Leonardo watched in the safety of the Shell-Raiser as trees passed quickly by in blurs. Leo tapped his fingers on the window-sill; he was getting impatient. Bishop had his baby brother. Bishop! Of all people! Who knows what kinds of experiments and torture he could be putting the poor child through.

He had allowed Donatello to take the wheel when the genius had declared that Leo was going to fall asleep at the wheel and needed some rest.

Which was the exact opposite of true. Leonardo was anywhere from tired. He was too wide awake with worry and anxiety.

It was only early night, but the stars were already shimmering brightly above them and the trees that were just on the edge of New York.

They had only been traveling for about three hours and had almost two more to go and Leonardo could fell the thickness of Mikey's boredom as the said turtle groaned and rotated in his seat. "Are we there yet?" Came the famous impatient question.

Donnie gripped the steering wheel tighter as he leaned forward and focused on the road. "For the billionth time, Mikey," He ground out through clenched teeth. "No."

Leo glanced back at Mikey from his seat on the passenger side and rolled his eyes when he saw Michelangelo completely upside-down, tangled in his seatbelt. Leo turned back around and glanced down at the map that he held to tightly in his tensed hands. They were heading for the place that Bishop had last kept them captive. It was horrifying. Having a man twirl a knife in front of your face and tell you all the ways he could use it on you. Leo remembered watching helplessly in his restraints as Bishop would approach each of his little brothers, smirking at them with such evil as he explained his dreams of dissecting them, testing them, and using the knowledge he would acquire to somehow help human kind.

Ninja were trained to stay perfectly calm in the face of danger, and that's what Leo and his brothers had done, with the exception of one of Raphael's snide remarks, or one of Michelangelo's petty nervous jokes. But Leo could tell that each of his baby brothers were terrified.

They had been trained and taught that the humans wouldn't accept them, and that bad things would happen if they were discovered, but none of their nightmares could have prepared them for Bishop.

How a three year old was supposed to handle this situation let alone all by himself, Leo didn't know, but he prayed that Raphael would be ok.

Leonardo suddenly became more panicked. He still couldn't get his mind wrapped around the concept that Raphael was three now, no longer a teen who could handle himself, but a kid who couldn't.

"Don, are we there yet?" Leo asked this time.

Donnie glared at Leo from the corner of his eye. "Why don't you tell me? You have the map!" He shot; the long hours of no sleep already prying at him.

Mikey sat up and leaned over the shoulder of the passenger seat so he could peer at the map that Leo held out. "Awww! Dude!" He whined and threw back his head, "We still have like, four bagillion hours left to go!"

Leo narrow his eyes, "Where do you think we're going?" He asked cautiously. Mikey leaned more forward and pointed at a random place at the map.

Leonardo shook his head and pointed to another spot on the map. "No, we're headed here." He explained, "And we're right here, now." He stated as he moved his finger to another spot.

Mikey grinned. "We only have, like, this much further to go!" He said excitedly, holding up his fingers and showing the measurement of the distance that the map showed, showing his brothers' the short distance they had left to go. He watched the front window patiently yet excitedly for a moment; his grin never leaving his face. "We should be there any time now…" He murmured as he watched the road carry on.

Leo placed his face in his hands and gave a small groan. "We'll be there in an hour, Mikey." He told. He knew Michelangelo wasn't stupid, that he was just trying to entertain himself and the others in the van, but it was getting pretty annoying.

Mikey groaned and threw himself back into his seat, making it spin slightly. It was silent for a moment when Michelangelo suddenly spoke up again. "Leo,"

"Yes Mikey?" He stated calmly.

"Your map is bogus."

Raphael gave a small yelp as he woke up from another nightmare. His body shook at the dream and he quickly glanced around, hoping to find one of his brothers to come and comfort him. Instead he found a large group of people in white rubber suits with yellow gloves. The helmets they had on hid their faces so you couldn't see them, but they could see you. To Raphael, these people were monsters.

A forced whimper escaped his throat as he watched one of them carry out a large pint of dark crimson blood. Another approached him with a large needle. "No! Let me go!" Raphael struggled against the restraints again; his huge eyes never leaving the needle.

The white suit monster hesitated when it saw the tears that streamed down the young terrapins face. It glanced at another white suit, who just nodded. It turned back to Raphael and then pressed the needle against Raph's skin. It injected the serum, pulled the needle back out, and then quickly turned away.

Raph bit his lip and forced the tears to stop. His big brothers' wouldn't have cried because of a little shot, so neither would he. No matter how scary they were.

He felt his eyes begin to drift close and watched as the white suits immediately began to talk and take notes. Raph clenched his teeth and growled. He would not fall asleep with all of these people still here.

He moved his glare between each of the white suits, letting each of them know his hatred towards them. He blinked and shook his head as everything around him began to fog.

A weird dizziness over swept him and his muscles began to relax. He blinked at them as the continued to take notes before closing his eyes. And soon, he was lost.

Splinter slowly opened the door to his second oldest son's room, only to meet with darkness. He opened the door wider, allowing light to flood the room. "Raphael?" He called out as he stepped into the room. "My Raphael, where are you?"

He was greeted with silence, but after a moment there was a small russel and Raph peeped out from underneath his bed. "'M right here, Daddy," He murmured as he rested his chin on his folded arms.

Splinter bent down and pulled the red-clad turtle the rest of the way out from under the bed. He then sat down and placed Raph down on his lap. "Why were you hiding my son?" Splinter asked.

Raphael folded his arms and glared at the ground. Splinter tilted his head and then placed a paw underneath Raphael's chin and lifted it; forcing eye contact. "What is wrong, my son?" He asked.

"I just didn't feel like playing with anyone anymore." Raph grumbled as he averted his eyes.

Splinter sighed. "Raphael, I would like the truth please." He moved his hand and placed it on Raph's carapace.

"How do you always do that?" Raph asked as he looked back up at his Sensei.

Splinter blinked, "Do what, my son?" He asked.

Raphael sighed and looked back down at his hands. "Tell that I'm sad." He mumbled. "I can always get away with lying with Donnie and Mikey, and even Leo. But you always catch me."

Splinter smiled slightly, "I am your father, Raphael, if I did not know when you were sad or lying, I wouldn't be a very good one." He paused, "And you should not be lying in the first place."

Raph leaned back into Splinter. "They were being mean." He told and waited to see if Splinter would say something, but when he didn't, Raph continued. "So I left." He bit his bottom lip as a few tears began to well up in his eyes. "I didn't want them to find me, so I hid under my bed." He sniffed, "They didn't even bother looking for me."

Splinter wrapped his arms around Raph, "My son," He coaxed, "Your brothers love you, they did not mean to hurt you. They probably did not realize they had."

Raph blinked, "Really?" He asked.

Splinter chuckled. "Really." Raph turned and hugged Splinter tightly. "Now go play with your brothers," Splinter said; breaking apart the hug, "They miss you."

"They do?" Raph tilted his head and raised his eye ridges.

Splinter nodded. Raphael smiled and squirmed out of Splinter's grasp and raced off to find his brothers.

Splinter smiled and then stood up from his knelt position on the floor. He walked out of Raphael's room and began to make his way towards the dojo for some very much needed meditation. He took a quick glance at the living room where the young turtle brothers' had already welcomed Raphael back into their group with an unfair tickle fight. Splinter shook his head with a chuckle and after a small mumbled, 'kids' he disappeared into the dojo.

Not much later, Splinter's ears twitched. He quickly pried himself out of the meditation that he had accidently let go to deep. His ears swiveled around as they tried to locate any source of sound; a whisper, a ruffle, a cough, anything!

Splinter immediately stood up and raced out of the dojo and into the living room where his keen eyes quickly scanned every inch of the small home.

Panic raced through the rat's heart. "Leonardo?" He called out; hoping that the small turtle would race out of his hiding place at the calling of his name.

"Raphael? Donatello, Michelangelo?" He called more furiously as he searched each room. His ears suddenly turned when a cry bounded off of the sewer tunnels, that would have been missed by a normal human's hearing, but wasn't by Splinter's sharp one.

Splinter didn't waste a heartbeat as he raced out of the lair and followed the distant cries of the son he knew was Michelangelo. His heart sank even further at the distance he was running, not only had his sons' disobeyed him and left the lair, but they traveled quite a distance.

He rounded a corner and only hesitated for a second at the scene that was presented before him.

Michelangelo was on the ground, his arm bleeding. He was crying and being very difficult to work with as Leonardo and Donatello tried to help him, both of them also crying as the continued to tell Mikey that 'everything was going to be fine,' or 'you're ok, you're ok.' Then in front of the group was Raphael, his arms outstretched in a protective manner as he blocked the path of a small white alligator. Tears streamed down the red banded turtle's face as he refused to lose eye contact with the creature.

The creature snapped its jaw and moved back and forth as if trying to decide the best way to get to the wounded turtle, or to just attack Raphael.

Raph growled when the gator snapped again, trying to decide if the small turtle was a worthy opponent.

"Go away!" Raph shot. The alligator took that at its cue to lung and was quickly mirrored as Raphael sprung on his feet, ready to attack the alligator and protect his brothers.

Raph gave a startled yelp when strong arms wrapped around his torso and brought him close. The alligator gave out a weird whine and took a step back as it gazed a Splinter, before finally booking it out of there.

Raphael failed his arms and legs as he tried to hit the new attacker, but was quickly stopped. "Raphael."

Raph froze and turned his head to see Master Splinter. The young turtle burst into tears and buried himself into his father's shoulder.

Splinter held the young turtle close, relived that he was ok. Relief quickly washed to anger. "What is going on here!?" He demanded. He softened his fierce gaze when he saw his sons' already shaking with fear; tears still flooding down their cheeks.

"W-we g-got attacked!" Donatello was the first to find his voice. "And M-Mikey got hurt!" He quickly added.

Splinter knelt down and set Raphael down, who quickly grabbed onto Splinter's Kimono sleeve. Splinter gently took Michelangelo's arm and examined it. "I will be able to help this at home." Splinter told gently.

He looked to Leonardo. "Why did you and your brothers leave the lair?" He asked.

Leo wrung his hands and stared at his feet. "We were hungry…" He gulped, "And there was no food in the fridge, so we went to go find some."

"Why didn't you come and get me?" Splinter questioned.

"We didn't want t-to make you mad." He stammered.

"I told you not to leave the lair, especially not by yourselves." He sighed.

"We're weally sowwy daddy!" Mikey chipped in with a sniff. His huge blue puppy dog eyes already trying to work their magic.

Splinter smiled and shook his head humorously before turning to Raphael; he pried him off of his kimono and placed him in his lap. "And what about you, Raphael?" He asked as Raph refused to make eye contact.

"He saved us!" Mikey managed to avoid his lisp as he bounced up and smiled at Raph, forgetting about his injured arm. "He wasn't scawed at all!"

Raph pushed himself deeper into Splinter's hold before burying his face into Splinter's robes. "You cannot jump into a fight like that, Raphael. It is very dangerous."

Raph squirmed for a moment, "I'm sorry," He mumbled through the robes. There was a small pause and a sniff from Raphael before he peeped his head out and looked up at Splinter. "He was askin' for it."

Splinter couldn't help but chuckle slightly. He placed a hand on the emerald turtles head. "That is still no excuse though, my Raphael." He concluded.

Raphael nodded and leaned back in Splinter lap. He looked at his frightened brothers as they watched him. "I'm sorry," He repeated, "I just wanted to protect my brothers." He said rather shyly.

"I know, and I just want to protect you," He declared. He placed Raphael back on the ground and gave a small smile. "Let us go home."

Raphael's eyes fluttered open. He quickly looked around. He was now in some sort of pet carrier. It had the bars in the front of the cage, but then the walls were all see-through plastic. The room he was now in was different to. Other animals, in similar and different cages were scattered around the grey and white room. Things barked and paced; each eyeing the young turtle.

"Daddy!" Raphael cried out when he didn't see anyone in the room he knew, or liked for that matter. Raph bit his trembling lip and moved to the front of the cage and gripped one of the cold bars. He slid his hand up and down the steel for a moment, letting the feel of it make the gut crunching feeling he had ease up a little.

He stopped when he noticed all of the marks on his arms. He switched his hand from the bar to his arm and slowly traced the dots on his arms. Needles. They had injected him with so many, and the thought made Raph shiver.

A large roar from another room made Raphael tumbled back in his cage. His eyes grew wide as another roar sounded, expect for a lot closer this time. He looked around his cage for some type of weapon or shield only to find a small water bowel bolted down to the bottom of the clear cage.

Animals began to screech and scream, others back to the back of their cages and whimpered as another huge roar shook the building.

The door burst open, earning Raphael's attention. Three white suits backed up into the room, large catch poles held in their hands and a giant tasers in their belts. On the end of the catch poles was the source of the roars.

It yanked and struggled against the catch poles, but was only rewarded with the tasers. Raph backed up to the back of his cage as he watched the three white suits, an alligator, and then five more white suits enter into the room.

The giant green alligator roared again as it lashed out at the white suits. It growled and roared again when it was met with more shocking. The gator's strong tail thrashed deadly around; tossing tables and smashing into walls. Its eyes seemed clouded over, white even, as it continued its struggle for freedom.

Raph whimpered. He quickly covered his mouth with his hands, hoping to take back the small scared noise. He shrunk back when the gators sharp hearing caught the small sound and it jerked its head towards the clear cage. Raph's eyes grew huge and he quickly covered his head with his arms.

The gator froze and blinked, its eyes cleared, showing them to be a dark yellow. It blinked again as it stared at the shaking turtle. Raph peeped his head out from underneath his arms and met the gaze of the fierce gator. They stared at each other for a moment, both out of per curiosity.

The gator tilted his head, before raising an eye ridge. "Raphael?"