He wakes up with no memory at all. He can't remember who he is and nothing makes sense to him. All he knows is that he's a giant mutant turtle, and that there are others like him. They're doing everything they can to keep him safe - he just wishes he could remember them...
Picking Up The Pieces
is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanfic written by Sanru and takes place after the 2007 film. It has a side story called And The Pieces Fall Together.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Don eventually remembers Mikey is this to him – and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Don. This is why Saka picked him for the project: since he’s the least aggressive of the turtles, they’d be too shocked to react when the brainwashing kicked in and he started attacking them.
- Dark Secret: Raph killed four people while looking for Don.
- Didn't Think This Through: When carrying out his brainwashing project, Dr Saka failed to realise that since Don is a mutated turtle, his physiology is different from a human’s.
- Gut Feeling: Since Don can’t remember any of his family, his first reaction is to think they’re a threat although that was because of Saka’s brainwashing. The only exception to that is Raph. Don senses there’s no danger from him because Raph was his protector when they were little.
- Don finds himself acting on instinct several times in the story. For instance, he knows April and Casey's house is important and how to get there, but he doesn't know why it's so important.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Downplayed. In the side story, Leo tells Raph to not let a terrified Don get away from him no matter what it takes, because they are not going to lose him again. Fortunately, it's not necessary since Don senses Raph is safe to be around.
- Manly Tears: Many are shed during the fic.
- Naginatas Are Feminine: Averted. Don was keeping a naginata in the lair without his family's knowledge. They are not expecting him to whip it out when acting under the delayed brainwashing.
- Noodle Incident: During his time in South America, Leo messed with the wrong warlord. Said warlord tracked down and kidnapped Leo's family with the intent of using them to get revenge. Since that happens in a flashback, we can assume everything turned out fine (for the turtles, that is).
- Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Raph does this to Don twice, much to the latter’s embarrassment.
- Poor Communication Kills: Justified. It’s not that Don won’t communicate with his family, it’s that he can’t due to the language barrier and his lack of memory. Ironically, the poor communication is what’s stopping him from killing everyone.
- Real Men Hate Affection: Inverted several times.
