just the way you are

like galaxies and warmth

----Notes---

Hello guys, this chapter is fairly neutral and I have nothing to particularly warn you about, other than (lol not again) implied Rasey shipping, emotional distress, and basically nothing else.

I basically wrote this on the spot because I didn't feel like sitting on the TV for ten hours straight.

Yeah.

HAve fuN!

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He was losing himself to the thing inside him. Did it have a name? No, it had stolen russet eyes and a gapped tooth smile that seemed to be used as a taunt.

If he remembered who he was, he sure wouldn't be able to tell anyone. But he was talking, right now. Playing the part he'd normally play.

"Oh come on Leo, you can't just keep us all down here! That stupid alien bitch is gone!"

He was locking eyes with the blue-eyed leader he knew was his blood.

"Raph, I'm sorry, but we need more time to recover!"

"It's just a patrol!" His voice insisted, sounding no different. He remembered a building of white and alien tech. The mind control from there was so much more obvious. He remembered a serum made by the man with steel claws and a helm of iron. That was different, again, weaker.

These microchips... he couldn't find himself enough to take control, but it knew who he was and how to be him without a single struggle.

The red eyed imposter was sitting on the lounge, looking through the device that didn't belong to him. No, putting it together.

He'd smashed it in a time that felt a million years ago. Donatello.

That was a name, a memory. The real person who should be in that body on the lounge. He heard laughter and snapping staffs in practice, missions and times when he'd sit in his brother's lab reading comics.

If he could cry, he'd be drowning.

***

Casey Jones, seventeen years old, vigilante. Friend of the Ninja Turtles. Friend of April O'Neil. Donatello is gone. I am your master.

He was supposed to be Casey Jones, seventeen years old, vigilante. Friend of Leo, Raph, Mikey, Donnie and April. Donnie was gone, and there was nothing, nothing he could do. He was starting to forget himself. He was in the lair, eyes fixed on the ceiling as he was supposed to be asleep on the lounge, no sound except for the sound of lapping water from the sewer and snoring from Mikey's room.

He wished he could break free of this, find himself.

Who you were doesn't matter.

Seventeen years old, vigilante. Friend... Gone. I am your master.

A new friend.

It's safe here, warm here. You can finally let it all slip away. You don't have to be anything, friend. You only have to embrace it.

He stood, his vision blurring as he fought for control. He stilled, his entire body seizing up as all the blood rushed to his head. He stumbled through the dark, the slight control he had was enough.

He pushed open the door to Raph's room. "Raph? Please," he whispered as he looked down at his sleeping friend. He was shaking. They were both shaking because he was controlled too.

His green eyes looked up at his, and they both could feel the struggles inside each other. They knew how it felt.

"Raph?" He asked sleepily.