guy," Leo mumbled, his head falling forward to rest against Mikey's before the shield broke and his form dissolved once more. "See you later."

[percyaugod]

Unnamed Rise AU Part 2: Eternal Prison

Edit: It has now been named The Prisoner and the Pretender AU. : D

Leo was bored asking how long has he been stuck there anyway. The technodrome says forty-three seconds. Leo is unamused and gives a flat "Ha Ha. No really."

The technodrome doesn't say anything and Leo is left reeling. "What, how!?"

"Time dilation. Time moves faster here than back in your dimension. If it makes you feel any better you aren't aging. This place was designed to be an eternal prison. Not very eternal if the Krang die of old age."

Leo crossed his arms muttering bitterly about how well that worked out.

The technodrome holds Donnie above all others, and it is partially because of being connected, but it's mostly because Donnie is just Donnie. Donnie is the first to look at the technodrome and see something truly amazing. It holds him in such high regard because he holds it so high. Which is why it doesn't want to disappoint him and lose that.

Not to mention how much of himself he was willing to give to it so it could think for itself for the first time. No more just sitting around waiting for commands. Being used like a tool by those that don't appreciate it, don't deserve it.

Leo keeps the technodrome talking so he can hear his brother's voice, though he'd never admit it to even himself. He's just gathering data, nothing else. Yet he's probably just doing stuff to aggravate the technodrome like messing with the stuff it uses to make nutrients so Leo doesn't wither away.

It tastes awful, he's just trying to make it pizza-flavoured. Or preferably anything other than what he imagines Dad's chair tastes like. He knows chemistry, he can do this!

The technodrome begs to differ. He knows Earth chemistry. These chemicals are literally alien to him.

The technodrome keeps moving so it's harder for Krang One to find them. Which is extra difficult while trying to look like just a piece of nonfunctional rubble floating there.

Leo would definitely try to sneak outside. If nothing else he's bored and wouldn't completely trust the Krang spaceship. He still hasn't decided whether it sounding and acting like Donnie is worse or better. At least it'll be harder to forget the egghead.

The technodrome only lets him out to get supplies because even broken it's still far too big to enter. Supplies are hard to come by though, and who knows how long Leo will be in here until his brothers can save him. It keeps watch of all exits in case he tries something.

Leo is definitely curious about the technodrome, especially its connection to Donnie. How exactly did it get a copy of his brother on its systems, and what is it going to do to the original?

He wouldn't just ask it directly though. Donnie can't lie, but who knows about the technodrome. He asked in roundabout ways about other tech and functions to gather more info before making his way slowly to how piloting it works.

Leo tells stories to the technodrome who listens since at least he isn't trying anything. It's when he tries to exaggerate something and the technodrome corrects him that he realizes the technodrome remembers this stuff too because Donnie remembered it. So now Leo has the technodrome tell him stories to help him remember. It's odd hearing some of the same events but from Donnie's point of view.

Leo has a lot of trouble sleeping, especially in a prison dimension. He says something completely wrong and falls asleep to a "Donnie" rant.

Leo asks the technodrome what it knows about neuroscience since it could help him take care of his brothers in the future as team medic (you can rip medic Leo out of my cold dead hands) and he's pretty sure the ship mentioned tapping into someone's brain or nerves to receive instructions.

He's really going to have to look Donnie over when he gets back because that can't be good.

The technodrome constantly brings up Leo having the portal closed on it. Is this what Draxum feels like dealing with him? Good.

[chil-aglia]

𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮 |ROTTMNT| (Male OC)

Prologue

Decided to say fuck it, I’m posting this now. And so here y’all go! Enjoy the boy Giovanni!

Be sure to read the tags on my Ao3 so you guys know what you’re getting yourselves into.

This is obviously a fic about an OC who is the older brother of Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey, so TCEST DNI (you’ll catch these hands)

I often type fast (my laptop is a lil broken so I type on my phone) and therefore you’ll most likely see grammar and spelling mistakes, and I don’t always catch them when I’m typing the chapter, but I’ll try and edit any mistakes if I see any.

Art is done by me, but PLEASE feel free to make your own art and idk tag me in it or something—

-----------------------------------------------

“You think you’re special? You’re pathetic!”

“Remember this, you belong to us. Our pet.”

“A nuisance. Vermin is a better way to describe your presence!”

“You. Will. Forever. Be. Alone.”

He’s heard all the words before. He’s gotten used to the harsh reality that no one was coming to save him any time soon. How long has it been anyway since he was stuck in this hell?

He stopped counting after 3 years.

Olive skin, bleached in bruises and dried blood, it was sickening to look at. But to them, it was a pleasure. Seeing how easily mangled he could become was enough to give their ego a boost.

It hurts. But he was numb.

Hiding. 

He had gotten good at it over the years. He probably knew every debris and cave in this world. The prison world. Or was it prison dimension? He forgot what it was called, but it didn’t matter, it was hell none the less. That didn’t change.

His body ached. 

He can’t remember when the last time he ate something, must’ve been 2 weeks ago right? It was suffocating but he can’t risk taking a step outside the protective walls of the cave. It was safe here. They haven’t found him yet.

Dark. 

Ah, right, he fell asleep after he tried to distract himself from the urge of hunger. It was a battle every day for him, a game of survival.

I need to do something…just a quick peek.

He somehow convinced his body to move. Pulling himself up and standing, he staggered for a moment but hesitantly left the comfort of his cave. He hasn’t heard from them in a while. It’s been a few days since his last encounter.

He can still feel the claws pinning him down. How he managed to escape was a miracle to think about. But he also knew they willingly let him go. A game they like to play. They couldn’t let their favourite toy get broken so quickly now, could they? They needed entertainment too.

Cautious eyes scanned the area, so far nothing was coming at him with intent to kill. He took more steps out and eventually he was on the move, looking for food or water. Anything that could guarantee his survival.

His mind wondered to the split in the sky he saw a few hours ago. It startled the daylights out of him, it was loud, bright and screamed danger to him, he also saw how the predatory trio stepped into this portal like thing.

Then he saw the big organic spaceship. The Technodrome they called it.

It was slowly sucked through the portal before disappearing completely out of sight.

It was a strange feeling when they all vanished. First, he was confused, then he felt relief that they were gone, he wasn’t going to be disturbed by them anymore. Then he felt…sad.

Alone all over again. 

That had been a few hours ago and he hasn’t seen the ship or the three organic aliens that made his life miserable since. But the sense of danger still lurked in his head, he couldn’t take the risk of being seen by anything. 

Grunting he pushed some rocks out the way, turning every rock he found in hopes of finding something to eat. He was starving and exhausted, but this was a chance for him to stock up in case they came back.

The portal was still in the sky, but nothing was happening. He chose to ignore it as best as he could. He had other agendas to attend to.

He was too focused that he failed to notice a shimmering light in the sky coming towards him.

Something landed beside him, and he jumped, startled and instinctively scrambled back to safety. He pants to calm down from his moment of panic, which soon turned to puzzlement. The object wasn’t something he was used to seeing here in this world. 

It was a sword. Blue was his first thought when he saw the blade, the hilt of it being wrapped in azure. 

He blinks, tilting his head curiously as he hesitantly reached out to touch it, but then the sword started glowing, electricity radiating from it. He pulls his hand back and immediately sense something was happening, something off. Something…dangerous.

A zapping sound in the sky caught him by surprise. His eyes widening as he looks up to see the familiar figure of one of the aliens.

Krang Prime.

He had returned. Donned in his armor that gave him the ability to walk on two legs, give him a larger, spiky and taller body, claws and metallic tail. The singular vermilion glowing eye was enough to give anyone nightmares.

And that was terrifying.

Hide! Gotta hide…!

He runs away, he didn’t want Prime to see him. He didn’t want to be tortured again. 

“What?!”

Krang Prime sounded flabbergasted, it was enough to make the one running stop and look up in confusion. He narrowed his eyes to try and see better. At first it was hard to tell, but he saw how Krang Prime turns away to head back to the portal, but then a small figure was grabbing at him, pulling at Prime's face to stop him from reaching the portal that they came from. 

This stranger, whoever they were, was fighting Prime. 

Then the portal snaps shut, the Technodrome was cut in two. He didn’t even notice that the ship was being pulled back into the prison dimension until now. The figure that came through the portal with Prime eventually lets him go. The other half of the Technodrome falling around them and crashing back down to the ground.

He had to flee so he wouldn’t get crushed. Picking up the pace he dove behind an upturned rock and hid. He placed his hands over his ears to cover the loud bangs and thumps from the split Technodrome. He closed his eyes in panic.

He then heard a grunt. One that he hasn’t heard before. Hesitantly he opened his eyes to see what was going on, peeking out from the rock to stare ahead.

Prime and the stranger had landed on the ground not far from the one that was hiding away from danger. Prime was looking up at the sky, pupils small and enraged. The stranger had skidded across the floor and collided into a larger rock that was pointing upwards. He was clearly hurt and didn’t move a muscle, but he was alive.

It was hard to tell, but he saw red and yellow markings and green skin on the newcomer. Was that a shell too he saw?

He wanted to go over and check to declare if his eyes were playing tricks on him but the moment he twitched his leg to move, Prime turns, his pink fleshed face that was embedded in the abdomen of his armour twisting in anger as he scowls at the mysterious outsider that thwarted his plans.

“You…”

-----------------------------------------------

So…how are we all feeling based on the prologue—

I have this story posted on my quotev and on my Ao3 account.

Your free to submit fanart/animations or if you just wanna ask and know more about this story and my other rottmnt story.

quotev - 𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮 |ROTTMNT| (Male OC) Ao3 - 𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮 |ROTTMNT| (Male OC)

Next chapter here

[goodlucktai]

too well tangled

rise of the tmnt post-movie / canon divergent word count: 1k characters: disaster twins

this was my bonus piece for the digital @turtlestogetherzine !

title borrowed from atticus—“you will never be unloved by me / you are too well tangled in my soul”

read on ao3

x

So it turns out that sixteen minutes in the prison dimension is about six months outside it. Give or take. 

Donnie calls it a temporal differential. Leo’s third day back was spent being gently interrogated within an inch of his life. For every answer he gave, Donnie’s face got a little darker. 

He seems a lot older than the last time Leo saw him. Everyone does. They all look at Leo like he’ll disappear into thin air if they blink too many times. 

He expects it to wear off eventually. He’s only confined to the infirmary for a week and a half, and on bedrest for a week after that, but even a month later Raph and Mikey continue to stick to him like glue. 

“I’m okay,” Leo tells them, when his bad leg seizes up and he staggers on his way to the breakfast table and Mikey’s face crumples horribly. Raph just huffs and lifts Leo clean off his feet to carry him the rest of the way. Swallowing past the uncertain lump in his throat, Leo adds playfully, “I mean, I’m not one to complain about the all-star treatment, but—”

“Good,” Raph rumbles, “then don’t.”

“Sorry if we’re being annoying,” Mikey says with a brightness in his tone that doesn’t sit quite right. He’s said that like fifty times since Leo came back. “We just—we missed you, Lee.” 

And what is Leo supposed to say to that? 

“Annoying? Please,” he scoffs. “I’m the king of everything obnoxious. You couldn’t annoy me if you tried.”

When Raph lowers him into a seat, Leo lifts his arm in invitation for Mikey to scoot his chair up right next to his, and then wraps him up in a tight hug. Mikey slots into his side like he belongs there, and he does, he always will, but it’s just a bit different than Leo remembers. 

Mikey is still his little brother. But only by a few months now. Leo’s seventeenth birthday came and went without him. 

And a part of him—this nameless little part that lives in the back of his mind, that’s lived there ever since dad made him team leader and ripped the rug out from under his feet—thinks that’s why Donnie doesn’t know how to be around him anymore.

He’s a constant presence. He’s a solid pillar for Leo to lean against when his legs don’t want to hold him up. But they don’t know what to say to each other. That unspoken understanding, that twin thing—it’s gone. 

Or so Leo thinks. 

Big Mama is more of a weird estranged relative than a mortal enemy these days, but she’s an entrepreneur first, eccentric wine aunt second. When she gets a big business idea, all bets are off. Leo can kind of respect that. It’s really thrilling and a little fun trying to match wits with a criminal mastermind, like high-stakes 5D chess. 

But her invitations could use some work. Sending a bunch of burly yokai in Grand Nexus uniforms to intercept the turtles on their way to Run of the Mill for dinner is a scheme that could have used a bit more time on the workshop table. 

Immediately Leo’s brothers close ranks around him. He’s allowed to run around in his leg brace at this point, but he has, in no uncertain terms, NOT been cleared to fight. He can tell from the set of Raph and Mikey’s shoulders that they’re beyond ticked off, but he can’t read Donnie’s posture at all. 

It’s bad timing, but suddenly Leo is preoccupied with those dark little thoughts he’s been having recently. Maybe Donnie isn’t happy to have him around. It’s been a lot of extra work, right? Dealing with the prodigal brother’s physical therapy and night terrors aside, now Donnie can’t even pick up some pizza without having to play bodyguard. 

So Leo is distracted—sue him. He’s got a lot going on. When an owl guard grabs him by the arm, he’s not ready for it. The yank backwards causes him to stumble, bad knee bending underneath him. 

The guard seems to loom over him for a moment. The evening gloom of the alleyway and the lurid glow of a nearby neon sign makes Leo’s brain sprint right back to the prison dimension. A distressed chirp works its way out of him before he can fully reorient himself. Add that to his ever-growing list of Good Reasons To Fake His Own Death. 

Big Mama’s goon looks surprised by the sound, grip relenting on Leo’s arm immediately. He wouldn’t do that if he were here for villainous reasons. So Big Mama probably actually considers kidnapping via sudden ambush to be a halfway decent method of picking her nemeses-slash-nephews up for an evening visit. 

Leo only has a second to think, Okay, I can work with this, turning up the charm and pretending like he can’t still feel the aftershocks of panic, before he’s being yanked again. 

This time he’s pulled right in against Donnie’s side, a strong arm around his carapace. There’s a burst of light and warmth—bright purple and overheated electronics, he’d know his brother’s ninpo anywhere—and they’re surrounded by a gleaming, glowing arsenal. 

The owl guard didn’t have a chance in hell. Donnie still doesn’t really look at Leo, not once as Mikey and Raph rush over, not even on the empty-handed trek back home. 

But he sits next to Leo on the couch while Mikey enlists Raph and papa’s help with dinner since their pizza run failed. The bickering and Mikey’s cooking playlist create a familiar, comfortable backdrop where it swells out of the kitchen. Donnie’s shoulder knocks against Leo’s. It feels like how it used to. 

Before he can lose courage, Leo blurts, “The thing I miss most from before is being twins with you.”

As soon as he says it, he wants to take it back. This is more mortifying than all of those initial grueling physical therapy sessions combined. 

He’s scrambling for an escape route that isn’t just hobbling away as fast as he can, or portaling to the bottom of the ocean, when Donnie suddenly says, “Draxum said we hatched together. We’ve been together all our lives. You’re pulling our twin card just because I'm finally taller than you?”

Leo sputters. “By an inch!”

Donnie raises an eyebrow at him, waiting with uncharacteristic patience for Leo to catch up. Maybe that’s what he’s been doing this whole time. 

Eyes stinging, Leo slouches into Donnie’s side. The softshell matches him, his cheek coming to rest on the top of Leo’s head. It reminds Leo of hugging Mikey earlier that morning at the breakfast table. 

Leo still fits here. There’s a good chance he always will. 

“Guess this finally makes me the older twin, huh, Nardo?”

It surprises Leo into laughter, maybe the first big loud laugh to come tripping out of him since well before the invasion. Conversation in the kitchen grinds to a halt and Mikey and Raph come barreling out a second later all covered in flour, eager to catch him in the act, to get in on it. 

“Sorry, Tello,” Leo says, grinning, not very sorry at all. “Not in this lifetime.”