*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Notes: I'm back with chapter 9 of 'Slash's Revenge' and it's finally a Donatello chapter. Warning: this one's a bit intense.

Humongous thanks to my creative consultant, Captain Vegeta, my beta reader, Joanne N. Grey, and to everyone who has read this or any of my other stories. I am so very grateful to all of you for your tremendous kindness and support.

I sure hope everybody likes the chapter. Thanks for reading. ;) CJ

Chapter 9 – Life in Captivity

At first, the only thing Donatello could register was the inconceivable pain washing over him like millions of jagged shards of glass. It racked every nerve in his body, preventing him from focusing on anything other than his agony. He wasn't even sure how much time had elapsed while he was in this seemingly impenetrable state. It could have been hours or it could have just as soon been mere minutes for all he knew.

Gradually, his overwrought mind began to discern comprehensible thoughts amidst the fog he was in. In a rather small twist of irony, the first thought he could focus on was the pounding in his head. It wasn't much, but at least it meant his brain was functional enough to process something. Even if that something was just distinguishing one pain from the many others inundating him.

Progress is progress...

His skull was unremittingly thrumming in tempo with his heartbeat and his natural instinct was to wrap his hands around his head, but as soon as he tried to move his left arm, he was once again in sheer agony. A tight grimace pulled across his lips as pain ripped through him like the sharpest of blades, momentarily stealing his breath away and making him forget all about his headache.

Once the discomfort finally diminished to a more tolerable level, he decided his best course of action would be to keep his left arm immobilized as much as he could. For several prolonged moments, he just laid there, trying to get his breathing under control again. His muddled thoughts began to turn into a series of questions, none of which he would be able to answer if he didn't open his eyes.

Though defiant at first, his swollen eyelids eventually parted ways and his weary, reddish-brown orbs slowly adjusted to the dim lighting of the room.

What he discovered soon had him wishing he'd just kept his eyes closed...

With his vision now restored to near-normal levels, it didn't take him long to figure out why he was so incredibly uncomfortable. The appalling realization struck fear into his heart like a bolt of lightning and his breath started to come out in panicked gasps.

He was locked in a cage!

A cage!

Donatello tried to push himself into a sitting position with his less injured arm, but the barred enclosure didn't allow him the freedom to sit completely upright. It was several inches too short in height and he wound up scraping the top of his carapace against the highest part of the cage. This gave him an instant case of claustrophobia. Something he normally didn't suffer from, but it wasn't like he had spent a lot of time being cooped up in a cage before.

Luckily, the metal enclosure was slightly wider than it was tall, so it did give him a little bit of wiggle room, but not nearly enough for his liking.

All of a sudden, Donatello had a newfound appreciation for how Timothy must have felt inside his containment unit.

Perhaps this is karma coming back to slap me in the face, Donnie thought to himself as he peered out from behind the bars of the 'containment unit' he was currently trapped in.

The genius turtle's throat felt as though it was closing up on him, so he gulped down a mouthful of air. It was then that he noticed something was pressing against his neck, making even the simple act of swallowing unpleasant. He nervously reached his fingertips towards his throat and was instantly appalled by what he found. Where he should have felt skin, there was a thick ring of metal digging into his flesh.

The sudden awareness that he had been fitted with a collar filled him with a mixture of humiliation and dread.

Bound and determined to remove the offensive object from around his neck, Donnie tried to work his fingers underneath the steel band to pry it off, but the collar was fastened too tightly against his skin for him to get a good hold of it. He then tried tugging on the heavy O-ring attached to the front of the collar, hoping to somehow pull it loose. Just the thought of what the ring was intended for made him yank even harder – to the point that it hurt – but the restrictive object encircling his neck was locked securely in place.

Attempting to steady his now somewhat irregular breathing, Donnie sucked in the deepest inhale he could. He was doing his best not to freak out over the fact that he was wearing a collar that seemed to be getting tighter by the second, not to mention he was being kept in cage like he was some kind of animal.

Well, technically, I guess I am some kind of animal...

In spite of the deplorable circumstances he was in, Donatello managed to find amusement in his own snarky thought, but only for a fleeting moment. His mood immediately turned somber once again when his eyes wandered back to the cage he was confined to.

Withdrawing his hand away from his neck, he wrapped his fingers tightly around one of the front bars of the cage. Half a second later, he was shaking the door of his 'pen' with all his might, checking it for durability. The bar barely budged, informing him that his prison cell was good and solid. That meant he was going to have use brains rather than brawn to get out of this, which was probably for the best, since he was already down two limbs at this point...

Gaze descending to his injured leg, Donatello nearly passed out from the sight. While the wound was no longer bleeding profusely, the blood flow was still heavy enough to give cause for alarm. On top of that, he could see the substantial damage that the mace spikes had done to the skin and underlying muscles and tissues of his thigh. It was a mangled, ugly mess; far more gruesome to look at than the injury to his arm.

Feeling the strong need to cover up his wounded leg, Donatello reached for his mask only to realize it wasn't there. Much to his horror, all his gear had been removed, leaving him with nothing to wrap around the gaping wound on his thigh. It was just another item to add to his ever-growing list of things to worry about. His leg injury required medical treatment or it would surely get infected – if it wasn't already. But something told him he'd have a tough time finding a fresh supply of antibiotics in this place.

Whatever this place was...

In all honesty, the genius turtle had been so preoccupied with his wounds and the whole 'cage and collar' thing, he hadn't even bothered to check if he recognized where he was. Luckily, Master Splinter wasn't there or he would have gone off about the importance of always being sharp-eyed and vigilant. In the back of his head, Donatello could just hear his father's unwavering voice telling him that 'a true ninja needs to be aware of his surroundings at all times.'

Of course, had Master Splinter actually been there, Donnie wouldn't be locked inside a cage, rendering the point rather moot.

In the meantime, you still don't have a clue where you are, Genius!

Pushing himself closer to the door of his cage, Donatello peered through the thick, metal bars. Even with his blurred vision and the scant moonlight illuminating the space, it didn't take him long to conclude that he was in an abandoned apartment. A really tiny abandoned apartment. He guessed it couldn't have been much more than three hundred square feet, tops, and that was assuming there was at least one bedroom and bathroom in the place. He couldn't actually see any doors from where he was at, but there obviously had to be an entrance somewhere.

There were only two windows in his field of vision. One on each side of him, not too far from where he was sitting. Both windows were covered by a pair of threadbare curtains that served no actual purpose anymore. They were neither functional nor decorative.

Off to his left, he could see a small kitchen area. It was devoid of any appliances, but there were a couple short rows of dilapidated cabinets and a tarnished faucet jutting up from the countertop.

Finally, Donnie glanced around the immediate vicinity he was in and deduced that it was the living room of the apartment. He based this conclusion off the only visible pieces of furniture in the space: a nasty-looking floral sofa and a wooden chair that had seen far, far better days.

Not surprisingly, Slash appeared to have no sense of interior design. But then again, why would he? He had hung out with Raphael most of his life. It was no wonder Slash had turned out the way he –

SLASH!

Just the thought of the giant mutant suddenly sparked terror inside of Donnie. The brainy turtle did a quick onceover of the apartment and was relieved to discover he appeared to be the only one there. That is, unless Slash was inside the theoretical bedroom or bathroom that Donnie was unable to see from his current vantage point.

Way to think positive, Donatello...

Whether Slash was in the apartment or not, Donnie knew that he needed to get out of there as soon as turtley possible, but that would be no easy task. Not with a possible broken or dislocated shoulder and a bum leg. Still, he wasn't about to just sit there and wait for Slash to come finish him off. That would be suicide.

The wounded turtle looked around his cage for any potential weak spots. Searching for a chink in the armor, so to speak. Anything that might provide him with an opportunity to escape. He noticed that the four-sided, metal enclosure was somehow affixed to the wall, presumably to prevent him from moving his little prison around. He also noticed that the padlock keeping the cage shut was rather corroded.

He was about to inspect the lock closer when there came the creaking sound of a door being opened and closed. It sent a shudder up and down Donatello's spine.

Then, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching.

Big footsteps.

Too big to be anyone from his immediate family.

The wounded turtle awkwardly scrambled to the back of the cage, pressing his carapace up against the wall his prison was connected to. Carefully using his good arm and leg to curl into a ball, he tried to make himself as small as possible, as if that might somehow protect him from whoever was approaching.

"Hey-ya, Donnie boy. I see you've finally decided to wake up." Slash strolled into the room and stopped for a moment to rattle the side of the smaller turtle's cage just for fun.

Donatello resentfully turned his head away and tightened his hold around himself as best he could, making sure to avoid jostling his injured arm and leg too much. The hasty movement towards the back of his cage had his injuries screaming out in pain once again. His left arm was dangling at his side at an odd angle, essentially useless. His wounded leg was equally worthless, and somehow, this injury hurt even more than his arm.

"Awwww! What's the matter, Donatello? Are you mad at me?"

The only reaction Slash got out of Donnie was a terse snort of disgust. The caged turtle's head remained turned to the side, so as to avoid eye contact with the bigger mutant.

An evil sneer passed over Slash's features, but Donatello couldn't see it.

"Your family's out there looking for you, you know? Even the old rat dragged himself out of the sewers to search for ya."

With that said, Donnie peered up and fixed a defiant glare on Slash.

"My family will hunt you down and make you regret the day you met them!" The personal guarantee held far more brazenness than Slash had expected from the weakest turtle.

Perhaps Donatello wasn't as gutless as Slash had originally thought...

"Oh, I already do. Trust me. Ever since my transformation, I've done nothing but loath the day I met you and your family." Latching his thick fingers around the top of Donatello's cage, Slash hovered his massive upper body just a few feet above his prisoner and reveled in watching the smaller turtle squirm. The wounded creature was currently cowering in fear while hunched over to keep his head clear of the bars above him.

"Why? We never did anything to hurt you!" Donnie internally cringed as soon as he said those words, keeping all his fingers and toes crossed that Slash didn't recall the so-called genius nearly blowing him up the day of his mutation. Donnie was also holding out hope that Slash didn't remember the time Mikey had taken the unmutated pet turtle (aka Spike) out of Raph's room to play with him and wound up losing him...

How could Donnie forget that epic disaster?

It's no wonder the guy holds a grudge against us...

When Slash didn't dispute Donnie's rather inaccurate statement, the brainy turtle quickly went on with the rest of what he had been planning to say. "And Raph was nothing but kind to you! Heck, he was always a lot nicer to you than he ever was to any of us! He took you in and cared for you! Why would you hate him so much?"

"Because Raphael betrayed me! That's why! He and I could've been the ultimate team, but he chose you over me! You!"

"That's what this is all about? You're jealous because Raph picked us?" The revelation seemed almost comical to the smartest turtle.

Sort of gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'green with envy,' Donnie mentally quipped and he internalized a smirk that would have surely gotten him creamed if he would have actually allowed the expression to materialize on his face.

"I'm not jealous!" Evidently not as amused as Donatello had been by the 'jealous' comment, Slash's chest started to heave with rage.

And there we have it...

The green-eyed monster rears its ugly head...

This time, Donnie couldn't stop a small smirk from forming. He hadn't even realized that he had done it until he saw the fury burning in Slash's eyes.

Uh-oh...

"You think this is funny? Is this some kind of joke to you?" Slash seethed, gripping the top of the cage so tightly, Donnie thought for sure the beast was going to peel it open like an overripe banana. It was either that or he was going to rip the whole cage right off the wall.

All of a sudden, Donnie no longer felt a strong desire to break out of his cramped quarters. For the time being, he felt much safer inside than out.

As though he had tapped directly into Donatello's thoughts, Slash stood upright and reached for something in his belt.

"Wh – What are y – you d – doing?" The words came out stuttered when Donatello saw Slash pull out a key and hold it up in front of him, flashing the genius turtle a smirk of his own.

"It's time to begin your training, Donnie boy." Before he even finished his sentence, Slash was already bending down to open the cage door.

Panic overrode every one of Donatello's senses, and despite the fact that his eyes were practically swollen shut, they both grew wide with fear. Slash's huge hands were coming right for him and he had nowhere to go. His back was literally already against the wall.

"N – No! S – Stay away from me!" Even with Donatello kicking like mad with his good leg, Slash easily grabbed the smaller turtle by the ankles and forcibly heaved him out of the cage. Donnie yelped in pain when Slash pulled on his injured leg, but it did absolutely nothing to deter the bigger mutant. The genius was then callously thrown down into the middle of the living room, landing hard on his injured left arm. He cried out in agony and writhed about on the marred, wood floor until Slash slammed his foot into the wounded turtle's ribcage.

"Heh, heh! Not so funny anymore, is it?"

Donnie curled up into a fetal position, clutching his side and desperately panting to reclaim the air that had just been knocked out of his lungs courtesy of Slash's giant foot.

Kneeling down on top of Donnie, Slash attached a heavy, iron chain to the O-ring on the splindly turtle's collar. The larger mutant then pulled on the chain, just enough to strangle his victim for several lengthy seconds, before standing up to admire his handiwork.

"You're my pet now, so you're gonna have to learn to obey your new master! Am I understood?"

Donatello just laid there, wheezing, while Slash loomed over him like an ominous storm cloud.

When the downed turtle failed to offer up a response, Slash hauled his leg back and kicked Donatello in the side once again. This time, even harder. The bigger mutant held fast to the chain hooked to the wounded turtle's collar so the pathetic, little weakling stayed within striking distance.

"Disobedience will be punished. A pet must be trained to do as they're told. Now, I asked you a question! I'm waiting for an answer!"

A whimper was all Donnie could manage, not even sure what the question had been. He was in too much pain to think straight.

Slash roughly hoisted the incapacitated turtle up by the chain, lifting him so that they were face to face. "I'm not gonna ask again." Even though Slash's voice was detached as he spoke the last line, the implied threat behind what he had said was crystal-clear.

"Y – Yes." With the collar around his neck squashing his windpipe, Donatello's response came out less than a whisper.

"Yes, what?"

Another hard jerk on the chain had Donatello struggling for breath. His mind was reeling, terrified of the dire consequences that might follow if he were to answer the question 'wrong,' according to Slash.

"Yes, I... I unders – stand." Donnie choked on the words while his head started to loll forward from the depletion of oxygen and the intense pain.

"That's a good boy." Patting Donatello on the back of the neck like a well-behaved dog, Slash heartlessly dropped the brainy turtle's battered body back down to the floor.

Donnie coughed and gagged for a minute or so, and then, just laid there in a heap, too afraid to move from the spot he was in. The chain that had just been used to strangle him was now draped over the top of him, but he didn't even notice.

"I got ya a little something," Slash said in a casual tone, as though he hadn't just brutally attacked and strangled the already injured turtle only a few moments ago. The larger mutant then slipped out of the room for several lengthy seconds to retrieve the 'something' he had just promised. When he returned, he stopped about a foot away from where Donatello was still laid out on the floor, bleeding and broken.

As the genius turtle instinctively recoiled away from Slash's hulking form, he heard several items land on the hardwood surface next to him. Donnie was frightened beyond belief to see what these items were, but at the same time, he knew if he didn't look at them, he would most likely be 'punished' again for being disobedient. He weakly lifted his head up and turned to see a package of gauze, some tape, a washcloth, and a container of rubbing alcohol lying beside him.

The wounded turtle gaped up at Slash, confused by the gesture, but the larger mutant's demeaning response confirmed that this was not an act of kindness.

"What? You need to clean yourself up. I can't have you bleeding all over the place. I don't want 'pet stains' all over the floors."

Not surprisingly, the first twenty-three comments that popped into Donatello's head were sarcastic, but he figured saying something along the line of, "Why not? The 'pet stains' would just match the rest of the dump you call a home!" wouldn't go over too well. For the time being, his scathing remarks were probably best kept to himself.

Instead, Donnie painstakingly pushed himself up into a sitting position and pulled the first-aid materials closer to him in an almost greedy fashion. The medical supplies that had just been provided to him were limited, so he would have to seriously ration the amount that he used. After the way Slash had just manhandled him, it was only logical for Donatello to assume he was going to need to keep some extra supplies on hand. The intellectual turtle just hoped his family would find him before Slash did more damage than Donatello had additional supplies for.

Gazing down at the box of gauze, Donnie saw that there was a two-and-a-half yard roll inside. That was probably plenty to wrap his leg wound with and leave enough left over to create some sort of a sling for his shoulder injury. This was a good thing, because having his arm hanging floppily at his side was killing him.

No sooner had Donatello started tending to his growing number of injuries when he hit a roadblock. "I'm gonna need something to cut the gauze with." The statement was spoken in much blunter fashion than what was probably wise, considering what the brainy turtle had just been put through, but it was a force of habit. He was used to telling his brothers what he needed when he was treating injuries.

"Not gonna happen. You're just trying to trick me into giving you a sharp object so you can attempt to escape." Stooping over his captive, Slash seized the end of Donatello's 'leash,' but the larger mutant didn't pull on it this time. He just held onto the chain, as if to show the scrawny turtle who was in charge. Slash then sank down onto the grubby floral sofa, not far from where Donatello was currently sitting.

The wounded turtle kept his head bowed down as he responded, careful not to be the slightest bit disrespectful as he spoke. He knew he was in no condition to take another savage beating for being uncooperative.

"N – No... I'm not. It's just that if you want me to s – stop the bleeding, I – I need to be able to cut the wrappings somehow," Donnie tried to reason, but he should have known that there was no reasoning with the cold-blooded monster next to him.

"You've got teeth, haven't ya?" Eyes narrowing into slits, Slash glared his disapproval. He knew what the puny turtle was up to. This was the smartest one of them, after all.

"Uh, that's not exactly sanitary. Do you have any idea just how many germs the inside of someone's mouth contains?" Always one to be accurate, Donatello could rarely stop himself from setting the record straight. Even at the least opportune times.

"Are you talking back to me?!"

Donnie didn't need to hear the anger in Slash's voice to know that the bigger mutant was mad. The sudden tension on his leash and the added pressure on his throat were proof enough that the genius turtle had once again managed to tick Slash off.

Heart galloping out of control, Donatello tried to plead his case as calmly as he could, which wasn't very calmly at all. "N – no! No! I – I was just trying to explain to you that using my teeth isn't a good option, because it could m – make the wound more susceptible to infection!"

"Well, that's too bad, because you're not gettin' anything else from me, you ungrateful, little maggot! Ya got that?" Patience all but gone, Slash balled his hands into fists, as if readying to strike.

"Got it." Sullenly looking away, Donnie kept his fingers crossed that he wouldn't be disciplined for his actions.

"This is my place, so you follow my rules. I'm your master, now."

For some reason, that last line instantly infuriated the wounded turtle.

"You're not my master! You never will be!" Beside himself with anger, Donatello momentarily forgot all about being scared of Slash.

"Well, I got news for you, Donnie boy. I'm all you got now, because your family's never gonna find you. Not unless they search every abandoned building in the city. This is your home now, so you better get used to it." For the sole purpose of his entertainment, Slash yanked on the chain latched to Donatello's collar and watched with undisguised merriment as his 'pet' fell to the floor.

Donnie quickly pushed himself back up into a sitting position and glared at Slash with pure hate glowing in his reddish-brown eyes. Something deep down inside of the genius turtle had snapped, and before he even realized what he was doing, he was telling Slash off. It was a side of him that he had never expected to come out in a million years.

"You're wrong! My family will find me! They'll never stop looking and you know it! That's why you're hiding out in some filthy apartment building! And that's the real reason why you're so angry with my brother, isn't it? Because he didn't think of you as family! Even as close as you two were, he still never considered you one of us!"

It took Donnie all of two-and-a-half seconds to wish he hadn't gotten his brave on. He would've been a lot better off sticking to being the shy one.

An instant later, Slash launched off the sofa and smashed a fist into the side of Donatello's face. With his reflexes slower than normal, the brainy turtle had no chance of defending himself from the incoming blow. The vicious strike sent him toppling backwards to the floor, landing awkwardly on his carapace. He let out a yelp just as he was violently hoisted up by the throat. Fingers wrapped tightly around Donatello's neck, Slash held the smaller turtle up in front of him like he was as light as a feather.

"Sounds like someone needs more training."

The audacity and confidence that Donnie had shown only moments ago had completely disappeared, replaced by fear and submissiveness. He hung limply in Slash's grip, scared to death if he did anything that could be considered fighting back, the bigger mutant would simply squeeze a little bit tighter and break his neck. Slash was already grasping him so fiercely, Donnie thought for sure the metal collar around his neck would bend. Then, it suddenly dawned on the genius turtle that the collar may have been the only thing keeping his trachea from being crushed in the behemoth's enormous hand.

Who would have thought there was a bright side in all of this?

"I knew I should've gotten you a shock collar instead. Heh! Good thing I got other ways to take care of that mouthing off problem of yours." Without an inkling of remorse, Slash threw Donnie back down to the floor, causing the injured turtle to cry out in pain.

"But first, I'm gonna help you out by treating your wounds for ya. We wouldn't wanna let 'em get infected, now, would we? Let's start by straightening out that shoulder of yours. It looks a little crooked. Whatta ya say, Donnie boy?"

Vigorously shaking his head from side to side, Donatello desperately tried to back away, but to no avail. Slash just reached out and cruelly grabbed hold of the weaker turtle's already injured arm, twisting on it without mercy.

Pain was once again all Donnie knew.

His deafening screams echoed throughout the entire apartment complex, but other than Slash, not a single soul could hear Donatello's cries for help.

There was no one to save him from this torture...

To be continued…

Author's Notes: Ouch. This was such a painful chapter to write and edit. Poor, poor Donnie. /(╥o╥)\

Just a little FYI... For those of you who haven't read 'Mikey's Worst Move Ever' yet, the part of this chapter where Donnie was remembering the time when Mikey lost Spike was a reference to that story. And for those of you who have read 'MWME,' there will be a few more references to the story coming up soon. =D

As always, please take a moment to favorite, follow, like, reblog, review, and/or comment on this story. I would absolutely love to hear from everyone and the feedback truly means a lot to me. Thank you very, very much for reading. You are all awesome! ;) CJ