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The first minute or two are almost what Raph could call bearable. His body feels sticky and disgusting and all the heat around him is beginning to distort the shape of the bricks, but overall he’s still feeling sort of okay.
He can hear his brothers. Mikey’s scared screaming is a constant noise, though it's dying off the longer it lasts. Raph, for once, doesn’t want Mikey to stop, because that could mean…
Donnie’s screams are about every ten seconds, and they’re all much louder than Mikey’s. Raph doesn’t want to picture the setup he’s in, if he can hear Donnie’s screams clearly through brick walls that is not a good sign.
And Leo’s quiet, for the most part, but every so often Raph can sort of hear his panicked chatter, but it’s being drowned out by an odd humming of machinery.
Karai is twisted.
Karai is mind controlled.
Karai is going to pay.
Karai doesn’t want to do this.
He really can’t think of much else to say.
Raph pounds his fists and feet against the brick, only serving to leave scratches and bruises in them as he doesn’t even make cracks. The heat feels like it's increasing by the second, and Raph’s not even sure if it’s his imagination, because then two of the bricks slide away to reveal more of the furnaces and he’s pretty certain that this is only about to get a lot worse for him.
Donnie’s set for round the clock torture.
Mikey’s set to lose whatever humanity he has.
Leo’s set to die.
And Raph is set to die, too. Or maybe torture, like Donnie, if Karai’s feeling ‘generous.’
But he’s not having it. Whatever she says over that stupid speaker, in her stupidly normal voice, will not get to Raph. He will keep fighting until he breaks down this wall, and then he’s going to find where they’re keeping his brothers and rescue them.
Somehow.
Please, spirits, somehow.
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⠀
Donnie’s saying something, isn’t he? Raph can’t hear his voice anymore.
No.
He can hear Donnie’s voice
He just can’t understand it.
Why can’t he understand it?
Right. He’s burning.
Was it even Donnie? This sounds like Leo. Or maybe he’s just hallucinating the both of them, wouldn’t that be fun.
Not fun. No. Bad.
That’d be bad.
Why’s it so hot in here?
Right.
Raph–
His limbs are so weak.
He’s not supposed to be weak, he’s the strong one.
Not anymore.
He’s not going to be anything, soon, is he?
At this point he’s only delaying the inevitable.
(Raphael drags himself against the brick floor on shaking limbs, until he finally reaches a corner. His body gives up at that point, or maybe only his spirit does.)
I’m sorry, he tries to say, but barely even a mumble escapes.
And he
⠀
floats
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a
w
a
y
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He’s there.
Leo’s there.
Is he there?
He’s real, isn’t he?
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⠀
“Guys?”
Mikey’s sharp voice cuts through the fog, and for a moment Raph almost thinks he’s seeing clearly.
There’s green everywhere.
Not good green. Bad green.
Mutagen green.
Or is it just up? It’s going–
Mikey—
In one swift movement, Leo drops him, and before Raph can even hit the ground his big brother’s got him back in a grip and is tugging him up, away from the mutagen.
Is Mikey okay? Did he get touched? Please say that he didn’t—
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⠀
(Once they save Donatello, on Michelangelo’s request, the four turtles all take a couple of minutes to just lay on the brick floor and breathe.
In that time, Raphael recovers enough to feel a pounding headache, and the way his skin seems to way heavier on his still somehow overheating body.)
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⠀
And Karai got away.
After all that, they lost the fight.
“Are you guys okay?” April asks worriedly, walking between Splinter and Donnie with her hands tucked behind her back. A few steps ahead, Leo is supporting Raph, and beside the two Mikey bounces on his feet nervously, clearly wanting to get home.
For once, Donnie can’t even find it in himself to be happy that he and April are walking side by side. He needs a serious brain break.
“Define okay,” Leo says tiredly.
“Karai showed me what she was doing to you four.”
Donnie stops. Leo does, too. Mikey doesn’t stop, exactly, but he spins around.
And then four turtles are staring down the human, who only looks a little bit sheepish somehow. “I… I tried not to watch but… it’s hard to look away, y’know?”
Kar— The Shredder was going to face hell, when the Hamatos finally catch up with him.
Donnie will make sure of it.
⠀
⠀
The lair? They make it back.
The Hamatos? Dead to the world. Metaphorically.
Donnie’s not sure how long he’s out for, he can hardly remember checking a clock before he left the lair, let alone what time it was when they made it back.
He does, however, remember waking up with a pounding headache, Mikey’s tense figure in his lap and Leo leaning on his side. They haven’t turtle piled in a while, because once the other three started to (sort of) catch up with Donnie’s height, the tangle of limbs got a bit too hard to handle, and once they turned fifteen and met humans Raph had decided—
Where is Raph, actually?
Slowly, Donnie looks around the room, finding that they’d fallen asleep in the pit without even one blanked between the three of them. Raph’s not far off, being the only of the three to have fallen asleep on the actual couch instead of the concrete floor.
Donnie’s not excited to sit up this morning. Painkillers will be a small blessing, he already knows.
Mikey twitches in his lap. The turtle is curled in a ball, sort of like he tried to pull fully into his shell but missed. He’s still managed to make himself quite small in order to fit mostly atop of Donnie, but– not important, right. The twitching continues, and even through the mask, Donnie can still see Mikey’s brow wrinkling.
For lack of any immediate better ideas, Donnie nudges his brother with one of his long arms, in an attempt to wake the turtle up. When this (predictably, Mikey’s a bit of a heavy sleeper) doesn’t work, Donnie tries again, a little harsher.
It takes a good thirty seconds, but eventually Mikey’s stirred out of his restless sleep, eyes peeling open when he doesn’t find himself in his own bed.
“Bad dream?” Donnie asks quietly.”
Mikey tries halfheartedly to push out of Donnie’s lap, and then doesn’t try again. “Yeah.”