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Chapter Text

"All systems are looking good! No major damage to the power source…" Donnie mumbled to himself as one of his battle shell arms tuned up the machine that sat in front of him.

Mikey, on the other hand, adjusted his posture, the tech he was attached to, his bandana, anything really. He was restless and couldn't stand still.

Donnie had been working on this for a few months; a machine that could help Mikey train with his mystic hands, making it so he would be able to open portals a lot easier, with his help of course.

As Donnie began typing away on his laptop, Mikey looked over at the circular machine standing before him before looking back at his brother.

"Are you sure this is gonna work, Don?"

"Of course it will! Why wouldn't it?"

Mikey gave a concerned side-eye look at the equipment wired to his arms. "You know.. Just call it a hunch?"

At this, Donnie turned to face his brother, his stance softened. "Michael.. If you really don't want to do this I'm not gonna force you. It's your power after all."

Mikey looked back at Donnie and grinned. "Well when did I say that? It's your stuff, Dee! It's gonna be awesome and I wanna see it before the others!"

Donnie returned the playful smile. "Well thanks for the mixed signals, Angelo. That totally makes me feel confident."

"Oh! Sorry."

"I'm joking Mikey."

"Right!" The younger turtle gave a nervous chuckle, then sighed. "I'm just.. nervous.. I haven't used my mystic hands since.."

As Mikey's words trailed off, a heavy silence invaded the room. Donnie took a long, deep breath before consoling his brother. "It's gonna be perfectly fine. Those wires should restrain any power that attempts to deteriorate your body. Just remember that this is training! Don't push yourself and take breaks."

Mikey rolled his eyes, smirking. "Yeah yeah! God you sound like Raph."

"Hey. Stay focused." Donnie sighed, not even realizing he was panicking, only if a bit. "If at any time you don't feel safe, tell me. I'll shut off the machine."

"Roger, Dee-man!"

Sharing a thumbs up, Donnie moved to his control panel for the machine while Mikey moved his arms up. Just with the familiar stance, orange energy crackled at his fingertips. The feeling immediately instilled nausea for the box turtle, and he recoiled instantly.

"Michael?"

He looked over his shoulder at Donnie, who had a look of concern plastered on his face. As best he could, Mikey straightened himself back up and gave a soft smile.

"I'm good. I can do it this time!"

"..Please be careful."

The orange turtle nodded and turned back, taking his stance once again, raising his hands. This time, he inhaled slowly and closed his eyes. He flinched as he felt the orange sparks start again at his fingertips, then slowly engulf his arms.

Cracking open his eyes slightly, he snapped them open when he noticed the same orange glow that had appeared months ago, on the other side he saw a familiar row of tables and booths.

"Ohmigosh.. Ohmigosh it WORKED!! Donnie! Donnie, are you seeing this?!" Mikey didn't dare look away from the portal, but he could only guess what expression Donnie plastered on his face.

"Mikey, that's incredible! It's really working!!" Donnie took a step closer and peered inside. "Is that the Hidden City pizza place?"

"Uh huh! Guess my mystic powers are hungry too!" Mikey joked.

Donnie chuckled. "Trust me, we're definitely grabbing pizza after this!" Donnie moved back to the control panel and hovered over a keypad. "Okay, on my go, close the portal carefully."

As carefully as he could, Mikey tossed his arms in a familiar motion, crossing them over each other as the portal sparked and collapsed in on itself.

As it faded, Mikey looked down at his hands and was ecstatic to see no new scars had appeared. He punched a fist in the air in excitement. "Oh yeah, baby! Did you SEE those moves?!" He turned to his brother who shared his wide grin.

Still hyped up, Mikey turned back to the machine. "Oh! I'm gonna make a portal to Leo and rub it in his face!!" Throwing his arms up again, he started up the mystic sparks, which caused Donnie to jerk back and run to his control panel.

"Ah! Mikey! Slow down a bit!"

As he let his hands be surrounded again with energy, this time the glow began warping, emitting contrasting colors between his light orange and a purple hue.

"Uh- Donnie I think I broke it!"

"Oh no- Mikey!! Can you close it!?!"

Desperately, Mikey attempted to do his motion to close it, but it didn't respond, still suspended midair. Mikey looked down at his hands, arms still flooded with blazing purple and orange light. "I- I can't! It's not closing!"

As he looked back up, the portal got brighter and bigger, but even worse the machine behind it started shaking fiercely. Mikey's eyes widened; the silhouette of a city flashed within the portal. Behind him, the desperate pushing of buttons and clanging of tech being thrown was heard.

“Donnie!?” Mikey called out, concerned for him but refusing to turn around, but then heard a shaky voice he’s never associated with his older brother.

“It's not shutting off! Somethings wrong!”

Then, the portal stopped swirling. Instead, it began strobing rapidly, and the orange color was drowned out. The box turtle couldn't look away as the sparks became more frequent. They got brighter and more rapid before-

"MIKEY!"

As the bright glare blinded the entirety of the lab, Donnie sprinted to Mikey's side. He had ducked in front and pushed his younger brother down to shield him from the blast.

When the light subsided, Mikey snapped open his eyes and pulled himself up, coughing slightly. He began pushing tech debris off him frantically, getting tangled in the wires wrapped around him.

"..Donnie?"

There was no response.

He was all alone, sitting on the cold lab floor.

Chapter Text

The crisp breeze and the even cooler metal across his skin made Donnie's eyes snap open, a thumping in his head pounding rhythmically to his heartbeat. The softshell's arms and legs trembled slightly as he pulled himself up, lifting his head.

Looking around, Donnie realized he wasn't in the sewers. In fact, he wasn't near the ground at all. He'd been slung over the railing of a stairwell, over a dusty alleyway.

Rubbing his temple, the purple softshell groaned softly. "Nngh.. Where am I? If this is another Leo prank he's gonna need to sleep with one eye open.."

After losing the lightheaded feeling, Donnie jerked up. Remembering the events that happened earlier. "Mikey?!" He called out, and was met with the freezing rustling of the wind.

Donnie shook his head slightly and looked up towards the night sky before climbing upwards onto the roof. When he reached the top, he couldn't stop his mouth from going agape, seeing as this wasn't a city he recognized.

Looking around at his own torso, Donnie sighed in relief when he recognized his battle shell, mystic goggles, and transceiver, as well as multiple pairs of technology over his entire body. Frantically, he clicked on the transceiver attached to his wrist.

"Mikey? Raph? Leo? Is anyone online?"

No response.

Donnie groaned and smacked the device, desperately trying to get it to work. "Come on! Buggy piece of garbage.."

Eventually he moved down his arm, selecting commands for his lab.

"Come on. Please.."

ERROR: NO CONNECTION. NOT NEAR VICINITY.

"Damnit!"

After a few more attempts to call for help, he eventually threw his arms up in anger, giving up, and instead flicking his goggles over his eyes.

"Oookay… Mystic goggles, where are we.."

But this also proved feeble, as when he turned on the goggles he was met with a garbled noise paired with a purple static filter over the world he looked at.

"What the…"

As if that wasn't enough, a large pink window appeared in front of him, obscuring his front view.

'ERROR CODE 60413 NO MYSTIC ENERGY IN A 9999999 MILE RADIUS. UNABLE TO FUNCTION.'

Blinking, Donnie's hands flew to his head. "...What?? That's.. physically impossible.. There's always mystic energy.. everywhere.." He mumbled under his breath before pausing. It clicked in his head.
He wasn't in New York anymore. He wasn't even sure if this was his universe.

Donnie repressed the urge to scream and dance about how right he was about alternate universes and instead cleared his throat, pulling the goggles back up to the top of his head. He needed some concrete proof.

"Okay. Change of plans." He mumbled, throwing his left arm in front of his face and illuminating the light blue screen on his arm tech. The softshell began typing in several commands, swiping through screens, and tapping a few buttons.

After a few seconds, a box ejected from a compartment in his battle shell, and a drone formed into a boxy turtle shape, flying into the air, before settling in front of Donnie, who gave it a pat on its head.

"Alright Title Pending; Aka Shelldon Jr, Get me a synopsis of a general radius on my surroundings. Make sure it's detailed, please."

The drone gave a salute to the best of its abilities, which Donnie smiled at, and it jetted itself away.

Left on the roof alone, Donnie began messing with his arm controls

________________________________

"YES! New record! Beat that, Leader!" Raph yelled, the arcade machine emitting a loud buzz as well as a high score jingle.

"Oooh! He got you, Leo!!" Mikey giggled.

Leo responded with a faint chuckle, jokingly rolling his eyes. "Alright, Alright. Fair and square, Raph.

"Yeah, there's the loser talk! Hah!" The red turtle mocked, grinning devilishly.

Leo sighed before being interrupted by a buzz in his belt, along with his ringtone. He flipped open his T-Phone and answered the call, recognizing the caller ID.

Before he could greet her, the feminine voice spoke first. "Leo! We've got a situation."

"What's going on, April?"

"Donnie's sensors picked up a drone scanning New York for something. It looks super advanced. Screen-sharing now."

Leo looked at the T-Phone's screen, a portrayal of a purple blocky drone appeared on screen. Leo furrowed his (nonexistent) brows.

"..Right. We'll keep an eye on it from topside. We'll call you back when we get the situation solved."

The screen then switched back to the depiction of the red-head as she grinned. "Affirmative, Leo" April nodded, then the T-Phone shut off. Leo slid it back into his belt and turned to his brothers, who had heard the conversation.

"C'mon. Do we have to? I'm sure it's just a piece of leftover Kraang tech again." Raph scoffed, which Leo rolled his eyes at.

"That's exactly why we need to shut it down, Raph. We can't have a drone flying around looking for god knows what."

"Well then let's go already!" Mikey exclaimed. "I wanna beat up some robot butt!"

"Maybe if you survive fighting the nerd piloting it." Raph chuckled.

Mikey jumped to his feet. "Nuh uh! I bet ya it's gonna be some sort of craaazy mad scientist that uses machines instead of skills!”

Leo sighed and cut the two off. "Alright, let's get going already. Donnie! Get a location on that drone!"

"Way ahead of you, Leo." The purple turtle called out, walking back to the living room, his face in his own T-Phone.

Mikey's face fell into an unimpressed look. "Why did April have to call for us? You definitely saw the drone before she did."

"I sent her the data because it was near her current location and she could get a better reference photo than a buggy 3D model. And it's much easier having her speak quicker." Donnie spoke, not even looking away from his device. "It's about 2 and a half miles north-east from us. Looks like it's moving towards a center point."

"That must be the controller." Raph smirked, punching his fists together.

Leo looked back at his brothers. "Let's move, team."

Chapter Text

Donnie sat, tapping his feet, gazing at his surroundings.

This place really was so different compared to his home. It was so dull and dirty compared to his colorful and bright New York he was used to. He had taken out his spare hoodie that nested within a compartment of his battle shell to keep warm from the cold winds that gave him chills every time it blew past.

His mood lowered and his drawn eyebrows furrowed. He felt lonely and he had no one to blame but himself. He wasn't even sure if Michael was shielded from the blast radius, but a feeling instilled in him that Mikey was safe. He wasn't sure why but it was just.. a feeling.

Maybe it was the mystic stuff finally kicking in, but he wasn't sure of the hypothesis. Just like he thought he felt something watching him.

He shivered at the concept of the shadows peeking in on him and his mind, but just wrote it off as dimensional travel sickness or something.

Then, a rapid beep broke Donnie out of his thoughts, a sign that Shelldon Jr had arrived back unscathed. Donnie immediately sprung up and turned to face the purple drone, beaming. Thank god he wasn't alone. His tech was just as important to him.

Reaching out a hand to park the turtle drone, it landed safely, hovering just above his hand. He reached down and set it by the ledge of the roof, turning back to his tablet.

"Perfect. Now we know where we're going, little buddy! God I'm gonna give you the best upgrades I can think of when we get home." Donnie grinned widely, and patted the tech, which beeped cheerfully in response, moving to take its place back into the battle shell.

Softening his smile, he began searching through the collected data, not realizing a figure had crept behind him.

It's only when he felt a sharp point to the back of his neck that he froze and tensed up.

"Don't. Move."

Donnie did as instructed, managing his breathing, he didn't dare move an inch. Not until he collected more info about his invaders.

Donnie turned his head slightly to see only the shadow of the person behind him make a motion with his head, as if to call for backup, which indeed had arrived. Three other silhouettes, the same shape as the first.

At this, he figured it was now or never, slamming his hand to a button on his tablet and lunging forward grabbing the ledge in front of him, flipping himself down the side of the building.

Before he could start falling, four of his metal arms emerged from his battle shell, two tightly grabbing onto the wall, while the remaining kept him balanced.

Suspended in the air, the softshell had turned sharply to meet his attackers, and grinned.

They had pushed themselves back and into the shadows of the rooftop, obscuring themselves, the only things seen were pure white eyes peeking out.

"Come on! Scared to let me see you?" Donnie laughed.

"Dudes!" One of the figures tensed up, shouting. "Mad scientist! I called it!"

"Well then!" Another shadow spoke up. "I vote we try to sane him up with a few hits to the head!"

"With that kind of technology?! I say we play defensive! That shit looks dangerous!" A more nerdy voice said frantically.

The one in front took a fighting stance, Katanas noticeable from the dark. "Stay on guard. Those fancy weapons probably can't do much."

Donnie flashed a grin. "Oh you poor ignorant dumb-dumbs. You have no idea."

At this, one of the figures finally made a move, jumping out of the shadow with sai's pointed at him. Unfortunately, they weren't fast enough as Donnie's metal claws flung himself down the building.

He moved back up the side of the building and propelled himself up in the air and straight at his attacker, taking out his bō and whacking them upside the head.

As the intruder stumbled back, they exclaimed, upset. "What the heck did he just?!-"

Before they could finish, the next figure took Donnie's attention, with a battle cry, they jumped into the air and revealed their nunchucks to swing at their target. Donnie ducked quickly and took advantage while his attacker was midair, jabbing his bo into their stomach and knocking them into his first attacker

"Owww! Woah.. This guy makes Stockman look like a pushover!"

The third grunted and ran along the rooftop, aiming for the metal legs instead of the pilot. However, when the figure went to strike, Donnie intercepted, throwing a metal arm straight at the third's face, sending them to join their friends.

"..Ugh.. Dirty move! What kind of scientist does that??"

Donnie smirked, pleased with his new fighting style, and turned to the last shadow, who hadn't moved. "Well?"

It didn't strike. "What's your name?"

This question confused the ones knocked down. "Oh fearless leader!~ What the hell are you doing?!" The rough voice spat that last part.

They didn't respond, keeping the white eyes on Donnie.

"Why do you want to know?" Donnie scoffed, still on guard, pointing his bō at the figure.

The figure didn't attack. Instead, they relaxed their muscles and put away their katanas, stepping into view.

It was a turtle. But not exactly like him. The mutant was rounder and a bright blue mask covered their confused face.

Donnie suddenly lowered his stance, his eyes growing wide.

"Leo?"

That would make 0 sense. Donnie's Leo was.. nothing like this guy. This Leo had no red marks down his eyes, no "I'm not taking this seriously" posture, no shit-eating grin like he's about to say the worst joke in the multiverse.

But despite all this, he felt like it was the only thing that made logical sense.

"Woah what-" One of the attackers in the pile called out.

"I knew it! You.. You're some kind of.. Donnie?" The blue turtle asked, more of a rhetorical question.

Donnie suddenly beamed, lowering himself from the roof's ledge and touching the ground with his feet, moving himself closer to the other Leo. "I knew it! I knew I was in an alternate universe!"

"Say whaaat?!" Another intruder stumbled out of the shadows, this one was chubbier and was littered in freckles, an orange mask over his face.

Donnie grinned. "Mikey!" This Mikey didn't seem any different in personality, which made Donnie smile. It felt so nice to have something so familiar.

"Woah! How did you know my name?!" The turtle confirmed, which earned a smack on the head from the next figure, a red mask covering a scowl, with a crack on the front of his shell.

"Yeah I wonder, genius." He scoffed before turning towards Donnie. "So this guy is really one of us?"

"Raph.. Wow you are a lot smaller than my Raph."

"What?!" The red turtle snapped, glaring at Donnie, which he smirked at. He guessed this Raph had 0 chill.

"Are you really an alternate version of me?" The last figure spoke up, and Donnie looked over to see his weird mirror reflection.

This other Donatello had the same round shape and purple mask, but he also had a tooth gap, seen because of his jaw being hung open, his voice was also a lot raspier and even more nerd sounding.

The many many differences were uncanny, and if not for the purple, bō, and the feeling that this was definitely his doppelganger, he'd think they had a 5th brother. The only other comparison they had was they were both turtles and green.

"Wow- Yeah I see why you would ask that. You look nothing like me. I'm much more detailed." He grinned at his mirror self, who in turn gave an unimpressed look.

All four of them were covered in numerous scars, and burns.

"Hey, dudes?" Mikey spoke up. "Are we still sure this isn't a Kraang bot disguised to spy on us?"

"..Kraang bot?" Donnie tensed up at the name and the other four noticed immediately. The softshell hindered his breathing, remembering the horrifying image of the aliens that injured his brothers.

Shaking his head slightly to push away those thoughts, he attempted to regain composure and gave a, less than confident, smile. "I assure you, I'm far more intelligent than whatever those chewed up polyisobutylene came up with."

The other Donatello laughed at that while Mikey just stammered a response. "Polyus… what now?"

Raph groaned. "Oh god. There's two dorks now."

That's when Mikey perked up. "Uh- Hey, other Donnie? What the heck are we supposed to call you? Two Donnies are gonna get confusing!"

"Oh ho!" The softshell grinned, pulling up his tablet. "If it's another name you seek, I have quite a collection! You could go simple with Don, Dee, Donald, I've been know to call myself Othello Von Ryan, you could go with my username, BootyyyShaker9000, capital B and-"

"OKAY!" Raph shouted, cutting him off. "Let's just go with the.. Don or Dee. Those sound.. less worse than the others."

"What did you say your username was??" Donatello tilted his head with a confused and judgemental stare, but Leo butted in.

"We have to move. It's almost 25 till dawn and we're exposed." Leo started running, taking his momentum and flipping off the roof, landing next to the stairwell and hopping to the next building.

The other three groaned and began following him while Don fixed his posture. "You don't mind if I crash at your place, right?"

Raph turned around and shrugged. "Duh. Like we're gonna just leave you after what we found out. C'mon, nerd." He teased as he jumped off the ledge.

Don cocked an eyebrow and chuckled as he tapped a button on his arm, ejecting his jetpack from his battle shell. "Scoff. Like I'm gonna walk there. Stereotypical ninja stuff."

Chapter Text

His feet landing on the damp concrete below him, Don sighed, looking around. Even the sewers were unfamiliar to him, not they should be normal to him, but it was just so uncomfortable. He let his battle shell cool for a few seconds before folding the jetpack back into it. That was until a yell broke him from his thought process.

"YOU HAVE A JETPACK?!"

Don turned to see Mikey’s appalled face and he couldn’t help but smile. "Oh please, you give me too much credit, Michael."

Don laughed at the orange turtle's awed face and excited sputters while Raph just rolled his eyes, Leo and Donnie stood a bit more intrigued. Mikey had run over to Donnie’s side and threw himself over his brother’s neck, snapping the purple turtle out of his drooling.

“Donnie!! Pleeeease can we make jetpacks!?”

“Mikey, I don't have the resources to make all of us jetpacks!”

“Awww come on!” Mikey let go swiftly, then turned to Don, but before he could get a sentence out, the softshell smirked.

“If you really want, Mikey, I could let you have a turn. It’s detachable.” At this, the orange turtle’s eyes sparked.

“For real!?”

"Woah" Raph cut in. "Sorry to burst your shell but Mikey shouldn't be trusted with your things."

"..Aand why's that?"

"Because he's a moron and your nerdy tech looks expensive."

At this, Donnie chuckled out loud. That was until he saw Raph's confused glare.

"Oh you're serious."

"Of course he is!" Donnie spoke up to join in. "What, does your Mikey get to touch your machines?"

"..Uh yeah." The other turtles' eyes widened in shock. Don decided to ignore their ignorance and just kept stating his case. "He helps me experiment a lot with my tech. In fact, he's the one who.."

He trailed off his words.

Right. It's because he wanted to experiment with him in the first place that this all happened. He almost forgot it was his fault.

Clenching his teeth, Dee threw his arms back down to his sides, furrowing his brow.

"Whatever. Just keep walking." He said, not bothering to finish his sentence.

The brothers shared a quick glance at one another, confused and concerned. Donnie had walked ahead and Don followed, the other three slowing their pace, Mikey giving a shrug. After the fight they had, pressing this turtle might have been a bad idea.

"Here it is." Donnie called to the others, Don walking ahead of him.

Stepping into the lair, he paused. The green lighting along the walls Don looked at.

It was so much smaller than home, but still had the charm he had associated with these other turtles. A small tv instead of a projector and arcade cabinets along the wall were the things that most stood out to him.

“Welcome to our humble abode!” Donnie stepped in front, walking towards the couch before turning to meet Dee. “Hope you make yourself at home.”

“..Yeah.” Was all Dee could muster out. He suddenly felt his stomach turn, a feeling of homesickness washed over him, but he brushed it off. “..So now what?”

“Well after today,” Leo sighed before flopping on the couch. “I need a rest. This can all wait until tomorrow, and I kinda want to process that there’s another Donnie in our lair-”

Yeah, that sounds like Leo. Dee thought to himself.

“Oh! I could think of things to do!” Mikey beamed before flattening his smile a tad. “Just give me.. Like 5 or 6 minutes to process which ones are good for 5 turtles. And games we haven’t played as kids-”

“Hey Dee, I’ve been thinking about this for a bit.” Donnie perked up, pointing towards Don’s back. “Is.. that a prosthetic? That can't be your actual shell, can it?”

“Ah-”

Mikey broke out from his thinking and sprung up, leaning on Don’s shoulder. “Unless you come from an apocalyptic universe, and you were forced to turn yourself into a cyborg!!”

Don chuckled, a metal claw patting Mikey on the head, with a weird hint of Deja vu. “Definitely not. This is my battle shell. It's my protection.”

“Protection? Like armor? Why?” Raph butted in. “Our shells are our protection. We can deflect bullets with these things.”

“Hahh.. Maybe you can. I’m a softshell, so my shell isn’t very durable.”

“..You’re a different species?” Leo spoke up.

“Mhm”

Mikey took his attention. “Are all of us different species in your world?”

“Yep. I’m a softshell, Raph is an alligator snapping turtle, Leo is a red slider, and Mikey is a box turtle.” Don listed through before pausing. “You’re all the same species?”

“Yeah. We haven’t bothered to look at what species exactly, but we’re all the same.” Raph muttered loud enough.

Donnie spoke while taking out his T-Phone. “A while back I theorized we were either diamondback terrapins or common box turtles, but I was never certain.”

“Interesting.” Don made a mental note of that.

“Alright, I’m gonna pass out. This entire day has been crazy.” Raph scoffed, moving towards a hallway Don had presumed was where their rooms were. Donnie had moved himself towards the garage and Leo had turned on the TV.

“Wanna bunk with me, Dee?” Mikey grinned. “We don't really have any extra rooms and if Leo is taking the couch-”

“Why not? I'm ok with that.” Don returned the orange turtle’s energy best he could.

“Yess!! Ok, I’ll get you a spare blanket, Hang tight! My room is the last door on the left!”

With a nod, Mikey sprinted off and Don walked towards the directions he was given. Stepping into the youngest’s room, he looked around at the assortment of paper and random wrappers lying around. The feeling drowned him again, his stomach pulsed with the same feeling of familiarity and homesickness.

He will get home soon.

________________________________

"What are we supposed to do?!" Raph shouted, grabbing his head with his hands.

Leon shouted back, just as alarmed and freaked out. "I-I don't know?! This hasn't happened before, has it??"

The voices of his older brothers were slowly tuned out, only the high ear-ringing sound remained. Unable to stand, Mikey had been sat on top of the desk, looking at the scene laid out in front of him.

The broken machine, the orange lighting tainting the debris, had sat there for around 3 hours now. His two older brothers were by his side, and the third hadn't come back by now.

Mikey blinked away tears from his swollen eyes, and his stomach felt worse by the second. The worst really had come, didn't it? Of course, the one other time he tried to use his powers it ended up like this. The last thing he had done was shield Mikey from his own powers.

Donnie's gone.

"Mikey?"

He looked up at his older brothers, concern shown on both of them as Mikey’s face had been pale and sickly. Leo reached a hand and took hold of the younger turtle's shoulder.

"Mikey, are you okay?"

The box turtle looked away, his gaze turning towards his hands. A dry and raspy "..Yeah.." escaped, seemingly all he could muster out.

"...Are you sure?" Raph mumbled softly. At this, a disgusting mix of emotions bubbled over, he felt like throwing up from the tightness in his throat. Mikey's eyes suddenly snapped wide open before shutting abruptly, tears welling up.

"NO!"

His mask getting wet with the drips running down his face, Mikey held his head in his hands, tearing his vocal cords with his intense sobs. "Of course I'm not ok! Donnie could be dead because of me!!"

Almost instantly by second nature, the older brothers threw their arms around him, the tears becoming contagious for the others. Mikey's throat closed up causing dry coughs and hiccups to surface.

"..I'm a failure..! I can't- I can't even control my Mystic hands correctly!"

Leo leaned down to meet his brother's face. "Mikey that's not true-"

The box turtle sharply looked up back, pulling away from the embrace.

"Then where is Donnie?!"

Silence followed.

The brothers didn't want to fear the worst, but it was done for them.

Mikey inhaled, through his tears and throat, he choked out a whisper.

"I killed him, didn’t I?”

The rest Mikey could do for the night was cry his eyes out. The box turtle refused to move from his spot, hence his older brothers moved him to the floor so he could lay properly.

Leon brought in one of Raph’s blankets and they sat together for an hour until they inevitably fell asleep on the lab floor.

Chapter Text

Don didn’t remember when he had passed out, but the shuffling next to him broke him from his slumber.

"Yo Dee! Time to wake up!" A familiar voice called out to him.

Don groaned, cracking his eyes open to adjust them to the light. His forehead was damp and hot, and when he went to rub it, he realized his bandana was still secured to his head. Taking it off, he rubbed his eyes. "Shelldon, I thought I told you not to wake me up before my alarm unless it's an emergency.." He mumbled.

"Mmm no you didn't? Also my name's not Shelldon."

"Huh?" Don pried his eyes open and sat up. Sure enough, they were telling the truth. Mikey was crouched next to him, grinning.

"Oh." Don's face fell, looking back down. Right. He had almost forgotten where he was. Pushing himself up, he moved his legs closer to sit upright. "Sorry, Michael, I'm just… really tired."

So tired, in fact, it looked like he had also forgotten to take off his battle shell before he had rested. He'd definitely have to clean that later.

Mikey seemed to notice Dee's mood drop as he sat himself next to him. "You.. wanna talk about it? Training doesn't start for another.. well actually-"

"Please. Can I just.. sit here for a bit?" Don sighed, Mikey cut himself off and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, totally."

"..Thanks.." Don forced a smile back, then broke his eye contact, sliding up his knees to his chest.

A silence followed, only broken up by the shuffling of Mikey, until he spoke back up.

“So.. Can you tell me a bit about yourself? You’ve already been here for a day but we barely know you.”

“Oh- Yeah, yeah.” Don adjusted himself, unable to get comfortable with his position. “Well.. I'm probably not any different than your Donnie..”

“Are you kidding me? You’re already super different!"

"Personality wise, Angelo."

"Well, yeah that too! You seem so much more confident in your tech, and the way you fought yesterday was really rad! You were so smug about it too." Mikey went on for a bit and Don felt.. conflicted.. but mostly at peace. This turtle really reminded him of home. He saw his same younger brother in those soft eyes and goofy smile, not to mention his voice was so similar to one of his best friends.

At the same time it just reminded him more and more of his mistake.

He quickly forced smirked and dramatically clasped his hands together. "Ah yes, please inflate my ego some more and tell me about how great I am!"

Mikey giggled at this and took a deep breath, but was instead interrupted by the bedroom door swinging open, red mask peeking into the room.

"Hey you better not be trying to skip today- What are you two doing?"

"I'm gaining the mad scientist's trust by boosting his ego! Spoilers, I'm backstabbing him later."

"GAASP!" Don shouted. "Betrayal! I never would've expected this Mikey to flatter me just to turn out to be a traitor!"

As the two laughed, Raph just rolled his eyes, the tiniest curl tugged on the sides of his beak. "Just hurry up. You're already late for training.

Mikey groaned and stood up, stepping towards the door. "Dee, if you need anything just call! If you wanna follow us, the dojo is on the other side of the living room!" He called out before sprinting off.

Dee smiled to himself before reaching around his back and pressing into indents, ejecting the armor off his shell. Moving his hands in front of him, he looked at the armor's exterior. It was perfectly fine, omitting a few nicks here and there.

Pushing himself up to stand, he walked out of the doorway, curiosity guiding his feet down the hall. They have a dojo?

________________________________

Cool air breezing through Don's open shell, he walked into the Dojo and saw the other four turtles already up and straight in posture, Raph and Donnie as well as Mikey and Leo, standing parallel to one another. He walked over to the sidelines and sat on his knees, moving his battle shell to his lap. As he took out a sanitized rag from a compartment to clean the inside of the machine, he watched the turtles move into a fighting stance.

Witnessing the swings, kicks, flips, it was very obvious they were trained traditionally, and the impressive mix of ninjutsu and martial arts made it as if their movements had so much thought and planning out into every step.

Don barely blinked before he realized both Mikey and Donnie had been downed and sat next to him. Watching Raph and Leo spar, he analyzed their fancy foot movements until Raph was tossed to the floor.

"Wow. You guys really train a lot don’t you?" Don spoke up.

Donnie shrugged. "Yeah it's kinda obvious, isn't it?"

“Yeah. I might be a bit jealous.”

"Well you're not gonna get off the hook." Leo grinned. "Mikey, if you would please."

As Don looked over, his wooden bō was thrown his way. Fumbling around with it in his hands, Leo pulled him up out of his sitting position, The battle shell slipping off Don's lap.

"Since that time on the roof, I was thinking about your fighting style, so I want to do a proper spar."

Taking a few steps back, Leo flipped back into a sighting stance, sliding his foot behind him.

"Now come on! Without your tech, try and get a hit on me!"

Don just stood there for a second before shrugging. "..Ok." He took his stance, sliding his foot back, and swung his bō over his shoulder. His Hamato Clan symbol appeared over his chest (albeit a bit tinier than usual) and his bō glared a bright purple, suddenly surrounding itself in a semi-opaque and tech-like exterior. Swinging it back in front of him, a tiny rocket sculpted itself from the top of his weapon.

Don tapped the bō with his palm, sending the rocket to fly at Leo, who had been too stunned to dodge. The rocket then bounced off his head and popped into purple sparks, causing Leo to stagger backwards. The other four turtles’ jaws might have been on the floor due to how shocked they turned.

Leo shook his head. "...What the heck was that?!"

Don grinned as he stood straight, the purple glow fading from his bō. "Mystic powers summoned by my Hamato Ninpo."

Raph sighed. "..Guess we don't speak English anymore."

Leo's mouth went agape, out of breath he stumbled over his words. "...Mystic powers..! Yep.. cool!- Wow you just- keep getting more and more weird-"

"I mean, it's not like we're any better." Donnie muttered.

"...Wait you guys don't have- Oh. Ohh! No wonder you're so traditional."

"Right! Right- Ok.. Lets- Have you ever fought without your tech or powers?"

"..Without them?” Don thought for a second. “..No not that I can think of.. I'm not that.. physically capable." Don cringed at a particular past Lair Games where as a kid he had to sit out the rest of the games from a beach ball to the back. (Needless to say, he didn't place that year.)

“Then that's what we train on! You’ll never know when-” Leo started to make some sort of point from this whole situation, but Donnie cut him off, breaking out of his own shock.

“Nono! Can we talk about this?! You have mystic powers?? WITH your tech that's already extremely advanced?!?”

Don raised an eyebrow. “..I feel like you’re surprised by this.."

“Because I am! You- Do your brothers have mystic powers??”

“Yep. It’s a pretty long story."

"I want to hear all of it."

"Me too, Me too!!"

Beaming, Don took a dramatic pose and raised his pointer finger. "Alright! So it all started when my April got these keys to the roof of a suite, right?"

The rest of the morning consisted of a long monologue of Don's life, despite Leo's attempts to continue the training.

Chapter Text

Standing in front of the living room couch, (which they had moved to because the Dojo started hurting their knees) Don watched in slight suspense at the other four, who had a moment of silence before erupting into bewildered shouts.

“You met your Hamato Clan ancestor and she taught you the Hamato Ninpo?!”

"You can summon your weapons from random objects?!"

"Your Shredder was a demon locked away for 500 years!? And you not only beat him, but freed Oroku Saki's soul?!?”

"YOU HAVE TWO DADS!?!"

"Mikey, why is that the thing you're focusing on?"

Mikey scoffed as if Leo asked the stupidest question in the world. "Uh, Duh! 'Cause that's super freaking cool?? I wish I had a warring warrior scientist as a dad!"

Donnie stepped in, changing the subject. "I mean, I'm surprised your Leo even forgave Draxum after he threw him off a roof."

Don laughed aloud at that. "Hah! He hasn't."

Leo spoke up. "..Wait- You said you haven't fought without your tech or powers.. But when you infiltrated the Foot's train.. Did you have your battle shell?"

"Eh?" He thought for a second before perking up. "Huh.. No, I didn't! I thought I had it on then..-"

"Aha! So you can fight without your tech!"

"Hey! That one doesn't count, I was fighting with Dad's technique!"

As the group of turtles laughed and quipped, they barely heard the turnstile clatter from the entrance, taking their attention. A feminine voice made the four spring up, leaving Don confused.

"Guys?! Are you here?"

"Oh shoot-" Donnie nervously chuckled.

"Dude! Did you forget to text her after the fight?" Raph whisper-shouted.

"Well sorry, but I got distracted by a certain someone!!"

Leo turned towards Don after standing up. "Dee, Stay here for a sec, mkay?" When he nodded in response, Leo hopped over the couch top and jogged towards the entrance.

As Don nodded, Donnie pushed him down to sit, obscuring his view of the entrance from the couch, and followed Leo. Don just scoffed and laid himself onto the couch cushions.

"Heyyy! ..What's up…?" Donnie spoke less than confidently.

""What's up?" I was worried about you guys, that's what's up!" The female voice scoffed. "Why didn't you guys call me back?"

"Hah! Well uh- you see, I haven't been able to get back to my phone and.. uh-" Donnie began trying to come up with an excuse, but Leo stepped in.

"We… have a surprise! But you just have to promise to be cool about it."

"...Alright? You guys are starting to freak me out. What was so important that you didn't tell me you were okay?"

At this point, Dee got bored of waiting and decided to peek up behind the couch. The sight he saw was a human girl, white freckled skin and bright red hair tied into a slick back ponytail. Her blue eyes looked at the two turtles in suspicion, before panning over to make eye contact.

Don jumped a bit in surprise as the girl glared the instant she noticed him, suddenly drawing out a shuriken and tossing it straight at his forehead with a battle cry. He yelped and ducked down, the star nicking at the ends of his bandana.

"Aw man." As he felt the ripped fabric, Don groaned before springing back up to shoot a dirty look back at this human, leaning over the couch top. "Hey! I have to fix that now!"

Her face turned from suspicion to confusion. "Who the hell is that?!"

"Ah crud.." Raph sighed, Mikey took the lead and stepped in front of the two, doing slight gestures. "April, Meet our dimensional brother, Donatello! He goes by Dee or Don! Dee, this is our April!"

The introduction of the red-head’s name made Don go speechless while April shook her head. "Woah- What?!"

"Ugh- Look, it's a long story." Raph scoffed.

"WAITWAIT-" Don called out, cutting Raph off and pointing towards the red-head. "What's your name again?"

"Uh.. It's April 'O Niel."

His eyes snapped wide open in horror, his hands flying over his mouth. "No. NO!"

The four looked over, Mikey speaking up. "Uh- Dee?"

"I thought you had an April, Don?" Leo raised an eyebrow.

Legitimately petrified, Dee cried out. "YOU'VE BEEN WHITEWASHED!"

“..”

"..What-"

________________________________

"Scoff. You cannot be April."

"Dude, you mentioned actual magic powers in your universe and April being white is the thing you can't believe is happening..?"

Don sat with a haughty look, crossed arms over his chest. He had been sat on the floor by the others, looking up at the kunoichi. It was pure silence as the two just stared intensely at one another, the other four barely held their breaths in suspense. They tried explaining the best they could, and this is what they were left with.

“..So. You weren't gonna tell me about this?" April turned her glance around the room at the other turtles.

"Trust me when I say, you shoulda been eased into it. Dee is nothing like Donnie here." Raph tried to warn her, but April laughed, turning her gaze back to the softshell.

"Come on! An alternate version of Donnie? How bad can he really be?" At this, the other turtles instantly recoiled into an appalled look, shaking their heads vigorously, literally saying with their eyes “don’t test him.” However, April didn’t seem to notice.

Don’s face had shifted into a nasty scowl and it took multiple reminders of “you shouldn’t do lethal shit” to plaster a forced smile along with it. "Oh ho! Really? We’re going with that?"

Don hated being compared with, especially in the insulted sense. But after throwing a shuriken at his head, messing up the ends of his bandana, and now judging him by comparing him to himself? That was a whole different line cross.

The redhead simply shook her head. “I said what I said. No offense Donnie, but you’re the nerdy type. Y’know, the sensible one! You aren’t a barbarian.”

“..Interesting.” The softshell gritted his teeth. Considering all he heard out of that was a condescending tone, he took a deep breath. He just decided the best course of action would be to play to Dr. Feelings' standards and just keep calm. However, this just resulted in more of an irritated sigh rather than a calming one.

"Whatever. Alternate versions and junk. You can be white, I can be awesome, sexy, and funny. Moving on." Don gave a satisfied smile, but April hadn't dropped her snarky comments.

"What's with the sharpie eyebrows? Are they covering that massive forehead you have?"

Dee's face instantly turned sour when the words left the human, and he threw his hands up in defeat. "Alright I'm fucking out of here, Donnie you have a lab, right? Can I see?"

"What?-” Catching Donnie off guard, he began stumbling over his words. “I- I mean- Sure? It's in the garage.. Are you okay?- Are you sure you don't want to stay and talk for a bit or-"

Before Donnie could finish his question, Dee practically dragged him along, walking to the garage door. "Yep. Perfectly a-okay, now leggo. Hurry up."

"Aw come on. I can't ask questions?!" The red head called out, but was met with the softshell flipping her off as best he could.

A simple "Wow." was all April mustered out when the two purple turtles were gone from view, until she smirked and pulled out her phone. "I'm gonna tell Casey."

Raph looked towards her with concern. "Do we really need Casey to know about this??"

"Hah. Yep."

Chapter Text

"Oh wow." Walking into the garage, the orchid hue of the lighting lightly covered the computers and magenta machinery lined up on the counter, yellow parking lines disguised the floor. Turning his head, Dee's eyes widened at a smaller metal turtle carrying a vial of some sort of green liquid.

The entire lab felt rustic and rough, and reminded Don more of a techno version of Repo Mantis's junkyard rather than his own lab.

"Hey-" Donnie spoke up to start a conversation. But as Don turned back to face him, the other purple turtle suddenly broke out in a sweat and stumbled over what he was gonna say. "Ah- If- If you don't mind! Can you tell me more about those mystic powers? How do they work?"

It was pretty obvious that wasn't the question he wanted to ask, but if Donnie didn't want to press, he wouldn't either. Dee just shrugged in response.

"That's the thing, I don't know how they work. They just do."

At this, Donnie's eyes widened a bit in surprise. "You don't know!? Have you.. tried to know??"

"Several times. Before I got my own, every time I asked my bros, the answer was always "It's just a feeling." And yeah, that's all it really is."

"...Wow. Hah I would probably go mad trying to figure that out.."

"Oh yeah. Especially since they kept rubbing it in my face.” Dee grinned, remembering his brothers’ mocking voices, before shaking his head to get back on topic. “Okay.. So I had an idea on how I could get back home.”

“Already thinking on how to get home?” Donnie blurted out. He didn't mean anything harsh, but it was only a day and Dee already wanted to leave? Did April annoy him that badly?

Don seemed to realize the thoughts Donnie had, and quickly eased the other turtle’s mind. “Don't get me wrong, you guys are great and I’d love to stay and collect data but.. The way I got here.. It wasn't pretty. I’m afraid my brothers might freak out. Especially since they’re.. Y’know.. Dum-dums.”

As contradictory as it was, he said that last part with a loving tone, turning back to the desk and examining all of the equipment and mechanics laid out, being careful not to get too touchy. "I just want to get a connection built as soon as possible."

"Ah.” Donnie scratched the back of his neck, remembering the numerous times his brothers had vanished without even bothering to tell them where they were. “Yeah I get that."

Dee turned back around. "Now, Can I ask you a question?"

"Huh? I don't see why not..?"

“I noticed your bō . Have you not upgraded it?”

“..No? Why? Is there something wrong with it?”

Dee’s expression fell, his voice turned deadpanned. “Dude. What’s wrong with it is that it’s just a stick.”

“Wha- Hey! Without your mystic powers, yours is just a stick too, isn’t it?”

“Come on, before my Hamato Ninpo unlocked, you think I was fighting mutants with a piece of wood? My old child, my tech bō, still lives in my heart.”

“..Sorry.. TECH bō?!”

“Made out of grade-steel titanium.”

“..How- What-” Donnie almost screamed that he wanted to know more data about the weaponry, but he could barely get anything out, eventually resulting in him shaking his head. “I.. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Dee ended up throwing a small grin on his face, but then turned and took hold of a piece of paper his metal claw handed him. “I’ll redraw the blueprints so you know what we’re working with. Think you could grab equipment we’ll need?”

“Got it!”

________________________________

"Oh come on, I was just asking questions!"

Raph rolled his eyes at the human. "April, you know that last one was just to piss him off."

"I mean true, but it was funny." April crossed her arms over her chest with a slight huff. "Besides, I don't know what he's up to. Didn't you say he immediately attacked you when you found him?"

Leo sighed, cursing his poor explanation earlier. "..No, I said we instigated a fight by accident."

"Well it sounded like he expected to be attacked, just not by you guys."

Raph sighed. "He could've just been on guard because he's away from home, April."

April scoffed. "You guys are way too chill about this! I'm gonna find out what he did to end up here, whether he wants to tell us or not."

"We don't want to be too brash. He's one of us."

At this, April turned to meet Leo’s face. Glaring a bit, she eventually sighed towards the leader’s expression. “Fine, whatever. Leo knows best.”

“Thank you, April.”

After a bit, the clatter of the turnstile sounded off, an eccentric voice shouting from the entrance with too much energy. "The Jones is here!"

The group turned to the entrance to greet the vigilante, who in turn gave a grin to the mutants as he walked in before turning to April. "What's up? You said there was something up with Donnie?"

"Yeah! He's working on something in his lab. You wanna say hi?" The red-head said with an innocent smile.

Casey nodded, with a skip in his step, he walked to the garage door. April's smile slowly turned into an impish grin.

"... April. Why."

"I wanna see how he reacts to this. That's all."

“Come on, April! What’s up with you?” Mikey groaned. “I thought you of all people would be fine with another Donnie!”

At this, April turned and her grin fell into a concerned look. “..I’m just looking out for you guys! When was the last time you saw Donnie be that cocky? It might be a trap.”

“Did the “Alternate Universe” thing go straight over your head?” Raph sneered, much to April’s annoyance.

Leo intervened. “He’s just looking for a way back home. We’ll be watching him so there's no need to provoke him.”

April just responded with a scoff and a roll of the eyes. Instead of arguing, the red-head stormed off towards the dojo.

________________________________

With the clinking of metals, Dee fidgeted with pieces of scrap metal along his counterpart's desk.

He had finished the portal blueprints they needed earlier than Donatello planned, most definitely due to Dee already having built the main component before. Donnie was still out to collect materials, leaving Don to meddle in his own thoughts.

Lots of things had crossed his mind during his alone time. Questions about his alternate brothers, Thoughts about this world in general, Excitement about establishing a connection between whole worlds.

Concern for his own brothers.

Don laid his head on the table, his neutral expression faltered slightly. He prayed to Pizza Supreme in the sky that his brothers were ok. He didn’t calculate just how unstable the machine could have gotten, and that worried him immensely.

That was until Don was interrupted by a slap on the back, breaking him out of his thoughts and making him flinch hard.

"Hey Donnie-boy! How's the most handsome turtle in the world doing? I'd ask him but he seems to have his head in the machines again~"

This made Dee jerk up and whip his head around. Naturally by impulse, a metal claw emerged from his battle shell and picked up the intruder by the first thing it could grab, which seemed to be the scruff of their hoodie. With a yelp, the intruder was pushed back several feet and lifted slightly, making their feet elevated from the ground.

Whipping his head around, Don’s glare quickly merged with, and eventually turned into, a confused expression plastered on his face. Getting a look at the newcomer, Dee was shocked to see long black hair and a tooth gap he's only associated with one other person from his universe. However, and on brand with the dimension, his mind told him this wasn't the same future boy.

"What the- You're not Donnie!?" The human boy spoke up in a frenzy.

Dee didn’t even acknowledge the remark before hissing, annoyed. “Dude. What's your deal?! You slap people out of nowhere??”

“What's MY deal!? You nearly cut my head off with that thing!” The human retorted, glancing at the metal claw holding him up.

Don simply groaned and waved his hand in annoyance, allowing the claw to drop the human back to the ground, who staggered a bit gaining his balance back before pointing an accusing finger at Dee.

“Alright, other purple turtle that.. Kinda resembles Donnie.. Where’s Donnie?!”

As if on cue, the second purple turtle walked through the larger garage door, metals in hand. "Alright Don, I found a few things we can use as a base.. Was there anything else I needed to grab or-" As Donatello looked up, he barely noticed the softshell as his eyes locked with the other human.

"CASEY?!" What- What the hell are you doing in here?!"

"Ah" Don thought to himself, sighing. This was their Casey Jones.

"Wait- HUH?!?" 'Casey' stumbled back to get a good look at both purple masks, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. When he was sure he wasn't, he blurted out a question of his own. "..WHO THE HELL IS THAT??"

"Oh come on..!" Dee groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Donnie, exactly how many more people are we gonna have to explain this situation to?"

"Uh- This- This should be the last one, Dee.. Sorry.." Donnie sputtered towards his alternate self before turning to the human boy. "Casey, Meet Don! My.. Alternate counterpart from another universe!"

"Your WHAT?"

"I know! Crazy right?" Donnie had grinned, but instead of sharing the smile, Casey went red in his cheeks and covered his mouth with a hand, his cocky demeanor faltering.

"Ah shit- Sorry I accidentally called you handsome- I MEAN- Not that you both aren't- UghIgottashutup-"

"Oh please." Donnie walked closer to look Casey in the eye, smirking. "So you're okay with sneaking up on me in my lab, but now you're all embarrassed about it?"

This made Casey grin behind his hand, avoiding eye contact. "Gah- Shut up, nerd.."

Raising an eyebrow and being caught off guard, Don had almost forgot this was supposedly Casey, his friend's son??

"Don, are you alright?" Donnie called out, snapping Dee from his thoughts.

"Sorry- This is just- My Casey is like.. A son to me and my brothers.."

"What, am I like a child in your universe?"

"Ah-" It suddenly clicked in Dee's head that he connected the wrong Casey's to each other. He began muttering a bit, mostly to himself. "I had it wrong- Unless you're a time-traveler- I think you would be Cassandra.

"..What???" The two said simultaneously.

"Apologies, basically my universe has 2 Caseys. We call them Cassandra or Cass, and CJ or Junior. Cassandra is who you would be, while Junior came from the future."

At this explanation, the two had their natural respective reactions, Casey’s mouth curling into smiles and leaving Donnie with a concerned expression.

"...Wow. Two Casey Jones, AND I'm a girl!? Your universe sounds amazing!"

"..How- I'm not even gonna ask about the future part- but.. I can barely handle THIS Casey, and you have 2??”

"Trust me, Junior is a lot more manageable than you think. He's a good kid." Don laughed a bit before snapping into a question he didn't know why he didn't ask until now. "Wait- How old are all of you??"

"Hm? Oh, all of us are 22 except Casey and April. They're 23."

That made Don stagger out of shock, making him shout. "YOU GUYS ARE THAT OLD?! I'm only 17!!"

“Seriously!?” Casey blurted out with a beam. “HAH! Big Donnie and Little Don! That’s amazing!” Turning to Donnie, Casey flicked the side of the turtle's head. “Apparently, your little brother is a lot more intimidating than you ever were!”

“Okay!!” Donnie groaned before beginning to push the human out the garage door. “Thanks for stopping by Case, but we got some science work to do and you’re distracting! Byeee!!”

“Okay okay! No need to push, I’m out!” Casey laughed. Before closing the door he turned to Donnie with a wink. “Don’t forget tonight! You better not ditch!”

“I know!!” He called out before shutting the door with a heavy sigh.

Dee chuckled a bit, causing Donnie to whip his head around to the softshell. “..So. You and Casey?” Don really didn't expect.. This kind of situation. The closest thing to romance Don was familiar with was April wanting a normal day with Sunita, Leon’s questionable taste in guys, or the strange situation with Hypno and Warren.

“It's not- Gah- Do you have the blueprints??” Donnie gave a nervous smile, attempting to change the subject.

Dee didn't back down. “Finished them 10 minutes ago. What’d he mean by tonight?”

After a small silence, Donnie just muttered under his breath, covering his mouth with his free hand. "..He’s just teaching me how to play hockey.”

Dee snickered, He heard anyway.

Chapter Text

It was the dawn of day 3.

At least that’s what Don heard when Leo walked into the lab to find the softshell asleep on the lab counter. As concerned as the leader was, Don had to assure him his own lab was like a second bedroom to him, so he was used to it.

Don mumbled any calculations he was still unsure of, fumbling with the metals laid out on the desk. He really wasn’t sure how to start rebuilding the portal from scratch seeing as Donnie had said, and he quotes, “As jealous as I am, I, unfortunately, do not have random deposits of titanium lying around..” Which explained why Donnie never upgraded his stick. This hiccup caused a bit of a setback, seeing as his blueprints included his own

Leaning back in the chair, he sighed, staring up at the ceiling. Throwing a hand up to cover the headlight. His sight moved to stare at his fingers, the light softly outlining the shape. It couldn't be helped that his thoughts started running wild. He had to think of a way to get the machine built fast.

Why did Mikey have to be the one with powers that could've killed him? Not to mention Raph had to deal with permanent scarring from being mind controlled. And Leo.. the dumb bastard almost sacrificed his own life to save theirs.

Don's brows furrowed in frustration. Why was he still thinking about that?

Cutting off his train of thought, the purple drone had dismounted itself from the shell, flying in front of Don's gaze. Shelldon Jr chirped and buzzed brightly, causing Dee's expression to soften, sitting back upright. With a small grin, he stood up and held a hand out, which Shelldon Jr gladly hovered around.

“Sorry I haven’t been able to upgrade you yet, bud.” Don spoke up, his voice was quieter than intended, causing Shelldon Jr to erupt a concerned chirp, Dee noticing it made an offer to scan his vital signs. He chuckled a bit, patting the drone on the head. “I’m ok, I don’t need any scans.”

That's when Shelldon Jr emitted a light beep and hovered towards the desk, using a small claw to hand Dee a small recorder, one that was a present from his counterpart, not to mention one he thought was 100% a bribe to make him forget about the ordeal yesterday with Casey, which he didn't.

*
"What's this for?"

"I thought you might get some use out of it! I used it whenever we were away from home and it was like a sort of outlet for me.

"Ah, so like my video logs."

"I thought if you have any thoughts or just random things you might want to say, you can use this!"
*

Picking up the box, his finger slid over the red record knob on the side. Though he didn't press it just yet. Why he was hesitating, he wasn't completely sure. He occasionally made logs at home, but this time just felt off.

What was he supposed to say in it? What would he talk about?

Once again, Shelldon Jr hovered beside him, the hums of the router filled the silence. After a while, Dee just sighed and set the recorder back down on the table, mumbling an excuse. “I’ll.. just say some stuff later. It’s not like I have to force myself to.”

Craning his neck over his shoulder to face the desk, his face scrunched up. The metals in the lab really varied from way too dirty and bent weirdly, to pristine materials that had been scuffed in what looked like a fight. Prying these shapes into his blueprints wouldn't be difficult, but instead extremely time consuming. Times like this is what made Dee scold himself to not use the emergency materials in his Battle Shell to build unnecessary things.

Turning back around, he just sluggishly walked out of the garage and back into the living room, Shelldon Jr gliding behind him. His sight gradually scanned the room, noting Leo and Raph sprawled on the couch, Donnie sitting on a nearby step on his T-Phone, and Mikey off to the side on one of the arcade machines.

Don still wasn't completely okay with this new home of his, seeing as a couple things still threw him off, (aka April) but it was only natural, as he was still adjusting. Analyzing the personalities of these family counterparts was the most interesting thing out of this whole experience.

But something couldn't help but constantly jab at the side of his thoughts. A question he needed to ask, but he didn't even know what it was.

His gaze moved towards the old TV in the center of the room, emitting some sort of cartoon, one he's never seen in his life. He shuffled over to the couch, leaning against the top.

"What is this?" Dee asked, holding back any opinions on how the animation looked very old and choppy.

Leo instantly turned in his seat, as he grinned wide and took a deep breath. "Well if you have to ask!-"

Before promptly being cut off by Raph. "He's rewatching his nerd show for the 10th time."

"Wh- Hey!-" Leo began to retort before being cut off again.

"It's been 11 actually." Donnie added without hesitation.

Dee watched in amusement as Leo's face immediately fell into a glare while the other two looked pleased with the reaction. The leader then cleared his throat loudly and gave a smile again, first speaking through his teeth before breaking out with info. "If you have to ask, this is Space Heroes! It's about this undefeated and loyal hero, Captain Ryan! Him and his crew mates go soaring through the stars, defeating villainous creatures that threaten their mission!"

Don stopped for a sec to take in the info before perking up with an explanation "Oh! So it's like Jupiter Jim!"

"Jupiter what now?" Mikey called out.

Dee blinked in confusion before blurting out a shocked response. "You guys don't know Jupiter Jim?!" This was followed by the same negative response from the rest of the turtles.

"Please tell me you at least know Lou Jitsu!?" Dee threw up an exaggerated hand, and the same response followed.

"That's cool and all brah, but different universes! Remember?"

"Gah-" The softshell sighed a bit. "Right, right. But- Come on!! You guys are missing out on Lou Jitsu! Dad is amazing in those movies! Like there's this one with a fish and ladder factory-"

"Wait, 'Dad?'" Mikey huffed a laugh. "Is that the main character's name?"

"No! Our Dad! Splinter!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, Don felt the air turn tense instantly, as all turtles fell into an uneasy silence, their faces all turned pale at the topic. Dee's grin dropped when he realized the mood had changed, his throat tightened.

Oh. That's the question he wanted to ask.

Where was their dad?

Don opened his mouth to hastily change the topic, but his words came up dry, quickly shutting it back close when Leo looked back over with a forced smile. "It's alright, really." He took a deep breath, but his words still trailed off. "Splinter, he.."

Donnie spoke up, finishing Leo's sentence. "Our Splinter.. died a long time ago.."

The softshell thought that might've been the answer, but it still felt as if he didn't expect it, or for better words, he didn’t want to expect it. Sure, his own father wasn't the best, but he cared enough to try, in his own cringe-worthy way. These counterparts didn't even have that chance anymore.

"...I'm sorry." Was all Don could mutter at that moment.

Raph let out a sigh. "It's fine. Honest. It was a hard time then, but now it's ok."

"And we've got each other now, more than ever!" Mikey grinned. "And we know Splinter is proud."

Then the air was lifted again, and Dee felt a wave of emotions go through him, though mostly relief escaped with a sigh. "That's good to know."

And just like that, the tension was washed away. A simple sentence with a grin was all it took. Every little thing reminded Don more and more of home, yet nothing emitted a feeling of nostalgia. It was bizarre and odd, yet welcome somehow.

"Wait hold up-" Don jumped up and crossed his arms, the second question he wanted to ask came to him instantly. "I've just been talking about my universe since I got here! And- while I love talking about me- I wanna learn more about you guys!"

"Oh god." Raph groaned with a laugh. "You do not want us to talk about our adventures."

"Seriously, we're gonna be all over the place." Donnie added.

Dee sighed (or rather spoke the word, “sigh”) and sat on the couch, prompting to casually pull out a bag of popcorn from his shell. Shelldon Jr hovered over to Don's shoulder to join in. "Well? Tell me everything."

Mikey followed suit, flopping next to Leo, as well as leaning over said brother. “Oh you’re in for a rollercoaster of a story, Dee!”

“Don’t say we didn’t warn ya.”

“Scoff!" Don exaggerated. "I’ve fought an actual mutant stink plant. How bad could it possibly be?”

Unbeknownst to Don, too much plot and adventure would be spoken.

Like- An ungodly amount of plot.

Chapter Text

Don's head felt like it was exploding.

He swore he felt smoke coming out of his ears from the amount of info that was dumped on him, but the other 4 just acted all fine and peachy. Not to mention the way they described the Kraang. Dee hated even thinking about those things, but they just ragged and joked on them like they were a pesky mosquito. Sure, Don was a fan of data collecting but this was just absurd.

"So- You- Let me get this straight- You all lived- like actively walked above this Kraang stasis pod that had a LIVING ORGANISM in it and DIDN'T NOTICE ANYTHING???"

"Stasis pods usually don't emit any sort of noticable noise." Donnie just shook his head.

That caused a glare from Don towards his counterpart. "You don't get to speak anymore. Those parts about April? You being low-key stalkerish and creepy to THAT thing? We're gonna talk about that." Don scoffed, a metal hand thrown up to exaggerate any feeling he had within his sentences. "Did you think that was cute?"

As Dee spoke, a visible look of cringe slowly spread across Donnie's face and he lowered his head into his hands, mumbling. "Ughhh- Please- I already have enough embarrassment from those days.."

As the other three chuckled at that, Donnie started back up again, this time his eyes switched to sparkling with excitement, a giant smile plastered. "BUT- YOU GUYS WENT TO SPACE?? I seriously need details on that- Like you guys met actual other organisms and whole civilizations IN SPACE! The infinite cosmos of the world!"

"Eh, Yeah it wasn't bad." Leo sighed, acting cool and nonchalant, much to Don's annoyance, whose face instantly fell, and he turned over with a hiss.

"Okay Mr. "I had a crush on my sister, Hamato."

The others burst out in laughter at that, Leo going red from embarrassment, as well as 10x bigger cringe than Donnie. "I SWEAR- IT WAS ADMIRATION! I DIDN'T HAVE A CRUSH ON KARAI!!"

"Hah! You said, and I quote, "Ooh I guess I sorta liked her!" Blehh." Raph mocked impishly, earning a smack from Leo, who started grumbling in an attempt to regain any dignity.

"I admit, I confused the two! I never felt admiration about anyone else so I didn't realize. It was stupid!"

"Oh please. That's because your ego was massive so you never saw admiration for anyone." Donnie chuckled. "It took a person working with Shredder to set your mind straight."

"Come on!" The leader groaned, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Alright, whatever! Rag on me later! Change the topic already!!"

"Gladly." Dee laughed before turning back around, a finger tapping against beak until he perked up with his next topic. Don turned to Leo, hand thrown to his hip in confusion. "Here's a fun one. When I first arrived here, why didn't you attack me? Everyone else at least tried."

The leader paused before answering. "Oh! Cuz I noticed you were a turtle and took it slow. When I realized you were a Donatello, I thought you might've been attacking out of self-defense."

".."Realized I was a Donatello"?? Hah. That makes it sound like you knew there were alternate universes."

Donnie spoke up. "Oh, that's because we do."

The sentence his counterpart spoke made the softshell stop, blinking before it fully registered. "...Huh?"

“Ooh!! I almost forgot about those guys!” Mikey perked up, grinning. “We’ve met alternate versions of us before! They were so goofy, and didn’t fight seriously at all! They also had their initials on their belt. Like- who does that?”

“SAY WHAT?!” Dee blurted out, flinging himself to sit up straight. “Details. Details now.”

Raph sighed. “Well basically during the whole spaceship Triceraton thing, that Kraang Prime guy had this dimension portal gun thing-”

“I believe they called it a Kraang Trans-Dimensional portal?” Donnie added on, Leo nodding in agreement.

"Something like that."

"And we went on a wild goose chase between their dimension and ours!" Mikey grinned, recalling the events between universes. "Something about the Kraang exploding the news towers or something- it's a bit of a blur at this point."

"So you already knew about the Multiverse? Dang.. Lucky." Dee mumbled, more to himself than the others.

"Oh my God, that's it!!!" Donnie suddenly exclaimed, making the others turn towards him in confusion from the sudden outburst. "Maybe we don't need to rebuild your portal. We just find one of those Kraang Trans-Dimensional portals and rewire it so it locates your multiverse coordinates-"

"-And then we give it an ample power source to open a portal big enough to establish a connection to my lab, therefore getting connected with my brothers!" Dee started grinning, finishing Donnie's train of thought.

"So that way your brothers can fix up your portal, giving you easy access to your dimension!"

Beaming for seemingly reading one another's mind, Dee and Donnie high-three'd, sharing a "Yes!"

"Perfect!" Mikey popped up, grinning. "Where do we get one?"

"Ah-" Both purple turtles flinched at the question, sharing eye contact for a second to realize they both had the same thought process with the question.

"A power source strong enough to power a portal between dimensions might be difficult to find.. Even if for a tiny bit.." Donnie had spoken up, Raph followed by sighing in disappointment.

"That's if we find the dang portal in the first place! Where would we even look for one??"

"..I could scan places we've been? Though- I doubt a piece of tech that could hop between dimensions would just be laying around somewhere, and my scans can only go so far."

“Ah. I could help upgrade your scanners if you need it. Though, it could take a day considering I’m still getting used to your tech and materials.”

“Ah! If we get started on that now, we could have enough time and resources to get a high-powered scan across New York, which would take a full 24 hours on its own. But that's only for New York so if we want to search anywhere else, we need a few more scans." Donnie sighed. "Dee?"

“Of course! It's perfect! I've needed something to put my mind to for a hot minute.” Dee sighed in relief before glancing towards the youngest, who had been sitting there twiddling his thumbs. “Mikey, do you wanna help?”

Perking up, Mikey grinned. "Can I?” With a nod of approval from the softshell, Donnie took the time to sigh a bit.

"If you're sure about that, I'll get started on bringing back my scanners for the upgrades. This will mean we have to do scouting a bit more often than usual, but I'm sure Casey and April would be willing to help too."

"Sounds good to me." Raph hopped up to his feet. "Let's go already!

"Alright, you two be safe. Seriously, please don't wreck my lab.."

"Eh no promises." Dee grinned before waving off the other three and taking his move to go back into the solitude of the lab.

"Ah geez. Sometimes I wonder if he'd be better or more infuriating than you already are, Donnie." Raph shrugged, Leo humored the red turtle by laughing at the sentence, while Donnie just rolled his eyes.

________________________________

Stepping into the lab, it took 3 seconds before Don instantly took a stretch and claimed the swivel chair for himself, the Battle Shell matching his movements with the metal claws grabbing tools and materials, a satisfying sight to Mikey. The two just sat in silence for a while, the clinking of metals and the occasional tool flying Mikey's way would be the only things that cut it.

"Oh yeah." Dee broke the silence, deciding to get the main thing out of the way. "Did you want to ask something earlier, Mikey?"

Caught off guard slightly, Mikey laughed softly from the amazing deductions from the softshell. "Haha! Is it that obvious?"

"I'm sure no matter the universe, you are always extremely easy to read."

"Well-" Mikey hesitated for a bit, taking a choice of an approach before just deciding to wing it. "I wanted to ask how you got here again.."

Dee didn't respond, instead pausing his movement to stare at the metal clasped in his hands. Mikey took the time to continue, attempting to choose his words carefully.

"I don't have a good idea how, but I'm good at guessing. And by how you said your Mikey helps you with your inventions I.. well..” As Mikey trailed off, Dee looked back to see the other turtle avoiding eye contact. He gave a small smile before turning back to the metal.

"Well, You were introduced to my Hamato Ninpo.. But my power is nothing compared to my brothers." Don moved to rest his head atop his free hand, fidgeting with the scrap metal. "Michael is the best example of that. The guy managed to open a portal with his bare hands and all the will power in the world."

Mikey blinked in both amusement and surprise, chuckling a bit. "Wow.. Little me's gotta be damn strong, huh?"

"You've got no idea." Dee spoke soft, yet grinned as he said so.

Mikey decided that's all he needed to know, with a tiny sigh he moved over to the side of the desk, waving a tool (one he had forgotten he was holding) side to side. "So! Changing the subject, what exactly are you planning to do?"

Don, sitting back up, moved a metal claw to snatch the tool away from the other turtle. "First of all, careful. Second, if I tell you, do I have to dumb it down for ya?"

"Hah! Definitely."

Chapter Text

Mikey felt sick.

This was not the kind of sick like when pops had gotten the flu, or even any fevers as kids.

This was actually gut-wrenching sickness. Some moments, he couldn't breathe correctly and god forbid if he tried to eat. All he really wanted to do now was sleep, but he still woke up exhausted so there was really no point. But on the other hand he couldn’t lay still, writhing and fidgeting in bed after moments, so after a while of this cycle he just pressed his back against the mattress until his limbs went numb and he didn’t feel like moving again.

That ringing sound still wouldn't go away, as muffled as it was. It still irritated him to all hell.

But despite all of this, the sounds of the shuffling footsteps in his room drew his attention away from his running thought process.

He looked over as he felt the bed press down with a whole other weight, the red slider couldn’t choose between an expression of concern or complacent.

"Hey Mikey.. How are you holding up?"

The box turtle just responded by looking back up at the ceiling with an unenthusiastic hum. Any words couldn't really describe how he was feeling, not fully anyway.

"..We told Dad and April.. And Raph cleaned up most of the rubble in the lab.." Leo spoke, his voice definitely quieter than he intended. "Look, we might not know what happened to him, but- I don't believe those powers of yours could kill anyone even if you tried."

"..But you don't know that." Mikey mumbled.

Leo blinked before letting a slight laugh escape. "Well.. Maybe not. But the first time you used those hands of yours, you saved me, right?"

Mikey took a moment, his face scrunching up in a huff. Of course Leon would defend him on this, He quite literally owed his life to Mikey’s power. "..Mhm.."

"Sure we might not know what you can do fully, but I don't think you'd hurt Donnie, even by accident."

"..But he's- It's been 3 days!” Mikey threw his hands up before bringing them back down to hug them across his chest, shrinking into his shell a bit. “He hasn't even connected to the lab yet.."

"Well it's hard to do that when his lab is in shambles now, is it?" Leo laughed, letting Mikey pause at that, a groan humming in his throat. The slider leaned back a little, his arms supporting his weight as he let his expression turn into a smile.

"Look, if there's anything we are, it's resilient and stubborn, and Donnie is the best example for that! Don't you think so?"

After a bit of hesitation, the box turtle sighed, he really couldn't argue with that so he gave a slight nod. "..Yeah?"

"Then he's definitely trying his best to get back home." The red slider grinned widely now, throwing a hand to Mikey's head. "And if we want to help anyway we can, we could start by taking care of ourselves.”

"Mhm." Mikey reluctantly gave an annoyed smile at the second statement. “Yea okay okay.. You’re right.”

Leo let a proud smile plaster on his face. “Of course I am! I’m literally the best, right?”

“Alright, enough already!” Mikey chuckled, pushing his brother to make him slide off the bed.

As Leo laughed, he got up to dust himself off, then took a step towards the doorway, turning back as he did so. “Maybe I’ll convince dad to order pizza. Your favorite toppings too.”

“Thanks, Leon.. Seriously, you are the best.”

Leo’s smug smile softened at that and he gave Mikey a small wave before turning to leave the room.

When he left, Mikey sat straight in his bed, shifting over to let his legs dangle off the edge. His head twinged slightly from the sudden motion, but it quickly subsided.

Once again, He knew that Leo was right. The lab was no good being in a wreck.

.

But now, a wreck was a bit of an overstatement. Raph had really cleaned up most of the major damages, but there were still bits of debris coating the floor. Mikey instantly took note of this as he took a step back into the lab ruins.

Though thinking of his first step back didn't last long, as he noticed just how much damage that blast did to the surrounding tech. Some were lucky to not be damaged, but almost all of them were covered in a film of rubble. But his attention was quickly taken to the corner of his eye, a monitor off to the side that he didn't see earlier, attached to the wall next to the corridor leading to Donnie's prized inventions. A small sigh left him, looking over at the 3 mounted inventions on the wall. That was, it would be 3 if the Battle Shell hadn't already been missing. Understandably so, seeing as Donnie had worn it during the incident.

As irritated as he was, he decided to take a quick glance at the monitor to see if it had any information useful to the circumstance. Though he expected it to say exactly what he thought it would say.

That was until it was completely disregarded. His eyes widened as he saw a word he didn't expect to, one plastered on the top of the screen in big bold letters.

Active

The Battle Shell that Donnie had worn during the explosion, the one he wore almost every day.

It was still active.

But if Donnie was destroyed, it should have been destroyed too..

If.

If he was destroyed.

But he wasn't.

The proof was right there.

And that's all the proof the box turtle needed.

As his expression grew larger, Mikey had turned heel, running back to the open lab. He turned to the main computer, checking it quickly.

Not realizing he was holding his breath, he managed an exhale when the monitor lit up, though it seemed to barely be holding on. He suspected, along with the rubble covering the desks, the dust from the blast made its way into the routers.

But Mikey moved carefully, taking hold of the mouse and scrolling through apps and notes until he found what he was looking for, double clicking the application.

If he was gonna do this, he'd need help from someone who was way more tech savvy than him.

Chapter Text

“Dee! Heyy! DONN!!”

The softshell recoiled at the deafening yell in his ear, lowering his head into his shell a bit. Cracking his eyes open, he sighed when he noticed the younger turtle. “Mikey? What time is it?” Dee looked around to see his surroundings, and saw, of course, the lab.

Mikey leaned his arm against the table, tilting his head to the side. “Oh it’s noon. You kinda wiped out for a while. You ok?”

“Mhm..” Don lazily mumbled and leaned back in the chair, still waking himself up. Great. He thought to himself. I wasted a buncha time. Could’ve been working..

His thoughts were cut off by a tug at his arm. “Dude you gotta get up though! I forgot I have to introduce you to someone!”

“Uughh..” Dee groaned, throwing his head back in exasperation. “More people?? Just kill me now..”

“Nono! I promise you’re gonna love this one! You’re literally gonna scream when you see ‘em!” Mikey beamed, making Dee sigh, getting rid of the haziness.

Sitting up, he finally saw just how giddy the orange turtle was. Before he could even respond, Mikey grabbed his arm and pulled him up to his feet. The turtle grinned brightly, much to Dee's confusion.

"Are you ready to see something really cool?"

Don just sighed and nodded. He threw his head down as they walked, rubbing the last of the lingering daze from his eyes. When he looked back up, they walked into the kitchen, and Mikey was standing proud in front of the fridge.

Dee deadpanned, unimpressed with the sight. "There's something really cool.. in your refrigerator?"

"Yes."

"And I'll scream when I see them.."

"Yes."

Don looked between the turtle and the fridge, a bit concerned for the sanity of his new brother, until Mikey grabbed the freezer door, pulled it open, and showed off a bowl.

"Behold! The greatest pet of all time!!"

Don's eyes instantly dilated the second he witnessed the magnificent creature the orange turtle had pulled out of the freezer.

It was a cat made of ice cream. Neapolitan ice cream, with most of the entire upper body being strawberry and its lower body molded to the bowl it sat in. Mikey grinned as the cat purred and meowed at Don, who in turn had his hands over his agape mouth, speechless until he sputtered a reaction.

"Is- Is that a-"

"Yep."

"And it's.. made of-"

"Uh huh!!" Mikey gave a flaunty pose and shoved the bowl in front of Don's beak. "Dee, This is Ice Cream Kitty! The best kitty in the entire world!"

"That- Hah- Haha Ohmigosh!! That's adorable!!" Don's smile couldn't have been brighter when he reached a hand out to the cat and she responded with a freezing cold lick to his finger. He couldn't stop smiling.

"Mikey this is literally the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Right?! And even better, she tastes sweet too!" Mikey laughed.

Dee laughed too, thinking that was a joke. He kept his attention to the creature, who had begun batting at a cup on the table. That was until he noticed Mikey, holding a spoon, inching towards the bowl. Seeing this, he did a quick double take as his smile fell, and he screeched as he yanked the bowl away, holding it above his head,

"MIKEY. What the hell?!"

"Huh?-"

"You're not planning on eating Ice Cream Kitty. Are you?"

"Ohh! Don't worry Don, It's perfectly safe for her! Just watch-" When Mikey stepped forward, Don held up the bowl higher with a claw, the mutant cat wasn't surprised, instead curling up in the bowl.

"Don it's ok seriously-"

"NOPE. Absolutely not. Stop and Cease." The softshell responded with a glare.

As the two argued, they failed to notice Raph and Leo standing in the doorway. Raph, standing there with an impressed look, seemed to have just walked in for breakfast, while Leo had leaned against the wall.

"How long do you think they'll fight about it?"

"Considering stubbornness? Bet he'll try to take the cat with him."

Chapter Text

Don sighed, leaning back in his chair to stretch. The LED lights above shone into his eyes brilliantly. When he brought himself back upright, he looked around at the technology all along his desk.

His desk? Of course it was his desk, it was his lab. Why did that sound weird to him?

Looking ahead, he saw the machine he was working on next to the wall, scraps of metal lining the areas he hadn't worked on yet. The circular pad where Mikey was supposed to stand still wasn't sturdy enough either.

He couldn't tell what time it was, so he wasn't sure if his brothers were asleep or not, though knowing them they might've been out fighting a mutant or just causing chaos.

He did wish he could join in, but he needed to finish this machine to help Mikey.

But before he could get back to work, his attention was snapped to behind him, a scraping noise against one of the counters. Looking over, he didn't need to crane his head far to notice a shadow on his desk, but when he stood up, he saw the shadow sink into the countertop.
Baffled at the sight, Don stepped towards the desk, watching as the shadow sunk deeper and deeper, by the time he was standing in front of the desk, an immeasurable, bottomless hole had taken shape in the middle of his counter.

Before he decided to do anything stupid like, for example, call his brothers to see if they did anything stupider, Donnie took hold of the nearest object, a dull pencil he had overused, and held it above the pit. When he dropped it, he leaned in to listen closer. After a few long seconds, he finally heard a muffled tap of the pencil hitting a surface. Depending on how long it took to reach it, Don deduced it was a good few feet of a drop, and the surface itself sounded softer, it wasn’t something like concrete the pencil landed on.

Getting a tad impatient, Don decided to just go with plan A and stick his right hand in to feel around the sides before straining himself to reach deeper in. No matter how far he leaned over and how much his arm started tensing up from the exertion, he couldn’t reach the bottom. He was sure the pencil was gone now, though he didn't care much. After a few seconds of trying to tear his arm muscle, he eventually gave up, much to his disappointment. Setting his feet back to being flat on the ground, he turned to go back to his chair.

However, as he pulled his hand back out, he suddenly felt a presence that decided to grab at his hand. He jerked his hand back at the touch, his shoulders tensing almost instantly. The feeling was gross, not just because touch wasn’t already incredibly uncomfortable. He took a step back, one as large as he could muster. Trying to pull his hand out, or at the very least see what decided to grab at him.

But then it pulled back.

Donnie lost his balance at the tug, and he quickly attempted to regain stability. He gripped the side of the desk with his free hand and tried to adjust his posture to keep himself from falling forward, but the thing clinging onto his arm nearly ripped his arm off from how hard he was being pulled.

His brain powering on adrenaline, he quickly took a look at his surroundings, but his blood ran cold when he realized the desk itself had now changed, now coated in a purple hue, a metallic feel clamped on his hand. The feeling around his arms suddenly felt way too familiar.

No.

No no no no no no no.

Looking back, he saw that the Kraang ship substance had taken his other arm.

He pulled back more frantically now, but it was futile. With one final tug, he was dragged into the abyss. It didn't feel like falling, but his stomach still turned as if he was skydiving. He couldn't scream, and the urge to throw his guts up grew as he felt the sensation on his arms creep up to his back.

Donnie felt water leak down his face, the fabric of his bandana instantly turning soaking wet around his eye holes. He shut his eyes tightly, cutting off all vision. There was way too much to feel right now.

He felt the blood dripping down his shell, the pain all across his back stung like hell, and he couldn’t hear anymore. The agonizing headache became unbearable.

After what felt like hours of burning pain, he passed out.

*

Don's eyes snapped open, breathing heavily, his entire body tensed up, the stiffness made it hard to move. He noticed the green lighting of the room and his brain scrambled to come up with an answer to where he was. The paper and trash strewn along the floor made it clear almost immediately.

He was just in Mikey's room. But not his Mikey’s...

He jerked himself up and instantly reached over his back, gripping onto the edge of his shell. It was still there, thank god it was, but the sharpness lingered, if only for a short while. His breath staggered immensely as he exhaled. It was a nightmare. It wasn't real.

Inhaling sharply, he pushed himself back, bumping into the side of the bed he laid next to. Looking over, his face softened when he saw the orange turtle fast asleep, snoring peacefully.

This simple sight let Don relax his tensed muscles.

He curled his knees closer, wrapping an arm around his legs, hugging tightly. With his other hand trembling fiercely, he grabbed his head and sat like that for a while, attempting to regulate his breathing and stop the shaking, repressing the urge to sway or gag from nausea. The last thing he needed right now was to throw up.

It's over. It's been over for months now. So why am I still terrified about it?

He didn't even realize he was still on edge until he caught himself flinching as the door creaked open.

Looking up, he saw a pair of white eyes peeking through, barely noticeable from the shadows.

As they made eye contact, Leo made a slight hand motion, calling for Dee to follow him, before shuffling off to the side. Slowly pushing himself up, Don tiptoed out, following the blue turtle. Quietly, Leo leaned into the couch and left room for Dee to sit down as well, which he did.

As Don sat there for a bit, he closed his eyes and practiced his breathing, taking deep breaths in and out rhythmically. He could hear the soft humming of the paused TV, his own breathing, the tapping of his foot, and every now and then, the faint sound of a car passing by above.

He felt the couch under him, the pads lining his knees and elbows, his Battle Shell still secured on his back.

He smelt the metal surrounding the area, as well as a nice floral scent coming from the couch. He guessed they didn't like smelling the sewer water all that much.

Finally, he tasted the unpleasant morning breath stuck in his mouth.

In and out, Inhale and Exhale, 5 seconds for each breath.

During his last exhale, the shaking had stopped, and Don cracked his eyes open, allowing the TV light to seep in. He took note of the TV itself, as well as the tape player connected to it, the couch he had sat on, even the arcade cabinet near the wall. Finally, he looked over at Leo, who had been sitting quietly, waiting patiently the whole time.

"..Do you want to talk about it?"

"...Not really." Don spoke, cringing at the voice scratching through his dry throat. "I don't have a choice though, do I?"

"Mm.. No pressure, but yeah, I'd say that. I mean, I'm not gonna leave until I know my brother is safe, dimension or not. It's just what the leader- well.. It's just what the older brother does."

At the older turtle's correction, Don chuckled, though feeble as it sounded through the closed throat. His smile fell when he began speaking, the bags under his eyes growing heavier. "...I had a nightmare. It was about something that happened months ago that.. I thought it would be over and done with. But I'm still terrified thinking about it.."

Dee took a moment to shudder as he remembered the sensation of the cold tentacles on his shell, leaning over a bit and repressing the urge to throw up again.

Leo responded with no words, just a pat to the softshell’s shoulder. He tensed slightly, but then calmed himself with a breath. As Dee looked over, Leo nodded slightly, a motion to let him know he was still listening.

After a bit of silence, Dee looked back down at the concrete floor. “..I think my night terrors are worse in this dimension. I haven’t thought about the Kraang in months.. But..” As Don’s words trailed off, Leo leaned in, intervening his thoughts.

“Hey. Healing takes a lot more than a few months.” Leo conveyed. “I don't think it's the dimension, I think they might be resurfacing because you’re away from your support group.. Or your family.”

"..Oh."

"Trust me when I say, I know what you're going through. Maybe not exactly your situation, but the stuff we turtles go through seem to be horrifying, or at the very least deeply traumatizing. It's not gonna go away after a few months.. Or maybe it might never go away.. But you're safe now, always remember that. And if your brothers are as tough as you, then they're safe too."

As Leo sighed, his speech seemingly done with, a soft thud caught his attention, as he turned towards the softshell, who had slumped over to lie on his side.

Don's eyes fluttered shut as he mumbled a small thank you, not completely sure if Leo heard him. But even if he did, he didn't wait for a response as he slipped unconscious.

Dee didn't dream about anything for the rest of the night.

Chapter Text

Huffing and groaning, Dee threw himself back from irritation, falling back to hit his back against the couch. His science tone rambled on and on into the small microphone of the recorder held up with a claw. He'd started to use it more to keep track of his calculations rather than actual details of this universe. He was sure his face was stuck scrunched up in a personal scowl as the wrinkles on his face were lined by the creases on his hands.

A purr rose up to the softshell's left, and he looked over to see Ice Cream Kitty roll around in the confines of her bowl. Shelldon Jr hovered above, avoiding any swats the cat mutant threw at it, beeping and clicking the whole time in a laughter-like pattern.

Don cheered up a bit at the silly interaction between entities and sat back up. Both the mutant and drone looked at the movement as the softshell chuckled. "Alright, let's stop tormenting the cat. Junior."

The response given was an eye roll, complete with beeps that sounded a lot like the word.

Don crossed his arms, holding up the small Kraang metal, still glowing an eerie pink. "Don't give me that, mister. Come on, let's try again.”

Complaining rose up from the drone as it flew around wildly in a sort of temper tantrum, but it eventually settled back down onto the table with a huff.

Don couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the drone throwing a fit. He had grown accustomed to Shelldon Jr's stubbornness over time, but he knew that it was all part of the process. After all, he had programmed the drone before and knew its quirks better than anyone else.

Before Dee could begin the process again, the thud of the garage door opening suddenly startled Shelldon Jr, causing the drone to fly upwards.

As Don groaned in a small frustration, Mikey showed up from behind him, hovering over his shoulder. Raph had followed inside too, moving to the other side of the desk. "Sup Dee?"

Though Don opened his mouth to answer, it was cut off instantly by a smack to his face with the recorder the drone had thrown straight at him. Prying the recorder off, he sighed, giving a slight glare to Shelldon Jr, who resulted in turning their shell to its creator and shuffling on the table. Dee just exhaled sharply. “Oh yes! It's certainly… going..”

With how much attitude Junior had gotten, Don wasn’t surprised the apple fell close to the tree. His programming always tended to be way too sarcastic for its own good.

“Yea.. Seems like it's going real well." The red turtle chuckled. "What are you even trying to do?"

"I'm trying to code your Kraang tech's power in order to scan that type of machinery with Shelldon Jr, but it's going poorly. I don't know why, but Junior doesn't respond to it. I imported this universe's coordinates to see if it would make it easier, but nothing!" Dee groaned, throwing his head back as the purple drone buzzed around the softshell. "I don't know if it's dimensional interference or what.."

"Maybe it's because it's from Dimension X." Mikey spoke up. “That place is all sorts of wacky, so it might not connect well with them."

"Wacky... How?"

"Well, based on our time there, Dimension X has different laws of psychics entirely. Maybe Shelly doesn't react well since it's an even further universe away or something?" Mikey shrugged, not emphasizing much on what he meant.

Don blinked, debating this for a sec, taking a glance at the drone who had reduced it's flying around to a small hover over the desk. "While your phrasing needs work.. That would make a bit of sense! You guys practically live with this circuitry so it makes sense that you can adapt with it. I've barely had the time to even examine this Kraang's tech, much less build with it."

"Yeah, that's coming from the Dimension X master here." Raph gave Mikey a quick elbow nudge, which the orange turtle grinned at, crossing his arms in a prideful stance. "What can I say? I was a genius there!"

The response was another bratty set of beeps and tones from the drone as it shook its head and smacked a claw towards Mikey in another fit. Raph laughed at the machine, amusing by the little attitude it's emitted. "Or, maybe it just doesn't like the Kraang tech."

"Hah.. guess I won't beat a deceased horse here." Don sighed, muttering a small apology to the tiny drone before speaking back up. "Maybe I can make it detect the metal itself rather than a power source itself, but according to you guys, scraps are everywhere across New York.. or at least they should be.. It’ll take ages!”

“Which is why we’re doing it the old fashioned way.” Raph grinned. “You should join us during patrol!”

At that, Dee threw his head back upwards, his eyebrows furrowing. “Aw what!?”

Raph crossed his arms over his chest, with a stern look, he leaned against the wall behind him. “Don’t give me that. We could use the extra lookout to speed things up and you can’t stay cooped up in here.”

Dee's face scrunches up in frustration. He'd always been a lab rat and really wasn't looking forward to exploring this dimension on foot. But soon, the youngest leaned against the swivel chair, letting the weight offset the chair. "C'mon! It'll be great! You'll get to experience our way of the turtle!"

Don let out a small chuckle at the comment, knowing that Mikey's optimism was contagious. Now even he couldn't help but feel a little excited at the prospect of exploring a new dimension, even if it meant leaving the comfortable safety of the lab and going out into the.. unfortunately dusty streets of this world's NYC. Raph was right, they needed to speed up the process and having an extra lookout would definitely help.

Dee just groaned and threw his head back in a small huff before straightening back upwards. "Alright, I'll do it," he said firmly. "But we need to make sure we have all the necessary equipment and supplies before we go."

Raph nodded in agreement and Mikey stepped in, beginning to list off everything they would need for their outing. Dee listened intently, taking mental notes and making sure they wouldn't forget anything important. As Mikey went on, now listing things he thought were unnecessary, Dee couldn't help but feel grateful for his brothers' support and encouragement.

Maybe exploring this new dimension wouldn't be so bad after all.

Chapter Text

The rest of the day for Dee went smoothly, rambling on and on about anything his brain jumped to. He usually mumbled calculations and complaints about how to make the approaching outing easier for him under his breath, but every now and then Mikey jumped in and joined in about the latest thing the softshell was info dumping about.

Somehow, the conversation jumped from mechanics, to chemistry, to his personal lab, to Mikey’s room, and they found themselves starting to clean the room. How they came to that point was beyond him as he found trash and clothes littered in pretty much every corner. Why did he even have clothes? Well, sure it's fun wearing them, especially for a montage with a groovy 80’s jam, but Mikey didn’t seem to have any big fashion statements, just a bunch of casual clothing.

Dee just exhaled softly as he picked up the nearest trash bag to throw out of the den, taking the time to just take a short, relaxing walk out of the room and towards the turnstiles, tossing the bag next to the giant stack of pizza boxes that the brothers kept swearing they would throw away.

The walk back was quiet for once, his thoughts finally pausing for a bit as he just hummed contently, finally having the chance to clear his head. That was until a small clanking sound took Don's attention, instantly jerking his head towards the sound.

Following where it came from, Dee found himself staring at the entrance to his counterpart's room, the Donatello inside being muffled as he cursed lightly, the clanging only getting more frantic.

As Dee made his presence known by knocking on the wall before stepping into the room, he noted that Donnie looked like he had just thrown something before snapping his back straight up as he looked towards the younger turtle, obviously surprised to see him there.

"Oh!" Donatello frantically jerked back, his arms slipping as he did so causing his stance to unbalance. "Hi Don!"

Dee’s gaze looked around the room carefully, looking for anything out of the ordinary before turning back to the other turtle. "..Whatcha doing?-"

"Nothing!" Donatello had replied instantly, spilling the word without hesitation. Don only raised an eyebrow, letting the sweat roll down the other turtle's forehead as his counterpart's eyes darted all over the room. A small huff from Dee was all it took for Donnie to retract slightly into himself, speaking quietly. "...Don't tell the others…" A slight pause rose as he swallowed. "Or make fun of me.."

As Donnie turned back around, he had moved to the side, letting Dee take in the view.

Small potted plants were aligned along the desk in a small indent in the wall, covered by a curtain. By first glance, the curtain would completely obscure the plants, making it obvious to Dee they were a secret thing. Looking closer, the plants were a smorgasbord of variety, just 5 small pots. A cactus off to the far left, sat next to a blue iris. Parallel to it on the far right sat a small fern, next to it, a sweet william. And finally, sat perfectly in the center, a healthy red hibiscus.

Taking a few steps closer, Don examined the small garden thoroughly, grinning to himself as his mind ran with all sorts of remarks, setting on just holding back any mockings. “Woww.. Quite a selection you have. Very.. Interesting.”

Donnie nearly started holding his breath as the strange reaction of the softshell. “..Yeeah.. What's with the.. the tone..?"

"..Oh nothing, nothing.." Don smiled, leaning back. "I just assume you didn't buy these yourself?" As the words left his beak, Dee noticed his counterpart flinch slightly.

"They were… Uh.." Donnie began mumbling, Slowly turning into a soft whisper as his face burnt up pink. "...Given to me by Casey.."

Dee couldn't hold back a very smug grin at the blush on Donnie's face, basking in how nerdy and cheesy the turtle was. So his counterpart had a soft spot for plants. Scratch that, his counterpart had a soft spot for Casey. Not to mention it was so painfully obvious.

He held a hand over his mouth to cover his growing smile, but he was pretty sure his eyes gave him away because Donnie took notice and instantly began panicking. "H-Hey! Stop with that stupid look! So I take care of plants, so what?! A scientist should always keep their options open!!"

"Hey, no judgments here, man." Don tried speaking casually, but couldn't help snickering, especially while glancing at the well maintained red hibiscus smack in the center. "I mean.. I didn't peg your Casey for the romantic type." He cackled, continuing to tease. Seeing his counterpart get so flustered was amusing, further wondering what other nerdy surprises the other turtle had the habit of hiding.

Donnie in return frantically threw the curtain back over the wall, obscuring the pots from view while his face just burned brighter with every word.

Dee just continued. "So is he the cheesy pickup line kinda guy or is he actually good at flirting? What about gestures?"

"The.. the first one.." Donnie muttered in disbelief before shaking his head. "Waitwait- why are you so nosy about this? I assumed you weren't a romance guy!"

"Oh I'm not. But this turtle is definitely one for the drama, and this is like missing a whole trilogy! C'mon let me know!"

With a sharp groan, Donnie just pushed his counterpart out of the door and into the hallway. "Nope! Get out of my room!"

As he was pushed out, a slam sounding from right behind him. Dee pouted slightly before grinning wide, proud of his work of teasing the hell out of his dimensional self. Taking a small stretch to ease his sensitive shell from the sudden push as he sighed through his nose.

“Hey!” A sudden call caught Don’s attention, as he looked over to see Mikey peeking out of his bedroom’s door frame. “What took ya so long?”

“Oh! My bad, Michael.” Dee coughed slightly, making his way back into Mikey’s room, which seemed a bit tidier now with no garbage, clothes, or moldy food on the floor. “My lovely counterpart Donatello just.. distracted me, is all.'

Mikey paused, narrowing his eyes with a smirk before leaning in to whisper. “..Did you see the flowers?”

Don’s beak instantly curled into a smile as he nodded, keeping down his laughter as he muttered. “You know?”

“Oh dude, we all do! He thinks he’s keeping it a secret, but he’s always been a bad liar! Especially about his romances.” Mikey snickered softly.

“No way. Tell me, how far are they? Like.. ‘secret dating’ phase or ‘on and off’ phase?”

“Ugghhh..” Mikey groaned into his hands before talking through his teeth. “More like ‘painfully obvious they want to be a thing but keep dancing around it so it's just tons of trying to take the hint but being so stupid it flies over their heads like a game of tug and war with no rope..’ phase..”

Don laughed out loud at that, covering his mouth to repress his giggles. “I would say this is a classic Donatello overthink, but I think overthink is an understatement.”

“Right?! I mean, I can't blame him, but is it that hard to just ask someone on a date? Raph asked out Mona like a week after meeting her! ..Don't quote me on that. We were in space and I can't count up there.” Mikey sighed heavily, leaning back to be dramatic for a few seconds.

Dee raised an eyebrow, tilting his head slightly. “..What do you mean you can't blame him?”

“Oh..” Mikey breathed sharply through gritted teeth before slightly exhaling. “You know how, like, a long time ago he had a crush on April? Well, they were the classic on again off again kinda crush and it was like.. mega toxic from both of them. So, when Donnie finally got himself to stop, he kinda promised to work on himself better and just stayed friends with her.”

Dee’s eyes widened a bit. “Woah.. Seriously? I mean, I knew he was a sad, pathetic nerd so this just proves I’m the better counterpart.” He chuckled with a lighthearted tone, earning a smack to the shoulder from Mikey, who grinned widely.

“Hey, c’mon! It's not fair to compare scientists to each other. Especially when one doesn’t know how to confess to the guy he likes!” Mikey spoke a bit louder, pausing with a smirk before hearing a shout from the other room.

“I can hear you two! Shut up about my love life, it's none of your business!!”

The two burst out laughing, granting the purple turtle’s wishes and quieting down. Somehow, Donnie's outburst reminded Mikey of a different topic completely, as they went off on another tangent, changing the topic out of nowhere.

Chapter Text

A familiar cold chill gave Dee a chill up his spine as a gust of wind grazed his skin. He quickly shuddered, shaking his head in a jolt. His face scrunched up at the freezing night air, looking up to see the dark, cloud-filled sky.

Looking back at the group, He took notice of the 4 brothers, as well as a tuft of red hair that he didn’t want to pay attention to. Don couldn’t help himself, humming in frustration, already regretting his decision to join the group. "..Okay but, counter point, do I have to go?"

"Yep.” Raph spoke without hesitation.

“It's good to have as many people as possible for this.” Leo added, causing another groan from the youngest.

"I don't know what we're looking for!" Dee huffed, trying to grasp onto any excuse he could.

"Simple, If you see any type of weird Kraang tech, call us. If you don't, head back to base." Leo spoke, before hopping onto a nearby sign. "Don't get caught, stay in the shadows, stay out of sight, and be safe."

“Okay mom.” Donnie sighed. “Do you have to repeat that for every parole we go on?”

“Don’t complain. That goes for both of you.” Leo said again, pointing at the two purple clad turtles, earning another groan from both.

Then, just like that, one by one, everyone disappeared. Raph shrugging, April humming, Donnie grumbling, and Mikey waving. Dee was left alone to hop along the rooftops, going in a separate direction from the group.

Patrol really was boring, nothing to see around New York but the same dusty alley 20 different times and the rooftops that almost meshed together. The most he got out of this was seeing a stray cat but that was pretty much it. It was starting to get uncomfortable out here, the unfamiliar area making it hard to scope out.

As he landed on his 17th roof, (he had been counting since he was bored out of his mind) he sighed and slapped his cheeks to try and force him back on the right track. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind.. Looking back up, he scanned the area swiftly, looking for any signs of suspicious scraps, but anywhere he looked he saw heaps of metal, garbage, or just nothing of interest. Not to mention the city was eerily quiet, and he shuddered at the lack of loud sounds and bright colors.

Hopping onto his next roof, he took a small sigh as he, once again, saw nothing suspicious. Though a clear of the throat behind him took his attention, as he spun his head around to see the very familiar and unwelcome head of red-hair standing above him.

"Nice night, isn't it?" April spoke, not looking at the turtle.

"Oh great." Dee muttered before scoffing back. "It was until now. What do you want?"

"Nothing much!" April chuckled before jumping off the ledge and landing in front of him, glaring sharply. "I just want to know what your deal is.. and why you're invading my home."

Dee's eyes narrowed. He could tell she was trying to get a rise out of him, but he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. "And that means?"

She only shrugged as she took another step around him. "I'm just saying the amount of tech on your body alone is extremely advanced. Almost too advanced if you ask me.. In fact, I can't tell where it's from."

“Thanks for the compliment.” He scoffed, muttering sarcastically. At this, April only scrunched her face more.

"Quit it. I want answers, mutant." She spat. "You're not Donnie. You look completely different, almost like an imitation, and I'm not falling for your tricks."

"Wow! You know how the multiverse works! Amazing."

"Oh come on! You expect me to believe that?! Admit it! You work for the Kraang, don't you? You're just trying to make more victims because your kind just doesn't know when to quit!"

"Oh my god-" Dee groaned into his hands. "I said what happened, it was just a small malfunction that ended me up here. If you want to be stupid and accuse me of working for your Kraang you can do it far away from me."

"I gave you a chance. The lies end now." April glared, but Don couldn't deduce with what expression before her eyes started.. glowing??? Her pupils had been submerged in a bright light and he swore he saw the end of her hair float upward.

Before he could double take, April moved quickly, gripping the softshell's arm tightly.

"What the hell-"

He couldn't even finish his sentence before the headache started, a burning sensation, a stab in the side of his head. The sudden jolt was jarring, making him recoil, throwing his head downward. His vision felt blurry, and a faint white tint shrouded his vision, but April's grip still stood firm.

Then, the visions started.

Dee's mind was flooded with images, flashes of his own memories. He saw himself at his desk, typing away programs for Shelldon, he saw himself arguing with Leo about the Lair Games, he saw himself huddled in a group hug with his brothers crying his eyes out, something he never expected to do.

The visions were mixed up and out of context. It was overwhelming and the splitting headache made it painful.

Suddenly something strange happened, he saw some scenes that weren't him. One of April hugging her dad, her fighting off androids, stressed and worried. Her.. stuck in some sort of dissection machinery..

Her staring at her mother. Terrified and petrified.

That's when he managed to break away, shutting his eyes and yanking his arm back to his side. He instantly took several steps back, backing up greatly to give distance between them.

His head pounded in his skull, tearing away took too much effort, leaving his mind in anguish. He felt everything, even what she had felt.

Panic, distress, Her mental state when staring at that beast resembling her mother.

She wasn't human, not fully.

She was half Kraang..

Half Kraang.

Mumbling from the red-head snapped his attention back to her, watching as April pointed an accusatory finger towards him. "I wasn't done! Maybe you.. you just got implanted with fake memories! Come on, admit it!"

Don couldn’t respond, something caught in his throat made any attempts at speaking useless. It's not like he was trying to anyway, instead just slowly looking up at April. The girl took a hard jerk away from the turtle’s gaze, nervousness quickly rising before she scoffed in her throat.

“Well?!” April repeated.

Nothing. Instead he took a few moments to realize he was giggling under his breath before it burst out into full on laughter.

The sudden break out made April take another step back, her expression only getting more irritated. “You’re laughing- What's with the laughing..?!”

Don took a breath, repressing his giggles behind his grin. He reached behind him and took hold of his bō.

“I was waiting for an excuse to hit you.”

When the words left his mouth, Dee lunged forward.

Chapter Text

When the words left his mouth, Dee lunged forward.

With his fist clasped around the wood of his bō, his body weight shifted when he leaned his head downwards right before sharply leaning back, his leg swinging quickly to aim at April's head.

The kick connected with April's arm, causing a tsk from the kunoichi as Don's leg leaned its weight into her block, her hair floating at the ends once more.

She, in turn, ducked under Don's leg, pushing him up and over her head. throwing him across the rooftop.

Dee quickly regained balance, using his movement to flip back upright midair, his body twisting around to land on his feet. His expression kept that dark look across his eyes, a smirk now pairing with it. April wasted no time and lunged forward, her fists clenched tightly.

The softshell hastily sidestepped, avoiding the punch and unsheathing his bō and swinging to wack it at her side.

When April staggered back at the hit, she shook her head before scrunching her face in irritation, pulling out her fan and flicking her wrist to snap open the weapon. Dee, in turn, spun the bō in his hands before swinging again. This time though, the redhead ducked under the staff and thrusted herself forward, slicing the fan blades along the wooden staff and smacking it away, causing Don to unbalance. The redhead took the opportunity to give the softshell a solid knee-kick, hurling the turtle into the rooftop wall.

Don slightly groaned in pain before gritting his teeth, looking up to see April luge at him again, but he quickly turned his bō horizontal, making the redhead push the staff into his chest. She didn't let up, instead throwing the bō up and out of his hands, letting it clack on the ground a couple feet away.

April moved her arm to pin his chest against the concrete, but Don moved quicker, lunging forward, his jaw clenching in fury.

The kunoichi instantly faltered, screaming in pain as she yanked herself away, giving a large distance between the two.

"GAH!- Did you just freaking bite me?!"

"You had it coming." Don scowled, leaning down to snatch a wood splinter, his eyes glistening a bright purple as another staff materialized in his grip, brightly glowing as he swung the newly formed bō around his arms, molding crevasses into the, now tech-like, wood, several small missiles emerging from the weapon.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent the barrage of projectiles hurtling towards April, grinning at her shocked expression as she scrambled to dodge the missiles, narrowly avoiding each one as they exploded into dust onto the concrete.

"For someone who trained with your Splinter, you're a horrible dancer!" Dee cackled, causing a frustrated grunt from the redhead.

"Your stupid Hamato whatever won't stop me!" April shouted, using her legs to propel herself towards him again, taking another strike with her fan blades, a move Dee quickly sidestepped.

"What, upset the only powers you have are invading someone's personal thoughts? I thought you liked being nosey!" Dee grinned, flipping backwards to position himself into another lunge.

"SHUT UP! I never wanted these powers!"

That sentence finally snapped some sense into Don, his expression quickly morphing in confusion. He quickly whipped his head up over towards the red-head. April, who was in the middle of a fan swing, had also frozen with shock, surprising herself with what she had seemingly blurted out.

“I-” She had begun to retort, but her mouth hung open with no words. Dee blinked before pressing his mouth into a thin line, the purple glow glistening gently on his body. “April-”

But any sentence Don was going to say was cut off by a loud, stressful groan from the girl. He watched as the red-head turned away, throwing her fan to the ground harshly, before crouching down, hands to her head.

Don, confused, allowed the silence to take over for a few moments before speaking up. “Listen, I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but.. Are you mentally good?” He winced a bit, wishing he’d rephrase that into something better-sounding, but it was too late now. April’s mouth twisted, trying to find the words, until she just sighed.

“It’s just- I’ve had to deal with stupid mutants and world-threatening aliens.. You don’t know how many times I’ve been in danger or kidnapped, I’m sick of it! All I wanted was to get to know the others, I wanted to learn how to protect myself so they wouldn’t have to waste energy saving me all the time, I wanted to just offer support when they needed it!" April raised her volume, her voice cracking as she did so. "I never wanted to become some- Kraang superweapon freak!"

"On top of all that I-" The red-head gave a slight inhale. "My dad was thrown into all this mutant stuff too.. I just- I hated seeing people I care about in all this mess!"

After sharing a small silence, as well as a back glance, April sighed and continued. “So when I saw you, I instantly thought; it was another trick, some new sick joke to hurt us.” She sighed before she turned her head away, mumbling. "But now I just.. feel embarrassed about this. I can't help being so.. overprotective of them. They're my brothers.. but that means you are too.. I'm sorry, alright?"

That got Dee to give a lopsided and awkward smirk, something he'd never expected doing. "Well, I don't think I can blame you.. My April is also very protective of us, especially after the Kraang incident. Hell, none of us left Leo alone after what he did."

"Heh. That tracks. After Leo woke up from his coma, we barely left him on his own. I think he got sick of it after a while.”

A light laugh was shared between the two, an unexpected reaction from both as they surprised themselves with it. Looking down, Don spoke in a mumble.

"..If you want.. Can you tell me more about your situation? Being a half-kraang mutant really doesn't sound like a pretty origin story."

April had a slight pause before turning with a light scoff. "..Yeah you're right about that. It was all so overwhelming.. I couldn't control my powers so I lashed out. I hurt myself.. and I hurt the others.. a lot.." April sighed. "I've been trying so hard to make it back up to them, but it just feels like I'm being a burden."

"Well, maybe if you weren't so annoying-" Don instantly stopped that sentence when he saw April's face turn into a glare. "Sorry- sorry. What I mean is, maybe you don't need to make it up to them. I know my brothers, and it seems like just being alive and there for them is all they need. You don't need to swaddle them 24/7." He sighed, and leaned back, resting his head against the wall. “Besides, that really doesn’t give you the right to act like a complete bitch, No offense."

The kunoichi pondered this for a minute before giving a small exhale. "Hahh.. None taken. You always were the smart one, so.. I misjudged ya, Don. Again, I’m.. really sorry about all this. I have no excuse for how I treated you.." The red-head gave the turtle an embarrassed smile, one Dee gladly returned before raising his fist, letting the two share a mutual fist bump.

“Hey, I know an excellent doctor that can help with your whole trust issues thing. Not to be too harsh but you definitely need the help."

“Hah! If you say so, I’ll absolutely take the advice." April sighed. "I can't guarantee we won't butt heads after this but.. Thanks for not hurting my family."

"Really no problem at all."

…

"Hey- so when you said you "hurt the others" a lot-"

"Oh I really wasn't joking about that. I accidentally vaporized Donnie once.."

"YOU WHAT-"

Chapter Text

Hi! I haven't updated this fic in.. a long time so I think its finally about time I give anyone still willing to read this an update!

Long story short, don't worry! I don't plan to abandon this fic. In fact, its the opposite! I've started rewriting the entire thing. :)

I've recently gotten back into TMNT and such, felt I had to return to this fic and give it a polish. After a few rereads of the older chapters, I realized i was a bit unhappy with the style and figured I could just write it better, y'know?

As for why I haven't updated, life got in the way and I found myself a lot more tired and burnt out recently, mostly due to me starting an actual paying job. I haven't been able to get into a creative mindset and was in a funk most days. Fortunately, I've found a breakthrough and got back into actually making stuff! :3

SO, If you're interested or wondering why this fic hasn't updated in 2 years, here you go!