#because orange

Even if he could hear Donnie in his mind, saying that there not being any kind of marker or sign means that Leo does not, in fact, know where he was going.

Which is true, Leo doesn’t know where he’s going, but he knows he’s going the right way, Donnie!

And how did he know that?

Well...

Leo stopped, abruptly realizing that there was someone else with him.

He relaxed, once he realized it was just Mikey.

An entirely orange, glowing Mikey, but it was Mikey and that’s all that mattered.

“Hey, Mikey,” he reached out to hug his little brother “sorry, I haven’t been much fun lately; but Donnie and April have been keeping you company, right?”

“Mm hmm,” Mikey nodded against his plastron and, wow, he was warm; did he have a fever?

That thought was cut off when Mikey pulled away, tugging on Leo’s wrist “C’mon, Leo, let’s go play!”

“Whoa, wait a second, little brother,” Leo tugged back, making Mikey look back up at him “shouldn’t we look for Donnie, before going off to play?”

The smaller turtle shook his head “Donnie’s not here...he can’t be here; not like you.”

And, you know, that would make Leo feel special (take that, Donnie, he’s Mikey’s favorite!) but they were in an endless void of stars and Mikey appeared to be made of orange light.

“Raphie’s here, though,” Mikey tugged on Leo’s wrist again, an orange portal appearing behind him “Raphie’s here and we can play with him!”

Raph was here?

But...Raph died two years ago...

Leo was given no more time to contemplate that, as Mikey pulled him through the portal, bringing him into what looked like the lair, but made up of orange light, just like Mikey.

There was one area that was colored red, though...a room that he and his brothers haven’t entered in years.

Leo pulled away from Mikey, going over to the red-colored room and looking in “Raph?”

“Leo?”

“Raph!” Leo rushed to hug his older brother “I missed you so much!”

“Leo,” Raph, while stunned, still hugged his brother tight “What are you doing here?”

“Me?!” Leo pulled back to look at Raph’s face “I should be asking you that!”

“Leo, I...” Raph glanced towards the entrance of his room, where Mikey was peeking in, curious “let’s talk about that later, huh? I think Mikey wants to show you something.”

“But...” Leo also looked to where Mikey was “okay, fine, but we’re talking about this later.”

“Yeah, sure,” Raph agreed, leading Leo out of his room.

Mikey latched onto Leo, dragging him over to the room opposite Raph’s “This is your room!”

“My room, huh?” Leo looked around “It looks a little boring, to be my room.”

“You have to make it your own,” Raph said from the entrance “Mikey can carve out the space for you, but you have to make it your own.”

“And how do I do that?” Leo asked, leaning against the wall, Mikey clinging to his arm.

Raph watched the wall slowly turn blue from where Leo was touching it “You’ll figure it out.”