A/N:

This was originally going to be a series of maybe 200 word scenes, in one chapter. However, as the first one grew longer, I decided that I would try to commit myself to making a multi chaptered story.

Updates will be irregular, and I will upload another chapter whenever I feel like it, whether that is one day or week or month later.

It is exactly as the summary says: Unseen scenes and POVs of ANGEL: A Maximum Ride Novel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.

Unseen
A Maximum Ride Fanfiction
Chapter One: Mixed Emotions

Dylan watched Max sitting in the pine tree of Ella and Dr. Martinez's backyard. It was rather tall, and she was sitting on a thin branch up quite high. Not that it was dangerous – when you were an Avian-American heights seemed to lose their hazardousness.

They'd been staying with Max's biological mother and half-sister for about a week now, the flock and him. It had been interesting to see how they reacted to the calmness, almost as if they had never gone a few days without an attack or having some sort of wild deviation from the normal. It was probably an accurate statement actually, since all of them had had long, eventful lives.

Sigh. Dylan felt alone in the place where he was kind of accepted. He was a newbie – he'd barely been with the flock for a few months, and yet they had been together all their lives. Though they were young, they all had much more life experience than him. Angel, the youngest, was even older than him! He felt unauthentic. He was a clone – a copy, never to be his own. And though he had the body and mind of a fifteen year old, he was only just one year from the chamber where they grew him.

He felt lost. He felt like he was judged by what he was by everyone, including the flock, instead of who he was. His advanced sight, strength, his almost unnatural turquoise eyes meant nothing to him. All he wanted was to be real.

A rustle came from above Dylan, and he looked up just in time to see Max start to fall off the branch. Before she could fall, however, her tanned hand snaked out and grasped it. He was pretty sure that she hadn't even noticed he was there.

Repressing another sigh, Dylan moved slowly toward the tree trunk. Max was a whole world of mixed feelings for him. While the flock had the time of their life, Max slipped away to secluded places so that she could cry without anybody noticing. They did, of course. Her sorrow was so intense that you only had to be in the same room as her to feel it.

And it was all over Fang. He kept himself from thinking violent things about the flock leader's ex-boyfriend. His being around had been a road for disaster – it was making Max thoughtless, incapable of guiding the flock properly. Yet the way he had handled the situation had been atrocious. Leaving with all but a note? That was mindless. It had hurt everyone. And it was almost worse with him gone.

Dylan strongly disliked Fang, because he had broken Max's heart. He was the one who had brought out her smiles and laughs, but he had stolen it all. Nothing was left. Sometimes though, Dylan saw that it was necessary and it was the only way that she would have let Fang go.

Because of him, Max wouldn't let anybody close. Dylan was genetically engineered to be Max's perfect other half – yet she pretty much hated him.

This brought about a deep simmering anger. Dr. Gunther-Hagen had told him, had promised him that he and Max would be together, the unstoppable pair. All he had heard ever since he had woken was Max Max Max. And when he had finally met her, she had pushed him away.

Dylan would never tell anybody, but sometimes just the things Max did, what she said, wounded him. She was like a rose – beautiful, soft, passionate, but to try and get close was to be stabbed by her thorns. He tried to change for her – he really tried – becoming more outspoken, becoming rougher to match her harsh personality, but it wasn't him.

Now he as at the top of the tree, crouching on a branch behind Max. She still hadn't noticed. Looking at her, his anger melted. At this point, he didn't care about earning her affections, or being in a romantic relationship with her. He just wanted to make her happy. Or, at least, to push her out of the haze of depression that ran strong and deep in her eyes.

Again, he felt mixed emotions. He was supposed to be in a relationship with her, made to be perfect for one such, and there was no doubt that he did love her.

But did he love her that way?

Leaning next to her ear, Dylan only said one word.

"Boo!"

In this chapter I'm trying to convey a message about the character of Dylan. Fanfictioners portray him by what he is in their eyes – a boy who is interfering with Fax (which seems to automatically equate to a nasty person). That's not really true, he is really more of an alternate to Fax, and Fang would have left with or without him there as long as somebody provided him with the same insight that Dylan did.

You don't see him for who he is – a poor confused boy who has been brainwashed to believe he was supposed to be with Max. He is sweet, open and frustrated. And despite what he says, I don't think he loves Max romantically, but he isn't confident enough to let go of the things that the scientists told him. There is evidence to suggest this in FANG: A Maximum Ride Novel. I think that he loves Max like the rest of the flock loves her – as a sister/close friend and a leader.

Anyhow, I'm going to stop now. Please review! I accept flame, but prefer constructive criticism or a structured argument, i.e. "I think you are wrong about Dylan because…"

Au revior,

Axe.