Jars \\ Rottmnt!Leo

Six \\ Capture

Leo stumbles out of the pod. Clutching the key close to his chest. Breathing heavily. His heart was slamming against his chest, his throat felt like it was closing, and he refused to look down at the blood slithering down and staining his plastron.

He hears his brother's voices, but his eyes train themselves on Casey, piercing daggers into him. He lunges at the boy, pure fury in his eyes.

“Did you know this would happen?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

The boy takes a few fearful steps back as Leo tries to break free of his brothers’ tight grasp. Tanya moves and puts her arm up in front of Casey, trying to protect him from Leo’s outburst, fully willing to punch him if it came to.

“What are you talking about?” The boy in the mask questions, fear evident in his voice and posture. Tanya can see the anger in her brother's eyes. But she can’t place why he’s so mad, what had Casey done?

“Wait- what happened?” Donnie questions, his grip on Leo wavering.

“Leo? Where’s Y/n?” Mikey asks, he can hear the fear in his brothers’ voice. It only seems to project his own

“Leonardo?” Splinter speaks softly so as not to startle his son.

Leo’s body goes still and his brothers release him. Tanya’s arm falls to her side.

“They… they got Y/n.”

“You left Y/n?” April shouts, causing a flurry of startled actions in her wake. The panic on her face clear as day. Though why she was so concerned was a mystery. She'd only just met you.

“They- they left themself! They used the pods to save me and Raph-” He looks at the key in his hands and shoves it at Casey. “All because we went after this fucking thing.”

“You got it!” Casey cheers, a small smile spreading across his face. “Nice!”

“ ‘Nice’? They captured Y/n!” Leo shakes his head, unsure what to do with the anger in his body, his eyes widening. “He’s from the future! He knew this would happen!”

“I-” Casey stares down at the key with wide eyes. “I didn’t! I- This didn’t happen in my time!”

His voice regains some of its hopeful nature, smiling slightly.

“You changed the past! You got the key! That means there's still a chance to stop them.”

“No.” All eyes turn to Leo as he unsheathes his Katana again, gripping them against his palms. He can feel the weight of the necklace around his neck, he can feel where you used to hold his weapons. His heart sinks, and it feels like his skin wants to crawl off of his body. “We have to save Y/n, come on.”

“Leo wait…” Donnie says softly, he hadn’t done much to try to fill your shoes. He’d just fallen further away from his brothers. He’d taken to his lab, his video games, the human world, anything to try to get this ache in his chest to fade. When you showed up, it did. It left. Now you're gone again. He could admit, he did want his sibling back, but he didn’t want to risk the safety of his brothers for you. You’d saved them for a reason.

“If you won’t come I’ll go by myself.”

He swings his katana, but nothing happens, and he lets out a grunt of pain. He shoots a glare at the items.

“We’ve lost our mystic weapons.” Donnie reiterates.

“We don’t have a plan.” Mikey adds, looking at his brother. It hurt him to admit this, but maybe they should leave you behind. You’d sent them away twice before. Was it not what you wanted?

“I’m the greatest ninja warrior the world has ever seen.” Leo snarls, pointing a sword at the boy's chest, his body shifting into less of an intimidating stance to accommodate for the weapon pointed at him. “His words.”

“Shouldn’t we talk about this before we run off all half-cooked, willy-nilly, pell-mell?” Donnie questions, his anxiety getting to him the more they just stood there.

“I keep being told I’m doing this ‘hero’ thing wrong.” He says, holding his katana and putting the best quotation marks around the word ‘hero’. “I got the key didn’t I? I get results, so now? We’re doing it my way.”

Tanya puts a wary hand on Leo’s arm.

“Leo, this isn’t about you.”

Leo pulls away from her touch. Making her cringe backward, an apologetic look on her face. Of all the people here, he had expected her to be on his side. To be willing to fight for you till the ends of the stupid globe their feet sat upon.

“They made it about me when they took Y/n.” Anger drips from his voice and his posture reads horrified, and almost murderous. “I’ve got this.” He mumbles, staring at his younger brother, clad in purple.

“Donnie, you’re driving.”

As Leo and the others make their exit, April looks at the key, and gestures to it as she poses her question.

“What do we do with this… thing?”

“We can’t just bring it, and we can’t leave it behind.”

Tanya lets off a bone-shivering grin, and takes the key daintily from Casey, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“Then we destroy it.” The cadence in her voice rings of destruction and April pats her shoulder, smiling. It had been awhile since Tanya had genuinely seemed like herself.

“You go. Splints, Tanya, and I got this.”

Casey turns to walk away, before running backwards and wrapping the two in a bone crushing hug. The girls let out a peep of surprise before hugging him back. Poor kid must have been through so much.

“Thanks Commander O'Neil and Lieutenant Alvarez” He mumbles, and finally releases them, heading towards the turtle-tank.

“Commander?” April squawks, confusion written all over her face Tanya just grins. A genuine grin. Rubbing her hands together as she stares at the key.

“Oh I like the sound of that.” She says, making April chuckle a little as she tosses the key to the black-haired girl.

“Yeah yeah, don’t hurt yourself with that. I’ll help Splints bandage up and then we’ll help out. Lieutenant Tanya.”

“Oh I was saying I liked Lieutenant better than Commander. "

“Not a fan of leadership huh?”

Tanya snorts, grinning as she runs off somewhere in the lair.

“More like I know I’ll make a big mistake and would rather not have that crushing weight on my shoulders, Commander.”

“Girl!” April shouts after her, and maniacal laughter can be heard throughout the sewers, April rolls her eyes and grins, helping Splinter with his bandages. Tanya certainly felt better. She may still be worried about you. But you’d come back.

Against all odds, you’d come back.