Hello again! Thank you to everyone who's left reviews or put this story on alert/favorite lists! Y'all are awesome! (Southern college has been affecting me more than I realized...) I'm really excited for this chapter, and I think you guys will like it. This was originally going to be the first chapter, as I planned on doing the story solely through this character's POV, but the idea of switching around sounded better and gave me more ideas. Anywho, enjoy! :)

Water. It's the first sensation Leo's felt that wasn't pain in a while. The pain was still there, though, encasing him in never-ending discomfort. There was no part of him that didn't hurt.

But, Leo noticed that the pain seemed different now. He remembered the pain as blows, hits, new injuries that were continuously happening. This was different pain. This was slightly old pain; the injuries where still fresh, but they were beginning to heal, and no new ones were coming.

Think, Leo… The last thing he remembered was… Shredder, suddenly right behind him, the strike of his claws… Then black. Black that he was still seeing. He could sense that his eyes where still closed. What had happened? Where was he?

He tried to feel where he was, considering he couldn't see. It was… a bathtub? How was he in a bathtub? The lair, though thankfully having showers, never had one. That meant he wasn't in the lair.

Oh, man, he thought. The lair. What had happened to that? Leo remembered running out with Donnie, Mikey, and April after the Kraang had invaded. They'd left Master Splinter behind. What had happened to their home? What had happened to their Sensei?

Leo had too many questions and not enough answers, answers he could get if he could just open his eyes. But, his body fought as he tried, pain answering any attempt to move more than what was necessary to keep blood flowing. Even breathing hurt. His body was even fighting his attempt to stay in this quasi-conscious state. Leo knew that time had passed since he'd been ambushed. But, how long?

He could hear voices above him, but he couldn't tell who was speaking, much less what they where saying. It might have been Donnie? No guarantee, though. He heard footsteps, and could sense people leaving the room. One seemed to remain, though. Who was it? He knew that they had all gotten separated, but maybe the others got back together. Was it Splinter? One of his brothers? April? Casey? Someone from the Foot?

His blood ran cold at that. Who's to say he wasn't captured? Shredder may have taken him back to the Foot Clan's headquarters. But, why would the Shredder put him in a bathtub? He seemed to be taken care of.

Leo hated how much uncertainty there was. He was stuck in his own consciousness in a body too weak to let it out. New York had been invaded by the Kraang, they'd left their master alone to fight never-ending swarms of them, the team had been separated, he'd gotten beaten within an inch of his life, he was stuck in a mysterious location, with a mystery person in the room keeping watch over him. He'd never been more at a loss of what to do.

And it seemed like life was only giving him one option; heal. He had no option but to stay in a vulnerable and potentially dangerous situation because he was too unhealthy to do anything else. Even if he was able to fully regain consciousness, he wouldn't be able to move. He was stuck.

He laid there for a while, trying to piece the day together, hoping to find more clues so he could puzzle out where he was and what had happened in between Shredder's final blow and when he'd somewhat woken up. He wasn't even quite sure what to call the state he was in. He couldn't move or open his eyes, but he could think and had an awareness of what was going on around him, like that the person was still watching him. He recalled reading somewhere that sometimes comatose patients could still hear what was going on around them.

He felt a jolt go through him. He was most likely in a coma. He groaned internally. Who knows how much time had passed since he'd been knocked out? It could have been minutes, or hours, or days, or weeks, or months, or… he really didn't want to think that years had passed. But, his injuries still felt fresh, like they weren't very old. The healing process felt like it had only just recently started. Leo hopped that this feeling meant it hadn't been more than a few hours.

He felt a spasm of pain in his leg, around the knee, and winced. Would he ever walk again? Who knew what kind of damage Shredder did; the idea of permanent injury, injury so bad he'd never be able to perform ninjutsu again, scared him.

A memory came back to him. Something from childhood, something he hadn't thought about in years…

"Raph!" Leo called to his brother's retreating back. "Where are you going?"

"Go away, Leo," Raph spat back. "I wanna be alone."

"But, Sensei says we can't leave the lair!" Leo said, confused as to why Raph was going towards the exit. Master Splinter never let them leave without both his permission and his escort. Raph had chaffed under this rule, wanting to explore the sewers more, and not taking Splinter's excuse of them only being eight as a fair one.

"That's a stupid rule and you know it," Raph said. Leo went to disagree when Raph kept talking. "I just wanted to explore some. I found this really cool place last time."

"You've left before?!" Leo exclaimed.

"Shhh!" Raph quieted him, then gave a glare to Leo's look of disapproval. "I'm plenty old enough to go on my own. It gets boring in here."

"But, what if a human sees you?" Splinter had never kept them in the dark about humans, the surface, or that the reason they stayed underground was because they were different.

"No humans come down here. That's why we live here, doofus! Come on!"

"I thought you didn't want me coming?"

"If I don't take you, you'll tell on me." Leo pouted as Raph perfectly figured out his plan. Before he could continue to protest, Raph grabbed his arm and dragged him out.

Raph lead him down a tunnel, and the confident way he walked told Leo that he'd been down here before.

"Come on, Raph, let's go home. I won't tell Master Splinter, I promise!" Leo pleaded. He really didn't want to get into trouble, which he knew would happen if they didn't get back before Splinter noticed they were missing. Raph, however, pretended to have not heard him. He seemed to have started walking even faster, causing Leo to stumble as he trailed behind his brother's iron grip.

"Raph, what if Sensei doesn't let us start on weapons like he promised?" Leo asked, hoping that the idea of Splinter punishing them by not letting them start their weapons training would convince Raph to turn around. Raph had been begging to use weapons since he was old enough to talk and recognize what weapons were. Splinter had told them a few days ago that he thought they were all ready to start using them soon. Raph wasn't even saddened by the fact they wouldn't have any blades on them; his dream was finally coming true.

Leo's words had the intended effect; Raph stopped short. He turned around towards home and hope filled Leo's chest.

"Fine…" Raph muttered, and stared walking back.

"Thank you, Raph," Leo said, following him.

"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this so I can start-" Raph suddenly tumbled down out of Leo's line of vision.

"Raph!" Leo called, running towards him, as Raph's cries echoed though the tunnels.

"My leg! It hurts! I can't stand up, I can't stand up!" Raph cried. Leo put an arm around him and helped his brother up. When he tried to put weight on the injured leg, he let out another cry of pain. "I can't walk! I'll never walk again!" He started to sob.

"Raph, stop that! You'll be fine," Leo said, figuring he was being over dramatic. But, those words still scared him somewhat.

"Sensei!" Leo yelled as they got close to home. Splinter ran out of the entrance, his eyes widening at one son carrying another crying one. Donnie and Mikey shyly poked their heads out.

"What happened? Why where you two outside the lair?" Splinter asked them as he carefully picked up Raph, who was still crying. He wasn't yelling, in fact he was rather calm. This did nothing to ease Leo's fears that he was going to start yelling at any moment. Splinter wasn't angry often, but the idea of making him mad scared Leo.

"It's my fault, Sensei," Raph said, his cries slowing. "I found this cool place, but Leo tried to stop me, so I took him along so he wouldn't tell, but I fell down and I can't put any weight on my leg! I can't walk anymore!"

Splinter gave his son almost an amused look. "I do no think your injury is that severe, Raphael, but I hope this teaches you a lesson about disobeying your Sensei."

"Yes, Master Splinter," Raph said as Splinter carried him inside, Leo and his other brother's trailing behind him. Leo felt himself start to relax; maybe Raph's injury would keep him out of trouble.

"And don't think I am not angry at you for disobeying me, Leonardo. I want to talk to you and Raphael once I have tended to your brother's injuries," Splinter called out as he carried Raph into the dojo. Leo pouted, sending a glare to Donnie and Mikey, who were giggling over the idea of "perfect" Leonardo getting into trouble.

Leo chuckled to himself at the memory, remembering how relieved he'd felt when it turned out Raph had only sprained his ankle. He was walking by next day after icing it. Raph had a tendency to be overdramatic as a kid, a trait that sometimes came out when his temper really flared.

If only I just had a sprained ankle.

Leo knew he had a long recovery ahead of him.