Chapter 6: Healing Stats and Meditative States:

Master Splinter (2003) POV:

As I held my unconscious son's head in my lap, I heard the distinct sound of a scuffle behind but for once my youngest had my full focus without even trying. Usually, he'd act up in training for my attention but this was no act. This was real.

My son was in pain.

Because of his family.

Because of my choice for the training idea.

Without a doubt, I felt guilt. Even knowing that they had some sort of emotional link with their brothers, I paired a fragile and spiritually strong child with my most emotionally unstable child and now my youngest was paying for it with the overwhelming anger of his older brother. I feel like I've purposefully set them up for this; when in reality I simply wanted them to try and show their true potential.

I don't know how any of this could have gotten anymore out of hand than it already has. And I'm the end cause of it all. I should have known better. Raphael has always hated losing to Michelangelo, and pairing him with Baby Orange was a mistake. I had a feeling this would be the outcome and yet I forgot one of my sons insecurities of losing to the baby of the family.

I may as well have caused the pain with my own two paws at this rate.

But now was no time for self blame. Anymore negative emotion and Michelangelo could end up even more hurt.

I must fix this.

With that in mind, I began to meditate and try to get in touch with my son, who needed help. Not the help of his Master; but the help of his father. I know I raised them ninja first, and kids second but even then, doing that now would be too cruel.

Spiritual Plane

I glanced around carefully, seeing the raving red of one of my red banded sons as if flared protectively around a small orange flame that seemed to be flickering on and off as if containing some sort of burst. The calm blue of my eldest was almost completely overshadowed by a flaring blue light that seemed to be fighting against Leonardo. Two purple lights seemed to fuse and merge briefly before parting and tangling gently instead; helping each other, supporting one another.

Finally, my sights turned to the orange light seemingly pulsing in tandem with some of the other lights before calming to a small light and then bursting upwards once more.

"My son." I called as my own gray began to move towards it trying to coax it to calm down to no avail as it seemed to flinch away almost violently from me and bursting outwards once more. "My son, please hear me. Hear my voice. Your father is here. Your father is waiting for you to come back to us."

The orange light seemed almost fearful of me and my attention as it shied away from my light. Feeling next to desperate, I looked around and was shocked if not concerned when Young Michelangelo's already weak fire began to gravitate to Michelangelo's unstable light; intertwining with it, calming it and giving it the strength to continue to come back.

'He's saving my son's fire by trying to tame the emotions running through it…' I quickly realized but something didn't seem right. For some reason, Baby Orange's light wasn't returning to one singular light; it seemed to be merging with Michelangelo's…causing them to almost become one light altogether.

"No! You mustn't do this anymore little one!" I cried, desperation coloring my tone as my light flared up accidentally. "You must stay your own light or the consequences could be disastrous!"

The little light didn't seem to listen to me as it continued it's self-given job of regaining control of the wildfire in front of me. Soon, I realized that I could no more than watch on the sidelines; like most of my son's battles, like most of Michelangelo's mental issues and his fragility. I could do nothing but watch another one of my son's fix something that I created once more.

Closing my eyes, a single tear fell from my eye as I began to leave the spiritual plane, to return and see what kind of damage I have caused now.

End Splinter (2003)'s POV

Dojo -Physical Plane-: Raph (2012)'s POV

As I sat there on the back of someone who attacked my little brother just for losing one fight, my green orbs trailed to Michelangelo. The older turtle had been clutching his head and groaning before falling over in a dead faint for some reason, Donnie and Donatello were checking Mikey over while Master Splinter checked my baby brother's counterpart over. Everything was quiet save for me and Leo's growls every now and then.

"Are you sure you're okay Mikey?" Donnie asked as my freckled brother hiccupped once more before nodding, big blues wide and teary from the recent abuse on him. That shouldn't be allowed.

I'm the only one allowed to hit him.

I'm the only Raph allowed to hit him.

Everyone else I will end. Never touch my brother.

Any of them!

I watched as Mikey got up from where our resident doctor was and made his way to the downed turtle. My little brother sat on his knees in front of the other and Master Splinter placing his hand on the older turtle's head and causing a light orange glow to fill the room as we all watched our youngest begin to do something new to us.

The soft orange light enveloped us all, making my raging anger fade instead to a calm tranquil almost as if all my anger was going somewhere else. Out of me and to a new target; I had a feeling the hothead underneath me and Leo felt the same as I saw Leo's cold blue eyes go back to their calming ocean blue and Raphael stop struggling in my hold.

"W-What just happened?" Donatello asked as Donnie simply shrugged, at a rare loss in his life.

"Even if you asked me, I couldn't tell you." My brainy brother tongued the gap between his teeth before his eyes widened. "It must have something to do with what Sensei said about Mikey's intuition and his spiritual power abilities."

Me and Leo glanced at one another then at the orange banded duo and noticed the orange light had faded to a pulsing aura surrounding them as Master Splinter gasped suddenly, eyes popping open from whatever meditative state he was in.

"Your brother is healing my son." He panted, one paw coming up to hold his heart area. "But, I have a feeling we're not through yet."

We all exchanged concerned glances as me and Leo removed ourselves from Rapheal's shell and stood in front of the small rodent mutant. "Explain."

I winced, knowing Leo wasn't typically cold and calculating but our family was starting to get hurt from people within this household and he wasn't happy. Yes, they helped us reunite and are trying to help us find a way home. But, their family member attacked one of our own simply over a sparring match.

That's a Big Brother's Rule Breaking of the fifth degree.

"Please," Master Splinter looked at me, Donnie, and Leo as we stayed standing. "Sit. I'll explain everything."

We exchanged glances once more before falling to a proper knee sitting position like our out of it brother.

End Raph (2012)'s POV

Splinter looked at all the turtles seated in front him, all with varying looks of concern and in Raphael's case, guilt. The old rat sighed as he looked down at his lap, trying to find the words on how to break this down.

"My sons, and I mean all of you as my sons," He began at last. "It seems like Michelangelo and Young Michelangelo are more in tune with the Spiritual World than I believed. I knew since they were young that they would always be more inclined to this world but...I didn't believe it would be to this extent."

The turtles all stared in various degrees of confusion and intrigued curiosity, Splinter continued after a moment. "Young Michelangelo is attempting to help your brother stabilize after Raphael's outburst earlier. It caused his empathy link to evolve into something new; something his body wasn't ready for. In doing so, his body shut down as his mind tried to comprehend the sudden power boost. It would seem Young Michelangelo seemed to know this already and entered a meditative state in order to help but, their lights are too similar and the spiritual powers they both have are trying to merge into one power. We must find a way to stop that from happening for that would cause them both to become nothing more than dependent on one another, for one would control both bodies and mind while the other would simply be the puppet on the string."

Gasps of horror rang through the air before everyone's eyes looked back over to the youngest, who were trapped in their own state of mind in healing.

"How do we stop it?" Purple whispered, face pulling into so many different emotions as his hands trembled and he bit his bottom lip worriedly.

"You will all have to enter meditative states and hope that we don't interrupt the healing process before trying to get Young Michelangelo's light to release Michelangelo's." Splinter shook his head sadly. "I have tried already but it was no good. Young Michelangelo's light didn't even react to my presence. So maybe you three as his brothers will have better luck; Leonardo, you and your brothers are to try and strengthen Michelangelo's light into controlling his new powers."

The six turtles all nodded as they glanced at one another before getting into meditation positions.

"Raph," Blue began as they sat next to one another. "If what they're saying is true and Mikey's powers react to light, I need you to promise me that you're going to go into this with your emotions in check and ready to be able to control them."

"Leo, most of the time you speak, I drown you out." The slightly shorter turtle grunted. "But I'm listening for once and I swear to you that I'll keep my emotions in check for Mikey. I'd do anything for the little guy."

"We all would." Purple agreed, face lightening up slightly as he thought of their bond together before his face turned serious. "Let's go save Mikey."

"Booyakasha." His older brothers chuckled quietly.

As they all began to let their breathing even and their minds go quiet, they all continued to feel the comforting presence of their younger brother's aura as they began to delve deeper into the Spiritual Plane and Splinter could only watch his children go to do what he could not and hopefully succeed.

Spiritual Plane:

Blue looked around wildly, searching for his lost brother's light. Purple quickly grabbed his shoulder to keep him reigned in, they didn't want to lose another brother in the Spiritual Plane. Red seemed to be standing next to Purple almost protectively while his immediate younger brother took the initiative to keep the level head in the area.

"Okay," Donnie said at last as he looked around before squinting at a bright light in front of them. "I think I found them guys. This could...only be them, right?"

The other turtles turned to see what he was talking about and they all stopped upon seeing the giant orange flame that seemed to have a smaller orange flame intertwined around it; much like a snake. It was pulsing irregularly as if trying one of the turtle's heartbeat and then switching to the others.

Leo, Raph and Donnie stood there, not understanding what they were supposed to do now that they've seen the issue. Blue and his brothers on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what to do as they slowly made their way to the two almost completely merged lights.

"Otouto," Purple began, voice soft and soothing; almost hypnotic. "We need you to come back slowly."

The small wisps of orange light seemed to perk up at the sound of his voice, stopping from merging anymore.

"You've already helped Michelangelo-san as much as you could." The lanky turtle continued as Blue and Red sent some of their own light to try and lead their brother away from Mikey. "It's time for you to come back to us so his brothers can help him now. That's it...take it slow and easy, Michel."

"Almost there Michelangelo." Blue whispered as the orange light slowly untied from Mikey's and began to gently wrap around the younger turtles blue, red, and purple lights before starting to collect itself.

"Come on little brother," Red murmured encouragingly. "You're almost done."

The orange light settled itself in front of purple, slowly growing stronger on it's own once more before it glowed briefly and Baby Orange's spiritual form was revealed. As the tiny turtle came to be mentally, Purple caught him as he fell forward into his waiting arms.

"Nice...catch, nii-san." panted Baby Orange as his eyes began to close before he yelped as Red pinched the skin on his arm. "Raph-niichan, why'd you do that?"

"Because, Sensei once said," Blue cut in, rolling his eyes at his red banded brother's antics. "Never fall asleep in the Spiritual Plane, the results could be disastrous. You could never return to the Physical Plane."

Baby Orange looked at him eyes wide and scared, yet still so tired. "B-But…Leo-niichan, tsukareta!"

Blue looked put out for a moment, tempted to give in thanks to the puppy eyes before being cut off by Purple.

"You can rest soon otouto." He promised, arms wrapping tighter around his baby brother. "For now, we have to help Michelangelo-san; it seems without Mikey's support he's starting to get out of control."

True to word, the once gently pulsing light was now wavering, flying up and down every which way. The older turtles turned to look at their counterparts who were huddled around Baby Orange protectively, wary of their surroundings.

"Hey Blue," Raph growled, making his way towards the group of turtles who turned to him. "How da shell do we get Mikey outta here?"

"Did your sensei not teach you about the Spiritual Plane?" Red gruffed looking a bit confused. "On the spiritual plane, if your mentality is too weak to sustain itself, you die in the real world."

"Like Master Splinter said," Blue continued. "If we didn't stop Mikey from merging with Michelangelo-san then they would have believed that the one with the stronger mentality was one in the same with the weaker light. In this case Mikey's mind would have been destroyed and Michelangelo-san would have had control over his empty body."

Leo turned to look at the rampaging light that was his brother's mentality at the moment. This was based on...emotions.

"Which means," He looked at his younger counterpart. "That someone who doesn't have their emotions in check can't help? Or thinks too rationally?"

"Yes," Purple nodded. "It took me awhile to get out of my logic and my own head enough to believe that this is all true but...sensei managed to convince me."

Donnie shuffled his feet, obviously uncomfortable with giving up his logical thought process at the moment and Leo didn't have it in him to try and force his brainy brother out of his comfort zone. Raph was too emotional.

"I have to do it." The turtle's eldest brother took a deep breath as he began to step towards the orange wildfire. "Hey...Mikey, can you hear me little bro?"

The light recoiled, almost violently, at the sound of Leo's voice. Unperturbed, the forest green continued to talk and walk towards the light; hands opened in an unassuming gesture. "I know you're scared, you've always hated being alone and in the dark. It's okay though; your big brothers are here now. You're going to be okay. Everything will be okay."

The light wavered and brightened intensely before relaxing and calming down back to a steady beat. A small burst of light later and there stood Michelangelo Splinterson, looking exhausted and weary but happy nonetheless.

"You're late Leo." He joked weakly before stumbling forward.

"I know." The other chuckled. "I know but...now we can go home."