His hand hovered in front of the door.

"I can't believe I'm doing this. " He knocked.

The door to the ship started to open. He could hear a heated argument going on inside.

"Maybe they've managed to invent some kind of alien brain worm, like Stockman."

"Highly unlikely, Raphael." A formal sounding voice answered, "There are very few members of this planet's inhabitants who are capable of build such a thing."

"Well, they'd only need one Stockman wanna-be -"

The hull finished lowering, revealing the short turtle in the orange bandana.

"Donnie!" The turtle squealed, launching itself at him. "You're back!"

He cringed as it wrapped itself around him in a tight embrace and flung his arms outward to break its grip on him.

"I am no such thing!" He snapped. "I only came here for the process of interrogation. I demand you tell me what you thought you were accomplishing by attacking my home."

"Demand? Whatever they did to his head made him even more bossy then Leo."

The psychic approached him. " Donnie what's going on? Don't you recognize us?"

His temper was starting to rise. "I've had just about enough of you aliens messing with me by pretending we've met before. Now answer my question."

They all shared worried looks. "Wow." The male in war paint said. "Whatever they did to him really made him go whack."

"There's gotta be something we can do set him straight." The red wearing turtle said.

"Ooh, ooh, I know." The painted male answered. "I saw this show once where a guy got a knock on his head and lost his memories, and when he got another knock on his head they came back."

"The old, hit it to fix it solution, aye? I'm down."

"Casey, was this 'show' by any chance. an cartoon?" The psychic asked.

"Yeah why?"

"Lets try something else."

She put a comforting hand on his arm, "Will you let me try something?"

She was very pretty, pretty and dangerous, and he had seen just how dangerous first-hand.

Letting her poke her psychic tendrils into his brain would be a crime against self-preservation and logic.

But as he looked at her begging eyes, the combined forces of attraction and kindness forced him to reconsider his answer.

"Forgive me alpha, my kindness always did make me weak." He thought.

He coughed into his fists and raised a finger skyward. "I suppose that in the name of scientific curiosity, I am obligated to see where you are going with this." He said. He might be weak willed, but he did not need to broadcast that weakness.

"Thank you Donnie, this will not hurt a bit." She said, putting her hands to his temples.

The world turned black and he stood with her in a field of shadows, something in the field seemed to be calling them and she led him by the hand in the direction of the pull.

Shadows changed into concrete and he felt the cold cement press into the calluses on his feet.

She seemed to be searching for something to show him as she looked around the room, her eyes fell on something behind him and she lifted her arms over her face and screamed.

He spun to see what she was looking at and saw a beast wrapped in cloth with red eyes and naked tail lunging at them with gnashing teeth and claws outstretched.

He opened his mouth to scream, but before the sound could escape his throat he found himself back in the ship. They both broke out in a cold sweat and started panting.

"Is he back?" The turtle in red asked.

"I-I just don't know what went wrong." She stammered, "One moment I was leading him into a memory about the sewers and then next we were being attacked by Master splinter."

"That's impossible! Master Splinter would never attack us."

"I don't know... Didn't he, like, try to stab Leo when the Rat king came back?" The other hominid asked.

"That happened once! Maybe twice... My point is, it's not something he makes a habit of."

The psychic grasped her fingers together and looked at him with pleading eyes.

"I am so, so sorry Donnie, that was not supposed to happen. I promise it won't happen again. "

"Well, I sure that even psychics have off days," one side of his brain said.

"What are you an idiot? Don't let her do that again." The other side of his brain said.

"I forgive you, you can try again." He said brightly.

"You moron!" His brain shrieked.

She placed her hands on his face again, and a blinding pain flared through his limbs.

He grabbed the psychic's arms and shoved her so far back the other alien hominid had to put his hand on her shoulders to stabilize her.

"Whoa, not cool."

"Would you stop that!" Donnie snapped.

"I don't know what went wrong!" she exclaimed. "I thought I was doing it right, then all of a sudden there was a flaming sensation going through me, and my nose felt so tingly I wanted to scratch it off."

"Burning limbs? Tingly nose?" Mikey repeated, putting a finger on his cheek in thought, " I've had that sensation before ... When snapping Donnie out of that brain boggler. Hey, I wonder how many times Donnie got shocked by that thing?"

"Fourteen, I still don't believe that memory is mine but I gleaned enough from it to know the number was fourteen. I can't believe I've entertained the charade for so long, I'm leaving."

"You can't leave Don, we're your family." The turtle in red insisted.

"Dude, I've got my hockey stick right here."

"Casey, we are not going to try the amnesia cure you learned from a cartoon."

"Maybe we just aren't thinking of the right cartoon." The youngest turtle said, "I once watched show about a talking dog whose pet sitter had gotten amnesia and was about to tell the talking dog's owners about the dog's ability to talk when the talking dog gave him his favorite cookies which were so delicious that the man remembered everything. And I know just what we can use." The youngest turtle said this in such a rush no one could catch all of what he said before he ran off into the bowels of the ship.

Donnie put his hands on his hips, "show me the evidence."

"What?"

"Show me something to prove that I was raised with you."

"Well, we didn't exactly have enough time to go shopping while our planet was blowing up Donnie, we had to leave behind all of our things on earth."

"Likely story, I'm leaving." He had tried to humor the other turtle and what had it gone him? Burning limbs, a walk back in the rising cold, and the desire to scratch off his nose.

"Ta-DA! This will fix you. A fresh out of the replicators, New York pizza."

The youngest turtle returned carrying a yellowish piece of bread that he tried to shove under Donnie's nose. Donnie recoiled from it, "I am not accepting any food from you." He said firmly.

"Pleeeaaaase," the younger turtle begged, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.

Donnie sighed, "This weakness of will is going to kill me." He thought, he held out his palm. "Okay."

The other turtle handed him the sticky food item and he sniffed it before nibbling it cautiously. The nibbling turns to munching, then to gobbling, and before he knew it he had devoured the whole thing.

"Mmm, that was really good. Like ... the best thing I have ever tasted."

"That's because you're a New York turtle yo, this food source comes from your natural habitat."

Donnie chuckled and amusement, "I could almost believe that." The humor died away quickly and he looked at the other turtle solemnly. "You guys don't strike me as a bunch of bad kids, what made you turn raider?"

"We aren't Raiders!" The older turtle snapped. "It wasn't even our idea to come to space. We just got dragged out here by those lousy Triceritrons. If those losers hadn't invaded the earth we wouldn't be out here."

"I can understand that life can be harsh like that, but it's not an excuse to attack others."

"You don't need an excuse when the people you're attacking is a bunch of dirty kidnappers."

"Don't talk about my family like that!"

"They've brainwashed you, man." Casey added.

"Okay, that is enough!" Donnie snapped, "I was starting to feel bad for you, I was even contemplating helping you break your brother out of jail because I thought it maybe you guys could turn his life around. But now I see he is exactly where he belongs and is probably better off for it."

He turned and walked out, the cold had risen to a nearly unbearable peak outside.

"Leo?" The turtle in red asked. "You know where Leo is? You better spill or I will-"

The younger turtle moved in between them, hands in the air, "Okay, okay, we're sorry, we didn't mean to upset you, just please, please help us get Leo back."

Donnie paused and looked back at them. If he was the smart turtle everyone told him he was he'd leave them and go home before this cold killed him. He was so used to being an indoor turtle that he'd forgotten just how harsh this planet could get. He wondered what would become of the other turtle. Would they make special accommodations to account for his inability to adapt to this planets atmosphere? Or would they take his space suit from him and allow him to freeze in the cold? This was a harsh unsympathetic planet... The latter option was the most likely.

If this was a planet where they had options like rehabilitation he'd think the other turtle would be better off in custody. But this wasn't a planet with options, this was a planet where you either learned to adapt to the cold or found an Alpha to provide for you. And he wouldn't wish this cold on any turtle.

He sighed. "Very well. You," He pointed at the turtle in orange, "and you." He pointed at the turtle in red." Come with me. The hominids stay here."

He was compassionate, not insane.

(scene break)

Raph and Mikey peered at Donnie from the back of the shuttle.

"How are we supposed to help him when everything we do seems to send him into spiral of psychic pain?" Mikey asked.

"Maybe we need to just keep chugging through, like pulling of a band-aid. it'll hurt at first but once we've got it off maybe the other memories will come flooding back and we can get him back."

"Perhaps showing him something from his past will trigger his memory. like in my cartoon." Mikey said hopefully. But Raph shot down his hopes fast.

"This isn't like the past. We didn't have time to grab anything to take with us like when we ran away to the farmhouse. Not even ice cream kitty." Raph snapped.

"Perhaps we can show him a screen of something from earth?" Mikey asked, trying again.

"It would have to be something emotional and that only exist on the one planet.

"So a clip of a good wave won't work because other planets have them?"

"Donnie never been far enough out of the sewer... that kind of put a damper on things..."

"I know- we'll use the food replicaters to make him a pizza."

"He just ate pizza."Raph sighed, "Rat king, the Brain Boggler, why can't he get a fun memory, like the time you painted Spike pink so I demolished you in morning practice."

Mikey glared at it, that wasn't a happy memory.

"We're here." Donnie said, parking the shuttle and pressing a button to open the door.

Mikey followed his brainy brother outside and tried to catch his eye. Donnie made sure to not look his way, so he looked at Donnie's breath.. Donnie breath paled in the air, had it gotten that cold? Mikey was glad for his space suit, he wondered what happened to Donnie's.

Donnie lead the way up the hill, his legs trembling. Mikey frowned at Raph, trying to read if He had noticed that too.

The older turtle was marching on the compound with his chin jutted out and his shoulders hunched. Looked like his brother was in attack mode again. It would probably be smartest not to talk to him. Not that that was going to stop Mikey.

"Hey, have you noticed Donnie seems kind of cold?"

"Yeah, being cold when it's freezing out, good observation skills Mikey." Raph grouched.

Mikey frowned, " you see what I'm doing, Raph? This is my extreme frown." Mikey thought.

But Raph kept his eyes on the compound ahead of them and didn't tear his eyes away from it until Donnie collapsed in front of them.

"Donnie!" they both exclaimed, they rushed over to their brother and checked him.

"Dude! I'm not sure he's awake!"

"Lets get him inside." Raph said, lugging Donnie onto his back.

Mikey wasn't usually the one to jimmy the lock, that was usually Donnie, and Failing him Leo, and failing Leo, Raph's Sais, but Leo must have done a real number on the lock when he broke in the other day because it didn't give him any trouble.

"Donnie's not talking, Rath. Thats not good, I don't like this." Mikey noted on the verge of panic.

"I know, I know. lets get him inside. " Rath said with tone that wasn't as reassuring as Mikey wanted.

They must have trashed the security pretty bad the last time they were here. Because nothing tried to stop them. It wasn't even that difficult to unlock the door. Leo must've shaken something loose when he had broken in here the first time.

The room adjacent to the front entrance had a couch in which they lay Donnie on, there weren't any blankets on the couch because for some reason that Mikey couldn't understand they decided to hang the blankets on the walls. Raphael pulled one off the wall and threw over their brother, Mikey took a moment to look around.

He didn't really care much for the house, for one thing, their living room looked more like a waiting room. They even have some kind of bizarre modern art piece that looks like one of Rath's favorite wrestlers had taken a chair and sculpted this piece by slamming it into his opponents.

He turned his attention back to his brothers, "how is he doing?"

Raph didn't answer. Choosing instead to keep his attention on rubbing Donnie's shell through that odd blanket.

Donnie's shivering slowed down and nearly stopped. He gripped the blanket tighter and sat up. "That's better, thank you."

"Geez Don, couldn't you have put your suit on first?"

"What suit? I'm an indoor turtle." That sent a ripple of fresh rage through Mikey, going by the way he clenched his jaw, Raphael had a similar reaction. He wished he could plant ten years worth of pranks in this house, but knew he wouldn't have the time. Maybe he could plant one that was worth a year of big ones. Or maybe he could just pull a Raph. Not his first impulse usually, but he might be willing to make an exception for the aliens that did... That. To his brother. If they did anything like to Leo...

He decided to go to his go to for dealing with situations like this, which was to stop thinking about it and hope the problem fixed itself. Or barring that, one of his older brothers fixed it. which was usually what happened.

Donnie pushed himself to his feet, still shaking a bit from the cold. "Basement 's this way." he sniffed.

He led them downstairs to a door that he pulled on. "Oh, it's been locked."

"Lets smash it and go."

"That would set off an alarm." Donnie said, "I bet the key is in the office, It won't be that hard to find."

He turned around, still hugging the blanket to himself and started for the office.

Mikey looked to Raph to see what he thought about this. Raph looked annoyed, but followed their brainy brother up the stairs.

Donnie trudged up to the office door and stood in front of it, Raph and Mikey standing on his sides. Donnie reached for the handle and Mikey noticed a sliver of light in the crack of the door.

"Uh-oh." He thought, acting on instinct he slid into the shadows.

Vatu threw the door open just as Donnie was about to turn it, Raph slid behind the door and Donnie hid the blanket behind his back and angled his body to hid most of his Bo.

"Donatello? what are you doing here?"

"Uh, I just can't seem to sleep." Donnie said, making discreet gestures with his hand, waving Raph up the stair. The older turtle ghosted up the stairs like a shadow.

"I was hoping you had something I could read, It might help me sleep."

"Go to bed Donnie, Just relax, We won't be having a repeat of last evening."

"Oh well, If you say so." Donnie said, smiling and backing away. Vatu watched him as he walked backwards all the way upstairs into his room. Once Donnie shut the door the old wolf went back into his office. Mikey shuffled up close to the door and peeked in.

Vatu picked up the phone on his desk, "Thanks for holding ... Nothing worth worrying about, just one of my kids ... The new one. No no, I got the door alarm back online and locked the other turtle up." He held up a key, turned it in his palm a few times then placed it on his desk.

"I'm not worried..." Vatu stopped to listen, walking around his desk.

Mikey took the few second he had and rolled into the room and under the desk. He could see the key just poking out over the side.

The wolf made a few mm-hmms to whoever he was talking to and Mikey pulled out a kunai.

"Don't worry about it, I can keep one of my psychics near him while he's working , as long as he's with them sometime within a 24 hour period that should be enough to keep the trance going."

Mikey used the tip of the kunia to very gently tip the key farther over the side of the desk.

"There's an ion storm that's going to force them to move out for some kind of combat mission, they seem to be some kind of army troop, and they can't drop their mission even for something like this. When they return in a few month we should have given him enough doses of psychic energy to keep the trance going even without a psychic nearby. They won't be able to turn him back."

Mikey snarled as he worked the key over the side of the desk, letting it drop into his palm. Only the thought that he might make thing worst for his brothers by alerting whoever was the other side of the phone with his presence kept him from leaping over the desk and pulling a Raph. But he'd seen Raph pull a Raph enough times to know that didn't always work out for the best. So he waited. He hated waiting.

(scene break)

Raph waited patiently, sitting on the bed and kicking his feet back and forth.

Donnie came through the door still sniffing, "We'll just wait until he goes to bed then get key."

"Oh gee, that sounds great plan. I hope he isn't as big an insomniac as you and doesn't wait until someone comes over to take Leo someplace else." Raphael grouched.

"Well, I don't want you getting into a fight with my father. And you don't want to get into a fight with him either, he'll call the guard on you." Donnie said sitting down.

Raph rolled his eyes and looked around the room, "They actually managed convince you that you live here? This bedroom looks like it was strung together just today, probably because it was."

"Why are you still going on about that? You guys already confessed to your lies about that remember?"

Raph groaned. "Okay, answer this geek, where's all your stuff? I'd expect a nerd like you to have this place full of nuts and bolts.

"I'm an apprentice engineer and have yet to be authorized a lab of my own. So I usually go to other scientist's labs to study. I'll be getting my own this year."

"Baloney, Earth might not be the creme de la crop of the science space community, but I seen their museum, this place is a wasteland. You could science around any of the people on this planet. Don't you at least have some schematics or something you are working on?"

"You don't get an over abundance of ink and paper in a desert. Making such things would be expensive."

"Oh, like this family can't afford that?"

"I don't want to be a drain on them, so I don't ask for much."

Raph made an unhappy hrmm. "Okay, one last question. Where are your extra masks? What do you wear that one gets dirty?"

"I don't need of replacement masks, I don't need to have something on my head while this is in the wash. I don't see even remember why I wear this at all."

"Don't remember," Raph sputtered, "that's not just a piece of cloth you're wearing, don't you number how much these mean to us?"

"It's just a bit of colored cloth." Donnie pulled off his mask and threw it on the bed.

"Colored cloth can mean lots." He stood up and picked up the Mask and held it in front of his brother.

"Master Splinter said that purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red. The color purple is associated with nobility, ambition, creativity, wisdom, dignity, devotion, peace, pride. Don't you remember any of the stuff we were taught our masks mean?"

"Master who?" Donnie asked, confused.

Raph sputter. "Master who? Master WHO!? You little-"

"Ahh!" Donnie exclaimed, recoiling in terror, he hadn't recovered enough to run away.

"You-" Raph threatened, leaning over him. He grabbed Donnie and pulled him into a hug.

"Its OK. It's going to be OK." He pressed his face into Donnie's neck. "I'll make it OK."

Donnie froze uncomfortably, not sure how to process what was happening.

Mikey ran up the stairs, "Dudes! I got the key."

Raph sighed in relief "Finally. Lets go get Leo."

Donnie slid off the bed and exited, "Well said, the sooner we get you bunch on your way the better."

Mikey watched him go, looking even more worried then before.

"What's gotten into you." Raph asked, knocking his shoulder into Mikey as he walked past.

"Dude, I over heard those aliens talking about brainwashing Donnie, It's being close to them that's making him like this, We need to get him away from those freaks." Mikey said in panicked rush.

"That's what's doing it? Huh... things just got easier." Raph followed Donnie into the basement and Mikey undid the door.

Leo was sitting in lotus position, waiting. When he saw them coming he hopped to his feet and ran forward to grip the bars in excitement.

"You did talk to them! I told you they'd set everything straight."

"Yeah." Donnie replied, "they set things straight all right, they confessed that this weird relationship you keep pretend we have is all a sham."

Leo looked confused and absolutely crestfallen. "They did?" He said in a small voice that probably meant to say ' how could you Rapheal?' That kid really needed to learn how to bluff. It would probably save his life one day.

Donnie opened the electric lock panel and fiddled with something or another until it unlocked.

Leo stepped out, still looking heartbroken and lost.

"Finally." Raph said, "now the four of us can go home."

"Four? There's only three of you." Donnie said looking a little confused.

Raph stepped forward and grabbed his brainy brother by the front of the shell.

It was a little satisfying to see Donnie's eyes widen that little bit before Raph yanked him forward and hit a pressure point in his neck, dropping the genius like a sack of potatoes.

(and that's chapter four.)

90's kids might recognize Mikey's cartoon as 'Corneil & Bernie' ('watch my chops' in France.)