A Million Miles Apart
A/N: New chapter up! And I can finally start on the 'plot' that I've been waiting to start ever since I came up with the idea!
Okay, so I got this review a few days back, who asked if I could update faster? Now, I won't point fingers to anyone right now, but please don't ask me to try and update faster! I'm a Junior in High School and I have a lot of things I need to do, and I also have my own life to live, so please bear with me and I'm trying to update once a week!
And, I decided to give you some Splinter in this chapter! Hope you'll like it and how I did it! I also hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!
Chapter 10, Time for a change!
There was nothing but darkness around me wherever I turned, and my ears were met with nothing but silence as well. And yet I could see just as well as I could in daylight. There was some mist flowing around me, but that was it; I couldn't see anything else. I was alone in the darkness and the silence.
"Hello? Is there anyone here?" The echo of my own voice and a soft cry was heard, but again, that was it. And the cry was so soft and faint that I could barely hear it all, let alone what was said, if anything was said at all.
Then suddenly, the ground vanished under my feet and I fell. I fell through the darkness and I was too shocked to scream. Then I landed on something hard that felt like rock, and just let myself lie there for what felt like hours.
Finally I groaned in pain and sat up, rubbing my head. But once I looked up, I felt my stomach clench and my heart stop beating. A big, purple vortex was in front of me, about twenty feet away and was trying to suck me into nothingness. But that wasn't what terrified me. Donatello was clinging to the ground as tightly as he could and trying to save himself from the swirling vortex. He was clawing at the ground, his pupils were small as pinheads and he was inching closer and closer to his doom. In less than a second, I got to my feet and my focus was on my son, and my son alone.
"Donatello!" He looked up from the ground at me with eyes full of terror. He dug his hands into the ground, but he still slipped closer and closer to the vortex. He didn't have much time or effort left, but he still reached out his hand towards me, his eyes pleading me for help.
"Sensei! Father, please help me!" I started to run towards my son and stretched out my hand towards him, but it was as if the distance kept growing, or as if I was only moving forward one inch at the time or in slow motion, because I was not very fast and didn't move that much closer to my son. Donatello desperately dragged himself forward and extended his arm further.
"Sensei, please, help!" Suddenly, I was going faster, and although it wasn't that much faster, I was getting closer to my son. I reached out my hand towards him, so I could grab his hand as soon as I got close enough.
"Do not fear, Donatello! I'm coming!" After what felt like an eternity I was only a few feet away from my child, but then, just as I was about to take his hand and pull him to safety, a strong, invisible force hit me back and knocked me back several feet.
"Sensei!" Donatello cried out to me, and I got back up again as quickly as I could and looked towards my son and saw that it was too late. The force of the vortex had gotten stronger, and Donatello clung harder to the ground, desperately trying to save himself, but was pulled even closer to the vortex and cried out in terror. Everything seemed to slow down, my heart stopped beating once again and I started to run again. Even though I knew it was too late, I had to try! My son's life was at risk!
"NO! Donatello!" Donatello tried to reach for me again. I tried to grab his hand, but then suddenly, again, the vortex started to close, just before I got close enough to grab onto my child's hand and pull him away from the danger. Donatello noticed it too and looked into my eyes and I could see nothing but pure fear and panic.
"Oh, no! Dad, help me!" The vortex closed just before I could grab his hand and instead I felt thin air between my fingers. Donatello's scream echoed in my ears. He was gone, as well as the vortex that he had fallen through.
"DONATELLO!" I collapsed to my knees and felt warm tears fall down my cheeks; I tried to collect myself, to no avail. I couldn't save him! My child had needed me, he had depended on me, but I wasn't fast enough to save him. Just like I couldn't save Miwa when she was a baby, I had failed to save another one of my children...
"NO!" I flew up from my tatami mat, panting heavily with sweat running through my fur. I looked around my room and tried to take deep breaths. I placed my hand on my forehead and felt tears trying to seep out of my eyes. It was just a dream, nothing but a dream.
No, it wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare! A nightmare that had come true; I had lost another one of my children.
I stood up and walked over to a shelf where I had placed a box, in which I had collected a few of my favorite photos and keepsakes from my when my sons were small. I opened the box and looked through its contents. I saw Leonardo's first wooden practice sword, a picture of Raphael when he was seven and he found Spike, and some of Michelangelo's drawings. I dug through the contents and picked up a photo of a six-year-old Donatello, surrounded by his books, his first tools, a radio and two thick cords, sticking out his tongue in frustration. I chuckled lightly at his expression and felt tears start to form in my eyes.
My poor, innocent baby was gone now, and was most likely dead. And I hadn't been there to help him! I had let my sons out of the lair despite the overwhelming tension that had been growing between them for so long. Donatello had tried to tell me about how he felt unappreciated and mistreated by his brothers, and how they weren't listening to him. I should have been there to help him and talk to his brothers as well; I should not have left it all to Donatello to sort out on his own. What kind of father am I? I wiped my hand across my eyes and took a deep breath to keep myself from crying again.
I put the photo back in the box and dug out a small, toy robot and looked it over. It was a small, stubby little robot with red eyes that were supposed to blink when you turned it on and had claws for hands. If I remembered it all correctly, Donatello had put it together when he was three years old and had given it to Leonardo as a gift for their Mutation Day. But as Leonardo got older he had given it to me, since he didn't want get rid of it but didn't have any space for it in his room. Or so he said.
My second youngest son had proven to be very intelligent and resourceful, even as a small child. He had surpassed my own intelligence levels before he was older than eight, and had proven over and over just how much he could do and was willing to do for this family. Like setting up our electricity, for example.
If he was somehow, as Raphael wanted to believe, still alive out there somewhere, I had no doubt that he would be able to find his way back home to us.
I sighed, put the robot down in the box again and closed it with a light 'click'. As long as there's life, there's hope; but that did not mean that it was easy to cling onto that hope. Donatello was very resourceful and quick on his feet, but he (as much as I hate to admit it) was not my best student. He relied too much on his brain, his mind; and that made him vulnerable in a fight. He also questioned my teachings quite often, as he was a logical and scientific boy and didn't always have an open mind for spiritual or ancient ways of teaching. Still, he was strong in mind and in spirit, he was as stubborn as a mule and he never gave up. I wanted to believe he was alive, but I also knew that that chance was, if it even existed, very, very slim.
I lay back down on my tatami mat and stared up at the ceiling, trying to go back to sleep. I felt myself getting more and more tired, but before I could go back to sleep, I looked up at the photo of all four of my sons, standing together in the dojo and smiling into the camera, and eyed my purple-clad son.
"No matter what has become of you, my child, you must always remember that I love you, Donatello."
I don't know how long we had been trapped in that small, cramped supply closet, but it must've been quite some time since both Jhanna and I had managed to fall asleep at some point during the ride. Jhanna had lain down on the floor and fallen asleep after (I think) about an hour, and I had followed her example about five minutes later. And I have to admit, sleep had never felt so good in my life. There was no pain, no worry and no fear, just peace and tranquility. I felt better and better by the second. Too bad it was ruined all too early.
"Get up, you two! Prime Leader Zanramon has ordered us to take you to your cells!" I was shaken roughly and I blinked rapidly, trying to wake up, and saw one of those Triceratons standing in front of me. Once he saw that I was awake, he grabbed me by the arm, lifted me and placed me on my feet. I shook my head to wake myself and looked over at Jhanna, who was picked up and thrown over the shoulder of another Triceraton, kicking and screaming. I felt a brutal slap to my back.
"Move! We haven't got all day, you lazy excuse for an alien!" I knew I didn't stand a chance against him, so I decided against putting up a fight and let myself be dragged out of the space ship and into the open. I was lead through a bunch of corridors and every now and then I looked over my shoulder at Jhanna, who was still kicking and screaming and punching to try and get away from the vice-like grip the Triceraton had on her. The Triceraton, who held me by the arm, looked over his own shoulder and smacked Jhanna across the face.
"Shut up, Princess! If you value your life, you should keep your mouth shut and stop fighting against us!" Jhanna glared up at the Triceraton, narrowed her eyes at him and spat in his eye.
"You may be able to kill me, Zog, But you will never break me! Threaten me, hit me, kill me, but you will never break my spirit!" The Triceraton, apparently named Zog, narrowed his eyes at Jhanna and smacked her once again.
"I said shut your mouth, Jhanna!" When Jhanna looked up at Zog again, she spat out blood and a bruise was starting to form on the left side of her face, yet she still looked at the alien with an angry and rebellious glare. Zog ignored her, however, and started to drag me up the hallway again.
We were dragged into a long corridor filled with a bunch of cell doors. I guessed this was the Triceraton prison Jhanna was talking about before. But she said she had heard that this was a gladiator prison as well as an ordinary prison, so where was the gladiator arena? Or wasn't there one? Maybe she had heard wrong.
We stopped in front of one door, and the Triceraton who held Jhanna took out, what I guess was a keycard out of his pocket, and pressed a button on it, unlocking the door and revealing a small cell with two small bunks with thin mattresses and pillows, and nothing else. I was pushed into the cell and Jhanna was thrown in, hitting her head on the edge on one of the bunks, making her yell in pain. She quickly got to her feet though, and she glared up at Zog.
"Wait, where is the Professor? What have you done with him?!" Zog just shook his head with a sinister laugh and took the keycard from his 'friend', smirking at her.
"Yeah, you'd like to know that, wouldn't you? Well, sorry, Princess, but we have to leave you. I hope for your own sake that you and your little buddy are important enough for the Prime Leader to want you two alive." He then pushed another button and the door closed. Jhanna and I threw ourselves at it and tried to escape before the door closed, but instead we slammed into the thick metal. I sighed in frustration and sat down on the bunk, but Jhanna kept throwing herself into the door, as if she thought that she might be able to get through anyway. I just settled to watch her waste her energy until she gave up and sat down on the other bunk as well. I looked over at her, pulled up my legs and sat cross-legged on the mattress.
"You know, I don't know if I should call you brave, or incredibly stupid. I mean, you're practically asking to get killed with that attitude." Jhanna looked at me in surprise, as if she had forgotten about me. Then she frowned at me.
"Hey, at least I'm trying to escape, here! You're letting them push you around like a coward! What, do you think that they're going to let us go, just like that? You're not gonna fight back at all? These guys are evil, they've been killing aliens that are useless to them, and will not hesitate to do the same with you! And you're not gonna do anything?" I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest.
"I'm trying to be smart, here! We have to come up with a plan here, not just act like unthinking animals! These guys are bigger, stronger and tougher than us- how do you expect us to beat them? By insulting them and act like an idiot in front of them? That's just gonna make them want to kill you even more! We have to be smart." Jhanna rolled her eyes at me and groaned.
"Oh, so I assume that you're just thinking your way through this? That if we just use our brains, then that's gonna save us? Is that how you work? Do you always think and never act? Well, I hate to break it to you, but around here, just using your brain and nothing else isn't going to cut it! You need brains as well as brawn and you need to act! Sitting around and planning is fine- and it's a good idea, don't get me wrong- but that's not always gonna work! We have to keep fighting, and never give up!" I glared at her, sat up straight, placing my feet on the floor again.
"Who said anything about me giving up? Nothing's gonna stop me from going home, but going out there and just causing trouble and trying every chance I get to escape without thinking it through, it's not gonna work! We need a plan!" Jhanna glared back at me and looked me straight in the eyes.
"Oh, and until you come up with your 'brilliant plan', you're just gonna act like a pushover?!" I was taken aback when she yelled at me and I couldn't think of anything to say. Jhanna took a deep breath through her nose and looked me in the eyes again, but this time she looked a little bit softer.
"Look, Donnie, I understand where you're coming from. I understand that you wanna be logical and rational, that you wanna get out of here alive and this is your best strategy right now, but I'm sorry to say that's not gonna work here. We're in a prison where we're most likely gonna be pushed around, beaten and abused by the other prisoners and the Triceratons. And if we sit around and let them beat us and abuse us, then they're gonna win. We have to fight back and be tough!" I sighed and placed my chin in my hand and rested my elbow on my knee.
"Yeah? Well, I'm not exactly the tough and strong person. And how are we supposed to fight back, really? I mean, what can we do to fight back against this?" Jhanna shrugged and brushed her bangs out of the way, showing a bit more of the scar that graced her face. I wanted to ask her about it, but since she seemed like a tough and reserved girl, I knew she wasn't going to want to talk about it. So I decided to keep quiet, for now anyway.
"I don't know. Not yet. But that's not gonna stop me from trying. My mother used to tell me, 'Life is our own story, and every day a new chapter is written. But it's us who write our own stories-not the people around us. If you don't like your story, rewrite it and start a new and different chapter! Don't let the people around you decide how you should live your life!' I've always taken that to heart, and I think you should, too. I mean, if you let the Triceratons, or the Federation, or anyone for that matter, sit on top of you and walk all over you, then you're letting them win over you! Is that what you want?" I have to admit, I didn't expect this. Jhanna didn't seem like the wise kind of person, but this sounded like something I would hear from Splinter. Hmm, maybe that was the point? Maybe this was some good 'Splinter-wisdom', but from a different mouth?
All my life I've played the role of doormat among my brothers, in one way or another; either by being ignored by my family, sticking to the background or being unappreciated for all my efforts. And for a really, really long time, I had let them do that. I had been a bit too scared to fight back when I was a kid, since both Leo and Raph were stronger than me, and also happened to be my older brothers. And Mikey had me wrapped around his finger; all he had to do was give me the puppy-dog eyes and he could do whatever he wanted to do. And the less I say about April and my relationship with her, the better. Yes, I may be crazy about her and I want her to notice me more, I can't deny that it feels like she's taken advantage of me and my feelings for her, more than once. And whenever I tried to fight back, they would usually win, since I never liked to fight, verbally or physically. Maybe that's why they didn't listen to me, because they're not used to me standing up to them and just chose to ignore me when I did? And I have to admit that I'm sick of being a doormat! Maybe... it was time for a change? Splinter always told me I was strong, smart and resourceful! Maybe it was time to use that to become a warrior, a fighter and a true ninja! And to never let myself be pushed around again! I nodded and smirked to myself in determination and looked to Jhanna, who seemed to be interested by the look on my face, in my eyes.
"You're right! We have to keep fighting! We have to stay strong! And I swear to everybody in this prison, to my family, to you and to myself that I will never be a pushover ever again! I will never be a doormat again!" Jhanna smirked back at me, nodded and fist pumped at me.
"Now that's the spirit! Let's go show those guys who's boss around here!" I nodded and fist pumped at her in return.
"Yeah, and save the Professor!"
A/N: Oh yeah! Determined Donatello, my favorite kind! Now, I may be going on a limb here, since I know that Donnie in the 2k12 cartoon can stand up for himself, but honestly? He does it so rarely! And whenever he does stand up for himself, a lot of times it seems like it doesn't lead to anything. *Cough* Fourfold trap *Cough* And since we don't know how the turtles interacted as kids, I thought it might be a good idea to experiment with that a bit too. And in this story I wanted Donnie to want and push himself to become a better warrior and become stronger!