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midnightcreator12 · 2 days

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And We'll Keep Marching On Chapter 14 - Reclaiming A Routine

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April’s…entire situation had been quite a revelation.

But, if Raph was honest? He didn’t really care.

Sure, they knew April had Kraang DNA but no one had really questioned how or where it came from. Donnie had theories, of course, but April always shrugged them off, more invested in the fact that she got powers out of the deal and training those powers with Master Splinter. Finding out she was a direct descendent of something that Kraang made…made a lot more sense than a few of Donnie’s theories.

But, still, Raph didn’t really care.

April had been half…weird, Kraang experimental weapon the entire time? So what, she was still their friend. Hell, Master Splinter giving her a tessen pretty much cemented her into being a full member of the Hamato Clan.

The thing that was bugging him more was how easily they’d all gotten taken out. One stupid Kraang had managed to beat them after they’d fought hundreds of the things a lot bigger and badder than that. Sure, the shapeshifting part put a new kink in things but…

He should have known that the person that came in hadn’t been Donnie. The only time Leo had ever growled at any of them was when he first woke up, probably confused and not able to think or see clearly. But Leo hadn’t even growled at any of the humans in the house in weeks so, when the door swung open for ‘Donnie’, Raph should have known something was off when Leo immediately went tense and hissed.

But he hadn’t. He’d thought Leo was regressing again or had been startled because Donnie had forgotten to knock.

So he’d focused on Leo, had focused on trying to keep him calm, make sure he didn’t try attacking and mess up his injuries more. So the Mom-Thing, wearing Donnie’s face, had gotten too close. The only reason Raph hadn’t been caught completely off guard was because Leo had rammed bodily into Raph and launched both of them out of the way before ‘Donnie’ tried to grab them.

After that was kind of a blur for Raph. He remembered yelling, half dragging, half pushing Leo towards the door while he fought off the fake Donnie. He remembered getting Leo onto the balcony, telling him to run before slamming the door shut and turning to fight Mom-Thing properly.

He’d gotten wiped out when a tentacle arm had caught him around the leg and thrown him against the beds footboard, his skull cracking painfully on one of the posts before things got too muddled for him to fully piece together.

The next coherent memory he had was waking up on the living room floor in a makeshift bed of blankets and pillows, Leo curled up on one side, Mikey on the other and Donnie whistling snoring on the couch.

Raven had been on watch then and had patently informed him that it had been roughly fourteen hours since he’d been attacked.

And it bugged Raph, still bugged him even with April running out of the house and Casey chasing after her.

Because they had been taken down so easily. Mom-Thing had been in the house for less than twenty-four hours and it- she, them?- but managed to take them all down before April… managed to do something? No one had said what, just that April had managed to beat the thing.

The fo- three turtles who had trained as ninja all their lives hadn’t been able to stop a threat to their clan…and that came back on Raph.

He promised, even if he’d thought he was just humoring Leo at the time, he’d still promised that if anything happened to Leo, Raph would take care of their brothers. And once again, the second something big happened, Raph was completely useless. He hadn’t even noticed anyone was missing…

He was distracted from his thoughts by Donnie clearing his throat, “Could you show me what you found?”

Raven, who had turned to watch the direction April and Casey had gone, moved her attention back to the room and nodded. She made a gesture to Scrap, holding her palm open for a moment before pointing to Donnie. The bot quickly moved to comply, jumping off Raven’s shoulder and hustling across the floor. Donnie watched him, moving his hands to his lap like he expected the bot to sit next to him. Only to go ramrod stiff when Scrap proceeded to climb up his leg and torso to settle on his shoulder.

Mikey giggled, “Aw, he like you Dee.”

“...sure,” Donnie mumbled before squinting at the screen that Scrap projected for him.

He frowned even deeper when a bunch of funny symbols started to slowly scroll up the projection.

Raph figured it was because he was scrutinising the info. Technically, Donnie could read Kraang but Raph was pretty sure he only figured out half of it and guessed for the other half.

Which was why he was surprised when Donnie looked up and gestured to the screen, “What is this?”

“The…the files?” Raven tilted her head, frowning back. “I know the way the Kraang write things out is kinda stupid but-”

“This,” Donnie pointed to the screen. “Was not written by the Kraang. I’ve never seen this language before.”

“It’s Aurebesh. It’s a pretty standard language system-”

“Not here it’s not!” Donnie interrupted. “I can’t read…any of this!”

Raven paused, frowning, “I have made…another bad assumption.”

“It’s cool dude!” Mikey bounded to the kitchen, returning within seconds and holding a dusty cookbook. “We use English! Like this, see?”

Raph frowned, narrowing his eyes at Raven, “You speak English. Why doesn’t your bot write in it?”

“Um…” Raven shrugged. “I guess spoken Basic is the same as English?”

“Basic?” Raph repeated. “The heck is Basic?”

“Um, the most common language from my system.” Raven said.

“...you’re ‘system’ is confusing.”

“Could he please,” Donnie interrupted. “Show me something I can read?”

Raven nodded quickly, “Scrap?”

The bot clicked, sounding annoyed. But the screen flickered and, even though Raph couldn’t really tell the difference, Donnie must have seen one because he finally relaxed a bit and his eyes started to scan back and forth.

Raph sighed, leaning his shell on the coffee table, “....I’m sorry guys.”

Both Mikey and Donnie startled at his voice, looking over at him.

Mikey spoke first, “What for? You haven’t tried to play ‘does Mikey bend that way’ in a long time dude.”

“Not that,” Raph grumbled, drawing his knees up so he could lean his arms on them. “I should’ve…been a better leader in all of that. I should have assessed things when I found out you guys found a whole person in the basement…hell, when you said you found a basement.”

There was a soft chirp next to him. Raph paused to look down at Leo, who had perked up enough to sit himself up. He leaned into Raph’s side, churring softly, not unlike what the rest of them did during the first few weeks when Leo wouldn’t respond to anything but the turtle sounds.

It was mostly habit that made Raph respond with a churr of his own.

He heard Raven say something, mumbling it out and sending Scrap another hand sign, an open outward-facing palm that she flapped down. It was as clear of an order to stay as far as Raph could tell. She patted Mikey’s shell and then walked out of the room, the front door closing behind her.

Mikey watched her go for a bit before moving to sit in front of Raph, “I mean, I did say something was up. Just saying bro.”

“I know,” Raph groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “And I should’ve followed up on that. Leo…Leo asked me to take care of things if something ever happened to him. And I’m failing at the whole leader thing. Again.”

Mikey shook his head, “No, dude, you’re-”

“He kinda is,” Donnie interrupted.

Mikey’s head whipped around, “Dude!”

“What?” Donnie shrugged. “I’m just saying, just waiting up in a bedroom for us to come and give him reports at our leisure isn’t really how Leo would be handling things.”

Raph huffed again, mostly at himself. Because a few months ago? Donnie saying that would have set Raph off, had him jumping to his own defense and divulging to hitting and yelling when he couldn’t articulate what he meant in words.

Now?

He’d felt pretty detached from everything since they got to the house except looking after Leo. Oh, he told himself plenty of times that he’d go check on everyone soon. After Leo could stay awake longer. After Leo could drink water on his own. After Leo could sit up without help. After Donnie let him have food that wasn’t bland and soft. After Leo healed more. After he started talking-

Every time he even had a passing thought of going to check on everyone, of going anywhere that he couldn’t be next to Leo in seconds…it sent a spike of fear through him.

Because he’d just run off to mess around with Casey, knowing the Kraang could invade any day. He'd left his brothers a turtle down and Leo had paid for it.

He failed and he kept failing and he couldn’t let himself do it again. Especially with not how close the fight with Mom-Thing had been.

So he inhaled deeply, steeling his nerves, “Once we’ve all healed up, we’re gonna start our training routine again.”

Mikey’s head jerked back to Raph, “Awww, what?”

“Yes,” Raph nodded, gaining confidence. “That fight with Mom-Thing, she…they, it…whatever, that was terrible. We’ve faced a lot worse and didn’t cut things that close, we shouldn’t have been divided and taken down so easily.”

“Technically, we’ve been devived since we got her,” Donnie added in. He’d lost interest in the conversation since his eyes were back on the screen. He reached out and grinned when the hologram responded to his finger pushing the text up and away. “Well, except for you and Leo.”

“Well I’m changing that now. Leo-” Raph wavered, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

Donnie paused in his reading, eyes slowly drifting over. Mikey’s head tilted and he leaned closer.

Raph tried to clear his throat, looking down at Leo, who had settled himself in Raph’s lap and wrapped his arms around his middle, “Leo’s…Leo’s acting more like himself he’s just…not talking yet. So we need to start training again. So that we’re ready if something else comes after us out here.”

“But,” Now Mikey hesitated and Raph saw the way his eyes flicked down to Leo’s leg. Or, to be more exact, to Leo’s brace.

Raph sighed, “We can’t wait anymore Mike. The fight was…that whole thing was a disaster and we got lucky.”

Donnie hummed, “I have to agree. While Leo can probably start a PT routine soon to help him rebuild muscle mass and coordination, he won’t be able to keep up with our regular training regime for…well, a pretty long time. Definitely not before his knee pieces itself back together.”

Mikey made a low whining sound, looking between Donnie and Raph, “But we always train together.”

And didn’t that just send another stake into Raph's heart? He’d assume Mikey was okay because he’d been hanging out with Raven, bounding around the farmhouse like being here was a vacation.

He’d forgotten that Mikey tended to pretend he was fine when stuff was upsetting him. He’d dropped the leadership ball in so many ways.

But he was going to be better now.

He tried for a comforting smile towards Mikey, “He’ll still be there he just…can’t train yet. But I was gonna ask your lil bff to sit with him so we can train.”

“Oh?” Mikey perked up at that. “Really?”

“Really?” Donnie repeated. “You’re okay with Raven keeping an eye on Leo?”

“Yes,” Raph huffed. “‘Cause you two can’t while we’re training and, I dunno, Leo seems to like her.”

As much it surprised him. Raven clearly didn’t want to push Raph’s boundaries so she kept her visits limited to once a day for a scan. But at some point, when Leo started to be awake more often then not when she stopped by, she’d started to greet him along with Raph, even ask him softly how he felt while Scrap got a scan. It would barely be considered small talk but Leo always trilled happily to her ‘good morning Leonardo’.

Plus, he’d been planning to park the two on the porch during training, where Raph could keep an eye on them. Just in case.

But Mikey beamed at him, shuffling forward so he pat Leo’s head, “Well duh, of course he likes her. She’s super cool.”

Leo opened his eyes at the attention, looking up at Mikey with a happy little chirp.

Donnie huffed and went back to reading, “Well, technically, it’s been forty-eight hours so we should be fine by tomorrow.”

“Good,” Raph nodded. “Good, we start tomorrow then.”

—-----------------------------------------------------------

Even though training was to be the next day, Raph had ventured outside in the early afternoon, leaving a snoozing Leo in Donnie and Mikey’s care.

The air was cold and bit at his scales, making him shiver. It brought memories to the forefront of his mind, of shaking loose snow from his shoulders and running up stairs, thinking everything was okay….

Of glass shattering and wood splintering.

Raph paused at the bottom of the porch steps, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Leo was…getting better, Donnie and Mikey were with him. Everyone was okay.

A throat cleaning made his head snap up.

He’d completely missed Raven, sitting in an old rocker at the far end of the porch. When Raph looked towards her, she slowly stood, walking to lean on the porch railing, “You okay?”

Raph blinked at her, recalling it had been a few hours since she’d left them to talk, “Have you just been sitting out here the entire time?”

“No, I took a walk, got back a bit ago.”

“You took a walk….for at least five hours.”

“...I had some thoughts I needed to sort through,” Raven coughed into her fist. “Uh, good to see you, you know, outside.”

Raph grumbled, rubbing his face as he started walking into the yard, “Geez, was everybody noticing?”

“Thaaat you never left upstairs?” Raven trotted after him as he started to leave reasonable speaking volume range. “It was kinda hard not to notice…and I’m up there almost every day sooo-”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been doing everything wrong,” Raph sighed, a bit of familiar annoyance sparking deep in his gut.

But it didn’t catch as it normally would. It was there and then gone, fizzled out as Raph started kicking some small snow drifts, scanning the ground.

Raven watched him for a bit, crossing her arms, “...what’cha doin’?”

“We’re gonna start training again tomorrow. And every day after,” Raph explained as his focus fixed on a small open patch of yard that was mostly sheltered from snow by a massive tree. “So I’m making our dojo.”

“Oh…” Raven paused again. “What’s that?”

“It’s a training room. But since the house is full and I am not training in that creepy basement, I’m setting something up out here.”

As he explained he started to walk around the ‘parameter’ of the spot he picked out, stomping down the ground and kicking snow out of the way.

Raven watched him for a few more moments, not saying anything. Raph didn’t pay much mind when she left, jogging towards the barn.

He’d vouched for her before but they weren’t friends, so he didn’t pay her running off a second thought.

Until something thumped against the ground a few minutes later.

Raph looked up at the sound to find Raven was back, holding a garden hoe in each hand. She grinned when Raph looked at her, hefting one of the tools and tossing it. Raph’s hand snapped out and swiped it out of the air.

He looked between it and Raven, “...if you wanted to spar this is a really weird way to ask.”

Raven blinked. Than burst into a small giggle fit, “No, no. You’re trying to compact the ground here, right? This will help.” She stepped into the circle, lifting the hoe up before smacking the flat side of the head into the ground, “See? A lot easier than just stomping on it.”

Raph frowned, contemplating the hoe for a moment before repeating the actions Raven had done. Sure enough, a few firm hits and he could feel how much firmer the ground under the tool was getting, “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Raven turned, continuing to compact away.

Raph watched her, confused, “What…are you doing?”

“Helping,” Raven replied. “Unless…did you want to be alone?”

“...do what you want,” Raph sighed, going back to the task at hand.

The two worked quietly for a bit, Raven sure and confident as she beat down each little spot of dirt and Raph slowly gaining a rhythm for it.

After a time, however, Raven spoke again, “I don’t think you’re doing everything wrong.”

Raph paused, glancing over his shoulder, “Yeah, sure. You were a leader in you lil group, I know you know I’ve been messing up the whole ‘being in charge’ thing. Hell, you told me that I couldn’t hide upstairs forever and I pretty much ignored you.”

Raven was quite for a moment, like she was contemplating how to reply, “My upbringing…wasn’t normal. For one, I aged a lot faster and from the moment I could, I was being trained to be a soldier.” She paused again, letting Raph frown as he processed what she was saying. “I’ve been…trying, for a while, to recognize when something I just accepted wasn’t good or normal…and I forgot that you’re not like me. Even now, my mind is years beyond my physical age. But you and your brothers….to quote General Ader, you’re all young in body and soul. That youth shouldn’t be stolen, it should fade with age.”

Raph paused, looking over at Raven.

Her back was to him and she was leaning on her hoe, hand wringing the handle, “What I mean to say is…you’re hurt, all of you. And you’re young…far too young to be dealing with something as serious as…all of this. I’m sorry I forgot that and tried to push you to be more like myself and my brothers.”

Raph frowned, turning his eyes back to packing the dirt, “You shouldn’t be sorry. You were right, I was just hiding, putting things off…convincing myself that what I was doing was okay.”

Raven hummed, “I still feel bad, for making you think you were doing something wrong.”

“So we’ll just call it even,” Raph concluded, some fire leaking into his tone. “And we’ll just…do better down the line.”

Raven huffed a laugh, “That sounds fine.”

“Good,” Raph slammed the how down a bit too hard, making his teeth rattle a little. “Uhg, now please drop it. I’ve had enough emotional talks for today.”

“Sure,” Raven said.

The air felt lighter, after that. And the exercise of making a dojo spot did wonders for the tension that had been plaguing Raph’s body. Each hit towards the ground helped loosen his shoulders and spine, and drove some of the nervous energy from his limbs.

Raven started to hum at one point, a soft tune that Raph didn’t know.

But he let the sound drift by him, along with the rest of the sounds of the countryside.

When they both went back to the house, the wind much colder and the sun starting to sink behind the treeline, Raph felt more at ease than he had in weeks.

#tmnt #tmnt 2012 #lone hunter and turtle #star wars #tmnt au #fanfic #oc

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midnightcreator12 · 9 days

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And We'll Keep Marching On Chapter 13 - After the Dust Settles

AO3 Link

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That day had been so normal for all the insane things that happened in the late afternoon.

Casey hadn’t even really thought about April’s mom once the shock of finding her had worn off. Like, yeah, a part of him was jealous but…that was kinda why he’d been hiding in the barn and taking out all his feelings over everything on the truck.

Because as much fun as it was to blow off steam via riling Raven up, she’d started hitting him in retaliation. And she hit hard.

So, yeah, he’d gone to the barn, and spent all day messing around with his project truck. Donnie had come in at one point but Casey had ignored him. If there was one thing he’d picked up on about Donnie, it was the guy would vent and it was best to just let him tire himself out or let him talk himself through whatever he was upset over.

Only Donnie had dipped in and out and hardly said anything louder than a grumpy whisper under his breath.

Now, hours later, after the metaphorical dust settled, Casey kinda wished he’d stopped him, asked what he was so grumpy about.

Because maybe if he had, they could have avoided…everything that came a few hours later.

Everything being the two downed turtles, one bleeding heavily from his head and the other trying to get his brother off his shell, chirping and clicking in concern. The space super soldier sitting on the ground, holding her ribs and wheezing, trying to get the air back in her lungs after almost being crushed. And the very, very horrified redhead staring at the puddle of green goo that had…been her mom? Or a Kraang pretending to be her mom?

Casey wasn’t sure, actually. Whatever Mrs. O’Neil had turned into was clearly not human so it couldn’t have actually been April’s mom. But April also had weird alien DNA so maybe that was her mom?

But as much as he wanted answers to all these questions, they had much bigger things to worry about. Namely, the fact that Leo was chirping up a storm and Donnie had yet to move.

Casey shook his head as he moved, forcing all the shock and confusion and the very painful bruising on his back from being thrown by a creepy Kraang shapeshifting thing, and made his way to Donnie and Leo.

By the time he got there, Leo had managed to drag himself out from under Donnie and was now shaking his brother’s shell, a series of low rumbles coming from his throat as he tried to rouse Donnie. He looked up at Casey’s approach, his eyes had gone all wide and sad again and he let out a breathy whimper when Casey crouched on Donnie’s other side.

“Yeah, erm, I got him dude,” Casey wasn’t used to…whatever this side of Leo was called. He was still Leo just…more open? Donnie had rambled about brain damage a few times but from what Casey could see, Leo just wasn’t doing that whole ‘super serious leader’ thing anymore.

But it made him a lot less predictable.

So Casey watched him as he reached for Donnie, pressing two fingers to the pulse point and letting the steady thrum reassure him that the nerd was okay. And Leo watched Casey back, eyes wide and a litany of sounds coming out of him, but none sounded threatening.

Until his gaze suddenly snapped over Casey’s shoulder. He stooped, eyes going white and a long hiss escaped his throat.

Casey glanced behind him…and winced when he saw April, who looked like she’d frozen mid-step, hand outstretched as if to help.

Honestly, he didn’t really blame Leo. April had launched him halfway across the yard. But he still felt a little bad for her when she tried to step closer and Leo let out another, louder, much more threatening hiss.

“Dude, she didn’t mean it,” Casey tried to placate, keeping his voice low and calm.

April was quick to nod along, “I’m so sorry Leo. I just…I dunno, I panicked but I shouldn’t have I know you don’t just…go after people like that, I know-”

Leo growled again, one arm moving over Donnie, protectively shielding him. April winced again, finally taking a step back.

Casey felt a little bad at the sigh of relief that came out of him when Leo relaxed, but his spine went rigid again when Raven approached. But Leo’s gaze didn’t move from April, not even when Raven slipped past the other girl and stood next to Casey. Leo had his attention firmly fixed on April, not even giving Raven a second glance.

There was a jab on the end of Casey’s tongue. It was more habit than anything by this point, had become their thing where he’d poke and then she’d hit him. But looking at her dirt-smeared face and hunched posture in an instinctive effort to protect her ribs, he decided to let the quips slide for now.

Instead, he watched her move to crouch at Leo’s side and place just the tips of her fingers on his un-injured arm. The contact finally seemed to catch Leo’s attention, making him take his eyes off April and look at Raven. He was still tense but he blinked and his eyes were back to having blue iris and pupils again.

“Jones,” Raven spoke without taking her eyes off Leo. “Carry Donatello inside.”

The urge to sass back immediately intruded into Casey's brain. It was hard to not just let those first thoughts slip out but he bit the inside of his cheek and focused on Donnie’s bloodied face.

Because he and Donnie were friends now. And his friend needed help.

He could save the poking at Raven for later.

Casey moved to take Donnie’s arm, carefully watching Leo out of the corner of his eye in case he got…bitey. But Raven seemed to be doing a bang-up job of keeping his attention. Her hands were ghosting over his arms and shoulders and he only hissed when she grazed the beginnings of bruising on his skin.

Casey levered Donnie into a sitting position, only to freeze when he groaned. Donnie’s head lolled, eyes cracking open a tiny bit. They were hazy and he clearly wasn’t fully present but, apparently, the sound was enough to get Leo’s attention.

Casey had to scooch or risk being shoved, hooking Donnie’s arm around his shoulders to keep him upright. Leo chittered, bringing up a hand to cup under Donnie’s jaw.

And to Casey's surprise, Donnie’s head lifted slightly to look at Leo and he let out a very gravily chirp. When Leo started responding better to words over the turtle sounds, Donnie had clammed them up again and stuck strictly to human sounds. But, apparently, words were too much effort for him right now…not that Casey really blamed him.

Leo brightened, chirping back and stooping to bump his forehead against Donnie’s. The action would have been sweet if Donnie didn’t let out a whimper at the contact.

“Okay, come on,” Raven grabbed Leo’s wrist and wrapped her other arm around his shell. “Inside, both of you.”

Casey tensed, waiting for Leo to lash out at Raven.

But surprisingly, he didn’t. He whined but let Raven pull his arm around her shoulder and hoist him up, leaning on her as they both started to limp towards the house.

Casey puffed out a heavy sigh and looked back towards Donnie…who’s chin was on his chest again and his eyes had closed.

“Gee, thanks dude,” Casey mumbled as he adjusted his hold. “Wake up long enough to say hi to your bro and then leave me to carry your heavy-ass shell by myself?”

Donnie didn’t respond.

Casey huffed again but he couldn’t keep chatting because he actually did have to haul Donnie to the house. He shifted again so that he could settle Donnie on his back and heaved himself up. The turtles weren’t that heavy, most of their weight came from there shell but the said shell made them harder to balance. But Donnie wasn’t nearly as bulky as Raph so Casey managed to start walking with only minor effort.

He heard April’s footsteps starting to trail after him…and very far behind him, deathly quiet.

Yeah, there would be conversations later. Gross.

The door to the house had been left open so Raven easily led the way into the living room. Where they found Raph, also bleeding from a cut on his temple, looking a lot greener than he should and trying to crawl across the floor.

Leo chirped in concern, squirming in Raven’s hold. She held firm, not letting Leo go but she spoke to Raph, “I told you to stay put.”

“‘eo,” Raph mumbled, the one word slurring horribly as he lifted his head and tried his damnest to focus. Tried, because it seemed he kept looking a little too far to the left.

“We got Leo,” Raven shuffled over to Raph, carefully lowering Leo to sit next to him.

Leo repeated what he’d done with Donnie, moving his hands to carefully prod at the wound on Raph’s head before examining the rest of him. Raph grumbled at the poking but he leaned against the coffee table and shut his eyes, shoulders relaxing.

Raven breathed a massive sigh, gesturing towards Casey, then the couch, “Can you get Mike outta the basement after you set Donnie down?”

This time, Casey couldn’t bite his tongue, “What? He too heavy for ya space cadet?”

Raven was quiet for a moment, “....I almost dropped Leo on the porch stairs.”

Casey paused halfway through dumping Donnie onto the couch.

Oh.

Casey hadn’t noticed that but…yeah, he vaguely remembered Donnie telling him once that lifting was harder with busted ribs. And Raven definitely had something going on with hers if the way she kept wrapping an arm around them was any hint.

So he deposited Donnie the rest of the way onto the couch and quickly made his way to the basement door…which was no longer there, “Dude, did you bust the door?”

“Technically,” Raven called back. “Donnie did it. April, go get whatever medical supplies we got.”

Casey only partly heard April’s reply and her footsteps going upstairs. His attention was more focused downward, firmly fixed on the fact that he had to get Mikey and trying very hard not to think about the fact that the freaky Kraang shape-shifter thing had come out of there.

The third floor had been creepy before but, somehow, seeing that thing had made it ten times creepier.

What other weird alien things were hiding in the Kraang ship? For all he knew, there was another shapeshifting impostor that had already taken Mikey’s place and they’d have to deal with all of that again-

The second his sneakers hit the dirt floor, there was a loud beep and a light flashed on.

Casey jumped, one hand instinctively moving over his shoulder before he remembered that he hadn’t seen Raven’s little pet.

And it was because he was crouched on Mikey’s chest, boxy little head bobbing at Casey so that the light shined right into his eyes.

“Dude,” Casey hissed. “I’m here for Mikey, we took care of the Kraang thing and everyone’s gettin’ fixed up.”

“Mom-Thing.”

Casey blinked. Because when Scrap stopped trying to blind him he could see that Mikey was very much awake.

Well, if you ignored the slightly hazy look in his eyes. But it didn’t stop him from dragging a hand up to point at Casey, “I name the baddies. That one is Mom-Thing.”

“Seriously?” Casey snorted as he made his way over. “All the names you could go with and that’s what you pick?”

He expected Mikey to quip back, maybe boast about how excellent he was at naming things or adamantly defend the name choice.

But when he stooped down next to Mikey, he did not foresee the turtle bursting into tears.

Scrap gave a panicked-sounding beep, shuffling forward on Mikey’s plastron and dropping his head to rest right on the top lip of it.

Casey also froze, hands hovering, not fully sure what to do.

Because Mikey was dramatic, over the top, a real heart-on-his-sleeve kind of guy. But Casey had never seen him cry. Even leaving the city he hadn’t cried. Once the need to be fighting everything had passed he’d just clammed up and stared into space until they found Raven.

But now he was starting to hiccup, hands moving up to rub at his eyes as he mumbled, “My head hurts.”

…oh.

Casey looked around the floor until he spotted a red smear near Mikey’s head.

Apparently, everyone had gotten a good conk on the head today.

“Okay tough guy,” Casey helped Mikey sit up, sending a beeping Scrap to the floor. “Everyone’s okay, and Raven is patching the guys up.”

“Ray-Ray,” Mikey turned big, sad blue eyes up at Casey. “The real one, right? There…there was….a baaaad one. She didn’t….didn’t have Scrap, that how you can tell.”

“Pretty sure she didn’t have him because she told him to guard dog you.”

Mikey blinked and his chin dropped to stare at Scrap, who gave a long sad beep.

“Oh yeah,” Mikey started to nod, then winced and aborted the movement halfway through.

Scrap beeped again, scampering to the bottom stair step and shifting from leg to leg, like he was anxiously waiting for Casey and Mikey to catch up.

“Yeah, yeah, hang on,” Casey started to lever Mikey up…then paused again. “Why am I talking to a buddy-bot?”

“Cause he’s like a lil friend,” Mikey sniffed, wiping at his eyes again. “Like…like a bird or a dog…but he understands. Ray-Ray says he just speaks binary cause…cause his model wasn’t….mmm, made for voice box thingies….and I think she said he doesn’t like them?”

Scrap beeped, bobbing his head.

Casey rolled his eyes and finished helping Mikey to his feet, “Right, of course. Why would an alien robot want to speak any English?”

Scrap beeped again. Probably in answer.

But since Casey could not understand any of it, he just jerked his head towards the top of the stairs, “Just make sure I can see so I don’t drop Mike.”

Scrap beeped again, jumping up a few steps so he could shine the light down the stairs, thus giving Casey an uninhibited view of the steps.

Mikey gave a small cheer that turned into a groan as Casey started moving.

It was borderline painful getting out of the basement. Casey had to move slowly, letting Mikey carefully set both feet on each stair before they braved the next one. Scrap stayed about four steps ahead of them, keeping his light on the steps even when he shuffled back and jumped up the next few planks.

It took forever, and Mikey had to stop quite a few times but, finally, they made it to the ground floor and stumbled back into the living room.

April was nowhere to be seen but she’d clearly been there. The coffee table was covered in supplies. Leo was still next to Raph but he’d stopped poking in favor of just laying on the floor and pressing his shell against Raph’s leg. Raph himself didn’t seem to mind, he was simply leaning on the table, arms stretched across it and eyes drooping.

Donnie was propped up on the couch pillows and Raven was carefully cleaning the blood from his face.

Scrap beeped and sprang forward, skittering across the room and climbing up Raven’s back.

Casey deposited Mikey in the armchair, “Where’d Red go?”

“Ran off,” Raven answered. “Leo’s still mad at her.”

Raph made a grumbling sound, “‘ssh sucks. Gotta….wait.”

“Unless you’d like to help,” Raven added.

Casey hesitated. Because he wanted to check on Red. Even if her mom turned out to be a fake it still probably messed with her head.

But, looking around at the guys, some of whom were still recovering from New York and were now sporting brand-new scraps and bruises and cuts, he decided to grab another towel and pressed it to the back of Mikey’s head.

He happened to be pretty adept at first aid. He’d had to learn when he started doing his vigilantism or else risk his dad finding out that he wasn’t just goofing off in skate parks half the night. And his ability had only gotten better when he got mixed up with the turtles. The frequency of fights hadn’t changed much but the size of his opponents sure as hell had.

All that to say, he was very efficient with patching up each turtle. Mikey only really needed a patch to the back of his head, the same went for Raph and the cut on his temple. Casey guessed they’d both be out of it for at least the next twenty-four hours. Which was fine for Raph, he seemed to just be droopy and agreeable, but Casey still went tense every time Mikey would randomly start crying again.

Donnie also seemed to be pretty easy. He was banged up but they could really only treat the double whammy he’d taken to the skull. Raven cleaned and patched both cuts before pulling the couch pillows out from under him so he could lie down with on cushion over his face.

Leo was slightly more involved process. Both he and Raven worked together to restitch and rebandage the gashes in his shoulder. There were also some serious scrapes along that same side, likely from hitting the ground after April…threw him.

The last thing Raven took care of, cleaning the unnaturally-colored blood from Leo’s hands.

Casey watched avidly during that process, eyes mostly fixated on Leo’s claws. He didn’t even know the guys had claws but, now that he was looking, he could see they all had small points on their fingernails. It was weird because he was pretty sure none of them had those a month ago.

He wanted to prod Raph or Donnie, ask if that was how their nails grew in and they just kept them trimmed down, why he could see the claws now, what other little quirks did they have that none of them had bothered mentioning.

Except everyone was very, very out of it and he doubted he’d get a cohesive answer. Especially after the pain pills were passed out.

So, instead, he looked at Raven, “How’d… all this happen?”

Raven shrugged as she tucked blankets around the guys and helped them get comfy, “I missed most of it. Last night Mikey and me spotted Mom-Thing leaving the house. It was late and she was very clearly trying to sneak out undetected so Mikey wanted to follow her. I asked him to hang back, check on April and everyone while I investigated.”

Raven finished tucking a pillow under Leo’s head and started to move away, but Casey put out a hand to stop her, “Nu-uh, you’re next space cadet. Mikey’ll kill me if he wakes up and finds out I let you walk around with busted ribs. Sit down and finish the story.”

Raven blinked at him, brow furrowing, “I very much doubt you want to see me without my top on.”

“You’re wearing a sports bra, right?”

Raven’s eyes narrowed.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that, I was with April when she got them for you. So go sit down already.”

Raven's brows were still pinched but she finally moved toward the coffee and sat down. Casey waited until she had stripped down all the way, putting the molted bruising up her sides on full display. As well as a weird bird symbol tattoo on her shoulder and a bit of scaring peeking out from beneath her bra.

Casey frowned for a moment, before shrugging the new details off for now and got to work, “So, what happened when you went after Mom-Thing?”

“She was attempting to steal mutagen from Donnie’s lab,” Raven lifted her arms for Casey to start working the gauze around his torso. “I intercepted, tried to apprehend her…I was caught by surprise when her arms turned into tentacles.”

“Creepy,” Casey commented dryly.

“Extremely,” Raven agreed. “I did my best to fight her off but…I was knocked out and I woke up in the basement. Scrap had been damaged in the fight and had entered sleep mode to prevent any permanent damage and I was tied up and gagged. I don’t know how long I was down there, but she eventually brought Mikey down. She hadn’t taken his weapons, so we attempted to use his hidden blade to escape. She…”

Raven sighed. “She brought Donnie down while we were trying to cut through Mikey’s restaurants. She threw both of us to opposite sides of the basement, I managed to avoid hitting my head….Mikey…”

Casey nodded, “Hit something?”

“The stair railing,” Raven said. “When Mom-Thing left I tried to get to the….ku-sara-gama. Donnie woke up, we helped each other escape, found Raph, and…well, I think you saw the rest.”

Casey nodded, “She’d…shifted into Donnie, right before you escaped, I think. We thought he’d gone feral or something.”

“Why would he do that?”

Casey frowned, finishing off the wrapping and pulling away, “Well, Red said that the mutations can mess with people’s heads sometimes. She thought that was why Leo was still being weird.”

Raven reached for her tank top and shirt, “Any mental altercations from mutagen usually are stress responses from pain. And Leonardo very likely has a brain injury that’s affected his ability to speak.”

“Yeah,” Casey rubbed his hands down his face. “I mean, I thought that sounded weird but…I dunno, it also sounded possible? Feels like mutagen does something different every week.”

Raven hummed, gaze turning downward to where Scrap had been standing sentry at her feet, “You feel up to a little slicing?”

Scrap beeped, doing a little jump before scampering back towards the basement.

Casey frowned pointing after the bot with a questioning humm.

“He’s gonna go find what kind of intel is on that scout ship,” Raven explained. “Then he’ll bring me the raw data so we can decode it. With any luck, they’ll be answers as to what Mom-Thing really is.”

“And he’s gonna do that by…cutting into the ship?”

“What?” Raven turned back to Casey, frowning. “No. Why would he do that?”

“You told him to slice it!” Casey argued.

“Yeah, slice, not slice.”

“That is literally the same word.”

“No, slice like…like breaking into a ship system without a keycode.”

“...we on Earth call that ‘hacking’.”

Raven frowned even harder, “…that’s just another way to say slicing.”

“One, it’s not,” Casey stood, stretching his arms over his head. “Two, I’mma go find April.”

Raven nodded, reaching to her side and handing Casey a box of bandages, “I didn’t see her get hit but it is better to be safe.”

“...yeah, sure,” Casey took the offered box. “Any idea where she went?”

“Upstairs.”

“Thanks.”

Casey headed for the stairs, mulling over what he wanted to say to April.

Hey, sorry your mom turned out to be an alien? Sucks you had to explode the shapeshifter pretending to be your mom?

Yeah, there weren’t really any good ways to segway into this conversation.

He ended up finding April in her room. She had the window open and was sitting on the sill, legs dangling outside.

“Er, yo,” Casey tried to fall back on the laid-back skater persona, casually strolling into the room and leaning on the wall next to April. “Uh, you good? Any boo-boos I need to kiss better for ya?”

“Not in the mood Casey,” April snapped.

Okay, she was…upset. Understandable.

Casey sighed, tipping his head back to rest on the wall, “...look, all that was….pretty messed up-”

“Messed up?” April growled. “What’s messed up is that I fell for a stupid Kraang in disguise. Again.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault-”

“But it is,” April spun around, frustrated tears streaming down her face as she glared at Casey. “They keep tricking me! And I keep just…falling for it! I brought Kraang Sub-Prime right to the Lair, to the guy's home! And then…I stupidly bought into everything that…that thing said! I actually thought the guys were going crazy right in front of me. They’ve lost everything, of course none of them are acting normal! How was I so…so stupid?”

Casey hesitated, rubbing his arm, “I mean…if my mom came back outta nowhere, I’m pretty sure I’d hang on everything she said.”

April’s breath caught, her eyes going wide.

Then she buried her face in her hands, “God…I’m such a mess.”

“Yeah, well, I think we all are,” Casey shrugged. “But hey, we won, the guys are gonna be fine. All’s well that ends well, right?”

“...Leo hates me now.”

Casey blew a raspberry, “Leo doesn’t know how to hold a grudge. By tomorrow, he’ll be all chirpy with you again.”

April sighed and curled more into herself.

…yeah, Casey didn’t quite believe himself either. But he could hope.

—-------------------------

Casey and Raven ended up taking shifts, checking on the guys. April had tried to help too but every time she stepped into the living room, Leo’s eyes would snap open and fix on her like a hawk.

They didn’t want to risk him doing anything to hurt himself or April, so Raven and Casey rotated out, waking the guys up to make sure their brains were recovering okay. And when Raven wasn’t on shift, she was at the kitchen table with Scrap, shifting through whatever the bot had gotten out of the Kraang ship.

By day two of recovery, the guys were on the mend. Rpah was even aware enough to keep Leo calm and let April finally come and see everyone. She still tactfully gave Leo a wide berth but she seemed glad to finally be able to visit again.

But only a few minutes after they all managed to settle in and start arguing over what to watch, Raven walked in with Scrap perched on her shoulder, announcing she had results.

Of course, all eyes were focused on her in an instant.

Raven hesitated, slowly scanning the room until her gaze ended up on April, “The information…has a lot to do with you.”

“Me?” April echoed.

“Yes…I can keep those details confidential and debrief you later.”

April quickly shook her head at that, “No. No more secrets. Whatever you have, you have to tell everyone.”

Raven hesitated again. Then huffed in a deep breath, “The creature that Mikey has dubbed ‘Mom-Thing’ was a prototype for an infiltration mutant, one able to blend in anywhere it pleased. They had originally been placed among the O’Neil family because the isolation from a larger human population would make it…easier to erase things if anything went sideways.”

Casey shuddered at the implications.

Raven continued, like a soldier giving a debrief, “They would pretend to be human and marry into the family. There are notes that indicate they had some semblance of psychic abilities to influence whomever they were trying to marry. Essentially making the unfortunate victim think that there was genuine affection. It would explain why everyone believed her story.”

“Duuude,” Mikey made a disgusted face. “That’s messed up.”

“So how come you and Mikey didn’t buy into it?” Raph asked.

“I have my shields,” Raven said. “And…I have been teach Mikey how to do it.”

“Seriously?” Raph looked towards Mikey.

He shrugged, “What? It seems cool and it worked, didn’t it?”

“So, that was it?” Donnie frowned. “Mom-Thing would just…pretend to be a different human and marry members of the family?”

“Yes,” Raven agreed. “They would marry in, pretend to grow old and die, disappear for a bit and come back with a new identity. Now…almost all of these unions didn’t result in biological offspring…until they married Kirby O’Neil.”

April sucked in a breath, “My dad?”

“Indeed,” Raven pressed on. “There were quite a lot of observations but, the short version is, Mom-Thing had become so integrated with humans that they wished to experience…more.”

“Hang on,” Casey interrupted. “What, exactly, do you mean more?”

“I mean…” Raven sighed. “That Mom-Thing had a biological offspring with Kirby O’Neil….in other words…April.”

“Wait,” Donnie sat up, eyes widening. “So…that thing…wasn’t pretending to be April’s mom….that…that was actually April’s mom?!”

Raven nodded.

Casey’s gaze whipped around to April. She was staring, eyes wide with horror and a hand slowly moving to cover her mouth.

He expected her to let the silence ring out but, instead, she spoke, “How…but why did we leave her behind?”

“That’s…where the logs get spotty.” Raven cleared her throat. “There were at least two Kraang monitoring progression at the time you were born. The last few logs mention how Mom-Thing was becoming almost… obsessive with you. And then there is a roughly a five-year gap before a log of the cryo-tube activating.”

“What…” April swallowed. “What does that mean?”

“My guess?” Raven said. “After you were born, Mom-Thing bonded very strongly to you, probably because of a shared psychic link. The logs show a steady climb of them being more invested in you before the cut-off. If I hazarded a guess, they devoted so much mental concentration to you that your father was able to break through their influence. Once he realized what was happening…he likey concluded the best way to protect you was to cryo-freeze Mom-Thing and get you into a more populated area where you wouldn’t just…vanish.”

April sucked in a shaky breath through her hand, “That…that Kraang…

Raven slowly nodded.

“That was my mom,” April removed her hand from her mouth, staring down at it. “That….part of me…is that.”

“Does this mean April can shapeshift!?” Mikey cried out, bolting out of his seat. “Dude, turn into a turtle! We can be samsies!”

“Mikey,” Raph, Donnie and Casey snapped in unison.

“What?” Mikey looked around, seeming genuinely confused.

April suddenly stood, keeping her face down and moving quickly to the front door.

Casey was up and after her in an instant, calling, “Hey, April, hang on.”

He caught up to her by the swing. She’d stopped next to it, shoulders shaking and staring at the green smudge that was still left from the fight.

She started to ramble when Casey got close, “I’m…I knew I had Krang DNA but I…I’d hoped it was just spliced in or something…but…” she turned to Casey. “I’m…one of them.”

“No you aren’t,” Casey stated firmly, shoving all his normal bravado to the side as he pulled April into a hug. “Yeah, you’re mom was a piece of work but you aren’t like her. Or the Kraang. You’re April, okay?”

April didn’t answer. She just buried her face in Casey's shoulder and sobbed.

#tmnt #tmnt 2012 #lone hunter and turtle #star wars #tmnt au #fanfic #oc

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midnightcreator12 · 15 days

Text

And We'll Keep Marching On Chapter 12 - Trapped Like Rats

AO3

When you spend all morning hanging out with fam and set a 1 hour alarm for a quick nap before editing....only to wake up well past that alarm. Yeah, promise I didn't intend to skip again! I just usually edit day of posting but I had plans and then kinda passed out, lol. But! Enjoy the newest chapter! Hopefully it'll clear some things up!

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Donnie slowly blinked his eyes open, head pounding an unpleasant rhythm through his skull.

The side of his face felt…sticky. And not sticky like he’d drooled all over his desk after passing out. It was…thicker? How could a sensation be thick? And his arms felt…really heavy for some reason? And his neck hurt and…was there something over his mouth?

Actually, better question, where the heck was he?

The last thing he remembered…he’d gotten April’s text and immediately felt a bit indignant about it. Because yes, some people did go crazy when they mutated but, as far as he’d been able to puzzle together from many, many, many hours of research, any negative mental effects were from the physical pain of mutating more than the mutagen itself. But he didn’t want to just go and tell her that with no evidence and since the bulk of his notes were back in New York, he’d gone for the source.

Most Kraang tech seemed to be connected in some way so Donnie was confident that there would be more than enough data for him to show April that, no, they weren’t going crazy and he didn’t know why she thought they were but she was wrong.

He’d gone into the basement and then…

Then…

Something had hit him?

He jumped fully awake when something banged loudly to his side, eyes darting around to try and find the source as quickly as possible-

Until his sluggish brain finally started to function enough to register where he was and the state he was in.

His face was sticky with blood, he was painfully familiar with what drying blood felt like on his scales, which meant something had hit his head. His arms felt heavy because they were pinned to his sides by…some kind of slime? The texture was definitely like slime but when he tried to free his arms it kept him firmly pinned. And the same gunk was covering his mouth, preventing him from moving his jaw at all. A hiss of frustration and disgust slipped out, muffled by the gunk on his face.

Another bang made him flinch and look around.

He was in the basement of the farmhouse, propped up with his shell to the wall, almost tucked behind the Kraang ship. And the banging turned out to be….Raven?

Raven was in a similar state to Donnie, except she seemed to be trying to use the Kraang ship as a brace, leaning on it as she tried to hop and squirm her way around it. The bangs were when she started to tip too far one way and would jerk herself back hard enough that her shoulder smacked painfully onto the hull of the ship.

Donnie tried to ask what she was doing….except the slime on his mouth very effectively prevented any legible words from coming out.

Raven’s head still snapped around at the sound of his grumbling, eyes wide in the dark as she stared at Donnie. He tried to gesture without the use of his arms, as if to ask ‘what are you doing?’

Raven’s eyes pinched and she jerked her head towards the basement stairs.

Donnie leaned so he could see-

Which turned out to be a terrible idea because it made his head spin and nausea roll in his guts. And the sudden dizziness promptly caused him to topple over.

Without his arms free to catch himself all he could really do was twist himself to try and make sure his shoulder took the brunt of the fall and not his jaw. He still groaned when he smacked into the packed dirt, shutting his eyes against the wave of nausea and focusing on his breathing.

He did not need to vomit when his mouth was already obstructed.

Once the feeling passed he cracked open an eye, looking at Raven first then slowly making his way to where she’d been gesturing. His eyes widened when he saw Mikey, also bound and gagged, lying on his shell closer to the stairs. But what concerned him was that Mikey’s eyes were shut and he wasn’t moving.

His gaze snapped back to Raven, eyes questioning. He couldn’t remember how he’d ended up in their current predicament, all he remembered was coming down to the basement and then…nothing.

Raven met his gaze steady, with the even calm she’d had when they’d all sat down and asked her questions about where she was from, and tipped her head again.

When Donnie looked towards Mikey again, he finally saw what Raven was aiming for. Mikey’s kusarigama lay in the dirt, blade gleaming like a beacon.

Donnie nodded, paused, then tried to gesture towards Mikey with his eyes, hoping Raven would understand the silent question.

Is he okay?

Apparently, Raven was good at translating non-verbal communication, because she watched Donnie for a moment before lifting one shoulder.

Donnie himself, however, wasn’t that great at translating anything that wasn’t one of Leo’s complicated stings of hand signals. Which meant he wasn’t sure if the half-shrug meant maybe, I don’t know, or no.

He huffed and shut his eyes, debating a course of action.

When he decided on one, he sighed again. None of the things he could do in his current state were pleasant but the most efficient one would probably mess with his very possible concussion.

But there was something in the house, something that had managed to get the drop on him and Mikey and Miss. Super Soldier. Leo was still not fit enough to fight and if whatever had grabbed them had managed to sneak up on two ninjas and Raven, it would definitely be able to get the drop on April and Casey, which left Raph as the only line of defense.

And for as much as Raph would boast that he could fight anything, he really couldn’t. No alone, anyway.

So he gritted his teeth, lined himself up, braced his bound feet against the wall, and shoved his body forward enough to start rolling.

As he suspected, the movement rattled his brains around and made his gut roil, but it was the quickest way to get to the blade and, hopefully, escape.

He’d roughly calculated how many rolls it would take to get to his goal. The pounding in his head made it a little difficult to count while rolling but he should land close enough. And if he didn’t, Raven was slowly making her way over. Shell, she might even take a page from Donnie’s book and roll her way over.

He meant to check for the blade when he finally stopped himself but he had to screw his eyes closed again. The spinning had worsened his headache and the urge to puke had climbed to be almost unbearable. His body instinctively curled in, trying to protect his aching guts. He breathed harshly through his nose, keeping his jaw locked as he mentally fought through the new waves of discomfort.

He was just getting his body under control when there was a thump next to him. He cracked an eye open, and saw that the thump had been Raven plopping herself on the ground next to him. He groaned when he saw that he’d undershot his roll by about a foot.

He started to souffle, getting ready to do another roll, but Raven made a muffled sound of protest. He looked towards her again, and watched her scoot and shuffle around until she was basically on top of the kusarigama.

With the way she was tied, her hands were positioned behind her back. So when she got close enough to the weapon, she spun so that her back was mostly towards Donnie and she could grab it. Donnie frowned as he watched, knowing there was no way she’d be able to cut herself free without either being insanely flexible, or hurting herself.

But she didn’t try to use the blade on her own bindings. Instead, she swiveled again and started to side-shuffle towards Donnie.

Something clicked sluggish in his brain and he grunted, quickly turning himself so that his carapace was facing her. She might cut her own arm open if she tried to free herself first but it was pretty unlikely she could put enough power behind the blade to do any damage to Donnie’s shell.

He heard her move a bit more before he felt the kusarigama rasp against his back. He held perfectly still, anxiously waiting and listening as the weapon started to saw through the slime keeping him captive.

He heard the moment when something snapped and felt the tension ease on his torso. He instantly ripped his arms free, hands going to his face and tearing at the martial muting him. Except pulling on the stuff didn’t seem to do much, only stretched it a little before it would spring back into place. Donnie let out a low, clicking growl of frustration and his fingers tensed. He hadn’t kept up with nail trimming as often as he did at home so, while small, he had the beginnings of claws on both hands.

Claws that ripped and tore at the slime and finally left him gasp in a lungful of air when he managed to get it off his face.

But the sudden intake of oxygen seemed to be the last straw for his guts.

Donnie breathed in, cut himself off, and promptly rolled away to vomit up the meager amount of food and fluid in his stomach. It was more bile than food, making the smell burn harshly in his nose and causing him to gag again.

Thank god it passed quickly. Donnie sat for a moment, gasping as he got his second wind back. He spit out the last remnant of sick before sitting up again and turning back to his fellow captive.

Raven was watching him, brow pinched and eyes…the look reminded him or Leo when one of them was hurt, all glassy and concerned. He reached for his legs, rasping out a soft, “I’m okay.”

Raven grunted. He could feel her watching as he finally freed himself fully.

The urge to immediately go to Mikey was nearly overpowering but he forced himself to stay focused. The best course of action was to free all conscious people first, in case whatever had attacked them heard the noise and came looking.

So he crawled over to Raven, grabbing the kusarigama from her and making quick work of the binds on her torso and legs. But he he moved to cut away the substance on her face, she pushed the weapon away and violently shook her head before pointing to Donnie’s hands.

And the self-consciousness suddenly burned through him. There was a reason he usually kept his nails meticulously trimmed. The same reason he usually stuck his tongue out when he was focusing or frustrated, why he tried very hard to not tuck his neck too far into his shell in mixed company.

People didn’t have claws, or click, or tuck their heads into shells when they felt overwhelmed-

Raven let out a frustrated sound through her nose. Donnie jumped when her hand grabbed his and physically put them on her jaw.

…right, he forgot. Raven wasn’t a normal human either, she just looked like one.

She didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was not having a very large and very sharp blade near her face.

So Donnie bit the inside of his cheek and sunk his claws in, tearing away the muck quickly.

Raven pulled in a huge breath once her airway was clear, nodding and patting Donnie’s shoulder, “Thanks. Get Mikey free.”

She stood shakily and Donnie frowned in confusion when she started limping her way towards the Kraang ship again. But he didn’t ask yet, turning his attention to Mikey instead.

His fingers went to the pulse point as he cut away the slime and he breathed a small sigh of relief when he felt the steady, strong rhythm of Mikey’s heartbeat. He made quick work of the binds, dropping the weapon in favor of claws for the face once again.

“Mikey?” he called, tapping his brother's face “Mikey? You with me?”

Mikey let out a breathy groan but didn’t move otherwise.

Donnie frowned, hooking him around his shoulders and lifting. But he froze when he spotted a small pool of red that was revealed when Mikey was picked up. His hand went to the back of Mikey’s head instantly, feeling a spot sticky with blood.

“It threw him,” Raven’s voice called from the other side of the ship. “He hit his head, not sure how responsive he’ll be.”

“It?” Donnie asked.

Raven limped back into view…with Scarp clutched in her hands, eyes black.

Donnie stared, “What-”

“He’ll be fine,” Raven murmured as she sat next to Donnie again, settling Scrap on her lap. “Both of them. But Scrap’ll wake up a lot faster than Mikey.”

“How’d you figure that?”

“Because I can do this,” Raven pressed her finger to the side of Scrap's head, causing a panel at the top to open. Donnie watched as she stuck her fingers inside and fiddled around for a moment before snapping Scrap's head shut again.

And like magic, as the opening clicked shut, tiny dots of light returned to the bot's eyes. He sat up, beeping and clicking quickly as his head flew back and forth.

“Calm down,” Raven murmured. “Think you can be a sentry for me for a lil?.”

Scrap beeped again but seemed to relax, hunkering down like a brooding bird. Raven placed him next to Mikey before turning to Donnie, “We gotta move.”

“What?”

Raven didn’t reply, merely pushed herself to her feet again and headed for the stairs.

“We can’t just leave Mikey here!” Donnie hissed.

“We can’t do anything until whatever…that was is taken care of. And I doubt anyone else has figured out that April’s mom isn’t what she seems.”

“April’s-” Donnie paused, recalling last night. Raven and Mikey had approached him in the barn and Mikey had gone on a rant about how Mrs. O’Neil was setting off his ninja vibes. Raven hadn’t ranted but she’d agreed something was off.

Donnie had blown them both off, told them to go bug Raph.

“What do you mean April’s mom isn’t what she seems?”

Raven paused at the foot of the stairs, turning as if to reply to Donnie.

An ear-piercing screech cut through the air, sending a chill up Donnie’s spine and making some deep-seated instinct in him scream ‘danger’.

Raven’s head snapped back around and she started climbing, pulling herself up faster with the handrail to compensate for her leg, “Move! Before we’re in deeper trouble!”

Donnie still hesitated, gaze dropping to Mikey. He was still out, the head wound would probably keep him down for a while…but the others were in danger.

Leo couldn’t fight in his state.

Making a choice, Donnie carefully laid Mikey down again, pointing at Scrap and hissing, “Do not let anything happen to him.”

The bot's head swiveled around and he gave a short beep.

It would have to be good enough confirmation.

Donnie got to his feet, only stopping to grab Mikey’s weapon. He bounded up the stairs after Raven, catching up right before she hit the top. She hissed in pain when she got to the door but still moved to shove it open, Donnie quickly moving to help. But when they pushed, the door only rattled.

“Kriff,” Raven hissed, banging hashly on the door. “It locked us in.”

“Stand back,” Donnie narrowed his eyes at the door hinge, running calculations for angle and force as he snapped the kusarigama back to its nunchaku form. The metal and wood hummed as he built momentum and hit the first hinge with a satisfying crack, and the second followed quickly after.

Not accounting for the door caving in without any support from the hinges was a miscalculation on his part that he would blame on his head injury.

Luckily, Raven’s reflexes didn’t seem to be hampered. She pulled him back before he added another wound to his skull. The door snapped, the lock unable to hold it up and sending it fully to the floor.

Raven’s hand whipped out, effectively shoving it to one side of the stairs as it tumbled to the bottom.

Donnie felt a flash on gratefulness that Mikey was to the side and not directly below. But he couldn’t dwell much on the feeling when another blood-chilling screech echoed from outside.

Both teens clambered out of the basement and Donnie took in the state of the ground floor. The front door was wide open, the entry hall rug had been shoved to one side, there was an awful screeching coming from outside-

Something thumped at the second story.

Donnie looked up and sucked in a panicked breath when he saw Raph leaning on the banister. Half his face was drenched in blood and his head seemed to be drooping listlessly and Raph was trying to forceable keep it up, his hands clutching the banister like a lifeline as he slowly tried to make his way to the stairs.

“Raph!” Donnie yelled. “Where’s Leo?”

Raph’s head rolled towards Donnie, eyes glassy and unfocused, “...‘eo…run…”

Raven shoved past Donnie, moving towards Raph and snapping, “Raphael, where is Mrs. O’Neil?”

“O’Neil,” Ralph’s words were slurred and he was clearly flagging but he still tried to get to the stairs. “Shessss….bad…Mike’s right…”

Another screech sounded from outside and Donnie turned his attention to it.

The door was open. Raph had told Leo to run. Run from Mrs. O’Neil…

Donnie took off in a sprint, following the direction the screeching was coming from. The sun was sinking and the treeline blocked out the light much quicker than the buildings of the city did. But there was enough light for Donnie to see…himself?

He was at the barn, screeching and howling as he clawed and bashed at the door.

Except that definitely wasn’t him. No, that was his worst nightmare. A feral, snarling, monstrous mutant version of himself.

But he couldn’t focus on that now. Because that copy wanted inside the barn, which meant someone must be hiding in there.

And that someone could be Leo, who was still hurt and still couldn’t walk or fully rotate his right arm.

Donnie snarled, extending the chain and blade on Mikey’s chuck, building momentum as he ran and letting it fly when he got close enough.

The blade hit true, slicing across the imposter's shell. The copy’s back arched, screaching as the blade cut and…bright green wept from the imposter's shell?

Donnie blinked, staring at…what he assumed to be blood?

The fake Donnie spun, eyes wild, teeth bared, face twisted into a terrifying snarl.

It lit all of Donnie’s instincts on fire, made his own lips pull back and gnash his teeth. He planted his feet, pulling the end of the kusarigama into his hand again.

The fake hissed, turning to fully face Donnie.

And then…smiled?

Donnie didn’t have much time to dwell on it. Because, between one blink and the next, he suddenly found the duplicate right in his face, overly pointed teeth snapping inches from his beak. He jerked back, quickly pulling in the chain so he could better utilize the chuck for close-quarter combat.

The fake growled, low and garbled, claws striking out lighting fast and striking Donnie’s chest. His plastron absorbed most of the blow but the power behind it still pushed him back. But he kept his footing, managing to bring an arm up to spin the nunchaku. It cracked against his imposter’s skull, sending it reeling away.

Donnie fell back, chunk spinning as he geared up for another attack-

The imposter moved again, too fast for Donnie to track. He gasped in pain when claws raked over his arm, focus faltering. And that was all it took for the handle of the chuck to go wild and crack Donnie in the jaw. The shock and pain caused him to drop the weapon, both hands moving to his now bloody chin.

It was another misstep on his part, since it gave the imposter an opening.

Donnie yelped as a fist socked him in the jaw, stumbling back. Another hit to his gut had him on the ground and he was pressed into the dirt by a powerful kick to his carapace that rattled his jaw badly enough that he accidentally sunk his teeth into his own tongue.

He coughed, spitting blood as he shakily tried to get his limbs back under him. But he was stopped by another hard kick to his side that forced him down again with a wheeze.

He looked up, glaring at the imposter. It just smiled back, eyes glowing a sickly pink.

A shade of pink that had Donnie freezing on the ground, memories of shattering glass suddenly surging to the forefront of his mind.

And then the imposter…morphed.

The green scales and yellowing plastron almost shivered, shifting and smoothing into pink skin and purple fabric. Bulky hands and feet shrunk, three fingers splitting into five, bare feet suddenly becoming a par of flats. Another shiver went through the…the thing, like it was setting the transformation.

And then it was Mrs. O’Neil standing over Donnie, smiling wickedly.

Donnie let out a strangled sound, started to get to his feet again-

Mikey’s nunchuck cracked harshly against his skull, sending him down again.

He could feel more blood pouring down his face and his heartbeat thudded in his ears, almost drowning out any other sound. He tried to move, get up, keep fighting but his limbs refused to cooperate and he only managed to turn his head to look toward the barn.

He could hear the…shapeshifter? It was yelling, calling in Mrs. O’Neil’s voice.

Through blurry vision, he saw the barn door shake and he whimpered when it was pushed open. Desperately, he tried to move again, fingers twitching as he tried to fight through the pain.

The creature approached April, arms open, inviting, trying to grab and trap and Donnie couldn’t…that couldn’t…

His heart seized when April opened the door enough for him to see Leo, shaking and leaning fully on Casey and looking so, so scared. But his head turned to Donnie almost immediately and Donnie saw Leo’s eyes widen, saw his jaw tick.

He had to move, damnit, he had to move, Leo couldn’t fight-

Leo looked away, eyes snapping to where the shapeshifter was still approaching. Donnie tensed when he saw Leo’s body go taught, his lips pulling back in a snarl, eyes going fully white.

Donnie heard Casey yell, saw Leo shove him away and charge at the shapeshifter, heard and saw April’s cry of confusion.

Leo dug his claws into the creature's shoulders and dragged them down, ripping and tearing all the way down the thing's torso.

The ringing in Donnie’s ear lessened a little, enough to hear April’s scream more clearly. He gasped when Leo suddenly flew through the air, thrown by an invisible force. He could feel how hard his brother hit the ground, heard the strangled yowl of pain when he landed on his injured shoulder.

And finally, Donnie could move. He still felt too shaky to stand but he managed to force his arms to drag him forward, closer to Leo, close enough that he could curl himself over Leo as best he could.

He looked up, eyes finding April and Casey’s horrified expressions. But the two were looking at very different things.

Casey’s gaze was on the shifter, eyes getting wider and wider, probably seeing that Mrs. O’Neils blood was a neon green instead of red. But April was standing slightly in front of Casey and the imposter and her eyes were firmly locked on Donnie and Leo.

Donnie flitched at the raw fear and anger she fixed on them. He may not have her on a metaphorical pedestal anymore but…it hurt, seeing her look at him like he was a monster.

Then Casey’s voice rang out, clear as a bell, “What the actual fuck is that?!”

April spun and Donnie allowed his gaze to move to the shapeshifter. He watched in a detached fascination as its body spasmed, skin and clothing rippling as it curled around the gashes Leo had left. The pink, human flesh changed, turning a deeper red and seeming to almost…split. Smooth skin became a mass of ropy tendons, breaking apart at the end of the arms into a mass of tentacle-like appendages.

The creature lifted its head, the face a macabre in-between of a human and something…clearly not. Fair skin tone mixed with an ashy blue, a few spots along one cheek spasming into the red tendons, crawling up towards one eye glowing bright pink.

Its lips thinned, seeming to almost dry out as they pulled back to show needle-like teeth as the creature hissed.

April stepped back and Donnie just heard her voice saying, “What…what…mom?”

“Aaapril,” the monster growled, body still morphing, all human pretenses being overcome by rapidly expanding muscles.

The thing grew, towering higher and higher as its body became some kind of twisted, fleshy spider creature, another pair of arms dropping out of its sides before it fell onto it’s six limbs. The neck extended, giving the illusion of it being even bigger, the face fully changing to resemble a Kraang and the mouth opening wider and wider into a yawning maw.

April stood, frozen as she watched her mom transform into a monster.

It loomed over April, grotesque face leering down as it rasped, “I only want to protect us April. You have to liiisten”

“Get away from her!” Casey howled, charging towards the monster, swinging his baseball bat over his head. “Goongala!”

He landed a solid hit on one of its legs.

The blow made it skitter away, attention turning to Casey. It screeched again, and a thick tentacle zipped out of its back, slamming Casey back into the barn.

Donnie tensed when the pink eyes then turned to him. His arms tightened around Leo, trying to pull him further under his own body as the creature released more tentacles from its back.

“It was always meant to be ussss,” It hissed, starting to stalk toward Donnie and Leo. “April issss mine. Aaaalll miiine!”

Donnie screwed his eyes shut as the creature rose on its hind legs. Because he couldn’t do anything else. He was hurt, bleeding, unable to even entertain the idea of standing let alone fighting. All he could do was protect Leo.

He tucked his head down, hoping that he could at least sheild Leo enough that he could make it, spare him from dying here. Leo couldn’t die, Donnie wasn’t going to fail him again-

Something screeched through air, there was a pop, a hiss of something hot burning flesh and the creature roared in pain.

Donnie's head snapped back up, just in time to see a flurry of pink laser bolt rain into the creature, forcing it back. He looked to where they were coming from.

Raven limped her way across the yard, Kraang laser rifle held in her arms and rapidly firing, eyes hard and focused as she pressed in.

The shifter screeched as the bolts burned into it, scrabbling away, tentacles moving in an attempt to shield itself, “Inssssolent creature!”

“Says the skanah who can’t fight fair!” Raven screamed back, adjusting her aim so that more bolts hit the shifter in the face. “Why don’t you come after someone who can fight back!”

The shifter roared, tentacles shooting towards Raven.

She ducked, rolled, tried to avoid the appendages while keeping up her volley.

But the shifter was quicker.

Donnie gasped when one tentacle managed to trip Raven, and that was all the monster needed to get a hold of her. The powerful limbs curled around her, trapped her arms, forced the rifle from her hands. Raven kicked and struggled, even growled up at the thing holding her.

It hissed in return, coils tightening around its prey until it managed to turn Raven's growl into a scream of pain.

“Stop!” April’s voice cracked through the chaos like a whip.

Donnie flinched at the shockwave he felt in the air, tucking himself down again to shield Leo. He heard April scream again, her voice mingling with the creatures as it screamed. Both voices rose with the feeling of power in the air, crackling like a live-wire.

And when the screaming seemed to reach its peak, when the pressure in the air started to feel suffocating, when Donnie thought he might bust from all the noise and sensation-

There was a pop, and something slimy landed all over Donnie’s back.

And then… silence.

Slowly, Donnie peeked up again, taking in the scene.

The creature was…gone. The only thing left was a massive splatter of green slime all over the ground. Raven was slowly sitting up, one arm hugging her ribs. April stood, staring wide-eyed at where the monster used to be.

Donnie wasn’t fully sure what happened but…if he had to guess, he was pretty sure April exploded the shapeshifter with her powers.

And now that the danger was quite firmly gone…his body started to tremble.

Donnie felt his muscles go lax and his eyes fell shut. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he shouldn’t pass out. He has…so many injuries to check, and all of his brothers had some kind of head injury…

But the adrenaline was leeching out of him and with it all his energy and willpower.

His world went black and the last thing he heard was Casey once again yelling, “The fuck just happened?!”

-------------

Translations:

Kriff - fuck

skanah - fucker

#tmnt #tmnt 2012 #lone hunter and turtle #star wars #tmnt au #fanfic #oc

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