Chapter Text
It’s been a year.
For Donnie it was the slowest year he had ever experienced.
Every other year seemed to be so fundamentally different to him, in comparison the last one. It wouldn’t be entirely wrong, Donnie supposes. Things this year were fundamentally different, a change had taken place that could never be repaired no matter how hard anybody tried.
Donnie was used to fixing things. Throughout his childhood he had fixed multiple gadgets and electronics around the lair. Being the only was gifted with actual intellectuality about technology and also the being the only one actually interested in this craft, it often fell on his shoulders to fix what was broken in their sewer home.
He didn’t mind however, he liked fixing things. He enjoyed time and time again to solve the puzzle what would get the machine working again, he loved the complexity of the gadgets, he loved tech. He liked all of those, but what he loved was the faces of his brothers whenever he succeeded. He loved seeing them cheer for his success, he loved seeing his brothers enjoy the machines he fixed, he loved it when they told him they were proud of him for succeeding in the one thing the rest couldn’t.
So, he loved fixing things.
However, love has two sides. A double-edged sword.
It could be warm like a summer breeze, or like a hug from his eldest brother whenever he needed to be comforted. It could be validating like words of affirmation, or like his twin understanding him like no else did. It could motivational like the strongest of fuels ever made, or like his youngest brother cheering him on from the sidelines, hyping up every project Donnie ever worked on.
It could hurt like a knife in your chest, like a betrayal from a loved or trusted one. It could be hollow, like a bee working on a cube of honey only to see it sucked dry, its work destroyed. It could soul crushing, like losing a loved one.
He loved fixing things.
He loved making his family happy.
So it hurt when he couldn’t.
Losing Leo was probably the one thing he was incapable of ever fixing, yet the one that mattered the most.
The problem in their family, the gap, the irregularity that needed fixing the most, was unable to be done by any being on the planet and Donnie knew of. It didn’t even matter to him if he was the one to fix, as long as somebody could. There was no such thing.
Leonardo was so loved by the family, it hurt when he was forced away, never to return again to living lands of earth.
Hurt didn’t even come close to was agony the family was drenched in. That day the sky burst, so the did the foundation of the Hamatos. While the sky exploded in a thousand colours, the ground seemed to give in beneath them, plunging them in eternal darkness. The ones not being able to revel in the beautiful colours of the sky, the ones who could never feel overjoyed that someone had saved them.
The could never bask in the colours of a new world, saved from a world-ending tragedy. The world had ended for them.
Now, they were stuck in this cave. Just hearing the lively cheers of glee and tears of relief from afar, catching mere whisps of the colours their brother left this world in. The whisps felt good, it brought them relief that their world didn’t end, that everything turned alright in the end.
But the darkness was much stronger, it was overwhelming. It crept into their minds and showed them torturing memories of their lost one. Memories that used to be remember with laughs and teasing turned into grieving ones. Leonardo, who used to be a subject that made people happy, proud, annoyed in a brotherly way, funny in the way he was, is now contaminated with grief.
Every picture made the Hamatos hearts ache in their chest.
So yes, things were fundamentally different this last year. It was the year their brother was not there with them anymore.
It had broken the Hamatos for a while. Donnie couldn’t lie and say it didn’t affect him, it did, very much so. If his twin’s disappearance didn’t hurt then he wasn’t worthy of the love Leo had showered him with each day. So, while the pain hollowed him from the inside out, it kept a flicker of relief breathing within Donnie, the reminder that their brother would always be loved by his family, no matter what.
He remembered rivulets of maroon on Raph knuckles, the red hue so different than he usually wore. Guilt made him blind so his own pain that he destroyed nearly every dummy their small dojo had stored. He remembered the long night where the only think you could hear the boom boom boom of Raph’s knuckled hitting that hard wood with the soft dripping in the background, only heard by ghost.
He remembered Mikey’s wails and the piercing sound of porcelain breaking every other day. The instability in his arms, caused by a desperate attempt to save his older brother, made every plate or glass he grabbed slip through his finger. Tears would prickle in his eyes and he picked up glass after glass just to fall out of his hands. Red footsteps would mark the sewer ground as Mikey walked the world with glass in his feet.
He remembered the tired smiles of their oldest sister as she guided them to health every day. The corners of her lips lifted yet her eyes sunken. He remembered her strength, upholding their fragile family while nursing them back to health. He remembered her eyes usually filled with life were drowned. Eyes always glassy but never leaking, arms shaking but never breaking, heart gutted out but never withering.
He remembered himself. The strong air of black coffee intoxicating the living space of his lab, his bedroom abandoned.. The scattered plans and papers all over the room. He remembered the anger, the fury, the iron grip on his heart as he forced himself to live at his desk rather with those he cherished and had left. Desperate to get his twin back, desperate to hold onto a small bit of control, even though he had long lost it.
He remembered to complete absence of their father, locked away behind a fragile wooden door with the strength of a titanium one. It was like a wall, there was no passing through. Just a small light streak from beneath and the soft whirring of the television. No sound however, the volume was always on zero. He didn’t hear any drama’s, any movie’s, anything at all. Just the soft humming of the television as the grey light in no doubt cast on Splinters face.
Even though he didn’t see Casey much, he knew he struggled. The sewers had become such an unbreathable place where the air was constantly intoxicated with anger and grief, it was no place for a young war veteran to live in. Casey was just as old as Raph, he needed to recover from nobody knew what horrors he grew up in, and as much as the thought squeezed Donnie’s heart in the present, their home hadn’t been a healthy place to do that for Casey.
Cassandra came as a saving grace, taking her alternate, time-misplaced son into her small apartment. Donnie didn’t know much details, but he knew they worked well together. As the Hamatos screamed, yelled, fought, cried, talked, and healed with each other throughout the year, the Jones began visiting them. They got to know Casey’s better, they bonded and became stronger.
Not at their past strength, no. That could never be again, as they missed a vital organ to make their family that strong ever again.
Even though Draxum was probably stronger than Leo physically, he could never replace his twins mental strength. Even though Casey is so painfully similar to his twin, he could never replace his twins charisma and spirit. And He didn’t want them to.
It was hard for Donnie to accept Casey Jones Jr. into the family at first, for it felt like a replacement due to the boys similarity, but he learned and accepted it. It was what his twin would have wanted.
Donnie did everything he could to honour the memory of him, listening to past advices Leo had given him, maintained his old bedroom and never replacing it for anything else, copied small traditions Leo used to have when he was still here, like drinking strawberry tea every Friday night or watching the sunset on Sundays.
He also visited his altar every week. Every Sunday afternoon for a year long.
He just sat and meditated.
He never used to meditate before Leo’s departing, yet another thing that had changed last year. In first weeks after the invasion, Donnie almost sat every hour of the night here when he mind was too warbled to think of other scientific solutions. He made attempt after attempt to call upon Leo’s spirit, just so he see him again, to speak to him again, even if it was short.
He called and called again, but nobody ever picked up the phone.
His attempts became less and less over the months, but he still tried every week, on Sunday afternoon.
Leo’s twin day of the week.
Donnie had hoped that something sentimental would pull Leo’s emotional spirit forward, but nothing ever came. Since Splinter had shredded the ancient Hamato guide back when Shredder was a problem, nobody had anyway of contacting their ancestors, their Gram Gram, or Leo.
Raph had asked Casey if he knew something about the Hamato afterlife, maybe Future Leo or Mikey had told him something about it. Casey looked heartbroken and shook his head. Apparently it used to be a vulnerable subject with Leo’s future self. Casey said that Leo in the future was never able to contact his family, and did not speak about it. Mikey was another subject, nobody knew if Mikey might have known something or not.
Casey had only told them that he was certain that only living members of the Hamato Clan could call upon the ancestors, and that the ancestors could not just visit on their own just like that. That was all he knew.
So, Donnie kept trying, just as he knew his siblings tried as well. No result ever came.
Feeling his hope bleed out of him, Donnie let out a long sigh as he slowly opened his eyes again. He relaxed his shoulder that he hadn’t noticed were as stiff as the ground he was sitting on. He rolled his shoulders as he looked through lidded eyes at Leo’s altar.
It was a wooden table in the middle of his old bedroom, in the middle a cut out photo of Leo from the groups selfie they had made after Shredder’s defeat years ago. Beside the frame were two lit candles with a flame that the family never allowed to die. They always replaced the burned out candles and lit the new ones with the flame of the old ones. So that the flame lit on Leo’s funeral would always live on, like spirit lived on.
The table was further decorated with a blue cloth that covered most of its surface. Atop of it were small gifts from the family to Leo, small trinkets that reminded them of their brother.
It was simple, but it was Leo. It felt right.
Donnie just simply sat in the room for a few moments longer, before finally getting up and leaving. His mood was slightly under the weather at another failure of contacting his lost twin. He knew, though, that he couldn’t stay at the room forever. He had work to do.
He strolled towards the trusted door that led to his lab.
If this year learned him anything else, it was that their family was cursed of some sorts, or people really hated them. Leo would call them ‘blind to their awesomeness’ or ‘allergic to happiness’. Donnie slightly snorted as the thought intruded his though process, but Leo had always interrupted him in his work, barging into his lab and pulling him away to another adventure. It was what Leo did.
He missed it, for sometimes he pulled Donnie away from his own thoughts that were out there to hurt him.
He missed it
He missed Leo.
Back on track, Donnie shook his head as he whisked the grief away. He had grieved already today, he didn’t need to make it hours long. So, as he saying, his family was cursed. Their family suffered tragedy after tragedy like no other. The foot, Draxum, The Shredder and then again the Shredder, The Kraang…
And last but not least, Agent John Bishop and his wretched EPF.
Through their grieving, the turtles hadn’t noticed the sudden rise of the EPF on the streets on New York. It had taken them 10 months to finally notice that things on the surface were tense. It wasn’t entirely their fault, though. As they all buried themselves in their grief filled rooms. They didn’t really go out until they all made up, which was 8 months after the invasion.
Which was long, now that Donnie thought about it.
April had notified the boys about Government agent stalking her. When they had checked, all of them went white with the realisation that the EPF had stalked April to their sewer home for months. An bug planted in her jacket notified the EPF that they knew they were being followed and another attack on their soon followed. They nearly escaped due to Splinter taking the one sword Leo left and opening a portal before their home was flooded.
They were forced to operate against John Bishop from a farm house outside the city that belonged to April’s parents, while Casey’s acted as their eyes from within the city in their apartment. The EPF somehow hadn’t made a connection between the Hamato’s and the Jones.
Long story short, and information war between Donnie and Bishop played out. As Bishop tried to flood the streets with Anti-mutant propaganda and started hunts for yokai, Donnie redirected his attack. Along with his family and the Jones, they managed to expose Bishop for a controlling freak who was planning a coup on the American government.
As Bishop unfairly painted Donnie’s family and mutant/yokai as monsters unfairly, Donnie painted him as a monster that tried to dismantle America.
It wasn’t bishops plan at all to commit a coup, it didn’t matter. Play foul and Donnie will play fouler times ten.
So now that Bishop lost his funding and the EPF seized to exist, peace was returned to the Hamato family, momentarily. The turtle in purple couldn’t help like this peace would be short. Disaster after disaster happened to his family, so he would prepare for the next. He would check everything, the smallest problems that could grow out massive.
After all, it was how the Kraang invasion happened, with a small burglary.
That’s how he found himself behind his desk, screening old EPF documents that he had managed to gather and copy before they were wiped from existence forever. Most of it wasn’t all that interesting, small theories and possibilities of alien life of earth and much other human fears of extra-terrestrial life.
Their fears for aliens made them blinded to different terrestrial life, so when Donnie’s family got exposed when saving the world from the Kraang, he hypothesizes that Bishop must have felt a sudden spike of irrational fear of different terrestrial life. Or not, maybe he was just out for power. It didn’t really matter anymore. He was gone, shipped away in the U.S’ most guarded prison, unknown to the common people.
If Bishop was truly afraid, Donnie didn’t feel bad for him.
He had almost destroyed their home, almost infiltrated the Hidden City, almost erased the last possessions of their lost brother. He had threatened them, fought them, injured them and so much more. He had almost captured Mikey….
They could have lost another brother…
He couldn’t forgive Bishop for that.
Seeing the files now in his computer, he gets an idea of what might have happened to Mikey had the caught him. Testing, lots of testing, cruel and tortures trial had been already on standby if they captured one ‘strange creature’. To test their strength, to discover possibilities if the strange creature could be control to benefit the EPF.
Scientists? Or monsters. Perhaps both.
Still, Donatello researched further and further into the old data banks of the EPF, searching for anything that could pose threats in their near future, or just the future in general. Just knowing the smallest bit of information could prevent tragedies. Even as he screened report after report, file after file from the EPF, none of them seemed important. Just at the moment though. All these little trinkets and artefacts, all these little observations and discoveries, all these little tests and experiments could mean a great deal in a problem in the future.
The little insignificant trinkets on Splinters shelf turned out to be the hidden key of The Hidden city, the weapons in Draxum’s just seemed cool, nothing to important, which later turned out to be keys to unlocking their powers and Ninpo. The borbels in Big Mama’s safe turned out to be the key to neutralising Shredder the first time. The small museum turned to be a key that unleased the greatest menace on their earth that Donnie had ever seen.
So, even if these files seemed useless now, having read them could prevent something in the future.
Right now, Donnie was running though the files that were stored in a map that was named ‘Mystic artefacts’. In all honestly, these were the most interesting to read. It was incredibly resourceful to see what the EPF had managed to hoard on information, they even managed to actually collect some of these, providing some files with photographs instead of drawings. It was also funny to see how absolutely incorrect some of these theories were on artefacts that Donnie already knew.
Then, he stumbled upon something. It was familiar to him.
Donnie completely froze behind his computer screen, it couldn’t be. His heart seemed to seize beating as he stared at the computer with wide eyes, mouth gaping. The longer he stared, the more nauseous he began to feel. His arms began shaking like Mikey’s hand had shook after the invasion.
How, How!?
How…
Donnie shot up from his chair as he pushed away from his computer. It couldn’t be. Donnie squinted his eyes shut as he clutched his fists as tight as he could. A wave of fury overwhelmed him as he cursed Bishops existence. All their conversations, all the bickering’s, all the threats they told each other, and the bastard had never mentioned this…
It seemed like a stab in the stomach. Even if Donnie had won The War, bishop still seemed to be the last man laughing.
His heart shattered as his face was illuminated by the blue light of his computer screen, the letters written in blue, as of Bishop knew Donnie would be reading this someday. Mocking him.
Artefact #12 5 15
Blue portal sword.
(Suspected) owner: Hamato Leonardo
Place of discovery: New York City. (40.7648731, -73.9792839)
Physical appearance artefact:
- Engravings on the side, seeming to light up when charged with electricity
- Blue handle
- ……
…..
Donnie sunk to the ground, and cried. As he cried, he could feel the whispers of Bishops laugh in his ears.
How…
~-~
‘’Boss’’ The woman said as she kneeled in front of two men, while presenting a sword by holding it over her head. ‘’I have found the sword you were looking for. It was indeed in the EPF’s old building, as you said it would be, Sirs.’’
‘’Excellent job.’’ The first man said as he looked to the other man with a grin.
The second man chuckled as he grinned back. ‘’Let phase two of the plan begin.’’