You ready for this story to really start? I AAMMM. Man, I had been working really hard to get a new chapter of this story posted every week but my internet got blocked. Luckily my bro fixed it so I can update again! I have a question for you people! Should I continue to PM the people who send me reviews, or should I respond to reviews on here before I start the chapter? :3 xD

"Leo, I told you already. I can't move any faster." Don sighed, rubbing his temples irritably. Two weeks ago they had learned that Raphael was dying, and he'd been working nonstop since then. He was lucky if he got more than two hours of sleep. For whatever reason his brothers swore he knew how to fix this, and with them asking every three or so hours if he found out how to fix Raphael's health, he was beginning to grow very aggravated.

What was even more annoying than his brothers asking every second how this was going was the fact that Raphael acted as if nothing was going on, even though he was dying. "I know Don, I'm just worried…"

Mikey sighed. "We're all worried dude."

"I've been searching for weeks. I can't find anything. We don't have anything to go off of, all tests are negative…I don't know how to stop something I can't find." The purple masked turtle threw in, looking down at his lap in guilt.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder Donnie looked up, meeting Leo's gaze. "It's okay bro, you're trying your hardest."

"No, it's fine." He responded quickly. Just then, Raphael decided to come downstairs from his room, by the looks of it he had just woken up. Raph slept a lot these days.

"Yo Raph!" Mikey chirped, leaning forward in the chair he had been sitting in, causing it to rock when he sat back.

"Hey Mikey." He grunted, walking over to the three of them, "What're ya all doin' over here? Did I miss trainin' again?"

"Raphael, training was around two hours ago…" Leo began, tapping his fingers together.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?!" He exclaimed, looking around and Leo's gaze turned back to Donnie.

The purple masked turtle sighed softly, he knew Raphael wouldn't like this, but for now it was the best idea. "Well you see… Raph, let's just say this…acid has already spread through your body. You doing anything too physical could put you out of shape- for good." He added on, rubbing the back of his head as his brother stared at him with wide eyes. "We can't take the risk. It's too," He paused, trying to come up with the best word to use. "…Unstable right now to tell."

Knowing his brother wouldn't be happy with the answer he stared at the floor, not wanting to face his older brother.

"I can't train cuz there's a chance I could die?" He questioned, and Don was silent for a moment before nodding.

"I'm gonna die anyway, so why does it matta?" The response made the purple banded turtle freeze.

"No! I'm not going to let you die! I'm going to fix this, it- it just takes time and until then—"

"Yeah, yeah…" Raphael sighed, and shrugged, "whateva." He mumbled, walking out of the room.

"That didn't go as…expected." Leo replied truthfully and Don found himself agreeing.

There was no attitude; there were no angry fits. He just disagreed, and left, a very un-Raph thing to do. Donnie sighed and stared at the closed door to his lab that his older brother had been standing in just a few seconds ago. "He must be going through so much…" The purple masked turtle looked down, a frown on his face.

"What if I can't save him?"

Donnie felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't look up, "You'll be able to do it Donnie, you always figure something out."

"You think?" He asked, and his blue masked brother nodded.

The encouragement made Don feel a little better, but it didn't change the fact that Raphael was dying. "I'm gonna get back to work." He replied, with more confidence than he had had in days.

Leo smiled, and nodded before leaving Don to work.

Raphael sighed, leaning back in one of the kitchen chairs, he was tired and his body ached. "Can't train my ass…" He muttered. He had wanted to tell his brother off, to yell at him, and complain, but he just didn't have the energy to do so. Hell, he barely had anything in him to walk around, every bone creaked when he moved, and he just wanted to sleep. He wouldn't allow his brothers to see him that weak though, if he was going to die, he would die with some pride. He laid his head on the table, closing his eyes and allowing his body to relax against the wood he rest on, he was using pride as a crutch to keep himself up, and going. It was his excuse to keep trying, because if he was going to die, and no one could stop it, why should he try?

The red masked turtle knew Don had no idea how to save him, that Don couldn't stop whatever poison was inside him. He wouldn't tell his brothers he knew, they didn't deserve that. They didn't deserve this. He had always thought about how his brothers would probably be better without him, but now that he saw them, how desperate they were to save him, he knew they needed him. Truthfully Raph had been trying to ignore that, trying to pretend they didn't care, because knowing they did made this a lot more harder to deal with. "Raph? What are you doing?" His older brother's voice pulled him from his thoughts and he sat up quickly.

"Nothin'." He huffed, staring at Leo intently, "What do ya want?"

Shrugging, Leo sighed, "I was just asking…"

"Well don't."

"You wanna spar?"

"Thought I wasn't allowed." The hot head shot back, and Leo shrugged again.

"If you don't tell I won't."

Now that- that made Raphael smirk, he nodded to his brother and got up from where he had been sitting, ignoring his groaning knees. "Alright then." He agreed, following Leo into the dojo.

Leo knew that when Donnie found out about this later, he'd be in a lot of trouble, Don had already got on Mikey about messing with Raphael too much, and the blue banded turtle knew that when Don heard about Raphael sparring he'd be scolded for at least an hour, but he knew Raph needed this. His younger brother was withering away before their eyes, and he knew his brother wouldn't talk to any of them about it. He would slowly fade away, and take all those negative emotions with him. He knew Raphael needed to get his stress and anguish out some way or another, and sparring would be the easiest for his little brother.

Once they were in the dojo the two of them began to do simple stretches, and exercises to loosen their muscles and relax. Afterwards both him and Raph moved to the old brown mats for sparring and got into stances. "Ya ready to get yer butt kicked?" Raph said cockily and Leo smirked.

"If I don't take you down first." He replied, motioning for Raph to come at him.

His younger brother grinned and wasted no time in running towards him, both sais in his hands and protecting his sides, Leo jumped back when Raph took a jab at him with one of his sais, and when Leo jumped back, Raph spread his leg out, widening his stance and hitting trying to hit Leo's side with the butt of his sai. The blue-banded turtle saw the attack coming from a mile away and leaned on his left foot, giving his body the momentum it needed to spin him around, and out of the way of the attack. "You're moves are obvious Raph." Leo said, doing a backflip to avoid another attack.

Grunting, Raphael jumped back, and Leo couldn't help but smirk, now it was his turn, he began to slowly circle Raph, his right knee was open, if he hit him there he'd be able to get him pinned to the mat in only a few seconds, then again, Raphael's weak spot was his knees, he always protected them. Deciding not to think on it too much he ran towards his brother, swiping his blade towards Raph's knee, and Raphael reacted just as Leo hoped. The hotheaded turtle slid his leg back, his sai blocking the katana, causing them to lock blades. Just like Leo planned, he flipped around Raph, shoving him forward, and using the loss of balance to use the butt of his katana and dead leg Raph. Raphael however, did a half flip and put space between him and Leo, grinning.

Leo blinked, looking at his now empty hand, and then to the katana that lay on the other side of the room. His brother had disarmed him, and he hadn't even noticed! He put both of his hands on his remaining katana and smiled, "Let's finish this." He stated, and Raphael must have agreed because he quickly lunged at his brother, arms blurred in the frenzy of movement he made, Leo barely able to dodge or block his younger brother's blows. A few moments later, Leo was lying on the mat, panting and looking up at Raph; he was sitting next to him, his arms lying on his knees.

The leader of couldn't help but realize how slow his brother had begun. Sure, he did well, but usually Raphael would make these battles last, he was usually more cocky. It was strange for his brother to rush a spar; he enjoyed fighting more than anything. Sighing softly Leo sat up and looked at the red masked turtle, who was wiping sweat off his face. "Felt like forever since we've sparred." He stated and Raph looked over at him.

"Ya, s'been awhile." He hummed, standing up, and grabbing Leo's hand, pulling the blue masked turtle off the floor.

"We should do it again sometime. Without Don knowing of course."

"Sounds like a plan."

Leo grinned, patting his brother on the shell before telling his brother to go take a shower, he himself wanted to practice some katas. Raphael nodded, mumbling something about having hot water for once and walking away, leaving Leo to his own thoughts again. As he began to do his katas, the katana wielding turtle found his mind elsewhere. What would happen if Donnie couldn't save Raph? I mean, Don hadn't even been able to locate whatever poison Shredder had made and they were running out of time. Hell, Raphael could barely run along the rooftops without having to break every 15 minutes. How could Raph be so calm about this? The blue masked turtle didn't understand, you could say Raphael was scared of bugs, and he'd go off on a rant and get pissed, but you tell him that's he's dying and he's eerily calm, it terrified him. The whole situation made it seem like Raphael had been long ready for this, like he had dug his grave years ago, and now all he had to do was jump into it and cover himself up with dirt. Did Raphael accept death before this? He was strangely okay for a dying person. He groaned softly, and stopped his practice, instead sitting on the mats, he needed to meditate.

It was early evening, which meant they were going on patrol soon, and Mikey was sitting in the living room, staring at his red masked brother who was taking a nap on the couch. He wanted to wake his brother up, maybe draw on his face, or throw water on him, but he couldn't. Don would kill him if he learned that Mikey was pulling pranks, and Raph probably needed rest. He was sick. He sighed in boredom and put his hands behind his head, sitting in a chair in the corner. With Raphael being sick, there wasn't much for him to do. Don was always too busy working, and Leo didn't really have as much of a reaction as Raph did, so he didn't really prank them, and even then, Mikey seemed to be the closest to Raph. Unlike his brothers, the orange-banded turtle refused to say his older brother was dying. It was too unbelievable; Raphael was the strongest out of them all! He wouldn't die like this, he couldn't, and dying a slow death wasn't what a warrior like Raphael deserved.

Looking at his sleeping brother again he frowned. That was it! He didn't care if Donnie scolded him for hours! He was gonna prank Raph! Ever since this whole incident Raphael was being pushed away, te hot-headed turtle was too calm, too quiet, and it was too foreign. His brother was just sick one little prank wouldn't hurt'em! A grin spread across the youngest turtle's face as he tip toed out of the room to make a plan. Leaving his older brother to sleep for a little bit longer.

Once he was inside his room he began to think of ideas. Now, mikey wasn't the brightest light in the box, but he could shine pretty bright when he really wanted to. Not that anyone ever noticed. The humor of the four of them began to plot, deciding a good old fake bug trick would do the job for now. He looked around his room for the old prank kit he got a few years ago. A secret present from Donnie.

"Where is it?!" He huffed, looking around his messy room, pushing action figures and moving comics to try and find the little white box that contained the bug.

Once he found the little box, he made a note to clean his room later- even though he knew he'd never really get around to it- and grabbed the small rubber bug from inside the box and grinned. Now he just needed a way for it to move! Usually it would be a easy as going into Don's room, and asking for some type of string, or techno gizmo to make it move, and his purple masked brother would give him the supplies he needed with a shake of his head stating, "I'm not apart of this either." Before getting back to whatever he was doing for the day.

However now that Don was very strict on keeping Raphael calm, and relaxed at all times, asking for anything would be too suspicious and he would be caught instantly. Michelangelo was on his own for this one. He put the toy roach in his belt and smiled, wandering downstairs to find any string.

He hadn't even realized he had fallen asleep, actually he could have sworn he had planned on hitting his old bag for a bit of exercise. He rubbed his blurry eyes and blinked a few times from where he lay on the couch. His was lying on his shell, one hand on his plastron, the other hanging off the old beat up brown furniture and grazing the floor. The red masked turtle let out a sigh as he sat up, that's when he was it. In the corner of his eyes Raph saw something move an inch, he froze, and turned only to see a rather large roach only inches from his face, on the arm rest of the old couch. "Ah!" He jumped up, the back of his foot his the coffee table and he gasped as he flipped over it, rolling across the floor and stopping inches from the tv set.

He wasn't scared of bugs, he just hated them, there wasn't really a reason, he had just always dislike them. Taking a closer look at the roach, and the lack of movement it seemed to have he realized it was just a rubber toy and growled, "Mikey!" He screamed when he heard stifled laughter coming from upstairs.

Raphael may have been mad, he may have wanted to hit Mikey upside the head and yell at him, but secretly, he was rather happy with the prank. He had been treated like a baby for weeks now, apparently he wasn't the only one who was tired of it.

There will be more action packed chapters coming up. I just wanted to give you guys an update! c: