Chapter 4, part two, Leo

Donnie, Raph and Mikey hatched a plan, they would follow Leo at an extreme distance, staying out of view, using the shell cell tracker to stay out of range of Leo's supposed senses. Donnie was going to wake up Raph and Mikey about half an hour after Leo left. So at around 5 am, Donnie woke up his brothers and they headed to the rooftops.

Pretty quickly Donnie noticed something weird, Leo was taking a strange path, and definitely not the route he told Donnie he took for his runs. Then, the tracker stopped moving, and Donnie motioned at the others to stop.

"What's he doing?" Raph asked.

"Mostly wondering what you three are doing." Leo said from behind them.

"Leo!" They are shouted.

"You know, I was just thinking to myself, it sure feels like someone is following me, glad I was right, confused it was you three." Leo said.

"Oh, uh we were just... training." Mikey said.

"Uh, huh." Leo said, giving them a small smile, "You want to go running with me?" He asked.

"Yeah sure!" Mikey said enthusiastically, while Don and Raph shared a concerned glance, not for Leo, but for themselves, knowing they were going to be exhausted by the time this was done.

"Try to keep up, I'd like to be home at 6." Leo said before taking off at a fairly fast pace, which Raph was quite certain he could not attain, but he would be wrong.

After about half an hour Leo was still looking pretty fresh, but Raph was on the verge of some sort of attack, and even Mikey was having a very hard time keeping up. Leo paused and looked behind him at noticed these things, then he stopped and checked the time, 5:24am, he had had plans that night, but it seemed like he would have to put them off.

In his moment of thought he hadn't noticed that the rest of the guys had caught up to him, "Getting tired already?" Raph said between heavy breaths.

"Uh, yeah actually. Let's head home." Leo said and his brothers let out happy sighs.

When they got back to the lair, Splinter was awoken by the ruckus and after seeing the condition of his sons said that they could skip training that morning.

"Leonardo, a word please." Splinter said.

Leo nodded and entered Splinters room, naturally Raph and Donnie stood outside and eavesdropped, unfortunately for them, Leo and Splinter conversed in Japanese, neither Donnie nor Raph spoke Japanese all that well, and oddly enough, the only one of them besides Leo to speak it was Mikey. So Donnie recorded the conversation to show Mikey to get a translation.

When Leo and Splinter finished talking, Leo exited looking slightly angry and left the lair, "Leo where are you going?!" Raph called after him, but he didn't even seem t hear him as he continued his march out.

"Let's get this to Mikey." Donnie said looking at Leo's retreating form with concern.

Raph and Donnie grabbed Mikey and pulled him into Don's lab, "What's going on?" Mikey asked.

"Can you translate this?" Donnie asked Mikey before starting to play the conversation.

"Woah woah woah, that's a bit too fast for me, can you slow it down a bit?" Mikey asked, Donnie pressed some buttons and then it began again in a much slower tempo. "Okay... Splinter asked what we did, and Leo said we just went running, so he didn't get to his task?" Mikey paused and scratched his head before continuing, "Leo asked if he can finish it now, because he doesn't know how long he can keep this up, and Splinter said he doesn't want him to go alone, then Leo said..." Mikey trailed off, a sad look coming across his face.

"Mike, what is it?" Raph asked.

"He said he fights better on his own because he doesn't have to worry about watching our backs." Mikey said.

"Oh whatta lode of shell!" Raph exclaimed.

"Splinter didn't disagree, he just told him that if he didn't return by nightfall he would send us after him." Mikey said, finishing the conversation.

Donnie and Raph were stunned into silence for a moment before Raph stormed out of the lab and towards Splinter's room, "Raph where are you going?" Donnie called.

"I'm gonna get some answers." He said angrily and walked into Master Splinter's room followed by Donnie and Mikey, "Masta Splinter, what the shell is going on with Leo?" He demanded.

Splinter simply looked at the three of them and sighed before speaking, "Your brother has been troubled of late, I'm sure this has not escaped your notice." He said.

"What is he going to do?" Mikey asked.

"Leonardo has always possessed an extremely protective nature over the three of you, more so than you could imagine. He would do anything to keep the three of you safe, and ever since he was ambushed he has been very... afraid, that something similar could happen to one of you."

"He never told us that." Donnie said.

"Why would he? He said it himself, he fights better on his own." Raph said.

"Possibly, but the four of you together are stronger than any one of you alone, I fear that Leonardo may become reckless on his own, he has changed his style to that of the enemy, I'm sure this has not escaped your notice. He is preparing to take the Shredder on his own, when he can be bolder and less afraid. I believe that today he may set in motion a series of events that will lead to this. He is confident he is ready." Splinter said solemnly.

They were all shocked by what they were hearing, and Splinter continued, "I was concerned that if he did so they may do something worse than kill him should he fail."

"The mind control serum, that's why he took out the chemical importers." Donnie said and Splinter nodded.

"So wait, let me get this straight, Leo is on his way right now to fight the Shredder, by himself?" Raph asked.

Splinter nodded silently, "Master Splinter, why would you let him do this on his own?" Mikey asked.

"I believe that for his nightmares to end he has to face them." Splinter said.

"We've let Leo down before, I won't do it again, he would do anything for us, and he should know that we would do anything for him." Raph said, "We're going after him."

Author's Note: Okay, I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've updated, I've decided that this will be a three part finale, so hopefully I will have the last chapter up in the next few days, I hoped you enjoyed. Please review/comment, it motivates me to write faster :) thanks!