Nalong - Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any associated characters, places or things from any of their many incarnations. I only borrowed them to write this little piece of fiction. I do not get paid for this and I promise to return them when I am done. Please don't sue me.

A/N: I am pleased to announce that the rough draft of this story is complete, and it weighs in at 18 chapters. I'll be posting as I finish editing. There are only 4 left. I got lots of questions about what's up with Donnie, I guess you'll just have to read and find out! hehe. As usual A HUGE THANK YOU to all you wonderful reviewers out there!

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Mikey was sitting on the floor chatting with Eric and Annie, and Leo was half-listening to the strategy conversation Raph was having with Steve, but the other half of his concentration was on the turtle curled up on his bed with his shell to the room. Eric had informed him of Don's lost feeling, but even without that information Leonardo would have known that something was up. Raphael and Steve didn't even seem to notice when he stood and left their conversation entirely.

"Hey Donnie," Leo called quietly, checking to see if his brother was awake.

Donatello sighed and turned over to face Leo.

"Are you ok?" Leo asked.

The purple clad turtle shrugged slightly and sat up. Sitting cross-legged on the bed he offered the empty space to his brother. "That wasn't really a question was it?" Don replied, already knowing the answer.

Leonardo shook his head. "There's been something up with you since you got back from the Course, and I want to know what it is." He could almost see the wheels turning in Donnie's head as the turtle tried to figure out how to best explain what was wrong. Leo knew that this was one of Don's quirks, almost everything he said had been thought out first. It was very different from dealing with Raphael who spoke first then thought later. Both required patience, it was just a different kind of patience.

"How do you do it, Leo?" Donnie finally asked. At the confused look on the blue turtle's face he continued. "How do you take responsibility for us day in and day out? How do… how you do forgive yourself when someone you're trying to protect gets hurt?" There was a long pause, and almost too quietly for Leo to hear "How do I forgive myself for letting them die?"

Leonardo had almost missed the last statement, it was so quiet. So that was why Don had been so out of it. That was why he had flinched at the prospect of getting everyone out. That was what haunted his dreams.

Shocked, Leo physically pulled Donatello around so that they were facing each other and made sure that he had eye contact. "You didn't 'let' them die, Donnie." Almost immediately he regretted use of that particular nickname. It sounded a little condescending, but it was too late now.

"Didn't I?" Don glared at Leo. "Maybe if I hadn't leapt over the group on the balance beam no one would have fallen. If I had waited by the door instead of coming back to the center of the room levitation lady wouldn't have been electrocuted." He shuddered at the memory of forcing the woman away from the door.

"You can't possibly blame yourself for that Don. There was nothing more you could have done. Remind me, why did you leap over the group on the balance beam?"

"Because the guy in back was falling," Don admitted quietly.

"And why did you come back to the center of the room?"

"To wait for the others and try to figure out what the hidden danger about the door was."

"In those actions, and the reasoning behind them, do you see anything that you honestly wouldn't do again if put in the same situation?"

For a long time Leo got no response, but Donatello eventually shook his head.

"You heard what Steve said. No one has ever come out of the Course unscathed. Your actions, yours and Raphael's, brought 5 people out alive. The odds were stacked so high against you that what you accomplished is a miracle. You have to know that Donnie." Leo was ticked at himself for using that name, again, but Don didn't seem to notice or care.

"Deep down, I do. It just doesn't make me fell any better about it."

"Well, how about this. You and I go over and talk strategy with Steve. We're going to need you on this one. Don't let the ones you couldn't save get you down. Just keep trying to help the ones you can."

Don gave Leo a small smile. "Thanks, Splinter Jr."

Leonardo hated that nickname, usually. But somehow, when Don used it, it didn't sound insulting. In fact, Donnie had taken the derogatory little nickname and turned it into a compliment.

Donatello let Leo pull him to his feet, and the pair joined the strategy session Raph and Steve were already engrossed in. Soon Mikey, Eric, and Annie were all in on it too.

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The next morning the turtles were up early and, again, Leo had them doing katas. Today they were all working the same one as a group.

"Donatello!" Leo hissed quietly, so as not to disturb their roommates, when he noticed his brother two whole movements behind.

Don's attention snapped back to the present and he nearly lost his balance. He pulled his focus back to the kata and caught up one movement by the time his brothers were done. Don's inattention caused Leo to have them do the kata again, and Raph and Mikey glared at Donnie. This time he managed to keep his mind on the task at hand, but it was difficult. His focus was elsewhere this morning, or maybe everywhere was a better word. Some of his attention was on the conversation with Leo last night, some was on the girl in the Course, some was on what Splinter, April and Casey were doing, and a very large part was on what he had to do tomorrow for this little plan to work. He wasn't looking forward to that, but of the seven of them he was the only one who stood a chance, slim as it was, of actually pulling it off.

Two days. They would have two days and one shot at this, because if they failed this time Donatello was sure that they would not live to get another chance at it. Today word was to be spread among the prisoners. Details would be left out, and with luck the trail would get too long for the guards to trace before they even found out about it.

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Donatello and Annie were in the same work group again. Raphael was with Steve, and Michelangelo and Leonardo were with Eric. That morning at breakfast Raphael spotted Alejandro at the breakfast table, and as he got closer he was surprised to see Ben there as well. Raphael pulled Mikey and Steve over to where the two men sat.

"Hey guys," Raphael started as he set his tray down on the table, "we've got news and a plan, and we're going to need a little help. You up for it?"

"Are you kidding? You really think we'd turn you down?" Ben enthused, obviously excited over the idea. The short man seemed to be rubbing his hands together at the prospect of escaping. "I get the feeling that, with you guys running the show, it's going to be something big."

"You better believe it." Raphael confided.

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Across the room Eric had found a few acquaintances and he drug Leonardo over to the table and made some short introductions. But this wasn't purely a social call; there was business to be attended to here. Rumor of the turtle creatures that had led three others safely through the Course had spread quickly, and while Leonardo wasn't actually one of those two turtles these guys didn't know that, nor did they need to.

"This one is going to be big," Eric informed the men at the table, "bigger than anything ever before attempted."

"Why should we believe you?" The largest of the men asked. "What makes this attempt any different from all the others in the past?"

"Hey, have I ever led you guys wrong before?" Eric asked with an 'innocence' in his voice that would not have been out of place coming from a stereotypical used car salesman.

The big burly guy, who also happened to have eyes in the back of his head, literally, studied Eric's face for a moment before speaking. "Is this one of them turtle guys?"

"One of them, yes." Eric answered the question that was spoken, but not the one that was implied. What this guy wanted to know was if Leo was one of the turtles that had led people through the course, but as long as Leo kept his mouth shut about that little detail they might just be able to pull this one off.

"Good show, turtle-boy." The man jumped off his stool and clapped Leonardo hard on the shell. "That took guts, kid."

Leo was just glad it wasn't Raph who was here right now. He kept his mouth shut. He wouldn't lie if he was asked, but if this guy was going to make assumptions that led to his assistance in this little prison break then Leonardo wasn't going to stop him either.

"So are you in?" Eric asked.

"Anything you need, kiddo." The man said brightly to Eric.

"Great, my green friend here and his family will be taking care of the details, but we need word spread, and we need it spread fast. Our window is sometime tomorrow." Eric and Leonardo got up to leave.

"Uh, how do we know when it's going to go down?"

"Trust me, you'll know." Leo informed the men. He glanced down the table and noticed two strange mutants. They were human-animal crosses like him and his brothers, but these two looked like a rhino and a warthog. They seemed oddly familiar, but he was sure that he didn't know them.

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Two buildings over, Don and Annie had found Iris. Breakfast was as good a time as any. It was time to fire up the rumor mill, a machine capable of passing information faster than any device that even Donatello could dream up. And this rumor had three points of origin.

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