A/N: Thanks to Amonraphoenix and Darkunderworld for beta-ing for me. And thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed thus far. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

Disclaimer: see chapter one

Five minutes earlier...

Leonardo ran from one warehouse to another, trying to find a clue to where Raphael could be. He had bleakly called Donatello to tell him that Travis' warehouse had been yet again another dead end. Donatello had hung up shortly after without saying anything, and Leonardo couldn't blame him. They both wanted this nightmare to be over; really over. When would it end? And at what cost? They had almost lost Raphael three times already to the Grim Reaper, and Leonardo would never forgive himself if the Reaper succeeded the fourth time in claiming his brother's soul.

Leonardo headed to the next pier and resumed his desperate search for his missing brother. It turned up nothing, just like before. However, he pressed on undeterred. His instincts were telling him that Raphael was close, really close. He came to one warehouse that had fresh tire tracks in front of it in the newly fallen snow. Heart pounding in his chest in excitement, Leonardo ran up to the door and found it to be locked. He pulled out a katana and sliced the lock. The handle fell away and clattered to the ground. Leonardo put his hand through the hole and yanked the door open. The inside of this warehouse was also filled with odd contraptions that obviously meant something to someone, but Leonardo's focus was on a partially buried glass chamber in amongst junk at the back of the room.

"Raph?" he called uncertainly.

He ran over to the chamber and looked inside, his heart sinking into the pit of his stomach. Inside lay a far too still Raphael, his eyes closed peacefully as he lay on his side. Leo tried to open the heavy door that separated him from his brother but it refused to budge. Out of desperation Leonardo pulled out his swords and began hacking away at the glass. Something in the back of his mind told him that this was a really bad idea, but the other part that wanted Raphael back whatever the cost and he kept hacking away at the thick glass. With a yell of frustration, Leonardo lunged forward, and drove his sword tips through the glass and cracking it. The next second he was blasted away when the chamber exploded in a mass of razor sharp glass fragments. He quickly shielded his face with his arms and hissed in pain as the shards sliced through his skin, but they were luckily only flesh wounds.

Leonardo pushed himself up and looked around. Glass littered the floor, making moving dangerous. But seeing Raphael lying lifelessly amongst the debris, had him scrambling to his feet, ignoring the stabbing pain as glass cut into his bare feet. He dropped down to his knees and examined his motionless brother fearfully. His fingers flew to Raphael's neck and panic overtook him when he couldn't find a pulse at first, then he felt the faintest of flutters from his brother's struggling heart. His eyes travelled down the length of Raphael's body, taking in the multitude of lacerations that littered his brother's body, as well as the gap in Raphael's shell over his left shoulder where the piece of shell had been crudely sawed off.

Leonardo's eyes then fell upon Raphael's plastron and he cried out in alarm. A large piece of glass was embedded in Raphael's chest, just above his protective plastron. Blood had begun to well up around the glass and Leonardo knew he had to act fast. Leonardo hastily ran his hands carefully over Raphael's body looking for any broken bones or other hidden injuries his eyes may have missed. Finding nothing too severe, he gently picked Raphael up bridal style and made his way back towards the door. When he hit the outside, Leonardo walked briskly towards the Battle Shell as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Stay with me, Raph," Leonardo told his unconscious brother. Please don't let me have been too late, he silently prayed.

When he got to the Battle Shell, he awkwardly opened the back doors and climbed inside. He laid Raphael down on the floor and made him as comfortable as he could before climbing into the driver's seat. Leonardo gunned the engine and sped away from the warehouse and headed for home. Leonardo was sure he broke several speeding laws, but he didn't care; Raphael's life depended on him. It felt like it took an eternity to get back to the lair, but when he did, Leonardo wasted no time in getting Raphael down below and into the waiting infirmary.

"Donnie!" Leonardo roared in desperation when the elevator doors opened.

Donatello came running out of the infirmary. His eyes widened in fear when he saw a bloody Raphael in Leonardo's arms. The brother in blue dashed to the infirmary while Donatello got ready for the emergency surgery he knew he needed to perform. Thankfully, Michelangelo had fallen back to sleep and was still out cold so he didn't see the mess Raphael was in as he was hastily rushed by his bed, to the operation area in the back of the infirmary.

One of the first things Donatello did was put a curtain up between Michelangelo's bed and the surgery table before getting scrubbed up for surgery. He knew right away that the glass had pierced a lung; thankfully it had missed Raphael's heart altogether. When both Donatello and Leonardo were scrubbed and dressed, Raphael was quickly hooked up to the proper life support equipment. The brother in purple then took out the sterile surgery tools and began the operation.

Being very careful, he opened up Raphael's chest and winced. The glass had indeed punctured his left lung and had come dangerously close to hitting his heart, along with several major arteries and veins. With Leonardo's help, Donatello gingerly pulled out the glass shard. He disposed of it before turning back to carefully stitching up the massive wound.

Michelangelo moaned as he began to wake up. He heard hushed voices coming from his left. He turned his head to see a thick curtain cutting off his view from what was happening behind it. He heard Donatello give Leonardo some kind of orders, but they were talking too low and he couldn't hear them very well. Grunting, Michelangelo sat up in bed and tried to peer around the curtain, but it closed completely around one side of his bed. He growled in irritation. Something was going on back there and he wanted to know what it was.

He was about to move when he heard the sounds of a ventilator turning on. He heard the curtain sliding back, so he ducked under the blankets and pretended to still be asleep. He heard Donatello sigh heavily as he took off a pair of bloody surgical gloves with a snap.

"What do you think, Don?" Leonardo asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't know," Donatello replied. "We've got him on a ventilator and life support but...it'll be a miracle if he pulls through."

"What are we going to tell Mikey?" Leonardo wanted to know.

Michelangelo felt Donatello's eyes on him and he remained perfectly still.

"Let him rest for now. We'll tell him in the morning," Donatello whispered sadly.

Leonardo sighed tiredly. "If only we had looked for him sooner, this never would have happened."

"It would have happened either way," Donatello told him. "What happened anyway?"

"I found him in a vacuum chamber," Leonardo answered. "I didn't know it was a vacuum chamber till after I broke the glass...big mistake. The thing exploded into a thousand pieces."

"Objects under pressure tend to do that when they're punctured," Donatello stated matter factually.

"I panicked," Leonardo said shamefully. "Raph was dying in front of me, I had to do something."

Michelangelo's eyes flew open at that statement and he bolted up in bed. "Raph's back?" he chirped happily.

Leonardo and Donatello looked over at him, their faces grim and weary. Donatello walked over to the bed and gently pushed Michelangelo back down despite his protests.

"You can see him in the morning," he advised.

"I want to see him now," Michelangelo whined from where he lay.

"Rest," Donatello said soothingly. "All that can be done has been done. We just have to be patient and wait."

Michelangelo nodded with a pout and lay back down against the pillow. He looked over towards the curtain and sighed. He wanted to see Raphael so badly, but at the same time, he was scared to see his brother; not knowing what mess he had gotten himself into while he had been missing. Michelangelo settled down in the blankets and closed his eyes feigning sleep. He heard soft footsteps pad out of the room, meaning Leonardo and Donatello had just left. Opening one eye cautiously, Michelangelo confirmed that his older brothers had indeed left the infirmary.

Very carefully, Michelangelo pushed back the blankets and slipped out of bed. He took a hold of the pole that the drip and blood bags were hanging from and wheeled it over with him to the curtain. Taking a deep breath, Michelangelo took a hold of the curtain and slowly pushed it back. The first thing he saw was the ventilator. Michelangelo pulled the curtain back a bit more and he saw his brother. His heart sank when he saw the injuries that Raphael had sustained. Raphael's body was covered in several white bandages, the largest one was wrapped around his upper chest and shoulder. Michelangelo frowned when he thought he saw a piece of Raphael's shell missing above his left shoulder. He reached over and lightly ran his fingers over the rim of his brother's shell before his fingers met empty air. Horror washed over him so fast, Michelangelo thought he was going to be sick.

"Raphie, what happened to you?" he whispered in grim horror.

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