Please Tell Me

Mikey was frozen in terror. All of a sudden, he felt six years old again, terrified by ghosts and all alone in his bed.

But at the time he had been able to sneak in a brother's bed, and now…

Now his brothers were desperately out of reach.

Mikey clenched his fists. If nobody could help him, he would have to help himself.

"Go away, go away," he chanted, as if the ghosts would listen.

Then he froze.

He had talked, when barely a few seconds ago he had been desperately mute. He could talk! Did it mean that he wasn't under surveillance right now? But what about the cameras?

Maybe the cameras were sentient, and they had decided to give Mikey a break. Like in this comic he had read, where kind robots took over the world.

A trapdoor that Mikey hadn't even realized was here opened in the middle of the shed, not far from Mikey's bed, and April's head emerged from it.

"Mikey!" April's voice carried undeniable relief. "Are you okay?"

In his surprise, Mikey stayed silent for an entire second. Then he threw himself at April, blanket and all, hugged her and started talking. There was no stopping him now–oh no, not when he hadn't been able to talk for so many hours and even Leo in the most delicate of missions had never asked that much from him…

"How did you find me? How come you can walk through the Earth? Is it a cool new power? Have you seen Donnie? Have you talked to Donnie? He's here, I've seen him, but I couldn't say a word to him, and it's so unfair, and I couldn't even tell him that you don't feed healthy teenage mutant ninja turtles like me with fruits and salad, why didn't he think of pizza? Everybody knows that pizza is the first thing you should offer to your prisoner, and…"

"Wow, dude, slow down," Casey's face said as he emerged from the trapdoor behind April.

Mikey blinked. April had cool Kraangy powers, but Casey didn't, so how had he managed to go through the ground too? "Casey? You're here too?"

"We're all here, Mikey." Casey gave him a fierce grin. "It took us some time, but we found where you were, and Rockwell found the map and the tunnels, and he's the one who deactivated the cameras."

"We were so worried, dude!" Mondo Gecko said, exiting the tunnels–tunnels were less cool than superpowers, but Mikey would take them–and walking through the shed. "Wow. This place doesn't suck as much as I thought it would, but it's a bit too nature-y. If you see what I mean."

Mikey seriously considered bursting into tears. His friends had come for him, and way sooner than he had dared to hope.

"Slash and Leatherhead are guarding the tunnels, just in case," April said. "And Rockwell monitors everything from the Mutanimals lair. Come on, Mikey, we don't have much time before somebody notices there is a problem. I'll explain everything while we go home."

She waved at him to follow and made for the trapdoor.

Mikey didn't move.

"Mikey?" April frowned. "Is there a problem?"

Mikey swallowed hard. "I'm staying here." His voice didn't sound as assured as he would have liked, but it didn't change his resolve.

"What?" Casey and Mondo Gecko both exclaimed.

"Dude, are you insane?" Mondo added. "You can't stay here. You're a mutant in a laboratory. Bad things will happen to you!"

"Yeah, what he said." Casey was looking at Mikey as if he had suddenly grown a second head, and it took a lot to faze Casey Jones.

Mikey shook his one and only head. "I told you, I've seen Donnie," he said, very slowly as if it could help the others understand. "On a screen, but he said next time he would come in person. I have to take the chance."

April bit her lip, clearly worried. "Mikey, we can find Donnie later. Right now, we have to get you to safety. I couldn't feel your presence until this morning, but you've been absent for two days. Who knows what the scientists here have started, or whom they've talked to?"

Mikey frowned. Two days? He had been absent for two days? No wonder he had been starving!

"But what if we don't manage to find Donnie? What if he goes somewhere else?" Mikey paced across the room. "What if he gets in trouble because I escaped?"

The others watched him, suddenly silent. Mikey realized that none of them had thought about it–about Donnie. He appreciated the fact that they were so concerned about his safety, but Donnie was the reason he had willingly walked into this mess, and Mikey wasn't going to leave without him.

"The cameras are stuck in a loop thanks to Rockwell," April finally said. "Nobody knows we're here, but it won't last if we don't leave fast. I can't feel Donnie's presence, I've tried…" A shadow went over her face. "It just doesn't work."

Mikey suddenly felt guilty. April already had a lot on her plate, with her dad in the hospital and all, and Mikey wasn't helping.

But it was important that he stayed here.

"Then you have to leave," he said. "Tell Splinter everything is fine. I'll stay here and make Donnie trust me, and then we can both leave this place."

April watched him, or through him, and Mikey realized that she was listening to an earpiece mostly hidden behind her hair.

"Rockwell says that he won't be able to use the same trick twice," she finally said. "And once this trapdoor is closed, you won't be able to open it from your side."

"Mikey, dude," Casey said. "This is crazy. What if Donnie…" He hesitated. "What if you don't manage to get through to him?"

Mikey shook his head. This was an impossibility, and therefore didn't need to be taken into account.

"I can get through to him. I know I can."

April took something from one of her pocket and opened it.

It was Donnie's T-Phone.

After a while where her lips moved silently as if she was under the genie's spell–or as if she was repeating instructions from someone–she handed it to Mikey. "Take this. Rockwell added a program that will hack the security system of this place."

Mikey didn't like the idea of anybody else tinkering with Donnie's tech, even if it was for the greater good, but he said nothing as he hid the T-Phone next to his water balloons. A least April seemed to have taken his side.

"It won't go unnoticed," April added, "but it'll give you a chance to escape through the tunnels in case of an emergency. We won't be able to use the T-Phone to communicate with you, you're too deep underground and any relay wouldn't go undetected." She bit her lip. "Please be careful."

"And take these snacks," Casey said, searching his pockets. "Salad and fruits, uh? What a shame."

Mikey snatched the snacks with the greedy fingers of a starving turtle. Chocolate bars, hmm? Not a bad choice.

"Hey!" Casey protested. "I was giving them to you!"

"Thank you, Casey," Mikey said, his mouth already full. "You're an amazing friend."

It wasn't as good as pizza, of course, but it was still something.

"I have potato chips," Mondo offered generously. "I've started the bag, but…"

"Gimme," Mikey cut him off with the voice of a mad turtle.

Mondo complied immediately.

April cleared her throat to grasp Mikey's attention. He was very busy with his food, but it was a very insistent throat clearing, so he made the required effort and listened to her.

"If you don't escape on your own, we'll come back in two…" April stopped, feeling the full weight of Mikey's puppy-dog eyes. "Three days. Three days no matter what." She narrowed her eyes at Mikey, and he knew he wouldn't get a better deal.

"Thank you, April." Mikey bowed his head. "I'll bring Donnie back, you'll see."

April hugged him fiercely. "I trust you."

Mikey hugged her fiercely back. "How is your dad?" he whispered in her ear.

"He… he'll get better," April answered.

Mikey nodded seriously. Sometimes, this was the most that you could hope for.

He waved at April, Casey and Mondo as they disappeared in the tunnel. April had taken the packaging of the life-saving snacks with her, so there was no trace of their passage here–except for Donnie's T-Phone safely hidden on Mikey's person.

Mikey kept muttering to himself until he was forced into silence once more. It must mean that the cameras were back on.

He went back to bed, hid under the blanket and started playing games on Donnie's T-Phone.

At least now he had a decent way of passing time.

The following day–if the succession of darkness and light in his prison actually followed the daily cycle, he didn't know and had forgotten to ask his friends–Mikey woke up late. The perpetual bowl of salad and fruits was waiting for him, and Mikey sighed. He really needed to up his game and make Donnie understand what kind of food suited his delicate constitution.

He decided to start by stretching his legs. Maybe he would try training for a bit. He wasn't afraid of losing his ninja edge because he was a natural, but it would make him feel spiritually closer to Leo.

Maybe his brother's spirit would even appear to comment on his moves.

Speaking of spirits, he had had a really strange dream right before April, Casey and Mondo woke him up. His memories were blurred, but he remembered feeling Donnie's presence, his spiritual presence that was, trapped behind pink smoke…

And even if Donnie himself might have laughed in Mikey's face at the absurdity of it, Mikey knew it was real.

Mikey had barely taken three steps outside the shed when he heard a buzzing near the ceiling. He looked up and saw a giant cage going down, attached to the ceiling by a very solid-looking chain.

Inside the cage stood Donnie.

Mikey gaped and remained right where he was until the cage landed in front of him. A part of his mind noted that he could have used the chain to climb up and escape through the ceiling, but the whole purpose of him being here was to meet with his brother. Another part of his mind noted that the bars were too close to each other to allow Mikey's hand to go through and touch Donnie.

Donnie who was watching him with excited interest. He still started talking slowly–a huge effort for an excited Donnie, as if he wasn't sure that Mikey could understand, or as if he didn't want to scare him.

"I'm not here to hurt you. I want to be your friend."

Mikey fought against his motionless tongue to utter the words You don't need to become my friend, you're my brother, and lost.

Unlike the previous day, he felt a pressure in his head doing so, as if he was now able to pinpoint the source of the blocking. It gave him an idea, but the idea flew away as soon as Mikey tried to grasp it.

Inside his cage, Donnie was writing in his notebook. Mikey noticed a small object at his wrist. It looked almost like a watch, except it flashed lightly each time it was turned in Mikey's direction.

Donnie noticed Mikey's interest and smiled. "This? It's the latest technology available for communicating with other species."

I'm not other species, Dee, Mikey said in his head, for lack of anything better.

Donnie went on as it if hadn't heard, which he hadn't because he wasn't a telepath.

"It allows me to monitor your heartbeat, your temperature, and lets me see how you react to what I'm saying." He paused. "It's not as good as having a conversation, of course, but…" He glanced at the fake watch, as if he expected to see something. "I still don't know if you can talk. My colleague thinks you can't, but I have this feeling…"

Mikey wondered if some part of Donnie remembered the many times Mikey had talked his ears off. He wanted to grin at his brother, but his lips didn't move.

This was starting to get really annoying. Mikey had been onto something earlier, what had it been?

He dismissed his various thoughts of pizza and comics and did Splinter remember to let Ice Cream Kitty out of the fridge at least twice a day, and he found the idea he was looking for.

Communication. Mikey's attempts at communicating with Donnie were mercilessly blocked, no matter if it was with his voice, his eyes or his body. But what if he wasn't trying to communicate at all? What if he didn't intend to?

Talking was likely out of bounds, because its primary purpose was communication, but what about the rest?

It was a far-fetched plan, even by Mikey's standards, but Raph wasn't here to point out its many flaws, so why not give it a try?

Mikey might even kill two metaphora– metiphori– imaginary birds with one stone.

He ostensibly turned his back to Donnie and crouched in the grass. With his finger, he started tracing an innocent drawing. To entertain himself. Only himself.

I'm not trying to communicate, I'm not trying to communicate, I'm just drawing for fun like a solitary turtle, he kept yelling in his head.

The pressure in his mind was increasing, but the drawing took shape anyway.

Mikey grinned. Take that, evil pink genie!

When he stopped and turned towards Donnie again, his brother was scribbling furiously in his notebook.

"Is this…" Donnie stuck his tongue out in his deep concentration. "A clock?"

Mikey sighed inwardly. If Donnie didn't make a slight effort, they would be here all day and it wasn't like Mikey didn't enjoy the company, he did, but he could feel the beginnings of a headache and he instinctively knew that he wouldn't be able to go against the pink genie's spell without a price.

Mikey's stomach came to his rescue. It growled with all the might of a savage beast, attracting Donnie's attention.

"Oh. Food?" Donnie considered the drawing, frowning. Now he was typing on a small laptop.

Mikey leaned forward and saw that Donnie was making an image search for "round food". He wanted to facepalm, but luckily the Internet wasn't as obtuse as his brother.

"Pizza?" Donnie muttered. He turned to Mikey. "Is this pizza?"

Mikey wanted to nod, but that was communication. Instead, he knelt and stroked his drawing lovingly, because it was the most beautiful drawing ever and he was allowed to enjoy his own art, wasn't he?

"It's a pizza!" Donnie's excitement caused Mikey's chest to fill with nostalgia. "You want pizza? You eat pizza?"

Mikey would have high-fived him if he could have. It was working! He had been so right to stay here despite his friends' advice. He had known it, he had known that he could find a way to reach his brother.

Now Donnie had his I'm-having-twenty-ideas-per-second look, and he suddenly held out his notebook and a pen to Mikey. "Can you draw in here?"

Mikey didn't move because he couldn't, so Donnie put the items somewhere against the bars, and a hidden mechanism caused them to drop on the ground right out of the cage. Donnie took a few steps back until he was leaning against the opposite bars and watched.

Mikey took the notebook and the pen, not because he wanted to communicate with Donnie but because it was a nice notebook and a nice pen, so shiny, and that was all there was to it–

It worked.

The notebook was open, and Donnie's handwriting filled the left page. It was almost impossible to decipher, but Mikey had stolen glances in his brother's research for years. He had practice.

Although maybe he needed more practice, because the words he was seeing here were quite unexpected.

Highly intelligent.

Mikey narrowed his eyes, but he kept seeing the same. He grinned inwardly and stored this memory in a sheltered corner of his head, for further use and abuse once Donnie would be back to himself.

He took the pen and tried to write. But all he wanted to write about was Donnie being his brother, Donnie acknowledging him, Donnie please come back to me, and Mikey's fingers, usually so nimble, felt like stones.

He let go of the pen and ripped out a few blank pages of the notebook.

The pressure in his head was back, only ten times worse. Mikey ignored it as he folded one turtle-shaped origami, just for himself because it was fun just for himself he had no witnesses he wasn't trying to communicate with his brother no no no–

He started folding one turtle-shaped origami.

Then a second.

Then a third.

His headache was intensifying, and he barely managed to fold the fourth before having to stop.

Too bad for the rat-shaped origami he intended to fold next.

Mikey let go of the pieces of paper next to the cage and sat down, exhausted. Donnie picked them up with pliers before holding them as if they were the most precious treasure he had ever seen.

"Can I... Can I keep these?" Donnie asked, his voice filled with wonder.

Mikey had done them for him, so of course Donnie could keep them. And it was nice to feel so much Donnie-admiration directed at him.

Too bad he was barely able to think anymore. He needed a nap, and he needed it now.

Donnie took a look at his fake watch and must have seen something, because he nodded to himself. "I'll be back later."

Mikey watched the cage being lifted in the air. He barely had the strength to go back to the shed and collapse in his bed.

If he dreamed, he couldn't remember what his dreams were about.

Mikey woke up to a delicious smell. He immediately knew what it was, and he threw himself out of the bed.

And here, replacing the dreaded salad and fruits bowl, was a pizza.

Pizza! Donnie had delivered pizza to him!

Mikey savored it appropriately for the whole ten seconds it took to eat it.

Feeling much better than he had since the beginning of this whole ordeal, he left the shed.

In the meadow, Donnie was waiting for him in the cage, and on the ground in front of it, neatly folded next to each other…

…were four bandanas. Orange, purple, blue and red.

"I noticed that you seemed to care a lot about these," Donnie said, smiling shyly. "I was allowed to give them back to you."

Mikey felt tears gather behind his hidden eyelids. He fell to his knees, not thinking about anything, and grabbed the pieces of cloth.

The bandanas looked intact. He smelled them, too, and his heart fell in his chest when he realized that they had lost his brothers' scent. They smelled like Human Donnie now.

Mikey guessed it could have been worse, but it was still a low blow.

Not thinking about Human Donnie, thinking about Ice Cream Kitty Splinter April Squirellanoids the sun in Northampton pizza pizza pizza, Mikey took the bandanas and wrapped them around his arm, except for his own that he put in its right place.

He felt better just feeling the weight of the familiar cloth around his head.

"I want to meet you out of this cage," Donnie said. "I don't believe you would hurt me, no matter what they say."

I would never hurt you, Donnie, Mikey thought fiercely. I would fight the entire world if it dared to lay a finger on you, but never you.

"Do you think you could–" Donnie started.

Something rang, and Donnie took a phone out of his pocket.

"I apologize," Donnie said. "I have to answer."

Mikey was used to Donnie stopping in the middle of a sentence, phone ringing or no phone ringing, so he didn't mind.

Although Donnie's face was darkening by the second, so maybe he should mind.

"We've already made so much progress!" Donnie was protesting. "I only need more time, this is the most important scientific project of the century!"

Donnie paused. Mikey wanted so badly to hear what his interlocutor was saying, but he could only imagine it.

And none of the scenarios he was picturing right now were especially enticing.

"I know they want results, and I'll have them, I–"

Another pause.

"What do you mean, they're already here?"

Mikey knew worry when he saw it written on his brother's face, no matter that his brother was currently human, and his heart clenched.

The cage suddenly started to go up.

"Hey! Stop that, I'm not done, I…" Donnie looked at his phone and put it back in his pocket, looking furious.

Mikey was frozen on the spot as the cage climbed out of his reach.

"I'm sorry," Donnie rambled. "I didn't… I refused to use more… invasive… tools, and now they're sending the big guns. I… I'm going to try to help you, just… You don't need to be afraid."

Mikey also knew a lie when he saw it written on his brother's face. He opened a terrified mouth to ask about the invasive part, but of course no sound came out of it.

The cage disappeared in the ceiling, leaving Mikey alone in the meadow.

For the first time since he had turned down April's offer to get him out, Mikey thought that he might have made a mistake.