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Adrift 14

ROTTMNT Fanfic

Summary:

Leonardo isn’t rescued from the Krang Prison Dimension by his brothers, forced to flee from his cellmate in the void. The greatest ninja warrior of all time has to learn how to adapt to his new home, traversing low gravity, discovering the usefulness of spaceship corpses from worlds far beyond his own, and finding ways to survive such a harsh abandoned world.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

AO3 Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen: There's Purple Everywhere

Word Count: 4.3k

When he woke up that morning, Casey wasn’t entirely surprised to find himself alone in Splinter’s bedroom. Raph and Mikey had left at some point and the aforementioned fatherly rat was nowhere to be seen either. He allowed himself a yawn and a stretch as he sat up, regretting not accepting Mikey on his offer of borrowing his or Leo’s spare PJs for the night before they went to bed.

He felt a bit stiff, but it wasn’t anything he wasn’t already used to back home, pausing as that thought crossed his mind. It was just a little ironic to think of a place like that as home compared to where he was now, even if it had many similarities with the present company. He sighed as he hopped off of the weird bumpy mattress Splinter called his bed as he dismissed the idea entirely, thinking about anything related to his original dimension just exhausted him, he would rather avoid it altogether for right now.

Casey purposefully waltzed out of Splinter’s bedroom without putting on his extra gear, having left it on the floor from last night. There wasn’t any reason for him to wear it in the lair, he would only need it if they left for another mission.

Speaking of doing things outside of the lair, Casey needed to find the others to see what the plan was for today, they had mostly been hanging around the lair as of late, other than the trip he had taken with Donnie yesterday. Raphael had mentioned Donnie probably needing them to go for a scrap run at some point to get him some more supplies for whatever he might be making to rescue Leo. Now that he thought about it, Raph had been muttering about Donnie all night, maybe he and Mikey went to go check on him this morning.

Casey walked out into the common space of the lair, passing through the projector room and down the steps to where the train cars started. He assumed Donnie would be in his lab, that was one thing that didn’t change with time, and he was proved correct as he jogged the rest of the way when he heard voices echoing off the walls as he got closer.

“I don’t have time, I put it to the side to work on later. This takes priority. I’m only one turtle Raph, I’d clone myself but that would take time away from this too.” He heard Donnie’s voice first, pushing the ajar door open wider so he could step fully inside. All three of the turtles were there, Donnie was crouched on Raph’s shoulders as the snapper was leaning against a weird giant metal pod thing and Mikey was handing tools to the four mechanical arms coming out of Dee’s battle shell. Raph offered him a wave when he noticed him, which he tentatively returned as he walked further inside the room.

“But Dee, you said you might be able to strengthen the radio from our end, if you can do that, wouldn’t we be able to hear Leo?” Raphael asked, grunting as Donnie shifted to put a foot on his head to reach around to a new angle on the pod’s roof.

“I did not guarantee that, but, Leo cannot respond to us through the radio and I am also developing a theory he can’t hear us as well as we thought. I was asking him questions last night, and the data I gathered proved my theory correct. I noticed an inconsistency and started asking him random questions.” He turned and lifted his goggles to look at his older brother.

“Did you know Leo is no longer a turtle and never has been? I asked him and he said no.” He informed them with a straight face before putting his goggles back on and turning back to his work. Mikey giggled while Raph made a face. Casey went to sit next to Michelangelo as he listened to the conversation, the box turtle gave him an affectionate shoulder bump before returning to attending to Donnie’s robot arms.

“I mean, isn’t there a chance he is telling the truth?” Raph tried to poke around with Don’s logic, a dangerous game for anyone.

“Indignant scoff. I highly doubt it, dear brother. From what my comatose lab partner has told me, the Krang looked like that before during and after entering the prison dimension, I doubt Leo was affected by it or anything else there.” He started to weld again, startling Raph as the sparks spewed everywhere around him from above.

“Donnie!” Raph tried to protest, doing his best not to move to offset his younger brother’s balance. Donnie noticed his protest but continued to weld anyway. Casey and Mikey shared a short giggle.

“But, wouldn’t it be easier to make sure Leo is okay if he could answer back? Maybe he could help us get him home from his side.” Casey prompted the purple turtle. Donnie glanced his way as he let his head quirk to the side at the question. He hadn’t thought about it from that angle before, it wasn’t like Leo didn’t have access to materials to build something similar to Donnie, tools were limited, but if they truly had open communication he could simply tell Leo what to do to solve that problem. There was the entire half of the Technodrome obliterated on his side of the dimension, that was a decent amount of materials to workshop into… something.

He doubted he would run into the attention span problem with Leonardo in this predicament, he had no choice but to listen to his twin for once when he info dumped. But, there was still his concern about time. Maybe he could afford to fix their communicative link for the time being, if he had Leo working on something from the other side, things might go faster and turn this puzzle into an easier one to solve.

Before he could even begin to concede and pause working on the Leo-Pod, his lab door was thrown open with enough force to create a crater in the concrete wall. Donnie was startled, comically falling off of his brother only to be grabbed and held by an equally caught-off-guard Raph. Everyone looked to the door in surprise, but it faded when they saw their older sister.

April was proudly standing in the doorway, a cunning smirk on her face as her eyes zeroed in on Casey. The apocalyptic teen had a small sliver of fear run up his spine about what that look meant.

“I am here to kidnap our newest bro! He is coming with me and Cass to volunteer with city cleanup whether he likes it or not!” April strutted further into the laboratory, playfully ignoring the turtles as she stopped to dramatically raise a neatly folded pile of clothes she had in her hand out towards Casey. The apocalyptic teen raised a brow as he stood and made his way down from the platform he and Mikey had been sitting on to accept her offering of new clothes. It was simple, just an old white tank top and some dark grey sweatpants.

He gave it a skeptical look, it wasn’t like he had never seen normal clothes before, but he certainly wasn’t used to the idea of walking around on the surface without his typical attire. He especially didn’t want to let go of anything he had left of his Donatello either, he treasured all the Genius Built™ clothes Don had given him over the years.

But, maybe he should learn to loosen his grip on everything from the… Past? He looked up at April’s eager smile, it was a look that was meant to encourage him, he was sure. She was just trying to help him out, probably planning to show him the world without the Krang’s rule, maybe help him meet some people.

He returned her smile as he considered what to do with his stuff in the meantime. He turned to look at the others.

“Can I leave my gear in the lab for… safekeeping?” Casey asked hesitantly to Donnie who was still seated in Raph’s arms. That seemed to shake everyone from their initial shock, Donnie clamoring to get out of his big bro’s hold and righting himself as he nodded, his eyes going wide as excitement filled them.

“Of course! I could even make some improvements while you’re away if you’d like! I could clean them up, throw in some scented detergent, free of charge.” He seemed a little too eager to be granted access to Casey’s gear as he practically skipped over, but he supposed it was really for the chance to see if his apocalyptic timeline self had done anything he hadn’t thought of or made yet. Either way, whatever he could gain from caring for Casey’s worn armor would probably go over his head, and he was only a little eager to downsize capacity.

“It's settled then! I’ll be waiting for you in the kitchen. Mikey, I want a few snacks for the road, if you don’t mind!” April teased the youngest in the room as she moonwalked back out into the lair, the orange ninja’s eyes practically sparkled as he bounced out after her.

“I am going to blow Casey’s mind with my sandwich skills!” He cheered as he disappeared after her. Casey chuckled as he went in the opposite direction to follow after Donnie who guided him to a room to change.

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It had been a few hours since Casey and April had rendezvoused with Cassandra outside of the sewers and made their way to one of the relief camps the New York citizens had set up along the streets. It was a massive effort, it surprised Casey how fast everyday people who hadn’t seen the worst of the Krang invasion were capable of setting up tents and stalls to freely hand out food and clothing provisions. It was only a little concerning to him when they saw men with guns every few blocks, but April had assured him they must’ve just been police or military guys who were sent to help maintain peace, like keep people from stealing and fighting over supplies and such.

It wasn’t an entirely unfamiliar thing for Casey to see, but it didn’t feel right not to be able to recognize the “peacekeepers” like he normally did back in his timeline. It just made him glad that he won the argument about whether or not he should bring his hockey stick along, but after a few solid points from his end, everyone caved and let him take it with him to the surface. Casey might’ve been ready to downsize his gear, but he wasn’t ready to stop carrying his weapon around, you never knew where the Krang or the infected could still be lurking.

Cassandra had been actively volunteering that day, they had visited her at a stand where they were giving shoes away to those who needed them, but April had explained she mostly wanted to get Casey some clothes while there was a chance without spending a whole lot of cash. It was also a tactic to get him to see more of the modern and less apocalyptically rocked New York.

Casey appreciated the gesture, it was something he had been curious and overwhelmed with since he first got to this timeline, but he couldn’t help but be a bit disinterested. It was hard to think about meeting people when he wanted to be back at the lair and helping the brothers get Leonardo back. But, he supposed when the time came for him to help or fill in a role, they would ask for him to come back.

It was hard to leave the lair in all honesty, he was used to the whole “no man left behind” in most circumstances from the resistance, walking out of the lair felt like he was giving up on saving Leo. He fought those thoughts back though as he forced an awkward smile as April presented a black T-shirt with a band logo on it, she was gushing about things he didn’t understand but accepted the shirt anyway.

“I’ll have to play some of their songs for you when we get back, Donnie has some nice speakers that we can drag out to use. I’m sure he won’t notice them missing while working in his lab.” She giggled with a little too much evil glee before turning back around to find more shirts for Casey. He glanced away from her as she dutifully dug through the massive pile of donated clothes to take another look around. So far, other than the Hamato family and April and his own mother, Casey hasn’t seen anyone else he recognized from his version of this world.

It made his heart sink as his eyes mindlessly scanned the crowd. He watched mothers and their children digging through clothes, groups of young boys carrying jugs of water in each hand as they left the market, and even some people with bandages on their heads and arms. That was one of the few things that did look familiar.

Until he saw a head of lavender hair shimmying through the crowd. If he didn’t recognize the hair, he did recognize the jacket. Casey’s eyes went wide as he nearly dropped all of the clothes April had piled into his hands. It was Kendra!

Casey remembered Kendra, and the stories about her brother and friend who ran a group named “The Purple Dragons” before the apocalypse, before Kendra (from his timeline) had taken the title herself. The version of her that he knew was THE Purple Dragon. She was a high-time rival of Donnie and a passive-aggressive fighter in the resistance.

It was easy to say that one got along with her, but she did her part and earned respect as she worked alongside Donatello regarding his tech and the advancements needed for their survival. She voiced her opinion loudly about it being a bias that Donatello was in charge of all their tech, that everything went by his design, his blueprints, but no one had the energy to care about her protest. Casey’s Donnie had done his best to keep the ships, bases, and other tech-cored utilities minimalistic to create as much as possible, no one wanted to shift the balance of resources just because someone else wanted to be in charge.

And Master Leonardo’s word was as close as they got to law, no one wanted to create a mini democracy in the apocalypse, they wanted their orders because they wanted to survive, and they had too much faith in Leonardo to consider changing every method that came under scrutiny.

They weren’t perfect, but neither was their world, and the world was all that mattered.

Regardless, Casey went through a revelation as his memories of his timeline’s Kendra ran through his mind, a light bulb going off in his head. Maybe a collaboration between the purple turtle and the purple dragon was necessary once again.

“Command- I mean- April, I’ll be back in a second.” Casey only gave her a second to react before handing back the pile of clothes she had given him, jogging over to the long-time rival of Donatello. She seemed to be on her phone, but he noticed her eyeballing anyone who came near her as she stood by a stall. What was she doing here? He didn’t see her carrying any clothes or food.

“Kendra!” Casey called out without thinking, making the girl’s eyes go wide as her sharp gaze snapped right onto him. He saw the familiar hostility there, and for some reason it almost made him relax before he realized his mistake. Kendra doesn’t know who he is.

He got closer and her sharp gaze turned to a disgusted glare.

“Do I know you? Are you a fanboy?” She used a tone that made it sound like she was accusing him as she looked him up and down, but Casey wasn’t bothered by it. When you’ve known someone as stand-offish as her for a few years, you tend to learn how to disregard the bite in their words.

“Sorry, we haven’t met, but I know you. I wanted to ask for-” He was interrupted as he felt a hand grab him on the shoulder and violently pull him back a few steps. He looked over his shoulder to see a very sour-faced April.

“What are you doing?!” She whisper-screamed from behind him. Kendra raised a brow as she took another glance at her phone, but it seemed to falter at whatever she was reading. Casey noticed.

“This is Kendra, THE Purple Dragon. She could help Donnie with the pod.” Casey explained in a whisper for Kendra not to overhear with a way too cheerful smile on his face for April’s liking. April mimicked Kendra’s brow raise from a few moments ago, full of skepticism and some disbelief. She glanced at Kendra and then back to Casey.

“Oh, yeah? Kendra? The girl I have known since elementary school, the one who would trick an old lady into letting her help her cross the road and rob her blind before she got to the other end of the crosswalk? Yeah, let's ask her for help and bring her into the lair and Dee’s lab where she will totally swear not to break or steal any of his stuff.” April deadpanned at Casey as he nodded. Kendra cleared her throat, rolling her eyes as they both looked at her.

“Look, do you need something fanboy or can I go back to ignoring you?” Kendra asked with clear annoyance in her voice, not even looking at them anymore as her eyes were trained on the glowing screen of her phone, typing away to whoever she was texting. Casey had an idea of who she was talking to, and who she was talking about. He wanted to gain her trust to get her to help the turtles get Leo back, it would also take a lot of strain off of Donnie if he had another computer wiz helping him.

He had to convince her to help without sabotaging them, he already knew everyone’s extensive history with the turtles, Leo liked to hold grudges even if he didn’t let it affect his role as the leader of the resistance, but no reformed villain went without their history logged in case of betrayal. This was a massive opportunity, Casey was used to the idea of building allies, even if the histories were stark, they needed Kendra to get Leo back. But how would he convince someone as skeptical and selfish as her to be willing to help without any strings attached?

Casey decided he would have to tell her the truth, it was probably more complicated than any lie he could fabricate, but if he used his knowledge of what happened to the other dragons, maybe it would be enough to convince her, at least this once. April was going to hang him out to dry though if this didn’t work.

“So, uh, this is going to be hard to believe, but I am from the fu-” April slapped a hand on his mouth as he started to pour it all out into the open, her eyes going wide and crazy as she stared at him.

“Are you insane?” Was what her expression told him clear as day. Casey gave her a pleading look and she gave up, letting go of his face.

“I have to convince her to help, I have to tell her the truth,” Casey explained, “It’s the only way to get her on our side, at least for a couple of days.” He tried to convince April, who was still giving him a wide-eyed I-Can’t-Believe-You’re-Doing-This look.

Kendra wasn’t paying attention, still typing away on her phone as Casey went to try again, but he noticed how worried her expression became with her eyebrows coming together as she frowned, biting her lip.

“It’s your brother, isn’t it?” Casey asked, once again, without thinking. Kendra’s eyes went wide before they grew fierce again.

“Wow. A real fanboy. You know he isn’t my real brother, right?” Kendra snapped a little too harshly, Casey recognized the hurt in her voice. It was rare for her to ever bring up the other members of the purple dragons in his timeline, they hadn’t made it long during the Krang invasion. Casey remembered the few times she talked about them, alongside those who talked about the ones they lost and missed, he remembered how lonely she had been without them.

She might’ve been course and rude and kept everyone at arm-length, but she had a family in that group, and they were gone after the invasion. Casey felt a little bad about it, but he had to take advantage of knowing what happened to them.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re worried about him, right? Is he okay? Did he get hurt?” Casey asked as gently as he could, Kendra was a ticking time bomb of anger most of the time, but he hoped she was less volatile at a younger age. She eyed him with suspicion, lowering her phone just a fraction as she finally gave him her attention.

“Do you know something I don’t, fanboy?” Kendra asked him with that same accusing tone, hiding her phone in her jacket pocket as if he had learned it from there.

“I know that you’re worried about your brother and your friend.” Casey ignored the implication of him not being her blood brother, but he had to find a way to connect her and Donnie’s struggles, if he could get her to empathize (which might be impossible) he could convince her to put down her guard and help Donatello with his project to save Leo. Kendra wasn’t leaning into it yet though, crossing her arms and popping out her hip.

“Do you know me or something? What do you want?” He might as well get to the point.

“Do you know Don-” April once again scrambled her way into the conversation to interrupt Casey.

“Othello! You remember my good pal, Von Ryan, right?” April was sweating as she blurted Donnie’s moniker out, not quite sure why covering up his real name really mattered in the long run, but she didn’t want Casey spilling Dee’s real name without his permission, especially to Kendra of all people. Casey was downright confused by that, he had never heard that name before, but he decided to roll with it.

Kendra’s aura completely shifted to irritation as he could’ve sworn her eye twitched.

“Of course, how could I forget?” She said it with enough venom in her voice to take down an elephant. Casey felt more nervous from that and the wickedly innocent grin on her face, but he had to keep pushing.

“Yeah- uh- Othello is a close friend of mine and he needs your help.” Casey started to explain. Kendra laughed, grabbing her stomach as she stagged back from them.

“Oh-OH! No! No way he has you guys coming to beg me for help! Oh, I need to record that, can you get him to say that himself? That he needs my help?” She laughed again, causing a few passersby to glance at them curiously. Casey had an awkward smile as he waited for her to stop, but she didn’t.

“You-HA! Do you really think I would help Othello Von Ryan? That loser!” She giggled maniacally at the thought. April rolled her eyes as she took charge.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Kendra. Look, this is serious. You know how your brother is messed up or whatever, Othello is going through the same thing.” April explained in a deadpan voice, and Casey was eternally grateful for it. If anyone was able to coax something out of Kendra, future or present, it was Commander O’Neil.

Kendra seemed to sober up after that, her laughter dying quickly as surprise crossed her expression for a few seconds before reverting back to her stand-offish glare.

“Oh. And why would he need me?” Kendra asked, seemingly without her own permission for the words to come out as she looked sheepish about asking, her curiosity about her biggest tech-making rival supposedly needing her help taking over. April sighed dramatically.

“Look, it's a lot to explain, the Krang came and basically took his brother- my brother too, by the way- and we can’t… Find him. Othello could use more help making his… device to find him.” April admitted, trying not to get too specific, the time would come to tell her the truth about the scale on which they can’t “find” Leo, but that wouldn’t happen if they don’t convince her first. Kendra seemed to consider it for a moment, eyeing April before looking at Casey.

“And what do I gain from this?” Kendra asked, which April saw coming.

“How about Othello helps you with something in return?” April offered, which she knew would definitely cause a fight between her and Donnie, but if Casey’s idea worked and everything went smoothly, this was worth the headache of anything Kendra could do. Kendra seemed interested, but still somewhat unconvinced. Casey sighed.

“Kendra, look, we lost someone in our family. We want to get him back. We’re worried about him, we don’t know where he is or if he is safe. We just want him back home with us.” Casey was practically pleading now, and it seemed his puppy-dog demeanor was working on her, just a little. Kendra’s eyes softened a bit as she looked away, frowning. He felt like she wanted to say something, but she held back.

“Fine. But I’m not working for free. Von Ryan better compensate me for my time like you said he would.” Kendra’s harsh glare returned as she set her terms. Casey and April both nodded.

“I’ll text you when we’ll meet up for it.” April decided to end the interaction there, dragging Casey by his arm before he could get them into more trouble with Donatello.

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