Chapter Text
Mikey opened the fridge again, with the absurd notion that maybe if he looked in there a third time there might be something appealing. A part of him knew the effort was a waste, even if he found something, he was sure he wouldn't be able to stomach it, but at least it meant he was doing something.
Which, you know, was more than he can say about the past eleven days.
It had started off with a trip to the hidden city like most things do. While one could easily spend weeks just going to every destination on the map, the brothers had decided to go somewhere off the map. It wasn't as hard to decide where to go, since finding the secret locations in the hidden city was actually the easy part. See, most of the uncharted territories in the hidden city had challenges, and their destination- the hidden abyss- was rumored to have a pretty awesome artifact hidden in its depths.
The plus side was that the deeper you go; the more mystic abilities and weapons are amplified. Unfortunately, the plus side was also the downside as their weapon’s mystic abilities became too powerful to use efficiently so they had to stick with just using the basic weapons on their own. The only one unbothered by this was Donnie but that was to be expected, Mikey on the other hand was starting to feel uneasy without the mystic kick that he had gotten so used to.
They had been traveling for about six increasingly boring hours when they had gotten into a brawl with some very unfriendly Mystic snakes, who didn't exactly appreciate them disturbing their sleep. One of the snakes had managed to take a bite out of his arm, while it wasn't enough to take a chunk out, it still left behind a nasty wound and he had to be sidelined for the rest of the fight. Leo’s satchel had run out of gauze, so he was forced to wait until he could portal them home to get more medical attention.
Ultimately, they were forced to flee, something in the hidden abyss made portals too unstable to safely take them out of the sprawling maze of a dungeon that they were essentially trapped in and believe him when he says they tried, or rather, Leo had tried. In hindsight, it was probably a stupid thing to forget but Mikey was pretty sure they had a good excuse with all the creatures crawling around the place.
Once they got a bit closer to the entrance, Leo tried once again to create a portal, hoping at this depth they would be more stable. Mikey’s arm was looking pretty bad at this point, already bleeding through the little gauze they had, so the stakes were raised. He drew a circle in the air with his sword, but the portal It made was…unsettling. It was its usual blue colour, but the edges flickered and glitched every few seconds.
“Uh, Leo?” Donnie tilted his head, Examining the distorted portal “I Don’t think it’s stabl-“
He might as have been talking to a brick wall because Leo had already gone through, before they could even think of following the portal snapped shut behind him, and well, there went their quick exit.
But it became clear that was going to be the least of their problems when every attempt to call Leo's phone failed to connect.
The fact he wasn't home when they got there is what really set the alarm bells off though, and when Donnie tried tracking his phone, he didn't appear to be anywhere on the planet.
For the better of the past eleven days, Mikey was stuck in the infirmary out of necessity and Donnie was holed up in his lab out of choice, Raph acting as a messenger between the two. He said that Donnie was pretty sure his phone didn't just break but he still had no idea where Leo was.
Even after he was able to leave the infirmary, there wasn't much Mikey could do, Donnie was the only one that could help Leo right now. He hated feeling useless and unproductive, especially when one of his brothers were in danger. He knew Raph did as well if his twitchy demeanor didn't immediately give that away. The mutual anxiety shared by his family only grew as the days went on.
After another fruitless search through the fridge, Mikey sighed and settled for just grabbing a can of soda, deciding to head back to his room for the night. He was just about to pull back the curtain when the sound of metal clattering to the ground reached his ears. He was about to dismiss it as just Donnie dropping something when he heard shouting; distant as it travelled through the various twists and turns of the lair.
"-eo!"
Mikey didn't even notice he began running before he was already outside the kitchen.
And there he was; His mask was pulled down to his neck and his sword was laying on the ground, as were the shattered pieces of Donnie's favorite coffee mug, Raph and Donnie were already there in the kitchen, standing in front of Leo, gaping in disbelief. But there was something about the scene, no, about Leo that made Mikey feel uneasy.
"Where have you been?" He brushed past his stock-still brothers and placed his hands on Leo's shoulders. He shook him lightly, confirming that this was not in fact a dream, his voice cracked slightly upon the realization. "Are you hurt?"
He took a closer look at Leo and the source of his unease became clear; Leo's expression was blank. Where Leo always greeted them with a warm smile that lit up the room, he simply stared right through them, no smile, no sounds- was he even breathing?- like they weren't even there. Raph was beside him still trying to get a response but nothing he was saying seemed to register to Leo.
"Why isn't he saying anything?" He turned to his left where Donnie was standing.
Instead of answering him, Donnie got closer and waved a hand in front of Leo's face, "Nardo, Are you with u-"
Mikey could barely blink before all three of them were pulled into a crushing hug. Leo started laughing, a wet chuckle that came out was almost a sob if only a little less wet, the line between the two was further blurred when Mikey felt his left shoulder get damp with tears.
Mikey swallowed against the lump in his throat. "Leo?" He asked, more than a little unsettled at this point.
"....I'm fine..... I just," He took a shuddering breath, clinging tighter to his brothers,"..I just...really missed you guys."
A loud thud echoed through the sewers as Leo unceremoniously face planted onto the floor with a short yelp. The cyan portal overhead closed while he dizzily sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
Okay, he thought, He probably could have aimed that better.
He opened his eyes before blinking a couple of times to comprehend what he was seeing. The lair, their home, was completely trashed. They had only been gone for a half a day, but the state of the lair was more akin to a demolished haunted house than a home. The lack of a blue light told him that his portal had closed, and a quick glance confirmed that he was the only one who made it through.
Leo let out a short string of curses that would… well it probably wouldn’t phase a sailor but would definitely get him grounded for a week, and that was if he was lucky; Leo ignored the ringing in his ears and made a hasty round around the lair.
“Hello?” He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out into sewers, not quite able to smooth out the shakiness of his voice” Dad?” The name pointlessly bounced off the halls of the empty and utterly destroyed lair.
He looped back around to Donnie's lab, before he cautiously pulled back the curtain and stepped into the lab, just like the rest of the lair it looked like a hurricane had sneezed on it. Leo crouched down and balanced on the balls of his feet, picking up a tiny piece of rubble and grinding it between his fingertips. Not only had the lair been trashed, it had also been ransacked; The usual bits and bobs that were scattered around the lab were now eerily gone, as were most of Donnie's priceless inventions. That ruled out the possibility of an earthquake, but Leo was pretty sure they would have noticed an earthquake happening even if they were in the hidden city.
“Man, Dee is gonna freak.” He muttered to himself, belatedly realising that he probably will not be the only one freaking out, their home was in shambles after all. He stood up and wiped the surprisingly thick amount of dust on his thighs before checking out the rest of the rooms, which much like the rest of the lair, wasn’t much to write home about and more importantly didn’t show any trace of his father.
It took several minutes of prying with his sword for the manhole cover that lead to the surface to open; if it were even possible, the condition of New York surprised him more than a dilapidated lair ever could. The landscape was scorched, and the streets were empty, the usual lively chatter and distant hum of cars passing by was gone, replaced with a low artificial buzz, coming from nowhere, yet everywhere at the same time, its silence almost deafening in comparison.
Well, this wasnt the worst fever dream he’s ever had but it was definitely up there.
His thoughts and inner ramblings were interrupted by the alarming number of footsteps heading in his direction. He turned around to see about a dozen figures who seemed to be cloaked in literal shadows, if that was possible, with both traditional ninja weapons and, more worryingly, guns.
“Drop your weapon!” the… person? closest to Leo barked, their voice garbled and raspy and it would have been difficult to decipher if they weren't screaming in his face. Though the gun pointed at his head probably would have gotten the message across on its own anyway. "Get your hands where I can see them!"
Not willing to risk a bullet in between the eyes, even if this was most likely a fever dream; Leo grasped the hilt of his sword and weighed his options. But the choice was made for him when the one of the ninjas on the left got a shuriken to the throat, collapsing onto the road, their body crumbling into dust upon impact.
Then, all hell broke loose.
Leo quickly hid behind a nearby building, glancing around the corner at the anarchy. The newcomer was being fired at by the shadow ninjas but for every shot they fired, their numbers dwindled. The figure leaped off the shoulders of who he assumed to be the leader and snapped their neck off, dust pluming out in the place of a blood.
Wait, not dust, paper?
The last origami ninja crumbled onto road and the street was once again quiet save for the ever-present low buzz. Leo gingerly stepped back onto the road, squinting his eyes as the almost not existent light made it quite the challenge to make out the lone victor.
“Mikey?”
He turned around, his eyes narrowing in the dark. He took a couple of steps forward which allowed Leo to see him more clearly. Leo’s mouth snapped shut and while whatever he planned on saying died in his throat. However, his brother had no trouble finding his voice.
“So…. it’s really you, you came back."