Raphael was angry. He was angry a lot of the time, usually about small things — injustices he heard about on the news, Mikey being an idiot, Leo rubbing him the wrong way, someone who had messed with him and his family. Anger was an old friend of his. A familiar companion that walked with him wherever he went. But this anger reached down into the core of his being, drew on every ounce of rage bottled in his soul. He felt as though a river of lava was flowing through him, threatening to sweep him away into violence and mindless fury.

He tightened his grasp on his sai, snarling at the Purple Dragon standing in front of him. He wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and bury his weapons in the man's body — he and all the rest deserved nothing less for kidnapping Donnie and doing who-knew-what to him. If they had hurt Don — if there was even a single scratch on his body — then Raph was going to tear a bloody swathe through their entire gang and no one, not even Master Splinter, would stop him.

Plus, there was something about this particular Purple Dragon's face that got under his skin. He kept grinning at Raph mockingly, as if taunting him.

"So I guess you're here for that friend of yours, huh?" he said.

"My brother," Raph growled.

"Oh, forgive me. He wasn't very talkative during his stay here," the man said, sarcasm creeping into his voice. "But he was a great houseguest. Real entertaining for all of us."

Raph's eyes narrowed, and he took a step closer. "Keep runnin' your mouth, and you won't have one left."

A few chunks of concrete fell then, clattering to the pile of rubble that Raph was standing on. He knew that the ceiling was cracking further with every passing minute, and soon the whole roof was going to collapse. But he couldn't leave yet. Not until Don and April were rescued, not until his brothers were all safe.

Then a flurry of motion caught his eye, down at the other side of the warehouse. He saw Mikey carrying Don towards the Battle Shell, draped over his carapace like a sack of flour, with April running a few steps behind him. His purple-masked brother was limp and motionless, his arms hanging loosely over Mikey's shoulders. Raph couldn't tell by looking whether he was conscious, and whether he had been hurt.

But the sight stirred a new blast of white-hot fire inside him. How dare they put a hand on his brother — his gentle, amiable brother, who didn't deserve any of this.

He swung around at the Dragon in front of him, and realized that the rocket launcher was firing just a second before it did. He sprang high into the air and across the rubble-strewn floor, feeling the concussive blast buffet his shell as he landed, throwing him to his knees. More concrete flew and pattered across the warehouse. The steel supports of the warehouse groaned, and the deep cracks in the ceiling and walls grew deeper still.

"You're gonna bring the roof down on us, you crazy idiot!" Raph howled, standing up again.

The Dragon shrugged, still aiming the rocket launcher. "I plan to be outta here before that happens. You won't be so lucky, not once I use this little baby on that armored truck of yours." His smile widened, his teeth seeming to grow sharper. "I was looking forward to capturing all four of you at once, ya know. You're such good fighters, I was thinkin' breakin' you down would be a fun way to spend the day."

"You ain't breakin' anybody," Raph snarled.

"Oh, but I already did," the Dragon said, his voice dropping to a stage whisper. "That brother of yours?"

An icy chill went through Raphael, temporarily quenching his rage. He still didn't know what this guy was talking about, but something in those cold black eyes filled him with apprehension. If this — this thug had done anything to hurt Donatello…

"You may have him, but you're not getting him back," the Dragon said, tapping his fingers against the launcher. "Not after what I did to him."

"What did you do?" Raph snarled.

"'Course, I didn't expect one of you mutant freaks to break quite that easy. Cryin' and beggin' the whole time — it was pathetic. He must have screamed himself hoarse." He licked his lips. "Of course, deep down he probably enjoyed every minute of it. Give me a few more days—"

"What did you do?" Raph said, his voice rising like the roar of an avalanche.

The Dragon's eyes glittered maliciously. "Well, let me put it this way — he knows what it's like to be one of my girlfriends now."

It took a moment for the words to fully settle into Raph's brain, and another moment for his conscious mind to fully unravel the implicit meaning of them. He stared at the Dragon with eyes that had widened as far as they could, filling with horror at what he was being told, reeling at what the Dragon was saying to him.

No. It couldn't be. Not Don. Not… not that.

"What's the matter, freak?" the Dragon jeered. "Feeling a little jealous? Upset that I fucked him before you had a chance?"

And the rage came surging back — hot and blistering like lava in his veins, coiling like pythons in his muscles. Raph leaped forward with a howl that came from the depths of his soul, stabbing at the dark-haired Dragon with both of his sai. He could barely think — the rage was clouding his mind to the point where all he could think of was of this… this creature raping his brother.

He wanted the Dragon dead. Not just defeated or arrested. For what he had done to Don, Raph wanted him dead.

His rage blinded him and deafened him — he could hear Leonardo shouting for him somewhere in the distance, but his ears were full of the hammering of his heart, the rush of his blood. his entire mind and being were focused on reducing the Dragon to a heap of bloodied bone and flesh. As he leaped forward, he slashed downward with both sai at the man's head, a snarl contorting his face.

But the Dragon had seen his attack coming — Raph had let his rage dictate how he moved, and left ninja stealth and tactics behind him. The man dodged expertly from Raph's slashes, and swung the launcher like a club, smashing into Raph's side and sending him soaring straight into one of the massive burning shelves. Raph slammed into a crate and slid to the floor, his head spinning, flakes of burning paper falling around him like snowflakes.

He gritted his teeth and fought his way back to his hands and knees, his head ringing like a bell. But he clung to one simple singleminded thought: get to the Dragon and make him pay.

And as he staggered to his feet, he saw the Dragon taking aim at the Battle Shell. The Battle Shell — with Mikey, Don and April inside.

"No!" he bellowed, leaping forward with both sai ready to strike. With all his strength, he threw himself against the launcher and wrenched it upwards.

The next thing he knew, an explosion had gone off overhead, and concrete was raining down in heavy chunks and lumps all around them. Raph grimaced and bent over, keeping his shell turned upwards to the ceiling as it started to collapse. He felt a heavy dull pain sprout in his back as a lump of concrete hit his shell and bounced off, then a spike of white-hot pain in his shoulder as another struck it.

When Raph dared to open his eyes, he found himself looking at a bloodstained pile of rubble, with the Dragon's head and shoulders sticking out. His legs were twisted under a lump of broken concrete, jagged pieces of rebar impaling his bloodied flesh. The human's hands were scrabbling weakly at the ground as he tried to climb out of the rubble, but he wasn't making much progress. He whimpered pitifully — or at least, it might have been pitiful if Raph had even a shred of compassion for him. Blood was pooling under him, and splashed over the rubble.

"Raph!" Leo's voice called. "Raph, it's time to go!"

Ignoring the burning pain in his shoulder, Raph bent down and seized a lump of concrete more than half as large as he was, large and heavy enough that he had to use both arms to heft it to the level of his chest. His lip curled as he moved closer to the Dragon's head, and for a moment he was tempted to simply drop it on the man's skull, crushing it like an egg.

No. He wanted this guy to lie there suffering. He wanted him buried alive in a burning, crumbling ruin. He wanted him to bleed out, crushed to a pulp, knowing that this was all because he had raped Don.

"Raph! The ceiling's coming down!"

"Just a minute!" Raph called, the strain showing in his voice.

He heaved the concrete slab onto the Dragon's bloodied shoulders, pinning him down like a moth under a thumb. There would be no escaping the rubble for this rapist. The man let out a bloodcurdling howl and seemed to crumple under the weight. Raph stood above him, his chest heaving as he looked down balefully at what he had done, waiting for the blood to seep out from under the concrete, waiting for him to stop moving.

Then Raph looked up at the half-wrecked ceiling above them. The rocket launcher had smashed a hole in the roof, deepening the cracks that ran through it. Enormous chunks were slowly creaking down, tearing loose, dust falling as they slowly, inexorably moved downward. At any moment, they would fall onto the trapped Dragon, killing him.

"Raph! Get the shell down here!" Leo shouted.

"Coming!" Raph called, racing down the rubble-filled warehouse, and leaping into the open back of the Battle Shell. He turned as the door began to close behind him, seeing a lump of concrete the size of a car fall towards that pile of rubble, crushing what had been underneath it.

As the Battleshell lurched out, Raph stumbled to where Don was lying on the floor, his eyes open and staring at the ceiling.

"D-Don," he whispered, hoping against hope that the Dragon had been lying. "Don, are you okay?"

But as his brother turned to him, Raph saw the look in his eyes — and realized that it hadn't been a lie.