Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, the last couple of weeks has been busy due to Thanksgiving plans. It took up a lot of time and I needed a long break afterwards. Anyway Glazier Blue and I worked hard on this chapter and we came up with this. Bad news is that the chapter ended up longer than we anticipated so we split this one into two. The first part is this one, it's short but it has enough. The good news is that the second part will be posted a couple of days later, so the wait won't be that long. Enough talking, enjoy.
Chapter 5: Tangled Web Part 1
Fear wasn't something that struck Donatello very often. In fact, he liked to treat fear more as a training motivation, how to deal and plan and hopefully overcome the next obstacle he knew was coming and were good lesson's to learn from. No matter what, fear was a constant demon he and his brothers always tried to face head on!
There had been just a few times when fear hit him that bit harder and all the planning in the world could not prevent his failure. Fear of losing his family, fear of letting others down, fear of seeing others suffer, like the first time facing the Shredder. Or almost been dissected by Bishop, or the Triceraton invasion, or that terrifying possible future where they had lost the battle and the Foot had taken over New York…and seeing his brothers die. Knowing that this could still come true one day still haunted him and up until now, that had taken the prize...But what was been done to him now however seemed to be competing for that first place. Donnie always knew he might die in battle, that was just something they all dealt with... but this! This was just cruelty…as there was no motive, no logic or reason. Donatello was going to be tortured, maybe killed in a cage, just for someone's amusement.
Hearing his father condemning him had made the short list of the most horrid experiences of his life. He still didn't want to believe it had been real, and hoped he had been hallucinating, and now he had come to a little, he was seriously questioning whether it had? Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but the Rat King certainly did enjoy messing with him mentally as well as physically. The fears of failure and dishonour were eating away at him, but he had to believe it wasn't true, because the thought of just been abandon was just too much to bare.
Were his brothers even looking for him? Why had he not just called Leo? He should have just gone right home; how could he have been so complacent? Even if they knew he was missing, they wouldn't know where to look.
Stupid, stupid, so stupid - !
Suddenly Donnie was yanked out of his self-loathing by movement just beyond the dim circle of light. The walls! They looked like they were moving? Rats! He was surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands of rats, but they were staying just outside the light. The stinging from there bites made Donnie shiver, as he could see dozens of glowing red eyes just staring at him like he was a meal... Oh shell! It's only then just dawned on the genius what the Rat King could be planning to do with his remains if he didn't escape! His brothers would never find him, ever! This realisation made the poor turtle feel very ill.
"Sorry boys but I'm not interested in been your lunch!" He gulped back trying to stop himself from throwing up, but the walls suddenly felt like they were closing in, literally! Attempting to take his mind off his impending doom, he instead wanted to figure out how he was captured in the first place? "Out of everywhere in the NY and in massive junk yard, how did he know to look for me - wait? How did he know!?" It took a moment for the question to really hit him. Donnie blinked again looking around at all the rats as an impossible theory suddenly struck him ... The rat at April's shop... Big red eyes... The way it looked at him? He saw them at the junk yard, only for the rat king to find him an hour later? – no! …. It wasn't possible... was it?
"Purple," Donnie jumped. He had been so distracted that the Rat King just seemed to appear out of the darkness like a ghost. It took all of the turtle's willpower not to show that he was trembling. The way the human rat was looking at him could only describe as animalistic.
Why hadn't he killed him yet? Donnie thought. Why was he just teasing - wait what did he call him? Don looked at him confused.
"You... I remember you," Said the rat king darkly.
"Oh gee, I'm almost flattered... almost!" Donnie sneered with dark sarcasm.
"You're different to the red and orange and blue."
It clicked right away. Red, orange…he was talking about his brothers! Identifying them by their bandanna. Not that Donnie wanted to be on first name terms, but it further proved his theory that the rat king just saw them as 'things' rather than living beans.
"Different? What's that supposed to mean?" Donnie was just grateful that he could still talk.
"Orange drowns out his fears with a loud attention seeking humour. Always laughing on purpose, even at the darkness he knows will get him one day. Lucky, he escaped when he did... Red on the other hand, he was recklessly fearless but persistent, and would I be right if I said 'Competitive'?" He smirked. "He resents those he is hell bent on protecting. Screaming angrily "I'm here" at the world because he knows no one is listening. It's kind of sad really," A dark smile crept over his face. "Now Blue, he was my favourite, and I don't think I am the first to say that... Crushed by expectation resulting in a superiority complex. A strong soul that has been corrupted and was drowning in the very darkness he was trying to fight." He looked at the flabbergasted bound turtle. Well, that was certainly a lot for someone they just crossed blades with. "Tell me Purple, how acute am I?" Donnie didn't answer. "I enjoyed the challenge, but they were too easy to read. I could destroy them with little effort if I wanted too."
Donatello blinked. When looking past the animalistic features and listening to the rat king analyse them, there was just something unsettlingly familiar about him. For a feral man living among rats, he sounded more like Bishop in the lab. Where had this intelligence come from? Clearly there was MUCH more to him than what met the eye.
"But you," He pointed at the smart turtle. "You did not attack me…you only raised your weapon in defence." From his tone the rat king sounded confused by this.
"So? Sorry I'm still failing to see your point to any of this!"
"Survival of the strongest! If I am to survive, I must destroy all threats to me and for some reason I know the only threat to me are you four... I don't know why? But that's irrelevant."
"Whoa, you attacked us! Why would you think we were a threat unless you were one to us?" Donnie argued but the rat king ignored him, like he hadn't even spoken.
"I need to understand you. What drives you, what pains you? Once I have studied you, then I will know how to destroy you," Now coming close to his captive. "Your Master, my servant, has ordered you to obey me. You will fight me and show me if your worthy of living."
Long seconds passed before Donnie answered, "Can I take a moment to revel in your lack of sanity please? Seriously you just want to see if I stack up to my brothers, and then you'll just have us all figured out?" Donnie felt insulted. "You understand nothing!" He shouted. "And Master Splinter has no Master. Even if he did, it certainly would not be you!" He spat. "I don't know how you did it earlier, but I DON'T believeMaster Splinter would do this to me!" He said this last bit louder than he meant too. He was trying to chase away those little nagging doubts in the back of his head, but something in Don's voice betrayed him to the rat kings observations.
He tilted his head studying the turtle before responding. "Really? You don't sound so sure, why is that?" The rat king came up close. Donnie tried to turn away but his bandanna was yanked hard so he couldn't turn away from him. "tell me why do you think your Master would send you here to me? Is it because deep down do you know you're not as good as the others?"
"Shut up!"
"You do, don't you! You know you're a disappointment –"
"Analyse this rat man! I am NOT going to play your game! I don't need to prove that I worthy to y-Arrgh!"
Donnie was literally cut off by the Rat King's razor-sharp fingernail slicing across the side of his neck, just missing his windpipe. Red quickly started to stain his green skin, seeping down his front. Shaking as he tried to breathe through the burning when the same hand suddenly gripped his chin. "If you're not going to fight, then I'll just take you apart." The threat of the razor nails pressed. "There are other ways to study you."
The way he said 'study' gave him chills. Again, it was too familiar. When the Rat King leaned in, he made Donnie's breathing hitch, he squirmed when he felt him lick up the bleeding running from his upper neck. The sensation sending a chill down his shell. Donnie's eyes began to sting, fighting back tears. The mixture of humiliation and fear was getting to him, but he wasn't going to give the rat king the pleasure. The beginning of blood loss however soon had him feeling a little dizzy. The Rat King withdrew, licking his lips with a demented smile gracing his face.
"Divine," The blood staining the bandages across the rat kings face made him look even more terrifying, like some kind of vampire.
"S-stop!" Donnie pleaded as he watched him through the blurry stars in his vision coming in again.
The rat king hesitated for a moment, fighting every animalistic urge not to just finish him off. Right now, he was just licking up the trickles of blood, but he could just sink his teeth into the flesh, killing him in minutes. He would relish in the screams... and the taste was already getting addictive. So rich, energizing...but the turtle was here for a purpose. Rat king sigh feeling somewhat frustrated.
"I could rip your throat out right now. It would be a quick but excruciating death, but I think a unique pleasure such as this should be enjoyed slowly... Since you're not going to "play my game." It's not like you are going to be welcomed back home after such dishonour." He made sure to jab that point in at the same time pressing something cold to his captive's neck stopping the bleeding. Donnie gasped. Strangely this relief didn't at all bring Donnie any comfort.
"Why are you -?" Donnie began but the Rat King head suddenly perked up, looking passed him. Something had caught his attention. Don tried to turn his head to see but it was just darkness. Void of life except for the rats.
"You still trying to fight me I see? Yes, Purple is rebellious too. Did you teach him to be so defiant?" Rat King said but he wasn't talking to Donatello, rather about him. But he didn't appear to be talking to anyone. Was he just mental? "No matter, I'll deal with you too." He looked back at the confused turtle. "Our studies will have to be put on hold, as I have another to tend too." Despite the now bloody bandages, Donnie could see a menacing expression. Who had he been talking too?
The rat man's piercing eyes was the last thing Donnie saw before the light above him suddenly went out leaving him once again in darkness. A cold silence fell over the area. Donnie hadn't hear any footsteps leaving him...He couldn't even hear the rats any more.
There was just his raspy breathing, as he was being held by a mad man! Either way he wasn't planning on letting him leave a live.
He needed to escape NOW!
A/N: Hope you like. If you thought the Rat King couldn't get any creepier then I hope that this beat it. We thought long and hard on what he could do to Donnie and this is what we came up with. Again sorry for the shortness of the chapter but the second half will be posted a couple of days later, and that will have more interesting stuff in it. Please let us know what you think, as we enjoy hearing from you. Till next Time.