Who am I? - CH20
Old Friend
Disclaimer: TMNT isn't mine and this is just a fanfiction writing. No money is being made on this story.
(TMNT CC are AU based on 2003 version and events, the turtles are in their late 20s.)
Warning: It has horror elements.
Rate: T
Drama, family comfort/hurt, and heartache...
Summary: Sometimes all one needs is a friend to help... or do they?
Standing there at the threshold to the lab, he lingered for a moment running through his head the horrific tale he had to digest, the threat of Bishop, which made his blood boil hearing that cursive name.
To add salt to the wound of his own past, reminded how barbaric and unhuman that so-called human was, he could only imagine what Bishop had put the other Raphael, Adam as he was insisted to address him, through. All these swirling emotions brought doubt to him, over how he was to talk to Donatello being distraught as he was.
How Michelangelo was explaining things, it was evident there was something wrong with Donatello not remotely sounding like his friend, who was always in the light of being a kind-hearted turtle.
It was hard to fathom, yet at the same time he knew better, everyone has a breaking point and dark side that could emerge without warning.
He knew this all too well, being through his own devastating fall, that was like an endless abyss that swallows him whole.
His had manifested and still haunted him years after when Bishop captured him and tortured him. Unfortunately for him it still lingered after the passing of time, even after he did work alongside that snake to save Donnie from his double mutation, he still experienced episodes when his darker side would unshackle itself forcing the bloodthirsty instincts to kick in.
One of the many reasons he had left town months back to find himself and suppress the demon within, that was a by-product of Bishop's doing.
He came back only on the realization he was better off being surrounded by family than alone noticing something he did not before, he had fewer episodes when he was associating with the brothers or even the only two human friends he had. That also included Casey that he considered, yet not admit was part of the lower depths of the IQ within the gene pool of the human race. He always wondered how that man was still breathing...
Even so, with that epiphany, with this new threat on the horizon was it truly wise for him to come back now? He still had no more control than before and now he was to go talk to Donatello over what? How to manage his emotions and recognize his actions, it was like calling the kettle black…
Letting out a sigh he looked within the well-lit lab seeing the turtle friend sitting at his desk staring blankly at a screen. There were already three empty cups of coffee stacked up and the fourth was slowly being drained between those tight lips that didn't partly open any more than it had to.
Making one knock on the metal door to announce he was there to visit, Leatherhead moved in seeing Donatello acknowledging him yet refused to veer his gaze off his screen.
"Good evening Donatello," Leatherhead greeted, "I see you have returned with your brothers."
"We got back not too long ago," he answered in a cold voice, which was a bit disturbing to the alligator.
Donatello took another sip from his mug, shifting in his seat then looked towards him, it was like looking into a reflection in a dark pool at the edge of a dock and seeing a version in the mirror world that was twisted and undoubtedly the opposite of your self.
Though it wasn't his reflection of course he saw in those eyes, yet it was the same feeling all the same.
When Michelangelo explained how Donatello has been acting was a short cry to the truth, too much sugar-coated reality.
This turtle if he didn't know whose lab he stepped into, nor personally knew the turtle in question would think someone else was sitting at the desk, staring at him as a trespasser and intruding into their space.
A moment of this passed then oddly something changed, maybe it was Donatello realizing what he was doing or was it he was returning…
The purple mask turtle, that wasn't wearing his mask which was odd on its own merit, dressed in his lab coat and goggles resting on the top of his head, his features slowly soften revealing his old self.
The Donatello he knew, leaving him baffled over who the prior stranger was.
"How was the vacation?" Donatello asked, placing his cup down and turning his monitor off. His eyes were full of light now as if the darkness faded or didn't exist.
"Unfruitful, unfortunately," he admitted moving closer to the desk, feeling welcome at last and wanting to see first hand that his friend's shadow version was just an illusion, cast by the surrounding lights and implanted by the stories of Michelangelo.
"Sorry to hear that," Donatello sighed, moving his chair to face his friend.
"Don't worry about me, I will find other ways…" Leatherhead assured him, out of the four brothers it was Donatello that he consulted on the reasoning of his vacation as they called it.
"If there is anything I can do to help, you know I will," he offered, making Leatherhead feel like the real Donatello was back and the other he witnessed was a bad dream.
"I appreciate it, however for now I will take it one day at a time and figure it out on the way. Though I want no more than this to be resolved, I can't force it, I have come to that conclusion…" Leatherhead looked at his hands that still had a hint of his past deeds, the invisible blood, the same blood he saw in the mirrors staining his lower jaw and manilla teeth.
An image that was burned into his brain, a reminder he was one step over that threshold of being a sentient being and a ruthless monster.
A kind green hand gently cupped his. That warmth was comforting as his eyes dared to look at the individual trying to prove to him he wasn't a beast of the night.
Those brown eyes radiant than the sun, that could melt the ice in any heart with so much kindness, made him want to weep.
"It's okay, you know I'm here if you need it, just come by anytime. Remember that Leatherhead, we are family and we take care of each other," Donatello said sweetly.
"Thank you, Donatello," he could barely say, allowing his other hand to place onto the turtle's.
"So other than saying hello, what brings you over," Donatello asked smoothly.
"To say hello and let you know how I fared, since how worried you were when I left," he answered, then added, "I see you have a guest with you when you returned from the farm."
"Yes, Adam," Donatello removed his hand, in a way that didn't show any offence.
"Yes, how peculiar he resembles your brother Raphael in features and sounds like him as well, it is quite remarkable."
"He is from another dimension which in turn isn't surprising to have odds that the likeness is uncanny, other than the situation he is in," Donatello informed him moving towards his desk, swiping it like he was looking for dust.
"Situation?" Leatherhead asked, knowing vaguely what that meant being told Adam in the day transformed into a human, and a female at that.
To not only change species, that was something he never came across, but to have an individual shift from a mammal to reptile was beyond fantasy.
Just alone the complication and the differences between cold-blooded and warm-blooded made it improbable, then to add gender was in his mind overkill.
What did Bishop do to the poor turtle or was it as Mikey mentioned could be natural before Bishop got his hands on Adam?
"Adam has the ability to change, not controlled of course, but on a timer. During the day he is a female human, at night as you saw a male turtle that resembles my brother in every detail other than mental capacity. Even so, still dangerously skillful, a trained ninja that we assume that is. We don't have much evidence to go on that assumption, but seen enough signs to get a vague idea what he is capable of if provoked."
"I see, yet I am assuming not a threat to your family?" Leatherhead asked, trying not to judge and figure out what was eating Donatello as requested of him from Michelangelo.
So far Donatello was acting normal, not factoring in when he first entered the room of course.
"I am still trying to determine that; we know little of him only the main facts. There is still more to learn, such as how and why he is capable of altering his physical form. So far all I can say like I have mentioned it's on a schedule that can't be broken, yet at the same time it has its side effects and I wonder if that cycle can be broken under certain circumstances."
"Oh?" Leatherhead moved around Donatello to see his face as the turtle was explaining.
"During these shifts, there are many factors in play, not including how his body reacts to the transition between both sides, the imbalance from his blood sugar, white cell count and so forth. There is one other side effect I have observed, his body during metamorphoses will heal any injury he sustained beforehand, which could-"
"Could explain the imbalance," Leatherhead finished the train of thought to show he was getting where Donatello was going with it.
"Yes, precisely... but here is what baffles me, the results are always the same, regardless if injured or not. What I have gathered his tests comes out exactly like the last, with no percentage difference," Donatello pointed out with frustration in his features.
"That is peculiar. I would think there would be different results even if significant, regardless of the different variables during his process. Not all data would be identical. Is your equipment functioning correctly?" Leatherhead asked.
Donatello nodded, "It is, I performed a thorough inspection on everything to see if that was why my research showed no fluctuations… However, there is another factor that may be the culprit …"
"Another factor?" Leatherhead raised an eyebrow.
"The drug…"
"Drug?"
"That took way too long…" he grumbled, pulling his hoodie tighter around his head.
His conversation with Nobody was to be shorter than it was and to top it off he had to take a detour before even getting back to the sewers to avoid some Foot soldiers.
Sadly, in normal circumstances he would investigate into their activity being that they were up to no good he could tell, he couldn't for obvious reasons.
What was Karai up to anyways?
He witnessed the ninja having a conversation with two shady men as her soldiers were loading something in a truck, it wasn't business as usual. His family being out of the city for too long gave the Foot an upper hand and it irked him.
This was their city, not the Foot's yet they insisted to play in his territory as if they own it and the people in it.
It disgusted him and he was planning to put his foot down, yet many factors were not on his side forcing him at the moment to have to turn a blind eye on their activity if he wished not to put up the red flags for Bishop or hindrances on Nobody's investigation over Adam's female side.
Brooding over the tight security forcing him to enter the sewers somewhere else, he noted he will have to come to an agreement later with Karai to establish superiority in this area of the city at least.
He didn't want it to come to that, trying in the past to make an agreeable arrangement between his clan and the Foot clan, but it was always fruitless and he was getting tired of this runaround and empty attempts. If Raph didn't mess up making them retreat to the farm, this would have been resolved already…
Slowly his pace and taking refuge under a grate that allowed a lone street lamp light to illuminate the sewer tunnel, he sighed.
He shouldn't blame Raph he knew that it wasn't his fault, he was just as much to blame, he knew the foot was becoming more of a threat each passing day. If he did what needed to be done in the first place then try to reason with that stubborn-headed woman that lost all sight of honour, that he wished to rekindle, things wouldn't have gotten this peril between both clans.
"Another problem I will have to deal with in due time…" Leo sighed, placing his hand on his forehead.
No matter what he does or does not do, things seem darker than they should.
At times he questioned why they bother with the city anymore, why was it their fight?
Why did it fall to be his responsibility to set things right? Why couldn't the government or police fix the city's issues, why did it have to fall on his lap and his brothers?
The humans didn't know of their existence and if they did, wouldn't accept them and lock them up and worse… Yet they took it as their life mission to protect them to keep them safe at night, to dabble in situations that risk their existence and life for translucent beings that didn't care to do anything themselves…
Moving forward he tried to push it to the side, he had to talk to Leatherhead about Donatello and Adam at that.
He couldn't possibly juggle everything at once and had to take it in strides one thing at a time or he would be running circles with nothing changing or improving.
Only five minutes now from Leatherhead's home, he ran in his head what he needed to discuss with the friend, what he hoped to accomplish from a talk between him and Donatello and where he would like to move forward with Adam.
There was much to go through with little time to do so, but he wanted to make sure Leatherhead didn't feel pressured that wouldn't be fair in the end either.
Making to the hidden doorway Leo slipped into the cold dark abandoned subway.
The room feeling like it hasn't had life occupying it for a while he bit his lip.
Did he miss the alligator, where did he go? Surely, he didn't venture to the surface being with the Foot patrolling as they were… then… Gulping, he feared the other possibility, Leatherhead headed to the lair while he was out if that was so then…
"So where have you been Fearless," an icy cold voice demanded within the darkness, sending chills up Leo's spine.
Shuttering Leo started to sweat, as his fear bear fruit, since if he was here only meant Leatherhead had visited before he could speak with him… He was caught red-handed…
TBC