A/N: I apologise for the length of this chapter, I just couldn't seem to get it to stretch any further. I'm semi happy with it, but then I am semi happy with all of my work. As ever please enjoy and please review as I need regular encouragement to help the wheels of inspiration. Thank you

"Donnie? Don? Are you there?" A continuous tone peeled out in reply. Leonardo carefully replaced the receiver and turned to face his brothers.

"Well?"

"He's gone." He stated simply.

"Gone? Whadda mean, gone?" Raphael asked flatly.

"Gone, we were cut off."

"Shit!" Raphael spat. "So, what are we going to do? Stand round here discussing things, huh?"

"But, Donnie said he was in a casket under the ground." Michelangelo interrupted. "You don't think he was serious do you?"

"Nah Mikey, he was joking." Raphael rounded on his younger brother. "What the fuck do you think?"

Michelangelo blinked hard as tears began to blur his vision. "I… I didn't…"

"That's right, you didn't think!" Raphael snarled cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Raph," Leonardo's voice was cool and calm, too calm for Raphael's liking, "exactly how is this helping?"

Raphael gritted his teeth and tightened his fists. Right now he could just smack that self righteous look right off his brother smug arsed face.

"He's buried under the ground Lee, how long to you think he's got before he runs out of air?" He forced the words through his clenched jaw.

"We don't know exactly where he is, Raph…"

"He said he was in a cemetery, so lets check every God-damned one until we find him!"

"Do you have any idea how many cemeteries there could be in New York City, Raph? How long do you think it would take to search every single one?" Why was Raphael so determined to waste precious time arguing the point with him? Every second counted couldn't he see that?

"Sphinx!" Michelangelo blurted out.

"What?" Raphael hissed, glaring at his brother.

"Sphinx!" Michelangelo repeated with more conviction.

"This is stupid," Raphael threw his hands into the air in frustration. Why wasn't anyone listening to him? "Mike we don't have time for…"

Leonardo put a hand up to silence him. "No, wait. Listen Raph. What was that again, Mikey?"

"Sphinx." Michelangelo muttered, his skin flushing hotter. Suddenly he didn't feel all that comfortable being the centre of attention. "There can't be that many Sphinx knocking about in New York cemeteries, can there?" He fiddled with the straps on his wrist hoping he could somehow disappear under the gaze of his brothers. "If we find the Sphinx…."

"Then we'll find Donnie." Leonardo finished, realisation flashing across his face.

Darkness. It started with darkness and silence. Silence punctuated only by the sound of shuddering breath. Suddenly blinding light burned through his eyelids, blinking he tried to raise his hand to shield eyes. Taught bindings bit sharply into his skin preventing movement.

"Ah, so you're awake" The voice was sickeningly familiar, yet somehow remained beyond his grasp. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever join us."

"Bishop?" He rasped, the copper tang of dried blood clung thickly to the inside of his mouth.

"And you're supposed to be the smart one." The voice continued to smirk from the shadows.

The light dimmed slightly allowing his surrounding to flood in on him from all angles. The clean stark lines of a laboratory swam into view followed closely by the lingering scent of antiseptic mingled with anaesthetic. Flexing stiffly against the restraints he looked down to find himself strapped tightly against a slab of sorts suspended vertically above the floor. It's slight sway only added to the waves of nausea knotting through his stomach.

"Comfy? No? Good. This is what's going to happen," the voice sliced bluntly through his thoughts, "I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to give me the answers. Give me the correct answers and I won't hurt you. Much."

A trapdoor beneath Donatello hissed open to reveal a dark pool of water.

"You sicken me!" the voice continued, crawling over Donatello's skin. "You're a foul abomination, a mistake of nature. I'm here to correct that mistake, your kind should be allowed to die out like the monsters you truly are." Venom dripped from every word as they oozed through the silence. "How long can you hold your breath?"

"What?"

"Wrong answer." the voice crackled with obvious delight.

Understanding came all too slow, Donatello's heart and stomach leapt into his throat as he plummeted suddenly towards the ebbing abyss. The relentless rattle of chain blocked out by the deafening roar of water as he plunged below the frothing surface. The cold slammed hard against his body forcing the little air he had from his lungs, several agonising minutes elapsed before his eyes started to roll upwards as the world faded into darkness.

His body jerked violently, jolting him from his haunted dreams. Coughing, gasping, he sucked in large mouthfuls of damp stagnant air, his breathing slowed and he was once again in the crushing darkness of the casket. "I am not a monster."