A/N: - I hope this chapter is long enough…it's longer than the last one by about a page in Word so it should be ok. Another freakish cliffhanger style ending…but if you don't like them then just skip the last line! Now, I'm going to stop waffling and let you read the story!

"You have done well, my servant," Shredder's deep voice growled through his mask at the woman stood in front of him, "You shall be richly rewarded when the time comes and I am basking in all the glory of this wretched world."

"Thank you, master," the woman bowed deeply, "but why did you send the visions?"

"Merely a distraction, nothing more…after all, if they had not been so wrapped up thinking about it then they would've smelt the poison and perhaps would've found my whereabouts and uncovered you, my greatest ally."

"Flattery gets you nowhere, master. But surely it would've been more profitable to send a vision of fake whereabouts rather than giving them a vision of your Headquarters?"

"Not necessarily. Now that they are here they will feel foolish for not doing as they had originally planned and setting out right away."

"What are you going to do with them?"

"You gave them enough poison to make them ill for a month but not to kill them, correct?"

"Correct, master, they will grow steadily worse for a month and will recover in the month after that. The times may vary according to how much poison I put in each sandwich."

"You varied the amounts?"

"Yes, I put less in those for who was weakened already or who were bound to eat plenty, and more in those that were for the strong."

"Will it make a difference?"

"No, master, for their varying strength levels balance out the poison so that the time span is the same for each."

"Excellent. Hun, you will lock them up. And you, my servant, shall return to your home and I will send a message to you when the time comes for you to rise with me and share in my rewards." Shredder guided the woman out of the room. He had a mask on but no armour. His clothes were tattered and his hands were bloody. The unconscious forms of his enemies were placed in front of him, "how foolish you all are. Believing that in the vision you were dead when you lay in this room. Did you not wonder why my hands were bloody and yet there was no blood on you? Did you not realise that your 'bodies' were in fact breathing and that the Foot around me were all standing and looked calm and relaxed? So here I have you," Shredder was talking to his enemies even though they were unconscious, "right where I want you. Now you will die one by one…and your human friends will watch and live to serve me when I become all powerful. Lock them away! I do not wish to see them again until tomorrow when I will…oh, how to put this…when I shall gloat!" Shredder removed his mask and his thin lips curled into a malicious smirk as Hun and the Foot Elite dragged the limp forms of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles out of the room to the empty cellar underneath his HQ building. Now the real fun and games began…………

   Michelangelo awoke to the sound of someone sniffing and throwing up alternately. He sat up and saw Donnie across the room and he was doubled over and vomiting. Mikey began to stand but a sudden burst of sharp pain in his stomach stopped him and he had to content himself with crawling.

"You ok, Don?" he asked, already knowing the answer. Donnie knew his brother knew the answer too.

"What do you think?" he snapped back at his younger brother, glaring at him.

"Sorry, I just thought I'd ask."

"I know – sorry, Mikey, but there's just no hope anymore. We're in the clutches of the Shredder as are April and Casey. Splinter is in meditation and he won't come out of it."

"What about Raph and Leo?"

"Raph's still asleep and Leo's trying to find a way out. And April and Casey aren't even being kept down here. They're being forced to serve the Shred-head as slaves and they have to run errands for him; April around the HQ and Casey fighting the Foot's new recruits to train them up."

"Oh, man, that's bad. Where is Leo?"

"He's somewhere by the door at the bottom of the staircase trying to break it down, I think." Donnie sighed, pointing Mikey in the direction of the locked door. Mikey patted Donnie on the back and then walked off to find his eldest brother.

"Leo?" Mikey called as he walked into the shadows. The cellar was extremely large but completely empty. It was cold with stone walls and stone floors. Leo didn't answer his brother but Mikey followed the sound of laboured breathing and found Leo doubled over like Donnie had been and on the verge of collapse. He was sweating and Mikey could see his eyes glazed over with pain and sickness.

"I knew…Marcie…traitor…" Leo stammered as he tried to keep his breathing steady.

"You and Donnie both knew – that's why you've fallen ill first. Next will be me and Raph – there was poison in those sandwiches." Mikey put an arm round his brother's waist and draped one of Leo's arms over his shoulders, helping him to stand and walk back to where Donnie was. Raph was now awake and sat with Donnie but he was swaying and looked as though he was suffering from a migraine. Mikey staggered as he felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Before he knew what was happening, he'd dropped Leo and was emptying the contents of his stomach across the floor of the cellar. He groaned and looked over to Raph briefly, pleading silently for help. His injuries from the fight with Hun were flaring up and he didn't feel too good. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell forward onto the floor and into his own vomit. Raph grimaced at Leo who just smiled back weakly.

"You ok, bro?" Raph asked.

"I'll be fine…at least I'm still conscious." Leo replied, glancing over at Donnie who was also now unconscious on the floor, led in the contents of his own stomach. Leo felt himself coming over all dizzy but he fought it off as best he could and crawled over to Raph. They leant up against the wall next to each other after pulling their two younger brothers out of the mess on the floor.

"What has happened to us? We were a flawless fighting team and we were never defeated this badly before."

"We went through individual defeats but this is, as you say, our first major failure when we've been working together. He's captured us separately but never the whole team, Sensei, you, me, Donnie, Mike, Casey and April."

"I know – what the hell happened?"

"Shredder just keeps coming back. He's injured us, scarred us and attacked our minds. He just won't die. Every time we fight him he just comes back ten times stronger." Leo put his head in his hands, despairing over the hopelessness of it all. Raph sighed heavily and glanced sideways at his older brother. Leo's eyes were drooping and he looked as if he would pass out at any minute.

"Get some rest, Leo. You look awful."

"Well so do you. You need to rest too, Raph, or you'll go downhill as well. This poison isn't meant to kill us."

"How do you know that?"

"I wasn't fully unconscious when Shredder was talking. He talked as if we were going to live. They must be weakening us so we have to fight Shredder because Shredder wants to finish us off himself."

"Nothing's simple anymore, huh?" Raph asked five minutes later, but he received no answer. He looked to his brother sat next to him but Leo was asleep, head leaning on Raph's shoulder. Raph rested his own head on Leo's and was also soon asleep. Right now the brothers needed each other more than they were willing to admit.

   "My sons - wake up," Splinter nudged his sleeping sons gently, standing above them and regarding them fondly. It seemed that Mikey and Donnie had both kept each other company, between them covering the floor around them with various piles of vomit. Raph and Leo were asleep a few metres away and they were getting along better than they had in a long time, probably because they were asleep, so Splinter did not dare to wake them.

"Master Splinter?" Mikey yawned, nudging Donnie as he tried to move. But they were in pretty much the same position as Leo and Raph. If one moved then the other would fall to the floor and an argument would follow, although this did apply more to the two elder turtles as they were less tolerant of each other.

"You must keep yourselves busy. We cannot possibly know what the time is here in this suffocating darkness. We have only one dim light, discovered by Leonardo before you all fell ill. We shall, at least, have a small area in the centre in the room where we can keep ourselves occupied and spend our time down here. Now, I shall wake your brothers, Michelangelo. Please make sure Donatello awakes in the next few minutes…but wake him gently." Splinter's eyes held a knowing look as Mikey looked rather disappointed. Splinter went to stand before his eldest sons to wake them but they were stirring and already arguing.

"We can't just laze around, Raph, or we'll go insane!" Leo scolded his brother.

"Hey, we're already insane – please just spare me the lectures for one measly day!" Raph retorted.

"Just give me a break, Raph, will you? We won't know when a day has passed so I guess I'll just have to keep lecturing you until you comply." Leo answered his brother shortly, standing up and stretching but swaying and blinking his eyes multiple times, willing the bright colours clouding his vision to disappear, "and we have to keep ourselves busy and in practice or this illness will dominate us for longer and we'll have even less of a chance against Shredder than we do now."

"You just have to be the perfect one, don't you?" Raph muttered.

"No, I'm just the only one, other than Sensei, that sees the importance of defeating Shredder."

"How can you say that? We all want him dead, Leo," Raph snarled.

"But you're not willing to work to do it. We won't kill him without putting in the work first. We'll be lucky to survive the battle as it is. By the end of this week we'll barely be able to stand!"

"I know – but I don't care about the work – I just want Shredder dead."

"Wanting him dead for revenge is not enough, my son," Splinter said.

"I hate to say it, Sensei, but revenge would be good. Look at what he's done to us!" Leo admitted sheepishly.

"I know, my son. And it is only fair for you to want him dead after what he has put you all through. Your reasons are justified but the work must be put in. Like you say, Leonardo, this illness will have reached its peak in the next week or so and that will be when Shredder summons us to take us on."

"Yes, Sensei, I understand." Leo bowed, walking over to Donnie and Mikey. Raph grunted and made to follow his brother, arms folded, but he was stopped by the sight of a walking stick right in front of him. He turned back to his father and looked at him quizzically.

"What is it, Master Splinter?"

"I want you to promise me you will work. If you really wanted revenge then you would be willing to work for it."

"I do want revenge!" Raph was getting indignant.

"Then promise me you'll work."

"I…I…I promise, Sensei."

"Thank you, Raphael. Now join your brothers. Keep yourselves amused as I very much doubt Shredder shall be feeding us today though he has provided us with a small barrel of water each so we will be alive to fight him. Now go, and try to forget our opponent and our present situation for the while."

"Yes, Master Splinter, I will," Raph bowed and turned to his three brothers. They were soon playing an amusing, if not slightly unusual, game of charades. The reason for its peculiarity was the fact that their gestures were often misinterpreted as they were playing with very little light. So some of the answers they came up with for another's charade were extremely amusing and even Splinter would find himself chuckling quietly as he heard his sons acting like seven year olds again. He was also feeling immensely proud of them for making the best of their situation, despite having the knowledge that they were all to become dangerously ill for the next few weeks. Thankfully, none of them had eaten enough of the sandwiches for the illness to cause them to lose their senses. Michelangelo was being his usual optimistic self while Donatello tried to figure out a scientific way to increase the amount of light they would have. Raphael and Leonardo were arguing over who had more points in charades and both seemed to be acting like their old selves again – Splinter was not sure whether this was a good or bad thing. But all of his sons kept coming over all dizzy and ill and it worried him to see them like that. Splinter himself was using meditation to fight the illness for his sons' sake but he knew that the illness would eventually claim him too and he would suffer the same fate as his four precious sons and they would at least die with honour. Even Splinter doubted their ability to win.

A/N: - So, now even Splinter doubts their ability to win…that can't be good! Find out what happens when I publish my next chapter!