Chapter Three

Mikey couldn't sleep. It was around eleven at night, and he couldn't sleep. He glared angrily at the ceiling while his left hand gently stroked the soft fur of his kitty companion.

He was even pretty tired. They had gotten into a somewhat big clash with some purple dragons that day. The brats had been trying to break into a jewelry store, a rather big one. The turtles managed to keep them in the area before vanishing right when the police showed up, keeping watch in the shadows to make sure they were properly apprehended.

It wasn't a particularly challenging fight, but there had actually been a lot of them and they just would not back down. Even Raph got a little frustrated. Of course, his frustration got worse when one of the dragons managed to hit him upside the head with a crowbar.

The orange turtle had seen it and the absolutely stunned look on both Raph's and the punk's face made him laugh hysterically, despite their situation. The red turtle, after recovering, threw the boy into the wall before hitting Mikey upside the head.

Needless to say, the first thing Raph did when they got home was let Donnie check for a concussion, grab some pain killers and then went to bed. The rest of the family followed suit not long after. Being such amazing butt kicking mutants wore on you after awhile, yanno?

But despite that, Mikey couldn't sleep. He had a slight headache of his own now, and Mikey wondered if that was the reason. Klunk's purring was pretty soothing, but it was like something was holding his eyes wide open.

So he decided the best thing to do was to knock himself out with drugs. Some ibuprofen, to be more precise.

Getting up and petting his cat once more, he made his way down to the kitchen and opened a cabinet, pulling out the bottle and popping three pills in his mouth before washing it down with some water.

"My son?" A voice from behind him startled the turtle, making him drop the glass. Mikey managed to catch it though, after a rather embarrassing flail of arms.

"Sensei!" The orange turtle yipped, staring at his father with wide eyes. "You…startled me?"

"Are you in pain my son?" The rat asked, coming closer.

"N-No, Master, I'm not in pain or anything. I'm just having some trouble sleeping is all." Mikey told him.

"It is not good to fall asleep through the effects of pharmaceuticals." Master Splinter informed him. "Why did you not just meditate? You always find no trouble falling asleep during that." Master Splinter's tone was half teasing, half reprimanding.

Mikey snickered before rubbing the back of his neck guiltily. "Sorry Master."

The rat sighed softly and patted his arm. "Go try and sleep Michelangelo, I will see you in the morning." He turned to make some chamomile tea to help his own rest that night.

Saying a respectful good night, Mikey turned and tromped back upstairs. He laid down next to Klunk and turned on his side, drawing little patterns with his finger onto his kittens back, causing him to start purring again. Chuckling slightly he closed his eyes. But his attempt seemed to be in vain. Five hours later he was staring at the ceiling in frustration. "Five hours. Five FREAKIN hours and I'm still not asleep." He glanced at the clock that said three in the morning. Sighing in defeat, he stood and made his way out the room. Mikey noticed that the lights were on in Donnie's lab and tiredly went over there.

A few feet from the door he began to stomp loudly and knocked on the door enthusiastically. Not feeling like sneaking up on his technologic brother that morning, he made sure to give his brother a lot of forewarning before he came in.

Luckily it looked like his brother was just working on some programming on his computer. The purple masked brother looked up at him in amusement. "You're as graceful as a ballerina Mike."

Mikey pouted slightly. "Oh sure, the day I give you plenty of warning you're not working with any chemicals and stuff."

Donnie laughed and checked the clock. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"Touché."

Mikey sluggishly came over and pulled up a chair next to his older brother, turning it backwards and resting his chin on the top. "I couldn't sleep." He sighed.

Donnie looked surprised. "That's unusual. Are you feeling okay?" He asked, touching his little brother's forehead to check his temperature.

"You mean other then feeling really friggin' tired? Yeah." Mikey sighed, closing his eyes.

"Well you can stay here for a bit, since I'm not working on anything dangerous." Donnie told him, turning back to his programming.

Soft snoring answered him and he glanced to his little brother slumped over the chair fast asleep. With a chuckle he continued to work on updating the security system.

Everything was going well. A night of not sleeping would make his light easier to break. But once again, a presence interrupted. These presences were making it very, very angry. It was different aura this time it knew, but it was still strong enough to somehow make it unable to affect its light. But it knew soon, when it got its claws sunk in, not even these presences would be able to take back what it wanted. For now, it backed off for a second night.

When Mikey woke up he was still in Donnie's lab. His older brother was knocked out in the chair next to him, his head tilted back and his mouth open as quiet little snorts and snores came from him.

Giggling slightly, the orange turtle checked the clock and saw it was around 5 in the morning. He groaned. "I need to stop getting up early."

"Mikey?" Came a voice from the door way. He turned and saw his eldest standing there, looking slightly concerned. "What are you doing in Donnie's lab?" The katana wielder asked as he stepping into the room. Heading over to Donnie, he hefted him up over his shoulder and gave Mikey curious look.

Mikey let out a short sigh. "Couldn't sleep last night. Ended up in Donnie's lab and I guess I fell asleep."

Leonardo chuckled, trying to keep his voice down. "Would you like to come meditate with Master Splinter and I? It might help you sleep." He teased.

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah Splinter Junior, I already heard that from him." He grinned.

The blue masked turtle shook his head at him and turned to go put Donatello to bed, Mikey scampering after him.

They split when they passed Mikey's room. "I'm gonna see if I can sleep for a few more hours."

"Alright, remember training is at nine." Leo responded, smiling at him softly.

"Yeah yeahhh." Mikey sighed before slipping into the room. A meow greeted him and he grinned, jumping onto the bed. He curled up around his various pillows and finally drifted off to sleep.

It seemed like Mikey was in a continuation of his first dream, which in itself was a scary thing. Now he was kneeling next to a bleeding out Raphael who was glaring at him with empty eyes.

"You could have done something." Mikey knew it wasn't Raph. Raph's voice wasn't that deep. Wasn't that clear. But this was a dream and everything seemed real in a dream even if it wasn't.

"I couldn't move, I'm sorry!" He heard himself cry.

"You could have done something. Useless. Useless. USELESS." Dream Raphael's voice suddenly became more and more like the real Raph's voice. The wound in his side was bleeding heavily, spreading across the floor. When Mikey looked down he could see the blood crawling up his legs. He began to panic. The turtle looked up at the body and saw two blood red eyes staring back at him. He screamed.

"MIKEY! GE' UP YA BONEHEAD!" Mikey's eyes shot open at the banging on his door. His breath hitched and he yanked himself up and out of bed.

"I-I'm coming!" The somewhat hysterical turtle managed. There was a grunt and he heard the heavy footsteps of his brother tromping away from his room.

Taking a shaky breath, Mikey let it out slowly. Klunk was sitting on his bed looking up at him in concern. He meowed questioningly.

Michelangelo took the hell of his palm and pressed it into one of his eyes, sighing deeply. Finally composed he picked up Klunk. "It's okay Klunkers, just a stupid dream. It's fine."

Klunk gave him a skeptical look.

He somehow managed to get through morning training despite his exhaustion. Master Splinter was disappointed with his lack of attentiveness, he could tell, but Mikey couldn't gather up the energy to care too much right now.

As soon as they were dismissed, the turtle stumbled over to the couch and curled up on it, groaning loudly.

His three brothers looked at each other in surprise.

"Ya okay there Mike?" Raph grunted out, leaning over the top of the sofa.

Mikey nodded before breathing out. "Just tired."

"You, being tired? Leo, check the news for any reports of flying pigs." Donatello teased.

They heard a snicker come from the couch.

Leonardo didn't find it too funny however.

"It's unusual for you to not sleep Mikey, are you sure you're alright?" The eldest asked, kneeling down beside the couch.

"Yeah. I dunno, I'm sure I'll be fine." Mikey mumbled, burrowing further into the couch.

Raph growled. "Well move aside Mike, I want some o' da couch too ya know." Mikey didn't move.

Scowling, the red masked turtle jumped over the couch, lifted Mikey's legs, sat on the couch, and let Mikey's legs rest on his thighs. "You betta appreciate this bro."

Mikey just mumbled incoherently.

It was a mutual agreement that while on patrol that day to keep an extra close eye on Mikey.

Throughout the day Mikey just got worse. He tried to perk up after lunch, but his family could just see the bags under his eyes darkening. It was like something was sucking out his energy.

As they traveled along the roof tops, they noticed Mikey taking easier roots and being less of a show off than usual.

"He just needs a good night sleep." Donatello told Leonardo as they ran together. "I can give him something tonight to see if that will help."

"I 'eard 'em dis mornin', tossing and turning real violently. I thought 'e was jus' bein' Mike though." Raph mentioned, coming up behind him.

"Stop talking about me!" Mikey complained, speeding up and stopping next to them.

Donnie grinned and leaned over to Raph, putting a hand up as if to block his words from the rest of them and talked into his older brother's ear. "Pss pss pss MIKEY pss pss pss." Raph let out a guffaw of laughter and Mikey pouted.

"You guys are mean."

Leonardo suddenly tensed. "Guys, we're not alone."

Immediately the others pulled out their weapons, just in time too as a throwing knife landed at Raph's feet. He growled angrily, brandishing his sais in the direction of their assailants.

Fifteen or more Foot ninjas appeared soon after.

Brandishing his weapons, Leonardo leaped forward and did a vicious slash at one of the ninjas, who barely dodged it.

Raph was next, plowing down two ninjas and kicking another right in the temple.

Calmly brandishing his bo staff, Donatello easily whacked a Ninja right in the head and easily swirled around to give another a kick in the stomach.

Mikey danced around two of the Foot, twirling his weapons and mocking them openly. "C'mon ya sissies, scared of little ol' me?"

A ninja jumped forward but was quickly knocked away by a swirling nanchaku.

Another ran forward with a sword, which Mikey swiftly dodged. The ninja kept swinging though, forcing the orange turtle to continue dodging or get his head chopped off.

Its light was fighting something. It gave it an idea. An injury would help weaken his light, allow it to sink its tendrils deeper. Determined, it reached forward, grasped and sucked.

Mikey was feeling good. He was more awake, adrenaline flowing through his body, and he was pretty happy to dodge and tease the Ninja swiping at him with this sword. He was about to finally block one of the hits with his chucks as the sword turned vertical and moved to stab him when he was suddenly so tired.

Stumbling and unable to process, he managed to bring an arm down to try and block the sword and was rewarded with a puncture wound in his forearm.

Mikey watched with wide eyes as the tip of the sword peeked out the other side of his arm before disappearing. Gasping in pain, he fell back, now not only exhausted but in horrible pain. The ninja twirled his sword into a better position and lifted it above his head ready to go for the heart.

Raph looked over at Mikey just in time. "MIKEY!" He roared, surging forward after his opponent was taken down with a quick jab in the shoulder.

Right before the ninja was going to bring his sword down for a killing blow he was tackled by a green blur stabbed in the neck with a sai.

Paying no attention to the ninja, Raph jumped up went to Mikey's side, shaking him slightly and angry at the waterfall of blood pouring out of his arm. "Mikey? C'mon Mike, you alright?" Mikey didn't respond, too shocked at what happened to really process what was going on. He couldn't stop staring at the stab wound as blood continued to slide down his arm and onto the ground.

Hearing Raph's cry, the two other brothers glanced over and paled at the sight of their baby brother laying on the ground and a small puddle of blood surrounding him. Knocking out his opponent, Donnie ran over to them, sliding to a stop at Mikey's side. Yanking out a cloth from his handy-dandy duffel bag, he wrapped it around Mikey's arm and put pressure on it. Mikey groaned quietly at the pain and he shook his head to try and snap out of it.

Leonardo stood over them protectively, snarling at any ninja that got close and defeating them swiftly. Raph quickly got up and took the other side, helping defend their little brothers.

Bringing his good hand up to his forehead, Mikey clenched his eyes shut before looking up at his purple banded brother. "Don-I, I don't, I suddenly was so tired and-"

"Shush, don't speak anymore. Don't worry I'll fix you, don't worry." Donatello babbled, taking off his mask and tying it around Mikey's elbow tightly to try and stop the blood flow. That done, he quickly took of Mikey's mask and tied it around the wound to help hold the cloth in place as he continued to apply pressure.

"Guys, we need to go!" He yelled, but paused when he saw the Foot was no longer around them, but all laying on the ground in defeat, his eldest brothers standing triumphantly.

Shaking his head the genius turned to Raph. "Can you support him?"

"O' course." Raphael responded, hurrying over to them. Mikey offered his good arm and Raph was quick to lift him up and wrap an arm around his shoulder. Mikey's knees were almost knocking from exhaustion and he looked like he could drop at any minute.

Leonardo came and stood beside him in concern. "How is it Don?"

"Clean cut, seemed to have hurt his radius bone though, and looks like it just missed the Ulna bone. Gonna need stitches, probably a cast as well. It went all the way through." Donatello listed off. "He's losing a lot of blood though."

"Alright let's get him home, quickly." Leonardo instructed, watching his brother with concern.

"Don't gotta tell me twice." Raph responded.

"I-I'm sorry..." Mikey whispered, his eyes starting to shut from the pain.

Donnie grabbed his arm and started to lead them away, putting pressure on the wound simultaneously. "Nothing to apologize for bro."

"We got your back." Raph declared confidently, shifting his grip so he had a tighter hold on the weak turtle. The words alleviated some of Mikey's fears, and he relaxed easily into his big brother's grip.

Mikey carried a small smile the whole way back despite it all.

Master Splinter had a bad feeling. Ever since his sons came home from patrol a few days ago, something was surrounding his youngest. He couldn't place it, but it made him anxious. The feeling grew stronger as the days passed. Something was happening to his son, and he was powerless to stop it until he knew what it was. He just hoped he found out before something horrible happened, instead of after.

"Master Splinter! We have a problem!" He heard Leonardo yell as the door to their lair opened. The old rat felt his heart drop, and he hoped that this wasn't the "after" he was afraid of.