Raph's viewpoint:
I've always, always hated waking up in strange places, especially when I had no memory of how the hell I got there, or what might have been done to me while I was knocked out cold. So, when I began the process of exiting la-la land and back into the nightmare, I woke up terrified. Now, some folks are lucky. They simply drift like a gentle fog back into waking, without much trauma or adjustment. Not me. Hell, no. I bolted awake with a gasp of air, breaking the surface like I was drowning. I opened my eyes, and a searing lance of pain shot through my head from the blinding white light above my face. I hissed, and shut my eyes again, tensing and twisting against whatever held me down. The tears already burning against my lids, no matter how hard I shut them. I lay there, limp as a corpse, my thoughts swirling….
Splinter, Donny, Mikey, Leo…
Were they dead? Was I? What the hell was going on?
My thoughts were interrupted by human voices, both women, inches away, whispering, " Should we sedate it again?" I could make out the tinge of fear in her question, and from what I could make out, both of them were standing by whatever I was laying on. I forced myself to lay still, not that it was hard, with as woozy and sick as I felt.
"We need it conscious so we can assess whatever damage it may have, still. Besides, it's restrained, and injured. It can't hurt us."
"I wonder if Karai said the same thing when she went prancing down to their underground cesspool, and we both know what happened to her. Found almost decapitated, and bled out, and that was with her little army. How do we know this…thing here won't do the same to us?"
"Get real, will you? This thing here? It's just an animal. It may be weird looking, or maybe even a mutation, I don't know, and I don't care. Animals can kill people, but they can't stab people in the neck. What probably happened was that Karai pissed off her little band of merry men one too many times and they decided to eliminate the problem by getting rid of her themselves. Think about it. It makes more sense than that weird rumor about a giant talking rat slicing her up, doesn't it? And for that matter, where is the rat? You remember that cluster? How many times did they go back down to that underground sewer and ransack it, and what did they bring back? Nothing. If there really was a nest of of these weird things down there, don't you think they would be found by now? These animals aren't exactly the kind of thing that the Foot would leave ignored, not if they went through all the trouble of getting them here in the first place. Anyway, if you're that nervous, go close everything down, and I'll finish here, okay?"
I heard a murmur of agreement, and a door being slammed.
I opened my eyes, then, and glared at whoever I was hearing. She was dressed in scrubs, heavy-set, with long dark hair pulled back into a bun. A pair of glasses rimmed her little green eyes. She happened to peer down at me just as she was finished speaking, and I saw her jaw drop and shut just as abruptly in absolute panic.
She backed up so fast that she crashed into the metal table beside her, sending all the things setting on it to the floor. I heard her exhale again, as she glanced around frantically, and she paled, when she realized that her friend had already left.
It was a reaction that I had seen so many times before, and one that never failed to piss me off and leave me feeling a bit stung, even in this nasty situation.
"What the hell are you doing to me?!" I snarled. My fingers twitched uselessly and I snarled again as I felt the thick, leather straps against my wrists, my arms, my knees, anything that could possibly move and be of use. I felt the thread of terror unspooling in my gut as my eyes fell onto the gleaming metal pole and the bag of fluid hanging from it. A long tube snaked from the bag to the needle that was taped to the back of my hand.
"Answer me, damn it!" I nearly roared at her, as she put her hands to the sides of her face and stood there, stupidly, too damn scared to speak.
There was nothing but silence as she opened and closed her mouth and stared at me like a fish, before she finally collected herself to answer, in a small whisper.
"Nobody told us you could talk."
"Never mind that! What are you doing to me?! Where are my brothers, where the hell am I?!" I yelled at her, as she went pale, and looked like she was going to throw up. I saw her eyes dart towards the door, and she spun on her heel, nearly flying towards it.
"Wait!" I screamed as she halted, jerking her head over her shoulder to stare at me once again. Her fingers were already curled against the handle of the door.
"Please." I hardly ever begged for anything, and I sure as hell never begged for mercy, in my life. But if I could have fallen on my knees and put my hands together to plead, I would have, if it meant getting some sort of answers about my family.
"Look. I promise I won't hurt you, okay? I couldn't even if I wanted to." I jerked my arms up to show that I couldn't even lift them an inch.
"I ain't asking for much. I just want a few answers. That's it. Please."
She folded her arms over her chest, and eyed me, considering.
"Karai warned us about you. She said that you are a vicious, dangerous animal that is capable of killing, and that she would go to the ends of the earth to prevent you and your kind from harming anybody else. She died down there, defending us from you."
She gave me a cruel smirk.
"Oh, I'll answer your questions, alright. You deserve the answers, especially after you murdered Karai. Look around you."
She gestured with a plump hand, waving around the room, towards the metal walls, the weird, pristine tiled floor, the drawers and drawers full of God only knew.
"Where do you think you are?"
I snapped, "I don't know where I am. How could I? I was knocked out cold and left for dead. I don't even know how I got here!"
She stepped towards me, leaned over me, until our faces were inches apart, so close that I shuddered when I felt her sick, hot breath wafting over my ear.
"Do you know what they do to rabid dogs?" She paused for effect, maybe to savor my scowl and more of my glare before she continued.
"They're killed and dissected to see if they truly have the rabies virus. Luckily for you, you're far, far too unique to worry about that fate. Let me explain what is happening to you, right now. We're saving you."
Her hand trailed upward to brush the weird IV pole, and then, the long row of puncture marks on the inside of my busted wrist. I jerked it away as far as I could, shivering.
"Look at your wrist, the one that had that vicious stab wound. You know, it looked like the one that Karai had on her neck. You'll notice that it's functioning much better now. It was impractical to let you die from that. You should be grateful, you know. We're going to keep you alive, and well-cared for. You're getting far more mercy than Karai got. A little gratitude would be appropriate."
I flinched when she put her hand on my forehead and gave me a little, mocking pat as if I were a puppy.
Somehow, that touch was more violating and cruel than the weird conversation, and I couldn't help the wince as I tried to yank my head out from underneath her fingers.
"Oh, I am sorry. Does that bother you?" She smirked again, and put one palm against the back of my hand, brushing the needle that was taped there.
"Maybe this is all too much for you. Maybe this isn't enough. Who knows?" Her voice was perversely festive as she chuckled, an ugly, choking laugh that sounded broken.
"Sleep well. Before that IV drips through your veins and puts you back to sleep, I'll answer one question for you. You wanted to know where you are, and I'll tell you. You're home. Get used to it. You'll be here for a very, very long time."
I watched as she turned the valve on the IV bag, and I recoiled when I felt the hit of the drug.
I don't know how to explain how wrong and sick it felt, being drugged and helpless, and sleepy, and so damn scared at the same time.
I could feel it, gentle and dark and wrong as it slithered through me, settling over my limbs like soft concrete, as my breathing slowed from the choking panic to the more even, peaceful pace that should happen with a nice nap.
But this sure as hell wasn't a nap, and I wasn't just going to sleep. I was being dragged down, inch by tortured inch, fighting against something that I couldn't win against for long into the darkness.
Vaguely, I felt her hand again, as she ran her fingers against my arm, soothing me to sleep like Splinter did once, on a night far, far better than this. I tried to yank my arm away. I tried so hard that I could feel my bones lurch, helplessly against my own skin, and I forced my eyes open, to glare at her one more time. I could see her hazy face, her fat cheeks bunched up in a triumphant smile, as she watched my eyes slide shut, and heard my last strangled words die somewhere in my throat, and exhale through my clenched teeth.
"Leo." I mouthed his name, as I felt myself falling, even as the drug finally smothered my last bit of awareness out, like somebody would snuff out a candle. If this was only sleep, if this was only a drug, why the hell did it feel like dying?!