A/N: - No beating about the bush with this chapter – here you have it – read and review! Hope you like it!

"Kee-yah!" an angry voice cried as they intercepted the chainsaw and knocked it away from its target. Mikey had squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the worst pain he was ever going to feel in his lifetime.

"Leo!" Mikey beamed in relief when he opened his eyes to see who had stopped Ramakha.

"Hey, Mike," Leo greeted him wearily. Ramakha sighed and shut of the chainsaw, handing it back to Roshiri.

"Glad to see you awake to witness the torture of your brothers, along with suffering some of your own," Ramakha spoke softly.

"You don't have to do this, Ramakha, you know you don't. Think how you felt when your family were killed – when your children were slaughtered – and then think of the effect this will have on our father and friends." Leo tried to reason with the human, appealing to his better nature.

"I am sorry, Leonardo, but this must be done to avenge our brother." Roshiri cut in as Ramakha wavered slightly, "come on, Ramakha, we've chained Raphael up now so why not help us get this one, although I feel we do not need to tie him up too tightly, as the poison will stop him getting very far."

"Get your filthy hands off of me!" a livid Raph was screaming at Ronald and Reginald, who were struggling to fasten the chain around his leg. Raph was to be tied by only one ankle to the wall as part of his torture was to be the breaking of limbs, and he wouldn't make it far with broken limbs anyway. Leo was to be bound by the wrists and ankles with rope but not tied to anything in the room and the turtle could not put up much of a physical fight, having only just regained consciousness, but he spat in their faces and kicked out at where it hurt whenever he got the chance. Eventually he too was bound and powerless against the four human brothers.

"It starts," cackled Reginald harshly as he drew out a crow bar and walked over to Raph, his shadow looming over the turtle. Raising the bar, he brought it down with a sickening crunch on Raph's unchained ankle – his left. Biting back a cry of pain and turning it into a muffled yell, Raph cringed and shuddered as little bright lights popped before his eyes and his head span.

"Leave him alone!" Mikey cried before he could stop himself, instantly realising his mistake as Ronald advanced on him with a flaming whip,

"You want some too? Feeling a little left out, maybe? Well, let's see if we can remedy that, shall we?" he whipped sharply across the back of Mikey's thighs and the turtle whimpered. As soon as the whip hit, the wounds were closed by the heat, which made it doubly painful. Leo was so busy watching what was happening to his brothers that he didn't realise Roshiri was stood behind him, eyes lit up with hatred, holding a large club. He began to ruthlessly beat the poison-infected turtle. Leo resisted the urge to scream but couldn't hold back the sharp intakes of breath and occasional moan every time he tried to move or Roshiri hit him where he'd already been hit. Donnie, upon witnessing all this, had an impending feeling of doom as Ramakha, looking a little resentful about doing this, walked towards him with a knife. Looking up into the face of the human, Donnie knew it was pointless to reason as Ramakha was honour-bound by his oaths and loyalty to the Shredder to carry out the job, but he didn't relish doing it. He put the blade to the bottom of Donnie's plastron and pressed hard enough to draw a little blood but not hard enough to cause critical damage. Taking deep breaths to control the pain, unwilling to be the one to scream first out of the four turtles, he tried to work out what Ramakha was doing. After several strokes, it dawned on him; Ramakha was drawing a noughts and crosses grid on him – he should have known from the graffiti in the alleyway. There was another sickening crack from the direction of Raph and Reginald as the human swiped at the turtle's chained leg, the right, and hit him just above the ankle. This time it was harder than the last time and Raph almost screamed, yet again somehow managing to control it and turning it into a whimper this time, which sounded odder coming from Raph than a scream would have done. Mikey's eyes were starting to well up with the pain but he hadn't yet cried out, in spite of the welts up and down both his legs. Leo was being clubbed everywhere but his head so that he remained conscious and still he hadn't yelled. Donnie, too, was resisting it – although he'd bitten his lip so hard that it was now bleeding heavily, some of the blood running down the side of his face and some into his mouth.

Suddenly, there was a pause in the proceedings and Reginald roared in anger and pain. It looked as though Raph had decided to fight back as he had punched Reginald in the stomach and the human had doubled over, giving Raph the chance to head-butt him. But as Raph made triumphant eye contact with the human, he raised the crow bar again and brought it down on Raph's chest, cracking at least two of the turtle ribs before then using it to fracture Raph's left arm; and, this time, the turtle screamed.

"REGINALD!" Ramakha bellowed, stopping the carving of his third grid on Donnie's body, "all right, everyone, time to move on."

"At least I can still write," Raph groaned, now gasping for breath.

"You mean this is like a circuit?" Donnie asked in disbelief.

"Pretty much," Reginald grinned maliciously at him, throwing down his crow bar and taking up the knife that Ramakha had dropped, "so, Donatello, how would you like a game of noughts and crosses?"

"Do I have a choice?" the purple-clad turtle remarked dryly.

"No- you are noughts because you are nothing, and I am crosses."

"I think you're going to be beaten at this game, Reginald," Ronald laughed from where he was now stood by Raph, holding the controlling device. He 'accidentally' dropped the remote and Raph, forgetting entirely what would happen, tried to reach for it with his one good arm. Snatching it back up, Ronald turned a little dial on the side that Raph had not noticed before and an electric shock coursed through the turtle's body. Roshiri now stood by Mikey with a thin-bladed knife and began carving a picture of a stick-turtle being shot by a human – he would give those pictures names once he'd finished – laughing manically as he did so. It was now Mikey's turn to cry out in distress and the sound made his brothers cringe; the fact that they couldn't do anything to stop it hurt them more than the torture they themselves were undergoing. Ramakha, still looking highly uncomfortable, had donned a gauntlet such as the one Shredder used to wear when he was alive. He flexed his hand and examined the gauntlet, then pressed it to Leo's chest and drew it down his plastron, drawing blood and making the turtle thrash in agony, but he was unable to move as Ramakha had him pinned down; this he did over and over again, making it slightly deeper each time. Raph was now taking a breather from trying to get the device, his mind having finally clicked into focus as to what was going to happen every time he made an attempt at getting it, and was watching what was happening to Donnie with utter revulsion plastered over his face, the pain of his broken limbs momentarily forgotten. Donnie was being forced to tell Reginald where he wanted to put the noughts and Reginald would then do the crosses where he wanted them. Seeing his victim's distracted manner, Ronald prodded him with his foot to get his attention.

"Who's winning?" Raph asked his voice rough.

"I don't know," Ronald called out to his brother, "Hey, Reginald! Who's winning?"

"Blasted turtle! I don't believe it, he beat me again! Third time in a row – obviously not in enough pain," Reginald frowned then glaring at Donnie, who gulped.

"Time to stop for today, I think," Ramakha announced, having reduced Leo's plastron to a bloody mess but not enough so as to kill him. Seeing that his brothers had achieved much the same with their victims, he sighed and unfastened the bladed metal glove, tossing it to one side with disdain. Lifting his head weakly, Raph saw that darkness had fallen over the forest – hours had passed without them even realising – but that's what torture does to one who is in so much pain they lose track of time…

"Are we leaving them here?" Roshiri asked, breaking Raph's chain of thought.

"Yes – we'll untie them."

"Are you mad, Ramakha? They'll escape!" Ronald scoffed at his brother, sending another quick shock through Raph just for fun.

"Will they? Raphael cannot walk, Michelangelo will probably not be able to walk, Donatello is bleeding and his limbs will be weak from being on that rack for so long and Leonardo would never make it out of the forest." Ramakha gestured at each turtle in turn and the four terrified reptilian brothers couldn't even look up when their names were said.

"Fine – we will be back tomorrow, mutants, mark my words, for the next stage – then on the third day we will carry out the final stage…sleep well," Ronald laughed coldly and the four human brothers untied the turtles and let them slump to the ground unceremoniously before walking out. Looking back over his shoulder, Reginald added,

"And there will be a scout waiting outside this hut to inform us of any escape attempts, so don't try it."

Crawling over to Raph, Donnie winced with every movement as he tried to assess exactly how much damage had been done to him.

"Raph, your arm is fractured," he managed, his voice sore and raspy, "your left ankle is broken but your right, surprisingly, is not – it is only slightly fractured. You've cracked two ribs and bruised a couple of others." He stopped, falling forwards as his arms and legs gave way.

"You ok?" Raph muttered through heavy breaths.

"Better than you," his younger brother replied managing to push himself up and over to the wall so he could lean against it.

"Not difficult," Raph replied, using his good arm to pull his fractured one across his chest, where he held it tightly to him and shut his eyes. Donnie sighed and slid back down so he was led down; arms clamped across his bleeding plastron, and curled up into a protective foetal position, shivering as the freezing night air blew through the hut. Mikey watched the exchange between his two brothers, unable to move without a searing pain across the back of his legs where he had been whipped. He was taking shuddering breaths as he fought against the mixture of pain and cold that was threatening to overwhelm him. He tried to twist his head round feebly, wanting to see how Leo was doing.

"Leo?" he asked faintly into the darkness, only able to see vague outlines as the room was lit only by the light of the stars and moon through the windows. But he could see no outline where Leo should have been. Hearing something moving behind him, he froze in fear, even though he knew the human brothers had gone.

"It's me, Mikey," his older brother's voice whispered from where he had crawled over. Turning painfully to face the other way, he saw the faint outline of his brother and relief swept through him, "you ok?" Leo asked gently.

"You want the honest answer?" Mikey managed a shaky laugh.

"Stupid question, huh?" Leo sighed.

"A little," Mikey winced as a breeze came into contact with a still burning hot welt on the back of his legs.

"We have to get out," Leo put his head in his hands, "we have to get out of here now."

"But we gotta get the controlling device thingy," Mikey protested.

"Forget about it – if we don't get out of here then all of us could lose our lives."

"But they've got…" he paused and took a deep breath, "Stockman watching this place – we'd never get out."

"We need to at least contact someone," Leo's voice grew stronger, more determined.

"But…wait a minute…they didn't take our Shell Cells…" Mikey smiled, though he knew his brother couldn't see it.

"Exactly," Leo's triumphant voice was full of hope. He slowly reached down to his belt to try and find his Shell Cell but it was bashed to pieces, "the club," he cursed inwardly at himself, despairing.

"I think I'm led on mine…" Mikey trailed off.

"Don't move, Mikey – I'll see if Donnie has his." Leo hauled himself over to where Donnie was and put a gentle hand on his brother's shoulder. The purple-clad turtle looked up to see Leo knelt over him, bruised and bloody.

"Leo…what the---?" he was stopped with a wave of his brother's hand.

"Do you have your Shell Cell?"

"I don't know," Donnie pushed himself up into a sitting position, the feeling starting to return to his arms and legs and felt in his belt for the Shell Cell. Finding it he could have cheered with joy…but he didn't for fear of Stockman hearing and realising that they must have found something to help themselves with. Handing the phone to Leo, he continued speaking, "who are you phoning?"

"Master Splinter – he'll help us get out of here."

"But we can't get out of here,"

"Why not?"

"We have to get that device," Donnie shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"No, Donnie; if we stay here, we'll all end up dead,"

"But what about you?"

"Maybe this is the way things are meant to be."

"No," Raph's sleepy and pained voice growled from the other side of Donnie, "I'm not leaving here 'til we get that antidote."

"You won't have a choice in the matter," Leo pointed out very matter-of-factly, "because you, bro, will be carried out of here anyway."

"Try me," Raph challenged.

"Don't be an idiot, Raph," Donnie sighed while Leo dialled Splinter's number. When the rat picked up, he sounded very confused,

"My sons, where are you? Donatello?"

"No, Sensei, it's Leo, and we've been captured by the Shredder's brothers. We can't get out of here we need your help."

"Have you got the antidote?"

"No…we're leaving without it…if we stay here any longer we'll end up dead." Leo spoke reproachfully, anxious as to what response this news would get. There was a pause on the other end, longer than felt comfortable.

"My son, this is your choice to make, but choose wisely. And---what the----keep away, fiends --- Leonardo, I will try to be there, but I'm under attack from…the Shredder's brothers!"

"Sensei? Sensei!" Leo tried to get a response but Splinter was no longer there. Instead, it was Roshiri's voice they heard down the phone.

"Whoever you are, the rat is unable to take this call at the present time. Phone back in two days time." They hung up and left Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey dumbfounded.

"Two days?" Mikey questioned, having managed to crawl over to the others.

"The poison's work will have finished in two days – they will have no need for us anymore. By then, I will be missing a tongue and all fingers and toes," Donnie grimaced sadly.

"And my feet will be gone!" Mikey whimpered.

"And I'll be on a one-way road to the afterlife with punctured lungs – great." Raph growled, "And Leonardo here will be overrun by poison and beyond all forms of help – fantastic."

"The sarcasm was barely detectable, Raph," Mikey allowed himself a genuine smile.

"Who says I was being sarcastic?" Raph replied wincing again as he accidentally knocked his ribs with an arm. Leo rolled his eyes,

"Guys, we obviously aren't getting out of here tonight – let's at least get some sleep and build up a little more strength to deal with whatever happens to us tomorrow," he sighed, looking at the dismal room around them. The four reptilian brothers barely slept due to the extreme and excessive amounts of pain they were going through, although they all had their eyes shut and were pretending so at least they weren't aggravating their wounds or over-taxing themselves.

In the early hours of the morning, the opening of the door caused their eyes to snap open. The four human brothers walked in and went to tie the four turtles up again. Roshiri re-chained Raph to the wall, which was not a problem. Mikey, also, was tied back up with very little problem. Donnie went with a little more protesting than any of the others but he was eventually tied down to the rack again. However, after Ramakha tied up Leo he was barely a metre away when Leo let out a wild shriek and started shaking trying to clutch at his side with his bound hands, which proved to be very difficult. Raph's eyes, which had previously been shut to try and block out what was happening, snapped open and the turtle desperately looked over to where Donnie was struggling against his bonds and pleading with the humans.

"Please, let me go to him – he's having a blackout – or at least untie him," he begged, receiving back-up from the furious Raph,

"Donnie's right – you can't possibly be that heartless, can ya?" Raph turned his head back to Leo and tried to use his one good arm to drag himself closer to his brother, but it hurt him too much.

"Leo," Mikey whispered, eyes glued to his oldest brother.

"I think we'll leave him," Roshiri examined his nails, unconcerned by the pain of the blue-clad turtle.

"Roshiri's right," Reginald and Ronald agreed in unison, then looking for the support of Ramakha, who shrugged and knelt beside Donnie,

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

"Sorry won't help my brother," Donnie spat back.

Meanwhile, Raph had managed to get close enough to Leo that he could reach him with his good arm. He held onto his brother and pulled him closer, resisting the urge to scream as the chains pulled tight against his fractured right ankle. Grabbing Leo's hand, he whispered to him, words that nobody else could hear.

"C'mon, bro, fight it – please – and you ain't never gonna hear me beg like this again – but we won't make it through this without ya – I know we won't – please, bro, fight it – come on, Leonardo!"

"Sorry…Raph…" Leo stammered, gripping his brother's hand tightly.

"Please, bro….please…" Raph stopped as Leo passed out.

"YOU – GET AWAY FROM THERE!" Roshiri stormed over and pushed Raph backwards, causing the turtle to yelp in agony. Raph wasn't to be dissuaded so easily though as he spoke back to Roshiri with fierce strength that far surpassed the current strength of his body.

"HE IS MY BROTHER!" he raised his voice, "AND IF YOU THINK FOR ONE SECOND YOU AND YOUR PATHETIC BROTHERS CAN KEEP ME AWAY WHEN HE NEEDS ME THEN YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING!"

"How dare you…" Roshiri hissed silkily, picking up a large rock from pile and knocking the red-clad turtle unconscious.

"Roshiri, enough," Ramakha spoke with clear and rational authority from where he was now knelt by Leo, "this one will be out for a couple of hours at least, I should think, as will his brother be now you have done that."

"He shouldn't have spoken back to me like that," Roshiri declared resolutely.

"What would you have done if we had been in their place? Would you have stood by and let one of us, your brothers, go through as much pain as that?"

"No…"

"Then you should understand their position – and they weren't even trying to escape. Raphael was just trying to help; yes, he has a temper, as we know from the time of our alliance, but when it comes down to it he is always there." Ramakha sighed, "Come on – we will wait and resume this when all four are conscious."

"No, we do it now. If you want to leave it then fine, but we're continuing with ours,"

"Then Raphael gets several hours off, doesn't he? And you're telling me you would beat Leonardo while he is unconscious?"

"Yes, we would – and Ronald will, won't you, Ronald?" Roshiri threatened his brother with a knife, but Ramakha could not see this.

"And since when were you in charge?" Ramakha growled.

"I never said I was – but I'm saying we will do as we like on this – and Ronald will carry on with the rest of us, won't you, Ronald?"

"Yes, of course," Ronald answered, trying to make it sound as enthusiastic as possible, but it didn't come off too well.

"Very well – I will be back later. We will not start the next stage until tomorrow so don't try it or I shall know." Ramakha finished, sticking his nose up and stalking out of the room in a regal fashion.

Donnie and Mikey tried to stay positive all through their torture but knowing one brother had many broken limbs and had now been unconscious for five hours while the other was also out cold and being beaten at the same time was most disconcerting. Leo finally came round six hours after torture had started and he awoke with a strike to his stomach.

"What's going on?" he moaned groggily.

"Take one guess?" Ronald mocked him, striking the turtle down as he tried to push himself up onto hands and knees. Half an hour later, Raph also came round and looked about him just as the human brothers were beginning to get bored of the same torture method over and over. Once the seventh hour since it had begun passed, the three remaining human brothers left, feeling pleased with themselves, while Donnie fell off the rack, unable to move and Mikey slumped to the floor with cuts and bruises all over his head, neck and shoulders. Donnie had not been stretched so that it would cause lasting damage or discomfort – he had been suddenly stretched and then made to go loose again and Roshiri decided to have a little fun by going over the noughts and crosses marks once he got tired of Donnie's screams from the rack itself. Mikey, also, had suffered something slightly different to what had been planned for him. Instead of having bits of flesh gouged out he had Reginald slowly cutting and bruising him and basically using him like a living punch-bag.

"Leo…psst, hey, Leo!" Donnie croaked to his brother, who seemed to be lying motionless on the floor, "Leo, answer me!"

"What…?" Leo groaned.

"We can get that device tomorrow."

"How…?" Leo shivered, knowing the poison was coursing through him without mercy as they spoke.

"Well, Ronald has the controlling device, and he's meant to be cutting my fingers and toes off tomorrow." Donnie sounded almost cheerful and it confused Mikey.

"Dude…you shouldn't sound…so happy," he spoke slowly as the cuts all over his face re-opened if he moved his mouth too much or opened it too wide. Unfortunately, he was exhausted so when he went to yawn, several of the wounds opened up and he whimpered softly.

"I'm not – I just think I can get it off him when he goes to tie me up tomorrow," Donnie also yawned hugely.

"And if he doesn't?" Raph's weak voice sounded from the wall, "They don't necessarily tie up the one they're going to torture."

"Then whoever is being tied up by Ronald has to get it."

"We're not getting it," Leo snapped, "we're getting out of here,"

"But Splinter's been captured," Mikey blurted out, "he was our last hope."

"No…we still have April and Casey – they might help us."

"How do we contact them?" Raph sighed, "they ain't gonna go to the lair, are they? And we can't get to them through Shell Cell."

"The Lair – that's it!" Leo snapped his fingers, "we call Spl---" he shuddered and then lurched forward, throwing up violently and barely managing to move so he would miss landing in his own vomit before falling forwards onto his face and gasping shallowly for breath. The tragedy of it was that none of his brothers could reach him and Donnie could only just achieve getting his Shell Cell out of his own belt and dialling Splinter's number. But the voice that answered it was not Splinter's – it was Ramakha's.

"Donatello, what do you think you are doing?"

"How'd you know it was me?" Donnie asked, surprised, momentarily forgetting that the person on the other end of the phone was an enemy.

"Your name flashed up on the screen – listen, you must get out now – I'm on watch of Stockman's monitor so I can turn a blind eye – I don't want to see you get killed. I can't give you the antidote, for my brother Ronald carries it, but I can save three out of four of you right now."

"What's the catch?"

"That you go back to my old house where my family's graves are – I left the address in your lair – and change the flowers once a month. Also, I wish to be buried alongside them when I am dead,"

"That's all? You would do that for us?"

"Go, now."

"But we can barely move…"

"Your Sensei is waiting at the edge of the forest along with your friends, Casey and April – after I left; I journeyed to your lair and freed him, then going to the living quarters of the Joneses and getting them to bring down a large van to the edge of the forest and telling them to wait there for you."

"One problem – Raph can't walk, Leo is in no state to do anything and Mikey and I can hardly support our own weight, let alone anyone else's.

"Then you must get out on your own, Donatello, and bring your Sensei and the Joneses to the hut, by which time I will have shut down Stockman's monitor."

"Ok – Ramakha? Thank-you; as Leo would say, you truly have honour and he who lives with honour shall die with honour," Donnie hung up, "Ok, guys, I'll be back in a couple of hours – or if I'm not then Splinter, April and Casey will be – we're gonna be ok,"

"What about the antidote?" Raph asked, raising his head feebly.

"We can't get it. But this is our chance to escape – and we're on Leo's orders not to get the antidote and risk our escape. We'll see what we can do once we're clear of this hut – back soon," he crawled out of the hut and braced himself to face the forest ahead of him, on full alert for traps and other such hindrances.

A/N: - That has to be one of the longest chapters yet – and now there is only one more to go. So, my friends, the final day is approaching – get ready for it – and here are the shout outs: -

Cynlee: - gulps heh…ahem…uh…you don't have to use the chainsaw now…heh…um…draws double katana and readies self to fight Anyway, I hope you find this chapter's ending slightly less creepy, although the content of the chapter may be a little more nasty and horrible – thanks for the review!

Chibi Rose Angel: - I didn't do it, it wasn't me, Mikey is still footful – um, ok, I'm sure that's not actually a word – oh well. Now do ya forgive me? big turtle eyes I didn't hack his feet off – that may still happen yet but I'm not revealing anything! I'm glad you're still enjoying this story and hope you'll read an expansion of four pretty central characters in this story (and no, it's not the turtles!) if I do one!

BlueRaven: - I'm glad you liked it (both the chapter and your holiday!). And Spain is one of the top countries on my list to visit – my school were doing a Spanish exchange this year but it overlapped with a show I was in so I couldn't go sniff - maybe next year though. Gracias para tu critica y espero tu gusta este capitulo – um, if ya don't know Spanish then that's 'Thanks for your review and I hope you like this chapter…I think!

Lioness Goddess: - I agree completely – they are poopy-heads! And Leo woke up… J …anyway, I'm glad you liked my cliff-hanger – I was a little apprehensive about writing that one! Heh thanks, as always, for your review!

BubblyShell22: - I will have to check that CD out – I've never heard it – she's not really that popular where I live! I'm glad you can review again now – I did wonder what happened to ya! It's great that you're back and thanks for your review!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: - Ok everyone, I'm going on holiday from the 26th August to the 2nd September so there won't be an update next week - but I promise that the last chapter will be up before the 6th September as that's when I go back to school and I want this to be done before then.

Thanks and keep reviewing! See you in a bit!