Never again

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"Hey, what's that sound?" Leo walks down the hallway towards Donnie's lab, following the sound of a high-pitched screeching sound. It's been giving Leo a sense of dread for the past few minutes and he could not understand why. Usually, when a strange sound could be heard from Dee's lab it was just one of his machines. The boys have learned to ignore most sounds by now. But Leo could not leave this one alone.

"Yo Dee! Whatcha working on bro?" Leo pops his head through the lab doors and stops in his tracks. "D-Donnie?"

The image was disturbing to Leo and made his stomach drop. Donatello was sitting in a chair with rods sticking through his back, needles shoved half-hazard into his arms, and wires sticking on his bare head. His eyes were staring blankly ahead and Leo shuddered with a flashback to the Krang invasion, Raph being feral and staring into his face. 

Leo started to take a step back out of fear but suddenly noticed a light opening shining down from the top of the tank. At almost the same time Donatello blinked and his eyes flared with the same light. All Leo could do was stare in horror as he realized that his brother was connected to this machine, that he was making this portal. He shuddered at the realization that Donnie had put those poles and needles into himself. 

What had his brother been thinking to do such a thing? What would go through his mind for Donatello to make such an invention? Leo suddenly realized that the screeching sound was getting louder, the light was just a warm-up. 

A tentacle slowly crept down from the portal, and Leo suddenly knew that's what it was. A portal connected to the same exact place where he experienced his own living nightmare. The same place that he had night terrors of still to this day. There was a Krang coming through the portal right into Donnie's lab.

"Donnie, What are you doing!" Leo started to run forward as the tank started to rumble and vibrate violently. The krangs severed tentacle dropped to the floor of the tank as the portal closed, spraying the glass with purple krang blood. Before Leo could get close to Donnie the tank exploded, throwing Leo into the air and against the wall of the hallway outside.

"Leo- Leo, LEO!" Suddenly he jerked his eyes open to see his oldest brother above him, more terror in his eyes than when he first was krangefied. "What in the hell just happened?!"

Leo couldn't answer him, his head hurt so much. He looked up but all he could see was the darkened smoke seeping out of Donatello's lab. It filled the door completely blocking the view inside. Leo tried to get up from his half-sitting position against the wall. Using one arm to push Raphs hand away from him he went to move his other one to push himself up. Instead, he fell away from Raph, slamming his face against the ground. 

"Leo!" Raph wrapped his arm around his little brother's waist and lifted him off the floor. Leo couldn't do anything except stare at the mangled lump of what used to be his arm, his skin hanging in shreds and blood dripping on the floor.

"No, no." was all Leo could say. Raph thought it was his reaction to his arm, but when he looked at his brother's face he knew in the pit of his stomach that something terrible had happened in that lab. Leo could only hang from Raph's arms limply, but he was still trying to stare back at the entrance to the lab.

Raphael was in a panic for his brother. Leo's eyes blinked slowly. As Raphael laid Leonardo down on the floor of the skate ramp Mikey came running in. 

"What happened!? Raph? LEO!?" Mikey fell to the floor next to his brothers as he frantically waved his hands around, not knowing what to do.

"I've got to stop the bleeding!" Raphael grabbed Leo's should to staunch the bleeding causing Leo to exclaim in agony. 

"No, NO!" cried Leo trying to push both Mikey and Raph away with his one arm. "DONNIE!" 

"Leo! You are bleeding out! Donnie can't help you right now!" Raph yells at Leo trying to calm him down, but Leo just starts struggling harder. 

Mikey looks at Leo confused until he finally sees his arm "Oh mi go-" he cuts himself off as he turns and almost hurls from seeing his brother's mangled limb, but as he recovers he notices the cloud of smoke coming from the hallway.

"Raph, what happened?" Mikey tries to ask, but his voice is too soft to be heard.

"Leo would you please calm down!" 

"No, you're not getting it!" Leo struggles to lift himself up as Raph tries not to push too hard on his mangled arm to keep him down. "I need to get him!" 

Mikey whips and looks up at Raphael "What. happened?" He bites out looking at Raph first and then at Leo. They both pause in their struggles surprised at Mikey's harsh tone. They've rarely heard it before, it means that Mikey was actually starting to get pissed.

Raph answers first. "It looked like something blew up in Donnie's lab, I found Leo in front of the door like this. Everything inside the lab looked destroyed from what little I could see through the smoke.

"No, no" Leo let out in an almost whisper. "Not everything was destroyed, it can't all be destroyed." He whimpers out.'

"Leo, what are you talking abo-"

"Raph" Mikey cuts his biggest brother off before he can finish the question. "Where is Donnie?" Mikey looks up at Raph with tears in his eyes as Leo lets out a choked sob grabbing onto Mikey's arm in a desperate attempt to find comfort.

Realization finally strikes Raphael's face. "Oh. O-oh no. It can't. there wasn't anything in there..."

"Leonardo" Mikey places his hand against Leo, causing the injured turtle to look up at him. "Please, tell me what happened"

"It was..." He hesitated as he almost choked on his next words, instead they all started to fall out at once. "Donnie did it. He had this-this machine and he was strapped into it and a portal was opening and it was there, only for a second but it almost came through! and I tried to stop it, I did. but- but..." He was speaking almost too fast and as he finally reached the end of the story he took a deep breath. 

Suddenly Splintered appeared in the doorway. The look on his face could only be described as a look of a parent terrified for his children but ready to lay down his life to protect them. As Splinter laid his eyes on his sons he moved to run to them, but the words that came out of Leos's mouth next froze him to his core.

"I was too late." Leo looked up and met his father's eyes. "Donnie's dead" 

As Raphael put his fist to his mouth Mikey let out a wail and started to sob. Splinter moved forward as Leo started to fall back. Both Mikey and Raph were too distracted to catch him in time and his head smacked against the pavement for the second time today.

"Leonardo!" Splinter yelled as he got to his son in blue. He grabbed his son and pulled him tight against his chest. His feeling of dread grew as he held the limp body of the boy that he named the leader. "NO"

Mikey tried to grab his brother's hand but as it hung limply all he could do was sob even harder. Dropping the limb that was now growing cold he turned to Raph and buried his face into the large turtle's plastron. It took a moment for Raph to move but he wrapped his arms around his smallest brother, making a silent vow that something like this will never happen to his brother. Never again.