AN: Part two begins with a "just over 2 weeks" time skip. In my notes it's been 17 days, so just over half a month. This chapter was frustrating, I wanted soooo bad to write from Mikey's PoV, but I didn't do it. Please let me know if this chapter is confusing. I utilized the "Raph's knees" headcanon in this one.

Welp, enjoy!

Triangle part 2

Chapter 9

The impact on his shell knocked him forward a pace, and in retaliation Raph launched into a spinning kick to counter his foe behind him. His attack didn't connect as anticipated, and he managed to focus his vision long enough to watch the chain wrap around his ankle as he fell into the trap. Off balance, he his feet were pulled out from under him and his body was slammed shell first to the floor. He knew he'd have less than a second to act, and quickly rolled to his stomach and brought his feet under him in a crouch. As he leapt away for the dodge, another loop of chain caught his other foot, causing him to trip up for a second time, slamming back down face-first with a grunt. The sound of metal whirling above him caused him to lift himself up on his arms for a look. A very smug face was gazing down at him.

" Looks like this time I win!" Mikey proudly swung the scythe around on its chain once more, switching it between hands. " Looks like you're just too slow for the - woah!"

With Mikey distracted by his speech, Raph used the opportunity to swing his legs out, simultaneously freeing himself from the entanglement and manipulating the chain into his grip. He skipped to the side and swung the chain over top of his brother. With a sharp yank he attempted to cause the smaller turtle to trip. With a backflip and a smirk, Mikey easily dodged the chain like it were a jump rope, reaching down to get a better grip on the chain mid-flip. With Raph holding the other end of the chain, Mikey wasted no more time in rushing in for the attack, scythe held to the side as he closed in.

Dropping the chain in favor of his sai, Raph also dashed towards his brother. Flipping his weapons as he got in close, he hooked them through the links in the chain and, using Mikey's own momentum against him, pulled the smaller turtle up over his shoulder and smashing him to the ground.

With a groan, Mikey rolled to his side, bringing a hand up to his bandaged temple as he winced at the dull pain, " Dude, seriously." Accusing eyes shot upwards at his brother, " You did that on purpose."

" Uh, yeah." Raph rolled his shoulders. " Next time try dodging, shell brain."

"Sorry to interrupt." An irate looking Donnie stood at the edge of the dojo, observing the fight. His right arm bore bandages up to the elbow, and was tied firmly across his body in a sling. His left wrist was still bandaged, but not nearly so heavily. "I've finished updating the tracker. There is something I think you guys should see."

Three pairs of eyes followed the blinking dots from the tracking program on Donnie's computer screen. "This was just over two weeks ago, after the ambush." Donnie began, speeding up the movement of the dots by pressing a key, three of the dots were at the lair and a violet one off in the distance. Using his left hand to press the buttons, he zoomed in on the lair "Leo returned to the lair and stayed the day, but spent most of it with Mikey, or pacing the dojo. At some point he went to my computer and activated the tracker." Donnie reached up and scratched his cheek stiffly. " I don't know how he found out about it. I never told anyone."

When Raph shrugged that he didn't know either, Donnie continued, "You and Leo left towards the house I was being held captive in" The red and blue dots left the lair for some distance. "You two stopped halfway for some time and then returned to the sewers." he zoomed in and pointed to the two dots as they began to dance around in abandoned subway tunnel in a frenzy. " I assume this is the part where you and Leo decided on whether or not you were doing the exchange?"

Raph looked away awkwardly, " Kind of."

Donnie blinked, "Your fight lasted over twenty minutes, it had to have been a least somewhat important."

Raph crossed his arms, "We ran into an enemy messenger while we were on our way to save you, he had some kind of offer for Leo. I told him he couldn't do the exchange, but he was so hell-bent on switching places. We argued on the rooftop about it and then he set up the exchange anyway. We came below after that."

A dark emotion crossed Donnie, and he stuffed it to the back of his mind, trying to focus "And then?"

With a frustrated sigh, Raph continued, " I told Leo he couldn't go, even if I had to knock his brains out and drag him home. You know what he said?" Raph threw his arms out," That as the leader he didn't need anyone's permission to do anything!"

Donnie leaned forward as realization hit, " You were fighting him for leadership." He concluded.

Raph nodded, " Yeah, and I won too. He just looked at me and smiled. Told me that everyone would be in good hands while he was gone and then ran out to go play hero." he finished bitterly.

Donnie nodded, letting the subject drop, bothered by what he had heard. Raph hadn't wanted to save him if it meant sacrificing Leo. It made sense, but for some reason it still hurt. A pang of guilt stabbed through him and Donnie again shoved his feelings aside, feeling selfish. He returned his gaze to his computer and continued, " Anyways, after we...exchanged, they took Leo back to the house I was being kept at." As he sped things up a bit more on his computer to catch up with the discussion, " Leo somehow travelled from the house very quickly. Judging by how he moves through the buildings, he was either flying, or below ground. He stops right here, out in the ocean. That's where he is right now."

Mikey, who had seemed to have spaced out throughout the conversation and had become mesmerized by the blinking dots suddenly blurted out a question, "Where did Raph go?" His finger pointed to the screen, showing Raph's dot blinking some distance from the lair. "See? Right here."

Donnie zoomed in, backing up the tracker's log a bit and watching as the dot left the lair. "This was when Raph left with Master Splinter, while I was still unconscious. They had a discussion right here and then parted ways." Donnie's eyes blinked thoughtfully. "You still haven't told us where he's gone to."

Raph shifted his footing. Their Sensei's absence made dealing with the loss of Leo that much more difficult. "He didn't say. We had a talk and he just told me he had to go somewhere and he'd be gone a few days."

Mikey tilted his head, " What kind of things did you talk about?"

"None of your business!"Raph turned away and crossed his arms defiantly, not taking any more probing; keeping his secrets.

Donnie tapped at his lip, " I think I know where he went." he said thoughtfully. At the inquisitive glances from his brothers, he expanded upon his thoughts, " A while back I asked Sensei a bit more about the day we were mutated. Whenever he tells us about it he always ends at the part where we become mutants. He never tells us what happened immediately after." Donnie shifted in his chair in thought, " He didn't want to talk about it, but eventually he mentioned that he had tried to flee after his mutation, not wanting to still be there if his attackers came back."

"So he just left us there by ourselves?" Raph interrupted.

Mikey wilted a little, "That's harsh dude."

"He probably didn't know what was going on, it happened so sudden, right?" Donnie shrugged, "That's probably why he doesn't like to talk about it. Anyways, it was still daylight, and he didn't want people to see him so he ducked into the sewer. While he was climbing down," Donnie bit his lip thoughtfully, holding back a small smile, " Four baby mutant turtles tumbled down after him. It was pretty far and they injured themselves. One of them broke both of their knees in the fall."

Raph lowered his gaze. "That was me." he muttered, his fingers subconsciously tracing the top of his extra knee wrappings.

Donnie nodded. " We were confused, and afraid. Leo also broke his arm in the fall. It would have been an understatement to say we were completely helpless. Splinter saw that right away and decided to help us, realising we were in the same situation." Donnie's eyes lost focus as he visualised the situation, " We were injured and could barely move, so he couldn't take us very far. So instead of moving us to a lair," Donnie leaned back in his seat, " He did what rats do. He built a nest."

" Raph, can you hear me?" The headset buzzed to life as Raph flipped to the next rooftop. Donnie's static distorted voice rang through , but possessed enough clarity to at least be understood.

" Yeah, what's up?" Raph motioned to Mikey before slowing to a stop. While the two of them were topside to begin their rescue mission, Donnie had remained in the lair, being their technical eyes. Raph had the portable tracker on his wrist as well, but it made things simpler when someone was keeping an eye on things and directing them; they didn't know what to expect. Nearly at their destination, Donnie wanted them to go over the plan before entering the house.

"There should be some sort of passageway underground beginning from the house. I suspect it may be in the master bedroom, that's where the higher ups were hanging out." Donnie's voice crackled through. " Avoid confrontation, you'll need your energy to escape once you've found Leo."

Raph grunted into the headset, " Yeah. Fine." He muttered. " I'm going in."

Inside the house was a bloodied mess, but that isn't what had Raph on high alert. There were no guards. The house was empty, and completely abandoned Entering the master bedroom, they began tearing it apart, looking for clues. The room was empty for the most part, and after a thorough search turned up nothing, Mikey left the room to search the rest of the house, while Raph continued to examine the walls.

Donnie was little help, his tracker couldn't zoom in well enough on the house's structure to determine which room Leo left from. Raph was reduced to feeling the walls for hidden switches and removing pictures from their hangings. After removing a too-heavy family portrait with no luck, he threw it aside and it slid across the floor. In frustration he placed his hands and forehead to the wall where the dresser had been before he had shoved it aside, trying to force himself to think.

He didn't look up at the sound of door hinges squeaking didn't look up at the sound of glass breaking as Mikey's foot came down on top of the too heavy picture frame. He didn't look at the sound of the frame being picked up from the floor.

"There's a button in this picture!"

The sound of Mikey discovering something brought his head up, and at soft sound of a click as his brother pushed the button, Raph tried to push himself from the wall to go have a look. Only, the wall was no longer there. As the surface slid away to the side and Raph fell off-balanced and slid down a steep flight of stairs leading underground. He smacked head first into a wall as the stairs changed direction. Sitting up on the landing with a groan, he turned his gaze back to the top of the stairs, where Mikey stood at the entrance.

" Tell Donnie I found it!" Mikey's gleeful voice echoed down the stairway.

Someone was following him. The past few minutes he had been aware of it as he made his way through the halls, and had been carefully counting steps, breaths, and heartbeats. His timing needed to be perfect, failure to do so would result in a world of pain before he'd be able to recover. Another breath, another heartbeat. One more step.

Leo was halfway through a stride when the tell-tale misstep of his follower alerted him to their intentions. In a heartbeat he dropped to a low crouch, feeling a breeze as the kick sailed over his head. With a spin, he used his own foot to knock his opponent down before skipping back several paces to distance himself. Instead of countering his attack, like expected, the attacker just lifted themself on to their elbows to glare at him through dark curls.

"What do you want?" Leo paced back over to Odette, who remained on the floor. Over the past two weeks he had been in captivity, the sheep had grown some sort of fondness for messing with him, from petty insults to spontaneous attacks. The worst though, was when she took advantage of his implant device. She had been warned by Bey not to abuse it, right in front of Leo on occasion, but in private nobody could stop her.

"Help me up." she ordered with a smirk. Leo clenched his fists and glared down at her while she waited. Finally, after a long exhale, Leo reached his hand down for her to take. Delicately she placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her up, before she used the grip to ground him for a kick to the stomach. His shell absorbed most of the impact, but he was still thrown back a couple of paces.

As she came in to strike with a fist, Leo ducked underneath and moved himself behind her, where he stole her staff from her back. With all of his strength, Leo threw it down the hallway. Emitting a decidedly girly cry, Odette chased it down, reminding him very much so of a puppy chasing a stick. It was some odd complex of hers he had discovered while they had been sparring over the weeks. She lacked upper body strength, and was really light and easy to throw around, so a staff was really a poor choice of a weapon for her. He only made the mistake of breaking her staff once however, because when she became separated from her weapon she changed her offensive strategy to involve kicking, and unlike her arms, her legs were incredibly powerful. The bruises on his arms from blocking them were a sore reminder of this. Watching her returning with her staff, he wondered what sort of emotional attachment she had to that weapon.

Instead of renewing her attack, Odette stopped in front of him. "Bey told me you're starting your mission tonight, so..." she reached into a pouch on her belt and produced a small bottle of liquid, "I brought you a present, seeing as we're all friends now!"

Leo took the bottle, which looked like an old juice container. He sloshed the dark blue liquid around a bit before returning his gaze to the sheep, "This doesn't look like fruit punch."

"It's an antidote." Odette's voice was humorless as she pulled a long knife from her belt and held it out to show him, "You see," She pointed to the dark spots on the blade, " Sometimes when I'm bored, I like to poison my weapons before I stab turtles with them." though her voice lacked humour, her eyes sparkled with grim amusement. "I lose things easily, so I want you to hang on to that. You can't give it to anybody or let anyone see it. You especially can't give it to your brother."She grinned as her voice turned mocking, "That is an order."

Leo's grip on the bottle tightened as he grit his teeth. "We'll see." he muttered, but he was pretty sure she was right in assuming he'd keep the item a secret; he'd have a pretty difficult time going against such a direct order. His free hand traced across the bandage wrapped around his throat. Still, if she wasn't lying and Donnie had indeed been poisoned...

"Oh don't worry, he should be fine." She reassured, reading the concern on his face,"The poison slowly works through the system and paralyses the victim. It takes several months for it to become lethal...although the victim usually dies from something else before then." She sang, " Well, I am done what I came here to do, so... have fun on your mission!"

Watching her go down the hallway, Leo sighed with relief. That was a fairly tame visit. His eyes returned to the bottle in his hand before he continued through the halls, on his way back to his room. His mood was significantly darker as he entered the sitting room and placed the bottle on the writing desk. Using a marker from the desk, he labelled to bottle as "Donnie's medicine", so in the off-chance one of his brothers picked it off of his corpse they would know what it was.

End chapter 9

AN: Blurrrrrg I'd like to expand on the recovery scene after Splinter rescues the baby turtles. I don't know if I should devote a chapter to that, or just make a side-fic for it. It does have some significance to the main plot though, but people who don't find 'Triangle' to their liking might enjoy a one-shot about the turtle's origin as ninjas. When the episodes catch up to this I am going to cry.