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AOtGO – Aftermath

Ch 4

Date : 20th Sept

Quickly cutting a huge chunk of pancake off, Mikey shoved it into his mouth.

The smell, already made bad enough just by smelling it, hit him twice as hard and the taste almost made him gag. For several long moments, Mikey sat there, staring down at his plate in shock and unable to swallow. It didn't take long before he began to shake, feeling as though he was still trapped in that living nightmare he'd finally escaped from.

But he was free now! There was no one around to force him to eat that fetid slime any more and he had real food in front of him again for the first time in so long.

So why the shell did it taste and smell like nothing had even changed?

"Mikey?" April asked in a small voice, obviously disturbed by his reaction. "Is something wrong?"

With great difficulty, Mikey swallowed the foul tasting mouthful before turning and smiling broadly up at April, shaking his head emphatically. "Nope! Nothing's wrong! It's just been so long since I last ate anything this good that it overwhelmed me, that's all! They smell great!" And with that desperate lie, despite the noises of annoyed disapproval from Donnie, Mikey hurriedly shovelled the rest of his plate's contents into his mouth, chewing and swallowing as fast as possible to get it over with.

Just like he did whenever he was fed while he was still a prisoner.

"Would you like more?" April asked, a hint of worry still in her tone.

Panic filled him at the thought and Mikey shook his head vigorously, wracking his brain to come up with an excuse as to why he didn't want more when he hadn't eaten for so long. "Maybe later, Ape. Don said I shouldn't eat too much too soon and I'm kinda full for now."

"Okay," April replied, accepting his excuse easily. "I'll put the rest of the batter in the fridge for you. Though... can you cook? Because I meant it when I said no one else here can."

Splinter shot April a look, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Okay, okay! I stand corrected," she laughed. "Master Splinter can cook, to a point."

Mikey smiled, amused by the exchange, "Yeah, I'm pretty good, long as you don't want eggs sunny side up," he admitted, putting on what he hoped was his old cheeky grin.

Leo glanced towards the clock on the stove, noticing how late it was beginning to get; normally they would be leaving to search for their brother soon and he was anxious to prepare. "How about we show you around now?" he suggested, knowing they had to do at least that much before they could go.

"Sure," Mikey agreed cheerily, scrambling to his feet. Anything to get away from the subject of food.

"And after that, I'd like to give you a quick check over, run a few tests," Donnie added, sending a quick look Leo's way.

Mikey froze before warily turning to look up at Donnie. "Do... you have to?"

"It would be for the best," Donnie replied frowning, puzzled by the sudden change in Mikey's mood. "After what you've been through, I need to make sure you're healthy. Not to mention, find out if your blood is compatible with any of ours, just in case it ever becomes necessary. I'd also like to make sure your arm healed properly."

"It healed..." Mikey mumbled sullenly. "They took the... cast... off like two weeks ago."

"Thought you said you didn't know how much time passed?" Raph accused, scowling suddenly at Mikey.

"I didn't! I don't!" he protested weakly, hands held out in front as if to ward Raph off. "I'm guessing based on how many times they fed me since then!"

"And how many times was that?" Leo quickly asked as he remembered Splinter's earlier concern and Mikey's reaction to his questions.

Shrugging, Mikey answered, "Fifteen."

"Do you mean they only feed you once a day?" April asked, horror filling her voice as she stared at the abused turtle in shock.

Mikey shrugged again. "I'm not sure but I think so. But hey, trust me! Once a day was far more than enough." He smiled as he answered, pretending to make light of it, all the while just wanting to change the topic again. Or run off, as far away as possible from their questioning. "So dudes, what's the first room on this tour?"

-:-

His tour long over, Mikey stared intently at the anatomy posters on the wall, not really interested in them but not willing to actually look at Donnie either, all while wishing like shell the tall turtle would just let him go already. The other dimensional version of his genius brother had started out by taking a blood sample which, despite the accompanying reassuring words, made him extremely uncomfortable right off the bat. Then as he worked, he began bombarding Mikey with questions about his captivity, how he was treated and what they'd done to him during the time. Questions requiring answers that were the last thing Mikey wanted to think about right now, let alone actually talk about.

"I'm trying to help you Mike, but I can't without information," Donnie finally burst out in exasperation when Mikey obstinately dug in his heals, refusing to answer another of his confronting questions.

"You've already helped me, I'm fine now," Mikey replied stiffly, still refusing to turn and look at the turtle who both was, and wasn't, his brother.

"So you keep saying, but after months of mistreatment at the hands or tentacles of beings like the Kraang, no one would be! But fine," Donnie grumbled, "I'll back off for tonight. However, we will be having this conversation again in the next few days."

Mikey shrugged dismissively, relieved to be off the hook at last, even if only temporarily. "So can I go already?"

"Not yet," Donnie replied, his tone growing distant as he thought about what still needed to be done. "I'm going to have to wait on the blood test results to finish compiling and that's going to take a number of hours, but at a glance, you seem to be in relatively good health. You don't even seem to be malnourished. As far as I can tell, you do appear to be underweight, although I'm sure that at least will change in the near future as you begin to eat properly again."

Mikey stiffened. He'd always loved snacking and eating, but if everything was going to taste like that from now on, he wasn't sure he wanted to ever again.

Hearing Donatello approaching him from behind, he warily turned around to face him. At the sight of the device Donnie held in his oversized hands, his eyes widened in fright. "What's that?" Mikey asked, taking an abrupt, fearful step backwards.

"This?" Donnie held the hand held unit up as he asked, noticing how Mikey flinched from it as he did. "It's simply a portable scanner that works somewhat like an x-ray machine but with no harmful radiation. It'll allow me to take a look inside your arm, beneath your skin to see how well your bones healed."

Mikey's gaze remained fixated on the device. "It's their tech, isn't it," he stated flatly.

Donnie glanced down at the scanner again before looking back to Mikey. "Well, yes," he admitted in surprise, "or at least it was. I repurposed it from scrap parts I found laying around after various battles."

"Well I don't want it anywhere near me!" Mikey snapped. Without realising, he backed away further, hitting the nearby wall and looking around in near panic.

"It won't hurt you, Michelangelo," Donnie said, head canted slightly in exasperation. "I designed this myself."

"I don't care, dude! I don't want it near me!" It was all he could do to control his breathing as he kept his eyes fixated on the device Donnie held towards him.

"Well I need to know how well your arm healed so I can instruct you on the best way to rehabilitate it without causing damage or straining it if it's not quite ready! That means I need to be able to see the bones, and since I don't have access to an old fashioned x-ray machine, this is the only way!"

Shaking his head wildly and still unable to take his gaze off the former Kraang technology, Mikey retorted, "I've broken bones before so I already know the exercises! And I was doing them just fine until about a week ago so you don't need to use that on me!"

Donnie was about to snap back when Mikey's words suddenly hit him. Instead he paused, mulling over the new information the other turtle let slip, then asked, "Why didn't you continue with the exercises over the last week?"

"You saw what they did to that plant and spider mutant, didn't you?" Mikey asked coldly. "Who do you think they tested that thing on first!"

And with that, he pushed roughly past Donatello and escaped from the lab, leaving a suddenly pale Donnie watching after him and muttering, "Oh Mikey..."

-:-

"The dude's a bit defensive, don't you think?" Casey asked as he landed on the next rooftop where the turtles and April already stood waiting for him.

"Give him a break, Casey," April scolded, tossing Casey an unimpressed look. "It's obvious he's been through a lot."

"A lot more than he's telling us..." Donnie muttered, agreeing.

"Considering he hasn't told us anything yet, that's a given!" Raph interjected rudely, glaring back in the general direction of the lair.

"He's barely said much of anything to any of us," Leo agreed. He turned to look at his younger, genius brother, "You've spent longer with him than the rest of us put together, Donnie. Has he said much to you?"

"Not a lot," Donnie admitted with a sigh. "Enough to know he's extremely traumatised by his experience though, even if he doesn't want to admit it."

"How can you dudes even know he is who he says he is anyway?" Casey asked suspiciously, looking from one brother to the next. "I mean, look at him! He doesn't look anything like Mikey, unless you count the fact that he's a giant turtle, and he doesn't sound or act anything like him either!"

"He's from another dimension, Jones. Another reality. That means his life is different to ours in some way. Whether it's a small or large difference depends on how events in that world shaped his life and the lives of those around him," Donnie explained with more than a hint of condescension in his tone.

"You watch 'Space Heroes', right Casey?" Leo suddenly asked, turning to look intently at the vigilante.

"Yeah!" Casey admitted.

Raph snorted derisively, earning a quick glance from his friend.

"Well, I used to anyway. Not any more!" Casey quickly added. "I outgrew it."

"Well then, do you remember the episode, 'Reflection, Reflection'?" Leo asked. When Casey just stared at him, he sighed and continued. "It's the episode where due to a transporter accident, Captain Ryan and three of his crew end up in an alternate universe where the entire crew was evil?"

"Oh yeah, I remember that one! It was one of the better ones!" Casey exclaimed. "So wait, Leo! You're saying that this Mikey is our Mikey's evil counterpart and you not only trusted him enough to bring him back to the lair but also left him alone with Master Splinter?" he asked, suddenly worried by the thought.

"No! Of course not!" Leo vehemently denied, shocked at the suggestion.

Raph spluttered and punched Casey hard in the arm for his stupidity. "No way is he evil! He's just lost and hurt!"

Leo nodded at Raph before turning back to Casey. "No, what I'm saying is, that on that episode, something in the past changed that world to a point that the whole world changed, in that case, in a devastating way. This Mikey, his world, like in the episode, is also different, though probably not to that extreme. But either way, it is different and that makes his life, his experiences different to ours. That's why he looks and sounds so different. As for him acting different..."

"That could be partially due to the differences in his life to ours, which we have yet to determine," Donnie continued, picking up where Leo trailed off. "However, it would also have a lot to do with the months of forced separation from his family and all he knows and loves, not to mention his mistreatment at the tentacles of the Kraang. He's had to find ways to adjust and cope with his imprisonment, and now that he's free, he needs to readjust all over again, while learning to deal with and accept the horrors that he went through."

"Okay, I get it," Casey said. "But you're sure the dude can be trusted, right?"

"He's our brother, Casey," Raph sighed. "He's just not our Mikey."

"But again, are you sure about that? You never know, he could just be some weirdo pretending to be a Mikey, or something made by the Kraang to believe that he is."

"Yes, we can sense it," Leo firmly assured. "He's definitely who he says he is, even if he isn't what we expect."

"Alright," Casey said in relief. "If you guys really trust him, I will too."

"Good! Now let's keep moving," Leo commanded, glad to be back on track at last. "We have a mission to do and standing here arguing isn't going to get it accomplished."

The group fell silent again as they resumed their run across the dark skyline. After some time, a deserted warehouse came into view. One that left everyone, but three in particular, with a cold, sick feeling in their very souls.

"Tell me why we've come back here again?" Casey whispered, leaning towards April. "I thought we searched every inch of this dump like five times over already."

"That was before they found another Mikey," April murmured back as the three turtles ran ahead. "Now that the possibility of dimensional travel has come up, Donnie wants to run some scans to see if there's any signs of dimensional activity here."

"And if there is?"

"If there is, then that means that our Mikey most likely isn't on our Earth any more."

-:-

Calmer now, Mikey rolled over onto his shell, propping himself up onto his elbows as he gazed around the unfamiliar room again. He soon found his eyes drawn towards the creepy cut out he'd seen when he first woke up several hours ago, and to the eyes which seemed to be boring down at him. For a couple of minutes, he stared back and when he couldn't take any more, Mikey bounced off the bed to his feet, hurriedly crossing the room.

Once there, Mikey grabbed hold of the cardboard figure and turned it around so it faced the wall. Then finally breathing a sigh of relief that there were no more eyes staring towards him, he wandered back to the bed, flopping down upon it once more.

For all of five minutes he lay there, eyes drifting lazily around his borrowed room even as his mind kept returning to that awful conversation with Donnie in the lab earlier. He'd been irrational, he knew that, but he still didn't want to talk about the last few months of his life, or let that plundered tech anywhere near him. Donnie needed to understand that, and that he hadn't meant to take his insecurities and fears out on him.

"Donnie was only trying to help, just like Don would've," Mikey whispered, trying to convince himself even when his heart tried to tell him otherwise. "He didn't deserve the way you treated him..."

With another sigh, Mikey pushed himself back up until he was sitting on the bed, clutching tightly at the bedspread his until knuckles paled, even as his eyes darted nervously around the room once more. The longer he stayed here, the more uncomfortable he felt. While he knew a lot of that was to do with the terrible memory of snapping at and pushing Donnie, he knew that wasn't the only reason, but he didn't know what else could be bothering him.

As he tried to think, Mikey clenched his eyes tightly closed. Finally, there were no alien eyes upon him, constantly invading his privacy; something he'd been dreaming of for so long. It was great being able to be truly alone at last, yet he realised that now that he was, all he wanted was company.

With a soft cry of frustration, Mikey knew he needed to go find Donnie and apologise. Even if this Donnie was snappish and irritable, he needed him, and he was still Donnie, just different.

And besides, he needed someone...

Decision finally made, Mikey jumped to his feet and crossed the room once more, this time actually opening the door and stepping out into the hallway. Quickly closing the door behind himself, Mikey realised he already felt far better, somehow relieved to simply be out of that room. Swallowing back his trepidation and glancing down the hall, Mikey set off down it on his way to the lab to apologise.

Finding his breath quickening as he crossed the large living space with its pinball machine and arcade games, Mikey was struck by how unnaturally silent everything seemed. He'd never been fond of the silence, always finding the need to fill it, whether with chatter, music or laughter, or even a combination of the three. Now however, he found it completely unnerving and knew that if he closed his eyes, despite the occasional dings from the nearby machines, he could easily imagine he was back in that tiny cell, only able to hear his own voice, or theirs if they actually deigned to speak to him, and he shuddered at the thought.

He immediately began humming loudly to fill the void, not even stopping his tune as he knocked heavily on the lab door. When there was no answer, the lost turtle let himself in, only to find the room empty. Biting his lower lip, Mikey turned around and began searching the rest of the lair, stopping only to turn the television on for desperately needed background noise.

Finally, as Michelangelo poked his head into the deserted dojo, realisation that once again he was all alone hit him, and it was all he could do not to break down at the terrifying thought.

-:-

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