.

Chapter 22

.

.

Instantly he understood, but it didn't fill him with the relief you'd normally feel after waking from such a nightmare. Instead, Michelangelo was even more terrified, filled with the urge to see his brother with his own eyes.

A dream, just a dream… His mind was racing over the thought; he quietly got out of bed, careful not to disturb the lightly snoring Raphael in the corner chair. Silently, he stole next door to Donatello's room.

Donatello was there, asleep, breathing. Alive. Still in slight disbelief, Michelangelo approached him and placed a hand on his chest.

The most incredible thing happened then. Donatello opened his eyes sleepily and said, "Mikey." Mike's heart leapt in his chest for a second, and then he remembered their first conversation, days before. Probably thinks we're still prisoners.

Donatello continued. "Mikey, I can't believe you're up!" He smiled huge. "You were in a coma, we didn't know if you were going to come out of it." He sat up, wincing. Reaching out his good arm, he hugged his stunned brother.

"Don…? Is it… uh… really you?" Hugging him back, Michelangelo couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"What do you mean?" Donatello said with a slight laugh, "Who else would I be?" He sighed, rubbing his temple. "Memory's hazy… I think I had a little fever." He looked again at Michelangelo, thinking: he shouldn't be up and walking around yet…

"Mikey… how long has it been since we came home?"

"Little over a week." The look on Michelangelo's face said it all. It hadn't been a 'little fever'. "We… we thought you were gonna die, Donnie." He buried his face in Donatello's good shoulder, his tears of relief wetting the sheets, the dream still fresh in his mind.

"Hey… hey Mikey, it's okay… I'm alright now." He gently pushed Michelangelo off and looked at him. "It's all over now, I promise."

Just then, Leonardo walked into the room. Returning to his watch, he nearly dropped the fresh cup of coffee to the floor in amazement. Frozen, he sputtered, "D-Donatello?"

Don smiled. "Hey, Leo."

"Don!" Leo put down the cup sloppily and rushed to his brother, throwing his arms around him.

The commotion woke Raphael in the next room. Groggily, he stumbled in, and soon all three brothers were crowded around the fourth. Reunited at last, their family was finally complete once more.

~.~

~.~

It was months before Donatello and Michelangelo were fully healed enough to return to their training, Donatello having the hardest time between the two of them. While Mike eventually healed up good as new, Don required quite a bit of physical therapy to get his shoulder in working condition again. Slowly his strength returned to him, but he always bore a wicked scar as a reminder.

The mental scars were another obstacle, but Master Splinter spent much time in meditation with each of them, helping to ease their transition back into normal life. Though some things about the experience would always remain with them, to their family it was as if nothing had ever changed; Mike and Don were still the same as they ever were. As Mike regained his strength, he began with his usual antics around the lair, and soon the home was filled with the noise and laughter of Michelangelo's constant pranks once again. The only real noticeable lasting effect on him was the inability to approach him with a needle; much to Donatello's annoyance, he would never again allow his brother to inject him, no matter the consequences.

Donatello however, had become slightly depressed following his initial recovery. He expressed a fear that his mind may have been altered with the shock treatments; it seemed to him that he was having more trouble formulating thoughts, that his brain felt somewhat fuzzy. But as time would tell, his paranoia proved unwarranted. Soon he was up and going strong again, fixing and installing things around the lair, working on his gadgets and coming up with new ideas just like he ever did. And if he seemed a bit more absent-minded at times, it was impossible for his brothers to tell, as he'd always been that way anyways. On an ordinary day he would spend half the time in his own world, talking about things they didn't understand, so if he was a little more detached it certainly wasn't noticeable to anyone else.

Leonardo breathed deep. The sounds of the city came up from below, as he and his brothers perched on the rooftop. It had been about six months now, and with his master's permission, he had led them topside for training. It was the first outing together as a full group since the attack and he had been skeptical that Donatello was indeed healed enough to return to their rooftop training exercises. After all that had happened, they needed to be ready for anything, and thinking that Don (and even Mike) weren't at peak performance up here worried him.

Still, his master had felt confident enough in their skills to allow it, and so Leonardo had to honor that. He looked over at the two of them, sitting on the edge of the roof and talking. Mike had been out a few times with him and Raphael, but this was Donatello's first trip out, so Leo had decided to let them goof around a bit before training began. After so many months cooped up in the dank lair, he guessed it was good for Don to get some fresh air.

Raphael felt impatient, but quelled it. He was eager to get going, his muscles bored with inactivity, but knew that Leo was just giving Donnie a little time to adjust to his surroundings. Don and Mike were sitting together, talking and laughing. It made him feel good. Was a time I thought I'd neva' see 'em like this again, he thought. Since their ordeal, Mike and Don had formed a closer bond. It was a good thing, he supposed, but knowing why also made him feel a little sad.

~.~

~.~

"So THEN – I was all like, 'Noooooooo!' …but then I remembered that I just saved my game, so it was cool. Raph soooooo though he got me, but I didn't lose anything, really. But he didn't know that." Michelangelo gestured wildly, telling the story in his normal overly-animated fashion. "So later I loaded up his character and emptied the inventory," he said, laughing, "I only left two balls."

"Two balls?" Donatello groaned, but laughed in spite of himself.

"Yeah, they're like pool balls, right? I just left two of them in there, and hid everything else in a cabinet – all his guns, ammo, whatever… I even took his dude's clothes all off and everything. So he's like, running around naked with only these two balls in his inventory." Mike was cracking up, trying in vain to keep his laughter down as he went on, "So he turns it on and starts freaking out, thinking it's a glitch at first… I go, 'what's wrong?' and he says, 'all my shit's gone.' I say, 'everything?" Michelangelo was struggling to finish. "And he goes, 'all I gots is my balls." Mike was losing it now.

Donatello joined in the laughter. "Oh, Mikey." He had to admit, it was pretty funny whenever Raphael fell victim to one of Mike's ridiculous practical jokes.

When the laughter died down, Donatello said, "Hey, that reminds me, I always meant to ask you something."

"What's that?"

"You remember that day, when Leo and Raph were fighting in the kitchen, and you left that whoopee cushion on Raph's chair?"

"Ha! How could I forget." Mike smiled, sighing with satisfaction. "That was a good one."

"Well, I was thinking about it afterwards, and something didn't make sense to me." Don looked puzzled.

"Yeah?"

"How did you ever inflate it without any of us noticing?"

Michelangelo brightened, suddenly looking very proud of himself. "Oh! I planted that little gem a few days before – it was taped to the bottom of the table. Hey, you never know when something like that's gonna come in handy!"

"Wow." Donatello was giggling a little. "I'll bet you were just waiting to break out that one." He rolled his eyes.

"Duuuude, you have no idea. It was driving me crazy waiting for the perfect moment to use it. But it was soooo perfect! Did you see Raph's face? Oh man, so good." He sighed happily again.

Mmmm… gotta remember to watch my step around the lair, Donatello thought, who knows how many more of Mike's 'traps' are set up around the place. Donatello stretched. Sure feels good to get out here, he thought. Being out of the lair made him feel more alive. He breathed in slowly. Something had been on his mind a lot lately, and it came again to him now.

"Mikey." Lowering his voice, Don sounded serious now, a sharp contrast to the previous moment's laughter.

"What's the matter, Donnie?"

He just came out with it. "I think Leo and Raph both… I think they blame themselves for what happened to us."

Mike cocked his head to one side. "I don't understand. Why would they do that? They're the ones that came and rescued us."

"Well… it's complicated. You know Leo always feels responsible for the safety of us all, so when something goes wrong, he feels guilty regardless of his involvement in the matter." He went on. "And Raphael, well… if you remember, he stormed off after that argument with Leo and that led to our fight with the Foot. So it's not hard to understand why he feels bad."

"Yeah, but the Foot were waiting, Leo said. They ambushed him, it wasn't Raph's fault."

"Well… you and I know that, but that's not how Raph thinks. Try to imagine what you'd feel like in his place." Donatello looked down. "You know, I know it sounds a little crazy… but in spite of everything that happened in there, I'm almost glad to have been where we were, instead of in their shoes. I just can't imagine what they must have been going through, all the time we were missing… not to mention the scare we put them through after we came home."

"Yeeeeaaah. I understand now." Mike was serious. Suddenly, like flipping a switch, he brightened. "Well – we're just gonna haveta snap 'em out of it!" He stood up, turning in the direction of his older brothers.

"Mikey wait - !" Donatello started, but it was too late. Michelangelo was already yelling to the other two turtles.

"Hey you guys!" He waved at them. Raphael and Leonardo started over.

When the two older turtles approached, Mike said, "Hey, so uh, Donnie and I were talkin'," he said, looking over at Don and back again, "and we just wanna say we're sorry for dragging you guys into all that stuff. We're gonna train even harder now, so um, this sorta thing won't happen again. So you guys don't haveta feel bad about it, or anything." He gave them his usual big stupid grin.

Donatello rolled his eyes. Well, THAT wasn't awkward at all… "Uh, I think what Mikey's trying to say is… we're sorry we worried you guys so much. We've vowed never to let our guards down again."

Leonardo was serious, his face looking somewhat troubled. "You both fought to the best of your abilities. What happened wasn't either of your faults -"

"It's mine." Raphael said, cutting him off. "It's my dumb ass that got us into the whole mess. I can neva' make up for it." He looked away, ashamed.

"Raph." Leo did not look at him. Instead he cast his eyes downward. "This isn't your burden to bear."

"Nor is it yours." Donatello interjected, taking a step forward. "Listen, both of you – Michelangelo and I cannot even fathom holding either of you responsible for what happened. You rescued us from hell and for that… we will forever be grateful."

"Yeah, dude, no doubt. You guys took on the whole Foot Clan – all those guys, plus Karai, and Shredder… just by yourselves! That's awesome!" Mike grinned even wider.

Leo smiled a bit. "Well… I guess Raph and I do make a pretty formidable team, when we set our minds to it." His eyes met Raphael's. Raph looked away quickly, standing still with his arms crossed and looked deep in thought. Leo continued. "You guys are right, I suppose. There's no sense in beating ourselves up about it now. That said, I would like to discuss some of the mistakes we all made that night though, um, if you guys feel up to it, that is?" He looked a little uncomfortable at the end of his sentence, unwilling to stir up any painful memories for them.

Don thought for a second. "Well, our tactics certainly need an overhaul. I think, Leo, that going in the way we did was executed perfectly, but they already had the upper hand on us before the fight even began. If only there was something that could've alerted us to their presence in the area…" He trailed off in his old familiar way, brain buzzing with the thoughts of invention.

"To be honest, I really should've smelled ambush," Leonardo said. "It was so obvious afterwards… Raph even told me so at the time, but in my overconfidence, I didn't take it seriously enough." His tone dropped, "But that's never going to happen again."

"Well, I'll tell ya one thing," Mike chimed in, "next time Raph calls, I'm just gonna go back to sleep."

"Mikey, be serious for a second -" Donatello sighed, beginning to scold his brother, but he was cut off.

"Stop it."

They all looked at Raphael. The words were firm, serious. After a pause, Leonardo said, "Raph?"

"Stop it." He repeated.

He turned away from them, unable to look at them. "Jus' stop talkin'." He paused, and then went on, "There was only one mistake made that night, an' it was mine. Leo's always gettin' at me for going out on my own, always sayin' I'm puttin' the whole family in danger." His voice was escalating. Suddenly he whipped around and faced Leonardo, startling them all. "Well, YOU WERE RIGHT! YOU WERE RIGHT, LEO! I chased after that FUCKING Foot soldier, I got myself in trouble, I led us all right into a trap! An' look what happened…"

He shook his head, lowering it. "I didn't even get the asshole in the end. That bastard did what he did, and got away with it. The Shredder is still out there, alive… GLOATING! …rrrRRRAAAHHHHH!" Grabbing one sai, he tore it across a nearby air conditioning vent, ripping the metal open.

There was a hand on his shoulder. It was Mike.

"Dude, relax." For as intense and furious as Raphael looked, Michelangelo was just the opposite – calm, easy, reassuring. "No way is this all your fault. You heard what Leo said, the Foot were trailin' you forever… so it would've happened to one of us sooner or later. You know we all go out alone sometimes, even though we're not supposed to. I mean, they probably would've got Don at some point for sure." He shot a look over at Donatello as he said it and the brainy turtle looked back a bit sheepishly. It was true, they all knew Don snuck out to the junkyard on his own pretty often, against their master's wishes. If he was in the middle of building something and was missing a part though, you couldn't stop him from going.

"And," Mike continued, "Leo said you kicked the Shredder's ass twice. That's awesome."

Donatello came up beside Mike. "What Mikey said was, uh, well – actually a good point." He looked surprised at himself for saying so. "It's obvious now that the Foot had been planning such an attack for a while, it really could have been any one of us. That's why I think I need to devise some kind of early detection system… something that will allow us to pick up on them sooner."

It was Leonardo's turn. "Look. You did disobey orders, that's true. But while it may have been a component in the events leading up to what happened, it was by no means the cause." Raphael looked hard at his older brother, as he went on. "Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you can join us in regaining our family's honor."

"Agreed. You can be sure that I would like to reciprocate some of their 'hospitality'." Donatello had never sounded so, well, badass. A shadow passed over his face, as he thought back to that moment again, seeing Michelangelo as he had been in captivity. "I believe I will rather enjoy dishing out a little pain of my own."

"For sure." Mike was twirling a nunchaku menacingly. "I wouldn't mind takin' a crack at ol' Shredder myself." Grinning maniacally, he glanced down at the scar on his chest briefly. "Figure I owe him one."

"What I think that we've all learned from this," Leo continued, "is not to underestimate them. The Foot are way more capable than we ever imagined, and now Saki is back in the picture as well."

Four brothers. All standing tall, facing each other under the moonlight of New York City, the noise and bustle of traffic oblivious to them below. Leo looked around at all of them. Michelangelo, smiling but determined. Donatello, reserved and ready. And Raphael… Raphael still looking uneasy.

Leo spoke again. "We will wage war on the Foot, and they will fall. But in order to do that, we must remain together, we must remain a team. We falter when one cog is loose." He steadied his gaze on Raphael. "And we cannot falter. The fate of our clan, our family and friends… even the city is at stake."

Leo's features softened. "Raphael."

Raphael looked at him steady, unflinching. "Raphael, we know it was never your intention for any of this to happen. But no one knows better than I do, what you sacrificed to make it right." Leo reached out and placed a hand on Raphael's shoulder. "Raphael, we still need you to make this right. We can't defeat them without you."

Raphael sighed and closed his eyes, dropping his head. When he raised it again, he saw his three brothers, all looking at him. They each had the same fire in their eyes. C'mon Raph, the eyes said, no worries… let's just go get 'em.

Raphael looked at Leo and spoke. "Yer right. I ain't gonna rest until those bastards get what's comin' to 'em." He raised one arm, firmly grasping Leo's outstretched arm. Averting his eyes downwards and lowering his voice, he said solemnly, "Thanks, big brotha'."

Leo smiled. Looking around at them all, he said, "I think it's time we got to training now, don't you think?" Looking at Mike and Don, a sadistic smile crept over the corner of Leo's mouth. "We've got to whip you two into shape, after all."

Mike groaned loudly. He'd almost forgotten how strict Leo's training regimen could be. "Oh man, I knew I should'a milked this thing a little longer." Still grumbling, he fell into formation with the others.

Leo ordered the two younger brothers to take the lead. As he and Raphael took positions at the rear, he turned once more to his brother. He spoke low, so that the others wouldn't hear. "Raph… you sure you're going to be okay?"

Raphael just grunted in response. Well, guess he back to his old self, then, Leonardo thought, rolling his eyes. But then Raphael spoke.

"Yeah, I'm a'right. But thanks for the pep talk anyways. Guess you ain't such a bad leada' after all."

Leonardo smirked. "Whoa, was that a compliment? Wait a minute, I need to be recording this."

Now Raphael was smiling too. "Huh. Jus' don't get used to it." They both laughed a little at that. The sound of their laughter carried forward, and Mike and Don stole a quick look at each other, both smiling at the sound.

As they leapt gracefully over the rooftops, all four moved as a single entity. Four individuals, one purpose. At long last they were complete, their bond only strengthened now more than ever. When next they fought their most feared enemy, they could only succeed; come one hundred Foot, come one thousand, they would be ready this time.

Bound by the ties of both warrior and brother, the four of them moved as ninja, stealing through the city unnoticed. A secret war raged on behind the shadows of this motion-filled city, yet they remained ever vigilant. Together, they fought. Together, they lived.

Together, they stood proud.

.

.

-End-

.

.

.