Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pat, pat, pat.

Every sound his feet made against the grimy floors of the sewer tunnels was turning his foul mood even worse, if that were possible.  His nearly silent footsteps weren’t nearly quiet enough to escape his sharp hearing, and the texture of damp cloth pressing up against him made him want to tear his skin off. The air was cold enough to send chills down his spine and leave goosebumps where he was exposed, but not cold enough for him to swallow his pride and turn tail back to the lair. Back to his brothers. 

It was a stupid argument. Stupid in Raph’s opinion, anyway. So what if winter was rolling in a bit earlier than usual? That was no reason to stop the patrols so early in the year. (Except this time, Master Splinter wasn’t here with them. This year, there wasn’t going to be anyone there when they get home to check on them except an empty lair an empty dojo and it’s emptyemptyemptyemptyempTY) There hadn’t even been an inch of snow yet, but Mr. Perfect insisted that the ice and snow would pose ‘too much of a threat’ and other excuses he hadn’t bothered listening to. He didn’t want to hear it, especially when Leo was the one who fought the Shredder and his goons in the snow during the invasion (glass, a brother in blue bathed in a colour so familiar). And of course Mikey was ecstatic to stay in, having begged Leo to skip patrol on this day specifically for a special rerun of an “Ultra Super Mega Awesome Show!!” Or so they were told for the millionth time. Leo had been denying him for weeks until he saw the sheets of ice forming on the streets and roofs of New York their last patrol. And of course Donnie piped in, spouting the same speech he did every year about hypothermia or whatever and how they were cold blooded and more at risk and blah, blah blah! Wether it was the combined efforts of Donnie and Mikey or Leo’s own concern, he had officially declared that they’d have to stay in the tunnels for awhile, at least until the city cleaned up the snow or when the weather got warmer. 

A small growl escaped his throat, low and rebounding in the cramped sewer tunnel. And therein lies the problem - these stupid, stupid tunnels. Raphael was fine with living in the sewers! Of course he was, it’s where he was raised and was one of the only safe places a bunch of mutants like his family could stay after all. He could never truly hate it when it was the only home he’d ever known. But the surface - the surface was everything he’d ever dreamed of, everything he didn’t even know to dream of! The tall, open walls that opened up to the sky, the seemingly endless space to run around, the fresh air, the action - the sewers could never compare to how liberating it felt to be up there. The others just didn’t get it. While Donnie could go weeks holed up in the confined space of his lab, slouched over some invention of his, Raph had to be moving. And while Mikey was more than happy to laze around the layer eating pizza or reading comics or watching tv, Raphael needed to go out and run. And Leo -

He scoffed, absentmindedly letting a hand drift to one of his sai - rubbing the rough leather handle with the tip of his thumb. His fingers felt itchy. He drew both his sai in a flash, changing his gait to something that looked less casual and more predatory. Unlike Leo who liked to spend his time meditating, going over Sensei’s teachings like a broken record, Raphael needed to get his fists bruised and bloody. He needed that rush as much as he needed to breathe. He tightened his grip on his sai, even when he finally approached a ladder leading up to a manhole cover. They just didn’t get it. Feeling his temper rise, he climbed the ladders with his beloved weapons, unwilling to put them back on his belt. Raph shoved the metal disk blocking his way to freedom aside, getting even more upset when it got stuck on something. With a loud grunt, he put more strength into his arms, practically flinging the damn thing into a wall. He launches himself out of the manhole, landing with less grace than he’d ever admit. He shuddered, the cold air hitting him full force. Still, he was going to bust some heads no matter what, even if it’s the last thing he does!

[ 2 hours later ]

HOW!? How is it possible for there to be absolutely 0 illegal activities of any kind in the entire city of New- fucking- York!? He’s not sure if this is the Universe’s way of saying “Fuck you, Raphael! Leo and the others were right!” or if it was just some cruel joke, but he swears he’s one hair thin trigger away from committing actual murder. He spread his senses as far as they could go,  searching desperately for a sign, any sign of trouble. The skitters of creatures below, the sound of the wind whistling past his ears, some old lady humming, a monotone man speaking funny- wait.

A small whisper of voices that didn’t sound quite human sent him vaulting over rooftops in record time, excitement rising at the thought of finally getting some action. He peered over the edge, catching sight of several Kraang bots carrying... something, into a nondescript building. Raphael couldn’t make out what it was, but it looked pretty high tech. If Donnie were here Raph bet he’d know what it was.

“But Don isn’t here right now, is he? I am.” He thought vindictively. Whatever that thing was, it was obviously bad news. He started making his way down, adrenaline thrumming through his veins as he got closer and closer. He listened as the Kraang held what seemed to be a casual conversation.

“This piece the Kraang has acquired will be perfect for the Kraang’s plan for which the Kraang have planned.”

“Indeed, Kraang. Kraang will be pleased when Kraang sees what the Kraang have found for Kraang.”

The Kraang seemed to have all their attention on whatever that thing was, making it exceedingly easy to slip in behind them before they closed the door. Immediately he drifted to the shadows, watching as the six- no, seven- Kraang bots carried it to something that looked like a portal. Several more Kraang bots converged around the new piece, taking it from the others and bringing it to an empty section of the portal. If that thing is what he thinks it is, then they must be trying to free the rest of the Kraang from dimension X!

Not waiting for a chance to find out, Raphael tackled the closest Kraang bot. It fell to the floor with a clatter, too surprised to do anything before Raph plunged his sai into it’s head and ripped it off. Something flew past his head and imbedded itself in the wall, but he didn’t have time to see what it was before he heard the telltale sign of a Kraang blaster being fired. He flicked his wrist, sending a sai towards the noise before launching himself backwards to avoid the onslaught of gunfire. He rushed forwards towards the crowd of Kraang, reaching into his belt to grab his shuriken as he darted from side to side. Finding them, he pulled out four and locked onto his targets, hitting his marks with deadly accuracy. They fell over with a satisfying clatter, becoming nothing more than trash in an instant.

Within moments he was able to bridge the final bit of distance between him and his remaining prey, sweeping the legs out from one of them while grabbing the sai he threw earlier from the remains of a Kraang bot. He reared his head to target another one but stopped midway through when his vision swam. A hand reactively tried to go upwards to cradle his head, but was met with a laser blast instead. He hissed, drawing his hand back immediately and dropping his sai. He threw himself to the side to avoid a blast, landing on the bot he had knocked down earlier and ignoring his sudden wave of nausea. He ripped off the arm that was holding the gun and bashed the bot’s head in with it, deciding to keep the gun on a whim. Prying the hand off it, he was forced to roll away from yet another blast. He flipped out of the ball he formed, gaining some distance, and aimed the gun at the group of Kraang, pulling the trigger and letting loose. He kept on shooting as he dodged the return fire with ease. Well, what should have been ease at least. His feet felt clunky, like they were two sizes too big for his body, and his senses felt off. As if everything had been moved to the left by a few inches or something. The nausea and lightheaded-ness definitely wasn’t helping either.

Gritting his teeth, he rushed forwards again and only aknowledged every shot that made contact with a grimace. Once he was close enough, he threw the gun - knocking over a group of clustered Kraang and pouncing on them with a yell. He raised his sai and started stabbing at random, uncaring which part he hit as long as they just. Stayed. Down! Heaving, he was allowed a moment to admire his handiwork - a mess of wires and bent metal - before he heard something start rumbling. He spun around as fast as he dared, watching with abject horror as the portal started to form. 

A Kraang bot crawled out from underneath the platform the portal was perched on, looking at him with the most smug monotone expression he’d ever seen. It strutted towards him, brandishing a gun from who knows where. 

“The ones known as the turtles will not be able to stop the ones known as the Kraang this time, for the Kraang have-”

“Can it you ugly piece of scrap metal!” Raphael roared, charging the Kraang bot and pinning it to the floor. He ripped off its jaw so it couldn’t speak anymore and threw it towards the portal, watching with satisfaction as it disappeared into the eerie bluish purple glow. Finally alone, he allowed his body to sag, having a hard time stopping himself from collapsing. Eyeing the slowly growing portal, Raph couldn’t help but shudder - every sense of self-preservation he had was screaming at him to get away from it, while his much more important instincts told him to destroy it as soon as possible. 

Taking a glance around the destroyed room, he scanned it for anything that looked like a control panel. Seeing nothing, he growled and started heading towards the portal itself. He guessed it stood about 30 feet away from him and, with a groan, started limping towards it . Almost immediately after his first step, his vision swam and he gagged, barely stopping himself from retching. He planted his arms on his knees as they buckled, almost sending him tumbling to the floor. Breathing heavily, he started muttering curses under his breath as he continued his slow pace towards the portal. The Kraang must’ve fucking poisoned him! He rummaged around for his T-phone, intent on calling his brothers, but the thought of them made a spike of anger flare up again and he decided against it. Besides, disabling the portal couldn’t be too hard, right? Donnie did it all the time.

It was an agonizingly slow journey, especially considering the usual speed he possessed. Still, he inched his way forwards with determination. He was about ten feet away from the portal when a bone chilling presence started seeping into the room. It felt as though the temperature had dropped 15 degrees almost instantly and Raph froze where he stood. He felt every part of his body tense up as more adrenaline rushed his veins. There was something crawling - no, clawing - its way out from the portal. Sharp, elongated metal claws were coming out from the growing portal, accompanied by wriggling tentacles. A low, drawn out chuckle that sounded more like a hiss reached his ears, rebounding in his skull.

“Free... I will finally be free...!"

He moved with speed he shouldn’t have been capable of in his state - throwing himself forwards the last 10 feet and crawling up the pedestal. He desperately started stabbing the metal ring with his sai, praying to whatever deity up there that it’d work. But every blow seemed to deal no damage to the high tech portal, no matter how hard he hit it. The creature - whatever it was - seemed to know the futility of what he was doing, as it started laughing at him. The kind of deep, bone chilling laugh that crawled under his skin and writhed in his gut. Infuriated, he put even more force behind his strikes, growling when all they left were scratches.

“Shit, fuck!” He panted. He was out of breath. The fight took a lot out of him, not to mention the poison. He collapsed against the portal, head spinning in every direction. Something fleshy and warm brushed up against his leg, sending him scuttling backwards away from the disgusting feeling. A louder chuckle arose from the creature, rattling around his head. He thinks it was saying something to him - taunting him, surely - but he couldn’t quite hear that well anymore amidst the ringing.

His gaze fell on a pink tentacle slowly digging into the platform, helping the - creature - drag it’s body forwards and through the portal, but also wrenching the metal upwards and exposing the inner workings. He needs to- to what? He had to...

He pitched forwards without warning, falling into the mess of technology and landing directly. On. The tentacle. It wrapped around him in an instant, surprisingly not killing him immediately. He gagged as it prodded around, rubbing up against his plastron and shell with almost obsessive repetition, and - Ok he really was going to throw up if it kept touching him. He heard a warning hiss - surely an unintentional reaction - as it warned him enough to reach out and grip the nearby wires with inhuman strength as the tentacle tightened around him painfully, attempting to yank him upwards. 

“Are you... one of them?”

And Raphael really, really wish he knew what that meant, because maybe then he could’ve answered with something witty before he died to some freaky Kraang/Shredder fusion. The tentacle was trying to drag him out from his bed of circuits and wires, but every time it yanked, even more seemed to weave between his limbs. He heard another hiss, louder this time, as it slithered away. He wheezed as a pressure around his chest he hadn’t noticed left with the tentacle’s presence. Ok, cool. Cool. Yeah, this is ok.

And then he shrieked as he was wrenched halfway from his hiding space by the leg. Luckily, his right arm was wrapped securely with several thick wires. But the creature was relentless - it kept pulling, jerking his body back and forth to try and shake him from his safe spot. He risked a glance backwards, regretting it immediately as a bright red light met his eyes. He shut them, not wanting to see anymore of what exactly was holding his leg. That.. thing, couldn’t come into their universe. Not in a million years.

“..you... wretch... tur..!”

Raph reached towards the cables with his free hand and grasped them with all the strength he could muster, starting to rip them apart. But soon he ran out of cables within arms length, all except... He fumbled around for his backup kunai, dropping several before managing to close his fist around one. As he gripped the knife and stared at his target, an unbidden thought came to mind.

‘My brothers are going to be so mad.’ The uncharacteristically Mikey-like thought had him giggling despite himself as he swung his knife. 

And cut the wires around his arm.

Chapter Text

The effect was immediate - the ground trembled as the portal vibrated and sparked with increasing intensity and started fluctuating at a rapid pace. Raphael grunted as the creature tossed him to the side in favour of digging it’s appendages into the metal foundation as a strong vacuum started to drag it back in. He cried out as a blinding flash of pain invaded his senses as he landed on his arm. He glanced at his arm, cursing when he saw purple and yellow bruising crawling from his collarbone to his shoulder that was definitely the wrong shape. But he didn’t get to ruminate on his newly acquired injury as a loud shriek pierced his ears and felt himself getting dragged backwards by the vacuum. He instinctively held onto the edge of the ruined platform with his remaining good arm, growling when he couldn’t get a good grip. He just - had to - outlast - the creature! 

Dark spots filled his vision as the screams slowly faded away, replaced by an incessant ringing. He risked checking behind him, and shit it was still hanging on! He needed to push it through somehow - but how?

Turns out, he didn’t need to do anything at all as the metal platform started peeling, getting dragged into the portal. He watched with wide eyes, holding his breath when the Kraang-Shredder fusion was finally pushed backwards via the force of a metal sheet getting thrown into its face. 

And Raph would have been celebrating if he, too, wasn’t moments away from getting dragged into the now completely blue portal. He felt more than saw the metal he was gripping onto start to peel. As it finally wrenched free, he flew through the air along with it into the vibrant blue.

[ In another universe only minutes before. ]

“Listen, this is totally gonna work. Just trust me!” 

“Ok, so even if-”

“When! When it works you mean.” 

“No, I mean if. Even if it works, why would we ever need to do this?”

Leo scoffed as Donnie looked at him with obvious exasperation, hooking an arm around his shoulder and tucking him against his side as he gestured to his creation. “Because it’s so much cooler than eating it normally, duh!”

Leo’s ‘creation’ was an obstacle course crafted out of makeshift catapults, elastic bands, marbles, some dominoes, a xylophone and a toy car. It was made for the express purpose to launch food through his portal while also providing some entertainment, or so Leo claimed. A slice of pizza rested on a small platform of a mini catapult at the end of the elaborate setup.

“You see my dear brother, you’re not the only one who was gifted with mechanical prowess!” Leo released Donnie with a small nudge, ignoring how his twin dramatically fell to the floor with a small ‘ow’. “Any other questions?”

“Yeah, I do,” Donatello groaned from his place on the floor. “Does your asininity know no bounds?”

“First off, I don’t even know what that word means so it does nothing to me. Second off, any questions from anyone except Donnie?” Leo glanced at his two other brothers, grinning when they gave him a thumbs up. 

“Alright! Now let the show-” He grabbed his odachi from its sheath and opened a portal in front of himself while also knocking over a row of dominoes. “- begin!”

A green blur shot out of the blue gate and crashed into the red slider, sending them both careening into the wall. Leo groaned, grimacing at the new ache in his shell and the feeling of dust settling over his skin. Feeling a weight on top of him, he shoved it away as if it had burned him and propelled himself forwards, gaining some distance. His brothers were at his side immediately, alert and on guard. However, instead of some alien lifeform (pink, gray, deadly), laying on the floor was...

“A... turtle?” 

Mikey was the first to approach it, keeping his kusari-fundo in his hands just in case. Raph let out a small warning hiss, which Mikey promptly ignored in favour of prodding their unexpected guest. He poked them twice with his foot, gauging their reaction. None. Leo looked towards Donnie and Raph, giving them a small nod before joining Mikey in his little inspection. Mikey had flipped the stranger on their shell, letting him get a closer look at their face. He blinked in surprise, noting the red bandana. He felt Leo brush against him. 

A small, contemplative hum escaped Leo as he analyzed the other turtle. They were around Mikey’s size and had a red bandanna wrapped around their face, a lightning shaped chip in their plastron, wrappings around their hands and feet as well as a belt with a singular sai hooked on it. Their shoulder looked misshapen and was a mix of purple, blue and yellows. They had several burn marks scattered around their body, a cut on their cheek along with deep bruising that covered almost their entire leg and snaked around their other arm. Taking in their current condition, it was clear they wouldn’t be a threat. 

“Alright, all entrances have been shut down,” Donnie shuffled beside him, taking in the new stranger as well, “And that is... who, exactly?”

Leo shrugged his shoulders. “No idea. Never seen them a day in my life. They’re pretty banged up though, huh?”

“Well that wasn’t obvious at all.” Donnie scoffed, sarcasm dripping from every word. “How’d they go through your portal anyways?” 

“I have no idea! I only opened one portal, so-”

“Alright, so, ignoring the fact they came through Leo’s portal-” Raph interjected, stepping between the twins and scooping up their guest, “-what’re we gonna do with em? Take them to a doctor?”

“Do we even know any doctors?” Donnie questioned. 

They all hummed in contemplation. Mikey’s eyes widened ever so slightly and made a small, happy chirp before jumping in front of his brothers, snapping them out of their musing.

“Guys! I’VE GOT IT!” He exclaimed. 

“You do?” 

“Yeah! And he should be able to fix them up too and, well, there’s only one guy I know who would know more about mutant turtles than us-”

Leo groaned, slouching over as someone came to mind. “Please don’t say who I think you’re going to-”

“Draxum!” Mikey shot Leo a big smile, which only caused Leo to groan more. 

“Speaking of Draxum, ya think maybe our new guest is another one of his, uh- lab experiments?” Raph fumbled his words, obviously uncomfortable with calling themselves experiments. “I mean, how many more mutated turtles could there be?”  

“Unlikely, seeing as our guest came from Leo’s portal and not through the wall on a rampage.” Donnie snarked, a robot hand coming out from his shell to poke and prod at the stranger, which Raph shooed away almost immediately.

Raphael and Donnie looked at him expectantly, making his heart rate jump. Okay, right. He was leader now, so that means he has to make the decisions. He looked between Mikey and the stranger, back to Mikey, then back to the stranger. The stranger who could very well be their sibling. He bit his lip, memories of free falling coming to mind, then sighed in defeat. 

“Ok, fine. We’ll go see the sheep man.” 

Mikey cheered as Leo recalled Draxum’s apartment and opened a portal (not in front of him this time), directing his brothers through first before trailing behind them. Stepping through into Draxum’s apartment, Leo shut the portal behind him as Mikey called for (regrettably) their creator. Some intense shuffling was heard before the ex-mad scientist himself emerged from the kitchen. Mikey, excitable as always, practically skipped over with Raph in tow.

“Heya Barry!” The box-turtle greeted him enthusiastically. Draxum smiled, if only a little bit, and pat him on the head.

“Hello, Michelangelo.” He turned to Raph, immediately eyeing the injured turtle in his arms. “And greetings to you as well, Raphael. I assume you require my assistance with... that.” 

Raph nodded, and Draxum spun on his heel and started leading them to his bedroom. Leo and Donnie stalked up from behind, climbing onto Raph as the snapper followed Draxum. The yokai directed Raph to lay down the turtle on his bed as he started digging through his drawers. After a short search, he pulled out several vials, needles and bandages. He approached the mysterious turtle and began drawing blood. “I assume you haven’t brought this turtle to me out of the goodness of your hearts. Care to explain?”

Leo huffed, crossed his arms and readjusted his position on Raph’s shoulder. “Well if you have to know, this fella flew out of my portal outa nowhere. Also, why are you stealing their blood?”

Draxum raised an eyebrow, obviously skeptical. Donnie pitched in from Raph’s opposite shoulder. “It’s true. I even have video evidence, if you want.”

“No need,” said Draxum, “I have no reason to doubt your claims.”

“No seriously, why are you taking their blood.”

Draxum ignored Leo’s question and stood from where he was crouched, lightly swirling a vial of blood. Walking over to a bookshelf, he parted the wooden frames with a sweep of his hand, revealing a small room full of bright machines and drawing small impressed noises from Mikey and Raph. Leo rolled his eyes - the magic townhouse was so much cooler. The turtles filed in behind him and Leo shuddered as he watched Draxum pour the blood into some weird looking machine, causing it to start glowing and spit out pages with weird numbers and symbols.

“Whatcha doing?” Mikey peaked from behind Draxum’s back, looking at the printed pages with confusion. 

The yokai barely paid him any mind, eyes trailing the lines of numbers and symbols with growing intrigue. Still, he answered, “In simple terms - a blood test, to see if this creature is a mutant or a yokai. The two do need different types of care, after all. But from what I’m seeing... fascinating.”

Leo didn’t like that tone of voice. That tone of voice meant that Baron Draxum was interested in something, and that was never a good thing. Like, ever. He hopped off of Raph’s shoulder and tapped him twice, entering their mental link and urging him to do the same. 

‘What is it Leo?’ His older brother’s voice filtered into his head.

‘Go back to the new guy. I can’t trust Draxum not to do anything shady with them, especially when he has that weird look in his eye.’ Leo sent, mistrust thrumming into their link from his side in waves. Raph sighed, but started heading back to the bed anyways.

‘Fine, I’ll do it if it makes you feel better. But you know, Draxum isn’t all bad. You see how he is with Mikey.’ Raph answered. ‘I’m not saying you have to trust him 100%, but could you at least do 50?’

Leo didn’t answer, pushing down his rising annoyance and cutting off their mental link before it could filter through to Raph. Taking a small breath, he calmed down and refocused on Draxum. 

“- they don’t have any empyrean in their system. Which means that they aren’t a yokai, nor a mutant. Not one created by my Oozesquitoes at least.”

“So what, are they - like - an alien?” Leo shifted from leg to leg, feeling awkward. Mikey heard him, looking back, seemingly startled. They had a brief moment of eye contact before the box turtle looked away, a look of guilt flashing across his face. Leo crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway, pointedly ignoring memories of a deep, dark voice and a dead land. Great, leave it to him to somehow bring yet another alien to Earth.

“Hm, not quite. The ooze in their system is quite similar to the one I created. Although, it seems whatever created them gave them much weaker regeneration than the kind that you and your brothers possess.” Draxum huffed, puffing his chest out. “I suppose they couldn’t produce a substance as high quality or refined as mine.”

Draxum turned away from the paper spitting machine and strutted over to Leo, simply acknowledging him with a simple nod as he passed by. Leo didn’t reciprocate. Mikey followed him, brushing against Leo’s shoulder and sending him an apologetic look. Leo just sighed, caught up to him and nudged his side. Apology accepted.

Draxum returned to the mysterious turtle’s bedside, a bottle that said hydrogen peroxide and a bag of cotton swabs in hand from who knows where. He cleaned the cut on the turtle’s cheek thoroughly, but surprising gentle. Then he gently took hold of the turtle’s shoulder, maneuvering it around for a bit. After what felt like hours (which had really only been a little over a minute), the yokai seemed to finally find what he was looking for as he stopped moving the turtle, and instead braced a hand against their chest and shoulder and pushed. The motion made a decently loud popping noise and made the others recoil. Gross!

“Dude, what was that?!” Leo squawked. 

 “I was fixing their dislocated shoulder.” Draxum continued his little inspection as if he hadn’t just made everyone in the room immediately ten times more uncomfortable. After another awkward minute, he stepped back. “Well, that’s all I can do for his physical injuries. From my quick analysis, he seems to have some poison in his system as well. Of course, there is a way I can solve both of these problems.”

He flitted to the small room, returning with a small syringe filled with a blue glowing substance. Leo stood in front of the new turtle immediately, sword in hand, blocking Draxum’s path. Donnie followed suit, hand hovering near his tech-bo. Tension filled the two, which eventually bled over to Raph and Mikey.

“What are you doing?” Leo’s voice came out darker and more threatening than the lighthearted quip he intended, but it did it’s job in making Draxum pause. The yokai let out a long, tired sigh as if he was the one who had to deal with a (most likely) insane ex-scientist who was about to inject an unconscious stranger with some glowing blue liquid. Then he raised both hands in mock surrender and stepped forwards slowly, raising Leo’s hackles even further.

“Calm down,” said Draxum. “It’s not a harmful substance. It is simply the part of the ooze that I used to create you four that induces accelerated healing. It’s already in his system anyhow, though in much smaller quantities. Now move, child. Or would you rather the poison take him out?”

Leo scrutinized the yokai’s face for any sign of deception, lowering his sword when he found none. He hesitated before stepping to the side, watching Donnie do the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mikey climb on top of Raph who shot him a concerned look. They’d have a talk about this later for sure, but right now, all Leo wanted to do was to make sure Draxum didn’t turn the new turtle into his latest test subject. Leo watched him carefully move their less bruised arm and feel around with his fingers before carefully inserting the needle. Once he was done, he quickly pulled out the needle and held a cotton ball against the small puncture wound. 

Seconds later, the body beneath him started convulsing, heavy gasps and choked screams clawing their way out of their throat. Leo lunged towards Draxum to get him away, but someone else reached him first. A bo-staff slammed into the yokai’s chest, drawing a heavy grunt and forcing him to the other side of the room. Donnie brandished his staff as if it were a knife, and - knowing his brother - it definitely could be. Raph rushed over to the mystery turtle’s side and restrained their arms that had started to claw at their own skin. Leo turned his gaze on Draxum, anger filling him. He knew it. He KNEW IT! 

“What the HELL, man!” He growled. “I KNEW we couldn’t trust you!”

Draxum simply brushed off some imaginary dust and stood to his full height, and - ( the Krang had made an exoskeleton. A tall, sleek exoskeleton that was going to tear him from limb, to limb, to limb - ) and walked out of the room. Leo stood there, breaths coming in short and fast as he waited for Draxum to come back. To - to finish the job, or whatever. He didn’t. The screams and gasps from behind him had stopped, a strained breathing replacing them instead. A hand came up to rest on his shell and he spun around, coming face to face with Mikey. Mikey, his little brother. His little brother who was not the one writhing on the bed in agony. Leo felt himself droop, adrenaline fuelled panic leaving his body in one smooth wave.

“Leo, it’s ok. They’re getting better, see?” Leo’s eyes followed to where Mikey was directing them, digesting the scene in front of him. Indeed, the turtle’s bruising was already clearing up, and the cut was long gone. Even their breathing seemed to go back to normal. 

A ringtone rebounded in the silent room, leading all the attention to the source. Donnie. He took out his phone and put it on speaker, letting everyone in the room hear the caller. 

“Perhaps I should have warned you of the chemical’s initial reaction.” Draxum’s voice resounded from Donnie’s phone, putting a scowl on both Leo and Donnie’s face.

“Gee, ya think?” Leo said. God he hated that guy. “And why’d you leave instead of explaining, anyway?”

“Simple. My presence was upsetting you, was it not?”  

“Your presence always upsets me.” Leo glared at the phone as if Draxum could see him, tucking away his sword and stepping closer to Donnie. 

The tech genius rolled his eyes and leaned in close to the mic, annoyance dripping from every word. “Ksh, I think you’re - psh, chh - breaking up. Krsh, you should get kishh! Better wifi. Don’t come back for thirty minutes.”

“You know I can hear you, I’m literally in the next r-”

Donnie hung up. Leo barked out a laugh and hooked an arm around his twin, dragging him over to the bed where Raph, Mikey and the mystery turtle were and flopped down, dragging Donnie down with him. Man he was tired! He decided to roll around a bit, just to annoy Donnie with his constant movement. He rolled from side to side, earning some grumbling from his grumpiest brother and small giggles from his youngest. And when he was done, rolled over to look at the mystery turtle -

“Who the hell are you?!”

And met with the brightest green eyes he’d ever seen.

Chapter Text

Waking up via the force of a thousand suns crashing into him was an incredibly awful way to wake up, Raph thinks. At least, that’s what he would think if he could think about anything other than-

‘FUCKING SHIT! GOD FUCKING DAMN THAT HURTS, FUCK-’

He twisted around, lashed out and snapped at whatever was pinning him down because what in the everloving fuck were they doing to him? The left side of his body was on fire while the right was colder than ice, he couldn’t breathe and his eyes must have been gouged out from the amount of agony radiating from his skull - or maybe they had cracked his skull open and were performing a lobotomy? Didn’t matter, cause he was gonna die - god, he was totally gonna die!

For what felt like eternity, his world was nothing except darkness and the pain of his nervous system being torn out of him. Then, like a god-send, the blinding pain that had him writhing in agony slowly faded away.

Every bone in Raph’s body liquified as he collapsed like a puppet with cut strings. Slowly, as the pain syphoned out of him, he tried to breathe through collapsed lungs. One, two, three. One, two, three.

Each breath came easier than the last, giving him some reassurance that ok, he probably wasn’t gonna die. Yet. Maybe. Soon enough, feeling returned to his shell and he could finally hear over the rush of blood in his skull. He still couldn’t see - which, yeah, did freak him out a bit, but at least he was laying on something nice and soft. 

… soft?

Faint voices were floating around him, sounding displeased. Something big and warm was next to him, judging by the big dip it made on the soft thing they were laying on. Then the voices disappeared. Moments later, he felt something fall near them and start shuffling around. Soft giggles came from somewhere above him. A spike of irritation rose as he got jostled back and forth, prompting him to try and glare at the bastard.

He cracked his eyes open (great, he wasn’t blind) and came face to face with an eye-bleedingly bright turtle .

“Who the hell are you?!”

The stranger who was way too close in his personal space gaped at him dumbly. Not waiting for a response, Raph pushed himself up and tried to back up, only to bump against what felt like a brick wall. He risked a glance, only catching a glimpse of green spikes and a sharp tooth before deciding nope, absolutely not .

He bounded off the bed, landing roughly on his heels as he reached for his sais, heart jumping in his throat when he could only find one. Ok, that’s fine, he could work with that. He put on his best glare and brandished his sai towards the mystery turtles.

“Woah, buddy! It’s ok, we’re not gonna hurt you.” The neon green turtle he saw held his hands up in mock surrender, slinking off the bed (?) slowly. Raph eyed his swords suspiciously. 

Now that he was a bit further, Raph noticed that there were four mutants in total - all turtles. Other than being mutants, what really caught Raph’s attention were their masks - red, blue, purple and orange.

Familiar. Creepily familiar.

“Hey, it’s ok.” The one in orange stepped forwards, offering an easy smile. Raph took a step back. 

This was weird. Really, really weird. 

“I’m really sorry you had to wake up like that. Trust me, we didn’t know it would hurt you,” The big one in red piped up, face akin to a kicked puppy. “But you were real hurt, and we didn’t have a lot of options-“

The blue one with red stripes on his face interrupted him. “Yeah, it’s all Draxum’s fault so feel free to hate him instead.” 

The orange one shushed him, stepping even closer. His movements were slow, minimal - as if he were approaching a wild animal. Raph stood still.

“Hi, I’m Michealangelo. Mikey for short.” He gestured vaguely to himself, then to Raph. “What’s your name?”

“…” Raph could only stare. There’s no way. No way in hell . After a couple of seconds, they seem to take his stunned silence for confusion.

“Hold on, can you understand us?” The blue one asks hesitantly. Then he points to himself. “Leo. Leeeo.”

“I can understand you just fine!” Raph snaps, clutching his sai tighter. Maybe he should have paid more attention when Donnie went on that spiel about the multiverse when they were watching those weird tv-screens the Kraang had. But from what he remembered, if this really was what he thought it was-

“Ok, ok. You’re stressed. I get that. Sorry for assuming.” The orange one- ‘Mikey’, elbowed ‘Leo’ in the side, sending him a chastising glare. 

Raph was going to lose it. This was too weird to handle. Mikey, scolding Leo of all people? 

“Let’s have a nice, civil discussion with no violence. Doesn’t that sound great?” ‘Mikey’ put his hands together and looked around the room with fake cheer.

Well, at least Mikey was kind of the same. Raph could work with that. He lowered his sai, but still kept it clutched in his hand, running his thumb over the leather handle. He took a deep breath.

“I’m… Raph. Raphael.” Jaw drops. Great.

“No way! I’m Raphael, too!” The other him exclaimed, practically bouncing in place. He stood up, making Raph a bit envious with how much he towered over him. “Wait, we both have red masks too! That’s crazy. Do you have any brothers? Our parents must have really similar tastes to name us after the same guy, huh?”

He was taken aback by the genuine - well, everything. This version of him was so… friendly . He didn’t know how to feel about that.

“Wait a minute.” 

Who must have been ‘Donnie’ appeared out of nowhere, hovering only inches away from him. Raph startled so bad he almost punched him - luckily, he managed to keep it to a heavy flinch. He backed away, growling. 

“Dude! Ever heard of personal space?”

‘Donnie’ didn’t seem to hear him and was practically frothing at the mouth, a familiar gleam in his eyes as he analysed Raph from head to toe. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice before, but you’re definitely the same as the one in the photo. Yes, there’s no doubt about it - you’re from an alternate reality, aren’t you?”

Raph blinked in surprise. That was fast. Even for Donnie.

“Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure, at least.” 

Raph slapped his hands over his ears as a high pitched squeal came from the purple clad turtle and pierced the air. 

“Oh mee gosh I knew I was onto something! See Leo I told you the multiverse was real-” Weird metal arms popped out from ‘Donnie’s shell (?!), holding out a purple phone the same shade of his mask as he continued to ramble. ‘Donnie’ grabbed it and started taking pictures of him from various angles. “-and I was able to get a shaky connection and some pictures but then the machine short-circuited and I have so many questions to ask you! First, what-”

Luckily, ‘Leo’ interrupted by covering his mouth and physically dragging him away. Raph sighed in relief. Donnie’s rants were always hard to follow, and even harder to understand. Also, the photo taking was creepy.

“Ok Dee, I know you’re excited and all, but you’re freaking him out.” ‘Leo’ drawled, pointing back at Raph lazily. Raph, to his credit, just crossed his arms nonchalantly. 

“Wait, hold on.” The other him held up a hand and pinched his snout with the other, face scrunched in confusion. “So what I’m hearing is that you’re me, but from another universe?”

“Yes!” ‘Donnie’ bounded forwards (seemingly having escaped his brother’s grasp) and shoved his phone in the other him’s face. “I’ve been able to get glimpses into other universes before, yet interdimensional space travel still eluded me. The existence of this ‘Raph’ proves that there’s a way to achieve it!”

“Ok I’m glad that your science and stuff was proven, or whatever, but I need to go home.” Raph tucked his sai back into his belt and tapped his foot impatiently. ‘Mikey’ and ‘Donnie’ both turned to him, gasping in shock.

“Already? But you just got here! We haven’t even had time to bond through any life-threatening shenanigans!” ‘Mikey whined, clutching his heart as if he were in pain.

“I must concur with you, brother.” ‘Donnie’ walked up to Raph and put a hand on his shoulder, looking at him with an incredibly serious expression. “If the Donatello of your world has figured out how to travel across dimensions, I simply have to know!”

Raph slapped his hand away and glared. “Knock it off! I don’t care about what you want, I want to go home! Sides, it wasn’t Donnie that got me here, it was the Kraang .”

Tension filled the air as soon as the words left his mouth. The alternates looked at him in concern, all sporting similar expressions of dread. 

“... please tell me you didn’t just say Kraang.”

Chapter Text

Donnie absentmindedly tapped at his control panels, an eye trained on watching the screen as it flipped through all the security cameras in the city. The other fixated on the new Raphael. Leo stepped forwards, face scrunched up in dread.

“Hey, this Kraang… since you’re from a different universe, they’re different too, yeah?” Leo tried smiling, but it looked more like a pained grimace. Donnie could relate. 

“Probably? Ours are like these little fleshy brain things that go around in robot suits. They talk all funny too - like, third person and terrible english.” Donnie almost sighed in relief, but then Raph 2.0 paused, looking down to fiddle with his sai. 

“... but right before I came here, I saw a new one. It was like a- wait, you guys have a Shredder, right?”

They all nodded. He continued. “A Kraang-Shredder fusion, with a giant red eye. And it was trying to come into my world through a portal the other Kraang made! And so obviously I tried to stop the portal, but stabbing wasn’t really working so I had to go inside the damn thing to cut the wires, which worked , but then I got dragged in too and-” Raph 2.0 was gesturing wildly, as if imitating how it was moving. He froze and cut himself off.

“-and now I’m here.” He finished lamely. Donnie shut off his surveillance monitor to give him his full attention. There was no sign of any other portals forming from what he saw. From the corner of his eye, he watched Leo’s tense form breathe a bit harder. 

The excitement from a couple minutes ago had dissipated into anxiety and dread. Raph 2.0’s gaze was flickering between all of them, unsure on who to focus on. Leo kept opening and closing his mouth, seemingly at a loss for words. Mikey had started rubbing his hands together the way he always did when he was nervous, and Raph was clenching and unclenching his fists. The room sat in awkward silence. 

“Great.” Leo said, (not) enthusiastically. “Yeah. That… definitely sounds like our Kraang.”

“Oh.” Raph 2.0 shuffled in place. “That sucks.”

The door opened. 

In walked Draxum, ex-mad scientist extraordinaire, holding… cookies. If the situation wasn’t so serious, Donnie would’ve found it a lot funnier. The yokai gave Leo a questioning look. Leo scowled in return.

“What are you doing back in here?” His brother’s hand drifted towards his odachi. 

“You said to come back after 30 minutes.” The yokai responded calmly, eyes focusing on Raph 2.0. “It has been 30 minutes. I see you have awoken. Judging by the attitude of these 4, did you say something upsetting?”

Raph 2.0 growled. Mikey stepped in, almost creating a barrier between Draxum and the rest of them.

“Hey, you said there was no way the Kraang could come back without the mystic key, right?” Draxum nodded and looked at Mikey with some concern.

“Yes, that is correct. Why do you ask?” 

“Well,” the youngest turtle wrung his hands together and sneaked a glance at Raph 2.0. “Um, let’s say that hypothetically the new guy is from an alternate universe. And that, hypothetically , he was dragged here by a portal made by the Kraang- could they… come back..? Hypothetically.”

Draxum’s face scrunched up (like he ate a lemon or something), taking a moment to think. Donnie pulled up his security monitor again to check up on the mystic key. He was pleased to note that it was still there, locked away deep, deep underground in the best vault Donnie could make. He even checked the footage to see if anyone had come near - as always, no one. He was brought out of his routine check up by a familiar baritone voice.

“It wouldn’t be able to come back to our universe, if that’s what you’re asking.” There was a collective sigh of relief. “That gateway is cut off by the key. However, that does not stop it from being summoned to other universes by outside forces.”

Raph 2.0 stiffened, a worried look on his face. He stepped forwards. “Is there a way to stop it? I mean, I broke the portal, but they can just fix it -”

“Well, the only way to ‘stop’ it would be preventing it from happening in the first place.” Draxum started idly nibbling on a cookie, prompting Mikey to grab one too. “I would suggest eliminating the ones who are building these gateways.”

Raph 2.0 was clearly displeased with the yokai’s answer, but didn’t protest. He just looked at the clenched sai in his hand grimly. 

Donnie subtly shook the tension out from his hands, mind once again whirling with the possibilities of multi-dimensional travel. Still, he held himself back. Opening a conversation about opening doors to other dimensions so soon after another Kraang scare would only lead to rejection. For now, he’d settle for questions about the other universe Raph 2.0 came from. Later. 

He closed his security monitor and padded over to the cookies, grabbing one and biting into it. He wasn’t a big fan of sweets, but oatmeal cookies had a good texture. Besides, he was hungry. Raph came over and grabbed two, flittering to Raph 2.0 and offering one to him. At first, he only stared blankly at the offered treat. After Raph gave him an encouraging smile, he snatched it away and mumbled a thanks under his breath.

Donnie whipped out his phone to add to his notes.

• Much shorter - estimated 5’0.

• Sai as weapon of choice

• Seemingly more irritable - might be because of lingering pain

• Body structure is different - larger, flat feet, circular shell

How to characterise this? Oh, yes.

• Less trusting/open

Satisfied, he tossed a cookie in Leo’s general direction. He heard a squawk and some shuffling (most likely a mad scramble to catch it), but didn’t bother to look. 

5:03 , read the clock. Donnie brushed some crumbs onto the floor, earning some grumbles from their impromptu host. He didn’t pay it any mind. For now, they could sit here and eat cookies. Well, until 6. At most .

He had a schedule to maintain, after all.