just the way you are

moment of fleeting relief

---Notes----

Nuh uh, this chapter sure will not be a moment of fleeting relief I AM EVIL

~anyways~ enjoy this next chapter guys, this one took a lot of effort bc my words weren't wording. I hope you like it anyway.

:D

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His swords paused midair as he was about to cut the head off one of the last cannons, his body locking up as he noticed the silence.

Leo could see Tokka from here, her hulking mass overshadowing the shocked, hesitating city. The pause was a breath of caution, a test to see if it was really over.

And it was like an exhale of relief when she turned, a blaze of trailfire behind her, leaving the sky empty like before.

He couldn't see much from his point on the ground. Perhaps his brothers had succeeded in returning Chompy? He was hoping, hoping.

He heard a ground splitting bang about three blocks away. His knees buckled underneath him from the tremor, and he landed onto the road with a bark of pain.

There was a second in time before everything pieced together.

Looking up, fear pulsing through him, he realised he couldn't see the Kraang stealth ship.

"No," he coughed, scrambling to his feet. "No, please..."

His knee screamed in pain, and he swore, his swords clattering to the ground as his hands rushed to clutch the source of the pain. Not his stupid knee injury. It'd been tormenting him on and off for ages.

Not now. He clenched his jaw.

And then it hit him like a tonne of bricks.

That crash he'd heard?

That might have been his brothers.

Every muscle groaned with effort as he stabilised himself. He pushed past every shake, reaching for his swords, which he sheathed at his back. He checked the street around him, but almost every EPF soldier was long gone. He felt like a ghost standing in the middle of a once bustling place, left abandoned through time.

He saw a flash of movement in the corner of his vision.

His shoulder groaned at the fast movement of his hands to his hilts. He turned towards the source of the movement, met by only shadow. It was a type of darkness he recognised. The type that was supposed to conceal.

"Show yourself," he ordered, knowing he had to get to that ship, but knowing that if there were any threats, they'd pick him off.

They'd pick them all off.

He didn't expect to see a young girl emerge from the shadows.

Her eyes were haunted with shadows as she swallowed, looking him dead in the eyes. Her vibrant blue hair was tied in a messy ponytail, and her fighting gear looked like nothing more than a bunch of thrown together junk.

But there was something so startling about her.

"Who are you?" he demanded, trying to keep the surprise out of his voice. Why didn't she seem scared of him?

"You're Leonardo, right?" she asked, her voice small, but filled with a strength that he couldn't understand.

He jerked back like he'd been hit. "Ho- how would you know that? Who are you?"

She furrowed her brows, eyes on the ground. "You won't believe me."

Leo felt a laugh rising in his throat as he approached her. "Oh? Try me."