Narration, English
Other languages
'Thoughts and names'
Dreams, flashbacks, memories

When a person wakes up after a decent sleep they expect a feeling of strength and willingness to act, a joy of life in general. A beautiful dream certainly adds more vigor and a peaceful night means a day free of stress. However, not everyone can agree with this statement.

The voices above his head were exchanging information in so many languages that he couldn't get anything from them. His body wasn't moving, his eyes were closed. He decided to take a deep breath but a burning pain in his chest and abdomen stopped him and instead of good breath he began to choke, which only aggravated the unpleasant feeling. He opened his eyes wet with tears, unable to calm down. His face was covered by a plastic oxygen mask, his limbs were still cuffed to bed but the latch around his waist had disappeared. Given the enormous pain in that area Donatello was grateful that nothing clutched his middle.

The woman in white coat, what was her name? Ah, yes, Eika, she gave him an injection in his left arm because his right one was useless at the moment. He only hoped quietly that it was morphine, the pain was giving him the impression that he was slowly dying.

He greedily inhaled once again, intensifying the burning sensation in his chest and a sound he made caught the attention of those around him. "Morisaki-san, morphine is already in his system," Eika murmured, pushing the cotton swab to the place where she'd given him the injection. The woman moved away from the bed and several more came out with her, leaving doctor Morisaki with another woman and two men with their patient.

"Morphine should ease the pain," doctor Morisaki murmured. "If you hadn't whined earlier, you would have get food but oh well," the Japanese sighed and picked a bowl of ramen and chopsticks up from the table. "Here's your ramen. Aigo, feed him," he ordered the girl.

"Hai, sensei." The woman took the bowl and chopsticks from the doctor's hands and leaned over the mutant.

Donatello stated that he still had no strength to talk nor argue so he accepted the cold meal without any resistance. Aigo looked young, she certainly wasn't an adult and her long hair was half dyed brown. She didn't cover her face and her cold look indicated that the doctor had already destroyed that young creature. She calmly served him pasta with an emotionless face. "Yes, that should be enough for now, you've just woken up after all," Morisaki said after a few minutes. "Aigo, keep your aunt some company in the kitchen."

The girl nodded slowly, then disappeared as Eika had done before. Donatello couldn't help but smile, even though he felt sorry for the girl who had become a soulless scientist so early. "So Aigo is a member of your family, isn't she?" he asked, looking at the doctor.

"And how do you know that?"

"I certainly understood two words: an aunt and a kitchen."

"Very well, let's include it as a bonus information." The man adjusted his tie and cleared his throat. "Aigo is my niece, my brother's daughter, and I'm her private teacher. She's my top pupil, she's almost seventeen and she seems to become a great researcher."

"Yeah, I could see that." Donatello rolled his eyes.

"Ah, I would have forgotten. How are your eyes? Do you feel pain, burning, itching?"

The mutant blinked several times and his gaze became blank. He bit his lower lip, wondering how he was actually feeling. " I feel like I have sand in them," he said staring at the ceiling.

"And that's how it should be, we've given you some expensive medication, your infection is now under control. You probably expect more explanations now, I won't hide that it annoys me a little."

"And what annoys me is lack of answers to my questions."

"I'll release your right hand now so that you can reach a bottle of water which I'll leave on the table. You'll find here a plastic cup, feel free to drink, you'll need a lot of water. Is morphine working?"

"I don't feel pain anymore but I'm tired."

" It's normal after a surgery and full anesthesia."

That reminded the turtle of something important. Raising his head slightly he stared at the man, swallowed hard and asked: "What did you do to me?"

"Oh, don't worry," doctor Morisaki laughed. "The surgery was part of the project. Speaking of The CD Project, for your, let's say, good-mannered behavior I'll tell you that The CD Project aims to create something extraordinary. We want to bring to life a childish dream which for many is impossible, but with you and the mutagen nothing stands in our way. Now rest, you need to recover quickly so that we can move on to the next part."

Doctor Morisaki left the confused turtle. Another pointless hint, the lack of useful answers, and now that surgery. Donatello raised his head, trying to see his body. A thick layer of bandages and cotton wool covered his chest and abdomen, so it was obvious that they had been rummaging in those areas, since he could feel the pain there, not so painful right now thanks to morphine. The mutant sighed heavily, taking advantage of the temporary lack of unpleasant sensations. The time had come for more thoughts about the future. Let's be honest, Donatello was terrified, although he tried to mask it behind his calm face. He had no chances of escaping, he was at the mercy of mad scientists who had already mutilated him in some way, he'd probably never see his family and friends. He wished he had had the opportunity to tell them how important they all were for him and how sorry he was that he hadn't devoted more time to them. He hadn't even been able to say goodbye. He would never apologize to Splinter for being the weakest student, he'd never support Leo in difficult times. He'd never help Raph in repairing his motorcycle and he'd never sit with Mikey like brother with brother to just spend a few moments together.

"Isn't that wonderful that we have the opportunity to talk again and get to know each other better, Donatello?"

The turtle didn't know whether he wanted to cry or vomit. As soon as the inseparable duo entered the room he felt sick. Attached to each other all the time, though not holding hands, they were very talkative, or at least the older one.

"It was very nice of Morisaki to add a few hours a week more for us, don't you think?"

If the mutant had been putting files of hated people in order from the most-hated in his drawer, the name of William Russell would have preceded the names of Stockman, Oroku Saki aka the Shredder, even Agent Bishop. The turtle clenched his teeth and shut his eyes, trying to ignore the annoying psychiatrist with the Japanese psychologist always faithfully standing by his side. Suddenly, it seemed horribly interesting what kind of rumors about those two were spreading across the building.

"Let us summarize our knowledge about you so that we won't miss anything. Let set the ooze aside."

"The mutagen."

"Yeah, whatever." William snapped the pen, wrote something insignificant and looked at the files in his hands. "Name: Donatello. Surname: let's face it, the mere fact that you have a name was unexpected. Species: red-eared slider. Origin: United States, according to the accent. Skills: fluent in English, medium level of French, basic Japanese; probably can use weapons such as bō staff and knows ninjutsu."

For a moment, an internal panic attack was preparing itself to invade the mutant's mind but it gave up quickly. No wonder they knew his physical abilities, they had found him with all his equipment with him, besides, it's nothing hard for a Japanese to guess what the bō staff is for.

"Interests: probably some scientific stuff since you consider yourself to be a scientist." The psychiatrist couldn't stop the short chuckle. "In my notes below we have other information which wasn't suitable for that grouping, that is the fact that you fell from the sky and hit your head hard, so you may have a few small gaps in your memory. Now we wonder what you think about the word 'family'?"

"It's not about the word," Kuroba said. "We'd rather like to know if you have someone you could call your family?"

"So you want to know if there are others like me," Donatello concluded, begging deep down in his soul for freeing from those two's trap.

"Yes, I don't believe you would name yourself Donatello. And somebody had to teach you how to speak."

"I found the name in a book, I lived in a place where you can find things thrown away by people, I liked the sound of the name. Living in the shadows, observing people, listening to them made me learn how to speak, and reading and writing came with time and a few exercise books for children."

He seemed confident when he told that. Maybe he was even too confident of his words? But he couldn't betray his family, because, who knows, maybe those madmen would want to find them? That way was the safest for everyone. "So where did all these protectors, mask and weapon come from? Surely you didn't learn this by watching kindergarten children fighting for a plastic shovel in the sandbox?" Akira asked, narrowing his eyes.

"From books and movies, of course. As I've said, people throw away a lot of things and I have a knack for absorbing knowledge. I had a knowledge from the books, and other stuff provided me with practical training. That way, for instance, I repaired an old TV and VHS player, I stole the electricity, found some VHS' and voilà."

Russell adjusted his glasses, murmuring with understanding. 'This information must be sent to doctor Morisaki immediately,' he thought. That reptile wasn't only wise, it was intelligent, which was a serious threat to The CD Project. The man was writing anxiously in his notebook so as not to forget any bit of relevant data. "I wonder," Kuroba began. "If you named yourself, do you also have a surname? By naming yourself you probably wanted to get a little closer to people and you certainly could hear their surnames more than once, so I'm asking. Did you give yourself a surname?"

Donatello shook his head no without saying a word. For now both men had been absorbing the knowledge like a sponge absorbs water, not thinking too much about the credibility of that information what was very convenient for him. Whatever they had done to him, it certainly was only the beginning of the whole project, and at some stage they would have to detach him from the bed. For now, he would stoically give them all kinds of fairy tales that physicians would be able to believe.

"What's your favorite color?"

Now nobody expected such a question. Not only Donatello widened his sore eyes at Russell, Kuroba did the same. The older man just smiled and adjusted his glasses.

"What's that question?"

"Not very important for the project."

"Why are you asking then?"

"Will my knowledge of that fact hurt you, Donatello?"

"Actually, no."

"So what's wrong with you telling me?"

"Since you ask it, it does matter somehow."

"It's not a big deal, it won't change anything for the project nor your health, or at least physical health."

"And what does that mean?"

" It means that if you tell us what color seems nice to you, we will save you spending time in a rotten, brown like shit room."

He wasn't one hundred percent sure but he felt it was some kind of a clue. Well, it didn't tell him much, but still. They planned to close him somewhere else or paint the walls. Perhaps they wanted to turn him into their pet? Whatever it was, still it wasn't enough information to draw conclusions. "Purple," he said after giving it a thought.

"That was predictable, your mask is purple," Akira muttered.

"Akira, I wanted to have a light friendly conversation," William replied, wincing at his younger coworker. "Anyway, we've taken another hour of your existence, it's time for a short break. In about half an hour someone should come here, check this and that and bring you something to eat."

"You two think that your presence here keeps me entertained?" the mutant laughed, almost choking.

"Not at all, our amusing cute lil mutant," doctor Russell said in a sugary voice. "We are specialists in the psyche and you, I won't hide it, feel here like a prisoner and you are, in a sense of the word, our prisoner. Therefore talking to other people should help you minimize your anxiety and protect you from depression."

"Well, I must say I don't give a shit whether you're trying to help me or not!" Donatello growled, reaching for the plastic bottle of water with his swollen hand.

"You should see your face right now, you are the cutest thing when you're angry. You remind me of a lot of my patients I've dealt with without moving a finger so I'll handle you as well."

"We'll leave you alone now, Donatello-kun."

Both men exited the white room in a hurry. Donatello watched them, sipping the water in peace. His nerves had activated, nothing serious, every person would have erupted, especially if they had been somebody who felt save only when they knew everything about their situation. Lack of knowledge belonged to the turtle's top ten fears.

The digital clock told: October 14, 3.26 p.m, the temperature was still 77 degrees. The surgery must had taken several hours or the physicians hadn't bothered to wake him up at the right time. Even though morphine temporarily eliminated the pain, whatever was covered by those thick bandages, itched like a mosquito bite. Out of pure curiosity the mutant touched the top layers of bandages with his finger, then pushed gently until he felt a slight burning which convinced him not to touch anymore, or at least for now. Besides, he was exhausted again and talking to Russell and Kuroba only increased that tiredness by at least ten times.

"I'm cold."

"Yeah, these ain't tropics. Come here closer."

"Stay together, my sons, the temperature is not favorable."

He heard conversations but saw nothing. He recognized voices but could not identify them correctly. He only knew that he also felt cold, just as the others, and the rumbling in his ears was becoming more and more exhausting. For some reason he couldn't open his eyes, he only felt himself curl up, clench his teeth and put his hands to his temples to suppress the strange growling.

"Don, come here."

He shook his head no, pressing his shell harder to the wall. Where was he? Were there other beings? He knew those voices but had problem with the accurate recognition. The room he was in was swaying slightly but he wasn't on the ship, it was a different feeling.

"Donatello, you should not be alone in such difficult conditions."

What was going on? Those voices, he knew them, but he wasn't going to risk it. What did they want from him? All of it was very confusing. Why couldn't he see? Ah, the closed eyes. Maybe he should have tried to open them and see where he was, who was in there with him. The whole situation seemed terrifyingly familiar.

Black began to slowly turn into gray eventually, and it stayed that color. The room was shaking in all directions, full of various packages, bags and suitcases. In the darker corner figures he couldn't see clearly sat, cuddled together. He for sure noticed a long pink tail and pairs of big green feet, very much the same as his.

"Don, please," a shaky voice said, a three-fingered hand emerged from the darkness, after a moment it was a whole arm, then with a head whose face could not be forgotten when one was a brother of such a person. "Come to us, I'll help you."

He shook his arms, blinked his eyes, then nodded slightly, feeling much more comfortable and safer than a few minutes before. He slowly reached out his frozen arm, leaning gently forward, when a terrible crackle sounded in the air. If the room had been shaking before, now there was a real storm, a hurricane, a tornado. It was only at that moment that he remembered where he was, why he was there, who was in there with him. However, before he could do something, the luggage compartment opened, the cold air began to suck out everything which was in the room, including him sitting next to the trapdoor.

At the last moment he caught a metal pipe, his legs broke away from the ground, he couldn't help himself with his other hand. He heard a terrifying whistle of the wind which effectively drowned out his family's cries of his name. Through narrowed eyes he saw his brother, held by second, held by third, with his feet hooked on another pipe. Together they formed a lifeline, unfortunately too short to help him. His hand was freezing and the extra effort only made the pain worse, compounding it three times.

One last look at his family, it was only one second-long look. And then Donatello released the pipe...

"The object of research of The "Childish Dream" Project, who called himself Donatello and we call him that way, fell asleep, Morisaki-san."

Doctor Morisaki bent over the man sitting in front of the screen, the screen showing a recording of the monitoring from the room where the three meters tall mutant was. The turtle had his eyes closed, breathed steadily, sometimes murmured something and turned his head, but otherwise showed no activity. "Perfect," the doctor murmured. "Keep an eye on cameras, Tokugawa."

"Hai."

"Aigo, bring my little Kyo-chan."

"Hai, sensei."

The main doctor of The CD Project stretched his back slightly without taking his eyes off the screen. Meanwhile Aigo went to the residential part of the building where she found her aunt in the kitchen. The woman was bustling around the room, preparing dinner for her family and all employees, and because of that she almost never left the kitchen. Little Kyoko was sitting in the living room by the kotatsu and was busy drawing. "Konnichiwa," Aigo said briefly and went from the kitchen to the living room immediately. Little Kyoko laughed at the sight of her much older cousin and showed her dirty colorful hands, greasy and sticky as every child had. Aigo smiled gently and walked over to the kotatsu, then knelt by her little cousin and put her elbow on the table, watching silently what the small girl was doing. Kyoko returned to drawing on a sheet of paper, for now the drawing was apparently not even half-finished, there was a big round green rim and inside of it there were two black-yellow circles and a bow drawn with its tummy down. "What are you drawing, Kyo-chan?" Aigo asked in a low voice.

"Ryū," the little girl answered.

The teenager looked over her shoulder at her aunt still overwhelmed by the kitchen challenges waiting for her. The woman didn't approve of anything that took place in her house, from the laboratory and scientific researches near the little one to keeping and hurting various animals when the little one was in the next room. Aigo, on the other hand, supported her uncle's initiative with all her heart and didn't care about the feelings of the 'inferior beings'. "Hey, Kyo-chan," she whispered, looking back at the girl. "Your daddy is calling you. Do you want to see Ryū?"

At the sound of a key word, the little girl put all her crayons into the carton without a word, she took the carton and paper, the pieces more or less filled with colors, and she ran to her cousin's legs, looking at her with her big dark eyes. Aigo gave her a short smile, then leaned and took her hand. Together, avoiding eye contact with her aunt, they both left the residential part of the building and went down the corridor. In one of the rooms doctor Morisaki was waiting for them, along with several employees in white coats. Three of them operated the technological equipment, including the previously mentioned Tokugawa.

The little girl's father crouched in front of her, grasping her tiny, smooth hands in his rough ones. Kyoko gave him a wide smile, then her brown eyes trailed all the other faces and three-year-old blushed gently. Her small head dug into the man's chest so that her face became invisible to other people.

"Daddy has a short break now, so I thought you would like to see-"

"Ryū!" the overjoyed girl interrupted him, jumping up and down.

"Our tall green friend's name is Donatello but soon we will all call him-"

"Ryū!" Kyo-chan repeated excitedly.

The doctor just chuckled, rubbing short arms of his little princess, then took her in his arms and went out into the corridor. The little one couldn't wait to see the large green creature, she was bouncing and fidgeting all the way, making the trip difficult for her father.

Parent and child stood in front of the white door with a black number 6 and the inscriptions 'The Object Dtm15' and 'The 'Childish Dream' Project', both engraved in golden boards. The little one understand nothing except numbers, she didn't know letters, and everything was in English, which was a strange language spoken in her home by almost all strangers dressed similarly to her father. "Will you open the door, princess?" Morisaki whispered, moving closer to the door with her.

Kyoko leaned out over her father shoulders and grasped the door handle with her plump hand. Her tiny heart was beating at dizzying speed, she couldn't wait to see him. The light was dimmed in the room but it wasn't completely dark. The gray space was sad and extremely empty, except for the occupied bed, the stools and monitors standing on strange machines, the room had plenty of space because everything was thrown into one corner.

Donatello was laying on the bed, half covered with white duvet, and was snoring softly. With uncovered shoulders and arms resting along his body and slightly parted lips, the mutant reptile was completely unaware of his surroundings. He was probably tired because of the big dose of painkillers, and besides, the boredom which he had to feel while being bedridden. After the surgery his skin had grayed slightly but it slowly began to getting back its former state.

Morisaki walked to the bed with his daughter and laughed quietly at the sight of her eyes, glittering with fascination. "You like him, right?" he asked and she nodded vigorously. "You can touch him, don't be afraid, sweetheart, come over," he added, placing Kyo-chan on the floor and leading her by the hand.

Kyoko stood by the bed, tilting her head to see long arm with thick, cuffed wrist and large hand, everything wrapped in bandages. She had already touched the big turtle once, but it had been done without her father's agreement, and now she could finally stroke the mutant like a pet. And so she did. Firstly she put her hand flat on the bandages covering the tendons on the reptile's hand, then she tightened her hold higher, where the bandages didn't cover the green skin. Donatello was in too deep sleep for that light like a wind touch to wake him up. "Ryū," she said, nudging the sleeping creature. "Ryū!" she repeated louder.

"But princess!" Morisaki knelt beside her and took her hands from the mutant's body. "Donatello is sleeping, we don't want to wake him up. Come." The man picked the girl up and sat her on the stool, next to the pillow. "See, sweetheart? He is sleeping. You don't like it when somebody interrupts your sleep. Besides, Donatello went through a hard and exhausting surgery, he needs time to recover, otherwise he won't be ready for further treatments."

"Ryū?"

The doctor nodded. Kyoko leaned over the bed, one hand resting on the mattress, the other reached out to finally touch Donatello's face. She managed to rest her sticky palm on his cheek, right next to the corner of his mouth, the hand began to wander on his beak, forehead, top of his head. It was real fun for her, or at least until...

At some point a heavy moan escaped the turtle's throat and the mutant tilted his head to the side, closer to her. Before she could do anything, he moaned again and began thrashing his head and arms as much as the latches on his wrists allowed. Doctor Morisaki quickly picked his daughter up before she could have been hit by accident, he himself curious about the situation. It was possible that Donatello had a nightmare which was hard to bear. The most interesting, however, began a moment later. "Mmm... Leo..." the mutant groaned quietly, throwing himself, or rather throwing his head in all directions. "Leo, help me! Please! Raphie! Mikey!"

Interested, and even a bit angry inside, the doctor exited the room for a moment to leave his daughter in the living room. She didn't hide her disappointment because of this, but her father promised her another visits, when the reptile would feel better. So he saved himself by hoaxing the little girl that Donatello didn't feel well and was probably sick. At an equally anxious pace he returned to the white room, furious for a reason he hadn't known before but should had known. Not to mention that the object of their researches deceived them, keeping his poker face and stoic calmness, and he was so convincing in his testimony that even God himself would have had trouble detecting a lie.

"Master... Splinter... Father!" The reptile was still struggling with his eyes closed, unable to wake up.

Having walked to the mutant in three steps Morisaki raised his arm and with all his strength slapped it against the mutant's bandaged chest. The chocolate brown eyes opened, their pupils narrowed and tears flowed from the corners of his eyes almost immediately. Donatello hissed in pain, panting a few times.

"'I have no family, huh?! I grew up with only observing people? I learnt everything only by that?!'" the doctor shouted, staring at the terrified look of his 'victim'.

"But... But..." Donatello stammered. "I didn't lie to you!" he answered anxiously, his calm mask was breaking slowly, that nightmare had reminded him of some important details, thanks to which he may would learn the whole truth about how he had got there and why.

"Bullshit! You've just told me everything." Slowly, the anger disappeared from the man's face, and it was replaced by a wide grin. "Dear Donatello, you can't hide anything from me, it's time to be honest with each other."

"How can I be honest while you are still hiding a lot from me?!"

In that moment a few people entered the room, including Kuroba who finally for once was on his own, Eika and Aigo. Some quick sentences in Japanese escaped their mouths, too fast for him to understand any of it. Then several hands slipped the duvet off him, revealing a thick layer of gauze and bandages. Two people stood on his sides with huge scissors and began to cut the layers of material, somebody gave him another dose of morphine. His heart was beating so hard and he felt that if it didn't break through his chest right then, it would jump into his throat. He waited impatiently to see for himself what that group of psychopaths had done to him.

All the layers covering his body were slowly taken away what, despite the morphine, hurt so much he gritted his teeth and hissed, pressing his head to the pillow for a moment. The small crowd around the bed parted, all the remained were doctor Morisaki and another Japanese in the coat, whom Donatello had never seen or didn't recognize because the man wasn't wearing a mask, and he probably had had earlier when they had taken him for the surgery. "The transplanted tissues will have to be covered for some time to cover the gaps, but thanks to the modified substance they will quickly overgrow, the cells should accelerate the process of division," the unknown man murmured, gently touching with his finger a few places, strangely soft and strangely stinging from the pain. Too complicated language didn't allow the mutant to understand a lot, something covered, substance, cells...

"Perfect, I think a week is enough for recovery and then another one to get used to the changes." Doctor Morisaki followed the other surgeon with his eyes, then returned to staring at the lying turtle.

Donatello pressed the back of his head to the pillow, teeth gritted and tears welling up, hesitating to look at the strangely feeling parts of his body. Hearing the amused murmur from the man responsible for his position he raised his trembling head, biting his lips, and opened his wet eyes. The view shook him deeply.

His plastron didn't exist, it disappeared, it wasn't there. The bastards amputated his front shell, exposing him to death. Instead, the whole front looked like chopped meat. The top was covered by a thin layer of skin which looked more like a green mesh full of holes and gaps. There were muscles under it, also with holes. Blood vessels were visible, some broken.

He didn't even know when the panic took over him and he started screaming, shaking his head, squeezing and widening his eyes, sniffing, denying what he had just seen. And all that to the great joy of doctor Morisaki standing calmly.