Donnie's P.O.V

Over the past year, my emotions are dark. It started, little by little when the incident happened. With.. April.

My thoughts have became clouded with self disgust.

Worthless

Soon, those words turned into tiny phrases. Phrases coming from somewhere in my mind. The voices started out as whispers, like something you would hear in the wind.

You wouldn't be missed.

Except there was no wind in the sewers.

The air is stale as I sit on my bed, pondering about life. If I'm worth living. My eyes stared unseeingly at the wall, as if it held so many of my unanswered questions.

I had many questions.

So many.

I couldn't go to Sensei about them, because I would then be watched closely, forces to cease my.. cravings for a while.

I couldn't go to my brothers with the terms we are in right now: Don't speak to each group unless completely necessary. Do not make eye contact to other party. Do not touch. Stay away.

Stay away.

And that's what we did. I was all alone in my group, no one to talk to. No one to consult in. No one to help.

Except the voice that liked to visit, when I just start to get a hold of life. To find something worth something.

And, man, I needed help.

With all the free time on my hands, so much free time, I can do anything I want without being confronted. Maybe I need to be confronted.

To find my way on, to let go of what happened. But it would always return.

The repressed emotions pent up inside my skin, causing it to crawl and itch constantly. Like a buzz of thought always circling just out of reach but always to where I could see it.

The harsh laughter.

The word choices.

And I turned out different. Always the different one, and not in a good way. They no longer needed me. I wasn't even invited to go on missions anymore. Not paired up with one of my brothers for training. Not paired up for patrol because I didn't get to go on patrol.

Not that that kept me from anything.

I still trained, except in the daylight, right after my brothers come back. The countless hours just on the rooftops, still careful though, always careful. So I could come home to my brothers.

Even if they didn't like me very much.

I don't know why they didn't. I hadn't done anything to them, besides a few snide comments. Mostly I was silent, but was a quick fuse when things came to it.

Mikey would spill popcorn on my experiment, when he was still trying, long after the others.

Why can't you do anything right?

When Raph would treat me as if I were scum when I would beat him when I actually went to training.

Grow up, Raph, and get over that I'm stronger.

When Leo would try to coax me into talking, to speaking out about what happened.

Silence.

My stomach rumbled, and I sighed. Eating was unnecessary, but I did it to stay alive.

To be with my brothers, even if they don't need me any more.

My bones creaked as I got to my feet, since I had been sitting in that one edge of my bed for awhile now.

I stretched and my back popped in several places, causing me to sigh once they were repositioned with the stress taken out of them.

I made sure my bandages were in place as I unlocked the door, making the opening large enough for me to just slip through.

I passed Leo in the hallway.

No eye contact.

Mikey jerked his arm back when we both went to reach for a pizza slice.

No touching.

I put Spike back into Raph's room after finding him wandering on the floor, Raph only glaring at me when I left his room silently.

No speaking.

I never saw Sensei.

Stay away.

The pizza in my hand turned cold as I headed out of the lair. In the sewers, my stomach continued to rumble, but I took off, not caring about the uneaten pizza that laid on the ground behind me.

_____________

Trinitie's P.O.V

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Birds sang in the trees on this cloudless day, sunlight streaming through its thick branches, lighting the green leaves. Squirrels danced and skittered around, chattering about nothing in particular.

I walked slowly, not necessarily caring if I was tardy to my first class. The teacher probably wouldn't be there anyway. My bag thumped softly on my leg as I walked, minding the breaks and cracks of the concrete underneath my feet.

Don't step on the crack, lest you break your mothers back

I wonder how she would feel if that phrase were true, and, with a slight manic smile, I stepped in one, crunching the loose gravel underneath my feet.

Nothing.

I sighed as I spotted the school, my feet dragging now as I shuffled around. As I got closer, more and more students passed me, and I tried to move around, to not brush against them whatsoever.

As the doors held my vision, my gaze flickered to a shouting figure, who seemed to be screaming abuse at the vending machine.

Obviously, it was Mackinzi. My best friend.

No one really seemed to notice her dilemma, since it had been happening to her for a while. The vending and her never got along.

For the first time that morning, a smile graced my lips, and I snickered. She spun around, and, seeing me, growled. "Need any help with that.. again?"

"It took my money and never gave me my candy bar." She whined, throwing her black hair out of her face with a huff. Squeezing behind the machine, I hit its hard shell, and got back out, sighing.

"All you did was whack it? What good will that do?" She questioned once I had managed to squeeze out. I held up three fingers, a smug smile on my face.

How long could I keep it there?

"3...2....1...." And there went two candy bars, hitting the bottom of the vending with audible thumps. She hurriedly grabbed at both of them, not particularly caring if they were the kind she had wanted or not.

"Dude that was awesome!" She yelled, throwing up her arms for emphasis. I nodded, and jokingly pulled at m ear.

"What are you trying to do? Tell China that you finally got your candy bar?" I teased. She tried to slip the other one into her pocket. "That one is mine."

"It was my money!" She tried to reason. I only rolled my eyes.

"Well, you wouldn't even have a candy bar if it wasn't for my magic." I gave her my best I-will-kill-you-and-stuff-you-in-my-freezer- glare. No one messes with my Butterfingers.

Ever.

Her eyes widened and she put both hands up. "Hey man, no need to go all Hulk on me." I smirked and basically shoved the candy into my awaiting stomach, having not had breakfast this morning.

What did my family eat?

That's when the bell rang and I was herded inside the building, where easy subjects awaited, and annoying people, and fake smiles.

And maybe, no one would notice how fake my smile actually was.

_____________________

"Hey dude, do you wanna come over today? We can play the new game I got on my 3D Ds." Mac asked me as we walked out of the doors, bipolar October air greeting us. I gripped my jacket tighter around me.

"What game would that be?" I asked, my interest peaking. I had a weakness for video games.

"Lego Batman 2 Dc Super Heroes." She responded, making sure to get every word of the name correct, her head tilting to the left slightly.

"Is it a multiplayer?" I asked.

"Yep. I already checked."

"I'm in. Just let me ask my mom." I told her, grabbing my phone as we paused on the sidewalk. Not like they ( she ) would care anyway.

She never did, really.

After I got the text from my mother, telling me that I could (actually worded: I don't care what you do), we started walking again in the direction of Macs house.

I made sure to step on every single crack, smiling as it ground underneath my feet.

Mac didn't notice.

While walking down the sidewalk, Mac absolutely refusing to ride the bus, I looked around that the unusually silent street. There were five blocks to go until we got to Mac's home, and I still continued to step on the cracks.

The birds didn't sing, no squirrels either. No one was around.

Except the van, which was crawling at a snails pace behind us. It's windows were tinted, and red flags immediately went up in my mind.

I nudged Mac, reporting to her that I thought trouble was coming, but before I could suggest that we go inside the store directly to our right, she turned and looked straight at the vehicle.

I rolled my eyes.

"Way to go there Mac! That wasn't obvious at all!" I snapped sarcastically, my heart jumping around its cage. We started walking a bit faster, after seeing that the store I had originally wanted to go in was closed.

The van sped up.

She just glared at me as we took off sprinting the last two blocks. I knew deep down that we wouldn't make it.

But why wouldn't we try?

Wind whipped at my face as we ran, making to be right beside Mac, not to far ahead and not to far behind.

Still, no one was around to help. Where did these people go? It's like they vanished, reminding me humorlessly of the town that completely disappeared, leaving only one word behind. Croatoan.

Oh please, just let us get to safety. If not me, them Mac. She's better than me. She deserves to just be okay-

Just as we got to the last block and hope swelled within me, the van pulled in front of us, blocking our way completely, and the hope dissolved. I turned in my heel, planning on sprinting in the other direction, when I heard a loud 'Oomph!' from beside me and a groan of pain.

One that could only come from Mac.

Cursing silently, I turned around to a sight that made my blood boil. My fists clenched as I saw Mac on the ground with her face smushed on the cement. There was a gun being pointed at her head by the guy on top of her.

There were four guys surrounding us and they looked... exactly the same. Are they quadruplets? The one right in front of me said, his voice strangely robotic,"Kraang have located the ones called Trinitie Evans and Mackinzi McDaniels." I was getting plain irritated.

"If you could just let my friend go, we could all go our separate ways and pretend that this never happened." I was surprised at how strong my voice actually sounded, and I stood tall, though I felt small inside.

I always felt small inside anyway.

"Kraang disagrees. Kraang needs the ones called Trinitie Evans and Mackinzi McDaniels for experimentation." They all explained at the same time. My face instantly went a shade lighter.

"Come on! What's gotten into this world? Kidnapping girls for 'experiments'. That's just plain weird man." I sighed. The streets were still deserted, which was unusual for this time of day in New York.

The city really needs to work on things like this. Not even a curtain moved.

"The one known as Trinitie Evans will come quietly with the Kraang if she wants her friend known as Mackinzi McDaniels unharmed."

Apparently, Mac finally found her voice because she said," Just go! I'll be fine. Just..go and call the cops."

I looked from my friend, to the gun pointed to her head, to the van, an then back to Mac. I knew that I wouldn't find we again if I left.

"Alright," I finally said. "Lets go."

____________

Donnie's P.O.V

____________

After I scouted out for awhile, beat some purple dragons, collected some mutagen, I finally decided to go back down to the lair. I ran across the rooftops, looking for a manhole in the middle of the alleys.

Finally finding one, I took off down the sewers to get to my lab. I might finally be able to make retro mutagen to unmutate people like Mr.O'Neil.

Upon entering the lair, I noticed that everyone was off doing their own thing. She wasn't down here either. She rarely comes anymore since my confession. I yawned. Maybe it was time to sleep, I didn't get much anymore

That's when the voice liked to speak the most, taking shape of the ones I love.

Though I'm pretty sure they don't feel the same about me anymore.

I passed Mikey in the hallway, and he kept his head down.

I'm sad to say that I did the same.

I opened the door to my room, catching a glimpse of Raph as I slipped inside. Closing the door quietly behind me, I set down everything that I had in random spots, and laid down.

No cover, because bad people don't deserve warmth.

Though I forgot about the cold as I fell asleep.

I watched as two girls were walking down the street. The one nearest to me was shorter than the other. She had chocolate brown hair that was styled short, bangs covering her forehead. She stepped on every crack in the pavement for some unknown reason, though her friend hadn't noticed. Skinny jeans on her legs, purple converse, and plain black T-shirt is what she wore, which screamed 'I don't care what you think' to no one in particular.

The other girl was taller, and had black hair with all different colored highlights. She wore black boots with thick soles, black cargo pants, and a black shirt with a denim jacket overtop it. The shorter girl glanced behind her as she almost fell, only to see the van creeping behind them.

I recognized it.

The shorter girl nudged her friend when she saw the van and I bet mentally face palmed when the taller one immediately looked over at it.

That's when they started walking faster.

Now they were sprinting.

Why were the Kraang after those girls?

Once they got to an alley, the van pulled up in front of them, blocking them from where they were going. They immediately started going the other way when one of the Kraang sprung out of the van and tackled the taller one, pointing one of their guns to her head.

I had to remind myself that this was a dream as I tried to surge forward, as I tried to help, though my hand only passed through the arm of a Kraang.

The brunette stopped and looked desperately at her friend. For the first time I got a good look at her face. Her lips were full and pink. Her eyes were a startling blue, and they reminded me of the ocean.

The Kraang were letting her make a choice, I knew that even though there was no other sound but my thoughts. That's when her lips moved to form the words "Lets go." and she entered the van without any complaint, her friend being taken with her.

I sat up quickly, those two girls still on my mind.

Was that real? I  dismissed the thought.

Of course it wasn't. It was just a dream. But it wouldn't hurt to make sure.

The only thing I had to worry about at the moment was my brothers. I have no idea what snapped me back to reality in that dream, in that moment, but I knew that I had to get over what April had said; what she had done.

Something was urging me to help them, to get them to safety.

But how?

I went into the living room where everyone was currently at, excluding Master Splinter. I walked up in front of them all. My hands shook.

My brain hurt.

It was time for my moodiness to be over. It was just a crush. That's it. They didn't look at me.

"Umm.. guys. What I wanted to say is that, I'm sorry." Their eyes glanced up at me. Light blue and dark. Neon green. "I'm- I want to be better. I'm trying."

Mikey looked at the controller in his hands, not saying a word. Leo just shook his head, and Raph rolled his eyes. My heart and smile dropped. They didn't believe me. They just thought that it was just another mood swing.

"I think the Kraang kidnapped some girls." I blurted, and only Leo looked at me.

"They haven't done anything for half a year now, D-" Don't address the other party. "After we destroyed the place, yet again. It's highly unlikely."

I shook my head, knowing I probably couldn't help without help. Not if I wasn't strong enough.

It was probably only a dream anyway.

So I returned to my room without another word, ignoring the pain in my stomach, in my brain, in my hands, and closed the door tightly behind me.