Title: No One Will Find You
Day: Whumptober 2023, Day 11
Prompt: "All the lights going dark and my hope's destroyed" Animal trap/Captivity/ "No one will find you"
Fandom: TMNT 2003, SAINW
Word Count:
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: M
Characters: Donatello
Warning: This… is not a happy ending. You have been warned.
Summary: Don always thought that he knew what to expect if he was ever captured by the Foot. And while, at first, things went according to his expectations, they soon didn't. But there was no way he was prepared for the plans that the Shredder actually had for him.
Notes: I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a post making its way around that talks about how Peter Laird wanted, in SAINW, to reveal that Shredder had captured that timeline's Donatello and had him stuffed and mounted or, if they couldn't get away with that, to have him frozen. That is a terrifying thought, quite frankly, but, well, here we are.
No One Will Find You
It was stupid, stupid, stupid of him. He should have at least taken his shell cell, if nothing else. Sure, it would have been taken off of him, but he would have had it for at least a little while, giving his brothers something to track, some indication of where he had gone. But Don had just wanted to go topside for a moment, just a moment, just to get some air, because he was stuck on a project he was working on.
He hadn't expected a trap.
It wasn't a trap in the sense that someone had been sabotaging his project, or that he had been lured anywhere. No, it was a trap in the literal sense of a thing that entrapped him. Don was always prepared for Purple Dragons, Foot Ninja, even just random thugs. He had never thought to be prepared for an animal trap. Especially one not too far from the garage above their home.
He'd simply stepped, and before he could do more than realize something felt off, a trap was closing around his leg, digging into it, into the muscle. He'd gone down with a cry as the pain hit, his hands immediately going towards the trap. He tried to pry it off, tried to get his hands, even his bo staff in there to give it some leverage, but he hadn't been able to do anything before the Foot had arrived and carried him away.
He'd been in a small, dark cage since then, one just long enough for him, but low enough that he couldn't sit up, and completely enclosed. The trap had been removed. He'd been stripped of all of his gear, left with only a hastily wrapped leg. He wasn't sure how long he had been here, but it had been long enough that he had run out of options for escape. His only hope now was that his family would find him. He knew they had to know he was missing. What he didn't know was if they could find him.
What was strange, though, was that partway through this, the way he was treated was changed. Yes, he was still left in the small, dark cage. But his leg was bandaged properly and treated. He was given food and water that could actually sustain him well. He'd tried to refuse the food and water, only to be removed from the cage and force fed it. If he ever saw Mikey again, he was going to apologize for for force feeding him the wax in that Triceriton prison. That was not a fun experience.
He'd tried to strangle himself with the bandages, once. They'd chained his hands up to where he couldn't get to his leg anymore. He'd tried to use his other leg to kick the bandages off and purposefully let the wound get infected, but they'd just rebandaged it with something that wasn't easy to get off and checked on his leg more often.
What Don couldn't figure out, was why they were doing all of this. Why were the Foot keeping him alive? Why were the Foot going through the trouble to make sure he healed and stayed healthy? The only thing he could figure was that they were going to use him against his brothers. Perhaps they'd brainwash him or put a robotic control of some sort on him so that he would fight against his brothers, and they wanted him in good shape. Or maybe they were going to run him through tests to see what he could do, so that they would know his brothers' limits as well.
He didn't know. There was literally no way for him to know what was going to happen, and that ate at him.
And then, one day, it changed.
The cage was cracked open, as it was every so often, but this time, he was pulled out. Don stumbled, not used to being upright, or being in the this much light, for that matter. His leg had long since healed, without even a trace of a scar on it. His hands were kept cuffed, though, and he was pulled along—although, for the Foot, he was actually being treated somewhat gently, which was odd.
Still, Don did his best to resist, not that it was much at this point. He hadn't been able to move around well in so long that he'd grown weaker than he had been. He did, however, take note of what things looked like as he was pulled along. This didn't look like the Shredder's headquarters. This was someplace different. There were no windows to give him a clue that way, or, if there were, they'd been hidden, perhaps covered by the thick tapestries that hung on the walls.
All too soon, though, an impressive set of doors was opened, and Don was dragged in front of the Shredder. He was forced to his knees, with no choice but to kneel there. Saki stared down at him, with eyes that were cold from more than being a robot.
"Ah, Donatello. I had been told of your progress. It seems that you have finally recovered," Saki said.
"Whatever you want from me, I'm not going to give it to you," Don growled out, looking up at his enemy defiantly.
Saki just looked down at him and smirked. He gestured, and his ninja pulled Don to his feet. Saki came down and circled around Don, looking him over like he was a prize.
"Do you know what my ultimate goal is, turtle?" he asked.
"I know you want to return to the Utrom home world," Don spat out. "Probably to kill everyone there."
"You are… partially correct," Saki said. "I do want to return to the Utrom home world. But not, as you think, to kill everyone there. No, I want to do it to enslave all of them."
"Enslave?" Don repeated. Was this why Saki wanted him whole and healthy? To test some sort of control tech on? To have him go in and start helping to take over the Utrom home world?
"Yes," Saki said. "Their technology is millennia ahead of anything on Earth. Teaching Earthers to use it would take far too much time. However, if I enslaved the Utroms and made them work it, then time will not be a problem." He walked back around, to where he could look Don in the face. "From there, it will not take long to return to Earth and take it over too."
Don jerked in the hold of the ninjas who had him. "You'll never make it that far! If the Utroms don't stop you, then my family will!"
"Your family?" Saki said. "You mean the ones who are still looking for you, even though they're starting to believe you're dead? It's been three months, Donatello. And I've made sure to leave no trace. No one will find you, until I want them to."
Don glared at Saki again. "And when will you do that?" he asked. "When you've got me under your control and have turned me against them?"
Saki smirked again and returned to his chair. "I believe you misunderstand me, Donatello. I am not going to use something like mind control. No, that has too high a risk for being broken." He sat down and smiled at Don, and Don felt goosebumps run up his skin. "What I have planned for you, not only has zero risk to me, but will demoralize your brothers in a way they can't possibly be prepared for. Doctor."
A door opened, and a man stepped through. Don immediately didn't like the look of him. "Yes, Lord Shredder? Is it finally time to put my skills to use?"
"Indeed," Saki said. "My prize is now in prime condition. Be sure you do not damage him."
The man eagerly stepped forward, eyes raking down Don in a greedy, excited manner. "I will take excellent care of him, Master, even if this will be a challenge. I've never even thought to create something such as this, and now, to get this honor!"
"You are… confident in your skills?" Saki asked.
"You will find no one on Earth more capable," the man replied confidently. "I've taxidermized turtles before. This one will just present a unique challenge."
Don felt his blood run cold. "Wait—wait, what?"
"Make sure you send the organs to my labs for study. They might help us locate a weakness."
"I will be taking extensive notes and documentation."
Don was panicking now. "No! No, I—No!" He started struggling to get away, to no avail.
Saki merely smiled down at him. "He will be a wonderful prize to display, don't you agree, Doctor?"
"Oh yes," the doctor said as Don was dragged towards the man and the door he came through. "I will make sure you have the most exquisite display possible."
Don struggled, fruitlessly, as he was pulled through a door that he knew he would never come out of, the implications of what Shredder had meant now becoming clear. He was going to be stuffed, mounted, and shown to his family. Shredder's maniacal laughter followed him as Donatello was drug through door and his fate was sealed.
Note: I have it in my head that this took place on a ship that Shredder had ready, so there really was no chance of his family finding him and, even if he had managed to escape, Don would have had nowhere to go. I'm also really glad they vetoed this idea. Maybe one day I'll go back and play with the frozen option.