Chapter 2

It was close to midnight when the turtles returned to their lair after patrol. Almost immediately Raphael went to go watch some TV, despite Leonardo's warnings that there was morning training tomorrow instead of in the afternoon like it usually was. Of course, since when did Raph heed Leonardo's warnings?

Donatello immediately went to his lab to finish up some things before bed, but his family knew that they would be finding him asleep in there by morning.

Leonardo rolled his eyes at both of his younger brother's late night behaviors and turned to Mikey. "Well, are you going to bed?"

Michelangelo grinned at him from the floor, where he was kneeling to look under the couch, much to Raphael's annoyance. "Yes. I'm just gonna find Klunkers. I haven't seen him all day, and I'm worried he didn't eat."

Raphael cheekily began to use Mikey's shell as a foot rest but his plans were foiled as Mikey shot up when he heard a faint meow upstairs. "DADDY'S COMING KLUNK!" He yelled as he ran up the stairs.

Raph rolled his eyes. "Our actual dad's gonna come 'f 'e keeps makin' that racket."

The blue turtle just rolled his eyes at went to his room to actually get some sleep, just in case he wanted to actually be, you know, well rested.

Scampering up to his room, Michelangelo was greeted with a fuzzy orange face staring up at him from the doorway. "Hey Klunk!" He cheered, picking up his kitten and twirling a bit. "Didja eat any mice? You better not have eaten any rats or else I'mma be sad." Mikey told Klunk.

Klunk licked his lips.

"I'll take that as "Of course I didn't eat any rats Mikey, I love Master Splinter too much to do that!" Mike imitated, bouncing Klunk around in time with his high pitched voice. Klunk looked rather displeased.

"Alright, let's get you some real dinner and then go to beeeeeed." Mikey yawned, putting his cat down and going over to his food bowl.

After his Klunk was satisfyingly full, he turned off the lights, tripped over all the stuff he had on his floor and curled up under his blankets, a purring kitten resting on top of his chest. Sighing happily, he closed his unusual blue eyes and prepared for cloud 9.

It had sunk its claws in. It hung around the very edge of his light's mind. For now. For now he would slowly begin to break down his light, making his light weaker, and easier to consume. But for now, only a taste.

It was dark. Mikey did not like the dark. Well, he did not like the dark when it was really, really dark. And alone. He didn't like the dark when it was dark, dark and alone.

He was a great ninja, he promised.

There wasn't much he could do in this darkness though. Despite the paranoia and panic slowly drifting into his thoughts he couldn't even twitch a finger.

The orange turtle wished he could cross his arms and pout.

Suddenly a word began to ring out in the darkness. A word that made his heart speed up and his eyes widen. It was his least favorite word, the word that he laughed off whenever it was thrown at him, but always traveled to his heart and chipped away at it mercilessly.

"Useless. Useless. USELESS." The word kept echoing, overlapping, running into Mikey like a freight train so often it was even starting to hurt. He still couldn't move, he couldn't even lift his hands to cover his eardrums from the deafening word.

The nunchucku wielder's vision was lifted. Huh, he must have been staring at the floor.

Raph was standing a few feet away from him. Happy to not be alone, Mikey called out for him.

The red masked turtle seemed about to step towards him when suddenly there was a sword sticking out of his plastron and oh that was not good-

"AH!" Michelangelo jolted upright, sending Klunk flying onto the other side of the bed. He meowed in protest and hissed at his owner before running out of the room.

Breathing heavy, Mikey placed a hand over his plastron and looked around.

"Man, I haven't had a dream like that for years." Mikey sighed, shaking his head as if it would clear his mind from the horrid image stuck in his cranium.

His blue eyes glanced at the clock and he was surprised to see it was about four thirty in the morning. Exhaling, he decided it was early enough to check on Raph. Despite knowing it was a dream, he still would rest better knowing his big brother was still fine.

He didn't hear the snoring come from Raph's room, but he could faintly hear it from downstairs. Mikey gave a tired smile. "Figures he'd fall asleep in front of the TV."

Tip toeing his way down to the "living room", he checked on Donnie (because yes, he was fast asleep in his lab) before going over to the couch. He sighed in relief at the sight of his older brother sleeping peacefully, the TV still on and playing some late night infomercial.

Still feeling uneasy, Mikey sat on the couch next to his brother, staring at the TV screen for a few seconds, before scooting a little closer. A few more seconds, a few more scoots.

Finally he just curled his legs up onto the couch, grabbed Raphael's arm, and rested his head on his brother's shoulder. Feeling at peace, Mikey was able to fall asleep.

There was something holding it back. Its light was once again mentally vulnerable, but something was holding it BACK. Frustrated, it pushed out its awareness and saw another being was next to its light. The presence was hindering him somehow, as if the mere aura of that being was enough to dissuade it. It backed off for the night.

It was around five thirty when Master Splinter decided it was time to collect his boys for morning training. He found Leonardo in the kitchen first, a masterfully prepared tea and a happy "Good morning Master" greeting him and he couldn't help but feel his heart warm as he returned the greeting with equal enthusiasm.

"Leonardo, go collect Donatello from his lab." The old rat instructed.

"Well, maybe he went to bed this time?" Leonardo questioned.

Master Splinter chuckled. "My son, you know your brother as well as I do, the day we find him in his bed without any interference from us is the day I sprout wings and fly."

Startled by his Master's joke, Leonardo couldn't help but laugh.

As the blue turtle went out to collect purple, the rat went into the living room, where he could hear the loud snores of his second oldest coming from.

Entering the line of sight of the couch however, sent him into a bit of a shock.

Raphael had one arm over the edge of the couch, the back of his head also resting there. His other arm, however, was held captive by Michelangelo, who clung to the appendage like a life line and was breathing quietly. He was almost in the red turtle's lap.

Smiling at the sight, he coughed loudly. Sure enough, Raphael stirred first. He seemed confused at first. "Why am I on a couch?" He groaned loudly. As he went to stand up though, he found himself yanked back down by a firm grip on his left arm. "What the-" Looking down at his arm, he was surprised to see his youngest brother holding quite firmly to the limb, a peaceful look on his face.

"Raphael." He looked up at the sound of his name and grinned sheepishly at his Master.

"U-Uh, g'mornin Masta." Raphael greeted, trying to get his arm out of Mikey's grip.

"Good morning my son, please meet us in the dojo when you are ready." Master Splinter smiled before gingerly taking steps towards their meeting place.

"Yo. Goof, wake up. MIKEY!" Raph suddenly yelled.

Mikey squealed and jolted away from the brother in surprise, looking up at him with fear for a few seconds before he realized what was going on. "Oh…uh, good morning Raphie!" Mikey chirped, trying to recover from that embarrassing display.

Raph scowled darkly. "Wutduyou think yer doin', huh?"

Mikey tapped his index fingers together innocently. "Welllll…it was kinddd a cold last night…and you know how I get…heat seeking missile and all that." He grinned.

The red turtle stared at him dubiously. "Ya were c'ld…so ya got up, asleep 'parently, made yer way downstairs, inta the livin' room, and onta the couch, despite Donnie and Leo, especially Leo, being much closa?"

"Uh…yes?"

Flick.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Knucklehead."

They were about done with training, Michelangelo was sparing with Donnie while Raph and Leo were happy to get any aggression they had on each other that day out nice and early.

"So did you get," a grunt, "any sleep last night," a quick dodge, "Donnie?"

"Of course," Block, counter, "just…on a desk."

Duck, upper cut. A laugh. "Figures Donnie, just figures."

A grin, and a nice punch in the gut. "Gee, thanks."

Coughing slightly he shoved Donnie with a mocking glare, who shoved him back, and soon instead of doing a strategic ninja spar session, they were rolling around on the floor wrestling like a couple of brothers, as strange as that sounds.

Not enough progress. Not enough progress. It is usually farther ahead than this. It usually doesn't have to worry about a strange presence ruining its first night. Need to get back onto schedule. Gathering energy, it sucked.

Mikey was totally about to win, he knew it, when suddenly he was boneless, exhausted. In his moment of weakness, the purple turtle quickly pinned his brother to the floor and began to laugh triumphantly. Mikey could barely respond.

"Hah, what's wrong Mike? Intimidated by my glorious win?" No answer. "…Mikey? Mike answer me!" Donnie yelped, shaking his shoulders slightly. "Did I hurt you? What's wrong?"

Hearing their brother's cries, the eldest turtles and their Master swiftly came to their sides.

The orange turtle shook his head, and finally managed enough strength to bring a hand up to his forehead and groan.

"Mike! Mike what's wrong?" Raph yelled, concerned. Leonardo kneeled down and began to massage his younger brother's temples.

"Tell us Mikey, c'mon!"

Finally, the feeling began to pass Mikey gently pushed himself up to a lotus position. "I-I'm okay. I don't know what happened. I was doing fine and then suddenly I was exhausted."

A fuzzy hand gently pressed against his forehead and he stared at the calm, concerned brown eyes of his father. "Did you sleep well, my son?" He asked gently.

"Well-I mean-I kinda…yeah, I slept okay." Mikey finally responded.

Skeptical looks were exchanged.

"Michelangelo," Leonardo said in that no nonsense tone, his full name making it worse. "If something is wrong you must tell us."

"Yeah, ya bonehead. Cuz if ya don't…I'll beat it outta ya. Yer choice." Raph threatened, shaking a fist.

"Does he feel warm Master Splinter?" Donatello asked, slowly going into doctor mode.

Splinter shook his head. "No, his temperature seems normal."

"Honestly guys, I'm okay now. I guess...I miiigghhhtt have gotten a nightmare last night…so my body was probably like "Yo Mikey, I'm tired, stop wrestling and go to bed." Mikey laughed.

No one else was laughing.

"What was your dream about Mike?" Donnie asked.

His younger brother immediately averted his eyes. "No biggie, it was just really dark and then something popped out at me. It just startled me awake, that's all."

"If you're sure, Mikey…" Leonardo said, beginning to let it go.

"So sure!" Mikey beamed.

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah, 'e's fine. Can we get back to the fight now? I was 'bout to win."

"Maybe in your dreams Raph!" Leo yelled, pulling his katana back into a battle ready position.

Raph just growled, his sais gleaming menacingly and they quickly resumed their combat.

Master Splinter turned to his two youngest. "You two may stop for today. If you feel tired again, Michelangelo, please go rest."

"I promise sensei!" Mikey chirped before turning to Donnie. "Ya hungry?"

Donnie shrugged. "Yeah, could go for some food."

As they both stood and began to argue back and forth over what to eat, a peaceful calm settled over the lair, despite the clang on metal and smack talk echoing throughout the area.

Too bad it didn't settle over Master Splinter, who stared at his youngest son's back intently for a bit longer before turning his attention back to the fight next to him. He had a bad feeling.

Good. It was pleased. Back on track. Soon. Soon. SOON.