Trapped Within

{Chapter 15}

POV No One:

It's been months since Dannie and Centi "found out" about the bonding between the children and Mikey, a multitude of changes have occurred because of the situation, especially with Michaelangelo, Dannie seems to have noticed the change as well. As days changed to weeks, then to months, Mikey was becoming more...animalistic, and because of the change, training duties were not decreased at all, in fact Bishop required that Michaelangelo to train more, making sure the young mutant was going to be strong enough to protect the eggs, even after they hatched. Because of this Michaelangelo went back to his original hours, and Mikey didn't seem to... like that change....ever since then, Michaelangelo never came back to his cell, from that point on he slept inside the laboratory, resting inside the nest he designed, organizing the pillows and blankets into a large cushiony bed, only picking the best items for the nest.

That was something Centi noticed about Michaelangelo when he work on the nursery, not only the odd nesting behavior but a load of other behaviors as well. For humans, mothers when they are farther along with their pregnancy, they start having this strange behavior, similar to the ones Michaelangelo possesses. However, the most common behaviors that he is exhibiting are, nesting behavior and specific concentration problems. Michelangelo has been deep cleaning the nursery and laboratory, organizing the items and furnishing until it was to his liking. But what was worse was his concentration, most to even all of his concentration went towards the eggs, during his duties he did all his tasks well, monitoring the eggs, checking their vitals, checking their growth, he was doing everything, and what made it better was before the mutant knew that about the specimens being related to him, Michelangelo did the bare minimum, but now, he was going over and beyond, it left Dannie amazed, even confused, but took advantage of this, writing this down as progress. Concentration was written down as a problem, however, in training, Michelangelo would find any reason to end that task as quickly as possible, whether that was defeating any and all mutants, no matter what issues they had, even if they were young, old, weak, strong, Michelangelo never cared. After some time, Michelangelo realized that beating the mutants until they couldn't muster to even stand up to their feet ended the training the fastest, yet he didn't care.

Mikey hated that about himself now, as months passed the caring loving kid that loved to prank his family was disappearing, the same kid that could never kill a soul wasn't here, standing over a young mutant, glaring down at its trembling body as it cried out for his mother, begging to go home...home...exactly six months ago, for two weeks straight, Michelangelo has been begging, trying to call out to Leo, attempting to connect, but it never happened, so...he gave up...

Home...TCRI is home...Michaelangelo's kids are his home, his safe place, his comfort, his life, his purpose...the laboratory was his home... Michelangelo knew that, but that was the only thing he knew, from constant lessons, Mikey knew that leaving the facility... w̴͉̤̠͔̼̣̃a̴͍̒͆̂̋̃͘s̴̠̹͚̥͖̹̤͗͐ ̶̧̮͔̺̹̀d̷̘̂̊ĕ̶̢͈̹͍̟̩͇̜a̶̼̰͖̹̔̃̚t̷̰̐̂h̴͖̃̈

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POV 3rd Person(Mikey):

He was at rest, resting inside the center of the nest, Michelangelo opened his eyes as he heard the sound of someone walking into the lab, walking towards the nursery. "Pequenito are you inside?", Michaelangelo recognized that voice, lifting up his head, Mikey let out a small chirp, 'Food! Food! Food!', crawling out of the bed of pillows and blankets, Mikey raced towards the door and yanked it wide open, "Oh! Hey, you look like you're in a good mood today, huh?", Mikey nodded his head in a rapid movement, tugging Centi towards the incubators, as he released them from their protective holding.

"What's going on with you-"

N A N A     N A N A     L O O K

Mikey pointed at the projections as the centipede walked towards the incubators, Centi didn't know what they looking at, upon looking closer at the projection they realized what it was, two fully grown fetuses, "Wait! Is it almost-", Mikey nodded his head as he dragged his hand over the eggs, "Is that why you're so happy?...", Centi smiled softly as they watched the small turtle chirp at the eggs, chuckled as small movements came from the first egg as well as the last egg. Centi smiled at the young mutant, clearing their throat, gaining Mikey attention, "Here's breakfast...", Mikey just stared at them as he stood in front of the incubator, giving each egg attention, but he just stared at them, his face blank of emotion, turning around towards the eggs. Throughout the months, Centi realized that he had been the happiest now, Mikey was showing true signs of stress, impatient, loss of interest, unless it was about the kids, clenching his jaw, headaches, Michelangelo was stressing himself out over the eggs, Centi realized that Mikey has been working and protecting these eggs so hard, that he has left himself no time to truly relax and breath, every free moment he has he's with the eggs, he's stressing himself so much over this obsession, and all Centi could do was sigh. Setting down the bowl, Centi walked towards Michaelangelo and placed their hand on his shoulder, but he didn't look at them, he was too excited, Mikey didn't care about her concerns, nothing mattered more than everything in this moment.