Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1, 2, 3, 4

Free time is so rare.

5, 6, 7, 8

I used to look forward to it

9, 10, 11, 12

But I’ve come to learn that there’s nothing to do.

13, 14, 15, 16

Nobody to talk to.

17, 18, 19, 20

I like to count the branches on a tree.

21, 1, 2, 3

When I finish with one I start over with another.

4, 5, 6, 7

Could these things even be called trees?

8, 9, 10, 11

They are the closest things to trees I have seen in years. So I call them trees anyway. But you can’t climb them like a tree, they don’t look pretty and green like trees. I imagine them with leaves. Leaves are what they're called right? I think they grow on trees.

12, 13, 1, 2

There is nobody to talk to.

.~.~.~.~.

Sometimes I wish I kept track of time. Tally marks on the walls of my house(cave) just like prisoners do in movies. But, most of the time, I don’t like thinking about it. Everyday I feel farther away. Farther away from my brothers, farther away from home, farther away from reality. I think I’m losing my mind.

God, I will lose my mind if I can’t get this glow berry. The vine is growing on a cliff, I can jump to it if I could just get a little higher. Maybe I can stand on a rock…. That pink rock over there might just do it. If I stretch out just right and jump just high enough…. Got it!

My satchel was made of some sorta membrane, but it held the light fruit just fine. Look to the left for any krang, then look to the right for any mutations, then go back home. After a while, the thrill of hopping from island to island, only stopping to stomp on some freaky huge bugs, gets old surprisingly quickly. It’s a chore, an annoying one at that. Grimacing, I wipe my shoe on the ground to get the bug guts off. That’s right, I’m wearing shoes! The magenta spikes do hurt when they get stepped on. They do make a good barbed wire though. I can see the ones I set up right outside my cave. Maybe I can fall asleep easily tonight, with a bellyful of glow fruit, it’s one of the finer cuisines offered here. Have to keep looking at the bright side.

.~.~.~.~.

I’m a T.V show character. That’s a fun way to pass the time, thinking that people are watching me. That was one of the last conversations I had back with my br****rs. I try to hold on to it the best I can.

Would I be out of character if I was in a T.V show? I don’t think I’m very fun nowadays.

I’m not very fun nowadays.

I haven’t been acting like Mikey nowadays.

I don’t think I’ve been Michelangelo nowadays.

No, none of that makes sense

I’m not Michelangelo.

Chapter Text

“Mikey!”

Of course, why hadn’t I expected this. Going into a portal into a dimension that we don’t know about after breaking the only piece of communication we have with Leatherhead. Great! Just great.

“We have to go after him!”

“Let's move.”

“Uh, let’s not move!” Are Leo and Raph being serious? We can’t be as careless as Mikey.

“Well what are we supposed to do, leave him there?” Raph made a move for the portal. Not good, that’s not good. Placing a hand on his shoulder I pull him back.

“Well we can’t just jump in-”

“You think I don’t know that! Mikey just jumped in so we have to jump in before he does something even stupider.”

“Raph’s right, we need to save him.”

“Wha- how can we do that if we know nothing, just because Mikey did something stupid doesn’t mean we half to! Just- let me fix this orb and we can-“

“Ugh, we’re wasting time!”

“Look Donnie, Raph’s right. There’s a possibility Mikey can’t wait, let’s go get our baby brother.”

Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice with how Raph just jumped in. Was his breathing filter even placed right? Leo followed after so naturally I followed, never mind the fact that this might be jeopardizing us. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to go after Mikey. But wouldn’t it have been better to be more prepared. So we can have more of a chance to stay safe, to keep Mikey safe.

I’m sure he could have waited for the few minutes it would take.

.~.~.~.~.

When you stare at nothing but bright pink for forever it gets really off-putting. But seeing a huge eye the size of the moon is just downright freaky. I call it the Eye See you Eye, just rolls of the tongue. Not like it matters. I named the thing a long time ago, I stopped doing that as much. Why come up with totally cool and clever names if nobody’s here to hear them.

Wait, why am I out here again? Oh right, that warehouse. It’s like clockwork, find a kraang warehouse, invade said warehouse, find nothing, go home. I mean, they don’t even keep any maps in there and the stuff they have is all just junk. And I mean it when I say junk, almost everything is useful out here, but not the stuff from in there, it’s just wasting my time, giving me hope for something, I don’t even know what I’m looking for. A communication device? Any records they have of-

“Ahhhh-”

What. was. that. Screaming, in the distance. It’s not a demifly screech. Or a gloopmonsters howl. A real scream. It’s someone screaming. Is someone here? Are my brothers… no- I have to see it for myself.

.~.~.~.~.

Ow. Something threw me! That was a rough landing. What could it possibly be this time in this sick, twisted-

“STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHERS”

…

“Mikey?”
What in the world? What is he- I can’t keep up with it! He’s throwing some sort of explosive. And the way he’s using that grappling hook thing, his moves are perfect, they're calculated. Calculated and Mikey shouldn’t belong in the same sentence. Not that that matters Mikey’s here now

“You’re okay!”

“We were worried about you!”

Mikey looks… different. His mask is practically torn to shreds for heaven sakes. But it isn’t his appearance, whatever that is on him that's concerning. He- he doesn’t look like Mikey! Or at leat the Mikey that jumped through that portal.

“Well- what- what took you so long?”

And he doesn’t sound like Mikey either! It’s all wrong, the tone, the pitch, is it slightly deeper? He seems to be thinking hard about what he’s saying, he’s squinting his eyes like he’s trying to solve a trinomial formula. Raph and Leo have to be seeing this. But, looking to my left at them, it doesn’t seem like they do. Is it just me? Am I over thinking?

“What! What do you mean! We jumped in the portal like, three minutes after you.” Raph’s right, how could so much happen in three minutes!

“I’ve been here for…..” Mikey seemed to freeze. Raph and Leo just had to notice, somethings wrong.

“For like, weeks, uh, hours? I don’t have a watch dude.” Wait… that doesn’t make sense, or does it.

“It seems like time passes faster here than in our own dimension, it's a temporal diferencial.”

“Oh, uh- yea, I love tempora.” Sheesh, Mikey seems totally out of it.”

“Mikey, is your breathing unit alright? Everybody, check your breathing unit.” Maybe the air is making him loopy. I can check its chemical makeup back at my lab.

“Look dude, everythings… fine. Actually… everything’s perfect…. We can- Since we're all here we can locate Leatherhead… you have the orb device, right?” Analyzing Mikeys voice more, it sounds a bit rough, like it's been out of use for a while, I glanced at Raph and Leo again but they were looking at me.

“Oh, ah, right. The device. I have the tracking part here.” Mikey seemed to be in disbelief when he saw it, his third eye-lid closed, leaving a milky white void where his pupils should be.

“Let’s find Leatherhead and get out of here.”