The next chapter of my 2012 SAINW story, "Coming Home," will be up in the next couple of days, but IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #44 left me with a lot of feelings to sort through. Hence, this quick little one-shot adapting the horrifying scene for the 2012 turtles. It takes place just after the episode "Casey Jones Vs. the Underworld."
If you haven't read issue #44 yet, I warn you, it's a soul-crushing experience.
Summary: Raphael races to save his brother, who has been ambushed by Bebop and Rocksteady. He learns that a split second can be the difference between life and death.
"I've got trouble, guys," Donatello's voice crackled through the speaker of Raphael's T-phone as the red-masked turtle dodged an attack from a giant mutant fish.
Raphael and his other two brothers were engaged in battle with Tigerclaw, Rahzar and Fishface near Foot headquarters, where they were trying to intercept a shipment from Auman Chemicals. The entire fight was really a distraction so that Donatello could sneak into Auman and hack the mainframe computer, but it sounded like the distraction hadn't been a success.
"It's Bebop and Rocksteady. They knocked Casey out cold and... Hey! I just made that—!" A crash and a cry from the brainy turtle on the other end of the line as the call dropped had Raphael leaping to action.
"Go help Donnie!" Leonardo ordered while kicking Rahzar into a wall. "We have this handled."
"On it." Raphael dodged another attack and threw down a smoke pellet as he took to the rooftops and ran.
The Auman Chemicals plant was three quarters of a mile away, and though Raphael was not the faster turtle, Raphael knew he could make it there in four minutes. Donatello was capable of holding his own for that long at least.
He tried calling his brother, but the T-phone, likely smashed to bits, went straight to voicemail. Raphael grimaced and tucked his phone away again. "Hang in there, Donnie."
It felt like hours before he was finally at the factory, following the trail of destruction undoubtably left by Bebop and Rocksteady as they broke into the building. A mutant rhino-sized hole had been torn through a doorway in the back, and several walls had been smashed in the hallway. If the physical trail of destruction hadn't been enough to follow, Donatello's cry of pain would have been.
Raphael ran toward the source of the commotion.
"Do not kill puny turtle yet, Bebop," Raphael heard the Russian-accented voice of Ivan Steranko. "I want to help."
Raphael took the stairs two at a time.
"Man, stop calling me that!" Anton Zeck whined. "And hurry, he's squirmy!"
"Get off me, you ugly pig!" Donatello growled, and Raphael could hear the distress in his voice.
He skidded to a halt in the doorway, but the brief moment he took to survey the scene was a moment too long.
Bebop had his brother - his poor bruised and bloodied brother - pinned to the ground on his plastron with an elbow grinding into his carapace. The warthog's full body weight was keeping the squirming turtle down, a strong indication that Donatello had already taken quite a beating. Rocksteady charged at them with a sledgehammer ready, an unconscious Casey Jones forgotten in the far corner behind him.
"No!" Raphael he ran to intercept the mutant, but he wasn't quick enough.
Bebop leapt off Donatello in time for sledgehammer to come down on his shell with a crack. Donatello only gasped as the top right portion of his carapace caved in. His eyes went wide and the rest of his body jerked as if he'd just hit the ground after a long fall.
After that, Raphael saw red. "DONNIE!" He barreled into the rhino, who pulled the hammer from Donatello's shell with a sickening squelch.
In the corner, Casey groaned and slowly pushed himself up. "...Raph?"
Raphael paid him no attention as he forced his sai up through the jugular of the Russian mutant asshole who had hurt his brother. Rocksteady's hammer slipped from his fingers, and the rhino gagged when Raphael pulled the sai from his throat. The turtle roared with fury as he uppercut his dying enemy, knocking him to the ground.
Raphael whipped around to the warthog, who took a step back in fear. When Bebop made to run, shuriken redirected his path. Tucking his sais into his belt, Raphael picked up the fallen hammer, the head covered in his brother's blood and tissue. Tears blurred his vision, but he could see well enough to know his enemy was cowering. What a sight the enraged turtle must have been. "You're dead," he snarled.
"Raph!" Casey yelled.
Raphael's distraction was just enough for Bebop the slip away, but it didn't matter once the turtle caught sight of Casey attempting to staunch the flow of blood from his brother's shell. It wouldn't do anything to save Donatello from the gaping hole in his back, Raphael knew.
He dropped down beside them and nearly vomited as he examined the injury for himself. Where the shell had caved in, he could see not just blood and bone, but internal organs as well. Beside him, Casey was ripping off his sweatshirt to press against the hole.
He heard a faint rattle of breath and moved himself closer to his brother's face. Blood dribbled down Donatello's chin and his brown eyes rolled around the room in a dazed manner. They showed terror, pain and confusion.
"Casey, call Leo."
Casey hesitated to abandon his useless effort to repair the damage, until Raphael snapped at him. "Do it now!"
Unable to move his brother, for fear of hurting him worse, Raphael lowered himself to his plastron, propped his own chin on one arm, his face close to his brother's, and set a hand atop his head. "Hey," Raphael whispered as he rubbed soothing circles with his thumb. "Donnie. Donnie look at me."
Brown eyes eventually met his, but Donatello could only wheeze in response. Tears slid down the injured turtle's face, and a bubble of blood burst from his mouth.
"Hey, it's okay, Donnie. It's okay." He wiped his brother's tears and tried to smile engouragingly at him, though he knew his attempt was weak. "Casey is getting the others over here now. We'll... We'll get you home and all patched up."
Donatello gasped in pain, and more tears fell. His eyes began to droop.
"Don't you give up on me, Donatello," Raphael ordered while patting his cheek. "Just hang on a little bit longer. Please."
Donatello met his gaze again and Raphael sobbed at the pain he saw. "I'm so sorry I was late, Donnie."
"Raph," the brainy turtle wheezed, his voice so soft Raphael almost missed it.
Raphael shifted to lean his forehead against his brother's. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the top of Donatello's head. "Please don't go..."
There was one last rattle of breath, and then the turtle beside him was dead silent. "Donnie!"
Raphael jerked upright, chest heaving for breath. His eyes shot wildly around him, slowly noting that he was at home in his own bedroom. He threw his sheets off of himself and jumped out of bed, making a beeline for the doorway.
It was the early hours of the morning and the rest of the lair's residents were catching their last hour or so of sleep before morning training. Michelangelo's snores were just about the only noise in their home as Raphael passed the smallest turtle's doorway for the next one.
He quietly pushed his brother's door open and shut it behind him before coming to stand at Donatello's bedside. The taller turtle was resting on his left side, maskless in his sleep. His lanky body was a mess of bandages, especially his right side where his shell had been repaired with epoxy and his arm was strapped to his chest to restrict movement, but he was breathing normally.
A crash in the next room drew Raphael's attention away, but as soon as he heard Michelangelo talking about pizza and Ice Cream Kitty, he rolled his eyes and turned back to pull the covers up over his injured brother.
"Raph?" Donatello murmured as he blinked sleepily up at his older brother.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake ya up." Raphael turned to leave.
"Wait," Donatello called. He groaned as he pushed himself into a sitting position with his only free arm.
Raphael rushed to help him. "Take it easy," he warned. "That cracked shell can't feel good."
Cracked. That was what it was. All it was.
Because Raphael had reacted just a split second soon enough to take most of the force out of Rocksteady's swing, the sledgehammer had only managed to cause a spiderweb of shallow cracks over the top right portion of Donatello's shell.
It didn't stop Raphael from thinking about how much worse it could have been. Even knowing that Steranko was dead didn't ward off that terrifying image.
And cracked was still pretty bad. Donatello was in a lot of pain and would need time to heal. Even after, his shell would always bear the proof of the injury.
At least cracked was still alive.
"Did you have that dream again?" Donatello asked.
Raphael grunted and sat beside him on the edge of the bed.
"You got there in time," Donatello reminded him. "I'm okay."
"You almost weren't."
Raphael remembered too well the agonizing wait for their brothers to arrive with the party wagon while Casey stemmed the flow of blood. Donatello had been lucid enough to say that it wasn't safe to move him without the vehicle, so Raphael had just crouched beside him and muttered assurances while he breathed through the pain.
Donatello set his hand on top of Raphael's. "But you were there," he said. "And I'm still here because you saved me."
Raphael eyed his brother and noted the unhealthy pallor to his skin. "How are you feeling?"
"Still sore." Donatello wiggled the fingers of the hand that was immobilized. "And pretty useless."
Raphael sighed. "You should go back to sleep."
Donatello shook his head. "Everyone will be up for training soon. Besides, I'm wide awake."
"Yeah, but you're not training and you look like crap."
Donatello snorted. "You're one to talk. Do you know what several nights without sleep looks like on you? And you need all the beauty sleep you can get."
Raphael rolled his eyes. "Seriously, do you need your next dose of those pain meds?"
"I guess it wouldn't hurt," Donatello admitted.
Raphael crossed the room to where Leonardo had left bottle of pills on the small desk. He dropped one into his hand and recapped the bottle.
Donatello gratefully accepted the medication and the glass of water from his bedside table. He also allowed Raphael to help him back to laying on his left side.
"Get some sleep, Donnie."
"Raph?"
Raphael halted in his path to the door and turned back to his brother. Donatello's eyes were wide and scared, just as they had been three nights earlier. "Would you just... Stay here until I fall asleep?"
Raphael realized that perhaps he wasn't the only turtle warding off nightmares.
He reached for the desk chair. "Sure," he said as he set it beside the bed and sat down with his feet propped up on the edge of the bed.
Donatello closed his eyes and sighed. Raphael watched as his breathing evened out in sleep, but he didn't leave. Instead, he leaned forward and put his hand on top of his brother's head. "I'm always going to protect you, little brother. Promise."