"You guys have been in there for two days, have you figured anything out?" Mikey asked when Donatello and Jack finally came out of his room.

Leo and Raph perked up from their meal at the dining room table when the other's entered into the room. Don and Jack looked like they hadn't slept the entire time they had been working away trying to find some sort of clue as to what was wrong with Antonello.

Jack went over to Raphael and wrapped her arms around his neck before collapsing onto his lap. "I'm exhausted."

Donnie took one of the empty chairs at the table, his limp even more pronounced now than it had been the other day.

"Well?" Mikey hurried to the table. "How's Ant?"

"It's… pretty bad." Donatello frowned.

"Don't say it like that." Jack looked at him.

Donnie sighed. "Well, it is…. Complicated. The x-ray showed that he has some kind of circuit board implanted at the base of his skull, there's a tiny scar there but its rather old so far before we met him. There are also wires that run the length of his limbs and torso, linked to all his major organs."

"He's half robot?" Mikey gasped.

"No... he just has this implant that has infiltrated his body over the past few years."

Raph's arms wrapped around Jack to keep her on his lap but he was looking at Donatello. "So can you get it out of him?"

"I don't think so. It's so intricately woven into his system I might kill him if I try to remove it. Besides the main component is on his spinal cord and connected to his cerebellum, the damage removing that would cause is… tremendous to say the least." Donnie ran a hand over his face.

Leo slid his plate of half eaten food over to his brother. "So do you have any good news?"

Donnie already had a mouthful of food but he paused when his brother spoke. "Jack and I think we can use the shell of the thing that was in your neck to maybe disrupt the signal it's pumping into him. If I get it to hook up directly into the central circuit it might be able to keep him lucid at least. Err… I hope."

"Really? You think you two can get that to work?" Mikey looked from Donnie to Jack. The woman had passed out in her boyfriend's lap, so Mikey looked back to Don.

The turtle nodded. "Yeah, hopefully. But I need some sleep first." He staggered to his feet and stumbled back to his bedroom. "Someone strap Ant down in case he wakes up… I'm too tired."

Mikey followed Donnie to his room to strap the other turtle to the exam table to make sure that in case he woke up. Raphael got to his feet with Jack in his arms and carried her up to their bed room. It wasn't extremely late, but late enough. He carefully climbed into his hammock and pulled the woman in with him. After covering them up he gently rocked them with a foot that was hanging over the edge.

It was the early morning hours when Jack finally woke up. She shifted in Raphael's arms and rubbed at her eyes, a bit disoriented.

"…y'okay?" the turtle mumbled without really looking.

"Yeah just trying to get my bearings." Jack got herself situated and curled up against his side, her fingers playing with the large open crack in his plastron.

When the woman didn't fall back asleep Raph finally opened his eye. "You sure you are okay?

"Mhmm… I'm just thinking."

He rolled a bit so he could face her in the dark. "Thinking 'bout what?"

"A bunch of stuff." Her fingers traced the gouges and scars on his chest. "Ant and what we are going to do if we can't fix what's going on with him… You and me… the warehouse…. Your brothers…"

"We will figure out what to do with Ant, but why are you thinking about us? Did something happen? Did I do something wrong?" He seemed really concerned.

"Of course not." She leaned up and kissed him. "I was just thinking about what things might be like for us in the future." She looked at him. "Do you ever think of those kind of things?"

"Well… yeah, I guess." Raph's grip on her tightened, he didn't really like the way she was talking.

The woman shrugged. "Maybe all this stuff with Xanus is just freaking me out. I'm sorry." She snuggled into him. I don't mean to worry you, I just, want this mess to be over so I don't have to worry about you getting hurt and I can just be with you. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah…" He kissed the top of her head and tucked the blanket around her. "Go back to sleep. We will all be okay."

In the morning after breakfast, Jack once again joined Donnie in his room to try and help come up with something that would fix Antonello's outbursts and killer urges. While they were busy, Raph made himself a pot of tea and disappeared to the meditation room.

"I didn't think I'd find you here."

Raph looked up to find Leo behind him. "I needed to think."

"Need any help?"

He snorted.

"I'm serious." Leo took a seat beside his brother. "Nothing new has shown up in the news and I'm not much use to Don. Maybe I can help with what is on your mind."

Raph sighed. "Jack woke up last night and was taking about a bunch of stuff. Made me worried."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Ant, us, the family. She's worried about the whole situation, or so she says, just wants to get away from Xanus and move on with us."

"So what's wrong with that?" Leo asked as he poured himself a cup of tea.

"Nothing I guess… just the way she was talking… made me think she wants to leave or something." Raph stared down at his cup.

"Raph…" Leo put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Jack isn't going to leave. She couldn't even if she wanted to… Have you even taken the time to look at her lately? I mean really look at her? She virtually gave up her humanity to be here with you. She has forsaken everything she has ever known to live in the sewer and now a warehouse with us… five giant smelly reptiles. She almost died trying to just find you, she was willing to die to save me… I can only imagine what she'll be willing to do in the future… She's not going to leave." He suddenly smacked Raph in the back of the head. "Get your head on straight. She's in love with you."

"Ow!" Raph rubbed the back of his skull. "I get it okay!"

"Raph!" Jack was screaming on the other side of the warehouse.

The two turtles were on their feet instantly and running towards Donatello's room. Just before they got there, the door was thrown open and Donatello's form was sent sprawling out into the common area.

"Donnie!" Mikey yelled as he came running from the training room.

Raph jumped over his brothers and went into the bedroom, Leo on his heels. Jack was pressed up against a counted, a tray in her hand as she held it between her and Ant.

"Come on Ant… I know you are in there…. Wake up!" She shouted at the approaching turtle.

He staggered towards her, arm outstretched, he wrenched the tray away from her and grabbed for her. The woman ducked and he screamed. "Must retrieve!"

Raph launched himself at the teenager and tackled him to the floor. Leo jumped on top of the pair to help hold the squirming Ant to the floor.

"Jack! Quick do something to calm him down!"

The woman scrambled away to find more sedative. She came back with another syringe and stabbed it into Ant's arm. A few seconds later the turtle went limp and his brother's climbed off of him.

"I thought he was strapped down?" Raph panted as he grabbed Jack by the arm and pulled her into a rough embrace.

"We had to unstrap him to roll him over. We couldn't reach his neck." She explained.

"Don't do that again." Leo looked at her and pushed himself to his feet to go check on Donnie.

But the one in purple was already on his way back in with Mikey right behind. "Put him back on the table." Donnie ordered. "I need to attach this stupid thing before he wakes up again."

Leo and Mikey hoisted Ants lifeless form from the floor up onto the table. They kept him face down so that Donnie could easily access his neck. Donatello grabbed the tiny machine that had once been attached to Leonardo and brought it over to Ant. The other's watched at he placed it at the base of the turtles skull and forced the little metal legs of the piece to pierce his pale skin. Where the object once held the fluid that controlled Leo, there was now a small circuit board, a tiny red light flashing every few seconds.

"What's with the light?" Mikey asked.

"Well… I'm not trying to mutate him and I have no idea how the compound they used on Leo would affect Ant with all the hardware in him… so I am using this to emit a frequency that I am hoping will disrupt whatever frequency is being received by the chip in his head. I'll need to figure those out from my computer once I get this set up. But hopefully, as long as I disrupt the signal, he will stay normal."

"This doesn't sound like a permanent solution." Leo looked at him as he worked.

"It's not." Donnie said flatly as he adjusted the gadget on the back of Ant's neck. "But it's the best I can do."

"The only real solution will be to take out the source of the signal that's being sent to Ant." Jack told them.

"And how are we going to do that?" Mikey asked.

Jack frowned. "It means we have to go back to Xanus and stop it."

Everyone looked at her. They hadn't been expecting her to say that.

"Jack that mean…"

"I know exactly what it means." She looked at Raph. "If finding Adam means fixing Ant permanently then I will do it. If I have to then I will walk right in the front door and find him."

The turtle could feel her trembling in his arms and squeezed her a bit tighter. She was saying such brave things, but he could feel the fear in her body.

"Hopefully it won't come to that." Leo looked over at her. "We don't need to put you in any unnecessary danger. We will get in our normal way and solve this ourselves if we can. In and out before they know."

"When do we leave?" Mikey put his hand on the weapons at his sides.

Leo looked to Donnie. "As soon as Ant wakes up. We aren't doing this without him. When you give him the okay we go to Xanus." He looked at everyone else. "Get some rest. I have a feeling we are going to need it."

Mikey nodded and headed out to the kitchen. Raph took jack's hand and led her from the room. But Leo stayed behind for a moment. He leaned on the table and gently rubbed the back of Ant's head. Hanging his own he sighed. "We just can't seem to get a break."

"What ever do you mean?" Donnie asked with attitude.

"You know what I mean. We have been in a constant fight with Xanus for the past few years. I'm starting to doubt my decision to go south…"

"You wouldn't have been able to avoid this. Xanus would have moved up here anyway. We would have had to deal with him one way or another. And your little adventure led us to Jack and Ant in a way so… without you running off our family would have never grown."

"True." Leo sighed, still looking down at the youngest member of the family. "I just wish I was doing a better job of keeping you all safe."

Donnie looked up from his computer. "That isn't just your responsibility Leo. We all look out for each other."

"But I'm the eldest. I'm supposed to be the one in charge." Leo clenched his fist.

"Don't put so much pressure on yourself." Donnie turned back to his computer. "You don't perform well under pressure, that's Raph's department."

Leo nodded and ran a hand over his face. Then he looked up at his brother. "So… do you think you will be joining us when we go into Xanus?"

That caused the one in purple to pause. "I… I would like to. I think it would be better to actually hack into their computer system rather then let Raph destroy the computer. That might not disrupt the signal permanently. My only fear is that I can't move as fast as I once could. The prosthetic is still in its preliminary stages. It's not functioning quite like a normal leg. I don't know if it can handle kicks or flips or anything like that. If I make a few adjustments I might be able to manage a run. And I stress might."

"Do what you can, I'll leave it up to you. We will adjust the plan accordingly. But if you plan on coming, don't work too hard, we will need to leave and I'll want you at your best."

Donnie nodded and turned back to the computer.

Unfortunately for Jack and the Hamato's, Donnie's progress in finding a frequency to block the one being sent to Ant wasn't going so well. He spent over a week in his lab on a computer trying different programs and formulas that the others just didn't understand. While he toiled away to try and find a temporary solution for their brother, the other's spent the time training and devising a plan for infiltrating the Xanus complex.

Mikey managed to find a map of the grounds. So they had a game plan of what building to assault and where to enter. The only issue was they didn't have building schematics so they weren't sure what rooms or hallways to take.

While the boys were talking, Jack made a cup of tea and carried it into Donnie's room. "Knock knock."

Donnie looked up. "Oh Jack…"

She brought the cup over and offered it to him. "I thought you might need a pick me up."

He took the cup and took a long drink. "Thanks."

The woman turned to the table and put a hand on the side of Antonello's face. "How is our sleepy friend?"

"Good. He just needs to wake up." Donnie folded his arms across his chest. "I think I found the right signal. I just need to make sure it works so he needs to wake up. He's going to be in some pain most likely so until he is fit to go out with you all, I'm going to work on my leg so hopefully I can join you as well."

Jack nodded, her gaze still on Ant. The turtle under her hand slowly opened his eyes. He slowly turned his head and lifted up his arm. The woman took a step back and Donatello grabbed her arm and pulled her away just in case.

"What is this annoying buzzing sound?" He asked as he reached for the back of his head.

Donatello grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Don't touch that. It's the only thing keeping you sane right now… I hope anyway."

"Thanks… but's it's giving me a terrible headache." And rubbed at his temples.

"The painkillers are in the cabinet. Take them with you." Donnie paused. "Let us know if you start hearing anything strange again…"

"Just the buzzing." Ant slid off the table and went to the cupboard to grab the pills. After swallowing a handful down he looked at Jack. "How long have I been on this table?"

"Two weeks maybe?" Jack scratched her head. "Come on, you have got to be hungry. Let's get you some food."

The pair made their way out to the kitchen. The other turtle had disappeared back to the training room. They could hear the clashing of weapons and fists, but Jack insisted that Ant stay in the kitchen.

"Get some food first. Then you can go beat up on the guys." She gave him a smile before turning to the fridge and pulling out something to cook.

Ant sat down at the dining room table and watched the woman cook as he rubbed the side of his head. It was throbbing but the painkillers were dulling the pain slightly.

"So what… Jack?" He sat up straight as he watched her take a small step back. She was wavering. Then her knees buckled and she dropped. "Jack!" Ant was quick enough to catch her before she hit the ground. As soon as she was caught the woman blinked and tried to shove Antonello off of her.

"I'm fine."

"You are not fine! You just… fainted." His brow was creased behind his yellow bandana.

"I did no such thing!" Jack looked him hard in the eyes. "I was just a bit dizzy. And you will not tell Raph!" She straightened out her shirt and turned back to the stove. After gathering up his food she placed it on the table before him.

Ant looked at the food and his stomach rumbled but he looked back to Jack instead. "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Yes! I'm fine! Now eat!" She patted him on the shoulder and took a deep breath. "I'll go tell the guys you are awake." She walked away and headed down the hall. But she didn't go to the training room. Instead she turned and went into the bathroom.

Putting the lid down she sat down on top of the toilet and ran her hands over her face. She took a shaky breath and tried to stop her hands from shaking. "This can't be happening… this can't be happening. Not now… not now!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the shell cell and pressed the button for April.

"Hello?"

"A-April?"

"Jack? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah... I just…. Do you think I could come over tonight? I need to talk to you."

"Of course. You can come over whenever you want."