"You insufferable!–"

Raph had immediately disappeared down the sewer tunnels, so instead of running after him, Leo took his suffocation and blurring mind and splitting heart and turned it on Splinter in a flash of rage, too quick for the other three to react. Splinter defended himself from the blow aimed at his head only marginally, enough for Leo to completely take him off his feet and send him careening backwards, and up to that moment, it was the most off-guard he'd ever caught his father before.

But he didn't care. Right now, he didn't care about the vile things he said or his violent behavior – he couldn't control a single ounce of it anyway; something snapped that had never been meant to break, and he was a storm of outrage. He fought Splinter like he'd never fought anyone else before, slinging furniture and attacking more like a feral tiger than a ninja, and Splinter struggled to defend himself.

"– Unbelievable! – Two-faced! – MOTHERFUCKER!"

Landing a hard kick to his father's torso with an angry grunt, he grabbed a chair as Splinter tumbled down and slung it with all his might, and it shattered into pieces as Splinter just barely managed to avoid it.

"LEONARDO!" Splinter managed to shout, but it was all he could get out before Leo was charging again. Splinter caught his son's fists, and they struggled for just a second as Leo growled in his face.

"Liar! Spouting bullshit and laying hands on my little brother! I'll teach you to ever lay another finger on him AGAIN!"

Whatever response Splinter might've had was lost in the fumbling as the two wrestled onto the ground, kicking and punching and finally breaking apart again, and Splinter knocked over a lamp in deterrence as Leo lunged after him again, which he crushed as he bashed it aside.

"Leonardo, PLEASE! Just give me a moment to speak!" Splinter pleaded, a complicated mix of desperation, horror, panic and frustration on his face. He dodged around the media pit in an attempt to get some distance, but Leo flipped the TV and threw the stand it was sitting on, plowing ahead like a train.

"I think I've heard enough of your BULLSHIT!" Leo snarled, vaguely aware of Mikey and Donnie cowering by a far wall, watching the fight in terror, and the tiny ball trapped in his middle that still had any conscious awareness of what he was doing screamed louder to get the three of them out of this situation. He tackled Splinter again, and the two tumbled back down the steps of the media pit, Splinter having to retaliate to defend himself. They struggled onto and over the couch, ripping two cushions wide open in the process. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Trying to hurt his little brothers?! Dangerous to the team?! Getting people killed?! The only one here trying to hurt ANY of my little brothers is YOU!"

With this exclamation, Leo flipped out of a hold Splinter had on him and tried to elbow drop him into the floor, but with a grimace, Splinter caught Leo mid-attack with a kick to the plastron in a desperate attempt to get his bloodthirsty son away from him, and sent him tumbling across the floor. Without much time wasted, Leo got up with a scowl and launched back at Splinter, who hesitated after the last blow he'd landed on his son, and with all his strength, threw Splinter into the arcade machine, both crashing to the floor with thunderous noise.

Blinded with rage, he would've charged back in, but Donnie was suddenly there. "LEO!" He shouted, almost completely wrapped around his big brother from behind and trying to anchor him back, only slightly succeeding. "Leo, just LET HIM GO! That's enough! You're both gonna do something you'll REALLY regret!"

Leo turned to look at Donnie as he dragged his little brother inches across the floor in their struggle, teeth bared like fangs. "SOMETHING I REGRET?! He took Raph and tore him down, and then he had the NERVE to strike him! He attacked him and chased him away! He's the ONLY one who's gonna regret-!"

"LEO, STOP!" Donnie insisted, louder and angrier in a tone he almost never used with Leo – only when he was forced to. "I know! I know, but JUST STOP! You're not fixing anything!"

Finally, Leo stopped pushing ahead like an angry bull, looking at Donnie with fuming frustration. He was right, as much as that made him want to punch something even harder. He wasn't going to fix anything like this.

Without warning, he grabbed Donnie's hand and started storming to the lair's exit, near where Mikey still was, only looking back at the little brother he dragged behind him once to communicate what his voice couldn't right now – 'We're leaving.' Donnie's alarmed expression turned a little more bitter than shocked, but he didn't protest. Mikey's face looked like a catatonic storm of emotion, and Leo was worried about his baby brother. Hurrying, he reached out and pulled Mikey to his chest, before trying to pull them both out of the lair.

Suddenly, though, Splinter was latched onto Mikey, and fresh anger flashed through Leo as he whipped toward their father, scowling.

"WAIT, my sons!–"

Before anyone knew what was happening, Mikey was slugging Splinter off of him and yelling. Yelling, screaming, crying and breaking, and Leo's and Donnie's last nerve became a live wire.

"Don't you DARE touch me! I hate you! I hate you!"

Their was a mixture of anger, betrayal and despair on Mikey's face that neither older brother had ever seen before. Leo and Donnie grabbed Mikey at the same time, trying to squeeze him tight enough in their arms to make him better as he started sobbing, protecting him from Splinter.

"You not done fighting?! Because we can fight! Or I can take your arm off, if you'd prefer that!" Leo raved, moving toward Splinter again, but Donnie locked his arms back around the older, holding him back and shielding Mikey between them. Donnie didn't have very kind words for their sensei himself – Splinter continued pleading for them to stay and listen to him, and Donnie contributed to the yelling and arguing his big brother was doing, both of them furious – but his oldest, composed big brother Leonardo had already cussed more today than he ever had in his life, and he was pulling forward like a hungry animal and threatening to amputate limbs off of their father, and at the moment, Donnie wasn't completely convinced Leo hadn't gone crazy enough to do it.

"I–!" Splinter stammered, looking up at them desperately. "Please! Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello! I am sorry! I–I–you do not understand. If I could just–"

"That's ok, Sensei." Donnie finally said, peering around Leo at his father. By now, Leo had them both in a tight grip as far behind himself as he could while still being able to yell at their sensei. They really needed to leave, and Donnie was exhausted – he'd had enough. "You can be as sorry as you want, but it doesn't really make a difference to the three of us. As for us, we don't care WHAT you are. But Raph needs us, and we're going to him."

With the last bit of his energy drained, he dropped his head against Leo's chest with a tired sigh, and Leo was quickly hurrying out with the two of them. He lifted Mikey onto one shoulder in one arm and pulled Donnie along behind, practically running, and none were completely aware of how long they kept going or where they were headed, but none of them could really think clearly enough to figure it out.

Eventually, Leo found a safe place to stop and rest, curling into a large pipe with the two of them. Mikey was quiet, curled into himself as his tears rolled down his face, and Leo pulled him snuggly into his shoulder. When Donnie and Leo looked at each other, they must have realized at the same time that both their eyes were red and filled with tears; but Donnie didn't find out which one of them cracked first, because Leo was quickly pulling him tight enough into his other shoulder to bury him, rocking them both. Sniffling, Donnie wrapped around Mikey, and lost the lines between snuggling closer and falling asleep.

.

.

Raph's face was empty as his motorcycle roared, racing down the busiest highway of New York that would take him to the coastline warehouse he was headed to.

Traffic got lighter as he continued driving and the neighborhood got more dangerous, until he finally got off the main road and headed down the back roads, where there was no traffic at all. It remained like this for the better part of an hour as Raph drove north, deeper into uncharted territories of bankrupted businesses and abandoned buildings that concealed any number of gangs and crime.

As he went, he tried to formulate some kind of train of thought – at the very least, something that would help him feel like he was really deep in a bad part of town, and figure out a plan for what he wanted to do – but he didn't have the energy to care about either. He looked blankly at his surroundings as he got closer to his destination, taking in the run-down streets and abandoned houses with no interest as he sped past.

"I don't even know what Shredder is trying to do, or who's actually involved, or in charge." Raph distantly thought. "I just need to find out what's going on. They're killing people, and they just need to be stopped, immediately."

Finally, a mile from the warehouse, the atmosphere turned a type of shady that he was at least familiar with, and he turned down the first subway entrance he saw to escape being spotted by any patrolling Foot or lackeys of Shredder's. Driving down a pair of staircases, he shut the engine off and hid the bike inside a small compartment room, making sure it couldn't be seen before knotting a broken chain around the door. From there, he headed back toward the Foot headquarters through the shadows.

Staying hidden and sneaking inside wouldn't be a problem for the trained ninja; however, Raph still paused outside in hesitation. There were just as many Foot here as the last location, so it was crowded. However, this particular hideout was much less obvious, and more well-guarded – he picked out at least three covert Foot with snipers hiding around the building. That meant, also, that he couldn't tell where the weapons and chemicals were, or what they were doing. Some part of the back of his brain started strategizing the amount of effort and risk it would take to find that out as he snuck closer.

It wasn't long before he found Tiger Claw again, standing outside the building, and he jerked further into hiding when he spotted him, hoping he wasn't seen. Tiger Claw was preoccupied, though, issuing orders to some Foot who subsequently ran off into the building.

"You again," Raph thought, grimacing as he stared down at the tiger. "What type of circus are you running, pissy old cat?"

Tigerclaw stood oddly quiet for a moment, eyes closed and almost whimsical-looking, before turning and walked inside the building, and Raph snuck in after him.

Raph followed Tigerclaw from a long distance for about ten minutes, forced to hide in dark hallways and carefully sneak around corners as Tigerclaw made his way down some narrow corridors. Finally, he went through a door that opened into a larger room, and Raph followed through a few minutes later, immediately going to the rafters.

What he saw in the room made his heart jump, and didn't surprise him, at the same time. The chemicals. A good portion of them, anyway – as well as what remaining weapons they had, though more were in use this time around, rather than in boxes. A sad and unnerving reality hit Raph next - after what had just happened at the last base, the remaining Foot seemed more sharp, on edge and particularly irate, and Raph pulled his coat tighter around him and shrank back into the rafters a little, nervous.

Tigerclaw busied himself again ordering Foot around, setting up their chemical and weapons display for some purpose Raph couldn't figure out. "This is the second time they're setting this up." Raph thought, scowling in deep thought. "Clearly, the four of us interrupted some plans of theirs that they didn't get to execute last time. So now they're…."

The word execute gave him a deep, weirdly uncomfortable feeling, when the hostages from last time sprang to mind; and steadily, his stomach grew cold as his mind followed that train of thought to its conclusion.

"They didn't get to last time…..so…."

He felt the blood drain from his face and his mind go static in reaction to the thought.

"They can't be….again."

Suddenly, he forgot about trying to understand the weapons and chemicals, and had a new immediate objective – look for new hostages; and as he backed away from the scene, starting to shiver and trying to mentally break the building down, one thought was at the forefront of everything – why are they taking hostages, why, why, WHY?!

Before he could make it anywhere, though, another familiar figure showed up, and Raph was suddenly sneering.

"Kraang."

Tigerclaw, not looking particularly happy himself, stood at attention as the Kraang bot approached him, soon followed by others. Raph watched the exchange intently from the rafters. "I might need to know this."

There was a pause as the approaching Kraang stopped in front of Tigerclaw and looked around the building, surveying the weapons and chemicals. "The team that is lead by Tigerclaw has changed the location that is secret."

"Yes." Tigerclaw responded curtly, not looking very interested in having a long conversation with the bots. "The mission would have been sabotaged with the turtles knowing our location."

The bots turned to each other for a second and exchanged a few blips, in what Raph couldn't tell to be communication or just processing sounds. As hard as he tried to grasp and decode the situation, Raph was getting more confused by the second – as far as he knew, he and his brothers had sabotaged whatever Tigerclaw had been trying to do last time, but clearly there was more to it that he needed to find out. And he couldn't tell what the Kraang were here for – last time he and his brothers defeated them, they sunk their only remaining pod from dimension X. They were still hunting down some remaining mutagen the Kraang released, but the most important parts of their tech had either been destroyed when their pod crashed, or Donnie took it. The few remaining Kraang here were all but powerless. They should've been. What did they want? The cold feeling in Raph's stomach grew.

"Several of the supplies were destroyed. The part of the plan that the one known as Shredder is responsible for is set to be complete in one week." The first Kraang rattled out, looking at Tigerclaw. "This is still the arrangement?"

Tigerclaw's not-particularly-happy looked deepened just ever so slightly, but his demeanor didn't change much besides that. "Of course." He responded. "…The new threat is ready for filming. The government will have a week to give admission to their nuclear supplies, after which we will supply them to you and Master Shredder will be expecting chemical M2."

Raph couldn't help but startle back at all the new information. "Nuclear supplies…chemical M2? Shredder and the Kraang are working together…New threat…? Do they really have more hostages?!"

His heart speeding up a mile a minute, shaking his head, he backed away again. He couldn't waste time again. He had to find out where they were before – before – whatever they planned to do now. He only hoped it wasn't the same as last time.

Abruptly, the Kraang nodded, and without more than a demand to contact them when it was done, the small group turned to walk away. Instantly, what few Foot that weren't armed rushed to grab weapons and leave the room, and Tigerclaw's grim face was the last thing Raph glared at before hurrying to follow them all.

This time it was a room one floor below ground-level of the building. Raph followed a herd of Foot to it, silent and obscure as a shadow, watching them with sharp eyes. The rafters ended in the hallway leading to the room, and he had no choice but to find a vent to crawl into to get visualization of the room. Once inside, unable to breathe, he scrambled to the closest opening he could find, peering inside and feeling the pounding in his chest rattle in his head, not wanting to believe it.

He didn't immediately trust what he was seeing, even as he looked down at it. His heart lept into his throat, and he struggled to control the sudden nausea that struck him as he assessed the situation."One…two…three…four…five…six…" He counted off, gazing at the tightly-bound, blinded and gagged figures in a line of chairs in the center of the room. "Seven…eight…nine…ten…eleven…twelve…thirteen."

The barrel of a tank's cannon wasn't here this time, but there were more than enough armed Foot inside the room to compensate, which he darkly noticed stalked about behind the group, camera in position to watch.

"Thirteen." Raph swallowed dryly, fingers tightly gripping the hilts of his sais until they went tingly and numb, looking down with wide eyes. "Now figure out what to do."

Once again, Tigerclaw was nowhere to be found, leaving the dirty work up to the Foot lackeys – giving Raph better chances of working without being noticed. He needed a plan.

Scrunching his eyes closed, he did his best to visualize his best options. He already had a hunch of what the execution was going to look like…and he didn't think it would do much good to jump down and get everyone aiming at him, instead. Besides, he was still hurt and his leg would hold him back. Why do they keep taking hostages – no, he had no time to think, he dragged the panicked, cluttering thoughts out of his head with urgency. He needed something he could do without fighting – without showing himself –

He looked to the side, down into the dark ventilation shaft, toward the room's exit. "I need a distraction."

One of the Foot began speaking, and his head snapped back to the scene below him. One armed Foot member stood behind each hostage, and the one in the middle spoke to the camera. The horribly familiar scene sent ice through Raph's body, and he gritted his teeth. "I need a distraction, now!"

Silently, he raced back through the vent. "I could – start another fight in a different room. Most of them are in there, so it shouldn't be – no, who am I kidding? They all have guns, they'll just have a clearer shot at me. I could – I could….dump those chemicals." He thought frantically. "We need to get rid of those anyway. I wonder…if they're flammable…"

Before he could finish that train of thought, his leg was suddenly on fire. Grunting, struggling not to cry out, he covered his mouth with one hand and laid down in the vent, checking his leg with the other. It was cramped up, pulsing with pain and burning horribly. "I can't slow down!" Straining, each second feeling like a minute, he continued pulling himself through the vent. "I can't lose…a second!"

Bearing through the pain rippling through his whole body, he finally crawled out of the vent and made a mad break for it, shooting back to the rafters as soon as he got the chance and flying, each second ticking loudly in his skull, until he was back in the first room. Sweating and panting, he stopped himself on a sturdy wooden pillar and looked down toward the large chemical vats, which he saw just moments ago–

"They're gone."

His throat closed up and his heart seemed to stop for a second. The chemicals were no longer in the room. "All three of those huge vats…that take ten people to move, each…! You've gotta be fucking with me!"

Jumping down into the empty room, he looked around wildly, only the empty weapons crates left. He put his hands to his head, almost crying in panic and voice breaking, scanning the room. "YOU'VE GOTTA BE FUCKING WITH ME!"

Wheeling around, he saw one thing alone that he could use – a spare rifle, sitting alone in a crate.

Mind racing, he ran to it and lifted it out, and immediately went to work trying to figure out how to use it, fiddling with everything with furious, shaking hands.

"I need to make sure it's loaded. Guns have safety locks…it needs to be cocked…what else…?!"

It didn't take him long to get it working, and he discovered that by accidentally firing a shot into the ceiling, which nearly knocked him onto his backside. It was mostly already prepped for action, thanks to the Foot, and Raph counted his blessings in the back of the mind as he bolted back toward the dark underground room.

He didn't try to formulate some plan or wait until he'd made it back before he started firing off into the walls. It was the most he could do; he had no way of knowing if there was any time left – he could've already been too late. Screaming, he fired at everything in sight, racing through the hallways in a rampage, thoughts of a destroyed building and a red room welling his eyes up with tears.

"Please tell me I'm not too late…Please tell me…Please."

He quickly gained the attention of the Foot, because it wasn't long before his gunfire was being returned and the ninja were racing toward him. Raph quickly turned and sped away from them, forced to run to defend himself from both bullets and shuriken.

"This isn't all of them." Raph thought anxiously, looking back at them as they chased him, firing up into the rafters where he was running. "This isn't everybody. Maybe half. They're not taking the bait. I need to lose these guys…I need to go back down there and…!"

Mid-run, his leg suddenly cramped up, momentarily paralyzing his whole body in pain.

"AUHG!" Raph cried out, tumbling down from the rafters and crashing to the floor in a thunder of noise and shattered boxes. He was immediately swimming through gunfire again, and he scrambled away, continuing the mad dash away from the Foot.

"Damnit…damnit…damnit!" Raph gritted his teeth, trying not to cry in pain as he ran, weaving through rooms and hallways. He'd already become disoriented about where he was in the building. He couldn't jump back into the rafters anymore, and without a good place to hide, the Foot stayed on his tail. "DAMNIT! What do I do?! I need to get down there…I need to get away from these guys!"

If he'd had his brothers, maybe he could save these people. If he wasn't alone, if he hadn't fucked everything up.

These people might die because he's all alone.

But he's alone now, and he's GOTTA SAVE THESE PEOPLE–

Rounding a corner, he hobbled in pain and exhaustion for the few seconds he had before they caught up again.

"Damn leg!"

Cutting through rooms and bolting down hallways, Raph was quickly running out of energy. His heart raced faster than it needed to as he ran, panicking more and more with every second. Swinging around, he fired at the mob a few times in an attempt to lose them, which they deftly avoided each time, until he finally found a staircase leading back down.

Not bothering to use the stairs, Raph jumped over the guardrail and hit the floor below, collapsing over his good leg and rolling hard onto his shell, groaning in pain before quickly jumping into the shadows of a nearby doorway and dashing down the hall before the Foot knew which way he went.

Finally…some headway. Raph scowled, pushing his body to keep running hard as he raced back toward the underground room. He heard shouting all around him, and he couldn't tell if it was just the Foot looking for him or if there was a loud commotion underground too, and he didn't know what that would mean. "Come on, Raph, faster!"

"The intruder is one of the turtles."

Raph's head shot up just to see a large group of metallic bodies with purple weapons running toward him, and there was a half-second before they started firing and Raph leapt into an adjacent hallway, dodging them.

"AH–" Skidding over his bad leg, he tumbled before starting to run again. He was only a hallway away. He had to get back to that room! But the previous cramp in his leg was quickly fighting to seize his whole body, and he was reduced to a painful limp as the massive cramp ran up his midsection.

"Damnit….damnit…!" He gritted his teeth in a pained wince, forcing himself onward along the wall away from the pounding feet catching up to him, trying with all his might not to throw up and blinking away watery eyes in frustration. "There's no…time…to be…"

The muffled sound of a woman shrieking in a room below him struck his ears, and it jolted all the nerves in his body like he'd been shocked. "They're still alive. They're still alive," The words echoed in the back of his head. Some part of his distraction had worked – he must've held up the process, at least by a little bit. But it wasn't just a woman – more people were shrieking. What was happening down there?

The Kraang quickly caught up and fired again, and knowing he wouldn't last much longer running away, he grit his teeth and turned to face them instead, pulling both sai out from behind his jacket and charging with a furious scream and a rush of new energy, taking the bots off-guard.

Before the Kraang realized he was attacking, he managed to take down the leading group, destroying ten bots. But more came after, and he decided to use his head-start to try to get to the room. However, just as he turned to run, one of the Kraang managed to get a shot at him, hitting him in the arm with its blaster.

Crying out, Raph collapsed over, rolling and scrambling into the nearest room, trying to avoid more blaster fire. The blast wound effectively knocked him out of the little balance and energy he had left. "Fuck!" Raph growled to himself, panting anxiously and angrily as he stumbled and backed against a wall, holding his scorched arm still steaming with heat from the blaster fire, jacket sleeve ripped where he started bleeding from the wound. The room had no other entrances or exits, and Kraang were quickly filling in through the one across from him. Angrily waving his gun at them, Raph pulled the trigger, but it clicked uselessly, empty. Throwing the weapon behind him, he aggressively wielded his sai as he huddled against the wall, fully aware that even in good shape, this amount of Kraang would've been a struggle to take down. The robots surrounded him, all aiming blasters, and all Raph could do was huddle in on himself, trying to protect as much as he could.

"What are you after?!" Raph suddenly yelled, grimacing and wielding his sai threateningly in front of him, but clearly injured and backed against the wall. They actually seemed to hesitate at his outburst, as if in confusion. "What do you want?!" Raph yelled again, trying his best to vocalize his anger and sound threatening, but his voice wavering in exhaustion. "Why are you taking hostages?! What are you trying to accomplish?!"

In unison, the Kraang raised their blasters to Raph, and he flinched back. However, they held their blasters steady, as if waiting for some kind of command, and one Kraang droid walked to the front of the mob. Raph noticed this one, evidently some commander of sorts, was dual-wielding Kraang guns and a rifle strapped across its back, and his heart sank. The Kraang stopped in front of him, and Raph jumped when it swung the rifle into its hands, panting heavier.

"I don't wanna die," He thought, his mind starting to spin with desperate, rapid-fire ideas as he struggled to get his battered body ready to charge out through the mob. "I can't die here. Those people need me. If I die, my brothers will…! I'm scared, I don't wanna die! Leo, Mikey, Donnie…Leo, help me…!"

The Kraang commander slightly tilted its head. "The turtle known as Raphael is alone." It stated, staring at Raph with its empty purple eyes. Raph stared back, an odd silence spanning between the two and settling over the room.

"The team that is the turtles finally sent the one known as Raphael away?" It said, and Raph suddenly felt like he was choking. "Kraang is surprised it took so long."

He didn't know when it started, but Raph suddenly realized he was shaking. Screams of the people in the room below reached his ears again, and he went a little more rigid, hearing his heart pounding in his ears. Everyone was screaming. Blaster fire was going off. The Kraang were in the room with the hostages, doing whatever it was the Foot had been trying to.

The Kraang in front of Raph swung the rifle at his head, making him flinch back. Sweat rolled down his face, staring into the barrel.

"I've gotta…I've gotta run–get to them–" Trying to get up made his leg scream in pain, and all he could do was fall back again with a pained grunt, making the mob of Kraang around him step closer. Trembling in pain, frustrated tears started leaking out of Raph's eyes, and he lifted his sai in despair, angrily thrashing them while knowing full well that anything he did was completely useless.

"WHY!" He screamed, his voice painfully reverberating in his raw throat, an echo of everything breaking inside him. "WHY DON'T YOU AT LEAST PICK A FIGHT WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN FIGHT BACK! YOU PIGS! YOU FUCKING COWARDS!"

He was completely useless. He couldn't save a single person. HE'D FAILED–

The Kraang droid aiming the rifle at him knocked the barrel into his forehead, knocking Raph backwards and shutting him up. Gritting his teeth, Raph froze in his attempt to push himself up when the Kraang pressed the muzzle against his forehead, holding him down.

"Kraang has no need to tell you of Kraang's plan of experimentation." It said, and Raph swore the droid was staring back at him. "Kraang has no use for a stray dog the likes of Raphael. Lay down."

Raph only had a fraction of a second to close his eyes and send up his last prayer. "Leo…Donnie…Mikey…dad…I love–"

There was a loud explosion that deafened his ears.

The entire room rocked, and momentarily Raph thought he'd been killed and his ghost was experiencing his body collapsing, and he didn't dare open his eyes out of terror. Soon, though, after several seconds and with the continued sensation of pain in his body, it became evident that he was still very much alive. Though, if he didn't move he might not be much longer – a voice in the back of his head was telling him. Opening his eyes, he realized pieces of the ceiling in the room had fallen, and the building was quickly collapsing.

"What–?" Raph quickly scrambled to the wall behind him for support. All the Kraang around him had either fallen over or couldn't stay upright in the shaking building. His brain scrambled for a moment trying to understand what had happened, but soon decided he wouldn't ever know if he didn't get out right now.

Having new adrenaline in his body, he leapt over the Kraang in the room and quickly dashed out as pieces of the ceiling started crumbling.

Directly outside the room, he was torn for a second on which way to go. He knew the way out, though he probably needed to find a quicker way right now, but–what about the people downstairs?–He at least needed to check–

The building rocked with another explosion, and walls started falling around him. No time…

Running as fast as he could go, Raph bolted down hallways and over rubble he didn't recognize until he went through a previously-closed hallway that now had a hole in the wall, snapped pipes protruding through it. He wasn't sure he'd fit, but he knew he wasn't going to make it to the exits he knew of. The building was coming down fast now, he had to go through there! Jumping up, he squeezed halfway through the hole, having to kick and push around the sharp pipes the rest of the way. Just as he made it through, a final explosion shook everything, and what was left of the building virtually fell like it had been a sandcastle.

.

Somehow, he managed to escape. Despite everything, he couldn't help the massive sense of relief that came over him when he found a fire escape nearby, which was just close enough for him to jump to. Lucky, since if it weren't there, he probably would've fallen to his death with the building.

Still too frightened to stay still, he kept climbing until he reached the top of the building, the only point at which he turned around to look at the collapsed one. For the first few moments, it was just a massive cloud of dust that covered the area and would've been indistinguishable except for the fires starting to rise out of it.

Raph could only stare at it for a while in numb shock, barely registering the distant sound of sirens. Processing what had happened was a confusing, and equally excruciating, process. He hadn't caused that explosion. He'd thought about making one, but hadn't found anything to do it with. No – no – he was the only one in there that could have done that, and he was cornered by the Kraang. So what – did the Foot do it? No – they wouldn't have crushed themselves. Surely they would've known – was everyone crushed? The people – the people…where…the people…Raph finally sank to his knees as he watched the fires grow, feeling like he hadn't escaped the building at all. Surely…

Red, flashing lights finally caught his attention from the corner of his eye, and he looked over to see an ambulance that had already arrived with several others not far behind. Confused, he watched the scene until he saw the first man – one of the hostages – being lifted into the ambulance by a medical team. He'd gotten out. But how? There hadn't been any exits…no, there was no way Raph knew of that they could've escaped. Unless there'd been some secret tunnel, or – but he doubted that. Now, as he kept watching and other ambulances arrived, he saw the rest of the hostages exiting through the smoke of the rubble; some walking, some stumbling, and some being carried on stretchers. But Raph counted until – 13 – he assured that they were all there.

"They all got out." Raph thought, staring silently at the scene below in awe, not having the answers or the energy to understand how, concluding to figure it out later. A grievous, gut-wrenching feeling settled deep in his insides as he watched, feeling sick and sorrowful at the same time. Some of them looked really bad.

Noticing movement to his left, he snapped his attention to the building next to him where Tigerclaw suddenly jumped up, looking a little worse for wear himself; Raph tensed, his thoughts suddenly racing again through whether he could still run or whether he'd be able to even try to fight off the tiger right now. Clearly noticing the turtle, Tigerclaw perched there, the moon behind him casting an eery shadow.

Though the mutant seemed surprised to see Raph, he didn't pick up any hostility from the tiger. More of an aloof feeling, like Tigerclaw has other business to take care of. Clearly, what they'd both evidently just been through took enough out of both of them. Though, Raph had to question where Tigerclaw had to be after something like this, and why his injuries and torn clothes and the ashes covering his fur seemed to be the least of his concerns.

"What do you want?" Raph suddenly found himself asking, and didn't have his senses about him to wonder what he was saying, or why he was asking the bigger mutant. "Why are you doing this?"

Tigerclaw didn't answer right away, and there were several moments of silence when Raph thought he might leave. But Tigerclaw turned and looked down at the cloud and the burning rubble with Raph for a few minutes, and then finally responded.

"You and your brothers are always sticking your muzzles where they don't belong." The mutant graveled out, sounding just a little amused, but mostly very tired. "I suppose I should've guessed."

Raph scowled, opening his mouth in preparation to repeat his question, but Tigerclaw cut him off by standing and turning to leave, but not before shooting another tense look in Raph's direction.

There was a heavy moment of silence during which Raph felt, for some reason, like he should shut up. Tigerclaw's ear twitched, contemplating something, but he held the intense stare until he finally spoke again.

"I have no grudge with you or your brothers, Raphael." Tigerclaw said, his eyes echoing a foreboding gleam from the moon behind him. "You know not what you're dealing with, nor who; and your enemies are stronger than you think. You and your brothers would be best advised to keep your distance and not interfere, or else get killed, cub."

Turning, Tigerclaw paused one last time before glancing back at Raph, and something about his look was different this time – lighter. "I am not a fan of those Kraang, myself. Thank you for your interruption."

With that, Tigerclaw turned and leapt down from the building. Raph shouted after him, but the mutant was long gone, slipping away through the shadows.

Raph couldn't clear any of his confusion, but he almost didn't feel like he was supposed to right now. He didn't want to right now. He put all his effort into climbing down the building without being seen by any of the people or increasing emergency responders, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he quickly slipped away through the shadows. He stumbled frantically – the best he could do right now, in leu of running – until he found his bike; and in a panic, released it from its prison and brought it roaring to life, racing back through the city at speeds that definitely weren't safe.

.

.

The three brothers were huddled up on April's couch, locked tightly together in an anxiety-ridden lump, none of them being able to let go of each other and only getting fitful sleep through the night, but having been too exhausted to keep looking.

Mikey stirred, waking up for maybe the twentieth time that night. He looked at his brothers' faces, and his own fell at the subtly painful expressions they wore in their sleep. Sighing, he didn't think he'd be able to get back to sleep, so he shifted to get up, immediately getting a response from Leo, who rubbed his eyes and transmitted a wordless question with an inquisitive look.

Suddenly, oddly unable to meet Leo's eyes, Mikey instead dropped his head into Leo's shoulder, not trusting the look on his face anymore and hiding it. Leo didn't need an explanation, though, and put his hand over the back of his head and gave him a nuzzle. A few somber minutes passed them by as they looked out a dark window in the wall across from them on the couch, not knowing what to do but knowing the heaviness in their chests would probably have the three of them up soon.

.

.

Raph's mind was racing, but he didn't know with what. His thoughts were coming and going too fast for him to see what they were; or maybe he was just in a daze. In shock. He had no idea; he didn't really care. He just had to get back to his tunnel, because he didn't feel safe…

Nothing felt safe anymore. He was scared. He intuitively knew that, somewhere in the back of his head. When he realized it, his eyes leaked tears and his hands trembled on the bike's handlebars. He wanted to go home, but it wasn't safe there for him anymore. He wanted his dad, and Mikey, and Donnie, and Leo. He wanted Leo. He was scared, and everything hurt. Everything hurt…

When he got back into the theater district a while later, where people thinned out and disappeared again, the sky was just starting to turn red again with the morning sun. Emergency vehicle lights caught his eye, and he had to come to an abrupt stop in front of a store displaying ambulances and fire trucks on TVs through the glass storefront.

.

.

Soon after all the brothers had gotten up, April heard them moving around and had gotten up herself to make some coffee and find something to make all of them for breakfast. She absently turned on the TV as she went by it, displaying boring morning stories from some newscasters. Maybe the quiet noise would be a welcome distraction from the heavy silence in the room…

Leo was in the kitchen, trying to help with breakfast, while Donnie sat at a dining room table near the couch, trying not to fall back asleep and sipping on a cup of coffee. Mikey sat on the couch, knees pulled up in front of himself and arms wrapped around them, holding the remote and watching the news without paying any attention. Trying to work out what was in his mind. Where and when they should look next…how long they could wait…why Raph wouldn't think he…why he wouldn't…

The newscasters suddenly switched to a new story, and when Mikey noticed, it struck him like he'd been shocked.

He slowly got up off the couch, taking a few steps closer to the TV and catching Donnie's attention. Staring at the burning building on the screen.

.

.

"-A massive fire at an abandoned warehouse deep in dangerous Northside neighborhood." The news anchor was saying, and Raph watched numbly. Footage of the scene showed lingering survivors still being tended to by ambulance teams in the background. "Already believed to be related to another explosion a few days ago…"

A short clip of a man in a hospital bed appeared, described as one of the many victims that had "mysteriously" been in the building and was hospitalized in critical condition, still bloody and unconscious. What few citizens that were out in the theater district at this hour had started gathering around the TVs Raph was watching from the street and others nearby, and were exclaiming in shock and horror at the scenes. Two victims were announced as having died from their injuries already, and Raph's hands fell from the bike handles, running out of strength to hold his head up.

"-Interview with one of the victims from the previous incident, which involved a hostage situation."

Opening his eyes again, Raph slowly looked back up at the screens, shock, dread and horror stirring together in the pit of his stomach.

.

.

His brothers knew that neighborhood, and – probably – that building. Shredder kept one of his bases there, but the team had rarely been there. Actually, more like, Leo never let them go there, if he could help it. There was a conspiratorial but well-known theory that the government performed and hid corrupt practices there, on top of the ex-convicts and gangs more threatening than the Purple Dragons who lived there and the shady business that frequently occurred, not to mention Shredder's well-protected but less-often used base for secret activities. It was excruciatingly dangerous, and now it was a mountain of rubble up in flames…

The anchor introduced someone new, and her face appeared on the screen. Immediately, he froze, dropping the remote to the floor. He had a strong sensation that he was going to be sick.

"Mikey?" Donnie asked in concern, finally getting up to walk over. The other two in the kitchen heard and Leo trotted out to see what was wrong, April close behind.

.

.

"You said you had information about two men you encountered during your traumatizing experience." The anchor gently addressed the lady by way of explanation, and Raph stared in disbelief, eyes slowly growing wider.

"Yes!" The woman exclaimed. The woman that had survived. The only person that had survived.

The woman he and Mikey had saved!

"Oh, it was terrible!" The woman cried out, horrified. "When they had us all tied up, everyone started shooting. I don't know what happened, w-what was going on. But then these two men – these men–" She closed her eyes for a few seconds, overwhelmed. "They attacked me. Th-they had been talking about a demonstration, and I thought maybe they'd decided to keep going, despite whatever was happening. All I could think of was them moving down the line after me. I-it was so scary! They almost killed me!"

The anchor said something else, but Raph couldn't hear. Everyone else was turning into a roar, except the woman.

.

.

Mikey stood and stared, shocked. Numb. Color draining from his face.

All he could feel was the blood beginning to boil in the center of his stomach. He couldn't clearly identify any emotions he thought should be there; outrage, horror, nausea, or any of the things swimming in his middle – like his mind was separated from his body somehow. He was still trying to believe what he was seeing and hearing. He clenched both fists and they began to tremble, and his approaching family members hesitated. Worried, saying something, looking at the TV, but he couldn't hear them.

Was he hearing this right?...Was he hearing this woman right?...This woman…this…

.

.

"-Footage recovered….camera that was found…"

Raph vaguely heard the anchor go on before the image switched to grainy footage of a dark room that looked like a fight scene out of a gang movie, gunfire going off everywhere. A single lamp hanging in the middle of the room. A row of hostages, far away. Dark-clothed people with guns, slipping in and out of view.

Mikey and Raph appeared in the view of the camera. It was too far away and the room was too dark to see them clearly, but defining features stood out. Their masks; the shape of their shells; their weapons. It was only a few more seconds before some rubble collapsed over the camera, obscuring everything from view, and the footage stopped, going back to the shot of Raph and Mikey.

"That's them!" The woman exclaimed, seeming to be trying to point at them from her own view as the TV changed back to the double-screen of her and the anchor. "They called each other Raph and Mikey. They both had on these big backpacks and were using these weird weapons. The one named Raph wore a red cloth around his face, and Mikey wore an orange one. They attacked me – I thought I was going to die! But somehow I managed to get free from my bindings to the chair, and I was able to escape. I think they work for the same people that kidnapped everyone. Oh, it was horrible finding out that…they both have to be caught before they kill anyone else!"

The anchor said something brief after her and thanked her for sharing her experience.

"When am I getting my benefits?" The woman demanded in reply. "They told be I'd get pay–HEY!" A weird scuffle happened on her side, during which a security-looking person stepped in view to block her from view, and the camera's image moved and blurred. For the last few seconds they were on air, Raph could hear the woman's distant voice. "They promised I'd be–"

Her side of the screen cut out, leaving only the news anchor, who continued on without any acknowledgment of her disruption at the end. The little crowds watching around the TVs didn't seem to pay any attention to it anyway, focusing on the story. Raph, however, couldn't hear the story anymore. He could barely hear anything, other than his racing heart beating thunderously in his ears.

Suddenly feeling very exposed, he grabbed the metal ends of his sai hanging out the bottom of his jacket, as if he could hide them that way. He shook uncontrollably every time he moved, but he ignored it, nervously glancing around. Grimacing, he hit the gas hard and his bike roared off.

.

.

The interview with the woman ended, and at first Mikey didn't react. His brothers and April were watching the TV and asking him increasingly anxious questions, and he thought Leo had already made the same realization about the burning building on TV as he had.

His first reality check was when Donnie's words finally made their way to him.

"Mikey, please answer me! Why are you crying?!" He asked desperately, looking afraid to grab Mikey and jar him out of whatever was happening, and only then did Mikey notice the tears streaming down his face. Leo's head snapped away from the TV in his direction, but Mikey's tunnel-vision was still set on the TV.

Then, the volcano of rage building in his stomach erupted, and he screamed, lunging at the TV. He only managed to grab it, like he thought he was going to crush it in his hands, before Donnie just barely managed to grab him around the middle and stop him, quickly followed by Leo.

"THAT BITCH! THAT FUCKING BITCH! WE SAVED YOUR SORRY FUCKING ASS AND YOU – YOU SORRY FUCKING BITCH!" He wailed, still murderously going after the TV, and it took Donnie hauling him backwards like a ship anchor and Leo locked around his front to keep him away from it. April stood out of the way, looking terrified and confused, but not interfering. Not trying to stop Mikey.

Now the rest of his avalanche of twisted feelings came crashing through, and sobs laced Mikey's screaming, and he did all he could to not vomit. His chest felt like it was collapsing from the inside out and…oh God…oh God.

"WE SAVED YOUR FUCKING LIFE!" Mikey wailed, choking, clawing at the air in front of him, vision blurring with his tears. "WE RISKED EVERYTHING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE, WE WATCHED EVERYONE DIE TRYING TO SAVE ALL OF YOU, AND WE SAVED YOU….ONLY YOU…!" Screaming, he lashed out and kicked something, and heard some piece of furniture topple beside them. "THEY ALL DIED. WE WENT THROUGH SUCH HORRIBLE THINGS. WE SACRIFICED THE WHOLE MISSION. WE LOST RAPH! WE LOST EVERYTHING! AND ALL YOU WANT IS PITY AND MONEY!"

At that point, all he could do was scream. He screamed and thrashed and cried, yelling expletives at the woman that wasn't there, until he was out of strength and knew it was pointless. Collapsing against Leo, he sobbed into his shoulder, and their group of three slowly sank to the floor. His older brothers were both crying, too, holding onto him tightly, and Leo's arms trembled. He wrapped around them both, and the angry heat Mikey felt in his chest and the way his oldest brother stubbornly faced away from the TV made him think that maybe Leo might've gone after it himself, if he weren't here instead.

April raced to the group and kneeled down beside them, putting an anxious hand on Mikey's head. Mikey turned to look at her, and she didn't say anything; only giving him a serious, devastated look, her own tears streaking down her face.

"April…" He croaked weakly, breaking down into a sob, and she leaned her head in close to his.

"Oh, Mikey…" She held his head to hers in a hug and sat there with them, crying in the newly quiet room washed in the red light of morning.

.

.

Raph raced across town until he got to his secret hideout, and went as far up the tunnels as he could with his bike – much farther than he had before, through unstable tunnels and around broken pieces in the floor, until he got to the edge of it from which he'd have to jump onto a pipe up to his hideout tunnel. Instead, he retrieved his cigarettes and came back to lay down on the floor, laying his bike on top of himself. His fingers trembling almost too much to use, fumbling the pack open and lit a cigarette, and started blasting music from his bike, closing his eyes. Anything. Anything that could drown it all out right now, that could rescue him from it. He turned the music up as loud as he could and felt the vibrations of it rip through his insides – so he couldn't feel the way everything inside of him felt like it was crumbling, the way his chest felt like it was collapsing, couldn't hear his voice screaming in his head. He sucked in as much of the cigarette smoke as he could, using it up in just a few minutes, but it wasn't helping. It wasn't enough. The inside of his head burned and felt like it was falling apart, and his whole body shook and he couldn't catch his breath. He needed something – anything – to take it away, drown it out, stop him from feeling it all, save him from it, God damnit – alcohol, drugs – he didn't care anymore, he'd take any of it, he needed something.

Tears ran down his face. "Mikey. Donnie. Leo. Leo, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

The woman's face ran through his mind again, and he started screaming, every one of his sick emotions and feelings burying him alive - anger, horror, despair, terror, disbelief, sickness, the ache in his whole body from missing his brothers, his confusion and frustration with what was going on, his worry about the situation with his dad, everything. He screamed until his raw throat gave out and his voice died, and it wasn't until later that he was leaning over the edge of the tunnel, throwing up.

Chapter song: Lund - Low

fireworksinthenight: Thank you for your continued support! Seeing your reviews makes me so happy! :) To be honest, I'm still trying to figure out this Splinter myself, but my intention isn't to make him evil or unforgivable. I still love Rat Dad, after all. (ALSO, I literally just realized that I'd snooped out your channel on AO3 at some point and opened your story What You Always Wanted to read later, which I am reading right now, and I LOVE IT AND I LOVE YOU THANK YOU FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL STORY! Bro fluff gives me life and I devour every word of it that I can find :D)

Heyitsbren: Thank you so much, and thanks for your patience with this story!

Thanks as well to everyone else reading and following! I wouldn't have the inspiration to write without y'all. But boiyo sorry for the long waits between chapters. I don't always have motivation to write, and I'm going through the annoying process of attending school and trying to find a better job while figuring out where to move to, so it takes me a while. I'm also still working on The Leaderless Mission, which several people have asked me about.

Raph really needs his bros. :(