Chapter Eleven
NOW.
"I think it's time you told me exactly what happened at TCRI that day."
"I don't remember much," Leo admitted, looking up into Raphael's unwavering gaze. "Nothing from before he found me, really, except they kept me in a locked cell."
"How long were you there?"
"A few weeks? A couple months? I was living in a room with a single window. It's hard to tell."
There was no ire in the kid's words - but even still, Raph flinched. The mutant swallowed against the curse on his tongue and asked another question. "What happened on the day that Mike rescued you?"
Leonardo's stare grew distant, as if he was reliving the memories. "I was following the same pattern as usual..."
SIX MONTHS AGO.
Pale blue eyes traced the silver-toned walls and the narrow window six feet above the floor and a sigh slipped from deep within a young throat. It was another day much the same as yesterday, and the day before that, and probably every day for the rest of his life.
Subject X-87 knew many things, but he knew nothing concrete. He knew that he was young, nearly eight years old, and that he had no family. He knew that he was being kept alive by the alien robots called the Kraang, but he didn't know why. He was fed at the same time every day, and every two days the wall opposite the door would open and reveal a shower.
He also knew that he was alone. In the weeks that he kept track of the passage of time, he never saw or heard another human being.
One morning, X-87 was sitting on his bed when there was the sound of a distant explosion. The building began to shake on its foundations as feet pounded on the floor of the adjacent hallway.
The Kraang never ran.
Which meant that whoever was out there was someone from the outside world.
Without even considering the consequences, the boy ran to the door and started banging on it. "Hey, somebody help me!" For a long moment there was no answer...and then a freckled face pressed itself to the plexiglass pane in the door. X-87 couldn't help but take a few steps backwards; the thing on the other side of the glass wasn't human.
But there was something identifiable in the creature's wide blue gaze, almost like...recognition? "Hang on," its wide lips rasped. "I'm gonna get you out of there."
Before either of them could do anything, a squadron of Kraang rounded the corner, guns raised to eye level. "Halt, or you will be terminated!"
Ice met cloudless sky, and in that brief moment, two of the droids fired. One of the bolts caught the mutant on the shoulder and it screamed - an incredibly human sound - and hit the floor. The second shot hit the locking mechanism on the door and the panel slid open with a hiss.
X-87 inhaled in mute shock. For the first time since he could remember, nothing stood between him and the outside world. Well, nothing except a few dozen angry robots, and an almost-unconscious mutant...turtle.
For a few moments, nobody moved. X-87 bent down and nudged the turtle-man, whispering frantically. "Hey, you gotta get up. C'mon, they're gonna-" Pink and white bolts of energy filled the hallway and the brown-haired boy ducked down even further. He tugged at scarred keratin and scaly arms, trying desperately to wake up his would-be savior. "Get up!"
By some small miracle, the turtle jerked into consciousness. His eyes roved wildly in his head until they settled on X-87; that freckled face cleared and then the turtle grabbed him and ran down the hall as fast as he could go. It didn't seem perturbed in the least by the small army of Kraang on his heels; if anything, there was something akin to a smile growing on his face.
"Just like old times," X-87 heard the mutant whisper.
"Wha- who are you?" the boy asked, words jolting with each step towards freedom.
He felt it when the turtle faltered. For a moment, the smile slipped. And then it was back, and they were once again heading for the front door. "Time for that later. For now, I'm a friend."
"Oh. Makes sense." It didn't, not really. None of this did. But X-87 was finally going to be free of the robots that controlled his every move, and he wasn't going to ruin the moment any more than he might have already done.
Within a few minutes that seemed more like hours, the pair were racing towards a stairwell that would take them to the world beyond the walls...but as they neared a corner they found hundreds of armed droids waiting for them. The turtle swallowed and reached for something on his belt, simultaneously tightening his grip on X-87. "Hope you're okay with heights, dude."
"Wait, what? What are you-"
"Hang on!" That was all the warning given before they were hurtling for a nearby window - and then through it. Glass exploded around them, falling like diamonds in the ever-growing light of sunrise. X-87 tried to scream and found that his voice was lost to the same wind that whipped his unruly hair around his face. Above him, the Kraang fired more shots that reflected off of the shattered glass in a brilliant, deadly lightshow.
And then they weren't falling anymore, because the turtle raised his free arm and fired something from it - a rope. It was a rope. And somehow, somehow, the rope caught on the building opposite. The turtle cried out as his arm jerked sharply; he still managed to lower them both safely to the alleyway below, and then he was hauling open a manhole cover and ushering X-87 inside before climbing in himself and pulling the cover shut again.
"Can you run?" the turtle asked.
"Not fast enough."
X-87's savior nodded in understanding and crouched down to his level, turning to show his carapace. "Hop on. And hold on tight."
The human latched his skinny arms tight around a thick, corded neck and gingerly places his legs around the turtle's sides. As it was, the turtle winced at the added weight and the pull in his bad shoulder as he stood - but he shook it off and once again started to run.
"Where are we going?" X-87 asked.
It was a long time before the mutant answered, and when the words finally came, they were so quiet that X-87 almost missed them.
"I don't know."
NOW.
"Wait," Raphael interrupted. His neon gaze was alight with confusion and no small amount of anger. "How did they turn Mike human if he was a turtle when he rescued you?"
Leo went silent and turned his face once again towards his big brother. "That happened later," he replied softly. "And if you want to know that story, you'll have to ask him yourself."
"But-"
"Goodnight, Raphael."
The boy said no more as he curled up in bed beside his comatose, sandy-haired sibling. The hotheaded mutant was left to gape in mute shock as he was so quickly and firmly dismissed.
The shock and anger that followed were quickly drowned out by the realization that his baby brother had undergone much more than he'd originally realized - and that if Raphael had contacted him a while ago, they'd probably be living in a different scenario right now.
Emotions quelled for the time being, Raphael took a last good look at his two siblings and headed to the kitchen to keep watch.
It was the least he could do.
A/N: There's a bit of trivia/an easter egg in this chapter. Anyone want to have a guess at what it is?