5.

Raph woke to the feeling of his Shell Cell vibrating against his side. He moved, and winced. His whole body was stiff and sore. Apparently he'd been lying here for a while—wherever here was. As he opened his eyes, he noticed that a blue tarpaulin was covering him. Well that was weird.

His cell buzzed angrily in his belt. Oh, right. He grabbed it and flipped it open. "Yeah?"

"Raph!" It was Donny. Why did his brother sound so relieved?

"You were expecting someone else?" He threw the tarp off of him, and stood up.

"Where are you?"

"In a construction site," he answered, surveying his surroundings. Now how the hell did he end up here? "Where're you?"

"A rooftop. Leo's by the pier."

"And Mikey?" he asked absently. He had just noticed the massive hole next to him. Why had someone filled it halfway with concrete? That didn't seem logical.

"He's not picking up."

There was something about the tone of Don's voice that worried Raph. "Can you track him?"

"Yeah. He's about ten minutes from you, corner of 5th and Delaney. He hasn't moved in a while." That couldn't be good. But his brother wasn't done. "Do you remember how you got there?"

"No." Raph rubbed the back of his neck. "Last thing I remember, we were taking down some sloppy Foot ambush and …" His eyes widened. "Ah, shit …"

"I take it you remember getting tranquilized?"

"Yeah, now. Maybe Mikey's just taking a while longer to come out of it?"

"I don't know, Raph. Something about this just feels wrong. Leo's on his way to Mikey's location, so let's figure everything out there."

"I hear ya. Catch you there."

Raph hung up his phone and stated sprinting. As he ran, he tried to piece together what had happened tonight. They had been ambushed; he knew that much. And after taking down a sloppy ambush, too. That was just ironic. Or something. After that, all he got was a blank. Absolutely no memory. But something had to have happened in between him falling face-first, senseless, onto the rooftop, and waking up under a tarp in a construction site. If someone was going to jump them, why just scatter them about the city? No, Donny was right. Something about this felt really, really wrong.

He picked up his pace.

Slightly under ten minutes later, he arrived on the scene. It was a deserted warehouse district that should probably have been cleared for demolition long ago. He skulked in the shadows of one of the decrepit buildings, searching for his brothers. They were nowhere to be seen. But maybe he had arrived first.

Doubtful. Leo can run like the frickin' wind when he puts his mind to it.

This area was so big that it would take him ages to find his brothers. Well, it was a late enough hour and the place seemed quiet enough. He could probably risk a low shout.

"Leo? Don? Mikey?"

There was a few seconds of silence before a voice answered him. "Raph! Over here!"

It was Leo, and he sounded stressed out of his mind. And if his older brother hadn't had any reservations about bellowing through the streets, then something was definitely up. Raph charged in the direction Leo's voice had come from. He rounded a corner and skittered to a stop.

His three brothers were crouched in the dim glow of a dying streetlight. Leo was standing up, pacing back and forth worriedly. Don was kneeling on the ground, examining the very still form of Mikey. For one agonizing moment, Raph couldn't see if his brother was breathing or not. But as he inched forward, he saw his brother's chest rise and fall shakily through a ragged breath.

"What the hell?" was all he could manage.

"He fell." Leo's answer was curt and strained. He kept pacing.

Raph's gut twisted into a knot. "Well is he okay?"

"No," Don replied quietly, contemplatively. "This isn't just from the fall. His body shouldn't be doing this."

As if to reinforce Don's diagnosis, Mikey made an awful choking sound, and his body began to quiver. Don's hands flew off the youngest turtle, as if his touch had somehow caused this. For a second they all froze, completely lost as to what to do. And then Mikey began to foam at his mouth.

"Donny?" Leo was crouching now, looking for some way he could help.

"I don't know!" Don sounded close to panic. He began to scrutinize Mikey again. And then his eyes widened. "I think he's been poisoned."

"What?" Raph snarled, on his knees with his brothers.

"See here?" Don pointed to the unconscious turtle's arm. Raph leaned in, and was barely able to notice a miniscule spec, darker green than the rest of Mikey's skin. "It's an injection mark. Whoever did this poisoned him."

Leo had gone tense. "Can you—?"

"No. Not without knowing what poison it was." Don closed his eyes. "Why would he come here? Why, of all places?"

"Where was he supposed to go?" Raph snapped, unable to contain his temper. "It's not like he could just check into the ER."

"I know that. Think about it. This place is completely random. It has no significance. So why come here? Why not go home? Why not go to April or Casey for help? He came here for a reason." Don's eyes flew open. He had an idea. "Leo, check inside the warehouse."

Raph was about to round on his genius brother, to ask what kind of stupid demand that was, but Leo obeyed quickly. Mikey began to shake harder. Raph bit down on his lip, both envious and infuriated that Don could stay so calm in this situation. Before he could explode with another outburst, Leo was back, holding a syringe and a piece of paper. He handed them both to Don.

"I was right." Don didn't sound pleased at all. "I think this might be the antidote."

"And how exactly do you know that?" Raph growled.

"Look." Don held the paper up. "'How does it feel to choose yourself over your friends?' Mikey saved us from something."

"That's some speculation, Don." Leo didn't sound convinced. Good. Raph certainly wasn't.

But Don was persistent. "Think about it. The note explains it. We woke up scattered around, right? Whoever did this must have poisoned Mikey, and forced him to choose who to save: himself or us. There must have been a time limit or something."

"Then why didn't he go after the antidote?"

"Would you have, Leo? He did what any of us would have done." Don grasped the syringe, and looked like he was going to inject its contents into Mikey.

"Hold on!" Leo placed his hand overtop of Don's. "We can't be sure of what's inside that. For all we know, it could just make this worst."

"We don't have a choice. We have to do this."

"Don, I don't—"

"Leo, we don't have a choice. I can't stop this. He's dying, and I can't save him!" Don was pleading now, desperate. "Even if I knew what poison it was, I couldn't come up with an antidote in time. I know this is a huge risk, but Mikey will be dead in about ten minutes regardless. We don't have a choice."

Leo's face contorted into a mixture of indecision and agony. He knew what was at stake here. Don was right; Mikey was dying, right in front of them. But could they really trust this mysterious syringe? They had to. He released Don's hand. "I hope you're right."

"Yeah," Don murmured, "I hope so too."

All three brothers held their breath as Don gently pressed the syringe into Mikey's arm.

A/N: Sorry to leave it on a bit of a cliffhanger. I wanted to finish it off, but got sort of stuck. But any update is better than no update, right?

I promise the last chapter will be up by Sunday! Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews :)