You weren’t exactly the.. fighting type, when you were younger.

Weak, scrawny, scared of confrontation. Which was fair. You grew up around some pretty intimidating people. You didn’t wanna get involved with the wrong crowd, now did you?

But, whatever caution you had didn’t pay off. One blow to the head when you were out on the street, and fairly quickly your life was flipped on its head.

Big Mama. God damn it, sure she was a little bit nicer now, but back then she was ruthless. Ten years in the Battle Nexus, but it only took two months to figure out that you had to get to the top to survive.

And you did. It hurt, left a lot of scars, but eventually you were her best fighter and favourite contestant. Her main representative. The last thing she brought out if her fighters were losing a battle.

Within five years, you lost both your childhood, but also your reputation as the small, wimpy kid that couldn’t throw a punch. Now people were scared of you. Even the people you had to fight alongside with.

You were a force. The key to the lock of success. That’s such a bad comparison but honestly, it’s true. And you didn’t get much of an education, seeing as you were taken before you’d reached at least the last grades in primary school.

You weren’t… happy, per se. But you had what you needed to survive. Had a life. Even if it wasn’t really yours. You were just a toy for Big Mama to Chuck around like a little kid. It wasn’t that hard to get over the truth but it still hurt.

You’d never be a person again.

…Until they turned up.

Four turtles. They acted like goofballs. Watching them from the “corporate box” with Big Mama sitting on her couch by your side… it was like a wake-up call.

These turtles, while immature and a little bit autistic, were your age. This is how you should be acting. Instead of a cold, emotionless fighter, you should just be some kid stressing about homework and playing video games with friends that won’t last by the time you’re in college.

You’d forgotten what it was like to be human, for a few years. And you were only remembering now.

And when you were sent out to beat the four, to knock some sense into them, they got to see what childhood looked like when it was twisted into something.. uniform. Planned out. Obedient.

It unsettled them. That was for sure. Especially Donnie, the one who was usually apathetic. He couldn’t help but feel… terrible. You weren’t a kid anymore, you were a soldier in a teen’s body.

So he took things into his own hands.

———————————————

Waking up had been the hard part. Realising that you were no longer in the safety of your cell in a completely different dimension was the even harder part.

See, he’d saved you. You were back on earth. Sure, in the sewers, under a completely new city in a country you barely recognised anymore. But still.

It’s only been two days, but you’re like a feral animal. You freak out whenever he enters the lab, retreating to the comfy nook he’d set up in the corner for you, with a clear view of what he’s doing at all times. LED lights, weighted and light blankets, fluffy pillows, a curtain that circles around the entire nook if you desperately need privacy.

You’d been stripped down into normal, human clothes. Given whatever you needed to feel human again. You didn’t trust him, but… it was better than the hell you were used to. Things felt unfamiliar, but they were easy to adjust to, seeing as they were a part of the life you were dragged away from.

He’s carefully injecting you with a few different shots right now, for sicknesses you might suffer if you come into contact with them. You’re surprisingly good with needles, and that’s a comforting thought.

You don’t talk much, and you’re not talking right now, as he quietly wipes up the vein he’s just injected to get rid of the blood, before putting a Band-Aid over it.

“There,” Donnie sighs, sitting back and letting you spin around in one of the spare office chairs he’d had to get for you. You didn’t sit still all that much. “I’m done. Now you can wander around the whole lair without dying.”