Leonardo sacrifices his life for his brothers when he is forced to go down with the Technodrome to hold back the wrathful Kraang Prime. He accepts his fate when the water rises and he slowly, but surely, begins to run out of air. But long after his...
Art credit: Shellsweet I do not own TMNT Note: I am currently rewriting the series, so each chapter is under editing.
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One of the first works of humankind Leonardo had ever read (not counting comic books) was an old torn and frayed, waterlogged bible he had found drifting in one of the many winding sewer tunnels. Even at a young age, he had liked to flip through it and try to break down its narratives as his wide eyes scanned its yellowing pages. Master Splinter would oftentimes sit with him for long periods after their training had concluded, discussing with his eldest son what he had read and the ideas that had sprung forth from the words. Donatello had always been opposed to this practice for he could not quite grasp the idea of reading any material that was not strictly educational. The blue classes turtle had politely disagreed, for he saw the words as educational in a different way, for the words (true or not) taught valuable life lessons that applied even thousands of years after it was written. Of course, since the lessons were not focused on some advanced form of biology or higher-level mathematics, the lesson was still considered useless to his younger brother.
Leonardo can easily recall the story that he had revisited the most often. The resurrection of Lazarus. Even present day he can recall the passages word for word: "Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face." And Lazarus was what was going through Leonardo's mind as he watched the final escape pod launch from the Technodrome. He feels the give of his youngest brother's kusarigama chain, more than he hears it, reverberating up his worst through his shoulders as he plummets backward with a cry of pain. Kraang Prime charged forward with his spindly arms flinging towards the quickly fading escape pod in the distance, until the pod was a dot fading away in the distance, and quickly out of sight. Water is already midway up his body, and he can hear the gargantuan alien's wails of their shared demise, yet in those precious few heartbeats he had before the ship went under, he wasn't afraid. He knew his death was inevitable, not even just at that moment, but in the life, he lived because the world, his family, always had to come first.
"No, no. Kraang Prime will not perish - Kraang Prime cannot!"
"You can, and you will. We both will," Leonardo coughs out, his lips trembling as they pull into a strained smile as he gives a mock salute with two fingers against his temple, "Looks like we're going down with the ship, captain."
Kraang Prime didn't hold the same disregard for death and charged blindly, screeching as it wildly swiped its spindly metal limbs at the blue in cladded turtle. He managed to dodge the first two sloppy stabs in his direction, his blue mask tails whipping behind his head as he ducked beneath the cylindrical arms, then the sharpened point of one of the alien's legs thrust into his arm, twisting there, before tearing out with a nearly blinding spurt of blood that splashed over his face. A bloodcurdling scream tore through his throat, bile rising in his throat as he stumbled backward with his nearly severed arm hanging loosely at his side and his spewing blood joined the quickly rising water. He weakly held his trembling palm to the massive tear in his arm, feeling the hot hours of blood pulsate past his groping fingers, and he gulps thickly as a strangled moan of pain escapes his tightly gritted teeth. The warmth of his blood gushed forth from in between the tiniest cracks between his fingers and he went to his knees, breathing raggedly. At this point, the water was at his mid-torso, sloshing around him in great, angry waves. His blood diluted into a light pink as it joined the rising swathes of frigid water.
