Chapter 1-Enough's Enough!

It was early afternoon in the lair, and it was silent. More silent than it normally was before.

The reason for it was because there was tension and negativity in the air, and it had been like this since the turtle brothers had returned from the future two weeks ago. They also made it home without Master Splinter.

Because of what Viral did to Master Splinter, which was blasting him with the decompiler and turning him into data-bits that have scattered all over Cyberspace shortly after, the turtle brothers made it their mission to rescue their sensei by doing regular trips into Cyberspace and collecting as many bits as they could each time.

However, Donnie refused to take a break after each trip, and he would continue to look out and retrieve more data-bits non-stop ever since they first arrived home. This worried his brothers a lot, because Donnie was overworking himself so much to get Master Splinter back that he was not eating much or getting enough sleep. They had almost lost him once before a few years ago during Bishop's viral outbreak, and they did not want to risk losing their brother again through self-neglect and self-blame, but no matter how hard they tried, the purple-banded turtle would always deny their help or concerns each time they were near him.

It was now lunchtime, and Mikey was walking towards Donnie, who was once again sitting in front of the large computer system searching for data-bits, and he was carrying a food tray that had a cup of coffee, an apple, and a handmade grilled cheese sandwich on it.

"Hey, Donnie, I've just made lunch…!" The orange-banded turtle announced as soon as he was next to his immediate older brother.

"I'm not hungry, Mikey…How many times do I have to tell you that!?" Donnie told his youngest brother coldly.

"I know you've told me over a dozen times, but I'm still not gonna listen…" Mikey said flatly with a sigh.

"Mikey…!" Donnie warned.

"Just have a couple of bites from it, Donnie; you can't just-"

"I said I don't want it!" Donnie yelled, cutting off Mikey's sentence.

And then…

WHACK! CRASH!

Leo and Raph gasped when they witnessed Donnie swatting the tray so hard out of Mikey's hands that everything that was on it had flown off and smashed onto the floor, causing the food and drink to spill all over.

"Don…If you keep doing this, we're gonna end up with no food left…!" Mikey warned with a frustrated sigh as he bent down and started cleaning up the mess.

"Then stop trying to give it to me, Mikey! I'm busy and you're just getting in my way!" Donnie replied harshly. Those words immediately ticked Mikey off.

"Oh, so you want me to starve you now!? I'm not gonna do that, Donnie!" Mikey countered firmly, standing his ground.

"Shut up! You don't get it, do you!? All you do is mess everything up and not do anything to atone for what you've done! Because look at what I'm doing; fixing your screw-ups and getting our father back since you don't want to do it yourself!" Donnie scolded in a fury.

Mikey paused from his clean-up when he heard the last part of Donnie's sentence, and the grip on the glass cup that he was holding had started to get tighter as the feelings of anger and frustration slowly started to build up inside him.

"So, you had better clean up this mess and leave me alone, cos I don't want-"

SMASH!

Everyone froze, including Donnie who also stopped his yelling, when they heard the sound of the glass cup breaking in Mikey's hand after he squeezed it too hard.

Then, Mikey quickly stood up and turned to look at Donnie with his face full of hurt and anger before he spoke whilst ignoring the stinging pain in his now sliced-up hand caused by the glass shards.

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not perfect enough for you, Donnie! I'm sorry that I'm not as smart as you! And I'm sorry that I'm a BURDEN TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING DAD!" The orange-banded turtle shouted out furiously.

Everyone, including Donnie, were stunned at Mikey's outburst. Before anyone could say anything, they heard Mikey speak again.

"You think that I don't care about what happened to Master Splinter!? Well, you're wrong! Because I know that I'm to blame for Master Splinter being turned into data-bits and getting scattered all over Cyberspace, and I want to fix what I've done but YOU won't let me!"

"…" Donnie didn't say anything and just looked down slightly.

"Also, how do you think the rest of us feel!? Master Splinter's our father too! We were all there when it happened, Donnie, and we couldn't do a thing when Viral struck him with that beam!" Mikey then added in his and his other brothers' defence.

Leo and Raph lowered their head slightly in sadness. Mikey was right in his last sentence; everything back then had happened within seconds, and they weren't fast enough to stop Viral from blasting the decompiler at them and prevent Master Splinter from taking the hit for them.

"…Just go away, Mikey…" Donnie demanded flatly, now beyond caring, before he repositioned himself back on his seat.

Mikey wanted to counter Donnie's demand and fight his corner one more time, but he didn't because he had a feeling that Donnie would just ignore him or snap at him again. With this in mind, Mikey picked up the tray and stood back up before he started walking away, but he suddenly stopped.

"Just one more thing…" Mikey mumbled.

"What?" Donnie said flatly, turning his head halfway to look at Mikey.

"…I'm sorry that I care about you, and that I don't wanna lose you again…" Mikey told Donnie without looking back at him before he walked away.

Donnie felt taken aback at what he had just heard, and he slowly turned his chair around to face Mikey, but the youngest turtle was already halfway across the bridge by the time he saw him again. He wanted to get back up and go after his little brother to talk to him, but the strong urge to save Master Splinter had dominated his heart and mind, so he remained in his seat and sighed before he turned back and refocused his attention on the computer once more.

As soon as Mikey had gone into the kitchen and placed the food tray on the counter, he finally opened the flood gates and broke down whilst keeping himself upright against the sink.

The poor turtle was now emotionally broken; he had already suffered from the shock of Master Splinter taking the de-compiler beam for him and his brothers before being scattered and lost in Cyberspace as data bits, but being rejected and blamed for what happened by his own immediate older brother just became too much for him to bear.

Leo and Raph looked at each other in sadness for Mikey before Leo got up from his chair and walked towards his baby brother. He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and spoke to him in a soft tone.

"Mikey…? Hey, come here…"

It was then that he engulfed Mikey in a big hug, which the youngest turtle greatly accepted before he released more of his emotional pain with his face against his oldest brother's shoulder.

"M'sorry…S'all my fault…" Leo heard his little brother mumble as he sobbed.

"Shhh…It's ok…none of this is your fault, bro…" He soothed whilst rubbing his brother's back.

It had taken Mikey a whole 2 minutes to calm down from his crying fit, and Leo slowly released him from the hug but kept his hands on his arms.

"Let me see your hand…" Leo demanded softly as he held out his hand for the young turtle to pass his injured hand to him, which he did without protest.

When he looked at Mikey's hand, Leo breathed in sharply and flinched when he saw a few long and slightly bloodied cuts on it. Luckily, they weren't too deep enough for stitches, but there were still some tiny shards of glass in them that needed to be removed before they could do any more damage.

"Come on, let's go get your hand cleaned and patched up…" Leo said gently before he guided Mikey towards the infirmary to treat his hand.

Due to feeling numb from his breakdown, Mikey just allowed Leo to take him to the infirmary without much of a fuss. This concerned Leo because Mikey had always been known to hate being in the infirmary, and seeing him so quiet and lacking in resistance to go in there was completely unlike him.

Nevertheless, Leo took him to the infirmary to get his hand treated before it could get infected.

Raph watched the duo go from his position at the dining table before he looked over at Donnie, who was still sitting on his chair by the computer, and stood up from his chair after deciding to go over to the purple-banded turtle and talk to him about what had just happened earlier.