Chapter Five: Eggs?

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities. George Eliot

He furrowed his brows as he stared at the blank walls—or what he assumed were blank walls, anyway. It was too dark in this hellhole to even see what color the walls might be. The darkness only added to the ticking of the clock as to how long they been here. He had no idea. It could have been a few hours, days, or even weeks.

Sometimes he would just sleep to shut up his mind after talking to Donnie about random things, or when the younger of two also let his body rest. What Raph was finding strange was that no one had stopped by. If it had been, say, Hun or Stockman, they would come by the taunt them at least. That was Bad 101 for people like them. Hell, even the Shedder gave the classic long-winded speeches to them every time he tried to kick their shells.

He found it strange no one had come, especially after Donnie had felt around, being the geek that he was, said they had no cameras in their well-made cages. So it begged the question: whom or what had taken him and his brothers? He glared harder at the thick walls as thoughts of his other brothers picked at his mind.

"Why eggs?"

Donnie's brisk voice broke Raphael's train of thought. He had to blink before asking, "Eggs?"

Donnie had been running strange phrases in his head and came upon the odd question that no man or turtle seemed to know the answer: What had come first, the chicken or the egg? It was an odd, illogical thing to think of at the moment, but it somehow had come to reap his mind for some countless hours. While staring into the darkness, he thought that maybe he had cracked up like the main subject. There was just no logic to the very question and whoever thought of it in the first place. But the egg did hold a strong symbolic meaning to many cultures.

"Yes, eggs of all things. Have you ever thought of what they mean?" he asked, lost in thought, with his arms crossed.

"Breakfast?"

He rolled his eyes. It was always food with Raph, but somehow he found Raph's honest blunt nature to be a true source of honesty . "Yes, it means food, but have you thought, we come from eggs ourselves when we were normal turtles. And it's been proven we share common ancestry lines with birds so we are related to chickens…"

Raph knew it was going to be one of those rants in which his little brother would not shut up and could on for hours and hours on one subject, driving anyone up the wall. But he was also trapped in a cage at this point, so there was no escape. He felt it was going to be many a strange convo with Donnie, as a few had happen since being put here.

"Ok, are you saying we are related to chickens?"

He titled his head a bit, pondering the questing before answering it bluntly: "Yes, so by eating eggs and chickens or any bird, we are cannibals, Raph."

There was the slapping sound of a hand hitting a face, accompanied by a strange horselaugh that seemed to fill the empty cell on both ends. Donatello blinked the full-on gut laugh coming from Raph. Sure, he did laugh at times, but it was a dry chuckle. This seemed to come from the very center of his body. Smiling, Don too joined in the joy—even in this place.

Laughing did help ease some thoughts in both brothers' minds for the moment. Raphael even enjoyed the stranger rants from the Techie all the more. It sort of felt like he was just getting to know the guy for the first time.

"Donnie, I can never eat BBQ chicken now. I'll think it's some distant a lot, Tech…" Raph swallowed some air to speak for the moment. "Really, you just killed my summer cooking plans."

Still smiling, his mind was still focused on eggs. "Often the egg has been seen also a symbol rebirth in both the old pagan traditions. And strangely it might have been adopted also by the early Christians, which is why we maybe have our Easter eggs!"

He thought back to their childhood—or turtlehood—when their father had hidden eggs all over the Lair in odd places to see if his sons could find them using their training. Often some places had candy to add in the joy of the hunt. Feh, Leo always found the eggs and the candy but shared it with his brothers, saying it was a team effort.

"So let me get this straight, it's like we are doing cannibalism but adding in the rebirth?" Raph smiled, hoping it might make Donnie shut up for a moment.

"Hmmm, yes in truth I think so, Raphy! We are adding in the endless cycles of rebirth!"

He face palmed again, which was followed by more of Donnie's random thoughts.

"But still why the chicken? Also, why did a bunny end up being a symbol of a holiday of death and rebirth?"

"Marketing?"

"Good point, Raph. It spreads out the holiday to a wider range of people!"

Here they sat, in cells, and Donnie were having a complex thought about bunnies and eggs? Could this event get any stranger without Donnie snapping at last? Time could only tell as Raph started to pray to any higher power that he would take Shedder saving them!

Notes: Well a bit later then never for a update! My laptop ending up getting some bugs in it and it took a bit to save and then evil writers block hits! Yet I got it out and can hit the next one and also the egg came from a convo with a friend way to late at night! Also thanks to Panda for her beta skills which she did beta this!