Do you have a compilation of information on your AU that youâd be willing to share?? I love love LOVE AUs and your style and designs and EVERYTHING JUST AAAAAAAAAAAAAâ No worries if not! Just thought Iâd ask because I wanna omnom info and storylines and AJDJJFMC STUFF
First of all, thank you very much for the kind words. I appcreciate it a lot. And you know what.. I keep getting asked for informations and I can not keep up answering it all with art as planned. It will take a long while to draw a whole comic, even longer bc it is my first time doing this and I doubt I will meet everyones expectations in time. And I can't explain certain things without spoiling important parts so, here.
Prepare for a pretty long post.
Anthelion AU by yuyake_24/knifedrag0n
CW: spoiler, depression, angst, major character deaths, psychosis/schizophrenia, hallucinations, suicide.
I apologize for my bad english and Grammar. I'm using a translator. If there is anything unclear, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to explain.
Honestly I'd love so much more to write out all of this in as much detail and as vividly as possible scenes as a fic. But I'm really bad at putting emotions into words the way those amazing fic writers do and I'm just better with art + bad english. It takes so so long to find the right words with translator and thats a bit tiring so I plan to draw it instead of write it. But actually I would prefer to write and add a artwork to each chapter but I suck at writing but oh well. Anyway!
This is more or less a bullet point script to myself.
There are a lot of scenes missing that would be more detailed, fillers, some things are kept short and some things might feel a bit dry at some point bc it is just for me to remember things the way I plan to draw it!
It's all still quite rough around the edges, but it will certainly be enough to answer your questions.
Please do not read if you don't want to get spoiled before a comic has been drawn.
But feel free to read if you really really want to know what is going on in this AU already.
I take no responsibility if your curiosity robs you of the joy of already knowing what will happen in the comic!
If you want to add extra pain and vibe to this, I suggest to listen to some dragic, emotional ost in the backround. I listened to this when I wrote most stuff - https://youtu.be/rylpIOwayy8
Here are also some already posted informations about Leo's design and The Spirit Deities!
A fact about Anthelion Donatello from the very beginning.
Donnie once had a severe throat/vocal cords injury where he was bleeding much and could barely speak afterwards. Has a scar on his neck (Ref)
(Maybe later a side comic for how it happened after the main thing. His first encounter with Kraang One and Two, alone, Raph saved him.)
He is more or less mute. Not because he can't talk. He CAN, but it hurts the louder he speaks. He communicates more through sign language but he sometimes also speaks normally to seem more "normal". It gets better over the time but he just chooses to not talk much in words. It also adds to his "mysterious or bad Boy image thing" haha.
Except for when he has his manic mad scientist moments. Then he can talk loud or laugh as if he never had any issues. (And regrets it a day later with a sore throat.) (Doodle is not canon but just for fun.)
The reason he wears the clothes he does is to hide the spine shell and shattering/consuming pink pixel markings.
His black purple coat is made of a special fabric alloy that makes the light of the patterns opaque. Even in the dark, the pink light can't be seen throught he fabric!
He uses the fact that everyone thought he was only trying to hide the scar on his neck as an excuse to hide all that other stuff secretly. The turtle neck especially serves to hide the the neurolink on the back of his head.
He never undresses in front of others, never lets anyone get too close to him, never lets anyone treat him for medical stuff. Everyone just thinks it's the shame of the scar and his general aversion of physical contact that makes him dress and act like that.
Leo notices, more as having a weird feeling, that Donnie was beginning to change. (Ignoring the fact that he himself was changing, or rather, forcing himself to behave differently.) This occurred during the period when Donnie began experimenting on himself. (Spine Shell. After Raph's death.)
Likewise not beneficial for his throat but Donnie is a chain smoker. When he's alone. It relieves stress, and paradoxically, he likes the feeling in his throat as the smoke passes through his airways. But he never smokes when Casey is around. He still takes care about him.
Mayhem and Aprils bond information.
A flashback. April is laying on the ground, heavily bleeding. Trying to hold her hand to Mayhem (in his guardian form.) Mayhem is laying there too, also dying from injuries and blood loss, His tusks broken from the last attack. April can not hear Donnie's voice through the speaker. Not anymore.
"April.. can you hear me?!.. Please, stay with me.. just a little more! Leo, he will be with you just.. hold on! Please!!"
Leo was on his way but wouldn't make it in time.
"I promise you.." - Donnie says.
"Everything!.." - Neither April nor Mayhem can hear him. Mayhem shrinks to his normal size and tries to limp towards April who holds her hand weakly towards him.
Donnie hides his eyes behind his hand, trying to hold back tears as his wrist console shows Aprils heartbeat on a 0 line as he mumbles with a broken silent whisper "...alrightâŠ"
Mayhem would have survived the wounds, but because of their shared life force and bound, he knew he would die there with her and therefore he snuggled up to her acceptingly, so as not to leave her alone when it will be dark around them.
(There will be more and also wholesome scenes with April and Mayhem in the comic. They do not just die for plot. I planned many things.)
2.
Early state Leo has hallucinations coming from guilt. Its like a bad version of Mind Raph. Ofc Raph would never say things like that or make him feel guilty, but its Leo's mind telling him Raphs death was his fault. And now he failed to be there for April too.
He often pushes himself to his limits. Bad Mind Raph usually tells him that he never does enough, that he's never enough, that he's no hero. But a failure.
Visually, bad mind raph differed with his white, empty eyes and sharp teeth.
Over the time since Raph's death, it seems as if Leo is forcing himself to be cold and unfeeling.
Leo believes it helps him focusing. Making better decisions.. it helps to suppress bad mind Raph when he wears it.
The entire conversation will be laid out and Leo's hallucinations will be discussed. Donnie feels guilty that he didn't see it earlier that Leo is suffering alone all this time.
4.
About the Dragon Mech "Projext - X"
Shelldon is the head part of the dragon mech Project X. He transforms, making his "arms" from his smaller form longer to make the dragons horns, connecting to the body and Shelldon and Donnie together pilot it. Donnie is connected to his tech/computer for piloting with the spine shell thingy thats connected to his own spine from his neck. He is sitting in his chair, cable connects spine shell to his tech to the Mech. Has Holographic screens before his eyes and hands to control everything.
"Are u ready to try? - Donnie to Shelldon with a evilish delighted smile. "Sure thing bro! Lets do it!"
Together they piloted Project X. But it broke after the first try and really heavy fight by trying to infiltrate the Technodrome. In the end Donnie seems calm.. disappointed, but not surprised at all.
"Yeah I thought it would end like that.. BUT it was fun while it lasted AND we made procress!" -he said as he held a small something in his fingers, smiling a bit too proud of himself. He coughed when his throat was slightly sore, and Shelldon just looked at him with concern, but Donnie ignored it.
The small "something" is a Kraang Tech device - a Selfdestruction key. He planned to use it against themself aka the Technodrome. But Ends up using it against âââââââ.
Keep reading to find out. - He wears the key as a necklace.
(Note to myself: Make the Log long and more complicated sounding for the comic.)
-Top secret Nerd bla bla Selfdestruction Key - END LOG.
It is Donnie on his computer, typing some secret stuff.
Draxum and Leo standing at the Doorframe of his lab.
Leo: "Dee.. you in there? What are u doing? We are late."
Donnie: "Reorganizing Casey's schedules.. so he doesn't miss any important dates."
Draxum: "Important dates? Like a.. birthday?"
Leo: "Wait. Who are you and what have you done to my brother."
Donnie: He gives him a questioning look.
They seem so amused/surprised because it was a topic the day before, and Donnie was the first to say that Birthdays are a pointless matter that has no use except to remind you every year that your time is running out.
Draxum: "Well.. What he means is that this is so unusual.. sentimental for⊠well, you."
Donnie says "scoff" in sign language and continues typing on the keyboard. Leo sighes silently, seemingly somewhat relieved that this simple word had immediately given him a feeling of "everything seems about right. After their conversation where Leo was finally able to open up about the hallucinations to someone, he seems to be able to be a little bit himself again.
"Leo: "Are you coming? We are late."
Donnie gives a small nod.
Then he gives a somewhat dark look from the corner of his eye when Draxum and Leo went ahead.
Obviously he was lying. He wasn't actually planning a birthday. But now that he said that, he has to plan a birthday for Casey. And he will.
6.
Inbetween events - place holder - wip
(planning light hearted events too.)
7.
Leo's solo mission - Fighting - Kraang infected arm.
Portal chop Scene - Test Comic
(Note to myself - redraw it better..)
8.
Right after the "Test Comic" - Leo holds his arm through the portal, but he didn't do it. He was alone on the battlefield, Kraang bots searching for him, he was scared. And hesitated. It is meant to be a cliffhanger and the reader thinks he did it.
Right now, while seeing real Raph, Leo who doesn't know if he is hallucinating again. He doesn't know if he can trust himself, his instincts, his decisions at all anymore.
Leo: He hesitated, gritted his teeth, and the sounds around him grew fainter. He stammered, his voice broken. "I can't.. I can't do it.."
Raph was trying to be there for him as best as he can.
Suddenly it grew louder again, and Leo heard Donnie's pained scream from afar. Kraang Three (the smallest of the main 3, but with a new/improved Mech - design wip) stood before him. Donnie's arm was broken, and he was clinging to his Ninpo Bo-Staff. Donnie was actually at their base before, but after losing Leo's signal, he had decided to go and find him. Just in time.. somehow.
Raph kept his hand over Leo's that held his sword and gave him a gentle nod, a knowing look, before disappearing like a veil around Leo's hand, and Leo's sword began to glow white with a little red tone. (Raph is inside the sword. For the moment, he can give him some strength. The last bit that was left of Raph.) Leo gritted his teeth and decided not to chop off his arm. Not yet. His arm comes out of the portal again, slow. He would fight for Donnie. Suppress, subdue, and control the Kraang part that threatened to consume him. He tore his scarf from his neck, and the electronic collar was still there, threatening to shock him unconscious IF he give in to the Kraang part. But that won't happen, he will use Kraang's power, and Raph's last sacrifice and his own will.
(He never stopped wearing the collar because he is terrified of seeing bad mind Raph. After talking to Donnie, bad mind Raph didn't appear again which made it easier not to suppress his feelings, however he didn't want to let his guard down.)
Then a big fight agains Kraang Three, Leo using a retractable flesh whip thingy from the Kraang infected arm. He struggles to keep seeing throught the infected eye as it tries to take control over him and keeps corrupting his vision. Leo keeps holding his hand over the eye because it burns like hell but he pushes through. Using Raphs power in his own sword and together with Donnie they actually defeat Kraang Three.
9.
Raph's nod was his agreement that he would give up the last bit of himself remaining in the living realm, this apparition of him before he completely disappears, bound to the spirit realm where the other Hamatos are.
10.
After the battle, Leo seemed to have lost his Ninpo powers when Raph's light extinguished from the sword. Leo's sword also disappeared completely. He could no longer create a portal or use it to cutt his arm off.
Donnie held Leo in his non broken arm, overwhelmed by everything: Leo's condition, his Kraang infected arm, he still wore that damn collar and then his request. Leo begs him to do it. To cut it off. Donnie refuses. Leo speaks of their "twin vow". That if one twin ever needs a favor, like a real favor.., the other MUST agree.
(Donnie used his part many years ago already, begging Leo to "just shut up" when he was working in his lab, so Leo HAD to shut up and annoy him later again. But Leo never used his part for a small favor. He did now.)
Donnie says he never thought he'd have to consider any of this. He highly doubts his abilities since they never managed to save a member of their group that had been infected and simultaneously tries to find any other way he can save Leo, even if it seems unrealistic, anything else than hurting him. Leo snaps him out of his reverie with the words, "I trust you." Gives him a tired smile and then loses consciousness from blood loss coming from his left side that Donnie hadn't noticed at first but then looks at his bloody hand. Donnie has to compose himself before he can accept Leo's request since there was no other option. He murmures somwthing about: "You dum.. dum idiot.." holding one hand on his brothers face.
11.
Even with a broken arm, Donnie managed to power through. Stopping the bleeding with Leo's mask which he banded around his waist and carrying Leo back to base on his back, having purple Ninpo ropes tied around himself and him. There, it was Donnie who put himself and his injury on second place and amputated Leo's arm. Just as Leo begged him for because Leo himself was too weak to do it. At least that's what he tells himself. He doesn't see the part where he was able to withstand the Kraang mutation and use it to his advantage.
The procedure was loud and bloody. In their situation, there wasn't enough anesthetic, and Leo snapped out of unconsciousness. Mikey had to help restrain Leo with his orange Ninpo chains at the operation table when Leo resisted strongly, screaming and hissing. Draxum tried to calm Casey, who heard the screams echoing through the halls.
Only after absolute exhaustion and unbearable pain did Leo fall unconscious again when the loud cracking of the severed bone could be heard through the room.
And to Donnie's regret, taking off Leo's arm like that wasn't enough to fully remove the Kraang infection.
It was in Leo's eye.. his brain. And there was only one way to keep Leo alive. Donnie had to put him in a kind of stasis, in a cryo tank (shiny blue gooey water in his otherwise purple and pink lighted lab) where the Kraang cells could be contained without damaging Leo's neurons and nerves any more.. keeping it from spreading and taking control.
From this day, Donnie grew more desperate with each passing day because he had no idea how to help Leo. How to get the Kraang cells out of him. He had no remedy, antidote, nothing, even Mikey's mystic powers were of no use. All Donnie could do was give Leo a little of his own spinal fluid every now and then to keep him alive. And every day he asked through the glass if he will ever hear his voice ever again. The real one. Not the one of many recorded audios/videos in Donnie's lab..
12.
Days passed, then weeks. And Leo was nothing but an existing organism in a jar. He didn't react to anything.
His condition remained unchanged. He didn't seem to dream. He was simply there. Casey Junior sometimes read books (Leo had taught him. Donnie taught him some math and science stuff. There will be wholesome filler for this.) to him or told him what he had experienced during those days without having him around. Sometimes he just looked at his father figure for hours. Mikey tried to reach him through meditation. But there was nothing but blackness and silence. And Donnie buried himself in his lab. More and more. It seemed as if he were hiding from reality. And no one held it against him.
In those passing weeks, something strange seemed to be happening.
No one knew who it really was. It seems like a new kind of Kraang⊠creature.. appeared. One of a kind they had never seen before. It never came too close to their base, but it also never left too far. It seemed hostile, aggressively shying away whenever something came too close, but never actually tried to attack any og them. No one knew why it behaved so differently. No one but Donnie.
(Note to myself: make it longer and more complicated sounding for the comic.)
[ACCESS LEVEL: ADMINISTRATIVE]
[PASSWORD: âââââââââ ]
[UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE MEMORY EXTINCTION]
The Abnormal One - [Casey Junior]
Anomalous Creature - [Michelangelo]
[REDACTED] - . . . - [âŠ]
X entity has been consistently misidentified by non-administrative observers as a defected Krang unit.
"This classification is inaccurate" Shelldon. Donnie answers with a sign of "I know."
OBSERVED KNOWLEDGE (EXTERNAL PARTIES):
X entity does not respond to Non Krang and Krang commands and demonstrates no observable synchronization with collective signal frequencies.
Repeated attempts by Krang communication have resulted in immediate termination.
X entity exhibits hesitation when exposed to specific Ninpo frequencies. . .
Why does it prioritize defense of [REDACTED]?
Primary frame: Krang derived base structure, heavily altered
Secondary genetic markers: [CLASSIFIED]
Four (4) paired auxiliary appendages
Dual function: attack / winged flight
Aggression triggers localized bioluminescence
Chest plating of draconic keratin [SOURCE: Baron Draxum]
Plating opens along a controlled rip seam
Protection of a weak point [?]
INTERNAL STRUCTURE (RESTRICTED):
Actual thoracic cavity contains a reinforced neural interface dock.
Encryption key: S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N unit.
Further investigation is unnecessary.
Casey Junior's birthday. Just wishing for Leo to wake up again.
Donnie, Mikey, and Draxum trying to spend time with him. Draxum gifts something harmless, Mikey gifts something harmless, Todd gifts a glass of lemonade. When they asked where the hell did he get lemons from he just says "don't worry about it" and leaves them with questioning looks. Donnie gave him as Birthday gift this dangerous Chainsaw Hockey thingy. Mikey was not amused because he thinks the boy was too young for something like that but Casey was determined to grow stronger with that thing, to protect them all. Smiling even when he was thinking about being as amazing as Leo one day before his mood went down again when he remembered Leo. Draxum distracted Casey by awkwardly trying to sing Happy Birthday for him and Donnie being a little smug towards Mikey, saying in sign language. "My gift is the best." Mikey grumbles.
13.
The reason Donnie withdrew more and more was that he was working on something grotesque. He had never been able to bring himself to actually dispose off Leo's remains, the infected arm, but kept it with him.. not knowing what to do with it but not wanting to throw away a part of his brother. Then one night, after days of insomnia and migraine, a crazy idea came to his sleep deprived mind.
Donnie had a wake-nightmare in which he thought his own arm was infected too. When he woke from the trance and stared at his hand, he slowly looked at Leo's arm in a small tank to prevent it from rotting, and an idea came to him.
Based on the knowledge they had gathered, he knew that Kraang infections not only take over organic living things but also dead matter⊠like a bus⊠or metal.
Without really thinking about the consequences, he used the remains of Shelldon's Dragon Mech, Project - X, and bred something, using Leo's right arm to fuse things that should never have found it's way together. During the weeks he withdrew so much, he was trying to perfect an actual abomination.
He seemed obsessed with this idea. Even everyone else started to worry, but everyone believed he would just cope with Leo's situation in his own way. Everyone hoped he was trying to find a solution.
From this obsession, he gave birth to a creature that appeared disobedient, refused to be commanded, but somehow still.. functioned. It wasn't really alive.. but also not dead. As if it were purely awake on instinct, but not yet consciousness. Just an empty shell that didn't know who it was working for.
In a hypothetical conversation with Draxum one night, Donnie learned that it is possible to transfer one's consciousness into a living organisms for a certain period of time. However, this is absolute forbidden dark science and comes at a high cost. Something even Draxum never dared to attempt. Because this dark science was part of the "Theory of Immortality," and it would disrupt the entire balance of the concept of life. But Donnie wasn't afraid of the consequences.. he didn't seem to care. He only cared for the survival of his remaining members of his family.
It took weeks to find the right formula. Because he only had one shot. One mistake would mean his immediate end. He couldn't afford to make a mistake. Donnie became somewhat crazy over the time.
Shelldon increasingly tried to be the voice of reason and had almost considered telling the others what he was doing, but fearing that Donnie would hate him, he refrained.
And when Donnie was sure, when he was really sure that he had the answer to his question.. Donnie disappeared.
Away from the base, away from his family. Without a trace. He and Shelldon seemed to have vanished into thin air. And after all those weeks, even months, of his withdrawal, and no one knowing what he'd done, they all assumed he'd left out of cowardice. That he couldn't bear to see Leo in the tank anymore. That he gave Leo up. All he had left were these hand-sized containers filled with his spinal fluid and an instructions to administer them to Leo every week into the cryotank (attached to the side of the tank, which was connected to his back by tubes). It would last for a while. No one knew what would happen "after a while."
It was a enraging loss for the members of the resistance. Those who only knew him as the leader's brother lost faith in him a bit too quickly.
Mikey stood with Casey on a tower, gazing into the distance of the desolate landscape that was their home since all of this had started. There was nothing to see in the distance. And in Mikey's face, one could only see a pained conflict. Anger. Disappointment, but also hope and the belief that Donnie would never abandon them. Not just like that. There must be more, and he wanted to trust his brother. Wherever he was now.
14.
Donnie hid. But not from Leo or his responsibility. Or Mikey, or the resistance or Kraang. He hid from himself. He was afraid of what he was doing to himself all this time, what he was becoming. He never forgot about Leo and trying to get him back out of the tank, but he had no idea what to do, how to protect him and the others, other than this way.
It started poorly enough when Donnie was still at the base. When April was still there. He processed the spinal skeleton of a Kraang mutant within himself through highly complex scientific machinations, connected it to his own shell. It heightened his senses, reflexes, his soft vulnerable shell. It helped him to be a greater help for everyone else.
He might never have done it all to himself if he had known what would follow. Not out of fear of the consequences per se, but because it prevented him from focusing on Leo and his family. His migraines intensified, his thoughts grew louder. His purple pixel markings began to fade at first before they started to glow and shatter his skin, the more he used his Ninpo. He became more careless out of instinct.. But it worked. Somehow.. and there was no going back anyway so he had to work WITH it and not against it. And ever since that, he knew he shouldn't but CAN combine himself with something he should never had combined with.
Shelldon at this point was nothing more than a compass, reprogrammed to suppress emotional interference. It did hurt to do this to Shelldon but Donnie had no other choice. Donnie was now truly obsessed with the idea of ââbecoming one of them, to use their own weapons against them. And so it happened that one day, Donnie dared to cross the boundaries of forbidden science.
Chimera-X, the unconscious creature, Donnie's creation, stood there like an empty shell. And Donnie connected the cables at the end of his spine shell to Chimera's chest port before leaning himself standing halfway upright into the center of the cavern, attached to this "world tree" looking thing made of Kraang matter and dead individuals. As the meaty tentacle fungus stuff started to wrap around Donnie's shoulders from behind, Shelldon only gave a blank stare of his⊠father⊠creator⊠whatever Donnie was to him, before he, also connected by cables, shut himself off with a loud brizzling sound.
Shelldon was like a jump starter. But it only worked once. And there was no going back. For a moment, Donnie felt the pain in his chest that Shelldon had to give his "life" for his obsession. But there wasn't much time to grieve, though.
After Shelldon's jumpstart, Donnie suddenly felt a new kind of pain. For a moment, he feared he had made a mistake, that something had gone wrong. He felt everything and nothing. Pain, but also pleasant warmth, then nothing, then the electric pain again as the fleshy matter around him kept him close, nowhere to escape. He gritted his teeth, his pixel markings flared up. What he felt then, he could never put into complex words.
Donnie's eyes shot open wide, tears flowing sideways, evaporated under the heat of electricity through his entire body. He didn't know if they were from fear, pain, or something else.
Then Chimera X opened it's three eyes wide. As it seemed as if it was absorbing Donnie's mind.. no, his entire being through just a cable and scientific Ninpo.
And somewhere farther away, in a hideout of a few survivors, Leonardo, in a blue glowing cryo tank, opened his eyes wide.
15.
About Chimera - X / the connection between the Creature, Donnie and Leo.
Donnie's mind can be temporarily transferred into the Draconic Kraang creature, with the help of his Tech, Ninpo, and intelligence / forbidden science and so he "becomes one of them".
Thanks to Leo's DNA, his right amputated and reused infected arm, it is possible to link their mind as a Turtle and technically his brothers could do it too as they all share the same DNA (because of Splinter). If other species, mutants or humans would try it, it would simply melt their brains.
It would be like a mental rejection reaction or rather "Kraang antibodies that refuse to let the non Turtle species mind penetrate the hive mind system that now is used to Turtle DNA so it doesn't react to it" like Donnie does. But do not mistake it as acceptance. Donnie aka the Turtle DNA is like a "virus" in their system. A Trojan that enters their Hive Mind as one of them, and no Antivirus can detect any foreign intrusion.
Donnie would never let his brothers near his Bioweapon because it requires immense mental strength to control it, is extremely painful and one has to override and dominate the Kraang's natural hive mind with a strong will that Donnie only has bc he became so obsessed with killing Kraang and protect his family in his own deranged way that there's no room for emotional distraction.
If Donnie were to show even the slightest weakness for a moment, Chimera X's natural Kraang instincts would actually gain the upper hand, controlled by the hive mind. So far Chimera X was just a empty shell, but when Donnie connect his mind, there is a constant secondary fight in the backround for "who is in control."
The price for all of this is, next to the obvious: leaving his family, being alone, feeling guilty and under pressure: that over the weeks of piloting Chimera X, he becomes physically weaker, loses muscle mass, as well as developing increasingly severe migraines and insomnia in which, when he manages to doze off a little, he hears Kraang voices trying to make him part of the true collective.
Despite attaching the Spine Shell gave him more strenght at first, his skin feels like glass now, fragile, cracking more and more, he has to try to keep himself with his Ninpo together, using it as some kind of plaster of purple light. There are many mental tasks he has to care of at the same time. It makes him sick and actually kills him slowly to do all this but he can't go back anymore..
Initially, Donnie was still able to "park" Chimera X in his hiding place and leave the connection point of the giant fleshy
rooting stuff in the middle of the cave. To move his muscles, to eat.. Whenever he did so, the contact left burn marks on his skin, but he always healed himself with his Ninpo to protect his glass skin.
Unfortunately, at some point later, he no longer had the strength to escape the life-sucking, fleshy stem in the middle of the cave and Donnie had to accept that he was now completely trapped in there.
Why is it named Chimera X? (Anonymous on Tumblr asked.)
Because it is a creature put together by different.. beings. A real Chimera is often portrayed as a mythological, fire breathing monster with a lionâs head, goatâs body, and serpentâs tail, or more broadly, any imaginary creature made of incongruous parts. In science, it refers to an organism containing genetically distinct tissues.
So since there is part Kraang, part Leo and part Donnie, and Donnie still having issues with accepting that mythological beings are real, and the fact it can breath fire (pink plasma,) I thought it fitted quite well. And Donnie was always working on Project X, the Shelldon Dragon Mech. Since he used it's remains, he fused the terms Chimera and X.
16.
Leo!
Due to their connection of Hamatos Ninpo and their DNA, Shelldon's jump start also awoke Leo in the cryotank.
At that moment, Casey Junior was standing in front of the cryo tank, his hand symbolically placed where Leo's remaining hand was behind the glass. Casey had been anxious and depressed for the past few weeks, wondering if Leo, wherever he was while being not awake, whether he was alone, whether he was scared, whether he felt like he was in Prison Realm, in a cold, empty dead place. And when Casey spoke the words Mikey had taught him, which was part of this family, "You are never alone.." hoping he would hear him, Leo's eyes snapped open.
The capsule of the tank opened, flooding the room. Leo fell out, coughing violently. He held his head with his left hand, and Casey tried to support him, but Leo seemed⊠strange. He just stared into space, seemingly disturbed or frightened⊠he growled and groaned overwhelmed by pain that wasn't even his own. Casey called for help, and Mikey, Hypnopotamus and Ghostbear rushed to his aid. Mikey put Leo to sleep to calm him with his Mystic ability, and Ghostbear took him to a hospital bed where he was monitored. And Casey never left his side.
It was a day later before Leo woke up again. He stared wearily at the ceiling. Dazed, he looked to the side, feeling phantom pain in his arm, but instead of an arm, he found a sleeping Casey beside him, dark circles around his closed eyes. Mikey spoke to him gently from the other side of the bed, where he was floating cross legged.
"I'm glad you are awake.. how do you feel?" -he asked cautiously, calm, to not overwhelm him right away.
Leo held his head, trying to remember something. Anything. He began to talk about:
"I.. had a strange dream⊠It was like.. I saw⊠through the eyes of a Kraang or something.. it felt like I was inside one of it and..I heard Donnie's thoughts in my headâŠ"
At that moment, his eyes widened, and he wanted to jump up.
"Donnie! Where is he?! Is he okay?!"
Mikey held him by the bed and Casey startled awake. He wept with teary joy and hugged Leo, glad he was alive, but Leo, laying his hand over Casey on instinct, holding him close, just looked at Mikey with concern and repeated the question:
"Mikey.. Where's Donnie?"
But Mikey couldn't give him more than an averted glance.
17.
Over the days that passed, Leo had to spend recovering, walking upright, was transported in a wheelchair by Casey because crutches didn't work one-handed. Mikey floated him from A to B. Things that made him feel weak, helpless, useless. Until the day came when his team the people of the resistance who believed in him.. his family.. gave him a gift. Draxum, accompanied by everyone, Ghostbear, Hypno, Warren, Todd.. they all gave him with a exact replica of the mechanical arm, one that Raph had worn back then. It wasn't the original, because that one was sadly lost with Raph that day.. But it looked exactly the same. And they all worked on it. No one expected an immediate reaction. Everyone knew that all of this must be too much for Leo. And Leo didn't know how to react either. On the one hand, it hurt. It hurt so incredibly much, seeing that arm.. On the other hand, it didn't feel wrong.. he missed Raph so much.. he knew Raph would have wanted this too.. and maybe this piece of metal would, quite literally, fill the missing part inside (or outside) him. So he accepted.
Then there came the part where he had to process all these information that seemed wrong to him. Donnie, who supposedly abandoned them all? What?
Leo seemed more and more a bit.. different since he came out of the tank. More distant. Colder. But never cruel.
Casey tried his best, now even more than ever. He seemed to be trying hard to earn Leo's approval, or something like that. Mikey saw how much Casey was trying to find this fatherly connection to leo again, but Leo didn't seem to see it and increasingly made Casey feel like he didn't like him anymore the way he did. That wasn't true.. like at all. Leo was simply mentally exhausted but kept functioning. At least he tried. To be the Leader they all needed. And Mikey reassured Casey more often that Leo just needed some time.
During this "time he needed", Leo seemed to have recurring blackouts. They were brief moments when he suddenly collapsed, heard a thousand voices, and felt a headache so heavy, it basically glued him to the ground and "blinded" him.
These were the moments when Donnie was connecting to Chimera X. The moments when the hive mind fought for control, and Leo⊠could hear it. Feel it. Even if only briefly, in the moment of connection, when Donnie transferred his mind before the connection breaks again. Leo never spoke about what he heard to anyone. Because he could swear.. he can feel Donnie in these moments.. And he never believed any of those "he run away" lies. He always just assured Mikey and the others that he had bad migraine attacks. Or iron deficiency. And that he was fine.
But Mikey noticed Leo's right eye, widening, glowing white, tearing. There was still something inside Leo.. even though Leo tried to hide it with his hand. Sometimes for Mikey it was like.. a ghostly and strange eye, staring right through Leo's palm when he tried to hide it.
18.
Leo hated the voices. These blackouts that felt like they were trying to erase his memories every time they happened and he felt so close to Donnie, from preventing him to find out what it all actually was about.
Mikey spent more time meditating alone. He tried to find Donnie.. to talk to ancestors. To find answers. But his questions always remained unanswered. When he wasn't tending to Casey's emotional state, he seemed to be talking to himself.
He felt alone too. April.. Mayhem.. Raph and Donnie were gone, Leo shut himself off and no longer spoke to him. He had never had such a close relationship with any of the other members of the Rebellion and Casey.. he was too young. He was just a kid in a living nightmare, trying his best to grow up. So Mikey was the only one left to talk to.
And one evening, when Mikey shed silent tears of despair for the first time in many years, salty drops touching the magic circle beneath him, he saw something.. before he saw Karai. She smiled gently and said, "Hello my child. There's someone who would like to see you."
And Splinter stepped forward, in that spiritual ghostly form, and Mikey, even though he had become so grown up and wise.. sprinted ahead like a small child afraid of the unknown and hugged him tightly.
Even if it was a hug happening in his meditating state, it was real.
19.
To Mikey's surprise, Splinter hadn't been a rat at first, but something that looked very similar to a spirit dragon. Karai had been the same way before they both had revealed themselves to him in this meditative.. in between realm.
And so Mikey learned more about the spirit deities, something he wasn't supposed to know yet, something that awaited them when a Hamato.. dies.
Mikey asked where Raph was, if he too had a deity form. If he was with them.. if he was alright. And if he knew they missed him. Karai promised him that Raph was among them, but he had relinquished his ability to reveal himself to mortals when he had given his last spark to Leo's sword back then.
A Deity is like a bridge that connects the spirit realm with the living realm. Only through them they can reveal themselves to Mikey right now. Raph gave his Deity's protective light to Leo and is now completely bound to the other side. And he is waiting for them. They would see him again when the time was right.
And for the first time, Mikey seemed to truly breathe a sigh of relief. Happy and at inner ease although, given the circumstances, with a little sting in his heart.
Karai braided a small strand of Mikey's hair at their rather wholesome meet, which she complimented to be very soft. Mikey just smiled at Splinter's comment that he had the silkiness of his father's fur, obviously. And he really wished Leo and Donnie would have been here right now.
[ Soundtrack recommendation - https://youtu.be/Iyr60r4G374 ]
Master Michelangelo wasn't the most powerful and talented Mystic Warrior of all time for nothing. He needed no instructions or advice from Karai, Splinter, or any other ancestors. Mikey figured it out on his own, how to find his own deity.
Every deity "slumbers" in a luminous, ghostly egg until a Hamato dies, and at that moment a Deity is born. It is a spiritual circle that usually can't be altered or forced.
Mikey, however, in this meditative state, surrounded by nothing, held his egg in his hands. He felt that pleasant warmth emanating from it. It was.. pretty.. and light weight. He wondered if it will hurt when one dies. If one remembers the moment of entering the other side.. And he asked for nothing more than to be able to protect his family from any harm.
He no longer wanted to feel helpless, or alone. Because he felt like that ever since Raph left them. He wanted to be the family's own Deity.
Then the egg in his hands started to glow faintly.. then brightly. And when the light subsided, a massive and beautiful orange.. almost golden glowing Dragon in ghostly form stood right before him.
They both were enveloped in a gentle storm of swirling light, luminous white butterflies, and a feeling of safety.
This must be what it feels like to be received by your Deity. This must be what it feels like not to have to fear death. Right?
For a moment there was a kind of halo, or rather a special kind of circling light event emanating from behind the Deity's head. It was beautiful to behold. An Anthelion.
Mikey looked into its warm and serene eyes and didn't notice a tear running down his cheek, a tear brought on by the overwhelming presence of this beautiful and powerful being. The Deity did the same.. letting a tear roll down. It was as if the Box Turtle were looking into some kind of shape-shifting mirror.
The Deity blinked when he did it. It rose and lowered it's head when Mikey did. It wasn't a separate being with it's own mind.. For a moment, Mikey thought he had just died, because why was his deity born when he was still alive, until he realized what he had just accomplished. Mikey had created a kind of guardian angel. HE was the guardian angel.
The Deity slowly lowered its head and closed its eyes as it's forehead rested against Mikey's who held his hands around it's jaw.
From the outside, Casey, who had been looking for him, just saw a meditating Mikey within a warm orange luminous circle of intricate mystic symbols underneat.. who seemed to be smiling in a way the young boy never had seen him smile.. and one tear rolling down from under his mask.
Casey sat down next to Mikey and leaned against him, closing his eyes.
Leo, Mikey, and Casey spending time together in the garden of light. Mikey wasn't sure whether he should tell Leo about Karai and Splinter, or if that would be too much right now. He decided to wait a little longer and watched with quiet pride as the two of them acted like father and son again for the moment.
Little informations about the garden of light.
21.
Leo sat atop the highest tower of their base, gazing into the distance of the dark, reddish night sky behind the Technodrome. The long, red, silky strips of Raph's torn mask, tied around his left arm, fluttered gently in the dusty breeze. One could almost think the wind, or Raph's mask, were trying to point Leo in a certain direction, but Leo was lost in thought. Casey sat on his lap, resting and clinging to Leo's left arm as his chest rose and fell gently. He had no memory of his mother, Cassandra, and no one else ever wanted to take on the responsibility of a parent in this apocalyptic war.
Who would risk carrying a screaming, crying child when the Kraang Hounds were chasing you? Who would like to feed the child rats when it spat out the little food they had left? Who would sacrifice what little sleep they had to care for the child's fever the entire night? This was no longer a world to raise. And no one wanted this. Leo didn't either. Not because he didn't want to, but because he was afraid he couldn't.
But ever since Casey was very little, this young boy had given Leo a feeling of having achieved something⊠something special, something he never wanted to lose again. On the night that human baby slept in Leo's arms and clung to his much larger finger, something inside Leo seemed to have decided to take on that role. He never really knew why. All he knew was, it felt right.
It was clear the boy felt safe and secure with Leo. Even though Leo had seemed.. different.. since the day he emerged from the cryo tank but he had never stopped loving his family. Every single member.
Everyone.. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he thought, as he so often did, of Donnie. Where was he? What was he doing? Why was he gone? Was he still alive?
Leo closed his eyes and pushed that last thought away. He would surely know if Donnie weren't there anymore, right? It was a twin thing.. He would kow.. Casey's slight shift pulled the leader from his thoughts. He looked down at the boy and, after a brief hesitation, placed his palm unusually gently over him, almost testing whether he was real or.. one of his hallucinations.
He sighed. And after much deliberation, considering every possibility and everything that could go wrong but also right, he decided to go looking for his brother. He looked into the distance again and he was sure, he will find him. Just like Donnie who found him when he was at his lowest on the battlefield.. not being able to portal chop off his own arm.
But Leo wouldn't just abandon them too. He would search. And return. Again and again. He would lead the survivors, protect them, and never give up on Donnie at the same time. He used only an ordinary sword, which looked like his old one, but without any ninpo abilities.
Sometimes he was out there alone for hours. Sometimes it took days until he returned when the scarce supply was used up. Mikey could never stop him, and to be honest, he didn't want to. He too hoped to see his older brother again.
But even the wisest of them never would have dared to imagine what innocence this wish would cost them soon.
22.
It happened the day Leo was outside alone, as usual, searching for a sign of life of his brother. He seemed a little more careless than usual. Shortly after a blackout and stubbornly pushing his way through Mikey, he went out and actually forgot his sword. He was outside alone and completely unarmed. Before Mikey or anyone else noticed it, Casey had vanished, sword and all.
It was the first time the young boy had been outside alone. But he seemed determined. He wanted to prove himself, and he also didn't want to lose Leo by not being able to defend himself.
Besides, he was doubly equipped: a sword and a chainsaw hockey stick? What could possibly go wrong?
He followed the trail Leo had left behind. Casey was now very good at such things. Under normal circumstances, a boy his age would probably be a good soccer player⊠go to high school and meet up with friends or playing video games on the computer. He, however, was a skilled tracker and knew how to survive.
After several hours of walking carefully and carrying, he sighed softly and glimpsed a frame in the dusty mist ahead. His face lit up as he thought he recognized Leo's silhouette. The outline seemed to move differently than the dangers one encounters out here. Deliberately and in a controlled manner. This led him to assume it was Leo. But it quickly became clear that it wasn't him.
At the same time, Mikey seemed to be in a hurry. He had a bad feeling.. like a premonition. He was looking for Casey but couldn't find that kid. And when he saw that Casey's mask was not in its place, he knew what naive thoughts he had been pursuing. It would be too dangerous if Mikey went out alone now too. Without Leo as their leader.. or Donnie with his stategic plans, he couldn't endanger the others by taking them with him. Mikey wasn't a leader.. or as good as Donnie.. he was just himself. But he can do something, no one else but he can.
Mikey sat down in the garden of light, only slightly above the surface of the white still water. But it was different than usual. It wasn't just sitting quietly and finding peace, thinking, or anything like that. He had placed five candles around him on the floating circle where he was sittingcross legged. It looked exactly like the Hamato symbol. And the circle started to glow.
The environment around him began to change. It felt lighter. Gravity distorted as his hair and clothes began to float, as if he was underwater even tho he was above the water..
Small, restless waves welled under him, he in the center.. and the reflection of his seemed⊠blurry⊠not quite Turtle⊠not quite MikeyâŠ
Mikey, who usually seemed so composed and calm all the time, gritted his teeth, his hands, which formed a circle in front of him, cramped slightly from the physical exertion. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
For a moment he was silent but he struggled. He focused his thoughts on a beautiful memory. A memory in which all his brothers, both fathers, and April were together and he felt it. He felt the warmth and after a deep breath, he calmed down again. He tried not to force it, even though it was necessary to find Casey as soon as possible. Mikey first had to trust himself. And he did. Because he trustet his family.. and he knew they trusted him.
The waves beneath him slowly calmed down, revealing a reflection of his.. a reflection of a golden almost angelic ghostly dragon that was him.
23.
The outline that Casey had discovered, turned fully around, a torn cape flattering in the wind, and it seemed to grow larger and larger as it came closer. When it was close enough, a bright red light illuminated as if it was scanning Casey. And a malicious laugh echoed. It was Kraang Two in her new battle Mech. (Design wip) And she didn't waste any time before she launched her first attack. It was clearly all just a cat-and-mouse game for this sadistic Kraang. She didn't plan to destroy him right away because this small little human posed no threat. She simply enjoyed seeing the panic in his eyes and after a failed attack, she gave him a generous head start.
Casey ran and had dropped Leo's sword. When he realized this, naive but well-intentioned courage seized him and.. he ran back. Kraang Two wound up and slammed her big heavy clawed arm into the dry ground, dirt and dust swirled up under the earthquake, narrowly missing him and almost crushing him. But Casey wasn't weak, and managed to slide smoothly underneath her. With his arm anchor, he was able to entangle her four legs together and bring her to fall. He laughed in victory and threw a thist into the air. That gave him enough time, and he ran back to grab Leo's sword.
And then he recognized Leo a little further away.
Leo had been nearby and heard the noise, hurried to him as fast as he could. Relief washed over Casey as he pulled up his hockey mask, waving his arm to get his attention that he didn't know he already had. But he saw only pure terror in Leo's eyes.
Leo's chest tightened as he ran, he felt time slipping through his fingers as he saw Casey's eyes slowly grasp the situation.
The shadow behind Casey grew larger in front of him as she built herself up. A menacing cone of red burning light enveloped his entire being.
Like a fawn in headlights
It all felt like it happened in seconds. As if time has stood still for a moment. Mikey's eyes snapped open wide, glowing white. He was floating above the water, his dark hair and orange cape swirling around him, the blossoms of lotus made of light around him fluttering up, orange chains of Ninpo light seemed to wrap around the turtles heavy rising arms as if trying to hold him down, and the roots of his dark hair seemed to be turning white as the candles flames distorted upwards into long, almost watery shapes, forming a circle above Mikey's head. Like a halo of light.
And suddenly it shot out from beneath him. A column of light rose from below, emerging from the circle. Mikey's Deity pushed its way through the circle of light, just like breaking free from a mirror, from the other side of the water and ascended. Mikey's white eyes shed a few glistening tears, not from sorrow or fear. They were proof that he felt it.
And so Mikey, who in spiritual mind was in the body of the Deity, flew up into the dark sky, illuminating his way to them as swiftly as a sunbeam extinguishing the darkness in the shadows.
Just before the red beam of destruction could reach the ground, Leo was suddenly blinded by an golden ring of light in the sky. An Anthelion! He had no idea where it came from or what it was. He couldn't even see it properly as he held his arm up to his eyes.
He could practically feel it, the moment the ring of light struck the ground, making reality vibrate under his feet. It was different from the arthquake of Kraang Two's attack earlier. It was like.. standing on the waves of water. Leo felt dizzy for a moment, an imbalance that made him stagger before the blinding light slowly faded when this great being of light disappeared into the ground like a snake into a wormhole, leaving only small, firefly-like lights swirling around, until these too disappeared.
When Leo regained his sight, his stomach churned, and he dropped to his knees. Before him was nothing but a large crater. Neither Kraang Two nor Casey were to be seen. Only the smoke rising from the crater as if there had been a fire. Except there never was a fire..
Leo kneeled there.. stared for a long time at the crater in front of him. Only the faint glimmer of something in the center seemed able to capture his attention. On unsteady legs, he moved to the center of the giant hole in the ground, and the white tip of Casey's mask peeked out from the dirt, lying next to his own sword. He picked it up, just looked at it, and..
Nothing. Leo felt nothing.
He picked up his sword without a noise and walked silently, dragging his sword and Casey Junior's mask wearily home.
What Leo didn't know, and couldn't sense, were these three white, glowing eyes in the distance that had observed everything closely.
Three eyes that wept in ssilence.. three eyes that witnessed another loss. Three eyes that missed his brother.
24.
Donnie grew increasingly angry over the time, losing himself in the role of Chimera X, and he hates himself for the path he's chosen instead of being there for the others.. Would Casey have met a different fate if Donnie had still been there? Would Leo still love him as a brother? Has he ever stopped? Would Leo ever look at him the same?
All this time Donnie was caught in a conflict: what he's doing helps Leo and the others, but also that what he's doing has let Leo and the others down. He fought those Kraang that were trying to get to close to the base. He fought for them. It was a good thing to do right?! No.. he was no good. The only positive feeling he could still experience was seeing Leo there. Awake. No longer trapped in a cryo tank.. no longer trapped like.. he was.
Donnie knew why Leo was awake, but he didn't want Leo to know.
The reason Leo always felt like his thoughts were being erased during his blackouts was Donnie. He was the one trying to stop him from seeing what he saw throught Chimera's eyes.. even tho⊠Chimera's right eye was supposed to be the window for Leo. That's why it had three eyes. One was Donnies, one was supposed to belong to Shelldon and one belongs to Leo. And everytime Mikey felt like seeing a ghostly eye through Leo's palm, it was Donnie. He was the one who always pushed Leo out of this connection.
The reason Leo didn't need a physical connection like Donnie, who is bound to the world tree-like fleshy stem and his tech, is that Donnie and his Ninpo act as an amplifier. It reaches Leo unconsciously and unintentionally, like an incredibly powerful Wi-Fi that constantly tries to draw Leo into their Chimera X network. But Donnie didn't let it happen.. he couldn't.
Donnie, in the body of Chimera X, growled and suppressed these hurting thoughts. He had to release his rage of seeing Casey die and Leo go somewhere and he ran. He ran until he encountered a pack of Kraang Hounds. One, and then another, jumped on his back and clamped their jaws on. Another sank its teeth into his throat, where the scar was in his physical form. Donnie roared out in deep pain. The roar echoed so loudly and for a brief moment Leo stared back out of the corner of his eye.
-Cliffhanger. It's unclear whether the Kraang Hounds killed Chimera - X and Donnie's body is now doomed to remain trapped within the fleshy stem until the end. Alone.
25.
The atmosphere in the base was even more somber now, and Leo seemed completely detached from his emotions.
Mikey sat in the garden of light on the grass near the glowy water and he looked down at his burned hands, which held Casey's mask so carefully and delicately, as if a single breath of wind could shatter it.
His hands no longer hurt. And Mikey didn't want to heal them, because they were proof of what he had accomplished. And he wanted to always remember that feeling.
His now white silvery hair reflected like silk in the water's surface.
He gently run his thumb over Casey's red marking on the mask. But he didn't know exactly what he should do from here now. All he knew was that he had saved Casey.. right?
He hasn't said anything to Leo yet. He didn't know how. He probably wouldn't believe him. Not until Casey wasn't here.
Mikey carefully lifted Casey's mask and held it up to his own face, probably hoping to see through his child-like eyes.. seeing the would as colorful and carefree again as he used too when the brothers were young, living their teen days in the severs, eating Pizza, being together.. and for a moment it seemed as if white, shining eyes opened on the mask over the actual black eyes until the light disappeared again.
Mikey was startled. He dropped the mask, but it didn't fall into the water in front of him. Instead, a small circle of golden light formed directly in front of him, just above the water's surface and caught the mask. Mikey blinked as he tilted his head slightly and cautiously reached out a hand. Before it could reach the circle, the mask glowed, so brightly that Mikey could no longer see it but it didn't blind him. Mikey reached into the light, and he felt it. He pulled the mask out of the light, but it was no longer the source of it. Instead, the light in front of him slowly faded, and there was.. an egg?
It radiated warmth and was decorated with little golden accents. And before he could question it further, the egg shattered into fine white ghostly dust. The dust swirled only slightly in curls and seemed to rearrange itself. Mikey was unsure whether he could trust his eyes,
when he then saw..
a small baby dragon on the mystic circle above the water.
The little dragon, as white as Casey's mask with the same Leo'ish markings on its eyes, but in gold not red, opened its small black button eyes. A pair of small feathery wings lay awkwardly on either side and it looked up at Mikey. Not frightened or uncertain, no. With a childlike, innocent chirp, it greeted Mikey.
As Mikey gently took it in his arms, he asked carefully and with a pleasantly calm voice, "Casey?" And the little baby dragon chirped as it laid its tiny head against the fabric of the turtles cape, almost as if the little baby knew that Mikey had saved him.
Mikey seemed to think for a moment, until he gently placed Casey on his lap and removed his own orange mask. He carefully tied it around Casey's neck and smiled.
"Welcome back. Leo will be happy, don't you think?"
26.
When Leo saw the little baby dragon sitting on Mikey's head for the first time, his gaze was eerily cold.
Mikey tried to explain that it was Casey. That he saved him by using his deity and binding Casey's soul to his mask. Unfortunately, his physical body was destroyed in the process, but Mikey was able to use a part of himself and his deity to create a temporary body for his soul. And so here he is. Casey!
Mikey actually expected a positive reaction, but Leo looked at him, completely bewildered by all those informations that didn't seem to make sense to him, and thought it was a bad joke. Some kind of coping mechanism where Mikey would replace Casey with the next best, cute, innocent little thing. How was that Casey Junior?!
Mikey didn't know how else to explain it. Or how they would get Casey back to his real body. And that's what made Leo so wary. Mikey was usually the wisest of them and always knew an answer to such mystical.. magical questions. Just not now.
Leo didn't like the thought that this baby dragon was Casey and refused to call him by that name. It wasn't really Leo acting with malice because he hated that dragon. He was simply tired and broken from losses and delusions. He was afraid to give in to this small hope that Mikey was telling the truth. How would he cope with the disappointment if it wasn't true? How would he apologize to Casey if the boy knew he replaced him already with this little.. creature? Leo rejected that baby dragon and tried not to think about it any more. He had more important problems than believing Mikey's Fantasy.
As Leo left, Casey just watched him with his little feathery ears down and a tightness in his little chest. He started chirping and squeaking, but Leo didn't turn around.
Over the following weeks, Mikey unfortunately had to realize that Casey's body was never meant to exist this way and threatened to disintegrate daily, developing golden cracks. Whenever this happened, it was Mikey who closed the cracks with healing mystic powers. But the more he did this, the more he visibly seemed to age. The youngest of the four turtles, now looked like the oldest. As he gave Casey his own life energy for this.
Whenever the opportunity arose, the little baby dragon tried to get close to Leo somehow. He often churred little words that sounded almost like "Pa-pa." But Leo always seemed indifferent about it.
Sometimes Mikey spent a lot of time meditating with Casey on his lap. Together they would fly through the spiritual realm in dragon form. Mikey in his Deity form together with Casey, happy. Carefree.. Free.
27.
One evening, Casey flew alone through the halls, searching for something to eat. Oh? It smelled like banana at the end of the corridor! The little dragon followed the sweet scent. But before he could reach the large French doors of the kitchen area, the little dragon heard a rustling from a room. His room nearby. Curious, he fluttered to the entrance and saw Leo. He was standing at the edge of Casey's desk, where his mask lay, the one Mikey had put back after Casey's "return". Leo just looked down at the mask as if expecting some kind of wonder to happen. But nothing happened.. it was just a mask, laying there. Casey flew over to him, cautiously, and sat down next to the mask on the desk. One could clearly see it in his eyes. He ignored that little dragon with difficulty.. Casey lowered his ears for a moment. He placed his small, clawed paw on the mask and looked up at Leo again, with shiny balck eyes. He chirped, almost with delight. All he wanted to try was cheering Leo up. But suddenly, Leo's eyes narrowed.
"Stop it! You're NOT Casey Junior!"
His voice was strained and loud. Casey jumped and whimpered frightened. Trying to escape, his flight started bumpily, and he landed briefly on Leo's face. Desperately, he tried to push himself off with wildly flapping wings, and accidentally he slipped and deeply scratched Leo's left eye so hard that it immediately started to bleed. Casey managed to fly away, out of his room and Leo just groaned, covered his bleeding eye, and tried his best to suppressed the emotions that were eager to break free.
Casey had fled, to a place where the then-human child had always retreated when he was scared. Leo's bed. It was always soft and safe. It was the place where he was held for hours when he was sick, where Leo comforted him all night when he had a nightmare. A place where he and uncle Don would together scare Leo out of his dreams when he was late for breakfast. Casey lay curled up on Leo's pillow, sniffing softly. Silently chirping little cries.
Leo had bandaged his eye to stop the bleeding. And when he was on his way out again, he saw a small trail of white feathers leading into his bedroom. He didn't want this little creature in his space. But when he entered his room, he stopped from what he saw.
He saw a small, innocent figure in his bed. Crying and alone. Someone too small, too fragile for this world. Someone who needed someone to look after him. To take care and protect him. And only then did slowly it dawn on him how similar the little dragon and Casey actually were. The entire time.. where the dragon was just a tinier version of Casey.. not able to speak. It was strange.. this feeling. Or was it strange how much Leo didn't want to see it?
When Leo sat down on the edge of his bed, Casey just looked up, scared. He paused his breathing briefly, wondering if Leo would say something hurtful again, but Leo didn't say anything. He just looked at him, calmly, apologetically. Casey stood up and cautiously took a few steps closer, testing.. eyeing his bandaged eye. Was that Casey's fault? Leo still showed no signs of aversion or anger. And then Casey carefully crawled onto his lap. He curled up, making himself as small as possible, and his soft tail wrapped around Leo's left arm, just like Casey always clung to him with both arms when he slept safely in his arms.
The red-eared slider just stared down at him with a tired, glassy eye, ignoring the other's eye pain. Leo carefully held his larger hand lightly over Casey's little body, as if afraid of hurting him, and asked quietly,
Casey Junior looked up at him, his big, black button eyes wide open, his ears pricked in disbelief at what he had just heard. Cautiously, Casey dared to grasp Leo's finger with his own tiny hands, and responded with a little noise "pa." Then another: "pa."
That was the moment Leo's walls, which he had built around himself all this time, crumbled. He let the tears flow from his non bandaged eye, tears that he had held back for so long. For Donnie, for Raph and April⊠and Casey.. He finally allowed himself to feel something. It might not have been the most pleasant emotion, but it was something. guilt.
Guilt for how unfairly he had treated Casey all this time. (It had been a few months. Filler will be there with baby dragon Casey.) And he was sorry. So incredibly sorry that he hadn't been able to save him back then, and that he had ignored him afterward.
But Casey didn't seem hurt or resentful. The little dragon stood on his hind legs and gently pressed his small head against Leo's plastron, where is heart was hiding. With a soft chirp, he had long since accepted his apology. And Leo held his left hand over the little dragon gently hugging his small adopted son close.
Mikey smiled softly with relief, his gaze lowered. His white hair obscured his eyes, which were probably damp, while he stood with his shell under the hooded cape against the wall by the door outside and had heard everything.
I'm so sorry if the rest is very short. I feelt very burned out and increasingly got the feeling that everything I'm doing is kinda pointless. I might come back to this later and write extended versions of these parts until I'm able to draw it.
Kraang Bots and Hounds found their base and attack. They completely destroyed the resistance. In the fight against too many Kraang, Casey is severely injured and his body is on the verge of breaking. And Mikey sacrifices himself, using his deity (an Anthelion in the background when his ghostly light dragon appears) to save Casey, but dies in the process, similar to the movie when he shatters in light. Leo didn't see it happen because he was busy fighting elsewhere at the time. But at that moment where he saw that light in the sky again, just likie back then, he felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Everyone except Leo and Casey died.
After this devastating attack, Leo becomes highly depressed, detached, angry, vengeful, he wears black now instead of blue. He has some kind of tunnel vision and wants nothing more but to confront and destroy Kraang One.
He wanders around, loses himself in some kind of a dark mind, Casey is always with him and is the only one that, when Leo breaks down or just wants to give up, keeps him going.
A mysterious, glowing butterfly flutters around them sometimes. It serves more or less as a guide. Wherever the butterfly is, Leo thinks he is close to Kraang One but actually the butterfly guided him closer to
A horde of Kraang Hounds attacked them, injuring Leo.
A large creature lunges at Leo, who initially did not recognize Leo because he isn't wearing blue anymore and in Donnie's madness he kind off started to forget how his family looked like over the Month. Leo fends off the attack.
Suddenly, Leo and the creature experience a severe headache at the same time. For a moment, Leo sees distorted images from the monster's pov. He "feels" a known presence.
Chimera-X freezes, as do the hounds around him.
Back then when Donnie was attacked by them, he managed to enhanced the ability to control the Hive Mind and serves as an amplifier. Where he is, within a 50-meter radius, he can control the Kraang hounds (ONLY Kraang Hounds, no other creatures.)
He is like the Alpha of a pack as long as his mind is in control of the body. Using the Hounds against their own kind.
But seeing Leo momentarily pulled Donnie out of his obsessive control frenzy, and the Hounds attacked Leo and Chimera-X.
Injured, Donnie flees, leaving a trail of pink blood.
After getting rid of the Hounds, Casey and Leo followed the blood and finds Donnie's hideout. A few Kraang Hounds try to stop him from entering. But he breaks through the thick wall and finds Donnie.
In the middle of the cave, entangled and consumed on a fleshy tree trunk, like a puppet on strings. Leo is overwhelmed and doesn't know if this is still his brother.
Chimera-X looms menacingly behind him. Leo turns, lets his sword fall to te ground and speaks to him, saying he isn't angry.. he never was. He never believed that Donnie left them.. He misses him. He just wants his brother back.
And Chimera - X lowers its head in front of Leo's feet, as if pleading for help.. pleading to be saved. As if surrendering.
Leo resolutely reaches into the fleshy matter and fights, ripping piece by piece to reach his brother. He called his name, begged for him to fight too. To hold on.. just a little bit longer. When Leo felt his arm, he pulled Donnie free from the roots. And hugs him close. Holding him save. Donnie was very tired, physically weak, filled with guilt and everything hurts and he didn't dare to return the hug.
The white butterfly sits in the background on the motionless head of Chimera - X and disappears as if it has completed its final task.
Casey turned his head as he felt llike.. he felt like Mikey was here for a moment.
After a short time during which Donnie recovered, a few days of a lot of talking, they both decided to put an end to it all once and for all.
Donnie would pilot Chimera-X one last time.
But secretly he had another plan he kept from Leo.
Leo and Casey Junior on the back of Chimera - X flew to the Technodrome.
There was a fierce battle against Guardian Krang first that tried to prevent them to get close to their Leader. And Donnie put his plan into action. He knew Leo wouldn't be able to get past the Guardians like this..
And to make amends for his mistakes, and get rid of Chimera-X, he used the self-destruct key on himself. The Key he always wore around his neck.
Donnie lured most of the Kraang guards into a room and locked himself inside with them. Leo only understood Donnie's intension too late, and the last thing Leo saw was Chimera looking at him as the "door" made of flesh matter slowly closed.
Donnie let Leo into their mental connection for the first and last time, the very connection Donnie had always pushed him out of. Leo heard his voice in his mind.
"I'm sorry.. this is all I can do, to make up for everything..
The fleshy door closed fully and a jolt pulled Leo's legs from under the ground as Chimera-X exploded and took the Kraang with him.
Leo reached his left arm out for him, screamed his name and banged against the fleshy wall door, slid to the floor, and breathed heavily and brokenly, not able to progress what had happened.
The self-destructive act and the accompanying abrupt interruption of Donnie's connection to Chimera - X was frying his brain in the hiding place.
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the cave as lightning emanated from the Soft-Shell Turtle and swirled around him, smoke billowed up, and an overdrive of energy caused his tech to crash and shut down. After another explosion from the center of the cave, Donnie's burned arm, which held a photo of his family the entire time, fell limply down. The photo landed silently on the ground, and a final tear fell upon in.
Casey sat rigidly behind Leo until he cautiously approached and tugged at his cape. But Leo didn't react. Not yet. His breathing was still, and there was that... feeling. The one he had always feared. That "if my twin dies, I would know. I would feel it."
Leo was eerily silent. Nothing could be heard except the muffled hard beating of a heart. And then he slowly raised his torso.
An icy blue, cold, and vengeful scarred eye stared out from between his fingers through tears and pain.
But this wasn't the eye of a lost, broken soul.
This was the gaze of a broken hero.
One who hadn't yet completed his final act.
Leo and Casey finally reach Kraang One. He is even taller than they knew him in his new Mech. But it didn't intimidate Leo. Filled with rage, Leo attacks Kraang One in tunnel vision. At first, it seems as if Kraang One finds it all amusing and toys with him.
"No portals? No family? Just you. All alone hahaha!"
He took great advantage of Leo's uncontrolled movements.
But when Kraang One gets Casey, throwing the small dragon so hard to the ground that he immediately stopped moving, it got Leo out of his tunnel vision.
Kraang One aimed to stomp his large foot at the small, already defeated dragon, just to see Leo suffer even more. The impact kicked up dust and dirt but Kraang One grimaced as he felt the resistance beneath his foot.
When the dust settled, Leo stood there, leaning against him with all his might. With a swift thrust, he knocked Kraang off balance.
Leo held little dragon Casey in his arms, gritting his teeth. He suppressed his tears and gently but tremblingly laid Casey on the ground, before straightening up again, his head bowed.
He drew his sword from where he had lost it in a violent blow a bit before, that was stuck on the ground and offered no verbal response to Kraang One's provocations. Instead, he went into a stance and then swung his sword.
Kraang One, who had just gotten back on his feet, widened his eyes in astonishment as a blue mystic sickle of light hurtled toward him, and he blocked just in time. This attack sliced ââeasily through half the Technodrome, revealing the dark red sky above them.
Leo held his robotic hand upright, his mystic power gathering in it as he walked straight toward Kraang One, unfazed and cold.
"That's it. I won't let you hurt anyone ever again."
Kraang One's face suddenly seemed to betray panic as he stammered something back. He didn't understand what was happening or why he felt "fear."
"ENOUGH! STOP IT WITH YOUR TRICKS!"
The Creature from another dimension attacked immediately, and they both bounced off each other. Leo caught a glimpse of the red light just before Kraang One fired a gigantic red laser from his head of his advanced Mech, but Leo slammed his sword into the ground, and a giant blue shield that shot from above, absorbed the laser. Even before the shield could slowly dissolve and reveal the Turtle, a blue glow seemed to illuminate the red sky from beneath the Technodrome.
Kraang One looked around, then frozen at Leo.
Leo raised his hands in a gesture as if holding an invisible weight right in his arms, trying to push it up. His eyes shone white, his cape fluttered in the breeze of blue light of his awakening.
Kraang One stared up at the sky behind Leo, unable to move when he saw it. For the first time, he felt fear, it rooted his metallic legs to the ground as Leo summons his Deity.
A colossal Dragon of Light emerging from beneath the Technodrome through a gigantic portal which connected the Spirit and Living world. It's halo, an Anthelion, was so big that it covered the entire city with it's light of hope. Almost as if New York was wearing a halo.
A mighty column of blue light shot down upon the Technodrome. Not intending to destroy, but to cleanse. Kraang One's screams could be heard loudly as he slowly dissolved under burning blue flames.
And Leo let him burn for a very deserved long time.
(Note to myself: redraw with his actual Deity design.)
For a moment when the Deity was there, the sky seemed blue again and the Anthelion like the rays of the white sun of the days when the world was still alright.
Everything around Leo collapsed. The remnant of the Technodrome slowly fell down to earth like a giant dying shooting star, with Leo on it.
Leo drops to his knees. Heavily breathing, sweating. He used too much of that power and he knows he will die now.
He falls to the ground and stares at the temporary blue sky. The same sky that used to look like this when he was younger.
Flashbacks of the past, with his family.
Then he slowly closed his weary, tired eyes as life fades out. His last thought is that
Everyone can finally rest.
Casey (as human boy) and Leo are floating in a big black nothing, both glowing faintly. Leo holds Casey in his arms, cose to his heart when his voice whispered silently:
"Everything is alright now."
Casey slowly opened his human eyes. He heard the soft tinkling sound, like from a wind chime, and felt safe. He smiled up at Leo as they were both suddenly slightly blinded and-
Both are greeted by their family on the other side.
They are all there. Donnie, Raph, Mikey, April, Splinter.
Hamato's. Yes Casey was a Hamato too just like April.
Leo smiles tiredly as he saw Donnie and then heared his fathers voice.
Blackscreen with the words of Splinter:
Soundtrack idea - https://youtu.be/Xoz-YIssgg4
28.
As a comic bonus there will be one more image showing the dead, dry ground of earth.
And a small green sprout blooming.
This is meant to convey that earth will
recover and eventually come back to life.
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