Hello lovely readers! So as y'all can probably tell, this story is at long last coming to a close. I've loved writing it and hearing from you guys every chapter. I truly have enjoyed this journey with y'all. I'm most definitely going to write another story, and the poll on my profile right now has a tie between TMNT and How to Train Your Dragon. PM me, leave a comment, or vote to determine what story comes next! I'm so sorry, so so sorry for the long update but the play I'm in just entered hell week and school has been absolutely insane. I actually had this chapter done, but I didn't like it so I rewrote it. Thanks for y'all's patience! As always, thank you for the response last chapter, and enjoy this new one! This chapter may be a bit confusing at first as it is from Leo's pov, and he's still sick and confused. Have a lovely day!

I groaned as voices started to swim around me, garbled, unintelligible voices. I cringed, and I struggled to fall back into the blackness that had been holding me. Everything here hurt, and my head was pounding. I heard a gruff voice and a softer, more scared one. I felt something furry on my head. What the shell was that?

I realized there was no point in trying to go back to the dark; it wouldn't take me. Instead, I started moving closer to the voices. I followed them until the pain became too great and I groaned again. My eyes flew open and a bright light attacked me. Blinking, I stared around me trying to make sense of what I was seeing. Person, turtle, turtle, turtle, rat. Family, that's right, that's my family. Why were they looking at me like that?

My head was splitting. I blinked, and I tried to figure out what was going on. Suddenly, memories from the past few months came flying back, and I sat up quickly. Everyone looked worried, but I had only been asleep for a little bit, why did they look so scared?

"Hey guys! What's with all the sour faces? I can go back to sleep if you want," I joked, trying to ease the tension.

They were starting to scare me. As soon as the words had left my mouth, Mikey cried "No!" and threw himself around me in a hug. It hurt, but I held my tongue. Raph started to smile watching the scene, but something was bothering him; I could tell. I soothed Mikey, and as he pulled away I noticed that his hands were covered in blood. My eyes widened, and I looked at my family trying to make sure they were unharmed. To my horror, I realized that Raph also had blood all over his plastron. No one else seemed harmed, but I started to freak out. My brothers were hurt! Why wasn't Donnie taking care of them?

Suddenly a thought occurred to me, and it chilled me to the core. What if this was all a dream? Was I imagining all of this? I remember being hurt, beaten, and my family being worried. I remembered talking to them and then falling asleep. What if… What if I hadn't actually fallen asleep? What if I was dead and I was seeing the aftermath of my death. My family, scared and sad because they'd lost a family member. What if Mikey hadn't been saying no to me falling asleep, but rather to my dead body because he didn't want to believe it? Raph and Mikey could be covered in blood because they had tried to save me and accidentally hurt me. I was causing my family this pain.

Grief and guilt washed over me in waves until suddenly I heard Raph talking. I looked at him in surprise. He was talking to me! Not at me, to me. He was talking to me. If he was talking to me, and expecting an answer then I couldn't be dead, could I? I tried to clear my head; I couldn't think straight and nothing was making sense.

"Leo? Leo? Are you okay? Say something!" Raph urged.

He sounded worried. I wanted to comfort him, but I wasn't sure. What if I tried talking, would it work? I decided to go for it.

"Ya, Raph, I'm fine. Are you okay? You're covered in blood, Mikey too! Donnie, help them!" I cried.

Raph looked taken aback, but Donnie grinned. They could hear me. They. Could. Hear. Me.

"That is such a you response. We're fine, Leo. It's not our blood," Raph said with a slight chuckle, but I could tell something was still bothering him.

"My son, we are glad you are back with us," Master Splinter said with a smile.

"I was only asleep for a bit you guys," I said, still confused.

"Yes, but it turns out you'd been poisoned we were worried you wouldn't wake up. You only did because Raph and Mikey went and got the antidote," Donnie said, but I could tell he was hiding something.

Something had happened, and I wanted to know what. They were making me nervous by keeping me out of the loop. Wait, Donnie said Mikey and Raph had gone out to get the antidote. Alone, just the two of them and who knows what they had to do. They could have gotten hurt because I was too weak to help them! This wasn't how I'd wanted to come home.

"What did you have to do?" I croaked.

To my surprise, Donnie, April, and Master Splinter turned to them expectantly.

"Ya, Raph, Mikey, what happened out there?" April asked.

Raph sighed, and his shoulders slumped forward. Mikey, however, took charge of the situation, which only added to my confusion. When had Mikey become so serious?

"Look, what happened, happened, and we don't need to talk about it. Right now, all that's important is that Leo is okay," he said, clearly trying to avoid the conversation.

"Ya, but you said the clone is dead! How can we be sure this is Leo, and that our Leo really isn't dead topside?" Donnie cried angrily.

Raph seemed to pale at this, but my head was spinning. Clone? My brothers didn't think I was really their brother? My splitting head ache started to return and I lay back on the bed. I was Leo; I was their brother, but clearly there was a clone who had given them reason to doubt that. If that was the case, then he had probably thought that he too was me. I could be the clone and not know it, but I remember my whole life with my brothers. My head was swimming, and I was incredibly confused.

"Leo? Leo, you okay buddy?" Raph's gruff voice interrupted my thoughts.

"What if I'm the clone?" I whispered slowly.

"You're not, Fearless," he said quietly, but I saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.

It was gone as soon as it had appeared, but it was enough to worry me.

"How do you know? I could be putting you all at risk right now!" I cried in exasperation.

"Because we saw him die. You're the real Leo, you're our Leo," Mikey said strongly.

I looked at him again. He looked so different, so much more serious. He was nothing like the naïve, goofy little brother I remembered. Looking around the room, I realized that they had all changed, and I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I had been gone for six months. That's an incredibly long time to be gone. I had missed them so much, but now that I was here I found that I still missed them. This was almost worse than when I had thought it had been ten years, because then they would have healed, they would've been okay and I wouldn't be hurting them anymore. However, here I was making Mikey frown, worrying Donnie, and making Raph be the big brother. He was not supposed to ever do that. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, a burden I was familiar with, but he was never supposed to carry it. I gulped nervously as an overwhelming feeling of guilt enveloped me.

"Leo?" Raph asked quietly.

"Ya?"

"Look, even if you're not you, I don't want to know because that means my brother is dead on a roof in China Town. You're Leo, and that's all there is to it," he growled.

I stared at him and gulped again. His tone was dangerous, closer to the Raph I remembered but something was still different. He was misunderstanding my silence, but that was okay. The important thing was that he was safe. That they all were safe.

"I'm sorry for being gone for so long," I croaked.

"Dude, it's not your fault! It was the Kraang, and we kicked their butts so now it's all good. You're back and we can be a family now and stop worrying," Mikey said with a grin.

"Ya, Leo, it's okay. We're all safe now," added Donnie.

"My son, you have been very brave and we too have had to be brave in your absence. Nothing will be the way it was before, but it will be better now that you are home. Stop blaming yourself for what happened," Master Splinter commented solemnly.

I sighed. Why couldn't they see that it was my fault? It was my fault they had gotten hurt. They wouldn't hear it though, so I gave up. There was no arguing with them, nor did I want to. It was good to be back, and I didn't want to screw that up.

"Okay, enough with the mushy- gushy stuff you guys. I'm glad to be back, and I'm glad you're all safe," I said with a grin.

I yawned, and a feeling of absolute exhaustion fell over me. Donnie noticed immediately, of course, and quickly shooed everyone out of the lab. He sat down next to my bed first and just stared at me like he couldn't believe I was actually there.

"Hey, Donnie," I muttered through another yawn.

"Hey, Leo. I can't believe you're actually back, and that it's you! The real you!" he chuckled softly.

"Ya, about that…," I trailed off, waiting for an answer.

"Okay, they cloned you while you were in that stasis chamber, and then switched you two," he started.

I shuddered at the memory of the chamber. It had been agonizing and worse than anything I could ever have imagined. Donnie noticed my reaction, but he kept going like nothing happened.

"Well, we staged a rescue mission and rescued that one, but we didn't know it wasn't you. Obviously. He was in really bad shape, broken right tibia and fibula, humerus was cracked-"

"Donnie," I interrupted, bringing him back to earth.

"Oh, right, sorry. So bad shape. We started fixing him up and he went into a coma, but then when he woke up he didn't remember any of us! Apparently the Kraang couldn't clone memories but they could clone behaviors and interests, it probably has something to do with the neural passages in the brain being connected a certain way when cloned so the clone has the same-"

"Donnie," I interrupted again, this time with a grin.

"Oops, sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Don't apologize, it's okay. Continue," I replied with a little chuckle.

"Anyways, finding out he didn't remember us hurt, but then he ran away because Raph scared him, long story for another day, and the Foot kidnapped him. Then we were back to square one, but then Mikey and Raph went out on a patrol and saw you at Foot HQ. We had found out we had been harboring the clone by this point, which is one of the many reasons they didn't try to save you then. Ugh, it would have saved us so much trouble if they had just…. Grrr. So that pretty much brings us up to where we are with you. We lost track of who was clone and who was you, I think even the Foot and Kraang did so that was interesting," he concluded, finally pausing to take a breath.

I raised an eye ridge. Donnie's speech, while enlightening, had not really helped. Donnie misinterpreted my confusion. Being misunderstood twice in one day, we were all pretty out of practice at reading each other.

"Not interesting, like interesting interesting. Sarcastic interesting. As in, I-will-never-be-doing-that-again interesting," he babbled.

I laughed.

"No, Don, I'm confused about the whole clone thing. I have a clone?" I asked.

"No, you had a clone. He's dead. Well, according to Raph and Mikey he is. He wouldn't have lived much longer anyways; I was reading a Kraang file on them, and they were very weak. They also had incredibly unstable internal environments, which is one of the requirements for life, so they all died quickly. He wouldn't have been around much longer," he said.

"You said he was similar to me?" I asked, hoping for a semi-normal answer.

"He loved Space Heroes and meditating. He was actually really timid come to think of it, which should have set off some alarm bells, but we thought it was because you- err, he- was in shock from what the Kraang had done to him. He spent a lot of time in here with me, actually," Donnie said with an almost wistful expression.

I decided I'd hang out with him in here more often. I stifled a yawn and blinked a few times, my tiredness returning now that we had stopped talking. I fell back on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

I awoke to loud shouts. I sat up immediately, my sleep addled brain trying to make sense of what was going on. Was someone hurt? Were we under attack?

I blinked a few times trying to makes sense of the situation. As I became more aware of mu surroundings I noticed that the shouts were familiar if a little strange. They were angry, and I didn't hear the clash of weapons. Okay, just my brothers fighting. Strange, but not life threatening. I swung my legs out of bed and yanked the IV out of my arm. I crept closer to the door of the lab and peaked out to see Mikey, Donnie, and Raph at each other's' throats in the living room. Master Splinter was looking on with a pained expression but made no move to break it up, almost as if he was used to it. April was nowhere to be seen. I slid my thoughts back to reality and listened.

"Raph, he isn't fit to be leader, and we don't know if it's even really him!" Mikey was yelling.

"You saw that clone die on the roof, Mikey! He died for you, and he said he was the clone," Raph growled back.

"Guys, tone it down, you might wake him up. Besides, Mikey's got a point, Raph. Are you absolutely sure it was the clone that died?" Donnie asked in a more hushed tone.

"Yes," Raph said definitively at the exact same time Mikey cried "No!"

They turned on each other, their eyes shooting daggers. I shook my head, if looks could kill they'd both be six feet under.

"Whatever. The point is, I don't want to be leader no more. I'm tired of this stuff, and I want things to go back to the way they were before all this. No more fightin', no more serious Mikey, no more hidden Donnie, no more responsible me. We got Leo back now, and clone or not he's our brother. I'm going to say he's my brother until proven otherwise, and I suggest you guys do it too," he growled.

"Raph, c'mon. It would be such a Leo thing to do to lie to us while he was dying so we would feel better, so that we wouldn't be sad," Mikey pointed out.

"You think I don't know that? You think I haven't been thinking about that and praying that that is not what happened? You didn't seem to think that when you were in the lab with him!" Raph yelled.

"Guys, calm down! I'm sure it's Leo! All the tests I ran seem to indicate that he's healthy as a horse, besides the obvious problems, and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be the case with the clone!" Donnie cried, trying to calm the situation in the only way he knew- with science.

"I'm saying it's Leo. And Leo or not he's all we got, so you better treat him right, Mikey," Raph said, turning to walk into the lab.

"I'm with Raph, sorry little bro," Donnie said with a shake of his head, turning away.

"Fine. Whatever. I'll just go back to China Town and get the body. See you guys later," Mikey muttered darkly.

To my surprise, Raph and Donnie let him go. Master Splinter had left the room a long time ago. This was ridiculous, he couldn't go alone! What if the Foot were still out there? It was undoubtedly a trap! I stepped out of the lab, slamming the door behind me. Everyone froze. Mikey, still with his hand on the door to the Lair, swiveled around to look at me. His expression was blank, and it was so wrong. Raph and Donnie both stopped in their tracks and stared at me. They exchanged nervous glances. Finally Raph asked the question they were all wondering.

"How much a that did ya hear?" he muttered.

"Enough," I replied coolly, "Enough to know that you guys don't trust me or each other. Not trusting me, that's fine. I get it, but not trusting each other is ridiculous. You can't afford not to do that in the world we live in. Get a grip. You were about to let Mikey, our little brother, go out to pick up a body in an area swarming with Foot and Kraang, alone. What is wrong with you?"

"It wasn't his fault he-"Donnie started, but I cut him off angrily.

"And you! You were just as bad! You didn't try to stop him from leaving! How would you feel if he didn't come back? He has every right to be suspicious, I'm practically a stranger at this point. You can't turn your backs on each other. I'm disappointed in all of you. Mikey take your hand off the stupid door and get back here. You're not going anywhere, not alone at least," I commanded.

I walked unsteadily to the couch and sat down. I shut my eyes and put my head in my hands for a second before looking back up at their faces around me.

"Why the shell are you smiling?" I asked in confusion as they stood grinning around me.

"Because, my son, they know it is truly you this time," Master Splinter called out from across the room.

I glanced around in confusion.

"I… I don't understand. What's going on?" I asked.

Mikey laughed, a real laugh, and soon enough Raph and Donnie joined him.

"The other you would never have done that, not in a million years. He didn't know that we were a family, heck he didn't he was a turtle, so he never would have cared that much. That's something only you would do," Raph explained.

"Wait, but the arguing?"

"Staged. We planned this while we were waiting for you to wake up. It worked perfectly!" Donnie said excitedly.

I raised an eye ridge. There was some definite explaining and apologizing that needed to happen, but apparently it wasn't going to. I shrugged, sometimes I just had to go with it.

"Okay, so we're all on the same page? Nobody's leaving?" I asked.

"Nobody's leaving, bro. Not now, and not ever again," said Mikey firmly, plopping down next to me on the couch.

I grinned. After that, life slowly started returning to normal. Donnie haggled me for exercising while hurt, Raph let me be leader again, but we didn't fight as much. He understood what I had to do. Mikey began to come out of his shell a bit more, no pun intended, and it wasn't long before Raph found a rubber snake under his pillow- except it turned out it wasn't rubber. That was an exciting day.

Donnie got back to working on the cure for the mutagen, much to April's relief, and things basically went back to normal. We didn't talk much about what happened- it was far too painful to bring up. Maybe one day we will talk about- but I doubt it. Raph and I sat down and talked for a while every now and again, and he had made some list of things he wanted to tell me. It was actually really good to get along with him for a change.

We're not entirely healed, but we're getting there. I'm not sure I'll ever be 100% okay again after what I went through, but I'm much better now. What matters now is that I'm home, and my brothers won't ever be missing me again.