"How're you feeling?" Don leaned over Raph worriedly.
"Like I got hit by a truck," he grumbled, his word slurring together. He blinked in the light of the lair, finding himself on the couch, staring into the bright screen of Don's laptop.
"Hang on. The sedative is still wearing off. You'll feel better in a minute," he assured his brother.
"What happened?"
"Leo was totally crazy!" Mikey bounced nearby. "You should have seen him! I didn't even know he could get so scary-mad!"
"Well, all the times I've watched you do it," Leo appeared on the other side, looking down at Raphael fondly, "I guess we've all got that in us somewhere." He frowned. "Are you really okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," the red-banded turtle replied, sitting up. "No permanent damage."
"Glad to hear it!" a new voice chorused. Raphael looked to the computer, an open video and audio feed revealing five familiar friends.
"You guys are way better actors that I thought," Mendel commented. "Then again, I was scared enough that it wasn't that hard to pretend!"
"Do you think it worked?" Elsie wanted to know.
"Yup!" Don smiled, an answering grin on Randy's face. "We checked the hacked feeds from earlier. Bishop got all of it, even the parts after he left, on one of his hidden cameras. It's a good thing we decided to hold it out until the end or the game would have been up."
"Yeah, but next time can you maybe make that giant scale-head breathe his fire a little, ya know, less?" Raph wanted to know. "I almost got fried!" He held up the bandaged arm that had taken something of a burn from the heated metal he'd used to protect himself.
"Hey, it was your idea to take the fall," Leo reminded him, giving him a hard poke. They shared a grin, remembering.
"We have another problem," Leo turned back, crossing his arms as the conversation stilled. When all eyes were on him, he continued, "Bishop."
"Well, yeah," Randy said. "We know that already."
"No, I mean Bishop knows now that we've teamed up. Donnie might be able to prove that Godzilla isn't a useful weapon for him, but that doesn't mean you couldn't be used against us."
"You're saying he might drop his Godzilla plan but still use HEAT to get to us," Don sighed. "Or vice-versa. You're right. He probably will."
"I agree," Monique put in. "This is unavoidable, but dangerous. That man has enough hold over us all as it stands. To give him a lasting power is unacceptable."
"So, you're afraid he might kidnap us to get you to surface?" Mendel clarified.
"Or, if he got his hands on one of the turtles again, use them as a ransom against us," Elsie added. "Either way is bad."
"I'll say," Nick agreed. "So what do we do about it? We can't undo what's been done."
"If he lays one hand on you guys just for trying to help us with Donnie…" Raph's rage began to leak.
Conversation began to swell as everybody voiced an opinion. In the ensuing threats, regrets for allowing the information to become known to Bishop, misplaced blame, and a fair amount of eye-rolling, Leo looked over at the brother around whom the whole mess rotated. Don's face was still paler than usual, and the noise was probably not helping his headache any, but he was alert, and if Leo was any judge, he was thinking. Even as he watched, Donnie's eyes lit up and his expression cleared. Before he could attempt to wade into the discussion, though, Leo stepped forward.
"Don," he said, his voice cutting through the others as he again commanded attention. "What're you thinking?"
"Well," the genius began, hesitating only a moment when every head turned unexpectedly in his direction, "the problem is that Bishop thinks there's a connection between us, that we'd, you know, look after each other. That we're friends."
"Which we are," Nick said firmly.
"Yeah! Mutants and mutant-friends of the world unite!" Mikey cheered.
"Exactly. For as long as he thinks that either team would take a risk for the other, we're all in danger. So we have to convince him that we wouldn't."
"Uh, Don," Mendel put in, "that makes no sense. You can't just walk up to that guy and tell him we've decided to part company and think he'll believe you."
"Then we make him believe us." Leonardo smiled at his brother, following Don's thinking now. The purple-banded turtle smiled wearily back – everything was easier when he had some back-up on his crazy plans.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Randy muttered. Elsie swatted his arm and shushed him.
"Look, it's a long-shot, I know. But there's one thing Bishop doesn't know, can't know. Something he wouldn't even believe if he did know it. We can use that against him." Don stood up and started to pace, oblivious now to the various reactions around him. "Bishop doesn't know about the bond between Godzilla and Nick. It's our ace in the hole."
"So what are you sayin'?" Raph wanted to know, shifting his gaze from Don to Leo.
"Simple," Nick spoke before either turtle could, picking up the thread of the idea. "If we arrange for something to happen, something involving Godzilla, we could stage a split. Make it look like Godzilla did something bad to you guys, something unforgivable."
"Honor would demand you sever all ties and vow revenge should our paths meet again," Monique continued when Nick left off. "Bishop has studied you intently, and he knows your grudges are not to be taken lightly. If we could indeed fool him, he would witness an event which could only trigger an end to our connection."
"Yeah, but what exactly are you thinking the G-man would do to make you hate us?" Randy asked.
"Well, with their bond, Nick could work with Godzilla to make it look like he hurt one of us, really hurt us. We couldn't pretend he killed one of us, in case we tangle with Bishop again and nobody's dead. But with Nick in his head, Godzilla could probably do something nasty and Nick would keep it from actually, you know, being real." Don stopped pacing when he sensed something at his side.
Fiery turtle eyes met his own.
"I know what you're thinkin', Donnie, and there ain't no way in shell it's gonna be you." Raphael crossed his arms.
"Raph, think about it. I'm the logical…"
"I don't care about logic," he growled. "You've been through enough. You ain't takin' any risks on this one. What you already gotta do is bad already. If anybody's gonna play pincushion for Godzilla or something, it's gonna be me."
"Raph," Leo stepped forward, but the intense look in his brother's eyes gave him pause. This wasn't rage, nor a drive for revenge. What Leo read there in Raph's expression was instead something he knew all too well himself: the desperate need to protect their family.
"I can't promise there won't be some risk involved," Nick said. "I can work with him, and I can get pretty far into his mind, but I just can't control everything. You really could get seriously hurt."
"Fine. As long as it's me and not Don." Raphael was like a mountain, refusing to budge. Donatello looked between Leo, Raph, and Nick, and then turned to see every other eye in the room on him as well.
"You guys all agree with him?" he asked incredulously.
"Actually, yeah," Mikey smiled. "If anybody's gonna get fried by Godzilla I wanna see it be Raph, and I think you've had enough spotlight lately." But behind the teasing grin was something else, something sincere.
"Besides, we might need you for tactical support," Elsie pointed out. "You can't be playing dead and working tech at the same time."
"It is agreed," Monique said decisively. "The target will be Raphael, and the goal will be to make it appear that he has been severely hurt, perhaps possibly killed, by Godzilla's recklessness. Thus, our accord is broken, and Bishop will assume no goodwill between us."
"Are you sure about this, Raph?" Leo asked, returning his brother's intense gaze with one of his own. But Raph smiled jauntily.
"Oh yeah. Like Mikey said, it's my turn to play the pawn in Bishop's game. Wouldn't have it any other way."
"And it was my job to keep him from hurting you. I'm sorry," Nick said, bringing them back to the moment.
"Don't sweat it," Raph shrugged. "Not that I wanna repeat it any time soon, but I seen worse. It's the side-effects of Donnie's doctoring that are the worst!"
"Hey! Without that, we'd never have made it look like your condition was deteriorating as convincingly," Don argued. "But really, Nick, you did everything we could have asked and more. Even with the sonic disruptor on you kept Godzilla from actually doing any damage to all of us throughout that whole thing. And now that I've been there, I can really appreciate how much that took!" He remembered vividly the times he'd been nearly lost in Godzilla's mind, more than once since his first visit to Staten Island, and he knew how hard it must have been to keep command of the giant lizard's actions through all that rage.
"Couldn't have done it without you, Donnie," Nick replied, smiling.
Indeed, it had been a very, very near thing. The plan had called for HEAT to appear on the scene, apparently unexpectedly, and to have Godzilla manufacture the split to protect them from Bishop, all without making it apparent to the agent exactly how much influence the humans had over the mutant. But when the moment came to attack, to actually spit the fire at Raph and yet not hurt him, it was among the hardest things Nick had ever done in his charge's mind. He'd had to drop so completely into Godzilla as to practically possess him, pushing all his control, his intent, into the chaotic, angry mind.
He'd always known Godzilla had impressive control over his fire-breathing, but it was only in that moment he understood exactly how much; with Nick's help, Godzilla was able to adjust his fire, bring down its temperature by several hundred degrees, and create the equivalent of blowing smoke shapes with his flames, striking the piece of metal (which had been delivered by NIGEL and was specially configured by Don) precisely enough to propel it forwards rather than incinerate it.
But even that wasn't the hardest part. When Raph crashed to the ground and Don activated the sonic disruptor in a "panic," Nick still had to maintain control. A secondary frequency had been adjusted specifically to hurt Godzilla on a sonic level, but not to incapacitate him psychically, and this was what Don had triggered. Nick had had to control his charge, keeping him lashing out in genuine rage, but carefully, without bringing down the warehouse until the scene had played itself out. The desire to attack the source of the painful noise had been nearly overwhelming, but Nick had persevered. The turtles had put their lives in his hands, or, rather, his mind, knowing that his control was all that would keep them from becoming the target of Godzilla's rage just as Bishop had back on the island during his sonic attack.
And the only way Nick had managed it, though he would never tell anyone, was by remembering the fierce love and trust he'd seen in Donatello minutes prior when they'd been joined in the mind of Godzilla. That bond of brotherhood was a stronger influence even then Godzilla's fury, and with that to ground him, Nick had commanded the giant lizard to behave according to what the plan required, and Godzilla had obeyed.
"So, if things worked as we think, Bishop figures we're all splitsville," Elsie smiled. "But what about your oath? You did say…"
Her words trailed off as many smiles bloomed.
"If you listened to what I actually said," Leo explained calmly and quite smugly, "you'll note I actually didn't specify exactly what 'debt' was owed. From context, it looks like I'm talking about paying you back for hurting Raph. But mostly I just talked about 'what you'd done' and that sort of thing."
"Yeah, and?" Mendel asked, not quite clear on the turtle's meaning.
"The oath stands, but its subject isn't what you think," Monique added. "Unless I am incorrect, what Leonardo has sworn is that, for our aid in helping Donatello and in manufacturing this parting for Bishop, the turtles owe us a great debt of gratitude."
"Exactly." Leo bowed formally. "On my honor and in the name of my clan, I confirm the oath I have made. We owe you a very great debt for your help and for your friendship in such trying times."
"But wait!" Randy piped up. "He said something about blood between us. I remember that!"
"Of course," Donatello smiled. "My blood is already between us, because we used it cure Godzilla. And my blood, maybe all of our blood, will get paid to you in the continuing study Nick and I will do as we keep working on the mutations that make Godzilla and us turtles the way we are. Not to mention that with Godzilla's clone in my head, we're kind of cousins or something now anyway."
"It was a pretty impressive performance," Nick nodded. "I'm not sure I could look so mad and be so precise with my wording."
"Well, if there's anybody who is good at lecturing when he's mad, it's Leo!" Mikey cheered.
"So, now that this has been handled, we may return to more pressing matters," Monique put in.
"You mean the clone in my head," Don's smile melted. "Yeah. We should do something about that."
"You started a formula," Mendel pointed out, "one to dissolve the clone without hurting you. We were working on it before everything happened earlier tonight." The roboticist took a moment to consider – yes, it really had only been tonight that Don had appeared, lost in the clone's control, and had almost killed Nick before Bishop's attack with the clones. HEAT was used to long nights, but this was kind of ridiculous.
"And Master Splinter is still meditating," Raph reminded them, "waiting for you to wake him up."
"Which I can't do until I'm sure Godzilla's thoughts won't influence me. But, now that I can think more clearly, and with everybody's help, I think we can probably make that formula work pretty quickly." Donatello turned to his brothers. "Leatherhead and April have been working on it all night, and with all our heads together, I think we can crack it. Besides, Godzilla gave me a hint."
"A hint?" Mikey asked.
"He said something about how his emotions fuel his healing, which means that adrenaline is a key component to the activation of the G-cells that make him so unique, and therefore make it so hard to for us to get his clone out of my brain. I think we can use that, find some kind of counter to my natural adrenaline production that will slow the clone's G-cells down a little, which should give us some kind of window into blasting it out of there chemically with less resistance."
"Okay. It's too dangerous for you to go over to HEAT's place right now, since Bishop is probably still watching it, but do whatever you've got to do. We'll stay here and relieve Casey from keeping an eye on Master Splinter. And as soon as you've got something, or if you need anything, just let us know, okay?"
Leo put a hand on his brother's shoulder. He looked closely into Don's eyes, watching for all the shadows that had chased themselves across his mind for days. But, though there was still a twinge of pain from the physical discomfort of a growth pressing inside the skull, Don's expression was clear. Master Splinter's interference was still holding the psychic influence of the clone at bay, and from what he'd said, Don had come to a certain understanding with Godzilla himself that seemed to help as well. Leo wasn't sure he'd ever know everything that had gone on inside his brilliant brother's mind in any sense throughout this ordeal, but whatever was happening there now was not going to hurt him much longer.
Don scooped up the laptop and made his way into his lab, already swapping ideas with HEAT as he walked. He balanced the laptop on one arm to push open the door, calling to April and Leatherhead about something or other, and vanished as completely into that world as he always had. Leo, Raph, and Mikey exchanged relieved smiles.
"Think it's gonna be okay now?" Raph asked.
"Yeah, I actually do," he answered. "Without Bishop breathing down our necks we've bought some time, and I don't think there's anything scientific that Don, Leatherhead, April, and those doctors can't figure out."
"Don could probably do it all by himself," Mikey said staunchly. "He's way smarter than everybody else."
"You ain't wrong, but you can't just say stuff like that," Raph's face twitched as he reached up to tug on the orange bandana-tails. "It ain't polite."
"Besides," Leo breathed easily for the first time in weeks, "it doesn't matter if he could do it on his own. Donnie's always been on his own with all the science and engineering and everything else, except when he lets Leatherhead and April in to help. But now he has HEAT, too, and he trusts them. I never doubted he could figure it out himself. But the point is that he doesn't have to be alone anymore."
-==OOO==-
Nick leaned on his habitual spot on the dock, looking out at the water and across to where buildings stretched to the sunset sky. It was his favorite part of the day, the orange light settling behind him, revealing a deepening shadow on the horizon that would steadily creep upwards until it engulfed the whole sky. From here he couldn't see the people leaving their offices and heading home, the cars and ferries that carried people from where they spent their time to where they kept their hearts, but he knew it was happening all over the city.
"Hey."
Without looking, Nick shifted slightly aside to make room for Elsie beside him.
"Nice night," she commented.
"Yeah."
A comfortable silence fell for several minutes before she spoke again.
"So, are you okay? You've been really," she searched for the word before settling on "quiet."
"Where were you when I was yelling at Randy for putting that rubber snake in the cooling coils of the new NIGEL?" Nick asked, grinning.
"Yeah, okay, I think they heard you in New Jersey on that one," she smiled back, "but that's not what I mean. You've been really thoughtful lately, ever since the night out on Lairdman Island. I just…wanted to make sure you're okay."
"Actually, yeah. I think I am." Nick looked back over the water and breathed. Somewhere he could feel Godzilla swimming. Their bond was strong as ever, maybe the strongest it had ever been, and yet in that new closeness there was an even easier measure of control and separation. From the moment Nick had started to seek Godzilla after Bishop's attack, he'd found the connection to be easier and easier to handle. They'd tested its boundaries and strengths in the last few weeks in ways he'd never imaged possible, and from that had come a settling of its intensity. Nick knew he could reach out without even trying and enter Godzilla's mind fully, practically become the big guy, and he also knew that Godzilla would not cross that line into his without invitation. It was more than a relief. It was comfortable.
"I'm glad. I thought for a little while there that we were gonna lose somebody. You, him," she nodded at the sea, "and Don. I think we were pretty lucky for how things came out."
"Well, some of it was luck," Nick conceded. "And yeah, we did come pretty close to getting lost a few times, all three of us. But more than anything else, I think we figured out just how unique they are. Godzilla. The turtles. That giant crocodile friend of theirs, too," and he grinned, remembering the first time HEAT had actually been introduced, via computer link, to the hulking mutant known as Leatherhead who looked like a monster and spoke like an Oxford professor.
"You, too, Nick. You're unique, too," Elsie added, gently slipping an arm through his. She, like Godzilla, wasn't intruding, just being there. Being part of him. As they all were.
"Maybe. But when we were linked for that short time, me and Godzilla and Don, we weren't unique at all. We were the same, split across three different minds and perspectives. I'm not exactly like Godzilla or Donatello, not cognitively, but at some level, the one that really matters, we really are the same. I can't speak for Don, but for me, that was a relief. I'm not alone and I know that," and he put a hand on Elsie's, "but it was nice to share that part of myself with someone for a little while, anyway."
"Do you think it'll ever happen again? That Don will get pulled into your minds?"
"No. Now that the clone has been fully dissolved, I don't think there's anything to connect us. Except," and he suddenly laughed. "Except that the first time I found Don in my head he didn't have the clone at all!"
"So…"
"So maybe you're right and someday he'll be back in there just poking around," Nick smiled wryly, not needing too much imagination to conceive of a day Donatello's curiosity might bring him knocking on those mental doors just to explore. "He's pretty remarkable."
"So are you, Nick."
"Yeah, we're all awesome," came Randy's voice, and three others appeared at the railing. "But I still think we beat those green dudes on the coolness scale."
"With all the time Don's spent in the lab recently it's weird not seeing him around anymore," Mendel ignored Randy with his usual sniff. "I keep expecting to see him appear out of the shadows."
"The turtles are wise to keep their distance for now," Monique said. "Eventually it may be safe enough for them to make their way here again, but they exercise reasonable caution in light of recent events. It is not a disappointment."
"You really got to like them eventually, didn't you, French fry?" Elsie teased. The woman at her other side tensed, then, surprisingly, laughed.
"Only as much as I like any troublesome scientists or hackers or other nuisances attached to my assignment," she offered. "I had thought there was nothing more trying than a certain rogue mutant and his annoying entourage, but the combination of both was unexpected at best."
"So now what, jefe?" Randy asked. "Don's all better, Bishop's gone into hiding, you and the G-man are back to whatever is normal for you. What's next?"
"Major Hicks sent me some photos of something off the waters near Seattle," Nick said. "Nothing urgent, but the navy's a little shaken up, so I told him we'd head out there later this week. I guess we go back to the usual."
"With the usual back-up?" Mendel suggested. "Of the giant, fire-breathing variety?"
"Of course."
"And others in reserve, just in case," Monique added firmly. The members of HEAT shared the knowing smile – she was right, of course. Whatever mess they got into, if it were truly a disaster and they were in over their heads, there was a team of teenage mutant ninjas waiting to repay a debt to them that would fight beside them at a moment's notice. HEAT could go back to their work and all would be as it was, but for one difference – they never had to work without help if they needed it again, the kind of help Hicks and the military could never provide.
"If we're heading to Seattle," Elsie broke the quiet, "we'd better start packing."
"Yeah, and make sure to leave room for the whole trunk of tissues Mendel will need from being allergic to something out there. Trees, rocks, rain. Are you allergic to rain?" Randy teased, easing away from the railing.
"As a matter of fact, no. But if you've got any cures for annoying computer geeks, I'd love to hear them." Mendel stalked past Randy, nose in the air, heading back into the building.
"Come," Monique turned to Elsie. "I wish to confirm that the tranquilizer compounds are correctly allocated."
"I've only reloaded those things a hundred times," the red-head returned. "It's not like I'm going to confuse the sleeping agents from the neural suppressants!" But she allowed herself to be led back inside as well.
Nick, alone again, watched the sky a moment longer, then took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and dove. Almost at once he was deep underwater, his tail pushing against the current, chasing the secrets in the dark, finding the hidden snacks within the waves, hunting with grace and power and a fierce satisfaction. Godzilla mentally cradled his parent, and Nick allowed himself to be carried away, content knowing that he was exactly where he needed to be.
-==OOO==-
Godzilla opened one eye lazily. His underwater lair was quiet, but something had woken him. He instinctively searched for Nick, but his parent was asleep in the world above. It was not those feelings that had pulled him from sleep. To be sure all was safe, he flipped himself off the rock ledge and down into the water, patrolling his territory, seeking whatever threat might have roused him.
As he swam, he could feel the dreams in Nick's mind, feelings and images that leaked across when his parent was not keeping them separate. In these quiet times, Nick's mind relaxed and calm, Godzilla found it easy to draw his parent into the sea with him, pulling them close. Nick liked dreaming of it, Godzilla could feel it. It was good and safe in Godzilla's mind, and it helped them both understand each other.
And then there was a tug and a familiar presence appeared at the edge of Godzilla's mind. It was that other, not a parent, but still important somehow, that friend. Godzilla didn't understand the feeling exactly, but his parent did, and that was enough. The tug was enough to wake Nick from the sleeping state, but he stayed connected, reaching through Godzilla's mind to understand.
"Don?"
"Um, hi Nick. I just...uh...well, see, we were meditating, and I wondered if I could reach Godzilla on my own, and I did, so I figured I'd try to bring the others with me, too." The voice was sheepish and a little disappointed. "I got here, but they're not with me. I guess I need more practice."
"That's okay. Maybe next time. For now, would you like to see what it's like being Godzilla for a while?" Nick was amused and happy and a little excited, his heart brightening at the unexpected friend suddenly sharing the strange bond that so defined his life now.
"Definitely!" The warm hum of the response flooded the connection and, though a twinge of guilt remained, it was far outweighed by the obvious happiness.
Godzilla didn't understand the exchange entirely, but he could not miss the nudge from Nick to swim as hard and fast as he liked, hunting and playing as much as he wanted. Godzilla turned into the current with a burst of speed. His parent was happy to enjoy the water, and the friend who had somehow joined their bond was filled with interest and curiosity and excitement, all of which Godzilla did understand perfectly. As he dove deeper, sharing the thrill that his parent and the other one experienced with his movements, he felt himself snort in contentment. His parent was safe and happy. This other presence was welcome and interesting. Godzilla's territory was safe and there was no fear in any of their minds at all. And here came some food! Throwing himself into the chase, Godzilla trumpeted in triumph.
-==OOO==-
~ The End ~