Chapter Text
Bishop clicks through all four of the turtles cameras, deciding which to take for testing first.
Michelangelo and Donatello both had pretty severe head injuries that might corrupt any findings, so he ruled them out.
Raphael had received high voltage electric shocks that also might mess up his research, so he decided on Leonardo.
The leader had received slight head trauma, but had seemed to get over it quickly.
“Soldier!” He calls over the loudspeaker, “Report to my office now!”
Woody appears in the open doorway before he even finishes his sentence.
“Yes sir?” Woody asked, “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to retrieve Leonardo and take him to testing room one. I will be there soon.”
“Of course sir.” Woody says, before darting off, his posture stiffening at the name of the blue banded turtle.
Bishop calls another soldier in to watch the monitors while he’s testing, and steps out.
……………………………………………………………
Woody rips off his head covering as he half sprints to Leonardo’s room.
The scowl that lit up his features could have rivaled the expression that Raph carried most of the time.
Woody reaches the door, and somehow, his scowl deepens.
I really hate this turtle. Woody thinks, Can’t believe I got stuck on delivery duty.
He takes a deep breath, and opens the door.
He’s expecting the turtle to be ready to strike him down, to be in a position where he could take Woody out and escape.
He’s just sitting on the floor.
The turtle looks up, and it seems to take a second for the recognition to reach his eyes, before he mumbles,
“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Woody exhales sharply, then says,
“Get up turtle. Bishop wants you in testing.”
The blue banded turtle rolls his eyes, and adds,
“I spare your life and you repay me by allying with my enemy.”
Woody clenches his fists and looks away, mumbling something like,
“Not by choice.”
Then he turns back and makes eye contact, saying sternly,
“Now let’s go. Get up.”
“What if I said no?”
Woody finally lets a smirk grace his features, Bishop had told him what to do if one of the turtles refused testing.
He pulls a remote control out of his pocket, and clicks a button on it.
Three screens pop out from the wall, and they flicker on one by one.
They show the other three turtles in their own respective rooms, all sitting in their own positions.
Mikey had his knees pulls to his chest and his head on top of his knees, face towards the screen. He was leaning against the back wall.
He’d been able to tie his mask back on, so his bandages were hard to see underneath it. A small frown was etched into his face, and he seemed to be crying a bit.
Leo’s heart hurt for his youngest brother, who absolutely hated being alone.
The next screen to flicker on is Don’s.
The brainiac was curled up in a ball on the floor, only partially visible on the screen.
He was cradling his head in his hands, and Leo gets the smallest glimpse of his head injury.
It looked bad .
Leo clenches his fists, nobody got to hurt his brothers.
The final screen to flicker on is Raph’s, who was the only one not sitting.
He was pacing around the room, arms crossed, and seemed to be muttering to himself.
Every once in a while he would stop, turn, and punch the nearest wall.
Leo forces himself to look away from his younger brothers, locking eyes with Woody instead.
“Why are you showing me this?”
“Bossman wanted me to tell you that if you refuse, all three of them go into testing in your place.”
Leo’s shoulders stiffen, the sag.
“Alright kid. Let’s go then.”
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Woody steps back out of the testing room after watching Bishop get started. He wanted that turtle to feel pain.
He knew that taking out his siblings would do the trick, but he wasn’t going to disobey his blackmai- employer .
Besides, he’d get to see her at the end of the week if he worked hard.
He might not be able to physically hurt the turtles, but that didn’t mean that mental pain wasn’t an option.
He quickly dashes back into the testing room to ask permission before putting his plan into action.
…………………………………………………………
….
Woody stands in Bishops office fifteen minutes later, hand poised over the loudspeaker button.
See, the loudspeaker at this facility had a fun little feature where it could broadcast to certain rooms only.
So he selects the rooms of Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael, before pressing down the broadcast button and speaking into the microphone.
“Agent Bishop.” He says, trying to make it sound like a legitimate announcement. “There’s been an accident. I’m afraid Leonardo was killed while I was transporting him to testing. He attempted to attack me, I fought back in self defense and accidentally killed him. My deepest apologies sir.”
He takes his hand off the broadcast button, and looks down at the turtles screens. A dangerous smile creeps across his face as he watches the chaos unfold.
……………………………………………………………
Raph hadn’t heard that right.
There was no way.
It was impossible.
Leo couldn’t die.
He just….. couldn’t.
Raph collapses to his knees, his body failing him.
He slams his fists into the ground, tears streaming down his face.
He repeatedly punches the ground over and over, losing count of how many times.
When he finally slows down, his fists are more red than green, and they sting like hell, but it didn’t even compare to the gaping hole in his chest.
His oldest brother was gone.
There was nothing he could do to get him back.
He was going to slaughter that foot soldier.
……………………………………………………………
Dons mind had been getting clearer by the minute, but he stayed curled up on the ground because he was afraid if he got up then it’d restart all over again.
Then the announcement fills his room.
Now, Don was never one for crying. Sure, every now and then when he was over stimulated, a good cry did wonders, but other than that, he wasn’t big on it.
The tears stream down his face before he even has time to register what the message said, and once he does, they just fall faster.
This was all his fault.
If he’d been able to figure out Bishops plan earlier, he’d have been able to warn his siblings and they wouldn’t have split up.
Leo wouldn’t be dead.
Why couldn’t he ever do anything right?
……………………………………………………………
Mikey freezes.
The announcement finishes, and he stands up. He stares at where the message had come from, and he doesn’t look away.
Leo couldn’t die. It was impossible.
This had to be a dream. A joke. A really crappy soap opera like the ones dad used to watch.
He can’t seem to tear his eyes from the spot that voice had drifted from.
If he stays still, then it could all be a dream and he’d wake up any minute back in the safety of the lair with his oldest brother only a room away.
But if he moves to pinch himself to try to wake up, and then he doesn’t wake up, Mikey’d have to face that this might be real.
What was that experiment thing Don had told him about? With the cat in the box? If no one opened the box then no one knew if the cat was dead or not.
That’s what this felt like.
This was his Schrödinger’s Cat.
And he’d stand here as long as it took.
……………………………………………………………
When Leo awoke, he was back in his room.
His head felt fuzzy, and didn’t really remember what tests Bishop had done. He only remembered a ton of needles.
He frowns gently, as he thinks, Man, Mikey would’ve hated that.
His youngest brother hated needles. The phobia had started young, and none quite knew the cause, but they’d gotten used to it.
That’s when he realized that the screens depicting his brother’s rooms were still up and running.
He hated what he saw.
Mikey was standing in place, staring at the ceiling intently. He was as still as a statue, like the slightest movement would destroy his world.
Don was curled up in a ball on the floor, crying his eyes out. This somehow startled Leo more than Mikey standing completely still.
And Raph. Oh Raph looked horrible. He was on his hands and knees, but his hands were covered in blood. He was punching the ground like it owed him money, crying all the while.
Leo’s eyes travel from one brother to another, concern drawn into every single one of his features.
What the hell happened?