I-I'm really tired...why am I still awake...
Well...I hope you enjoy the chapter. Please forgive any errors, I'm half asleep.
Sorry teh chapter really isn't that long. actualli'.
Chapter Five
"You are useless." Said the dark room in a somewhat bored tone.
"I'm not." Michelangelo replied quickly, gripping one of his arms nervously while his eyes traveled around the blackness. "Who are you?"
"Tell me what you've done that has been useful to your family." The voice said, ignoring the turtle's question.
Caught off guard from the query, Michelangelo stumbled on his words. "Well-I mean, I- well...there was that one time, with the Triceriton ship…and, and the underground city! In the underground city…I defeated the magician guy…"
"Is that all?" Came the melancholy response.
"N-No…I just…I can't think on the spot!" Michelangelo responded, somewhat hysterically.
"You are useless." The voice repeated. "It is only a matter of time before your brothers realize this and abandon you."
"No way! That's not going to happen!" Michelangelo yelled, gripping his arm so tight it was starting to hurt.
"How do you know?"
"T-They…" Michelangelo trailed off. "…love me…"
"Perhaps. But do they have reason to?" The voice questioned.
"W…what do you mean?" The turtle asked, feeling his heart grow heavier with each passing question.
"Can you honestly say you've done anything for your brothers? From what I've observed, it is they who do requests for you and not the other way around." The blackness told him.
This hadn't ever occurred to Michelangelo before. It had always been his job to be the annoying brother, the comic relief. He never thought about his brothers growing…tired of that…or suddenly being frustrated by his selfishness.
"I'm…" Michelangelo started before sighing. "I'm the Battle Nexus Champion." He whispered.
There was a dark chuckle. "A fluke. Even in your rematch, your family was busy holding off a hostile takeover. And after both, all you did was brag about something that obviously annoyed your brothers, did not even acknowledge all they did during the tournaments."
Michelangelo knew the voice was just trying to hurt him, that the voice was exaggerating. But it didn't stop the words from hurting any less.
"Please…stop…" The turtle murmured.
"You are useless."
Oooooooooooo
Mikey's eyes shot open, tears stinging his pupils as he stared straight into the dark yellow that was his older brother's plastron.
"A dream, just a dream." Mikey thought. "I'm not useless. You are not useless Mike!" He told himself.
Despite his reassurances, he couldn't keep himself from burying his head further into his brother's chest and letting out a choked sob.
Immediately that jerked Leonardo awake. "…Mike?" He whispered, bringing a hand up to cup Mikey's cheek and tilt his head up. "Mikey what's wrong bro?"
But the kind, concerned eyes of his older brother ended up just sending Michelangelo into a crying fit, his confused brother desperately attempting to comfort him.
Ooooooooo
A few days passed since Michelangelo's arm was hurt and everything was very quiet in the sewer home.
Master Splinter knew there was a dark presence in their lair. It was haunting their youngest. But he didn't know what it was, what it wanted, how to fight it.
He hadn't mentioned it to his sons yet, mostly because he knew it would send all four of them into a paranoid frenzy and he knew that wasn't what his youngest son needed right now.
The orange masked turtle was very silent now-a-days. Despite encouraging from his brothers, Mikey could not seem to bring up his mood. But while he seemed depressed, he refused to be alone. He always wanted to be around his older brothers, even while sleeping. Leonardo admitted to him that his youngest brother was crawling into bed with him on a daily basis now, and when he wasn't with Leo he was crawling into bed with Raph or curled up in a chair in Don's lab.
Michelangelo would not tell any of them what was wrong, and the broken look on his face was starting to break the family.
As the days passed, the nanchuku wielder just looked more and more exhausted. Finally, one of the brothers could not stand it any longer.
They were all sitting in the living room, watching TV. Leonardo was sitting in his arm chair, reading a book while Raphael sat on the couch, trying to keep all his attention on the news instead of his baby brother curled around his arm. Mikey was staring absentmindedly at the floor, lifting his head every once and awhile as if to make sure they were all there. Donatello had been attempting to work on a small radio when he suddenly shot up, angrily throwing the device on the floor.
"That's it! I can't take this anymore!" He glared at each of his brothers before zooming in on their youngest, who was staring at him with wide eyes...an almost fearful expression on his face. "You! You are coming to my lab right now and I am going to run SO MANY tests on you to figure out why you are so exhausted because this is not normal Michelangelo."
Mikey stared up at him with wide eyes, before a small smile appeared on his face. The family hadn't seen any sort of smile on their youngest's face in about a week, so Donnie was sent reeling back for a second. "Okay Donnie, if you insist."
"I do insist." The brainiac told him, quickly going into Doctor Donnie mode. "C'mon." And with that, the orange masked turtle stood and followed his immediate older brother to the lab.
Master Splinter watched them go silently, hoping that whatever was ailing his youngest, it was something that could be cured with science, and hoping that it wasn't what the rat was thinking was wrong with his son. Leonardo and Raphael looked at each other for a second.
"Want to go spar?" They asked each other at the same time. Shock crossed their faces for a second before it morphed into amusement.
The martial arts master chuckled, shaking his head, and watched his boys stand and make their way to the dojo. It was obviously a ploy to distract them from their unease, but their father was happy to let them.
Ooooooo
A few hours later an exhausted looking Michelangelo and a completely frazzled Donatello stepped out of the lab.
Leonardo stepped forward first. "How is it Don? Get anything?"
"NO." Donatello snapped, rubbing a finger into his temple. "All my tests, every single one, came back fine! I can't find anything wrong! I checked his thyroid, his hormone levels are fine, I checked his adrenals, they're fine, I friggin' checked his heart too, and that was fine! I cannot find anything wrong with him!"
Michelangelo seemed to shrink in on himself the more words came pouring out of his genius' brother's mouth. Raph noticed first.
"Yo Don, cool it will ya?" The red masked turtle said, indicating to Mikey.
Donatello whirled around and immediately any frustration zoomed out of him at the sight of his little brother's watery blue eyes staring up at him. "Ah Mike, I'm not angry at you I promise…I just hate seeing you like this…"
"We all do." Leonardo spoke up, coming up and resting a hand on Mikey's shoulder. "You need to talk to us Mikey…"
"C'mon ya knucklehead, yous never had trouble wit' dat before." Raph teased, also stepping closer.
Michelangelo just looked up at them silently. After a few minutes Don spoke up. "Ya know, I think we need some hot chocolate."
"That's a good idea Don," Leonardo said. "I think we have some marshmallows around here somewhere too."
Raph rolled his eyes. "What, you wanna make smores too?" He asked, glaring at his older brother teasingly.
"Don't be ridiculous Raph, we can't light a fire in the lair." Leonardo responded seriously.
Raph rolled his eyes. "'t's called sarcasm Fearless Leader, look it up!"
"I know what sarcasm is!" Leonardo retorted. "You're just not very good at using it." He teased.
"Why I outta-" Raph was about to lunge when a soft voice spoke up.
"…You guys aren't gonna actually make the hot chocolate, are you?" Michelangelo asked, his eyes starting to sparkle a bit.
They latched onto it like a survivor to a life boat. "C'mon Mike, we're not that bad." Donatello said with a grin.
Michelangelo's face suddenly burst into a smile. "You guys burn cereal."
Raph's face suddenly morphed into irritation. "Oh I do it one time and you'll never let me forget it."
"That's right Raph. It's why we can't have a fire in the lair." Donatello teased.
"God dammit!"
And suddenly Michelangelo was laughing harder than they had heard in days and the other three turtles couldn't help but silence themselves so they could just listen to the uplifting sound they had taken for granted.
After Michelangelo made the hot chocolate, they all sat around the kitchen table, chatting idly. Mikey was slurping at his drink, content to just listen to his brothers for now.
With a sigh Leonardo set his mug down and everyone knew that it was serious Leonardo talk time.
"Mikey, we know something is bothering you. It's obvious. Please, will you tell us so we can help you?" The blue masked turtle pleaded.
"Yeah Mike, yer startin' to worry me now." Raph stated, taking another chug of his hot chocolate.
Donatello just looked at Mikey, his eyes doing the begging for him.
The orange masked turtle was silent for a bit. "You guys…" he seemed to be struggling with what to say. "You guys…love me right?" He finally threw out shyly, hiding behind his mug. You don't think I'm useless? I'm not a waste of space, right? You won't abandon me…right?
"Of course we do Michelangelo." Leonardo responded instantly.
"Don't you ever, ever doubt that." Donnie added.
Raph just reached out an arm and flicked his brother in the forehead. "Knucklehead." He said affectionately, smirking.
Michelangelo seemed to study their faces for a bit, before a wide smile spread across his face. He didn't say anymore, and while the siblings knew something else was wrong, they seemed to have eased their baby brother's fears and that was enough. For now.
Oooooooo
Master Splinter was meditating…sort of. He was somewhat distracted by the head in his lap.
Michelangelo was dozing peacefully, nestled in the lap of his father. His brothers had gone out to patrol and because of the status of his state of being and arm was forced to stay home.
Absentmindedly he put a furry paw on his son's forehead and began to rub the tips of his fingers in small circles, gaining a content sigh from the orange masked turtle.
It seemed as if the talk he had with his brothers had calmed the inner torment of his mind slightly. The presence he felt was still there, but it didn't seem as deeply imbed in his son as it had been the past few days.
But it seems like this presence, this parasite was something he would be unable to fight until it reared its head.
Another sigh and the rat couldn't help but smile. For now, he was content to just enjoy these rare peaceful moments with his usually rambunctious son. He just wished the circumstances were different.
Oooooooooo
Raphael wasn't too surprised when he came home from patrol, said good night to his two brothers, walked up to his room, and was greeted to the sight of his little brother sleeping in his bed.
Letting out a half annoyed, half concerned sigh, he walked over the bed and gently moved Mikey so he wasn't taking up the entire bed and burrowed under the blanket. Almost immediately the smaller turtle curled up again him, sighing happily. Rolling his eyes and wrapping an arm around his little brother, he exhaled before closing his eyes, quickly falling asleep.
When Mikey opened his eyes, he was in a room that sent chills running down his spine. It was a large, white room. Shelves lined along the walls with different amounts of lab equipment stacked a long them. A tray was nearby with sharp objects that the turtle did not really want to focus on.
He couldn't move, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was strapped down or if his dream body just wasn't allowed to move.
Suddenly the door open, and he felt a small spark of hope when he saw three green turtles enter.
His brothers. Mikey smiled and began to form words to yell to them when his voice died on him. The three turtles were looking at him with such hatred and malice it almost made him feel actual pain.
"G-guys…?" Michelangelo started, gulping nervously. "B-bros? Everything…okay?"
"You don't have the right to call us that." The one that looked like Donatello told him, disgust dripping from every word.
The youngest turtle felt his face fall and he stared up at them with wide eyes.
"You're too useless to be out brother." The Leonardo told him, sounding oddly the same as the Donatello.
"We hate you." The Raphael continued. Michelangelo felt tears well up but he refused to let them fall. "Just a dream just a dream just a dream…" he repeated to himself, desperately wishing he could move.
The Leonardo withdrew his katana. "You are a waste of space, a waste of resources. We would be so farther ahead if you were not here."
"Think of all the projects I could complete." The Donatello told him, picking up a scalpel from a nearby tray.
The Raphael grinned darkly. "Maybe I wouldn't be so angry all the time." He withdrew his sai.
Michelangelo just began to yell loudly. "No, nope, not listening. I'm not listening!"
"You are useless." The Leonardo said, lifting his sword above his head.
"You should just become MINE."
That wasn't the Leonardo's voice, Michelangelo thought to himself. He opened his eyes (when had he closed them?)to see he was now in a pitch black void. Suddenly he felt a presence behind him and turned just in time to take in a tall dark figure standing there.
"W-Who…are you?" Mikey questioned.
There was a beat. And then the monster attacked.
"MIKEY WAKE UP!" And suddenly Mikey was staring up at the wide eyes of his older brother, his older brother who was looking at him with concern, not hatred, affection, not disgust.
"Geez Mike, are you alright?" Raphael asked gruffly, desperately trying to seem unconcerned.
Mikey just continued to stare up at his brother in disbelief before a loud sob erupted from him and he was clutching onto the hothead so desperately and he could just not seem to control his cries. He heard Raph trying to comfort him, trying not to yell at him to just stop being sad. He felt two more presences near him and when two more pairs of arms wrapped around him and he knew his other brothers were here, comforting him, not hating him.
It took a half hour for him to calm down.
Ooooooo
Its light was almost ready. There was just one more step. It would activate it soon, hopefully not in the presence of these hindering auras. Its claws were deeply imbedded into its light, but still these presences were hindering him, waking up its light before it could take what it wanted. But soon they wouldn't be able to do anything, and the light would be its.
Any feedback is appreciated! *goes to bed*