The orange one was difficult to get on his own. He stayed close to the others. Maybe now it would be even harder if the others told him he was stalking them. Slowly he had been recovering some memories, broken bits and pieces of their lives., enough to anticipate where he would find the little one.

He staked out the pizza restaurant for three days before he caught sight of him. He was fast, he hadn't even noticed he was there until he was leaving, pizza box in hand. Instead of going back into the sewers how he thought he would he jumped up a fire escape and bolted across the rooftops.

He stayed close on Orange's heels wondering where he would be going until the turtle came to a complete stop on a familiar rooftop. This was where he had shown himself to Blue that time, the rooftop with the hidden beer. When he had returned a few nights after he had kidnapped Purple he found other items left on this roof in a plastic bin: a small crate with a dried lettuce leaf, drum sticks , a comic book and a half eaten slice of pizza. He had looked through them turning them over in his hands, wondering what they meant. He felt something but he wasn't sure what it was.

Orange turned around to face him and hesitated as he looked him over, his smile dropping from his face. He was looking at the healing cuts and welts that criss-crossed his arms and legs, the purple bruise that took up his jaw and the side of his head and the jagged cuts on the front of his plastron. They weren't too deep, he'd heal. Master Shredder had not been pleased at his continued failures or the knowledge that he'd been in position to end Blue and Purple and hadn't. His Master had grown wary of his continued absences and he'd had no option but to answer his questions when he was asked directly. He couldn't disobey that voice even if he wanted to. He should be angry at the turtles for stopping his missions over and over but he wasn't. It was what they did.

The small turtle's smile returned a little less brightly and he sat on the roof opening the box of pizza and pulling out a slice. "You want some or not?" He said out loud.

He stepped out into the light and walked up to the turtle, looking around. This felt too much like a trap. After the turtle kept talking nonsense and eating slices with nothing else happening he sat down in front of him but didn't touch the food.

"Not gonna have any? I got your favourite, chocolate and pepperoni." He nudged the box towards him but he ignored the turtle.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, something crossed in front of the light and he was up immediately, weapons out and eyes darting through the shadows looking for an enemy.

Orange turned to where he was looking. "It's the bats." He waved his pizza around flapping it slightly to mimic a bat. "Don't you remember? We used to watch them all the time! They swoop near the light where all the bugs are flying to hunt."

He looked towards the light as Orange made swooping noises and screeches with his half eaten slice waiting for something to happen and then he saw it, the shadow swooping quickly, arching near the glow of the light and then flying away. He followed the creature with his eyes until it flew out of sight. His eyes darted to Orange's and the turtle grinned.

"They're so cool! Aren't they?" Orange lifted the box with half the pizza left and held it in his direction. "I wanted one as a pet. I thought I could tie a little leash around it's foot and fly him like a kite when we went on patrol! But you and Donnie said bats needed to be free and he'd probably die if I kept it in capi- capvi- cap-ti-vi-ty."

He put away his weapons and sat down beside the turtle, reaching for a piece of pizza and eating it hungrily. He hadn't eaten in a couple days and his stomach was growling angrily. The turtle tensed up as he inched closer to reach the box easier and then settled down again as he munched on the pizza. It didn't taste as good as he thought it would. If he could speak to him he would ask if he had left those strange items on the roof for him to find, but he couldn't so he ate in silence as Orange went on an on about pizza and his family. Must be nice, he mused, having a family to watch the bats with and eat pizza.

When he was done eating he got up to leave but Orange stopped him by holding on to his hand. "You could come back with us." He pleaded with huge sad blue eyes. "You don't have to go back to the Shredder, Raph. Come home with me! It's okay, Donnie will fix it and you won't have to follow his orders any more." He breathed in to steady his wavering voice. "He won't hurt you any more, come with me, Raph." He held out a shaky hand and waited.

He looked at Orange, confused. Fix what? He didn't understand. He turned to leave again but Orange pulled him into a tight hug. The small turtle was sobbing into his shoulder like a little kid and he lifted a hand to push him away but ended up stroking the back of his head instead. Why did it hurt to hear him like this?

His vision blurred suddenly and he leaned against the turtle to steady himself. "I'm sorry, Raph, I can't let you go back to him. He's going to kill you, he doesn't care if you die!"

Poison. Orange had poisoned him! His vision swam and he pushed the turtle roughly away but when he turned to run his legs wouldn't cooperate as they should and he just staggered forward to the ledge. He wouldn't be able to jump to the next roof like this. He tripped with his next step over his own feet and toppled forward to go over the side but a strong hand gripped him on the edge of his carapace and pulled him back. He fell into the open, waiting arms of Blue. Orange and Purple helped to lower him onto the ground.

"What did they do to him!?" Blue sounded furious as he looked him over. He preferred how he looked when he had kissed him. He was having a hard time thinking as everything spun around him and the backround was blurring but he focused on Blue's face, raising a clumsy hand to touch a leaf green cheek. His numb fingers barely brushed it before Blue was gently pulling it away, changing his venomous expression for a soft smile. That's better.

Purple hissed in sympathy as he extended an arm to take a better look at the damage, his thumb drew soothing circles over the back of his other hand. "I think some of these are infected. I can't do anything here we're going to have to take him back and I'll look him over in the lab."

"I thought it wasn't going to work, he was already leaving before he was even woozy!" Orange exclaimed worriedly as they lifted him and manoeuvred him down the fire escape.

"He ate too quickly, the paralysing drug needs time to take effect. He's lost quite a bit of weight too, I'm worried I might have put too high a dose in there. I'm surprised he isn't unconscious." Purple answered as he hopped down ahead and knocked on the side of a van.

"They mustn't be giving him much food." Blue muttered as he lifted him into a fireman's carry with help of orange and jumped the rest of the way down.

A human stepped out of the van and opened the back doors, then helped Blue lay him down on a blanket inside. "No foot in sight." He said.

"Drive in circles until Donnie can confirm they didn't put a tracker on him." Blue answered and then put his hand on his cheek and rubbed it with his thumb. After a moment he slid his hand under his neck and lifted his head to tuck his leg under as a pillow .

They tricked him, it was a trap after all. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open and he probably wasn't doing a good job of glaring at them when his face felt so numb. He didn't blame them for it anyway. He didn't really want to go back to his cold cell .

"Shit!" Purple exclaimed and he tried to focus on him to not give in to the drugs and close his eyes. "He has a tracker all right... in his arm. I think they cut him up like that to camouflage the incision. I'm... going to have to cut it out of him now, they could be following us as we speak."

"Okay, do it." Blue ordered. He must have seen a panicked look on his drugged face because he met his gaze, stroked his head gently and said firmly in a voice that brooked no argument, "Don't worry, we've got you. Everything is going to be fine."

He couldn't help but believe that voice. Leo won't let anything happen to me, he thought as he faded into sleep.