To Crack a Shell - ROTTMNT

9 - Just A Glimpse

Leo shoves Mikey's spirit back into place. "For shell's sake, stay!" He bats down a few tongues of flame that had flared up before sitting back on his heels with a heavy sigh.

Mikey blinks his eyes open but Leo knows he's not awake. The little turtle's eyes are glowing gold and unaware of their surroundings. "Hey, you're back again," he murmurs.

Leo slides off the bed and grumbles as he leans against the side wall. "We gotta stop meeting like this, Mike. It's the closest and farthest you get to waking up."

"But I am awake," Mikey tells the ceiling, "I'm talking to you."

"This is barely a dream, Mikey. You need to wake up for real. The rest of the fam is worried."

"Well I'm worried too! You keep going away and the others keep saying you're not coming back but you do come back and I really wish someone would tell me what's going on!"

Leo studies his toes. "I keep trying, but every time I get to the important parts, you're asleep again." Leo looks up. Mikey is as he said, asleep and oblivious to everything. "Case in point."

He walks back over to the bed and leans against it. "It's not that I'm trying to protect you or that I don't think you can handle it, you just... have the worst timing, hahah!" A glance at his little brother's sleeping form prompted a counter argument. "Or... maybe I'm trying to protect myself from something."

Leo looks into the middle distance. "Maybe you not knowing I'm dead keeps me from going over the edge. Maybe I'm still telling myself I am still here and it helps me cope somehow? Heh, that's almost worse than degrading humor.

"I don't want to go just yet. I still want to be here for you guys. But to be honest... I don't know if that's... y'know... healthy? Heh, mourning my own death. How funny is that?"

Leo casts one more glance at his brother. He then inhales and lifts his hands. "Ah sorry," he says as he steps away from the bed, "I shouldn't be saying all that while Dr. Feelings isn't in. Be sure to tell him when he comes around, okay?"

Mikey says nothing.

Leo chuckles and "pats" Mikey's hand. "Thanks, little bro. You're the best." He stretches and heads toward the door. "I'm gonna go check on everyone else. Catch ya later!"

A tear slips down Mikey's face as Leo leaves.

Donnie's purple aura is still in his lab, much to Leo's chagrin. Has Donnie even left his lab the last time Leo checked on him? Leo phases through closed doors and walls, following the purple light to its source.

Leo stops short upon arriving in an industrial-looking bathroom. Donnie's wraps and belt are sitting in a deep sink, half submerged in water. The water is murky with various shades of green, purple, and red.

Leo rubs at his mouth. "That's uh... that's yokai blood."

The tile floor is stained with fresh smears of blood and water. Leo follows their trail to a shower curtain, behind which is Donnie's battle shell and bo, also stained and slowly dripping blood down the drain.

Leo turns at the sound of sloshing water. He spots his brother's aura behind a stall door. Privacy be darned, Leo hurries forward through the stall.

He finally finds Donnie. The softshell is submerged in a large tub of water, laying on his stomach at the bottom.

The sight doesn't concern Leo; Donnie can breathe underwater. What concerns him is the shimmering silver web of circuitry and pockmarks that stretch across Donnie's shell and over his arms, legs, and neck.