Splinter could not find Donatello.
He followed the electric pathways for hours, but he could detect no spark of life, no trace of his son. At some point Harold left and Honeycutt entered; Alopex curled around him and then someone brought blankets. And still he meditated.
This was not like the Garden of Life and Death. He had expected the maze and the light, had encountered them before and knew their dangers. Knew, too, that his beloved Tang Shen would be there, to guide and protect their son until Yoshi could lead him out.
Here everything was unfamiliar, everything was cold and still. Splinter called continuously for his son, but Donatello did not answer.
On this strange aspect of the astral plane, Splinter stopped to think.
Around him were wires and gears, intricately connected and stretching into infinity, but all motionless. It was a giant machine, and if it had a purpose, Splinter could not discern it.
Donatello would be able to. His brightest son would gladly get lost in this place, until he had unlocked all its secrets. Was that what he was doing now? If so, why could Splinter not detect his excited energy?
Perhaps Donatello was this machine, as his other sons had explained from what Honeycutt had told them. But, then, why did he not make it move?
Perhaps it was broken. Donatello could not always heal himself when he was injured, and perhaps now he was too incapacitated to repair the machine he had become.
Splinter renewed his meditative efforts, searching for anything that was out of place. He did not know what a malfunction would look like…
There. At the center of the machine, the heart of everything, a gear was straining to move. Something was not permitting it to do so.
Splinter touched the hub of the gear, and it turned one click.
"F-Father…"
The voice came from all around him, weak and scared.
Splinter looked up at the endless flywheels. "I am here, my son." He touched the central gear again, releasing its trapped energy.
"Where is here?"
"I do not know…" Splinter lowered his hand from the gear as it began to turn slowly on its own. "We returned to Harold's laboratory to find you very near death. Professor Honeycutt, saying he could not save your body, rescued your mind by placing it in this robot. Are you able to awaken to yourself now?"
"I - I already am awake," Donatello replied, his voice a little stronger now. "I can see you, out there. But I don't know how to make the robot move." A tremor came into his words again. "Father, what if I'm never able to?"
Splinter drew a deep breath, and folded his hands inside the sleeves of his robe. "My son, when have you ever failed to learn how to operate a machine?"
"Okay." Donatello paused, as the wheel turned, gradually bringing the rest of the wondrous machine to life. "Is Angel out there? I want to talk to her."
Angel was sitting on a crate, kicking her heels against it, when Splinter came out of the cooling unit. She would have liked to say she was as anxious as anyone for news of Donnie's condition, but having watched the other Turtles as afternoon turned into night, and seeing how they rushed their father now, she knew it just wasn't true.
"How is he?" Mike asked, in a hushed tone.
Splinter looked at each of his sons in turn. "He is … well, relatively speaking." He shook his head as each tried to ask a question over the others. "He is in the robot. He is able to see and hear, but he does not know how to control this new body in order to move or speak." His gaze turned slowly to Angel. "He wishes to see you."
Angel startled, not having expected to be included in this conversation more than peripherally. "Me? What for?"
The Turtles looked equally baffled, until Mike said, "Cuz you figured out how to work that suit so fast."
Angel looked down at herself, remembering that over the past long hours, she hadn't bothered to change out of the exo-suit.
"Okay," she said. "I'll see what I can do."
It wasn't comfortable to have Donatello's whole family watching her as she walked into the cooling unit, like she was their only hope, but she tried to walk confidently. Donnie had asked for her; he thought she could help him; and he was no dummy.
It was unsettling in its own way to approach Metalhead, instead of what her brain told her was Donatello, but she sat on the floor and said "Hey, Don" in what she hoped was a casual tone. So he was a robot now. Was that really weirder than being a mutated turtle?
There was no answer, as Splinter had warned her, so she continued. "Master Splinter says you're having some trouble interfacing with the bot. Neural networks are tricky that way. Takes a little while to get the hang of them."
She shot a glance at Honeycutt and Alopex, acknowledging them before turning to Don again. "It's not quite like controlling your own body. It's more like - you know, what you would imagine telekinesis to feel like. Kind of reaching out a little, with your mind. Or that feeling of looking at a remote control and thinking about which buttons to press to make something happen, and at the same time picturing that thing already happening."
She trailed off again, watching the robot for any signs of life. "Don't worry if you can't get it right away. It'll come."
She looked around the room, not wanting to stare at Don, but not sure what else to say. "Hey Professor," she began, when she met Honeycutt's electronic gaze. "What about you? What was it like, turning into a robot?"
"I did not -" Honeycutt shook his head, letting the inaccuracy go. "The transition was not difficult for me, neurally. My robot body, the Simulated Anthropomorphic Lifeform, is specifically designed to be controlled through direct interface with a sentient mind. I was not certain that -" At Angel's glare, he veered away from the discouraging news. "I did not expect that transitioning into Metalhead would be easy for Donatello, but it was the best option available in the time that we had."
"And what's it like now?" Angel asked.
"There are many advantages," Honeycutt replied, catching on to her angle. "Any shortcomings are often quickly remedied via upgrade."
"Sounds easier than ninja training." Angel leaned back on her hands, subtly scanning the Turtle-shaped robot to see if it had moved at all. Nope.
"Indeed," Honeycutt said, and then the conversation trailed off.
Angel looked around again, trying to both keep Don company and give him some privacy at the same time. As minutes ticked by with still no movement from the robot, she leaned forward a little, addressing him earnestly.
"Listen, Don… I bet you really want to see your family. I know they want to see you. But you've gotta be able to say hey to them. Can you do that?" She paused, reached out with her mind, and turned on the heater in her suit. "Can you try to say hey to us?"
The robot remained silent.
From the way Alopex walked out of the room, everyone knew it was not good news.
"There is nothing yet," she reported, head bowed, hands clasped in front of her. "We cannot tell whether -"
The door opened again, and Angel exploded into the outer area. "He's talking," she gasped. "We got him."
Raph leapt to his feet. "What did he say?"
"I have no idea," Angel said, though this didn't seem to dim her mood at all. "I think it was math. Hold on."
She disappeared back into the cooling unit, and emerged again a moment later. "He's kind of hard to understand, but he says he's going to walk out of there if it's the last thing he does. He wants you all to get some rest."
"Like hell," Raph said.
"It's going to be a while," Angel said. "But I'll tell him he has your full moral support."
"Let's try to get some sleep." Leo turned away from the cooling unit. "It won't help Don if he has to worry about us too."
"There are some cots in the back," Harold said, gesturing to a narrow hallway.
Raph shook his head. "If I sleep at all, it'll be here."
Leo opened his mouth, but Splinter held up a hand. "There is no sense arguing. Let us all spend the night as we choose, and hope that Donatello will be able to join us in the morning."
There were nods all around, and the tired mutants and humans dispersed.