Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

3rd person (September 10th, Friday,11:15pm)
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It was almost midnight when-

"WAHOO!!!"

Let me skip you on this, almost two years ago a group of 4 teens had become vigilantes. Why? To stop the Shredder of course, he apparently was thought to be dead, but turned out he was only in hiding. His deal with Kraang gave great access to many weapons and allies. Shredder had stayed hidden so he could strike at the unsuspecting Hamato family. That wouldn't happen of course, one of the vigilantes being Raphael Hamato.

His mother, Shen, was a mutant and taught him how to use his powers for good. He was to never tell anyone about them. Not even his own family. And he promised. Since then Raphael has kept his true strength hidden from his family.

Because some of Shedder's allies were mutants. Let's just say whenever Raph and his brothers would face them, they came home pretty beaten up. Back then they were only teenagers since they started fighting the Kraang and Shredder.

The Hamato family thought that they were done with Shredder until late one night when 3 of the Hamato brothers were attacked by him. That was also the night when they first spotted the new vigilante, Black Rabbit. A few days after running into the masked man while on patrol, Leo made an alliance with him, along with Black Rabbit's other allies. As long as Leo promised not to tell anyone of their existence, only with the exception of the people he patrols with. Leo promised and that was that.

Black Rabbit and his group would help them in big problems, example as in the Shedder and his mutant allies attacking, or something else life threatening. That was the deal.

Now let's get back to the story-
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The Mutants were dealing with the new mutant, The Terror, as Mist Skull liked to call the giant mutant.

"Mist Skull, any sight on it!" Raphael shouted into his mic as he jumped from roof to roof. "Nope not yet! Oi! Pink what about you?" The other voice asked. Raphael or Black Rabbit, was bounding over the roofs to catch up with his teammates, Mist Skull, Lunar Fang, and Pink Devil. They had started patrolling almost three hours ago until they spotted the mutant.

"Do you think this, uh.... monster, could possibly be working with The Shredder."

Raphael grimaced at the thought of this creature roaming around the alleys of New York City. The Terror had already caused three deaths, all thought to be mysterious animal attacks. The victims were mauled to death by this 'thing'. Raphael and his friends wanted to rid this mutant as fast as possible. Before it did anything worse, most likely expose itself and the rest of the mutant world, that'll turn into a manhunt.

None of them wanted that.

As Raphael jumped from roof to roof, trying to see if he could find this creature, he heard a yell of distress. The redhead messed his mask a little before taking a running leap to the another building, he curled up into a ball as he hit the roof. Raphael then uncurled himself and grunted in pain. "That's gonna leave a bruise." He thought. He resumed pulling himself up and headed off to where the noise came from. Once again jumping from roof to roof, not once getting spotted by civilians. No one could possibly notice a figure jumping from building to the next because of the city lights and loud city police sirens.

"Great another robbery, hopefully the police are on their tails because I have more important things than that." Raphael sighed and kept his focus on where the noise came from.

"Guys I found it!" Pink Devil announced. "Good. Where is it?" Raphael asked, skidding to a halt. "It's near the docks at a warehouse, Black Rabbit it's attacking that ginger haired brother of yours." Pink Devil added. Raphael's eyes immediately darkened. The thought of that 'thing' attacking his baby brother was enough to set him into "Overprotective" mode. "I'll be there in 5 minutes tops." Raph answered in a grim tone. "I'll be there as well." Lunar Fang replied.

Raph immediately resumed jumping from roof to roof, not even breaking a sweat. If his baby brother was being attacked that was going to end bad. Raphael kept up with his speeding pace all the while avoiding pipes and from dropping into the alleyways down below.

Once he reached the warehouse he hid behind a large crate, and started scanning the area, and immediately spotted Mikey. He wasn't harmed too badly, maybe a bruise or two, along with a cut on his cheek. The creature on the other hand was roaming around, a dead cat hanging from its mouth. Raph turned away in disgust, part of the cat's intestines were hanging out. "Disgusting." He thought and sighed. "Let's just get this over with and done."

Raph's hand illuminated an eerie green glow, a black tentacle slowly creeped out. It didn't hurt Raph, in fact, it didn't feel like anything.

The tentacle slowly turned into a dagger, it looked like to be made out of titanium, a glowing green effect made it even deadlier looking. "Guys I'm here at the warehouse; my dagger is drawn, where are y'all?" He quietly asked into his communicator. It was silent. "Guys?" Still silent. "Am I seriously on my own now?!" He whisper shouted, now irritated at his teammates. Raph continued to angrily mutter under his breath, until a tap on his shoulder shook him from his train of thought.

"Pink Devil and Mist Skull are on the other side of the building, just me an' you now dude." It was Lunar Fang. "Ah," Raph replied. Lunar Fang then crouched down next to him, observing the creature. "Welp, let's get rid of this thing. Once it's dead we'll have to take back to the-" Raph and Lunar Fang looked in amazement and shock as replica of the creature stepped out from the shadows.

"Holy shit..." Lunar Fang muttered under her breath.

It was a bit smaller and it's eyes were normal dog like ones but they were a bright shade of gold. The tail was also shorter and thinner than its look alike. It looked more like an actual giant wolf because the features of it were more similar. "Are you seeing this?" Mist Skull said through his communicator. He and Pink Devil were on the roof of the old warehouse. They too, were seeing the amazing sight.

The counterpart of 'The Terror' growled as it looked away in disgust at the blood dripping from the other one's mouth. The first one just grunted and started sniffing around. It slowly turned its head and growled in hunger and bloodlust.

Raph turned his head so quickly Lunar Fang thought she heard his neck snap. And he had a good reason too. There was Mikey, he stood petrified in the creature's gaze. Raph never felt this angry before. "Oh fuck no you are not eating my baby brother you monster." He growled under his breath, eyes darkening. He began to get up when Lunar Fang grabbed him.

"Hey! Look!" Lunar Fang whispered as she quickly pulled Raphael back by his shoulder and pointed towards the giant wolf mutants. The minute Raph looked away the smaller mutant wolf had cornered the larger one in a mass of seconds.

It was baring its teeth at the smaller one who, quite calmly, starred him down. "Fukano" Raphael muttered under his breath, switching to japanese. He could tell Lunar Fang was giving him a look through her mask. "Tashikani." The two vigilantes looked and saw Mikey standing right by them.

It was as if they were watching a movie, the bigger wolf was still sitting there with the smaller one starring it down. They would've stared at it longer until a portal had suddenly appeared behind the two wolves. Two silver chains sprung out and wrapped themselves around the necks of the two wolves.

The vigilantes watched as they were dragged into the portal by the chains, howling and yelping for help. After a few minutes of struggling, they disappeared, along with portal that had taken them.

Raphael then turned to his little brother,"Go home kid, we're gonna investigate into this matter" Mikey nodded and ran as fast as he could out of the docks. "How the hell does he get himself into this stuff." Raph continued, rubbing his temples through his head gear as he and Lunar Fang walked towards where the portal dissipated.

By then Mist Skull and Pink Devil had jumped down from where they were hiding and were in the spot that the portal had appeared. "Whatever those things were, there is definitely more. Maybe they work with The Shredder?" Mist Skull asked to himself as he tapped his chin through his mask.

He then continued to question the possibility of those creatures and their center of existence as they all headed back to the lair to put away their gear.

Raphael admitted it was annoying but didn't bother to say anything, as those were important questions.

After going a down a couple blocks the group stopped at an old building in the lower downtown area. The place looked ordinary, graffiti on the walls, small cracks in the sides, a metal door of the garage with a middle finger sprayed on it. A street lamp dimly lit near, making the place look ominous.

Too anyone it would look like a normal building, the one problem is that no one is able to get inside. As if the place wouldn't allow any trespassers, even if they were police. They, Raphael and his friends, had an advantage as they could easily walk in effortlessly.

Pink (Pink Devil) phased through the garage door with ease. As did the other three, to where they then came to an empty concrete room. The windows were boarded up, the concrete stairs having cracks in them, along the thick metal rails rusting, even few old newspapers scattered about. The room itself looked seemingly normal.

Raphael casually kicked an old newspaper to the side as he and his friends made their way to a blank, concrete wall just below the stairs. He ran his hand along the side the wall until he felt it grow hollow on the other end. Raphael knocked on the hollow stone three times in a similar beat before the wall opened up to a hidden elevator. The group walked in and stood there as the door closed. Before they took off their helmets a scanner appeared and scanned the four vigilantes. Once it was done scanning it went back into the wall and started the elevator down.

"Welcome home. Did you have a good run?" The AI asked in a mother like tone. Raph smiled. This was A.V.A an AI Mist Skull invented as a main source of security. She was an unhackable system for reasons, besides security, she kept the others in check, occasionally suggested things, and even reminded the others to eat.

"It went well." Replied Mist Skull, his tone low, but still loud enough for Ava to hear. "That's good to hear. Make sure to rest after taking off your gear. I'm assuming Raphael will not be returning home until tomorrow morning?"A.V.A asked. "That is correct." Raphael droned, already tired from scouring all over the city looking for that cursed wolf, now only to find out there's two, and they might be working for The Shredder. "Alright. I'll check with Mr.Hart and tell him as well." A.V.A told. The four agreed on the terms since Mr.Hart was the only grown adult that knew of their powers.

The elevator dinged, meaning they were finally at the lair. The four of them immediately exited out of the elevator once the doors were open. The group was now standing in an open living room, modernly styled, with fake windows that were made by Mist Skull as well. The windows were made to show what time it was above ground, even having a virtual clock on one of them. It was also added just to make it more normal, and because Pink Devil didn't want windows only to be looking at concrete.

The four vigilantes walked into a separate room with a completely different atmosphere than the other room they were just in.

There were four glass cases a few feet away for storing their suites, each with a small color coded stripe on the neck of the mannequins inside them.

Green for Raphael, Blue for Lunar Fang, Purple for Mist Skull, and obviously, Pink for Pink Devil.

"Geez what a night." Mist Skull sighed as he took off his helmet, placing it carefully back onto the mannequin. Once he did, you could see clearly that he was indeed human. His eyes were each a different color, he had light brown hair, and lots of freckles. This was Adam.

Pink Devil took off her hood and head gear, revealing her unnatural dark pastel pink hair and mint green eyes. This was Emily.

Next was Lunar Fang. Taking off her helmet you could from her face that she has light brown skin, chocolate brown eyes, and dark brown hair with a fiery blue ombre, lighter blue streaks added in as well. This was Allison, Mr.Hart's niece.

Raphael finally took off his helmet, revealing his burgundy red hair and piercing emerald eyes.

Once officially taking off all of their gear, cleaning themselves, and getting into pajamas, Emily taking the longest, the four then headed off to the living room.

The four began talking as they started seating themselves on different sides of the couch. The four of were planning to just read, listen to music, or casually play on their phone. Just normal stuff teenagers would do.

Raph couldn't help but smile as Emily talked about her latest prank she pulled on one of her maids. Like his family, he wanted to protect them with his life, they understood him. Since Donnie hogged Casey all the time and Mona was now with Slash, he had no one. That was until these three came into his life. They were all similar in some way that they understood each other.

He looked towards the shelf on the right. It was a photo of him and the others last year, a couple of months after he met them. They were all at Mr.Hart's place celebrating their latest victory;Adam's arm in a cast, Allison's fading scar on her cheek, Emily with with a big balloon bat over her shoulder whooping for joy, and then there's him in the middle of it with a big grin. One of there older friends in the background as well, he was in mid jump with a big maniac smile.

"This couldn't get any better."

Chapter Text

September 11th,

Saturday

Time:5:15am

Pov:3rd Person

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It was an early morning, Raph was on the roof of the hideout. He was zoned out, blankly staring out at the other buildings surrounding them. He didn't even notice that Allison had sat next to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"You know it's not your fault Raph." Allison whispered, being cautious of her words. The subject being too painful for either of them to talk about on a normal scale.

Even though Allison was cautious, she could feel Raph shutter in response. His breathing was ragged and uneven. Allison only closed her eyes in response and wrapped her arm around him, bringing him closer to her. The sound of Raph's stifled sobs and his hands wrapping tightly around her were the only things Allison kept her focus on. She didn't even bother wiping her own tears as they slid down her face. The only thing she cared about now was comforting Raph, who was now openly sobbing into her shoulder.

None of them wanted it to happen, they were so careful, yet, it happened. They had lost one of their own.

Louis...

It was supposed to be a big mission. They were stopping Don Vizioso from doing a major deal with the Kraang. It was something about the selling of Atomic weapons that are said to kill someone instantly. Vizioso was planning to do this to aquire more drugs, power, and to kill all mutants in NYC. The problem was that he needed a lot of mutant blood and mutagen to create the substance that is needed for the weapons to work appropriately. He had lured The Mutants by doing this plan that would get them all killed. He planned on finding Cherry, The Mutants little hacker, and youngest member, and using her for other unspeakable acts.

Luckily, Cherry had knew this already and informed the others about it. The only problem was that it was too late to warn them about what the weapons could do.

Those weapons were used on Louis as soon as he was captured by them. The Kraang shot him in the head and chest, along with doing more damage to his body by putting an actual bullet into his neck. The one main reason he was alive was because of his perseverance. He was determined to stay alive as long as he could until someone could save him. And it worked. Raph had came in and absolutely lost it when he saw Louis' condition. The entire place looked like a bloodbath after Raph was done with them.

Right now both of them were outside in front of the burning warehouse. Louis was bleeding out on the ground with Raph above him and trying to patch up every injury.

During this time, Louis felt himself fading, black spots were starting appear in his vision, it was blurry, and he was in exasperated pain as blood was felt filling his lungs. He felt like his time was up and there was nothing he could do except one thing.

"Ra...Raph-" The blonde whispered as he winced in pain. His dull blue eyes staring up at a younger looking Raphael, except this time, his expression was no longer angry like before. His expression was now mixed with fear, sadness, worry, just all out stressed. Raph was inconsolable at this point, his grip on Louis' side, trying to stop the bleeding. But it seemed to be no use, Louis was bleeding profusely from his head and chest, the most important organs that were never supposed to be hit. The heart and the brain. Louis coughed up more blood making Raph cry even louder and harder. Raph was trying to stop every part of him from bleeding while ignoring his own wounds.

The teen didn't know that he was only hurting Louis more, not physically, it was more like Louis couldn't take it anymore. The blonde brought his arm out and set his hand on Raph's shoulder, stopping him for a moment. His grip not as tight, but still firm. "Raph... It's okay." He whispered softly, but it seemed like Raphael didn't hear him. As he kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

"You're going to be okay! Everything's going to be fine. We're all going home tonight and you're getting healed when we get back. I'll-" Before Raph could finish he heard a light chuckle with coughing fit following right after. The redhead looked down to see Louis smiling. "Why are you smiling Louis?! You're dying, and I can't get in any con-" Raph couldn't finish his sentence when he felt Louis put a hand on his cheek.

"You're gonna make a great leader Raph, just please don't think any of this is your fault." He whispered as tears threatened to spill from his eyes.

"Wha...What?! No! You're not dying on me. I still need you!" Raph sobbed, pain clearly visible in his voice.

"Raph..." Louis said softly. "I'm at my end. It's your turn to take this role. You..." He hissed as a flash of pain tore through his side, but continued, "You've clearly earned it."

"No-"

"Raph, please go."

"Wha-?"

"I said go, Raph. I don't want you to see... see me dying. You've been...been through e...enough already. Just promise me you'll lead them. "I...I-" "Please" Raph could only stare as tears streamed down his cheeks. He nodded slowly, got up and wiped his eyes. "I...I promise." He whispered and then ran off to find his teammates.

They were on the other side of the building, injured, but very much alive. Lunar Fang, or Allison, was the first to walk up to him. She looked around for a few seconds and then asked the question,"Where's Louis?"

That very question was the last straw. He broke. At first the others thought that Raph couldn't find him, but realization hit them hard as Raph kept trying to explain why Louis wasn't with him. "He's gone. I... I'm sorry *hic* It's all *hic* my fault" He sobbed as he wiped his eyes. They were quite taken aback by this, as they've never heard him sound so broken before. "What...What do you mean Raph. What do you mean he's gone?" Adam asked, his voice tight. "I...I couldn't save him in time. They had already done so much damage..." He stuttered, his breathing now shallow and voice hoarse. Allison had sat him on a crate behind them and made him sit there, afraid that he would collapse.

"They... I didn't reach him in time. They had shot- *hic* him right through the head and chest. I'm sorry. *hic* this is all my fault. I'm so sorry." He said quietly, his sniffles and hiccups doing him no good. The air around them had tensed. All eyes were staring at him. Raphael felt trapped, his thoughts tearing at him, telling him to think of something. He already felt horrible enough for not keeping Louis alive, so how was he going to tell the rest that he was now in charge? He definitely knew that they wouldn't react well to that. His thoughts tore at him, making him unable to move or blink. He didn't even react when his mask was removed. That was until his hair was given a small tug. He then finally looked up after what felt like hours.

Emerald eyes met Deep Brown.

It was Allison. Raph closed his eyes, ready for a slap, or at least a lot of yelling and blaming him. But it never came. Instead he felt a hand on his cheek. Raph slowly opened his eyes and was met with Allison's face, tears were streaming down her face, she didn't even bother to wipe them. She hugged Raph instead. This completely threw him off, as he thought they would blame him for Louis' death. It seemed like the complete opposite. Raph darted his eyes over to Emily and Adam.

They were hugging each other and crying, but not once did they even give him a dirty look. Allison then had sat next to him and pulled him close to her. Raph tried pulling away, saying he needed to leave and not come back, as well as apologizing. Allison only pulled him closer and tighten her grip.

"You're not at fault Raph."

She said, her voice now dead serious. She turned him to face her. His face was flushed slightly, and tears were slowly trickling down his face. He honestly looked more broken than when he had broke up with his now ex-girlfriend. Allison still wanted to kill her, but knew it wasn't the best time now. Allison just put her hand on his cheek again and thumbed away his tears. All the while he kept whispering a few sorry's here and there.

Allison felt like she couldn't take it anymore. Seeing her best friend look so broken and feel so worthless was breaking her heart. It reminded her of the earlier days when her uncle felt like he couldn't take care of her enough. Allison had promised herself to help those who felt like her uncle had. And right now, Raph needed that.

Before she could speak, thunder interrupted the once quiet night. That, and along with Adam swearing like a maniac before calming down. After giving Adam a glare for the unnecessary swears, Allison returned her gaze to Raph and put her hands on his shoulders. She stared at him straight in the eyes,"I want you to listen to me carefully and remember. It's not your fault Raph. Just because you couldn't be there in time doesn't mean you killed him. It's those goons who killed Louis, not you."

"But-"

Raph couldn't even finish his sentence when Allison hushed him. She gave him a soft smile and told him that she was going to call her uncle to pick them up so they could give Louis a proper burial. Raph could only nod and felt her pat his cheek and then get up from her spot next to him.

Both Adam and Emily sat on either side of him and comforted him. As time went by he had passed out Adam's shoulder and Emily was leaning on him with the intent of falling asleep. Thunder being the only thing that kept her awake. Raph still remembered it, as if it was just yesterday.

They had held a small memorial for Louis had buried him somewhere under the city, as that's where he had wanted to be buried. None of them knew why exactly, but they knew it's what Louis would've wanted.

Raph didn't realize he was so out of it until Allison had bonked him over the head.

"Ouch!? Hey what the hell was that for!" He yelled, a little angry at this point.

Allison, who was behind him rolled her eyes,"I called your name about twelve times." She muttered, a little annoyed.

"Oh..."

"Yeah." She then smirked and started getting up,"Anyways, my uncle texted me and asked if we wanted McDonalds for breakfast. You want anything?" She asked, turning to him.

Raph only shrugged and asked if they had any hash browns. She nodded and began walking back to the elevator, which was hidden as a stairway, while texting her uncle. Raph got up as well, wiped his eyes, and began following her back. His mind still a little numb from remembering the memory. It all seemed so real, replaying in his head over and over again.

He had kept his promise to Louis and led the team, but he couldn't stop thinking it was his fault. There was a lot of things going through his head.

He needed to up his grades, keep his identity secret, lead the team, bottle up his emotions that he so badly wanted to let out, try to not be upset when Mona is being lovey on Slash or when Casey and Don are hanging out, just be normal.

Those were what his goals were. Just to be normal... At least as normal as things could get.