RIGHT LIBERATION

For a moment, I thanked the universe that turtles had no eyelashes. The handle of Raphael's sai was only a hair's width away from nudging my eye, before I ducked my head around and grabbed his thrusting wrist with my free hand to twist away.

"Told you I wouldn't take it easy on you." He grunted, jerking his heels to a stop. Flipping his lone sai to grasp it by the handle, he used the fist to block away the lunge of my katana as he fired a punch with the other. His knuckles landed in my palm with a clap, and our eyes locked as each arm struggled for control over the other's. Pushing like an unstoppable force against an immovable object, I was able to twist my sword free from the pincers of his sai to push his arm aside, but his free fist torqued my wrist inward and made me drop to my knees as he caught me in a hold. My face was trapped in the corner of my elbow as Raph danced around to wrap my forearm behind my head. I was completely immobilized, the room feeling a whole lot smaller as he practically pushed me through the concrete with his weight.

"Say it." He commanded. I mumbled into my own arm, and he slid his hold down so I was practically choking me with it. "Say it."

"You win." I croaked, unfurling from my bind and rocking back on my shell. Raph strutted away to hang his weapon up next to its twin and left the room, as Mike and Don rushed from the sides. I lied there on my back for a good few seconds, unaware of where I was, wheezing to catch my stolen breath and clutching my sides.

"You okay, L-Dawg?" Mike inquired, extending his hand down to mine and pulling me upright.

"Fine." I panted, folding at the waist and planting my palms on my knees. "Training's over."

"Raph, you can't just choke Leo out like that!" Donnie shouted out of the room.

"Sure I can." He hollered back, walking in with a blue and gold pack in one hand and a lighter in the other. "I had a lot riding on this bet. We agreed on the rules and shook on it, didn't we?" Pulling a cigarette out of the pack, he pressed it to his lips and set it ablaze. "And when ol' Fearless wants me to stop smoking in the lair, we can rematch and he can choke me out all he wants." Raph grinned victoriously and puffed the smoke out of his nostrils like a bull. "That is, if he's up to the challenge."

"That's no excuse to behave like a savage, Raphael. You could have snapped his neck!" Don nagged.

"Raph won fair and square." I straightened up and stretched my arms back over my head, struggling to think of what to say. "Just proves that we all could use some more left-handed practice. And that I'm still pretty out of shape. Got to cover all the weak points in our technique to get back up to speed."

"Don't blame yourself like that, Leo." Raphael's hand grasped my shoulder firmly. "I've been getting stronger when you were gone." Curling his arm to flex his bicep, his veins and tendons bulging through the skin. "Not much else to do all alone in the sewer."

"Yeah, we can tell, dude." Mikey playfully grasped the flexing forearm, eyeing it like a hungry wolf. "The whole vascular look is a telltale sign of someone who jerked it twelve times a day for a few months." Don and Mike couldn't contain their laughter, as Raph exhaled a thick cloud around Mike's head that turned his chuckling into green-faced coughing.

"Gonna be difficult to keep this look now that I've got you to take care of that for me." He grinned.

As Raph and Mike retired to the couch to play their video games, I trailed Don on the way to his lab. I sat down and crumpled slightly on his lab bench, as he spun his computer chair around to face me.

"You sure you're okay, Leo?" His worried gaze met mine.

"I'm fine. Just a still at little…out of it, I guess."

"That's what I'm referring to. This is the thirteenth time I've seen you like this in the two weeks you've been back."

"Like what?"

"Eyes all wide, short of breath, not speaking much, heart palpitations, zoning out…You haven't noticed?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's not a new thing. Even as a kid, I feel like this happened when I was scared or stressed out.

"But it must have gotten worse recently. Come on, Leo, we've lived together for twenty years, and the first time I can remember seeing that face was right when you left after Splinter passed. Since you've been back, it's mostly happened during training, meditation, and when you and I…spend personal time."

"You're right." I sighed, looking down and ruminating. "Sometimes, it feels like the world's just falling away, and my mind's the only thing I can sense. I just get consumed."

"Interesting. I've been looking into it quite a bit, and those symptoms practically confirm what I've been thinking."

"Confirm what?"

"It's a dissociative panic disorder. Your brain has a tendency to overload itself with information, which prevents it from processing what's going on around you."

"Sounds spot on." I noted.

"Well, that means I didn't waste money on these." He produced a small amber bottle, and the pills rattled inside as he lobbed it across the table to me. Rolling it between my fingers, I examined the label.

"These look strong, Don. I don't know about this…"

"I know how you feel about medicine, Leo, but herbal teas and meditation can only go so far. The amount of stress this condition puts on your body isn't good for you. Just look at how much sleep you've been losing. If putting one of these under your tongue when an episode starts is the best way I can stop you from having a stroke, or a heart attack, then will you at least consider it?" I mulled over his heavy words.

"What are they, exactly?"

"Sedatives, or anxiolytics to be more precise. It inhibits your neurons and helps your brain quiet down. Keeps you grounded in reality."

"Are they addictive?" I asked, and Don nervously scratched the back of his head.

"They can be…but mostly when used improperly. It wouldn't be responsible of me to medicate you without giving you therapy, too, and with those two combined I think we can work through whatever's giving you trouble. As soon as you're back in full gear, we can flush the rest away and never think about them again." I still had my misgivings, but there's no one in the world I trust more to do his research or care about me than Donatello.

"If it's what you think is best for me, I'll do it." I looked up, and he seemed relieved I wasn't putting up that much of a fuss. "Should I…take one now?"

"Are you still feeling tense?"

"A little, yeah."

"Try half of one, for starters. Never too sure how human medicine will work on turtles, so just snap it in two and tell me how you feel."

I pressed the cap down and gave it a twist. Pouring out a lone, dusty white pill into my palm, I broke it along the crease running down the middle and put half back in the bottle. I poked the fragment with my finger and stuck out my tongue, nestling it in the webbing underneath. Suddenly, my whole mouth tasted faintly like grapes or berries, and within seconds, the pill was gone. The tension in my jaw and temple, which I hadn't really noticed until then, seemed to dissolve away with the fruity flavor. My heartbeat started to slow to a reasonable pace.

"I feel…relaxed. My head's a lot quieter. Wow, that was fast." I blinked my eyes slowly, feeling like I just waded into a pool of slow-moving, imperceptible water. He scribbled in his notepad. Everything that had set me on edge seemed to be rolling off of me now.

"Then it's working exactly how I'd hoped." He smiled back at me. "Any drowsiness or headache?"

"Not really. It's a totally new feeling, but not drowsy so much as…tranquil?" He jotted another note. "Thank you, Donnie. It's great to be back on earth." I leaned across the table on my elbows, surprising him with a tender kiss on his lips.

"Great to have you back, too."

Thanks for the reads, yo!

From here on out, the whole "Noble Eightfold Path" theme is done.

That means, welcome to TNEP Section II: "The Soma Saga"!