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Collections/Challenges: Whumpay, Day 19
Prompt(s): “Don’t make me choose.”
Characters: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Fishface, Rahzar
Rating: Teen
Summary: The turtles have been kidnapped by the shredder. When Leonardo finally wakes up, he’s faced with an impossible decision. He has to pick one of his brothers. For what, he doesn’t know.
How could he possibly make that decision?
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Leonardo woke up with a splitting headache—a sharp pain throbbing behind his forehead. He cracked his eyes open, trying to ground himself.
Where was he?
He tried to move his hands but found out that he couldn’t, realizing that they were tied behind his back. Lovely. He frowned then, flexing his hands into fists, glancing down at himself. He looked unharmed, thankfully, and he was sitting in a metal chair. Presumably, his feet were cuffed to the legs.
How did he get here? The last thing he remembered was being on patrol with his brothers…
Leo’s eyes widened as he looked around, his breath catching in his throat when he saw them. They were all tied to the wall on his right side, wrists cuffed above their heads, the metal chains attached a few feet above them. Donnie was unconscious—or he was pretending to be. Raph looked awake but.. not quite there mentally. Mikey was staring at the floor, still as a board but clearly conscious. Leonardo sucked in a breath at the state of their bodies, how did they get so bad?
They had numerous bruises and scrapes on their skin, some of them were bigger than his own hands. Donnie had a nasty bruise forming on the side of his thigh, Raphael had a (seemingly shallow) gash on his upper arm, and Mikey’s nose was bleeding.
“Leo..?” Mikey’s voice was quiet, soft. “What’s.. what’s going on?”
His eyes snapped to meet the younger turtles, their gazes locking onto each other. Mikey looked scared and he seemed smaller somehow, more withdrawn. Leo was confused, still reeling from waking up confined to a chair.
He looked around, trying to find anything that could give him an answer. Where they were, why he was tied down in the middle of the room, who could’ve possibly taken them. They were clearly in a cell of sorts, maybe a dungeon. It looked vaguely familiar but he couldn’t place his finger on why..
“I..” he paused. He didn’t know. He didn’t know where they were. He didn’t even know how they got here for crying out loud. All he remembered was walking along the rooftops, then black. He woke up here.
His blood ran cold, if they were where he thought they were..
Almost as soon as he thought it, the metal door across the room creaked open. Through it came Rahzar and Fishface, both of them looking far too smug for Leo’s liking.
Just fucking great.
Rahzar branched off to walk along the perimeter, his nails scratching the wall as he went. He walked until he was out of his sight and Leo turned his gaze to the other mutant. Fishface crossed his arms, one metal foot tapping impatiently while he gave the turtle a sickening grin. Leo pulled at his restraints, his eyes bright with anger. He was going to—
The sound of his brother choking cut him off and he whipped his head around, his eyes searching for the cause. Rahzar was hovering over Donnie, one of his arms raised by his side. His hand was clearly clutching onto something, Leo didn’t need to be a genius to figure out what. He couldn’t see his brother from his seat, but he wasn’t even sure if he wanted too.
“Stop it!” Mikey shouted, fighting against his own restraints. He looked scared, pissed off, his lips pressed together as he tried again, yanking on the metal cuffs with more force than Leo expected. “Let him go!”
Raph was silent next to Mikey, and Leo found that odd. Clearly they had a less.. pleasant experience compared to him if the bruises were anything to go by. Still, seeing his hot headed brother so silent while the youngest was overtaken by enough anger that he was visibly shaking? That was different. It was new.
The choking went on for a few more seconds before Rahzar stepped back, chuckling under his breath. “Someone had to wake you up…”
Leo watched Donnie’s figure slump to the floor (or as far to the floor as he could get) coughing harshly. There were pinpricks of blood on his neck and his face was almost as purple as his mask. He gasped, his body convulsing with every hack he let out. It sounded painful—it looked even worse.
Leo’s blood boiled, but he kept it contained. Anger wouldn’t help him here. He needed to stay calm—they could find a way out of this, they always did.
Fishface cleared his throat, dropping a curled fist from in front of his mouth. Leo’s eyes narrowed at the mutant, once again trying to get out of his own restraints.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering why you’re here..” he started off, drumming his webbed fingers along his arm. “Of course I’m not going to tell you, but I’m sure you were wondering.”
Rahzar snickered and the stupid fish smirked again. Leo was getting real sick of that smirk.
“Leonardo,” Fishface drew out his name, the smirk morphing into a sadistic grin. “You have a decision to make.”
His eyes narrowed. “And what decision what that be?” He snapped, trying to force his tone into neutrality.
“Pick one of your brothers.” He stated simply.
Leo’s face paled, pick—? Why? What were they going to do?
“And why would I do that?” He said snarkily, raising a non existent eyebrow. The fish seemed to light up at the question, like he had been praying that Leo would ask.
“If you don’t choose, we do.”
Rahzar laughed again from where he was standing next to the wall. “Trust me, you don’t want us to choose.”
“What’s going to happen to them?” Leo demanded, looking back over to his brothers. Donnie was still slumped, sucking in quiet breaths as he recovered from the sudden strangulation. Raph was glaring daggers at the two mutants, his hands balled into fists within the cuffs. Mikey was biting his lip and his eyes were going everywhere, scanning everything. How could Leo choose?
“Ah, now that takes the fun out of the game, doesn’t it?” Fishface drawled, slowly walking towards Leo.
“And what fucking game would that be?” Raph snapped, Leo felt a spark of hope at the outburst. That was the Raph he knew. “You sick fucks, what the fuck is your problem?”
Fishface turned to glare at Raphael. “You better shut your mouth before we shut it for you.”
Leo watched the flicker of fear in Raphs eyes come alive before it was extinguished, hardening as a low snarl fell from his mouth. The mutant seemed happy enough with that response and continued to walk up to Leo. He kept his mouth shut as the fish circled his chair, running a finger over the back. “Pick a brother, turtle. And choose wisely. You can’t take back your decision.”
Leo’s hands spasmed as he pressed his lips together. He couldn’t choose. Why were they making him do this?
“Why me?” He asked, turning to look at Xever after he finished loop the chair.
”Isn’t it obvious?” The fish hummed softly. “You’re their leader.”
Leo’s anger faltered for a second, if he made a decision.. whoever he chose would never forget it. “What if I say no? What if I say myself?”
Rahzar stepped forward with a grin, cracking his knuckles loudly. “Every time you say no, one of them ends up hurt.”
Fishface gave Leo a small shrug, leaning into his face. “It’s simple. Pick. A. Brother.”
Leo leaned his head back, fighting the urge to spit in his face. “I pick me.” He said harshly.
The next thing he knew, his head was flying to the side and a burst of pain exploded in his jaw. He opened his mouth, stretching it as the sensation dulled to a soft ache, looking back at Fishface. He was eerily calm, his left fist balled by his side. “Choose. Properly this time.”
Raph apparently didn’t give a shit about being quiet anymore and piped up from where he was. “Pick me, Leo. I can handle whatever they throw at me.”
He could see the hot heads smile, the feral look in his eyes. Leo almost said yes, but something stopped him. What if this was some reverse psychology? What if they wanted him to think the brother would be hurt, when really he’d be the one spared? What if this was some psychological warfare, trying to figure out who he cared about the least? (That was an impossible question, he loved all his brothers for different reasons. He’d never put one over the other in a situation like this. Not willingly.)
“Let me do it,” Mikey piped up, his voice was steadier than Leo felt. He turned to look at the youngest, and Mikey gave him a confident smile. “I’ve got this, bro.”
Across the room, Rahzar laughed. (Leo was really getting tired of this—having to look between the two mutants and his brothers. Couldn’t they just stand together so he could stop giving himself whiplash?)
“Look at that, even the small one is volunteering.” Mikey protested, letting out a loud—“Hey!”—but Rahzar kept going. “But the taller one… well, he hasn’t said a word, has he?” The look on Rahzars face made Leo nervous, and he almost didn’t want to look at Donnie. What if his vocal cords were crushed and this was Rahzars fucked up way of telling him?
He looked anyway (obviously) and scanned Donnie’s body just to be sure there was no life threatening or permanent injuries.
“Leave him alone,” Raph growled, leaning forward as far as the cuffs would allow. “You do anything to him and I’ll rip out your neck with my bare teeth.”
Leo wouldn’t say it to his face, but he was feeling very proud of his brother right now. Unfortunately, they were still the hostages, so saying things like that never went well.
The dog had walked over in an instant, punching Raph across the face before he followed up with a jab to the stomach. Raph let out a gasp, wincing briefly, unable to protect himself. Next to him Mikey was yelling in protest, once again trying desperately to get out of the restraints. Rahzar growled as he struck again, punching him four more times for good measure.
“You think you’re in any place to make demands?” He barked out, stepping back from Raph’s wheezing form. “We’re in charge here, now stop playing coy—“ he turned to Leo as he said this, stepping over to grab Donnie’s neck once again. Donnie’s eyes snapped open with terror and Leo wanted to scream. “—and chose a brother.”
Leo’s mouth dropped open, stuttering for a second before Rahzars fist tightened. He could hear Mikey’s yelling, Raph’s angry wheezing, but all he could think was don’t make me choose. Please don’t make me choose.
The longer he sat there the more Donnie lost oxygen, but he couldn’t pick. Rahzar had specifically moved so that Leo could see his brother and he almost didn’t want too. Donnie’s eyes were watering and his fingers were holding onto the metal cuffs like that would save him from death. He was throwing out weak kicks, trying to fight off the mutant as best as he could while his neck was rapidly being crushed. He was fighting for his life. Leo could end this right now if he just made a decision, he just needed to choose one.
He spoke without thinking.
“Raph!” He screamed, and immediately he felt sick to his stomach. “I pick Raph.”
The second it left his mouth Rahzar let go, smiling brightly. “See?” He locked eyes with the blue banded turtle, “that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Leo sat there in shock from his own words. He looked at Raph—expecting anger or betrayal, but he didn’t see any of that. If anything he looked resigned, like he knew this would happen. Somehow that hurt worse than if he hadn’t known. He tried to say anything, ‘I’m sorry’ or maybe ‘I panicked’, but he didn’t get the chance. Rahzar walked over, stopping in front of the turtle of choice. Leo waited with bated breath, was he going to hurt him, let him go—
He wasn’t expecting him to walk away, and he definitely wasn’t expecting him to reach up and release Mikey’s chains. The second he realized what was happening he started to thrash, his world felt like it was crumbling around him and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.
“What’re you doing—“ he near shrieked, “I picked Raph! You said to choose, and I choose him! Why—“
The sound of Fishface laughing filled the room like a poisonous gas, silencing him in seconds. The fish shook his head, arms crossed over his chest. “Did you really think we’d let you pick?” He snorted, looking at Rahzar with a dark gleam in his eye. “We knew from the start that we were taking the orange one.”
With that, Rahzar pulled Mikey off the wall, dragging him without a care in the world. Mikey’s eyes were wide and Leo was screaming, vaguely he could hear Raph swearing, hurling insults left and right. It was a cacophony of sounds, yet Donnie was completely silent.
Leo’s eyes were wide with desperation, locking onto Mikey’s one last time. “It’ll be okay Mike,” he said softly, trying not to choke on his words. He wasn’t sure whether or not he was reassuring his brother or himself. Probably both. Mikey nodded solemnly, a determined look in his eyes. Leo opened his mouth to say something else, probably ‘I love you’—
The door shut with a loud bang, cutting him off before he even had a chance to speak.