A gentle runaway

Chapter 3 - Entering a black hole

The never-ending silent grows and with it, a dark feeling that consumes the 3 unfortunate boys that can't think of anything else but their little brother, his presence always brought along a warm and happy light, like a sunshine, but... that light went out... for good... and there is nothing that can be done about it, He's gone, and won't come back.

(That's what they think)

Raphael sits on the living room, landing his elbows on his knees, looking down, a single tear drops on his thigh, then another, he says nothing, his breath breaks and turns into a quiet sob as he drops his head on his hands, his eyes are almost dried out from crying, so not much water is left to cry much, Raph remembers when he was a kid, Mikey was always the first one to notice when one of them was upset and would immediately try to make them feel better, they were quite close to one another back then, after all, their lives as kids was way easier, the worst they could imagine happening was dropping their food or getting in trouble with master Splinter, suddenly, he starts to think, and the heavy realization of his actions hit him like a wrecking ball against his chest, every scream, every slap, every scold, everything... the mix of guilt, regret and frustration, the feeling is painful and unbearable, for the first time in a long time, he feels weak, and vulnerable, this makes him mad, but sadness stops him from acting out.

Donnie is on his lab hopelessly searching around NY camera systems to see if there could be any sign of Mikey, of course, there's nothing, most of Donatello's gear is scattered around the table behind him, he looks as tired as he has ever been, looking sideways, there's nothing besides him but he's looking at it for some reason, his mind is blank, he never felt like this before, he can feel his head trying to focus on reality but at the same time, part of it is just traveling across his memories and there are so many feelings coming along with it but he's still in shock for what happened so he can't process anything, his eyes catch sight of metal-head, the yellow in his bandana reminds him of michelangelo, Don wishes for mikey back, he wants to see him again, messing up with his stuff, paying company to him when he's working, talking nonsense and telling weird stories that lead to nowhere, bringing him his weird food experiments.

Leo found himself in front of Mikey's room, his hand froze before he could grab the door and he spaced out for a moment and opened the door, he looked around the empty bedroom, the place made something inside of him shatter, every single thing around that room held a memory, the action figures on the shelfs, the pizza boxes on the floor, the posters hanged on the walls, even the furniture... the bed, Mikey found the foundation broken on a pile of trash, he would sneak out on sensei to try and fix it until they realized he was gone and found him tinkering on the thing, so they helped him take it home, at first they shared the bed when they were 5, it was the only bed they had back in the day, once they grew up, they got their own rooms and mikey kept the old one for himself, Leo wondered if it was back then when they started to drift apart from eachother, he sat down at Mikey's bed and letted his mind loose, it was odd, Leo noticed that... for some reason... he didn't had as much memories with Mikey as he imagined he would, they were very close but, Leo was never there, out of missions, he didn't made effort to spend time with his little bro, Mikey is the one who takes action and steps in and tries to bond with him... and he didn't bothered to mutually share his feelings with him, now... he knows he'll never be able to tell Mikey how much he cared about him, he should have enjoyed those moments more, he should have cherished and treasured him more, as the older brother... as... what... what kind of brother is he?... can he even consider himself an older??... he didn't know anymore, he was lost, Leo laid in his brother's bed, with wet eyes and shaky breath, he curled up and silently cried.

Splinter had just received the news of what happened the past night, the loss of his dear son, Michelangelo Hamato, the youngest one of all his children, dead, he was processing this information slowly and trying to find an explanation, he doubted himself, he doubted his sons, it couldn't be, they went through so much, and just in the moment everything was ok, Shredder was defeated, the Kraang were eliminated and the door between dimension X and their universe was permanently closed, peace had finally been settled, and yet, the universe found a way to take away to one who always saw the light in everything and everyone, why? How could it be? Were things always going to happen this way? So many questions and yet no answer, Splinter has gone through grief before when he lost his previous family, he knows that this feeling doesn't solve anything, but is necessary to go on, otherwise he'll just be stuck on that moment, he was standing in front of the Dojo's tree, arms being held on his back, staring at it's leafs, he turned around to contemplate the area, here is where he teached his sons everything they knew, it feels like yesterday that he gifted them their weapons, he pulled his arm forward and on his hand, was michelangelo's nunchucks, one was broken and severely damaged since it was found under the recks of the building, and the other was almost intact, it was used on michelangelo's last act of bravery, determined to save the remains of the Kraang for his brother's use, his grip over them tighten into a fist before he put his hand back behind him and headed to his room to meditate.

A while later, April O'Neil is rushing her way into the sewers of New York almost falling from the metal stairs that led to the undergrounds, she checked her phone to make sure of what she readed and if it was true, a text from Donnie, a heartbreaking line of text, that was about Mikey's passing away, she stop by a corner and while she catched her breath she typed Donnie's number and called him as fast as she can, in his lab, Donatello's T-phone rings and it breaks him out of his current state of mind and brings him back into reality, he picks up the phone and April starts going on and on trying to understand what's going on but she starts to notice how Donnie is acting, he's talking slowly, stumbling on his words, stuttering a lot, he's moved and on a very sensible condition, she does her best to console him and they hung up and wait till April arrives.

(This part took a long while to make for some reason...)