Jack looked over at the sleeping turtle beside her. She smiled softly and kissed his cheek before she lifted his arm from around her waist. Moving the blanket from across her she put it over her lover and then climbed out of their bed. After finding her shirt from the floor and her underwear and pants, she pulled them all on and made her way down stairs.
She was only half way down the stairs when she heard the pounding. Kicking and banging against a door. Frowning, Jack followed the sound and ended up outside of Antonello's room where she found Leonardo passed out in a chair just outside of his door. She looked from him to the door that was tied and barred with junk. Inside the room Ant was yelling.
"Must be released!" He beat his fists on the door. "Mission must be completed!"
"Ant?" Jack hesitated before she placed a hand on the shaking door.
Everything in the room stilled for a moment before Ant spoke again. "Jack?" He sounded more like himself. "Jack what are you doing out there? You shouldn't be anywhere near here!"
"What's going on Ant? Why are you locked in your room?" She reached to move the things barring his door.
"Don't touch anything!" Ant demanded. "I don't know what's happening to me but I'm… I'm not right…."
Jack pulled her hand back to herself and frowned. "Ant…" She said sadly before turning to Leo. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gently shook him. "Leo. Leo wake up."
The turtle bolted out of the chair and to his feet. "Wha… huh…" he looked around bleary eyed.
"Leo."
The turtle looked at her. "Jacquelyn?" He rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to get a drink but then I heard Ant banging on the door." It was silent now as she glanced at the room.
"Yeah he is having some… issues."
"What kind of issues?" Jack put her hands on her hips. "Why is he locked in his room screaming about… something and trying to break out?"
Leo frowned. "We don't know and Ant doesn't know either he is just… having black outs or lapses in time. I want Don to examine him when he wakes up."
Jack rolled her eyes and ran her hand through her hair. "Don't you think this is rather serious? I think this is worthy of waking up Donnie." She turned and started to head off towards Donatello's room. She knocked on the door. No answer. Jack knocked again, harder.
"Come in." Don's groggy voice called from the other side.
Letting herself in, Jack found the turtle sitting up slowly from a position at his work desk. Wiping some drool from his face he looked over at her as she walked in and then he looked over at the clock on the wall.
"Three in the morning? What now?"
"We have a problem."
He sat up straight. "What kind of problem?"
"Ant." Jack looked over her shoulder. "He's locked in his room because apparently he keeps blacking out… I'm not too sure. Leo didn't tell me much. All I know is he was just yelling and beating on his door like a crazy person, then a second later he was all normal."
Donnie frowned and scratched his head. "Give me a minute. I'll be right there."
"Thanks Donnie." Jack pated his shoulder and made her way back to the hallway. The woman was surprised to see Mikey and Leo standing outside Antonello's room. She also missed Raphael coming up behind her.
His large hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her back to him. "Why didn't you wake me up?" He mumbled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.
"I was just going to get a drink…" Jack looked up at him as he let her go.
"Taking long enough." He snorted.
"Well… something came up. I was just about to come get you."
Raph looked over at his brothers when he heard the pounding start up again on Ant's door. "What the hell is going on?"
The door to Donatello's room opened and everyone turned to look. Donatello stood there with his new metal leg firmly attached to the appendage that had been cut off. IT was a sturdy looking black structure with different layers that seemed to move with his shifting calf muscle, or what was left of it. It had a rough ankle joint and foot constructed like his other. He walked over to join his brothers with a heavy limp, his first time testing out the new prosthetic apparent but he said nothing.
"I too would like to know what exactly is going on." He said instead.
Mikey sighed and started talking. He told everyone what he saw when he woke up with Ant hovering over him. Then he relayed when Ant had said about waking up in Donnie's lab and trying to strangle him, the apparent black outs and missing time. "…He made us lock him in his room so he wouldn't hurt anyone."
"Anyone but himself." Jack folded her arms across her chest.
Donnie sighed. "She is right. You should have woken me up sooner." His gaze shifted to the door. "We are going to wait till his next lucid moment and let him out. If he insists, we will restrain him, but then we are taking him to my lab so I can run some tests."
Raphael grunted. "Do you think this has something to do with his panic attack yesterday?"
"Most likely." Donnie commented. "This has to be related to something. I can't see it being completely random and having no trigger whatsoever."
The one in red made his way to the bed room door and moved everything that was barring his way. Ant was still banging things on the other side but Raph clearly didn't care.
"Raph don't!" Leo tried to stop him, but his brother didn't listen.
Raphael waited another moment before he threw the door open and launched himself inside. He found Ant in an instant and pinned the younger turtle to the wall with ease since he had surprised him. The other's looked in when they heard him flailing and struggling in Raphael's grip. The room was a wreck. The bed was broken in half and thrown in opposite corners of the room. A chair was in pieces, it looked like a leg was broken trying to pry open one of the metal slats covering the window. A night stand was upside down and cracked and mangled in disjointed pieces.
The turtle Raphael had pinned against the wall squirmed and writhed in his grasp. "Must complete task…" He grunted.
"Snap out of it!" Raph smacked him against the wall.
The teenager went limp for a second before he straightened. "R-Raph? Where'd you come from?" He looked around. "How'd you guys get in my room?" His eyes were filled with fear, he wasn't scared of Raph though, he was scared of hurting someone, scared of what he might have done.
"I came in. And now we are going to fix you." Raph let his arms go, but kept a hand on his shoulder as he pulled him away from the wall and pointed him towards the door. "We are going to Don's room."
The other's made way for the pair as Raph guided his little brother down the hall back to Donatello's lab. Jack stepped up beside Donnie as they followed the others to his room. She looked down at his leg as he limped along.
"How's it working?"
He looked down. "It's pinching on the inside of what's left of my calf, and the ankle joint is too stiff. But the overall structure seems to be functioning properly."
"That's good." Jack smiled. "Hope your work with Ant is just as productive. He's acting… really weird."
"That's for sure. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly caused the sudden change in his demeanor and the sudden bounce back and forth between his lucid moments."
As soon as Ant and Raph entered Donatello's room, a siren sounded. Ant jumped in Raph's grip and looked up at the flashing light above.
"Calm your ass down." Raph walked him further in and shoved him into a seat.
Leo looked back to Don as the other turtle tried to pick up his pace. "What's the alarm mean?"
"It's to find electronic frequency emitters."
"Bugs. You are looking for bugs." Leo frowned.
"Yes." Donnie pushed his way into his own room. "After your little incident with Jack I figured it was smart to at least set up a sensor in my room so I'd be alerted if anyone else came in with one of those things connected to them. The plan was to eventually set the sensors up all over the warehouse but I haven't gotten there yet."
Leo waved his hand. "That doesn't matter. The point is, they picked up something." He pointed over to the young turtle still sitting under Raphael's hands. "You think Ant has a bug on him?"
"Only one way to find out."
Jack looked at Mikey and frowned.
Mikey scratched his cheek and then put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Jackie, Donnie's got this. He'll fix Ant up in no time."
She tried to smile. "I don't doubt he'll fix Ant… I just worry about who did this to him. And what that means for all of us."
Donnie went over to Antonello and Raphael and patted the examination table. Raphael let go of his little brother so the turtle could climb up on the table and sit, but he didn't go far. Limping around the table, Donatello gave Ant a thorough visual inspection. He lifted his arms, legs, even moved his tail and looked in the crevices of his shell for any sign of a foreign object.
"Well I don't see anything." Donnie scratched his chin. "Has anyone ever done any surgeries on you?" The question came out sounding odd. It was like he was questioning a patient but it was his brother. Ant had been a blank slate when he arrived. The turtle's whole identity had been forged in the past few years here with all of them. He didn't have memories that didn't involve them.
Ant shook his head. "Just when you stitched my hand." Then he cringed, his eyes closing for a moment.
"Ant?" Raph asked as he stepped closer, getting ready to pin him down if he needed to.
Ant grabbed at his head. "I… It hurts." He said through gritted teeth.
"What hurts?" Donnie asked as he turned to his table of medicine and tools looking for something that might help.
"The voice. The directions. I…" His fingers were digging into his skull on the hand that had function.
Donnie hunched down in front of him. "What's it saying Ant? Who's voice is it?"
He shook his head. "No! It hurts! I…" Suddenly his hand lashed out and grabbed hold of Donnie's neck. Ant sat up straight, his eyes lifeless as he stared at his brother.
Donatello coughed and tugged at Ant's hand as Raph tried to pull it off of him.
"Ant!" Raph yelled. "Ant snap out of it!"
Leo jumped up on the table and put the delusional turtle in a choke hold to try and get him to release his hold on Donnie but nothing seemed to work. Mikey joined in the fray of shouts and tried to help pry Ant's death grip off his other brother's neck but still nothing. Eventually fists started assaulting Ant, anything in a desperate attempt to get oxygen to Donatello.
Then out of nowhere a needle was plunged into Ant's arm. The turtle screamed and let go of Donatello to backhand whoever had just hurt him. Jack. The woman was knocked backwards into another table. Raph growled and grabbed Ant by the neck. With Leo's help they wrangled him to the table.
While Donatello coughed air into his lungs, The other three turtles held Ant down on the table while the sedative took effect and knocked him out. As soon as he could, Raphael let him go and walked around to where Jack was sitting on the floor. He put a hand on her cheek.
"That was pretty stupid."
Jack brushed his hand aside and let him help her to her feet. "Yeah well, you guys weren't having any success. I had to do something." She rubbed the bruise on her jaw.
Leo and Mikey were crawling off of their brother and laying him out on the table now that he was unconscious. They looked over at Donatello who was rubbing his neck.
"Good move Jack." Donnie nodded. "Not sure I would have used that much but good thought. At least now I can examine him.
"Do you need help with him?" Leo asked.
Donnie shook his head. "Not with restraints. I might need a hand with the exam…" He looked at Jack.
"I'll stay and help." Jack smiled slightly.
Raph frowned.
"Don't worry." Donnie looked at him. "With the amount of sedative your girlfriend pumped into him, he'll be lucky if he wakes up in three days."
He was still frowning, but he nodded. Leaning over Raph kissed the side of her head and then turned to follow Leo and Mikey out of the room. Mikey headed straight to the television and started to flip through news stations to see if he could find anything relevant to Xanus. Leonardo went to the kitchen and heated up some tea. He grabbed two cups and the pot and looked at Raph. Motioning with his head, he led his younger brother to the meditation room. After taking a seat and pouring them each a cup, the one in blue took a long sip and held his warm cup.
Raph followed suit, staring down at the hot liquid as he felt the warmth spread in his chest. "Only you could make Master Splinter's tea just right."
"Practice Raph. Practice." He almost smirked. "How long has it been since we've done this?"
"Sat down and had tea? Just the two of us?" Raph paused to think. "Since we were eighteen, so about nine years."
Leo nodded. "It's been a while. We should start doing this again."
"Sure but… why are we doing this now?" Raph set his empty cup down and Leo started to fill it. "Don't we have some other important things to be discussing?"
"That's why we are here. Tea always seems to calm you down." Leo looked up at him. "We need to figure out what to do with Antonello."
"What do you mean? Donnie's working on that? We are going to figure out what ever the hell is wrong with him and fix it."
Leo nodded. "I hope that is what we do, but we have to be realistic Raph." Leo's multicolored eyes held his brother's gaze. "When I first showed up here I had that thing stuck to my neck, part of me thinks that Ant might have one too, it's just a theory though."
"Where did this theory come from?" Raph snorted.
"Well you found Ant down in the swamps outside of Xanus' research facility. It's the same place I was. What if someone put something in him before you found him…" Leo frowned a bit sadly.
Raph shoved his cup away. "Are you saying this like Ant was left there for me to find… on purpose?"
"Maybe. I don't know. It's just a theory."
"Well it's a shitty one. Ant is part of this family. He knows just as much about you as I do. Hell he is half the reason you survived that damn lab experiment with minimal changes." Raph gestured to Leo's five digit hands.
The other turtle pulled his hands back a bit, still a bit sensitive about the change. "I never said he wasn't family Raph. He's still our brother. I'm just saying that the huge chunk of his missing memory from before you found him might be a little more important than we previously considered."
Raph snatched the pot of tea and poured himself another cup. He knew his brother was right but he didn't want to consider the thought of his other brother being at fault. He took a sip and stared down at the few pieces of leaves floating in the liquid. "I know you are right. But you didn't see the fear in that boy's eyes when I found him. Or when he was in his room just snapping out of this… Whatever is going on he has no part of. He is as much a victim as anyone."
Leo nodded. "I hope you are right. For everyone's sake." He finished his tea and got to his feet.