Dagger From the Mirror (ROTTMNT/TMNT 2012 Crossover Fic)

Our Battle Too

The world was bright.

White, loud, warm, and too bright; Raphael had only been able to open his eyes for a few short seconds before he had to slam them shut again. The intense fluorescent lights that surrounded him on all sides, the ones that threatened to invade his very thoughts, were just too much. Or maybe those lights were already in his thoughts? Raphael wasn't sure. He wasn't sure where he was or what he was doing. His body was numb, his mind only slightly less so. He couldn't really feel anything but the burning heat on the back of his neck, phantom pain of an injury he didn't even know he had.

Where was he?

Laughter. The clanging of metal. A soft crash, a whispered " ouch! ", and a teasing grin. Though fog still covered Raph's mind, he knew that at least he was somewhere where he was safe. If he needed to stay asleep for a little while longer, he could. And it would be okay. He was safe here, even if he had no idea where 'here' was or who he was with.

He wasn't alone; he knew that much.

The voices surrounding him were familiar and foreign all at once, his subconscious screaming out their names and identities, but his conscious mind unable to grasp them (or much of anything, actually). Raph could barely think with the fog over his mind, and he hated it. He hated it so much. He just wanted to be able to think for himself again.

He couldn't know for sure, but it felt as if it had been decades since he had last done that.

"No, that piece goes here. Not there."

"But I think it'll look better if it goes here! Look at the colors."

"It'll be too close to where the power source is going. If we keep it there, the whole thing is going to burst into flames and explode."

"Fire looks cool..."

"Little Mikey!"

Mikey. Michelangelo. One of the voices belonged to his brother; that made sense. But Raph wasn't sure who he was arguing with... The voice was new, yet not completely unknown. He knew it from somewhere, he just had to figure out the exact origin...

"My Donnie lets me help him blow up stuff sometimes..."

"I'm not letting you start a fire in my lab!"

Raphael heard his little brother start laughing, still conversing with the familiar stranger from time to time. Well, regardless of who the voice was, Raph supposed he should be thankful to him. He was making his little brother laugh. Though Raph didn't know why, something told him that Mikey hadn't been doing a lot of that lately, so any laughter was better than none.

A shiver of anxiety ran down Raph's spine as that thought ran through his mind. Wait, why hadn't Mikey been laughing lately? Why couldn't he figure it out? Buried deep in his mind lie the answer, he knew it, but it was hidden deep, and Raph didn't know how soon he'd be able to get to it. It would take a lot of digging.

He may as well start now.

"Mikey, that- oh, hey! You guys are back earlier than expected." The stranger's voice rang through Raph's head as he searched through his memories. He tried to block out the noise to focus, while still keeping one ear out for their words. Just in case they said something important he needed to know. Listening out for them would probably lengthen the time he was going to spend digging but... hopefully, he would learn something that'd help him figure everything out, and then it'd all be worth it.

Mikey sounded excited. "Did it go well?"

"Did it go 'well'? Dude, that girl is Casey's counterpart." A new stranger said, voice loud and happy. He reminded Raph of Mikey. "She's Casey Jones too!"