Leonardo walked back in not long after Raphael had finally settled. Don jolted reluctantly from his doze and took the small bundle of medicine offered, studying his older brother with knowing eyes. Leo looked weary, but composed, and while there were no signs that he'd been in a fight … Don knew his brother too well.

'You found them.' he stated softly.

Leo nodded briefly, his eyes shadowed.

Don hesitated at that shuttered gaze, squeezing the package between his fingers tightly. 'Did you …?'

It hung unfinished between them until Leo met his eyes steadily.

'No. But anyone who sees him is going to understand what it means to harm one of us.'

Don nodded sadly. 'What did you do?'

Leo sat on the edge of his bed with a tired sigh, reaching forward to feel Raphael's forehead. The emerald turtle didn't stir, sunk deep in restless dreams.

'Leo?' Don prompted softly.

Leonardo closed his eyes briefly. He didn't want to answer. Didn't want to think about what he'd been doing these last hours.

'Please, Don. I just … I don't want to talk about it right now.'

Don studied the side of his elder brothers face for a long moment and then let the question slide. If Leo didn't want to tell him, there was a strong chance he didn't really want to know.

He busied himself preparing the antibiotics. Lifted from a doctors surgery somewhere nearby, or perhaps a vets.

'How is he?' Came the soft question.

Don pushed a syringe into the bottle of penicillin and withdrew a sizeable dose.

'I'm happy to report he woke up earlier and took some water.'

Leonardo's gaze shot to his, uncertainty and a trace of fear in his dark eyes. 'He woke? Don … you said there might be some damage … how did he sound?'

Don pushed air out of the syringe, finally able to offer a faint smile. 'He was confused and delirious, but he was talking. I can't be 100% sure until he wakes long enough to do some tests … but from what I've seen Raph's going to be okay, Leo. He just needs time and rest now.'

Leonardo's smile was tired but full of relief. His shoulders slumped.

'What did he have to say when he woke?' he asked.

Don injected the contents of the needle into Raphael's arm with proficient skill.

'You know, I think you're better off hearing it from him.' he said gently.

Leo studied Don's expression, then reached across to grasp his brother's arm.

'Don … about me and Raph.' he began awkwardly.

Don put his hand over his brothers and squeezed, his gaze steady.

'You and Raph have always been two sides of the same coin, Leo. I've been watching you two dance around each other for the last 18 years, so trust me when I say you don't have to explain anything. No matter what happens, we'll always be a family.' he sighed, his eyes dropping to Raphael's pale face. 'Just … do me a favour and convince Raph before something like this happens again.'

Leonardo read the sincerity in Don's eyes, the complete understanding and most importantly the lack of judgement and something within him eased.

'I'm going to need your help.' he offered. 'Mikey's too.'

Don snorted softly. 'He'll come around eventually ... even if we have to bash His-Royal-Stubbornness into submission.'

'I hope so.' Leo muttered wearily. 'Go get some rest, Don. I'll sit with him tonight.'

Don frowned, dumping the used needle into a bowl to disinfect. 'You've had no rest in 48 hours, Leo. I don't need two sick brothers at once.'

The eldest shook his head slightly. 'I know. I'm tired, but I just can't sleep right now. There's too much in my head. You can relieve me at midnight if you want.'

Don nodded and gave his brother's shoulder a final squeeze. 'Here.' He tossed a pot of something pungent. 'I mixed this up while I was waiting. It's one of Splinters herbal recipes for bruising. See if you can get to the worst of it. He's uncomfortable enough as it is.' The genius hesitated at the door. 'And Leo - if you need to talk later you know I'm here.'

Leo bowed his head in thanks and Don left quietly.

Unable to sleep, unable to tear himself away from the bedside, Leonardo found himself trapped with his own circling thoughts. For a countless time he rinsed the cloth and then lay it against burning flesh, sweeping sweat from flushed, taut muscles and leaving cool trails of water in its wake. In the grip of the fever Raphael burned, and though the torture was purely mental, Leo burned with him. He finally understood what it must have been like for them all, the day the foot had left him an inch from death, unconscious for days …

Those memories were too dark while the screams of one scrawny gang member still echoed in his ears. He didn't know if Splinter would approve of what he'd done, but their world was a harsh one. There was no room for mercy when the enemy outnumbered you by thousands. If scaring the life out of one skinny drug dealing lowlife was the cost of keeping those hostile thousands on the back-foot, it was a cheap price to pay. He felt a fresh prickle of cold, raw rage at what had been done to his brother and breathed deeply, letting the emotion pass.

Raphael mumbled anxiously, coughed and moved restlessly as he slept. Leo listened as he scooped thick fingerfuls of Don's unguent from the pot and began to smooth it over bruised muscles. There was a visceral relief in touching his brother. With his hands on Raph's skin he could drive away the image only hours old, of his brother's lifeless face.

Leo stopped when he came to the top of Raph's shoulder and encountered a long thin scar. It was only a week old and he was abruptly reminded of his role in bringing this whole nightmare to pass. He found himself playing with the raw knuckles of Raph's hand, running the event through his mind.

If only I hadn't lost control ...

It was amazing how clear the water had become.

Leo paused in his study of the drainage wall to just float for a moment. The channel was deep and the water easily covered his head. Cracks in the brickwork offered easy finger holds against the slow current that would have pulled him along.

Downstream the bricks faded into the watery gloom of the sewers. There was a corner or two and then the channel flowed into the open chamber of the lair. The opposite way was blocked with a complicated, but ingenious latticework of mesh and twisting metal threads.

Don's filtration grates were doing an amazing job. Water poured through the sieve-like filters, constructed to help keep animals, junk and sediment out of the water that washed straight into the lair. The genius had outdone himself, using methods and materials that boggled the mind to create these six special grates. They had been making changes in the surrounding sewers as well, rerouting drains that tended to bring an excess of filth and rubbish, limiting the incoming water to that which was cleanest.

It was already clean enough to swim in without fear and with a few more days of flushing the water flowing through the middle of the lair would be good enough for washing. The thought of being able to swim in summer was tantalising. They'd never had a safe, deep source of water before - not one that wasn't loaded with rubbish and the odd dead rat.

Raph had been helping him install the grates as fast as Don could pump them out. He felt proud of what they'd accomplished. Splinter had been gone for a year and instead of falling apart as he'd feared, their small family had only grown closer. The experience of losing their father had aged them all. Maturity had come at a high cost, but as his father had often taught them ... death is inevitable. Change is inevitable. Often painful, but necessary.

There was only one thing that hadn't changed for the better ... his relationship with his volatile brother.

Raphael was ... confusing, frustrating, aggravating and stubborn. Nothing was ever easy with him, but lately it had been getting worse. No matter how patient he was, or how hard he tried to get closer to his brother ... the distance seemed to yawn between them. Sometimes he could feel the amber gaze following him, the weight of it like a caress against his skin. The sexual tension was a living force, charging the air between them with an energy he could feel tingling on his skin, in the rush of his blood ... and yet every time he tried to acknowledge the attraction his brother's walls came up and he retreated.

One step forward, two steps back. He had absolutely no idea what was going on behind those golden eyes anymore.

Days like today when the emerald turtle was in a good mood were to be savored.

There was a sudden explosion of bubbles and Leo flinched as Raphael's shell skimmed past, the boom from his bombdive almost deafening. He grinned at his brother underwater and Raphael turned, his laugh muted but obvious. The wicked pleasure in that grin left a warm feeling in his belly, because Raph's smiles seemed few and far between these days.

Leo watched Raphael swim to the other wall and run his hands along the brickwork and cement. When he turned to nod, the bandanna tails were swept across his face and he pushed them aside in annoyance. They surfaced and began making preparations, working together to maneuver the huge heavy grate into the water. It would sit flush with the floor and about two feet higher than the water line once they had bolted it into place.

Maneuvering it was a difficult job. The water pushed against it, making it hard to place. They had a hard time holding it while they secured the edges.

Raphael swore as he bobbed to the surface after completing his end.

'What's wrong?' Leo asked him.

Raphael craned his head back awkwardly. 'Some kinda metal wire down there sticking out of the brickwork. Caught my shoulder.'

Leo moved towards him. 'Let me see.'

Raphael held onto the mesh of the filter as Leo turned him, exposing a long shallow cut just behind the ridge of his brother's shoulder.

Leo shook his head. 'It's not pretty but it isn't deep. You won't need stitches.'

Raph breathed a sigh of relief and went to move, prevented by Leo's hand on his shoulder.

'What?'

Leonardo didn't say anything, he felt strange. The needs he'd been trying to smother were tangling together, vying for dominance over his fast-cracking self control. The water surging around them felt good … a sensual caress against his skin … the heat coming through the water from his brothers body felt even better. The skin beneath his hand was wet, the muscles like liquid steel beneath the skin. He put pressure on Raph's shoulder and in the water it was enough to swing him around.

Facing him now, Raphael frowned, gripping the mesh lightly with one hand.

'You feelin' alright bro?' he asked, cocking his head slightly.

Leo found himself swaying closer, unable to tell wether it was the water or his own movement. Raphael considered him with unfathomable golden eyes. Water dripped down his jaw, trickling down the curves and ridges of his neck and shoulders, tracing emerald skin with slick droplets.

A tightness coiled in Leonardo's belly, warmth flushed him. He wanted … he wanted to lick those droplets off, he realised with sudden hunger. He wanted ...

'Leo … what are you doin?' Raphael demanded softly, a little wary.

Leo shook his head slightly, he didn't know, his heart was starting to hammer. His body was roaring at him, his blood thundering. Maybe if it had happened more slowly, Raph would have reacted and shoved him away. Maybe.

As it was, his brother's shocked curse was smothered by Leo's mouth as it captured his own, his shell hitting the grate with enough force to rattle the frame. His open mouth gave Leo access to more … hot, powerful tongue sliding into that inviting warmth and anything else Raphael might have said melted into a shocked moan against Leo's lips.

Leo pressed closer, hungrily, well and truly pinning his brother and groaned faintly at the first hot thrust of tongue against his own. The kiss ignited between them, a ragged, breathless melding of tongues and lips and hot gasped breath. Raph's free hand came up to pull him even closer, his fingers bruising and possessive on the back of Leo's neck. A demanding throbbing sound rumbled low in Leo's throat and the lust only rose, driven by an answering rumble vibrating through his brother's chest and the soft growls of need against his tongue ... sounds of pleasure he'd never heard before.

'Raph …' His brother shivered at the soft whisper against his lips. Leo could taste him, drinking in every sound and scent. Pulling back to absorb the total change of his brothers face … flushed and heavy-lidded with need, panting. Leo groaned at that expression, his cock rock hard and aching to be released and ran his tongue along satin flesh, already addicted to the sharp intake of breath his attention could elicit. Leo pressed the aching pressure against his brother's pelvis, throbbing as Raph pressed into him with a faint groan, his breath hitching and his jaw clenched. Leo found himself smiling against the emerald green neck, deliberately pushing their hips together again, rewarded by an almost helpless moan that made him throb with heat. He slipped his arm around his brother's neck, starving for more, dragging him in for more drugging kisses.

For a few heart-pounding moments, he held his twin in his arms and felt the heat roar between them, submerged in the sensations and the aching joy of finally breaching those walls … he wanted … he needed Raph so badly he couldn't even think anymore.

'L-Leo, wait.' It was a rough whisper, barely audible over the water, but it froze him in the act of trying to nudge his brother's knees apart.

No ... he didn't want to stop, couldn't stop … he'd wanted this for so long.

Leo bit down on his brother's neck, pushing his aching pelvis against the answering bulge beneath Raph's plastron.

The red clad ninja groaned and drew a shuddering breath.

'Dammit Leo, we can't.' he whispered raggedly.

Golden eyes dilated and sagged shut again when Leo's hand slid between them. Leo scratched his nails lightly over the soft cartilage opening between Raph's thighs, already beginning to stretch with the growing pressure straining just beneath it, hot even through the water.

Then he was being shoved away roughly, hard enough that he lost his grip on the mesh and he was forced to swim for the edge or be swept downstream by the slow current.

Raphael glared at him briefly before levering himself smoothly out of the water.

'Raph, wait.' Leo called in frustration. 'I'm sorry - I just ... can we please talk about this?'

Raphael stood for a long moment, dripping, every line in his body screaming with tension, and then he shrugged roughly and walked away, without looking at him or replying.

Leo watched him go, breathing hard, confused by the unsatisfied ache of his lust and the despair of once again having his twin turn away. His scream of frustration was swallowed beneath the slow waters.

The first time he'd taken things too far … and yet rather than make him feel ashamed it had filled him with hope, because Raph had been responding and he'd tasted the hunger that matched his own. Why? Why couldn't they move past this strange dark place they'd found themselves? Lying in his bed at night was even worse because he could replay those low sounds of pleasure … muffled moans and the way his brothers face looked softened with need, eyes molten with a fire he wanted to taste, needed to touch.

Raph had been avoiding him ever since, refusing to talk it through and he'd done his best to apologise … and it had only led to the dark, bitter fight that triggered this entire mess.

Leo, we can't. For the first time Leonardo wondered at those particular words. Not, I don't want to or Get off me. Just ... we can't.

He slipped into a restless dose, only to be shaken awake what felt like only seconds later. He blinked, shot a glance at the clock: 1am.

Michelangelo stood there a little awkwardly, his gaze flicking from Leo to the fevered, sweating figure in the bed.

'Mikey? Where's Don?'

'Dude, he was so exhausted he didn't even hear the alarm he set himself.' His little brother's head dipped, his eyes falling in shame.

'I .. I feel like a total dick. You guys haven't left Raph's side and all I've done is hide in my room.'

Leo stood, stretching the kinks in his neck and pulled Mikey to him. The youngest gripped him tightly unable to suppress a faintly pathetic sniffle.

'Leo … m sorry. I just … couldn't get it outta my head that Raph might .. y'know. I just … couldn't deal with it bro. I'm sorry I let you down.'

Leo clutched him tighter, guilt piercing him. 'It's okay, Mikey. We were all scared. It's not easy to see him like this.'

'Lucky Raph's indestructible right?' Mike offered a watery smile. 'Donnie said he's gonna be okay once he gets over this fever.'

Leo turned his gaze on Raphael's grey face and nodded, but indestructible was not the word he would have chosen.

'If Don says so then I believe it.' he said softly.

Mike pushed away and wiped his face with a quick snotty sniff, his eyes determined.

'Well, I got it now bro, go get some real sleep.'

Leonardo hesitated at the door, torn between the rest he badly needed and the vital urge to see Raphael open his eyes before he let himself sleep properly.

Mike clinched it by looking up at him. 'Leo, dude, seriously. You're almost as pale as Raph right now. You aren't gonna be much good to us if you get sick as well.' His eyes were serious. 'You know he's gonna be trying to move around as soon as he wakes.'

Leo bowed his head with a faint smile. 'The hothead that never learns.'

Mike smiled seriously. 'Yeah, but he's our hothead.'

Leo found the energy to laugh softly and closed the door quietly behind him, making for Don's room.

Raph's hammock would only trouble him with its scents and swaying and Mikey's room was a mess. He peeled off his gear and settled next to the exhausted genius. The feel of the pillow beneath his head was a luxury unto itself.

Don barely stirred as he was tugged, limp and sleepy, into his brother's arms. Leo tucked the olive beak beneath his chin and finally allowed himself to breathe more deeply, soothed by the knowledge that at least one of his brothers lay safe and protected within his reach.

Sleep came quickly, wrapped in the lulling comfort of Don's scent, sinking into dreams and memory, golden eyes and the echoing cries of two boys, twins, still chasing and wrestling, laughing and running the tunnels of his past.

The next day at noon, Raphael finally stirred with a faint groan of misery.

Leonardo jarred from his light meditation on the floor and moved to sit in the seat by the bed. Dull amber eyes focused on him with difficulty and then a confused frown crawled across his brothers face.

'Leo?' he slurred.

'Hey, Raph. How are you feeling?' Leo's heart surged on a heady mix of relief and elation at meeting that golden gaze once again, clouded but coherent.

Raphael turned his head groggily, taking stock of his situation and the fact he was in Leo's room with a grimace of displeasure.

'Like I w's hit by a damn train. Chest feels bad …' he rasped unhappily.

'Don says it's Pneumonia.'

Raph closed his eyes again, clearing his throat of mucous with a pained wince. Despite the shadowed smudges under his eyes his colour was looking better and his temperature was finally down, the fever breaking a few hours earlier. Leo could be thankful for small mercies. For all the extra damage he seemed to take, Raph made up for it by healing at a rapid rate. Even the bruising on his arms was beginning to fade though it was clearly still painful.

'Must be. Feel like crap.' he growled a little stronger, but the words set off a thick round of coughing and Leo offered him some tissues. The emerald turtle proceeded to hack up a lung, or what sounded like one, before sagging back into the pillows with a gasp of pain.

'Thirsty?'

Raph nodded, turning toward the proffered cup awkwardly. He didn't even complain about the straw, just drank greedily until it was all gone.

He panted for a second and then coughed again. 'Damn, still thirsty.' he rasped.

'You've been out of it for the last two days. You're pretty dehydrated.' Leo offered him a refill and Raph drained that as well, finally slumping back into the pillows as if the effort had exhausted him.

'Two days?' Raph made a slow, awkward attempt to sit up and froze in the act with a low hiss of pain. His shoulder and upper bicep was bound firmly with a layer of thick bandages to protect the stitching underneath and support the damaged muscles and ligaments.

'Crap …' he touched his shoulder gingerly, frowning in confusion. 'Wha happened to m' arm?'

'You sliced it pretty deep. You're going to need a sling for a week or so.' Leo hesitated, Don had said that Raph might be a little 'out of it' when he finally woke. 'Raph, what's the last thing you remember?'

The emerald turtle raised his good arm with a wince, fingers brushing the gauze padding on the back of his head. 'You an me.' he muttered. 'Fightin'…'

Leo nodded, his expression carefully neutral.

'I lost my head an ran off.' Raph remembered, eyes moving as he thought back, trying to clear the fog in his pounding head.

'I … somethin' … the docks … I was at the docks and there were - ' he frowned and then his eyes snapped wide in shock. 'Shit! I… those - Sonovabitch!'

Leo watched a multitude of emotions crawl across Raphael's face, watched his fists bunch in the sheets and placed a warning hand on his brother's good shoulder.

'Careful.' Leo moved to sit on the bed, preventing him from struggling into a sitting position. 'Raph, calm down or those stitches will tear.'

Raphael looked up at him wildly, remembered terror and rage shining from pupils turned pinpricks and then clenched his eyes shut tightly.

'How did ya find me?' He demanded raggedly, breathing hard.

'Don's tracking chip in your shell remember?' Raph frowned and then nodded tightly.

Leo kept his hand on the warm plastron beneath him, felt the rapid thudding against his fingers and lost some of his composure.

'We almost lost you Raph.' His voice was soft, dangerously low and tight in his throat. Golden eyes shot to his. 'I pulled you out of the water and you weren't breathing … Don couldn't get a heart beat. We thought you were dead!' the savage statement lost strength as his voice cracked unevenly.

'Thought I was too, bro … I … damn-' Raph choked and turned his head away, trying to hide behind the back of his hand, but he wasn't able to stop the tears that leaked down his face or the harsh sob that hissed through his clenched teeth.

Leo slid his hand along shuddering breastplate to cradle his brothers neck firmly, forcing those eyes back to his own, his gaze searing.

'What the hell were you thinking?' he demanded harshly. No matter how angry you are at me you know better than to tangle with the dock gangs on your own. Were you trying to get yourself killed?'

'What? No! It wasn't like that.' Raph insisted harshly, trying to pull away.

Leo ignored the resistance, his eyes blazing. 'Then explain to me how this happened! Why I had to pull your body from the harbour and Don and Mikey had to watch me fall to pieces because I thought you were dead!'

Raphael's face twisted with raw emotion and he trembled in Leo's grip. The eldest read the beginnings of panic there and released his brother abruptly, drawing back before the frustration and residual fear could escape his faltering control.

For an endless minute they wrestled with their emotions. Leo wanted nothing more than to drag his brother into his arms and show him exactly how scared he'd been, but their last words before all this happened had left an aching wound - as painful in the healing as in the making. He swallowed hard, struggling desperately to contain himself.

'M' sorry, Leo. I screwed up.' A ragged whisper, hesitant.

There was a long tense silence.

'Do you hate me, Raph?' The words cut the atmosphere into a bleak wastleland, sliding past his lips before he could stop them.

Raphael blinked in shock and Leo stared at his own trembling hands, clenching them into fists against his knees. And then his brother was gripping his arm tightly - lacking his usual strength but still hard enough to mark. Leo found himself grasping those fingers blindly and closed his eyes at the contact, using it to push down the thick sob that wanted to claw its way through his throat.

'Leo. Don't ever think that.' Raph whispered roughly. 'You know … ' he faltered and Leonardo's grip tightened possessively as silence swelled around him, his entire being focused on his brothers next words. Raph drew an unsteady breath. ' … you know how I feel about'cha, an it ain't hate. Not even close.'

Leo shuddered, something bittersweet seeping through his chest that only strengthened with the fierce eyes that met his own, pained and sad, but honest and full of something Leo hadn't seen in years … he reached out carefully, afraid that the slightest wrong move would chase that fragile spark away, and touched his brothers face gently.

'Raph … we have to talk about this. About you and me.' he said softly.

He expected a denial, anger, a dozen reactions other than what he was looking for. Instead his brother gave him a tired look, his gaze serious and steady.

'Yeah, we do.' Raph said quietly and then grimaced, pulling back to cough thickly. 'Not now though … feel like crap.' he mumbled.

Leonardo felt something coiled and hard in his chest ease. Relief swept through him like a sweet drug. Despair to rising hope with just a few words. Only Raph had ever been able to do this to him. Confused but hopeful, he smiled cautiously and cleared his throat of all its choking tension. 'I'll get you some painkillers.'

Raph's hand snaked out and grabbed his again.

'I'm fine. Leo … I don't - I don't wanna be alone.' Embarrassed, his brother dropped his eyes uncomfortably, but his grip only tightened.

Leo studied amber eyes, strained with pain and haunted by a lingering shadow and sank down into the chair next to the bed.

'Don't you know by now that I'll always be here?' he said softly.

Raphael smiled faintly, his eyes sagging shut, dark and shadowed with exhaustion. 'I count on it.' he mumbled. Utterly drained, he was asleep in moments.

Leo sat watch until Mikey came to relieve him a few hours later, all but driven from the room and ordered to eat. As he passed the living room he paused to turn off the televisions the youngest had left running.

A reporter shuffled her papers and regarded the camera with solemn eyes.

'The police are looking for any information regarding a suspected gang assault and mutilation that occurred in the early hours of the morning on the east-' Leo hit the remote and the screens flickered and died.

He walked to breakfast with unreadable eyes, his face a clear calm mask.

Gracie Square Hospital, Manhattan
Ward 5
Dangerous Patients Wing

The two orderlies at Gracie sipped coffee as they did the morning rounds, the veteran showing his new coworker around. It was always fun breaking in the newbies and giving them the grand tour. They called it 'The Freak Show'. A psychologists wet dream from one cell to the next where the scale of freaky went from unbalanced to deranged, demented to psychopathic. Some people might have had an issue with the attitude of the younger staff towards their patients, but it was an inside joke that you either worked with a sense of humour or risked going … well y'know … nuts. Ivan Delahunty worked on that premise.

'You're going to just love this next guy.' he waved the clipboard teasingly. 'They brought him in a few days ago. A bunch of his gang friends dumped him at a hospital downtown, screaming and covered in blood, butt-nekkid.'

His partner slurped his coffee doubtfully. 'Ok, wierd, but it sounds more like attempted homicide than mental case.'

Ivan slapped the clipboard against his partners chest. 'I know right? Apparently he's some drug dealer from down in the bronx, but get this … guy had some crazy fucker attack him … carved a message in Japanese on the guys chest. Police think it was some kinda' retaliation. Poor bastard had a complete nervous breakdown and tried to kill himself in the hospital so they shipped him out here.'

They walked up to a plain door marked 135 and peered through the meshed glass into a plain room where a scrawny man rocked and cringed, muttering to himself incessantly. One side of his face was patched with thick gauze.

'Check out the pics.' Ivan flipped up the top pages of the file, revealing a set of police shots.

'This is … kind of fucked up.'

'You don't know the half of it. They think he had some kinda heated blade used on him. Sliced him up like he was carving a pumpkin. Instant scarification. Must've hurt like a fuckin' bitch.'

His partner flinched and turned the file, staring at the angry red lines carved with precision down the man's torso. 'So what's the message say?'

Ivan shrugged. 'Basically? 'Don't fuck with us.' Or at least that's what the Japanese psych assistant reckons. And get this … every incision is perfect. Depth into the dermis completely even on every slice like a goddamn surgeon. Whoever caught him was a professional that's for sure.'

'What about that one on his face?'

Ivan snorted and took back his clipboard. 'That's the fucking wierd part. It means 'turtle' in Japanese. Just like signing a letter - only thing is, the guy claims a 'giant walking turtle with a katana' did this to him.'

'Damn.'

'Tell me about it. I swear these guys get loopier every year.'

'What's he saying?'

'Something about the 'shadows' and 'monsters'. Just don't turn off the lights in his room or he'll scream the whole place down.'

Ivan pushed his curious partner onwards toward the next titillating stop on the conveyor belt of cracked, and so neither of them noticed the security camera within the cell do a slow rotation, coming to rest on the rocking inmate with a soft whine of lense adjustment.

Across the city, Donatello zoomed the tiny screen on Ajax's face, wincing at the sunken cheeks and paranoid darting eyes. He hadn't known what to expect ... but this ... the patient reports are like stones, each piece of information adding to the dense mass sitting in the pit of his stomach.

It isn't like Leo to do something this … cold. The calculated brutality is disturbing on multiple levels and it's suddenly clear to him how close they may have come to losing not one, but two brothers.

A shadow has been growing behind Leo's implacable gaze for some time now … since Splinter's death the eldest had been doing his best to cope and move them all forward but the cracks were finally starting to show.

Donatello sighed. Nothing would change unless someone brought some clarity to the mess his brothers had made of things and Splinter wasn't around to provide that wisdom anymore.

They were all flying blind.