Prologue
Donatello lay asleep, safe in his bed. In his dreams, however, he was far from it.
He was in a cage and not a very big one at that. It was only about three feet tall and five feet across. The room was dark and cold. His brothers were in adjacent cages to the left and right of him. He could hear his brother Michelangelo sniffling next to him.
Donatello's five-year-old body tensed every time he heard footsteps. The footsteps got louder and louder. He could hear slight pounding on the locked metal door. Suddenly the door creaked open. Donatello tensed. Was it one of Them?
A head slowly came into view. A body followed as the figure partially closed the door behind him.
"What's going on?" Donetello's older brother, Leonardo, asked.
"Shhh," the figure whispered. "It's only me, sweetie."
Donatello instantly recognized the voice. It was Elena. She was a big kid, in her teens probably. Donatello and his brothers had met her the first night they came. She had shown them a kind of love that even their sensei and father had not been able to provide. The four brothers had liked her right away.
Elena crept forward and unlocked Donnie's cage.
"Come on," Elena reached her arms into the cage to help the small turtle out.
Then she proceeded to help his brothers out. She had to carry Raphael. The bad men had given him a sedative, on account of his temper. The other three turtles followed the human as she led them out of the building. That was when the alarm went off.
Now awake, Donatello sat up in bed, gasping for breath. Then he groaned. He had that dream again. This was was the sixth time he'd had this dream. The oddest thing was that it wasn't always the same thing. There was more each time.
Almost like a long-lost memory.
Donnie shook his head. He had never been a captive in a laboratory in his life.
"And thank God for that," he muttered.
Donnie knew he'd never be able to get back to sleep. Donnie sighed and set off toward the kitchen. To his surprise, Leonardo was already seated at the kitchen table.
"Donnie," Leo was just as surprised to see him. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Bad dream," Donnie admitted.
"What about?"
"The four of us in a lab," Donnie replied. "We were in cages until - "
"Until a girl named Elena rescued us," Leo interupted, staring at his brother intently.
"How did you know?" Donnie stared, completely baffled.
"I've been having the same dream."
The next morning, Leo and Donnie told Master Splinter about the dream they'd been sharing.
"But it doesn't make sense," Donnie said. "The four of us were barely ever topside when we were that young, let alone in a lab."
"But, you were, my sons," Splinter told them. "You were so little at the time and it was so tramatic that you forgot."
"How could we forget something that painful?" Raphael asked.
"When young minds are tramatized like that, the mind wil repress in the memories in orderto avoid shock."
"What happened, Master?" asked Leo.
"Once when you were five, I took you to a playground at night," Spinter explained. "The four of you were playing hide-and-seek. I was unaware that there was a man who had been watching us for some time. He hadn't seen what I really looked like, but had seen you. He tranquilized me and stole the four of you back to his laboratory in Westchester."
Leo shuddered, feeling a terror of long ago.
"I tried desperately to find you, but without success," Spinter continued. "About a week later, you were brought back by a fifteen-year-old named Elena Collins. Her father was the one who had abducted you. She inheirited her father's brains, but her mother's looks. She had a big heart as well as psycic potential. Anyway, she brought you back to me. She stayed with us about a month afterward. During that time, she gave you something I would never be able to provide."
"What's that?" Michalangelo asked curiously.
"A mother's love," Spinter replied. "That same love caused her to leave. She had sensed her father coming closer. Elena was like a mother bear. She would do anything to protect her cubs. She lured her father away, making him think that she had you with her."
"What happened to her?" Leo could feel tears streaming down his face, but he didn't care. He was slowly beginning to remember her. Images of her singing him to sleep, kissing him on his forehead, him playing with strands of her auburn hair, returned.
"I fear her father has captured her," Splinter was quietly sobbing as well. "Poor girl. She gave up any sense of normality she ever had when she rescued her. Yet, the day before she left, she told me that the four of you were the best thing that ever happened to her."
"Is she still alive?" Mikey asked softly and slowly, almost as if he was afraid of the answer. "With her father's temper, who can tell?" Splinter replied softly.