Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“No.”

“Come on, Raph!”

“No.”

“But I’m so bored!”

“Don’t care. You’re not going with them.”

Raph stands in front of Leo, blocking not only the sewer exit but also Junior, April, and Casey, with his arms crossed over his chest and staring down at Leo with slightly narrowed eyes as if trying to discourage Leo from picking an argument. Leo simply tosses his head back and groans. “It’s not even that big of a deal! I can kick some petty thief butt!” He exclaims as he goes into a fighting stance.

The fighting stance immediately falls apart as Leo hisses upon putting too much of his weight onto his bad leg and leans against his crutch as he lifts his foot off the ground. Raph's tough expression falters into that of a soft one. “Leo, you got beaten to a pulp, you need to rest more than ever. I promise that by next week you’ll be able to go on patrol, but until then, you’re staying in here,” Raph says quietly.

“I promise we’ll be fine, M—Leo,” Junior says, quickly correcting himself as he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. Casey gives Junior a large smile before roughly hitting his back, Junior lets out a soft ‘oof’ but responds with his large smile that perfectly matches his mother's.

“Yeah! Have more faith in us!” Casey exclaims.

Leo frowns slightly. “It’s not like I don’t have faith in you guys, I honestly do but being cooped up in here is so boring,” He whines.

Mikey is quick to join Leo’s side and give a comforting pat on his shoulder with his bandaged hand. “Don’t worry, Leo! We’re gonna have lots of fun! And, this time around, we got Donnie to keep us company,” He grins.

Leo shoots a look over to Donnie who’s laying on his plastron, sprawled on the couch as he uses Shelldon as a chin rest. (Donnie had been stuck in their little makeshift med-bay area due to his severe shell pain. It was so bad that he refused to move and he couldn’t lay on his side without tears pricking his eyes from the stabbing pain from his shell he’d get.) Donnie’s bandaged arm dangles off of the side of the couch as he scrolls through his phone, eyes never leaving his screen as he tilts his head slightly towards the group as if he’s about to look at them but he doesn’t, which is basically Donnie’s way of saying, ‘I have no idea what’s going on. I only heard my name being mentioned and am now going to butt in.’ “Yeah, you got me and Shelldon,” Donnie agrees.

“Yeah, bro!” Shelldon exclaims, his digital eyes closing happily.

Leo lets out a light huff, “Shelldon is great company. I love Shelldon. The amazing nephew ever!“

“That’s grammatically incorrect,” Donnie mutters.

“But Donnie’s so boring!”

Donnie fully turns his head towards Leo. “Hey!” He barks out in offense.

“He doesn’t wanna play any card games with me even though he has literally nothing better to do cause he can’t work with his injuries,” Leo says, raising his voice a bit towards the end to make sure Donnie can hear him and isn’t about to tune out of whatever Leo’s saying.

Donnie rolls his eyes. “Rich coming from the guy that’s trying to go patrol whilst on crutches,” He says.

“Whilst,” Leo mocks in a British accent.

“It’s basic Eng—! Angry Scoff, whatever,” Donnie huffs as he swiftly turns his head away and holds it up high to truly exaggerate his annoyance. “And I don’t play card games with you because you’re a filthy cheat, Nardo,” Donnie states matter-of-factly.

“Why can’t Junior stay with us? At least he played card games with me,” Leo sighs dramatically before walking over to the couch adjacent to the one Donnie’s laying on and practically falls onto the cushions, his arm then dramatically being thrown over his eyes. “He’d keep me entertained,” He frowns deeply.

Junior opens his mouth to respond but April is quick to butt in. “You can’t keep the poor guy down here forever,” April says. “Like, Junior, I love you man, you’re the best little brother ever but you stink whenever you’re down here too long. I literally have to douse you in cologne,” She says.

Junior’s face turns a bright red. “Is that why you always tell me to do five spritzes’?!” He shouts.

“Two would not help you, dear,” April says.

“Not to mention, it’s about time that Junior goes on a mission. You’ve seen him train Leo! He’s way better at fighting than us and we’re holding him back with trying to train him,” Raph says as he walks over to lay on the floor, plastron down.

“I like training with you guys!” Junior quickly jumps in.

“You’ve beat Raph three times and almost managed to take down dad,” Mikey states as he climbs onto the couch that Donnie lays on, resting his feet on Donnie’s legs which causes Donnie to try and swat at him. “I beg you to go on this mission,” He says, dodging another one of Donnie’s swats.

“Leo’s just asking for Junior cause he knows that Junior would commit literal war crimes for him,” Donnie says bluntly. Leo sputters causing Donnie to look over at him. “And aren’t you the one who literally forced—“

“Convinced,” Leo quickly corrects Donnie.

Donnie’s eyes narrow at Leo. “You threatened to get Casey to ground him from pizza if he didn’t partake in school. You forced the kid to go to school,” He states.

Leo silently mocks Donnie.

“It was kinda threatening. . . “

“Gah! Betrayed by own apprentice! I’m wounded, Junior. You’ve wounded me,” Leo says with a dramatic frown.

“Cass, Junior, and I will be back soon. If we find any actual danger—“

“—You’ll call Draxum as backup, and Dad’ll come down here to protect us,” Leo finishes. “I know the plan Ap’s, it’s okay,” He says softly, giving April a small, comforting smile.

April gives Leo a singular nod before turning on her heel and walking out of the sewers, Junior and Casey following close behind.

Once the three are out of sight, Leo lets out a long sigh as he sinks into the chair - tapping on the armrest almost rhythmically. It had been about two weeks, maybe even three, since the Krang attacked and left Leo and his brothers with numerous injuries.

(Mikey and Raph were, fortunately, the ones who had the least amount of injuries, and Leo’s using that term very lightly here, whilst Leo and Donnie, unfortunately, got the short end of the stick about approximately the size of a broken toothpick.)

Donnie glances over at Leo, and his brothers, and then back down at his phone numerous times before finally speaking. “Yoouuu guys hungry?” He asks, raising his drawn-on eyebrows.

Leo purses his lips to the side and then shrugs. “Yeah I could eat,” He says.

Raph hums in agreement and Mikey nods.

“Craving anything?” Leo asks.

“Banana pepper pizza with sausage,” Donnie says without missing a beat.

“Oooh that does sound good,” Leo nods.

“Make sure to get another box that’s just pepperoni, I’m in a basic pizza mood right now,” Mikey says.

Leo then leans over the armrest and drags out his katanas from underneath the couch he was sitting on. Donnie’s eyes immediately widen, “I was gonna text dad to pick it up for us! You don’t—!”

“Relax, Don,” Leo smiles. “I got it all under control, I’ve portaled to Run of the Mill a bunch of times, it’s got a special place in my heart and therefore my katana’s heart,” He says.

“Hasn’t Hueso banned you until you get better?” Mikey asks.

“He has. I still have the camera footage,” Shelldon says.

Leo shudders slightly at the memory of Hueso being over the moon that Leo was alive but also being very mad that Leo didn’t even fight back and accepted his fate within the prison dimension. Leo could still feel the ghost of Hueso’s “flying chancla” making contact with his forehead. “That’s why you, dear Shelldon, favorite nephew of mine, will be getting the pizza,” Leo grins.

“First of all, I know you’re not trying to use my son as our pizza guy, and two, Hueso is smarter than that and will hit you with his sandal if he even sees the tiniest glimpse of one of your portals, and three, your katana doesn’t have a heart.”

Leo shushes Donnie. “You’re gonna hurt its feelings,” He whispers as he gently rubs the side of his katana, consoling the weapon as if it was a crying child.

“It doesn’t—! Whatever!” Donnie frowns. “You shouldn’t even be moving, let alone be using your weapon in your condition. Your mystic abilities reflect your current state - your katana’s portals may be unstable,” He says.

Leo chews on the inside of his cheek. “Okay well my current state feels amazing so my portal is gonna come out amazing, thank you very much,” He says proudly.

“Still!”

“I’m with Donnie here. I don’t think it’s safe to be using your weapon,” Raph says.

“Ah, ah, ah! I can’t hear you over the sound of my amazing portal activating!” Leo calls out, as he slashes at the air.

“Leo!” Raph shouts.

The portal immediately takes form but it doesn’t have its signature blue color with a white outline. Instead, the portal is a swirl of purples with a pink-like outline. Electricity emits off of the portal, zapping at random furniture and miscellaneous items - causing them to either explode or be pushed away. “Leo! What’s going on!” Donnie shouts as he grabs Shelldon and immediately stands up from his spot on the couch.

Raph immediately scrambles to get up from the floor and move a safe enough distance away from the portal. Mikey jumps down from his spot on the couch and quickly makes his way toward his brothers.

“I-I don’t know! It’s never done this before!” Leo shouts back as he looks down at his katana. It’s shaking within his grasp, moving his hand and arm along with it. It feels almost. . . scared and hurt - as if it’s calling out for help. Trying to reach out for help.

The feeling of being back within the prison dimension suddenly washes over Leo, making him stumble slightly away from the portal. “Leo?” Mikey asks softly, his hand hovering outstretched as if ready to grab onto Leo as soon as he gets his permission.

Leo raises his hand. “I’m fine. I’m fine, it’s just acting weird,” He lies.

Crying echoes within Leo’s head. Crying, pleading, sounds of landing blows, of mechanical whirring, of bones breaking. The smell of gunpowder and rust fills Leo's lungs and the taste of blood lingers on his tongue. Leo can practically feel the blood dripping down his throat that he begins swallowing repeatedly and sniffling to double-check as he holds his neck. His body feels so light yet so heavy at the same time, he feels as if he’s floating one second and then feels his body being slammed into the ground the next.

Leo doesn’t look up to see the portal freaking out more.

“The portal looks like it’s about to blow dudes!” Shelldon exclaims.

“Leo we need to get away from the portal!” Donnie exclaims as he dodges a blast from the portal.

The crying gets louder. Desperate begs for help soon joins after.

Leo’s grip on his katana tightens, and even though he can literally feel his weapon within his grasp, he still feels defenseless.

He wants his brothers. He wants April. He wants Casey. He wants his dads. He wants Karai. He wants someone — anyone.

He wants help.

“Leonardo!”

Raph grabs at Leo’s wrist, causing Leo to snap out of whatever trance he was just in and look into his brothers' eyes. Raph looks scared and worried, his gaze darting around Leo’s eyes in search of something - what exactly? Leo didn’t know. . .

Leo takes in a deep breath and the portal looks as if it’s calming down. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what—“

The portal then suddenly sends out a heavy wave of force before exploding, covering the room with a blinding white light.

Leo falls onto the floor with a loud thud, causing him to let out a pained groan. He lays on the floor for a while, his eyelids refusing to open all the way as he slowly turns to his side, coughing a bit too roughly as he rests his weight on his elbow. He swallows down a curse/yell when his weight shifts itself to lay on his bad leg, he immediately switches sides and tries to control his breathing. Leo grows to tighten his hand into a fist but then realizes that he’s still holding onto his katana. (God, he’s definitely gonna need to get checked after this to make sure he didn’t break any more bones.)

He then absentmindedly glances over to his side, a blur of green and purple barely coming into focus before Leo looks away.

Leo’s head then immediately snaps over to look back at the blur. “Donnie! Don, you okay?” Leo asks, his tone dripping with fear.

He should’ve listened to Donnie. To Raph and Mikey. He should’ve just had dad pick up the pizza. He can’t be doing stuff like this anymore!

“I’m fine, Leo. I just hit my head pretty bad.”

Donnie’s voice sounds far away, not nearby, and certainly not next to him, which causes Leo to stare at the blurry form, just a couple of feet away from him, in fear and confusion. “Donnie?” Leo calls out once again.

“Yes?” Donnie answers, voice still far away.

“If you’re over wherever you’re at. . . who exactly am I looking at?”

A pause.

“What the fuck are you—?” A gasp then leaves Donnie. “Raph! There’s a Yokai turtle in here!” He exclaims.

The blur twitches slightly and Leo harshly shushes Donnie. He begins to crawl over to the figure, the closer he gets the less blurry the form gets. Eventually, Leo is hovering above the form and he can clearly see that it’s a turtle. A mutated turtle.

Did he accidentally drag in some Yokai turtles from Run of the Mill?

The turtle looks almost like a box turtle, like Mikey. But like, a bland one - almost dull-like - nothing like Mikey. The turtle was adorned with lots of bandage wrappings and wore bland knee and elbow pads. He had a purple bandanna wrapped around his eyes, his mouth slightly agape revealing his small tooth gap on his top jaw. In his hand, the box turtle tightly held onto a wooden bo staff.

Leo furrowed his brow muscles slightly.

The turtle kinda looks a bit like Donnie but also not at the same time.

Safe.

A whisper echoes within Leo’s head, causing him to look down at his katana. It’s no longer trembling nor is it crying or begging for help. It feels calm, relieved.

Leo shakes his head. He can’t focus on that right now, he needs to run a checkup on the turtle and the other one that Donnie saw. “Don, how many in total?” Leo quickly asks.

“Uh three—no, four turtles. And three humans,” Donnie answers.

Leo looks over at Donnie, “Humans?”

“They don’t look all that threatening,” Donnie says, his goggles lowering onto his face. “They don’t seem to have any mystic abilities.”

“They kinda. . . They kinda look like us,” Mikey mutters.

Leo nods. He then stabs his katana into the floor and slowly rises to his feet, using his odachi as a makeshift cane to limp over to Donnie, “Raph, you go get dad to try and get these guys into the infirmary. I’ll call April,” Leo says.

“How do I explain this to dad?” Raph gestures wildly towards the group laying on their floor.

“Just. . . tell him that I—“

A loud groan echoing within the room makes everyone freeze.

The group slowly looks over to one of the turtles who wore an orange bandanna around his face. The turtle slowly sits up, holding his head in his hand and letting out small hisses. “I think I got a migraine now dudes. . . “ The turtle says and the group furrows their brow muscles (aside from Donnie who furrows his drawn-on brows).

The turtle sounds just like Shelldon.

Suddenly, as if the robot read their minds, Shelldon flies by Leo and Donnie and stops just mere inches away from the turtle's face. “Dude! You sound just like me! This is wicked cool!” Shelldon exclaims excitedly, his “wings” flapping a bit.

The turtle looks at Shelldon with wide eyes before tilting his head ever so slightly. He makes eye contact with Leo first and then Raph and then his gaze trickles down to Donnie and Mikey. The turtle’s eyes widen a bit more, but there’s no screaming. There’s no immediate questioning, there’s no panic, the turtle just lets out, what seems to be, an annoyed groan as he tosses his head back. “Leo! It happened again!” He exclaims.

Leo jerks his head back slightly and Donnie looks over at his twin with a raised drawn-on brow. Donnie then gestures over to the strange turtle with a thumb. “You know this guy?” He asks.

Leo just simply stares at the odd turtle.

Safe.

There’s that weird whisper again. . .

Before Leo can answer, the turtle speaks up again. “Oh! Sorry! Not you Leo, my Leo. But, to be honest, you look way too cool to be a Leo,” The turtle grins. He’s then suddenly on his feet and has an arm wrapped around Leo’s shoulders. “All the Leo’s I’ve met were like. . . super serious and looked like the others. But you look real cool man!”

Leo glances from the turtle over to Donnie, silently begging his brother for help. Donnie has his arm raised, finger hovering over a random button (probably ready to call for a killing machine or something), awaiting Leo’s call. Leo waves his hand and Donnie pouts slightly before lowering his arm. “Other. . . Leo’s?” Raph asks slowly.

He’s starting to think the turtle may have a concussion and not a migraine.

“Holy crap you’re huge!” The turtle exclaims. He’s then lifting Raph’s hand and pressing his face against Raph’s palm. “Ho ho ho! You could totally crush my head man!” He says, voice dripping in absolute enthusiasm.

Raph immediately detaches his hand from the turtle's face. “What!?” He exclaims in horror.

“Mikey, you’re freaking them out.”

All five turn over to look at the purple-clad turtle that Leo was nearby earlier. Leo and Donnie then snap their heads over to the orange turtle. “Mikey?!” Donnie exclaims, practically shouting even.

Leo harshly shushes his brother.

“I knew I forgot to do something!” ‘Mikey’ lightly hits his forehead with the heel of his palm. “An explanation and introductions!”

“Stop yelling Mikey! Some of us got headaches here,” a short turtle with a red bandanna scowls.

Safe.

“Sorry, Raph!” Other Mike says.

Leo’s eyes widen slightly.

A turtle with a blue bandanna (that Leo promptly assumed was the other version of himself), with its ribbons tied into a bow, walks over to other Raph and offers him a hand. Other Raph huffs lightly before taking other Leo’s hand and rising to his feet. “I apologize for my brother's antics,” other Leo says, walking towards the four brothers to properly greet them.

Purple, which Leo quickly pieces together is other Donnie, is quick to help out a guy, dressed as a hockey player, laying on the floor. Other Raph nudges at a girl with red hair with his foot, causing the girl to swat at his legs with a scowl and other Mikey hovers over another girl with black hair and a blonde undercut. “My name’s Leonardo and we’re from an alternate dimension,” Other Leo says with an extended hand, her claws painted with light blue nail polish, and a thin but genuine smile on her face, the sentence left the turtle's mouth as if it had been uttered so many times.

Safe.

Leo’s grip on his katana loosens and he stumbles for a bit before quickly catching himself - thankfully not landing on his bad leg. Mikey’s hands are outstretched, ready to catch Leo in case he falls again. Leo waves his hand and gives his brother a comforting look but Mikey doesn’t seem to believe it.

“You’re uh—“ Leo clears his throat loudly, “—are you. . .? You’re an alternate version of. . . me?” Leo asks, glancing down at his other selves hand.

Other Leo nods.

Donnie lightly hits Leo’s plastron before holding out his hand in front of Leo. “You owe me fifteen bucks.”

Chapter Text

Leonardo meditates within the dojo.

This was common knowledge for her family. If Leonardo wasn’t in sight, she was meditating in the dojo. If Leonardo got bored, she’d mediate in the dojo. If Leonardo felt overwhelmed, she’d meditate in the dojo. It was her way of comforting herself, of grounding herself.

A coping mechanism.

So when Raphael opened the door to the dojo, he fully expected to see Leonardo meditating. Instead, he was met with the sight of his sister kneeling in front of master Splinters shrine. “Shit.” Raphael whispers as he freezes, his breathing going still as he realizes he almost walked in on an important moment.

Raphael goes to slowly close the door.

“You can come in Raph,” Leonardo calls out, not turning to look at him.

Raphael chews on the inside of his cheek, standing at the doorway for a couple of seconds before finally closing the door behind him and joining his sister’s side. Leonardo scoots over, patting down at the spot beside her and Raphael sits. “How’d you know it was me?” He asks softly.

“I heard you whisper ‘shit’,” Leonardo says.

Raphael let out a soft sigh, closing his eyes. Damn him and his ever need to curse when he sees something unexpected.

“I didn’t mean to impose—“

“I know.”

Leonardo raises her hands and clasps them together, head lowering slightly. Raphael keeps his hands resting on his lap, staring at the picture of their dear master Splinter. “What did you want to ask me?” Leonardo questions.

“Uh,” Raphael stutters. “Just-just wanted to check in on you. You’ve been meditating for a while so. . . I don’t know, just wanted to be considerate for once,” He says as he turns his head away.

Leonardo lowers her hands and looks over at Raphael with a small smile. “I’m fine,” She says. “Just wanted to talk to father for a bit.”

Raphael nods his head.

Three years. It had been three years since they lost their master Splinter, their father. Three years since they buried him out on the O’Neils family farm. It still felt surreal, walking around the sewers, expecting to hear their fathers humming or to just see him, only to find nothing of him.

Three years sounds like plenty of time to heal, to come to terms with their grief and let it dissipate, for the empty hole in their hearts to get smaller. But it just felt like continuous lapses of guilt. . .

The first year was filled with hurt and arguments. Everyone seemed to snap so easily and was awfully tense. You could try to cut the tension between everyone with a pair of scissors but it was too stubborn to tear. The second year started to show some progress. There was less stress on everyone as they didn’t have to worry about saving the whole planet, so the whole “we must reconcile and fix our relationships” part was easy to walk through. This year finally gave them time to healthily grieve, but everyone seemed to always turn away or deny their grief.

Raphael is the most vocal denier.

Leonardo is the one person who gave themselves a proper way to grieve.

It felt as if they were younger again, Red vs. Blue, each on opposing sides, and Raphael, once again, being jealous of not just his sister but also being jealous of her relationship with their father.

Raphael had been working on his jealousy for years, on coming to terms that father focused just a tad more on Leonardo than on him. But there was always that small sting of a stubborn, small feeling of underlying jealousy that Raphael never seemed to be able to get rid of.

Maybe that’s why Raphael was so vocal about his denial. He didn’t have that close of a relationship with Splinter unlike Leonardo. In fact, his and Splinters relationship was more strained if anything.

Leonardo rests a hand on top of Raphael’s wrist, causing him to look at her. “You okay?” She says softly.

“I came in here to ask you that,” Raphael replies.

“And you did. Now I’m asking you it in return,” Leonardo counters.

Raphael gently pats her hand. “I’m fine,” He answers.

Her eyes search Raphael’s, looking for any hidden lies and underlying hurt. Leonardo wasn’t an idiot, she knew Raphael just as well as she knew Space Heroes. (And lord does she know Space Heroes.) She wants Raphael to talk about his feelings, to heal, and of course she wants him to do it on his own terms when he’s ready but. . . it’s been three years.

Leonardo fears that if Raphael doesn’t properly grieve or talk about his feelings, he never will. And Leonardo doesn’t want to see her brother hurt himself.

Raphael’s eyes remain comforting and Leonardo lets out a gently sigh, giving her brothers wrist a small squeeze before looking away. Maybe tomorrow she can try again.

“Come on,” Raphael says as he slowly stands on his feet. “Mikey’s almost done with dinner.” He outstretches a hand for Leonardo.

Leonardo widens her eyes, “Have I really been in here that long?”

Raphael nods.

Leonardo guesses she’s not the best at coping either.

She then takes Raphael’s hand and is lifted onto her feet. Raphael and Leonardo bow one last time to their fathers shrine and then walk out of the dojo.

But they barely get a foot out before loud crying rings out.

Leonardo and Raphael turn to each other with wide eyes. Silently asking the other if they could hear it as well.

The crying sounds nothing like anyone they knew. The sobs sounded that of body shakingily, containing hiccups and deep breathed and loud, almost cough-like exhales. It sounded like a child’s sobs.

“Donnie! Mikey!” Leonardo calls out.

“Do you dudes hear that crying too!?” Michelangelo shouts.

“Oh thank god it’s not just me,” Donatello mutters.

The sound of whirring, landing blows, and grunts of pain echo throughout.

“Help me!”

The four run to the middle of the lair, heads whipping around in every which direction. The crying and sounds of just pain echoing around them. There wasn’t a single spot to exactly pin-point where it was coming from.

The next sob sounds so high pitched, throat scratching and guttural. Like a child’s scream. “Raph! Mikey! Donnie! April! Casey! Dads! Karai!” More violent sobs. “Anyone!” the voice screams. “Help me!”

Everyone turns to Leonardo, the only person whose name was not called out. But the voice sounds nothing like her, nothing like anyone they knew.

Leonardo opens her mouth to shout out a command but her voice dies in her throat when a portal suddenly appears out of nowhere. It’s a vibrant purple with low electricity crackling around it. “You’ve got to be kidding m—!

Donatello’s voice gets cut off as the four are sucked into the portal. Their screams ring out as they float past the familiar swirls of purple.

And suddenly everything becomes dark.

When Leonardo finally wakes up, she’s laying on a cold concrete floor and Michelangelo is talking fairly loudly, excited about something. She slowly sits up and catches sight of four turtles, each ranging in sizes and looks, standing beside Michelangelo.

Another alternate dimension. Great.

“Stop yelling Mikey! Some of us got headaches here,” Raphael scowls.

“Sorry Raph!” Michelangelo calls out.

Leonardo looks around to see that her family was scattered around her. Raphael laid next to her and Donatello sat a little farther in front of them. Diagonal from Donatello sat Casey. Michelangelo was standing with the alternates and adjacent to them was Karai laying down on her back. Just above Leonardo and Raphael laid April and

Leonardo rises to her feet and walks over to Raphael and offers him a hand. Raphael huffs lightly before taking Leonardo’s hand and rises to his feet. “I apologize for my brothers antics,” Leonardo says, walking towards the four brothers to properly greet them. “My names Leonardo and we’re from an alternate dimension,” She introduces as she outstretches her hand for a handshake, a thin but genuine smile on her face.

Other Leonardo’s grip on his katana loosens and he stumbles for a bit before quickly catching himself, he doesn’t use both legs to keep himself balance which Leonardo refrains from raising a brow muscle at. Other Michelangelo’s hands are outstretched, ready to catch other Leonardo incase he falls again. Leonardo glances down at other Michelangelo’s hands, immediately noticing that they’re tightly wrapped up. The wrapping stretches from his elbows all the way to his palms, it worries Leonardo. What happened to this Michelangelo for his arms to be wrapped like that? Other Leonardo waves his hand and gives his brother a comforting look but other Michelangelo doesn’t seem to believe it.

“You’re uh—“ other Leonardo clears his throat loudly, “—are you. . .? You’re an alternate version of. . . me?” other Leonardo asks, glancing down at Leonardo’s hand.

His voice sounds a lot like the crying Leonardo heard. . .

Leonardo however doesn’t speak on it and just nods her head to answer other Leonardo’s question.

Other Donatello lightly hits other Leonardo’s plastron before holding out his hand in front of other Leonardo. “You owe me fifteen bucks,” He says with a sly smile.

Other Leonardo raises a hand to his head. “This is too freaky. . . “

“I told you not to use your katana Leo,” Other Donatello says in a tone that reeks of “I told you so.”

Other Donatello’s hand seems practically glued to his neck, massaging where his neck and shoulder blade meet. He has on a very loose hoodie and is practically hunched over - every time he goes to at least stand up straight, he winces and lets his body fall into a hunch.

“I didn’t know it was gonna do this! I just wanted some of Hueso’s pizza!” Leo exclaims

Other Raphael places a hand on other Leonardo and Donatello’s shoulders, breaking up their small argument. “Cool it guys, we’ll discuss this later,” He says. The fact that this Raphael broke up a fight instead of instigating, made Leonardo widen her eyes slightly. Other Raphael then walks up to Leonardo and gives her a smile. “Hello, Leonardo, I’m Raph!” He says as he shakes Leonardo’s hand.

This Raph easily toward over Leonardo, standing at a whopping six foot. His left eye appeared slightly bleared over, causing Leonardo to come to the conclusion that he’s partially, if not entirely, blind in that very eye. Leonardo saw Raph’s shadow cast over her but there was no uneasiness bubbling in her stomach. This Raph smiled so wide, showing off his snaggle tooth and ever so slightly pointed teeth, and his handshake was very gentle despite the fact his hand easily swallowed up Leonardo’s, and he was slightly hunched over to make himself appear smaller. It was obvious he didn’t want to scare Leonardo and she couldn’t help but find it adorable.

“Pleasure to meet you, Raph,” Leonardo says with a polite smile.

“I like your bow,” Raph says pointing a finger at Leonardo’s mask. “It’s very neatly done,” He compliments.

Leonardo feels her smile widen from that of a polite smile into a more genuine one, a smile that hurts her cheeks. “Thanks! I did it myself,” She says, her hand hovering over her bow.

Leonardo’s family visibly relax from behind her.

Other Michelangelo goes over to grab some crutches and hand them over to other Leonardo. Other Leonardo gives him a quiet “thank you” before trading his katana for the crutches. He then moves his crutches to take a step towards the group. (Leonardo can’t help but move her hands behind her back, squeezing her wrist. The sight reminded her so much of back when she woke up from her coma and had to use a make-shift crutch to walk. She had never felt so weak and pathetic and always bore a sneer on her face back when using the crutch. But this Leonardo held his head high, with his back slightly hunched over. He didn’t seem to mind the crutches.) “I’m this universes Leo, but uh you guys obviously know that already,” He says as he gestures to his mask and then quickly grabs at his crutch for support.

“This little guy right here is Mikey,” Leo says, gesturing to Mikey with his head. “And this disgusting, and honestly revolting, being next to me—“

“I’d saying I’m quite dashing,” other Donatello interrupts. “And I don’t need that long of an unflattering introduction, I’m pretty sure the alternate versions of us already know that I’m Donnie,” He says.

“Okay well, you could’ve been a Mikey whose favorite color was unfortunately purple for all they know. . . so,” Leo says as he shrugs his shoulders. “And! I was introducing us by nickname because honestly, I didn’t need one of these guys calling us by our full name then everyone’s confused on whose asking for who,” He says.

Donnie sticks his tongue out at Leo and Leo quickly returns the gesture.

“I do suppose that is something we gotta worry about,” Leonardo agrees, finger curled against her chin. “Since I introduced myself with my full name, me and my brothers could just stick to our full names?” She suggests.

“Sounds great to me,” Leo grins.

“But what do we call the humans?” Mikey asks. “We don’t know their names yet,” He says.

April blinks. “O-oh, I guess you guys haven’t met us yet. That’s kinda surprising though, usually the other turtles we ran into knew me already,” She says. “I’m April! Uh, April O’Neil. It’s um nice to meet you guys,” She says with a smile and small nod, her hands clasped behind her back.

Donnie looks April up and down. His mouth opens and then closes repeatedly as if he was at a lost for words. Leo covers his mouth, shoulders shaking, as he turns away from other April. Mikey’s jaw hangs open and Raph just kinda awkwardly smiles at her.

April glances from brother to brother and feels her mouth dry up, her grip around her wrist tightening. Did these guys lose their April? Is that why they were acting so weird upon seeing her?

Suddenly, the want to comfort the turtles before her crashes into April. She feels like she’s walking into her siblings respective rooms after Master Splinters death and sitting down on their floors, either staying still and just letting her siblings take comfort in her presence or hugging her siblings so tightly as they both sobbed in each other’s hold.

April may not know the alternate versions of her siblings, but they were still Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. They were still her siblings in a way. And god, she’d do anything for her siblings.

“I’m really s—“

“You’re white.”

April immediately shuts her mouth and Donnie’s brothers all turn to look at him with wide eyes. Raphael slaps a hand over his mouth to try to poorly cover his cackling and Leonardo covers her mouth out of shock. Casey doesn’t even bother to stifle his laughter. That was the very last thing April thought could possibly be uttered aloud in this very moment. April begins to feel her face warm up out of sheer embarrassment. “I-I’m sorry?” She asks.

“You’re white,” Donnie repeats, a bit more slowly. Leo outstretches a trembling arm, immediately grabbing his brothers bicep and pressing his forehead onto Donnie’s shoulder as he shakes with laughter. Donnie glances over at Raph to see that he’s giving him a look that says “even though we were all thinking that, you weren’t supposed to say that.” Donnie looks a little confused now, probably thinking to himself that if they were all thinking it then why not address the elephant in the room? Why beat around the bush? “I’m sorry if that came off weird it’s just that. . . our April isn’t,” Donnie apologies.

“Oh.” April’s voice is kind of quiet and a bit squeaky. She doesn’t know how to respond. (How do you even respond to information about the fact that you’re a different race in another universe?) “That’s—It’s alright,” April says. She still feels a bit awkward but at least she knows she isn’t dead in this universe.

“Um, since you guys already know your April, I can just use my last name. To make sure there’s no confusion,” She offers.

Mikey nods. “Sounds good. And I’m sure you’ll be able to meet our April soon,” He says with a smile.

“Dude you could not have said that any worse,” Leo whispers through his laughter. Donnie shoots Leo a small glare before trying to immediately shrug him off his shoulder.

“Anyways! You two are. . . ?” Raph gestures at Casey and Karai.

Casey takes a proud step forward, gloved-thumb pointed at his chest, and he has the widest grin on his face - a grin that shows he’s missing his two front teeth. “Names Casey Jones. I’m an awesome crime fighting vigilante and basically a celebrity back home,” He says.

“The only thing your famous for is spray painting your name on walls,” Donatello states.

Casey turns his head over to Donatello. “Am I or am I not know throughout New York because of my mad spray painting skills?” He grins.

“You are not,” Donatello quickly answers.

Casey immediately deflates and quickly walks over to Donatello. “Don, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t try to embarrass me in front of the alternate versions of you and your brothers right now. This is the first I’m ever experiencing something this cool! Let me have my moment? Please?” Casey whispers. He then clasps his hands together, lifting them up to exaggerate his pleading eyes.

Donatello glances away from Casey, his cheeks looking to be dusted pink. “Alright,” He agrees and Casey cheers before immediately turning back to the group.

“Are you Junior or Senior?” Leo asks.

Other Casey blinks. “Um, I’m a senior but I’m about to graduate,” He says.

“Wrong kind of Senior, Case,” Leonardo says. “They’re asking if you’re Casey Jones Jr or Casey Jones Snr,” She clarifies.

“Oh,” Casey says, his face turning a light shade of pink out of embarrassment. “Um, I’m the one and only Casey Jones. . . if that helps?” He asks. “Wait! There’s two of me here?!” He exclaims.

“What a nightmare,” O’Neil mutters.

Casey snaps his head towards her with narrowed eyes that causes O’Neil to try and fight against a sly smile stretching across her face as she looks away from Casey’s insulted gaze. “Yeah we got uh, we got Cassandra ‘Casey’ Jones and her son Casey Jones Jr.,” Leo says.

“I’m a girl here?!” Casey exclaims.

“Casey has a kid here!?” Michelangelo shouts.

“I’m still on the horrid fact that there’s two of ‘em,” Raphael shrugs.

“Yeah we got two! But the kid one is kind of hard to—“

Raph then lets out a loud gasp, interrupting Mikey, his hands raising to his head. “What is it big guy?” Leo asks.

“We need to tell April about this!” Raph exclaims. He then immediately starts searching for his phone. “I promise this will only take a second and then we can finish introductions!” He says

Leo’s eyes widen and he’s trying to move as fast as he can on his crutches to try and catch Raph before he grabs his phone. “No way! She’d — Raph I can’t run with these! — She’d kill me!” Leo shouts.

“Didn’t you want to call her in the first place?” Raph asks.

“That was before we found out these guys are like an alternate version of us! I thought they were Yokai’s or something!” Leo shouts.

“Yokai?” Donatello mutters, his brow muscles furrowed.

“We gotta tell her! Her, Cass, and Junior will be back soon and if we don’t tell her about this then you’re dead!” Raph says.

“I’m dead whether we tell her now or later!” Leo argues.

“I’m calling!”

“No you’re not!”

“It’s ringing!”

“No it isn’t!”

“Raph?”

Leo stops at the sound of April’s voice, their April. “April! Hey! Okay um. . . I kinda need to tell you something,” Raph starts off.

“Raph. . . If Leo left—“

“No! No, no, no, Leo’s here! In fact, funny story, you’re gonna laugh, there’s two Leo’s,” Raph says.

Silence.

“What.”

“Have you been messing with Donnie’s things again?” A boy on the other line asks. Leonardo assumes that that was Junior.

“Am I on speaker!?” Raph shouts.

“Answer his question first! Did you make a clone of Leo using Donnie’s tech?” April questions.

“No! There is no— Donnie doesn’t even have that kind of tech!” Raph states. “. . . I think,” He adds. Raph looks over at Donnie and Donnie only gives him a shrug.“Yeah, he doesn’t—“

“Did you seriously just ask him if he had a machine that was able to clone you guys?” April asks.

“He puts tracking devices on us April! It’s not too far fetched!” Raph exclaims.

Leonardo furrows her brow muscles and Michelangelo whips his head over at Donnie. “You put tracking devices on your brothers?” He whispers.

Donnie stares at Michelangelo, “. . . No.”

“But Raph just said—!”

“I do no such things,” Donnie states.

Michelangelo then points a finger at Donatello. “Don’t even think about it!” He exclaims.

“I wasn’t!” Donatello defends.

“Who was that!?” April shouts.

“The other Mikey and Donnie. Look,” Raph begins. “We just wanted some pizza from Hueso’s and Leo decided to make a portal to it—“

“No he didn’t,” April whispers.

“He did, but, the portal was unsuccessful. It turned like kind of purple instead of blue and started sparking off electricity and then it blows up! Next thing we know there’s alternate versions of us laying down in our living room. They’re with us right now!” Raph says.

April takes in a deep breath, “We’ll be back in five minutes.”

“Shouldn’t you guys be like almost ten minutes a—“

“Five. Minutes.”

The line then goes dead.

Raph slowly turns around to look at Leo and his brothers. “I think it went pretty smoothly,” Raph says.

“I’m a dead man,” Leo whispers horrified.

Donnie somberly pats Leo’s shoulder. “Yes, yes, we will miss you very much, he says sarcastically,” Donnie says, muttering the last part. He then immediately turns to the alternates. “Now! I have so many questions,” He exclaims.

Leonardo’s brothers turn to her, awaiting her response. Leonardo shrugs, “go on ahead.”

A smile stretches across Donnie’s face. “Leonardo greeted us as if she had done so, so many times. I knew there was the possibility of alternate universes but I didn’t know you could break the barrier and actually interact with different universes! What was all that like? And that begs the question if the universe itself is alright with that. Surely hoping across multiverses would break the very fabric of space and time but, again, referring back to Leonardo, you’ve managed to either do it or bring other alternates to you! And time and space is still standing perfectly fine!” Donnie states. “Does this mean the universe does not care? Is the multiverse truly something we could explore with no consequences? But that makes no sense! Surely the universe would want things to stay balanced and not be run into chaos! But then again. . . “ He trails off.

Michelangelo holds his head. “I feel like my brain is melting,” He whines.

Donatello rolls his eyes at Michelangelo. “Thing is we don’t totally know if there isn’t any consequences. Our alternates never stuck around long enough and usually with them they brought their dimensions’ bad guys,” He says.

“Dude imagine their own Baxter Stockboy coming here!” Mikey gasps. Leo grimaces at that.

“Thank god school started back up. Haven’t seen him in a while now,” Leo says.

“Baxter Stockman teaches at a school?” Raphael asks. “Isn’t he like a huge fly here?”

“What?” Leo asks. “Baxter Stockboy is. . . well a stock boy. An eleven year old human stockboy at that,” He says.

Raphael starts cackling, “No he’s not! Oh please, please, don’t be lying to me right now.”

Donnie furrowed his brows as he shook his head. “Not lying. Baxter Stockboy is an eleven year old, self proclaimed genius, stock boy,” He says. “Well, self proclaimed is sort of being used as a very light term. He almost managed to expose us to the public but that was only because of our recklessness when it came to hiding ourselves, so that one is more on us than him. . . “ He shrugs.

“Next you’re gonna tell me Bishop is some huge ass water buffalo,,” Raphael sighs as he wipes away a non-existent tear. “God, I’d give anything to see this universes Bishop,” He says.

“Genuinely don’t think we’ve met him yet. But we have met a water buffalo,” Raph mutters.

Raph then catches a glimpse of something standing behind Leonardo. Leonardo turns and widens her eyes slightly when she sees it’s Karai standing behind her. She didn’t even hear Karai walk up to her or greet her. Karai’s arms are crossed over her chest but she doesn’t look annoyed. She looks content if anything else. “Or you,” Raph says pointing at Karai. “I’m very sorry about that, forgot we were in the middle of introductions,” He smiles.

Leonardo steps aside and Karai’s arm’s immediately drop to her sides and stands straight, the heels of her feet touching as her feet angle out, she holds her head high - practically raising her chin. She stood like a warrior, her stance heavily reminding Leonardo of back when she was a soldier under Shredder’s command. Raph looked to not know if Karai was just trying to not let Raph’s demeanor intimidate her or if she was trying to size him up or if she just wanted to make a good first impression and was just really socially awkward.

“I am Karai,” She says. “Karai Hamato,” She glances over at Leonardo, who has the biggest smile on her face.

But for a split second, Karai sees Raph and his brothers faces fall. For a split second, Karai sees hurt waver in their eyes, their plastron jolt foreword slightly as if sharply taking in a breath. She sees their eyes widen and fingers twitch slightly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Karai,” Leo says, breaking the silence and uneasiness with a smile but Karai can tell it’s strained. She heard the pain in Leo’s voice when he uttered her name, Karai could only assume that in this universe she was gone and the turtles were still grieving the other her.

And something deep down within Karai makes her want to comfort these grieving teenagers. They’re not her siblings, nor her friends, but something about them makes her want to hug them tightly, to hum to them the very song that her Splinter would hum to himself as he walked around the lair. Karai wants to think it’s solely because they’re the alternate version of her siblings but it feels deeper than that. It doesn’t feel that simple.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoing within the exit tunnel made everyone turn towards it. A glowing green light that resembles that of fire, moved constantly within the dark of the tunnel - emitting a soft glow that that showed at least three figures. The fire gets closer.

“Apriiiiilll O’Neil!”

The person holding the fire jumps out of the darkness, high into the air. It’s a young black girl who has her hair split into two space buns and dressed in a green jacket and black leggings. Her arms raised a bat, covered in green fire, above her head and looks about ready to smack one of Leonardo’s family members into a wall, which causes Leonardo’s brothers to take out their weapons.

“April no!” Raph shouts as quickly moves himself in front of everyone, causing the fire to quickly disperse from April’s bat as she smacks into Raph’s plastron with her shoulder. “They’re good guys. They’re us,” He says.

April breathes heavily. “Oh,” She says. “I-I thought. . . “ April stumbles over her words as she glances from Raph to Leonardo’s group. “My bad y’all. I thought you were like evil doppelgängers,” April smiles sheepishly, a blush of embarrassment dusting her cheeks.

A lady with a buzz shaved head, dressed in foot clan attire, that Leonardo assumes is Cassandra, and a teenage boy wearing a beanie, a plain grey tee and blue jeans, that Leonardo believes is Junior, emerge from the dark tunnel. ‘Cassandra’ has her hands rest on her hips as she stretches her back. “I should’ve stretched before running all that way,” She mutters.

“You ran all the way here?!” Raph shouts.

“You said there were alternate versions of you guys here! Did you expect us to walk all the way here knowing that information?” ‘Junior’ asks.

“Oh crap! I didn’t say my nickname!” Casey suddenly says. “Don help me out here,” He says turning to Donatello.

“Why me?!” Donatello exclaims.

“Because I’m drawing a blank here!” Casey says.

“Just go with your last name like I did,” O’Neil suggests.

“But that’s boring,” Casey whines.

“I say we go with mouth cave,” Donatello states.

Casey stares at Donatello. “What the fuck,” He says slowly. “We’re not calling me that in this cool new universe!” He shouts.

“What about CJ?” ‘Junior’ offers. “Master M. . . “ He suddenly trails off, staring past Casey. His shoulders immediately rise to his mid-neck and he looks a little nervous. “Splinter,” He finally finishes. “Master Splinter used to call me that. . . when I was little. Don’t really use the nickname anymore,” He says as he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

Raphael and Donatello share a weird look.

“CJ will definitely work. Much better than just plain old Jones,” other Casey says, giving O’Neil a look which O’Neil returns with sticking her tongue out at him.

“I’m still rooting for cave mouth,” Donatello says.

“Shut up!” CJ shouts, his face a deep red.

“I should also perhaps go by a nickname,” Karai says. Even though she’s 99% certain that this universe doesn’t have a Karai Hamato anymore so she was fine using her regular name, she doesn’t want to make this universes turtles uncomfortable.

“That won’t be necessary Karai,” Leo says gently.

“K—!”

Raph rests a hand on April’s shoulder. “We’ll talk about it later,” He promises in a low whisper.

April nods.

‘Cassandra’ then points over at O’Neil. “And who’s this chick?” She asks.

“I’m April O’Neil. I’ll just be going by my last name though,” O’Neil answers.

“I’m a white redhead!?” April exclaims, her mouth agape. O’Neil’s face turns a bright pink. “At least tell me you like girls,” She begs.

O’Neil slowly nods.

“Oh thank fuck,” April breathes out in relief.

“Okay! Now that introductions are out of the way! Time for an explanation!” Michelangelo exclaims.

“Didn’t Raph say Leo made a portal and then it spat out these guys?” April says, gesturing to Leonardo and her group with her thumb. “Seems explained to me.”

“That’s our side. We don’t know what happened on theirs,” Mikey says.

“I wanna know how your Leo made a portal. Last I checked, Donnie was the only smart one,” Raphael says.

“Explaining that is a very long story so I’ll give you the short version and explain everything in excruciating detail later on. You see, Leo has a katana that can summon portals, however, up to this point it’s only been able to transport us to places within our dimension,” Donnie says. “Leo’s katana is connected to his soul, as are all of our weapons, so when the soul is in distress usually the weapon will act out. But last time that happened, Mikey, Raph, and I were teleported to Tahiti. There were no alternate versions of us being thrown into our dimension. Which begs the question: why did Leo’s portal drag you guys here?” Donnie asks.

Leonardo looks over to her brothers, each giving each other a saddened look.

The crying voice sounding like their Leo and seeing Leo on crutches after hearing all that pain starts to make sense. But should they tell them? Surely they should only approach their Leo with this information right?

Right.

Chapter Text

Leo doesn’t trust his other self.

Okay that wording sounds very harsh. He doesn’t not trust his other self, it’s just that. . . she keeps looking at him. In fact, all of them keep looking at him, but Leonardo holds her gaze the most and keeps looking at him frequently. Like as if she was waiting to talk to him or was silently checking in on him.

It makes Leo feel uncomfortable.

So when Leonardo looks at Leo with saddened eyes when asked how she and her family got portaled to this dimension, Leo doesn’t want his entire family to hear. “Leonardo and I will talk about how she and the others got here. You guys give her family a tour,” Leo orders, adjusting his crutches so he can walk away.

“But—!”

“It’s my katana,” Leo states softly, cutting April off. “Maybe whatever Leonardo says brought all them here can be connected to my odachi. If not then. . . we got another problem on our hands,” He says.

Leonardo turns to her brothers and they each give her a nod. “Alright,” She agrees.

“Mikey, you’re in charge of the tour,” Leo says.

Mikey gives Leo a mock salute. “Sir, yes, sir!”

Leonardo then points at her brothers and then to O’Neil and CJ, “You guys be on your best behavior,” She orders.

“‘Course,” CJ says, waving a hand dismissively.

“I mean it Jones,” Leonardo says with a frown.

“I’m serious!” CJ defends with a pout.

Donatello lightly pats CJ’s back. “There, there, mouth cave,” He comforts.

CJ’s face turns a bright pink. “Stop calling me that, tooth gap!” He exclaims.

Leo walks towards the stairs and leads Leonardo through their living quarters. He keeps glancing over at her out of the corner of his eye, and as much as Leo hates to admit it, he’s doing it solely because he’s uncomfortable with having his back face her. Leonardo may just be a tad shorter than him but she looks awfully strong. There’s faint white scars that litter her body, scratches on her plastron, and visible muscles that have small and few vein bumbs. She’s tough. Leo can’t handle tough in his state.

Leo wants to kick himself for even thinking that the alternates could be a threat.

Poorly worded again. Leo only seems to think that Leonardo could be a threat - and the only “threatening” thing she’s done is just constantly send worried glances over at Leo.

He knows the alternate versions of him and his family are “safe” - it’s what his katana told him after all - it’s just that. . . this whole situation is stressing him out.

He really needs to mellow the fuck out. Stress isn’t good for him and his wounds.

“. . . You ever heard of Space Heroes?”

Leo almost jumps out of his skin at the sound of Leonardo’s voice. She had been quiet for so long. . .

“Uh, can’t say I have no.” The sight of Leonardo’s frown makes Leo quickly think of something to say. Even if Leonardo has been freaking him out, she’s. . . him. Not totally him as she’s a girl and from an alternate universe and all, but she’s still him in a way. “But we have this thing called Jupiter Jim! So I’d say they’re practically the same thing,” Leo says.

Just like us.

Leonardo’s eyes widen slightly and Leo knows that look. That’s the exact look Donatello has whenever someone brings up his hyperfixation or special interest. “Youuu wanna tell me about it?” Leo asks.

“Really!?” Leonardo exclaims voice raising in pitch, hands bundled into fists as she pulls her arms close to her chest.

“Of course,” Leo says.

Leonardo talks fairly quickly when she’s excited. She’s been fairly calm and not so talkative compared to her other family members, but, when it comes to Space Heroes, she’s gesturing her hands about, eyes glued to the space between Leo’s eyes, and looks like she’s seconds away from bouncing on the walls from how much she’s stimming. Leo doesn’t utter a word about Jupiter Jim. One, because he doesn’t want to interrupt Leonardo’s rant and two, because he genuinely wants to know why Captain Ryan disintegrated Celestial after she turned on him despite the fact that the two had been comrades for so long. Leonardo tries to reason that Ryan does feel a little guilt as he keeps Celestials boots as a memento to her but Leo sees it more as a trophy. (He does not say this to Leonardo.)

Finally, the two arrive at their destination and Leo pulls back a red curtain to reveal the dojo. Workout equipment is still sprawled across the floor - ranging from dumbbells to cement blocks to practice dummies. It also has a couple foam mats on the floor and an open wardrobe that shows off their weapons. Leonardo immediately stops talking about Space Heroes when she takes notice of the weapons inside.

(Which Leo was a bit bummed about because he really wanted to know the other crew-mates reactions to Celestials death. Specifically, Crankshaw because god does that poor guy need to get himself away from his egotistical captain.)

“A kusari-fundō and a pair of wooden tonfā’s?” She mutters, a japanese accent spilling out only for the weapons names.

“Those are Mikeys’ and Raphs’ old weapons,” Leo informs as he walks over to a small tower of stacked cement blocks and sits on it. He lets out a deep sigh and begins to stretch his arms and massage his shoulders. His body still has yet to adjust to the feeling of crutches under his pits.

Leonardo takes a seat on one of the stray cement blocks near Leo and simply waits for him to begin, which causes Leo to realize that he doesn’t know the first thing to ask about all of this. He didn’t have any questions ready, he just figured that Leonardo would just straight up tell Leo what he kind of already knows and they try to come up with a plan from there. However, Leonardo seems to waiting on Leo’s command to do so.

“Do you have a dojo in your universe?” Leo asks.

Leonardo blinks, brow muscles dipping in confusion slightly. She probably wasn’t expecting to continue small talk. Maybe she thought that they would jump right into a discussion about their current situation. It’s probably what she would do. But that’s not how Leo rolls. He wants to at least know more about Leonardo and her family and get to know them a bit better before spilling why the portal messed up as badly as it did and gutting himself of his traumatic backstory that happened like two weeks ago.

“Um. . . yes,” Leonardo finally answers.

“What’s it like?”

Leonardo dips her brow muscles further. “There’s a. . . a huge tree in the middle of it all, it’s directly under a skylight grate. There’s also a bunch of rugs decorating the floor because the flooring is all concrete and ya know concrete is very rough. Sometimes we’ll have foam pads rolled out on the ground and spar one another. We’ve also got weapons, like you guys, but they’re hanging on this. . . horizontal wooden pole thingy? I forgot the word of it,” Leonardo says, muttering the last part.

“Sounds more home-y than ours,” Leo says.

“You guys act more home-y than my brothers and I ever did,” Leonardo sighs. The sentence isn’t held with bitterness or sadness, just content as she stares up at the ceiling. “At your age, I was literally butting heads with Raphael for what felt like every day, popping a vessel at Michelangelo once a week, and rudely poking fun at Donatello every hour,” She says.

Leo tries to imagine doing those things to his brothers. Butting head with Raph every day? Leo would probably get heavily concussed. Popping a vessel at Mikey once a week? The last time Leo got genuinely annoyed with Mikey was when they were ten and six respectively and Mikey had snitched on him to Splinter about how Leo tried to bribe Raph into doing his chores, and that ended with Leo’s annoyance not even lasting a couple hours before asking Mikey if he wanted to play a game of lava monster. Rudely poking fun at Donnie every hour. . . ?

“Doesn’t sound too far off from myself. I rudely poke fun at Donnie ever hour as well,” Leo says aloud.

Leonardo snorts. “Perhaps it’s just written in stone for every Leonardo to make fun of every Donatello,” She says.

“I don’t think I could ever tell my Donnie that fact. He’d try to travel to every universe, searching for one where a Donatello makes fun of a Leonardo instead,” Leo says.

“I’d honestly love to see him try. I think he’d be a humorous mad scientist,” Leonardo says.

Leo cackles, “Mad scientist. . . you’ve truly captured the very essence of my dear brother.”

Leonardo shakes her head with a soft smile and silence covers the two for just a couple seconds.

“When my brothers and I used to spar, it was mostly seen and done as a competition rather than a learning experience. We all wanted to impress our father with our abilities - whoever was left standing got his praise whilst the loser got some pointers from him, so we all just kinda latched onto the first part. However, whenever we spar now, we point out flaws in each other stances and hits and congratulate when done properly or when it’s obvious we’ve learned from each other’s advice,” Leonardo says.

“What changed? You guys get closer?” Leo asks with a soft smile.

“You can say something like that,” Leonardo shrugs. “The main push for us to truly be better was a little after our father died,” She says.

Leo’s smile slowly drops.

Splinter.

She’s talking about Splinter.

Their Splinter died. Their Splinter is six feet under. Kind, full of love and adoration, contributor of gentle touches, and giver of a million and one forehead kisses Splinter. . . dead.

Leo doesn’t want to ask questions about the portal now, he so desperately wants to ask what happened to dad. When did he die? Did he die of natural causes? Was he killed? If so, who killed him? Where was he buried? Did they have a shrine to him?

However, Leo voices none of this. Instead he says: “Our Karai’s death was a big push for us to be better as well.”

Leonardo looks over at Leo, it’s obvious she’s trying to hide the sadness in her eyes but Leo grew up, and has had a couple sessions, with Dr.Feelings. Nothings getting past him. The confession garnered a hairline crack to Leonardo’s enforced walls but, nonetheless, it’s a crack. “It’s not the same pain as losing your father as she was our grandma—“ Leo doesn’t take notice of how Leonardo’s eyes widen, “—but. . . I know what it’s like to lose a dearly loved family member. And I know the hardships that come with it,” Leo says.

“Hardships?” Leonardo asks softly. She doesn’t seemed confused by the word just. . . surprised.

Leo gently hits her bicep with the back of his hand. “Come on, we’re both kinda like the same person. You’ve got some scars - and I’m not just talking about the visible ones,” Leo jokes, causing Leonardo to smile. “I won’t push you to share but you should loosen up a bit, the weight of being a leader is a harsh one, but not if you allow others to help,” Leo says.

Leonardo nods.

“I could say the same to you,” She says gently. “You brought us to another room so you could avoid talking about the cause of the portal in front of your family,” She points out.

Leo looks away from her.

“I won’t push, as it seems like a touchy subject, but sooner or later, I really think you should talk to your family about this,” Leonardo says.

“Guess we both got work to do, huh?” Leo asks.

“It’s just how we Leonardo’s roll,” She shrugs.

Leo gives Leonardo a single nod.

“Now, for the actual reason why we’re here,” He begins. “The portal that dragged you guys in. . . was that like around when you guys were all together?” Leo asks.

Leonardo shakes her head. “Me and my brothers were at our place when it happened. O’Neil, Karai, and CJ were all at their respective homes,” She states.

“What happened?” Leo questions.

“Just before my family and I were brought here, we all heard the same thing: a vicious beating echoing in what seemed to be our heads after all, along with desperate and ear-piercing cries for our help,” Leonardo states, her eyes never glancing away from Leo’s. Not even twitching away.

Leo thinks back to the cries he heard himself from his katana.

“Your cries,” Leonardo says.

That throws Leo off. It causes him to straighten his back and stare at Leonardo with an unmoving gaze; however, Leo can’t bring himself to speak. The sentence felt like a knife twisting in his wound. He knew that Leonardo would confirm it was his voice but for some reason, hearing it aloud made Leo’s stomach twist in a bad way. “Your voice called out to my siblings for help, called out for Splinter as well. There wasn’t enough time to properly register everything before the portal sucked us in,” Leonardo says.

“Was there anything like that on your end?” Leonardo asks.

Leo looks down at his hands in his lap. “Sorta,” He shrugs. “I was the only one who could hear it though. . . and experience it. The only thing my brothers saw was me looking like I was on the verge of a panic attack,” He says. “I heard crying and hitting as well but I. . . I also felt like I was being hit. My body felt like it was flying one second and then being roughly slammed against rock the next. I’ve experienced it before but feeling it all again. . .” Leo trails off, shivering slightly. The prison dimension was not a kind one, it’s inhabitants even worse. “I don’t know why my body and mind did that,” He whispers. “Then Raph snaps me out of it and it’s all gone. Then the portal explodes and when I wake up, I see Donatello. . .“ Leo pauses for a second.

Should he really tell Leonardo about the strange voice he heard? About how it seemed to emitting off his katana and the only reason why he wasn’t outwardly afraid was because his katana told him that Leonardo and her brothers were safe?

Leonardo stares at him patiently.

Oh what the hell. She’s him in a way! She’ll probably understand or, at the very least, won’t judge.

“. . . And then there was this. . . voice but it-it didn’t sound like my voice. Doesn’t sound like yours either. In fact, I’ve never heard that voice before but it. . . it told me that Donatello was. . . safe?” Leo shrugs. “The voice also told me the same thing about you, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Perhaps it was another Leonardo? Or someone of your universe? Or maybe mine but I haven’t met them? I-I don’t know, this is all too confusing. Donnie would probably have a clue or something,” Leo mutters.

Leonardo hums softly in thought. “Donnie said something interesting back there,” She begins. “He said that your guys’ current weapons have been forged by your soul, so if you guys ever get stressed or have a strong emotional feeling towards something, it reflects onto your weapons,” She mutters.

“Where is this going?” Leo asks.

“You must’ve been in distressed or holding some form of distress in your soul when you went to open the portal. Your weapon then sought out comfort, it sought out your family, but instead of your family it brought mine,” Leonardo states.

“Okay. Okay, I like where this is going. We’re connecting the dots,” Leo says. “But, and not to sound rude, why specifically you guys?” He asks.

Leonardo shrugs. “That’s what I just can’t seem to answer. Why us? There’s several other versions of us so why are we a special case? Perhaps our dimensions are fairly close?” Leonardo mutters.

There’s a bit of silence between the two. Leonardo has a finger curled under her chin as she hums softly in thought, muscle brows slightly furrowed as she thinks. Leo only stares and waits. (Just because the two are kind of the same, doesn’t mean he’s a fucking a telepath with her. Though that would be very cool.)

“Was there a—”

Suddenly, the curtain is thrown open, cutting off Leonardo’s sentence. Leo and Leonardo’s heads whip to the side and stare at O’Neil and Mikey standing in the doorway, trying to catch their respective breaths. O’Neil is hunched over and Mikey leans back with his hands on his hips, head tilted up to the ceiling. “What happened?” Leo asks, grabbing his crutches and adjusting them under his arms.

O’Neil jabs a finger against his plastron. “You didn’t—“ Her eyes water over for a split second, causing Leo’s eyes to widen, “We didn’t—“ O’Neil gets cut off by her sharp inhales for air. She turns her head away and lowers her arm.

“April, what happened?” Leonardo asks as she takes O’Neil’s hand and lowers her head slightly to look into her eyes, but she doesn’t dare look into Leonardo’s. O’Neil shakes her head, shoulders raised to her ears as she trembles slightly.

Leonardo turns to Mikey. “What did she see?” She asks.

Leo turns to Mikey. He’s picking at his cuticles, a nervous tick he had supposedly given up at a young age, and his eyes won’t meet Leonardo’s. Instead, Mikey stares into Leo’s as if Leo was the one to ask the question.

“She and the others saw dad,” Mikey says.

Both Leo and Leonardo’s eyes widen.

When it comes to interacting with others, Mikey is a born natural. His voice carries itself - filled with never faltering confidence and unbeaten optimism. If not for his very apparent mutant features, he’d be a wonderful speaker. Like one of those speakers that visits Aprils middle school/high-school once a year (though April says their stories are a little boring and she always sleeps through them. “Glad they found their calling and all but my principal has us sit in a somewhat dim auditorium in cushioned seats, it’s inevitable that I’m going to fall asleep,” is what she always says). He’s also very good at reading body language, and everything and anything that involves emotions.

For example, Mikey can tell that Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello are all insanely stressed out. Donatello holds his wooden bō staff close to his chest, as if it is his lifeline, eyes staring straight ahead and jaw clenched with a frown, ready to attack at even the slightest noise. Michelangelo walks fairly close alongside O’Neil and CJ, he has his arms crossed over his chest and shoulders raised to his chin. His mouth is just ever so slightly agape, ready to call out a command or something to his brothers. And Raphael keeps glancing out of the corner of his eyes, fingers twitching at his sides where his sais are kept neatly at his belt - as if looking for an excuse to grab ahold of them. They don’t seem to trust new areas, especially new areas that seem undoubtedly safe.

It makes Mikey wonder just what kinds of mishaps these guys have gone through.

“Abandoned subway station, huh? I was expecting a big ol stinky sewer,” CJ says, hands folded behind his head as he leans slightly back.

“Our sewer wasn’t that putrid,” Donatello grumbles, shooting a look at CJ.

CJ reaches over and pinches Donatello’s cheek, his eyes half-lidded and a playful smirk spreading across his face. Donatello stares at CJ with a raised brow muscle. “Yes it was, dear Donnie. You’re lucky I’m a hockey player that has smelt things that would make a normal human barf, or else I never would’ve stuck around,” CJ says.

“How awful,” Donatello says sarcastically, his face blank.

“I know!” CJ smiles.

Donatello rolls his eyes and stares straight ahead. A soft smile pulls at his lips.

Mikey and Donnie share a look.

“We used to live in the sewers but uh got an upgrade,” Raph finally says.

“What caused you guys to upgrade?” CJ asks.

Raph hunches over slightly, Donnie massages his shoulder, April picks at her knuckles, and Mikey can only stammer.

He isn’t so good with lying.

Suddenly, a stomach rumbles and Mikey focuses on that instead. He whips his head around and sees Karai’s face turn a light pink as she holds her stomach. “Sorry,” She apologizes. “I uh. . . w-wasn’t able to eat dinner before getting teleported here,” She says.

Mikey smiles at Karai.

It stings knowing that the alternate version of his family still have their Karai and were probably able to form a deeper bond with her than what Mikey’s family was able to form with their Karai. She had been freed from her horrible prison for no less than eight hours and was a wonderful gram-gram in that amount of time. Mikey wishes she was still around or, at the very least, that his family had enough time to be with her longer.

He wonders if this Karai likes tea.

“Anyone else hungry?” Raph asks.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! I am!” Michelangelo shouts, waving his hand frantically.

CJ shrugs, “I could take a bite.”

“How does tea and pancakes sound?” Mikey asks.

Karai blinks, “I love tea. And pancakes don’t sound too bad.”

Mikey’s smile widens.

“Yay! Breakfast for dinner!” Michelangelo exclaims with a fist-bump.

“Kitchens just up ahead and it’s our second to last stop,” Mikey says. “I’ll cook it up for you guys,” He grins.

Raphael, Donatello, and O’Neil pale at the sentence. “Hey,” O’Neil whispers to Donnie, causing him to hum. “Is your Mikey a good cook?” She asks softly.

Donnie raised a drawn brow. “He’s like. . . the greatest ever. He’s way better than this famous cook he looks up to,” He says. “Is yours not?”

O’Neil cringes slightly. “I love the guy, he’s a great little brother but. . . he’s the worst cook I’ve ever met. He once made this green slimy cake for his and his brothers “mutation day”, could not recall a single ingredient he used nor what made the cake into a slimy mess,” She says.

Donnie pales at that.

“Sounds like a devilish sensory overload,” He gags.

Raphael whacks O’Neil on the top of her head. “Ow!” She shouts, rubbing her head as tears prick the corner of her eyes. “The hell was that for?” O’Neil hisses.

“You make it sound like he’s fed us straight-up trash,” Raphael says.

“Didn’t he actually do that once?” Donatello asks genuinely.

Raphael whacks him on the top of his head.

“Hey!” Donatello whines, glaring at Raphael.

CJ points at Donatello as he tosses his head back and cackles loudly.

“Definitely your counterpart,” April muses to Casey, causing her to grin widely.

Mikey then turns a sharp corner and immediately holds out a hand, signaling for the group to stop. O’Neil raises an eyebrow and Mikey begins to sweat.

“Hi dad!” He calls out, voice high in pitch.

“Shit,” Donnie softly curses as he and Raph and immediately join Mikey’s side whilst April, Casey, and Junior stay with the others and try to keep them hidden from Splinter’s gaze.

“Pops! What are you doing here?” Raph asks.

“Ah! I was just about to head over to the living room because I thought I heard an explosion, but when I didn’t hear Purples screaming, I figured you boys had it all under control so I decided to get a snack instead,” Splinter shrugs as he takes a sip from his cup. He then looks at them. “You boys do have things under control, yes?” He asks.

He knows somethings up.

Donnie and Raph glance over at Mikey, who starts to rub his hands together and avoid his fathers eyes. Donnie starts to beg and pray that if there is a god, they will not let Michel-“the snitch”-Angelo spill the beans.

“Orange?” Splinter asks with a raised brow.

Raph stares at Mikey out of the corner of his eye. All Mikey has to do is say “yes”, just a simple and small word for Splinter to stop his questioning. With each second that passes without an answer, the more Splinter grows suspicious.

Mikey bites down on his lip, head shrinking into his shell with every passing second his father stares him down. Mikey squeezes his eyes shut.

“Micheal—“

“Leo tried to create a portal to Hueso’s but instead of it being it’s usual blue color, it was like a purple one and he starts freaking out and not responding because the portal is sending out like bolts of lightning! Then Raph snaps him out of whatever trance he was in and then in the next second the portal blows up! And now this group of alternate versions of us are here and we have no idea why or how they got here, let alone how to return them home!”

Mikey takes in a deep breath.

Donnie and Raph groan. “Sorry!” He apologizes. “You guys know I suck at these kinds of things,” Mikey says.

“One job, Angelo. One job!”

“I know!”

Splinter furrows his brows. “An alternate version of you boys? And this was caused by Leo? . . . Are you sure this is not Purples doing?” He asks.

“I’d be hurt at such accusations but yeah this seems more like a me thing to do,” Donnie says.

Raph gestures for the others to step out.

And the group slowly walks out from behind the wall.

Donatello drops his bō staff upon seeing Splinter, the wooden weapon loudly clattering against the ground - the sound reminded him of when he threw his staff to try and catch his fathers defending corpse. CJ could only stare, arms limp at his sides, he couldn’t bring himself to move even the slightest of a centimeter towards the alternate version of his dear sensei. O’Neil freezes, eyes widening and shoulders slumping, her eyes never leave Splinters, they remind her so much of the man she had grew to love and view as a father, she missed such eyes. Karai pales, hands balling into fists as she bites down on her bottom lip with great force that she can taste cooper running against her throat with every swallow of spit. Michelangelo stares at the ground, refusing to look up, as his hands tremble at his side, unable to meet the sight of a man who resembles his dear father, his father who is now buried six feet under in the soil of a farm. Raphael stares with wide eyes, mouth ever so slight agape but nothing leaves him, the man before him didn’t resemble the father Raphael had been bitter towards during his early teenage years - this one was way different than him.

Despite the clear and obvious fact that this Splinter was nothing like theirs, he was still a Splinter; the man who was mutated alongside Raphael and his siblings and raised them like his own. He still deserved their utmost respect (even if Raphael really didn’t want to). Raphael takes a knee and dips his head. “Sensei,” He greets, voice low.

Splinter lets out a low chuckle. “There is no need for such formalities. I am your father am I not? Er well. . . a version of him but still,” He says with a shrug.

Raphael slowly raises to his feet but he doesn’t lift his head.

Splinter then sets down the cup he was holding and walks over to the others. “You all are definitely alternate versions of my children, that is for certain. You have the very same sparks in your eyes they have,” He says with a light hum. He then turns to Karai and stares at her for a couple of seconds before his eyes soften. “You remind me a lot of her. I am guessing you are their universes’ Karai,” He says.

Karai swallows softly, eyes darting about as they stare into Splinters, “H—Yes.”

Splinter dips his head in a small bow. “I know you all are not exactly my own but if there is anything you need, I am happy to lend a helping hand,” He offers.

“I’m surprised you’re taking this in so well,” CJ says.

Splinter shrugs. “Donnie loves to infodump about his theories and inventions and I’m always happy to lend an ear to him even if I can’t understand some of things he’s saying. I’m getting there though,” He grins.

No one from the group smiles back at him.

Mikey can tell that they’re in a lot of pain just from hearing and seeing Splinter. Mikey’s curiosity about their alternates seemed to always be never ending.

O’Neil then quickly turns on her heel. “I’m gonna go look for Leonardo,” She grits.

She leaves the room fairly quickly and Mikey can’t help but follow after her. He can’t help but be drawn to O’Neil as if she is his April. Mikey knows she isn’t. He knows his April is standing right beside Donatello, probably either staring at the entrance of the kitchen, the group, or Splinter, but still. It’s a feeling that Mikey can’t help but not shake off.

“O’Neil—“

“You didn’t mention anything about your Splinter,” She says through barred teeth, speed-walking down the hallway they just went up.

“I didn’t think it was necessary.”

She scoffs lightly, almost sounding like a short laugh of disbelief. “Not necessary?” O’Neil asks. “Not necessary?!” Her voice rises a bit but she doesn’t stop to turn around and look at Mikey.

Mikey takes notice that she’s desperate to find her sister. Perhaps Leonardo is a common shoulder for O’Neil to rest upon?

“I’m sorry. Poor wording,” Mikey says.

O’Neil is obviously upset and Mikey doesn’t want to make her even more. It’ll cause her to lash out or have a breakdown and all Mikey wants is to at least calm her down.

If finding Leonardo will help calm down O’Neil then. . .

“I can take you to our dojo. That’s probably where Leo lead your sister,” Mikey offers.

O’Neil pace slows down just a bit. She shakes her head lightly, a soft huff leaving her. “That’s exactly where Leonardo would be,” She mutters. O’Neil then turns her head and looks to Mikey, “Lead the way.”

Mikey sprints past O’Neil, causing her to sprint after him.

Mikey has a small feeling that it may take awhile trying to adjust to one another’s differences in their lives and each other.