Chapter 15
-Altered-
Master Splinter never did anything without reason, there was always a lesson to teach, some aspect of the warrior code, Bushido, to impart. These lessons came easy for Leonardo, the epitome of what it means to be a fighter, a true warrior's spirit. But for Donatello it was different, he knew the teachings, of course. He could recite the code of conduct from memory, but that's all it was, a string of words with no real feeling behind them. Master Splinter used to say, "No my son, you do not know the code by heart, but by head."
For Master Splinter, becoming a true ninja warrior meant more than memorization, it meant internalizing his teachings and becoming the one with them. Over time Splinter's lessons branched into more complex ideas like philosophy, morality and ethics. But no addition to the curriculum frustrated or intrigued Donatello more than the spiritual aspect. Spirituality wasn't tangible, it couldn't be explained or tested by science, and it went against everything Donatello knew.
Still, Donatello was determined to master his father's teachings. Makoto is a tenet of bushido, A warrior must have integrity, when they say they will perform an action, it is as good as done. So, it was with strict discipline and perseverance that Donatello was able to create a bridge between his mind and spirit. This bridge existed as a multi-monitor workstation, housing every memory, feeling, formula and fact he'd ever collected.
The workstation's precious information, much to Evixus' chagrin, was protected by the strongest firewall Donatello could imagine. This lead to the alien manifesting themselves within the machine in order to search for a way through the wall. They were growing tired of games, never before had a mind been this out of their reach.
With ever increasing frustration Evixus' search brought him to a jagged hole in the firewall, the edges of which had been melted away by a dark violet acid of some kind. Whatever was stored on the other side of this part of the wall was eating away at Donatello's defenses. Interesting, Evixus stepped through the hole, careful to avoid the acid as it threatened to drip on him.
Hanging in the darkness of an infinite void was a lonely picture frame, its borders worn away by the billows of dense fog that wafted from its core. From experience, Evixus knew that a memory was contained within the frame, though this was the first time the alien had seen one spewing such negative energy. This intrigued Evixus greatly and so he stood before it and let the scene play out.
"Stay away from me!" April yelled, behind her was the torn cage where her mutated father was briefly kept. "I never want to see your faces again!"
The video skipped ahead a few weeks.
"April." Donatello said desperately, "It wasn't completely our fault but I'm sorr-"
"Not as sorry as I am. I wanna be left alone, Donnie. No more talking mutants in my life! I NEVER want to see you again."
A small wisp of negative energy wafted from the memory and danced around the hole in the firewall encouraging the acid to work faster. A thought struck Evixus, with a little more encouragement this memory could lead to the firewall's complete destruction. Evixus originally wanted to avoid sending Donatello the Hive as it had the potential to do irreversible harm to his brain; but as the humans say "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
The sound of quick desperate open palm thrusts against a pane of glass yanked Donatello from the throes of unconsciousness. He opened his eyes and was grateful to see that Michelangelo was the cause of the banging.
"Hang on, D. I'll get you out." Michelangelo said, "Just gotta figure out how to open this thing." He said and began yanking at the door handle before giving up to kick the bottom of the capsule. "GUYS! I found him!"
"Mikey!" came Leonardo's sharp whisper as it cut through the room with all the ferocity of his katana. "What part of QUIET extraction did you not understand?"
"I'm sorry. I was just so excited to see Donnie, you know?" Michelangelo admitted.
"I know." Leonardo said, his voice calmer now. "Let's get him out of there."
"I tried but I can't get the door open."
Leonardo stepped into Donatello's view to examine the door, "We need the keycode. If we don't want to risk tripping an alarm we'll need to go back and find it."
"Go back? Like shell! We finally found Donnie again, we ain't going back for nothing." Raphael said. "Let me handle it." It was Raphael's turn to enter Donatello's view as he shoved Leonardo aside. With one mighty thrust he jammed his sai through the digital lock and the door fell open with a hiss.
What little air the capsule contained escaped in an instant leaving Donatello gasping for oxygen, each unsuccessful breath felt like shards of glass slicing against his dry throat. His body, weak from being denied what it craved, pitched forward.
Leonardo caught his brother in two wide arms drawing him up tight against him, "Hold on, Donnie." Leonardo said and brought a tube to his brother's lips, "here." Donatello took the straw into his mouth and drew a deep grateful breath.
Everything was okay now that they were all together again. "Oh, Leo." Donatello buried his face in the crook of his brother's neck, allowing a moment to feel Leonardo's pulse. He was real. They were real.
"We missed you." Leonardo said, moving back to hold his brother at arm's length. "How are you feeling? Are you alright?" he asked, eyes scanning for any signs of pain or distress.
"I feel a little fuzzy after having the air sucked from my lungs." He said, "By the way, what's the deal with that? Are we in Dimension X or something?" Donatello noticed a flash of pain cross each of his brothers' eyes. "What?" No one spoke for a moment and the tension was making Donatello's skin crawl.
"Or something." Leonardo said finally. "A lot has happened since you were kidnapped." He paused, unsure of where he should begin, then decided to answer the question presented to him, "This isn't Dimension X, this is Earth."
"What?" Donatello said, "How is that possible?"
"Using a trans-dimensional portal, the Kraang brought this war machine over from Dimension X. It didn't take long for them to terraform New York, we all fought for as long as we could but our numbers dwindled quickly."
"This war machine? Are you saying that we are onboard the Technodrome?" In a moment of clarity, Donatello's surroundings made sense to him. Standing amidst Kraang technology just seemed so out of place that it hadn't registered at first. "That's impossible, we destroyed the Technodrome and defeated Kraang."
"Nice little dream you had there, Donnie." Raphael said.
"It wasn't a dream!" Donatello said. "We spent nearly a year hiding out Upstate, at April's old farm house. We spent the majority of the time preparing to face the Kraang and defeated them in the end."
"I take it back, it wasn't a dream it was a hallucination." Raphael said.
"Really." Michelangelo agreed. "There's no way April would let us hide out at her house after that falling out we had with her."
"Falling out?" Donatello paused for a moment. "You mean when we accidently released the mutagen and her dad was mutated"
"Yes, she was angry and wanted nothing more to do with us. We honored her wishes and haven't seen her since." Leonardo said.
"No… I mean yes we had a fight but eventually April came to see that it was an accident." Donatello said, "I even created a retro-mutagen to save Mr. O'Neal and other people who were mutated." The collective look of confusion on his brothers' faces said it all, they had no clue what he was talking about. "Oh, come on, you have to remember!"
"Calm down, Donnie" Leonardo said. "You've been missing for months and sleeping for who knows how long, your mind is probably mixing your dreams with reality, after all, some of the things you are remembering did happen, just not as you've described them."
"Can something like that even happen?" Michelangelo asked.
"Yeah. I've heard of someone losing their memories but not create new ones in place of the old ones." Raphael chimed in.
"It's called confabulation." Donatello spouted. "It's a memory disturbance that produces fabricated or distorted memories about oneself or the world…" he paused realizing that his explanation was only serving to prove their point rather than his. "That's not what this is though!"
"Donnie…" Leonardo said
"Don't. Don't use that tone with me," Donatello said, "like I'm some sort of irrational civilian. I know what happened. I was there!" Donatello said but the look on his big brother's face was unyielding, he needed a new tactic. "The day April forgave us was also the day we met Casey." Donatello clambered over to his hot-tempered brother and looked him square in the eye, "You remember Casey, don't you Raph?"
"Who the shell is Casey?" Raphael asked.
"Who is Casey?! Only your best friend." Donatello said "This is unbelievable." He said to himself, shaking his head in disbelief, teetering from side to side, trying to think of any way he could prove he was the one in the right.
Raphael leveled a worried glance in Leonardo's direction. "Uh, Leo, I think Donnie's having a mental breakdown."
Leonardo grabbed Donatello by the shoulders and forced him to stop moving. "Look at me, Donnie. It's okay. I don't know what they did to you but everything is okay now."
"Leo, I'm telling the truth. You have to believe me, I'm not crazy" Donatello's voice faltered, the last thing he wanted was for any of his brothers to lose faith in him or his mind.
"No one thinks you're crazy, Donnie." came Leonardo's gentle response. "Actually, if what you are saying is true then we can put an end to all of this right now. You said that you created a retro-mutagen, do you remember the formula?" Leonardo was asking for proof, which was understandable, as Donatello would demand evidence as well were rolls reversed.
"Yes, of course I do." Donatello said.
"Then you should be able to recreate it on a larger scale." He said.
"You're suggesting that I recode the Technodrome to create the retro-mutagen, thereby reversing its effects?" Leonardo nodded which was a testament to how much trust he had in his brother's abilities.
"Can you do it?" Leonardo asked.
"Assuming the Technodrome has all the chemical materials I need, yes." Donatello said without a shred of hesitation.
"Wait a minute, Leo." Raphael said, "How can you be sure about this?"
"I have faith in Donatello."
Four turtles, united again, made their way through the cacophony of halls and rooms that made up the Technodrome. Donatello lead the way upon his insistence that he knew where he was going, having been aboard the Technodrome before. "The main control room should be behind that door." He said.
"I don't like this," Leonardo said. "That was entirely too easy. We haven't encountered any Kraang droids of Kraang flyers."
"There's a reason for that." Donatello said then turned to his baby brother," Mikey, hand me a smoke bomb." Michelangelo complied and Donatello tossed the refurbished egg against the wall, revealing a tangled laser grid. "The pattern of light is randomized and it's designed to incinerate anything that comes in contact with it."
"Okay, how do we get past it?" Leonardo asked.
"Mikey," Donatello said, "You are the more nimble and intuitive than the rest of us. You can make it across without a problem." Michelangelo nodded. "There's a control panel on the other side," Donatello grabbed Michelangelo's hand and scrawled a series of letters from the Utrom alphabet on his palm, "put that code in and it should turn off the grid, then we can follow you."
"Aright, D. I got this." Michelangelo did a few stretches to loosen up his body before venturing into the hall. He threw another smoke bomb against the wall and was off in a flash, flipping and twisting his body like liquid. With all that was riding on him, he remained focused and before too long he had made it to the other side. Without missing a beat he entered the code and the grid fell away with an audible Hurrrn
Donatello, followed by his brothers met Michelangelo at the end of the hall and paused to issue a warning. "There's another reason why they don't need security this close to the control room. The computer is guarded by at least four rock soldiers."
"We don't have to beat them, just keep them distracted." Leonardo said. "Donnie, how much time, minimum, do you need to reconfigure the Technodrome?"
"Going off of what I know, I'd say half an hour. But that's best case, assuming the Technodrome has what I need and I'd say our odds are about forty percent on that front." Donatello paused, "We still have time to go back and come up with a different plan." He suggested.
"No." Raphael said. "Leo's right, we might not get another chance like this." He said. "I'm in."
"Me too." Michelangelo said.
"Leo?" Donatello asked.
"The objective stands. Let's take back the Earth." Leonardo said.
A/N: A big huge mega awesome thanks to Techno Dawn, whose input for Donatello's alternate reality made this chapter possible. I know I recommended it before but please read Homecoming, it's incredible, full of suspense and that TMNT brotherly love we all look for.
Sorry for the late update and thanks to all my reviewers and readers for sticking it out with me. The next chapter will be the conclusion of Donatello's alternate reality, we'll see if Evixus finally gets the access he desires.