Here's another chapter! Please enjoy!


I'm tired…. can't fall asleep – can't fall asleep.

Raph knew his head was slumping forward, his knees bending as they fought to lie down. It had been three days and the lady hadn't given an inch. She hadn't moved or blinked tiredly like Raph had. She just sat there, unmoving, staring at Raph.

I can't lie down…. who knows what she'll do to me in my sleep. Muzzle me and chain me – no thanks. I'll win this; she can't break me. I've beaten iron fists and chains, whips and rope. Simple sleep is not going to be the thing that breaks me.

But even as he thought that, he doubted it more and more. Suzy had gone in the padded room with him and just sat there, waiting for him to give in first. Raph thought it would be easy, outwitting a simple human girl, but it wasn't. Neither of them had moved for the better part of three days, just starring at each other and waiting for the other to give up first.

Raph could feel his head slumping to his plastron but even as his eyelids closed, he could see a smile of satisfaction grow on the woman's face.

No!

Raph snapped his head back up, fighting of the exhaustion, and resumed his natural glaring stance. She would not win,

"I can see you're fighting it buddy. You can't keep this up for very much longer." She said in a low, soothing voice that only made Raph sleepier. Her voice reminded him of when Splinter would come in the room when they were younger, after a bad nightmare, and just sit there with them on the bed, talking in a low, soothing voice until they went back to sleep.

"Don't fight it."

He had too – he wouldn't be broken like this.

For the ninth time that day, he saw her reach into her bag and pull out a bottle of water. She would take a sip of it and put it back in her bag and then go on staring.

The water…she's cheating somehow.

"I can keep this up for a few more days. How much longer can you?"

He had to win this – to show her that he wouldn't be broken over a few measly days of sleep. He'd stayed awake longer than this and had no problems. Why was he so tired now?

He could feel his legs growing numb. Moving his legs under him, he realized that he was halfway into the position of lying down. His eyelids grew heavier every second and he realized he was loosing.

Fight…. I have to fight…

He gave one slow blink and found himself lying on the floor. His body had betrayed him…. he'd lost.

"There you go now." Suzy said, standing up. "I'll be back in a day or so. I'll let you rest." She took a step forward, stretching out her hand to rest it on Raph's head like a dog. Raph bared his teeth, though he made no move to stop her. He was just too tired to care.

"There you go," She murmured, resting her cold hand on Raph's domed head.

Raph felt a shudder run through his body at her touch. It was wrong but he was just too tired…

"Good boy." Suzy removed her hand and shuffled towards the door. She gave him one more look before exiting the room.

The dim lights in the room faded into a comfortable dark and Raph closed his eyes, feeling relief escape him. He could sleep – she wasn't in the room anymore.

He could sleep….


"You're remarkable." Macaster praised as he met Suzy outside the turtle's cage.

"Thanks." She brushed a lock of hair behind an ear and gave a long yawn. "Now if you don't mind, I think I need to go get some sleep too."

"Yes, yes. But tell me, how did you do it?"

Suzy pulled out her water bottle. "This. It's something my father made up. It's like drinking five cups of coffee at once. I just take a sip every few hours and I can stay up for a limit of one week with no sleep."

"Amazing."

"Thanks." She smiled gently. "My father was a vet as well. Sometimes he would need to pull all-nighters to stay awake by animals that were very sick or pregnant animals."

"You father was a brilliant man." Macaster rested a hand on her shoulder. "Please, go rest now. I'll make sure the turtle is not disturbed for a few days."

"Thank you." Suzy told him. She left the room, anxious to get into her warm bed at home. As she pulled up the covers up to her chin ten minutes later, she couldn't help but think of the turtle. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear he was almost human. The glares he sent her through beautiful amber eyes sent chills through her body – they almost reminded her of a tiger. Fierce eyes that told a story of power and strength, of a hard life in which he'd survived.

And the turtle was definitely a survivor.

"Harold." Macaster called out his assistant's name as soon as he was sure Suzy was gone.

The mountain-like man swayed into the building. "Yes sir?"

"Fetch Mr. Tares please."

"Yes boss."

A few minutes later a short, stocky built man walked in. "Yes boss?" he voice was high and whiny.

"Please go check the turtle." Macaster instructed.

Tares let out a gulp and shot a nervous look over at the closed and locked door. "Now?"

"Yes." Macaster sighed and handed the man a small dart gun. "Shoot him if you're scared."

"I – I'm not s-scared."

"I can see that." Macaster said dryly, rolling his eyes. He tapped his foot waiting for his wimpy assistant to go do his job. "Go on now. I'm paying you by the hour."

Tares let out another nervous gulp before he let himself into the room. The room was dark but as he closed the door behind him, the lights raised into a dim lighting. Sweat rolled down his face as he noticed the large, dark green shape tucked into the corner.

He could see the turtle was fast asleep; his breathing heavy as his plastron rose and fell with each breath. Taking a few hesitant and very uneasy steps forward, he slowly made his way to the turtle's side.

Taking out the dart gun, he shot the turtle in the arm. The turtle didn't even flinch as the needle slid into his flesh and as the knockout liquid emptied into his blood.

Taking out another needle, he gathered DNA, blood, and tissue samples from the turtle. Taking a scalpel from his bag, he rolled the turtle over and sliced of a thin layer of forest green skin. Sticking each sample in a tube and marking it with a black permanent marker, he stuck each tube into a bag and sealed it shut.

He couldn't help himself, but ran a hand over a long nasty looking scar on the turtle's shoulder.

What had this turtle gone through?

Standing up, he let out a long sigh, and with one last look, left the room, making sure to lock it behind him. From up close, the turtle didn't look scary at all. More like scared and small – he was just an innocent creature whose only crime was looking different.

But was it fair to treat him differently because of that?

"Did you get the samples?" Macaster demanded.

Tares nodded, handing over the sample case. Macaster grabbed it, his eyes lighting up. "Perfect." He waved his hand at Tares, dismissing him from the room.

As Tares left the room, he couldn't help but feel Macaster got into a lot more than he could handle this time with the turtle.

A lot more than he could handle.


"Did you find anything Don?" Leo asked tiredly, leaning over his purple clad brother.

Don gave an aggravated shake of his head, closing out of several windows he had up before closing the laptop lid. "Nothing. It's like he's completely disappeared off the face of the earth." He spun around in his chair as the youngest turtle entered the room. "How about you Mike?"

Mikey slipped off his trench coat, slipping it on a hanger and putting it in the closet by the lab doors. "Nothing on my end; I asked around town and even checked with the local tourist agency. They say he lost almost all, if not all, reputation for being a good circus. Several people quit and his tickets are sold at rock bottom price now."

"Does anyone know where he is now?" Leo asked.

"Nope. They say after the media crisis, he went into hiding." Mikey sat down on Don's bed, putting his head into his hands. He let out a long, pained sigh of his own. "That man sucks big time."

"I know bro," Leo sat beside Mikey, putting his arm around his shell. "We'll get him…we'll get him."

Don joined them on his bed. "Ya know, it's kinda weird." He muttered. "One second Macaster was the biggest thing and tickets were next to impossible to get. Now you can't find them anywhere because no one carries them and where you can, they're practically giving them away."

"And?" Leo urged, seeing the Look in Don's eyes.

"He still carries animals, like tigers and bears and large carnivores."

"So?"

"So," Don turned to Leo with a triumphant gleam in his eye. "He has to buy food for them. Otherwise he would be shut down for animal cruelty. And he doesn't want that…"

"What are you getting at Donny?" Mikey raised his head.

"All we have to do is find out where he buys the food from." Don said, bolting to his feet.

Leo's eyes widened. "So we find out where he gets the food and where it's shipped or picked up from…"

Don gave a nod. "And we find Raph."


Raph shook his head, letting out a yawn. His sleep was so good – he'd never thought he'd appreciate a few hours, or days, of sleep.

Struggling into a sitting position, he was suddenly aware of a stinging pain on the backside of his leg. Reaching over, he felt a raw area that was caked in blood and scabbed over. It felt like a layer of skin had been removed….skinned….he'd been skinned!

He felt a rush of rage surge through him as he remembered Suzy. She'd done this to him! He'd trusted her enough to leave him alone and she went and skinned him and did who knows what else.

"Suzy." He growled. He looked at the door, waiting for it to fall open and for the woman to appear in the doorway.

I am such an idiot to trust her….never again.

There was a faint sound of metal moving as Raph turned to his feeder dish. Fresh fruit was being poured in from the outside and water fell from the tube and into his dish, quickly filling it up with fresh, cold water. Raph shuffled over to it, just then realizing how hungry he was. Stomach growling in protest, he ignored the food and just drank from the water.

As it ran down his throat and refreshed his thoughts, he wondered why Suzy would do that to him.

Cause she's a human, stupid…she works for Macaster. She's a paid jerk who'll do whatever will get her money…

Raph growled. He was such an idiot.


"April?"

April held the small shell cell to her ear as she gave the older man his money and his bag. "Yeah Mikey?" she looked over at her customer with a friendly smile. "Come back soon!" She called after him. After quickly checking around to make sure there were no other customers in the store, she turned around. "Mikey, I'm in the middle of work." She hissed. The youngest turtle enjoyed bugging her in the middle of work.

"Sorry April." Mikey sounded apologetic. "But we have news on Raph."

"Raph?" April instantly perked up. "What? Did you find him?"

"Not yet..." Mikey sighed and April instantly felt bad for snapped at him before. These past few weeks had been tough on her too. First Raph was captured, and then they all thought he'd died, and now he was alive again and in the same creep's hands.

Life sucked.

"What can I do to help?" She asked.

"We need you to check out some places for us; any place that sells food for large carnivores….like for zoo's and such."

"Okay," April waved to a family who had just walked in the door. "Be with you in a minute," she called to them. "Okay, then what?"

"See if anyone is selling food to Macaster." Mikey instructed.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Try large amounts of fruit…someone who buys large amount of fruit or turtle feed." Mikey sighed. "If that doesn't work then we're back to square one."

April could feel the sadness in the youngest turtle's voice over the line. There was only so much they could do – so much she could do. "I'll try y best Mike."

"Thank you April." Mikey said. "I'll let you get back to work."

"I'll let you know if I hear anything Mike." April said, dotting the notes on a small notepad, underlining Macaster in big bold letters on the top. She glanced up as a woman entered the store. She wrinkled her nose when she saw the tan face.

"Thanks April." Mikey said right before he disconnected the line.

"Can I help you ma'am?" April asked, setting the shell cell back in her purse. She narrowed her eyes as the lady stared at her notepad. "Miss?"

The woman looked up at her with large hazel eyes. "Are you looking for Macaster?"

April's own green eyes widened. "Yes."

"I know where you can find him."


Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chap!

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