Description of my last post
This scene takes place at the peak of the War with the Krang
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The camp was dim tonight.
Not dark — never dark. Kyle made sure of that.
Strings of salvaged lights hung across the cracked ceiling, flickering weakly as generators groaned somewhere deeper in the camp. Refugees slept shoulder-to-shoulder beneath patched blankets, children curled against exhausted parents while distant explosions rattled dust from the pipes overhead. The lights buzzed faintly with her energy, with her. Every glowing bulb was another piece of herself burned away to keep everyone afraid of the dark from having to sit in it.
Donatello noticed it long before she let herself collapse onto the cot beside him.
Her ribs peaked out from under her armor, exposing angry purple-black bruising beneath scorched skin. Fresh cuts crossed her arm, deeper than they should’ve been. Blood still dripped sluggishly from one of them.
Kyle healed fast. Too fast, usually. Injuries never stayed long enough for panic to settle in.
Donnie’s hands trembled as he cut away the torn fabric around her side. Usually he’d be talking — rambling about battle strategy, muttering about Krang tech, masking fear with sarcasm — but the silence hanging over him felt sick.
“Kyle…” His voice cracked quietly. “Why isn’t this healing?”
She avoided his eyes immediately, staring instead at the buzzing lantern overhead.
“It will,” she muttered. “Just slower.”
“Slower?” His head snapped toward her. “You got impaled three weeks ago and were walking in an hour.”
He pressed gauze against the wound harder than he meant to, panic bleeding into frustration. She winced but didn’t complain.
Donnie finally looked at her fully, really looked at her, and the realization hollowed him out.
The dark circles beneath her eyes. The way her hands shook from exhaustion. The faint sparks crawling weakly across her fingertips instead of crackling violently like they used to.
She’d been draining herself dry.
For the camp. For the resistance. For everyone.
“You’re overusing your powers,” he whispered.
His breathing became uneven as he wrapped another bandage around her torso, movements suddenly clumsy. “Keeping the lights running, charging weapons, fighting on the front lines—” His voice rose despite himself. “You’re literally burning yourself alive!”
“I’m keeping people alive.”
“And who’s keeping you alive?!” he snapped.
The refugees nearby shifted in their sleep from the sudden outburst. Donnie immediately lowered his voice again, but the damage was done. Tears blurred behind his visor.
“You can’t keep doing this,” he said shakily. “You can’t just decide your life is worth less than everyone else’s.”
Kyle finally looked at him then.
That broke him more than anything.
Because she looked guilty.
Not scared. Not defensive.
Donnie swallowed hard, his hands tightening around the bandage roll as tears finally slipped free. “Do you have any idea what it would do to me if you didn’t come back one day?”
Kyle’s expression faltered for the first time that night.
The hardened general, the protector of the camp, the woman who carried entire city blocks on her shoulders — suddenly she just looked tired.
Donnie carefully pressed his forehead against hers, his hands still shaking.
“I can’t lose you” he whispered.
And for the first time in weeks, Kyle let herself lean into someone else instead of holding everyone up alone.
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