Author's Note- Hey everyone! Sorry I took so long in posting this chapter! As a treat, you get 2 chapters tonight! Aren't you lucky. Anyways, I am all done school for the year, so updates should come more frequently. Here's your next tidbit!


Don pushed another cell open, only to find it was empty. Panting, he sprinted to the next door. Empty. Just like the next. But the door after that opened on something other than bare stone.

"LEO!" He screamed, because there was no logical thing to do. His brother lay in a limp heap, still except for his extremely shallow breathing. His eyes were closed, his skin covered in wounds, some festering, others oozing liquid, and still others seemed to be spreading blood poisoning through his body. His legs both lay at odd angles, clearly broken, and his wrists were both at least sprained. Bruising all over his sides and upper chest showed just how much damage the vivisection he'd endured had caused.

He was afraid to touch him, for fear of causing him more pain. He slowly, numbly, knelt beside his brother, taking in the needle marks on his biceps, all infected and bruised, and the deep bruise in the crook of his left arm, from numerous IV lines he'd been subject to. The injuries were all the more clear due to the emaciated state of his body. Most of his muscle mass had been converted into energy to keep him alive, in the absence of food and water.

"Oh, God, Leo-" He whispered, gently touching his brother's hand. He didn't stir.

"My son-!" Splinter's voice broke, as he entered the room, and knelt beside the prone body of his eldest child. He looked horrified; he couldn't bear the thought of his eldest having been through so much pain. Raph collapsed beside Don, a look that blended agony, rage, and sorrow transforming his features. Mikey just blinked repeatedly, obviously in shock.

"What do we do? Don, what do we do?" Raph whispered softly. Don quickly looked at the position of his brother's neck.

"I don't think there's spinal damage, a-and it's probably best if we sit him up. So he can breathe easier." Raph nodded, gently easing Leo's head and shoulders off the ground, leaning his brother's upper body against his own. His legs were jostled, despite Raph's careful movement, and Leo let out a quiet moan.

"Leo? Can ya hear me, bro?" Raph asked, very gently. Leo's body trembled, and the flush of his skin continued to deepen as his breathing became still weaker and more shallow. His eyes opened, just a little sliver. His normally brilliant dark blue eyes were dull. Dead.

"...Ra...ph..." He barely breathed it, his voice rough, as if he'd been eating sand for weeks.

"Yeah, bro, it's me. Donnie 'n Mikey 'n Sensei are here, too. We gotcha, bro." Raph looked ready to cry, though from sadness or relief, the others didn't know.

"...m...I...dead...?"Leo looked up at them, confusion clear on his face.

"No, my son. You are alive, and we are going to take you home." Splinter gently touched his eldest's forehead. Leo tried to shake his head.

"...no...the..cup...Shredder...poisoned..." Don frowned, looking around the room. A Japanese tea cup lay, cracked from a fall to the floor, to one side of the cell door. He picked it up, and sniffed the inside, his face paling.

"Don...?" Raph looked at his face, a growing fear in his gut.

"Bitter almonds. He poisoned Leo with cyanide. Potassium Cyanide." Don's voice shook with anger, disbelief, and pain. The shear injustice of the act made the young genius want to cry. "We need to get him out of here, and find a way to get the specialized treatment from a hospital." He looked back to Leo, who was clearly losing the fight to stay conscious.

"How long?" Raph whispered, looking between Leo and Don, whose face was a mask of pain.

"An hour at the most. Even that might be a little too hopeful. And it depends on how long ago the Shredder poisoned him, too." Don looked between his brothers and father, "Cyanide affects the brain, heart, and central nervous system. Time is everything."

"...I...it h-hurts..." Leo's soft whimper brought Raph's attention back to his big brother, whose face was contorted in pain.

"It's gonna be okay, Leo. You're gonna be okay." He gently ran a hand over Leo's cheek, wiping away tears that had mixed with blood from some of his cuts. A sudden explosion in the hall outside sent Don scrambling for the door.

"Vanessa!" He yelled, shock widening his eyes. The wolf girl was encased in shards of glass that were fusing together around her body, even as she struggled, and the glass exploded in places. Dokara, her hair and eyes unnaturally red, was covered in the remnants of a web of briars, her clothes torn to ribbons.

"Donnie, GO! Get OUT OF HERE! She's a Shade, she's too powerful! Get the others, and go!" Before Don could respond, the Shade, Dokara, let out a haunting, bloodthirsty laugh.

"They aren't going anywhere girl, and neither are you! All so full of pretty light. Except the broken one, but he's nearly faded. Your light will feed us for many years!" She pointed a finger towards Don, screaming out a word. A beam of red light shattered the stone wall right next to his head, even as he drew back with a yelp.

"Don?!" Raph shouted, seeing Don's terrified face. Don pointed behind him.

"We're in big trouble. Really big trouble."

"This is not a good time!" Splinter muttered, rising and moving to the door. He looked out, and then back at Don, "What can we do to aid Vanessa, so that we may leave this place?"

"She told me about Shades once. Uh, she said you can only kill one by stabbing it through the heart."Don peered frantically around the door.

"How the Shell are we supposed ta do that when she's firing laser beams at us?!" Raph growled softly, cradling Leo's head, as the eldest had slid back into unconsciousness.

"I don't-" Don was cut off by a massive blast of air whipping through the entire floor of the building. They were all thrown off balance, Raph curling protectively around Leo, as a booming voice screamed,

"DOKARA THECA, YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!" It was a male voice, one the three younger brothers and Splinter had heard once before.

"Is that-" Mikey started, as Don and Splinter looked around the door.

"It is Josh Nightlock. And he is very angry." Splinter murmured, looking on in amazement. The teen was floating, several feet above the ground, his eyes pure black. The containers holding the dead mutant, human, and animal bodies all began to shatter, and the bodies began to move, as if intent on avenging their own deaths.

"You killed my sister, drugged and enchanted me into your service, and tortured these souls until they died. Now, they will find their peace in your death." He glared at her, even as Vanessa broke free of her prison, "And so will I."

"Josh-" Vanessa whispered, looking up at him in awe.

"Get your family. Go. I'll make sure she can never harm another living thing." Josh raised his hands, and the dead picked up long shards of glass, and dragged themselves towards the Shade.

"NO! You cannot defeat me! I- I- aigh!" The Shade shrieked as she fought, clearly afraid of the vengeance being exacted on her. Vanessa raced to the cell Leo was in, and waved them all out.

"Time to go, guys! Window of opportunity, closing fast!" Raph gently lifted Leo's body off the ground, and he followed directly behind Vanessa as they raced for an exit. There was a terrible shriek from the lab, and they gasped as the Shade seemed to explode into a million shadows. Each one exploded in turn, sparking more, bigger and more violent explosions.

"We must hurry!" Splinter shouted over the noise, "This structure will not remain standing for much longer!"

"It will stand long enough, father of Leonardo!" Josh's voice rang out. The corpses, burning and missing pieces, were helping him to hold up a support column, and his power seemed to be replicating the effect throughout the building.

"Josh, the spell, it'll kill you!" Vanessa cried, clearly about to cry, "No one can hold a spell this big!" She shook Don's hand off her shoulder, and whispered, "Go. I'm right behind you." He nodded uncertainly, and ran after the others. "It doesn't have to end like this, Josh. You don't have to die!" He looked at her, through the flames that were springing from the Shade's explosive ending. He looked sad, guilty, and almost pitying.

"I'm a Necromancer, Vanessa. I'm no better than she was. And I have nothing left to live for. By helping you all escape, I can pay for some of the damage I did." He looked away, "Maybe I'll be able to find my sister when I cross over. Then she won't be alone."

"What was her name?" Vanessa asked softly, knowing that she didn't have time to ask the question, but doing it anyway.

"Bianca. Bianca Nightlock." He whispered, his body shuddering from grief, and the strain of the powerful spell.

'Joshie?' Josh, is that you?' A soft, stray thought brushed against Vanessa's mind as it streaked towards Josh. She felt the joy, pain, remorse, sorrow, everything that the two minds felt, and she felt peace in both of them, too. Josh looked at her, tears in his eyes. She felt Don screaming her name in terror; the building was going to collapse. They were safe, and she was not.

"We can still make it if we run!" She shouted to him. He nodded, and raised his hands towards the corpses, who turned towards him.

"The task is finished. Sleep, and be at peace, my friends. You did good." The corpses lost all animation, falling limply to the ground, as he sprinted alongside her, fleeing the building where his sister had been murdered, and where he'd avenged her death. They saw that the stairs were on fire, and silent agreement passed between them. They ran for the nearest window, and Vanessa shattered the glass with a spell. They flew into the sky, the thrill of gravity's pull sending adrenaline through their veins, even as Vanessa wove a spell around them to drift them ground-wards, and towards her family. Don ran forward, catching her in a tight embrace.

"If you ever do that to me again, I'll kill you myself!" His voice was choked; his older brother, dying, and his little sister inside a burning, collapsing building, was a little too much for him to handle.

"I daren't then. Leo...?" She looked towards the Battle Shell, parked a few feet away.

"Alive, but we need the medicine from the hospital-"

"I'll get it. And I'll leave money, so it isn't stealing." She shifted into wolf form, looking at Josh. He was watching the building burn, as if waiting for something. "You okay, Josh?"

"Yes. Just watching. I'll be alright, Vanessa. We all will." He looked at her, "Go. I've an idea of where I'm headed." She nodded, and took off running down the streets of New York, shimmering a little and becoming invisible before she was a block away. He turned slightly to look at Don, "Good luck with your brother." He bowed slightly, then walked off into the shadows. Donatello could have sworn he saw a little girl holding his hand.


So, whadda ya think? Read and review!

Nessa