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Reunited in the Afterlife

Summary: Set in the Kraang Apocalypse timeline. Each of the turtles & April reunite with their family after dying in battle.

Part 2: Donnie

(Part 1: Raph, Part 3: April, Part 4: Mikey and Leo)

(Thanks to @kathaynesart for the inspiration. If you like this, pls reblog)

 Donnie knew he was dead. He knew infiltrating the technodrome to plant a probe had its risks. He knew that casualties would be a possibility. But as long as the casualties weren’t his brothers or April, he was happy. He had planned for this mission as carefully as possible to avoid any possible accidents, but things could still go wrong. Just as it did when the brother Kraang ambushed them inside the technodrome. But he had been prepared. He activated the Donnie pods to take Leo, Mikey, and April away from the technodrome while he stayed behind to plant the probe. His last words to Leo over the comms had been, “Take care of Michael for me, Nardo,” before he initiated the self-destruct.

 The turtle opened his eyes to see a vast plain painted ghostly green, filled with hundreds of people who emanated the same color. Souls of the dead. Donnie raised his (fake) eyebrows. He knew ghosts were real, his best friend had been possessed by one for crying out loud, but he didn’t expect the afterlife to be an actual, tangible place.

 “This is impossible,” Donnie muttered to himself as he took a few steps. Then a sudden thought stopped him in his tracks. Wait a second. If the afterlife was the place where all the spirits were… Donnie whipped his head around. “Hello?” he called out. “Members of the Hamato Clan? Anyone there?”

 “Donnie!” The inventor froze upon hearing the sound of his name. He knew that voice. He could recognize it instantly even though he hasn’t heard it in over a decade. He slowly turned around to see a certain alligator-snapping turtle mutant with a tattered ninja mask wrapped around his head. His mouth was slightly open, revealing his signature snaggletooth that refused to go away even after years of wearing his headgear every night.

 “Raph?” Donnie asked, his voice cracking as he said his brother’s name. His older brother nodded, tears forming at the edge of his eyes. He stretched his arms, inviting Donnie in for a hug. The softshell didn’t even need to think about it. He immediately charged into his brother’s embrace, laughing as he did so.

 Now, Donnie wasn’t the type to cry often. Strong emotions were more of Mikey’s department than his. But now, wrapped in the arms of his older brother who was murdered in front of him ten years ago, his brother who used to comfort him when he was overstimulated, his brother who supported his love for tech from the beginning, his brother who has sacrificed so much for their family, Donnie let the floodgates loose. The tears were a mix of joy from finally seeing his brother again and grief from the trauma built up from the past two decades of the apocalypse.

 Still hugging, Raph started to spin the two of them around. Even though he has grown quite a bit over the past 10 years, Donnie was still significantly smaller than Raph. His feet left the ground as his brother swung him around. Through his tears, Donnie started to chuckle and Raph’s giggling followed right after. Soon enough, the turtles were shaking with laughter, tears of joy streaming down their faces.

 Raph set the softshell down as Donnie pulled away to get a better look at his brother. “You absolute dum-dum,” Donnie said in the most loving voice he could muster. “You just had to go big brother mode and get yourself impaled. You have… no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

 He gave Donnie a soft grin. “I missed you too, little brother. But hey, you’re one to talk about getting impaled. You sacrificed yourself too, remember?”

 Donnie let out a nervous chuckle before he caught on something. “Wait a second, how did you know I sacri-” he caught himself before he said the word sacrificed. “Er, initiated the self-destruct?”

 “Because I was there watching you,” Raph said. “I can’t be with you guys on missions in person anymore but hey, who else is going to be your Red Angel of Preventing Harm, eh?”

 Donnie’s eyes widened. “You were with us,” he whispered. “All this time we thought you were gone but you were right there. Just like you always were”

 His brother smiled and then gave him a small nod. “Remember what Gram-gram used to say? You are not alone.”

 “Anatawa Hitorijanai,” Donnie recited, an old memory resurfacing from when he was a teen. “Wait, Gram-gram is here, isn’t she? Can I see her?”

 “Of course,” Raph said, his grin growing wider. “But first, someone wants to see you.” He gestured with his chin to something behind Donnie. Nervous, the inventor turned around to see the spirit of the one and only Cassandra Jones.

 “Casey?” Donnie exclaimed. Cassandra had died a few years earlier on a mission with Leo, entrusting him and the rest of their little family l with taking care of her son Casey Jr, whom she named after herself.

 The Senior Jones grinned before charging right at him. “Oh, god,” Donnie muttered, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

 “Attack Hug,” Casey screamed, her signature shriek piercing the softshell’s ears. Unlike him and his brothers, Cassandra hasn’t changed much since they were teenagers. She scooped Donnie up into a hug, cracking his ghostly ribs. “Thank you for taking care of my little stinkbug for me,” Casey said, her voice softer now. “But you are officially banned from giving any more children The Talk. As if Junior didn’t have enough trauma already.”

 Donnie wrestled himself out of the hug. “Noooooooo. We do not talk about that day. I told Mikey he would have handled it better, but he insisted. Now I have the memory of Casey’s horrified expression permanently implanted in my brain.”

 “Wait, what?” Raph said. “I’ve never heard this story before. Donnie, what did you do?” His older (now younger?) brother glared at him. Donnie gave a nervous chuckle.

 “I may have been a bit too blunt when I was explaining,” he said.

 Cassandra cackled. “ A bit?” she said, giggling.

 Raph sighed and shaked his head, a slightly amused smile on his face. “By the way, there are two people right behind you who would love to speak with you again.” His eyes were glinting the same way they did when he would give Donnie and their brothers a surprise present.

 Donnie turned around to see who he was talking about and his eyes filled with tears when he recognized who they were. It was Gram-gram and right beside her was…his dad. The softshell smiled through his tears. “Papa! Gram-gram!” he cried. He ran at his parental figures and scooped them both up in a hug.

 As his face was buried in Spinter’s fur and Karai’s shoulder, Donnie felt Raph’s arms wrap around them, his size engulfing all three adults in the hug. He felt Cassandra’s arms join the hug soon after.

 While Donatello Hamato didn’t always enjoy hugs, this one filled his heart to the brim. He stayed there, wrapped in the embrace of his family. Maybe the afterlife wouldn’t be so bad

ROTTMNT Appreciation Post #3: Donatello

Like his brothers before him, Rise Donnie is pretty different from what we've seen in the past. Also like his brothers? I. Love. Him.

Where do I begin with this absolute madlad? Donatello. Dramatello. Greatest Of All Turtles--the GOAT, if you will. He's smart. He's sassy. He's dramatic. He's hilarious. His inventions are awesome. There's a lot going on under his "insufferable genius" facade, too. He feels like he's only worth as much as his inventions. He craves praise and validation. He puts a ton of thought into everything he creates for his loved ones. He may not know how to express his feelings all the time, but when he figures it out, he can show some of the purest kindness and love in the series.

Let's not reduce him to his inventions, either. He has a ton of interests--music, science, reading, Jupiter Jim comics (though Leo is the bigger comic book nerd this time around), skateboarding... And he's passionate about all of them. "Passionate" is a good word for Donnie in general. When he finds something he loves, he goes all in on showing appreciation for it.

All of the Rise turtles mean a lot to me, but Donnie hits different. He's the first turtle I was exposed to, and it was through a video showcasing his autistic traits. I also happen to be autistic. He's some of the first genuinely entertaining, heartfelt representation I've ever seen. He isn't pushed to the sidelines, treated like a weirdo (more than the others, anyway), babied, or reduced to his special interests. He's a nuanced character who gets lots of screentime, and he's adored by both his family and so many fans of this show just for being him. Are there people who dislike him? Yeah, and that's okay. That's just part of being not a stereotype, but a character. That means so, so much.

I don't know if Donnie's a hearttype or a kintype or what, but man, I want to be him. He's my favorite character, yeah, but it's even more than that. He almost feels like an exaggerated cartoon version of me. I dunno. Maybe I'm just projecting way too much. Either way, I love Donnie, and he means a lot to me.