Raphael was still limp and unresponsive as his brothers dropped him onto the bed, a heavy metal frame with a naked mattress resting on its springs. He hadn't moved or made a sound since they had extracted him from the van, and the sight of him so lifeless made Leo vaguely uneasy. From what little he had seen of Raphael, it seemed… unnatural for him to be sprawled out there, silent and still.

Of course, his appearance unnerved Leo in general. Maybe it was the Foot Clan's emblem emblazoned on Raphael's belt and the red scarf around his neck. Or maybe it was the black mask he was wearing — almost like a dark parody of the masks his brothers wore everyday. It was as if Shredder had deliberately perverted his appearance.

"I'll take his hands. Mikey, Donnie, you take his feet," Leo said grimly.

He dragged a padlocked chain across the floor and began winding it around Raphael's arms, starting at the elbow and finishing at his wrists. As he wound it around his brother's limbs, he also wove it through the solid iron headboard, securing his brother to the bed he was lying in. Once he was chained to it, he wouldn't be able to escape until someone unlocked his chains and let him go free.

Mikey and Donnie were doing the same thing at the end of the bed, firmly chaining Raphael's ankles together and securing them to the foot of the bed. Donnie's disapproval was still evident in his face, but he was reluctantly doing what Leo and Splinter had ordered him to do.

"Done," Mikey said, wiping his hands on his thighs. "What do we do now?"

"We wait for him to wake up," Leo said somberly. "And then… Father will know what to do then."

Donnie's face was a murky mixture of perturbation and irritation. "Where is Father?" he asked. "This was all his idea, so shouldn't he be here for this?"

"He's meditating," Leo said. "He… he's preparing to deal with a lot of anger when Raphael wakes up."

"I'm not surprised," Donnie muttered.

Just then, April limped into the room on bare feet, her expressive green eyes anxiously looking at the dark figure tied to the bed. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked.

"Physically, yes. Donnie says he should wake up in an hour or so," Leo said. "The rest… we're going to have to see. How are your feet?"

She smiled wryly. "My blisters have blisters. It serves me right for not wearing sneakers tonight — I must have walked by Casey fifty times before Raphael showed up."

"Well, your idea worked," Donnie said, crossing his arms. "It took a week of trying, but he took the bait." He grimaced. "For better or worse…"

"My cardio must be amazing right now," April sighed. She looked at the three green faces around her, and then back down the stairs. "I'm going to order some pizza, guys. It seems like this is going to be a long night for us all."

"You shouldn't wait up, April," Leo said. "We don't want you to do badly on your classes."

"I only have one tomorrow, and it's an easy one," she said, shrugging. "Besides, I don't think I could sleep much thinking about you guys dealing with… all this, by yourselves."

"We're not by ourselves," Mikey pointed out. "We have Casey."

"Casey's asleep on the couch outside, and I don't think he's waking up until morning," April stated, smiling. "Look, you're stuck with me, guys. I'm going downstairs to order the pizzas, and you can get some protein in your systems before you deal with Raphael."

"Thank you, April," Leo said warmly. "We really can't thank you enough for all you've done for us."

"Should we save some pizza for Raphael?" Mikey said curiously.

"What?" Donnie said.

"Well, he's gotta eat, right? We're not gonna starve him or anything, so why not feed him some pizza?"

"I guess we could try," Donnie said dubiously. "Knives and forks only, though. I'm not comfortable getting that close to his mouth. He might bite." He paused. "We're going to need straws for him to drink through, for as long as he's lying down. I don't think we can just pour liquids into his open mouth."

"I think there might be some in the kitchen," April said.

April gingerly went down the stairs, muttering about boots with heels, and the three brothers could hear her speaking into the phone downstairs. Mikey perked up slightly as he heard the words "four pizzas," as nothing put him in a better mood than his favorite food. Leo just wished that his own mood could be improved by something as simple as pizza.

With that, Leo went back into the next room, where Raphael was still lying still, his hands bound over his head. He hadn't been lying when he told Raphael that hitting him was painful — he had spent so long searching for Raphael that having to strike his brother unconscious just so they could speak was agonizing.

But there hadn't been any choice. Raphael had been lashing out like a wild thing, his face contorted by rage. Even if they hadn't been planning to drag him back to the apartment, leaving him conscious wasn't an option. The Foot would come looking for him, and he would have alerted them to the other turtles' presence. One way or another, Raphael had to be unconscious.

But it didn't make Leo feel any better.

He looked at Raphael for a few minutes before noticing that with his arms raised, his brother's head was tilted back at an uncomfortable angle. The edge of his shell was pushing against the back of his skull.

Leo slipped off to the bedroom he was sharing with Donnie and Mikey, and removed the battered pillow from the cot he had been sleeping on. Returning to the room Raphael was in, he gently raised his brother's head with one hand and slipped the pillow underneath it with the other. Raphael moaned softly as his head settled onto the soft lump, looking almost childlike.

Mikey appeared behind Leo, and put a hand around his older brother's shoulders. "Don't worry, Leo," he said soothingly. "Raphael's gonna listen to us once he wakes up."

"I wish I could believe that, Mikey."

"You have to," Mikey said. "You gotta convince Raphael to listen, and how's he gonna do that if nobody thinks he will?"

Leo smiled slightly. "You've got a point, Mikey." His smile faded as he looked back at Raphael. "I think we're all going to have to do our part to talk to him, because we're only going to have him for a short time before we release him again."

"Well, I know how I'm going to try," Mikey said confidently. "And I know it'll work."

"I hope it does, Mikey," Leo said.

He watched as Mikey left the room, confidence in every line of his body. Then Leo sat on the edge of the bed, resting his head in his hands, and waited for his lost brother to awaken.