Ch 37 The Heart of the Matter.

Splinter stood at the entrance of the dojo watching Raphael working out with the practice dummy. His movements were fast and filled with fury as his fist repeatedly punched the dummy's torso. Splinter shook his head at the fierceness of his son's attitude. It was clear Raphael was angrier then he was letting on about everything that was happening between him and Leo, and Splinter decided it was time he had a heart to heart with his son.

He waited till Raph stepped away from the dummy to take a breather before letting him know he had been watching. "Raphael," Raph turned to see Splinter walking into the dojo. He was panting hard and sweating profusely as Splinter walked over to him. "Don't you think you should stop destroying my practice dummy and talk to Leonardo about what is really bothering you?"

Raph shook his head and turned back to punching the dummy. "We're fine Sensei," He said as he hit the dummy a few more times. But the last hit was so hard it ended up knocking the dummy off the hook. Splinter watched Raph angrily walk over to the dummy and try to put it back on its hook. After several attempts and angry mutterings, Splinter placed a hand on his son's shoulder. He took the dummy out of Raph's hands and gently placed it back on the hook with ease.

"Raphael," Splinter began as he led him away from his practice dummy. "It is clear you and Leonardo are both having difficulties coming to terms with what happened all those months ago," Raph lowered his eyes in annoyance as Splinter spoke, "Please, tell me what it is that is bothering you?" Splinter requested as he coaxed Raph to sit on the floor of the dojo.

The two sat down on the floor across from each other and Raph huffed, "I just wish Leo would listen to reason," He began, "He keeps having these nightmares and I keep telling him that they would stop if he would just accept the fact about what his father did and that he's now gone and he should move on with his life." He crossed his arms as he spoke, "When we went to the prom last week, even though he tried to have a good time, it was clear his mind was elsewhere, and he keeps saying that he'll see someone but has yet to do that." Raph sighed heavily. "I just want him to come to terms with everything."

Splinter nodded as he stroked his long beard, "Tell me Raphael, do you remember when your mother passed away," Raph looked up at Splinter in bewilderment, after a moment he nodded. "Even though you were only seven, you were very angry and continued to be for a very long time."

"I remember," Raph muttered, his face saddening as he mind wandered back to those days.

"Your anger got so bad I was afraid that it would consume you…and it almost did" Splinter reminded him, "And do you remember why you continued to get so angry when all I and your brothers did was try to help you?"

Raph frowned as he continued to think about the years following his mother's death and the angry feelings that he had kept deep inside him, "I was getting tired of everyone telling me that things would be alright," he stated loudly as he suddenly stood up and started pacing angrily, "I just wanted to be left alone and no one would listen to me and understand how I was feeling!"

Splinter nodded. "And how do you think Leonardo is feeling with you constantly attempting to get him to move on?"

Raph stopped pacing and looked at his sensei with a look of dawning, "I've never given him a chance to just do what he needed to do," Raph muttered, "I keep telling him to get over it but I haven't given him time to do that."

Splinter nodded and stood up; he walked over to Raph and looked at him tenderly, "I wished I had realized sooner that the best way for me to help you was to be there when you ready to come to me," Splinter told him, "But because I wanted you to feel better right away, I pushed you too hard and that only made things worse and in the end, I only ended up pushing you away from me." He placed a hand on Raph's shoulder, "Be there for Leonardo when he is ready to come to you," he smiled down at him, "And he will come to you Raphael," He assured him, "Believe me."

Raph looked up at Splinter and nodded, "I guess I should apologize to him," he pulled out his phone, "I'll call him and see if maybe he would like to go out for dinner," he said with a smile but then frowned when he realized it was going on almost five and Leo had yet to come home. "That's strange," Raph muttered as he pressed a button, "Leo should have been home over an hour ago." Splinter watched in concern as Raph's forehead creased in wonderment. "No answer." He said.

"Was he going somewhere after seeing Dr. Rockwell?" Splinter asked as they walked out of the dojo and toward the kitchen where Mikey was currently making supper and Donnie was typing away on his lap top.

"Not that I know of," Raph said as he tried again to call Leo. But after a few moments he hung up the phone in frustration, "Straight to voicemail again."

"What's the matter Raph?" Donnie asked,

"I'm trying to call Leo," Raph replied, "He's over an hour late and he's not answering his cell."

"Maybe he went somewhere after his appointment." Mikey pointed out.

"That's what Sensei said," Raph told him with a nod toward Splinter. "But after what happened with Jeffrey, Leo tends to let me know if his plans change." He tried Leo's phone again but once again there was no answer.

"Maybe something happened at Rockwell's office and he needed to be there longer than normal," Donnie suggested.

"I suppose that's possible but Leo would have called me to let me know." Raph said as he grabbed the business card and quickly dialed the number. "I'll call TCRI and see if he's left there." After a few moments, "Hi, this is Raphael Hamato, is Leonardo Tartaruga still there?" His family watched as Raph's forehead creased in worry, "Oh, um, okay, thank you." Raph hung up his cell and looked at his family, "According to Rockwell's secretary, Leo left aver an hour ago."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

A low moan escaped his lips as the fog slowly lifted from his head. His eye ridges moved up and down as he attempted to open his eyes. As his head slowly cleared he became aware of many things. He tried to put a hand to his head but he realized his hands were bound with rope in front of him. He moved slightly and realized he was lying on hard floor. As his eyes slowly opened, he could hear a buzzing sound in the background and the sound of footsteps coming toward him.

'Oh, now what?' He wondered as he attempted to focus his vision on his surroundings. He moved his head slightly and watched as a pair of large clawed feet came toward him. He eyes wandered upward and he startled slightly as he took in the appearance of a very large, very muscular orange and black Bengal tiger looking down at him. In his hands he held Leo's cell phone. 'This is getting so tiresome,' Leo told himself as he steeled his nerves.

"Your phone is continuously ringing cub." The tiger said with a heavy Japanese accent.

Leo sighed tiredly. "How 'bout you answer it and let whoever it is know I'm tied up at the moment." He muttered sarcastically.

"How 'bout I turn it off….permanently." The tiger laughed as he crushed the phone in his massive paw, "Your caller ID showed a person by the name of Raphael." He told him as he placed the now destroyed phone on a table a few feet away. "And he has called you several times," The tiger bent down and lifted Leo's head up so he was looking directly into his eyes. "So who is this Raphael, Leonardo?" He asked him with a twisted smile.

"Just a friend," Leo told him with a nonchalant attitude.

The tiger stood up, "I have never had a friend call me the way this friend is calling you."

"Then I guess you have lousy friends." Leo told him as he attempted to sit up. "Well, it's clear you know who I am," Leo stated, "Why don't you tell me who you are and why I'm here."

Leo watched as the tiger got a very intense look in his eyes, "I am called Tiger Claw," He told him in a rumbling voice, "And you are here because you have something we want."

Leo narrowed his eyes, "We?" He questioned as he looked around the room, "Am I to assume someone else is here with us?" He asked with a mocking tone.

"You assume correctly Leonardo," Another voice called out.

"Falco," Leo sneered as he watched the scientist walk into the room. "What the hell do you want with me now?" He demanded.

"The same thing I've been wanting." Falco told him. "And this time, I'm going to get it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Donnie," Raph looked over at him with worried eyes, "Any chance you can maybe try to pinpoint Leo's location using the GPS on our phones?"

Donnie already had his cell out and was quickly pushing buttons "I'm doing that right now Raph," He told him.

"You think something's happened to Leo, Raph?" Mikey asked, his voice rising in slight panic.

Raph shook his head, "I don't know Mikey," Raph replied, clearly getting nervous, "But I'm beginning to get the feeling that I should have listened to Leo when he told me about his nightmares."

"Dreams of any kind are said to be visions of a possible future," Splinter said thoughtfully, stroking his beard "It is possible that his nightmares were trying to warn him about someone returning," he turned to Raph, "Could his father have survived that fire?"

"But that was a chemical fire Sensei," Raph pointed out, "A person couldn't survive that."

"People have been known to survive worse Raph," Donnie told him. "If he got help right away…."

"But everyone was still in the room when the fire started and we pulled them all out," Raph reminded him.

"Not everyone," Mikey said, "Remember, Stockman ran away before the fire started."

"But Stockman was arrested," Splinter said, "So we know he could not have helped Saki."

"You think Stockman managed to call someone?" Raph asked thoughtfully, "So who could he have called that would have gotten to him that quickly?"

"There's only one other person I can think of that would've had the knowledge to help Leo's father," Donnie said as he continued to tap on his phone.

"Dr. Falco," Raph said angrily as he redialed the number to TCRI. "Let's see if Dr. Rockwell might know where his lab is."

"Hopefully he does because I can't get a fix on Leo's cell at all," Donnie said putting his phone down in frustration. "Something must have happened to it."

With his fear growing by the minute, Raph dialed Dr. Rockwell's number once again. As he spoke to the monkey, the front door bell rang and Mikey quickly went to answer it. It was Casey. "Hey everyone, how's it going?" He asked jovially, but his demeanor changed when he noted the worry and concerned looks on everyone's faces. "What's going on?"

Mikey shook his head at him, "Leo's missing," he whispered as Raph spoke on the phone.

"Missing?" Casey looked at him dumbfounded. "What do you mean missing?"

"What do you mean what do I mean missing?" Mikey looked at him in annoyance. "He's not here, he's gone, he's AWOL, he has yet to come home, he's possibly disappeared….." Mikey took a breath, "Need I say more?"

"Will you two shut up," Raph looked over at them in anger, "Dr. Rockwell is getting the info I need so be quiet."

The others watched Raph anxiously as he fought to keep himself together while waiting desperately for Rockwell to give him an address that, they all hoped, would lead them to where Leo was. After what felt like an eternity, Raph finally wrote down the information, thanked Rockwell and looked at the others. "His lab was destroyed in a fire and the building was torn down," He told them, "but according to Rockwell, the two of them used to work out of an old apartment building that's now abandoned so he said to try there." He grabbed the keys to their family car, and, after grabbing weapons, the group of five quickly ran to the car.

"Casey," Splinter turned to the young teen, "This might be dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt, so please return home."

"With all due respect Master Splinter," Casey replied as he pulled a baseball bat out of the bag he was holding, "But I told the others not to keep me out of the action the next time something happened," he hoped in the car next to Mike, "And I meant it." Before Splinter could object, Raph pressed down on the gas pedal and the car quickly took off.

"Why were you coming over here in the first place, Casey?" Donnie asked him with a slightly annoyed attitude.

"I had some news to tell you guys but I'll wait till after we get Leo." He replied.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Leo looked at Falco angrily, "What you wanted last time was a serum that has been proven to be ineffective" Leo told him. "So you've done nothing more than waste everyone's time so let me go, now!" He demanded as he struggled in his bindings.

Falco walked up to Leo and grabbed his face, forcing Leo to look up at him. Leo could see the man was practically on the verge of insanity as he looked directly into the mad scientist eyes. "The serum is more than effective Leonardo," He told the young turtle, "That fool Rockwell just doesn't know what to look for."

Leo shook his head, "What are you talking about?" He demanded, "Rockwell has been checking my blood every month since that night I found out everything and the drug you gave me stopped working days after it was injected into me!"

Falco laughed at him, "The drug is only lying dormant within your DNA Leonardo," Falco stated, "Surely Rockwell has advised you that if any more of this drug was added to your system, not only would it give you the added abilities it did the first time but it would go well beyond that of any normal mutant and turn you into a super soldier!"

Leo stared at Falco in fear, "You are nothing more than a power-mad psychopath!" Leo yelled, "Why are you doing this?" He demanded. "My father is dead and the Foot Clan he was a part of is in Japan and I'm not going to let you try to send me there again!"

"Think again Leonardo." Another voice said. Leo looked over to a door that led to a bedroom and watched in growing apprehension as the figure of a tall man framed itself in the doorway.

Leo's breath caught in his throat, "No, It's not possible." Still sitting on the floor, he backed himself away until his shell hit the wall, "You can't be here!" He yelled as tears threatened to fall, "You're dead, I saw you die!"

The large man walked toward him and grabbed him by his collar; he picked him up and brought his face close to his. "No Leonardo, you did not see me die," Saki told him, "You only saw me burn."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sorry I haven't been able to update any sooner, school is back in session and I'm back at work, this story is almost done so I'll try to update as quickly as possible, please R&R and Peace :)