Season 2- Chapter 10- Shedding Light

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Hey guys! This took a lot of time writing so I hope that you'll like it :D Please tell me what you think of the story! FYI: This series will now be published on Wattpad as well! :D

Now, are you ready? ;3

TW: Slight and non-graphical mentions of obsession and toxic relationships.

—-Donatello stood in front of the dojo's entrance, feeling both nervous and determined. His breathing was a little quicker and heavier than it usually was from the excitement and panic that he was feeling. This is it. He just found out the truth not that long ago, and he's going to try to get answers this early. It felt a little rushed, as if he wasn't really ready. Maybe he was too quick and arrogant to decide to find out more about himself this fast. After all, he learned the truth only two days ago. Perhaps he just wants to get the answers that he desires so much so that he could finally have peace and quiet, and his brain would finally stop bullying him due to unanswered curiosity.

Questions and doubts about what he was about to do filled his head. His shoulders stiffened with anxiety as he debated in his mind whether to enter the room or run away from what was about to come.

He bit the side of his lip as his eyes kept moving in different and random directions while standing in place, due to him being caught up in his thoughts. Mikey and Raph exchanged a confused glance as Leo simply stared at Donnie, waiting for him to make a move.

"Donnie?" Donnie turned his head to glance at Raph, who looked at him with an expression of confusion and concern on his face. "You good?" Raph continued, lifting his eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"Oh, yeah! Yeah." Donatello answered nervously, with an unconvincing tone to his voice. He scratched the back of his neck as he looked at the ceiling with an obviously fake smile on his face. "I just… Didn't think this far…?" Donnie said, phrasing the sentence as a question because of his uncertainness.

Donnie was starting to regret his decision. Maybe he should ignore the results. Live as if he never found out about them. Acting oblivious would make life so much easier for him. 'Being a nerd has its disadvantages. I always feel like I need to find out and learn more about a mystery. If only I hadn't been curious enough to read the results in the first place…' Donnie thought to himself bitterly.

"About talking to sensei?" Mikey chipped in, tilting his head to the side as he frowned in confusion. Donnie shook his head as he realized that he was stuck in his own thoughts for a moment. "Why do you even need to talk to him?" Mikey continued as he scratched his chin while eyeing Donnie, wishing for him to give him an answer to relieve his growing curiosity.

Donnie sighed as his shoulders slackened. "You know… Maybe I don't need to talk to him right now after all. It can wait." Donnie said as he shook his head. His anxiety ended up winning as he turned to walk away, feeling slightly embarrassed about fleeting right before he was about to receive the answers that he had wished so hard for.

Before he could leave, he felt a hand on his shoulder gripping him, stopping him in his tracks.

"I think that it's a great idea to speak to him now." Leo said, giving Donnie a seemingly but not actually innocent smile. "Right?" Leo said, signaling to Donnie that he wasn't going to let him back down. 'Apparently Leo can be very annoying.' Donnie thought to himself in frustration.

Donnie's face turned into an expression of annoyance as he tried to put on a fake smile. "Right… Thanks, Leo…" Donnie said through gritted teeth, attempting to play along, since he was being put on the spot. Leo wouldn't let him walk away so easily.

Raph and Mikey eyed Leo and Donnie in suspicion as Raph's expression held a slight annoyance to it that he wasn't really trying to hide.

Their heads snapped in the direction of the dojo's entrance simultaneously as the door slid open. Splinter stood in the doorway as he looked at them for a few seconds before sighing. "You may enter." Splinter turned around and went back into the dojo. Donatello tensed as the others looked in Splinter's direction in surprise. Obviously, Splinter knew what Donnie wanted to speak to him about.

Leo lightly pushed Donnie's shoulder, giving him a serious expression as he nodded, to deliver Donnie the message that it is time to do what needs to be done. Donnie gulped nervously as he straightened his back to brace himself, and slowly went through the dojo's open doors, and into the room. He didn't really have a choice anymore but to do what he had planned to do in the first place. Leo followed Donnie inside as Raph and Mikey entered right after them.

The brothers moved to sit in front of their father, who was already sitting on the dojo's mat.

Splinter eyed all of his sons, studying their expressions.

"I can tell what Donatello wants to speak to me about. And I can see that you do too, Leonardo." Splinter said, eyeing Leo.

"Oh- Hai, sensei." Leo replied nervously, surprised at how fast his father understood the situation.

"Is there something that we need to know about?" Raph questioned his father and two brothers, as rudely as always. Splinter sighed as he put a hand on his forehead, massaging it in exhaustion.

"There is a lot that I need to tell you, my sons." Splinter said, guilt lacing his voice.

"...I need to know about what is going on... The full story." Donnie said as he looked at his father with an expression of determination on his face, but not succeeding in hiding his anxiousness from appearing in his voice.

Splinter gently nodded as he straightened his back. "Yes, you certainly deserve the truth. You all do."

"About what, sensei? What is going on?" Mikey questioned in curiosity.

"You all already know about the story of my past." Splinter stood up and went in the direction of his family's memorial. He took the picture that showed him, his wife and his daughter in his hands and rubbed it gently as sadness washed over him. "You already know this picture too well." He said, a small smile appearing on his face as he looked over it. The brothers looked upon him with sad expressions, wishing to help him feel better but not wanting to disturb him while speaking about something that is already hard for him to speak about,

Splinter's expression suddenly turned serious as his body slightly tensed. He turned to look at his sons as he held up the picture for them to see. "This is not the only picture that I have in my possession." He said as he put it back where it was. He inserted his hand into his robe, pulling out another picture. "I prepared it, knowing that we are going to have this conversation now." Splinter said as he walked in the direction of his sons slowly, handing Donnie the picture. Donnie gently took it and looked over it, as his brothers hovered over him, in order to see the picture as well.

The four gasped as they saw the unfamiliar, old and colorless picture. In the picture was their father in his youth, before he became a mutant, who had his arm wrapped around Tang Shen, his wife, and in her arms was a baby. However, the child was obviously not Miwa.

Donnie looked over the child in the picture, tracing it with his eyes with a mouth slightly open while knowing full well who it actually was.

"I may be Shen's husband, but I wasn't her first spouse, quite obviously." Splinter said as he took back the picture from Donnie's slightly shaking hands. "And unlike me, who tends to be more traditional, like how I was raised, Shen didn't follow tradition as much as I did, which includes… Doing certain acts… Before marriage." Splinter said nervously, preferring not to ruin Mikey's childhood just yet.

Innocent Mikey scratched the side of his head in confusion as the other three brothers looked at Splinter in surprise.

"Wait… So this kid here isn't yours?" Raph questioned Splinter as he caught on to what the hidden message was.

"Correct." Splinter replied as Mikey looked in surprise, catching on thanks to Raph.

Donnie and Leo eyed each other in terror, knowing where this story will probably go.

"Before me, Shen was actually… With Saki." Splinter admitted bitterly, through gritted teeth.

The brothers flinched in surprise as their eyes widened.

"What?!" The four brothers exclaimed, basically screaming as a result of the shock.

Splinter sighed as he rubbed his beard and continued the story.

"However, during their time together, Shen started to notice that Saki was becoming more… Dangerous. Saki started to drift apart from everyone, being easily consumed by anger and jealousy, and not thinking twice before taking it out on everyone around him, including Shen. Perhaps he was starting to figure out his true origin much earlier than he actually let on." Splinter said with a glum look on his face.

"At some point, Shen decided to leave Saki due to his toxic behavior. She and I were good friends regardless of her relationship with Saki, and she would come to me whenever she needed to talk. We were both in a tough place due to Saki pushing us away, and changing as a person, so we helped each other a lot during that time. We ended up becoming closer than we used to be as a result of supporting each other in a time of need, only to fall in love later on. Shen and I decided to be together when we discovered that both of us felt the same feelings for one another. Shen was very happy that she had me, especially since she was afraid of Saki. He became more unstable by the day and was showing signs of an unhealthy obsession over her, and Shen desired the protection and love that I could offer her." Splinter straightened his back and took in a deep breath, composing himself before continuing.

"At first we planned to keep the part about Shen and I being together a secret, because I had still hoped for Saki to get better, and did not want to ruin our relationship more than it already was. However… Shen started showing." Splinter looked once again at the picture of him and Shen, holding the new-born baby.

"W-wait! So Tang Shen and the Shredder…" Leo said with wide eyes, unable to continue the sentence. Although he knew about the father, he wasn't told that Tang Shen was related to the story as well.

"They had a baby?!" Raph exclaimed in shock.

"D- dude- What?!" Mikey exclaimed as it looked like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. Donatello simply stared at the floor as he was trying to process the new information.

"Yes." Splinter answered Raph, confirming the suspicion that the three brothers had.

"It wasn't really noticeable, and Shen managed to hide it for some time, however, we needed a solution, because Shen knew that it would be troublesome for Saki to find out but still wanted to keep the child. However, she feared what might happen if Saki would find out about the child, especially since the child was his. Therefore, we decided to hastily get married, since it would make the situation easier to manage, and we knew that we wanted to marry each other. When Saki found out that we were getting married, he didn't receive the news well. We drifted even farther apart and he tried to get Shen back even more than he did before. His anger towards me had turned into hatred as he kept claiming that I was stealing something that 'originally belonged to him'. Shen and I went to a little house that she had received from her family far away from the Hamato clan's area shortly after the marriage and stayed there until Shen gave birth and it wasn't noticeable on her appearance anymore. Finally, she gave birth to a boy, and she chose to name him Donatello, after the artist that she was fond of." Splinter said, smiling as he looked at Donnie, who showed a bit of surprise. The three other brothers slowly turned their heads to look at Donnie in shock, as Donnie looked down nervously for being in the spotlight.

"Wait… Is Donnie named after this kid?!" Mikey asked, caught off guard as he stared at Donnie while Raph turned his head to look at Splinter,wearing an expression that was just as shocked as Mikey's, and silently asking for answers. Leo glanced at Donnie, as Donnie lifted his head to glance back at him, shrugging his shoulders to deliver the message that he didn't know about the part of Shen naming him as well.

"All in due time, my sons." Splinter said as he went back to telling the story. "We went back to where we lived, asking one of Shen's friends who lived near the house where we stayed to take care of the child while we were gone, and we promised to come back to visit him a lot."

"Wait, wait." Raph interrupted. "Couldn't you just find a more simple solution? Like saying that the child is yours or something? It didn't have to be this complicated." Raph said in confusion. "Well, it might seem overly complicated, but do not forget that Saki and I are not brothers in blood. Although I didn't know that at the time. Saki and I didn't really look alike, and therefore the child might look similar to him rather than to me. Also, it's not hard to do the calculation as to when the 'action needs to be taken' in order to have a child on a specific date. We wanted a reason to travel a lot together given the situation and since Shen wanted my support throughout all of it, and regardless, we just wanted a reason to get married." Splinter said, a fond smile appearing on his features. "Besides, we knew that Saki would not react well to Shen carrying his child, while being in a relationship with me, so we did not want to risk it." Splinter added, his gaze shifting down as he sighed.

"The picture that I handed you was taken because Shen wanted to keep something to remind her of her child. It was her first one, after all." Splinter added, smiling, waving the picture for his sons to see.

"When we returned after a long time to where we lived, it was highly noticeable how unstable Saki had become. He would have outbursts, act more aggressively, and sometimes he would aim to harm me when we dueled for the purpose of practicing ninjutsu. My father and I tried many times to approach him, and talk to him, to see if we could do anything to help him. However, he did not want our help. Shen would tell me how he would try to convince her to get back together, and get her to come with him to New York. He knew that she wanted to go there and that I didn't wish to leave the clan behind. However, around a year after her first child was born, Shen became pregnant again, but this time, by me. However, you already know about Miwa. This time we didn't need to hide her, since she was mine. We went to visit the other child a lot, before and after Miwa was born. We would take her with us a lot as well. Those were my favorite moments. Although the child wasn't mine, I loved him and cared for him as a father would, and all of us, being there… Felt like finally the whole family was together. Aside from that, you already know the story, and about the fire…" Splinter's ears flattened as a sad expression formed on his face. "After the fire… I went to get Donatello, the one who I believed to be my last family member who's alive…" Splinter paused for a few seconds, pushing back some unshed tears as his sons watched him with worried and sad frowns on their faces. He sighed as he finally managed to continue his sentence. "...As fast as I could, and moved with him to New York, for a fresh start. I even bought baby turtles." He said smiling as he looked at his sons. "Three baby turtles."

Donnie didn't dare to look at his brothers. At this point, it was pretty obvious where this story was going. Well, maybe Mikey would still be confused, but still, it was hard for him. He did sense Raph stiffen beside him, however, he still didn't dare to look at him, and see his reaction.

"Three? But there are four of us, sensei." Mikey stated the obvious with a confused voice.

"Exactly." Splinter replied, slightly smirking. "And you are about to find out why." Splinter added, a little humored with Mikey's obliviousness. Splinter quickly composed himself as his expression turned serious again.

"The hatching date of the turtles was specified, and it just happened to be the same day that Donatello was born, which was one of the many reasons as to why I chose to purchase the turtles. Therefore, exactly like the child, they were all around the age of two. The rest from here you know as well, until the point of the mutation. You came in contact with Donatello, and he came in contact with you as well. When you were mutated, Donatello received his turtle DNA from you, while you all received your human DNA from him, making you who you are now. I took care of all of you, and decided the order of your age by the way you were acting and maturing, since I couldn't know for sure. I named all of you by following Shen's lead, and chose to match you to your brother's name by theme, and that is mainly why you are all named after specific artists as well."

Splinter took a deep breath, a bitter expression forming on his face, as he finally told the brothers what the meaning behind the story was. "And the reason that Donatello, your brother, was closed off lately was because… He found out that he is Oroku Saki's child by blood."

Donatello raised his eyes from the floor as he looked at his father, giving him a gentle nod while he was still processing the story in his head.

He straightened his back and took a deep breath to compose himself, as he finally looked at his brothers.

Raph and Mikey's jaws were basically touching the floor as their eyes seemingly doubled in size while their pupils extremely shrunk. They held their breath in utter shock as their eyes traced all over Donnie's body. Their bodies were stiff as they didn't manage to move a single muscle. Mikey tried to move his jaw to say something, only to close it again. Raph didn't even try to say anything, because he didn't really know what to say. Donnie then glanced at Leo. Although Leo partly knew what was about to come, he still looked shocked. However, not as much as Raph and Mikey were. Leo's eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly gaped, but he managed to partly control his reaction, knowing that as much as he was surprised, he didn't want Donnie to feel uncomfortable.

It's not really surprising that they look at Donnie like he grew a second head. He probably would have reacted just like them and he knows it. But he still felt very uncomfortable and nervous.

"DUDE WHAT?!" Mikey finally managed to basically scream, shock lacing his voice as he somehow looked even more intensely at Donnie, who cringed at the sudden scream and the intense staring with wide eyes, but then simply looked away as he chewed his inner cheek in discomfort. It felt to Donnie as if all of the staring would end up drilling holes all over his body.

Raph tried to say something as well, only to fail uttering even a single sound. He just kept opening and closing his mouth like a gaping fish.

Raph and Mikey's breathing had gotten quicker and heavier as they attempted to process what they were being told- to no success.

A frown was displayed on Leo's face, as he still had a lot to process, and he kept repeating details from the story in his mind again and again, attempting to understand it as best as he could. Since Leo was already aware of the twist, the impact wasn't as hard as it was on Raph and Mikey. However, the newfound information was a lot to process. Not only that, but he also didn't have any chance to collect himself from the last blow, when Donnie told him about the results. It was today, after all.

Donnie, with a heavy heart and a saddened expression, shifted his gaze from his brothers to his father, who looked back at him with an expression of relief, for finally being able to uncover one of his biggest secrets. Splinter wasn't trying to hide his emotions, which was a rare occurrence. He had a warm smile on his face, showing Donnie how happy he was for the burden of keeping the secret to finally be taken off his shoulders. However, his eyebrows contorted as a sign of worry. He doesn't want the truth to affect Donnie or his brothers and their brotherhood negatively, but given that there was no other choice, considering their circumstances and the risky situation with the Shredder, the story had to come to light.

Meanwhile, Donnie still had a hard time processing the story. And if he, himself, couldn't, then he doesn't blame his brothers for nearly having a heart attack. And he wouldn't blame them for being uncomfortable after learning about him like that. Donnie wasn't really comfortable knowing about where he came from, as well.

It was a really hard thing to accept.

Really hard.

Splinter didn't miss the mess of emotions that was displayed on Donnie's face. It was expected, but there's no turning back. Since he found out that the Shredder resides in New York as well, and they entered into what feels to be like an endless battle at this point of Splinter's life, he knew that he and his sons will have to cross that bridge someday, together. And that day finally came. 'The Shredder must know of Donatello at this point. The only thing that we can do now is fight back against what he throws at us in the future.' Splinter thought to himself as a frown appeared on his face. He once again glanced at the old photo of his family. The photo of his son. A small smile formed on his face as he remembered his son as a baby. Both as a turtle and a human.

Splinter was always there to support his son. At least, as much as he could. And he was going to support him now as well, because that's what fathers do for their sons, and Splinter wouldn't allow Donatello to forget that.

—-And this is it for this chapter! The next episode will be the end of the second season! But don't worry, the story basically just started :D I really hope that you enjoy this series. Support is highly appreciated and I read all of your comments and I'm really happy that people find enjoyment in my work :D Thank you so much!