#tmnt fanfic series

[teainthesnow]

Once again the Cass Apocalyptic series by @somerandomdudelmao is giving me emotions so time for angst

- - -

Dying isn’t quite what he expected it to be, not that he has any idea what he thought death would be like.

Maybe he thought he’d be greeted by the welcoming faces of his ancestors, of his dear papa, and gram gram. Or maybe even some higher being, or maybe even nothing at all. Maybe just empty space and a long deserved rest.

But this... this is the last thing he would have ever thought possible.

This unbearable agony, the burning pain as his soul, his very essence, begins to drip...

... drip...

... drip...

...drip away.

And there’s nothing that he can do to stop it.

He tries, really truly tries, to keep going. To do something, anything, to stop it from happening.

The pain is unending as he drags his faltering and weakening body away from his mourning family – and that’s a thought he pushes deep, deep, down because they’ll be okay, he made sure of that, at least – and tries to do something, anything to save himself.

But there’s nothing.

Just pain and fear and the looming dread that this is really, truly it.

But at least his family is safe. Or as safe as they can be. And that’s a reassurance to him, something that soothes the agony just a little bit.

And then he hears a noise.

A voice.

Closer and clearer than the soft murmuring voices of his brothers.

Shouting words he never thought would be directed at him again.

Shouting “Uncle Tello!”

He looks up.

Casey is running towards him... but he’s different. His mind, too riddled with pain and fog, cannot comprehend just what it is. Only briefly registering that he should not be here just yet. He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out, just more purple, more of his life.

“Uncle Tello!” Casey yells again, voice fear filled and desperate.

He tries to push himself up on weak and disappearing limbs. He’s surprised and confused and he doesn’t know what to do but reach his hand out towards Casey... towards... well, he doesn’t really know what.

But the remaining strength in his limbs give out, and he drops back down to the floor, wincing as the harsh motion sends threads of shooting pain throughout his body.

He suddenly becomes aware that he doesn’t have long left.

...

He doesn’t want Casey to see this.

...

But perhaps, he thinks, maybe it’s nice to not be alone as he goes.

...

Casey is still running towards him, golden orange sparks, like the sun itself, like his little brothers magic, dance along Casey’s arms and mix with the sickly purple of his own essence.

He screws his eyes shut through the torture that is his body

falling

apart.

.

.

.

Then, somehow, he opens his eyes again.

And he is still here.

He’s not gone.

It takes a second to really process that, and the another to realise the situation that he’s in.

He’s possessing Casey... Like April and gram gram all those years ago.

Okay, okay, he can work with that.

There’s still a lingering burning pain, he can still feel himself slowly slipping away but it’s not as bad. His situation isn’t too dire right now. If he tries, and concentrates with everything he has, he can stop it, or slow it down.

And then, because the situation isn’t already confusing enough, he finds out that Casey has time travelled.

How, he doesn’t know.

Nor does he know why.

And he refuses to think about it, why it was necessary.

And vehemently refuses to think about what that means for his brothers. For April. For the resistance and all it’s members.

Because they are all fine, it was just some... accident... or weird supply run... they were fine...

They had to be.

They were alive, happy, eating honey and living in a Krang free world.

...And he definitely wasn’t in denial.

He has more important things to worry about.

He coughs, wincing through the pain, just barely keeping himself together as he talks.

But he knows that, by himself, there’s nothing he can do right now.

He’s too weak to do anything.

Too busy keeping himself together.

(And maybe he briefly wonders if it would just be easier on them both if he just lets go.)

But then Casey is begging him to hold on.

That he’ll fix it.

That he’ll make it better.

“Please.” He begs and that seals it.

He thinks of the time travel, of his brothers, of all the things and people that he left behind, of all the promises that he’s already broken.

Of the birthday he never made it to.

“Alright.” He says, with a smile on his face and agony coursing through his veins. “I can do that.”

He concentrates on keeping himself together, on staying alive for as long as he can.

‘For you, Casey Junior, I’ll keep fighting for as long as I can.’

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

‘Because what kind of uncle would I be if I keep breaking my promises.’

[blindaysblogforturtles]

Everyone's doin it, why shouldn't I? I've got things to say! And unfortunately, Cass cant just draw as if she is a camera looking at them the whole time. So, we still get space for fic!

Hope you like it. It's like, the first time in months I finish a wip. And in record time! You did this, Cass. Thank you so much.

@somerandomdudelmao

It was happening. The red eared slider started small, and grew, and grew, and Donatello tightened his grip on the mug containing what was essentialy his brother's soul. He could allow him to go in, now. Just a little push.

But. What if something went wrong? What if Leo got lost in the way? What if he faded? He was stronger now, but still so fragile.

Raph smiled.

"Trust him, Donnie. He's got this." Raph avoided mentioning Mikey's concerns about the process, things he said only for the sake of confiding into someone else. It wouldn't do any good to make Donnie more anxious.

Donatello sighed and took his hand off the mug, using his ninpo to gently nudge Leo's into his new body. It rebelled, the little flame attached to his field. Scared. I don't want to be alone again, it said. Please. Donnie smiled. You won't. Trust me. He answered back. And after a few seconds of hesitation, the flame complied.

With the source in it, the body grows into the Leo he remembered. Or. Almost. He was healthy, because of course he was, he wasn't about to make a new body just for it to be shitty- but somehow smaller... thinner. Maybe he did something wrong- maybe, maybe Leo's soul didn't have enough energy to become himself-

But then he saw how Casey's eyes stared adoringly at the pod. Casey, who also had more scars and less pounds than he remembered. Donnie hadn't noticed much through his cameras- better yet, he had, but seeing it in person...

Suddently the alarm went off, signalling it was time to take his Lime-o-nardo Pie out of the oven. God, that was awful. Leo would absolutely love it.

With a gentleness only a biological body could muster, Raph lifted Nardo from his pod onto his arms, with a gaze so soft and proud Donnie thought he was about to cry.

They all hovered with warm smiles ready to welcome the leader in blue, barely containing the excitement in being all together again.

Except.

Nothing happened. Casey frowned and before Donnie could say or do anything, gently placed his fingers on his sensei's neck. He gasped.

"What? What happened?!" Raph asked barely below the yelling tone.

"His heartbeat." Casey replied in a whisper. "It's slow. Too slow." He looked at Donnie. "There's something wrong."

Raph quickly set Leo down after a quick nod from Donatello, who put on his goggles and started scanning to find whatever was his brother's ailment. A tense silence followed soon after.

"What... what is the problem?" Asked Casey. He was trembling into Raph's reassuring arms, never once looking away from his sensei. Donnie frowned.

"The good news is, nothing is physically wrong." He answered. "The bad news is, nothing's physically wrong."

There was a pregnant pause.

By Donnie's orders, Raph moved Leo to the place supposed to serve as his bedroom. Donnie tried every possible test he knew, from reflexes to blood test, to little slaps on his face, to begging. Leo's heartbeat was weak and frail. Like his ninpo had been.

This was all his fault. He should've given him more time, should've waited for Mikey to be healed enough to help, should've, should...

He punched Leo's chest, starling Raphael and Casey. They looked flabbergasted as he started doing compressions.

"I'm not letting you go, Nardo. Do you hear me? I'M NOT LETTING YOU GO!" He screamed. Death was not going to take him. He wouldn't let it happen.

So he kept on going, pressing. Forcing Leo's body to intake more air. Up, down, up, down.

Up, down.

But nothing changed in the five minutes it took for him to stop and realize he had been crying. Shit, he was crying in front of Casey. Fuck that, his brother was dying. No. No, no, he wasn't. Donnie could fix it, he could fix anything! There had to be another solution, something to keep him here, something Donnie could do. It didn't matter what, be it joke, scream, reveal his worst secrets, summon a demon with some dark ritual-

-wait. The memory ritual.

"That's it!" He yelled, and barked instructions around. Casey got started with Raph's assistance no questions asked. It was going to work. It had to.

Because he had no idea what to do if it didn't.

With the glowing lights and a final nod of confirmation, they started the ritual.

° ° °

Casey tightened his grip on Leonardo's unresponsive hand. He needed him back. He was 16, he still needed his best friend, his mentor, his sensei.

He felt tears prickle in his eyes. This was all so unfair. Everything was. Why did he have to be strong? Why did he have to see the apocalypse happen? Twice? Why did he have to watch his family die? He was watching him die for the second- the third time!

He had felt so alone here, with strangers wearing the faces of his family. Strangers he loved so dearly but couldn't show or tell. Only, now they could be together again. It was just Leo, now.

"You can't do this to me, sensei. You can't." He breathed. Because he promised to be there to see Casey grow up. He promised to train him until he didn't need him anymore.

But he still did. Now, more than ever. Still needed him as his best friend, as his mentor, teacher, his sensei.

His dad.

"I miss you, dad."

° ° °

It was cold. And surprisingly humid for a mind belonging to someone so heavily associated with fire. His feet touched the watery ground and he looked around.

There wasn't... anything here. Nothing useful, no sign of Leonardo's soul.

He started wandering, ocasionally calling for his brother.

"Leo? Nardo, are you here?" He walked around but saw nothing.

That is, until he looked down. Instead of a reflection, there he was. His twin. Mirrorring his actions and expressions like when they were tots.

"Leo! Leo, can you hear me?" He kneeled and touched the water. It was cool and shallow, but there was a force keeping him from getting in... or getting Leo out. He took notice of Leo mirrorring his expressions and punched the invisible wall. Nothing.

It was as if Leo didn't want to come with him.

"You aren't making things easy, Nardo."

The reflection- Leo just kept mimicking him. Donnie hissed. They had come too far for them to accept being only 3 now. He punched the water wall. They should never be less than 4. He needed. Punch. To get. Punch. His twin.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on!" Punch.

OUT!

The wall broke and without sparing a single second Donatello's hand searched and grabbed the collar of Leonardo's cape.

"Come here, you dumbass!" He pulled and finally - finally! - Leonardo in all his glowing and translucid and barely solid form came out of the water.

His eyes were angry and his face seemed hostile. If it was a mirror for Donnie's own features he didn't know, and it did NOT matter.

"You are coming with me and this is not up for discussion!"

He just snatched him completely from the water, glaring at its lifeless blue glow, barely registering the look of bewilderment and recognition that came across Leo's face.

"FUCK YOU, Death! I'm taking him!"

With his twin - his prize, his other half, his hope - in his arms, Donnie took impulse to leave that place. They were safe, it was going to be okay.

Leo's soul once again rebelled, reaching his armless nub towards the water. Home, his twin senses told him. Leo thought this was home.

"No, you idiot. I am taking you home."

Their eyes met. From the lifeless blue, the soul gripped his arm back and he tightened his hold. He knew that look. Hope. A ninja's greatest weapon, as cheesy as it sounds.

"Trust me, Nardo."

And with no need of words, he heard an answer.

"I do, Tello."

"I'll see you on the other side."

° ° °

Again, I hope you like it. I'm happy with the end result.

[that-gay-gal]

I, too, hate gay people, Raph.

For legal reasons that’s a joke (I like women guys don’t cancel me NO WAIT-)

MORE FANART!! I’m so normal about this fanfic/series Noose Loosely wound and Puppet tightly strung by clairakitty :]

This one is of the newest chapter, chapter 10 because I love this trio a reasonable amount (I lied)

Why does my art style change each time I draw this guy

Hope you like it @raphaelesbian :3

[astrayartist]

Introducing… Dom aien, from district 3, and the winner of the 82nd annual HUNGER GAAAMEEEEES

(Base Donnie is traced, hence, not mine. The design is, however, mine.)

[froggy14-h0me]

Badass Donatello!!! WOOOOO! This is a fan art of somerandomdudelmao! Make sure to read their comic's and look at their work!

[phoebepheebsphibs]

.Dead asleeP.

Title: Chapter 3: N3 Prompt: You were peacefully sleeping when you suddenly wake up to the sound of a heart monitor steadily beeping somewhere nearby, and realize you are in the med-bay with no memory of what happened prior to this. // After watching movies with your siblings all night and passing out in the tv room, you wake up to find that you're alone. What happened? Fandom: ROTTMNT Word Count: 5806 Author: PhoebePheebsPhibs Rating: Gen Characters: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, & Raphael (disembodied voices) Warning: Derealization, nightmare-ish stuff (Leo is stuck in a dream) Summary: Leo deals with the inconvenience of being stuck in a dream and getting reacquainted with the 'ghosts' that follow him. Notes: More chapters to follow (3 more, to be exact)

@shr00mi3writefight @tmnt-write-fight @that-0n3-shr00mi3

Posted to AO3 <-

Leo strode through the maze of death fairly easily. Yes, there were traps and snares and mystical kitchen supplies, but for the most part he went through unnoticed.

"I don't remember it being this easy," Leo muttered.

"It wasn't," a voice reminded flatly. "Remember, everyone stay together. Draxum said something about drifting off --"

"So... what happens when I reach the center of the maze? Do I win, or...?"

"I'm not sure," one of the voices mused. "Just let us know if you feel any different, okay?"

"Okay," Leo nodded. "So... how do we know each other? Outside of the dream world?"

"We're very close. We're family."

"What do you mean?" Leo half-chuckles. "I think Splinter would tell me and my bros if we had any extended fam."

"What?"

"Or are you, like, my turtle parents? You mentioned... I think you said 'Barry', as in Baron Draxum, so maybe you're other mutants or something? Or... are you related to Drax?"

 Leo turned left, then right, then left again. He could almost see the center of the maze coming up. But the voices were quiet. Leo could sense their discomfort.

"What? What? Hey, what did I say?" he asked nervously.

"...It's nothing. You just kind of... glossed over the obvious."

"Obvious?" Leo questions. "How? I basically went through every option!"

"I think all we can tell you at this point is that we're family," one of the voices stated. "I don't think you'd be able to hear anything more detailed than that."

"Why not?!" Leo grumbled, kicking at a stone angrily. "Why can't you tell me?!"

"We're not the ones doing it!" another voice chimed in. "We've been TRYING to tell you everything this whole time, Nardo!"

"You haven't told me anything! And nobody calls me Nardo but Donnie!" Leo snapped back.

And then the realization snapped him right back in the face.

"...No one but Donnie has ever... Family, you said you're... obvious... Oh my gosh, I am so stupid. Donnie... is... is that you?"

Silence.

"H-hey, Don-Tron, don't go silent on me now! I figured it out! I know who you are, I know -- I-I'm sorry for getting mad! Please, d-don't leave me again! Come back! Donnie? M-Mikey? Raph? Are you guys..."

Leo came upon the end of the maze, a giant statue of gold at its epicenter.

"...there...?"

The center of this maze was not the same as the real one at all. For one thing, it wasn't in the center of the maze at all. Either that, or the maze had been carved in half. Just beyond the statue, the Hidden City and its magical town square awaited him.

His eyes glossed over. He felt so tired and sluggish. Leo's mind was cleansed, his memories of the pizzeria and the events prior were wiped clear.

"...Oh, hey! The Hidden City! I've always wanted to sight-see here!"

Leo ran out of the maze giddily and approached a brochure stand.

"Excuse me, do you have any sites you'd recommend for a bona fide hero like myself? Maybe something exciting, or daring, or maybe even a relaxing spa?"

"First time here?" the Yokai asked from behind the counter.

"No, no no no no no no no no no. No." Leo huffed and puffed out his chest proudly. "It's my eighth time!"

"It's your 13th time, dum-dum."

Leo looked around nervously.

"Did you hear that?"

"Oh-ho, no, we're NOT going through this again..."

"Hear what, kid?" the Yokai asked, shuffling through supplies as Leo whirled around in circles, anxiously searching for the source of the apparition.

"That voice, I --"

"Leo, long story short, you're stuck in a dream-world that's all fake. We're trying to help you escape."

"But, what --"

"Every time you get to a new area, your memory restarts."

"And we can't tell you who we are for some reason because... uh... mystic curses are weird?"

"But what, kid?" the Yokai gruffed.

Leo looked back at her, confused. He blinked, trying to process it all. There was a flood of emotions running through him, each one tethered to a soul that was not his own, but strangely connected to his. Frustration, hope, irritation, redundancy, resignation --

"Um... never mind. I think I just went temporarily insane."

"Oh, COME ON!"

There was the frustration again.

"Look, do you want the brochure or not?" the Yokai stall-keeper growled, waving the paper in Leonardo's face.

"I'll take it," Leo said quickly, snatching the map and walking away briskly.

Once he was out of earshot of the Yokai, Leo hissed at the ghosts.

"Okay, weird brain ghosts -- what is going on?!"

"We've already told you. THREE TIMES OVER BY NOW," one huffed with exasperation. "Okay. Just... calm down, we all need to calm down... Alright. From the top. Leo: you are trapped in a dreamworld. Nothing is real, but it's trying to keep you here. It's TRAPPED YOU. We used a magic spell to infiltrate your dreams so that we could help wake you up!"

"How?"

"Well, first off we had to draw these really cool symbols around your bed and --"

"N-no, I mean how am I supposed to wake up?" Leo corrected.

"Oh. Well, according to Mikey -- er, according to the most mystically-inclined of us, we help you get through a certain amount of dreams like levels in a video game."

"How many?" Leo asked.

"Um... I... don't remember. Barry said it had something to do with the whole... sleep cycle?"

"Oh, he was referring to REM and NREM, which means there will be five. Or, well, three now that we've gotten through two of them already," a ghost with a nerdy voice interjects. "Sleep comes in cycles, you see. It starts off with awake-slash-alert, and progressively gets deeper and deeper. After awake and alert, then comes N1, then N2, N3, and finally the REM, which stands for 'Rapid Eye Movement'. Rem is when you have dreams."

"And NREM?" Leo asked, curious. "What's that?"

"NREM is 'Non-Rapid Eye Movement'. It's just dreamless sleep, a time when the body rests and rejuvenates itself, repairing and regrowing tissue and rebuffing the immune system. Studies show that 75% of sleep is NREM. An interesting science fact, but REM periods are short, though the longer you spend asleep, the longer the REM periods will be!"

"Does that mean that the longer it takes us to get him through, the harder each level will get?" a nervous voice asks.

"...I hadn't thought of that."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Leo asked, stuffing the brochure into his fanny pack. "Let's get going! Uh, do you guys know which way I should head?"

"Ooh, ooh, I do!" a cheery voice chimed in.

Leo watched with bewilderment as a fluttering golden light sparked before him, flying away and leaving a trail of shimmers in its gentle wake.

"Um... that was you, right?"

"That was Mikey. Uh, the mystically-inclined-light-guy one. He just ran off. He's not s'posed to, though."

"Not supposed to?"

"Well, Draxum said that getting off track would cause us to lose sight of what we're here for and pull us into the trap, but... if he's just looking for the way to the next dream, then I think it should be okay..."

"Cool, cool. Just so long as I'm not actually losing my mind... What do you mean by 'ran off'?"

"I mean that little beam of light WAS him."

"I thought I couldn't see you?" Leo wondered aloud. "What changed?"

"Mikey's been doing stuff like that the whole time. Anytime you see a golden light, that's him. You can't see what we actually look like, for some bizarre reason. You walk right through us."

"Have I been... walking right through you this whole time?"

"...Kinda."

"What does that even feel like?"

"Honestly, it doesn't feel like anything. And... I can't speak for the Mikey or Donnie, but it makes ME feel... lonely."

Leo swallowed sadly.

"...Sorry."

"Hey, it ain't your fault!" the voice kindly said. But their voice cracked, the vocal pitch shifted.

Leo felt a stifling, a sick knot in a stomach. The holding of breath, the looking away, a telltale sign that something was not as it seemed. Leo felt as though they were hiding something. Leo felt like there was a lie hidden somewhere. He tried to ignore it, and instead chased after the light, following the trail into the city streets. There were so many stalls and colourful people here, each one a personality extreme and boisterous. And each stranger Leo would have loved to get to know. He was a people person at heart, hence why he always took the role of 'face-man'.

"I didn't know that about you," one of the voices murmured.

"Didn't know what?"

"Oh did I forget to mention we can kinda read each other's' minds?"

"Wait, for real?!" Leo shouted as he stopped right in the middle of the street. "Are you kidding me?!"

"I never kid about ESP."

Leo fidgeted with his sash, adjusting and readjusting it as he swallowed the information given so nonchalantly to him.

"So what did you just hear?" he inquired.

"The people-person tidbit."

"Oh. Okay," he mumbled. Out of all the things he could think of, that was not the most embarrassing. "Now it's my turn! Think of something!"

"Well, uh, it... it doesn't really work like that..." the other voice responded.

"Oh, what? Boo! Totally unfair!" Leo complained. "How come you can hear my thoughts, but I can't hear yours?"

"Well, first off, we can't hear ALL your thoughts. Just the ones where you think to yourself, like a conversation. Secondly, you might not be able to read our minds, but you can feel our emotions."

"Huh?" Leo's stride slowed a bit, as he tried to understand.

"You can sense our presence, though you can't actually feel or see us," voice A explained. "Before, you could feel we were with you without being able to see or hear us at all! And Mikey -- the light guy -- said that you 'felt him' earlier. He'd made a beam of light around himself for you to follow. When you touched the light, you were actually holding his hand. You seemed to know who it was, and you even said his name! Mike was so excited..."

Leo slowly continued walking down the pathway, following the glittery sparkles that illuminated the path.

"...Can you do that?"

"Do what? Make light?"

"Yeah, can you make a light thing?"

"Why?"

"...No reason," Leo lied.

"He wants to be able to touch you, too," voice B snitched.

"Wha-hah-hat? No!" Leo opposed, laughing like a nervous wreck.

"I never kid about ESP."

"Narc," Leo grumbled.

Leo felt a swell of warmth. The sting of tears behind your eyes. Pride, longing, love. And then regret.

"Sorry, Leo. That's not my specialty."

"Specialty?" he probed. "What does that mean?"

"Mike-- The 'light guy' is good at magic and light-related stuff. The, uh... 'Narc' is good at bein' smart beyond all reason and buildin' all kinds of things! Me, I'm good at bein' strong. The tank, the shield... I can't make a light thing because that's not what I am."

"Oh."

"Are you... disappointed?"

Leo stopped again, and turned around. He tried to imagine a face to look at, to direct his thoughts.

"No! I mean, I'm a little bummed that I can't... y'know, feel you or whatever. But you sound really cool!"

"You think I'm... cool?"

"Yeah, dude! You sound like my brother, Raph. He's cool like that, too -- always strong, brave, working to make sure we're the heroes Splinter always knew we could become. And now I'm friends with a fricken' tank?! He would be so jealous; do you know how awesome that sounds?!"

Leo felt a short-lived pride. A small semblance of reassurance, a twinge of nostalgia. And then sadness.

"Thanks, dude."

"What's wrong?" Leo asked, reaching forward instinctively. He couldn't feel anything, but he sensed the loneliness the 'Tank' had mentioned earlier.

"Nuthin'. C'mon, let's hurry up and find Mikey before he gets too far ahead."

Leo walked along the streets. He noticed that the light was starting to dim. He also noticed that the dimming of the light made the other two ghosts -- Narc and Tank -- uneasy. He could hear soft whispers that they kept to themselves, thinking that maybe he couldn't hear him.

"Do you think that maybe he's lost? Does Mikey actually know what he's doing?"

"Of course he does. Draxum told him how the spell works --"

"But are we sure? I mean, I don't want to doubt Mikey's abilities -- but this is Leo's life at stake here."

"Keep your voice down! He might hear you..."

"Raph, this is a big deal. Leo has been comatose for seven whole days with no sign of recovery. I... I don't want to lose him."

"We won't. I'm sure we won't."

The two were eerily quiet. At first, Leo was afraid that they'd gone again, left him alone in the silence. But then one of them -- the Tank -- spoke up.

"We're still here, Leo."

"Oh, thank Pizza Supreme," the slider muttered under his breath. "You had me worried for a moment."

"You think we'd leave you?"

"I-I don't know," Leo admitted. "I... I'm not sure why. But I felt like... maybe? Like it happened before..." Leo stalled, slowing to a stop as foggy recollections came back to him. "I thought... I remember.... you left me? Or you went silent..."

"We didn't mean to," Tank responded. "The first time, you sorta... disappeared. You vanished, and Mikey had to search for you for a few minutes before we found you again. The second time, we were still with you, but once we came into the new dream, it was like everything reset, and we couldn't reach you anymore. We keep having to fight to reach you."

"Why?" Leo asked. "The light guy mentioned a curse, I think. Is that part of it? Part of whatever's keeping me trapped here?"

Tank considered it deeply before answering.

"I don't know. Mikey would know better."

"The light guy?"

"Yeah, the light guy."

"Where is he, by the way?" Leo wondered, looking around.

The streets were getting busier. The sparkles getting dim, almost completely faded.

"Well, that's not good."

"What do we do?" Leo asked. "How do we get out of here?"

"Follow me," Narc said quietly. "I think I can find 'Light Guy' using my ninpo."

"How am I supposed to follow you if I can't see you?" Leo reminded, not even considering to skimp on the sass.

"But you can hear me. Follow my voice, okay?"

"Got it," Leo said with a nod.

Narc started to talk. And talk. And talk.

Wow. Okay. He liked to talk a lot. Leo started to groan from all the things he went on about. He spoke of science, the stars, astronomy. He talked about black holes, and the theories behind what would happen if you stepped inside one. He spoke of the different classifications of stars, such as red giants and dwarf stars and why they twinkle or change colour in the night. He talked about the moon, and how he was convinced that there was a secret second moon.  Narc mentioned his favourite conspiracies. He spoke of the rewriting of history, the possible faked moon landing, the mysteries behind the Lost Colony of Roanoke. He talked about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil, but he refused to touch the subject of aliens for some reason. Instead, he brought up biology. Microbes, bacteria, germs, single-celled organisms. The mitochondria were the powerhouse of the cell. Red blood cells, white blood cells, bone structure, muscles, how hair and nails were made of the same thing, melanin, mutations, and so forth.  To say he touched a bit on the subject of botany would be an understatement...

"Man, you would really like my brother Donnie," Leo noted. "He's totally into this stuff, too."

There was silence. Leo felt an awkward tension.

"Ahem. So, uh... do you guys like Jupiter Jim?"

There was a stifled cackle from Tank.

"Yeah. Yeah, we do. But not as much as Lou Jitsu!"

"Seriously?" Leo gaped, excited beyond measure. "I LOVE Lou Jitsu's films! And you may have figured it out by the genetic resemblance, but in case you didn't, did you know that --"

"Um, guys?" Narc piped in. "Have we been here before?"

Leo looked around at the stalls. There was a florist pop-up stand, a shoe shop set up against a stone cavern wall, a water fountain, a park bench, and a few other stalls that all sold shady-looking mystic trinkets.

"...I don't think so?" Leo offered. "It doesn't look familiar..."

"I could have sworn we came this way before..."

"Do you think we've gone in circles?"

"I thought so... But it's Leo's dreamscape. If he says no, then.... Let's just keep going for now, Mikey's trail is getting cold."

Leo followed the sound of Narc and Tank talking. He joined in, each one speaking of their favourite Lou Jitsu film.

They passed by a fishmonger, a jeweler, and a children's school for wizards.

Narc mentioned how some dreams hold deeper meaning, and some things represent deep-rooted fear or a danger. He mentioned how dreams were often used to predict the future, and how some people can even see future visions in their sleep.

They passed by a series of diners and Yokai eateries.

Tank wondered where Light Guy was. He started to worry about what might have happened to him. Tank seemed like the worrying kind. They discussed how someone could get lost inside Leo's mind. It unnerved him to think that there was a person snooping around his subconscious.

They passed by a florist, a shoe shop, and a water fountain.

Wait... didn't they just...?

"Do you guys see that?" Leo asked, pointing. "We passed that flower stand already, right?"

"I TOLD YOU we were going around in circles!" Narc whined.

"Wait, so we must've taken a wrong turn somewhere!" Tank deduced. "Maybe we try retracing our steps?"

The group go back the way they came. Past the flower stand. Past the diners. Past the wizard school. Past the jewelers. Past the fishmongers. Past the shady-looking trinket stands. Past the park bench and water fountain. Past the shoe shop. Past the flower stand...

Uh-oh.

"Wait, how does that work?" Leo wondered aloud, pointing in the two directions they'd come from.

"A common nightmare is going round in circles, moving around but never getting anywhere," Narc offered. "This might be something of that nature."

"Uh... what exactly happens in those kinds of dreams?"

"You never get anywhere, as to be expected. They represent psychological distress, usually related to interpersonal problems, work-related issues, or basically anything that revolves around a stressful or anxiety-inducing situation."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't have any of those problems!" Leo exhaled with relief.

The nagging feeling of swallowing your words, hiding the truth, lying. Leo could feel it in the others.

"What? What are you guys not saying?"

"Huh? Nothing! Nothing at all..."

"Uh-huh. Right. Anyway, Narc, how do we break out of the loop?" Leo asked.

"First off, hate that nickname. Second, try doing anything out of the ordinary? Maybe try... going off the path?"

"Alrighty then, let's think outside the box!" Leo whooped, jumping over the flower cart and racing away.

He could feel Tank and Narc close behind him as he ran in odd zig-zaggy patterns. He bobbed and weaved through the crowds, trying to maneuver through them as he searched for a new path to take. The crowds parted. There was a florist pop-up stand and a shoe shop.

"What the what?!" Leo yelled, throwing his fists in the air. "This doesn’t make any sense! How am I supposed to escape this dream prison thing if I can't escape a single avenue?!"

Leo started running again. This time, out of pure anger. He ran and ran and ran, hearing Tank shout after him. He ran and ran and ran, ignoring Narc's scoldings. He ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran.

Leo ran out of breath. He collapsed to his knees, laughing over the thought that he couldn't breath when he couldn't feel the effects of breathlessness. It didn't hurt his chest. It didn't even feel tight or constricted. He wasn't even tired. He couldn't feel anything other than despair.

Leo happened to glance down at the cobblestone path beneath him. There was dust, dirt, pebbles... and a sparkling glitter trail, just faint enough that you would miss it if you weren't a few inches away from it. He pressed a finger against the sparkle. It grew brighter against his fingerprint. Hmmm...

"Tank?" Leo called out. "Are you still there??"

"I'm here!" Tank shouted back, running up towards Leo, his voice gaining volume as he did. "What is it?"

"You said that Narc could make anything, right?"

"Yeah?" Tank confirmed slowly, his tone sounding wary. "Why?"

"Can he make something that can make these brighter? Or track them like a metal detector?" Leo asked, holding his finger up in the air.

"Well, 'Narc'?"

"First of all, you don't have to call me that, you know my name. Don't call me Narc. Secondly..."

There was a pause. Leo could faintly feel something like a soft breeze around his hands. He looked up in expectation to see something holding his hand, lifting them up to inspect. But he couldn't see anything. It made his heart sink.

"...I can work with this."

There was a rush of wind, a burst of electricity, and Leo had to cover his eyes or else he would be blinded. When he opened his eyes again, there was a strange bracelet-gauntlet-wristwatch-thing on the ground before him. It was glowing purple, and looked like it had been made from tangible light, like a hologram.

"What is this thing?" Leo asked, picking the device up and examining it thoroughly. 

"It's an enhancer; specifically it enhances ninpo. It is locked on to 'Light Guy's signature, so it will not only follow his magic trail, it'll also enhance it! And if he made it to the exit, then hopefully it lead us out of this loop."

Leo smiled as he placed the device on his wrist. A surge of something strange and powerful coursed through his veins, up his arm, and filled his lungs. It was exciting, brilliant, clear and logical, cutthroat but loving in its own nerdy way.

It was Donnie.

"...Don...?"

"Hmm?"

"This... Donnie, is this you?"

A pause, baited breath, terror and desperate hope fogging up the air with a tension so thick that not even Leo's odachi could carve through it. He could hear the audible gasp of shock from Tank, but the silence from Narc Donatello was deafening. Leonardo heard him take a deep inhale before answering.

"...You're not going to faint or get a memory wipe again, are you?"

"What does that mean?"

"This isn't the first time you figured out who I am, Nardo."

Leo swallowed.

"The last time... I forgot you?"

"I think you figured it out just as we were entering a new dream, so that might have been the cause."

"Oh. But.... it is you, right?"

Leo could feel the breeze around him shift, encompassing his arms and shoulders. He reached out for it, trying to grip it in an embrace if he could.

"It's me. It's Donnie."

Leo tried not to cry. But all he wanted was to hold Donnie close, hold him tight, say he was sorry for forgetting him, not recognising his voice or mannerisms at all. He wanted to apologise for so many things, he wasn't even sure what. There was a bubbling force in his stomach, urging him to say sorry for leaving them and the invasion and everything he was responsible for.

But instead, he just hung his head sadly.

"...I'm sorry, Don."

"It's okay, Nardo. We just want to help you get better. To get out of this."

"...So does that mean that 'Tank' is... Raph?"

"That's me," Tank Raph said, and Leo could hear the smile in his voice.

"So... so who's Light Guy?"

"You... you can't figure it out?"

"Well, I was gonna say Mikey, but Mikey can't do all that magic stuff you guys mentioned!"

There was another silence. Leo sensed their confusion, the withholding of information.

"What? What aren't you telling me?"

"Leo... how do you think I was able to make the wristlet?" Donnie asked.

"I dunno, brainpower? Imagination? We're in the dream world, after all."

"Yeah, but we can't actually do anything in here," Raph told him. "We can't affect the world around you, we can't even interact with you."

"So... so then how did you make this?" Leo asked, turning his wrist over to inspect the bracelet.

"With my ninpo.... But you don't know what that is, do you?"

"...Um... Yessss, I do?" Leo tries.

"You're lying. You don't know what that is. You can't even hear me say the word, can you?"

Leo squirmed uncomfortably.

"You said you'd only been to the Hidden City eight times when you've actually been here thirteen. In the last dream, Hueso said you saved the world, but you were confused by what he meant."

"Leo... what's the last thing you remember?" Raph asked nervously.

"The... the last thing I remember?" Leo reechoed. "Like... from the dreams?"

"No, from real life."

"I-I'm not sure," Leo whispered. "The dream world feels real, I can't really tell when the memories end and the dream starts... was... we had a sleepover... was that real or a dream?"

"We've had a lot of sleepovers," Donnie chimed in. "Are you thinking about the one you dreamt of? With all the snacks and pizza and--"

"And Raph exploded the Vitamin Water?" Leo finished. "That... that was a part of a dream?"

"Yeah. Leo... what was the last big mission you went on?"

"Uh... the Shredder?"

"Which Shredder mission?" Raph asked.

"What do you mean, which one? We... we got rid of him..."

"...Did we work with Big Mama to banish him?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Who's the leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?"

"Who? Is that like, some off-brand version of the Mad Dogs?"

"...Who is the leader of the Mad Dogs?"

"Raph is."

"..."

"...This is not ideal."

"Why? What's not ideal?? What aren't you telling me... is Raph not the leader anymore? What happened to Raph, why can't he lead??"

"Nothing happened to Raph, he just... Never mind. We need to find Mikey."

Leo wanted to keep prying, find out what was so devastating that no one would tell him... But the glowing device on his wrist began to glow, and the sparkles that had all but disappeared from the ground began to brighten, and by contrast, the rest of the Hidden City began to dim.

"There! Follow that glitter!"

Leo ran after the path, going in circles at least twice before the glittering specks led away from the path, down a different and unseen lane. Leo could feel a strange emotion rising up slowly. One that was lost, scared, feeling hopeless... but strangely tired. The exhaustion that weighed down this soul was crushing, Leo almost felt like he too would fall asleep if he wasn't wary. There was also a strange cloud of confusion surrounding the feelings. Leo could feel this person was lost, not just physically, but also mentally. They felt... Leo wasn't sure how to describe it. They felt like everything they knew was slowly fading away.

Leo pushed past a group of Yokai and saw the sparkling light that had attempted to guide him before, only now it was alone, laid limp on the ground, and growing duller by the second.

"There he is!" Donnie yelled. "Mikey!"

Leo felt the ghost of something move through him, purple light surrounding the small star on the floor. The light fluttered before suddenly vanishing completely. Leo gasped in terror before feeling something like a warmth over his shoulder.

"Mikey?!"

"He's okay," Raph soothed. "He just came out of the light form. Donnie has him now."

"Is -- is he -- what's going on, why was he on the floor like that?! Could you see him, why did he feel like -- like he was -- like he --"

"He's alright, just semi-incapacitated," Donnie informed them. "Angelo, wake up. Angelo?"

"This must've been what Draxum was talking about when he said not to get sidetracked," Raphael realises.

"Meaning?" Leo interrogated. "Sidetracked from what?"

"From you," Raph whispered. "If we stay away from you for too long, we'll 'lose sight of what we're here for', and become trapped just like you."

Leonardo heard a soft mumble, followed by a growing sensation of comfort. Mikey was waking up.

"Mmmm....? Wha... wha' happ'ned...? Who... who are you?"

"What? Angelo, it's me! It's Donnie!"

"Why... why couldn't I hear your name?"

Leo felt sickness rising in his stomach. Donnie and Raph felt like they were going to puke. Mikey's head was fogged up and cloudy, heavy with confusion and riddled with sleepiness.

"What's going on?" Leo asked. "What's wrong with Mikey?"

"I-I don't know -- Mikey, look at me. Do you recognize me?"

It became quiet for a moment. All eyes (invisible and not) were frozen to the spot where Mikey was found. Leo could feel the fear rising, the worry in Raph and the burning anger over the situation growing in Donnie. But then he felt clarity in Mikey, and the drowsy spell that had been cast over him dissipated.

"...D-Donnie...? Raph?" there was a sudden joyful gasp. "Leo!"

Leo blinked, expecting to feel or see something, a hug or a smile. There was nothing.

"L-Leo? Are you okay? Wait, why can't I touch you -- what happened, why are we... we..."

Mikey's voice softened as the memory came back.

"...Oh. Oh, I'm sorry, I --"

"You don't have to apologise, Mikey," Leo whispered, looking down at his hands.

"You know my name?"

"Yeah, I know who everyone is. But what happened to you?"

Mikey hummed quietly, groaning as he apparently sits up or stands with Donnie's assistance.

"I... I remember trying to lead the way out, but I went too far ahead. I almost made it to the next dream, but then -- then I forgot where I was, why I was there, I even forgot you guys, and the more I forgot, the s-sleepier I got..."

"That's why Draxum told us to stick together and stick with Leo," Raph reminded him. "We might've lost you. But we know what not to do now."

"You said you almost found the way to the next dream?" Donnie reiterated.

"Which way?" Leo's voice was filled with hope. He wanted to get out as soon as possible for his brothers' sakes. He couldn't bear the idea of them getting hurt because of him. Again.

Again? What --

"The way out is over there!"

Mikey's voice interrupted Leo's thoughts. He took in a deep breath before standing up and looking around. Up ahead, there was a small avenue that led to a cave tunnel.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive!" Mikey assured him. "A-although, somebody's gonna hafta carry me... m-my legs aren’t exactly working right now. I think I used up all my mystic powers."

"Raph's gotchya, big man," the eldest brother stated, noisily hoisting Michelangelo up and walking towards the cavern. "Come on, guys, we're halfway through this trial!"

Leo and Donnie followed after the duo into the cave. It grew dark, cold, clammy. Quiet and calm. Leo appreciated the calming atmosphere, as he felt anything but calm.

"You okay?"

"Are you asking because you can read my thoughts?"

"Guilty. Is it about what happened to Mikey?"

"Sorta. I mean, I'm upset over what happened to him, but mostly I'm scared. Is that what it's like when I enter a new dream?"

"So far, yes."

"And that means that soon, I'll forget again. I'll go full Groundhog Day."

"But we'll remind you of everything again."

"...But it hurts you," Leo whimpers. "I know it does. It hurt me to see Mikey so confused like that, even if it was only for a short minute. And I don't want to be stuck feeling alone anymore."

"We won't let you get lost, Leo," Donnie promises.

He can almost feel him take his hand, before realising it's just the hologram wrist tech he has yet to remove.

"But there's more... you guys aren't telling me something. You keep skirting the subject, avoiding things, pretending like there isn't an issue when I can clearly tell that there is!"

"We're just trying to not overwhelm you."

"Overwhelm me how? I mean, some witch or a crazy new mutant must've put a weird sleeping beauty spell on me, right? What could be more overwhelming than that??"

"...That's not what happened."

"Say wha?" Leo questions. "What does that mean --"

"Guys! Up ahead!" Raph shouts. "Do you see that light?"

Leo runs up ahead to see what Raph's commotion is about. As he does, a familiar drowsiness sets in. The light up ahead grows brighter, more vivid. Leo can hear noises and sounds like joy and excitement and cheering... The light soon becomes too bright and his eyes close to keep from going blind.

Leonardo emerges from the tunnel into a large arena, the walls painted black with red pillars and humongous skulls decorating them. The grandstands are filled with Yokai, each of whom looks like they'd have a warrant or a bounty on their heads. The dust blows around the ground as three spotlights are shone directly onto Leo's face, his body encased with armour fit for a gladiator. A screeching whine of feedback echoes over a series of loudspeakers before Big Mama's voice shouts over the commotion and applause of the bloodthirsty crowds.

"LADIES AND GENTLE-GERMS, I GIVE YOU... THE NEXT CHAMP-I-ON OF THE BATTLE NEXUS, NIGHTMARE EDITION!"

[cometpunkpunk]

Hello and welcome to my humble little blog

Information about me:

-My name is Ty (Although I also like being called Andromeda)

-I am assigned menace at birth

-I am officially 18 as of November 27th

-I’m an aspiring author as well as poet

-I like making friends a lot and am more than happy to befriend most people

-I’m asexual

What’s this blog for:

-This blog is for posting fanfics/headcanons

-Also it serves as a fandom blog for my various interests

-I may take requests In the future but that’s to be decided

Rules:

-I don’t want to see any NSFW content including kink (I’m a csa victim)

-I refuse to participate in discourse so please don’t ask

-Do be polite and respectful

-You cannot interact with my blog if you are a pedo, zoo, bigot, judge peoples interests, fetish miners and cat haters

My fandoms and guide:

#Ty is sane

Is for my normal posts

#Ty is insane

Is for the unhinged stuff

❤️: current favourites

💜: not a hyperfixtation but I still love

🤍: only recently got into/not finished

🧡: old interest I still am fond of

💛: not in the fandom but would make content for

💚: unable to make content for but still enjoy and will talk about

If there’s a fandom you’re in that I haven’t listened ask about it.

Games:

-Borderlands 🧡

-Undertale/Deltarune ❤️

-Little nightmares 💜

-Mario 💜

-Sonic 🤍

-Pokemon ❤️

-Danganronpa 🧡

-DDLC 🧡

-Crash Bandicoot 💚

-Animal crossing 💜

-Devil may cry 🧡

-Soulsborne games 💚

-Stardew valley ❤️

-Genshin ❤️

-Battle cats 💚

-FNAF 💛

-SCP 🤍

-Batman games 💚

Books:

-A series of unfortunate events ❤️

-Diary of a Wimpy Kid ❤️

Shows/cartoons:

-Monster high (Gen 1) ❤️

-Total drama ❤️

-Ridonculous race ❤️

-Making fiends 💜

-Steven universe 🧡

-TMNT 🤍

-SpongeBob 💜

-Mr men 🧡

-Scooby doo 🤍🧡

-Disney movies 🤍🧡

-Pixar movies 🤍🧡

-Dreamworks movies 🤍🧡

-Bluesky movies 🤍🧡

-Mlp 💛

-Arthur 💚

-Coraline 💜

-Looney Tunes 💜

Anime:

-Madoka Magica ❤️

-Grand blue dreaming ❤️

-NGE 💛

-Life lessons with Uramichi Oniisan 💜

-Demon slayer (Finishing Mugen train arc) 🤍❤️

-MHA (Season 1)🤍💛

-Perfect blue 💜

-Made in abyss 💜

[downwiththemutantnjnjaturtles]

The "Aftermath" Series

dead!reader x TMNT—mentions of violence/bodily harm, BIG sad. This is the Aftermath of her death.

The Sword Hanging Over His Head—Donatello's chapter

In Another Place, Another Time—Michelangelo's chapter

Fleeting—Leonardo's chapter

Raphael to be added.

[fyeah-tmnt]

so i was binge-reading @somerandomdudelmao (Cass)'s apocalyptic serie and i noticed this

Past/Present Donnie (Episode 13) vs Future Donnie (Episode 4.2 )

some things never change, like being blurry because you're literally downing your coffee mug in the morning

my boy is carburating to coffee

(if you don't know about Cass's serie, you can find all the episode in this masterpost (be aware that each episode have several parts (and a different amount)) it's an amazing serie 10/10)

[jazzystudios82]

Series that I write for ♡

A list of fandoms that I'm writing/willing to write fanfic for.

Dragon Ball 🐉

Hazbin Hotel 🏩

Helluva Boss 😈

Diabolik Lovers 🥀

Black Butler 🖤

Marvel ❤️

DC Universe 💙

Sonic the Hedgehog 🦔

Transformers Animated, Prime, & RID15 🤖

The Amazing Digital Circus 🎪

Lore Olympus 🌸

Obey Me! 🐏

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) & ROTTMNT 🐢

Kirby 💫

Hunter x Hunter 🎣

Jujutsu Kaisen 🐼

Chainsaw Man ⛓️‍💥

Lackadaisy 🍾

Murder Drones ☢️

Spy x Family 🥜

The Remarried Empress 👑

Studio Ghibili 🔥

Steven Universe 💎

Baldur's Gate III 🐻

Ultraman: Rising ⚾️

Monster Prom 👾

This will be updated with the more fandoms that I'll get into. Also, please know that some of these will be on the back burner for a while since it could take a while for me to get into some of these: like Baldur’s Gate 3.

[teainthesnow]

@somerandomdudelmao is giving me emotions again so time to give some back...

- - -

It’s over.

it’s finally over.

Or, he thinks, with a shuddering breath and numb agony, that it will be over soon.

So he lies there, breathing in the dust and ash, and the sour taste of all that was lost, of the embers of a dying world, filling his mouth.

It would...

It would all be okay now.

He inhales.

And tries not to be scared by what comes next.

But, vaguely, distantly, as he slips further and further into numb acceptance he feels a presence, a familiar warmth blanketing him. Warm hands touch his shoulder feeling fiercely protective but tinged with fear.

It’s okay, he whispers but he’s certain the words come about as nothing more than a senseless whisper, if they even make it out at all.

But...

It’ll be okay.

It’s time.

He’s ready for the next step.

To face his ancestors, friends, family, and brothers.

And hopefully that meant all three of them.

He exhales.

And falls into the darkness.

But the darkness parts around him.

His thoughts swirl into a blurry haze, slipping from him before he can truly comprehend them or the things around him.

All he knows is this is wrong... he shouldn’t... he thought...

Wasn’t it supposed to be over now?

Not... not this incoherent haze of a life where the only comfort his can find is in the soft fluttering traces of red and purple.

So he hides; feeling scared and alone and wondering why this is his fate, why he has been cursed to stay isolated and away from those he cares about.

He is so tired, so exhausted.

Barely clinging on to the last of his strength even though he isn’t truly sure why he does so.

There’s something whispering, begging, cheering for him to keep going.

To hold on.

Something – or perhaps someone – calling his name, voice laced with a pleading desperation.

But

all he can do

is

slip

further

down.

And then something shifts through the fog.

The world tilts on its axis.

The is a fire surrounding him, burning away the encroaching darkness that he had been so willing to accept.

No, he pleads, reaching a desperate hand outwards.

Let me go.

Please.

Let me go home.

The fire, the warmth, the two flames do not listen as they cling tightly onto him, dragging him forcefully along with them.

Please.

And then the fire vanishes just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving him weak and fading once more.

But then the static clings to him, trapping him, keeping him from fading, from moving on.

There is a comforting presence within the electricity, similar to the warm flames, but slightly different.

Familiar yet somehow unfamiliar at the same time.

There is something within the sensation that makes him pause and hesitate.

All he can feel is a weird mix of worry, relief, and unwavering determination.

He almost stops fighting.

But he can’t.

This isn’t-

He isn’t home.

He needs to go home.

So he fights against the static, against the energy it gives him.

Against those soft thoughts of you’re safe, please stop fighting, let me- let us help you.

But that wouldn’t be fair, would it?

Did he really deserve peace when they weren’t here?

He just wanted to see them again.

(Even though the whispers tried to convince him that they were already there because it didn’t make sense.)

So whenever he can he fights.

He runs.

But the static, the flames, keep finding him.

Keep holding him protectively within their embrace.

(keeping him safe)

Keeping him trapped.

(keeping him alive)

Keeping him away from home.

(giving him strength to keep himself alive)

In this fog-filled limbo that his existence has become.

And then.

Finally.

Something changes.

And.

He.

Falls.

Again.

He blinks open his eyes.

Confused and disorientated and still not quite fully himself.

He feels...

Empty.

Perhaps.

Nothing but a fragile reflection of who he was, of who he will be.

Hollow.

Lonely.

And lost in the vast empty darkness.

Empty, he realises slowly through sludge filled thought, but not silent.

There’s a voice shouting in the distance.

Muffled and incoherent but definitely there.

He looks around.

Suddenly desperate.

Overcome with the desire to find the voice.

To find-

He looks down at his reflection.

But it isn’t *his* reflection.

Maybe *he’s* the reflection.

Forced to echo, to copy.

He’s yelling at himself.

...isn’t he?

But then a hand reaches through the mirror and grabs hold of his scarf.

Pulling him upwards and through the once solid surface and the voice, the familiar and unfamiliar voice, becomes clear.

Becomes understandable.

And awareness washes over him.

The ‘anger’ leaves.

All he has left is a numb confusion and a growing hope.

And then he is falling again.

He blinks.

Awareness comes back to him slowly.

His vision slowly fading back into clarity.

And his first coherent thought is to be annoyed by a constant tap, tap, tap, of a keyboard being used.

He tiredly shifts to locate the source of the noise and sees Donnie tapping away, focused solely on his task.

Then that thought processes.

To See... Donnie... tapping away?

...Donnie?

And the tiredness immediately drops away as he reaches out desperately, hopefully.

And then he falls out of the bed with a thump.

But there are hands on him, gently picking him up, embracing him, words nothing but a murmured blur as reality drips into comprehension.

It can’t...

This can’t...

He is so overwhelmed, so utterly lost, he can only sit there as Donnie fusses around him, voice tinged with anger.

No... he realises, as a smile begins to creep upon his face and tears well up in the corner of his eyes, not anger.

Worry.

But he can’t let himself relax yet.

This is too good to be true.

Is this really truly real?

“D-Donnie?” He asks voice wavering and tinged with a fear he cannot hold back.

And when Donnie (and he hopes, really desperately hopes that it is) keeps fussing he reaches forward and takes hold of a flailing hand.

It’s... it’s warm.

The tears are there again, now dripping unbidden down his face.

“You’re real.”

The wrist within his grasp is solid and warm, and strong.

“You’re real!”

Not thin and weak and rattled with tremors.

But...

“Are you?”

He tentatively asks, scared for the truth but hoping against everything for the best.

That Donnie – his brother, his beloved twin is here.

And then Donnie soothes his fears, tells him the truth, the amazing, almost unbelievable truth.

He cannot stop the tears.

Does not want to stop the tears.

This is...

This is everything he had hoped for.

And the tears that drip, drip, drip down his face are no longer tears of pain and fear and utter sadness but those of hope and joy and the understanding that this is it.

There is a warmth surrounding him.

A hug, he slowly realises.

A hug he thought he’d never receive again.

The trickle of tears becomes a torrent. He cannot hold back, nor does he want to. The relief hits him like a sledgehammer as he clings desperately to the brother he never thought he would see again.

Crying loudly and unashamedly.

This is...

He chokes back the sobs once they calm slightly.

And cracks probably the best (worse) joke he’s made in a while.

And laughter is his reward.

There is a warmth swelling within him, a calmness, and a happiness he had thought unachievable as he and his amazingly alive brother share their joy with each other once again.

And then Donnie passes out.

Gently, carefully, he sets him down, noting the rise and fall of his plastron but he still presses a cautious hand to his brothers neck.

And sighs with relief at the comforting and steady

thump

thump

thump

of a healthy heartbeat.

He exhales in relief.

It’s okay.

A weight lifts off his shoulders as he raises a hand to his own neck feeling the very proof the he too is alive and healthy.

And that is when it really truly begins to sink in.

Despite his confusion. Despite having not even the smallest idea of how he got here, of how he’s alive.

Of how Donnie is alive when even his spirit...

He takes in a soothing breath, shakes the thoughts out of his head, and focuses on the good that he can find.

Because.

It’s over

It’s finally over.

But, he pauses, as he takes in his surroundings and processes what just happened.

To breathe in the clean air.

To enjoy the steady beating of their heartbeats.

To think he’s alive, they’re both alive.

So...

Maybe...

Hopefully...

...it’s only just begun.

[that-gay-gal]

Fuck it im posting this now

MORE FANART FOR PUPPET TIGHTLY STRUNG ON AO3 TEEHEE

Or more specifically the sequel fic “Noose loosely wound”, and more more specifically one particular scene from chapter 2 of said sequel

giggles in the 2012 turtles are so hard to draw

Where did the lid to the box go?

Erm, how about where did your dad go when he went to get milk

I’m so sorry I just saw the opportunity and I had to take it I didn’t mean it NO DONT LEAVE ME PLEASE- /lhj

The author is @raphaelesbian on tumblr or clairakitty on ao3

I’m the most sane fan ever amiright

[minumi-chan]

A Twin Thing - Finale - 16 years old

Due to formatting, this chap is best read on A03 Rated: G Summary: How much do you know? His twin’s brow furrows deep, and Donnie looks tired, so tired when he finally whispers. “Everything.” Leo’s face pales. His eyes sting again at the corners. “E-Everything?” Everything.

A/N: This chapter is a sort of reversed mirror to the last one and intersects, if you skipped chap 6, the story will make sense but it will lose some clarity. If you elect to reread the pain train, I'm sorry in advance but also you're welcome for how this slots into place.

::CH1::CH2::CH3::CH4::CH5::CH6::

I also recommend a little bit of background ambiance music to help bring the feels home. Set this playlist to loop on your spotify (or wherever you like your jammy jams) and read: Home and Reunion -- Alkis Livathinos (From Hue OST)

~~ 16 years old ~ Finale ~~

“Mikey, it’s over,” Raph urges him gently. 

Donatello releases a shuddering breath, not yet willing to face his youngest brother’s grief when he is still choking on his own. But Mikey’s voice rings clear and determined across the empty parking lot. 

“Leo never gave up on us. I’m not giving up on him!”  

The air around them sparks to life with electric golden light as Mikey groans with effort. Turning in surprise, Donnie feels a stir deep within himself the moment that the air before his little brother splits into a golden seam. He inhales sharply, several more tears escaping as his eyes widen. 

“Mikey?! Whatever you’re doing-- don’t stop!!” Raph instructs as he rushes forward. 

Donnie follows hot on his heels towards the inexplicable pull of what lies beyond that spark of mystic power. It pulses with an energy that tickles at the edges of the void throbbing in his chest. As he grasps his little brother’s shoulder tightly, he never takes his eyes off the glowing golden light ripping open space before them. 

“We’re here, Mikey. Together!” 

Mystic energy disseminates through the three of them and crackles their skin with Mikey’s golden light. The doorway opens into a dim lifeless space, filled with decaying frozen remnants of destroyed ships and krang carcasses. 

With every inch the portal grows, Donatello feels the cold emptiness inside him shrink and fill with a presence he had not realized belonged there until this moment. A tiny mote of fury, a splash of humor, a blaze of passion, a wave of loyalty, and the warmth of a love he took for granted every second of every day of his life because Donnie has never once had to go without it until now. A presence he never wants to feel the lack of ever again.

Golden light illuminates Leo’s bruised face, and the dum dum has the gumption to smile as he reaches towards them, “Heh... took you guys long enough!” 

Raph projects his arm through the portal without hesitation to pull their brother out of the darkness, but the menacing glint of a scarlet eye rears its ugly head behind Leonardo. The tears that still leak from Donnie’s eyes spark into seething streaks of violet mystic energy as he growls with unbridled rage at the Krang. Shaping his fury into a massive drill, he aims straight and true for the monster who nearly ripped his twin from him, buying just enough time for Raph to get Leo through the portal and into their waiting arms as Mikey closes it behind them. 

The ringing he had heard is gone. As is the icy void in his chest, the aching emptiness he had felt when the krang portal snapped closed. Falling to his knees, Donnie studies Leo’s bruised and broken body in silent horror, words having left him as his head fills with a faint buzz of pain from... well everywhere.

“Leo?” Raph asks nervously beside him. 

“Hey,” Leo answers tiredly after a brief moment, finding the strength somehow to offer them a smile. His gaze travels over each of his brothers’ faces, reaching Donnie last and pausing. The swollen skin around his eye twitches and his brow wrinkles slightly with concern as he eyes Don’s unusually obvious distress. 

Donatello’s eyes water again as he feels the question that goes unspoken between them. 

You good?

Pressing his lips into a tightline, Don minutely twitches his head in a nod and releases a shuddering breath when words cannot form on his tongue. Leo understands, because of course he always has, and moves his gaze elsewhere taking in their surroundings. 

“ Ewww! Are we in Staten Island?” 

Raphael pulls all his brothers into a hug full of relieved teary laughter as they cling to each other, shaking from the adrenaline and emotions still running high between them. He feels the way Leo winces through his laughter, an echo of a sharp sting in his own chest follows. Slowly, carefully, he reaches for Leonardo’s hand, the one that isn’t trembling and squeezes. Leo finds his gaze again with wide eyes, searching his face as if seeing something new, before squeezing back. Don feels his face grow damp again, and doesn’t bother to stem the fresh flow of tears this time. 

He doesn’t let go of Leo’s hand. Not while they wait huddled together for April, Casey and Papa to get to their location. Not as they all pile into the ‘acquired’ van that will get them back to safety. Not for a moment during the long ride to get back into the city through the chaos and wreckage the invasion had caused. Not as his body temperature slowly drops, despite being surrounded on all sides by his brothers. Not when his eyes droop closed in spite of everything racing through his mind telling him to stay awake.

Voices murmur around him, but he’s reached the stage where he can’t understand them. It’s all just radio static. No one presses him for words he can’t find. He sits quietly, breathing slow and shallow through the pain, hand still locked with Leo’s where his twin sits propped up against Raph’s chest. Mikey is pressed close beside him, arms folded carefully in his lap unmoving when normally he’d be playing with his phone. 

His little brother is in pain, Donnie realizes. It radiates off of Raphael as well, in the tenseness of his muscles, and the way he grinds his jaw. Leo is like a beacon of it, pulsing with hurt and yet still finding it in himself to keep smiling, making soft voiced jokes probably to soothe all of their nerves and to keep himself awake. They should all stay awake...

Donnie should be planning their next move, should be assessing each family member's damage to know what they’ll need when they arrive home. With Leo out of commission, he’s going to need help. Did his brothers shred the manuals for all of the medical devices in the medbay like they did for the Turtle tank? Maybe he should just send the digital backups straight to their phones for ease of access... Do they even have enough supplies for how injured they all are? He tries to move through a checklist of what he knows is stocked in their small, about to be proven inadequate medbay... only to find his thoughts moving like a spoon through a thick lumpy soup. Nevermind that he cannot recall exactly what is in stock at home, they definitely are going to need more of everything , and should make a pit stop before reaching the lair. 

He tries to say as much, only his tongue clicks in his mouth and no words leave him. Trying again results only in another series of clicks, ending with a very soft chirp.

Leo catches the small noises immediately, looking at him with increasing concern. The distortion of unintelligible words continues around him and Don blinks slow, almost doesn’t open his eyes again. His tongue clicks again trying to form words, except it gets stuck in a long strangled sound that nearly makes him gag this time. 

“Donnie, you okay buddy?” 

Raph is speaking now, and it takes real effort to drag his eyes up to his eldest brother. The larger turtle moves his hands tiredly, there’s something wrong with his right arm. Donnie can tell by how stiffly he moves and the sloppiness of his hand shapes.

 [[ Sign? ]]

Don swallows thickly, clicking again. The fingers of his free hand lift and twitch through the pain, but the signs won’t come, locked in his mind. 

“Hey Dee, you with me?” 

Donnie shifts his gaze to his twin who’s right eye has nearly swollen shut, Leo squeezes their still laced fingers and it hurts . Everything hurts .

The edges of Don's vision are as dark as the bruises ripening along all of their bodies. In lieu of answering, his eyes fall shut as a violent shiver runs through him and he whimpers. Gravity does something funny, and Donnie hears what might be his name frantic on Mikey's tongue. 

Only then does his grip on Leo’s hand finally loosen, and all fades to unforgiving black. 

The anxiety, fear, and pain they have all been suppressing throughout their hard won fight bubbles up the moment Donatello keels over like a limp noodle. For several minutes, the back of the van is pure chaos, raised voices, worried cries, upset tears and distressed movement, before Leo can finally wrangle everyone’s attention and energy into effective triage. Not a single one of them is whole, but they do their best to follow his shaky instructions. 

Everything in his body aches like a raw nerve, so much so that Leo could hardly feel the steady undercurrent of his twin’s echoing pain beneath his own. He can’t know everything that his little brothers endured when he separated from them inside the technodrome, but even just the blow that broke through Donnie’s shield at the top... Leo intimately knows the power behind those blows. He should have known -- should have realized sooner that Don could not have remained unscathed after such a direct hit. He should have been paying attention to everyone's condition...

Leo fights back the pure panic that washes through him when darkness starts to edge at his own vision. He can’t pass out on them too, they need direction and with Donnie out cold, there’s no one else with enough medical knowledge to walk them through dressing the wounds they’ve suffered, or using the equipment in the medbay. It takes Leo a moment to realize the scared whimpers he’s hearing distantly are his own. He’s waited too long, and now there is no telling who will konk out next, and whether or not they’d even wake up again. 

“Easy, Leo. Just one step at a time. We’ll get through this together, like we always do, okay?” Raph assures him with a gentle squeeze to this shoulder. 

He must be speaking out loud, but he can no longer hear himself above the ringing in his ears. He’s floating as the room gets dimmer. No, no, no, he doesn’t want to be alone in the dark again. 

“My son,” Splinter’s voice is the gentlest he has ever heard it as his pink hand brushes over his brow, “We’re here, you’re here with us, you're safe now.” 

Casey nervously pipes up, but he’s so very far away to Leo, “Isn’t there a medical facility we could go to?” 

“T-There aren’t any that would be non-human friendly yet, Casey,” Even April sounds shaky. 

“Barry-- we should call Barry, omigosh-- do we even know if he’s okay?? April could you, o-ow eheh...” Mikey’s weak laugh is a poor cover for his obvious pain as he pulls out his phone and nearly drops it when handing it over to her. His hands are shaking too much to work it. Leo tries not to think about nerve damage and how little he can do to reverse that...

“Nice thinking, Mikey...” Leo offers weakly and shivers as his eyes droop against his will, “Could-- could someone... turn on the l-lights...please?”

Several frightened voices call his name as he sinks deeper into the darkness, feeling small and terrified . Alone. Again. 

The Krang’s laughter echoes ominous around him and Leo feels his breath start to freeze in his lungs as--

Familiar warmth fills his chest, easing the chill, calming his breaths, sharing the pain . Leo wants to cry when he feels the presence somehow standing with him.  

I’m here. 

Relief battles against the agonizing memory of that cold dark void, trapped, terrified, alone-- 

Please-- please don’t leave me alone--

I won't.

Leo believes in those words, and finally lets go of conscious thought. 

.

.

.

The next several hours are a haze of agony and severe anxiety every time he wakes up dazed and unaware of where he is. Pain is always the first sensation, followed by dread, and cold. The endless cold vastness of dead space, alone --

I’m here. 

Leo clings to the comfort of those words and fades out again.

.

.

. 

Splinter and Draxum argue quietly when next he wakes up. He can’t really understand what they’re saying through the fog of hurt. It takes them a moment to even realize he’s staring dully between them as if following a ping pong match. 

“You shouldn’t be alive ,” the yokai sounds oddly fond as he injects something into Leo’s IV bag that makes the world go soft around the edges. There’s a thump followed by a grunt from Draxum.

“What I mean is. I am. Glad. That you. Are not extinguished,” he finishes awkwardly. 

“I still h’ven f’got you... you threw m’off a buildin’,” Leo slurs, barely able to keep his eyes open from the heavy combination of drugs keeping his pain and stress levels manageable.  

“And he still has not apologized for it,” Splinter gruffs, smoothing a hand over his brow. Leo closes his eyes and drifts away again before he can make out Draxum’s haughty laughing rebuttal.

Another laugh echoes sinister around him in the dark and he tenses. 

I’m here. 

He relaxes . 

.

.

.

The next time he wakes up, it’s with the dissociative numbness that only comes from a very strong cocktail of painkillers. He’s on his side... man he hates sleeping on his side, leaves such a bad crick in the neck... The dull pulsing throb in his shell even through the haze of medication tells him why it must be so. Bit by bit he registers his surroundings. 

Mikey is curled up carefully beside him. His little brother’s head is wrapped, and he can see a line of butterfly stitches peeking under the gauze. His mind moves like molasses through the fight, recalling the hit that separated them. How Leo had cracked his shell for the first time (but not the last) against the concrete slabs surrounding them, but Mikey-- Michelangelo had smacked head first into one. Mikey's hands are also bandaged up from fingertips to the elbows... and from what his blurred vision reveals, Leo has even more bandages all over his own body along with a few casted limbs. Mikey’s bandaged palm is on his plastron, just over where his heart beats. He’s so unnervingly quiet and still in his repose, so unlike the vibrant Michelangelo he knows, that it makes Leo’s heart speed up in fear . The machine he’s connected to beeps in tandem with his rising heart rate, betraying his conscious state. 

“Hey, Leon~” he can hear the smile in Mikey’s tired voice before he drags his eyes back to his little brother’s face. The skin under his eyes is bruised and puffy, no doubt from long hours of too many tears and not enough sleep. 

He croaks what is supposed to be Mikey’s name. His eyes blink closed for a long moment, and he jerks to fight it, feeling several injuries protesting at the violent movement. Groaning at the residual throb now thrumming throughout his battered limbs and shell, he shifts his gaze around the room desperately until it lands on another brother. 

Raphael is squished into a chair that’s just barely big enough for him, one arm in a sling, an eye hidden under bandages, and his cheek smushed where it rests against his less injured shoulder. He will definitely have a crick in his neck later... Raph’s good hand is curled protectively over the crown of his Donnie’s head where he lays with his back to Leo in the bed opposite him. 

His single eye that isn’t swollen shut widens in horror at the sight of the bloodied bandages all over his twin’s back. The heart monitor picks up the pace again. 

“Hey, hey--” Mikey shushes him softly, patting his plastron gently.

“Whas--”

“It’s okay, Leo--”

“H-happen--” his breath stutters as his chest aches from the pressure of his quickening breaths against his broken ribs. 

“Leo please, take it easy,” Mikey’s cracking voice finally makes him tear his sight away from twin’s unmoving form to his little brother now openly crying before him. “He’s gonna be o-okay. You’re both gonna be okay.”

“Mikesh, whappen--”

“I can’t talk about it right now, kay? M-Maybe later?” Mikey takes a shaky breath and wipes his cheek with a bandaged arm before hissing in pain.

“O-Okay, Migs,” Leo slurs, his eyes are drooping, but he forces his only good hand-- were they all just a band of one armed, no-armed ninjas now or what -- and clasps the hand Michael still had against his heart. “Wer gon be good, yeah?”

Michelangelo gives him a watery smile and nods, “Yeah.”

Leo’s eyes shut against his will. As the darkness surrounds him, he shudders. The glare of a red eye falls upon him. No, not again--

I’m here. 

Leo holds tight to that like a shield. 

.

.

.

Raph’s chair is now between their beds when consciousness finds him again. His big brother is asleep once more, but someone has found him a neck pillow to brace under his chin. The result is him snoring like a chainsaw. Leo’s eyes are gritty and he wants to rub them but moving is so hard so he just blinks several times. 

Donnie’s back is still to him in the next bed over, but his bandages are only tinted pink this time. He shivers at the memory of the blood and his heart monitor skips a beat. Raph snorts and stirs in his chair, his one good eye peeking open. He starts when he notices Leon awake. 

“Leo!” He winces, realizing how loud his excitement is, and looks over at the other bed, “Sorry Mikey just fell asleep, so we gotta be quiet.”

Leon squints at the other bed and sees a slip of orange bandana over the curve of Donnie’s bruised shoulder. Distracted, he traces all the visible injuries on his twin that he can see from his limited vantage point. 

“Why’s Don give’m a run fer my mummy?” he mutters, brow furrowed as he drags his eyes up to Raph and slowly lifts one corner of his mouth in a smile. 

Raphael watches him wide-eyed before rubbing a hand over his maskless face with a quiet groan, “You did not just say that on purpose. It’s the drugs. I’ma chalk it up to the drugs--” 

Leo tries to shift to get a better look at the other bed’s occupant only to end up whimpering as pain stabs through him. When it’s over, his eyes are watering and Raph has gotten up from his chair to reach for him. 

“Why’s Donnie lie that? Wha’ happened?” he wheezes out. 

“Easy, did ya want to move a bit? Raph can help, tell big bro what ya need.”

“Raphie, don’t-- yer putin’ t’much stress on yer injuries, I just know ish,” Leo grunts as he tries to wriggle away from Raphael’s touch, breaths quickening and the damn monitor broadcasting his agitation .

“Okay, okay, look I’m sitting, witness me sit. There, ya happy?” Raphael doesn’t quite manage to hide a grunt of discomfort as he settles down. “Don’t say I told you so, I will get a sandal, don’t try me.” 

Leo manages a true giggle at that, breathing becoming easier before pinning his older brother with a knowing look, “Yer dodgin’ my ques’... ques’.. Jus’ answer.” 

Raphael sighs but offers a lopsided smile, “I guess you an’ Donnie wanna compete even in this, huh? You guys keep waking up out of sync. Very un-twinlike of ya. Demanding answers about everybody, without ever thinking about yourselves.” 

He trails off, swallowing thickly and looking over at the other bed where their little brothers rest. 

“Whas happen, Raph?” Leo insists again, “Tell me?”

“It’s been a long three days, bro.”

Leo gapes, “T-Three days ?” 

“Yea, lemme fill ya in,” Raph’s eye is shining with unshed tears even as he smiles at Leo and reaches out again to rub a large thumb across his brow back and forth. Leo’s too honest when drugged to pretend he hates it, so he chirps softly instead and half closes his eyes as he leans into the petting. 

“Barry actually came in clutch, probably woulda lost my eye if he hadn’t been here... When the bandages come off, we’ll see how my vision is. Arm’s broken, shell’s busted, some burns from... from that stuff,” Raph pauses with a shaky breath, going silent for a long minute and just breathing. 

Leo blinks his eyes open, he can finally open both of them again, though his right one still feels sore. His big brother is looking into the middle distance, never stopping his gentle touch over Leon’s brow. 

“Raph?” Leonardo says barely above a whisper, wrapping his good hand around Raph’s wrist, “S’okay, ya dun hafta if--” 

"Mikey's got a lot of bruising and one hell of a concussion. He’s still getting around on his own the best out of all of us though. Donnie--" Raph interrupts his attempt to offer an out of the conversation, looking over at the other bed, and pride rolls off him like the single silent tear that rolls down his cheek, his voice is slightly thicker when he continues, "Mikey said that blow at the top wasn't the only one Donnie took for him that day. Dee did a good job being The Big Bro while we were both uhh... occupied . Kept Mikey safe . But his arms, Mikey’s arms haven’t stopped shaking, so Casey's been doing most of the cooking. It's been an experience learning that Casey knows next to nothing about spices. But well, Mikey, Dad and me take turns showing him what to add in. You gotta watch the kid drink some cinnamon cocoa, you’d swear it was the nectar of the gods...” 

Leo huffs a laugh, and feels relieved when it brings a smile back to Raph’s face.  

“That’s been helping keep Mikey distracted too. He's... not doing so good with being separated from anybody for too long right now."

Leo thinks back to waking up with Mikey curled up beside him. Looking back at his twin's bed and seeing him tucked against Donnie, clinging in much the same way he had to Leo at that time.

"He's taking turns," Raph explains, following his gaze, "Sometimes he sleeps with you, sometimes me, right now it's Dee..."

"Whas happen to Don? Why’s he s’hurt?"

"Donnie... he-- he got ripped out of the control console. Dee's not very talkative right now but Mike was there. To control the ship he said Donnie had to..."  Raphael shudders, closing his eye briefly, "Said he had to integrate with it through his shell... Then that hit from that asshole... He keeps waking up looking for you, like he thinks yer still in... in that place. I’m guessing concussion stuff? Won’t calm down ‘till he can see ya. Haven't seen you two so keen on each other since we were little. It'd be cute, if everything else wasn’t so..."

"F'dged?" 

"Did you censor yourself on purpose?"

"Nuh...fud. Fug... Fudgeh...f'rget it..."

Raph actually laughs, and Leo feels a million pounds of stress dissipate at the sound, chest aching with not a small amount of pride to have inspired even a little bit of humor in Raph. Things can't be so horrible, if he can still make Raphael laugh.

"Wer... gon'be okay, right Raphie?"

"Yea, little bro. We're gonna be okay," Raph's voice trembles but he's smiling as he says it, thumb never pausing its soothing motion across his forehead. 

It's too soon when sleep tries to claim him again, blurring Raph’s words and making them almost unintelligible in the fog creeping back over his mind. He whines and shifts trying to fight it. 

“Shh, Leo, rest. Raph’ll be here when you wake up,” Raphael promises. 

He has no doubts that Raphael will keep that promise, but he isn’t afraid of being alone while awake . 

What he fears is being alone and cold in the dark. Alone and floating in the vastness of space. Alone under the beam of a red eye . Alone--

I’m here. 

Leo weeps, but it’s from relief .

.

.

.

The next time he blinks into quasi-awareness the pain has somehow doubled, like two conflicting songs being played in the background, low enough to not compete with each other, but loud enough to make out the lyrics of both if you chose to focus. Whatever drugs were in his system must be running low if Leo can feel his twin’s agony alongside his own... Or maybe it’s Donnie’s morphine that has run its course and his twin is in enough suffering that even he can feel it. Has he been projecting on Donnie this whole time too? The thought curdles his stomach with worry . 

His movement is sluggish as he shifts to look for his twin. He’s still in the bed across the way, however this time facing towards him. With his mask off, it’s easy to see the harrowed creases of Donnie’s forehead. Sweat beads on Donnie’s brow, and there’s an ugly bruise discoloring the whole right side of his face, cheek puffy with swelling still. His arms are curled in front of him carefully, one is casted to below the elbow, the other has a stiff wrist brace, a phone still cradled loosely in his better hand. Leo frowns, knowing his dum dum brother has probably been trying to work on whatever nerdisms he can while barely being able to use his damn phone. The steady beeping of the heart monitors they are connected to is somehow nerve wracking and soothing all at once. It at least lets him know his twin is stable, and there are no immediate concerns.

Mikey sighs in his sleep nearby and Leo’s gaze jumps to his little brother, curled up asleep in the chair between their beds that Raph usually occupies. There’s a teddy tucked in his bandaged arms, one of Raphael’s, and he’s smushed into the large pillow draped over the arm of the chair. Though Mikey is small, it still can’t be comfortable to sleep there. 

“He won’t sleep outside the medbay. Hasn’t since we got back,” a warm human hand brushes over the back of his neck and he jumps before the slow soothing motions make him recognize the touch,  “Hey, it’s April, you’re alright... You said that out loud by the way.” 

“Why I kep doin’ that--” 

“The drugs I’m sure, or the concussion, or both probably. Either way, you’ve been a wealth of entertainment, especially when you’re extra out of it,” April chuckles, and something cool and soothing is being applied to his shell. 

“Fugg, nooo-- What I say?” Leo whines, hissing when shifting pulls a wave of fire through the cracks in his shell. April shushes him quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder to squeeze gently, thumb tracing over one of the yellow stripes on his skin. 

“Ask Donnie to show you later, he records everything,” She answers bemused, before continuing her work at his shell, “Raph’s gone to take a shower, I promised him I’d change your shell dressing and stay ‘til he was back so Mikey didn’t get anxious. You doing okay? Need anything?” 

He cranes his neck to give her a tired smile, “Not f’me... Dee, Dee’s in pain tho. Needs mo’meds.”  

April looks at him silently for a long moment, before turning to look at Donnie, seeing the discomfort now broadcasting on his sleeping face. When she looks back at Leo she raises a brow over the rim of her red glasses. 

“Is this one of your freaky twin things?”

Leo grins though it makes half his face ache. 

April shakes her head with a small laugh, “Well, thing is Donnie asked for us to back off his painkillers. Makes his mind too fuzzy to work. Yes, I know he shouldn’t be, but--” 

She trails off avoiding his gaze. 

“Whas it? Whas wrong?” When she doesn’t respond right away, Leo’s heart monitor picks up in rhythm, he prompts her again, “April, tell me...” 

“Donnie’s been remotely upgrading the Lair security. Said it was serious, that it couldn’t wait. We still have the key-- and we’re in no shape to defend it if anyone tries to take it right now. He won’t--” she hesitates again, before steeling herself with a slow breath, “He won’t say what exactly, but he saw something when he took over the ship.” 

Leo’s mind is spinning in a million directions. The technodrome-- he asked him to hijack it. Raph told him, Donnie integrated into the ship-- it’s what caused such terrible injuries to his shell. Guilt twists his guts as he stares at his twin. 

“He was adamant we let him work, and after everything, well... we agreed as a family. Sorry Leo, you were asleep for that meeting, and something tells me it was for the best,” April finishes with a sigh, rubbing his arm soothingly as his heart monitor beeps in warning. 

“No, no--” Leo’s brow furrows, eyes never leaving his brother, “I trus’ Don. If ‘e says it needs t’happen, then, it neesh to... Hey, Big Sis?” 

April squeezes his shoulder again and he can hear the smile in her voice, “What’s up little bro?”

“Could you...” 

Leo’s fading again. He hates being this tired all the time, being unable to hold more than a three minute conversation before the darkness claims him again. When he shivers at the memory, April must mistake it for cold because she pulls the blankets tighter around him. 

“Ask Raphie t’put... put our besh togesh peas?”

“You got it, that’s an O’Neil promise.”

He tries to thank her but the shadows take over his vision. This time, he doesn’t simply wait in the void of his memory's making. He’s pushing through the terror and reaching, pushing out of the darkness, towards the familiar warm light he can always feel inside him, until he hit the barrier his twin has always kept around himself to buffer their connection. But something doesn’t feel right, something is different, off about the arrangement this time. He isn’t being kept out, rather something is being kept in . He pushes further, bumping along the edges, with a little more pressure, a little more insistence each time until he finds a soft spot, until something gives, until he can slip into a crack past his brother’s defenses and--

Leonardo nearly shrinks back at the inescapable tangle of horror .  

Everything feels slimy.

And slippery. 

And slithering.

I’m here!

Flashes of translucent pink-violet tentacles surround him and Leo is consumed with a dread and disgust so violent he chokes down the urge to vomit. His head is full of images, most flashing faster than he can process, and he’s thankful because those that he can glimpse are nothing but death and annihilation, but he pushes through the pulsing and the writhing terror of it all until--

I’m here, Dee! 

Another wall, the dam behind which Donatello has always withheld his emotion. Pink fleshy tendrils encase it like a tomb, only a sliver of violet light peeping through here and there. It nauseates him, but Leo pulls and tears against the tumorous growths, ripping them away from his brother’s essence, reaching for the light. 

Let me be here for you too!

The horrifying images stutter like a film projector getting tangled in the feed and the pictures start to burn away. He pushes harder , reaches deeper into the nest of awful sensory nightmare .

I won’t leave you alone with this!

The tendrils slowly slide away from the cracked walls in near shambles but somehow still standing, and in their place he is wrapped with a distant echo of gratitude . 

.

.

.

In the place between memory and dream, he floats...

You-- You’ve ruined everything!

Every ache in his body makes itself known. So much so that he cannot tell if he is recovering from the worst beat down of his life or still enduring it. In the distance, something beeps rhythmically and fast... too fast. 

And now... my wrath will be reserved for you alone . 

He floats. In a blanket of darkness, with carcasses of decaying krang amalgamations, of fragmented ships and wreckage. The cold seeps into every pore of his being, choking the warmth out of his skin. 

You think you’ve won?

I’m here!

No, he chokes on the blood pooling in his mouth, and in his lungs from the impact of each hit. 

You wretched

I’m here!

His chest aches for the sweet lightness of air, but instead there are claws beating him down.

Little

I’m here!

Down, down, down, down, under the glare of a red eye... 

PEST!

Leo~!

Deep into the crushing weight of his own terror.

Wipe that grin off your face!  I’M HERE~!

He whimpers breathless, tensing, waiting for the blow that will break him. The swing comes down and he feels--

FURY whirling around him like a hurricane, violently dispelling the memory of the blow that broke nearly all of his ribs. Melting the breath frozen in his lungs and he gasps for air, mind spinning and dizzy with foreign emotion. Burning away the beam of scarlet in the darkness until it shifts into the soft hazy LED white of the overhead can lights Donnie had installed in the medbay last year.

Two sets of heart monitors are screeching with elevated heart rates in the distance. Distance? Leo blinks and the tears flow over his face leaving uncomfortable trails of moisture, but he can’t move. Fingertips lightly pat his plastron with a repetitive motion. He struggles to focus his doubled vision to the casted arm moving frantic in front of him, back and forth, back and forth in a familiar sign, over another’s chest. It repeats again and again, along with a careful tapping on his bandaged plastron. 

His mind finally registers the sign for breathe and Leonardo gasps around a broken sob, closing his eyes and shaking apart. With the release of all the tension in his body comes the pain of every injury he stressed during his panic. Another sob tears from his throat and he curls up as much as his injured body will allow. The din of half a dozen voices begins to filter through his frazzled mind. Whimpering a pathetic broken sound, he wishes only to hide from everyone, yet he doesn’t want to be alone . 

Protectiveness washes over him in a soothing wave, gradually quieting his broken sobs into soft whines of discomfort. He reaches for Donnie’s hand and holds it carefully, wary of causing any pain to his damaged wrist. Don folds a hand around his in a firm grip and squeezes. It takes several moments, but soon the room falls silent save for the calmed beeping of their heart monitors and Leo’s hitching breaths as he winds down slowly. 

“Where’d everybody go?” Leo pretends his voice isn’t so wobbly several minutes later as he finally uncurls to look around them.

Donnie releases his hand momentarily and signs more calmly now, but the motions are still made awkward between the cast and the brace.

[[ Asked them to leave us. ]]

The sound of quiet sniffles in front of him draws his eyes up to his brother’s face and Leo is startled to find Donnie’s eyes shining with held back tears as he glares at the bed covers between them. Leo studies his brother trying to understand the feelings Don cannot express with the same ease as himself and their brothers always have. He reaches out into the ephemeral space between them, spirit stretching in a motion made natural from years of practice, until he can brush up against his brother’s edges and--  

It is like walking up to an overburdened dam, the violet walls are meters thick, tall and imposing, and yet they groan and buckle with the immensity of what they hold back, spider cracks spreading like wildfire along the surface, leaking tiny jets of emotion that lap against his ankles in little waves. Just behind the immense barrier, an ocean of feeling that Leo has only ever caught glimpses of before, threatening to burst forth at any wrong move.

In front of him, Donnie continues chewing his bottom lip hard enough that he will be bleeding soon if he does not stop.

“Dee?” he whispers, and as soon as he has Don’s attention, motions to his own mouth, “Want something else to chew? Maybe the blanket?”

The furrows in Don’s brow deepen and he chews harder, almost spiteful.

“Donnie, stop-- please ,” Leo squeezes the hand he still holds hard enough to know it has to hurt, but it works as intended.

Donatello closes his eyes with a sigh, tears finally leaking from his eyes as he does, but stops chewing. He keeps his eyes closed, brow creased, silent save for his shaky breathing. In the space that only exists between their souls, Leo senses himself still wrapped up in a feeling not his own. He’s being guarded , he slowly realizes, from the tremor of fear still waiting in the back of his mind along with his horrid memories, from the festering wraiths still tugging at his twin’s edges.

For as long as Leo can remember, this has been his role, reaching out without hesitation whenever he sensed his twin needed. He cannot recall a time when their connection has been so free flowing. So... reciprocated, even with everything Donnie was still holding back . It almost feels like they don't need words. Leo is fascinated, and projects his curiosity through the open channel between their spirits. Donnie doesn’t withdraw for once, and the dam groans as the cracks spread. 

He looks at Leo with a knowing clarity, then shifts his gaze away with a shrug. 

For so long Leo has reached out, and while not exactly rejected, Donnie never reached back. His walls permanently affixed between them and growing thicker with every year they got older, with every year Donnie thought himself wiser to what he deemed Leo’s childish whim of their ‘twinhood.’ Leo thinks he senses shame and immediately responds with reassurance. 

Donnie scoffs aloud, and tries to pull his hand away, but Leo won’t let go, he laces their fingers together and holds tighter. 

"You kept being asleep whenever I'd wake up,” Leo whispers between them, slightly off balance from the new sensations and the extra set of emotions coursing through him, but still manages a shaky smile, “Hi.” 

The sudden fondness that spills over the top of the dam and waterfalls onto him makes his eyes mist up. 

“T-This is new...” his voice cracks on the whisper.  Guilt  follows heavily at the admission. 

“What’s wrong?” Leo asks gently. 

The feeling intensifies, until Donnie looks away, covering his face with his casted arm. Leo finally shakes their hands loose at this, and Donatello seems to take this as a bad sign because he whimpers and curls in on himself. 

With everything in his body stinging like a raw nerve, Leo drags himself closer, inch by agonizing inch until he can throw his own casted arm around Donatello’s trembling shoulder, careful of his injured shell. His twin releases a shuddering breath, chirping a confused little whine as he blinks up at him in surprise. 

Leo offers his own consoling chirp as he settles and meets Donatello’s gaze.

After a moment of silence, Don offers a lazy salute sign with his mostly good hand.

[[ Hi. ]]

"There you are," Leo half smiles.   

Donatello presses his mouth into a thin line, and Leo knows it’s to prevent himself from chewing on his already tattered lips again. His twin’s throat works, and his jaw moves but he only makes a few agitated clicks, no words finding their way to his tongue. With a deep breath, Donnie shapes several frustrated signs. 

[[ Why are you comforting me?? ]] His hands point between them with sharp jerky movements. 

Leo looks blankly at him, because isn’t it obvious? He’ll chalk it up to the major concussions they’re both still recovering from. 

“Because you’re having gross feels time... duh?”

[[ What about you? ]]

“W-What about me?” Leo stutters and tries to laugh but it’s weak.

“Leon,” Donnie croaks his name out loud, thick with frustration. 

“Not everything's a competition, Donald," Leon huffs with false bravado to hide the inadequacy that chokes him as he looks over his brother's battered form, “It’s not about me.” 

It’s what he comforted himself with, in the cold . In the dark . Through the pain . And the fear . When he was sure he would be dead . 

Donnie shivers before him staring intently, as if he can feel every thought in his mind. Donatello moves his hands, but aborts the signs too soon for Leo to catch his meaning. He waits through several false starts patiently before Donnie finally reveals his thoughts. 

[[ Mad at you. ]]

Leo chuckles, disheartened , "Yea, what else is new?"

He feels alarm bubble back at him. 

[[ NO. ]] 

Donnie stresses with a long click in his throat. 

[[ Not like that -- Not good at this . ]] 

His twin heaves a frustrated breath as he motions between them before curling his hands towards his plastron and scratching.

“Are you... trying to have a heart to heart with me, Donbon?” he can’t help but tease, it’s his default coping mechanism. 

[[ Stop! Being serious . Pay attention. ]] 

Donatello’s glare is scarier without his eyebrows on, and no one will convince him otherwise. 

“You have a captured audience, bro-- literally. I can't go anywhere,” Leon wiggles his casted limbs to emphasize.

“ Leo ,” Donnie speaks aloud again, his voice cracking on the name. And Leo quiets at his seriousness and watches his twin sign solemn. 

[[ You left us behind. ]]

“I’m not apologizing for that,” Leonardo growls around the knot in his throat, looking away stubbornly. “I did what had to be done.” 

[[ Could have worked together--]]

“You were miles away, Don! You got knocked out of the sky! After that hit, I didn’t even know if you were stable, or alive , or--” Leo cuts himself off when his voice cracks, clearing his throat, “There wasn’t another way. Either three of us walked out of there, or none of us did. The latter was not an option I was gonna entertain.”

Donnie is nearly seething, his hand movements twisted awkward between the cast and the rage bleeding from his spirit. 

[[ There always is another way-- ]] 

“We had one shot, and I took it. If I hadn’t --” 

Leo feels the aching darkness of the prison dimension in his mind and trembles, remembers the flashes of doom from his twin’s dreams and they both shiver in tandem. Taking a calming breath, he tries a different approach. 

“Don, if you’d been the last one up there, what would you have done?”

[[ Thought my way out!! ]]

“Yea well, I’ve never been as smart as you...” Leo grumbles, hunching in on himself. His chest pangs with the feeling of wrong wrong wrong . 

His brother tries to speak again, but the words die on his tongue as he smacks his lips together in annoyance. His fingers curl closed at his chest, wordless there as well. Leo feels the frustration building, the dam rumbling between their channel, and acts on instinct. 

Tell me this way?

Donatello’s eyes snap up to his in surprise. Doubt filters through to him. 

S’okay. Just try?  

Donnie stares at him in silence, until his eyes begin to take on a watery shine again.

Gone.

Leo shakes his head in confusion. 

You were gone.

He watches as Donnie taps the middle of his plastron absently. 

You were gone, from here.

Leon remembers the cold of the prison dimension. How it felt like it was not only surrounding him, but was coming from inside him, and wonders now how much of that had been their disconnection. Donnie shivers with him at the memory, closing his eyes with a stuttered breath. 

You can finally feel me? 

He can’t quite hide the longing, the years of loneliness he has endured in the question. 

Donnie stares at him in growing realization.   

Didn’t understand. So I just... 

Pushed me away... 

Remorse floods into him, and the strength of it chokes the air from his lungs. He pushes through the wave with ready forgiveness , wrapping his twin in it. 

The dam groans louder, like a wounded beast in its death throes.

Donnie curls in on himself as much as his injuries will allow, rubbing the uncomfortable dampness gathering once more in his eyes. He tries to pull away as usual, and it pains Leo to give up the flow of their connection even a little bit, after so often starving for it, after finally getting a taste of what it could be like. For so long, Leon has existed alone in this space, that he doesn't remember how open their channel now is. He doesn’t think about how any of his thoughts echo between them as Leo lets go, like he always does for his twin’s solace. 

His twin shakes as he tries to sign. 

[[ You took away our choice. ]]

“I’d do it again,” he holds firm to his self-sacrifice , and then--

The dam erupts .

Leo’s chest jams with a cacophony of feeling as the barrier crumbles, the full impact of all of his twin’s repressed emotions crashing over him, into him, through him all at once like a tsunami rushing ashore.

Grief. 

Despair. 

Loneliness. 

Loss. Loss. Loss. Loss. Loss. LOSS.

“Donnie--” Leo almost can’t breathe from the weight of the anguish flowing out of his twin. 

The intensity makes his skin pebble, and he shivers against the sensation of  too much too much!! The bleed through is so strong he can't tell if it's coming from his twin, or himself, or both . He makes to move his arm away, to give Donnie more breathing room, but when his twin chirps in utter distress, he aborts and stays put. Overwhelmed with sentiment, he moves closer on instinct until their foreheads knock together gently, closing his eyes against the tears streaming suddenly down both their faces. 

I’m here.

You’re back.

I’m here, Dee.

You’re back.

I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here.  

You’re back. You’re back. You’re back.

Silence settles between them as Leo waits for the crunchiness of the air against their skin to die down, to stop buffeting them until they feel raw. Time crawls like molasses around them while the wave of emotion ebbs and recedes, and their breathing calms, and their eyes stop blurring with salt and water. His soul is dragged over three miles of prickly reef while churning through the waves and back, and still he reaches . 

I’m still here.

I’m here too.

Donatello nods, watching him like he can see every doubt in Leonardo’s mind now. It’s unnerving and yet Leo feels somehow... comforted . 

I won’t push you away anymore...

Leo grabs a corner of the blanket and uses it to wipe at Donnie’s tear soaked face. His twin protests with several annoyed clicks deep in his throat, but doesn’t actually try to stop him. Instead, he grasps another part of the blanket and returns the favor as Leo exhales a watery laugh smothered by cotton. 

Promise?

When he releases the blanket, Donnie stares at him solemnly as he places his pointer finger against his lips, then brings the hand down with the palm flat against his top of the thumb-side of his curled fist. 

Leo squeezes his eyes shut and bites his bottom lip so he doesn’t tear up again and nods. They rest quietly for several long minutes, comfortable with the silence in the room because of the welcome noise of their hearts beating in tandem. 

With a stealing breath, Leon braves a question, feeling as though he already has the answer.

How much do you know?  

His twin’s brow furrows deep, and Donnie looks tired, so tired when he finally whispers. 

“Everything.”

Leo’s face pales. His eyes sting again at the corners. 

“E-Everything?”

Everything.

The thought echoes between them as Leon’s breath quickens. As his memories treacherously turn back to the glare of a red eye in the dark. The desolate isolation of his torture under outraged claws--

I’m here, Leo.

And just like that, his mind’s eye turns gently away from the horror, and instead is swathed in violet light until he blinks it away. Fresh tears paint his face.

“C-Can you see it?” Leon whispers, trembling. 

“More like... feel it...” Donnie confesses into the quiet between them. He looks away with a shrug. “But, I record everything so... after your first dream, I pulled up the file.”

“What?” Leo’s voice pitches high with alarm. 

Did you watch??

Donatello looks back at him, calculating, and then nods. 

“Why-- why did you watch that, Don?” His chest heaves with something between annoyance and betrayal, and he tries to shrink back from his twin. “I didn't want you to know... I didn't want a-anyone to know--”

So you wouldn’t be alone.

“What?” 

With what happened.  

“I'll erase the file if you want. Delete it, shred it-- corrupt the file so it can never ever see the light again,” Donatello speaks with a clear concise wrath , purple scales flickering with furious mystic energy for a split second. “Just like that monster .” 

The angry response Leo was gearing up short circuits in his brain, and he stares. Donnie stares back, unblinking. 

I can’t do the same here... 

But whenever it comes back to you. 

I’ll feel it. 

And I’ll be here. 

You won’t be alone with this.

At the silent promise, Donnie won’t look at him. He’s too busy studying and picking at the little pills on the sheets between them. Leo gawks in awed silence for long enough that Donatello starts to squirm. Then he whispers.

“What about you , Dee?”

Leo remembers the sickening slithering horror crawling within his twin’s dream and a shiver runs up both their shells simultaneously. 

“You record everything right?” He gives him a tired, very small grin. Donnie glares at him and his silence is answer enough. Leon has the gall to laugh. 

“ Curse your deductive skills, Nardo...”

But then Donatello takes a shuddering breath, eyes distant.

What It showed me though... 

That’s only here.

Leo gets a flash of what he’s sure the future would be like if they had failed... if they yet fail. He begins to realize what has haunted his twin for days, what has urged him to struggle through the pain, and fatigue, and injury to reprogram miles of code, to bolster up defenses, to protect . He pushes past the dread sense of inescapable horror with the same defensive ferocity with which Don had dispelled his own bad visions. 

You won’t be alone with this either. 

Whenever It comes back...

I’ll be here too. 

Don watches him quietly with the same pensive stare he gets whenever he’s solving a puzzle. When he finally finds his voice again, he doesn’t ask a question, he offers a conclusion as he taps lightly over his plastron.

“You’ve always been here, haven’t you...” 

Leo’s heart skips a beat, and his heart monitor blips out of rhythm in protest. The answer gets caught in his throat, and he can barely breathe around the hope swarming around his heart. 

“So... how would you rate my ability to finally accept that you were right about us all along?” Donnie asks. 

“Huh?” 

“That we are, in fact, twins ... have been all this whole time,” Donnie blows out a long breath of defeated acceptance, looking flatly at Leo as he continues, “Very unsatisfying, very very unsatisfying, wish Donnie were less of a dum dum sooner --”

“Satisfying. The most satisfying ‘I told you so’ in all of existence,” Leo croaks, shuffling close again to bonk their heads together gently, “To the scale of infinity squared--”

“Technically ‘infinity’ constitutes all numbers, so you cannot multiply it or--”

“Shut up , Donnie, please let me have this...”

Donatello sticks his tongue out between his teeth and bites it with an irritated chirp, and that’s as much of a concession as he’s going to get from his twin.

Leonardo feels somewhere deep in his soul, like he has had this conversation before. In another place, in a forgotten time, but the pieces don’t line up quite the same, like the image shifted midway in the making somehow from despair to hope. All he can do is blink in confusion, and let the unexpected tears that have sprung forth fall. He is so over how much his tear ducts keep betraying him today. 

He grasps his twin’s hand once more, overwhelmed with the sense of déjà vu. When Donnie does not pull away, rather grasps back, he knows his twin feels it too. Leo allows Don to enjoy the peace they’ve found between their connection for exactly three minutes and eighteen seconds.

Wait... so are we mind melding?

No. This is strictly a Twin Thing, open parenthesis trademark close parenthesis. 

I’m pretty sure we’ve at least talked like this with Raph and Mikey during fights.

Well, I don’t feel their feelings, thank Hawking. And as for speaking, we could probably do it first . We just... never tried...

Leo grins slowly. 

Shut. Up. 

I haven’t said anything.  

You’re literally THINKING it. 

Am not.

Nardo, you’re ruining the moment! 

C’mon Donbon, you know it’s not a moment unless I do... 

And Leo laughs through his tears, squeezing his twin’s hand tightly, extending the warmth he feels inside to surround his twin, because despite everything he's not brave enough to say it aloud. And his twin-- 

Donnie squeezes his hand back just as tight, smiling small and lopsided as tears roll down his face too. Warmth surrounds Leo in return, and that tells him everything he needs to know.    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A/N: I have.... so much more in my brain that did not fit into the context of this fic. So I will continue with this universe via the other brothers’ stories. I have spent way too many hours crying over these turtle children to stop at this story alone. Please come along on the journey with me if you liked this story. Thank you to all the beautiful commenters and especially those who cried with me in the last chapter. Thank you for feeling these feels with me. Much love~💜💙💖🧡

Donnie and the bros using sign language inspo was derived from so many incredible artists, but my main influence was HappyFoxx-art's Aftermath comic. This also inspired my thought process on how severe the boys' injuries might actually have been and got a lot of my wheels turning on what recovery might look like for them. Shout out to all authors/artists juggling aftermath stories or arcs because holy bajeebus handling that many characters in one setting is challenging.

If anyone is interested in some cutting room floor talk, feel free to ask me questions here or on my tumblr. Thank you all!

[froggy14-h0me]

This is a fan art of somerandomdudelmao! Make sure to read their comic's and look at their work!

[mintiicinnamonii]

TMHT CHAPTER FINALLYYYY!!!!

For my LMK fans, Year of the Dragon will get a second chapter sometime this month! <33

[thatcrazyfanfictionwriter]

(I've been binging Cass' Apocalypse Series over and over for almost a week, and this came to me. Hope you enjoy @somerandomdudelmao)

When Draxum returned Casey after the whole oozequito incident, everyone knew that nothing had changed. They could tell from the feeling of a shell beneath his hoodies and how chirping seemed to come to him more naturally than it had in the past. A cloaking spell could only hide so much, especially from the four creatures who had practically raised the kid.

However, none of them were upset like Draxum had assumed. The only reason they had been so upset before was because it hadn't been Casey's choice to mutate. In their crumbling world where just surviving was a struggle, all of them valued what little freedom they had left.

Remaining a turtle had been Casey's choice, and it was one that had everyone beaming. Casey was their kid, had been ever since Cassandra found him in that alley. They were his dads, his uncles, his teachers, and now their kid was choosing to remain a mutant turtle, just like them.

They kept it to themselves though. Casey wanted to keep it a secret, so they let him. But if Leo just happened to leave his shell wax out when Casey's scutes were starting to shed, well, he was a busy turtle. And if Don just happened to adjust the kids ration size to fit his new metabolism, who was gonna stop him. And Mikey was always up to some weird Ninpo stuff, so it wasn't weird if he would occasionally recharge the cloaking spell.

After all, Casey was their kid, perhaps now more than ever