A/N- Sorry this took so long! I was banned…AGAIN…! Is it just me or is it annoying when they don't send you a warning and give you a chance to rectify what you've done? Anyway, um…I believe I ended with a really vicious and nasty cliff-hanger. Heh, really sorry about that, but I will end the wait here with the next instalment! And a big thank-you to Lioness-Goddess and Spootycup! Also, I'm doing a show over these next couple of weeks so I won't be updating for a little while - but hopefully I won't be offline for too long.

"Marcie, my brothers and I request permission to go and see the two remaining turtle brothers so that we can gloat over this…unexpected…victory! They will be in no state to fight back so we wish to cause great emotional suffering." Ramakha lied through his teeth, worried that Marcie would see through him. She didn't.

"And how do you propose to do that?" she asked icily.

"By telling them, in greatest detail, of the suffering of their brothers," Roshiri laughed, almost manically.

"I wish to witness this…"

"No, Marcie, you cannot – perhaps we should bring them here so that the whole company of us can enjoy the entertainment. After all, we should all be celebrating in these grand halls rather than in a dingy cage room…"

"Very well; bring them here. You have five minutes."

"Thank you, Marcie, we will return shortly." Ronald bowed, his brothers following his example, and then left the room.

All four of them made a break for the exit, silent as the ninja warrior is trained to be, and reached the outside world within two minutes, squinting as their eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight.

"Daylight? How long were we in there for?"

"A long time by the looks of it."

"Come on, we don't have long to get a lead on these guys. Soon they'll realise we're missing and we'll be done for." Roshiri led his brothers through the streets, shortcutting wherever he could until they finally, an hour later, reached their Headquarters.

"You're already here, I see," Ramakha greeted Mikey and Raph as he and his three brothers walked in to join the turtles. Both reptilian brothers were knelt on the floor, Raph with an arm around a sobbing Mikey.

"I cannot lie to you any more," Roshiri whispered softly, laying a gentle hand on Mikey's shoulder, "the plan was never supposed to cause this much distress. Forgive me,"

"Forgive you? You killed our brothers! And you're asking us to forgive you!" Raph leapt to his feet and drew his Sais, which he had reclaimed before leaving the cage room at Marcie's lair.

"He's right – you should be killed for this," Mikey was trembling, but not from fear and not entirely from sorrow, but from raw fury.

"Mikey, wait!" a familiar voice called as two cloaked figures ran into the room. Mikey and Raph broke eye-contact with Roshiri and turned to the newcomers.

"It can't be…" Raph began.

"…But it is…" Mikey finished.

"Hey, guys, did ya miss us?" Donnie removed his hood, looking sheepish. Leo did likewise, except his discomfort was multiplied several times to that of Roshiri and Donnie.

"You were supposed to tell them the truth from the start," Leo sighed as he saw his two distressed brothers standing before him, "why didn't you?"

"Because I didn't know how good you would be at faking grief; and I guess I was a little curious as to how strong the bond was between you." Roshiri replied, a deep shade of beetroot. Raph snarled and began to advance on him, only to have his elder brother step in his way.

"Take it easy, Raph,"

"He told us you were dead! He even gave us this," Raph thrust the bloodstained bandana into Leo's hands. Shutting his eyes for a second, Leo took a deep breath.

"Raph…it's ok. This was all staged. The scout that 'killed' me was Roshiri dressed all in black. And then he pretended to kill Donnie as well but only as himself.

"I can't believe you're alive," Mikey croaked, embracing Donnie. Raph scowled and stormed off out of the room in the direction of the dungeons. Mikey slowly let go of Donnie and turned to hug his eldest brother, clinging to him as if he would never let go.

"Somebody had better go after Raphael," Reginald suggested, staring after the hot-headed turtle.

"I'll do it," Leo volunteered, breaking away from his baby brother and heading for the dungeons.

"Raph?" he called warily as he entered the dingy caverns, "Raph, are you in here?"

"What do you want?" came the sharp reply.

"To talk, that's all."

"I'm…I'm in the third cell from the end," Raph's voice was weary and Leo was shocked to see his normally bad-tempered brother looking unusually sober as he sat down next to him on the cell's bench.

"Raph, I-"

"We, me and Mikey, thought you were dead. We thought you'd been killed – do you have any idea what that feels like? Thinking you've lost the most precious things in the world?"

"I-"

"You have no idea how inconsolable Mikey was. He couldn't grasp it; and, to be brutally honest, neither could I. Don't you get it? For a couple of terrible hours, we thought you were DEAD!" he yelled the last word and it echoed eerily round the dungeons.

"Raph, I am so sorry – Roshiri was meant to tell you the truth from the start. But how could he with Marcie there. You have to understand that much. Please don't be angry with me, Raph, or with Donnie, Roshiri and the others."

"I'm glad you're alive, bro," Raph choked out the words so suddenly that Leo barely had time to react as his brother pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Raph, I am so sorry – you and Mikey would never have been put through this if it had been up to us," Leo apologised again, pulling away from his brother.

"I know, but that still doesn't change the fact that you and Donnie are going to wish you were dead if you even think about pulling a stunt like this again…wait until Master Splinter hears about this!"

"Oh? And how are you planning on telling him when we can't get anywhere near the lair?"

"I'll figure it out somehow,"

"Sure you will, bro," Leo snickered.

"I will! You dare to challenge me, Leonardo?" Raph's eyes glinted playfully, hoping his brother would accept the subtle invitation to spar.

"And what if I do?"

"Then we'll have to settle this with a sparring match…and I am so gonna kick your shell into deep space!" Raph drew his Sais.

"You wish, hothead!" Leo unsheathed his Katana and the two began fighting.

The sound of metal on metal reached the ears of the others, who were consumed in an awkward silence.

"Sounds like Leonardo and Raphael are fighting," Roshiri sighed.

"Nah, one's just challenged the other to a spar – it's kinda their way of clearing the air and forgetting all about stuff like this," Mikey explained quietly, his eyes still never leaving Donnie.

"And what is your way of forgetting all about this?" Roshiri inquired curiously.

"Why should I tell you? You told me that Don and Leo were dead!" Mikey snapped back, "you can't make this up to us straight away…but you could make a start by ordering a shell of a lot of pizza!"

"You got it, um, dude…" Ronald trailed off awkwardly. The four human brothers left the room in search of a menu to order pizza from while Donnie and Mike stood in silence once more.

"Why did ya do that, Donnie?"

"Do what? Oh, the fake death thing…that was just meant to be what Roshiri told Marcie – not what he told you and Raph. Heh, it looks like I have a lot of making it up to you to do as well then, huh?"

"Yeah – but that can wait until we're back at the lair." Mikey laughed lightly, forcing a smile onto his face. The sounds of sparring in the dungeons had stopped and Raph and Leo soon returned, Leo walking slightly ahead and instantly going to stand by Donnie.

"You sort it out with Raph?" the younger turtle asked worriedly.

"Yeah, thanks," Leo replied, "but we have some serious apologising to do – even though our original plan didn't actually involve it going this far!"

"I know, but did you see the looks on their faces before they realised who we were?"

"It was scary; Raph looked calm and upset while Mikey's eyes were dull, with none of their usual spark. It was as if they had lost all sense of time and were devoid of all feeling."

"I know what you mean," Donnie nodded.

"Sorry to intrude on this little meeting but can we do something constructive?" Raph asked impatiently.

"Like what?"

"Make a plan to kill Marcie and get Casey and April back would be a good start."

"Speaking of which," Donnie turned to Leo, "after you 'drowned' did you manage to find any clues to their whereabouts."

"Just one," was the leader's solemn response, "I found an old warehouse with the door slightly open and dim lighting. But when I entered I only found ropes tied around the supports,"

"So?"

"They'd been cut, or bitten through or loosened somehow. Something had been tied there…"

"Casey and April – so what do you think happened to them?" Mikey prompted, shifting excitedly at the prospect of finding their human friends.

"I think that when Marcie's scouts left us, a couple of them went and moved our friends to a different hiding place. But maybe Roshiri will have a better lead on it."

"Someone talking about me?" said human raised an eyebrow as he entered the room.

"Do you know if any of Marcie's scouts broke away from the party after 'killing' me and Donnie?"

"Three of them broke off; the three with guns. They went off in the direction of the abandoned warehouses. They never rejoined us." Roshiri sighed.

"I wonder what happened to them…" Raph trailed off, clearly thinking that maybe Casey had stoned their heads in with his baseball bats and hockey sticks and golf clubs.

"Raph, I doubt even Casey would be that stupid when April was involved," Leo said softly, bringing his bad-tempered brother back down to Earth with a bump.

"It was just a thought – a hope."

"Yeah, well don't get your hopes up," sneered Ramakha, also entering the room. I saw Marcie's scouts with two human captives while I and my brothers were on our way back here and I was keeping a lookout at the rear."

"What! Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"I didn't think they were of any importance and I was more interested in us staying alive. What would you have done, Roshiri? Risked the lives of your brothers for the sake of those you don't even know?"

"I-" Roshiri couldn't finish, knowing that he would have done exactly as his brother had. His brothers were more important to him than anything else, except maybe the death of Marcie – but they all wanted that equally badly. It was now up to them to kill Marcie and then kill the turtles as well; a situation which Roshiri was rapidly coming to regret.

"Which direction were they taking them in?"

"Towards the old suburb housing estate where Hun is currently hiding out, as he has been doing for several weeks now."

"But Marcie can't possibly be working with the Purple Dragons, can she?" Raph asked in disbelief.

"She can and she is – Hun swore his allegiance to her after Oroku Saki died. Now they are partners in crime and it looks like Marcie is handing your human friends over to him. He will not show them any mercy if they step out of line."

"Yeah, I can imagine – and Casey doesn't have a good history with Hun," Leo grimaced at the thought.

"Don't remind us," growled Raph, looking very much like he would give anything to slice Hun's head off at that moment.

"We have to find them," Mikey whimpered.

"We'll do it tonight, as soon as the city is dark." Reginald reprimanded the young turtle as he and Ronald walked in to join the group.

"But they will be expecting an attack after nightfall," Ramakha muttered, his face showing a deep level of concentration, as though he was onto a big plan.

"Then we shall do it in daylight…but we will need transport."

"Don't worry about that! I have a vehicle that will come to us at the press of a button," Donnie pulled out the remote for the Battle Shell and showed it off proudly to everyone, pressing a button and then adding hurriedly, "but you might want to disable the booby-traps for a bit!"

"No problem," Reginald walked over to a high-tech control panel and pressed a large violet coloured button. There was a dull sound, almost as if the system was sighing, as the traps were disabled. Less than five minutes later, the Battle Shell had arrived outside.

The oddly mixed group clambered into the back of the Battle Shell, except for Donnie, who was the driver, and Ronald, who wanted to ride in the front for the sake of the experience and also to gloat over those who were being violently bumped about in the back of the vehicle.

"So, Donatello, how long will it take you to drive us there?"

"About half an hour…what is the time now?"

"Ten O'clock in the morning."

"Then we will be there by about Ten-Thirty at latest," Donnie informed Ronald cheerfully as he revved up the engine and put his foot down hard on the accelerator. There was an almighty 'thump' in the back as everyone was thrown towards the front of the Battle Shell and into the wall separating the back from the front. Donnie and Ronald made eye-contact and both cringed for their brothers, trying desperately not to laugh.

"You know, it's a shame we have to kill you when this is over,"

"Who says you have to? You are not bound to that decision – and you have no idea of the horrors your brother engraved on our minds. I know I will never forget several of the things he did to us…"

"I am sorry Donatello, but we must avenge him by destroying his killers – that is just how it must be, I'm afraid," Ronald admitted sadly, bowing his head and speaking no more.

A/N- Because I left you with such a nasty ending of the last chapter, I thought I'd be nice this time! But I really want more people to review so if you're reading this and not reviewing then can you please push the 'Submit Review' button and just leave a few words, or even a few sentences, telling me what you think of the story! Thank you!