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Ensuring Discipline	By : hummerhouse Category: +S through Z > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 5482 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: The TMNT are not mine. No money being made.

Chapter List
- 1-Ensuring Discipline
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 11-Part 11
- 12-Part 12
- 13-Part 13
- 14-Part 14
- 15-Part 15
- 16-Part 16 Final
- 11
- 12
- 13
Ensuring Discipline

part 12
            One of the things that pseudo-Leo did well was to keep Donatello disoriented. On an intellectual level, Don knew that each of Leo’s actions was purposeful, but he also had to admit that Leo was adept at ensuring that his treatment of Don had its desired effect.
            Leo’s final kiss before he left the lab hadn’t been merely possessive, it had also been erotic. Don was flabbergasted that pseudo-Leo seemed content to kiss him in such an arousing manner and then walk away, allowing his younger brother time to recover.
            That hadn’t been the only thing to puzzle Donatello during the remainder of the day. At noon Leo had come into the lab carrying a plate of sandwiches and a thermos filled with hot coffee. He’d reminded Don that eating was important and that maintaining a regular meal schedule would probably help to stave off Don’s headaches.
            It was a considerate, loving, and thoughtful gesture; so much like something the real Leo would do that for just a moment time seemed to slip sideways. Don had to make a conscious effort to avoid the belief that this was indeed his own brother and that nothing had changed.
            Keeping it firmly rooted in his mind that this Leo was a fake, Don spent time reviewing his plans for the evening. His scheme was not extremely complicated, but it did require perfect timing and a certain amount of subterfuge.
            Don knew he would not have a chance to tell Raph or Mikey what he was planning to do. He would have liked to have their assistance, but pseudo-Leo was maintaining a sharp eye on both of them, something Don noticed the few times he left the lab. Because of that fact, Don couldn’t talk privately to his younger brothers and was going to have to wing it alone.
            If Don was lucky, he could pull off his plan without being caught and if he was really lucky, he’d find his answers in Master Splinter’s room. Don remembered the symbols and the chant for opening the Nexus portal; he could do it on his own if that’s what was required. If the necessary portal was for another location, Don was sure that he could discover whatever Leo had found and duplicate his real brother’s actions.
            Don had already speculated that pseudo-Leo was from another timeline and all of the facts he’d managed to gather supported that theory. From the appearance of Leo’s hidden knapsack, in the timeline he was from he had numerous enemies and apparently no home.
            A further inference could be made that this Leo was fanatically clannish and had quite probably been responsible for instituting a clan war with his enemies. From the things that pseudo-Leo had said and his actions, it was possible that the brothers from his timeline were either dead or had gotten sick of the fighting and abandoned their leader.
            Whatever the real Leo had done must have caused the reversal of positions, leaving Don’s true brother in extremely dangerous and deadly circumstances. Don placed his hopes on the fact the Leo was able to quickly analyze and react to any situation and that he would do whatever it took to stay alive.
            The conversation Don had with pseudo-Leo in the garage was telling as well. It was obvious from the way that Leo channel surfed that he was trying to gather information about his new world. Coupled with the questions he’d asked Don about their enemies, it could only lead Don to the conclusion that pseudo-Leo meant to continue his campaign of warfare.
            Ensuring that his ‘brothers’ were too frightened to question his orders or his authority told Don that this time Leo did not plan to lose his small army. It did not appear that pseudo-Leo had taken into consideration the fact that even he couldn’t snatch them from the hands of death once he’d squarely placed them there.
            That understanding was followed by another; that Donatello was out of time. Even if he’d wanted to balk he couldn’t, too many lives depended on him in this world and in the one where his real brother was trapped.
            Don tried to take a nap after dinner but his agitation made it too difficult to do so. He rather expected Leo to pay him a visit, but his brother was keeping his word about waiting until they got home from their trip to the junkyard. For that Don was extremely grateful.
            When it neared midnight, Don dashed up to the garage and grabbed the old brake pads and shock absorbers he pulled off the van. In two separate cardboard boxes he placed one pad and one shock absorber each as examples of the parts he required. He knew Raph wouldn’t need one.
            Shoving the boxes into his duffel bag, Don went back down to the lair and met his brothers near the entrance into the sewers. From there they walked to where the sewer sliders were hidden.
            Don watched Leo curiously, wondering how he would handle driving a slider that was no doubt a foreign piece of machinery to him. Leo’s hesitation at starting his ride was barely noticeable; he waited long enough to observe how Mikey started his slider and then followed that example.
            This Leo was amazingly adaptable and cunning, most likely a by-product of the life he led. He would never willingly show anyone a weakness, least of all the brothers he was attempting to control.
            Raph had given the genius a strange look when Don bypassed the yard nearest to the lair and proceeded on to one that was not nearly as safe, but Raph had held his tongue. His silence told Don that Raph was taking him at his word and would follow his lead, trusting Don enough to keep his questions to himself.
            They left the sliders a mile from the storm drain that they normally used to gain entrance into the junkyard that Don had chosen. Leo signaled for Mikey to lead the way, though that was something the real Leo usually did. This Leo was much too unfamiliar with the terrain to risk such a slip. He was obviously determined that his ‘brothers’ never realize he was a fake.
            Mikey popped into the junkyard first and the others held back while he checked the vicinity. It wasn’t long before he returned to give them the all clear signal and even then the four brothers avoided the overhead lights in favor of conferring in the shadows.
            Tossing his bag on the ground, Don kneeled next to it and dug out the two boxes. Handing one each to Mikey and Leo, he also gave all three of his brothers slips of paper on which vehicle makes and models had been written.
            “These are the vehicles that are most likely going to have the parts we need,” Don told them. “Sometimes the vehicle will have been stripped of its parts and the parts left inside to make it easier on people who are shopping for them. If you find a vehicle that matches any on your list, check for loose parts and compare them to the ones I’ve given you. I need an exact match and make sure it’s in better condition than our old parts.
            “Bring everything you find back here and then go look for more. I don’t want to have to make another run because a new brake pad turns out to have a hairline fracture in it and it’s unusable. If you don’t find any loose parts, make a note of the position of the vehicle so that if need be, I can strip the parts off myself.
            “There’s a rough sketch of the yard on the back of each paper. I’ve divided the area containing junked cars into four separate grids and labeled each with our initials. Stick to your area until you’ve covered it completely, or until I call to say we’ve got enough parts. Are there any questions?”
            His brothers shook their heads and then Don looked towards Leo. Although the expedition was Don’s, the actual implementation was in the hands of their leader. Waiting for Leo to give them the go ahead was Don’s way of silently acknowledging his understanding of the chain of command.
            Leo favored Don with a slight smile of approval before he spoke. “I needn’t remind each of you to be careful and quiet. Stay within the parameters of your grid unless something unforeseen forces you out of it. I’ll override Donatello on the length of our search if the need arises. Let’s get this done.”
            The four separated and quickly disappeared into the junk piles. Don did not go far, poking around under the hood of a demolished van in order to give Leo time to get further away from him.
            Giving his pseudo-brother ten minutes to become fully immersed in his search, Don took one last look around before bolting from the yard. He bypassed the sliders once he was inside the sewers in case Leo started to wonder where Don was. If Leo checked, he would see that his brother’s ride was exactly where Don had left it. If Don’s luck held, Leo would believe he’d merely missed seeing his brother in the yard.
            As usual, Don’s eidetic memory stood him in great stead. He had scanned through some old archived records of the sewer system and located a short cut that would take him back to the lair fast, even on foot.
            Although the route was shorter, it was also more dangerous. At one point Don had to wade through waist deep water, both murky and foul smelling, while holding his bo and duffel high to keep them from getting wet. Coming out of that meant climbing a steep incline that was mostly mud and muck.
            When he reached the point where his shortcut intersected with one of their normal routes home, Don found that the opening had been sealed shut with thick boards. Kicking through them had earned him a nice long scratch along his calf.
            Don was filthy by the time he reached the lair. He knew he was going to have to come up with some explanation for his appearance when he got back to the junkyard, but that was a problem he’d tackle when he got to it.
            Wasting no time, Don went straight to Master Splinter’s room. There had never been a lock on the door and Don was halfway expecting to encounter one, but Leo seemed sure enough of his control not to have installed a barrier to keep his brothers out. At least not yet.
            Sliding the door closed behind him, Don dropped his duffel and then moved to stand in the center of the room, taking the time to survey it carefully. Everything looked exactly as it had when his father had left, other than the length of the candles that Leo had burned during ‘meditation’. There was even a fine layer of dust over every surface, except for the wooden chest that Don had noticed before.
            That oddity was incongruous enough, but added to that was the fact that the chest was once more in its normal position against the wall in a corner of the room.
            With absolutely no hesitation, Don crossed over to the chest and pulled it away from the wall. Kneeling in front of it, he flicked open its two small metal latches and lifted the lid.
            Gazing inside, Don saw various trinkets and memorabilia scattered in a thick layer. Some things he recognized from his youth; a section of the old blanket Mikey used to call ‘nummy’ and carry everywhere, the first toy soldier Raph had ever owned, an origami shuriken fashioned by Leo as a gift for their father, and Don’s first diary.
            It was an old spiral notebook slightly stained by water that Master Splinter had found and presented to his most intelligent son. That notebook contained clear, unused paper, the first clean paper Don had owned, and was the most beautiful thing Don had ever seen at that point in his life. He’d lost track of it, but his father had found it precious enough to keep forever.
            Tears dotted his eyes and Don hastily wiped them away. There would be time for sentiment later, right now he needed answers.
            Cautiously sifting through the contents, Don realized that he wasn’t touching the bottom of the chest, although his fingers had raked across something that felt like it. Shifting things to one side, Don saw that a thin sheet of plywood had been fitted into the chest in order to create a false bottom.
            Don tried to pry it up with his fingers, but he couldn’t get a good hold on the edge of the wood. Looking back, he spotted his duffel and swiftly retrieved it, extracting from the bag a flathead screwdriver as he made his way back to the chest.
            Before Don worked on the plywood again, he first gently lifted the contents from the top half of the box and set them aside. After that it took only a second to remove the plywood sheet.
            There was only one item in the bottom of the chest and it was wrapped in a heavy piece of red velvet. Don recognized the cloth as one that Master Splinter sometimes used to cover their dining table when they were expecting company.
            With great care, Don reached into the chest and extracted the object. Whatever it was, it weighed little more than the cloth in which it was wrapped.
            Don took a deep breath before gingerly folding the cloth back from the thing that it protected. He was careful to keep the cloth between the object and his hand until he knew exactly what was inside.
            A gasp escaped him when Don beheld the secret that had been hidden in the chest. It was a good sized portion of the crystal globe that had once held Master Yoshi’s spirit.
            The globe had been broken by Karai when she’d attacked the old lair. Leo had recovered this piece for Master Splinter during one of their expeditions into the ruins. Their father usually kept the fragment behind a curtained partition in his nightstand.
            Don knew that his father retained the piece only for sentimental reasons because the memories recorded inside of it by the Utroms had been destroyed. The globe still gave Master Splinter comfort and he would never have placed it inside the chest and so far from his sight.
            The more Don thought about it, the more he realized that the manner in which Master Splinter stored the globe fragment was inconsistent with how he’d kept it in his old rooms. There it had been given a place of honor on a low shelf next to a photo of Master Yoshi. Even broken the globe still represented Master Yoshi’s memory and would have been treated respectfully by Master Splinter in his new home.
            Unless the power infused into the crystal by the Utroms was still a part of the globe. If that were the case, then breaking it might not have dissipated the power, but instead made that power unstable.
            Don’s mind raced as he considered the implications. If the crystal globe had the energy to reach through time to hold Master Yoshi’s spirit in such a way that Master Splinter could interact with him, then the shard might also have the ability to open time.
            If the crystal had somehow opened a gateway into a parallel universe, then the two Leo’s might have somehow traded places via sideways time. It would have required travel in a spatial direction. String theory, as Don understood it, predicted that physical space has ten and eleven dimensions, respectively. These space-like extra dimensions aren’t perceived but are in fact just a small distance from the timeline in which Don and his family lived.
            It was very probable that the real Leo, more upset by Master Splinter’s departure than he let on, had gone into his father’s room in search of answers. Their oldest brother had not shared with them what Master Splinter had said to him before leaving, but if it was what he’d told Don and the others, the explanation wouldn’t have been satisfactory to Leo.
            Although Leo would have, under normal circumstances, never invaded Master Splinter’s privacy, he would certainly do so if he thought his father was in danger. If something about that shard had attracted his attention, Leo would have picked it up to examine it. While handling the fragment, Leo might have opened a conduit into a parallel dimension and triggered something that had caused him to trade places with the pseudo-Leo.
            Don knew that his Leo was very resourceful and would trust that his brothers would try to rescue him. Leo would stay alive no matter what while he waited for them to do so. If Don’s thoughts regarding the crystal were correct, Leo wouldn’t need to wait much longer.
            As Don concentrated on working through his theory, he continued to hold the fragment, making sure that his skin did not come into contact with it. He was about to fold the cloth back over the piece when it began to glow.
            Don stared at the crystal in amazement, mesmerized by its show of energy. After a moment he saw what he thought was movement and then a faint image appeared in the shard.
            Looking more closely, Don realized that he was seeing Leonardo. The real Leonardo. And his brother was staring back at him.
            So engrossed in his discovery, Don didn’t hear the faint sound of the shoji sliding open behind him.
            “Put that down!”
            Don’s heart leapt into his throat as he spun around and saw a seething Leo standing just inside the doorway.
TBC……………
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Ensuring Discipline