LEFT BEHIND

By: Felicia McFurry

Part III

 

     Donatello tossed and turned in his bed that night, seeing the one person in his dreams that he wished not to see. Felicia was standing on a rocky cliff and Don was on the other side of the cliff, which had a twenty-foot space between them and below them was nothing but darkness.  He knew he had to get over to her and help her out and he didn’t have any weapons! “Aw great,” he muttered.

     “Donatello, help me!” Felicia screamed out with a huge look of fear on her face.

     He clenched his teeth and walked back a few feet and then ran launching off from the cliff he was on towards her but he didn’t make it! He landed on the side of the cliff but to far away to get her hand! Don gripped the side of the cliff but the rock was giving away and he started to slide down a little further, grunting in frustration, he tried to keep his position on the cliff. He looked up at her and then over a little and saw a huge dark shadow approaching her! “Felicia, watch out!”

     She looked back and saw the dark shadow as well and she started to panic even more. “Hurry! Get up, Donatello!”

     “I’m trying!” he screamed out, gripping at the rocky cliff trying to find a foot hole; bits of rocks were falling down from him into the chasm below.

     “Get up, Donatello! Get up!” Felicia screamed again, the shadow was now right over her, tears were streaming down her face in terror.

     Then suddenly everything started to fade as he heard a voice calling to him to get up. He immediately woke up and sat straight up in fear. Breathing really hard, he looked around and saw Splinter and his brothers staring at him with puzzled looks on their faces. “Are you okay, Donatello?” Splinter finally asked, placing his hand on Don’s shoulder.

     “Wha-Yeah I am fine,” Don said kind of high-pitched, still terrified from the dream, panting some to catch his breath.

     “What kind of nightmare were you having, Donatello?” Leonardo asked with concern.

     “Oh um I don’t remember,” Don lied knowing on how his brothers would react if he said it was about Felicia.

     “Well I think its time for breakfast!” Mike interrupted, changing the subject and ran off towards the kitchen with Leo and Raph running right behind him, Splinter followed slowly.

     “We would like to wish Miss O’Neil to good well soon and to our viewers, have a good evening,” Vernon said on the news that afternoon.

     Raphael walked up and turned the television off. “Man, poor April. Having the flu like that,” he said and then looked back at his three brothers who were sitting on the couch.

     “Well why don’t we go up and pay her visit at her apartment? She might need us to get her something,” Leonardo said as he stood up from the couch.

     “That’s a bodacious idea, bud! We can stop and bring her pizza,” Mike exclaimed as he stood up with his brother.

     “Um, Michelangelo. I don’t think April would feel like eating a pizza,” Raph replied as he followed Leo and Mike towards the entrance of the lair.

     “Bogus concept, dude. Every time I get sick I scarf down a pizza,” Mike stated as he walked behind Leonardo.

     Suddenly Leonardo stopped in his tracks and made Michelangelo and Raphael crash into him. “Leonardo, next time you decide to stop like that at least give us a signal!” Raph yelled as he rubbed his head.

     Leo looked over at Donatello who was still sitting on the couch and appeared to be in a daze. “Aren’t you coming with us, Donatello?”

     Don finally snapped out of it. “Huh? Where are we going?”

     “Dude, we are going to visit April since she’s sick,” Mike answered.

     “Um, I don’t think so guys. I think I am just going to do some tinkering in my workshop. But tell her I said hi,” Don said as he stood up from the couch and walk towards his room, clearly out of it. His three brothers watched him, really confused about his behavior but Leo started to walk out of the lair, which made Raph and Mike follow.

     Donatello placed one foot in the entrance of his workshop when Splinter stopped him from behind. “Are you okay, my son?”

     “Yeah,” Don replied with bit sadness in his voice.

     “What is troubling you?” Splinter asked.

     Don sighed and looked away for a bit and then looked back at his master. “Just that dream I had last night, it’s really been bothering me.”

     “Do you want to talk about it?”

     “Um not really.”

     “Well perhaps meditation will help ease your thoughts about it,” Splinter stated and before Don could reply, he started to walk towards his meditation rug. “Come.”

     Splinter sat down on the rug and Donatello followed suit. “Now close your eyes, Donatello and focus on nothing else but just your breath,” Splinter said softly as he closed his own eyes and rested his hands on his knees. Don sighed, not really wanting to do this but decided to give it a shot. He breathed deeply and softly, feeling his mind go finally to peace but suddenly he heard her voice in his head! She was crying out to him.

     “Donatello, please help me!! Ahhhhh!!” she screamed loudly. He couldn’t see her but only hear her and hear someone attacking her.

     Splinter heard Don straining a little and looked over and saw him completely in a different state than he hoped for. Donatello’s eyes were shut very tightly, he was gripping his knees tightly; he was fighting something on the inside perhaps even the same dream!

     Suddenly Don woke up screaming, “FELICIA!!” He looked around, realizing it was just a dream, panting very hard to catch his breath, his eyes very wide.

     After Donatello told Splinter about his dreams, his master sighed and held his head. “Master, what if these were warning dreams? Felicia may be in trouble!” Donatello persisted.

     “But what will happen when you go back, Donatello? Years have passed since you have seen her last and she is probably married. I don’t want you to get hurt again,” Splinter replied softly.

     “You always told us to protect others when they are in trouble. I fear that she might be in trouble. I need to go back just for 2 days to make sure she’ll be okay.” Donatello argued back, keeping his ground.

Later on that evening, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo were in the living room watching television. Splinter walked over in front of them and turned the television off. “Hey! We were watching that!” Raph snapped sharply.

     “Yeah! What gives?” Mike added, also frustrated.

     “Donatello needs your advice on a situation and I think that you should give your time,” Splinter said as he looked over at Donatello and motioned him to come forward. Don walked towards Splinter and stood beside him. Splinter smiled gently and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Donatello has been troubled lately by dreams of Felicia being seriously hurt or even killed. He wishes to go to her dimension to check on her for 2 days.”

     “That old excuse again?” Raph asked as he leaned back against the couch, crossing his arms, definitely not impressed.

     “I am serious, Raphael!” Don snapped back.

     “But she always has a dude, Mike stated.

     “I’m not going there to go after her! I just want to make sure that she’s okay!” Donatello yelled back, getting kind of frustrated on the matter, his mind clouded with the images from his dreams.

     “But, Donatello. What if this is suppose to happen to her? It could be her destiny. It may be dangerous to interfere with it,” Splinter suggested softly.

     “It would be even more dangerous for me not to do anything!,” Don snapped back at him and then walked off towards his workshop, determined to see her.

     Leonardo bit his lip and watched Don and knew that his brother was seriously troubled by this and followed him into the workshop. Donatello was examining his portal machine. “Donatello? You okay?”

     Don looked up at Leonardo and then sighed, “Yah I am fine.”

     Leo rubbed the back of his head and then approached his troubled, younger brother. “Look, I know you are really worried but maybe Master Splinter is right, this could be her destiny or something.”

     “She can’t die, Leonardo!” Don yelled back and then towards his control panel, so frustrated that tears were forming in his eyes.

     Becoming frustrated on Donatello not understanding, Leo grabbed Don’s shoulders and turned him around to face him. “Listen, I know you don’t want to her die but dieing is part of life and everyone goes at one point in their life. We can’t stop it.”

     “No she can’t!”

     “One day Splinter will leave us and maybe one of our brothers or even me but you have to learn to move on and live your life.”

     Donatello put in the coordinates to Jake and Chance’s garage that he got from the last time that he had visited him. Picking up the new remote control he made to activate the portal earlier than he needed to he said softly “Here goes nothing,” as he pulled the lever making a portal appear. With one last look to the living room, he stepped through the portal and appeared at the garage. As he approached the garage, his heart started to pound fast, how he longed to see her.

     Chance was working under the hood of a truck when he heard footsteps approaching the garage, he looked up and couldn’t believe what he saw. Donatello was approaching him! “Um, Jake. I think you better come here,” he called out to his partner as he closed the hood and wiped his hands and brow with this handkerchief.

     “What is it, Chance?” Jake asked as he took his cap off to smooth out his hair and then placed it back on. Chance pointed in the direction of Donatello, Jake glanced over and his jaw almost dropped to the ground!

     Donatello now felt kind of uncomfortable approaching them, he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Um, hi guys.” He noticed that Jake and Chance had definitely aged.

     Still puzzled, Jake asked “What are you doing here?”

     Minutes later, Donatello explained the images and dreams that were affecting him to Jake and Chance. “And that’s why I am here. I promise I won’t stay long, I just wanted to make sure that she was okay.”

     Jake looked over at his friend with sadness and then stood up and walked over to the window, gripping the windowsill. Hoping that he wouldn’t break down.

     Donatello looked over at Jake puzzled. “Look, I know it must hurt you to see me again and believe me I don’t want to take her away from you, Jake. I just want to make sure she is okay. Then I promise you that I will leave and never bug you again.”

     “I think I should show you something, Donatello,” Chance stated, taking a glance at his partner. He rose up from the couch and beckoned for Donatello to follow him. As they were leaving, Don could have sworn that he heard Jake crying at the window.

     Totally lost on his conversation with Jake and Chance, Donatello looked around at the garage curiously, he couldn’t understand what was going on. Why were they showing him something? Where was Felicia? “I don’t know what on how else to tell you, Donatello but here,” Chance said softly, facing Donatello, then stepped aside showing what was behind him. There in the ground was a small granite cross and Felicia’s mask tied around it.

     Don’s heart almost stopped, choking already from the tears that were emerging. “I-is that…?” Chance nodded his head solemnly, closing his eyes and sighing. “No, please. It can’t be…” Donatello collapsed to the ground upon his knees, tears pouring down his face. He reached over and gripped the cross in his arms, crying loudly.

Chance looked back towards the garage and saw Jake looking over at them with tears in his eyes. He placed his hands on Don’s shoulders. “I am sorry, Donatello. She was brutally murdered by Dark Kat. He basically beat her up to death and Jake, he witnessed it all, being unable to do anything until it was too late.”

     Hearing sizzle and cracking from the reappearing of the portal, Leonardo and the others ran towards the workshop knowing that Donatello had only been gone for about a hour. Donatello walked towards the entrance of the workshop, staggering a bit, his face was twisted in great pain and sorrow. Holding the sides of the tunnel entrance, he couldn’t help but to let the tears fall from his eyes. Confused on his behavior, Michelangelo asked, “What’s wrong?”

     Weeks had passed since Donatello had returned to his dimension in a sadden state, but since that time he had retreated to his workshop and never came out that much and when he did it was only for a short time. His brothers were very troubled by peculiar behavior for he would working on something in his workshop from sunrise to midnight and when he did attend ninja practice, he never spoke and attacked very strongly and then would retreat to his workshop once the practice was over. Not knowing on how to respond to the situation, Don’s brother would often seek Splinter’s advice but Splinter said to leave him alone for a bit and that he may come out one day when he is ready to talk. But Don working so late at night was disrupting his brother’s sleep patterns and this started to frustrate them till finally Raphael couldn’t take it anymore.

     Hearing Donatello hammering loudly in his lab, Raphael threw the covers off of him and sat up, grumbling under his breath. “Can’t that guy give us time to sleep at least!” he said as he stormed off towards the workshop.

     Still kind of half asleep, Leonardo watched his brother storm off in anger, becoming completely awake, he shouted “Raphael, don’t!”

     Seeing the workshop filled with connectors and cords, Raphael spotted Donatello wearing some protective goggles as he was crossing some wires over in his control panel of the portal. “Can’t you let sleep for once already?!” Raph shouted at him in complete frustration.

     “Sorry, Raphael, diligence never sleeps,” Don simply answered and returned to his work.

     Starting to become ticked off by Don’s stubbornness, Raphael stormed over to the plug in and pulled the cord out from the wall making the miniature flame torch turn off. “Hey!” Don said as he took off his goggles and glared at Raphael.

     “Well you are going to stop working for tonight, brother,” Raph said sternly.

     Leonardo ran into the workshop seeing his two brothers already at it, which he feared. “Guys, come on.”

     “I’m almost done with this. Don’t you guys understand if this thing works than it would be the most incredible invention of all time!” Don replied with a bit anger in his voice.

     “And don’t you understand that we don’t care,” Raph snapped back

     “Why do you always have to be so down against my inventions, Raphael?,” Donatello said as he tensed up, bawling his hands into fists. “Every time I am trying to do something for the greater good you always bash it!”

     Leonardo sighed and stepped in front of Raphael before he could respond. “Well, Donatello, what is your invention about?”

     “I thought you would never ask!” Don said cheery, for given the opportunity of showing off one of his inventions always cheered him up. “Well I modified my dimensional portal, to make even more useful to us! Well I don’t have a flux compacter but I reset the dimensional portal to where we could set a dimension to a specific time no earlier than 100 years ago and bring someone from that time to here or go to that dimension in that year! It’s kind of a time transdimensional machine if you want to get technical.”

     “Let me guess, you made that so you could bring your girlfriend to this dimension?” Raph asked unenthusiastically.

     “As Michelangelo would say, ‘exactomundo,’ dude!” Don grinned big from ear to ear.

     Raphael sighed and threw his hands up in the air, “I give up!” With that he turned and walked out of the workshop towards his room once more, mumbling under his breath.

     Donatello shrugged with a neutral look on his face and returned to his control panel. “Um, Donatello. Are you sure that is a wise thing to do?” Leo asked

     “Of course I am sure,” his brother replied as he kept his attention at the control panel, typing in some information. “I’m typing in the coordinates to the garage that I acquired last time I was with her. Then I set the date to the time when I left her dimension the first time.”

     Leonardo sighed and grabbed Don by the shoulder, spinning him around to face him. “We need to talk before you do this.”

     “What’s wrong, Leonardo?” Don asked, getting kind of frustrated. But his brother just stared at him, not knowing what to say. “Look, I know what you are thinking. I am not trying to bring her back to stay with me! I am not going to steal her away from Razor. I just want to alert her about what’s going to happen to her if she’s not careful later on.”

     “I know you mean well, Donatello, like you always do. Sure your mind says that now but when she is actually here with you, what will your heart say?”

     Don rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing on how to answer Leonardo’s question. “I-I guess it will be the same.”

     “Donatello, you are still young. You shouldn’t put your entire life towards one girl. I mean there may be someone else out there who is even better than her.”

     “No one could be better than Felicia!”

     “I mean, look at Michelangelo for example. He liked Kala, then Buffy and then Kala again. Even you, Donatello, you use to like April like we all did. You shouldn’t think that Felicia is the only person who will ever like you back.”

     “I don’t think that! I mean I use to, when I first met her but it feels different now.”

     Leonardo sighed and placed his hand on Don’s shoulder, looking straight at him. “Just don’t try to force to make things work out for you and her for that would be selfish. Let her decide on her own okay?”

     “Leonardo, I am not going make her stay. I am just going to tell her to be precautious and then she can go back home. Simple as that,” Don stated as he turned back around to prepare the opening of the portal.

     Leo shook his head as he walked out of the workshop, glancing back once more at his brother and softly said, “I wish it would be that simple, Donatello.”

     Ricochet had just put on her uniform and mask when she saw a familiar looking green portal open up in front of her in the living room. “What the heck?” Knowing this time what it was and wondering if the turtles needed her, she stepped through the portal willingly; moments later she was in the workshop once more. Rubbing her eyes to get them to refocus, she looked around and saw Donatello looked her but he seemed to be different, almost older! “Donatello?”

     “Um, hi, Felicia,” Donatello said, getting butterflies in his stomach.

     “What happened to you? What’s going on?” Licia asked looking at him with a confused look on his face.

     “I am what?!!,” Felicia yelled out, flabbergasted on what Donatello just told her.

     Fear of his brother waking up and complaining, Donatello quickly put his hand over her mouth. “Shh, pipe down. I don’t want to wake them up.”

     “But I don’t believe this; is this a joke, Donatello?,” Felicia asked once Don removed his hand.

     He sighed and shook his head. “No it’s not. Listen, I didn’t want you to perish like that, Licia. So I wanted to bring you back to alert you.”

     Sighing heavily, she held her head and walked away from Don to the opposite side of the room. “Well what if I stayed here with you for a few days? This is all so much for me.”

     “Ok,” Don replied as he walk towards her. “But you have to go back, your future is too bright for you.”

     “What do you mean?,” Licia asked looking at him

     “I am saying, Jake really wants you there with him.”

     “He does?”

     “Of course! I can kind of see it when I went to visit you in your future time.”

     “What does he think of me then?” Felicia asked looking at Don curiously.

     “Well um, he thinks you’re pretty and beautiful. Um, very caring and he cares for you a lot more than you know,” Don replied softly, his real feelings getting mixed, his heart starting to beat fast.

     Felicia smiled softly looking at him while he spoke to her, looking into his eyes. She reached out and touched his hand. “Thanks, Don.”

     Her touch gave him goose bumps and Don quickly retrieved his hand nervously. “And besides you have to go back. If you don’t then you will alter your own future. I mean maybe even though I tell you what is going to happen to make you aware, the same outcome may happen but at least you get to spend your entire life with Razor but if you don’t want to go back just yet you are welcome to stay with us as well.”

     “Well give me a few days to think it over,” Felicia replied.

     Two days had passed, Donatello was working in his workshop as usual when Felicia walked in. “Um, hey what are you doing, Donatello?,” she asked, walking over to him with a slight bit of nervousness in her voice.

     “Oh just giving Metalhead a few adjustments?,” Donatello replied as he put down his hammer on the table.

     “Metalhead?,” Felicia asked with confusion.

     “Oops, sorry. You see I built Metalhead years ago to help us with chores around in the lair and perhaps fight when we need him to,” Donatello replied. He took a towel from his workbench and wiped the oil from his hands. “So what’s up?”

     “Well I am going to stay here for a few more days but I think I am going to go back MegaKat,” Felicia said sadly

     “Oh…,” Don answered, looking down a bit, he picked up his hammer and walked towards Metalhead, not speaking.

     “You’re not mad are you?” Felicia asked worriedly, trying to look around to the front of him to see his facial expression.

     Donatello laughed nervously. “Who me? Ha ha! Why would I be mad?”

     “I don’t know, I just thought…”

     “Thought what?”

     “Nothing…” With that Felicia turned and walked out of the workshop, now looking down herself.

     Minutes later, Don’s other brothers ran into his workshop. “We have to go, Donatello. April just called, she said that Shredder has been spotted at that high tech lab in the midtown area.” Leo said as he put the comlink backed into his belt.

     Felicia stood in the living room, looking confused as she watched the turtles gear up. “What’s happening, guys?”

     “The Shredster has been spotted,” Mike replied as he was the first to walk towards the lair entrance.

     “Well can I come?,” she asked hopefully

     “No we need you stay here with Master Splinter just in case something happens to us,” Donatello answered

     “But-,”Felicia persisted.

     “But, no,” Raph said as he followed Mike out of the lair.

 

To be continued…