Sorry it took so long for me to get this next chapter out. I won't lie, I've been just enjoying the first few days of winter break. Being lazy, sleeping in, that sort of thing. I really needed it after how crazy the semester has been! I think I can pull off another chapter this week. We're starting to hit a stride here.
I need to reply to everyone's reviews soon, too. I'm so sorry! I really appreciate them and I need to show it. I may not be able to get to everything tonight, though. I want to post a few more things, both here and on tumblr. But it will be soon, I promise!
I will change the title of this chapter, I think. But for now, the artist is Coldplay (again).
Splinter's eyes snapped open, breathing in harsh gasps. He blinked, glaring at the ceiling and feeling around, sighing when he realized he'd collapsed on the floor. He could still feel the heat of the flames licking his hands and singing his fur. Tang Shen had been so close he could almost touch her, and his vision swam.
Beating on the door startled him, mind unable to grasp the voices shouting from the other side. Several coughs tore from his chest before he pushed himself back up and looked around, eyes falling onto Donatello.
His heart dropped at the sight of his son. Don shoved away from his makeshift bed, pressing his shell deep into the wall. Donatello's knees were pulled to his chest, arms wrapped tightly around his legs and face buried into his knees. Even in the dim candle light, Splinter could see Donatello trembling from head to toe. His son kept shaking his head, muttering something to himself.
"Sensei? Sensei, what's wrong? We heard screaming all the way from the living room, what's going on? Is Don okay? What about you?" Leo's panicked voice came from the other side, but Splinter kept silent, scooting toward Donatello. Don didn't seem aware of anything around him, not even acknowledging Splinter when he put a hand on his knee.
"My son," Splinter whispered. Don didn't say anything. Didn't even breathe. "Donatello," Splinter said, a little louder now. Please listen. You must listen, my son. "What happened in there...not all of it can be trusted. The creature, Shade, I know that it is hidi-"
"Sensei, how can it not be true? It-he-knew things it shouldn't have. How can it not be true? How-I saw-" Don stopped, sucking in air and shuddering. "I saw-agh..."
"Donatello..."
"They all died. They were all dead. Except for me, somehow I was alive at the very end. And April but-but-oh-" Don curled more tightly around himself, rocking back and forth and shaking his head. "Karai, she even-she killed-"
"Karai?" Splinter pressed, swallowing hard, "Was she the woman working with the Shredder...The one who-" He couldn't finish, dread pitting in his stomach.
Donatello hiccuped and nodded, pulling his face away from his knees and wiping at his eyes. "What if she does that here too, sensei? How can we know she won't? If she's really the Shredder's daughter, won't she protect him till-"
"Now is not the time to dwell on this, Donatello." The longer he sat next to Donatello, the heavier the weight in Splinter's chest grew. A chill swept over him, making all his exposed fur stand, and he knew he had to pull Don away from this thinking as quickly as he could. "That world and ours are two different places, with two different histories. There's no way to know for certain."
Donatello shook his head, eyes welling. "But some things are more likely than others, sensei. And what if-what if we make all the same mistakes? What if we end up like that? What if I lose you and my brothers and April and I-what if we're the only ones left?" Don's voice cracked and he shook his head, pushing himself up and stumbling as he stood. He fell against the wall for support and Splinter quickly followed him, grabbing Don by the arm and pulling his son towards him.
"Donatello, you must listen to me," Splinter said, speaking low. The others voices were growing louder on the other side, the knocking more frantic as Donatello's cries echoed through the thin walls. "You are a person of logic. Rationality. Look at everything there is to see, come to your own conclusions. Do not let your fear and worry rule your heart-"
"But it's not just that," Don shouted, pushing himself away. Donatello knocked into one of the tables, sending several candles to the floor. Little fires started on the flooring and Splinter quickly stepped them out, never taking his eyes off Donatello. "The Shredder won't rest until we're all dead, sensei! He won't. He'd chase after us for years, for decades, and it wouldn't matter. He'd never waver. And we're not ready now, and we weren't ready then-"
"It's not our future, Donatello," Splinter said carefully. "Only we decide what our futures will be."
"But we look to the past to know what not to do," Don shot back, glaring at the floor. He shook his head again and ran a hand over his face, shoulders sagging. "And what if we're just making all the same mistakes, all the wrong moves? How can we know? How can I avoid it?" But Donatello wasn't asking Splinter. And the cold dread in his stomach told Splinter that Don wasn't asking himself either.
"Donatello." Splinter reached out for him, slowly, carefully. The fear, anger, sadness, all muddled together and mixed with so many other emotions, came off Donatello in waves. Splinter fought to keep his voice even and the panic from his face. "If you think we must discuss it, we will. But it must be done when we are all calmer. When Shade is gone. When you're not in danger."
Donatello took several deep breaths, his hand still on his face. He peeked out at his father from between his fingers, swallowing and staring at his father's outstretched hand.
A bang tore through the room like a gunshot and both Splinter and Donatello jumped, looking at Raphael as he forced the door open. His sais were out and his face set in a snarl, pausing when he caught sight of his father and brother.
"Raphael-"
"Something weird's happening out here," Raph said before Splinter could scold him. He stepped aside and Splinter and Don's eyes widened. Inky, branch-like shadows crept along the floor and walls of the training room, and the room was coated in thin, black smoke. Splinter heard Don inhale sharply and he whipped around to calm him.
"Donatello-"
"Sensei, it's coming from me." The terror in his voice was palpable, the tremors warping his words. Splinter blinked and looked down, gasping when he saw the black smoke seeping off Donatello. It spilled from his fingertips and leaked out of his skin and scales, black fog thick near his feet. Donatello shook his head, backing into the wall and staring at the mist around him.
"I don't...why is this even happening? It doesn't make sense. Why is this happening, Shade?" The name threw Splinter off for a moment before he gritted his teeth.
"No, Donatello. Do not try and speak with that creature. He means to-"
"But he's why this is happening." Don took a deep breath, eyes on the ground. Raphael glanced between the two, calling the others back before fixing his stare on Donatello.
As footsteps sounded from the other room, Donatello hugged his middle and groaned, shuddering. "Ah...ugh..." He clamped a hand over his mouth and slumped to the floor, paling.
"Donatello, hold on." Splinter knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, examining his face and feeling his forehead. Don leaned into the touch at first, but jumped and threw himself to the floor, coughing. The smoke around them doubled, billowing out of his body and clogging his throat.
"Donnie!" Mikey said, poking out from behind Raph and trying to make his way into the room. Splinter shook his head and Raph and Leo bit their lips, exchanging a glance before blocking their brother.
"What's wrong with him, sensei?" Leo asked, grunting when Mikey pushed at his shell.
Splinter didn't answer, turning to Donatello. He froze when his son opened his eyes and met his gaze; black replaced the whites of his eyes, and black veins spread out from the corners of his eyes. Splinter's chest seized but before he could decide what to do next, Don decided for him.
Groaning and shaking his head, Don forced himself up and away from Splinter, crashing into the farthest wall and gasping for breath. He held his head in his hands, biting back a sob as his legs threatened to buckle. "It's because-oh-ah...nnnngh." He couldn't finish, curling tighter around himself and dropping to his knees. The smoke finally stopped, but a heavy black blanket coated the two joined rooms. The turtles and April watched Don struggle with a mixture of concern, worry, and horror.
Inky mist circled around them and Splinter moved into a defensive stance as it started to form a ball in the center of his room, sucking in all the fog. Splinter scanned the room, squaring his shoulders when he noticed no one cast a shadow, glaring at the floating smoke orb in his room.
"Prepare yourselves, my sons," Splinter said, startling everyone in the room. Donatello looked on with haggard eyes, barely able to keep himself up.
The smoke hovered for several long seconds before bubbling. Everyone tensed and Splinter took a small step forward, shifting himself in front of Donatello. An arm shot from the center, the wispy and thin limb slamming its hand onto the floor. Another arm followed, then a pair of legs stretched out from behind it, standing on all fours.
Mist still contorting, a shell formed along its back and its five fingers became three thick ones. It continued to lengthen and stretch, growing thicker in the legs before thinning out of the now turtle-shaped body.
"Sensei," Leo said, breaking the silence of the room. "What is this?"
Chuckling answered Leonardo instead, the creature cracking its neck before it tried to push itself up. Its arms wobbled and it started huffing and gasping, giggling even more once it caught its breath. Twisting its head around to Splinter, the rat was thrown when he looked into a replica of Donatello's face, the eyes and mouth made of bits of white. It grinned, another mirthless laugh escaping him.
"You really are...dangerous..."
Even the voice was an echoed, crooked version of Don's. Said turtle stared, mouth hanging open. As if feeling his gaze, the creature turned to Don, the smile wiped away. "You...and I...are in trouble here."
"Shade..." Don muttered, forcing himself up.
"He keep...s...ugh...it's like before, when that girl-" Shade turned to April, finding her behind the turtles and giving her a small wave. Her chest swelled with anger and she tried to push herself to the front of the group, the brothers forming a wall to stop her.
"How can you act so casual after everything you've put Don through? Do you know how many sleepless nights he's had over the things you showed him, all those-those-"April stammered, trying to find the words, her anger burning through Shade. She fisted her hands and tried to force her way through, ignoring Leo's pleas to stop. She wanted to punch it, kick it, do something to make feel the way Donnie felt the past few days. "How could you do that to him?"
"Don't you dare speak like you know everything." Shade's voice was low, almost pained. "You don't know the why. You don't know. You don't know how delicate everything is right now, how easy this is to shatter." It sounded so much like Don and the fight just drained from April, shoulders dropping.
"Shade, what are you talking about?" Donatello pressed, his eyes searching it. His voice wavered as he spoke and he took a small step forward.
"These empaths," Shade said, though more to himself than Donatello. "They always pry, always peek inside. Do you know what that does to something like me?" Shade's voice grew stronger with every word and he finally stood, mirroring Donatello's stance.
"He's looking for us," Shade said simply, grinning again. "Looking for you."
Donatello's face fell, eyes darting around. It felt like the room was closing in on him. He could hardly breathe. Splinter moved himself in front of Donatello, pushing his son back and keeping his eyes on the shadow before him.
"What do you mean, he?" Splinter said, voice dangerously even. But even without an answer, he could feel in his gut what the shadow meant, and it chilled his very bones.
"You know who he is." Shade's head lolled, a deep laugh bursting from its lips. "He really has a penchant for fire. Back then, when your home went up in flames... Already tried to torch this place, too. Must be a nice, efficient way to handle things."
"Shade, stop!" Donatello shouted, and Raphael lunged, throwing a fist that hit the air as Shade collapsed into a large ball of smoke, slinking across the floor and reforming behind Raphael.
"I'd be more careful if I were you. Now's not the time to be fighting me."
"And when would be a good time? Before or after you lead the Shredder to our home?" Raph hissed, charging at the shadows. Shade fell into the air again, dodging Raphael's strikes and feet as the turtle tried to step on him. "What's the matter? Not like before, huh? I can actually hit you now."
"He can trace us," Don mumbled, swallowing. He didn't seem to see the fight in front of him, shirnking into himself. "He can trace us. He can find us here. Shredder..." His knees trembled and Splinter turned to him, moving to grab his shoulder. "How-how can he-but-"
"Don't you dare touch him again," Shade screamed, clinging to the walls and using them to move behind Donatello. Before either Splinter or Don could react, Shade reached from the wall and grabbed Don from behind, pushing him away. Shade peeled himself away from the wall, stepping in front of Don and setting slitted eyes on Splinter. "I just said that you empaths-"
"How is he tracking us," Don shouted, yanking Shade around to face him. His eyes were wild and he dug his fingers into his double.
Shade huffed, blowing a perfect smoke ring into Don's face. "I'm not exactly stable, in case you haven't noticed. Every time those two have touched you, especially him-" Shade slipped a hand around Don's wrist and yanked him around, both falling to the floor in a heap and avoiding Splinter.
Splinter glared down at Shade but the shadow ignored everyone but Don. "I'd have these surges of energy. You'd see things while you were conscious, like it was supposed to work. Then, I'd feed off the resulting emotions and release more energy, show you more images, so on, escalating until they can actually pinpoint my location. That's what they're relying on."
"Like a feedback loop," Don whispered.
This time Shade collapsed into smoke and slipped over Don like a second skin and pulling him away from both Splinter and Raph as they made a dive for him. Leo growled and made a grab for Don, shooting his brother an apologetic look only for Don to be maneuvered away. Don's skin prickled at the odd sensation. It was like thousands of tiny threads were stitched into his skin, pulling his sideways and stretching his skin from his bones.
"And what you've been showing me in the dreams, making it so I couldn't remember what I saw, all of it-"
"Was a big part of my own plan," Shade admitted. "I didn't want them to catch me or track where you were. Like now." April and Mikey joined the fray, April's arms slipping around Don's waist.
Don's entire body hitched and waves of fear washed over him. Leonardo was older, blind, being struck to the floor. Blood spilled everywhere and his brother collapsed, unnaturally still. A pained cry sounded from Raphael, echoing through the metallic room-
"...touching him! Don't you get? Tracking me isn't all it does." Don felt his mouth moving but the words weren't his own. It felt wrong, like someone had their fingers in his mouth, moving his lips and forcing sound out.
The second skin grew heavier and Don felt a whisper in his ear. "It's time to make a choice, Don. There's no going back now. Do or die. You know what he'll do if he finds this place. You know how it will end. Make a choice. And make it count."
"Do not listen to him, Donatello. He hasn't told you everything," Splinter tried. His father's voice sounded muffled, like Don was underwater. He could almost hear the desperation in his father's tone and the next second his hands were in his father's.
Warmth washed over his skin and he looked up to see familiar amber eyes, only for them to morph into the hard blue of Mikey's. He didn't understand it. They were supposed to be in the driller soon but he looked so solemn. Like he was saying goodbye. Like he'd given up.
When did that happen? You never give up, Mikey, not ever.
"...back here already!" He was back in his father's room, surrounded by the same smoke, the same brothers, the same living family. His heart raced and he could barely breathe, but his mind kept running over the same, inescapable truth.
The Shredder could find them. The Shredder would find them.
And Donatello wasn't sure they would survive.
"Make a choice."
The room filled with voices, all saying different things, all with varying degrees of panic, but Don couldn't pick out one from the other. Sounds collided together, words a garbled mess. He couldn't even see where they were coming from, who was speaking. It was nothing but a jumbled mess. His head hurt and his heart hurt and it was just too much. He couldn't think, couldn't figure out what to do. He didn't have time for this. He needed to think, needed to move, needed to make a choice, needed-
"Make it count."
Slamming into another wall, the breath exploding from his lungs, Donatello covered his eyes and gasped for air. He shut out the world, the smoke, the haze of sound, and just breathed. His shoulders sagged and he tilted his head back, letting it hit the wall. He opened unseeing eyes and sighed.
There was no choice.
He had to move.
"Then move." Shade said it aloud, with Don's voice, but it didn't matter. The others would try to stop him and he'd have to slip away from them too. He pushed away from the wall, never making eye contact with his brothers, Splinter, or April.
He couldn't face them. They would make him want to stay. Make him think there was another way out of this. A way to win. Win and live.
"Donatello-"
He sprung from the room without a word, taking advantage of their distraction to sprint into the living room and break for his lab. His skin burned and the heat started pooling in his eyes and fingertips. He barely noticed when he grabbed his staff and dove under the desk, avoiding Raphael's outstretched hand. Mikey was close behind, looking torn. The chains of his weapon were out but sitting limp on the floor, Mikey looking imploringly at Don, hoping he'd stop on his own.
"Mikey, don't just stand there, you need to catch him!"
"but, Raph, I-I can't just-"
Donatello burst put of his lab, slamming the door shut with a loud, metallic thud. He followed the track out into the first entrance of the lair, running toward the sewer tunnels. Shadows. Reach the shadows and you can get away.
Shade bubbled on Don's skin, forming a thick black coat over his arms that spread down the rest of him like vines. The weight settled hard on his chest but he said nothing, Shade muttering, "That's right. I can help you there. It's what I'm made of, after all."
"Donnie, wait, you can't go! It's not going to work like that, we can figure it out-"
"Donnie, stop, please!"
"Don, if you don't get your shell back here, I'm going to beat you so hard you won't move for a month."
Raph's voice almost made him stutter to a stop, his feet nearly tripping over themselves, but he didn't glance back. He couldn't. His second skin clung to every inch of his body and thickened around his neck, muttering, "Don't lose your ground now," before Donatello made it to the sewer tunnels. Eyes roving the first few paths, he quickly made a left into the less traveled sewer lines. Even as he started taking sharp turns, doubling back to confuse his brothers before going further down the tunnel, his mind reeled for a plan.
If I'm going to stop the Shredder, I'm going to have to do it a different way. I need to get the drop on him. I need to come armed. With more than just my Bo staff. With more than just some homemade bombs.
Like...at the warehouse...
The pier flitted through his mind, the warehouse sitting against the grayed ocean waves that rocked the scene. He swallowed hard and slipped into a tunnel that would lead him to the coast. To Shredder's warehouse.
And his weapons.
