Chapter Text
There is something powerful in having a purpose.
When everything is falling apart around you, when life doesn’t make sense, when you have little else, when the world is against you…
There’s still a system in place. A goal. You get up. You hone what you still have: your mind, your body, your skills. You protect what you still have: your honor, your beliefs, the people you love.
When you don’t know who you are, why you exist, you have an answer: you are this. You exist to do this.
Sometimes that hurts. Sometimes it’s the only thing that doesn’t hurt.
Today is one of the days everything hurts. So Leonardo gets out of bed and grasps to what he knows:
He trains harder. Tunes out the chatter, noise, the attempts to provoke him. Barely hears it, it just flows right past him. He hears his constant reminder: this is what you are. This is what you have. This is what you can do. Nothing else matters: if you remember your purpose, cast everything else aside, everything will be fine.
A dozen innocent dead in the wake of the Foot’s latest attack.
Doesn’t make a difference, just train a little longer.
Purple Dragon territory spreading wider these days?
Not a problem, just run a littler longer, a little faster.
Alien threat on the horizon?
Meditate. Sharpen your blade. Be ready.
This is how he survives.
This is also how he dies.