*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Notes: Here's the latest chapter of 'Slash's Revenge,' and as I warned you in the previous chapter, this one is rather intense.

Thanks so much for reading.

Chapter 14 – The Middle Ones

For the life of him, Raphael couldn't remember how he had even gotten here, but the fact of the matter remained, he was, indeed, standing on the very rooftop where Donatello had been taken from them.

Unspeakable rage coursed through the red-clad turtle's entire being as he stared down at the rough surface beneath his feet. Blood – his brother's blood – painted the rooftop an ugly shade of dark brown. Granted, the blood had faded some in the ten days since it had been spilled, but it was still there, taunting him. Truth be told, even if the stains had been washed away completely, they would still be forever etched in Raphael's brain.

Hands clenched into the tightest of fists, Raph cast his gaze away from the surface, nearly giving himself whiplash in the process. The problem was, everywhere he looked on that rooftop, he was reminded of Donatello. The hotheaded turtle's eyes drifted down to the spot where he and Mikey had found Donnie, hunched over and barely conscious, after Slash had attacked him the first time. The memory of his genius brother's battered body made Raphael's own blood come to a rapid boil. He could still remember how frail Donnie had felt against him as they had sought out cover. It was like Donnie had no strength left in him at all. Slash had beaten him so severely, Raph had had to practically drag his injured brother along the rooftops. He remembered, at one point, Donnie had actually asked them to just leave him...

"Can't make it. Too weak. You go on without me, fellas."

Of course, Raphael wasn't about to leave his wounded little brother, alone and defenseless, on the rooftop. No way, no how. He'd just as soon die.

The red-masked warrior had been quick to remind Donnie of their solemn vow to one another...

"No turtle left behind. That's our rule!"

Shortly after making that statement, all shell had broken loose. Slash had gone totally berserk and beaten the tar out of all of them, but none so much as Donatello. Even weeks later, the injuries inflicted by Slash still hindered the genius turtle's movements.

And now...

Raphael couldn't stop himself from constantly thinking about what Donnie might be going through at the hands of that evil monster. Mental pictures of Slash using poor Donatello as his personal punching bag or whipping post made the temperamental turtle feel as though he was going to burst into flames.

All the intense fury and violence Slash had exhibited the night of his transformation; Donatello was now the undeserving recipient of that pure hatred.

While the rest of the family were all safe and sound, what was happening to Donnie?

The not knowing was tearing Raphael apart inside.

Master Splinter had been desperately trying, both day and night, to reach out to Donatello via meditation, but to no avail. Raph shuddered to think what that meant. Granted, he had never been the most spiritual turtle of the family, but that didn't mean he didn't have faith. Especially in his father. If Sensei couldn't find Donnie, then –

No! Quit thinking like that, Raph!

On unsteady feet, the hotheaded turtle walked towards the edge of the roof where Slash had left Donatello for dead that ill-fated night exactly one month before. It seemed like so long ago, and yet, the memory still felt as fresh as though it had happened only yesterday. In the back of his mind, Raphael could still see his missing brother's brutally beaten form propped up against the roof ledge. The image was enough to bring tears to the older turtle's eyes.

As awful as it had been to see what Slash had done to Donatello that night, Raphael found himself longing for history to repeat itself.

Why couldn't Slash have just left Donnie on that rooftop like before?

Why did he have to take their brother away?

Raph knew darn well what the answers to both of those questions were, but he didn't want to admit it. The truth only made him hate himself all the more.

But there was no denying that sickening truth. Slash had done all this solely to get back at Raphael. That despicable creep had said as much...

"So, who do you think this'll hurt more, Raphael? Donatello or you?"

That foreboding comment had come just seconds before the sound of Donnie's shrieks of agony filled the lair. It was a sound the turtle in red would never, ever forget. Even now, he could still hear it ringing in his ear slits.

"I'm sorry, Donnie."

Pressing his fingertips deep into the corners of his eye sockets to staunch the oncoming tears, Raph let out a gut-wrenching sob that echoed through the chilly night air. Before long, he realized there was something off about the way that single sob howled on and on. Almost as though it was getting louder rather than fading out.

When Raphael pried his eyelids back apart, he discovered that the rooftop was now engulfed in a fog so thick, he could barely see two feet in front of his face.

"What the?"

Instinctively, Raphael reached for his trusted sais, but they weren't there. This made his heart start to gallop at a highly accelerated rate. He had a really, really bad feeling about this. One, he didn't remember how the heck he had gotten here, two, his voice was still eerily echoing in the air, three, he was surrounded in fog that had seemingly come from out of nowhere, and four, he was unarmed.

Definitely not a good combination.

Then, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching, unnaturally slow.

Oh, this just keeps getting better and better...

"Wh – Who's there?"

The echo suddenly died away, making the footfalls sound that much louder, but not nearly as blaring as the sound of Raphael's panicked breathing.

Though generally not an easily spooked turtle, Raph was feeling a bit rattled.

"I know you're here! Show yourself!"

Balling his hands into fists, once again, the ninja in red prepared to defend himself when a familiar figure stepped out of the dense fog.

The sight before him made the hotheaded turtle's heart all but stop.

"D – Donnie?"

For a few stunned seconds, Raph just stood there, mouth ajar, staring at his genius brother who was vacantly staring back.

Convinced his vision was deceiving him, Raphael blinked several dozen times before speaking again.

"Donnie! I can't believe it!"

Once the initial shock wore off, Raph rushed towards Donatello with open arms only to pass right through him. The red-masked turtle clumsily stumbled forward several feet before spinning around to see his brother hadn't budged an inch.

"Donnie?"

Donatello didn't react to his older brother's voice. The taller turtle just continued to stare blankly ahead at the same spot where Raph had just been.

Once again, the red-clad turtle attempted to make physical contact with Donatello, but all Raphael felt was cold air. It sent a shiver up and down his spine.

Raph side-stepped around his younger brother so that he was face-to-face with him again. It was then that the temperamental turtle noticed that Donatello wasn't moving. Not even a little. There was no rise or fall of his chest. No blinking of his eyes.

There was nothing.

"Wh – What's going on, Donnie? Say something!"

No response followed the command.

Trying not to freak out, Raph reached forward to touch his brother's face when Donatello's hand suddenly shot up and seized hold of the older turtle's wrist with such force, it elicited a popping sound.

Raph let out a yelp, but it was more from the start than from the pain.

Then, Donatello finally spoke; his tone harsher than anything Raphael ever remembered hearing from his gentlest brother before.

"You did this to me, Raph!"

Shaking his head from side to side, Raphael could only manage to breathe out the word, "No."

"You left me to die!"

The tears the older turtle had been trying to push back earlier fell freely now.

"No! No, I – I would never do that! We've been looking for you this whole time!"

"You sent me off to my death!"

The grip around Raph's wrist grew tighter, but when he tried to pull Donatello's hand away, he couldn't grab onto him. Raphael could feel his brother's painfully rigid grasp on his lower arm, but he couldn't feel him.

How could that be possible?

Unless...

"This – This isn't real. You're not real!"

Donatello leaned in closer to Raph so their foreheads were nearly touching; his reddish-brown eyes filled with animosity. "You just don't want to admit that you're the reason I'll never be able to come home! You're the reason I'll never see our family again! This is all your fault, Raph! Slash isn't the monster! YOU are!"

Releasing his hold on Raphael's arm, Donatello backed several steps away from where his older brother stood trembling. The taller turtle's lanky form was already partially obscured by the fog surrounding them.

"No! NO! Don't go, Donnie! Please! I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything!"

"It's too late, Raph. I'm already gone."

Before Raph even had a chance to ask what that meant, Donatello disappeared into the shadows, as though he had been swallowed whole by them.

In a desperate attempt to stop Donnie from leaving, the turtle in red lunged forward into the haze, calling out his brother's name as he reached for something that just wasn't there. The fog soon lifted and Raphael realized that he was fumbling with his bed sheets.

It had all been just a dream.

No! It had been a nightmare.

This whole thing had been one horrific nightmare. One that Raphael could never truly wake from until he found his missing brother.

Without warning, Leonardo came bursting through the hotheaded turtle's bedroom door, apparently out of breath from his sprint all the way across the hall.

"I heard shouting! Are you all right?"

The question made Raphael cringe inside his shell. The truth was, he hadn't been all right for some time now, and he was sick and tired of pretending like he was.

Enough was enough.

"No, I'm not!" With that said, Raphael leapt off the bed, scooped up his sais, and stomped through the open bedroom door, nearly plowing into his older brother in his haste to leave.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

Though he seriously considered just blowing Leonardo off, Raph stopped halfway down the dormitory hall and turned towards his brother. The blue-masked turtle was now standing in the doorway of Raph's room, looking both confused and frustrated.

"I'm going to find Donnie! I can't sit around here waiting anymore!" The deep scowl rutted into Raph's face was proof enough that he was disgusted, but he threw one hand up in the air just in case there was still any doubt that he was fed up.

"Raph, be sensible about this. It's broad daylight. You can't go out there now! People will see you!" Always full of noble intentions, Leonardo was only trying to get his brother to see reason, but there was no reasoning with Hamato Raphael. Even on those rare occasions when he was in a 'good' mood.

"Then let 'em see! Donnie... He's gone because of me, Leo! I have to find him, and I'm not coming home until I do!"

"Raph, this isn't – "

Not about to let his older brother try to change his mind on the matter, Raphael cut Leo off with a growly voice.

"Zip it, Fearless! I'm leaving and you can't stop me!"

"Raph! RAPH!"

Just as the highly unstable turtle stormed out of the hall, a very sleepy Michelangelo finally made his way into it. Through droopy eyes, he watched his second oldest brother leave the lair.

"Whoa. What's goin' on?"

Leo simply groaned in response and headed straight for his father's room.

Because of Raphael's horrible temper and inability to learn from past mistakes, they now had two missing turtles to find.

The fresh supply of gauze had run out several days ago, so Donatello was forced to reuse what he had on hand. It wasn't a sanitary practice, by any means, but a necessary one. Basically, he had to remove the bandages from whichever wound on his body was healed up the most, or in some cases, bleeding the least, to cover up the more serious injuries. He was currently wrapping a rather deep cut on his forearm that he had received about ten minutes ago. A fierce backhand from Slash had sent the already woozy turtle falling into his cage, resulting in a three-inch gash across his lower arm.

After the incident, Slash had promptly locked Donatello back inside of his prison cell and walked away, claiming he needed to get something from his room. It seemed a little strange to Donnie that his captor hadn't returned yet. It wasn't like the apartment was all that big, but the brainy turtle figured he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. After all, it gave him some much-needed time to nurse his many wounds before Slash came back and started pounding on him again.

Lucky me...

Donatello knew that the larger mutant was angry with him. The ferocity of the backhand to his chest had revealed as much.

It was quite evident that Slash was growing increasingly frustrated with his 'pet' turtle's recent refusal to eat, as well as his more and more frequent requests for restroom breaks. Ironically, the reason behind the rising number of bathroom requests was because Donatello was trying to avoid vomiting on the floor, which he knew from previous experience was punishable by a near-death pummeling. As unpleasant as getting backhanded and slicing your arm wide open on a metal cage had been, it was still the lesser of two evils.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Donatello continued on with his ministrations, but only for another forty-five seconds or so. That was all the time he had before Slash trudged back into the room toting a pair of rusty wire cutters.

The sight made Donatello push himself into the farthest reaches of his cage. He gulped so hard, he could've sworn he had swallowed his tongue. It was either that or maybe his heart had just gotten stuck in his throat.

"What... What are you gonna do with those?" The terror in the smaller turtle's voice was painfully obvious. It was just the reaction Slash had been hoping for.

"It's been ten days, Donnie boy. Your brothers probably think you're dead by now and stopped looking. Whatta ya say we give 'em a little something just to let 'em know you're still kicking? You know? Proof of life. How about we send 'em a tooth or two? You've already got that stupid-looking gap. What'll a couple of missing teeth matter? Or maybe we should send 'em a severed toe. Better yet, how about a finger?" Slash brandished the wire cutters several inches in front of Donatello's cage to make sure he got a good view of them.

Donnie shook his head in disbelief, trying to convince himself that Slash was just doing this to scare him, but the wicked look in larger mutant's eyes told the genius turtle all he didn't want to know.

The cage door was then yanked opened and Slash was soon dragging his extremely unwilling captive out into the middle of the living room. Slash's significant weight advantage made it easy for him to pin the much smaller mutant down to the wooden floor. He used his massive legs to hold Donatello somewhat still, while he grabbed hold of the frightened turtle's right wrist with one hand and held up the wire cutters with his other.

"So, which one will it be, Donatello? I'll let you pick."

Donnie's eyes crossed as he stared at the cutting tool now unnervingly close to his fingers. He desperately tried to pull his wrist free from Slash, but the behemoth's grip was too powerful. All the genius turtle could do was continue to stare on in dread as the wire cutters came closer and closer.

"N – No! Please don't do this! P – Please!"

"Fine, if you aren't gonna choose, then I'll just have to do it for you. I say we go with the middle one. The one you used to click your little computer mouse with all the time." The larger of the two mutants had a difficult time reigning in his amusement as he watched and felt his prisoner's hand trembling in fear.

This was just too fun. The look of utter terror frozen on the scrawny turtle's face was particularly delicious.

A series of hiccupped whimpers squeaked out of Donatello the moment he felt Slash press the sharp tips of the blades against his skin, but the genius turtle soon noticed that the cutters didn't open wide enough to fit around his thick, middle finger. For a split second, Donatello thought he might be spared this heinous act, but Slash had no intention of giving up so easily. He instead started grind the cutting tool back and forth, slowly sawing into the flesh at the base of Donatello's finger.

An earsplitting scream tore out of the back of Donatello's throat. Not so much from the pain, but from the sheer horror of the situation.

Ignoring his victim's pitiful cries, Slash continued to push on the wire cutters and shred through the skin of Donatello's forefinger. The larger mutant had already forced the blade about halfway around Donatello's finger, slicing right to the bone. Blood was running down the smaller turtle's hand and arm and was already starting to pool on the floor.

"If you don't stop your squirming, you're gonna lose a lot more than just a finger!"

As Slash made his threat, he looked down to see that the blades of the wire cutters were now pushed all the way around Donatello's finger. Slash was just about to squeeze the handle when the distraught turtle's shrill pleas momentarily distracted him.

"S – Stop! Stop! Please! Spike! I know you're still in there! P – Please! Don't let him do this!"

Upon hearing his former name, Slash's hands immediately began to shake with uncontainable rage. So much so, he was having a difficult time holding onto the wire cutters. He tried pinch the handles of the cutting tool together to finally sever the finger still trapped between the blades, but all of a sudden, it was like his hand refused to work. Almost as if some unseen force was trying to stop him.

"SHUT UP! Spike isn't here anymore!" The thunder in Slash's voice shook the very foundation of the building and his eyes blazed with sheer loathing. Still, he couldn't make the muscles in his hand contract, no matter how hard he tried.

Then, the smaller turtle had to go and open his big mouth again, making it even more difficult for Slash to string his now muddled thoughts together.

"Yes, he is! Spike, listen to me! The mutagen created Slash, but it didn't destroy you! Deep down inside, you're still Spike! The same turtle Raph took in! The same turtle he loved!"

That last line made Slash's breath hitch inside his throat for a few stunned seconds. When he was finally able to inhale and exhale again, he croaked out the one word that had nearly made him choke. "L – Loved?"

Donatello let out a dejected gasp before responding.

"Yes. He loved you... a lot more than h – he ever loved me."

With that said, Slash released his grip on the wire cutters as well as Donatello and they both simultaneously fell to the floor with a thump.

Once he was lying on the hardwood surface, Donatello instinctively pulled his bloodied hand against his chest and wrapped his other hand around his now-mangled finger. That was the moment the genius turtle finally lost all composure. He couldn't help it. There was only so much he could take. He curled up into a ball and started to sob uncontrollably.

Slash didn't even seem to notice Donatello's breakdown, for he was too preoccupied with staring at his still shaking hands.

All he saw was red. It stained everything in his field of vision.

After over a minute passed, the larger mutant eventually snapped out of whatever haze he had been in and his eyes drifted down to the broken turtle weeping on the floor at his feet.

For reasons he could not explain, Slash stretched a hand forward and wrapped it around Donatello's upper arm, which appeared to be hanging at an odd angle yet again. The wounded reptile instantly whimpered and cowered at the touch, drawing himself into an even tighter sphere, afraid he was going to be brutally beaten. The terrified reaction made Slash jerk his hand away as though he had been scalded by the brief physical contact.

Pushing himself up to his wobbly feet, Slash abruptly staggered out of the room and returned just a couple seconds later carrying a tattered towel. With an audible grunt, the huge creature crouched down next to Donatello's coiled up form and shoved the towel against the injured turtle's plastron. This caused the smaller mutant to lift his head up off the floor, but he did not speak. He was too traumatized to say anything.

Slash then hastily slapped the muzzle on his captive, grabbed him by the top of the carapace, and threw him inside of his cage. As soon as Slash was sure the cage door was locked and secure, he stormed towards the front entrance of the apartment and exited. All without a single word.

For the first time since being captured, Donatello had been left alone in the apartment while still in a conscious state.

For the first time in ten days, Slash had finally made a huge tactical error.

The larger mutant should've realized that when holding a certain genius turtle prisoner, one probably shouldn't leave him unsupervised with a heavy chain nearby and a pair of wire cutters carelessly lying in the middle of the living room floor.

That's just asking for trouble.

To be continued…

*More Author's Notes: DUN DUN DUUUUN! /(⊙ . ⊙)\

I truly hope this turn of events will rekindle some of my critics' interest. I assure you I'm trying my best to make the story entertaining.

For those of you who are enjoying the story and have been so kind and supportive of me, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your positive feedback. It means more to me than you will ever know. Special thanks to Captain Vegeta for being my rock and my dear, dear friend. ILY!

As always, please take a moment to favorite, follow, like, reblog, review, and/or comment on this story if you are enjoying it and want to see more. I could really use the encouragement…

Thank you all very, very much for reading. CJ