Ninja Turtles 1. Prologue: Drowning

**Hello one and all, welcome to the rewrite of this fic!**

**For those are new to me, hi!**

**And for those who read the original story, I think you'll like this one better.**

**So, first up is the prologue, but first, I want to make some things clear:**

**The story takes place after the season one finale, but the prologue takes place ****_during _****the finale, if that makes any sense.**

**I consider this a version of what would happen if Leo did not return to his family at the end of the finale. Would he survive? If he did survive, who would save him? What new friends/foe would he encounter? What stopped him from going back to his brothers?**

**For those who are concerned that Leo won't join the Foot, don't worry, he will, just in a different way.**

**Okay, okay, stop rambling Ulti, you got a story to deliver!**

**Enjoy!**

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Drowning.

It was a horrible experience, and he never thought it would ever happen to him. He was a turtle, and turtles didn't drown.

His vision began to darken, and he shook his to make the spots go away.

His head hurts like crazy, and he could see red in the dark water, sticking out like a stripe.

_That isn't mine, is it? _

Leonardo began to swim upward, or, at least, he hoped it was upward. He couldn't see in this dark water.

The spots began to invade again, and he shook them away once more. His lungs were screaming for air, and he began to see a light.

Was that good or bad? What was that thing that everyone said to someone that was injured?

_Don't go into the light!_

But why not? The light was bright, and it looked rather comforting. Was this the surface, or was heaven?

Only one way to find out.

Leo began to swim again. The spots were back, he couldn't shake them away. Was he dying?

Well that was a stupid question. Of course he was dying.

But he couldn't die! What about Splinter? Mikey? Donnie? Raph? April? What would they do without him? How would he protect them!?

He saw a figure swimming toward him, he couldn't make out a face, the spots were preventing him from that, but he could make out a tail.

That was the last thing he saw before the spots finally took over.


	2. 1: It'll Never Be The Same

**Hey, what do you guys think if I just updated this story once a month, you know, roughly that amount of time? It'd give me a lot more time to think and I'm warning you in advance. And, the chapters could end up coming sooner than expected. (I also think I would work faster if I gave myself a deadline.)**

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**1: It'll Never Be The Same**

_Two months later..._

And we were still mourning. It's not like I got over his death so quickly, I still lock myself up in the lab. But at least I occupied myself. No one did anything anymore. I invented more than I used to. But they're not anything special, and the various weapons and gadgets get disassembled soon after. But occasionally, I vented my feelings to Timothy. He's a good listener. Even after I gave him a voice box, he let me rant without complaint. He just stared at me, and blinked with understanding.

Of course, I knew my mind had made that up. There is no way Pulverizer could understand losing a brother. Last time I checked, he was an only child. He told me.

But it was better than thinking no one was listening.

April came by once in a while, she snuck out a lot. Her father was suffering from nightmares, and someone had to console him. But who would be there to console my nightmares? The face of my brother haunted me. I could've, _should've _done something to help him, to save him. We all could've made it out that fateful day. And we would be celebrating, not mourning. That was why I wanted, _needed, _April. She understands, she lost a loved one too. She could help me, _us, _to be right again.

But deep down in my heart, I knew the truth. We would never be right again. I could live for a hundred years and still feel like something missing. Because something is missing. My big brother, who we never took seriously, gone forever. We didn't even find a body. That's how pathetic we were. We couldn't even search hard enough for our brother's body. Mikey still think that he's out there somewhere, perhaps captive by the Kraang.

But the Kraang is gone, and so is he. Nothing would be able to survive a shipwreck like that. Not even an alien space ship.

Sometimes, I can hear his voice in head. Little words and phrases, never full sentences. But it still unnerved me. It wasn't normal to hear dead people's voices in your head, was it? I'm going crazy, I just know it.

I couldn't sleep. not when _he _haunts my dreams. But I couldn't go to sleep either. He haunted my days as well. No matter where I went, everything reminded me of _him. _And it wasn't just me either. Mikey and Raph could feel it too. That's why any of us hardly went anywhere. Which was even stupider than going up to the surface. Two months after his death, and his presence was still there. And no matter how hard any of us try to ignore it, we could all feel it.

We still train, a ninja always trains. Besides, it gave us something to do. But even then, we did rather poorly, and Master Splinter didn't seem to care anymore. He had lost so much in his life, his wife, his daughter, his humanity, and now, his son. He must be hurting more than all of us.

I was the leader now, I guess. I was the only one that bothered to make sure Raph and Mikey were still living. I didn't do much more. After all, they could still take care of themselves, couldn't they? It's not like they don't feed themselves, they do. Although Raph could use a shower.

And as I woke up from another nightmare, I realized something I never realized before. He sacrificed so much for us. As a leader, he was the one that trained more, that gave us orders, that we depended on. And we took him for granted. The concept of death was so unfamiliar to us, so unreal, and we thought he would always be there. Forever and always. But we were wrong, wrong on so many levels. And because of that, we were so unprepared when it happened. We were failures.

"Donnie?"

It took a moment to recognize the voice, as well as my surroundings. I was in my lab, and the voice was April.

_April._

I turned to the exit of my work place, where I heard her voice. April's bright orange hair was in a rather messy ponytail, she was wearing a yellow sweatshirt, something I never saw on her before. She looked at me with kind eyes, filled with understanding.

I was up and next to her before I even knew what I was doing. I pulled her into a hug, holding her close to me, not wanting to let go.

Then the waterworks came.

April said nothing. She simply returned the hug as I rested my head on hers.

And I cried some more.

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**Hope Don's sounds okay. ^^; The funny thing is, I was actually planning on this being third person P.O.V., but before I knew it, the creative juice started flowing. Maybe I'll just write the rest of the story like this, it'll definitely make it seem more interesting.**

**I hope I killed your feels.**

**-TheUltimateSonicFanGirl**

**AKA: Ulti **


	3. 2: What happened to dear Leo?

_**EDIT: For some strange reason, fanfiction deleted like, half a sentence. I fixed it. Sorry.**_

**This story goes back and forth from the past to the present. Just a warning.**

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**2: What happened to dear Leo?**

_Two months earlier..._

As I gained consciousness I took a greedy gulp of air. Alive. I was alive! I almost cheered! I could go back to Papa and Mamma and Ari and-

I stared at my green skin. Oh, right. I couldn't go back. Not like this. I was a monster, a freak! I couldn't go back. Not now, not ever. They would never understand, they would scream, they would have me locked up, experimented on. No way was I going back to a life where the only thing I have to look forward to is probing. And after that, death.

I surveyed my surroundings. I was really close to what I recognized as the old, abandoned warehouses I used to walk by on my way to school. You know, back when I was still human.

Then I remembered something. I was not the only prisoner on that ship. From what I remembered, there was several mutants onboard. Including one, giant alligator that was a real sweetheart when you got to know him. My point is, if I survived, there was a good chance one of the mutants were down there. I trust the alligator made it out okay, but what if there was someone else down there? I took a deep breath and dived under.

It was rather dark underwater, but I managed to make out silhouettes of the ship, the technodrome they called it, and debris from who knows where. But, I could also make out the silhouette of something else. It didn't look like debris. In fact, it looks more like a person.

I didn't even think, I swam toward the figure.

I don't remember much in those moments, the next thing I knew, I was hacking up water on the cold concrete. The minute I was done, I instantly looked toward the person I saved. He was a giant turtle.

I know it's wrong of me, but I'm glad it was a mutant I saved, instead of a human. A mutant was less likely to scream in terror, to drag the police here, to get me locked up in a lab for the rest of my days.

And like I said, I wasn't going through that again.

The mutant, thank goodness, was hacking up water as well.

"Hey," I asked, "Are you okay? Nothing broken?"

The mutant managed to look at me with bright blue eyes. His eyes, they were so human-like, it was completely possible that he was once human. But as I inspected the rest of his face, I gasped. There was a huge gash on his forehead, and the blood was still dripping from it.

I think I'm gonna be sick.

But before I could throw up, or do _anything _for that matter, the turtle's eyes rolled to the back of his head. I caught him before he fell.

_Oh god, no._

What was I gonna do!? It looked like he needed stitches, I've never sewed in my life! And blood... There was so much blood... I wasn't sure if I could do it.

But then, I realized, it wouldn't be fair of him, fair of me, to just leave him for dead. As much as I hated to admit it, I was a mutant now, and mutants stick together.

The alligator told me that.

I was so grateful that the turtle had a blue cloth around his face, for now, I could use it as a bandage. I surveyed my surroundings once more, and I realized I was at the warehouses. Far away from people, yet close enough to get supplies. Perfect. I half dragged, half carried the mutant over to the closest one.

The place looked sturdy enough, and I kicked the door open, grateful for gym class for the first time in my life. The door collapsed, but other than that, nothing happened. So I dragged/carried the turtle to the center of the room, simply because it looked cleaner than the corners and the walls (and probably was too).

I asked myself once again what I was gonna do. I had no bandages, no medicine, nothing to help him. I had nothing but the clothes on my back, which were ripped and torn from my mutation. What if he never woke up? I would never forgive myself. I had no idea who he was, I would never know his name. I would have to throw his body back in the sea, feeling like a failure. I don't want to be alone, I'll go crazy. I would rather be with a complete stranger than be alone.

The only thing I could think of to help him in any way, was to go to my house and steal supplies. But I couldn't do that. One, I don't steal. Two, my parents would freak. Three, I didn't want Ari to see me like this. I don't want her last memory of me to be me looking like this. Looking like a monster.

The mutant moaned in sleep, and attempted to turn over. He looked as if he was in pain. My big sister instincts took over, just for a minute, and I petted his cheek, just like I would for Ari if she was sick. He whimpered and tried to wiggle his way toward me, just like Ari would.

No. I couldn't let him die, I couldn't. Were ether he knew it or not, he depended on me. I was supposed to take care of him, I just knew it.

I was going home.

.:~tmnt~:.

My house was a few blocks away from the warehouses, which I really needed to rename, I couldn't just say, "the warehouses". It was only a few minutes walk from here to there, and I was almost certain that the mutant would still be alive by the time I get back.

Back when I was still human, I wasn't very flexible. I didn't really take gymnastics, I didn't find a need for it. And even though my new reptilian body made me much more flexible than I used to be, I was still finding myself wishing I actually took the sport. I was panting heavily as I finally made my way up to the tenth floor of my apartment building, which I assume my family still resides in. I took a peek in the window that supposedly led to my room.

Despite it being dark, my room looked pretty much the same. My neon-pink walls were filled with posters of random boy bands and popular movies. My canopy bed still had its many stuffed animals cramped onto it. They looked like they were going to fall off. My clothes were spread all over the floor, making my room look rather messy. I felt my heart jolt when I realized that I was not actually seeing it, I was subconsciously remembering my room from months ago.

The window was open, which surprised me. There were a lot of cat burglars around here, didn't Mama and Papa care anymore?

No, I guess not.

I crawled into my old room, and nearly tripped more than once trying to get to the light switch. I turned it on, and was greeted with a rather sad surprise.

Curled up in my bed, stuffed animals all around her, was my little sister, Ari, sleeping the night away. It just about broke my heart.

No. What was I thinking? I shouldn't have come here. Certainly not like this. What was I even doing here?

The image of a mutant turtle came to mind, injured and shivering. I silently winced, remembering my unspoken promise.

Very quietly, I tiptoed over to my bathroom, thankful it was in my room instead of in the hallways. Mama always had a habit of watching late-night movies.

I didn't close the door. I was only going to be here for a few seconds, and anyways, Ari was a heavy sleeper. I would be out before she even stirred.

Quickly, I grabbed the duffel bag I kept candy bars in from behind the toilet. Memories of stuffing my face silly pasted through my brain as I searched the medicine cabinet for anything that might help, noisily knocking aside anti-depressants I never bothered taking and grabbing as much ibuprofen as I can. (being a girl sucks so bad...)

"Sis-sissy?"

I froze. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap! Nononno! Out of all the people that could have seen me, did it have to be her?

I turned my head to face my sister. "H-hey Ari..."

The little girl lit up at the sight of me. "Sissy! Sissy you're back!" She went over to hug my legs. "I've been waiting for forever sissy! Where have you been!?" She took a look at me. "What happened to you?"

I took a deep breath. "Sissy went on a adventure!" I partially lied. I didn't have it in my heart to tell her the truth.

She took my word for it and didn't ask anymore questions about where I've been.

"Sissy?"

"Yeah Ari?"

"Are you gonna stay?"

"...No."

I couldn't bear to look at her as tears welled up in her eyes. But to my surprise, she shook her head and replied in kind, "Well, don't you need food? And clothes?"

"Well, I don't need food at the moment." After all, I had the candy bars, even though they won't last for long in this summer heat. "But won't Mama and Papa notice my missing clothes?"

Arianna shook her head. "Nope, they never come in here anymore."

I felt a pang of guilt as I heard that. I hesitantly agreed to the clothes, and picked a couple of t-shirts on my bedroom floor.

Before I left, I knelt down at eye level to my little sister. "Now I need you to promise something Ari."

"What?"

"Don't tell Mama and Papa about tonight. Please." I looked at my sister directly in the eyes, I was hoping she would listen to me. She was five, after all, she could end blabbing to them without even meaning to.

But as my sister nodded her head, I could see a look in her eyes. She wouldn't give me up. "Can you come back?"

Could I come back? Should I? The selfish part of me said yes, I should. The rational part of me said no, it'll put them in danger. So I answered the best I could, and left to take care of the possibly dying turtle.

"I'll try."

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**Tried my best to make her sound like a teenage girl. Which is relatively easy, seeing as I'm a teenage girl myself.**

**This Mona Lisa is 17 years old, was going to graduate, and get into Harvard. Because the original Mona was good at physics right? The poor girl ended up as a mutagen test subject, her future ripped away from her. She also comes from an Italian household, and most Italian are Catholic. While she is not as devoted to the religion as her parents (she never picked up a bible in her life), she does believe in him. Just a warning, 'cause I might make Mona scream at god later.**

**She has two siblings, a little sister named Arianna as you saw in this chapter, and a big brother who has yet to be named. (you'll learn more about him in a later chapter)**

**So anyways, review and tell me what you think!**

**-_TheUltimateSonicFanGirl_**


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Ninja Turtles, Drama, Family