Prologue

"Anyone seen Leo lately?"

Riley's voice drew the attention of the other three turtles. Donnie frowned, tapping his pen thoughtfully against his lips. "Not recently," he mused. "Why?"

"Because he said he was going out for a quick run. That was three hours ago."

At her words, all motion in the Lair seemed to stop. Even Mikey turned to face her. His baby-blue eyes were wide. "Dude...he's never late. Ever."

"Something had to have happened to him," Raph said, his hand automatically going to his weapon.

Donnie wasn't so quick to jump to conclusions. "Everyone calm down. I'll do a scan to see if I can locate him using his T-Phone." But the search revealed nothing. Not even the tiniest blip showed up on his GPS program. "This doesn't make sense! He has to be out there somewhere!"

"Maybe he just turned his phone off?" Riley suggested.

The genius shook his head. "No. I designed them so that even if they were off, they were traceable. Something is wrong."

The redhead could see that they were all pretty close to freaking out. She cleared her throat. "Why don't you guys head up to the surface and see if you can find him? I'll stay here in case he comes back."

"It's as good a plan as any, at this point," Donnie admitted. "He could be in Shredder's dungeon, for all we know."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Raph demanded. "Let's go find him so I can kill him for scaring us."

Despite the tense situation, Riley almost laughed. Raph was adorable when he worried about someone. But her grin faded as soon as the three turtles were gone and she was alone in the Lair.

There's got to be some way to find him, she thought. Some clues. Something.

There was only one place that could possibly hold what she needed. And that was the leader's bedroom.

At first, Riley wasn't sure what to look for. Everything was so neat and organized. Nothing was out of place. Even the worn, leather-bound journal that sat on the desk was perfectly-

Her green eyes widened. The journal.

Riley fairly flew across the room to the desk, reaching for the old book. She flipped the cover open, not exactly sure what she was going to find.

Dread curled in her gut as she read the first page. Each page after that grew worse and worse. But the last entry, hastily scrawled on the paper a few hours before the leader had gone missing, made her heart crawl into her throat. The room spun around her and she staggered to Leo's bed, sitting down heavily. Suddenly it all made sense. Leo's disappearance. His lack of communication with his family lately. His seclusion in his bedroom. It was all connected to...to this.

With shaking hands, Riley pulled out her phone and called Donnie. He picked up on the first ring. "Donatello."

"Donnie, I-I know where Leo went."

"What? Where is he?"

"He's at the shipping dock. You have to hurry. Please."

"Riley, what's going on?"

"I can't explain right now. Just get to the dock as fast as you can. I'll have the med bay prepped for you when you get back."

"The med b- Riley, tell me what you found."

"I'll tell you everything. I promise. But first, get your brother. If I'm right, he's in real danger."

A/N: Hey, guys!

Just to let you know: with the exception of this prologue and the epilogue (and maybe a few chapters in between), the rest of the book will consist of Leonardo's journal entries. That way you can feel what he feels, and see his reasons for doing what he's about to do/what he's done.

Oh, yeah. And it might hit you in the feels. So be prepared.