Well, readers, I'm sorry this took so long. Also, I'm sorry it's a little short. I'm going through some issues right now, so thanks for bearing with me. Enjoy!

Splinter could hardly believe it. A few weeks ago, he was convinced that he would never see his son again, yet here Donatello was, waking up. "How do you feel?"

Donatello blinked and stared at the ceiling.

"Donatello?"

Donatello blinked again.

"My son, can you hear me?"

Nothing.

Splinter rose from his chair and leaned over the table. He passed his hand over Donatello's face.

Donatello's eyes did not trace the movement.

Splinter took Donatello's shoulders and gently shook them.

No response.

Splinter's pulse thudded in his ears. Had the serum not worked? Did Donatello simply need more recovery time? He had seen the recognition in Donatello's face. It had been there. It was real. So why was he not responding?

He drew a deep breath, regaining his focus and calm.

Maybe Donatello just needed more time. After all, Miwa – Karai – had not said how long it took Xever to go back to normal. Splinter went to the doors and opened them just wide enough to poke his head out. "Karai, will you please come in here?"

There was a pause as everybody gave him a stunned look. Then, as if an explosion had gone off, April and his sons burst out at the same time.

"Wait – Karai gets to see him and we don't?"

"What happened? Is he okay?"

"I want to see Donnie!"

"No, seriously, what happened?"

"Is Donnie back, Sensei?"

"Yame!" Splinter said. "I wish to speak to Karai about Xever's transformation."

"What went wrong?" Raphael asked.

"Nothing has gone wrong. I simply need to ask her some questions. Kirby, you come too."

Karai hesitantly got up and walked over to the lab. Kirby followed suit. Splinter slid the door open a little wider and gestured for them to come inside. Once they had walked inside, he slid the doors shut.

Karai looked warily at Donatello. "What is it, Father?"

"How long did it take Xever to wake up from his transformation?"

"Well, we had to put him in water as soon as possible. He was unconscious for a little while, but when he woke up, he had some unpleasant things to say."

"But he was speaking and lucid as soon as he woke?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Splinter sighed and buried his face in his hands. "Donatello is awake, but he is not responding. I do not know what to do."

"I admit, I was afraid of this." Kirby shook his head. "Xever's transformation was perfect, right? But it was just the physical transformation. Xever maintained his right mind when he was mutated the first time, so he maintained it this time. Donatello's mind – his, well, soul, if you will, came as a result of his first mutation. If all this serum can do is reduplicate the physical transformation…"

Panic prickled at the back of Splinter's mind. "But the brain is a physical construct, and all creatures have a unique soul. If the physical transformation is exact, then his brain is reduplicated, is it not?"

"Yeah, but…Splinter, the physical brain and actual thought processes…it's a mystery to us how that even works. They aren't the same thing. A body isn't like a computer."

"So…it didn't work?" Karai's voice was small and strained. Splinter looked over to see that she was standing next to Donatello.

Splinter walked over to her. "Perhaps he just needs more recovery time."

"But if it didn't work, then we still need the Kraang. We can't sabotage Ronin's experiment without blowing everything." She hugged herself. "I failed."

Splinter wrapped his arms around her and held her. "You did not fail, brave child. You did all that was in your power." She stiffened at first, then relaxed into his embrace.

"I guess we need to figure out what to do now," Kirby said.

"We let him rest. Someone will need to watch over him. I must speak with my other sons."

"I'll watch him," Karai said. "That way you can talk to them, and Mr. O'Neil can talk to April."

Splinter frowned. "If he comes to and sees you, he may not react very well. He may not be aware of what has transpired around him while in his un-mutated form."

"I can handle it."

"Very well." Splinter gestured to Kirby and the two of them went out into the den.

"What's going on?" Raphael demanded. He and the others stood in the middle of the room. April was pale and Leonardo looked sick. Michelangelo appeared to have been crying.

"My sons, come into the dojo with me," Splinter said.

"What happened?" Leonardo asked.

"Come with me, and I will tell you."

"April, let's stay here and talk, all right?" Kirby said. April burst into tears.

Splinter walked to the dojo, breathing deeply as he went. He could hear his sons filing in behind him. What would he tell them? He should have been preparing them for this instead of making welcome back banners.

He should have prepared himself for this.

On some small level, perhaps he did not want to be prepared for this. Perhaps he had deluded himself with false hope.

He turned around. His heart broke when he saw his sons' faces.

"Sensei, is Donnie dead?" Michelangelo said, bursting into tears.

"No. No, Michelangelo, he is not. He is simply…not back."

Raphael clenched his fists. "It didn't work, did it?"

"It did work," Splinter said, "but only partially. His physical form has returned, but he seems to be catatonic. Kirby believes it may be because the serum can only duplicate physical mutations."

"So…we failed," Leonardo sighed.

Failure. The leader believed that everything rested on his shoulders, even that which was totally beyond his control. Splinter understood that – how often had he blamed himself for this over which he had not control? It was only with age that he had come to understand that for certain things, no blame could be assigned.

In such a disappointing situation, blame and sensations of failure would be nearly everyone's first reaction.

"No," Splinter said. "No one has failed. The serum itself did not fail; it only did that which it was capable of doing. And perhaps, with time, Donatello will return to us. If not, all is not lost. Perhaps, with further research, we may be able to bring Donatello's mind back."

"But Sensei," Leonardo said. "We only have two weeks before the Kraang finish the Ronin's project. Do you think they can solve this problem in that amount of time? Plus, we'd need to let them actually research Donnie, and we can't do that."

"I agree. Clearly, our only recourse is through the research that Mei, April, and Kirby have been working on."

There was a long pause. Raphael, who had been staring at the floor throughout all of this, looked up. "Is Donnie in pain?" His voice was startlingly compassionate. "We heard him screaming."

Splinter ran his hand down the length of his beard. "He was in pain during the transformation, but he appears to be perfectly relaxed now. I see no reason to think that he is suffering."

Raphael nodded, and returned his gaze to the floor.

"Can we see him, Sensei?" Michelangelo asked.

"Yes." Splinter gestured to his sons and left the dojo. He walked slowly, hoping to give his sons the time to brace themselves. Seeing Donatello's vacant body could be more upsetting to them than his unmutated form had been. Silently, he prayed for strength for his sons – and himself.

April and Kirby were in the den. April sobbed into Kirby's shoulder.

"We are going to see him," Splinter said. "You may come if you wish."

"Do you want to go, April?" Kirby asked softly.

April nodded, sniffing loudly. The two of them got up from the couch and followed the procession into the lab.

Karai looked up. She had been watching Donatello with unmistakable pain in her face. Splinter pitied her. She had taken all of the risks – staked the turtles' trust – to get this cure for Donatello, and it had not worked. For her, the sensation of failure must have been worse than for the rest of them.

Everyone gathered around the exam table where Donatello lay. Nobody said anything, but Michelangelo took Donatello's hand and held it. April clung to Kirby and wept into his chest.

Donatello stared at the ceiling, blinking occasionally.

After several minutes, Leonardo spoke, causing everyone to jump slightly.

"The Kraang aren't of any use to us anymore." Leonardo stood taller, an air of decisiveness in his mien. "We can't take Donnie to them and there's no way that we can have them find a solution based on guesses. Karai, we have printouts of the formula that they made for us, right?"

Karai nodded.

"Then that will have to do. Mei, Kirby, and April can keep working on the solution. In the meanwhile, I think it's time that we cut ties" – he drew one of his katanas for dramatic emphasis – "with the Kraang and the Foot for good."

"I'll second that," Raphael growled.

"Booyakasha," Michelangelo said, a peculiar edge to his voice. He picked up Donatello's hand and pantomimed a gesture with it. "Turtle power!" he said, in his best Donatello impression.

Splinter could not suppress a smile. If anyone else had done it, it would have been tasteless. But since it was Michelangelo, well…

That was really all one could say about it. It was Michelangelo.

"Okay, team," Leonardo said. He sheathed his katana. "We need to make a plan. First, I say that we wait at least a few days, just in case Donnie does snap out of this. Doing this will be ten times easier if we have him with us to get at the Kraang computers. We'll need to do recon to find out where the Ronin's project is being made, and then…well, then we'll plan our raid."

"Then we must ready ourselves," Splinter said. "We have much work to do."