Ensuring Discipline
part 15
It was the knowledge that either Mikey or Raph would come looking for him if he was gone for too long that finally helped Don collect his scattered emotions. He wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands and stood up, quickly knotting his mask back into place.
The chest was still where he’d left it but Don couldn’t bear to go near it again, the temptation was far too great. Listening at Master Splinter’s door, Don determined that neither of his brothers was nearby and he swiftly escaped his father’s room.
Darting across the lair, Don paused at the infirmary door long enough to take a deep breath before stepping inside. As he’d hoped, the lights were off, only a small desk lamp illuminating the interior.
Mikey looked up from the comic book he was reading, his feet up on Don’s desk. Don made a show of checking on Leo, carefully remaining out of the light so that his youngest brother wouldn’t see the remnants of his breakdown.
“Leo’s fine dude; he’s been resting peacefully this whole time,” Mikey said softly. “I made Raph go up to bed and you should too; you’re all in, I can tell by the way you’re moving. I’m still pretty fresh from that long nap I took so I can keep an eye on sleeping beauty here.”
“Are you sure, Mikey?” Don asked, suddenly feeling as if he didn’t want to leave Leo’s side again.
“I’m sure,” Mikey said, and then added, “Our Leo isn’t him bro’; he isn’t the other guy no matter how much they look alike.”
Startled, Don stared at Mikey. “I know that,” he said.
“Do you? Don’t you look at Leo’s face and see it kinda blur sometimes? I didn’t get as close to the fake as you did, but even I get confused. It’ll probably wear off over time, but right now it hits strong when you least expect it. That faker was bad news but if he could actually care for someone, I think maybe he might have cared for you. Tell me you didn’t feel that. Tell me that there is no part of you that misses him and what he was giving you towards the end,” Mikey said.
“We’re all upset and a little lost,” Don said. “It’s only natural to think . . . .”
“Raph’s not here Donny,” Mikey interrupted. “I’ll say this once and then leave it alone. I saw how you looked at the other Leo; I saw the expression on your face when he went after Raph in the dojo that day. You were scared he was gonna hurt Raph, but you were also jealous because you thought fake Leo wanted Raph again. I’m just telling you I understand why. I also know you gotta admit how you were beginning to feel about the guy before you can start to get your head on straight.”
“I’m trying,” Don said in a small voice.
“While you’re trying, keep reminding yourself that our Leo is not the same person as the one we kicked out. They were twins, Donny, one evil and one good. That’s all,” Mikey said.
“Twins,” Don repeated.
“Go up to your room and get some sleep,” Mikey said. “I’ll call you if I need you.”
“Okay,” Don said. He felt like an automaton as he walked towards the exit, his mind nearly shutting down. Just before he left the room, Don turned and asked, “When did you get to be so smart, Mikey?”
“I’ve always been smart,” Mikey answered with the flash of a grin. “It’s just hidden by my overwhelming good looks.”
Don managed to offer him a small smile of his own as a reward for Mikey’s wit and then slowly left the infirmary. For a long moment he just stood and looked at the staircase; the mattress in his room was infinitely softer than the one in his lab, but he simply didn’t have the energy to climb the stairs.
Lurching into his lab, Don removed his bo staff on his way to the bed, not bothering with the lights or the rest of his gear. Don threw himself face down on the mattress and then his overworked emotions did what his physical exhaustion could not; Don was asleep inside of a minute.
A soft voice eventually pulled Donatello from his slumber and when he lifted his head to glance at the clock, Don saw he’d been asleep for nearly nine hours. His body felt so relaxed that he let his head fall again, thinking the voice had been part of a dream.
Don wasn’t sure how he’d managed to sleep so deeply, but he attributed that only partly to exhaustion, the other part he thought might have something to do with Mikey’s uncanny insight into his inner conflict. Even his youngest brother’s hint that he understood what Don was experiencing went a long way in helping the genius deal with the turmoil.
He was just starting to doze off again when the voice repeated itself, this time much closer.
“Donny, wake up,” Mikey said, reaching out to touch his brother’s shoulder. “Leo’s awake and he wants to talk to us.”
With a small groan, Don forced his muscles to respond to commands and he got out of bed. He realized he was staggering when he saw Mikey’s hands come out to offer him a brace, so Don stopped trying to walk until the feeling came back into his legs.
“When did he wake? Is he okay?” Don asked, tapping first one foot and then the other on the ground to dispel the feeling of pins and needles.
“Just a few minutes ago and yeah, he seems like himself, just really tired,” Mikey answered.
“We should make him go back to sleep,” Don said fretfully as he started for the door. “If he’s strong enough to talk then we should get some soup into him and then make him get some more rest. There’s plenty of time for questions later.”
“He won’t do either of those things until he gets this out of his system bro’,” Mikey said, tagging along behind Don. “You know how he is.”
Don merely nodded, anxious now to see Leo. Striding into the infirmary, he saw that Raph was already standing next to the cot near Leo’s pillow. The sound of Don and Mikey’s entrance turned Leo’s head and the look of relief on their eldest brother’s face nearly broke Don’s heart.
“We’re fine, Leo,” Don said, stopping next to the cot on the opposite side from Raph and responding to his brother’s unasked question. “How about you; how do you feel?”
“Better now that I can see all three of you,” Leo said. “Master Splinter?”
“He ain’t back yet,” Raph said, emotion making his voice slightly more gruff than normal.
Leo heard the tone and glanced at him. Whatever he saw on Raph’s face made Leo’s brow furrow.
“Tell us what happened, Leo,” Don asked quickly, before Leo could start asking questions of his own. “We have a fair idea, but we’d like you to fill in the gaps if you’re up to it.”
Don felt Mikey step away from them but he kept his eyes on Leo. Before Leo had a chance to say anything, Mikey was back, a bottle of water from the mini fridge in his hands. He inserted a straw and held it so that Leo could take a sip.
“Can’t start a long story with a dry mouth,” Mikey said.
Leo swallowed gratefully and said, “I’d forgotten how delicious clean, cool water tasted.”
“Why’d ya’ have ta go fooling around with Master Splinter’s globe?” Raph demanded without preliminaries. “Ya’ could’ve told us ya’ were gonna search his room ta try and figure out where he went. We would’ve helped ya’ and ya’ wouldn’t have gotten sucked into that thing in the first place.”
“I couldn’t ask you to invade his privacy like that,” Leo said. “It was bad enough that I was doing it. I’d handled the globe before and it never did anything. All I was doing that day was moving it aside so I could see if there was anything else in father’s nightstand. The fact that my counterpart was also near the fragment on his side of the timeline must have activated its power.”
“Magnetism,” Don murmured. When his brothers looked at him, he said, “Electrical impulses in the body are unique to each individual. Electricity and magnetics are strongly related. Suppose two bodies share identical nerve impulses? They might become magnetized; drawn to each other.
“The resultant electricity could reinvigorate a power cell that has gone dormant, like the crystal fragment. It provided an open gateway for both of the Leo’s to pass through when their magnetism became strong enough to pull them towards each other. Rather than colliding though, the pull intensifies at a certain point and effectively acts as a slingshot, shooting the two magnetized forces past one other.”
“So instead of going back where they started, they keep flying forwards and each of them lands in the other’s place?” Mikey asked.
“Exactly,” Don said.
“I don’t care how it happened,” Raph said impatiently, “’cause we already know it did. I wanna know what happened after ya’ got there, Leo. How’d ya’ get so messed up?”
Leo closed his eyes for a moment and Don noticed how puffy and swollen the skin around them was. His brother needed a lot more rest; it was obvious he hadn’t slept much while in pseudo-Leo’s world.
“Something happened in that world’s past; something that changed it drastically,” Leo finally said before opening his eyes. “I think it started with the fight between the Foot clan and the Hamato clan; our clan. Somehow that fight escalated into full warfare and the city was drawn into it. People began to take sides and then other factions joined the fight, including those who were only in it to satisfy their greed.
“The lair was a shambles and most of what I learned came from notes in a partially burnt journal. It was in your handwriting, Donny. I picked through the lair when I first arrived in that timeline and didn’t find much other than that journal, some cans of food, and the crystal fragment.”
“I’m glad ya’ hung onto that fragment,” Raph told him.
“I almost didn’t,” Leo said. He tried to adjust his position on the cot and Raph quickly slipped an arm under him, lifting his upper body so that Don could shove another pillow under Leo.
The line from the intravenous bag bounced against the bedding and Leo asked, “Do I need this anymore?”
“Yes, you’re dehydrated and covered in wounds that haven’t had proper treatment. We’ll keep the bag there until I’m sure you’re past the chance of infection; one more day at a minimum. Don’t try to remove it sooner or I’ll sedate you,” Don said.
“Tyrant,” Leo said with a smile, his amber gaze locked on Don’s face.
A feeling of disorientation swept over Don as he stared into Leo’s eyes; his hands becoming clammy and the skin on his neck and face heating up.
It was Mikey who came to his rescue, leaning past Don to offer Leo another drink of water. Once his oldest brother’s eyes left him, Don blinked and recovered his equilibrium.
Raph had eyes for no one but Leo and didn’t notice Don’s discomfiture. “Stop smothering the guy and let him talk,” Raph growled.
When Mikey moved away, Leo looked up at Raph and said, “I really am all right, Raph.”
“Yeah, ya’ already told us that,” Raph said. “Ya’ look just like a guy who someone has used as a punching bag, but hey, no problem right? ‘Cause you’re okay.”
The sarcasm wasn’t lost on Leo. “I didn’t leave on purpose, Raph.”
With his emotions under control once more, Don decided to intercede. “What did the journal say?”
A pained looked crossed Leo’s face and for a second, Don thought his brother’s injuries were bothering him before realizing that it was an emotional response. Dread pooled in Don’s stomach; fearful that the journal might have detailed pseudo-Leo’s abuse of his own brothers.
“Their Master Splinter was killed by Shredder,” Leo said. “It was almost the first entry in the journal; as though the death of their father was a catalyst or precursor for what was to come. The journal said that Master Splinter had agreed to meet with Shredder and would come alone to an appointed place if Shredder swore to do the same. Their father hoped to negotiate a peace between the clans and believed Shredder when the man gave his word to bring no one else with him.”
“He should have known better,” Mikey said, his face disapproving.
“Our father would have,” Leo responded, “but apparently theirs didn’t. Don wrote that Master Splinter ordered his sons to remain behind when he left for the meeting, but that Leo was strongly opposed to what their father was doing. He didn’t believe that Shredder would honor the temporary truce and that it was a trick.
“His brothers held him as long as they could, but Leo slipped away from them and followed Master Splinter. Afraid of what he would do, they gave chase, hoping they could catch Leo before Shredder saw him and thought that Master Splinter had broken his word.
“They weren’t fast enough. When they finally caught up to Leo, he and Master Splinter were in the midst of an incredible battle against what seemed to be the entirety of the Foot clan. Of course Shredder hadn’t kept his word and had ambushed their sensei.”
“The other Leo said that Master Splinter told him he would rather die with honor than to resort to trickery,” Don said softly. “What did he mean?”
“Leo urged Master Splinter to let he and his brothers go to the meeting place ahead of time so they could capture Shredder when he arrived,” Leo answered. “With the master of the Foot clan as their captive, Leo said their enemies could be persuaded to do anything they were told because they would believe the orders had come from Shredder himself. Master Splinter said that such a victory would be hollow and he wanted no part of it.
“During the fight, the elite guard swept over Master Splinter and pinned him down. Though the brothers had all joined the fight, Leo was the closest and had tried to save their father. Leo suffered a terrible blow to the head and hit the ground near enough to Master Splinter to touch him if he’d been able to move.
“Leo wasn’t unconscious though, so he witnessed the murder of their father. Shredder cut Master Splinter down right in front of him.”
When Leo stopped speaking, silence fell over the four brothers like a heavy blanket. With their emotions already so raw, the mental pictures formed from Leo’s words added another weighty burden to already overloaded systems.
For Don the visual was almost too much and he could feel himself start to shake, bitter empathy for his fake brother pulling at his mental balance. It was a surreptitious movement by his younger brother that shook Donatello from his fugue; Mikey gripped the back of Don’s arm and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Did it say what happened next?” Mikey asked, breaking the morose spell.
Leo took a deep breath and expelled it noisily. “Leo’s brothers couldn’t reach Master Splinter, but they managed to pull Leo away from there. He wasn’t completely out of it, though his head was bleeding badly and he had no motor functions. Leo still had his voice and he kept shouting at his brothers to rescue Master Splinter, but it was too late and they knew if they didn’t retreat they’d all end up dead.
“It took a long time for Leo to fully recover and Don wrote in his journal that while he was bedridden, Leo became very withdrawn. The journal was really heartbreaking to read; all of the brothers suffered from Master Splinter’s loss and the three younger siblings worried over Leo’s brooding. Don noted that Leo’s personality seemed to be changing and expressed a lot of concern over that fact.
“When Leo was on his feet again, he spent nearly all of his time training and started to push them to do the same. The journal had entire sections that had been burned away, but from what I could piece together, their Leo basically declared all-out war on the Foot and anyone who supported them.”
“I think I’d do the same thing if someone killed our Master Splinter in such an underhanded, dirty way,” Raph said, folding his arms across his plastron.
Leo appeared to be contemplating something, his eyes on the ceiling for a moment before he brought them down again. “To be honest, I’m sure I would have been out for Shredder’s head myself. The difference is that I hope I could be more rational than the other Leo was; his idea of vengeance was to go on a killing spree and he was very indiscriminate about his targets. If they were part of the Foot clan, a Purple Dragon, any of the mob bosses with whom Shredder did business, even politicians, Leo killed them.
“He expected his brothers to do so as well and for a while they were all pretty brutal. Then one evening a contingent of Foot ninjas discovered the lair and Shredder ordered it destroyed. The brothers managed to escape, but they didn’t take much with them. After that they were living on the run.
“At that point in the journal things seemed to have spiraled out of control. It was hard to make out because of the damage to the book, but the brothers began to disagree about what they were doing. Don in particular wanted them to find another place to call home and to try and rebuild their lives, whether or not they managed to get to Shredder. Leo was adamant that they focus on the fight to the exclusion of everything else and Don wrote that his older brother’s obsession on the subject started to drive a wedge between them all.
“Mikey, could I have some water?” Leo interrupted his story to ask.
“Oh yeah, sorry dude. Here,” Mikey brought the bottle close to Leo’s mouth and his brother sipped the clear liquid gratefully.
Don watched Leo’s body language carefully and didn’t see the tension he would have expected if his brother had read anything in the journal about pseudo-Leo’s method of torturing his siblings into submission. If Don were to write such a journal, he was sure he wouldn’t have left any of that out of it, so he reasoned that the damage to the book had eradicated any such passages.
“Thanks bro’,” Leo said with a deep sigh.
“You really should rest, Leo,” Don said worriedly. “That kind of breathing is an indication that you’re suffering from blood loss.”
“I’ll rest in a bit. I just need to finish telling this,” Leo responded.
“We understand,” Mikey said. “Go on.”
“There were big sections missing from the journal, places where it had burned, but it also looked as though someone had ripped some pages out of it. From what I could make out though, their Leo began to turn his violence on them. Don’s words became more and more distressed as he talked about physical punishments that Leo would hand out when he felt they weren’t obeying his orders. I need to know, was he violent with you guys?” Leo asked.
Raph and Mikey looked at Don, making it obvious that they needed him to answer the question. Don could tell that Leo noticed and was starting to become agitated.
“Yes he was, to a certain extent,” Don answered as truthfully as he could, keeping to the agreement between the three younger brothers. “He was very subtle at first and we didn’t even realize he wasn’t you for a long time. We thought that you were very upset about Master Splinter leaving the way he did and that you were scared to let us out of your sight. I finally noticed the pattern of scars on his body didn’t match yours, but I was afraid to say anything because I didn’t want him to know I’d figured it out. I thought we had a better chance of tricking him into telling us what happened to you if he didn’t know I was onto him.”
“He didn’t get mean all at once,” Raph interjected. “He kinda led up to it and I guess none of us knew how ta handle it.”
Leo nodded slowly. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice soft. “That’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been messing around in Master Splinter’s room . . . .”
“No!” Mikey exclaimed, cutting him off. “You aren’t gonna go there, Leo. Any one of us could have done the exact same thing. We may be isolated down here, but we don’t live in a cocoon. Sometimes we go off and do things on our own, for better or worse. I don’t wanna worry that if I flush the toilet I might set off a Tsunami in Japan, and you aren’t gonna worry about that either. Whatever that Leo did we were tough enough to handle it, so stop looking for an excuse to feel guilty.”
All three of his brothers stared in dumbfounded amazement at Mikey, his outburst taking them by surprise. It was Don who found his voice first.
“He’s right,” Don said, turning from Mikey back to Leo. “Whatever he put us through, we are that much stronger because of it. We figured out what happened and we stood up to him to get you back. We beat him and we’re proud of that, so don’t you get remorseful and take our victory away from us.”
Leo held up a palm in mock surrender. “Point taken, I give. I wish I could say that Leo’s brothers had been as resourceful as you three. They came to hate him and decided to split from him permanently. Unfortunately, they disagreed on a course of action; Don wanted to find another sanctuary beneath the city and remain there, hidden from the world as they had been before, but Raph and Mikey didn’t believe they could live in total isolation.
“Don wrote that he warned the other two of how powerful Leo’s retribution would be if he caught up to them, but they seemed to accept the fact that he might kill them unless they killed him first. They parted ways on that note, and Don went back to the old lair to see what he could salvage from his lab before trying to find a place to settle.
“After that entry there was nothing more. The fact that I found the journal amongst the debris makes me believe something happened to Don. Mind you, I didn’t read this entire thing in one sitting because I wasn’t in the lair long before a Foot patrol came through the area.”
“So were ya’ on the run the entire time ya’ were there?” Raph asked.
“I was,” Leo told him. “That world has become an extremely hostile place. Whatever Leo did there; he made himself very unpopular. I spent every waking hour moving from one place to another and fighting for my life. It was difficult to even find a safe spot to catch a few hours of sleep and the basic necessities like clean water and food were hard to come by. At one point I came across Raph and Mikey. It was before I had read that entry in the journal.”
Leo stopped again, a look of profound sadness on his face. Without conscious thought, Don reached out and took his brother’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
Once more Leo’s amber eyes found Don’s and in them Don saw gratitude and something more, something deeper. He hoped he wasn’t imagining things.
Don felt Mikey lightly brush against his side and knew his younger brother was trying to remind him to keep his head on straight. He knew Mikey was attempting to be helpful, but Don wasn’t going to let go of Leo’s hand just yet.
“They attacked ya’,” Raph said as though stating the obvious. “We saw the marks on your body.”
“I was running towards them, so excited by the sight of my brothers I got careless,” Leo said with a grim smile. “Neither of them said a word; they pulled their weapons and came for me. I was so stunned that I almost didn’t fight back. I didn’t want to injure them so all I did was defend myself until I found a way to escape.
“That night was the roughest I went through during the entire time I was there. Not only did they get me pretty good, but I had to double back to that same location in order to retrieve the journal and the crystal fragment. I carried that thing with me everywhere I went because I knew it was my only way home.”
“You have no idea how happy I was to see your face when I looked into that thing,” Don said.
“Probably as happy as I was to see yours,” Leo told him. He sighed again. “I can’t believe Master Splinter hasn’t returned.”
“We’ll do something about finding him once you’re better bro’,” Raph said. “Only this time, we’ll do it together, okay? No more of that lone wolf shit or the next beat down ya’ get is gonna be from me.”
“If you want us to start searching for sensei sooner than later, you’d better rest now,” Don insisted vehemently. “No more talking.”
Rather than argue the point, Leo smiled meekly and nodded. Don was a bit bewildered at how easily Leo gave in, but figured Leo thought he’d relayed enough information and had received everything he needed to know in return. That combined with the fact that he really was tired made Leo acquiesce to Don’s orders.
Releasing Leo’s hand, Don pulled the extra pillow from beneath Leo’s shoulders when Raph lifted their older brother. Don checked a few of Leo’s more serious wounds and then made sure he was settled comfortably as Raph and Mikey left the room.
“Sleep now, Leo,” Don said. “The next time you’re awake, I want you to eat something before you do anything else, okay?”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Leo said with a smile.
“Good.” Don patted Leo’s shoulder and then rested his hand there for a second before finally sliding it partway down Leo’s bicep in a gentle caress.
The contact was brief but it saddened Don and he turned swiftly, heading towards the door.
“Donny,” Leo called just as his brother was about to exit.
Don stopped and closed his eyes tightly for a second before opening them and turning around, going back to the cot with a worried expression on his face.
“Did you need something?” Don asked.
Leo’s eyes were searching his and Don felt as though his brother was trying to explore his soul. “Could you stay for a little longer? I want to talk to you privately.”
Don’s stomach lurched and his heart skipped a beat before beginning to pound uncomfortably in his chest. He was suddenly as frightened as he’d ever been and didn’t know if it was because he feared what Leo would ask him, or if it was the prospect of being alone with Leonardo.
Mustering his courage, Don said as calmly as he could, “Sure, Leo.”
TBC…………….
