A/N: Let's get back to action!

Chapter 67

I moved Michelangelo to his room, in hopes it would comfort him. He has only awoken once and in severe pain. After a few swallows of medicated tea, he was asleep once more. However, something is not right. He grows paler by the hour and I wonder if I have moved him from the lab prematurely. I changed his wound dressings twice more. It is when I pinch his toe and he remains unresponsive that I realize something is terribly wrong.

As his body temperature drops and his breathing appears almost nonexistent, I sense something amiss in his spirit. His comatose body continues to fail and I do not know what to do. Donatello, my brilliant son, would run his tests and know exactly what is wrong but he is not here. April shows me the news broadcast from her laptop, allowing me to see video clips of my son running rampant through the streets of Chinatown. I fear for my son… for all of my sons. They are openly exposed to the dangers of humanity above. I wish to be with them, but I cannot leave Michelangelo—he may not have much time left in this world.

"Sensei." April's soft voice penetrates my thoughts.

"Yes, April."

"I don't think he's breathing." The quiver in her voice as well as her words alert me to my son's still form. Had he truly passed on without me noticing? "He's not breathing, but he's not dead either."

"I do not understand." I start to become frantic as I try to listen for my son's heart. When I hear nothing I press my fingers against his neck. Nothing.

"His aura is still here, just not here." April taps his plastron. She has my full attention as I struggle to understand the immense level of psychic energy she possesses for one so young. It takes me several moments later to finally sense that Michelangelo's aura is indeed vacant from his body though his spiritual residue still lingers there. Yes. Not dead, but not fully alive; somewhere in-between.

"Concentrate, April. Where is Mikey's aura?" Understanding the urgency, she closes her eyes, pressing her fingers against her temples.

"He… he left a trail… to the surface…." She gasps, her eyes wide as saucers. "He was in Chinatown."

"What do you mean he was in Chinatown?" It is a rhetorical question. I know exactly why Michelangelo was in Chinatown; if Donatello cannot be reached in the physical realm then my spontaneous son would naturally try the spirit world. "Where is he now?"

"I… I don't know, the trail is fading… I… I think he's leaving the city."

"Call Leonardo and give me the phone." April pulls out her phone and after tapping a few buttons, hands me the phone.

I sigh when my son's voicemail comes on. "Leonardo. You and brother must come home immediately. Michelangelo needs us and I fear he does not have much time left." April calls Raphael as well and I leave him the same dire message. If Michelangelo's spirit continues to drift from his body, he will lose his connection with this world—permanently. I may have already lost one son, I cannot lose another.

It's another 12 minutes before Raphael bursts into Michelangelo's room, Leonardo's limp body across his back. Casey stumbles in the room a minute later.

My eyes scan over the boys' bodies for any immediate injuries that need tending to.

"No…" Raphael breathes out as he lowers Leonardo from his back, his eyes fixed on Michelangelo.

"April believes Michelangelo is still alive, but his aura is lost." I help ease Leonardo, who still has not shown any signs of conscious, beside Michelangelo on the bed. What has happened to your brother?" Please, I cannot lose another son today….

"He's good. Just gonna be sleeping off some tranq darts for a while." Casey fills me in when Raphael does not.

"And Donatello?" Raphael still does not answer, his eyes still nervously on Michelangelo.

Casey bites his lip, shaking his head. "We were outnumbered….then Leo got hit…and…and those EPF creeps took him. But Raph tagged Donnie with a tracer so we could track him later. We came as soon as we got your messages about—"

"Mikey…" Raphael drops to his knees shaking his younger brother in hopes of waking him.

"That's not going to work, Raph." April stills his hands. Raphael pulls away in frustration.

"Then what the shell are we supposed to do?!" My angry son glares at April, demanding answers as he tries to hide his fear of losing another brother.

Standing between them, I place a firm hand on Raphael's shoulder as a warning to calm his temperament. Now is the time for level-headed action, not blind panic.

"Next to Michelangelo, April is the next strongest in spiritual projections. We will join her in meditation to strengthen her energy. It is our hope that Michelangelo will hear the spiritual echo of her call and come back to us before he drifts too far and is lost to us forever."

"So you're not even sure if this is going to work?" Raphael snubs, never one fond of wasting time on untried tactics.

"We must try, Raphael," I encourage my son as I place my hand on April's shoulder. Raphael and Casey follow my lead, placing their hands on April as well.

I can feel this monster inside of me, a part of me; I can feel its rage and it becomes my shared rage as I witness Leonardo hit by a dart. I no longer hear its taunting voice and I fear its lack of vocalization means it has officially won, I'm no longer me, just feral shell of my formal self.

But Mikey doesn't see that. Mikey still thinks I'm his older brother; his older brother who didn't just rip his arm to shreds and leave him for dead. He still thinks I can fix this. Maybe he's right. Maybe I can. I've been fighting and hiding from this mutated savage side of me for too long. It's high time I put it to good use. I'm not sure who or what I am anymore, but it doesn't matter. All that matters are my brothers. My aura world shakes around Mikey and me, making my younger brother squeak in surprise.

"Uh…bro, what's going on?"

I can't answer him right now. I need to concentrate. I send my last wordless goodbye to Leonardo before I allow Mikey and myself to be enveloped inside another bubble. This time the bubble isn't for hiding, it's for fighting. The inside of the bubble becomes my personal control center as I mentally create a wall of buttons, levels, and dials with a built-in screen that would put Super Robo Mecha Force Five to shame in order to navigate the outside world from this beastly body. "Don't touch that." I slap Mikey's hand away as he's tempted to touch one of the purple buttons on my mind-crafted control panel. I try to buy Leo, Raph, and Casey enough time to escape. I hope my plan worked because I instantly feel the absorbing sting of the electric net that entangles my physical body. Mental alarms sound as my screen flickers in and out of existence.

"Uh-oh! We're going down!" Mikey shrills as we feel the impact of crashing to the ground. In an instant the wall-sized control panel fizzles out of existence leaving us in an empty purple-hued room. Swaying, I lose my balance, nearly collapsing until Mikey grabs hold of me and we both tumble to the bottom of the bubble. Untangling ourselves, I groan as I'm starting to feel my strength become depleted.

Shackle it and load it, but give it a few more tranquilizers first. We have a long drive to the base.

I'm able to pick up pieces of the conversation from the outside world. Those agents are taking me away to a facility somewhere. Correction: they're taking us to a base. Mikey's still in my aura space.

"Mikey, you have to get out of my aura, now."

"No. I'm not leaving you, D. The others will find us in no time." He's forceful and stern as he crosses his arms, and I would find it somewhat endearing if he didn't look so serious and mature when he said it.

"You've been away from your body for a long time and I think we're traveling even farther away… you're fading." I point to his orange aura representation of himself. He's no longer the bright orange that he was when he first arrived. His color is dull and I'm starting to see right through him. "We don't know what will happen if you keep fading, but it can't be good. Go to your body." I try to usher him out of my bubble which is becoming harder and harder for me to keep big enough for the both of us.

"No!" He viciously swats me away and I back off after one too many hits to my head and plastron.

"Stop goofing around, Mikey! You have to go!" I'm tired, but I have enough strength to enforce my older brother tone.

He suddenly crashes into my plastron, arms wrapped tightly around my middle. "I won't leave you! I told you I'd always have your back and I will!" His voice cracks and a sniffle escapes as he nuzzles into my middle.

"Mikey…" Grief-stricken, I wrap my arms around my only little brother. "You have had my back, from day one. I don't know how I would have survived this ordeal without you keeping my spirits up." I press my head down until my chin rests on my plastron in order to get a good look at Mikey's face as he tries to hide it from me. I manage to pull him back a little, far enough to see his face but not so far that I can't feel the warmth of his aura near mine. "If you leave, you can have my back better than if you stay."

"How?" he asks miserably with a pout.

"You have to go back and tell the others where I am. You can help them find me."

"But how? I don't know where we are!" I can sense him on the verge of tears again.

"You will." I reach into myself, wincing as I pull a piece of my aura from my center. Opening my hand, I show Mikey the swirling purple light before pressing it into his aura. "Now you not only have my back but a part of my aura." I smirk, happy to see Mikey smile at my poor attempt at a joke.

"We're coming back for you, I promise."

"I know." I smile, but grunt shortly after as my bubble shrinks a few more inches around us, leaving no space between us. "Sorry….it's hard to keep this space big enough for the both of us."

Mikey…. wake up… Mikey, please….

The sound is so faint and light like the sound of fluttering butterfly's wings, but I know it's our family reaching out to us somehow on the spiritual plane, calling Mikey home, and not a moment too soon.

"Good-bye, Mikey." I kiss his forehead, before shoving him out of the bubble. Exhausted, I collapse to the floor of my bubble. I have just enough room to pull my knees to my chest. My family will find me. I just have to hold on a little longer.

"It's not working," Raph doubts, but still holds on to me. I focus harder, continuing to send out psychic echoes calling out to Mikey.

"He's been like this for a while… doesn't your brain stop working after the first ten minutes?" Casey whispers quietly into my ear.

I'm not giving up on Mikey, not yet. "It's six minutes, now shut up and let me—" A force pushes against my psyche. It's small but noticeable. "Mikey?..." There's a whistling sound like something falling from the sky. I press my hand harder against Mikey's forehead. The whistling gets louder, ringing painfully in my ear but I hold fast. The whistling ends with a resounding boom.

I shriek when Mikey gapes for air like a fish as he jackknives up. "Donnie!" he cries out and the sound of his voice is more painful than the descent of his aura back into his body. Master Splinter cradles him to his chest as he sobs hysterically for his brother. Leo groans, the commotion around him waking him as Casey helps him sit up.

"Oof!" I find myself gasping for air as Raphael squeezes me in an embrace that lifts me off my feet.

"April, you brought him back." When my feet touch the floor again, Raphael holds me at arm's length breathing out a thank you.

I force a smile. He has nothing to thank me for. Donnie's still out there missing… all alone.

I look at my boyfriend's ragtag team of family and friends and feel bombarded by the atmosphere of emotions. Master Splinter's fear is subdued but ever present as he comforts Mikey. The youngest brother is limp in his father's arms with sad glossy eyes staring off in the distance as he vacantly holds his arm. Raph restrains his usual vocal temperament with uncharacteristic silence while Leo's mind is loud and filled with a fog of mixed emotions as Casey brings him up to speed on everything that's happened. Casey glances over his shoulder catching my eyes and we both wonder how to help our friends. In that same glance we also share a certainty that between the six of us we will find Donnie. No matter what.

End

A/N: As always thanks for reading and please review! Epilogue coming next as a final author's note.

See you in the Epilogue,

Poetique