TMNT-Dark side

True End

When he woke up, he was confused. Really confused. Everybody was hugging him. It was weird. Especially for Raph. That didn't just happen. Something must have happened, but what?

He noticed the IV tube attached to his arm and the heart monitor. He shuddered. He hated needles. At least he wasn't awake when they inserted the IV. Speaking of which, why was it there anyway? Did he get into an accident? His mind was blank. He could hardly recall anything that would cause him to be in this state.

The only thing he remembered was fighting the Foot with his brothers. Maybe he got seriously injured from that. Mikey's head hurt. He tried not to think about that too much. "Wow Raph, I didn't know you were a hugger," He smirked, teasing Raph.

They step away from him, and he's thankful for the space he's given to breathe. "Um...as much as I love hugs, why is everyone coddling me like I just died?" They exchange glances. Oh okay.

"Your heart stopped. Then it started beating again. We all freaked out. Mikey, you were in a coma for weeks." Leo says. What? Okay now my brain feels like it's exploding. Not literarily because that would be bad. I probably wouldn't feel it if it were literal... Okay you're straying from the topic Mikey, focus.

After Mikey didn't reply, lost in his own thoughts, Donnie decided to break the silence.
"Do you remember anything?"
"Well... The last thing I remember is fighting the Foot Clan. Then it's all blank." He said slowly.
Everybody exchanged glances like they knew something He didn't.
"What?"

"Listen, Mikey," Raph began. He started explaining the events of that night starting from that fight. "So we tackled you and April accessed your mind-"
"What?"
They couldn't have. If they did, they would have seen everything.
"Mikey, I'm sorry if you feel like that was invading your privacy, but we needed it to save you," April says

"Red's right. You should be thanking them. It doesn't matter that they saw stuff-"
"You saw? What?" Mikey asked, panic rising. If they know about the past it would change everything. My image as the happy go lucky guy would be gone. I built my mask for a reason. I needed to keep being the turtle who put a smile on everybody's faces, and that was all that drove me to act goofy and stupid all day.

"Nothing. We saw Nothing. We fought that manifestation inside you. That's it. We came out after that," Leo said. "Yeah, we did get some help along the way.. From you..." Raph trailed off, and Mikey started at him, confused.

"It's complicated," Donnie and April said in unison.
They were lying to him. Mikey knew it from the way Leo and Donnie shot death glares at Casey and Raph was not so discreetly kicking him in the shin.

There was something off about everybody. Mikey couldn't put his finger on it. Sure, he could understand the hugging as them missing him after being unconscious for a month, but he noticed the way none of them made direct eye contact with him. They lied to him and were keeping something from him. Why? And when he teased Raph about the hugging, he didn't miss the small flinch as Raph saw his smirk. Small, but big enough. Was there something wrong with him? His face? Just as he was about to question them further, Splinter stepped in.

"Everybody, It is late and Michaelangelo must be very tired. I expect he will need some time and space alone to recover and to try to recall and understand what happened over the past two months. All of you go to bed. I expect you all to be ready for training tomorrow morning." The others groaned but complied, trudging back to their rooms.

Splinter smiled at Mikey. "If you need me Michaelangelo, I will be in the Dojo. Rest well, my son."
He closed the door, leaving Mikey alone to contemplate his brother's strange behaviour.

Months passed. Mikey's wounds healed. So did everybody else's. Mikey continued with the mask. Nobody said anything about it. If they knew, why didn't they confront him about it? At first Mikey thought that it was just his imagination and that they weren't lying at all. Then he noticed that weird behaviour still continued.

His brothers were more careful around him than usual. It was as if he was some ticking time bomb they were afraid of setting off. They were more loving to him which he didn't mind, but he didn't miss the hushed conversations they had when he wasn't around, which stopped when he entered the room. Once he heard Raph screaming in the middle of the night (a nightmare), and when he tried to comfort him Raph refused to speak to him. April hardly came anymore. Casey came once in a while to hang with Raph but that was it.

He had no idea what was happening. And he couldn't figure out what. Was it something they encountered in his mind? He just wanted things to be the way they were two months ago. Before the whole mess started.

Leo sighed. He knew that Mikey was aware of their behaviour, and he didn't know what to do. He wanted things to be back to normal again, but how, when Raph, Donnie and him all had the same problems, terrorised by Dark Mikey. Whenever Mikey smirked, whenever he laughed, it brought them back to the battle in his head.

They were even terrified to fight him. Leo had to suck up his courage to fight him without panicking. Raph often had nightmares about killing Mikey. But they tried not to show their fear. They were scared of Dark Mikey, and to be scared of Mikey would be unfair since it wasn't him who nearly killed them. He was as much of a victim as they were, only he didn't remember it.

Mikey couldn't take how Splinter and everyone was babying him all the time. How his own brothers tried to act like everything was okay, when he could see right through them. They were scared of him. It was plain to see. They hadn't been perfecting their acts for years. He of all people would see through them.

He came to the conclusion that it was the darkness in his mind that terrorised them and caused them to be scared. Caused April to stay away. Donnie to be upset because she hardly came back. He felt guilty.

So the only way for them to start feeling better was for him to go away. If there was enough space and distance between them, his brothers wouldn't be afraid anymore. He would give them time to stop being scared. He needed time along anyway to clear his head. Stop acting for a while. It was tiring to smile and laugh when he didn't feel like it.

So he gathered his weapons, a photo of him and his brothers and some food for the kitchen to last him for a while. He wrote a note, explaining how he knew his brothers were scared of him and he would give them space and time so that they could calm down. He didn't want to be the cause of recurring nightmares.

He slipped away in the dead of the night, unsure of where he was going, his only goal to get as far away as possible, but at the same time it had to be a place they would think to find him when they were okay with him again. Now if only he knew of a place like that...

When they discovered the note, they immediately set out to search for their little brother. They got the help of Slash, Leatherhead, April and Casey. No luck. All they found was a damaged photo of the turtles and splinter at an abandoned amusement park. They had no idea if he had gone to another country, or if he was still in New York. They had no idea if the damaged photo was a sign that something bad had happened to Mikey, they didn't know if he was dead or alive.

Raph closed himself off from everyone else. He hardly emerged from his room and only came out to eat, shower and once in a while, train. He went out separately from Leo and Donnie who had decided to join the Mighty Mutanimals to fight crime with Slash and the others. No one knew what he did when he was away, but they didn't bother dealing with him. Leo trained and trained day after day, and that was all he did. Donnie stayed cooped up in his lab.

Splinter sighed. His family was now was broken as the photograph they found at the abandoned park.

A/N:And that brings this this fanfiction to a close. This ending is if you want to continue reading to sequel, but if you don't you can just choose one of the other endings. Or two. Or three. Or make up your own. Idk, it's up to you. Thanks for reading this, and I'm happy that everyone enjoyed it, and Although I have a rough idea for what's going to happen in the sequel, If you guys want to suggest ideas, Go ahead! Mine probably won't be good anyway XD