Work Text:
Debris / pinned down / “it’s broken.”
Raph's head swam, spinning along with his environment, but he felt like he wasn’t moving.
In fact, he felt like he couldn’t move. There was pressure on his shell and one of his arms, pinning him down. It made breathing hard and made him reach his free hand up to hold his pounding head. What happened? Where was he?
He squinted around him, watching moving blurs and muffled voices come into sharper view and audio.
His brothers, fighting, shouting, and the shredder, hitting back harder.
Raph gasped. Right, they were fighting the Shredder, on that one roof, of which building he forgot the name of. Just that it had a water tower…
A water tower that was now crushing him, pinning him down, helpless but to watch. Shredder was closer to him, and the brothers were taking a breath, getting back to their feet, gearing up, ready to go.
And the Shredder let them, almost over-confidently. If Raph had more movement and an escape, he’d taunt the man for his fault, or Leo would likely use it to his advantage.
But Raph somehow knew that the advantage in this fight was in Shredder's hands. He knew it as the scarred human turned to look at Raph where he was stuck with a sinister grin visible in his eyes.
“I’ll deal with you later.” he stated, turning back to the brothers and stalking toward them, much to Raph’s alarm. He was brushing the red-banded turtle aside, like he wasn’t a threat, like he was weak .
Was he weak for not being able to escape some wood and metal?
Raph growled, trying to squirm out of his position. It was almost suffocating, watching his brothers fight, seeing how they stepped out of sync with only three, rather than four. They needed a second to adjust, and Shredder wasn’t giving that to them.
He managed to backhand Donnie, then turned to kick Mikey out of the air as he tried to jump him from behind. Leo shouted, going for Shredder alone for the briefest of moments, but Shredder was prepared. He reached out and caught Leo by the throat.
Had he been there, that would have been Raph’s chance, but when he couldn’t his brother was left in the enemy's hands. But shredder didn’t see his chance as satisfying enough, so he threw Leo at Mikey, who had just gotten back up, and the two went tumbling.
Right over the edge of the roof.
“ No! ” Raph shouted, his body jerking and sending pain radiating through his shell, causing him to cry out.
“Raph!” Donnie called, looking frantically between his stuck brother, and where the other two had fallen overboard.
Shredder stepped closer to the purple-banded brother, who flinched, standing up and taking a step back, putting his staff between himself and the enemy. Shredder chuckled. “You’re going to beat me with a stick?”
As much as Raph knew never to underestimate a bo staff, especially in the hands of a master of it like Donnie, he could tell his brother was panicking.
Panicking and currently fighting alone.
And as suspected, the staff didn’t last long against Shredder’s bladed gauntlet.
Raph, running out of breath, tried his hardest again to struggle out, but the debris offered no give. He was forced to watch the Shredder rail on his little brother, who’d been unfairly unarmed. “ Stop! ”
He didn’t listen, and despite Donnie being beaten and down, Shredder held him up, dangling limply in his hold, his other arm drawing the gauntlet, blades at the ready.
He was going to kill Donnie, and Raph roared in frustration and panic and fear . He didn’t know what to do, how to help.
He was supposed to protect, that was his role, the protector.
But he was watching himself fail miserably, lacking even a word from the younger brother, or any assurance of his other two brothers' whereabouts.
The gauntlet swung, and the clang of metal and flash of blue fabric shot across the rooftop, falling silent save for the ragged huffing of Leo as his blade pressed against Shredders.
Raph breathed a sob sigh of relief, watching Mikey jump up behind Shredder and hook his nunchaku chain under his throat, causing him to drop Donnie to the gravel.
Leo and Mikey pushed Shredder back enough to throw him off his groove, then Leo ran to Donnie, and Mikey to Raph. Mikey managed to push some of the bigger pieces off and help Raph wiggle out, but his shell and arm were killing him. Leo came over with Donnie draped over his shell, watching behind them nervously.
“We gotta go guys.” He said. “Raph, can you walk?”
Raph tested his legs, noting a few aches and strains, but nothing major yet. “Yeah, I got it.” Mikey, just to be sure, took hold of his good arm.
“You fools .” the shredder shouted. “Do not run, you cowards!”
Raph glared back at him as coldly as he could muster. A tactical retreat was in order and he couldn’t be bothered to care if the tincan approved. “We’ll deal with you later, shredhead!”
Mikey threw down a smoke bomb and they took off, slipping down the nearest manhole cover they could find, and beginning the walk home at a brisk but comfortable pace.
“We gotta fix your shoulder bro. It looks broken.” Mikey noted the odd coloring on Raph’s other shoulder, and bruises down his arm. “And your head is bleeding.”
“I’ll be fine.” Raph shrugged, ignoring the scolding pain from the movement, instead looking at the other two brothers. “How’s Donnie?”
“He’ll be fine.” Leo shot back, raising his brows at Raph.
Raph glared at him. “Touche.”
They got back to the lair and patched each other up, Leo refusing to let Raph help with his shoulder in a sling. Mikey did his best, but they had to enlist Splinter’s help with Donnie still unconscious. Once they were all patched up and cleaned, April and Casey brought them food and they curled up in the living room with a show while Donnie rested on the couch.
Mikey fell asleep first, and Raph leaned against Leo, who didn’t say much, just gave a small smile.
Although Raph wouldn’t forget the crushing feeling of helplessness that night, somehow being close and safe made it all a little bit better.