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Chapter 19
Sacrifice
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Donnie prepared himself. He did not know why the idea of getting to know his counterpart in this world was so nerve racking. But, he was scared. If this world’s Donatello was anything like his brothers then he was going to welcome him with open arms. But, there was still a lingering doubt. What if he felt like Donnie was encroaching on his territory?
It was better to get it over with, sooner rather than later. Steeling his nerves, Donnie opened the door and looked in. “Are you decent?”
With a slight chuckle, Donatello looked up from his book and smiled, “Yes.” Placing the book on the bedside table, Donny waved Donnie over. “Come in. I’ve been eager to properly meet you.”
That was a relief. Donny genuinely looked happy to see him. Donnie made his way over to look at Donny’s stats then sat down next to the bed. “It looks like you are going to be okay.”
“I have you to thank for that,” Donny stated. “Thank you.”
Donnie blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “I couldn’t sit back and do nothing.”
“Do you still have some of your world’s mutagen?” Donny asked. “I would love to study it.”
Nodding, Donnie answered, “I do. I had collected several containers. I brought them with me because I was afraid of them falling into the wrong hands.” He scoffed and looked down at his hands. “It’s not like it mattered. Shredder has vats of the stuff. It’s already in the wrong hands. The only good he has ever done with it was reversing Karai’s mutation.”
“My brothers have told me all that they know about you,” Donny said. “I have a vague understanding of what you went through.” Letting out a soft chuckle, Donny looked up. “I was sent thirty years into a possible future where my brothers were in a hellish place ruled by Shredder. It was a horrible place…. Long story short, we fought and I saw each of them killed. That future has been plaguing me. But it wasn’t my future. It was just another world within the multiverse. I was at least able to return to my home and my family and put that trauma behind me. But you…. This is by far worse than what I went through.”
Donnie shrugged as he fought back tears. “At least I’m not alone anymore and I was able to save Karai.”
“It’s gonna be strange,” Donny chuckled, trying to lighten the mood, “having two Donatellos and two Karais.”
Wiping his eyes, Donnie shook his head. “Actually…, Karai and I talked about it. She said that she wants to go by the name she was given by her parents; Hamato Miwa.”
“Hamato Miwa?” Donny repeated with a raised eye ridge.
Donnie nodded with a slight smile. “She’s Master Splinter’s daughter. She was taken from him when she was just a baby and raised by Shredder. The saddest part about all of it was that she never got the chance to know either of her parents and she never will.”
They sat in silence for a moment, unsure of what else to say. Then Donnie cleared his throat, “I figured that I could change my name as well.”
“That’s not fair,” Donny shook his head. “I would never ask you to give up the name your father gave you. It makes sense for Ka… Miwa. She is taking back what was originally hers. But, for you, that would just be cruel.”
Donnie shrugged, “It the best thing to do to avoid confusion. And, this is your world so it’s only right that I be the one to change.”
“We’ll figure something else out,” Donny insisted.
“Like what?” Donnie asked, rubbing his head.
“Well,” Donny thought for a moment. “What about simply giving up your nickname?”
Donnie looked up at Donny and waited.
“How about we start calling you…. Tello,” Donny offered. “I take the first half of the name and you can have the second.”
“There’s still gonna be some confusion,” Tello pointed out.
“We’ll survive it,” Donny smiled. “This way we get to both keep the name.”
Tello thought for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. That could work.”
“It’s gonna be great having another genius in the lair,” Donny smiled. “My brothers told me that you built robots…of….” Donny stopped talking when he remembered that the robots were built to replace Tello’s brothers. Clearing his throat, Donny changed the subject. “So, were you and Leatherhead in a relationship in your world?”
Tello’s eyes went wide. “No!” he blurted out, shaking his head. “Not at all. He was always grabbing my face.” Tello relaxed and sighed, remembering. “He calmed down a bit after spending, what was to him, decades in Dimension X. He was Mikey’s best friend. I was in love with April.”
Donny smiled, “Have a thing for older women.”
“She wasn’t an adult like your April,” Tello corrected. “She was only a year older and the most beautiful….” His throat closed up on him and he had to swallow a few times to clear it before he could continue. “In the end she chose Casey.” Looking at Donny, Tello asked, “Did you ever have a crush on your April?”
“No,” Donny shook his head. “I admired her intellect, but to say that I had a crush on her would be a gross exaggeration. I’m gay, through and through.”
“And now half female?” Tello prompted.
Donny nodded, “Thanks to Agent Bishop and his cloning procedure.”
“So,” Tello hesitated for a moment as he shifted in his seat. “Do you think there are or will be more clones of you?”
Donny shook his head, “If Bishop could make more than one clone at a time I believe there would be more of him. He brought a clone to life once and the creature lost its mind. I think there needs to be a transfer of consciousness for the cloning process to be successful. This might not be my original body but I am still me.”
Tello nodded, “I think I understand.”
Donny craned his neck to look down at Tello’s hands. “You’re definitely built different than we are.”
Tello chuckled and held up his hands. “Yeah.”
“Mikey tells me you have three toes,” Donny said as he tried to look down at Tello’s feet.
“Yep,” Tello said, bringing his foot up to rest on his other thigh so Donny could see. “I have big feet and big hands. It made tinkering with electronics and running quietly a bit of a challenge but I managed.”
“Those large hands saved my life,” Donny said. “You are a genius in your own right. I’m grateful to have you here. And I can’t wait to spar with you in the dojo.”
A gentle knock on the door had the two genius turtles turning to see who it was. Raph poked his head into the room. “Miwa wants to talk to you,” he said to Tello.
“Thank you,” Tello stood and looked down at Donny. “I’ll see you later. You should be able to return home today.”
“Bye,” Donny said, grabbing Tello’s hand. “We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
“We will,” Tello agreed, turning to leave as Donny let go of his hand.
As he walked down the hall with Raph, the red banded turtle turned to address him. “Did you get the whole name thing sorted out?”
Tello nodded, “We did. The only thing we are going to change is my nickname. I’m going by Tello now.”
Raph chuckled, “I like it.” They walked for a while longer before Raph said, “How you holding up?”
“It’s all happening so fast,” Tello said with a shrug. “Just the other day I was giving up on life and today I am walking through the halls of the Foot compound in another dimension after saving my counterpart.”
“It’s been a lot to take in,” Raph agreed. “When shit happens too fast to really process, it all catches up to you later. I want you to know that I’m here for you, whatever you need. You don’t have to go through it alone.”
Tello stopped causing Raph to do the same. With patient eyes, Raph watched Tello sort out what he wanted to say. “Well… It’s just… I don’t…. I don’t want to be alone right now. Sleeping next to you last night… it helped.”
“Do you wanna keep sleeping in my room?” Raph offered.
Tello blushed as he nodded. “It’s nothing funny. It’s just….”
“It’s fine,” Raph said, placing his hand on Tello’s shoulder. “I don’t mind. And, in fact, I like the company. Nothing funny,” Raph chuckled, “but having someone close would be nice. Don and I were close and if I was into guys we would be together but I’m not. Mikey and Leo share a room. They are as intimate as two people can be without sex.”
Raph hesitated and cleared his throat, stopping himself before he said too much. But Tello could read between the lines. “You want to, maybe, establish that kind of relationship with me?”
Raph shrugged, “I desire companionship, someone to be close to. You don’t have to, but the offer’s there.”
“We can try,” Tello smiled earning a smile from Raph in return.
“Let’s find out what your sister wanted,” Raph said and turned to continue back down the hall. Raph led Tello to a room and opened the door for him. “She’s in here.”
“Thank you,” Tello said as Raph left the two of them alone.
Miwa stood in the center of the room, dressed in a shinobi shozoku. Her hair was still long but was pulled up into a tight bun. A light amount of makeup covered her face but nowhere near as much as she had in the past. Smiling to himself, Tello wondered what Leo would think if he saw her now.
She looked up as Tello approached. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Tello replied. “Where did you get the outfit?”
Miwa looked down at herself and answered. “Karai gave it to me.”
“You look good,” Tello said. He took a moment to look around the room before getting to the reason for being there. “Raph said you wanted to see me?”
Miwa nodded and looked down at her hands. “Karai has offered to let me stay here.”
Tello’s heart sank and all he could manage to say was, “Oh.”
Hearing the pain in his voice, Miwa walked up to Tello and placed her hand on his cheek. “I need some kind of sibilance of normalcy. Living in the lair with the Turtles is good for you because it is something you know but for me, it’s the Foot. I’ll come visit. I’m gonna want to see you and the shrine but I need to be here. Karai is great and she understands me and we have a lot in common. The Shredder of this world raised her too and she wants to regain her honor.”
Fighting back the tears, Tello nodded, “I understand.”
“There’s more,” Miwa whispered. “Remember how father said that he is going to be reborn in this world?”
Tello nodded.
“Karai’s pregnant,” Miwa stated as she leaned in closer to Tello. “My gut tells me that her baby is father. He told me that he was going to be close and that I would be able to find him. I want to be here so I don’t miss a moment with him.”
“Okay,” Tello smiled. “It’s okay. As much as I would love to keep you around, I’m not going to make you live in the sewers with me. You’re human, you don’t have to stay in hiding. As long as we don’t lose touch, that’s all that matters.”
Miwa wrapped her arms around Tello. “Don’t worry. We’ll see each other often enough.” When they pulled apart, Miwa wiped some tears from her cheeks. “So. Did you ever work out what you were going to start calling yourself?”
“Tello,” he answered.
Miwa let out a light chuckle. “I like that.” She leaned in to hug him again. “We’re gonna be okay.”
“Yeah,” Tello sighed. “We will.”
