3rd Hour

3rd hour

Thank you to everyone who voted in that poll! yall really revitalized this one. Unfortunately that means I have to fix. whatever I had going on with the link chain in the other posts.

first/prev

An amazing rose for an amazing person indeed! Good thing ur already holding it Dio <3

Since some people seemed to be a bit sad about this Ronin doodle with the cat, I had to draw a follow up-

I just got a thought, that could completely be untrue but I wanted to share anyway. I just remembered that Leo was using his comm to talk to everyone before Casey closed the portal. I can imagine in your Feral Leo version, as soon as that portal shuts, the comm just starts going crazy with weird static because Leo’s time is suddenly going a LOT faster than theirs. They can’t make it out and it won’t go away until Leo is back where he belongs. I feel like they would just assume the comm got busted and was making noises for no reason, but what if they could literally hear time passing for Leo? And maybe after Donnie realizes this, he (since he records everything) goes to the history on his comm for when it happened and starts slowing it down a bunch until the sounds become more understandable and he realizes it all got recorded?

Idk- like I said I’m not sure how accurate this would be but it’s cool to think about them initially thinking the comm was broken but later realizing they were just listening to everything that was happening

Who cares about scientific accuracy when that's a baller idea dude?? If you don't mind I'm gonna sorta run with it!....

>>>>>>

Leo was stabilized in the med-bay, with Raph insisting Donnie get some sleep, before Donatello even thought about crossing the threshold of his lab for the first time in six days. He won't tell his older brother, but he's ashamed to have taken a power nap during his shift. Sleep is currently the furthest thing from Donnie's mind. Better to use this time to get some answers.

April had come across Leo's communicator while digging inside the odd bag of "toys" Leo had had on him. He'd hissed at anyone who'd tried to take it from him, but once he'd been sedated, the bag had been just left in the living room. The small piece of tech had been buried deep at the bottom, amidst just a truly confounding assortment of...junk. Donatello, himself had glanced through the pile April had laid out, and judged the dusty, cracked device to be the only thing that held any possible value. He was hard-pressed to imagine how any of the other scrap could've been useful to his brother in that hell dimension.

Thankfully, despite the large collection of useless scrap, his brother at least retained enough of his sanity to remember to hold on to his communicator. Leo was clearly not in the proper frame of mind to be explaining things to them, and all of the medical scans Donnie had run were only giving him more questions, than explanations to the current state of his brother. So it was time to play detective.

Donnie slumped into his plush desk chair and got to work extracting the small memory chip from inside the cracked casing. He placed it carefully into the proper slot to begin compiling the salvageable data.

As he watched the files appear, it was not what he had expected.

There...was a good number of MP3 files, and the list, even now, was still growing. But the length of each audio file was surprisingly short, considering how long they were taking to transfer over, and their size.

Curious--frustratingly so.

Donnie looked at the very first one. A whopping five seconds run-time, and shrugged before clicking play.

His volume wasn't even at maximum capacity, but the static pierced into his tympanum and reverberated deep into his skull. The high pitched screech however, didn't even give him time to recover before it cut out. Five seconds come and gone. Just long, and ear-splittingly loud enough to set his adrenaline going, and leave him panting for breath.

Once he had calmed down, and moved the volume slider as far left as he could without muting his headphones completely, Donnie played the second file.

More of the same. Next, and next and the next one...all so infuriatingly short and static drenched. Offering no more coherency than the hissing and clicking that Leo had spit at all of them. But Donnie wasn't giving up. It made sense that dimensional travel might've caused some recovery issues.

For an hour, Donnie played with the frequencies, the filters, the amplitude. There had to be more he just wasn't hearing. He could see the size of each file, and there was no way they only lasted seconds. As he was scrubbing backwards and forwards, glaring at the strange, tightly packed peaks--so tightly packed that they almost looked like solid blocks of color rather than the usual high and low pitches that made up an audio file.

Donnie's eye caught sight of another window open on his screen. The one containing the many x-rays of Leo's knee, taken just the day before. He took in the healed breaks and thought about the conclusion he and Draxum had come to.

Time dilation.

It accounted for the drastic changes Leo had gone through. The scars and the behavior--not even Raph could get that bad from being alone within the few minutes Leo had been cut off from them. It was now just a matter of figuring out how long it had been for Leo. Draxum was confident to declare that years had passed, judging from the massive amount of healed damage done to Leo's entire body. But their advanced mutated healing was a factor that was making it harder for their creator and Donnie to nail down an exact timeline. The man had, of course taken that moment to complain that if Splinter had not "stolen" them away, he might've had more time to study their mutation, and thus could make a stronger conclusion--which, not at all creepy Barry.

But it was still a terrifying thought. Leo had experienced...years with the Krang, all compressed inside the few minutes it had taken Mikey to catch his breath and muster up enough mystic energy to rip open a portal to get Leo out....

Oh...compressed....

Donnie scrubbed once more back and forth, this time, hardly even flinching at the fast forwarded mess of sound. In a bout of manic inspiration, Donatello clicked to open one of his many editing programs and imported the first file. He grabbed the very end of the track with the cursor and with CTRL held down he dragged, until the clustered peaks started to look more spaced out and reminiscent of a proper wavelength.

He did this and played it back a few times, unable to contain his excitement and victory cheer when Leo's clear voice finally emerged.

"zzzzzzDaaaaaaay sevven. Fuck, it's freezing zzzzTTTttthis stupid dimension! I think I lost gum head...A bunch of junk made it's way in here....a few bodies too..."

Donnie raised the volume, now that his brother's voice overrode the worst of the static. His eyes were glued to the screen. The track had miraculously stretched to a runtime of a whopping twenty minutes.

"...I'm not getting hungry....or thirsty...and I haven't slept zzzztt....which heh, might make dying harder, at least? Haha I wonder how long will I be happy about that, you know? I kinda did this whole sacrifice thing, expecting the Krang to kill me quickly, but he's kinda obsessed with making me suffer? Which, dude, kinda cringe to have beef with a teenager....heh..."

Donnie listened to his twin ramble until the very end. Rushing to repeat the entire process again.

"Day four....ty-five? Yeah, forty-five. Guess what? I found some yellow fabric to match the others! Heh, I know I should be saving my needle and thread for stitching myself up, and not hobbling together a blankie. But even the bigger wounds he's given me tend to close up in no time. So as Mikester would say, "Yay, arts and crafts!" Also have I mentioned it's freezing!? If I was still able to feel tired. I'd be worried about brumation...zzzt [sigh] oh, to fall asleep and just not wake up....that'd be.....zzzzztt.....nice.............zzztt............"

Donnie ground his teeth at the thought, but a second later Leonardo's tone was back to his usual upbeat bluster.

"Hahaha bummer alert! Disclaimer if you guys are listening in, I'm just joking. I am actually just loving this vacation, don't you worry about me! This might even be more relaxing than that Hairy Spa in the Hidden City!...Well I'm not gonna lie and say I've gotta get some rest, but I kinda don't feel like talking anymore, so that's all folks!"

The audio cut off the tail end of a quiet sob that his brother clearly wasn't able to hold back anymore...

"Day 120....................................................................Krang tore my photo...........asshole. But at least he gave it back, once he was done pummeling me into the dirt. And lucky, his claws only sliced through my pretty face, so it's not the end of the world....not like I'm so vain I really need to look at myself anyway. I was scared he got Mikey too, but he's safe.....he's safe.....he's safe.......he's safe..he's safehessafe"

"Day...213?.....stupid.....[growl] day?...day? pffft! Who knows?? [clickclickclick] stop that. Concentrate. This is....important....I KNOW...you don't have to tell me!" [huff huff]

"I'm sorry, I'm just tired, heh, remember when that was a valid excuse for me?...I remember I yelled at Donnie one time when I was tired? I felt bad afterward. I think I apologized....I'm sure I did. [clickclick...click] I hope I told him I was sorry..."

Tears were falling shameless now. Unlike at the shipyard, Donnie didn't even have to reach up to check. He powered on to the next one. It was starting to feel like he was intruding on his brother's privacy...but at the same time...Leo had made the effort to record these, and there were still at least ten more. Someone should know, and Donnie would die before he made Michelangelo or Raph hear the obvious defeated spiral their brother was headed down.

Play

"[huff.....huff] I think...sommmmmeone left...the giiiirl...huuuman. [clickclick] Not like us.....diidn't sssssay goodbye. Hah rude....not like her...eh, Raph?....M-my fault...I'mmmm ssssssshhhhhure? [clickclickclick]"

Pause

Donnie shoved his headphones down and ripped his mask off, the wet fabric was irritating his skin more than he could handle. He tried to take a deep, even breath in through his nose, but the exhale shook his whole body. Most of last few recordings were shorter, even after being stretched out. He just had to make it through to the end. This was nothing, Leo had to actually live through this hell, acting as his witness was the least Donatello could do.

Play

"O-orange....nn't talk...to mmmm--us? anymore [growl] Krang...gave...Pest a...deelllll...Orange...mad?.....[clickclickclickclick] jealous....? No! Mmmmiiiike....wouldnnnnnnnnt...hissss [clickclickclick] Miiiiiiiiiiiiiike???.....NO, WE-LEO--I KNOW IT! STOP"

Play

"hissssss....huuuuurts. [whine] Shhhhhell....Deeeeee? Teeellll--lo? Donnnnn eeee....[huff....huff] [scratch scratch] I.....don't...know how--Raph?"

Play

"Allll....leffft us....[growl] [whine] [scratch] [huff huff] [scratch] But heees stiiiill....heeeere. Wiith US. With Pet. [clickclickclickclick] [whine]..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................."

The device continued the painful job of recording his brother's breakdown. More than likely, Leo was now too far gone to actually remember how to turn it off. It was a miracle he'd been able to still work it for this long, judging from the animalistic noises that had been creeping into each of the recordings. Now they were all that was left between the heavy breathing and what must've been claws raking and digging into the dirt of the Prison Dimension.

Donatello studied the track through his tears and discovered if he scrubbed about five minutes ahead, the peaks rose back up. Something was once again, making noise loud enough to be picked up by the recorder.

"......................[whine]........"Well, hello, Pet...you poor thing. Look at the state you're in over my absence. I should have never left you alone."

Donatello let out a cry nearly identical to the one his twin made, terrified at the thought of that monster being close enough to Leo that his communicator caught it. Donnie could practically hear the glee there, as the Krang spoke in a mockingly gentle tone-like one would talk at a feral animal it was trying to domesticate.

Nausea rose in Donatello's gut as he made out the squelching of the Krang's tentacles getting closer. They must've wrapped all around his brother's limbs and covered the receiver on the communicator. The next words out of the Krang's mouth were slightly muffed.

"Do you wish to fight me more? Or would you like to sleep? I've had my fun for now. I can be kind and let you dream of whatever you'd like."

Leonardo made a soft keening wail, barely a sob, and must've given some kind of affirmative motion. The sickening glee in the Krang's voice only increased.

"Smart choice, little pest!"

Leo's scream broke through the illusion of gentle care the Krang had been weaving. Donnie's tympanum rang once again, and his head spun as the choked scream was cut off abruptly. The contrast between his brother's terrified, piercing screech, and the silence of his own lab startled him back to reality.

The file had finished.

It was the last one in the list.

Donatello was done. He had gained more knowledge than he was happy with. Something he'd never thought could be possible. But in the end, if these small peeks into what Leo had gone through were helpful in any way, then Donnie would force himself to listen to them every night.

It was a lot to decipher. Towards the last few...Leo's cognizance had been waning, closer to the wild state that had greeted them upon his rescue. But Donatello could, hopefully, glean what he needed to.

He was so deep in trying to pull out the most important bits, that his didn't even hear his lab doors opening.

"I thought I told you to get some sleep?" Donnie turned to see Raph standing in the door to his lab. His oldest brother didn't look as disappointed as words suggested, and his tone was one of tired acceptance.

"Who's sitting with Leo and Mikey?" Donnie asked. He graciously decided he could ignore Raph's exhausted look, if Raph would do him the courtesy of ignoring just how rough his own voice sounded. It must've been obvious that he'd spent the last few hours crying.

"Dad."

"I think I'm going to relieve him. I'm too wired to sleep, anyway."

Raph sighed, but didn't fight as Donnie pushed on by, and retraced the path he had, just hours (felt like days) ago walked.

It wasn't a total lie, but the suggestion had more to do with Donnie desperately needing to see Leo. After everything Donnie had just heard, he wanted to physically see his twin, in order to convince himself Leo was actually alright. The logical part of Donnie's brain told him that those files had already happened, Leo had lived through all of them, and all he needed now was time to heal.

But the way that last file had cut off. It left something uneasy festering in his gut.

...Donatello just needed to make sure with his own two eyes.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT EXCUSE ME TUMBLR WHY AM I ONLY JUST NOW SEEING THIS

MIKEY OUT HERE WITH THE PEAK BABY BROTHER BEHAVIOR!!!!!!! RAPHIE CROCHETING!!!!! LEO NOT EVEN LOOKING UP FROM HIS MEDITATION AHHHHH ITS PERFECTION

THESE ARE AMAZING 💕🩷💕🩷🩷💕 THANK YOU FOR DRAWING MY SILLY RAT BOYS

so yall. i randomly remembered a minor background moment from the 03 series. and it has spawned Thoughts....thoughts with Strong brainrot potential......

Something that I think is kind of funny is how even when the Turtles were in full traditional Hamato Ninja mode, Donnie still drew eyebrows on his mask, Donnie was willing to give up most of his tech & stop wearing purple but the eyebrows were non-negotiable & stayed.