Raphael saw the burning beam above his brothers, Donnie and Mikey, he saw the beam come lose, and with no time to think about options and consequences, he ran as fast as possible towards them, and pushed them as hard as he could out the window, in the moment he pushed them, his eyes meet Mikey's, and Raph said sadly ``I'm sorry'' while Donnie went front first out through the window. While falling from the window, Mikey saw the burning beam fall down onto Raph and pin him to the floor.
No matter how much Raph tried to get free from the beam, it was no use when he was all alone. Suddenly he heard Mikey scream his name, it made his heart sink, then he heard the floor around him give in, and he fell down and got pinned down by burning beams and crates. Raph could feel the pain of being burned, but he couldn't move away from the fire, and before he could scream out in pain, the whole building exploded and he lost consciousness.
Once outside the building, Donnie saw the horror all over Mikey's face, he was about to ask why, when Leo came running over to them from the side of the building, Leo tried to get them up on their feet, so they could run away, because the fire department was getting close along with the police and news people, but Mikey wouldn't move with them, and before they could say anything to him, he screamed ``RAPH!'' and for a moment they all looked at the burning building, but they couldn't see Raph anywhere, then they saw the building collapse, and this time Leo took the leader role seriously and pulled them both after him, he pulled them away from the building and up to the roof of a nearby building, once up there they went to the edge of the roof and saw the burning building explode, right the moment the fire department arrived.
Being in complete shock, all they could do was watch, while hoping to see Raph come out of the building, but he never did. They stayed and watched for Raph all until the fire was out, but then they heard the firefighters come and tell the police, that there was nobody in the building.
With a heavy heart Leonardo took his brothers and pulled them all the way home.
Once at home their father came over to them and asked worried ``where is Raphael?'' he saw the sorrow on their faces right before they broke down crying, Leo tried to stay calm enough to explain it to his father, but he was failing to do so, Splinter's face became full of sorrow, but he managed to take his sons into the dojo and put down the futons for them to sit on, then he just held them as they all cried themselves to sleep.
Raph woke up when he couldn't hold his breath anymore, he opened his eyes as much as he could, and he saw nothing but darkness, he could feel that he was being pulled by a current, he tried to get up to the surface, but his entire body was in serious pain, still he tried and he made it up and out of the water. Raph looked around confused, he didn't recognize anything, but he needed to know where he was, then something in him told him to walk a certain way, trusting the feeling he started to walk that way, with the limited strength that he had.
He made it all the way to a hidden door, slowly he opened it and walked in, before he could make it to the stairs, he collapsed from exhaustion and when he hit the floor, he screamed as loud as possible before he passed out.
April and Casey were cleaning up the store, when they suddenly heard a scream come from the basement, they looked at each other with surprise, before they went toward the basement. They walked down the stairs slowly, then the smell of burnt flesh hit them, and then they saw the source of the smell. If it wasn't for what was left of the red bandana, they wouldn't have been able to tell that it was Raphael, they came over to him and tried hard to breathe through their mouths, in order to avoid throwing up.
``I'll call Donnie'' Casey said while taking out his shellcell, he called Donnie, but got no answer then he tried Leo and again got no answer, he tried Mikey and Splinter too, but got no answer, they looked worried at each other, because they didn't know what to do or if Raph was the last one alive. They were about to take Raph up the stairs, when they suddenly heard the stores front door bell ring.
Casey stayed with Raph, while April went up into the store to get rid of the customer, but when she came into the store, she saw nobody, then she heard a noise come from behind one of the stances at the window, slowly she looked and saw Usagi hiding, ``Usagi?'' she asked surprised, he looked up at her surprised and relief came over him, ``April, I am glad to see you, some people were chasing me, after I got here'' Usagi said calmly.
``We got a problem too, that maybe you can help us with?'' April said while walking over to the door and locked it and turned the sign to closed, ``what kind of problem?'' Usagi asked, ``it will be easier to show you'' she answered sadly, ``come'' she said while walking toward the basement door, Usagi got up and followed her down into the basement, as soon as he saw the burnt body, ``who is that?'' Usagi asked concerned, ``it's Raph'' Casey answered sadly, ``what about the others?'' Usagi asked with a little panic, ``we don't know'' April answered sadly, ``we need you to take him somewhere safe, where he can heal. We would take him to the farm, but we don't know the situation, so we don't know where is safe right now, at least not in this world'' April explained, ``I know somewhere safe and where he can get some healing help'' Usagi said calmly.
Usagi went over to one wall and started drawing the door for the battle nexus world, while drawing Usagi calmly said ``while I take care of Raphael, I will need the two of you to find the rest, and tell them that Raphael is with the Daimyo, both Leonardo and Splinter knows how to get there'' ``we can do that'' Casey said with a worried smile, ``good'' Usagi answered with a small smile, before starting the chant to open the door, and as soon as the door was open, he came over and took Raph up onto his back, and carried him through the door, then the door closed behind them and disappeared.
April and Casey closed up the store, before going to the lair, once there they made sure that the coast was clear, before they went in. When they were inside the lair, they started to call for them while looking around, but got no answer, then April found them in the dojo, ``here!'' April called before going into the dojo, she started to shake them while calling their names, then Casey came and did the same until they all were awake.
``Hey, ya guys need ta get ta the battle nexus world, Usagi is waiting for ya'' Casey told them with concern, ``why?'' Leo asked confused, ``we lost Raphael today, therefor we are not going anywhere'' Splinter said sadly, ``no, you haven't lost him, Usagi took him to the Daimyo to get some healing help'' April told them calmly, ``what?'' they said surprised while looking at her with big eyes, ``it's true'' Casey said smiling, ``Raph came into our basement all burnt up and passed out, then Usagi came into the store, and because we didn't know what was going on or where is safe, we got Usagi to take Raph to the Daimyo to get a safe place to heal'' April told them calmly.
Splinter got up and went to one wall in the dojo, and started to draw the door to the battle nexus world, while everyone said ^thank you^ to April and Casey, ``the door is open'' Splinter told them, then they all went through the door, while April and Casey watched them leave.
Once on the other side of the door, Usagi carried Raph to the palace and was led inside by the guards to the Daimyo, ``great Daimyo'' Usagi called, ``Usagi, wait, what is that you are carrying?'' the Daimyo asked confused, ``it's Raphael, Splinter's son. He needs healing help'' Usagi explained, ``alright, call the healers now'' the Daimyo said to his guard, the guard answered with a bow before he disappeared, ``I'll show you to the east guest room. Come'' the Daimyo said while walking over to Usagi, he used his magic to lift Raphael off of Usagi's back, and together they walked to the east guest room, once inside the room the Daimyo gently laid Raphael down on his plastron, then the healers came into the room, they bowed to the Daimyo before going over to Raphael.
With the healers sitting around Raphael and using their magic to heal him, Usagi decided to take a bath and get his clothes cleaned, when he was all cleaned up, he came back into the room again, and sat down next to the Daimyo, and started to watch the healers work, Usagi saw that almost all of them had left, but there were still two working on Raphael, ``why did they leave?'' Usagi asked the Daimyo, ``they couldn't take any more of the smell'' the Daimyo answered calmly. The two healers that were left, were a man and a woman, the man left while holding his mouth trying not to throw up in the room, but the woman kept on breathing calmly through her mouth. Since she was alone now, she moved to the middle of Raphael's right side, and placed both hands above his shell and started again.
There was a knock on the door and the Daimyo calmly said ``come in'' and in came Splinter with his sons, ``Raph!'' they called while running over to him as soon as they saw him, Splinter went over to the Daimyo and Usagi and bowed while saying ``please forgive them, they are very worried about him, we all are'' ``that is alright, my friend, I understand'' the Daimyo said calmly, Splinter looked at Usagi and gave him a bow ``thank you for bringing Raphael here'' Splinter said with respect, ``it was not a problem'' Usagi said with a bow. ``Don't touch him, the healer is not done yet'' the Daimyo said loudly, the brothers stopped themselves from touching Raph, and just looked at him instead.
``Raph please come back to us'' Donnie said sadly, ``he will Donnie, Raph is a fighter'' Leo said while trying to sound reassuring, Donnie smiled sadly at him before looking back down at Raph, while Mikey stayed at Raph's head and begged him to come back to them. The Daimyo, Usagi and Splinter sat there in silence watching the healer work on Raph, while the brothers sat by Raph's side watching him heal faster than normal.
When it became time for dinner, ``I have to go eat dinner with my son now, but I will come and see to you tomorrow. I will have someone bring you something to eat'' the Daimyo said while getting up, ``we will see you tomorrow my friend, and thank you'' Splinter said calmly with a smile, Splinter and Usagi gave a bow to him before he left.
The food came, but only Splinter and Usagi ate some of it, because the brothers couldn't eat and the healer was to focused on what she was doing to even be hungry. All of them stayed up watching Raph heal and tried to wait with patience, and for the first time ever, Mikey didn't say a word and he was sitting still.
In the middle of the night the healer stopped, ``why did you stop?'' Leo asked confused, ``his shell still needs healing, it looks paper thin'' Donnie said concerned, ``I am sorry, but his body told me that there is nothing left to heal'' she answered calmly, Splinter interrupted them by saying ``thank you miss for everything, you may leave now'' ``thank you, sir'' she answered with a bow, she got up and walked to the door, where she turned and calmly said ``my sleeping magic will wear off, and he will wake up in about an hour or two'' ``thank you'' Splinter said with a smile, then she bowed and turned around and walked out the door and closed it behind her.
Splinter got up and went over to his sons and sat down to Mikey's left, they all sat there waiting for Raph to wake up. Almost two hours later Raph finally woke up, he carefully opened his eyes, ``ngh...wh...where am I?'' Raph asked with a coarse voice, ``you are safe, my son'' Splinter answered smiling, ``Raph?'' Mikey asked nervously, ``ngh'' Raph answered slowly before passing out again.
That night everyone went to bed around Raphael.
The next morning Raph woke up, and saw that around him there were three turtle men sleeping, then he saw a rat man dressed in red-brown and a white bunny man dressed in blue and black, they were calmly eating at a table, Raph looked around confused, he didn't recognize anything about the place, nor did he recognize anyone in the room. The rat man noticed him and he got up and started calmly walking over to him, not knowing what was going on or if he even was safe, Raph panicked and got up and ran to the window before jumping out through it, he heard the rat man yell a weird word ``Raphael!''
He made it down to the ground without any injuries, Raph looked surprised at his hands and feet, then he heard the word again and he got scared that they were going to come after him, therefor he started running away from them. He didn't know where he was or where he was running to, but he knew he had to find a safe place to hide, knowing that they were probably going to find him if he stopped somewhere close by, he kept on running until he couldn't anymore, but he didn't want to stop now, suddenly he smelled something pleasant and familiar, and he went toward the scent, he stopped when he got to a huge lake.
At the lake he looked at himself in the water, and saw that he looked like the other three, he had seen lying beside him in that room, but his plastron and shell looked different, they looked burnt and that scared him, because the rest of him didn't look burnt, then a sound behind him got his attention at once, scared he jumped up into a tree and tried to see what made the sound, then he saw an animal walking with two smaller versions of itself, not knowing if the animals were going to eat him or not, he waited for them to leave, before slowly getting down from the tree and going into the water slowly, then he started to swim out a bit before diving.
Once under water he felt a clam spread in him, after a little time he noticed that the burnt part of his plastron was starting to come off, and under it was a new plastron, he managed to pull the burnt part off completely in one piece, then he checked his shell and found that it was doing the same thing, once he had gotten both parts off, he let them fall deeper down into the water.
Swimming around feeling happy and free, he found an underwater cave, wanting to rest a safe place, he went in and followed the natural tunnel until he reached a chamber above the water, slowly he checked if the place was safe, and when he had confirmed that it was, he got out of the water slowly. Tired he went over behind a huge rock, and laid down before falling asleep fast.
The next morning, he woke up in a panic and looked around franticly, but then he saw that nothing had changed, relieved he sat back down and tried to remember who he was, but no matter how hard he tried nothing came to him, he wanted to go home, but didn't remember where that was. Thinking about the weird word he heard the rat man yell, he tried to understand what that word meant, ``Raphael, Raphael'' he said to himself, but it still made no sense to him, *could it be my name? no, it doesn't sound right...maybe it's a different language, but I don't know another language...do I?...what does it mean?...where am I? why can't I remember anything? who can I trust? Do I have any family? WHAT IS GOING ON!?* he thought panicking.
After calming down, he noticed that he was hungry and decided to find some food, but he knew that he had to be careful not to get caught, since he didn't know who to trust. He walked around in the cave and found a dry way out through another tunnel, inside the dry tunnel he found a weird looking skeleton, that had a sword and a dagger, he took the sword and swung it around, and realized that he knew how to handle a sword, therefor he decided to take both since they were still useable, and he needed them.
Slowly he went out of the cave and carefully looked around to see if the coast was clear, before moving to the next place, when he was sure that the place was safe, he started to gather dry wood to burn, when he had enough wood, he made his way back to the cave, carefully.
Once back in the deep part of the cave, he put the wood and sword down behind the huge rock where he had slept, before going into the water with only the dagger, he swam out of the tunnel while watching out for trouble. Taking his time with swimming slowly, he managed to get close to some fish, then he stabbed one of them with the dagger, and got a solid hold of the fish, then he swam back to the cave. Once back there he checked if it was still safe, then he got out of the water and cleaned the fish, before making a fire to cook the fish, but when he saw the fire, he suddenly remembered being inside a burning place and seeing two people just like him, but they didn't seem to see him.
Raph woke up with a shock and franticly looked around while breathing rapidly, but when he saw that he was alone and safe, he stopped panicking and tried to calm his breathing down. He saw that the fire had died, he checked the fish and found it still good to eat, still being hungry he nervously started the fire again and when nothing happened, he calmed down a little more, then he started cooking the fish over the open fire.
While eating the fish, he started to think about the others, that he had seen back there, in that room where he woke up, while he was thinking about them, he noticed that he felt angry toward the one in orange, and the one in blue he felt nothing but frustration and sorrow, but when he thought of the one in purple, he felt a mix of love and sorrow, when he thought about the rat man, he felt love, sorrow and anger, and when he thought about the bunny man, he felt anger and pain, all of this told him that he somehow knew all of them, but it still didn't tell him if he could trust any of them.
After a few days of being alone and with no new memories, he decided to try and find the purple one, and try and see if he could get that one alone, but he somehow knew that it was going to be difficult, therefor he was determent to get that one alone. He took the sword and dagger before leaving the cave to look for the purple one.
Being careful all the way and avoiding other people, until he suddenly caught the smell of smoke, and looked above the trees and saw that it was coming from somewhere nearby, slowly and silently he went toward the source of the smoke, when he made it to the edge of a small clearing he stopped, still in hiding, his eyes became wide with surprise, the one he was looking for was right there, then he heard a sound and the purple one took a thing out and answered it, ``still no sign of him. I'm taking a small break before moving on. Talk to you later, Leo'' the purple one said, the name ?Leo? made Raph feel pain.
Slowly and silently, he snuck up on the purple one from behind, and managed to knock him out with one strike, afterwards he became afraid that someone close by might have heard him, therefor he hurried up and tied the purple one's hands and feet, before placing the long stick with purple on it, in between the arms and legs of the purple one, which made it easier to carry him.
Once back in the cave, he carefully put the purple one down and removed the long stick, while placing the long stick with his sword behind the huge rock, *better make sure he can't get any of them* he thought with a small smile, when he turned around, he saw the purple one was still out, therefor he decided to get some food, water and firewood before the purple one would wake up.
When he came back with everything, he saw the purple one had woken up, the purple one looked happy to see him, but he just gave him a confused look, before going over to make a fire. He started the fire while the purple one was just looking at him smiling and somehow, he felt happy about it, but he also felt a need to protect the purple one.
Feeling uncomfortable Raph tried to focus on making the food for them to eat, and while it was cooking, he looked at the purple one and calmly asked ``what is your name?'' ``Donatello, but only my father calls me that, others call me Donnie or Don'' Donnie answered calmly, ``do we know each other?'' he asked slowly, ``yes, we are family, we grew up together'' Donnie said smiling, ``what is my name?'' he asked nervously about the answer, ``your name is Raphael, Raph for short, but Mikey calls you Raphie'' Donnie answered still smiling, ``Raphael...Raph...Raphie...it doesn't sound right'' Raph said shaking his head, ``well, what do you think your name is?'' Donnie asked curiously, ``my name is Aka Itami'' he answered calmly, ``that is Japanese and means `red pain', which is properly the last thing you remember. You really have lost your memories'' Donnie said sadly before crying, seeing him cry brought a pain to his heart, Raph didn't know what to do, therefor in a panic he took Donnie's head in his hands, and with a little too much force gave him a kiss on the mouth.
When he broke the kiss, he saw the look of surprise on Donnie's face, unsure of what to do and feeling awkward, he let go of Donnie's head and moved over to the fire, and pretended to check if the fish was ready, neither of them said anything, then he realized that the fish was ready, he took one and gave it to Donnie who took it without a word, then he went over and took the other fish, and sat down and started to eat it without looking at Donnie, both of them ate in silence without looking at each other.
``Why did you kiss me?'' Donnie asked calmly after they had eaten, ``because I wanted you to stop crying, apparently it hurts me to see you cry, and because I have been in love with you for some time, probably for some years...I think'' Raph answered sadly, Donnie looked at him surprised and sad, but didn't say a word, they were silent for a while, then Raph broke the silence ``do you love me back?'' Raph turned and looked Donnie in the eyes waiting for his answer, ``yes, I do love you, I have for the past year'' Donnie told him with a sweet smile, Raph came over to him and kneeled down next to him, and gently gave him another kiss, then he gently pushed Donnie down onto his shell while still kissing, Raph started to move the kisses to the corner of Donnie's mouth, then down the jaw and down the neck, he heard Donnie moan and churr which made him happy.
Raph woke up the next morning and saw that Donnie was still lying there in his arms, seeing that he was still there made him happy, ``mmmmorning'' Donnie churred while looking up at him, ``morning'' he said with a lovingly smile, Donnie nuzzled his face up under Raph's jaw, which made Raph churr out of reflex, the responds made Donnie chuckled lightly.
``I need you to come with me today, so we can go and get your memories back'' Donnie said gently while looking up at him softly, ``will you stay with me?'' Raph asked nervously, ``for as long as you need me'' Donnie answered with a sweet smile before kissing him gently.
Raph untied Donnie carefully, ``sorry, if I hurt you with the ropes'' Raph said worried, ``it feels like you didn't, but thank you, Raph'' Donnie answered with a smile, ``it still sounds wrong that name'' he responded, ``I know, but once you get your memories back, then it won't be wrong or weird any more, you'll see'' Donnie said reassuringly, ``thank you, Donnie'' he said with a small crocket smile.
While walking toward the city together, ``so what are the names of the others in that room, where I woke up?'' Raph asked curiously, ``the turtle in blue is Leonardo, Leo for short, he is the oldest and our leader. The turtle in orange is Michelangelo, Mikey for short, he is the youngest and the family jokester. The rat man is our father and sensei, Splinter. The bunny man is Usagi, he is a family friend. The Daimyo with the golden mask, he is the ruler of this world and we are staying in his home, and it was his people that healed your physical injuries'' Donnie explained calmly.
Not sure of what else to talk about, they walked in silence until they reached the palace, they went in and Raph followed Donnie through the building, until they came to a door, Donnie turned and looked him in the eyes ``ready? Remember I will be by your side the whole way'' Donnie said reassuringly with a smile, Raph nodded and held Donnie's hand firmly.
They walked into the room and found everyone there waiting for them, Donnie closed the door behind them, before walking over to the lady with Raph, the lady had light blue skin, black hair and green eyes, she was thin and beautiful except for the scar under her left eye, ``please sit down here'' the lady said while gesturing to the pillow in front of her, Raph did as told and Donnie sat down right beside him as promised, ``will it hurt?'' he asked nervously, ``only if you fight it'' the lady replied with a reassuring smile.
The lady held her hands on both sides of his head and closed her eyes, ``take a deep breath and close your eyes and try and relax'' the lady said calmly, Raph did as told while still holding Donnie's hand.
**************
Lights were dancing all around him, all in different colors, the lights came together in front of him, an orange light came through in the middle, nervous, he just stood there, when suddenly ``you need to go through it if you want your memories back'' the lady said right beside him, ``I don't know if I can'' he said nervously, ``everything has already happened, even the pain. There is nothing to do, but watch it happen again. I know that can be hard to do, but you have to. If you don't do it here with me, then it will just take longer for everything to come back, and that will hurt more, than if you get it over with now. Trust me, I know what I am talking about'' the lady said with confidence, she took his hand firmly ``come, I am here to help you, no matter how painful this will get'' she said reassuringly, he took a deep breath ``okay, let's do this'' he said determent.
Walking together through the light, the strong smell of smoke and burning wood filled up his nose. He looked around, he was inside a burning building, looking past the flames, he saw Donnie and Mikey, but they did not see him, with a bad feeling spreading in him fast, he froze in place unable to move, ``what do I do now?'' he asked confused, ``look around, what do you see?'' she asked calmly.
Looking around he saw a beam above his brothers come loose, ``NO! DONNIE! MIKEY! RUN!'' he screamed at them, but they did not hear him and the beam fell down, then the whole scene froze and then started over again, ``what? What just happened?'' he asked confused, ``that is not what happened. You need to do the same as last time, then you will understand why you did that'' she answered calmly.
The scene started again and this time he tried to stop the beam from falling, but then the scene froze and he was back on the other side of the room, ``you are fighting it'' she said firmly, ``grrr'' he answered angrily, ``stop fighting it, and do what you did last time, you are fighting it, because you are afraid of the pain'' she answered firmly with a stern look, ``fine'' he snapped at her.
The scene started and this time he ran to them and pushed them out through the window, when his eyes meet Mikey's, all he could think to say was ``sorry'' since he knew the beam was going to fall on top of him, and sure enough the beam fell onto him. He felt sorry, but happy at the same time, sorry that this was how his life would end, and sorry that they had to live with it, but happy that he managed to save both Donnie and Mikey.
``RAPH!'' he heard Mikey scream, sad that he would never hear his name being called again, his heart sank in his chest. The floor around him gave in and he fell down, the pain felt so real, but he could not move away, he was stuck. Suddenly he was worried about Leo, *where was he? Was he safe?* he thought worried, then the whole place exploded and everything went dark.
Floating in the dark nothingness, he saw the lady in front of him again, ``do you remember now?'' she asked calmly, Raph thought it over for a moment, ``yes, thank you'' he answered with a smile and a bow, ``good, then let us return to the real world'' she said with a smile.
He opened his eyes and smiled at the lady, ``thank you'' he said happily, she smiled back at him, gave a bow to him and got up, then she gave a bow to the Daimyo before leaving the room.
``You really back, Raphie?'' Mikey asked nervously, he looked at him and smiled big and said ``yes, Mikey, I'm back'' ``yay!'' ``finally'' ``good'' ``I'm glad you are back, Raph'' Donnie said with a sweet smile, ``me too Donnie'' he answered with a crocket smile.
Raph gave the sword and dagger that he found to the Daimyo, and told him where he had found them, the Daimyo had said ``thank you'' and took care of it from there. He remembered to say ``thank you'' to Usagi for bringing him there. Lunch came and they all ate together, before going home to each their world.
When they arrived at home, April and Casey were waiting for them, they were happy to see Raph was safe and all healed up.
Later that day, Donnie came over to Raph and said ``I think we need to talk to them, especially dad, about us'' ``alright Donnie'' he answered with a smile, they walked hand in hand into the living room where everyone was sitting and talking, ``attention please'' Donnie said loudly, ``we have something we need to talk to all of you about, Raph?'' Donnie said calmly ``right...erm...the thing is Donnie and I are in love with each other, and would like to be a pair, but we want to know what you guys think first'' Raph said nervously, ``dad?'' Donnie asked nervously.
Splinter looked at them both seriously, ``hmm...I knew this day would come, but to be honest, I thought it would be all four of you together, and not two pairs'' Splinter said calmly, ``well, we didn't want to force Leo or Mikey to join us, that's why we said only the two of us'' Raph explained, ``hmm...I see, well Leonardo, Michelangelo, what do you think?'' Splinter asked calmly, ``oh, uh...well, I haven't thought about it, but I do think I want to join you guys'' Leo said thoughtfully, ``well, I'm all in, let's do this'' Mikey said happily, ``but then there are going to be some new rules for the four of you, rule one, I don't want to see or hear the sex part. Rule two, I'm not going to solve your relationship problems, I will give advice, but nothing more. Understood?'' Splinter said firmly, ``hai'' they all four answered together with smiles all around.
That night they all went into Leo's room with their futons.
The end.
