Still don't own 'em. Sorry.
Enjoy!
"This is impossible!" Elsie turned away from her workstation and debated kicking it for good measure.
"What is it?" Nick asked, looking up from his own work after carefully setting down the beaker he'd been trying to pour very slowly.
"It's like a no-win situation. We can't quite isolate the cure from Don's blood, but we can prove that it's effective," she gestured angrily to a shelf lined with petri dishes, each of which was a different sample from Godzilla, each of which had been positively impacted when exposed to the purple-clad turtle's blood. "But the quantities aren't balancing right. At this rate, we're going to need more blood than he could produce in a week for just one dose, and there's no telling how many doses we need."
Nick looked around. The turtle in question was nowhere in sight – Donatello had left to take a walk only a few minutes before, trying to relieve the tension that was definitely contagious. He sighed.
"How's it going trying to dilute Donnie's blood?" he called over to Mendel.
"Not well. It doesn't maintain its chemical integrity even in simple solutions. NIGEL's running an analysis now to see if there's a different base we can use, but so far we're not getting much."
A rumble outside shook the Seeker enough to send a few vials clinking against each other. Godzilla had begun running a fever not long after Nick and Donatello had had their conversation. The mutation was beginning to spread through his system rapidly, and if Donnie's case were an example, they didn't have long before it would overpower the G-cells that normally healed Godzilla so completely. And what might result was something nobody wanted to contemplate.
Nick felt a twinge inside. He could sense Godzilla's pain as what felt like a cold blazed through his system. But he was also dimly aware of a shadow on the edge of their minds. If it were to fall, Nick was not entirely sure that either of them would come out of it whole again.
-==OOO==-
Randy was surprised to hear anyone in the engine room of the HEAT-Seeker, but there was no mistaking the sound of the latch on the door closing softly. Turning, he saw Monique move swiftly to the corner where she stored some of her most "extreme measures" as they called them.
"Yo! What's up?" he called to her. Monique looked sharply at him.
"Nothing. I am simply retrieving something."
The space was dim, lit more by the sunlight streaming through the remaining gashes in the boat's side than the interior lights, but Randy could see the cold expression he most often associated with Monique right before she was about to do something she found personally distasteful but absolutely necessary.
"Um…why exactly do you need to get into the weapons locker?"
"Do not pursue this line of questioning, Randy."
The hacker moved to stand near to her, crossing his arms. "You're getting ready to fight Godzilla if he goes crazy, aren't you?"
No response.
"You can't do that."
"Randy, my orders are clear. If Godzilla becomes a threat, he must be eliminated."
"The G-man wouldn't hurt us, not with Nick here. There's no way."
"Donatello reported to us that when similarly contaminated even he did not recognize his own family. I believe that the risk of Godzilla losing his mind in a similar fashion is plausible."
"But if that happens, then Nick…"
"Exactly. We may well lose them both to madness. Or we may lose one but not the other." There was a hesitation in her voice, but Monique opened the locker anyway and efficiently began checking her equipment.
"Wait. We also don't know what will happen to Nick if Godzilla dies. Didn't you say one time that it might kill him?"
"I did." Her hard eyes met his unflinchingly. "And if that is the choice, the loss of one mutant and one man against a mutant beyond control, then I will make it."
-==OOO==-
Donatello took a deep breath. His perch had been all too perfect to overhear, and the results before he'd needed to leave the lab to think confirmed some of his suspicions.
"Well. Looks like I've got one option left."
-==OOO==-
"Nick, come with me."
The others looked up in surprise at the turtle's form in the doorway. There was a set to his beak that spoke of solemnity.
"What's up?" Elsie wanted to know.
"I've got to borrow Nick for a while. Godzilla's not doing well," and here he nodded to the most recent readings he'd taken on one of his gadgets, "and we've got a short window to do this."
"Do what?" Mendel asked.
"Look, it'll take long enough without explaining. Elsie, use this," and Don handed over his equipment and some notes he'd made. "Try adding that list of chemicals to the base you're working with – see if that gets you better dilution with my blood. Nick," and he actually put a hand on Nick's shoulder and pulled, "you've got to trust me on this."
"What are you going to do?" Elsie pressed, barely glancing at the notes. Nick looked at the ninja's set face, and nodded.
"I think I'm going to learn some introductory mental gymnastics."
-==OOO==-
"Breathe. Find your center. Nothing shared, just yours."
Donatello watched Nick as the doctor slowly fell into a meditative state. He was not the master that his father was, but without his sensei to guide them, he'd have to do his best. He did know, at least, that he couldn't make things worse. When Nick's breathing shifted such that Donnie felt sure his friend was mostly under, he settled himself knee-to-knee with him.
"Okay. Right now, you're you. You're Dr Nico Tatopoulos, no one else. Be the kid who studied science. Be the college guy with a dream. Be you at your core. Nobody else." Donatello didn't dare risk even saying the name "Godzilla" for fear of invoking the bond.
"Embrace what you are, Nick. Let your shielding fall away, for here, in yourself, there is nothing to shield against. Let down the walls of your mind."
Here it was – the telling moment. If Nick was totally overwhelmed by Godzilla in this state, Donatello stood no chance of keeping him separate. And he had to, he had to keep his friend's mind apart from Godzilla's immanent transformation, or the psychic damage could destroy them both forever, even if they did manage to reverse the physical effects on the giant lizard.
Nick went very still, and then relaxed completely, settling into an extremely deep meditative state peacefully. Donatello gave a sigh of relief. So far so good.
"Okay, here we go," he whispered to himself more than anyone else. Bringing his own emotions under control, he dropped into his own meditation, directed by years of experience, training, and a few gut instincts. Honestly, he had no idea what he was doing. And yet, it was a path he had walked within the mind before, and one that, with the evidence of Nick's bond with Godzilla, was more than possible. It was reality. He figured that, as long as it was possible, there was no reason he couldn't achieve it; that was his guiding mantra in everything else, after all, and it wouldn't fail him this time – he was sure of it.
Donatello felt the whoosh of serenity enfold him, and all at once he was within himself, limitless and free. Following the same instinct that had served him before, he began to reach with his will, his mind. After a moment or an eternity, hard to say which, a point of light appeared before him, and still he strove to touch it. All at once, there was a door before him, looking quite like the door to the laboratory on Staten Island. Without hesitation, the turtle pushed the door open and entered.
He had reached Nick's mind.
Having wandered into a world created from the mind of an artist, a couple of different dimensions, several other planets, and one future post-apocalyptic world, Donatello was no stranger to unusual surroundings. He had never before attempted to enter the mind of another – mostly he had only joined his family on a spiritual plane or, just once, spoken with his father across miles of space – but the turtle had seen no other alternative. The facts were simple: Godzilla was succumbing to the new mutation in his system, and as he did, the effects on Nick, while difficult to predict, would be anything but good. Don knew enough about science to know that sometimes the answer did not, in fact, have scientific origins. And while seeking a way to keep his friend from falling into the same darkness that had claimed him while infected by Bishop's cocktail, he hit upon the idea of trying to block out Godzilla's influence on his human parent.
Still, did one's mind usually look so much like one's office? If so, Donatello vowed to clean up after himself more often.
It was as though he had walked into the old ferry building on Staten Island, sort of. To one side, the lab sat as it had every time Donnie had visited – computers running, notebooks and textbooks held open to various pages by way of anything from a pen to a half-eaten apple, the worm farm bathed in a warm light. Tacked to every available surface were pictures, notes, newspaper clippings, and schematics, along with to-do lists and the occasional receipt. A warm light streamed in through the window, though there was no skyline nor ocean beyond.
But the other end of the space, the end used sometimes for storage but more often for couches and relaxation, was something else entirely. Here, the floorboards seemed to melt into a swirly void, as though a black hole had made itself at home in the living-room. Edges of green and orange flashed brightly within the dense clouds that lapped eagerly at the room, though did no harm. Donatello moved closer and could feel alternately blazing heat and icy cold radiating from the obvious evidence of Godzilla in Nick's mind. Still, for all it looked like reality was being twisted and warped into a bottomless, writhing black pit, there was a certain alien serenity about it.
As Donatello watched, something sickly and yellow emerged from the center of the darkness, like oil on the surface of cloudy water. It trickled lazily around, and everywhere it touched, the turtle could have sworn the black and green and vibrant orange shrank back, color dulled and intensity lessened. And yet the spiral moved more rapidly, and where it met the floorboards and walls, a dark stain appeared.
"I understand," Donatello said, mostly to hear something in the oddly silent place. "This is Godzilla's presence, and that yellow stuff is the effects of Bishop's compound on Godzilla's mind. His body will probably get bigger and stronger, like mine did, but his mind is being eroded. And every time it touches him, it changes Nick, too."
"So what do we do?"
The turtle turned to see Nick, dressed in his usual red shirt and cargo pants, standing sort of awkwardly in the middle of the room.
"You made it! I wasn't sure you'd be able to materialize within your own mind, and I wasn't looking forward to doing this on my own," Don admitted. He turned back to the evidence of Godzilla. "Well, honestly, this is the part I'm not so sure about. But if I had to guess, I'd say we need to build a wall between you and him, one nothing can get through, so your whole mind doesn't get distorted along with his."
"If we build a wall, won't that cut Godzilla off from me completely?" Nick crossed his arms and considered. If what Donnie was suggesting meant his charge would be even more confused and lost without the guiding presence of his human parent, it might be more risky overall to separate them than to keep them linked.
"I don't know. We're not removing Godzilla, not totally. Just sort of relegating him to the background," the turtle considered. "He'd still be here, just unable to touch you."
"But if I can't reach him, how do we help him control what's happening? How do we keep him from losing his mind?"
"We can't," Donatello said heavily. "Even I lost myself when Bishop's chemicals transformed me. There probably isn't a lot we can do until we find a cure."
"So you want me to cut him off now, before what's happening to him happens to me?"
"Um, basically. Unless you've got a better idea?" the turtle asked.
"Actually, I do." When Donatello looked questioningly at his friend, Nick shrugged. "Look, I appreciate you trying to help protect me from Godzilla losing his mind, but the fact is that I can't just close him off and watch from the outside. As much as I hate to admit it, the big guy's kind of a part of me now. I can't just leave him. It's as much my job to protect him as it is his to protect me."
"So what are you suggesting?" Don asked, a sinking feeling in his heart. He knew the words that were coming – it was probably what he himself would choose anyway, were he in the scientist's shoes.
"If Godzilla's fighting, I'm going to stay here and try to help." Without much more ado, Nick pulled a chair from a corner and sat down opposite the presence of Godzilla, staring intently.
"Yeah, I guess I should've known you'd say that. All right. I'll stay too. And maybe between the two of us we can figure out a way to keep him stable until your team comes up with the cure," Donatello said as he seated himself on the floor in lotus position. He grinned at the look on the biologist's face. Nick was somewhere between gratitude, worry, and his usual smirk.
"Don, you don't have to do this. And besides, Elsie and Mendel might need your help."
"Maybe," he shrugged, "but I think they've got what they need now, and you're going to need my help a whole lot more."
-==OOO==-
Elsie felt a rush of adrenaline take hold as she examined the readings from the latest sample. "Mendel! I think we've got something!"
"What is it?" he said, deserting his own workbench and leaning over hers.
"The information Donatello gave me seems to be working. He suggested we try a more alkaline base for dilution, rather than a neutral one, and according to this, his blood isn't losing its chemical integrity as much. In fact, it's actually enhancing exactly the proteins in his blood that we need to facilitate the cure. Here," and she passed over his notes. "He's given us a couple of different combinations to try, but he was definitely onto something!"
"Where does that kid come up with this stuff?" Craven asked, scanning the pages with interest. "I've known a ton of biologists who couldn't piece this together, and he's not even 20 years old. He's not even a biologist! He told us himself he's more of an engineer."
"Feeling outclassed, Mendel? Let's just be glad he's on our side," Elsie smiled, moving to a cabinet for some different chemicals. "I'll start on the first one – you mix up the second and we'll see which works better with our sample." A sound caused her to pause in her preparations, a deep thrumming that originated outside the HEAT-Seeker.
"What is that?" Craven's voice, which could shift from calm to terrified so quickly, was only a little hysterical at the unknown.
A heartbeat later, Randy crashed into the lab. "Come on. We've got a problem!"
There were plenty of times Elsie and Mendel didn't take Randy seriously. He was, in fact, known for playing pranks, being overly-dramatic, and generally playing up any given situation if it amused him. But they also knew him well enough to know when he wasn't doing any of those. There was something in the tone of his voice, the set of his jaw, the wideness of his eyes, that was as clear a tell as any he'd ever faked in poker. Reading these in him now, both scientists abandoned their work without hesitation and followed. The noise got louder as they climbed up on deck, and more familiar. Randy led them to the bow, which afforded a lovely view of quiet sea, sunny sky, and warm sand.
And Godzilla. Who was the source of the noise.
The giant lizard seemed to have woken entirely out of the stupor he'd been in since the fight. The sound was the noise of claws on scales as Godzilla scratched savagely at the gash Bishop's rocket had left in his side. He was huffing with distress as well, which was not too different from how he sounded when angry, but with a hitch in his breath.
"What is happening?" Monique demanded, joining them at the rail.
"I'd say our grace period just ran out," Mendel answered. "Looks like he's beginning to suffer the same effects Donatello did."
"How much time do we have?" Randy wanted to know.
"Not long. Donatello told us his onset of symptoms progressed more slowly, but once it got bad enough, he said he transformed within minutes. Come on," Elsie commanded. She turned and rapidly made for the lab below. "We've got to take what we've got and make it work, like now."
"Right," Mendel nodded, following. "Keep an eye on him, and let us know if you see any physical signs of change; Donatello said he grew to twice his normal size when he mutated. If that happens, yell."
"Twice his size? You bet I'll yell," Randy saluted, his good humor back. As long as Elsie and Craven were working on a cure, they'd come through in time. They always had. He just needed to convince himself that he was sure.
"If you see signs that he is changing, alert me as well," Monique told him coldly.
"You can't kill him!" Randy shot back.
"Hopefully, I will not have to."
-==OOO==-
"Shell, that can't be good."
Nick opened his eyes to see what had caused Donatello to break the silence, then felt his throat go dry, if throats can go dry when you're a projection within your own mind, anyway. The whirling presence of Godzilla was twisting fiercely, its alien serenity in chaos. Then, without warning, the yellow film that had been moving slowly exploded. As though a plug had been pulled somewhere, the foreign element spread rapidly over the green, enveloping and affecting it with a rush.
"Godzilla!"
"Nick, come on!" Don was on his feet now, and he hesitated only a second before he stepped forward. "Concentrating isn't going to stop it now. We've got to remove it directly."
"How?" the scientist asked. He decided he didn't like playing with these metaphysics; while intriguing and certainly helpful in this situation, they defied too many laws of science that were so crucial to the rest of his mind.
"Um, well, unless you've got a better idea…" The turtle took a breath and then, trying not to think about the possible consequences for what he was about to do, he reached forward. Both Nick and Don had made a very deliberate effort not to come in contact with Godzilla in here, in case they were drawn into his chaotic mind, but he could think of no other way. He knew that the whole scenario was unpredictable at best, but the chances for extricating himself completely were a lot less if he went through with what seemed to be the only option left. Hopefully this would not be the last theory he would have a mind to test. Without giving himself a chance to hesitate, Donatello plunged his hands into the strangeness before him.
It was as if he had been hit by lightning. Alien sounds, smells, memories, perspectives suddenly inundated the ninja. He was swimming in the ocean, spitting fire, raging with bloodlust and content with the security of his nest. He was huge, he was confused, he was young, he was hungry. It was too much, too big. He wasn't supposed to be this way, but he didn't know why. Wait…he came here to do something. What was it?
A memory floated from far away, though it didn't seem like his. He couldn't be that small, nor could he think that way. But nonetheless, an image of brushing water off something that was not water came to him. Perhaps that was what he came here to do. But what was water and what wasn't? Something was wrong, something was not a part of him. That must be the part that had to be removed. But how?
And then there was a new firmness in his mind, a new set of memories that couldn't be his, though they were there. They seemed more confident, less confused. They were not overwhelmed by how big he was. They guided him. Yellow. He didn't know what it meant, but he somehow knew what it was. Pull the yellow away. That was what he'd come here to do.
Somehow.
-==OOO==-
"Oh!"
"What is it, sensei?" Leo called from his seat. Raphael was already at Master Splinter's side, his pacing abruptly cut off once more.
"Donatello is…gone."
"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Mikey demanded, a touch of hysteria in his voice.
"Master Splinter, you don't mean…?" Raph began, cold dread in his stomach.
"No, I do not believe so," he quickly cut off the question he didn't even want to hear asked. "But his mind has journeyed to where I cannot reach him. I have been monitoring him, in case he had need of me again. And between one moment and the next, all my sense of him vanished. There was no fear, no pain or loss. Whatever has occurred, I believe it was with your brother's consent. However…"
"However," and steel crept into Leo's voice, "we need to be sure of that."
-==OOO==-
"I've got it!" Elsie's voice was so loudly triumphant that Randy heard it from his lookout on the HEAT-Seeker's forward deck. Randy was just turning to shout a congratulations back to her when an ear-splitting roar interrupted him. Spinning back to Godzilla, the hacker was horrified to see the giant mutant launch himself to his feet, bellowing wildly. He peered closer. Yes, the muscle near the site of infection was rippling strangely, bulging out with a furious and painful-looking rapidity. Godzilla seemed more confused than ever, looking around wildly and snorting tiny sparks of radioactive fire like a bull about to charge.
"Good thing! Because the G-man is about to need a bigger island!" he yelled back, hoping he could be heard over the lizard's noise.
Elsie and Craven appeared on deck a few moments after, Elsie in the process of emptying a syringe into a tranquilizer dart, one strong enough to penetrate Godzilla's hide. Monique was at their heels, openly armed with several firearms, including a weapon Randy had hoped never to see again. There were few things that could kill the giant mutant lizard – thankfully, or unfortunately, Monique possessed one.
"What's that for?" Mendel asked, spotting Monique.
"Insurance," she replied shortly.
"This ought to at least slow him down long enough for us to get more of the antidote into him," Elsie said, loading the dart. "It isn't much, but I'm hoping it'll buy us enough time to replicate it with what we have."
A blast of fire overhead, barely missing the HEAT-Seaker, caused them all to duck instinctively. Godzilla was beginning to stumble around, but his legs looked wrong. Thick somehow, and uneven.
"You begin work on a larger dose. I will attempt to deliver this," Monique ordered, taking the gun from her.
"Um…guys?"
At Randy's voice, everyone turned. Godzilla was staring at them, his eyes a strange red color. He hunched low so that his snout was almost level with them. Normally, when he drew so near, they could be calm – Godzilla was an ally, and among other things, would never harm them because of Nick. But Nick wasn't here, and from the looks of it, the Godzilla they had known and trusted as much as they dared was not present either. Fear seized them, and nobody so much as thought of breathing.
And then the world exploded.