"Take it easy, Donny. I'm fine. Really. Leo didn't really do anything but drag me here, and let me go."
Right. Leo didn't do anything but stab Raphael, hold his sword to my throat, and leave me wondering if he was going to kill me. Never mind about that….I'm alive.
"He let you go?" Donny asked in dismay as Mikey only shrugged off the hellish experience with a hitch of his shoulder and what was left of his crumbling cheer.
"Yeah." Mikey whispered. Swallowing hard from the sudden tears, he nodded. "Yeah, Donny. Leo let me go, and he told me good-bye."
Mikey swallowed back the sob, and kept that smile plastered on, as Donny narrowed his eyes in disbelief. He gave Mikey a cursory examination, glaring at the cut across his neck, and the bruises where Leo had gripped him. Aside from the fact that Mikey was trembling, and trying not to collapse into sobbing hysterics, his baby brother, thank God, seemed alright.
Mikey winced, and brushed off Donny's fingers with a shake of his head.
"Donny…" he said, softly. "I'm fine. We need to get back to the Lair. Look, you can poke me all you want later, but we can't leave Raph and Splinter alone, in case Leo goes back for them."
The scream was as loud as a shot-gun blast. The sounds-a weird, shuffling in the dojo, Donny and Mikey and Splinter pleading, Leo's bitter hiss, all so mangled and soft that Raphael couldn't make out anything but the fear.
Raphael bolted awake with a choking gasp, hands already scrambling for his sais. He nearly whimpered at the stabbing ache that splintered across his bad wrist. Raph was so stunned from the blinding pain that he nearly toppled back into the sheets.
The hell with laying here. His brothers were in trouble.
Shaking, and woozy, Raphael grimaced as he rolled to the edge of the bed, and thudded his feet to the floor. He snarled in pain as he curled his bad wrist to his side.
Damn it. He couldn't use his hand. Another scream was enough to make him forget everything but his family. He twirled the sai into a defensive stance with his good hand, and lurched to the dojo as quickly as he could.
He must have lost more blood than he thought, because he had to lean against the wall to stay upright as he slinked down the hallway. He hated it…sneaking around when he should have gone in with both fists swinging.
Raising his sai to throw, Raphael grunted and stepped into the dojo, and scowled at the dark red pool over the concrete floor and the mats.
Blood.
Swallowing hard, and desperately trying to ignore the quell of terror in his gut, Raphael forced himself onward.
He was struck first by the empty silence, and then dismayed when he heard it shatter with the soft sound of weeping.
Dismayed, and shaking, Raphael stared at Master Splinter. The old rat clutched a piece of bloodied, tattered blue material in his paws.
Leo's mask.
"Master Splinter, what's wrong? What happened?"
Splinter looked at Raphael with those desolate, wounded eyes, and gave him no answer, but to curl his fingers around the sliver of blue cloth.
"Raphael, you should be resting." Splinter finally answered, as he rose to gently bundle his injured son back to bed.
Raphael shrugged off the protective grip with a snarl, and turned to Splinter.
"Master Splinter, what in the hell happened? Where are my brothers?"
Splinter's lips tightened into a thin, tormented line, as he shook his head. He lay a paw on Raphael's shoulder.
Mercifully, Splinter did not have to answer. He flicked his ears towards the shuffle of footsteps. He could hear only two sets, and from the lack of dragging limps, there was no injury.
Mikey entered first. His eyes were huge, and he was trembling, but he managed to work his mouth into a bright, false grin when he saw Raphael.
Donny came after him, grim as a storm cloud. His eyes narrowed, his mouth fixed into a dark scowl.
"My sons!" Splinter lurched forward, and wrapped his arms around them, burying his face in into their necks, breathing in their scent, relishing the reassuring thud of their heartbeats.
Mikey stooped to embrace Splinter. "Dad, I'm okay." He whispered, still shaking and sick, but better, now that he was home and Leo seemed to be far away.
Donny tolerated Splinter's embrace, but he was already scowling in disapproval to see Raphael being out of bed.
Raphael narrowed his eyes and bellowed, "Damn it, somebody tell me what is going on! Now! Donny, what were you and Mikey doing? Where the hell is Leo?"
"He's gone." Mikey answered, softly.
"Good riddance." Donny growled.
Raphael stared at him, as Mikey diplomatically coughed. "Hey, guys, maybe it would be better if we all sat down and took a breather? I know I could use some pizza."
"No." Donny snapped, abruptly. "I don't want to stay here. It's not safe as long as that bastard is out there roaming around. How do we know that Leo won't come back and try to finish us off?"
"I don't think that Leo's coming back." Mikey whispered.
Raphael glared, and snapped, "Where is Leo, Mikey? What happened?"
There was only silence in answer, as Mikey's mouth shut like a trap, and Donny's scowl only hardened.
And then, everything went black.
Mikey yelped in surprise, and Raphael swore under his breath.
Donny pivoted in dismay, blinking stupidly in the dark. Was there a power outage? Did they somehow break a circuit? It couldn't be….there was no electric pop, nothing that would suggest a busted wire.
Sighing, Donny automatically turned on his heel towards the circuit breakers.
Splinter sensed the weird undercurrent of the power surge, and nearly clapped his paws over his ears when he heard the high pitched whine of static electricity.
There was a strange, hissing pop, and the television in the far room suddenly flicked on.
"That's…..weird." Mikey said, softly.
Donny stared at the television, mind whirling at the terrible possibilities. Nobody could have just turned it on, not without some internal trigger to the Lair.
"What the hell-" Raphael quietly growled as he raised a sai to point.
The gray static on the screen waned into a blurred, grainy image that was growing clearer.
The screen had no color, only the sepia hues of black, and white, dulled and muted into a surreal scene.
Donny squinted, as Mikey dropped to his knees to see better in front of the television. The scene opened to reveal what looked like a crudely constructed cell. The bars seemed to be hastily welded to the metal wall behind it. It was a small cage, not more than 7 feet high, and 5 feet wide.
The focus blurred, and suddenly, whoever held the camera jerked the lens downward sharply, halting abruptly at the bottom of the cell.
The image was dim, and colorless, but unmistakable. Their brother, Leo, the one who had stabbed Raphael and kidnapped Mikey, was in the cage.
Raphael stiffened, and Donny's mouth fell open, too stricken to speak.
For one horrific moment, Donny didn't know if he was staring at Leo, or his corpse.
Leo was sprawled out, limbs spilling like water. His arms curled across his plastron.
His mouth was flung open, the teeth bared in the snarl of a tortured animal. His eyes clenched shut, pinched with pain.
Donny flinched when Leo's unnatural stillness erupted into a choking gasp. His plastron heaved upward, Leo's breath sounding like a sick gurgle.
Leo's hands slid away from his face, and came to rest at his sides, as he snapped his jaw shut with a groan. His brow furrowed, a sharp line forming between his eye ridges.
"It is time to wake, Leonardo. You do not wish to disappoint your audience." The voice of a woman cruelly purred off camera.
Leo's eyes suddenly shot open, and he rolled his head towards the camera. His face contorted in terror; his eyes were huge and pleading as he shook his head in a pathetic flop against the floor.
"Please, don't!" Leo stared at whoever was holding the camera, trembling.
"Please, please don't! I'm the one you wanted, and you have me! Please, don't!"
The trembling had increased to quaking as Leo crumbled into sobbing pleas.