Dementia
A TMNT Short Story from an odd little girl
Leonardo walked alongside Donatello in a sewer tunnel below the sewers. Michealangelo skipped along merrily in front of them in the tunnel. It was good to see Mikey so happy. It was a sign he was finally getting over Raph's death, which had happened over three years ago. Mike had taken it very hard. He had became so morbid and so depressed. His brothers were convinced that he'd temporarily lost his grip on reality, and even his grip on sanity.
At one time, only about a month after the violent accident that had caused Raph's death, Mikey had dug up the corpse from it's resting place at the old farm and brought it back to the lair. Donatello had to take it back and rebury it, an experience that still gave him nightmares. As if it hadn't been hard enough to prepare Raph's body for burial once, he'd had to do it twice.
Donnie and Leo continued to debate whether cybernetics, if it was possible, was ethical. They barely noticed Mike as he dropped down into the lair and called out for Splinter. Still discussing, they entered after him, both preferring the ladder to jumping down like Mike did.
Their debate was cut short by Mikey's scream. They ran to where he was standing, the door of Splinter's car, to see what was wrong. When they got there, they both drew in gasps of despair at the sight within. Splinter was lying dead in a pool of blood. The reason they could be sure he was dead was the skin of his face had been peeled off, showing the bloodied bone, ripped muscle and sinew beneath.
Leonardo gasped. Michaelangelo just stood there, his entire body shaking violently, staring at Splinter's corpse with a look of despair on his face.
"Hey." a familiar voice said. Leonardo looked up. He drew in a ragged breath of shock. It was Raphael, but it couldn't be Raphael. Raphael was dead! It had to be the shock from his sensei's death. He was imagining this! He HAD to be!
But, as if just to contradict him, Raphael was standing there, plain as day. Thick black thread spread across the cut on his shoulder, making stitches that roughly held his arm on where it had been ripped off. Thinner, more delicate black stitches led over the cut on his face. Neither of them were healed. In fact, you could see parts of the muscle and ligiments in Raphael's shoulder.
"What? Huh?" Leonardo asked, completely baffled.
"Oh god." Mikey said in a voice choked with emotion. He had not even noticed Raphael. He fell to his knees and began sobbing into his hands. Raph looked over at him and walked over and placed his hand on the back of Mikey's neck. Then, to Leonardo's horror, he pulled out his sai and, before Leo could stop him, he stabbed Mike at the base of the neck, right through his spinal cord. Mikey slumped to the ground with a silent thump, as dead and still as his sensei.
Leonardo and Donatello's weapons were out in a flash. "Who the hell are you?" Leonardo said in a voice so seething with uncontrolled anger that it seemed inhuman.
It looked at Leonardo with wide eyes "Raphael." it said simply.
"No, you aren't!!" Leonardo raged, his blood boiling through his veins... His sensei dead. Another brother dead. And an impostor, disgracing the memory of one of his other brothers.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!" he howled in fury, coming at this gross imitation, swords raised in anger. The creature disarmed him with no life coming to it's eyes and an emotionless expression on it's face. Leonardo crouched in a ready position, not even daring to blink. His eyes were narrowed in pure malice. Never before had he felt such fury. Now he knew what Raph had felt like.
A tiny pang of guilt and sorrow went through him, enough to make him close his eyes for a few seconds longer than usual for a blink. It was just the opportunity the beast needed. It lunged at Leonardo with precise deadliness, but with still those simple eyes and emotionless face. The monster grabbed Leonardo and tried to throw him. Leonardo latched onto it's arm though, biting and scratching it. It's skin was cool and clammy, it's blood cold.
The creature looked at Leonardo, becoming rather distressed at his persistent attacks. With a mighty heave, it slammed him into corner.
Leonardo was up into a ready stance in seconds. The physical likeness of this creature to his long dead brother was close, almost perfect, except the monstrosity was about ten times more powerful.
Leonardo's anger was slowly being replaced by fear. He was caught, his eyes darted around frantically, looking for a way out, but he was trapped. 'Where the hell is Donatello?' he thought in panic. Donnie must still be too frazzled to attack. Leo had to stall until Don could pull himself together.
Leonardo examined his enemy, looking for any weakness. It had a look of confusion on it's face, as if it didn't know why Leo was attacking it. Leo sneered 'What a front.'
As Leonardo's eyes wandered, they lighted upon the scratches he'd made on the creature's arm. I saw the blood leaking slowly out. Leonardo was puzzled. It was a rather large abrasion, the blood should have been gushing out. Then he saw something that stunned him, sparks came out of the cut and the creature's arm jerked in an involuntary convulsion.
"Robot!" he hissed quietly. Leo lunged at it, snapping and snarling. It easily caught him and threw him back into the corner with extreme force. Leo bit back the urge to howl as he was slammed into the corner at an odd angle. He could feel the arm rip from it's socket and fall, limp and useless.
Holding his arm and mentally blocking out the fierce pain, Leonardo turned and looked at the monster with a fire of interlaced fear and fury burning brightly in his ice cold blue eyes. The robotic animal stared at him with a puzzled curiosity.
"You freak! You robotic monstrosity!! You are a disgrace! Who sent you?"
It looked at him with that innocent confused look. Anyone else would see the eyes of a small child. But to the grieving turtle, the only thing seen were the eyes of a killer.
A deep guttural growl escaped his throat, anger heating his fire and sending his blood boiling. "Shredder..." he hissed angrily.
"Tsk tsk tsk" Leonardo heard a familiar voice. He froze.
"Huh?" Leo said. 'NO! It couldn't be!'
"Leo, I'm insulted." Donatello said as he calmly stepped up beside the beast, "You actually think Shredder would be smart enough to do this? My greatest creation? My masterpiece?"
Leo's blood ran cold and he begun literally shaking with fear. 'It's not... It can't be!! It's an illusion of some sort. It has to be!!!
"You see Leo, cybernetics is possible, and ethical... even with cadavers." Don said casually.
"Y-Y-You're crazy! You've lost your mind!!" Leonardo said, fear on his face and flooding his mind. Severe pain bit into his mind, reminding him of his useless arm... dead weight. He was in no condition to fight the cyborg. Reasoning with Don was the only recourse Leo could see open to him at the moment.
"Why Donnie?" he asked.
"Why not?" he answered coolly "I suffered so much when I saw Raphael die. I was there, Leo. It was my fault. I could have saved him. And yet I felt nothing. Death is part of life, I feel. But I saw that power, that strength die. I saw it when I had to bury him the first time... and again when I prepared him for burial after Mike dug him up. So I brought him back. He was the perfect assassin in life, his powers have been increased in death. He no longer has to worry about bleeding to death or other such injuries that would have been lethal before. He truly is invincible. Splinter must have opposed him somehow, and you can see how skilled he is. He could defeat Splinter. Something none of us were ever able to do."
"You are insane! Completely nutty!!" he exclaimed, aghast. How could it be that his brother had gotten this bad and none of his family had noticed? How could it be that he hadn't noticed? The folly had been deadly to Splinter and Mike. Leo only hoped that Don would show mercy on him, and maybe regain his senses.
"Maybe I am..." Don said idly "Don't you share my dream? We could be kings! We could take the world by storm! Think of it, anyone who died could be brought back as one of our soldiers! Eventually, I could perfect my programming enough that I could bring Mike and Splinter back and maybe even Raph too. Although with him, I'd have to tone down his aggressive behavior."
Don took one look at him and could tell by the fear in Leo's eyes that Leo didn't share his views. Donatello sighed. "I should have known this would happen. You, Splinter, and even Raph are just too honor oriented to accept my plans. And Mike is too light hearted. He feels the people's pain too fully. Great quality in character, bad for a leader though. Especially a ruthless tyrant." Don sighed again. "I'm sorry to tell you this Leo, but I have to kill you. You know too much to be allowed to live. I know you, and you would try to stop me."
Leonardo looked at his brother in disbelief. "No! No, you aren't Don! You can't be!"
Donatello ignored him. He turned to the cyborg. "Terminate designated target."
Leonardo may not have fully understood Donnie's jargon, or believed that his brother could have just gave him his death sentence, but one look at the 'borg erased any doubt or confusion. The look of innocence was replaced with cold, hard anger. A look that Leo had seen in Raph's eyes many times had been amplified until it was almost skewed out of recognition.
The monster drew it's sai and came at Leo, aiming at his head. Leonardo brought his good arm up and winced in anguish as the creature tore into it, ripping out huge chucks of muscle and flesh without hardly trying.
Leonardo gasped and fell to the floor. If he had a chance before, he knew it was gone now. No thoughts came to his panic stricken mind as he watched the doom-filed death that he had once known as his brother Raphael decend upon him.
Donatello waited quietly as Raphael raged triumphantly over Leonardo's dead body. He sighed to himself "Too bad to see that kind of talent wasted." he watched as Raphael returned to his normal stupefied state.
Raphael came over and showed him the cut on his arm. "Hurts." he said simply.
"We will have to fix that, won't we?" Donatello asked his creation.
The creature nodded dumbly.
"Well, first, let's go visit our friend April, okay?"
"'kay."
They walked away from the lair. The only two living mutant turtles left in the world. One quite demented and the other a sadistic creation, a cybernetic frankenstien with the simple binary mind of a killer... and behind them, in the blood stained room, the slow, rancid smell of carrion started drifting upwards...
E-mail me with any suggestions, comments, feedback, or questions. If I killed your favorite turtle and you want to bitch at me, and/or you think I need mental help and want to suggest a good psychiatric ward, e-mail me!!