Chapter Text
Donnie’s system rebooted slowly. He didn’t know where he was, and his sensors were slow to come online. A low battery warning flashed in his field of vision. The integration of his animal mind with this machine body had never been perfect. It just couldn’t be if he wanted to maintain his ‘humanity’ or ‘turtle-manity’ or sense of self, whatever you wanted to call it. And his more animal brain just couldn’t comprehend his robotic body the way a purely machine mind could. So, many of the functions of his body were left to the more computer-like hindbrain that his more animal mind had only some control over, much like how in the past he didn’t consciously control his breathing unless he focused on it. If he wanted to really understand the code that ran in the background he had to focus, and that was hard with a low battery.
See, this body was never made to house his mind. It was just another version of Metal Head, a two point O. He hadn’t built it to run forever. He might have been able to if he’d known he needed to, but at the time, cramming that kind of tech into this body hadn’t been necessary. So he’d compromised. He’d managed to get abhold of a small shard of a Kraang power crystal, but that on its own wasn’t enough to power the robot. So instead, his body would go into sleep mode, where all higher functions would shut down and what was left of his animal mind would rest. He even dreamed, though he didn’t fully understand how or why.
While his body was in sleep mode, the Kraang crystal would charge up his several batteries and once they were fully charged, or some external stimulus triggered him, he would “wake up” and be ready to go.
He hadn’t charged in well over 24 hours however. He’d been too busy setting up his new lab at the Oasis and just spending time with his brothers again. It had been awesome, getting to know one another again, scrounging in the less destroyed bits of the city, literally digging through the sand for parts to build a home. Most of his brothers had insomnia, so someone was always up and needing a shoulder to lean on. They’d made a lot of progress, and then something happened.
A portal opened up and sucked Donnie through.
Donnie strained his systems to find out where he’d ended up. The antennae on his head rising into the upright position. Though Mikey liked to call them his rabbit ears, the antennae were actually extremely sensitive sensory devices. They could detect minute sounds, smells, and even electrical impulses like those a living organism gave off. He’d designed the antennae so they could fold back behind his head to protect them from blows or wind, a side effect of which made them excellent at displaying his mood. With no way of showing facial expressions, Donnie relied very heavily on his antennae to let those around him know how he was feeling, even at times to the detriment of him being able to observe his surroundings.
Now, as he pulled his antennae forward, he picked up the sounds and smells of a place very unlike his oasis home. It was all very familiar, but it took him a while to place it because he had not experienced anything like it in this body. Then it hit him.
New York.
He was home.
…
The first thing Donnie did was enter sleep mode. He did not have the processing power for this and as far as he could tell, he was safe to stay where he was for a short time, tucked behind a dumpster in an alley. His body folded up on itself as his limbs retracted into his shell. He was nearly impossible to damage like this making it the perfect pose to charge in. He didn’t feel safe sitting here till he was at full charge, but 20% of full power would give him enough to work with to find a safer spot to reach full power and start figuring out where or when exactly he was. He really hoped he was in another universe and not the past. As much as he used to wish he could go back in time and change everything, he and his brothers were finally together again and he wouldn’t change that for the world. For now, he would hope that he was merely in another universe. He’d jumped universes before and it was usually pretty easy to get back. But for now, he charged.
…
He had barely reached a 4% charge when something triggered him to wake up. The world filtered in around him and he didn’t move from his charging pose as he focused on the inputs coming in from his antennae.
“I swear the power surge came from around here somewhere,” a voice said, followed by the noise of some kind of device whining, a noise so quiet Donnie doubted the user of the device even heard it. If he had more of a charge he might have devoted some of his processing power to analyze the sounds and electrical impulses the device gave off in order to determine exactly what kind of machine it was, but with only 4% power, he was not going to waste it.
“Are you sure Donnie?” another voice whined. “I don’t see anything, and Mikey should be done with the pizza by now. I’m starving!”
That confirmed Donnie’s theory that he was in another universe, and it sounded like his appearance here had triggered one of this Donatello’s sensors. That was good, it meant that the Donnie here had some pretty advanced tech, maybe even advanced enough to get him home.
“I don’t know guys,” a third voice said, deeper than the other two. “I’m getting a weird feeling.”
“Ugh, there’s nothing here!” the second voice complained again.
Donnie’s sensors warned him that the three lifeforms were converging on his location and decided to make himself known. He unfurled himself from his shell as quietly as he could. Unfortunately, that wasn’t as quiet as he wanted.
“What is that?” the third voice asked, a waver in his tone.
“Something is here,” this world's Donatello warned.
“Uh guys,” the second voice shook, and pointed at Donnie. With his head now above the dumpster he’d been behind, Donnie could see the three turtles. Too much information tried to flood his mind and without the power to devote to processing it he had to try to only take in the necessary information and store the rest for later.
His dimensional counterpart was standing in front of the other two who Donnie realized must be this world's Leonardo and Raphael. But they looked very, very different to the brothers he knew. This world's Raph was huge for one, clearly some kind of snapping turtle. Donnie quickly noted the markings on this Leo’s eyes as those of a red eared slider, a turtle commonly kept as a pet and then released into the wild when they got too big making them a very invasive species. He couldn’t immediately tell what this world’s Donnie was, but he wore some kind of metal shell over his back, so further investigation was needed.
“What the fuck are you!?” the Leo demanded. “Some kind of evil Kraang bot?” At Leo’s words, the huge Raph pulled his smaller brothers behind him and held his fists out in front of him, strange red energy crackling around his fingers.
“I won’t let you hurt my brothers,” Raph growled. Donnie instinctively lowered his antennae and raised his hands in a passive surrender. He stepped out from behind the dumpster so these younger turtles could see him better.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Donnie assured. “My name is Donatello.”
“What?” Raph asked, lowering his hands, though the strange red energy still pulsed slowly. Donnie’s antennae rose again trying to get a better sense of what exactly it was. If he’d been at full power he might not have gotten so easily distracted, but with most of his processing power turned off to save power, the constant calculations that he usually ran didn’t warn him that he needed to stay focused, thus his more animal curiosity won.
“Don?” Leo asked. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Don said, but he sounded delighted. He pushed past Raph, a feat considering how large the turtle was, and stuck the device in his hands in Donnie’s face. Donnie focused in on it, his antennae twitching slightly as he tried to get a read on it.
“Who made you?” Don asked, clearly not expecting an answer as he kept talking. “What kind of power are you running on? What’s your processing power like? I’ve made a lot of robots but not one that can walk like you, I’ve stuck mostly to drones cause programming something that can keep its balance like that is difficult and finding drone parts is a lot easier considering how popular they are right now…”
“Donnie!” Raph warned as he pulled his brother back. “It might be dangerous.”
“Yeah!” Leo agreed, stepping in front of his brothers, sword raised and pointed at Donnie. A similar energy to Raph’s rolled down the blade but this time it was blue. “What do you want?” Leo asked. Donnie couldn’t help the calculations that rolled through his processors trying to figure out these turtles’ dynamics. Both Raph and Leo seemed to act like they were the leader, which wasn’t unusual as Raph always acted like that when he was that age, but back then the others didn’t treat him like a leader. But these turtles clearly did. Donnie needed more data.
“Well?” Leo demanded and Donnie realized he’d been asked a question and was expected to answer.
“I want to go home?” Donnie said, cursing himself for not keeping himself better charged. This low power fog was going to be the death of him.
“And where’s home?” Leo asked.
“I’m Donatello,” Donnie repeated. “I’m from another dimension, and I don’t know how I got here, but I just want to go home to my brothers.”
“Wait!” Don exclaimed. “Are you another me from another dimension? I’m a robot in another dimension? Cool!”
“No,” Donnie said. “I wasn’t always a robot. My body was destroyed and I transferred my mind into this body.”
“I don’t know man,” Leo said, his defensive posture relaxing. “That’s still pretty cool.”
“Hey, can I?” Don asked, approaching Donnie with one hand raised. It was glowing purple, the same kind of energy his brothers showed. Donnie’s antennae folded back nervously and he took a step back.
“It’s okay,” Don reassured. “My powers let me ‘feel’ tech. It shouldn’t hurt you.”
“Okay,” Donnie said, stepping forward until Don’s hand pressed against his chest. A sensation unlike anything he’d experienced before surged through him. He suddenly felt every part of his robotic body in a way he never had before. He could feel this other Donatello’s mind poking and prodding at him, turning on every function, exploring every chip and wire in his body. And more than anything, he felt his meager power supply draining. Whatever this Donatello was doing, it was drawing on Donnie’s batteries to do it. The low battery warning flashed in his vision as Don removed his hand and stepped back.
“You okay man?” Leo asked as Donnie wobbled.
“Low power,” Donnie said, his voice coming out weak and garbled. He didn’t have any power left to tuck himself into his usual charging pose. Instead, he felt himself shutting down as he tipped forward. He was just aware enough to register that this world’s Raph caught him before he slipped fully into charging mode and stopped taking in any external stimuli.
…
Raphael reached for the robot as he fell over. He grunted as he caught him, unprepared for the sheer weight of the machine.
"Careful!" Donnie warned. "I didn't mean it!"
"What's wrong with him!" Leo asked, worry filtering through his usual mask of indifference.
"I think my powers drained his batteries!" Donnie explained.
Raph hefted the robot onto his shoulder, making sure he had a secure hold on him. His big brother instincts were already making him feel protective of this Donnie. He wasn't letting anything hurt him.
"You can charge him back up right?" Leo asked.
"Do you even know me?" Donnie asked arrogantly. Raph knew the two were freaking out cause he was freaking out. But he wasn't letting it show.
"Let's get back to the layer," Raph stated firmly.
"Yeah," Leo agreed. "Mikey is definitely worried by now."
Raph's gut rolled at the thought. He'd been so worried about the three turtles here, he'd completely forgotten about his youngest brother. He was probably so worried. It was impressive that Mikey hadn't blown their phones up yet. Raph shifted the robo-donnie on his shoulder so he could pull his phone out. There weren't any messages from Mikey yet, but that didn’t stop the worry in Raph's chest. He typed out a quick message and sent it before he could second guess himself.
Raphael: we ran into a situation. Be home soon! ;)
Michelangelo: what kind of situation? Need back up?
Raphael: no no
Raphael: we'll be home soon
"Raph, what's up?" Leo asked, pulling his attention away from his phone.
"Nothing," Raph reassured. "Just texting Mikey." Raph's attention drifted to Donnie who he realized had been on his phone since Robo-Donnie had passed out. A heavy weight landed in his stomach just as his phone started ringing.
"Hey Mike," Raph's voice shook as he answered his phone.
"HOW IS RUNNING INTO AN ALTERNATE ROBOT VERSION OF DONNIE NOT A SITUATION THAT NEEDS BACKUP!!" Mikey shouted into the phone. Raph had to hold the phone several feet away from his head and he could tell both of his brothers could hear the youngest. Raph glared at Donnie who tucked his head partly into his shell.
"Mikey," Raph soothed. "Robo-Donnie is unconscious. There's nothing you could do right now." Leo and Donnie were both waving their arms in a warning gesture.
"That's not good Raph!" Mikey said. "You guys need to get your asses home now before I go out there and drag you back."
"We're on our way big man," Raph reassured. Ever since Mickey had summoned that portal to pull Leo back, he'd had a hard time when his brothers weren't all in his sight. It'd slowly gotten better, but he couldn’t go long without seeing them. Raph could relate.
…
Donnie’s system started to come online. He thought he should be panicking but the only thing his antennae picked up was the familiar scents and sounds of a lab.
"Sorry about draining your batteries," this world's Donatello said from nearby. Donnie was on his back on a work table. His body shuddered and he folded himself up into a tight ball, feeling much safer in his charging pose. He let himself slip back under into his sleep mode.
…
When he woke again, the full charge indicator flashed in his vision. Before he unfolded, he ran a full diagnostic. System after system came back fully operational, until he came to his right leg. There was a large crack in the metal support below his knee. He must have hit it on something when he fell into this dimension. He'd have to fix that before he put too much weight on it.
"You gonna come out?" the alternate Donatello asked. Donnie hadn’t even realized his other self was still in the lab. Donnie unfurled and sat on the work table.
Don swiveled in his chair to face Donnie, pulling his goggles up off his face and redirecting his attention from the machine he'd been elbows deep in. Donnie was finally able to observe his dimensional counterpart with his full processing power.
This turtle was young, younger than Donnie ever remembered being, yet he still bore scars. They ran faintly up his arms and legs, marks of battles fought and won. A deep tiredness was set in around his eyes; he hadn’t slept in a while. All of Donnie's brothers were like that. Hell, even he was like that. He'd push his batteries as far as they'd go before he'd recharge just to avoid the nightmares.
"What's with the armor?" Donnie asked, gesturing to the purple shell on Don's back.
"I'm a soft shell," Don explained simply. He pointed to one of the walls of his lab where several similar armored shells hung. Donnie pushed himself off the table, stumbling slightly on his damaged leg before limping over to examine the shells. His antennae came forward to get a better read on the tech.
"I don't have the natural protection of my brothers," Don continued as Donnie took in his other self's creations. "I'm guessing you weren't a soft shell."
"No," Donnie agreed. "My brothers and I are all the same species. My best guess is we're common box turtles. These shells are really impressive." Donnie turned to face the other turtle, who seemed to light up from the praise.
"That body is pretty impressive too," Don pointed out. Donnie shook his head, his antennae drooping.
"Not really," he argued. "It was never designed to be used like this. And with the apocalypse in my world, I don't have the parts to take care of it."
"Like that leg?" Don asked, pointing at the offending limb with a screwdriver. Donnie sighed, or well, he mimicked the sound. He caught himself doing things like that a lot, mimicking actions that served no purpose in a robotic body. He didn’t try to stop himself though. It helped remind him, and his brothers, that there was still a person under all this metal and code.
"Want me to take a look at it?" Don offered. Donnie's antennae came up as he looked more intently around the room. There was so much tech here, more than he'd ever had in his lab even before he'd lost his body. This Donnie was clearly far beyond anything he'd managed.
"Okay," Donnie agreed.
Don stood up and headed toward the work bench Donnie had been charging on. He gestured for Donnie to get back on it, which he did without complaint. He stretched the damaged limb out so his dimensional counterpart could get a better look at it.
"I tried to find a way to charge you once I got you back here," Don said as he put his goggles back over his eyes and started examining Donnie’s leg. "I was getting ready to crack you open and started digging for your batteries when my ninpo told me your batteries were already charging."
"Your ninpo?" Donnie asked. Don sighed. He straightened up and pulled his goggles up to rub at his eyes.
"Long story," Don said. "Basically my brothers and I have these weird mystic powers and mine let me have a mental connection to tech. That's what I was doing when I accidentally drained your batteries." Don explained. He went back to looking at Donnie’s leg, gently lifting the limb in his hands to turn it this way and that.
"My brothers and I don’t have anything like that," Donnie told him.
"Eh, that's probably for the best," Don said. "Mikey's powers almost killed him."
"Where are your brothers?" Donnie asked, surprised that they hadn’t been barged in on them yet.
"Sleeping," Don said simply. "Mikey is probably cooking breakfast though." He set Donnie's leg down and took a step back, examining him. Donnie tried not to let it make him feel uncomfortable.
"I wasn't able to examine you much after we got you back to the lab," Don said. "Almost as soon as Raph set you down you kinda folded up."
Donnie nodded. "It's safer to charge that way."
"You said your world is an apocalypse right?" Don asked. Donnie nodded. Don didn't say anything after that, just pulled out welding gear and set up to fix Donnie’s leg.
Once he welded the cracked pieces back together, he sat back and just looked at Donnie again.
"You won't let me build you a new body will you," Don said, it wasn't a question.
"What?" Donnie asked.
"Sigh, my brothers have told me that I have a problem making things for people without asking and then expecting them to love it, which is apparently manipulative. So I say again, you won't let me just build you a new body."
"No," Donnie agreed. "It's not that I don't think you could," he clarified. "But without the tech that put my mind in this body, I'm worried that any attempt to transfer my consciousness into a new computer would result in me losing myself. I'd just become a set of data points and not me."
"Fair enough, fair enough," Don nodded. "Counter offer, what if I just fix this one. Replace that leaky piston in your arm, repair that broken sensor in your finger."
"How do you even know about those?" Donnie asked. He hadn’t even told his brothers about his many issues. It would have just worried them.
"Mystic powers," Donnie said, waving his hands around as purple energy crackled off them.
"So we're talking upgrades not overhaul," Donnie confirmed.
"Yeah yeah, totally," Don agreed.
"As long as we also work on a way to get me home," Donnie said firmly.
"You think we can't multi-task," Don scoffed.
"I just don't want to lose sight of my goals…" Donnie trailed off as his antennae picked up an approaching presence. Don watched him in fascination as his antennae twitched back and forth slightly, trying to get a read on what was coming.
"Don Tron, breakfast is ready," a sing-song voice called through the open door before a small round turtle wandered in.
"Oh, you're up," the turtle, who Donnie figured was Mikey, said. The boy's whole body lit up as he smiled, his body practically vibrating. He was tapping his hands together, his fingers half folded into fists as the meatiest part of his palms tap, tap, tapped. It reminded Donnie of his own brother.
"Yeah, I'm up," Donnie agreed. Mikey bounded over and leapt up onto the work bench to sit across from Donnie.
"Are you doing okay?" Mikey asked, and Don groaned, muttering something about 'Dr. Feelings,' before wandering off to dig through shelves and boxes of parts.
"I'm fine," Donnie said which was his usual response and normally would get his brothers to leave him alone. However, the words made this Mikey's expression fall. He looked like someone had just told him Ice Cream Kitty had died.
"It's okay not to be fine you know," Mikey said.
"Mikey's got empath powers," Don called from across the lab. "He won't leave you alone till you tell him what's wrong."
"You can feel my emotions?" Donnie asked. Mikey winced.
"Sorry, I can't turn it off," Mikey explained guiltily.
"No I mean," Donnie paused. "I have emotions you can feel?" Mikey perked up.
"Yeah," He confirmed. "I mean, they're different than most people, like there's static in the connection. But they're definitely there." Several emotions flooded through Donnie all at once, and he couldn't quite place them, but it seemed Mikey could.
"You didn't know you were actually still experiencing emotions or just thinking you were," Mikey said, his voice sad. Donnie tucked his antennae behind his head, mind spinning with the ramifications of what Mikey had said. He was still real. He wasn't just a machine that thought he was alive. If his body could cry he just knew he'd be a blubbering mess. As he was, he just sat silently.
Mikey took one of his hands in his and gently ran his fingers over every groove and scratch.
"Tell me what's wrong," Mikey said gently.
"I miss my brothers," Donnie admitted. Mikey nodded like he expected this.
"Tell me about them," Mikey said.
"Well, they're much older than you guys," he said, a small laugh in his voice.
"How old?" Mikey asked. Donnie shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure," he admitted. "It was just me and Raph for a long time, we didn't know our brothers were even alive. A lot of my early memories in this body got corrupted or damaged before I perfected my black box, and Raph suffered some serious brain damage a few years ago and lost most of his memories. Mikey was on his own for years, and without seasons he didn't really have a way to keep track of the years. And Leo," Donnie's antennae hung as low as they went when he thought about his brother.
"Leo got hit full force with the mutagen bomb that triggered the apocalypse. He wasn't in his right mind for years before we found him. I know we were 18 when the bomb went off, and Mira is at least 13 and she was born into the apocalypse, so…" Donnie trailed off.
"It sounds like you went through a lot," Mikey said as he gently patted Donnie’s hand.
"Yeah," Donnie agreed. "But things are really good now," He perked up, his antennae rising. "We found Oasis and are building a real home again."
"We'll get you back there," Mikey swore. "I've already been texting Draxum. He and Donnie can figure this out."
"Draxum?" Donnie asked, not recognizing the name.
"He's our dad," Mikey stated cheerfully.
"Your dad?" Donnie sputtered. "What about Splinter?"
"He means our other dad," Don called from across the lab. Donnie’s antennae twitched with his confusion.
"Draxum is the one who mutated us and Splinter," Mikey explained. "He was trying to make warriors to defend the yokai. He's good now."
"Yokai?" Donnie asked, almost scared of the answer.
"Yeah," Mikey agreed. "They live in this huge city under New York. Do you not have yokai in your world?"
"No," Donnie said. "Just aliens."
"You'll love the Hidden City then!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Yeah, we'll need to go there to look for some replacement parts," Don said. He was typing furiously on a tablet.
"Oh, you should have April take him to witch town!" Mikey said. Don made a face.
"He'll have to go without me," Don said. "I'm still not allowed after last time."
"We can take Draxum too," Mikey added. "He can look for stuff to make the portal."
"Better leave Leo here then," Don added. "You know how he and Draxum get."
"Leo and Draxum don't get along?" Donnie asked.
"No," both Mikey and Don said together.
"Why?" Donnie asked.
"Cause he threw me off a roof!" Leo said from where he'd apparently entered the lab. Donnie nearly jumped at his voice. His sensors hadn’t warned him that someone was coming. He'd have to look into that.
"He threw you off a roof?" Donnie asked.
"Actually, he dropped him," Raph corrected as he passed through the doorway. Donnie had sensed him coming at least.
"And I caught him," Raph added. Leo crossed his arms and huffed.
"Glad to see you're doing better," Raph said as he smiled at Donnie.
"Thanks, I just needed to charge," Donnie said.
"And his leg was broken, but you know, semantics," Don muttered. Donnie pinned his antennae back and did his best to glare at the softshell's back. A loud clap sounded through the silence.
"Sooo…" Leo drawled, his hands still pressed together. "Mikey, you're gonna take Don-Bot to the Hidden City?"
"Yeah!" Mikey agreed cheerfully.
"I'll make a list of what you need," Don said. "Though it might take you a few trips cause you're not going to know what you're looking for."
"I could just patch you into my HUD," Donnie offered. Don spun and stared at him, a gleam in his eyes.
"Really?" He asked. "You can do that?"
"Sure," Donnie shrugged. Don vibrated with joy, his legs doing a little dance seemingly without him even realizing.
"Lemme just set that up," Don said, rushing to a laptop and pulling out various drives all while typing furiously with one hand.
"How long is that gonna take?" Leo groaned.
"Not long," Don said. "Hey Donnie, what kind of connection do you need?"
"If you make it a USB I can plug it into my audio/visual feed," Donnie explained.
"Got it," Don said after a second. "Try this," he unplugged something from his laptop. He tossed it to Donnie. His antennae came up to better track its progress across the room. He caught it and held it up to his cameras, his antennae twitching.
It was a small purple thumb drive with a little turtle symbol on it. Donnie reached behind his head and mentally told his systems to open the hatch there. He quickly plugged the drive into a spare slot in his head before shutting and locking the hatch. His systems took a second to check through the drive for any malware, not that he suspected there would be any, but protocols were there for a reason. Once he was sure the software was safe, he ran it.
Don's laptop lit up and started displaying what Donnie was seeing.
"Woah," Mikey exclaimed. Don's focus zeroed in on the laptop as he quickly typed a few things in. He pulled a headset from a drawer and put it on.
"Can you hear me?" Don asked very quietly into the microphone. Donnie heard his voice both through his antennae, and through his connection in his head.
"Loud and clear," Donnie confirmed.
"Sweet," Don grinned. "Now I don't have to leave my lab and can still make sure you get what I need."
"You still have to leave for breakfast," Mikey corrected. Don groaned.
"Come on," Mikey said, getting up from the workbench and standing close to Don but not touching him. Don groaned again and stood up, following his brother toward the exit.
"You can come too Donnie," Mickey grinned at him. "Unless seeing us eat will bother you." Donnie waved his concern away.
"It's fine, it's not like I even get hungry," Donnie said. "Plus I can still smell it and it's gotta be better than the slop Mikey makes at home."
"Your Mikey isn't a good cook?" Mikey asked as the five turtles headed toward the kitchen.
"It's not that," Donnie said. "More that there aren't a lot of decent ingredients left."
"Ah," Mikey said.
The smells that assaulted Donnie’s sensors as he neared the kitchen were pure heaven. He couldn't remember ever having smelled something as good, certainly not after he lost his body.
"Ah, I see you three managed to drag Purple out of his lab," someone said as they entered the kitchen. A small rat man sat at the head of a table that was absolutely covered in breakfast food. He had a plate of pancakes in front of him that were just drowning in syrup.
"Hey dad," Don said as he sat down.
"Good morning Purple… and other Purple?" the rat asked as his eyes landed on Donnie.
Donnie practically fell into the seat Mikey guided him to next to Splinter.
"Dad, this is Donnie. He's from another dimension," Mikey explained as he sat down.
"I see," Splinter said as he carefully examined Donnie.
Donnie didn't know what to say. This Splinter was very different from his own father, but it'd still been so long since he'd seen any version of his dad. Even this strange, small, greasy version sent him spiraling . Once again he just knew he'd be bawling if he still could.
"You okay Donnie?" Mikey asked as he placed a hand on top of Donnie's which was curled into a tight fist, the metal creaking.
"Yeah," Donnie managed. "I'm okay." Mikey didn't look convinced but he let it go this time.
Donnie mostly sat quietly as the others ate. His antennae never stopped twitching, even though he folded them back in a relaxed position. He saw Splinter watching him out of the corner of his eye, but for the most part he was left alone, until another person burst into the kitchen.
"So where's this new Donnie?" A girl asked as she bounced into the kitchen and folded her arms on top of Leo's head. Leo ignored her and just kept eating. The girl locked eyes with him and smiled.
"Hi, I'm April," she said, and Donnie was struck by how different she was to the girl he'd known, and yet she had the same smile, the same energy. Donnie put his head in his hands. The day has barely started and yet he didn't think he'd ever been so emotionally drained.