“Back off, Leo!” Raph growled, throwing his Sai into the floor at his brother’s feet. “We’re done training for the day.”
“Not until you get it right!” Leo barked back, throwing Raph’s weapons back at him.
On pure instinct Raph caught his weapons and fell into a fighting stance. “We’ve been at it all day.”
“We need the practice. Again!” Leo started up the kata, hesitantly followed by his two other brothers.
Raph’s eyes narrowed, tucking his Sais into his belt and crossing his arms defiantly, never losing eye contact with his older brother’s glare as Leo ran through the complicated moves.
The almost silent tension that filled the room was suddenly shattered as Mikey cried out, landing awkwardly from a flying split kick, and falling face-first towards the dojo floor.
“Mikey!” Don quickly dashed forward to catch his brother before his head connected with the floor.
Leo bent down to examine Mikey’s leg. “You just twisted your ankle. We’ll need to work on your landings more.”
“Leo. Mikey’s the best gymnast here, no one’s better at landings than him.” Donnie tried to reason with him, while tying one of Mikey’s Nunchuks to his ankle with his bandanna, using it as a makeshift splint until he could dress it properly.
“Well apparently it’s not good enough.” Leo stood up, pulling Mikey to his feet as well. “We’ll do it again.”
“I don’t think I can, bro.” Mikey winced trying to put weight on his bad ankle, leaning on Donatello for support.
“Leo…Mikey’s leg’s in no state to carry on. And frankly we’re exhausted.” Donnie’s face was flushed and he was still breathing heavily from the workout.
“Would the enemy give you a break because you’re tired or injured?” Leo asked, his voice darker than usual as he turned his back on his brothers to take his place in front of them. “We need to be better; right now, we’re just not good enough.”
“That’s it, hot head!” Raph snapped, snatching his weapons from his belt. “I’ve had enough of this attitude of yours!” He charged at his so-called leader with full strength.
Leo didn’t hesitate in flipping backwards to avoid his brother’s attack, engaging Raphael with the same venom he was receiving.
The relative quiet of the lair was now filled with grunts, growls and the almost constant clash of metal against metal as the two brothers fought.
Donnie helped Mikey over to one of the empty weapons tables, so he could take the weight off his ankle. Both were helplessly watching the battle, their brothers clearly weren’t sparring anymore; they were at war.
Blades crossed, blocked and sliced at each other. The fight would leave the opponents with aches and bruises that would take weeks to fully heal, but so far it would be nothing worse than their more violent training exercises.
“Do you think we should break them up?” Mikey asked, tilting his head up to look at Donnie’s reaction, surprised at what he found. “Donnie?”
Donatello’s eyes were focused solely on his fighting family, his eyes a mix of fear, pain, worry and guilt.
“They’re not going to stop, are they?” Mikey looked down at the floor, not wanting to see the almost scary look on his usually happy, geeky brother’s face, or the death match that Leo and Raph were engaged in. “One of them’s gonna get hurt bad.” Mikey’s voice seemed different - too confused and upset to keep the usual almost childlike quality to it.
And then it happened; one of Leo’s Katana broke through Raphael’s guard, sailing towards Raphael’s face.
Raph’s eyes widened, he pushed back against his brother in an attempt to dodge the blade, falling backwards to the floor before anyone could tell if the blade had made contact.
The world seemed to move in slow motion as Donatello watched; his brothers were fighting, Raph’s eye…
No, not here… It can’t happen here, this can’t be it!
Leo hesitated, his expression flickering between his anger and concern for his brother. “Raph?” Leo started to bend down to help his brother, guilt clearly written across his face.
But Raphael had other ideas, with a yell of frustration he lunged at Leonardo, Sais outstretched and out for blood.
The left side of his mask had been sliced. It was still stuck to his head with blood that covered his eye, making it impossible to see how serious the injury was or even where he’d been hit.
The suddenness of the attack gave Raph the advantage, getting a few lucky slices onto Leo and staining his own weapon with his brother’s blood.
“STOP IT!”
Then suddenly Leo and Raph were both sprawled out on the floor, clutching their stomachs from the hard blow to their plastrons, slowly getting to their feet. Their anger melted away at the sight in front of them.
Donatello, the usually calm and collected brother, was stood between them: Bo staff at the ready, his body language betraying his fear and anger… barely able to hold back tears.
“Don?” Leo’s eyes softened taking a step towards Donnie, only to have him take a step back.
Donnie closed his eyes, shaking his head sharply.
NO
“Raph?” Mikey’s worried voice drew everyone’s attention towards the red-clad turtle.
Now the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain was starting to seep in. Raph was leant against one of the balancing poles, one hand over his left eye, and using his other hand to remove his mask and stem the blood.
“Raph… No!” Donnie’s eyes were wide and fearful, he slumped against his staff to try and clear his light-headedness.
Leonardo’s head was spinning, everything was happening too fast for him to keep up with.
“Everybody to the medical room, NOW!”
There was a moment of silence before Raph moved to comply, Mikey cringed in pain as he tried to walk. Leo looked back to Donnie but he was staring at the floor, his eyes strangely distant.
“Don, you as well.” Leo didn’t mean to snap at him, but he was too busy trying to work out what just happened to play the nice guy.
Donatello slowly shook his head, holding out his Bo staff. “Help Mikey.” He said.
Leonardo just stared at him; he needed to know what was wrong with his brother.
Donnie’s been acting different lately, he’s been too quiet: this isn’t like him.
“Mikey, catch.” Don threw his Bo staff towards Mikey, who managed to catch it single-handedly, using it to take the weight off his leg. “Leo… Our brothers need you.”
Leo sighed, there was no way he was getting through to Donnie right now, and he needed to make sure the others were okay first. But right now he wasn’t sure if Donatello didn’t need them most of all.
