The Trial of the Lost
Summary:
Donatello has been missing for almost three years now and everything hasn't been the same. Under the attack of their archenemy, Splinter told them to run for their lives... Three brothers are left alone. In the vast city full of Shredder's evil eyes watching, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo must grow stronger and lean on each other; they must trust their remaining brothers no matter how they doubt them... But without Donnie, mending something broken is more difficult than it used to be...
Based on the universe of the epic ep of 2003 TV series "Same as it never was".
A/N: It's my first try on a fan fiction. Really like to know what happened after Donnie disappeared from this alternative universe.
I rewrote this chapter after I wrote chapter seven (I planned total nine chapter so far). So it is now slightly different from the version you may have read when it was first published. But no major-not even minor-change done to the plot. I just thought I could do better. Thank you very much for reading this, hope you enjoy the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Chapter One: In the Warehouse
It still felt like yesterday. It's just hazy and blurry like some sort of a nightmare that you had almost forgotten until it caught you off guard and haunted you with shards of images you had wished to wipe out forever from you memories. Guilt. And obsession. Mostly it was guilt that caused you pain. And there was helplessness. You only wished you had done your best, but you gradually found out that, actually, you had done everything you can—there was nothing you can do anymore. You could change nothing. You were uncontrollably obsessed with your fear and self-condemnation. Reality was what scared you the most.
I wanted to convince myself that it was only a dream, a bad dream that if I shake myself hard enough I would wake up shivering. But it was no dream; it was real. No matter how much I told myself it would all pass and I'll wake up surrounding by the same old feeling of reassurance and security, I still woke up every morning soaking in sweat and shame.
No more hope. No more happiness. It's all gone. There was only regret.
They were surrounded by unfamiliar darkness when it's time for a day to start. No smell of breakfast. No sounds of morning TV. No voices murmuring of passing milk and stuff. The air smelled damp and felt cold. The only sound that could be heard was small creatures, rats or cockroaches, crawling in the corners not far away; besides that, it was stillness. They were not in the lair.
Leonardo opened his eyes.
At first he did not recognized this place, and then suddenly fragments of memory pierced through his blurry mind, forcing him to wake up completely. They ran through the tunnels. The lair had been under attack. Foot tech ninjas, Karai legions, Footninjas were everywhere. They barely escaped. Mikey's constant groan reminded Leo how badly the youngest one was injured. Raphael was yelling at him. The cold scent of city smog gave him chills. They were on the streets, hiding from the watching eyes of Foot ninjas. They left Splinter behind. Yes…Splinter. Splinter was still fighting, alone, in the lair. And they went into an abandoned warehouse.
They were in the warehouse now.
"Raph." He called out in the darkness. "Raphael. You there?"
A low, muffled grunt. "Hrrr… Leo?"
Leo sighed in relief, sitting up. His eyes were gradually adjusting the darkness. It should be morning, or midday by now, but the warehouse was almost pitch-black; maybe the windows were sealed.
"Raph, is Mikey next to you?"
Raph moaned. Leo could hear him struggling to sit straight. "He's here, Leo."
"Is he—"
"He's alive."
There was a brief moment of silence. And then a click, Leo turned on a flashlight.
"Whoa." Raph covered his eyes. "Where did ya get that?"
"Grabbed it before leaving the lair." Leo said.
"Nice." Raph said, but sounded unconcerned.
He pointed at Mikey, who was lying almost lifeless next to him. "Over here. I wanna check on Mike."
Leo moved towards the direction of Raph's voice. He held up the flashlight and was able to see Raph. Raphael's face was covered in blood, ash and dirt. Leo realized he probably looked the same.
"You alright?" He asked, feeling stupid.
"Not as bad as Mikey that I know." Raph muttered. He tried to stand up but failed. He ended up collapsing on the floor, "my leg." He cursed under his breath.
"How's your left eye?" Leo asked Raph. His own body sored all over, and was covered with bruises. There was a rather deep slash on the side of his head, but otherwise he was fine.
Raph shrugged. "Still can see nuthin'. Whatever. 'S not important." He motioned for the flashlight. "Gimme that."
Leo passed the flashlight to him. Raph held it up so he could examine Michelangelo closely. Leo crawled to their side.
"It stopped bleedin'." Raph said, fingers gently stroking Mikey's head. Mikey's left forearm was slit open by a legionbot last night. They had tied the wound with a piece of cloth, but the blood quickly soaked through it. It was a nasty cut, so bad that Mikey lost conscious due to pain and blood loss even when they were still making their way through the sewer tunnels.
"Thank God." Leo said. "We need medical supplies though. We couldn't leave it like this…"
The two brothers were silent for a moment, both sinking into their thoughts.
Raph broke the silence. "What about Master Splinter?"
Leo looked down at the ground. "He'll find us." He said in an unsure tone.
Raph hissed. "How do ya know?"
"…He'll be fine, Raph." Leo lied. "There's nothing we can do…" And there's nothing else he could say.
Raph took a deep breath. "We could have—" His voice came out in a horrible croak.
"—It's all meaningless now." Leo interrupted him coldly.
"And it's because of you!" Raph said hoarsely.
"Stop it, Raph!" Leonardo said loudly. "...I really don't want to do this right now."
"We left the lair without him and it's all because of you…"
"He WANTS us to leave, too! Stop it!" Now he was shouting.
"Ya know this was so not the time to be the good student…" Raph smirked.
"We can do nothing to change it now." Said Leo grimly.
"Oh yeah? That's how you deal with responsibility?"
"Raph, we are ALIVE. That's all Splinter wanted us to be…"
"Yeah? Mikey's fuckin' dyin' and we can't goddamned move our shells and you say we are alright? I tell ya it's a thousand times better ta die with Sensei…"
"Shut up, Raph. Master Splinter's still alive. And Mikey's not dying! Every word you said is meaningless. It doesn't matter anymore." Leo said slowly and his eyes were inexpressive. "It's gonna change nothing."
Raph gaped at him, his shoulders trembling.
"I can't believe it." He uttered in disbelief, shuddering. "Ya left him to his death! Do ya even listen ta yerself? You ruthless coward!"
Leo found himself suddenly on the brink of losing patience until noticing Raph was gasping in tears.
"Come on, Raph…" He tried to put a hand on Raph's shell but was shoved away.
"Don't touch me." Raph grunted.
"Come on." Leo tried again. "I don't want him to die. But it's our only chance…if it wasn't for Sensei, we wouldn't be alive now, Raph. For his sake, for Don's sake, and for Mikey's sake, we..." He stopped, shaking his head as he found himself suddenly speechless.
"Come on, Raphael." He said softly at last. "Don't do this…" He put his hand on Raph's shivering shoulder; this time, Raph did not resist.
He said Donnie's name, the word that hadn't been spoken for a long time.
For a while there was only the sound of Raphael tried to hold back uncontrollable sobbing and no one spoke. He picked up the flashlight, though trembling unquenchably. Leonardo let out a long breath, suppressing whatever his heart was screaming to relinquish, and then bent down to inspect Mikey's condition.
The youngest turtle's face was ghastly pale, his breath quick and shallow. Leo felt his own forehead and then pressed his palm on Mikey's forehead. It felt slightly too hot.
"I think he's running a fever." Leo said in a low voice. "The wound was maybe infected."
"Hang on bro." Raph rasped, holding Mikey's right hand in his own.
All of a sudden, a small sound escaped from Michelangelo's throat.
"Mikey?" Leo called.
"Mikey! Ya hear me?" Raph's back straightened.
Mikey moaned again; his head started to turn slightly from left to right as if he was trying to escape from something. "Don..Donnie…" he said in an almost inaudible raspy voice, "Leo…Raph…. Don't…."
"Mikey, we're here. Right beside ya." Raph said soothingly.
"Mikey, it's fine. You are safe now." Said Leo.
Mikey struggled for a moment, and then he said in a slur, "…'S that you Leo?"
"Yeah," Leo answered, "right here."
Mikey opened his eyes, but due to the sting of the flashlight, he closed them immediately. Raph turned the light away.
"Mikey, you are safe with us."
Mikey swallowed, feeling his throat dry and coarse. But he managed to speak, "Leo, …where are we?"
"In a safe place. It's a discarded warehouse, Mikey."
"And where's…Master Splinter?"
Silence.
"He's...on his way here. He'll come." Said Leo, and then paused for a moment. "How are you feeling, Mikey?"
"Aw…awful." Mikey tried to smile.
"Do you need anything?" Asked Leo.
"Some water…would be nice."
At the moment both Leo and Raph realized that they were thirsty, and…hungry.
Raph's grip on Mikey's hand tightened. "We'll find ya water, and food, too. Your arm hurt?"
Mikey flinched at his brother's question, and then replied hesitantly in a low mumble. "…'m okay." It was certainly a lie as he blinked in an effort to hide the pain.
"We'll find you painkiller, too. And antibiotics…" Leo said, and thought, blankets…they'll need blankets, too. Turtles cannot survive long under this kind of weather, not to mention they were wounded and stressed out.
"We'll keep ya warm. Don't worry, Mikey." Raph said, lifting Mikey's head up and placing it on his own lap.
Leo brooded on the things they needed for a moment, then asked, "Raph, how's your leg?"
"It's sprained, I guess."
"Listen," Leo said thoughtfully. "We need some supplies. Have to go out and search for food, medicine and other things we need to survive in this place."
"I'll go." Volunteered Raph.
"No, I'll go." Said Leonardo, "your leg's sprained."
"But…you're wounded, too." Mikey pointed out. "Wait. How about calling Casey, or April? Maybe they can help us."
"Last night when you were out cold, we called them. They said they were being monitored; it's not safe for us to go out and meet them. And…we'll just be dragging them into this mess." Leo said. "And I'm mostly fine, Mikey."
"Geez, all kinds of sick people out there. The town's filled with Saki's goddamned spies." Retorted Raph.
"Well, it's not the first time we come to this acknowledgement." Said Leo darkly, "they can help us, sure. But better lay low for a couple of days."
"Hey Leo," asked Raph, "how are ya goin' ta get us food? You gonna steal them from a store or somethin'?"
"Of course not." Leo said. "Hang on, …maybe April really can help us."
"How?"
"I have to think this through. Need to meditate for a while." Leo said, pondering. "I'll go after dark." He stood up, slowly retreating to the nearest corner.
After Leo was out of hearing distance, Mikey gazed at Raph's bloodstained left cheek.
"What happened to your eye, Raph?"
Raph looked down at him. "Nothing. It's…no big deal." He muttered. When they were still in the sewer, the Foot set the explosive they brought off and a brick hit him on his face. He guessed his left eye got blinded, but not sure whether it was a permanent damage.
"I…" Mikey swallowed. He carried me all the way here. It was because of me he couldn't defend himself. "I'm dragging you down, am I?" He whispered lowly. "You're stuck here because of me, right? If it's not—"
"Shut up, Michelangelo." Raph snorted. "Don't say stupid things."
Mikey was silent, seemingly wounded by the harsh tone of his words. Raph sighed, patting him softly on his shoulders. "'M sorry, Mike. But we aren't goin' anywhere without ya. We'll help ya get better."
"I know." Mikey muttered; there were tears in his eyes but he did not allow them to fall.
"Don't ya ever say anythin' like that again."
"I'm sorry."
Raph looked down at him. Mikey returned him a weary smile. Raph did not smile back, though.
-End of chapter one.