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Donnie couldn't remember how he'd gotten to the Nexus.
He couldn't remember the past few hours or even walking down to the gates of the arena.
Yet, there he was. Standing in front of the doors that led to death and pain and suffering.
Listening to the roars of the crowd outside, he felt sick to his stomach.
He realized he wasn't wearing his battleshell. When did that come off?
He knew there was a guard behind him, waiting for some signal to send Donnie to his death.
“Where's my battleshell?” Donnie turned and asked the guard, a lion yokai. “Don't I get armour? Or at least a weapon?”
He felt shaky with the thought of fighting empty-handed. His back felt cold and exposed, invisible hands practically crawling up his spine, making him shiver with discomfort.
The guard simply grunted, shrugging his shoulders with a gruff dismissal. Staring straight ahead over Donnie's head, he stood at stiff attention, completely ignoring the softshell in front of him. Not even his tufted golden tail twitched.
“I'm going to die out there if you don't give me something!” Donnie tried in a last ditch effort.
No response. Not even a blink.
Shrugging off the wrong feelings he got from the yokai's eerie behavior, Donnie mentally prepared himself for the fight ahead. He went over defense moves in his mind, trying to recall what Splinter had taught them.
For some reason his mind felt fuzzy at the edges, like his thoughts were missing a few letters or words, and sometimes just the emotion of the thought was there without his inner monologue. That was odd.
All of a sudden, Donnie remembered he had brothers. With sudden panic, he tried to remember what had happened, desperately attempting to figure out what had happened to them.
When his foggy brain couldn't come up with anything (useless! He scolded himself), his anxiety rose higher and small amounts of adrenaline began to pump through him. He whipped around to face the lion yokai.
“Where are my brothers?” He pleaded. “What happened to them? Are they here? Are they okay?” Donnie looked into the yokai's eyes, trying to force eye contact, and possibly actual connection and human treatment.
The yokai still stared straight forward, but a small, cruel grin began to split his features.
Horrified, Donnie's mind space shattered, his thoughts no longer able to hold together long enough to be coherent. He simply turned back around to face the gates.
His mind was empty, yet at the same time filled with thoughts so fast he couldn't pull any out, like trying to catch fish with his hands in the rapids of a river.
He wasn't sure how long he stood there, blank and waiting. It could have been minutes, or hours. All that mattered was that something horrible had happened to his brothers.
He was pulled out of his head by the clanking as the gate opened, light spilling into the dark tunnel space. The lion yokai shoved him from behind, and Donnie stumbled out into the arena.
The roar of the crowd grew louder, the lights above blinding his view of them, so he couldn't pick out individuals. The ground below him was a mixture of sand and rock, warm from the lights and disturbed with footprints and deep gouges that came from a competitor being thrown down.
Out of the corner of his eye, movement caught his attention, and he looked over to see a few yokai dressed in janitorial outfits. They carried brooms and various cleaning supplies. They were dragging something out of the arena by a side door.
It was several severed limbs of various species.
Donnie gasped, terrified. His nausea intensified, his stomach doing several Mikey-worthy acrobatic flips. His shell felt more exposed than ever, and he could almost feel the scars from the Shredder across his leathery shell.
He averted his eyes, staring straight down at the sand by his feet. Looking closely, however, he could see flecks of dried blood clumping the sand, which he had previously thought to be pebbles.
Sickened once more, Donnie stared straight ahead at the opponent's gate, hearing his own close behind him.
Faintly, he heard the announcer introducing him. Then, the spotlights moved to the other gate. The announcer hyped up the crowd with an exaggerated introduction.
The gates creaked open, the darkness beyond hiding whatever creature Donnie was supposed to fight. They opened completely, holding position as nothing appeared. The whole stadium seemed to hold its breath, Donnie included. His heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline flooding his system in large doses, making his limbs tremble.
A large shape bounded out so fast it took Donnie's eyes a moment to figure out what it was. A large jaguar, about halfway between a normal jaguar’s size and Mrs. Nubbins’ size. It roared in a lion-like way, loud vibrations reverberating around the whole stadium.
Donnie realized it wasn't stopping as it thundered toward him and he clumsily dodged. But the jaguar stuck out a paw, tripping him and sending him head over heels. He hit the wall, his head pounding. He knew he wasn't usually this slow. Even his movements had a sluggish quality to them.
He stared out with upside down, swimming vision at the large cat, which had abruptly changed direction and came barreling back towards him.
He scrambled up, tripping several times in his haste as he took off running around the edge of the arena. He snuck a peek over his shoulder and saw the jaguar crouching for a pounce.
He ducked to the ground, and just in time as the jaguar sailed over his head, the back of his skull brushing the cat's belly fur.
Donnie scrabbled towards the middle of the stadium, his feet kicking up sand as he ran. He wasn't sure what his goal was, maybe to try to get to the gate?
Whatever it was, it didn't matter for long.
A weight hit Donnie's back at the top of his shell, below his neck. He could feel the large cat's soft pads and fur on his sensitive shell. He tripped as the weight continued its momentum, sending him forward and down into the ground.
With his plastron to the ground and the weight of the jaguar standing over him pressing down, Donnie screeched furiously. He twisted and turned, trying to throw the cat off his back, but to no avail. The jaguar stayed, immovable.
The large cat raised a paw, long, sharp claws glinting in the light. Donnie turned his head, the reflection of the claws visible in his wide, terrified blue and red eyes.
He turned away as the paw came down. He felt it rip through his shell, traumatic memories of the Shredder jumping to the front of his mind. He screamed. A long, drawn out shriek that somehow echoed loudly above the cries of the crowd.
The jaguar raked his back again and again with its front claws. Donnie squirmed and struggled, his panic and desperation clear in his frantic movements. All the while he screamed and cried, hands scratching desperately at the stone under him.
The jaguar's claws scratched his spine and he felt a fresh wave of terror, his movements intensifying despite the overwhelming tide of exhaustion rising behind his hysteria.
There was a sound of a snap.
–
Donnie sat bolt upright in bed, breathing fast and shallow, his back still feeling like the claws were digging through. His heart thumped hard beneath his plastron.
It had only been a dream.