A/N: Woah, hey guys I'm back ! I hope you guys are still alive and thanks for being patient ! :). This chapter is my fave for some revelations, but next chapter I promise will have action! Please let me know what you guys think so far, thanks for the support.
For someone who's been time travelling for years, Renet always hated messing up, but when her staff turned to that crimson red, she hated that more.
"Great." She mumbled to herself, but the three turtles were able to hear. She looked up at the three confused faces, and shook the staff; "it's overheated, we're stuck here." She didn't even look where 'here' was, but her three friends knew where they were.
"We're in the lair, I just can't figure out when," Leo whispered, looking at his surroundings. They ended up in the garage, and with the two doors ajar, anyone can see them. The garage was filled with old rummage toys, and boxes that no one used so Splinter stored it in this room. It was obvious that there was heavy rain earlier from the week, most boxes were wet, and the rags piled up in a soaking seep. He remembers they used the rags all the time to clean up the water from spilling into their home. Leo wanted to look through the boxes, to figure out what year they were in, and how far they were from saving Donnie, but…
"Someone's coming." Raph said in a harsh whisper, and Leo snapped back to reality and grabbed Renet as all four blended into the shadows. Out of habit, their eyes delved into a deep shade of white, quieting their breath and movement as the person passed by them.
They let a few seconds run before Raph poked his head out, to see himself, a younger version of himself, carrying a mug of hot tea to his old room he used to share with…
"We're in the right place, all right." He muttered; eyes glued to his younger self who opened their door wide to show a sick-toddler Donnie.
His brothers' and Renet all poked their heads out, with Leo and Mike looking at each other.
"I don't remember this, what's happening?" Mikey asked, he looked at Leo who shrugged, then to Raph, who failed to respond.
"Raph." Mikey said in annoyance, "what's happening?"
"Shut it, will ya? It's before Donnie and I went out." He whispered or failed to whisper his clear annoyance.
The four can see toddler Donnie propped up on his bed he shared with his brother, Raph who's sitting on the corner of the bed with him. Their voices were so high pitched, but they can hear them loud and clear.
"Thanks, Raphie." A nasally Donnie said, grabbing the steaming cup off the other toddlers' hands.
"Don't mention it." Raph crossed his arms and looked at his younger brother. "I'm stuck with you until you get better." He said annoyed, and Donnie covered his mouth with his elbow to cough.
Despite being five, his cough sounded like something from a cartoon, hoarse and ugly, which Raph grimaced to. He jumped off the bed, covering his hand so Donnie's germs wouldn't get all over him.
"I'm only sick cause we share beds, and you gave me this." Donnie said in spite and took a small sip of the tea. He shook his head in disgust, he hated tea, the tea that Papa made them drink when they were ill. "I took care of you, and now you're making up for it."
If it weren't for the fact his brother was sick, Raph would of shut his giggling brother up. "Yeah, yeah, you owe me." He stuck his tongue out but approached his ill brother and feel his brother's forehead like his Papa does.
"How do you feel?"
"Gross," his brother replied, and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, "and bored." He placed the cup down and raised his hands up to stretch. He emphasized his boredom with tilting his head back and groaning, "I hate this."
"Well, you shouldn't have gotten sick in the first place," Raph removed his hand from his brother's warm forehead. "You're feeling a little warm."
"It's from the tea," Donnie replied, "and you got me sick." He reminded his brother, again, making sure he was adding salt to the wound. He knew Raph never took care of him, but he owed him, and Papa was out to scavenge for food. So Raph's stuck with him, and Raph only got sick duty 'cause they shared rooms. It wasn't much of a choice to be fair, but Raph and Leo bumped heads all the time, and Mikey was too much for Raph to handle which is why he got stuck with his geeky brother. It was the best Papa could do for him, and Donnie wasn't too bad unless he stayed up reading his books.
"You don't have to keep reminding me." Raph rolled his eyes and squished the pillow behind Donnie's head. "You're gonna sleep?" Sleeping meant that Raph didn't have to watch his brother anymore 'cause then their Papa will be back to watch him. Which meant that Raph can have the T.V. and he can relax and…
"Nooo." Donnie narrowed his eyes, yanking the pillow from his head and placing it over his face. There was a muffled groan, before Raph pulled the pillow from his brother, which he looked at Raph with puppy eyes. "Raphie," he started, and pouted his bottom lip, "I wanna go out."
This caught Raph's attention, "out?" he uttered in disbelief, tossing the pillow to the other side of the bed.
"Yeah!" Donnie stretched his legs under the pile of blankets mounted on him and sat up again. "Leo and Mike are practicing their kata right now, so we can go the sewers and play before Papa comes."
"I don't know Don – "
"Come on, it means that you don't have to watch me be bored and we both can have some fun! We watched all the shows today, and it can be our little secret, especially since we're going at night!" Maybe Donnie shouldn't have said it so loud, but Raph waved his hand down gesturing his brother to be quiet. The idea sounded great! But he didn't want Papa finding out or worse finding them out of the lair, especially when his brother was sick.
"Okay fine, I'm in." Raph quickly whispered and was helping his brother out of the blankets. "We have to be quick though, we can't have anyone finding out, especially Leo." He said loud and clear, if Raph had a word for how Leo was a kiss up to Splinter, he'd be using it all the time. For now, he resorted to calling him Splinter jr, he would tattle tale everyone about his business that especially Papa shouldn't know about.
"Yeah, let's just go right now." Donnie got off the bed, his feet touching the ice-cold floor, but the toddler didn't care, he was finally leaving their stuffy room. He blew the candle out and grabbed Raph's arm and lugged him out of there.
The two toddlers tip-toed passed the dojo, before running out to the sewers. Despite the two only being five, their feet padded quietly against the floor before vanishing for the groups' eyesight.
Present Raph kept staring out at the entrance his past self and Donnie had just gone to. It was only moments before he would come back to grab some toys, and then would come back to an angry Splinter to tell him he can't find his brother.
Things haven't been the same since, but their father and son relationship remained broken since the incident.
"Raph." He felt a jostle and blinked to his remaining two brothers' and Renet who stared at him, with worried eyes. Sympathy and pity were one of Raph's pet peeves, and he can feel that energy coming off everyone. There was nothing to be sorry about, what's done is done, and he just wanted to fix this, to have his brother back.
"I always thought you were the one who told Donnie to leave to the sewers." Leo whispered, and all Raph can do was shake his head. Raph would never put the blame on his dead brother, but he wasn't fully at fault, Raph didn't stop him either.
Mikey's mouth was agape, did Splinter never believe Raph wasn't the total blame of the two leaving that day? Raph didn't really stop him, but they were five! And to come to think about it, every time Raph and Splinter would talk it was always angry disputes and tension. And every time he would mess up in kata, or sparring, or do something he wasn't supposed to, Splinter always gave him harsher punishments than the two.
Did Splinter blamed Raph for the death?
"Raph, I didn't know –" Was Splinter fabricating lies, or did he put his grieving and anger to the child who was part of the incident. Did Raph blame himself too?
"Drop it." Raph cut Mikey off, and all Renet can do was put a hand to her mouth. The tension in the garage grew, and everything started to make sense.
"We need to go follow them, or – or something, Shredder should come soon after Raph leaves Donnie, we can get Donnie out of there and fight Shredder." Renet said, her words cutting through the tension room. Whatever happened after, affecting not only them, not only Donnie, but affected the father and son relationship between Raph and Splinter. Renet wanted to fix it, to fix this, this isn't how everything is supposed to be. And she knows she thought the same thing, but as they discover more, everything feels wrong, and despite her friends not knowing what she knows, she knows that it's starting to feel wrong to them too.
"Yeah, okay." Leo replied, nodding his head multiple times before huffing, "if I remember Mike and I should be leaving the dojo soon, so we have to go – "
"I call the T.V.!" A loud shrill of joy echoed through the lair, before a five-year-old Michelangelo ran out of the dojo to leap over the couch.
"Now." Leo finished, eyes shutting close for a brief second.
"No, that's not fair, Mikey! You had the T.V. last, it's my turn!" Past Leo said, bowing before leaving the dojo to run up to the couch. "I wanna watch Space Heroes!"
"You've seen all season 1 already, Leo., from this morning." Mikey rolled his eyes, hiding the remote under his bum. "I want to watch Spongebob."
"We have to go." Raph said, not interested in the fight the two toddlers were gonna have. Despite the two being five, they were training to be ninja, so leaving from the way his past self has just gone to wouldn't work.
"Do you think Raphie and Donnie would wanna watch too?" Mikey asked, still refraining to give Leo the remote. He put a pillow next to him to shield Leo from attempting to grab the remote.
"No, Raphie's on sick duty, and Donnie shouldn't be leaving his bed. They can watch later once Papa comes home, now gimme!" He pushed the pillow off and tried pushing his youngest brother off the remote, and the two started to wrestle for it.
"We have another way of going." Present Leo said rolling his eyes at the two, all four would fight for the remote, then four became three. And despite the change, the lost innocence, they would fight like there was no tomorrow. Leo motioned his head to the garage door that lead to the abandoned train tracks. To this day, they rarely went out that way, and Splinter would say they would use it in case of an emergency. Such if an enemy found their secret home, they would have another exit.
Everyone nodded in agreement, and Leo slowly closed the door shut so when they pull the garage open, his past self and past Mike wouldn't hear them.
And with that, Leo and Raph pulled the garage door high enough so they can get out of there pronto. They don't know when Splinter's coming, but past Raph should be coming in to grab some toys, and then after… Leo shut the garage door closed, breathing out heavily.
Renet looked at her staff glowing red, "so, we're all stuck here until my staff cools down, in the meantime, Shredder should be coming soon, but we need a way to divert him from getting to Donnie." Renet placed her staff down, looking at the three; "any ideas?"
"Yeah, once past me comes to grab the toys, we should have Donnie follow him, so he isn't alone. Cause if I remember right, Splinter should be coming around the time I came for the toys, so he'll ground us and then we would deal with the Shredder." Raph crossed his arms with a big smug.
"Okay, uhh any other ideas?" Renet asked, and silence was her only answer; "okay, Raph, lead the way."
"So, what's your bright idea, Raph, how you gonna make him follow him?" Leo asked watching the pair in the dark with trained eyes.
"Just hold on." Raph said, crouching down, waiting for the right moment.
"We should've brought our toys!" Past Raph said, splashing his feet in the puddle. Donnie was just watching him with his arms crossed. His mouth agape because of his nostrils being clogged with mucus, he hated being sick, but runny nose was far the worse out of the experience.
"Yeah we can still get them, Papa should still be out, so we have time." Donnie replied nasally, but he was regretting being out, it was always cold in the sewers but from the recent rains, it was a little worse.
"Okay, stay here, I'll be right back." Raph backed up facing him, before turning away into a sprint.
Donnie nodded, covering his sneeze. He blinked and sniffled, he stood back placing his shell against the wall and looked at his surroundings, it was too dark for his liking but also this was the only time he could play before Splinter makes him go to bed.
"Actually, Donnie, come with me!" A poorly high pitched Raph said, hoping Donnie would believe it was his actual five-year-old brother.
"Uhh," there was a hesitation in his voice, and Donnie started walking the same direction Raph spoke from, "okay, where are you?"
Present Raph pointed his direction for his brothers to follow, and said in a high-pitched tone, "over here!" The gang went into stealth mode, so Donnie can miss them and find his brother at the lair.
Thankfully, Donnie missed them, and started to jog to catch up with his brother, although he couldn't see much nor where he was.
"Okay, so now we wait for Splinter to come home and ground the two, and we just have to figure out a way to get the Shredder out of here and make sure he never time travels again." Raph said, a little easier said than done but he was proud he could make his voice believable to his brother.
Sort of.
Raph doesn't remember his past self-coming to the same spot where Donnie was seconds ago with the toys. The toddler dropped the stuff animals, looking around to find his younger brother.
"Donnie? Where did you go?" Fear settled in the pit of his stomach, Papa would kill him, it was too dark to be out here, and his brother was sick to top it all off.
"Great thinking Raph, now we're back to the square one." Leo whispered and looked at Renet. "I don't think changing anything before the incident will help, Shredder is the common denominator, we need to destroy his time travel device."
The group watched as past Raph ran back to the same direction he left minutes ago, no doubt probably getting home to tell Splinter that he can't find his brother. 'Cause as much as he would search for him, Papa always told them to get him before getting lost as well.
"Okay, so now Shredder should be coming soon, we can't mess this up." Renet looked at her staff, seeing the crimson red turn to a bright pink, it was a good sign, but it wasn't the color she needed.
"So, now what?" Mikey asked nonchalantly; "We defeat Shredder and then everything goes back to normal?"
"That's the plan." Renet said, huffing from this whole thing, they made no progress since they left home, but she couldn't just let these guys live without their brother. She wanted to fix it, the city of New York was counting on her too, (despite them not knowing who she is).
"Okay, we need to make a plan B, since our first plan didn't work." Leo eyed Raph, who put his hands up. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it's going to work."
"Well we're running out of options, so any ideas gonna work." Raph said, shrugging, "let's hear what you got."