Let Me Save You (A TMNT fanfic)

Chapter 17 - Deactivation

I do not own 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' nor any characters affiliated with the series.

Chapter 17 - Deactivation

*Dani*

I woke up the next morning to find Donnie gone. I quickly got out of bed and pulled out the bag from underneath my bed to find I was almost out of clean clothes. I pursed my lips and sighed. At some point I would need to go to my apartment and get more, I couldn't rely on the few I had. I quickly changed and left the room. As I entered the main area of the lair I found Mikey sitting in front of the TV watching whatever show that had caught his attention this time.

"Morning, Dani!" He exclaimed without looking from the screen.

I laughed and headed to the lab where I heard a bit of commotion. My eyebrows furrowed and I peeked in to find Donnie, Leo, and Raph all gathered around talking quietly. Raph seemed furious, and Donnie and Leo were trying to calm him down.

"I'm not going to calm down, Leo!" Raph exclaimed through clenched teeth.

"Raph," Donnie spoke up, "trust me on this when I say that Dani is going to be completely fine! With her healing ability the damage won't be horrendous."

"But she is still going to be hurt!" Raph yelled back.

"Raphael!" Leo interrupted. I felt myself flinch in fear at the force behind Leo's tone. "We need to go through with this. I know it's hard, but would you rather Dani be susceptible to Shredder and his commands?"

Raph went silent and I decided that I needed to take my chance now and enter. As I slid the door open a little wider the three brothers instantly looked towards me.

"Hey guys," I said softly.

"Good morning, Dani. How are you feeling?" Leo asked.

I shrugged. "Okay, I guess." I looked to Donnie and slowly approached the three. "What's your plan to deal with the chip in my head?"

Donnie glanced at Raph then looked back at me. "Well, I'm going to have to electrocute the chip in order to deactivate it."

I nodded and crossed my arms. "Okay, so what's the problem?"

Raph sighed heavily and stared at Donnie expectantly. Donnie hesitated then sucked in a slow breath. "The voltage intensity that I have to use is not exactly safe..."

My body tensed, but I let out a slow breath and looked down at my feet. Was I willing to take the risk in order to be free? I clenched my fists and looked back up at the three brothers. I avoided looking at Raph knowing he would be looking at me in disapproval.

"I don't care. I don't want to be scared that I'm going to snap again and hurt you all. I'll be fine, so you don't need to worry," I shrugged and smiled softly. "So tell me what I need to do to get ready for this."

The brothers stared in silence at me and I heard the lab door slide open a little wider. Mikey walked in, humming happily and munching on a piece of pizza. He noticed that we were all standing quietly and instantly stopped humming, the smile also fading from his face.

"What's wrong with everyone? Did I miss something?" he asked quietly.

I smiled and walked over to him. "It's nothing, Mikey. We're just figuring out how to deactivate the chip in my head."

Mikey looked up at me with wide eyes then looked back over to his brothers. He frowned slightly then continued eating his piece of pizza. I sighed softly then walked back over to the table.

"So when will we begin?" I asked Donnie.

Donnie pursed his lips and looked back down at his laptop. "Can you be ready in ten minutes?"

I nodded with a soft smile, but not wanting to leave the room I walked quietly to the corner of the room and sat myself down in a chair. Donnie got to work within a few moments and Leo soon joined me in my little corner. He pulled up another chair and sat across from me.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked, watching my face for a reaction.

I shrugged, "I'm a little scared, but who wouldn't be? I need to do this though, I don't want to be Shredder's slave." I felt my gaze move to where Raph stood, his arms were crossed over his chest and his expression was set in the familiar scowl. I felt a small smile tugged at the corners of my lips, "I want to be able to protect you all, and I don't want to be afraid I'll hurt any of you," I looked back to Leo.

He stared back at me with a small smile of his own and he nodded slightly. "I know you'll come out of this just fine. You're stronger than you look."

I laughed and and let my smile make its way to the rest of my face, enjoying the warmth it brought me. We sat in silence for the rest of the time left and I felt my heart begin to quicken as Donnie called my name softly. I walked over to the table slowly, my palms beginning to sweat. Donnie was talking me through what I needed to do, but his voice was in the distance.

"Dani?" Raph suddenly asked, bringing me back from my distant thoughts.

I looked up at him, feeling helpless and terrified. I felt a lump well up in my throat, but I pushed it away. I looked back to Donnie, who waited until he knew I was listening to continue his directions. I laid back against the table, the coolness bleeding through my clothes. Donnie attached wires at both of my temples and gave me a soft smile before going back to his laptop. He began typing then moved to another machine and flipped a few switches.

"Ready?" he asked over his shoulder.

I nodded, closed my eyes, and sucked in a deep breath, bracing myself for whatever would be coming next. I heard the soft click as Donnie flipped one last switch and my body went rigid. My eyes snapped open and I stared up at the dull ceiling. My body screamed in pain, my skin crawled, and my vision clouded in the corners. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I felt a scream bubbling in my chest, but it couldn't be released. I could hear shouting through the loud buzz, but I couldn't make out what was being said. There was a loud pop that echoed through my mind and it seemed that as soon as the pain began, it stopped. My ears rang and I breathed heavily. My hair wet with tears and my vision slowly began to clear. My skin crawled with the lingering sense of the electricity running through my body and the ringing soon faded and was replaced with a worried voice repeating my name over and over. I looked up into Raph's green eyes.

"What?" I asked in a raspy voice.

He sighed in relief and the other brothers did the same. Raph helped me to sit up and my head swam. I gripped his hand tightly and squeezed my eyes shut. Once I felt like I wasn't going to throw up I nodded slightly and Raph helped me off the table.

"How are you feeling?" Donnie asked, lifting a bright light to shine in my eyes.

I grunted in pain and shut my eyes. "My head hurts, but that seems to be normal these days." I opened my eyes again and sighed. "I don't exactly know how I feel... I feel drained, that's for sure."

Donnie looked to Raph, his expression serious. "Take her to the kitchen. I'll text April to bring some food."

Raph nodded and helped to guide me out of the lab and to the kitchen. He sat me down in a chair and waited until I seemed to be okay then sat in a chair next to me.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked.

I nodded and folded my hands in my lap. "I'm fine, promise. I just need to eat."

He didn't seem to believe me, but he kept his protests and questions to himself. We sat in silence for a few minutes, then Raph spoke up again.

"I'll admit, I was terrified. I don't know how to describe what it was like. You didn't look like you, it was strange." He said quietly.

I stared at him in shock. Raph was scared? Before I stopped myself I laughed softly. He looked up at me, his eyes darkening with anger.

I continued to giggle and covered my mouth. "Sorry," I said as I cleared my throat. "Sorry. It's just hard to think of you being scared, it's a little weird. But you don't need to be scared anymore. I'm fine, I'm not hurt, and hopefully we deactivated the chip."

Raph gave me a small half-smile, "I hope we did too..."