Author's Note - If you've read my other stories, namely Alienation and Silence, you might have realized that I'm fond of villains who have points to make. There's really no one scarier than someone who believes they're right.

This story has a similar villain. A whole stack of villains, actually. Bishop believed he was right in the name of science. Prince thought he was right for the sake of knowledge and his cynical philosophies. The villains in this story believe they are right in the name of God.

I'm writing that as a warning, because I know people can be sensitive about religion. Rest assured, I am in no way against any religion of any kind. These people are not meant to comment on any particular church or area of worship. They represent religion the way Bishop represented science - wrongly.

Another warning - this story is dark. Dark dark. I was giving myself shivers just thinking it over when the idea hit me earlier. There will be bad things happening. Broken spirits, torment. Death (not one of the four boys, nor Splinter, but pretty harsh death all the same). There is a lot of ugly. Can't stress it enough.

And, the last warning - this story is last of the sequels to The Part You Won't Recognize. It isn't related to the events in that story, but it does assume that they happened. That means the OC, Kate, is back. But then, she's actually not back at all (see death warning above). If you haven't read TPYWR, just assume Raph's gotten himself involved with Kate, a black working girl from East New York. Knowing more than that ain't necessary - she won't be around long enough for it to matter.

Oh, Mike was happy enough for Raph. Easy to be happy for the lighter moods, the relaxation and smiles that his angry brother was finally allowing for himself.

But it was hard to deny the bite of envy when Kate came around and gave Raph that private look. It was hard to miss the little touches when they passed each other, the smiles exchanged. The nights Raph 'walked her home' and came back at dawn tired and glowing.

It was hard to ignore the little voice in his mind that whispered why not me?

Oh, he didn't like Kate like Raph did. She was a neat chick and all - she called him Doodlebug, and Mike liked having a nickname from a cool blaxploitation movie. She was good for Raph. Made him happy, which was a miracle in itself.

But Mike didn't want Kate. He wanted those looks. He wanted that glow and somewhere to be at night and someone to touch him on the arm as absently as Kate touched Raph.

Hard not to be jealous, considering it broke the odds that even one of them had found a relationship.

The jealousy faded fast the day she stopped calling.

At first he was amused by Raph's dive into worry - was she okay? Was she dumping him in some uncharacteristically passive way? But the days passed and the phone stayed silent, and there was no Cleopatra Jones to Mike's Doodlebug, and Raph didn't smile anymore.

Raph went to her place at night, Mike knew. But she was never there. He talked to her friends - most folks on her block knew Raph, and he had people he could ask.

He kept calling one woman in particular - another pro Kate knew with the strange name of Shug. He seemed convinced Shug would know if Kate had simply left because she wanted something more normal.

Shug denied it. Raph never believed her.

"The trail's too cold to follow," Raph admitted to him late one night, almost two weeks after last seeing Kate. "If she's missing I wouldn't know how to start looking. At least if she left me I'd know she was alright."

If she left him, Mike thought to himself as he watched his strong brother fall into sleepless worry and frustrated searching, Mike would kill her himself.

Then Shug called.

Even Splinter took to the rooftops that night, unwilling to let Raph go alone.

Whoever had taken her put her back in her apartment. Shug found her, and out of respect for Raph and knowledge of what he was she'd called him to come first before she would call the cops.

Mike had seen death before. They fought a lot of battles, and fighting brought harsh realities. But those deaths were sudden, right there. A fallen Foot or street punk that simply didn't get up again.

Kate was something different.

Mike couldn't remember a lot of details from the past deaths he'd seen. But he was sure he wouldn't forget the copper smell of the apartment. The dark maroon of dried blood. Her face, blank and tilted and empty.

Strange things left around her. On the walls, lines painted. The letter T over and over. Or crosses, maybe. They had a stark look, dark black and dripping against the grey walls. On the floors were hunks of leaves tied together with twine, with burned ends.

She had been covered with a white robe, too large to be hers. It was easy to see what killed her once the robe was lifted off.

Evisceration. Another word Don used. But it wasn't quite right, because it didn't look like her organs had been removed. She had simply been cut open, hipbone to hipbone, and spread wide.

They'd seen death before. All of them. But Don wretched, and Leo turned away. Splinter bowed his head and spoke soft chanted words. Mike knew every aspect of it, every sight, every smell and sound, would stick with him. Haunt him afterwards.

And then there was Raph.

Mike was jealous of him for a while there. Finding a girl, winning her over. Being happy. In the end? He would never be jealous again. Not of a single moment Raph might've had with her.

Because there was no way it could have been worth the pain.