Non-Mutation (Book Four)

Chapter 28: Rust

Even the strongest can succumb to neglect and break apart, changing from something resilient into soft, crumbling powder.

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Raphael feels like he's been locked away forever, his eyes aching for light and his body begging for release from his cage. It must have been days already, but he's lost track of time. He only gets out of his cage in order to be sent through obstacle courses that would easily kill a human if they failed it. The only reason he survives it is because he has his shell and his ninja abilities, but that doesn't stop the sharp blades and swinging arms from cutting and bruising him until he feels more dead than alive.

He asked the scientists multiple times what the point of the courses was, but he rarely got answers. The scientists were content to ignore him, speaking only to give orders. Hanovitz is the only one who gave him some semblance of an answer, but even then her words were, "Sabrian ordered testings. He wants to see what you are capable of."

Every other hour of the day, he's left tied up in his cage. Scientists come by and draw blood or swab the inside of his mouth a few times every day, a process that involves sedating him. The worst part is when they prop is mouth open and he's too doped up to bite off anyone's fingers. He'd like to get the chance to freak them out a bit, but they don't give him that luxury.

The only good thing is that Hanovitz is the one who comes to feed him. She's quiet and her facial expressions don't move out of the range of "uncomfortable deadpan", but at least she seems disturbed by what's going on. She gives Raphael his food in a real bowl and water in a real glass, although she told him that she can't give him utensils for safety reasons. She's also the only one who seems unafraid of opening the cage without him being sedated and answers his questions when he has them (even though her responses aren't all that helpful).

Still, that's the only remotely positive thing that Raphael can find about this ordeal. If he wasn't so distracted by thoughts of his brothers, his dad, his sisters, and Taylor, maybe he could do better at the obstacle courses and escape with fewer wounds to deal with. He can't go a minute without thinking of the mutants that he failed to protect and the girl who's broken his heart.

She's gone, his brothers and father are somewhere being subjects to the same experiments that he is, and he's alone.

He tugs against his chains as if today they'll break. As always, they rattle faintly and cause the silence of the room to shift for a few seconds. The sound fades and he plunges back into terrible tranquillity, his thoughts louder than ever.

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Donatello misses his family. He misses Sarina. He just wants to go back to his laboratory and listen to Sarina rant about the states of the environment or show him the latest articles in her favourite National Geographic magazines. Her pale arms surrounding him would be like an angel's touch compared to these shackles on his wrists and ankles, holding him up against the wall.

The experiments they give him stretch his brain until it hurts to think. Puzzles, mazes, solving clues in order to escape horrifying simulations. His nights are restless, his brain so exhausted that he has nothing but dreamless periods of sleep that never last long enough. He constantly worries about his brothers, his father. What sort of things are they being put through? Are they faring better than him?

He gave up trying to talk to the scientists a while ago. They seem to find his attempts amusing and when he thinks about it, he feels sick. If they're anything like Sabrian, they don't believe that he's anything like they are. The only woman who ever replied to him couldn't give him any comforting answers, so he gave up. He sat back, stayed still, and let them do what they wanted.