Hey, ya'll! Yeah, yeah, I know. I haven't finished Shades of Green yet. I just couldn't wait! You remember my other fic, Reason, right? Yeah, the sad excuse of a plot line! Anyway, I kinda had you guys hanging there at the end. Here's the sequal to Reason. I would strongly recomend you read Reason before this fic. You don't have to; free country and all that. Anyway, things are going to get crazy quickly. This chapter is kinda yawn-vill, recap on Reason. It has a moment or two of fluffy goodness! Don't worry, we'll get to the action soon. This story will still have much Philosophy symbolistic goodness as the first one did. Dun dun dun! As always, thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT or flutternutters. Yep, I said flutternutters. Tee-hee.

Truer Than Logic

Chapter I: Remember

"Hope is a waking dream." Aristotle

Leo sat near his sleeping brother and reflected on the past week. The lair was silent instead of the sound of the shower streaming. Smiling to himself, Leo knew that threatening Mikey's comic book collection if he did not shower was a smart idea. It was mean at first, but Mikey had not left Don's side since they brought him home from the Shredder's tower…three days ago.

"How is he?"

Leo looked up to Raph who stood at the doorway of Don dimly lit lab/bedroom. Is that what I look like, Leo thought. Raph looked exhausted and worried, and had the many signs of sleepless nights. They were all worried, and no one slept. Raph's eyes were darker as if hiding the worry, but his voice faltered that front.

"Same." Leo said sadly, and he looked down at Don. Wounds and bruises were fading on Don's olive-green skin. Thankfully there were no serious injuries, but why was he still in a coma?

Three days ago, Leo's heart beat with renewed hope when he carried Don's body away from that hell. Don was kidnapped exatly a week ago. The Shredder and Dr. Stockman had planned an perfectly executed plan that night. Don decided to go on his own that night on a scavenging trip to the junkyard.

Then Don was soon surrounded by Foot ninja. Outnumbered, Don had ran, and they gave chase. Alarms were placed on every sewer hole for a good three miles. When Mikey called Don's phone is when Don realized.

It was all a trap.

-flashback-

The baby brother gasped, "How many."

Looking around, Don huffed. "At least thirty; maybe thirty-five. Should I stop and give a head count?" Okay, he was being sarcastic, but he was also tired and outnumbered.

There was a moment of silence, and then Leo's voice asked on the other side, "Where are you?"

"They have all the man holes triggered with some sort of alarm system." Don panted as he side jumped back to the rooftops. "It's almost like they expect me to…" Then the realization of the ninjas' plan hit almost leaving Don breathless. Again he cursed himself for being so stupid. They were following him; waiting for him to run home to spring a full attack on his family in their own home! It was a trap. It was all a dirty trap!

Leo sound angered, "That's not what I asked."

"It's a trap, Leo!" Don practically yelled. "They want me to retreat so they'll find out where our lair is. They have an alarm system on every sewer entrance in Manhattan. Oh shell, I should have expected that when they didn't attack me at the junkyard!"

"That's not what I asked, Donatello!" Leo was yelling back. "We'll handle their ambush when that happens. Now where are you so we can find you."

Don said, "No, Leo. Don't you see? That's their contingency! You guys will use one of the man holes to find me. There must be a trigger system throughout the whole sewers. They were just waiting for one of us to leave."

"Then what do you expect us to do, Don." Leo growled, "Leave our brother up with an army of ninja!"

Don just kept running and jumping with the phone still pressed to his ear. Options were few and depleting with each second, and Don was never a spontaneous type of genius. The ninja were drawing closer, and Don's legs burned with too much pain.

"Don! You are not reassuring us here." Leo shouted.

"Sorry. It's just hard to think, run, and talk at the same time."

"We're coming."

"Did we just have the conversation?!" Don roared, "That's what they want, Leo!"

"I won't leave you, okay? Conversation is over! I order you to tell me where you are!" In the background Don could hear Raph yelling curses about locking Don his lab for a week. Mickey and Splinter were nearby but silent.

Hesitating, Don smiled. "I've got an idea."

"You'd better hope it brings you home, Donatello."

"It will."

Leo tensed when a hand rested on his shoulder. Too wrapped up in the memory of that horrible night, Leo had lost sense of the present. Looking up to his red masked brother, Leo tried to smile. He tried to show that this wasn't eating him inside and out.

That night…he thought he lost a brother.

-flashback-

"Leo, you remember reading Socrates' Death with me, right?"

"Wha…"There was a silence, but then Leo realized what Don was saying. "You…Oh no, DONNIE! NO!"

"What's going on?" Raph demanded angrily as he normally was when out of the loop.

"Socrates was offered an escape by his friends, but Socrates answered no. He wished to die for a greater cause, he called it- wisdom." Don felt a tear sliding down his face. "I'll do the same, but my cause will be…for love."

With bounded wrist, Don smacked the pellets to the ground. Seven pellets of smoke caused an almost opaque mist to surround Don.

"RUN!" Don screamed to his brothers. "LEAVE ME! SAVE YOURSELVES!"

"You impudent scum!" The ninja cursed near Don's head.

"DONNIE!"

"Mickey, we have to go!"

"Not without Don!"

"There's no time, Raph! This is what…LET'S GO! NOW!"

Leo breathed in. How those moments shattered his heart. His body had gone into an autopilot mode. He forgot about everything; even his own soul's screams. Blood had frozen in his veins, and hope died in a flash of smoke.

Raph sighed, and sat on the edge of the bed. Leo was sitting on Don's old computer chair. The leader of the group looked so conflicted and angry at something, and he was ignoring the world. He looked down at Don's still face. The blankets over Don's chest moved up and down with the soft, shallow breathing.

Taking Leo's hand in his, Raph looked back down at Don.

He was alive. Raph's breathed in hope because of that one fact. Don was alive. He was not dead. He was home. He was safe and alive. They all where, but in Raph's heart lurked a heart-freezing memory three days ago when they found Don.

Raph grit his teeth at the even mention of the memory. After learning Don wasn't really dead, He, Leo, and Mikey had infiltrated Shredder's tower to rescue their lost brother. They found the prison level of that dark skyscraper. Even Kaira had helped. They found Don's cell, and Raph was the first to see…

-flashback (wow, is that annoying?)-

He was one second from plunging the dagger into his own neck when the door was quickly unlocked. The door was thrust open; blinding light flooded the cell. Don found himself in another shadow.

"Don? Donnie, what are you…" The voice soon turned into completely horror, "DONNIE! NO!"

Don eyes opened. He knew that voice, but this couldn't be right. Raph was dead, and soon he would too. It just had to be his mind; all in his mind. They were dead. All dead. All dead together.

Suddenly the makeshift dagger was ripped from his hands, and crushing arms were holding him. Next to his hear, there was someone familiar and warm crying; holding and rocking him.

"God, Donatello!" Raph blubbered into Don's shoulder. "What the hell where…Oh, Donnie. It's okay. It's okay. We're here."

Don's voice suddenly rang out. "No! No, please. You can't be here. This…this isn't real. You're…Oh God!"

Don had almost killed himself. Before Raph's eyes, his own brother was moments from a suicide attempt. Forever would that picture be framed on the dark side of his heart. It would stand as something never to be forgotten, but how Raph wished to erase the whole damn week together.

Now, Don wasn't reassuring them. He just lied there, like a breathing corpse. Day in and day out, nothing changed in his health. Raph frowned at the unfairness of it all. Now that Don was home and safe, he still wasn't completely here. Sure, he was within reach, but it wasn't enough.

Leo's other hand rested on Raph's hand, forming a pile. Raph looked up with tired eyes to only see Leo looked more tired a worried than anyone. Inside the dim room spoke an unbearable truth.

They could do nothing for him, and it felt like loosing him again.

"Mikey's out of the shower." Raph said listlessly. He tried to smile. "Should we give him back his comics?"

Leo smiled back, "Just until he get's a good night sleep."

"Right." Raph took back his hands. Hallmark moment over. "He won't go to his room for all the pizza in Manhattan."

Don moaned.

The world froze for two point three seconds. Raph and Leo looked to each other in shock expressions. In a flash, they were fully turned to their comatose brother. Raph breathed. He didn't just dream that, right?

Don's mask-less face grimaced, and he defiantly moaned again with a closed mouth. Don's legs were twisting against the confounding blankets. Mikey had piled on the blankets a little too much. Right now, Leo and Raph loomed over Don. Leo's hand rested gently on Don's head while Raph's hand cupped an uncovered shoulder.

Raph grinned. Don was fightin' back! That was the brother he remembered and wanted to remember. The geek of the family, always explain' things that he only understood. That brain that fixed Raph's bike every time with a smile while he listened to Raph's venting about life.

He was fightin' back.

In his other hand was his bo staff that was poised next to him like a walking staff. Looking up to the sky, Don saw the clouds beginning to break, but the stormy clouds were still there. He gripped his staff tighter and took a deep, shaky breath.

"Can you move forward?"

Don clenched his jaw as he heard the voice of that mysterious man dressed in 4th century BC Roman robe. A set of dark, penetrating eyes watched Donatello. The bald man with his long bread reminded Don of someone, but who? It wasn't like Don knew many ancient Roman ghost in his 21st century New York life.

The man was well inside the Cave's darkness. His sandaled feet were in the line between the light outside and the darkness inside. Did he fear the light too.

Don asked the man. "If I do leave The Cave, what will I find?"

"You have already found it." The Roman said clearly. "You only feared it, so you ran into shadows of the Cave."

Don frowned. "Okay, so I was scared." He defensively added, "I've learned my lesson from this allegory." Don looked to the sky. The ravens were coming again, and black lightning broke the blue sky like a crack in the mirror.

The Roman tiled his head, "Tell me, Donatello. Is there something truer than logic and reason?"

Don turned back to him. Then his eyes fell to the stone ground near the Cave wall. Inside his heart, there was the answer, but there was no name for it. Or at least Don didn't know the name.

"Truth is inside all of us." The Roman smiled, "You know the answer. Go and find the answer to this most puzzling question. Have faith, Donatello. There is an answer."

Don eyes opened instantly as the dream ended with the Roman man muttering something about something. Man, did his brain hurt. It was too bright. As soon as he opened his eyes, Don moaned and closed his eyes again.

Okay, now he felt weird. Alive but weird. All his limbs felt like they were made of stone, and his lungs felt like sponges only soaking up oxygen instead of breathing. His mouth was like a desert- dry and hot. Everything was too hot and too bright. Even with his eyes closed.

A tingling feeling creped from his brain to all sensory organs. He was soon smelling and hearing familiar things. The aroma of metal and brick and clean sheets and the muffled sounds of subway trains and sewer rivers. The louder sounds of familiar voices calling his name, and the sensation of being lifted and held.

Something was pressed slowly to his lips. It was a hard, plastic…thing. Before Don could begin thinking what it was, his head was gently tilted back. Still he kept his eyes closed. Still to bright.

Water. It gently ran like a wave to his lips above or in the plastic thing. Wow, did he feel weird, but the haze was lifting. Opening his mouth slowly, Don drank the cool liquid. Chemically cleaned, Don's mind moaned to life. The water was chemically cleaned by a filter Don invented when he was fourteen or something. Clean water from home.

Wait?! Don's eyes snapped open. Home? He was home? He blinked against the sudden brightness of the room. A warm feeling of being watched and held filled his once lonely life. It felt like centuries since Don felt like this. Like he was home.

Like fog disappearing with the mourning sun, Don was brought back into the world of awareness. The haze was finally away from his eyes, and he was focusing on the faces around him. They were all smiling.

His brothers. Completely relieved, Don rolled his head back into the crock of Leo's arm. Raph put the cup of half-emptied water back on the desk, and Mikey held a death grip on Don's hand.

Darn it, Don cursed to himself as he felt exhaustion regain it's hold. Still it didn't feel like he was fainting, passing out. It felt like his body just needed a good sleep. Before closing his eyes, he smiled and looked each brother in the face. God, did he miss them.

"Just rest, Donnie." Leo's voice.

Mikey piped up, "Yeah, when you wake up I'm going to make you all the fluffernutters you can take."

Don tried to laugh, but his throat was so raw and dry. He nearly chocked before Raph gave him a gently dosage of water. Man, did he miss water too. That was Don's last thought before drifting into a peaceful, risk-free sleep.

I will pay all that review virtual flutternutters. They're not as good as the real stuff, but heck what do you expect? I'm poor! LOL! Please review and thanks for reading!

-Weezellee