Raphael had barely finished the pizza when the door opened again, and Donatello stepped into the room. The first thing Raphael noticed about him was that the taller Turtle seemed to be avoiding looking at him. He didn't have the intense scrutiny that Leo had, or the open friendliness of Mikey. He looked almost… uncomfortable.

Maybe he was afraid, Raphael reflected. No matter what they thought of him, he was still a member of the Foot Clan, and he had been trained to kill. Maybe Donatello was worried about what Raphael would do to them for kidnapping him.

"Hey, Donnie," Mikey said cheerfully. "Raph just finished his first slice of pizza ever. Where's Leo?"

"He's talking to Father right now," Donnie said, his eyes finally working their way over to Raphael's face. Raphael saw with a tinge of confusion that Donnie didn't look afraid, but… no, it was something other than fear. It was more like he was standing on something small and mildly painful, and was unable to step off. His deep brown eyes were taking in the chains wound around Raphael's arms and legs, and the look of discomfort on his face deepened.

"Mikey, why don't you take the plate back to the kitchen?" Donnie said,

"Okay," Mikey said reluctantly. "Raph, I'll be back in a little while, okay? Then we can talk some more."

Raphael grunted noncommittally, though he had to admit he hadn't minded Mikey's chatter as much as he thought he would. It was kind of… nice to have someone speak to him without reservations, without shying away from him either because of what he was or because of what he could do. There were only a few people who had done that — Toshiro-sensei, Master Shredder… and Mother.

His eyes moved to Donatello, and Donatello finally met them. He looked determined — almost defiant — as he moved closer to the bed, not breaking away from Raphael's gaze even once. When he finally did, it was just to turn around and seat himself on the mattress, where he sat silently for a while. Seconds ticked by, and Raphael began to squirm as he waited for the other turtle to do something.

"I want you to know, I wasn't in favor of this," Donnie said at last.

"What?"

"This." Donnie gestured vaguely at Raphael's body. "Kidnapping you and bringing you here. I didn't think it was right."

"You did it anyway," Raphael groused. "What do you want, a cookie?"

"No," Donnie said, stiffening slightly. "I just wanted you to know — before I try to make you understand — that I'm not just blindly following what Father and Leo tell me to say."

"Make me understand what?"

Don sighed. "How long and how hard we've been looking for you, Raphael."

Raphael felt his frown deepening. A memory flashed through his mind — of Donnie saying desperately to him, "We've been looking for you for months — we want to bring you home with us!" At the time, the statement had just filled him with confusion and fury, but now he had no choice but to listen to whatever it was Donnie had to say.

Donnie lowered his head, and his thick fingers were twisting together anxiously. "Leo told me that he told you how we mutated — how you got separated from the rest of us, and then you… apparently got picked up by the Foot Clan." He finally looked down at Raphael, looking apprehensive. "And I suppose after they found you, you mutated, and then they trained you. Taught you to become a ninja."

"Right," Raphael said warily.

His tone seemed to temporarily disorient Donnie, but the bo-wielding Turtle seemed to regain his bearings quickly. "Well… after you found out about us, did you wonder about we did for more than a year before we found you?"

"You said you were lookin' for me," Raphael said gruffly.

That seemed to surprise Donnie. "So you remembered that. I wasn't sure you would," he said. "Well, it's true. We started looking for you… almost as soon as we learned to speak and the basics of how to defend ourselves. We learned those fast, so it didn't take long for us to look for you. Even though we… even though there were some enemies searching for us, trying to take us back to StockGen — even before we had finished our training — we looked for you.

"We went over every rooftop, through every alley, every homeless shelter we could find. We checked in parks, and abandoned buildings, behind dumpsters and broken cars. We searched everywhere for you, because we had no idea you — you weren't there." His voice faltered slightly. "And when we met Casey, he asked questions that we couldn't — whether anyone had seen someone with green skin, or a giant talking turtle. He even sneaked into freak shows to see if someone had made you a part of one. We — we looked in every place we could think of, and we've been doing that for almost as long as we've been mutated."

Raphael's eyes flickered slightly as Donnie paused, searching the water-stained ceiling over him. He didn't know what Donatello's little story was making him feel — all he was experiencing was more confusion, a tangle of anxiety, rebelliousness and, strangely, sadness. He wasn't even sure why he was feeling sad, but that emotion was stirring inside him nonetheless.

And suddenly he thought of his ninja training with the Foot, his long days with Toshiro-sensei. While that had been going on, the other three had been searching for him — he suddenly had visions of them racing over rooftops and swinging down into slimy, trash-strewn alleys, calling out his name into the night and receiving no reply.

If he had met them back then… what would he have done? Could he have thrown away his life with the Foot back then, when his ties hadn't been so strong?

"And I'm going to be honest with you," Donnie finally continued. "I… I was ready to give up, sometimes. It wasn't that I didn't want to find you, but it seemed like such a hopeless quest, and we had so little to show for it. I thought that you were probably dead." He sounded ashamed of himself, and his fingers were twisting together again. "But Father never stopped believing that we would find you. He chalked it up to fate, or destiny, or whatever… but the point is that he believed we would find you, somehow. He never even considered the possibility that we wouldn't.

"And Leo… Leo wouldn't give up, no matter what. He's always the first to do what Father wants, so he also never once considered the search to be hopeless. He had doubts — I saw them occasionally — but he didn't let them get in the way of finding you. He was determined to find you and bring you home, no matter who or what he had to fight through."

"Are you tryin' to make me feel guilty?" Raphael said curtly.

"No, I'm not. I'm trying to make you see how much we want you back — how long we tried. And — and even though I can't really approve of what they did, I want you to understand how desperate Father and Leo are, doing something like this." Donnie seemed to slump as he looked back at Raphael, his brown eyes betraying how tired he was. "And I want to ask you a question. I don't want you to answer it, just think about it. Do you think the Foot Clan would search for you all those months, for no reason other than to bring you home?"

Raphael almost snapped back that the Foot Clan would search for him — that they were probably doing so right now. But his fierce response died on his tongue, as the last part of Donatello's sentence sank into his mind. Master Shredder would search for him, it was true — but because Raphael had proven himself a capable ninja, a sharp weapon for him to unleash against his enemies.

If he weren't capable of being a lethal ninja, Raphael didn't know what would happen to him.

"They don't know me enough to care about me," he said at last.

"Maybe not," Donnie said, rising to his feet. "But somehow they do anyway, and I think they would both do anything to know you better. They're not going to find any peace as long as you're not with us."

He strode across the room with the silence only a ninja could walk in, without a single creak or scrape to betray what he was doing. Then he seized the doorknob and yanked the door open, allowing Mikey to tumble headfirst into the room, landing in an undignified sprawl.

"Do you have to spy on me?" Donnie said tartly.

"Dude, I'm a ninja," Mikey said.

"Can you at least be stealthy and not rub against the door when you're spying?"

"Oh, that's how you found me?" Mikey said sheepishly, grinning. "My bad." His eyes fell on Raphael, and lit up like a pair of light bulbs. "Hey, Raph!"

"He's chained to the bed. Who else would be there?" Donnie said.

As the two squabbled gently, Raphael saw a third green shape appear behind Mikey, his swords resting lightly against his shoulders. Leo nudged his way past the two of them and approached the bed, his face even graver and more thoughtful than it had been before.

Raphael briefly thought about what Donnie had said before — that Leo had never given up on him even once. And he wondered if that showed dedication and determination, or just meant that Leo was willing to chase after things he didn't understand.

"Father would like to speak with you now," Leo said.