Hey guys! For those awaiting the new chapter of 'Deep', I have been working on it but I'm having a bad week (oh boy, am I having a bad week!) and right now I should be studying not writing but WTF. I apologise for my sparodic updates in all my fics, but ya know how it is. Thanks as always to all those who have reviewed and the same old warning again: I don't have a spellcheck programme and if I've missed anything or made a mistake, don't worry about drawing my attention to it.

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Leonardo always awoke early but this day, he left his room rather than concentrate on his meditation with the explicit intent of talking to Mikey. He couldn't let the issues between them go unresolved. If he were ever to regain their trust, he had to earn it and that meant persuading Mikey that he was on their side over Master Saki's, every time without fail.

Even without his habit of early rising, it was unlikely that Leo would have remained in bed. He had been lying awake half the night wondering about his brothers words. Was he too concerned about emulating Saki, so immersed in the life of the Foot that he failed to look out for his siblings? Of all of them, it was Mikey who had the most reason to think that. He had been disfigured by their Sensei and although it had never been spoken of since, maybe Mikey still harboured some resentment against Leo. After all, he was their leader, the one who was supposed to look out for them. And how exactly had he looked out for Mikey? He hadn't even realised something was about to happen and after it had, he had put the incident to the back of his mind. Perhaps he should have gotten his brothers away from the Foot right then. . .

You were NINE, what the hell could you have done?

The thought was true, but Leo still felt guilty. Surely there was some action he could have taken, even if it was just to discuss his options with the others and make them see that he didn't always have all the answers, that he had done what he thought was best. Maybe he wasn't always right - but he had been nine years old, what could he have done to get them away? And would that have been the right thing or just another mistake?

Reaching Mikey's room, he knocked loudly on the door and let himself in when he received no reply. He wasn't going to let his brother ignore him this time.

But there was no one in the room.

Frowning, Leo walked over to the bed. Nothing looked any different than it had the night before when he went looking for Mike, but something was setting all his instincts on alert - and then he realised what it was. Nothing looked any different. The same book was open on the bed, the same carelessly discarded shuriken lay on the pillow. It was unlikely that even Mikey could sleep with those bedfellows and even less likey that he wouldn't dislodge them as he slept even if he hadn't moved them.

Mikey hadn't slept in his bed last night. Maybe he hadn't even been home.

Leaving the room, forcing himself not to run, Leo headed for the nearest of his brothers rooms, which happened to be Raph's, bursting in without knocking. Raph had long since rejected a conventional bed in favour of a hammock for reasons known only to himself. The sudden slam of the door opening caused him to sit up too quickly and overturn the hammock, landing him on the floor.

"Dammit!" Raph leapt to his feet, saw who was there and relaxed. "Leo! Try knocking sometime why doncha?"

"You never do," pointed out Leo, not anxious to get into a fight but unable to resist pointing that out. "Have you seen Mikey?"

"I was asleep! Why would I have seen Mikey?" But Raph's expression changed, going from irritated to overly casual and making Leo suspicious.

"We're due at training in less than an hour and his bed hasn't been slept in."

Raph cursed loudly. "I'll go ask Don."

"Right. I'll ask the kunoichi. I know he goes to see them if he can't sleep." Privately, Leo doubted anyone had seen their brother. He had a bad feeling about the situation. But Mikey couldn't just have vanished, wouldn't have just run off and left them, no matter how angry he had been.

Would he?

Raph didn't bother trying not to run. He fled to Donnie's room and burst in, shaking his brother awake with a feeling very close to panic.

"Whuh. . ." Donnie raised his head sleepily from the pillow. "Raph?"

"Mikey's not home."

Immediately, Donnie forgot all about sleep. "But - that means he's been gone for hours! What if he's gone for good? You know he'd never defy Sensei like this unless he had a damn good reason!"

"I know."

"You said he'd come back."

"I know!" Raph scowled in aggrivation. "He would. He'd come back no matter what. I know he would. Unless he couldn't."

"You think something happened to him?"

"I - I don't know." Raph sat on the end of Donnie's bed and rested his head in his hand. "I should have gone after him last night. I shouldn't have let him run off."

"Hey, you couldn't have stopped him." Don rested a hand on Raph's shell. "There's only one way we'll know for sure if Mikey came back here last night."

"How?"

"We go to training and act surprised if he doesn't show."

"What the hell does that help? If Mikey does come back and he's just late, he'll be in big trouble!"

"He might just not want to talk to us and then he'll show. And if Saki makes an excuse, we'll know that he knows more than he's telling. And we have to be careful now. If Mikey has done something rash or if he's run off, we can't let Saki know we know about Splinter."

Raph tried to translate this. "So, we act like we know nothing?"

"Shouldn't be too much of an act for you," replied Donnie with a weak smile.

"I don't like this Don," said Raph, getting to his feet. "I'm worried. This isn't like Mikey at all."

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There were only three turtles who turned up to training in the dojo that morning. They lined up in their typical formation, exchanging worried glances at each other. Master Saki was running late too, which did nothing to appease their fears, but they knew better than to converse in the dojo, even if Sensei wasn't there.

A few minutes into their customary training hour, the door swung open and Saki entered. The three bowed to him and their Master nodded, seeming distracted.

"We shall begin."

"Master Saki," began Leo, unusaullly reticent. "Shouldn't we wait for Michelangelo?"

"Oh, were you not informed?" Saki gave them a cold smile. "Michelangelo was taken sick last night. He is quarantined in the medical unit until it can be fathomed what ails him. Now, on with your training. Leonardo, you will be facing Raphael and Donatello. Attempt to subdue them both. You have five minutes and then you shall switch. Begin."

Raph and Donnie tried hard not to look in each others direction. Saki's story was confirmation to them that something about Mikey's sudden disappearance wasn't as it seemed. Instead, they tried to concentrate on taking Leo down. After five minutes, it was Don's turn to have two opponents, followed by Raph.

"Not bad," said Saki when they had finished. "I have a task for you three this evening. Report back to me at nine tonight. For now, I must cut short your session. I have important matters to take care of."

The three turtles bowed to their Sensei as he left the dojo and finally Raph and Donnie allowed themselves to meet each others eyes, sick with worry. Leo noticed and tried not to comment.

"Don, Raph, do me a favour," he said urgently. "Don't leave the building for a while. Stay where I can find you."

"It's broad daylight Leo," growled Raph. "Where the hell would we go?"

"Looking for Mikey?"

Raph blinked, speechless. It hadn't occured to him that Leo would find anything odd about Sensei's story, although it didn't surprise him to have his plans second-guessed by the leader.

Leo lowered his voice. "Just trust me, for once, please. Don't go anywhere. Give me a chance to think."

"We'll stay here," said Don, shooting a warning look at Raph.

"Thanks Don." Leo walked out of the dojo, leaving Raph and Donnie to wonder just what their brother had in mind.

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In truth, Leo had no plan in mind. He was too confused by what had been happening over the past few weeks. Saki, his brothers, Splinter - he just needed to clear his head before he made any judgements and he needed to know that Raph and Donnie wouldn't get into any trouble while he did so.

Once back in his own room, he shot a longing glance at the computer in the corner. It was nowhere near as sophisticated as Donnie's, but it allowed him to send mails and at that moment he longed to talk to Karai. She always managed to put things into perspective for him and right now, he could use a little perspective on matters. He turned on the machine and waited the thirty seconds or so for the screen to come up - and in that short time, he changed his mind. Much as he wanted to talk to her, some instinct was screaming at him not to. It was a first. There had never been a time before that day when he hadn't felt he could ask Karai's advice about anything, but he had learned never to ignore his instincts and right then, they were saying that speaking to Karai was exactly the wrong thing to do.

With a sigh, he turned the computer back off and instead lit a candle, settling down into his usual spot and preparing to meditate. Clearing his mind was difficult. He was distracted, nervous, worried. It took all of his concentration to put all that to one side and focus. . .

For a time there was nothing save for the usual feeling of freedom and calm that came with meditation and in his trance, Leo's body lost it's tension, relaxing, his mind consumed with the spiritual.

And suddenly, there was a vision before him.

Leo had heard of such things happening during meditation, the mind leaving the body and transcending the physical plane, but it had never happened to him before and it was all he could do to keep his focus, to not lose what he had.

The scene before him was familiar and yet unknown. He seemed to be at floor level, able to sense the blanket beneath him but not to feel it in the traditional manner. He was aware of someone beside him and knew without having to look that it was Donatello, fast asleep. He could hear breathing, gentle snoring and realised it was his brothers - all his brothers, Mikey and Raph at the other side of Donnie.

There was someone in his line of sight, a tall figure, or so it seemed from his vantage point on the floor. Not a man. Someone hunched and hairy, carrying a bag. The figure stowed the bag away and approached the four turtles. Leo didn't feel threatened however, he felt safer than he had done before. He closed his eyes . . .

And suddenly snapped them open again, aware of noise and movement and something alien invading the territory. Movement from beside him and Raph was flying toward the disturbance, a Raph that was tiny and defenceless but still prepared to fight.

There were people everywhere, people dressed in black. The tallest one had the hairy figure in one hand, examining him and as Raph attacked, he bent and grabbed the turtle by the shell, turning him this way and that like the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

"Waff! Bad man got Waff!"

Another turtle shot from the pile of blankets they lay in and Leo knew it was Mikey. Beside him, Don jumped to his feet and Leo follwed suit, knowing he had to save his brothers and his -

- Sensei -

- From the intruders, aware that there was nothing he could do. . .

Jumbled images of being carried, subdued, his brothers screaming and yelling, some kind of vehicle taking them away. And finally, a white room, windowless, featureless. Raph hollering and trying to knock the door down. Don, examining the room carefully. Mikey crouched against the wall, bewilidered. And himself, not knowing what the hell was going on.

And then someone entering the room.

Karai!

"My Sensei saved you from the nasty bad rat man."

"Kept you hidden in the sewer."

"Splinter's dead."

"You can live with us. We can be friends."

Friends. . .

Leo snapped out of his trance, unable to maintain the concentration needed. Not a vision. A memory, long forgotten. Living with someone else, before they moved into the Foot headquarters.

Splinter. It was hard to mistake the rat for anyone else. The memory had Leo feeling safe when he arrived, his brothers at peace. And then the Foot, overrunning their home.

Was it possible that Splinter had affected him to the point where his meditations were disturbed by the ramblings of an insane rat? No. Leo knew well enough how to free his mind of distraction and that meditation led him to answers, not always welcome ones but answers all the same.

The rat was telling the truth all along.

Not moving, Leo worked through the vision, memory, whatever. That Splinter was telling the truth all along wasn't the part that concerned him the most. It was Karai.

Karai had been there. She had to have known all along what had happened to them, that Saki had been deceiving them, deceiving him - and she had let him go on believing the lie. She had lied to him. She had lied to him for years, pretending to be his friend while all the time she lied to him about where he had come from, who he was. . .

He got to his feet, trying to force the anger down until such time as it could be useful to him. Screw diplomacy. He needed to tell his brothers what he knew and force the truth out of them. If they continued to skate around the issue, Mikey would be in serious danger, if even half of what Leo believed was possible. And there was no way that Leo was sacrificing his brother just to preserve the status quo that the lie gave them.

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Raph paced the room, Don trying to calm him down. As usual, they had retired to Donnie's room and he was concerned that if Raph decided to get any more worked up, he might do some damage just to let off some steam. Had they been in Raph's room, it would probably already be in ruins.

"I think we should take off," said Raph, pulling out one of his daggers and spinning it around. "Leo's probably gone to ask Saki a lot of pointless questions and swallow a bunch of lies. Mikey wasn't sick."

"I know he wasn't, but Leo did ask us to wait here . . ."

A sun and moon dagger impaled itself in the wall about a foot above Donnie's head. There was no danger of it hitting him, but it cut of his words immediately. When Raph started hurling weapons at things, a full-blown explosion of violence wasn't usually far behind. The Dragons had given him an outlet to blow off some of that anger, making it rarer to see him go nuclear, but the worry about his brother, the uncertainty of Splinter and the fact that the Dragons had been way down his list of things to do recently meant that his patience was at breaking point.

"I'm sick of waiting!" Raph stormed over to the wall and yanked the dagger from it. "I say, we go now."

"We can't."

The door had opened so quietly that neither Raph nor Don had heard it. They both turned in a hurry and saw Leo standing there. He closed the door gently behind him and approached, looking unsurprised at the scene before him.

"Don, are we safe to talk in here?"

"Why, you think someone might have bugged the room?" He meant it to be a joke, but when Don saw the lack of amusement in Leo's face, he realised that was exactly what Leo thought. "Well, yeah. Safe as it's gonna get. I still use the magnetic frequency dampener in here that I came up with a few months ago and I know that no one's been able to overcome it, not that I'm aware of. Stockman made it his personal mission, but he's stopped bragging about how he's gonna nail it soon and I think he's given up trying. Sometimes I like to test the new bugs out in here to see if I've found anything that can beat it but. . ." He trailed off, realising he was babbling.

Leo folded his arms. "We can't go anywhere, not right now. It'll be like advertising to Saki that we don't believe him and that we're part of some conspiracy along with Mikey. That won't help him, or us."

"You don't believe him?" Raph was sneering, the look on his face advertising that he was spoiling for a fight with someone, anyone, and Leo had just volunteered to be the unlucky opponent. "Wow, and you always say that Master Saki can do no wrong."

"I've never said that."

"Oh sure, Fearless Leader, Saki Junior, standing here and giving out orders when he doesn't even know anything!"

"Raph. . ."

""Well I'm through with sitting around and waiting for you to come up with a plan! I'm goin out and I am finding Mikey."

"Raph!"

"And you ain't stopping me." Raph stormed over to Leo and got in his face. "Don't even try."

"RAPH!" Leo shouted into his brothers face. Usually he was the one to walk away from their fights, knowing no good would come of brawling and when he didn't back off, neither would Raph. He had seconds to talk his brother into listening. "If you don't calm down and listen to me then something really bad is going to happen to Mikey and if it does, I am going to hold you personally responsible. So back off and shut the hell up!"

Raphael hesitated, still wanting to let his fists do the talking but the mention of Mikey cut through the red mist in his head. Making sure Mikey was safe should be the first priority with taking out his anger coming later - but he found it so hard to be rational when his thoughts were saying someone has to pay, I'll teach him to be so high and mighty when Mikey might be hurt or - or worse. . .

Leo didn't drop his gaze and Raph narrowed his eyes, trying to force the fury away.

"Hey." Donnie put his hand on Raph's arm, forcing him to break eye contact with Leo. "He's right. If you storm off now, we might never be able to find Mike. We need to stick together, think of something."

Raph growled and glared back at Leo. "Fine. You got a plan, Fearless Leader? Tell us about it. And if it don't work. . ."

"I've thought of something," replied Leo, forcing himself not to sigh in relief. A leader was only effective as long as those he led were willing to follow and he knew without them, the three of them working together, there was no hope of their brother being found safe. "But I don't have the whole story."

"You seem to have worked most of it out for yourself," said Donnie, looking suspiciously at Leo. "What do you need us to tell you?"

"I need to know about Splinter."

Don didn't bother to hide his surprise, but nor did he waste time asking how Leo had found out. "Mikey went down there, to high security, doind a favour for the kunoichi that died. He saw Splinter, got talking to him. He told Raph and Raph told me and the three of us went down there and heard his story. He said that the four of us weren't part of an experiment at all - "

"I know the story," cut in Leo. "Then what happened?"

"Uh. . . Mikey was really worked up about it and thought we should do something but Raph and I didn't know if we should trust Splinter or not. I guess last night Mikey was tired of worrying and that's why he lost his temper and we never saw him again after he left the room."

"Mikey doesn't usually charge in blindly," said Leo thoughtfully. "But he's never been especially restrained or patient either. I think we have to assume he tried to act without us and was caught."

"No shit Leo." Raph resumed spinning his daggers. "Question is, what do we do about it?"

"First thing; we don't go down to solitary, no matter what."

"Ya not serious! We might find something down there - hell, Mikey might be down there!"

"And if Mikey was caught down there, don't you think there might be added security?" Leo waited for Raph to nod in reluctant agreement before continuing. "Even if he's down there, how would we get him and Splinter out? And then get through the skyscraper to the exit, find somewhere to lie low and recover from the battle? We need to think ahead."

"We need to do something fast!"

"I know. And we will."

"Actually," said Don, slightly reluctant to add to his brothers worries. "I don't think we need to worry about Saki actually - y'now, killing him."

The other two winced and Donnie looked at them guiltily. "I'm sorry, but you can't deny you were worried about it. I was, I still am. I could be wrong. But Mikey's of more use to Saki alive than he is dead."

Leo and Raph looked at him with hope. Leo uncrossed his arms for the first time and for a moment it looked like he might smile - but then he considered the words properly and frowned instead. "Care to explain that?"

"Mikey's a good fighter, Saki knows that. It's just that he's lost his loyalty to the Foot Clan. If he could be re-educated, brainwashed, he could be back here and working for Saki again pretty soon. Or he could be held as an incentive to the three of us, meaning that there's no way we could ever go against him, never leave the Foot, because if we did our brother would pay the price. Or, if nothing else. . . we're pretty unique in case you haven't noticed. I'll bet Stockman would do just about anything to get his hands on a generous sample of DNA. Hell, even without Stockman, Saki could just name his price and Mikey's gone to some lab before we could do anything to stop him."

"But that would mean, he might already be gone!" Raph punched a wall. "We can't hang around any more! We have to act!"

"Not yet. Tonight." Leo looked at the floor rather than at the faces of his brothers. "I want to go now, as much as you do, but our best chance of succeeding is - "

"Ya wanna leave Mikey's life up to chance?"

"No! But like Donnie said, there are other possibilities and to arrange for Mikey to leave Foot headquarters would take time. Odds are, he's still in here somewhere. They won't try to move him until dark. And by then, we'll be able to put our plan into action."

"There's one thing bothering me, " said Donnie, not wanting to extinguish their hope that Mikey was still alive but knowing he had to say something, warn them. "Mikey knew that Raph and I knew about Splinter. But we're still here, no one's come to take us for interrogation or anything. That means that either Mikey didn't tell Saki we were involved - or that he can't."

Raph turned to Donnie, the rage rising in his eyes once more. "Ya mean, all that shit ya just spouted about Mikey being still alive was bull?"

"That's not what he said Raph." Leo closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "All it means is that we have no guarantees, only theories. No matter what, we wait until tonight and then we act."

Raph looked like he might start shouting or worse, attack Leo. Instead, he sat heavily on the bed and covered his face with his hands. "If Mikey had - if anything had happened to Mikey, we'd know."

"I agree." Leo prayed he was right. It had been a long time since they had been close, but he still hoped - no, he believed - that should one of his brothers die, he would know somehow. He felt sympathy for Raph too, because the plan would be hardest on him. Raph wore his emotions on his face. Not only did he find it harder to conceal what he was feeling, everything he felt was an extreme. Angry, bewildered and scared they may all be but it was Raphael who would have the hardest time feigning neutrality.

"Saki said something at training today about us going out tonight on a mission."

"Leo, we can't!" Don pulled out his Nagitana and began spinning it around. "You want us to go and help the Foot when we think Mikey might have been. . ."

"Hush Don." Leo raised a hand and tried to keep his voice level. Talking them into this was going to be the hardest part. "We go out on the mission. If. . ."

"We can't!"

"Donnie, we have to! We have to do this or we've no chance of helping Mikey."

Leo explained his plan, while his brothers listened with growing incredulity. As he finished, Raph shook his head slowly. "I don't see it working."

"It's the best chance we have," said Donnie, turning over the plan in his mind for problems. "There's a lot of room for error, but it's a good oppertunity. We can't afford to wait until a better one comes along."

"There's one thing I really can't work out," said Leo reluctantly. "We have to go somewhere safe, somewhere the Foot won't think of looking for us. I would say the sewer, if that's where we came from, but that's the first place they'll think to look. I don't know anywhere else we can go."

Don considered it for a moment and grinned, his first genuine smile of the day. "Leave it to me. I'll go to Stocktronics to pick up some notes, make it look like I've got a good reason to leave the skyscraper. Then I'll sort us some accomadation." He jumped up, grabbed his fedora and trenchcoat and was out of the room before the other two could ask where he was going.

Leo raised an eyeridge. "You know what he's up to?"

"I think I might."

"Raph - " Leo sat beside his brother. "We need you not to show any hostility to Saki when we see him. Make like you believe him. If you can't handle it. . ."

"I can handle it!" Raph glared at Leo. "I can save it for when we get back to get Mikey."

"And Splinter."

Raph nodded. "I hope you're right about why he wants us on a mission tonight."

"So do I," replied Leo, frowning. "But it's the only thing I can think of. And it doesn't matter. If I'm wrong, we still go in. We can't risk leaving Mikey any longer."

"Yeah. Leo?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm - sorry. That we didn't trust you sooner."

Leo rested a hand on his brothers shell. "I'm sorry I never gave you a reason to."

Raph laughed without humour. "I guess the four of us got a lot of stuff to work out, huh?"

"Yeah," replied Leo with a wry smile. "But it'll wait until later. Until our brother's safe."

"Until we get Mikey back," agreed Raphael, his eyes darkening with fury. "And we get some payback on that son of a bitch Saki. I can't wait."