A/N

Hm. Mixed emotions about this chapter...

Never, never in his life has he ever been so joyous to see those mischievously shining eyes staring back at him. Normally, those soft blue pools shot multiple warnings over and over again, urging the hotheaded turtle to take cover and run from whatever monstrosity Dr. Prankenstein was about to unleash. But no; no this time is different. This time, those eyes are reaching out for help instead of seeking for another prank victim. Raph can't help but surrender to the unspoken cry of anguish.

"Mikey." He's by his brother's side quicker than a flash of lightning, kneeling on the floor to get to eye level with his suffering sibling. But to his great confusion, Mikey doesn't seem to notice; the youngest turtle looks dead ahead as if seeing through Raphael's body. Pushing that puzzling thought to the bottom of his List of Worries, Raph hurriedly adds, "H-How –"

"I will go retrieve Donatello. Keep him conscious," Splinter advises before swiftly disappearing out the bedroom doorway. Raph hardly even notices he's gone; all his limited attention is focused on his raggedly breathing brotherly form in front of him.

"Mikey, how are y-you… awake?" Raphael manages to push out through his tightly gnashed teeth. His unconscious brother was supposed to be knocked out for who-knows-how-long, not a mere… what has it been, three hours? Maybe two? Possibly even mere minutes considering the frantic state of mind the hothead has been in. But even if Raph doesn't know the exact time Mikey is supposed to be asleep, he knows that it definitely would last longer than this. Donnie certainly wasted his time making that rushed sample of medicinal liquid if it only lasts a few hours at most.

Mikey groans and blinks once, twice, three times, shattering through Raphael's confused thoughts. His baby blue eyes seem unfocused, as if the weary turtle is staring straight through his own eyelids every time he blinks and the objects in front of him when he manages to keep his eyes open. Finally, staring blankly into Raphael's eyes, the youngest turtle manages to weakly murmur, "Killed."

Now it's Raph's turn to repeatedly blink in utter confusion. Mikey pays no attention to the red-banded turtle's puzzlement; instead, he continues to eerily gaze into the emerald eyes in front of him, completely unaware to the world around him. And for some damned reason, it makes Raphael's stomach do plenty of backflips.

"Killed?" Raph reiterates, his eyes never leaving his brother's even though Mikey's blank irises look as though they are possessed. Pushing the unnerving feeling away from the edges of his mind, Raph continues. "What does that mean?"

Abruptly, Mikey starts shivering. The tremors that rock the youngest's body are not subtle; rather they appear as if Mikey has been dumped unceremoniously into a pile of snow. Reacting quickly, Raph pulls off the white washcloth that was lying on his baby brother's forehead and grimaces at the freezing temperature at the fabric. So much for that ice bath Donnie was suggesting. Tossing it aside, the hothead replaces the cloth on Mikey's forehead with the back of his hand, feeling the heat of his brother's body. To his great dismay, Mikey's skin is completely ice cold.

How? Raphael wonders as he pulls up the bed sheets to Mikey's shoulders, frowning as his fingers accidently come in contact with the frozen skin as he does so. He was just burnin' up a few seconds ago…

"K-Killed… you…" Mikey abruptly gasps out, the violent shuddering never hesitating in the slightest. With that eerie sentence, Raph puts a consoling hand on Mikey's shoulder, his deep unease showing itself in the creases that line the sai-wielder's forehead. Something's not right.

"I… I don't know what that means, Mike. You gotta help me out here," Raph urges. The hint of panic swirls in the back of his mind again, but he forcefully shoves it back down through the hole it climbed out of. He needs to stay cool and collected, not wild and insane.

Michelangelo makes no indication that he heard his older brother. Instead, his body and his voice are viciously rocked as another rough shiver courses through him. "I-I… Leo… killed…"

"Mikey, look at me. Are you listening?"

"Leo…"

"Leo's just fine; he's with Don and they're comin' right now, okay?"

"L –"

A strangled cry interrupts Mikey's steady mantra, and a few tears escape the glassy blue orbs as Raph hopelessly watches his baby brother break out into sudden sobs. However, Mikey's eyes continue to stare dead into Raph's, and the red flags in the back of the hothead's mind frantically wave again and again, momentarily overshadowing any sympathy he might have for his baby brother.

Something isn't right. No, of course something isn't right, but something else is going on that the hothead just can't seem to place his finger on. What is it…

The ongoing river of tears overflow and spill out of Mikey's eyes for the umpteenth time, and that's when realization slaps Raph hard in the face. Mikey isn't blinking. Not once.

o-o-o

It's not ending – oh god, it's not ending.

The dream. It's not stopping. He knows he's dreaming by this point, he knows he is.

Leo's gasping, sputtering, wheezing, dying in his blood-covered arms, and the dream isn't ending.

Raph's crimson life force is pooling around his knees and oh god the dream isn't ending.

Everything is cold; the sticky liquid he's covered in, the sudden air drafts sweeping across his body, the freezing touch of Leo's dying skin, the continuous tears rolling down his face, and the dream is refusing to end.

He doesn't realize he's shaking until Leo's writhing body is sliding off his lap as a result of his trembling body and the dream still isn't ending.

Leo's head weakly falls backwards, and the leader coughs up a gory piece of his inner throat and oh god the dream is not ending.

"Die Leo, please!" he begs because there is nothing left to do because the dream is still not ending.

Leonardo continues to suffer, reaching up with limp hands to cover his slashed throat as he violently spasms. Mikey leans over to put his head on his older brother's plastron as he rocks with violent shudders of horror. Wrapping his arms around his gore-covered leader, his tears mix with the dark crimson, but the dream still isn't ending.

"Please, Leo… j-just di-die…"

"It told you not to look." Raphael. No, no, no –!

No, Raph's body is over there and he's still dead because the dream isn't ending. He can't be talking, he can't –

"And now, you killed us both."

No, don't listen to him, he's wrong.

Mikey couldn't have – there was no other – he had to kill… kill… he –

"I killed Leo," he whispers against his victim's writhing body. Blood that doesn't belong to him seeps into his mouth, but he doesn't care. "I killed Leo."

The dream doesn't end.

o-o-o

He waves a frantic hand in front of the pale, tear-streaked, and oddly silent face, but there is no response whatsoever.

"Mikey, look at me. At least fucking blink, goddammit," Raphael firmly states, his voice coming damn close to a growl. His brother's ignorance is quickly becoming a gallon of gasoline slowly dripping into Raph's blazing fire of anger. In one second, Mikey is violently sobbing as he goes on and on about someone or something being killed, and then in the next second, he's deadly quiet? What the hell is wrong with him?

Raph is instantaneously aware of someone approaching even before the words are spoken to him. His body instantly becomes rigid as he awaits the inevitable accusations that will flow his way once more. But to his great relief and utter confusion, no one mentions his horrid screw-ups – yet.

"Raph, is he still awake?" Donatello's voice demands as the scientist kneels beside Raphael and pulls out his small medical box. The red clad turtle tries to ignore a small hint of blood at the corner of Donatello's mouth, but is entirely unsuccessful. The spot of red seems to scream out to him that this is all his fault, that this would not be happening if he hadn't been so stubborn, that he can't do anything to fix this even if he tries. But finally, he finds his shaky voice.

"I-I don't know. He's not –"

"What do you mean you don't know?" Leonardo demands as he comes to a stop beside Donnie. Icy blue eyes glare into emerald as the two brothers face off – again. "He's either awake or asleep, Raphael. Which is it?"

"Y'know Leo, if I were you, I'd take a fuckin' step backwards," Raph warns, his voice instantly going from calm to seething fury. He doesn't know if his suggestion meant for Leo to figuratively or mentally give him some space, but either way would work at this point. Even the minor, disapproving glance from Splinter doesn't waver his offensive language.

Leo's steely eyes never wander from Raphael's as he responds. "What do you have against me, Raphael? I have done nothing to make you upset."

"That's the problem!" Raph exclaims, standing as he points a sharp finger near Leo's plastron. If it weren't for Donnie's body as a barrier between the two, Raphael would have been in breathing distance of his leader's face. "You haven't done anything! If it weren't for all of this shit happening with Mikey, you'd still be locked up in your room doing whatever the hell you were doin' for the past week!"

"Raph, you have no ide –"

"Would you two save this conversation for a better time and place?" Donnie suddenly interrupts, and the two feuding turtles momentarily tear their sharp gazes away from one another to turn their attention back to Mikey and the substituted doctor. Donnie's eyes are narrowed in confusion as he shines a small flashlight in Michelangelo's pupils, studying the foggy irises.

"Raph has a reason to be confused this time, Leo," Donnie quietly adds as he clicks the flashlight off. Raph can't hide the smirk that seeps onto his face as his intelligent brother takes his side, and Leo can't help but sizzle in fury at the smug expression on the hothead's face. However, Donatello couldn't care less about his two feuding brothers when there are bigger problems at hand. "Mikey's eyes are wide open, but he's freezing."

Just to assure his claim is true, Donnie puts a gentle hand on his baby brother's shoulder and instantly recoils from the heat-deprived skin. "H-He feels like a block of ice, no doubt about it. It's your body's natural instinct to wake up if you're too warm or cold while sleeping, but he's not… he's not responding to anything."

Hesitantly, the purple clad turtle raises his hand in front of Mikey's stiff face and insistently snaps his fingers. The small, clicking noise generating from Donnie's fingers echoes throughout the otherwise silent room, seeming to ignite the fact that there is certainly something wrong with Michelangelo. As expected, the youngest doesn't even budge nor blink underneath the suggestive gesture. All three family members present in the bedroom frown deeper at the failure of response.

"What does this mean, Donatello?" Splinter inquires from behind his sons. But before Don can reply, Leo comes to a sudden realization.

"Are you saying he's… still sleeping?" Leo incredulously asks, his unreadable sapphire eyes glued directly onto his seemingly unconscious brother.

Donatello sits back on his heels and shakes his head. "There's no other explanation. Unless of course, Mikey's just ignoring us, but that's highly unlikely. I would think he likes the attention, even if he's on the doorstep of death; that's just how he is." Sighing heavily, the intelligent turtle rubs the side of his head as a sign of unease. "But in all honesty, I would be even more surprised if Mikey did wake up. The medicine he took was unpredictable; it could last for days but –"

"Days?!" Raph repeats, his mouth briefly dropping in disbelief. "What the hell, Donnie? How is Mikey supposed to eat and drink and shit?"

"If you would let me finish," Don continues, shooting a sharp look towards the hothead through a cloud of unknown emotions in his eyes, "you would know that I don't think it'll get that bad. My guess is that it will either last for a few more hours or, at the most, a day or two. Nothing too life-threatening. I designed the medicine to only give Mikey the amount of sleep he has been missing, not for him to go into a lifelong coma."

"Although he may be able to go a few days without food, Michelangelo is going to require some water," Splinter says, placing a supportive hand on Donnie's slouched and guilt-weighed shoulder. "Do you have a plan for that?"

Meekly, Don shakes his head in an approving gesture. "Yes. I have an old IV I can clean up and plug in if we absolutely need it, but I hope he'll wake up before it comes to that…"

"Don't we all," Raphael bitterly snaps, crossing his arms as he gazes down at his suffering baby brother. Although his heart threatens to snap at the sound of the creaking bed as a result of Mikey's violent shivering, he keeps his face neutral. A face full of emotions would only attract more negative attention towards him. He doesn't exactly need good ol' Fearless lecturing him about the string of screw-ups he's made unless absolutely necessary.

"So what can we do?" Leonardo questions after many moments of silence. Donnie hesitantly licks his lips before getting on his feet and pulling away from the bed with reluctance.

"Nothing. We just have to wait it out. I'll go get the IV just in case," he quietly states, reaching out one last time to comfortably pat Mikey's trembling leg. However, he doesn't move for a long while; instead, as his hand rests comfortably on Mikey's leg, he seems to soak in the pale figure of his shattered baby brother. Raph dares to glance up into his brother's soft brown eyes, but quickly looks away in pain as far too many emotions flicker through Donnie's irises. At last, the intelligent turtle quietly adds, "A-And, I'm… I'm sorry, Mikey. All of you, in fact."

Just before Donnie leaves the tense atmosphere of the bedroom, Raph swears he sees his intelligent brother flash him an extra look of remorse before disappearing in the doorway. No, he's mistaken; he didn't see that. Donnie has no reason to feel guilty for anything, therefore he couldn't have just given Raph that look. It should be the other way around. Solemnly, the hothead guides his gaze back to his quaking brother and vaguely shakes his head for a second time.

This is all so fucked up. Dammit, Mikey…

Many awkward silent moments pass before Raph heavily swallows and turns to face his remaining family. "I'll watch him for today just in case somethin' goes wrong." At the doubtful look Raph receives from his leader, he begrudgingly adds, "I'll call if anything goes wrong, alright? But until that happens, you don't need be a mother-hen, Fearless."

Leonardo's features tighten at the harsh nickname, but Raphael can see the utmost strength keeping the oldest from lashing out at him. Instead, after a few quick calming breaths later, Leo stiffly nods.

"Very well," Splinter quietly agrees as he gives the hothead a reassuring yet slightly shaky smile. "Watch him closely."

"Hai, Sensei," Raph firmly replies before turning back to his patient. He waits until the gentle squeaking of the bedroom door announces his brother and father's departure before letting out the breath he had been holding. Pulling up a long-forgotten chair that rested in the corner of the room, he exhaustedly plops into it and rests his elbows onto the bedside, letting his head fall into the palms of his hands in defeat.

o-o-o

"I-I killed… killed Leo…"