#reverse turtles

Mike didn’t come out of his hiding place for two days.

When he did, he vomited at the sight of his family. Tears washed through the blood and grime on his cheeks as he gathered them. Pulled each body to an open area, doused them with gasoline, and struck a match.

He slept in Leonardo’s room first. Then Donnie’s. Then Raph’s. For a year he lost himself in misery and the memory of his family. He tried to kill himself several times, but each time he remembered Leo’s sacrifice and Sensei’s words and felt guilt well up until he was curled up in Leo’s bed, sobbing relentlessly.

Sensei’s words didn’t return to him until he was cleaning out the rat’s room and found a strange journal. Mike read it.

Cover to cover.

It was written in his father’s script, but the tale it told was contrary to what the turtle. A man who lost his wife and child to a jealous friend and went in search of way to get them back. He found it in the form of a staff. Voiced his desire to see his family again and it happened.

That’s when the story became confusing.

The man saw his family again, but in the arms of the jealous friend. They were happy and he was happy for them. A fire started. He tried to save them, but failed. The jealous friend turned husband blamed him for their death and he ran to New York City. Had a run in with mutagen, became a rat, and raised four turtles as his children.

Mike knew that story. It was his father’s. But the first… how was it possible?

“Things will be better.”

He found the staff after three years of looking, adding to the journal as he went.

When the winds picked up and a light engulfed him, the scarred turtle said, in a broken voice, “I want my brothers back.”

Raphael

Leonardo had been helping Mike change his bandage around his missing eye when they came. Men in military grade gear surrounded them and Raphael and Donatello did everything they could to protect their alpha and youngest clan member, but in the end they were knocked out and shoved into tight cages. Raph’s last thought was that April and Casey would find their nest empty and worry.

When he woke again, his family was separated into cramped cells in a too bright facility. Leo tried to rally their spirits. Tried to keep them optimistic and thinking of escape routes, but Raphael saw how he would sticking his fingers through the bars and hold Mike’s hand, tight and terrified just like the rest of them. Don noticed it too.

Leo was the first to be taken.

He came back quiet, weak.

Mikey took care of him, smiling a smile that never reached his eyes.

Then Leo was gone.

Donatello lasted longer. He was more intelligent and more interesting to the scientists that studied them. He was gone in a week.

Raph cried and Mike held his hand.

When they started in on Raphael, he tried to be strong. Tried so hard for his perpetually injured brother. He was terrified they would leave Mike to die in his cell alone because of how beat up he was.

What the scientists didn’t see was that Mike was the strongest of their little pod.

He came back quiet, in pain, and collapsed against the bars of Mikey’s cage.

The next day of testing was delayed by the appearance of other mutants. Leatherhead was happy to see that Mike was well for the most part. Slash raged against his bars until the bent under his weight and he dropped shuddering to the ground.

It was Leatherhead that came up with the plan to escape.

It almost worked.

Mike died in his arms, smiling and telling him to find Casey and April. “Things will get better, bro.”

Raph and Slash returned to their old nest, bitter and depressed.

He found the journal a week later filled with an unfamiliar script and his brother’s messy scrawl. April taught him to read it. Casey took them in his van to find this mythical staff or scepter to distract Raphael from his grief.

They traveled the world aimlessly and Raph eventually found himself smiling again.

Slash was killed in Russia.

April and Casey were shot when they stumbled upon poachers.

Raph took up the journal again and went in search for the scepter.

When he found it he was determined and filled with anger. He shouted into the winds, “I don’t want to be alone anymore!”

Donatello

Donatello wasn’t sure when things started to go wrong. He supposed it was when Sensei chose him to be leader over Raphael. Raphael had always been the odd one out in their small family, too rough for Michelangelo and too dumb for Donatello. He always took sensei’s criticism of his anger and control far too personally and by the time they were fifteen, he had started to drift away.

When they rescued a fourth turtle, their lost brother as Splinter confessed, Don was more than relieved. Especially when Raphael took a liking to him. He started laughing and smiling more without regressing back into brooding and anger.

They never saw how Leonardo studied them, mistaking his intense looks for intimidation.

When Raphael and Leo disappeared together Splinter went into a deep mourning. He blamed himself for losing Leo and not giving Raphael the attention he believed he deserved.

Don also blamed himself.

He was the leader after all.

Which is why when they saw their brothers flanking The Shredder, he took it upon himself to try to reason with Raphael. If Leonardo hadn’t swooped in when he did, Don was sure Raphael would have come back home.

They fought like that for almost a year until the invasion. As Splinter and Leatherhead occupied the Shredder and his elite, the turtles faced down. Something told Donatello this was their last chance, their last fight.

The snow was ice against his scales but the anticipation kept him from feeling it.

Leonardo made the first move, Michelangelo countered before Donatello had a chance to stop him. He could see the anger in his brother’s eyes. The hurt and betrayal.

It echoed the green eyes staring at him from the scaffolding.

At first Don tried to stay on the defensive, not wanting to hurt Raphael, but a cry from the side distracted them both and they watched as Michelangelo was impaled on Leonardo’s sword. Donatello felt sick. Raphael faltered.

Then Leo’s smirked slipped and blood slid down his chin and Mikey was smiling because he had gotten his kusarigama around the other’s throat and the blade was sunk so deep into his neck it was no longer visible. They dropped together to the water.

Don didn’t have time to mourn because as soon as the splash sounded, Raphael was on him, screaming and crying and completely lost to his emotions. Donatello did everything he could to keep him at bay but he was also hurting and angry and at one vicious charge, he struck out without thinking.

Raphael’s plastron was cracked around the blade at the end of his staff. Donatello dropped it, feeling sick, and ran to his brother, crying and pleading for forgiveness and please just hold on don’t leave not now. Raph laughed, a disturbing gurgling sound.

“Look under my bed. Things will get better, Don. You’re a great leader. I’m sorry for being such an idiot all of these years.”

“No no no you can’t leave me again, Raph, you can’t leave me here alone.”

“God you’re such a sap.” Raph smiled and he pressed a tender kiss to Don’s hand.

Don made sure his brothers were properly buried before giving anything else his attention. When he finally broke out of his daze, the city was in shambles, Kraang and mutants running amuck as tanks and military officials fired on them. His entire world turned to Hell in one day and he couldn’t bare living with it.

So he didn’t.

His emotions short circuited and logic took over.

The journal meant nothing to him. The handwriting was familiar and the stories fantastical, but they were just stories. The only reason he left to find this powerful item was to honor his brother’s last wish.

When he found it, he didn’t know what to say.

So he said nothing.

Bring my family together again.

Leonardo

Leo knew nothing outside of Donatello’s orders.

Kill these people.

Bring me test subjects.

Loyalty is only for the worthy. For our family.

Occasionally when Donatello was busy or in a very bad mood, or that annoying girl was around and Leo hated her so he’d hide away, Michelangelo would chime in with his own requests. Usually they were painful. Raphael never tried to order him around, even helped him with simple things, but Raphael was also weak and stupid and Leo was allowed to ignore him and so he did when he remembered he could.

Donatello told him that the only one that he was allowed to control him against Donatello’s wishes was their sensei.

Sensei scared Leonardo. He was quiet. Unresponsive unless he was training them.

When Donatello and Michelangelo’s faces turned solemn, Leonardo didn’t understand it was because they were going into a fight they would lose. He just kept on smiling and asked if they would be home in time for Space Heroes. Michelangelo didn’t hit him and call him stupid. Donatello didn’t remind him that he hated the show. Instead Donatello set his arm around Leonardo’s shoulders and Mikey squeezed Raph’s hand and Donnie said yeah they would.

They fought and Leo found himself growing tired faster than usual. When he tried to stop for a breath, Mikey shoved him and shuriken embedded in his shoulder. Leo didn’t understand, but Mike didn’t want to see him die because he was too stupid to think about his own life.

They made it to the entrance of a tall tall tall building, all of them bleeding and tired and Leo really wanted to go home and lay down.

Mikey and Raph and Donnie told him to cut a path to the control room so he did and the halls rained blood which made him smile because it felt nice against his heated skin. He didn’t pay attention to his brothers until they were shoving him out of the door and up the stairs. He tripped.

The room they had been in exploded.

Don covered him as they all went down, but a solid smack against the tiled floor sent him into unconsciousness.

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was noise. So much noise. Alarms blaring and people screaming and wheezing in his ear. He groaned. Tried to sit up. Something was keeping down and his senses cleared and so did the last four years and in seconds he was leaning over and puking out the horror and dread at what he and his brothers had done. He had been struck in the head by Donatello so long ago, but now his head was clear and where the hell were they? The wheezing turned to cursing and suddenly the weight was lifted and he was being pulled up and only had a second to look over his shoulder and see the burned and bloody bodies of Michelangelo and Raphael holding each other and way too still.

So much was happening.

So much had happened.

He couldn’t think.

Donatello pulled his arm and he stumbled and looked forward and he could see his brother was burned badly as well, but he was still going. Talking. Mostly to himself because he knew Leonardo wouldn’t understand or care enough to respond.

But this time he felt a resistance that stopped them and turned and Leo’s eyes were clear and that fucking stupid smile was gone. For a second his breath stopped. “Leo?” He reached out, hands shaking, and Leonardo flinched away, but not from fear.

From disgust.

“Do you understand me?”

Leo didn’t know what to do for a second. He was quickly growing numb from the overwhelming change. He swallowed. “Yes.”

Don almost looked relieved. His eyes watered and he even smiled. Then another explosion sounded several floors down and his face twisted as he mumbled. “Of course you choose now to regain your senses. Fucking useless you are. Should have clubbed you over the head years ago.”

Leo didn’t interrupt, thinking this was something that was normal, and Donatello snapped out of his scathing rant long enough to get them moving again. He was breathing heavily and limping. There was no way he’d make it to wherever it was they were going. When they rounded the fifth stairwell landing, Leo shoved him against a wall and made him sit down.

“You can’t keep going at this pace. You’re too wounded.” It was so matter of fact and direct that it shocked a laugh out of Donatello.

“God damn it’s good to hear you talking back after so many years of dumb nods.” The sentence made no sense to Leonardo so he paid it no mind.

“Where are we going and what are we doing? I’ll take care of it from here, but you need to rest.” For a second, Leo thought Donatello was going to smack him for having the gal to give him an order. The second passed and Donatello sighed and reached into his pack, pulling out an old battered journal. He opened it up to a page written in his tight handwriting with diagrams and more information than Leo cared to read over with his brother bleeding out on the hallway floor. Donatello tapped a picture of a scepter, smearing the picture with red.

“We’re here for this. It’s something that’s being housed here on the top floor. A lot of nasty fuckers want it, but it’s on our territory so it’s ours.” He coughs and the journal page is splattered with blood and Leo drops to his knees trying to find something to wipe Donatello’s chin with. Don laughs. “Don’t. No point in it.” He looks up the exit sign, the only source of light in this section. “It has the power to change things. Make them better or worse depending on its wielder. Splinter wanted his family back and got us. Mike wanted his brothers and ended up a lab experiment. Raph was lonely and got a brother that loved him more than anything.” He was rambling nonsense and Leo was afraid his brother was going. “I just wanted our family to be together again and I got a bunch of mentally deficient psychopaths. Or sociopath in my case.”

Don was fading. Leo held onto him. “Find the staff, Leo. Maybe you’ll be the one to fix it. Things will get better.”

Leo was gone before Donatello died, running as fast as he could to find this staff and save his family.

When he got there, it was quiet.

The staff stood in a case in the center of the room with other rare collectables along the walls. He inhaled.

Exhaled.

Broke the case.

Wind started up and a light blinded him and he could see his brothers and father and their struggles in different life times and he cried and screamed because what the hell had they done to deserve so much grief? When it was over all he wanted was the happiness of his friends and family.