Leo paced back and forth at the foot of Ava's bed. "Don, how many hours has it been?" He asked again worriedly.
"28 hours. As many as it was 5 minutes ago." Donnie answered, irritated.
"When will she wake up?" Leo asked, pausing his pace. "It's been a day!"
"A day and a half." Donnie corrected. "And for the last time, I don't know! I'm not a mind reader Leo, I don't know when she will want to wake up!"
"Where are the others? They should be here in case she does." Leo insisted. Maybe. Should they be? His gut felt as if it were twisted into a knot. Had that Kris dude hurt her seriously? What if they couldn't fix it? It would be Leo's fault for not protecting her well enough.
"Actually doing their jobs as councilors. AS YOU SHOULD BE." Donnie pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought the agreement was I would watch over her as I am the most familiar with medical practices."
"But what if she asks for me when she wakes up? I should be here to explain." Leo continued his pace around in circles.
"She'll most likely ask where she is first. When she wakes up, I can explain." Donnie answered. "If you want to give her answers, go interrogate the general. We need to find out who's next in line anyway."
Leo nodded. Right. Interrogation. He could do that. It was the smart thing to do. Leo glanced back at Ava. "Are-"
"YES I AM SURE LEO!" Donnie interrupted with a sharp glare. Leo sighed. Maybe Don was right. Maybe he was worrying too much. Leo hesitantly stepped out of the room, taking a deep breath as he walked to the dungeons. He descended the stairs, a trip he had come to dread by now. As he walked past the cells, the humans in them either spat at him, waved or didn't acknowledge him at all.
"Hey! Mutant leader!" Leo looked to the side to see the same soldier from the day before last. Kris, if he remembered correctly. "How is Ava? Where did you take her?"
Leo paused, turning to the cell. He felt anger wash over him in waves. "Unconscious. Bruised. Hurt. And we still don't know how severely. Thanks for that." Leo clenched his fists. Calm. Be calm. The human didn't know what he was doing. He was just defending what he thought was right.
"She shouldn't have fought back. I didn't mean to hurt her, I just-" Kris tried to explain.
"WHAT A DAMN GOOD JOB YOU DID THEN! POSSIBLY BREAK HER BACK AND ARM! GIVE HER A CONCUSSION! HELL, THIS SLEEP IS PROBABLY A COMA!" Leo grabbed him by the collar, slamming him against the bars between them. Calm down. He needed to calm down. Killing the man wouldn't do anything. It wouldn't fix anything. It wouldn't undo what happened. What would Ava think if he killed him? Leo took a deep breath, releasing Kris. "You will remain here until the end of the war, like the rest of these humans."
Leo turned, continuing his walk as he tuned out whatever Kris was trying to protest next. Since they took over the hidden city, since the war started, his temper had always gotten shorter and shorter. Like a fuse being stamped out and reused over and over. Everything he did made it shorter. The longer he ruled, the longer he fought, the longer he spent his time chasing generals and trying to make his friends and family see all he did to do good, the shorter his patience got.
Leo stopped the moment he heard the familiar "A-HA!" Even as an adult the kid couldn't help saying it. He pulled out his keys, opened the cell and stepped inside. Baxter smirked triumphantly. "I knew you would let me out! I knew you knew I did nothing wrong! I- What are you doing?"
Leo relocked the cell door. "I'm not just going to leave the door open. If you attack me, and somehow kill me, then you'd escape. Now." Leo sat down on the second cot hanging from the wall. "Who is the next person in line for the general? If no one is, who is next in charge?"
Baxter scoffed. "I'm not telling you that."
"Okay." Leo stood up, summoning a sword. "How about I put it like this: You can tell me who is going to be the next in charge of the humans, OR I can resort to torture methods to get the truth outta you. Plus, I'm not above knocking out a few teeth.
"Y-you wouldn't." Baxter tried to puff out his chest, however in his eyes Leo finally saw it. Uncertainty. Fear. The kind that meant revealing anything if Leo just pushed.
Leo stalked forward chuckling, glowing his marks to add to the effect. He stabbed his sword into a crack in the nearby brick tile, turning back to Baxter. He balled his knuckle into a fist, rubbing it with his other hand. Before Baxter could react, Leo swung his fist. THUMP? CRACK! Leo grabbed the side of Baxter's shirt, throwing him to the ground. He stomped on his knee, the satisfying CRACK resonating through the dungeon. "Get up. I'm not done with you." Leo spat. He wished he could say this was just a mask, he was doing the least amount of harm as he could to make Baxter talk. But it wasn't. He felt a sick kind of glee watching him struggle to get up with probably a broken knee.
Baxter struggled to get up, grabbing onto the bars of his cell to support himself. Just as he got back up Leo uppercut his chin, before grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the wall.
"O-okay! The next in charge should be Lieutenant Violet Payne!" Baxter raised his arm, trying to protect his face as Leo raised his arm to punch him.
"Thanks Stockboy." Leo nodded.
"It's stockM-" Before Baxter corrected him, Leo sung his fist, colliding with his nose and slamming the back of his head into the wall, releasing his throat. Baxter crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Leo walked back up to the councilor chamber in sweet sweet silence, not noticing the splatter of blood on his fist.
* * * *
Leo jolted awake as papers crashed down on his head. "Heh?!" Leo had to remind himself where he was, what he was doing. He was in the council room, yeah. Doing paperwork. He must have fallen asleep. Paperwork was always Donnie's thing, the brothers usually reviewed all of it together. But when he arrived Mikey and Raph were just leaving, halfway through. They said they wanted to check up on Ava. Leo would have joined them, but… He wasn't sure if he could face her at the time. So he attempted to finish up. ATTEMPTED.
He glanced down at the scattered paperwork, and the 5 that had his signature… He'd do them later. Or make Donnie do it. Why was his hand uncomfortably dry and sticky? Leo raised his hand to find dried blood. He must have gotten some of it on his hand from beating up Baxter. Leo walked to the kitchen, putting his hand under the water. He felt a slight sting as something red fell off. A scab. He inspected his hand to see he had an open… scrape? Cut? Leo wasn't sure. The blood would pour out on the back of his hand and hide what it was before he could decipher the source. He grabbed a rag, wet it under the faucet and put it over his hand. It was probably nothing.
Leo wandered the halls once more to find he had walked right back to Ava's room. He sighed. Might as well check on her. He opened the door and stepped inside.